John Dee,
Medium Dr John Dee
Click here to return to Mediums of the Past List or > Lifetime Business > Meditation Oneness > Home Page > Tapes & CDs >
Click here to return
Dr John Dee Medium
1527 – 1608
Short Biography of the life of John Dee - Magician,
Astrologer & Mathematician
The following biography information provides basic
facts about the life John Dee:
Nationality - English
Lifespan - 1527 – 1608
Family - His father was Roland Dee a
textile merchant and courtier. Mother was Jane Wild. John Dee was an only
child
Education - Chelmsford Chantry School,
St. John's College, Cambridge
Career - Mathematician, Astrologer,
Magician
Biography of the life of John Dee - Magician,
Astrologer & Mathematician
Dr. John Dee was one of the most fascinating characters
of the Elizabethan period. The events of his life are filled with science,
experiments, astrology and mathematics which he aligned with magic, the
supernatural and alchemy! He was fascinated by the 'Dark Side'. His name,
strangely enough, even reflects the life he would lead. The surname 'Dee'
derives from the Welsh Celtic word 'du' which means black. John Dee was a
brilliant scholar. Interested in Mathematics, physics and astrology which he
studied at Cambridge and in Europe. The Elizabethan era was the age of the
Renaissance and new thinking and ideas. It was also the age of Nostradamus,
Marsilio Ficino and Trithemius and the Renaissance fusion of Christianity,
Hermetic Philosophy and its attendant sciences of magic, astrology and
alchemy. His interest in science and mathematics led John Dee to a
particular interest in astrology and all of its associated supernatural
subjects. John Dee was well travelled was obsessive in collecting books and
manuscripts. He collected so many books that he created the greatest
personal library in England, which he housed at his mother's residence at
Mortlake. John Dee and his extensive library attracted visits from the
foremost scholars in England. His knowledge extended to Navigation and
during his early travels to Europe he was associated with the great
cartographer Gerardus Mercator. His knowledge of navigation and maps was an
invaluable source of information to the Elizabethan Explorers such as
Raleigh and Drake. His interest moved on to all subjects relating to the
occult and he started working with a highly skilled Medium called Edward
Kelley. Kelley used Chrystal balls and his skill in scrying and as a Medium
to contact angels and spirits. The Enochian script was said to have been
revealed to John Dee by the angels who were conjured by Kelley. John Dee
became obsessed with the occult and spent most of his later life in search
of its secrets...
Facts, Timeline & History about the life of
John Dee - Magician, Astrologer & Mathematician
The following are additional facts about the life and
history of John Dee via a comprehensive timeline:
John Dee was born 13 July 1527
1503 -1566 Nostradamus was in the patronage of
Catherine de Medici
1542 - 1546 John Dee studied Greek, Latin, philosophy,
geometry, arithmetic and astronomy at Cambridge University
1546 - John Dee graduated with a B.A. in 1546
1547 - 1550 Studies and Lectures in Europe
1548 24 June arrived in Brussels where he studied with
Gemma Frisius and Gerardus Mercator
1550 John Dee was in Antwerp
1551 John Dee brought instruments of navigation back
from Europe
1552 John Dee returned to England under the patronage
of the Earl of Pembroke and then the Duke of Northumberland
1552 John Dee under Royal patronage of King Edward VI
1553 John Dee became astrologer to the queen, Mary
Tudor
1555 28 May - John Dee imprisoned for heresy and for
being a magician accused of 'calculating' as a form of magic
1555 August 1 Edward Kelley was born
1555 August John Dee was released from prison
1555 - 1587 John Dee became a consultant to the Muscovy
Company formed by the navigator and explorer Sebastian Cabot together with a
number of London merchants which was granted a monopoly of Anglo-Russian
trade and aimed to search for the Northeast Passage
1555 John Dee prepared nautical information, including
navigation charts. He instructed the crews on geometry and cosmography
before they left for voyages to North America in 1576.
