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Dr John Dee

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Keira Kensington
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« Reply #15 on: June 22, 2009, 11:33:21 am »

Around the same time the True and Faithful Relation was published, members of the Rosicrucian movement claimed Dee as one of their number.[30] There is doubt, however, that an organized Rosicrucian movement existed during Dee's lifetime, and no evidence that he ever belonged to any secret fraternity.[19] Dee's reputation as a magician and the vivid story of his association with Edward Kelley have made him a seemingly irresistible figure to fabulists, writers of horror stories and latter-day magicians. The accretion of false and often fanciful information about Dee often obscures the facts of his life, remarkable as they are in themselves.[31]

A re-evaluation of Dee's character and significance came in the 20th century, largely as a result of the work of the historian Frances Yates, who brought a new focus on the role of magic in the Renaissance and the development of modern science. As a result of this re-evaluation, Dee is now viewed as a serious scholar and appreciated as one of the most learned men of his day.[29][32]

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Keira Kensington
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« Reply #16 on: June 22, 2009, 11:33:36 am »

His personal library at Mortlake was the largest in the country, and was considered one of the finest in Europe, perhaps second only to that of de Thou. As well as being an astrological and scientific advisor to Elizabeth and her court, he was an early advocate of the colonization of North America and a visionary of a British Empire stretching across the North Atlantic.[13] The term "British Empire" is in fact Dee's own invention.

Dee promoted the sciences of navigation and cartography. He studied closely with Gerardus Mercator, and he owned an important collection of maps, globes and astronomical instruments. He developed new instruments as well as special navigational techniques for use in polar regions. Dee served as an advisor to the English voyages of discovery, and personally selected pilots and trained them in navigation.[7][13]

He believed that mathematics (which he understood mystically) was central to the progress of human learning. The centrality of mathematics to Dee's vision makes him to that extent more modern than Francis Bacon, though some scholars believe Bacon purposely downplayed mathematics in the anti-occult atmosphere of the reign of James I.[33] It should be noted, though, that Dee's understanding of the role of mathematics is radically different from our contemporary view.[17][31][34]

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Keira Kensington
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« Reply #17 on: June 22, 2009, 11:33:48 am »

Dee's promotion of mathematics outside the universities was an enduring practical achievement. His "Mathematical Preface" to Euclid was meant to promote the study and application of mathematics by those without a university education, and was very popular and influential among the "mecanicians": the new and growing class of technical craftsmen and artisans. Dee's preface included demonstrations of mathematical principles that readers could perform themselves.[17]

Dee was a friend of Tycho Brahe and was familiar with the work of Copernicus.[7] Many of his astronomical calculations were based on Copernican assumptions, but he never openly espoused the heliocentric theory. Dee applied Copernican theory to the problem of calendar reform. His sound recommendations were not accepted, however, for political reasons.[11]

He has often been associated with the Voynich Manuscript.[19][35] Wilfrid M. Voynich, who bought the manuscript in 1912, suggested that Dee may have owned the manuscript and sold it to Rudolph II. Dee's contacts with Rudolph were far less extensive than had previously been thought, however, and Dee's diaries show no evidence of the sale. Dee was, however, known to have possessed a copy of the Book of Soyga, another enciphered book.[36]

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Keira Kensington
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« Reply #18 on: June 22, 2009, 11:33:59 am »

At Elizabeth I's request Dee embraced the old Welsh 'Prince Madog' myth to lay claim to North America. The well known story was of a young Welsh prince who discovered America in 1170, over three hundred years before Christopher Columbus's voyage in 1492. The fact was that Elizabeth I had little interest in the New World and Dee's hopes were premature.[37]
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Keira Kensington
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« Reply #19 on: June 22, 2009, 11:34:29 am »



The "Seal of God"
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Keira Kensington
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« Reply #20 on: June 22, 2009, 11:34:40 am »

The British Museum holds several items once owned by Dee and associated with the spiritual conferences:

Dee's Speculum or Mirror (an obsidian Aztec cult object in the shape of a hand-mirror, brought to Europe in the late 1520s), which was once owned by Horace Walpole.
The small wax seals used to support the legs of Dee's "table of practice" (the table at which the scrying was performed).
The large, elaborately-decorated wax "Seal of God", used to support the "shew-stone", the crystal ball used for scrying.
A gold amulet engraved with a representation of one of Kelley's visions.
A crystal globe, six centimetres in diameter. This item remained unnoticed for many years in the mineral collection; possibly the one owned by Dee, but the provenance of this object is less certain than that of the others.[38]
In December 2004, both a shew stone (a stone used for scrying) formerly belonging to Dee and a mid-1600s explanation of its use written by Nicholas Culpeper were stolen from the Science Museum in London; they were recovered shortly afterwards.[39]

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Keira Kensington
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« Reply #21 on: June 22, 2009, 11:35:15 am »

