Increasingly these days, you can find sites online offering copies of books for free download. Unfortunately, many of these sites are offering books that are still being published and are not copyright free. In other words, they are illegally infringing on an author's copyright. In some cases, trying to download a book to read can leave you with an array of computer viruses. There are sites that will sell you a disc in which they have gathered an array of books that are completely free online.
Fortunately there are sites where you can safely download a vast array of Pagan friendly books; probably the best is a function of Google. Google books allows you to search specifically for free books that you can store in online and read straight from your Google library or easily download to your computer. Please note that you must have a google account (gmail) to use this function. You can sign up for a gmail account quite quickly and for free.
Here is a list of several Pagan friendly books available for download via Google Books:
Ancient pagan and modern Christian symbolism
Thomas Inman, John Newton (M.R.C.S.E.) - 1875 - 147 pages
Compares imagery and symbols used by ancient Pagans and the modern Christian religion
Five hundred points of good husbandry, ...
Thomas Tusser - 1812 - 388 pages
Among other things, this book gives a month by month listing of plants to be planted and harvested. It includes an incredible amount of rhymes dealing with plants and planting. Included is a chapter on “Huswifery”, lauding the virtues of a good wife.
Plant lore, legends and lyrics
Richard Folkard - 1884 - 433 page
This is a rare treasure of a book. Not only does it have an incredibly interesting herbal in the last section (including information like deity and planetary associates, history and rhymes) but it includes chapters such as “The World-Trees of the Ancients”, “Plants of the Fairies and Naiades” and “Plants of the Witches”. Included in the book is an explanation of how to tell what planet is associated with a plant, according to their leaf shape, roots, flowers and odor.
The mythology of Greece and Rome
Otto Seemann - 1877 - 311 pages
Included in this book is a close look at the Gods of Olympus, both the major and secondary deities. Chapters on Gods of the Sea and Waters, Gods of the earth and Lower World and Deities of the House and Family.
A New pantheon , or Fabulous history of the heathen gods, heroes, goddesses ...
Samuel Boyse - 1758 - 309 pages
Boyse explained it right on the title page, “An Explanation of their ancient Mythology from the Writings of Moses; the Egyptian, Grecian, Roman and Eastern Historians, Philosophers, Poet, etc.." I enjoyed this especially for it’s sections on Nox and another on Harpies.
Encyclopaedia of superstitions, folklore, and the occult sciences ..., Volume 2
Cora Linn Morrison Daniels, Charles McClellan Stevens - 1903 - 1751 pages
This book has a great variety of information, from “Fortune Telling of All Kinds, Ancient and Modern” to “Evil and it’s Remedies” and from “Charms for Luck” to “Alphabetical List of Faries”. Other chapters cover Voodoo, divining rods, and superstitions.
The gypsies
Charles Godfrey Leland - 1882
The Gypsies contains a history of Gypsies from around the world and includes a section on Gypsy magic spells.
Gypsy sorcery and fortune telling
Charles Godfrey Leland - 1891 - 271 pages
Tons of information is included in this book including charms, conjurations, exorcisms, animal protection and romance. There’s also a very interesting section written around proverbs that refer to witches, Gypsies and fairies.
Here are a few other sites where you can get free witchy/Pagan/occult books to download or read for free. Here's a list of some that I'm aware of:
The Esoteric Magical E-Books Library - a very interesting list of books on subjects ranging from alchemy to Wicca to ancient texts.
The website The Cauldron includes a section of online books. Included are books on African mythology, Buddhism, and a nice selection of old grimoires.
Witchology's downloadables are somewhat limited, but it does contain a great collection of Gerald Gardner's original works.
Project Gutenberg has a very broad span, but the search feature can bring some very interesting results. Try searching for "witchcraft" or "occult", for example.
Scribd is a site that can be hit or miss (again, search for topics that interest you), but if you dig around, you can find some really interesting reads.
The Just Free Books search engine might be a reader's greatest friend. Just type in the name of the book, author or subject and it gives you a list of sites that are hosting free public domain books based on your search.
Happy reading!
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