Tag Archives: Michael Arndt

Enochian Chess set … sold!

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?

minecraft

minecraft
minecraft, originally uploaded by Ankh-neteru.

 

It actually took me a minute to figure out this image even belonged in the pool, but take a closer look. This certainly reminds me of the Quake Enochian Temple by Michael Arndt, as an experiment to interpret the work of Benjamin Rowe. There’s definitely a long history of creating temples and lodges in virtual space using the newest tools available, whether that’s VRML, Quake or, as this shows, now Minecraft.

 

The Hermetic Library visual pool is a visual scavenger hunt for images of a living Western Esoteric Tradition.

Images of your ritual or ritual space, images of sigils or tools, showing off your own library or special volume from the restricted stacks, sacred spaces and places, esoteric artefacts and installations, inspired paintings and people – these and much more are part of the culture and practice of magick.

More images of The Quake Enochian Temple of Michael Arndt

For quite some time now, the archive of The Enochian World of Benjamin Rowe has featured an image from a Quake mod by Michael Arndt. I have been working lately with David Richard Jones to create some historically interesting archives, and in these there are more images from the Enochian Temple which you may want to take a look at if you are interested in either Enochian or, I suppose, Quake Mods.

You can gander at these additional images in Michael Arndt’s Temples directory of the Enochian Gfx section of David Richard Jones’ Invisible College or from an archive of the Gallery and Gallery Annex from the Oratory of the Enochian Forum

New sections for some historically interesting David Richard Jones sites

Working directly with David Richard Jones’ permission, I have added two new sections which are rescued archives of historical sites of interest. These two sites represent a very interesting collection of historical materials about the Western Esoteric Tradition on the Internet, and you may want to take a gander through these and rediscover several treasures with me as I go through posting about them.

The first site is the Oratory of the Enochian Forum. About the only thing left of interest here is the two gallery pages with images from the Quake Enochian Temple of Michael Arndt, about which I’ll be making another post in a few minutes.

The next archive is the rather extensive pages of David Richard Jones’ Invisible College site. There’s a lot to discover here, and a great number of links to other historical sites on the Internet. As I go through these, I may find that there’s material on the subsequent sites that can be rescued.

So, join in taking a look at the interesting treasures contained in these newly available archives added to the Hermetic Library collection.