Elizabethan Astrology

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                 Short Biography of the life of John Dee - Magician, Astrologer & Mathematician






The following biography information provides basic facts about the life John Dee:



Nationality - English

Lifespan - 1527 – 1608

Family - His father was Roland Dee a textile merchant and courtier. Mother was Jane Wild. John Dee was an only child

Education - Chelmsford Chantry School, St. John's College, Cambridge

Career - Mathematician, Astrologer, Magician



Biography of the life of John Dee - Magician, Astrologer & Mathematician

Dr. John Dee was one of the most fascinating characters of the Elizabethan period.

The events of his life are filled with science, experiments, astrology and mathematics which he aligned with magic, the supernatural and alchemy! He was fascinated by the 'Dark Side'.

His name, strangely enough, even reflects the life he would lead. The surname 'Dee' derives from the Welsh Celtic word 'du' which means black.

John Dee was a brilliant scholar. Interested in Mathematics, physics and astrology which he studied at Cambridge and in Europe. The Elizabethan era was the age of the Renaissance and new thinking and ideas.

It was also the age of Nostradamus, Marsilio Ficino and Trithemius and the Renaissance fusion of Christianity, Hermetic Philosophy and its attendant sciences of magic, astrology and alchemy. His interest in science and mathematics led John Dee to a particular interest in astrology and all of its associated supernatural subjects.

John Dee was well travelled was obsessive in collecting books and manuscripts. He collected so many books that he created the greatest personal library in England, which he housed at his mother's residence at Mortlake. John Dee and his extensive library attracted visits from the foremost scholars
in England.

His knowledge extended to Navigation and during his early travels to Europe he was associated with
the great cartographer Gerardus Mercator. His knowledge of navigation and maps was an invaluable source of information to the Elizabethan Explorers such as Raleigh and Drake.

His interest moved on to all subjects relating to the occult and he started working with a highly skilled Medium called Edward Kelley. Kelley used Chrystal balls and his skill in scrying and as a Medium to contact angels and spirits. The Enochian script was said to have been revealed to John Dee by the angels who were conjured by Kelley. John Dee became obsessed with the occult and spent most of his later life in search of its secrets...

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         Facts, Timeline & History about the life of John Dee - Magician, Astrologer & Mathematician






The following are additional facts about the life and history of John Dee via a comprehensive timeline:



John Dee was born 13 July 1527

1503 -1566 Nostradamus was in the patronage of Catherine de Medici

1542 - 1546 John Dee studied Greek, Latin, philosophy, geometry, arithmetic and astronomy at Cambridge University

1546 - John Dee graduated with a B.A. in 1546

1547 - 1550 Studies and Lectures in Europe

1548 24 June arrived in Brussels where he studied with Gemma Frisius and Gerardus Mercator

1550 John Dee was in Antwerp

1551 John Dee brought instruments of navigation back from Europe

1552 John Dee returned to England under the patronage of the Earl of Pembroke and then the Duke of Northumberland

1552 John Dee under Royal patronage of King Edward VI

1553 John Dee became astrologer to the queen, Mary Tudor

1555 28 May - John Dee imprisoned for heresy and for being a magician accused of 'calculating' as a form of magic

1555 August 1 Edward Kelley was born

1555 August John Dee was released from prison

1555 - 1587 John Dee became a consultant to the Muscovy Company formed by the navigator and explorer Sebastian Cabot together with a number of London merchants which was granted a monopoly of Anglo-Russian trade and aimed to search for the Northeast Passage

1555 John Dee prepared nautical information, including navigation charts. He instructed the crews on geometry and cosmography before they left for voyages to North America in 1576.

