Enochian Chess
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Are there any surviving Golden Dawn documents that contain instruction in Enochian Chess?
616
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@KRVB MMShCh said
"Are there any surviving Golden Dawn documents that contain instruction in Enochian Chess?"
I don't know about the original manuscripts, but Chris Zalewski's Enochian Chess of the Golden Dawn does a pretty good job of pulling together nearly everything known about it publicly (as of the early 1990s). She built up a playable set of rules for a pure "strategy game" and also discusses the other ways that one can work with the system. A brief review of the book is here, and some other details with some historical criticism are given here.
Hope these are helpful. I'm not vouching for everything in those sites, by the way!
Steve
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...thanks a lot for the links - they look promising
616
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@RifRaf said
"I have worked with Enochian for years, and revere the system as a whole. However, I have no idea what practical use Enochian chess holds, if any."
Historically, it's much newer than the bulk of the Enochian magical work. It does seem like something of a Victorian "addendum" to the original Dee/Kelley material. Still, it's all what you do with it that counts, I suppose. The Zalewski book describes how to use the playing of a game as a form of divination. Also, since the game boards are made up of squares from the elemental watchtower tablets, there may be additional insight into scrying the individual squares. It's possible that the pattern of squares that a given piece traverses in a game can be used as the order in which to scry?
"So what do you (who use it) use it for?"
Sorry... I'm totally "armchair" in this matter!
Steve
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@Steven Cranmer said
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@RifRaf said
"I have worked with Enochian for years, and revere the system as a whole. However, I have no idea what practical use Enochian chess holds, if any."Historically, it's much newer than the bulk of the Enochian magical work. It does seem like something of a Victorian "addendum" to the original Dee/Kelley material. Still, it's all what you do with it that counts, I suppose. The Zalewski book describes how to use the playing of a game as a form of divination. Also, since the game boards are made up of squares from the elemental watchtower tablets, there may be additional insight into scrying the individual squares. It's possible that the pattern of squares that a given piece traverses in a game can be used as the order in which to scry?
"So what do you (who use it) use it for?"
Sorry... I'm totally "armchair" in this matter!
Steve"
Well, Cranny, I think its an 'armchair matter' in all cases - it seems to have no use beyond entertainment really (I dont think its a form of divination or gives insight into the 'pieces')
IAO131
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@Aum418 said
"Well, Cranny, I think its an 'armchair matter' in all cases - it seems to have no use beyond entertainment really (I dont think its a form of divination or gives insight into the 'pieces')"
Well, Benjy, I'll dispute one bit of fact (It has been used as a divination tool, by Chris Zalewski and others), but overall, I suppose I agree that it's never going to a core practice for reaching enlightenment.
My own interest in Enochian Chess comes less from my interest in the Golden Dawn, and more from my interest in odd and boundary-stretching games. (Also from an old fascination for real-world attempts at making Hermann Hesse's Glass Bead Game come to life...)
Steve
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@Steven Cranmer said
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@Aum418 said
"Well, Cranny, I think its an 'armchair matter' in all cases - it seems to have no use beyond entertainment really (I dont think its a form of divination or gives insight into the 'pieces')"Well, Benjy, I'll dispute one bit of fact (It has been used as a divination tool, by Chris Zalewski and others), but overall, I suppose I agree that it's never going to a core practice for reaching enlightenment.
My own interest in Enochian Chess comes less from my interest in the Golden Dawn, and more from my interest in odd and boundary-stretching games. (Also from an old fascination for real-world attempts at making Hermann Hesse's Glass Bead Game come to life...)
Steve"
Well Cranny, you managed to botch my middle name quite well
That book by Hesse is really interesting by the way for those who havent read it.
IAO131
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@Steven Cranmer said
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@Aum418 said
"Well Cranny, you managed to botch my middle name quite well"Despite the fact that I probably agree with you 90% to 95% of the time about Crowley and Thelema, I guess I also sometimes mistake you for this guy.
Steve"
Mildly insulting! (probably moreso if I knew more about him than his wiki page)
Thats ok, I normally mistake you for a normal douchebag.
IAO131
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Aw, just a normal one? I aim for the old SNL sketch: "Lord and Lady Douchebag!"
Anyway, this thread has probably run its course. If I find any other links to Enochian Chess resources, I'll add them here.By the way, the Howard Stern show is an awesome example of a truly Thelemic society in miniature...
Steve
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"it seems to have no use beyond entertainment really"
I've found that it does have a use in practice aside from divination. The chessboards themselves can be charged up (using various techniques - use your imagination) in such a way as to become very potent and complex elemental talismans. Playing Enochian chess on the boards tends to drum up quite a bit of elemental energy, to the point where it actually becomes quite difficult to keep your mind on the game in some cases. The energy generated through the game is very much of a mixed elemental nature - for example, if you play a game with the water setup on the fire board, the resulting energy released is primarily that of water of fire. These energies can be consciously directed in such a way as to give one a very strong advantage in game play
This can be a useful way to gain skill in manipulating the elemental (and sub-elemental) essences. That said - there are other, more direct ways to do this. The idea of playing a game with potently charged talismans is a novelty dreamed up by Wynn Wescott. Just wanted to point out that it's not entirely an armchair endeavor, though I certainly agree that it's not a necessary tool on the path to enlightenment.
FM
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Meow, you may be right! After my 4 Celtic Cross Thoth Tarot dealings I and my roommates got so charged up that I had to banish the energies with LBPR. It was the most intense energetic "high" I had. Enochian Chess has a big possibility to cause such things too.
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Just taking the boards out and setting them down next to each other tends to fill the room with energy. The squares that make up the boards are the lesser squares from the tablets. On the tablets, these squares are typically boxed in by all sorts of boundaries, divided into 8 sections and surrounded by names that are higher up in the hierarchy. On the chess boards, the lesser squares from each tablet are bound only by a white line around the edge of the board. They lesser Angels associated with the squares tend to get a little rowdy outside of the context of the hierarchy
I've found that even people whom I consider to have very little psychic/intuitive development can feel a strong charge from the boards when exposed to them. Use of the LBRP around these things is definitely recommended.
FM
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OMG! The idea you gave about Enochian Chess play and energy manipulation is wonderful! I have to invest some research into it for sure!
For now I'm trying to invoke and feel Tarot card energy and things like that. -
@Steven Cranmer said
"By the way, just for completeness....
There's a series of four books by Steve Nichols, available on lulu.com (link to the first one here) that seems to contain much more information than any of what I posted earlier. I haven't bought these books, but they do look interesting.
Steve"
I guess you could say I know Steve Nichols pretty well; He may be one of the premier authorities on divinatory games; he definitely advocates Enochian Chess as one of a few divinatory and possibly self-initiatory games: "Rosicrucian or Enochian Chess, is a divinatory and magickal pathworking game for one to four players. Active Divination with Enochian Chess attempts to change or influence future events by funneling energy back "into the astral" .... it doesn't just predict the future in the passive manner of other divination systems such as Tarot, Geopmancy and Astrology." groups.yahoo.com/group/000-EnochianChe enochia.net/page2.html. He is also a trained hypnotherapist and author of the radical original scientific thesis "Median Vision Theory" also called "Phantom Eye Theory" which can be downloaded free from his website. ores.lulu.com/stevenichol , www.steve-nichols.com