Lon Milo DuQuette is an author, lecturer, musician, recording artist, and esoteric scholar. He’s written almost two dozen books on magick and the occult and is sometimes hailed as one of the most entertaining writers in his field. His work includes The Chicken Qabalah, The Magick of Aleister Crowley, An Accidental Christ, and many more.
In this interview, we talk about Qabalah, Jesus, the Bible, Tarot, and more. Want the full scoop? Then watch the video! Otherwise, read on to hear about some of the highlights.
Call me Starlord…
First off, I have to share a little story that you won’t see in the video. Sometime prior to hitting the record button, I introduced myself to Lon… as I often do to people I’ve never before met — after all, it’s only polite. And respectfully, I inquired if it was okay to address him by his first name.
“No.” He said. “Call me Starlord.”
Lon then proceeded to stare me down in silence through my computer screen for a solid fifteen seconds before bursting into laughter.
The man can’t help but be hilarious.
Background
Starlord, I mean… Lon Milo DuQuette… spent a lot of time in the church as a kid, performing tasks similar to what an altar boy would do. And for the most part, he liked it. He liked the building, the egregore, and the idea of spirituality… but not the way God was presented. In fact, he had a hard time believing that “grownups” believed in all that stuff.
When I asked Lon for a brief story about he got first got into the occult, he gave me a one word answer: “LSD.”
He paused, laughed, and then asked me if it was brief enough.
The full story, by the way, is actually such a fascinating and fanciful tale that he wrote an entire book about it called My Life with the Spirits. Spoilers: it does contain mention of LSD, visions of Jesus, and a transcendental experience of listening to The Beatles and realizing that all you need really is love. I won’t ruin the whole story for you because I highly suggest you read the book. Just like most of Lon’s writing, it’s entertaining and hilarious.
When studying Eastern mysticism, Lon says he “bumped into the Qabalah.” And when he got a taste for that, it wasn’t very long before he “bumped into Aleister Crowley, too.”
I’d say he more than bumped into it! In fact, he wrote some of the most influential books on the topics.
The Chicken Qabalah
One of those highly influential books, of course, is The Chicken Qabalah. It’s been on my list of “Qabalah Books I’d Recommend” since forever ago, which you can go read more about if you like.
The book is written as a fictional account of someone named Rabbi Lamed Ben Clifford and presents a strange collection of teachings, including a transcript of a radio interview, a failed documentary screenplay, and a collection of “rare essays” from the “Zerubbabel Institute of Philosophical Youth.”
As you read the book, you almost just… accidentally learn Qabalah without realizing it. Everything is presented in such a fun and comedic way.
There were so many things that I wanted to ask Lon about this stuff… I’m so grateful that I got the chance to speak with him for an hour. Watch the interview if you want to hear all my questions and his explanations for them all.
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Thoughts on God, Spirits, and You and Me
One of the recurring themes in The Chicken Qabalah (and in a lot of Lon’s other work, as well) is the following idea. “It’s all in your head… you just have no idea how big your head is.”
Lon doesn’t believe the existence of god or gods… at least not in the same way that most people understand the concept. What he refers to as “god” is really the singularity — the source or collectiveness that we all extend from. In that sense, God is all of us… and God is all in our heads. And he says if our “meat brains” could just expand their bandwidth a bit, I’d eventually realize that I wasn’t talking to him, I was talking to myself. Because from Lon’s point of view, we’re all really just one thing.
The reason we exist as separate from each other in this moment is because for some reason, there is something that we can only do as individuals.
And the same theory applies to summoning demons, angels, or other spirits. They’re all in your head, too.
It was really fascinating to hear Lon explain all of this. These are questions I’ve always hoped to asked him since I first read his books years ago. I’d highly suggest listening to this portion of the interview so you can experience his words directly.
Developing Tarot Correspondences
Lon’s upcoming release (which at the time of writing this article is slated for May 2025) is called The Tarot Architect and will be an instructional guide to creating your own Tarot deck.
He says that while you’re creating a card in the physical world, you’re installing it in yourself. There are a number of meditations and rituals described in the book that are designed to help you fully realize your understanding of Tarot.
“It’s like squirting WD-40 into the rusted reflection of the singularity in your own soul… or it’s just a way to kill about a year of time,” he laughed. Remember… Tarot isn’t just a divination system. It also maps to the Qabalah.
I have to say that I’m particularly excited to check this out next year because it’s been a dream of mine to design a deck one day, but I’m so hesitant to start because I’m at least vaguely aware of how much work it would be.
Who knows? Maybe one day I’ll do it.
He showed off some cards from a deck he designed several years ago (The Tarot of Ceremonial Magick) that were the inspiration for this new work. He also explained some of the correspondences, including the sound scale. If you listen to the interview, you can hear him intoning YOD – HEH – VAV – HEH.
An Accidental Christ
“Wise men still seek him,” says Lon… as he’s searching for his copy of An Accidental Christ, one of his most recent releases that was published by Llewellyn Books.
He explains the inspiration, which occurred in the shower — his “phone booth to God,” and says that he figured out how Jesus turned water to wine.
Alright… he didn’t actually tell me how he did it, though. I guess that’s a mystery that will only be revealed by reading the book. No worries, Selene got me a copy for Christmas.
The rest of the book explains some of the other miracles that Jesus performed, like feeding crowds of people, walking on water, and all of the healings. I’m quite curious to hear Lon’s perspective on all of this! He always has a very interesting perspective on Bible stories.
Other Books by Lon Milo DuQuette
If you’d like to hear more on Lon’s perspective on a variety of occult topics, check out some of his other books… like these:
How to Find Lon Milo DuQuette
Lon goes live on Facebook just about every day. If you want to connect with him, that’s a great place to start. You can also follow him on YouTube, check out some of his music on ReverbNation, or look to some of his upcoming courses on Magick.me.
Here’s some links for you:
- Facebook @lon.duquette
- YouTube @lonmilo
- More on YouTube @arcanumluminarium
- Magick.Me Courses
- Music on ReverbNation
The Most Qabalistic Song Ever
When I was browsing through Lon’s discography, I came across a wonderful recording of a song called When You Fall In Love. It’s got a folky, Jazz Manouche vibe that I really dig.
But what I truly appreciated were the lyrics. Here’s a little excerpt:
When you kiss your love,
You kiss the world.
You kiss everything.
Sub-atomic particles start to tingle,
Space and time mingle
WHEN YOU FALL IN LOVE.
You kiss everything by kissing your love because your love is everything, including you. You are the world. Your love is the world. Your love is you and you are your love. Everything is everything else, and everything is love. And love is all you need, man. Wait, that’s another song.
Seriously, though, all of those statements are backed up by more complicated Qabalistic theories that become recurring themes throughout much of Lon’s work. Go read his books.
And if you want to hear Lon’s answer to the signature question… go watch the interview!
Excellent work reading this post to its end. Selene and I have to run to dinner, but before I go, a quick disclaimer. There are Amazon links in this post. If you use one of those links to make a purchase, they will pay me a tiny commission. Now… we’re hungry. Bye.
Aerik Arkadian 
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