John Dee - British mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer

[Dover]

and alchemist....................

Dee was a noted British mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and consultant to Queen Elizabeth I. He devoted much of his life to alchemy, divination, and Hermetic philosophy. Dee straddled the worlds of science and magic. One of the most learned men of his time, he had lectured to crowded halls at the University of Paris when still in his early twenties. He was an ardent promoter of mathematics, a respected astronomer and a leading expert in navigation, having trained many of those who would conduct England's voyages of discovery. At the same time, he immersed himself deeply in Christian angel-magic and Hermetic philosophy, devoting the last third of his life almost exclusively to these pursuits. For Dee, as with many of his contemporaries, these activities were not contradictory, but particular aspects of a consistent world-view.

Early life
Dee was born in Tower Ward, London to a Welsh family, whose surname derived from the Welsh du ("black"). His father was a merchant and minor courtier. Dee attended the Chelmsford Chantry School, then – from 1543 to 1546 – St. John's College, Cambridge. His great abilities were recognized, and he was made a founding fellow of Trinity College. In the late 1540s and early 1550s, he travelled in Europe, studying at Leuven and Brussels and lecturing in Paris on Euclid. He studied with Gemma Frisius and became a close friend of the cartographer Gerardus Mercator, returning to England with an important collection of mathematical and astronomical instruments.

John Dee was offered a readership in mathematics at Oxford in 1554, which he declined, citing English universities' emphasis on rhetoric and grammar (which, together with logic, formed the academic trivium) over philosophy and science (the more advanced quadrivium, comprised of arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy) as offensive.

In 1555, he was arrested and charged with "calculating" for having cast horoscopes of Queen Mary and Princess Elizabeth; the charges were expanded to treason against Mary. Dee appeared in the Star Chamber and exonerated himself, but was turned over to the reactionary Catholic Bishop Bonner for religious examination. His strong and lifelong penchant for secrecy perhaps worsening matters, this entire episode was only the most dramatic in a series of attacks and slanders that would dog Dee through his life. Clearing his name yet again, he soon became a close associate of Bonner.

Dee presented Queen Mary with a visionary plan for the preservation of old books, manuscripts and records and the founding of a national library in 1556, but his proposal was not taken up. Instead, he expanded his personal library at his house in Mortlake, tirelessly acquiring books and manuscripts in England and on the Continent. Dee's library, a center of learning outside the universities, became the greatest in England and attracted many scholars.

When Elizabeth took the throne in 1558, Dee became her trusted advisor on matters astrological and scientific, choosing Elizabeth's coronation date himself . From the 1550s through the 1570s, he served as an advisor to England's voyages of discovery, providing technical assistance in navigation and ideological backing in the creation of a British Empire, and was the first to use that term. In 1577, Dee published General and Rare Memorials pertayning to the Perfect Arte of Navigation, a work that set out his vision of a maritime empire and asserted English territorial claims on the New World. Dee was acquainted with Humphrey Gilbert and was close to Sir Philip Sidney and his circle.


Dee's glyph, which he explained in Monas HieroglyphicaIn 1564, Dee wrote the Hermetic work Monas Hieroglyphica ("The Hieroglyphic Monad"), an exhaustive Cabalistic interpretation of a glyph of his own design, meant to express the mystical unity of all creation. This work was highly valued by many of Dee's contemporaries, but the loss of the secret oral tradition of Dee's milieu makes the work difficult to interpret today...cont'd

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Dee

[Teaser]

1. Don't forget conjuror and magician.

He and his rakish sidekick Edward Kelley channeled an "angelic language" in a series of very weird magical operations. Weird spooky shit.

An example:

Ol sonf vorsg, goho iad balt, lonsh calz vonpho: sobra z-ol ror i ta nazpsad graa ta malprg: ds holq qaa nothoa zimz, od commah ta nobloh zien: soba thil gnonp prge aldi, ds vrbs oboleh grsam. Casarm ohorela caba pir ds zonrensg cab erm iadnah. Pilah farzm znrza adna gono iadpil ds hom toh, soba ipam, lu ipamis, ds loholo vep zomd poamal, od bogpa aai ta piap piamol od vooan zacare ca od zamran: odo cicle qaa: zorge: lap zirdo noco mad, hoath iaida.

[Dover]

2. Ooooo....maybe we can channel him on his birthday July 13....

Have you done research on him?

From this article:

By the early 1580s, Dee was growing dissatisfied with his progress in learning the secrets of nature and with his own lack of influence and recognition. He began to turn towards the supernatural as a means to acquire knowledge. Specifically, he sought to contact angels through the use of a "scryer" or crystal-gazer, who would act as an intermediary between Dee and the angels.

Dee's first attempts were not satisfactory, but in 1582 he met Edward Kelley, who impressed him greatly with his abilities. Dee took Kelley into his service and began to devote all his energies to his supernatural pursuits. These "spiritual conferences" or "actions" were conducted with an air of intense Christian piety, always after periods of purification, prayer and fasting. Dee was convinced of the benefits they could bring to mankind. (The character of Kelley is harder to assess: some have concluded that he acted with complete cynicism, but delusion or self-deception are not out of the question. Kelley's "output" is remarkable for its sheer mass, its intricacy and its vividness.) Dee maintained that the angels laboriously dictated several books to him this way, some in a special angelic or Enochian language.

