The Thirty Aethyrs

The Thirty Aethyrs (or Aires) are the thirty concentric celestial regions of the Enochian cosmological system, received by John Dee and Edward Kelley in their angelic skrying sessions during the 1580s. Each Aethyr is a distinct domain of spiritual reality, governed by specific angelic rulers whose names are given in the original Dee manuscripts, and together they form a map of the layered heavens that surrounds and interpenetrates the material world. Access to the Aethyrs is obtained through the nineteenth Enochian call, and the sequence from outermost to innermost corresponds to a progressive refinement and deepening of spiritual experience.

The thirty names of the Aethyrs, in order from outermost to innermost, are: Lix, Arn, Zom, Paz, Lit, Maz, Deo, Zid, Zip, Zax, Ict, Loe, Zim, Uta, Oxo, Lea, Tan, Zen, Pop, Chr, Asp, Lin, Tor, Nla, Vti, Des, Zaa, Bag, Rit, and Tex. Each Aethyr has three governing angels whose names are listed in the original manuscripts and who are addressed in the working of the nineteenth call.

History and origins

The Aethyrs were first described in the Dee-Kelley material of the 1580s, primarily in the sessions recorded in what is now known as the Cracow material. They appear in the manuscript as a hierarchical series of celestial regions, but their detailed exploration was not undertaken by Dee and Kelley themselves. The records suggest that the communications gave the framework of the Aethyrs and their governors without providing extended visions of their content.

It was Aleister Crowley who first undertook a systematic exploration of all thirty Aethyrs, using the nineteenth call with Victor Neuburg as his skrying partner and scribe. Most of the work was done in the Algerian desert at Bou Saada in November 1909, with earlier sessions at other locations. Crowley would call the Aethyr using the appropriate version of the nineteenth call, enter a state of vision, and dictate his experience to Neuburg. The resulting account, published as Liber XXX Aerum vel Saeculi (The Vision and the Voice), covers all thirty Aethyrs and runs to considerable length.

The Vision and the Voice became a foundational document in Thelemic practice and the primary reference work for practitioners wishing to understand what the Aethyrs contain. It should be read, however, as Crowley’s visionary experience within a particular Thelemic interpretive frame, rather than as an objective description of the Aethyrs’ contents. Other practitioners who have skried the same Aethyrs report both overlapping imagery and significant personal variation.

The Golden Dawn had developed some material relating to the Aethyrs before Crowley’s work, but it was less systematic. Subsequent twentieth-century practitioners, including Lon Milo DuQuette and various members of the OTO, have added to the body of Aethyr exploration records.

Cosmological structure

The Aethyrs form a layered map of the heavens arranged concentrically around the earth, with the first Aethyr (Lix) as the outermost and the thirtieth (Tex) as the innermost or most accessible. The numbering is counterintuitive for those accustomed to thinking of higher as meaning more spiritually advanced: in Enochian convention, the first Aethyr is the highest and most rarified, while the thirtieth is the one most closely adjacent to ordinary material reality.

The first seven Aethyrs are generally regarded as beyond practical access for most practitioners. The Abyss, in Thelemic mapping, falls in the region of the tenth Aethyr (ZAX). The outer Aethyrs from the thirtieth through the mid-range are considered more accessible and are the usual starting point for exploration. Crowley worked from Tex inward, treating each successive Aethyr as a deeper penetration of the celestial realms.

Each Aethyr has a distinct symbolic atmosphere: Tex carries imagery of earth and stability; Zip is associated with Venus and beauty; Zax, the Abyss, presents experiences of dissolution and the confrontation with Choronzon, a figure Crowley understood as the guardian and demon of the Abyss. The character of each Aethyr is not fully predictable from its governors’ names alone; vision work is the primary means of direct knowledge.

In practice

Approaching the Aethyrs requires a foundation in Enochian practice generally: familiarity with the language, competence with the calls, and some experience with skrying or inner vision work. The outer Aethyrs (twenty-eighth through thirtieth) are an appropriate starting point and provide useful orientation before working further inward.

