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An Intro to Enochian
Enochian is one of those magickal systems which is widely known about, but unfortunately not fully understood by many. The main reason for this is the lack of organization of the original source work, as well as the limited availability of this source work. The Enochian system is basically a large amount of diary notes written down by John Dee and Edward Kelly during skrying sessions. The present work has been written to bring the Enochian system together into something workable by the modern magickian. Throughout this book I use the phrase ''the Enochian system''. In many circles, this phrasing is nearly blasphemous. Many magickal practitioners do not see Enochian as a complete system. Nor do they believe that it is safely practiced without another system to buffer the effects. I believe the reason for these beliefs is that many have only seen a small part of the original source works, the part that has been used by modern ceremonial magick orders.
Unfortunately the written aspects of Enochian that are the easiest to access, are also different then the original writings. I believe Enochian to be as complete of a magickal system as that of other modern occult practices. In my opinion Enochian has all of the necessary components to be labeled a 'system' I have worked with Enochian for many years and have found that it works well in of itself, as well as combined with another system. There weren't any instructions given for spiritual or magickal training for the student in the original Enochian source work. It was basically just a listing of the tools, names and prayers used. Due to this, I have borrowed ideas from Franz Bardon, my own workings and Aleister Crowley to help the student along the Enochian path. Magickal training is quite universal, it is the names and powers that make up the 'system'. In other words the methods used to work modern Kabbalistic magick for example, also work quite well with Enochian magick. The names and energies are different, but the basis of magick is still the same.
Enochian magick is not nearly as complicated as it looks, or as people tend to make it out to be. Enochian is far less complex than the modern Kabbalistic system for example. The modern ceremonial magick Kabbalistic magick appears easier and less complicated than Enochian; this is mostly due to the vast amount of work that the GD has put into it's use and organization. Also many people have been working magick with the Kabala for years, and many authors have taken the time to break it down into an easily understandable form. This organization helps people to figure out the basics of the system easily. A majority of the misunderstanding of Enochian stems from part of the original material missing to begin with. Also, several magickal traditions only use bits and pieces of the Enochian system, which leads to the appearance of incompleteness.
From what I have found Enochian can be used as a complete system in itself, as long as one follows the basic rules of magick and uses the system responsibly. As with any system of magick, one must learn the basics before they move onto the advanced work. Enochian can also be very effective when used in combination with other systems, when it is well organized and incorporated logically. The Golden Dawn has done a lot of work towards building a workable system with Enochian. Unfortunately the Enochian is only a small part of the GD system, and therefore there is not much discussion on it within the published order work. The GD is where many people first hear of Enochian, and thus decide that it is too complicated. Only a small portion of the Enochian system in contained within these published works, and therefore cannot be effectively worked on its own unless the student does further research It is also important to note that the GD system uses the Enochian tablets differently than is outlined in the original manuscripts. This has led to quite some confusion over the years. Another factor in the incomprehension of the Enochian system stems from the fact that Dee and Kelly did not write the most easily to understand notes.
They were not writing a book, they were taking notes from the skrying sessions in their personal diary. For example, in my diary notes, I leave many obvious things out. I do not include what direction I called which element, and the fact that I did a banishing as these statements are obvious. I do a banishing before every Ceremonial style working, and use the same elemental directions each time. I only denote changes from the norm. On top of all of the confusion, there are no records of Dee or Kelly ever working the system. Whether Dee and Kelly ever worked Enochian is still up for debate. The angels told them not to work Enochian, and there aren't any diary records of works being done accept for one healing talisman that the angels instructed them how to make. It takes a person with persistence, patience and a good allotment of free time to even gain a basic understanding of the system! However this is true with any path. If one wants to learn astronomy for example, it takes a lot of dedication to just get the basics down. This is the same with magick.
