Enochian magic is a type of Renaissance magic created by John Dee and Edward Kelley. Later, modern practitioners also used this system. The tradition began with Dee and Kelley working together. They claimed that angels gave them the Enochian language and script during their spiritual experiences. Using this language, they called on and gave instructions to spiritual beings.

Dee wrote about his and Kelley's experiences with these beings. His writings include the Enochian script and lists that connect different symbols and ideas. They believed these writings helped them understand a book called Liber Logaeth, also known as the Book of Enoch.

Enochian magic involved rituals and ceremonies to summon angels and other spiritual beings. Dee carefully recorded these practices in his journals. The goal was to use the power and knowledge of these beings for meaningful purposes. This tradition from the Renaissance involved communication between humans and the spiritual world, using Enochian language and symbols.

Later, the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn included parts of Enochian magic in their teachings. This helped revive interest in Enochian practices. People have debated whether these changes accurately reflect the original ideas, showing how Enochian magic has changed over time.

Background

In the early 1580s, John Dee was not happy with how much he had learned about nature. He wanted to understand both natural and human-made truths more deeply, so he began a spiritual search for knowledge. Dee wrote:

"I have always wanted to learn true wisdom and understanding about natural and human-made things. I have studied many books in different languages and talked to many people for many years. But I could not find the answers I wanted through normal schools or human ideas. I believe I needed a special gift from God to learn these truths."

To find the knowledge he wanted, Dee turned to the supernatural. He used a practice called scrying, where people called scryers or crystal-gazers helped him communicate with angelic beings. His first attempts with other scryers were not successful. However, in 1582, he met Edward Kelley, who used the false name Edward Talbot because he had been convicted of making fake documents. Kelley’s special abilities impressed Dee greatly.

Dee asked Kelley to help him in his spiritual work. These efforts included prayer, fasting, and purification, all done with deep religious respect. Dee believed these activities could help people learn important lessons. Kelley helped Dee receive messages from angels, which were written in a language called "Angelical," now known as Enochian. These writings became the foundation for Enochian magic, a system that mixed mystical beliefs with practical rituals during the Renaissance.

The Enochian language, called "Angelical" by Dee, is a made-up language that Dee and Kelley claimed came from angels. They recorded it in their private journals in late 16th-century England. The name "Enochian" comes from Dee’s belief that the biblical figure Enoch was the last person to know the language before him and Kelley.

The Enochian language found in Dee’s and Kelley’s journals includes only a small number of written texts. Linguist Donald Laycock, an Australian skeptic, studied these writings and found no special features. The sounds and grammar of Enochian resemble English, but there are not enough translations to understand its structure fully. Some Enochian words look like words or names in the Bible, but most have unknown origins.

Several dictionaries of Enochian words have been created. One example is Donald Laycock’s The Complete Enochian Dictionary. Another is Vinci’s Gmicalzoma: An Enochian Dictionary. Israel Regardie’s Enochian dictionary is also included in Enochian World of Aleister Crowley by Crowley, Duquette, and Hyatt.

Because Dee worked as a spy for Queen Elizabeth I’s court, some people believe his Angelic manuscripts might be secret codes, likely using complex letter substitutions, to hide political messages.

Manuscript sources

Enochian magic began with manuscripts written by John Dee and Edward Kelley. These texts, called the Five Books of Mystery and Liber Logaeth, are important starting points for understanding the language, symbols, and rituals used in Enochian magic.

Over time, many scholars and practitioners helped preserve and explain these works. People like Thomas Rudd, Elias Ashmole, Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers, William Wynn Westcott, Aleister Crowley, and Israel Regardie studied, wrote about, and shared their insights about Enochian magic. Their work included writing explanations, making changes to the texts, and offering new ideas about how to use them.

The Five Books of Mystery are found in a manuscript called Sloane MS 3188. This document acts as a diary, recording events from December 22, 1581, to May 23, 1583. It includes the first five books of Mystery and an appendix. Today, two copies of this manuscript exist: one made by Joseph Peterson and another by C. L. Whitby. The Five Books of Mystery provide detailed instructions on Enochian magic, covering language, symbols, rituals, and practical methods.

Liber Logaeth, also called the Book of the Speech of God or the Sixth and Sacred Book of the Mysteries, is mostly kept in the British Library. It is found in manuscripts like Sloane MS 3189, with parts also in Sloane MS 3188 and Cotton MS Appendix I. Edward Kelley wrote this book, which has 73 pages. It includes 96 magical grids of letters. Most grids are 49 rows by 49 columns, while two have different formats. The last page of Cotton MS Appendix I contains 21 words with 112 letters, which can be rearranged into five 3×7 tables.

Dee and Kelley used Liber Logaeth to create the 48 Calls or Keys, which are part of another work called the Mystical Heptarchy. Dee described the first page of his Sixth Holy Book as representing "Chaos" and said it contained information about creation, time, and the end of the world. This book should not be confused with the apocryphal Book of Enoch, which was lost during Dee’s time.

Another manuscript, Sloane MS 3191, includes the 48 Angelic Keys, The Book of Earthly Science, Aid and Victory, On the Mystic Heptarchy, and Invocations of the Good Angels.

Two more manuscripts from Dee and Kelley’s work are related to Enochian magic: Meric Casaubon’s 1659 edition of their diaries, called A True & Faithful Relation, and a later version published in 1992. Casaubon’s version had errors and aimed to criticize Dee and Kelley by claiming they worked with the Christian Devil.

