A Problem of Authorship John Dee Edward Kelley and The Angelic Conversations

Kelley, A Problem of Authorship: John Dee, Edward Kelley, Conversations and the Angelic Conversations
Ross Christopher Feldman
Abstract
A Problem of Authorship: John Dee, Edward Kelley, and the Angelic Conversations Ross Christopher Feldman, B.A. University of Texas at Austin, 2009
This paper takes an in-depth look at the question of authorship of Dr. John Dees Angelic Conversations, the private transcriptions of sessions conducted between 15811589 in which Dee purportedly made contact with spiritual beings through his scryer or spirit medium, Edward Kelley. Particular focus is placed on Kelleys role; this paper examines whether it was possible for Kelley to have perpetrated the entire affair as a hoax, the difficulties involved, and motivations he might have had for doing so. The paper will show what resources were available to Kelley, and whether these would have enabled him to have tricked Dee into believing the two men were receiving genuine communications from angels. I also examine the evidence as to whether Dee, one of the most educated men in England at the time, could have been fooled by such a hoax, and if so, why. The paper looks at the magical system received in the Conversations in relation to earlier magical texts such as the Solomonic grimoires, the writings of Agrippa and Trithemius and other works known to have been in Dees library, and the possibility of Kelley plagiarizing them for his own work. Finally, I consider whether any other potential theory better fits the facts as presented. These and other related questions do not appear to have been so far addressed by either Dee scholars or popular writers, from Meric Causabon and Elias Ashmole in the seventeenth century to Stephen Clucas, Lon Milo Duquette, and other contemporary writers in the twenty-first. Most writers on the subject of Dees Angelic Conversations have fallen into two general categories. Those writing from an academic perspective have in the main reported his sessions at face value, usually with the goal of placing them within the context of his lifetime of writings, or within the wider context of Elizabethan England at the dawning of the Early Modern era. When these authors have addressed the issue of Dees magico-religious focus, it has most often been with a faintly dismissive tone. Francis Yates and her followers first presented a view of Dee as the archetypal Renaissance magus, a Tudor-era Merlin who spent his time poring over dusty tomes and conversing with disembodied voices on matters of statecraft, alchemy, and enchantment. More recent scholars have questioned this assessment, presenting Dee instead as the first great scientist of Natural Magic, a proto-Newton with one foot in the tradition of the medieval conjurers and the other firmly planted in the dawning Scientific Revolution. Popular writers, on the other hand, have focused on offering instruction to readers interested the how to of Enochian Magick (so called because the angels told Dee and Kelley the two had been chosen to receive knowledge lost to humankind since the time of the prophet Enoch). Beginning with the magical renaissance of the late nineteenth cen-
tury and extending through the occult explosion and New Age of the late twentieth century to today, these writers, like the academic community, have taken Dees spiritualism at face value (while deliberately downplaying or even ignoring his religious viewpoint), with the popular writers presenting Dees magical opus from the perspective of believers in such matters, and the scholars with skepticism. Neither has thus far examined to any major extent the question of authorship of these purported spirit communications. Although Peter French and others have offered the image of Dee as a foolish old duffer being manipulated by a scheming Kelley, they do not seem to have actually performed any research into the issue to provide evidence for their claims. By conducting a comprehensive investigation of the subject, this paper hopes to clear up at least some of the mystery surrounding this significant aspect of Dees life. The field of research into Dees life and his writing has expanded recently, growing far beyond the early attempts of writers like Edward Arthur Waite and Charlotte Fell Smith a century ago. In particular, significant scholarly studies have been conducted in recent years by Clucas, Clulee, Harkness, Sherman, Sznyi, Szulakowska, and others. In addition to providing significant material for research into, and theories around, the role of mysticism and millennialism in the dawn of the Early Modern period, Dees life and writing has had a direct impact upon esotericism that still persists today. His work has influencedone might go so far as to say catalyzeda number of occultist efflorescences, from the Rosicrucian adventure in the seventeenth century to the occult revival of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries as witnessed by the growth of such groups as the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn (where the main emphasis in the Second or inner Order was use of Dees Enochian Magick) and their various progeny in twentieth and twenty-first century occultism. The research for this paper relies upon both primary and secondary sources. I begin by placing Dee and Kelley within their historical background, tracing the life of each prior to the beginning of their collaboration, a brief overview of their work together, and their lives after their parting of ways. Having outlined some of the themes running through the Angelic Conversations, the paper turns to an examination of the resources available to Kelley in such an endeavor. The succeeding section then examines in depth the types of material received. These fall broadly into the categories of prophecies, personal admonishments, and a complex, but for the most part coherent, magical system. I next examine theories of authorship, one of which is the hypothesis regarding deliberate deception perpetrated by Kelley upon Dee. This leads to an investigation of possible motives on the part of Kelley to commit a deception of this magnitude, and potential motives on Dees part for acquiescing in it. The paper examines Dees records of the Conversations, looking for evidence for and against the hypothesis of fraud on Kelleys part, and the ease or difficulty of such an effort. Concluding with a summary of findings, the paper reviews the argument for the viability of the hypothesis and the viability of competing explanations. By conducting this inquiry into the authorship of the Angelic Conversations, I hope to demonstrate the previously underestimated role of Edward Kelley, and to add in some meaningful way to the growing body of knowledge around John Dee and his work.
Table of Contents
ABSTRACT............................................................................................................................................ 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS........................................................................................................................ 4 TABLES AND ILLUSTRATIONS ........................................................................................................ 5 HISTORICAL CONTEXT..................................................................................................................... 6 DEE PRIOR TO MEETING KELLEY .......................................................................................................... 7 KELLEY PRIOR TO MEETING DEE ........................................................................................................ 20 RECEPTION OF THE ANGELIC CONVERSATIONS.................................................................................. 23 DEE AND KELLEY AFTER THE CONVERSATIONS ................................................................................ 30 DEES LEGACY ................................................................................................................................... 34 ANALYSIS ........................................................................................................................................... 42 RESOURCES ........................................................................................................................................ 42 Kelleys Education and Background .............................................................................................. 43 The Contents of Dees Library ....................................................................................................... 45 THE CONTENT OF THE CONVERSATIONS............................................................................................ 47 Sermons, Prophecies, and Predictions ........................................................................................... 50 Allegorical Visions and Apparitions............................................................................................... 52 Personal Admonishments and Commands ...................................................................................... 53 Magical Information and Instructions ............................................................................................ 55 THEORIES OF AUTHORSHIP .................................................................................................................. 74 Kelley Was In Contact With Angels................................................................................................ 74 Kelley Was In Contact With Devils ................................................................................................ 80 Kelley Tapped Into Unknown Powers of the Mind .......................................................................... 81 Kelley Was a Cynical Fraud .......................................................................................................... 84 Kelley Was Deceiving Himself ....................................................................................................... 87 Kelley and Dee Created It Synergistically ...................................................................................... 90 Kelley Was Manipulated by Dee .................................................................................................... 91 MOTIVATIONS .................................................................................................................................... 94 Possible Motivations on Kelleys Part............................................................................................ 94 Possible Motivations on Dees Part ............................................................................................... 95 CONCLUSION..................................................................................................................................... 98 BIBLIOGRAPHY............................................................................................................................... 104 ABBREVIATIONS ............................................................................................................................... 104 BIBLIOGRAPHY ................................................................................................................................. 104
Tables and Illustrations
TABLE 1. BREAKDOWN OF DEES LIBRARY BY TOPIC ......................................................46 TABLE 2. CONTENT RECEIVED IN THE ANGELIC CONVERSATIONS RAW DATA ............48
FIGURE 1. CONTENT RECEIVED IN THE ANGELIC CONVERSATIONS DISTRIBUTION .......49 FIGURE 2. SIGILLUM DEI AEMETH - LIBER JURATUS .......................................................57 FIGURE 3. SIGILLUM DEI AEMETH - DEE & KELLEY .......................................................57 FIGURE 4. ANGELS OF THE BONORUM .............................................................................59 FIGURE 5. ENSIGN OF CREATION - JUPITER ......................................................................60 FIGURE 6. NUMBER SQUARE ...........................................................................................63 FIGURE 7. SATOR SQUARE ............................................................................................63 FIGURE 8. ABRAMELIN SQUARE .....................................................................................63 FIGURE 9. LIBER LOGAETH, SAMPLE PAGE ......................................................................64 FIGURE 10. ENOCHIAN TABLE (EAST) .............................................................................66 FIGURE 11. SIGILS OF THE GOVERNORS .......................................................................70 FIGURE 12. GREAT TABLE (RECENSA VERSION, 1587) ....................................................71 FIGURE 13. TABLET OF SPIRIT - FROM BLACK CROSS NAMES .......................................72
John Dee, Edward Kelley, and the Angelic Conversations
Historical Context
Dr. John Dee was born, according to the horoscope he himself drew up, on July 13, 1527.1 By the time of his experiments with Edward Kelley in the 1580s, he had earned a reputation as a scientist, astronomer, cartographer, cryptologist, astrologer to Queen Elizabeth I, secret agent (he signed his secret messages to the Queen 007), and sorcerer. He had been imprisoned by Queen Mary, exalted by Queen Elizabeth, attacked as a sorcerer, conned by disreputable mediums and singled out by angels to receive knowledge lost since the time of the prophet Enoch. Having reached a point in 1581 where he set out to gain from God himself, or from Gods angels, knowledge which could be had no other way, he began a series of visionary operations, in the literal sense. By means of crystal-gazing, Dee hoped to contact divine intelligences, angels or even God himself to gain insight into the spiritual operations of the world, a sort of quantum physics of the late Renaissance, as one writer put it.2 As he had no knack for it, he hired a would-be alchemist and convicted felon named Edward Kelley, alias Edward Talbot, who appeared to have a gift for this scrying, or astral vision work.
Referenced by several biographers, there are two copies of Dees natal or birth chart. The first is MS Sloane 1782 f31, presumed to be in Dees hand; the second is Ashmole 1788 f137, copied from Dees by Ashmole himself. See Woolley, Benjamin, The Queens Conjuror, (New York: Owl Books, Henry Holt, 2001), 3 n1. MS Ashmole 1788 also contains a copy of Kelleys natal horoscope, as well as that of Dees eldest son, Arthur. See Halliwell, James O, The Private Diary of Dr. John Dee and Catalog of His Library of Alchemical Manuscripts. (Charleston: BiblioBazaar, 2008), 11, 14. 2 Pir, Christeos [pseud.], The Enochian Watchtowers of the World, (n.p. TMs, 1996), 14.
2009 R. Christopher Feldman
Thus was begun one of the most extraordinary chapters in the history of esotericism. It would have far-reaching effects on occultism, influencing the Rosicrucian adventure of the seventeenth century as well as the magical revival of the late nineteenth century. This latter in turn had a catalytic effect on the Neopaganism of the Sixties, the New Age of the Eighties and Nineties, and has extended even to metaphysical religion in our own time.
Dee Prior to Meeting Kelley Dee was born at Mortlake, England, then a village on the outskirts of London. His father Rowland Dee was a minor functionary under King Henry VIII.3 His mother was named Johanna, or Jane, Wild. Dee traced his family lineage back to Rhodri the Great, King of Wales before the Norman invasion, and his surname is itself an Anglicization of the Welsh Du, Ddu, or Dhu, meaning black.4 They were of the gentility, though not ennobled, and money was scarce: it has been said he was raised in genteel poverty.5 Around 1537, while the monasteries were still being dismantled at Henrys order, Dee was sent to the Chantry School at Chelmsford in Essex.6 Here he would have learned Latin and the rituals of the Roman Catholic Church. In 1542 at the age of fifteen he en-
Deacon, Richard. John Dee, (London: Frederick Muller, 1968), 13; French, Peter. John Dee: The World of an Elizabethan Magus, (New York: Dorset Press, 1972), 20 n1; Smith, Charlotte Fell, John Dee (15271608), (London: Constable & Co., 1909), 5; Yates, Frances, The Occult Philosophy in the Elizabethan Age, (London: Routledge Classics, Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1979), 93. 4 Deacon 14; French 20 n1; Smith 5. 5 Deacon 14. 6 Deacon 15; Smith 6.
tered St. Johns College, Cambridge. 7 Avoiding the partying that marked college life even then, he imposed on himself a rigid discipline, allotting himself four hours for sleep, two for meals, and all the restexcept when in chapelto studying.8 It was while in college that he was first accused of sorcery, for a stage effect he designed for a production of Aristophanes Pax at Trinity College: a great winged scarab that carried the actor playing Trygaeus into the air and seemed to fly away with him.9 After completing the equivalent of what we would now call undergraduate studies, Dee began to concentrate on mathematics as well as navigation, then a relatively new science chiefly being advanced in the Low Countries. Dee visited there in 1547 to do research, attending the University of Louvain for a period and striking up a friendship with Gerardus Mercator. 10 When he returned to Cambridge to complete his studies, Dee brought two of Mercators new globes, along with a number of new astronomical instruments.11 While at Louvain, Dee was also exposed to the I Ching, Qabalah, Arab (i.e., Muslim) philosophy, and the magic of Cornelius Agrippa, who had been there acting as sec-
Deacon 15; Dee, Compendious Rehearsall in Dee, John, Autobiographical Tracts and Diary for the Years 1595-1601 of Dr. John Dee [1851, James Crossley, ed.], (n.p. Kessinger Publishing, 2003), 5 (hereinafter Diaries); French 22; Smith 6. There are several editions of Dees diaries, all based upon the same source material: John Eglington Bailey, Diary for the Years 1595-1601 of Dr. John Dee, Warden of Manchester (1880), reprinted in Dee, Autobiographical Tracts, and Halliwell, Private Diaries of Dr. John Dee (1842), reprinted in Halliwell. Various editions of the latter are currently in print. Suster also provides excerpts of the diaries in his book. 8 Deacon 15-16; Diaries 5; French 24; Suster, Gerald, John Dee, Western Esoteric Masters Series, (Berkeley: North Atlantic Books, 2003), 9 (hereinafter JD); Smith 6-7. 9 Deacon 17; Diaries 5; French 24; JD 10; Smith 7. 10 Deacon 18-19; French 24-25; Smith 8. 11 Deacon 19; Diaries 5; French 25; Smith 8-9.
retary and librarian only twelve years before. 12 Dee was well thought of and Louvain soon had him lecturing in logic, mathematics, astronomy, and navigation. When he stopped off in Paris in 1550 on his way home, he was offered a number of posts (which he refused); among them were the positions of Professor of Mathematics, and Special Envoy from France to the Ottoman Empire.13 While lecturing at the College of Rheims he gave a free course on Euclid which was so popular that students who found no room in the hall climbed nearby walls to listen to his lectures through the windows.14 Upon his return to England in 1551, at the age of twenty-three already publicly acclaimed on the Continent and with two books on logic to his credit, Dee was offered a yearly pension of one hundred crowns by young King Edward VI. These Dee exchanged for the lay rectorships of Upton-upon-Severn and Long Leadenham, a move thought by all to have been indicative of a poor sense of money management.15 Although he does not appear to have taken his Doctorate at Cambridge, he did complete his Master of Arts degree, and was soon established as an authority on a wide range of subjects: mathematics, navigation, geography, ship-building, philosophy, metaphysics, logic, astronomy, astrology, optics and medicine. This included what we would now consider the foundations of modern medicine and what could best be described as holistic medicine of the type made
12 13
Deacon 22 French 28; Smith 11. Deacon 24; Diaries 8; Smith 12. 14 Deacon 25; Diaries 7; French 29; Smith 11. 15 Deacon 26-27; Diaries 10, 13; French 32; Smith 13.
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famous by Paracelsus.16 The title of Doctor must have either been earned later, or else was honorific.17 Dee became well-known for his horoscopes, creating a great number of them for many of the nobility, even predicting the health problems that brought about the young Kings early death.18 Unfortunately, when he was discovered to have discussed the new Queen Marys horoscope with her sister Elizabeth, rumors began to circulate, first that he was plotting with Elizabeth to overthrow Mary, then that he was trying to kill Mary with sorcery. 19 In 1555 Dee was seized at Hampton Court; his London apartments were searched and his papers examined, and a charge of treason was laid against him. Dee was acquitted on the charges, but due to his Protestant (one might better say ecumenical) beliefs under a monarch who was a staunch Roman Catholic, he was remanded to the custody of the Bishop of London for examination in his religious attitudes. He apparently satisfied the Bishop, since he was released the same year, but not until he had spent some months in a bare cell being interrogated on his religious tendencies.20 After his release, one of his first acts was to petition the Queen to establish a body that would have been, had it gained approval (and funding), a combination of National
16
Deacon 27-28; French 52; Paracelsus, The Archidoxes of Magic, Robert Turner, trans. [1656], (Berwick, Maine: Ibis Press, 1975), passim. 17 There is no record of his having graduated as a doctor either at Cambridge or Louvain, and one must surmise that the title of Doctor was given to him as a courtesy, not as a right. It was probably bestowed in a complimentary sense to one being regarded as doctus, or learned. Certainly he was referred to in later life at the English Court as Doctor Dee. Deacon 22. But see also French 28 n3, where he argues for Dee as an M.D. Suster (JD 99-100) also provides a brief recap of the controversy. 18 Deacon 29. 19 Deacon 32-33; Diaries 20; French 34; Smith 14-15. 20 Deacon 34; Diaries 20; French 35.
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Library and National Trust.21 It was an interesting idea, and one which perhaps laid the seeds for the Ashmolean collection (since as we shall see Elias Ashmole was fascinated by Dee and his works), but it had two weaknesses. First, Mary was not inclined to fund the undertaking. Second, she had no interest in a plan to collect, and in some cases to purchase, a collection of works many of which she considered heretical. 22 Dee was forced to go back to building his own already impressive library, often even pawning his silverware to buy important manuscripts.23 The remainder of his time spent under Marys reign seems to have been fairly quieteither he chose to remain inconspicuous, or he had already started spying for Elizabeth (vide infra). He lived on his pensions, drew up horoscopes, and continued his studies, both scientific and occult. He published works on everything from astronomy he was one of the first to claim that comets were outside of the moons orbitto optics, even suggesting that giant parabolic mirrors might be used in warfare. Mirrors fascinated him, so much so that he actually proposed that a mirror be propelled into space at a speed exceeding that of light, so that people could see events of the past.24 His interest in optics, as has been pointed out by Ursula Szulakowska, was tied to his ideas of Aristotelian cosmology, astrology, and natural magica view in which the rays by which the cosmic spheres and their intelligences that influenced matters on the sublu-
Deacon 35, JD 15-19; Roberts, Julian & Andrew G. Watson, eds., John Dees Library Catalogue, (London: Bibliographical Society, 1990), 5-6 (hereinafter R&W); Smith 15-17. For the text, see Dee, A Supplication to Q. Mary, for the Recovery and Preservation of Ancient Writers and Monuments, in Diaries 46-47. 22 Deacon 35. 23 Deacon 36. 24 Deacon 38.
21
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nar or material plane might be gathered through the use of catoptric lenses and mirrors, enabling humans to see and converse with those spiritual intelligencesi.e., angels.25 When Mary died, Elizabeth had Lord Robert Dudley, later the Earl of Leicester, call upon Dee for a horoscope to determine the most auspicious date and time for her coronation.26 On Sunday, January 15, 1559, the day Dee suggested as having the best portents, Elizabeth I was crowned. With his patroness on the throne, Dee might have thought that his star was finally on the ascendant, but there are indications that on several occasions positions Elizabeth wanted him to have were blocked by others at court.27 Then too, she could not afford to honor him too openly, given his past, and the potential taint of being seen to support someone who was popularly thought to be overly familiar with the black arts. She may have also been shrewd enough to recognize that his talents might be better employed in quieter ways.28 Elizabeth had nicknames for many of her favoritesSir Walter Raleigh was Water, for instance. These men often signed their letters to the Queen in a way that indicated these pet names. Sir Christopher Hatton, court intimate, was Lids the Earl of Leicester, was Eyes (dotted triangles). Dudley,
(dotted circles). Dee, occasional intelligencer,
25
Szulakowska, Ursula, The Alchemy of Light: Geometry and Optics in Late Renaissance Alchemical Illustration, Symbola et Emblemata: Studies in Renaissance and Baroque Symbolism, Vol. X, (Leiden: Brill, 2000), passim. See also French 100-102. 26 Deacon 46; JD 10; Smith 18. 27 E.g., Diaries passim; Halliwell passim; Smith 19, 24, 29. 28 Deacon 51.
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was her Secret Eyes or Ubiquitous Eyes
the original 007.29 He was often away
for months at a time, sometimes to the further parts of the kingdom, sometimes to the Continent. There was much for him to be investigating, whether it was Roman Catholic plotters against the Queen, the ever-present threat of Spain, or the wooing of allies in the Protestant lands of what are now the Netherlands, Germany, or Poland.30 But the bulk of his intelligence work seems to have concentratedperhaps due to his expertise in maritime navigationon new voyages and freshly discovered lands, particularly where they might be of strategic importance to England, who Dee envisioned as becoming a dominant sea power.31 Dee made a number of journeys overseas, reporting on them to Sir William Cecil Lord Burghley, Elizabeths head of domestic intelligence, as well as to Sir Robert Dudley and even the Queen herself. 32 In 1563 Dee acquired a copy of Trithemius Steganographia33 in the Low Countries, a work which appears to take the form of a series of invocations of angels and spirits, but is in fact a treatise on cryptography and secret communications. Dee was excited about obtaining a copy of this rare work, and some have speculated on the potential connection
29
Deacon 1-4, 171, 227. It is to be noted that some writers have been skeptical, to put it mildly, about the portrayal of Dee as Elizabeths spy. Shumaker, never one to mince words, calls Deacons book worthless fiction and even French considered the claims sensationalist (see JD 97). On the other hand, note Dees careful wording in his Compendious Rehearsall: I againe to her Majestie made a very faithfull and inviolable promise of great importance. The first part whereof, God is my witness, I have truly and sincerely performed Diaries 21. At any rate, of all Dees biographers, Deacon is the most faithful to Dees diaries and records of the Conversations, which may be circumstantial, yet might be tentatively accepted as evidence of Deacons trustworthiness. 30 Deacon 51-52. 31 Deacon 52-53. 32 Deacon 69 ff; French 36-37. 33 Written ca. 1499, circulated privately. First printed edition at Frankfurt, 1606. See Trithemius.
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between the Steganographia and Dees own Angelic Conversations.34 However, while modern cryptanalysis has managed to decode both Trithemius work and the Book of Soyga, another of Dees prized possessions, thus far no encoded messages have been turned up in the Conversations.35 Though it is possible that Dee used the Tables of Enoch36 of the Conversations to encode messages to Englands spy chiefs, no such encoded messages have ever come to light. It was about this time that he first published his Hieroglyphic Monad,37 a work said to have taken him 7 years to prepare and only 12 days to write.38 Other works during this period added to Dees name as a scholar, among them his Propaedeumata Aphoristica (1568), 39 Mathematical Praeface to the Elements of Geometrie of Euclid of Megara (1570),40 Paralacticae Conventiones Praxoosq: Nucleus Quisdam (on the Supernova and
