Greetings Enochian Students!
The following analysis of the First Angelical Calling (or Key) is excerpted from The Angelical Language: Vol I. I plan to release all 19 analyses over several weeks. Enjoy!
———————
The Angelical Calls are more than just keys to mystical gateways. In fact. they consist of a kind of biblical poetry – psalms, really- that appear to outline a connected message about the life of the Universe. However, exactly what that message says has been debated by Enochian scholars for decades (if not centuries). Like proper biblical literature, the wording is obscure enough that different readers see entirely different messages. Over the years, many have offered their own explanations of the “meaning” behind or within the forty-eight Calls. Here, I will present my own analysis of the poetry, and attempt to demystify the obscure language.
The poetry of the Calls appears to draw from a range of biblical literature. The first. third, and final Calls each contain very Genesis-like aspects- describing the establishment of the physical world as we know it. Calls two, and twelve through eighteen, are reminiscent of psalms or verses from the Song of Solomon- being invocations of the Divine through praise.
The Calls are generally classifiable as apocalyptic writings – which, like Loagaeth, commonly focus upon the cycle of time and the life and death of the Universe. Apocalyptic texts include such canonical books as Ezekiel. Isaiah, Daniel. and the Revelation of St. John. Calls four through fourteen, especially, remind me of verses from the Revelation, Isaiah, and so on.
The word apocalypse is an archaic word for “revelation”- especially in the spiritual/mystical sense. It is through such an apocalypse that the prophets Ezekiel, St. John, and (of course) Enoch were able to glimpse the Divine Throne. It therefore makes sense that the Calls- and even Loagaeth itself- should be associated with apocalyptic literature. Not only were they received by Kelley and Dee via direct Angelic revelation (making them prophets in their own right), but the practice of the system (called Gebofal, see chapter 4) is intended to result in the revelation of mysteries. Not to mention the fact that the Angels associated the whole system with the Tribulation.
Finally, I must give some attention to the classical Gnostic influence upon these poems. As we have seen in previous chapters, there is an undeniable Gnostic imprint upon Dee’s entire system of magick. For example, the “thirty Aethyrs” are apparently based upon the thirty Heavens of the Gnostics. Just as we see in Loagaeth, the Gnostic aspirant was expected to ceremonially open “gateways” leading into the thirty Heavens, receive purification and baptism within each realm, and finally obtain ultimate reunion with God. (See the Gnostic text entitled Pistis Sophia for just one example.)
Meanwhile, the Calls seem to contain a direct Gnostic borrowing in their name for God: Iadbaltoh, translating as “God of Justice (or Righteousness).” This name is suspiciously close to the ancient Gnostic name of the Creator-Ialdabaoth. The etymology of this name is obscure: however, Gnostic scripture records Ialdabaoth’s title of honor as “The God of Righteousness.”
There is also a Gnostic literary style to the poetry. For instance, the Calls written from ladbaltoh’s viewpoint bring to mind such ancient writings as The Thunder-Perfect Intellect– wherein the Gnostic goddess Sophia speaks to her followers. (Remember that Sophia- or Wisdom- appears in Dee’s journals as the Mother of Angels: Galvah.) The treatment of the Christos (“He That Liveth and Triumpheth”) in the poetry is also very Gnostic in its imagery.
However, I must remind the reader that the classical Gnostic texts we know today were unknown to Dee and Kelley. During their lives, the classical (or Sethian) Gnostic sects had long since been exterminated, and the discovery of the Nag Hammadi texts in Egypt was hundreds of years away.
In the meantime, Gnosticism had lived on in the very foundations of Western esotericism-at the hearts of such movements and philosophies as Hermeticism, Rosicrucianism, and alchemy. Its imagery survived in medieval and Renaissance engravings and the Tarot trumps. Its literature was a heavy influence upon canonical biblical texts (such as the Book of John and Revelation). Many of its mysteries were shared with and adopted by Jewish Merkavah mystics and Qabalists. And its Doctrines were preserved and taught by isolated mystics and secret societies.
