(Part 2) Best mythology & folklore encyclopedias according to redditors

You should really read Jewish Magic and Superstition by Rabbi Joshua Trachtenberg. It’s a study of the magical techniques and, more importantly, the magical philosophy which flourished among Jews primarily in the Rhineland around the 12th Century (known as the Hasidei Ashkenaz). The book is available for free at the link I provided, but you can also purchase it pretty cheap and find it in other formats elsewhere.

Magic of this type is termed “Practical Kabbalah” (distinguishing it from the more well known Meditative Kabbalah as found in the Zohar). I found this website some time ago on Practical Kabbalah. It has a really pretty format, but ultimately is nearly contentless and looks abandoned. However, it has a pretty great starting bibliography. I’ve been working on and off to collect the books on said bibliography and other books relating to Jewish magical practices. Recently I acquired a partial translation of Sefer Hasidim (the foundational text of the Hasedei Ashkenaz).

You might also want to look into the magical thought and stories in the Hasidic movement (not to be confused with the like-named Hasedei Ashkenaz). The aforementioned bibliography has, I think, two books on the subject, but there’s more books which broadly look at the mystical/magical practices of Hasidism and their legends. A good beginner book focusing on Hasidic legends is Elie Wiesel’s Souls on Fire. Martin Buber has written Tales of the Hasidim which has more tales, but is a little more dry.

There are some other books I have of varying relevance, but I don’t know how many book recommendations you need. Some of the books mentioned, centrally Jewish Magic and Superstition, are probably a good start. Also, a good book on mythic stories in Judaism is Tree of Souls by Howard Schwartz.

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Edit:

I just finished reading Alan J. Avery-Peck’s article “The Galilean Charismatic and Rabbinic Piety: The Holy Man in the Talmudic Literature” in The Historical Jesus in Context. It focuses on Honi the Circle Drawer and Hanina ben Dosa, two individuals part of the charismatic, miracle tradition of antiquity and how this tradition was rethemed and incorporated into Rabbinic Judaism. You might be interested in such individuals and such a tradition. Of the same general time period, you might also be interested in Maaseh Merkavah (and Hekhalot) and Maaseh Bereshit (from which emerges Sefer Yetzirah).

Also, some Jewish figures have featured prominently in alchemy (like Mariam the Jewess).

It looks like I’m just going to keep editing this post with more stuff. Anyway, in regards to patriarchal religion being introduced by the Jews which led to the destruction of the Great Goddess, well, the whole Great Goddess hypothesis isn’t really argued in modern academia. Regardless, a patriarchal dynamic to religion was not introduced by Jews, and the Jewish God is overtly asserted to not have a gender (or be two genders, depending on how you read the text) and female personification has historically been applied to the Jewish God. All of this aside, Rabbi Jill Hammer has done a lot of theological work focusing on the Divine Feminine in Judaism. She even worked to make a highly female inclusive siddur (which seems to be permanently out of print). She runs this website which has, for instance, an article on the Divine Feminine and Divine Masculine of the Godhead which is the kind of thing that’d probably fit just as easily on a website on Wicca. She’s also written, like, a Jewish wheel of the year book (which I bought and, regardless of how one feels about the book as a whole, is a nice assortment of references to midrash). In a similar theme, I’ve also read On the Wings of Shekhinah: Rediscovering Judaism’s Divine Feminine by Rabbi Leah Novick, but I didn’t really like it.

You might also want to look into The Encyclopedia of Jewish Myth, Magic, and Mysticism. I own it, but haven’t really looked through it. I’ve seen some other people cite it though. So I can’t really give my own opinion of it other than mention its existence.

Wait, also also, just occurred to me, you might want to look into the creation of Matzevot and Bethel as seen primarily in Genesis. They’re akin to altars anointed with oil where the Divine is asked to be present. The best book I know of academically touching on the subject is Benjamin Sommer’s Bodies of God (which is a book I somehow manage to tie into just about everything I ever write on Reddit). Glancing around to see if I could find anything else on this theme, I came across this text (I don’t know how relevant or interesting it is since I hadn’t read it, I’m reading it now) (Finished reading. I’d certainly recommend it as an interesting text. Not much about Metzevot. Instead a whole lot on early Medieval Jewish magic involving oil. There are a good handful of these divination rituals translated. The rituals primarily involve using oil and a reflective surface [predominantly a fingernail, but also mentioned is oil on water, iron, mirror, liver, glass cups, and resin] to commune with spiritual Princes.).