E.g., Deacon 58. For more on steganography and other forms of cipher in this period, see Haynes, Alan, The Elizabethan Secret Services, (Phoenix Mill, Glos.: Sutton Publishing, 2004), especially 21-24. For more on spying under Elizabeth, a good source is Budiansky, Stephen, Her Majestys Spymaster, (New York: Viking Books, Penguin, 2005), as is Haynes. 35 See Reeds, Jim, John Dee and the Magic Tables in the Book of Soyga, in Stephen Clucas, ed., John Dee: Interdisciplinary Studies in English Renaissance Thought, International Archives of the History of Ideas, No. 193, (Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer, 2006); also Reeds, Solved: The Ciphers in Book iii of Trithemiuss Steganographia, (online article, University of Minnesota. 26 Mar. 1998. Accessed 11 Aug. 2008, http://www.dtc.umn.edu/~reedsj/trit.pdf). See also Whitby, Christopher, John Dees Actions With Spirits: 22 December 1581 to 23 May 1583, (Garland Publications, 1988), 105-106, 156, [Also quoted in Peterson, Joseph, John Dees Five Books of Mystery: Original Sourcebook of Enochian Magic, (York Beach, Maine: Red Wheel/Weiser, 2003), 30, hereinafter Quinti and in Laycock, Donald, Compete Enochian Dictionary: A Dictionary of the Angelic Language as Revealed to Dr. John Dee and Edward Kelley, (York Beach, Maine: Samuel Weiser, 1994), 54-58. 36 Vide infra. 37 Dee, The Hieroglyphic Monad [1564], (Boston: Red Wheel/Weiser, 1975). See also Deacon, French, Smith, Suster, Yates, etc. 38 Deacon 59; French 38. 39 French 93 ff; JD 20-23. See Shumaker, Wayne, John Dee on Astronomy: Propaedeumata Aphoristica (1568 and 1668), Latin and English, (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1978), for a full analysis of this work. 40 Dee, Mathematical Praeface to the Elements of Geometrie of Euclid of Megara [1570], (NP, Kessinger Publishing, 2008). See also French 103 ff; JD 37-46; Yates, Occult Philosophy, 94-96.
34
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subsequent comet of 1572),41 and his General and Rare Memorials Pertayning to the Perfect Arte of Navigation (1576).42 There is a clear progression discernible in Dees writing. His earliest works, such as the Propaedeumata, are scientific in nature, being concerned with mathematics, astronomy, geography & cartography, optics, etc. His middle period, as exemplified in the Monas, is focused upon bringing astrology, alchemy, and natural magic into a kind of grand unified theory, to borrow a term from our own era. His later work, in the period we will be here concerned with, is taken up with the Conversations, that is, with spiritual research. And in his final period, from his return to England in 1598 till his death in 1608, he seems to have written almost nothing at all, beyond his personal diaries. At court Dees favor was limited to the Queen and a few of her spymasters, for whom Dee made a number of journeys to Scotland and the Continent.43 To the majority of the lords, and those of the general public who had heard of him, he was considered at best an eccentric, the original mad scientist, long on book learningsome of it rather dangerousbut short on common sense. At worst, he was considered a sorcerer, heretic, or to be in league with Satan, a veritable Dr. Faustus. Later, Dees situation became precarious enough that he was moved to write a lengthy curriculum vitae in an attempt to
Referenced in Deacon, 77. Dee, The Perfect Art of Navigation [1576], (NP, Kessinger Publications, 2003). See also JD, 47-60; Yates, Occult Philosophy, 100. 43 Deacon 77-78.
42
41
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obtain the Queens assistance both to regain his good name, and some compensation for his books and personal effects ransacked from his Mortlake home while he was abroad.44 Around 1574, Dee married a woman about whom so little is known that even her name is not recorded.45 She died a year later, apparently on the same day that the Queen herself happened to visit unexpectedly. Dees diary records that Elizabeth refused to enter the house where Dees wife had died only four hours earlier, but that Dee, never one to miss an opportunity for showing some of his ideas to royalty, brought out his magic glass of which she had heard so much for her to see 46 an event that shows up, in slightly altered form, in Spensers Faerie Queene: By strange occasion she did him behold, ... The great Magitian Merlin had deuizd, By his deepe science, and hell-dreaded might, A looking glasse, right wondrously aguizd, Whose vertues through the wyde world soone were solemnizd. 47
Whether these were scrying glasses as some have claimed, or parabolic mirrors for signaling over long distances, we cannot now know. What is certain is that he left his late
Vide infra, and Diaries 3 ff and JD 104-111. Suster (JD 10-11) says Dee was actually married three times in all, first to a Katherine Constable, a grocers widow from the City, and a second time to another woman whose name and particulars are unknown, before marrying Jane Fromond (vide infra). 46 Deacon 80; Diaries 17; Smith 35. 47 Spenser, Edmund, The Faerie Queene. [1596], (online edition, n.d. Accessed 12 Jan. 2009, http://www. sacred-texts.com/neu/eng/fq/index.htm), Bk III, Cto II, v18. A number of writers (Deacon 100-101; Suster 13; Yates 188) have also posited that Dee was the model for Shakespeares Prospero.
45
44
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wifes body still cooling on the kitchen table while he went outside to put on his demonstration for the court.48 His next few years were spent unsuccessfully treasure-hunting by dowsing49even accompanying Martin Frobishers secret expedition to Labrador in present-day Canada to search for goldand on navigational experiments including work on the search for the Northwest Passage.50 He also continued his researches into genealogy, archaeology, and developing a means of semaphore signals by use of mirrors and telescopes, as well as historical research intended to prove that Elizabeth had a valid claim to possession of the lands being explored in North America. That Dee was still involved in intelligence work may be seen from his mention of one Alexander Simons offer of information in his own servise into Persia.51 Dee remained in the Queens favor, being consulted by her on everything from a toothache to the appearance of a new comet in 1577, and she continued to protect him from accusations of being a conjurer and sorcerer.52 Around this time Dee also working on his proposal to the throne for his vision of a British Empirea name we owe to Deein his work on The Brytish Monarchy (Otherwise Called the Petty Navy Royall) for the Politique Security, Abundant Wealth and the Triumphant State of This Kingdome (With Gods Favor) Procuring. Dees concept was for England to become a world power based on having the worlds largest navy, comprising six different fleets with refueling and provisioning ports around the globe. As his plan
48 49
Deacon 80; Diaries 17; Smith 35. See Deacon 82 ff; Smith 34. 50 See Deacon 86-89; Smith 51-54. 51 Deacon 91; Halliwell 13. Smith (38) reads this as an offer of information on Eastern lore. 52 Deacon 82 ff.
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would have cost the government some 200,000 per year (a sum he proposed might be raised by taxing the foreign fishing fleets in British waters), there was understandable resistance from the government.53 It was also around this time that he met his next wife, Jane Fromond, lady-in-waiting to Lady Howard of Effingham at Elizabeths court. On February 5, 1578, at the age of fifty-one, he married Jane, then in her early twenties. Despite what some might have thought of as a wide difference in age and temperamentshe was said to be vivacious, charming, and quick-tempered54their marriage seems to have been genuinely successful: he the older, somewhat odd but brilliant, and usually nearly penniless, scholar; she the devoted admirer, unselfish wife, and mother to their eight children. Dee and his wife moved to the home he had acquired from his mother at Mortlake, where Dee was said to have started steeplechases at Mortlake and Richmond, and to have revived the ancient Celtic custom of kindling a bonfire on May Day on the top of Richmond Hill, accompanied by guests who were treated to a meal with wine, fireworks and dancing. He also had a huge maypole, over 150 tall, erected in the Strand at his expense.55 This may explain, at least in part, why he still occasionally had to pawn the silver to pay the servants wages.56 In the 1580s Dee began an even more in-depth interest in crystallomancy or scrying, divination by looking into crystal balls and blackened mirrors. Due to his lack of ability
53 54
Deacon 92-95; Smith 41-44 Deacon 91; see also Smith, 47. 55 Deacon 106-107. 56 Diaries ff.
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in this area, he began to look for assistants with a knack for it. In 1581 he started working with one Barnabas Saul, but Saul was discharged after only a couple of months when it became known that he was a confidence-man with a criminal background. There is also some suspicion that he was planted by parties unknown to spy on Dee, though there is no hard evidence. At any rate, he was fired, and subsequently repudiated all the work he had done with Dee.57 One of the people who had given Dee information about Saul was a certain Edward Talbot, who was hired to replace Saul, and soon thereafter changed his name to Kelley. There is some speculation as to his correct name, but consensus seems to be that his real name was Kelley (also spelled Kelly), and that Talbot was an assumed name. 58 There is a wealth of conjecture surrounding Kelley, whose background does not seem to have been so different from that of the man he replaced. He had been drifting for some timesome say on the runand had tried his hand at working at an apothecary
Deacon 120-122; Halliwell 22-23; Quinti 66; Smith 68-70. Deacon is virtually alone in suggesting that Talbot changed his name to Kelley as an attempt to start a new life and to bury an unsavoury reputation (123), other sources presume that Kelley first appeared to Dee as Talbot in case his reputation had preceded him. Waite vacillates on the subject: first he opines that because Kelley was said to have attended Oxford (vide infra) and there is no record of an Edward Kelley there, his real name must have been Talbot. See Waite, Arthur E, Alchemical Writings of Edward Kelley, (NP, Kessinger Publications, 1997), xv. However, a few pages later Waite says whether Talbot became Kelley or whether Kelley merged for a moment into Talbot, is a mystery (Waite xvi). A few pages later he again reverses himself, saying that there is no reason to identify the references in Dees diaries to Edward Talbot with those referring to EK (footnote, xxi). From Causabon 89 on, there is no more reference to Talbot, only to EK or Kelley, or the Latinized Kelleius/Kelleii. Dees personal diaries (see Diaries) also reflect this change, with the last reference to Talbot on 22 March 1582, and all further references to EK or Kelley, or the Latinized spelling. See also French, Smith, etc.
58
57
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shop, treasure locating, dowsing for lost articles, and, according to some sources, forgery and sheep rustling, for which he had his ears cropped.59 He was only twenty-seven, half Dees age, when he came to live at Mortlake. In working with Dee, he would have a regular income, room and board, but also a chance to learn from one of the best worlds educated men. So began one of the most remarkable pairings in the history of esoteric religion.
Kelley Prior to Meeting Dee Biographical information on Edward Kelley is scant, and what little there is has been of dubious trustworthiness. Richard Deacon calls him the most baffling, mysterious and enigmatic character with whom Dee was ever associated,60 and Charlotte Fell Smith, herself not the most reliable biographer, says: The whole of Kelleys story is so wildly and romantically coloured, it is so incredible, and so full of marvels, that it is extremely difficult to know what to believe. There is no disentangling the sober facts of this life from the romance attributed to him; indeed, there are no sober facts, as the reader will see when the accepted traditions of this extraordinary mans career are laid down. 61
59
The stories about Kelleys dark past begin with Weevers Ancient Funeral Monuments and are largely taken at face value by writers known for research that is slipshod at best, e.g., Lenglet du Fresnoy, Louis Figuier, and Edward Arthur Waite. Smith is justly scathing of such works as Waites Life of Kelley, see 77 n1. For an example of Weever, see the introduction to Baileys 1880 edition of Dees diaries, reprinted in the Diaries. See also Deacon 123-124 and Waite xxv-xxvi.xx. 60 Deacon 123. 61 Smith 76.
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Dee, whose habit it was to record birthdates of those important to him in order to cast their horoscopes, shows Kelley as having been born on August 1, 1555.62 Aside from this, and the portrait of Kelley that emerges through Dees records of the Conversations, all the rest of the details of Kelleys life that have been published are suspect to some degreethere is even controversy over how he diedand what follows here must be considered conjectural at best. Edward Kelley was born at Worcester,63 of working-class background. He had some college education, but left without completing his degree studies.64 He could read, write and speak Latin to an extent, but had no Greek.65 He had worked as an apothecarys apprentice (appropriate for one with an interest in alchemy), but again left without completing his training. 66 He had supposedly been pilloried in Lancaster, either for forging documents or counterfeiting coin,67 and according to some always kept his hair long or wore a hat to disguise his having had his ears clipped68 (though one might expect Dee to mention such a distinguishing feature). Kelley had occasionally used the alias of Talbot in his peregrinations, and seems to have dabbled in treasure-hunting by means of dowsing, or else pretending to do so in or62 63
Vide sup. p 6, footnote 1. Deacon 123; French 113 n2; Peterson 21; Smith 77; JD 67, 131; Waite, Biographical Preface to Alchemical Writings of Edward Kelley, xiii. 64 Diaries, 8; French 113 n2; Harkness, Deborah, John Dees Conversations with Angels: Cabala, Alchemy and the End of Nature, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), 20; Quinti 21; Smith 77; JD 67; Waite xiii-xiv. 65 See the action of 29 June 1583, in Causabon, Meric, ed., A True and Faithful Relation of What Passed for Many Years Between Dr. John Dee and Some Spirits [1659], (New York: Magickal Childe Publishing, 1992), 26 (hereinafter TFR). 66 Bailey, in his Introduction to the Diaries, adds that Kelley had been a lawyer as well as having practised as an apothecary at Worcester. (Diaries 9) See also Deacon 123; Harkness 20; Quinti 22; Smith 77; JD 131; Waite xiv. 67 Deacon 124; French 113 n2; Quinti 21; Smith 77; JD 68; Waite xv, xvii, xxvii, footnote xxvii ff. 68 Diaries, 9; Deacon 124; Harkness 20; Waite xxv-xxvi.xx,
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der to convince wealthy landowners to pay him to search for gold on their properties. He was accused, though not during his lifetime, of having dug up a freshly buried corpse in order to converse either with its late owner, or with a demonic spirit temporarily inhabiting itthe story varied. 69 He had supposedly broken into an ancient tomb, either in Wales or at Glastonbury, and discovered an old alchemical manuscript and two vials containing a mysterious red and white powder which, when once the manuscript might be decoded, would enable one to transmute base metal to gold.70 To break this ancient alchemical secret, he needed the help of the most learned man in England, and to obtain Dees help he needed to replace Barnabas Saul as Dees scryer. As to Kelleys personality as revealed through Dees records of the Conversations, the picture that emerges is of a mercurial temperament, swinging rapidly between extremes of anger, rebelliousness and drunkenness on the one hand, and devout penitence on the other.71 Over the course of their relationship, Dee would often find Kelleys attitudes and actions lamentable, but not once does he ever seem to have doubted Kelleys mediumistic capabilities. And through this entire relationship, Kelley himself seems to have genuinely believed in his visionsor in convincing Dee that Kelley did.
This story is first published in Weever, Ancient Funerall Monuments, quoted in Deacon 124 and Baileys Introduction to the Diaries, footnote to p 8. See also Smith 77, Waite xxvii, footnote xxvii ff. 70 Deacon 124; Smith 77-78; Waite xvii-xix, xxiii. 71 Suster (JD 67) quotes a Dr. Thomas Head who arrived at the same conclusion: . . . a highly ambiguous personality, wary and mistrustful, unstable and picric, prone on the one hand to terrifying fits of anger accompanied by physical violence, and on the other hand to sudden spiritual conversions from which he promptly relapsed. Not everyone agrees with Dees assessment of Kelleys character. Susan Bassnett [Bassnett, Susan, Absent Presences: Edward Kelleys Family in the Writings of John Dee, in Stephen Clucas, ed., John Dee: Interdisciplinary Studies in English Renaissance Thought, International Archives of the History of Ideas, No. 193, (Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer, 2006)] argues for a portrait of a loving family man on the strength of her thesis that Elizabeth Jane Weston was in fact Kelleys stepdaughter and that her recollections of her father (presumably meaning stepfather) portray a much different person than that recorded in the Conversations. Vide infra. p. 91.
69
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Reception of the Angelic Conversations While Dee expressed few misgivings about Kelley, Jane appears to have been convinced from the start that he was a scoundrel. From the beginning of Kelleys employment she told Dee of her premonitions that Kelley was untrustworthy and would bring only hardship and trouble to the Dees, and potential ruin to Dees name, with its already shaky reputation.72 Nevertheless, the two began their work together. In 1582 and 1583, while still working with the English government to place intelligencers (that is, spies) in Venice and other cities,73 and forming a limited corporation to search for the Northwest Passage,74 Dee was also busy with Kelley, recording the Angelic Conversations. We will discuss the actual scrying sessions in detail below, but during one of the early sances the angels told Kelley he should start a family. Despite his protestations that he had an abhorrence of marriage,75 he soon wed a girl of nineteen, a Joan Cooper
See, for example, Deacon 180, Harkness 21.There are also numerous references in the Diaries to Janes anger and frustration with Kelley. 73 Deacon 138. 74 Deacon 138 ff. 75 Dees diary records Kelley as reporting that the angel Michael sayd that I must betake myself to the world, and forsake the world. That is that I shold marry. Which thing to do, I haue no naturall Inclination: neyther with a safe Conscience may I do it, contrary to my vow and profession. (Emphasis in original.) See Quinti 174; also Deacon 168. It is not clear why Kelley would claim it to be contrary to his vows, profession, or conscience. It seems unlikely in the extreme that Kelley would have been an ordained member of any clerical order requiring chastity, especially in Protestant England (though Deacon, 189, calls Kelley a practising Catholic); he might have already had a wife somewhere and been somehow more concerned about bigamy than counterfeiting, but there is no evidence to support such a theory. At any rate, it did not seem to stop him for long, both Dees diaries and the record of the Conversations indicate that Kelley did marry, later recording that Kelley did not get along with his wife well (I cannot abide my wife. I love her not, nay I abhor her, and here in the house I am misliked because I favor her no better quoted in Deacon 169). But see Bassnett, op. cit., supra.
72
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from Chipping Norton76 (interestingly, a place with a reputation for being home to a large number of witches through the ages77). Also around this time, the angels, through Kelley, predicted not only the beheading of Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots (something most politically astute persons might have foreseen at the time), but also the threat from, and subsequent sinking of, the Spanish Armada.78 In 1583, Count Albert Laski (or Lasky), representative of King Stephen of Poland, arrived in England. Along with being formally received and royally entertained by Elizabeth, Laski found time to visit with Dee, expressing interest not only in Dees scientific work but also his angelic researches.79 By the time Laski was ready to return to Poland, he and Dee had become close, to the extent that some of the angelic work began to revolve around him. We cannot know how much of Dees interest in Laski was spiritual, and how much was in his role as 007.80 When the angels said that Laski would soon succeed Stephen as King of Poland, no doubt Dee found Laski interesting and important enough to accompany him on his return to Poland. Thus when Laski left England in September of 1583, Dee and Kelley accompanied him.81 For his part, Laski was not only interested in what Dees angels might tell him, but also in whether Kelley could make good on his claims to be able to make gold through alchemy. 82 Kelley, meanwhile, was becoming increasingly troublesome to Dee and the whole household, picking quarrels, moodily refusing to continue the sessions, complain76 77
Deacon 168. Deacon 168. 78 Deacon 172-173, 230 ff; Quinti 393; Smith 95-96; JD 68. 79 Deacon 175 ff; Diaries 10; Quinti 393, 412, Smith 97 ff; TFR 1-30. 80 Deacon 176 ff. 81 Deacon 183-184; Diaries 10; TFR 33 ff. 82 Deacon 177-178; Smith 116.
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ing of his treatment at Dees hands, and so on. Perhaps he was hoping to leave Dees household for Laskis.83 Then too, Kelley had never settled in one place as long as this since his childhood, and it is possible the sedentary life was beginning to pall. At any rate, Dee packed up his family, the Kelleys, their servants, and a large number of books,84 and the group left secretly for the Continent without telling their neighbors.85 They left after dark, traveling past London to Greenwich, crossing the North Sea to Amsterdam, then Bremen, Hamburg, and thence to Lbeck. 86 In their angelic sessions at Lbeck, Kelley reported a vision of Dees house being burned by a mob.87 By February of 1584, they finally arrived at the princes estate at Lasko,88 then went to Cracow.89 Here it began to appear that perhaps Kelleys dreams were not to be realized. Laski was in fact nowhere near as rich as he had seemed, and the records of the Conversations during this period could be read as suggesting that Kelley thought it was time to look for another patron.90 Laski, for his part, was beginning to tire of the English magicians and their costly
83 84
Deacon 178-181, 190; Smith 104 ff. R&W 49, 53-54. Deacon (184) erroneously says that Dee took very few books and papers with him. 85 Deacon 183. 86 Deacon 185; M. R. James 4; Smith 117 ff; TFR 33 ff. 87 Deacon 186; Smith 127; TFR 49. Biographers (e.g. Baileys introduction to the Diaries, 8) have suggested that Dees house was indeed ransacked about this time by an angry mob of villagers appalled at Dees sorcery. However, Roberts & Watson repudiate this story, providing an argument that it was in fact a few of Dees acquaintances who broke into Dees library and stole a number of books and other possessions. See R&W 49-56, Sherman, William H, John Dee: The Politics of Reading and Writing in the English Renaissance, Massachusetts Studies in Early Modern Culture, (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1995), 15-16. 88 Smith 129; TFR 62. 89 Deacon 187; TFR 73. 90 Not long after their arrival in Lasko, the angels are already telling Dee that Laski is not to be trusted, and that they should move to Cracow. By the time they have been in Cracow a few months, they are told to make preparations to gain audience with the Holy Roman Emperor at Prague instead. See Deacon 188; Smith 130-131, 135 ff.; TFR 65 ff.
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entourage, not to mention the constant ambiguous answers from the angels as to how, or even whether, he was to become king. 91 Leaving their families in Cracow, Dee and Kelley went to Prague to meet Emperor Rudolph II of Bohemia. 92 The interview, however, did not go well. Dee went into a lengthy tirade, admonishing Rudolph to abandon his sins and heed Dees angels. 93 Rudolph seems to have taken this admonishment in stride, politely responding that he would think about the message and respond at some later date. The next time Dee asked for an interview, however, he was told the Emperor was busy, and all further communications were to be submitted through a minor functionary.94 The pair, either at the behest of the angels95 or grasping at straws, wrote to Rudolph that they had found the Philosophers Stone, and that they had discovered incredible mysteries which they could show only to the Emperor, but he remained indisposed to meet with them. In 1585 they met with King Stephen of Poland and conducted an angelic session in his presence,96 but again fell to rebuking their potential patron, and to a combination of blackmail and bribery: if he would become their supporter, they would show
Deacon 189; Diaries 10. Deacon 190; Diaries 10; Marshall, Peter, The Magic Circle of Rudolph II Alchemy and Astrology in Renaissance Prague, (New York: Walker & Co., 2006), 110-24; Smith 150; TFR 212. 93 Deacon 190-191; French 124-125; Marshall 118-119; TFR 229-230. 94 Smith 151; TFR 236, 247. Marshall (119), who is often quite unreliable, says that this Dr. Kurtz or Kurz was Rudolphs Court Councillor and later Imperial Vice-Chancellor. However, he concurs that Dee was de facto dismissed. 95 Deacon 191-192; TFR 240-243. 96 Deacon 193; French 124-125; Smith 165-166; TFR 380-408.
92
91
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him the secret of making gold, if not, he would be eternally damned. Stephen responded that the whole thing seemed suspicious, and refused any further involvement with them.97 At this time, Dee was offered a position at the Tsars court in Russia, and an annual salary of 2000 plus lodging. For some reason, whether out of prompting from his wife, his partner, the angels, or his employers back in England, Dee turned down the offer, despite their financial distress.98 And, with no forewarning from the angels, they walked into a volatile political situation when they left Cracow for Prague, where the Court had been roused to religious indignation by Papal envoys fulminating against the two notorious English magicians.99 After a failed attempt by the Pope to have the two extradited to the Vatican, they received word that they were instead being formally expelled from the Emperors lands.100 Soon after, they left Prague for Trebona in Bohemia. They eventually found a new patron in Count Wilhelm Rosenberg (Vilm Romberk), Viceroy of Bohemia.101 He was interested in their work, both their Angelic Conversations and their alchemical claims, and seems to have been able to have their expulsion ameliorated to the extent that they were allowed to remain in the lands under his control.102 At Trebona, the two began to have some success with their alchemical work. Details are few and sketchy, and how successful they were at this stage is not readily apparent. It
97 98
Deacon 193-194; Diaries 10; TFR 402-408. Deacon 194-195; Diaries 11; Halliwell 29; Smith 176-178; JD 133. 99 Deacon 196 ff; Diaries 10. 100 Deacon 200; Diaries 10; French 121 ff, 121 n3; Marshall 122; Smith 168; JD 82; TFR 428-434. 101 Deacon 202 ff; Diaries 10; French 122; Marshall 122; Smith 168, 173 ff; JD 82; TFR 419 ff. 102 Deacon 202; Marshall 122; JD 82; Smith 174; TFR 435.
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is clear, however, that their fortunes begin to pick up somewhat at this time.103 Kelley was by now fed up with scrying, and wanted to devote all his time to this new project which was, after all, his original interest all along. He flatly refused to participate in the angelic sessions any longer, and suggested that Dees son Arthur, then about eight years old, take his place as scryer.104 Arthur, however, turned out to have no more skill for the task than did his father.105 Reluctantly, Kelley returned to the scrying chamber once again. This time, he claimed that what he received was so repugnant that he begged not to continue, much less to reveal it to Dee.106 Dee of course insisted on knowing what Kelley had been told, and what followed was the so-called wife-swapping session. The angels, through Kelley, told Dee and Kelley to hold all things in common between them, including their wives, with a command to swap bed-partners for at least one night. There was much discussion about this, with Kelley professing to be horrified, and Dee insisting that if the angels would promise to hold them blameless (and sin-free), they must do as they were told.107 Eventually this was carried out in May 1587. Whatever happened between them, at whatever emotional or spiritual cost, one thing is certain: it was the end of the Angelic Conversations. They lingered on in Trebona for a while, working on their alchemical experiments, and seemed to have more money than beforewhether from manufactured gold, or sti-
103 104
Halliwell 29; Smith 178 ff; TFR 382 ff. Deacon (203) suggests they found some means of gold-plating. Deacon 205; Smith 184-185; TFR 388, 1 (new numbering, follows 448 of first section). 105 Deacon 205-206; Smith 185; TFR 4-9 (new). 106 Deacon 206; Smith 185; TFR 9 ff (new). 107 See Deacon 207 ff; Diaries 11, 24; Smith 185 ff; JD 86 ff; TFR 9 ff (new).