15 January 1556 - Dee presents plans for a national
library to Queen Mary - but the scheme did not receive official backing
1556 John Dee settles at his mother's house Mortlake in
Richmond-upon-Thames where he establishes his own personal library
1559 January 15 - Elizabeth I became Queen of England
and the coronation date was picked from a horoscope cast for her by John Dee
1562 John Dee in Antwerp - England passed the
Witchcraft Statute
1564 John Dee leaves Antwerp
1568 Dee asserts that every object exerts force on
every other
1568 he published Propaedeumata Aphoristica and
presented the work about Mathematics, Astrology and magic and to Queen
Elizabeth
1575 March 10 Queen Elizabeth I visited John Dee's
library at Mortlake
1576 John Dee instructed the crews of the explorer
Sebastian Cabot, on geometry and cosmography before they left for voyages to
North America
1578 John Dee marries his third wife, Jane Fromond.
They have eight children
1579 - John Dee's mother gives him the house at
Mortlake
1581 - Dee and Edward Kelley start their "mystical
experiments". Edward Kelley was a highly skilled medium who claimed to be
able to contact angels and spirits which he did by gazing into a crystal
ball
1581 John Dee begins experimenting with Angelic magic
1582 March 10 - John Dee and Edward Kelley start
receiving the Heptarchia Mystica (John Dee became deeply involved in
conversing with angels and spirits through Kelley and it dominated the
latter part of his life)
1582 March 20 John Dee and Edward Kelley receive the
Enochian alphabet
1583 March 29 John Dee and Edward Kelley start
receiving Liber Logaeth
1583 May 8 John Dee and Edward Kelley are foretold by
the Angel Uriel of the death of the Queen of Scots (this occurred in 1587)
and the coming of the Spanish Armada (this occurred in 1588)
1583 - A mob destroyed a large part of John Dee's
library at Mortlake
1584 - John Dee and Edward Kelley move to Cracow
1586 - John Dee and Edward Kelley move to Prague
1589 John Dee returns to England
1589 Edward Kelley stays in Prague and embarks on his
public alchemical transmutations in Prague
1595 John Dee became warden of Manchester College
1595 Edward Kelley dies
1605 Jane (Fromond) Dee and several of their children
die of plague in Manchester. Following this tragic event John Dee returned
to live in London
1608 John Dee dies February 21 1608
Architect of the Elizabethan Theatre
James Burbage had many ideas about creating the first
Elizabethan theatre. He started his career as a joiner and was therefore
experienced in carpentry. But he did not have the knowledge required to
create the similarity to the classical Greek and Roman theatres. But he knew
a man who did! James Burbage consulted John Dee (1527-1608) on the design
and construction of 'The Theatre'. John Dee had acquired many books and
manuscripts over the years and his personal library, in his house at
Mortlake, was the greatest in
England. John Dee was therefore extremely knowledgeable on a huge variety of
different subjects and this knowledge included architecture. James Burbage
relied on Dee's extensive architectural library to design the plans for the
construction of The Theatre.
Books written by John Dee
John Dee became
obsessed with the occult during his later years and the following books,
written by John Dee reflect this interest in the supernatural:
Propaedeumata Aphoristica about Mathematics, Astrology
and magic
Compendium Heptarchiae Mysticae - An early version of
John Dee's primary magical text
Five Books of Mystery (Mysteriorum Libri Quinque) -
These secret books recorded his experiments with 'angel magic'
and contained the earliest versions of Angelic or "Enochian" script
Mysteriorum Liber Sextus et Sanctus (Liber Loagaeth) -
This book is described as 'a Book of Secrets and Key of this World' and as
The Book of Enoch. The contents were said to have been revealed to John Dee
by the angels
De Heptarchia Mystica - A summary by John Dee of his
techniques for communicating with angels and practical benefits there from.
The Hieroglyphic Monad contains information about symbolic language
Written and compiled by George Knowles
Dr John Dee
"A sixteenth century portrait of John Dee, the artist
is unknown. Believed to have
been painted when Dee was 67.
It once belonged to his grandson Rowland Dee then later to Elias Ashmole,
who left it to Oxford University".
Dr. John Dee was a famous Alchemist, Mathematician,
Astronomer and Astrologer; he was also an advisor to Queen Elizabeth I on
matters pertaining to science and astrology, as such he was sometimes
referred to as “the last royal magician”.
A serious academic some thought him to be the most learned man in the
whole of Europe. Fascinated by
all things occult, he was an adept in Hermetic and Cabbalistic philosophy,
and spent much of his later life in efforts to communicate with Angelic
spirits.
John Dee’s father was a Welshman called Rowland Dee, a
merchant and gentleman tailor at the court of Henry VIII, in which capacity
he would have made clothing for the royal household, as well as buying and
supplying fabrics for the King.