Probably should have also mentioned Ancient Jewish Magic: A History by Gideon Bohak which makes reference to Trachtenberg's work, but aims to be more expansive and make use of later scholarship to advance the neglected study of Jewish magical traditions.

Its not a monster manual but if you want more lore/ideas for different creatures you cannot go wrong with

Element Encyclopedia of Magical Creatures https://www.amazon.com/dp/076077885X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_CHNVAbRT35E3Y

I love just flipping through the book randomly to read up on a different creature from random cultures. With the knowledge you seem to have of ao many other Monster Manuals you could easily homebrew any if these with stats/abikities.

https://pantheon.org/

It has myths from all over the world. You'll have to sift through gods and things like that.

Also I found this if you can afford it.

Funny you mention monster encyclopedias and libraries. I checked out The Book of Dragons & Other Mythical Beasts yesterday.

His books on early greek philosophy will be instructive to your query, Nick Land has a chapter called shamanic nietzsche. Heres a paper on Nietzschean shamanism, heres a book about the Orphic turn and nietzsche and plato.

Of course a straussian reading of Zarathustra couldn't hurt.

There isn't much explicitly about Nietzsche and "magic" really. I've already been down this road :)

Gorgio Agamben, Carl Schmitt, Leo Strauss and Walter Benjamin among others develop via nietzsche , Heidegger , various strains of theology and early political philosophy like Hobbes- a mode of thought called " political theology" which I would say is as close as academic philosophy as philosophy (i.e. not anthropology) gets to a comprehensive study of "sorcery".

Leo Strauss course on nietzsche

You might have better luck if you expand your search to Ancient Persian Mythology and include terms like "God Of Light" or "Ahura Mazda"

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Here are a few links about Ancient Persian Mythology.

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http://www.cais-soas.com/CAIS/Mythology/gods_goddesses.htm

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https://www.amazon.com/Persian-Mythology-Library-Worlds-Legends/dp/0872260178

https://www.amazon.com/Persian-Myths-Vesta-Sarkhosh-Curtis/dp/0292711581

http://earlyworldhistory.blogspot.com/2012/02/persian-myth.html

http://rbedrosian.com/Imyth.htm

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I’m heavily into African spirituality. Voodoo, crystals, candles, incense etc.

This is one of my favorite books

Jambalaya: The Natural Woman's Book of Personal Charms and Practical Rituals https://www.amazon.com/dp/0062508598/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_y7hGDb93DHJHD

And this one:

The Complete Book of Incense, Oils and Brews (Llewellyn's Practical Magick) https://www.amazon.com/dp/0875421288/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_68hGDb1VGMASE

I had a wonderful spell book I bought at a botanical in Florida years ago. It worked so well for me but I lost it and can’t remember the name. Now I scour botanicas in every city I travel looking for this book.

Something like an Atlas of Fantasy?

Stephen J. Gould wrote a book about this. His conclusion is yes. But each has to respect the other in the way they tell the stories. But if you are a religious fundamentalist, and take the bible as literal, the answer (of course) is no. You cannot reconcile that with evolution.

http://www.amazon.com/Rocks-Ages-Science-Religion-Fullness/dp/034545040X/ref=tag_stp_s2f_edpp_stephe17ld

The name was something plain like "Encyclopedia of Greek Mythology" but I can't recall the author or publisher. However, this and this seem very similar. :)

I think this set was reprinted at least once or twice, so maybe one of the reprints was in your time frame?

https://www.amazon.com/Man-Myth-Magic-Encyclopedia-Supernatural/dp/0839360355

Here you go: http://www.amazon.com/Dont-Know-Much-About-Mythology/dp/006019460X