Skip to Content
Scarlet Imprint
Publications
Digital editions
Authors
Vision
Journal
Login Account
0
0
Scarlet Imprint
Publications
Digital editions
Authors
Vision
Journal
Login Account
0
0
Publications
Digital editions
Authors
Vision
Journal
Login Account
Publications Holy Heretics
image.jpg Image 1 of
image.jpg
image.jpg

Holy Heretics

from £25.00

Holy Heretics is the third and final volume of the Holy Daimon cycle. Blending occult philosophy, magic and mysticism, Frater Acher guides the reader through the centuries with a series of practical exercises and rites which ultimately restore the powerful Olympic spirits to their original magical context.

8vo (240 × 165 mm)
272 pp
Illustrations by Jose Gabriel Alegría Sabogal

Issued in 4 editions –
fine / standard hardback / paperback / digital

Edition:
Quantity:
Add To Cart

Holy Heretics is the third and final volume of the Holy Daimon cycle. Blending occult philosophy, magic and mysticism, Frater Acher guides the reader through the centuries with a series of practical exercises and rites which ultimately restore the powerful Olympic spirits to their original magical context.

8vo (240 × 165 mm)
272 pp
Illustrations by Jose Gabriel Alegría Sabogal

Issued in 4 editions –
fine / standard hardback / paperback / digital

Holy Heretics is the third and final volume of the Holy Daimon cycle. Blending occult philosophy, magic and mysticism, Frater Acher guides the reader through the centuries with a series of practical exercises and rites which ultimately restore the powerful Olympic spirits to their original magical context.

8vo (240 × 165 mm)
272 pp
Illustrations by Jose Gabriel Alegría Sabogal

Issued in 4 editions –
fine / standard hardback / paperback / digital


Fine edition

– sold out

Limited to 72 copies

Handbound in full yellow goatskin stamped in gold, custom marbled endpapers, all edges gilt, ribbon, and marbled slipcase.

Standard hardback edition

– sold out

Limited to 1000 copies

Bound in fine golden yellow cloth stamped with the heart flame device in gold and black, grey endpapers, and black ribbon. Printed on 150gsm paper.

Paperback

– £25

Unlimited

Sewn paperback printed on 120gsm paper, with yellow card covers printed in black with gold foil.


Contents

Introduction

Book I · MYSTICISM

I  On Pseudo-Dionysius Areopagite and the Mystical Path of Unknowing
II  A Most Daring Operation: The Heart Prayer
III  Being in Both Worlds at Once
Intermezzo – The Granum Sinapis
IV  Theologia Germanica

Book II · MAGIC

V  The Call 
VI  The Olympic Spirit
VII  The Rite of the Olympic Spirit

Bibliography

Description

Holy Heretics is the third and final volume in the Holy Daimon cycle. Blending occult philosophy, magic and mysticism, Frater Acher guides the reader through the centuries with a series of practical exercises and rites which ultimately restore the powerful Olympic spirits to their original magical context.

Frater Acher identifies certain techniques of mysticism as a prerequisite for the work of magic, as the often missing element in the development of a serious practice. The advanced magical rites Holy Heretics contains are built from the foundations of simple practical exercises. These are provided and carefully explained. When performed, these rites form a luminous chain for the student who wishes to attain to adepthood and the mastery of empty-handed magic.

Holy Heretics offers a challenge to magicians who have reactively rejected Christianity, and a challenge to Christians who are unaware of the heretical tensions that run throughout Christian mysticism. As Acher writes, ‘I am very aware that searching for such a path among the very people who for centuries tried to usurp and control or deform and kill the Western magical tradition is a big ask. On such an expedition to find the narrow path we’ll soon be crawling through the bones, blood and ashes of our ancestors. And yet, at the same time we’ll also encounter beauty and genuine practice, true grace and deep spiritual power.’ The mystic and magician is always a threat to spiritual orthodoxy, and Acher navigates us through that difficult space. As a guide, he approaches the Christian material fairly, is generous when appropriate, and unapologetic when describing its worst excesses. The work draws extensively from manuscript sources and texts that are not available in English, illuminating a hitherto neglected world. All is done with the aim of extracting the spiritual gold of our own heart prayer, rather than imbibing the poison of orthodoxy.

In Book I of Holy Heretics we are taken on a mystical tour de force, beginning with the Desert Fathers and the austerities forged in the wilderness. From Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite we discover mystical prayer as a method to bypass the cognitive mind, and then enter into the inner stillness of Hesychasm. We stand with Symeon the New Theologian at the edge of the Abyss, and witness the remarkable visions of Hildegard of Bingen. We watch the potential of the mustard seed unfold, and encounter the radical this-worldliness of the Theologia Germanica, a manifesto for the gnostic practitioner that threatens the supremacy of the Catholic Church itself by directing the individual to seek their own illumination.

