9

The Architecture of Apocalypse

The angelic conversations began at Mortlake on December 22, 1581. Dee and Kelly’s initiation of contact with the spirit world is recorded in the Mysteriorum libri quinque or Five Books of Mystery, which start with an abortive attempt at scrying using Barnabas Saul and next proceed into the successes attained once Edward Kelly arrived at Mortlake. They detail the reception of the angelic temple furniture, and precede the records reproduced in A True & Faithful Relation, with the diaries ending on May 23, 1583. The five books are designated with Latin names—Liber primus, Secundus, Tertius, Quartus, and Quintus, and are discussed here, along with concurrent events in Dee’s life.

MYSTERIORUM LIBER PRIMUS

The Holy Table and Ring

The sessions began with Dee petitioning the angel Annael, whom Saul claimed he saw in the crystal, appearing as a beautiful being in yellow apparel glittering like gold, with star beams blazing from behind his head, fiery eyes, accompanied by a white dog with a long head, and a “great number” of dead men’s skulls. The angel relayed letters and sigils, and counseled the men to “be not too hasty in wrath” and to do good unto all men.¹ Annael identified himself as the guardian of the world to come, and chief governor general of the current time period. Yet Dee was skeptical, and noted that this was an intruding spirit, appearing far too pleasing and too immediately to be trusted—alluding to the biblical warning that Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light.^*21 2

Records would not commence again until March 10, 1582, when Kelly, identifying himself as Talbot, came to Mortlake. Talbot asked Dee to show him some practical magic, and Dee confessed that he had long wished for the angels of God to assist him in his philosophical studies. He next produced a stone, and told Kelly that a scryer had helped him to call the good angel Anchor into it—apparently, in a rare moment, to Dee’s direct perception. Dee asked Kelly to repeat the experiment with him, and also to call the angels Anachor and Anilos; the younger man fell to his knees at Dee’s desk, praying fervently before the scrying stone, while Dee retired to his oratory to add his own prayer. An apparition manifested in the stone within fifteen minutes, identifying itself not as Anchor, Anilos, or Anachor,^†22 but as the archangel Uriel.

Dee’s first question was whether a grimoire in his possession, which he had been laboring over—the Book of Soyga—was accurate. Soyga is a Latin grimoire from the late medieval period that contains an array of angelic, demonic, elemental, planetary, and zodiacal conjurations arranged in alphanumeric squares. The last thirty-six of these are arranged in grids of thirty-six by thirty-six squares.³Soyga forms an important precursor of the angelic sessions, as its format is suggestive of the alphanumeric transmissions to come from the angels. While the tables of Soyga are constructed from the number six (six times six equals thirty-six), much of the “Enochian” temple furniture to come would be based around the number seven (seven times seven equals forty-nine).

Uriel assured Dee that Soyga had been revealed to Adam in Paradise, and could be interpreted by Michael, whom Dee could call upon, given enough sincerity and humility, but that he should cease to call Anachor, Anilos, and Anchor, who were figments of superstitious rumor and not bound to the scrying stone. He also told Dee that he would live to a hundred, and transmitted the design for a gold lamen to be worn for protection. Michael, Uriel assured them, would give light to their path and make it straight, revealing the tables of Soyga and other mysteries to them by the power of truth, not force. Michael could be invoked by reading the seven penitential psalms of David,^*23 but Dee and Kelly would have to win God’s favor by the beauty of their prayers. It was God’s will that Dee and Kelly have a “conjunction of minds in prayer,”⁴ and pray continually, so as to have the knowledge of the angels together. Michael had already noticed them, Uriel assured Dee, but Barnabas Saul had been an imperfect channel.

Next, Uriel showed Dee and Kelly the schematics for preparing what came to be called the Holy Table of Practice—a kind of ultrasophisticated Ouija board for contacting the angels. This table was to be three feet square, with the Sigillum Dei Aemeth resting upon it—the heptarchic magical seal from Liber iuratus, a book already in Dee’s library. Uriel informed Dee that the seal had already been perfected in the book (although the pair would later receive a much more advanced version). Beneath the four legs of the table were to be four containers holding smaller wax copies of the Sigillum Dei, with two square yards of red silk as a carpet, and tasseled silk hanging over the top of the table. Around the table would be yellow letters written in “perfect oil” like that used in church.⁵ Angels, Uriel explained, sanctify by the fact that they are innately holy. But humans sanctify by holiness, that is, by taking holy actions, not by their innate fallen nature.

Terrifyingly, Uriel next warned that a spirit named Lundrumguffa was haunting Mortlake and seeking Dee’s destruction, as well as that of his wife and daughter. Uriel cautioned that the demon was even now present in the room, seeking to murder Saul, who was cursed: “the cursed will come to the cursed.”⁶ Dee noted that this spirit must have been corrupting the transmission of the Holy Table. He had already caught Barnabas Saul trafficking with the evil spirit Maherion, and burned his name and sigil in brimstone before Saul was “carried away quick.” Dee asked Uriel to bind the demon, as Raphael had bound Asmodeus in the book of Tobit, but Uriel replied that human effort was necessary as well—in this case the application of brimstone.

Fig. 9.1. The Holy Table of Practice. From Méric Casaubon, A True & Faithful Relation, 1659. This image has been a source of much controversy, as the order of angelic characters may have been reversed due to a printer’s error.

