Writing of Liber Nephilim

 

Many years ago, back in 1990, I started on a magical journey that led me to evoke the four chiefs of a body of fallen angels named the Nephilim by some, but who were known as the Beni Elohim, or Sons of God. They were a part of the angelic host known as the Watchers. How did that journey start out? Where did I get the idea that these angels even existed and were an important part of the occult and magical lore from antiquity, through the Middle Ages, to the Renaissance, Dr. John Dee, Enochian magic and to the 20th century Golden Dawn, Thelema and to the present century. There was no documented evidence to even support such an imagined connection and lineage. Did I make all of this up, and perhaps this is why many magicians, occultists and the scholars of the Enochian system of magic found my claims to be unsupportable and possibly irrelevant?

How it started was when I was in college studying Classical Hebrew, and someone turned me on to Genesis, chapter 6. I had not been much of a Bible scholar prior to my studies of the Hebrew Tenach, so I was unfamiliar with this odd chapter and what it signified. This was also the time when I was a member of the Alexandrian coven from hell in Milwaukee, and what I was studying in college was both inspired and echoed in the coven. That’s because this coven was a particularly high-magic group, which was engaged in developing the Golden Dawn material and scant grimoire magic that was available at the time. I found in the college library a copy of “A Dictionary of Angels” by Gustav Davidson, and that book gave me a list of the Nephilim angelic chiefs and pointed me to the apocryphal “Book of Enoch” where I began to study whatever had been written about these fallen angels. At the time, I had not yet determined either how to access them or if that was possible or even desired. They were a curiosity because I did not find these fallen angelic spirits listed in any of the grimoires that I had access to.

Some years later, I was studying the Enochian system of magic and had gotten a copy of Meric Causabon’s book that reproduced a number of John Dee’s diaries. While I had studied all of what was available on Enochian Magic at the time, most notably the books by Crowley and Mather’s Golden Dawn, there was little else available except the raw diaries themselves, which I now was able to study. One item that caught my attention was when Dee stated that he was seeking the wisdom of Enoch when engaging with Edward Kelly in their famous scrying sessions. This is why the system of magic that they uncovered in these sessions was called the Enochian system of magic.

However, since the Book of Enoch that I had studied linked that patriarch with the Nephilim, and that Enoch had acted as an intercessor between Yahweh and the Nephilim, I felt that there must be a connection of some kind between the Enochian system of magic and these fallen angels. While Dee never made such a connection, I saw it as a striking possibility. I also found where the whole process of the revelation of the Enochian system of magic was begun. It started in the early scrying sessions where Dee and Kelly conferred with same the four Archangels who were reputed to have imprisoned and sealed away the angels of the Nephilim, according to the Book of Enoch. That was an odd coincidence, and I sensed that if I invoked and approached these same four Archangels who had sealed the mysteries and magic of the Nephilim that perhaps they would allow me to access them and begin to retrieve what I believed was additional Enochian magical material.

Now many of those occultists and ceremonial magicians who were working the Enochian system of magic believed that the cannon of lore began and ended with Dee’s diaries. While Dee did engage in additional scrying sessions after the defection of Kelly, these sessions were a pale imitation of what had previously been produced. Thus, the period when Dee and Kelly were engaged in these scrying sessions represents the whole universe of Enochian lore. What occultists and magicians were doing was refining and perfecting what was already developed and written down by Dee, but not inventing or producing anything new. This fact was surprising to me since one would think that getting back in touch with the spirits that Dee had communicated with centuries ago would be something that anyone who sought to work this system would have done once they knew the lore sufficiently to perform an invocation.

So, my supposition was to embark on a whole new trajectory and therefore identify the Nephilim as the source of the Enochian system of magic, if indeed there was a connection. For some reason, I emotionally felt that this was an undeniable fact, and acting on it, I began a series of magical workings and ordeals starting in 1990 to seek that link between the Enochian system of magic and the Nephilim. Instead of researching the materials that existed or any other that might be in some unknown collection, library or museum, I decided to perform rituals invocations to get the information that I sought straight from the source. It does surprise me that no else has thought of doing this kind of operation, at least none that I have heard about. Since Dee and Kelly got their information from the spirits, why not invoke those same spirits and get them to reveal yet more new lore? Anyway, I suspect that my approach was quite unorthodox, since we must assume that no one can replicate when Dee and Kelly accomplished, or can we?

If you ask the spirits a pointed question, in most case they will give you an answer. However, if you don’t ask them a question, such as who were the Nephilim and how can I get in touch with them today, then I believe that the spirits will not give out that information voluntarily. It is part of the multiple layered mysteries surrounding some spirits, particularly those angels who fell to earth because of their love of mortal women, and by extension, humanity. I had to pointedly ask the question, and when I did only then was the mythic-based truth revealed to me. I got the four seals (to access the Nephilim) and the blessings of the four archangels that I invoked. They informed me that the angels known as the Nephilim were sequestered by their own will, and that the archangels only assisted them. That was intriguing to me, so when I specifically went through a process of evoking four of the chiefs of the Nephilim what I discovered completely surprised me and also inundated me with new lore. They told me in their own words that not only were they the secret authors of the Enochian system of magic, but there was far more material available that hadn’t been revealed to Dee and Kelly.

That’s not all that was revealed to me during those workings. I also discovered that the supposed mortal women that they fell to earth to mate with were actually the daughters of Lilith, who had their own powers and magical lore, and became the witches and demon queens of infamous Jewish folklore renown. What I had inadvertently stumbled across was a massive store of various kinds of metaphysical, magical, occult and witchcraft lore that was, for all extent and purposes, completely untapped. It was waiting for someone or some group of people to explore, develop and disseminate it to the world. The volume of lore was too great for me to independently derive and develop, but because I was so isolated in my pursuit and what I was working with was outside of the boundaries of known and expected lore, there were few to none for me to share this lore and the connections that they implied. I was the only one who actually worked with these spirits over the following decades, even though I made this lore and the associated rituals available to my brothers and sisters in the Order of the Gnostic Star. The chiefs of the Nephilim begged me to publish this ritual lore and the background mythology to the public in a book, but I either did not have the time nor the skills required to effectively take on such a writing project.

Now, after have written and published nine other books, and having the time, I assembled the relevant material that I had collected over the years and selected what I thought would be best to include in a book that contained both an introduction to my ideas, the mythology, rituals and experiences based on my diaries from the time. This new book that I will be publishing and should be out in October 2024 will likely become a major contribution to the practice and development of the Enochian system, or it may produce a whole new tradition based wholly on new material. Will those who purchase it build the rituals and perform the working to experience what I experienced over 30 years ago? Only time will tell how this book is received, and what effect it will have. Can it be used to change the foundation for working with the Enochian system magic? Should this new lore even be called Enochian anymore? This might be the inauguration of a new magical tradition, to be named after the Nephilim instead of Enoch.

I encourage my readers to purchase this book when it is released and then read it over to discover what I experienced years ago, and then decide what to do with this ritual lore. How shall you proceed? Do you take the sanctioned path or the unsanctioned path? Should you evoke the chiefs of the Nephilim and find out what they know, see if it matches what I have said it does regarding potential new magical and occult lore. That, of course, is the way to test my hypothesis, and I wait for the time when there are other magicians out there who have experienced what I experienced and who want to talk about the future of this path. I look forward to that day.

Frater Barrabbas

Children of the Gods and Enochian Magick

Through the agency of my magical workings dating back to the early 1990's, I had been told by the same spirits that Dee and Kelly talked to centuries before that the teachings of Enochian magick were the work of the fallen spirits, known as the Watchers, or Sons of the Gods, but also as the Nephilim. I admit that I have been intrigued by what I read in the Old Testament book of Genesis, chapter 6, verses 1 through 4 since I was a young man. These mythic occurrences supposedly happened contemporaneously with the patriarch Enoch, as attested to in the book “Enoch 1,” and so any occult lore attached to that patriarch, such as the Enochian system of magick, would also have to be associated obliquely with the Nephilim. At least that is my opinion on the subject. That I also found this to be true when I sought and successfully reworked the original Enochian sessions (in my own magical methodology) was also a revelation to me, but unfortunately, one that I alone seem to bear.

Let’s move forward from whether or not Enochian magick and the patriarch Enoch have anything to do with each other (even though John Dee seemed to think so) or with the Nephilim and instead examine the implications that might arise if they are indeed connected. We can put aside the general skepticism because Dee and Kelly never mentioned them in all of their diary writings and visions. The purists would say that if nothing is to be found in the extant writings of Dee or in any of his diaries, then there is little or any real substance to make a conjecture. You can indulge me with some “what if” type fantasy and we can get past this purist loggerhead to arrive at a place of pure speculation just to see what it might look like.

The source of all of this wonder is to be found in the Genesis verses, 1 through 4, throwing away verse 3 as not really belonging to the overall narrative. Since I have a working knowledge of Biblical Hebrew, I can assist us in really examining these strange and archaic verses from the original script. What I have found is quite interesting and it is a subject for a lot of theorizing. Even so, what I end up wondering about is speculating whether spirits can mate with women and produce offspring. I know that it sounds quite strange or even absurd to think about something like that in this post modern age; but there are many references in many pagan religions to sons of the gods and I often wonder if they were really the offspring of deities or just mythic tales.

My question is this: “How, then, are such progeny conceived from something that would otherwise appear to be disembodied consciousness?” Perhaps I could put it bit more succinctly, “How can something that doesn’t have a material body impregnate a physical woman?” If we read the old texts or study the pagan myths such occurrences weren’t too abnormal. There were many sons and daughters of the gods in times when mortals and immortals supposedly lived in proximity together. Only in modern times have such occurrences become just children’s stories, except perhaps for the Christian Son of God, who was born of a virgin by the miraculous powers of the supposedly One True God.

