John Dee's Unsolvable Magical Cipher & the Angelic Tables by Red-Antz Master Spiritualist / Occultist / Shaman
The Book of Soyga is a 16th-century Latin magical treatise that was owned by John Dee, the most learned man in Elizabethan England. Its 36 tables of letters — which Dee could not decipher even with angelic assistance — represent one of the most enduring mysteries in Western occultism. Rediscovered in 1994 after being lost for nearly 400 years, the manuscript reveals a sophisticated system of Christian Cabalistic magic that drew upon Hebrew letter mysticism, angelic hierarchies, and Renaissance ceremonial practice.
Imagine possessing the single most powerful magical text in existence — a book so significant that angels themselves confirmed its importance — yet being utterly unable to unlock its central secret. This was the extraordinary predicament of Dr. John Dee (1527–1608/9), mathematician, astronomer, advisor to Queen Elizabeth I, and the foremost occult philosopher of the Elizabethan age. The book in question was the Book of Soyga, also known by its alternate title Aldaraia sive Soyga vocor ("I am called Aldaraia or Soyga"), and its unsolvable cipher tables consumed some of Dee's most intensive magical workings between 1583 and 1589.
The Book of Soyga represents a critical nexus in the history of Western magic: the point where Renaissance Christian Cabala, angelic communication, and ceremonial ritual practice converged into a single integrated system. Unlike simpler grimoires that offered rote instructions for summoning spirits, Soyga presented a comprehensive cosmological framework — one that required the operator to master letter permutations, angelic hierarchies, astrological timing, and divine invocation simultaneously. It was, in essence, a graduate-level text for the magus who had already mastered the fundamentals.
What makes Soyga particularly fascinating to modern practitioners is that its central mystery — the 36 tables of letters — was never solved by Dee, nor by the angels he consulted through his scryer Edward Kelley. The angel Uriel reportedly told Dee that the book had been revealed to Adam in the Garden of Eden by angels, and that its secrets would be unlocked only to those whom God deemed worthy. Whether you interpret this literally or symbolically, the tables remain a profound meditation on the limits of human knowledge and the nature of divine concealment.
This guide will take you through the complete history, contents, and magical significance of the Book of Soyga. We will examine its provenance from Dee's legendary library to its rediscovery in 1994, analyze its structure and contents in detail, explore the mathematical properties of the unsolved tables, and discuss how modern practitioners can work with Soyga's system in their own magical development. By the end, you will understand why this obscure Latin manuscript continues to captivate occultists, mathematicians, and historians more than four centuries after its creation.
The documented provenance of the Book of Soyga begins with John Maitland, 1st Duke of Lauderdale (1616–1682), a powerful Scottish politician and statesman who owned a manuscript titled Aldaraia sive Soyga vocor that had previously belonged to John Dee. The great antiquary Elias Ashmole — himself a devoted student of Dee's work — recorded this connection in his notes, establishing a clear chain of custody from Dee's personal library to the Lauderdale collection.
When the Duke's library was sold at auction in 1692, the Soyga manuscript disappeared from recorded history for over 300 years. It was the scholar Jim Reeds who, in 1994, made the critical identification: the manuscript sold at the Lauderdale auction was almost certainly Sloane MS 8 in the British Library's collection. This identification was based on matching descriptions, content analysis, and the distinctive feature of the 36 letter tables that Dee had described in his diaries.
Today, two manuscripts of the Book of Soyga survive:
1. Bodleian Library, Bodley MS. 908 — This version was donated to the Bodleian Library at Oxford in 1605, making it the earlier documented provenance. It contains 197 pages and represents the more complete version of the text.
2. British Library, Sloane MS 8 — This is the manuscript that likely passed through Dee's hands and later belonged to the Duke of Lauderdale. It contains 147 pages and is largely identical to the Bodley version, with minor variations in the presentation of the letter tables and a condensed version of one section.
The two versions differ in one significant respect: in the Bodley manuscript, the 36 tables of letters occupy the final 18 pages, while in the Sloane version, they are expanded across 36 full pages — one page per table. This expansion suggests that the Sloane copyist (or Dee himself) wanted to give each table more space and prominence, perhaps reflecting the importance that Dee placed on deciphering them.