The importance of psychic security protocol was demonstrated even more vividly the following day. After Kelly called Uriel, a being appeared dressed in fantastic robes of purple and gold, with a gold wreath on its head and sparkling eyes, who assured Dee that the characters recorded for the table were perfect. Yet no sooner had Dee asked if the spirit was indeed Uriel than another entity arrived, threw the apparition down by the shoulders, beat him with a whip, and stole his clothes—revealing the hairy and ugly form of the evil spirit Lundrumguffa himself. Uriel now appeared and continued beating the prone spirit, stating, “Lo, thus are the wicked scourged.”⁷ Uriel then dragged Lundrumguffa out by the legs and threw him into a pit, afterward washing his hands with the sweat of his own brow.

Uriel and Michael now revealed themselves in their full radiance, ringed by an immense company of angels. Uriel leaned himself by the scrying table, while Michael sat in the scrying chair, a sword in his right hand, head glistening like the sun, with long hair, wings, his lower body covered in feathers, a robe over his body, and a great light in his left hand; they blessed Dee and Kelly to continue the sessions.

This demonstration increased the fervency of Dee’s prayers, lest he again be misled by a lying spirit. On March 14, Michael and Uriel appeared after being called, and performed a kind of initiation of Dee by astral exemplar. They showed Dee an image of himself in the crystal, and placed a crown of laurel (a traditional symbol of victory) upon his head, after which they had him eat a token with the letters NA written upon it. Michael then brandished his sword, which split in two and lit on fire. From the sword he took a gold ring, upon which was written the name PELE. Michael identified this as the ring of Solomon that gave the king of Israel himself the power to command spirits—without which, Dee was told, he could do nothing. (The name PELE appears in two books that were in Dee’s library at the time: Reuchlin’s De verbo mirifico and Agrippa’s Three Books.)⁸ Dee was now shown an updated version of the Sigillum Dei Aemeth, and assured that he would be guided in perfecting its design.

Fig. 9.2. A handwritten page from Dee’s Liber primus depicting the first lamen, the design for the back of the Sigillum Dei, and the Holy Table of Practice. From MS. Sloane 3188, British Library.

The following day, Dee’s magic and Kelly’s scrying produced the spirit Salamian, from the Italian philosopher Peter de Abano’s Heptameron, a grimoire that first appeared in Venice in 1496 (in which Salamian appears as a mighty angel in a conjuration of Michael himself, assigned to Sunday and the sun),⁹ who warned Dee and Kelly that they were being hindered by the demon Mammon. Dee noted that he had a copy of the Heptameron, printed along with Agrippa, in his oratory “almost under my window,”¹⁰ suggesting that Kelly may have fished it out of the window and read it prior to the session. Dee had his suspicions, as the note suggests.

When Dee protested that he could feel no such demonic influence, Salamian revealed to Kelly that they were surrounded by countless wicked and horrible spirits, including one with very long arms, that were gnashing their teeth and striking out at their heads with their claws. Dee again asked for intercession, but Salamian insisted he must make an effort himself. Dee prayed fervently, and the evil spirits vanished.^*24

Following this exorcism, the angel Raphael made his first appearance, and revealed the angel OCH; Michael also appeared, and had Dee write the name Polipos. Michael assured Dee that as he was with Solomon, so he would be with Dee. Michael then rapidly revealed the manner in which the scrying equipment was to be used, the record of which has been lost. Uriel also affirmed that he lived with Esdras,^†25 and Raphael affirmed that he lived with “Tobie the younger,” that is, Tobit’s son in the book of Tobit.

While the angels concluded the session with a blessing for Dee and Kelly, they had no such love for Barnabas Saul, upon whom God would be revenged, and whose punishment would be great. Such was the wrath of God in protecting his prophets . . . or the cunning of one Edward Kelly in ensuring his job security.

MYSTERIORUM LIBER SECUNDUS

The Sigillum Dei Aemeth

Liber secundus pertains to the reception of the Sigillum Dei Aemeth, the sevenfold seal that forms the basis of the temple furniture.

As mentioned previously, an earlier version of the Sigillum Dei appears in Liber iuratus, a thirteenth- or fourteenth-century grimoire colloquially referred to as the “Sworn Booke,” spuriously attributed to Honorius, the son of Euclid. Like Dee’s Holy Table, Crowley’s later The Book of the Law, and the suffix attached to the names of most angels, this version of the Sigillum centers around the word El, L, or Al. One of the oldest European grimoires, the Sworn Book is allegedly a condensation of knowledge gathered at a conference of operative magicians and contains ninety-three chapters, which cover the range of classical magical techniques from finding treasure to conjuring demons. Like many medieval grimoires, the Sworn Book claims to be a manual of summoning perverse and evil spirits, and therefore demands ritual purity and Christian piety as prerequisites for use.

The reception of the Sigillum began on March 21, 1582, when Michael appeared along with Uriel, telling the two men that they were blessed among the saints, and that therefore they would be kept separate from the impure. Kelly, in particular, had committed idolatry, and so the angels would have to right him and separate him from temptation. The angels were fitting the two men to be able to hold the intense divine revelations they were being given by cutting them off from sin.

Michael now revealed the true design of the Sigillum Dei, the “true Circle of his eternity comprehending all virtue.”¹¹ Forty white creatures appeared, one for each compartment of the outermost ring of the Sigillum, in procession one by one, appearing as children in long, white silk robes. Michael appeared over all of them and grew to giant stature, with two legs like pillars of brass, drawing a sword of fire over all forty of their heads. This caused an earthquake, and they all fell to their knees; Michael now called the angel Semiel (the “secretary for the Name of God,”¹² according to Dee) to explain the Great Seal.