In Christian theology that occurrence of a Son of God was the only valid one, but the old myths are populated with the offspring of the gods. Certainly, one cannot admit the possibility of one without also admitting the possibility of the others. Since I am not a Christian then somehow I need to explain how this might have occurred and perhaps even answer the question of whether it could happen again. Are there sons and daughters of the gods in our post modern world? Maybe it just depends on how we define what a son or daughter of a god would be.

Then there is the question of how such a tale of fallen angels taking human wives would be possible or is it just a strange myth. Do we take such tales as these in a literal fashion, maybe substituting the angel, god or spirit with an alien extraterrestrial? While this might be a plausible idea to some, it is not one that I personally entertain. So we shall leave the stories of ET astronauts coming to earth to fiddle with human genes and slum around with hominid women to other pundits and their causes.

What I want to do is to interpret the myths and stories about the sons of the gods in a more occultic and less materialistic manner, which is how I generally interpret all myths and stories from our early past. I believe that such material is to be treated as allegory instead of the literal truth. I will leave the more literal interpretation of the Bible to those fundamentalists who seem to be so daunted by subtlety and confused by allegory in their rampant pursuit of the simple truth. In my opinion there is no simple truth to be found in all of the sacred writings penned by human beings - it is all complex, multilayered and suffused with allegory.

Now that I have established the foundation for how we will examine these odd Biblical verses, we can proceed to the real meat of this article, which is the textual analysis. I will try to be succinct and not get into too much detail, which would probably only interest the linguists amongst my readers.

Here are the relevant passages from the Jerusalem Bible, Genesis chapter 6, verses 1 through 4:

“When men had begun to be plentiful on the earth, and daughters had been born to them, the sons of God, looking at the daughters of men, saw they were pleasing, so they married as many as they choose. Yahweh said, ‘My spirit must not forever be disgraced in man, for he is but flesh; his life shall last no more than a hundred and twenty years.’ The Nephilim were on the earth at that time (and even afterward) when the sons of God resorted to the daughters of man, and had children by them. These are the heros of days gone by, the famous men.”

Chapter 6, verse 1 and 2 talk about how mankind had become numerous on the face of the earth and that they had also given birth to daughters. The verb ChLL (to be common, to profane) which is used in this sentence would seem to indicate that humanity had become common or had profaned the earth in great multitudes (like cockroaches). It is quite odd that this verse mentions that daughters were born to mankind only when they had became numerous, but then again Biblical scholars have said that this entire section is both odd, linguistically peculiar and likely added out of context from another source. 

Then the second verse reveals that the sons of God (literally, sons of the Elohim) saw that these daughters were beautiful, and they took to themselves the elected ones from the many that they chose. That is how the actual text reads, and there is no mention of wives or marriage, just a selection of those who were so appointed. This was not a random selecting either, since those who were chosen (Hebrew nasim - root SVM - “appointed”) were given a special honor, being therefore superior in some manner to the others. The story or sentiments about those elected daughters of man were never told nor were they even named. Still, they were very special, since through them a dynasty was born.

As I said previously, we can throw out verse 3 since it discusses that Yahweh didn’t want his spirit (breath) to be forever trapped in men. To enforce this decision, he has decided to limit the number of years that any man could live to just 120. Prior to this edict, men were living to be quite old (in excess of 400 years, with Methuselah topping in at 900 years). What this is actually saying is that the mythic age of humanity was nearly lapsed, therefore, Yahweh would limit the life span of men so that it would be more in line with the potential life span we know now. The mythic life span, seldom actually achieved, was probably an even 1,000 years. Because all of these verses should be examined as allegory instead of the literal truth, it would seem that this verse reveals an incremental milestone that marks off the golden age of early humanity in the Garden of Eden and afterwards, and the post flood humanity that exclusively descended from the lineage of Noah. After that event, human beings lived much shorter lives and Yahweh seemed pleased with the overall effect. He also appeared to be pleased that the chaotic life forms that had existed before the flood were now effaced from the earth.

After passing over the discarded third verse, we pick up with the fourth verse that begins with the statement that the Nephilim existed in the earth in those ancient times, and even afterwards (after the flood?). Then it says that when the Sons of the Gods came into the daughters of men and begat children, these scion were the great ones (haggivorim - GBR - great), who from these ancient times, were “men of the name” (anshe ha-shem). I guess it could be said that “resorted to” is a more tactful way of saying having intercourse with, and the Biblical verse in Hebrew is more graphic than that bit of politeness. The children were said to be men of the name, which generally means to be famous, to have a name that is remembered in history, to be someone of great importance. I prefer a more esoteric interpretation for the phrase men of the name - they were sorcerers, men who knew the words of power. The term “great ones” applied to them could also be interpreted as “giants, ” which is one definition of the odd word “Nephilim.” This brings us to an interesting subject of discussion.

The word Nephilim has the colloquial meaning of “giants” even though the Hebrew and Aramaic root is NPhL, which means to fall. Thus, giants must somehow be equated to “fallen ones,” and perhaps the ancient mythology of the Jews believed that all larger than typical individuals (giants) were actually either fallen angels or the children of fallen angels. The verse also indicates that the Nephilim were in the land both before and after the event of the birth of the children of the Sons of the Gods, and perhaps it also indicates that giants continued to appear after the flood, since there is a whole folklore associated with them including that Goliath the Philistine (of David and Goliath fame) was one of them.

So, it would seem that both the fallen angels (who would have to assume a material form) as well as their offspring were larger than the average person living in the ancient world of myth and legend, and they would have been spiritually fallen as well as being great men (and sorcerers). Of course, being considered a “great” man could represent far more than just physical stature, such as prowess as a warrior or even intelligence. The Sons of the Gods who fell to earth and took to themselves human mates also taught humanity the sciences of metals, writing, adornment, cosmetics, architecture, astronomy, agriculture, irrigation and animal husbandry and many other important lore - all of them consisting of the basic set of tools needed to build a civilization.

This is the story as told by the book of Enoch, and additionally, humanity learned the arts of magick and sorcery from these angelic beings. They were, of course, cursed and condemned by Yahweh for their Promethian gifts to humanity, but that is likely just the party line, and an absurd one as well. Since they were Sons of the Elohim (and not Yahweh), then they would not have been under the authority of anyone but the primary pantheon of Semitic Gods (El and Asherah). This sounds a lot more like how humanity got its various civilizing skills through the beauty, artifice and sensual wiles of a number of elected women who thereby enchanted and seduced a lusty group of demi-gods and thus benefitted all of humanity.

How this myth is interpreted by modern Jewish scholars is also quite interesting. According to my handy Wikipedia (if we can trust that source), it would seem that theologians quite early on rejected the notion that there were any such fallen angels, and that the Biblical verses are to be interpreted as a quixotic reference to foreign princes marrying commoners for reasons of lust instead of duty. It would seem that such individuals had a more perfect physical lineage, and these goatish young men were sullying and diluting that lineage by cavorting with low-life women. This, of course, was likely something that Jewish scholars could appreciate in the late middle ages. However, I find this argument kind of weak and unsatisfying, but you can read the reference article by examining this Wikipedia link.

“Traditionalists and philosophers of Judaism in the Middle Ages typically practiced rational theology. They rejected any belief in rebel or fallen angels since evil was considered abstract. Rabbinic sources, most notably the Targum, state that the ‘sons of God’ who married the daughters of men were merely human beings of exalted social station. They have also been considered as pagan royalty or members of nobility who, out of lust, married women from the general population. Other variations of this interpretation define these ‘sons of God’ as tyrannical Ancient Near Eastern kings who were honored as divine rulers, engaging in polygamous behavior. No matter the variation in views, the primary concept by Jewish rationalists is that the ‘sons of God’ were of human origin.” 

If I have (more or less) rejected all of these various explanations as being intriguing but not quite satisfying, then the onus is upon me to come up with an alternative explanation. How can fallen angels mate with human women to produce children who are preternatural and godlike in their abilities. This explanation would also apply to the children of the various pagan gods and goddesses as well as the Christian Son of God, although I suspect that Christians would be automatically against any answer that varied from orthodox theology. What is my glib answer to this perplexing question? I guess the answer has to be tackled in regards to whom one would consider to be a son or daughter of a god or goddess.

In my opinion it is obviously a deliberate magical operation involving specially consecrated individuals who have assumed a godhead and then proceed to perform the great rite with a suitable partner, often consecrated in the same manner. Special sexual rites have been a part of ancient religions for a long time, and the typical offspring from such sacred rites would be considered the children of the god or goddess of the rite from which they were conceived. This is not something that would be that difficult to conceptualize, and certainly such rites were a part of the most ancient pagan roots of the Hebrew religion. The giants are just men and women who were considered to have sacral parents, and so they were deemed special, and perhaps even the leaders of a dynasty (or a cult following), so they were famous individuals associated with the gods as their parents. Through magic the mythic stories were blended into the fabric of a cultic theme, obscuring it but also celebrating it.

Even as recent of an historical figure such as Gaius Julius Caesar, the greatest First Man of Rome, included in his family lineage the Goddess Venus. His family of the Julians were the children of the Gods, and considering his achievements, who are we to argue with him. Other great men in antiquity have claimed similar divine family origins (Alexander the Great, etc.), and the further the stories go back in time, the more family trees were affected with an infusion of divinity.

With this motif firmly in mind, it is quite possible for anyone who has the knowledge and ability to make a magical child whether in a physical body or as a simulacrum. It is all part of the art of ritual magick, albeit a highly advanced methodology. Additionally, it is possible to infuse oneself with the numinous spiritual glamor and intelligence of a godhead, and this is achieved over a long period of cultic service, godhead assumptions and internal identifications.

The barrier between human and godhead has never been insurmountable except in the minds of those so afflicted to believe it so. Pagans, even modern pagans, should know that we can experience the Gods first hand through special surrogates. It is therefore possible for anyone of us to be able to live and be like the gods, even for a brief moment. How much easier is it to be adopted by a god and made part of its greater family and fortune. The doorway to divinity is always open, all we need to do is to assay it and find our way through its inner labyrinth of mysteries, and that is one of the tasks of the Great Work.

