Enochian
Enochian is an
occult or
angelic language popularised by
John Dee and
Edward Kelley in the 16th century. Dee and Kelley claimed that it was revealed to them by
angels, though most contemporary practitioners of
magick consider it a
constructed language. The name "Enochian" is a reference to the
Book of Enoch, a
pseudepigraphal text and a major source of
Judeo-Christian angelology.
Dee began to allude to his search for knowledge through the
angels in
1581 when he mentioned in his personal diary that God had sent "good angels" to communicate directly with his prophets. As evidenced by his book collection, he had more than a casual interest in angels; he specifically sought out all past conversations between man and angels with a passion. He had a number of texts by
Ficino,
Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa, and
Johannes Trithemius as well as the more common biblical
Apocrypha and
Pseudepigrapha. He studied the similarities of the angelic conversations in these works, immersing himself in angelology and the specific study of communication with angels. All of these
mathematicians,
cryptographers and
philosophers that had
revelations with angels had authoritative knowledge that
divine messengers, guides on
revelatory journeys and angels of the
apocalypse were the most common and trustworthy sources of information for the
patriarchs of old.
Angelology was a pervasive element within Dee's library collection. He was acquainted with one of the greatest mathematicians of his time,
Girolamo Cardano, a man that credited a
guardian angel with inspirational "visions of power."
Agrippa encouraged his readers to seek "a voice from Heaven, a voice that teacheth from above." Agrippa's teacher,
Johannes Trithemius, wrote
De septem secundeis, which discussed a method of long distance communication based on the seven planets and their guardian angels "according to the tradition of the wise men of old." Dee had at least 16 works by
Robert Grosseteste, with whom he shared a great synergy with their common interests in angels as well as
optics,
mathematics and
astronomy.
The language appears slightly
inflected and has a word order close enough to
English that it can usually be translated without changing the order. Its inflections, under close scrutiny, appear to be random.
Enochian has its own
alphabet which can also be transliterated into the
Latin alphabet. Several words have consonant clusters which are not actually used in the English language, and which are pronounced by inserting a vowel; for example, "nazpsad" could be pronounced "nazepesad", while other words consist entirely of vowels. Several systems of pronunciations exist for speaking Enochian aloud, although John Dee asserted that the words in Enochian were to be pronounced as they would be in English.
Most of the vocabulary consists of names of
angels derived from four
acrostic tablets. Besides that, there are fewer than a thousand attested words, which appear in nineteen symbolic poems, called "keys". Dee's use of the keys is not entirely clear, although when spoken aloud, at least one key, the nineteenth, appears to lead to visions of thirty "aethers" or planes of existence.
Enochian, and the magickal system that Dee and Kelley based on it, were incorporated by
Aleister Crowley as part of his popular and influential system. It is also popular in
Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, from which Crowley learned it, and in the
Aurum Solis.
Perhaps the most important student of Enochian at the turn of the 21st Century was the late
Benjamin Rowe, also known as "Josh Norton", a self-taught ceremonial magician who wrote many papers on the use of Dee and Kelley's magical system.
Primary sources
*Barnstone, Willis, ed. The Other Bible: Ancient Alternative Scriptures. San Francisco: Harper Collins, 1984.
*Dee, John. The Diaries of John Dee. Ed. Edward Fenton. Oxfordshire: Day, 1998.
*John Dee's Library Catalogue. Ed. Roberts, Julian, Andrew G. Watson. London: Bibliographic Society. 1990.
*Causabon, Meric. A True & Faithful Relation of What Passed for Many Years Between Dr. John Dee and Some Spirits.
Introduction by Lon Milo Duquette, New York: Magickal Childe, 1992.
*John Dee's Actions with Spirits:
22 December 1581 to
23 May 1583. 2 vols. Ed. Whitby, Christopher. New York: Garland Publishing, 1988.
*Laycock, Donald. The Complete Enochian Dictionary: A Dictionary of the Angelic Language as Revealed to Dr. John Dee and Edward Kelley.
Foreword by Lon Milo Duquette, York Beach, ME: Weiser Books 1999.
*Leslau, Wolf. Comparative Dictionary of Ge'ez (Classical Ethiopic): Ge'ez -English / English- Ge'ez with an index of the Semitic roots. Wiesbadan: Otto Harrassowitz. 1991.
*Concise Dictionary of Ge'ez (Classical Ethiopic). Wiesbadan: Otto Harrassowitz. 1989.
*Liber Henoch Æthiopice, ad quinque codicum fidem editus cum variis lectionibus. Ed. Dillmann, A. Ms. 5. Leipzig. 1851.
*Pantheus, Joannes. "Voarchadumia contra alchimiam, ars distincta ab archimia et sophia, cum additionibus, proportinonibus numeris et figuris opportuni." n.d. [
1] Gallica – Bibliothèque nationale de France. 1550.
*Trithemius, Johannes. "Steganographia Book One." n.d. [
2] (
14 December 2002).
Books and articles
*Brooks, Lester. Civilizations of Ancient Africa. New York: Four Winds Press, 1972.
*Harkness, Deborah. John Dee's Conversations with Angels: Cabala, Alchemy, and the End of Nature. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1999.
*Mandeville, John. The Travels of Sir John Mandeville. Translated by C. W. R. D. Mosley. Harmondsworth, England: Penguin, 1983.
*Phillipson, David. Ancient Ethiopia. London: British Museum Press, 1998.
*Schmidt, Nathaniel. "Traces of Early Acquaintance in Europe with the Book of Enoch." Journal of the American Oriental Society 42 (1922): 44-52.
*
Enochian angels*
Occultism*
Angelic script*
List of magical terms and traditions*
An Enochian Miscellany*
Enochian Linguistics*
Enochian Webring*
Enochian-English dictionary*
Another Enochian-English dictionary*
Enochian book and articles*
Enochian Analysis Software from CNET, WinXP+SP2 only
