Draft:Georg Dehn

Georg Dehn (born 26th January 1954 in Eich (Rheinhessen)) is a German western-esoteric scholar, known for a modern editing and compilation of the medieval grimoire The Book of Abramelin.

The Book of Abramelin

The background of Dehn's search for the original manuscript was that the version of the German ritual used by Aleister Crowley at Boleskine House, translated from French by Samuel Mathers was considered incomplete by later occultists. Mathers' version describes a 6-month ritual, while the full ritual as translated from German would last 18 months.

Dehn's initial research on the full manuscript began around 1981 in Alexandria, leading him to seeking for the remains of the original manuscript in library archives spread across Europe, including the Bodleian Library. Throughout the 1980s he distributed the manuscript in hand-written format at shamanistic gatherings in Germany. At a gathering at the Externsteine 1984 he was encouraged to publish his findings as a book. Among those encouraging and at times contributing to the reconstruction of the complete ritual were Sergius Golowin, Hans Biedermann and Alex Sanders.

The first edition from 1995, titled "Buch Abramelin", provides a synoptic reconstruction of the original text, considering the oldest known manuscripts and prints. At this time Dehn had not yet discovered the oldest German manuscript in Wolfenbüttel from 1608. It was only in the second edition in 2001 that this Aramaic version, along with its reprint, was integrated into the text, both contextually and with the guidance and translation of the state Rabbi of Saxony Salomon Almekias-Siegl.

In the original manuscript, Abraham recounts how he found Abramelin the Mage living in the desert outside an Egyptian town, Arachi or Araki, which borders the Nile river. Dehn claims that his Abramelin expedition in February and March 1999 lead him, after reviewing old maps, to rediscover the original location of Araki in Upper Egypt, between Nag Hammadi and Luxor.

An English translation was published in 2006.

Social and Political Activism

Dehn is part of the activist post-168 alternative movement. Politically, he was a member of the SPD from 1971 to 1973, and then became active in the KBW ( Communist League of West Germany ) from 1974 to 1979, the most influential K-Gruppe. He subsequently became a founding member of the German party Alliance 90/The Greens and became its first member on the city council of Worms in 1982. With a break from 2013 to 2015 (during which he was a member of the Pirate Party Germany), he continues to actively support the party and its political goals.

Dehn co-founded Open Air Hamm in 1970, which is one of the oldest music festivals in Europe.

In the 1980s, he was active in the anti-nuclear movement in Worms, which focused on the nearby Biblis Nuclear Power Plant.

In 1979, he acquired a textile factory in Worms with the aim of creating a non-profit alternative living and working project for the free art scene. In 1984, he handed it over to new operators with the condition of founding a non-profit association. This led to the establishment of Die Fabrik e.V. in Worms.

Since the 1980s, he has been advocating for the human rights of indigenous peoples. Most recently, in the 2000s, he was active in Western Australia for the Aborigines, as part of his work for the Society for Threatened Peoples.

Bibliography

Books

• Abraham von Worms, Georg Dehn (ed.): Buch Abramelin, das ist die egyptischen grossen Offenbarungen oder des Abraham von Worms Buch der wahren Praktik in der uralten göttlichen Magie, Araki Verlag, 1995.

• Abraham von Worms. The Book of Abramelin: A New Translation. Compiled and edited by Georg Dehn. Translated by Steven Guth. Foreword by Lon Milo DuQuette. Ibis Press, Lake Worth, 2006.