From: Santiago Area: MagickNet To: Jeff Lafay 6 Jan 95 13:48:16 Subject: Re: insanity UpdReq JL> I heard from a friend that if you read the necrinomicon entirely that it is JL> possible to cause insanity, is this true? I'll let ya know when I'm done reading it :) 201434369420143436942014343694201434369420143436942014343694718 From: Thomas Izaguirre Area: MagickNet To: Amethyst 4 Jan 95 20:26:28 Subject: What is enochian magick? UpdReq A> I haven't been able to figure this out from the A> sources available to me up here and I'm not about to A> rush out and spend money on a book I don't need, so A> could someone tell me just what enochian magick is A> or what the term "enochian" means to begin with? I The term Enochian Magick has come to refer to the system of ceremonial magick developed by Dr. John Dee, a renowned Elizabethan mathematician and astronomer who at the height of his fame was considered the most educated man in Europe. Having secured his livelihood as a teacher, he felt he could devote sufficient time and resources toward the study of the mystic sciences, particularly alchemy and astrology. He was familiar with and initiated into such systems of magic as propounded by Cornelius Agrippa and the grimoires known as the Great and Lesser Keys of Solomon. From these, he sought to commune with divine intelligences to achieve hitherto unknown insights into the nature of reality. His zeal was admirable but he did not possess sufficient talent to perceive or channel spirits, so he relied on a series of mediums to serve as amanuenses with little success until he met one Edward Kelley. Kelley has been something of an enigmatic figure in magic owing to his reputed knack for criminality and deception, but he apparently had his greatest success with Dee in terms of magical contact. The system Dee pieced together from Kelley's channelings was a complex system of planetary magick (times and seasons of power dependent on astrological signs) using special ritual equipment and a series of magical keys in an exotic language that were to be recited as part of the ritual. All of this is expounded in such authoritative sources as Robert Turner's "Elizabethan Magic" and "The Enochian Evocation of Dr. John Dee" by Geoffrey James. Sources that are filled with various errors and non-contextual improvisations are anything written by the members of the Golden Dawn (Rergardie, Crowley, Mathers, etc.) or Gerald Schueler. Turner and James' books are likely available at any decent size college library (state university in particular, if it has an antiquities section). They explain, among other things, that many of the notes that Dee wrote in regards to the system were lost (some were used to line pie trays and wrap sandwiches by the cook of the house to where some of Dee's belongings went after his death), so there is no precise way to know exactly how certain parts of the magical system were to be implemented. The Golden Dawn relied almost exclusively on an eclectic mish-mash that was compiled almost two centuries after his Death called "A Treatise on Angel Magick" (availabel from Phanes Press). It was this resource that cleared up Israel Regardie's confusion as to why Aleister Crowley (who used the keys as a means of pathworking) made certain numerological associations in his account of the experience. A> I A> have seen it associated with satanism, so I'm really A> confused. The association with Satanism comes from the use of the keys by Anton LaVey, founder of the Church of Satan, in his own imperious fashion. Essentially, the keys in translation read like the psalms crossed with imagery from the Book of Revelations. LaVey simply substituted any term refering to god, heaven, etc. with satanic references. Additionally, virtually every frothing Fundamentalist Christian paranoid (cf. Jack Chick, Texe Marrs, Bob Larson) considers them de facto Satanic even without LaVey revisionism. A> or what the term "enochian" means to begin with? I Enoch was a biblical patriarch who in varying accounts was given great knowledge direct from the Divine Source and was taken into heaven much like Elijah. He was considered to have had knowledge almost equal to Adam's before his expulsion. His name became in the minds of the esotericists synonymous with great occult knowledge. Since Enoch communed and spoke with angels directly as stated by Dee, the system became known by the prophet's name, rather than the mortal man who divined it. 201434369420143436942014343694201434369420143436942014343694718