The Art of Austin Osman Spare

How Doctor Dee brought the Devil to Manchester

How Doctor Dee brought the Devil to Manchester
By Chris Long BBC News

                            



New Damon Albarn opera opens
Albarn's magical mystery man

Astrologer, courtier, alchemist, scientist, theologian, magician, spy.

To describe John Dee, the subject of Dr Dee, Damon  Albarn's opera for the Manchester International Festival, in one sentence is not easy.

He was an Elizabethan polymath and his investigations and experiments would lead him into the highest echelons of Tudor society and the lowest opinions of its people.

Born in 1527, he was one of the era's greatest minds, dabbling in everything from philosophy to physics.

But it was his fascination with magic that would lead to his arrival in the North West in his latter years.

Yet the most famous mark he left in Manchester was not, if legend is to be believed, left by him at all.
Serving queens

Through his life John Dee held some lofty posts.

He was the royal astrologer for Queen Mary, cast a horoscope to determine the date of Queen Elizabeth's coronation and advised explorers on navigation.

At the same time though he dabbled in the occult and these experiments saw him imprisoned for heresy in 1555.


Upon release, he went travelling in Europe, allegedly to spy for the Queen, but on returning to England Dee found his home ruined - attacked by people who had heard of his occult research - and petitioned Elizabeth for help.

The rumours around Dee meant the Queen could only do so much for him and, while he wanted to move to Winchester, she requested that the Archbishop of Canterbury offer him a post as Warden of the Manchester Collegiate Church (now the cathedral).

Dee took up the offer and moved north in 1596.
Summoning the devil

Despite his work with the occult, Dee was a deeply pious man and on his arrival involved himself with church life.

However, the rumours that had caused him to have to move to Manchester followed him to the city.

Dee lived in Chetham's School - then Christ's College, home to the priests of the Church - and a table from Dee's time there still exists in the Audit Room.

It bears evidence of a story which blew up around Dee and eventually put paid to his term as warden.

Upon it is a circular burn mark - a mark which, it is said, was made by the hoof of Satan, after Dee summoned him to seek advice and wisdom.

Whatever the truth of the story, the stain on Dee's character, like the mark on the table, was immovable.

He found his position untenable; his congregation wanted rid of him, not only because of the rumours, but because they disliked his sermons and choice of curates too.

He petitioned the new king James I, but his request was denied and he had to leave Manchester in 1603 in disgrace, returning to his family home in Mortlake, Surrey.

As a final insult and injury, an epidemic of plague in the city prior to his departure took the lives of his wife and two of his daughters.

There is no doubt that, with Dee's departure, went one of the minds of the age and a man who would not return until brought back in song and show more than 400 years later.

Link to original article

Dionysus

Robert Doisneau-Occultism

                                                   More

Sir James Frazer's The Golden Bough

"The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion is a wide-ranging, comparative study of mythology and religion, written by Scottish anthropologist Sir James George Frazer (1854–1941). It first was published in two volumes in 1890; the third edition, published 1906–15, comprised twelve volumes. It was aimed at a broad literate audience raised on tales as told in such publications as Thomas Bulfinch's The Age of Fable, or Stories of Gods and Heroes (1855). It offered a modernist approach to discussing religion, treating it dispassionately[1] as a cultural phenomenon rather than from a theological perspective. The impact of The Golden Bough on contemporary European literature was substantial." -From Wikipedia

"The Golden Bough attempts to define the shared elements of religious belief. Its thesis is that old religions were fertility cults that revolved around the worship of, and periodic sacrifice of, a sacred king.

This king was the incarnation of a dying and reviving god, a solar deity who underwent a mystic marriage to a goddess of the Earth, who died at the harvest, and was reincarnated in the spring. Frazer claims that this legend is central to almost all of the world's mythologies."-Taken from Wikipedia

Read The Golden Bough here

Haxan: Witchcraft Throughout The Ages

"Häxan is a 1922 Swedish/Danish silent film written and directed by Benjamin Christensen. Based partly on Christensen's study of the Malleus Maleficarum, a 15th century German guide for inquisitors, Häxan is a study of how superstition and the misunderstanding of diseases and mental illness could lead to the hysteria of the witch-hunts. The film was made as a documentary but contains dramatized sequences that are comparable to horror films. With Christensen's meticulous recreation of medieval scenes and the lengthy production period, the film was the most expensive Scandinavian silent film ever made, costing nearly two million Swedish krona. Although it won acclaim in Denmark and Sweden, the film was banned in the United States and heavily censored in other countries for what were considered at that time graphic depictions of torture, nudity, and sexual perversion." -From Wikipedia


The Criterion Collection on Haxan

The Litanies of Satan. Art by François de Nome

Glory and praise to Thee, Satan, on high,
Where Thou didst reign, in Hell where Thou dost lie,
Vanquished, silent, dreaming eternally.
Grant that my soul some day rest close to Thee
Under the Tree of Knowledge which shall spread
Its branches like a Temple overhead.-
Charles Baudelaire