Dee's mother Jane Wild, married his father when she was just fifteen years
of age, and John Dee was born three years later in Tower Ward, London on the
13th July 1527 (John was their first and only child).
Such was his father’s affluence; he was able to give
his son a decent education. Dee
first attended Chantry School in Chelmsford, Essex from 1537 – 1542, when at
the age of 15, he began his higher education at St. John’s College Cambridge
studying Greek, Latin, Philosophy, Geometry, Mathematics and Astronomy.
In 1546, Dee graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree and was made a
Fellow of St John's College. In
December that same year, he was made a Founding Fellow of the newly formed
Trinity College with the post of ‘Under Reader of Greek’, receiving in 1548
his Master of the Arts degree.
While he was at Cambridge, a serious charge of sorcery
was brought against him. Dee
had created a mechanical flying beetle for a stage production of
Aristophanes’ "Pax"; which apparently was so realistic some thought it the
work of the devil. These were
the early days of scientific exploration in many fields, when many new
discoveries were viewed with scepticism and closely allied with witchcraft
and sorcery. Such accusations
would plague Dee for much of his life.
After clearing his name and unhappy with the scientific
attitude and accusations that had been levelled at him in England, in 1548
Dee travelled to Europe to continue his education.
Arriving at Louvain University in Belgium on 24th of June, he studied
under Gemma Frisius and formed a close friendship with his student Gerardus
Mercator (both were leading lights in the fields of Mathematics, Astronomy
and Geography). In 1550 he
travelled up to Brussels were he met and exchange views with many of the
leading scholars and mathematicians of the day.
That same year Dee moved on to the Sorbonne in Paris
where he was invited to lecture on ‘Euclid’ (the Greek mathematician cica
300 BC. Euclid was most important for his use of the deductive principles of
logic as the basis of Geometry.
His book ‘The Elements’ was used as a textbook on geometry for over 2000
years). Dee was an impressive
lecturer and his lectures were extremely popular, it was reported that
people filled his lecture room whenever he was speaking.
Indeed he was so popular and successful, he was offered a post as
Professor of Mathematics, and received offers of patronage from many
European Monarchs and nobles.
Dee however refused them all, wishing to continue his career back in
England.
While in Europe, Dee became heavily influenced by the
occult writings of Henry Cornelius Agrippa (1486-1535), a protégé of abbot
Johann Trithemius, and during his travels began collecting what would become
one of the largest private collections of rare books, manuscripts and curios
in Europe at that time. Many of
his books were associated with Science, Hermetic knowledge, Occult
philosophy and Alchemy. On his
return to England in 1551, Dee brought back not only his collection of rare
books, but also an important collection of mathematical and astronomical
instruments, including the maps, charts and globes he had worked on with
Frisius and Mercator.
Back in England, Dee was invited to the court of King
Edward VI (then only 13 years of age), there to act as an advisor and tutor
on scientific matters. In
return he was given a post as Rector of Severn-upon-Severn in
Worcestershire, and with it the assurance of a home and an income of one
hundred crowns a year. This
would allow Dee to continued his scientific studies without financial worry,
during which time he devoted himself more and more to astrology.
He also enjoyed the patronage of the Earl of Pembroke and entered
into the service of the Duke of Northumberland as a private tutor to his
children.
After the death of the young boy King in 1553, Dee’s
hopes for a financially secure future died with him.
By this time though, he had gained a reputation as a leading
astrologer, and when Queen Mary (Bloody Mary) ascended to the throne, he was
asked to cast her horoscope and that of her prospective husband King Philip
II of Spain. However, Mary’s
reign brought with it a turbulent time for England.
A staunch Roman Catholic, she quickly instigated a campaign of
persecution against eminent Protestants.
One such person arrested was Roland Dee, John Dee's
father, who was taken prisoner in August 1553.
He was later released, but only after he had been deprived of all his
financial assets, he died later without recovering his wealth.
This was a terrible blow for John Dee, as he had expected to inherit
a considerable fortune from his father, which would have enabled him to
carry on his studies free from the need to earn an income.
In 1554, Dee was offered a post as Professor of Mathematics at the
University of Oxford, a position that may have resolved his financial
problems, but once again he turned the position down.
Dee was still disillusioned with the English sceptical mistrust
toward science, as once again controversy came knocking.
