Quick Specs
- Brand: Llewellyn Publications
- Type: Hardcover reference book
- Size: 7″ x 9.8″
- Size/Quantity: Single volume, hardcover edition
- Best for: Enochian magic study, ceremonial magic, Golden Dawn practitioners, advanced occultists
Enochian Magic: The System Dr. John Dee Built
Dr. John Dee was the Elizabethan polymath, mathematician, and court astrologer to Queen Elizabeth I who, between 1582 and 1589, conducted a series of scrying sessions with his associate Edward Kelley. What emerged from those sessions was the Enochian system: a complete angelic language, a set of hierarchical tables mapping angelic governance over the physical and spiritual world, and a set of calls in the Enochian tongue used to summon and communicate with specific angelic intelligences. No Western magical system before or since has generated as complex a framework from as narrow an origin point.
Skinner and Rankine’s treatment is authoritative because it returns to Dee’s own manuscripts rather than filtering the system through later reinterpretations. The Golden Dawn repackaged Enochian magic in the late 19th century, and Aleister Crowley further adapted it in the early 20th. Both reinterpretations drifted from Dee’s originals in ways that scholars and practitioners have long debated. This text strips away the accretions and presents the tables as Dee recorded them, making it an essential primary-source companion for anyone doing serious Enochian work.
What the Angelic Tables Contain
The core of this book is the Enochian angelic tables themselves: the Great Table of the Earth, the Tablet of Union, and the Watchtower tablets for each of the four elements. Each table is reproduced with scholarly annotation, giving practitioners the actual working material alongside the historical and interpretive context needed to use them responsibly. Skinner and Rankine also address the practical mechanics of Enochian ritual, from the use of the Holy Table and Sigillum Dei Aemeth to the pronunciation debates around the Enochian calls.
This is advanced material. Readers without a foundation in Western ceremonial magic will find it dense. The Kabbalah, the Tree of Life, elemental correspondences, and the hierarchy of angelic orders are all assumed knowledge here. For Golden Dawn initiates, Thelemic practitioners, or serious students of the Elizabethan magical tradition, this hardcover edition is the reference text to have on the shelf.
How to Use Practical Angelic Magic of Dr John Dee
A three-step approach to getting maximum scholarly and practical value from this advanced Enochian reference.
- Build Your Foundational Context
Read the historical chapters before approaching the tables. Understanding Dee’s relationship with Kelley and the scrying methodology will ground your work and prevent importing Golden Dawn assumptions into Dee’s original system.
- Study the Angelic Tables Systematically
Work through each table in sequence: the Tablet of Union, then the four Watchtower tablets. Use the annotations to identify the angelic hierarchies governing each sub-table before attempting any practical Enochian work.
- Integrate with Your Existing Practice
Place this text alongside your ceremonial magic references. The Enochian system interweaves with Kabbalistic and elemental frameworks. Practitioners find the most coherent results when they treat Dee’s tables as a complete cosmological map.
The Tarot Fellow Standard
I carry this text because Enochian magic is one of the most misrepresented systems in modern occultism, and Skinner and Rankine’s work is one of the few books that corrects the record with genuine manuscript scholarship. If you are building a serious ceremonial magic library, browse my books and journals collection for the depth of text this practice demands.
Frequently Asked Questions
Enochian magic is an angelic system Dr. John Dee and Edward Kelley developed through scrying sessions from 1582 to 1589. Kelley received an angelic language and hierarchical tables forming the system’s core, all documented in Dee’s diaries.
No. This is an advanced reference text. It assumes familiarity with Kabbalistic structures, elemental correspondences, and Western ceremonial magic. Readers new to the tradition should build foundational knowledge first.
Skinner and Rankine return to Dee’s original manuscripts rather than the Golden Dawn reinterpretation from the late 19th century. The Golden Dawn reorganized several system elements. This text restores Dee’s tables as he originally recorded them.
Dee’s original practice used the Holy Table, the Sigillum Dei Aemeth, and wax tablets. Modern practitioners adapt these to their available space. At minimum you need the Enochian calls and the angelic tables, both provided with annotation here.
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