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.