Enochian magic
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Enochian magic is a system of ceremonial magic based on the evocation and commanding of various spirits. It is based on the 16th century writings of Dr. John Dee and Edward Kelley, who claimed that their information was delivered to them directly by various angels. Dee's journals contained the Enochian script, and the table of correspondences that goes with it. It claims to embrace secrets contained within the apocryphal Book of Enoch.
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[edit] History
[edit] Origins
Dee and Kelley claim they received these instructions from angels and wrote them down. This account is taken at face value by most Enochian occultists. However, some of them have pointed out remarkable similarities to earlier grimoiric texts such as the Heptameron known to Dee.[citation needed] Doubts surrounding Kelley in particular have led many non-occultists to the assumption the whole system was originally a fraud devised by Kelley in order to receive more financial support from Dee. The system claims to relate to secrets contained within the apocryphal Book of Enoch.
[edit] Rediscovery
It is not quite clear how much of Enochian magic was put to use by Dee and Kelley. However, rediscovery of Enochian magic by the Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn has sparked remarkable publicity for it in modern occultism. Enochian as an operative system is difficult to reconstruct based upon the Sloane manuscripts, but contemporary occult organizations have attempted to make it usable. The Golden Dawn was the first, but their knowledge was based upon only one of Dee's diaries and their planetary, elemental, or zodiacal attributions are unfounded.
One facet of the rediscovery is Enochian chess, a four handed variant of the game played in the Golden Dawn in Mathers' time and revived by Steve Nichols and chess players in the late Twentieth Century.
Aleister Crowley, who worked with, and wrote about, Enochian magic extensively, has contributed much to its comparatively widespread use today. His first work on the topic was his Liber Chanokh, a walkthrough to decipher some elements of this system, but his attention was particularly focused upon the Calls of the Aethyrs. His visions from these calls formed a document called The Vision and the Voice, also known as Liber 418.
[edit] Today
Compared to other theories of magic, Enochian magic is strikingly complex, beautiful and difficult to understand. Also, parts of the original manuscripts written by Dee have been lost, mainly due to a fire in his house after his death, thus key parts of the system are missing. This has allowed numerous interpretations to arise, some of which have solidified into schools of thought with individual bodies of interpretative literature.
Enochian Magic forms the backbone of both the Crowley and Golden Dawn systems of Magic. Latest theories include that John Dee knew of the Slavonic, Book of the Secrets of Enoch, as well as the Ethiopic Book of Enoch. Many individual workers or very small groups prefer Enochian magic to other forms as the ceremonial scale required is less than needed for Masonic style ritual work.
Anton LaVey's book The Satanic Bible includes a section of 'Enochian Keys' purported to have been part of the lost manuscripts of Dr. Dee's, though this has not been verified. [1]
[edit] Popular culture
Industrial band Penal Colony released a song and accompanying video named "Freemasons of Enochian Magick".
