John Dee and the Rise of the Rosicrucians

John Dee and the Rise of the Rosicrucians

November 24, 2009

A few weeks ago we saw how the reform movement implemented by Pico della Mirandola and the Florentine Academy primarily influenced the German area. During these lessons we have seen how mainly the effort of these figures was aimed at carrying out a moral, intellectual and spiritual reform that would allow for a true spiritual transmutation. Scholasticism, in fact, in seeking to reconcile Faith and Intellect, had tried to make some mysteries of Faith comprehensible to the intellect, but had shifted the problem of Faith to a purely intellectual plane, lacking a practical and operative aspect.

We have seen that these figures like Pico della Mirandola, then Agrippa etc... feel the need for a practical and more effective way capable of having a lasting impact on consciousness. We have seen that the Platonic Academy initially oriented itself towards Hermeticism and the Hellenic tradition under the impulse of Gemistus Pletho and then arrived with Pico della Mirandola to identify in Hebrew Kabbalah, that is, in the secret tradition of Israel, an exceptional means for inner transmutation because:

• as a doctrine it had a doctrine very similar to traditional Christian doctrine
• but above all it also had a whole set of clear practical techniques not veiled as in Hermeticism based on the pronunciation of divine names.

In particular the Hebrew alphabet, precisely because it was a sacred alphabet, precisely because of how it was structured, allowed passage from realities and concepts typical of the material world to realities and concepts relating to a spiritual plane. The Hebrew alphabet was in fact conceived as a kind of natural language. Since each letter related to an archetype, the composition of these letters primarily provided the name of an idea and thus allowed one to relate to intelligences and beings of a spiritual character starting exclusively from their Hebrew name. That is, to explain, being a sacred language, if for example I wanted to obtain a virtue, it was enough to find the name of this virtue in Hebrew, which the name itself in a certain way, all to be understood, corresponded to the virtue to be obtained. Therefore an extremely simple and effective operative key.

The only missing link to make this path doctrinally and practically viable was the demonstration that this path was consistent with Christianity, which -we have seen- Pico della Mirandola demonstrated. By demonstrating through Kabbalistic means the divine-humanity of Jesus Christ, Pico della Mirandola implicitly authorized a series of Christian intellectuals to study Kabbalah, thus creating the possibility of a movement, that of Christian Kabbalism which until that time had not been possible.

We have seen how the first to take advantage of this green light were the Germans with this circle of Humanists of which the main ones we have seen to have been:

• Reuchlin, more loyal to the Hebrew tradition, and more speculative who completes Pico della Mirandola's work with De Verbo Mirifico and with De Arte Cabalistica reunites the Hellenic-Pythagorean tradition with the Christian and Jewish ones.

• and Abbot Trithemius, friend of Reuchlin, who we had seen had collected an enormous library of very ancient and arcane books that no one had been able to read but for which Trithemius finds the key. This book with Tironian notes allows him to decrypt manuscripts from the Cistercian era that allow him to discover and reassemble many doctrines previously lost.

Trithemius Explained by His Disciples

Last times we have seen how Trithemius did not divulge much of his doctrines and that the main exponents of his doctrines were his two most important spiritual disciples: Cornelius Agrippa who develops thanks to mathematics and Hebrew Kabbalah a method of Esoteric Astrology through deep meditations on the stars with the intention of establishing a relationship with the celestial intelligence behind the planet, through guided visualizations, repetitions of names and specially made sigils, the individual's attention concentrated so much as to become impregnated with the spiritual virtue with which the entire operation was attuned. On the other hand, we have Paracelsus who elaborated a system of physical and spiritual Medicine based mainly on Alchemy and which we have seen, even if only in broad terms, last time. Some of these aspects of Paracelsus's doctrine we will see this time because they had a great influence on subsequent figures.

The Secret of Trithemius

These were Trithemius's disciples. However, we had then seen that Trithemius's secret was another, we had seen, if you remember, how at a certain point in a letter he confesses how all this knowledge was partly due to the ancient books he had collected in his incredible library, but that mainly his knowledge was dictated by his natural mediumistic propensity. You remember we had read how he tells of when one day, exhausted and destroyed for not being able to find the key to his studies in a particular state of drowsiness, he was helped by a spirit who suggests to him how to proceed.

"If you want to know where I have drawn these things that no one knows, listen: I did not know them from a man nor through a man, but by the revelation of I cannot say who. For in this year (1499) I had begun to reflect on these problems, and after having meditated on them much, I almost despaired of arriving at this impossible thing, I went to bed mocking myself for the fatality of wanting the impossible. During the night, someone approached me and said to me: There are no vain thoughts, Trithemius, although they are impossible for you... I replied: If the thing is possible, teach me in order and show me how to obtain what I had sought in vain for so long. I say this before God and I speak the truth." (Gaspar Schott, Schola Stenographica, 1665)

We had therefore seen what was Trithemius's secret and his particularity which was that of disciplining his own mediumship thanks to the use of Kabbalah, a bit like modern spiritualist séances in which however instead of calling the soul of the first person who passes by, Trithemius, thanks to the use of certain precautions, thanks to the use of the Hebrew language and drawings...