As with other magickal paths, Enochian can be broken down to it's base components and symbolism. This task can easily be done using the four elements, the 7 planets, alchemy and the 12 astrological signs. Basic rituals can also be constructed using forms of magick that are practiced today, or perhaps by piecing together the diaries and using the structure that the angels dictated. The angels were not exactly clear (in the remaining diaries) about how to work the system. The angels did deliver many basics including prayers, sigils for some of the entities and a complete list of the temple decorations. Most of the ideas for rituals within this system are from speculation or logic stemming from other effective magickal systems.
The Golden Dawn appears to be the largest influence on ritual work today, and therefore many of the Enochian rituals that you see have roots in this systems methodology. The options for working the enochian system would be to use the system entirely on it's own, or to use the Enochian in combination with other systems. Either method can be used as long as the magickian has learned the art of writing ritual. Writing ritual is difficult at first, but can be done if some basic steps are followed. It is imperative to gain a decent understanding of Enochian before writing Enochian rituals.
One difference between Enochian and other magick is that Enochian requires the magickian to think for themselves and come up with their own methods of working with it. This may be ominous for the beginner, yet if the system is worked in a systematic order, it will soon become obvious what would be required for a ritual. Luckily, I have found that Enochian is extremely versatile and can be used with the Kabala, shamanism, alchemy, hermetic magick, earth magic, and other systems. Most people that will be reading this book have some experience, or at least knowledge of one of these systems. Each of the magickal traditions that I have listed have several things in common, and can provide basic groundwork for writing Enochian rituals if desired. For example they are all 4 element systems. Keep in mind that writing rituals from these other systems to work Enochian is in the realm of work for the advanced student. The reasoning behind this is that each set of magickal currents is complex enough without mixing them together. Once a complete knowledge of both systems is attained, the mixing of systems can bring profound results.
The Enochian system contains within it, it's own hierarchy of entities. These entities can be worked with on many levels. Within Enochian there are entities that correspond to each of the Kabbalistic four worlds, as a correlation to help those with a Kabbalistic background comprehend the system more easily. Most of the modern magick symbolism is parallel with the hermetic tree of life. However, the Enochian system does not fit exactly into the Kabbalistic system and therefore I will refrain from spending pages matching them up. Many practitioners are more familiar with the Kabala than they are with Enochian. An added benefit, and correlation with many other magickal system is that there are both masculine and feminine entities within the Enochian system. I mention this because not every magickian may know this. It is too often that entities were seen as male by magickians in Dee and Kelly's time. The fact that they communicated with entities of both genders, as well as several different ages was quite interesting, especially considering their Christian background. This may also help women to connect with the Enochian system more fully than other systems of the Elizabethan era for example. In some writings about the enochian entities, they are either considered male, or their sex is not known. However, in actual practice, there are nearly an equal number of masculine, feminine, and neutral forces.
Enochian is analogous to other magickal systems in that it contains the necessary components for a magickal system. Enochian contains a pantheon of entities, both male and female, light and dark. Enochian also contains methods of working with the elements, the planets, as well as astrological magick. There is also a 'map' of the universe within the system that is contained within the 30 aethyres. This can effectively be traveled by the practitioner to learn more about the system and to better connect with the magickal universe. From my own experience I have also found that these 30 aethyres can also be used to do inner work on the microcosmic level, or outer work on the macrocosmic level. Within the Enochian system sigil magick, evocation, invocation, spell work, amulets and talismans, initiation as well as personal growth can also be accomplished. There is also an entire hierarchy of elemental gods and angels, planetary gods and angels and astrological gods and angels that are meant to be worked with. I make all of these points to try and dispel several myths about Enochian magick. I see it as a workable system, and that is what I present in this writing. I have found the enochian system to be more effective and more powerful than the other magickal systems I have worked with. To me it seems as if Enochian is slightly more connected to the source of the magick I am calling.
