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ENOCH and the Day of the End



QUI NON INTELLICIT, AUT TACEAT, AUT DISCAT

ENOCHandthe Day of the End
the Mystery of the Eight Day and
the Christian Angelic Hermeticism of dr.John Dee
A Revised Edition

dr.John Dee (1527 - 1608)
Elizabethan scholar & astrologer Royal

dedicated to Nalvage

Table of Contents

Acknowledgment
Preface
Introduction
Prolegomena

BOOK 1  THE HISTORICAL ENOCH

Chapter 1  The First Vision : the Book of Watchers
Chapter 2  The Second Vision : the Three Parables
Chapter 3  The Heavenly Luminaries
Chapter 4  The Book of Dream-Visions
Chapter 5  The Apocalypse of Weeks
Chapter 6  Enoch & the Judeo-Christian tradition

BOOK 2  THE ENOCHIANA OF THE KEYMAKERS

Prologue

Chapter 07  Two Enochian Keymakers
Chapter 08  How ? Rosae Crucis.
Chapter 09  When ? Heptarchia Mystica.
Chapter 10  Who ? Claves Angelicae.
Chapter 11  What ? Liber Loagaeth.
Chapter 12  Where ? Victoriae Terrestris.

BOOK 3  THE VICTORY OF THE TEMPLE

Chapter 13 The Prayer of Enoch

Epilogue
Selected Bibliography

Abbreviations & John Dee's Corpus Enochiana

BE

 
Books of Enoch - ca.170 BC
(Aramaic fragments of Qumrân cave 4 and
1 Enoch - Ethiopic Bible)
translation : Charles, 1912, Caquot, 1987.
MHMonas Hieroglyphica - 1564.
edition : Hamilton-Jones, 1975.
LM

 
Libri Mysteriorum I - V - 1581/1583
(BM Sloane Mss.3188 & 3677)
edition : Peterson, 2003.
LL

 
Liber Mysteriorum sextus et sanctus - 1583
(BM Sloane Mss. 3189, 2599 & 78)
also : "Liber Loagaeth" - unpublished
CA

 
Claves Angelicae - 1584
(BM Sloane Ms.3191)
edition : Laycock, 1994.
LS

 
Liber scientia auxilii
et victoria terrestris
 - 1585
(BL Sloane Ms.3191)
edition : Sothis, 1977.
HM
 
De heptarchia mystica - 1585
(BM Sloane Ms.3191)
edition : Turner, 1983 & 1986.
TB

 
Tabula bonorum angelorum
invocationes
 - 1585
(BM Sloane Ms.3191)edition : Turner, 1989.
CHP
 
Compendium Heptarchia Mysticae(BM Additional Ms.36674)
TFR


 
A True and Faitful Relation 
of what passed for many Years
between Dr. John Dee ... and 
Some Spirits, Casaubon, Meric, 1659
edition : Reprint by Askin - London, 1974.
FL
 
Praefatio Latina in actionem (Bodleian, Ashmole Ms.1790 I)

INTENTION

To Western intellectuals, their academia & educational systems, the reality of angels is a non-issue. They are placed outside the scientific paradigm, with other relics of the "age of ignorance", such as astrology, alchemy, homeopathy and the esoteric (covering Hermeticism, Rosicrucianism, Freemasonry, Occultism, Theosophy, Anthroposophy, the New Age). Even parapsychology has no serious place in the scientific materialism of today.

To Jews, Christians & Muslims, although accepting angels, any direct dealing with them is suspicious. How to distinguish the demons ? Protestant England was no exception. In 1555, John Dee was charged with black magick*. To the occultist, Dee's Enochian system is too Christian. Most refused to incorporate the Holy Trinity in their Enochian "key", although Dee was explicit. Indeed, the Enochian system of angels is consistent with Rosicrucianism. Is it consistent with other philosophical views, for example the view of the Buddha-Dharma ?

(* the addition of a "k" to the word magic is done to distinguish this science & art from popular stage magic shows, a practice initiated by Agrippa and later popularized by Crowley)

On the one hand, this book came to be because of my historical studies of Alexandrian Hermetism, the angelic teachings of Enoch and the Essenes and the historical reality of literary Hermeticism, of which dr.Dee is an outstanding example. He devised the first Christian "magical code" -using the Jewish qabalah as stepping-stone-, a fact neglected by most magicians dealing with the Enochiana.

Dee pioneered his version of Christian Hermeticism. His idea involves the unique combination of Christian Trinitarism, Judeo-Christian escatology and the mindset of Hermetism (cf. the elements and their alchemical transformations). Dee was convinced his system was inspired by the same angels teaching Enoch. This establishes a strange link between Dee's Enochiana, the historical Books of Enoch and the Corpus Hermeticum, a textualization of Hermetic teachings devised around the same period (the last centuries of the first millenium BC). This unique, Apocalyptic Christian Hermeticism has been poorly understood by Enochian scholars, who focused on the magical (technical) side of the system and not on its philosophy. Of course, the question remains : what is the best philosophical superstructure for the practice of this angelical magic ? Does the Christian take really satisfy ?

On the other hand, the study of these Enochiana is also part of my quest for an operational magickal system working in harmony with contemporary science. Indeed, in the present text, a Judeo-Christian interpretation of the Enochian system given to Dee is developed at full length. Although this is in line with the historical continuity evidenced by the Western Tradition of the Temple, one may ask whether the Enochians did not intend a more universal (global) superstructure, one stepping outside the boundaries of this Western Tradition ? Is this not the reason why a special barbarous language was involved ? This would imply the Enochians did not envisage Christian world domination as Dee would have it. In this book, this universalizing possibility is not taken at heart. The Western lineage is clearly put on stage, and the Christian view elaborated as far as possible. However, in a subsequent text, I shall investigate the possibility of lifting Enochian Magick out of the Judeo-Christian context, finding a new setting, namely on the basis of the teachings of the Buddha and Process Philosophy.

PREFACE

From the remote ages of Cro-Magnon (ca. 40.000 BC) & Neolithic spirituality (ca. 10.000 BC), when humanity started to approach the supernatural in a coherent ritualistic way, down to our times, aninitiatoric protocol has existed, universal in application and ageless in wisdom.

Fragments of this perennial teaching were recorded in Sumerian cuneiform and Egyptian hieroglyphs, and other suggestive inscriptions date back some eight or ten thousand years. In their Cathedral caves, the Cro-Magnon left us traces of early forms of spirituality, and this in the guise of magick, drama & religion. Even the Neanderthals left marks of their "limbic" spirituality.

The original spirituality of humanity appeared in almost every country and religion. In India, Tibet, China, Palestine, Greece and many other regions of the planet, the fundamental principle of initiation remained the same. Indeed, the sacred place or holy enclosure, the "templum", remained the recurring icon during the last five millenia of multicultural Temple experiences.

This continuity of the protocol in time, is consistent with what neurology puts forward. Neurotheological conditions of hallucination, trance, ecstacy, dream-vision, contemplation, unio mystica, etc. (the specific neurological wiring processing spiritual experiences) have not changed over the last ten millenia.

In the Mediterranean basin, the way of the Temple is to be found inEgypt and Palestine. In Judaism, an abstract monotheist conception of God emerged (instead of henotheist representations). Because of the impact of the Greek experience on existing cultures, the original Jewish strength with God ("Israel") faded and was replaced by a fundamentalistic & linear system of laws (cf. the Pharisees).

In their most pure form, the Jewish Temple teachings were transmitted by the Essenes, a community living during the last three centuries BC and the first century of the Christian era at the Dead Sea in Palestine and at Lake Mareotis in Egypt. In Palestine and Syria they were known as Essenes and in Egypt as Therapeutae, or healers. The esoteric part of their teaching was given with the Tree of Life, the Communions and the Sevenfold Peace. Amongst their healers and teachers, so their legends go, were Elijah, John the Baptist, John the Beloved and the greatest of Essene Masters, Jesus the Christ.

The derivation of the name of this brotherhood is uncertain, but refers to the role of the angelic world, the word of God and His messengers, in their spirituality. The word "Essenes" may indeed come from "Esnoch" or "Enoch". Had communion with the angelic world not been his ? At Qumrân, in the libraries of the Essenes, Aramaic fragments of the writings of Enoch have been found. The Books of Enoch were banned, but became part of the Ethiopic Bible. Enoch remained the prototype for those seeking radical truths from the angels. The Essenes communed daily with the angels of God, for they had understood Jacob and Moses had done so before them. Indeed the Old Testament is replete with references to white & black magick. Jacob had fought and conquered an angel. He had visions of angels ascending and descending upon a ladder connecting heaven and earth
"I thank Thee, O Lord, for Thou hast placed me beside a fountain of streams in an arid land, and close to a spring of waters in a dry land, and beside a watered garden in a wilderness. For Thou didst set a plantation of cypress, pine, and cedar for Thy glory, trees of life beside a mysterious fountain, hidden among the trees by the water, and they put out a shoot of the everlasting Plant. But before they did so, they took root and sent out their roots to the watercourse, that its stem might be open to the living waters and be one with the everlasting spring."Thanksgiving Hyms, 1QH, VIII,14.

On several occasions between 1582 and 1587, a group of spiritual beings presented themselves before Dr. John Dee (1527 - 1608), an Elizabethan scholar and astrologer of Queen Elisabeth I, and his 28 years younger medium Edward Kelley (1555 - 1595). Both were engaged in "mystical experiments" or secret, occult dealings with the unseen. These beings claimed to be the same choir of angels as those who had instructed the patriarch Enoch.
"... The Lord appeared unto Enoch, and was merciful unto him, opened his eyes, that he might see and judge the earth, which was unknown unto his Parents, by reason of their fall : for the Lord said, Let us shew unto Enoch, the use of the earth : And lo, Enoch was wise, and full of the spirit of wisdom. (...)"TFR, p.174.

But the people waxed wicked and became unrighteous. The unworthy began to read Enoch's teachings. And so the Lord sent amongst them 150 spirits of wickedness, error and deceit. These demons washed the memory of the work of the wise Enoch away and taught the discipline and doctrine of those in league with the devil ... the kingdom of pain.
"Now hath it pleased God to deliver this doctrine again out of darknesse : and to fulfill his promise with thee, for the books of Enoch : To whom he sayeth as he said unto Enoch. Let those that are worthy understand this, by thee, that it may be one witnesse of my promise toward thee."
TFR, p.174.

This work is not a recap of Dee's life, nor a detailed description of his "mystical experiments". Indeed, these secret writings and many other aspects of Dee's interesting life & work have lately been the subject of scholarly interest. As a result, several serious studies of him have appeared.

Although touching upon all major aspects of Dee's "Enochian workings", it offers an original perspective, to wit : Christian angelology and the economy of the Holy Spirit, in particular insofar as the meaning of the Messianic kingdom, the Apocalypse, the Day of the End and the Mystery of the Eight Day are concerned.

In the Enochian theurgy recorded by Dee, the "King of kings" is not an angel with an obscure Enochian name, but our Saviour, Jesus Christ Himself. Moreover, Enochian alchemy aims at the Restoration of all human and angelical persons in the Kingdom of the Father. The mission of the Enochians (the choir of the angels of righteousness) shows they seek our participation.

On the one hand, "the last prophecy of the world", underlines the world shall have an end in misery before "Paradise shall appear". It includes the idea of the "eternal woe" of the devil's dwelling place.
" ... there shall be bloodshed throughout all the World : fighting between the Devil and his Kingdom, and the Kingdom of light."TFR, p.161 (Gabriel on the 2th of June 1584, Cracau)

On the other hand, the Enochians compare God with a father of many things living in corruption.
"It was said unto Abraham, And I will destroy them. He believed it ; but he asked not, when. Great is the reward of Faith ; for it giveth strength : But those that are faithful are not of this world. Notwithstanding, you have said, (as it was said by the Disciples to Christ, when they were yet unpure, and blind) When shall these things come to pass ? Lord, what is meant by this or that ? Simple Faith excelleth all Science. For, Heaven and Earth shall perish in their corruption : But the voices of the Lord, much more his promises, became Angels for ever : For as the Sun begetteth in the earth, and is father of many things that live in corruption and have end : So is the God of Heaven, the bringer forth and begetter of things celestial with life and for ever. For why, Dixit & factum est, Every Idea in eternity is become for ever, and what is thought, is become a living creature. I teach you a mystery."TFR, p.161 (Navalge on the 10th of April 1584, Cracau)

There are many levels of mystery and power in the Enochian system. This may be realized by anyone at work with it. Its effectiveness (in harmony with the intent of the angels or not) is independent of the philosophical debate whether these Enochian angels exist "out there" or are functions of the unconscious mind, which remains open.

Enochian spirituality is intimately linked with the New Age. Like Medieval Cathedrals, the "white" alchemical order of holy angels is surrounded (on the outside) by a "black" Goetia (a demonology and the art and science of summoning and commanding demons - "goety" means "howling"). The angels explicitly state their system should only be used alchemically, as a theurgy in the service of God the Father.However, they do provide the names of the demons. The choice is thus left to the operator ...

Indeed, in traditional Jewish thought, the evil tendency (personified by Haman in Esther) is dealt with in two ways : either by reinforcing the good and thus inviting the benediction of the Most High (cf. Mordecai : (- 1) + (+ 1) = 0), or by "taking the bull by its horns", and -as secret police- descent into hell and fight evil on its own ground, but without yielding to the temptations of corruption (cf. Queen Esther and Jesus Christ's descent into hell). The first strategy implies theurgy (alchemy), the second goetia (or reverse, black box psychology : (- 1) x (- 1) = + 1). Clearly, the latter operation can only be successful if the operator has achieved a higher, uncorrupted state of consciousness. Working with angels is for the weak of mind. Working with demons for the strong.

What is the task of the Enochians ? Why would they solicit humans ? And if they do so, what is the best attitude ? These three questions point to the Christian perspective on the Enochiana advanced here. The good angels of God serve the economy of the Holy Spirit, a Divine Person aiming at the deification of creation. Their "Calvaric" structure seems explicitly Christian.

We humans, created after the image & towards the likeness of God, with our common nature recapitulated by Jesus Christ, may work together to eventualize the abode of the Eight Day, the spiritual truth of the New Jerusalem. These truly free persons, adorned by hope, faith and love, are called to see the Divine light with spiritual eyes and by ecstacizing nature, may work together with the Holy Spirit and His celestial hierarchies, to realize the ultimate aim of creation, called by the Greek Fathers "theosis", deification.

The components of the Enochian system were discovered in the Books of Enoch, in Dee's Enochiana as well as in the work of crucial Enochian keymakers, occultists such as Mathers & Crowley. Secundary scholarly contributions to the Enochian Studies and their multiple contexts were also helpful, including early Enochian scholars such as Casaubon & Ashmole and Ancient Egyptian, Jewish, Hellenistic, Christian Orthodox and Muslim contexts.

INTRODUCTION

the historical Enoch
"And Enoch walked with God : and he was not ; for God took him."Genesis, 5:24.

In Early Christianity (7 BC - 110 AD) and this till the fourth century AD, the historical Enochiana, written, for the most part, in the second century BC, were widely read and used. They predate the books of theNew Testament and in Christian Patristic literature, Enoch's writings were known as EnochThe Books of EnochBook of EnochWords of Enoch or Writings of Enoch (a plural designation is to be preferred).

In 1 Enoch (the redaction found in the Ethiopic Bible) these Books of Enoch are five in number :
  1. The First Vision : the Book of Watchers
    Enoch is asked to intercede for the Watchers of heaven (the angels) who had left their heavenly abode (to become demons). The petition made by the demons is refused. Enoch makes different visionary journeys, being conducted by the angels of light through Sheol and the four parts of the world : West, East, North and South.
     
  2. The Second Vision : the Three Parables
    These similitudes have as their underlying thought the destruction of evil and the triumph of righteousness. The "Elect One", the "Son of Man", sitting on the throne of glory as judge is introduced. This Elect One is an inexhaustible fountain reserved for the holy and elect in the presence of the "Son of Man" and the Lord of Spirits (God). And the second parable ends with the repentance of the Gentiles & the Restoration of the multiverse.
     
  3. The Heavenly Luminaries

    The importance of the Sun, Moon, stars and the winds are put to the fore. This book relates to the timing of events.
     
  4. The Book of Dream-Visions

    These two dream-visions explain the judgement brought upon the world by sin and the history of the world from the beginning till the founding of the Messianic kingdom.
     
  5. The Apocalypse of Weeks

    The final reward of the righteous and the final punishment of the wicked is dealt with. The latter takes place on this Earth, the very scene of their unrighteous triumph.

    The Apocalyptic scenario is introduced :

    1. the reign of the fallen angels who fornicate with the "daughters of men" and teach sin ;
    2. the coming of the "Son of Man", who sets up his Messianic kingdom ;
    3. the eventual final conflict between Satan and the angels of light, leading up to the Day of the End and the destruction of the "old house", the former heaven & Earth ;
    4. the resurrection of the spirits of the righteous dead and the creation of a new heaven & Earth.
The arrival on Earth of "the Watchers", fallen angels or demons, who bring evil into the world by teaching humanity sin, corruption & the destructive perversity of willed unrigteousness & ungodliness, is the main theme of these writings. These demons indeed cohabit with the "daughters of men", i.e. chain humans to wealth, might & sex (the Luciferian Trident). This fornication leads to their incarnation in human bodies.
"And Enoch went and said : 'Azazel, thou shalt have no peace ! A severe sentence has gone forth against thee to put thee in bonds. And thou shalt have no toleration nor request granted to thee, because of the unrighteousness which thou hast taught, and because of all the works of godlessness and unrighteousness and sin which thou has shown to men."BE, XIII, 1-2.

Enoch, as a scribe, writes up a petition on behalf of these demons. He is chosen because he has nothing to gain or to lose from the outcome. Through visions, he receives the traditional answer : the petition is refused.
"Say to them therefore : 'You have no peace.'"BE, XVI, 4.

In 1 Enoch, and this consistent with traditional Jewish thought, ascribing both good and evil to God (Isaiah 45:5-7), as well as later Christian dogmatic theology, the fallen angels are damned for ever and ever. There is no return for them, except as pure energy at the end of the Day of the End, when their evil will is destroyed.

The angels of light travel with Enoch on various visionary journeys, and make him see the Tree of Life and the Throne of God. They allow him to envision the Messianic kingdom and the Day of the End, the Last Day preluding the Eight Day devoid of evil and sin, entering the eternity of the New Eden.

When, on the Day of the End, Final Judgement is passed, Enoch is given to realize the tremendous truth of the spirit of this Day : the emptying of Sheol !
"And in those days shall the Earth also give back that which has been entrusted to it, and Sheol also shall give back that which it has received, and Hell shall give back that which it owes."
BE, LI,1. 

In the Judeo-Christian West, Enoch's books were removed from the canon, cursed and banned. However, the Book of Enoch the Prophet is part of the Ethiopic Bible, copied by hand up to the beginning of the XXth century. Why deny Enoch his place ?
"As they came down from the mountain, Jesus ordered them, 'Do not tell anyone about this vision you have seen until the Son of Man has been raised from death.'"Matthew, 17:9
Only Enoch and Elijah had been taken up bodily into the Presence of God, without dying. Only Enoch and Noah had "walked with God" on Earth. Clearly, his righteousness, his extraordinary individuality, the angelical inspiration of his visions, his gnostic insights as well as his encounter with God face to face were enough good reasons to taboo him. But of course there was more : Enoch taught demons could incarnate in human bodies and walk the Earth as men ...

Without the stamp of orthodox approval, these texts were doomed to be thrown out, covered up and buried (cf. the Nag Hammadi Library). To make things more difficult, some quotations and allusions of the early Fathers could not be traced back to the Ethiopic Enoch, and portions of the latter work are not found in Patristic literature at all. Have parts of the original Enoch corpus been lost ?

Enochian spirituality is intimately linked with the angelic order. The qabalah teaches angels to be spiritual beings acting as conscious messengers between our physical world and the various strands of subtle realms co-existing with it : the dream-world (Yetzirah), the level of soul (Briah) and the world of Divine Presence (Atziluth). These spiritual entities are the object of the Celestial Hierarchy of ps.-Dionysius the Areopagite, of major importance in Christian angelology. In these writings, they are already conceived as pure spiritual beings lacking corporality (as Thomas Aquinas would confirm). Bur for Enoch, some demons do have human bodies ...

Enochian thought underlines the existence of angels. These angels arenot part of our subjectivity and constitute an invisible, subtle, discrete order holding the fabric of our spiritual multiverse together. Their ontology is a datum of hope, faith and love. To reduce them to manifestations of the collective unconscious is to redicule their existence. They are not the objectivity of the subjective, but the subjectivity of the Real.

Another major influence of the historical Enochiana, is their prediction of the appearance of the Messiah and His reign. These themes will return in the Apocalypse of John (the Messianic kingdom lasting for 1000 years), and their development sprouts the idea, found in Eastern Orthodoxy : the Eight Day is creation deified by the Holy Spirit. In this state of no-state, nothing evil subsists, all divisions irreversibly vanish and the Final Restoration or Jubilee of Jubilees ensues, i.e. the eternal and infinite Kingdom of God, the New Age of the "new house". This Final Jubilee ensues after a fierce battle between the two classes of angels : the demons and the holy angels of light.

What is the fate of the fallen angels ? Can demons be saved ? The controversy about this issue is old and starts with Paul.
"The commeth the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father ; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power. For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. For he hath put all things under his feet. But when he saith, all things are put under him, it is manifest that he is excepted, which did put all things under him. And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all."Paul : 1 Corinthians, 15:24-28, my italics.
Origen (ca.185 - 254) could not doubt : at the Day of the End, everything is subdued to God, even the Holy Trinity, and thus all demons. The "apokatastasis" meant the return of all beings (also fallen angels) to God, so that God is All in all. Later, Gregory of Nyssa (ca.335 - 395), in his Address on Religious Education, would speak of the ultimate salvation even of the devil, "He freed man from evil and healed the very author of evil himself." (chapter 29). Christ conquered death itself and thus the principle of evil. The teaching of Enoch is opposed to this doctrine. Because of their choice, the fallen watchers are damned.

The advent of the Messianic kingdom meant the end of the power of the devil. Those saved by Christ enjoy the grace of His Cross, and put an end to their involvement in the demoniac economies. The demons are locked away in the "valley of death". The Apocalypse brings the demons to the surface again and the final battle ensues.

On the Last Day, the Day of the End, the wicked constellations of the fallen angels are annihilated, and their neutralized energies merge with the "free pool" ... This is no return of evil to good, but the burn out of the devil under pressure of the might of the Final Judgement, the raising of the dead preluding the Eight Day.

Enoch and Dr.Dee's "radical truths"
"I had read in books and records how Enoch enjoyed God's favor and conversation, and how God was familiar with Moses, and how good angels were sent to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joshua, Gideon, Esdras, Daniel, Tobias, and sundry others, to instruct them, inform them and help them in worldly and domestic affairs, and even sometimes to satisfy their desires, doubts, and questions of God's secrets."LM, p.57.
John Dee (1527 - 1608) was born in London on July 13, 1527 (at 4:02 PM LMT). His father, Rowland Dee, was a courtier in attendance on King Henry VIII. John was born after Luther's break with the Roman Church and immediately after England initiated Anglicalism. It was a period of radical reforms.

At the age of 15 (1542), John Dee starts his studies at St. John's College, Cambridge. At 23 (1549), he lectures on Euclid in Paris and establishes a brilliant reputation. Dee represents the true Renaissance man, a scholar mastering many areas of learning. His knowledge included astronomy, mathematics, navigation, medicine, geography, history, music, painting, astrology and ... the occult sciences.

In 1558, the year he fixes the date for the coronation of Queen Elisabeth I by casting an astrological chart, he published his first major work, thePropaedeumate Aphoristica (or Aphoristic Introduction). At the age of 34 (1564), his second major work saw the light in Antwerp. This Monas Hieroglyphica (or Hieroglyphic Monad) was written in twelve days while Dee was "the pen merely of God". In the dedication to King Maximilian, he claimed the work would revolutionize astronomy, alchemy, mathematics, linguistics, mechanics, music, optics, magick and adeptship. At this time, "doctor" Dee (allegedly having received his Ph.D. from the Catholic University of Louvain) was revered as the most learned man in all of Europe, his library being the greatest of Elizabethan England, if not of Europe.

Although recent scholarship (cf. Francis Yates) underlines the importance of Dee's role in the history of Tudor England and the Continent, the Encylopaedia Britannica gives Dee just one small paragraph of poorly researched data (ironically, he coined the terms "Britannia" and "British Empire").

Earlier historians rejected Dee so furiously, losing all perspective of the truth. By 1659, Meric Casaubon was writing of Dee as a fanatic deluded by demons. John Aubrey (1718) was one of the few who paid homage to Dee :
"Here lived the learned Mr. John Dee who was one of the ornaments of his age but was mistaken by the ignorant for a conjurer."Aubrey, J. : The Natural History and Antiquities of the Country of Surrey, London, 1718 - 1719.

In 1834, William Godwin condemned Dee as "dead to all moral distinctions, and all sense of honour and self-respect". In the Biographia Britannica, he was dismissed as "extremely credulous, extravagantly vain and a most deluded enthusiast". Why deny Dee his place ? Does such an attitude not hinder the objective evaluation of Dee's work ?
"... I have sought and studied many books in sundry languages, and have conferred with sundry men, and have laboured with my own reasonable discourse, to find some inkling, gleam, or beam of those radical truths. But after all my endeavours I could find no other way to attain such wisdom but by the extraordinary gift, and not by any vulgar school, doctrine, or human intervention."LM, p.57.

Besides a scholar and a scientist, Dee was also a Christian occultist versed in Neoplatonic, Hermetic & Qabalistic philosophy and practice. Plotinus, Prophyry, Proclus, Iamblicus, ps.-Dionysius, Ficino and Pico were all familiar to him. These interests had been aroused after becoming convinced of the overall futility of human endeavors as paths to wisdom. Dee sought radical truths enabling him to change the world for the better. His scientific persuits also served this aim : to gain operational, comprehensive insight into the structure of the multiverse, in order to be able to bind and unbind, his system tending "to a General Alteration of most States and Kingdomes in the World" (title page of Casaubon's A True and Faithful Relation, 1659).
"It was Enoch, the seventh direct descendant from Adam, who long ago prophesied to these men : 'The Lord will come with many thousands of his holy angels to bring judgement on all, to condemn them all for the godless deeds they have performed and for all the terrible words that godless sinners have spoken against him !'"Jude 14 - 15

Dee was fascinated with lost sacred texts, especially the Books of Enoch, of which he probably had become aware from Guillaume Postel's De originibus (1553). His exercises are focused on recovering this lost wisdom, for the angels inform him the apocrypha were not lost.
Dee's occult teachers were Roger Bacon, Trithemius, Paracelus and Agrippa. But most (if not all) of these great scientists and scholars had suffered greatly because of their reputations as magi. Indeed, Giordano Bruno was burned alive at the stake by the Inquisition in 1600, i.e. only a few years after Dee recorded his accounts and "mystical experiments" ... Today, occultists are burnt in a metaphorical sense, breaking their reputation and social advancement.

Early in life, in 1555, Dee himself had been imprisoned by Queen Mary, under the suspicion of having cast enchantments against her. His reputation always marched before him, and the less educated came to fear and rob him. He is said to have been the model for Prospero in Shakespeare's The Tempest. As an old man, namely two years after the accession of the witch-hating King James I in 1603, he was forced to relinquish his post as Warden of Christ's College at Manchester. At the end of his life, he sank into obscurity and the story goes he had to sell rare books to buy his dinner. He died in 1608, at the advanced age of 81, "in the odour of sanctity", as Laycock (1994) reports.
Chronology
  • 1527 : 13th of July : John Dee born in London
  • 1542-5 : St.-John's College, Cambridge
  • 1546 : co-founder Fellows of Tinity College
  • 1548-51 : studies at Louvain, visits Antwerp, lectures on Euclid Paris, refuses position there
  • 1951-3 : Tutors Robert Dudley
  • 1553 : two church livings conferred by to Dee Edward VI
  • 1555 : three month imprisonment under suspicion of heresy and black magick against Queen Mary
  • 1558 : fixes date coronation Queen Elisabeth I by casting a horoscope
  • 1563 : travels to Antwerp, Zurich, Rome and Hungary
  • 1564 : Writes Monas, published in Antwerp
  • 1565 : marries Katherine Constable
  • 1570 : writes preface of first edition of Euclid
  • 1571 : visits Lorraine
  • 1575 : marries for the second time
  • 1576 : his second wife dies
  • 1577 : publication of Dee's General and Rare Memorials pertaining to the Perfect Art of Navigation
  • 1578 : marries Jane Fromond and visits Frankfurt
  • 1582 : abortive attempt to reform calendar - meet Edward Kelley - start of the Enochian workings
  • 1583-9 : Dee, Kelley and their wives travel to Europe, especially Poland and Prague
  • 1587 : demons posing as angels tell Kelley & Dee to swap wives - end of the Enochian workings
  • 1589 : Dee and Jane return to England
  • 1595 : death of Sir Kelley
  • 1596 : Dee made Warden of Christ's College at Manchester
  • 1605 : The Fellows of Christ's College force Dee to relinquish his post
  • 1608 : death of Dee, buried in the chancel of St.Mary the Virgin, opposite his house in Mortlake
Dee & Kelley : "the World begynnes with thy doings"
Dee's occult practices are backed by the veracity of scrying, i.e. visions seen in a shining surface, such as water in a silver cup, dark obsidian mirrors or crystal balls.
Some of Dee's equipment - British Museum
Dee discovered he was unable to see spirits on a regular basis. So he employed scryers or crystal gazers to assist him to manifest the secret wisdom of Enoch.
"Why did you steal my master's silver cup ? It is the one he drinks from, the one he uses for divination."Genesis, 44:5.

Although the crystal bal has become an icon for superstition, parapsychologists know certain individuals actually see visions when gazing into a transparant or reflective surface. Indeed, scrying directly addresses the spatial, intuitive hemisphere of the neocortex (right hemisphere) and stimulates the production of Alpha waves in the temporal lobes. This connects with the limbic area known to process hallucinations, "inner imagery" as well as the felt presence of the other-worldly (the right amygdala).

In 1582, the year he had in vain tried to introduce the Gregorian Calendar in England, Dee met Edward Kelley. Athough he had already been doing occult experiments (using as medium Barnabas Saul, a minister involved with magick), the true angelic inspiration of his occultism would now emerge, and this largely thanks to the extraordinary scrying gifts of Kelley, a young man well versed in the occult arts, an alchemist & necromancer, who possessed various texts on Goetic magic. Rumors have it he was pilloried at Lancaster for forgery. He is said to have worked as an apothecary's apprentice, maybe under his own father. He also attended Oxford under the alias of Edward Talbot, but left after some trouble.

Kelley was drawn to Dee for one purpose : getting information to make the "red powder" of projection, enabling one to convert base metal into pure gold. Kelleys main interest was alchemy. Kelley hoped the Enochians would deliver him the secret. Although hesitant at first, with Kelley's aid Dee was far more successful than anything he had ever experienced before. He payed him £ 50 per year for his services, but Dee discovered Kelley was performing black magick independent of their work together. This horrified Dee and caused Kelley to become even more unbalanced than he already was.

In 1583, Dee, Kelley and their wives travelled to Europe, including periods of residence with the King of Poland and Emperor Rudolph II of Germany in Prague. Magick and alchemy were their major preoccupations. Dee and his medium had the grace to be contacted by the Enochians and this through visions induced by scrying, and, while following traditional methods and adapting these within a traditional framework, they thought they were given a non-traditional, Apocalyptic system of Christian angelology and theurgy, focusing on the Day of the End (the apocalypse) and the Eight Day of the New Age (the New Jerusalem or Kingdom of God).

Their basic setup was simple : Dee would pray to God to send His angels and make them appear in the crystal. Within fifteen minutes or less, Kelley, in trance, would see them and make them speak with or through him. To communicate their wisdom, the angels would spell words and names, at times backwards, by pointing to a letter on a table visible in the stone. Kelley would say the letter, and Dee would write it down in the correct row and column of the table. Several times, Kelley refused to contine with this work. He said the angels were disguised demons.

Kelley's scrying produced the most unusual magical system of the Renaissance, whereas Dee's sense of detail made it the best documented. But was Kelley a charlatan ? Did he fabricate the visions ? Did he hallucinate in a state of induced psychosis ? Was he afflicted with a multiple personality disorder ? All these positions have been advanced, and history will never give us the truth of the matter.

In the context of the reception of this system, it is interesting how the Enochian Calls (an essential component of the system) were revealed. The first five were dictated backwards, letter by letter, while the rest were dictated forwards. The bulk of the Calls (over 1000 words) were dictated on a single day, during a single session. The same goes for the English glosses. We know Kelley spoke languages he could not know consciously (Greek, Syrian).

A linguist studying Enochian concluded thus :
"Shakespeare's Macbeth claimed of his witches that 'they have more in them than mortal knowledge' ; it would be hard to make the same claim for Dee's angels. Their limitations are those of Kelley ; their occasional sublimities, those of Dee. If the true voice of God comes through the shewstone at all, it is certainly as through a glass darkly."
Laycock, 1994, pp.63-64.

This "glass darkly" points to the unlikely event Dee or Kelley understood the originality of the system or were willing to move along its unorthodox paths. Moreover, both approached the revelation in traditional terms, although the Enochians had been explicit about the revolutionary intent of their mission.
"Great are my words, and great is thy thought : Greater shall be the end of these Gods Mercies. New worlds, shall spring of these. New manners : strange men : The true light, and thorny path, openly seen. All things in one, and yet, this but a vision. Wonderfull and great are the purposes of him, whose Medicine I carry."LM, p.262 (Medicina Dei on the 24th of March 1583)

The best description of their attitude towards their human interlocutors is given by Nalvage, who also transmitted the crucial Tablet : the Tablet of Nalvage, or Tabula Dei.
"As the tree in sappy life, watering herself throughly, bringeth forth the ornaments of her own beauty : so the spiritual part of man being good and dignified, burnisheth himself, with his sound and faithful thought : I mean the glory and shew of his own beauty ; for the soul of man groweth either with beauty to salvation, or with dishonour and filthiness, to damnation."TFR, p.74 (Nalvage on the 10th of April 1584, Cracau)

Particulars regarding Dee (not to speak of his medium) were given by Gabriel :
"If I be Master of the Barn, owner of the Corn, and deliverer of my flayle : If all be mine. (And unto you, there is nothing : for you are hirelings, whose reward is in heaven.) Then see, that you neither thresh, nor unbinde, untill I bid you, let it be sufficient unto you : that you know my house, that you know the labour I will punt you to : That I favour you so much as to entertain you the labourers within my Barn : For within it thresheth none without my consent."TFR, p.161 (Gabriel on the 2th of June 1584, Cracau)

The theurgical system transmitted by the Enochians, is thematically akin to the Books of Enoch, the content of which was unknown to both Dee and Kelley (cf. the Watchers, the four parts of the Earth, the Dream-visions and the overall Apocalyptic intent, focusing on the fate of the demons). Indeed, it was James Bruce of Kinnaird (1730 - 1794), the discoverer of the (Blue) Nile, who, as late as 1773, took along three Ethiopic manuscripts of the Mashafa Henok Nabiy, the Book of Enoch the Prophet, part of the Ethiopic Bible, known today as 1 Enoch.

Dee's association with the Enochian angels ended when he broke up with Kelley, probably after a wife-swapping episode (1587). Both men had enough of the angelic communications. In 1589, Dee and his wife return to England. Later in life, Dee's records a few more attempts of his own (1607). Instead of the lofty revelations, these activities were concerned with mundane matters as his penury and "bleeding fundament" ! The angelic revelations of the Enochians had apparently departed with Kelley.
Keymaker !
Enter not of presumption, but of permission.


In the same instant when Adam was expelled from Eden, so the angels inform Dee, the Lord gave to the world her time, and placed four angels of the Earth over her, one in each corner, to serve as watchmen, overseers and "watch-towers". The Enochians, who themselves do not exist in time ("I have nothing in me tied to time ...") promised Dee extraordinary gifts.
"I shall bless you with a twofold blessing : That the Earth may be open unto you (which at last, you shall condemn). This was the cause that I appeared to thee, and Edward Kelley this morning. Now therefore hearken unto me : for I will open unto you the secret knowledge of the Earth, that you may deal with her, by such as govern her, at your pleasure ; and call her to a reckoning, as a Steward doth the servants of his Lord. I expound the Vision. The 4 houses, are th 4 Angels of the Earth, which are the 4 Overseers, and Watch-towers, that the eternal God in his providence hath placed, against the usurping blasphemy, misuse, and stealth envious will might be bridled, the determination of God fulfilled, and his creatures kept and preserved, within the compass and measure of order. What Satan doth, they suffer ; And what they wink at, he wratheth : But when he thinketh himself most assured, then feeleth he the bit."TFR, p.170 (Ave on the 20th of June 1584, Cracau)

Did Dee understand the message ?
"You called for wisdom, God hath opened unto you, his Judgement : He hath delivered unto you the keyes, that you may enter. But be humble. Enter not of presumption, but of permission. Go not is rashly ; But be brought in willingly : For, many have ascended, but few have entred."TFR, p.145 (Mapsama on the 21th of May 1584, Cracau)

Dee never got from the Enochians what he wanted. The core ritual of the system, i.e. the systematic Opening of the Gates of the Watchtowers, was, as far as the record can tell, never performed, but a lot is missing. As far as we can tell, the relationship between the Calls and the Watchtowers was probably never revealed. To emphasize this point, the angels remain silent concerning these facts. Why ?

The Enochians have this condition : the angels of the four Watchtowers should never be called by a person who has individual concerns or goals. Being a spiritual system of planetary proportions and laws, universal righteous lies at its core, and not the satisfaction of the "pleasure" of the individual. Only if truth and justice are served, may the operator govern "at pleasure". The Enochian spiritualist, a Rose-Croix, is a Steward, and has taken a firm stand against the demonical. His pleasure is always the joy bestowed by the good or by what is better.

Kelley was in it for himself. Not because he got £ 50 per year and more from Dee, but because he wanted to hear from the angels how to make the "red powder". He wanted to make gold. He died in the aftermath of the events surrounding this lifelong, egocentric persuit. After splitting with Dee in 1587, he stayed at the court of Emperor Rudolph II proclaiming he had discovered the Philosopher's Stone. In one of his manic rages, Sir Kelley murdered a man and was imprisoned for the rest of his life, and, in 1595, when given the opportunity to escape, fell of the roof of his tower prison. He was forty. On the 21th of August 1584, a demon posing as the angel Uriel had promised he would die eighty-seven years of age (and Dee a hundred and twenty-two). How demons enjoy fooling !

Dee forced Kelley to perform rituals almost at a daily basis, and for hours at a stretch. In the process, Kelley at times became very bizar and got enraged (the amygdala also process violent rage). This behaviour was consistent with spirit-possession, especially by demons, as Dee realized.
"The rage and fury was so great in worlds and gesture as might plainly prove that the wicked enemy sought either E.K. his own destroying himself, or for me, or for his brother"TFR, p.230.

Kelley received "horrible heresies" from the demons. Insane in the context of the time. They would have tried to persuade Kelley to believe Jesus was not God, an no prayer ought be made to him. Also, according to the demons, there was no sin.  Dee was horrified, but nevertheless continued to use Kelley, probably in the vain hope he would be able to "filter out" the obnoxious frequencies. Indeed, Kelley was a gifted but polluted scryer.

Dee mistrused Kelley, for in his regular diaries he used to write English in Greek letters, whenever he had something to hide from the prying eyes of his associate. The angels also mistrusted Kelley, for they warned Dee he was about to leave him. The warning was in Greek, understood by Dee alone.

The record puts into evidence Kelley's uninterest with regard to the spiritual messages of the angels. He is focused only, when he sees a chance to ask them about the "red powder" of projection. On one occasion, he interrupts the angel Madimi, and asks her bluntly if she can lend him a hundred pounds for a fortnight ! In 1587, Madimi would suggest to Kelley for the two men to share their wives in common ! Jane Dee was young and attractive ...

Dee's aims, far more universal than Kelley's, were intellectual and political.

The secret knowledge of Enoch is universal, not individual. It deals with the Apocalypse and the establishment of the New Jerusalem, the New Eden. Nothing less will do. Dee's intellectual pride was great enough to Open the Gates to satisfy his personal curiosity, interests, goals & purposes. As a result, demons slipped through and settled in his personal unconscious. Eventually, his own shadow began to play its usual battery of tricks and flattery. Demons appeared in the form of angels and the cacophony of their side-tracked frequencies even invaded the numerical schemes of the system and infested Dee's records. The result was a scrambled system.

When Dee left England for the Continent (1583 - 1589), he thought he was embarking upon a sacred mission to preach his "last prophesy" to emperors, kings & princes. As all prophets before him, he told them the end of the world was immanent. Indeed, the upcoming Great Conjunction, foreshadowed by the appearance of a supernova (1572), a comet (1577) and a Solar eclipse (1582), underlined his vision. Dee wanted to alter, for his Queen (for whom he played "007"), all "states and kingdomes" of the Earth. His prophetic aim was to realize a planetary empire, a "British Empire". She called him "her eyes".

Dee preached the Enochian doctrine to the crowned heads of Poland and Bohemia, without realizing he himself had not abided by its first rule :do not call the angels without explicit angelic authority. Megalomania is not enough to enter the Enochian realm ...

Dee continued to call the angels anyway. They had informed him of the consequences of disobedience.
"The heavens are called righteous, because of their obedience. The earth accursed, because of her frowardnesse. These therefore, that seek heavenly things, ought to be obedient ; least with their frowardnesse, they be consumed in the end, burnt to ashes with fire, as the Earth shall be for her unrighteousness."TFR, p.146 (Mapsama on the 21th of May 1584, Cracau)

the Opening of the Gates

Calling the angels does not trigger the Apocalypse. It only decides on which side of the border one stands in the historical dynamics of this phased, natural event. Saved or damned ? If the key of the keymaker is perfect, then no demons can slip through the opened Gates. Otherwise they always do. And the Gates open irrespective of the level of perfection of the "key". The depth of the flaw and the power of the demons are identical.

Each of the 4 Watchtowers has several Gates, leading to "cities" or angelic dimensions. Each Gate is to be opened by one of the Calls. Each Call evokes the angels of the cities. The angels cannot open the Gates from the inside, for they cannot invoke the Names of God necessary to do so.
"Invocation proceedeth of the good will of man, and of the heat and fervency of the spirit : And therefore is payer of such effect with God. (...) No man calleth upon the name of God in the wicked : They are servants and vile slaves. (...) No just man calleth upon the name of God, to allure the devil."TFR, p.188 (Ave on the 2th of June, 1584, Cracau)

To open the Gates, the keymaker invokes the correct Names of God and intones the relevant Call in time.
"And lo, he called you. And you became drunken and foolish with the spirit of God. The Lord said : Descend, for he calleth. And so Raphael (who had brought up your prayer) descended, and he was full of the power and spirit of God."James, 1994, p.9.

Prayer and invocation are the first tools, not some elaborated magico-ritualistic setup. The latter does complement prayer, and is related to the manifestation of angelic beings & the heavenly grace they carry with them. The central role of prayer underlines the Judeo-Christian nature of the holy angels every keymaker is called to exclusively seek communication with.

the order and the witness
"I raygne over you sayeth the God of Justice in powre exalted above the firmaments of wrath : in Whose hands the Sonne is as a sword, and the Moon as a through-thrusting fire which measureth your garments in the mydst of my vestures, and trussed you together as the palms of my hands ..."CA, First Call, pp.65-66.

The order or the world envisaged here is Christian. The transcendent and personal nature of God is underlined. God is one essence in three Persons, for the Watchtowers are bound together as one by the Divine Names of the Trinity : Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The Holy Trinity itself is beyond creation ; a Divine Singularity outside the natural cycle. The theme of the righteous God is Jewish, and goes back to the Messiah as "Teacher of Righteousness" in the Essene community and the pseudo-epigraphic Enoch and other pre-Christian, Jewish apocalyptists.

In the First Call of the Aethyrs, Sun and Moon are said to be the hands of the God of Justice. Earlier in life, Dee had already found this truth and related it to Ancient Egypt.
"It is therefore clearly confirmed that the whole magistery depends upon the Sun and the Moon. Thrice Greatest Hermes has repeatedly told us this in affirming that the Sun is its father and the Moon is its mother ..."MH, Theorem XIV, p.18.

This Hermetical inspiration of the Enochian "code" can be traced back to Alexandria. Its latest Alexandrian synopsis being the Tabula Smaragdina.

"1. Truly, without deceit, certain and most veritable :
2. That which is Below corresponds to that which is Above, and that which is Above corresponds to that which is Below, to accomplish the miracles of the One Entity.
3. And just as all things come from the One Entity, through the mediation of its One Mind, so do all created things originate from this One Entity through transformation.
4. Its father is the Sun. Its mother the Moon. The Wind carries it in its belly. Its nurse is the Earth. The origin of all the perfections of the world is here. Its force is entire, if it is converted into Earth. 

Tabula Smaragdina

Although in the Late Period, Thoth (the Greek Hermes) increased in importance, the core ritual of Egyptian religion was the royal return of order and justice (Maat) to Re. This Offer of Maat was executed by Pharaoh or "great house", the personification of the unity of Upper and Lower Egypt, in particular its unity and fecundity in the form of good annual floods. Pharaoh was deemed the incarnation of Horus, the overseeing sky-god, and also the "son of Re", the creator-god, embodied as the Sun. The son returns truth and justice to his father, and receives the father's blessing of everlasting life, health and prosperity. Pharaoh was the witness, the great eye seeing all.

