Nazarth: A Geomancers' Angelical Psalter of Calls, containing vessels 19 with which to water the Earth

Having finally had time to crack open Dr. Cummins's latest opus from Hadean Press, I thought it might be desirable to share my thoughts, especially for others who—like myself—do not frequently engage in geomantic divination, do not typically employ the Enochian language in an operative capacity, and/or do not habitually read poetry of any kind.The book itself is physically appealing—and, in hardcover, an uncommonly tactile reading experience—and the collected compositions introduced in an intuitively elegant format: each is successively presented in the Angelical script of John Dee’s tables, a transliteration into Latin letters probably more accessible to native English readers, and finally an English translation. The table of contents indicates each one by both its transliterated and translated title, as well as helpfully identifying its corresponding geomantic figure.The poems/prayers/invocations themselves are quite arresting, but also bear a depth of meanings and syntactic polysemy which oblige iterative readings and extended meditation. Clearly shaped and motivated by the very lexicon and grammar of the praeternatural language in which they are written, each verse not only conveys the semantic constellation of the divinatory figure which it invokes—its elemental qualities, its virtues—but also embodies the phenomenological force of its manifesting, all in a manner both unaffected and compelling.

With Nazarth, Dr. Cummins has made a novel and unusual contribution to the field of Enochian. The book itself is a slim volume, consisting of a brief introduction, followed by 19 prayers, written in the Angelic tongue (a.k.a. Enochian), with transcription and translation, corresponding with the 16 geomantic figures, plus one to address halted shields, one for opening and one for closing divination. The introduction provides a bit of context, addressing some important parts of both the Enochian and the Geomantic systems as well as their connection. But one thing that is noticeably missing from this book are any instructions. Some readers will, no doubt, find this frustrating. But it is worth noting that the original 19 calls didn’t come with much in the way of instructions either (except perhaps how the last expands to 30 calls, giving us 48 altogether). This has led many, over the centuries since Dee and Kelly did their experiments, to speculate and experiment with various possible usages for the calls in very different ways. Dr. Cummins invites us to do the same with his prayers. But unlike the original 19 calls, Dr. Cummins has provided us with an important and valuable anchor: the correspondences with each of the Geomantic figures. For the experienced magician, this is sufficient. In fact, I dare say, preferred. There are already plenty of methods which can be easily adapted to utilizing these prayers. Or you can choose to do nothing extra and simply recite them on their own. But that is your choice, a choice and a challenge that Dr. Cummins implicitly and refreshingly invites us to take up with this book.

The author recently gave an interview on the Glitch Bottle podcast about this book. I should have realised from that that he was out of his depth. On top of that Foolish Fish on his YouTube Chanel gave the hardback version a glowing review - but doesn't he always?There are 2 good thing about this booklet: it only costs £10 for the paperback edition (which is £5 too much) and it isn't too long, so you won't waste much of your time reading it.The bad things are: it cost too much; you'll never get back the time you spent reading it!; the tortuous and pseudo-intellectual introduction to the book; his total lack of knowledge about Dee & Kelley; and last, but not least, the god-awful Enochian font used.Do yourselves a favour and steer clear of this drivel - I wish I had!