There had also been a Gnostic sect within the Catholic Church for a time-founded by a Christian teacher named Valentinus- until it was also exterminated. It would appear that Valentinian philosophy was the primary source of Gnosticism for much of the West, including for men such as Dee.
With all of this taken into account, it is no surprise that the forty-eight Calls should bear the mark of Gnostic symbolism, without being technically classified as Gnostic literature themselves.
For brevity’s sake, I will conclude this introduction and proceed to the analysis of the Calls. In what follows, I have provided the text of each Call. Then, each is broken into “sections” of related passages, and I have included my commentary with each section. The commentary will include further references to the influences upon the poetry we have already discussed.
Call One:
“I reign over you,” sayeth the God of Justice, “In power exalted above the firmaments of wrath: in whose hands the Sun is as a sword, and the Moon a through-thrusting fire.”
Most of Call One appears to be composed of the words of God Himself. As we see in the line above, the speaker of the Call establishes that he is not speaking his own words, but those of the God of Justice (lad Balt or Iadbaltoh). By quoting the very words of the Creator at the time of their creation, the speaker is reminding the Angels of the promises they have made, and the commands given to them by God. (We shall see this elsewhere in the Calls.) The speaker is also proving that he knows these secret words, and thus establishes his own authority.
Remember that Call One is intended to move the “Kings and Ministers of Government” who are also the ‘First Seven”. These are likely the seven Archangels who “stand before the Face of God” as depicte’d in the Revelation of St. John and elsewhere. Among these seven planetary Archangels, those of the Sun and Moon stand as chiefs. The first line of the Call reveals that the God of Justice is so exalted (likely super-celestial as in Gnosticism), even the mighty Sol and Luna arc but tools or weapons in His hands- a sword and a “through-thrusting fire” (fiery arrow).
Which measureth your garments in the midst of my vestures and trussed you together, as the palms of my hands. Whose seats I garnished with the fire of gathering and beautified your garments with admiration. To whom I made a law to govern the Holy Ones, and delivered you a rod (with) the ark of knowledge.
In the first line above, the initial word “which” most likely refers to the Sun and Moon described in the previous line of the Call. In the study of astrology, the path of the Sun and Moon across the sky is used to distinguish the twelve principal constellations from among the chaotic mass of stars. Because of this, the Sun and Moon are credited with bringing order to chaos, as well as the government of the planetary and zodiacal Angels. From the standpoint of astrology it is Sol and Luna who “truss together” the signs and planets (the kings and ministers of government). It is they who mark out (measure) the paths of the stars through the vault of the Heavens- the vestures (territories) of ladbaltoh.
The next line suggcsts that God has garnished the seats of Sol and Luna with the “fire of gathering.” This makes sense when we consider that the Sun and Moon are said to burn with a mere reflection of the Fire from Heaven. The line then addresses the kings and ministers once again, and suggests that the Sun and Moon have “beautified your garments.” The planets in our solar system are beautified by glowing with the light reflected from the Sun.
The next line seems to refer to the natural laws set by Iadbaltoh- those that govern the Holy Ones (Angels), and those which they enforce upon the created realm. As the kings and ministers of the Universe, they both hold the rod (scepter) of rulership and represent the ark (or storehouse) of all knowledge. (Remember that Dee was an astrologer, and regularly read the stars for knowledge.)
Moreover, you lifted up your voices and swore obedience and faith to Him that liveth and triumpheth; whose beginning is not, nor end cannot be; which shineth as a flame in the midst of your palace, and reigneth amongst you as the balance of righteousness and truth.
With the word “moreover”, Iadbaltoh changes the subject of his speech. He is, of course, still addressing the kings and ministers, but He suddenly appears to refer to a Divinity distinct from Himself- “Him that Liveth and Triumpeth.” This would seem to be a direct reference to the Christos– the Anointed One who descends from Heaven to take on a body of flesh and triumph over evil (“liveth and triumpheth”). In the Book of Revelation, the Christos conquers the physical realm and is established as eternal King.