One of Dee’s cousins was a Maid of Honour to princess
Elizabeth I, who because of her Protestant sympathies was forced to live in
seclusion at Hatfield House in Hertfordshire.
Through his cousin, Dee dangerously formed a link with Elizabeth and
cast her horoscope prophesising Mary’s death and her own accession to the
throne. Because of this
involvement, Dee was arrested and accused of trying to murder the Queen by
black magic. Fortunately for
Dee the only evidence his accusers could find was Mary’s horoscope, which he
had shown to Elizabeth.
Although being acquitted of the charge, Dee was imprisoned at Hampton Court
near Richmond, London.
Dee was freed by an act of the Privy Council in 1555,
and a year later in January 1556 he presented Queen Mary with plans for a
National library. He had hoped
for her patronage to fund a Royal library in which many of the worlds most
important books of learning could be collected, preserved and accessed by
scholars, academics and the general public.
Sadly his plans didn’t receive official backing, but undaunted and
despite his financial difficulties, Dee set out to create his own.
In efforts to improve his finances, Dee returned to the
Continent for a couple of years, and travelled throughout Europe.
He was by this time well known as an astronomer and started teaching
astrology for a living; among his pupils were Monarchs, Prince’s and nobles.
Dee also studied the Talmud, Rosicrucian theories and practiced
alchemy in the hope of finding the ‘Elixir of Life’ and the ‘Philosopher's
Stone’. After the death of
Queen Mary in 1558, Dee returned to England and when Elizabeth I took the
throne, he became her trusted advisor.
She was so impressed with him, he was asked to pick a propitious day
for her Coronation, and even to give her lessons in astrology.
This was the beginning of the British age of
expansionism in commerce and geographical exploration, literature and the
arts also flourished. From the
late 1550s through the 1570s, Dee served as an advisor on some of England's
earlist voyages of discovery, providing technical assistance in navigation
and ideologically backing the creation of a British Empire.
Later in 1577, he published ‘General and Rare Memorials pertayning to
the Perfect Arte of Navigation’, a work that sets out his vision of a
maritime empire and asserting England’s territorial claims on the New World.
To this end he was acquainted with Sir Walter Raleigh and his half
brother Sir Humphrey Gilbert (both early English explorers who sought to
colonize the America’s and Newfoundland under the patronage of Elizabeth I).
However, despite his efforts and favour with the new
Queen Elizabeth, she never granted him the generous income he had received
from the previous King Edward VI.
His income from astrology was meagre in England, so Dee once again
returned to the Continent for richer pickings.
Some say he returned as a spy on behalf of the Queen, during a time
when her relationship with Europe was strained.
While on his travels, Dee continued adding to his
already considerable collection of rare books, and in Antwerp in 1563, he
found a book of particular interest, a rare copy of ‘Stenographia’ by the
German Benedictine abbot Johann Trithemius.
Written about 100 hundred years earlier, it was a treatise on
Cryptography and Angelic magic, full of numbers, symbols and ciphers.
This inspired Dee to write his own book on the subject ‘Monas
Hieroglyphia’ (The Hieroglyphic Monad, published in Antwerp in 1564), a
cabalistic interpretation of a glyph of his own design, meant to express the
mystical unity of all things.
Dee's glyph, which he explains in his ‘Monas
Hieroglyphica’.
Back in England, Dee moved in with his mother at the
family home in Mortlake, near Chiswick in London.
There he set about organising his collection of scholarly books into
a working library, and for many years thereafter his home became one of the
countries major centres of science and research.
During his travels throughout Europe, Dee had managed to salvage many
ancient texts from Churches and Monasteries that had been ransacked during
the Reformation. His collection
by this time included 4000 rare books and manuscripts, as well as a
collection of maps, globes and astronomical instruments, many of which today
can still be found in the British Museum.
In 1665 Dee married his first wife Katherine Constable,
however there is very little known about her except that she died childless
of unknown causes in 1575.
During which time in 1568 he wrote and had published ‘Propaedeumata
Aphoristica’, a work that mixed Physics, Mathematics, Astrology and Magic.
He presented it to Queen Elizabeth, a frequent visitor to his home,
and to whom he gave lessons in mathematics and astrology to enable her to
understand it. Then in 1570,
Dee edited what would become his most famous addition to the annuls of
English academia, an English translation of Euclid's ‘Elements’, to which he
wrote a famous preface justifying the study of mathematics:
“O comfortable allurement, O ravishing persuasion to
deal with a science whose subject is so ancient, so pure, so excellent, so
surrounding all creatures, so used of the almighty and incomprehensible
wisdom of the Creator, in distinct creation of all creatures: in all their
distinct parts, properties, natures, and virtues, by order, and most
absolute number, brought from nothing to the formality of their being and
state”.