In many ways, the apocalyptic scenario aspires to this ideal of truth and justice. In contrast with Ancient Egypt, all measure is lost. The demons are now settled, and nothing less than the Son of God and (at the Day of the End) the destruction of the multiverse are due.

Another interesting parallel : Thoth-Hermes is the divine scribe & Enoch is the righteous scribe. Both fixate the vision and the voice of the witness in sigils to be read in a sequence, not as a whole. Both master the turns of the angelic language.

the wisdom of the keymakers

Consciousness has to be thoroughly conditioned to prepare it for the direct encounter with the unseen. Extensive purifications are necessary to name, understand and integrate the shadow part of the psyche, the origin of all tribulations humans encounter on the paths of the occult. Prayers are needed to kindle the fire of invocation, the "soul" (anima) of every keymaker. God's Presence feeds the soul. Without genuine disinterest & enduring vehemence, nothing wholesome will be realized.

After years of practice, prayer becomes habitual, for its rhythm has sunk to the bottom of the mind, making every mental move subservient to the intention to serve God and God alone. Only such an attitude will make the Enochians wink at the keymaker and allow him to Open the Gates.

With "mystical experiences", the Enochians also imply the true meaning of "mystikos", namely "hidden" & "remote". Enochian "magic" in terms of Hermetism or Qabalah was not meant to exist, except in the minds of keymakers (Dee included) sufficiently deluded by their shadows. The Enochians do allow a ceremonial, liturgical approach of their realities, but only if the keymaker is a person of faith & priestly worthiness. The order of Mechisedek, the priest of peace, springs to mind.

Enochian sacramental magic is less changing nature according to will, but more the effect of grace, the matching of higher and lower frequencies with the sole end to precipitate the natural course of events, devoid of individual intent.

None of the historical keymakers, apparently devoid of humility, have come to this realization, and so none has escaped the wrath of the demons.

the structure of the text

Four parts :
  1. Prolegomena : serves as an introductory essay covering the essentials of the Orthodox Christian backbone ;
  2. the historical Enochiana : this section elucidates the perspective of Jewish eschatological theology, developed in ascetical contexts (cf. Essenes at Qumrân) in the second half of the second century BC ;
  3. the Enochiana of Dee and the keymakers : the schematics of the crucial components of Dee's system, as well as two major keymakers are commented upon & confronted with the scenario of the Apocalypse ;
  4. the practice of the Enochian system : the experience of the Temple implies a restructuring of the outer order in accord with historical Hermetism and a merging of the inner, Rosicrucian order with the Enochian system.

PROLEGOMENA : A CHRISTIAN ORTHODOXY


the shipwreck of philosophy
Philosophy is the fine flower of the natural mind and its sciences, the excellence of the persuit of knowledge for its own sake, the final step in the emancipation of reason (rationality guided by itself), opening up understanding, inviting wisdom. The best minds invoke an intellectual love of God. Here the echo of the true call is transcendence. But the vehement devotee of God finds in this intellectual theology, the limitation of philosophy, whereas to the latter, this is precisely the ultimate expression of its intent, namely the "ipsum Esse subsistens" (Thomas Aquinas), the one sole existence of God.

Because thought and reason are its tools, philosophy is divided for the sake of an ever escaping horizon. Being a particular mental activity pertaining to the order of the languages of science, it exclusively works with a dual and finite logic. In the latter, two entities are always and irreversibly placed in opposition or contrary to each other, and the third is excluded (the set "A and not-A" is empty).

As a result, philosophical understanding enlightens, but exists in darkness (cf. Hegel's the flight of the owl at night), whereas absolute understanding is blind.

Mothering the principle of duality, natural excellence of mind is unable to pierce through the barrier of creation, the ring-pass-not. Because of this, philosophy is not equipped to escape the dialogue of the individuals (the intelligent animal and its objectivity posited outside the subject of cogniton). Love of wisdom belongs to the order of creation and its natural, rational laws. To be personally invited is a gift, not an accomplishment, not even for its own sake (contemplative). For God is not an abstract "esse", but a God-Person, a "Thou", not in any relational sense, but in a personal sense.

The reign of the dyad is not intended to bring peace, for two numbers always function in relational oppositions. Immanent metaphysics is devoid of the order of grace given by the Living God and His revelation. Understanding is without the spiritual awakening necessary to receive an uncreated light higher than the intellect, so as to humanize the human person. Hence, the darkness of the irreducible groundless ground of the mind -perceived by the eyes of the night- is defined as the light of the intellect posing as the sublime natural quality of the "nous", as it were reflecting or imaging the "esse subsistens". This posing is vain, for true greatness is not of creation.

Ergo, any philosophy of religion explaining itself in terms of an intellectual theology (of finitude) is meant to organize conflict (cf. the war of the "enantia", the elements of creation). As a result, in all possible intellectual theologies (natural or transcendent), concepts such as "essence", "unity", "oneness", "subsistence" & "substance" are crucial. They are indeed necessary to perpetuate the relational oppositions within the dyad by returning them to the "essence". But who unmasks the mask ?
"The wiser You are, the more worries You have ; the more You know, the more it hurts."Ecclesiastes, 1:18
the natural image in Hellenism & Judaism


Classical Greek philosophy discovered the dyad and the formal mode of cognition, initiating decontextualized, conceptual rationality. Because of this, in the Mediterranean area and beyond, the ways of thought fundamentally changed.

In particular in Egypt's Late Period, Greek conceptual rationality allowed intellectual Egyptians and (a minority of) interested Greeks to finally summarize their traditional, native religion & philosophy in terms of a Pagan, Greco-Alexandrian Gnosticism :Hermetism.

Since Psammetichus I (664 - 595 BC), the Greeks had access to Egyptian sources, in particular to Memphite logoism (cf. theMemphite theology of the "heart" and the "tongue" of Ptah, extant on the Shabaka Stone, inscribed ca. 710 BC). Also within their range was the perennial Heliopolitan theology of the image ("tit", also : "form, shape, figure, design) : precreation versus creation ("in the image of Atum") and the order of Maat, i.e. justice & truth, incarnated by the king of Egypt, the "great house" ("pr-Aa") or Pharaoh, a god on Earth favoured by the gods and maker of good floods, returning Maat to his father Re.

He was the "son of Atum", and only he or his representatives faced his divine father face to face (the cult-statue in the "naos" of the sanctuary). Pharaoh was the witness. The "image", bearer of "reality", even in magical terms, belonged to the (ante-rational) canon of art since the Old Kingdom (ca. 2670 - 2205 BC). The hieroglyphs themselves were deemed sacred and vehicles of power, assisting Pharaoh to ascend to the deities.

Is it accidental, that after the complete destruction of the second Temple of Jerusalem, the Jewish diaspora gave a Hellenistic expression to the word of truth ? Today we know the Jewish qabalah has Platonic and Pythagorean sources, and is less Hebraic as some would like. The impact of Greek thought, its rapid intensity, scope and juvenile power was tremendous, as had been Alexander's armies for Darius.

The notion of the image returned in Plato, who claimed the aim of life is the imitation of God, an ideal primarily conceived on moral lines.
"Ah Theodorus, evil cannot dissapear. Indeed, there always has to be something opposing the good. And to give it a place near the gods, is not possible either ! So it must fatefully wander around mortal nature and this earthly abode. That is the reason why we have to try to flee upwards from here as soon as possible. That flight consists to become equal to God as much as possible, and this equilization means : to become righteous and pious with rational insight."Plato : Theaetetus, 176.

The Neoplatonist Plotinus is clear : the "nous" or intellect is the natural "image" ("eikon", also : "figure, representation, comparison") of the One. This image is created out of a certain,natural necessity.
"The intellect stands as the image of The One, firstly because there is a certain necessity that the first should have its offspring, carrying onward much of its quality, ..."
Plotinus, Enneads, V,1.7.

This "certain necessity" associated with what may be called a "natural" approach of the image, is the "deus ex machina" of Platonic, Platonizing intellectual mysticism. The image is deemed to be a perfect second, and hence a direct participation in the Divine, a deification through individual perfection. Man, the microcosm, is an image or reflection of the macrocosm, God. This line of thought was also developed in Greek Paganism (themysteries & Hermetism).

But is there a "natural" path to true salvation ? Shall all be well "of necessity" (cf. Ennead 3.2) ? Can we levitate as Baron van Münchhausen ? Although the highest levels of contemplation have reached a purity which seems wholly transcendent to the clouded mind, it remains impossible to know The One. Platonic heights are thus sterile. So it is rather the "return to the cave" which has a "certain necessity", than the mystery of the personal image of God, the "Imago Dei" hidden behind our human natures and individualities, the person or someone we truly are, not the something we possess (as our intelligence).

The Greek tradition had no voluntaristic concept, invented a dualistic anthropology (cf. Plato's "two horses" & "two worlds") and put into practice a linear interpretation of relations and processes (cf. Aristotle's ethics regarding the actualization of one's true nature and also his logic & categories).

So in Greek thought, the (active) intellect is the pure core, whereas the passions are linked with the body, and both have to be disciplined ("apatheia"). Liberated from the constraints of the body and its passions, the "nous" automatically returns to what it is and vanishes in The One, to be thrown out of oblivion, back as an intellect chained to the miserable sublunar condition. There is nothing personal in this conceptualization of man's relationship with God. The fact it ends with annihilation proves its unfruitfulness in matters spiritual. Is our return assured whatever the action of the human mind ?

Hellenism also influenced Judaism. However, in the Old Testament, there is almost a complete silence regarding God's image, except in Genesis.
"So God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness : and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him ; male and female created he them."Genesis, 1:26-27.
Judaism (unlike Egyptian religion) introduced one living God (not a henotheist multitude of deities headed by Amun-Re, the "king of the gods"), but refused to give Him an image in human or animal form which could be worshipped. In Deuteronomy, we read the Lord spoke at Horeb out of the midst of the fire, but He had no form (similitude) and only a voice was heard (4:12). Throughout the books of the Old Testament, God hides Himself, although -paradoxically- He is called the Saviour (Isaiah 45:15) ! Adonai does not show His nature by means of any image, but does not remain an unknown God, for He speaks, reveals His Name and calls His chosen ones by their names (Abraham, Isaac, Jacob), not often using angels. So Judaism reveals a personal God, a "Thou" who nevertheless remains transcendent to every image which could make Him known. The living, personal relationship between "YHVH ALHYM" is given no icon, but unfolds in a sacred history, initiated with His choice or election to liberate His people from their Egyptian masters.

This election shows, God commits Himself by entering into a personal relationship with those whom He chooses. For the Jews, the One of Plotinus was a natural, impersonal monad (as in Stoicism, Middle Platonism & Hermetism). But sanctified nature was not the perfect image of the unimaginable Unbegotten One. Of course, the One of Greek thought is not He of the Jewish revelation, neither "another God", a stranger to the "dweller in thick darkness" of the Hebrew kings. Greek philosophy approached God with the "nous" and ended up with an abstraction, a "supreme" logos or closed monad (engendering no dyad). Jewish revelation introduced the absence of icons and a personal God who only made history sacred.

Judaic revelation struggled with the fundamental antinomy between "YHVH" and "ALHYM". God (YHVH) is One, Alone and Unimaginable, but nevertheless entered into history (the convenant) and manifested His Presence in various natural, mental, social and spiritual phenomena & their processes (cf. the "Shekinah" of the manifold "Elohim"). The Hellenized, Jewish authors of the Ptolemaic Septuagint blurred the obvious contradiction by translating "ALHYM", plural & feminine, as "Theos", "Deus", singular & masculine, while in Messianism, Qabalah and Rabbinism the division reappeared.
"So the Elohim said : "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness ..."
Genesis, 1:26.

The plural "us" in "Let us make man" refers to the "Presence of God" in His creation, namely to the original plural Elohim, the creators of creation by Divine speech. In the first chapter ofGenesis, the phrase : "The Elohim said ... " is used 10 times (cf. the 10 Sephiroth of the Tree of Life), and with it, everything was created in the first six "days" of creation. The last three "elocutions of the Elohim" (on the sixth day) involved mankind. Here his status is clear : in the human, God's image lives, prompting man to become more and more like God. Fallen, human nature lost contact with His "image", initiating the sacred history of the chosen people, the personal God contacting Israel without revealing His nature, but only His law. The sacred history of Israel was prophetic, royal, legalistic and messianic. Out of the latter shoot, Christianity emerged.

In Daniel and the Books of Enoch, the Messiah and His Kingdom appear.
"I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of Days, and they brought him near before him. And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him : his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall notpass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed."
Daniel 7:13-14.
"And at that hour that Son of Man was named in the presence of the Lord of Spirits, and his name before the Head of Days. (...) He shall be a staff to the righteous whereon to stay themselves and not fall, and he shall be the light of the Gentiles, and the hope of those who are troubled of heart. (...) And for this reason hath he been chosen and hidden before Him, before the creation of the world and for evermore."
Books of Enoch, XLVIII. 

In Judaism, the Divine image was posited (in general) but only indirectly thematized (in particular histories, eventually fulfilled by the Messiah). Besides being One (as in the Greek "Theos"), God revealed Himself to Israel as a true living person, someone who took the initiative to establish a direct, living & intimate "I - Thou" relationship and perpetuate it. In the process, He remained unimaginable, ineffable and in the most radical way absolutely transcendent and aniconical (without tale, form or shape, for nobody met the king of the good kingdom, cf. Baal Shem-Tov).

Even in the Qabalah, where the "Shekinah" is indeed invoked, the highest ("Ain Soph Aur") remains an impersonal, limitless vastness, an infinity of infinity lost to any personal perspective. This supernatural void or "pleroma" has a lot in common with the Egyptian "Nun", the limitless, undifferentiated primordial ocean, to be identified with the Greek "chaos". Indeed, Judaism converted to Hellenism remained mechanical. Is this not the fate of all theologies transforming the supernatural into a "deus ex machina", a supernatural fysics of abstractions regarding God ? If God were a Great Machine, His code could be cracked. As God is not something, but Someone, another approach is necessary. Only personalism will offer such good news, namely the Incarnation of God's Son and His recuperation of human nature. All the rest fails.
"God's Divine power has given us everything we need to live a truly religious life through our knowledge of the one who called us to share in his own glory and goodness. In this way he has given us the very great and precious gifts he promised, so that by means of these gifts you may escape from the destructive lust that is in the world, and may come to share the Divine nature."Peter 1:3-4
Christian anthropology departs from intellectual theologies and their naturalism. God is unknowable by essence, but knowable in His existence. God is One ineffable essence in Three existing Persons sharing God's essence. The negative existence of the Qabalah is replaced by the living, personal existence of the Trinity revealed by Jesus Christ. Hence, in the sphere of humankind, Hellenistic reflection, participation & kinship (the methods of the natural image) are replaced by a personal relation, by the possibility of participating in the life of the Divine by virtue of the Divine image & the gifts of the Holy Spirit bestowed on the community of Christ (the supernatural Image).

individuality versus personhood

Philosophies & rational systems underline the individual freedom of the highest primate on this planet, the Homo sapiens sapiens. Much is to be learned from these substantialist approaches. They utilize local standards to solve universal problems and not vice versa. Nearly a century of logical, epistemological & linguistic critique has not changed the realist, materialist and objectivist bias which characterizes posthumous modernism, as well as its  economical, political & social institutional sedimentations & adjacent polluting technologies. Individualizing, substantialist mentalities are contrary to the open, receptive, dynamical & personal mindset.

Personhood is a free participation in the Divine life given to humanity by God. It is possible because each human being is made in the Divine image of God, i.e. in the image of the "universal human" or human nature understood as a whole (cf. the human genome). It is man's spirit, the breath of God which imparts to humanity everything good, reflecting the plenitude of its prototype and flowering the likeness of God. The single human nature common to all individual expressions of this nature (the individual whatness of the body and whoness of the psyche), is divided in a multitude of human persons, living in all possible degrees of spiritual quickening (the being-there of someone). Insofar as humanity is fallen, this someone is drawn down into the abyss of individual free-will, identifying with the ever dividing something.

For Aristotle, the human soul contained in itself all the elements which formed the world and the other animated beings. In Ancient Egypt, as well as in Ancient Greek culture, the perfection of man lied in the restoration of his microcosmic image, so as to reflect the macrocosm. Hermetism underlined this, for the Heptarch of the firmaments had to be transcended in the Ogdoad of blessedness, in close proximity to the Ennead of the autogenic, perfect "nous", conceived as the manifestation of the Unbegotten One (the Decad).

"
That which is Below corresponds to that which is Above, and that which is Above corresponds to that which is Below, to accomplish the miracles of the One Entity."
Tabula Smaragdina
, line 2.

In Heliopolitan theology as well as in Alexandrian Hermetism, the Ogdoad was reached by bracketing the seven dimensions of creation, entering a mythological "first time" (in the beginning) and jumping beyond the light of the circumpolar stars, settling the "nous" (or intellect) in the land of the blessed spirits and blissful deities.
"(...) I was born in the Abyss before the sky existed, before the earth existed, before that which was to be made firm existed, before turmoil existed, before that fear which arose on account of the Eye of Horus existed."Pyramid Texts, utterance 486 (§ 1040). 
In Hellenized Judaism, the "Shekinah" or presence of "YHVH Elohim", prompted the rise of the Qabalah, introducing, at the apex of its theological system, three negative veils, called "Ain" (what ?), "Ain Soph" (limitless space) and "Ain Soph Aur" (limitless light). These recall the negative existence as defined by Hermopolitan theology, namely : Amun and Amaunet (hiddenness), Heh and Heket or Huh and Hauhet (eternity), Kek and Keket or Kuk and Kauket (darkness), Nun and Nunet or Nun and Naunet (primordial chaos).

Although the Qabalah deals with One God only, the veils define a negative existence declared inaccessible to man. The creature is confined to creation, and has to wait the Messiah to be able to lift the burden of sin & matter.

In Christianity, the perfection of genomic human nature is not part of the finite order of creation. But yearning after the unconditional, it is "natural" for the mind to seek transcendence in nature. The finite brain is wired to process infinity and in vain its co-relative mind tries to conquer the infinite, but ends up with idols. To posit this perfection of human nature as an enlightened microcosm, is to deify human nature by means of its own possessions, and not, as is the case, by God's gifts. The perfection of human nature is not "already there", but "bestowed". Hence, nobody possesses perfection, except God Himself.

Individual human natures are ruled by laws. It cannot escape these biological psychological and sociological parameters. The mind and its intellect is part of this human nature, as is the individual's sense of identity or ego, the seat of the free-will. The reign of this free-will on the material plane is limited by the petty households they are bound to rule. Individual economy is thus the freedom of an islander, a wanderer, a survivor of the blasts of nature, of crisis, turbulence and panic numbers. If destiny make the ego successful, centered and individualistic, obscurantism ensues and the dawnfall of its tirany is guaranteed by time.

If individual human nature limits its personality open to all other persons, God's unlikeness is achieved, and with it the degeneration of life, law & love. In extension, creation will not be redeemed because humanity relinquished its humanizing vocation. In such a scenario, human individuality would have betrayed its own, encompassing human personality. Instead of opening up, the doors would have been be sealed by the pull of the fallenness of all individual possession.

Understand that personality belongs to the order of the Divine image, and is not just another part of man's constitution (just as the Divine Persons are not parts of God) A crucial line must be drawn between "nature" and "person". As an individual, man is only one expression of the common human genome, but as a person, he is all other persons as himself. More than a single example of a common ground, each human person contains all others as himself in himself and so exceeds his individual human nature.

Personhood is irreducible to every human individual and can not be defined, only designated. Hence, personhood is the source of the greatest possible freedom, rooted in God. The personal uniqueness of someone, is what remains after all natural, individual contexts and facts have been annihilated (nulled), situating personhood in an absolute manner outside space & time. Each person is unique, and in its uniqueness he or she objectifies and collects.

Only through reciprocity can personhood be completely designated and so the "You" and the "I" form the inner poles of the constantly renewing personality in which God remains the One Absolute Witness. Hence, God is the common source of all persons (human and angelic) and thanks to God they are able to participate with each other and form the mystical body of persons of hope, faith and love.

In Greek philosophy, "ousia" and "hypostasis" were concepts used to denote the individual being of an entity. "Ousia" was its essential, monadic nature, "hypostasis" its singular particularities.

These categories define the individual nature of each entity. This particularized, biopsychological organism is part of a species. As a solitary element, it divides its own nature, related to others by natural law, not by personal connectivity & reciprocity. This happens in opposite & repetitive ways, causing division without diversity, each fraction closed to the other, the same nature constantly divided everywhere and all the time. This individual is alone and has disconnected his or her mind from the someone he or she is. Modern science, philosophy and rational theology have sprouted from this "nature morte", grasped without the light of the intellect, its humanizing persuits and immortal personhood.

Persons are united because the Divine is not possesses by them (as human nature is possessed by each individual), because they are open to other persons and able to share without restriction in the Divine intrapersonal exchange, both between them (true humanism), as between each person and God expressing Himself in a personal way (true spirituality). Theology emancipates the person to the point of surpassing the individual. Personhood is togetherness.

the personal experience of God


The fundamental neurotheological fact is simple : man is wired to experience God. To materialist science, this is nothing but an evolutionary reaction to enable us to accept death. But to the monotheist religions, God created us to worship Him.

Although mediated by conceptual (prefrontal) structures, comparative mysticism evidences the direct, unmixed, unmediated and highly emotional (limbic) nature of the personal experience of God, touching the person hidden behind the individual, inviting the solitary wanderer (the Homo erectus) to enter and settle down in communion and establishing a sense of the holy & sacred (the amygdalic response of the Homo neanderthalensis), while communicating the path towards the proper state of mind to realize this (the neo-cortical formations of the Cro Magnon, the Homo sapiens sapiens).

Mystical experience can only be designated (showed as examples) by science & philosophy, not defined. Its limitation is found in the experience itself, for the radical otherness implied can not get more personal. Hence, without the maturity of this experience (evolving from state to station), no mystical theology is possible. Conceptualizing one's personal life with God, is the only true mirror of the soul, but one has to be looking away from it (contemplating God). Personhood is this abandonment of individuality, to discover what is truly unique, the someone who remains after the ultimate negation, namely the loving "rapport" between the person and God through the Divine image rooted in the soul of every human being. Not "eros", but "agape", not "ego", but personality.

To move beyond the individual expression of a common human nature is not achieved by any intellectual contemplation, for the mind is restricted to the natural worlds of creation. The Alexandrian way only leads to the deification of the individual by means of what is already possessed, namely the intellect. In this mystical intellectualism, the perfect natural image is an abstract entity, an idea reflecting God. This allows His light to penetrate the intellect directly and enlighten this "nous", considered to be the best, most excellent "part" of the whole human being. The body, its emotions & feelings as well as the free-will, the organ of responsibility, are not thematized (for in Greek thought a Socratic determinism prevailed). Western science and its academia have inscribed this attitude in the metaphysical research program, the background of the current posthumous modernist paradigm, and its materialist, atheist, mechanistic, reductionistic and solipsist features.

The personal revelation of the existence of One Living God, is the solid corner-stone of dogmatic Jewish theology and legalistic Islamic theology (both being "Abrahamic"). However to these, God hides in the profundities of His nature. For the Jews, His name is unpronounceable. In Islam, He can not be directly accessed. Theirs is the revelation of an inaccessible God, denying man face to face encounters. Taken to the fundamentalistic extremes of Farisee logic or "Left Eyed" jurists, this closed and terrifying Divine monad bestows upon man the obscurity of obedience and scriptoral faith. The contradiction between a personal God and the absence of true reciprocity between God and man can hence not be solved. In this mindset, mystical theology is a priori a forbidden knowledge, for there is no common measure or mediation between Creator and creature. There is no Pagan "natural reflection", but a bottomlessly deep abyss, making all creatures, but man in particular, entities at the borderline, i.e. isthmusses between absolute everything and (nonexistent) nothingness. In this way, impossible knowledge (the One can not be experienced) makes room for forbidden knowledge (qabalah &sufism).

Christianity is not burdened by this dilemma. The One Living God reveals at once His essential nature ("ousia") and His Persons ("energeia"). Transcending creation, the Christian God allows forreciprocity. In His own Divine nature, He allows His essence to fully exist in Three Persons. In His economies, He gives creation His only Son and deifies human persons in the Holy Spirit.

Personhood is supernatural and not to be "mechanized" by the categories of the mind. If God exists, natural theology (God as machine) is impossible, for God is a Person, and hence exceeds His own nature by creating the other than Himself. The human person also exceeds his natural individuality, and is a someone precisely because of this. This surplus is achieved by an crucial intent (or concentration of the free-will), namely the greater freedom of the other human person.
Just as God considered a freedom other than His own, a human person invites the other person to relate, participate and share kinship with. Expecting the "parousia" this instant, a ransomed person already lives in the Kingdom of God, the "Mystery of the Eight Day". For recuperated by Christ, human nature no longer pulls this person down. And thus resurrected from the "sleep" of fallen nature, the Spirit of God may personally deify this someone in the likeness of God. In these relational reciprocities, the essential unity of God is not lost, exhausted or differentiated, for the Persons are completely God by virtue of their common, (super)essential nature : sheer unity.

theomonism instead of monotheism

Mystical theology, the conceptualization of the personal experience of God coming after ceaseless prayer with the mind in the soul (or heart), embraces theomonism instead of monotheism. This means Divine names, attributes, and revelations are of One and the same God, rather than One God expressing Himself exclusively in one exclusive way, for indeed, God revealed a variety of ways.

Mystical spirituality is touched by transcendence. A perfect Being transcends change and movement, as well as unity and plurality. If God would be nothing more than the "pneuma" of the wheel of becoming (cf. Stoic pantheism), transcendence could not be posited. So plurality does not harm unity and totality is unthinkable without transcendence.
"He is nothing but the One / the Many - to the like of this do all affairs give witness."Ibn al-'Arabî : al-Futûhât al-makkiyya, III.458.6

Mystical theology embraces bi-polar pan-en-theism : God is both transcendent & immanent, both essence & existence, both hiddenness & revelation, both abstract & personal, both inaccessible & intimate, revealed & unveiled.

This bi-polarity of Loinprès (cf. Porete) is crucial : on the one hand, unknowing & un-saying ({0} : all possibilities) and on the other hand, number 1, the foundation or standard of formal thought. The remote side of the polarity is absolutely transcendent (the essence or "ousia" of God being unknown & unknoweable), while the intimate, existential and personal side of God, His "energeia", is immanent in the transcendent Trinity (Divine existence) as well as in creation (the economies of the Son & the Holy Spirit).

God's ineffable essence, the apophatic side of the bi-polarity, does not negate His Divine existence nor creation, the cataphatic side. God is One essence in Three Persons, each with a distinct Divine personality fully participating in the essence of God which they have in common.

Of course, by His (super)essential nature, God remains radically transcendent, and this in the very immanence of His manifestations. But never does this apophatism exclude His Presence, not to Himself (cf. the Trinity) and not to creation (cf. the Providence of the two Divine economies). Christian mystics from Dionysius to Ruusbroec confirm the bewildering simplicity of the ultimate vision.
"For in this fathomless whirlpool of simplicity, all things are encompassed in enjoyable blessedness, whereas the ground itself remains totally uncomprehended, unless it be by essential unity. The persons and everything that is living in God must yield before this, for here there exists nothing but an eternal rest in an enjoyable embrace of loving transport. That is, in the wayless existence that all inner spirits have preferred above all things. This is the dark stillness in which all the loving are lost."
Ruusbroec : Spiritual Espousals, c248 - 252

the Divine in Ancient Egypt, Greece & Rome

The Mediterranean religions of Antiquity conceived of a realmbefore creation, a primordial being before space and time had come into existence. But godhead shared preexistence with something else : an infinite ocean like the Ancient Egyptian "Nun" or the yawning space of the Archaic Greek "chaos". In Greek thought, creation was deemed the outcome of God's form imposed upon this inert, formless primordial matter.

In Heliopolitan theology, before Atum created himself "in the first time" and hatched out of his egg, subsequently (simultaneously) fashioning creation, defined in terms of space, life & light (of the Sun and other luminous stars), there was the Nun, the undifferentiated, primordial ocean.

Likewise, the Egyptian deities were remote and hidden away in the sacred darkness of their "naos", faced by Pharaoh or his representatives alone. The "king of the gods", Amun, was hidden although personalized and hearing the prayers of the poor (compassionate, caring and loving). The essence of these deities ("spirits" or "Akhu") was never incarnate, except in the divine nature of the king. Because the latter daily offered Maat (justice & truth), the deities dwelled in their temples and statues as "souls" (Ba) or "doubles" (Ka).

In Neoplatonic philosophy, the One, beyond being and nonbeing, is only known before and after, never during ecstasy, transcending the "nous". In these Platonisms, the ultimate experience is not an experience, not a participation and thus absolutely devoid of the I - Thou relationship of communication & communion, at once absolute and personal.

Because the majority of Greek thinkers linked man's ultimate spiritual experience with abstract intellectual contemplation and its adjacent sensoric and affective reduction, they rejected the living God Incarnating as a human being. God could not be a human individual. In the Greek pantheon, the individualized deities behaved as individual kings under the imperial dictatorship of Zeus, the super-individual (cf. the Alexandrian model). In literature and theatre, the gods interfered constantly and enjoyed themselves with mankind. The latter had no defences against their whimsical nature & astral fatalisms.

In Greek intellectual theology, ecstasy was seen as the outcome of a natural process of "return" to the original "idea", considered to be the essence or "natural image" of the individual. By means of the initiated "nous", the purified, serene individual would contemplate his or her "eidos", attributing the intelligent animal to a set of categories. This process was more automatic and necessary than volitional and contingent. This relational system involved the outstanding characteristics of the species of which the individual was part (in a closed, atomized, disconnected way), namely mankind. Each individual was a microcosmic deity (a pure idea buried underneath layers of material impurity).

At the end of the intellectual Odyssey, the individual is annihilated by the rapture (ecstatic delight) of the One. The individual desolves as a drop in the ocean. The free-will played no role whatsoever in this process or its outcome, for neither was this rapture an experience, but rather the complete annihilation of individuality in the impersonal One (a soteriology remarkably akin to Vedantic thought). A kind of natural automatism seems to be at work, a "deus ex machina" summoned by the spirituality of Antiquity as a whole (in Classical Yoga, liberation is the automatic result of distinguishing matter and "purusa", the spiritual, witnessing Self). Here, salvation as enlightenment is acquired, it in not the free gift of a Living God.

asking for human persons

The intelligent animal is the organism of natural qualities ascribed to the human individual. This individuality or "I-ness", is not the human personality. The latter is rooted in the Divine image each human person has to assume in order to attune his individual will to the Will of God. The character of egology of the intelligent animal is the least personal part of it. Neverthless, here the natural free-will is enthroned and able to decree against the natural order of things. So, the individual with his or her free will is not free from his or her own nature. In fact, although free, the individual remains imprisoned by his or her poverty as natural entity, an aggregate of material elements wandering in the cold expanse of an extremely vast cosmos. The human individual is even quite alone in the galaxy of the star providing him with life.

To reclaim the person, renunciation & repentance are needed. The former is the acceptance of individual sin, the latter the change of mind necessary to avoid its repetition and establish serene passions ("apatheia"). To fulfill the restoration of the Divine image, constant prayer with the mind in the heart leads to inner stillness ("hesychia"). Then the last step is the realization of the fullness of humanity in "the maximum man" (Nicolas of Cusa), Jesus Christ, the Son of God or Word Incarnate, a Divine Person Incarnating in history and its natural order to fullfull the vocation of human persons, betrayed by Adam. He is a Divine Person, not a human person, who, in His Divine Person, assumes human nature in its totality, with the exception of sin (depending on the fallen use of individual freedom).

He is the Transcendent descending from paradise (at the Annunciation) into the low hour of death (of the Passion), beyond the death of death in the infinite ocean of light flowing from His Body of Resurrection and the achievement of this final humanization of humanity in the Person of Christ, no longer separated from God or in the hands of the enslavers of the natural will (Ascension and Pentecost).
the exodus of bondage

Moses and his reception of "ego sum qui sum" is a clear break away from the iconical approach of Antiquity. It heralds the advent of the first rational monotheism, namely Judaism, profoundly characterized in every way by the liberation of the Israelites from Egypt (probably under Ramesses II).
"YHAdonaiVH est l'Être unique, la matrice de toute vie, Celui qui a été, qui est et qui sera. Les Elohîms en expriment les puissances créatrices infinies. (...) N'oublions pas que si YHAdonaiVH est Unique, Elohîms est pluriel. Les prophètes n'ont jamais aspiré à voir surgir un univers monolithique : l'Unité qu'ils annoncent n'est pas faite d'uniformité, mais, nous y reviendrons, d'une universelle et vivante diversité, dans l'unité de l'Être qui la fonde, YHVH. Mieux que monothéistes, ils sont théomonistes."Chouraqui, A. : Moise, du Rocher - Paris, 1995, p.181-182, my italics.

Away are the images, pictures & statues of the Divine. The Name of God : "Yahweh Elohim" suffices. "YHVH" represents the ineffable, unpronouceable, unmixed, absolutely absolute, infinitely infinite and radically singular & alone side of God, whereas the "ALHYM", a plural word, exist in an inaccessible, uncreated light an ordinary man cannot see without dying. They are His Presence.

By stretching his iconoclasm too far (namely in the realm of thought itself), Moses closed the way of a face to face encounter between God and fallen man. Even Akhenaten had not done away with direct spiritual experience ! On the contrary, daily the Aten is visible to the naked eye. As a result, Judaic theology offered no true reciprocity between God and man and no redemption, no salvation and no liberation from death. Moses and his people worshipped a living God, but did not have a Divine life with God, aparticipation in His Divine nature, a becoming (like) God by His gift. Judaism is therefore the good promise, but not (yet) the true closure, completion or fulfillment brought by the good news.
the exodus of death
"I am the living one ! I was dead, but now I am alive for ever and ever. I have authority over death and the world of the dead."
Revelation, 1:18

The Christ, the Son of God, a Divine Person Incarnating in human nature, was absurdity to Athens & folly to Jeruzalem. These theologians posit the standard or "1", excluding relational oppositions, and hence division within the approach of God (the mode of witnessing and affirming His essential unity).
"And YHVH appeared to Abraham in the plains of Mamrê as he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day ; And he lifted up his eyes and looked, and, lo, three men stood by him : and when he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent door, and bowed himself toward the ground, And said, Adonaï (...)"Genesis, 18:1-2, my italics.
If, on the one hand, the monad is not duplicated to form the dyad, God has no relations with Himself and creation is oblivion. This fixation on the "standard" of unity is unable to think change, process, history and evolution and downplays God's Glory as well as the ultimate, escatological restoration in freedom of all in All (the "Mystery of the Eight Day"). But, on the other hand, Greek thought showed the dyad does not bring soteriology to its final end, for two poles differentiate nature & confirm the relative, conflictual (oppositional) diversity of being.

In Christian mystical theology, God is identically monad (union) & triad (distinctions). God is at once unitrinity and triunity. Why not more than three ? The triad allows for process to return to unity (from 3 to 1) and is an ouverture to variety under unity or organical multiplicity (from 3 to infinity). It is the last number retaining a direct and complete link with the standard without returning to oppositional logics (4 returns to the dyad).

Hence, these equations have to be posited :
  • {0} « » 1 : the monarchy of the Father (1) maintains the perfect balance between the "ousia" of God ({0}) and the Trinity as a whole ;
  • 1 = 3 :  the Father (1) bestows God's essence ({0}) compeletely to the Son (2) and the Holy Spirit (3) ;
  • and 3 = 1. This double equation is clear : when one of the three is communicated, the two others immediately rise up. The Persons and their Trinitarian Divine perichoretic dynamics, summarize all possible relational attributes of God ;
  • and 3 = ∞. The Three Persons together, bring in an infinite sequence of change (cf. the rise of irrational numbers in the theorem of Pythagoras, c = √2).
The Father and the Son have a circumscribed relationship : the Son is generated by the Father (the Holy Spirit proceeds from Him but is sent by the Son). The Son is the perfect image of the Father, and "in the bosom" of the Father, He is His Logos or Verb (the Father as it were "thinking" Himself). The Son is the reflective act of the Father. He is the Father's verbalization of Himself in terms of a dynamical opposition, for the Son is dual and actively relational (energy being difference).

The "recapitulation" (cf. Irenaeus of Lyon) of human nature (all human individuals as one human nature, one flesh) by Christ as Jesus, opened to the people of Jesus, i.e. humanizing humanity, a way out of the land of death, and completed the economy of grace (not of necessity) of the Holy Trinity, namely the deification of all human persons and, through them, the whole of creation. Not in the afterlife, but right here in the Kingdom of God to be realized by loving human persons anticipating the Day of the End, and at the "eschaton" of the multiverse as a whole.
"If then Elohim so clothes the grass that is in the field today and thrown into the oven tomorrow, won't He put clothes on you, faint hearts ?
And you, seek not what you will eat or what you will drink, neither be disquieted.
For those of the world seek these things, and your Father knows that you need these things.
But rather seek the Kingdom of
 Elohim, and all these things will be yours as well. 

Q1, 68 - 71.
Gregory of Nyssa (335 - 399) spoke of the Divine ruse. Christ is the bait the Spirit attached on the hook of the Father. Death threw itself on the prey, but the hook wounded death, which cannot swallow God and died. This death of death is the judgement of judgements, the final curtain on all attempts to separate humanity and God.
creation out of nothing


Creation sprung from the Will of God, as the gift of existence to the other than God. By nature, creation is to be conceptualized as the "outside" of God. This realm of created being, contains objective entities standing before God, each with an irreducible ontic density and a relative freedom of its own. Before creation, there was only God. After creation, God and creation stood in opposition : the absolute being of God versus the relative nothingness of creation. Each created being is thus an isthmus between these extremes.

Creation started with God, not from something else. There is no prime matter or original "chaos". Nothing exists in itself, except God. Although prime matter has been called a nonbeing, a pure possibility of being, it is never conceptualized as an absolute nothingness, but already as a "something" with which God shared precreation (as in the religions of Egypt, Greece & Rome). Creation has no uncreated substratum, "pneuma" or "hidden variables", for it is by essence the other than God. Neither had God to mysteriously fall and then strain to become God again, as in the Platonist emanational model. The perpetual taking-form of the Aristotelians is also rejected.

Without any necessity in God, creation is a gratuitous, free act of God, born in the one Will of God, which is the expression of the concerted Trinity. God in no way depends on the creature. As He is infinitely good, His creative act of Will gives rise to positive, liberated beings. Contingent of God, creation is only necessary for itself, not for God. The aim of creation is deification, in which the human person plays a crucial role, as the Incarnation underlines.

Creativity is not a reflection of {0} in "1" to subsume all natural numbers. It is taking the risk of novelty, the coming forth of something new. The Divine creative act consists in reaching out and fashioning a new, independent and free being other than God. The creativity of the absolutely free God, is willing another freedom, another created being endowed with the uncreated Divine image. And to allow this ultimate creativity to occur, God had to take the risk of being powerless precisely at the moment when created beings turned against Him by abusing His ultimate gift (cf. Adam and the Fall) ...

Before creation, concepts such as the "outside" or "inside" of God have no meaning. They are posited by the Will of God creating creation, separating "before" and "after", "inside" and "outside". Nothingness has no existence of its own. The "nihil" in "creatio ex nihilo" merely indicates nothing but God's Will rose creation. God's creative Will is not bound by any necessity, but lawless (not random) and absolutely indeterminate (but not disorganized).

the intelligible depth of beings

For Plato, ideas exist in the sphere of intelligible being, whereas the sensible world had only verisimilitude, not verity. Real because participating in the ideas, the flux of generation & corruption, of life & death did not touch the superior level of being, an intelligible, uncreated world. Plotinus took this structure a step further, and established the ineffable One above the ideas, reducing them to Divine intelligence or "nous", emanating from the One absolutely superior to being itself. In itself, the abstract idea of the One is the ultimate achievement of Greek intellectual theology, in casu developed in the context of a religious philosophy. A return to the One is then the natural path of an intellectual creature such as man, but no experience of this One is possible. Ecstacy is oblivion. There can be no vision of the One, and no participation or kinship with It.

The separation or "chorismos" is "natural" (between the beings of the created order) and "transcendent" (between the created and the uncreated). The immanent difference between the sensible & the intelligible worlds is as crucial as the transcendence of the One vis-à-vis the world of ideas. If unmediated, these Greek distinctions obscure the salvation of humanity and diminish the splendour of God's creation. For why creation if God is not interested ?

There are no two worlds. God does not make a replica of Himself (a Divine "nous") in order to create. If God, as transcendent Principle, Logos & Spirit, would make an immanent copy of Himself (a Stoic "pneuma"), His creation would not differ from Himself, it would not be the other than God. A cosmos already born Divine would not constitute the risk God intended with a free creation. The splendid, formidable newness of creation is absolute : His creation rests only in God's igniting omnipotent Will and in nothing else.

If ideas, which determine the essence of creatures or serve as exemplary causes, exist, then these are not uncreated, for God, being radical otherness, does not serve creation, neither facilitates (limits) the necessities (the freedoms) of creation by reproducing His transcendence explicitly in the laws of creation. Such an ideal world would already be Divine and the gift of freedom (the risk of Divine unlikeness) impossible. The dynamics of love demand freedom. God takes a risk by giving freedom, and only by taking this risk is He creating the other than God, and with this the possibility of a free return of all to All, the final goal of creation. The deconstruction of both Augustinianism and Thomism is irreversible. Both the intelligible "world" of ideas as well as immanent exemplarism emerge as obsolete theologies. As such they are hinderances, not gifts to cherish and keep ...

The ideas constituting the intelligible dimension of creation are the very depth of created being. The Will of God creates order and reason, allowing wisdom to position the "seven pillars of the mansion", the laws of the multiverse. The ideas of wisdom are not a Platonic world beyond, neither a replica of God. The "logoi sophon" (words of wisdom) or the "logoi" of creation constitute the fundamental matrix of order keeping the natural order in place (constants, laws, forces, particles or waves). But this very depth of being is not uncreated. The "logoi" raise the force of light in creation and the polarity of light & darkness. Rooted in wisdom, they are God's first creatures.

The "logoi sophon" are the instruments of creation, and represent the invisible, subtle & abstract laws determining the explicit structure of and the forces at work in the cosmos, its order and compass. God thinks creation, in the first place wisdom and its logoic archetypes. God gives freely, under no coercion, so His creation may choose for God and be partakers of the Divine nature, or not. Before anything else, God creates wisdom, at once eternal and created, timeless, yet turned towards the other than God, which must have a beginning. Wisdom abides "in the beginning", in the immobile eternity of the neverending "now" (time present), which is the ground or "standard" of mobile time, the first moment of time which is not yet in time.

Wisdom is to understand the beginning, to know how to found and build the attitude of someone who loves to begin. She stands at the beginning of time without being temporal. She is the beginning of everything without being somewhere. She is the mechanism of the psyche, the stability of the particles and waves. Because wisdom is the first being created, the crown of the cosmos is good and the demiurge is an unveiled fountain of light with nothing dark or reversed in any of its natural necessities.

perpetual creation
"In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth."
Genesis, 1.1

This "beginning" is the first moment of time which is not yet time, the first step which is not yet a path. Eternity is not linear, neither an indefinite line. It escapes the conditionality of repetition.

The finite is not commensurable with the infinite, and so the latter is the limit (of immanence) and/or absolute transcendence. In Ancient Egypt, the beginning of "time" was not yet time, and so creation "happened" on the "first occasion", a mythical "realm" between absence of creational intent (the "Nun") and the emergence of the "primordial hill", the "first land". In-between stood Atum-Re the creator, autogenes.

The first moment is unthinkable. It is not a point in time, for the future becomes past without ceasing and the present is never grasped in time. The first moment is the truth of the moment when it is realized the past is all memory and the future only expectation. The "first moment" is timeless. The timeless beginning of time, before the beginning of creation as history, is the present, the "now" without duration, revealed as an door to aeonic eternity, uncovering the unchanging architecture governing creation.

In this first moment, "heaven and earth" appear, i.e. the entireassemblage of creation elocuted by the "logoi sophon". Creation rises up in an instant. Not yet time, it is created and eternal. Because of the wisdom of this timelessness, a creative explosion takes place and temporality ensues. This first moment, represents the timeless frontier of wisdom between the eternal God (beyond time) and the transient cosmos. "After" this instant, time, itself a creature, becomes fact and event until, at the "end of time", time is transformed into the eternal newness of the New Day, which is the "Mystery of the Eight Day".

God : One essence in three Persons : transcendent Divine nature ;
Divine energies : uncreated radiations shining forth from God ;
Wisdom : first creation of God, timeless, existing in the beginning ;
Logoi : faces of the aeonic eternity of wisdom ;
Creation : the forces, laws & entities of the multiverse.

The wise beginning of creation is instantaneous and non-temporal. The creative act initiates a relationship between the Divine energies (via eternal, but created wisdom) and that which is not God. This was a limitation, a determination of this infinite and eternal effulgence of God for the sake of creation. God created all things by the uncreated energies so created being may accede freely to union with God in the selfsame energies.

Through "sophia", God's creative intent explodes in timelessness, to give rise to time and history. "In the beginning", this world will always exist, even if time is transformed at the eschatological end of time on the Last Day, when all returns to All. As the root of created time is timelessness, and creation is the actualization or elocution of the timeless now, "in the beginning", creation remains perpetual despite the temporality of its actualizations as a historical otherness with a definite spiritual, timeless vocation.

the Person of Jesus Christ

When Christ, the Son of God, Incarnated as Jesus of Nazareth, the historical order was radically shattered. The hands of God (Logos & Spirit) facilitated the Incarnation of the Verb as an Edenic human being (a second Adam), called to plunge into the depths of a human nature corrupted by degeneration & hell, to assume sin without limitations, swallow it and let it die. And this, while not a human person but a Divine Person, someone who recuperated the single nature of humanity by becoming mortal flesh.

