Angling for something good: the third Key

Keys 3, 4, 5, and 6 need to be looked at as a group; their parts are pretty interrelated and they're all centered around "the angles"—four Keys, four angles.

Consider these lines from the Keys:

• 3rd: "In the first [angle], I made you stewards..."
• 4th: "Are not the thunders of increase numbered 33, which reign in the second angle, under whom I have placed 9639..."
• 5th: "The mighty sounds have entered the third angle and are become as olives in the olive mount..."
• 6th: "The spirits of the fourth angle are nine, mighty in the firmaments of waters..."

Something... very, very intentional is occurring here. This repeated talk of angles is not an accident, is not lazy—and it's not as enigmatic as people have made it out to be. Let's get started.

Key 3

The text

Enochian

"MICMA," GOHO PIAD, "ZIR COMSELH AZIEN BIAB OSLONDOH; NORZ CHIS OTHIL GIGIPAH, UNDL CHIS TAPUIN QMOSPLEH TELOCH, QUIIN TOLTORG CHIS ICHISGE, M OZIEN, DST BRGDA OD TORZUL. ILI, EOL BALZARG OD AALA THILNOS NETAAB, DLUGA VOMZARG LONSA CAPMIALI VORS CLA, HOMIL COCASB, FAFEN IZIZOP OD MIINOAG DE GNETAAB VAUN NANAEEL PANPIR MALPIRGI CAOSG. PILD NOAN UNALAH BALT ODVOOAN."

DOOIAP, MAD, GOHOLOR, GOHUS, AMIRAN. MICMA, IEHUSOZ CACACOM, OD DOOAIN NOAR MICAOLZ AAIOM, CASARMG GOHIA ZACAR, UNIGLAG, OD IMVAMAR PUGO PLAPLI ANANAEL QAAN.

Dee's English

Behold sayeth your God, I am a Circle on Whose hands stand 12 kingdoms: Six are the seats of liuing breath: the rest are as sharp sickles: or the horns of death wherein the Creatures of the earth are to are not Except myne own hand which slepe and shall ryse. In the first I made you stuards and placed you in seats 12 of government giving vnto euery one of you powre successiuely ouer 456 the true ages of tyme to the intent that from the highest vessells and the corners of your governments, you might work my powre: powring downe the fires of life and increase; continually on the earth Thus you are become the skirts of Justice and Truth.

In the Name of the same your God Lift up, I say, your selues. Behold his mercies flourish, and Name is become mighty amongst us In whome we say moue, Descend and apply your selues vnto us as vnto the partakers of the secret wisdome of your Creation.

Contemporary adaptation

Behold," saith your God, "I am a circle on whose hands are 12 kingdoms; six are the seats of living breath, the rest are as sharp sickles or the horns of death, wherein the creatures of the earth are to are not, except mine own, which sleep and shall rise. In the first, I made you stewards and placed you in seats 12 of government, giving unto every one of you power successively out 456, the true ages of time, to the intent that from the highest vessels and the corners of your governments you might work my power, pouring down the fires of life and increase continually on the earth. Thus, you are become the skirts of justice and truth."

In the name of the same, your God, lift up, I say, yourselves. Behold, his mercies flourish, and his name is become mighty amongst us, in whom we say move, descend, and apply yourselves unto us as unto the partakers of the secret wisdom in your creation.

Whole world in their hands

In the first Key, we have this snippet:

[humanity's] seats I garnished with the fire of gathering, which beautified [creation] with admiration.

We don't really talk about seats in the second Key—that one is more about the threads of reality getting tied into meaningful creation—but we do get some nice seats in the third Key.

... on whose hands are 12 kingdoms; six are the seats of living breath, the rest are as sharp sickles or the horns of death...

Most people, myself included, when reading this thought, "Oh, 12 kingdoms—like the twelve tribes of Israel!" Or maybe something dealing with the 12 apostles. Or some other... 12... thing.

But I contend it's more likely that these 12 kingdoms are in reference to astrological houses. Without getting too deep into astrology,¹ I like to classify the houses (parts of the sky) in this way:

• Houses 1 to 6: the Self and extensions of the Self
• Houses 7 to 12: the Other in all its permutations, ranging from companion to enemy

If six kingdoms are nurturing and six are deadly, this matches the dynamic that western culture tends to have when considering the Self and the Other.

Incidentally, if these 12 kingdoms are parts of the sky around the Earth and 6 are of life and 6 are of death, that forms a circle split clean down the middle.

In addition to 12 kingdoms, humanity occupies 12 seats of government, as shown here:

... I made you stewards and placed you in 12 seats of government...

