Lon Millo DuQuette - A Master of the Occult

Lon Milo DuQuette is an American singer-song writer, author, lecturer, and occultist, best known as an author who applies humor in the field of Western Hermeticism.

Born in Long Beach, California and raised in Columbus, Nebraska, he was an aspiring studio musician and recording artist in the 1970s, releasing two singles and an album, Charley D. and Milo, on the Epic Records label.

He married to his high school sweetheart, Constance Jean Duquette. They live in Costa Mesa, California and have one son, Jean-Paul.

Since 1975 he has been a National and International governing officer of Ordo Templi Orientis, a religious and fraternal organization founded in the early part of the 20th century. Since 1996 he has been the O.T.O.'s United States Deputy Grand Master and one of the most visible members of the Order. He is also an Archbishop of Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica, the ecclesiastical arm of O.T.O. 

“It is now possible for humanity to awaken to the liberating fact that each of us is a star, as unique and self-radiant as our celestial counterparts. Instead of desperately trying to determine the will of God and then clumsily attempting to cooperate with it, each of us must now come to realize that our will, if properly understood and executed, is already in harmony with the divine will. In other words, in this age, the holy quest is to discover one's own way rather than trying to guess what a God wants for you and hope from moment to moment that you are guessing correctly.”
― Lon Milo DuQuette, Understanding Aleister Crowley's Thoth Tarot: An Authoritative Examination of the World's Most Fascinating and Magical Tarot Cards

3 likes

View quote

 

“In essence, there are not really twenty-two trumps, there is only one—the Fool. Al the other trumps live inside (and issue from) the Fool.”
― Lon Milo DuQuette, Understanding Aleister Crowley's Thoth Tarot: An Authoritative Examination of the World's Most Fascinating and Magical Tarot Cards

2 likes

View quote

 

“Aeons change, not as the result of some war in heaven or astrological event. Rather they are simply the consequence of some improved modification in human consciousness. Obviously, such a mutation needs to be universal and fundamental: something most of us share with our fellows, something as simple as how we perceive our relationship with the Sun.”
― Lon Milo DuQuette, Understanding Aleister Crowley's Thoth Tarot

1 likes

Like

“Ultimately, there are not fifty-six cards in the Minor Arcana of the tarot. There are only four—the four aces. The other fifty-two cards (the sixteen court cards and the thirty-six small cards), live inside the four aces. As we learned in chapter 8, if we look at the ace of any suit under a magic microscope, we first see the four court cards of that suit living comfortably inside. Let's not stop there. If we increase the magnification level of our microscope, we see that the nine small cards of the suit are nestled neatly inside in three rows of three cards. Isn't that tidy?”
― Lon Milo DuQuette, Understanding Aleister Crowley's Thoth Tarot: An Authoritative Examination of the World's Most Fascinating and Magical Tarot Cards

1 likes

Like

“Lady Harris's Fool is a cornucopia of sacred images, many of which reveal themselves only after long meditation (and the aid of a magnifying glass). He bursts into midair of existence from behind three swirling rings that issue from and return to his heart. These are the three veils of negativity (Ain, Ain Soph, and Ain Soph Aur)23 that Qabalists teach gave birth to the singularity of creation. His satchel is filled with the entire universe in the form of planetary and zodiacal coins. The Fool is the Holy Spirit itself. The dove, symbol of the Holy Spirit; the butterfly, symbol of transformation; winged globe, symbol of Mercurial air; and the Egyptian vulture-goddess Mauf24 pour from the Holy Grail in the Fool's right hand. Like the Virgin Mary, Maut became impregnated by the spirit (breath) of the wind. “The whole picture,” Crowley tells us, “is a glyph of the creative light.”
― Lon Milo DuQuette, Understanding Aleister Crowley's Thoth Tarot: An Authoritative Examination of the World's Most Fascinating and Magical Tarot Cards

1 likes

Like

“It is understandable that anyone with a Christian background would recoil in horror when he or she first encounters Crowley's shocking use of words and imagery, such as the Beast 666, Scarlet Woman, All-Father Chaos, Whore of Babylon, or blood of the saints. While these dark “blasphemies” effectively serve to screen out faint-hearted dabblers (and all who choose to remain self-blinded by superstition), they offer a radiant and altogether wholesome spiritual treasure for anyone bold and tenacious enough to do a little research (and a little meditation).”
― Lon Milo DuQuette, Understanding Aleister Crowley's Thoth Tarot: An Authoritative Examination of the World's Most Fascinating and Magical Tarot Cards

