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The Dee Diaries
The systems of magick now known as Enochian magick derive from the work of the Elizabethan scholar Dr. John Dee and seer Edward Kelly. Dee had a passion for discovering lost knowledge and spiritual truths; in particular he wanted to recover the wisdom he believed to be in the lost books of earlier times. Among these was the then-fabled Book of Enoch, which he apparently conceived as being a book describing the magick system used by that patriarch. Having come to the conclusion that worldly efforts would not lead to the wisdom he desired, he decided to apply himself to contacting divine sources. During the years from 1581 to 1585, Dee performed a long series of magickal operations to that intent. Kelly joined him in March of 1582, and was his sole assistant during the remainder of the work.
The method employed for these works was fairly standard for the time. Dee would act as the orator, directing fervent prayers to God and the archangels for 15 minutes to an hour. Then a scrying stone would be placed on a prepared table, and the angels were called to manifest a visible appearance therein. Kelly would watch the stone and report everything he saw and heard; Dee would sit at another table nearby and record everything that occurred.
Dee made multiple copies of these records. A portion of them, concerning the Angelic Calls, Tablets and Liber Scientiae, were acquired with Dee’s library by Robert Cotton. This part was published in Casaubon’s A True and Faithful Relation. The earlier portions concerning the Heptarchy and Liber Loagaeth came to light by a more roundabout means.
In later years, Dee apparently decided to conceal his magickal records in a hidden compartment of a large cedar chest he possessed. After his death the chest was purchased from his estate and passed through several owners. The hidden documents were not discovered until around 1662, and found their way into the hands of Elias Ashmole in 1672. Mr. Ashmole’s collection passed eventually to the British Library.
According to Ashmole, about half of the hidden records were mistakenly destroyed by the discoverer’s maid before efforts were made to preserve the rest. Despite this, the records for the 1581-1585 operations appear almost entirely intact.
The record of these operations is very detailed; so much so that it takes careful study to separate the spiritual "wheat" from the chaff. Much of the communication was important within the context of the operations, but has no direct bearing on the systems of magick being presented. Of the rest, there are long periods of communications that, in retrospect, seem to have no purpose but to hold the magicians’ attention on continuing the operations. During these periods the angels would present colorful visions, portentous prophesies, and angelic gossip, but very little in the way of solid information. Additionally, the reader must deal with side-excursions into apocalyptic religion, politics, Dee and Kelly’s personal problems, and various irrelevant queries that Dee insisted on inserting into the work.
Chronologically, Dee and Kelly’s work divides into three highly productive periods separated by months in which nothing of particular value was received. The material received in each period generally stands on its own, and is only loosely related to that in the other periods. In the strictest interpretation, only the material from the third period qualifies as "Enochian", but the term is often applied to all of the work.
Period one: The Heptarchia Mystica
The first system of magick given to Dee was the Heptarchia Mystica. This is a self-contained and moderately complex planetary magick, similar in style (but not in content) to various "Solomonic" grimoires of the day. The record of its presentation can be found in Dee’s Mysteriorum Libri Quinti; a working grimoire, composed of Dee’s extracts from that record, is known as De Heptarchia Mystica.
The presentation of this magick was remarkably sequential and orderly, compared to later parts of the work. The necessary physical equipment was described in detail, followed by an angelic hierarchy of 49 "Good Angels", and further information concerning the Kings and Princes of the hierarchy, and their ministers. The major part of the information was given during 1582; significant corrections to the design of the equipment were given in the spring of the following year, after an hiatus in the work and the presentation of Liber Loagaeth.
Equipment
Ring, Lamen, and Holy Table
The angels claimed that the ring they designed for Dee was the same one that Solomon used to control demons. It had a plain band, to which was attached a rectangular plate. The letters PELE (Latin for "he will work wonders") were inscribed in the four corners. In the center was a circle with a horizontal line through it, with the letter "V" above and the letter "L" below.