Something Witchy

Dictionnaire Infernal

"Jacques Auguste Simon Collin de Plancy (1793-1887) was a French occultist, demonologist and writer; he published several works on occultism and demonology. He was born in 1793 in Plancy-l'Abbaye and died in 1887. He was a free-thinker influenced by Voltaire. He worked as a printer and publisher in Plancy-l'Abbaye and Paris. Between 1830 and 1837, he resided in Brussels, and then returned to France after it returned to the Catholic religion.
Collin de Plancy followed the tradition of many previous demonologists of cataloguing demons by name and title of nobility, as it happened with grimoires like Pseudomonarchia Daemonum, and The Lesser Key of Solomon among others. In 1818 his best known work, Dictionnaire Infernal, was published. In 1863 were added some images that made it famous: imaginative drawings concerning the appearance of certain demons. In 1822 it was advertised as:
"Anecdotes of the nineteenth new century or historiettes, recent anecdotes, features and words little known, singular adventures, various quotations, bringings together and curious parts, to be used for the history of customs and the spirit of the century when we live compared with the last centuries."
It is considered a major work documenting beings, characters, books, deeds, and causes which pertain to the manifestations and magic of trafficking with Hell; divinations, occult sciences, grimoires, marvels, errors, prejudices, traditions, folktales, the various superstitions, and generally all manner of marvellous, surprising, mysterious, and supernatural beliefs.
By the end of 1830 he ostensibly became an enthusiastic Catholic -- to the confusion of his former admirers and detractors.
In 1846 you could purchase (for 16 francs for two volumes) the Dictionnaire Sciences Occultes et des Idée'es superstitieuses which is another listing of demons.
Jacques Auguste Simon Collin de Plancy was the father of Victor Emile Marie Joseph Collin de Plancy (1853-1924) who for nearly a decade starting in 1884 served as French Minister to Korea and whose collected art works and books went on to comprise a core of the Korean collections of the French Bibliothèque Nationale and the Musée Guimet in Paris.
The Dictionnaire Infernal (English: Infernal Dictionary) is a book on demonology, organised in hellish hierarchies. It was written by Jacques Auguste Simon Collin de Plancy and first published in 1818. There were several editions of the book, but perhaps the most famous is the edition of 1863, in which sixty-nine illustrations were added to the book. These illustrations are drawings which try to depict the descriptions of the appearance of several demons. Many of these images were later used in S. L. MacGregor Mathers's edition of The Lesser Key of Solomon though some of the images were removed."

Caym is a great president within the echelons of Hell and rules over thirty legions of demons. He appears in the form of a black thrush, but he also takes the shape of a man with a sharp sword. He is a talented debater and gives to men the understand of the voices of non-human creatures such as dogs and birds.

Abigor is a Great Duke of Hell that rules over 60 legions of demons. He discovers hidden things and can see when future wars will occur.

Amon is a Marquis of Hell. He is the seventh of the 72 Goetic demons who governs forty infernal legions. He brings love and reconciliation between quarreling friends.

Andras is a Great Marquis of Hell and he commands over 30 legions of demons. He is used to sow discord among people and gives advice on how to kill.

Furfur is a count of Hell that rules over 26 legions of demons. He is a liar unless compelled to enter a magic triangle where he gives true answers to every question, speaking with a rough voice. Furfur causes love between a man and a woman, creates storms, tempests, thunder, lightning, and blasts, and teaches on secret and divine things.

Bael is first king of Hell with estates in the east. He has three heads: a toad, a man, and a cat. He also speaks in a raucous, but well formed voice, and commands 66 legions. Bael teaches the art of invisibility, and may be the equivalent of Baal.

Eurynome is a high ranking demon and prince of death.

Yan-gant-y-tan wanders the nights in Finistere and is considered an evil omen among the Bretons. He holds five candles on his five fingers, which he is able to turn quickly.

Belzebuth (aka Belzebub, Beelzebuth), whose name means "lord of the flies" is prince of demons according to the Scriptures. Milton calls him foremost in power & crime after Satan, and most demonographers call him supreme chief of hell. Bodin claims he is no longer seen in his temple. Belzebub was the god of the Canaanites, who represented him with the figure of a fly or with attributes of a sovereign power. He was known to give oracles, as King Ochozias was reprimanded by Elijah for consulting him. Belzebuth is also known to rid harvests of flies.

Demonologists present him in different ways. Milton said he was imposing with a wise face. Some say he is as high as a tower or of similar size to us. Some say he has the figure of a snake with feminine traits.

Palingene wrote in Zodiaco vitae that as the monarch of hell, was of a prodigious size with a swollen chest & a bloated face with flashing eyes and raised eyebrows. He also gives a menacing aura & sits on a throne surrounded by fire. He is black as a Moor, with large nostrils and 2 horns on his head. He has 2 bat-like wings attached to his shoulders, 2 duck feet, a lion's tail, and is covered from head to foot in shaggy fur.

Porphyrus confused Belzebuth with Baccas, while others say Priapus is greater. Others claim he is associated with the Slavic god Belbog or Belbach (white god), because his images were always covered in flies, like Belzebuth among the Syrians. Sometimes he was associated with Pluto, or possibly identified with Bael, whom Wierus made emperor of hell. The name Belzebuth is not found in Wierus' infernal monarchy.

In Solomon's Clavicules, Belzebuth appeared as an enormous calf or a goat with a long tail, but with the face of a fly. Belzebuth appeared to Faust 'dressed like a bee and with two dreadful ears and his hair painted in all colors with a dragon's tail.' The Marechal of Retz described him as a leopard. He breathed fire and howled like a wolf when angry. Sometimes Astaroth appears with him in the form of an ass. -

Dictionnaire Infernal at Wikipedia

Magic Calendar 1896

Colored Lithographs by Manuel Orazi. A rare piece of occultist ephemera, printed in an edition of 777 copies to commemorate magic for the coming year of 1896. Each double page spread mimics the Christian calendar in some respect (name days, iconography). The document is at once a spoof and an attempt to chart the year of magic. Its surviving interest resides in the extravagant and compelling illustrations, especially the full-page right hand plates, by Manuel Orazi.