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An Enochian Cast of Characters

Dee and Kelley spent their years together traveling across Europe, meeting powerful people, and attempting to establish themselves as occult leaders. Dee hoped to be recognized as a prophet due to his angelic contacts, while Kelley hoped to become an accomplished alchemist. Only Kelley would achieve his goal during his lifetime, while Dee, sadly, would not become a world-famous angel worker until many years after his passing.

As you expand your Enochian studies beyond this primer, especially if you read Dee’s journals or biographies, you will quickly find yourself lost in a labyrinth of obscure names. Some of them will be familiar (such as Queen Elizabeth I), while most of them will be entirely new. There will be names of humans who aided or persecuted Dee during his travels, and there will be names of angels who have never appeared outside of Dee’s writings.

Therefore, I feel it would be useful to provide a program of sorts so you can keep track of all the players. The following list is not in alphabetical order but is instead arranged so that each entry will provide another piece of Dee’s story in (roughly) chronological order. Once you have read through this section, you will have a basic understanding of the greater Enochian saga.

The People

Queen Elizabeth I (1533–1603): This famous monarch guided England through one of its most exciting and frightening periods. Her father, King Henry the VIII, had broken away from the Catholic Church and proclaimed himself the leader of a new Church of England. This new faith was basically similar to Catholicism (in its rites and liturgy) but did not recognize the authority of the pope. After Henry’s passing, his son Edward reigned for a short time and continued what his father had started. This was not destined to last, however, as Edward soon died and the throne was seized by his very Catholic sister Mary. Mary began a reign of terror across England to uproot and destroy the new Protestant faith. For this campaign, Mary is known to this day as “Bloody Mary.”16

Meanwhile, Princess Elizabeth had been raised and educated in the Protestant faith. As Mary’s popularity as Queen diminished, the people began to view Elizabeth (and the Protestant faith) as a probable alternative. The princess was therefore arrested, spending some time in prison and then confined to her home. According to Dee, he made visits to her while she was imprisoned and worked “under cover” for her in support of the Protestant cause.

Mary passed away after a reign of only five years. She had failed to produce an heir, so Elizabeth finally ascended the throne. She quickly began to rebuild the shattered Church of England and even took it beyond its “just like Catholicism but without the pope” origins. It was Elizabeth, not her father or brother, who truly created the Church of England that we know today.

Emperor Rudolph II (1552–1612): The Holy Roman Empire has a long and not well-defined history. Its origins are often attributed to the crowning of Charlemagne as “Emperor of the Romans” by the pope in 800 CE. A bit over one hundred years later (962 CE), Otto the Great was the first to officially take the title Holy Roman Emperor. In 1576 (Dee’s lifetime), the Austrian Rudolph II inherited the position from his father, Maximillian II.

Rudolph was the black sheep of the Catholic Hapsburg family. He was largely uninterested in politics or the affairs of the empire, and gave his attention instead to the arts, alchemy, astrology, and occultism. His court in Prague became a center for artists, philosophers, and alchemists from around the world who knew they could study and practice their arts there without fear of persecution. Rudolph even employed teams of alchemists in the hopes they would discover the secret of turning base metals into gold. (This was actually not uncommon in royal courts across Europe. At the time, alchemy was considered a serious mainstream science.)

John Dee (1527–1609): During the Renaissance, England was not yet the grand empire it would become. In fact, Dee was among the first to insist that England should build its defenses and act quickly to secure the northern seas and parts of (the newly discovered) North America. Dee was also the only man in England with the necessary knowledge of navigational equipment to launch such expeditions. England’s earliest trips to America, as well as its first meeting with Russia, were undertaken only after consulting with Dee.

Dee even coined the term “British Empire”—though that empire would not arise until after he passed away. During his lifetime, England was still a backwater burg—a hick town on the outskirts of the world that was just beginning to take its place in the larger European community. Of course, its turbulent shift from Catholicism to Protestantism only intensified its isolation from the Holy Roman Empire. In this state, England did not have the finances to afford royal status symbols such as “court philosophers,” but that didn’t stop England from filling that role unofficially.