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pend from their patron, is unclear. Certainly Dees letters and diaries hint at some success in these endeavors.108 Kelley was much more independent now, with his own apartments and even an employee to run his furnaces. 109 He also appears to have been busy turning Rosenberg against Dee, telling their patron that he, Kelley, had all the means necessary for the gold, and that Dee was nothing but a nuisance who wasted his timeand Rosenbergs largesseon useless intellectual pursuits instead of the work at hand. 110 Meanwhile back home, Walsingham was sending Dee letters complaining that there was little budget for the Secret Service, and certainly none to spare for agents who were not producing any real intelligence data.111 Intelligence data or no, another of Dees predictions came true in the summer of 1588. As both the angels and Dees meteorological and astrological skills had predicted, the weather crushed the Spanish Armada; first sinking a huge number of ships in the Channel, then, as the survivors attempted to round Scotland in order to attack Britain from the west, the storms sent most of the remaining galleons aground on the rocks in the bitter North. The English fleet, at Dees suggestion, had not ventured out to intercept the Spanish, but had ridden the storms out safely in harbor. Fewer than half of the ships that had left Calais returned to Spain.112
108 109
Deacon 236-239; Halliwell 29 ff; Smith 191 ff. Deacon 237; Halliwell 33; Smith 193-194. 110 Deacon 239; Halliwell 34-36; Smith 196-197. 111 Diaries 11. 112 Deacon 245-246; Smith 198, 218.
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Dee and Kelley After the Conversations Dees return to England in December of 1589 was less disastrous than the Armadas. True, his house had been broken into and ransacked, and much of his precious library lost. But he returned in style, conveying his household in three coach-and-fours and with a livery of 24 soldiers.113 He was soon received at Court with Elizabeths favor, whether for his contribution to the victory over Spain, or for his espionage work, we cannot now know.114 He occasionally received messages from Kelley, or Kelleys brother Thomas, promising to send Dee a share of the monies earned on the manufactured gold. No payment ever came, though once Thomas offered to loan him 10.115 Kelley, whose alchemical successes had caused him to be reconciled with Rudolph to the extent of being knighted by the Emperor,116 an honor that made him socially Dees superior, continued to promise an immanent return to England. At the same time Burleigh, Elizabeths Lord Treasurer, was writing to Kelley and practically ordering him to send some of his gold, which would make your Queen so happie surely as no subject she hath can do the like . . . helpe make Her Majestye a
113 114
Deacon 250; Halliwell 36-37 Smith 199-200. Deacon 250; Halliwell 38; Smith 219. 115 Deacon 251; Halliwell 38; Smith 220. 116 Ashmole, in his Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum, cites a story of a copper or brass warming-pan having a piece cut out of it, the which was then transmuted by Kelley into pure gold and then fitted back into the pan. The story, along with reports that Dees son Arthur had reported playing at quoits with gold rings made by Kelley, is reported in various sources. See Deacon, French, Smith, Suster, etc. Deacon (249) and Smith (202) quote but do not provide a citation for a letter from Dee to Walsingham stating that Kelley had been made a Baron of the Kingdom of Boemia. At any rate, Dee and various others refer to Kelley from this time forward as Sir Edward Kelley.
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glorious and victorious power against the mallyce of hers and Gods enemies.117 The Lord Treasurer urged that Sir Edward Kelley to come over to his native countrie and honour Her Majestie with the fruites of such knowledge as God has given him.118 Kelley never did return to his native countrie. After some years Emperor Rudolph, tired of Kelleys empty promises, ran out of patience and had Kelley imprisoned. Kelley was briefly freed for a few years, only to die in 1595 in prison: whether stabbed, or by his own hand, or, as many stories claim, while trying to escape, we will never know.119 Dees diaries, always terse, merely report Nov. 25th, the newes that Sir Edward Kelley was slayne.120 After his return to England, Dee seems to have settled down to his former pursuits: research, analysis, petitioning the crown for a position, and scraping by. Due to his financial situation, Dee was embroiled in a protracted legal action against his brother-in-law Nicholas Fromond, whom he had left in possession of his house at Mortlake, eventually settling for having to rent it back from Fromond.121 If Dee pursued any scrying activities in the period immediately following his return, no record has survived. Meanwhile, he borrowed money to get by, received visits by scholars and nobility, and, despite his age,122 he and Jane kept producing children.123 His influential friends occasionally sent
117 118
Quoted by Deacon, 255. Smith 203-206. 119 All of these possible endings to Kelleys life have been proposed by various authors. Even the date of his death is in dispute, with some arguing for as late as 1598. As Harkness (23) puts it, a firm date for his death has yet to be established. 120 Deacon 257-258; Diaries 27; Halliwell 57, Smith 212; JD 93. 121 Halliwell 38 ff; Smith 220. 122 Dee was nearly seventy by now, and his health was not the best. He mentions various aches and pains, including attacks of ague, and of kidney stones the latter being treated by such means as a draught of
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him gifts, but his poverty was deepening; from this point on his diaries are a continual litany of money borrowed and only occasionally repaid. Strangely, the man who was once the intellectual light of his time seems to have produced no more writing, other than a comparison of the Julian and Gregorian calendars (he had previously attempted to persuade the court to adopt the new calendar, already in use on the Continent, but failed to win support),124 and his lengthy curriculum vitae, the Compendious Rehearsall. This last he delivered to two of the Queens representatives in an attempt to persuade the court to recompense him for the losses incurred in the ransacking of his library, and to find some suitable position for him, as he had been promised so many times since Elizabeths coronation.125 By midyear 1594 Dee finally gave up all hope of a position: I take myself confounded for all suing or hoping for anything that was. And so adiew to the court and courting tyll God direct me otherwise.126 The following year, however, he was finally offered a position: that of Warden of Christs College in Manchester.127 It meant leaving Mortlake and entering a world of provincial politics, consumed time he would have rather put to use in his researches, and offered a pittance in salary, but having failed to win his suit for restitution, he had little
white wine and salet oyl, and after that crabs eyes in powder with the bone in the carps head, and two great draughts of ale. Halliwell 52; Smith 252. 123 Including a son, Theodore, born 9 months after the alleged wife-swapping episode, and later a daughter, Madinia Newton Dee, named for one of the Enochian angels. See Deacon 211, 240, 251, 267; Halliwell 38-39; Smith 220. 124 Deacon 255. 125 Full text of the Compendious Rehearsall is in the Diaries, 1-45. See also Deacon 262-263; Halliwell 46; R&W 56-57; Smith 229 ff, 253-256; JD 104-111. 126 Halliwell 53; Smith 257. 127 Deacon 263; Diaries 17; Halliwell 55; Smith 259.
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choice but to accept. By 1600, three years after he finally took up residence in Manchester,128 he was once more pawning the dishes and silver.129 In 1603 Queen Elizabeth died, taking with her not only Dees lifelong love for his queen, but also his hope of a better placement. Dee, perhaps fearing that some Puritan zealot would bring up his past, petitioned King James to allow him a trial to defend his name against slanders past, but the king simply ignored him.130 In 1604 Jane succumbed to the plague epidemic and was buried at the Collegiate Church of St. Mary in Manchester.131 The following year, his advancing age and declining health, perhaps in conjunction with the loss of Jane and of his son 132 Theodore, prompted Dee to resign his Wardenship.133 Dee returned to Mortlake broken in health and spirit, and in severe financial straits, even to the point of selling some of his books for food.134 Dee sought out Bartholomew Hickman, an old friend who had occasionally scryed for Dee in the past, and in the course of a new series of some half a dozen sessions the angel Raphael told him to forget about money and prepare for a long journey to friends beyond the sea.135 In December 1608, he died quietly at home, cared for to the end by his daughter Katharine.136
128 129
Diaries 29; Halliwell 57. Diaries 85; Halliwell 68; Smith 284-5. 130 Deacon 270-271; JD 125-126; Smith 293-296; Yates, Occult Philosophy, 108-109. 131 Deacon 272; Diaries 24; Smith 297. 132 Or Kelleys? 133 Deacon 272. 134 Deacon 272; JD 11, 131. 135 Deacon 272-273; TFR 32-43; Smith 298-300. 136 Deacon 272-73; Smith 300; TFR 37-38 (new).
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Dees Legacy Toward the end of his life, Dee hid a number of the most important manuscripts in the false bottom of a cedar chest, where they laid for years after his death. They ended up in the possession of Elias Ashmole, scholar and mystic. The serendipitous manner of their preservation is worth quoting at length: On the 10th: of the said September Mr: Wale came thither to me againe, and brought his wife with him, from her I received the following account of the preservation of these bookes, even till they came to my hands, vizt: That her former Husband was one Mr: Jones a confectioner, who formerly Dwelt at the Plow in Lumbardstreet London, & who, shortly after they were married, tooke her with him into Adle Streete among the joyners, to buy some houshold stuff, where (at the corner house) they saw a chest of cedarwood about a yard & halfe long, whose lock & hinges, being of extraordinary neate worke, invited them to buy it. The Master of the shop told them it had been parcell of the Goods of one Mr: John Woodall Chirurgeon (father to Mr: Thomas Woodall late Serjant Chirurgeon to his now Majestie King Charles the Second (my intimate friend) and tis very probable he bought it after Doctor Dees death, when his goods were exposed to Sale. Twenty yeares after this (& about 4 yeares before the fatall fire of London) she & her good husband occasionally removing this chest out of its usuall place, thought they heard some loose thing ratle in it, toward the right hand end, under the box or till thereof, & by shaking it, were fully satisfied it was so: Hereupon her husband thrust a peece of Iron into a small crevice at the bottome of the Chest, & thereupon appeared a private drawer, which being drawne out, therein were found divers bookes in manuscript, & papers, together with a litle box, & therein a chaplet of olive beades, & a cross of the same wood, hanging at the end of them. They made no great matter of these bookes &: because they understood them not; which occasioned their servant maide to wast about one halfe of them under pyes, & other like uses, which when discovered, they kept the rest more safe. About two yeares after the discovery of these bookes, Mr. Jones died, & when the fire of London hapned, though the chest perished in the flames, because not easily to be removed, yet the bookes were taken out & carried with the rest of Mrs: Jones her goods into Moorefields, & being brought safely back, she took care to preserve them; and after marrying with the aforesaid Mr: Wale, he came to the
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knowledge of them, & there upon, with her consent, sent them to me, as I haue before set downe.137 We can only hope those pies were worth it. Ashmole was delighted with the find, as Dee had been a hero of sorts to him for some time.138 Like Dee, Ashmole was a collector of rare books (as is obvious from his remarkable library-cum-museum: the Ashmolean collection is one of the great treasures of the British Library), 139 a skilled mathematician, 140 and was fascinated with ciphers and encryption, even writing a copy of Dees Hieroglyphic Monad in steganographic cipher, in the manner of Trithemius.141 Ashmole was fascinated by Dee and his work, spending hours transcribing Dees records of the Conversations by hand,142 and visiting Mortlake to interview its inhabitants about Dee.143 Under the pseudonym James Hasolle, an anagram of his own name,144 Ashmole published a collection of Kelleys alchemical writings.145 Ashmole translated Arthur Dees treatise on alchemy, and sent friends to interview Dees son Arthur and grandson Rowland for recollections about Dee and Kelley. 146 He also experimented with alchemy and magic147 there is some evidence that Ashmole may have been the first person to actually attempt to perform the magical practices outlined in the Conversa-
137 138
Ashmole, quoted in Quinti 47-49. Churton, Tobias, The Magus of Freemasonry, (UK: Signal Publishing, 2004 [as The Invisible Life of Elias Ashmole]; reprint, Rochester, Vt.: Inner Traditions, 2006), 145; Harkness passim. 139 Churton 237 ff; Webster 63-64. 140 Churton 190. 141 Churton 81. 142 See Ashmole, MSS. 143 Churton 264-65; Sherman 30, 33. 144 Churton 144. 145 See Ashmole, Elias, The Precious Stone Excerpted Writings of Sir Edward Kelley on the Alchemical Mystery [1652], (Austin: Scarlet Woman Publications, 2003). 146 Churton 144, 183, 266-68; Sherman 209 n9. 147 Churton passim; Harkness 32-33.
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tions148and his magnum opus on alchemy, the Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum, was to be influential upon Isaac Newton some years later.149 Meanwhile, Meric Causabon, another seventeenth century scholar, published some of the Dee material in his book, A True and Faithful Relation...150 The book consists of the bulk of Dees records of the Conversations from the first session in May 1583 through the end of the period of working with Kelley in April 1587, and appends the few surviving records of Dees last scrying sessions with Bartholomew Hickman shortly before Dees death in 1608. Causabon did not print the records in full, but exercised some editorial bias in order to support his thesispresented in a 55-page preface to the work that while Dee may have believed himself in contact with divine forces, he was in fact the dupe of both Kelley and the deceiving Satanic spirits he had raised. 151 Causabon introduces a great many typographical errors, such as reversing the illustration of Dees Table of Practice, bringing in a significant number of changes from Dees original records. Unfortunately, as there is no other published version, the only choice available to scholars is to either work with Causabon or struggle through the task of reading Dees manuscripts, many of which have degraded over time. Ashmole and Causabon recognized the importance of Dees work in their preservation and presentation of his writing, although Causabon edited and editorialized in A True
Churton 259; Harkness 127 n114. Churton passim; Webster 64. 150 The full title is A True and Faithful Relation of What passed for many Yeers Between Dr. John Dee (A Mathematician of Great Fame in Q. Eliz. and King James their Reignes) and Some Spirits: Tending (had it Succeeded) To a General Alteration of most States and Kingdomes in the World. The book consists of large parts of Dee MS Cotton Appendix XLVI (q.v.). See TFR. 151 Vide infra. p. 76.
149
148
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and Faithful Relation in an attempt to argue for, or perhaps cash in on, Dees reputation as a black magician. Ashmole, in contrast, was interested in pursuing the studies begun by Dee and Kelley. After this time, most of the Dee material lay hidden in a few libraries before once again being brought to light several centuries later, this time to have an impact Dee could never have foreseen.152 In the late 1880s, three Freemasons met and founded a new esoteric fraternity, the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn,153 one of the most influential seeds of modern esotericism. Among its founders was a reclusive bibliophile and occultist named Samuel Liddell Macgregor Mathers, who frequented various older libraries looking for obscure texts on magic, which he would then translate. At some point either Mathers or another founder, W. Wynn Westcott, discovered some of the Dee material, which they then incorporated into the Golden Dawns magical studies and initiation rituals.154 That they did not have access to all of the Dee corpus (and/or Ashmoles transcriptions) is clear from the way they adopted the Enochian magi-
152
Recently, evidence has surfaced that may indicate that others in the seventeenth century were tempted to experiment with the magical system in the Conversations. Harkness (222-223) discusses a small group, records of whom are in the British Library, who conducted crystal-gazing sessions to converse with angels between 1671 and 1688. And Bcklund [Bcklund, Jan, In the Footsteps of Edward Kelley: Some Manuscript References at the Royal Library in Copenhagen Concerning an Alchemical Circle around John Dee and Edward Kelley, in Stephen Clucas, ed., John Dee: Interdisciplinary Studies in English Renaissance Thought, International Archives of the History of Ideas, No. 193, (Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer, 2006), 295 ff] discusses a circle of alchemical researchers either led, or inspired, by Dee and Kelley, though it does not appear that they were interested in the angelical side of things. 153 See Owen, Alex, The Place of Enchantment: British Occultism and the Culture of the Modern, (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004), and Regardie, Israel [Francis I. Regardie], The Complete Golden Dawn System of Magic, (Tempe: New Falcon Publications, 1994). 154 See Colquohoun, Ithell, The Sword of Wisdom: MacGregor Mathers and The Golden Dawn (New York: G. P. Putnams Sons, 1975), and Regardie.
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cal system, 155 skipping entire portions, and changing things to suit their syncretic approachfor example, they incorporated Hebrew Qabalah, Agrippan astrology, Rosicrucianism,156 and Christian magical formulae into the way they used the Enochian magical system.157 Nevertheless, the importance they placed upon the Dee material may be seen in their incorporation of it into their advanced magical work; the entire tenth and last volume of Regardies Complete Golden Dawn System of Magic is concerned with the Golden Dawn version of Dees Enochian material. Despite not having access to all of the Dee material, the Golden Dawn created an extensive set of practices based on the Enochian system. They carried out their own scrying experiments, 158 incorporated their peculiar Hebraicized pronunciation of Enochian phrases159 into their initiation rituals,160 and even invented a four-handed chess game that
155
So called because the angels told Dee & Kelley they had been chosen to receive knowledge lost to humankind since the time of the Biblical prophet Enoch, to whom the angels said it had last been imparted. 156 As a tangential note, it is fitting to remark here that there is a clear, if indirect, connection between Dee and the Conversations, and the Rosicrucian phenomenon that arose a generation later, and continues to this day. There is fertile ground for further research here, building on the work of Case, Churton, Clulee, Grafton, Khan, McIntosh, Newman, Yates, and others. 157 The evidence supports a theory that their information was limited to Sloane MSS 307 & 3821, and Rawlinson D 1067 & D 1363. (See Skinner & Rankine, Practical Angel Magic.) If they had access to Causabon, they either did not read it carefully, or else chose to ignore large portions of it. 158 See Farr, Florence, The Enochian Experiments of the Golden Dawn, Darcy Kuntz, ed. (Edmonds, Wash.: Holmes Publishing, 1996), passim; King, Francis, ed., Ritual Magic of the Golden Dawn, (Rochester, Vermont: Destiny Books, 1987), 95-101.. 159 See Laycock 45-47, 59-61. 160 See Cicero, Chic & Sandra Tabatha Cicero, Secrets of a Golden Dawn Temple, (St. Paul, Minn.: Llewellyn Publications, 1992) and Self-Initiation into the Golden Dawn Tradition, (St. Paul, Minn.: Llewellyn Publications, 1995); Regardie, The Golden Dawn and The Golden Dawn: A Complete Course in Practical Ceremonial Magic, Four Volumes in One, Fifth ed., (St. Paul: Llewellyn Publications, 1986).
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combined elements of Enochian with nineteenth century notions about Egyptian deities. 161 In the course of its brief history, the Golden Dawn counted a number of famous figures among its members, including William Yeats, Maude Gonne, Arthur Machen, Bram Stoker, Evelyn Underhill, Edward Arthur Waite, and others. One of its most famous members was the author and occultist Edward Alexander (Aleister) Crowley. Crowley was a member for only a few years before going on to found his own magical order, the Astron Argon (A. A.), and later to become head of a Masonic fraternity, the Ordo Templi Orientis (O.T.O.), but during his tenure with the Golden Dawn he extensively studied their version of Dees Enochian magical system. He wrote a compact manual for its practice,162 and performed his own scrying of the various celestial planes or aethyrs.163 In the late twentieth century, interest in alternative forms of spirituality exploded in the West: young people eschewed mainstream churches and synagogues and flocked to ashrams, Zen Buddhist retreats, and basement meditation temples. Along with a fascination with all things Asian, interest in the occult was growing, giving rise to the creation of dozens, if not hundreds, of neo-pagan groups, wiccan covens, and of organizations based on (and usually claiming, with varying levels of truthfulness, direct lineal descent from) the Golden Dawn, A. A., and O. T. O. In fact, all three of those nineteenth century orders
161 162
For description and rules, see Regardie, The Golden Dawn, 683-696. See also Colquohoun 254-268. Crowleys work, which he titled Liber Chanokh from the Hebrew spelling of Enoch, is included in Crowley, Aleister, Lon Milo Duquette & Christopher S. Hyatt, The Enochian World of Aleister Crowley: Enochian Sex Magick, (Scottsdale: New Falcon Publications, 1991), 61-102. 163 See Crowley, Aleister, with Victor B. Neuberg and Mary Desti, The Vision and the Voice with Commentary, and Other Papers, Equinox 4, No. 2, (York Beach, Maine: Samuel Weiser, 1998).
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had survived, often in splintered factions, and their descendants also saw a rise in new members at this time.164 Interest in the Golden Dawn, and especially in Crowleys writings, created in turn a new interest in all things Enochian. The secrets that the angels had imparted to Kelley, and which Dee had so painstakingly recorded, were suddenly being openly published and sold in bookstores around the world. In 1950 there were fewer than half a dozen books on Dee, most of them out of print and sitting in libraries at larger universities. By 2000, there were numerous books on Enochian Magick being sold in small occult bookshops, large chain bookstores, and through online vendors such as Amazon. This surge of interest created in turn a new generation of explorers of the magical system outlined in the Conversations. Writers like Denning & Phillips, Lon Milo Duquette, Geoffrey James, Ben Rowe, Gerald Schueler, Donald Tyson, Pat Zalewski, and others began to offer not only records of their own scrying experiments, but also many how to books. Several editions of Causabons A True and Faithful Record were published, Donald Laycock created a dictionary of the angelic language, and writers began to offer eclectic admixtures that Dee might never have imagined. Suddenly, stores were offering books on Enochian Yoga,165 decks of Enochian Tarot cards, 166 and, in what is probably the height of Enochian eclectic-bizarre, a Voodoo Gnostic Workbook that reads
164
A recent (January 2009) online search on Golden Dawn turned up half a dozen competing organizations using the name. 165 See Scheuler, Gerald J. and Betty Scheuler, Enochian Yoga: Uniting Humanity and Divinity, Llewellyns High Magick Series, (St. Paul, Minn.: Llewellyn Publications, 1995). 166 See Duquette, Lon Milo, Tarot of Ceremonial Magick: A Pictorial Synthesis of Three Great Pillars of Magick (Astrology, Enochian Magick, Goetia), (York Beach, Maine: Samuel Weiser, 1995); Genaw, Bill, et. al, A Guide to the Golden Dawn Enochian Skrying Tarot, (St. Paul: Llewellyn, 2004); Scheuler & Schueler, The Enochian Tarot, Llewellyns High Magick Series, Illustrations by Sallie Ann Glassman, (St. Paul: Llewellyn, 1989).
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like a mixture of Dee, H. P. Lovecraft, 1930s Hollywood grade-B thrillers, and automatic writing: The Zothyrians are gnostics in the hyperspatial or metageometrical sense... For the spirits of the Earth, or Malcuth the most sounds are needed, and hence the words in the terrestrial Enochian language have many letters. This is necessarily so, for these entities must penetrate a very dense material sphere of power, ruled by the four elemental kings. 167 The advent of the internet age has predictably created an even greater dissemination of information about, and interest in, Dee and Kelley and the Conversations. There are a number of discussion groups and forums dedicated to the topic, and a recent (January 2009) search turned up 45,000 hits on Dr. John Dee, and a staggering 350,000 hits on Enochian.168 CDs of Crowley reciting the Enochian calls, originally recorded on wax cylinders, are available in music stores, along with heavy metal bands with names like Enochian Stormthrone. The number of books on Dee and the Conversations continues to rise: not only by popular authors like Lon Milo Duquette,169 but academia has finally begun to catch up as well, with well-researched titles by Albanese, Clucas, Clulee, Harkness, Owen, Reeds, Roberts & Watson, Sherman, Shumaker, Sznyi, Szulakowska, Vickers, and others. It has been a long time coming, and it has not involved the kind of Armageddon the angels threatened, but the message first heard by Dee and Kelley is being passed on at last.
167
Bertiaux, Michael, Voudon Gnostic Workbook, expanded ed., (San Francisco: Weiser, 2007), 576. http://www.google.com 169 Duquette, a prolific and highly informative yet entertaining writer on magic and occultism, has perhaps provided the high-water mark in his Enochian Vision Magick (q.v.).
168
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Analysis
As stated at the outset, the purpose of this paper is to examine the Conversations for evidence either in support of or against a theory that they were based upon an elaborate hoax played by Edward Kelley at the expense of John Dee, Dees family, and their various benefactors. Before beginning the analysis of the Conversations with an eye to constructing a theory in regard to their authorship, it will be useful to discuss the resources available to Kelley in such an endeavor. We will then examine in detail the actual content of the Conversations, and the possible theories of authorship. Finally, we will investigate the possible motivations Kelley, and Dee, might have had for a relationship based upon deception, if that was indeed the case.
Resources In examining the question of whether Kelley was the author of a hoax at Dees expense, we must ask whether there were resources available such that he could have pulled off a deception of this sort. To investigate this question, we need to look at Kelleys personal resources in the form of his education and background, as well as external resources such as the books and manuscripts to which he might have had access.
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Kelleys Education and Background As we have seen (Historical Context, sup.), Kelley had received at least a partial college education, and spoke and read Latin, though it does not seem he knew any other languages than Latin and English. He supposedly had no Greek. This raises some issues when the angel Madimi delivers a message in that language, in the course of which Dee is warned not to trust Kelley (she also tells Kelley the message is in Syriac, which raises the question whether angels can lie).170 Further, if we suspect Kelley of being the author of the angels messages, we may find significance in the latters insistence that a message of admonishment to Rudolph be delivered in Latin, not Hungariana language Kelley presumably did not speak. In fact, other than the abovementioned message in Greek, and the delivery of the Enochian language Calls, at no time do the angels capabilities seem to exceed Kelleys.171 We also have evidence that Kelley was well acquainted with magical operations, sances, and scrying, long before he met Dee. There are repeated references to Kelleys familiarity with what is now called Solomonic or Goetic magic,172 in which the operator conjures dead souls or fallen spirits to appear in the chamber, and commands them to do his bidding.173 On June 19, 1583, Dee records:
170 171
TFR 26. See I. R. F. Calder in Quinti, 39. 172 For more on Goetic magic, see Mathers, Goetia and other Solomonic magical texts, as well as those presented in Best & Brightman, Betz, Conybeare, Fangers Conjuring Spirits, Hockley, Kieckhefer, Kuntz, Leitchs Secrets of the Magical Grimoires, Macdonalds translation of Bacons De Nigromancia, Petersons translations of various grimoires, Runyon, Skinner & Rankine on Solomonic magic, Turners 1656 translation of the Ars Notoria, Weyer, etc. 173 See especially Kuntz, Leitch, Mathers, Peterson, Runyon, and Skinner & Rankine for examples.
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Note, my Companion (E.K.) would have caused personal apparitions of some of the reprobate spirits, before the Prince Albert Laskie in my Study, thereby to shew some experience of his skill in such doings : But I would not consent to it.
174
