Et In Londinium Ego, Anno Null G.E.
Essential Reading for the WMT
Last Friday I went to London to witness an epochal shift in the Grimoire Tradition - the launch of the Grimoire Encyclopaedia by David Rankine, published by Hadean Press.
Journeyman Qabalist
I have a long history of magical adventures in the capital, the first of which involving David. In 2002 I attended the Wiccans and Witches in London summer solstice picnic in Richmond Park; there, under an old oak tree on a beautiful day, I met David Rankine who was demonstrating the technicalities of performing a Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram. I was relatively new to my practice and access to actual instruction by a real Proper Magician™ was exactly the boost I needed. Twenty years later, that ritual forms the core of my daily practice still, and is a component in the Star Club Framework.
I've studied with David and we became friends in Glastonbury under absurd circumstances - while most mums in the soft play centre were discussing Hollyoaks or X Factor, we were the two strange bearded men in the corner watching our kids and discussing the Qabalistic significance of In the Night Garden. From there we met socially in parallel with professional engagements for The Visible College and Occult Conference events, and others nationally.
The Word made real
Beardy Qabalists ride again
Over the course of the pandemic, after the first lockdown I met with David outside a seaside pub and he had a sparkle in his eye. He told me he had been writing furiously, waking up each day with another five thousand words or so ready to dance from his fingertips into a manuscript, and I chuckled at my inability to finish the workbooks for Star Club (remedied during Cycles 2&3!). The project was a secret, but he let me in on the fact that it would be something huge when completed. And now I can tell you, the Grimoire Encyclopedia - or G.E. - really is.
This time last year we took a trip to Welshpool together, as he was speaking and I was going up anyway, and had ample time to discuss our projects. In the pub after, no small amount of excitement was shared with the late and great Jake Stratton Kent over the G.E. and I warmly remember how happy he was at that last public appearance.
Learning more about the work that has gone into the G.E., the countless hours of research, tracking down different copies of manuscripts and comparing across countries and languages, shows what a tremendous academic resource this is. At the same time, written by a practitioner with the decades of experience that David has, I know it will be an essential companion for anyone seriously working Grimoire magick. I was thrilled when he invited me to the launch at Watkins Books, and so another trip to London beckoned.
A Grand (Grimoire) Day Out
I performed some supreme sorcery and found parking in Zone 2 for £8.50 all day - Star Club does not guarantee conferral of such power - and travelled in to the Atlantis Bookshop to see who was about, chat with friends, and meet Star Club Officer and leader of the Church of Rational Satanism, Ben Dean. Atlantis was described to me by Gordon White as “a place where you expect Austin Osman Spare or Gerald Gardner might pop in at any moment to pick up a book they forgot”, and that’s bang on the money. I bought two tarot decks for good measure, and we were told we had just missed David, and so popped up the road to the Plough and met with a Wiccan friend of mine, and passed a pleasant hour discussing our favourite aspects of travelling to London.
Living history at Atlantis and London Psychogeography
My Wiccan friend agreed that, as ex-city folk living in the countryside now, we miss the buzz and thrum of a city. There is the wonder and natural magic of the rural landscape, but a different vibrational energy pulses through cities and nourishes those who can read the dank signs and midnight omens of back-alleys and dripping scaffolding by cigarette light. London also has a particular monopoly on cultural edifices, and between the British Museum, British Library, Warburg Institute, and so many other significant occultural locations you cannot help but find endless ways to steep yourself in the magical current if you only scratch below the surface.
We also discussed our upcoming projects, and there is plenty afoot. Star Club is offering initiations to Practitioners and Initiates at the Summer Solstice, and we have Foundational Workshops booked through the Summer leading in to our new Practitioner Cycle. Ben is working on a fantastic project in the heart of Camden to support Satanic Recovery, which he’ll write about here in due course - in the meantime you can buy his book here*.
Luminaries at Large
An impromptu fetch quest spurred us to head down to Watkins, and there we found David, Erzebet Carr of Hadean, and Stephen Skinner in the late afternoon sun. I’ve shared a few words with Stephen at a previous event but I’m still happily in awe of meeting him. We discussed the potential of the G.E. to change the face of Grimoire magic across the planet, and how the lovely hardbacks will live in libraries - but the paperbacks will be battle-scarred with broken spines and dog-eared pages in the hands of those who will keep them close and read them over and over in the pursuit of a higher form of ritualcraft. My own dearly dogged copy of Magick in Theory and Practice spent a good six years in my jacket pocket as a teenager and has pride of place in the Star Club travelling teacher’s aid kit!
How was the talk, Sef?
Watkins hosted us downstairs and the cramped room became warm with the buzz of attentive magicians. We settled in and listened as David regaled us with the story of this book coming to life, and its nascence in an email from Mogg Morgan of Mandrake of Oxford to becoming a hundred chapters long - a round number to settle at, not the totality of the subject. We heard tell of his oneiric direction from his patron to not only cover the who/where/what/why/how of each Grimoire, but expand and correlate with others - luckily only ten chapters in to expand, not the full hundred!
David gave a wonderful lecture on the Grimoire Tradition to Star Club last year at one of our regular Open Events but at Watkins we were treated to a full lowdown of the ways in which the G.E. will analyse and categorise each of the hundred Grimoires inspected. The correspondences, indexing, and referencing is out of this world, and will be a true asset to both practical and academic readers.
The entire lecture will be up on the Watkins Books Youtube channel in due course I believe; I recommend it for the Q&A too, which includes some indication of David’s future projects and gives insights on the many wonderful ways this tome can be utilised by those with ten days’ or ten years’ experience with Grimoires.
A Zen Koan Coda
After the lecture, I tagged along with some of the friendly Wiccans to the pub for a pint, then met up with an old friend of mine from my O.T.O. days, for the first time in years. We reminisced on our joint paths through the degree system, and what lies ahead for us both. I went on to form Star Club to do my best to offer practical instruction without the formalities and restrictions of a Lodge system; he has deepened his own practice into a spiritual form of Japanese swordsmanship and after we ate in Chinatown it was just the one last drink before home, as he was up early to train with live blades. A perfect warrior-monk and a dear friend.
This is the wonder of London; I’ve had chaos-cocktails in Soho, found sex magick exhibitions in the Barbican, and joined with tai chi at Russel Square; summoned Archangels and Priest-napped Gnostics; I’ve loved, and lost, and performed rituals with Thelemites and Satanists and Chaotes there. Each visit is a wonder and after some time away I’m very much enjoying being back for a spell. My heart is in Bristol, but the Work goes where it Will. And this week, my Will leads me to France - look out for another blog soon!
When we return, I’ll be using one of my favourite Grimoires listed in the Grimoire Encyclopaedia, Trithemius’s Drawing Spirits into Crystals (which you can find online or in Barrett’s The Magus*) for our Conjuration Workshop featuring in depth practical teaching and an evocation of Camael in the Hour of Mars. You can buy tickets here or become a Member for free entry and access to our ritual materials.
Can’t make it to this event? Sign up to our Newsletter to be kept up to date with our upcoming events and courses, and hear about our adventures across the UK and Europe.
Until then, enjoy Mercury going direct, and order your copy of the G.E. at www.hadeanpress.com
*Affiliate links can support Star Club financially
PS - apologies for some of the photographic quality, Sr O.F. couldn’t come with me and she’s the team photographer!