Uriel also fell to the ground before the might of Michael’s sword; Michael towered above the seal, swinging his sword with flaming fire like lightning. Each of the forty creatures stepped forward in turn, kneeling and unveiling a number and letter on their breast. The Cabalistic utterances of the creatures are both deeply reverent of God and, at times, apocalyptic.

Following the completion of the forty white creatures’ speeches, the pair retired for dinner. Kelly next composed himself for solitary prayer, at which point the angel Uriel appeared to him and suggested edits to the Sigillum. Michael confirmed that Dee had omitted nothing in his meticulous note-taking, but that Kelly had left out important details from the visions he had seen. Dee guessed that the forty characters might be related to the forty-two-letter Shem ha-Mephorash, a passage from Genesis; Michael agreed, but only that the Shem existed in potentia within the circle. No creature would be able to leave the circle, Michael said, that entered it, if such creatures have been defiled and made upon Earth. It was this circle that created all of the beasts, birds, fowl, and fish of the earth; this, Michael said, would be found in the Book of Soyga.

Over the following actions, the angels now transmitted the names that make up the heptagons and heptagrams that proceed to the center of the Sigillum, through fantastical devices. The pattern they transmitted would be of a level of complexity and visual elegance magnitudes beyond the Sigillum found in the Sworn Book.

The Sigillum is composed of seven layers, each associated with the traditional seven planets. As the layers progress inward, they step down from celestial to terrestrial reality,^*26 as in Qabalistic magic, which posits and categorizes ranks of angels as representing the fine gradations of manifestation from Godhead to the world of matter:

1. Seven names of God, drawn from the forty alphanumeric characters in the outer ring, with their corresponding sigils—Galas, Gethog, Thaoth, Horlωn, Innon, Aaoth, Galethog—resting upon the inner heptagon. These were also demonstrated by the angels pulling seven birds out of seven baskets, each of which had letters in its feathers.
2. Seven names of God of the outer heptagon and archangels of the planets. Seven god names were transmitted in a seven-by-seven magic square (similar to the six-by-six alphanumeric squares in the Book of Soyga), which form the god names within the heptagon. These were revealed in pillars called forth by Michael. When the square itself is read vertically, however, it produces the seven names of the traditional archangels of the planets: Zaphkiel (Saturn), Cumael (Mars), Haniel (Venus), Gabriel (Luna), Zadkiel (Jupiter), Raphael (Sol), and Michael (Mercury). These, of course, included three of the primary entities that Dee and Kelly were working with: Gabriel, Raphael, and Michael (sans Uriel, unless Haniel is read as another name for Uriel).

Fig. 9.3. The Sigillum Dei Aemeth, in Dee’s hand. From MS. Sloane 3188.

3. Seven names of God beneath the heptagon. These were transmitted in another seven-by-seven table, from which the remaining angels were drawn.
4. The Daughters of Light. Another five sets of angels of the planets, unveiled by “Daughters of Light,”¹³ seven young women dressed in green silk, each carrying a blue tablet on her forehead with her name on it: El, Me, Ese, Iana, Akele, Azdobn, and Stimcul.
5. The Sons of Light. Following the Daughters, seven young men dressed in white appeared, each with a metal ball suggesting one of the traditional planetary attributions, with a tablet of gold on his breast carrying his name: I, Ih, Ilr, Dmal, Heeoa, Beigia, and Stimcul.
6. The Daughters of Daughters of the Light, or “little wenches.”¹⁴ These appeared in white, with white ivory tablets on their bosoms—S, Ab, Ath, Izad, Ekiei, Madimi, and Esemeli.
7. The Sons of Sons of the Light, or “little children . . . like boys.”¹⁵ These came in robes of purple silk, with long pointed sleeves and scholarly hats, bearing on their chests triangular green tablets with their names: E, An, Ave, Liba, Rocle, Hagonel, and Ilemese.

Following this, another seven-by-seven magic square was transmitted, from which the remaining names were derived.^*27

8. The angels of the pentagram. Seven more angelic names were given to Dee and Kelly to place around and within the pentagram that sits at the very center of the Sigillum—Sabathiel, Zedekiel, Madimiel, Semeliel, Nogahel, Corabiel, and Levanael.
9. The crosses. After the completion of the design, crosses were placed around the Sigillum at diverse places.

This design was to be carved upon a pure beeswax disc nine inches in diameter by one and a half inches thick. On the back would be the letters AGLA (a Hebrew notariqon or acronym for “Attah Gibbor Le’olam Adonai,” “the Lord is mighty forever”)¹⁶ within a cross. Dee did so; the resulting artifact can still be seen in the British Museum.

Fig. 9.4. A clearer version of the Sigillum Dei Aemeth, by “Silgfrin.”

MYSTERIORUM LIBER TERTIUS

The Ensigns of Creation and Tabula Bonorum

In Primus, Dee had been cut off from the influence of evil spirits, consecrated through initiation so that he was fit to begin work with the angelic material,^*28 and given the ring of Solomon with which to begin his work. In Secundus, he was given the Sigillum Dei Aemeth, a pentacle revealing the workings of the seven planets across seven levels of manifestation.