While there are considerable differences between magical operations of this sort and the Enochian system as received in the Conversations, a familiarity with the former might be a useful experience upon which to draw if we posit Kelley as having invented the latter. Even more than the classical Solomonic grimoires, the work of Henry Cornelius Agrippa shows a number of points of similarity with Enochian magicso much so that at one point Kelley complains about the angels cribbing from Agrippa: After half an hour and lesse, [Kelley] came speedily out of his Study, and brought in his hand one Volume of Cornelius Agrippa his works, and in one Chapter of that Book he read the names of Countries and Provinces collected out of Ptolomeum (as the Author there noteth). Whereupon he inferred, that our spiritual instructors were Coseners to give me a description of the World, taken out of other Books : and therefore he would have no more to do with them. I replied, and said, I am very glad that you have a Book of your own, wherein these Geographical names are expressed, such as (for the most part) our Instructors had delivered unto us 175 Whether we read this as Kelleys disingenuousness in order to head off any suspicions on Dees part, or simply another example of his mercurial nature, it demonstrates that the books available to Kelley form a very real resource upon which he might have drawn in order to craft the Conversations. We must now therefore turn our attention to Dees library.
174 175
TFR 20. TFR 158-159.
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The Contents of Dees Library The definitive source of information on Dees library is the masterful work by Julian Roberts and Andrew G. Watson, John Dees Library Catalogue, now regrettably out of print. In this remarkable book, Roberts and Watson provide analyses of Dees life, writing, and book collecting, reproduce in facsimile the library catalog Dee had created shortly before leaving for Europe with Kelley and Laski, discuss the contents of the catalog, and describe the particulars and current whereabouts of every book that can be associated with Dees collection. In addition to presenting a plausible theory as to which books accompanied Dee on that trip, Roberts and Watson provide an extensive breakdown of the collection by topics. It is instructive to take note which of these are best represented in the collection, and their potential utility as a resource to Kelley.
MOST NUMEROUS Agrippa Alchemy (incl. Mining, Metallurgy) Angelology, esp: Pseudo-Dionysus Trithemius Others (see R&W 29) Architecture and Perspective Aristotle Arts, esp. Vitruvius Astrology (incl. Arabic) Roger Bacon
PRESENT TO SOME EXTENT Art of Memory British History Demonology: Jean Bodin: Demonomanie Des Sorciers Malleus Malificarum Menghi: Flagellum Daemonum; Fustis Daemonum Weyer: De Praestigiis Daemonom European History Magic: Agrippa (multiple copies) Liber Juratus
LEAST REPRESENTED Dees own works Grimoires, except as noted176 Law Mysticism (except for Llull) Theology, other than angelology
176
Even if they were in the uncataloged materials, we should have found copies with evidence of Dee ownership, unless he was careful to never mark them in any way, and/or they were all destroyed. Given Dees religious attitude, it seems more likely that he avoided all but the ones that might be considered either angelic or what we would now refer to as natural magic.
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Geometry Hebrew Books (incl. Torah) Ramon Llull Mathematics Medicine, Botany Navigation Neoplatonists: Ficino Iamblichus Pico de Mirandola Porphyry Proclus Psellus Pseudo-Dionysus Synesius The Poemander Paracelsus
Turba Philosophorum Voynich Manuscript (briefly) Trismegistos (several works) Trithemius (1 copy) Book of Soyga (1 copy) Mythology, incl. in Italian Travel, esp. related to Navigation
TABLE 1. BREAKDOWN OF DEES LIBRARY BY TOPIC
We may see from the above that Kelley had access to a number of magical texts, and that Agrippa, who is perhaps the closest in content to the early Enochian material, is one of the best represented authors on magic in Dees library. While we do not find mention of works of mysticism or visions,177 the content of the sermons, millennialist harangues, and allegorical visions delivered by Kelley in the Conversations are such that little background is needed in order for their production. Furthermore, most of the sermons and prophecies Kelley recites are far from inspiring in their composition or delivery, and could be created ex tempore by any fire and brimstone preacher.
177
While the works of Ramon Llull occasionally discuss philosophy and theology in terms that border upon the mystical, he does not engage in the kind of mystical visionary writing of the kind associated with writers like St. Teresa of vila, Jakob Boehm, or the medieval Sufi figures like Mansur al-Hallaj.
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The Content of the Conversations The scrying sessions in which Dee and Kelley engaged were conducted in a variety of settings and conditions; while the record shows that visions were occasionally received spontaneously, there were some standard methods employed in the planned sessions. These generally began with the room being arranged for the purpose by setting up the table and its linens, and placing upon it one of Dees shewstones.178 Then followed a period of prayer which generally lasted between a quarter to half an hour, while Kelley waited to see something in the stone. [Kelley] than settled himself to the Action: and on his Knees att my desk (setting the stone before him) fell to prayer and entreaty &c. In the mean space, I, in my Oratory did pray, and make motion to God, and his good Creatures for the furdering of this Action. And within one quarter of an howre (or less) he had sight of one in the stone179 When the vision began, Kelley would report what he saw and heard to Dee, who recorded each session. Often there was some dialogue with Dee asking questions or making comments, and Kelley reporting the angels responses. Kelley, too, would occasionally speak to the angels, again communicating the angels replies to Dee. There were many days when the two would engage in multiple sessions on the same day. These might be occasioned by material matters such as pausing for mealtimes, or by the angels commands to rest for a while and return again later.
178
The term shewstone (signifying a stone in which some vision is shown to the viewer) is used by Dee to refer to several different stones. He is known to have used a small crystal sphere much like todays fortunetellers, and there is some evidence that he also used a polished obsidian mirror. There is some controversy over this latter, in regard to whether the item displayed in the British Museum as Dees mirror was in fact his, or whether it is a hoax perpetrated after Dees death. See British Museum, Dr. Dees Mirror; Clulee, Nicolas, John Dees Natural Philosophy: Between Science and Religion, (London: Routledge, 1988), 206-207 & Figs. 8.1, 8.2; Harkness 30; Quinti 19 n54; Sherman 35. 179 Quinti 66-67.
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The actual content of the Conversations falls into four broad categories: (a) Sermons, prophecies and predictions, occasionally interspersed with exhortations that Dee and Kelley had been chosen especially to deliver the angels message to mankind; (b) Various allegorical visions in imagery reminiscent of dream sequences or the sort of alchemical metaphorical images found in alchemical works;180 (c) Admonishments directed to Dee, and even more to Kelley, on how to conduct themselves; and (d) Instructions related to the magical system: the technical components of Enochian magic including the Angelic language,181 various tables of letter squares, furnishings and instruments they are directed to make, and instructions on how to use it all.
England 1582-83 Sermons, Prophecies, Predictions Allegorical Visions, Apparitions Personal Admonishments, Orders Magical Information, Instructions TOTAL
Europe 1583-89
14 (19%) 15 (21%) 17 (23%) 27 (37%) 73
121 (39%) 76 (24%) 68 (22%) 48 (15%) 313
TABLE 2. CONTENT RECEIVED IN THE ANGELIC CONVERSATIONS RAW DATA
180 181
See the illustrations published later in the works of Lambsprinke, Khunrath, Maier, or Fludd. For an in-depth analysis of the Enochian alphabet and language, see Laycock 27-47. For an exploration of the connections between Enochian and Early Modern concepts of Adamic language, see Harkness, Sznyi, and Woolley.
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It is interesting to note the distribution of these content categories, and how they change over time. During the period of Dee & Kelleys collaboration prior to leaving England for Europe, the bulk of the Conversations was taken up with magical information and instruction, followed by personal admonitions and orders, then allegorical visions and apparitions, and lastly by sermons, prophecies and predictions. Once on the Continent, however, the order is reversed: sermons and prophecies predominate, followed by allegorical visions, then personal admonishments, and last and least, magic.
15% 37% 39% 19% 21% 23% England 1582-83 24% 22% Europe 1583-89
Magic Sermons & Predict. Visions Commands
FIGURE 1. CONTENT RECEIVED IN THE ANGELIC CONVERSATIONS DISTRIBUTION
There is considerable overlap of categories in any given session, therefore the statistical data here provided must be approximate. The analysis that follows was derived by in-depth examination of Dees records for the period.182 For each record the date and location of the session, the type of messages received (sermon, allegorical vision, personal admonishment, magic, etc.), and the information therein, was noted. Where a message
182
Primarily the Dee MSS, Diaries, Quinti, and TFR.
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bears a relationship to other messages, or a resemblance to a potential resource, that fact was noted. Lastly, if any surmises as to the messages impact upon our question of authorship may be adduced, that too was considered.
Sermons, Prophecies, and Predictions There were a great many sermons and prophecies, predominantly directed towards humankind in general rather than Dee & Kelley, and almost always of a millennialist nature. Most of these are frankly not of the highest quality, and seem much like the haranguing of a second rate fire and brimstone preacher: This moneth in the fourth year, shall Antichrist be known unto all the world. Then shall wo, wo, dwell among the Kings of the earth : For they shall be chosen all anew. Neither shall there any that ruleth now, or reigneth as a King, or Governor of the le, live unto the end of the third year : But they shall all perishe. 183 Among these sermons are a number of prophecies, both of great changes to come in the world with the dawning of a new age, as well as occasional predictions of a more practical nature, such as those foreseeing the death of Mary Stuart, and the sinking of the Spanish Armada, noted above. Overall, the sermons and millennialist prophecies seem to be fairly standard, and it would not have been particularly difficult for Kelley to create them. Certainly Dee evi-
183
TFR 60.
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dences no great surprise at either their content or their style, and as many writers have pointed out, the late sixteenth century was a period of great millennialist speculation.184 None of the material of this type that was recorded in the Conversations gives cause to question whether Kelley could have been its creator. Furthermore, of the various predictions recorded very few came true.185 The beheading of Mary Stuart and the sinking of the Spanish Armada are among the very few successes in this regard; far more often Kelley delivers incorrect predictions. Examples of the latter include the angel Uriels prediction that Dee would live to be 111,186 and a spirit named Galvah prophesying (repeatedly) that Prince Laski would be king of Poland within a year,187 but that if Laski failed to serve the angels purposes his bowels would fall out,188 and so on. Added to the list of failures are prophecies of the impending end of the world as they know it, such as this one: Behold, now cometh that day, that is known unto the Lord himself, wherein the Kingdoms of the earth shall begin to fall: thay they may perceive how they have run astray . . . In the year eighty eight, shall you see the Sun move contrary to his course, The Stars increase their light: and some of them fall from heaven. Then shall the rivers run blood: Then shall the wo be unto women with child: Then shall the time come to passe, that this Prophesie shall be known. Behold I will send before that day, Elias again among you. 189
184
185
See, for example, Harkness passim. See Quinti 40-41 for Petersons comments on the unreliability of the angels information. 186 Quinti 66. 187 TFR 17. 188 TFR 139. 189 TFR 233.
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In fact, of some 165 predictions and prophecies, roughly one third were later contradicted by subsequent sessions, such as when the predictions of Laskis imminent accession to the throne of Poland are subsequently replaced by warnings that Laski had fallen from heavenly favor and was in danger of early death neither of which came to pass. Out of the total number of prophecies received probably less than 5% can be considered to have come to pass, not an impressive track record even for a human, much less for supposed angels sent from God. As far as this category of received material, then, there is little that would argue against the likelihood of Kelley as its source.
Allegorical Visions and Apparitions Although fewer in number than the sermons, the allegorical visions remain some of the most striking of the images received, though also among the hardest to interpret: E.K. espied a little naked boy, with a white cloth scarf, from under his Navel hanging down unto his knees; The hair of his head is short as of an young child: He had a little Circle of aire in his hand: There is a light in the stone as if there were the shining of the Sunne in it He throweth up the Circlet, and catcheth it againe, three times; He standeth still, and saith nothing more yet. Now he is turned into a water which goeth round about, and in the midst of it is bloud. Now he is returned to his former shape again. 190 In addition to the allegorical visions seen in the shewstone, Dee also records a number of apparitions which Kelley reports seeing in the room, or out of doors. During one
190
TFR 400.
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session Kelley claims that devils are pinching him, and shows the bruises to Dee; at another he claims to see angels hovering over the attendees. There is also a record of a gardener-like figure who allegedly restores to Kelley some of the books which the angels had previously caused him to burn, and who then disappears into the trunk of a tree. Oddly, at least to present-day skeptical minds, Dee evinces no doubt as to the reality of these reports. Whether it is the supposedly miraculous recovery of the books he thought had been burnt, or the sudden manifestation of wicked spirits assaulting Kelley, Dee records them without comment, much less skepticism. Clearly, the allegorical passages are within the abilities of someone as versed in alchemical texts as Kelley, and there seems little reason to doubt that a convicted criminal with a record of counterfeiting and cozening or fraud would find sleight of hand beyond his capabilities. Once again there is no reason to believe Kelley could not have created these messages and apparent miracles.
Personal Admonishments and Commands The angels also delivered a number of personal admonishments and directives, aimed at correcting Dee or Kelleys actions or at ordering their next movements. Some took the form of scolding, especially of Kelley, for various activities or attitudes. For example, the angels several times scold Kelley for working with unclean spirits in his personal magical undertakings, which were of the sort outlined in traditional Solomonic grimoires.
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Gal: Whosoever taketh servants of the wicked, to prove the glory of God, is accursed. But O Satan, how many are they deceits? Dee: Note, my companion (E.K.) would have caused personal apparitions of some of the reprobate spirits, before the Prince Albert Laskie in my study, thereby to shew some experience of his skill in such doings : But I would not consent to it : And thereupon Galvah gave judgement and warning of such an error, of my Companion his intent, &c. 191 At other times, the pair are reprimanded for not having carried out some previous order, such as when Dee makes excuses for not having obtained the ring he had been told to make.192 The angels also deliver admonishments on larger life matters as well. They are several times told to work as one, both in speech and in allegorical visions, such as when Kelley is shown an image of two birds yoked together and told that it is a reference to Dee and Kelley working together.193 The most extreme version of this is the set of commands and allegorical images in which they are told to hold all things in common, leading to the wife-swapping incident. The angels also deliver a series of orders in regard to Dee & Kelleys peregrinations on the Continent: they are told to move from Lasko to Cracow, and later from Cracow to Prague; during this period they are instructed to renounce their attempts to seek Emperor Rudolphs patronage and concentrate on King Stephen of Poland instead. These messages, along with Kelleys actions that apparently prompted them, and his reactions to them, are worth noting. Time and again Dee records that Kelleys mercurial nature prompted a rebuke being received in a subsequent session, as when Kelley is admonished for his outbursts of anger. One of the most curious is a session in which the an191 192
TFR 21. Quinti 215. 193 Quinti 175-176.
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gel Madimithrough Kelleygives Dee a message in Greek (which Kelley supposedly does not speak) in which she warns Dee not to trust Kelley. If Kelley in fact did not speak Greek, we are left with a puzzle as to how he was able to transmit the message. If Kelley did in fact have some Greek and had been fooling Dee, or even if he simply memorized the lines ahead of time, we are left with the problem of why he would deliver a message in which he characterized himself as unreliable. While it is plausible that a charlatan might (as Kelley did) threaten to leave, or pretend to receive messages scolding himself, and so on, it seems more reasonable to expect such behavior from someone who is concerned about convincing his dupe. Yet given that Dee seems to have already been quite convinced of the veracity of the sessions, deception of this sort seems superfluous. We will examine Kelleys, and Dees, motivations in a subsequent section, but for the time being we may note this phenomenon of constant admonition as a possible anomaly to the theory of deception on Kelleys part. At any rate, nothing here precludes the possibility of a hoax. The one possible exception, i.e., the message in Greek, is problematic if we can believe that Kelley was ignorant of the language.
Magical Information and Instructions The magical instructions appear at first glance to be divided into three somewhat discrete sections, and many of the popular authors have treated it as falling into what have been called (for reasons we will see shortly), the Heptarchic, Logaeth, and Eno-
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chian magical systems. A closer reading, however, shows that there are more nuanced differences between the material received, as well as demonstrating that, rather than being neatly divisible into discrete parts, there is in fact a logical progression with each piece building upon the one before. The first magical instructions received deal with what we may loosely call the preparatory stage. This includes directions on creating the magical accoutrementsa table on which to place the shewstone, a magical ring and breastplate or lamen for Dee to wear, a wax seal carved with magical symbols to set under the stone, planetary symbols to be placed around the stone upon the table of practice, and so on. While these are corrected and added to later on, the bulk of this information is given at the beginning of the Conversations. All of this is familiar to any reader of medieval grimoires, which as we have demonstrated both Dee and Kelley were. In fact, in some of the early sessions the angels seem to be borrowing directly from material in Dees library, as when they tell Dee that the wax disk to be engraved with the Sigillum Dei Aemeth, or sigil of Gods truth, may be done by using the version of the sigil printed in the famous medieval grimoire known as the Sworn Book of Honorius, or Liber Juratus,194 which Dee is told is already perfected.195 Yet only one week later, Kelley begins receiving a corrected version.
For more on this important work, see Fanger, Claire, ed., Conjuring Spirits Texts and Traditions of Medieval Ritual Magic, Magic in History Series, (University Park, Penn.: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1998). 195 Quinti 66.
194
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FIGURE 2. SIGILLUM DEI AEMETH LIBER JURATUS
FIGURE 3. SIGILLUM DEI AEMETH DEE & KELLEY
The preliminaries in place, the next set of directions has to do with further planetary magic, the Heptarchic system. This is also known as the Bonorum material, a reference to the forty-nine (i.e., seven time seven) good angels who are related to the seven classical planets, elements, days of the week, etc. The information received seems to be strongly reminiscent of the type of material seen in Solomonic grimoires as well as the writings of Agrippa: King Bobogel. [He] appeared in a blak veluet coat; and his hose was close rownd hose with veluet upperstocks : ouerlayed with gold lace : On his hed a veluet hatcap with a blak feather in it : with a Cape hanging on one of his sholders, his purse hanging abowt his neck and so put under his gyredell at which hong a gylt rapier, his berd was long : and he had pantofells and pynsons. And he sayd, I
weare these Robes, not in respect of my self, but of my government, &c.. 196
196
Quinti 184-185.
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Compare with this portion of the Mathers translation of the Solomonic Goetia: Furcas. He is a Knight, and appeareth in the Form of a Cruel Old Man with a long Beard and a hoary Head, riding upon a pale-coloured Horse, with a Sharp Wea-pon in his hand. His Office is to teach the Arts of Philosophy, Astrology, Rhetoric, Logic, Cheiromancy, and Pyromancy, in all their parts, and perfectly. He hath under his Power 20 Legions of Spirits. 197 In fact, much of this material is straight out of Agrippa and similar sources. On Kelleys second visit to Dee, the archangel Michael names the angel NA as the angel of [Dees] profession. 198 Kelley questions this, but Dee reassures him that the angel is found in Reuchlins De Arte Cabalistica, where he is named Enay. Rather than suspecting Kelley of cribbing, Dee takes this as corroboration of the scryers abilities a pattern found throughout their relationship: whenever Kelley raises an objection to the material he is himself providing, it is Dee who reassures him of its veracity. Another example of Kelley transmitting material found in the doctors library, comes at the very next session, on March 15, 1582. In it, Kelley not only reports the arrival of the angel Salamian, who is found in Pietro di Abanos Heptameron, but also refers to an angel named Och, who is listed in the Arbatel as one of the seven planetary spirits, in this case the Intelligence associated with the Solar sphere. The bulk of the material received in this early period has to do with the various orders of angels whose names may be extracted from the Sigillum Dei Aemeth (vide. sup.), and a new set of forty-nine angels known as the Heptarchia (seven rulers), or the
Mathers, S. L. MacGregor, trans., The Goetia the Lesser Key of Solomon the King (Lemegeton Book 1, Clavicula Salomonis Regis), edited, annotated, and illustrated by Aleister Crowley, illustrated 2nd ed., edited by Hymenaeus Beta [pseud.], (York Beach, Maine: Weiser, 1995), 54. 198 Quinti 73.
197
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Bonorum angels. There are some innovations in the Bonorum system as found in the Conversations, such as the fact that all of the angels names begin with the letter B perhaps a connection to the first letter of the Bible.199
FIGURE 4. ANGELS OF THE BONORUM
The angels of the Bonorum fall into the standard hierarchical structure familiar to pre-modern society, with a king, a prince, and several subordinateshere a grouping of seven angels for each of the seven days/elements/planets. This association between the seven classical planets, the days of the week, and seven elements, is a familiar formula
199
In Hebrew, the first word of the Torah is Bereshith, or Beginning. It is also the name of the chapter known in English as Genesis, and means much the same thing. Whole works of qabalistic exegesis have been written about why the Torah begins with Beth, B, rather than Aleph, A.
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going back to classical times and possibly to Sumeria, and is found in many medieval texts.200 There are in these early sessions already a number of occasions where Dee points out errors in the system as received, whereupon the angels call a halt, and after a break of anywhere from an hour to a day, a correction is received. For example, at one session Kelley transmits a method of extracting angelic names from the Sigillum. When Dee tries to follow the directions and the method fails, the angels tell the pair to rest for an hour. When the session resumes, a revision to the method is provided. This time, the extraction is successful.
FIGURE 5. ENSIGN OF CREATION - JUPITER
Another set of instructions received at this time is for an arrangement of seven diagrams to be placed on the table of working, which the angels call the Ensigns of Creation. These, too, are related to the seven planets, but they bear little resemblance to any
200
See Tyson, Donald, Three Books of Occult Philosophy, Written by Henry Cornelius Agrippa of Nettesheim [1510], Llewellyns Sourcebook Series, trans. James Freake, (St. Paul: Llewellyn, 1993), passim.
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planetary sigils201 found elsewhere; in fact, they appear to be rather random. Each is filled with many repeated letters and random numbers that do not seem to bear any coded relationship to the alphabet. While most sigils from the medieval grimoires are created by drawing a line upon a letter or number grid to make a symbol connecting the letters of a name of power (see Figure 11, infra), these are something one might expect to see created by a purely random process. Despite the occasional variations and innovations in this material, it remains at core derivative. There is nothing in all this to raise any doubts that Kelley could have cobbled it together from existing sources and an active imagination and perhaps a bit of glossolalia. The only potential objection might be Kelleys occasional questioning of the messages received, which we may read either as a way to head off any suspicions Dee might have had about the derivative nature of the material, or as a genuine argument between two sides of Kelleys personality, or, if we do not take the skeptical viewpoint, between Kelley and some discarnate entities. Continuing the schema of revelations based upon powers of seven, the angels next provide instructions on a Book of Logaeth to be constructed of forty-nine pages. Each page contains a grid of 49 x 49 letters, delivered row by row to Kelley in both English and what the spirits describe as the angelic or Enochian alphabet and language. The fullest investigation into this new language remains Donald Laycocks Complete Eno201
Sigils, which are symbols drawn on parchment, ceramic tiles, metal plates, and such, and charged or imbued with magical properties, have an ancient history of usage going back at least to the Classical period or earlier. They are used for a variety of purposes, from apotropaic amulets to devices for summoning spirits. See Barretts Magus (which is itself largely a plagiarism of Agrippa); Meyer, Marvin & Richard Smith, Ancient Christian Magic: Coptic Texts of Ritual Power, Coptic Magical Texts Project, Institute for Antiquity & Christianity, (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, HarperCollins Publishers, 1994); Tysons translation of Agrippa; etc..
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chian Dictionary. In it, Laycock provides the results of some decades of research into the Enochian alphabet, syntax, and grammatical structure, and puts it all into the context of previous theories on the subject. In contemporary academic literature, both Sznyi and Szulakowska must be mentioned for their discussions of Enochian in the context of pre- and early-Modern concepts of an Edenic or Adamic proto-language spoken before the Biblical Fall. Dee certainly would have been intimately acquainted with such ideas, and there is no reason to believe Kelley would have been any less familiar than Dee. this that we deliver, that Adam spake in his infancy, and was never uttered or disclosed to Man since till now, wherein the power of God must work, and wisdom in her true kind be delivered . . . for as this Work and Gift is of God, which is all power, so doth he open it in a tongue of power . . . Thus you see there, the Necessity of this Tongue : The Excellency of it, And the Cause why it is preferred before that which you call Hebrew. 202 The closest correlative of the Logaeth tables that I can find (aside from the incorporation of some of the names from the Bonorum, as seen in Figure 9, infra), is in the magical squares of The Book of Abramelin.203 However, whereas in the Abramelin the squares are similar to classical number squares and the well-known SATOR square (see Figure 7, infra), the Logaeth squares contain a mixture of names, random (or at least unordered) letters, and numbers. Furthermore, the squares of the Abramelin are to be used to cause changes in the material world, and are to be employed only after the magician has completed the greater task of knowledge and conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel and
