Help with Enochian Chess

Hello there. I want to know if someone here has some experience with the Enochian Chess. Recently I have a chance to see what their boards and their pieces are. I think I understand what the pieces are and their meaning, so there is a correlation between tarot court cards and these “rayable godforms,” as they say, is more o less clear to me why they are attributed to a particular Egyptian god according to the elemental board and elemental sub-quarter. The rules and general usage of the game are also understandable for me (the use of dice, the movements of the pieces, the Ptah piece, the election of the board and sub-quarter and that kind of things). Although, I have trouble at that part, when the pieces move o ray in each turn and a divinatory meaning is attributed to this. I see each lone square is divided in four parts and each of these comes in one of the four colours attributed to the elements, namely, red, blue, yellow, and black/green. ¿What is that mean exactly in this kind of reading? Also are four symbols that they alone are more o less clear to my in their meaning. They can be a Mayor card of the Tarot, a geomantic figure, an astrological sign, a letter (English or Enochian equivalent) and maybe I forgetting some others.

I don’t know much about the Enochian System. It appears to be so complicated, and I don’t pretend to someone here would give an entire treatise about it. Maybe you could explain to me only the how can the set of symbols and colours/elements would give divinatory meanings in each development of the game. What means to the Querent the move of a particular piece into a particular square? Furthermore, what means a check or checkmate to an ally or opponent? What means to capture a piece for a player, whether if is prime mover, ally or opponent?

I hope you can help me with this. Thank you

I'm afraid I don't know enough to answer your question, but will be interested in any replies you do get. The GD's Enochian Chess system seems one of the most complex systems, but I'd really love to learn about it.

I thank to you anyway. I'd very grateful if you refer this post to anyone who can help with this.

enochian chess - basics

The golden dawn initiates often played this game as they believed it created balance and harmony.

The primary basis for the enochian system are the 4 elements -

fire
water
air
earth

and once the correct balance of these elements was achieved then the 5th element of spirit could be achieved.

and how these elements interact and relate to each other.
Enochian chess is a four player chess variant in which two teams (always blue (water) & black (earth) versus red (fire) & yellow (air) strive to capture both kings of the opposing team.
Notice that always the two female elements (water and earth) are on the same team and the two male elements (fire and air) are on the same team

Before Play Begins

Prior to the start of a game the players should choose which of the four boards they will use. There are four boards each one relating to a different element ie fire board,water board,air board,earth board. Depending on the type of question are issue you wish to know about. Though if using an ordinary chess board this will surfice and can be given the designation of the element used. The players will also need to determine what color each will play (thereby determining who will be on which team) and what color will go first. Once these issues are settled play may proceed, going clockwise around the board.

Team Play

There is no individual winner in Enochian chess. For example, if the blue army is eliminated from play and the black army goes on to the capture the red and yellow kings, then the team of blue and black have won the game.

Team members are normally forbidden from capturing each other's pieces, unless otherwise noted. Pieces belonging to armies on the same team do not threaten each other. (E.g. The blue and black kings can be adjacent without giving each other check.)

Each side has nine pieces
one king - one queen,one knight one rook, one bishop and four pawns.

Capture of the King

Kings are not mated in Enochian chess, though players must warn their opponents that the king is threatend by declaring "check" as in FIDE chess. A king in check MUST be moved, even if that means putting the king in check again. The player with the king in check may move another piece only if the king is blocked by friendly pieces so that it cannot be moved out of check.

When a king is captured all the pieces of that color become frozen. They remain on the board, but are unable to move, do not threaten other pieces, nor can they be captured. They simply sit on the board acting as blocking terrain.

Seizing the Throne

Moving the king onto the throne square of a friendly player transfers control of the friendly army. The two armies still take separate turns, but are under the control of one player. Frozen pieces may be reactivated by this method. The player retains control of both armies even if the king that seized control is moved off of the throne square. If the usurping king is captured, control of the friendly army reverts to the original player, assuming that the army still has a king to lead it. Otherwise both armies are kingless and those players have lost the game.

Exchange of Prisoners

Two opposing players who have both captured enemy kings may agree to an exchange of prisoners. The exchange can only be made if both players with captured kings agree and neither have lost their own king. The kings are placed upon their own throne squares, or if a throne square is occupied, the nearest empty square.
Frozen pieces revert to normal pieces when their king is brought back into play in this manner.


Priviledged Pawn

If a player is reduced to a king, a queen, and a pawn; a king, a bishop, and a pawn or a king and a pawn, then the pawn is considered to be priviledged. Upon reaching its normal promotion zone a priviledged pawn may be promoted to a queen, rook, bishop, or knight as the player chooses. In effect, the pawn becomes a normal FIDE pawn. However, if a priviledged pawn is promoted to a piece still in play, the original piece is demoted to the pawn of its type.

Pieces

The king moves one step in any direction as in FIDE chess.

The queen moves by leaping two squares in any direction. Note - the queen can leap over other pieces but can only move two spaces at a time..

The rook moves orthogonally as in FIDE chess. Castling is not allowed in Enochian chess.