Christ is consubstantial ("homoousios") with the Father and the Holy Spirit, i.e. these Persons fully share in God's essence. The Trinity formed by the Three, is the joint operation of three modes distinct of origin : the Father being unbegotten, the Son generated by the Father and the Spirit proceeding from the Father (but sent by the Son).

The Incarnation in Mary, made Christ consubstantial with human beings by His humanity (as Jesus) and this without Himself being a human person. His human nature is a human body and a human soul, gifted with free-will. His humanity encompasses human nature, but without the effects of sin. Indeed, because of the unsullied, Edenical, virginal constitution of His humanity, this natural will always follows what is good, beautiful & true, i.e. His Divine will. Hence, the human nature of Jesus Christ was at all times always without the demons of sin.
"My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass far from me. Yet, your will be done and not mine."Matthew, 26:39.
Jesus Christ is more than a great example (against Nestorius), and really a human being, in casu : a man (against the monophysites). His human nature is however not personal, but universal & Edenic. Jesus Christ represents the Divine Verb Incarnate, who shares with us the totality of our human nature (the sum of individuals), who assumes -with His Passion- the objective (not subjective) conditions of sin and submits to our fallen mortality ("kenosis"), while guarding His Divine nature.
"And there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit ; and he cried out, saying, 'What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth ? Are you here to destroy us ? I know who your are - you are the Holy One of God !' Jesus ordered the spirit : 'Be quiet, and come out of the man !'"
Mark, 1:23-25.
" ... the highpriest answered and said to him : 'I adjure you by the living God, to tell us whether you are the Christ, the Son of God ?' Jesus said : 'You have said it ! Nevertheless, I say to you : Hereafter shall you see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of power and coming in the clouds of heaven.'"
Matthew, 26:63-64.
Seven christological stages may be discerned :

1. Trinitarian :

The unitary essence of God is the common ground of the three Persons, and thus insofar as their essence is concerned, each of them is God. In this Trinitarian totality, Christ is the unique, begotten, and Divine Son of the unbegotten Father. As the second Person of the Holy Trinity, He represents the logoic operations, relations or determinations of the Father, the monarch from whom the Son is generated and the Holy Spirit proceeds.

Together, the Persons radiate the eternal, infinite, uncreated Divine light, which flows from the personal Trinity of the One God's infinite totality. Here, we receive glimpses of Christ's Divine Personality, and apprehend (by being given instead of possessing) the profound & sublime transcendence of His creative command, which is the command of the One God, King, Lord and Spirit of everything good, beautiful and true.

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."John, 1:1.

2. Annunciation :

The Will of God (the concert of the Persons) decreed the Incarnation of the Father's Son by means of the Holy Spirit, who worked in Mary, a virgin.
"... the Holy Ghost shall come upon you, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow you, therefore also that the holy thing which shall be born of your shall be called the Son of God."
Luke, 1:35.
The Incarnation is the Father's love for His creation, and His love for humans, created in His image and towards His likeness. Thanks to the Incarnation, of which the Annunciation by Gabriel of the name "Jesus" is the first, timeless instant, the Father (through the Spirit and His angels) and creation (by the presence of Christ in the world) were joined for ever. The old abyss of Antiquity and intellectual theology was irreversibly filled up and rendered obsolete. But the impact of the Incarnation is only open to hope, faith and love, and belongs to the invisible order of grace. Without the gates of these cardinal virtues, the fallen kingdom of this world continues its closures, dull repetitions of the same, as well as the mummification process of its willed evil sedimentations.

This darkness has been dispelled. Only the grace of the Holy Spirit is needed to enter this new order of creation, established after Christ's Incarnation (God coming into the world directly, assuming original, Edenic human nature in its universality). Grace is not elsewhere, for as wisdom, she is everywhere.
"His disciples said to Him : "When will the Kingdom come ?" Jesus said : "It does not come by expecting it. It will not be a matter of saying : 'See, it is here !' or : 'Look, it is there !'. Rather, the Kingdom of the Father is spread over the earth and men do not see it." 
The Gospel of Thomas, logia 113.

3. Baptism & Transfiguration :

To His most beloved disciples, Jesus Christ evidences His Divine Person at work through His human nature : Baptism and Transfiguration. In both instances, His Divine Person shone through His undefiled human nature, and His unity with the Father (a voice) and the Spirit (a dove) was actualized. Each time, the "form of God" and not the kenotic "form of the slave" was manifested. These are exceptional moments, revealing the ineffable psychology of Jesus Christ, in whom two distinct operations are conceived, but with one single result. These two natures of Christ, His Divine Person (the Divine nature) and His human nature, as Jesus, always cooperated in the single activity of Jesus Christ, and this in a manner suitable to it (the human weeping before Lazarus' tomb, the Divine raising him - cf. John of Damascus). There are two wills in Christ, but His natural will is unsullied by evil and hence always in accord with the Divine Will of the One Trinity and the absolute goodness of the Three.

4. Passion :

Jesus the Christ accepted, totally and voluntarily, the (outer) effects of sin, infirmities, and the humiliations of our fallen natural condition. He did so, without leaving His own Divine Person. The demonical passions depending on the free will of egoism and egology were not included, for Christ's natural will was perfect, His ego holy & saintly. Divine by nature (a Person) and human (the perfect man) by Divine choice, Jesus Christ never recapitulated in Himself (i.e. in His Divine Person) human aspirations bogged down by sin and anti-natural inclinations. Jesus Christ did not die for the perversions of our choice, neither for the stubborn continuation of the fixation of the will in activities running against the natural order of the cosmos, and its final end (deification). But he bore all the marks of one who suffered the consequences of very bad choice. His descent into hell was not a justification of the kingdom of Satan, but a debt payed to the king of woe for those who remained in prison because they could not discharge themselves, but nevertheless wanted to be free.

In Jesus Christ, the Divine (Person) hides behind the (human) slave to redeem human nature as a whole. The humbling ("kenosis") is an universal assumption of the objective, natural conditions of sin (i.e. the sum of all traits of individual, human suffering part of the human genome). The slave humbles Himself to seek the Glory of the Father who sent Him. The Passion of the Christ is the affirmation of the extreme form of this unique recuperation of human nature as a whole, the extreme abandonment of His transcendent Kingship by becoming the "man of sorrows", forseen by Isaiah.
"Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him ; he had put him to grief : when you shall make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand."
Isaiah, 53:10.

His human nature was mortal in order to lead humanity into immortality. The "community" (church) saved by the Passion of the Christ, is the group of human beings "of good will", i.e. those who go for the reemergence of the Divine image, the surpassing of the individual by the person, the something by the someone. Let us never fool ourselves, as those who persist and fixate their will in evil, are not invited at the banquet of Christ. The Cross was not willed to save Satan, on the contrary, for thanks to the Cross of Christ, death -in the order of grace- died. The Passion of the Christ introduced a division in the sullied unity, namely between the visible order of the world and the invisible order of "outer" grace (cf. the veil of the temple rent in the midst). After the Passion, the order of grace was "internalized". It remained in the world, but not of this world, rather next or adjacent to it.

5. Resurrection :

By calling, in the upper room, bread "His flesh" and wine (beer) "His blood", Jesus Christ prepared His friends for what was coming : the Passion & the Resurrection. They had to understand the outer form of Jesus Christ, his natural human shape, was accidental to His Person, Divine and formless (transcendent, i.e. not of the created order). He had fully assumed human nature since the Annunciation, but only to save the single nature of humanity. Historically, the redemption of humanity would be initiated by sleeping apostles betraying their master, by Judas betraying his best friend, by Farisees betraying their own religion and by Romans betraying the laws of Jupiter supposed to protect the truly innocent. But what is worse than being betrayed by one's own intimate friend and brother ? The kenosis had to be complete. The Divine sacrifice had to be effective on the outer plane of individual, objective human nature. On the inner plane, it had been since the Incarnation.

The empty tomb is suggestive of the extraordinary nature of Jesus' physical body (as it were infused to the atom with Divine energy). The miracle stories underline the ease with which He mastered the physical, visible world. By nature, He was able to give life after death had done its work. Transformation of substances, anti-gravitation, exorcisms, spontaneous remissions and extraordinary healings were part of His ministery. By Resurrecting in His Risen Body after His human vehicle had died and vanished (the climax of the His kenosis), He eliminated death from the order of grace (before only "outer" and ending with the death of its prophet). His physical body had no other purpose than to allow Him to suffer as humans suffer. Once its humiliation, mutilation and destruction had reached its ultimate outburst (water & blood gulping out of its right side), it was transfigurated and assimilated into the Divine Person of Christ as the ocean of light of His Risen Body of Light. 

The Resurrection is the full return to the foreground of the Divine Person Christ, the exceptional and unique manifestation of God in creation, who sanctified death itself and restored humanity (as a whole) in Himself. The Risen Body is then the background of this Person of Love, the shape of the human body being an image of the whole of humanity. The Resurrection operated a change in fallen nature, opening a prodigious possibility, namely participating in the Divine nature thanks to Jesus Christ.

6. Ascension :

After the Resurrection, only one task is left over : return to the Father and ask Him to bestow His Spirit, to seal the work of redemption, to guarantee the eternity of the order of grace in creation and to comfort the new humanizing humanity turned to deify creation. Christ's Ascension underlined the Divine nature of His Person. Rising to heaven in His Risen Body, with its human form made luminous, Christ nevertheless promises to remain with His people and to return to them (eucharistically and at the end of time). If His recuperation of our human  nature had not been essential, i.e. completely assimilated by the Person of Christ, His nostalgia for His people would be hardly explainable, and the Apocalyptic solution too mechanical (for with the Resurrection, all has been done, except for those of evil will).

7. Pentecost :
"Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God ; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God."Paul : I Corinthians, 2:12.

The Holy Spirit descends upon the people of Jesus Christ as a free gift (a new creation) of God. He lets us probe, discern & know the order of grace, the things freely given to us of God. This seal is for all times, and could only be placed because Christ deified human nature and we adhere to God.

The Holy Spirit is an independent Divine Person. He is not the servant of the economy of the Son and His redemption by recuperation of human nature. He proceeds from the Father in a way to be distinguished from the generation of the Son by the Father. The procession of the Spirit is a sequence, the generation of the Son a coinciding. The Person of the Spirit hides behind human persons, and works through them. At the Pentecost, a multitude received this Spirit although it is One and the Same Spirit, namely the One transcendent God insofar as His Divine economy of deification is concerned.

the Jesus of history and the Christ of myth
The scientific, historical study of Jesus of Nazareth shows the original teachings of the Jesus of history (Q1) contain no myth of Christ.
"... the brother of Jesus, the so-called Christ, James was his name, ..."Josephus, F. : Antiquities, XX.200 (James was illegally brought to trial and executed in 61/62 AD).
Compared with Jesus' wisdom-teachings, so the story goes, "Christ" was a "myth", added by centrist Christians to the Jewish tale of the original Jesus-people. This myth was not new, but in line with Osiris - Dionysius - Attis - Adonis & Mithras beliefs. These popular salvic deities were worshipped in the Roman empire, and associated with the Greek mysteries (cf. the relatively early Osiris - Dionysius link forged by Pythagoras and his initiatic philosophical religion).

These scholars underline the distinction between the wise Jesus of Nazareth and the Divine Christ, cosmic Lord & unique Son of God. Does science put into danger the spiritual truth of Christianity, i.e. the Incarnation of the unique Son of God ?

The mythical mode of cognition is the first mode of all possible cognition. If our liberal scholars (humanists, agnostics, atheists) mean to say "myth" is to be equated with "nonsense" and something "obsolete", then objection should be made. Without myth, thought is impossible. Likewise, metaphysics can not be eliminated from science. Myth can not be pulled out of the language games, not even out of the game of "objective" science. The question is : is the myth of Christ an operational myth ? History indeed shows the myth of the Saviour had many powerful & influencial prefigurations (going back to prehistory as in the case of Osiris).

Those who wish to invalidate the historical work of Christ on scientific grounds (using linguistics, history, sociology, economy, politics, archeology etc.), point to the fact the narrative gospels were not written by the hands giving them their name. Moreover, the earliest gospel (Mark) defined the itinerary of the plot. Matthew and Luke (called, together with Mark, the "synoptics") followed this scheme, adding bits and pieces of their own. A variant chronological order is also brought into evidence, stressing the redaction of the narrative gospels after the destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem by the Romans (on the 29th of August AD 70). Indeed, even in the gospel serving as the wisdom-source of the narrative gospels, namely Q, three layers are evident, shifting attention away from the spiritual wisdom-teacher or prophet of Q1to the Christ-figure in Q3.

AD 75 - 80 :
redaction of Mark (instead of 65 -70) ;
AD 85 - 90 :
redaction of Matthew (80 - 85) ;
AD 95 :
redaction of John (90 - 100) ;
AD 110 :
redaction of Luke & Acts (85 - 90).

The "Christic" element, so the liberals claim, came into focus withJohn, written at least five decades, if not more, after the death of the historical Jesus. So, they gather the "Christic" superstructure was erected long after Jesus and despite of the latter. This myth was turned into an ideology by  a centrist, "catholic" tendency among the literate Christians of the time, in particular the club of Rome (after 67 AD, with the martyrdom of Peter and Paul). This centrist movement was largely justified & established for sacramental reasons (the bones of Peter & Paul, the two most universalizing, Christian apostles par excellence).

This fashionable historical viewpoint has one major problem : Paul. He starts his three missionary journeys at the earliest around 49 AD, and writes his Letters between AD 50 and 60. Ca. four years separate the death of Jesus of Nazareth (AD 30) from Saul's conversion on the way to Damascus, becoming "Paul" (ca. AD 34 - 36). It took Paul another 15 years to discover his task. Paul never knew Jesus of Nazareth and there were no centrists around, except the Jewish apostles of Jeruzalem, with whom he gathered around (49 AD) before initiating the announcement to the gentiles for which he became famous. Why ? These Jewish Christians still adhered to their ancestral Temple practices and to circumcision. Paul, a gentile, refuted these practices in the name of his vision of Christ Jesus. And he did so decades before the first narrative gospel saw the light.

In the course of Christian history, Peter and the Roman centrists have received major attention. Paul's church in Rome is not without reason "beyond the walls". Paul, an apostle and a prophet, was the first major Christian gnostic, proposing the universal concept of Christ. With insistence, he pointed to the tremendous importance of both the Incarnation and the Resurrection. Moreover, Paul's "kerygma" was from the start spirito-communal, seeking to eliminate all differences between humans in, through and with Christ Jesus.

Paul's source was his visionary, prophetic and mystical (spiritual) experience of Christ, understood in a cosmic and Divine sense. Long before John would finally convey his story to text and also before the Gospel of Thomas, Paul underlined the spiritual meaning of Christ. He focused beyond His historical, human nature, to which our sciences, outside the order of grace, are necessarily bound.

Paul's texts shows little interest in the historical nature of the Verb of God, for Christ Jesus had done His work on the Cross, had returned to His Father and given us the Spirit of God to know the order of grace and exist therein for ever. If Paul would have written his ideas long after or at the same time as the narrative gospels, the myth of Christ would indeed have been "invented" despite Jesus of Nazareth. But this is not so, although the historical Jesus does not explicitly say He is the Son of God (but only He is the son of man, as is to be expected). Christ hid in His human nature, merged with it, and underwent the kenotic condition to perfectly perform the task He was called to accomplish by the Father : save humankind, fallen and separated from grace by recapitulating, by means of His Divinity, human nature through His own humanity.

The work of Paul underlines Christ is Divine, Jesus of Nazareth human. The latter did not take the trouble of writing, whereas the former allowed a new order of grace to be experienced by those with hope, faith and love. The first narrative gospels are textualized fourty years after the crucifixion. For Paul, writing two decades after this event, Christian redemption emphasized the economy of the Divine Son of the Father, manifested by the Holy Spirit. He brought into perspective that the historical nature of Christ Jesus (His sinless human nature), was necessary (for soteriological reasons), but insufficient (by nature), even somewhat peripheral and "outer".

And this is precisely what historical studies confirm. About the historical Jesus, only very little is known. Even in His own circle, His Divine Person became the core of the Christian message. That He was a Jew, was only important insofar the Messiah and the "Teacher of Righteousness" (cf. the Essenes at Qumrân), fulfilled the convenant of Israel, bringing their 613 precepts back to 2 : the love of God above all and the love of the other human person as oneself.

Christianity is defined by what He accomplished for every member of the human species, namely uniting human nature as a whole in His Divine Person and making it possible for the Father to send us the Holy Spirit, who permanently calls us to be human persons, i.e. so many expression of God's unity at the "end of time", when the "Jubilee of Jubilees" is celebrated. New humans called to be deified and to deify. Part of nature, but no longer subjected to her whims. Still mortal in individual flesh, but immortal in spiritual personhood. By becoming Christ's relatives, no adverse power or sin can henceforth irreversibly separate man from grace :  truly repent and do penitence, and forgiveness is never kept aloof.

the sacramental Jesus Christ and the light of the world
Human persons are called to work together. The individual, self-contained system is doomed to fail. Only the order of grace, rooted in God Himself, is able to satisfy the need for the unconditional so rooted in human nature (in body as well as mind). Traditional solipsists are not of Christ. No individual can contain the whole cosmos, for each individual is the expression of a single, collective human nature.

The nature of personhood is participation and relation, openness to each possible other, to see oneself in the other. Hence, the sense of community ("ekklesia", church) is the natural result of Christ's sending the Spirit of the Father. Each Christian is called to be a priest.
"Come to the Lord, the living stone rejected by people as worthless but chosen by God as valuable. Come as living stones, and let yourselves be used in building the spiritual temple, where you will serve as holy priests to offer spiritual and acceptable sacrifices to God through Jesus Christ."
Peter, 22:4-5
Peter also claims we are called to participate in the Divine nature (1 Peter 1:3-4). This too points to a spirito-communal Christianity. The question is, how to vision such a community ? For Paul, it is a mystical body, with Christ as its head. Again, the spiritual nature of the experience is stressed. In the narrative gospels, Peter received from the latter the keys of the Kingdom of heaven.
"'What about you ?' He asked them. 'What do you say I am ?' Simon Peter answered : 'You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.' 'Good for you, Simon son of John !' answered Jesus. 'For this truth did not come to you from any human being, but it was given to you directly by my Father in heaven. And so I tell you, Peter : you are a rock, and on this rock foundation I will build my church, and not even death will ever be able to overcome it. I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of heaven ; what you prohibit on earth will be prohibited in heaven, and what you permit on earth will be permitted in heaven.'"
Matthew, 16:15-19.

In the liberal chronology, this statement was inserted after the destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem. Peter himself did not mention it, on the contrary. His community is a community of holy priests, not a new religious imperial order in the style of the centrist church of Rome, the later Roman Catholic Church.

Already in the first century, we see differences between Jewish Christians (cf. the Didache), the followers of Thomas, the twin brother of Jesus, the gnostic community-builder Paul, the visionary John and the centrist movement in Rome after 67 AD (from 69 AD onwards, Flavian emperors stopped persecuting Christians, and destroyed the old Jerusalem a year later). In Paul's Letters (ca. AD 50 - 60), we read of dissident churches and communities unsatisfied with their (directly elected) bishops. Some even dismissed their overseer ! To the apostles, the necessity of a unified and universal canon (of rules) must have been self-evident. Jewish Christians adhered to the itinerary of the Temple of Jerusalem and the return of Christ. From the start, and because of its spirito-communial character, Christianity faced the same problem incipient Egyptian monasticism would face centuries later : How to organize these various groups, especially in a multi-cultural setting ?

In the second century, heretics such as Montanus claimed the apostles had misunderstood Jesus Christ. The centrist bishops of the "third generation" (Clement I being their first Roman episcopal head), installed a system of religion, a church of "dead stones". To back their authority, the concept of "apostolic succession" was invented, warranted by the dead bones of Peter and Paul.

In the early second century, Christian Gnosticism became popular. Its presence prompted the Catholics to define orthodoxy and stabilize the canon of "sacred" texts (between AD 150 - 200, but universally accepted in 367). With this standard, they fought those who had made other choices (cf. Irenaeus of Lyon in Adversus haereses in 177). The Apologetics are indeed so intense because of the stronghold of the opposition. This process took more than a century to unfold, ending with the final banishing of Gnosticism by episcopalism (cf. the Nag Hammadi cache).

In the late fourth century, monasticism saw the light in Upper Egypt, and its inner vision of Christ contrasted with the urban priesthood ruled by the local bishop and his pomp. Indeed, around the same time, the library of Nag Hammadi was buried by local monks out of fear these books would be burned. This library shows that besides the canon, monks read gnostic & hermetical texts, invoking a Christ differing from the one of centrist orthodoxy (episcopalism and curialism).

Orthodoxy had been defined by the Greek and Latin Fathers of the Church and the differences between Latin and Greek churches was sealed by Roman rule (cf. Constantine and the Synod of Nicaenum of 325). But major differences, such as the Filioque, were never dissipated and continue until this day.

The visionary & gnostic John did not reject the authority of the bishop of Rome. Indeed, the problem with the centrist movements and their Latin & Greek offshoots, is their exclusive theology. From the start, a variety of movements around Jesus Christ were at work, and the fact they gravitate around an orthodox core, does not negate their variety. Even Latin Christianity has had to deal with this, and the history of liturgy proves the point : variety under unity is the seal of the Holy Spirit.
"I have said, You are gods ; and all of you are children of the Most High."Psalms, 82:6.

major sources of a theology of mysticism

Mystical theology is concerned with the immediate communion with God, communicated by the Father in the Holy Spirit. It denies the vision of the Divine essence. The nature of this communion is uncreated, and surpasses both the sensible and intelligible light.

To understand how mystical theology involves a radical departure from Hellenism and its rationality, we need to characterize the major components of its cultural context insofar as they deal with the vision or experience of God :
  • the Greek heritage : the systems of Plato and Aristotle were two outstanding summings-up of Greek thought, stressing the intellectual (noetical) approach, stripping off all accidental, worldly dross to get at the "eidos", "ousia" or essence of something, in casu : the human soul. For Plato, the soul was of Divine origin, whereas Aristotle rejected the immortality of the individual and had no need for a contemplative "way back" to the luminous world of lights. In Late Hellenism, Plotinus' Enneads presented the pinnacle of Platonic intellectual mysticism. For most if not all Christian intellectuals of the first centuries, Greek philosophy, especially Platonism, had to be surpassed, not rejected.
  • the Alexandrian gnostics : in the Delta of Egypt, Greek thought forced those native, upper class Egyptians who wished to be part of the Greek Alexandrian establishment, as well as Ptolemaic Greeks interested in creating syncretic deities & cults, to stage "Hermetism", an Egypto-Alexandrian Pagan gnosis focused on Thoth, the Greek Hermes. Likewise, under the Ptolemies, Egypt's Judaism was Hellenized (cf.Septuagint). This stimulated the emergence of a Greek exegetical movement (cf. Philo of Alexandria), purist counter-movements (cf. the Essenes) and (after the destruction of the Temple of Jeruzalem), the emergence of a Jewish gnosis, a monotheist "qabalah", which would incorporate the Pre-Socratic (Pythagorean) number symbolism based on the Decad (cf. Sepher Yetzirah & Sepher Bahir).
  • the Christian school of Alexandria : for Clement of Alexandria (ca. 150 - 215), who read the Hermetica, we pass from Paganism into faith, and then from faith we rise to gnosis, achieved by a life devoted to contemplation, for to see God is to know God. A split between the Living God and the object of Platonic contemplation is at work here. Salvation and contemplation of God are separated. For Origen (ca. 185 - 254 or 255), the human soul maintains a co-natural relationship with the Word, in so far as it keeps its reasonable being. It is the latter which make it participate in the Verb and renders it His image. The perfection of the image is the likeness and the vision of God. Returning to the vision of God in the Logos (theologia) restores the likeness and realizes the perfect union with God, who again becomes "all in all" (as before creation). This restoration makes the soul (psyche) become once again spirit (nous). Late Alexandrian theology found its most orthodox expression in the thought of Cyril of Alexandria (370 - 444). With him, the intellectual gnosis of Clement and Origin is left behind, losing touch with Platonic contemplation. Instead, deification belongs to the economy of the Holy Spirit, who makes us likenesses of the Son, the perfect image of the Father. Even the physical body partakes in this life in union with God, especially in the Eucharist. Hence, the whole human being is addressed, and not only the reasonable or intellectual part of man.
  • the Cappadocians : the distinction (absent in Origen), between the essence of God and the Father of the Trinity, is already apparent in his pupil Didymus the Blind (313 - 393). The "ousia" of the Trinity is unknowable. If the Logos is consubstantial with the Father, then the latter is no longer a simple essence or God in Himself. Basil the Great (330 - 379) underlined there is not a single object which can be known in its essence. The inaccessible "ousia" of the Trinity and its natural processions or manifesting operations ("energeia") are separated. Gregory of Nazianzus (328 - 390) contemplates we will discover God when the Godlike image, our spirit, is elevated to its Logoic Archetype, Jesus Christ, and jointed to its similar. This is the celestial Kingdom, the vision face to face and knowledge of the Trinity in the plenitude of His light. Gregory of Nyssa drew the line between the created order and God. The former is the finite unity of the sensible and intelligible order, and so true contemplation surpasses what is visible to the senses as well as the light of the intellect. When "gnosis" becomes "agape", our spirit has made the crucial difference between what is created and its eternal, infinite image. It is this difference upon which all depends.
With the emergence of the dogma of the Trinity, the mystical intellectualism of the Greeks had been overcome. There was no longer an intellectual spirituality of escape, but a complete communion of the whole human person with the Trinity. The doctrinal synthesis of the Cappadocians articulated the contrast between the triune God and His bi-polar Son (Christocentrism). These teachings became part of the canon of the early church (ideas adhered to by the community of Christians ruled by the Holy Spirit).

Two major obstacles had been overwon :
1. (external) the Pagan definitions of God : God is beyond the created order, One essence in Three Persons and in no way in need of creation or bound by necessity to create - creation is "ex nihilo", i.e. with the absence of all necessity "ex parte Dei", in other words, the result of a Divine contingency in the act of the creative Will of God - the whole of creation exists by the grace of the Will of God - God is not a "deus ex machina", nor an impersonal power of powers or principle of principles (cf.polytheism & henotheism) ;
2. (internal) the Greek intellectual experience of God : the experience of God is not restricted to the intellect alone, but addresses the whole human being. The Holy Spirit blows were He wants.
  • the school of Antioch : the piety of this school is attracted by the concrete Jesus of Nazareth of the narrative gospels. For John Chrystosom (344 - 407), the compassionate nature of God is made evident by His revelatory descent, as the work of the One Will of the Three, ending in the Incarnation of His Son, the invisible image of the Father. Manifesting Himself in the flesh as Jesus Christ, the Son revealed God while remaining hidden in His Divine Person. This "hiding" of the Divine Person should not be emphasized or viewed ontologically, for this would imply rejecting any immediate communion with God (cf. Nestorianism).
  • the ascetical literature : the contemplative way is in no way superior to the way of action, and the great ascetics of Egypt focused on the way of continual prayer and vigilance, a life of virtues and a struggle for incorruptibility, following the commandements of the gospels, in particular to love God and one's neighbour. In the communal life, the bonds broken apart in the world must be drawn together in a life in the image of the Trinity. Contemplation of the Trinity is "pure prayer". In the gnosis of intelligible beings (achieved when "apatheia" is realized), one is still held back by multiplicity. At the end, the true gnostic is delivered from simple thoughts. By pure prayer, the "nous" becomes simple and bare, filled with the light of the Trinity. These ascetics make the Trinity dwell in the soul not as He is in Himself, but according to man's capacity to receive Him. Indeed, even an open window opens but to a small part of the sky ! Christ paints, by means of the Holy Spirit, out of the substance of the ineffable Divine light, in those who adhere to Him, and in harmony with their spiritual capacity, a portrait, in His own image, of the heavenly man ;
  • the Corpus dionysiacum : in the state of union, we know God at a level higher than "nous", the intellect, for we do not know Him at all, for knowledge is limited to what belongs to the created order. God's super-essential nature remains always inaccessible, and His energies are not diminishing emanations from God, but God is fully present in them and beings participate in them in the proportion or analogy proper to each one (the water takes on the color of the glass). The whole person, not just the mind, the spirit or the intellect, enters into communion with God. But, in order to achieve, we must surpass the sensible and the intelligible, enter total ignorance ("agnosis") & then encounter the Divine delights (ecstatic ignorance). Maximus the Confessor (580 - 662) added the spirit is perfect when it possesses in super-ignorance the super-knowledge of the super-incomprehensible. The penetration of created and uncreated in Christ finds its analogy in beings who are striving to become (like) "God by grace".
In the ninth century, when the iconoclasm was finally over, and the storm caused by the differences over the Trinity (one essence in three Persons) and the nature of Christ (one Divine Person with two wills) had calmed down, the pneumatological question of the experience, vision, knowledge of God came to the fore.
  • John Damascene (675 - 749) : God can not be known ; what is said of God "ad extra", does not indicate His nature (or essence) but His attributes (personality). Communion with these distinctions is possible, but the vision "face to face" is deemed a communion with the Person of Christ alone, leaving the communion of the whole person with the triune God aside. Participation in the Divine is seeing Christ eternally, and eternally being seen by Him, source of unending joy. Deification is restricted to the Christological context ;
  • Gregory Palamas (1296 - 1359) : the core of his work is the question of the possibility of an actual communion with God, i.e. the nature of grace. Deifying grace is not the essence or "ousia" but the energy of God ("energeia"), a power and universal operation of the Trinity. Insofar as God manifests Himself and makes Himself known in these energies, i.e. in His dynamical attributes, He is Divine light. The perfect vision becomes perceptible as uncreated light, fully revealed at the end of time as the "Mystery of the Eight Day" (eschatology). It is imperceptible, yet contemplated by the eyes of the body (cf. the Transfiguration). There is no co-naturality between the intellect and God (cf. the Alexandrians). God (as a Trinity, not only as Christ) makes Himself known to the whole man, surpassing the limitations of created being (against John Damascene). He who participates in this light, becomes light, living in communion with the Trinity. This departure out of history and thus out of time, is an entrance into the eternal light of the "Eight Day", the eschatological age to come, prefigurated "in the beginning", namely with the creation of wisdom.
These essential inspirations of the Byzantine tradition show two major areas had been transformed into dogma :

1. Trinitarism : God is one essence in three Persons, and each Person is consubstantial with God, i.e. draws its essence from the Divine unity, the nature of God as He is. Thus, in essence, each of the Persons is God. As differentiations of unity, each Person has specific attributes which are unique and not shared with the others, although the Three always operate together and refer in their dynamism and differentiations to each other as well as manifesting the theo-ontological unity which is the fundamental characteristic of the One God and His "perichoresis".
2. Christology : the second Person of the Trinity, the Son of God, is God insofar as He is the perfect image of the Father, reflected back to the Father by the Holy Spirit. The dynamism of the Son of God (His process) defines three stages :
  • FIRST STAGE : the Son of God as the Divine Person of the Logos ; this stage has two substages :
    1. before creation : before the eternal act of Will to create the universe emerged, the Son of God enjoyed the Divine "perichoresis", the Divine dance of the Persons around their own essence. The Divine Person of Christ is precreational and hence before time & space ensued. The act of Will causing creation is shared by the three Persons : the Father is the intent, the Son the grand architect and the Holy Spirit the animator ;
    2. after creation : with the creation of historical time, the economies of construction (Son) and evolution (Holy Spirit) were initiated. God created the human being in His image, pushing His consciousness to emerge in matter (the likeness of God). Again two substages prevail :
    2.1 before the Fall : Edenical humanity had no need for salvation, for physical necessity, sin and death were not part of its will and communion with the presence of God was continuous, but not "face to face" ;
    2.2 after the Fall : humans on Earth are in constant conflict with themselves and their environments and only prefigurations of the right order are glimpsed and all of them perish. Powerless, man is chained by the fallen angels to become the debased and abused slave of Satan, the "prince of this world" ;
  • SECOND STAGE : the Incarnation of the unique Logos of God as Jesus Christ, the God-man : "ex nihilo", the Father sent His Son "in the flesh" to reclaim fallen human  nature from the powers of evil & darkness. In Jesus Christ, the communion between His Divine Person (as Logos) and His human nature, unsullied but accepting the human condition insofar as evil is not voluntarily willed, is complete : two natures and two wills act as one, namely in terms of the economy of the Son of the Father. Christ penetrated created nature, recuperated the human genome and opened the way for the raised human person to see God "face to face", namely through the perfect image of the Father and the deifying Holy Spirit who makes us enter the order of grace ;
  • THIRD STAGE : the Ascension of Christ, the light of the world, to His Father : the promise of the Father is fulfilled when the Resurrected Christ "ascends" the created order and the Holy Spirit "descends" upon the Christians.
3. Pneumatology : the third Person of the Trinity, proceeding from the Father (but sent by the Son), manifests the perfect image of the Father as the Son. The Spirit manifest as Divine light to the sons of Christ when the Risen Christ returns to the house of the Father. Hence, by the Son, they experience God in the uncreated energies of the Holy Spirit and are deified, to become "God by grace". Clearly, this happens "at the end", when the whole of creation has been deified or this "eschaton" is vehemently anticipated.
the schism in the universal church of Jesus Christ


Ecclesiological problems increasingly determine the preoccupations of the three dominant Christian institutions of today : the Catholic Church, the Orthodox Church and the Anglican Church. And not without reason.

Anno 2004, in the secular, socio-liberal & democratic West, an alarmingly decreasing number of Catholic priests celebrate in their quasi empty churches, while in the South, the "spiritual" hierarchy of Rome refuses to liberate the poor from the barbaric social, economical and political injustices which chain them, smilingly using Jesuit trickery to maintain the status quo, and this despite the evident wrongdoings of the owners of the lands. Worldwide, Catholic bishops are asked to defend overtaken positions on contraceptives, abortion, homosexuality, same sex marriages, euthanasia, gay parenthood and married priests. Gross suffering is tolerated and made to thrive for the sake of the principles of their lukewarm & outdated "modern" Vatican II philosophies.

In the East, the fall of communism has allowed Russian Orthodoxy to take its place (again) in the coulisse of power. The survival of faith under the joke of the atheist Sovjets is a remarkable historical fact. Will, after communism, the Orthodox Church take care for all its people ? Is this Christianity more than just the survival of the spiritual art of churches, icons, prayers and rituals ? Will their pneumatological advantage be finally implemented and the too prominent focus on sorrow be surpassed ?

Finally, the Anglicans, the protestant church of Henry VIII, after wholeheartedly having accepted women priests (Why not priestesses ?), are divided on gay bishops !

Let us concentrate on the sole and irreducible dogmatic ground for the separation of the Eastern Orthodox and the Latin Roman Church : the procession of the Holy Spirit, the true head of the true universal church of Jesus Christ.

Indeed, with the end of the Christological phase ("Who is the Son ?"), the pneumatological question : "Who is the Holy Spirit ?", caused a deepening schism between the Greek and Latin churches. The experience of God (the vision of God) was intimately linked with this issue, for who had privileged access to God and thus the authority to rule the affairs of men in His place ?

Each variant view on one of the Three Persons of the Trinity defines a different triadology and points to a fundamental, unbridgeable difference in outlook on God's operations, energies, differences, attributes, in short : God's existence (as opposed to God's essence, "ousia", "eidos" or "substantia"). If the Greek and Latin churches had been troubled concerning the Son -the "consensus catholicus" being the ideal-, they never found unity insofar as the Person of the Holy Spirit is concerned. This obstacle was and is the crucial divide, which can only be surpassed by the dogmatical refutation of one of both positions.

Both Greek and Latin traditions affirm the Holy Spirit has no name of His own, being anonymous. For both Father and Son are called "Holy" and "Spirit". The Holy Spirit has no personal character or type, and His image reveals His dynamism rather than His name.The Father has His image in His Son and the Son in the Father, while the Holy Spirit has His image in none but Himself. He conceals His invisible indefiniteness (as do Air and Fire), while Father and Son underline their positive, strong, "hypostatic" character. Both traditions also subscribe to the view the mode of origin of the Holy Spirit is "procession", while the Son is "generated", an abstract (not essential) distinction, indicative of diversity in the Trinity. But both traditions fundamentally differ on how to conceptualize this diversity, resulting in an overt, institutionalized schism.

The Catholic, Filioquist triadology, states the Holy Spirit proceeds "a Patre Filioque tanquam ab uno principio", i.e. "from the Father and the Son as from one principle". Hence, the Holy Spirit denotes a Person related to the Father and the Son in respect to what they have in common (cf. Augustine & Thomas Aquinas). The relation of the Father and the Son together serves as the basis for the Third Person. The diversity in the Trinity is deemed established by an "oppositio relationis", the logic by which the Holy Spirit proceeds from two terms together as a unity : Father and Son ("as from one principle of spiration").

Procession of the Holy Spirit "ab utroque" (from both sides, i.e. from Father and Son) presupposed relations to be the basis of the Persons. They define one pair of oppositions : the Father to the Son and the two together to the Spirit. So here, two Persons give rise to a further relation of opposition. The conflictual tensions within this triadology force it to ground the Persons in the "ousia" or essence of God, i.e. in impersonal unity. Indeed, then, and only then, does this diversity by internal relations of oppositions not divide the Trinity, reducing the triad to the dyad.

In fact, in the Latin theologies, the Trinity is surpassed (escaped) by plunging into the undifferentiated & absolutely absolute, the nature or "ousia" of God. Thus the personal character of God is made impersonal, which is (ironically) a return to Greek intellectual theology. Nature ("ousia") is anterior to the Trinity, and so the latter is the natural efflorescence of God's essential unity. By doing so, the Latins missed the outstanding feature offered by Christ's Resurrection & Ascension. They were still too fascinated by a Greek logic the Greek Fathers had long surpassed ...

In the Orthodox tradition, the Holy Spirit proceeds "ek monou tou Patros", i.e. "only from the Father". Relations are not the basis of the Trinity, but the Father is. He is the plummet of the scales, maintaining the perfect equilibrium between the "ousia" and the Trinity. He is the principle of the common outgoing (as generation & procession) of the same one essence of God. The Trinity has a common essence, and the unity of the Three Persons is part of the monarchy of the Father. The Father, who is unbegotten and without beginning, is not the Son or the Holy Spirit. The begotten Son is neither the Holy Spirit or the Father, and the Holy Spirit is neither the Father nor the Son. Apophatism (un-saying) befits mystical theology. For it is the distinction between God's essence and His Trinity which allows for a harmonious, graceful and serene triadology (one devoid of internal conflicts).

The Father is the personal principle of unity of the Trinity, the source of their common possession of the same content, of the same one essence of God. But this "ousia" of God is not subject to the Person of the Father. The Father is the basis of the common possession of the same "ousia" by the Trinity. If the Father were a logical monad, He would be identified with the essence or nature of God. But He is a Divine Person who eternally begets the Son and eternally causes the Holy Spirit to proceed, equal to Him in possession of the same essential (or superessential) nature, so they are the same nature of God, but unequal to Him regarding their mode of origin and energy (and economy). He is the cause of their equality within Himself, setting up irreversible relations of diversity. Ergo, for mystical theology, the name "Father" is superior to the name "God". The former opens the pneumatological factor, for the Father proceeds the Holy Spirit who allows us to share in the Divine life of the Trinity. The latter refers to the ever closed, incomprehensible, unknowable and ineffable "ousia" or essence of God.

The Latin monadic view of God is philosophical, and reflects the limitations of the intelligible domain. Because they are limited, mind, reason and intellect do not move out of totality ({0}) into infinity (1 + 1 + ...), out of the nameless into numbers, out of timelessness into history. The spiritual capacity of human beings -by virtue of the Divine image bestowed "in the beginning"- transcends creation. Moreover, the first and last image of God is the personal Trinity and the experience of God is the sole work of grace, i.e. the direct & personal intervention, in casu of the Person of the Holy Spirit.

These elements (transcendence, personhood and grace) mark a decisive rupture with the Late Hellenistic heritage. By accepting the Filioquist triadology of Augustine and Thomas Aquinas, the Latins Hellenized Western Christianity and created a "pagan" Christian philosophy, engendering (centuries later) the God of the philosophers, deism and atheism. Typical in all these systems is the essentialist approach of God, focusing on His "ousia", i.e. His essential unity at the expense of His Persons. By killing off the vision of God, they made the concept of God obsolete.

As Christianity has no meaning without the Son of God, manifested by the Holy Spirit and manifesting the love of the Father to humanity, Christian philosophy is impossible as long as the standards of an impersonal essentialism are used, for God is one essence in three Persons as revealed by Jesus Christ. The word "God" remains an abstract concept as long as philosophy is identified with the Late Hellenistic frame of mind.

To avoid modalism (Sabellius, ca. AD 220 saw the Persons of the Trinity as three modi of the one, impersonal, essence), the Latins introduced relations of opposition within the Trinity, but these underline God's essence rather than maintaining the crucial and pivotal balance between God's essence and His Persons, as revealed by the monarchy of the Father in the Holy Spirit, without any procession of the latter out of the Son and His economy. How can these postulated relations of opposition within the Trinity be personal, if these oppositions call for the impersonal essence of God to safeguard the unity of the Trinity (for the Persons are notthree individuals) ? In the light of the highly personal good new of Jesus Christ, this difficulty must entail the shipwreck of (neo) Thomist philosophy and the edifice of "modern" Catholic theology as a whole.

Orthodox theologians focus on the Father, for He is the source of the Trinity without that the essence of God is subject to Him. He is not the essence, because He is not the sole Person of the Godhead. The generation of the Son is a definite, defined, singular, unique eternal act. The procession of the Holy Spirit is an indefinite, undefined, multiple eternal act. Because of the totality of these "duae processiones", each Person fully shares in their common essential nature (are consubstantial), and so each Person is "God". Hence, the Son and the Holy Spirit are not a degree lower than the Father, but in essence identical. There is no subordinationism at work, for the Son and the Holy Spirit are "God" in the same way and for the same reasons as the Father is "God" (namely their common "ousia", or the Divine essence of unity of God). The monarchy of the Father conditions the personal diversity of the Three Persons and expresses their essential unity.He is the principle of principle which no man can surpass.

For the (neo) Thomists, the Holy Spirit is relation of the essence, differentiated by the logic of the dyad, submitted to the laws of numbers and relations of oppositions, which serve as a basis for the diversity of the Three Persons, confusing them with each other and/or with their common nature (the "ousia" of God). What is most unwanted, besides this conceptual confusion, is the reduction of the triad into a dynamical dyad (the opposition between Father and Son and the opposition between both together and the Holy Spirit) and the unbalance this brings into the Divine Trinity, reducing the role of the Holy Spirit, diminishing His Person. Indeed, the Latins imagine diversity as a relational conflict. This notion is projected upon the Trinity, cut into two pieces : the "fundamental" opposition between the Father and the Son and the "lesser" opposition between both and the Spirit. The impact of this turbulent "solution" is enormous ...

The Greek fathers iniate the theological discourses with the distinction between "ousia" and "hypostasis", between the essence of God in the Trinity, between what is unknowable (hidden) and what is knowable (present to our senses and our mind). The Kantian idea that our cognitive apparatus is limited and thus a priori unable to know the essence of anything (the "Ding an sich" remaining ineffable), is to be found in the writings of Basil the Great, the brother of Gregory of Nyssa. Apophatism was taken for granted ...

The second step, is the Byzantine focus on the Father, the source or origin of the two other Persons. This is the monarchy of the Father, who as principle of principle, differentiates (in operations) while uniting (in essence). He is the plummet of the scale, the pivot between "ousia" and "energeia". The Persons wholly penetrate each other (for the same common nature is shared and thus all are consubstantial) but the Three remain divided by virtue of their shared personal dynamism, mode of operation, participation or relation. The unity of the latter is guaranteed by the Father's gift of the Divine essence to the Son and the Holy Spirit, however without making the essence subject to Himself. The Father is thus the monarch of the Trinity, not of God as He Is.

The third step, is a genuine understanding of the personal dynamism of the Trinity, defined by the distinction between "generation" and "procession". Father and Son indeed share their perfect image. In a way, the Father is the Son and the Son is the Father. The balance for this mutual relationship is clear : the Holy Spirit, who only proceeds from the Father, to compensate for the latter's intimate relation with the Son. This third step is apophatic, for the essential characteristics of the Three are unknown. The two scales of the balance : the Son and the Holy Spirit are held in equilibrium by the Father, who eternally makes them possess a common Divine essence.

Lastly, it should be remarked the procession of the Holy Spirit is an infinite passage beyond the dyad, a moving away from singularity into plurality and infinity. This is not into an infinite number of persons, but the infinity of the procession of the Third Person, animating and sanctifying the human persons.

The monad (1) opens out into the dyad (2) and from there into infinity (3). There is no necessity of return to primordial unity  (3 = 1). The triad is more than just a return into the simplicity of the essence, for this simplicity is found in the absolute diversity of the Three, and not in any metaphysical need to retire in God's essence. The triad does not represent unity but unity-in-variety (compare this with the unity-in-conflict of the dyad). With the eternal procession of the Holy Spirit, eternal creativity is launched, and Divine evolution is made possible.