202 203
TFR 92. Originally written in German between 1387 and 1427, first published ca. 1458. Later brought to wider notice when translated by Mathers in 1900. The best modern edition is Dehn, Georg, ed., The Book of Abramelin by Abraham von Wurms [1458], trans. Stephen Guth, (Lake Worth, Fl.: Ibis Press, 2006).
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of subduing the princes and legions of Hell. The Logaeth squares, in contrast, are received as a preliminary step by which Dee and Kelley will, under the angels guidance, craft the final set of tables by which all things in the world are to be controlled: the Watchtowers of the World or elemental tablets.
11 24 7 20 3 4 12 25 8 16 17 5 13 21 9 10 18 1 14 22 23 6 19 2 15
FIGURE 6. NUMBER SQUARE
S A T O R
A R E P O
T E N E T
O P E R A
R O T A S
FIGURE 7. SATOR SQUARE
FIGURE 8. ABRAMELIN SQUARE 204
204
Dehn 146, Fig 23.
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FIGURE 9. LIBER LOGAETH, SAMPLE PAGE
Finally, building upon all the material previously obtained, Dee and Kelley receive the so-called Enochian system.205 This information is complex, and deserves a more de-
205
It should be noted that Dees only reference to this term is in calling referring to Liber Logaeth as the book of Enoch; it is only later writers that use the term Enochian to refer to the magical system as a whole.
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tailed description than can be provided here. 206 Drawing upon the tables of letters in Liber Logaeth, the angels communicate a set of invocations, or Calls. At first, the calls are delivered backwards, one letter at a time, being extracted from the tables in Liber Logaeth: D 225 From the low angle on the right side. Continuing in the same and next square. A In the thirteenth table, 740, ascending in his square M The 30th Table, 13025, from the low angle in the left-side Call it MAD. 207 Finding the process unwieldy in the extreme, Dee asks that the Calls be delivered directly, rather than by Kelleys peering into the stone to see which square is being pointed to by the angel Nalvage. After the first few Calls have been recorded, permission is granted, and thereafter the angels simply tell Kelley words of the Calls. Each word is spelled out in the Enochian alphabet, then the pronunciation of each word is given. ZLIDA CAOSGI TOLTORGI OD ZIZOP ZCHIS Zod-lida Ca s gi Toltrgi Od Zi-zop Zod chis 208
206
Recommended references include Duquette, Lon Milo, Enochian Vision Magick: An Introduction and Practical Guide to the Magick of Dr. John Dee and Edward Kelley, (San Francisco: Red Wheel/Weiser, 2008), and Christeos Pir, The Enochian Watchtowers of the World. 207 TFR 79. 208 TFR 120.
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Some time later, the angels deliver the English translations. This is an important point to remember: all of the Calls are delivered in Enochian, one letter at a time, and the English translations are received three months lateryet the vocabulary, syntax, and grammar of the Calls is consistent. These Calls, the angels tell Dee and Kelley, are to be used in conjunction with a new set of tables to open even greater secrets, and to obtain the obedience of various angels charged with effecting change in our world. This second set of tables is referred to as the Elemental Tables, or Watchtowers of the World. There are four of these, one for each of the classical elements, and associated with the directions of the compass; each table consists of a grid of 12 x 13 letters:
FIGURE 10. ENOCHIAN TABLE (EAST)
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Each table is subdivided, per the angels instructions, into subquadrants, each of which in turn contains a Calvary cross and surrounding letters. Between each subquadrant are three lines: the two vertical lines associated with the Father and the Son of the Trinity, and the horizontal line of the Holy Spirit. They are further told that the line of the Holy Spirit for each table contains the threefold Name of God associated with that table, consisting of three, four, and five letters respectively (thus in our example above, the Name is ORO IBAH AOZPI). There is a name of the King who rules each table (under God, of course), whose names are extracted by drawing an inward spiral at the center of the square; the ending letter, Dee is told, may be drawn from either the Line of the Father or the Line of the Son, depending whether the desired effect is a work of Mercy or Severity (e.g., BATAIVA and BATAIVH in this example). This is clearly linked to the symbol of the Otz Chaim, or Tree of Life, in Jewish Qabalah, which is divided into three columns or pillars which are associated with Mercy, Severity, and Balance. There are other associations for each of the subsections: six Seniors whose names are extracted from the three central lines radiating outward from the central squares (e.g., HABIORO, AAZOAIF, HTMORDA, AHAOZPI, HIPOTGA, and AVTOTAR), the Angels of each Calvary cross (e.g., ARDZA and IDOIGO, etc.), the Kerubic angels extracted from the squares above each cross (e.g., RZLA, etc.), and the angels of the subquadrant below the arms of each cross (e.g., CZNS, TOTT, SIAS, FMND, etc.). Each of these Kerubic and Subquadrant angels names can be further manipulated through rota-
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tion of letters; thus CZNS gives the names ZNSC, NSCZ, and SCZN as well, though we are not told under what circumstances or to what purpose this is to be done. These various members of the heavenly hierarchy have their particular areas of concern. The Calvary cross angels, for example, are employed to called upon to command their subordinate angels (the subquadrant angels, beneath the arms of the cross): the first name, found in the vertical line (e.g., IDOIGO), calls forth the power of the subangle; the second, from the horizontal line (e.g., ARDZA), compels the subangle angel to do the magicians will. The Kerubic angels above the crosses of each subquadrant have their own functions: knitting together or destruction of natures, moving objects or oneself from place to place, discovery of secrets and hidden knowledge, and success in arts, crafts and sciences. The angels of the subquadrants also have their particular natures: treating and curing of disease, knowledge finding and use of metals, knowledge of elemental creatures, and changes of form but not substance. These tasks or areas of concern are fairly standard and may be found in most medieval and later grimoires. Compare, for example, a brief list from The Book of Abramelin on the uses of certain magical symbols: To create visions; For working mines; To obtain lost books, hidden manuscripts, and such. Traveling in the air: On a ship On a cloak
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On a cloud.209 Also related to their use is a list of some ninety-one geographical parts of the world, each ruled by a particular angelic governor. Herein lies another interesting complexity in the reception of the Enochian system. When the Calls were received in Spring of 1584, Dee and Kelley were told: There are 30 Calls yet to come. Those 30 are the Calls of Ninety-one Princes and Spiritual Governors, unto whom the Earth is delivered as a portion. These bring in and dispose Kings and all the governments upon the Earth, and vary the natures of things with the variation of every moment210 The angels then delivered the list of parts of the world and their respective governors. A month or so later, when the elemental tables were received, Dee and Kelley found that the names of the governors were all encoded into the elemental squares, in an extremely intricate manner: During the working of Monday, June 25, 1584, Kelley was given in vision four blank grids, each of which was twelve squares wide by thirteen squares high. These grids were said to represent the four quarters of the unlettered Great Table of the vision of a few days earlier. As the vision proceeded, little pricks, or dots, began to appear in the squares. Kelley was then instructed to connect the dots in groups of seven, which created sigils, each forming a curious pattern. When he was through connecting the dots, all but eight of the 624 squares that make up the four grids were covered by eighty-eight characters, each unique in form, each covering seven squares, but none of which intruded upon another characters squares. . . Once the blank grids were filled with the lines of the symmetrical characters, Kelley was instructed to fill in the squares with letters. Starting at the top left of each grid and moving to the right, letters began to appear to Kelley, one by one, as Dee copied them down. Some of the letters were capitalized, but most were not. . .
209 210
Dehn 148, 151, 155, 165. TFR 139-140.
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When all four grids were filled in with letters and characters, it became clear that the characters spelled out names. Not only that, but each of these eighty-eight names also began with a capital letter and contained no other capital letter among the remaining six. Within a few hours (and with helpful hints from the angels), the two magicians discovered, to their utter amazement, that the symmetrical characters spelled out all but three of the divine names of the ninety-one parts of the earthnames they have been given days earlier and in list format. 211
FIGURE 11. SIGILS OF THE GOVERNORS
211
Duquette, Enochian Vision Magic, 131-132.
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Other information was also encoded in the tables. Dee and Kelley were told that a list of Cacodaimons could be constructed by using two squares from the subangles plus one from the Black Cross or letters between the elemental tables, but when Dee pressed the angels for exact instructions they put him off. The pair were also shown how to construct a new table from the letters of the Black Cross, the names of which in some way both bind together and rule over the elemental tables as a whole.
FIGURE 12. GREAT TABLE (RECENSA VERSION, 1587)
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E X A R
H C O M A N A N T A B I T O M
FIGURE 13. TABLET OF SPIRIT - FROM BLACK CROSS NAMES
Interspersed with these instructions are various other interlocking pieces of the magical system: assorted lists of angels names extracted from other tables, advice for magical cures to their health issues, 212 orders to create a book with silvered pages upon which the angels would magically write after a nineteen-day purification rite (which Dee never performed), 213 and an encoded message of alchemical directions. This last may have provided the basis for the alchemical research that consumed their final days together: Take common Audcal, purge and work it by Rlodnr of four divers digestions, continuing the last digestion for fourteen dayes, in one and a swift proportion, until it be Dlafod fixed in a most red and luminous body, the Image of Resurrection214
212
To Dees request for a remedy for some difficulty Jane suffers during pregnancy, Kelley relates a prescription from the archangels Uriel and Gabriel involving a pint of wheat, a live pheasant-cock, 11 oz of masculine or white amber, 1 oz of unwashed turpentine, and a gallon of red wine, with instructions on how to distill it; the results to be taken both orally and by syringe. When Kelley asks why the angels do not just cure her themselves, the answer more or less boils down to you asked for advice, here it is now do as you are told. 213 The similarities between this and the Abramelin work are so striking that one can only hope some researcher will take the time to investigate the possible connections. Both of these include instructions on a graduated series of purifications, prayers, and invocations, at the climax of which the angels will write directly upon a silver or similar surface. Although the Abramelin is tentatively dated to the late fourteenth century, no connection has been yet proven between it and the Conversations. I have not turned up any other medieval magical texts in which the angels are said to write upon a silvered or similar surface. The widely known Sworn Book of Honorius, also known as Liber Juratus, has a 28-day working, and its predecessor, John the Monks Book of Visions an 8 (or 9) week working, but neither mentions the creation of a surface for receiving miraculous writing. See Dehn 130-131; Fanger Conjuring Spirits 143 ff; TFR 159. 214 TFR 387.
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Of all the content received in the Conversations, the Enochian material presents the greatest level of difficulty to the theory of Kelleys authorship. We have noted two such problematic areas above. One is the reception of the translations of the Calls weeks after the Enochian version, with no loss of grammatical coherence. The other is the intricate interconnectedness of the letters of the elemental tablets, received by rows on 25 June 1584, with the names of the 91 Governors of the various Agrippan Parts of the World, received on 21 May 1584.215 Other anomalies include the grammatical consistency of the Enochian language, the poetic skill of the Calls as compared to Kelleys rather pedestrian writing, and the sheer complexity of the system as a whole. There are also a few points when Dee records hearing or seeing some physical manifestation himself. He finds the crystal ball the angels have allegedly delivered by magical means, sees the marks on Kelleys body where the devils have supposedly pinched him, and several times hears knocks, or feels something moving on his head. Against these several points a number of areas are certainly more indicative of the possibility of fraud: the constant corrections and revisions. often received by Kelley working alone in his chambers, the angels supposed fits of pique when Dee questions an inconsistency, the occasional borrowings from known material, and the influence of other methodologies such as those employed in Qabalah.216
215 216
TFR 138 ff, 175 ff. For example, compare the rotation of angels names on p. 65, sup., with the practice of Tziruph, or the anagrammatical nature of angelic names with that of Notariqon. Oddly, there does not seem to be any par-
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While perhaps not insurmountable, the anomalies encountered are at least not inconsiderable. In order to fit them into a theory of authorship by Kelley, we must believe that he was able to induce Dee to accept as genuine the physical manifestations noted above, and we must further suppose Kelley capable either of prodigious feats of memory, or of being able to hide some extremely detailed crib sheets from Dees unsuspecting eyes.
Theories of Authorship There are a number of possible theories of authorship, each of which has had its proponents, and each having arguments in favor of, or against, their viability. Not all of these hypotheses are entirely mutually exclusive, of course, and some writers have proposed theories combining one or more of the above.
Kelley Was In Contact With Angels This is the position of the believers of various stripes, beginning with Meric Causabon and Elias Ashmole in the seventeenth century, later exemplified by the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn in the nineteenth century, and extending up to the current generation of occultists attempting to perform Enochian Magick themselves.
allel to Gematria, the widely-used exegetical method of comparing words or names by means of numerological analysis.
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Causabon we will examine below, but it is clear that Ashmoles interest in Dee ran beyond mere fascination into emulation: he created magical sigils,217 was like Dee fascinated by crystal-gazing, and as noted above may have been the first person to actually attempt the performance of the Enochian Calls.218 We have already demonstrated that the members of the Golden Dawn were convinced that Dee and Kelleys angels were quite real, and that they themselves set out to make contact with these spiritual creatures, as seen in Farrs Enochian Experiments of the Golden Dawn, which provides transcriptions of scrying sessions carried out by Farr and others. Arthur Edward Waite was also a member of the Golden Dawn, and opines in his biographical preface to Kelleys alchemical work, it must be admitted that either he was a clairvoyant of advanced grade, or he was a man of most ingenious invention.219 In the early part of the twentieth century, Aleister Crowley, another believer, performed a series of scryings of the Enochian Aethyrs or celestial planes of existence surrounding the mundane world. Since then, a large number of would-be magicians and occultists have been inspired by the Golden Dawn and Crowley to try their hands at contacting Dee and Kelleys angels. Among those writing about Dee and Kelley, Donald Tyson refers to the angels as either messengers of God or shadow personalities within the unconscious minds of the two men,220 but since his book is a how-to guide that details his own experiments with
For Ashmoles experimentation in this regard, see Churton 259 ff. Churton 259. 219 Waite xxvi. 220 Tyson, Donald, Enochian Magic for Beginners: The Original System of Angel Magic, (St. Paul: Llewellyn, 1997), xii.
218
217
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the Enochian system, we may presume he leans strongly toward the first interpretation. Suster opines that it is also very doubtful whether a mere trickster could have endured the boredom of taking down the Enochian alphabet for fourteen months,221 which is not an entirely accurate portrait of the Conversations but gives us some idea of his take on the issue. Geoffrey James offers a number of possibilities, including that the Dee-Kelley ceremonies contain some evidence that would seem to indicate the presence of the supernatural beings during some of the ceremonies.222 Deacon is a bit harder to read. At first his discussion of the Conversations is couched in phrasing that can either be taken as belief, or as suspension of opinion. Either Kelley actually saw and heard the bulk of what he reported to Dee or either one man or both were conducting an elaborate and complicated piece of make-believe for some special purpose, possibly a system of cryptography. It is perhaps just possible that what happened was a combination of both these conclusions. 223
However, in some places Deacon seems to unequivocally indicate that he believes in the existence of Kelleys angels: It is easy to dismiss this [i.e., the Conversations] as meaningless gibberish. It would be wrong to do so because the whole system has a positive pattern which leads logically from one conclusion to another One cannot dismiss the whole business as a fraud, because something that escapes normal explanation was occurring. 224 Deacon goes on to say that:
221 222
JD 94. James, Geoffrey, ed. & trans., The Enochian Evocation of Dr. John Dee, (Gillette, N.J.: Heptangle Books, 1984), xxi (hereinafter GJ). 223 Deacon 151. 224 Deacon 150
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there seems to be no question of Kelley having plagiarized, or cribbed from previous secret languages. Even if he had, it seems absolutely impossible that he could have memorized so complicated a system, though something of the sort might just conceivably have been achieved telepathically. 225 Even professor of metaphysical religion Alex Owen comes across as either admitting the existence of the Enochian angels, or at the very least in writing from a position of suspension of disbelief: John Dee used Kelleys gifts as an expert scryer, one who could travel in the many realms of spirit existence, to vicariously enter into conversation with the angels in order to tempt from them the secrets of the universe.226 And of course, the hundreds of self-styled Enochian magicians among todays occultists fall under the banner of believers.227 This theory, that discarnate spiritual entities exist and may be contacted by certain means, is obviously of ancient origin and shows no sign of abating even in our scientific times. We need not go into a protracted discussion of the merits of this belief, noting only that it is one that has been studied, and debated, at length. The question of whether it can adequately explain the Conversations is no less problematic. It would indeed provide adequate justification for Dees motives, and for Kelleys bouts of resistance to messages received that were contrary to what he wished to hear, as well accounting for the occasional prophecies that were subsequently borne out. The theory would also explain the physical manifestations Dee reports, and the occasional warn-
225 226
Deacon 151. Owen 196. 227 See, for example, Leitch, Aaron, Can We Trust Dees Angels? (online forum posting. Angelical Linguistics Forum, 07 Sep. 2008, 11:39 a.m. Accessed 07 Sep. 2008, http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ angelical_linguistics/).
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ings addressed to Dee, delivered by the angels through Kelley but in language that Kelley did not himself understand, that Kelley was not to be trustedsomething we would little expect Kelley to have done of his own volition. Another point in favor of this theory is the complexity of the Enochian magical system itself. Richard Deacon points out: Enochian is a complete language of its own, with its own alphabet, grammar, tablets, Aethyrs, kings, seniors, and has a compete system of Calls of its own. There is no reference to it prior to Dees time So, if the Enochian alphabet did not come out of Dees shewstone, who invented it? It is a valid language of its own, but one needs a high intelligence quotient to attempt to decipher it Yet sense there is, and, more even that sense, colour and majesty of prose marching regally, flowingly and gracefully forward on occasions, flashes of imaginative genius such as one associates with the visions of William Blake, and, here and there, astonishingly sound and accurate Intelligence reports amidst a welter of obscure, philosophical-mathematical orations. 228 As mentioned above, Kelley communicated some extremely complex sets of seemingly random letters which were discovered to contain encoded sets of names that had been delivered some weeks before. As there is evidence to suggest that Kelley did not normally have access to the records of previous sessions when he was scrying, it is difficult to see how he could have accomplished this task on his own. However, there are just as many difficulties with this theory, one of the strongest objection being the unreliability of the messages received. Upon occasion the angels tell Dee and Kelley something, then retract it later; they confirm a transcription as being correct, then disavow it; and they offer prophecies that do not come true. Furthermore, a religiously-minded inquirer might point out, why would it be that someone as admittedly
228
Deacon 151-152.
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sinful as Kelley be able to see and hear the angels, while someone as pious as Dee could not? These objections are not, perhaps, insurmountableat least according to some. Writers through the ages have offered explanations (some might say rationalizations) for the unreliability of spiritually-received messages. In the case of the Conversations, some who might be classified with the believers have suggested that an angel, being a specialist in the heavenly bureaucracy, has little knowledge outside of his area; being eager to help, howeverindeed charged with doing sohe feels bound to offer what he hopes will be a plausible explanation. I cannot see how this helps explain the problems encountered in the Conversations, however. When Dee is told, without having asked about it, that Rome will be demolished within a matter of months and it does not happen, the only explanation I can think of that would resolve a belief in angels with this lack of accuracy is to believe that the angels must not be very reliablein which case, we are left with the question as to why someone would set much store in anything communicated by them. The biggest issue with this theory is simply that it is impossible to prove or disprove. It is, in the scientific sense, unfalsifiable. That is, for every objection to it the believer can offer some more, or less, plausible justification. As there is no means to test the hypothesis, we are able neither to verify nor to invalidate it. For this reason alone, it is not acceptable to most academic scholarsoutside, perhaps of a seminaryas a theory.
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Kelley Was In Contact With Devils In his 1659 publication of A True and Faithful Record . . . , Causabon transcribes and reproduces several hundred pages of Dees records of the Conversations. To this he prepends a 50-page preface, in which he argues that for all Dees insistence on piety,229 he allowed himself to be deceived by the devil and his minions, in a Work of Darknesse.230 Causabons intent may have been in part to add to (or cash in on) Dees reputation as a necromancer, but his larger motive seems to have been to add to the growing conviction under King James reign that true Christians were under siege by forces of evil. He addresses some of his remarks to those who deny the existence of spirits, offering Dees records as evidence in refutation: If there were any such thing, really as Divels and Spirits that use to appear unto men; to whom should they sooner appear, than so such as daily call upon them, and devote their Souls and Bodies unto them by dreadful Oaths and Imprecations? And again, then to such, who through damnable curiosity have many times used the means (the best they could find in books, by Magical Circles, Characters, and Invocations) 231 Causabon then goes on to cite classical authorities, legal cases, and church investigations of various cases of possession and exorcism, to prove his case. Nor will he let Dee and Kelley plead mental disturbance: We will easily grant that a distempered brain may see, yea, and hear strange things, and entertain them with all possible confidence, as real things, and yet all but fancy, without any real sound or Apparition. But these sights and Apparitions
229
I have always had a great regard and care to beware of the filthy abuse of such as willingly or wittingly invoke or consult with spiritual creatures of the damned sort: angels of darkness, forgers, patrons of lies and untruths. Instead I have flown unto God through hearty prayer, full oft and in sundry manners. Dee, Preface to MS Sloane 3188, reprinted in GJ xiv. 230 TFR, 1st page of (un-numbered) Preface. 231 TFR, Preface, *5.
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the Dr. Dee gives here an account, are quite of another nature; yea, though possibly the Divel might represent divers of these things to the fancy inwardly which appeared outwardly, yet these things could not be the operation of a distempered Fancy. 232 In short, Causabon says that through Pride and Curiosity233 Dee allowed himself to be misled by Satan. The advantages of this view are that it does away with the issue of the spirits unreliability: the whole of the Conversations may be seen as an elaborate manipulation of both Dee and Kelley by the Devil and his minions. The other objection remains, however: like the first theory, it is unfalsifiable.
Kelley Tapped Into Unknown Powers of the Mind This is also a variation on the first theory. It predicates that there are powers of the mind as yet unknown to science, which have been called magic, clairvoyance, psi, and so on. We have previously quoted Donald Tysons opinion that the angels were either messengers of God or shadow personalities within the unconscious minds of the two men,234 and to this we may add Gerald Suster, who offers the view that perhaps Kelley was able to activate the (still) little known powers of the unconscious.235 Further, we have Geoffrey James, who notes that the differences in the styles and creativity between Kelleys alchemical writing and that received in the Conversations argues for either genuine con232 233
TFR, Preface, *28. TFR, Preface, *32. 234 See note 220. 235 Suster 94.
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tact with supernatural beings, or some kind of unexplained mental powers: In short, if Kelley was the conscious author of all his visions, then he possessed a far greater literary competence than he ever exhibited elsewhere. However, the subconscious mind is often capable of feats that are impossible to the conscious mind. 236 Indeed, the difference between the Enochian material and Kelleys usual writing is marked. Compare, for example, this excerpt from his poem concerning the Philosophers Stone: Thou maist (my friend) say, what is this for lore? I answer such as auncient physicke taught, And though thou read a thousand bookes before, Yet in respect of this they teach thee naught: Thou mayst likewise be blind and call me foole, Yet shall these rules for ever praise their schoole. 237 With this excerpt from the Enochian Calls: Can the wings of the winds understand your voices of wonder? O you, the second of the First; Whom the burning flames have framed with in the depth of my jaws: Whom I have prepared as cups for a wedding, or as the flowers in their beauty for the chamber of righteousness. Stronger are your feet than the barren stone, and mightier are your voices than the manifold winds. For you are become a building such as is not, save in the mind of the AllPowerful. Arise, saith the First, move therefore unto his servants; show yourselves in power, and make me a strong seething, for I am of Him that lives forever. 238
