There is a recent debate in Golden Dawn circles on Case, the BOTA, and Enochian, so I decided I'd post what I wrote on the matter for my old Order around a year ago (which can also be found at EvocationMagic.com):
Many of you know that Paul Foster Case had a certain dislike and suspicion of Enochian Magick, ultimately omitting every case of it from the G.'.D.'. rituals and ceremonies that were adopted into his own Order. He raises some valuable points, which I'd like to discuss with you here, but first I'll share a copy of two letters he sent to Israel Regardie regarding Enochian (and other aspects of the G.'.D.'. system).
Now, let's address the main issues that Paul Foster Case raised against Enochian in his letters:
This is an awful reason to doubt the authenticity and efficacy of a magickal system. Firstly, much of the dark things we know of Kelley are rumours. There is no real evidence or accounts that he was a coiner or a necromancer. Indeed, it seems that he prays fervently and with a passion that is only outdone by Dee (pious as he was), though some may argue that he tried to deceive Dee by pretending his devotion. I think most people who start out with this position have already condemned Kelley, and thereby the system that was granted through him. But let us remember, it was granted through him, not by him. Indeed, it seems on so many occasions that the angels did not like Kelley one bit (and the feelings were mutual). I think it's safe to say that they used him, knowing his psychic skills. Indeed, it can easily be argued that in order to be as open as he was, he would have to be open to negative forces also, and be extremely unstable and volatile. I think his personality easily attests to that.
This was a common desire throughout Europe, and I don't think such an earthly desire as this should be reason for dismissing the Enochian system. Indeed, the diaries show countless cases where it seems that the offers of kingdom (for Dee) and coin (for Kelley) were attempts by the angels to keep the parties interested, while they then divulged the system. This is particularly evident with how Kelley is led around in his constant requests for the secret of alchemy.
I think it's also interesting to note how the English defeated the Spanish Armada at this period (and rumour has it that Dee sent storms against the Spanish ships, resulting in their downfall), ultimately toppling the Spanish empire. And what happened? England became the new great empire, partly due to Dee's navigational devices and other things he did to aid the cause of England. Thus, a new political order did come to power, influenced by Dee, and perhaps the angels lied about how much control Dee would have over it, or perhaps he failed to avail of the Enochian Governors, who could have possibly provided this kind of "puppet-mastery".
Well, firstly, who are we (mere humans) to apply our moral codes about marriage and monogamy to the angels? They do not think like us, and often they do not understand in the least how we work. Tyson suggested this request may have been an intimation of a kind of Gnostic union. Even if it was not, and it was Kelley's sinister desires rising to fore, and even if he pretended the angels said this, or perhaps it was subconsciously risen, why is that reason to dismiss the rest of the material? To say that this is throwing out the baby with the bathwater would be a huge understatement. Also, what if the angels made an agreement with Kelley to allow him to sleep with Dee's wife in order to ensure he continued with the work and delivery of the system (after all, he threatened frequently to leave it beforehand). Just because they don't care what they need to do to achieve their aim doesn't make the system a fake, nor their nature as angels as questionable (it is only our preconceptions that require angels to be "nice").
I'm not sure what "ignominious end" Case is referring to here, but this seems like a general distrust of all spirits, manifesting to an extreme in the Enochian system. Let's remember that the Qabalistic angels had their origin somewhere, communicating with someone before they became the accepted part of the Qabalistic system. By all means, we should be wary of any promises given by spirits. We have discussed elsewhere the agenda of the Enochian angels, and it is wise to remember that all spirits have an agenda. If you ask a Goetic spirit to do something for you, they want something in return. Likewise for the Enochian angels. We must be extremely careful with this. Again, however, if Kelley threatened to cease the communications before their natural end, the angels may have been forced to grant him any desire, no matter what "ignominious end" that may have come to.