We have already discussed the Gnostic Christos (also called the Logos, or Word). It is both self-created and eternal, both distinct from and part of the Highest God. The descriptive terms used in Call One to describe “Him that liveth … ” are typical of the Christos. He is described as eternal, and (in the same spirit of the Call thus far) is associated intimately with solar imagery. He “shineth as a flame” in the midst of the palace of the Holy Ones, as the Sun shines in the center of our solar system. Both the Christos in Heaven and the Sun in the celestial realm are the central pillar and balance. (Interestingly, Gnostic texts describe the Christos’ first act as that of bringing balance to the realm of the Aeons. It then descended to the physical realm, to do the same here.). Therefore, Call One serves to remind the Angelic rulers of the Universe that they have sworn themselves to both Iadbaltoh and the Christos.
Move, therefore, and show yourselves. Open the mysteries of your creation. Be friendly unto me. For. I am a servant of the same your God; the true worshiper of the Highest.
Finally, the Call ends with an evocational formula – or conjuration. As we shall see, all of the Calls end with similar conjurations. All of them are spoken by the speaker of the Call rather than by a figure- such as God- being quoted within the Call. However, there arc a couple of instances where Iadbaltoh is quoted within the formula.
NEXT: Angelic Calling 2
Click here for The Angelical Language: Vol I at Llewellyn.com
Greetings, Angel-workers!
As many of you know, I believe John Dee was given the Angelical alphabet for more than just writing the perfected Holy Book of Loagaeth. As the angels revealed the mysterious characters in the shewstone, they stated that the alphabet was “preferred before that which you call Hebrew.” I strongly doubt the Angels wanted Dee to get all Jewish people of the world to begin speaking fluent Angelical! Dee himself likely knew enough Hebrew to read untranslated Jewish texts (or at least get the gist of them), but he wouldn’t have had any use for Angelical in such tasks. He did, however, make use of the Hebrew alphabet in his occultism – much of it drawn directly from Agrippa’s ‘Occult Philsoophy.’ You can read for yourself what Dee was studying: It begins in Book III, chapter 24 and continues until chapter 28.
It seems obvious to me that Dee’s angels wanted him to use Angelical in place of the Hebrew alphabet in all of Agrippa’s tables, charts and methods of encrypting/decrypting Divine Names. This is perfectly in line with Agrippa himself, who asserts that his methods can be used with any alphabet.
I’m sure many of you have already read my essay on this subject: The Angelical Alphabet. (Read it now at the link, or you can find it in ‘The Angelical Language’, Vol I.) Over the years since I published it, I have been contacted by several students who wish to make use of the techniques, but need further illustration of the process. The Tables of Ziruph, especially, can be confusing until you get the hang of their proper useage.
So, I am making this blog as an example of how to use the information outlined in ‘The Angelical Alphabet.’ Though I will make reference to Agrippa’s work along the way, I will be using the Angelical Alphabet in place of Hebrew. (There will be only one exception to this – and I will make it clear when I am discussing traditional Hebrew Angels.)
Also note: In this blog, I will use the English-letter equivalents of the Angelical , so we do not have to worry about Enochian fonts. Where necessary, I will mention the letter by its Angelical name. If you want to see a chart of the alphabet and the names of its letters, refer to the Angelical Alphabet essay linked above.
Finding the Name of an Angel from a Horoscope (an Example)
In my essay, I describe this technique in a section entitled ‘Of Finding Out the Names of Spirits and Geniuses from the Disposition of Celestial Bodies.’ This has various uses. If you decode the name from your own natal chart, you have discovered the hidden name of your Nativity Angel. This is one of your Guardian Angels (not the same as Abramelin’s ‘Holy Guardian Angel’), who can speak or assist you with any part of your life covered by your natal chart.
On the other hand, you can also draw up a horoscope for magickal timing – finding a place and time where the stars are fortunate toward your goal or sympathetic toward the Angel(s) you wish to contact. If you then decode a name from this chart, you will have an Angel who is set specifically over your magickal goal. It is then possible to use other standard magickal arts to create a sigil for the Angel, a Talismanic Image, summon it or work with it however you choose.