I have also found the Enochian energies much easier to mix and match with other systems and pantheons than most systems of magick. In this sense Enochian is all encompassing. Enochian is said by many to be extremely powerful and not to be messed with lightly. Many say that you do not need a backhoe to dig a hole when a shovel will suffice. In this day and age, with all of the distractions that we have built up for ourselves, perhaps a backhoe is needed. I do see working with Enochian more as a preference though; somepeople are just more drawn to the Enochian energy current then that of another system. The Enochian system is comprised of what is found in the skrying diaries of John Dee and Edward Kelly. Dee and Kelly were influenced by such writers as Agrippa, Ptolemy, Aristotle, Hermes etc. as well as the Kabbalistic and alchemical works of the time. These influences show up in the names and the diagrams that were used by Dee and Kelly. The primary example of this is the Sigil Dei Aemeth. You may wonder how this relates in any way as it was the angels that delivered the system. It was the angels that gave the messages to Dee and Kelly, but when a person skryes, the information is filtered through their magickal and cultural biases.
For example, it would appear that the angels 'spoke' in olde English to Dee and Kelly, and in modern English to the more modern practitioners. Also, the messages from the angels to Dee were very Christian in nature, whereas more recent scholars have found the angels to be neutral about a religious system. In my experience, when skrying, I have distinct impressions of what the angels are trying to relay to me. If I was a Christian for example I might perceive God and Jesus Christ in their meanings; however, if I was a Wiccan I might perceive the angels discussing the Gods and Goddesses as well as mother earth. An important point that must be made about Enochian, is that Dee and Kelly did not have the convenience of the modern elemental correspondences or pentagram rituals. Therefore Enochian does not contain pentagram rituals originally, and does not contain the modern colour or directional correspondences for the elements. If Dee and Kelly were to augment the system for working in any way, they would have used older methods of creating sacred space. This is one of the areas of Enochian that provides the most confusion for practitioners.
Since the late 1800's magickians have been used to a definite way of doing things, LBRP, BRH etc. However, these newer methods were not in use before this time. The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn (herein referred to as the GD) is the first source in which pentagrams are drawn in the air, or represent different elements. The pentagram has existed as early as Babylonian times (as seen on a stone tablet), but did not have specific elements corresponding with the points until the GD. This is not to say that pentagram rituals and modern elemental correspondences don't work with Enochian; I am saying that these aspects are later additions and are not contained within the original source work.
The magick of that era dealt more with prayer, humbling yourself before God, purification and consecration, as well as long incantations, dialogues or perhaps a license to depart. Many of these aspects can be seen in the diary notes of Dee and Kelly. It can be seen that this type of magickal working is what influenced Dee, and the angels saw fit to incorporate it. Today we concentrate on the vibration of divine names, and the casting of the circle. In contrast, in Dee's time, more emphasis was put on cleansing the area of working, and getting in good with the most high. Both methods work with Enochian, the decision is whether to stay with tradition, or to incorporate newer methods. Both work. Unfortunately many of the original Enochian dairies are missing. This is due to a fire (set by the neighbors) at Dee's home on Mortlake and many being burnt.
The other reason that many diary pages, or even complete diaries are missing is that after Dee's death, the people who found the diaries did not realize their importance at first and used them to wrap pies, as well as other household uses! Parchment was expensive and hard to come by at that time, and therefore was reused on a regular basis. Luckily there is a fountain of knowledge in the diaries that did survive. It still does make one wonder though, what was contained within the missing notes... Perhaps they did work the system, perhaps there is a description on how to use the 49 X 49 tables...
Another drawback is that the diaries that survived are not easily accessible or translated. In more recent years, this problem has lessoned drastically with authors translating and typing out much of the original source work. The lack of access to the records, Dee's handwriting, the olde English used, as well as the Latin has caused a lot of confusion about the Enochian system. Dee's handwriting is at times more difficult to read than Crowley's and the Great Table, for example, had 7 different versions all together before the angels finally decided on one several years later.
