Ok, so in keeping with my “Lemegeton” theme – I thought I’d post at least one thing this month that pertains to the occult. Enochian tablets, or tables, are interesting, complicated, and of course magical. They’re the “original” Ouija board. Well… Maybe not quite “original,” since “talking boards” have been around for a very long time. But the Enochian version are what “real magi” use to talk to angels/demons/daemons what-have-you.
The tables themselves were created through the dynamic-duo of Dr. John Dee and Edward Kelly. (Two-man divinitory ensembles were quite the rage back in the 1500’s well into the 20thcentury – even Joseph Smith used “seer-stones” and a transcriber to dictate the Book of Mormon in much the same manner that Dee and Kelly came up with their “talk to the angels” tablets; where Kelly, using seer-stones dictated what the angels told him while Dee transcribed the whole goings on – hmmm…)
Anyway, I’ve got several books on the subject, but I’ve yet to construct my own tables. Yes, construct. I probably would have simply bought myself a set, but they’re just not available through retail – at least not at a price I can afford. So I’m going to build them myself and this is my story about how to build your own Enochian Tablets.
The Tools:
- Photoshop [if you’re good with Illustrator, it might be even better]
- Color printer
- Blank Game Board(s)
- Crystal Clear Krylon or other sealant so the mod-podge doesn’t smear your printout
- Thinned glue or Mod-Podge to secure printed tables to gameboard
First create and print the tables using Photoshop and a color printer, then seal each printed table with the clear fixative spray (like Krylon Crystal Clear). Then trim the tables to fit the blank game board and adhere with glue/Mod-Podge. Almost instant Enochian Tables! By making them in this way, you can customize them as much as you want, either in Photoshop, choosing fancy paper to print on, or custom decor on the game board – it lets you totally create tables that are uniquely your own. Esp. since there are already many different versions out there to be inspired by – this way you can make a set of tablets with the colors and letters that you’re most familiar with or comfortable using.
Here are my working copies – I’m still working on this project, so they’re not final designs yet. I used the “truncated pyramid” design that’s eluded to by Crowley and other Golden Dawn implementations. Here are my Photoshop (.psd) files (WARNING: They’re HUGE files since they’re still PhotoShop .psd’s) – I still haven’t done the lettering. Hope you find this helpful, and as always, Enjoy!
- Single “truncated pyramid”
- Blank 12 x 13 table
- Air Tablet
- Fire Tablet
- Water Tablet
- Earth Tablet
- “Spirit” Tablet (aka “Table of Union”)
[EDIT May 3, 2009: Here are the GIF versions of the above PSD files – I apologise for taking SOOO Long to get this done]
Thanks so much for the tablet files. I’ve always procrastinated about exploring this fascinating material because of the extensive prep work. No more excuses now. 🙂
You’re very welcome. Once I find some more free time (ya right) I might try to make a few different sets: one more like the original Dee tablets with enochian letters, and maybe one with regular alphabet lettering. Just a matter of time, so we’ll see 😀
And thanks for the comment, I was wondering if anybody was getting any use out of these files.
I’m also going to make use of these tables. I’ve been looking for a copy of the correct colouring. This is quite a find, and very useful for anyone wanting to make tablets of their own.
Hi there, thanks for these great images, I am using the air tablet for some practical work at the moment. Do you also have a set of tablets with all the correspondences shown on each of the pyramids? I mean the signs of the zodiac, planets, geomancy, tarot etc that appear on the sids of the truncated pyramids, these are quite hard to track down.
Thanks again! Samuel
Hello,
You can find the correspondences to the truncated pyramid sides of each letter in a book titled The Enochian World of Aleister Crowley, subtitled Enochian Sex Magick. It is essentially Liber Chanock with a few intros and end-essays. Liber Chanock is Crowley’s explanation of how to use the Enochian tablets from Dee and Kelley. As usual, he is a very dense writer, but it really is all there if you are patient and persistent.
Hope this helps. Make sure your hierarchies are accurate when working with the tablets!
Actually I’m working on a web-based tablet application that will dynamically create the desired tablet on a web page. So far I’ve got all of the color coding correct, but I’m still deciding if I will make the full annotations (adding the symbols for the various zodiac, element, sephiroth, etc) I’m hoping to get something “live” by the end of the Jan. 2010. We’ll see.
Oh, and on these “dynamic” tables, I’m using the correspondences as described in the above book; “The Enochian World of Aleister Crowley”
I also want to extend my sincerest thanks for all the amazing work and sharing you have done with the Enochian. You are very gracious!
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So, my “web tables” still aren’t ready, mainly ‘cuz I’ve been super swamped with work and other projects – like preparing for a new job in a new location. The move happens around the 1st of May, so I’m not sure when I’ll be able to work on my web-projects. I’m very hopeful that I will have it ready to at least demo by June. Keeping my fingers crossed!
thanks for doing these files I think it was amazing to come across them.
Thanks you are awesome!
Thanks for this, it is really neat and useful. Does anyone know how to get nearly 700 truncated pyramids in wood to paint and do the whole think as LMD did?
I’m not sure where to get truncated pyramids in wood – I’ve been wanting to do that myself for quite some time.I even went so far as to buy a couple of extra tile-sets for the Scrabble game (yes, you can just order the game tiles). There are also a few ideas at Home Depot like stores – take a look at some of the wood trim, chair rails, and other various mouldings. Some have patterns that might be possible to cut into individual pieces. I even started looking at pull-knobs for drawers/cabinets – but most are too big. Another thought was to try rubber stick-on feet – I did find some that might work (although a bit small), and you’d have to use paints like those used on plastic model cars/planes (“Testors Enamel” paints). Good Luck!