Description
Mysteriorum Libri Quinque—the Five Books of Mysteries—written by John Dee in the 16th century, remains to this day one of the most important core texts of occult literature and a comprehensive guide to Enochian magic, encompassing language, symbolism, rituals, and practical techniques. This deluxe Weiser Ankh edition is a compilation of John Dee’s secret spiritual treatises and was prepared from the original manuscript (preserved in the British Library) in Dee’s own handwriting.
These secret writings were discovered long after John Dee’s death (c. 1609); they had been tucked away in a hidden compartment of an old wooden chest and were remarkably spared from destruction—uncovered only a few years before the Great Fire of London in 1666. In these five secret treatises, John Dee, one of the most renowned scholars of the Elizabethan era, records in minute detail his research into the occult.
Throughout his life, Dee had kept concealed his writings on the nature of humankind’s contact with angelic realms and languages. In this comprehensive work, Joseph Peterson presents a brief biography of John Dee, detailing his work in astronomy, mathematics, navigation, the arts, astrology, and the occult sciences, and calling him a “true Renaissance man.” Although this present work is concerned primarily with Dee’s occult experiments, through it, we catch many glimpses of Elizabethan life and politics.
Mysteriorum Libri Quinque presents Dee’s main achievement: five books, revealed and transcribed between 1581 and 1583, detailing his system for communicating with the angels and bringing to light mysteries and truths that scholars and adepts have been struggling to understand and use ever since. While Dee’s influence was certainly felt in his lifetime, his popularity has grown tremendously since. His Enochian system was used and adapted by the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and subsequently by Aleister Crowley.
