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Post by offramp on Apr 28, 2016 6:22:36 GMT
I went to see the large exhibition of John Dee's possessions at The Royal College of Physicians. Scholar, courtier, magician: the lost library of John DeeIt is spread over two floors and unfortunately I was called back to work after viewing the first, mainly non-esoteric floor. It was fascinating to see his own original books, from his own library, in great condition. His hand-written/hand-drawn notes are wonderful to see. I also saw his obsidian mirror and a beaten gold talisman. If you go you might prefer to start on the second floor, the floor I did not see. Also, make sure you go to the front entrance. My phone guided me to the back entrance and I had to walk a long way to find the way in. If you are at Great Portland Street station you take the LEFT side of the church, not the right. I'll be going back to see the rest of it soon. What one is seeing as one passes the books is a real-life Prospero's Books. It is The Tempest brought to the 21st Century!
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Post by boreades on May 2, 2018 23:27:43 GMT
Did you go back?
I'm fascinated by John Dee, and the connections he had.
The expertise in navigation connects Dee with Drake and his secret voyages. In this respect, Dee was a leading light in the English Renaissance, following the example of Leon Battista Alberti - "In his personality, works, and breadth of learning, he is considered the prototype of the Renaissance universal man.”
His skills as a mathematician were in demand as well, by Elizabethan spooks:
Like many famous individuals we now consider to be giants of science (Newton, Kepler, etc), Dee was happy to be an astrologer and cast horoscopes. The distinction between astrology and astronomy is something we perceive now, as a difference but that distinction was not made in Dee's and Kepler's eras. With us being blind to this, it is not the original characters that are diminished, it is ourselves, as we are numbly indifferent to many of their skills and attitudes.
For much of his life, Dee was on the receiving end of allegations of sorcery and of being a necromancer. The sorcery is easy to understand and counter. Mathematics was still considered a bit of a dark art, especially by the Humanists who made up most of the academic population of Oxford and Cambridge at that time. Mathematical signs, symbols and formulas were akin to magic for many folk (and still are).
Mathematics is in fact the scientific language of the universe, it can describe imaginary worlds as well as physical worlds. Even worse, Dee's skills at cryptography meant he was able to make words and messages disappear and reappear at will. A form of sorcery indeed!
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Post by peter2 on May 3, 2018 0:25:36 GMT
I have read that Dee entered into a treaty with the sea gods to protect Britain. From that time Britain progressively ruled the waves and there were various beneficent weather events. A more recent one is the exceptional calm that allowed even small pleasure craft to rescue British troops at Dunkirk.
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Post by boreades on May 5, 2018 8:57:45 GMT
There's a little topic that intrigues me : the (admittedly vague) connections between John Dee, Francis Bacon, Hermeticism and Rosicrucianism. www.sirbacon.org/links/dblohseven.htmlDid John Dee and Francis Bacon actually write Hermetic and Rosicrucian material? Or are people just interpreting it in that light? Was that before, after or concurrent with Rosicrucian origins in mainland Europe?
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Post by peter2 on May 5, 2018 9:05:09 GMT
>Was that before, after or concurrent with Rosicrucian origins in mainland Europe? As we know Bacon was the editor in chief for the KJV. In the KJV for the first time there is a rose. Previously it was a lily or "flower of the field". The Hebrew root of the word means poisonous bulb and the lily certainly has that. I tend to the view that the rose was introduced by Bacon in order to legitimize the Rosicrucians and thereby protect them from the Holy Inquisition. It is also of note that the Cheerful Rose - the most powerful woman in the empire of Suleiman the Magnificent (Solomon the Great) had died only 50 years previously. Two roses for the price of one. www.ancient-origins.net/history-famous-people/hurrem-sultan-cheerful-rose-suleiman-i-and-powerful-woman-ottoman-empire-020682
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