Dee in popular culture

Dee was a popular figure in literary works written by his own contemporaries, and he has continued to feature in popular culture ever since, particularly in fiction or fantasy set during his lifetime or that deals with magic or the occult.
Edmund Spenser may refer to Dee in The Faerie Queen (1596).[40]
William Shakespeare may have modeled the character of Prospero in The Tempest (1610-11) on Dee.[19]
Ben Jonson may have used Dee as the basis for the character of Subtle in his play The Alchemist (1610), which includes a scrying session during which the spirits render up Dee's name.
The Irish Gothic novelist Charles Maturin refers to Dee and Kelley in his novel Melmoth the Wanderer (1820).
Dee and Kelley appear together in Manchester in Harrison Ainsworth's novel Guy Fawkes (1841), in which they exhume the body of Elizabeth Ortyn, and show Fawkes a vision of his coming tribulations.
John Dee is a one of main characters in Gustav Meyrink's novel The Angel of the West Window (1927). Kelley appears there too.
H. P. Lovecraft's short story The Dunwich Horror (1929) credits John Dee with translating the Necronomicon into English.
Luis Fernando Verrisimo's "Borges and the Eternal Organutans" discusses extensively Dee's time at the court of Rudolf II in Prague, making books fly off the shelves to random pages with the power of his mind.
In Dorothy Dunnett's novel The Ringed Castle (1971), Dee is depicted as a mathematician and astrologer who aids then-princess Elizabeth (later Elizabeth I) in her various intrigues.
Dee appears as a character in Derek Jarman's Jubilee (1977).
In Michael Moorcock's novel Gloriana, or The Unfill'd Queen (1978), Dee is the only character drawn from actual history in an alternate history that reimagines the realm of Queen Elizabeth I as that of Queen Gloriana I of Albion, Empress of Asia and Virginia.
John Crowley's four-novel sequence Ægypt (1987-2007) includes John Dee, Edward Kelley, and Giordano Bruno as major characters.
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« Reply #22 on: June 22, 2009, 11:35:29 am »

In the liner notes of Imaginos, a concept album by Blue Öyster Cult (1988), John Dee is preported to be the spirital advisor to Queen Elizabeth I. He is alleged to have used a mirror made by the Aztecs out of obsidian to help bring about the destruction of Spanish sea-power, securing England's dominance over world affairs for the next 150 years.
In Umberto Eco's novel Foucault's Pendulum (1988), Dee is a central character in "The Plan" (the overall conspiracy that the book is concerned with) and in a fiction concerning it created by Belbo, one of the main characters.
Dee is a minor but important character in The Armor of Light, a counterfactual novel set in the courts of Elizabeth I and James VI by Melissa Scott and Lisa A. Barnett (1988).
Dee is a main character in Peter Ackroyd's novel The House of Doctor Dee (1993), which focuses on a young historian who forms a psychic link with Dee after inheriting his London house.
Dee is mentioned frequently in Philippa Gregory's book The Queen's Fool (1995)
In Michael Chabon's novel Wonder Boys (1995), Dr. Dee is the name of the dog belonging to the chancellor.
Dee is mentioned as Queen Elizabeth I's magician in the novel The Devil and His Boy by Anthony Horowitz(1998).
Armin Shimerman fictionalizes Dee's life in the Merchant Prince series of juvenile books (2000-03) by providing a basis in science fiction for Dee's supposed magic.
Dee is a major character in Robin Jarvis's novel Deathscent (2001).
Lisa Goldstein's novel The Alchemist's Door (2002) features Dee as the main character, with his associate Edward Kelley appearing as a villain.
Dee makes a small appearance as a hidden boss in the video game Wild Arms 3 (2002).
In "John Dee, Jenny Everywhere, Round One" (2003), Woody Evans has Dr. Dee in conflict with Jenny Everywhere in an occult techno dance hall.
Dee is a major character in Diana Redmond's time-travel children's book Joshua Cross & the Queen's Conjuror (2004).
Dee figures as the father of the character Ella in the Sky One TV series, Hex (2004-05).
Dee's legacy plays a prominent role in Elizabeth Redfern's novel Auriel Rising (2005).
Dee is a character in the Doctor Who audio drama A Storm of Angels (2005).
Dee plays a brief but prominent role in Alan Moore's syndicated graphic novel Promethea, where he resides in the third sephirot, Binah, of a hermetic interpretation of Kabbalah, guiding the central character on her way towards Kether (2005)
Dee, known as The Walker, is the main antagonist of Charlie Fletcher's children's novel Stoneheart (2006) and its sequels Ironhand (2008) and Silvertongue (to be published in 2009).
Dee appears as a character in Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007) alongside Cate Blanchett's Elizabeth I.
Dee is one of the main antagonists of Michael Scott's six-volume fantasy series The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel, including The Alchemyst (2007) and The Magician(2008) He is trying to obtain the Book of Abraham so he can use it's powereful spells to destroy all humanity.
Dee plays an intricate role in author Titania Hardie's book The Rose Labyrinth. He's the joining piece of the clues that the characters discover throughout the journey of the book (2008).
Dee is a character in Marie Rutkoski's The Kronos Chronicles, Book 1: The Cabinet of Wonders (2008).
Ella Marsh Chase features Dee as a character in her book The Virgin Queen's Daughter (2008).
Dee is a character in Karen Harper's series of mystery novels set in Elizabeth I's court.
John Dee is the central character in the 2009 historical novel Virgin and the Crab, by Robert Parry.
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Keira Kensington
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« Reply #23 on: June 22, 2009, 11:36:30 am »

Thanks for bringing him up, Mike, he was a mystery to me till I researched him.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Dee
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