This procession can not be "ab utroque" because the dynamism of the Trinity is not dualistic (Father/Son versus Holy Spirit) but triadic (Father/Son, Father/Spirit & Spirit/Son). To downgrade the triad to the dyad is conflictualize theology. This is precisely what the Latin West has done, and on this crucial & confusing issue, no hotch-potch compromize is possible. Ergo, the Orthodox and Romans commune in schism and try to downplay the importance of this fact. And has Pope John Paul II not spoken against this communion ?

the imprisonment of Christian ethics


The fallen angels play an important part in the New Testament. He or they are mentioned 188 times, 62 times as "demon", 37 times as "beast", 36 times as "Satan", 33 times as "devil", 13 times as "dragon" and 7 times as "chief of demons". Although the effects of demonical action are described, we are not given any knowledge about their nature or fate, with the exception of James & Jude. InQ1, these destructive spiritual entities are not mentioned. Paul identifies them with the Pagan deities ... (1 Cor 10, 19- 21).
"Do you believe that there is one God ? Good ! The demons also believe - and tremble with fear."
James, 2:19
"As to the angels who did not stay within the limits of their proper authority, but abandoned their own dwelling place : they are bound with eternal chains in the darkness below, where God is keeping them for that great Day on which they will be condemned."
Jude 6

"God did not spare the angels who sinned, but threw them into hell, where they are kept chained in darkness, waiting for the Day of Judgement."

Peter 2:4
The New Testament remains silent about the nature of the demons, suggesting this issue was not a point of Christ's revelation. The knowledge of the difference between good and evil is approached from the side of goodness alone. The good God reveals His good news : the end of the reign of the fallen angels through the economy of the Son of God. Repent and be saved !

This merged well with Greek emanationism. Evil was defined as "privatio", the absence of being (cf. theodicy). Matter, at the bottom, was nonbeing on the edge of complete nothingness. Evil as privation "existed" only in the sense of exclusion, as the "holes" in the cheese. Evil is then unformed matter, the lowest degree separated from the One : perfection, goodness and being.
"In a system such as that of Plotinus, the status of the principle of evil is unclear. On the one hand it is the lowest order of being or lacks being altogether. Ontologically it scarcely exists. But when the moral element is introduced, it is possible to conceive of a being of high ontological status making a choice for evil. This idea, although an implicit possibility in Plotinus, was never an explicit option for him, but it eventually became part of Christian tradition."
Russell, J.B. : The Devil, Cornell University Press - London, 1977, p.166.

The Latins incorporated evil as privation in their Christian philosophy, as it were imprisoning Christian ethics by Hellenistic thought (cf. "soma seima", the body as the "prison" of the soul) and Greek ascetism (cf. Paul and Peter on the body and its passions). By denying evil its proper place
, the fallen angels remained a priori outside their theological scope (except eschatological), while the presence of evil in this world remains undeniable (cf. Chaostheory).

Demonology is an integral part of the narrative gospels. For example : Christ's infernal descent to ransom His souls. In hell, He did not save the demons (for His economy did not include them), but He liberated the just but powerless human souls these fallen angels had chained (by means of the unfulfilled economy of bloody offering) and which He, as the fulfiller of the law, forgave. Demonology sheds light on the ways evil works by nature to entrap heart, mind, passions and body. For the demonologist, fallen angels are positive entities, not holes in the cheese. They are a perverted positive nature. 

In the West, the demonology has been largely ascetical (monastic), not theological (catechetical), although the existence of Satan and his demons was and is acknowledged. Because of this blatant ignorance (the dogma of the "mysterium inequitatis"), even Divine angelology seemed suspicious (cf. the fate of John Dee in 1555).

In the last century, Protestant theologians ousted the devil from the exegetical plane, delegating the evil angel to psychopharmacology. Demons were complexes and possession was a form of psychosis (schizofrenia & manic-depressive disorder). Jesus Christ and His good saints had a multiple personality disorder in common ! Christian historians concede the "prince of the world" was a personalizing projection of what we dislike in ourselves, but especially in others. Depth-psychology reduced Satan to a psychomorph phenomenon. His myth was nothing more than the expression of one of the archetypes of the human collective unconscious, the principle of evil itself (Jung). Away with the religious image of a powerful, yet fallen angelical being, an anti-god who looks down from his majestic material throne, horned with sin and death, enjoying to be fixated in his own evil will, which is the sadistic cause of endless suffering by inversion of what is good.
"All reservations considered, however, I do believe in the existence of a personification and principle of evil, call it what you will."Russell, J.B. : The Devil, Cornell University Press - London, 1977, p.260.

On the one hand, Orthodox theologians accept the notion of privation (evil as the absence of being) and thus share in the problems. On the other hand, they stress the personal character of the fallen angels. There is no evil being, but only the evil will to bring about what is wrong. Hence, evil only exists in the will (of demons and fallen humans). The evil of demons is fixated, whereas the evil willed by humans exists when it is done. Only through sedimentation can human evil endure.

Satan was the first of the fallen angels to turn away from God. He dragged a third of heaven down in his fall. Being a person created by God, this archdemon exists as human persons exist. So just as humans, Satan and his gang belong to the created order of being (for absolute nonbeing is a mental construction). Out of ill will, the devil creates evil effects which he may call his own. Because in essence the dragon is an angelic, spiritual person, he is intelligent. And it is the darkness of his intelligence which defies any attempt to negate the existence, the personality and the economy of pain of "the Beast 666".

Today, the argument of evil (Why evil, if God is good ?) is considered to be a strong atheist reasoning. And it is. As philosophy can not accept demonology, theodicy (or the attempt to explain in rational terms why there is evil in God's creation) is not able to explain the suffering of the innocent. Without the order of grace, the savage laws of the natural order (of the demons) can not be placed in a spiritual context of continuous emancipation and evolution. This is the impotence of reason of which Hellenism was already the victim.

God, in His absolute freedom, created angels & humans as persons. This implied the command of enduring goodness and the gift of free will. For as God created the "other" than God, there had to come into being a goodness excelling through freedom. Because creation has a Divine origin, the deification of creation is its final end. Meanwhile, evolution calls created beings to contribute to this deification of creation, the "Mystery of the Eight Day".

the redemption of Satan ?

"How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning ! How art thou cast down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations ! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exhalt my throne above the stars of God ; I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north : I will ascend above the heights of the clouds ; I will be like the most High."
Isaiah, 14:12-14

For the Christian ascetics, monastics & apocalyptists, the bankrupting economy of the demons is invoked to explain the massive presence of wickedness in this world. Indeed, besides the sedimentations of human evil, which is the cause of enduring moral evil, demons sustain the "natural" evils of this world and cause -to satisfy their sadistic pleasure- the just & innocent to suffer. Through the five unprotected gates offered by the frailty of human nature, they bestow the feeling of spatiotemporal and geosentimental material (not spiritual) superiority to their willing human slaves, to wit : unsavoury sexuality, a perverted lust for power and the gratification of greed, assisted by causing, witnessing and taking great pleasure in abject poverty, famine & infamous pain.

The body of man as well as his mind are the chosen targets of the devil and his hords. Materialism and individual indifference are the winning tickets to block out the Divine image in the human person. The active cooperation of humans with demons is the cause of the sedimentation of the evil intent in stable forms, of which the ultimate frenzy is the establishment of the kingdom of Satan on Earth (is this a ruthless global capitalism ?).

In all of this, the Passion of Christ remains the outstanding example of the extent of the sardonic principle : even the Lamb of God is denied, trampled upon, humiliated, rediculed, tortured and slowly murdered. Because of the symbols of Christ concerning Satan (the desert, exorcism, banishing, driving out, rebuking, etc.) and the definition of evil as "privatio boni", an in-depth theological approach of malice has not been possible in Christological terms, and the complete dispensation of the Trinity for humanity (both regarding his nature and his person) not made part of theology. Indeed, the churches have focused on their Christological foundation, the objective basis of revelation, and disregarded personal multiplicity, their subjective root.

In line with the Latin tradition, the mystic Ruusbroec wrote that the unity of Satan is eternally broken, while his archangelical beauty remained part of God's thought (his despair defined his "vanquished" and eternally damned state). Why assume Satan's ill will "broke" his being ? Can the joy of vengeance upon the wicked be harmonized with the good news arrived with Jesus Christ ?

"But to you who hear, I say : love your enemies, bless those who curse you, and pray for those who mistreat you."
Q1, 4.

Besides the eschatological problem (the nature of the Last Day), "privatio boni" confuses the ontological order with a moral (voluntaristic) choice. Even in the Essene Books of Enoch, the concept of the Day of the End can not be reconciled with eternal, absolute division (with the dyad instead of the monad or the triad), although the spirits of evil were kept apart and finally destroyed.
"And in those days shall the Earth also give back that which has been entrusted to it, and Sheol also shall give back that which it has received, and Hell shall give back that which it owes."
Books of Enoch, Second Parable, LI,1. 
Diabology conjures a diabolical psychology in which Satan's ill will is opposed to his undeniable angelic origin (causing the devil to be internally split or schizoid). And this opposition between the Divine and the fixation in ill will lasts as long as this ill will lasts. Hence, emancipation is possible ... Is therapy ? Can the devil be psychoanalyzed and healed ?
"Que Satan existe, la question est résolue de manière affirmative part la foi chrétienne. (...) Le développement de l'esprit critique et l'avènement de la psychiatrie ont provoqué une indulgence nécessaire. L'homme pervers est-il vraiment coupable de son intensité maléfique ? Peut-on toujours se dépasser ? (...) Après la présentation de la thérapeutique elle-même, une sorte de psychoanalyse du diable à travers les formes sera pratiquée."
Satan, Études Carmélitaines, Desclée de Brouwer, 1948, pp.9-10.
The order of grace shields, but grace is not a "deus ex machina", and so can not be commanded or anticipated by a rational system alone. It exists through hope, faith and love. Demonology enables us to understand the mechanism of the evil one. Can a demonology lead to the restoration of Satan ? Is Satan-saving possible ? Does his eternal lapidation benefit humanity and creation more than the attempt to turn him around ? These questions can not be answered on the basis of the objective dispensation of God, i.e. the economy of the Son of God Incarnate, Jesus Christ.
"Well, then, pay to the Caesar what belongs to the Caesar, and pay God what belongs to God."Matthew, 22.

Only the Alexandrians have argued Satan must be able to change his will. Clement of Alexandria admitted the devil had sinned in the beginning and had persisted in his sin ever since. But the limitless nature of God's mercy as well as the indelibility of free will suggested to him that Satan had retained the capability of repentance at any time. Otherwise, Divine mercy would not be limitless. Moreover, his ontology forsaw the ultimate fulfillment of the potential goodness on the part of every created thing, in accord with the "all in all" formula. Finally, at the end of time (on the "Eight Day"), Christ would wish to extend his redemption to all. Clement was rather unclear on these points, and it was Origen who developed the notion of the ultimate return of all beings, Satan included (the so-called "apocatastasis").

For Origen, the devil existed because he was made by God. Insofar as he gives himself completely to the evil in which he (out of lust & pride) willingly fixates his iron will, his demoniac nature exists as the outcome of the free-will choice to do the wrong thing and celebrate it.

Satan's evil exists in this ill will. Now Origen reasoned that however much we may sin, humans and demons alike, in the course of time, God will grant us such desire for repentance ("metanoia"), eventually letting us make the good choice. His contemporaries rejected his theory, because Origen saw salvation as recurrent cycles. Later authors, as well as the canons of the Latin Church, rejected Origen's mutability of the demonical choice, proclaimed the eternity of Satan's separation from God and therewith underlined the impossibility of a restoration or deification of creation, not even on the Last Day (when heaven and hell abide for all of eternity). In the same movement, the order of grace, God's Glory, was deemed created ...

By which dispensation (or economy) may God give the demons this desire for repentance ? For mystical theology, there is only one dispensation, namely the economy of the Holy Trinity, which is accomplished by two Divine Persons brought into the world by the Father, who is the source giving these Two Himself as their common nature, the ineffable essence ("ousia") of God. The economy of the Son is of Redemption, the pre-condition of the economy of the Holy Spirit, initiated with the mystery of Pentecost, i.e. after the work of Redemption was finished.
"Jesus drank the wine and said, 'It is finished !' Then he bowed his head and died."
The Holy Spirit sent by the Son has a double function : He manifests the Son and sanctifies each person in a unique way.

As He who manifests the Son, the Holy Spirit participates in the economy of the Son, establishing the objective head of the universal church of Jesus Christ. Historically, the centrist churches have always stressed this canonical, dogmatical, scriptoral & liturgical manifestation of the economy of the Holy Spirit, Hisobjective side. The "processio ab utroque" of the Filioquists serves the same purpose, for the Holy Spirit administers the relational oppositions of Father and Son.

To the Greeks, the Holy Spirit, within His objective dispensation, is the Spirit of Jesus. He proceeds from the Father alone (and is sent by the Son) and His dispensation is thus vaster. When one adheres to the common Christocentric conception, there is (paradoxically) a dogmatic disregard for the human person as a unique communicant with the Holy Spirit and His gifts (cf. mystical experience & prophesy). The constant reformation of theology has thus been made difficult by the traditions. Because the redemptive economy of the Son is otherworldly, both Greek and Latin soteriologies have incorporated a disregard for the natural world. This led to a sacramental determinism, an Divine automaton "de opere operato".

In the latter capacity, the Holy Spirit manages a larger dispensation, namely the deification of all beings made after the image and towards the likeness of God, i.e. persons. Who is a person ? In relation to individual nature, personhood seems to be this sublime quality of the individual, namely his perfection. But this is answering the question What is a person ? Such an sensible and/or intelligible approach would put personalism on its head, for persons are not individual gods (excellent individual qualities & relations). Indeed, there is no element in individual nature (not even the "nous" and its faculties of self-determination & liberty), which would be able to root the full dignity of the person, for personhood is not something, but someone. The someone of my person is called to commune with the Person of the Holy Spirit distinct from but not in conflict with the communion of the church(es) of Jesus Christ. A person is distinct from his or hers individual, biopsychological nature, while still containing it. The person constantly exceeds the nature of the individual andecstacizes it. It belongs to the subjective side of the dispensation of the Holy Spirit to commune with all human persons at the same time. This is the "mystical spirit" of the "mystical body" of the Christians living on Earth.

The dispensation of the Trinity is one economical activity accomplished by the Son and the Holy Spirit together. As both come forth from the Father, the differences in these economies are independent insofar as their operation is concerned, but effective and distinct. The Son Incarnates to incorporate our single human nature dispersed in individuals into the united humanity of Christ as the Logos of God. Baptism is conformity to His economy, the objective sign of adherence to the economy of the Son Incarnate. The Holy Spirit manifests the Son and sanctifies our persons, so that we may become God by Divine grace, not individual gods by our own right, but Divine persons by the Holy Spirit.

In the East, the part of the Holy Spirit, the head of the true universal church of Jesus Christ, is not reduced to that of an auxiliary, deputy or assistant of the Son and His economy. Proceeding from the Father alone (but sent by the Son), the Holy Spirit and His personal economy, although manifesting the Son and sent into the world after the Son, is vaster than the economy of the Son. His pneumatic dispensation, or the distribution of God's eternal treasures by the Holy Spirit, is universal and has created persons a such as its object, while the Son's economy -Incarnating as a human being- involves a dispensation towards fallen human nature alone.

In this universal economy of the Holy Spirit, created persons of all possible states & stations are invited to realize deification freely. This in order to fulfill the final cause of creation : that God may be "all in all" (final and infinite nonduality).

This ultimate vision of redemption, which is eschatological, is the "mystery of the eight day", the union with God of (a) the individual human natural souls ransomed by Jesus Christ and (b) the created persons that answered the call of the Holy Spirit to share in the Divine nature of the Holy Trinity.

BOOK 1 : THE HISTORICAL ENOCH


Editorial Remarks
In the second half of the first century AD, the author of the New Testament Letter of Jude refers to a prophecy of Enoch, and quotesBE 1:9. In the same period, Rabbi Simeon ben Jochai pronounces a curse upon those who believe the supposed main theme of the writings of Enoch : the materiality of Watchers who fell out of lust (not pride as in Isaiah 14:12-15).

The book was banned, cursed and forgotten for more than a thousand years, to find its way back two centuries ago. According to hearsay, the Ethiopic Church (the keeper of the legendary Ark of the Convenant at Aksum) had preserved a copy of the book in its Ethiopic Bible. In 1773, three copies were brought to Europe and in 1821 Richard Laurence produced the first English translation : 1 Enoch.

The Ethiopic Enoch is in Sabean script, derived from the South Arabian script, in which the earliest inscriptions in Ethiopia were made. Around the 4th century AD, a new feature was developed distinguishing it from South Arabian. Vowels were "written" by adding strokes to the consonant following somewhat regular patterns. It is written from left to right (versus right to left in Hebrew and Arabic). Each sign of the script is a syllable (consonant plus vowel), except the inverted 'e', which represent either the consonant plus the middle central vowel or no vowel at all.  The letter order of Ethiopic is quite similar to South Arabian. Sabean script was used for the liturgical language.

In 1912, Charles made his famous translation. Its introduction, translation and footnotes are to a large extent still useful. The most recent translation was done by Black in 1985, to be complemented by Caquot's French version (1987).

The present text (translated from Aramaic into Greek) was written during the second century BC and remained popular for at least five hundred years. The turning point of opinions came in the fourth century AD. The earlier Christian Fathers and Apologists had given Enoch canonical weight (Tertullian calls his books "Scripture"). But by now, theology felt uncomfortable thinking some of us are demons materialized in the bodies of humans ...

Apparently, the earliest Ethiopic manuscript was made from a Greek codex found in the winter of 1886/1887 in Akhmîm (Panopolis), containing the first 32 chapters of the Ethiopic Enoch. This Greek text was itself a copy of an earlier Aramaic text (Aramaic fragments were found in cave 4 at Qumrân). The date of the original writing upon which the Qumrân copies were based is unknown. Some scholars consider a third century BC to be appropriate, if not earlier. Many of them concede Enoch's writings to have very old roots (Genesis ?).

The Ethiopic Books of Enoch contain five distinct books and a few fragments interpolated by the editors. One cannot determine whether these books were considered a unity, nor when the order was fixed. These books were grouped together on account of their common authorship and corresponding set of motives.

Other fragments and apocryphal books have been attributed to Enoch, suggesting the Enochian tradition was larger than the material found in the Ethiopic Bible (cf. the Qumrân Book of Jubilees and the Slavonic 2 Enoch, the Book of the Secrets of Enoch, dated first century AD, based on Greek, Hebrew or Aramaic manuscripts). In chapter 68 of the latter book, Enoch tells us he wrote 366 books, but scholars agree 1 Enoch is the most important document in Enochian literature. My studies are foremost based on1 Enoch.

The dates of the five books of 1 Enoch given below are approximate, and based on paleographical evidence complemented by an historical-critical interpretation.

They provide a kind of ad quem date :
  1. The Book of Watchers or The First Vision of Enoch (BE 1 - 36) is the oldest book, predating the present redaction of Daniel, with a terminus ad quem fixed at 170 BC ;
  2. The Book of ParablesBook of SimilitudesParables of Enochor The Second Vision of Enoch (BE 37 - 71, divided in 38 - 44, 45 - 57 and 58 - 69 or First, Second and Third Parable), written in the first century BC ;
  3. The Astronomical BookThe Book of the Course of the Heavenly Luminaries (BE 72 - 82), written at the beginning of the second century BC ;
  4. The Book of DreamsThe Dream-Visions (BE 83 - 90), written between the outbreak of the Maccabean revolt and the death of Judas Maccabeus, or 165 - 161 BC ;
  5. The Apocalypse of WeeksTen Weeks Apocalypse (BE 93, 1-10 & 91, 11-17), written in the pre-Maccabean period (between 175 and 167 BC).
Apocalyptic Literature
"
And I Enoch, alone saw the vision, the ends of all things : and no man shall see as I have seen."
BE, Book of Watchers, XIX.2-3.

ascetism and anti-Hellenism

Outside the canonical scriptures, the Books of Enoch are the most notable extant apocalyptic composition. They belong to the apocalyptic literature written between 200 and 150 BC, which continued to flower until 100 AD (cf. the Apocalypse of John). The earliest portions of Enoch's writings belong to this period and were pseudepigraphic.

Apocalyptic literature elucidates the mindset of the Jewish counter-movements at work in the deserts of Israel, in particular the Essenes at the Dead Sea. These revolutionary brothers attempted a return to the peculiar fate of the "people of God". The literature of the Essenes at Qumrân shows a purist move in favor of the spiritual standards of Judaism, lost under the pressure of Hellenism. These Jews considered the Temple of Jerusalem and its Great Sanhedrin as an aberration aborting the true intentions of God.

"The wicked watches out for the righteous and seeks to slay him. The Lord will not abandon him into his hand or let him be condemned when he is tried."
Commentary on Psalms, IV, cave 4, 4Q171.

Indeed, politically, the Jews were not in charge, but foreign Roman polytheists were. The latter did not sanction the Temple, and allowed it to thrive under the titulary of Rome. The Kingdom of God was petrified and localized. For traditional Zionists, this very idea was blasphemy. Their dream was clear :
"O Zion, rejoice greatly ! Rejoice all you cities of Judah ! Keep your gates ever open that the hosts of the nations may be brought in. Their kings shall serve you and all your oppressors shall bow down before you ; they shall lick the dust of your feet."
The War Rule, XIX, cave 4, 1QM.
The Hellenization of Judaism is a process starting in Ptolemaic Egypt (305 - 30 BC). Ptolemy I Soter (367/6 - 283/2) invited Jewish scholars to translate the sacred texts of the Jews living in Egypt into Greek, especially Alexandria. The same for native Hermopolitan theology (Thoth = Hermes), resulting in the Corpus Hermeticum.

The Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Pentateuch, was the culmination of this intention. But, the Jewish scholars involved kept the secret of secrets of Jewish thought for their sanctuaries, and translated "Elohim" as "Theos", thereby reducing a plural word to a singular, eclipsing the bi-polarity of the Name of God (or : "YHVH Elohim"). Even Philo of Alexandria 
(ca.25 BC - ca.50 AD) considered this translation as divinely inspired ...
the intent of the Apocalypse
Apocalyptic thought expresses the hope in the end God will make all things right. For the Zionists, and also for Enoch, this meant the coming of the Messiah and the restoration of the kingdom of Israel. This hope crashed against the Roman troops, destroying Jerusalem and annihilating the Temple completely (70 AD). For the second time, the Jews were dispersed, and their sacred texts nearly completely annihilated.

Apocalyptic literature was a theme in early Christian thought, because the Jews of the Church of Jerusalem were convinced Jesus Christ was the Messiah who had inaugurated the Messianic kingdom. He had broken the chains of the old dispensations and introduced a new spiritual economy. A new era had dawned, and the Roman Church was the successor of these revolutionary Jewish movements. No longer was God's covenant limited to the "chosen people". In Christ, humanity as a species had been saved.

Other-worldly forces play a central role in the visions of the apocalyptists. They hope the new order or the reconstitution of things and society according to the plan of God, will be triggered by the supernatural, i.e. by a direct intervention of God and His ministers and messengers, the angels. This hope is ardent and intensive because it shines forth from the background of dark despair and the fact of the triumph and prosperity of the wicked. There is no hope for the world as it is. There is no remedy, only destruction. If the good is to triumph, it must be in a new world. The day of tribulation after the Messianic kingdom has come, is the opening act of the Apocalypse, and the revelation of the New Age of the Eight Day the only hope left after the Day of the End is over.

Despairing of the world around them, these authors centred their hope upon the world to come. The latter is not beyond this world, but immanent. In the New Age, the righteous come to their own, and evil finds no place to subsist. This hope is based not upon human endeavours, all polluted and worthless, but on the plan of God. Indeed, the whole, natural course of the world, from beginning to end, both as regards physical changes, the history of nations or the fate of a single individual, is in every respect predetermined by God in His plan. The latter can be understood by reading God's signs, His tablets, the heavenly luminaries or the residues of His original Edenic intent. These signs aid us to determine when these things will come to pass, and righteousness will triumph.

Divine predetermination does not cancel the side-tracking of the Divine plan. The presence of demons and fallen humanity evidence this clearly ; God tolerates evil. Indeed, only the free will of the creature is able to temporarily negate God's master plan for His creation and thus invite evil in this world. If God would not allow this, He would not have created a creature with a freedom other than His own, and its return to the house of the Father would not be out of freedom, but out of necessity. However, some natural necessities remain, and the Apocalypse is one of them. God will not allow His creation to be subjugated forever.

Human despair is of man's own doing, for the natural course of events always tends towards the greater good willed by God before all time and beyond creation itself. Moreover, only God is able to change this situation. For the chains creatures have put on themselves are too heavy to be broken unaided. The old, demoniac economy wants slavery without end, suffering upon suffering, blasphemy, injustice and impurity as a lifestyle. The only history of this dispensation being more pain, misery and permanent humiliations. Fallen humanity invited these demons and the latter taught them the chaos of sin and solitude. Once chained, their souls are powerless to free themselves.

Because of God's signs, the apocalyptists devote much time to astronomy, astrology & qabalah (ironically, the latter is based on Greek Hermetism). Once the hidden things of God understood, they are "revealed". With their prophetic powers, the vision & voice of God, they look into the deep things of His Law behind the physical laws and hope to be able to measure the significance of what had happened in the past, what is happening in the present, and what could happen in the future.

Above all, by knowing when the world ends, they can put into perspective the consummation towards which creation has been tending from the beginning. Applying this to the present, makes them into strong advocates of God's goodness as well as warners against the wickedness of the fallen angels, who are bound to fail.

Chapter 1
The First Vision : the Book of Watchers

the opening act : the demons triumph

"It was faith that kept Enoch from dying. Instead, he was taken up by God, and nobody could find him, because God had taken him up : before he was taken up he had this testimony, that he pleased God."
Hebrews 11:5
Because the Lord of Spirits (God) was pleased with Enoch, he saw the hidden secrets of His plan and realized the inevitable character of the natural course God ordains. This knowledge is a blessing for the elect and righteous living the "day of tribulation", i.e. the Day of the End between by the Messianic kingdom and the New Age of the Eight Day.

The opening act of the unfolding Apocalyptic drama is the situationbefore the advent of the Teacher of Righteousness, the Elect One who removes all ungodliness. Initially there is purity, but the fall of a company of Watchers initiated sin and evil.
Pieter Bruegel I (ca.1525/30 - 1569)
The Fall of the Rebel Angels - 1562
God gives visions opening the eyes of His favorites, enabling the latter to see, and -with the aid of the holy angels- encounter the Holy One in heaven face to face. He hears, sees and understands what will come to pass for future generations. Is there a better guide ? Enoch's knowledge benefits humanity.
Enoch's revelations identify the ultimate spiritual cause of evil : the fallen Watchers, i.e. angels who left heaven, fell and by doing so lost their holiness and became demons. 

"Jesus answered them : 'I saw Satan fall like lightening from heaven. Listen ! I have given you authority, so that you can walk on snakes and scorpions and overcome all the power of the Enemy, and nothing will hurt you. But don't be glad because the evil spirits obey you ; rather be glad because your names are written in heaven."
Luke 10:18-20
These demons fell to fornicate with the "daughters of men". They became  demons out of lust. In this way they could incarnate as human beings, but not to share with us our common human nature. These angelical, spiritual beings left their place, dislocated themselves and introduced cacophony in God's harmony of the spheres. These demons quake when the Son of Man, the Elect of the eternal God treads upon the Earth, and great fear and trembling seizes them.
"And the high mountains shall be shaken, and the high hills shall be made low, and shall melt like wax before the flame. And the earth shall be wholly rent in sunder, and all that is upon the earth shall perish, and there shall be judgement upon all men."
BE, Book of Watchers, I.6-7.
But with the righteous, the Messiah makes peace, and he will protect the elect, while those with impure mouth have spoken proud and hard words find no mercy and no salvation. The division is absolute : on the one side the elect, who shall inherit the Earth and never sin again, and on the other side the lovers of demons, who hate God and His plan. This is a black and white logic, a way of light versus darkness. The New Age shall ensue and our present order of creation shall end.

The demons realize the kingdom of hell on Earth by swearing an oath and binding themselves never to abandon their defilement of the human race through sexuality (engendering monsters eventually eating humans), enchantments (black magic) and teaching a panoply of sins. But "as men perished, they cried, and their cry went up to heaven"(VIII.4).

Four archangels looked down from heaven and saw the bloodshed : Raphael (who is over the spirit of men), Michael (who is set over the best part of humanity and over chaos), Gabriel (who is over Paradise and the serpents and the Cherubim) and Uriel (who is over the world and the Tartarus). They interceded before the Lord of Spirits, and the Most High, Holy and Great God spoke and instructed them to descend, heal the Earth and bind the demons to the end of all generations.

"And then shall all the righteous escape, and shall live till they beget thousands of children, and all the days of their youth and their old age shall they complete in peace."
BE, Book of Watchers, X.17.
act two : the petition refused
Enoch is called by the heavenly Watchers (the holy angels remaining "in place") to declare to those who have left heaven the great destruction they have brought upon the Earth. So he goes to Azazel, the leader of these demons, explaining him a severe sentence has gone forth against him and his gang. But Azazel asks Enoch to draw up a petition for them,for he wants to be forgiven. Enoch does so and falls asleep. In a dream, visions fall down upon him. He sees the reprimand awaiting the demons. As long as (this) time lasts, they will never be forgiven !

God explains Enoch how Watchers should intercede for men, and not men for them. Because they fell, the demons reversed everything. They wish to be worshipped as God, while they are the ones to worship Him ! They ask Enoch to intercede, while they are the ones created to do so ! The demons have lost their own natural way and caused evil to hurt humanity, both physically (as they have demoniac offspring mingling with other human beings) as mentally (they teach the mindset to sin). They were formely spiritual beings, living the eternal life, and immortal forever. But because of their fall, they are evil spirits incarnate. And their eschatological situation is totally hopeless.
William Blake (1757 - 1827)
Satan in His Original Glory - ca.1805
"Thou Wast Perfect Till Iniquity Was Found in Thee"
So God answers Enoch with the words :

"Say to them therefore : 'You have no peace.'"

BE
Book of Watchers, XVI.4.
act three : the journeys
Enoch journeys through the four parts of the Earth and the Sheol, the Jewish hell.

"And Uriel said to me : 'Here shall stand the angels who have connected themselves with women, and their spirits, assuming many different forms, are defiling mankind, and shall lead them astray into sacrificing to demons as gods. Here shall they stand still, till the day of the great judgement in which they shall be judged till they are made an end of."
BE, Book of Watchers, XIX.1.
The Sheol is a place were the demons and the sinners are gathered together and locked till the Day of the End dawns, consistent with the principle : What chains is chained. This hell is therefore a place of isolation, a desert of negative nothingness, a void in which spirits outside the natural cycle of creation, but not outside creation itself, are kept for recycling on the Day of the End. They no longer participate in the natural cycle of birth, death and rebirth, but experience a finite and timebound void, lasting as long as the multiverse lasts (at present reckoned at 30 billion years).

The "accursed valley" is for those who are damned as long as this world has time. The Day of the End brings them -at last !- the spectacle of righteous judgement. Their spirits are defragmented, and their energy, by nature neutral but perverted by their active & passive negativities, returns to the zero-point. By this zeroing, the pure, angelical energy-differential is liberated and may again constitute positive being (in the New Jerusalem).

"
And after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree."
John, 7:1

In the four cardinal directions of the Earth (West, East, North and South), Enoch sees the work of the perfect economy of God. The Lord ordained His creation to be full of goodness and plenty. So the natural necessities of the Apocalypse command, for irrespective of the might of evil, at the end of the Day of the End, only goodness, beauty and truth endure, and the New Age unfolds on a higher level of the many "houses" God gives to His creatures.
"
And as often as I saw, I blessed always the Lord of Glory who has wrought great and glorious wonders, to show the greatness of His work to the angels and to spirits and to men, that they might praise His work and all His creation : that they might see the work of His might and praise the great work of His hand and bless Him for ever."
BE, Book of Watchers, XXXVI.4.

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If creatures are called to return to God who created them, then they must possess the freedom to do so. This ability to choose is the formidable gift of God, who decides to allow a freedom other than Himself to come into existence. Indeed, without the radical otherness of the multiverse, God's work would be an act of despotism, a duplication of Himself, reducing the world to a simulacrum, a shadowy and deceptive pseudo-reality, in essence non-being. Such is the lot of all philosophies mechanizing God's Act of Creation. God is the unity of three Personalities, and this personal hypostasis, wholly transcendent, freely and without necessity creates another freedom.

The origin of evil, of the freedom of slavery and the demoniac economy is the choice for a cruder state of existence, a reality seemingly farther away from the transcendent. This application of a non-determined power of intent and action to a less exhalted state of being, is the first cause of evil, envisioned as a "fall". A company of heavenly Watchers are the first beings making such a bad choice. Not because of pride, but, as Enoch underlines, because of lust, desire, erotism and sexuality. Humans had already been created after the image and towards the likeness of God, a spark of which remains in all human beings, irrespective of their individuals characteristics and common (fallen) nature. Theirs was the Paradise of Eden.

According to Enoch, the demons had intercourse with the "daughters of men" and an evil race ensued, situating the moral battle in humanity itself : the children of the Light versus the seed of darkness. This distinction is also found in Qumrân spirituality, and is typical for traditional pre-Christian Jewish piety. In the same line of thought, the battle can not be won by the humans themselves. Divine intercession is asked for and given by the holy angels in the form of angelic interventions. These put one major event to the fore : the coming of the Elect One, the Righteous, the Anointed One, the Son of the Lord of Spirits. The same expectation is found at Qumrân :

"And then at the time of Judgement the Sword of God shall hasten, and all the sons of His truth shall awake to overthrow wickedness ; all the sons of iniquity shall be no more."
The Thanksgiving Hymns, 1QH, VI.
This Teacher of Righteousness, Sword of God and Messiah extends his hand over the first-fruits of the two crucial metaphors of life eternal since Melchisedek : bread & wine.
"And when they shall gather for the common table, to eat and to drink new wine, when the common table shall be set for eating and the new wine poured for drinking, let no man extend his hand over the first-fruits of bread and wine before the priest ; for it is he who shall bless the first-fruits of bread and wine, and shall be the first to extand his hand over the bread. Thereafter, the Messiah of Israel shall extend his hand over the bread, and all the congregation of the community shall utter a blessing, each man in the order of his dignity."
The Messianic Rule, 1QSa.
The distinction between the Messianic kingdom and the New Age is explicit. Christian apocalyptists will thematise this, and the "thousand years" John sees between these two eschatological events makes room for an extremely fierce battle between the reinforced children of light (blessed by the Messiah & His kingdom) and the offspring of demons (on the Day of the End locked away in the abyss).
"In those days when He hath brought a grievous fire upon you, Whither will ye flee, and where will ye find deliverance ? And when He launches forth His word against you, Will you not be affrighted and fear ? And all the luminaries shall be affrighted with great fear, and all the earth shall be affrighted and tremble and be alarmed. And all the angels shall execute their commands, and all shall seek to hide themselves from the presence of the Great Glory, and the children of earth shall tremble and quake ; and ye sinners shall be accursed for ever, and ye shall have no peace."BE, Miscellaneous section, CII.1-3..
This battle ends with the destruction of the "old" house by the Elect One. The Day of the End brings the annihilation of the four pillars of the old multiverse. The New Age is a completely new order of time & space happening "after" the final closure of our world. And the key figure is the Anointed One, the Son of the Lord of Spirits. He returns at the End of Time to judge the old world.
"Behold, I make all things new."
John, 22:5
What to think of the notion of fallen angels taking on the form of human bodies ? This Enochian teaching made Enoch accursed among Jews and Christians alike. Christian ecclesiastical angelology remains opposed to the Enochiana, while Rabbi Jesus was clearly inspired by Enoch and the teachings of the Qumrân-people.

Chapter 2
The Second Vision : the Three Parables

first Parable : the rule of the Lord of Spirits
The elect works of the Righteous One, the Messiah, hang upon the Lord of Spirits (God). When he appears, the secrets of the righteous are revealed and sinners punished.
"And the people stood beholding. And the rulers also with them derided him, saying, He saved others ; let him save himself, if he be the Christ, the chosen of God."
Luke, 23:35

In this parable, the "Elect One" is mentioned, and each time, the extraordinary relationship between him and the Lord of Spirits is underlined :

"
For the Lord of Spirits has caused His light to appear on the face of the holy, righteous and elect."
BE, Parables, First Parable, XXXVIII.4.

"And in that place mine eyes saw the Elect One of righteousness and of faith, and I saw his dwelling-place under the wings of the Lord of Spirits."
BE, Parables, First Parable, XXXIX.6a-7a.

The Lord of Spirits bestows upon Enoch a prophesy of the coming judgement, especially for the kings and mighty ones on the Earth. He also gets to see the abode of the righteous, continually praising God. In His Presence are the four Archangels & companies of other angels. Later apocalyptists take this vision of heaven for granted (cf. John, 4:2-11). Here, he learns some of the secrets of heaven, in particular the task of Michael, Raphael, Gabriel and Phanuel (?) (more likely Uriel is meant).

"And I heard voices of those four presences as they uttered praises before the Lord of glory. The first voice blesses the Lord of Spirits for ever and ever. And the second voice I heard blessing the Elect One and the elect ones who hang upon the Lord of Spirits. And the third voice I heard pray and intercede for those who dwell on the Earth and supplicate in the name of the Lord of Spirits. And I heard the fourth voice fending off the Satans and forbidding them to come before the Lord of Spirits to accuse them who dwell on the Earth."
BE, Parables, First Parable, XL.3-7.

second Parable : the Elect One & the Day of the End
At the end of time, the consequences of sin are at their extreme. The ongoing battle between good and evil is finally coming to a close. Why ? In due course, the forces of good deplete, whereas sin & corruption are fed by a rising number of damned souls with dispersed spirits. Divine intervention is thus called upon. It arrives in the person of the Messiah. To him is given the authority to set things right (the Messianic kingdom) and to judge the souls on the Day of the End, followed by a new heaven and a new Earth, the New Age of the Kingdom of God, the Eight Day.
Unknown Artist
Archangel Gabriel - ca.1840
The Elect One is thus a figure of gigantic proportion :
"This is the Son of Man who hath righteousness, with whom dwelleth righteousness, and who revealeth all the treasures of that which is hidden, because the Lord of Spirits hath chosen him, and whose lot hath the pre-eminence before the Lord of Spirits in uprightness for ever."
BE, Parables, Second Parable, XLVI.3.

As in Daniel, we are struck by the cosmic impetus of his coming and grand responsibilities.
"I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of Man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of Days, and they brought him near before him. And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him : his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed."
Daniel 7:13-14
Enoch describes the role of the Elect One on the Day of the End, ending with the New Jerusalem. Sublime visions stressing righteousness & judgement. The books of the living are opened before God. The unjust kings and cruel mighty are severly judged, for they denied the name of the Lord of Spirits, persecuted the houses of His congregations and those who hang upon the name of God. The Elect One is the fount of righteousness and Divine order. He perserves the lot of the righteous.

The events associated with the Day of the End, binding the Messianic kingdom with the New Age (the Kingdom of God or the New Jerusalem), are extremely turbulent (even more than before the establishment of the rule of the Elect One). They define the common perspective on the Apocalypse, recalled as a time of woe.
"In those days downcast in countenance shall the kings of the earth have become, and the strong who possess the land because of the works of their hands ; for on the day of their anguish and affliction they shall not be able to save themselves, and I will give them over to the hands of Mine elect : as straw in the fire so shall they burn before the face of the holy : as lead in the water shall they sink before the face of the righteous, and no trace of them shall any more be found."
BE, Parables, Second Parable, XLVIII.8-9.

But this woe is only so for us sinners. The Messianic kingdom once established, lasts as long as time. There is no return to the demoniac and mechanical economies of "divine" deals. Once the Messiah appears, his salvic economy endures. All belongs to the Lord of Spirits and His Steward, the Son of Man, the Elect One of God.
Hans Memling (1430/40 - 1494)
The Last Judgment - ca. 1480 (detail)
The Day of the End is the Last Day of the Old Age, the prelude to a new, better, higher and more refined order, idealized by the metaphor of the New Jerusalem. To realize it, the Elect One plays a crucial role and represents God-with-us. Seen as the last event in the multiverse, the end of the Day of the End brings a new, higher-dimensional multiverse, an unending upgrade of an old order to a newer one, an ever-escaping horizon of infinite growth in grace, light and wisdom.

When, at the end of time, the Messiah appears, it is to close time for a far better future ; a new time born out the truth of the everlasting, timeless moment.

In the miscellaneous chapter CV of the concluding section of 1 Enoch in which the Apocalypse of Weeks is found, there is the following remarkable prayer :
"In those days the Lord bade them to summon and testify to the children of earth concerning their wisdom ; Show it unto them, for ye are their guides, and a recompense over the whole earth. For I and My Son will be united with them for ever in the paths of uprightness in their lives ; and ye shall have peace : rejoice, ye children of uprightness. Amen."BE, CV, 1-2.
third Parable : the holy and the light of eternal life

The text has suffered from the intrusion of alien matter. Scholars concede it to be incomplete.

The theme of the blessedness of the righteous and elect returns. The former shall be the light of the Sun, and the latter the light of eternal life. These saints seek the Divine light and find righteousness with the Lord of Spirits. And this light never ends, while the saints never meet the limit of their days.

Things have become bright upon Earth, and the darkness is past. Enoch sees the secrets of lightening and thunder.

In the middle of this parable, the editor interpolated a large fragment on Noah (LX - LXIX), and he closes the third parable with the glorification of the Son of Man (LXIX 26 - 29).
"For the Son of Man has appeared, and has seated himself on the throne of his glory, and all evil shall pass away before his face, and the word of that Son of Man shall go forth and be strong before the Lord of Spirits."'BE, Third Parable, LXIX, 29.
The following last two sections, the final translation of Enoch and two earlier visions, are out of place in this book.

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The three parables form a trinity of factors and prefigurates Christian trinitarism. Number one is the Lord of Spirits is God in His monarchy (the Father). His Anointed One, His Son the Messiah, or number two, is the manifestation of God in the order of creation, in particular as the Messianic king and the judge dividing the blessed from the wicked on the Day of the End. He is the Elect One who realizes the Messianic kingdom and precipitates the destruction of the old order at the end of time (the Son). Number three is a vision of the New Jerusalem, the abode of the holy saints of the Lord of Spirits (the Holy Spirit).

Enoch predates the Incarnation of the Son of God as Jesus the Christ, our Lord. John's vision is later, and sees Christ return to end the Messianic kingdom as supreme judge, precipitating the end of the old order. The theme of the return ("parousia") is crucial to understand the spirituality of the Early Christians, Jews focused on Jerusalem and on what had happened there (the Passion of the Christ). The Didacheevidences the eucharistic importance of this expected return of Christ. Apparently even Paul could not envision the long temporal gap between, on the one hand, Christ's Incarnation and ministery and, on the other hand, His return on the Day of the End. He was wrong.

Chapter 3
The Heavenly Luminaries

"The angel said to me : 'The seven lamps are the seven eyes of the LORD, which see all over the Earth."Zechariah, 4:10b.
The order of time ruled by Uriel is the object of this book. It describes the luminaries, the Sun and the Moon, as well as the "leaders of the stars of the heaven and all those who turn them". The two systems (Solar & Lunar) give rise to divisions, such as day and night and the phases of the Moon. He gives due attention to the intercalary days, as well as to the stars leading the seasons and the months. The intertwining of both movements was obviously very important. The four cardinal quaters of the Earth, the seven mountains and the seven rivers are also dealt with.
"And in those days the angel Uriel answered and said to me : 'Behold, I have shown thee everything, Enoch, and I have revealed everything to thee that thou shouldest see this Sun and this Moon, and the leaders of the stars of the heaven and all those who turn them, their tasks and times and departures."BE, Heavenly Luminaries, LXXX, 1.
In this book, Enoch summarizes his astrology, influenced by Chaldean and Jewish conceptions and beliefs. But there is more : the observation of the heavenly tablets makes him understand everything. All the deeds of humanity are written upon these. They are necessary to teach righteousness, and for future generations to know what befalls sinners on the Day of the End. Thanks to the tablets, Enoch's children may know for sure no flesh is righteous in the sight of the Lord. The angels cease to speak to Enoch, and, like Moses, he came to his people with what he had learned. 

Enoch instructs his son Methuselah to write down everything revealed, preserve his message and deliver it to the future generations of the world. The wisdom he gives to him is for his children, and the children of his children. Those who understand it shall not fall asleep, but listen with a learning ear.

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In a world of sublunar disorder, the rhythmical movements of the "stars" are a metaphor of harmony and perfection. Seven planets are visible with the naked  eye, containing two luminaries, the Sun and (as a reflection of the former), the Moon. The luminaries introduce the measurement of time, on a yearly, monthly, weekly and daily basis. These divisions are given symbolical meaning as a function of the perception of the underlying natural cycle or law. The projection of this cycle and the calculation of its future instances (and adjacent meanings) makes astrology read the quality of time past, present & future. Taken together, the stars yield the qualitative, meaningful dimension of time, seen in antiquity as a circular phenomenon.

Chapter 4
The Book of Dream-Visions

First dream-vision : the deluge
This vision came to Enoch when he was still learning to write. He saw how the Earth was swallowed up in a great abyss, how mountains were suspended on mountains, how hills sank down on hills and high trees rent from their stem. A word fell in his mouth, and he cried aloud : "The Earth is destroyed !".