15 January 1556 - Dee presents plans for a national library to Queen Mary - but the scheme did not receive official backing

1556 John Dee settles at his mother's house Mortlake in Richmond-upon-Thames where he establishes his own personal library

1559 January 15 - Elizabeth I became Queen of England and the coronation date was picked from a horoscope cast for her by John Dee

1562 John Dee in Antwerp - England passed the Witchcraft Statute

1564 John Dee leaves Antwerp

1568 Dee asserts that every object exerts force on every other

1568 he published Propaedeumata Aphoristica and presented the work about Mathematics, Astrology and magic and to Queen Elizabeth

1575 March 10 Queen Elizabeth I visited John Dee's library at Mortlake

1576 John Dee instructed the crews of the explorer Sebastian Cabot, on geometry and cosmography before they left for voyages to North America

1578 John Dee marries his third wife, Jane Fromond. They have eight children

1579 - John Dee's mother gives him the house at Mortlake

1581 - Dee and Edward Kelley start their "mystical experiments". Edward Kelley was a highly skilled medium who claimed to be able to contact angels and spirits which he did by gazing into a crystal ball

1581 John Dee begins experimenting with Angelic magic

1582 March 10 - John Dee and Edward Kelley start receiving the Heptarchia Mystica (John Dee became deeply involved in conversing with angels and spirits through Kelley and it dominated the latter part of his life)

1582 March 20 John Dee and Edward Kelley receive the Enochian alphabet

1583 March 29 John Dee and Edward Kelley start receiving Liber Logaeth

1583 May 8 John Dee and Edward Kelley are foretold by the Angel Uriel of the death of the Queen of Scots (this occurred in 1587) and the coming of the Spanish Armada (this occurred in 1588)

1583 - A mob destroyed a large part of John Dee's library at Mortlake

1584 - John Dee and Edward Kelley move to Cracow

1586 - John Dee and Edward Kelley move to Prague

1589 John Dee returns to England

1589 Edward Kelley stays in Prague and embarks on his public alchemical transmutations in Prague

1595 John Dee became warden of Manchester College

1595 Edward Kelley dies

1605 Jane (Fromond) Dee and several of their children die of plague in Manchester. Following this tragic event John Dee returned to live in London

1608 John Dee dies February 21 1608

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Architect of the Elizabethan Theatre



James Burbage had many ideas about creating the first Elizabethan theatre. He started his career
as a joiner and was therefore experienced in carpentry. But he did not have the knowledge required
to create the similarity to the classical Greek and Roman theatres.

But he knew a man who did! James Burbage consulted John Dee (1527-1608) on the design and construction of 'The Theatre'. John Dee had acquired many books and manuscripts over the years
and his personal library, in his house at Mortlake, was the greatest  in England. John Dee was
therefore extremely knowledgeable on a huge variety of different subjects and this knowledge in-
cluded architecture. James Burbage relied on Dee's extensive architectural library to design the
plans for the construction of The Theatre.







Books written by John Dee



John Dee became obsessed with the occult during his later years and the following books,
written by John Dee reflect this interest in the supernatural:


Propaedeumata Aphoristica about Mathematics, Astrology and magic

Compendium Heptarchiae Mysticae - An early version of John Dee's primary magical text

Five Books of Mystery (Mysteriorum Libri Quinque) - These secret books recorded his experiments with 'angel magic'  and contained the earliest versions of Angelic or "Enochian" script

Mysteriorum Liber Sextus et Sanctus (Liber Loagaeth) - This book is described as 'a Book of Secrets and Key of this World' and as The Book of Enoch. The contents were said to have been revealed to John Dee by the angels

De Heptarchia Mystica - A summary by John Dee of his techniques for communicating with angels and practical benefits there from. 

The Hieroglyphic Monad contains information about symbolic language.



http://www.elizabethan-era.org.uk/john-dee.htm

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                                                  Astrologer to the Queen





Born on July 13, 1527, in London, England, John Dee was an "English alchemist, astrologer, and mathematician who contributed greatly to the revival of interest in mathematics in England."

     - Encyclopaedia Britannica



"Dee was an exceptional student who entered Cambridge University when he was fifteen...Dee excelled at Cambridge and was named Underreader (junior faculty member) before taking his degree. After graduating he traveled to the Continent to continue his studies, achieving overnight fame in Paris at the age of twenty-three, when he delivered a series of lectures on the recently exhumed works of the Greek mathematician Euclid."

