Lon Milo DuQuette - Allow Me to Introduce

This edition first published in 2020 by Weiser Books,

an imprint of

Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC

With offices at:

65 Parker Street, Suite 7

Newburyport, MA 01950

www.redwheelweiser.com

Copyright 2020 by Lon Milo DuQuette

Foreword copyright 2020 by Brandy Williams

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means,
electronic or mechanical, including photocopying,
recording, or by any information storage and retrieval
system, without permission in writing from Red Wheel/Weiser,
LLC. Reviewers may quote brief passages.

ISBN: 978-1-57863-654-9

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
available upon request.

Cover design by Kathryn Sky-Peck

Cover photograph by Shutterstock

Interior by Steve Amarillo / Urban Design LLC

Typeset in Adobe Bembo and Trajan

Printed in Canada

MAR

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

www.redwheelweiser.com/newsletter

This book is dedicated to my dear friend
and fellow baby-boomer troubadour, occultist,
writer, lecturer, musician, and magician,
Donald Michael Kraig

(March 28, 1951March 17, 2014).

A True and Faithful of What Passed for Many Years
Between Dr. John Dee and Some Spirits

The author wishes to humbly thank his
lucky starsthe immortal luminaries of the
firmament of magical literature for whom it
has been his honor and privilege to introduce.

I am a woman, a priestess, and a magician. Being a priestess clearly means I am a woman priest. Being a magician and also a woman is less obvious. It's hard to find a teacher who can talk to a woman magician. I often feel treated as I am other, outside, struggling to read myself into the role.

Lon Milo DuQuette never makes me feel like that. I've always had the sense that he is talking directly to me, inviting me into the fascinating world of magic. His primary purpose as a teacher and a writer is not to display his knowledge (which is broad and deep) or his magical accomplishments (which are magnificent) but to open the door so that we can share that knowledge and have those experiences. He centers not on his own needs as teacher but on the needs of the student. He shares his knowledge without fuss, laying out study plans that don't skip steps or hold back secrets but instead make practice possible. His magic is not for himself only; he practices in order to share. As a writer, a teacher, and a magician, he is generous.

His great genius is to make magic accessible. The esoteric arts have built up over the centuries into bewildering layers of ideas and systems. The texts, when they are in English at all, are often written in an older form of the language. Just translating antique ideas into contemporary English is a service in itself. For example, with all deference to the prophet Aleister Crowley, his prose is as dense as Shakespeare. It needs an introduction, an explanation of the obscure phrases, a translator. Lon Milo DuQuette provides that translation.

This book is a collection of introductions and prefaces to books. In these pages, Enochian language, tarot, Qabbalah, geomancy, all seem like keys to understanding the universe and ourselves. It's clear these studies and practices have changed Lon's life and his delight shines on every page. Reading the books in this list would constitute a mighty magical education.

Lon excels at introducing other magicians. He is equally at home with long-dead masters of antiquity and the newest generation of innovators. He has known the most influential magickians of his lifetime and tells us he is profoundly grateful to the people who taught him. His mentors, Grady McMurtry and Phyllis Seckler and Israel Regardie, are among the people who trained directly with Aleister Crowley. They died in his lifetime; Lon is our bridge to that generation of Thelemites.

In these pages he tells the story of his initiation into Ordo Templi Orientis. As I have come to know Lon directly through my own membership in the order, I have come to deeply appreciate his lifetime of service. His tireless work has helped to build and shape O.T.O. into the worldwide magickal order it is today. When Grady and Phyllis picked him to be their initiate they chose wisely, and we are the beneficiaries.

If you have a chance to attend one of his lectures or classes, jump at it! If you find that you are scheduled against one of his presentations, you might find your audience sparse indeed. He's a hard act to follow too. I was once offered a chance to present at a conference in his stead when he had to withdraw because of a conflict. I said I'm honored that you thought of me and I'd love to do it. But... you know I'm not funny, right? Lon is one of those genuinely wise people who also have the gift of humor. Being able to laugh is one of the keys to success, he says, especially if you can laugh at yourself.

These days Lon is as likely to give a concert as a lecture. From the fiery anthem Class Warfare to the searing indictment If We Believed to the crooning lullaby Sweet Babalon the audience sings along. He gives voice to the pains and fears and joys of a magical life. Music threads through this book, in liner notes for a musical presentation of the tarot, in an address to an audience about to hear Mozart's The Magic Flute, in the musicality of the prose.

In these introductions to other people's work we get to know Lon through the books and people he loves. He is exactly the right kind of gurufunny, kind, accessible, stern when severity is called for, and demanding that the students take responsibility for the learning. Hilarious anecdotes segue into breathtaking vistas of insight. He is speaking a lived revelation, singing the truth of the soul: the earth is sunlight incarnate, we are the earth's children, our embodiment is the call to spiritual awareness that we are all eternal.

The best description of Lon Milo DuQuette is his own description of Donald Michael Kraig.

In the final analysis, the only meaningful credential a magician can present to the world is the magician. Has he or she evolved through the agency of magic? Is he or she a wiser, more balanced, more disciplined, more enlightened, more engaged, more self-aware individual? Is the individual a better friend, a better teacher, a better citizen, a better human being because of his or her involvement in this most personal of spiritual art forms? Most importantly, does the magician have the ability to laugh at magician?

Lon Milo DuQuette is one of the greatest teachers of our time. In these introductions he shows us the magician that he is, demonstrating how to embody a magical life. He tells us that he writes the books he wanted to read. As a woman magician I too am writing the books I needed when I was starting out. I look to Lon as the exemplar of the writer as teacher; I could not have a better one.

Brandy Williams
author of Practical Magic

I'm a very lucky man. I've endured seventy-two years in relatively good health. I've always managed to reside with my family in a part of the universe that is warm, sunny, and relatively safe. I am blessed to be married to beautiful saint of a wife and father to a brilliant doctor of a son. Month-after-month, year-after-year I somehow scrape up the rent and put food on the table. The DuQuettes live modestly. We've never owned a house, a new car, or a credit card. Considering the fact that I am a bit of a bum, that I possess little ambition, have never made any long-term plans or set any life goalsI am happy as any human being deserves to be.