The Calls are a series of invocations in an unknown language, which is called "Angelic" in
The language is similar to English in its positioning of subjects, verbs, and objects. It is unlike English in its lack of separate articles, possessives, and prepositions.
a general rule, the words of the language do not appear related to those of any known language, although there are occasional striking (if superficial) resemblances. E.g., Angelic "christeos", meaning "let there be" versus Greek "christos", Angelic "babalon" meaning "wicked" or "harlot" versus "Babylon".
Nineteen Calls were given to Dee and Kelly. The final Call has thirty variations, making the total of 48 Calls. The purpose of the Calls is sufficiently described by Nalvage:
"This self-same art is it, which is delivered unto you as an infallible doctrine, containing in it the waters which run through many Gates: even above the Gate of Innocency, wherein you are taught to find out the dignity and corruption of nature: also made partakers in the Secret Judgements of the Almighty to be made manifest, and to be put into execution.
"I am therefore to instruct and inform you, according to your doctrine delivered, which is contained in 49 Tables. In 49 voices, or callings: which are the Natural Keys to open those, not 49 but 48 (for One is not to be opened) Gates of Understanding; whereby you shall have knowledge to move every Gate, and to call out as many as you please, or shall be thought necessary, which can very well, righteously, and wisely open unto you the secrets of their Cities, and make you understand perfectly [that] contained in the Tables."
Colin Low has suggested that the above-mentioned Gates are connected with the "Gates of Understanding" found in some Yetziratic texts, and with the fifty Gates mentioned in Thelema’s Liber AL vel Legis.
Following the quote above, the remaining Calls are assumed to connect with the hierarchies of the elemental Tablets, but their wording is too poetic and ambiguous for specific associations to be made with certainty. While confirming the correct sequence of these Calls, the angel Ilemese states that each Call has its proper Table, but does not state what these tables are.
Experiments by several magicians seem to establish that the First and Second Calls in some way define the poles within which the remaining Calls work. The First Call usually produces a generic manifestation of Spirit, a general pull towards higher levels. The record implies in a vague way that it is to be used when invoking the Elemental Kings and their ministers, the Seniors; possibly in combination with other Calls. The Second Call is stranger. It does not appear to define a "material" pole as such; rather, it defines a framework or overall form into which the powers of the system can be poured and contained.
The usual assumption by later magicians (not universally accepted) has been that the remaining Calls refer to the "Lesser Angles" within the Tablets. The Golden Dawn’s method of associating these Calls with the Tablets and Lesser Angles has become the accepted standard. Donald Tyson has recently come up with an alternative method that has received some attention.
An alternative view of the Calls states that they are parallel to, but separate from the Tablets. That is, they should be used by themselves, without the divine names from the Tablets. There is certainly evidence in the text of the Calls that they represent a continuing "story" of a creative process, beginning with God in the First Call, and ending with the establishment of God’s power "in the center of the Earth" in the Eighteenth Call.
