First off, I received a copy of Scott Stenwick’s newest book “Mastering the Mystical Heptarchy,” (Pendraig Publishing 2011) and I have looked it over. This looks like a really interesting and useful book, which will give the Enochian magician an important complete system of planetary magick to add to the already existing and well documented systems of Elemental and Talismanic Elemental magick. Scott takes two approaches to this more obscure Enochian material, and these two paths will satisfy the adherent using the Golden Dawn methodology of magick as well as the grimoire afficionado who wants to work magick as it would have been worked by Dee himself.

I can say that both approaches are satisfactorily documented, making this book a lot more valuable than it might be if one approach was chosen over the other. Scott is an excellent writer and has made this book quite accessible to the average occultist, so it shouldn’t be difficult for anyone who seeks to master this system of magick to be able to do so. As a friend and magickal associate, Scott is one of those remarkable men that I have had the honor to know and talk with from time to time. So I am recommending that if you have any interest in Enochian magick, this book is an important addition to your library of magickal books.

You can find the entire review here, as part of a longer article. Frater Barrabbas, thanks much for your kind words. I’m glad that you found the book useful and interesting.

The first thing that impressed me about the book was to be found in the first page following the table of contents, (always a good sign when you find yourself agreeing with the author before the third paragraph) and that is that Scott differentiates between Ceremonial and Ritual Magick, which is something he and I have in common, and also where we diverge from the majority. Though out definitions are different, I like that he too makes the distinction where most just lump both practices together and use the terms interchangeably.

Another point of convergence between Scott’s beliefs and my own is in the correct pronunciation of the Enochian tongue. As I’ve mentioned before, I am no Enochian scholar or adept and defer gladly to most of the authors who’ve written on the subject, but I just can’t agree with the elongated Golden Dawn style pronunciation.

The rites he presents herein are easy to follow and, much to my liking, do not require one to have attained the understanding of the Enochian system that accompanies lifelong study. Part of what has stopped me from delving into this system despite its power is that it is overwhelmingly complex and I simply lack the time to study it in depth. This is a book that will enable those interested in the field of Magick to dive on in, and do so in a far more logical and true manner that works such as Schueler’s, bringing us one step closer to the Magick OF John Dee, as opposed to the modern adaptations which bear little resemblance.

- Michael Cecchetelli, author of “Crossed Keys” and “Mardukite Magick”, from The Lion’s Den

Michael Cecchetelli is a well-known practitioner of grimoire magick and his Crossed Keys, “Being a Chimeric Binding of Both The Black Dragon and the Enchiridion of Pope Leo III,” was published by Scarlet Imprint in January.

Scott Stenwick has given us a worthy addition to the contemporary Enochian corpus in “Mastering the Mystical Heptarchy.” The first book to outline a system of practice for working with the Planetary system of Dr. John Dee and Sir Edward Kelley, the “Heptarchy” is both a succinct explanation of the source material and a clear outline of how it can be used by Enochian research groups today. Author Stenwick’s eclectic style reflects an approach to spirituality that is in wide use among contemporary Enochian magicians, bringing together practices dating back to the sixteenth century and earlier, and twenty-first century approaches that have grown out of the work of late modern esotericists like the Golden Dawn and Aleister Crowley. At the same time, Stenwick is careful to make clear which parts of his book postdate the work of Dee and Kelley, and to offer suggestions for practitioners who prefer to work in a more traditional methodology.

Although there are a few rough spots–the book would benefit from the services of a careful editor to fix the odd typo and massage the occasional weak phrasing–these are minor matters. This is, after all, intended to be used as a contemporary grimoire, not an academic opus.

In fact, such lapses are few and easily ignored, and are very much outweighed by the book’s many strong points. This book belongs on the shelf of anyone interested in Enochian, next to those of Lon Milo Duquette, Colin Campbell, Aleister Crowley, Joseph Peterson, Aaron Leitch, Teresa Burns, and others.

- R. Christopher Feldman, author of “A Question of Authorship: John Dee, Edward Kelley, and the ‘Angelic Conversations.’” from Amazon Reviews.

Christopher Feldman is a well-known Enochian practitioner, so between these two reviews I seem to have hit my target audience pretty well. I have a lot of respect for all those authors he lists, and it’s quite heartening to see my new book compared favorably with theirs.

Michael and Christopher, know that you have my thanks. I’m glad to hear that both of you enjoyed the book, and I look forward to many more reviews to come. Hopefully those will be just as good as more people read the book, explore the Heptarchial system, and report their findings.

Dr. John Dee, England’s most famous Renaissance magus, spent seven years working with scryer Edward Kelley in the late sixteenth century. Together the two men established contact with various angels who endeavored to teach them a new spiritual system described as the true art of magick. Dee’s diaries chronicling these communications formed the basis of the Enochian magical system, which has profoundly influenced the development of ritual magick for centuries and is reputed by many to be especially effective.

