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John Dee was an eminent Elizabethan mathematician and astrologer. His studies into the Occult took him abroad on many occasions, and this has added weight to the suspicion that he was also a secret government agent (code name 007). He was employed teaching navigation to Naval Captains for 30 years, but is most well known for his active involvement in occult thought and practice.
Dee was born near London on the 13th of July 1527. His father was a gentleman server in the court of King Henry VIII. John claimed to be a descendant of Roderick the Great, a Prince of Wales.
In 1542 at the age of 15, Dee entered Cambridge College and graduated in 1544 with a BA. In 1546 he was made a fellow of Trinity College, and appointed the role of Greek underwriter. 1547 found Dee visiting the Holland and France, mixing with some of the key members of academic society. He was living in Louvain by 1548. Dee spent a few months lecturing geometry in Paris, and declined the offer of a permanent appointment in Sorbonne. He also taught at both Louvain and Brussels Universities. Returning to England in 1551, he was given the job of teaching navigation and mathematics to Naval Captains.
During the reign of Queen Mary Tudor (Bloody Mary), Dee was arrested and accused of attempting to kill her with sorcery. He was imprisoned in Hampton Court in 1553. The reason behind his imprisonment may have been a horoscope that he cast for Elizabeth, Mary's sister and heiress to the throne. The horoscope was to ascertain when Mary would die. He was finally released in 1555 after being set free and re-arrested on charges of heresy. In 1556 Queen Mary gave him a full pardon.
Queen Elizabeth succeeded her sister in 1558, and Dee found a new era of prosperity, he was even commissioned to predict the best astrological time for her coronation. Unfortunately the rumours about his diabolical dealings still persisted, and were to plague him all through his life. During this time he again began to travel, and it is rumoured that he even got as far as St Helena.
In 1564 one of his many books dealing with Occult matters, The Monas Heiroglyphica was published, the Monas Heiroglyphica is a symbol created by Dee, which he believed was the ultimate symbol of Occult knowledge. The following year he published Di Trigono.
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| Monas Heiroglyphica |
It is noted that Dee was approached for consultancy when a new star was discovered in 1572, and in 1577 Queen Elizabeth asked Dee about the possible portents of a comet that had been observed.
He began his experiments in trying to contact discarnate entities in 1581, mainly fuelled by strange dreams, feelings and mysterious noises within his home. On 25 May 1582 he recorded that he had made his first contact with the spirit world, through the medium of his crystal ball. This had taken Dee years of work to achieve, through studying the occult, alchemy and crystallomancy. Spirit contact would prove to be a major driving force behind Dee for the rest of his life.
Dee found contacting the spirits tiring, and started to employ gifted scryers so that he would be free to make extensive notes on the communications received. Dee had been working with a scryer called Barnabas Saul, until he had experienced some disturbing encounters, and could no longer see nor hear beings from the other realm, so in March 1582 Dee started to search for a work colleague.
Edward Kelly, who was 27 seemed to fit the bill perfectly, however he was a gifted con artist and continued to fool Dee many years to come. Kelly's ears had been cropped for forgery, and he is supposed to have dug up a corpse in Walton le Dale, Lancashire for necromancy, an event often wrongly attributed to Dee.
In November 1582 they encountered an Angel, Uriel. The Angel gave instructions for a magical talisman with which they could contact the spirit world more easily. Many of their ritual objects including Dee's obsidian scrying mirror are now in the British Museum.
Kelly would continuously make new discoveries that amazed Dee, and he introduced him to the fact that both good and evil spirits existed beyond the veil. It was around this time that Dee started using the mysterious Enochian script to communicate with the Angels. Called the language of angels it is definitely a structured language, although its real origins are obscure. Whatever its origins people who have worked with Enochain magic have claimed that it does seem to work.
Text © I. Topham 2000 |
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John Dee