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This is my family's house. It was built in the 1800's and moved to the site in the early 1900's. I lived there after my grandmother left to reside in an senior citizen's high rise. Eva was the first resident and got a penthouse apartment. This old house was a great house for a psychic. It has cold spots and active psychic centers. As a hermetic this is the spot in which I experienced a hallmark skill, an element was transmuted. From my hand a solid was turned to a fluid. I don't want to profess myself as a master magician it just happened spontaneously.
John Dee’s tarnished reputation did not dissuade adherents of his intricate philosophy and noble goal of a Hermetic Christianity capable of providing the world with salvation. Seventeenth-Century Europe was in the midst of a political, religious, and epistemological crisis.1 Szönyi argues that new approaches in Seventeenth-Century natural philosophy and science had created a vacuum that experimentation with magic was more than ready to fill.2 Szönyi’s assertion is exemplified in Valentin Weigel’s (1533-1588) belief that the inner spirit reigned over outer nature, including alchemy, Paracelsian elementals, daemons, and spirits, and inspired radical theologians to push forward interpretations of esoterica that focused on an inner transmutation rather than the outer mastery of nature.3
Johann Arndt (1555-1621) was one such figure (influential in his own right regarding the Pietist movement) who accepted the works of Weigel and Paracelsus, among others.4 Arndt’s seminal Pietist work was his Vier Bücher vom wahren Christentum (1605-1610),5 a work that greatly influenced one Johann Valentin Andreae (1586-1654).6 7 Andreae translated extracts of Arndt’s work into Latin around 1615, praised Arndt’s model of Christianity wherein Christians live their lives in accordance to the faith they professed in his Mythologia christiana (1619), and dedicated his utopian work Christianopolis (1619) to Arndt.8 Andreae also surrounded himself with friends who espoused utopian agendas, such as Tobias Hess (1586-1654), Christoph Besold (1577-1638), Abraham Hölzl, Tobias Adami and Wilhelm van der Wense.9 Adami and van der Wense were disciples of Tommasso Campanella, author of the utopian Civitas Solis (1602). Civitas Solis was notable in its shared similarities between the proposed utopian communities presented in Andreae’s Christianopolis and the Picatrix’s Adocentyn.10 11
The utopianism displayed in the works above was joined with profound Hermetic influence in the Fama Fraternitatis, Deß Löblichen Ordens des Rosenkreutzes, an alle Gelehrte und Häupter Europae geschrieben (1614; hereafter called the Fama), Confessio Fraternitatis (1615; hereafter called the Confessio, largely attributed to Andreae, Hess, and Besold) and the Chymische Hochzeit Christiani Rosenkreutz Anno 1459 (1616; hereafter called the Chemical Wedding, which Andreae claimed authorship of).12
In a time rife with apocalyptic and utopian philosophy that made extensive use of Hermetic philosophy and Kabbalism, one wonders what John Dee’s role constituted in the cry for a spiritual and epistemological revolution. An interesting link between Dee and Andreae exists through Dee’s acquaintance with Heinrich Khunrath (1560-1605), who in turn was known to maintain correspondence with Johann Arndt.This chapter will explore the linkage between Dee and Andreae as well as the transmission of Dee’s Hermetic philosophy, namely through his Monas Hieroglyphica. Rosicrucianism adopted an interest in Dee’s Monas, which kept alight the torch of his uniquely equipped form of angel magic until it was delivered into the hands of Frederick Hockley.
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Early Rosicrucianism and the Monas Hieroglyphica
In Tübingen, Johann Valentin Andreae and his two close friends, Tobias Hess and Christoph Besold, are thought to have formed an inner circle amongst a group of like- minded acquaintances in order to produce the Rosicrucian Manifestos, the Fama and the Confessio; two works that sparked a furor of more than 200 responses between 1614-1620 (both positive and negative)14 in Reformation-era Europe.15 The titular symbol of John Dee’s philosophical work, the Monas Hieroglyphica, served as the emblem of The Chemical Wedding and from that point on Dee was connected to the Weigelian, inwardly alchemical transmutation of the soul.
