Category Archives: Books

As I’ve previously stated, Mastering the Mystical Heptarchy is the first book in a series of three covering the methods I’ve developed for working with Enochian magick. There are two reasons that I decided to start with a book on the Heptarchia Mystica. The first is that the Heptarchia is less well-explored than the rest of the Enochian system, and the second is that it was the first portion of the system that John Dee and Edward Kelley received. The rest of the series will follow that same order as well.

Book Two – Mastering the Great Table. Currently submitted and in development, the second book in the series will explore the Great Table or Watchtowers of the Enochian system. The Great Table has probably received the most attention of all the aspects of the Enochian system and generally corresponds to elemental workings just as the Heptarchia corresponds to planetary operations. However, many of the attributions that have been ascribed to the Great Table contradict those of the original system as received by Dee and Kelley. As in the first book, I approach the system from a more grimoire-based perspective than that taken by the Golden Dawn system, but at the same time leave room for certain modern magical forms that I have found to be effective in my practice.

Book Three – Mastering the Thirty Aires. The Thirty Aires or Aethyrs get a lot of attention from Thelemites, as Aleister Crowley famously scried them as recounted in the The Vision and the Voice. The Golden Dawn system works with the Aethyrs, but at the same time does not add the same level of complexity to them as it does with the Great Table. In fact, the Thirty Aires serve two distinct functions in the original Dee system – the parts of the earth that they include are intended for use as reference points for targeting magical operations, and in addition they include a layer of symbolism suitable for practical zodiacal operations. Discussion of this latter aspect will include an overview of the Renaissance astrological methods with which Dee was familiar, as they differ substantially from the methods used in modern astrology. The book will also discuss political magick involving the various parts of the earth and how the Aires relate to the expansion of consciousness along the lines of Crowley’s explorations.

Earlier this year Mike Sententia over at Magick of Thought reviewed the first few chapters of Mastering the Mystical Heptarchy. A couple of weeks ago he posted his review of the rest of the book, naming five things he liked about it.

Scott has a great, detailed description of setting up the temple (the ritual space). It includes sigils for you to photocopy. Personally, I would be much more likely to practice the style if I don’t have to draw or carve all of these complex shapes. He also suggests using brass rings instead of gold, and other ways to get a quick and dirty temple up and running.

Seeing the details of the temple laid out gave me a much better feel for what ritual magick is about. I mean, I knew about correspondences before, but seeing Scott work through them as he reasoned about which metals to use for the temple gave me the feel of working with them, which is really useful for understanding what other mages are talking about.

Most chapters open with a blog-post-like discussion. Scott covered secrecy in magick (he’s against it), the different banishing and invoking rituals (LBRP / LIRH = Operant field), and other topics. They’re like more-polished blog posts, and even though I encountered the ideas on his blog, reading them again in book form (maybe with more editing?) made the ideas clearer. It was fun to get some of the ideas that hadn’t quite connected before.

I skipped most of the actual rituals, but from what I did read, they are quite detailed, with good diagrams. I believe I could correctly perform the rituals from just the written instructions, which isn’t true of all books. So if you do want to practice Enochian, I think this book will do a good job of it.

Beyond that, MtMH teases apart the now-standard Golden Dawn version from the original Dee-Kelly version. I can’t say which is better, but I’d sure want to know which I was using. This seems like an important distinction, and one that I wasn’t even aware of before reading this book.

You can read the whole review here. So far everyone who has reviewed the book has enjoyed it, and if you haven’t picked up your own copy yet you probably will enjoy it as well once you do. Click here to order the print or ebook edition today!

Arcana and Mastering the Mystical Heptarchy and are now available in a variety of ebook formats from Smashwords. If you’ve wanted to buy a copies of either but have been holding out for something that will work with your e-reader, here’s your chance. Arcana has been available on Kindle for awhile, but Smashwords offers it in a number of additional formats suitable for other e-readers.

Click here for Arcana and here for Mastering the Mystical Heptarchy to check out the new ebook formats. The Arcana ebook turned out quite nice, and while I haven’t had a chance to take a look at the ebook edition of Mastering the Mystical Heptarchy myself yet, I’m told that it includes all the various sigils and so forth necessary for performing the conjurations of the Kings and Princes, just like the print version.

As always, thanks much for your continued support!

Mastering the Mystical Heptarchy continues to be well-received in the magical blogosphere. Here are two more positive reviews of the book.

The first is by Mike Sententia of Magick of Thought. This is from part one of his review, with more to come as he works through the book.

If you read Augoeides, you’re probably familiar with his “magick in pop culture” posts on witchdoctors, teens who think they’re vampires and the like. This book is totally different. It’s a technical guide to Enochian ritual magick, with a tone like his posts on changing the direction of the symbols in the LBRP / LIRH.

I’m not done with the book yet, but I’m going to blog as I read it, when sections catch my eye. So far, it’s been a great intro to Enochian, and an interesting window into how Scott thinks about magick, which is worth reading in itself. It’s not the sort of book I’d normally buy, and I was secretly worried I might not like it, but so far it’s been great, and I’m glad I got it.

You can read the full review here.

The second is by Kalagni of Blue Flame Magick.

The Heptarchia Mystica is a section of Dee and Kelly’s work that is often overlooked and separate from the Great Table. It is also closer in structure and usage to the grimoires of the time. If you’re a grimoiric/Solomonic magickian (like me) some of the mainstream Enochian system can see a bit much to get into, but the Heptarchia Mystica is more accessible and familiar in many ways. It gives a collection of planetary Kings and Princes, as well as the evocations for each figure, and how to work with them, in a style far closer to what you get from the Lesser Key than from most Enochian texts.

This book is more than just printing of the oft ignored text, but also a general book on how to work with it. It was written with the “intention that you as an aspiring magician should be able to pick up this book and begin working magick right away” (53). If not for the fact that it requires specific ritual items like rings and lamens, this goal seems to be hit.

You can read the full review here.

Mike and Kalagni, thanks much for these reviews. I’m glad that you’re finding the book interesting and useful. When you do start working with it, let me know how it goes.

Here’s the latest review of Mastering the Mystical Heptarchy from magick blogger and author Frater Barrabbas, whose works include The Disciple’s Guide to Ritual Magick and the Mastering the Art of Ritual Magick series of books. So far all the reviews of my new book have been positive, and this one is no exception.

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.