Edward Kelley - The Enochian Language

The Enochian Language

Kelley's "angels" sometimes communicated in a special "angelic" language called Enochian. Dee and Kelley claimed the language was given to them by angels. Some modern cryptographers argue that Kelley invented it (see for example the introduction to The Complete Enochian Dictionary by Donald Laycock). Some claim that this was a farce, but are not clear whether Dee was a victim or an accomplice. Because of this precedent, and of a dubious connection between the Voynich Manuscript and John Dee through Roger Bacon, Kelley has been suspected of having fabricated that book too, in order to swindle Rudolf.

The angelic language was supposedly dictated by angels whom Kelley claimed to see within a crystal ball. The angels were said to tap out letters on a complicated table, something like a crossword puzzle but with all the cells filled in. The first third were tapped out with each angelic word backwards; the following two thirds with each word forwards. There are no significant errors or discrepancies in word usage between the first and following parts. The English translations were not tapped out but, according to Kelley, appeared on little strips of paper coming out of the angels' mouths.

The angelic word telocvovim is glossed as "he who has fallen", but it is actually a Germanic-like combination of two other angelic words: teloch (glossed as "death") and vovin (glossed as "dragon"). Thus "he who has fallen" would be literally translated as "death dragon", both rather obvious references to Lucifer. However, neither Kelley nor Dee appears to have noticed or remarked on this.

Another argument against Kelley's fabrication of angelic is that the English translations are in a very different style of writing to that of Kelley's own work. This raises the possibility that Kelley might have plagiarized the material from a different source. However, no similar material has ever surfaced.

Dee considered the dictation of the angelic material as highly important for three reasons. First, Dee believed the angelic represented a documentable case of true glossolalia, thereby proving that Kelley was actually speaking with angels and not from his imagination. Second, the angels claimed that angelic was actually the original prototype of Hebrew and the language with which God spoke with Adam, and thus the first human language. Third, the angelic material takes the form of a set of conjurations that were supposed to summon an extremely powerful set of angelic beings who, he believed, would be able to reveal many secrets, especially the key to the philosopher's stone.