Ritual · “Repetition Rewires”
Prayerful Preparation & Invocation
Devoutly prepare, pray, and frame the work ethically before scrying — centering and consecrating both practitioner and space.
Prayerful preparation: Set apart a quiet place.
(1) Sit in silence until the mind settles.
(2) Pray/ask earnestly and humbly for guidance and the capacity to receive it.
(3) Acknowledge and clear — honest motives, let go of grasping.
(4) State your intention and the spirit you’ll work in.
(5) Only then begin the scrying. The centering and framing is the practice.
What it is
For John Dee, the angelic work was inseparable from devotion. He never simply sat down and gazed; every session was opened with earnest prayer, penitence, and a careful ethical framing.
Dee conducted the work in a dedicated oratory — a room set apart in his house — and he and his scryer “began with a period of silent prayer.” He would “humbly petition God to send his angels, addressing God and Jesus as the embodiment of wisdom, and asking that Dee and Kelly be worthy of divine aid.” He placed great weight on “approaching the conversations in a proper spirit of piety,” often reciting some of the Penitential Psalms to “ensure the purity of the following operation.” Stripped of the literal angelology, the transmissible practice is a deliberate act of centering and consecration: quieting the mind, setting a clear and humble intention, and committing to do the work in the right spirit before beginning.
The Method
Reconstructed from Dee’s diaries:
- Set apart a place. Choose or designate a quiet space reserved for the practice (Dee’s oratory). The act of setting it apart is itself part of the framing.
- Still yourself in silence. Begin with a period of silent prayer or quiet sitting — let the day’s noise settle before any words.
- Pray earnestly and humbly. Address the source of wisdom directly; ask sincerely for guidance and for the capacity to receive it. Dee’s prayers were long, earnest, and explicitly petitionary — asking, not commanding.
- Acknowledge and clear. Dee recited Penitential Psalms — a confessing, clearing step. The modern equivalent: honestly acknowledge your motives and let go of pride or grasping, so you arrive receptive rather than demanding.
- State the intention and the ethic. Frame why you are doing this and in what spirit — humility, service, a willingness to be wrong. Dee insisted on worthiness and obedience as preconditions.
- Only then proceed. With the mind centered and the work consecrated, move into the gazing/scrying itself.
Source & Lineage
The preparation is documented throughout Dee’s spiritual diaries — the Mysteriorum Libri and the published A True & Faithful Relation (Casaubon, 1659). Contemporary accounts note each session “began with long and earnest prayers, plus often the recitation of some of the Penitential Psalms by Dee, designed to ensure the purity of the following operation,” and that the angels themselves “delivered frequent homilies on Dee and Kelly’s sins. and the necessity of complete obedience to God as a prerequisite of receiving the whole revelation.” This pious, devotional framing distinguishes Dee from later, more elaborately ceremonial magicians.; related.
Common refinements
Rushing it. Skipping the preparation to “get to the visions” undoes its whole value; the calming and framing is the work.
- Demanding instead of asking. Dee’s posture was petitionary and humble. Approaching with entitlement or strain re-introduces the tension the practice exists to dissolve.
- No ethical frame. Doing the work without honestly examining motive turns it into mere stimulation; the “worthiness” step, read psychologically, is integrity and self-honesty.
- Borrowing words you don’t mean. Dee used the Psalms because they were genuinely his idiom — use language (devotional or secular) that you actually mean.