Later, Elias Ashmole collected Dee and Kelley’s surviving manuscripts, kept them safe, and made copies with notes.

The system

The Enochian magical system is an organized system with important parts. These parts are described in a book called Liber Chanokh by Aleister Crowley. Key parts include the Elemental Tablets (including the "Tablet of Union"), the Angelical Keys, the Great Table (made up of the 4 Elemental Tablets and including the Tablet of Union), and specific temple furnishings. These parts help people who practice Enochian magic explore spiritual ideas. The Angelical Keys of the 30 Aethyrs are used to access mystical realms, while the Great Table represents the universe in a symbolic way. The system also requires setting up a special temple space with tools needed for magic.

Enochian magic uses symbols and spiritual exploration, mainly focusing on the Elemental Tablets and related parts. The main part of this system is the Great Table, which includes four Elemental Tablets that stand for the classical elements: earth, air, fire, and water. These tablets are home to spiritual beings and entities.

Inside the Great Table, there is a clear order of spiritual beings. These include the Three Holy Names, which are powerful sources of divine authority, and a Great Elemental King who rules each Elemental Tablet. Supporting these are the Six Seniors (also called Elders), totaling 24 figures similar to the Twenty-Four Elders mentioned in the biblical Book of Revelation. There are also two Divine Names connected to the Calvary Cross: Kerubim, which are angelic beings linked to the fixed zodiac signs, and Sixteen Lesser Angels, each with unique roles and traits.

Each Elemental Tablet is divided into four sections or sub-angles. These sections contain the names of archangels and angels who oversee specific parts of the world, filling both visible and invisible parts of the universe with spiritual beings.

At the center of each Elemental Tablet is the Great Central Cross, which has two vertical lines called Linea Patris and Linea Filii, and a horizontal line called Linea Spiritus Sancti. The meaning of the Great Central Cross may differ depending on how Enochian magic is interpreted.

The Tablet of Union, also called the Black Cross, completes the representation of the five classical elements. This grid of twenty squares comes from the Great Central Cross and represents the element of Spirit.

The Thirty Aethyrs are an important part of Enochian magic. They are a sequence of spiritual planes or realms that practitioners explore, moving from the lowest (TEX) to the highest (LIL). In Enochian magic, magicians write down their visions, experiences, and impressions in each Aethyr, showing their progress through this spiritual system.

Each of the 30 Aethyrs has three Governors, except for TEX, which has four. This makes a total of 91 Governors in the system. These Governors are spiritual or angelic beings linked to the Aethyrs and are believed to hold important knowledge and power in their realms.

Governors are identified by their unique sigils, which are mystical symbols showing their presence and authority. A key part of Enochian magic involves drawing these sigils on the Great Tablet, an important tool in the system. By writing the sigils on the Tablet, magicians connect with the Governors and the energy of each Aethyr.

The Angelical Keys, also called the Calls or Enochian Keys, are a central part of Enochian magic. These keys are a series of spoken phrases used to open "gates" to mystical realms. These realms may include elemental areas, sub-elemental areas, or the Thirty Aethyrs, depending on the key used.

There are 19 Angelical Keys in Enochian magic. The first 18 keys are used to open gates to the realms of elements and sub-elements. These realms are often shown on the Great Tablet, a complex diagram used in Enochian rituals.

The 19th key is used to open gates to the Thirty Aethyrs. The Aethyrs are imagined as rings that grow outward from the innermost to the outermost. They are often seen as a map of the universe, with each Aethyr offering unique spiritual insights. Exploring the Aethyrs is considered a journey through different levels of spiritual understanding.

Temple "furniture" needed for Enochian magic includes:

Adaptation by the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn

Little else happened with Dee's work until the late 1800s, when a group of experts in England used it.

In the 1880s, Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn rediscovered Dee and Kelley's writings. Mathers used these materials to create a complete system of ceremonial magic. Magicians called upon the Enochian gods whose names were written on the tablets. They also traveled in their spiritual forms to otherworldly places and recorded their experiences. The two main parts of this system were later added to the Adeptus Minor teachings of the Golden Dawn. Aleister Crowley stated that a magician begins at the 30th aethyr and works upward to the first, but only as far as their level of training allows.

According to Chris Zalewski's 1994 book, the Golden Dawn also created a game called Enochian chess. This game used elements from the Enochian Tablets for divination. Players used four chessboards with colored squares but no symbols. Each board was linked to one of the four elements of magic.

Florence Farr started the Sphere Group, which also explored Enochian magic.

Paul Foster Case (1884–1954), an occultist who began his magical journey with the Alpha et Omega, criticized the Enochian system. He claimed that Dee and Kelley’s system was incomplete, based on an earlier, full Qabalistic system, and lacked proper protective methods. Case believed he saw physical harm in some Enochian practitioners due to these missing protections. When Case created his own magical group, the Builders of the Adytum (B.O.T.A.), he removed the Enochian system and replaced it with elemental tablets based on Qabalistic formulas shared with him by Master R.

In popular culture

In 1927, horror writer H. P. Lovecraft wrote a short story titled "The History of the Necronomicon." This story was published in 1938, after Lovecraft's death. In the story, Lovecraft made John Dee the translator of one version of his mythical book about forbidden knowledge, The Necronomicon. This is an example of Lovecraft's use of a technique called "pseudo-authenticity," which makes fictional works seem real. Many writers have since connected John Dee and Enochian magic to The Necronomicon. This idea was first suggested by Lovecraft's friend, Frank Belknap Long.