The Hermetic Journal We Reprinted Madame Blavatsky8s Edition of Bacstrom8s Translation of the Golden Chain of Homer, Which She Issued in 1891)
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Number 6 JOURN r THE: HERIsEl!IC JOUXlaL is published quarterly 12 Antigua Street Edinburgh 1 Edited by Adam Kclean 811 material copflight the individ- unl contributors. later*l not cred- ited, copyright the aermetic Journal. ISSN 0141-6391 C i Contents 7 Edi In the past few months several of my Editorial subscribers have enquired as to the News and Information connection between my dlchemical studies and the other facet of my A Possible Origin for the interests, the research into the Enochian Calls ancient Stone Circles, Standing Ceoffray James @ Stones, etc., and the earth forces Hermetic pleditation No 6 associated with such sites. I iqterd Regular Feature in later issues to devote some space to detailed articles on this subject Memoir of E .J .L .Garstin but perhaps I might just. indicate Ithell Colquhoun @ some of the basic aspects of this Note on the Colouring of the line of reseazch, and just how it Homer's Golden Chain Dia,gram might tie in with the hermetic Ithell Colquhoun @ tradition. The nrty Worlds of the Certain points on the body of the Holy Lamb Earth, have been identified since Michael Beckett @ the earliest times as having special healing powers ,or producing some Bacstmm's Rosicrucian Society change in consciousness, or having Adam McLean O an atmosphere, a quality which Alchemical Mandala 60 6 people felt as sacred. Fany of these Special Extended Feature @ special points on the Earth were marked (especially in the Northern- Robert Fludd's Spiritual Task European ~radition)with Standing Adam McLean @ Stones, Stone Circles, a He'nge, Reviews cairn, or other structure, and these can still be looated tcday. 3ut although this sense of "atmosphere" or "sacredness" is a subjective impression, in recent times it has been discovered (or re-discovered) that the fine detailed structure of this'htmosphere" around a standing stone, can be mapped by the object- 6- 1 ive process of dowsing. The dowser, fkom Chemistry, which merely works using various instruments, rods, the with the physical dimension of sub- pendulum, can discover various stance). Thus the alchemist repeats patterns of lines, circles, and within his retorts, in microcosm and spiral bands of earth energy around in a compressed space of time, using such Standing Stones. These are higher energies, something of what completely objective and can be con- takes place over aeons in the Cosmic- firmed by other dowsers (even in Earthly alchemical process, that double blind tests), and some ass- works at the special etheric Earth- iated electrostatic and magnetic mgans, the sacred sites our ancest- energies can be measured on physical ors, with their more spiritual instruments. It is these patterns of oriented civilisation strove to energy in the %a*, that lead the honour and protect. out ancient paoples to mark these Thus 1 believe that we should come points as sacred, and to work their and to see that the future development initiations yearly cycle of of the Western Hemtic tradition, festivals at these centres of Earth should involve a new encounter with energy. the earth-energies. am Through my research, I convinced The destiny spiritual impulse that the energies at these sites, and that unfolded the alchemical tradit are 104exteriorisations of the body ion, is to bring to YZmki.nd the etheric of the Earth, points ability to work spiritually in the where the Earth's etheric body dense world of physial incarnation. presses out from the physical bound- Y!must find through alchemical aries. The ancient peoples also used inspiration, the abiltity to work the standing Stones, and earthwork- spiritually with substance, and harm- ings such as Henges, to mould, st* onise the relationship between matter cture accumulate and contain these , and spirit. An important past of this forces. Some of these sites also have new spiritual working with the mater- astronomical connections, such ial world must involve Nan's relat- that on particular days of the year, ionship to his planet, the Earth. the Sun and Moon, or a Darticular rise or set alGg~apartic- In bringing together them two realms ular alignment, or Earth energy Alchemy and the Earth-energy research pattern, thus activating and prov- together, a true understanding may iding a pulse of planetary energy arise of the uses of these energies, within a cosmic cycle. Thus we have for spiritual growth, inner trans- at some sites a meeting of Cosmic formation, for agriculture, and for and Earthly forces. healing pqoses, linking together the macrocoamic energies of the . We should come to see that these planet, with the microcosmic energies ancient sites act as kinds of of Man. retorts, participating in a Cosmic- Earthly alchemical process, invol- Thus I believe that as students of