The spheres of science and magic
overlapped greatly in the past. This was true in the time of Sir Kenelm Digby,
and it was true in the time of another interesting figure – Dr John Dee. Dee
was born in London on July 13th 1527, and showed great promise as a
schoolboy, going up to Cambridge University at the age of fifteen. He studied
the Trivium – grammar, logic and rhetoric – for three years, and the Quadrivium
– mathematics, astronomy, music and geography – for a further four years. He
was a formidable scholar, allowing himself four hours for sleep and a further
two for eating and recreation; the rest of the day was devoted to his studies.
In his early twenties he travelled to Europe to continue his studies, (all
teaching was conducted in Latin in those days, so there were no language
barriers), and in 1550 he delivered a series of free lectures on Euclid in
Paris, where he was offered a professorship, which he declined. He returned to
England, where again he was offered and declined a professorship, of Mathematical
Science at Oxford.
When Mary Tudor came to the throne, Dee became Royal
Astrologer, and drew horoscopes for Mary and for her half-sister Elizabeth,
with whom he discussed and compared the charts. For this indiscretion, he was
accused of treason and brought before the Star Chamber, where his knowledge of
Divinity bought him his freedom. In 1558, after Mary’s death, the new Queen
Elizabeth remembered her meeting with the astrologer, and invited him to
calculate the most favourable day for her coronation, which Dee did – January
14th 1559. Dee went to live at Mortlake, then a small village on the
outskirts of London, where he amassed the greatest private library in Europe
and busied himself in his laboratory. He married in 1574, but his wife died the
following year, on the very day Queen Elizabeth made one of her informal visits
to him. In 1578, at the age of fifty- one, he married the twenty-three year old
Jane Fromond, who bore him eight children. In 1582, Dee was introduced to
Edward Kelly (then using the name Mr Talbot), a meeting that would change both
their lives. Dee had already gained a reputation as a sage, and as a
practitioner of ‘natural magic’.
In 1564, he published his Monas
Hieroglyphica, a Cabalistic work seeking to explain the unity of the
Universe. Dee turned to more supernatural means of acquiring knowledge, and
sought to communicate with Angels by means of a scrying mirror.
Kelly professed
to be a seer, and convinced Dee that he could speak with spirits through the
crystal. Born in 1555, Kelly also claimed aristocratic Irish descent, and had a
varied past; he is said to have been put in the pillory and had his ears
cropped in Lancaster, for the crime of forgery and coin clipping, and had
worked as an apothecary’s assistant.
In an atmosphere of prayer and sanctity, Dee and Kelly spoke with Angels using a language called Enochian, said to be the language with which God and Angels spoke to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, prior to the Fall. Kelly also dabbled in alchemy, and had found a certain red powder, thanks to the spirits, which could turn base metal to gold. In 1583, in the company of a Polish noble, the families Dee and Kelly left for the continent, where they wandered for years, visiting various courts and palaces.
The spirits ‘told’ Kelly that he and Dee should share wives, (it may be that Kelly sired Theodore, Dee’s fifth child), but Dee was not happy with the arrangement, and he and Kelly eventually parted company in 1587. Kelly was arrested on murder charges by Rudolf II, the Holy Roman Emperor, and is said to have died from injuries incurred whilst attempting to escape from Hnevin Castle. The Dees slowly made their way back to England via Germany, and arrived back in 1589, to find the house at Mortlake had been ransacked and robbed by a mob. Dee accepted a position as Warden of Christ’s College, Manchester in 1596, and spent time between Manchester and Mortlake until his death in 1608. His wife, Jane, had died in Manchester from plague in 1605.
The following legend comes from Lancashire Folk-Lore (1882) by J Harland and T T Wilkinson. See if you can spot the mistakes.
One of Dee & Kelly's Enochian Cyphers |
In an atmosphere of prayer and sanctity, Dee and Kelly spoke with Angels using a language called Enochian, said to be the language with which God and Angels spoke to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, prior to the Fall. Kelly also dabbled in alchemy, and had found a certain red powder, thanks to the spirits, which could turn base metal to gold. In 1583, in the company of a Polish noble, the families Dee and Kelly left for the continent, where they wandered for years, visiting various courts and palaces.
A True and Faithful Relation - Title Page |
The spirits ‘told’ Kelly that he and Dee should share wives, (it may be that Kelly sired Theodore, Dee’s fifth child), but Dee was not happy with the arrangement, and he and Kelly eventually parted company in 1587. Kelly was arrested on murder charges by Rudolf II, the Holy Roman Emperor, and is said to have died from injuries incurred whilst attempting to escape from Hnevin Castle. The Dees slowly made their way back to England via Germany, and arrived back in 1589, to find the house at Mortlake had been ransacked and robbed by a mob. Dee accepted a position as Warden of Christ’s College, Manchester in 1596, and spent time between Manchester and Mortlake until his death in 1608. His wife, Jane, had died in Manchester from plague in 1605.
The following legend comes from Lancashire Folk-Lore (1882) by J Harland and T T Wilkinson. See if you can spot the mistakes.
RAISING THE DEAD AT WALTON-LE-DALE.
“In the reign of Queen Elizabeth
and the year 1560, three judicial astrologers met in Preston, for the purpose
of raising a corpse by incantations. They were Dr. Dee, Warden of Manchester,
Edward Kelly, his assistant, and ‘seer’, and Paul Wareing, of Dove Cotes, near
Clayton Brook. Casaubon, in his "True and faithful Account of what passed
for many years between John Dee and some Spirits,"(apparently quoting from
Weever's Funeral Monuments) states that, “The aforesaid Master Edward Kelly, a
person well skilled in judicial astrology; with one Paul Wareing (who acted
with him in these incantations and all these conjurations) and Dr. Dee, went to
the churchyard of St. Leonard's, in Walton-le-Dale, near Preston, and entered
the burial ground exactly at midnight, the moon shining brightly, for the
purpose of raising the body of a person who had been interred there, and who
had during his life hidden a quantity of money without disclosing the fact
previous to his death.
Having had the grave pointed out to them on the
preceding day, they opened it, removed the coffin lid, and set to work by
various exorcisms, until the body became animated, by the spirit entering it
again. The body then rose out of the grave and stood upright before them. It
not only satisfied their wicked desires, it is said, but delivered several
strange predictions concerning persons in the neighbourhood, which were literally
and exactly fulfilled.”
Sibley, in his Occult Sciences, relates a similar
account of this transaction, and also gives an engraving representing the
scene, which took place at the midnight hour in the church of Walton. Another
account states that Dr. Dee with Kelly in this enterprise, August 12th, 1560,
and that Paul Wareing, of Clayton Brook, was the other who gave assistance in
endeavouring to obtain an intercourse with familiar spirits."
Well, apart from the impossibility of raising the dead back to life, in 1560 Edward Kelly was just five years old, and Dee did not become Warden of Manchester until 1596. Don’t believe everything you read in books.
Excerpt from Meric Casaubon's Preface to A True and Faithful Relation |
Well, apart from the impossibility of raising the dead back to life, in 1560 Edward Kelly was just five years old, and Dee did not become Warden of Manchester until 1596. Don’t believe everything you read in books.
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