     - Visions and Prophesies



"After lecturing and studying on the European continent between 1547 and 1550, Dee returned to England in 1551 and was granted a pension by the government. Dee became astrologer to the queen, Mary Tudor, and shortly thereafter was imprisoned for being a magician but was released in 1555."

     - Encyclopaedia Britannica



"Dee met the future Queen Elizabeth while she was being held under house arrest by Queen Mary. The two developed a freindship that lasted for the rest of their lives. As queen, Elizabeth gave Dee money...More importantly, she protected him from those who accused him of withcraft."

     - Visions and Prophesies



"Besides practicing astrology and horoscopy in the court of Elizabeth I, whose favour he enjoyed, he also gave instruction and advice to pilots and navigators who were exploring the New World. He was asked to name a propitious day for Elizabeth's coronation, and he gave her lessons in the mystical interpretation of his writings."

     - Encyclopaedia Britannica



"Dee's house in Mortlake, near London, was for many years a major center of science in England. Dee salvaged many ancient scientific tomes that had been scattered when Roman Catholic churches and monasteries were ransacked during the Reformation, and his own library of more than 4,000 books may have been the largest of its kind in Europe at the time."

     - Visions and Prophesies



"Before we raise our eyes to heaven, kabbalistically illuminated by the contemplation of these mysteries, we could perceive very exactly the constitution of our Monad as it is shown to us not only in the LIGHT but also in life and nature, for it discloses explicitly, by its inner movement, the most secret mysteries of this physical analysis."

      John Dee, Theorem XVIII



"...In Dee's most Hermetic work, the Monas Hieroglyphica, (One Hieroglyph), published in Antwerp in 1564, Dee believed he had found a 'hieroglyph', a hitherto hidden 'symbol' which contained in its form the very unifying principle of reality. It is a kind of micro-chip which contains within it all the most elementary principles of the universe. It is to be contemplated upon and fixed in memory as an archetype applicable to all studies. But what is it? If one can imagine a great ocean of prima materia which we may call in this context 'spirit', a pure unformed, undirected, unmoving, unmoved homogenous world, then we see the beginning of the universe. If a hand were to, as it were, drop the Monas Hieroglyphica into that ocean of potentials, the materia prima would immediately start forming itself into the universe we imagine we know."

     - Tobias Churton, The Gnostics



"In 1570 the first English translation of Euclid's work appeared, and, although it is credited to Sir Henry Billingsley, who became sheriff and later lord mayor of London, Dee probably wrote part or all of it. In addition, he wrote the preface, which encouraged the growing interest in the mathematical arts."

     - Encyclopaedia Britannica



"...Dee stayed in his library, where, bent over his books, he explored the Talmudic mysteries, the Rosicrucian theories, and a host of other obscure and occult subjects."

     - Daniel Cohen, Masters of the Occult



Dee died in 1608 was two years before the first Rosicrucian manifesto, the Fama Fraternitatis,
began to circulate in 1610.

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                                                         Enochian Magick





(1) The Language of Angels



"In the year 1581, however, John Dee's life swerved onto an entirely new path. He later wrote of how, as he knelt in prayer late one autumn, 'there suddenly glowed a dazzling light, in the midst of which, in all his glory, stood the great angel, Uriel'. The spirit reported handed Dee a crystal 'most bright, most clear and glorious, of the bigness of an egg' and informed him that by gazing at it he could communicate with otherworldly spirits."

     - Visions and Prophesies



"By dint of continually brooding upon the subject his imagination became so diseased, that he at last persuaded himself that an angel appeared to him, and promised to be his friend and companion as long as he lived."

     - Charles Mackay, Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds



"John Dee was enraptured by this prospect, but in spite of the angel's promise, he had little luck at scrying with this 'shew-stone'. The scientist resorted to employing others to do the actual scrying, conversing directly with the spirits, while he kept scrupulous notes."

