If you’re looking for an introduction to Wicca that’s simple, accessible, and easy to start practicing with (if you choose to), look no further than Scott Cunningham’s bestselling Wicca: A Guide for the Solitary Practitioner.

Today there are a number of primers on the market, but back when I started studying Wicca as a preteen there weren’t so many. I remember having to piece together bits of information I gleaned from different outdated books at the library and thinking, there’s got to be more than this. Enter Cunningham’s masterpiece.

I say masterpiece not because it’s a glorious composition of sparkling verbiage that will bring you to tears; I say this because it is truly the best introduction to Wicca that I have ever come across. Presentations of the Sabbats, creating an altar and a book of shadows (including his own as an example), and rituals are all within the text. Diagrams, recipes and suggested exercises all make the book a combination how-to and workbook.

Not only does Cunningham address the nuts and bolts of Wicca; he also does something a lot of pagan writers don’t do: depict the essence of Wicca in a nutshell. Many authors will go out of their way to ramble about the importance of the chakras or planetary alignment or a number of other things, and they can all be very important depending on what you decide to include in your practice; but Cunningham simply describes Wicca and its roots of paganism and shamanism, and emphasizes the root of the religion—a person’s relationship with the planet. I’m a big believer that every book on Wicca should have something about nature reverence and environmental protection—because if it doesn’t, how is it really about Wicca? I have noticed that Cunningham does this in most, if not all, of his books.

This book is also accessible to anyone in the fact that it does not focus on coven-based Wicca; instead, it’s based on the importance of following—creating, even—your own path. Since paganism itself is so variegated, and Wicca, though it has basic tenants, is also a very personal path, why shouldn’t a guide to it also be as open and individualistic?

That said, Cunningham does not fail in providing those basic tenants as well as methods of designing your own, and he does so in such a clear, simple way that even in my adolescence I was completely able to follow every word. It really is a perfect guide for anyone wanting to get started on a pagan journey.