Enochian magic

Origins and manuscript sources

The Enochian system of magic is primarily the work of four men: John Dee, Edward Kelley, Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers and Aleister Crowley. The researches of Dr. Thomas Rudd, Elias Ashmole, Dr. William Wynn Westcott and Israel Regardie made additional contributions.

The raw material for the Enochian magical system was "dictated" through a series of Angelic communications which lasted from 1582-1589. Dee and Kelley claimed they received these instructions from angels. While Kelley conducted the psychic operation known as scrying, Dee kept meticulous written records. Kelley looked into a crystal "shewstone" and described aloud what he saw.

This account of the Angelic communications is taken at face value by most Enochian occultists. However, some of them have pointed out remarkable similarities to earlier grimoiric texts such as the Heptameron known to Dee. Such magical texts as The Book of Soyga (of which Dee owned a copy) and others including the magical works of Agrippa and Reuchlin probably also had an influence on Dee and Kelley. The system claims to relate to secrets contained within the apocryphal Book of Enoch.

Liber Logaeth – The Sixth and Sacred Book of the Mysteries

The Liber Logaeth (Book of the Speech of God)(aka The Book of Enoch aka Liber Mysteriorum, Sextus et Sanctus -The Sixth (and Sacred/Holy) Book of the Mysteries)(1583); is preserved in the British Museum as Sloane ms 3189. The correct spelling is Loagaeth but it has been so frequently printed as Logaeth that this spelling is in common use. Written up by Edward Kelley, it is composed of 65 folios containing 101 exceedingly complex magical grids of letters, 96 of which are 49×49 grids (preceded by one "table" composed of 49 rows of text – the first row of which is actually the 49th row of the first table, not in this MS.), plus 5 grids of 36 x 72 cells. It is from Liber Logaeth that Dee and Kelley derived the 48 Calls or Keys (see below), and in which are concealed the keys to the Mystical Heptarchy, a related magical work by Dee. Liber Logaeth has never been published in book form but is available online at: [1]. Dee himself left little information on his Sixth Holy Book apart from saying that it contained 'The Mysterie of our Creation, The Age of many years, and the conclusion of the World' and that the first page in the book signified Chaos. Note that the title The Book of Enoch attributed to the text of Liber Logaeth is not to be confused with the aprocryphal Biblical The Book of Enoch. (There are three versions of the latter; a facsimile reprint of the Ethiopian version is Laurence, (1995)) Nor should it be confused with Crowley's rescension Liber Chanokh (The Book of Enoch) although all these texts are related.

The Five Books of Mystery

Another manuscript Sloan ms. 3188, also available in a fair copy by Elias Ashmole, MS Sloane 3677. Available online at: [2]). It is an account of the 'actions' or workings undertaken in the Liber Logaeth, titled the Mysteriorum Libri Quinque (Five Books of Mystery (or Mystical Exercises). The Mysteriorum Libri Quinque is the diary for 22 December 1581 – 23 May 1583 inclusive: the first five Books of the Mysteries (and Appendix), ending where Casaubon's A True and Faithful Relation begins. It describes the furniture of the temple; the Seal of God (Sigillum Dei); the Tables of Light; the Great Circle and corresponding Collected Table of 49 Good Angels; the Mystic Heptarchy and the Tables of Creation; the Angelic Alphabet (Dee's copies) and the beginning of Loagaeth (i.e., the first few folios of MS. Sloane 3189). There are two transcripts of this manuscript available today: Joseph Peterson and C. L. Whitby. Versions of the first three of the five Books of Mystical Exercises can be found online at : [3]

Other Enochian manuscripts

Yet another central manuscript is Sloane 3191 (available online at: [4] ) which comprises: 48 Angelic Keys; The Book of Earthly Science, Aid and Victory; On the Mystic Heptarchy; and Invocations of the Good Angels.

Two further Manuscripts from Dee and Kelley's workings are important to Enochian magic:

Meric Casaubon's 1659 edition of part of these diaries (Cotton Appendix MS. XLVI), entitled A True & Faithful Relation of What Passed for Many Yeers between Dr. John Dee and Some Spirits contains notorious transcription errors which in some cases were transmitted through many subsequent republications of the Dee/Kelly material; Casaubon's edition was intended to discredit Dee and Kelly by accusing them of dealing with the Christian Devil. An expanded facsimile edition of Casaubon was published by Magickal Childe in 1992

Dee and Kelley's surviving manuscripts later came into the possession of Elias Ashmole, who preserved them, and made fair copies of some, along with annotations.