"The one with him the longest was Edward Kelley, a classic Renaissance scoundrel, Kelley was an erstwhile lawyer who had already had his ears cropped for counterfeiting before he met Dee. He also stood accused of necromancy - the practice of using dead bodies for divination."

"Gazing into the glass, he [Kelly] reported to Dee that 'in the middle of the stone seemeth to stand a little round thing like a spark of fire, and it increaseth, and it seemeth to be as a glove of twenty inches diameter, or there about.' In this glowing central sphere, Kelley claimed to raise a host of spiritual beings who attempted, among other things, to teach Dee 'Enochian', the language spoken by angels and the inhabitants of the Garden of Eden. In fact Dee's alleged Enochian records are elaborate enough to have convinced some credulous readers that they represented a genuine pre-Hebraic language. But as least one researcher has suggested that Enochian was a code Dee used to transmit messages from overseas to Queen Elizabeth in his alleged capacity as a founding member of the English secret service."

     - Visions and Prophesies



"Dee and Kelly "recorded hundreds of spirit conversations, including...an angelic language called Enochian, composed of non-English letters, but which computer analysis has recently shown to have a curious grammatical relationship to English."

     - Terence McKenna, The Archaic Revival



"The discovery of the Enochian language actually came in stages. The earliest utterings of 'Enochian' by Dee actually resemble Speaking in Tongues or glossolalia. The recordings of this language show no signs of an actual language or any kind of syntax at all. This comprises Liber Logaeth or 'Book Speech from God'. It was not until the first of the forty eight calls was dictated that the language we use today surfaced. Each of the calls use definite words repeated throughout with a real grammar. The pronunciation of these calls was very similar to English or at least the English spoken four centuries ago."

     - Frater Inominandum, "Who the Hell is This Enoch Guy Anyway?"



"Many magicians assert that the Enochian language predates all human languages. Gerald J. Schueler is widely considered one of the foremost experts on Enochian magick. Mr. Schueler states that Enochian magick is 'the powerful system of Magick used by Aleister Crowley, and the Golden Dawn, and of the The Necronomicon, to contact intelligences from other dimensions'."

     - Parker Ryan, "Necronomicon Info Source"



"It is now generally agreed by occult scholars that the Enochian system of Dee and Kelly was directly inspired by those sections of the Necronomicon which deal with Alhazred's techniques for evoking the Old Ones. It must be remembered that the Necronomicon was primarily intended as a history, and while it provides some practical details and formulae, it is hardly a step-by-step beginner's guide to summoning praetor-human intelligences. Dee and Kelly had to fill in many details themselves, so their system is a hybrid of ideas taken from the Necronomicon and techniques of their own invention There seems little doubt that...the Enochian language, and the Enochian Calls or Keys are authentic borrowings, and we must doubt Dee's claim that Kelly received them from the archangel Uriel."

     - Colin Low, Necronomicon FAQ



     (Compiled from The Book of the Arab, by Justin Geoffry, Starry Wisdom Press, 1979)

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                                                        (2) An Ancient Source?





"Dee and Kelley were not however the first persons to come up with an Enochian alphabet, a text on alchemy called the 'Voarchadumia' by Pantheus which was written in 1530 printed an eighteen character alphabet attributed to Enoch. As it turns out the British Museum copy of this manuscript has copious marginal notes by none other than Dr. John Dee. The notes date from 1559 and although the twenty-one character alphabet of Dee does not resemble Pantheus' alphabet it is conceivable that he at least got the Idea from that text. What the characters do resemble slightly are the letters of the Ethiopian alphabet....The current Book of Enoch was discovered in Greek and Ethiopian. Donald Laycock suggests that it is entirely possible that Dee had a copy of this manuscript and could not translate it so he invented his own language based loosely upon it."

     - Frater Inominandum, "Who the Hell is This Enoch Guy Anyway?"



Choronzon is the primary embodiment of Evil in Aleister Crowley's Enochian mythos.