I beg to differ, and I think [the Head of my old Order] has supplied plenty of information that suggests that Dee may have been the founder of Rosicrucianism. It cannot be proven, of course, but imagine if it was - that would have given Case a run for his money. Besides, so what if Enochian has nothing to do with Rosicrucianism - that doesn't automatically disqualify its use. Indeed, there is an obvious arrogance on behalf of Case about the authenticity of his own work here (as being genuinely Rosicrucian, and then that Rosicrucianism is the height of all arcane teachings). In many cases we could say that the Tarot doesn't really have much to do with Rosicrucianism (it doesn't feature in the Fama, etc., like the Qabalah does), and Case uses this abundantly.
Well, firstly, perhaps this is a problem with how the G.'.D.'. uses Enochian, not Enochian itself. However, we know that Enochian is dangerous, and it does result in sickness. [The Head of my old Order] and I, at the very least, have had serious bouts of illness as a direct result of the enormous pressure and intensity of the energy raised during Enochian workings. It's powerful - that's how it works. And if we're not careful, it can rip us apart. This is why we advise a structured system, that takes into consideration many precautions and safety procedures. I think it's important to also point out that you can get very ill with advanced Qabalistic workings too. The only real difference is that it happens more easily with Enochian (due to the ease of getting it to work in the first place, and its almost inevitably volatile nature). Indeed, I suggest that the system only be used when it really has to (often we can find a different way [a less volatile way] to do the same time). Using Enochian magick when the Qabalah would do, for example, is like sending 1,000 volts for a job that requires 100 (Case uses the metaphor of burning down a house to roast a pig in his second letter).
Most of Case's other criticism is of the Golden Dawn and its leaders, not Enochian itself. Of course, we know that they did not have access to the entire system, nor do, indeed, we. However, we are in a much better place than them, with better access to not only the sourceworks of Enochian, but those of the Qabalah and Ceremonial Magick in general. Given this, I think we are in better position to avoid the mistakes they made, but I still advise a huge amount of caution when it comes to using the Enochian system, and I cannot stress this point enough.
Many of you know that Paul Foster Case had a certain dislike and suspicion of Enochian Magick, ultimately omitting every case of it from the G.'.D.'. rituals and ceremonies that were adopted into his own Order. He raises some valuable points, which I'd like to discuss with you here, but first I'll share a copy of two letters he sent to Israel Regardie regarding Enochian (and other aspects of the G.'.D.'. system).
Now, let's address the main issues that Paul Foster Case raised against Enochian in his letters:
1. That it emanated so largely from Kelly
This is an awful reason to doubt the authenticity and efficacy of a magickal system. Firstly, much of the dark things we know of Kelley are rumours. There is no real evidence or accounts that he was a coiner or a necromancer. Indeed, it seems that he prays fervently and with a passion that is only outdone by Dee (pious as he was), though some may argue that he tried to deceive Dee by pretending his devotion. I think most people who start out with this position have already condemned Kelley, and thereby the system that was granted through him. But let us remember, it was granted through him, not by him. Indeed, it seems on so many occasions that the angels did not like Kelley one bit (and the feelings were mutual). I think it's safe to say that they used him, knowing his psychic skills. Indeed, it can easily be argued that in order to be as open as he was, he would have to be open to negative forces also, and be extremely unstable and volatile. I think his personality easily attests to that.
2. That the tablets are part of a rigmarole by which Kelly persuaded Dee that they were to be the puppet-masters of a new European political order which should supercede the kingdoms then reigning
This was a common desire throughout Europe, and I don't think such an earthly desire as this should be reason for dismissing the Enochian system. Indeed, the diaries show countless cases where it seems that the offers of kingdom (for Dee) and coin (for Kelley) were attempts by the angels to keep the parties interested, while they then divulged the system. This is particularly evident with how Kelley is led around in his constant requests for the secret of alchemy.
