Dumbing Down the Modern Magician

In reading Enochian Vision Magick by Duquette, I was struck by the incredible complexity of the system. I have no idea how many hours Dee and Kelly spent skrying, writing and performing the mental gymnastics necessary to bring it forth. Since then many very dry technical books have been written on the topic. The few I read or more to the point, tried to read, did not inspire me to turn the pages much less do the magick. Then Lon Milo appears on the scene. Lon must have spent uncountable hours studying and working the system before putting out this incredibly easy to understand work.

As I contemplated this, I wondered about the Dumbing Down of America. If you think we are as educated as our recent ancestors, you're more uneducated tha I am. As proof, I offer Ken Burn's documentary on the Civil War. Just listening to the letters and diary entries from common soldiers tells me that they had a much deeper understanding of the language and word smithing than the above average American today.

Dumbed down is likely the refrain you'll hear from scholars. There are magickal scholars of two types. Those that study magick, and those that study and do magick. If you read Lon's book, you will not being able to compete with either category of Enochian scholar. If you read Lon's book, you will not be able to compete with even those that do Enochian magick. Lon's book is a starting point for those that want to do Enochian. Let the scholarship follow the Work, if that is your Will.

You can learn Enochian through the Sloan documents and the rest of the writings housed in the British Museum as well as your local search engine. I've tried to perform the mind bending gyrations necessary to understand those sources in the past. Frankly, I am not that smart and, like Lon, lazy.

So, in reading Lon's book, I began to think this is cheating. Enochian is vast, complex and hard to understand and it should be! This is easy. Then again, so is the magick I do now that I used to think was so hard.

The book is simple, easy to read and very informative. I don't feel like I need a scholar's mind, nor the time available only to the idle rich to digest the material. Lon has taken all the thinking out of magick! No. He's taken all the work out magick! No. He's done it all for me! No. He has simply made it accessible to the non-scholar. That isn't dumbing down at all. That is distilling. It is creating a foundation for those that want to do. One doesn't need to know the year Dee and Kelley met nor understand the English of the period to do the magick.

Doing Magick is about doing magick. It is the doing that matters.

I've long been fascinated by the Sigillum Dei Aemeth (above). After reading less than twenty-two pages, I understand. I get it and I am even more fascinated by the prospect of making my own. In the style of a master teacher and a Master of the Word, he takes the reader to the threshold of the divine and lets aspirant make a choice to step through.

My actual praise for this work is much greater than I am relating here. However, I am only 78 pages into it and I haven't done anything yet with the material. At first blush I am mightily impressed. Bravo.

(Sigillum image from www.hermetic.com/.../images/Crystal_Ameth.gif)