This is where John Dee came into the picture. His European education was more extensive and current than that of anyone in England. He was already famous as a mathematician, scientist, physician, astronomer, and navigator, and he soon found himself serving the queen as her adviser, court magician (“philosopher”), and even undercover spy. He spent his life in the hopes that he would one day be compensated for his service to the crown, but those hopes mostly would be dashed. The queen usually did her best to look after her old friend, but politics and finances often came between them.

Not long after Dee began his angelic evocations with Edward Kelley, the two men decided to seek their fortunes in Europe. They first traveled to Poland in the company of their friend and benefactor Albert Lasky, the Polish prince (see later in this chapter). Their time with Lasky was rather short, and Dee and Kelley soon moved on to the court of Rudolph II in Prague. Dee hoped that his angelic journals would prove his status as a prophet, and he attempted to transmit “messages from God” directly to Rudolph. Sadly, as is most often the case for prophets, Dee’s messages were not welcomed (or truly believed), and Dee quickly found himself out of favor and beating a retreat back to England. Kelley would not return with him, nor would Dee ever see him again.

Edmund Bonner (1500–1569): After King Henry VIII founded the Anglican Church, England struggled to establish itself as a Protestant country. Bonner had been instrumental in the schism from Rome and was appointed bishop of London. However, he generally disliked the reformations proposed by the new church and was eventually removed from his position and imprisoned.

After Mary ascended the throne, her primary goal was to bring the kingdom back under Catholic control—and that meant the arrest and persecution of anyone associated with Protestant politics. Bonner was freed from prison, restored to his former position, and became, to put it simply, England’s grand inquisitor. Mary sent Protestants and sympathizers to him for interrogation (and likely torture), and many of the accused were never seen alive again. Thanks to this role, Bonner is known to this very day as “Bloody Bonner” (clearly an association with the name “Bloody Mary”).

Dee was one of the Protestant sympathizers arrested and sent to Bonner. He had drawn up horoscopes for both Mary and Princess Elizabeth that indicated Elizabeth was more fit to rule. This seems like a rather stupid thing to do under the circumstances, unless Dee was trying to get arrested. The records of Dee’s arrest and interrogation are slim. All we know for certain is that Dee went to see Bonner under accusation of treason. Then, the next time we see Dee, he is working with Bonner in the interrogation room, helping to prosecute Protestants! Dee lived in Bonner’s household for some time and possibly earned a doctorate of divinity while he was there. (This may be the origin of his “Dr.” title.)

It appeared to many people at the time that Dee was a coward who merely wished to “side with the winner” when his own life was on the line. This did some damage to Dee’s reputation and likely contributed to the social struggles he faced most of his adult life. In his later years he would claim that he never sided with the Catholics but had, in fact, been working undercover for Princess Elizabeth (who had been in prison at the time). This claim is difficult to dismiss in light of the fact that the young Queen Elizabeth—once she finally took the throne—accepted Dee into her inner circle as one of her primary advisers with open arms and no questions asked.

Sir Edward Kelley (Talbot): Dee began his magickal work with another skryer by the name of Barnabus Saul (see next page). However, things did not work out with Saul, and Dee was soon introduced (by a Mr. Clerkson) to a man named Edward Talbot. Dee wasted no time in putting Edward’s skrying skills to the test, and that test was passed with more than flying colors. Kelley easily established contact with the most powerful of archangels, and Dee seemed to know he had found his working partner.

Later, Edward Talbot would turn out to be Edward Kelley. (It is unclear, but the revelation of his true identity may have caused a row with Dee’s wife.) It is uncertain whether Talbot or Kelley is his real name; it is possible that Kelley was traveling undercover at the time he met Dee17 or that he gave a false last name in case Dee turned out to be hostile. In any case, we know little to nothing about Kelley’s life before he appears in Dee’s journals. It is certain, however, that he lived his life as Edward Kelley from the time he revealed his name to Dee until his death.

Kelley may have been a top-notch skryer, but his real interest was in alchemy. It is possible that he desired to meet and work with Dee in order to learn what alchemical knowledge Dee possessed. He also spent some of his free time away from Dee in the pursuit of alchemical mysteries and buried treasures. When the two men traveled to Prague to meet with Emperor Rudolph, Kelley found his true calling among the court alchemists he met there.

