Lon Milo DuQuette - Low Magick

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: Its All in Your Head You Just Have No Idea How Big Your Head Is 2010 by Lon Milo DuQuette.

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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, 122123, 126, and 129131 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.

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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

Stories

First Lets Talk about Fear

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

The Formula of Solomon

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

Family Secrets

My Planetary Talismans

A Weekend Alone with the Spirits of the Tarot

A Midsummer Nights Curse

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

Thats Not What Invocation Is About

And Thats What Invocation Is All About!

Pop Goes Ganesha!

The Rabbis Dilemma

The Exorcism of Our Lady of Sorrows

Its All in Your Head You Just Have No Idea How Big Your Head Is

: My Brother Remembers Our Father

: Apostolic Succession

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.

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 argumentmore 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 havent 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 informsthe story that teachesthe story that reveals the magical how-why-ness (and in some instances, the how-why not-ness) of the magicians life.

However, storytelling has certain disadvantagesforemost 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. Ive relied heavily on my scribblings in the preparation of this booka 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 Ive 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 cant 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 havent 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, because I believe with this little book I am offering you something that can be far more powerful and enlighteninga 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.