The Heptarchia Mystica is the only part of the Enochian system that Dee ever managed to assemble into a usable grimoire, but paradoxically it also seems to be the most overlooked portion of his work. Author Scott Michael Stenwick presents this material in a coherent manner suitable for both modern magicians and traditional grimoire practitioners, with an eye towards producing measurable, practical results. The powers of the Heptarchial Kings and Princes are extensive, and yet conjuring and conversing with them is a relatively simple process.

Unlock the secrets of this remarkable grimoire, and employ them to transform your life.

Click here to order your copy today, or click on the menu item at the top of the page to find out more.

I still don’t have a firm date as to when it will become available for purchase, but it’s on its way to the printers so it should be pretty soon now. I’ll post another link as soon as it’s out, so watch this space for more details.

UPDATE: I just checked out RO’s place and he has a new eBook available as well. ‘Tis the season indeed!

I’ll be at the convention with copies to sign, so if you see me there don’t hesitate to ask. I haven’t put anything up on BookTour since I’m not sure of the exact times I’ll be out there, but your best bet is probably going to be Friday and Saturday evenings, which are the convention’s biggest nights. I usually loop through ConSuite on a fairly regular basis, so I’m rarely all that hard to find.

Hope to see you there!

Heptarchy is a non-fiction guide to working practical magick with the Heptarchia Mystica, the planetary grimoire assembled by Dr. John Dee. It is part of what modern magicians call the Enochian system of magick, but represents a relatively unexplored portion of said system. The entities that it calls upon are Kings and Princes related to the seven ancient planets and days of the week that have particular powers. One of those entities, Prince Befafes, may have been called upon to defeat the Spanish Armada in 1588, which if true would represent one of the few occasions in which grimoire magick accomplished a task that radically altered the course of human history. Imagine if the Spanish had conquered England in the sixteenth century – no British Empire, no Anglican Church, no English-speaking colonies in the Americas, Australia, India, and the list goes on.

The approach I take in the book is, I think, somewhat unusual. Most books use the Golden Dawn system of attributions for the Enochian entities, but that system is synthetic and in a number of cases contradicts the original Dee material. A much smaller number of books address the system from a “Dee Purist” perspective, eschewing the Golden Dawn system and all modern ceremonial forms. The system laid out in Heptarchy is for the most part true to purist methods, but it also includes various ceremonial forms, some original, that I have employed over the years and have found useful. Those portions of the system are marked as optional in the master ritual template, so that both purist and modern magicians can make use of it as they see fit. Also, many books on Enochian magick go into painstaking detail about the symbology of the language and the various implements used in the conjurations, but Heptarchy is instead written as a practical guide that will have you doing the magick right away in pursuit of practical objectives.

I don’t know how long the process will take to get the book to the printers, but I’ll make an announcement here as soon as it’s available for purchase.

The presentation will be given at 1 PM on Saturday, March 26th in the Courtyard 3 room. You can see the full schedule for the weekend here. I have a lot of good material put together based on my magical working group’s operations involving the traditional Angels, Intelligences, and Spirits of the seven ancient planets, so it should involve more traditional ceremonial magick than one generally sees at Pagan events.

I will also be appearing at 10:30 that same Saturday morning as part of a panel entitled “So You Want To Be A Pagan Author?” with my friend and fellow magick blogger Frater Barrabbas, fellow Pendraig author Veronica Cummer, and a number of other writers. There will likely be an impromptu book signing or two at some point on Saturday as well.

Hope to see you there!

While I liked the Regulus theme that I was using, it was very popular and very recognizable. After running into it on several other sites, particularly anything related to astrology, I decided that I wanted something else. Also, I’ve been wanting to set the site up with three columns rather than two and Regulus just doesn’t do that. The new theme is Coraline, which is still popular but more customizable. It also allows for a three-column display so that I can show more information when readers first arrive at the site.

I slightly prefer Coraline’s sidebar-content-sidebar layout over the content-sidebar-sidebar that I currently have set, but in testing with the former layout I found that the page with my posts seemed to have some sort of problem displaying correctly on Internet Explorer 6 which a lot of people are still using. Look for that change at some point in the future, either once IE6 has been mostly upgraded or when the Coraline folks come up with a fix.

You can check it out here.

In addition to the ebook being significantly less expensive than the print version, I also submitted some further small edits to Pendraig for the Kindle version that I believe improve the book substantially. So even if you have the print version, you still might want to pick up an electronic copy as well and see how it reads compared to the original.

The only downside is that there’s no way I can sign an ebook.

This year is different. If you order from Amazon there’s still time to buy a copy for that friend of yours who likes occult fiction and is always looking for something new and interesting – like an occult novel that includes genuine, accurately rendered magical practices.

Better still, buying two copies puts the order threshold over $25 and the shipping is free. Don’t delay – click here to order today!