The Enochian Tables of the Golden Dawn

    Most books on enochian magic, published in german language, base on the magical practice of the Golden Dawn and its successors. The resources on enochian magic, utilized by the members of the Golden Dawn, were far from being complete. Only the enochian calls, the Sigillum Dei Æmeth, the Great Table and the sigills of the 91 gouvernours were used to develop an advanced system of elemental- and high-magic. The other parts of enochian angel-magic were either unknown or consciously omitted. So nowadays many german writers that based their works on the Golden Dawn materials have an incomplete picture of the actual enochian angel-magic. Many things you are simply accepting as known in enochian magic were not even part of the angels system originally transmitted to Dee and Kelley. In this situation a profound magical law comes into action: "Power follows your thoughts". The modern version of enochian magic works quite well, although it was not originally transmitted as such. I consider the inventive use of the enochian angel-magic by the Golden Dawn as a valuable and fascinating extension to the original system. In germany thus exist two mainstreams of enochian angel-magic. The one that is based on the fragmentary system of the Golden Dawn, which is dominant here, and the few individuals using the traditional materials as base for their magical practice in enochian magic. Because at the moment (December 2009) there are no really good publications on the original materials of enochian magic available in german language, the dominance of the Golden Dawn system here in my country is a logical consequence.

    Due to the fragmentary resources the magicians of the Golden Dawn had at hand several important differences to the original system of angelic magic crept into the modern version of it. The colours of the cardinal directions and the elements were defined by the angels as: the element fire in the east in red like a rubin, the element air in the south in a lily-white, the element water in the west in the green of dragon-scales and the element earth in the north in a bluish black. The Golden Dawn however used the colours of the tatvas of India: In the east there is the element air in yellow colour, in the south is the element fire in a red colour, in the west is the element water in blue colour and in the north is the element earth in black colour. The invention of elemental analogies to the four quadrants, which are a consequence of the self-similar structure of the tables, is without doubt an enrichment to the practical enochian magic.

    The Golden Dawn system consideres the quadrants separately and not as a part of the Great Table. Obviously the founder of the Golden Dawn order had more then one variation of the Great Table at hand, because in some squares of the tables appear more then one letter, showing the variations. These different letters - so the Golden Dawn material states - show the various different substreams of the particular square they are located in. The individual squares were associated to the elements, which was not explicit in the old materials dictated by the angels.

    This implies a different interpretation of the angels and their abilities, located in the various quadreants. In the original system the angels were associated with the four cardinal directions, regarding their sphere of influence. Thus an angel in the eastern quadrant can only operates in the east, and not in the south, west or north. Their abilities are defined in general by the subquadrants - so an angel of the northern subquadrant has all the same functions and abilities in all quadrants. In the Golden Dawn system the element of the quadrant and its sub-elements determine the function and abilities of the angels, which are not regionally limited in their activities.

    I condider the traditional and modern interpretation of the Great Table as two layers of function - as I work with both of them. Besides the elemental associations of the quadrants the subquadrants of the watchtowers are associated with the elements, too. The Table of Unification itself represents the element spirit, which is the secret fifth element. With this associations at hand each letter of the Great Table can be associated with up to four different elements by logical permutation.