Lon Milo DuQuette (born July 11, 1948), also known as Rabbi Lamed Ben Clifford and by his

neo-Gnostic Gnosticism in modern times includes a variety of contemporary religious movements, stemming from Gnostic ideas and systems from ancient Roman society. Gnosticism is an ancient name for a variety of religious ideas and systems, originating in Jewis ...

bishop title of Tau Lamed, is an American writer, lecturer, musician, and

occultist The occult, in the broadest sense, is a category of esoteric supernatural beliefs and practices which generally fall outside the scope of religion and science, encompassing phenomena involving otherworldly agency, such as magic and mysticism an ...

, best known as an author who applies humor in the field of Western

Hermeticism Hermeticism, or Hermetism, is a philosophical system that is primarily based on the purported teachings of Hermes Trismegistus (a legendary Hellenistic combination of the Greek god Hermes and the Egyptian god Thoth). These teachings are containe ...

Early life

Lon Milo DuQuette was born in

Long Beach, California Long Beach is a city in Los Angeles County, California. It is the 42nd-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 466,742 as of 2020. A charter city, Long Beach is the seventh-most populous city in California. Incorporate ...

and raised in

Columbus, Nebraska Columbus is a city in and the county seat of Platte County, in the state of Nebraska in the Midwestern United States. The population was 22,111 at the 2010 census. It is the 10th largest city in Nebraska, with 24,028 people as of the 2020 censu ...

. 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 Epic Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America Sony Corporation of America (SONAM, also known as SCA), is the American arm of the Japanese conglomerate Sony Group ...

label. He and his partner Charles Dennis Harris, aka Charley Packard (now deceased), opened for

Hoyt Axton Hoyt Wayne Axton (March 25, 1938 – October 26, 1999) was an American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actor. He became prominent in the early 1960s, establishing himself on the West Coast as a folk singer with an earthy style and powerful voic ...

Arlo Guthrie Arlo Davy Guthrie (born July 10, 1947) is an American folk singer-songwriter. He is known for singing songs of protest against social injustice, and storytelling while performing songs, following the tradition of his father, Woody Guthrie. Gut ...

and performed with

Sammy Davis Jr Samuel George Davis Jr. (December 8, 1925 – May 16, 1990) was an American singer, dancer, actor, comedian, film producer and television director. At age three, Davis began his career in vaudeville with his father Sammy Davis Sr. and the ...

Career

In 1972, DuQuette quit the music business and for the next 25 years he pursued his interest in

mysticism Mysticism is popularly known as becoming one with God or the Absolute, but may refer to any kind of ecstasy or altered state of consciousness which is given a religious or spiritual meaning. It may also refer to the attainment of insight in u ...

, particularly the work of

Aleister Crowley Aleister Crowley (; born Edward Alexander Crowley; 12 October 1875 – 1 December 1947) was an English occultist, ceremonial magician, poet, painter, novelist, and mountaineer. He founded the religion of Thelema, identifying himself as the pro ...

(1875–1947). He is on the faculty of the

Omega Institute for Holistic Studies Omega Institute for Holistic Studies is a non-profit educational retreat center located in Rhinebeck, New York. Founded in 1977 by Elizabeth Lesser and Stephan Rechtschaffen, inspired by Sufi mystic, Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan and his ecu ...

in Rhinebeck, New York where he teaches ''The Western Magical Tradition''.

Ordo Templi Orientis

Since 1975 DuQuette has been a National and International governing officer of

Ordo Templi Orientis Ordo Templi Orientis (O.T.O.; ) is an occult initiatory organization founded at the beginning of the 20th century. The origins of the O.T.O. can be traced back to the German-speaking occultists Carl Kellner, Heinrich Klein, Franz Hartmann and T ...

, a

religious Religion is usually defined as a social system, social-cultural system of designated religious behaviour, behaviors and practices, morality, morals, beliefs, worldviews, religious text, texts, sacred site, sanctified places, prophecy, prophecie ...

and fraternal organization founded in the early part of the 20th century. Since 1996 he has been O.T.O.'s United States Deputy Grand Master. He is also an

Archbishop In Christian denominations, an archbishop is a bishop of higher rank or office. In most cases, such as the Catholic Church, there are many archbishops who either have jurisdiction over an ecclesiastical province in addition to their own archdi ...

Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica (E.G.C.), or the Gnostic Catholic Church, is a Gnostic church organization. It is the ecclesiastical arm of the Ordo Templi Orientis (O.T.O.), an international fraternal initiatory organization devoted to promulgatin ...

, the ecclesiastical arm of O.T.O.

Writing

DuQuette began writing professionally in 1988 and has since published 19 books (translated in 12 languages). Many of his books have been dedicated to analyzing and exploring the works of

, an English occultist, author, poet and philosopher. He has written a number of successful books on topics in the Western mystical tradition including:

Freemasonry Freemasonry or Masonry refers to fraternal organisations that trace their origins to the local guilds of stonemasons that, from the end of the 13th century, regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their interaction with authorities ...

Tarot The tarot (, first known as '' trionfi'' and later as ''tarocchi'' or ''tarocks'') is a pack of playing cards, used from at least the mid-15th century in various parts of Europe to play card games such as Tarocchini. From their Italian roots, ...

Qabalah Hermetic Qabalah () is a Western esoteric tradition involving mysticism and the occult. It is the underlying philosophy and framework for magical societies such as the Golden Dawn, Thelemic orders, mystical-religious societies such as the Bu ...

ceremonial magic Ceremonial magic (ritual magic, high magic or learned magic) encompasses a wide variety of rituals of magic. The works included are characterized by ceremony and numerous requisite accessories to aid the practitioner. It can be seen as an ex ...

k, the

Enochian magic Enochian magic is a system of ceremonial magic based on the 16th-century writings of John Dee and Edward Kelley, who wrote that their information, including the revealed Enochian language, was delivered to them directly by various angels. Dee's ...

k of Dr.

