Restoring the Enochian Heptarchia

Greetings Students of Enochiana!

My new book The Essential Enochian Grimoire has finally been released!  :):):)  Have you received your copy yet?  What do you think?  😉

There are several pieces of information contained in the book that I fully expect to be controversial.  Some of it is simply obscure material that has never been published before – such as the proper design and use of the reverse side of the Holy Lamen, the little-known 92nd Part of the Earth, or the proper correlation between the four Watchtowers and the “quarters of the Earth.”  Some of it includes corrections to long-standing mistakes, – such as the fact that only three of the four Watchtower Seals was given in Dee’s journals, or an incorrect number in the circumference of the Seal of Truth, or the six names of God that were switched on the famous “Banner Diagram.”

One of the most important corrections I made to the material was the restoration of the functions of the Heptarchic angels.  Students of Dee’s material will already know how confused and incomplete Dee’s list of functions for these angels was.  What you may not know is that Dee was well aware of the problem and made several notations in his journals that give us the necessary keys to restore the list.

Unfortunately, I just didn’t have room in The Essential Enochian Grimoire to lay out all the details of how I went about restoring the information.  But this is a pretty big change to the commonly-published material, so I felt it was necessary to show my work.  It is important for students to realize this is a restoration I have made based on Dee’s own records, and not merely an innovation I came up with on my own.  The Essential Enochian Grimoire is ultimately about Dee’s work, not mine.  (Mine will follow in a future publication.)

So, in order for you to see my process – complete with journal references and quotes from Dee to back up my points – I wrote an essay entitled Restoring the Enochian Heptarchia.  It has been published by the Llewellyn Journal thus far, and you can read it for free.  🙂

Enjoy – and feel free to comment!

Zorge,

Aaron

Greetings again Egyptophiles!

James Clark has decided to wow us with another example of his Egyptian iconography from the Neo-Enochian (that is post-Golden Dawn) portion of the Essential Enochian Grimoire.  This is another of the godforms that rule the “Truncated Pyramids” of the Watchtower squares:

 

Harpocrates

 

The Greek name “Harpocrates” comes from the Egyptian Heru-pa-Khered, meaning Horus the Child.  As the story goes, Osiris had impregnated Isis just before he left the realm of the living to govern the Underworld.  Osiris’ brother and murderer Set, who had usurped the Throne of Egypt, was unaware of the pregnancy, and Isis did everything in her power to keep it that way.  She went into hiding in a field of reeds to have and raise the child – who she named Horus – in secrecy.  (As it happens Set did eventually find out, and made several attempts to assassinate his infant nephew, but all without success.)

Eventually, Hrous came of age and confronted Set to reclaim his father’s Throne.  After 80 years of battle (on the field and in court), Horus achieved victory and became the ruler of Egypt.  From that point forward, every Pharoah was considered a living incarnation of Horus.

The Child Horus became a special figure in Egypt, much as the Baby Jesus would become his own figure in later Christianity.  (In fact, it is quite likely that images of the Madonna and Child are descened from older Egyptian images of Isis and Harpocrates.)  Horus the Child represented the newborn Sun (in the morning, but especially after the winter Solstice) and the first appearance of crops and vegitation.

As Nick Farrell pointed out in his most recent blog post, our association with Harpocrates as a “God of Silence” was due to a misunderstanding on the part of the Greeks.  They saw the young boy figure holding a finger to his lips, and assumed he was making the common gesture for “be quiet.”  Thus, they associated him with their own God of Silence and Mystery – and that is exactly how he is viewed in the Golden Dawn system to this day.

In fact, the particular gesture being made by Harpocrates is simply an imitation of the Egyptian Hieroglyph for “Child.”  I suspect this had something to do with children sucking on their fingers, or even making a non-verbal request to be fed.

 

Egyptian Hieroglyph for “Child”

 

Of course, even if Harpocrates is not specifically a “God of Silence”, there is still deep significance in the mythos of his being raised in secret by the Mother Goddess, and prepared for his eventual confrontation with Set.  In the Golden Dawn’s Neophyte initiation ceremony, the candidate is presented as likewise raised in darkness and obscurity, protected and finally guided to seek spiritual wisdom by the Great Mother so he can someday reclaim his own spiritual Throne and govern his personal Kingdom.