Elias Ashmole (1617-1692), an antiquarian and founding member of the Royal Society with a great interest in alchemy, astrology, and astral magic,16 possessed a profound interest in Dee and his angel magic.17 Ashmole hoped to explore these themes in a biography of Dee that he never completed.18 In his book, Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum (1652), Ashmole related a connection between the Rosicrucian movement and Dee. The connection, as Yates attests,19 was on June 27th, 1589 in Bremen when Dee met Heinrich Khunrath (1560-1605).20 It is not known what the two discussed, but Yates noted the appearance of Dee’s Hieroglyphic Monad21 in Khunrath’s Amphitheatrum Sapientiae Aeternae (1595) in the image of the alchemical hermaphrodite where the ‘O’ of ‘AZOTH’ on the Raven/Peacock/Swan’s22 breast is the circular part of Dee’s symbol.23
Khunrath’s theosophical alchemy and Kabbalism was a continuation of Weigel’s inward mysticism24 and his stance was, despite its criticism of scholastic Lutherans, mediatory in much the same way as Arndt and Weigel.25 Szulakowska asserts the importance of Dee’s position as a mentor of Khunrath, as evidenced in his proclamation of Dee in his Quaestiones Tres Per-Utiles (1607) as ‘Londinensem [...] hoc est, Sapientiae Sincerioris Gazophlacem magnum; Angliae Hermetem’, an accolade repeated in his Amphitheatrum.26
Szönyi aptly points out that despite his reputation in his homeland as the sorcerer who conjured angels, Dee was well-received on the continent due to the more positive reputation conferred on the author of the philosophically elegant Monas Hieroglyphica.27 This image of Dee, as an important contributor to Pietism rather than as a sorcerer who talked to spirits, makes the Rosicrucian interest in the Monas Hieroglyphica more appealing; especially after being so well regarded by Khunrath and found to be compatible with Arndt’s theosophy. But how did Dee’s Hieroglyphic Monad come to be included in Andreae’s Chemical Wedding?
Tobias Churton posits a few interesting possibilities as to how the Hieroglyphic Monad was included in Andreae’s Chemical Wedding. First: Andreae may have ‘lifted’ Dee’s symbol from the Amphitheatrum for use in The Chemical Wedding despite his poor regard for Khunrath’s Kabbalistic, alchemical Christology and suggestions of the existence of a Christian ‘para-religion’ that ignored the sacrament of brotherhood and selfless love.28 Second: another unidentified party involved in the creation of The Chemical Wedding insisted on its inclusion.29 Third: Andreae obtained the Hieroglyphic Monad directly from the work itself, despite never having written about it.30
Still another possibility is the transmission of the Monas Hieroglyphica through the first person who responded to the Fama Fraternitatis with wishes to join the nonexistent society. The response of Adam Haslmayr (c. 1560-1630) was included in the first printing of the Fama and its endorsement of Rosicrucianism served to turn what was perhaps intended as an allegorical organization into what was perceived as a recruitment pamphlet for the true teachings of Paracelsus.31 Haslmayr’s response echoed the ecstatic outcry of many other impressed readers of Rosicrucian texts; the popular Paracelsian influence on the Monas only served to bolster its reputation amongst the spiritual, or ‘true’, alchemists.32
The Monas Hieroglyphica had been republished in Lazarus Zetzner’s Theatrum Chemicum (1602) and was available across Europe.33 Haslmayr included the Hieroglyphic Monad in several of his manuscripts, including the Novum Lumen Physico-Chemicum (1616), Consideratio Figurae Ergon er Parergon Fratrum RC (1626),34 and Amphitheatrum Chymicum Sacrum (1629).35 Carlos Gilly (a scholar noted for his skepticism regarding Dee’s influence on Rosicrucianism),36 conceded that through Haslmayr’s imitation of Dee’s symbol in his Consideratio Figurae the Monas may have served as a source of influence in the inclusion of a work in the first edition of the Confessio that also used the Monas as a source of inspiration: the Secretioris Philosophiae Consideratio Brevis (1615).37 38
The Consideratio features direct quotations of the first 13 Theorems of the Monas interspersed throughout its writing and is credited to the pseudonymous Phillipus a Gabella, though he makes absolutely no mention of Dee in his work and replaces the word ‘monas’ with ‘stella’.39 The positive reception and influence of the Monas was indeed notable in continental Europe, but uncredited usage of the symbol was not limited to the Consideratio. Gerard Dorn, a translator responsible for altering Paracelsus’ works from German to Latin, featured Dee’s Hieroglyphic Monad on the cover of his Chymisticum Artificium Naturae (1568; published four years after the first edition of the Monas Hieroglyphica).40 Other plagiarisms include: Cesare della Riviera’s Il Mondo Magico de gli Heroi (1605), where Riviera openly lifted Dee’s insight that the Latin numerals for fifty, five, and ten form the word LVX (or Light); the Jesuit Athanasius Kircher’s Oedipus Aegypticus (1653-1655) featured both the original Monad (he dubbed the Crux Hermetica) and a variant (dubbed the Crux Ansata) in a chapter on ‘Mathematica Hieroglyphica’; and Johann Christoph Steeb’s Coelum Sephiroticum (1679) also retitled his own variant of the Dee’s Monad, renamed the Sigillum Hermetis Mercurii Trismegisti.41 If imitation is indeed the sincerest form of flattery, then Dee had more than a few devoted admirers.
