Enochian
Enochian is a name often applied to an occult or angelic language recorded in the private journals of John Dee and his seer Edward Kelley in the late 16th century. The men claimed that it was revealed to them by angels. Some contemporary scholars of magick consider it a constructed language that is nonetheless viable for magickal workings, while other scholars of constructed languages simply consider it a very poor imitation of an ancient language, with grammar derived primarily from English.
The angelical language as revealed to Dee and Kelley encompasses a limited text corpus. Additionally, only parts of it come with English translations. Nonetheless, some linguists, notably Donald Laycock, have studied Enochian, arguing 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 Angelical
According to Tobias Churton in his text The Golden Builders,[1] the concept of an Angelic or pre-deluge 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.[2] With Kelley's help as a scryer, Dee set out to establish lasting contact with the angels, which resulted, among other things, in the reception of the Enochian or Angelical language.
According to Dee's journals,[3] 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).[4] Dee and Kelly said the angels never bothered translating the texts in this book.
The other set of Enochian texts was received through Kelley about a year later, in Krakow. 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…[5]
- 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.[6]
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. Marked stylistic differences between the words in Loagaeth and in the Keys have led some present-day magicians to assume that these represent two different "dialects" of the language [citation needed].
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.[7] 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.[8] 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.[9] 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.[10] These and other points arguably make the reception of the Enochian language less mysterious than some practitioners of Enochian magic have typically contended.
Enochian in popular culture
LaVeyan Satanism
Anton LaVey included nineteen of the Enochian Keys, in the original and in English translation, in his The Satanic Bible, a manual for Satanists written in 1969. LaVey edited this translation to fit in with the Satanic Bible by creating a Satanic theme in his English and Enochian translations.
Novels
Cotten Stone of the Cotten Stone thriller novels, by authors Lynn Sholes and Joe Moore, can speak Enochian because she is the daughter of Furmiel, a fallen angel. In John Connolly's novel The Lovers, the two evil angels Anmael and Semjaza each have a letter tattooed or burned on one arm (Un for Anmael and Fam for Semjaza, although Connolly misidentifies Un as "Und"). Each one also leaves his or her letter carved on or near a victim. Terry Pratchett's Discworld series uses English, written with Enochian letters as a cipher alphabet, as the language of the Golems. Charles Stross' The Laundry series uses Enochian as a magical programming language.
Television and movies
In television, the Simpsons episode Sideshow Bob Roberts satirizes a Republican party gathering where the participants greet each other with an Enochian call, as identified by the writers and producers on the DVD commentary. The television series Supernatural implements Enochian Occultism, particularly in the fourth and fifth seasons. The language itself is referenced heavily by the angel Castiel. In season five of the television series Angel, recurring villain Lindsey McDonald has symbols derived from Enochian tattooed on his body to avoid detection by any means other than the naked eye, including the powers of the Senior Partners. Later in the same season, his lover Eve hides out in a house with the same symbols painted on the walls. In the 2010 movie Legion, the tattoos on the body of Michael, and later on Jeep's body, are Enochian.[11]
Heavy metal rock music
On Tool's 3rd studio album, Lateralus, the 13th and final track is named "Faaip de Oiad," which means "Voice of God" in Enochian. The Finnish black metal band Enochian Crescent is strongly influenced by the Enochian language and the Swedish symphonic metal band Therion used the enochian word for dragon ("vovin") as the title of their 1998 album.
Games
In Platinum Games' action game Bayonetta, spells and certain bits of dialogue are in Enochian.[12]
See also
References
 | Constructs such as ibid., loc. cit. and idem are discouraged by Wikipedia's style guide for footnotes, as they are easily broken. Please improve this article by replacing them with named references (quick guide), or an abbreviated title. (July 2010) |
- ^ Churton, Tobias (2002). The Golden Builders. Signal Publishing. ISBN 0-9543309-0-0.
- ^ Deborah Harkness, John Dee's Conversations with Angels, 16-17.
- ^ 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/.
- ^ This book is now in the British Library, MS Sloane 3189.
- ^ The angel Nalvage, cited in Casaubon ed., A True and Faithful Relation…, p. 77
- ^ The angel Illemese, cited in Casaubon ed., A True and Faithful Relation…, p. 199)
- ^ See Donald Laycock, "Enochian: Angelic language or mortal folly?", 19-64 in The Complete Enochian Dictionary.
- ^ Laycock, "Enochian: Angelic language or mortal folly?", p.33.
- ^ Laycock, p. 43.
- ^ Ibid.
- ^ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1038686/trivia
- ^ "Butmoni Coronzon (From the Mouth of the Witch) « PlatinumGames Inc". Platinumgames.com. 2009-12-11. Retrieved 2010-08-02.