Arguing with Angels: Enochian Magic and Modern Occulture

«The present book has been in the making approximately since the autumn of 2006.» — Asprem data el arranque del libro en el otoño de 2006, seis años antes del pie de imprenta.

«First of all, my supervisor during the research for my MA degree at the University of Amsterdam between 2006 and 2008, Dr. Marco Pasi, now a colleague at the same institution, deserves a great deal of honor for guiding me through the early process of what evolved into this project.» — de dónde nace el libro, según él mismo: de la investigación de su maestría en la Universidad de Ámsterdam entre 2006 y 2008, dirigida por Marco Pasi, autor del único estudio de conjunto que reconoce como precedente.

«Parts of the research for this book would have been impossible without contact with knowledgeable people in the world of the occult.» — Asprem declara que parte de la investigación depende del trato directo con practicantes, y nombra entre ellos a Michael Aquino, Steven Ashe, Al Billings, Clive Harper y Dean Hildebrandt, que son a la vez fuentes e informantes del libro.

«Runar Karlsen is especially acknowledged for giving his permission to publish parts of his magical work as an appendix to this book, and providing it with an introduction.» — el apéndice se publica con permiso e introducción de su propio autor, el mago noruego Runar Karlsen: es material de primera mano cedido por un practicante vivo, no una fuente de archivo.

«Ian Rons of The Magickal Review has been of great assistance, and I particularly thank him for supplying the Enochian characters used in Table 1.1 of this book.» — los caracteres enoquianos de la tabla del alfabeto angélico no salen de un facsímil sino de un sitio ocultista contemporáneo, The Magickal Review, según lo declara Asprem.

«Finally, chapter 2 has been developed from an article originally published in the journal Magic, Ritual, and Witchcraft, while other parts of arguments presented in the book have been tried out in the journals Aries, The Pomegranate, and Chaos.» — la procedencia parcial del material: el capítulo 2 viene de un artículo previo y otros argumentos se ensayaron antes en tres revistas del campo.

«O n a Friday afternoon late in January 1991 an art student in his late twenties was performing a magical ritual in a little rural house on the outskirts of Oslo. In the middle of the ritual, and quite contrary to the young magician’s intentions with it, his visions were wiped out and replaced by what he experienced as a “void of purity.”» — con esta escena abre Asprem el libro: un estudiante de arte en las afueras de Oslo, en enero de 1991, pierde sus visiones en medio de un ritual; la letra capitular *O* queda suelta en la capa de texto.

«In a loud, thundering voice, an unknown spirit started dictating in a strange, unfamiliar language: “Ma pratisi kolia navadigi, selig quanisi gon . . . ” The dictation continued for some time, all scribbled down by the aspiring artist and magician until it comprised a whole book of mysterious words, later to become known under the title Dor OS zol ma thil.» — lo que Asprem cuenta del episodio de Oslo: un espíritu desconocido dicta en lengua ajena hasta llenar un libro entero, que quedará titulado *Dor OS zol ma thil*; los puntos suspensivos espaciados son de la fuente.

«Soon he was to discover that the voices he had heard and transcribed were speaking in an arcane language known as “Enochian,” a language which some believed to be the tongue of the angels.» — la identificación posterior de lo dictado como enoquiano, y la creencia —atribuida a otros, no suscrita— de que es la lengua de los ángeles.

«There would be books telling that Enochian had been the language of Atlantis, rediscovered by the Rosicrucians; others that its existence constitutes the clearest proof of the supernatural, and especially the existence of angels.» — el inventario de lo que Asprem dice hallarse en los estantes ocultistas, cada afirmación consignada como afirmación ajena: lengua de la Atlántida redescubierta por los rosacruces, o prueba más clara de lo sobrenatural.

«One would read that there existed a whole system of “Enochian magic,” maybe part of a secret angelic conspiracy to set off the Apocalypse as described in the Book of Revelation; and one would fi nd the Enochian tongue murmured in the liturgy of satanic rituals.» — sigue el inventario: sistema completo de magia, conspiración angélica para desencadenar el Apocalipsis, y lengua murmurada en liturgia satánica.

«The truth is that Enochiana had been on the lips of occultists and ritual magicians for a hundred years.» — la única de esas frases que Asprem asume como propia, y es de hecho histórico: un siglo de presencia continua en boca de ocultistas y magos rituales.