During their stay in the Empire’s capital city, Dee ceased to be the leader of the pair and began to take a back seat to Kelley and his alchemical exploits. When Dee finally decided to leave Prague and journey back toward England, Kelley remained as one of Rudolph’s primary court alchemists. He was given several estates—including silver mines, castles, and even an astronomy tower—by a William of Rosenburg (see later in this chapter), and Rudolph even made him a “baron of the kingdom.” This title was equivalent to knighthood back in England, and it is the reason he is called “Sir” even though he was not technically knighted by the queen.

Legend has it that Kelley was successful in transmuting base metals to gold, and English authorities spent many years vainly attempting to convince Kelley to bring his knowledge back to England. Kelley refused and lived the rest of his life as a successful alchemist.

In the end, Kelley was arrested and imprisoned on two separate occasions. This may have been due to his own volatile temper, or it may have been done for political reasons. Some even suspect he was locked up for failing to produce the amounts of gold he promised. Dee’s journals indicate Kelley was killed during an escape attempt from prison in 1597; however, new Czech documents are currently coming to light (untranslated as of yet) that may prove Kelley lived on and had a very influential life in Prague.

Barnabas Saul: Before Dee met Kelley, he attempted his work with another medium named Barnabas Saul. Saul appears as the skryer for only one session in the magickal journals (the very first one), after which he claimed that his mediumistic abilities had left him. He leaves the story in the company of a Mr. Clerkson and does not appear again.

Soon afterward, the same Mr. Clerkson introduced Dee to Mr. “Talbot” (Kelley), who warned the good doctor that Saul was secretly slandering him. Dee had already recorded his own doubts about Saul’s honesty, so there is reason to believe Dee took Kelley’s warnings at face value. Later, Kelley would report that the angels agreed and had declared both Saul and the information he had skryed corrupt. On one hand, all of this could easily be Kelley selling himself as a skryer over Saul. On the other hand, if Kelley’s accusations were true, it could explain why Saul suddenly gave up skrying and departed the scene just before Kelley arrived.

Very little is known about Barnabas Saul. Dee’s records suggest he was a cleric or preacher of some type. I suspect his name is not real, because Barnabas and Saul are the names of two early church fathers who worked together for a time (see Acts 11–15 in the Bible). They eventually began to work with a third (Barnabas’s nephew John Mark) and had a falling out over his involvement. It resulted in Barnabas and Saul going their separate ways, with John Mark going with Barnabas. The whole story seems a bit similar to the incidents between Dee, Saul, and Kelley.

Mr. Clerkson: We know nothing at all about Mr. Clerkson. He first appears in Dee’s journal as a friend or associate of Barnabas Saul. When Saul quit skrying and left Dee’s household, he left in the company of Mr. Clerkson. Then, a mere two days later, Mr. Clerkson arrives once more to introduce Dee to Edward “Talbot” (Kelley).

It would seem, then, that Mr. Clerkson had an important role in finding skryers for Dee to hire. This would not have been unusual. At the time, skryers sold their services much as astrologers and psychics do today. What we do not know is what interest Mr. Clerkson had in Dee’s work, or what (if any) compensation he received for introducing skryers to potential employers.

Arthur Dee (1579–1651): For a very brief time, Edward Kelley refused to continue Dee’s skrying work; thus, Dee attempted to employ his eldest son, Arthur, instead. The attempt was a failure, and soon Dee convinced Kelley to come back to work.

As an adult, Arthur would claim that he witnessed his father and Kelley transmuting base metals into gold in Prague, and even used to play with gold and silver ingots that littered the house like toys. He would go on to follow in his father’s footsteps as a physician and alchemist, and he would serve powerful men in this capacity. James I (king of England after Elizabeth) recommended his appointment as physician to the czar of Russia, and during his years there he would compile his own famous alchemical text: Fasciculus Chemicus. Later, he would return to England and become physician to King Charles I.

Thomas Kelley: Thomas, supposedly Edward Kelley’s brother, is another shadowy figure in Dee’s journals. He appears quite suddenly in the story, bringing news that Edward is about to be arrested for alleged crimes committed elsewhere. Edward vanishes from Dee’s household before authorities arrive and returns later claiming to have been fishing.