Let us assume you wish to work with the planet Mars (the planet of agression, strength, protection, etc.). Therefore, you will naturally try to find a time when Mars is strong and well-aspected with the other planets. It is best if Mars himself is above the horizon, and even better if one can find such a time that falls upon a day and hour of Mars. For our purposes, we shall pretend we drew a chart with the following dignities and aspects:
Ascendant: For our purposes here, we will suppose the Ascendant was at 1 degrees Aries.
Luna: 1st House, 17 degrees Aries, with no dignity (meaning neither good or bad). Luna attempts to help the Detrimental Mercury with a Trine aspect, though Mercury is the stronger of the pair. Luna does gain some power for residing in a sign ruled by Mars.
Jupiter: 3rd House, 8 degrees Gemini, in Detriment. Inconjunct with Saturn so that Fate and Fortune are mis-aligned. It is also in opposition to Venus (Fortune and Passion are oppossed here) – which means it is hindering Venus’ attempt to aid Saturn. This maelific Jupiter seems more powerful than Saturn or Venus, if you consider a Detriment to be more powerful than no dignity at all.
Saturn: 8th House, 8 degrees Scorpio, with no dignity. It is inconjunct with Jupiter (Fate and Fortune are not working well together), but Venus is attempting to lend some Passionate support in a Semi-Sextile. It gains some power for being in a sign ruled by Mars (our planet of focus).
Venus: 9th House, 6 degrees Sagittarius, with no dignity. As stated above, Venus is in opposition to Jupiter and Semi-Sextile with Saturn. Both Saturn and Venus are relatively weak, and they are overpowered by the Detrimental Jupiter.
Mercury: 9th House, 15 degrees Sagittarius, in Detriment. This is generally bad news for magick or communication. It is in Trine with Luna, which alleviates some of the negativity – but sadly Luna has no dignity and is therefore weaker than the Detrimental Mercury.
Sol: 10th House, 1 degrees Capricon (thus cusped with Sagittarius), with no dignity in either sign. He has no aspect with any other planet, however he does happen to reside in the sign of Mars’ exaltation. Not particularly strong in the chart, but Mars should lend him some power.
Mars: 11th House, 26 degrees Capricorn, in Exaltation. Without a doubt Mars is the most powerful and fortunate planet in this chart. Not only is he Exalted, he forms no negative aspects with other planets. He is also above the horizon, which is always a plus.
Once you have found this magickal time and drawn the horoscope, it is time to decode the name of your Angel. As Agrippa teaches, one must first assign letters to all 360 degrees of the chart. Beginning with Pa (B) in House 1, degree 1 and moving counterclockwise (that is, with the natural order of the signs), assign one letter of the Angelical Alphabet to each degree, repeating the alphabet (From Pa to Gisg) over and over until you run out of degrees. In my essay I have done this work for you, and provided easy reference tables to find the letter of any degree in a horoscope.
Next, consider the aspects of the chart – specifically the strongest and most fortunate aspects that will aid you in your work. Unfortunate and weak aspects can be ignored. The planets fall in the following order upon our example chart, starting from the First House and moving counterclockwise:
Luna, Jupiter, Saturn, Venus, Mercury, Sol, Mars
The fortunate and/or strong aspects we wish to keep are:
Luna, Saturn, Sol, Mars
That is, the two planets that reside in the signs ruled by Mars, the Sun residing in the sign of Mars’ Exaltation, and Mars itself. The Angelical letters associated with their degrees on the chart are as follows:
Luna: 1st House, 17 degrees = R (Don)
Saturn: 8th House, 8 degrees = M (Tal)
Sol: 10th House, 1 degrees = U/V (Van)
Mars: 11th House, 26 degrees = L (Ur)
To compile the name, you have a couple of choices. One is simpler and, in my opinion, less powerful – and that is to simply take the letters as they fall counterclockwise around the chart, starting with the First House and moving to the Twelfth. In our example, this gives us:
RMUL
Agrippa suggests we add “El”, “Yah”, “On” or “Yod” to the end of the name. However, since we are using Angelical rather than Hebrew, I feel we can dispense with that convention. Thus, the resulting name above could be pronounced Remul, Ramul or even Ramvel, Ramuel, etc. When spelled in Angelical characters, it would only have the four letters Don (R), Tal (M), Van (U/V) and Ur (L).