Commonly thought to have been translated by Sir Henry
Billingsley, (who later became the sheriff and Lord Mayor of London), many
now believe that Dee may have written part or all of it himself.
After the death of his first wife Katherine in 1575,
there are some rumours that Dee married a second women who died just a year
later in 1576, however no name has been given to her, nor is there any
mention in his diaries about her, so this mystery marriage cannot be
substantiated? What can be
corroborated is that in 1578 Dee married Jane Fromond, a lady in waiting at
Elizabeth’s court. Much younger
than he, she eventually bore him eight children, their eldest son Arthur
Dee, like his father became an alchemist and author of hermetic works.
In 1579, Dee's devoted mother bequeathed the family
home in Mortlake to him and died the following year.
Dee was devastated and perhaps in attempts to make contact with her
in the afterlife, began to experiment with various means spiritualism and
divination. He had in his
possession a scrying mirror, made of black obsidian glass (believed to have
been obtained by Hernán Cortés, the Spanish conquistador after he had
conquered the Aztec empire and secured Mexico for Spain in 1521), but Dee
lacked the mediumistic abilities necessary to make contact, he recorded in
his diaries a note: “I know I
can not see, nor scry”. As a
consequence of these early attempts at spirit contact, Dee became fascinated
by recurring dreams. Jane his
wife, also started to have strange dreams, which along with his own he
carefully recorded in his diaries.
Dee’s fascination with divination and spirit contact
would occupy much of the rest of his life.
Dee meets Edward Kelly
Edward Kelly
Due to his lack of success with the mirror, Dee next
began to experiment with crystal gazing, another method of divination by
scrying. In his diary of the
25th May 1581, he notes that he first saw spirits while crystal gazing.
After using the crystal many times, Dee discovered that only by
intense concentration could he use it, he also found it difficult to record
his communications during sessions on his own, and would need the aid of an
assistant. To this end he
started to seek help from spiritualists, mediums and psychics.
Dee’s first choice assistant was Barnabas Saul, but someone from the
court of Queen Elizabeth suggested that he maybe in league with his enemies,
and out to trap him into a charge of sorcery, so Dee quickly let him go.
Dee’s second choice was Edward Talbott.
Talbott was born in Lancashire in 1555, and is thought to be of Irish
decent. While not a lot is
known about his early life, he may have studied at Oxford, though perhaps
not at the university, for he was educated to a degree in Latin and Greek.
At sometime before his meeting with Dee, Talbott was convicted of
counterfeiting and sentenced to be pilloried at Lancaster, as a consequence
of which he lost his ears. He
then moved to Worcester were he became an apothecaries assistant, an
alchemist who quickly gained a reputation as a seer and necromancer.
Talbott was a con man, only interested in how to get
rich quick, but he needed the academic stature and knowledge of someone like
John Dee to advance his own credibility.
On meeting with John Dee, and because of his past reputation, Talbott
changed his name to Edward Kelly.
Although Dee was an intelligent and learned man, he was also trusting
and naive. Talbott, now Kelly,
was very persuasive, he would look into a crystal and nearly every time
convinced Dee that he could see spirits and visions.
Dee was completely taken in by Kelly, and became more and more
involved in conversing with Angels.
Dee was so convinced of the truth of Kelly’s visions that he
transcribed them verbatim, they can be found in a book called:
‘A True and Faithful Relation of what passed between Dr. Dee and some
Spirits’, a book based on a manuscript that was found after his death.
From their relationship and labours, Dee and Kelly
evolved the creation of a new magical system, which today it is called
‘Enochian Magic’. Kelly would
sit down in front of the crystal or scrying mirror and describe what he saw
and heard, Dee would sit nearby and record all the information, sometimes he
would ask questions which Kelly would put to the spirits in the crystal or
mirror. The angels he saw would
then relate and instruct them to make large magical charts, on which they
should place certain strange letters into column’s and magical graphs.
One particular spirit seems to have dominated their
scrying sessions, and appeared time after time.
She called herself ‘Madimi’.