Thomas Kelley would appear several times throughout Dee’s journals, almost always in the role of a courier taking messages between England and Prague. He would also marry into the von Pisnitz family, a noble Bohemian family with connections in Rudolph’s court. This is interesting because Kelley would himself become a Bohemian noble while working for Rudolph.

Dee never recorded the name of the family into which Thomas Kelley had married. He also did not record when Thomas and his family moved to England, nor did he ever mention them again. Scholars who view Dee’s journal as a complex spy thriller (and it certainly is!) have suggested that Thomas Kelley may be a false name.

Albert Lasky (b. 1527): In 1583, this Polish prince made an elaborate royal appearance in Queen Elizabeth’s court. It is not entirely clear why Lasky made this visit; however, it is strongly suspected that Lasky was hoping to claim the Polish throne. The flamboyant noble was popular with the people of Poland and was perhaps attempting to gain the blessings and support of certain foreign monarchs such as Elizabeth and Rudolph. Of course, this put him very much at odds with Poland’s king Stefan Batory.

Lasky was also interested in alchemy and wished to meet with Dee as much as he wished to see the queen herself. Thus, after his visit to the royal court, he took another elaborate royal procession to Dee’s front door and quickly became part of the Enochian saga. He was allowed to sit in on the skrying sessions and was even allowed to ask questions of the angels.

Dee hoped he had found his benefactor and soon packed up his household (including Kelley and his family) and headed off for Poland in Lasky’s company. Unfortunately, Lasky quickly ran out of money and finally parted ways with Dee. It is unclear, but he may even have run afoul of King Batory, as his royal aspirations were never achieved.

William Cecil (Lord Burghley) (1521–1598): William Cecil served as Queen Elizabeth’s chief adviser for most of her reign, first as secretary of state and then as Lord High Treasurer. He and John Dee knew one another personally, and it was Cecil whom Dee often appealed to for compensation for his services to England. Sadly, it was also Cecil who denied many of Dee’s requests.

Once Kelley became a famous alchemist in Prague, Cecil seemed to largely forget about Dee and focused instead upon Kelley. Through an intermediary agent named Edward Dyer (see next page), Cecil made valiant efforts to convince, cajole, and lightly threaten Kelley to return to England with his alchemical knowledge. Kelley, of course, refused to return.

Francis Walsingham (1532–1590): Walsingham was Elizabeth’s secretary of state after William Cecil moved into the position of Lord High Treasurer. During most of the period that concerns us, Walsingham was responsible for establishing government policies both foreign and domestic. He is even more famous as the queen’s spymaster, who single-handedly built England’s famous network of “intelligencers” (spies) throughout England and Europe.

Dee and Walsingham knew one another, and their roles in English history brought them together on several occasions. When Walsingham took over as spymaster, he found it necessary to consult with the only man in England who understood encryption ciphers and who (legend has it) had long since served as the queen’s spy: John Dee. Sure enough, Walsingham would go on to establish the world’s most famous spy network, made famous for its dependence upon encryption and secret messages.

Of course, spies trust no one, and Walsingham would later develop suspicions against Dee, Kelley, and their occult work. In response, Dee took to hiding his journals in a secret compartment inside his chimney. When Dee and Kelley left with Prince Lasky for Poland, they did so in the dead of night to escape the eyes of Walsingham’s agents. Later, Dee and Kelley made a rather large show of burning the journals in their entirety—very likely so Walsingham’s spies would report that the records were destroyed. (Later, the journals would reappear, which Dee would claim as a miracle.)

Count William of Rosenberg (Vilem Rozmberk; d. 1592): The Rosenberg family was the most influential clan in Bohemia and were often called the “real lords of the kingdom.” William, in particular, made his hometown a center of Bohemian politics and culture. He was also a friend of Dee and Kelley, acting as their patron and benefactor after they left Rudolph’s court. The two mystics slept in a house owned by Rosenberg in Trebon and even worked in an alchemical lab he provided for them. Czech sources (only now coming to light) have indicated that Sir Kelley’s later knighthood may have been compensation for finding silver in one of Rosenberg’s mines.