To understand the significance of the Book of Soyga, one must appreciate the extraordinary library that Dee assembled. By 1556, Dee had proposed the founding of a national English library to Queen Mary — a vision that would not be realized for nearly two centuries. Undeterred, Dee built what was arguably the largest private library in England, containing at least 3,000 printed volumes and a vast collection of manuscripts covering mathematics, astronomy, navigation, alchemy, Cabala, and every branch of natural philosophy.
Tragically, Dee's library was devastated during his six-year journey to continental Europe (1583–1589), where he traveled with his scryer Edward Kelley pursuing angelic communications. While Dee was away, his home at Mortlake was ransacked and many volumes were stolen. Upon his return, financial hardship forced him to sell additional portions. After his death in 1608 or 1609, the remnants were dispersed. The survival of the Book of Soyga through this dispersal is itself remarkable — it speaks to the manuscript's perceived value among collectors who may not have understood its contents but recognized its association with the famous Dr. Dee.
Jim Reeds' meticulous analysis of the Bodley manuscript reveals a complex, multi-layered work. The 197 pages contain the following major sections:
Liber Aldaraia (95 pages) — The primary text, containing invocations, ritual instructions, and the theoretical framework for the magical system. This section includes prayers, angelic invocations, and instructions for preparing the operator to receive divine knowledge.
Liber Radiorum (65 pages) — "The Book of Rays," which appears to contain a system of magical correspondences organized around radiating principles — possibly relating to the emanation of divine light through the sephiroth, or to astrological ray theory. In the Sloane manuscript, this section is condensed to just two pages, suggesting it was considered less essential by later copyists.
Liber decimus septimus (2 pages) — "The Seventeenth Book," a brief but potentially significant text whose relationship to the larger work remains unclear.
Shorter unnamed works (approximately 10 pages) — Various incantations, lists of angelic names, genealogies of angels, and supplementary magical instructions.
The 36 Tables of Letters (18 pages in Bodley, 36 pages in Sloane) — The famous unsolved cipher tables that obsessed John Dee. Each table is a grid of letters, typically 31×31 characters, containing what appears to be an encoded message or magical formula.
The Book of Soyga references several otherwise unknown magical treatises, suggesting it drew upon a lost library of medieval magical texts:
• Liber E — Identity unknown; possibly a text on the Hebrew letter Aleph or a foundational magical primer
• Liber Os — "Book of the Mouth"; possibly relating to spoken invocations or the power of divine names
• Liber dignus — "The Worthy Book"; possibly a text on spiritual qualification for magical work
• Liber Sipal — "Lapis" (Stone) spelled backwards, demonstrating the manuscript's practice of reverse writing
• Liber Munob — "Bonum" (Good) spelled backwards, another example of the cipher technique
One of the most distinctive features of the Book of Soyga is its systematic use of backwards writing as a form of magical encoding. Jim Reeds identified this pattern clearly: the title "Soyga" itself is "Agyos" (a transliteration of the Greek Agios, meaning "Holy") spelled backwards. Similarly, "Sipal" is "Lapis" reversed, and "Munob" is "Bonum" reversed.
This technique serves multiple purposes within the magical system. First, it acts as a protective cipher — by obscuring the names of powerful texts and concepts, the manuscript ensures that only those with the knowledge (or divine permission) can access its deeper meanings. Second, it reflects a genuine Cabalistic principle: that the reversal of letters reveals hidden aspects of divine truth, much as the Hebrew letter aleph itself is associated with silence and the unspoken name of God. Third, it creates a liminal space between the known and unknown, the revealed and concealed — a space that the magus must inhabit during ritual work.
The 36 tables of letters are the heart of the Book of Soyga's mystery and the feature that consumed John Dee's attention during his most intensive period of angelic communication. Each table consists of a square grid of letters — typically 31 rows by 31 columns, yielding 961 characters per table. The letters appear to be arranged according to a systematic but non-obvious pattern, and they resist straightforward reading as Latin, Hebrew, or any known language.
Dee's diaries record that he questioned the angel Uriel directly about the significance of these tables. According to Dee's notes, Uriel revealed that the book had been shown to Adam in Paradise by God's holy angels, and that its secrets would be revealed only to those whom God found worthy. This claim — whether understood as literal truth, symbolic teaching, or the product of Kelley's imagination — placed the tables in a category of supreme magical importance. If Adam himself had received this knowledge, then the tables represented nothing less than the original divine language, the lingua adamica, that preceded the confusion of tongues at Babel.