His grandfather Mahalalel woke him and after having heard the vision, urged Enoch to make a petition to the Lord in order for a remnant of the Earth to remain.
"And now, my Lord, destroy from the earth the flesh which has aroused Thy wrath, but the flesh of righteousness and uprightness establish as a plant of the eternal seed, and hide not Thy face from the prayer of Thy servant, O Lord."
BE, Dream Visions, First Vision, LXXXIV, 6.
Second dream-vision : the history of the world
This vision came to Enoch before he took his wife, the mother of Methusalah. It concerns the history of the world, and roughly follows the history of Israel, using these landmarks : the patriarchs, the fallen angels, the deluge and the deliverance of Noah, the exodus, the desert and the giving of the law, the judges till the building of the (first) Temple, the two kingdoms of Israel and Judah, the destruction of Jerusalem, the return from captivity, the time of Cyrus to Alexander the Great, the Graeco-Syrian domination, the Maccabaen revolt and finally the assault of the Gentiles on the Jews.

Throughout the dream-vision, symbolic language is used : the patriarchs are bulls, the faithful are sheep, while the Gentiles are wild beasts and birds of prey.

The last phase of history, is the appearance of the Messiah and the setting-up of the Messianic kingdom.
"And I stood up to see till they folded up that old house ; and carried off all the pillars, and all the beams and ornaments of the house were at the same time folded up with it, and they carried it off and laid it in a place in the south of the land. And I saw till the Lord of the sheep brought a new house greater and loftier than the first, and set it up in the place of the first which has been folded up : all its pillars were new, and its ornaments were new and larger than those of the first, the old one which He had taken away, and all the sheep were within it. (...) And I saw that that house was large and broad and very full." 
BE, Dream Visions, Second Vision, XC, 28, 29 & 36.

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The interventions of God are twofold : He wipes sin away by means of natural cataclysms or He sends His Son to help the righteous with His kingdom and judge the wicked persons, fallen angels and humans alike. The tribulations of the economy of evil are manifold, and even the great works of the righteous perish. Only the Elect One can set things right, for left on their own, the situation is totally hopeless. There is no other hope outside the Messiah and his eternal kingdom.

Chapter 5
The Apocalypse of Weeks

The concluding section of the Books of Enoch has suffered at the hands of the editor : parts of the text are dislocated and there are interpolations. But scholars agree that taken together, XCIII 1-10 and XCI 12-17 form an independent whole, the Apocalypse of Weeks, covering 10 weeks.
"Yea, I Enoch, will declare unto you, my sons : according to that which appeared to me in the heavenly vision, and which I have known through the word of the holy angels, and have learnt from the heavenly tablets."BE, Apocalypse of Weeks, XCIII, 2.
  • first week : birth of Enoch while justice endured ;
  • second week : wickedness & deceit spring up, this is the first end ;
  • third week : election of a man as the plant of righteous judgement ;
  • fourth week : vision of the holy and righteous, reception of a law for all generations ;
  • fifth week : construction of the "house of glory and dominion" ;
  • sixth week : those living in it are blinded, godless and forsake wisdom - it is burnt and the race of the chosen root dispersed ;
  • seventh week : the rise of an apostate generation, doing many evil deeds - the elect righteous of the eternal plant of righteousness is elected ;
  • eighth week : a sword is given to execute a righteous judgement, delivering sinners into the hands of the righteous, and a house is built for the Great King ;
  • ninth week : revelation of the righteous to the whole world and the works of the godless vanish - the world is written down for destruction ;
  • tenth week : great eternal judgement :
"And the first heaven shall depart and pass away, and a new heaven shall appear, and all the powers of the heavens shall give sevenfold light. And after that there will be many weeks without number for ever, and all shall be in goodness and righteousness, and sin shall no more be mentioned for ever."BE, Apocalypse of Weeks, XCI, 16 -17.
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The order of the weeks corresponds with the 10 Numerations of the Qabalah :
  1. Malkuth (10) : the original kingdom is righteous and pure, i.e. not yet fallen ;
  2. Yesod (9) : the foundation of evil and wickedness is the free will ;
  3. Hod (8) : the righteous are the splendour of a world in which corruption has entered ;
  4. Netzach (7) : the victory of the righteous is their law and the vision of holiness their receive ;
  5. Tiphareth (6) : the Temple of God is built and beauty is its law ;
  6. Geburah (5) : when those who received grace turn away from it, God's justice is extreme ;
  7. Gedulah (4) : the Elect One comes ;
  8. Binah (3) : the Temple is rebuilt and the Elect One pronounces judgement ;
  9. Chockmah (2) : the Elect One is recognized by everyone and the godless vanish ;
  10. Kether (1) : universal judgement, destruction of the old order and arrival of the New Age.

Chapter 6
Enoch and the Judeo-Christian tradition

Enoch cursed by the Jews
In the Zohar, a 13th century compendium of Jewish qabalah, Rabbi Jose affirms Enoch was virtuous, "but God saw that he would degenerate, and therefore gathered him in time, as one 'gathers lilies' because of their good scent." (1:56b). Moses ben de Leon (the real author of this controversial Book of Splendours), agreed Enoch was removed from Earth, and placed, in the mouth of one of his protagonists, the additional words :
"God took him to the highest heavens, and there presented to him wonderful treasures, including forty-five mystical key-combinations of graven letters which are used by the highest ranks of angels"Zohar, 1:56b.
These quotations prove the Rabbinical tradition had passed from generation to generation fragments of Enoch's writings, and this in conflict with earlier condemnations and curses (or perhaps just because of them).

Enoch's love of the luminaries, eschatological symbology and election to visit the highest heavens were remembered. The esoteric connotation of his final "translation" into Metatron remained obscured by the Rabbinical curses, but exemplaric for ecstatic qabalists.

The zoharic theme of the degeneration of Enoch clearly points to the traditional rejections, and has no scriptoral authority. As such, these connotations belong to the imaginal world of those learned doctors of Israel who tried to rewrite Enoch's history, or -by tortuous theologies- to circumvent his canonical election (cf. Genesis).

Charioth mystics always go for an anthropomorphic vision the traditionalist try to avoid, but could and cannot. The translation was objectionable. It meant the end of the man Enoch and the beginning of the angel Metatron (the angel Metatron is God's answer to the fallen Watchers becoming men). The "eschaton" of the Day of the End brings the New Age, in no way like the old one.

In the first century AD, we find Rabbi Akiba (ca. 40 - 135 AD) saying in the Talmud : "whoever reads the 'excluded books' has no share in the world to come." Later, Rabbi Simeon ben Jochai (second century) pronounced a curse upon those who believed the Enochian teaching regarding the nature and deeds of the fallen angels. But the true reasons ran deeper, touched upon the role of humanity in God's plan and the ontological difference between fallen man and God.

These early Jewish teachers (70 - 200 AD), the heirs to the Temple service of Hellenized Jerusalem, so shunned by the Qumrân-people and other ascetics like John the Baptist and Jesus of Nazareth, now devoid of a place of sacrifice, confronted with the formidable rise of Christianity & the dispersion of Judaism, deemed the abyss (between man and God) so large, they no longer thought God gives to whom He pleases !

The mechanics of Hellenization was the only intellectual weapon they knew to polarize Judaism with regard to Christianity and create their commemorative Judaism, devoid of all forms of exoteric incarnationalism. They stopped painting human forms on the walls of their synagoges (cf. the wall-paintings of the Dura-Europos synagogue and the mosaic zodiac in the Beit Alpha synagogue).

Had Christianity not made Personhood part of the Godhead and scandalized God by a crucified Son, a servant ("kenosis") instead of a triumphant Lord ?

Esoteric teachings like the qabalah also remained dependent of Greek (Pythagorean) thought, but had Messianic and ecstatic features. Anthropomorphic perceptions of the angelic world in other early midrashic, talmudic, gnostic and Heikhalot texts have been preserved in the qabalah, in particular the notion of the "supernal anthropos", reflecting the idea of Enoch's ascent as a return to the lost state of Adam, viewed as the "cosmic anthropos". Indeed, according to the ancient Jewish texts, Enoch was invested not only with garments of glory and a huge physical size, but also with an all-comprehensive knowledge.

Enoch was considered a mystical ideal among ecstatic qabalists. Rabbi Isaac of Acre quotes the "saying of our sages", namely : "Enoch is Metatron." For others, he just cleaves to the supernal light through his endeavour to understand the nature of Metatron. The "malakh Ha Shekhinah", or transformation into an "angel of Divinity", became a crucial example in Jewish ecstatic mysticism, elucidating how humans could experience God ...

For the 13th century mystic, the illustrious Rabbi Abraham Abulafia, "la bête noire" of classical qabalah, there is a transfer of the Name or Names of God to the mystic. This was connected with Enoch's translation into the angel Metraton ("Enoch" or "Chanokh" means "to raise"). This involved a change of substance or essence, for a human being (a mystic) became an angel (a living Name). Nothing could be more "insane" in terms of Greek philosophy and science. The latter never called for such "miraculous" events, but invisioned the microcosm as the image of the macrocosm.

The Translation of ENOCH
"And it came to pass after this {the third parable of Enoch} that his name during his lifetime was raised aloft to that Son of Man and to the Lord of Spirits from amongst those who dwell on the earth. And he was raised aloft on the chariots of the spirit and his name vanished among them. And from that day I was no longer numbered amongst them ; and he set me between the two winds, between the north and the west, where the angels  took the cords to measure for me the place for the elect and righteous. And there I saw the first fathers and the righteous who from the beginning dwell in that place."BE, Separate fragment added to the Parables, LXX, 1 - 4.

For Abulafia, this metamorphosis of a patriarch into a high, holy angel is accompanied by his receiving one or seventy Divine Names. For Abulafia, during the unitive experience, a deep transformation of the personality of the mystic happens, and, like Enoch, God gives His mystic an angelic nature.

Enoch, the prototype of the Merkavah mystic, becomes the very angel who occupies a throne alongside God, either in a sort of theophany of the Throne, to underline His beauty and splendor (in keep with the ontological distinction between man and angel), or as a "translation", in effect an ontic transformation or change of substance of the mortal Enoch, a human being, into the immortal Metraton, the angel of angels. In the latter interpretation, Metraton is identified with the "Shekinah" Herself, the Divine Presence always accompanying Israel (cf. Rabbi Eleazar of Worms).

The Jews opposed Enoch because he had been too close to God, announcing the Messiah and delivering a special reciprocal teaching regarding humans and angels : they could take on human bodies and humans could become angels ...

In the Apocalyptic literature as well as in Hebrew Scriptures, this basic tension prevails : the invisible God renders Himself visible to a select number of individuals. The Divine reality unseen under ordinary circumstances can be seen by distinct individual in given moments of history. Christianity takes this a step further, embracing the supernatural from the start : the Son of God, the Christ, Incarnates as Jesus, the Son of Man. In Christ Jesus, the order of grace ecstacizes nature, and the supernatural is the abode of true personalism.
Enoch banned by the Church Fathers
The early Fathers and Apologists were content with Enoch's writings. They identified his Messiah, the Anointed One, with Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and announced His return would be "in our age" (cf. the "parousia"). The influence of Enoch on the New Testament as a whole has been underlined by recent scholars. They conclude the writers of the Christian canon were familiar with Enoch's work. Biographers of Paul see Enoch's book as the former's vade mecum or "go with me", his manual of frequent reference. Did the apostle of the Gentiles, while envisioning Christ, in fact quote Enoch's description of the "streams of flaming fire" pouring out from underneath the Throne of the Lord of Spirits (Enoch being prostrate on his face) ?
"He alone is immortal ; he lives in the light that no one can approach. No one has ever seen him ; no one can ever see him. To him be honour and eternal dominion ! Amen."1 Timothy, 6:16
"None of the angels could enter and could behold His face by reason of the magnificence and glory, and no flesh could behold Him. The flaming fire was round about Him, and a great fire stood before Him, and none around could draw nigh Him ..."BE, Book of Watchers, XIV.22

John's Apocalypse clearly belongs to the tradition started by Enoch. At first, so it seems, the Christian Fathers endorsed the particular angelology of Enoch, and accepted the physicality of the demons. In the second century, Justin Martyr ascribed all evil to demons, the offspring of the angels who fell through lust for the daughters of men.
"... and among men they engendered murders, wars, adulteries, all sorts of dissipation, and every species of sin."Justin Martyr : Second Apology

The apologist Tatian (110 - 172) described how the angels became engrossed in material things, but although he conjectured demons were physical, he thought their bodies were not material flesh, but "of fire and air". Tertullian (160 - 230) calls Enoch's writings "Scripture" and agrees with him some angels rushed from heaven upon the daughters of men. Clement of Alexandria (150 - 220) did not question Enoch's story, as did many other Early Church Fathers. Cyprian (200 - 258), a pupil of Tertullian, noted the specific use of the word "man" to designate Lucifer, speculating the anti-christ would be a human being.
"The dead will stare and gape at you. They will ask : 'Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, and did shake kingdoms ? Is this the man that made the world as a wilderness, and destroyed the cities thereof ? Is this the man that opened not the house of his prisoners ?"Isaiah, 14:16-17

The change of attitude came with Manicheism, founded in about 240 AD by a Persian named Mani, who claimed apostleship under Jesus Christ and considered himself the incarnation of the Holy Spirit, bringing the synthesis of all religions, including Buddhism, Zoroastrism and Christianity. He taught reincarnation and the eternal, pre-existent division and battle between good and evil, between God and the devil.

For Jerome (348 - 420), Enoch's teachings were apocryphal and similar to the views of Mani and thus heretical. Chrystosom (346 - 407) took the case a step further : in their fall angels never took on human bodies at all. "Saying that an incorporeal and spiritual nature could have united itself to human bodies !" was deemed "insane blasphemy" !

As the Hellenized Temple of Jerusalem was his view of "traditional" Judaism, Augustine, bishop of Hippo (354 - 430), unaware of the Qumrân-people, writes :
"For though there is some truth in these apocryphal writings, yet they contain so many false statements, that they have no canonical authority. We cannot deny that Enoch, the seventh from Adam, left some divine writings, for this asserted by the Apostle Jude in his canonical epistle. But it is not without reason that these writings have no place in that canon of Scripture which was preserved in the temple of the Hebrew people ... "Augustine : City of God.
The official position was the angels fell out of pride, not lust. Their sins were subtle and not dependent upon body or sense, as Thomas Aquinas would stipulate later. They were completely spiritual and could never take on the form of human bodies. The Watchers had no physical offspring, and demons with a human body did not exist.

The scholastic division between "spiritual" and "physical" outdated both the access to God and the manifestation of angels, deemed demoniac. The Roman Church remained the sole gate to salvation.

BOOK 2 : THE ENOCHIANA OF THE KEYMAKERS

John Dee 1527 - 1608

Prologue
The Christian inspiration of the Enochian system developed by John Dee, despite its demoniac connotations, both operational (cf. Kelley) as historical (Dee's reputation as a conjurer), is beyond a shadow of a doubt. Dee believed the Saviour had Incarnated in this world as Jesus the Christ. He was a devout Christian, living his faith in times of radical religious reforms. Dee knew the Lord's Incarnation had been announced to Mary by archangel Gabriel. He realized what the Passion and Resurrection do with this world ...
Fra Angelico (ca.1400 - 1455)
The Annunciation - 1435-45 (detail)
The importance of Jesus Christ, the unique Son of God, generated by the Father, and Perfect Image of the Father, makes the Enochian system of "radical truths" and Dee's "mystical experiments", notably differ from the Hermeticism of his age, which may be summarized as Late Medieval magick coupled with an allegorical interpetation of Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs (cf. Henry Cornelius Agrippa and his De occulta philosophia published Antwerp in 1531). Indeed, Dee worked along these traditional lines and integrated them in his Enochian rituals. Perhaps this was the cause of his failure to receive permission to Open the Gates. In terms of traditional (Jewish) theurgy, Enochian is the Christian alternative, and what Dee developed, could well be called the first Christian qabalah.

Certain "words of power", usually Names of God, were intoned to evoke spirits lower than the human being or to invoke spirits belonging to the higher celestial hierarchy of creation. These "magical" deeds often, if not always, intended to satisfy the personal needs of the magician, to coerce a result or to foreknow a forbidden and secret knowledge, to reveal what should not be given the light of day, in short : to meddle inthe natural course of events by means of hidden, "occult" (eclipsed) supranatural feats.

The intent was to assume the strongest force, to manipulate invisible forces, to cause changes, and mechanize creation for the sake of an individual, a lodge, a secret order, a network of orders, or, as with Dee, the British Empire ! The evil versions of this megalomaniac intent seek world-domination through the suffering of other human beings, serve fallen angels & incubi, and worship Satan (identified with the Egyptian god Seth). The last black magician, and Enochian keymaker in this very old line, defined magick as follows :
"Magick is the Science and Art of causing Change to occur in conformity with Will."Crowley, A. : Magick, definition.

The Roman Church disapproves of such practices, for these incantations involve the use of Pagan deities, Gnostic exclamations as well as Hebrew Names of God and adjacent angelology. This mixture alone is diabolical and hence rejected. Even Dee was unable to raise intrest in his "prophesy", for who was sure it was not inspired by Satan himself ? The old fears raised by Enoch were not entirely dead and, while on his European tour, Dee never visited Rome, for he could have been burnt at the stake as a conjurer of evil spirits, as had Bruno.

In retrospect, Dee misunderstood a lot. He thought (like Paul) the Apocalypse would be "in our age". The contact with angels had burnt the urgency & immediateness of the numinous in his heart and had made him unstable. He thought he was one of the elect, another delusion caused by demons slipping through the Gates. They told him his work was the beginning of a new world ! He would live more than a hundred, and Dee, thinking they were holy angels, believed them ... Most of their predictions did not come out. Had Dee eventually to concur with Kelley some of the angels were in fact demons ?

This scenario repeats itself throughout the histories of the Enochian keymakers. None of them escaped some kind of major difficulty, except if the Gates were never opened in the first place. The Enochian system made a deep impact on the German Rosicrucian movement, whose manifestos began to appear around 1610. What happened with Dee's manuscripts ?

After his death, his library was sold to the antiquarian Robert Bruce Cotton (1570 - 1631), who also acquired some of Dee's magical apparatus. The manuscripts in this collection were published by Casaubon (covering the period from May 28, 1583 to April 2, 1587, briefly resuming in 1607).

Arthur Dee (1579 - 1651), who once tried to serve as a medium to help his father, became an alchemist in his own right. He tried his best to ensure the angelic conversations remained secret and is supposed to have taken the extreme measure of interment. Later in life, he did his best to recover his father's manuscripts, supposed to be scattered as far as Prague, Amsterdam, Brussels and Rome. He did not wish his father's name to be associated with the angelic communications. After his death, most of the stuff seems to have dissipated among his numerous children, and probably lost to posterity.

In 1662, in a cederwood chest that had belonged to Dee, the wife of a certain Mr.Wale, one of the warders of the Tower of London, found a secret drawer. It was stuffed full of papers and a rosary with a cross. The papers covered the conversations with the angels from December 22, 1581, down to the beginning of Casaubon's book as well as the manuscripts of the Claves AngelicaeDe Heptarchia Mystica and Liber Scientiae, written in Latin and the rest in Dee's hand. After a maid had burned parts, Wale exchanged the papers for a copy of Ashmole's book on the Order of the Garter. Elias Ashmole (1617 - 1692) was delighted.

Ashmole was the founder of English Freemasonry. He introduced Dee into the English occult tradition, but it is unlikely Enochian magic played any part in Masonic rituals. Ashmole was the first to reconstruct the Enochian system, and attempted to make contact with the Enochians in a series of workings extending from 1671 to 1676. He was also surprised by the missing instructions concerning the actual application of the Calls to the Gates.

In the following centuries, high ranking Masons interested in the occult may have studied & applied the Enochian system (Thomas Rudd, Frederick Hockley, Kenneth Mackenzie). They did not focus, as had Dee,  on the Christian inspiration of the system. The Dee manuscripts ended up in the British Library, where they were found by Samuel Mathers. The foundation of the British Library's collection was the original library of Sir Hans Sloan's rare books, manuscripts and curiosities purchased by the trusteed in 1753 for 20,000 pounds. The British Museum was opened in 1847 and the great reading room ten years later.

Two crucial keymakers will be called on stage : the Freemason Mathers and his heir, the black magician Aleister Crowley, the insane self-styled Antichrist 666, Master Therion, the Beast of the Apocalypse !
two Divine economies
The Holy Spirit has a double function : He manifests the Son of God, Incarnated as Jesus Christ, and sanctifies each person in a unique way, either through the "objective" grace (of a spiritual community or church), or as a direct personal spiritual enlightenment.

Throughout the angelic communications, the economy of Christ is underlined :
"I finde the Soul of man hath no portion in this first Table. It is the Image of the Son of God, in the bosome of his father, before all the worlds. It comprehendeth his incarnation, passion, and return to judgement : which he himself, in flesh, knoweth not ..."TFR, p.79 (Nalvage on the 13th of April, 1584, Cracau)

As He who manifests the Son, the Holy Spirit participates in the economy of the Son, establishing the objective head of the universal church of Jesus Christ. Historically, the centrist churches have always stressed this canonical, dogmatical, scriptoral & liturgical manifestation of the economy of the Holy Spirit, His objective side. The processio ab utroque of the Roman Filioquists serves the same purpose, for the Holy Spirit administers the relational oppositions of Father and Son and is not viewed as a Person in His own right.

To the Eastern Greeks, the Holy Spirit, within His objective dispensation, is the Spirit of Jesus, the Spirit of the Church of Christ. He proceeds from the Father alone and His dispensation is vaster. When one adheres to the common Christocentric conception, there is (paradoxically) a dogmatic disregard for the human person as a unique communicant with the Holy Spirit and His gifts (as in mystical experience & prophesy). The constant reformation of theology has thus been made difficult by the traditions. Because the redemptive economy of the Son is otherworldly, both Greek and Latin soteriologies have incorporated a disregard for the natural world. This led to a sacramental determinism, an Divine automaton de opere operato.

In the latter, subjective capacity, the Holy Spirit manages a larger dispensation, namely the deification of all beings made after the image and towards the likeness of God, i.e. persons. Who is a person ? In relation to individual nature, personhood seems to be this sublime quality of the individual, namely his perfection. But this is answering the question What is a person ? Such an sensible and/or intelligible approach would put personalism on its head, for persons are not individual gods (excellent individual qualities & relations). Indeed, there is no element in individual nature (not even the "nous" and its faculties of self-determination & liberty), which would be able to root the full dignity of the person, for personhood is not something, but someone.

The someone of my person is called to commune with the Person of the Holy Spirit distinct from but not in conflict with the communion of the church(es) of Jesus Christ. A person is distinct from his or hers individual, biopsychological nature, while still containing it. The person constantly exceeds the nature of the individual and ecstacizes it. It belongs to the subjective side of the dispensation of the Holy Spirit to commune with all human persons at the same time. This is the "mystical spirit" of the "mystical body" of the Christians living on Earth.

The dispensation of the Trinity is one economical activity accomplished by the Son and the Holy Spirit together. As both come forth from the Father, the differences in these economies are independent insofar as their operation is concerned, but effective and distinct. The Son Incarnates to incorporate our single human nature dispersed in individuals into the united humanity of Christ as the Logos of God. Baptism is conformity to His economy, the objective sign of adherence to the economy of the Son Incarnate. The Holy Spirit manifests the Son and sanctifies our persons, so we may, as it were, become God by Divine grace, not individual gods by our own right, but Divine persons in, by and with the Holy Spirit. The subjective aspect of the economy of the Holy Spirit makes each single person stand for all persons.

In Eastern Orthodoxy, the part of the Holy Spirit, the head of the true universal church of Jesus Christ, is not reduced to an auxiliary, deputy or assistant of the Son and His economy. Proceeding from the Father alone, the Holy Spirit and His personal economy, although manifesting the Son and sent into the world after the Son, is vaster than the economy of the Son. His pneumatic dispensation, or the distribution of God's eternal treasures by the Holy Spirit, such as the Enochian system of holy angels, is universal and aimed at all persons, human and angelic, while the Son's economy -Incarnating as a human being- involved a dispensation towards fallen human nature alone.

In this universal economy of the Holy Spirit, persons of all possible states & stations are invited to realize deification freely. This in order to fulfill the final cause of creation : God is "all in all" (final and infinite nonduality). This ultimate vision of redemption, which is eschatological, is the "Mystery of the Eight Day", the union with God of (a) the individual human natural souls ransomed by Jesus Christ and (b) the created persons answering the call of the Holy Spirit to share in the Divine nature of the Holy Trinity.

In the economy of the Holy Spirit, the task of the Enochians is made clear. The infallible doctrine, also an instrument of thrashing, allows its user to discriminate and judge, not as the world does, but of all things contained within the compass of nature and of all things subject to an end. Moreover, the Watchtowers are placed against the usurping blasphemy, misuse and stealth of the wicked and the devil. Through the Enochian system, his envious will is bridled, the determinations of God fulfilled and his creatures kept and preserved. All of this, 
"... within the compasse and measure of order."TFR, p.170 (Ave on the 20th of June, 1584, Cracau)

Chapter 7
Two Enochian Keymakers

"O you weaklings, O you of no faith, O you Cankers of the earth ; Where is the shame you have ; Where are the tears you let fall ; Where is the humility you are taught to ? Nay you are such as say in your hearts ; if the Spring be fair, the Harvest is like to be good ; If these things come to passe, it is the finger of the Lord. But such is your imperfection, such are the fruits of the flesh, and the vanity of morality.

Notwithstanding, consider that you are servants : Do therefore the will of your Master. You are become free : Be faithful and thank to him that is the giver of liberty : Nay you are become children : partakers of the counsel of him that sitteth and seeth, and saith I am. Therefore be sober, faithful, and waver not, for the inheritance of your Father is great : your freedom is without recompence, and your Master the King of Justice."
TFR, p.73 (Nalvage on the 10th of April, 1584, Cracau)
Let us distinguish between :
  • the message of the Enochians ;
  • the historical Enochiana ;
  • Dee's Enochian records ;
  • Dee's Enochian key ;
  • The keys of the other keymakers.
Dee's angels
The Enochians transmitted a system of Christian theurgy filled with Apocalyptic imagery, introduced in a random way whenever Dee or Kelley were posing personal questions (the health of distant friends, trying to get money to travel, the key to the red powder). The wisdom of the heavenly tablets was set aside by Enoch for the sake of his children and the offspring of the seed of light. This was the backbone of Dee's Enochiana. Dee believed he would receive permission to apply the Calls to the Gates. Moreover, the Enochians appearing to Kelley were aware the Messiah had come.
"Pater, Filius, Spiritus Sanctus : Fundamentum, Substantia & principium omnium."
TFR, p.74 (Nalvage on the 10th of April, 1584, Cracau)

This is a clear move away from the historical Enochiana, written before the Incarnation of the Son of God as Jesus Christ, the Messiah of Israel. The angels manifesting Kelley and Dee had another "radical truth" to convey. The coming of the Messiah was no longer the core teaching, for this had already happened : the Anoited One had come as Jesus Christ. The Enochians announce a New Age, a "beginning of the world" and teach the advent of a period of major historical changes. In terms of the scheme of the Apocalypse of John, they come when Satan's thousand years in the bottomless pitt are expired and the final battle is afoot.
"Satan shall be loosed out of his prison. And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quaters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them to battle : the number of whom is as the sand of the sea."
Revelation, 20:7-8

The four Watchtowers are given again just before the (long ?) end of the old order. They prefigurate the New Eden and precipitate it by subjecting the Earth to the process of the Apocalypse, bringing down the old and eventuating the new. This "end" is not necessarily the historical eschatological Day of the End, co-relative with the physical end of the multiverse, it may also be experienced subjectively, by a particular soul.

The Apocalypse is the objective end of an era, aeon, age, "juga" or period as well as an outstanding subjective anticipation of this universalEschaton and hence a strong decree to the angels, beseeching them to dissolve (solve) & reunite (coagula), a process which is of all times, but (since the coming of Christ) no longer automatic (as the old demoniac economy of sacrifice is over). Initiative is necessary.
"Ask, and it shall be given to you ; seek, and ye shall find ; knock, and it shall be opened unto you."
Matthew, 7:7

Every keymaker is called to first reinforce his or her adherence to our Saviour, accepting His gift of freedom by recuperating the common human nature and by willing our person to ecstacize our christened individual physicality by, with and in the Holy Spirit. Secondly, he or she is integrated in the process of renormalization (metanoia), the restoration of the natural cycle through purgation, and deification, the perfection of the natural cycle, returning to God the Holy Ghost.

Throughout the angelic conversations, the angels show an exclusive interest in their own purposes. When their aid is requested, they often put Dee and Kelley off with promises or tell them personal concerns do not interest them. The Enochian system was not delivered to satisfy personal needs. It is not a demoniac economy, nor a Goetia, but part of the spiritual economy of the Holy Spirit, proceeding from the Father alone, in accord with Orthodoxy.

As a planetary system of theurgy (restoration), the Enochian system has global and universal aims, namely stewardship, the destruction of the fallen angels and the evil sedimentations of their human servants, as well as the establishment of a New Age of peace and prosperity for all sentient beings on planet Earth. Dee believed the angels intended to honor him as their prophet. He accepted the system as a reward for his piety. He was wrong. But Dee was one of the few men of his age willing and able to receive this. He was clever enough to make sense of it, although blinded by his ambitions, abused it. Precisely our own shadow is demon-food ...
Mathers and the Golden Dawn
"Magick worketh effect in things absent, that it doth in their parts, being present."
TFR, p.117 (Gabriel on the 7th of May, 1584, Cracau).
As a young man, Samuel Liddell "MacGregor" Mathers (1854 - 1918) spent much of his time in the British Museum, working through piles of dusty manuscripts. He translated three Medieval magical texts : TheGreater Key of King SolomonThe Kaballah Unveiled and The Book of the Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage.

He undoubtedly read some angelical conversations in their original form, but to make his Enochian key, Mathers used Casaubon's True and Faithful Relation, which makes no mention of the Heptarchia Mystica, teachings recorded before the period covered by Casaubon. Mather's key is almost completely concerned with the Great Table of the 4 Watchtowers and the 30 Calls, which he related to the Great Table.

In 1865, and Englishman named Robert Wentforth Little founded an esoteric society, the Rosicrucian Society in Anglia. Membership was limited to Master Masons. When Little died in 1878, three men took over, a retired medical doctor, William Woodman (1828 - 1891), a coroner, Wynn Westcott (1848 - 1925) and Mathers.

In 1887, so the story goes, Westcott received from Reverend Woodward, an elderly parson and author on Freemasony, a set of cypher manuscripts. He asked the clairvoyant and inspired Mathers to assist him (one legend says both men forged the document, in another Westcott found it on a bookstall in Farringdon Street, and in yet another the document was inherited).

Both men found the code of the cypher was contained in a work of Trithemius, the influential Steganographia extolled by Dee. It concerned "angel-magic" and Dee had secured a copy of it in Antwerp. They uncovered skeletons of rituals and Mathers expanded them.

Together they started the Golden Dawn (GD), a secret Victorian society aiming to harbor true Rosicrucianism and allow its members to accomplish the Great Work. A complete system of ritual magic based on the history of Western occultism was practiced.  In contrast with the Masonic policy of the Rosicrucian Society, the order admitted women members as equals. Its members were recruited from every circle of life.

Balance was required, for "Equilibrium is the basis of the soul." Mathers' rituals (organized in terms of the scheme of the Tree of Life) were enacted in Temples set up in London, Edinburgh, Bradford, Weston-super-Mare and Paris. The first English Temple, the Isis-Urania Temple of London, opened its doors in 1888. By the end of 1891 there were some 81 members in the London Lodge alone. Well-known people joined : Bram Stoker, W.B.Yeats, Edward Waite and Florence Farr.

Because of his vast knowledge of occult lore, Mathers rooted the Enochian system in the various branches of practical Western magic, adding the elements, the cardinal directions, colors, the signs of the zodiac, planets, seasons, the phases of the Moon, the letters of Tetragrammaton, the Tarot, geomancy and, together with Westcott, a selection of Ancient Egyptian deities. Westcott devised his own Enochian game of chess. The Enochian system Mathers elaborated, served to organize the rituals of the second, inner order of the Hermetic Order of the GD, the order of Adepti.

The Golden Dawn was the name given to the outer order, teaching & practicing the lesser mysteries of the Western Tradition. In spirit the outer order was Hermetic, but in practice Hermeticism reigned. The curriculum demanded a lot of work. Four "buttons" had to be fastened :
  • 1° Zelator : the 4 quaters of Malkuth - Earth ;
  • 2° Theoreticus : Yod - Air ;
  • 3° Practicus : Hod - Water ;
  • 4° Philosophus : Netzach - Fire.
The Portal Grade was given to the Philosophus who wanted to be advanced and enter the second order of the Adepti.

Entry into the higher mysteries of the inner, Rosicrucian order of the GD, demanded a clean break of nine months (to allow incubation & preparation), and culminated in the attainment of the grade of Adeptus Minor, the crucial first knot of the second, inner order. Two other grades completed it, namely Greater Adept Major and Exempt Adept.

Mathers was the highest Adept of this second order (an Adeptus Exemptus with as motto "Deo Duce Comite Ferro"), and believed to be in direct contact with the "Secret Chiefs" of the third order, the invisible grandmasters guiding the affairs of humanity. They had materialized to him in the Bois de Bologne in the form of three men ...

Only few of these GD Adepti reached the stage of possessing basic insight into the Enochian model, and if they did, it was restricted to the Watchtowers and the Calls. The Order papers mention the names of the 30 Aethyrs, but not the sigils of the 91 Governors. The Enochian provided a new learning, with new maps for the exploration of the invisible and the methods for doing so, as well as a language for communications with angels. All this was based on Dee's records and Mathers' key.

Mathers welded together Renaissance occult philosophy and the qabalah. He topped this structure with his Enochian key, based on Dee and his own work. His system embraced all mythologies and all mysteries of all ages and races, attributing them to each other (through correspondence). They all came down to much the same thing, but the celebration of this fact in various complex rituals had no redeeming power. Neither did Mathers realize this logic of two languages for a triune order would make the system crack.

The effects of these differences between the traditional outer order and the Enochian evocations of the few adepts of the inner order were neglected, and hindered the free flow of energy in the thought-form of the GD. It would have been wise if Mathers had developed a traditional inner order (and left the Enochian out), or instead had devised a completely new type of Rosicrucian order, based on the Enochian teachings from the start. But by combining a wrong version of the old teaching with the new data, Mathers replicated Dee's error and invited trouble. It came as Aleister Crowley.
"Neither do men put new wine into old bottles : else the bottles break, and the wine runneth out, and the bottles perish : but they put new wine into new bottles, and both are preserved."
Matthew, 9:17
the key insight of Mathers
Before discussing Crowley's entrance upon the scene, we focus on Mather's Pentagrammaton, i.e. his key to a comprehensive understanding of his attributions, as well as his contribution to theEnochiana.
the key to Mathers' attributions
Mathers' Pentagrammaton represents man and his spiritual uprightness, achieved by the integration and balancing-out of the four essential strata of his occult constitution, by virtue of the cycle and power of the Sun and its 12 stages : the zodiac.

Each stratum belongs to a subtle realm, layer, plane or world of the multiverse, and is clothed with its corresponding subtle matter (cf. hylic pluralism). The elements are derived by associating the pentagram with the fixed signs of the zodiac (or path of the Sun). In astrology, the Fixed Cross represents the stability-aspect of the Solar force.

Two elemental attributions prevail : one terrestrial (the four quaters of planet Earth) and one cosmic (the four worlds of the multiverse). The former also compromize the 4 corners of planet Earth, the latter organize the 4 levels of reality as described by Tetragrammaton :
  • YOD - FIRE - Olam ha-Atziluth : Divine Presence ;
  • HE - WATER - Olam ha-Briah : creation ;
  • VAU - AIR - Olam ha-Yetzirah : formation ;
  • HE - EARTH - Olam ha-Assiah : action.
The first part is man's physical body, element Earth. The five senses constitute man's windows on the lowest plane of existence. The gross energies of this element make it the least spiritual and inclined to inertia and entropy, linking man with the order of the fallen angels. This "fallen daughter" has to be raised and purified. Element Earth has 7 substrata, of which 4 are gross and 3 etherical. With the latter, forming the etherical double, man may uplift himself, for they reflect the 3 higher planes.

Studies, meditations, diets, postures, putrefactions & purifications, wholesome attitudes and the performance of rituals are central to condition the consciousness of the Zelator for the next, tricky step, awareness of the dream-world.

The second part, related to element Air, points to man's dualistic emotions and mental constructions, at work in his astral body, its individuality and ego, reflected to him in terms of a reverse psychology. In the "lower" Abyss of the Tree of Life (unknown to Mathers and the GD), the personal shadow (cf. the "Watcher on the Threshold") lurks and a lot of training is needed to bridle the tricky treasure-house of images alluring and chaining the initiate.

Especially the sexual energies of this astral realm are dangerously instable, and take on the form of man's emotions and thoughts. These personal demons serve as anchors to slow down spiritual growth. But the latter is never to be stopped. In the dream-world, as in a mirror, the Companion is the witness of his or her own limitations. To conquer this shadow-realm, is the preparatory conditioning of the occultist, alchemist, magician, gnostic or priest. It takes at least 7 years before "apatheia" may be fastened. The "Pharos Illuminans", or illuminating tower of light ensues. This is also the name of the highest (Portal) grade of the outer order of the GD, the connecting link with the inner order.

The third part, element Water, constitutes man's higher consciousness, the activity of his Higher Self or soul, abiding on the causal plane. After the so-called Watchtower-experience, the communication or osmosis with one's "Holy Guardian Angel", the representative of the soul of the individual, a new panoramic perspective is established before the Master's eyes. In every human being, two foci of conscious awareness are at work  : the astral ego and the causal Self. Without initiation, the connecting tread between both is dim and narrow. The foundational aim of occultism, Hermetical or Rosicrucian, is the broadening of this Royal Path, to allow the higher Self to take over.

On its own plane, dependent of the number of its incarnations, the soul of an individual may be young or old. An old soul moulds the lower realms, expresses its glorious Self, and combats the evils of the lower worlds with less resistance. And thanks to Self-consciousness, a soul may enlighten another soul on its own plane or form causal bonds between souls (cf. Briatic economy). A young soul works harder to maintain the balance of body and ego, and may have to remain in the Second Order for the rest of its physical life. The soul may reincarnate, whereas -after the transcription  of the crucial experiences of their lifetime on the causal body- the physical body, ego and mind return to the collective pool ...

The fourth part of man is ruled by element Fire. The "Sun behind the Sun" is dealt with here. The GD had no real teachings to convey regarding this highest realm of the multiverse. It was the abode of the "Secret Chiefs", the Grandmasters guiding humanity. Mathers claimed to be in touch with them. The core of the soul, man's spirit, was envisioned as a Divine spark or as the Image of God. This highest realm enabled consciousness to directly fuse with its Divine spark and assume Divine status. Like fire in heated red iron, consciousness united with the Divine image and was transformed (cf. Enoch's translation). The human aspect was deified, and the Divine status of man realized. Man stops being man and becomes God by grace.

So the ultimate aim of the Great Work was the return of man's spirit to its creator. This spiritual being had, to be eventually set free, to move through all these complex layers of nature visible and invisible, coarse and subtle, as Hermeticism demanded. Consistent with Jewish qabalah, this supreme freedom was of the "Secret Chiefs", the grandmasters directly in touch with the Divine Presence of God in His multiverse (Atziluth). It moved not beyond the natural order of existence and never pushed the singularity outside the multiverse, as true Christian theology would have it. Beyond Kether was "negative existence" (cf. Luria's Ain Soph Aur). In all, the Rosicrucianism of the GD was still extremely Jewish.
Tree of Life
with Upper & Lower Abyss - note the correspondences of the Supernals
Reverse the Pentagrammaton, and witness the goal of the demons : the chaining of man's spirit to the conditions of abased Earth, perverted Air, sullied Water and darkened Fire.

Mathers' version of the Great Table of the Enochian Watchtowers was pentagrammatonic, i.e. consistent with the astrological position of the elemental attributions and Tetragrammaton (starting with Earth, final He, and ending with Fire, the Yod). Dee's key was based on the four corners of the Earth and remained indifferent as to elemental attribution. Dee's angels proposed different applications of colors to the directions of the Earth. They affirmed to have no respect for colors.
"We have no respect of collours."
LM, p.71 (Uriel, 1582, Mortlake)

Mathers realized Dee's record could be interpreted in various ways. As Ashmole before him, he made his own Enochian key. The vastness of his work and the liberties he took, justify a new hermeneutical register, to wit : the variant keys of different Enochian keymakers (Dee included), each key opening the same Gates. But with perfection ?

Mathers' intentions were clearly magical. He was a man of power, an iron sword inspired by the magical prowess of Solomon, the legendary king and master of demons (cf. the Goetia). He deluded himself to believe he was of noble ancestors, and posed as the Comte of Glenstrae. Again megalomania, but this time in Romantic style, with a morbid intent to restore the feudal spirit of old (a nostalgia also found in Schopenhauer, Nietzsche and Wagner). He asked a pledge of personal obedience under penalty of expulsion and made valuable members wait for years before they received the so-called "higher grades" of the second order. The dictator deserted to Paris and created, in 1892, a second "inner" order, the so-called order of "The Red Rose and the Cross of Gold". He was a strange, powerful and clairvoyant man, but gullible and a poor judge of characters.

Enochian was just another approach of the same invisible realities Mathers wanted to conjure to serve his Lord of Light and Darkness. Little did he realize Christ is the Lord of Light who makes darkness flee.
"Holy art Thou, Lord of the Universe.
Holy art Thou Whom Nature hath not formed.
Holy art Thou the Vast and the Mighty One,
Lord of the Light and of the Darkness."
Regardie : Golden Dawn, Volume 7, Ritual of the Portal.

Mathers incorporated what seemed to be the most "operational" & "magical" part of the Enochian system : the Great Table of the Four Watchtowers and the Calls. In accord with Medieval qabalah, Mathers  attributed Saturn to Binah (and not to Malkuth) and his astrology counted no transpersonal planets (Uranus, Neptune, Pluto). He took nothing from Dee's Heptarchia Mystica, crucial to circumvent time by the proper astrological timing of ritual events. In fact, the GD only incorporated Solar, Lunar and etherical cycles & tides.

In no way did Mathers take into account the first hermeneutical level : the Day of the End of the holy angels. Even Dee and Kelley had tried to push them to serve personal ends. Remove the Apocalyptic context of the Enochian system, and besides barbarous weirdness, nothing of the original intent is left. The Gates are opened prematurely and demons slip through to settle in the unconscious, prompting the good angels to assist and causing the famous blur of "good & evil" so typical for theEnochiana of the keymakers. This mixture and the expenditure of energy to which the operators are exposed, prompts one to destroy the key. Every attempt to use the system again is then aborted.

The end of the GD was heralded by a notable conflict. The incident involved Crowley's scandalous entry into the second order, resulting in the divulgation of its Enochian "secrets", the cutting of the magical link between Mathers in Paris and the ruling adepts of the London Isis-Urania Temple. This was the beginning of the end of the GD as one, coherent occult organization, only 13 years after its creation ...

Crowley and the Golden Dawn

Aleister Crowley (1875 - 1947) entered the GD in 1898. The influence of this "Hermetic Order" shaped his life. Although William Butler Yeats, an initiate of this organization, was a very dedicated member, he eventually left the Order behind, and immersed himself in Oriental spirituality. This is hardly true of Crowley, who continued to ferment the teachings of the GD until he died. In fact, he considered himself to be its lawful heir.

Crowley was introduced to the order by George Cecil Jones and after his Neophyte initiation it became clear he was very gifted. But he had a powerful magical personality, which was unrestrained and undisciplined. He advanced through the grades of the outer order quickly, assimilating the teachings without difficulty. In fact, he was doing magical experiments with his friend Allan Bennett, an advanced Adept Minor of the GD.

The grades not formally separated by automatic delays, were taken at the rate of one a month, and succeeding ones at the intervals of three, seven and nine months. By the time he had taken his Portal grade (in May 1899), the preliminary to the Adept Minor degree, problems started. According to Order rules, he was to await a 9 months minimum to be able to pass the examination of the Adeptus Minor grade. Hence, he could not receive the grade of Adeptus Minor before October 1900, but he nevertheless applied for it (and was refused).

The adepts disliked Crowley, his attitudes and way of life. Some of them probably did not believe an adept should drink, have fun, fornicate and raising hell with enthusiasm. His scandalous reputation won the dissaproval of his seniors, who were in their right to refuse him. So, in January of 1900, Crowley went to Paris, and, so he later claims in hisEquinox, was initiated in the Ahathoor Temple by Mathers himself ! However, if he had really been inititated into the grade of Adeptus Minor on January 16, he should have been present at the assembly of the Ahathoor temple of January 19. If he had received it on January 23, he should have been present at that of February 2. In all cases, his initiation should have been mentioned at the time of these assemblies, but it was not !

Between Paris and London a deep schism had been in the making and now tensions exploded. For this grade, Crowley chose as motto the first words of the First Enochian Call : "Ol Sonuf" or : "I reign over you.", but his adept name is lost (Regardie conjectures : "The Heart Girt with a Serpent").

When the London adepts heard Mathers had initiated Crowley, the breach was complete. When applying for the lectures he was now entitled, Crowley was again refused and thrown out. To Florence Farr, Yeats and many others, Crowley was an outcast, an opportunist who had endangered the link with Mathers. He promptly notified Mathers and a meeting was arranged by the latter with the "rebels" in London. Crowley acted as Mathers' plenipotentiary, and to protect himself, dressed up in the garb of Highland chieftain, concealing his face with a heavy black mask ... Clearly Mathers was a poor judge of characters.