Sir Edward Dyer (1543–1607): Dyer is perhaps the ultimate example of an Elizabethan poet-intelligencer. England made much use of poets and writers as agents because they were prone to travel and could influence public opinion. Dyer was called an ornament of the queen’s court—outwardly for his poetry and secretly for the missions he ran on Elizabeth’s behalf. For his efforts he was knighted and given land.

Dyer was also a personal friend of John Dee, even becoming godfather to Dee’s son Arthur. As a secret agent he worked directly for William Cecil, and he, in turn, directed the Garland brothers (see next entry). As Dee and Kelley traveled across Europe, Dyer and the Garlands kept track of the two mystics and their doings. Apparently at the direction of Cecil, Dyer became an alchemical student of Kelley’s for several months in Prague—until the two had a violent falling-out and ended up in jail together. England never got its hands on Kelley’s alchemical knowledge.

Garland brothers: In his journals, Dee mentions four men by the name of Garland: Francis, Edward, Robert, and Henry. However, Dee’s journal is the only place these men can be found. They appear in no English or European records, nor in the personal journals of others who encountered them, such as Arthur Dee.

Yet two of the so-called Garland brothers were present at a public demonstration where Kelley transmuted mercury into gold. At least one of them—Francis—appears several times, carrying messages to and from England. They appear to be most active during the period in which William Cecil attempted to lure Kelley back to England for his alchemical knowledge. Francis Garland specifically seems to work for Edward Dyer. All of this suggests quite strongly that the Garland brothers of Dee’s journals are English secret agents; they were not likely brothers and “Garland” was a false name.

Sir Walter Raleigh (1552–1618): A friend and neighbor of John Dee, their children used to play together. Sir Raleigh is most famous for his involvement in the founding of Virginia in the New World. He established the town of Roanoke, Virginia, which is famous for the later disappearance of its entire population. (It is assumed the colonists decided they had been abandoned by England and thus went to live with the Native Americans.) Sir Raleigh is also famous for his attempt to find El Dorado—a mythical city of gold—in South America. It is nearly certain that this famous explorer consulted with Dee on the subjects of navigation and English claims to North America.

Gerardus Mercator (1512–1594): Mercator was a world-famous cartographer who lived in the French county of Flanders in the Low Countries (directly south of England on the continent). In his youth, Dee studied with Mercator in France and there gained expertise in the latest navigational techniques and equipment. Upon returning to England, Dee was the only person in the country with this knowledge, and that is why he was consulted by the captains of every major English maritime expedition during his lifetime.

Sir Robert Bruce Cotton (1570–1631): Sir Cotton is best known for the collection of the Cotton library, which still exists in the British Museum today. About a decade after Dee’s passing, Cotton obtained rights to the land around Dee’s house and began to search the grounds for valuable books or artifacts. This resulted in the discovery of the second half of Dee’s angelic journals, which Cotton claimed had been buried in the ground. (We have never learned why Dee divided his journals in half and hid them in two radically different places.)

Later, during the mid-1600s, a scholar by the name of Méric Casaubon (see next entry) would obtain these journals from Cotton’s son and publish them, thereby bringing Dee’s magick back into the light half a century after Dee hid it away. Unfortunately, the first half of Dee’s records (which included much vital information about his system) would not be found until some time later. (See the entry for Elias Ashmole.)

Méric Casaubon (1599–1671): Casaubon was a French-English classical scholar with a focus upon religious and esoteric subjects. He is known for his literal belief in such spiritual things as angels and demons, and he supported the inquisitorial definition of “witchcraft.” As a conservative Protestant—much like King James I, whom he served—he disagreed with such things as divine inspiration or, indeed, any individual’s claims of personal spiritual revelation.

To “prove” himself correct, he obtained several of Dee’s journals from Robert Cotton’s son, wrote a disparaging introduction to them, and published them in 1659 as A True and Faithful Relation of What Passed for Many Years Between Dr. John Dee...and Some Spirits. In the introduction, Casaubon asserts that Dee was truly in contact with spiritual beings, but that they were, in fact, demons who were deluding an old fool with the help of a young con artist (Kelley). Even though A True and Faithful Relation would eventually become foundational to the Western Esoteric Tradition (certainly not what Casaubon intended!), the introduction also cast Dee in a negative light that has only been overturned in the last few decades.