Rediscovery by the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn

Dee and Kelly never referred to their magic as 'Enochian' but rather called it 'Angelic'. However, in modern occultism it is commonly known as Enochian. It is not quite clear how much of Enochian magic was put to use by Dee and Kelley. Indeed, whether Dee and Kelly ever practiced Enochian is still up for debate. The angels told them not to work Enochian, and there are no diary records of works being done except for one healing talisman that they were instructed by the angels to make. Dee and Kelley's journals are essentially notebooks which record the elements of the system, rather than records of workings they performed using the system.

Some writers assert that Thomas Rudd was the centre of a group of angel magicians who may have used Dee and Kelly's material. The Angelical material of Dee and Kelley also had a considerable influence on the magic of Rosicrucianism. However, little else became of Dee's work until late in the nineteenth century, when it was incorporated and adopted by a mysterious and highly secret brother-hood of adepts in England, who called themselves the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. The rediscovery of Enochian magic by Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn in the 1880s led to Mathers developing the material into a comprehensive and workable system of ceremonial Magick. They invoked the Enochian deities whose names were written on the tablets. They also traveled in what they called their Body of Light (a poetic term for the aura) into these subtle regions and recorded their psychic experiences in a scientific manner. The two major branches of the system were then grafted on to the Adeptus Minor curriculum of the Golden Dawn.

Enochian as an operative system is difficult to reconstruct based upon original manuscripts like the collection of Sir Hans Sloane in the British Museum, but contemporary occult organizations have attempted to make it usable. The Golden Dawn was the first, but their knowledge was based upon only one of Dee's diaries and their planetary, elemental, or zodiacal attributions have no foundation in the original sources.

The Golden Dawn also invented the game of Enochian chess, so that aspects of the Enochian Tablets can be used for divination. The four chessboards do not have any symbols on them, just sets of squares colored in certain ways. Each board is associated with one of the four elements of magick. Pat Zalewski's book (1994) on the subject is definitive.

The papers of the Sphere Group, a sub-group of the Golden Dawn founded by Florence Farr which experimented with Enochian magic, have been edited and published in Kuntz, (1996).

Aleister Crowley and Enochian

Aleister Crowley, who worked with, and wrote about, Enochian magic extensively, contributed to its comparatively widespread use today. Crowley published the Golden Dawn Enochian material as "A Brief Abstract of the Symbolic Representation of the Universe Derived by Doctor John Dee Through the Skrying of Sir Edward Kelly." (Initially published in Crowley's Journal The Equinox Nos VII and VIII, this work was subsequently renamed Liber LXXXIV vel Chanokh, or The Book of Enoch - Chanokh being an older Hebrew form of the name Enoch. Crowley numbered the book as 84 since that number is the Qabalistic numeration for Chanokh. (In some printings the number 89 is mistakenly assigned to the book).

Crowley's most famous work with Enochian focused upon the Calls of the Aethyrs. His visions from these Calls, which he experienced while working with Victor Neuberg in Algeria, formed a document called The Vision and the Voice, also known as Liber 418 (or to give it its full title, Liber CCCCXVIII: Liber XXX Ærum Vel Saeculi, Being of the Angels of the Thirty Aethyrs the Vision and the Voice - see Holy Books of Thelema). The book was written with highly symbolic imagery and is integral to Crowley's explication of his Law of Thelema. Recordings of Crowley reading the First and Second Calls of the Aethyrs (in both English and Enochian) exist; they were recorded as part of a series of wax cylinder recordings made by Crowley in 1922, and can be found on various compilations of these recordings onto CD which are widely available today.

Criticism of Enochian Magic

The value and safety of the Enochian system of magic has been disputed. Paul Foster Case, a 20th century occultist who began his magical career with the Alpha et Omega, was critical of the Enochian system. On Case’s account, the system of Dee and Kelley was in fact a torso of an older, more complete Qabalistic system. The existing Enochian system, according to Case, is both partial and lacking in sufficient protective methods. Case believed he had witnessed the physical breakdown of a number of practitioners of Enochian magic, due precisely to the lack of protective methods. In a letter to occultist Dion Fortune, Case wrote:

“I have personal knowledge of more than twenty-five instances where the performance of [Enochian] magical operations based upon the Order’s [i.e. Alpha et Omega’s] formulae led to serious disintegrations of mind and body… Perhaps the most conspicuous example of the use of these formulas is A.C. [Aleister Crowley] himself, but there are plenty of others I have personally witnessed, whose personal shipwrecks have been just as complete even though their smaller tonnage, so to say, makes the loss seem less deplorable...”

When Case wrote the lessons for the magical order he founded, the Builders of the Adytum or B.O.T.A., he removed the Enochian system of the Alpha et Omega and substituted elemental tablets based on Qabalistic formulae. These formulae were reportedly communicated to Case by Master R..