What I learned so many years ago from the various spirits associated with the Enochian system of magick, including those of the Nephilim, is that there is a wealth of knowledge to be gained through intercourse with the entities of the spirit world. Talking and walking with the spirits is an age old practice, and one that the shaman of old mastered in the ages even before antiquity. If John Dee acquired the knowledge of the Enochian system of magic through the artifice of his wisdom and the keen psychic abilities of his seer, Edward Kelly, then we, too, have that option and ability to acquire and add to the lore that is already known. If we seek out knowledge that is as yet unknown to us, then perhaps as we acquire it, we shall be like the giants of mythic times, realizing the legacy of the Nephilim in the post modern age.

Frater Barrabbas

Enochian Magick and the Two Paths

Everyone who attempts to work a tradition or system of magick begins their process with some simple and basic assumptions. Which assumptions the magician accepts will determine how he or she will undertake the practice of that system. For instance, if a magician believes that in order to master the elected system or grimoire of a particular type of magick that he must fully adopt it without making any changes or substitutions, this will cause him to behave as if the grimoire were the sole source of his magical work. We might call him a traditionalist or a strict-adherence kind of magician. Yet, if another magician takes the opposite view and sees the same grimoire or system of magick as being just one among many, and that the only complete and “whole” system of magick is the one that she has developed for herself, then she will examine that grimoire or system of magick as one of many possible sources that she can use to build up her own system of magick.

These two attitudes, as you can see, will foster two completely and diametrically opposed perspectives. It’s also likely that both magicians won’t see eye to eye about what they are doing, and in fact, the traditionalist might even be insulted by the other magician’s disrespectful purloining of source material and using it to build what is obviously a revisionist system of magick. As occultists, we are acutely aware of fads, poorly researched or contrived New Age hybrids or occult ripoffs, but the steadfast work of a magician who artfully draws from multiple sources shouldn’t be included in the usual judgements and disdain for such amalgamated bastardizations. A magician who is a revisionist carefully selects her materials and then tests them repeatedly within the matrix of her own system. If they work effectively, then they are kept, if not, they are put aside or discarded.

Also, we should be aware of the fact that it’s not always an “either or” type of choice. Sometimes it is an inclusion of both approaches, since most everyone starts out with some kind of tradition or system of magick as their base. Taking a strict stand one way or the other might be too limiting, since sometimes magicians are given a tradition to work with well after they have already developed their own system of magick. It’s important to keep an open mind and to be flexible, to adopt an attitude of inclusion instead of exclusion. I have found this mind-set useful in approaching my study and practice of ritual magick as well as examining what other magicians do. So, it would seem that extremism in the pursuit of truth is a major stumbling block or petty vice rather than any kind of virtue.

However, in regards to Enochian magick, the beginning assumption about this system profoundly shapes the direction that one will proceed from that point. It would appear that this system of magick has a pivot point that determines exactly how one will tackle the Enochian material, and I have found myself on the side of the extreme minority, but perhaps others have also taken up my approach and just not written any blogs or books on the subject. Allow me to clarify what exactly I am referring to when I make such a loaded statement.

There are two basic assumptions (or opinions) when one ponders all of the diaries and materials published (and unpublished) about the system of magic that John Dee and Edward Kelly channeled from their scrying sessions over four centuries ago.

1. The Enochian system magick is complete and whole, and Dee’s diaries are the definitive source of all materials on Enochian magick.

2. The Enochian system of magick is incomplete and missing many strategic parts, and that the various Angels that Dee and Kelly summoned into their shewstone are the definitive sources of that system of magick.

There could possibly be a third perspective, and that is that Enochian magick is part of the Renaissance tradition of ceremonial magick, and that whatever missing parts it has can be found in the historical records of that overall tradition. This would seem to be the perspective of the historian, and often occultists who espouse a predilection for reconstructionism find the work of such historians to be invaluable and subject to incorporation into their reconstructed system. However, this perspective would fit hand in glove with the first opinion, and it demonstrates that the second is the real outlier. Although I would state my belief here that the second opinion is the true occultic perspective.

If magical practitioners use the first opinion as their basic operating assumption for Enochian magick, then all that is needed for assembling this system is to be found in the diaries. That would mean that any extraneous or ancillary material or phenomena associated with Enochian magick would be judged against that foundational work, whether it was determined by the active discourse with spirits or through some other insight. If the new insights appear to be corroborated by some analogous materials in the Dee diaries, then it can be (cautiously) accepted, otherwise it must be either rejected or put aside as an unqualified deviation. This is the practical and rational approach to a conservative traditional engagement with the Enochian system of magick.

Yet what if the Dee material is incomplete, and it requires the operator to contact the spirits anew in order to get further instructions, revelations and devices to optimize the extent materials from Dee’s diaries? If we make this assumption then how do we proceed? Do we throw away everything that Dee established and start with a completely fresh approach? Of course, if we did that, then would we be able to call the resultant developed magical system “Enochian?” I think that instead of throwing everything away we can accept various elements of the Enochian system of magick as established by Dee, and upon that, extend the system with new revelations and insights provided by the same spirits that Dee and Kelly conversed with centuries ago. I believe that such an approach would validate Dee’s methodologies and would also fill in the blanks and assist in building up a more comprehensive magical system. Could such new material be reasonably called “Enochian” if the spirits who communicated it were the same spirits that Dee and Kelly contacted? I believe that the answer to that question is yes - it would still be Enochian magick. In fact it would become a living, creative and dynamic system of magick, something that assiduously following the diaries wouldn’t be.

When we examine the materials of Dee’s diaries that have survived the passage of ages, what we possess seems to represent a complete system of magick. However, anecdotal historical information has shown that the diaries were broken into two sections; one was buried on Dee’s property at Mortlake and the other was secreted into a hidden panel drawer in a chest. The buried diaries were discovered in 1620's and became part of the Cotton collection, and the other was rescued from the chest during the great fire of London (1666) and became part of the Ashmolean collection. The Cotton collection had been somewhat degraded (although still legible) because it had been buried, and the Ashmolean collection consisted of only half of the documents that were originally stored in the chest (the rest supposedly became liners for pie plates or were destroyed before their value was determined). Dee himself hid these documents to ensure that they were never found or viewed by an undiscriminating public as he was preparing for another one of his long journeys. Sadly, the prophesied long journey announced by the angels was his death.

The fact that any of these documents managed to survive the passage of time is nothing short of a minor miracle. Yet the diaries weren’t the only materials that were part of Dee’s personal magical collection. According to Benjamin Woolley (“Queen’s Conjurer”), Dee used the diaries (and other materials) to fashion finished books of magic. The crown jewels of his collection were books that contained the wisdom and science revealed by Enoch (Book of Enoch, promised to Dee by the angels) and the reputed Mystery of Mysteries, and Holy of Holies.

It would seem that the best part of the collection was never found, so the final products that Dee had labored so many years to produce are likely lost to time. Supposedly, the angels directed Dee to burn all of his books at one time, and at a subsequent later date they were miraculously recovered, but perhaps not all of them. This might explain why Dee continued to perform scrying sessions with lesser individuals acting as seers years after he and Kelly had broken their relationship. Maybe Dee was trying to regain his lost treasures or he was trying to continue the unfinished work that he had started. All of the valuable information that forms the foundation of the Enochian system of magick was the product of the collaboration between John Dee and Edward Kelly, and once that collaboration ended, the valuable spiritual link was lost as well.

Therefore, we can safely deduce that the Enochian system of magick is far from being complete or whole. What we have today are some of the source diaries, perhaps containing the most important elements of the magical system but not all of them. It was very likely, in the mind of Dee, a work in progress and it would hardly seem to be sensible to “close the book” on any new developments or insights simply because Dee himself is no longer alive and writing about his magical experiments. Yet that is the argument which is used to strictly define the Enochian system of magick, either from a traditionist perspective or the contrary minority view of the revisionist.

While I would never compare myself to John Dee, nor could I emulate in any manner the level of brilliance that he demonstrated, I do consider myself a competent occultist. The elephant in the room of this argument are the spirits themselves who are the real key holders and the source of this wisdom. What is required of any occultist who would seek to summon and hold discourse with these spirits is the knowledge of the invocation process and a well grounded spiritual and magical discipline. That source knowledge is still out there possessed by the Enochian spirits residing in the Spirit World. It is waiting for some gifted and creative soul who has the temerity and audacity to contact them, and the ability to channel the great gift of their knowledge into a recognizable and intelligible system of magick.

This is exactly what I did back in the very early 1990's, and following that series of workings led me down the veritable rabbit hole into a world of wonder and amazement. It seemed to me that the spirits of the Enochian system of magick were not only still quite active, but eager to share their wisdom with others. Even so, I seem to be one of a very small minority of individuals who actually took this path. I have written down these experiences and analyzed the communications that I received in a series of unpublished books known as the Sepher ha-Nephilim. Some might see it as an attempt to re-invent the wheel, others have said that the results of that work doesn’t conform to the Enochian material as it is currently understood or practiced (perhaps making it useless).

What I have said in response to many of my critics is to invite them to take the second opinion as their founding assumption, therefore proceeding in the footsteps of Dee and Kelly and then, with an open mind, see what develops. I believe that anyone who actually attempts to follow this path is continuing the Enochian tradition as it was originally conceived, and perhaps taking such an experimental trip would validate what I have done. Until then I am unfortunately like a lone voice in the wilderness, unheard and unheeded.

Frater Barrabbas

Secret History of the Nephilim - Part 3

This is the third and final part to the Secret History of the Nephilim series. This part discusses the alternate formula that assisted me in determine the descending fortunes of the followers of the Nephilim, their ultimate fate, and the legacy that they have left behind for us to realize.