236 237
GJ xvi. Waite lv. 238 GJ 68-69; TFR 99-101; Pir, Christeos, An Essay on Enochian Pronunciation (online article, Hermetic Library, 13 Apr. 2007, accessed 11 Aug. 2008, http://www.hermetic.com/enochia/prcalls.html), 7-8; Pir, A Phonetic Guide to the Enochian Calls (online article, Enochian Magic Forum, May 2006, accessed 10
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To the Kelley-as-unknown-genius school we may add Crowley, who despite clearly being a believer in spiritual communications, does not rule out the idea that they may be a form of mental power as yet not clearly understood. To condemn Kelley as a cheating charlatanthe accepted viewis simply stupid. If he invented Enochian, and composed this superb prose, he was at worst a Chatterton with fifty times that poets ingenuity and five hundred times his poetical genius. If, on the other hand, Kelley did not write this, he may of course have been a common ignorant scoundrel, one of whose abnormalities was a faculty for seeing and hearing sublimities Prove The Cenci to have been forged by Hogg, and conclude that Hogg was therefore a knave, well; but do not try to argue that Hogg, not being a poet, The Cenci must be drivel. 239 Deacon talks of flashes of imaginative genius, and of the scryer who can get in touch with the astral, visionary, or angelic world regardless of whether that world exists outside or only in ones subconscious mind. 240 Another version of the theory that Kelley was possessed of an abnormal mind comes from Geoffrey James, who states: Kelley was exhibiting signs of extreme stress and possible psychosis241 and may also have had multiple personalities. 242 French, too, asks did Kelley have some form of mental illness that made him think that he actually did see angel visitants?243
May 2006, http://groups.yahoo.com/group/enochian/files/Essays%20%26%20Writings%20from%20 Members/), 5-6; Tyson, Enochian Magic, 228-229. 239 Crowley, The Vision and the Voice, 7-8. 240 Deacon 152. 241 GJ xviii. 242 GJ xvi. 243 French 114.
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The theory that there are powers of mind as yet not clearly known to science, sounds plausible to some, but is still a pseudoscientific. It may indeed be that humans are capable of feats of telepathy, prophecy, and so on, but once again there is no adequate means of testing the validity of the theory, nor whether it is the correct explanation for the reception of the Conversations. Furthermore, we are still left with another of the objections raised to the first theory: that is, the question of how to reconcile the idea of the angels as divine messengers with the unreliability of the messages received. The possibility that Kelley was suffering from some form of mental illness is deserving of greater examination. There are some indications that might suggest, at least to the layman, that Kelley suffered from extreme personality changes or mood swings, and the record does show him at odds, sometimes violently so, with the voices that only he can hear. Whether or not Kelley was mentally ill in the clinical sense, and whether he might have been a borderline personality at the least, or clinically schizophrenic at his most extreme, is one that might be worth looking into. The question is outside this papers scope, but worth noting as a possibility.
Kelley Was a Cynical Fraud From early on, the proposition that Dee was the victim of Kelleys manipulation has had the strongest support of any theory. This is the position of most scholars from the modern period forward. Writing at the turn of the twentieth century, Charlotte Fell Smith
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speaks of Kelleys seeing that he is able to dupe his employer considerably,244 and to Dees story of books that he believed had been burnt being miraculously restored, Smith responds trickery of Kelleys, no doubt.245 Frances Yates, whose portrait of Dee was to be of prime impact upon scholarship then and since, states in her work on Giordano Bruno that Kelley was a fraud who deluded his pious master.246 Geoffrey James, who as we have seen looks to cover all bases, raises the possibility that Kelley was certainly guilty of some plagiarism,247 and discusses similarities between some of the angels messages and other Gnostic texts,248 concluding that the possibility that Kelley did plagiarize large portions of the Enochian Evocation would do much to explain the presence of the Angelical language in his scrying, as well as the stylistic variations in his work.249 However, he also cautions that the similarity between Kelleys scrying and Gnostic magic, while undeniable, is not sufficiently strong to build a direct textual connection.250 Deborah Harkness, too, weighs in on the side of those favoring a view of Kelley as deceiver, describing Dees relations with his scryers, and with Kelley in particular, as based on chicanery and fraud.251 Ron Heisler, in his essay on John Dee and the Secret
244 245
Smith 124. Smith 168. 246 Yates, Francis, Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition, (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1964, 1979, paperback ed. 1991), quoted in French 114 n3; GJ xv; etc. 247 GJ xix. 248 GJ xix-xxi. 249 GJ xxi. 250 GJ xxi. 251 Harkness 24.
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Societies, describes Kelley as a brilliant alchemical charlatan.252 Gyrgi Sznyi quotes Wayne Shumakers comment that Kelley was evidently not a man worthy of reliance,253 and says that Shumaker treated Kelley all along as a simple fraud and interpreted his relationship with Dee as a ruthless manipulator to his victim.254 (It should be noted that Sznyi himself does not concur with this assessment.) Donald Laycock notes that we can acquit Dee of any deliberate fraud or mystification in this matter. It is not so easy to acquit Kelley.255 This theory answers the issue of the unreliability of the predictions, and provides an account as to why Dee would need an intermediary, since it is only through Kelleys purported visions that Dee can be persuaded that he is the recipient of angelic messages. The theory offers an explanation why, as Peterson notes, the angels use of Latin seems to reflect Kelleys limited schooling in that language,256 as well as I. R. F. Calders claim that the angels seem to increase in fluency through the years.257 It would also account for Laycocks noting that the angels have read the same books as Dee and Kelley, and that they show many of Kelleys limitations, in imagination and thought; and they tend to identify the many books on Dees shelves by the characteristics of their bindings, and not by their titles or contents.258
Heisler, Ron, John Dee and the Secret Societies (online article, The Alchemy Web Site, 13 May 2008, accessed 27 July 2008, (http://www.alchemywebsite.com/h_dee.html; orig. pub. The Hermetic Journal, 1992), 7. 253 Quoted in Sznyi, Gyrgi, John Dees Occultism Magical Exaltation Through Powerful Signs, (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2004), 277. 254 Sznyi 277. 255 Laycock 53. 256 Quinti 39. 257 Quoted in Quinti, 39. 258 Laycock 49.
252
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At the same time, there are some problems this theory cannot easily resolve. One noted earlier is the observation that there is a marked difference between Kelleys normal speech and writing, and that received during the sessions. Another is the complexity of the Enochian magical system itself. As we have mentioned above, Kelley communicated some extremely complex tables of letters which were used months later to deliver equally complex lists of names drawn from those tables. It is difficult to see how he could have accomplished this task, barring cribsheets or a photographic memory. As Laycock puts it: [T]here is a remarkable consistency about the whole system, which for Kelley to have invented would argue a phenomenal memory, or the keeping of notes (which would have been hard to conceal from Dee). The Enochian Calls, for example, are translated in their entirety often days after the original dictation: could Kelley have carried all this in his head? 259
Kelley Was Deceiving Himself Not all agree without reservation to the assessment of Kelley as cynical manipulator. Benjamin Woolley asks was, then, Dee a dupe? and says that there is plenty of evidence that Dee had to some extent fallen under Kelleys spell 260a remark that at first glance seems to imply deliberate deception on Kelleys part. However, Woolley goes on to point to the intellectual context in which the Conversations occurred, and the magicoreligious environment of the late Renaissance in England and Europe, positing that these
259 260
Laycock 54. Woolley 296.
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environmental factors would have helped to create a situation in which Kelley, and Dee, would be likely interpret their experiences in a religious light.261 Nicholas Clulee offers a view of Kelley as one who may well have consciously fabricated everything to deceive Dee, but more than conscious deception was involved. Although Kelley often questioned the divine character of the angels, he seems to have believed in their reality as firmly as Dee.262 The image, then, is of Kelley as someone who is clearly not above deception when it suits his needs, but who sincerely believes in the reality of the spiritual beings, even to the point of arguing with them when they do not give in to his whims. The characterization of Kelley as one who, whether or not he set out to deliberately manipulate Dee for selfish purposes, is nevertheless himself firmly convinced of his ability to see and converse with both good and bad spirits, is one that has been proposed by a number of authors. Clulee describes Kelley as a believer who combines his own imagination with what he perceives Dee expecting to hear. Along with Kelleys experiences in working with magic of the sort outlined in various Solomonic grimoires, Clulee says, access to magical texts in Dees library would have assisted Kelley in this ruse.263 French and others who have advanced the idea that Kelley may have been deranged can perhaps be included among those who feel Kelley, whatever other faults he may have had, was sincere in his belief that he was genuinely in contact with spirits: Though Kelley has usually been pictured as a blatant charlatan it is very difficult to believe that he
261 262
Woolley 296-298. Clulee, John Dees Natural Philosophy, 205. Also quoted in Quinti 38-39. 263 Clulee, op. cit., 211
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saw nothing at all.264 Suster, who in other places seems to be among those believing in the existence of Kelleys angels, strikes a skeptical tone in referring to the possibility that while Kelley sincerely saw them, Dee was fool enough to take them seriously.265 Sznyi also notes that we cannot help feeling that Kelley either must have believed, at least to some extent, in the prophecies he was communicating, or if he pretended and invented, he successfully deceived himself as well. Sznyi cites the example of Elizabethan actor Edward Alleyn who managed to get into character so completely during a performance of Doctor Faustus that he stopped halfway through the play and spent the rest of the evening in prayer, the audience joining in.266 In fact, there seems to be good evidence to support a theory that Kelley himself believed in the spirits. He argues with them, sulks when they give answers that he did not want to hear, rebels against their instructions, and so on. On the other hand, if we instead ascribe to the image of Kelley as master manipulator, then we must put all these down as examples of just how devious he could be. It is true, after all, that every time he claimed to be surfeited the work, and swore he was ready to give it all up and leave, within a few days or a few hours the record picks up with the next scrying session. What better way, one might ask, to keep Dee interested than to pretend to be ready to leave in a huff. A counterobjection to this is that there seems to have been no need for all these histrionics if Dee was already perfectly willing to continue with the sessions. However, it may be that Kelley simply enjoyed asserting his power over Dee.
264 265
French 114. JD 94. 266 Sznyi 278-279
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Kelley and Dee Created It Synergistically A further variation on the theory that Kelley, for all his flaws, sincerely believed himself in contact with spiritual beings, is one that points to Dees own role as an active one. Rather than the view propounded by Yates and others that Dee was the passive dupe of Kelleys schemes, this theory suggests that the Conversations are the result of Dees active involvement in the process. Not merely in a supporting role as devout believer, but as a coequal participant in it, as Joseph Peterson suggests. Dee and Kelleys actions may be compared with so-called UFO abductees recovered memories, wherein a hypnotist puts the witness into a suggestible state, and, through leading questions, manages to arrive at all sorts of memories. 267 Clulee does not offer an explanation for the remark, but does call Dee more than just the passive recipient.268 Sznyi points to the numerous times that Kelley attempts to convince Dee of the spirits wickedness, against the latters unfailing faith in the visions, as evidence of the extraordinary and strained psychotic symbiosis in which the two men and their families spent their days.269 It is certainly true that Dee often directed the flow of the Conversations. He set up agendas for discussion with the angels, asked them leading questions, and demanded explanations when he spotted inconsistencies in their messages. Whether Dee was actually putting Kelley into a state of heightened suggestibility and then pressuring him to produce transcendent visions, as Peterson suggests, or simply helped create with Kelley an
267 268
Quinti 39. Clulee 205. 269 Sznyi 278.
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environment in which the two fed off of each others beliefs, there is no doubt that both men were involved in the process. Dee also had much to gain from these sessions. We have mentioned that Dee was told the information he was hearing was heavenly knowledge lost since the time of the antediluvian prophet Enoch. Further, the angels prophecies repeatedly spoke of coming political upheavals which, when Gods new order had been established, would result in his spiritual and politicaland thereby economicelevation. But the question is whether and to what extent Dees involvement might have catalyzed the complex visions Kelley reported. However much Dee may have provided questions for the angels to respond to, it still devolved upon Kelley to see and hear the angels, castles, trumpeters, winged solar disks, and rows upon rows of letters upon which the intricate visions provided in response. In which case we are left with the conclusion that these visions could only have come from spirits, or from Kelley.
Kelley Was Manipulated by Dee Next, we come to the logical extension of the last two theories: the idea that Kelley was in fact at Dees mercy, rather than the other way around. Susan Bassnetts thoughtprovoking essay in Clucas John Dee: Interdisciplinary Studies in English Renaissance Thought explores the possibility that Elizabeth Weston, better known under the pseudonym Westonia as the author of The Parthenicon (1606), was in fact Edward Kelleys
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stepdaughter.270 On the basis of Westonias poems and letters, Bassnett reconstructs the image of a man who, if he indeed was Edward Kelley, comes across as very different from the volatile bedeviled alcoholic depicted in the Conversations. Bassnett asserts that I find myself moving toward a reading of Dees version of his relationship with Kelley that is not altogether favourable to Dee.271 Although this gentle rebuke stops short of accusation, others are not so subtle. French speaks of Dees imposition of psychological magic upon Kelley, 272 and Geoffrey James refers to Dees coercion of Kelley through the threat of loss of financial support and by playing on [Kelleys] guilt and fear. It was Dee, not Kelley, who was gaining the benefit from the magical ceremonies.273 Kelley comes across as the one questioning the validity of the information he reports, with Dee insisting upon its reliability. However, this view is still dependent upon the problematic theoretical basis that Kelley is merely reporting what he is hearing, either from angels, devils, or his disordered imagination. There may be some evidence in support of the coercion theory, but it seems rather thin. As to the picture of Kelley as kindly family man, there is scant direct evidence that Westonia was indeed his stepdaughter, and Bassnett admits that there is no record of her existence either in Dees records of the Conversations or his usually thorough personal
270
Bassnett argues that Kelley was remarried in the late 1580s to a Joanna Cooper, who had a daughter named Elizabeth from a previous marriage. See Bassnett 285 ff. 271 Bassnett 292. 272 French 115. 273 GJ xxv.
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diaries. 274 It would seem strange for the man who records his childrens injuries, his wifes menstrual cycle, and Kelleys comings and goings, not to mention if Dee was, as Bassnett claims, sending Kelleys stepdaughter to school with his own children.275 Furthermore, while Dee may at first have represented a sort of patronage for Kelleyat one point he is forced to agree in writing to a stipend of 50 per yearby the time the pair had spent a few months on the Continent they were already in financial straits; before the year was out they were both begging the angels for monetary support to be provided. On the other hand, there does seem to be a pattern of Kelleys threats to quit the partnership becoming more and more strident as Dees finances dwindled and their attempts to find patrons in the Holy Roman Empire fell through. And as soon as Kelley found in William Rosenberg a patron willing to fund the alchemical research that Kelley had wanted all along to work on, the partnership with Dee was in fact dissolved and Dee was left to make his own way home to England. Whether that argues for Kelley becoming fed up with being Dees tool, or for Kelley as moving from one dupe to another, is an open question.
274 275
Bassnett 291. Bassnett 292.
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Motivations Possible Motivations on Kelleys Part It should be clear from the existing theories of authorship that a list of possible motivations on Kelleys part can be adduced. When he first met Dee, he seems to have been little more than an itinerant drifter with a shady background and questionable moral scruples. That he was a man who was not above telling people what they wanted to hear in order to make a living seems to be a plausible characterization if we may believe some of the stories about him committing forgery and dowsing for gold. Certainly what we know of his story would indicate that he was an opportunist, ready to follow wherever he thought he could better his position in life. If it was Kelley and not the alleged spirits who directed their movements on the Continent, we can see him switching his allegiance from Dee, to Laski, Rudolph, Stephen, Rosenberg, and finally back to Rudolph. Calling a man with aspirations to become an alchemist a gold-digger may be an unfortunate pun, but it seems warranted in Kelleys case. Whether the matter rests there or not depends upon which of the theories of authorship one accepts. It is clear that Kelley was motivated by a desire for patronage, perhaps even to rise above his initial social station in life. It is less clear whether his participation in the scrying sessions was motivated solely by a willingnessat firstto do whatever it took to gain Dees patronage, or whether he was in some ways driven by his own religious and spiritual beliefs. It would be unwise, however, to assume that if Kelley was
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himself convinced of the existence of his angels, that he was then forced to act in certain ways as a result of that belief. Time and again Kelley rebelled against the angels orders, or sulked in his room and refused to continue the sessions. Nor can we set aside the possibility, described above, that in some ways Kelley was at the mercy of Dees insistence on continuing with the work of the Conversations: it was Dee, after all, who was paying Kelleys room and boardat first, anyway. Later, when the opportunity arose for Kelley to leave Dee and gain a new patron in Rosenberg, Kelley showed no compunction about dropping the sessions and directing all his energies to alchemical pursuits. The picture that emerges is thus of Kelley as an opportunist. Motivated by a need for patronage, he was not above pursuing it through occult means, or even deceiving potential patrons into believing in his spiritualistic gifts.
Possible Motivations on Dees Part What then of Dee? What would induce a highly educated man, a renowned scholar and polymath, an author of works on the cutting edge of scientific research of his time, to leave everything behind and follow a spiritual will-o-the-wisp? Why would a man with the greatest library in England, consulted by royalty and intelligentsia alike, abandon his home and force his family to follow him around Europe to harangue crowned heads of state? How could a man with one of the best minds in the land suddenly become so gullible as to let his life be guided by someone so clearly unreliable as Edward Kelley?
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The answer is that it was not as sudden as might appear, and that such actions were in fact quite in character for Dee. He was deeply devout in his way, though his own beliefs were never sectarian, and it was he, not Kelley, who insisted upon the long periods of kneeling in prayer that opened each session. For all of Kelleys argumentativeness, it was always Dee who attempted to justify whatever the angels communicated to them. The scrying sessions themselves are in fact of a piece with Dees scientific views of the world. Ursula Szulakowska notes in her masterful examination of the role of optics upon the Early Modern worldview276 that the idea that one could make contact with the celestial forces shaping life upon the Earth through lenses and mirrors was a logical premise given a combination of belief in Divine Light, Aristotelian spheres, astrology, radiation, and catoptrics. For a man like Dee, seeking to understand the very workings of the universe, it is understandable that if he believed himself in communication with Gods messengers he would do their bidding. It is also important to remember that Dee, no less than Kelley, spent his life in pursuit of patronage. His means may have been less cynical, and of higher moral standards, nevertheless he spent a great deal of his life on the edge of abject poverty and constantly seeking some official position whereby he might carry out his researches in some modicum of comfort. As we have seen, he was continually petitioning the Crown for various rectorships and munificences that always seemed to fall through. It would have been
276
Szulakowska, passim.
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quite in character for Dee to jump at the chance to assist Laski, whom the angels told Dee and Kelley would be the next King of Poland. If we assume that in Dees mind the instructions obtained in the Conversations took precedence over worldly matters, it seems likewise in character for Dee to do as the angels bid him, whether it was to lecture the Holy Roman Emperor on his sinful ways, or to refuse a lucrative position at the Tsars court in St. Petersburg. In many ways, for all that he was a Christian, Dee seems to have viewed himself as in the same lineage as the Old Testament prophets, whose task it was to speak spiritual truth to power, regardless of the personal cost. Lastly, though the proposition has to some extent been diminished since Deacon first argued for it, there is the possibility that at least some of Dees motivation may have been related to his work as one of Elizabeths intelligencers, and that his movements to an extent were directed by Burleigh and Walsingham. However, given that there are indications that the latter was becoming impatient with Dees delays in returning to England, we may perhaps once again conclude that Dees first allegiance was always to Kelleys angels.
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Conclusion
For the most part, it would seem that the resources at Kelleys hand would have been such as to have enabled him to perpetrate a hoax of this magnitude, given sufficient gullibility on Dees part. The sermons, visions, and allegorical flights of fancy all seem within Kelleys capability. And the evidence has certainly indicted Dee for his willing complicity, or at least for being gullible in the extreme. When it comes to the Enochian magical system, the picture becomes somewhat less clear-cut. The early sessions demonstrate a marked similarity to many of the medieval grimoires with which we know Kelley was familiar, and the resemblances to the work of Agrippa may be found off and on throughout the Conversations. The idea of an Edenic or Adamic language is not new, nor are some of the instructions received in regard to practicing this magic, e.g., the creation of a wax tablet inscribed with the symbol of Gods truth. Where the difficulty comes in is in the intricacy, coherence, (and perhaps the sheer poetry) of the system. To put it plainly, if it was a hoax then Kelley either had some system of crib sheets unsuspected by Dee, or he had a prodigious gift for eidetic memory. In turning from the available resources to the content of the Conversations, there is substantial evidence to support a theory of a deliberate hoax on Kelleys part. In particular, it seems that almost every time Dee raised a question over some inconsistency, Kelleys angels either called a recess or left in a temper. Corrections were usually given hours or days later, often after Kelley had spent time alone in his quarters, which raises
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the suspicion that he was going back over his notes in order to devise the requisite modification. The ease with which Kelley could have invented large parts of the material, aided by the resources noted above, and the many emendations and corrections received in subsequent sessions (indicative perhaps of Kelleys struggles to manage the sheer volume and complexity of the system he was creating), all provide support for a theory of deliberate deception by Kelley. We may also note the unreliability of the angels in other matters as well, particularly in regard to their predictive abilities which seem erratic at best. All of these factors point to human agency, most likely on Kelleys part. Against these we must note some of the more egregious anomalies. Even allowing for the occasional successful predictions there are some potentially baffling inconsistencies, including the occasions when Dee himself records having seen or felt some apparition, and the many admonishments the angels administer to Kelleyeven one supposedly in a language he does not understandas well as what can only be described as Kelleys repeated attempts to sabotage the sessions. Another question is raised by the randomness of some of the material received, specifically the repetitive nature of the squares of the Logaeth material and the planetary Ensigns of Creation to be placed upon the table of practice surely someone inventing magical symbols would try harder to make these seem less like glossolalia? While it is not impossible to devise explanations for any one of these objections, it is harder to explain away their accumulated weight. In order for Kelley to carry off such a hoax, he would have needed to be adroit at exploiting Dees suggestibility, skilled at
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sleight of hand, and possessed of an eidetic memory. The question then is how likely this scenario might be. When we weigh the various theories of authorship, no one theory seems to fit every one of the anomalies. A belief in spirits, especially if we may posit that they deliberately deceived a believing Dee and Kelley, would go some way towards answering a number of objections. It would explain not only the errors and constant adjustment, the manipulation of Kelleys character weaknesses and the greater literary quality of the Enochian material over Kelleys personal writing, and it would potentially address the complex yet consistent nature of the Enochian system itself. An explanation based solely on a hypothesis of Kelleys calculated deception, encouraged by Dees eager complicity or even coercion, comes as an alternative, and as we have seen can be supported by the resources available for Kelley to draw upon. Neither of these is completely satisfactory, however. The first immediately runs afoul of questions of plausibility and falsifiability in a scientific inquiry, and is not generally considered viable in any serious academic discourse outside of some seminaries. The second must satisfy a number of questions mentioned previously: the consistency of the Enochian language, the intricacy of the Enochian system and its manner of reception, the disparity in poetic style between the Enochian Calls and Kelleys rather pedestrian writing, and of course the scolding Kelley repeatedly receives for his disruptive behavior. As we have seen, however, those issues can be resolved if Dee was a willing, even eager, dupe, and Kelley a skilled conman with a gift for memorization and an ability to take advantage of the available resources.