However, Michael was still unimpressed. On April 28—five weeks since the previous action—he chided Dee and Kelly for their slackness in carrying out his instructions. Dee pleaded that he hadn’t had money to buy materials to make the lamen, ring, or Sigillum. Michael responded by showing Kelly a giant hill of gold covered with serpents, which he then smote with a sword and pushed into the water, tangibly demonstrating the contempt that the archangel had for financial concerns.

After giving Dee information on how to use the lamen and ring, he called forth the Daughters of Light to reveal the seven Ensigns of Creation, planetary talismans that would be made of purified tin and placed around the Sigillum on the Holy Table. Along with the lamen and the Holy Table itself, these were designated “Instruments of Conciliation,”¹⁷ connecting the various temple furniture with the Sigillum and the operator. These were given in Latin letters, although the angels told Dee to replace the Latin with Enochian script; he did not do this.^†29 The Ensigns, six of them square and one circle, look very much like occult electrical diagrams. Each is assigned to one of the seven traditional planets.

Fig. 9.5. The Ensigns of Creation, arranged as they would be on top of the Holy Table. From MS. Sloane 3188.

These seven sigils were joined in a fourfold set of tables, within which were the names of forty-nine angels of light who worked on Earth under the direction of God. Four of them were attributed to the four elements. As each of these tables was written out after being revealed in the stone, they were then consumed in fire..

“The fountain of wisdom is opened,” Uriel told them, opening a book in his hand. “Nature shall be known, Earth with her secrets disclosed.”¹⁸ Uriel counseled them that if they could understand these tables, they would have reign over the forty-nine angels, which they would invoke under the power of God, and by which they would work in “quieting of the estates,”¹⁹ learning wisdom, pacifying the nobility, and “judgment of the rest,”²⁰ as well as understanding the elements. These were symbolized in a sevenfold scheme: books, crown, and robes (representing wisdom, kings, and nobility), as well as merchants, which were attributed to the four elements and were signified by a quadruped animal of all colors (water), herbs (earth), a fan (air), and a flame in the hand (fire). Books, crown, and robes plus the four-element merchants made seven.

While this would seem to suggest spiritual power over the English political structure, it more likely designates a spiritual hierarchy, similar to those shown in grimoire magic. Dee and Kelly would have reign over these spirits as long as they continued to praise God and his saints.

These forty-nine good angels, all of them starting with the letter B, were then assembled into a circular table divided by the seven planets—the Tabula Bonorum.^*30 This new round table was to sit underneath the Holy Table, with the operator’s feet placed upon it while scrying.

Michael now addressed Kelly, telling him that he should renounce the world and marry. The young scryer had no desire to do so, as it was contrary to his “vow and profession.”²¹ He hoped for a new message from Michael, but the archangel insisted, stating that Kelly must “of force” keep this command.²² He indeed soon married, though he came to greatly resent his wife.

By May 4, a week later, Kelly was so frantic about the call to marriage that he discredited the angels’ very existence and refused not only to deal with them but also to pray to God at all. Dee retired to his oratory to enter deep prayer himself, after which Michael and Uriel returned to the stone—and Kelly, perhaps reluctantly, began to relay their next messages.

The two angels appeared kneeling and holding their hands up, with Michael in a bloody sweat. Seven bundles wrapped in various colors of silk fell from heaven to be taken up by Michael. Uriel, dressed in a long white robe, winged, wearing a beautiful crown with a white cross above it, placed a superaltar upon the table and censed it at the four corners. He next took the bundles from Michael and laid them upon the superaltar.

While Uriel prostrated and Michael continuously prayed, a man made of pure gold appeared, sometimes seeming to have one eye and sometimes three, and everything shook while smoke billowed up from under the table. The man removed birds from the bundles, which changed in size, color, and species, while standing upon a “little hill of flaming fire.”²³

“Believe,” the voice of Michael came echoing from beyond the scene. “The world is of necessity. His necessity is governed by supernatural wisdom. Necessarily you fall, and of necessity shall rise again. Follow me, love me, embrace me: Behold, I AM.”²⁴

The scene vanished, and Uriel and Michael returned, explaining that God showed this so that they would understand that striving is vanity, for all is in God’s hands—so what else was there to do? Dee answered that right action was to progress in perfecting virtue and to honor God.

Two birds reappeared, as big as mountains now, flying toward space. The first bird took stars into his bill, while the second took the stars from the first and put them back into the sky; they quickly repeated this process throughout the heavens. These birds now flew over cities and towns, breaking up the clouds and causing dust to fall from the walls and towers, thereby cleaning them. In the streets were “diverse brave fellows”—bishops, princes, and kings—that the wings of the birds struck down, while beggars, the infirm, children, women, and the elderly were left untouched.²⁵

Now the birds lifted the corpses of four men from the ground, each of them wearing crowns, one of which was a child. Upon being raised into the air they parted into the four cardinal directions. Coming now to a great hill, the birds squeezed metals from the ground and threw them out; next tossing the withered head of an old man between their feet until it cracked open, revealing a stone the size of a tennis ball colored white, black, red, and green—the colors of the Watchtowers that would be later transmitted, and of the four horsemen of the Apocalypse. Upon eating the stone, the birds became two men with bright white paper crowns, with gold teeth, hands, feet, tongues, eyes, and ears. On each were twenty-six gold crowns, and they carried bags of gold that they sowed upon the earth like seeds.

Michael explained this vision as a teaching on giving good will to men of all classes, and of how and why Dee and Kelly were to be joined together, and what they were to become. Michael also commanded that the Sigillum, table, ring, and lamen be made by an honest man, and the ring engraved.