Elias Ashmole (1617–1692): Ashmole was an antiquarian, esoteric student, and early Freemason. He was also deeply involved in the collection and cataloging of priceless manuscripts, so it is no surprise that this man was acutely interested in the magickal journals of Dr. John Dee.

About ten years after Casaubon published A True and Faithful Relation, Ashmole was contacted by a man who claimed to possess several papers written in Dee’s hand. The story the man gave was nothing short of fantastical: His wife owned a cedar chest that she had acquired during her first marriage. She kept the chest after her husband passed away, and even rescued it from the Great Fire of London in 1666. (She could not say why she had chosen to carry a large wooden chest with her during such an evacuation.) She later remarried, and the chest remained in her household for many years. One day, they were moving the chest and heard a faint rattle in its bottom. Sure enough, the chest had a false bottom, and when it was pried open, a large stack of papers was found, along with a small rosary.

These papers turned out to be the missing first half of Dee’s magickal journals, along with a small grimoire Dee had compiled from information in the journals. Sadly, the couple failed to secure the documents, and their illiterate maid found and destroyed several pages of the material. (She infamously used them to drain pies.) Once this mistake was discovered, the couple gathered the remaining pages and took them to Ashmole. The year was 1672, though these journals would not have a significant impact on the Enochian tradition for several centuries.

“Dr. Rudd”: Thomas Rudd (1583–1656) was born just as Dee and Kelley began their angelic séances. He would become a military engineer and mathematician, and thus may have had a natural interest in the life and work of John Dee. A manuscript by a “Dr. Rudd” entitled A Treatise on Angel Magic (which included Enochian material) would be published in the late 1600s, but it is unlikely the actual Thomas Rudd had anything to do with it.

A long-standing legend has it that Dr. Rudd knew Dee personally, and that Rudd continued Dee’s angelic experiments after the older man passed away. As you will discover later, this is not likely the case. However, the name “Dr. Rudd” still has an important place in the Enochian saga.

The Angels

Annael (“Grace of God”): More commonly spelled Anael, he is the archangel of Venus as found in The Heptameron. He appears only once: in the very first session recorded in Dee’s journals and the only session featuring Barnabas Saul as skryer. During this appearance, Annael claimed to be the successive ruler of the entire universe. There are six others who take their turn in the supreme position (all of whom are also found in The Heptameron): Cassiel, Sachiel, Samael, Michael, Raphael, and Gabriel.18 These are the seven spirits who stand before the face of God (Revelation 4:5).

Annael also explained that the archangel Michael was attached to the skrying stone. (Later, Dee would learn that Gabriel, Raphael, and Uriel were also attached to it, but that Michael was chief among them.) Annael further offered instruction for how to proceed in the work, and then he left for good. The implication is that Annael brokered the meeting between the two men and the four archangels who would oversee the transmission of the entire corpus of Dee’s magickal system.

Michael (“Who Is Like God,” Fortitudo Dei): Chief of the four archangels, high priest of heaven, and general of the angelic hosts. In The Heptameron he is the archangel of Sol. Other sources list him as an archangel of Mercury and a psychopomp who directs souls to paradise, or Gehenna. In Dee’s journals, he also goes by the name of Fortitudo Dei (“Fortitude of God”).19 Legend tells us that Michael was the patron of Solomon and gave the king the famous Ring of Solomon by which he worked miracles. Michael would also reveal a special Ring of Solomon to Dee and Kelley, as well as the other magickal tools and furnishings necessary for Enochian magick.

Gabriel (“Strength of God”): Best known as the angel of the Annunciation (who told Mary she would give birth to the son of God) as well as the angel who revealed the Koran to Muhammed. In The Heptameron he is the archangel of Luna.

In Dee’s journals, Gabriel was in charge of the transmission of the forty-eight Angelical Callings and the thirty Aethyrs. He did not reveal them personally but directed two angels under his charge—Nalvage and Illemese (see later entries)—to transmit the information. He did step in to answer questions about the material, such as when he spoke to Dee about the relationship between the words of the calls and certain numbers that Nalvage had attached to them.

