18 - The Enochian Angels of John Dee and Edward Kelley

In his day, John Dee was famous for his contributions to science and for his role as adviser to Queen Elizabeth. Dee assembled the largest library England had ever seen and his mansion at Mortlake outside London was a popular place to visit for foreign emissaries and prominent thinkers. But Dee harbored a longing for more knowledge than science could offer. He wanted to know about the world and what lies beyond it. Dissatisfied with the limitations of contemporary wisdom, he turned to the spirit world for guidance. What he found was going to influence the Western Mystery tradition forever. In 1581 Dee contacts the angels for the first time. He soon has to accept that he is not a talented medium. Enter Edward Kelley, a much younger man of low social background and a nasty habit of necromancy. Kelley is excellent with the crystal ball and the two start a collaboration that will take them through countless angelic worlds. Parallel to their spiritual vision quests, Dee and Kelley sojourned through the European courts entertaining kings and emperors with their seances and alchemical experiments. Join us in this episode of Chasing Hermes and discover the two men behind the legendary Enochian angelic language