The other, more powerful, option is to organize the letters according to their strength in the chart – strongest letter first, weakest letter last. If you have done your work correctly, that should place the letter of the planet you are working with first in the name. In our example, the aspects fall into this order of power:
1) Mars: In Exaltation, no negative aspects.
2) Sol: No dignity, no aspects, in sign of Mars’ exaltation.
3) Luna: No dignity, trine with Mercury, in a sign ruled by Mars.
4) Saturn: No dignity, inconjunct with Jupiter, semi-sextile with Venus, in a sign ruled by Mars.
The above results in the following:
LURM
In this case, our angel’s name would be Lurem. Technically speaking, both Lurem and Remuel should be different aspects of the same angel, but Lurem will be the more powerful of the two.
If you have reason to search for the demon or “negative angel” from the same horoscope, you follow a similar – yet inverted – process. First, you must have the name of the good angel. Then, you need to write the alphabet into all 360 degrees of the chart as before, except this time you place the first letter into the descendant – or the 1st degree of the seventh House – running clockwise around the chart. (Again, I have done this work for you in my essay.)
Now, you need only look at the degrees of the letters of the angel’s name. For each degree, take the letter from the spot 180 degrees opposite of (that is, in opposition to) the angel’s letter. In our example, we have:
L: 11th House, 26 degrees. Opp: 5th House, 26 degrees = X (Pal)
U: 10th House, 1 degrees. Opp: 4th House, 1 degrees = E (Graph)
R: 1st House, 17 degrees. Opp: 7th House, 17 degrees = I/Y (Gon)
M: 8th House, 8 degrees. Opp: 2nd House, 8 degrees = Z (Ceph)
Thus, the name of the demon is XEYZ – which we might pronounce Zayz or Zay-zod.
Using the ‘Tables of Ziruph’ (More Examples)
In my Angelical Alphabet essay, I also explain the uses of Agrippa’s ‘Tables of Ziruph’ – as found in his ‘Occult Philosophy’ Chapter 27. You will find the section in my essay entitled ”Of the Calculating Art of Such Names by the Tradition of Cabalists’ – though I have again replaced the Hebrew in Agrippa’s charts with Angelical.
Simply put, the Tables of Ziruph allow you to find more angels (or demons) in the same hierarchy as the original name. This is based on the nine-choir cosmology of Dionysus, which groups the angelic hierarchies into three groups of three. From highest to lowest they are: Seraphim, Cherubim and Thrones, Dominations, Powers and Virtues and Principalities, Archangels and Angels.
When you use the above-illustrated method of finding an angel’s name from a horoscope, you are technically getting the name from the lowest choir of Angels. With the ‘Tables of Ziruph’ you can use that angel’s name to find the name of his Archangel.
The Angel and his Archangel should be all you need for practical purposes- however you can find the names of yet higher entities if you desire. Enter the name of the Archangel into the ‘Table of Ziruph’ and you will produce a Principality. Enter the Principality’s name into the Table and you will produce a Virtue. Continue this process and you can take it all the way to a Seraph at the Throne of God.
For our purposes, I will assume you only need to find the Archangel who governs our Angel of Mars named Lurem: Remember the angel’s name is spelled LURM (Ur, Van, Don, Tal), which was compiled from the planets Mars, Sol, Luna and Saturn in our horoscope.
Look at the ‘Ziruphic’ Table of Planets in my essay. Look for the first letter of our angel’s name in the line called the “Entrance of the Good Angels.” (Ur is the eleventh letter down that column.) Now, scan leftward along Ur’s row in the table until you reach the column of the letter’s planet Mars (three columns to the left). In that column we find the letter H (Na) – so that is the first letter of our Archangel’s name.
Now, find the second letter of our angel’s name – U (Van) – in the “Entrance of the Good Angels.” (It happens to be the 19th letter down.) Since this letter was associated with Sol, we need to scan leftward along that row until we reach the column of Sol (two columns over) – where we find the letter C/Ch/K (Veh). This is the second letter of our Archangel’s name.