The system

The two pillars of modern Enochian Magick, as outlined in Liber Chanokh are the Elemental Watchtowers (including the Tablet of Union) and the "World" of the 30 Aethyrs. The Aethyrs are the "heavens" or Aires of the system. Starting with the 30th Aethyr and working to the first, the magician explores only as far as his level of initiation will permit.

The Calls or 'Keys' and the "World" of the 30 Aethyrs

The essence of the Enochian system depends on the utilisation of Eighteen Calls or Keys in the Enochian language (a series of rhetorical exhortations which function as evocations), and a Nineteenth key known as the Call or Key of the 30 Aethyrs. The calls are used to enter the various Aethyrs, in visionary states. The Aethyrs are conceived of as forming a map of the entire universe in the form of concentric rings which expand outward from the innermost to the outermost Aethyr.

The Enochian 'map' of the universe is depicted by Dee as a square (made up of the 4 Elemental Tablets/Watchtowers incorporating the Tablet of Union (Spirit)), surrounded by 30 concentric circles (the 30 Aethyrs or Airs). The 30 Aethyrs are numbered from 30 (TEX, the lowest and consequently the closest to the Watchtowers) to 1 (LIL, the highest, representing the Supreme Attainment). In a similar way to the methods used by magicians to scry upon the Qabalistic Tree of Life, which involves travelling astrally to each pathway and Sephira, magicians working the Enochian system record their impressions and visions within each of the successive Enochian Aethyrs. The systems are comparable but not equivalent; while Enochian has 30 Aethyrs, there are a total of 32 Sephira and paths upon the Tree of Life. Just as a magician may talk about exploring the Tree of Life from Malkuth to Kether, the Enochian magician would talk about exploring the Enochian Aethyrs from TEX to LIL.

Each of the 30 Aethyrs is populated by "Governors" (3 for each Aethyr, except TEX which has four, thus a total of 91 Governors). Each of the governors has a sigil which can be traced onto the Great Tablet of Earth.

In practical Enochian workings, the Nineteenth Call/Key of the 30 Aethyrs is the only call necessary for working with the Aethyrs. It is only necessary to vary appropriately the name of the Aethyr itself near the beginning of the call. Once the Call is recited, the names of the Governors are vibrated one at a time and a record of the visions is kept. The use of Calls 1-18 is rather complex and their usage should be made clear via one of the Enochian textbooks cited below.

The Great Table of Earth: The Elemental Watchtowers and their subdivisions

The angels of the four quarters are symbolized by the Elemental "Watchtowers" — four large magickal word-square Tables (collectively called the "Great Table of the Earth"). Most of the well-known Enochian angels are drawn from the Watchtowers of the Great Table.

Each of the four Watchtowers (representing the Elements of Earth, Air, Fire and Water), is collectively "governed" by a hierarchy of spiritual entities which runs (as explained in Crowley's Liber Chanokh) as the Three Holy Names, the Great Elemental King, the Six Seniors (aka Elders) (these make a total of 24 Elders as seen in the Revelation of St. John), the Two Divine Names of the Calvary Cross, the Kerubim, and the Sixteen Lesser Angels. Each Watchtower is further divided into four sub-quadrants (sometimes referred to as 'sub-angles') where we find the names of various Archangels and Angels who govern the quarters of the world. In this way, the entire universe, visible and invisible, is depicted as teeming with living intelligences. Each of the Elemental tablets is also divided into four sections by a figure known as the Great Central Cross. The Great Central cross consists of the two central vertical columns of the Elemental Tablet (the Linea Patris and Linea Filii) and the central horizontal line (known as the Linea Spiritus Sancti).

In addition to the four Elemental Watchtowers, a twenty-square cell known as the Tablet of Union (aka The Black Cross, representing Spirit) completes the representation of the five traditional elemental attributes used in magic - Earth, Air, Water, Fire and Spirit. The Tablet of Union is derived from within the Great Central Cross of the Great Table.

The squares of the Elemental Watchtowers and those of the Tablet of Union are not simply squares, but in fact truncated pyramids, or pyramids with flat tops - thus, pyramids which have four sides and top, for a total of five 'sides'. Again, these represent the traditional five magical elements (Earth, Air, Water, Fire and Spirit) though in varying combinations. There are 20 Pyramids in the Tablet of Union and 156 in each of the four Elemental Tablets. Each pyramid houses an 'angel' with a one-letter name. The angel's attributes (that is, its powers and its nature) are 'read off' according to its position within the Tablet and proportions of the different Elements (whether Earth, Air, Fire, Water or Spirit) represented on its sides. When two Pyramids are combined they form an 'angel' with a two-letter name whose attributes are somewhat more complex. This gives rise to ever-more complex 'angels' depending on the number of pyramids under examination. The attribution of various Elements to the various pyramids is best depicted on a labelled and coloured version of the various Tablets; an Enochian texbook (e.g. or ) is most useful for this purpose.