Given that the Monas Hieroglyphica was held in such high regard as to merit repeated plagiarism, it made it more likely that Andreae knowingly used the Hieroglyphic Monad despite his misgivings for Khunrath. Perhaps he sought to uplift what he perceived as a potent, but misguided, vehicle for world-wide reformation and so he attempted to mold it in a fashion that conformed to his own vision of the inward spiritual transmutation that occurs with true Christianity. Andreae distanced himself entirely from Rosicrucianism due to the failure of The Chemical Wedding to cease attachments to Pagan philosophy and theosophy that he found to be in conflict with his own view of Christianity. Regardless of how the Monas was included in The Chemical Wedding, Dee’s expanded vision of the cross granted further depth to the its Christian context by using Kabbalistic techniques to enhance the cross’ profundity through numerological, symbolic, and alphabetical analyses.43 To Dee the cross was a ternary of two lines and a central meeting point44 representing the body, spirit, and soul45 and reasonably the Holy Trinity (see fig. 11).46 The cross also contained a quaternary of four right angles created by four straight lines that also create a ‘secret’ octonary47 representing the four classical, terrestrial elements of Fire, Air, Water, and Earth (see fig. 10). The ternary and quaternary virtues of the cross also add up to a septenary representing the seven planets, the seven days of the week of the creation, and numerous other significances,48 via the two lines, the point at which they bisect, and the four straight lines.
Dee also bisected the cross to create what he perceived as the Latin characters for the numbers five (V; see fig. 12) and fifty (L; see fig. 13), evidencing a quinary derived from a denary, representing a marriage of spirit and matter.49 This bisecting of the cross also reflects the Hermetic adage ‘As Above, So Below’.50 51
The Monas Hieroglyphica and the Confessio bear similarities. In the Monas, Dee differentiates between the ‘real cabbala’ and the vulgar cabbalistic grammar. [...] No mortal may excuse himself for being ignorant of this our holy language, which, in the aphorisms [1 directed] to the Parisians, I have called the real cabbala, or [the cabbala] of that which is, as I call that other and vulgar one, which rests on well-known letters that can be written by man, cabbalistic grammar or the cabbala of that which is said. The real cabbala, which was born to us by the law of the creation (as Paul intimates), is also [a] more divine [gift], since it invents new arts and explains the most abstruse arts very faithfully, as others, following our example, may try out in some other field.53
The Confessio makes much the same claim of the ‘great book of nature’ which ‘stands open to all men’, but, like Dee’s ‘real cabbala’, ‘few can read and understand the same’.54 The book prophesies a coming time when ‘honour shall be given to the tongue’ and from there all the senses and the awakening of the whole of humanity.55 The Confessio further states that the Rosicrucian brotherhood possesses a language capable of ‘expressing and declaring the nature of all things’.56
It seems logical that such an awakening that prepared man to receive the ‘real cabbala’ was the signifier of a change, or transmutation, of the soul. The Chemical Wedding utilizes hallmark alchemical imagery to tell its tale, but in such a manner that focuses on the spiritual change of the soul.57 The Chemical Wedding has Christian Rosencreutz, the hero of the Rosicrucian Manifestos, invited to a wedding that requires the passing of a variety of tests where Christian Rosencreutz proves his worth and is rewarded with bearing witness to the bizarre unfolding of events leading up to the wedding. Yates noted the deeply symbolic nature of the Chemical Wedding to have its basis in an inner, spiritual alchemy within the soul of the individual.59 On the Fourth Day, it is noteworthy that six Royal Persons are beheaded60 and resuscitated on the Fifth Day,61 their blood used on the Sixth Day to speed the growth of a bird.62 The colorful transformation of the bird is reminiscent of the classical alchemical stages of nigredo and albedo.63 However, rather than being gifted with a physical gold, the worthy souls bearing witness to the wedding are made ‘Knights of the Golden Stone’.64 It was not any metal that was transmuted in the wedding, but the participants themselves.
Rosicrucian literature grew and progressed to the point that its philosophy began to be included in more tangible organizations, such as The Royal Society, though subtly due to Dee’s infamy caused by Casaubon’s True & Faithful Relation.65 The next section will examine how Dee’s practice and philosophy returned to England and eventually to the hands of Frederick Hockley, who in turn influenced the rituals and thought of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn.