ving the etheric forces of this Alchemy we must be open to the new planet, and we will find this para- discoveries being made in the realm lleled in Alchemy itself. of Earth-forces research. The alchemist at work with substan- ce in his crucibles and retorts, in essence was working with the etheric forces in substance, the etheric forces of the mineral realm (and it is this that distinguishes Alchemy News & Informat ion The MPI;NUM OPUS HERMETIC SOURCEWORKS Series is now well established with two publications in its first yea - The Magical Calendar and the Robert Fludd Mosaical Fhilosophy - Cabala. Next to be published in this series are two pmly Alchemical items - The Rosary of the Philosophem, and The Crowning of Nature, both very important early alchemical texts, never before available in Snglish translation. Theee should be available late December 1979 /early January 1980, and will be followed by the Khunrath Amphitheatrum Sapientiae Aeternae Engrav- Blank Page A POSSIBLE ORIGIN FOR THE ENOCHIAN CALLS Geoffrey James O There is prhaps no magic of the renaissar.ce more intriguing than the mysterious Enochian Calls. Reputed to be one of the most dangerous set of conjurations in the repertoire of the western magician, this strange and otherworldly language is undergoing a renaissance of its orfn. In less than a year's time, two new translations of the Calls have been published, and a third is imminent.' Little serious research, however, has been spent in attempting to locate a source (other than Kelley's clairvoyance ) for the Enochian Calls. i!isconceptions about the Cdls are coa71on. Some scholars attribute the Calls almost entirely to L!ee.' Even Laycock, in his exhaustive dictionary of Enocfiian, suggests that Kelley may have been reading Dee's mind i3 This tendency to downplay Kelley's contribution hampers most analyses of the Calls. In fact, Dee's rols was that of a scribe ; it was Edward Kelley who either conceived, perceived, received, or plagiarised the Calls. Only tL-ough a close examination of the environment in which the Calls were dictated can we properly assess the possibility of a prior text of the Calls. ~lthoughhe stands in the shadcw of Dee, Edward Kelley was a magician and alchemist in his own right. This is significant because, during the period in which the Enochian Calls were dictated, Kelley was performing ceremonial magic on his own, without Dee's prior knowledge or consent. The Enochian Calls were recorded in Sloane FS 55007 (presently catalogued as Cotton Appendix XLVI in the British ~ibrary)in passages dated April 13, 1% to July 13, 19: On May 7, 1%. the spirit Gabriel interrupt- ed the dictation of the Calls to command Kelley to destroy certain items of his personal magical regalia 2 Gabriel : 'All the trash thou hast of the wicked, burn it.' E.K. : 'If Moses and Daniel were skilfa in the Arts of the Egyptian Magicirns, and were not thereby hindered from being the servants of Cod, Ihy may not I deal. with these, without hindrance to the Will of Cod ?* Cabriel t 'Darkness yeildeth unto light I the Great excludeth the lesser.' Kelley resists these suggestions, but finally concedes to the ritual destruction of a single talisnran ; concerning the rest of this forbidder. regalia, gelley rPdces the following remak 8 'What I have done with the rest, God and they (if they be of ~od) bar ; won the aforesaid conditions I am contented to have this matter to be burnt. It is interesti,ag to note that this ritual destruction was the first act of the May 13, 1584 working, on which the majority of the Enochian mter- ial was 8icAkted. Thus we discover that Dee's csremonial magic was not the only occult influence upon Kelley I his ovin secretive ,nagical pract- ices ';rust have had some effect u?on his consciousness during the dictat- ion or' the Calls. Kelley continued his illicit ceremonies, but he eve~tudllybecame fright- ened at their results. On June 8, 1584, he confessed his practices to gee, -ho was so ala3zd at this reservation that he noted the event in Latin : 'iio,renLa & multiplicia heresium, blasphemiaum dogmata, quibus illi hostes Jesu Christi illum imbuennt . illisque malia Angelis renunciare, & omnes illorum fraudes deteger ... Conversio 2 .K. ad Zeum, abdicatis omnibus Diabolicis experimentis. ' Kelley's imlvement in such heretical mgical practices immediately wises some questions that are vital to research into the origins of the Calls I what iragical texts was Kelley utilizing for his secret cere!no?1es, ~zdwhat relation (if any) do these have to the Enochian calls ? Israel ilegaJl- is states that 'there is absolutely no trace of any part of the Enochian im&ical system or Welical langueqe in Zurope,' a vit?wpoint tkt wzs perhaps justified in its time. The Calls are, indeed, very Cifzerent from the Solomonic qical texts ; the bar5aric names in the Lemgeton are bastaniized Arabic and Greek rather than .% syntactic- ally -did lzyuage (like Enochian).