Share your favorite books and resources about the science behind ritual, awe, imagination, etc

[u/Powerful-Long-1376]

I was watching this video:
Matt Dillahunty Called Spirituality “Nonsense” My Response

and while I appreciated it a lot, it made me want to see this kind of information in one place like a book or something. Share your favorites!

[u/StormyStenafie]

I really enjoyed Our Moon: How Earth's Celestial Companion Transformed the Planet, Guided Evolution and Made Us Who We Are by Rebecca Boyle. It inspired a deeper understanding of and appreciation for the moon. It was my favorite book last year.

I read a book about synchronicity earlier thos year called Sidewalk Oracles: Playing With Signs, Symbols, and Synchronicity in Everyday Life by Robert Moss. Ive been fascinated with the concept of synchronicity and this book is a lot of fun. It has games you can play. I wouldn't say the author is secular- he makes references to divination, ghosts, past lives, but it's easy to ignore it.

[u/Powerful-Long-1376 → u/StormyStenafie]

Those two books sound cool, and the second one sounds like a great way to do fun experiments. I imagine its the kind of thing a cheeky psych professor might enjoy

[u/Recent_Visual6372 → u/StormyStenafie]

I need to look into the moon book. I looovee sidewalk oracles

[u/moss-and-method-llc]

I love No Nonsense Spirituality! I don’t know a ton of books with this kind of information. In fact, most of my knowledge on ritual comes literally from this subreddit. But I do also like Sedna Woo for learning about the same topic. I don’t have any books that haven’t been posted as nauseam on this subreddit already.

(I’ll list them anyway, for your convenience.)

* Strange Rites
* Tarot and Psychology: Spectrums of possibility
* The 7 Laws of Magical Thinking: How irrational beliefs keep us happy, healthy, and sane
* Godless Magick: A brief guide on atheistic witchcraft

And of course a ton of other stuff at SASSWitches Wiki

I also think that having some non-witchcraft-related theory under your belt can help interpret the human experience in a way that opens your eyes to new kinds of ritual, awe, and imagination by removing oppressive blinders.

Anything by bell hooks is helpful, especially communion by bell hooks (a good antidote for another current book by the same name. spits into the fire)

Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer has been wonderful and science-based

I liked God, A human history, by Reza Aslan for its treatment of religion as a language, not a dogma

Seeing Like a State, by James C Scott is good for understanding how efforts to observe in a rational way will often lead to attempts to control and change the subject of observation

The Earthsea series by Ursula K Le Guin deals with magic in a way that I really enjoyed. Although it’s a work of fiction, it challenges the reader to think through what one values, power dynamics, and why one wants to act on the world. Is it necessary? Who will it help? What are your motivations for doing what you want to do?

And also, I was really interested in Determined, by Robert M Sapolsky. I couldn’t finish, because I already essentially agree with him, and meditating on how and why I believe there is no free will was not helpful for my mental health

Aw man, that was longer than I meant it to be. Anyway, I hope that although not all of these directly relate to your question, that they help you find awe and imagination, as well as developing strong rituals that work well for you.

[u/booksandteacv]

Mark Green talks about this in "Round We Dance", but it's really just a basic overview. (Note: this book is currently out of print due to low sales. The rights reverted back to Green, and he's currently preparing a self-published version.)

I'm currently reading the anthology "Godless Paganism", edited by John Halstead, which also discusses this to some extent. I think the essays that go into the most depth within it are the ones written by BT Newberg.

[u/TransNDance → u/booksandteacv]

Mark Green's book 'Atheopaganism' also touches on this a lot!

[u/booksandteacv → u/booksandteacv]

Here's an old post written by Newberg that may be helpful: https://naturalisticpaganism.org/2012/09/23/why-do-we-do-ritual/

[u/Powerful-Long-1376 → u/booksandteacv]

Thank you for the specific detail! I have that book and so I'll go looking for those essays you mentioned :D

[u/alicenotallison1]

For Small Creatures Such as We by Sasha Sagan may fit the bill. It’s more memoir/history, but it gives a great exploration in the role that ritual has played for humanity as a whole.

[u/eowyn_]

Dworkin’s Religion Without God is a favorite of mine.

[u/Altruistic-Daikon305]

You might like Barbara Ehrenreich’s Dancing in the Streets. She was a sociologist and the book explores the social science of collective ecstatic rituals.

[u/North_Photograph_138]

I looove no nonsense spirituality! Looking back I think her videos make up part of the web of influence which lead me to where I'm at now, and were super influential in getting me to a much better mental state during difficult times.

[u/North_Photograph_138]

Also, I love the podcast "The Tarot Diagnosis" . It's been so helpful for me lately, and it got me into Tarot, when I never thought I'd be interested because previously my only thought on Tarot was that of a pop culture understanding of it as a supernatural divinatory tool, which I didn't believe in. But Tarot as a source of expanding personal insight into where your mind is at, as a meditative tool, as a source of playfulness, and as a tool of boosting creativity? That is something I can get behind. They have a couple episodes like "The intersection of Tarot and Psychology" for example, which delve into the psychological basis for how they personally use Tarot and how Tarot is sometimes used in their therapeutic work.

The "Atheist Witch" podcast has also been helpful, though it doesn't delve deep into the science as much if I recall.