Crowley was excluded from all the Temples of the Order as of May 1900. The GD did not recover from the insanity and within  a few years became a dispersed organization, with several Temples conducted by different groupings of men, each appointing their own Chiefs. Waite kept the Isis-Urania Temple, but in 1914 he closed it down.
Crowley and The Vision and the Voice

After the incident, Crowley, the self-styled Enochian adept, went to Mexico and commenced his scrying of the 30 Aethyrs, a series of subjective regions, co-relative with the 4 Watchtowers, the pillars of the objective multiverse. The first two visions, on the 14th and 17th of November, were not satisfactory and he found himself unable to progress. Why ? He admitted to be immature, and emotionally he was.

Mathers had given the practice of his Enochian key into adept hands. And not without good reasons. Intuitively, when building the system, he must have suspected how dangerous this key was. Crowley's adept motto is also striking. The Enochians must have felt he was a treator and a sneek, and so threw "I reign over you" out of the Aethyrs at first call ...

Clearly Crowley had, to his own peril, misunderstood the spiritual benefits of humility and patience. The Christian nature of the Adept Minor grade abhored him and had brought back lingering youth trauma's (father and mother being fanatical Plymouth Brethren, his mother calling him "the beast"). So he staged his own adepthood, and abused the London adepts as well as Mathers. His young, powerful & magical nature (not free of vengeance and the spiteful reaction) fascinated Mathers and caused the latter to raise the inept to adepthood. It also proves Mather deluded himself when claiming to be in contact with the third order. It seems more likely he was serving fallen angels.

But was Crowley at the time not already practicing goetic magic ? The habitual drugs, polymorph perverse sexuality, ego inflation, egotism, bad temper and general moral weakness, hand in hand with periods of great concentration and creativity are suggestive of demonic possession. He did not fail to progress in the outer order (covering the traditional teachings), but was halted when approaching the gate of the College of Adepts, the Community of the Holy Spirit, those who had seen him act and who refused to advance him. Mathers' initiation ran against the logic of his own ideas. Human weakness was indeed too prominent among the higher adepts of the GD.

Crowley only attained the grade of Philosophus and Lord of the Paths, explaining perhaps why the Enochians did not allow him to advance. But what happened after 1900 can not be measured with the Tree of Life. Crowley had opened the Gates and had been forced to stop. Hords of demons must have come through ...

In 1904, Crowley received in Cairo his major spiritual communication, the Book of the Law, the most exceptional literary praise of Satan ever. Shortly after, he wrote Mathers to inform the latter the "Secret Chiefs" had designated him to head Mathers' own minuscule order (the "lawful" remnant of the GD). He, the prophet of the Age of Horus, declared the whole Golden Dawn system as abrogated ! He was 29 and Mathers ignored him. It had taken Crowley only six year to become his own adept and abrogate the spiritual organization of his choice, and his mental instability, megalomania, and religious madness were only on the rise ...

In 1909, nine years after his first try, he visited the Aethyrs again, this time assisted by Victor Neuburg, with whom he had strong emotional and erotical connections. On the 28th of November, at Aumale in Algiers, he invoked the 28th Aethyr. Crowley, the seer, and Neuburg, the scribe, walked through the Sahara desert, invoking the Aethyrs, one by one. The record of this undertaking is called The Vision and the Voice, characterized by Apocalyptic imagery mingled with the mythology ofLiber Legis.

On the 6th of December, they arrived at the Aethyr called ZAX, containing the devil (the archetype of evil). Crowley decided to assimilate the archdemon ! He took place in the triangle of manifestation and called for the devil. To call Choronzon without having established consciousness above the upper Abyss, is to ensure immediate catastrophe. It happened !

The experience had a tremendous impact on Crowley's subsequent life. He became the prophet of Satan, delivering the new message for humanity. He accepted this mission and assumed the role of teacher and prophet of darkness and the shadow-realms. Perhaps it is possible to say his latent schizofrenia finally exploded. The battle was over, and the insane part of Crowley had won : he was the Beast of the Apocalypse, just as his mother had told him ...

It is possible to argue the following : Crowley, the Philosophus, opened the Gates of Enoch with an immature key and got flooded over by Enochian demons. These told him (as they had Dee), he was a true adept invested with a special task. In 1904, they communicated theBook of the Law, the manifesto of the demoniac par excellence. By know, they tricked him to believe in the advent of the age of Satan (disguised as the Egyptian god Horus) and depicted his task as the prophet of Horus, Master Therion, the Beast. When you give a demon an inch, it will take your arm ...

In 1909, at the age of 34, the curtain falls down on Crowley, and his psyche is broken up in multiple personalities he no longer controlled. This dispersion is due to Choronzon, the Enochian devil he identified with. By now a Secret Chief from hell himself, he believed he could master all demons. The result was a very remarkable case of permanent possession, characterized by psychosis and an incredible creative output of the most formidable nonsense.
"It may be said, can there be patience in the Angels, which are exhalted above the aire ? For, such as were of errour have their reward : Yea, forsooth my dear brethren. For there is a continual fight between us and Satan, wherein we vanquish by patience. This is not spoken without a cause :  For as the Devil is the father of Carping, so doth he suttlely infect the Seers imagination, mingling unperfect forms with my utterance : Water is not recieved without aire, neither the word of God without blasphemous insinuation. The Son of God never did convert all, neither did all that did hear him, believe him. Therefore, where the power of God is, is also Satan : Lo, I speak not this without a cause ..."
TFR, p.74 (Nalvage on the 12th of April, 1584, Cracau)

Crowley's contribution

On April 12, 1584, the angel Nalvage explained there are 49 "voyces or callings". These are the Natural Keys to open the Enochian Gates of the Watchtowers. The last of these Calls, the 49th Call, does not open an Enochian Gate but is used to enter the 30 Aethyrs in spirit-vision. This angelical numbering is rather confusing (on purpose ?). For in fact, there are only 18 Calls and one Call to enter 30 different Aethyrs (the only difference added being the name of the Aire).

Crowley's Enochian key posits the crucial difference between the objective and the subjective sides of the Enochian system. On the one hand, the Watchtowers represent the 4 pillars of the multiverse, the cities of the invisible dwellers. These are to be opened in 18 days, using the 18 Calls (or, as the angels have it, the 48 Calls). On the other hand, the Aethyrs are 30 frequencies, bands or strata of consciousness (from Assiah to Atziluth), to be entered using the last, 19th Call (the so-called 49th Call). Crowley visited these Aires in a state of trance. His revelations were of course co-dependent on the contents of his own mind.

His work contributed to one major realization : the Aethyrs are a subjective ring around the Watchtowers.

Chapter 8
How ? Rosae Crucis

"What think you, therefore, O mortals, seeing that we sincerely confess Christ, execrate the pope, addict ourselves to the true philosophy, lead a worthy life, and daily call, intreat, and invite many more unto our Fraternity, unto whom the same Light of God likewise appeareth ? Consider you not that, having pondered the gifts which are in you, having measured you understanding in the Word of God, and having weighed the imperfections and inconsistencies of all the arts, you may at length in the future deliberate with us upon their remedy, cooperate in the work of God, and be serviceable to the constitution of your time ?"Confessio Fraternitatis, chapter XIII.

The second order of the GD was "Rosicrucian". Besides the Enochian system, two major symbols were its own :  the Rose & Cross and the Vault. Both referred to the Rosicrucian allegory, which came into public notice early in the 17th century with two manifestos : the Fama Fraternitatis (1614, but circulating about four years earlier, two years after Dee died) and the Confessio Fraternitatis (1615).

Rosae Crucis
adapted from the GD version
IYod - Virgo
the Annunciation
NNun - Scorpio
the Passion
RResh - Sol
the Resurrection
IYod - Virgo
the Assumption
true Rosicrucianism

Without going into details, we may conclude the founders of the GD also misunderstood the real intent of Rosicrucianism. Indeed, the Rosicrucian Order has no corporate form before the world. Recognition can not be counterfeited or betrayed, for the tokens are spiritual. The Order is invisible, because it has no external organization, the College of the Holy Spirit being a mystical communion. All pretentions of societies claiming to be successors of the authors of the manifestos are repudiated.

Indeed, a Rosicrucian should profess to cure the sick gratis. He makes no open claim to the possession of secrets, no public announcement of initiation, no pretensions to occult authority. Eccentricity of dress or conduct are not Rosicrucian. He comes before the world in just one role, that of healer.
"They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick : I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." Mark 2:17
Applying this insight to the scala perfectionis, we grasp why the single supreme ritual of the Western tradition is the attainment of the knowledge and conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel. This Enochian leads us to the realization of our own Higher Self, the operation of exaltation of the complete man in a vertical line. Indeed, before the grade of Adeptus Minor, the temple of man was completed but empty. The nuptial bed was ready for the bride but no bridegroom was present.

With Self-realization, the "watchtower" is climbed, establishing a panoramic perspective. The second order is Rosicrucian if the maturation to complete Adepthood is organized by the Holy Spirit Himself. Hence, beyond the grade of Adeptus Minor, no genuine occult order is in existence, for the Holy Spirit Himself takes over and guides the Rose-Croix through the worlds of soul and Divine presence, the complete man being deified by the grace of God. The Western tradition & Christian theology confirm holy angels to be the ministers of God the Holy Spirit.

All of this points to the crucial, most important role of the Enochiansafter the "golden dawn" initiated man and, in harmony with Pentagrammaton, made the complete individual stand upright. Thepurificatio attained in the outer order of Hermes is only the culmination of the traditional line of Western occultism, running from Ancient Egypt to the Incarnation of Christ and recuperated by Renaissance Hermeticism. This aims to complete man by reestablishing his connection with the natural cycle. The illuminatio found in the inner, Rosicrucian order begins with the arrival of the Holy Guardian Angel in the nuptial chamber of the complete man. Not because of attainment, but as a gift of Jesus Christ administered by the ministers of the Holy Spirit. Then the true Rosicrucian adventure starts.

Hence the importance of the Portal between Yetzirah and Briah (the "veil of the Temple") and the correct, lawfull and beautiful attainment of the grade of Adept Minor, the highest occult degree a visible, communal but secret College of Adepts may bestow. The absence of outer structure between Adepts does not deny hierarchy its presence. Angels never discuss order. Hence, true Rosicrucianism is the ministery of "man made spirit" (cf. "l'homme esprit" of Saint Martin), the power of consensus hiding the face of true Adepthood.
the Rose & Cross
The mandala of the true and invisible Rosicrucian Order is the Rosae Crucis, a cross of six equal squares, with a reddish purple five-petaled rose at its center. This icon is the spiritual doorway used by the Enochians to sooner or later make direct contact with the complete individual. The six equal squares refer to the Hexagram (the macrocosm), the five petals to the Pentagram (the microcosm). This is the operation of Tiphareth, the 6th Sephira attained by the Adept Minor, the 5th grade.

In a Christian interpretation, it involves the Passion, Resurrection and Ascension of Jesus Christ.

Precisely because of its Messianic, Anointed, Elect symbolism, may we rest assured Rosicrucianism is the fundamental stance of the holy angels of Enoch ? To Christians, the icon of the Rosae Crucis is the spiritual incarnation of the Passion and Resurrection of Jesus Christ and runs likea file rouge through the 4 Watchtowers, organized by means of two types of crosses : the equidistant Greek Cross, and the Calvaric Cross. The former defines the overall pattern of the Watchtowers and their subquadrants, whereas the latter orders the subquadrants themselves.

The Calvaric Cross is derived from the cube. The cube is derived from the square, the solid truth of the Assiah, the physical plane, its weight and inertia. The Passion of Christ is about the truth of this world, the tragic fact its demoniac economy of old needed the Sacrifice of sacrifices to purge evil. We payed for everything and received nothing. The Passion of the Christ proves even the Son of God, the Word, had to Incarnate to experience death. So powerful were the demons, that the Father saw His only Son suffer treason, humiliation, torture and assassination ! The unfoldment of the cube (of the world and of history) is the story of suffering on a Calvaric Cross.

Christ's old body lay in this new tomb where no one had ever been buried. His body was wrapped in linen with species, myrrh and aloes. The entrance blocked by a large stone. This was a vault. The Passion of the Christ ended in the tomb. The Cross ended in the Vault. A period of transition before the Resurrection. Both Cross and Vault are hexagons. After three days, Christ resurrected in a new body.

Jesus Christ was sacrificed while loving His Father, and obeying His Will, the death of death for Christians, those who accept salvation by Jesus Christ and believe His Cross recuperated human nature as a whole. If this good message is heard and repentance and baptism are accepted, then all demoniac economies are broken down, and the new order of grace is entered.

The Rose is the mystic scent of Christ's love, its grand inner Divine peace and the ability to move most if not all obstacles : Amor Omnia Vincit In Proba. It also represents the coming of the Holy Spirit (Pentecost) after Christ's Ascension. The Cross ending in the Vault is finalized by the Rose. The Cross is transcended because of love and only love.

The symbolism of Netzach, associated with Venus, underlines the Rosae Crucis, the sign of the sacrifice of sacrifices : only through love can the perfect pattern of the cube be rightly perceived, understood and finally transcended. The Hebrew name for Venus is "Nogah" (NVGH), with a gematric value of 64, the sum of Adam (ADM - 45) and Eve (ChVH - 19), the totality of humanity. The Rose represents truth, justice and the perfect balance, the Egyptian Maat, offered daily to Re by Pharaoh, his son. Offering truth and justice to God is therefore the basic operation of the Rose-Croix.

The Rose is also the flower of Venus and thus a symbol of heavenly beauty and purified desire. The Rose fastened to the central square of the Cross reflects the unification of man's astral constitution (emotions, erotism, desire) with the cubic law of manifestation. Close up the Cross, and it forms a cube with the Rose hidden within it. The center of the Rose and the foundation of the law of manifestation are the same : the Rose-Croix discovers the Real (Hexagram) and conforms his life to the Real (Pentagram). The cube transformed into gold, unfolds the New Jerusalem ... To the uninitate, the Rosicrucian is a golden cube, unfolding the Rose only when given the tokens, and these signs are notpreset formulae.
Brother A :"Ave Frater !"
Brother B :"Rosae et Aurae."
Brother A :"Crucis !"
Together :
"Benedictus Dominus Deus noster qui dedit nobis signum."
Hexagram and Pentagram
The fundamental process of the Great Work is attaching the Pentagram upon the Hexagram, the Rose upon the first square of the six-squared cube. The Hexagram is the symbol of the objective cosmic order, the manifested multiverse conceived prior to the arrival of the human being upon Earth and a synthesis of the wheel of the zodiac. It is the natural cyle of objective events, the evolution of the multiverse from God's light to the advent of human consciousness and the subjective factors symbolized by the Pentagram. The interlacing triangles of the Hexagram represent the Law of Love, the union of all polarizations throughout the multiverse.

Pentagrams covered the ceilings of antechamber and burialroom of the Pharaohs of the VIth Dynasty, depicting the ultimate goal of their ascent to the stars. Pythagoras and his disciples associated health. Agrippa informs us the Pentagram has a "very great command over evil spirits". Eliphas Levi understood it as the expression of man's domination over the elements, binding them together to form the Star of the Magi, the burning star of Gnosticism, the "microprosopus" of the Zohar.

In Rosicrucianism, the Pentagram represents the Incarnation, the Word made flesh. The Hexagram is nothing less than the Will of the Father.

In this Magnum Opus, the cubic quaternary of this world ("negrido", the black work, Salt) manifests the quintessential Pentagram ("albedo", the white work, Sulphur). The latter completes consciousness and purifies its intent.

This nuptial conscousness is enlightened by the Presence of the Bridegroom. The soul become Bride, adheres to the natural process of the Hexagram ("rubedo", the red work, the Mercury of the Elixir of Life), conditioned by the triune dynamics of sacrifice (triangle up), resurrection (triangle down) and communion (the interlacing of both triangles merging together).

In Dee's view, this Triad of Adepthood was initiated by the Passion, Resurrection and Ascension of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Grandmaster of the Rosicrucian order. This return of the Son of God to His Father, prompted the descent of the Holy Spirit, the guide of the true Adepts who walk in the footsteps of Christ. Again we witness the Christification of the Enochian system.

Finally, the Philosopher's Stone of Christian alchemy, the crossing of the Upper Abyss of the Tree of Life, is the rebirth in the Holy Spirit and the participation in the deifying Apocalyptic economy of the latter, culminating in the Mystery of the Eight day (related to the order of the grandmasters). 

a Rosicrucian Magnum Opus
  1. Cube : the Fixed Cross of the zodiac (Taurus the bull, Leo the lion, Scorpio the eagle and Aquarius the angel) brings together the four motto's :
    1. Legis Jugum : the yoke of the law is the convenant made on the basis of hard work and determined discipline ;
    2. Nequaquam Vacuum : negative declaration of the fullness of the world and the absence of a vacuum : Divine Presence is everywhere ;
    3. Libertas Evangelii : the liberty of the gospels is their announcement of the new convenant of Christ, who sets free ("Jesus") from previous spiritual economies. Again, the Fixed Cross appears :
                  a. Taurus - Matthew - Uriel
                  b. Leo - Mark - Michael
                  c. Scorpio - Luke - Gabriel
                  d. Aquarius - John - Raphael
    4. Dei Gloria Intacta : the undefiled Glory of God shows the real inner person is untouched by his or her individual vehicles.
  2. Pentagram : the four elements of the quaternio (Air, Fire, Water & Earth) are purified and put upright, using Solar and Lunar cycles. After many years of daily work, the quintessence is produced and used. The order of Hermes is closed. Man is completed in his foundational dimensions, but has no direct access to his own personal spiritual Master. The guiding principle behind these lower mysteries, as well as the spiritual aim of Pentagrammaton, is the manifestation of the Law of Love represented by the Rose. This is Netzach, the 7th Sephira of the Tree of Life, giving spiritual victory over the physical world and over the dream-world. As "Lord of the Paths", the Philosophus masters the shadow of the personal unconscious (the lower Abyss of the Tree of Life). Without love, the work is spilt.
  3. Hexagram : "Ascendat oratio, descendat Gratia." is the logic of a direct contact with the Enochians, in casu the Holy Guardian Angel. The Philosophus is nailed on the Cross and the elements of the Pentagram are sublimated in the quintessence. They dissolve out of lack of conscious support. The old body is vaulted in a new tomb and vanishes. The tomb is open when the new body manifests thanks to the Great Prayer of the Adepts, who ask the Father to resurrect all Christian souls. This Prayer is an Eucharist, a Christian thanksgiving reminding us of Christ's Passion & Resurrection, making us partakers, in the Holy Spirit, of His Divine Life. To shape new elements, the Adept Minor, guided by the Holy Guardian Angel, attaches his Rose in four steps :
    1. Zelator Adept Minor : Earth - prayer, invocation - Ritual of the Rose & Cross ; How ?
    2. Theoreticus Adept Minor : Air - astrological timing - theHeptarchia Mystica ; When ?
    3. Practicus Adept Minor : Water - higher states of consciousness - the Claves Angelicae ; Who ?
    4. Philosophus Adept Minor : Fire - direct contact with the Enochians (reading the Book of Enoch) - Liber Loagaeth ; What ?

Rosae Crucis
The emblem of the Rosicrucian is also a tool, a memory-theatre summarizing Rosicrucianism. The phrase "Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews" ("INRI") being the synthesis of the economy of the Son, His mission to recuperate human nature as a whole.

In the second order of the GD, the Ritual of the Rose & Cross involved Christian theurgy combined with the Ancient Egyptian Osiris-drama. "INRI" and the Gnostic "IAO" (read as "Isis - Apopis - Osiris") were interlaced, as well as Isis and the Virgin.
As always, the GD returned to the Jewish conception of God, adding references to the "Lord of Darkness" (cf. supra).

So in their ritual, "the Destroyer" (namely Seth) was identified with "Scorpio", the letter "Nun" ("N") in "INRI". However, the body of Jesus Christ was not cut into pieces but vanished. Neither did Jesus Christ become the "king of the dead", but He was already the Living God before the world started. The combination is therefore defunct, for Rosicrucians see God as the Lord of Goodness and attribute no darkness, evil or sorrow to Him.
Holy art Thou, Lord of the Universe !
Holy art Thou, Whom Nature has not Formed !
Holy art Thou, Father, Son and Spirit !
Lord of the Light !
The Passion is meaningless without the Resurrection. The latter, like the Transfiguration, offers the vision of the Son of God, the perfect image of the Father, the Word of God. Osiris is no match, except for the hell of his assassination, which is besides the point.

Need we to underline the Rosae Crucis is the formula of our Lord Jesus Christ, in particular, of His Passion & Resurrection ? A Roman instrument of torture came to symbolize the doings of His own. The square becomes cube through the pain of the tragedy of time and history. Because of Christ's Love (the Rose), death spiritually died, and sinners could be redeemed.

The works of Satan are stopped and all Christians may participate in the glory of His Body of Resurrection, as well as in the Pentecostal order of grace of the Holy Spirit, the God of personal, intimate, angelic (Enochian) interventions.

 
I
central
square
the Calvaric Cross of Jesus Christ
II
top
square
the Father
Mercury
III
right
square
the Son
Salt
IV
left
square
the Holy Spirit
Sulphur
V
back
square
the Star of the Adepts
VI
bottom
square
the Star of the Initiates
The smaller Rose & Cross represents the Calvaric Cross of Jesus Christ. Its five petals form a reversed Pentagram, the diabol of evil or the chaining of man to the devil. The negative sign in the heart of the reversed Pentagram underlines this negativity. The Love of Christ, His Rose, fears no hell and liberates those unable to pay they debts to Azazel. The Elect One destroys the works of the demons ! His Passion was the final destruction of the demoniac economy of old, based on ancesteral lineage, power, wealth and pacts. The Sacrifice of sacrificesmeant the end of these dealings of the fallen angels with enslaved humanity, forced to serve them. It broke the chains of bondage and liberated man from the defects of his nature, restoring its fallenness ; blooming positive enthusiasm.

The fire of the initiate (vehemence, determination, enthusiasm) is kindled and kept burning (Malkuth) by purifying the four elements of Assiah, by taking away the dross and restoring their underlying natural image. This is the work of the Neophyte and it is finished at the reception of the grade of Zelator. The Law of Four is applied two times (to Assiah and to Yetzirah), and forms the Octagon of Regeneration (the double application of this fourfold law).

LAW of FOUR applied to ASSIAH
AIR
East
RaphaelDaggerYellow
FIRE
South
MichaelWandRed
WATER
West
GabrielCupBlue
EARTH
North
UrielPentacleGreen
The bottom square represents these two operations. The 4 Elements need to be applied to Malkuth before the dream-world may be entered. To master mind and affect, three additional Sephiroth need to be fastened : Yesod, Hod and Netzach. A new, inner foundation is erected by repentance & "apatheia" (Yesod). Next, the splendour of inner stillness or "hesychia" brings the mind to halt (Hod), whereas "agape" (love) forges the inner equilibrium of the initiate, bestowing victory over the shadow-realm.

LAW of FOUR applied to YETZIRAH
EARTH
Malkuth
ZelatorBody
AIR
Yesod
TheoreticusEgo
WATER
Hod
PracticusMind
FIRE
Netzach
PhilosophusWill
The upright Pentagram of the Philosophus has realized the form of the quintessence only, to wit : emptiness, virtuality, serendipity and all possibilities. But there is not yet a holy presence, no creator of contents and no higher meaning incarnate (a Higher Self realized thanks to the Holy Guardian Angel).

The Star of the Initiate is the complete human individual, the upright Pentagram called but not yet chosen. Its background color refers to the 22 petals of the Rosae Crucis : the need to rise up in a vertical line and as an Adept grow into perfect personhood by the reception of the Holy Spirit. If the outer order is a passion, the inner is a resurrection and the third a pentecostal spiritual marriage.

When the bottom square is left, the work of the outer order, the lesser mysteries of the Western Tradition, is presupposed to be finished. In itself a work of at least a decade, if not longer. A complete set of exercises could be devised to create an outer order in tune with the Enochian, second order principles (the common error of the old schools being their attachment to traditional forms unbacked by recent historical evidence, like the meaning of the hieroglyps of Egypt).

When the Veil of the Temple is rendered, the powers behind the quintessential form manifest in it, and cause the opening of a new, higher and brighter focus of consciousness. The work of the College of Adepts is to let this awareness grow naturally. A direct contact with the holy angels is made and Enochian evocation and alchemy practiced.

The back square is also the bottom square of the Greek Cross. Adepthood is the foundation of the experience of Divine Presence (Atziluth), eventually participating in the economy of the Holy Spirit. The remaining squares summarize this :
Holy Trinity
Sephiroth
Mode
Father
Kether
Mercury
Son
Chockmah
Salt
Holy Spirit
Binah
Sulphur
The 22-petaled Rose is a complete image of Nature : the 10 Sephiroth and the 22 Paths between them.

Sephiroth
PlanetColor
1
Kether
UranusWhite
2
Chockmah
NeptuneGrey
3
Binah
PlutoBlack
4
Chesed
JupiterBlue
5
Geburah
MarsRed
6
Tiphareth
SunYellow
7
Netzach
VenusGreen
8
Hod
MercuryOrange
9
Yesod
MoonPurple
10
Malkuth
SaturnYellow
Red
 Blue
 Green
The astrological definition of the Rose points to the various aspects of the Higher Self, as well as to the discovery of form and content of the true will of the Adept. The character of this will is co-determined by the age and ray of the soul, the object of esoteric astrology.
"After intimate and persistent intercourse with the Angel has been established, He utters the Word. When this is heard and correctly interpreted, the magician becomes an Adept, aware of his proper place in the scheme of existence ; he knows his will and can proceed to fulfil it, confident that his Angel, or genius, will facilitate his path and make available all that is necessary for the fulfilment of his nature."

Grant, K. : The Magical Revival, Weiser - New York, 1973, p.117.

Chapter 9
When ? Heptarchia Mystica

"In your great mercy and grace, O Almighty God, confirm that you are the true and Almighty God, creator of heaven and Earth, upon whom I call and in whom I put my trust. And that your Ministers are true and faithful angels of light, with whom I deal by this heptarchical art."
HM, p.84.
the mysteries of the sevenfold

In 1582, Kelley scried the system of angelic magic recorded in Dee's De Heptarchia Mystica. This is one of the works found, more than five decades after Dee's death, in the secret drawer of his chest. It escaped inclusion in Casaubon, and was therefore ignored by the GD and Crowley. The Enochiana have an overall structure. This eluded most subsequent keymakers.

Indeed, both the thematical & compositional parallels with the historical Enoch as the Rosicrucian nature of the teaching remained largely untouched by the keymakers. For example, a Buddhist interpretation of Enochian Magick has not been seen before.

It could be argued the Enochians are a universal set of angels, delivering a message for all of humanity, not only for the members of the Judeo-Christian tradition. Perhaps these angels of Enoch initiate the Cosmic Months ? If so, then Dee would have received the coming of Age of Aquarius, devoid of Venus, Jupiter & Neptune, the magical forces ruling the current Age of Pisces, arriving at its end. A Christian superstructure would then merely be an antidote for the failures of this Age rather than bringing the system in line with the Age ahead. This Enochian archetype was translated by Dee in Christian terms. The Calvaric Crosses indicated the Passion of Jesus Christ, although a more general interpretation were perhaps better suited given the globalizing tendencies of the Enochian system. To Dee, this globalization was directly linked with the Protestant, albeit Anglican, radical turn taken by the Elisabethans. It was a Magickal Operation intending the advent of the British Empire ! Dee identified the spiritual powers that be with the Christian Trinity. But is this the message of the Enochians ?
STRUCTURE OF THE ENOCHIAN SYSTEM

How ?
defines the basics, the way to initiate & proceed
Rosae CrucisThree Parabels
When ?
 
defines the moment of the magical action
Heptarchic order of the weekHeavenly
Luminaries
Who ?
defines the state of the operator during the magical action
visions of 30 Aethyrs by the 19th CallDream
Visions
What ?
defines the angels to be evoked
4 Watchtowers operated by 16 CallsBook of
Watchers
Where ?
defines the part of the Earth involved
91 Governors of the AethyrsApocalypse
of Weeks
A "heptarchia" is a government of seven rulers. In Renaissance Hermeticism, the wandering bodies of ancient astrology (the traditional planets) were implied, whereas politically, it referred to the seven kingdoms of Anglo-Saxon England (449 - 828). This sevenfold played its part in Essene spirituality and in the Books of Enoch. Enoch is warned not to take the stars as gods (as antiquity had done) :
"And the whole order of the stars shall be concealed from the sinners. And the thoughts of those on the earth shall err concerning them. And they shall be altered from all their ways. Yea, they shall err and take them to be gods."
BE, Heavenly Luminaries, LXXX.7.

The sevenfold returned in the stellar eschatological symbolism of theApocalypse of John :
"And he had in his right hand seven stars." Revelation 1:16"And out of the throne proceeded lightnings and thunderings and voices : and there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God."
Revelation 4:5

In Dee's Enochian heptarchy, the seven planets are ruled by seven angelical kings. Each king has a prince, the active power of the former. Under each prince serve five nobles. The names of these forty-nine angels were revealed to Kelley letter by letter upon a complex table in the shape of a sevenfold cross.
Dee's Tabula Angelorum Bonorum 49
(note the irregular planetary sequence)
The angels informed Dee each king and prince rule the entire day associated with the planet of the king. Each prince is a hierarch of his own, consisting of fourty-two ministers who rule the hours of the day in six groups of seven ministers, each group ruling four hours of the twenty-four.

The grimoire portion of De Heptarchia Mystica is confused. Divided into seven sections, it covers the days of the week. The grimoire contains the circular seals of the fourty-two ministers of the princes and the seal of the princes. Dee's "Heptagon Stellar" was a great star with seven points, containing the names of the princes.
The Heptagon Stellar
(restored with kings and princes)
Standing on the circular table of the hourly ministers of the prince who serves the king of the day, with the table of the king in his left hand and the seal of the prince on the Table of Practice before him, Dee spoke the exordiums to the king and the prince of the day. He wore the Ring of Michael and had the Lamen of Operations hanging on his breast.
Dee's Holy Lamen
Ceremonial procedures in themselves are not wrong. Rituals enable the deep encoding of intent. But spiritual rituals, especially the Enochian ceremonies, using active symbols and potent icons of Divine Names, never conjure or coerce good, holy angels.

So Dee was indeed a conjurer, a child of his age. He incorporated Renaissance Hermeticism and Medieval Goetia (cf. the Solomonic tradition). Angels, good or evil, had to obey the Divine Names of God. By reciting the acts and nature of a spirit, by voicing its name and describing its appearance, power to command the entity is thereby gained. Dee incorporated this teaching in his key, as would Mathers and Crowley.

In the grimoires of the Goetia, demons refusing to comply were tortured by locking them up in a black box, thereafter holding the box in open fire. Dee was too pious to busy himself with black magic. But his gifted seer Kelley was a black magician, a man with a bad nature inclined to extremes. This extremophile wanted what materialists want most : money.

Dee's ceremonial equipment and the difference between his outdatedmateria magica and the true novelties is worth a separate study.
Sigillum Dei Aemeth
Dee's Sigil for Scrying (based on Agrippa ?)
The crucial emblem of Dee's operations was the so-called Table of Practice, an icon of singularity and the interlacing of spirit and matter as in the Star of the Adepts. This emblem adorns the Enochian Altar and underlines the higher mystery revealed to Enoch.
The Table of Practice
(restored without the seven ensigns)
The distinguishing feature of Dee's Table of Practice was the design painted on its top. Each side contains 21 letters, the number of letters in the Enochian alphabet. The "B" is inscribed in each corner (the names of the 49 good angels all start with a "B"). The letters are read from right to left and from outside the edge of the table. The letters are generated using the seven kings and the seven princes. The presence of these angels on the Table of Practice indicate every Enochian operation needsprecise (astrological) timing to succeed. 

The smaller table at the center, consisting of 12 Enochian letters, is an Enochian version of the breastplate of the high priest of Ancient Israel : four rows and three columns (the four worlds in their three modi).

the precision of timing
On the one hand, Dee's heptarchical art is outdated. Firstly, because the Enochians do not need coercion, but prayer and invitation. Hence, the Medieval setup is superfluous. Secondly, because there are 10 planets & not 7. Thirdly, because of the inconsistencies between the Tabula Angelorum Bonorum and the Heptagon Stellar (on the latter, the prince of each king is associated with a different planet than on the Tabula Angelorum Bonorum !). On the other hand, the presence of a stellar order is not surprising. Enoch himself received instructions regarding the heavenly luminaries, used to define the quality of time.

Dee was right to associate the magical operation of the heptarchia with a day of the week. Even today, the hebdomadal structure remains intact despite the discovery and correct positioning of Uranus, Neptune, Pluto (and recently, Sedna). He was right to explicitly limit himself to goodangels and intelligent enough to understand a measure smaller than a day was needed to time his operations. As 7 ministers rule four hours (240'), the smallest interval of Dee's "occult clock" was 34'17", a little more than half an hour.

Astrological timing of events works with a system of decreasing time-intervals, starting with the year. The year is divided in four by the equinoxes, and in twelve by the Lunar cycle, divided in four quaters and 28 stations. The Solar & Lunar tides define the first two vectors. Next comes the day of the week, the heptarchic vector of king and prince. Finally, the rise, culmination & setting of stars, planets and relevant points, allow for an election to the second, and time-intervals of process of a few minutes. Indeed, the quality of timing has largely increased and thanks to computers, rituals in real time are possible, as well as continuous rituals in different time-zones.

Chapter 10
Who ? Claves Angelicae

the Enochian language
"... and there came two lines and parted the 21 letters into 3 parts, each being of 7. He said : 'Numerus O perfectissimus, Unus et Trinus. Gloria tibi, Amen.'"
LM, Book 5, p.270.
"they appeared drawn on this paper with a light yellow cullor,
which he drew the blak uppon, and so the yelow cullor dissapearing"
LM
, p.405 (the 6th of May 1583)
These Enochian letters are read from right to left. The script looks like Ethiopic, but is not.

The numerical value of each letter is unknown. And so, all Enochian numerologies are speculative. Likewise, it has not been possible to associate the 22 Hebrew letters (and their astrological & other symbolical correspondences) with the 21 Enochian letters. The letters appeared to Kelley in a light yellow color. The dot in Pal was overlooked by the GD and Crowley. All the letters in the names of the Enochians total 64. These names must have been generated by letter squares.
THE ENOCHIAN ALPHABET
BPAEnglish B

C/KVEHk or s ("soft c")
GGEDg or j ("gem")
DGALEnglish d
FOREnglish f
AUNa (long or short)
EGRAPHee or e
MTALEnglish m
I/J/YGONee or i
HNAEnglish h
LUREnglish l
PMALSEnglish p except ph
QGERqu ("q" is "kwa")
NDRUXEnglish n
XPALks ("fox")
OMEDo
RDONEnglish r ("right")
ZCEPHzoo
U/VVANoe ("boot") or u ("put")
SFAMEnglish s
TGISGEnglish t
Dee left instructions regarding pronunciation, and these result in an Enochian sounding like Elizabethan English. Variations in pronunciation alway occur, and contribute to the individualization of the language by its user.
Before the expulsion from Paradise, so the angels explain Dee, Adam spoke of the mysteries of God in a "tongue of power". Later he could not remember it and out of necessity learned Hebrew.
"Every Letter signifieth the member of the substance whereof it speaketh. Every word signifieth the quiddity of the substance. (...) letters to be elected from the numbred, and proper words from the letters, signifying substantially the thing that is spoken of in the center of his Creator, whereby even as the minde of man moved at an ordered speech, and are easily perswaded in things that are true, so are the creatures of God stirred up in themselves, when they hear the words wherwithal they were nursed and brought forth ..."
TFR, p.92 (Gabriel on the 19th of April 1584, Cracau)

Because Enoch was instructed in the language, this Divine, empowered language Dee & Kelley called "Enochian". To Open the Gates, it is essential to sound Enochian letters and intone the Calls in Enochian. This text, written in the Roman alphabet, purports to be a transliteration of the Enochian letters of the text of the original book seen by Kelley in the shewstone.

Laycock (1994) reports the phonology of Enochian is "thorougly English, the grammar is no less so" (p.41). Clearly, the operational power of these words is not linked with their phonology. The English translation is free, using five or six words where the Enochian has one. Proper names are given translations, and particles, prepositions and pronouns are filled in when required. But we do not know what they represent in Enochian. Of about 250 different words in the Calls, more than half occur only once. Lack of repetition eliminates control. The order of the words is also strongly English, and there is no trace of the construct case or irregular plurals like in Hebrew or Arabic. Neither are there complex verb forms as in Greek or Latin.

Regarding pronunciation, Dee often wrote it next to individual words of the Enochian text, and it looks much more like English than could be supposed. Indeed, Laycock's general rule was : "Consonants as in English, vowels as in Italian." The 21 letters of Enochian are the minimum required to write English without any ambiguity.

The GD devised a special pronunciation to cope with the clusters of consonants in Enochian. For Westcott, each letter had to be taken separately, with a few exceptions. In the expanded version of Mathers, the consonants were pronounced with the vowel following the nomenclature of the same letter in Hebrew.

Later, Crowley would also take the Enochian letters separately. He published his own conjurations in Enochian (cf. his edition of Mathers' translation of the Lesser Key of Solomon). Through decades of use, these words coined by Crowley in his personal system of magic have acquired respectability, but are in fact of his own fancy. It is certain the members of the GD as well as Crowley spoke Enochian incorrectly.

The method for beginners advocated here is simple (advanced users represent the text phonetically) :
  • pronounce when possible as in English and make the vowels clear and sounding as in Italian ;
  • do not sound every letter, except "z", to be pronounced "zoo" only where it cannot be merged with the rest of the word and "x" as "(e)ks" ;
  • make consonant-clusters readable by adding a soft "eh" ("Nlrx" is pronounced : "Nehlehreks").
angelic language or folly ?
Dee's "Enochian" is thoroughly English, i.e. much like the language of its translation. The angels used Dee's knowledge of English to transmit an Enochian system of Englishlike barbarous sounds.
"Much of the potency of an evocation, as in the case of mantra yoga, lies in its vibratory affinity with elemental phenomena : the violence and thunder of the storm, for the element Air ; the seductive and insidious plashing of fountains, for Water ; the lambency of flickering flame, summer lightning, for Fire ; and the booming echoes of chtonian reverberations, for Earth. The strings of words rise and fall, fitfully or with majesty according to the nature of the operation."
Grant, K. : Op.cit., p.111.


The influence of sound, especially melodic, on the temporal lobe of the right hemisphere of the neocortex (of righthanded individuals) is put into evidence by neuroscience. Add to this no apparent meaning and the complex consonantal sound-combinations in Enochian, and we understand why its intonation may cause the  language-areas of the left brain (Wernicke & Broca) to be blocked out (or deafferentiated). Moreover, the language-areas are seduced by occasional plausible etymologies and apparent grammatical structures.

The repetitive nature of religious mantra's or certain popular prayers (like the Rosary) confirm this phenomenon : trance is processed by the right hemisphere precisely because the latter connects with the right temporal limbic system, the amygdala in particular. The intonation of Enochian brings the brain immediately in a very bizar state. In fact, for intellectuals this may be quite disturbing. Not used to explore the periphery of their cherished cubic paradigm, they are blindfolded and pushed in narrow passages. As a result, they refuse to upgrade their "slave" hemisphere, and withdraw in the "master" attitude of the left prefrontal cortex.

No hidden cipher was transmitted to Dee through Kelley, for the Enochians knew the whole issue of the language had to do with the phonetical value of the Enochian letters and subsequent words, names, phrases and Calls. The "power" of the angels has subjective appeal because of the efficacy of the barbarous sound of the language. The system is objective insofar as the intonation of certain names produce certain measurable effects, namely the evocation of the Enochians.

Apparently, the Enochians "speak in tongues" ... If so, can the blueprint of the true angelical language be communicated ? They chose Dee because he had an excellent mind and they communicated a system of letters composing a "language" akin to English. Why not Latin, Greek or Hebrew ? The angels were not interested in Dee's academical languages, but in his mothertongue, the "code" encrypting his early childhood experiences, emotions and ability to feel the whole (right hemisphere).

To have by-passed local variations, Dee's Englishlike "Enochian" must resemble the blueprint sufficiently well (he had a universal mind). But,ex hypothesi, the latter may be "translated" into many different "tongues", if the angels so wish (hence, a Chinese Dee would receive a Chinese kind of "Enochian", with sounds empowered to implement an identical Enochian stewardship). If this is so, then the matter of authenticity can not be settled by philology.

49 Calls or 19 Calls ?


The last word of the First Call was transmitted to Dee though Kelley by Nalvage on the morning of April 13, 1584 at Cracau. The Calls were given backward, to be uttered forward "in practice". The bulk of these (over 1000 words) were dictated on a single day, during a single sceance.

The 49 Calls refer to the 49 large leaves of letter-number squares  of Dee's Liber Laogaeth, or "Book of the Speech from God", also calledBook of Enoch. The details of how they were generated are unclear, although a letter-by-letter transmission was preferred by Dee.

Did the angel point to letters with a rod on a round crystal table on which he stood ? Did Kelley see this scene in the shewstone and report the position of the pointer to Dee, who then looked up the corresponding letters on his own tables ?
"E.K. This Table now appeareth very evidently to me, as that I could paint it all.'"
TFR, p.81.


The Claves Angelicae provide a powerful summary of Enochian spirituality, and this in operational terms. They are the keys of the order of nature as a whole, objective (Watchtowers) and subjective (Aethyrs). 48 Calls open the Gates of Understanding, and One is not to be opened. The numbers "49" & "48" refer to Dee's Book of Enoch. This book has 48 leaves with two tables, one on the front and one on the back of each leaf, i.e. 96 pages of tables.

In fact, as the last, 19th Call is used to evoke the 30 Aethyrs, there are only 18 Calls pertaining to the Watchtowers. As the first two Calls contain the powers to bind the 4 Watchtowers together, only 16 Calls actually evoke the angels of the cities (these subquadrants). Was Dee again deliberately confused by the angels ?
"In 49 voyces, or callings : which are the Natural Keyes, to open those, not 49 but 48 (for One is not to be opened) Gates of Understanding, whereby you shall have knowledge to move every Gate, and to call out as many as you please, or shall be thought necessary, which can very well, righteously, and wisely, open unto you the secrets of their Cities, & make you understand perfectly the mysteries contained in the Tables. Through which knowledge you shall easily be able to judge, not as the world doth, but perfectly of the world, and of all things contained within the Compass of Nature, and of all things which are subject to an end."
TFR, p.77 (the angel Nalvage on the 12th of April 1854, Cracau)


For Dee, the structure of Enochian theurgy reflected in the 49 Calls was Christian and hence Trinitarian.

The Father, the originator, the principle of principles, is the plummet of the scale, maintaining the perfect equilibrium between the essence of God and the Trinity, God's operations. He is the principle of the common outgoing (as the generation of the Son & the procession of the Holy Spirit) of the same one essence of God. 

The Father and the Son create the architecture of creation, but only the Son enables the human person to be a partaker of Divine nature in the spirit. Only the Spirit invites the human person to witness the horizon of perfection for all times. The Son, partaking in humanity, is our Saviour.

The Holy Ghost calls a someone to co-operate in the natural process of anticipating the dawn of the ultimate deification of the multiverse, at the day of the end, anticipated in the Mystery of the Eight Day, the rebirth in Divine Light, the ultimate spiritual aim of the Enochians.
  1. Father : the First Call ;
  2. Son : the Second Call and the 16 Elemental Calls ;
  3. Holy Spirit : 19th Call of the 30 Aethyrs.
The Ritual of Opening the Gates refers to the Elemental Calls, intended to call the angels of the 4 Watchtowers. Clearly Christ, who is enthroned in the middle of the Great Table, only allows those in a "state of grace" to enter His Eucharist (cf. the Orthodox rules regarding communion). Clearly the Gates to these Cities should never be opened if the keymaker is not Rosicrucian. Then demons enter the physical plane, settle in the unconscious and make havoc. Was Mathers their victim ? Possession was clearly the lot of poor Crowley, who first had opened the Gates posing as an adept and next (already possessed) had invited Satan himself to take his physical body !

There are 30 etherical bands surrounding the Earth like a spiritual aura or subtle atmosphere. These bands reflect the upper worlds perfectly, for they are of unspoiled Edenic purity. Entered in trance, they convey the necessary experience & knowledge to realize higher states of consciousness.

Each frequency band contains living information, the collective treasure of man's higher quest constantly at work, the ongoing chronical of his spiritual life, and the magister of those who climb the scala perfectionis, the living record of grand, formidable and enduring ancesteral achievements, the backbone of the architecture of our evolution, the natural emancipation of matter towards matters spiritual.
THE PHYSICO-ETHERICAL PLANE : ASSIAH

Aethyrs
State
Atziluth
dim = 7
1th to 10th
Fire
unio mystica
Briah
dim= 6
11th - 20th
Water
gnosis
contemplation
Yetzirah
dim = 5
21th - 30th
Air
visionary trance
dream-visions
physical
dim =
1 ... 4
the 91 Governors
Earth
waking
consciousness
See the Aethyrs as the flowering, ongoing medium for the spiritual university of humanity, bustling and at peace. They give access to all spiritual teachings under unity and offer a direct, invisible support in personal spiritualization, and this gratis. They are the community of the Holy Spirit, the college of saints, the intercessors on behalf of fallen humanity, the keepers of the flame of Divine Love, the guardians, protectors and true Governors. They are the heavens and the celestial abodes, the Land of Milk and Honey, the oasis of peace, the lands of light of the eternal ones shining in all of eternity, the nameless one ... (LIL) !

Each band has three Governor, except for the first, which has four. These 91 Governors deify the lowest plane of our Earthly multiverse constantly. To be able to steward them, was Dee's prime motive. Did the good doctor envision a Christian world-government ? In the Enochian system, the Enochians are in charge.

