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MrRING Android Futureman Joined: 07 Aug 2002 Total posts: 4196 Gender: Unknown |
 Posted: 12-08-2004 22:09 Post subject: John Dee: The Original 007 |
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From A Bond for All the Ages : Sir Francis Bacon and John Dee : the Original 007:
Elizabeth was very much interested in the occult. Dee was responsible for choosing the most auspicious date for Elizabeth's coronation which was on January 15th, 1559. The Queen was so impressed by Dee that she eventually travelled with her court to Mortlake, for the purpose of seeing his great library.
Dee has been defamed through the centuries as a necromancer, but it's the opinion of many writers that his angelic-cabalistic- alchemical work, his Philosophers Stone, the"Monad Hieroglyphica"(1564) may have been a cover for covert operations carried on in the name of her majesty. The 007 was the insignia number that Elizabeth was to use for private communiques between her Court and Dee.
Dee signed his letters with two circles symbolising his own two eyes and indicating that he was the secret eyes of the Queen.The two circles are guarded by what may be considered a square root sign or an elongated seven. For Dee, seven was a sacred cabbalistic and lucky number.(Richard Deacon)
Could this have lead to the designation of the 00 line in the secret service, and in particular guided Sir Ian Flemming in using 007? Or was it a happy coincidnce? Or is there no such thing as coincidence? 
Last edited by MrRING on 17-08-2004 21:00; edited 1 time in total |
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| Anonymous |
| Posted: 17-08-2004 19:11 Post subject: |
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let's see: an avid code-breaker via the Cabbala, etc; member of secretive "think-tanks" for the Queen; was at one point seen as a double agent for both the Protestants and the Catholics.
hmmmm, maybe so. |
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| ramonmercado Psycho Punk
Joined: 19 Aug 2003 Total posts: 17938 Location: Dublin Gender: Male |
| Posted: 05-07-2011 19:18 Post subject: |
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And now, The Opera.
| Quote: | Damon Albarn sings of magical scholar
http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/culturelab/2011/07/musical-life-of-elizabethan-mathematician-and-magician.html
15:46 4 July 2011
David Robson, features editor
(Image: Jonny Donovan)
In a new opera, Damon Albarn explores the life of Dr John Dee, 16th-century mathematician and adviser to Queen Elizabeth I
JOHN DEE, the 16th-century mathematician and occultist at the centre of Queen Elizabeth I's court, has inspired some of the world's greatest minds. Shakespeare evoked him as the enigmatic conjuror Prospero in The Tempest, while Christopher Marlowe created the power-hungry Doctor Faustus, who sold his soul to the devil for greater knowledge.
"Those are rather fantastical fictions," says Rufus Norris, who is directing a new opera about Dee written by Damon Albarn. "But sometimes the truth is far more interesting."
The opera, Dr Dee, which premieres at the Manchester International Festival in the UK this week, was conceived when festival organisers approached graphic novelist Alan Moore - who created V for Vendetta and From Hell - to work on a new project about the life of an obscure but important figure from English history. Moore chose Dee as his subject, and Albarn, best known as the lead singer and songwriter of the bands Blur and Gorillaz, came on board to write the music. Moore later left "for reasons that we're not quite sure of", says Norris, but the seeds of the idea had been sown.
Albarn and Norris could hardly have had a richer source of inspiration for their opera. Dee's early life was marked by intellectual successes that earned him respect in Elizabeth's court. He popularised Euclidean geometry in academic circles and was an early supporter of Copernicus's model of the universe. He also developed mathematical techniques to help sailors navigate by the stars, meaning that boats could venture out on new routes away from the coast - a key development in exploring the New World and ultimately building England's empire. And, like other intellectuals of his era, after the emergence of the supernova in the constellation Cassiopeia in 1572, Dee likely contemplated the universe as a never-ending expanse of space and stars, says his biographer Benjamin Woolley.
Dee's magpie curiosity was ultimately his downfall, however. Frustrated by the limits of his knowledge, in the 1580s he turned to the occult under the guidance of the medium Edward Kelley. Yet Kelley - a charismatic and manipulative individual - seems to have had an ulterior motive. "He took a fancy to Dee's wife," says Woolley. While the group was in Bohemia, Kelley persuaded Dee that the angel Uriel had ordered them to share their wives.
It was a massive turning point in Dee's life. His relationship with Kelley collapsed, and he returned home to find his famous library ransacked by rivals. Thanks to his forays into mysticism, he also received an icy reception at the court that had once adored him. Dee eventually died in poverty.
So how do you dramatise such a life? Norris and Albarn have taken an unusual approach. Though he will sometimes sing as Dee, Albarn will play himself. "I'm singing but I'm not an actor - I'm not wearing a ruff and tights," he says. The opera will open with Albarn by himself, before cutting to Dee's deathbed to explore the incidents and characters that shaped his life.
Albarn's music will be performed with a mixture of traditional Elizabethan instruments and west African drumming by Nigerian composer and drummer Tony Allen. "The sounds that travelled from Africa into Europe at that time were really important," says Albarn. "That's been somewhat passed over in modern history." The show also features 23 members of the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra. "It's a big sound."
The ensemble hopes to explore the resonances between the England of today and Dee's nation at the cusp of its golden age. "Dee was a huge figure in the reign of Elizabeth I, and here we are at the end of another Elizabeth's reign, her twilight years - and the empire has sort of evaporated," says Albarn. "I think there's a real connection between these two moments."
The result would have perhaps found favour with Dee, says Woolley. "It's just the kind of weird and wonderful experiment that he would have loved."
Exhibition Information
Dr Dee
Palace Theatre, Manchester International Festival, Manchester
Until 9 July |
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| jimv1 Great Old One Joined: 10 Aug 2005 Total posts: 2734 Gender: Male |
| Posted: 03-10-2011 23:35 Post subject: Re: John Dee: The Original 007 |
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| MrRING wrote: | From A Bond for All the Ages : Sir Francis Bacon and John Dee : the Original 007:
Dee signed his letters with two circles symbolising his own two eyes and indicating that he was the secret eyes of the Queen.The two circles are guarded by what may be considered a square root sign or an elongated seven. For Dee, seven was a sacred cabbalistic and lucky number.(Richard Deacon)
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Could this have lead to the designation of the 00 line in the secret service, and in particular guided Sir Ian Flemming in using 007? Or was it a happy coincidnce? Or is there no such thing as coincidence? |
I read it that while Dee flounced around the High Courts of Europe doing the whole lead into gold thing, he was reporting back to Elizabeth who signed her communicatications to him as 'My eyes' symbolised by 007 - a drawing of pair of eyeglasses with the handle. |
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| Unicorn Grey Joined: 24 Nov 2011 Total posts: 9 Gender: Unknown |
| Posted: 18-01-2012 16:57 Post subject: John Dee Conference in Shropshire |
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The Pagan Federation are holding a one day symposium about John Dee. Speakers include Charles Topham, David Cypher, Tracy Thursfield, Chad Henshaw and Gary Nottingham. 31st March 2012
To be held at Clun Memorial Hall in Shropshire SY7 8NY
Tickets £8 to P.F. members or £10 others. For tickets please send cheque (made payable to Pagan Federation Mid-West) to 36 Marina Drive, May Bank, Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire, ST5 0RS. For more info go to www.myddle-earth.info
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| skinny Roaring Fortean
Great Old One Joined: 30 May 2010 Total posts: 215 Location: Adelaide Age: 42 Gender: Male |
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