«During the last three decades of his life, the English renaissance scholar had sought divine help to solve puzzles in natural philosophy, and employed several so-called scryers, or crystal gazers, in attempts to uncover secrets from the angels.» — según Asprem, lo que Dee buscaba con los ángeles eran respuestas a problemas de filosofía natural, y para eso empleó a varios videntes de cristal.

«The best known of these scryers was no doubt Edward Kelley—in part because he was the only one which thoroughly convinced Dee of his skills, and in part because the records of their actions have survived, while those of the others were destroyed or have otherwise been lost over the tumultuous centuries since the late 1500s.» — por qué Kelley y no otro: Asprem lo explica por dos razones, la convicción que produjo en Dee y la supervivencia del registro, no por una superioridad de su don.

«In 1659, the magical workings of Dee and Kelley were canonized by the publication of Meric Casaubon’s A True and Faithful Relation—an account brought to the public with the intention of showing how a good but gullible man was lured into damnation by a cunning nigromancer.» — según Asprem, el libro que fija el corpus lo publica quien quería usarlo en contra: la intención declarada de Casaubon era mostrar a un hombre bueno pero crédulo arrastrado a la condenación por un nigromante astuto.

«The book at fi rst caused a stir, tempting others to try what Dee had done rather than keeping them away from magic.» — el efecto que Asprem adjudica a la edición de Casaubon es el contrario del buscado: tentó a otros a repetir el experimento.

«Dee’s actions were even discussed by the members of the early Royal Society, sometimes with open scorn for the credulousness of a past generation, sometimes with partial admiration and fascination over the complexity of his work.» — la recepción en la primera Royal Society no fue unánime, según Asprem: desprecio abierto y admiración parcial a la vez.

«With the passing of a few generations, however, and the advent of the Enlightenment in the eighteenth century, the curious conversations were largely forgotten.» — el olvido dieciochesco como bisagra del relato: entre la canonización de 1659 y la recuperación victoriana media un vacío.

«But reception and interpretation always involve selection and exclusion: some things will be emphasized to the neglect of other things, depending on the understanding that is unique to the context of the receiving part.» — el principio de método que Asprem enuncia para toda la segunda parte: toda recepción selecciona y excluye según el contexto del que recibe.

«In the context of this book, the term Enochiana will refer to all occult speculations and practices related to one or more aspects of John Dee’s angel conversations.» — la definición operativa con que Asprem trabaja: *Enochiana* nombra toda especulación y práctica ocultista ligada a algún aspecto de las conversaciones angélicas de Dee, sin exigir fidelidad a ellas.

«First off, having been claimed as a part of esoteric bodies of doctrine and practices by a number of different organizations, orders, and occultists over the past century, Enochiana has become an increasingly contested fi eld of discourse.» — la primera razón de esa amplitud: un siglo de reclamaciones concurrentes convirtió el material en campo de disputa.

«As a scholarly construct for analyzing a phenomenon within modern esotericism, our concept of Enochiana should be able to cover all these divergent and opposing positions.» — Asprem declara que su categoría es constructo académico y no descripción emic, y que por eso debe cubrir también las posiciones que se contradicen entre sí.

«But one cannot defi ne Enochiana simply as “John Dee’s magical system,” either. That would be anachronistic, since very few contenders on the arena of modern occultism actually follow any of those magical systems, as set forth in the original sources.» — el límite por el otro lado: definirlo como el sistema de Dee sería anacrónico, porque casi ningún ocultista moderno sigue de hecho esos sistemas.

«As a matter of fact, this is exactly where one of the major internal disputes lies: Who is the fi nal authority when it comes to the interpretation of Enochiana?» — la pregunta que Asprem pone en el centro del libro, y que presenta como disputa interna del campo, no como problema suyo.

«Among other strategies, they could claim that Enochiana is part of a perennial system, which stems from much higher authorities, whether these be the angels themselves, a selection of Atlantean or Rosicrucian secret chiefs, or other esoteric sources of knowledge.» — la salida perenialista, según Asprem: desplazar la autoridad de Dee a instancias superiores —los ángeles, jefes secretos atlantes o rosacruces— para no quedar sujeto a las fuentes.