LIBER MYSTERIORUM QUARTUS

The Heptarchic Kings and Princes

The scrying sessions did not resume until November 15, nine months later, after a break between Dee and Kelly that had been reconciled, for which Dee begged forgiveness from God. They began where they left off and proceeded to the elucidation of the heptarchic angels—specifically the kings and princes—from the Tabula Bonorum.

Uriel plucked a round object from under the table, which glowed with transparent fire and grew bigger than the entire world, and told Dee that the current time period was the final age. Innumerable people swarmed in the globe, which also showed towers and castles, and Uriel explained that a spirit named King Carmara (or Baligon) was in the world, and that another world would begin with him. This spirit appeared and sat atop the world in a throne. This, it seemed, echoed Trithemius’s notion of epochs of history ruled over by specific angels or spirits. Michael explained that “the mysteries of God have a time,”²⁶ and that they were being provided with this time.

Dee and Kelly were now introduced not just to Carmara but to a series of seven kings, with seven princes attendant upon them, and given sigils for each of them—with King Carmara in the highest rank. An ancient, enciphered flag was also shown, the reverse side of which contained the British flag. Gesturing to the world, Carmara explained that the sons of men, and their sons, were subject to his command—but only for a given time, which was yet to come.

Now came two companies of kings, each carrying a sword and a pair of balances—one group with scales balanced, the other imbalanced. Likewise, two companies of men arrived, one with truth over their heads in Latin, the other filth.²⁷

Dee and Kelly were instructed in the use of the heptarchic kings, princes, and ministers, an art that could achieve not only political aims but also provide understanding of all science—past, present, and future. Not only could this form of magic influence the decisions of worldly princes, it could also affect the princes of Creation itself.

Fig. 9.6. The Tabula Bonorum, depicting the heptarchic kings and princes. From MS. Sloane 3188.

Dee asked if this magic could be used to influence the decisions of King Philip of Spain, and was given methods to do so. Michael assured them that this was only the first step in learning to use the heptarchic angels; he also reassured them that Dee’s request for magical influence over Philip came from good intentions, would advance God’s glory, and would be carried out with good results.

Dee and Kelly dragged on creating the ring requested in Liber primus, and their excuses were not met with enthusiasm. God would be merciful, however, and look after their material needs. Using magic to meddle in high-level political affairs, Michael told them, was a risky undertaking, but God would preserve and protect them. Michael also assured Dee that he would be returned to Elizabeth’s good graces, and that the pair would do great works on behalf of God and country. Yet Michael also noted, perhaps with a wink, that God was enriching Dee with knowledge and the understanding of earthly vanities. Maybe the angels were circumscribing Dee’s lust for power over the physical world, in preparation for further initiation into the spiritual realm. Regardless, Dee and Kelly were told that God and his good creatures would not forget them.

Next, Dee and Kelly called Bobogel (or Hagonel)—Dee felt the presence of a spirit around him, and Kelly could hear humming. Hagonel warned them that as they worked with good spirits, so would the contrary powers be invoked, and would test them in ways they hadn’t yet experienced. Yet whatever these evil spirits could do, they could not provoke the pair to work against the ten commandments.

The spirits usually appeared like Elizabethan people, dressed in colorful period clothing and often carrying on pomp and circumstances just like courtiers would. They were now assembling to deliver Dee the designs of the Holy Table, as well as the lamen of the art, a square plate that would hang over his chest.

The angels initially delivered a crude grimoire-style lamen to be cast in gold and worn at the outset of the conversations; however, once they were ready, Dee and Kelly were given an upgrade—they were, in fact, warned that the original lamen had been delivered to them by lying spirits, despite the fact that the magicians’ record states that the lamen was given by Uriel himself.

The second lamen, also to be made from gold, contains a square of eighty-four letters, drawn from a much larger table composed of seven tables of seven by seven squares each (in similar fashion to Soyga), totaling 343 alphanumeric squares. These 343 squares were arranged to form the names of forty-nine good angels—seven angels for each of the seven planets. The angels were further subdivided by rank: each planet was assigned a king, a prince, and ministers.

These heptarchic angels were assembled into the Tabula Bonorum, from which was drawn the characters for the new lamen. These were written first in Latin, but were to be transliterated into the angelic language. The angels’ names and sigils were also to be carved on wooden disks, creating a heptarchic system that stands on its own as a method of Solomonic-style angelic magic.

Fig. 9.7. The second lamen, with angelic characters. From MS. Sloane 3188.

Michael, appearing with Uriel and Raphael to summarize the heptarchic system, stated that this was the first part of a threefold art, which would join man with the knowledge of the world, of the government of his creatures, and with the sight of his majesty. The next two parts were yet to come—the Watchtowers and the system of thirty Aethyrs.

Following this action, Kelly left for London and Manchester. At home, Dee was plagued by nightmares that he was dead, that his bowels were removed, and that the lord treasurer would come to Mortlake to burn his books after his death.

In the next action, the Holy Table appeared, this time covered with a white cloth and a red-and-green silk cloth of changing colors. Hagonel held up a black-and-red wand above it, and pronounced:

Oh, how great is the weakness and corruption of mankind, that has little faith in angels and their good deeds, but hardly any faith in God. All worldly things contain the corruption of the world within them. Our God, our God, he (I say) our God is true, and is true with his true angels and those who ever serve him. Ask for what you wish. I have spoken, and what I have spoken that was obscure, was in truth, justice and perfection.²⁸

Hagonel assured Dee that there was nothing obscure in the material that he had received through Kelly. All that was left was to use it.

