for those unfamiliar, here's a fun dinner party factoid about a Glindoni painting depicting Dee performing magick at court
> X-ray imaging of the stately Victorian artwork has revealed that Dee was originally surrounded by human skulls before the ghoulish image was painted over, probably because it was too odd for the buyer. But curators of an exhibition opening on Monday believe it sums up the conundrum of Dee: should we remember him as brilliant pioneering scientist, or as an occultist who thought he could talk to angels?
It's one thing to talk to angels, another thing to get answers.
Can somebody explain why it is interesting that Dee had a polished piece of Mexican obsidian, probably plundered from some Spanish galleon some privateer raided? I guess it is interesting that modern lab analysis can identify the mine a piece came from, but it is not as if Dee ever actually got any inforation out of it. Do we even have any idea which privateer, or which galleon?
The obvious connection would probably be Drake. The reason that is interesting is that the Aztecs preserved a lot of history, like the Mayan Calendar. It would mean then that Dee was trying to invoke something tied into that Epoch of history, which is Enoch--hence his developed system of Enochian.
> X-ray imaging of the stately Victorian artwork has revealed that Dee was originally surrounded by human skulls before the ghoulish image was painted over, probably because it was too odd for the buyer. But curators of an exhibition opening on Monday believe it sums up the conundrum of Dee: should we remember him as brilliant pioneering scientist, or as an occultist who thought he could talk to angels?
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2016/jan/17/john-de...
https://wellcomecollection.org/works/nydjbrr7
https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/L0081435/full/full...
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:John_Dee_performing_...