While Psyche is away on vacation, she has been kind enough to allow me to write for Plutonica.  As an apéritif, here is a little of my background.

Nine years ago, I had my first exposure to Aleister Crowley.  With a little digging, that led me to Robert Anton Wilson, Pete Carroll, Phil Hine and the rest of what I understood as the cutting edge Western Esoterica.  During this period, I also took initiations into a lineage of Raja yoga and the vajrayana based “Velocity Path” of the Arica Institute.  My magical and mystical bents developed tangentially, supported by a shared skill base.

Six years passed, and I had developed what I consider a solid competence with magic and state-based mysticism.  I also became aware of an extreme shallowness to my practices.  At some point, I had accepted the Eight Colors of Magic and the different stage models of development (Leary-Wilson circuits, Spiral Dynamics, etc.) as my reality.  They provide very useful maps for relative development, yet through my attachment to them, I had allowed my relationship with Soul to atrophy.

I returned to the Crowley material.  His earnestness spoke to me of something deeper, beyond my experiences with magic and mysticism.  I resolved to attain the Knowledge and Conversation of my Holy Guardian Angel and see what was what.  The plan was to proceed through the Elemental initiations by evoking the Seniors of each Enochian watchtower and the Tablet of Union.  Then I would create an Enochian version of Liber Samekh and work with it until the Knowledge and Conversation.

During the next three years I worked through each of the Watchtowers.  The experience transformed me in ways I could never have expected.  I also attained the Knowledge and Conversation much earlier than planned.  I refused to believe it, and instead attributed it to a late manifestation of the magical power of the Neophyte, The Vision of the Holy Guardian Angel.

I would like to share with you the individuals who helped me clear everything up.

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Enochian Vision Magick: An Introduction and Practical Guide to the Magick of Dr. John Dee and Edward Kelley, by Lon Milo DuQuette
Weiser Books, 9781578633821, 261 pp. (incl. appendices, notes, bibliography and index), 2008

Lon Milo DuQUette is the author of more than a dozen books on esoteric subjects, and has served as the OTO’s United States Deputy Grand Master since 1994 This is his second book on Enochian magick, his first being Enochian World of Aleister Crowley: Enochian Sex Magick co-written with the late Christopher Hyatt.

Enochian Vision Magick opens with Continue reading »

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Red Wheel/Weiser is publishing Lon Milo DuQuette‘s latest book, Enochian Vision Magick: An Introduction and Practical Guide to the Magick of Dr. John Dee and Edward Kelley. The book will be released June 2008.

DuQuette was recently interviewed by Lee Prosser on GhostVillage.com where he discusses the book and the work it’s founded on which rose out of a series of classes conducted in 2005 and 2006. Prosser asks some interesting questions, and DuQuette’s responses are likely to win some over with his easy-going style, and make others wince. Continue reading »

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I have a confession to make: I have a huge crush on the whole steampunk subculture.

The aesthetic of steampunk harkens back to an era where steam power was still widely used, and often adopts a pseudo-Victorian look. Inspiration is taken from H.G. Wells, Jules Verne and fantastical technological inventions, sometimes set in an alternate-history.

I don’t see much awareness of it in Toronto (or perhaps it’s here, but I’m just not seeing it?); my first encounters with it were from flyers posted online for club events in other cities, and, of course, the gorgeous steampunk laptop (pictured above) created by Datamancer.net: a fully functional laptop made of wood, copper, and brass which starts with a clock winding key.

Indeed, Datamancer.net has created a variety of modded compute-related items, including keyboards in a variety of styles (even an Enochian steampunk keyboard! – pictured left), an Opti-Transcripticon (flatbed scanner), and various miscellaneous items.

Datamancer.net does custom work, using authentic pieces to mod current technology where possible, but due to the labour-intensive nature of his creations, they are quite pricey. Still, fun to look at.

For more on what can be done, also check out SteampunkWorkshop.com, the SteampunkHome blog and SteampunkMagazine.com. Love it.

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