Raphael (“Healing of God,” Medicina Dei): The physician of heaven, he is often called Medicina Dei (“Medicine of God”) in Dee’s journals and sometimes by the shorthand “Me.” This should not be confused with an angel named Me that appears elsewhere in Dee’s magickal system but with whom Dee never spoke directly.20

Raphael, meanwhile, revealed the Book of Loagaeth and the “Language of God-Christ” with which it is written. He referred to this as a divine elixir that would heal all of the world’s afflictions. He began transmitting the text of Loagaeth in a letter-by-letter fashion that quickly overwhelmed Dee and Kelley. When they requested an easier way of doing the work, the archangel agreed but swore he would not appear to the men again. From that point onward, “a voice” revealed the remaining text of the holy book.

Uriel (“Light of God”): The divine avenger and an angel of death, Uriel is the divine light shining within the darkness. This archangel appeared to Kelley during his very first skrying session with Dee, and he remained the archangel in charge of the transmission of the entire Enochian corpus. When the men had questions or made a mistake, it was Uriel who would appear to elaborate points or chastise the men for their shortcomings.

Galvah (“The End,” Wisdom, I AM): Galvah’s name means “the end”—most likely in the sense of “Omega” from the biblical phrase “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End.” Galvah is the Mother of Angels and is once called “Wisdom” (Greek: Sophia) by one of Dee’s angels. She introduced herself to the men with the name I AM—the same name given to Moses at the burning bush (Exodus 3:14).

Without a doubt, Galvah is one and the same with the Gnostic mother goddess Sophia, which also links her to such figures as Inanna, Ishtar, Isis, the Shekinah (or Aima Elohim of the Qabalists), Mother Mary, and the Hermetic “Soul of the World.” In short, she is the wife of God and represents the presence of the Divine in the physical world.

Galvah’s main role in Dee’s journals was the revelation of the forty-ninth table of Loagaeth, the very last in the book. It would appear that she is linked directly to the powers represented in that table.

Madimi: An angel of the Heptarchia, a Daughter of the Daughters of Light. Madimi appeared as a young girl and was one of Dee’s primary (and favorite) angel contacts. When he later fathered a daughter, Dee would name her Madimia. The angel Madimi appeared throughout Dee’s journals, usually in an unofficial capacity. Dee would ask her questions, and if she could not answer them she would point Dee toward the right angel(s).

During the final weeks of Dee’s work with Kelley, Madimi appeared as a fully grown woman and instigated the infamous wife-sharing incident.

Nalvage: Also called Fuge Terrestrium (“Flee the Earth”). He is one of the rare angels in Dee’s records whose name is not found upon one of the many cipher-tables that make up the Enochian system. (That is, he is not in the Heptarchia, nor upon the Great Table of the Earth, etc.) He appeared to be under the direct authority of Gabriel. Nalvage revealed the Corpus Omnium Table (otherwise called the Round Table of Nalvage)21 and the first eighteen Angelical Callings. (Illemese would reveal the Calls of the Aethyrs—see next entry.)

Illemese: An angel of the Heptarchia and a Son of the Sons of Light. Dee sometimes abbreviated Illemese’s name to “Il,” but that should not be confused with the Heptarchic angel named El (or L), who never spoke directly with Dee.

Illemese, like Nalvage, seemed to be under the authority of Gabriel. (Also see Mapsama.) When Nalvage’s time as teacher had expired, Gabriel assigned Illemese to complete the lessons. It was thus Illemese who revealed the names of the thirty Aethyrs and the Angelical Call(s)22 that open them. He was also the angel who introduced Dee and Kelley to Mother Galvah (who went by the name Wisdom at the time).

Ave: An angel of the Heptarchia, a Son of the Sons of Light. This angel had more to do with the “Enochian” aspect of Dee’s magick than any other. It was Ave who revealed the system of Gebofal (the forty-nine-day ceremony for opening the tables of Loagaeth). Most of the instruction was contained within a “Prayer of Enoch,” which outlined exactly how Enoch had gone about opening the holy book and how Dee was to do it as well. (Further instruction would be given by the angel Mapsama.) Ave was also the angel who revealed the Great Table of the Earth and its system.

