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| Lon Milo DuQuette | |
|---|---|
| Name | Lon Milo DuQuette |
| Birth date | 1948 |
| Birth place | Los Angeles, California, United States |
| Occupation | Occultist, writer, lecturer, musician |
| Nationality | American |
| Notable works | The Magick of Aleister Crowley, My Life with the Spirits, The Chicken Qabalah of Rabbi Lamed Ben Clifford |
Lon Milo DuQuette is an American occult author, lecturer, musician, and ceremonial magician known for his accessible writings on Aleister Crowley, Thelema, Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, and Western esotericism. Combining scholarship, autobiographical anecdote, and humor, he has taught and written on Kabbalah, Qabalah, Eucharistic rituals, and Enochian magic, and has been active in contemporary occult communities, publishing books, giving lectures, and producing musical recordings.
DuQuette was born in Los Angeles in 1948 and grew up amid the postwar cultural milieu of California. He studied classical and popular music performance, including guitar and banjo, and was influenced by the 1960s countercultural movements centered in San Francisco and Venice, California. His early exposure to folk and blues traditions intersected with an interest in Occultism and Western esotericism prompted by encounters with texts associated with Aleister Crowley, Israel Regardie, and the revival of ceremonial magic in the mid-20th century. DuQuette pursued informal studies in Hermeticism and Kabbalah, attending workshops and seminars hosted by practitioners associated with organizations such as the Ordo Templi Orientis and the A∴A..
DuQuette began publishing essays and books in the late 20th century, contributing to the dissemination of Thelemic thought and Hermetic practice to anglophone audiences. He authored introductions, commentaries, and translations engaging with works by Aleister Crowley, Israel Regardie, Franz Bardon, and Eliphas Lévi, while also writing original manuals and memoirs. His prose blends exegesis with anecdote, often referencing historical figures and institutions such as Madame Blavatsky, Arthur Edward Waite, Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers, and the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. DuQuette has lectured at venues including esoteric conferences and institutions that bring together scholars and practitioners of Western esotericism, linking practical ritual techniques to historical sources like Sefer Yetzirah, Zohar, and Corpus Hermeticum.
DuQuette has been publicly affiliated with the Ordo Templi Orientis (OTO), serving in roles that connected him with the organizational lineage deriving from Aleister Crowley and Thelema. He holds initiation grades and has taught within lineages influenced by Crowley and Regardie, engaging with ceremonial systems such as Eucharistic rites, Qabalistic tree of life operations, and Enochian magic originally systematized by John Dee and Edward Kelley. DuQuette’s practice integrates elements from Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn techniques, Rosicrucian symbolic frameworks, and Masonic ritual symbolism, while he has critiqued and contextualized these within broader occult histories tied to figures like Madame Blavatsky and Eliphas Lévi.
In addition to his writings, DuQuette developed a parallel career as a musician and entertainer, performing folk, blues, and novelty songs on guitar and banjo at venues ranging from coffeehouses to esoteric conferences. He has recorded albums and incorporated magical and occult themes into his performances, referencing composers and performers such as Woody Guthrie, Lead Belly, Pete Seeger, and contemporaries in the American folk revival. DuQuette also produced stage presentations and one-man shows that combined storytelling, music, and didactic segments on topics like Aleister Crowley and Qabalah, engaging audiences interested in both popular music traditions and Western esotericism.
DuQuette’s bibliography includes practical manuals, memoirs, and annotated editions: titles such as The Magick of Aleister Crowley, My Life with the Spirits, and The Chicken Qabalah of Rabbi Lamed Ben Clifford have become widely cited in occult circles. He has produced annotated editions and commentaries that reframe texts by Aleister Crowley, Israel Regardie, and Franz Bardon, and has written guides to Tarot study, ritual practice, and Qabalah for lay and advanced practitioners. His works often reference canonical esoteric texts and authors, including Sefer Yetzirah, Zohar, Corpus Hermeticum, Eliphas Lévi, and Arthur Edward Waite, situating modern praxis within historical lineages.
DuQuette describes his spiritual orientation as rooted in Thelema and Hermeticism, emphasizing ethical and experiential elements drawn from ceremonial practice. He has recounted personal experiences with spirit communication and the practice of mediumship in memoirs and lectures, and frames these within traditions associated with Emanuel Swedenborg-era spirit studies and 19th-century occult revival figures such as Madame Blavatsky and Allan Kardec. DuQuette’s public persona blends humor, autobiographical disclosure, and scholarly citation of figures like Aleister Crowley, Israel Regardie, and Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers.
DuQuette’s accessible style and synthesis of scholarship, memoir, and practical instruction have influenced contemporary practitioners and authors in Western esotericism, Thelema, and modern occultism. His books are frequently recommended alongside works by Aleister Crowley, Israel Regardie, Eliphas Lévi, Arthur Edward Waite, and Dion Fortune in reading lists for ritual students. DuQuette has contributed to the institutional continuity of Ordo Templi Orientis lineages and to popular understanding of ceremonial techniques derived from Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and John Dee’s Enochian system, shaping how late 20th- and early 21st-century audiences engage with these traditions.
Category:Occult writers Category:American musicians Category:1948 births Category:Living people