Dee and the Apocalypse

That the Enochian system of magic is heavily colored by both the concept of apocalypticism and the book that is often associated with that very concept – though it is properly the Revelation³⁵ of John – will be shown in due course. As to why Dee may have been drawn to (or possibly attracted to himself) beings that identified themselves as figures that are to play major roles in that event is worth briefly touching upon. That the England, and for that matter all of

Christendom, of Dee’s day was in a spiritual crisis is well known.

Luther and the Reformation were still some decades in the future but the idea of reform was already in circulation in Dees time. Dee’s actual religious convictions…have always been irritatingly opaque.

That he was a Protestant of some sort is beyond dispute. In the time of Edward VI he associated with reformers.³⁶

While it would be interesting to know precisely what Dee did and did not believe, it is not important to our purposes here. That Apocalyptic fever was omnipresent in the various reformation movements that even if Dee’s time were legion is a stretch, but not much of one. Luther, perhaps sensing what the outcome of these two visions joined together would produce, seriously considered excluding the Revelation from the new (Protestant) canon. In any case, in Dee’s England:

(t)he apocalyptic ethos of the 1580s was exceptionally intense at the time – or virulent, for the overcoming of Antichrist, the Pope in Rome, was the cardinal priority in the scheme of things, coupled with the defeat of Spain. John Aylmer, who had become bishop of London, had years before assigned to Queen Elizabeth the messianic task of

destroying Antichrist in Britain, and latterly James Sandford, in his 1576 translation of Guiccardini's House of Recreation, had developed the theme, seeing in Elizabeth "some diviner things" than "in the Kings and Queens of other countries".18 Her role was to inaugurate a new golden age. Sandford, who profoundly believed in a millenial age or

"status", was probably the "Mr Sandford" who features in Dee's

35 In fact the Greek word Apocalypse, according to the American Heritage Dictionary means A prophetic disclosure; a revelation. (http://www.answers.com/apocalypse&r=67)

36 John Dee and the Secret Societies, Ron Heisler http://www.levity.com/alchemy/h_dee.html

angelic diaries.19 He had translated Giacopo Brocardo's The Revelation of S. John (1582). Brocardo is rightly considered an important forerunner of the Rosicrucians: the 120 years that elapsed between the legendary Christian Rosenkreutz's death and the finding of his tomb is anticipated by Brocardo with his theory of three stages leading to the overthrow of Antichrist. The stages – each of forty years – represent Savonarola, Luther, and the struggle with the

Pope/Antichrist.20 The goal was to be reached in the year 1600, but the Rosicrucian manifestos shifted goalposts to 1604, when the Rosicrucian vault was discovered.³⁷

The fact that apocalyptic thinking was widespread at this time is tangential, at best, to our subject. If Dee was not a subscriber to apocalyptic ideas it would not matter if every other person in England at the time was. As mentioned, there is little recorded concerning Dee’s religious beliefs viz. orthodox Christianity. There are some hints, however, in Dee’s acquaintances in the sense of guilt by association.

Ron Heisler makes this further point:

To unlock the function of the notorious 1580s séances, I think we should first look to Dee's associates. Long overlooked is some correspondence between Dee and Roger Edwardes… Edwardes's influence on Dee is unmistakable, to whom a spirit discoursed freely on the 24th March 1583 on the course of nature and reason, telling how "New Worlds shall spring of these. New Maners; Strange Men...."17 The utopianism of Shakespeare's Tempest was perhaps forged to a degree in the spiritual workshop of the Dee circle. ³⁸

As we can see, the choice of social companions in Dee’s case suggest he was a believer in the immanent apocalypse. It is much more likely than the alternative, that Dee associated with people who shared entirely alien worldviews to his own. Again, while not proof in and of

37 ibid.

38 ibid.

36

itself, this fact makes clearer the fact that Dee’s diaries seem saturated with apocalyptic ideas is not a misreading.

Chapter 5 : Angels of the Apocalypse

1 The Enochian Effect

Between the years 1582 and 1589 the English scholar John Dee (1527-1608) conducted a series of ritual communications with a set of disincarnate entities who eventually came to be known as the

Enochian angels. It was Dee’s plan to use the complex system of magic communicated by the angels to advance the expansionist policies of his sovereign, Queen Elizabeth I. At the time England lay under the looming shadow of invasion from Spain. Dee hoped to control the hostile potentates of Europe by commanding the tutelary spirits of their various nations.³⁹

It is not surprising that the man behind the Enochian workings, John Dee was remarkable for his time, though in modern terms his credulity would seem untoward. It does, however, give us pause to consider how much the supposed rationality of the present day is merely a veneer over the primitive worldview we have inherited from our ancestors. Nevertheless, it is interesting to observe that Dee’s goals were not, as it were, spiritual rapport with the angels he sought to contact, but were of a much more mundane – on a grand scale certainly – purpose.

Dee … was aided by an equally extraordinary person, Edward Kelley (also spelled "Kelly"; 1555-1597), (who was interested in unlocking) the secret of the red powder⁴⁰ so that he could manufacture more of it himself. It was on this quest for alchemical knowledge that he sought out the library of John Dee in 1582, and it was primarily for this reason that he agreed to serve as Dee’s seer. ⁴¹

So we see that Kelley, in his way, was as practical and driven as Dee.

As previously noted, Kelley was reputed to have had his ears cut off,

39 The Enochian Apocalypse by Donald Tyson in Book of Lies: The Disinformation Guide to Magick and the Occult, Richard Metzger, Disinfo 2005

40 In alchemy, a substance used to complete the transmutation of lead into gold.

41 Tyson, ibid.