In the Neo-Enochian system, Harpocrates represents balanced Air and Water.  Two sides of his pyramid are Air (yellow with purple characters) and two are Water (blue with orange characters). His image is a youth wearing a yellow and blue tunic, a yellow pectoral collar, and a blue headdress. He also wears the double-crown of Egypt, colored yellow and blue. He holds a blue ankh and stands in the “sign of silence” – meaning his left fingertip is pressed against his lips. Sometimes he is depicted kneeling upon a Lotus blossom. He rests upon a yellow and blue base.

 

Greetings Egyptophiles!

So James Clark has finally released some new artwork from the Essential Enochian Grimoire –  and this time he’s drawing from the Neo-Enochian half of the book, where we find the Golden Dawn’s version of Enochian magick.  And, in the Golden Dawn, they used Egyptian godforms as talismatic images to represent the “Truncated Pyramids” formed of the Watchtower squares:

 

Hathor – Goddess of Passion

 

Hathor is the Egyptian Goddess of Fertility and Passion – much like the Goddesses of neighboring countries:  Astarte, Ishtar and Inanna.  Also like these other Goddesses, Hathor is also a Goddess of War.

Egyptian mythos tells us of the time Hathor overheard some humans planning to assassinate her father Ra and overthrow his kingdom.  In her rage, she assumed the form of the Eye of Ra (the disk of the Sun) and flew across the Earth burning and destroying everything in her path.

So complete was her destruction, the other Gods became afraid she would exterminate mankind for good.  So, they quickly chose a valley in Hathor’s path and flooded it with beer dyed red to resemble blood.

Sure enough, when Hathor saw what appeared to be a lake of human blood, she waded in waist-deep and began to drink her fill.  The beer eventually took effect and Hathor, her rage finally spent, fell into a deep sleep.  What was left of mankind rejoiced at being spared, and learned to never again plot against mighty Ra.

In the above picture, we see Hathor as she appears in the Enochian system.  (It’s a shame the Essential Enochian Grimoire couldn’t reproduce these images in full color!)  She represents balanced WATER and EARTH. Two sides of her pyramid are Water (blue with orange characters) and two are Earth (black with white characters). Her image is of a woman wearing a blue and black dress, a blue pectoral collar and a black horned headdress. The headdress is surmounted by a blue disk and blue feathers. She carries a black ankh and blue lotus scepter and stands upon a black and blue base.

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James really outdid himself on these Egyptian images.  When Llewellyn first told me they wanted to have an artist re-draw the traditional GD Godforms, I was skeptical.  I pictured some kind of modern fantasy-style depictions of the gods – which would have been nice, but would not have carried that “Golden Dawn” tone or feeling.  Thankfully, James happens to have Golden Dawn experience, so he knew exactly how these images should look.  I am proud to have these new images in my book – I have no doubt they will be used by practitioners again and again!

Thanks goes to Chic and Tabatha Cicero for lending me the original versions of these Godforms.  🙂

 

Greetings Angel Workers!

James is not only an accomplished graphical artist, but he also has practical knowledge of and experience with the subject matter.  (That made working with him on these images *much* smoother.  Not to mention it means he is as dedicated as I am to getting every detail just right.)  The following is an image James is particularly proud of, from the upcoming Essential Enochian Grimoire:

The Seal of the True God.
“And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God ” [Rev 7:2]

The Seal of God appears in the Book of the Revelation of St. John, carried by an angel from God’s Kingdom (of Light in the East) to the Earth.  It is then used to mark the foreheads of all the world’s faithful who serve the Light.  (See Rev 7, and 9:4.)  And this isn’t a religious concern, as even St. John clearly states the Seal was received by “a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues.” (Rev. 7:9).   (The only catch was that 144 thousand Jewish guys got to receive it first.)

Personally, I suspect such a mark would be upon one’s aura – a spiritual mark.  Consider the mark is places “in the forehead” in Revelation, the common location given for one’s “third eye” or psychic awareness.