«Hence, making the original sources, plain and simple, the fi nal word of what Enochiana is all about begs the very questions that we are interested in exploring. In short, it fi xes authenticity, whereas we are really interested in looking at how authenticity is constructed.» — la abstención metodológica que ordena el libro entero: Asprem declara no arbitrar quién tiene razón sobre la autenticidad, sino observar cómo se construye.

«A voluminous scholarly literature on John Dee and his various intellectual pursuits, including their contexts and agendas, has accumulated over the last few decades.2 Meanwhile, close to nothing has been said about the reception history of Dee’s magic.» — el hueco que declara: mucha bibliografía sobre Dee, casi nada sobre la historia de recepción de su magia; el *2* es la llamada de nota, que la capa de texto pega a la palabra.

«Scholars of occultism and magic in the modern period commonly appreciate the centrality and importance of Enochian magic to the fi gures and currents they are studying, but seldom is the topic problematized or explored in any detail.» — el diagnóstico que hace del otro lado del hueco: los estudiosos del ocultismo moderno reconocen la centralidad del material y no lo examinan.

«This lack of comparative diachronic perspectives must be seen as a consequence of a quite necessary division of intellectual labor.» — Asprem no adjudica el hueco a descuido sino a una división del trabajo que llama necesaria.

«While it is understandable that such a division of labor has taken place, it entails the unfortunate consequence that there now exist parallel scholarships, entire literatures that would be mutually enlightening, but which, in fact, seldom interact.» — el costo que le adjudica: dos literaturas paralelas que se ilustrarían mutuamente y casi nunca se tocan.

«Chapter 1 revisits Elizabethan England, the main point being to present the original sources that the modern discourse on Enochian reconstructs.» — la función que Asprem asigna al capítulo isabelino: no reconstruir a Dee por sí mismo, sino fijar el material sobre el que después se discute.

«It is therefore desirable to know the original sources well enough to be able to distinguish mythmaking from scholarship, emic from etic historiography, historical research from manifestations of mnemohistorical projections.» — el criterio con que dice separar las capas: mito de erudición, historiografía emic de etic, investigación de proyección mnemohistórica.

«Chapter 2 addresses the little-known and sometimes confusedly understood routes of transmission, and early reception history, of Dee’s magic.» — el objeto del segundo capítulo, las rutas de transmisión y la recepción temprana; la fuente parte *transmis-sion* en dos renglones.

«It takes special concern with the hypothesis that has sometimes been put forth regarding a “secret tradition” through a circle of unknown ritual magicians.» — la hipótesis que se propone examinar: una tradición secreta de magos rituales desconocidos que habría continuado la práctica de Dee.

«critical scrutiny of the sources and their context does not corroborate or support such an interpretation.» — el resultado que Asprem anticipa de ese examen, dicho como falta de corroboración y no como refutación; el tramo empieza ahí porque la frase abre en el chunk anterior.

«Crystallomancy was once again on the rise, and fi gures such as Frederick Hockley and Kenneth Mackenzie visited the manuscript collections in the British Library in search of arcane knowledge.» — según Asprem, el redescubrimiento victoriano pasa por la cristalomancia y por dos hombres que fueron a buscar manuscritos a la British Library.

«A little later, parts of Dee’s material resurfaced in the sketchy notes of the mysterious “Cipher MS,” which would become a foundation document for the seminal Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn.» — la vía por la que el material de Dee entra en la Golden Dawn, según Asprem: unas notas sumarias del Cipher MS, documento fundacional de la orden.

«I argue that it is in context of the creative innovations of the Golden Dawn that the formation of modern Enochiana should be» — la tesis central del libro, enunciada en primera persona y con verbo de argumentación; el tramo se corta ahí porque la frase termina en la plana siguiente con *located*.

«Occultists of the twentieth century largely came to see Enochian magic, and perhaps even medieval and Renaissance ritual magic at large, through the fi ltered perception of the Golden Dawn. Understanding the Golden Dawn’s theories and their mode of formation is therefore paramount to the project of this book.» — la consecuencia que extrae: el siglo XX lee la magia ritual entera a través del filtro de la Golden Dawn, y de ahí que entender esa orden sea condición del libro; la reserva *perhaps* es suya.

