Aaron Leitch

The 4 star rating is primarily addressing the content and not the quality of the physical book. Comprised of 11 essays written by various practitioners such as Aaron Leitch, Rufus Opus, Jason Miller and others. Some of these essays are extremely interesting. For example, the essay on offerings to spirits of the ATR was fascinating, as was the essay on Iamblichan Theurgy. As the name implies, the authors addresses various approaches to making offerings to various spirits.

The publisher, Nephilim Press, is not really noted for creating high quality books. I think I paid $50 for the book, which is not a horrible price as far as esoteric books are concerned. The page signatures are glued, and the paper has a pulpy feel to it. Many esoteric books are much higher quality, but they also can easily break the 3 digit price barrier.

Numbered, Limited edition.953 of 1000. Since it was published in 2014, this clearly has not been a great seller.… (mer)

An attempt to put the jumbled, misprinted mass of Dee’s journals into a skeleton outline form to better get the flow of events and the main points of Dee’s system better in view. Intended as a tool for Leitch’s other works, it was never meant to be printed. Leitch has self-published it, though, without editor or proper formatting for publication: it looks like a Word document spat out in 6 × 9 pages. Lots of poor formatting and typos. But, a decent enough quick recapitulation of Dee’s large, unwieldy printed corpus. Useful only to completists and those immersed into the gobbledygook Enochian system.… (mer)

This is a massive collection of 13 essays about the grimorie tradition written by scholars and practitioners. Each essay discusses a different legendary grimoire (and a couple contemporary ones). Over all this is an excellent collection, with the minor exception of a single weak contribution. Each essay is well researched and highly informative. The essays shed new light on age old works and discuss how said books can still be worked effectively in the modern age.

The authors also refrain from peppering their essays with esoteric jargon (again, with the exception of one essay). Some essays wax a bit poetic, but they are still clear, inspirational, and focused. This is easily one of the best collections Scarlet Imprint has released to date.

A note on the fine binding: The deluxe edition is quarter bound in goat skin, has marbled boards, gilt edges, ribbon bookmark, and slipcase. It's astonishingly beautiful and a delight to hold.… (mer)