The above Seal is probably familiar to most of you as the “Seal of Truth” – and Dee did refer to it by that term once or twice.  However, its full and proper name is given in Dee’s journals as Sigillium Dei Emeth, which translates literally as “Seal God Truth.”  In other grimoires that have versions of this Seal, it is called the “Seal of God.”  Thus, I tend to refer to this image as the “Seal of the True God.”  (However one could suggest other translations such as the “Seal of God’s Truth”, “Seal of the God (of) Truth” or even the “True Seal of God.”  Plus “Seal” can also be “Signature”, so we get titles such as the “True Signature of God,”)

In any case, what you are seeing above is, in fact, a very unique image.  Back in the old Enochian-L days (circa late 1990s), we dissected the numbers and letters of the Seal in minute detail – and we became aware of three problems in the available images of Dee’s Seal.  The above image addresses these problems:

One appears to be a mistake (either of Dee’s or of some later copyist).  A circumference character “y/15” (see above) is rendered as “y/14” in all published images of the Seal of the True God.  The problem is that “y/14” makes it impossible to decrypt the Angelic Name that contains that y.  If you look on p. 103 of Joseph Peterson’s John Dee’s Five Books of Mystery, you’ll see the angels actually gave him “y/15”  (There is also a mathematical mystery having to do with the numbers in the Seal’s circumference that requires this to be 15.)

Interestingly, this letter is only used in the eighth “hidden” name Aborymon, which is associated with Antichrist and the End Times.  (The name is likely related to Abaddon and Apollyon.)  If one wanted to be completely ridiculous, one might even suggest it was a deliberate blind Dee introduced into the Seal so dabblers wouldn’t find Aborymon’s name…

The second and third problems were deliberate blinds on the part of Dee, so dabblers wouldn’t stumble onto Aborymon’s name.  Really.

In most published versions of the Seal of the True God, you’ll find in the circumference a capital letter “A” without any numbers in its cell.  That’s the first letter of Aborymon, and it doesn’t tell you where to go to find the next letter of the name.  Dee originally recorded a “666” in this cell, and noted that one was to move counterclockwise six spaces to find the next letter.  Later, the Archangel Michael (in a vision) erased the “666” in that cell to illustrate dominance over the Antichrist.  Dee followed suit by leaving only the “A” on his own Seal.  Most have followed suit, but a few practitioners are starting to put the “666” back in place in order to repair the mathematical integrity of the circumference itself.

Finally, the last problem is a certain character “13/r” that also blocks the decryption of Aborymon.  (This is why I suspect the “y/15” was an honest mistake.)  If you move thirteen spaces clockwise from “13/r”, it just takes you back to the capital “A” that started the name.  However, this number 13 is necessary for that mathematical mystery I cryptically mentioned previously, so it has to stay.  You just have to know that to decrypt Aborymon properly you have to remove the “1” from “13” and only move clockwise three spaces.

This image is really a joint effort of several people.  First I drew up a sketch of a corrected Seal.  Then Carrie Mikell took that sketch and turned it into something I could actually scan and submit to the publisher.  (lol)  James then had Carrie’s large and clear picture to work from to create the final version you see above.  🙂

Greetings Angel Workers!

James Clark, the artist behind the diagrams and images in The Essential Enochian Grimoire, has released a second image from the book:

And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. – Rev 21:2

 

This is a very important diagram from Dee’s journals (though this one has been elaborated from the original), as it reveals the basic cosmology of the Enochian system.  The Holy City (representing the physical universe – see Reveltation 21) has twelve gates through which the Sun enters and exits – each one designated by a sign of the zodiac.  Interestingly, these 12 Solar Gates are described in detail in the Ethiopic Book of Enoch, a text which was lost for thousands of years – including Dee’s lifetime.

Dee’s original diagram did not include the zodiac signs, only the names of the Hebrew Tribes and the numbers 1-12.  If we look in Agrippa’s Three Books of Occult Philosophy, the “Scale of the Number 12“,  we find Dee’s numbers relate to zodiac signs: 1 = Aries, 2 = Taurus, 3 = Gemini, etc.  Thus, we see in Dee’s diagram that the Tribe of Dan (in the east) is given the number 1, and sure enough Agrippa tells us that Dan relates to Aries.  Dee gave the number 2 to the Tribe of Reuben (in the south), and Agrippa tells us that Reuben relates to Taurus.  And so on for the remaining Tribes and zodiac signs.