«The problem of legitimacy applies to modern magic generally, and is directed toward the ideals of the dominant culture surrounding it.» — la primera de las dos categorías que ordenan la segunda parte: la legitimidad se juega hacia afuera, frente a la cultura dominante.

«Christopher Partridge, for instance, is baffl ed by the complexity of “the many tables, diagrams and symbols, including the Enochian script” appearing in manuals on Golden Dawn magic, and sees Enochian magic as one among other exempli gratia of the enchanted worldview of modern “occulture.”» — cómo lee Asprem el uso que Partridge hace del material: le sirve de ejemplo de una visión reencantada del mundo, sin examinarlo por sí mismo.

«Alex Owen’s recent study of modern ritual magic includes a whole chapter on Aleister Crowley’s adventurous Enochian experiments in the Algerian desert in 1909 together with his male lover, the poet Victor Neuburg.» — el precedente más cercano que Asprem reconoce sobre los experimentos argelinos de Crowley.

«Owen offers a fascinating, although somewhat psychologizing, interpretation of the events in the desert, but regarding the nature and provenance of the techniques used we learn little.» — la objeción que Asprem le hace a Owen, con su reserva dentro: la interpretación le parece fascinante y a la vez psicologizante, y no informa sobre la técnica ni su procedencia; la fuente parte *fasci-nating* en dos renglones.

«This was certainly how Gershom Scholem felt about modern adaptations of Kabbalah.» — el caso con que Asprem ilustra el desdén de los especialistas en el periodo antiguo hacia las recepciones modernas de su materia.

«To my knowledge, the only presently available study dedicated to exploring Enochiana as a kind of esoteric longue durée, diffused through a variety of modern systems, is an article published by Marco Pasi and Philippe Rabaté in 1999.» — el único precedente de conjunto que Asprem reconoce, con su grado de certeza declarado —*to my knowledge*—.

«The term occulture has recently been introduced by Christopher Partridge as a sociological category denoting an emerging cultural milieu, consisting of a “reservoir of ideas, beliefs, practices, and symbols,” which relate to the esoteric, paranormal, conspiratorial, and spiritual.» — la categoría que Asprem toma de Partridge y usa a lo largo del libro, con la definición que le atribuye.

«Developed from Colin Campbell’s infl uential concept of the “cultic milieu,” occulture is also meant to include the institutions, fora, and networks through which such ideas are created, distributed, and disseminated among the population.» — la genealogía que Asprem le adjudica al término: viene del *cultic milieu* de Colin Campbell y añade las instituciones y redes de circulación.

«A crucial point for Partridge is that occulture in this sense is becoming increasingly ordinary and mainstream, especially by functioning as a cultural pool of resources for popular culture» — lo que Asprem señala como el punto decisivo de Partridge: la ocultura se vuelve ordinaria y central por servir de depósito a la cultura popular; el tramo se corta antes del punto y coma que abre la cláusula siguiente.

«another important feature, particularly since the 1990s, is the introduction of the Internet as a new tool that has signifi cantly altered the complexity of networking and distribution of occultural ideas.» — el segundo rasgo que recoge de Partridge, y que será el objeto del último capítulo.

«One response, taken by such an infl uential scholar as Frances Yates, has been to neglect Dee’s “sensational angel-summonings” altogether, focusing instead on more “respectable” parts of his work.» — cómo lee Asprem la solución de Yates al problema del Dee doble: dejar fuera las convocatorias de ángeles.

«This tendency led Nicholas Clulee to lament that the angel conversations had provided “rich resources for romantic biography and writers of occult sympathies but something of an embarrassment to any attempt to consider Dee as a signifi cant fi gure in the history of philosophy and science.”» — la queja de Clulee que Asprem cita literalmente: los diarios sirven a la biografía romántica y estorban al Dee filósofo.

«That shortcoming he sat out to mend, showing how Dee’s interests in natural philosophy were reproduced and continued in the course of the angel conversations.» — la reparación que Asprem le adjudica a Clulee: mostrar la continuidad entre filosofía natural y conversaciones angélicas.

«Clulee’s approach was notably taken up and expanded by Deborah Harkness, who produced what is currently the best full-length monograph study of Dee’s angel conversations.» — el juicio que Asprem emite sobre la monografía de Harkness, y que fija su propia deuda.

