num_pages: 107
description: Who does not understand should either learn or be silent.  John DeeWith the golden glow of the candlelight kissing his cheeks he hovered over a spirit mirror a flat exquisitely lustrous shew-stone fashioned out of raven-black obsidian. Gazing intently upon his reflection in the dark volcanic glass he chanted in hushed tones as he ran his fingers across the engravings on the oat-colored wax wheel next to him the Sigilla iEmeth which featured a septogram and runic carvings and symbols in minuscule print. Contrary to what one might expect it was not a phantom hobgoblin or demon that he sought but rather the seraphic voice and perhaps even the face of an angel  the one bridge between mankind and their Creator one who holds the key to all of life's unanswerable questions.Was this man delusional? Perhaps so but perhaps not. Either way those on hand understood this was not an ignorant philistine unlettered buffoon of a man who readily boarded the train of groundless superstition. Far from it this was a man who held not only a master's degree but a doctorate and his simultaneously stimulating and mesmerizing lectures drew crowds of royals and nobles from near and far. This was a man who was well-versed in a host of academic fields and he would go on to serve as one of his queen's foremost personal advisers. He was also a prolific author whose revolutionary ideas helped charted the path for the burgeoning British Empire.The man in question was none other than John Dee one of the greatest scientific minds of his time but also one of the most controversial. He was a learned man in fields as varied as mathematics and astronomy centuries before they became formalized fields of study but he is better remembered for performing magic and alchemy. Instead of astronomy he became renowned across England for astrology and he was one of the countrys most notorious occult writers during his life.Chilling rumors about his immeasurable magical abilities have kept Dees name alive for centuries. Legend has it that this was a man who singlehandedly cast a crippling curse on the Spanish Armada as the fleet sailed towards England conjuring up the merciless storms and violent waves that threatened to swallow the ill-starred convoy whole and left them with no choice but to turn back. This was a man who was once branded the greatest rogue in the neighborhood of London and who allegedly inspired the characters of Doctor Faustus from Christopher Marlowe's Elizabethan tragedy as well as Prospero in William Shakespeare's The Tempest.The world has never had its shortage of legends surrounding the lives of supposed mystics visionaries and prophets. But few have ever grabbed a hold on pop culture quite like that of Grigori Rasputin one of the most shadowy and mysterious figures in Russian history. Naturally what makes Rasputin one of the 20th centurys most colorful and memorable figures is what we do not know. It is unclear how much basis in fact accounts of Rasputins life truly hold since the sources mostly consist of memoirs hearsay and embellished legend. Some contemporaries considered him a saintly mystic psychic healer and prophet while others considered him a debauched heretic. The extent to which he beguiled the ruling Romanovs and how he did so remain mysterious as well.Its hard to kill a legend and that has literally been the case with Rasputin whose death remains the most legendary aspect of his life. Perhaps the best known part of the Rasputin story is that his murderers practically had to kill him 10 times to finish him off using everything from poison to bullets to drowning. Naturally exactly how Rasputin actually died remains a source of controversy as well.
language: English
title: The Mystics with the Queen’s Ear: The Mysterious Lives of Rasputin and John Dee
publisher: Charles River Editors