Christopher Penczak- author

[Jishin]

TeaDidikai

Isn't that the book where he gives spirits like "Punk" and "Spray Paint" godhood?

Uh ... no? Unless your definition of godhood is significantly different than mine. Maybe you're thinking of Raven Kaldera's Urban Primitive, which does contain a tripartate urban goddess and god.

He does suggest using found graffiti to develop sigils, and offers correspondences for urban animals and plants.

Edit: Upon a quick re-skim, he does offer some urban god-archetypes, but they're much broader than that, and include Transportation, Electricity, and Medicine. Most of what he discusses is urban spirits, not god-archetypes. The god-archetypes are only about three pages, and not integral to the work as far as I'm concerned.  

[TeaDidikai]

Jishin

TeaDidikai

Isn't that the book where he gives spirits like "Punk" and "Spray Paint" godhood?

Uh ... no? Unless your definition of godhood is significantly different than mine. Maybe you're thinking of Raven Kaldera's Urban Primitive, which does contain a tripartate urban goddess and god.

He does suggest using found graffiti to develop sigils, and offers correspondences for urban animals and plants.

Edit: Upon a quick re-skim, he does offer some urban god-archetypes, but they're much broader than that, and include Transportation, Electricity, and Medicine. Most of what he discusses is urban spirits, not god-archetypes. The god-archetypes are only about three pages, and not integral to the work as far as I'm concerned.

Ah. I've read a couple different takes on the same theme. Guess it just ran together when I posted.  

[bobz]

Oh! I thought the name sounded more than a little familiar.
*looks at bookshelf* There it is, City Magick.
I'd skim-read it and found it interesting, but I'd want to either give it a proper look once more or take another book of his out before I make a proper decision on him because in my opinion

Quote:

"one book does not a great/awful author make"

 

[Jishin]

bobz

Oh! I thought the name sounded more than a little familiar.
*looks at bookshelf* There it is, City Magick.
I'd skim-read it and found it interesting, but I'd want to either give it a proper look once more or take another book of his out before I make a proper decision on him because in my opinion

Quote:

"one book does not a great/awful author make"

*nodsnods* I agree with you on that point. I bought the book solely because I'm interested in urban shamanism, and I'm not sure that I'd buy anything else by him. Not because I think it'd be bad, but because I'm not sure I'd get anything extra out of it.  

[Reijin-chan]

I met him in person once. He says that, being a Llwellyn author, they put pressure on authors to write certain books, even if the topic is crap. If he doesn't, then they're a lot less likely to publish his decent books. I'm currently reading his Spirit Allies. I've heard that his Temple series are some of his better books.  

[Gideon Starorzewski]

Quote:

The author seems interesting From my wanderings (of which I've had many) he seems to be running through a mild chaos magic paradigm (Especially from what you've told me so far)

Having read Instant Magick, I can see what you mean by a mild chaos magic paradigm but if I had to classify him, I'd say he's a Postmodern Magician alot like Patrick Dunn. The bibliography does include Phil Hine's Condensed Chaos, though.

Quote:

I saw The Witches Shield ages ago and found myself drawn to it, but that said, I've got a LONG list of books I've been meaning to read and I've promised myself that I'll buy no more till I've finished at least the next few on my list.

I can totally sympathize with that. I do strongly suggest taking a look at Instant Magick though, I've found it to be incredibly effective largely because I don't often have the space or the energy to gather up all the resources I need for a given ritual, so using some of his techniques for empty handed magick have been a godsend. I've had a pretty exceptional success rate with it too.