In 1583, Dee met the visiting Polish nobleman Albert £aski, who invited the Englishman to accompany him on his return to Poland. With some prompting by the angels, Dee was persuaded to go. Dee, Kelley and their families left for the Continent in September 1583, but Laski proved to be bankrupt and out of favor in his own country. Dee and Kelley began a nomadic life in Central Europe, but they continued their spiritual conferences, which Dee recorded meticulously. He had audiences with Emperor Rudolf II and King Stephen of Poland in which he chided them for their ungodliness and attempted to convince them of the importance of his angelic communications. He was not taken up by either monarch.

[Teaser]

3. Tons.

I've done tons of research on this guy. I've concluded that Kelley was either the greatest fraudster of all time, or something truly freaky was happening with these two.

[Dover]

4. Can you recommend a good book or article on them?

Did they claim to understand the language and consider themselves as messengers?

[omega minimo]

5. Aegypt by John Crowley

is a fine novel that intertwines Dee, and opens with a beautiful scene of the two skrying.

[Teaser]

6. Were they messengers?

they were hopelessly confused by the messages they received. Translations were given, and amount to some kind of eerie poetry.

Here's a brief article, from a practitioner of Dee's magic.
http://www.geocities.com/peripsol/Enoch/5EnochianLanguage.htm

I'm interested in the mathematics of the calls derivations. They were dictated to Dee and Kelley by a "vision" seen by Kelley in a stone. The calls were dicated, backwards, one letter at a time, by an "angel" Kelley claimed to see who referred to a series of 49 49x49 grids in a book of Dees.

This is why it's hard to believe Kelley was a total fraud. The level of memorization required for this would have been immense. I don't know if it could be done. Maybe he had notes? But it would still be difficult.

Here's a translation of the "call" I posted

I reign over you, sayeth the God of Justice, in power exalted above the firmaments of wrath: in whose hands the Sun is as a sword and the Moon as a through thrusting fire: which measureth your garments in the midst of my vestures, and thrust you together in the palms of my hands: whose seats are garnished with the fire of gathering, and beautified your garments with admiration. To whom I made a law to govern the holy ones and delivered you a rod with the ark of knowledge. Moreover you lifted up your voices and swear obedience and faith to him that liveth and triumpheth whose beginning is not, nor end cannot be, which shineth as a flame in the midst of your palace, and reigneth amongst you as the balance of righteousness and truth. Move, therefore, and show yourselves: open the mysteries of your creation: Be friendly unto me: for I am the servant of the same your God, the true worshipper of the highest.


If you want to read the actual transcripts of Dee's sessions with Kelley, find a copy of A true and faithful relation of what passed for many years between Dr. John Dee and Some Spirits (1659) by Meric Causabon. It's a printing of Dee's diaries made by a 17th century author who was trying to illustrate the perils of witchcraft.

I have my copy in front of me now, still trying to figure out the code used in the dictation. It's a famous cryptographic problem.

[Dover]

9. Thanks for the references........really interesting!

n/t

[Teaser]

7. Want to know something really bizarre?

Part of the message to Dee and Kelley was that they had to "use their wives in common."

they were not happy about this, but they did it.

[Joe Max]

10. And more bizzare...

Recorded in Dee's diary for June 8, 1584, Dee states that the
Spirits attempted to persuade Kelly:

"- That Jesus was not God.
- That no prayer ought to be made to Jesus.
- That there is no sin.
- That mans soul doth go from one body to another childes
quickening or animation.
- That as many men and women as are now, have always been
(...)
- That the generation of mankind from Adam and Eve, is not an
History, but a writing which has another sense.
- No Holy Ghost they acknowledged.
- They would not suffer him to pray to Jesus Christ; but would
rebuke him, saying, that he robbed God of his honour,
etc."

[beam me up scottie]

8. Too bad.

A life full of scientific achievements that ends up tainted by superstition and reliance on the supernatural.

[Joe Max]

11. Dee was...

...a complicated man. He wanted to obtain knowledge that he knew was beyond his technological capabilities, especially knowledge of the the "Spheres" of outer space. The Aristotelean view of science had fallen, and nothing had quite taken its place yet.

A devout Christian, he really believed that there were times when God and His Angels spoke to Men. He desperately wanted to be one of those men. He could conceive of no other way to obtain the knowledge he craved. If someone could have offered him a 30-inch reflector telescope and a laptop computer, I'm sure he would have abandoned his scrying experiments gladly. But even in those experiments he was a consummate scientist, taking detailed observations, faithfully recording data and testing his results.

Someone pointed out that the means by which Kelley received his "translations" -- which was done in front of other witnesses besides Dee -- would have required an near-impossible level of memorization. I'm sure Dee, being no fool, thought so too, which is why he believed in what he was doing. The translations of words and phrases in Enochian language remains constant not only within one translation, but across multiple translations performed at different times. Just think about trying to memorize a long passage in English and then spelling it out *backwards* one letter at a time. Now, do it *again* using a completely unknown language, and have the translations of words consistently match over more than a dozen examples obtained at different times.

No wonder Dee thought he was on to something. And there's a large quantity of his work that has been lost forever.

Before you condemn Dee for his Magical experiments, remember that the "Father of Modern Science" was an alchemist too:

http://abc.net.au/science/news/ancient/AncientRepublish_1406228.htm

[beam me up scottie]

12. Oh, I don't condemn the man.

I just question the sanity of anyone who thinks angels speak to them.

His "periods of purification, prayer and fasting" probably had more to do with his translations than actual heavenly beings.

Welcome to DU, by the way.
:hi:

[Bill McBlueState]

13. well said.

:toast:

[beam me up scottie]

14. Thanks !

:7