Dee recorded in his diaries that Madimi was:
“A spiritual creature, a pretty girl of seven to nine years of age,
half angel and half elfin".
Apparently the spirit of Madimi taught Dee and Kelly her own Angelic
language, which they then called Enochian.
She also taught them certain calls and invocations in the same
language, which should be used at the start of sessions to open the ways to
higher levels of understanding.
However the relationship between Dee and Kelly was far
from a tranquil one. While Dee
concentrated on transcribing their communications, Kelly, still only
interested in getting rich quick, continued to experiment with alchemy, over
which they frequently quarrelled.
With the Inquisition in full swing and rampaging through Europe, and
religious unrest fanning coals of superstition in England, the last thing
Dee wanted was to be allied was alchemy and it’s associations with
witchcraft and magic. But that
didn’t stop Kelly, who during a pause after one such quarrel, claimed to
have found a formula for changing lead into gold.
In February of 1583, Dee made a proposal to Queen
Elizabeth to change and reform the English calendar, bringing it into line
with the astronomical year. His
proposal gained support from several of Elizabeth's advisors, but the
Archbishop of Canterbury opposed it, he considered it too close to what the
Catholic Church had adopted the previous year.
Pope Gregory XIII adopted the Gregorian calendar based on the date of
the Council of Nicaea in 325, while Dee’s proposed calendar was based on the
astronomical year, rather than a political one.
The failure of his calendar reform meant that England retained a
calendar at odds with the rest of Europe until 1752.
Later that year in 1583, Duke Albert Laski of Bavaria
visited Elizabeth’s court and was warmly received.
The Queen asked John Dee if he could entertain the Duke and show him
their experiments. The Duke was
so impressed that he invited Dee and Kelly, together with their families, to
visit with him in Bavaria. They
agreed and for a time they stayed at his castle in Trebona, before
continuing to travel around Poland and Bohemia.
By which time they had gained celebrity status, and as a consequence
were received at the homes and dinners tables of the rich and famous.
In 1584, Dee met and had talks with the Holy Roman
Emperor, Rudolph II and in the following year was invited to the court of
Stephen Báthory the King of Poland.
Meanwhile the flamboyant Kelly with his mediumistic abilities was
attracting unfavourable criticism.
They were after all ‘heretics’ (Protestants) practising Magic in a
predominantly Catholic Europe, and rumours of their conjuring spirits and
demons soon began to spread.
At a meeting with the ‘papal nuncio’ (Vatican
Ambassador) in 1586, Dee tried to deflect these spreading rumours, and at
the same time made a plea for Christian unity and greater efforts to bring
about an end to religious differences between Catholics and Protestants.
However his plea’s fell on deaf ears, Dee later learned that on the
advice of the ‘nuncio’, the Pope requested they be sent to Rome and
interrogated by the Inquisition.
Banned from Prague by Rudolph II, Dee and Kelly fled back to the
castle at Trebona and the protection of Duke Laski of Bavaria.
The Duke later managed to get the ban from Prague lifted.
Their favour restored Dee and Kelly returned to Prague
under the patronage of Vilem Rozmberk, a wealthy Bohemian Count, who
encouraged their continued experiments.
However, under the patronage of Count Rozmberk, Kelly’s alchemical
experiments took precedence, and was beginning to make him wealthy.
Kelly had also longed for and lusted after Dee’s beautiful younger
wife. Fed up with their
constant spiritual conferences, which he deemed non-productive to his
wealth, Kelly concocted a rouse to bring them to an end, thus allowing him
to concentrate on alchemy and also gain him access to Dee’s wife.
In 1587, Kelly suddenly revealed to Dee that the angels
had ordered them to share everything, including their wives.
Dee was naturally anguished by the order, as was his wife Jane who
had always loathed Kelly. Dee
reluctantly acquesed and persuased Jane to agree, but whether or not Kelly
suceeded in this wife swapping venture is not certain, that the incident did
occur does seems probable, for Dee unsuccessfully tried to erase the
incident from his diaries. In
any event, Kelly suceeded, for in 1588 Dee broke off their spiritual
conferences and ended their relationship, returning to England a year later
without him.
As for Kelly, he stayed behind in Europe and by 1590
was living a life of opulence.
Through the patronage Rozmberk he received several estates and large sums of
money, at the same time convincing many other influential people he had
found the elusive ‘Philosopher’s Stone’ and was able to produce gold.
