Enochian

This article is about the reputed angelic language recorded in the journals of John Dee. For Dee's overall system of angel magic, see Enochian magic. For other examples of divine or angelic languages, see Divine language.
Enochian
Created by John Dee
Edward Kelley
Setting and usage Occult journals
Purpose
Enochian script
Language codes
ISO 639-3 None (mis)
Glottolog None

Enochian is a name often applied to an occult or angelic language recorded in the private journals of John Dee and his colleague Edward Kelley in late 16th-century England.[1] Kelley was a spirit medium who worked with Dee in his magical investigations. The men claimed that the language was revealed to them by the Enochian angels. The language is integral to the practice of Enochian magic.

The language found in Dee and Kelley's journals encompasses a limited textual corpus, only some of it with English translations. Several linguists, notably Donald Laycock, have studied Enochian, and argue against any extraordinary features in the language.

Dee's journals did not describe the language as "Enochian", instead preferring descriptors like "Angelical", the "Celestial Speech", the "Language of Angels", the "First Language of God-Christ", the "Holy Language" or "Adamical" because, according to Dee's Angels, it was used by Adam in Paradise to name all things. The term "Enochian" comes from Dee's assertion that the Biblical Patriarch Enoch had been the last human (before Dee and Kelley) to know the language.

Dee's Angelic language

According to Tobias Churton in his text The Golden Builders,[2] the concept of an Angelic or antediluvian language was common during Dee's time. If one could speak with angels, it was believed one could directly interact with them.

In 1581, Dee mentioned in his personal journals that God had sent "good angels" to communicate directly with prophets. In 1582, Dee teamed up with the seer Edward Kelley, although Dee had used several other seers previously.[3] With Kelley's help as a scryer, Dee set out to establish lasting contact with the angels. Their work resulted, among other things, in the reception of the Enochian or Angelical language.

According to Dee's journals,[4] Angelical was supposed to have been the language God used to create the world, and which was later used by Adam to speak with God and the angels, and to name all things in existence. After his Fall from Paradise, Adam lost the language and constructed a form of proto-Hebrew based upon his vague memory of Angelical. This proto-Hebrew, then, was the universal human language until the time of the Confusion of Tongues at the Tower of Babel. After this, all the various human languages were developed, including an even more modified Hebrew (which we know as "Biblical Hebrew"). From the time of Adam to the time of Dee and Kelley, Angelical was hidden from humans with the single exception of the patriarch Enoch who, according to the angels, recorded the "Book of Loagaeth" (Speech from God) for humanity. The book was then lost again in the Deluge of Noah.

The reception of Enochian started on March 26, 1583, when Kelley reported visions in the crystal of the twenty-one lettered alphabet characteristic of the language. A few days later, Kelley started receiving what became the first corpus of texts in the purported Angelic language. This resulted in the book Liber Loagaeth ("Book [of] Speech from God"). The book consists of 49 great letter tables, or squares made of 49 by 49 letters (however, each table has a front and back side—making 98 49x49 tables in all).[5] Dee and Kelley said the angels never translated the texts in this book.

The other set of Enochian texts was received through Kelley about a year later, in Kraków. These are more important since they come with English translations, thus providing the basis for the Enochian vocabulary. The texts comprise 48 poetic verses, which in Dee's manuscripts are called "Claves Angelicae", or "Angelic Keys". The Keys are assigned certain functions within the magical system. Dee was apparently intending to use these Keys to "open the 49 Gates of Wisdom/Understanding" represented by the 49 magic squares in Liber Loagaeth:

I am therefore to instruct and inform you, according to your Doctrine delivered, which is contained in 49 Tables. In 49 voices, or callings: which are the Natural Keys to open those, not 49 but 48 (for one is not to be opened) Gates of Understanding, whereby you shall have knowledge to move every Gate…[6]
—The angel Nalvage
But you shall understand that these 19 Calls are the Calls, or entrances into the knowledge of the mystical Tables. Every Table containing one whole leaf, whereunto you need no other circumstances.[7]
—The angel Illemese

While these texts contain most of the vocabulary, dozens of further words are found hidden throughout Dee's journals, and thousands of undefined words are contained in the Liber Loagaeth.

