Low Magick Read online

  About the Author

  Lon Milo DuQuette is a preeminent scholar, magician, and speaker. The author of fourteen critically acclaimed books on magick and the occult, DuQuette is one of the most respected and entertaining writers and lecturers in the field of Western Magick. Visit him online at www.lonmiloduquette.ning.com.

  Llewellyn Publications

  Woodbury, Minnesota

  Copyright Information

  Low Magick: It’s All in Your Head … You Just Have No Idea How Big Your Head Is © 2010 by Lon Milo DuQuette.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any matter whatsoever, including Internet usage, without written permission from Llewellyn Publications, except in the form of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

  As the purchaser of this e-book, you are granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this ebook on screen. The text may not be otherwise reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, or recorded on any other storage device in any form or by any means.

  Any unauthorized usage of the text without express written permission of the publisher is a violation of the author’s copyright and is illegal and punishable by law.

  First e-book edition © 2011

  E-book ISBN: 9780738730325

  Cover design by Kevin R. Brown

  Cover images: background © iStockphoto.com/Selahattin Bayram;

  brain © iStockphoto.com/Todd Harrison

  Interior illustrations by Llewellyn art department, except: Pentagram of Solomon and Hexagram of Solomon on page 163 by Jacqueline A. Williams; Ganesha on pages 118, 122–123, 126, and 129–131 by Wen Hsu

  Llewellyn Publications is an imprint of Llewellyn Worldwide Ltd.

  Llewellyn Publications does not participate in, endorse, or have any authority or responsibility concerning private business arrangements between our authors and the public.

  Any Internet references contained in this work are current at publication time, but the publisher cannot guarantee that a specific reference will continue or be maintained. Please refer to the publisher’s website for links to current author websites.

  Llewellyn Publications

  Llewellyn Worldwide Ltd.

  2143 Wooddale Drive

  Woodbury, MN 55125

  www.llewellyn.com

  Manufactured in the United States of America

  This little collection of memories, insights,

  and embarrassments is lovingly dedicated to the members

  of our Monday Night Magick Class past, present, and future.

  “There is no truth, only stories.”

  Zuni Saying

  Contents

  Acknowledgments

  Prologue Stories

  Zero First Let’s Talk about Fear

  One The Dogma & Rituals of Low Magick (Dogme et ritual de la bas magie)

  Two The Formula of Solomon

  Three The Law of Attraction, The Power of Intent & My Date with Linda Kaufman

  Four Family Secrets

  Five My Planetary Talismans

  Six A Weekend Alone with the Spirits of the Tarot

  Seven A Midsummer Night’s Curse

  Eight Astral Projection: Traveling in the Spirit Vision (or, Real Magicians Eat Quiche)

  Nine That’s Not What Invocation Is About

  Ten … And That’s What Invocation Is All About!

  Eleven Pop Goes Ganesha!

  Twelve The Rabbi’s Dilemma

  Thirteen The Exorcism of Our Lady of Sorrows

  Epilogue It’s All in Your Head … You Just Have No Idea How Big Your Head Is

  Appendix I: My Brother Remembers Our Father

  Appendix II: Apostolic Succession

  Bibliography

  Acknowledgments

  The author wishes to recognize and thank the following individuals, whose encouragement and support over the years he shall always treasure: Constance Jean DuQuette, Jean-Paul DuQuette, Marc E. DuQuette, Judith Hawkins-Tillirson, Rick Potter, Donald Weiser, Betty Lundsted, Kat Sanborn, Patricia Baker, Chance Gardner, Vanese Mc Neil, David P. Wilson, Jonathan Taylor, Dr. Art Rosengarten, George Noory, Poke Runyon, James Wasserman, Rodney Orpheus, Robert Anton Wilson, Robert Larson, Brenda Knight, Sharon Sanders, Michael Miller, Michael Kerber, Jan Johnson, Brad Olsen, Janet Berres, Charles D. Harris, Michael Strader, Phyllis Seckler, Grady McMurtry, Israel Regardie, Helen Parsons Smith, Alan R. Miller, Ph.D., Clive Harper, William Breeze, John Bonner, Stephen King, and a very special thanks goes to Elysia Gallo and the wonderful team at Llewellyn Worldwide Ltd., for making this project such an enjoyable experience.

  [contents]

  Prologue

  Stories

  I am always at a loss at how much to believe of my own stories.

  Washington Irving

  Next to silence, stories are the most divine form of communication. Stories are alive. Stories are holy. Stories are gods that create universes and the creatures and characters that populate them. Stories bring to life all the triumphs and tragedies imagination and experience can summon to the mind. Stories speak directly to our souls.

  Stories are magick.

  As I begin the seventh decade of my life, I find myself more inclined to listen to a story than to study a text or reflect on an argument—more inclined to tell a story than to presume to teach a lesson or offer advice. Perhaps it is because as we grow older we have more stories to tell, and experience and wisdom conspire to add dimension, texture, and perspective to the lengthening register of our memories.

