Just yesterday Weiser Antiquarian sent out an email about their catalog #92 New, Used & Rare Books: A Miscellany which included a boxed Enochian Chess set produced in very limited numbers by Adam McLean back in 1988. Even at over $600, that set is already sold; which both surprises me and doesn’t surprise me. It was certainly the item from the catalog that caught my eye, but, seriously, over $600 for a papercraft Enochian Chess set?! I mean … it’s enough to make me seriously think about actually following through with making some sets like I’ve imagined doing recently.
Adam McLean’s Enochian Chess set was No. 6 in the Hermetic Research Series, and is out of print. You can see some images of the pieces and pawns over at the Alchemy Web Site.
For some reason, Enochian Chess has been on my mind recently. Of course, there’s a bit about that in the venerable The Golden Dawn: The Original Account of the Teachings, Rites & Ceremonies of the Hermetic Order (Llewellyn’s Golden Dawn Series). And, there’s also used copies of Enochian Chess of the Golden Dawn: A Four-Handed Chess Game (Llewellyn’s Golden Dawn) available for those seeking more information, and some okay illustrations for those looking to construct their own sets, without having the chops to do their own artwork; but, it still requires effort of the mundane-crafty kind that some might not possess.
There is some information in the library about Enochian Chess; mostly in David Richard Jones’ Invisible College which recently was added to the site, such as OFFICIAL RITUAL By G. H. FRATER D.D.C.F., THE CONCOURSE OF THE FORCE: ENOCHIAN OR ROSICRUCIAN CHESS, a section for Rosicrucian Chess in Bookmarks for Enochian Gfx-L and Michael Arndt’s Chess Boards. But, it’s all still really DIY.
I’ve definitely imagined a papercraft set produced by the Museum of Lost Wonder, in the same style and attention to detail as the Tomb of Illumination, a papercraft tomb of Christian Rosenkreutz which I’ve posted about before. How awesome would that be? Pretty darn, I’d say.
But, I’ve been looking over some of the work I’ve done in the past and thought that, although it would be a big stretch and a really big project, I could do a pretty awesome set if I put my mind to it. I’ve imagined making an downloadable PDF for an Enochian Chess set available at the library a couple of times, but I’ve also been thinking of producing some sets with nice boards, boards with a plexiglass surface and felted underneath; and, I’ve been thinking about how I’d go about making some nice pieces. Heck, everyone is all over kickstarting things these days, and I can imagine doing something like that to help support the library. I wonder if anyone would be interested in that? Maybe a kickstarter campaign with a full PDF and instructions for a papercraft set at the low end and at the upper end an actual set hand made and ready to play? Anyone?