LIBER MYSTERIORUM QUINTUS

Liber Loagaeth and the Angelic Language

Next, the angels began to transmit the angelic language itself. First came the alphabet, and Dee and Kelly were commanded to learn the letters by heart, without having to refer to a book.

Fig. 9.8. The angelic alphabet. From MS. Sloane 3188.

As the sessions progressed, Kelly became more and more disturbed by the spiritual visions he was being pushed harder and harder by Dee to witness. This trend would only increase throughout the scrying sessions. On Good Friday, 1583, an angel thrust its sword from the scrying stone at Kelly’s head; the scryer broke into a sweat and protested that he felt something crawling and creeping within his brain.

After this disturbing incident, the angel Me revealed the forty-nine by forty-nine tables of Liber Loagaeth, with the letters appearing to be written in fresh blood, between lines of shadow. From these, the angel used a three-part gold wand to draw angelic letters and incantations.

Loagaeth, the angels explained, was the true book of Enoch,^*31 and its transcription was to occupy the next several months. When completed the following year, it took up forty-eight manuscript leaves, each of which featured a forty-nine by forty-nine magical square painstakingly delivered by Kelly for a total of 115,000 squares, producing forty-nine calls. These, confusingly, are not the forty-nine calls later delivered for working with the Watchtowers and Aethyrs; these were the primal calls spoken by God to create the universe. They remain untranslated.²⁹

Dee was growing irritated with Kelly—when angels showed Kelly letters in angelic script and commanded him to read, he could not, despite having been commanded by the angels to memorize the new language. The angels had a backup plan, however: rather than showing Kelly images via scrying, they were now fully taking control of his nervous system. By April 3, Kelly was recorded as praying perfectly in the angelic language. At this point the communication between Kelly and the angels was purely in Enochian. At the beginning of these sessions, fire would jump from the scrying ball and into Kelly’s eyes, during which time he would feel a burning sensation in his brain and be taken over by the angels. While possessed, he was able to fully read, write, and interpret the angelic script, yet when the angels relinquished control of him and the fire left Kelly’s eyes and returned to the stone, he lost all ability to understand what he had transmitted. Raphael also appeared in his “medicinal” capacity to boost Dee’s hearing.

Fig. 9.9. A page from Liber Loagaeth. From MS. Sloane 2599.

Every element of Loagaeth was said to be a world of understanding, and had forty-nine manners of understanding.^*32 Within it, Kelly said, were comprehended many languages, “all spoken at once . . . until thou come to the city, thou canst not behold the beauty thereof.”^†33 30

On April 6, Uriel appeared with a ball of fire in his left hand and a triangle of fire in his right; he proclaimed that great misery would come within five months, and that the duo needed to accelerate their work transcribing Loagaeth. To assist in their task, they were to be given spiritual sight. In forty days, the book of secrets and key of the world (Loagaeth) was to be written and brought to the “window of thy senses and doors of thy imagination” by Uriel.³¹ Kelly, Uriel commanded and threatened, would always have the book before him and daily “perform the office to him committed.” Were he not to, the Lord would “raze his name from the number of the blessed, and those that are anointed with his blood.”³²

“For behold, what man can speak or talk with the spirit of God?” Uriel told them. “No flesh is able to stand, when the voice of his Thunder shall present the part of the next leaf unto sight. You have wavering minds, and are drawn away with the World: But brittle is the state thereof. Small therefore are the vanities of his illusion.”³³ So were they commanded to be of good faith.

The transcription of the book continued over the coming days, with Kelly undergoing possession and delivering pages of angelic script. On April 15, while writing the eighteenth leaf, attributed to the spirits of the earth, three or four entities appeared, unbidden, that looked like laboring men carrying shovels.^*34 Dee attempted to banish them, but they assaulted Kelly, biting him and breaking his left arm by the wrist, imprinting two deep, red circles in his skin. While Dee ran to grab a stick, the spirits continued to assault Kelly, who tried to ward them off with a stool while they came at him snarling, until Dee banished them with a makeshift wand in the name of Jesus.

This must have been too much for Kelly, whose sanity would surely have been fraying at this point. Yet only three days later the pair were back to scrying, and the transmission of Loagaeth continued. Uriel again appeared and urged obedience to God’s plan and patience, for it would unfold in its own time.

QUINTI LIBRI MYSTERIORUM APPENDIX

By April 20, Dee and Kelly were fighting bitterly. Kelly, Dee wrote, wished to “utterly discredit the whole process of our actions: as to be done by evil and illuding spirits seeking his destruction.”³⁴ A terrified and harried Kelly complained that he was held at Mortlake like a prisoner, and threatened to quit in search of more gainful income elsewhere.

Dee replied by parroting the angels’ own commands, stating that it was not for them to put a timeline on God’s plans. As far as interference from illuding spirits, or the wrath of the angels, Dee blamed Kelly for doubting the goodness of their teachers, who had only counseled faith, patience, and praise of God. Kelly’s mind was troubled, Dee said, but his own was quiet and joyful, bent only on awaiting and serving God. If Kelly was to complain of financial hardship, Dee was even worse off, being £300 in debt (about £63,000 or $79,000 in 2017 terms)—and even though this was his only reward for forty years’ study, hundreds of pounds spent on occult books and research, and hundreds of miles of travel, toil, and forcing himself to study and learn, he would still be happy to spend a year going “up and down England clothed in a blanket,”³⁵ begging for bread, if it only meant that he would attain to godly wisdom and do some service to God.