"Choronzon is mentioned only once in John Dee's diaries, during a communication from the angels concerning the expulsion of Adam from the garden of Eden:

     - Colin Low, Liber Logaeth



"But Coronzon (for so is the name of that mighty devil), envying man's felicity, and perceiving that the substance of man's lesser part was frail and unperfect in respect to his purer essence, began to assail man and so prevailed. By offending so, man became accursed in the sight of God, and so lost both the garden of Felicity and the judgement of his understanding, but not utterly the favour of God. But he was driven forth (as your scriptures record) unto the earth which was covered with brambles. ... But in the same instant when Adam was expelled, the Lord gave unto the world her time, and placed over her Angelic Keepers, Watchmen and Princes."

     - John Dee, as quoted from Geoffrey James, The Enochian Magic of Dr.John Dee, p..1)



"In this context C(h)oronzon is identical with the Serpent of Genesis, and with the rebellious angel Samael in Jewish midrashic and kabbalistic legend."

"There is a confusion over the identity of the 'Angelic Keepers' mentioned in Dee's record above. That the earth is watched over by angels is a very old tradition, and it is fascinating to see it surface during Dee's angelic communications. According to Dee's angels, the Watchmen and Watchtowers are provided:"

     - Colin Low, Liber Logaeth



"...against the usurping blasphemy, misuse and stealth of the wicked and great enemy, the Devil. To the intent that being put to the Earth, his envious will might be bridled..."

     - John Dee, as quoted from T&FR p.170



"The story appears to be straightforward according both to Dee's angels and traditional legend: Samael/Choronzon tempted Eve, and was banished into the world with them, and Watchers were set over the creation to maintain its bounds. However, traditional legend holds a surprise:"

     - Colin Low, Liber Logaeth



"Samael and his angels were banished to a dark dungeon, where they still languish, their faces haggard, their lips sealed; and are now known as the Watchers."

     - John Dee, as quoted from Robert Graves & Raphael Patai, Hebrew Myths: The Book of Genesis



"This legend is recounted in a book that Dee could not have read because it was lost in Europe until it was brought back from Ethiopia by the Scots adventurer James Bruce of Kinnaird in 1773. By an astonishing coincidence this happens to be yet another Book of Enoch. Although it has been dubbed one of the most boring books ever written, anyone with an interest in Dee and Kelly's conversations with angels should read it. Too much attention has been devoted to the magical system communicated by the angels to Dee; this occupies a relatively small part of the several hundred pages in Dee's transcripts. The angels have a great deal to say. It is interesting to meet again many of Dee's angels in the visions recounted in the Ethiopian Book of Enoch. It is interesting to compare their concerns.

"Much of the content of the Ethiopian book is about the background to the first destruction of the world, an event brought about by the evil caused by angelic 'Watchers' (Patai suggests an alternative translation 'guardian angels' - that is, they are identical with Dee's Watchmen and Overseers). Much of the content of Dee's transcript is concerned with the final destruction of the world. This theme occurs constantly, both explicitly and through symbolism which is clearly linked to the Apocalypse or Revelation of St. John. Dee was well aware of this, and his margin notes show that he understood the references. Dee divided the world into three ages: the first age up to the Flood, a second age up to the coming of Jesus Christ, and a final age terminated by the destruction of the world. In common with many (most) Europeans of his time, he lived his life in an awareness that this end was not a conjecture - it was a matter of fact - and that it was imminent. The angels confirm several times that the 'end of days' is nigh.

"There are so many parallels between events leading up to the first destruction of the world (the biblical Flood) and events leading up to the final destruction (the Apocalypse) that they must be considered duals - that is, not as unconnected mythic material, but as the beginning and end of the same story reflected like mirror images at opposite ends of time. The three ages of the world are in some way connected to the three mystical and visionary works that tell the story: the Ethiopian Book of Enoch, Dee's Book of Enoch, and the Apocalypse of St. John."

     - Colin Low, Liber Logaeth



Read L. S. Bernstein's article on "Egregor" which strengthens the argument that Dee had access to information from the Book of Enoch, specifically that concerning the Watchers. Dee and Kelly asserted that the Nephilim, Giants or offspring of the Watchers, under the command of Uriel, could be evoked with the Enochian "Call of the Thirty Aethyrs.