Enochian temple furniture

Temple "furniture" required for the performance of Enochian magick includes:

Today

Compared to other theories of magic, Enochian magic is often considered strikingly complex and difficult to grasp in its entirety. One of the difficulties is that many of the source documents are missing, and those that exist are sometimes fragmentary, due to the history of dispersal of Dee's library and manuscripts. Parts of the surviving manuscripts written by Dee have been lost. Paul Foster Case in fact postulated that Dee and Kelley's system was partial from the start, an incomplete system derived from an earlier and complete Qabalistic system. This has allowed numerous interpretations to arise, some of which have solidified into schools of thought with individual bodies of interpretative literature.

Another reason for the system's difficulty is the many and various ways in which the system can be interpreted, and the complex possibilities of the mathematical permutations of various combinations of the letters, tables and diagrams fundamental to the system.

A third difficulty is the use of the Enochian language for the invocations. Magicians see the correct pronunciation of the Enochian letters, words and calls to be integral to magical success in utilising the Enochian system, and the letters must be memorised and their pronunciations learned. Fortunately there have been several compilations of Enochian words made to form Enochian dictionaries which can act as a handy reference. A scholarly study is Laycock (1978). Also useful is Vinci (1976) Authentic pronunciations according to the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn usage are given by Israel Regardie in a set of Golden Dawn instructional CDs. Regardie's Enochian dictionary is also reprinted in Crowley, Duquette and Hyatt, Enochian World of Aleister Crowley.

Enochian magic forms the backbone of both the Crowley and Golden Dawn systems of magic. Latest theories include that John Dee knew of the Slavonic Book of the Secrets of Enoch, as well as the Ethiopic Book of Enoch. Many individual magicians or very small groups prefer Enochian magic to other forms as the ceremonial scale required is smaller than needed for Masonic style ritual work. On the other hand, elaborate equipment is required to perform Enochian magic properly, including correct copies of the various Tablets and diagrams, and other apparatus (see "Enochian Temple Furniture" above).

From 1974 until his death, Texas composer Jerry Hunt (1943-1993) used the "great table" of Dee and Kelley's Enochian system to compose his highly idiosyncratic, experimental, and multi-media music, which has been described as "shamanic." Hunt's music, scores, and even the language he used to describe his methods are shrouded in complex esotericism. Hunt's musical application of Enochian magic can be heard in his works "Ground: Five Mechanical Convention Streams," "Birome (ZONE): cube," and "Cantegral Segment 18," among others.

Since Dee is known to have been a spy for Elizabeth I's court, there are interpretations of his Angelic manuscripts as cryptographic documents - most likely polyalphabetic ciphers - designed to disguise political messages (see for instance, Langford). This aspect of the manuscripts is not of major concern to Enochian magicians, but there is no doubt that Dee's knowledge of mathematics and sophisticated cipher systems contributed to his magical system.

Popular culture

In The Librarians episode "And the Sword in the Stone", the mathematician Cassandra Cillian uses her gifts to unseal the vault containing the sword Excalibur. To accomplish this she reads the Enochian symbols engraved in the trap, which she explains is a mathematic language based on Ancient Greek and Hebrew.

In the Constantine episode "Blessed are the Damned", a preacher delivers part of a sermon in glossolalia identified by John Constantine as Enochian, "the language of the bloody angels."

In Supernatural, Enochian is mentioned several times as an ancient language spoken mainly by Angels.

The comedy-horror movie Knights of Badassdom is based upon the plot that a supposed copy of a book written by John Dee in Enochian is accidentally used to summon a demon.

Both the Umbra Witches and the Lumen Sages of the Bayonetta franchise recite their summoning incantations in Enochian.

In Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn, the Black Mage job has an ability named Enochian, the use of which grants temporary access to their most powerful spells.

In the final scene of The Witch, the witch coven is mostly speaking Enochian.

Caveats

Anton LaVey's book The Satanic Bible includes a section of "Enochian Keys" within a document called The Book of Leviathan, which purported to have been part of the lost manuscripts of Dr. Dee's. LaVey adapted Dee's Calls to include Satanic references which were not in the originals.

Since horror writer H. P. Lovecraft, in his short work "The History of the Necronomicon" (written 1927, published after Lovecraft's death, in 1938), made John Dee the translator of one of the versions of his mythical book of forbidden lore The Necronomicon (an example of Lovecraft's use of the technique of "pseudo-authenticity"), much has been written connecting Dee and Enochian magic with The Necronomicon. The fanciful connection between Dee and The Necronomicon was suggested by Lovecraft's friend Frank Belknap Long. Modern writings taking the connection seriously are considered fabrications.