The application of the Temurah cipher of AThBSh to the Pentagrammic Formula of the Nephilim substitutes ZYDChR for OMQSG (where the O is actually the letter Ain). This formula represents the fall of the Nephilim and the consequential retaliation against their illicit joining with humanity. It is critically important that we disregard the mythic trope that Yahweh cursed and punished the errant angels who deserted their heavenly posts and profaned themselves with women. It should instead be interpreted as the allied forces of progressive spirituality encountering terrible foes in the forces of orthodoxy, as it always does. The establishment of the spiritual and political power of an organized religion has always invested its leadership with a powerful desire to maintain the status-quo.

This conservatism has the compelling force to maintain the beliefs of a religion as a doctrine and a dogma, which blocks all possible change while enveloping its followers in a static social organism. The powers of progressive spirituality liberate the individual so that one can engage in a natural processes of social and spiritual evolution. It is the very nature of the descent of the Absolute Spirit, disguised as incarnated divine beings (avatars), to cause the ascent of liberated humanity. These two processes join together to form part of a larger pattern. Yet the forces that directly oppose this process of natural spiritual evolution do little more than give it greater power, endowing it with a greater facility and more clever stratagems for success. So, even the rigid adherents of orthodoxy actually play a part in the greater plan of spiritual evolution.

To clarify this point even further, it’s necessary to fully interpret the five new letters that were derived from the process of Temurah, thereby describing the struggle that the establishment of the Nephilim precipitated.

Ain - The Devil, Atu XV: The Promethean descent of the Nephilim violated the spiritual status-quo of human-based religious institutions, unleashing upon spirit and human alike, a contagion of inner plane contacts. Although the contact between human and spiritual agencies, as fostered by the Nephilim, was strictly controlled through the transformational process of initiation, it was only a matter of time before this process became abused by unauthorized individual use. Any system that is devised and used by humans will eventually fail unless it is continually regenerated. The spiritual intelligence who promotes spiritual evolution require that the instrument of progressive indoctrination be in a constant state of modification and growth. However, religions tend to become ruled by the powers of inertia. As the magickal system of the Nephilim became more vulgarized, its vibrant creative core slowly became inert. Magickal systems should retain a certain degree of secrecy and limited access so that their unique individuality and the purity of their inner plane contacts remain inviolate, otherwise they will be unable to survive intact.

Mim - The Hanged Man, Atu XII: The new system, which the Nephilim had established, allowed for a limitless degree of personal freedom and personal power; but this quality could also become chaotic and anarchic. Early societies required a greater amount of social cohesion than later cultures, even though later cultures appeared to demand far more cohesiveness of its peoples. The freedom of the village gave way to the tyranny of the city state. So the positive impact that a divinely born individual could bring to bear upon earlier societies was markedly less in later and more complex city states. It became necessary for the existence of an avatar (manifested godhead) to be realized through miracles in life and transformation within death.

The Nephilim could no longer live among humans without profoundly impacting them and powerfully influencing their free will. So they retreated to the abysmal nether worlds (a form of hyperspace) that lies between all time and space, emerging only at times of paramount need, otherwise existing in their guarded solitude. Those great spirits who had sacrificed their spirituality to partake in humanity could neither return to their formal existence nor remain in perpetuity in their human role. There was no place for them to finally reside except in a world that consisted of both spirit and physical matter, yet was neither. After their transition, the secret knowledge that they had built up was slowly lost and dissipated, until now, only echoes of it exist in the world. Yet this knowledge is still fully possessed by them and can be revitalized in our world, if only a way could be found to enter into their world and receive it.

Samek - Art, Atu XIV: The occult knowledge, myths and esoteric philosophies that the Nephilim founded managed to continue in some form or another, as time passed, and the various fragments of this lore was added to other occult philosophies. The Nephilim attempted to engage in a limited and indirect means of influencing humanity from their place of solitude, but this avenue became completely closed off. Only in dreams and in visionary magick did the potential of their teachings seem to survive. In time, through the methods of ritual and ceremonial magick, the knowledge of the Nephilim became more known and partially revealed (witness the skrying sessions of John Dee). Only echoes of this distant and isolated knowledge, in its pure and empowered form, still lingered in the world. Enochian magick, as unwittingly revealed by Dee, brought some of these themes forward, but still there was more mystery and an incomplete system of occult lore that confronted those who pored over his magickal diaries. 

What is required to unleash the true knowledge and power of this lineage is for seekers to pass through a special transformative initiatory process that will reveal the manner of gaining access to the hidden domains of the Enochian lineage. In this manner, the Nephilim will eventually become rediscovered and perhaps even reincarnate into new forms, leading humanity as they did in the ancient times of myth and legend. Their occult knowledge will be restored and updated to the modern age, making it far more useful than the current fragments of their knowledge spread through many disciplines and cultures.

What this means is that the power of magickal creativity will directly determine the outcome of the manifestations of events, so magick, philosophy, science and art will once again become united and distinctly relevant in the post modern world, after a long slumber through the ages.

Gimmel - The Priestess, Atu II: Two important things need to be revealed before the heralding of the New Age of Magick and Mystery. The first is the ascendancy of the Feminine Spirit and the realization of the critical importance of women in spirituality. The Nephilim succeeded in merging the two polarities of ancient culture, which were the Patriarchate and the Matriarchate. We have come to a time where the absolute rule of the old patriarchy has ended, but what remains is neither a reintegration with nor a re-emphasis on the feminine. Where there is fear and chaos due to the fears of uncertainty associated with social change and spiritual transformation, then the time for change is long overdue.

Whatever conservative political forces and orthodox religious societies seek to achieve in their attempt to guarantee power and stability, nothing can keep the status-quo from changing, whether by false assurances (propaganda) or draconian social controls. Those who are open to change, accepting both the positive and negative forces of our future heritage, will gracefully achieve their own self-apotheosis. Those who align themselves with reactionary ideals will ultimately reap the rewards of backing the wrong course. An incapability to change in changing times has its own eventual curse. The power of the Feminine Deity as the Great Goddess is already awakened in our world. Soon it will act as the symbolic transformer of all Western Culture.

The second event concerns the spiritual crisis that is occurring particularly in the West, where the old religions are dying and new ones are arising in their place. The institutions of orthodoxy are failing to promote the kind of group significance and destiny that has seemingly satisfied the ranks of individual believers for centuries. In the past it sufficed that religions dictated the meaningfulness of life and its ultimate purpose through the societal group as a whole. Now, the breakdown of mass religion has caused individuals to uniquely seek their own personal salvation and destiny. This individual search will lead people away from the mainstream religions of the prior age and herald the coming of the New Age.

An answer to our collective problems lies not in orthodoxy, which actually has assisted in fostering them, but in the individual syncretistic approach to spirituality that evolves into a custom methodology of personal ascendancy and spiritual growth. A fully spiritualized person will have a tremendous impact upon those who are family, friends or associates. Although this process will begin with very few individuals, it will become contagious, spreading throughout the social fabric of the Western World.

This is the beginning of a social spiritual revolution that will fulfill the secret destiny of the Enochian system of Magick. It  began with the descent of the Nephilim in the dim mists of the mythic morning of humanity and it will end in the ascendency of the human race as a unified godhead.

Frater Barrabbas

Secret History of the Nephilim - Part 2

This is part two of a three part series that explains how I determined the importance and role of the Nephilim in the Enochian system of magick. This part uses the five letter formulas that I determined to tell the story of the rise and fall of the Nephilim and their followers.

Ascendency and Decline of the Nephilim and Their Followers - A New Age Legacy

The Pentagrammic formula of the Nephilim has been revealed as Z, Y, D, Ch and R, (pronounced Zidecher). I have created a Tarot card reading that tells the story of the ascending fortunes of the Nephilim, associating each phase of that story with the corresponding Tarot Trumps.

Zain - The Lovers, Atu VI: What prompted the Nephilim to manifest on Earth and take wives of the Daughters of Men was the choice, rather Promethean, of whether or not to assist in the spiritualization of humanity. Of course, they were also smitten by the fair features and natural wiles of human women, and desired to ground themselves completely within the flesh of these women. Their choice represented the noble and even prescient sacrifice of their static but eternal spiritual state of existence, ultimately but not unwittingly, for the sake of Human spiritual evolution. This explains the bond established between them and their combined intention through the means of mutual oaths, and the joining that they initiated with women. We are told that the love of the Deity for humanity causes its ennobling, and perhaps this was just another example. The product of this joining is known as the nature and the cycle of the Avatar (Magus), those divine humans who have shaped the course of history and influenced the creation of cults and religions. These avatars, or divine humans, have nurtured and shaped the spiritual dimension of human nature since earliest times. In this context, the card of the Lovers symbolizes the powerful spiritual process of involution, which it turn sets up the necessary stage for the corresponding evolution of spirit.

Yod - The Hermit, Atu IX: This card indicates the solitary path of the Hermit, representing an alternative to the usual path of the family clan and its leadership. I felt that this card represented Enoch as someone who branched off from the clan of early mythic humanity and forged a new path of esoteric and mystical practices, to be performed by the solitary seeker. 

From the perspective of our post modern age, the patriarchate lineage of Enoch (as leader and independent seeker) represents an alternative magickal lineage to the Masonic initiatory line and its predecessor, the secret guild or society. This lineage would have originally been associated with the ancient and archaic priesthood of the Nomadic Bedouin, handed down from father to son (or mother to daughter) typically without any measure of worthiness, but necessarily dictated by family survival. Such a lineage gave the leader personal freedom and autonomy once the old line had passed to him, but it also included responsibilities for guiding the clan or cult. It also forced the other members of the clan into strict obedience. However, such a close knit clan or cult allowed for certain checks and balances against the leadership, forcing him to be generous and compassionate towards his followers. The leader was guided by the grace, understanding and also the tolerance of those ruled. For those who were ruled could justifiably overthrow a bad leader, and from their ranks, choose a new one. This alternative path branched off of the Magician Priesthood of Melchisadek, Abraham and Moses. Eventually, the rule became very loose and was associated specifically with an egalitarian Star Group organization and a series of measurable transformative initiations.