Rudolf II even made Kelly a ‘Baron’, but eventually tired of waiting
for results. In May of 1591, he
had Kelly arrested and imprisoned in the castle of Purglitz (today called
Křivoklát) outside Prague.
When Kelly agreed to cooperate and produce gold; he was
released and restored to his former status.
But again he failed to produce gold and for a second time was
arrested and imprisoned. Kelly
died in 1597 at the age of forty-two.
The story has it that he died while trying to escape from prison, but
having used an insufficiently long rope to lower himself from a tower, he
fell and broke his legs and died from his injuries.
Dee on the other hand was welcomed back to England by
Elizabeth I, and returned to his home in Mortlake in December 1589, only to
discover that much of his library and scientific instruments had been
stolen. Over the next few years
Dee suffers severe financial difficulties, and seeks the support of Queen
Elizabeth I, who seeing his plight first gives him a position as Chancellor
of St. Paul’s Cathedral in London.
But not wishing to be associated with his reputation, and to distance
herself from him, in 1603 she makes him warden of Christ's College in
Manchester.
Dee accepts the post, however his reputation preceeds
him and he is unable to command the respect of his Fellows.
That same year Elizabeth I dies and advocates James VI (King of
Scotland 1567-1603), as James I of England (1603-1625).
In 1604, Dee petitioned James I for protection against such
accusations stating: “that none
of all the great number of the very strange and frivolous fables or
histories reported and told of me are true”.
However James I was unsympathetic to anything related to magic and
witchcraft, given that he had participated in the trials of the North
Berwick Witches, and already published in 1597 his famed and influencial
‘Demonology’, a curse on the next two centuries.
In 1605,
Manchester was hit by the dreaded plague, in which Jane his devoted wife and
several of his children died.
Dee by now a broken old man retired from public life and moved back to
Mortlake. During his last few
years, he irked out a living giving lessons in astrology, drawing horoscopes
and fortune telling, he was even forced to sell off some of his prized books
in order to feed himself. He
died in extreme poverty at the age of 81 in 1608.
Dr. John Dee, despite his naivety was perhaps one of
the keenest minds of his time.
Credit must be given for making the calculations that would enable England
to use the Gregorian calendar.
He led the way for the preservation and the collection of historic documents
and made great strides in the development astronomy, mathematics and
navigation. It could be said
that Dr. Dee was the one of the first modern scientists, and yet one of the
last serious alchemists. His
legacy has lived on and his Enochian magic has evolved, in the late 1800’s
it was at the heart of the Order of the Golden Dawn’s teachings and appears
in all their initiation ceremonies and rituals.
Thanks to Israel Regardie these are now in the public domain and the
last chapter of ‘The Golden Dawn’ is dedicated to the Enochian system, and
finishes with an impressive Angelic Dictionary.
There are other sites on a similar vein but slightly different pages click on links.
Click onto the links BELOW for the other pages on this site.
30 pound Lifetime Business , Aids , Aids used in Mediumship , Apports & Asports , Articles , Auras , Bereavement Help , Books , C of E Report , Churches , Development , Development CDs , Direct Voice , Dowsing , e Books , Ectoplasm , Electronic Voice Production , Evidence , Exorcism , Ghosts , Guru, Swami, Holy Men , Haunting , Healing , Healing List , Hoaxes , Hypnotism , Levitations , Lifetime Business , Links , Materialisations , Meditation Oneness , Mediums Bible , Mediums and Psychics World Wide , Mediums Directory , Psychics Directory , Mediums of the Past , Mediums of the Present Day , Mental Mediumship , Near Death Experiences , Out of Body Experiences , Pathways , Photographing Spirits , Photographs , Physical Mediumship , PK , Poltergeists , Prayers , Progression , Psychokinesis , Psychometry , Rapping , Religions , Remote Viewing , Requested Links for Readings , Sages , Seances , Seers , Spirit Drawings & Writings , Spirit Guides , Spirit Photography , Spiritual Education , Spiritualism , Spiritual Poetry , Spiritual Teachers , Spontaneous Combustion , Table Communication , Tarot Cards , Tarot Plan , Testing of Mediums , Thought-ography , Thoughts to Stimulate , Trance , Transfiguration , Unlock the Tarot book , Videos , Witches , Wizards,
Click
Written by and © copyright of
D.R.T.Keeghan