Jim Reeds, a mathematician at AT&T Laboratories, conducted the most rigorous analysis of the Soyga tables in his 2006 study. His findings revealed several important structural properties:
1. Systematic Construction: The tables are not random. Reeds demonstrated that they were generated using a mathematical algorithm involving modular arithmetic — essentially, each cell's letter is determined by a formula based on its row and column position. This is consistent with the Cabalistic practice of gematria (letter-number correspondence) and the broader Renaissance fascination with mathematical magic.
2. The "Plus and Minus" Principle: Reeds identified that the tables employ a system of letter shifts — moving forward or backward through the alphabet by determined intervals. This is reminiscent of the atbash cipher used in Hebrew scripture (where the first letter is swapped with the last, the second with the second-to-last, and so on) but considerably more complex.
3. No Plaintext Message: Despite identifying the construction method, Reeds was unable to extract a coherent plaintext message from the tables. This suggests that either (a) the tables encode a message in a language or cipher system not yet identified, (b) they serve a non-linguistic magical function (as talismans or meditation objects), or (c) they are designed to be inherently unsolvable by human means — their purpose being to inspire contemplation rather than yield a specific answer.
Even without "solving" the tables, modern practitioners can work with them as powerful contemplative tools:
Step 1: Obtain a copy of the tables (reproduced in Reeds' study and several online sources)
Step 2: Choose one table and spend 7 consecutive days contemplating it for 15-20 minutes daily
Step 3: Record any images, words, or impressions that arise during contemplation in a dedicated journal
Step 4: On the 7th day, review your journal entries for patterns or synchronicities
Step 5: Repeat with a different table, noting how the quality of impressions changes
This practice mirrors Dee's own approach — sustained, patient engagement with the unknown, trusting that understanding will emerge through relationship rather than force.
The Soyga tables belong to a broader tradition of magical letter squares that flourished during the Renaissance. The most famous precedent is found in the work of Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa (1486–1535), whose De Occulta Philosophia (1531-1533) included a complete system of planetary magic squares — numerical grids where the sums of rows, columns, and diagonals were equal, and which were associated with specific planetary intelligences and spirits.
Agrippa's squares used numbers, but the Soyga tables translate this principle into the realm of letters — creating what might be called linguistic magic squares. Where Agrippa's squares channeled planetary power through numerical harmony, the Soyga tables appear to channel angelic knowledge through alphabetical pattern. This represents a significant evolution in magical thinking, one that reflects the growing influence of Christian Cabala and its emphasis on the creative power of the Hebrew alphabet.
The Book of Soyga is a product of the Christian Cabalistic magic movement that swept through European intellectual circles in the late 15th and 16th centuries. This movement sought to harmonize the Jewish mystical tradition of the Kabbalah with Christian theology, creating a syncretic system that used Hebrew letter mysticism, sephirothic cosmology, and angelic hierarchies in the service of Christian spiritual development.
The key figures in this movement — Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (1463–1494), Johann Reuchlin (1455–1522), and Agrippa of Nettesheim (1486–1535) — established the intellectual framework that the Soyga manuscript would later embody in practical form. Pico argued that Cabala confirmed Christian doctrine; Reuchlin wrote the first Christian textbook on Cabala (De Arte Cabalistica, 1517); and Agrippa synthesized the entire tradition into a comprehensive magical system.
What distinguishes Soyga from these theoretical works is its practical orientation. Where Agrippa explained the principles of Cabalistic magic, Soyga provides the actual rituals, invocations, and letter manipulations needed to put those principles into action. It is the difference between reading a textbook on music theory and sitting down at a piano with sheet music — Soyga is the sheet music.
The manuscript contains extensive lists of angelic names and genealogies, reflecting the Soyga system's reliance on angelic assistance for its magical operations. These are not the simple "angel of Tuesday" listings found in simpler grimoires; they represent a complex hierarchy that maps onto the sephirothic tree of life and incorporates elements from the Corpus Hermeticum, the Pseudo-Dionysian celestial hierarchies, and the Hebrew angelology of the Book of Enoch.
The angelic system in Soyga serves a specific practical function: each angel governs particular types of knowledge, and the magus must invoke the correct angel (using the correct name, at the correct time, with the correct ritual preparation) to access that knowledge. This is not mere superstition — it is a sophisticated psychological technology that uses the framework of angelic invocation to structure the practitioner's consciousness for specific types of insight.