Due to these facts, much of what is written on the system is disjointed and incomplete. Some writings are even completely different than the original notes. At first the only way to get access to the Enochian materials was to order the microfilm from the British Library! The aim of this book is for a concise and organized approach to this seemingly complex system of magick. For example I have placed the angelic names, their attributes, and correspondences in an easy to understand format. I have also provided complete step by step instructions on how to work the system, and how to derive each and every one of the angelic names. I have also strived to make it clear which of the material is from the diaries, and which of it is my ideas and experiences. I believe it is important to know the difference as I may be wrong, or you may want to build the system on your own without my interference! If you already have a magickal practice that is already in place such as the GD, you can easily incorporate the Enochian works as defined by the system. I will not cover this here as there are already sufficient books on the subject. Some ideas for using Enochian to enhance other workings could be to travel the aethyres and correspond them with the tree of life for example, or perhaps the angels of the watchtowers called upon in the quarters to enhance the working.
The Enochian pantheon can also be used in place of the Egyptian or Kabbalistic, or even combined with them. As I have said before, this should only be done when a complete understanding of both systems is attained. Experimentation does work, however it can cause confusion and disruption in your magick, as well as your psyche if not done right. The Enochian system started when Dr. John Dee and his first skryer Barnabaus Saul communicated with (skryed) various angels from the bible, then from the Enochian pantheon. Dee had heard several noises throughout his house and decided that they were from the spirit world. He sought out a skryer to help him determine what was causing the problem. Dee had attempted to skry on his own, but without much success. However, after numerous sessions Dee decided that Saul was a fraud and sought a new skryer. Apparently he did not believe that Saul was a complete fraud, as he continued on with the same entities and the same idea of learning about this system of magick. Dee then employed Sir Edward Kelly, also known as Edward Talbot. Kelly had a shady background and changed the name that he used with Dee after awhile. Kelly was apparently much better at skrying as he remained Dee's skryer for a number of years, and even traveled great distances with Dee and his family while continuing the scrying work.
The first angel that was contacted by Dee was Uriel. Michael was the second angel that they were able to communicate with. At this point, in their early sessions, John Dee was extremely excited as he had no idea that they could communicate with angels of such high ranking. Michael introduced Dee and Kelly to the Enochian angels so that they could communicate the magickal names and methods. It is interesting to note that neither Dee, Kelly nor the angels ever called what they were doing Enochian. This was a phrase that was used years afterwards by modern magickians! Along with the strange noises in his house, Dee also had dreams that disturbed him. This would seem as though the angels were trying to make contact. This is what he felt anyway. Dee put an advertisement for a skryer. Dee surmised that Sual was duping him and making up what he saw in the crystal.
Looking through the diary notes, it is difficult to tell why Dee trusted Kelley, but not Saul. The entries, from what I can tell, are quite similar. Kelley's are more descriptive however. Some of the remaining diaries contain the skrying sessions between Dee and Saul. These diaries are within Sloane MS 3188, Mysteriorum Liber Primus. The skrying sessions with Kelley revealed that the angels he was communicating with were the angels of Enoch. John Dee was an alchemist and conjurer. Edward Kelly was an alchemist and a forger! Since Kelly was reputed to be a forger, the truthfulness of his skrying accounts have been in question by a number of authorities on the subject.
In my own workings, I have noticed that the integrity of the person in their daily life, unfortunately does not have much relevance whatsoever to their honesty and amount of exaggeration in their visions. I have had the most honest people, usually, make up the most ridiculous skrying stories to impress me. I have also had people that were dishonest or thieves in their daily lives give accurate accounts of what they saw during a session, as confirmed by magickal texts. In my opinion, Kelly may have added a few things to spice up the sessions, but it would have been impossible for Kelly to recite the calls backwards with words that were in Enochian on his own accord. In each of the calls, the Enochian words correlate with English translations, and many of these words are used in more than one of the calls. To be able to fabricate something like this, Kelly would have had to memorize a language of a couple of thousand words and be able to recite meaningful poetic prose in this language backwards!
