Paranormal Nonfiction Book Review: Memoir of a Practicing Magician

This author has served as a national and international officer of one of the most influential magical societies of the 20^th century, and he is an acknowledged authority on Aleister Crowley. MY LIFE WITH THE SPIRITS documents DuQuette’s personal experiences as a practicing magician, which are amazing.

The well-written, articulate memoir begins in 1967 with DuQuette, age 18, and his older brother Marc tripping on LSD in the Mojave desert and vowing to become “holy men.” Marc eventually becomes an Eastern yoga ascetic and chemical dependence counselor, while the author chooses a path that Marc and many others consider patently evil. Today DuQuette communicates with angels, spirits, and demons, and worships “strange and terrible gods,” he says. He readily professes to be a practitioner of “black art.”

DuQuette describes his Nebraska childhood in terms both hilarious and sad. Little “Lonnie” became an alar boy at age nine, but inwardly, the boy never bought into organized religion. When DuQuette graduated from high school, he moved to California to attend college in Costa Mesa, where he embraced psychedelics, music, and yoga, and pursued enlightenment. DuQuette dropped out of college, married love-of-his-life Constance, and together they “plunged into the primitive world of rural hippiedom.” Paranormal experiences soon followed, including a ghostly visit from DuQuettte’s recently passed father. The mysteries of Rosicrucianism and esoteric Freemasonry subsequently became the focus of DuQuette’s life (his father was a Freemason). As I read about DuQuette’s visions and Enochian magick rituals—and their results—I felt myself drawn into another reality. This man has ventured into realms of behavior and consciousness that few others are willing to explore. Reading his memoir expanded my mind and what I believe is possible. Be warned: I enjoyed that expansion, but it’s not for everyone. You have to trust that, as a powerful magician, DuQuette works toward constructive ends, as he claims.