1 likes

Like

“THEREFORE I SAY UNTO THEE: COME FORTH UNTO ME FROM THINE ABODE IN THE SILENCE, UNUTTERABLE WISDOM, ALL-LIGHT, ALL-POWER! THOTH, HERMES, MERCURY, ODIN, BY WHATEVER NAME I CALL THEE, THOU ART STILL UN-NAMED AND NAMELESS TO ETERNITY! COME THOU FORTH, I SAY, AND AID AND GUARD ME IN THIS WORK OF ART.”
― Lon Milo DuQuette, Understanding Aleister Crowley's Thoth Tarot: An Authoritative Examination of the World's Most Fascinating and Magical Tarot Cards

1 likes

Like

“Even though it is not pictured in the Death card, our snake-wrapped Orphic egg—the latent seed of life that we first saw in the Magus card, whose elements were married in the Lovers, and which then was fertilized by the Hermit—is now entering the last stage of development before hatching into new life.”
― Lon Milo DuQuette, Understanding Aleister Crowley's Thoth Tarot: An Authoritative Examination of the World's Most Fascinating and Magical Tarot Cards

1 likes

Like

“Cards that have, in the past, borne the titles Justice, Strength, Temperance, and Judgment (or Last Judgment) are, in the Thoth Tarot, respectively named Adjustment, Lust, Art, and The Aeon. Crowley”
― Lon Milo DuQuette, Understanding Aleister Crowley's Thoth Tarot

0 likes

Like

“We hold a universe in our hands when we pick up a deck of tarot cards.”
― Lon Milo DuQuette, Understanding Aleister Crowley's Thoth Tarot

0 likes

Like

“We may never know the true story behind the book, but the book has become a myth, and myth is truer than history.”
― Lon Milo DuQuette, Understanding Aleister Crowley's Thoth Tarot

0 likes

Like

“The tarot is a perfect representation of the Tree of Life. The ace of each suit represents the top sephira (1) and the two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, and ten of each suit represents its respective sephira on the Tree.”
― Lon Milo DuQuette, Understanding Aleister Crowley's Thoth Tarot

0 likes

Like

“The suits are usually ordered Wands, Cups, Swords, and Disks.”
― Lon Milo DuQuette, Understanding Aleister Crowley's Thoth Tarot

0 likes

Like

“new “fact of life” (one that conformed to the secret nature of the sun) became the magical formula of the aeon; life comes from death.”
― Lon Milo DuQuette, Understanding Aleister Crowley's Thoth Tarot

0 likes

Like

“the Aeon of Isis we identified with the earth. Life came miraculously from earth and woman. All magical pantheons were aspects of the Goddess. Death was a mystery whose depths were impossible to plumb. In the Aeon of Osiris we identified with the dying/resurrected sun. All magical pantheons were aspects of God the Father. Death could be magically overcome by obedience to formulae, rites and doctrine.”
― Lon Milo DuQuette, Understanding Aleister Crowley's Thoth Tarot

0 likes

Like

“the Aeon of Horus we identify with the self-radiant, ever-living sun. All magical pantheons have become aspects of ourselves. We, like the sun, do not die. Death, like night, is an illusion. Life is now seen as a process of continual growth and humanity is developing a consciousness of the continuity of existence that will eventually dissolve the sting of death.53”
― Lon Milo DuQuette, Understanding Aleister Crowley's Thoth Tarot

0 likes

Like

“wish space allowed me to discuss The Vision and The Voice in detail, but that has been done admirably in The Vision and The Voice with Commentary and Other Papers61 It provides an in-depth study of these wondrous visions and brings the spiritual reality of many tarot images to life.”
― Lon Milo DuQuette, Understanding Aleister Crowley's Thoth Tarot

0 likes

Like

“First to bloom in the primary colors of yellow, blue, and red are the Fool, the Hanged Man, and the Aeon. These three personify the powers and qualities of the three mother letters of the Hebrew alphabet and the primitive elements of air, water, and fire.69”
― Lon Milo DuQuette, Understanding Aleister Crowley's Thoth Tarot

0 likes

Like

“First to bloom in the primary colors of yellow, blue, and red are the Fool, the Hanged Man, and the Aeon. These three personify the powers and qualities of the three mother letters of the Hebrew alphabet and the primitive elements of air, water, and fire.69 Figure 10. Three Petals of the elemental trumps. Next to flower in the primary and secondary colors of the rainbow (scarlet, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet) are the Tower, the Sun, the Magus, the Empress, the High Priestess, the Universe, and Fortune. These seven trumps personify the powers and qualities of the seven double letters of the Hebrew alphabet and the seven planets of the ancients: Mars, Sol, Mercury, Venus, Luna, Saturn, and Jupiter. Figure 11. Seven petals of the planetary trumps.”
― Lon Milo DuQuette, Understanding Aleister Crowley's Thoth Tarot