Alphabet

The Enochian script is written from right to left, and may include accents. Different documents have slightly different forms of the script. Some of the letter names are pronounced as they would be in English, but many are pronounced differently. The Enochian letters have English letter equivalents.[8] A number of different fonts for the Enochian alphabet are available, which use the English letter equivalents to access the Enochian glyphs.[9][10][11][12]

The Enochian alphabet with letter forms, letter names, English equivalents, and pronunciation of the letter names (pronunciation in quotes if different than English).[8][13] The Enochian letters in this chart are read from right to left, as written in John Dee's diary.[14]

Skeptical and linguistic evaluations

Skeptics have pointed to this discrepancy between the two revealed sets of Enochian texts as an indication that Enochian is not a consistent language.[15] For instance, it has been noted, especially by the Australian linguist Donald Laycock, that the texts in the Loagaeth material show phonetic features that do not generally appear in natural languages.[16] Rather, the features shown are commonly found in instances of glossolalia, suggesting that Kelley actually produced at least this set of writings via "speaking in tongues."

Building on Laycock's linguistic analysis, skeptics also point out that there are even problems with holding that the texts of the Enochian keys represent a genuine natural language. It is observed that the syntax of the Enochian calls is almost identical with that of English.[17] Also, the very scant evidence of Enochian verb conjugation seems quite reminiscent of English, more so than with Semitic languages as Hebrew or Arabic, which Dee claimed were debased versions of the original Angelic language.[17] There are only two known verbs with conjugations, one of which, "to be," is highly irregular.[18] While some phonetic features of Enochian show a connection to glossolalia, others show similarities to the English language. Both languages have soft and hard consonants such as c and g, and combine s and h to make the sh sound.

As for the semantics of Enochian, additional similarities to English have been found. For example, luciftias, a term meaning brightness, may very possibly have a connection to Lucifer, whose name means "light bringer." Londoh, a word meaning kingdom, may have come from Dee's admiration for the Queen of England. These and other examples have led skeptics to believe that many of these terms are derived from notions that would have been contemporary in Dee and Kelley's time.

See also

References

  1. ↑ The Private Diary of Dr. John Dee by John Dee at Project Gutenberg
  2. ↑ Churton, Tobias (2002). The Golden Builders. Signal Publishing. ISBN 0-9543309-0-0.
  3. ↑ Deborah Harkness, John Dee's Conversations with Angels, 16-17.
  4. ↑ Now in various collections of the British Library. See especially Sloane MSS 3188, 3189 and 3191, and Cotton Appendix XLVI. All the above are available in digital scans at: http://www.themagickalreview.org/enochian/mss/.
  5. ↑ This book is now in the British Library, MS Sloane 3189.
  6. ↑ The angel Nalvage, cited in Casaubon ed., A True and Faithful Relation…, p. 77
  7. ↑ The angel Illemese, cited in Casaubon ed., A True and Faithful Relation…, p. 199.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 "The Angelic or Enochian Alphabet". The Magickal Review. 2005.
  9. ↑ "Enochian Materials". The Magickal Review.
  10. ↑ Gerald J. Schueler, Betty Jane Schueler (font: 2001). "Download fonts". Schueler's Online. Check date values in: |date= (help)
  11. ↑ James A. Eshelman (2001). "Enochian Elemental Tablets". AumHa.
  12. ↑ "Enochian Font". Esoteric Order of the Golden Dawn. 2007.
  13. ↑ "Enochian alphabet and fonts". Omniglot.
  14. ↑ John Dee (1582). "MS. Sloane 3188". The Magickal Review. p. 103v–104r.
  15. ↑ See Donald Laycock, "Enochian: Angelic language or mortal folly?", 19–64 in The Complete Enochian Dictionary.
  16. ↑ Laycock, "Enochian: Angelic language or mortal folly?", p.33.
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 Laycock, p. 43.
  18. ↑ Egil Asprem (Dec 13, 2006). ""Enochian" language: A proof of the existence of angels?". Skepsis.

Sources

External links