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Ceremonial magician and esoteric badass Lon Milo Duquette is one of the coolest guys I know. A leader in the O.T.O. and an expert on Aleister Crowley (admit it, you went through a phase), Lon has written about a dozen books on magic so far, including the only book on esoteric Qabalah that you will ever understand without hardcore magical training. Lon also wrote the only book on Crowley’s Thoth Tarot that you will ever understand. If you’re interested in learning more about magic, but your only exposure to a Real Magician was a panel with Grant at San Diego or a DVD of that Disinformation guy, Lon just might rock your world.

Lon’s latest book, THE KEY TO SOLOMON’S KEY, takes a peek at Freemasonry and ruffles a few feathers in the process. Secret societies? Sounds like comics…

Your writing style is erudite and delightfully conversational. Have you always been a writer? Or did you pick it up to serve a larger goal of demystifying esoteric information?

No, I haven’t always been a writer. I started out as an invalid infant but that didn’t work out. I thought about being a writer as I was growing up, but because I didn’t have anything to say and there was no such thing as ‘spell check’ I gave that idea up too. In fact, in high school my girlfriend (now my wife of 39 years) had to write most of my English term paper for me.

I didn’t start writing professionally until I turned 40. By then I realized that the rock star/screen idol/gigolo/cowboy/astronaut/President of the United States thing wasn’t going to work out. Also, I woke up one morning and realized that most people that knew more than I about western occultism were dead and that after all these years I might have something to say. Finally, the real thing that drove my decision to become a writer was the availability of ‘spell check.’

Can you talk a bit about your recent forays into Freemasonry?

No. That’s a secret.

Please? C’mon.

Okay. For you.

Even as an invalid infant I’ve been interested in Freemasonry. My father was a Mason and would tease me with all his titles and strange books full of symbols. When I asked him to tell me more he said, “I can’t. It’s a secret.” Dad was a cool guy and I thought if the Masons turn out cool guys like Dad I wanted to be a Mason too. I belonged to DeMolay (the Masonic young men’s concordant organization) but didn’t actually join the Masons until I was 50 years old. By then I’d spent over 25 years studying the hardcore esoteric sciences that beat unnoticed by most Masons at the heart of Craft. I have to say that my occult education has made my involvement in Masonry extremely rewarding.

Is the study of Freemasony an asset to a fledgling occultist’s education? It has always kind of surprised me that there aren’t more ceremonial magicians practicing Masonry, simply because there’s so much magic there and some magical traditions have drawn from it so liberally.

From an educational standpoint the “study” of Freemasonry is a huge asset to a fledgling occultist’s education. But for the new occultist involvement in Freemasonry isn’t necessarily much help at all. One learns most of the juiciest stuff from sources outside the lodge room. Indeed, in most lodges today you’ll be hard pressed to find any of your lodge brothers interested in the esoteric roots of Masonry. Sure, there a research lodges, etc. but they are just exploring material that is open for anyone to study.

That being said, for the seasoned, practicing magician, already well educated in the occult world, involvement in Masonry is mind-blowingly rewarding. The occultist Mason see things most of his lodge Brothers don’t see. The ceremonies and lectures come alive to the occult Mason and the various degrees become truly transformational experiences. Even though I feel that every member is enriched in some way by their involvement in the Craft I truly feel sorry for most of my Brothers. They do all that work and don’t have much of a clue of what it’s all about.

It feels like every time my husband turns on the History Channel, it’s either Peter Weller talking about ancient Rome, or a show on the Templars, or the Masons. Thanks to your archnemesis, Dan Brown, secret societies and conspiracy theories have finally gone mainstream. The general public flocks to the fancy displays at Barnes & Noble, and yet their interest seems to stop there. Your book mentions that today’s Masonic brothers are generally old dudes. Where are all the whippersnappers?

I’m 58 years old and I AM the whippersnapper in my Lodge! Actually, all the Dan Brownish stuff is bringing younger and younger people into the Craft. Membership figures are starting to improve. I believe if Masonry is to survive it will be due largely to the young esoteric Masons.

Your latest book contains some shocking revelations, such as the idea that the Old Testament… shall we say… might not actually be a historical document. Have you personally experienced any backlash?

H appily,
E very Mason offers his
L oving support to any Brother who
P ublishes what they

M ight consider secrets of the Craft.
A nyway, in the book I’ve revealed none of the
S igns
O f recognition
N or would I reveal
S ecrets of Degree work which I’m vowed to keep.

W hen the book came out
A ll my Mason friends of course
N eeded
T o read it.

T o my relief, none
O f them objected to anything, and were very

K ind
I n their comments and review
L etters. Brotherly
L ove, Relief and Truth are the watchword of

M asons
E verywhere!

I come across a lot of people who are drawn to magic, read a ton about it, but don’t practice it. They seem to want to. What advice would you have for someone sincerely interested but not quite able to make the leap?

Seriously (did I say that?) the decision to leap or not to leap is up to each person. If a person just wants to frolic on the outer-court steps of the great temple of magick, who am I to say that’s wrong.

I write the books that I wish had been available to me in the first ten or 15 years of my esoteric studies. (Also I hope they are valuable to more experienced occultists who may need a little reality check.) Hopefully my works shave a few years off the magical learning curve. But even with the learning curve shortened it can’t take the leap for you.

Have you considered writing a biography of Crowley? Or do we have enough good Crowley biographies? I read one that was kind of lame.

No. “Perdurabo” by Yale University’s Dr. Richard Kaczynski is the finest, most thorough Crowley biography ever written.

If you could ask Aleister Crowley one question, what would it be?

Are puns funny across the Abyss?

When stuck in traffic, what’s the best way to make a parking spot appear?

Look in your rear-view mirror.

To catch up on “Pastrami for the Dead,” click here.

Next week, the Soul Drive wraps up, as does “Pastrami for the Dead”! See you in seven!

To catch-up and/or review what’s happened so far on 1 Way Ticket, look to the right and click on Chapter 1 and 2’s Catch-Up Pages

1 Way Ticket is written by Chris Arrant and illustrated by Daniel Warner

Read Page One here.
Now, on to Page Two:

Please join us next Tuesday, December 12, for Page Three.

A word about the credit box: Fiffe and I had been kicking this story around for over a year, on and off, never quite coming up with the right hook: “what about this? nah. what about that? nah.”

This summer, when Dean Haspiel was kind enough to let me crash at his place during MoCCA, Fiffe came over and we were sitting around talking comix in general, and REST STOP in particular. We kicked around our ideas, and Dean said: “what if…?”

And that was it - the perfect piece to the puzzle. Everything came together from there; the final script was done in nothing flat. I wanted to credit him as co-writer, but he graciously declined. So he gets the nod for “plot assist”, which is kind of weird, but there you have it. From Mike and me - thanks, Dean.

Previously in STUCK…

Chapter One; Chapter Two (to date)…

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Thanks for checking us out. This is the last installment of STUCK in 2006. Tom and I are taking next week off, returning the following week with our 5X5 Recap and then STUCK returns on 1/1/07.

But we have something special for you in three weeks. Come back and check it out. And if you’re not caught up with STUCK by January, here’s your chance!

Tom & Vito

TODT HILL, an adventure strip by Kleid & Colden, updates here every Friday.
Kids can be so damn touchy.

Appearance Note! Neil will be signing copies of his graphic novel,
BROWNSVILLE, at the NBM Publishing table during the Small Press Book Fair
this Sunday, December 3rd, at 20 W. 44th St., between 5th and 6th. Come down
and say hello and talk like a pirate. Arrr!

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