"The entry into the thirty Aethyrs begins with a divine curse because it is a means to assert control over the entities it evokes: the Nephilim. The Fallen Ones. The Great Old Ones. This establishes beyond any doubt that the Enochian system of Dee and Kelly was identical in spirit, and almost certainly in practice, to the system of Alhazred as described in the Necronomicon."

     - Colin Low, Necronomicon FAQ



     (Compiled from The Book of the Arab, by Justin Geoffry, Starry Wisdom Press, 1979)

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                                                     An Inglorious End





"On a careful perusal of Dee's diary it is impossible to come to any other conclusion than that he was imposed upon by Kelly, and accepted his revelations as the actual utterances of the spirits; and it seems probable that the clever, plastic, slippery Kelly not only knew something of the optical delusions then practiced by the pretended necromancers, but possessed considerable ventriloquial powers which largely assisted in his nefarious deceptions."

     - Lewis Spence, An Encyclopedia of Occultism



"Although he remained in favor with Queen Elizabeth I, Dee, along with Kelly and their wives and servants, were forced out of England when the clergy began preaching against magical activities. A mob destroyed much of Dee's valuable library of books.
"Dee...toured Poland and Bohemia (1583-89), giving exhibitions of magic at the courts of various princes."

     - Encyclopaedia Britannica



In 1595 Kelly was imprisoned by Emperor Rudolf II at Prague for wizardry and sorcery. He fell in a attempt to escape and died a few days later.

Dee "arrived in England with a huge baggage train and protected by a guard of twenty soldiers...But Dee was certainly in need of money when he arrived. The queen received him at Richmond and awarded him a pension of two hundred pounds a year. But the great days were clearly over."

     - Daniel Cohen, Masters of the Occult



Queen Elizabeth appointed Dee warden of Christ's College in Manchester in 1595.

Dee was described by his biographer, John Aubry, as "a beaten old man with 'a long beard as white as milke, tall and slender, who wore a gowne with hanging sleves' . He earned a pittance telling fortunes and even sold his beloved books, one by one, in order to eat."

     - Visions and Prophesies



He died on December 1608 in Mortlake, Surrey.

"Over the centuries many scholars of the occult puzzled over John Dee's handiwork; perhaps the
most notorious of these was Adam Weishaupt, who as a young man was fascinated by the mysterious 'illuminated manuscript'. Rudolf's collection was broken up with the passage of time,
with his collection of rare manuscripts making its way to the venerable Jorge's famous library in Italy.
It survived the fire that destroyed Jorge's abbey and took his life, and along with the other remaining fragments of Jorge's collection was stored at a Jesuit college for many years."

     - Mitchell Porter, alt.necromicon FAQ.

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Related Sites



The Alchemy Virtual Library
"Over 40 megabytes (thousands of pages) of information on alchemy in all its facets"

Chaos Matrix: Enochian
Valuable compiliation of source documents on the Enochian system plus on-line books

The Enochian World of Benjamin Rowe
A well-researched page on the Enochian system of Hermetic magic

John Dee
Brief biographical synopsis and bibliography

John Dee
An even briefer biography with references, quotations and poster

The John Dee Publication Project
Primary Enochian source materials, particularly reconstructions of Dee's Spirit Diaries

Norton's Imperium - Enochian Magick Papers and Links
Extensive site also includes magick references, Enochian calls, a short course in skrying 





Hyperlinks



·The Pseudepigraphical Book of Enoch

·Cypher Documents of the Golden Dawn

·The Great Beast

·Hubbard and Black Magick

·The Mysteries of Sirius

·The Necronomicon

·Origins of the Masonic Order

·The Priory of Sion

·The Rosy Cross

·The Voynich Manuscript



http://www.mystae.com/restricted/streams/gnosis/dee.html

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On 17th November 1558, Queen Mary I died leaving 25 year old Elizabeth to ascend the English throne. Elizabeth's ascension marked the beginning of a 45-year reign that saw England's emergence as a nation of remarkable political power and incomparable cultural accomplishment. Mary's reign had been an unpopular one that saw the burning of over 300 Protestants, earning her the unfortunate moniker of 'Bloody Mary'. When Elizabeth came to the throne, England had just lost Calais, its last European foothold, to the French, the financial coffers had been bled dry after years of fighting wars, and religion was the primary divisive issue tearing the nation apart. By the time Elizabeth's reign ended with her death in 1603 England had become one of the most powerful and triumphant nations on earth.