The Catholic Church has continued the progression of this lineage supposedly through Jesus Christ, from Peter and Paul, establishing for itself and the church, the Apostolic Succession.  However, certain Bishops broke with the solidarity and spiritual monopoly of Rome, (and some, like the Eastern Orthodox Priesthood and certain Gnostic sects, were never really part of it) and turned their pursuits to more occult orientated endeavors.  Presently, through the Old Catholic Church, and its scion, the Liberal Catholic Church, the availability of this lineage has become more pronounced as occultists seek to undertake the disciplines of the Magician Priesthood to expand their base of knowledge and initiation.

The Hermit card, therefore, represents the institution of the Magian Priesthood, which once held great prestige and authority, then was lost, and in the present age, it has been rediscovered. 

Daleth - The Empress, Atu III: The third component of this process of spiritual integration (Nephilim, Enoch, and the Daughters of Men) was the independent lineage of the Priestesses and the crafts that they received from their union with the Nephilim. These crafts represented the facets of the new occult knowledge established by the translation of the wisdom received via the Inner Planes or Worlds of the Spirit through the Nephilim. Also, the marriage of the Daughters of Men can be interpreted as the forming of alliances and the importance placed upon the power of the Feminine Spirit as the Goddess physically represented by her priestesses. The birth of children, also considered the Nephilim, (here interpreted as giants or great “Men of Names”) represents the establishing of tribes or sub-organizations that contained the physical lineage of kinship (either spiritual or congenital). It also represents the fusion of the genetic heritage of humanity with that of the Sons of God, thus producing divine off-spring or Avatars. These groups became the possessors and preservers of priestesses dedicated to the secret spiritual arts.

Chet - The Chariot VII: What was derived from the joining of the lineages of the Patriarchate of Enoch and the Matriarchate of the Daughters of Men, with the blessing of the initiation of humanity through the descendant avatarship of the Nephilim, was the creation of the first Magickal Order of progressive spirituality. Within this new union could be found the resolution of the age old conflict between Agriculture and Animal Husbandry (hunting and gathering), which symbolized the polarity between Village dwellers and Nomads, and their resultant natural animosity. Also, there was resolved the differences between feminine based spirituality and masculine based spirituality. However, the actual focus became orientated towards the achievement of complete liberation of the individual from all limitations; this freed humanity from its bondage to traditional ways of life and elevated their souls to an exclusively esoteric perspective.

The scion of the union of supernatural beings and mortals created a race of spiritual nobility that established all legitimacy through its creation of a physical lineage (the Sang Real or Blood Royal) realized through both physical and spiritual techniques. It endowed its followers with special powers and prerogatives. The family of the Nephilim became an anointed and revered lineage whose mythic symbolism and mystic power was distantly echoed in the much later lineages of the exoteric church and the divine rule of kings - but these are considered degraded imitations. Equality and egalitarianism associated with this secret lineage also manifested within the Pagan Mystery Traditions, whose secret members existed in respectful equality regardless of caste or life station, and who held positions of responsibility based upon merit rather than heritage.

Resh - The Sun, Atu XIX: The efficacy of the resultant synthesis or heterodoxy of these three lines established the ultimate structural basis for a new spiritual order, which ultimately became a variant of the occult wisdom known as the Perennial Philosophy. This underground bastion of secret wisdom would continue to exert its influence in many exoteric institutions, but would never be under the control of any one person or group. It would span the boundaries of nations and eras, and bridge the differences of language and custom, building a universal consensus consisting of many and often contradictory doctrines. The occultism of the individual seeker frees one from the narrowness of secular and sacred institutions and establishes a precedent for the derivation of personal significance and direction. This world of equality and unanimity was kept to a large degree both secret and inaccessible to the larger masses of humanity, therefore it remained an elite cadre of selected initiates. However, in the advent of the New Age, this lineage will avail itself to all who desire membership and will fulfil its destiny by being one of several possible paths for true spiritual enlightenment in the West.

(To be continued..)

Frater Barrabbas

Secret History of the Nephilim - Part 1

While I was going through my various notes and unpublished tracts on Enochian magick, I came across this piece which, I felt, explained the way in which I see the connection of the Nephilim with the practice and spirit lists of Enochian magick. How I managed to pull all of the threads together occurred through some spontaneous divination, and an apparent spiritual communication from an unknown source. Looking over the content of the communication, I later realized that it was a brief manifestation of my inner spiritual connections showing me a new pathway through the published Enochian lore. Therefore, it became a key part of the unpublished manuscript “Sepher ha-Nephilim,” which I hope to complete and publish some day in the future.

I essentially wrote this tract in the spirit of mythopoetry, and it was not to be taken as either an historical analysis of the socio-religious world, nor does it fit in with any known spiritual literature. I would recommend that you not take this writing as any kind of literal truth, but as a powerful and compelling allegory. Think of it as a magickal and occultic form of mythology and metaphysics. A type of secret history of the Nephilim, woven together like some arcane initiatory lore, and shared only with the newly initiated adept. So, as you read through this article, let your imagination run wild, since by doing this, something of the greater esoteric truth will be revealed.

The extracted text used in this article is also biographical, since the events it describes occurred in 1990 when I was on temporary assignment to Dallas, Texas. While I was there, I had a lot of free time when I wasn’t at work. That period of living away from my home base and sequestered in my furnished apartment turned out to be quite fortuitous, as can be determined by the importance of what I discovered.


Mystery of the Five-fold Formula of the Nephilim

In the Winter of 1990, while I was on temporary assignment in Dallas and away from my home in Atlanta, something really amazing happened to me. I had in my possession a few of my treasured occult books, some blank pads of note paper, my favorite pens and a lot of free time. I began to alternatively meditate and study during the evenings and weekends when I was alone and mostly idle. It was a time of great internal discovery and new insights into established occult lore, since my studies had little distraction from friends and social obligations.

At one of those  times, while I meditated on the mythology of the Nephilim (as found in the Bible and the first Book of Enoch) and pondered their apparent “Promethean” descent and integration with common humanity, I heard a voice from within my mind speak very clearly to me, “The secret of the Nephilim shall be revealed through the chance drawing of five Trump cards of fortune. This drawing shall be like unto their fate, a fortune to which they desired and bound themselves onto with sworn oaths upon a mountain top.”

I was quite amazed when I heard this pronouncement, which was unprovoked by me and seemed without any physical source, since I was quite alone. It was spoken in an archaic manner and with a deep melodious voice with which I was unfamiliar. The awestruck silence that followed in the midst of my perplexity seemed only to mock and taunt me. Then, I noticed my Tarot deck laying before me upon the table, and it seemed to beckon to me. This particular deck was the Voyager Tarot, a favorite of mine and one that I had recently learned to use with much skill and insight. I picked up these cards and began the process of separating out the Trump cards. When this was completed, I took the deck of Trump cards and thoroughly shuffled it, randomizing them as I concentrated on deriving this most secret formula of the Nephilim. I then randomly selected five cards out of the deck and laid them before me. In this manner I was able to depict, by means of the archetypal nature of the Trump cards, the destined mythopoetic rise and fall of the Nephilim. I then began to carefully study the cards that were selected in this fashion.

The first card was “The Lovers,” Atu VI, and I immediately saw an image of the Nephilim admiring the daughters of men and desiring them. I deduced that this card represented the necessity of free choice and free will.  It was this factor, along with their powerful infatuation, that motivated the Nephilim to pursue their earth bound quest, which was integrating with human nature and thereby ennobling it.

The next two cards were “The Hermit,” Atu IX, and “The Empress,” Atu III, respectively. These two cards represented the personages of Enoch Ben Yared and the Daughters of Men who became partners with the Nephilim in all that subsequently transpired. The illicit marriage of the Nephilim or Fallen Watchers with the Daughters of Men produced children, beginning a spiritual dynasty that was also linked to the patriarchate lineage of Enoch.

The fourth card was “The Chariot,” Atu VII, indicating both the process of integration and the power it transferred throughout the newly founded union of Enoch, the Daughters of Men and the Nephilim. The creation of a new spiritual lineage is indicated by this card, with an emphasis on the mystical Grail as its inner-most symbol. The Grail represented the holy containers that each of these exalted women had become, since through them all manner of knowledge and wisdom was revealed. Those who were properly prepared through the occult training of this new tradition were exposed to the guarded secret sexual and alchemical techniques that had become part of this magickal tradition.

The final card, completing the Pentagrammic Formula, was “The Sun,” Atu XIX, which represented the creative freedom and independence that the Nephilim and their associates enjoyed through the careful exercise of their newly revealed occult knowledge.

The complete formula consists of the five associated Hebrew letters, which were Zain, Daleth, Yod, Chet, and Resh, respectively. These five letters and trumps of the Tarot became the reading of the ascending fortunes of the Nephilim. Of course, the missing part would explain the ultimate destiny of these three parties and their offspring, which would be the corresponding descending or falling fortunes of the Nephilim. Everything that rises, must, unfortunately, fall as well.

Additionally, I was able to determine this final outcome of the descent of the Nephilim through the crafty use of the AThBSh cipher, which gave me an alternate five letter formula to examine. Ostensibly, I produced this new formula through a process of letter substitution (Temurah). This formula informed me about the consequences that occurred due to the founding of this new magickal lineage. So I was able to extract the following five additional letters, which were Ain, Mim, Qoph, Samek and Gimmel. These five new letters were taken from the transposition of the cipher applied to the original formula. I performed this operation to determine the reverse of the original formula, capturing a symbolic narrative that described the consequences associated with the actions of the Nephilim. In this manner I was able to realize their ultimate destiny.

What I deduced while analyzing these five new letters was that certain forces had became arrayed against the progressive spiritual philosophies and practices of the followers of the Nephilim, and this conflict caused their ultimate demise. I also saw the subsequent rediscovery and ascendancy of their knowledge at a much later age.