Fig. 9.10. Heptarchic angels. From MS. Sloane 3188.

Making his point even plainer, Dee stated that he was willing to die now and enjoy the “bottomless fountain of all wisdom” in spirit (the same phrase he had used when he contemplated suicide in 1569),³⁶ or else pass the rest of his days doing God’s will and learning his mysteries. This speech by Dee is a deep insight into his character, motivations, and faith. It captures not only the life that Dee had lived up to this point, but presages all that was to come. In a way, this singular comment contains the entirety of Dee’s life.

Uriel agreed with Dee’s appraisal of Kelly’s lack of faith (and since Kelly would have transmitted the message from Uriel, it seems unlikely that he would have suddenly reversed stance and slandered himself were he making the entire thing up). The angels’ patience was beginning to slip, and would only continue to disintegrate as the sessions progressed. Yet Uriel affirmed that Kelly had been chosen for a reason, despite his criminal background. However, Uriel was quick to rebuke both men for their lack of faith, telling them that “this sayeth the Lord: If you use me like worldlings I will surely stretch out my arm upon you, and that heavily.”³⁷

Attempting to use the angels “like worldlings” was most certainly something that Dee and Kelly would slip into, as they continually begged the spiritual messengers for money. It seems that no matter how many times the angels lashed the two men’s lower natures, Dee and Kelly could not fully yoke themselves to the task at hand.

This frustration between men and angels, and antagonism of their fundamental natures, is a primary theme of scripture, beginning in the Garden of Eden. The animal in man will not submit to the divinity of God and his angels, except in the case of saints who have been purified by long trial. This is the core of Qabalah and the Western esoteric tradition—the continual fitting of man to the divine order of the Creation through progressive study and initiation. In initiatory Qabalah, this is the purification of each sephira in the human microcosm, and the transformation of the uninitiated man into the perfected Adam Kadmon.

Dee obeyed the angels, and stated that the book would be finished in forty days. Both men fell to their knees to pray. Within three days, calm had returned to Mortlake and Kelly had returned to a position of faithful obedience. The angel Il now delivered more of the Enochian alphabet, which he counseled represented the workmanship by which the soul of man was made like God. After checking Dee’s work on the letters that were to surround the Holy Table, Il informed him that these had, again, been the work of an illuder, and were a “secret band of the devil.”³⁸ This constant cross talk and difficulty on Dee and Kelly’s part in discerning between angels and demons characterized the early sessions, but abated as they progressed and their faith and skill increased.

Il now transmitted the correct form of the Holy Table and told them that the Sigillum Dei was to rest upon it. According to Il, divine and secret power was here “shut up in the numbers of the ternary and quaternary,”³⁹ echoing the ternary and quaternary structure of Dee’s Monas hieroglyphica.

Next, the angel Il delivered a new lamen to replace the one given in Liber primus, which was to be engraved in gold. This was derived from a table assembled from the names of the kings and princes, sans Bs.

Following this, Kelly had yet another disturbing encounter with an illuding spirit. Picking up a prayer book that had been at the table with them during the previous action, Kelly found notes written within it in his own handwriting, which he had no recollection of making. A spirit appeared to Kelly and claimed the note was as good as any of the others they had taken, but Dee judged the note to be a counterfeit, written by another devil or illuder. After dinner, Dee and Kelly retired to Dee’s oratory to make “fervent prayer against the spiritual enemy.”⁴⁰ Il and Uriel appeared, and Uriel explained that temptation was necessary “and must ordinarily follow those whom it pleaseth him to illuminate with the beams of triumphant sanctification. If temptation were not, how should the sons of men (sayeth the Lord) know me to be merciful?”⁴¹ Uriel stated that he would protect the duo from cruelty, make them perfect, and establish at Mortlake “light without darkness, truth without falsehood, righteousness without the works of wickedness.”⁴² Uriel further identified the illuding spirit as Belmagel, a “firebrand, who hath followed thy soul from the beginning, yea seeking his destruction.”⁴³

After frightening and confusing starts, Dee was beginning to develop greater trust and faith in his angelic ministers, but his mind was still swarming with doubt. A week later, he composed a series of twenty-eight questions or “articles of doubts” before calling Uriel.⁴⁴

Uriel stated that it was God’s will to perfect Dee and Kelly that they be apt vessels, and that Loagaeth would be finished imminently. Yet the angel still wondered out loud why it should be given to mortals: “This book, and holy key, which unlocketh the secrets of God his determination, as concerning the beginning, present being, and end of this world, is so reverent and holy: that I wonder (I speak in your sense) why it is delivered to those, that shall decay: So excellent and great are the mysteries therein contained.”⁴⁵

Within forty days, Liber Loagaeth would be perfected, and from it would be restored the holy books that “have perished even from the beginning,” from which the true religion would be reconstructed, free from falsehood. After these books were circulated for a time, “then cometh the end,” Uriel stated.⁴⁶ The book was to reveal three kinds of knowledge: the knowledge of God, truly; the number and doing of his angels, perfectly; and the beginning and ending of nature, substantially.

