Enochian: The Mysterious Lost Language of Angels
Enochian is a mysterious language that 16th century occultists John Dee and Edward Kelley recorded in their private journals. They claimed this ‘celestial speech’ allowed magicians and occultists to communicate with angelic realms.
In the year 1581, occultists John Dee and Edward Kelley, claimed to have received communications from angels, who provided them with the foundations of a language with which to communicate with ‘the other side’. This ‘angelic’ language contained its own alphabet, grammar and syntax, which they wrote down in journals. The new language was called “Enochian” and comes from John Dee’s assertion that the Biblical Patriarch Enoch had been the last human to know the language.
John Dee, the Influential Occultist
Dr. John Dee, 1527–1609, was an occultist, mathematician, astronomer and astrologer who lived in Mort Lake, West London for most of his life. An educated man who studied at St. John’s College in Cambridge, was eventually accepted into influential circles of the ruling elite and acted as scientific advisor and confidant to Queen Elizabeth I. He is associated with coining the phrase ‘British Empire’. During the early part of his life, Dee had little interest in the supernatural.
Later on, he became disillusioned with science and began experimenting with magic and the occult. Dee was looking to discover lost spiritual knowledge and recover the wisdom he believed was hidden in books of antiquity. Among these books was the then-fabled Book of Enoch , which he conceived as being a book describing the magic system used by the Patriarch in the Bible.
Portrait of John Dee painted during the 17th century by an unknown artist. It is taken from the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich. 1609 ( Wikimedia Commons )
Enochian, Language of the Angels
The term Enochian comes from the Biblical figure Enoch, who was a source of hidden mystical knowledge and was taken up to heaven. According to Genesis 5:24, he “walked with God” and Hebrews 11:5 states that he “was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death.”
From 1581 to 1585, Dee began performing a long series of magical events. In 1581, at the age of 54, Dee wrote in his personal journal that God had sent “Good Angels” to communicate directly with mankind. By 1582, he was collaborating with fellow occultist and seer Edward Kelley (1555–1597) to communicate with these angels.
Hundreds of spirit conversations were recorded, including what they claimed was an angelic language called Enochian, composed of non-English letters. The Enochian Alphabet was revealed to Dr. John Dee and Edward Kelley during “scrying sessions”, when various texts and tables were received from angels. Scrying is a technique used by seers, psychics, and sorcerers to foretell the future and involves gazing into a reflective surface to receive messages.
Magical Objects and Celestial Speech
It is documented that Dee and Kelley used certain objects such as a black obsidian mirror and a crystal ball to experience these visions. Dee acted as orator, directing prayers to God and the Archangels for 15 minutes to an hour. Then a scrying stone was placed on a table, and the angels were called to manifest themselves.
Dee and Kelly would watch the stone and record everything they saw and heard. They were told by the angels that the magic would give superhuman powers to its practitioners, change the political structure of Europe, and herald the coming of the Apocalypse.
Dee believed that what he was doing would be of benefit to posterity and documented the information into a series of manuscripts and workbooks. He never described the language used during the sessions as “Enochian” but preferred to call it “Angelical,” the “Celestial Speech,” the “First Language of God-Christ,” and particularly “Adamical,” because he asserted it was used by Adam in the Garden of Eden to name all of God’s creatures.
John Dee’s obsidian mirror used for ‘scrying’ sessions (British Museum).
John Dee’s Seal of God ( Wikimedia Commons )
Enochian Alphabet
There are two different versions of the Enochian Alphabet with one script slightly different from other. The first version is found in Dee’s Manuscript, the first five Books of the Mysteries , and the second, and generally more accepted version, is in Liber Loagaeth , the latter being Kelley’s original drawings.
The script is written from right to left, and may include accents. The Enochian letters have English letter equivalents with some of the letter names pronounced as they would be in English, but many are pronounced differently.
The alphabet is used in the practice of Enochian Magic on Angelical or Enochian Keys. They were received through Edward Kelley in 1584, in Krakow, Poland. That year he wrote into his diaries a series of nineteen magical incantations. The Keys comprise 48 poetic verses and correspond to various functions within the Enochian Magic system. They are given in the original Enochian Language, and a Modern English Translation, based on John Dee’s Old English versions.
The Enochian letters are read from right to left, they have letter forms, letter names and some English equivalents. They are as written from John Dee’s Diary. ( Wikipedia.org)
Interpretation
Due to the loss of parts of John Dee’s original manuscripts, interpretations have arisen regarding the meaning, validity, and authenticity behind the Enochian language.
Some magicians have asserted it is the oldest language in the world, predating all other human languages.
In some circles it is considered among the most powerful strains of magic and is a method of contacting intelligences from other dimensions. Detractors have pointed out that the syntax of Enochian bears a strong resemblance to English, Dee and Kelley’s natural language.
Such similarities include the word luciftias, a term meaning “brightness,” which bears a connection to Lucifer, whose name means Light Bringer.” Londoh, the Enochian word for kingdom, might just represent Dee’s connection to his royal patron, the Queen of England. Computer analysis have also shown Enochian to have a grammatical relationship to English. Texts in the Liber Loagaeth demonstrate phonetic features that do not appear in natural languages. The phonetic features are associated more with glossolalia, or speaking in tongues.
