Muggle Quidditch Invasion of Britain Continues

Back in March I covered the first Muggle Quidditch match played in England. As Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling is British, it might seem strange that this version of her fictional game was invented in America. However, as I noted in my previous post, creating sadder, more watered-down versions of cultural treasures from other nations is pretty much what we Americans do. In the eighties it was the Croissan'Wich, and today it's Muggle Quidditch. And don't even get me started on the chow mein sandwich, invented in Fall River, Massachusetts. Given that chow mein is a sad American substitute for real Chinese food to begin with, putting it in a sandwich is a whole other level of suckage. But I digress.

Julia Rivera is a die-hard Harry Potter fan, and she is a natural athlete. So she decided to combine the two and formed the first Quidditch league at Kennett High School.

“It’s so much fun,” said Rivera, a Kennett sophomore. “There’s a lot of laughs to see everyone get so into it. After people play, they realize it’s more difficult than they were expecting.”

I don't think anyone who's ever tried to run holding a stick between their legs would expect this version of Quidditch to be easy. See, that's why the brooms are supposed to fly...

Deeper Down the Rabbit Hole

On the evening of June 12th at 8 PM EST (7 PM here in the Twin Cities) I will be appearing on Deeper Down the Rabbit Hole, an online show that runs on the Para-X Radio network. I'll be discussing Mastering the Mystical Heptarchy, Enochian magick, and ceremonial ritual forms. I've touched on all those topics here on Augoeides, but this will be your first chance to hear me discuss them live and in-person. I've never appeared on one of these shows before so I hope you'll tune in and check it out.

As an aside, May sure went by fast! I've been really busy with my new job and getting the new Enochian book, Mastering the Great Table, put together for Pendraig. Hopefully June will prove a little less hectic and I'll be able to get the posting back up to the usual rate soon. Until then, thanks for bearing with me!

Western Mystery Tradition Conference Canceled

About a month ago I submitted an abstract for a presentation at the Journal Of the Western Mystery Tradition conference, scheduled to be held this July in Milwaukee. Unfortunately, though, the conference has been canceled. This is a real downer, because it sounded like an incredibly cool event. Here's the description, which you can still view online though I suspect it will be taken down soon. The problem appears to have been that the conference was not promoted very well and had trouble attracting presenters and attendees, so if they try it again next year I'll promote it well in advance here on Augoeides. It seems like the sort of event many of us in the magical blogosphere would enjoy attending, so perhaps some of us can help make sure the next one goes forward.

My proposal was to present on my Solomonic-inspired style of Enochian magick. Here's the abstract that I submitted to the conference organizers.

"Ministering Angels: The Solomonic Roots of Enochian Magic"

This paper presents a methodology for working with the Enochian system of magic that is informed by the Solomonic grimoire tradition of the sixteenth century. Scott Michael Stenwick proposes that these Solomonic foundations of John Dee and Edward Kelley's original source material reveal a powerful method of practical magic. This thaumaturgic style of working with angelic spirits is compared and contrasted with modern interpretations and uses of the system, in which the Enochian material is generally approached as part of a theurgic structure based on scrying and complex analysis.

The Enochian magical system has inspired many modern esoteric groups, including the various Golden Dawn traditions, Aleister Crowley's A.'.A.'., and the Aurum Solis. However, much of the Enochian lore developed by these diverse groups is not drawn from and in a some cases directly contradicts the source material. A more accurate perspective may be found by approaching the system as an advanced form of Solomonic grimoire magic instead of viewing it through the lens of nineteenth-century Hermetic Qabalah. In this light the tools and temple furnishings recommended for Enochian operations can be understood in their proper context and the original intended ritual structures can be deduced in a straightforward manner.

Some of the material that I was going to cover is already published in Mastering the Mystical Heptarchy, and the rest will be included in the second book of my Enochian series that I'm still in the process of writing, Mastering the Great Table. I was really looking forward to presenting on my methods at the conference, but it seems I'll have to wait for the next one.