Follow this same process for the remaining letters of the angel’s name. If we find R (Don) in the “Entrance of the Good Angels” and scan leftward to the column of Luna, we find that the third letter of the Archangel’s name is N (Drux). Finally, if we find M (Tal) in the “Entrance of the Good Angels” and scan leftward to the column of Saturn, we find that the last letter of the Archangel’s name is Q (Ger).
Putting these new letters together, we have: HCNQ. It seems like a bit of a tongue-twister, but we might pronounce it Hay-sen-ohk. (I note the similiarity of this name to the word Cnoqod, which means “servant.”)
If you wanted to find the next name up the hierarchy – in this case a Principality – you would use the exact same process to enter the Archangel’s name into the ‘Table of Ziruph.’
If you wished to find the Archdemon that governs the demon in your chart, you would simply follow the same process as above – except you would enter the letters of the demon’s name into the table from the “Line of the Evil Angels” instead.
One More Thing about the ‘Tables of Ziruph’
In the above examples, the method of using the ‘Tables of Ziruph’ depends on first finding the name of an angel or demon from a horoscope. This way, each letter in the name has a specific planet assigned to it. However, what about using the ‘Tables of Ziruph’ with the name of existing Angels – who do not come with planetary aspects assigned to each letter?
For this purpose, I will drop the Angelical and return to the Hebrew Agrippa used in his charts. So if you want to follow along, you will have to refer to Agrippa’s ‘Occult Philosophy’ Chapter 27 and his Ziruphic Table of the planets.
Let us begin by assuming you are working with a Hebrew Solar Angel -such as the Intelligence of the Sun Nakhiel (Nun, Kaph, Yod, Aleph, Lamed). Further, we will assume that Intelligences such as Nakhiel are “Angels” by the Dionysian hierarchy, and we will use his name to generate an Archangel.
First, prepare the name of Nakhiel by removing the “-el” suffix. If our Angel had a “-iah”, “-iod” or “-on” suffix we would remove that as well. (This is because we will be adding one of these Divine Names directly to the Arhcangelic name we generate. As stated previously, I do not follow this convention at all for Angelical names – but I do follow it for Hebrew names.) This leaves us with the letters Nun, Kaph and Yod.
Since we are dealing with an Angel entirely related to the Sun, we simply need to enter these letters into the “Entrance of the Good Angels” and scan leftward to the column of Sol (the very center column) for every letter:
N (Nun) = Z (Zain)
Kh (Kaph) = Ch (Cheth)
I (Yod) = A (Aleph)
This results in a name with the letters ZChA. And, since we are using Hebrew, I will add one of the Names of God “El”, “Yah” or “On” onto the end of the name. Agrippa suggests that “Yah” is used only for good angels and “El” can be used for angels or demons. (He does not mention the proper use of the Greek “On.”) Personally, I don’t find much support for this concept among the angel and demon names I have studied. Thus, I suggest simply adding the Name of God that fits best linguistically in the name. For “ZChA”, I think “El” fits the best – giving us the final result of: ZChAAL or Zachael, which we might pronounce Zak-ay-el.
Thus, Zachael is an Archangel who governs Nakhiel. You could further enter ZChA into the ‘Table of Ziruph’ – using the colum of Sol for all letters – to find a Solar Principality that governs Zachael.
I will bring this blog post to a close here. I hope the above illustrations have been useful to you in putting this material into practice.
LVX
Aaron
September 8, 2010
Greetings faithful bloggers!
It is unusual for me to make an issue out of a negative review of one of my books. Of course, if I find a mere attack posted as a “review”, I’m likely to take it to one of my forums and poke fun at it. Everyone has a good laugh. 🙂 Yet, you won’t likely see me talking about that kind of thing here.
However, I have received one less-than-glowing review- for The Angelical Language Vol 2 (An Encyclopedic Lexicon of the Tongue of Angels)- that does merit some discussion. It is not really an attack – the guy gave the book three stars, and at least suggested it would be useful if errors were fixed. Though I also think the author was grossly exaggerating when he insisted the errors were “just too numerous to list.” (Certainly the list of errors couldn’t be longer than the book itself! lol)
Plus, several of the examples he does offer are not errors at all, but are issues that scholars have long debated. The 48 Angelical Calls were not given to Dee as a complete and perfect set. There were a lot of issues with their reception, and both Dee and Enochian scholars since his time have worked to correct and complete them. What you see in The Angelical Language are *my* conclusions, even if they conflict with the conclusions of others.