The practical procedure is to recite the nineteenth call with the name of the target Aethyr spoken at the designated place, then to enter a receptive inner state and observe whatever images, voices, or impressions arise. Recording everything immediately, either through dictation to a partner or written notes, is strongly advised. The vision content is often symbolic and requires later analysis; immediate verbatim recording preserves details that fade rapidly from memory.

Working with a partner, one to hold the ritual and one to skry and report, replicates the structure of the original Dee-Kelley sessions and has practical advantages: the skryer can remain in the receptive state while the partner records, asks clarifying questions, and monitors the time. Solo work is entirely possible but requires the ability to maintain the vision state while simultaneously recording.

The inner Aethyrs (first through tenth) are traditionally regarded as requiring substantial magical and spiritual development before they can be productively worked. Attempting them without appropriate preparation is unlikely to produce coherent visions and may produce disturbing or disorienting material. Crowley himself noted that the experience of ZAX was among the most extreme he had undergone.

In myth and popular culture

The Enochian system and the Thirty Aethyrs have attracted sustained literary and artistic attention since Crowley’s The Vision and the Voice gave them their most detailed treatment. Alan Moore, the comics writer and self-described magician, drew explicitly on Enochian concepts in his work, and the Aethyrs appear as a structural element in occult-themed fiction because of the inherent drama of a practitioner descending inward through thirty celestial layers.

In music, the industrial and ritual ambient genres that developed from the 1970s onward incorporated Enochian material extensively. Throbbing Gristle, Coil, and related artists engaged with Crowley’s Thelemic framework, and recordings drawn from Vision and the Voice material have been produced for use in meditation and ceremonial work. The Aethyrs’ quality of alien, non-human spiritual geography has made them attractive to musicians interested in ceremonial aesthetics.

The figure of Choronzon, the guardian of the Abyss encountered in ZAX, became independently significant in occult fiction and has appeared in varied works as a demon or adversarial spirit. Crowley described his encounter with Choronzon as one of the pivotal moments of his magical career, and subsequent writers both literary and occult have treated the entity with corresponding seriousness.

Lon Milo DuQuette’s work in the late twentieth and early twenty-first century made Enochian practice, including Aethyr work, more accessible to practitioners outside formal Thelemic structures, and his writings contributed to renewed interest in the Aethyrs as a practical working system.

Myths and facts

Several misconceptions about the Thirty Aethyrs circulate in occult communities, alongside genuine uncertainties worth acknowledging honestly.

• A common assumption holds that the Thirty Aethyrs were fully explored by Dee and Kelley in the 1580s. In fact, Dee and Kelley received the names and governors of the Aethyrs but did not systematically explore their contents. The detailed exploration was first undertaken by Crowley in 1909, more than three centuries later.
• Some practitioners believe Crowley’s Vision and the Voice provides an objective map of each Aethyr’s content. It is better understood as one practitioner’s visionary record within a specific Thelemic interpretive frame; other experienced practitioners who have worked the same Aethyrs report both overlapping and significantly different imagery and encounters.
• The widespread idea that all thirty Aethyrs are equally accessible to any practitioner is not well supported by either the tradition or by accounts from experienced workers. The inner Aethyrs, particularly those within ZAX and inward, are consistently described as requiring substantial development, and attempting them without appropriate preparation is unlikely to produce useful results.
• Choronzon, the figure associated with ZAX, is sometimes described in popular occult sources as a demon of chaos who must be controlled. The traditional account is considerably more specific: Choronzon is the guardian of the Abyss whose function is the dissolution of the ego-self, not an entity to be dominated in the conventional sense.
• The numbering of the Aethyrs causes regular confusion. The first Aethyr, Lix, is the highest and most rarified; the thirtieth, Tex, is the most accessible. This is counterintuitive for those accustomed to thinking of higher numbers as more advanced.