The ‘Book of Enoch’, the Angelic Alphabet and the ‘Real Cabbala’ in the Angelic Conferences of John Dee (1527-1608/9)

摘要

Despite the wide range of his scholarly interests, John Dee is probably best known (at least in the popular imagination) for a series of seances or magical “actions” conducted during the 1580s and possibly earlier, in which he believed himself to have established contact with angels. The angels entrusted him with esoteric truths in order that he might play a crucial role in the coming Apocalypse and the subsequent redemption of mankind. Vital to this project was the revelation of a holy book written in a previously unknown language (supposedly the language of the angels and of Adam), as well as a magical alphabet into which the text of the book was to be transcribed. The book was supposed to contain prophecy, the interpretation of which would restore human knowledge to the state from which it had fallen over the course of human history. [Taken from Introduction]