A must have handbook for Enochian practice ( )

Last year I attended a 3-day seminar taught by author and occultist Lon Milo DuQuette. I was very impressed with his incredible knowledge and insight regarding various occult systems. Besides being a good writer, he's also a natural-born teacher. He's able to take very complex concepts and explain them in ways most people can understand. This is why I eagerly awaited his new book on Enochian magick, a system developed by John Dee and Edward Kelly in the late 17th century.

This isn't the first book I've read on Enochain; in fact, it's the 6th. Many of the others have been average to disappointing. Most of them tell you the history, how it was put together and the meanings of various elements of the system; however, none of them tell you how to actually do it. This odd omission has been a huge source of frustration for me. It's like someone handing you a bunch of auto parts and expecting you to be able to build a car. DuQuette, thankfully, guides the reader through the WHOLE process, from beginning to end. Besides the Enochian itself, DuQuette covers the two pre-Enochian works or sub-systems developed by Dee, De Heptarchia Mystica, and Liber Loagaeth -- essential to understanding the latter material. That said, it's still a hard concept to grasp, even with DuQuette's knack for clear and thorough writing. While it may be like learning rocket science at times, I'm extremely fascinated by the system. It may be one of the most complex systems, but it's also one of the most elegant. Its inner workings are pretty mind boggling. The more one learns, the more amazed one becomes at the level of superhuman genius involved in the system's creation.

The book (unlike some of the others I've read) is complete with tables, seals, diagrams and formulae -- a visual component essential to understanding the system. DuQuette also includes slightly different ways to interpret the material. After all, we're dealing with information gleaned from 400 year old diaries and manuscripts.

While I'll still have to study a lot more before I'm anywhere near proficient at the system, I feel after reading this book I've figured out the methodology (finally) enough to actually start using the system with some degree of confidence. ( )

There sure have been a lot of books published on the topic of Enochiana--understood generally as the system of angelic magic derived from the work of the Elizabethans John Dee and Edward Kelly. I count over twenty in my personal library alone. Many of these are historical, focusing on the primary materials from Dee and Kelly; while others are practical, offering instructions to contemporary aspirants and practitioners. Never before has there been a book that combines the two in such an accessible and sensible manner.

Lon Milo DuQuette is a storyteller, and his understanding of magick demands, and thus offers, the narrative framework so often missing from not only the modern practitioner approach, but also that of the source text analyst. His tale synthesizes the confusingly atomized objects and texts of angelic magic, placing them in a developmental sequence, and assessing their importance in the origins and fulfillment of Enochian praxis. His story does not end in the 17th century: the book is full of anecdotes about his own work and that of other living magicians, characterized by the humor and humility that are DuQuette's trademark as an authority on esoteric subjects.

These stories are complemented by the necessary technical detail for anyone who wishes to use this book as a practical reference in actual work. And for those whose bent is toward research, the overview indicates all of the principal texts and topics of the angelic corpus, as the heads of so many fascinating trails. In my view, this book makes obsolete every previous "beginner" book on the topic, and is itself likely to hold a focal place in the bibliography for years to come. And along with its success as a primer, Enochian Vision Magick includes original reflection and inventive technique, so that veterans of the tablets and aires are sure to find food for thought among its pages.

Full review located at http://paganbookreviews.com/2008/09/09/enochian-vision-magick-lon-milo-duquette/