This influx of new material was very thought provoking and required a thorough examination. So in the weeks following this discovery, I was able to make complete sense out of these two formulas. Curiously, I completed what became the story of the Nephilim, their actions and their destiny, in only twenty-one days following that fateful revelation. This is a story that is not at all represented by history, source texts, archaeology or even accepted theology. It is pure mythopoetry, based as it is on the occult thread of the Nephilim. I could even say that perhaps it was directly inspired by them through some kind of inner plane contact. All of this occurred before I had built up the rituals to finally invoke them and hear their stories first hand.  

(To be continued...)

Frater Barrabbas

Ordeals of High Magick in Tallahassee

So what were those three ordeals that I was able to perform while living in Tallahassee? My home at that time was the perfect place to perform elaborate rituals that required multiple days to complete. I had no nosey or loud neighbors to contend with, and once I was sequestered in my apartment with the phone unplugged, I was free to perform rituals for hours, and I did. Every year, starting in late October and running through early March I would perform a major ordeal. The first ordeal was performed in the winter of 1990 - 1991 (First Enochian Ordeal), the second ordeal was broken into two parts: the winter of 1991 - 1992 (Heptarchia Mystica) was part one, and the second part was performed during the winter of 1992 - 1993 (Greater Enochian Ordeal). In the winter of 1993 - 1994, I performed the third and final ordeal, which was the Ordeal of Spiritual Archeomancy.


First Enochian Ordeal

Here are some quoted text taken from the Book of the Nephilim, part 1, which defines the specific nature of the first Enochian ordeal. This is an unpublished book from the Order’s lore that is still undergoing editing and refining. I thought that this text would explain the nature of the ordeal in greater detail than what I am able to relate off of the top of my head.

“The First Enochian Ordeal is divided into seven distinct tasks. The first four concern themselves with the Invocation of the Four Archangels [Michael, Gabriel, Raphael and Uriel]. Each Archangel has been mythically given a role in the act of sealing the Enochian Mysteries from the profane. They therefore act as Guardians as well as Guides to the information being sought. The justification for applying to the Archangels for this knowledge, besides the fact that one knows enough to ask, is the proof of the Deity's favor as established by the successful manifestation of the spirit through the ritualized activation of the Eneagrammic Gate. This sacred domain of the spirits serves as the key for allowing the whole process to proceed, without it, the petition for the wisdom of Enoch would fail.

[The Eneagrammic Gate is a ritual construct consisting of three different personal aspects of the Deity, three animated statues orientated to three different gate structures. The combination of the three gateways and godheads produces a potent personal spiritual domain through which the first ordeal is performed.]

Each Archangel that is invoked is asked to reveal the special knowledge through which the Nephilim may be directly contacted. There are four principle knowledge base tools through which this contact may be established, and these are:

• Opening and Closing the Threshold Gate to the Inner Planes;
• Revelation of the Mysteries of Shemiezez, his magick current of Ceremonial Archeomancy and his special cult;
• Transformation pattern [initiations] of the Chenoch and the preparation that is done before the threshold of the Inner Planes;
• Revelation of the Mysteries of Azazel, his magickal current of the Magician Warrior and his special cult.

The Archangels will facilitate the revelation and organization of these four knowledge base tools prior to contacting the Nephilim. The Archangels will also act as advisors and wardens for the celebrant, and thereby protect one from all potential harm.

The Fifth Task represents the invocation of the Archangel of Spirit (Ratziel) and through its sovereignty summon the Primary Agency of the Enochian current, Naluage. Also, the magick Tablet of the Mystery of the Seven Rays is charged with the Talismanic Elemental of Mercury of Fire, thus establishing the connection with the Spirits of Light who are called to assist the future tasks of the working. While the traditional Enochian system has the fifth archangel listed as Annael or Aniel (Glory of God), I have chosen Ratziel (Mystery of God), since that entity is more involved in the actual myth of Enoch, and Aniel is just another way of spelling Haniel, the archangel of the planet Venus. The fifth task is broken up into two ritual workings, the one that will invoke the talismanic elemental and charge the Tablet of Mystery, and the other one is for the invocation of the archangel Ratziel.

The Sixth and Seventh tasks are the Invocation of Spirits of Shemiezez and Azazel. In these actions the celebrant will use the Gate of Revealing to establish a full Invocation of their Spiritual Intelligences. Subsequent skying sessions will reveal more of the material of the Enochian System of Magick, which will assist in its full re-immersion. Also, the ritual of the Enochian Mystery Vortex is used to establish the foundation of the Enochian system of magick that uses the Nephilim as its source.”

In my opinion, the Nephilim represent the “Briatic” source of the Enochian system, but the alignments that Dr. John Dee established in his skrying sessions were also not ignored. Particularly, the five Archangelic Intelligences who acted as the wardens and sponsors of this occult knowledge and are an important link, as well as the Primary Enochian Agent, Naluage. Also included are the Spirits of Light, and the Tablet of Planetary Intelligences, of which the Mercurial Daughter of Light known as Madimi is of special consideration. This represents the complete repertoire of the first Enochian ordeal.


Heptarchia Mystica - Part One of the Second Ordeal

The first part of the second Enochian ordeal was a system of magick that could invoke and evoke one of the 49 Bonarum, or Good Spirits. I had previously determined that these spirits were actually binary planetary intelligences. As simple spirits consisting of two planets active within their combined intelligence, they represented a polarized planetary force that seemed much more like a psychic artifact or mental complex than any other type of planetary spirit.

You can easily imagine the kind of quality one of the spirits would possess if it consisted of the planets of Venus and the Sun. If the Sun were the base and Venus the qualifier, then one particular quality would be evident, and if Venus were the base and the Sun was the qualifier, then another quality would be evident. For instance, from the Heptarchia Mystica Concourse of Forces, the following qualities are associated with the two binary planetary intelligences of the Sun and Venus.

Sol/Venus  -  The sharing of esthetic values for beauty and culturally significant artistic expressions. Sun base represents the expression of the Arts, Venus base represents their enjoyment and critique.  (Bornogo, Bagnole)

Then there is this definition of the spirits of the Heptarchia Mystica, which I will quote here from the specific concourse of forces document in the Order’s library.

“The hierarchy of the Heptarchate consists of seven dignitaries under the leadership of one of the seven Principles. The stations of the dignitaries are represented by seven royal titles of the monarchical system of mediaeval Europe.

The first and highest is the King, followed by the Prince, the Duke, the Baron, the Count, the Earl and finally the Knight. The monarchical quality of the spirits of the Heptarchate was described partially by Dr. John Dee, and thus followed a natural progression upon which to build. Dee only described the first two positions of nobility within the Heptarchate, but it seemed reasonable to apply the rest as they are currently known.

[One of the assumptions of this system was that the planetary archetypes were also represented by the seven Sephiroth of the Tree of Life, from Yesod to Binah. If one were to unify this system, then the next higher sephirah would be selected, namely Chokmah.] 

The Principles ruled the Kings who ruled the rest of the nobles within the planetary dominion. However, there was also a ruler who joined the seven Principles to a single will, and that ruler represented the sephirah of Chokmah. The prime ruler was called Carmara, and it ruled the seven Kings and Princes Heptarchical. The spirit called Hagonel ruled the Sons and Daughters of the Spirits of Light (Talismantic Elementals), and the 42 Ministers who govern the powers of the Green Ray of consciousness. Correspondingly, the other six Principles also have 42 minsters who govern their associated Rays. The ministers appear in the form of a talismanic tablet that is a matrix of letters seven across by six down; thereby enclosing the names of the associated six Heptarchical Spirits.

The combination of the seven stations of nobility under direction of the seven Principles constitutes the matrix of 49 binary planetary intelligences. These spirits are the intelligences of the Heptarchate and emanate from the 7-fold spiritual archetypes. These seven archetypes are resolved in an eighth, which represents their union. These seven also represent the mediation between Atziluth and Assiah through the world of Yetzirah; and the product of this mediation is the spiritual hierarchy of the Sons and Daughters of the Spirits of Light, (7 × 4).”

An ordeal that could be used to fully engage this system of magick would consist of invoking seven of these Bonarum spirits, with the base being represented by the seven different planets (the qualifiers could be any of the seven planets). Thus all seven of the Heptarchate spirits would be summoned and fully experienced, each performed every weekend, for seven continuous weeks. The eighth and final working would consist of invoking the eighth spirit, Carmara, and to configure the already invoked Heptarchate spirits into a septagramic gate structure. The combination of all eight spirits would simultaneously produce the vortex structure that would completely reveal the holistic Enochian system of magick. I performed this working in 1992, and it was so successful that I am still seeking to digest all of the material which I was able to reveal. I hope to have a completed system written up sometime in the not too distant future.


Greater Enochian Ordeal - Part Two of the Second Ordeal

Since I had identified that the Nephilim were the spirits who had supplied the bulk of the Enochian wisdom and whose heretical teachings consisted of an entire system of magick, it became imperative that I invoke all four of the chiefs of these spirits. Therefore, I performed a long series of rituals to specifically invoke these demigods and their associated demi-goddesses, the daughters of Lilith. Since there were 20 chiefs of the Nephilim, and also 20 daughters of Lilith, I found that this was no coincidence. Therefore, I proceeded to invoke another two of these chiefs of the Nephilim (Turiel and Ramatael), and then invoked the spirits of Enoch, Lilith and finally, Seth.

A final point of consideration concerns the lineage of the Enoch (or Chenoch) as an initiated body of adepts who have mastered the methodology of Inner Plane workings. The actual techniques that they used have been lost, so they exist only as fragments in the Western Mystery Tradition. It is the primary goal of this working to reestablish these techniques and to reorganize them into a complete system of modern theurgy. 

From these entities I was given parts of a new system of magick. In fact, from the invocation of Lilith, I received a completely unique system of performing an invocation. Instead of building a custom invocation rite for each spirit, I instead was shown a way of performing an invocation through a matrix of symbolic correspondences. If I could find corresponding symbols and other occult qualifiers (including attributes of deities), then I could use those correspondences to perform a modular invocation rite.

This magickal technology was revealed to me from the invoked spirit of Lilith. From the spirits of the Nephilim, I was able to build up an Enochian Qabbalah and an integrated system that included specific godnames and archangels. It was a radical departure from the traditional Enochian system, and one that I am still working on today.


