John Dee – astrologer to Elizabeth 1

John Dee, an astronomer, occultist, alchemist, mathematician and astrologer to Elizabeth 1, evidently predicted her rise to the throne to replace her sister the blighted Queen Mary.

  That may have been a lucky guess from a psychic seeking to make his way in the world or astute political intuition but he did end up on the right side of history when the forlorn Mary deserted by her younger husband Philip of Spain died a mere five years after her coronation and Elizabeth succeeded her.

 John Dee born 13 July 1527 JC 4.02pm London had a final degree Cancer Sun on the cusp of his 9th house with Jupiter Mercury in Cancer in his 8th house giving him a gateway into another world beyond rationality. His Uranus opposed his Sagittarius North Node square Neptune which also has other-worldly overtones. He evidently had the largest library in England which fits with a 9th house Sun and Venus.

 His Jupiter Mercury fell on Elizabeth’s Descendant so it would feel like a good partnership – for a while. His determined Mars in Scorpio fell in Elizabeth’s career 10th so she would see him as furthering her ambitions.

 I am not up on mediaeval astrology and they did not have access to the outer planets so I have no idea what led to his conclusions.

 Mary, born 18 February 1516 JC 4.13 am London was born with a Full Moon in Virgo in her 8th opposition a Pisces Sun square a 12th house Saturn which did not augur well. Like Dee she had Jupiter in Cancer but in her case that was opposition both Pluto and Mars in Capricorn sitting across her Ascendant.

 Her husband Philip of Spain, 21 May 1527 JC 3.57pm Valladodid, was a highly strung Sun Uranus in Gemini square Neptune with an arrogant, self-aggrandising Jupiterian yod. It was a bad match with her Uranus conjunct his Saturn and Descendant  – not a happy or fruitful union.

 Monarchs in those days were sold into sexual slavery for the sake of political alliances – with top courtiers acting as high class pimps. Toe curling.

  Anyone up on the astrology John Dee might have used is welcome to predict what he may have seen.

  Dee seems to have gone off track in later years falling in with charlatans.  

11 thoughts on “John Dee – astrologer to Elizabeth 1”

  1. Thanks Marjorie, John Dee was an extraordinary character, and hugely talented. The rumours and scandals around his fascination with magic have obscured or tainted his reputation I think. His obsidian scrying mirror used to be on display at the British Museum, but I don’t know if it is still there.

    Back in 2011-12 Damon Albarn (Blur) staged his strange, mesmerising and surreal opera, Dr Dee. Damon Albarn, 23 March 1968, has his creative Neptune at 26 Scorpio – part of a yod with Uranus and Mars. John Dee had Mars 25 Scorpio. Albarn’s Chiron in Pisces trines Dee’s Cancer Sun – perhaps a connection between two ‘outsiders’?

  2. Dee’s astrology is interpreted along Hellenistic methods which are based
    on the idea if a planet is “in sect” or “out of sect”
    In the Coronation chart of Eliz., it is a night chart ‘cuz Sun is below Asc.
    This makes Jupiter and Saturn “out of sect” malefics, while Venus, Mars,
    Jupiter, Moon are “in sect” benefics. If you follow Part III of my link
    the author explains Dee’s thinking along Hellenistc lines how “in or out of
    sect” works for the plaents in Dee’s Coronation chart.

  3. Here is the Coronation chart erected by John Dee for Queen Elizabeth.
    He used Whole Sign Houses and 7 planets known at the time. Why he
    chose plaents in certain Houses is explained in Part III of the link I previously
    posted ……”Why Dee chose certain planetary positions of Elizabet I coronation.” His method was probably via trial and error until he was satisfied with one particular chart for the event.

    https://ibb.co/nMp70JSd

  4. Alexander Waugh, who sadly past away last year, released several in-depth videos on cartography and Dee as part of his pursuit of the Oxfordian theory of Shakespeare. I won’t link here because it’s not, strictly speaking, astrology. But if Dee was a spy, and did any of the things attributed to him, that Mercury/Jupiter in the 8th perfectly describes his nature. Not just Dee, but the way elite Elizabethans used their minds was extraordinary.

  5. Thanks, Marjorie. It was Edward Kelley who Dee became involved with, and being quite gullible when it came to self-styled magicians, Dee fell under his influence. The wife-swapping both men practiced while on their trip to Eastern Europe was as a result of Kelley’s claim that he had received some kind of instruction to do so from angelic sources, for example. I think Dee belongs to that era which straddled the age of Magic and the coming Scientific view of the world.

    Dee and Shakespeare were contemporaries and some scholars have claimed that the character of Prospero from ‘The Tempest’ was based on Dee.

      • Rather apt, as it was John Dee who was tasked to look into the deficiencies of the Julian calendar by the Elizabethan government, and in February 1583, Dee agreed that the Gregorian calendar was much superior. He suggested jumping forwards by 11 rather than the suggested 10 days (which is what happened when Britain adopted the calendar in 1752). Sadly, the bishops and other religious leaders of the time opposed the idea because it was considered too Catholic.

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