The Children of Rosicrucianism: Heirs to the Legacy of John Dee:
Despite the intense interest in Rosicrucian literature, the movement remained merely literary; it wasn’t until the eighteenth century that history saw the first groups openly labeling themselves as Rosicrucian.66 There is some irony in that Dee’s lack of popularity did not seem to affect the enthusiastic reception in England of an esoteric philosophy that he provided with a formative influence.
Robert Fludd is credited with bringing Rosicrucianism to England with several writings in support of the Rosicrucian Manifestos. Andreas Libavius (1540-1616), a German Lutheran alchemist, wrote a polemical Analysis of the Confession of the Fraternity of the Rosy Cross (1615) where he accused the Fraternity of heresy, sedition, and diabolical magic.67 Fludd provided a vigorous counter-argument in his Apologia Compendiara (1616) supporting the notion that the Rosicrucians provided a renovated Christianity and further developed this argument in his Tractatus Apologeticus (1617),68 which concluded with his own request to join the Fraternity.69 John Dee’s divine madness for the secret hidden in the Book of Nature was shared by Fludd and those other diligent scholars of Western esoterica who wrote works attempting to bring to the human mind the intentions and machinations of the divine.
Michael Maier (1569-1622), a German alchemist who lived in England from 1609-1616,70 was another scholar who found that Rosicrucianism agreed with his own notions in addition to his millenarianism and Lutheran heterodoxy, which spurred him to provide writings that further spread a positive view of Rosicrucianism in the land that had rejected Dee.71 Hereward Tilton asserts that Maier treated the initials ‘R. C.’ as a hieroglyph under which the alchemists of Germany were working.72 Maier’s interpretation of Rosencreutz’s initials extended the Monas’ form of divine attribution to certain symbols to the legendary father of Rosicrucianism.73 In his envisioning of the Rosicrucians, Maier emphasized and expounded on the alchemical aspect as the key principle and ultimate focus of the Fraternity.74
Other figures that supported Rosicrucianism in England include Samuel Hartlieb (1595-1662), John Drury (1595-1680), and Amos Comenius (1592-1670), who were all in contact with Johann Valentin Andreae and were also responsible for translating Andreae’s utopian writings. Hartlieb and Comenius had large roles in the creation of the highly influential ‘Invisible College’. Hartlieb was responsible for convincing Comenius to come to England in the first place.76 Once there, Comenius penned the Via Lucis (1641), a work describing a pansophic college that eschewed professorships in divinity, civil laws, and rhetoric and replaced them with technical, tangible teachings in glass and metal working.77 Sadly, as Comenius was proposing his educational reform, civil war erupted in England and sundered Comenius’ hopes despite interest from the ruling class.78 The ghost of Comenius’ educational outline lived on in the form of what Robert Boyle dubbed the ‘Invisible College’.79
The Invisible College served as a common ground for scholars to escape the turmoil of the times80 through a pansophic virtual institute that existed in the minds of those who agreed with an improved form of education that utilized experimentation.81
Thomas Vaughan (1612-1666), an alchemist, a member of the Royal Society with active relationships with its founding members (Thomas Henshaw and Robert Moray), and a former rector, scribed a translation of the Fama and Confessio82 with a lengthy preface.83 He entitled this work the Magia Adamica, clearly alluding to Fludd’s Philosophia Moysaica.84 It also bears mention that Vaughan also praised Agrippa, Trithemius, and Reuchlin in several of his works.85
Vaughan’s translation of the Fama and Confessio returns us to Elias Ashmole, who copied the two works by hand from a manuscript before Magia Adamica was published.86 Ashmole was an important figure in the transmission of Dee’s works; he attempted to rescue John Dee’s reputation through his skills as an antiquarian.87 Ashmole combined Rosicrucianism and the continental reception of the Monas Hieroglyphica to form an excellent vehicle for Dee. The Rosicrucian theme of scholarly, epistemological reform served to increase the chances that a dedicated erudite would eventually take note of and carefully compile Dee’s works in a light far brighter than the one Méric Casaubon provided in his True & Faithful Relation.