Ordeal of Spiritual Archeomancy

As if these two ordeals of Enochian magick weren’t enough to keep me occupied, I also received a completely new magickal technique from these workings. I called this technique “Spiritual Archeomancy,” and the advanced workings that this new methodology helped to explore literally blew me completely away when I later performed them. Not only was this an unprecedented magickal system, but it was also intelligible to others. I shared these workings with Trevor, and then later, with a few other members of the Order, and everyone who experienced them was profoundly impacted.

I had previously devised a system of Archeomancy that invoked through the matrix of the Qabbalah of the 40 Worlds, which is represented by the Tree of Life as projected through the Four Qabbalistic Worlds. The 40 cards of the Lesser Arcana of the Tarot (Naibs and Aces) could also be used to represent the matrix of spirits that could be invoked through this Inner Plane domain.

Through my workings I had discovered another new system of Archeomancy that was based on the Aethyrs and the geometry of the back side of the Tree of Life. In this methodology, the angles (vectors) of the triangular structures of the Tree of Life lattice (skeleton of the pathways without the ten Sephiroth) were directly attributable to the Aethyrs, and that there were 56 of these entities instead of just 30. This information had been imparted to me from the Nephilim, Lilith, Enoch and Seth through the various Enochian magickal invocation ordeals that I had previously performed. Since this methodology was not associated with any kind of traditional Enochian lore, it put me into a place of completely stepping outside of what Dr. Dee had written and presented in his diaries. I was, in a word, in completely undiscovered country.

Spiritual Archeomancy has its own special purpose, since it gives the operator complete access to the triangular dimensions found in the Tree of Life. If you count these triangles, there are a total of 18. However, two of the shapes (above or at the Abysmal gateway of Da’ath) are actually trapezoids, making this system asymmetrical and much more interesting. In an unpublished document that discussed the magickal system of Archeomancy, the functional parts of this new methodology were thoroughly discussed. I shall quote a few paragraphs here to more succinctly define this system of magick.

“The domains that are defined in Spiritual Archeomancy are based upon the triangular shapes that are found in the structure of the Tree of Life and are bounded by the twenty-two paths and ten Sephiroth. These triangular structures have not been named nor defined in the traditional Qabbalah. However, by the very nature of the discipline of the Qabbalah that states that all structures in the Tree of Life must be considered significant and in some manner, accounted for, we must seek to define them. The space surrounding the Tree of Life has been defined as the Three Negative Veils, and the reverse side of the paths and Sephiroth have been defined as the Qliphoth (shells). The triangular shapes between the paths and Sephiroth have not been defined, and I have discovered that they also have an important significance. According to traditional Qabbalists, there are two Qabbalahs, the revealed Qabbalistic lore that we possess in written and oral tradition, and there is an unwritten Qabbalah, which is called the Spiritual Qabbalah. I believe that the undocumented triangular shapes have something to do with this unknown and secret doctrine.

I propose that the key to the Spiritual Qabbalah is revealed in the definition and revelation of those domains consisting of triangular shapes found in the Tree of Life, and I have deemed to call these shapes the Qabbalistic Dimensions. There are eighteen Qabbalistic Dimensions in the Tree of Life, and two of these dimensions actually have a trapezoidal shape instead of a triangular shape. Thus compounding the mystery of these eighteen dimensions are two that defy the patterns of the other sixteen, and are therefore of even greater significance. Herein are great mysteries for the boldest and most imaginative of occultists into which to delve, discovering for themselves the key to the unwritten and apparently unknown Qabbalah.

The Qabbalistic Dimensions have as their qualifiers the paths and Sephiroth that reside on their boundaries. However, there is also another qualifier that consists of the vector or angle where two paths and a Sephirah are joined. If one counts all the angles that are found in the structure of the Tree of Life, then fifty-six will be counted and identified. These angular vectors of the paths represent a spiritual process active in the Tree of Life. I have chosen to associate these spiritual processes with  those mysterious Aethyrs that John Dee had listed in his Enochian magickal diaries. However, John Dee identified only thirty of these Aethyrs. Yet if one counts the angles from the bottom right dimension, then proceeding to the left dimension, and then crossing up to the next dimension on the right, and he/she continues counting in this manner until all thirty Aethyrs are so placed, then the approximate boundary of the Greater Abyss will be revealed.

Those additional twenty-six Aethyrs could be said to exist above the Abyss, and so would not have been visible to John Dee, since he did not realize the Qabbalistic implications of the Aehtyrs nor their place in the Tree of Life. And perhaps Edward Kelly was himself too awestruck to attempt to pierce the veil. Other magicians have used the thirty Aethyrs in their magickal workings, most notably Aleister Crowley, and have assumed that they spanned the Tree of Life in some fashion, where the final and the highest Aethyr was associated with the Supernal Triad above the Abyss. Because they believed this was the truth, their experiences were shaped by that truth. However, until now, no one has adequately placed the Aethyrs in the scheme of the Tree of Life, where they should be an integral part. The Aethyrs have found their place as the determining quality in the definition of the Qabbalistic Dimensions.

The Qabbalistic Dimensions are defined by a combination of path, Sephirah and Aethyr; they collectively represent the facets of the teleological process of the Deity and the destiny of its associated individual sentient souls. To unlock the mystery of a dimension is to reveal a part of the Divine Plan, and also the individual’s association with the fulfillment of that plan, however great or small.”

Beginning in the year 1993, I tested this newly derived system of magick, and the results were spectacular. Trevor and I both performed the working, which took the entire weekend to complete. The final results were mind blowing. Prior to that long weekend, I had also invoked each of the three Aethyrs that were associated with the lowest dimension, which incorporated the Sephiroth of Malkuth, Yesod and Hod, and their associated pathways. The resultant egress into the 18th and lowest dimension had far ranging effects, and in fact, I was still processing that experience a year after it was performed. In performing this magick, I had approached the Tree of Life as a veritable map of the Inner Planes, and had entered what would seem to be completely new spiritual universe.

Two years later I had managed to enter into the 17th Qabbalistic dimension and experience even greater revelations and empowerment. After another year, I then joined both dimensions into a fused Qabbalistic structure that revealed still more lore and a greater degree of empowerment. In all, these three workings represented a methodology and ritual technique that had no previous representation in any magickal tradition that I was aware of. It was a new system based on some very cutting edge Qabbalistic and Enochian speculation.

I have not performed any further workings, but I am planning on picking this operation up again in the future, and I will seek to gain entrance into the two trapezoidal shaped dimension situated just below the Supernal Triad. I have all of the materials that I need to perform these new workings, all I need is the time and the commitment. Other projects have intervened, but I am hoping to continue with this technique of Spiritual Archeomancy in the next few years. 

Once I had accomplished these three ordeals, it became obvious to me that I had gone far beyond what the functioning temple in Kansas City was able to either perform or even digest without my direct intervention. In 1991 the temple had split into two groups, with one group abrogating the work that I had set forth, and the remainder of the primary group continuing with the workings. This smaller group only managed to perform part of the first Enochian ordeal, and the rest of it was either beyond their abilities, resources or just wasn’t as relevant.

After a couple more years, the last functioning temple group had broken up, but my own work continued with renewed vigor and at an accelerated pace. I did share the Spiritual Archeomancy working a couple of years later with Frater Arjuna, but no one else in the Kansas City group was either interested or capable of engaging with this work. Knowing its importance, I have proceeded to refine and document this system of magick. Even so, the documentation is not yet complete, and there are piles of notes, diaries and other materials that await the time when I will draw them together into a completed series of books, which I have called the “Sepher ha-Nephilim.”

Anyway, I lived in Tallahassee for over four years, and then, as predicted by a few of the powerful spirits that I had conversed with, I was promoted and sent to Santa Fe, New Mexico by the company for whom I worked. The next important part of my life adventure had begun, and by the summer of 1994, I had relocated to that small strange town in the middle of the old west. But that is another tale which I will relate to you at another time. The time that I spent in Tallahassee was highly valuable, both from the standpoint of the occult, ritual magick and also my career. I had progressed to new levels in all these arenas. I had also avoided having to deal with the cold and snow of winter for a period of five years.

Even though I had traveled yearly for a while to Kansas City for the annual Heartland Pagan Festival, most of what I had worked to establish in that town was sadly diminished. So I looked forward to my new adventures in Santa Fe, even though that meant that I would have to endure the snow and ice of a mountainous western town, known for its enchanting vistas, unique architecture and Spanish Colonial and Pueblo Indian cultures.

Frater Barrabbas

Source of the Enochian System of Magick - According to Frater Barrabbas

I have an intriguing question for all magicians using the Enochian system of magick. What if instead of either using the plethora of books and materials on Enochian magick or consulting the various published and translated or annotated diaries, a magician decided instead to go to the actual spiritual source that supposedly produced this material and start anew, without any prior opinions or beliefs. Would a magician who took this path find out anything new or different from what is already known and in use?

I am not advocating throwing away any of the materials that exist, either in the form of the diaries of John Dee or the many books that have made use of this material and expanded on it. In other words, I am not proposing reinventing the wheel in regards to Enochian magick. What I am proposing is for magicians to contact the angels and spirits in a similar order that John Dee and Edward Kelly did nearly 430 years ago to see if there is any further lore to be had. This is exactly what I did back in 1991, and what I discovered was an entire system of magick and a specialized Qabbalah that had not been reported in Dee’s diaries. My reason for doing this is that I believed that there seemed to be a lot of missing data in the overall Enochian system, and I also believed that what I was looking for would not be found in the diaries. I assumed that it could only be discovered if one followed in the foot steps that Dee and Kelly had made centuries ago, revealing the source of that system of magick.

