“To get the flavour of magic, [you] could do a lot worse than read a couple of the books by Lon Milo DuQuette.” –Alan Moore, author of Watchmen, From Hell, V for Vendetta, Voice of the Fire
With his genial grin and his neatly trimmed white beard, Orange County-based author Lon Milo DuQuette isn’t the first person you’d suspect of being an expert in the arts of ceremonial magick, Tarot divination, and the Hermetic Qabalah. His writings on such esoteric subjects are regarded as rare marvels of clarity, however— as accessible and full of humor as the man himself.
“One of his books in particular, My Life With The Spirits by Lon Milo DuQuette, gives something of the flavour of magic, and he’s a very entertaining writer,” continues acclaimed graphic-novel scribe and well-known mystic Alan Moore, in an interview with the website Forbidden Planet. Moore isn’t alone in his praise, either. Over the past twenty years Mr. DuQuette has published more than fifteen critically-lauded books on a variety of occult subjects, including in-depth explorations of Enochian magick (a system of angelic evocation pioneered by the Elizabethan-era scholar Dr. John Dee), as well as several explications of the famously misunderstood philosophies of controversial 20th-century magus Aleister Crowley. He’s even an Archbishop with the Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica, an arm of the Ordo Templi Orientis, the magical order of which Crowley himself was once a prominent member.
CreepyLA recently had the opportunity to ask a few questions of southern California’s very own modern-day magician:
Q: What’s your favorite film or book, one that you’d say captures the ‘feeling of magic’?
LMD: Believe it or not I can’t think of any overtly magically-themed films that expresses the real, day-to-day, in-your-face ‘feeling of magick’. On the other hand, I can’t think of any well composed … novel, short-story, play, film, cartoon, painting, sculpture, song, poem, piece of music, tattoo, photograph, dance movement, breakfast, lunch, dinner, drink, plant, animal, mineral, heavenly body, sub-atomic particle, sound, feeling, solid, liquid, gas, or plasma … that isn’t breathtakingly and profoundly magical… including your excellent question to which I’ve just given you the most unsatisfactory of answers. The simple answer is, the films I believe capture the feeling of magick are those that best communicate the transcendent and self-transformational power of perfect love given and received.
Q: What first drew you to the study and practice of magick/mysticism, and what influence did living in southern California have on that interest?
LMD: LSD first drew me to magick and mysticism and living in California was at the time the very best place on earth to
start such a quest.
Q: What do you consider to be the creepiest place in LA/SoCal, and can you share an encounter with the mystical or paranormal you’ve had locally?
LMD: The creepiest place in LA was for me the old Coconut Grove of the Ambassador Hotel. Back in 1970 or 71 my band played there for a big party hosted by Sammy Davis Jr. We brought our gear in through the kitchen were Bobby Kennedy was assassinated. That was creepy enough, but the whole place reeked with 60 years of “Day of the Locust”, “Hollywood Babylon”, “LA Confidential” heartaches and scandals and rapes and murders and greed and film industry tragedy….yikes! the place creeped me out big time.
Q: How do you celebrate Halloween? What significance does the holiday have for you?
LMD: I enjoy Halloween. I can’t say we celebrate it … in a religious sense. We used to pull out the old coffin and skulls and such (I guess we DO have some pretty neat spooky stuff around the house) and deck the house out with jack o lanterns and such an
d give out candy but in the last 10 years or so Constance and I just hide out in the bed room and see what’s on PBS.
Lon regularly presents lectures and seminars all around the world, and for the last twenty-five years he and his wife Constance—formerly his high school sweetheart—have offered a regular Monday Night Magick Class in Costa Mesa. It’s open, as Lon puts it, to ‘magicians of all levels who can behave themselves for two hours.’ So if Hogwarts failed to send you an owl again this year and Brakebills declined to open up a portal, don’t despair. You can begin your own course of independent study into the history and practice of real magick right here, at Amazon’s Lon Milo DuQuette Page.
In addition to his occult accomplishments Lon is also a professional singer/songwriter, playing frequently in the Newport Beach area. You can check here: (Lon Milo DuQuette Fan Page | Facebook) or here: (Lon Milo DuQuette – official website) for news of upcoming events both magical and musical.
(All Images Used With Permission)