On August 20, 1672, Elias Ashmole received John Dee’s manuscripts (including the 48 Claves Angelicae, Liber Scientiae Auxilii, and De Heptarchia Mystica) in a parcel from Thomas Wale.88 Wale and his wife related to Ashmole the story behind the manuscripts on September 10 of the same year. By chance, the late and former husband of Wale’s wife had owned a chest that once belonged to Dee.89 After discovering the manuscripts they at first ascribed little worth to them and roughly half were lost ‘under pyes & other like uses’.90 Fortunately, their worth was later discovered and as a result the remaining manuscripts were saved from the Great Fire of London in 1666.91
Ashmole was connected to Rosicrucianism and its prescribed epistemological reform through his correspondence with Samuel Hartlieb92 and his philosophical ‘father’, William Backhouse (1593-1662), who supposedly taught Ashmole the secret of the Philosopher’s Stone near his death.93 The prominence of the Monas may have provided a revitalized view of Dee for Ashmole to capitalize on, which is precisely what he endeavored to do.
In 1674, Ashmole transcribed the first book of Dee’s Mysteriorum Libri Quinque and followed up with interest in a biography and investigations into Dee’s character.94 Initially, the investigations were done by proxy through fellow antiquarian John Aubrey, but later Ashmole conducted them personally.95 Ashmole personally travelled to Dee’s home at Mortlake and interviewed one ‘Goodwife Faldo’ who had the pleasure of viewing an eclipse with John Dee.96 He also interviewed Rowland Dee, John Dee’s grandson, who gave him a great deal of information as passed on to him by his father, Arthur Dee (Ashmole had translated Arthur Dee’s Fasciculus Chemicus in 1650)97.98
Despite never finishing his biography of John Dee, Ashmole succeeded in collecting and preserving Dee’s legacy.99 At his death, Ashmole bequeathed his collection and library to the University of Oxford. Furthermore, Ashmole was one of the founding members of the Royal Society;100 a group concerned with the Baconian notion of the ‘absolute regeneration of science’ through experimentation rather than mere observation, which included alchemical experimentation.101
William Lilly (1602-1681), a friend of Ashmole’s who was responsible for maintaining interest in astrology,102 also bears mention in the transmission of Dee’s angel magic for his accounts of those who used crystals to contact angels. This was exemplified in the cases of Richard Delahay,103 William Hodges,104 Sarah Skelhorn, and one who called himself Mortlack (perhaps drawing on Dee’s reputation through his home on the Thames; Lilly denounced him as a ‘pretending ignoramus’ for his failures to conjure Queen Mab, which were attributed to Lilly’s presence after multiple failures).106 Lilly also gave some account of Dee and Kelly and began to conjecture on their failure to receive clearer answers from the angels.107 He stated that Kelly was likely to blame due to his viciousness, thus making the angels disobedient, but suddenly ceased his postulation, merely stating, ‘but I could give other reasons, but those are not for paper’. What now follows is a brief outline of Rosicrucianism’s influence within Freemasonry essential to later arguments in this dissertation. Though Rosicrucianism inspired the epistemological offshoots exemplified in the Invisible College and the Royal Society, it was not until 1777 that an organization existed that openly bore the name ‘Rosicrucian’.109 110 In 1630, Petrus Mormius claimed to have met a man named Rose who stated he was a part of an order of the Gold and Rosy Cross.111 From this point in history onward, the words ‘Gold’ and ‘Golden’ in the names of Rosicrucian groups persist to the Rosicrucian-influenced Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn.112
In 1654 in Nuremburg, an alchemical society with clear Rosicrucian elements counted Gottfried Leibniz (1646-1716), who was very interested in the Chemical Wedding,113 as a member.114 In 1710, Samuel Richter, under the name Sincerus Renatus, published Die wahrhaffte und vollkommene Beschreibung des philosophischen Steins der Bruderschaft aus dem Orden des Gülden- und Rosenkreutzes denen Filiis Doctrinae zum Besten publiciret; a work that outlined the practical organization and continuation of the ‘Society of the Golden and Rosy Cross’.115 Again, despite claims of the existence of such a society within the work, no such society existed.116
The complete works of Renatus first appear in 1741 and presented a philosophy in direct opposition of the materialistic atheism of the Enlightenment.117 After 1741, a number of Rosicrucian elements were added to Freemasonic lodges, as well as the first documented organizations that claimed to be ‘Rosicrucian’ in their title.118
The most relevant of movement to this dissertation is that of the Golden Rosicrucians of the Ancient System, a movement that grew within Freemasonry119 and attempted to assert its primacy as a tradition with greater erudition than anything Freemasonry could offer.120 The organization flourished within Freemasonry from 1777 until 1782 when J. C. Wöllner (1732-1800), a figure significant to the rapid growth and popularity of the Ancient Order, responded to the attempt to remove Rosicrucianism from Freemasonry.121 This was done at the Convention in Wilhemsbad with a memorandum asserting the intent of the Ancient Order to uplift Freemasonry while reserving the higher grades for themselves.122
Despite the fall of the Ancient Order, the influence of Rosicrucianism as a form of fringe-Masonry was not extinguished and continued on in France (established in 1754) where it eventually influenced British Freemasonry in the Ancient and Accepted Scottish of Rite of Freemasonry; the 18th degree is notably entitled the Rose-Croix of Heredom.123 In England, the transmission of angel magic continued through the prominent English occultists Ebenezer Sibly (1751-1799), Francis Barrett (1774-ca. 1830), and Frederick Hockley (1809-1885).
