The first book of my Enochian series addressed working with the Kings and Princes of the Heptarchia Mystica, while this one will address the Kings, Seniors, and other entities derived from the four quadrants of the Great Table. I've made a deliberate effort to structure the new book just like the previous one, so if you liked Mastering the Mystical Heptarchy, which received many positive reviews, I expect that you will enjoy Mastering the Great Table as well.
Writing about the Great Table courts more controversy than writing about the Heptarchia Mystica. While the latter material has remained relatively unexplored, the former has been analyzed, expanded, reworked, and integrated into the curricula of many modern magical orders, all of whom have their own ideas about how it should be interpreted and applied. My version doesn't quite line up with any of those, but rather takes an approach like that articulated in my first book. While the ritual template I include shows where modern ritual forms can be added to the basic procedure, it also allows those magicians who prefer to work with just the original material to omit them and interact with the Enochian entities grimoire-style.
The new book will also expand upon some of the general ideas about magick that I introduced in the first book, so if you were holding off on picking up a copy of Mastering the Mystical Heptarchy until my book on the Great Table came out now is the perfect time. Click on one of the links to the right to order your copy today, and enjoy!
Lack of an ebook means I won't buy this (or your older book either).
ReplyDeleteMany of us don't buy books in paper anymore. Save a tree and make an ebook edition of your work.
All of my books are currently available as eBooks, and this one will be as well when it comes out.
ReplyDeleteMastering the Mystical Heptarchy is available as an eBook from Smashwords here:
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/139013
Arcana is also available from Smashwords here:
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/138104
I agree with you completely; many magicians these days are eBook-only and Pendraig does their best to accommodate them.
Are you using Dee or GD style attributions for your book?
ReplyDeleteFor the most part I use the Dee attributions as far as powers of the angels and so forth go. So for example I allocate the Seniors to knowledge and judgement in human affairs, the angels below the cross to medicine, precious stones, transformation, and living creatures, and so forth.
ReplyDeleteI don't employ the "element of element" construction at all for the subquadrants and the Key order I use is (IMO) a lot less haphazard than the GD version. I do use some GD terminology and the modern ritual forms that I include in my template are Thelemic/GD in structure, but as in the first book they are clearly notated as such so that if you prefer to work without them you can do just that.
Woo hoo! I'm excited, I loved Mastering the Mystical Heptarchy.
ReplyDeleteShould I really buy this book? I already read Enochian Magic for Beginners and Enochian Vision Magick but I still don't know how to proceed. Is your book gonna teach me that? Does your book covered all the necessary things for the ceremony or just the great table? I mean, reading the contents it tells nothing about the ring, the lamen and the Sigillum Dei Aemeth.
ReplyDeleteWell, even though I probably should say that you absolutely need to buy it, since I wrote it and all, I'll be honest and tell you that it probably depends on what you are looking for. I do cover the temple furniture in Great Table, though I go over the symbolism of them in more detail in Heptarchy. The ring, lamen, and Sigillum are covered in Chapter 3, The Temple Arrangement along with the Holy Table.
ReplyDeleteIf you are looking to work the Crowley/Golden Dawn Enochian system, as covered in Enochian Vision Magick, this book is probably not for you. Aaron Leitch likes to call my stuff "Neo-Enochian" because I include instructions on how to use modern forms like pentagram and hexagram rituals, but the attributions I use are all from the Dee Diaries and don't match the Golden Dawn system at all.
The advantage that Great Table has over Enochian Magic for Beginners is that I include a detailed template that describes how to do the actual rituals. EMB used a lot of the same materials from the diaries and the British Museum that I do, but all Tyson adds is a lot of speculation about how the system might have worked, along with his bizarre theories about the apocalypse. My template goes step-by-step and is based on how I actually have used the system for decades now.
The other thing that I do less of than a lot of authors is spend a lot of time analyzing the structure of the language, the design of the implements, and so forth. If you're looking for that sort of deep symbolic analysis, again, you probably want to look elsewhere. My focus is on explaining how to do the magick itself. So think of it more like a how-to manual than an academic exploration.
Is that what you want out of a book on Enochian. If so, by all means go ahead and buy it. But if it's not your thing, I figure it's better to let you know up front.
Might I step in? :)
ReplyDeleteI haven't read Scott's books, not because I don't want to, but because of several issues I've encountered in order to purchase them.
In any case, you can go ahead and read some of his articles on rituals (enochian or hermetic/kabalistic-whatever) in order to see the extent he goes into detailing the steps necessary to perform each ritual. Also, you can read the comments of those articles in which he answers certain questions.
If the books contain only the ritual steps with half the level of detail of explanation than Scott offers on the blog, I'd say those are some god-dang books and I'd strongly recommend you to buy them!!!
For now you can read his articles Introduction to The Great Table & to the Mystical Heptarchy. If you like what you find there, then buy the books! ;)
I asked you if I should buy it because I wanna know how to work with Enochian Magick beyond the theory. After reading Enochian Magic for Beginners, I got all the necessary theory but I don't know what to do with that. I know the system is complex and the angels didn't tell Dee how to use it but after all these years no author was able to make a how-to guide?
