Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn

in England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

The Enochian Tradition

Golden Dawn Enochian magic is a system of ceremonial magic developed out of the evocation and commanding of various spirits. It is based on the 16th century writings of Dr. John Dee and Edward Kelley, who claimed that their information was delivered to them directly by various angels. Dee's journals contained the Enochian script, and the table of correspondences that goes with it. It claims to embrace secrets contained within the apocryphal Book of Enoch. Dee and Kelley claim they received these instructions from angels and wrote them down. The system claims to relate to secrets contained within the apocryphal Book of Enoch. It is not quite clear how much of Enochian magic was put to use by Dee and Kelley. Enochian as an operative system is difficult to reconstruct based upon the Sloane manuscripts, but contemporary occult organizations have attempted to make it usable.

Although it differs significantly from the magical system used by Dee and Kelley, Golden Dawn founder S.L. MacGregor Mathers created a brilliant synthesis of Enochian magic, Qabalistic magic, Egyptian God Forms, and Golden Dawn use of lineal figures and flashing colors to create an unsurpassable system of Elemental magic.

Unfortunately, however, MacGregor Mathers passed away before he could ever finish the same integration applied to rest of the Golden Dawn magical system, particularly to Astrological (Planetary and Zodiacal) magic. Golden Dawn Imperator Ordinis and present Chief of MacGregor Mathers’ Alpha et Omega, David Griffin, finished the daunting tast of follwing in MacGregor Mathers footsteps and finishing the integration for the Planetary and Zodiacal magical systems.

The way that this was accomplished was published in David Griffin’s groundbreaking paper, “The Book of the Concourse fo the Planetary and Zodiacal Forces” in 1999. A complete complete set of Golden Dawn Enochian Magical Tablets (Elemental, Planetary, and Zodiacal) including the Sigilum Dei Aemeth are available for download from this website.

Enochian Chess

One facet of the rediscovery is Enochian chess, a four handed variant of the game developed by S.L. Macgregor Mathers and W. Wynn Wescott which was originally used only for divination. Enochian Chess, however, is much more than a divination tool. It is nothing less than the most powerful form of elemental magic that exists, wherein each chess piece represents a particular Sub-Elemental magical force from the Enochian Elemental Tablets, moving and acting upon and Elemental matrix embodied in the Chess boards. The true correspondences of the chess pieces and the magical forces remains a carefully guarded secret of S.L. MacGregor Mathers Alpha et Omega. Like so many other magical secrets of the A.O., no other order calling itself Golden Dawn has the secret keys that unlocks the full power of Enochian Chess.