Saulimedes' Enochian Chess Posts 3/6: Why Play Enochian Chess?

Here's a question that has bothered philosophers since Plato: What is a game for?

The standard answer (entertainment, passing time, competition) explains chess clubs but not Enochian Chess. Nobody constructs a variant with Egyptian god-forms, throne-seizure mechanics, and concourse captures just to pass time.

Then again, maybe they do. Fun is underrated as a motive.

The Golden Dawn, however, had a specific additional answer: Enochian Chess subsumes other passive systems of divination and has "powerful prophetic properties."

Here's how divination worked: before the game, a question was formulated. A special piece called Ptah (the creative principle, "the Opener") was placed on a square corresponding to the query's nature. The game was played, and the outcome interpreted as the oracle's answer.

Think about what this means. Unlike Tarot, where cards are drawn randomly, or the I Ching, where yarrow stalks determine hexagrams, Enochian Chess divination is active. The querent participates. Strategy matters. Skill affects outcome.

The Golden Dawn claimed you could use the game "for practical ACTIVE divination, to alter and influence events as well as to simply predict."

Bold claim. Does it work?

I have no idea. Neither do you. But here's what I can say about the game's benefits, regardless of your metaphysical commitments:

BENEFIT THE FIRST: It's Genuinely Fun

The mechanics create situations you won't find elsewhere. The leaping queen. The throne vulnerability. The frozen armies becoming terrain. The concourse that can take your own teammate's piece. The prisoner exchange negotiations.

You don't need to believe in anything to enjoy complex four-player dynamics.

BENEFIT THE SECOND: Alliance Training

The fixed alliance structure (Blue-Black vs. Red-Yellow) with throne-seizure, prisoner exchange, and withdrawal creates a simulation of complex multi-agent relationships.

You might capture an enemy king, then be offered a prisoner exchange. Do you take it? Your ally might seize your throne if your king falls. Is that good or bad?

These decisions model strategic thinking that most games don't require. You're coordinating with allies whose interests partially but not completely align with yours.

Sound like anything in real life?

BENEFIT THE THIRD: Pattern Recognition

The Concourse can only happen at five specific positions. Four pieces from four players must converge into a 2x2 formation, and whoever completes it captures all three others, including their teammate's.

You learn to see these configurations forming. You develop peripheral awareness of what's developing across the whole board, not just your immediate tactical concerns.

Whether this trains you to see "elemental configurations" in daily life or just makes you better at complex board games, either way it's useful.

BENEFIT THE FOURTH: Symbol Integration (Optional)

Zalewski's book organizes into four parts reflecting the elements: Earth (history/construction), Air (rules/strategy), Water (divination), Fire (adept training). The correspondence system includes elements, sub-elements, planets, Tarot, Hebrew letters, Egyptian god-forms, and more.

You can ignore all of this and just play the game. But if you want to think about how Fire pieces behave on Water squares, the system is there.

BENEFIT THE FIFTH: Communion with Whatever

Mathers played with an invisible partner. Yeats reported games conducted with "Mathers, his wife, and a spirit."

Was Mathers communing with actual disembodied intelligence? Accessing deeper unconscious layers? Randomizing moves through a process that felt like guidance?

I don't know. The experience of sitting across from an empty chair, waiting for the move to become clear, does something to consciousness. Whether "something" involves angels, archetypes, or neurology is a question I leave to specialists.

What can be said: the game changes the player. It trains attention. It forces multi-perspectival thinking. It offers structured engagement with uncertainty that is neither passive reception nor anxious control.

And it's fun. Never discount fun.

Sources:

• Zalewski, Chris. Enochian Chess of the Golden Dawn. Llewellyn Publications, 1994.
• Regardie, Israel. The Golden Dawn. Llewellyn Publications, 1989.
• Nichols, Steve. Rosicrucian Chess of the Golden Dawn. Mandrake Press, 2017.