The role of Sibly, a doctor and brother of the noted Swedenborgian pastor Manoah Sibly,124 was that of a rejuvenation of interest in Rosicrucianism within English occultism in the nineteenth century.125 Sibly’s goal seemed in line with Dee’s aims and those inspired by the epistemological reform presented in Rosicrucianism; the combination of esoterica and science to form a more complete whole.126 Sibly’s Complete Illustration of the Celestial Art of Astrology (four volumes; 1784-1792), despite clear plagiarism of sources (and those not even the best on the topic), was well- circulated. In the Celestial Art, Sibly presented a Swedenborgian view of a Christian spirit world separate from the physical,127 and provided a brief description of seven good angels and their seven demonic counter-parts complete with lamens and names presented in a manner and purpose reminiscent of those described in the Ars Goetia in the Lemegeton.128 129
Sibly’s personal library was passed to the bookseller, John Denley, and from Denley to the occultist Francis Barrett.130 Barrett’s successful work, The Magus, or Celestial Intelligencer; being a complete system of Occult Philosophy (1801), was a book that plagiarized selected chapters of Agrippa’s De Occulta Philosophia, pseudo- Agrippa’s Fourth Book of Occult Philosophy, and Abano’s Heptameron, among others, while giving the impression that these sources were only a handful among many and that Barrett had translated all of the works himself.131 Barrett’s inclusion of The Art of Drawing Spirits Into Crystals in his Magus, which he attributed to Trithemius, is highly relevant to this dissertation for its inclusion of angel magic similar to Dee’s practice, as well as the Ars Paulina of the Lemegeton.132 133 The premise of The Art of Drawing Spirits is a simpler representation of angel magic involving a miniaturized table of practice that the crystal ball sits on, candles, a magic wand, and a torch for burning suffumigations. The prayer/orations are quite similar to Dee’s,134 135 as is the use of a series of questions similar to what Dee used in his first recorded angelic conversations to positively identify the spirit in question.136 137 Godwin conjectures that Barrett’s only original contributions to the Magus may have been a result of his own visions in the crystal.138 Barrett’s deep interest in crystal-gazing is probably best evidenced through the works of his acquaintance, Frederick Hockley.139
Arthur Edward Waite, an influential member of the Golden Dawn and founder of the Fellowship of the Rosy Cross,140 wrote of Hockley, ‘Among the many persons who in recent years have conducted experiments with the crystal, one of the most successful was the late Frederick Hockley [...].’141 The bulk of Hockley’s life is a mystery, though we know he expressed an interest in crystals and magic mirrors.142 This interest evolved with, as Godwin puts it, the ‘Madison Avenue’ draw of Spiritualism.143 144 He was also an adherent of Mesmer’s animal magnetism and well schooled in astrology.145 In terms of Spiritualism, Hockley was familiar with all its forms, but he believed the most fool- proof method of contacting spirits (whether angels or deceased persons)146 was through scrying with a crystal or mirror.147 Hockley believed the use of crystals originated with the Jews, who were given the method through divine command by Urim and Thummim as told in Exodus 28:30.148 149 It is also clear that, despite Hockley’s acceptance as a Rosicrucian, his later membership in Freemasonry, and the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia six years after its inception, he was aware of the spurious origins of these movements, keeping himself distanced from them.150
Much to Hockley’s disappointment and quite like John Dee, he was unable to see anything in the crystal and was resigned to using what he termed a ‘speculatrix’ in order to perform his experiments.151 His desperation led him to attempt to find a means to see visions within the crystal.152 This resulted in an encounter with an evil spirit that demanded his obedience in return for a favor, which he refused.153 Hockley addressed the argument of Dee’s conversations with angels being mere psychological events by stating that Dee could not have been so narrow-sighted as to have mistaken his own thoughts for the visions and responses of the angels.154
Hockley’s pursuit in finding methods to enrich his crystal magic through esoteric manuscripts is clearly presented in his own collection, copying, and production of them.155 Ebenezer Sibly plays a prominent role of influence, as exemplified in Hockley’s transcription and reception of a number of Sibly’s manuscripts.156 The interest in Sibly served as a point of connection between Barrett and Hockley, as both were acquainted with Denley.157 Denley had lent Sibly’s manuscripts to Barrett who used them to create his Magus;158 According to Hockley’s own words, Denley often complained to Hockley that Barrett never repaid him with even a copy.159 Hockley, on the other hand, freely lent from his own library and became an important resource to his acquaintances and successors.160
