In Enchanted Skin

Researching a topic thoroughly can be frustrating and daunting for beginners – especially for “odd” or “difficult-to-find” topics like ancient polytheistic practices or occult materials. Where do you even begin? How do you know which research to use? If you’ve never had to sit down to find material without guidance before, research can often feel like it’s over before you’ve even started.

To help as many people as possible, I’m going to assume readers have no previous background in academia. While I do assume that you’re interested in a topic, I am going to write as if a middle school research paper was the last research you conducted (and if so, lucky you!). Should certain steps seem obvious to you – or a waste of time – please feel free to disregard them or skip over them. Tips and tricks for more experienced researchers are included at the bottom.

1. Decide who is an expert in the field. The first thing you’ll want to do is perform a preliminary Google search about your topic. Your best bet is to include the keywords “author” or “book” – otherwise, you’ll be sorting through personal blog posts by Lady Voodoo Witch and resurrected glittery Angelfire pages from 2001. Sort through blogs, forums, and personal pages to see the names that come up regularly, and what value people attach to those writers. A lot of people will warn readers away from certain authors; it’s your job to find out why they’re considered bad. Historical inaccuracy, a missing bibliography, and misinformation should automatically cancel a book’s potential for a beginner in the field. See if you’re alright with reading through condescending tones, shaky citations, or questionable ethics from the writers. Opinions on the relevancy of a work based on those factors vary from reader to reader, bearing in mind not all your reading will be fun or easy. One or two authors (or resource pages) exist in every field that nearly everyone can agree on as a suitable introduction to your chosen topic – find them and use them.

• If your “expert” has written a blog or done an interview, chances are they have made resource recommendations at some point. Using their name and the keyword “recommendation” in a basic search should net you results. If they have published work, the first thing to do is dive into their bibliography. See which sources are cited over and over again. Authors lean heavily on works that inspire them – if you can figure out which ones, that’s an excellent start to a list of trustworthy authors.

1. Be careful with your first book. We’re all creatures of habit, and once we learn information, it can be very hard to change our minds about it. Once you’ve found a general consensus on good authors, find a work that has a date within twenty years (if possible) and most closely fits your research desires. Books over a few years old can be notoriously out-of-date with current theory (especially if they’re science texts – keep that in mind for magic related to medicine!). Usually, if it’s a point worth discussing there will be consistent revision and reaffirmation of scholastic theories. If no books exist that fit both the date criteria and the relevance criteria, choose the most relevant.
2. Make notes and/or review the books as you go. Note-taking is a really great idea. As you read, make note of important points, terms, and theories you can expect to find again. If you’re not keen on school-style recitations, then reflect in a journal about what you’re reading. Engaging with your reading is the surest way to retain it, and “active reading” tricks will make the process easier for you. A lot of academics will write reviews after finishing a work – for themselves and others – which can be anything from two to three sentences (“Author long-winded and bibliography out of date. Interesting ideas about the toad bone rite.”) to two to three thousand words. During your bibliography-review stage (below), referring back to these notes or reviews will help you determine an author’s legitimacy.
3. Crib the bib. Progressing through your reading list, you’ll find you actually start with the bibliography before diving into the content. (That’s how you’ll learn if a book is any good before you waste your time reading it – you’ll see the sources listed, recognize things that illuminate theories or things that were so wrong you spent most of your time wheezing in agony or delight through the writing and decide based on the quality of the resources.) When you’re first starting out on a topic, you should just pick out topics that sound interesting to you based on the title and the footnotes. As you progress, you’ll notice certain titles being praised as “classics” and/or being used repeatedly by authors you admire. Regardless if they are outdated, plan to read them. Lather, rinse, repeat. Honestly, research can be a lifelong process, especially as new material with groundbreaking revelations is released. As you get more comfortable with research, you’ll learn at a glance which theories or authors are worth reading and which are not worth wasting your time over.

Tips and tricks:

• Primary-source citations are gold. My momma always told me, “Ain’t nothing new under the sun.” Even a book about Neowicca has to derive its opinions from somewhere. If a resource doesn’t even mention that the author eyeballed a primary source, it is at most a 101 text if not utter trash. In the beginning, this will be fine; by the time you’re two to three months into dedicated, heavy research you will want to scream.
• Learn about the foundations. This goes along with primary resources, but if you’re hoping to learn more about historic primary sources pay attention to the objects that contain them. For example, most Irish mythology stories were written down by monks. Knowing which manuscripts contain which stories – and which version the author is trying to cite – can change your understanding of the information being handed to you. Certain understandings can also come from archaeological finds, including gravestones, cave paintings, etc. If an author doesn’t even try to attribute these sorts of things to their archaeological provenance, burn the book and blow the ash directly into the author’s eyes (to quote Thorraborinn).
• Learn the language. The least amount of secondhand filter you take in during your later stages of research, the better. Academic writing usually occurs in English, French, German, and/or Italian – as well as the modern version of whatever language was spoken locally. For the purposes of perusing academia in one of those languages, you should just know basic keywords and google the rest. It will take some time, but that’s what most college professors do. But, if you know you’ll be reading a lot of ancient Irish mythology, it behooves you to attempt to learn ancient Irish! Even a little bit of knowledge of the language can change its meaning entirely. (Don’t believe me? Research ancient Irish indefinite articles and then read the story about Oengus tricking the Dagda out of his house. Makes a lot more sense how that could happen with only that small piece of information.) Learning a language – especially an ancient one – is tough, but each step can reveal a new piece of the puzzle to you. At least try.
• It is better to build an educated foundation upon which to rest anecdotes. Honestly, you should try to switch over from 101 materials to meaty materials as soon as possible. Putting academic works over works written by other witches and pagans will save you time; it’s what you can glean from older works and academia that will inform you. You can add in other’s more anecdotal and less academic work once you gain a working mastery of the material, determining how best to align the secondhand works to your own needs. Books that are not well-researched can often provide reference material for your own practical applications, so long as you keep a critical eye on what you’re consuming. (Don’t buy into something wholesale without reviewing it first.)
• There is no shame in not knowing. Honestly, it’s best during this process if you remember that there are some things you’re just never going to know. Can you ever create a perfect replica of certain elements? Oftentimes, you’ll never know exactly what you’re even looking to replicate. Aim to be better than yesterday and be alright with repeating, “I don’t know.”
• Keep an eye on academic reviews. Even if you can’t see the material you’re looking for at first, academic reviews can let slip big-picture ideas and offer critiques on the material you’ll be handling.
• GoogleScholar and your local university library is your friend. Sometimes you can pay a small fee to access the university’s databases!
• Try to figure out SEO and keywords for online research.
• Still confused? Local community colleges will offer classes on research. Or, there may be some classes on how to conduct research on sites like Udemy.

Research seems like an impossible task only the most intelligent members of the community can pull off, but I promise it’s much easier than you think. I worked at Trinity College Dublin. When I started, I didn’t know what to expect, but I quickly realized most research is about double- and triple-checking the sources and making sure you’re finding new and innovative ideas. Don’t be afraid to get out there and look through whatever you can find! The more you work at it, the better you’ll become at figuring out what materials are good and which materials are better off left out of your work.

Pulled from my former WordPress.
Originally published 24 Aug 2018.