This article wishes to report on this lesser-known system of Hermetic divination, giving a quick overview of its history, symbolic attributions and operation, as well as discussing its peculiar casting and interpretation methods.

Being a divination system in which four magical adepts actively participate in, and later interpret, also in tandem, each individual move вЂ“ scrupulously recorded during game-play вЂ“ it constitutes quite a unique case in Western divinatory practices. Yet during its use in the curriculum of the Adeptus Minor of the Golden Dawn magical system it moved beyond its obvious possibilities as an aid to study, contemplation and meditation of Hermetic symbolism, and developed a different system of play that allowed using it as a divination tool. It also has вЂ“ as its name implies вЂ“ important connections to the Enochian system of magic originally channelled by the Elizabethan Magus John Dee and his seer the alchemist Edward Kelley in the 1580s, and later modified and вЂњHermeticizedвЂќ by Samuel Lindell MacGregor Mathers and William Wynn Westcott of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, at the end of the nineteenth century. Enochian Chess, originally named Rosicruician Chess, is a board game for four players comparable in some aspects to traditional chess, but adapted from the Indian four-handed Chaturanga. Apart from being able to act as a form of erudite entertainment for knowledgeable Hermeticists, it can also be used for informal, ludic group meditation and contemplation of the various elemental, geomantic, astrological and tarot symbolism its boards and pieces represent. Enochian Chess, originally named вЂњRosicruician ChessвЂќ, is a board game for four players comparable in some aspects to traditional chess, but adapted from the Indian four-handed Chaturanga.

Golden dawn enochian chess