One such beneficiary was Kenneth Robert Henderson MacKenzie (1833-86), who referred to Hockley as the ‘most profound Occult student in the country who has preserved his results in an admirable form so as to be easy of reference’.161 Such was his friendship with Hockley that after his meeting with Eliphas Lévi at Paris in 1861 he went straightaway to Hockley to discuss it upon his return to England.162 MacKenzie was an esotericist who Waite described as ‘multifarious’163 for his numerous occult projects.164 MacKenzie was an expert on high-degree Freemasonry and Rosicrucian fringe-Masonry of continental Europe; his friendship with Hockley neatly connects angel magic and Spiritualism with crystals to Rosicrucian-themed organizations.165 Both Hockley and MacKenzie became members of the Society of Eight, and other members included Francis Irwin, occultist Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers (1854-1918), and the alchemist Rev. William Alexander Ayton (1816-1909).166 Hamill noted that Dr. William Wynn Westcott (1848-1925) was distrusted by Hockley, MacKenzie, and Irwin and was never granted admittance into the Society and postulated that perhaps Westcott created the Golden Dawn in response to this refusal.167 Bearing these connections in mind, it is not a long leap of logic to accept Goodrick-Clarke’s assertion that MacKenzie played a role in the formation of the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia.168 MacKenzie’s fascination with Tarot cards was certainly transmitted into the Golden Dawn169 and his knowledge of Rosicrucian fringe-Masonic orders may have inspired the grade-system for the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn due to his familiarity with the Gold and Rosy Cross materials.170
Westcott, a Coroner of the Crown, and Mathers, a self-styled occult scholar, went on to create the first temple of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn in 1888 with the assistance of The Supreme Magus of the SRIA, William Robert Woodman.171 Westcott openly praises Hockley and MacKenzie in his Historical Lecture (under his magical name Sapere Aude),172 and their influence (and through that influence, the tradition of Dee’s angel magic) was certainly felt.
Created with fd's Flickr Toys.
We Two, How Long We Were Fool'd
We two, how long we were fool'd,
Now transmuted, we swiftly escape as Nature escapes,
We are Nature, long have we been absent, but now we return,
We become plants, trunks, foliage, roots, bark,
We are bedded in the ground, we are rocks,
We are oaks, we grow in the openings side by side,
We browse, we are two among the wild herds spontaneous as any,
We are two fishes swimming in the sea together,
We are what locust blossoms are, we drop scent around lanes mornings
and evenings,
We are also the coarse smut of beasts, vegetables, minerals,
We are two predatory hawks, we soar above and look down,
We are two resplendent suns, we it is who balance ourselves orbic
and stellar, we are as two comets,
We prowl fang'd and four-footed in the woods, we spring on prey,
We are two clouds forenoons and afternoons driving overhead,
We are seas mingling, we are two of those cheerful waves rolling
over each other and interwetting each other,
We are what the atmosphere is, transparent, receptive, pervious, impervious,
We are snow, rain, cold, darkness, we are each product and influence
of the globe,
We have circled and circled till we have arrived home again, we two,
We have voided all but freedom and all but our own joy.
Walt Whitman
Photo from the exhibit ROGER CLARK MILLER: TRANSMUTING THE PROSAIC at Brattleboro Museum & Art Center. www.brattleboromuseum.org
Double finished, tappered quartz crystal that has the largest face self healed by the time. This face evidences the characteristic triangles that compose the whole powerful crystal body. That also means transmutation, openings to the new and wisdom.
Like an alchemist attempting to transmute lead into gold, Yuken Teruya tries to turn ordinary waste into beautiful works of art, the onlydifference is that Yuken Teruya succeeds where the alchemists failed. Yuken Teruya’s formula from transformation involves pulling the the art from previously used materials like it existed inside always. Yuken Teruya shows us then the value in everything around us and the potential for beauty around every corner, not just in the usual places. Find out more at www.creativetempest.com
Photo by Rocco S. Cetera
Queens, NYC
July 20, 2019
Walang Hiya 2019: A Pageant/Procession/Ritual to transmute our ancestral shame into collective joy and future building.
“Walang Hiya” -- From wala (without), -ng (adjectival suffix), and hiya (shame).