I originally wrote a reply to this review that boiled down to: “Don’t mistake your own conclusions about Dee’s material as immutable fact.” It also reminded the reader that I don’t consider the Lexicon to be the final word on the language forever. The work continues, the Lexicon will be updated and expanded as the years continue.
However, for a while now, I’ve felt that something was not quite right with my reply. It almost said what I wanted it to say, but didn’t quite convey the message. Finally, I realized that I had put too much emphasis on replying to the reviewer himself, where the emphasis should have been on the continuing evolution of the work. And, worst of all, it was missing a certain invitation to all of you.
Below I am posting both the original review, and my updated reply. If you own, or plan to own, a copy of my Angelical Lexicon I hope you will read on:
REVIEW
———————–
Room for improvement, May 24, 2010
By Veritas “KK”
This review is from: The Angelical Language, Volume II: An Encyclopedic Lexicon of the Tongue of Angels (Hardcover)
This is an interesting work, where clearly a lot of effort has gone into it. However, I was somewhat disappointed by the fact that the author has used, for his main source, Casaubon’s printed version of Dee’s works, which contain many errors. One example will suffice: the word ‘Peral’, to be found in Key 5 (according to Leitch and many other authors), never appears in Dee’s works at all. It is in fact a misprint for ‘Peoal’. At least Leitch has inserted it in its correct position. There are a number of other spelling errors throughout the Keys. I would also strongly argue against some of the numbered listings of the Keys near the beginning of the book, where, in my view, they are clearly wrong, but it was nice to see that in the first Key he lists 86 words (despite the fact that many individual words are numbered incorrectly), which is certainly correct. My last criticism is with accents: Dee never uses the circumflex (found throughout this work, and interpreted as as long vowel); all these should be replaced with a breve (from the Latin brevis – short), being a short vowel or syllable. The number of errors in this work are just too numerous to list, simply because the author is not using original source works.
To be of any real value, works such as this must be based upon Dee’s original manuscripts; relying on printed sources is a serious mistake. I have found no printed source which is free from errors, some of them are appalling. My own 40 year study in this field may one day be published. As a final note, I would say that, a revised and corrected version of this work would be a valuable addition to Enochian (not a word Dee ever used) literature.
REPLIES:
————
Salmontree says:
My understanding from reading the intro to Volume I, was that the author exhaustively used the original source (Dee’s notebooks) and did not use Casaubon as his main source, as this reviewer states.
————
Aaron Leitch says:
Greetings!
Salmontree, you are correct. TFR was among the sources for my work, but was not my only source. It is quoted extensively in my books simply because (at the time I wrote them) it was the most commonly available source for my readers to reference for themselves. (Now, thankfully, anyone can see Dee’s originals online at The Magickal Review website.)
I am fully aware that TFR contains many mistakes and misprints (and mis-placed pages, etc, etc). These mistakes have been well vetted by Enochian scholars, and you will find them corrected in my work. (For example, check the entry for Coronzom.)
Of course, that doesn’t mean that this project – which I accomplished alone over the course of 10 years – didn’t see a rare mistake or two make it through the filters. I state very clearly in the introduction that my work is not offered as definitive of the language. It is simply the best anyone has offered to date, and it is my sincere hope that all Enochian students and scholars will do their part in correcting AND expanding the Lexicon. Any mistakes you folks help me find, I will be happy to correct for the next printing of the book.
As for the 48 Angelical Calls: I had to do a lot of corrective work on them before I could present them with their cross-reference numbers. The Calls were not simply given to Dee as a completed set. Not only Dee, but many Enochian scholars since him have worked to correct them.
I invite any and all Dee and Enochian scholars, students and practitioners to contact me if they find something I missed. This project is a living and growing thing, and it will take many minds and many years to fully understand and develop the Tongue of Angels.
Zorge
Aaron
Ananael (The Secrets of Wisdom) 