The Origin of Enochian Alphabet

In a previous post, I mentioned using magical alphabets as a method of focus. One of those alphabets is the Enochian Alphabet, part of the language, “received” in the 16^th century by Dr. John Dee and Edward Kelley. A mathematician, astronomer, and occult philosopher, Dr. John Dee was also a trusted advisor and personal astrologer to Queen Elizabeth I. In fact, it was Dee who determined the date for her coronation. Dr. Dee was very well known in his lifetime, not only because of his association with royalty, but also for his scholarship, and his extensive library, which he shared with his fellow scholars. Given his fame, it is probable that Prospero in Shakespeare’s The Tempest was based on Dee. More recently, author Ian Fleming used the insignia number that Dee affected in private communication with Queen Elizabeth for his famous Agent 007, James Bond.

Edward Kelley was considerably less illustrious. According to some accounts, he was known as Edward Talbot while at Oxford, and that he changed his name to Kelley after he was convicted of forgery. Kelley eventually became a noted alchemist, acquiring the temporary patronage of Emperor Rudolph of Germany. However, it was as a medium that he achieved his greatest notoriety, in his work with John Dee.

A very devout Christian, John Dee was heavily influenced by Hermetic philosophy, and sought to unify all religions by rediscovering the unsullied theology of the ancients. After periods of purification through prayer and fasting, Dee would carefully write out what Kelley would see through Dee’s “Scrying Mirror”. Dee was convinced that they were communicating with angelic beings, and that the language he was transcribing dated from the time before Noah. This went on for approximately five years, and resulted in two books, Liber Loagaeth (Book of Speech from God) and Claves Angelicae (Angelic Keys).

The collaboration between Dee and Kelley ended in Bohemia when, according to Kelley, the Archangel Uriel required the two men to share everything – including their wives. While Dee agreed, it didn’t sit well with him, and he broke up their partnership shortly thereafter. Dee and his own wife returned to England, where she gave birth to a son that might have been Kelley’s. Kelley, meanwhile, enjoyed the high life in Emperor Rudolph’s court, but was imprisoned for failing to produce gold. He died in early 1598, from injuries incurred while trying to escape. Dee died approximately ten years later, his fortunes having declined with the earlier death of Queen Elizabeth.

There are those who believe that the beings who spoke to Dee through Kelley were angels from the aprocryphal Book of Enoch. However, some linguists have shed doubt on the ancient nature of Enochian, noting that it is inconsistent between the two books, and that the syntax is entirely too much like English. Nevertheless, Liber Loagaeth and Claves Angelicae, as well as other scattered writings in John Dee’s notebooks, became the basis of the Enochian Magic system, as reworked by the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn in the nineteenth century.