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00:23John Dee was one of the most brilliant thinkers of the 16th century.
00:27A true Renaissance man, he was at the forefront of scientific and philosophical thought in
00:34one of the great ages of learning and discovery.
00:37Dee became a key figure in the Elizabethan court and one of Queen Elizabeth's most trusted
00:42advisors.
00:44But all this was not enough.
00:46In his insatiable quest for knowledge, Dee strayed into the forbidden world of the occult.
00:54He was trying to find the very essence of life, he was trying to find the secrets of
00:59the universe.
01:00And for John Dee that meant communing with angels, communing with demons, risking his soul.
01:08I seek the treasure of heavenly wisdom and knowledge.
01:12So why do they condemn me as a companion of hellhounds, and a conjurer of wicked and damned
01:17spirits?
01:19As Dee went deeper into the occult, he turned his back on Queen Elizabeth and set off on
01:25a journey that took him beyond the boundaries of religion and morality.
01:30He risked everything in his quest, and his diaries record how ultimately he became the instrument
01:36of forces beyond his control.
01:40Angel magic, whatever Dee said, was black magic.
01:46Dee was the model for Marlowe's Foust, Dee was the model for Shakespeare's Prospero.
01:52This is somebody who is the quintessential magician.
02:03John Dee was born in London in 1527.
02:24From an early age, he was regarded as an academic genius destined for greatness.
02:31He had an insatiable desire for knowledge, and spent many years locked in his study, poring
02:37over books of every kind.
02:39He mastered Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, and became adept in astronomy, mathematics, cartography,
02:45navigation, and medicine.
02:49In the 16th century, the boundaries between superstition, magic, and science were blurred.
02:55Dee's work naturally took him into alchemy and other esoteric areas.
03:01The Church viewed science with a great deal of suspicion, and some even believed that mathematics
03:06was a form of black magic.
03:09It was a period of enormous change in Europe.
03:11The world was in turmoil as age-old certainties were being shattered.
03:16Those who were pushing the boundaries of knowledge risked being burnt at the stake.
03:23Europe in the early 16th century is a place in spiritual meltdown.
03:27In one long generation, Europeans have discovered totally new continents and conquered large areas
03:33of them, invented the printing press, realized the full destructive potential of gunpowder,
03:37and at the same time, the traditional, all-embracing Western churches split forever into Protestant
03:43and Catholic blocs.
03:46When Mary Tudor came to the throne in 1553, she returned England to Catholicism, and the smell
03:54of burning Protestant flesh spread over the country.
03:58In this atmosphere of religious paranoia, Mary's half-sister, Princess Elizabeth, was kept under
04:05house arrest in Oxfordshire.
04:10Elizabeth was a devout Protestant, and she became the focus for people's hopes of an end
04:16to the persecution.
04:19Her situation was bleak.
04:21She turned to Dee for help, asking him to cast her and Mary's horoscope.
04:28The Catholic Church viewed astrology with suspicion, and in such tense circumstances, casting royal
04:34horoscopes was a dangerous undertaking.
04:51Casting royal horoscopes in early modern Europe is one of the most dangerous things which an
04:57astronomer or astrologer can get up to.
05:00If you can actually work out what the stars are saying, it could even be you're directing
05:04stars, you might be steering the whole thing, in which case you're actually determining when
05:08the monarch's going to live or die, which is technical high treason.
05:12The horoscopes predicted that Elizabeth would come to the throne and enjoy a long and glorious
05:17reign.
05:18The prognosis for Mary was dire.
05:22When the horoscopes were discovered, Dee was thrown to jail.
05:26The charges read that he had endeavoured to destroy the queen by calculating, conjuring,
05:32and witchcraft.
05:34For a while, he shares his prison with a man called Bartlett Green, who ends up one of
05:39the 300-odd Protestant martyrs made by Mary.
05:42In fact, he's actually taken away and executed while Dee is in hold, and it must have concentrated
05:48Dee's mind wonderfully on how to survive.
06:01Three years later, Dee's astrological predictions came true.
06:06In 1558, Queen Mary died, and Elizabeth came to the throne.
06:13The position of Queen Elizabeth at the opening of her reign is almost nightmarishly insecure.
06:18She's a young woman who's not always in good health.
06:21She almost dies three times over in the first ten years of her reign.
06:27Her realm is surrounded by Catholics, and so she's an absolute sitting target for assassins
06:33in an age in which assassination is one of the most common tricks of international politics.
06:38And so, for somebody like her, to have somebody who is really brilliant and can actually fathom
06:44the secrets of the cosmos is a kind of secret weapon in her arsenal which might just give
06:50her the edge over her enemies.
06:52Elizabeth immediately appointed Dee her royal astrologer and asked him to choose a coronation
06:58date that would be blessed by the heavens.
07:02Dee found fame and favor under Elizabeth, and she dubbed him My Noble Intelligentsia, giving
07:09him license to work in complete freedom.
07:12She gave official sanction to Dee, pretty much declaring that anything he did was white
07:19magic, divine magic, a form of science, and putting the royal seal on that.
07:24This must have been very important, very useful for Dee.
07:29Well, she wasn't styled the fairy queen for nothing.
07:32She encouraged astrology, magic, spectacle, and she certainly encouraged Dee.
07:43Basically, Dee was in love with Elizabeth, as a lot of her courtiers were, but she had
07:47a strong link to him too.
07:49She clearly saw him as somebody who she could trust.
07:58Dee lived at Mortlake on the river Thames, and there he assembled one of the greatest libraries
08:04of the 16th century.
