Books for those of no fixed religion but want 'life guidance'

I've been a Pagan for many years now, I started with Wicca, but my spirituality has grown a bit now, or Wicca has narrowed, I'm not sure which, although it does seem to be becoming more codified something I don't feel it was ever intended to be. To quote Sir Terry Pratchet, '.. witches [Wiccans] believe in their gods like they believe in the postman', this is very much how I feel, it's beyond belief or faith, it just is. 

I notice all the faiths you mentions are basically Christian, have you ever moved outside of Christianity or montheism? For me a multiplicity of Gods and Goddesses is obvious and I can't get my head around montheism anymore, it's taken me a while to reach this point having been brought up with the idea if not the practice of montheism. I dont' find myself with a lack of morals although I sometimes find myself with moral conumdrums and sometimes my moral compas is like that of Cpt Jack Sparrow, in that it points to what I want rather than whats a particularly "good" thing. But then one of the things about following a path such as Wicca is that it makes you conciously think about morality and what good and bad/evil actually mean.

Have your ever read The Tao of Pooh? Or Buddhism for Sheep? The Tao of Pooh, looks at Taoism via the medium of Winnie the Pooh, its a whimsically wise book. Buddhism for Sheep is a short book using the life of sheep as a metaphor for Zen Buddhism. Both of these books should be easy reading and a good way to start exploring spirituality.

I think an atheist religion is a contradiction, I get where de Boton is coming from, and it's been a conundrum for humanists and atheists for many many years, how do you have morality without a deity to enforce it? Personally I find it quite easy, our deities don't enforce in the way a monotheistic deity does, or at least what priests tell us pleases their god to punish or allow.

A lot of Christianity is based around Plato and Neo-Platonism, so you may find those interesting.

I like Rumi.

I am neither Christian, nor Jew, nor Magian, nor Muslim …

https://archive.blogs.harvard.edu/sulaymanibnqiddees/2012/11/06/rumi-i-do-not-recognize-myself/

I sort of get this but a bit beyond my intellect! [I wish I was super-clever like my brother but alas did not inherit that gene]. Is it, that knowing myself I can then be one with God? It's more about learning to love the self, and thus finding peace and joy in life.

Philip Larkin definitely had a point when it came to parents…….you definitely don’t come across on here as ‘below par’ Marianne! I hope you can cast off their negative influence and be free of that x 

I agree. I don’t mean surrender and acceptance in an entirely passive sense - more as in the well know serenity prayer (‘God grant me the serenity the accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference’). For example: my Dad was consistently verbally and emotionally abusive towards me throughout my life. I wasted literally YEARS thinking that I could help him to see that it was wrong to treat me like that - and trying to improve our relationship. I should have much sooner got to the point where I accepted that he was never going to change - and completely given up on trying to improve that relationship. I should have ‘given up’, and surrendered much much sooner to the knowledge that my Dad got some kind of weird sense of power from putting me down, and saying insulting things to me, and removed myself from his presence and his influence. But I exhausted myself over a period of decades thinking that I could make him understand that it was a bad thing to treat his daughter like that. It was SUCH a waste of my time and energy - and I should have given up on that huge effort decades earlier. So still taking action - but not trying for many years  to change a man who would never change. I’m definitely not advocating complete passivity and not taking action when required. But there’s no point beating our heads against the wall over things that are beyond our control. This extends even to small things like the weather - so that instead of wasting energy moaning about the fact it’s raining ( like many people do ) - just accept it and get on with the day - in fact preferably feel positive about all the benefits of the rain. Or if I break something : instead of beating myself up for being so stupid for dropping or breaking something (which is what I would do previously) I just try to accept the thing is broken and be ok with that. Things break. 

I think we probably would agree on many things (like the flaws of capitalism etc) - but we have different perspectives I’m sure. I really respect your contributions on here - they’re really interesting and I you have admirable directness and seem to have a lot of integrity. Also - many of these subjects are complex and we all bring our own baggage to them. We have different histories, and that only makes talking to people on here all the more interesting:) 

I agree. I don’t mean surrender and acceptance in an entirely passive sense - more as in the well know serenity prayer (‘God grant me the serenity the accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference’). For example: my Dad was consistently verbally and emotionally abusive towards me throughout my life. I wasted literally YEARS thinking that I could help him to see that it was wrong to treat me like that - and trying to improve our relationship. I should have much sooner got to the point where I accepted that he was never going to change - and completely given up on trying to improve that relationship. I should have ‘given up’, and surrendered much much sooner to the knowledge that my Dad got some kind of weird sense of power from putting me down, and saying insulting things to me, and removed myself from his presence and his influence. But I exhausted myself over a period of decades thinking that I could make him understand that it was a bad thing to treat his daughter like that. It was SUCH a waste of my time and energy - and I should have given up on that huge effort decades earlier. So still taking action - but not trying for many years  to change a man who would never change. I’m definitely not advocating complete passivity and not taking action when required. But there’s no point beating our heads against the wall over things that are beyond our control. This extends even to small things like the weather - so that instead of wasting energy moaning about the fact it’s raining ( like many people do ) - just accept it and get on with the day - in fact preferably feel positive about all the benefits of the rain. Or if I break something : instead of beating myself up for being so stupid for dropping or breaking something (which is what I would do previously) I just try to accept the thing is broken and be ok with that. Things break. 

I think we probably would agree on many things (like the flaws of capitalism etc) - but we have different perspectives I’m sure. I really respect your contributions on here - they’re really interesting and I you have admirable directness and seem to have a lot of integrity. Also - many of these subjects are complex and we all bring our own baggage to them. We have different histories, and that only makes talking to people on here all the more interesting:)