Much of the rest of the temple furniture, and how it was to be assembled, was now given. Were the scrying stone to be placed within a magical circle containing the five angelic names at the center of the Sigillum Dei, Dee would be able to “at all times behold, (privately to thy self), the state of God’s people through the whole earth.”⁴⁷ (This was solved by placing the scrying ball on top of this part of the Sigillum itself.) The table was also meant to rest upon four hollow containers of sweet wood, within which would be four smaller copies of the Sigillum. It was to be covered with multicolored silk, symbolizing the inscrutable nature of God’s seat. The Ensigns of Creation were to be made in purified tin and placed around the Sigillum, or painted on the table. These were to be used when needed, as were the names of the kings, which were to be painted on sweet wood and held in the hand as needed. The place where the table was to be put was not important, as the spirit actions would purify the place, not vice versa.

They were to make themselves ready by August 1, in three months; nine days before which they would humble themselves and “unrip (I say) the cankers of your infected souls, that you may be apt and meet to understand the Secrets, that shall be delivered,”⁴⁸ for God had already sent his good angels to gather the sins of the earth and weigh them in the balance of Justice. After this period of purification, the Table of Practice was to be used for one month. Adrian Gilbert (who was now assisting with the scrying sessions), Uriel said, was to be made privy to some things in the operation as were necessary; he was soon to become crucial to the angels’ plans in building a world religion.⁴⁹

Once Liber Loagaeth was finished, Uriel explained, an expedition for “fetching of the earth” was to be fulfilled—Dee and Kelly were to obtain small amounts of dirt from every place of the earth, by which they would be able to forge magical connections to those parts of the world using the good angels. (As Kelly was obviously not able to obtain dirt from the entire planet, the angels specified ten or eleven locations in England to retrieve earth from.)⁵⁰

Following these sessions, Dee left for London, while Kelly stayed on at Mortlake, copying out angelic script—Dee noted that when Kelly couldn’t figure out how to draw a letter, it would appear in light yellow on the page, which he would draw over in black, after which the yellow faded.

Dee and Kelly prayed for further technical guidance on making the book. Within the stone appeared a palace, out of which came a tall, “well-favored” man,⁵¹ very richly appareled, with a feathered hat, followed by a great number of courtiers. The man proceeded to mock and condemn Dee, and threatened to destroy him, his wife, and his children. After Dee prayed for aid against the new illuder, the man replied, “As truly as the Lord lieth, all that is done, is lies.”⁵² Dee responded that he would record this utterance, to be laid against the evil spirit at the Judgment Day.

A voice now came to Kelly, stating in Latin, “May darkness perish with the Prince of Darkness.”⁵³ All now disappeared, to be replaced with the temple furniture and Uriel, who warned them that they must arm themselves, for severe temptations were ahead, and they would be obstructed in their work. Though nothing could hinder God, Dee sourly replied that man could hinder his own salvation nonetheless. They were to finish the books; in regard to their expedition to fetch the earths, Dee complained that they could not find a horse and without more money would not be able to obtain one.

“Therefore if it might please God,” Dee requested, “that of the ten places noted, we might have but the possession of the smallest of them delivered here, unto us.”⁵⁴

Uriel was enraged at this plea, stating, “Will these worldlings hold on in their iniquity?”⁵⁵ Afterward, the angels packed up the table and vanished in a cloud.

Dee collapsed into sorrowful prayer. A tongue of fire appeared in the stone, which rebuked Dee for his iniquity. Dee was forgiven, the tongue said, but would be punished. He was left in a state of sorrow, begging God for mercy and promising that he would behave better in the future, even swearing off sexual relations with his wife.

The following day, Dee again brought out the stone and prayed, begging forgiveness, reciting Psalm 22—“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, so far from my cries of anguish?”⁵⁶—the psalm continues on to have the orator proclaim that he is a worm, not a man. A figure in white appeared in the stone and forgave Dee’s “long offenses and sins.” Yet despite this unexpected mercy, the angel still sternly warned Dee, “Behold, my arms are longer than my body, and I have eyes round about me: I am that which God pronounceth upon you”⁵⁷—that is, Uriel’s earlier warning that “If you use me like worldlings I will surely stretch out my arm upon you, and that heavily.”⁵⁸ Uriel himself now appeared, stating, “It has been done,”⁵⁹ after which the temple furniture again appeared, this time more beautifully than before.

“The rising of sinners doth greatly rejoice us,” Uriel said. “Justify not yourself: Be humble and diligent: Continue to the end. For great is the reward of them that fear the Lord steadfastly.”⁶⁰

By May 23, Kelly had retrieved the “earths of the eleven places before specified.”⁶¹ Afterward, Michael, Raphael, and Uriel appeared to Dee and Kelly to tell them that their sins had been cleansed and forgiven. Dee asked after Stephen, king of Poland, and if he would be succeeded by the house of Austria or by the Polish nobleman Count Olbracht Łaski, a new contact of Dee and Kelly’s that had recently visited them at Mortlake. Dee also asked if Łaski was to have the kingdom of Moldavia. On this the angels were mute, saying it was not for them to determine.

Łaski’s destiny was soon to become inseparable from Dee and Kelly’s own: the nobleman was to embroil Mortlake in a web of chaos and intrigue that would pluck Dee and his scryer from the comfort of suburban London and drop them in the middle of the European political theater. In the process, he would destroy what little remained of Dee’s career.

The angels had other plans for Dee. For as Michael now told him, “The earth is pregnant and struggles with the iniquities of the enemies of light. It is therefore accursed, because it is in the womb of damnation and darkness.”

“It is filthy and offensive to us,” Uriel agreed.

“It scourges itself by its own shaking,” Raphael added.⁶²

It was time to wrap up the show.