On September 7th 1533 at around three in the afternoon,[1] to the enormous disappointment of her parents, a baby girl was born. Elizabeth's father, Henry VIII, had risked everything on the belief that the baby would be born a boy. When Elizabeth was born, Henry was so incensed that he refused to attend her Christening. In 1536, after having his wife beheaded, Henry, by the Act of Succession, ruled that he had never been married to her mother thus declaring Elizabeth illegitimate. This declaration was to cause difficulties for Elizabeth all of her life.

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Elizabeth's Sun is in Virgo, in the 8th house. It is peregrine and has no dignity. Manilius said of those born with the Sun in Virgo "The temperaments of those whose span of life she pronounces at their birth Erigone will direct to study, and she will train their minds in the learned arts."[2] Elizabeth was considered to be one of the most well educated intellectuals of her time. It had become popular for the nobility to educate their daughters as well as their sons and she was taught such subjects as history, mathematics, geography and astronomy, showing a particular gift for languages. Roger Ascham, a well-known Cambridge scholar of the day, regarded Elizabeth as his best student. Throughout her life, she never ceased to study, seeking out new ideas and putting them to use. When astrologer John Dee presented her with one of his books on matters pertaining to astrology, magic and Christian Cabala, she was so fascinated by the ideas contained in the book that she became his student, learning all she could about such matters. She would often call upon Dee to explain upcoming celestial events such as eclipses or the appearance of a new star.

Born with the Saturn-ruled sign of Capricorn on her ascendant, Elizabeth quite likely came into the world with feelings of rejection and was instantly proved correct. Saturn in Elizabeth's chart is in Cancer, the sign of its detriment, in the 7th house. Ebertin describes those born with Saturn in Cancer as having a reserved and controlled emotional life. They have difficult contact with family members and aggravating circumstances are due to family ties.[3] Firmicus Maternus says a similar thing when he says, "If the descendant is in Cancer, the native will have great trouble from relatives and will be involved in great danger."[4] If anyone was a victim of family ties it was Elizabeth. Most of her life would be spent with the threat of death hanging over her head. These threats were largely as a result of her father breaking away from the Catholic Church in order to marry her mother. John Gadbury said that with the Sun being placed in the 8th house, there are "many Dangers unto the life of the Native but he shall escape, if the Sun be strong and essentially dignified."[5] The Sun isn't essentially dignified in her chart but Elizabeth managed to elude the threats on repeated occasions. The fixed star Bellatrix conjuncts Mars, ruler of her Mc and, according to Bernadette Brady, the potential success indicated by this star comes only after a journey through darkness.[6]

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By early adulthood Elizabeth could speak five languages fluently. Mercury (ruler of Virgo) in the 9th sextile Jupiter in the 12th, trine Mars in the 6th indicates that Elizabeth's mind was continuously active. It shows someone who had a masterful command of language that gave the facility to speak and write eloquently. She could hold her own intellectually with anyone she engaged with and had infinite energy for good conversation. She had the rare capacity to see things from several angles, often leading others to accuse her of being too prevaricating in her decision-making. She was known to be very unpredictable, often unable to make a decision. Her ability to see the variances in a situation was often seen as a disadvantage. But her Virgo Sun reveals Mercury's command for discernment and discrimination. Not only did Elizabeth have an extraordinary aptitude for learning, she knew how to use the information in a way that was of most benefit in any given situation. She was able to observe and analyze any situation and make informed decisions based on painstaking research. Her ability to persuade people to her way of opinion was legendary. Again, speaking of Virgo, Manilius says, "On them she will confer a tongue which charms, the mastery of words, and that mental vision which can discern all things however concealed they might be by the mysterious workings of nature." [7]