I think it's also interesting to note how the English defeated the Spanish Armada at this period (and rumour has it that Dee sent storms against the Spanish ships, resulting in their downfall), ultimately toppling the Spanish empire. And what happened? England became the new great empire, partly due to Dee's navigational devices and other things he did to aid the cause of England. Thus, a new political order did come to power, influenced by Dee, and perhaps the angels lied about how much control Dee would have over it, or perhaps he failed to avail of the Enochian Governors, who could have possibly provided this kind of "puppet-mastery".
3. That the same angel that dictated the Tablets also required that Kelly and Dee should have all things in common, including their wives.
Well, firstly, who are we (mere humans) to apply our moral codes about marriage and monogamy to the angels? They do not think like us, and often they do not understand in the least how we work. Tyson suggested this request may have been an intimation of a kind of Gnostic union. Even if it was not, and it was Kelley's sinister desires rising to fore, and even if he pretended the angels said this, or perhaps it was subconsciously risen, why is that reason to dismiss the rest of the material? To say that this is throwing out the baby with the bathwater would be a huge understatement. Also, what if the angels made an agreement with Kelley to allow him to sleep with Dee's wife in order to ensure he continued with the work and delivery of the system (after all, he threatened frequently to leave it beforehand). Just because they don't care what they need to do to achieve their aim doesn't make the system a fake, nor their nature as angels as questionable (it is only our preconceptions that require angels to be "nice").
4. That the entire project came to the same ignominious end that is to be expected of human undertakings based upon the promises of spirits
I'm not sure what "ignominious end" Case is referring to here, but this seems like a general distrust of all spirits, manifesting to an extreme in the Enochian system. Let's remember that the Qabalistic angels had their origin somewhere, communicating with someone before they became the accepted part of the Qabalistic system. By all means, we should be wary of any promises given by spirits. We have discussed elsewhere the agenda of the Enochian angels, and it is wise to remember that all spirits have an agenda. If you ask a Goetic spirit to do something for you, they want something in return. Likewise for the Enochian angels. We must be extremely careful with this. Again, however, if Kelley threatened to cease the communications before their natural end, the angels may have been forced to grant him any desire, no matter what "ignominious end" that may have come to.
5. That there is no good reason to suppose that Kelly and Dee, or their enterprise, to say nothing of their magic, correspond to anything Rosicrucian.
I beg to differ, and I think [the Head of my old Order] has supplied plenty of information that suggests that Dee may have been the founder of Rosicrucianism. It cannot be proven, of course, but imagine if it was - that would have given Case a run for his money. Besides, so what if Enochian has nothing to do with Rosicrucianism - that doesn't automatically disqualify its use. Indeed, there is an obvious arrogance on behalf of Case about the authenticity of his own work here (as being genuinely Rosicrucian, and then that Rosicrucianism is the height of all arcane teachings). In many cases we could say that the Tarot doesn't really have much to do with Rosicrucianism (it doesn't feature in the Fama, etc., like the Qabalah does), and Case uses this abundantly.
6. That I have personal knowledge of more than twenty-five instances where the performance of magical operations based on Order formulae led to serious disintegration of mind or body.
Well, firstly, perhaps this is a problem with how the G.'.D.'. uses Enochian, not Enochian itself. However, we know that Enochian is dangerous, and it does result in sickness. [The Head of my old Order] and I, at the very least, have had serious bouts of illness as a direct result of the enormous pressure and intensity of the energy raised during Enochian workings. It's powerful - that's how it works. And if we're not careful, it can rip us apart. This is why we advise a structured system, that takes into consideration many precautions and safety procedures. I think it's important to also point out that you can get very ill with advanced Qabalistic workings too. The only real difference is that it happens more easily with Enochian (due to the ease of getting it to work in the first place, and its almost inevitably volatile nature). Indeed, I suggest that the system only be used when it really has to (often we can find a different way [a less volatile way] to do the same time). Using Enochian magick when the Qabalah would do, for example, is like sending 1,000 volts for a job that requires 100 (Case uses the metaphor of burning down a house to roast a pig in his second letter).