What do we do in those seats of government?

... you might work my power, pouring down the fires of life and increase continually on the earth.

One might suppose that if there are 12 kingdoms and 12 seats of government, humanity lives in all 12 kingdoms. I don't think that's correct, though, because the symbolism extends much more cleanly if you play it like this:

Humanity's 12 seats of government are in only six of the kingdoms: the ones of life. But what's the story with two seats per kingdom? Given that the fires we pour down are of "life and increase" and that, as a Word, we are framed in flame and already pretty fiery I guess—but the central passage I want to draw your attention to from the prior Key is this one:

... whom I have prepared as cups for a wedding or as the flowers...

Like we were prepared in the second Key, in the third Key it seems that, through union, humanity continues within the kingdoms of life.² Procreation and such I suppose.

There's actually more that falls in place because of this so hold it in your mind for a moment.

The first angle

The way this was originally written puts the numbers after what they're quantifying, which is honestly confusing to us 21st century English speakers, so I'll mangle Dee's English into an adaptation that's a little more clear:

In the first [angle], I made you stewards and placed you in 12 seats of government, giving unto every one of you [the] power [of '456', successively]

The numbers in the Keys are, admittedly, pretty bizarre. Let's make a try anyway—they are absolutely not random.

One day, as an experiment, I started considering the digits as a sequence rather than a single number in the four-hundreds. When approached like this, "successively" starts to make more sense. Consider this:

• 2, as far back as the Ancient Greeks, was used to represent women³
• 3, likewise, was used to represent men⁴
• 4 is a number often associated with order
• 5 is the sum of 2 + 3, which represents humanity
• 6 represents harmony, beauty, and—most importantly—divinity

Additionally, 4-5-6 are the numbers associated with three sephirah in the Qabalah: Chesed, Geburah, and Tiphareth, which follow from the second Key's Kether, Chokmah, and Binah. The former three sephirah do exist successively (i.e., "in succession") in how they are part of a Neoplatonic descent from the One to the All. And, as stated in the first essay's section on philosophy, if reality is regarded from a non-dual/monist perspective, these "downward" emanations are just different aspects of reality rather than separate "levels" of reality.

The end to which these emanations aim is balance and Christ consciousness (Tiphareth).

Anyway, let's set aside the tree of life for a moment and pretend the Qabalah-road is closed to us; even still, if we sum the numbers (4 + 5 + 6), we end up with 15. As established earlier, the 12 seats of government are two seats per kingdom. If "every one of you" received this power and "every one of you" occupy these 12 seats of government, we wind up with 12 x 15.

12 x 15 = 180, the half of the circle that is the Self; and the death kingdoms are the half of the circle that is the Other.

Furthermore, there's an angle (heh) that I recently that starts in the fifth Key and helps clarify what's going on here. The line "456, the true ages of time" can be parsed another way, too. I'll cover this here and again in Key five, at the risk of being redundant, but it's too interesting to leave alone. From Key five:

The mighty sounds have entered the third angle ... looking with gladness upon the earth and dwelling in the brightness of the heavens as continual comforters, unto whom I fastened 19 pillars of gladness and gave them vessels to water the earth with her creatures.

For a time, I wasn't sure what the "19" was about. However, it seems as though "the mighty sounds" are "looking with gladness upon the earth" and dwell "in the brightness of the heavens"—meaning that they are above the firmaments of wrath. Dee knew a lot about astronomy and astrology, so I thought, "Perhaps it deals with constellations?? Hmmm..."

After some digging, I discovered the Metonic calendar, which Dee would have been familiar with in all likelihood. In a nutshell: the solar year sits between 12 and 13 lunar months (354.36 < 365.24 < 383.90), and, after some math, that the synchronization happens at 19 solar years (see the above link for more information).

The vessels mentioned in Key five are mentioned in Key two, so this is a consistent fixture in the metaphors of the Enochian cosmology:

... 456, the true ages of time, to the intent that from the highest vessels and the corners of your governments you might work my power...

If the true ages of time are 456 and an established "Enochian angel-approved" stretch of time is 19 years, then one might be curious and try some division like I did and find 456 / 19 = 24. By itself, 24 doesn't sound all too special—there are 24 hours in a day, so what?—but let's think back to the seats of government, of which there are 12 on one half of the circle and, ostensibly, 12 on the other half. If 12 x 15 = 180, it follows that 24 x 15 = 360.

Once again, a circle.

Conclusion

If there is anything I want you to take from this passage, it is that the third Key is a circle. That's it for now, okay thanks byeee.

note: I'm working on the next part presently—hopefully it will be done soon!