Two different lamens were given to Dee. The first of these bears a generic resemblance to various goetic sigils, being an assortment of free-form lines and oddly placed letters. The being giving it instructed that it was to be made in gold and worn in all times and places for purpose of protection.
The following year, Dee and Kelly were told that this was a false lamen given by an "illuding spirit". They were given a 12-by-7 table formed from the names of the Heptarchic Kings and Princes; the new lamen consisted entirely of letters taken from this table and arranged in rectilinear patterns. Unlike the first lamen, the purpose of the second was solely to "dignify" the magician, to show his worthiness to perform the Heptarchic magick.
The Holy Table or Table of Covenant was the centerpiece of the Heptarchic magick. Its purpose was to be an "instrument of conciliation"; that is, the means by which the powers it symbolizes are brought together with the magician. As with the lamen, the initial version of the table was later said to be incorrect, and a new design provided.
The table was to be two cubits square (roughly 34 to 44 inches) and two cubits high. The legs ended in or rested upon hollow containers, under which small copies of the Sigil of Ameth (see below) were placed. It had a one-inch border, in which certain letters were drawn, 21 to a side. Inside the border a Star of David was drawn, and in the center of the star a 6-inch square divided into a 3-by-4 grid, containing more letters. On top of the table were placed seven planetary talismans, called the "Ensigns of Creation" (see below). In the center, a large version of the Sigil of Ameth. When in use, the table, Sigil, and talismans were to be covered with a red silk cloth. The scrying-stone was then placed on top of the cloth, directly over the Sigil.
The letters around the edge of the table, and in the central grid, are taken from the same 12-by-7 table used to form the lamen. They are intended to "dignify" the table -- to consecrate it to the Heptarchic work -- in the same way the lamen dignifies the magician. There is no indication in the record that they were intended to be words conveying meaning, as Gerald Schueler has alleged.
Many magicians have assumed that the Holy Table is also necessary to operations involving the Calls and Tablets given to Dee and Kelly in 1584. It is true that they made use of the table for operations that obtained that material. However, the table is clearly designed specifically for use with the Heptarchic powers; it seems unlikely that it would be suitable for the quasi-elemental nature of the Tablet powers.
The Sigil of Ameth
The Sigil of Ameth or Sigillum Dei is a large wax disk, on which are inscribed various names of God and angels, within a design of heptagons and heptagrams. This sigil was to be placed in the center of the Holy Table, underneath the scrying-stone. Smaller versions were to be placed underneath the cup-like ends of the table’s legs, apparently to insulate the table from earthly influences.
The Sigil is the only part of Dee’s work that has a direct correspondence in earlier magickal systems; versions appear in Liber Juratis and in Eodipus Aegypticus, among other tomes. Dee was initially instructed to copy the sigil from a book in his library, but found conflicting versions and could not decide between them. When he questioned the angels, they proceeded to give him the design for a new, more detailed version.
While most of the names on the Sigil are not immediately recognizable, nearly all of them are derived from two sets of familiar angelic names. The first set are the angels Agrippa lists as the "seven which stand in the presence of God". The god-names outside the hexagram in the Sigil are formed by transposition of the letters of these names, following an elaborate but consistent method. The second set are the planetary Archangels, whose names are shown at the center of the Sigil. These are used to form the four groups of seven angelic names within the hexagram, called the "Sons of Light", "Daughters of Light", "Sons of the Sons", and "Daughters of the Daughters". It is interesting to note that the derived names were given first, and only afterwards was the means of derivation shown. (For additional details on the formation of the Sigil, follow the hyperlink above.)
The Ensigns of Creation
Immediately following the presentation of the Sigil of Ameth, the angels provided seven complex talismans called the "Ensigns of Creation". These were to be engraved on plates of purified tin, and arrayed on the surface of the holy table; either in a continuous ring around the Sigil of Ameth, or in a row directly in front of the magician. As an alternative to the plates, the angels allowed that they could be painted directly on the table. During the Spring, 1583 corrections, the angels specified that the letters on the ensigns were to be converted into the angelic alphabet, but this was apparently never done.