0 likes

Like

“Last to burst forth in a riot of primary, secondary, and intermediate colors (scarlet, orange-red, orange, amber, yellowish-green, emerald green, greenish-yellow, green-blue, blue, indigo, violet, and crimson ultraviolet) are the Emperor, the Hierophant, the Lovers, the Chariot, Lust, the Hermit, Adjustment, Death, Art, the Devil, the Star, and the Moon. These trumps personify the powers and qualities of the twelve simple letters of the Hebrew alphabet and the twelve signs of the zodiac: Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, and Pisces. Figure 12. Twelve petals of the zodiacal trumps.”
― Lon Milo DuQuette, Understanding Aleister Crowley's Thoth Tarot

0 likes

Like

“The formula of YHVH divides the macrocosm into four descending worlds: Atziluth70 (the archetypal world, the environment of the consciousness of supreme deity), Briah (the creative world, the world of the great archangelic forces), Yetzirah (the formative world, the world of the angelic forces that execute the specific duties of their archangel masters), and Assiah (the material world). At the same time, the formula of YHVH divides the microcosm (and the human soul) into four descending levels: Chiah (the life force), Neshamah (the divine soul-intuition), Ruach (the intellect), and Nephesh (the animal soul). Finally, all of these four-part concepts can be expressed metaphorically as the four elements of fire, water, air, and earth, which in the tarot are represented by the four suits, Wands, Cups, Swords, and Disks. When”
― Lon Milo DuQuette, Understanding Aleister Crowley's Thoth Tarot

0 likes

Like

“Table 2. The Four Tarot Suits Ultimately Represent the Divine Name, Yod Hé Vau Hé, and Its Fourfold Division of Creation SPIRIT Figure 14.”
― Lon Milo DuQuette, Understanding Aleister Crowley's Thoth Tarot

0 likes

Like

“Figure 15. The pentagram—spirit rulership of the four”
― Lon Milo DuQuette, Understanding Aleister Crowley's Thoth Tarot

0 likes

Like

“Figure 17. The court cards are elemental aspects of the ace. Table 3. Elemental Subdivisions of the Aces and Court Cards Four pentagrams, representing the ace and four court cards of each suit, are placed upon the extremities the Rose Cross of Manifestation.”
― Lon Milo DuQuette, Understanding Aleister Crowley's Thoth Tarot

0 likes

Like

“For centuries, students and sages of Hebrew mysticism have developed a unique spiritual science called Qabalah.65 Qabalah is not a religion, philosophy, or doctrine. It is a way of thinking, a way of looking at the world, a convenient method by which we dissect, examine, and organize the universe and ourselves. It is a means by which we connect everything in the universe with everything else in the universe. Numbers are the basic working tools of this marvelous discipline, and some of the most important numbers in Qabalistic cosmology are precisely the same numbers upon which the tarot is”
― Lon Milo DuQuette, Understanding Aleister Crowley's Thoth Tarot

0 likes

Like

“In his discussion of the trumps, Crowley goes so far as to identify three cards with the alchemical elements: the Magus is mercury, the Empress is salt, and the Emperor is sulfur.”
― Lon Milo DuQuette, Understanding Aleister Crowley's Thoth Tarot

0 likes

Like

“Other trumps also have alchemical significance. The Art card is identified with vitriol, and the Lovers, the Hermit, Death, and the Devil all have vital roles to play in the alchemy of the tarot. There is also one more extremely important alchemical symbol we will see often when we examine the trumps. It is called the Orphic egg. “This egg represents the essence of all life that comes under the formula of male and female.”74 THE”
― Lon Milo DuQuette, Understanding Aleister Crowley's Thoth Tarot

0 likes

Like

“Conversely, symbols in visions are actually living things in that plane. Let's say I am faced, in a vision, by a terrible fire demon (a symbol of something I need to confront). I need only protect myself with a symbol—perhaps the banishing pentagram of fire, a symbol to me of the mastery of spirit over the elements, but a living thing to the demon who is forced by all the laws of its own existence to submit and obey.”
― Lon Milo DuQuette, Understanding Aleister Crowley's Thoth Tarot

0 likes

Like

“The Tree of Life—This figure must be studied very carefully, for it is the basis of the whole system on which the Tarot is based. It is quite impossible to give a complete explanation of this figure, because (for one thing) it is quite universal. Therefore it cannot mean the same to any one person as to any other.78”
― Lon Milo DuQuette, Understanding Aleister Crowley's Thoth Tarot

0 likes

Like

“Crowley recognized in the images, symbols, and structure of tarot a unified field theory of Qabalah and Hermeticism—an illustrated guidebook of the soul that neatly synthesizes the essence of the Western Mysteries.”
― Lon Milo DuQuette, Understanding Aleister Crowley's Thoth Tarot