Until modern times it was an established cultural practice for men and women to seek the guidance of God daily in their lives. People also had a sincere desire generally to go out and do what they perceived to be God's good will. This did not mean that everyone saw God's will. Nor, or course, did everyone make decisions affecting others out of a pure spiritual fervor and love of God.
Indeed, the most pervasive pain and suffering among people century after century has been from religious persecution. In the Holy Roman Empire of the Middle Ages persecution accelerated with radical intensity in the Albigensian Crusades of the 12th and 13th Centuries in particular, where Cathars particularly, and indeed some Jews and others, as well, were slaughtered or burned to death for heresy until their influence was driven underground. Whatever the Cathars had come to believe as a group, those doctrines that were based upon principles that applied to everyone equally elicited the respect of nobles and commmoners alike, and the roots of their influence for over a hundred years were deep.
Clergical courts of the Inquisition were designed to try and punish heresy as a way of maintaining the political power and wealth of both secular and religious ruling classes. Heresy was a practice based upon a belief system that was denounced by the legally sanctioned doctrines of the Holy Roman Church and regarded by the Church as likely to cause a schism or split in the Church. Even the threat of a schism by the practice of one's beliefs, especially involving others who may also follow an "outlaw" doctrine, was treated as treason against monarchies as well as the Church, and was punishable by torture and death.
Out of an ancient spiritual tradition that predates early Christianity, some men and women of the 16th Century continued to practice "magical" techniques based upon Natural Laws of God. It wasn't magic or miracles. They were using scientific fundamentals that are no more mysterious than the law of gravity as we know it today. Indeed their work alluded to leaders in early civilization, where the secrets of nature were revered widely and taught sacredly by tribal shamans, as they were demonstrated to them directly in the natural system and order of nature. Over time "civilization" had gradually suppressed the conscious, collective memory or history of these natural premises of life. These natural laws that came down through the generations to these men and women of the 16th Century elicited their conviction that they had a responsibility to work very hard to help bring humans back to God after being cut off psychologically, sociologically—spiritually and "naturally." The instituted supremacy of the governing laws of society had separated people from God ironically by "outlawing" Nature's Laws of God essentially.
The first and primary natural law was about humanity's direct relationship with God, through what Jesus and many, many other spiritual leaders described similarly over many periods as, "the inner way," the "kingdom of God within," the kingdom of God that "is at hand." The first law of God is expressed by different groups in different ways, but it is this: "Thou shalt have no other gods before thee." These men and women felt that by helping all of humankind to reach high within themselves for direct, inner knowledge from God, that as each grew in this understanding, so would the spiritual evolution of all humankind rise high in the application of the natural laws of God. The evil persecution of this Earthly world would naturally stop under these conditions.
The Master Jesus said it this way:
If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you.
"He was Elizabethan England's great magus."1 He was Court Astrologer and confidant to the English Queen, Elizabeth I, and was well beloved by her as such. The Queen travelled regularly by horseback to visit Dr. Dee personally at his home estate, Mortlake. There he had an unusually large library collection of up to 4,000 manuscripts of some of the world's most significant classic writings of all time, before clergical laws were passed outlawing many of them. They were later destroyed by a fire at Mortlake while Dee was out of the country. Mortlake is also where he and Edward Kelly conducted the greatest documented experiments ever at the time with angel or "Spirit" communications.
John Dee was born July 13, 1527 in London, the son of Rowland Dee, a "gentleman server" in the court of King Henry VIII. He was a decendant of Roderick the Great, ancient Prince of Wales. Personally, however, John Dee arose from the long line of philosopher-magicians known as Hermeticists. His lifetime would see the the success of the Protestant movement out of the failure of reformation within the Roman Church itself, and the beginnings of the Rosicrucian movement out of the Hermetic tradition and an evangelical gnostic Christianity that had contributed during the Reformation to the eventual split of other monarchies from Rome.
As a way of introducing Dr. Dee, the following is a prayer of petition in its entirety that he wrote and said regularly. It demonstrates the sweet and humble nature of this man's spirituality, and the depth of his sincerity and devotion to God's works in his daily life.
O Almighty, Eternal, the True and Living God: O King of Glory: O Lord of Hosts: O thou, the Creator of Heaven, and Earth, and of all things visible and invisible: Now, (even now, at length,) Among others thy manifold mercies used, toward me, thy simple servant John Dee, I most humbly beseech thee, in this my present petition to have mercy upon me, to have pity upon me, to have Compassion upon me: Who, faithfully and sincerely, of long time, have sought among men, in Earth: And also by prayer, (full often and pitifully,) have made suit unto thy Divine Majesty for the obtaining of some convenient portion of True Knowledge and understanding of thy laws and Ordinances, established in the Natures and properties of thy Creatures: by which Knowledge, Thy Divine Wisdom, Power and Goodness, (on thy Creatures bestowed, and to them imparted.) being to me made manifest, might abundantly instruct, furnish, and allure me, (for the same,) incessantly to pronounce thy praises, to rend unto thee, most hearty thanks, to advance thy true honor, and to Win unto thy Name, some of thy due Majestical Glory, among all people, and forever." [Sloane Manuscript 3191, Folio 45; British Museum; presented here with today's spelling.]
