The so-called Nineteenth Call is printed as the Key of the Thirty Aethyrs. One named position changes, while the long English appeal binds governance, earthly difference, and judgment together.
- Number
- Nineteenth verbal pattern
- 1912 text
- The Equinox I:8, pp. 125–127
- Applications
- Thirty named Aethyrs
One form with thirty named applications
The 1912 article finishes its eighteen fixed Calls and introduces a further Key whose Aethyr name can vary. Printed page 125 lists thirty names from LIL through TEX and begins the Angelical Call with the first name in place. A footnote says another Aire can occupy that position. The page therefore illustrates substitution within one verbal pattern rather than thirty wholly separate compositions. The long English rendering begins on page 126 and continues to a formal ending on page 127.
This is the key to two apparently competing totals. Whitby describes eighteen fixed invocations and the further form applied to each of thirty Aethyrs. Counting distinct verbal forms yields nineteen. Counting the first eighteen and all thirty named applications yields forty-eight, matching the heading of Dee’s autograph Keys in Sloane MS 3191. The 1912 issue adds its own ceremonial numbering note just before the Aethyr list. That later note should not be confused with either simple arithmetic or Dee’s manuscript title.
Governance and unstable earthly order
The English Aethyr Call addresses the heavens of a named Aire and describes authority over parts of the earth. Its first movement connects divine sight, governance, and a power to arrange earthly variety. The middle then presents a stark vision of division: seasons overturn each other, living creatures differ, human works decay, and places lose stable names. The closing turns back toward the heavens, requesting an unveiling of creation’s mysteries. These movements give the long text a structure beyond its changing Aethyr name.
The imagery is severe and should be read as a historical religious and magical text, not as a prediction about the reader or proof of a supernatural event. Its bleak human and earthly passage also differs sharply from a modern chart of thirty Aethyr names. The chart identifies which name can be placed in the Call; it does not convey the argument of the English rendering. This summary follows the 1912 printed English and avoids reproducing the full liturgy.
Aethyrs, earthly parts, and later visions
The British Library catalogues the Keys at folios 1r–13r of Sloane MS 3191. The related Book of Earthly Knowledge is a separate section at folios 14r–31r and 52r–80v. Whitby explains how thirty Aethyrs connect with ninety-one earthly parts there. Those parts are neither thirty extra Call texts nor a second list of Aethyrs. A reader tracing the nineteenth form can move from the Key to an Aethyr name and then, separately, to that other manuscript scheme.
The 1912 list also belongs to the reception history that precedes Crowley’s later Aethyr visions. Those visionary narratives are interpretations and experiences in a subsequent work, not the contents of the 1584 manuscript Call. Page 127 of the original issue visibly ends the English rendering and marks the Calls as finished; the article therefore cannot be cited as ending on page 125. The individual Call, the thirty-name table, and the history of later visions answer different questions and are linked as separate references here.
Sources and witness notes
- British Library, Sloane MS 3191 catalogue ↗Autograph volume, forty-eight Keys at folios 1r–13r, dated 13 April–13 July 1584.
- British Library, Sloane MS 3191, Liber Scientiae entry ↗The separate 1585 Book of Earthly Knowledge at folios 14r–31r and 52r–80v.
- The Equinox, volume I, number 8 (1912), The Forty-Eight Calls or Keys ↗Original-issue article on printed pages 99–127; the Calls begin on page 103 and the Aethyr Call ends on page 127. Its English renderings and later elemental assignments supply the summary table.
- 100th Monkey Press, The Equinox I:8 original-issue scan and bibliography ↗Bibliographic record links a scan of the original September 1912 issue. Calls 1–18 span printed pages 103–124; the Aethyr Call spans 125–127. These printed numbers differ from PDF page indexes.
- Christopher L. Whitby, John Dee’s Actions with Spirits, vol. 1 ↗Scholarly analysis of the manuscript books, Calls, thirty Aethyrs, and ninety-one earthly parts.