As the physical plane has 7 dimensions, and 4 are used to form the square of the material plane (3 spatial and 1 temporal dimension), 3 dimensions are left to organize the upper, etherical spectrum of the physico-etherical plane, perfectly reflecting the invisible realm from astral to Divine.
The First Call
 The Call of the Father
The First Call
TRANSLATION OF THE FIRST CALL
Ol sonf vorsg, goho Iad Balt, lansh calz vonpho.
I reign over you, saith the God of Justice, in power exalted above the firmaments of wrath.
Sobra zol Ror I ta nazpsad, Graa ta malprg ; ds holq qaa nothoa zimz, od commah ta nobloh zien.
In whose hands the Sun is as a sword, (and) the Moon as a through-thrusting fire, which measureth your garments in the midst of my vestures, and trussed you together as the palms of my hands.
Soba thil gnonp prge aldi ds urbs oboleh grsam ; casarm ohorela taba Pir, ds zonrensg cab erm Iadnah.
Whose seats I garnished with the fire of gathering, which beautified your garments with admiration ; to whom I made a law to govern the Holy Ones, which delivered you a rod and the ark of knowledge.
Pilah farzm znurza adna gono Iadpil ds homtoh, soba ipam ul ipamis ; ds loholo vep zomd poamal, od bogpa aai ta piap piamol ad vaoan !
Moreover, you lifted up your voices and swore obedience and faith to Him that liveth and triumpheth ; whose beginning is not, nor end cannot be, which shineth as a flame in the midst of your palace, and reigneth amongst you as the balance of righteousness and truth.
ZACARe, ca, od ZAMRAN ! Odo cicle qaa ! Zorge, lap zirdo noco MAD, hoath Iaida !
Move, therefore, and show yourselves ! Open the mysteries of your creation ! Be friendly unto me : for I am the servant of the same your God, the true worshipper of the Highest.
The first Enochian Call is a recapitulation of the Enochian mindset as a whole. The highest powers present within the Enochian system is speaking : the God of Justice, our heavenly Father.

The composition of the Call is a threefold : on the one hand, it follows the downward path of creation from the macrocosm to the microcosm ("exidus a Deo"), on the other hand, there is a response from the microcosm, beseeching the macrocosm ("reditus in Deum") by virtue of our common God (the Father is the origin of origins of creation). Finally, in a concluding phrase, the Call underlines the natural intertwining of the activities of God in His creation and man's Great Work.
Exidus a Deo

"I reign over you, saith the God of Justice, in power exalted above the firmaments of wrath."

The exalted expression of justice is transcendent, for the God of Justice abides supernaturally above the traditional planets, dispensing fate and destiny, the "wrath of God" : God exists beyond nature. He exists in a supernatural realm, beyond and above the multiverse. He is not touched by creation, nor in need for it. But He declares His control over the forces to be used in His creation. Enochian is about the crucial dispensation of Divine Justice. Enoch understands the Lord of Spirits as a God of Justice, the Lord of the appropriate, natural order of things (cf. Maat in Ancient Egypt). The imagery is apocalyptic, for the right order of things is associated with "wrath", indicative of the fallenness of the human being. The stars are corrupted by sin and have become instruments of punishment.

To Dee, the God of Justice is the Christian God, not a perfect natural individual, a divine mechanism of strings like the deities of old. He is a transcendent, infinite Person stretching out His hands to man in the vastness of the finite multiverse, saying : "I reign over You !". He is an interrelational Godhead, juster than just and supergood, regretting the evil infesting His good and noble creation and taking His long-term, extremely powerful measures against it, but this, through His discretion, tact and omnipresence,
 without limiting the freedom of free creatures, of what is "the other" of His own omnipotence and omniscience, or knowledge of all events (not beforehand but as they happen).

The Absolute is One Thing with ten dimensions. Seven are used to measure up the multiverse. The three highest dimensions are beyond the outer-ring-pass-not, and relate to the "nature" of God-for-God, the Absolute in Absoluteness. In the Jewish qabalah, they are negative being ("Ain Soph Aur"), only approached by ecstatic, controversial mystics as Abulafia and Luria. In Classical Yoga, they refer to the state of non-action of the constituent factors of matter ("prakrti") and are given by the image of the sleeping Brahman, the nonduality ("avidyâ") of Vedanta. In Buddhism, this is the "Dharmakâya", the "Body of Truth" of an Enlightened Being. Hermetism defined the 10th, 9th and 8th dimensions as "beyond the hebdomad", identifying them with the Ogdoad (of the stars), the Ennead (of Hermes) and the Decad (of the Father).

In Christian mysticism and Rosicrucianism, these upper dimensions were deautomatized, delinearized and de-Hellenized, revealing the Holy Trinity of Divine Persons, the "energeia" of the ineffable "ousia" of God.

The hebdomad serves to design the Tree of Life, the Tetragrammatonic, Fourfold Law behind the laws and entities of the four worlds, strata or planes of the multiverse or "natura naturata", the unity of macrocosm (the Hexagram) and microcosm (the Pentagram).


"In Whose hands the Sun is as a sword, and the Moon as a through-thrusting fire."
This elegant phrase brings the heavenly luminaries of Antiquity to the fore, with Ancient Egyptian, Hermetical & Alchemical connotations. They regulate the course of time and are called by name. Sun and Moon operate on two distinct levels : planetary (Sun versus Moon, projective versus responsive) and elemental (Fire versus Air). However, to Dee's mind, the imagery was Christian, for Christ is the Elect and the Sword of the Apocalypse, the final Word at the closure of the old world. The Moon is the Holy Spirit, the Mother of Angels, the Burning Bush. Air and Fire are the two first Watchtowers, and both active. The hands of the Father are the two economies with which He deifies man and nature : Christ and the Holy Spirit.

"Which measureth your garments in the midst of my vestures ..."

"Garments" is "creation" or "nature natured". Garments and vestures are almost identical. "Vestures" are garments used in ritual and are thus sacred or set apart. They show the assumed nature one is taking on for the work, or indicate the purpose of the work.

Creation is a sacred and free act of God. "Ex nihilo", another freedom than God's liberty came into existence. God set creation apart. It was sacred from the start and will be sacred at the end, in accordance with the Law of Love (unity in the beginning, unity in the permutations, unity at the end). We humans, are creatures. We are "garments" in the midst of God's sacred "vestures", the space He set apart to allow creation and its freedom to unfold.

"...and trussed you together as the palms of my hands." 
The creator takes the gathered materials and brings them together.
"Whose seats I garnished with the fire of gathering, which beautified your garments with admiration."
The Watchtowers are the "seats" of God's vestures, the material symbols to which the Enochian forces are attached.

"To whom I made a law to govern the holy ones"
The "holy ones" are the angels of the Watchtowers. Creation is ruled by law and order, and even angels have to obey. The Great Table is precisely this : a system of rules enabling one to work with the angels.

"and delivered you a rod with the ark of knowledge." 
The Rod, like the Wand, is the magical tool representing true will or intent and the ark a receptacle like the Cup. The Enochian system is a Wand because knowledge can be put to use, but also a Cup from which knowledge can be drawn. The passive mode of the system allows knowledge-gathering. The active mode implies the Opening of the Gates with the 16 Elemental Calls.

Reditus in Deum

Creation, by the voice of man, the microcosm or summary of creation as a whole, responds to the Creator. This happens in terms of the four worlds in which only man exists simultaneously, starting with Olam-ha-Assiah and ending in Olam-ha-Atziluth.

"Moreover, you lifted up your voices and swore obedience and faith ..." 
Obedience and faith are qualities of Olam-ha-Assiah, the world of action (final He).

"... to him that liveth and triumpheth" 
Life and the emotion of triumph are characteristic of Olam-ha-Yetzirah, the world of formation (Vau).

"whose beginning is not, nor end can not be"

Endlessness or pervasiveness are characteristics of Olam-ha-Briah, the world of creation and the Higher Self (He).

"Which shineth as a flame in the midst of your palace ..." 
In the middle of the Great Table, Jesus Christ sits on the radiant throne of the Holy Spirit. He shines like a star. Moreover, each Elemental King (one for each Watchtower), forms a beam of light illuminating the Tablet from within. The shining flame stands for the word of Olam-ha-Atziluth, Divine Presence within creation (Yod).

"and reigneth among you as the balance of righteousness and truth."
Righteousness is God's presence in creation. The balance of justice has one plummet and two scales.
Hieroglyph of the Balance of Maat
principle of justice & truth in creation
Concluding phrases
"Move, therefore, show yourselves !
Open the mysteries of your creation !
For I am the servant of your God
a true worshiper of the Highest !"
To conclude, the First Call brings the operator to the fore. The latter asks the angels to show themselves, for he is the minister, representative or steward of the same God. The principle here is simple : the Enochians are bound by their covenant with God to render obedient and faithful service to His human representatives, just as if the latter were God ! As they are holy angels, they always will !

It goes without saying, the operator has to be a Rose-Croix ; otherwise the assumption of the Names of God is ineffective or dangerous.

Since the First Call is spoken in the first person, the operator is effectively taking on the role of God, invoking His power into himself. In these last concluding lines, the operator returns to his own.
The Second Call
The Second Call
TRANSLATION OF THE SECOND CALL
Adgt upaah zong om faaip sald, viu L ?
Can the wings of the winds understand your voices of wonder, O you, the second of the First ?
Sobam ialprg izazaz piadph ; Casarma abramg ta talho paracleda, q ta lorlsq turbs ooge baltoh.
Whom the burning flames have framed within the depts of my jaws ; whom I have prepared as cups for a wedding, or as the flowers in their beauty for the chamber of righteousness.
Givi chis lusd orri, od micalp chis bia ozongon ; lap noan trof cors ta ge, oq manin Iaidon.
Stronger are your feet than the barren stone, and mightier are your voices than the manifold winds ; for you are become a building such as is not, but in the mind of the All-Powerful.
Torzu, gohe L ; zacar, ca, c noqod ; zamran micalzo, od ozazm urelp ; lap zir Ioiad.
Arise, says the First ; move, therefore, unto his servants ; show yourselves in power, and make me a strong seething, for I am of Him that lives forever.
The First Call is the core of the Enochian system : the Father. As a whole, it refers to the Hexagram and Tetragrammaton. The Second Call contains the material, elemental form of the Watchtowers as opposed to the spiritual essence of the First Call. This is the Son, the Perfect Image of the Father, but, unlike the Father, directly engaged in the economy of the Word and the liberation of humanity.

The form of redemption is defined by the Elements of Olam-ha-Assiah. The "wings of the winds" represent Air, the "burning flames" Fire, the "cups for a wedding" Water and the "barren stone" is Earth. The last phrase, "Arise, says the First", refers to the movements of the fifth Element of Spirit.

The elemental sequence follows two major rotations of the Earth. My key makes the Watchtowers follow the same terrestrial pattern on the Great Table. Two terrestrial movements are thus linked to the same symbolism : the rotation of the Earth on its inclined axis (giving rise to diurnal and nocturnal) and the rotation of the Earth around the Sun (causing 2 cycles of 4 seasons). Add to this the swift movements of the Earth's satelite, and the temporal parameter is sufficiently defined regarding qualitative, meaningful cycles of change.
 ElementDayMonthYear
EASTAirdawn1st
 Quater

Aries / Spring
SOUTHFiremidday2th
 Quater

Cancer / Summer
WESTWaterdusk3th
 Quater

Libra / Autumb
NORTHEarthnight4th
 Quater

Capricornus/Winter
Evocation : the 16 Elemental Calls
EAST : 3th, 7th, 11th & 15th
SOUTH : 4th, 8th, 12th & 16th
WEST : 5th, 9th, 13th & 17th
NORTH : 6th, 10th, 14th & 18th
Beginning with the Third Call, each Call is associated with a direction in 4 elemental cycles around Olam-ha-Assiah, the Earth, starting with the East and moving clockwise.

Each Watchtowers has 4 Gates, the 4 subquadrants. Each of the 16 Elemental Calls opens a subquadrant, and the temporal quality to be used is determined by the positions of Sun and Moon. The 2 Equinoxes and 2 Solstices of the Sun refer to the Watchtowers, the Tablet to be used. Air Workings are best when the Sun enters Aries. Fire Workings when entering Cancer. Water Workings in Libra and Earth Workings in Capricorn.

The 4 quaters of the Moon refer to the subquadrant to be accessed. Just before the Full Moon the angels of the subquadrant of Fire are given to the quality of time when calling them.
  • WATCHTOWER OF AIR : 3th, 4th, 5th & 6th
  • WATCHTOWER OF FIRE : 7th, 8th, 9th & 10th
  • WATCHTOWER OF WATER : 11th, 12th, 13th & 14th
  • WATCHTOWER OF EARTH : 15th, 16th, 17th & 18th
The ritual of Opening the Gates is not an invocation but an evocation. The difference between both is simple : the former calls in a higher force, and the latter calls forth a lower entity.

The First and Second Calls invoke the power of the Father and the Son to rise within the consciousness of the operator, while the 16 Elemental Calls bring the angels of the Watchtowers to material or mental manifestation before consciousness (as a dream-vision, a series of symbols or projected in various ways on a talisman or other etherical carrier). In the latter case, they can be addressed directly, while in the former operation they have become temporarily part of the internal intentional state of the Enochian operator. The assumption of the Names of God always implies invocation. By Opening the Gates, one "only" calls forth the holy lower angels ruling the microcosm (whereas the Kings and Seniors, and the higher angels governing the macrocosm are invoked).

the 30 Aethyrs and the 19th Call
"Thus hath God kept promise with you, and hath delivered you the keyes of his storehouses : wherein you shall find, (if you enter wisely, humbly, and patiently) Treasures more worth than the frames of the heavens."
TFR, p.209 (the angel Gabriel on the 13th of Juli 1584, Cracau).
First 10 AETHYRS of Olam-ha-Assiah
or Yetzirah of Assiah
Assiah
of Assiah
the 91 Governors of the 30 Aethyrs ruling the Earth and the affairs of humanity
30
TEX
1° = 10
North : karma, East : ignorance, South : desire, West : limitations. Negation of all bonds with the lowest part of Olam-ha-Assiah.
29
RII
North : judgement, East : heaven, South : hell, West : nothingness. Identification with one of the four quaters of the etheric plane.
28
BAG
North : guilt, East : doubt, South ; Sin, West : unworthiness. Formation of ego and shadow and the elimination of their emotional pull.
27
ZAA
Separation and loneliness. Sorrow. Acceptance of the regidity of parts of the Magnum Opus.
26
DES
The power of mind and reason. Paradoxes and incompleteness. Intuitive grasp of the illusions produced by the mind.
25
VTI
The birth of new views, the power of imaginal and intuitional vision. Accepting the words of one's true spiritual guide through his power.
24
NIA
4° = 
7
Travelling through the continuum in etherical, astral and mental vehicles. The liberty of going where intuition flows.
23
TOR
The toil and energy needed to sustain the multiverse by ongoing work, humility and determination. Stability equals change.
22
LIN
The mysterious true essence hiding behind the phenomena. Contemplative revelation of the hidden nature of things.
21
ASP
5° = 6
Self-realization through direct knowledge and experience of the higher Self. The principle of the perfectioning of the perpetual return of the same higher focus of consciousness.
The thirty Aethyrs, Aethers or Airs are described as concentric spheres surrounding the Earth. Each is divided into three parts, except the area closest to the Earth, divided in the traditional fourfold of the Great Table. The Aethyrs lie between the surface of the Earth and the spiritual fires of the firmament. The Aethyrs are etherical frequencies of physical vibration, and lie mingled, one above the other, as the colors of the rainbow. Each Aethyr has a polarity : either Solar (yellow), Lunar (purple) or a mixture of both. They perfectly reflect the higher worlds above them and can therefore be used to access these.

The thirty bands are co-relative with the Tree of Life as it works in Olam-ha-Yetzirah (yellow), Olam-ha-Briah (blue) and Olam-ha-Atziluth (red).
the 30 Aethyrs and the 4 Watchtowers
In fact, the 30 Aethyrs may be seen as a description of the collective unconscious avant la lettre. The 19th Call of the Aethyrs is then a key to induce a particular trance state, charged with a given set of archetypes. This trance-state is used while evoking the angels of the Watchtowers or the Governors.

The First and Second Calls invoke the general form of the Enochian system. The First Call is to be used as an attunement of the place of operation to the Divine source of the Enochian reality. The Second Call serves as a prelude to the Elemental Calls and the Opening of the Gates. These Calls are all "objective" for they call upon the realities of the Watchtowers.

The Call of the Aethyrs is "subjective" ; inducing a trance & bringing into consciousness those archetypes necessary to evoke the angels properly. Hence, it allows the mind of the operator to be a fertile ground for the evocation. It may be used on its own, and will then provide the operator insight into his or her own psyche. To Open the Gates without having Called the Aethyrs is like trying to do magick without knowledge, power & understanding.

Chapter 11
What ? Liber Loagaeth.
"And I said to him : 'Observe, Enoch, these heavenly tablets, and read what is written thereon, and mark every individual fact.' And I observed the heavenly tablets, and read everything which was written (thereon) and understood everything, and read the book of all the deeds of mankind, and of all the children of flesh that shall be upon the earth to the remotest generations. And forthwith I blessed the great Lord, the King of glory for ever, in that He has made all the works of the world."
BE, Heavenly Luminaries, LXXXI,1-2.
The tablets shown to Enoch contain the code making the multiverse stand erect, the matrix of everything. If the Orthodox Jews believe theTorah as they know it today is the cypher of the history of the world, then we might be amazed of their neglect of Enoch, who did not associate such a feat with anything terrestrial (such as a set of books composed in the first or second century AD), for he saw the tablets of everything in heaven and, thanks to the angels, was made to understand their message.

Against the wicked, so Enoch is told, the angels write a book of unrighteousness, and this in order to find judgement against him on the Day of the End.
"Lo ! The book exactely worded, wherein all hath been recorded ; thence shall judgement be awarded. When the Judge His seat attaineth, and each hidden deed arraigneth, nothing unavenged remaineth. What shall I, frail man, be pleading, who for me be interceding, when the just are mercy needing ?"
Dies Irae

After his dream-visions and ascension to the heavens, Enoch is brought back by seven holy ones in front of his house and summoned to declare what he knows to his son Methusalah. As the Messiah has not yet come, and hence man's narrow path to redemption not yet opened, he is told to show to his children no flesh is righteous in the sight of the Lord. Enoch has to teach, record the teaching and testify to all his children, the generation of the sons of light. He has only one year to do so, for in the second year he will be taken from their midst, up to heaven.

It has been suggested these Enochian tablets are in fact magical squares. Enoch was given authority by the Lord of Spirits to teach humanity magick.
Eden and the New Jerusalem

The four "towers" of the good Watchers (the number of tablets is not mentioned by the historical Enoch) are prefigurated by the four great pillars of Shu or "supports of the sky" mentioned in the Ancient EgyptianCoffin Texts (Spell 378). These stood at each corner of the rectangular formation of heaven and were guarded by the Four Sons of Horus. Also in early Judaism like symbols appear.

In the Eden of Adam before the fall, the four rivers represent the "pure" (Genesis), Divine state of man as well as the eventually "restored" New Jerusalem (Revelation).
"The name of the first [is] Pison : that [is] it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where [there is] gold ; And the gold of that land [is] good : there [is] bdellium and the onyx stone. And the name of the second river [is] Gihon : the same [is] it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia. And the name of the third river [is] Hiddekel : that [is] it which goeth toward the east of Assyria. And the fourth river [is] Euphrates."
Genesis, 2:11-14

These four streams, encompassing the world, have one and the same river as source, and divide Eden in four (on the Great Table, the Watchtowers are divided by the Black Cross). The single river of life entered Eden and became four streams. These leave the Garden and find their counterpart in the architecture of the New Jerusalem after the Day of the End.
"[There is] a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God, the holy [place] of the tabernacles of the most High. "Psalms, 46:4
PISON ("increase")
"Pison" implies the idea of spreading and increasing. Dispersion is the meaning of the First River. To let His Spirit flow through us to the world, it must be dispersed. As much of the old, dry world as possible must be saturated with the Spirit of God ! This must be our first priority after receiving God's Spirit, our Power of Witness.

GIHON ("bursting forth")
"Gihon" is a spring near Jerusalem where the anointing and proclaiming of Solomon as king took place. Hallelujah ! The flow of the Spirit must always flow bountifully, bursting forth from us. We are not meant to merely trickle forth the Spirit of God. We must be filled with the Spirit so it may overflow and ecstacize our individual natures.

HIDDEKEL ("rapid" or Tigris)

Our third priority in working with the Spirit is the rapid, fluent and unhindered work God desires to accomplish through us.

EUPHRATES ("fruitfulness")
Fruitfulness is the end result of the flowing of God's Spirit in proper ministry through us.

The junction point of the streams must be protected from corruption of fleshliness and worldliness. God put Adam at this crucial junction point, teaching him the names of all creatures and making him sole steward of the physico-etherical plane. He put the Second Adam at the middle of the equidistant Black Cross.
"And the name of the third river [is] Hiddekel: that [is] it which goeth toward the east of Assyria. And the fourth river [is] Euphrates. And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it."
Genesis, 2:14-15

But he and his kin ate, out of free will, the fruit of the Tree of the Difference between Good and Evil. As a  consequence, Adam was cast out from Eden, and fell of the heights of the subtle, etherical strata of the plane, crushing down on its lowest, gross, physical part, thereafter working, sweating & the constant prey of fallen angels. The Second Adam, the Son of God, restored man, made after the image and towards the likeness of God,  to his original, Edenic dignity as steward of the etherico-physical world as a whole.

The Watchtowers were established at the very instant Adam was expelled from Eden (the three highest sublayers of the physico-etherical plane), and the law of cause and effect came into existence (the elemental square forming the base for the cube, the unfoldment of the elements in time).
"And the Lord God planted a garden Eastward in Eden ; and there he put the man whom he had formed. (...)
So he drove out the man ; and he placed at the East of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the Tree of Life."

Genesis, 2:8 and 3:24

Indeed, God gave to the world her time and placed Watchmen to ensure the continuity of man's history on Earth after his fall. Apparently after the devil had seduced Adam and Eve, he cunningly made the stars fall from heaven, a third of the angels, as John puts it. These fallen Watchers are the demons haunting Adam and the generations before the Incarnation of the Elect One in Christ Jesus, the unique Son of God.

About the fallen angels, the Enochians are explicit, and this will not be repeated :
"At no time to be called."TFR, p.188 (the angel Ave on the 2th of July 1584, Cracau)

In Christianity, these Watchtowers correspond with the four angels standing on the four corners of the Earth.
"And after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree."
Revelation, 7:1
"And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, [was there] the Tree of Life, which bare twelve [manner of] fruits, [and] yielded her fruit every month : and the leaves of the tree [were] for the healing of the nations."
Revelation, 12:1-2
the Watchtowers transmitted to Dee

More than 18 centuries later, the Enochians (who know no time) confirmed to Dee the special nature of Enoch :
"The Lord appeared unto Enoch, and was merciful unto him, opened his eyes, that he might see and judge the earth, which was unknown unto his parents, by reason of their fall : for the Lord said, Let us shew unto Enoch, the use of the earth : And lo, Enoch was wise, and full of the spirit of wisdom. And he sayed unto the Lord, Let there be remembrance of thy mercy, and let those that love thee taste of this after me : O let not thy mercy be forgotten. And the Lord was pleased. And after 50 days Enoch had written : and this was the Title of his books, let those that fear God, and are worthy read." 
TFR, p.174 (Ave on the 25th of June 1584, Cracau).

The holy angels repeat the original, Apocalyptic task of the 4 Watchtowers, and add they are to be used to put into execution the judgements of God. Dee dealt with the Enochians through contract. 

The Enochian system is indeed God's Judiciary and Police Force.


The Watchmen & Princes of the 4 Watchtowers have been placed there by God to serve man's history. Mercy made Him decide our fallenness needs helpers and parameters. He did not expell Adam without silently and swiftly erecting these 4 angelical Watchtowers. Before the Incarnation of the Messiah, the Anointed Son of God, Enoch's angels announced the advent of the Elect One of the Lord of Spirits and protected the righteous. To Dee, the Enochians repeat the message and add a new world was beginning.
"The 4 houses, are the 4 Angels of the Earth, which are the 4 Overseers, and Watch-towers, that the eternal God in his providence hath placed, against the usurping blasphemy, misuse, and stealth envious will might be bridled, the determination of God fulfilled, and his creatures kept and preserved, within the compass and measure of order. What Satan doth, they suffer ; And what they wink at, he wratheth : But when he thinketh himself most assured, then feeleth he the bit."TFR, p.170 (Ave on the 20th of June 1584, Cracau)

They confirm the necessity of human stewardship to safeguard man's spiritual passage through time, his return, with their good aid, to God. The Day of the End is the Last Day, bringing the Last Judgement.
Giotto (1266/67 - 1337)
The Last Judgement - ca.1305-13
The Judgement Day of the End is real either as an (inter) subjective anticipation, or (in due course) as a physical reality (the end of the multiverse or a phase of it).

The Watchmen are the angels of the 4 Watchtowers mentioned by John, and the Princes are the 91 Governors ruling Assiah. To serve his Queen, Dee wished to control the latter through evocation. They are the lowest manifestation of God's pure power (Assiah of Olam-ha-Assiah).
"Raphael that brought up the prayers descended : and he was full with the power and spirit of God : and it became a Doctrine, such was never from the beginning : Not painted, or carved : filed, or imagined by man, or according to their imaginations, which are of flesh : but simple, plain, full of strength, and the power of the holy Ghost : which Doctrine began, as man did, nakedly from the earth : but yet, the image of perfection. This selfsame Art is it, which is delivered unto you an infallible Doctrine, containing in it the waters, which runne through many Gates : even above the Gate of Innocency, wherein you are taught to finde out the Dignity and Corruption of nature : also made partakers of the secret Judgements of the Almighty to be made manifest, and to be put into execution ..." 
TFR, p.77 (Nalvage on the 12th of April 1584, Cracau).

A month later, Gabriel would add this Doctrine is in fact an "instrument of thrashing, wherewith you shall beat the sheafs, that the Corn which is scattered, and the rest may be all one". The speech of God is not intended to serve the free, personal will of man, but to put into effect the global judgement of God. The steward may do as he pleases if and only if the planetary perspective is the only one taken.

So the Enochian system is not a tool to enhance personal wellness (or -God and his angels forbid- cause harm), -this work of completion is finished- but the Divine moral law to be put into practice by the help of those perfected human beings redeemed by Christ, the Rosicrucian Adept or the Rose-Croix at work in the inner, Rosicrucian order.

The Enochian system encompasses the three grades of this inner order :
  • Adept Minor : the Rosae Crucis as foundation ;
  • Adept Major : the minister of Divine Judgement ;
  • Adeptus Exemptus : the Rose-Croix.
The steward of God does not work for himself, but is the minister of the God of Justice, precisely as the First Call demands. And who is able to carry such an immense responsibility ? In Dee's mind clearly Jesus Christ, God Incarnate, in particular His Passion and Resurrection, provide the means to lift man's individual nature above its own fallen frailty and endow him with the responsibility to govern this little planet in the vast expanse of God's multiverse.

The economy of Christ (the narrow path), put into work before the Holy Spirit (the broad path), grants the final tool : the deification ("theosis") of all sentient beings on Earth and (by extension) for everything existing in the multiverse, with the exceptions of the fallen angels. By the Messiah, these anti-life forces are locked away in the "valley of death"  until the Apocalypse starts and the Day of the End dawns, the Last Day of the order of this world.
"You shall perceive, that the Judgements of God, are not a Tennis-ball." 
TFR, p.146 (Gabriel on the 22th of May 1584, Cracau).

The 4 Watchtower Tablets perform four tasks :
  • protect man : the presence of the Watchtowers guarantees the demoniac economy will not harm the consciousness of man. The devil is always kept within the compass of order ;
  • impart knowledge : the study of Enochian opens new, subtle gates through which the holy angels pass, to directly influence neurological events (direct insight). They teach humanity and ask to record and transmit the righteousness of God ;
  • guide judgement : whenever justice has been trampled upon, the tablets restore the wrong by judging its cause, thrashing it and giving the victim his lawfull due. During the Apocalypse, the Watchtowers hurt the sinners and the godless ;
  • allow one to commune with the Enochians : the true and loyal friend and lover of Jesus Christ will be given permission to Open the Gates and experience the might of the lower angels in their own abode. This experience may be in dreams, spontaneous visions, direct mental prehension or otherwise, as in ritual, ceremonial activity. About the real, witnessed presence of a holy angel one cannot be mistaken, for this Divine Light is imperceptible but contemplated with physical eyes.
the Great Table of the Watchtowers
The Great Table is the knitting together of the 4 Watchtowers by the Black Cross, whose letters form the Tablet of Union. The 4 Watchtowers of the Great Table, to be opened by the 16 Elemental Calls, stand guard at the 4 corners of the world, in casu the Earth.
the Great Table
The cross separating the 4 Watchtowers of the Great Table is called the "Black Cross," due to its coloring in one of Dee's diagrams. This cross is usually assigned to the element of Spirit, and it serves two purposes : to bind the Watchtowers together, and to provide a path of communication and transformation between one element and the next. The names on the vertical arm read from the edge of the Great Table towards the center, while the names on the horizontal arm read from the center outwards. The magician raises vertically by being contacted by the Divine and horizontally spreads the salvic Magick. These names are extracted from the Great Table and used to form a separate tablet called the Tablet of Union.
the Tablet of Union
Regarding the logic behind this gathering of the fiery seats or Watchtowers of the Great Table, keymakers differ. Even Dee worked with an original and a restored Great Table. The order perceived here is derived from the Enochian semantics of the squares of the Tablet of Nalvage, and not on colors or geographical orientations left by Dee (as in the Twelve Banners). Both Dee's original & restored order are not used.
Enoch's doctrine is mathematical & geometrical. Dee's Book of Enoch(Liber Loagaeth) consists of 95 pages  having 49 rows and 49 columns containing Latin letters and Arabic numerals, one page with a 9 by 49 table, 8 pages of unknown Enochian words, a page with the 21 characters of the Enochian alphabet and one blank page. From these, at the directions of the angels, the Enochian Calls were extracted, although the method remains unclear. In this copy of LL -known as Sloane MS.3189 (1583)- we find the handwriting of both Dee & Kelley.
Square out of Liber Loagaeth(TFR, after Contents, with errors)
The Great Table has three hierarchical levels :
  • the Great Table : as a whole the table represents the objective forces of the multiverse, in particular with regard to planet Earth ;
  • Atziluth & Briah : the 4 cardinal directions or quaters of the Earth, allowing for physical orientation on the globe. Each Watchtower is a reflection of the Great Table and has distinct classes of angels arranged in a ladder of descending authority ;
  • Yetzirah & Assiah : when each Watchtower is also divided into 4, the third level appears and consists of 4 subquaters defined by a Calvaric Cross. The 91 sigils of the Governors are the lowest hierarchy in this Enochian scala perfectionis.
The architecture of the Great Table reflects the pattern of the New Jerusalem as described by John.
"After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven : and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me ; which said, Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter. And immediately I was in the spirit : and, behold, a throne was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne. And he that sat was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone : and there was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald. And round about the throne were four and twenty seats : and upon the seats I saw four and twenty elders sitting, clothed in white raiment ; and they had on their heads crowns of gold. And out of the throne proceeded lightnings and thunderings and voices : and there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God. And before the throne there was a sea of glass like unto crystal : and in the midst of the throne, and round about the throne, were four beasts full of eyes before and behind. And the first beast was like a lion, and the second beast like a calf, and the third beast had a face as a man, and the fourth beast was like a flying eagle." 
Revelation, 4:1-7


The Great Table is a powerful symbol. Its various parts return in Kelley's Vision of the Watchtowers, engraved by Dee on his Golden Medallion.

The Watchtowers were thus not only delivered to Kelley in the form of abstract letter squares, but also as visionary dramas in which the shewstone became the stage and the angels assumed roles to explain and teach.

Kelley's Vision of the Watchtowers
In this Vision, Kelley sees four "houses" standing in the four cardinal directions. These castles are the 4 angels of the Earth, the 4 Overseers of mankind after the fall. These Watchtowers act as a limiting influence on the chaotic economy of the devil and are necessary to preserve living creatures within the compass of order. Satan is not stopped, but his work is checked and bridled to a degree fulfilling the determinations of God. Whenever Satan exceeds the limit, the Overseers exert their power.

As an angelic order at work before the second coming of Christ and after Pentecost, the Overseers are part of the economy of the Holy Spirit and His grand task of deifying creation together with redeemed man.
the Golden Talisman
a gold disk engraved with the Vision of the Watchtowers
Simultaneously from each tower the trumpets sound once and the Gates open ... the "four Castles are moved" and four cloths of passage are unrolled. These cloths are given colors. As the Enochians have no regard for color, coloration in our drawings always systematically follows the 4 cardinal compass-points & associated elements, in accord with the semantics of the Tablet of Nalvage (cf. infra).

From each open Gate one trumpeter with a pyramidal, six cones trumpet walks along the carpet toward the center court. The angels proceeding out of each Watchtower, after its trumpeter, rule the corresponding quater of the Earth.

First 3 Ensign Bearers carry upon their flags the Divine names written in the middle row of each Watchtower of the Great Table.
the Twelve Banners
After the 12 Ensign Bearers come 24 Seniors, judging the government of the Castles and fulfilling the Will of God. The Seniors form a circle around the middle of the court, as it were in council. Behind each rank of 6 Seniors walks a robed King, while 5 Princes carry the hem of his long train.

After them, a large cross with four lesser crosses in its quaters emerges suspended in the air. This is the large cross dividing each Watchtower into 4 quaters with a Calvaric Cross in each of the 4 subquadrants. This symbol, levitating in the sky on white clouds, is followed by 16 white creaturess, the Dispositors of the will of those governing the Watchtowers, i.e. the King and his Seniors. Finally, a multitude of lesser angels issue forth.

the Tablet of Nalvage
Tuesday morning the 10th of April 1584, Nalvage warned Dee as a schoolmaster, counselled him as a friend, and, before pausing, said he would also teach him, although the particulars of his message were to be long, hard and tedious. Pointing to the round table on which he stood on, the angel said : 
"1. The substance is attributed to God the Father. 2. The first circular mover, the circumference. God the Son, The finger of the Father, and mover of all things. 3. The order and knitting together of the parts in their due and perfect proportion, God the Holy Ghost. Lo, the beginning and end of all things.
TFR, p.74 (Nalvage on the 10th of April 1584, Cracau).
 
the Tablet of God
(Nalvage only delivered the letter-squares)
Because of its Divine nature, the tablet delivered by Nalvage (who also dictated the Calls) is called the Tabula Dei or the Table of God. To Kelley, the original Table appeared transparant. It is the core of the objective part of the system and enables one to understand the Enochian meaning attributed to the 4 elemental quaters, directions or orientations of the Great Table (as well as the subquadrants of each Watchtower). Their general definition is given as a function of their dignity. Air and Fire are dignified (being the elements of the Holy Spirit), Earth is not yet dignified but shall be (namely at the advent of the New Jerusalem) and Water is without glory.

"
Lo, it is divided into 4 parts : whereof two are dignified : one not yet dignified, but shall be : the other without glory or dignification." 
TFR, p.74 (Nalvage on the 10th of April 1584, Cracau).

The 4 parts or 4 quadrants are called "continents" and are distinguished from the 4 names linked to these hierarchies, analogous to the concept of the Son, the circumference, while the core, the middle 4 continents are analogous to the Father.
CONTINENTMOTTOANGELICAL CHOIRS
I
Upper left
AIR
East
IAD ZIR MOZ
"the joy of God"
1. Joy (ZDI)
2. Presence (IOA)
3. Praising (RZM)
II
Upper right
FIRE
South
GUR SOR IAD
"factum, actio"
"the deeds of God's actions"
1. Power (IAS)
2. Motion (DOG)
3. Ministering (RRV)
III
Lower right
WATER
West
SER OSF IAD
"luctus, discordia"
"the discord and lament of God"
1. Lament (SOF)
2. Discord (AES)
3. Confusing (IDR)
IV
Lower left
EARTH
North
ZNA BAB IAD
"motio, potestas"
"God's power in motion"
1. Action (ANB)
2. Events (ZAD)
3. Establishing (BAI)
On the basis of the Enochian meaning of each continent, the 4 Seals may be associated with the 4 corresponding quaters : Air/East with joy, Fire/South with action, Water/West with discord and Earth/North with power in motion. The sequence is again terrestrial. Water is not dignified because it deals with the sublunar emotions & passions triggering Adam's fall.
the Four Seals
The names above the quaters link with 4 angelic choirs ruling large scale matters, and are the "Four Presences" presiding over the Great Table on yet a higher level than the 4 angels of the Watchtowers.

LANG or Ministrantes (those who administer)
SACH or Confirmantes (those who confirm)
URCH or Confundantes (those who confound)
LVAS or Laudantes (those who praise)

the transmission of the Great Table
On the 25th of June 1584, the angel Ave delivered the letter squares of the Watchtowers. These were presented in the form of visual images within the crystal.

Kelley saw the interior of the shewstone obscured by a white curtain, which was then withdrawn to reveal a standing angel, consumed to ashes. From the ashes he rose up renewed and brighter than before, saying : "So doth the glory of God comfort the just, and they rise again with an threefold glory."
The angel extended his hands and a square table appeared before him, the Great Table of the Watchtowers of the Earth. In the subsequent visions, the Four Seals appeared, and their meaning has been interpreted in various ways. This meaning as well as their role is properly understood if the Tablet of Nalvage is taken into account, a fact only few keymakers have deemed important.

Indeed, the association of the colors with the directions, as well as the relation between the Four Seals and the 4 Watchtowers should not be derived on the basis of the colors of the cloths in Kelley's vision (of the Watchtowers or the letter squares). The Enochians have no real consideration for color, but only for meaning. The whole meaning of the Enochian system is hidden in the Tabula Dei.
the hierarchy of the angels of the Watchtowers
the Watchtower or Tablet of Air
(reconstructed)
The structure of the hierarchy and functions of the 4 Watchtowers are the same of each, with the exception of direction : the angels of the East only act in the East, those of the South only in the South, and so on. Ave is clear about the fact the 4 directions refer to the 4 regions of the Earth,"in respect of your poles".

Each Watchtower has 4 subsquares bound together by two columns and one row, forming together the Great Cross of each Watchtower. The horizontal line of the Great Cross is called the line of the Holy Spiritus ("linea Spiritus Sancti") and contains the 3 Divine Names of God of the Watchtower. As the economy of the Son carries out the edicts of the Father, and these two Divine Persons are of one purpose, the two columns or pillars on the Great Cross represent the Son (left column, adding Mercy) and the Father (right column, adding Severity). Note the Great Cross is not the Tree of Life (on which the Left Pillar is Severity and the Right Pillar Mercy).

In each Watchtower of the Great Table, a hierarchy prevails :
  • the Names of God : there are 3 Names of God : the three banner names (consisting of 3, 4 & 5 letters) define the Divine authority of the King of the Watchtower and are used to invoke him. For example, the 3 Names for the Watchtower of the East (Air) are "ORO", "IBAH", "AOZPI". The full twelve letter name relates to the zodiac ;
  • The King : 1 King carries out the edicts of the Father and His Son Jesus Christ. His name is formed by a clockwise spiral around the center of the Great Cross of the Watchtower. The function of the King is to concentrate the force called by the 3 Divine Names of God, and to transfer it downwards through the Watchtowers. Dee's grimoire shows two forms of the name of the King, each using only one of the two central letters of the Great Cross. For example, the two versions of the name of the King of the Tablet of Air are "BATAIVA" and "BATAIVH". The first has to be used to invoke forces for good purposes, the other for works of anger, revenge, or punishment ... ;
  • Seniors : the names of the 6 Seniors of the Watchtower are formed by reading outward from the two central squares of the Great Cross along each row or column (clockwise from the top left column). The angels said the Seniors of the Line of the Holy Spirit could have names of either 6 or 7 letters, the latter to be used "when the wrath of God is to be increased".

    The Seniors of Air :
    "AAOZAIF", "HTMORDA", "AHAOZPI", "HIPOTGA", "AVTOTAR" and "HABIORO".

    The angels told Dee the Seniors give "knowledge and judgment in human affairs". They govern those levels of the Great Table wherein the primary activities are those of self-aware, self-willed, materializing angels. The Seniors have been compared with the planets, the King with the Sun. The Briatic Seniors indeed take force from the Atziluthic King, diffuse it, and distribute it throughout the Watchtowers. They act as buffers, preventing the intense concentration of the King's power from burning up the structures of the lower levels. But they are also collectors and return conduits, absorbing the excess force radiated by the lower hierarchies of the 4 Watchtowers, channeling it upwards through the planes and back to the Atziluthic region of the King. In this buffering and distributing activity, they express Briah ;
We move out of the general levels of the Watchtower into its specific interiority. Each subquadrant of the 4 Watchtowers as a whole embodies the process by which material substances, subjected to the force of the Divine, are brought to a state of perfection and purity, restored to their Edenic image. Air by way of thought, Fire by way of action, Water by way of affects and Earth by way of sensuous matter.

As such, there are two distinct hierarchies at work in each subquadrant. In the first, spirit rules over matter but remains separate and distinct. Matter itself is purified, perfected, and transmuted into a Divine expression, while still retaining the essence of its original nature. In the second, the spiritual and material have been fused. In each subquadrant, the former is given with the Names of the Calvaric Cross and the Lesser, Servient angels. The latter with the 4 Dispositors and their Archangel.
  • Calvaric Names : a Calvaric Cross of ten squares in the center of the 4 subquadrants produces 2 Names of God of 6 and 5 letters respectively, a total of 8 Calvaric Names of God per Watchtower. The first comes from reading downwards on the long arm of the cross. Reading left to right on the horizontal arm creates the second Name. For the subquadrant of Air of Air, the Names would be "IDOIGO" and "ARDZA". These Names of God reflect (on a lower level) the functions of the 3 Names of God of the Watchtower and the Elemental King with respect to the Watchtower as a whole.

    The Name of 6 letters is said to call forth the powers of the subquarant. The Name of 5 letters commands those powers to obey the operator, concentrating them and putting them under his control. The hierarchy does not merge with material circumstances, but restores the latter to their original archetype ;
     
  • Lesser Angels : 16 Lesser or Good Angels : the 4 lines below the horizontal bar of each subquadrant is the name of a single angel, read from left to right, ignoring the letter on the Calvaric Cross. These angels are called "Servient" angels by the GD, presumably because, unlike the Kerubs, they are subservient to the Calvaric Names of God of each subquadrant. The return brought about by the Calvaric Names is refined by their ministery. The names for Air of Air are "CZNS", "TOTT", "SIAS", and "FMND".
     
  • Dispositors and Archangels : the 4 squares above the horizontal arm of the cross produce 4 angelic names, called "Dispositors" by Dee and "Kerubic angels" or "Kerubs" by the GD, a total of 16 Dispositors per Watchtower. The names are found by reading from left to right, taking each letter in turn as the first letter of an angel's name, and looping around to the left to complete the name. Thus in the Air subquadrant of Air, the letters "RZLA" produce the Dispositors "RZLA", "ZLAR", "LARZ" and "ARZL".

    An Archangel rules these Dispositors. Adding a letter from the Black Cross of the Great Table to the first name creates its name. Dee's practice was to form the name of the Archangel using the letter on the Black Cross in the same row of the Great Table as the Dispositors in question. He used the letter "e" for Dispositors in the top row of the Table, "h" for those in the eighth row, "a" for the fifteenth, and "p" for the twenty-second. The GD practice was to prefix the first letter from the Black Cross name corresponding to the element of the Dispositor's Watchtower : "e" for Air, "b" for Fire, "h" for Water and "n" for Earth. The Dispositors of Air of Air are ruled by archangel "ERZLA". The Dispositors and their Archangels merge with material circumstances and cause events on the lower planes ;
In the Great Hierarchy of the Great Table, 3 strands and 216 (6³) good entities prevail :
  • ATZILUTH & BRIAH : 12 Names of God, 4 Kings and 24 Seniors. Each of these Names, Kings & Seniors have features of their own ;
  • YETZIRAH : 32 Calvaric Names & 64 Lesser Angels are called forth to restore fallen nature. This is the curative part ;
  • YETZIRAH & ASSIAH : 16 Archangels and 64 Dispositors are able to merge with matter and change its conditions. These are the Apocalyptic angels of the system, the choir giving the Enochian system its reputation of "the most powerful system of magic in the world". These beings are responsible for parapsychological effects as psychokinesis and telepathy. Their abode also houses the "150 lions of deceit", those fallen angels trying to slip through Gates opened without permission.
Indeed, to guarantee Choronzon will stay in his own place (the upper Abyss of the Tree of Life), the power of invocation and the will to evoke are not enough. Only silence & concentration prevail.

Chapter 12
Where ? Victoriae Terrestris.

His disciples said to Him : "When will the Kingdom come ?" Jesus said : "It does not come by expecting it. It will not be a matter of saying : 'See, it is here !' or : 'Look, it is there !'. Rather, the Kingdom of the Father is spread over the Earth and men do not see it." Gospel of Thomas, 3.

"Jesus said : "If those who lead you say to you : 'See, the Kingdom is in heaven !', then the birds of the sky will be there before you. If they say to you, 'It is in the sea !', then the fish will be there before you. But the Kingdom is inside you and outside you. When you know yourselves, then you will be known, and you will know that you are the children of the Living Father. But if you do not know yourselves, then you dwell in poverty ; then you are that poverty." Gospel of Thomas, 113.
the Eight Day
The Mystery of the Eight Day is precisely the work of the Holy Spirit after Pentecost. The core of this activity is Apocalyptic, namely the revelation of the dynamics of the Day of the End and presence of the Kingdom of the Father, the New Jerusalem or new world order. The Eight Day falls outside the order of nature and hence represents the return of Adam to Eden ; man being the steward of the etherico-physical plane.

