6 Must-Read Books for New Witches

Your comprehensive guide on ways to use your craft to connect with Mother Earth.

The Green Witch’s Herb and Plant Encyclopedia offers information on 150 different types of plants you can incorporate into your craft, from aloe to valerian. 

Each entry offers an overview of the plant, tips for safely growing, foraging, harvesting, and using it, and rituals you can try to put each plant into action.

The guide also contains advice for strengthening your craft, such as how to set intentions, create a sacred space, and maintain your own garden.

Learn the basics of crystal healing with this comprehensive beginner’s guide.

Reiki teacher and doctor of metaphysical parapsychology Karen Frazier teaches you to curate your crystal collection, providing 50 detailed crystal profilers, including images, to help you determine which crystals are right for you. 

Overcome negative emotions and achieve positive growth using specific crystal prescriptions, healing mantras, and crystal grids. These prescriptions help you fine-tune your intentions and balance your chakra to harmonize your mind, body, and spirit.

Anyone looking for a more spiritual approach to healing will love Crystals for Beginners. 

Equal parts reference guide and grimoire, Appalachian Witchcraft for Beginners invites witches of all backgrounds to learn a craft that is deeply rooted in the mountains of Appalachia. Discover the origins and particularities of Appalachian folk magic, expand your comprehension of Appalachian omens and traditions, and sharpen your craft with spells for strengthening your connection to the land, conjuring protection, and supporting your personal relationships.

Whether you’re a practicing witch looking to incorporate more nature into your craft or a newcomer to witchcraft altogether, this book has all the tools you need to educate yourself on green witchcraft and implement it into your practice. 

Build a vital connection to the earth using common household ingredients and other affordable and accessible materials—such as flowers, plants, herbs, wood, stones, and crystals.

Learn rituals and spells like cleansing with moonlight, using honeysuckle to attract wealth, and harnessing quartz to direct positive energy.

You know that part of the mind you hide from others? The one that contains your darkest thoughts, beliefs, and memories? That is called the shadow self, and our impulse is often to run from it in whatever way we can.

In Shadow Work, clinical trauma specialist and level three Usui Reiki master Kelly Bramblett encourages us to embrace the shadow self instead. 

This guided journal is full of writing prompts that facilitate engagement with the shadow self, allowing us to understand and confront our unconscious doubts and fears and face the future with clarity, confidence, and peace.

Exercises like Mind Mapping, Dreamwork, Connecting to Your Inner Child, Transmuting Shame, and more transform the shadow self from a barrier to healing into a pathway toward it. 

Entry into witchcraft comes with a lot of new feast days, ingredients, and concepts to learn, and nailing down all this new vocabulary can certainly be overwhelming.

Fortunately for new witches, long-time witch Deb Robinson has compiled the definitive Witch-ionary of words every fledgling witch should know, wrapped in one convenient book.

No more sifting through hundreds of dubious and conflicting internet sources to learn what an “athame” is, or when Beltane is celebrated. 

Each entry not only defines the word, but provides helpful context for understanding or using it. Sprinkled throughout relevant entries of the book are ideas for rituals, spells, and practices to put your newfound knowledge into practice, such as a simple house blessing for a happy home or a recipe for anti-anxiety bath salts.

The Witch-ionary is an essential book for any new witch’s shelf.