Based on the manuscript's instructions, the Soyga system of angelic invocation follows these principles:
1. Purity of Intention: The operator must approach the work with sincere desire for divine knowledge, not personal gain or power
2. Astrological Timing: Invocations are performed during specific planetary hours and lunar phases that correspond to the target angel's sphere of influence
3. Letter Manipulation: The angel's name is constructed, deconstructed, and reconstructed using Cabalistic letter operations (gematria, notariqon, temurah)
4. Table Contemplation: The relevant letter table is used as a focal point during invocation, serving as a "doorway" to the angel's sphere
5. Record Keeping: All visions, words, and impressions are recorded immediately, as the knowledge received is often symbolic and requires later interpretation
The Soyga manuscript includes detailed information on lunar mansions, planetary conjunctions, and astrological timing for magical operations. This reflects the Renaissance understanding that celestial bodies were not merely symbolic correspondences but actual channels of divine influence — what Agrippa called the "chains of causation" linking the celestial and terrestrial realms.
The lunar mansion system in Soyga divides the moon's monthly path through the zodiac into 28 stations, each associated with specific angels, images, and magical operations. This system, derived from Indian astronomy and transmitted through Arabic sources, was a standard component of medieval and Renaissance astrological magic. The Soyga version includes specific instructions for which tables to contemplate during which lunar mansions, creating a integrated system where celestial observation, letter meditation, and angelic invocation work together.
The rediscovery of the Book of Soyga in 1994 — when Jim Reeds identified the Sloane MS 8 and Bodley MS. 908 manuscripts as copies of Dee's lost book — sent ripples through both academic and occult communities. For scholars, it provided a missing link in the history of Renaissance magic, demonstrating the practical application of Cabalistic principles that had previously been known only from theoretical treatises. For occultists, it offered a new (or rather, very old) system of angelic magic that was more sophisticated and more deeply rooted in Cabalistic tradition than most available grimoires.
Reeds' mathematical analysis, published in 2006, revealed that the tables were constructed using a systematic algorithm — but the algorithm's purpose and the message it encodes (if any) remain unidentified. This has led to several competing theories:
The Linguistic Theory: The tables encode a message in a known language (Latin, Hebrew, Greek, or a combination) using a complex cipher. Proponents point to the manuscript's use of reverse writing as evidence that encoding is intentional.
The Mathematical Theory: The tables are mathematical objects whose purpose is to demonstrate properties of letter-number correspondences, not to encode a specific message. They are, in essence, Cabalistic mathematics made visible.
The Contemplative Theory: The tables are designed to be objects of meditation, not puzzles to be solved. Their purpose is to occupy the conscious mind while allowing deeper, intuitive understanding to emerge — similar to the function of a Zen koan.
The Book of Soyga occupies a unique position in the grimoire tradition. Unlike the Key of Solomon (which focuses on ritual tools and circle construction) or the Lemegeton (which provides catalogs of demons and their seals), Soyga is primarily concerned with the transformation of the operator's consciousness through letter mysticism and angelic relationship. It is less a "spell book" and more a curriculum for spiritual development.
This distinction is important for modern practitioners. Working with Soyga requires sustained commitment — it is not a text from which you extract a single ritual and apply it in isolation. The manuscript describes a complete system of practice that unfolds over months or years, with each stage building on the previous one. The 36 tables, the angelic invocations, the astrological timing, and the Cabalistic letter operations are all components of an integrated path.
For practitioners who wish to incorporate Soyga's methods into their existing practice:
Month 1-3: Study the manuscript's structure and history. Begin a daily practice of letter meditation — choose a single Hebrew or Latin letter and contemplate it for 10 minutes each morning.
Month 4-6: Introduce the lunar mansion system. Begin tracking the moon's position and performing simple invocations during each mansion.
Month 7-9: Begin working with one of the 36 tables. Use it as a scrying focus during your lunar mansion invocations.
Month 10-12: Integrate the angelic names from Soyga into your invocations. By this point, you will have developed the sensitivity to perceive the subtle differences between various angelic presences.
This 12-month protocol is a modern adaptation — the original manuscript likely expected a longer period of preparation, but contemporary life requires a more condensed approach.