Once we add in the 12 signs, it becomes apparent that Dee did not intend the zodiac in this diagram to run in proper order.  Instead, he grouped them by Elemental triplicity – Fire in the east, Earth in the south, Air in the west and Water in the north.  (This is the zodiacal ordering of Elements, based upon where the Cardinal signs naturally fall on a horoscope:  Aries in the east, Capricorn in the south, Libra in the west and Cancer in the north.)  This is a completely different association of Elements to directions than would be used in the later Golden Dawn Enochian system.

It is interesting to note that this grouping by triplicity is a traditional method of classifying the Shem haMephoresh. – and through it the 24 Elders of the Apocalypse.  Those Elders figure into Dee’s Watchtower hierarchy of angels – and I’ve discussed the links between all of these things in a previous essay.

Greetings oh Patient Ones!

James Clark is the artist behind the diagrams and images in The Essential Enochian Grimoire.  (He worked mainly from sketches made by me and Carrie Mikell.)  Just for fun, and to tease the hell outta you guys, he has decided to let a bit of artwork from the book “leak” onto the interwebs every once in a while.  And, for the very same reasons, I’ve decided to make a series of blog posts about each image.  🙂

James’ first release is:

The Eagle – Kherub of the West

 

This is the symbol of the Western Kherub in the Golden Dawn traditions (and many traditions that followed).  His name is Nesher. He is a form of Scorpius, the fixed sign of Water, though he truly embodies all three signs of the Water triplicity.  He is always one of four – the others being angels in the forms of a Lion (Fire triplicity), an Ox (Earth triplicity) and a Man (Air triplicity).  You can find these angels in the first chapter of Ezekiel and the fourth chapter of the Revelation of St. John.

You will only see this guy in the second half of the grimoire, dedicated to Golden Dawn-style Enochiania.  You won’t see him in the Dee-purist half of the grimoire.

Due out in early 2014!

Greetings Angel-Workers!

I’ve been given the go-ahead to share the cover-art for my next book with you.  Check it out!

The Essential Enochian Grimoire – Front Cover

This is the first Enochian Magick book of its kind ever published.  It is not a re-hash of Dee’s journal entries, nor is it about magickal theory.  This grimoire – as the term implies – is a manual on how to perform the magick.   This may be the first time you’re ever seen Enochian Magick presented as Dee himself would likely have performed it.

And that’s hardly all this book covers!  Part 1 is an introduction to the Enochian tradition, perfect for students who are just beginning their study of the material:

– It begins with the mythos of Enoch the Prophet.

– Then outlines the work (and likely intentions) of John Dee and Edward Kelley.  As a bonus, I even included a “cast of characters” that explains “who’s who” (both human and angel) in Dee’s magickal journals and biographies about him.

– Finally covering the post-Dee period that eventually led to the Golden Dawn recension of the system (aka Neo-Enochian).   I explain how the original Dee material made it to the Golden Dawn, how it changed as it went along, and exactly what are the differences between the Dee-purist and Neo-Enochian systems.

Part 2 of the book is the grimoire proper:

– Starting with the cosmology of Dee’s system, all of the tools and talismans, the hierarchies of angels (along with their functions and – where Dee recorded them – their appearances) and finally the initiations and magickal rituals used to summon them.  All four phases of the system are laid out: the Heptarchia, Gebofal (the Book of Loagaeth system), the Parts of the Earth and the Watchtower system.

– Then the Neo-Enochan system is layed out (entirely separate from the Dee-purist material):  including its unique hierarchy of Elemental angels and their functions, the application of occult forces (astrology, Tarot, geomancy, Tetragrammaton, etc) to the Watchtowers, the construction of truncated pyramids and Elemental sphinxes, and the descriptions and attributions of the Coptic-Egyptian Godforms used with the Watchtower squares (as well as with Rosicrucian Chess).  These Godforms include updated and corrected color schemes based upon the Elements they represent.  Finally, an example Neo-Enochian summoning ceremony is included to show you how it all fits together in practice.