  For whatever reason, I find myself at this season of my life unable to approach the subject of this book from any direction other than relating my personal experiences. This is not to say that I haven’t integrated a great deal of theory and technical information within my nonchronological narratives. Indeed, I believe there is more than enough magical “how-to-ness” nestled within these pages to keep a motivated magician busy for some time. But it is the story that informs—the story that teaches—the story that reveals the magical “how-why-ness” (and in some instances, the “how-why not-ness”) of the magician’s life.

  However, storytelling has certain disadvantages—foremost being the fact that memory is a fragile and subjective thing. Pain, regret, embarrassment, shame, wishful thinking, fantasy, and old-fashioned self-delusion constantly threaten the accuracy of our recollections of the past. Absolute objectivity is impossible. But unlike other mortals who lead less examined lives, the magician is obliged to keep a diary, and may refer to specific events recorded in his or her magical journals. I’ve relied heavily on my scribblings in the preparation of this book—a painfully embarrassing ordeal, I assure you.

  Also, in the course of telling a magical story, one must consider the sensitivities and the privacy of other individuals, living or dead, who may be part of the action. Over the years I have been blessed to meet and work with some very wonderful and colorful characters, most of whom would not be recognizable personalities in our magical subculture, but a few of them I dare say might. So, I confess here and now that in certain places in this book I’ve changed names or made other literary adjustments to allow certain individuals to remain blissfully incognito.

  I, of course, hope that you will enjoy this small collection of my memories, but I know that I can’t possibly satisfy the taste and expectation of every reader. Perhaps this book will not be what you expected. Perhaps you will be disappointed that I haven’t written yet another textbook or a more scholarly elucidation upon some great magical system or philosophical doctrine. If so, I hope you overlook my lack of apology, b
ecause I believe with this little book I am offering you something that can be far more powerful and enlightening—a gift of stories. I hope you accept them for what they are, and find your particular truth within them. For as the Zuni sages tell us, “There is no truth, only stories.”

  [contents]

  zero

  First Let’s Talk About Fear

  Speak of the Devil and he appears.

  Italian Proverb

  For a magician, it is better to be possessed by the demon than ignored by him.

  Rabbi Lamed Ben Clifford

  It is a sad fact (at least from my perspective) that not everyone who picks up this book and thumbs through it will end up buying it. It is also true that not everyone who buys it and takes it home will read it from cover to cover. So, just in case these opening remarks are the only words you will ever read from this book, I’m going to immediately exploit this fleeting moment we have together and impart to you in large uppercase letters the most important secret of magick—and of life:

  DO NOT BE AFRAID!

  Now! If you’re short on time, please feel free to close the book and fearlessly get on with your life.

  Do not get me wrong. It’s good to be cautious. It’s good to be wise. It’s good to be measured and thoughtful in all your actions and behavior, but fear is poison to your magical practice and poison to your life. Please know that I am not preaching this gospel of fearlessness from the marble pulpit of righteousness and courage. On the contrary, I’m shouting it from the pasteboard megaphone of my own ignoble and cowardly character.

  When I began my life as a practicing magician, it seemed like I was afraid of everything. When I rehearsed my first Pentagram and Hexagram rituals, I superstitiously monitored everything from my heartbeat to my horniness. I fantasized seeing things out of the corner of my eye, and recorded the most outlandish speculations in my diary.

  I realize now that most of my fears of things that go bump in the night arose from the deepest stratum of my childhood religious programming. In less evasive words, I was still consciously and unconsciously brainwashed by my Christian upbringing—still trapped in a hostile universe that reverberated with the thundering curses of a wrathful God who frightens little children into acceptable behavior (so that they grow into obedient God-fearing adult little children). I was programmed by films and literature based upon that unwholesome doctrine of fear and self-loathing. Today, as I review my old diaries, it all seems pretty silly and melodramatic:

  Performed Greater Invoking Pentagram Ritual of Fire for the first time. Later in the day broke a shoelace and had acid reflux.

  or,

  Slept with Mars talisman under my pillow—dreamed my father’s corpse was eaten by seahorses—woke up with an erection.

  I thank the gods that I had in those early years a knowledgeable, experienced, and competent magical mentor1 who (when not projecting her own fears of low magick upon me)2 mercilessly ridiculed my childish fears and helped me develop an attitude akin to that of a motivated research scientist who is driven by intense curiosity and a sense of scientific wonder. Remember Laura Dern’s character in the film Jurassic Park, rolling up her sleeves and plunging her arm into a huge pile of dinosaur poop for a clue to the poor animal’s tummy ache? Well, sometimes a magician is faced with even more disturbing psychological and spirit-world challenges, and the key to meeting those challenges is that same detached attitude of fearlessness, determination, and an unshakeable passion for enlightenment.

  I recently received a letter from a magician who believed that her mood swings and other health issues were the result of her magical workings. Here’s a portion of my letter back to her. I hope you find it encouraging.