Most of Case's other criticism is of the Golden Dawn and its leaders, not Enochian itself. Of course, we know that they did not have access to the entire system, nor do, indeed, we. However, we are in a much better place than them, with better access to not only the sourceworks of Enochian, but those of the Qabalah and Ceremonial Magick in general. Given this, I think we are in better position to avoid the mistakes they made, but I still advise a huge amount of caution when it comes to using the Enochian system, and I cannot stress this point enough.
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7 comments:
An interesting summary. I would like to comment on a couple of points. Most scholars today reject the suggestion of Dr. Dee's supposed pivotal role in the genesis of Rosicrucianism and conclude that Dame Francis Yates vastly overstated her case in her otherwise excellent 'The Rosicrucian Enlightenment'.
While I can understand to a point Paul Case's uneasiness over the source of the Enochian material, given the injunction for Dee and Kelley, to swap wives, nevertheless it is Cases's inconsistency which, in my view, undermines his argument. While he removed all the Enochian language from the rituals and study materials he retained the exact form of the Elemental Tablets which were dervied from Dee along with the Golden Dawn method of colouring the squares and letters. His criticism of Mathers is entirely unwarranted and he not merely ignores Mathers' unique synthesis of diverse occult material but also relies on much of Mathers' (and Westcott's) work for his own.
Fraternally,
Tony
Ave Tony,
Yes, I recall that most scholars have dismissed Yates' view. I have a copy of her book, and the Elizabethan one too, but have yet to read them. Sounds like they'll make some excellent blog posts!
Since I haven't read Yates or modern scholars' arguments, I will have to content myself with my limited understanding for now. As far as I'm aware, a Rosicrucian group sprang up in every city Dee visited, only a short time after he was there, which, if true, is definitely suggestive that he had some form of impact. If nothing more, I'd find it hard to imagine that he didn't look at the Rosicrucian manifestos with the same enthusiasm as his European counterparts. So, while he may not be the creator of Rosicrucianism, I find it hard to believe that he was not involved in it at some level.
I was not aware that Case kept the Elemental Tablets. That's not just inconsistency, it's a glaringly obvious one. And these are used in the BOTA's initiations? How do members justify this, for surely at least some of them will be familiar enough with Enochian to spot the Tablets? Perhaps this is what Pat meant when he said they use Enochian, though he mentioned something about the names of the Seniors on the walls of the Vault. Do you know anything about that?
Thanks for the very revealing point. Indeed, this alone is enough to totally undermine his argument, as you stated.
LLLSHJ,
Y.
The 0=0 and four Elemental Grade rituals in BOTA are almost entirely the same as the AO apart from changing the names of the officers and a few other differences. In apearance the Tablets look identical to the Enochian but have various Hebrew deities written in Biblical Hebrew but actually written in different Angelic alphabets. Case did not construct a Tablet of Union however. Notwithstanding his savage criticism of Regardie for publishing the rituals (this occurs in unpublished correspondence) he had the nerve to use Regardie's version of the Portal ritual. As you may be aware the GD/AO Portal is very different from the SM in the opening and closing (these changes were made by Neville Meakin following his return from Germany)and Case uses this SM version (but adapted somewhat by him).
There was never any Enochian in the BOTA Vaults. Indeed nowdays they do not use the 40 squares at all but merely have the walls in a solid planetary colour. A great mistake in my view.
Fraternal regards
Tony
Thanks again, Tony. Very insightful.
So Case used the form of the Tablets, but omitted the actual Enochian. Surely he must have thought that the form of the Tablets was also part of the Enochian system, however? I'd love to see a sample of their Tablets. Do you know if there is any pictures on the web or in various books?
Thanks again for the info :)
LLLSHJ,
Yechidah.