However, in question is the whole wife swapping incident, which just happened to occur right after Kelly tried to quit Dee's service (after landing a job as a royal alchemist). In this instance Kelly may have taken advantage of the situation. There seemed to be no reason for Dee and Kelly to swap wives at the end of the skrying sessions, as opposed to in the middle of them. This was one of their last skrying sessions together. During their time together calling the Enochian entities, for the most part, Kelley said over and over that he did not enjoy the work, and that the entities troubled him even when they were not skrying. Apparently Dee was often quite moody about the whole situation, as can be seen in Dee's personal diary. Whether Kelley was a fraud or not is something that we will never know for sure. Enochian has worked for many people for many years, quite effectively.
Perhaps Kelley was great at creating egregores, or perhaps Kelley was a great skryer and Enochian is a valid method of working magick. It is interesting how much Kelley's authenticity for skrying is questioned on a regular basis, but not say the works of the Keys of Solomon or the many other grimoires that are unquestionably used today. For example, the 72 seals from the goetia as well as the demons offices must have been obtained through skrying. I have found Enochian to work just as well as goetic magick (yet different). As another example, the diagram of the tree of life must have been originally seen in a vision, and it has been found to be extremely valid. Whether Kelly was legitimate or not, I believe to be completely irrelevant to this work.
However whether the system works or not is what will be covered. Far too many people spend too much time trying to find ways to discredit the system instead of actually working and experimenting with it to find out for themselves. The Enochian system came in an interesting order, that appears to be disjointed at times. I will go over the major sections of the skrying sessions to give some idea of the order of things. Dee and Saul first received 49 tables containing latin letters. Each of these tables was 49 X 49 squares. As a note, the well known great table and watchtowers are completely different from these tables. Next, the well known Enochian calls were given, backwards. After this, the planetary heptarchy was delivered. After this, is the famous great table. This is the aspect of enochian that is most concentrated on by many enochian scholars and magickal orders. After this instructions on how to set up the temple, how to construct the table of practice is given. John Dee had the most extensive library in his area at the time, reaching world renown. The library was visited by scholars from around the world, who often spent several days at Dee?s house, as well as was visited by Queen Elizabeth. Amongst his books were several magickal works by notable scholars.
The magick that was used, and that was written about in Dee and Kelly's time was heavily influenced by Agrippa as well as the grimoires of Solomon. By looking at the contents of the library, we can see that Dee appeared to favor the astronomy and mathematical work that related to metaphysics of the time. This was the basis of magick. Dee's main interest was how mathematics relates to magick; this can clearly be seen in Dee's own writing of ''The Hieroglyphic Monad''. In this work Dee goes on extensively how magick, and the planets all relate mathematically, and how the secrets of alchemy are contained within mathematics. Dee also introduces his hieroglyphic monad symbol which is comprised of the seven planets, as well as many other metaphysical references.
He explains in great detail how this monad works mathematically, but unfortunately this work is beyond my comprehension! I have found Dee's hieroglyphic monad to be quite effective as a symbol when used in combination with Enochian magick. Who knows if he intended it this way, but it does work. Dee never mentioned a use for the monad, aside from contemplation and study of this symbol to gain a deeper understanding of how everything correlates. Another example of Dee's interest in, and adeptness at mathematics can be found in his preface to Euclid's Geometry, as well as his Hieroglyphic Monad. Since the time of Dee and Kelly, there have been several scholars which have worked to enhance the Enochian system. Elias Ashmole had several copies of the original manuscripts in his personal collection, and has made extensive notes on the system to help parallel it with the magick that Ashmole practiced. The Ashmole diaries can now be found at Oxford within his collection.
Ashmole has also left record of his personal working with the Enochian system. Unfortunately not much of use to the practitioner today can be found within these notes. Ashmole mostly used the system for a few practical means, such as ridding his place of rats. It would be interesting to discover how Ashmole went about this, but I have not been able to attain a copy of these diaries yet. ''A True and Faithful Relation of What passed between John Dee and Some Spirits...'' was written to by Meric Cassubaun soon after Dee?s death to try and discredit John Dee. Luckily this work helped many people have access to the system. This book has been republished by Magickal Childe in the 90's, and republished in part in 2003. The microfilm of ''A true and faithful..'' can also be found at Oxford within the MSS, as well as many local universities.