In Book II, Frater Acher turns his attention to magic, as an art of symphonic harmonious co-creation. The nature of the magical call is described, and the use of the magical bell introduced with historical examples. Next Acher considers Paracelsus, giving a full English translation of his little known Arcanum arcanorum, a celestial rite to summon both one’s holy daimon and the seven Olympic spirits with such a bell. The rite is expertly deciphered, from its use of alchemical tincture to its astrological timing, by following clues across the Paracelsian and Pseudo-Paracelsian corpus. The work culminates with Frater Acher’s restored version of the Ritual of the Olympic Spirit, opening the gates of the seven spirits and uniting them into one greater Olympic Spirit. The final act thus draws on all the lessons that Holy Heretics has laid out and the flame burning in our hearts.


Press, interviews, reviews

Frater Acher on Glitch Bottle
Frater Acher on Thelma Now!
Paralibrum review by Craig ‘IV’ Slee
Foolish Fish Review by Denis Poisson

HH_fine_stack_vgood.jpg
stackandstand-web.jpg
HH_finemacro_ex.jpg
angleclose-web.jpg
HH_fine_close.jpg
hb-heartflame-web.jpg
hb-pb-angle-web.jpg
hb-pb-back-web.jpg
HH_fine_final.jpg
hb-pb-close-web.jpg
hb-pb-standing-web.jpg
paper-back-web.jpg
hb-pb-web.jpg
hb-standing-group-web.jpg
open-page-web.jpg
stack-hb-web.jpg
standing-hb-web.jpg
secrets-web.jpg
headband-web.jpg
HH_fine_stack_vgood.jpg stackandstand-web.jpg HH_finemacro_ex.jpg angleclose-web.jpg HH_fine_close.jpg hb-heartflame-web.jpg hb-pb-angle-web.jpg hb-pb-back-web.jpg HH_fine_final.jpg hb-pb-close-web.jpg hb-pb-standing-web.jpg paper-back-web.jpg hb-pb-web.jpg hb-standing-group-web.jpg open-page-web.jpg stack-hb-web.jpg standing-hb-web.jpg secrets-web.jpg headband-web.jpg

Related works

Holy Daimon HolyDaimon-pb-cover-web.jpg
Holy Daimon
from £25.00
Black Abbot · White Magic
Black Abbot · White Magic
£25.00

Scarlet Imprint Limited

BM Box 77777
London
WC1N 3XX
United Kingdom

contact@scarletimprint.com

more purchase options

Digital editions

Gift card
Stockists

contact

Contact us
Submissions
Newsletter

info

Forthcoming
Shipping & delivery
Terms & conditions
Privacy

View fullsize ‘One half of the genius behind our era’s finest occult publishing house Scarlet Imprint, masterful wordsmith and revolutionary thinker. I highly recommend connecting more deeply with Peter’s ideas offscreen via any of his many fine
View fullsize “It takes three thick coats to cover the murals and three days to dry, even in the Sicilian heat of late summer. The work is completed in ill-temper, over the arsenic greens, the staring eyes, the flamboyant script, the cocks and cunts, the roo
View fullsize The second part of Peter Grey's conversation with Ranveer Allahbadia is now live. https://youtu.be/Ju_BAgpJE0o?si=qJAvgEsqtDXYsKG-
View fullsize @harperfeist interviews Christophe Poncet on Thelema Now! Talking all things Tarot de Marseille.
https://thelemanow.org/thelema-now-guest-christophe-poncet-2025
View fullsize Happy Flora Day to one and all!
View fullsize “Grady knew that if he was to restart OTO properly he needed higher authority for the task – a vision, a revelation, a word.”

A new Substack piece by Peter Grey, Taking the Abyss trip: Grady McMurtry’s Caliphornia dreaming.
View fullsize Elegant slate gravestone with one small spelling error! 
Hope fear false joy and trouble, (this bubble) Are those four winds which daily toss, His breath’s a vapour and his life’s a span, ‘Tis glorious misery to be born a man.
View fullsize William Borlase, antiquarian vicar of Zennor, basking in the beautiful ancient graveyard and watched over by two old cross heads. Paying our respects to the man who saved Zennor quoit and preserved much of our precious family folklore.
#cornwall #zen
View fullsize Last weekend to catch Ithell Colquhoun @tatestives !
View fullsize Wishing you all a happy May!

We are delighted to open the pre-order for Peter Grey’s Lucifer: Praxis, our first title of 2025. A second edition of Lucifer: Princeps, Peter’s 2015 study on the origins of Lucifer and the fallen angels, is

Long live heresy © Scarlet Imprint 2025