Semiel (“Name of God”): This angel appears in only one place in Dee’s journals, and his name does not appear elsewhere in the Enochian system. He was called by Michael to reveal the outer circumference of the Seal of the True God, 23 which contains a forty-lettered name of God. Michael told Dee that Semiel alone knew the mysteries that were about to be revealed. It was Semiel, then, who called in forty childlike angels who revealed the forty characters in the circumference of the seal.

Mapsama: Mapsama’s name means Dic Illis (“Say Unto Them”). He is one of the rare angels who appears in Dee’s journals but does not appear elsewhere in the Enochian system. (Also see Nalvage.) Mapsama was active during the transmission of the forty-eight Angelical Calls and gave Dee and Kelley further instruction on the nature of the calls and how to use them for Gebofal. He is under the authority of Gabriel, the archangel in charge during the transmission of the calls and seems to work directly with Nalvage. (Also see Illemese, who later took over Nalvage’s role in the journals.)

Levanael (Luna of God): An angel of the moon and one of the angels of the Heptarchia. Levenael is the angel who first referred to the practice of the Holy Book of Loagaeth as Gebofal.

Murifri: An angel of the Heptarchia, though his name does not appear on any of the magickal tools or furnishings. Instead, his name is found upon one of seven cipher-tables used to generate the names of the forty-nine angels of the Heptarchic royalty. Although Dee wrote much about the forty-nine royal angels, he recorded very little about the other names that could be found in the seven tables. Murifri was the only one from that group to appear to Dee.24 He appeared later in the journals to give instructions on the creation of a Heptarchic talisman for a client of Dee’s.

Aath: An angel of the Heptarchia, a Daughter of the Daughters of Light. She appeared once to explain the proper use of the Book of Loagaeth to Dee and Kelley, and to assure them they would not be able to use it to find buried treasure.

Salamian: An angel of the sun who first appears in The Heptameron. In Dee’s records, he comes to warn the men that the demon Mammon threatens them and is trying to hinder their work.

The Dee Journals (and Where to Find Them)

Mysteriorum Libri Quinti (Five Books of the Mysteries): Acquired by Elias Ashmole in 1672 and now cataloged in the British Museum as Sloane MS 3188. Currently published as John Dee’s Five Books of Mystery, edited by Joseph Peterson. Includes records from 1581 until 1583 concerning the Enochian magickal tools, Heptarchic angels, and the first parts of the Book of Loagaeth.

Liber Mysteriorum Sextus et Sanctus (Sixth and Sacred Book of the Mysteries): This is a copy of the tables of Loagaeth in Kelley’s handwriting that were not included at the end of the Five Books. Also acquired by Elias Ashmole in 1672 and now cataloged in the British Museum as Sloane MS 3189. The forty-nine tables of Loagaeth are currently available only online or on the Esoteric Archives CD available from Joseph Peterson’s Esoteric Archives website.

Dee’s Personal Grimoire: Also acquired by Elias Ashmole in 1672 and now cataloged in the British Museum as Sloane MS 3191. Currently published as The Enochian Magick of Dr. John Dee by Geoffrey James. Includes choice parts of Dee’s entire system of magick.

De Heptarchia Mystica: In 1983, Robert Turner published excerpts from Dee’s personal grimoire concerning the Heptarchic system of magick. This is now readily available online, and I recommend Joseph Peterson’s Esoteric Archives website.

The True and Faithful Relation… journals: The final thirteen books of Dee’s records. Acquired by Robert Bruce Cotton in about 1620 and now cataloged in the British Museum as Cotton Appendix XLVI, Parts 1 and 2. Currently published as A True and Faithful Relation of What Passed for Many Years Between Dr. John Dee…and Some Spirits by Méric Casaubon. Covers the period from 1583 to the end of the work in 1585. Contains some instruction on the Heptarchia and Loagaeth/Gebofal (though there is little context for them), the forty-eight Angelical Calls, and the entirety of the Great Table of the Earth and Parts of the Earth systems. This book was the sole source for all post-Dee Enochian practices for nearly four hundred years.