The Golden Dawn has done the most work in making Enochian into an easily workable system. Before the use by the GD, there was not any easily accessible information on the system. Mathers did an excellent job at understanding the manuscripts and compiling the data. Also, it seems that if the GD had not popularized the system, that it may not have been as widely used and understood today. It was the publishing of the Enochian tablets and the calls that sparked many people's interest in the system. The GD use of the Enochian tablets is a very well organized system in which they put into a structure that most people could understand. The Golden Dawn took the Enochian system and mixed it with their own Kabbalistic rituals; I believe that this correlation is what helped many to understand the system and how to use it.
The GD also had an excellent system for the use of, and organization of the calls. The only shortcomings of the GD Enochian system is that it does not necessarily correlate with how Dee and Kelly interpreted the watchtowers. Also, the GD did not use the original colour scheme for the tablets, but altered them to fit their elemental colour correspondences. The Aurum Solis has also done a lot of work with the Enochian system. Much of their work was spurred forth from the GD system. However, the AS has taken the Enochian system several steps further. For example, they do use the GD layout and colours for the four tablets, but they have greatly expanded on the work involving the 30 aethyres. The AS has attributed elemental correspondences with each aethyre. Ben Rowe has done an amazing amount of work with the Enochian system. Ben is a modern Enochian scholar that has created a method of working with Enochian that involves an elaborate 3D astral Enochian temple created from the great table. He uses the original colours for the great table as presented in the diaries. Ben has also outlined how the cacodemons were to be worked with, as well as providing information on how they communicate with the skryer. Within the site are transformative rituals that include work with the cacodemons, a much ignored aspect of Enochian. Ben has also done a great deal of work with his skrying and evocation of the various Enochian entities. He has provided long and detailed accounts of his skrying sessions with the Enochian entities as well.
Ben Rowe's material can be found at: David R. Jones has done much work and research into the system as well. David has provided us with a method of discerning the layout of the great table stemming from the movement of the Tribes of Israel. In this synopsis he also uses ideas from the layout of the astrological stars in the sky as they relate to the great table. You can find his work at the Enochian college. When we embark on a magickal path we are usually driven by some desire, need or purpose. This helps to narrow down the path that we choose, and the type of magick that we work. There are many magickal systems and pantheons that a practitioner can work with to attain their desired results. There are a few branches of modern magick that have become very popular in this century. The broader categories of Ceremonial magick and Earth magick both have many paths. The modern practitioners of ceremonial magick are to thank for bringing the Enochian system into practice. The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn is most well known for instituting Enochian names into their rituals. Ceremonial, as well as earth magick offer us methods of connecting with the divine, bringing what is needed into our life, self discovery and so much more.
So far most of the Enochian work done has been under the system of ceremonial magick, but there is no reason why Enochian cannot be worked with under the system of earth magick as well. For some reason Enochian is quite often considered different in this regard to other, more practiced forms of magick. Enochian magick is not usually considered a system in itself; it is usually considered something that is supplementary to other forms of magick. For example several ceremonial magick orders add bits and pieces of the system to their rituals.
However, there for some reason, are very few who practice Enochian solely on it?s own. I believe that this is mostly due to unfamiliarity with the system. Many people who are very adept with other systems of magick do not know that much about the Enochian system. This is largely due to the unorginization of the material, as well as the difficulty in attaining the material. The purpose and uses of Enochian magick are the same as that of any other magickal system. Many people have come to me wondering what is done with Enochian, and often these are people who have been practicing Kabbalistic magick for years! The reason for this difficulty I believe is that Enochian has not been presented in an easily understandable form to date.
There are a few books on Enochian, but unfortunately only two of them make any sense to the general public, and of these two, they each only cover parts or aspects of the system. For this reason people often perceive Enochian to be entirely different from established systems as well as incomprehensible. However as I have stated previously, I feel that Enochian is a complete system within itself, that can be worked with effectively on it's own. I view Enochian as not that largely different than most other forms