Necromancy: The art of conjuring the dead and communicating with them, image of John Dee and Edward Kelley. From Astrology (1806) by Ebenezer Sibly. ( Wikipedia.org)
Modern day occultists have found it difficult to reconstruct the Enochian system, although progress has been made by studying the original manuscripts found in Sir Hans Sloane collection. From these studies, various groups and authors have created a functional system of magic.
The Enochian language was picked up and popularized by occultists, such as the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, Aleister Crowley, Israel Regardie and Anton LaVey, founder of the church of Satan. Many Satanists have even included Enochian Keys in their rituals, some adopting the entire language for use.
The Enochian language was also studied by U.S. rocket scientist Jack Parson of the O.T.O. In 1994 the Enochian letters were used as glyphs to operate the arc angle in the film ‘Stargate’, one year before the US remote viewing program, ‘Stargate’, was made public.
Another aspect of modern Enochian magic is Enochian chess. It is both a game and a divination tool, derived from the original tablets of John Dee. It is a complex system that requires a strong foundation in the study of the Qabalah, Geomancy, Tarot, Alchemy, and Astrology. Many of the original items used by Dee and Kelley can be found in the British Museum in London, England.
10 Historical Facts About Enochian
1) Enochian is an occult or angelic language that was recorded in the private journals of John Dee and his colleague Edward Kelley in late 16th-century England. Dee was a man of science-turned-magic seeker, and Kelley was a spirit medium who worked with Dee in his magical investigations. The men claimed that the mystical language was revealed to them by the Enochian angels. It is also referred to as Celestial Speech, Angelical, The First Language of God-Christ, and Adamical, because they believed it was the language first used by Adam and Eve — perhaps even the language God used to speak everything into being.
2) Dr. John Dee, born in 1527, was an occultist, mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, and advisor to Queen Elizabeth I who originally had little interest in the supernatural. Later on in his career, he became disillusioned with science and began experimenting with the occult. He believed he could recover lost spiritual wisdom in books of antiquity, among them the Book of Enoch.
3) The term Enochian comes from the Biblical figure Enoch. According to the Bible, Enoch lived 365 years before being taken up to Heaven — without dying. Genesis 5:24 says that he “walked with God” and Hebrews 11:5 states he “was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death.” He is one of two biblical figures, the other being the prophet Elijah, who left the Earth in this undead manner. John Dee believed Enoch was the last human to have known and used the language of angels.
4) In 1581, John Dee wrote in his personal journal that God had sent “Good Angels” to communicate directly with mankind. By the following year he was collaborating with seer and scryer Edward Kelley to communicate with these angels. They recorded hundreds of spirit conversations in their journals, including what they claimed was an angelic language called Enochian.
5) According to Dee and Kelley, The Enochian Alphabet was revealed to them during their “scrying sessions”, when various texts and tables were received from angels. Scrying is a technique used by seers, psychics, and sorcerers to foretell the future and involves gazing into a reflective surface to supernaturally receive messages from other entities.
6) There are two different versions of the Enochian Alphabet, with one script differing slightly from the other. The first version is found in Dee’s own journals, and the second, which is generally the more accepted version, is in the book Liber Loagaeth, which features Kelley’s original drawings of the Alphabet. Though Enochian is composed of non-English letters, it bears very similar syntax and grammar to that of the English language. The Enochian letters do have English letter equivalents, but some letters are pronounced the same as in English while others are not. Computer analysis has also shown Enochian to have a grammatical relationship to English. Unlike English, however, the Enochian script is written from right to left.
7) Due to the loss of parts of John Dee’s original manuscripts over the decades, the meaning, validity, and authenticity behind the Enochian language has been called into question. There are some magicians that believe it to really be the oldest language in the world, predating all other human languages. Some circles consider it among the most powerful strains of magic and methods of contacting intelligences from other dimensions. Disbelievers in either magic or Enochian itself contest that the foundation of Enochian is so close to that of Dee and Kelley’s native English language that is it surely their own, and not a divine, invention. A number of linguists who studied it have noted discrepancies in Enochian that reveal it is not a consistent language.
8) More modern day occultists have also found it difficult to reconstruct the Enochian system, although progress has been made by studying the original manuscripts found in the Sir Hans Sloane collection. From these studies, there have emerged individuals and groups who have created a functional system of magic, including occultists like the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, Aleister Crowley, and founder of the church of Satan, Anton LaVey, who have used and popularized the Enochian language to certain extents.
9) In pop culture, the 1994 movie Stargate incorporated Enochian letters as the glyphs used to operate the arc angle. The Stargate film also focuses heavily on interstellar teleportation and ancient Egyptian culture. Interestingly, the movie debuted one year before the United States remote viewing program, known as “ Stargate “, became public.
10) Another aspect of modern Enochian magic is Enochian chess. Enochian chess is both a game and a divination tool, derived from the original tablets of John Dee. It is a complex system that requires a strong foundation in the study of the Qabalah, Geomancy, Tarot, Alchemy, and Astrology. Chess, a game of ancient origins, has a debatably occult-related subtext as an elaborate and interconnected system of coded messages for those who are trained in its interpretation.
Sources:
https://www.ancient-origins.net/artifacts-ancient-writings/enochian-mysterious-lost-language-angels-003100 http://enochian.info/enochian-magic/ http://enochian.info/enochian-keys
https://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/bb/john_dee.htm
Originally published at https://www.beyondsciencetv.com on June 20, 2022.
