The Calls of Enoch: The First Key of Enochian Magic

by John Dee

Enochian is a name often applied to an occult or angelic language recorded in the private journals of Dr. John Dee and his seer Edward Kelley in the late 16th century. The men claimed that it was revealed to them by angels, while some contemporary scholars of magick consider it a constructed language.

Applying the term "Enochian" to the language is a modern convention - not found in Dee's journals. Dee referred to the language as "Angelical", the "Celestial Speech", the "Language of Angels", the "First Language of God-Christ" and the "Holy Language". He sometimes referred to its alphabet as "Adamical" because (according to Dee's Angels) it was used by Adam in Paradise to name all things. Dee also recorded that the Patriarch Enoch had been the last human (before Dee and Kelley) to know the language - thus prompting later scholars to refer to the language and Dee's entire magickal system as "Enochian". (Quote from wikipedia.org)

About the Author

John Dee (1527 - 1609)
Edward Kelley (1555 - 1597)
John Dee (July 13, 1527 - 1609) was a noted English mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, occultist, and consultant to Queen Elizabeth I. He also devoted much of his life to alchemy, divination, and Hermetic philosophy.

Dee straddled the worlds of science and magic just as they were becoming distinguishable. One of the most learned men of his time, he had lectured to crowded halls at the University of Paris when still in his early twenties. John was an ardent promoter of mathematics, a respected astronomer and a leading expert in navigation, having trained many of those who would conduct England's voyages of discovery (he coined the term "British Empire").

At the same time, he immersed himself deeply in magic and Herm

Genres: Occult

44 pages, Paperback

First published November 22, 2008

About the author

John Dee was a noted mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, occultist, navigator, imperialist, and consultant to Queen Elizabeth I. He devoted much of his life to the study of alchemy, divination, and Hermetic philosophy.

Dee straddled the worlds of science and magic just as they were becoming distinguishable. One of the most learned men of his age, he had been invited to lecture on advanced algebra at the University of Paris while still in his early twenties. Dee was an ardent promoter of mathematics and a respected astronomer, as well as a leading expert in navigation, having trained many of those who would conduct England's voyages of discovery. In one of several tracts which Dee wrote in the 1580s encouraging British exploratory expeditions in search of the Northwest Passage, he appears to have coined the term "British Empire."

Simultaneously with these efforts, Dee immersed himself in the worlds of magic, astrology, and Hermetic philosophy. He devoted much time and effort in the last thirty years or so of his life to attempting to commune with angels in order to learn the universal language of creation and bring about the pre-apocalyptic unity of mankind. A student of the Renaissance Neo-Platonism of Marsilio Ficino, Dee did not draw distinctions between his mathematical research and his investigations into Hermetic magic, angel summoning and divination. Instead, he considered all of his activities to constitute different facets of the same quest: the search for a transcendent understanding of the divine forms which underlie the visible world, which Dee called "pure verities".

Dee's high status as a scholar also allowed him to play a role in Elizabethan politics. He served as an occasional advisor and tutor to Elizabeth I and nurtured relationships with her ministers, Francis Walsingham and William Cecil. Dee also tutored and enjoyed patronage relationships with Sir Philip Sidney, his uncle, Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester, and Edward Dyer. He also enjoyed patronage from Sir Christopher Hatton.

In his lifetime, Dee amassed the largest library in England and one of the largest in Europe.