John Dee and Enochian Magic
The Elizabethan magus and the language of angels.
John Dee (1527–1608) was mathematician, geographer and adviser to Elizabeth I. From 1582, with the scryer Edward Kelley, he recorded years of conversations with angels who dictated a language, a set of Calls and a complex system of tablets now known as Enochian magic.
This cabinet gathers Dee’s own writings, including the Monas Hieroglyphica, the transcribed books of mysteries and the Calls, together with the Golden Dawn and later adaptations that turned his private diaries into a working system.
This is still a small shelf, and the texts are of very different kinds. Dee’s Monas Hieroglyphica is a philosophical treatise; the Five Books of Mysteries and related manuscripts are diaries of his sessions with the scryer Edward Kelley; the Calls and tables were later extracted and reorganised by occultists. Begin with a biography so the man is clear before the angels appear, then read the diaries as historical documents. The later Enochian workings are best read last, as modern reconstructions that built a magical system on Dee’s records.
