Chapter 1: Who was John Dee and what influenced his life?
Welcome to the Otherworld Patreon. I'm your host, Jack Wagner. In this episode, I am once again joined by Wolf Fleetwood Ross to dive into the life of a historical figure who had a profound influence on all of the things that we cover on Otherworld. This time, we're talking about John Dee. John Dee was born in 1527.
He is a preeminent English polymath, mathematician, and astronomer who served as a trusted advisor to Queen Elizabeth I. John Dee was many, many things, as you're about to hear. But I feel like the simplest way to explain him is that he's the real-life inspiration for the medieval scholar, magician, or wizard archetype that you've probably seen replicated in so many books, TV shows, and movies.
John Dee was that.
Chapter 2: What contributions did John Dee make to navigation and cartography?
This was back in a time when science, religion, and magic sometimes weren't all that different from each other. And during that time, John Dee made significant contributions to navigation and cartography that helped lay the groundwork for the British Empire.
However, he spent much of his life pursuing alchemy and having angelic conversations, believing that the secrets of the universe can be unlocked through mathematics and the supernatural. and you're about to hear all about it. Part of what makes John Dee's story so interesting is that this took place over 400 years ago, and humans didn't know as much about the world and how it works.
So it's fun to hear about the Queen of England and other powerful people. relying on this strange man who's using alchemy and divination to make extremely critical decisions that affect the course of history for the entire world.
Chapter 3: How did John Dee's pursuit of alchemy shape his legacy?
But recently, after recording these episodes, I started thinking that we've begun seeing militaries use artificial intelligence not only to navigate bombs, but even to choose targets. That's very frightening to me, but it's also not that different at all from what we're talking about in this episode.
Outsourcing major decisions to a third-party, non-human source that we don't fully understand yet. So I think these episodes accidentally ended up being very relevant to our modern times, and maybe things aren't so different right now after all.
Chapter 4: What role did John Dee play in the court of Queen Elizabeth I?
I barely knew anything about John Dee before making this episode. Luckily, I have Wolf, who spent tons of time researching him, reading every book he could find about it, and he is here now joining me in this two-part episode to do his best to educate me on the very surreal life of John Dee.
Previously, we did episodes on Jack Parsons and Aleister Crowley, and I feel like John Dee is the perfect figure to complete this trilogy. So... This is the life of John Dee, part one, and you're listening to the Otherworld Patreon. If you want to hear the full version of this episode and the second part when it comes out, you could sign up at patreon.com slash otherworld.
so D is in the low countries in not called the Netherlands yet, but you know, he's getting this reputation as a map maker, an astronomer, a mathematician, uh, He would even get so big that kings from other kingdoms, big ones, would send him letters to offer him positions in their court, and he would turn them all down, and he would live to regret that. So in the 1550s, he's in Paris.
He's lecturing on Euclid's elements, which imagine this, like that was like packed hall.
Chapter 5: How did King Edward VI's reign impact John Dee's career?
That was maybe the punk band of the night was D like they had to usher people back from the hall because everyone was trying to get into his lecture on Euclid's elements. That sounds great. Yeah, his presence is growing and he's ready to come back to England and sort of like claim his spot as a top philosopher in England or a top intellectual. And he finds England much changed.
Obviously, King Henry has died and put his very, very young son, King Edward, on the throne, who's 11 at this time and whose feet famously dangle off the throne. And Dee gets an audience with him. presents him with two books about theories on astrology that are extremely complicated. The 11-year-old... The 11-year-old? Yes. I'm sorry.
Chapter 6: What were the consequences of John Dee's horoscopes during Mary I's reign?
Like, presents them, like... He's, like, playing peek-a-boo. Yeah, does not understand it. Like, does not know what is going on in these books. But... He gives John Dee a pension and a small role at the court, sort of like helping with maps and minor astrological matters. If there was a comet, he would be the one that was called in to sort of talk about it.
And funnily enough, even though Dee would have a much closer relationship with future queens, he will never get this high in court again. So this is... This is as high as he goes.
The 11-year-old just liked the cut of his jib.
Chapter 7: How did John Dee navigate the dangers of being a court astrologer?
Yeah, basically. Honestly, that's probably better in some ways.
No, and if King Edward had just stayed, I mean, John Dee probably would have had a fairly normal life. We would not be talking about him. So then after getting his pension and his small place at court, it's kind of confusing. John Dee goes to work for John Dudley, who is protectorate of the king. And he becomes an advisor to him as well as tutor of his children.
So while his role at the court is small and his pension is small, he's ingratiated with the most important people. He's teaching their children. The future is probably looking really bright until...
Chapter 8: What is the significance of John Dee's life in the context of history?
King Edward died, basically. How old was he when he died? I think off the top of my head, he was probably 14, 14 or 15. Oh, he died from tuberculosis.
He was heard praying, Lord God, deliver me out of this miserable and wretched life and defend this realm from papistry and maintain thy true religion. Okay, so yeah, he did not want this to go back to the Pope.
No, no. So if you'll remember, King Henry split the church. His first wife was Catherine, who he had a daughter with called Mary. And he divorced Mary's mother and had subsequent marriages. So Mary probably feeling pretty fucking angry about everything that's happened in her life. And Mary is next in line for the crown. Mary is a Catholic.
She will become to be known as Bloody Mary because she will unleash a war basically on everyone who has done her wrong in the court, who is mean to her mother, who sided with her father. Like it is a crazy shakeup. separated them too. King Henry would not let the daughter see the mother ever again until they died because he was terrified of Spain taking them or them escaping in some way.
Like Mary had a really, I mean, everyone kind of had a rough go of it, but Mary really had a bad time after her dad divorced her mother. So she's very angry. And now she is like in complete control of the levers of power. She brings back a lot of Catholic rituals, but doesn't go back to the Pope.
She puts back the cross and the decorations in a lot of churches, and she starts burning people at the stake. Yeah, that's where she's known as Bloody Mary. I think she'll burn around... 350 people during her reign, roughly. So Dee sort of senses what's going on around him.
And he does the only sensible thing when she goes and gets himself ordained as a Catholic priest, even though he's married at the time, which you're not allowed to be. He sort of enters seminary or does it very fast, gets ordained. And... just sort of as a, please leave me alone. I'm on your side now. He also starts making more plant planetary charts in secret.
And he does one for Mary's reign, which is at this time, it is considered treasonous spying to do charts about monarchs to his credit. He does call a sort of calamitous, short, horrible reign for Mary and, and a great new age for Elizabeth, Mary's sister, who will enter the story in a little bit.
Does he keep this secret or is he presenting it to her?
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