The "mystery" of the Eight Day may be lived by every person in the depts of his or her soul. The Apocalyptic forces invite the communal Christian, true Rosicrucian or Rose-Croix to choose for a planetary perspective. It will not be possible to pacify the Earth without the world being governed as one. The Apocalypse happens to a given person precisely when responsibilities are universalized (one person for all others). Then, despite the glorious redemption by Christ, man has to adapt to the conditions of the economy of the Holy Spirit. Both dispensations execute the Will of the Father : a New Order. This either creational (the Day of the End of the multiverse), planetary (the Day of the End of an Aeon) or personally (the Day of the End of a soul). 

"And if you embrace only your brothers, what credit is that to you ? Doesn't everybody do that ? And if you lend to those from whom you hope to receive, what credit is that to you ? For wrongdoers also lend to their kind because they expect to be repaid." 
Q1, 9 - 10.

the Enochians and world government
When Dee travelled to the Continent, he was convinced a new aeon would be initiated by his prophetic dealings with the Enochians. But, his "great war" within had not been finalized properly, causing his "small war" without to be fruitless (cf. Sufism).
"There are 30 Calls yet to come. Those 30 are the Calls of Ninety-one Princes and spiritual Governours, unto whom the Earth is delivered as a portion. These bring in and again dispose the Kings and all the Governments upon the Earth, and vary the Natures of things with the variation of every moment ; Unto whom, the providence of the eternal Judgement, is already opened."
TFR, pp.139-140 (Nalvage on the 21th of May 1564, Cracau).
The geographical Governors of each Aethyr are evoked by intoning the Second Call, followed by the Call of the Aethyrs. These Governors are all angels of elemental Air, but each rule a particular region on the surface of the Earth (Assiah of Assiah).

To simply familiarize or make consciousness function with a given set of archetypes (cf. supra), an Aethyr may be entered without the intention to work with these Governors. However, if the names of the Governors are intoned, and their sigils drawn, the lowest level of the Aethyrs receive the intention of this Call of Terrestrial Victory.

The Governor of a place, embodied in his sigil, acts as a receptive medium. In Dee's key, each was ruled by an angel of the twelve tribes of Israel and the ministering angels of those.
Sigils of the Governors
of the Watchtower of Air
It was with these Governors or terrestrial angels Dee hoped to achieve political advantages for his Queen. But he was never granted permission to do so, and his strong desire to turn the world into a Christian and British Empire in his lifetime would remain unsatisfied. The GD and Crowley ignored the 91 Governors, while they were of special interest to the keymakers of the Aurum Solis.

The angel Nalvage explains to Dee how the "Angel of the Lord" appeared to Claudius Ptolemy, and opened him the parts of the Earth, except those near the North pole. Dee was aware the names of the places of the Earth were those recorded in the Tetrabiblos of the Greek astronomer & astrologer and summarized by Agrippa in chapter 31 of his The Three Books of Occult Philosophy.

The final part of the Enochian system is concerned with the question Where ? This is political theurgy, the exertion of spiritual forces on the authorities of nations, causing certain individuals to rise and others to fall, and this for the sole benefit of one righteous humanity with many cultures, anticipating the restoration of the etherico-physical plane as a whole (the Kingdom of the Father). Only the Rose-Croix assumes stewardship and is given permission to cause such changes secretly and silently.

the geography of the Great Table

A last point of importance concerns the application of the Great Table to the globe. For Mathers, the Linea Spiritus Sancti (containing the three Names of God for each Watchtower) coincided with the belt of the zodiac. The celestial task of "the Watch-Towers" was his great concern.

How to picture the terrestrial link ?
Watchtower of the Americas
Recently, in the New Zealand remnant of the Order of the GD, the idea the elemental aspects of the Earth "right" the Great Table, made theLinea Spiritus Sancti coincide with the terrestrial equator.

Once the geographical orientation precisely defined, the laws of the Enochian system may issue a decree to rule a particular location, area, country, continent or series of continents ...

BOOK 3 : THE VICTORY OF THE TEMPLE


 the Dove of the Holy Spirit
Chapter 13
The Prayer of Enoch
Abraham and the Order of Melchisedek
The first documented account of the transmission of monotheist spiritual knowledge in the West is the reference to the meeting between Abraham and Melchisedek, recorded in the Old Testament. His name comes from the roots "Melki Tzaddiq", or "King of Righteousness". In Judaism, "holy men" are called "Zaddikim", those living rightly.
"And Melchisedek King of Salem brought forth bread and wine ; and he was the priest of the most high God. And he blessed him, and said, Blessed be Abraham of the most high God possessor of heaven and earth." Genesis, 14:18-19

"The Lord hath sworn, and will not  repent, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedek." Psalms, 110,4

The "Elohim" ("ALHYM") communicate the Divine to Abraham. These "beings" are a plurality of Divine faces, pronounced as "Eloha" in the singular. To Abraham, the "Elohim" are living, creative forces, able to love and to change the world as they will (the "Sephiroth" of the qabalah).
"And YHVH appeared to Abraham in the plains of Mamrê as he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day ; And he lifted up his eyes and looked, and, lo, three men stood by him ..."
Genesis, 18:1-2, my italics.
These Divine energies are not a pantheon of "higher beings". They arethe manifold expression of the One who's essence remained unnamed : "YHVH". But the manifold or continuum of Divine expressions are recognized (known) as a hierarchy of operational, discrete energiesrooted in a transcendent and ineffable Divine essence. "Eloha", the first of the "Elohim", is the Creator of All, Creator of heaven & earth, the first cause. The "Elohim" appear as the organized plurality of the unity of Adonai, or the "Lord", the vocal singular form of the absolutely transcendent ineffable "YHVH", as such unknown to Abraham, to whom only "ALHYM" was revealed.

The giving of bread and wine to Abraham implies the latter had reached a higher step on the ladder of evolution. Melchisedek, king of righteousness and king of peace, symbolizes the initiating Father aspect of God. Abraham returned to the original source of revelation. He conquered the kings of Edom practicing polytheism. He is the cornerstone of both Judaism & Christianity (through Sarah and Isaac), as well as Islam (through Hagar and Ishmael).

The Order of Melchisedek is nothing less than the order of the Father, initiating the true worship of the true and only God. The order abolishes bloody sacrifice, the offer of the power of life, replacing it by the bloodless sacrifice of "the first fruits". The Order of Melchisedek is the binding force of the three religions "of the book", and operates beforeprophetic revelation, i.e. the multiple communications of the Law of God, His descriptive Wish for humanity.

The symbols of the Order of Melchisedek are wheat and the beehive. Wheat is nourishment, physical and spiritual. The beehive is a symbol of unity. The six-sided cell of the honey bee, refers to the Hexagram, the Star of David, the union of lower and higher man.

In this Western Tradition, Melchisedek has become the "Grand Master" figure, comparable with Hiram Abiff in Freemasonry. He did not die because he had never been born in the normal sense. He combines kingship with priesthood. In the Melchisadekian Order, a human being uses free-will to offer himself as a sacrifice to the Father. When the part of ourselves in God which is "priestly" touches the part of God which is "kingly" in us, an exchange takes place between human and God. This exchange is nothing less than the "Grail", or the Cup receiving the communion of wine and a drop of water. The human "priest" is the feminine, receptive principle which freely offers itself to the masculine, "kingly" aspect in an act of pure Love. The Cup offers itself to the Lance in order to be filled with Royal Blood.

the Revelation of Moses
After realizing he was Hebrew, after killing an Egyptian and being expelled, so the Torah explains, Moses, the former Egyptian, so memory tells, finally climbed the sacred mountain, the Horeb. While he had his eye wide open, "YHVH" (the) "Elohim" revealed to him the core of Divine exteriority ("AHYH"), the heart of the Lord, and hence His Ineffable Name.
"And Moses said to Elohim, Behold, when I come to the children of Israel, and shall say to them, the Elohim of Your fathers hath sent me to You ; and they shall say to me, What is His Name ? what shall I say to them ?  And Elohim said to Moses : "AHYH" (I AM AND WILL BECOME) (...) And Elohim said moreover to Moses, Thus shalt thou say to the children of Israel, YHVH the Elohim of Your fathers, the Elohim of Abraham, the Elohim of Isaac, and the Elohim of Jacob, hath sent me to You (...)"
Exodus, 3:13-15


The two crucial Names revealed to Moses are "YHVH" and "AHYH". "YHVH" refers to the transcendent "Ain Soph (Aur)", the ineffable essence of the Divine, described in terms of a reality beyond being & absence of being and veiled by negatives ("Deus absconditus"). Isaac the Blind coined the term "Ain Soph", the limitless or infinite.
"The Tree of Life. Line of Light and the Contraction. Bear in mind that before the emanations were emanated and the creatures were created, the upper simple light had filled entire existence and there was no empty space whatsoever. Namely no empty atmosphere, hollow, or pit, for everything was filled with that simple, boundless light, and there was no such part as head, and no such part as tail ; that is, there was neither beginning nor end, for everything was simple or smoothly balanced, evenly and equally in one likeness or affinity, and that is called the endless light."
Luria, I. : The Ten Luminous Emanations, in : Ashlag, Y.L. : Kabbalah, volume 1, Research Centre of Kabbalah Press - Jeruzalem, 1969, pp.55 & 59.

"YHVH", ineffable, is pronounced as "Adonai" or "Lord" (written : YHAdonaiVH). "ALHYM" (or "Elohim), a masculine plural ("Eloah" is the singular form) of a feminine noun, indicating neutral plurality & receptivity to the creative impulse, is the "Divine Presence" within the created order (cf. the "Shekinah" of qabalah and "Sophia" in Gnosticism & Christianity). 

"Elohim" is creational and the majestic revelatoric plurality of the singular hidden "YHVH". It expresses the totality of Divine attributes (or exterior) and underlines the variety with which the Divine manifests in creation (Lord-in-Nature). The "Elohim" are not idols for no "Eloah" (singular) can constitute Divine existence without reference to "YHVH", the uncreated silence. There are no isolated, "secundary" deities, only YHVH ALHYM.

With Moses, three spiritual strata come together : Ancient Egyptian religion & wisdom, original Judaism and the deposit of African and Arabian spirituality (Jethro). Moses eliminated polytheism and henotheism and was given the laws of theomonism.

The Essenes, with their Egyptian links, and John the Baptist prepared the coming of the Christ. Their spirituality, as evidenced by the Dead Sea Scrolls of Qumrân, opposed light and darkness and anticipated the arrival of the Teacher of Righteousness, the heir to the throne of David and Solomon. Their Jewish purity rituals and eucharistic gatherings, prefigurated Christian baptism and eucharism. In that sense, Jesus Christ indeed fulfilled the laws and expectations of his age.

the Tablets of Enoch
The Old Testament as well as the anonymous author of the Books of Enoch underline the special nature of Enoch's election by the Lord of Spirits. The visionary and angelic events befalling Enoch, point to God's concern for mankind, in particular through His own system of Divine justice and celestial hierarchies.

God teaches humanity the proper ways and allows Enoch to see the heavenly tablets containing the history of the world. Enochian spirituality deals with the restoration of man and the world, and delivers the tools of trashing, i.e. the way of judgement and retribution.

This strongly anticipates the coming of the Messiah, for only the Teacher of Righteousness is able to put all things right and deliver man from the fallen Watchers and their sons of darkness. Although this has already happened, the Enochians remain necessary ...

Indeed, because of the dark power of the fallen angels, the Enochians move beyond the establishment of the Messianic kingdom, and anticipate the Day of the End bringing the New Jerusalem, i.e. one humanity under the rule of Divine law. Only then will the energy of the demons be taken away from them, and their empty shells perish. Untill then, the Enochains lock them away in the "valley of death" and protect mankind against any Satanic move too far away from the compass of order. As ministers of the God of freedom, they do not intervene to bring this world under Edenic rule (as it was in the beginning), for only man is called to do so. Holy angels do not coerce, but warn and punish evildoers.

the King of kings

The twelve chosen disciples of Jesus Christ were the elect of the Elect One.
"Jesus said : "Fortunate are you, the alone and the elect, for you will find the Kingdom. Because you came from it, you will also return to it again." Gospel of Thomas, 49.

When the Day of the End dawns, John is told 144.000 elect are left. These are protected by the Watchtowers, the instruments of thrashing, the action of God's justice and might.
"And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God : and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea, Saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads. And I heard the number of them which were sealed : and there were sealed an hundred and forty and four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel." Revelation, 7:2-4
These servants of God wear white robes, came out of great tribulation, and washed their robes white in the blood of the Lamb "in the midst of the throne". Christ, the King of kings, thrones in the middle of the Great Table. The complete objective realms comes under the command of His Wisdom ("Chockmah").

With the Incarnation, Enochian spirituality was partly fulfilled. The Messiah established His kingdom, and broke the chains of the old demoniac economies. Every man and woman is redeemed if they accept, by embracing Jesus, Christ as their Savior. After the formidable event of Christ's Incarnation and ministery (from the Annunciation to Pentecost), the Enochians were left with one task : to engage the Apocalypse preluding the Day of the End and its finalization in the New Jerusalem. This has to be done for creation as a whole (the end of this multiverse and the birth of the next), for planet Earth as a whole (the end of anti-globalism and the rise of planetary participationism) and for every human being and its adjacent microcosm (the end of the individual for the ecstacy or surplus of personhood). Hence, at every moment, a poor human soul is driven into the dark night of its own personal Apocalypse.

The Last Supper fulfilled the Order of Melchisedek. For bread and wine were identified by Christ with Himself. The priest enacts the Eucharist"in persona Christi" and sacrifices himself in His name. Offer & offering coincide. Bread is "His body", and wine "His blood". Through this ritual, Christ is with His people untill the end of time, and so the Eucharistoffers the direct, physical renewal "de opere operato" of one's adherence to the Son of God and His eternalized sacrifice of sacrifices.

the Coming of the Paraclete
At the Last Supper, after Christ revealed He would be betrayed and would not be with them for very long, He said He would be followed by the "Parakletos", a manifestation of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth. No single English word conveys the meaning of this Greek word, ranging from defender, helper, comforter to advocate. It has been anglicized as "Paraclete".

Spiritual experience, mysticism, the mysteries and all matters esoteric, occult, invisible or hidden, belong to the economy of the Holy Spirit and its celestial hierarchies, adorned with living symbols of Divinity. The Holy Spirit administers creation as a whole, and is the broad, universal path of existence as such. His authority covers every single thing in existence, nothing in creation escapes His economy of refinement, discretion, spiritualization and deification. Uncreated grace is part of His work, as are all good and holy angels, the ministers of the Father. Although the Holy Spirit shows the Son of God (from the Annunciation & Incarnation to Pentecost), He proceeds from the Father alone (the Orthodox position), making His economy typically different than the recuperation of human nature as a whole by the Son.

The Paraclete is a sublime human manifestation of the Holy Spirit. The mystery of Pentecost reveals how the One Spirit manifests as a variety of personal experiences of God, each a manifestation of the Most High with its own root unique soul or supreme ideal of manifestion. The Paraclete is not the Holy Spirit as such and does not belong to the Holy Trinity. The Paraclete is the spiritual pole of his or her age, the highest expression of sublime human spirituality incarnated on the planet.

The Holy Spirit hides behind each and every person redeemed by Christ. This is a fountain of truth, love, beauty, strenght, joy, understanding and wisdom. The human person is made after the likeness of God, in potential as it were "God" through grace. The Paraclete is the single most excellent, elevated & sublime presence of the Holy Spirit in a human being.

John records how Christ gave a number of functions defining the Paraclete. This fact alone proves the two economies work together, although different in their mode of origination, but not different in origin (generated versus proceeding) and typical functioning (narrow versus broad).
  • John 14:17
    The Paraclete is with the disciples and in them.
  • John 14:26The Paraclete teaches and recalls.
  • John 15:26The Paraclete testifies of the Christ.
  • John 16:8Makes aware of errors and teaches what is justice.
  • John 16:13Guides men in the authentic truth.
  • John 16:13
    The Paraclete prophesizes.
After Pentecost, Mary was the Paraclete. She was the first perfected Christian entering Eden. God's image in man attains its perfection when human nature becomes like God's nature, when it begins fully to participate in uncreated goodness. Mary attained to the fullness of being, human and Divine. Hence her title as "Queen of Heaven".
Master of the Saint Lucy Legend (active 1480 - 1489)
Mary, Queen of Heaven - ca.1485
As a created person, so Gregory Palamas teaches, Mary is a created person bringing together all perfections, both created and uncreated. She is the complete realization of the beauty of creation, the image of the power of God's art. In her He brings all beauties together as an ornament of all beings, the bounty of created and uncreated nature.

The Assumption  of the Virgin Mary underlines she was the first Christian to cross the frontier separating the Messianic kingdom from the New Jerusalem. She was the first to enter the Eight Day and enjoy its mystery, the Kingdom of the Father, the New Jerusalem. She enters the etherical subplane and rules the flaming sword and the Cherubim ; Mary, the Queen of Angels.

She presides over all other human beings coming after her. Having attained to the limits of becoming, she is the first guardian of what unfolds in time and the Second Eve of Eden. After the Holy Spirit, she is the head of the objective conditions of grace, and rules all churches, temples, lodges and spiritual groups.
Ridolfo Ghirlandaio (1483 - 1561)
The Coronation of the Virgin, 1504 (detail).
A few decades later, Saul became the Paraclete called Paul. He taught concerning Christ, the redemption offered by His Passion & the power of the Resurrection. With and after him, the Paraclete aided the formation of powerful Christian communities, and worked through prophets, teachers and overseers of communities (the later bishops). He allowed many different forms of Christianity to express themselves in a multitude of symbols, literatures and ritual approaches and he cut away their excesses by stimulating the orthodoxy of the learned and pious. He inspired emperors and kings and tried to comfort the growing theological tensions and human inconsistencies present five centuries after Jesus Christ had been crucified, in particular the schism between East and West regarding the origin of the Holy Spirit (cf. the "Filioque").

Mohammed, peace with him, became the Paraclete. The illiterate Prophet of Islam was forced by archangel Gabriel to read. Apparently, Gabriel was given access to the heavenly version of the book (of all revelations), kept hidden by Allâh.
"No ! I swear by the falling stars, (And this is indeed a mighty oath, did you but know !) that the noble Koran, the prototype of which is in a hidden book, should be touched by none except the purified. Its a revelation from the Lord of all being."Koran : 56:74-79
When Pharaoh asks Moses about the past generations and their teachings :
"Moses answered : 'The knowledge of them is with my Lord, in the book. My Lord goes not astray, nor forgets."Koran : 20:54
Over a period of 23 years, the Paraclete composed a great number of "signs" ("aya"), later thematically organized in sections ("sura") of which 114 have survived. The Koran (or "recital") as the bound book version of all known sections is called, is meant to stop pressing controversies concerning the nature of God. Three main stress-points emerge : God is One, God is Merciful & God is peace.

The proposed radical unity of God attacked polytheism and henotheism, as well as wrong interpretations of God's unity (in Christianity, Judaism or other religions like Zoroastrism, Hinduism & Buddhism). The Mercy of God became manifest in history through His prophets, allowing for a variety of religious laws, revelations and religions decreed by the same God.
"Our messengers came to Abraham with good news. They said : 'Peace !' 'Peace !' he answered. And he waited not long before he brought a roasted calf."Koran : 11:72"The servants of the All-Merciful are those who walk on the earth with modesty and who, when the ignorant address them, say : 'Peace !'"Koran : 25:64"Those who believe, and do deeds of righteousness, shall be admitted into gardens underneath which rivers flow, therein dwelling forever, by the leave of Allâh. They shall be greeted there by this word : 'Peace !'"Koran : 14:28
Finally, the peace of God is the first and last thing wished for (for oneself or for someone else). The Muslim is a being of peace, coerces not and a living example of the constant remembrance of God, who abhors violence and injustice. His spirituality is a direct, immediate relationship with God, mediated by His Word, the prophets of old and the Prophet of Islam.
the Order of the Temple
Vive Dieu, Saint Amour !
Jacques de Molay, the last Grand Master
of the Order of the Knights Templar
burnt at the stake on the 18th of March 1314
Jerusalem fell to the curved swords of Islam in 638 AD. In 1095, Pope Urban II decided to incite the sovereigns of the West to recapture the city. He wanted to bring together the Eastern (Orthodox) and Western (Roman) strains of Christianity, a scandalous divide caused by a fundamental dogmatic difference about the nature of the Holy Spirit. In 1099, the year Godefroy de Bouillon of Flanders conquered the city, the Pope died. It would be recaptured in 1244.

According to Templar tradition, the Order of the Knights Templar was founded by Huges de Payns, a 48 year old nobleman, and eight other Knights. They took their vows on the 12th of June 1118 at the Castle of Arginy in the County of Rhône. The nine Knights were devoted to Christ and pledged to ensure the safety of the pilgrims to Jerusalem and the protection of the Holy Sepulchre. The Grand Master was very successful and obtained gifts of land and property to start the order.

By 1129, the Templar Order was established in Europe. The battle standard of the Order, the Gonfalon Beauceant or Beauseant was a red eight-pointed cross, the "Croix patteé gueules", on a background of white and black squares. Their motto was : Non nobis Domine, non nobis, sed Nomini Tua da gloriam. The seal of the Order was the design of two horsemen on the same horse, indicating the vow of poverty, the fraternity as well as the dual role of monk and warrior.

When Pope Honorius died in 1130, Bernard of St. Clairvaux supported the man who became Innocent II, to the great advantage of the Order, for eventually his Templars were subject to no authority save the Pope's. Their Order became a state within states and enjoyed considerable freedom, endowed with incredible wealth. The purity of these ideals were compromized by the politics of the Near East. Although the inner order retained the ideal, the outer structures failed.

The inner order had access to "heretical" knowledge. Hermetical doctrines taught them the multiverse was conditioned by the laws of sound, colour, number, weight and measure. Impregnated with the "Orientale Lumen", studying the "sciences of the Moors", Jewish qabalah & Muslim Sufism and helped by Arab translations, they were able to read unknown Greek & Latin authors and drink from the grand reservoir of Mediterranean and Hellenistic spirituality. Eventually, new technologies were learned. These were introduced in the West, fertilized Christian culture, transformed the architecture of churches & cathedrals and enlightened the intelligentia of their time. The Order helped prepare the European Renaissance ...

In 1312, during a Council held in Vienne, Pope Clement V, backed by the King of France (who had been refused by the Order) abolished the Order of the Knights Templar. After this, the Order lost central command, and various groups were created, like the Order of Montesa in Spain (1317), the Order of Christ in Portugal (1319) and the Elder Brothers of the Rose Cross in France (returning from Scotland). These "Frères Aînés de la Rose-Croix"  (1317) drew up a new Templar Rule adopted by a college of 33 men, renewed and maintained by co-option.

Templars made links with troubadours, alchemists, qabalah and the Islam, in particular certain Muslim brotherhoods (the flowering of Sufism, the mysticism of Islam, was conterminous with the rise of the Knights Templar). It was one of the task of St. Bernard and his Templars to bring Judaism, Christianity and Islam together, and in this intention we see the work of the Paraclete. They also worked to allow the latter to manifest in this world again and strove for the "Return of the Christ in Solar Glory". This both Judaism (the coming of the Messiah), Christianity (the "parousia") and Islam (prophet Jesus, the "Word" of Allâh, returns to judge the world) accept. Templars are called to sacrifice the selfish aspect of their natures, so the spirit of Christ may manifest in them in victu.

the Rosicrucian Order and the Rose-Croix

Between the realization of the Messianic kingdom and the Day of the End, two economies are at work. On the one hand, Christ gives life to His chosen, on the other hand, the Holy Spirit endows God's creation as a whole, and guides human history with discretion. The angelic orde in general, and the Enochians in particular fall under the latter economy.

As a system of belief, Rosicrucianism came to the notice of the general public in the 17th century. In the two Rosicrucian Manifestoes, a mysterious personage called Christian Rosenkreutz was mentioned. But according to legend, the symbolism of the Rose and the Cross was first displayed in 11th century Spain. During a fierce battle against the Moors, an Aragonese Knight named Arista saw a cross of light in the sky with a rose on each of its arms. A monastery to commemorate his victory was erected and time later an Order of Chivalry with the emblem of these Roses and the Cross was founded in the monastery. The Rose and the Cross appeared in the banner of Raymond VI, Count of Toulouse when he tried to defend the Cathars against the armies of Pope Innocent III. It was in the form of a cross, described as "de gueules à la croix et pommettée d'or" ("gueule" means "red", derived from the Arabic "gul", which means "rose"). The emblem of the Cross with the red Rose in the middle square became the emblem of the Rosicrucian movement and its many orders, lodges and societies.

In the Fama Fraternitatis (or Laudable Fraternity of the Rosy Cross), Christian Rosenkreutz journeyed to Damascus, Damcar, Egypt and Fez. He met those in possession of secret teachings. He synthesized the best of these teachings and went to Spain. Finally, he returned to Germany and chose three men with whom he founded an order, meant to instruct its members in the knowledge he had obtained in the Middle East. After the publication of the Manifestos, the Rosicrucians influenced the culture of Western Europe.

Rosicrucianism developed along two lines, on the one hand, the scientists, intellectuals and reformers in the social, political and philosophical fields (like Descartes and Boyle) and, on the other hand, those (like Fludd, Dee, Comenius and Ashmole) concerned with occultism and mysticism (cf. the distinction between philosophical and technical Hermetism). In France, Rosicrucianism had a revival climaxing in the early 19th and the first years of the 20th century. Especially Martinez de Pasqually (1727 - 1774), Louis-Claude de Saint Martin (1743 - 1803) and Papus (1865 - 1918) are noted.

The Western tradition makes the distinction between a Rosicrucian and a "Rose-Croix". The latter is a person who has reached the highest level of the inner order. Free Adepthood (Adeptus Exemptus) is a level which foreshadows the next important stage of the evolution of humanity, namely the crossing of the upper Abyss of the Tree of Life, involving a direct participation in the economy of the Holy Spirit.

This happens when the good of the multiverse as a whole has been summarized (as in the Watchtowers and the Aethyrs). A Rose-Croix is able to obtain practical knowledge of the secret meaning of the emblem of Rosicrucianism. These Free Adepts do not obtain their authority from any type of organization, but directly from the Holy Spirit and the Paraclete.

It is possible to draw a living line, more or less covering the last millenium, from the Order of the Knights Templar right down to Rosicrucianism.

Christian invocation before Enochian evocation

"You have the corn, and you have the ground : Make you but invocations to sow the seed, and the fruit shall be plentiful."TFR, p.188-189 (Ave on the 2th of July 1584, Cracau).

The angel Ave informs Dee the angels cannot Open the Gates from the inside of the Watchtowers. To do so, invocations are necessary, and these "proceed from the good will of man, and of the heat and fervency of the spirit ; And therefore is prayer of such effect with God." (TFR, p.188). When Dee asks which form he has to use, Ave answers he does not know, "for I dwell not in the soul of man".

Ave tells Dee to make a Book of Invocations. In it are the names of God, of the angels and their offices. Dee desired to be "fed with spoones" and so he was ... He created the pattern of this book and it appears in the Latin manuscript of Liber Scientiae Auxilii et Victoriae Terrestris (Sloane Ms. 3191). It consists of a series of invocations, from the "fundamental obeisance" down to the Dispositors of the subquadrants of the 4 Watchtowers. He was forced to draw upon Christian and Hebrew prayers, and added Medieval magical invocations. As a jurist, he took special care to leave no loopholes open by eliminating all ambiguities in the wording.

Invocation, the calling of beings existing in Briah and Atziluth is a creative, ecstatic process, to be compared with Adam's ability to assign names to everything in the Garden of Eden. Ave provided Dee with a model invocation, the Prayer of Enoch to God.
The Prayer of Enoch
"Lord God the Fountain of true wisdom, thou that openest the secrets thy own self unto man, thou knowest mine imperfection and my inward darknesse : How can I (therefore) speak unto them that speak not after the voice of man ; or worthily call on thy name, considering that my imagination is variable and fruitlesse, and unknown to my self ? Shall the Sands seem to invite the Mountains : or can the small Rivers entertain the wonderful and unknown waves ? Can the vessel of fear, fragility, or that is of a determined proportion, lift up himself, heave up his hands, or gather the Sun into his bosom ?

Lord it cannot be : Lord my imperfection is great : Lord I am lesse than sand : Lord, thy good Angels and Creatures excell me far : our proportion is not alike ; our sense agreeth not : Notwithstanding I am comforted ; For that we have all one God, all one beginning from thee, that we respect thee a Creatour : Therefore will I call upon thy name, and in thee, I will become mighty. Thou shalt light me, and I will become a Seer ; I will see thy Creatures, and will magnifie thee amongst them.

Those that come unto thee have the same gate, and through the same gate, descend, such as thou sendest. Behold, I offer my house, my labour, my heart and soul, If it will please thy Angels to dweIl with me, and I with them ; to rejoyce with me, that I may rejoyce with them ; to minister unto me, that I may magnifie thy name. Then, lo the Tables (which I have provided, and according to thy will, prepared) I offer unto thee, and unto thy holy Angels, desiring them, in and through thy holy names : That as thou art their light, and comfortest them, so they, in thee will be my light and comfort.

Lord they prescribe not laws unto thee, so it is not meet that I prescribe laws unto them : What it pleaseth thee to offer, they receive ; So what it pleaseth them to offer unto me, will I also receive. Behold I say (O Lord) If I shall call upon them in thy name, Be it unto me in mercy, as unto the servant of the Highest. Let them also manifest unto me, How, by what words, and at what time, I shall call them. O Lord, Is there any that measure the heavens, that is mortal ? How, therefore, can the heavens enter into mans imagination ? Thy creatures are the Glory of thy countenance : Hereby thou glorifiest all things, which Glory excelleth and (O Lord) is far above my understanding.

It is great wisdom, to speak and talke according to understanding with Kings : But to command Kings by a subjected commandment, is not wisdom, unlesse it come from thee. Behold Lord, How shall I therefore ascend into the heavens ? The air wlll not carry me, but resisteth my folly, I fall down, for I am of the earth. Therefore, O thou very Light and true Comfort, that canst, and mayst, and dost command the heavens : Behold I offer these Tables unto thee, Command them as it pleaseth thee : and O you Ministers, and true lights of understanding, Governing this earthly frame, and the elements wherein we live, Do for me as for the servant of the Lord : and unto whom it hath pleased the Lord to talk of you.

Behold, Lord, thou hast appointed me 50 times ; Thrice 50 times will I lift my hands unto thee. Be it unto me as it pleaseth thee, and thy holy Ministers. I require nothing but thee, and through thee, and for thy honour and glory : But I hope I shall be satisfied, and shall not die, (as thou hast promised) until thou gather the clouds together, and judge all things : when in a moment I shall be changed and dwell with thee for ever." (Amen)
TFR, p.196-197 (Ave on the 7th of July 1584, Cracau).
At the end of the prayer, Ave adds :
"These words, were thrice a dayes talk betwixt Enoch and God : In the end of 50 dayes, there appeared unto him, which are not now to be manifested nor spoken of : he enjoyed the fruit of God his promise, and received the benefit of his faith. Here may the wise learn wisdom : for what doth man that is not corruptible ?"TFR, p.197 (Ave on the 7th of July 1584, Cracau).
Just as God gave Moses the law on the fiftieth day and the Holy Ghost descended upon the apostles of Christ fifty days after His Resurrection, so the promise of the Enochians, the Opening of the Gates or activation of the Watchtowers, is fulfilled after 50 days of invocation.

The Prayer of Enoch differs from the usual power mode used by magicians to coerce invisible entities. Enoch confirms that he is "less than sand" and he does not wish to "prescribe laws" unto the angels, for they do not prescribe laws unto God. Indeed, the Enochians are not independent beings, but ministers of God. There is not need to command the angels, for if God wills, they will do what has to be done in any case. 

However, the proper use of the Watchtowers will cause angelic grace to "come down". The Rose-Croix may beseech the angels and control when and where their fortune or their thrashing will occur (destiny is fixed but its decrees are issued in time). The Enochians also confirm : the use of the Tablets for personal ends calls the 150 "lions and spirits of wickedness, errour and deceit". The latter teach the demoniac howling of the Goetia, and cause the genuine sacramental magic of the Enochians to be forgotten and lost from the world (and the operator).

So, to the proper use of the Enochian system begins with daily invocations, or fervent prayers. Three times a day (at dawn, noon and dusk), the Adept raises his heart and invokes the God of hosts (associated with Netzach). He asks God to grant him angelic grace. At the end of this period, permission may be given to Open the 16 Gates and evoke the angels to visible appearance. This completes the Enochian exercise, for with the presence of the angels around the Rose-Croix, the Day of the End is called in and the New Jerusalem realized (either for him, the age or the multiverse).

Despite their intimations to the contrary, the Enochians withheld Dee essential information to prevent him to defy their order to await permission to use the system for what it is meant : trigger the Day of the End. The missing information concerned the application of the Calls to the Watchtowers.

In the course of this book, the importance of receiving angelic permission to Open the Gates has been put into evidence. The 150 demons should never be called but also at all costs avoided. To fasten the lower buttons takes at least a decade, but usually longer. The Lesser Adept is not at all entitled to Open the Gates without permission, but studies the system and is touched by its power through the Holy Guardian Angel alone. The Greater Adept, because of his justice, fearlessness and strength, has attained the station of consciousness to know how to avoid Opening the Gates while in full communion with the Enochians.

But only the Exempt Adept has the best station to receive the appropriate invocation to be granted permission to Open the Gates and evoke the holy angels. He has to cross the Abyss and is thus entitled the truth, the justice, the power and the protection of the Great Table of the Watchtowers. With every event of his microcosm being a personal experience of the Light of the Holy Spirit, of the order of grace, the Master of the Temple forgets the Watchtowers and grows into Wisdom. In total darkness, he bestows enlightenment and returns to Eden on the Eight Day of creation.

Two wrong entries are avoided : the sullied key and a lack of proper training & conditioning of consciousness.

A sullied key has incorporated personal interests in its application of the system. The activity of the Paraclete is not recognized and the humility demanded by the angels confused with outer acts of piety or put aside as irrelevant. The Enochian system is not only magical but also sacramental and involves Christian qabalah. The will of the Adept has no importance here, except in serving the welfare of all sentient beings on planet Earth.

Lack of proper training, and this on the level of Adepthood, may "burn" consciousness as a result of the formidable intensities involved (for example, the briatic Seniors need strong channels to bring down). This is why the focus of the Lesser Adept is on the microcosm of the system : the Second Call and the 30 Aethyrs.

THE WHITE CURTAIN IS DRAWN

Epilogue
The tradition of the Temple and its sacred enclosure was started by the Ancient Egyptians, some five thousand years ago. Dedicated to a god or a goddess, the inner, smaller & darker part of their Temples was screened from the eyes of the profane.

The deity worshipped in the "holy of holies" (the "naos" in which the cult statue stood) was either linked with a local cult, or was one of the national "netjeru" or popular "gods" of Egypt as a whole, such as Atum-Re, Ptah, Thoth or Osiris and their constellations of consorts and children.

Around 3000 BC, the King embodied the unity of Upper & Lower Egypt, and was a "Follower of Horus", one of the incarnations of the overseeing hawk, the sky-god Horus. Around 2500 BC, the "great house" added the title "son of Re" to its titulary, the religious-political motto of the king. Pharaoh was the divine son of Re, the creator-god.

Besides a divine being, Pharaoh was also the sole High Priest, and (in the Old Kingdom), the only one (except the deities) who had a "ba", a soul.  In the many hundreds of Temples, he alone worshipped the deity "face to face" and he held the keys of the crucial unity of Egypt as well as the protection of its borders. This he realized, by daily performing an elaborate royal ritual dedicated to his father Re and the Heliopolitan Ennead as well as to other deities. Pharaoh (or his representative) faced the cult deity directly. Gods only communicated with other gods. In the Old Kingdom, the gods flew to the sky and ordinary humans had to hide.
Seti I presenting Maat - New Kingdom
XIXth Dynasty - his Temple at Abydos
"Keep Maat, do not exceed it."Ptahhotep : Maxim 8, line 123
Three millenia long, the core ritual of Egyptian religion remained unaltered. The theology of this supreme ritual act was Heliopolitan throughout. Besides giving the first fruits of his plenty to the deities, Pharaoh spoke "voice-offerings" presenting Maat, the just order of things, to his father Re. The creator-god accepted this sublime kingly gift. Instead of delivering his creation and the kingdom of his royal son back to the dark, lurking, ever-returning, pre-creational, pre-existing Nun, Re blessed Pharaoh and with him the whole of Egypt with new life.

When the yearly Nile floods remained between the compass of the balance, the crucial sign was delivered to back the intimate kinship between the divine Pharaoh and the creator-god. Too little and too much water being avoided, the Two Lands were bountiful. Chaos was checked by the laws of righteousness and truth, justice symbolized by the balance.
The Temple of Edfu
Ptolemaic but after Old Kingdom models
The Temples of Egypt were the sacred enclosures were Pharaoh and his representatives returned Maat and guaranteed the continuity of the Pharaonic Order. Their architecture  and ornaments reflect the Egyptian mysteries, so different from the Greek mentality. Here, the mysteries celebrate the continuity of life, even beyond physical death. Physical life is not a prison to escape from, but a place constantly to return to.

Great kingdoms take long to die. At the end of the New Kingdom (ca.1075 BC), Egypt would still be Pharaonic for a thousand years, but its "golden age" lay behind Pharaoh and would never return again, despite several attempts at restoration and archaic reflexes.

To Moses (probably at work during the reign of Pharaoh Ramesses II, ca. 1290 - 1279 BC), the One God revealed His Name : "I AM that am". The barrier between God and man was finally crossed by a word and a convenant, not by the myth of a divine human person and his co-relative visual religion of family constellations. The One God heard by Moses, shared omnipotence, hiddenness & compassion with the Ramesside Amun-Re. But there was an outstanding difference though : "YHVH Elohim" is One God without a Second. Henotheism, the presence of the one, hidden deity (Amun) in millions of manifest (Re) deities was over. This was the main crucial "radical" advance made.

Already under Pharaoh Akhenaten (ca. 1353 - 1336 BC), who had preferred the singular form for "god" over the plural, the  inner order of the Temple had been touched upon. The restoration of Amun (begun under Pharaoh Tutanchamun), and, in a lesser degree, of Ptah, reinforcing their unity, vastness and compassion, introduced a sublime ante-rational henotheist pan-en-theism. A long decline would follow, and, in the Late Period and Ptolemaic Era, the star of fate of Thoth-Hermes would rise and the religious role of the priesthood of Amun, in the beginning still a state within the state, would poco a poco diminish, but never quiet vanish (cf. the role of Amun in the election of Alexander the Great).

The Egyptian Temple experience was not eradicated. It survived and propagated in the Roman empire as the cult of Osiris and Isis. With Christianity becoming Rome's state religion, this changed. The first of the Roman emperors to be baptised (Constantine the Great on his deathbed) was Theodosius (347 - 395). In 379, he expressly forbade all forms of traditional worship on the threat of being charged with treason.

He officially close the Pharaonic Temple cult, outlawed mummification and sought to destroy pagan writings. Hermetic texts were forbidden, land intended for sacrifice confiscated, the use of the demotic script forbidden and ancient records covered with crosses and the name of Jesus Christ.

The First Temple of Jerusalem of Solomon (ca.950 BC) embodied the Jewish Temple experience. It could not compare with the majestic and vast temple-complexes of Egypt, but enshrined the worship of the invisible, Living God : the One creator of heaven and earth. With its total destruction by the Babylonians, the way to pronounce "YHVH", the name of God, was lost. Parts of this Temple experience was kept alive by purists and ascetical groups, like John the Baptist, the Essenes and their Enochian sources. These spiritual Jews rejected the Hellenized, corrupted authority of the Second Temple of Jerusalem, destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD. To them, the learned interpretations of the Torahby the Great Sanhedrin, were not as valid as the original text itself (later, in rabbinism, this learning was developed and later textualized as the Talmud).

The ritualism of the school of Pythagoras at Croton (ca. 530 BC), various Greek mysteries (Orpheus, Dionysius, Eleusis), as well as the prophetic qualities of Socrates, the rational idealistic philosophy of Plato and the intellectual mysticism of the Neoplatonists, inform us about the Greek Temple experience and its radical linearizing influence on the many religions of the Mediterranean, Judaism included, who, under pressure of the power of the Greek experience, had to move beyond their traditional ante-rational schemes.

In Ptolemaic Egypt (305 - 30 BC), native Egyptian, Jewish & Greek cultures together formed a complex multicultural society, with Alexandria at its cultural center. The rational conceptualizations of the Greeks were a linear approach, a series of categories necessary to organize thought properly and efficiently.

In terms of Temple activities, the Hermetic Lodge of Alexandria (ca. 150 BC - with Greek, native Egyptian and Jewish members) is legendary and apparently not without historical backing. The Corpus Hermeticum(written before 250 AD), dealt with the so-called philosophicalHermetica, while astrology, alchemy and occultism were "technical". Hermetism is a synthesis of the philosophical and religious traditions of the Pythagoreans, of Plato an the native Egyptian religion, especially Hermopolitan theology (Thoth), ritualism & magic. Although respected by early Christian fathers like Clement of Alexandria, Hermetism was later deemed heretical because of its astrological and magical tenets.

Via Harran, Hermetism (as the religion of the Moon-god Thoth) was incorporated into Islam, in particular in Sufism. Hermetical teachings became thus part of the "Orientale Lumen" later brought to Europe by the Templars and others like William of St.Thierry.

Around 1460 AD, a Greek manuscript from Macedonia arrived at Florence. Cosimo de' Medici was fascinated and asked his Plato expert Marsilio Ficino (1433 - 1499) to look into the texts. He promptly started to translate them and it took him a few months to finish everything. Latin version of the Corpus Hermeticum was extremely influential, especially the first treatise, the Poimandres, circulating in many copies before it was published in 1471. So when the Renaissance finally flowered over Europe, Hermes Trismegistos became the patron saint of occult knowledge, a mythical figure crowning literary Hermeticism.

This brings us to John Dee's communications with the Enochians. Here, a new chapter, a "new world" begins. The Western Tradition of the Temple takes a decisive turn. For the first time, a systematic synthesis of Judeo-Christian beliefs and Renaissance Hermeticism (occult Rosicrucianism) is realized, the first Christian "qabalah" or "pneumatic" approach of the Christian revelation. Here we have a Christian who is liberated from the objective conditions of the ministery of the Holy Spirit, namely church dogma, and touched by the subjective directions of Christian angels ruled by the Holy Trinity. Clearly Dee was a traditionalist, and so his own key has the marks of Medieval Hermeticism. But he was also seeking "radical truths" and was given them. He got an Angelical System, but approached it with a Christian outlook.

It took a few centuries to link the Enochian system with Rosicrucian Adepthood and the aim of the Rose-Croix. This comes down to the universal importance of enlightenment (the five raised to the six) and of serving humanity. It is focused on the Day of the End, both eschatological (objective) and anticipatoric (subjective). The Enochians deliver the core of the Adept teachings at work in the inner order of the Temple. In the anticipatoric mode, Enochian spirituality initiates the "revelation" ("apocalypse") of a particular individual, called to exceed his or her own nature by actively restoring what is "evil" (shadow-work) and allowing the righteousness of the Last Day to persist. Once started, this work can not be stopped.

In this exercise, the outer order of the Western Temple remained out of focus. Clearly its roots are pre-Christian and Hermetical (in the Alexandrian sense). But because of the deeply rooted misunderstanding of Ancient Egyptian religion by the three religions of the book, because of the loss of the ability to read and understand the hieroglyphs, Renaissance Hermeticism could hardly do more than invent its own historical roots. This was largely literary, romantic and vain. It adhered to the intellectual mysticism of the Greeks, as well as to their moralizing ontology regarding matter, leading to a mysticism of escape.

The "ad fontes" principle of the Renaissance dealt with Late Hellenism only and was unable to plunge into Antiquity. So the symbolical system used by Western esoterism today should be reviewed and most, if not all, Temple Orders reorganized. The same goes for the academia, the political system, the legal system, the economical system, the military and so forth. The Enochians underline the planetary focus of genuine spirituality. The Utopia of one, just global government is their reality.

And this is the challenge of Western esotericism : to erect an outer order in accord with the historical origins of Hermetism. The Neophyte is prepared by recreating the symbolical mindset of pre-Christian culture. These Rituals of the Lesser Mysteries are meant to restore the natural balance of the individual.

By taking into account recent advances in Egyptology and its adjacent disciplines, it is possible to bring the original rituals to life with far greater precision and realism. Our knowledge of the Egyptian language offers a new interpretation on matters Egyptian. To use these elements to construct an outer order, covering the four first grades, is to invite the distinction between the pre-Christian mode and the ontological rupture and rapture introduced by the Passion and Resurrection of the Christ, a Divine Person incarnating in a human body, the infinite becoming finite ... a jump away from the physical, mechanical, rational grasp of God ...

Absurdity to the Greeks, blasphemy to the Jews and amygdalic epiphenomena to the materialists, such a Rosicrucian inner order involves a radical step, the rendering of the Veil of the Temple, and hence a direct, spiritual experience of this Savior assisted by the Holy Guardian Angel and his Enochians friends. And these good angels underline the moral relationship between man and God. Indeed, in the revelations of the One True Living God, nothing else but sincererepentance ("metanoia") initiates the true and faithful relation between His ministers and the human soul.

Selected Bibliography
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