Happy Birthday to John Dee

John Dee was born on July 13, 1527. He is well known in the world of Magick for his work with Edward Kelley in the communication with Angels, which became the Enochian System of Magick.
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John Dee was well educated, well read, and had amassed one of the largest libraries in England. He traveled extensively, spied often for the British Crown, and was an adviser for Queen Elizabeth. He dreamed of and coined the name “British Empire,” which did come to pass, but hey, nobody’s perfect. Similarly, his Angels spoke about ending the world for religious reasons, and of course we are still plagued by that wackiness. 

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​His system of Magick was quite unique. He would pray fervently, and in an adjacent room, his seer (Edward Kelley the majority of the time) would report what he saw and heard. From the Angels they contacted, the Enochian Alphabet was formulated. 

They were also taught the language of these Angels, which was arranged in “Calls” so that practitioners can approach the Angels according to their hierarchy. Aleister Crowley documents his experiences with these Calls in “The Vision and the Voice.” The calls have been used extensively in Golden Dawn Magick, mingled in with the invocations appropriate to their use. The Aurum Solis published a lucid method of their use in the book Mysteria Magica, and recorded them, on this cd for sale by the Grand Master of the Aurum Solis. https://www.theurgiauniversity.com/product/enochian-sounds/

The layout of the place of working has influenced many Magical Orders, and according to the Angels (and the fascinating book John Dee and the Empire of Angels by Jason Louv) the place does not have to be special, and purified, as the work will sanctify the place.

​The Enochian Tablets, such as these by the Ciceros at GoldenDawn Shop.com 

mark the four cardinal directions, referred to as Watchtowers, which may be the main connection between Dee and Wicca, as our good friend and Thelemite Terrence Williams reminds us, Gardner’s quarter calls referred to Watchtowers, and surely he would have known about Dee’s work.
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Is Enochian a real language? Is a question there is still some debate over. For practitioners however, the results are what matters, and many claim to have strong results with the system.

A question I have, and maybe some reader can answer, is why there are no Angels set over the Western Hemisphere, as listed in the extant manuscripts. Maybe there are now, all these centuries later?
The Goddess Babalon, a hugely popular and beloved figure in Thelema, first appears in Her now recognizable way, in the 7th Aethyr to Dee and Kelley. Read it here: https://liberbabalon.gydja.com/fortitude.html

While this has been mostly about the Magick of Dee, he did lead a very interesting life, full of intrigue as well as Magick, and is well worth looking into. And as Witches use whatever works, maybe his brand of Magick will work for you.

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