Dear Dean,
As far as I am aware the BOTA Tablets are not yet publicly accessable. There are, incidentally, errors in each of all the Tablets but BOTA is not particularly interested and retains use of them in their ceremonies as they stand. The Water Tablet has a major error. Some other scholarly occultists have corrected these in recent years. To give you an example of the names: In the Earth Tablet one finds PVRLAK or Phurlak, Ruler of Earth. Name of an Angel on the 7th Pentacle of the Sun; SHOR, a bullock, Ox, bull; GDI, Hebrew name for the sign Gemini, sometimes used as a title of Kether etc.
I'm not sure if this has already been noted on Pat's website but the book annotated by Paul Case re: Enochia was Causabon's ' A and True and Faithful Relation'. Will Chesterman, when Head of BOTA, performed a similar analysis on his own copy and, unsurprisingly, came to the same conclusions as Case.
Case left zero instructions as to what to do, if anything, with the Tablets and accordingly they have virtually no role within the 2nd Order and I understand that too much probing or individual use of them is (or was) discouraged. Ann Davies (Case's successor) had no idea what to do with them either. Thus, their use is confined to their presence within the Elemental ritual ceremonies and the uttering of appropriate names (e.g. in the 1=10 'MEDAYO DAPEAKA VALALASALA).
You mention your 'old Order': may I ask what this was?
Fraternally
Tony
Ave Tony,
Thank you for the information regarding the BOTA Tablets. Many of the original Order members used erroneous Hebrew throughout their work, so it's not surprise that such would be found in the BOTA's Hebraicized Tablets.
I didn't know that it was Casaubon's work that was annotated, so thank you for that info. I have a copy myself, which I have read, along with Dee's "Five Books of Mystery" and a score of other related texts. As you can probably guess, I came to very different conclusions than Case.
What language is that you gave as an example for the Zelator ceremony? Doesn't sound familiar to me.
My old Order was the Order of the Sons and Daughters of Light. It was a relatively new one (begun in 2004), primarily focused on Enochian, Gnosticism, and, of course, Qabalah and other traditional esoteric subjects. You can read more about my "history" with them in my first blog post, entitled "Bereshith".
LLLSHJ,
Yechidah.
Seems to me D. Laycock's analysis on "Angelical" reveals the dubious nature. Not these other arguments which are semantically laden and or up to subjective interpretation if not wit.
I haven't followed up on that effort but my own estimation is that Dee's effort is essentially a rehash of the Tradition(s) via a cryptography influence. All the major aspects are clearly reworkings or elaborations of what came before (which can be found without much effort). Even the Seal of Truth is a co-opting of an earlier glyph.
Tie this in with what Laycock has determined and we see the trend...
As to this Power which can unstable the operator's mind. Not questioning that per se. But what have you(s) done with this power?
Are you healing folks like someone who has developed their chi? Figure out how the universe works? Able to now break that habit?
How has this system helped anyone other than killing time trying to figure out what it is?
I somewhat cringe at the fact that neither Dee or Kelly bothered with the system after all the, effort. This happens to be the case with the Golden Dawn members who went through the grades; they just packed up and left for totally different things.
One could say they of course did this for obvious reasons. Nay, I think it's due to the fact that both the GD's system as well as Enochian are intellectual constructs relative to Itself.
Nature and Psyche don't need intellectual artifices. This is part of the problem these days me thinks. "Pure artifice" as one Journalist put it.
I'm no newbie and realize how you can make things work. The "as if" idea and all that.
Well there's that. And ain't Enochian so visually cool? I'm here as I'm into all this regardless. It's almost an addiction.
A part of me thinks there just may be something with the Dee purists. But I am talking a round about way of conveying a Plasma Physic. Aether Physics.
The cosmic process of Involution; from Light to Matter.
This is fine but we've seen this already with the Emanationists. This is of course what Dee rehashed. It's yet Another way - as per the GD's overboard redundancies - to say what has already been said a thousand times.
That kinda thing and thanks.
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