ReplyDeleteEnochian Vision Magick suffers of the same problem than most books out there. It doesn't follow an order that makes the understanding process easier for the reader.
Someday, I'd like to see a book about Enochian with the following structure: All the theory - How to make the objects used - How to practice it (how-to guide). This would be the perfect book.
I'm not interested in the GD method. I want to learn the original Enochian Magic.
Okay, that makes sense. My books are written as how-to guides, and they are based on the attributions from the original Dee system. I did my best to write up ritual templates that are easy to follow for performing operations. So I would think that my two books would work for you. Same with Mastering the Thirty Aires, once I finally get that done.
ReplyDeleteWell, I'm already reading this book. It's what I was looking for but I have to say it shouldn't be used as a starting point. If you know nothing about Enochian, read Enochian Magic for Beginners by Donald Tyson (just ignore all the apocalypse things). Then, with Mastering the Great Table, you'll learn how to put it into practice. Only 1:30 hour reading it and I already know how to set up a temple and all the necessary things to perform a ritual. I went through many books but this is the only one I could find that gives you a well detailed ritual example.
ReplyDeleteI have some questions to the author:
1 - You claim that the Tyson's great table isn't as functional as the second version received by Dee. I'm ok with that. But what do you think about Tyson's Enochian Alphabet version? He claims that his version of the alphabet is the closest possible to the original one. Is that right?
2 - I'm having some difficulties finding the right class of angels for my needs. If I want a good job, money, a place at university, what class of angels should I work with?
One of the things about Great Table is that it's the second book in the series, so some of the material that's skimmed over a bit is covered in more detail in Heptarchy. So that's part of why some it seems a little compressed. It also is true that my approach doesn't bother with as much theory as a lot of other authors. I'm much more interested in getting people to the point where you can do the work.
ReplyDeleteI have to say, I have no idea why Tyson's Great Table doesn't work as well as the original. When you're conjuring groups of angels, they're all the same in the Tyson arrangement as in the Recensa that I use. I just know that during the year I spent working with the Tyson table, my rituals didn't work nearly as well. Maybe if you experiment with it you'll find something different, I don't know. My books cover the system as I work it.
I'm not sure what exactly is different about the Tyson alphabet from what you find with other authors. As far as the letters themselves, that very well could be true. The font that I use is for it is a Golden Dawn one that I just happen to like the look of, which isn't quite the same. I haven't found any real difference between slight letter style variations. Tyson is a decent researcher, so my guess is that he probably takes the letters as Dee wrote them in the diaries. It's when he starts speculating that he goes off the rails.
The easy solution is that the four Kings can do basically anything. I have yet to come across something that they've balked at. So I'd think that would work for what you're looking for. Beyond that, the twenty-four Seniors govern "knowledge and judgment in human affairs," so they can do anything that involves influencing another person's judgment or opinion - like, say, to make you interview for positions really well or something like that. The Angels of Transformation can be used to transform your current situation into whatever improved situation you want. You can conjure the Angels of Precious Stones for financial operations. And so forth.
The key is that the powers of the Great Table are not slavishly literal, or at least I haven't found them to be. Some of them work a little differently in the modern world, so you want to think about their abilities more broadly and in a more metaphoric sense.
Does that help?
You helped me a lot. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteHi, me again.
ReplyDeleteThe part concerning the placement of the talismans around the table I didn't quite understand. Should I place the east talisman in the west, the west's in the north, etc. so this way I never stand with my back to tha table?
Yes, that is correct.
ReplyDeleteWhen conjuring, You always face the table, you always face the direction where the spirit "lives," and you stand on the talisman while you do it. So the east talisman is placed to the west of the table, south talisman is placed to the north, west talisman is placed to the east, and north talisman is placed to the south.
@Pedro
ReplyDeleteSo you bought it? Cool! Please share some of your future experiences with The Great Table, will you? So far I'm only working with the Heptarchy. You can use the Enochian Forum on this blog for sharing. That way it'll all be in one place. Thanks.
Hi. Is Enochian like Goetia that you need to say conjuration many times? I'm asking because I performed the ritual today but I said each prayer and necessary key only once. I didn't wait for nothing to happen like we usually do in Goetia and other kinds of evocations.
ReplyDelete@Dacia Pacea I will share my experience tomorrow (24 hours after) because I just performed the ritual and I need to see what comes after.
Not in my experience. I only do it once and I do not repeat it when I work with the system. Sometimes I'll use a similar method to what I talk about in the zodiacal series, where after the conjuration I vibrate the name of the entity or entities I am conjuring a bunch of times until I sense their presence. But even that often isn't necessary. Sometimes, even when nothing dramatic at all happens during an Enochian ritual, you still get good results in terms of your intent being accomplished.
ReplyDelete@Pedro thanks!
ReplyDeleteIn terms of the conjuration, I usually say it once, then I vibrate the name of the spirit (of the Heptarchy) until I feel a pulsating energy coming from the Table. I then quiet my mind in order to talk to it, but that's optional, and I could just go ahead with the charge.