  Dear (name withheld),

  Concerning mood swings and health issues vis-à-vis your magical practices, it’s usually best to ascribe them to the normal demons of body chemistry and the stress of twenty-first century urban life. More often than not, a head cold or the flu isn’t caused by backlash for a magical operation. Even if it were a negative reaction to your magical workings, your doubts and fears over the matter only serve to give the entities you fear permission and encouragement to keep feeding on your insecurities (and perhaps much more). By becoming preoccupied as to whether this pain or that fever might be a demon messing with you, you voluntarily give the demon power to give you this pain or that fever—in a very real sense, the demon has evoked you!

  Try to remain mindful that you’ll probably live through all your magical workings (except perhaps the last one), and that nothing neutralizes the power of a pesky demon more than having its scariness ignored. Remember what it says in Liber Librae: “Humble thyself before thy Self, yet fear neither man not spirit. Fear is failure, and the forerunner of failure: and courage is the beginning of virtue.”3

  [contents]

  11 For my first few years of magical apprenticeship, I was privileged to study formally under Phyllis Seckler McMurtry (1917–2004), also known as Soror Meral, IX° OTO.

  2 See chapter 1.

  3 Aleister Crowley, Liber Libræ Sub Figura XXX, The Book of the Balance and Magick, Liber ABA, Book Four. Second revised edition, ed. Hymenaeus Beta (York Beach, ME: Weiser Books, Inc., 1997), 668. Liber Libræ itself was taken from a Golden Dawn paper, On the General Guidance and Purification of the Soul.

  one

  The Dogma & Rituals

  of Low Magick

  (Dogme et ritual de la bas magie)

  Were the world understood.

  Ye would see it was good.

  A dance to a delicate measure.

  Aleister Crowley4

  I confess that the title of this chapter was intended to be a gentle poke at the great nineteenth-century esotericist, Eliphas Lévi, and his classic work, The Dogma & Rituals of High Magic.5 Please don’t assume that my irreverent little presumption is in any way an attempt on my part to compare my own work with Lévi’s immortal text. Indeed, they are as different as day and night—or should I say high and low? (See how easily I have given myself a segue.)

  I feel the necessity to establish here at the outset what I mean by the words “high magick” and “low magick.” To be perfectly frank I’ve become very uncomfortable with both terms. They are each, in my opinion, universally misunderstood, misused, misapplied, misrepresented, and misinterpreted.

  Some ceremonial magicians label their craft high magick to haughtily distinguish their art from the low magick of witchcraft. Conversely, some witches and Neopagans use the term sarcastically to brand ceremonial magicians and their ilk as snobs. Practical Qabalists, who presume their studies to be the only true high magick, use the terms to distance themselves from both ceremonial magicians and witches.

  There are others who simply define low magick as being all things nature-based (outdoor magick), as opposed to ceremonial magick, à la the formal rituals of the Golden Dawn6 or Aleister Crowley7 (indoor magick). Here the terms low and high are diplomatically construed by both schools as being morally neutral; the two merely differing in character and application, and appealing to different spiritual personalities and tastes. Here, both the high and the low magician are relatively happy in their own worlds performing their own brand of magick.

  There are many others, though, who define the highness and lowness of magick in ways that go way beyond discussing the differences between working in a lodge room temple or outside in a grove. For these people, “high magick” refers to a formal process of effecting change in one’s environment by enlisting the aid of God and a heavenly hierarchy of good archangels, angels, intelligences, and spirits; and “low magick” refers to a formal process of effecting change by enlisting the aid of the devil (or devils), fallen angels, and infernal evil spirits and demons.

  Obviously, in order to seriously consider the virtues of this perspective, a person must first be committed
to a very particular (some might say “draconian”) view of spiritual reality—one that is supported (or so the argument goes) by the scriptures and doctrines of the Christian, Moslem, or Jewish religions. For convenience sake, I will henceforth collectively (and respectfully) refer to these Bible-based religions by a term I coined just for conversations such as this. The word is:

  “Chrislemew.”8

  One popular interpretation of these doctrines posits that humans are caught in the middle of a perpetual war between the armies of an absolutely good God in heaven above, and the minions of an absolutely evil devil in hell below. For reasons known only to God, the devil and his team have been placed in charge of human life on earth. Furthermore, according to this theory, God has especially charged the devil with the duty of tempting and tormenting human beings—perpetually prodding us to rebel against a curiously complex catalogue of commandments and divinely decreed roster of rules, irrational beliefs, and blindly obedient behavior that (if we follow the program faithfully) might9 earn for us after death a ticket to eternal happiness in heaven with God and his good angels.

  This parochial and highly polarized way of looking at things makes everything pretty simple. God is good. The devil is bad. Angels are good. Demons are bad. Heavenly stuff is high. Infernal stuff is low. For those who subscribe to the Chrislemew worldview, the choice of whether to pursue the path of high or low magick is a no-brainer. After all, who in their right mind would prefer to dabble with dangerous and deceitful evil demons from hell when instead one can safely seek the heavenly aid of the wholesome and well-behaved good angels of God Almighty?