John Dee (July 13, 1527 – 1608 or 1609) was a noted British
mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, occultist,
and consultant to Queen Elizabeth I. He also devoted much
of his life to alchemy, divination, and Hermetic philosophy.
Dr. Dee (Or, Mr. Dee, as he left university before achieving
his doctorate) straddled the worlds of science and magic
just as they were becoming distinguishable. One of the
most learned men of his time, he had lectured to crowded
halls at the University of Paris when still in his early
twenties.
He was an ardent promoter of mathematics, a respected
astronomer and a leading expert in navigation, having
trained many of those who would conduct England's voyages
of discovery. (He coined the term "British Empire.") At
the same time, he immersed himself deeply in magic and
Hermetic philosophy, devoting the last third of his life
almost exclusively to these pursuits.
For Dee, as with many of his contemporaries, these activities
were not contradictory, but particular aspects of a consistent
world-view. In 1564, Dee wrote the Hermetic work Monas
Hieroglyphica ("The Hieroglyphic Monad"), an exhaustive
Cabalistic interpretation of a glyph of his own design,
meant to express the mystical unity of all creation. This
work was highly valued by many of Dee's contemporaries,
but the loss of the secret oral tradition of Dee's milieu
makes the work difficult to interpret today.