The bishop moves diagonally as in FIDE chess.

The knight behaves exactly as it does in FIDE chess.

The four classes of pawn depending on which piece the pawn starts in front of (pawn of queen, pawn of rook, pawn of bishop, and pawn of knight) behave much like FIDE pawns, moving one space forward or capturing one space in the forward diagonal. pawns can promote as in FIDE chess, except that promotion of pawns only occurs after a player has lost at least one pawn. Promotion must be delayed if all four of a player's pawn are uncaptured. Also, a pawn may only promote to its type. (A pawn of rook promotes to a rook, a pawn of knight promote to a knight, etc.) In othe words if a pawn started in front of a rook it may only promote to another rook or if a pawn started in front of the throne square it may only promote to a bishop and so on. Furthermore, pawns are not allowed an initial double step.

The pieces start play like this please note that each 1 of the 4 corner sqares is a throne square which may be shared between the king and any other 1 piece at a time. Though once a piece moves off the throne square that piece may not again during the game share the throne square .If the king is taken by an opposing piece whilst on the throne square, any other piece also on the throne square are taken as well. The bishop always starts on the throne square along with the king. Then the queen is placed next to the throne square,then the knight and then the rook. The pawns start in front of each piece.
The pieces playing for the element of fire face south, the pieces playing for the element of water face east, the pieces playing for the element of air face north and the pieces for earth face west.

I have tried this game using normal chess pieces (just to see how the game would play out) from 4 different sets (though it can be played with two different sets) and found it quite entertaining and relaxing though quite challenging also as there are obviously different pieces coming at you from different angles and although you have a teammate you cannot always rely on them to back you up as they may have other more immediate dangers to deal with.

Once the rules have been grasped you can move on to the divination aspect which started by players rolling a dice to determine which piece to move and
once the game has ended then a reading was created from the result and where each piece had ended up on the board.

Blessings

crystal dawn

Goodness, that was quite a write-up!

I was going to suggest that you check out any of the Golden Dawn groups at Yahoo! Groups. You can probably find helpful info there on this specialized subject. Check their archives.

Enochian Chess and Court Cards

Play experience with Enochian Chess give additional insights about Tarot Court cards, I think. With time, one assimilates the idea behind each piece, and therefore each Court card and such meanings as the ones that appear in GD texts begin to have more and more sense.

An example of this is the Rock piece. The Rock is comparable to the Knave in Tarot. The most powerful piece in Enochian Chess is not the Queen as in normal chess, but the Rock, since the Queen’s movement although still could be made in vertical/horizontal/diagonal it is limited to only two squares in each direction, “jumping” over other pieces in her way like Horses. Still, Rock moves same way as in normal chess, diagonal/horizontal and any number of squares. Normally, rocks make such powerful pieces but only in late game, when all the other pieces (allied and that of the opponents) are out of the game.

Texts such as Liber T say that Knave/Princess is “powerful and terrible… yet her power existeth not, save by reason of the others: and then indeed it is mighty and terrible materially, and is the Throne of the Forces of the Spirit.” Rock, in the same way gains power and predominance in later game when all other pieces representing all the other court cards (knight, Queen, Bishop) or aspects of theirs (pawns) are out of her way.

Equally, the Knaves/Princes we are told us to make harbingers of future events or messages. Also in this same approach we can see why they represent the youthfulness for they represent the potential of the one child for becoming a fully developed adult over time who might make the difference in the human society in the future.

Likewise Bishops, representing the Air element or the mind, are also limited in their movements by the other piece; that is, mind over the issue questioned, but material and other conditions always limit one’s plans.

The correspondences between Enochian Chess and Court cards are these:

- Kings in chess are Aces of each of the four suits (in Enochian Chess there are four players instead only two opponents). Spirit element.
- Horses are Tarot Kings or Knights as in A.C. Thoth Tarot. Fire element.
- Queens are Tarot Queens. Water element.
- Bishops are Princes in Thoth Tarot. Kings or Knights in Waite Tarot, according your preferences. Air Element.
- Rocks are Pages/Knaves/Princess. Earth element.

It works, at least for me

Thanks to both of you. I will take a look on those groups.

The rules that are posted here are slightly different from the ones I’ve learned. I suppose there are many variants. Also the use of dice is known to me. Yet, the divinatory meanings of the pieces as they fall in their final positions at the end of the game are something new to me. Probably I can get some useful from that, but the real troubles still are the divinatory meanings of each step or throw of the game.

Also I see something about ill dignified, good dignified, strong, and weak, etc. of the influences of the pieces as they move to certain square. I see the attributions of each square of all the four boards: a mayor Tarot card, a geomantic figure, a number, the elements in different proportions, etc. What they mean when the pieces comes to them, or when a piece is captured in one of them?

I hope you can help with this.

I noticed the other day that there is a book on the Enochian Chess system by Chris Zalewski in thei Golden Dawn series, it might be worth checking out.
http://www.amazon.com/Enochian-Ches...=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1244809024&sr=8-1