Conjuring joy in ritual for a free AF future. We are Pilipinx shapeshifters of the diaspora who will cut and love you shamelessly.
Ritual Performances, Art, and Sound by:
Walang Hiya NYC
Rhea Santos Sun Endoso
Fran
Aurerose Piaña
Rose Generoso
Bomba Brown (aka Babay L. Angles)
Kk de La Vida's Psykidelik Kabaret
Gigi Bio
Kimberly "Galaxxxy" Tate
TriSiya Frulla
Sining Kapuluan
"In mid-July 1837 Darwin started his 'B' notebook on Transmutation of Species, and on page 36 wrote 'I think' above the first evolutionary tree." (Wikipedia)
Photo from the exhibit ROGER CLARK MILLER: TRANSMUTING THE PROSAIC at Brattleboro Museum & Art Center. www.brattleboromuseum.org
Posted by Brickbuilder0937 on 2010-09-10 13:14:16
Tagged: , LEGO , sculpture , Ed , Edward , Elric , FMA , FullMetal Alchemist , Alchemy , Transmutation , Transmute , Auto-mail
Like an alchemist attempting to transmute lead into gold, Yuken Teruya tries to turn ordinary waste into beautiful works of art, the onlydifference is that Yuken Teruya succeeds where the alchemists failed. Yuken Teruya’s formula from transformation involves pulling the the art from previously used materials like it existed inside always. Yuken Teruya shows us then the value in everything around us and the potential for beauty around every corner, not just in the usual places. Find out more at www.creativetempest.com
Photo by Rocco S. Cetera
Queens, NYC
July 20, 2019
Walang Hiya 2019: A Pageant/Procession/Ritual to transmute our ancestral shame into collective joy and future building.
“Walang Hiya” -- From wala (without), -ng (adjectival suffix), and hiya (shame).
Conjuring joy in ritual for a free AF future. We are Pilipinx shapeshifters of the diaspora who will cut and love you shamelessly.
Ritual Performances, Art, and Sound by:
Walang Hiya NYC
Rhea Santos Sun Endoso
Fran
Aurerose Piaña
Rose Generoso
Bomba Brown (aka Babay L. Angles)
Kk de La Vida's Psykidelik Kabaret
Gigi Bio
Kimberly "Galaxxxy" Tate
TriSiya Frulla
Sining Kapuluan
kindness quotes : QUOTATION – Image : Quotes Of the day – Life Quote i have seen this too many times. usually from the same people that HAVE to stay in my life. like you don’t want to help me by being supportive, kind and at least happy for me. i will say nothing – […]
quotestime.net/kindness-quotes-sex-transmutation-techniqu...
Photos from Natalie Cursio's work "Nature Strip", performed by VCA Dance, Transmutation Season 2, at Gasworks Theatre, November 2008. Photo by Geordie Barker.
Non-alchemical
transmutation model
2005
cel-vinyl, painted steel, steel, plaster, papier mache, graphite, and dyed sisal rope
Photo by Rocco S. Cetera
Queens, NYC
July 20, 2019
Walang Hiya 2019: A Pageant/Procession/Ritual to transmute our ancestral shame into collective joy and future building.
“Walang Hiya” -- From wala (without), -ng (adjectival suffix), and hiya (shame).
Conjuring joy in ritual for a free AF future. We are Pilipinx shapeshifters of the diaspora who will cut and love you shamelessly.
Ritual Performances, Art, and Sound by:
Walang Hiya NYC
Rhea Santos Sun Endoso
Fran
Aurerose Piaña
Rose Generoso
Bomba Brown (aka Babay L. Angles)
Kk de La Vida's Psykidelik Kabaret
Gigi Bio
Kimberly "Galaxxxy" Tate
TriSiya Frulla
Sining Kapuluan
Like an alchemist attempting to transmute lead into gold, Yuken Teruya tries to turn ordinary waste into beautiful works of art, the onlydifference is that Yuken Teruya succeeds where the alchemists failed. Yuken Teruya’s formula from transformation involves pulling the the art from previously used materials like it existed inside always. Yuken Teruya shows us then the value in everything around us and the potential for beauty around every corner, not just in the usual places. Find out more at www.creativetempest.com
Like an alchemist attempting to transmute lead into gold, Yuken Teruya tries to turn ordinary waste into beautiful works of art, the onlydifference is that Yuken Teruya succeeds where the alchemists failed. Yuken Teruya’s formula from transformation involves pulling the the art from previously used materials like it existed inside always. Yuken Teruya shows us then the value in everything around us and the potential for beauty around every corner, not just in the usual places. Find out more at www.creativetempest.com