For those who wish to study the original manuscripts, both are accessible to researchers:
Sloane MS 8 (British Library): Available through the British Library's manuscript reading room. A digital surrogate may be available through their online catalog. The British Library's Department of Manuscripts can provide access to qualified researchers.
Bodley MS. 908 (Bodleian Library, Oxford): Available through the Bodleian's Weston Library reading rooms. The Bodleian has been actively digitizing their collection, and portions may be available online.
Jim Reeds' study, "John Dee and the Magic Tables in the Book of Soyga," remains the essential secondary source and is available through academic libraries and some online repositories. It provides transcriptions of the tables, mathematical analysis, and historical context that make the manuscript accessible to non-specialists.
The Book of Soyga stands as a testament to the depth and sophistication of Renaissance magical thought. It is not a crude spell book or a superstitious curiosity — it is a carefully constructed system of spiritual development that integrates mathematics, linguistics, astrology, angelology, and ritual practice into a coherent whole. Its author (or authors) possessed a profound understanding of Cabalistic principles and the ability to translate those principles into practical techniques for consciousness transformation.
For John Dee, the Book of Soyga represented both the pinnacle of his magical career and its greatest frustration. He spent years working with its system, consulting angels about its meaning, and attempting to decipher its tables — and yet the central mystery remained unsolved at his death. This is perhaps the manuscript's greatest teaching: that some knowledge is not meant to be "solved" in the conventional sense, but rather to be inhabited — lived with, contemplated, and allowed to transform the practitioner over time.
The rediscovery of Soyga in 1994 opened a new chapter in the study of Western esotericism, providing scholars and practitioners alike with a primary source of extraordinary richness. As research continues — particularly in the areas of computational analysis and comparative Cabalistic studies — it is possible that new insights into the tables' construction and purpose will emerge. But even if the tables remain forever unsolved, their value as objects of contemplation and catalysts for spiritual development is beyond question.
Q: Can I practice the magic of the Book of Soyga without knowledge of Hebrew?
A: Yes, though Hebrew knowledge enhances the practice significantly. The manuscript itself is in Latin and provides the angelic names and letter operations in a form accessible to Latin-literate practitioners. However, understanding the Hebrew origins of the Cabalistic techniques will deepen your practice considerably. We recommend beginning with basic Hebrew letter study alongside your Soyga practice.
Q: Is the Book of Soyga dangerous to work with?
A: The Soyga system is designed within a Christian Cabalistic framework that emphasizes divine protection and moral purity. It does not involve the coercion of spirits or the manipulation of others. As with any sustained magical practice, psychological preparation and clear intention are important. The primary "danger" is the same as with any deep contemplative practice: encountering aspects of your own psyche that require integration and healing.
Q: How does Soyga relate to the Enochian magic that Dee later developed?
A: Soyga represents an earlier stage of Dee's magical development, focused on traditional Christian Cabala. The Enochian system that Dee and Kelley developed after 1582 was significantly more elaborate, involving a new angelic language, complex temple geometry, and a complete cosmological system. Many scholars see Enochian magic as Dee's attempt to create a system that surpassed Soyga — one that would finally unlock the knowledge that the Soyga tables concealed.
Q: Are there any modern groups working with the Soyga system?
A: Several modern ceremonial magic groups have incorporated Soyga elements into their practice, particularly those with a focus on Christian Cabala and angelic magic. The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn tradition, various Enochian magic groups, and independent ceremonial magicians have all drawn upon Soyga's techniques. Online communities dedicated to Renaissance magic and Dee studies also discuss Soyga practice.
Q: What is the significance of the number 36 in the tables?
A: The number 36 has deep Cabalistic significance. In Jewish tradition, it is associated with the Lamed-Vav Tzadikim (36 righteous ones) — the 36 hidden saints whose righteousness sustains the world. In the context of Soyga, the 36 tables may correspond to 36 angelic intelligences or 36 aspects of divine wisdom. The number also has mathematical properties (it is both a square number, 6×6, and a triangular number, the sum of integers 1 through 8) that would have been meaningful to Renaissance mathematicians.
Q: Where can I find reproductions of the 36 tables?
A: Jim Reeds' study includes transcriptions of the tables. Several online resources dedicated to John Dee and Renaissance magic also reproduce them. The British Library and Bodleian Library may provide access to manuscript images for research purposes. We recommend working with high-quality reproductions, as the visual details of the letter arrangements are important for contemplation practice.
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