«When we take this view, it seems plausible that Dee initially found the rationale for his attempt to make contact with the divine messengers in his quest for understanding nature.» — la hipótesis que Asprem suscribe con reserva —*it seems plausible*— sobre el motivo inicial de Dee.

«Until quite recently, scholarship on Dee’s magical interest has tended to focus on its novelty and break with the “dirty magic” of the Middle Ages.» — el sesgo que Asprem atribuye a la erudición previa: subrayar la ruptura con la magia sucia medieval.

«In the vision of scholars such as Frances Yates and Peter French,19 it became important to show how John Dee, framed as Renaissance “Hermetic Magus,” was anticipating the more reputable disciplines of modern science and technological innovation with his magia, rather than hailing backward to the superstitious practices of medieval warlocks and necromancers.» — el programa que Asprem atribuye a la escuela Warburg: hacer de Dee un anticipador de la ciencia y no un heredero de la nigromancia.

«Crucial to this understanding was presenting Dee as a link between the Renaissance philosophers dedicated to the rediscovered Hermetica, Marsilio Ficino and Giovanni Pico della Mirandola in particular, and the “Scientifi c Revolution” yet to emerge in the coming centuries.» — la posición de eslabón que esa lectura le asigna a Dee entre Ficino y Pico y la revolución científica.

«To a considerable extent, this led to the neglect of studying the angel diaries in any real extent, as they remained to the Warburg scholars an embarrassing facet of the otherwise progressive character.» — el costo que Asprem le atribuye a esa lectura: los diarios quedaron sin estudiar por resultar embarazosos.

«The many studies of John Dee that have emerged since the 1980s, by Christopher Whitby, Nicholas Clulee, Deborah Harkness, Stephen Clucas, György Szo˝nyi, Håkan Håkansson, and others, have considerably remedied this shortcoming.» — la nómina de la que Asprem se declara heredero; la capa de texto imprime *Szo˝nyi* con la diéresis suelta, y el índice del propio volumen la devuelve como *SzŊnyi*.

«Harkness has suggested that the three main aims of the angelic conferences were all connected to this project: recovering the original and perfect lingua adamica; restoring the prelapsarian Kabbalah, as it had originally been revealed to Adam by the angel Raziel; and use these in combination to reconstruct, mend, and read the fallen and corrupted text of the Book of Nature.» — los tres fines que Harkness propone para las conferencias angélicas, recogidos por Asprem con el verbo de propuesta intacto.

«Yates, for one, wrote explicitly that “Kelly was a fraud» — la formulación de Yates que Asprem cita; el volumen imprime *Kelly* dentro de la cita, y el tramo se corta ahí porque la frase sigue en la plana siguiente.

«who deluded his pious master,” while French added the possibility that he “had some form of mental illness” as well.» — el cierre de la cita de Yates y el añadido de Peter French, que suma la enfermedad mental a la impostura.

«It is also noteworthy that those scholars who have taken it upon themselves to analyse the contents of the angel conversations in later years, including Harkness, Clulee, Szo˝nyi, and Håkansson, largely sidestep the diffi cult issue of “what went on,” steering by a kind of “methodologically agnostic” principle instead.» — la abstención que Asprem observa en la erudición reciente: agnosticismo metodológico ante lo que ocurría en las sesiones.

«There is something unsatisfying about a situation where the question of what went on is left a battle between claims of fraud and madness on the one side, and supernaturalism on the other.» — la insatisfacción que Asprem declara con el estado de la cuestión, y que abre su propia propuesta.

«Recently, James Justin Sledge attempted to remedy this gap in a close analysis of the angel diaries, with the ambitious goal of creating a satisfying “etiology” of the conversations.» — el intento de Sledge, presentado como intento y con su meta entrecomillada.

«While recognizing that the charlatan theory has a few merits (Kelley was a known forger, had been in and out of prison, and had a fi nancial motive for staying with Dee, who paid a high salary), Sledge rightly fi nds it wanting because of the serious inconsistencies it creates.» — lo que Sledge concede a la teoría del charlatán y por qué la halla insuficiente, según Asprem, que suscribe el juicio con un *rightly*.

