The Enochian system originated with the ceremonial skrying of Dr. John Dee and Edward Kelly toward the end of the sixteenth century in England. Dr. Dee was one of the foremost thinkers of his time??"a Hermetic philosopher/magician who was also a respected scientist, mathematician, and astronomer. He was also Queen Elizabeth’s court astrologer. His personal library rivaled that of any in England at the time.

Beginning in 1582, Dee and Kelly began a series of spirit communications and astral skrying, with Kelly acting as the medium and Dee recording everything that Kelly described. The Elizabethan magician and his seer continued to uncover the Enochian system over a period of seven years. The two men accumulated a great quantity of work, including an entire language with it's own unique alphabet and syntax. This language, known as the "Secret Angelic Language" became known as Enochian because it supposedly was the angelic language revealed to Enoch by the angel Ave. The structure of the Enochian system was based upon a cipher of numerological and set permutations of elements arranged on a grid of letters called the Enochain Tablets. From these elemental tablets were derived the names of various elemental powers, angels, beings, and spiritual dominions known as Aethyrs.

It was not until MacGregor Mathers incorporated it into the Golden Dawn curriculum three hundred years later that the Enochian scheme of magic became a truly effective and powerful system.

Enochian divine names, as well as Dee’s tablets, are introduced to the student in the grades from Zelator through Portal. However, Enochian is not intensely studied by the student until he or she becomes an Adeptus Minor. Enochian is the unifying system of magic that underlies much of the practical work of the Golden Dawn within the Second Order. It combines Qabalah, tarot, geomancy, and astrology as well as elemental, planetary, and astral work into a unified and comprehensive system. All of the basic knowledge that is learned in the Outer Order is utilized later when the student begins to study Enochian in the higher grades. In fact, the Enochian system of the Second Order as is so all-encompassing that it is considered the apex and of the entire Golden Dawn system.

The Adeptus Minor studies the Enochian alphabet, works with Enochian entities in ritual magic, and skrys into the various Enochian squares that are associated with the elemental tablets.