John Dee John Dee (13 July 1527 – 1608 or 1609) was an English mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, teacher, occultist, and alchemist. He was the court astronomer for, and advisor to, Elizabeth I, and spent much of his time on alchemy, divinatio ...

, and Goetic spirit evocation. He is perhaps best known as "an author who injects humor into the serious subjects of magick and the occult." His autobiography, ''My Life with the Spirits,'' is currently a required text for two classes at

DePaul University DePaul University is a private university, private, Catholic higher education, Catholic research university in Chicago, Illinois. Founded by the Congregation of the Mission, Vincentians in 1898, the university takes its name from the 17th-centu ...

, Chicago.

Return to music

A 2005 gift of a ukulele re-ignited DuQuette's interest in music. Two self-released CDs and a new record contract followed. In 2012, DuQuette released ''I'm Baba Lon'' on Ninety Three Records, his first studio album in 40 years. On September 3, 2012, Ninety Three released the follow-up, ''Baba Lon II''.

Personal life

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

Works

Books

*DuQuette, Lon Milo: & Aleister Crowley, Christopher Hyatt: ''Enochian World of Aleister Crowley: Enochian Sex Magick'', New Falcon, 1991. *DuQuette, Lon Milo: & Christopher Hyatt: ''Sex Magic, Tantra & Tarot: The Way of the Secret Lover'', New Falcon, 1991. *DuQuette, Lon Milo: & Aleister Crowley, Christopher Hyatt: ''Aleister Crowley's Illustrated Goetia: Sexual Evocation'', New Falcon, 1992. *DuQuette, Lon Milo: ''Tarot of Ceremonial Magick: A Pictorial Synthesis of Three Great Pillars of Magick: Enochian, Goetia, Astrology'', Weiser Books, 1995. *DuQuette, Lon Milo: ''Angels, Demons & Gods of the New Millennium'', Weiser Books, 1997. *DuQuette, Lon Milo: ''My Life With the Spirits: The Adventures of a Modern Magician'', Weiser Books, 1999. *DuQuette, Lon Milo: ''The Chicken Qabalah of Rabbi Lamed Ben Clifford: Dilettante's Guide to What You Do and Do Not Need to Know to Become a Qabalist'', Weiser Books, 2001. *DuQuette, Lon Milo: ''The Magick of Aleister Crowley: A Handbook of the Rituals of Thelema'', Weiser Books, 2003. *DuQuette, Lon Milo: ''Understanding Aleister Crowley's Thoth Tarot'', Weiser Books, 2003. *DuQuette, Lon Milo: ''The Book Of Ordinary Oracles'', Weiser Books, 2005. *DuQuette, Lon Milo: ''The Key to Solomon's Key: Secrets of Magic and Masonry'', Ccc Publishing, 2006. *DuQuette, Lon Milo: ''Accidental Christ: The Story of Jesus as Told by His Uncle'', Thelema Aura Publishing, 2007. *DuQuette, Lon Milo: ''Enochian Vision Magick'', Weiser Books, 2008. *DuQuette, Lon Milo: ''Low Magick: It's All In Your Head... You Just Have No Idea How Big Your Head Is'', Llewellyn Publications, 2010. *DuQuette, Lon Milo: ''Ask Baba Lon: Answers to Questions of Life & Magick'', New Falcon Publications, 2011. *DuQuette, Lon Milo & Bratkowsky, James M: "Revolt of the Magicians", Orobas Press, 2011. *DuQuette, Lon Milo: "Homemade Magick: The Musings & Mischief of a Do-It-Yourself Magus'', Llewellyn Publications, 2014. *DuQuette, Lon Milo: "Son of Chicken Qabalah: Rabbi Lamed Ben Clifford's Mostly Painless Qabalah Course", Weiser Books, 2018. *DuQuette, Lon Milo: "Allow Me To Introduce: An Insider's Guide to the Occult" Weiser Books, 2020.

Music

*''Charley D. And Milo—Charley D. Harris and Lon Milo DuQuette'', Epic, 1970. *''I'm Baba Lon'', Ninety Three Records, 2012. *''Baba Lon II'', Ninety Three Records, 2012. *''Gentle Heretic'', Ninety Three Records, 2013. *''Sweet Baba Lon'', Ninety Three Records, 2015.

Other media

*''Lon Milo DuQuette's Enochian Magick - The Art of Angelic Evocation'', Hooded Man Productions. 1994. *''Magical Egypt'', Cydonia, Inc. 2000. *''Qabalah For the Rest of Us'', Cydonia, Inc. 2002. *''The Great Work'', Cydonia, Inc. 2008. *''Lon Milo DuQuette Live and Uncensored—Tarot Kabbalah & Oracles'', Cydonia, Inc. 2005. *''The Call—Dieter Müh and Lon Milo Duquette'', HaemOccult, 2009. *''Tarot of Ceremonial Magic Deck which was revised 2020 by Next Millennium

Notes

External links

*
Duquette's Writers Net ProfilePaganNews.com Interview with Lon Milo DuquetteOC Music Scene Interview
{{DEFAULTSORT:Duquette, Lon Milo 1948 births Living people 20th-century American male musicians 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American non-fiction writers 21st-century American male musicians 21st-century American male writers 21st-century American non-fiction writers American Thelemites American occult writers Enochian magic Members of Ordo Templi Orientis Musicians from Long Beach, California People from Columbus, Nebraska Writers from Long Beach, California Writers from Nebraska