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In short, much can be accounted for if we posit malicious agency; the question then becomes by whom? And when spiritual entities are eliminated from the picture, one person has the strongest combination of motive, means, and opportunity: Edward Kelley. So who was Edward Kelley? A complicated man, to be sure, but then most real people are more complex than the one-dimensional characterizations that writers like Smith or Yates would have it. The composite portrait of Kelley that emerges from our study is one that combines elements from the various portrayals of the pastthe scheming charlatan, the demon-haunted necromancer, the aspiring alchemist, and perhaps the brilliant fabulistand presents us with a more human individual than we have previously seen. Kelley begins his association with Dee as an attempt to inveigle his way into a working relationship with the learned doctor, in order to gain access to Dees knowledge, and perhaps his library, in regard to alchemy. This interest is motivated on Kelleys part by desire for personal gain, unlike Dees more academic curiosity about the workings of the book of nature, as Harkness puts it,277 and Kelley is clearly willing to trick Dee to obtain it. To accomplish this, Kelley presents himself to Dee as an accomplished scryer, and begins reporting a series of visions that have clear precedent in material that is either already familiar to Kelley, or accessible to him via Dees library. Kelley draws upon his own religious fanaticism and Dees fascination with the magical underpinnings of the universe to craft a series of plausible visions, sermons, and descriptions of angelic powers to convince Dee to take him on as a member of the house-
277
See Harkness, John Dees Conversations with Angels, passim.
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hold. At first, Kelley contents himself with pressuring Dee into a modest salary, and is not above threatening to leave if Dee will not come up with the funds. As time passes Kelley, like most good conmen, begins to believe the stories he spins. Meanwhile, as it becomes clear that he is gaining neither the knowledge nor the largess he desires, he begins to look around for richer patrons: Prince Laski, King Stephen, Emperor Rudolph. However, Kelley is repeatedly frustrated in this endeavor, whether by the recalcitrance of the intended patron or by Dees Jeremiads which are, of course, the result of Kelleys own demonstrations of his mediumistic talents. In the meantime, Kelley creates an amazing tapestry of angels and demons in whose hands the fabric of creation is woven and directed, and who will soon rend it in order to begin a new aeon, as described in the Book of Revelation and the various eschatological texts familiar to both Dee and Kelley. This scheme of Kelleys, however, becomes too successful, and he is trapped in the web he has created. As his resentment and frustration grows, his rebellious nature shows itself in frequent arguments, and the harangues from his angels become more frequent and vituperative, particularly when a potential royal patronage falls through. Finally, in order to break free of his entangled relationship with Dee, he manages to secure a patron in Rosenberg, and immediately sets about alienating Dee to the breaking point. By proposing the wife-swapping incident, Kelley hopes that things will come to a head and he can at last be free of the monstrous relationship he has created.278 In the end, what frees
278
A deeper exploration of the relationship between Kelley and Jane Dee might shed additional light on the interpersonal dynamics surrounding the Conversations. I am indebted to Dr. Steven Friesen for pointing this out.
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Kelley is not this desperate transgression (perhaps tainted with a bit of revenge), but his convincing first Rosenberg, then Rudolph, that the secret of transmutation of metals is within reach. No longer needed, Dee returns to obscurity and practical exile in England, dying impoverished and marginalized. Kelley, as perhaps better befits his nature, is imprisoned (probably for failing in his alchemical proofs), freed, re-incarcerated, and dies in a reckless escape attempt, flamboyant to the last. Is this the real Edward Kelley? There is much evidence in support of this characterization. It reconciles the apparent contradictions in the record, accounts for his conflicting patterns of behavior, and explains Dees continued involvement in the Conversations. What we cannot say with certainty is whether this is exactly how events transpired. Perhaps this, too, is in character. It would not be like Kelley to be too easily deciphered.
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Bibliography
Abbreviations
Diaries Dee, John. Autobiographical Tracts and Diary for the Years 1595-1601 of Dr. John Dee [1851, James Crossley, ed.], n.p. Kessinger Publishing, 2003. JD GJ Quinti R&W TFR Suster, Gerald. John Dee, Western Esoteric Masters Series. Berkeley: North Atlantic Books, 2003. James, Geoffrey, ed. & trans. The Enochian Evocation of Dr. John Dee. Gillette, N.J.: Heptangle Books, 1984. Peterson, Joseph. John Dees Five Books of Mystery: Original Sourcebook of Enochian Magic. York Beach, Maine: Red Wheel/Weiser, 2003. Roberts, Julian & Andrew G. Watson, eds. John Dees Library Catalogue. London: Bibliographical Society, 1990. Causabon, Meric, ed.. A True and Faithful Relation of What Passed for Many Years Between Dr. John Dee and Some Spirits [1659]. New York: Magickal Childe Publishing, 1992.
Bibliography Albanese, Catherine L. A Republic of Mind & Spirit: A Cultural History of American Metaphysical Religion. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2007. Aldaraia sive Soyga Vocor [ca. early 16th century]. Online edition. The Flight of the Condor: Contemporary Shamanism. 2001. Accessed 11 Aug. 2008. <http://www. kondor.de/enoch/soyga/Soyga_starte.htm>. Angelic Linguistics Forum. <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/angelical_linguistics/>. Ashmole, Elias. Manuscripts in the British Museum [CD-ROM]: Sloane 2599 279 Sloane 3677 280 Sloane 3678 281
279 280
Ashmoles manuscript copy of Dee, Sloane 3189. Ashmoles manuscript copy of Dee, Sloane 3188. 281 Ashmoles manuscript copy of Dee, Sloane 3191.
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_____. The Precious Stone Excerpted Writings of Sir Edward Kelley on the Alchemical Mystery [1652]. Austin: Scarlet Woman Publications, 2003. _____. Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum [1652]. Online edition: University of Pennsylvania Library, 1998. Accessed 12 Jan. 2009. <http://oldsite.library. upenn.edu/etext/science/ashmole/> Asprem, Egil. False, Lying Spirits and Angels of Light Ambiguous Mediation in Dr. Rudds Seventeenth-Century Treatise on Angel Magic in Magic, Ritual, and Witchcraft 3, No. 1 (Summer 2008). Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2008. Bcklund, Jan. In the Footsteps of Edward Kelley: Some Manuscript References at the Royal Library in Copenhagen Concerning an Alchemical Circle around John Dee and Edward Kelley, in Stephen Clucas, ed., John Dee: Interdisciplinary Studies in English Renaissance Thought, International Archives of the History of Ideas, No. 193. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer, 2006. Bailey, Michael D. The Age of Magicians Periodization in the History of European Magic in Magic, Ritual, and Witchcraft 3, No. 1 (Summer 2008). Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2008. Barrett, Francis. The Magus: A Complete System of Occult Philosophy [1801]. York Beach, Maine: Weiser, 2000. Bassnett, Susan. Absent Presences: Edward Kelleys Family in the Writings of John Dee, in Stephen Clucas, ed., John Dee: Interdisciplinary Studies in English Renaissance Thought, International Archives of the History of Ideas, No. 193. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer, 2006. Bertiaux, Michael. Voudon Gnostic Workbook, expanded ed. San Francisco: Weiser, 2007. Best, Michael R. & Frank H. Brightman, eds. The Book of Secrets of Albertus Magnus, Studies in Tudor and Stuart Literature Series. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1973; York Beach, Maine: Weiser, 1999.282 Betz, Hans Dieter, ed. The Greek Magical Papyri in Translation, including the Demotic Spells Vol. 1: Texts, 2nd ed. Chicago: University of Chicago, 1992. Billings, Louis Albert. The Nature, Structure, and Role of the Soul in the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. MA thesis, California State University, 2007. Budiansky, Stephen. Her Majestys Spymaster. New York: Viking Books, Penguin, 2005.
First European publishing unknown. First English publishing ca. 1550. Spuriously attributed, as the title shows, to Albertus Magnus (1193/1206 1280), but probably written late 1500s at the earliest.
282
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Case, Paul Foster. The True and Invisible Rosicrucian Order. York Beach, Maine: Weiser, 1985. Causabon, Meric, ed. A True and Faithful Relation of What Passed for Many Years Between Dr. John Dee and Some Spirits [1659]. New York: Magickal Childe Publishing, 1992.283 Caballaro, Federico. The Alchemical Significance of John Dees Monas Hieroglyphica, in Stephen Clucas, ed., John Dee: Interdisciplinary Studies in English Renaissance Thought, International Archives of the History of Ideas, No. 193. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer, 2006. Churton, Tobias. The Magus of Freemasonry. UK: Signal Publishing, 2004 [as The Invisible Life of Elias Ashmole]; reprint, Rochester, Vt.: Inner Traditions, 2006. Cicero, Chic & Sandra Tabatha Cicero. Secrets of a Golden Dawn Temple. St. Paul, Minn.: Llewellyn Publications, 1992. _____. Self-Initiation into the Golden Dawn Tradition. St. Paul, Minn.: Llewellyn Publications, 1995. Clucas, Stephen, ed. John Dee: Interdisciplinary Studies in English Renaissance Thought, International Archives of the History of Ideas, No. 193. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer, 2006. _____. John Dees Angelic Conversations and the Ars Notoria: Renaissance Magic and Mediaeval Theurgy, in Stephen Clucas, ed., John Dee: Interdisciplinary Studies in English Renaissance Thought, International Archives of the History of Ideas, No. 193. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer, 2006. Clulee, Nicolas. Astronomia Inferior: Legacies of Johannes Trithemius and John Dee in William R. Newman & Anthony Grafton, eds. Secrets of Nature: Astrology and Alchemy in Early Modern Europe, Transformations: Studies in the History of Science and Technology. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2001. _____. At the Crossroads of Magic and Science: John Dees Archemastrie, in Occult and Scientific Mentalities in the Renaissance, ed. Brian Vickers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984. _____. John Dees Natural Philosophy: Between Science and Religion. London: Routledge, 1988. _____. John Dees Natural Philosophy Revisited, in Stephen Clucas, ed., John Dee: Interdisciplinary Studies in English Renaissance Thought, International Archives of the History of Ideas, No. 193. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer, 2006.
283
Causabons edition of Dee MS Cotton Appendix XLVI.
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Colquohoun, Ithell. The Sword of Wisdom: MacGregor Mathers and The Golden Dawn. New York: G. P. Putnams Sons, 1975. Conybeare, F. C., trans. The Testament of Solomon. Online edition by Joseph Peterson. Twilit Grotto: Esoteric Archives. 1997. Accessed 30 Jun. 2008. <http://www. esotericarchives.com/>.284 Crowley, Aleister [Edward Alexander Crowley]. The Confessions of Aleister Crowley, corrected edition, eds. John Symonds & Kenneth Grant. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1979; Arkana, Penguin Books, 1989. _____. The Magical Diaries of , The Beast 666 [Diaries for 1923], ed. Stephen Skinner. New York: Samuel Weiser, 1979. _____. The Magical Record of the Beast 666 [Diaries for 1914-1920], eds. John Symonds & Kenneth Grant. London: Gerald Duckworth, 1972. _____. Magick, Book 4: Liber ABA, Parts I-IV, ed. Hymenaeus Beta [pseud.], 2nd rev. & enlarged ed. York Beach, Maine: Samuel Weiser, 1997. _____. Magick Without Tears, ed. Israel Regardie. Phoenix: Falcon Press, 1986. Crowley, Aleister, Lon Milo Duquette & Christopher S. Hyatt. The Enochian World of Aleister Crowley: Enochian Sex Magick. Scottsdale: New Falcon Publications, 1991. Crowley, Aleister, with Victor B. Neuberg and Mary Desti. The Vision and the Voice with Commentary, and Other Papers, Equinox 4, No. 2. York Beach, Maine: Samuel Weiser, 1998. Davila, James R. The Hekhalot Literature and Shamanism. Online article. University of St. Andrews. 1998. Accessed 11 Aug. 2008. <http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/~www _sd/hekhalot_shamanism_art.html>. De Lon-Jones, Karen. John Dee and the Kabbalah, in Stephen Clucas, ed., John Dee: Interdisciplinary Studies in English Renaissance Thought, International Archives of the History of Ideas, No. 193. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer, 2006. Deacon, Richard. John Dee. London: Frederick Muller, 1968. Debus, Allen G. Man and Nature in the Renaissance, Cambridge History of Science Series. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1978.
284
Transl. 1898, original dated ca. 1st-3rd century CE.
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Dee, Arthur. Fasciculus Chemicus, translated by Elias Ashmole [1630]. English Renaissance Hermeticism Vol. VI, Lyndy Abraham, ed. New York: Garland Publishing, 1997. Dee, John. Manuscripts in the British Museum [CD-ROM]: Cotton Appendix XLVI 285 Sloane 3188 286 Sloane 3189 287 Sloane 3191 288 _____. Artifacts in the British Museum. [Online articles]: Dr. Dees Magic. <http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/ highlight_objects/pe_mla/d/dr_dees_magic.aspx>. Dr. Dees Mirror. <http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/ highlight_objects/pe_mla/d/dr_dees_mirror.aspx> _____. Autobiographical Tracts and Diary for the Years 1595-1601 of Dr. John Dee [1851, James Crossley, ed.], n.p. Kessinger Publishing, 2003.289
285
Includes: Liber Mysteriorum (et Sancti) Parallelus Novalisque; Liber Peregrinationis Prime Videlicet A Mortlaco Angeliae Ad Craconiam Poloniae; Mensis Mysticus Saobaticus Pars Primus Ejusdem; Libri Mystici Apertorii Cracoviensis Sabbatiei; Libri Crocoviensis Mysticus Apertorius Praeterea Proemiam Madimianum; Mysteriorum Pragensium Liber Primus Caesareusque; Mysteriorum Pragensium Confirmatio; Mysteriorum Cracoviensum Stephanicorum Mysteria Stephanica; Unica Action, Quae Pucciana Vocetor; Liber Resurrectionis Pragae, Pactum Seu Foedus Sabbatismi; Actio Tertia Trebonae Generalis; Jesus, Omnipotens Sempiterne & Une Deus. 286 Includes: Mysteriorum Liber Primus; Mysteriorum Liber Secundus; Mysteriorum Liber Tertius; Mysteriorum Liber Quartus; Mysteriorum Liber Quintus; Quinti Libri Mysteriorum Appendix. 287 Includes Liber Mysteriorum Sextus et Sanctus, or The Book of Enoch revealed to John Dee by the Angels. 288 Includes 49 Claves Angelicae Anno 1584 Cracoviae; Liber Scientiae Auxilii et Victoriae Terrestris; De Heptarchia Mystica. 289 Reprints and annotates John Eglington Baileys 1880 edition of Dees Diaries for 1595-1601, and the following Dee manuscripts: A Compendious Rehearsall (1592); A Letter Containing a Most Brief Discourse Apologetical (ca. 1594); A Necessary Advertizement (ca. 1592);
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_____. The Hieroglyphic Monad [1564]. Boston: Red Wheel/Weiser, 1975. _____. Mathematical Praeface to the Elements of Geometrie of Euclid of Megara [1570], n.p. Kessinger Publishing, 2008. _____. The Perfect Art of Navigation [1576], n.p. Kessinger Publications, 2003. Dehn, Georg, ed. The Book of Abramelin by Abraham von Wurms [1458], trans. Stephen Guth. Lake Worth, Fl.: Ibis Press, 2006. Denning, Osborne & Melita Phillips. Mysteria Magica: Fundamental Techniques of High Magick, 3rd ed. St. Paul: Llewellyn, 2004. Duquette, Lon Milo. Angels, Demons, and Gods of the New Millennium: Musings on Modern Magick. York Beach, Maine: Weiser, 1997. _____. Enochian Vision Magick: An Introduction and Practical Guide to the Magick of Dr. John Dee and Edward Kelley. San Francisco: Red Wheel/Weiser, 2008. _____. The Key to Solomons Key: Secrets of Magic and Masonry. San Francisco: Consortium of Collective Consciousness Press, 2006. _____. My Life with the Spirits: The Adventures of a Modern Magician. York Beach, Maine: Red Wheel/Weiser, 1999. _____. Tarot of Ceremonial Magick: A Pictorial Synthesis of Three Great Pillars of Magick (Astrology, Enochian Magick, Goetia). York Beach, Maine: Samuel Weiser, 1995.290 Enochian Forum. <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/enochian/>. Fanger, Claire, ed. Conjuring Spirits Texts and Traditions of Medieval Ritual Magic, Magic in History Series. University Park, Penn.: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1998. _____. Review of John Dees Conversations with Angels: Cabala, Alchemy and the End of Nature, by Deborah Harkness [vide infra], online article, Esoterica. 21 Jul. 2003. Accessed 13 Jul. 2008. <http://www.esoteric.msu.edu/Reviews/harkness review.html>. Farr, Florence. The Enochian Experiments of the Golden Dawn, Darcy Kuntz, ed. Edmonds, Wash.: Holmes Publishing, 1996.
Articles for the Recovery and Preservation of the Ancient Monuments (1556); Supplication to Queen Mary (ca. 1555). 290 Companion book to tarot card deck created by Lon Milo Duquette, illustrated by Constance Duquette, published by U. S. Games Systems, 1995.
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Flint, Valerie I. J. The Rise of Magic in Early Medieval Europe. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1991. Fludd, Robert. Mosaical Philosophy Grounded upon the Essential Truth or Eternal Sapience [1659], n.p. Kessinger Reprints, 2003. French, Peter. John Dee: The World of an Elizabethan Magus. New York: Dorset Press, 1972. Gaster, Moses. The Sword of Moses An Ancient Book of Magic. Edmonds, Wash.: Near Eastern Press, 1992.291 Genaw, Bill, et. al. A Guide to the Golden Dawn Enochian Skrying Tarot. St. Paul: Llewellyn, 2004.292 Gikatilla, Joseph. Gates of Light [ ca.13th C], Bronfman Library of Jewish Classics, trans. Avi Weinstein. Walnut Creek, Calif.: Altamira Press, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 1994. Godwin, Joscelyn. The Pagan Dream of the Renaissance, 1st pb ed. York Beach, Maine: Red Wheel/Weiser, 2002. Godwin, Joscelyn, trans. The Chemical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz, Magnum Opus Hermetic Sourceworks Vol. 18. Grand Rapids: Phanes Press, 1991. Halliwell, James O. The Private Diary of Dr. John Dee and Catalog of His Library of Alchemical Manuscripts. Charleston: BiblioBazaar, 2008.293 Harkness, Deborah. John Dees Conversations with Angels: Cabala, Alchemy and the End of Nature. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999. _____. The Nexus of Angelology, Eschatology, and Natural Philosophy in John Dees Angel Conversations and Library, in Stephen Clucas, ed., John Dee: Interdisciplinary Studies in English Renaissance Thought, International Archives of the History of Ideas, No. 193. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer, 2006. Haynes, Alan. The Elizabethan Secret Services. Phoenix Mill, Glos.: Sutton Publishing, 2004.
291
Reprint of Gasters 1896 translation. Date of original very uncertain, with opinions ranging from the 14th century to the 11th, or even as far back as the 4th century CE. 292 Reference book, co-authored with Chic Cicero & Tabitha Cicero, to accompany the tarot card deck designed and illustrated by Bill Genaw & Judi Genaw, published by Llewellyn, 2004. 293 Reprint of 1842 ed. based on unpublished manuscripts in Dees and Ashmoles hands. Includes Halliwells transcription of: Dees private diaries Aug. 1554 Apr. 1601; Ashmoles manual transcription of Dees library catalog (much abbreviated); Ashmoles manuscript list of other Dee works in his collection.
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Heisler, Ron. John Dee and the Secret Societies. The Alchemy Web Site. 13 May 2008. Accessed 27 July 2008. <http://www.alchemywebsite.com/h_dee.html>; orig. pub. The Hermetic Journal, 1992. Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. <http://www.hermeticgoldendawn.org/index. shtml> Hockley, Frederick. A Complete Book of Magic Science [1850]. York Beach, Maine: Teitan Press, 2008.294 James, Geoffrey, ed. & trans. The Enochian Evocation of Dr. John Dee. Gillette, N.J.: Heptangle Books, 1984.295 James, Gordon. Secrets of John Dee. Edmonds, Wash.: Holmes Publishing, 1995.296 James, M. R. Lists of Manuscripts Formerly Owned by Dr. John Dee., n.p. Kessinger Publishing, 2003.297 John Dee Society. <http://www.johndee.org/>. Jones, David R. Enochian 201. Online essay. Enochian Magick Forum. 04 Sep. 2002. Accessed 11 Aug. 2008. <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/enochian/files/ Essays%20%26%20Writings%20from%20Members/>. Jones, David R., et al. An Enochian Miscellany. Online publications. <http://www. hermetic.com/enochia/index.html> De Jong, H. M. E. Michael Maier's Atalanta Fugiens: Sources of an Alchemical Book of Emblems. Berwick, Maine: Nicolas-Hays Publications, 2002. Julianus. The Chaldan Oracles [ca. 2nd C]. Latin trans. Francesco Patrizzi (1529-1597), English trans. Thomas Stanley. Gillette, N.J.: Heptangle Books, 1989.298 Kaplan, Aryeh, trans. & ed. The Bahir. York Beach, Maine: Weiser, 1979.299
294 295
Translation by Hockley ca. 1850 of Latin original attributed to 1519. Contains excerpts of the following Dee and Ashmole manuscripts: Cotton Appendix XLVI; Sloane 2955; Sloane 3188; Sloane 3189; Sloane 3191; Sloane 3677; Sloane 3678. 296 Based on The Rosie Crucian Secrets, published 1713, spuriously attributed to Dee but compiled no earlier than mid 17th century. 297 Reprint of James 19th century work expanding on Halliwell. 298 Reprinting of 1895 edition, publishing details of which unfortunately not cited in this edition. Original ca. 2nd century CE.
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_____. Sepher Yetzirah: The Book of Creation. [ca. 1st C BCE]. York Beach, Maine: Samuel Weiser, 1990. Kaczynski, Richard. Perdurabo: The Life of Aleister Crowley. Tempe: New Falcon Publications, 2002. _____. Perdurabo Outtakes, Blue Equinox Journal 1, Summer 2005. NP. Karlsen, Runar & Dean Hildebrandt. Ored Dhagia: The Infinite Ways. Online publications. <http://home.no.net/karl24/index.htm>. Khan, Didier. The Rosicrucian Hoax in France (1623-24) in William R. Newman & Anthony Grafton, eds. Secrets of Nature: Astrology and Alchemy in Early Modern Europe, Transformations: Studies in the History of Science and Technology. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2001. Kieckhefer, Richard. Forbidden Rites A Necromancers Manual of the Fifteenth Century, Magic in History Series. University Park, Penn.: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1997. _____. Magic in the Middle Ages. Cambridge: Canto, Cambridge University Press, 2000. Kiesel, William, ed. Picatrix: The Goal of the Wise (Ghayat al-Hakim) [ca. 11th C.], trans. Hashem Atallah. Seattle: Ouroboros, 2000. _____. Picatrix: The Goal of the Wise (Ghayat al-Hakim) [ca. 11th C.], Vol. 2, trans. Hashem Atallah & Geylan Holmquest. Seattle: Ouroboros, 2008. King, Francis, ed. Ritual Magic of the Golden Dawn. Rochester, Vermont: Destiny Books, 1987. Kuntz, Darcy, ed. Ars Notoria The Magical Art of Solomon, Showing the Cabalistical Key of Magical Operations, Kabbalistic Grimoire Series No. 3. Edmonds, Wash: Holmes Publishing, 1998.300 _____. The Grand Grimoire, Being a Source Book of Magical Incidents and Diabolical Pacts, 4th rev. ed. Sequim, Wash.: Holmes Publishing, 2008. _____. The Secret Grimoire of Turiel, Kabbalistic Grimoire Series No. 1, 3rd rev. ed. Sequim, Wash.: Holmes Publishing, 2006. Laurence, Richard, trans. The Book of Enoch the Prophet [ca. 1st century BCE]. London: William Clowes & Sons, 1883; Kempton, Ill.: Adventures Unlimited Press, 2000.
299 300
First publication 1176, text attributed to 1st century CE. Reprint of 1656 translation by Robert Turner from the Latin. Date of original uncertain: first known publication is prior to 1554, but conjecture has taken authorship back as far as the 14th century.
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Laycock, Donald. Compete Enochian Dictionary: A Dictionary of the Angelic Language as Revealed to Dr. John Dee and Edward Kelley. York Beach, Maine: Samuel Weiser, 1994. Leitch, Aaron. The Angelical Language: The History, Mythology and an Encyclopedic Lexicon of the Tongue of Angels, 2 vols. St. Paul, Minn.: Llewellyn Publications, proj. publ. 2009. _____. Can We Trust Dees Angels? Online forum posting. Angelical Linguistics Forum. 07 Sep. 2008, 11:39 a.m. Accessed 07 Sep. 2008. <http://groups.yahoo. com/group/angelical_ linguistics/> _____. Secrets of the Magical Grimoires: The Classical Texts of Magick Deciphered. Woodbury, Minn.: Llewellyn, 2005. Liss, Terry Alan. Magic and Science in the Writings of John Dee. MA thesis, University of Washington, 1974. Macdonald, Michael-Albion, trans. & ed. De Nigromancia, Berkeley Heights, N.J.: Heptangle Books, 1988.301 Marshall, Peter. The Magic Circle of Rudolph II Alchemy and Astrology in Renaissance Prague. New York: Walker & Co., 2006. Mathers, S. L. MacGregor, trans. The Goetia the Lesser Key of Solomon the King (Lemegeton Book 1, Clavicula Salomonis Regis), edited, annotated, and illustrated by Aleister Crowley, illustrated 2nd ed., edited by Hymenaeus Beta [pseud.]. York Beach, Maine: Weiser, 1995.302 _____. The Grimoire of Armadel. Boston: Red Wheel/Weiser, 1995.303 _____. The Kabbalah Unveiled [Reprint of London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1926.] London: Penguin/Arkana, 1991.304 _____. The Key of Solomon the King (Clavicula Salomonis). York Beach, Maine: Weiser, 2000.305 _____. The Book of the Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage [1458]. London: John M. Watkins, 1900; reprint, New York: Dover, 1975.306
301
Attributed to Roger Bacon, but first published ca. 16th century. Translation by Mathers ca. 1890, original ca. 1577. 303 Translation by Mathers ca. 1890, original early 1600s. 304 Translation by Mathers, 1888, of Knorr von Rosenroth, Kabbalah Denudata (1684) itself a Latin translation of older qabalistic texts in the Hebrew. 305 Translation by Mathers 1889, original early 1600s. 306 Translation and editing by Mathers ca. 1890, original attributed (possibly spuriously) to 1458.
302
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_____. The Sixth and Seventh Books of Moses. Lake Worth, Fl.: Ibis Press, Nicolas-Hays, 2008. Pir, Christeos [pseud.]. The Enochian Watchtowers of the World, n.p. TMs, 1996. _____. An Essay on Enochian Pronunciation. Online article. Hermetic Library. 13 Apr. 2007. Accessed 11 Aug. 2008. <http://www.hermetic.com/enochia/prcalls.html>. _____. Issues in Enochian Magick. Online article. Enochian Magic Forum. Feb. 2008. Accessed 23 Feb. 2008.<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/enochian/files/ Essays%20%26%20Writings%20from%20Members/>. _____. A Phonetic Guide to the Enochian Calls. Online article. Enochian Magic Forum. May 2006. Accessed 10 May 2006. <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/enochian/ files/Essays%20%26%20Writings%20from%20Members/>. _____. Traversing the Aethyrs, n.p. TMs, 2001. Reeds, Jim. John Dee and the Magic Tables in the Book of Soyga, in Stephen Clucas, ed., John Dee: Interdisciplinary Studies in English Renaissance Thought, International Archives of the History of Ideas, No. 193. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer, 2006. _____. Solved: The Ciphers in Book iii of Trithemiuss Steganographia. Online article. University of Minnesota. 26 Mar. 1998. Accessed 11 Aug. 2008. <http://www.dtc. umn.edu/~reedsj/trit.pdf>. Regardie, Israel [Francis I. Regardie]. The Complete Golden Dawn System of Magic. Tempe: New Falcon Publications, 1994. _____. The Eye in the Triangle: An Interpretation of Aleister Crowley. Phoenix: New Falcon Publications, 1993. _____. The Golden Dawn: A Complete Course in Practical Ceremonial Magic, Four Volumes in One, Fifth ed. St. Paul: Llewellyn Publications, 1986. _____. What You Should Know About the Golden Dawn. Phoenix: Falcon Press, 1987. Reuchlin, Johann. De Arte Cabalistica [1517], trans. Martin Goodman & Sarah Goodman. Lincoln, Neb.: Bison Books, University of Nebraska Press, 1993. Roberts, Julian & Andrew G. Watson, eds. John Dees Library Catalogue. London: Bibliographical Society, 1990. _____. John Dees Library Catalogue: additions and corrections, in Stephen Clucas, ed., John Dee: Interdisciplinary Studies in English Renaissance Thought,
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309
Companion book for the tarot card deck created by Gerald Schueler & Betty Schueler, illustrated by Sallie Ann Glassman. Published by Llewellyn, 1989.
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310
Based on Dee, Tabula Bonorum Angelorum Invotationes in Sloane 307 & 3821 and Bodleian Rawlinson D. 1067 & D. 1363. 311 Transcription of: Janua Magica Reserata; Dr. Rudds Nine Hierarchies of Angels & Nine Celestial Keys; The Demon Princes; from Harley 6482, Rawlinson D.1363, Sloane 3821, 3824, and 3825.
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312
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313
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Kelley, A Problem of Authorship: John Dee, Edward Kelley, Conversations and the Angelic Conversations