Dee wanted to help solve the religious problems of the world, and stop the effects of persecution which had grown into a social and political monster during the Middle Ages and the Reformation. But how does one stop a tidal wave of indirect, subtle, "willing" mental bondage that was instituted in effect by the heresy laws?
Hermetic gnostic thinking was involved with many devoutly religious people, labeled "pagans," who stood up to the Holy Roman Empire all during the Middle Ages (500 A.D. - 1450 A.D.). The church and monarchies had ruling supremacy together, and to violate the laws of the church in those times was to violate the laws of both.
- the universe is ordered;
- stars are "living" entities that influence everything below on Earth and throughout the entire Universe;
- through the Universe there is sympathy and antipathy between all things;
- the personal Hermetic experience depends upon the development of the imagination—known to be connected, as well, with all knowledge from which ideas spring into our consciousness, a process called intuition today.
- there are four elements in all material expression—earth, air, fire and water—and these are a part of the Universal hierarchy of all life, as the notes of a music scale are hierarchal—yet, each is individually necessary to the absolute completeness of the whole;
- and, not last, Light is the first creation and is circular in motion, embuing and connecting all things together in the Universe.
The oral history passed down is that the movement actually was a continuation of a broad, ancient esoteric tradition that only included Hermetic gnosticism. Hermetic gnosticism had been built upon by Magi throughout the previous centuries, and was constantly protected from loss or destruction through the use of various arcane methods, partly through word of mouth from a lineage of leaders selected initiatically by each generation to carry on the sacred tradition.
Historian Peter J. French1 has said that perhaps the true beginning of the Age of Enlightenment came from another landmark work of John Dee: "Mathematical Preface" to Euclide's Geometry, all done in English, also, for the common public. Considered by historians to be equal in stature with Francis Bacon's 17th Century Advancement In Learning, John Dee's "Mathematical Preface" was the first treatise in history that was specifically directed to scientists, and especially in English to all individuals who qualified as "Unfained Lovers of Truth," in order to open and expand the world of science for all people.
In the "Preface" to Euclide's, the application of mathematics to the various scientific disciplines was for the first time explained comprehensively, with added information that would substantiate applications also from the field of mysticism, metaphysics and philosophy. In fact, Dr. Dee saw mathematics as the key to all knowledge.
In 1564 while on a stay in Europe, John Dee also wrote a Hermetic treatise called Monas Hieroglyphica. He dedicated it to Maximilian II, Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire (1564-1576). In the Monas, which was referred to by contemporaries as a magical and Hermetic work, a "magic parable," he dealt with humankind's spiritual transformation and the need to return to our original divine nature. Written in the oral tradition, it was intended only for those who could recognize its meaning, intentionally disguised for his personal protection under heresy laws.
Hermetic gnosticism included the Valentinean teachings and those of St. John the Evangelist and certain disciples of the Johannite sect. Theoclitus of the 11th Century claimed his initiatic lineage was to St. John. Later gnostic lineages became somewhat blurred among various branches farther from the source. In some way, however, there was a connection the Cathars, who were tied with the Bogomils and the older Manichaeans, or followers of Mani. It was from here at the close of the Cathar influence in the Albigensian Crusades that a young boy of the German nobel house of Germel was prepared for training in Persia when he was to come of age. The legend of C.R.C. that was the focus of the first Rosicrucian manifesto published in 1614 was an allegorical vehicle based upon his life and work. Geoffrey de St. Adhémar had also been originally from a town in the Albigensian lands of the Cathars. He later was tutored in the tradition, and co-founded the first Militae Evangelicae in 1089.
In Dee's time there was the well known list of Hermeticists, of course, that inluded Michael Maier, Raymond Andrae, Robert Fludd, and Francis Bacon. A few other active initiates who have received little attention as Hermeticists were Simon Studeon and Heinrich Kunrath. More recently in 1762 was Count Ragoczy, who tutored Cagliostro. To be sure, women were actively engaged in the Hermetic tradition, as well, however knowledge of most of their work has survived only in the oral histories. This is due in large part to the cultural role of women at the time, and that records were not kept even of the direct inspirations, activities and advancements that specific individuals contributed to the pool of work protected under secrecy.
The Hermetic tradition was carried forward in each century under different names, not only by the inwardly initiated leader of each period, but by every fervent student of the Hermetic sciences. Hermeticists wrote or spoke in a secretive alchemical tradition in order to protect and preserve the Earthly resource of Hermetic knowledge for all future generations.
