Wonderland Chess

As some of you may know, I have gone through some changes lately. A couple nights ago, while unpacking some boxes, I came across two little boxes of what look like small playing cards. They are actually chess pieces.

Each piece is made of four cards. They are four of the same card and they are taped together and cut in such a way that they can stand straight up and be seen from all angles as the same card. From the top each piece looks like an X.

There should be four boxes of pieces like this; one for each suit. I can only find two.

I know, this is supposed to be about chess and those look like cards. So let me explain.

Back in high school I had these dreams about Wonderland. Actually, the dreams continued for several years past high school. The most memorable Wonderland inspired dream starred the White Rabbit and Mad Hatter driving a Ford Model T through the streets of Lake Havasu City. Of course they were going way too fast and overturned the car. I tried to talk to the Rabbit, but he kept tapping his watch. The two used the hand crank so vigorously that they righted the car and sped off.

There was often a chess theme in these Wonderland dreams. Floors were black and white or black and red and the cards would move about in what I thought to be random directions. Or that is what I believed after the first two or three of these dreams. Upon further reflection and more dreams I realized the cards were moving about Wonderland using the movements of the Kings, Queens, Knights, and pawns of chess.

One day I was about to leave a store when I saw party favors on sale. I reached into the bin with the tiny bicycle decks, and pulled one deck out. There was a furious spinning in my mind and then I could see my red and black folding chess board with the cards moving on it in place of my usual chess pieces.

I did the quick math and threw the four tiny decks in my cart (how many kids would appreciate playing cards anyway?). About an hour later I had my chess board all set up with my new pieces. I made a special game of chess with four players. I modeled Wonderland Chess after Enochian Chess.

I had read about the symbolism of playing cards. The four suits are the four seasons (four Elements) and the 52 cards are the 52 weeks in the year, and this amazing surreal game made much more sense to me than that convoluted Golden Dawn creation.

What I didn't realize until years later... I had recreated Four Seasons Chess. Four Seasons Chess is, ironically, the game Enochian Chess was based upon.

Now I want to make a new set of pieces using a four-color deck.

Grimoire For The Apprentice Wizard: Elemental Shields

One of the books I am currently reading is Grimoire For The Apprentice Wizard by Oberon Zell-Ravenheart. I'm not ready to give a full review of the book, but I thought I should mention a little something about the book's elemental and cardinal correspondences.

On page 120 of the book we are instructed to place four indicators in the cardinal directions. There are four small illustrations given as suggestion. They are four shields with astrological signs and the four alchemical symbols for the elements. When I first saw these I smiled because I was already making similar shields.

After looking over Oberon's shields I was confused. He placed Water in the West and has yellow for the color of Air. Oberon has, of course, used the four colors of the four houses of Hogwarts, so some license must be allowed for the use of color. And since modern people think of green as an Earth color, it makes sense that Oberon would assign it to the element Earth.

Oberon's Shields

	East
North		South
	West

But now, WHAT IF we were to try and make the four given colors, four elements, and twelve signs conform to the more ancient forms of Western Magic? This is the exercise at hand.

First we must note the attribution of the elements to the four cardinal directions that most people use today. The assignment of the elements to the quarters as used by the Golden Dawn, Oberon, and many Wiccans, can be traced to Eliphaz Levi's Transcendental Magic.

Since Eliphas Levi is not a real ancient source, maybe we should see what our GoTo man, Agrippa, has to say.

Agrippa's Shields

	East
North		South
	West

As you can see, Agrippa has Fire in the East, Water in the North, Air in the West and Earth to the South. I have to say I didn't see that coming. As for the colors, I have assigned the Hogwarts colors that I thought Agrippa would approve.

Looking at Agrippa's shields I wonder what he was thinking. Was his young brain just overwhelmed by the sheer volume of information he was exposed to? Did he just make a simple error? The world may never know.

How about those Rosicrucians and Alchemists (those guys that came before the Golden Dawn)? Should we make some shields representing their school of thought? Why not!

George Ripley's key as reprinted in Elias Ashmole's "Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum" looks like this:

As you can see, Ripley has assigned the elements and astrological signs to the four cardinal directions. All we have to do is assign the colors of the Houses of Hogwarts. And here they are...

Ripley's Shields

	East
North		South
	West

Of the three sets of shields produced so far, these shields probably conform most to the ancient arts of magic and alchemy. To make the shields more accurate, they should probably be red, yellow, black, and white. But then we wouldn't be sticking to the Harry Potter theme.

The assigning of green to Air is supported by the majority of sources that are more than 500 years old. If this assignment confuses you, just stop and imagine each shield represents a season. Moving clockwise from the spring Air in the East to the heat of summer in the South and then on through the dryness of autumn and wetness of winter. Also note the symmetry of the elemental symbols.

With this I conclude the exercise.

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Resources:
Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum 
 Transcendental Magic
Agrippa's Three Books of Occult Philosophy
Wikipedia Entry about Hogwarts
Oberon's Grey School

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