Ross Christopher Feldman

Tables and Illustrations

John Dee, Edward Kelley, and the Angelic Conversations

2009 R. Christopher Feldman

John Dee, Edward Kelley, and the Angelic Conversations

2009 R. Christopher Feldman

John Dee, Edward Kelley, and the Angelic Conversations

2009 R. Christopher Feldman

John Dee, Edward Kelley, and the Angelic Conversations

2009 R. Christopher Feldman

John Dee, Edward Kelley, and the Angelic Conversations

2009 R. Christopher Feldman

John Dee, Edward Kelley, and the Angelic Conversations

2009 R. Christopher Feldman

John Dee, Edward Kelley, and the Angelic Conversations

(dotted circles). Dee, occasional intelligencer,

2009 R. Christopher Feldman

John Dee, Edward Kelley, and the Angelic Conversations

was her Secret Eyes or Ubiquitous Eyes

the original 007.29 He was often away

2009 R. Christopher Feldman

John Dee, Edward Kelley, and the Angelic Conversations

2009 R. Christopher Feldman

John Dee, Edward Kelley, and the Angelic Conversations

2009 R. Christopher Feldman

John Dee, Edward Kelley, and the Angelic Conversations

2009 R. Christopher Feldman

John Dee, Edward Kelley, and the Angelic Conversations

2009 R. Christopher Feldman

John Dee, Edward Kelley, and the Angelic Conversations

2009 R. Christopher Feldman

John Dee, Edward Kelley, and the Angelic Conversations

2009 R. Christopher Feldman

John Dee, Edward Kelley, and the Angelic Conversations

2009 R. Christopher Feldman

John Dee, Edward Kelley, and the Angelic Conversations

2009 R. Christopher Feldman

John Dee, Edward Kelley, and the Angelic Conversations

2009 R. Christopher Feldman

John Dee, Edward Kelley, and the Angelic Conversations

2009 R. Christopher Feldman

John Dee, Edward Kelley, and the Angelic Conversations

2009 R. Christopher Feldman

John Dee, Edward Kelley, and the Angelic Conversations

2009 R. Christopher Feldman

John Dee, Edward Kelley, and the Angelic Conversations

2009 R. Christopher Feldman

John Dee, Edward Kelley, and the Angelic Conversations

2009 R. Christopher Feldman

John Dee, Edward Kelley, and the Angelic Conversations

2009 R. Christopher Feldman

John Dee, Edward Kelley, and the Angelic Conversations

2009 R. Christopher Feldman

John Dee, Edward Kelley, and the Angelic Conversations

2009 R. Christopher Feldman

John Dee, Edward Kelley, and the Angelic Conversations

2009 R. Christopher Feldman

John Dee, Edward Kelley, and the Angelic Conversations

2009 R. Christopher Feldman

John Dee, Edward Kelley, and the Angelic Conversations

2009 R. Christopher Feldman