Dee believed that the Divine essence, a part of God in every man and woman, was an aspect of humankind which had been lost or forgotten and must be rediscovered. He and others who viewed life in the Hermetic tradition were also very concerned indeed by the disastrous religious climate that was continuing to accelerate as a result of the prevailing attitudes of the contemporary ruling classes.
- They knew that the language of the subconscious mind is in symbols.
- Further, that "mind" has permanent "subconscious" memory, independent of the brain's conscious memory activity, and functions as Light embuing and connecting all things in the universe.
- The subconscious is always a source of future recollection, whether through concentration and relaxation, or in other ways that mind functions to refresh conscious memory through the brain.
- Through the use of imagination, the process of association accesses information piercing through the subconscious language of symbols, and produces a synthesis of information that is reliable, when not clouded by emotion, intellectual or conscious, logical thought processes.
- Symbols, used in their oral and written communications, therefore, were one means of storing the discoveries of the Hermeticists for future generations.
No one is outside God's omnipotent laws of nature, so why not learn what they are as they apply to humans, and begin actively applying them individually?
Evangelical Christianity had grown alongside Lutheranism during the Reformation, both movements contributing to a series of domino events. Some of these indirectly led King Henry VIII to break with Rome, to allow the Christian Bible to be published in English, and to start his own Church of England. In the domino effect that had been set into motion, other monarchies began to follow his bold lead. Although in his heart, Henry remained a Catholic, Anne Boleyn's evangelical Christianity had had a specific indirect transforming effect in the affairs of England, radiating in his official decisions, all the way through King Henry's pursuit of a Church sanctioned divorce to marry her. All this was before he allowed Anne to be tried and executed in 1536 for false charges of treason.
The Fama explained that before there could be a religious reformation, which the Protestant movement was intended to accomplish during the 16th Century, there must first be "an inner reformation within men's minds and hearts." It told the legend of "C.R.C.," a symbolic representation of a "Christian Rosicrucian." In the oral tradition, it was a play on the irony from the Hermeticist point of view, that this reference designated a true Christianity that harkens back to gnostic Christian beginnings, at least, but actually it was much older as a part of the oral tradition. The Rosicrucian movement was the Hermetic response to the anti-Christian dogma prevailing under the rule of the Roman Church at that time.
However, the oral tradition of the C.R.C. legend told the allegory of an individual who traveled to the East to be tutored in the source esoteric traditions, so that he could return and carry on a new cycle of activity with a refreshed body of knowledge—reborn into a new expression or a new lifetime of activity. The allegory also expressed the natural process involved in the unfolding of the inner consciousness in humans, known as spiritual illumination. Spiritual illumination happens at a point when one's inner realization reaches a "pitch" where the conscious awareness crosses over to a perception that transcends physical reality. It happens eventually to everyone, the "good news," and the Hermeticists wanted more than anything that people be free to pursue their own natural, inner inclinations that would eventually take them there as God intended for all humanity.
The Confessio further boldy advocated the elimination of papal tyranny in the personal lives of humankind. Interestingly, however, the attackers of the Rosicrucian movement were to be mostly Protestants—very few Catholics other than from the ruling class. In 1616, the third manifesto followed: the allegory called The Chemical Wedding, which further described the Brotherhood's purpose and methods by which humankind could learn about our personal and direct relationship to God and the universe.
In the 17th Century Francis Bacon's name came to the fore in his advocation of a scientific approach to knowledge and learning in Advancement in Learning, his Novum Organum and in the utopian allegory, The New Atlantis; also, in his activities as a founding member of the Royal Society, which concerned itself with the scientific approach. Although Dee personally tutored Bacon in his youth, training him in ancient arcane arts, the name and reputation of John Dee was shelved necessarily by his own loving brothers and sisters to ensure the continued work of the Rosicrucians. They needed to avoid jeopardizing the greater objective of humankind's religious and philosophical freedom from persecution—or to state it more succinctly—to promote everyone's inherent and inalienable right to the freedom of individual thought and personal choice.
Subsequently it would require the research of disinterested parties to the esoteric traditions to get to the truth revealed from the records, before historical revisions would include Dr. John Dee's important role in the Rosicrucian movement. Today in the British Museum, Dee's significance to the early stages of the Renaissance as scientist, and philosopher-magician is highlighted on display. Many of his manuscripts and other contemporary publications revealing the intent of his work are also available in the British Library. Some of his more important writings also have been published in book form.
If ever there is an award for the man for all seasons, Dr. John Dee would probably be among the names nominated. His good name survived the long obscurity partly caused at the hands of his own brotherhood, and it now shines in the light of truth today under the scrutiny of those who would have no particular interest in promoting or not promoting an awareness of what he gave to humanity.
The esoteric traditions continue to recognize Dr. Dee for the powerful effect that his genius had intellectually and spiritually upon the world. Many freedoms enjoyed today are due to the effort and sacrifice, and the unrelenting devotion to service, of John Dee and others like him.
1 John Dee—The World of an Elizabethan Magus; Peter J. French, Routledge and Kegan Paul: London 1972, p1
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