To my knowledge, no one has taken this perspective and attempted to replicate what Dee and Kelly did so very long ago. The obvious reason for this is that there already exists a very large body of data in the form of Dee’s diaries. Occultists have been pouring over these diaries now for over a century. Why would anyone want to re-do all of the painstaking skrying sessions that Dee and Kelly performed only to produce either what is already known or something that would be less interesting or engaging? Purists like to say that they have taken accepted methodologies, like the pronouncing of the Enochian language, and gone back to the diary sources instead of using Aleister Crowley’s or Israel Regardie’s techniques. Yet despite the fact that there is so much material, I stubbornly suspected there were things missing as well.

Why did I think that and what were my reasons for believing that to be the case? Perhaps it was an intuition, but certainly I decided long ago that the Enochian system of magick was a thing that was separate and beyond even the writings and speculations of John Dee or the emotionally volatile intuitions and insights of Edward Kelly. Dee was a 16th century man, and the Enochian system of magick seemed like something that was both timeless and beyond the boundaries of any kind of occult or spiritual speculation from that time. One glaring omission was the lack of any authoritative archangelic spiritual entities in the Enochian system. We are talking about Briatic level spirits and not various entities associated with the Elemental Squares or planets. Once Dee had progressed beyond the basic known archangels of Uriel, Raphael, Michael and Gabriel, no other analogous class of angelic spirits is to be found.

I am sure that some Enochian adept would handedly dispute this claim and perhaps even point out some spirits that I had missed in my studies, but still, I am presenting the reason why I thought that the Enochian system was incomplete. It also seemed to lack much in the way of ritual structures, initiatory transformations, etc. I found the alphabet of the Enochian language to be difficult to work with, since there were only 21 (and not 22) letters - so close yet so far from the Hebrew Qabbalah. So with this intuition and perhaps limited understanding, I proceeded with the project of invoking the spirits in the order that Dee seemed to access them, and see if there was any other material to be had from the spiritual source of the Enochian system of magick. Instead of using a shew stone and performing the skrying sessions that Dee and Kelly performed, I decided to use the ritual lore that I already had in which to facilitate the invocation of the archangelic spirits. Since I use a system of direct immersion, I was not only going to invoke these angelic spirits, but I was going to enter into their domain as well. I not only was able to contact and receive a great deal of additional information, but I also received a very curious bit of lore as well. That the archangels had sealed much of this information away because it had been the provenance of another class of spirits altogether. These spirits were called the Nephilim, and it appeared that they were the reputed authors of the entire Enochian system of magick. I found myself transported from looking at historical information to engaging in speculations and insights associated with legends, myths and even a bit of archaic theology.

Therefore, I proceeded to perform quite a number of invocations, starting with the four basic archangels and Ratziel, then the corresponding four angels of the Nephilim and going even beyond that boundary. I got to talk with these various entities at length and learned that John Dee and Edward Kelly had only received a small part of this lore. That even after years of working with these entities, I have extracted probably only another small (but significant) segment. Yet what I have discovered is that this system of magick is active and larger than what anyone had previously realized. Hopefully, others will read my words and perhaps even perform some of the rituals, seeking to expand the knowledge that currently exists so that someday the Enochian system of magick will be represented by a whole and complete system, divorced from the pious religious perspectives and narrow belief systems of the 16th century, and brought fully into the 21st century - renewed and redeemed.

This is the sequence and names of the spirits that I invoked using lore that had been developed within the Order that I worked (Order of the Gnostic Star). My assumption was that it was loosely modeled on the progression of steps that Dee and Kelly performed centuries ago with their skrying sessions.

Invoke the four Archangels - then Ratziel and finally Naluage - which led me to invoke the four chiefs of the Nephilim.

• Uriel
• Michael               
• Gabriel
• Raphael
• Ratziel - 28 Spirits of Light
• Naluage - Four Chiefs of the Nephilim

It is only now in the present time, when my ability to write and structure my thoughts has matured, that I have decided to begin publicizing this work, started almost twenty years ago. Some will dismiss it as either pure speculation or even worse, the imaginings of an undisciplined mind. Others will consider it totally out of synch with orthodox beliefs and practices that have already begun to harden and restrict speculation and artistic exploration. I am certain that those who consider themselves experts in the domain of Enochian magick will scoff at my ideas and claims since they deviate so profoundly from the base material of the diaries. However, it’s my belief that the diaries are limited, so if we consign ourselves to working only with them, we may misrepresent what is a living and dynamic system of magick. Times have changed and so has our understanding of magick and occultism. This alone might compel some to examine my work and perform the rituals for themselves to determine if I am correct or delusional.

So for this reason I have decided to share with my readers some of my more unusual theories about the Enochian system of Magick. I admit that there are a lot of magicians working this system or parts of it these days, and there are quite a large number of books expounding in exhaustive detail on this subject. The more faithful practitioners stay very close to the actual diaries produced over four centuries ago by Dr. John Dee, but a small minority, such as myself, engage in a certain amount of speculation. These diaries are the sole source of this system of magick, so all one has to do to get a real understanding about any part of the Enochian system of magick is to examine the relevant diary material. However, it seems little understood that the diaries were actually the raw repositories of Dr. Dee’s occult speculations and investigations. These diaries were used by Dee to produce a finished grimoire, now lost, that he claimed was angelically inspired and transmitted, and, I believe, was an analogous version of a noted 14th century grimoire, called the Sepher ha-Ratziel, or the Book of Ratziel. Although Dee thought that the Ethiopian Book of Enoch was that grimoire, it would have actually been the Book of Ratziel. Dee never acquired either the Ethiopian Book of Enoch or the Sepher ha-Ratziel, but he believed that a master grimoire existed, containing the language of God and his angels. Dee sought this language because he believed that it was a requirement if he were ever to be as honored in having intercourse with God as Enoch was reputed to have been. 

Why do I believe that the mythical grimoire that Dee sought was the Book of Ratziel? Because according to Jewish myths, God instructed the angel Ratziel (God’s Mystery) to produce a book of occult mysteries and give it to Adam. However, some of the other angels were jealous when they heard about this gift. So they stole the book and hid it away in the depths of the sea. Ratziel searched for a long time to reacquire this book, but when he finally found it, Adam had long since passed away. The latest patriarch was Enoch, so Ratziel gave the book to Enoch. This book then was handed down from one generation to another, perhaps lost and rediscovered many times, according to legends, until a Jewish scholar rediscovered and made it available to the learned few in early 14th century Germany. Whether the resultant Book of Ratziel was newly written from existing traditions, created from whole clothe, or indeed was an ancient recovered book is unknown; but an examination of it shows that it was contemporaneous with Hebrew grimoires from that time period. So it was either cobbled together from existing traditions or created as a whole new magickal tradition. The book is filled with many angelic spirits but no angelic language, since Jewish magicians would have believed that God and his angels spoke classical Hebrew. John Dee’s preoccupation with a legendary grimoire supposedly authored by Enoch gave his own work an authenticity and legitimacy in the eyes of himself and other learned savants with whom he deemed to share any of his secret works.

So Dee actually believed that he was rediscovering a lost system of magick that would allow him to gain direct communication with God. This system of magick was called Enochian because of Dee’s fascination with the patriarch Enoch and his wisdom. The angelic language that Dee and Kelly uncovered was later called Enochian, perhaps in honor of the patriarch that Dee so admired. However, connecting this system of magick with the patriarch Enoch has powerful and mythic consequences. To fully understand the supposed Enochian system of magick one would also have to know something about the patriarch Enoch, including what is found in the bible and in various apocryphal books.

This is where we get to some interesting speculation. If we examine the myths and legends about Enoch, especially the Book of Enoch and the Book of Noah (which only exists in fragments), we discover that Enoch knew and appeared to traffic with a group of fallen angels who had come to earth and chose mortal women as their wives. They must have also acquired corporeal bodies, since they began to produce children. The bible talks about these beings in chapter 6, verse 1 through 4, of the book of Genesis, and the books of Enoch and Noah expand on this association. One might conclude that Enoch’s wisdom was due in part to his association with the Nephilim, not to mention the fact that he supposedly received a book from the archangel Ratziel. I will examine these relationships in greater detail at a later date, but what we have here is an association of Enoch with the archangel Ratziel, and the angelic spirits become flesh called the Nephilim. It would seem then, that the Enochian system of magick would involve the archangel Ratziel as well as the 200 angelic spirits known as the Nephilim. It could be presumed from this association that much of what passes for the Enochian system of magick may have its roots in the forbidden teachings of the Nephilim.

Ever since I first encountered the Book of Enoch and the fragments of the Book of Noah, I have been quite intrigued by the idea that fallen angels, who assumed human form, took wives and sired children, became the first teachers of writing, metallurgy, astronomy, alchemy, esoteric philosophy, the arts of war, architecture, herbalism, and the various methodologies of magick. In short, they were reputed to be the patrons of civilization, yet for this they were condemned and ultimately overthrown. It beguiles the mind to think about these spirits and to desire to invoke and contact them. However, the four archangels listed above were responsible for sealing the knowledge of these spirits away from the earth and the temptations of mankind, and also imprisoning these entities in a place where they could not be reached.

I came to the conclusion that I should contact these archangels and get their permission to regain this knowledge, to gain access to these imprisoned beings so I could acquire and build on their knowledge, thus gaining a more pure and direct source for the Enochian system of magick. I believe that Dee and Kelly unknowingly crossed this threshold centuries ago, but all the while being ignorant of the source of the wisdom they were being taught. I believe that they unwittingly made contact with the Nephilim and channeled some of their knowledge, but much more remained untapped. This, of course, is just my opinion, but in actively pursuing this train of thought, I discovered new material for the Enochian system of magick, which I am only now able to put together into an intelligible system. This system of magick seems to be more like a Semitic form of Witchcraft than a ceremonial magickal system as derived in the 16th century, even with its elaborate tables, calls and lists of spirits.

All of these speculations and creative insights are just my thoughts and opinions. I am sure that many will disagree with them. However, I am revealing these ideas and sharing them for those few who might find this perspective of great worth and seek to emulate it, thus adding to the newly derived Enochian lore as I have done.

Frater Barrabbas