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.