«From the sources it seems clear that Dee was the persistent, steadfast director and enthusiast of the actions, while Kelley was volatile, and at several occasions tried to opt out of the experiments, claiming the spirits to be wicked, or otherwise suggesting that there are better things to do than summoning angels (alchemy, for instance).» — la inconsistencia principal: quien insistía era Dee, y Kelley intentaba salirse alegando que los espíritus eran malos.

«The problem is that the charlatan theory requires casting Dee as deceived and exploited.» — el costo que Asprem le encuentra a esa teoría: obliga a hacer de Dee un engañado.

«One is reminded of the somewhat unorthodox but still intriguing remark made by Geoffrey James, that it was Kelley who was the exploited part in the duo, doing as he was told to earn his wages: “It was Dee, not Kelley, who was gaining the benefi t from the magical ceremonies, for it sated his lust for ‘radical truths.’”» — la inversión que Asprem recoge de Geoffrey James, calificada de poco ortodoxa y aun así atendible.

«Sledge proposes that a combination of four considerations make the spirit actions fully explicable.» — la estructura de la propuesta de Sledge, en cuatro consideraciones.

«First, a material contextualization, placing the angel conversations in the middle of the cultural, religious, and political environment of the late sixteenth century makes much of the content and the undertaking itself understandable.» — la primera consideración, que Asprem juzga apenas polémica.

«Sledge’s second consideration consists in probing the extant material for signs of consistent behavioral traits that may indicate a preexisting psychotic condition in Kelley.» — la segunda, que Asprem describe como reconocimiento parcial de la tesis de la locura.

«looking for signs of “altered states of consciousness,” arising either due to specifi c conditions that obtain during the séances, by the very procedures observed in the rituals, or also in combination with the possible preexisting mental condition.» — la tercera consideración, sobre estados alterados de consciencia; el tramo empieza ahí porque la frase abre en la plana anterior.

«Finally, Sledge argues that the abovementioned factors can be tied together in an analysis of the “formative epistemological processes” that allowed Kelley to operate somewhere between “wilful deception” and sincerity in his role and capabilities as seer.» — la cuarta, y la que Asprem retomará por su cuenta: procesos epistemológicos formativos entre el engaño deliberado y la sinceridad.

«Sledge’s analysis is a welcome contribution, refreshingly pointing at questions that everyone have found intriguing, but few have dared to answer.» — el reconocimiento que Asprem le hace antes de objetarle; la fuente imprime *everyone have*.

«Nevertheless, one is left with the impression that some of the pathologizing is overstated, and perhaps even redundant. Indeed, one possible shortcoming with a theory that rests in part on the psychopathology of Edward Kelley is that what we need to account for goes beyond his mere person.» — la objeción de Asprem, con sus atenuantes dentro: la patologización le parece excesiva y, sobre todo, insuficiente porque el objeto excede a Kelley.

«Additionally, restating and expanding Sledge’s fourth consideration may be particularly fruitful: the “formative epistemological processes” he is concerned with, involving active imagination, mythmaking, and role play is conceived of as something akin to Tanya Luhrmann’s concept of “interpretive drift” observed in her fi eldwork of contemporary witchcraft and magical groups in England.» — el puente que Asprem tiende entre Sledge y el *interpretive drift* de Tanya Luhrmann, observado en trabajo de campo con grupos mágicos contemporáneos.

«Erecting an updated theoretical framework, which could help explain such processes more generally, I submit, would do well to consider the vast literature and research in cognitive and social psychology on the centrality of role play and social expectations on memory, identity, and reports of “anomalous experiences” and behavior.» — el marco que Asprem propone en su lugar, marcado como propuesta con *I submit*.

«The sociocognitive framework has proved successful for making sense of such things as hypnosis, “multiple personalities,” false memories (about past lives, alien abductions, satanic ritual abuse, etc.), “trance,” and, indeed, spirit possession and exorcism.» — los precedentes con que apoya ese marco sociocognitivo, todos de fenómenos contemporáneos.

«Such an approach would focus on the institutional role of scrying in the given period, its cultural signifi cance and recognition, and the social expectations embedded in the practice, especially the tensions between expert and client.» — qué miraría ese enfoque: el papel institucional del vidente y la tensión entre experto y cliente.