Elizabeth's Moon is in Taurus, the sign of its exaltation, and is in the 3rd house, the house of its joy. It makes no major aspects to other planets apart from a square to Pluto. The 3rd house is the house of short journeys and Elizabeth made an abundance of those. It was tradition during that time for the person occupying the throne to spend the summer months travelling with a large entourage to greet the people she ruled. Elizabeth took this custom very seriously and delighted in travelling throughout England to meet the people. She also spent a great deal of time moving from one residence to another. There was no regular house cleaning in those days and, because of lack of sanitation and proper disposal of waste, things would get quite grim. When it got too dismal, the whole of the court would move to one of the other residences so that the previous one would be cleaned, a process that often took months. Elizabeth rarely spent more than a few months in the one home her whole life.

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                SIR WALTER RALEIGH









The ruler of Elizabeth's 3rd house, Mars, is in Gemini in the 6th house. She was known to be very quick to lash out with her sharp and often cutting wit at those around her but was just as quick to calm down again. With Mars opposing Jupiter, she enjoyed competition and sought out challenges. She liked nothing more than to debate issues. It was said that she particularly enjoyed religious debates, refusing to hold an investigation into Walter Raleigh's rumoured atheism because she enjoyed their arguments. Mars also rules her 10th house showing her strong desire for power and authority. She certainly expected to win all arguments.

It was often believed that Elizabeth had a parsimonious nature. It is alleged that the sailors who were instrumental in the defeat of the Spanish Armada were not rewarded and members of her staff were very poorly paid. Saturn ruling the 2nd house shows her tendency to be quite frugal. When she came to the throne, the country was seriously in debt. She managed a good economic recovery but unfortunately in the later years things were not so good and she died hundreds of thousands of pounds in debt.

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When only 21 years old, Elizabeth was charged with treason and imprisoned in the Tower of London. This must have been one of the most traumatic experiences of her life. She had been witness not only to her mother, but also several other people she had known, being sent to the Tower never to return. She had no reason to believe that her life would be spared. When she was released from the Tower two months later and taken to where she would be residing (virtually under house arrest) she firmly believed she was on her way to be beheaded. During the time she spent in the Tower, Saturn was opposite her natal Sun. It would have been a very dispiriting time where she felt opposed in every way, leaving her feeling as though she was constrained from being herself. Life would be a heavy burden at this time. Not only was she physically constrained, for someone who has always been so mentally active, the restrictions would have been almost unbearable. Saturn squaring natal Jupiter at this time shows a perfect example of how Saturn can inhibit and restrict the freedom of Jupiter. Elizabeth was used to her freedom. With Jupiter in the 12th house, she was quite comfortable with solitude. But it was solitude of her choice. Having it forced upon her was not what she had in mind. This would only have strengthened her tenacity. While it may have been difficult for Elizabeth, she would have seen it as a test of personal resolve, an opportunity to show herself she could meet the challenge. And meet it she did. Not only did she confront the challenge with dignity and pride but less than five years later she was to become the most powerful person in England.

One of Elizabeth's first appointments as Queen was to assign the radical Protestant Robert Dudley to be chief organiser of her coronation. Dudley immediately called upon the assistance of astrologer John Dee. Choosing the date of the coronation was extremely important. England could not afford another difficult reign like the last two. Elizabeth's right to the ascension of the throne was challenged for a number of reasons. Not only was she officially still illegitimate, she was also considered a heretic. A woman ascending the throne was seen as going against the political and cosmic order, as had been proved by Mary's less than successful reign. It was important to find a time that would forgo the disaster that had been foretold. Dee wrote a long and detailed analysis of the astrological augurs for her reign and after much consideration of her natal chart and the current influences, he chose 12pm on the 15th January 1559 for the commencement of celebrations. Details of this election are now lost but history has shown that it was a fortuitous time.[8]

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