Once you have read and studied the Essential Enochian Grimoire, you will have a firm grasp of the two Enochian currents (Dee-purist and Neo-Enochian), understand the differences between them, and have more than enough material on hand to begin experimenting with either one.

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Enochian Magic is one aspect of the Western Esoteric Tradition that students sometimes find intimidating and overwhelming. In The Essential Enochian Grimoire, Aaron Leitch has done a remarkable job of clarifying the Enochian system for the benefit of both beginners and advanced magicians alike. You will not find a better introduction to Enochian Magic anywhere.

—  Charles “Chic” Cicero and Sandra “Tabatha” Cicero
Chief Adepts of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn
Co-authors of The Essential Golden Dawn

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In the complex and often confusing world of Enochian Magick, Aaron Leitch has accomplished the seemingly impossible by bringing clarity and precision while never oversimplifying or speaking down to the reader. He separates the major sources of what is actually a set of magickal systems—from the works of Dee and from those of the Golden Dawn—and without requiring years of studying an arcane language clearly explains the methods and techniques. He keeps each form of the systems discrete and independent for the purist, but also shows how they can be combined for the adventurer. This book belongs on your magickal bookshelf.

—Donald Michael Kraig, Author of Modern Magick

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“Leitch brings his expertise to the fore in what is sure to live up to its name as an indispensable addition to any Enochian magician’s bookshelf. The Essential Enochian Grimoire provides a comprehensive look at the history and composition of both Dee’s original system and the innovations of the Golden Dawn, Aleister Crowley, and others, all appropriately divided so that magicians of either a Dee purist or Neo-Enochian persuasion can take or leave material as they see fit. Leitch goes beyond just the theory of Enochian magic, delivering a workable approach to the system that will be an important asset to many. In addition, he looks at lesser known areas, employing a scholarly approach, while making the system easy to learn and use. A highly recommended book.”

— Frater Yechidah, author of Enochian Magic in Theory and Enochian Magic in Practice

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Greetings Angel Magicians!

I recently submitted my latest book on Enochian magick. This one is a practical manual – a grimoire. The publisher loves it, and we are moving forward with the editing process. Plus, we’re considering ideas for titles and cover design.  (And that is why I’m posting this – see further down.)

The book is intended to explain what Enochian Magick really is – especially for those who are just beginning to look into the system. It will serve as a study guide when you read more advanced texts AND it will serve as a functional Enochian Grimoire – outlining step-by-step how to perform all of the rituals for the Heptarchia, Gebofal (the Liber Loagaeth system) and the Great Table. (Much of this has never seen print before.)

It is in three parts – the first is a general overview of the history of the Enochian Tradition. The second part lays out the system as John Dee recorded it. The third part outlines the Golden Dawn recension of the material –  including their use of the “Reformed Table of Raphael” and an overview of the Concourse of the Forces.

Both the second and third parts (the actual grimoires) contain the step-by-step instructions for performing the rituals. I don’t waste time on all the ciphers and word squares from which Dee decrypted the system, nor with endless quotes from the Dee journals. I do nothing at all to complicate what is otherwise a simple and straight-forward system of Renaissance Angel magick. I just lay out the system as Dee himself would have practiced it. Then I do the same for the Golden Dawn system. Both Dee-purist and Golden Dawn practices are kept entirely separate, and the differences between the two are plainly explained.

Now, the publisher has asked me what I would like the cover to look like.  Personally, I would like it to be a classy cover – akin to what they used on the dust-jackets for The Angelical Language. I don’t want to use the Seal of Truth as that has been done to death. I love the cover of Don Tyson’s “Enochian Magick for Beginners”, but that’s been used. lol All in all, though, you can probably see what I’m getting at. Not too busy, not too pop, not too “Enochian” – I want it to reflect that this is a grimoire of Angel Magick.

So what do you folks think? What would you like to see on the cover of a book like this? In about a week I will send my best ideas to the publisher. Now is your chance to put in a word on what you would like to see as well. 🙂 Let me know!

Zorge,
Aaron