As a long time student of the Elizabethan genius John Dee, I was at first interested in what the purpose of the Monas symbol in this series, and why it was being referred to in the first place but my interest rapidly turned to a feeling of incredulousness when I heard Dee referred to as an 'alchemist' and sheer disbelief at what I was hearing at the statement 'nobody knows what it means' followed by pure rage at the appalling ignorance of the writers when they went on to state Dee used his own son in scrying experiments because apparently 'only the innocents (ie children) could 'hear the Angels'.
Let me try to explain why this is so incorrect as to being potentially libellous should Dee's descendants wish to make a case of it.
Firstly, the Monas symbol was devised by Dee in around 1558 in his Propaedumata Aphoristica and expounded on in his 1564 book Monas Heiroglyphica, which more than a few of us have been studying for years and do actually understand, and it has nothing to do with Alchemy, which brings me to the point that John Dee was a lot of things but an Alchemist was not one of them. He was, however, a Polyglot, Mathematician, Geometer, Astronomer/Astrologer, Cartographer and Occultist amongst many more talents. He wrote the introduction to the first English language version of Euclid's Elements as well as adding to the books themselves and had a private library of over 3000 books and 1000 manuscripts as well.
His scrying experiments began around the late 1570's and continued to his death in 1607. Far from requiring an innocent to 'hear the voices of the Angels', his main scryer was in fact Edward Kelly, later Sir Edward (who was an Alchemist) and only after Dee & Kelly parted ways did Dee try using his Son (Arthur, not Theodore as claimed in this travesty of a production) which did not produce the required results and was abandoned.
Dee referred to these as 'Spiritual Creatures', not 'Angels', and his purpose was purely knowledge and nothing else. It is unclear to this day just exactly what he & Kelly were communicating with but Dee & Kelly both believed they were a mix of both good and evil, with Kelly later coming to the conclusion they were all 'deceivers', which is what caused the rift between them.
Shrugging off Dee as a wicked alchemist come sorcerer is beyond bad writing - it is disgraceful and the show runners ought to be ashamed of themselves.
Let me try to explain why this is so incorrect as to being potentially libellous should Dee's descendants wish to make a case of it.
Firstly, the Monas symbol was devised by Dee in around 1558 in his Propaedumata Aphoristica and expounded on in his 1564 book Monas Heiroglyphica, which more than a few of us have been studying for years and do actually understand, and it has nothing to do with Alchemy, which brings me to the point that John Dee was a lot of things but an Alchemist was not one of them. He was, however, a Polyglot, Mathematician, Geometer, Astronomer/Astrologer, Cartographer and Occultist amongst many more talents. He wrote the introduction to the first English language version of Euclid's Elements as well as adding to the books themselves and had a private library of over 3000 books and 1000 manuscripts as well.
His scrying experiments began around the late 1570's and continued to his death in 1607. Far from requiring an innocent to 'hear the voices of the Angels', his main scryer was in fact Edward Kelly, later Sir Edward (who was an Alchemist) and only after Dee & Kelly parted ways did Dee try using his Son (Arthur, not Theodore as claimed in this travesty of a production) which did not produce the required results and was abandoned.
Dee referred to these as 'Spiritual Creatures', not 'Angels', and his purpose was purely knowledge and nothing else. It is unclear to this day just exactly what he & Kelly were communicating with but Dee & Kelly both believed they were a mix of both good and evil, with Kelly later coming to the conclusion they were all 'deceivers', which is what caused the rift between them.
Shrugging off Dee as a wicked alchemist come sorcerer is beyond bad writing - it is disgraceful and the show runners ought to be ashamed of themselves.
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