08:06He traveled all over Europe in search of new learning, as well as books and manuscripts.
08:11He also gathered maps, and the latest in navigational equipment.
08:16His knowledge of navigation helped spearhead England's great age of exploration and discovery.
08:23He even coined the expression, the British Empire.
08:27He provided the clearing house of Mortlake for all the latest navigational information,
08:32which formed the basis of the great age of exploration for English mariners across the
08:38Atlantic to the new world.
08:40Dee was not content with exploring the limits of the Earth.
08:44Inspired by men like Copernicus, he wanted to understand how the entire universe worked.
08:49If we want to look for a comparison with Dee among 20th century figures, a figure like
08:54Stephen Hawking, internationally respected scientist, fits it to a cameo.
09:01John Dee is a mathematical whiz kid.
09:03Mathematics is the key to astronomy, astrology, navigation, chemistry.
09:09And John Dee is arrogant enough and clever enough to reckon himself the man to find the
09:15key to all these things and show the world how they work.
09:19He was convinced there were hidden forces that govern the way the physical world works.
09:24But as the years passed, he began to despair of ever finding them.
09:31For 40 years continually, with great pain, care and cost, I have sought the best knowledge
09:37that man might attain in the world.
09:40I have found that neither any man living or book was able to teach me those truths I desired
09:45and longed for.
09:48Dee has looked into mathematics.
09:50He's looked into astrology and astronomy.
09:52He's absorbed all these strands, but it still hasn't given him the thing that he wants.
09:58He now is prepared to go to the next step, which is to go deep into the occult, into hidden
10:03knowledge, in order to try to find these secrets, the very secrets of nature.
10:08Dee was at the point of giving up his quest when he made the discovery that changed the
10:13course of his life.
10:14The steganographia is an infamous black magic manuscript written in the 15th century.
10:21The book was written in a coded language that contained many barbarous and strange names
10:28of spirits.
10:29It was believed that these spirits were the key to a reservoir of hidden knowledge.
10:36Nowadays, we're well aware that there are unseen powers that make the world work and manipulate
10:41human beings, apart from neutrons, protons, electrical charges.
10:46We also have viruses, bacilli, and micros.
10:48The people of John Dees England couldn't see these things.
10:51They had some inkling they were there, and so they called them demons, spirits, and angels.
10:57In the 16th century, everyone saw angels and demons having a direct role in their lives.
11:03There was no controversial issue about the existence of spirits and angels and demons.
11:07I mean, they existed.
11:08They were part of the universe as it was understood then, and it would almost appear slightly cracked
11:13to imagine that they didn't exist.
11:16Dee now believed that the only way to find the answers that he was looking for was through
11:21the spirit world.
11:23But he found that he had no ability as a medium and turned to scryers for help.
11:29Scrying is an ancient occult art in which magicians use a crystal ball or mirror to take the mind
11:35out of the conscious world into the realm of the supernatural.
11:40The logic behind it was that angels were basically intermediaries with God.
11:45If you wanted to find out the word of God, the message of God, of course, traditionally,
11:49you should use the church, but in the midst of all this religious turmoil, the angels provided
11:55effectively a sort of alternative route for a direct line to God.
12:01People who were dabbling in these areas were regarded as dangerous because they might release
12:06these dangerous forces into the world through their activities.
12:19These attempts at scrying yielded nothing until a man with a notorious reputation as a black
12:24magician appeared at Mortlake.
12:28His name was Edward Kelly.
12:33Kelly was a strange, difficult, fractious, troublesome character.
12:39I mean, as soon as he came into Dee's life, Dee became involved in something that was way
12:44beyond his control.
12:48John Dee was somebody who was trying to find a way in to the world of the occult.
12:55When Kelly turned up, all of a sudden Dee was provided with what seemed to be a key
13:02to that door.
13:09And the alchemist.
13:11From the moment that Dee and Kelly began their occult partnership, Dee's diaries describe
13:16an astonishing supernatural world opening up to them.
13:21So you can perhaps imagine Dee, Kelly, a study full of books.
13:31What would start the bull rolling would be Kelly.
13:36He would be peering into a polished black mirror or into a crystal ball.
13:44If the ritual worked correctly, then entities would be summoned.
13:56They would then appear in the crystal to Kelly.
14:00At which point, him and Dee would interrogate whatever had appeared to them.
14:08Dee was excited and intrigued by Kelly's incredible visions.
14:12He was desperate to find out what and who these entities were.
14:17Suddenly, this extraordinary cast of angelic characters erupted from the crystal ball that
14:22he used.
14:23From sort of coquettish young maids to these great giants with suns blazing from their eyes.
14:35Dee constantly struggled with the angels.
14:37I mean, he was constantly questioning whether or not he should believe them.
14:42He was questioning whether or not they were angels or whether, in fact, they were demons
14:45disguised as angels.
14:49There are entities whose speech was so apocalyptic, so cold and beautiful and terrifying, that even
14:59to modern ears, this is scary stuff.
15:10In this day and age, we don't believe in angels.
15:12But at the time, it was truly believed that spirits were behind things.
15:16And through the spirits, God himself was behind these spirits or angels.
15:20So Dee's not messing around here.
15:23Dee thinks he's locked into angelic communications.
15:27During the course of what became known as the angelic conversations,
15:3270 different spirits would appear to Kelly.
15:34Some appeared human, others monstrous and demonic.
15:39They were angels they recognized from ancient versions of the Bible.
15:44But many of the spirits, like the beautiful coquettish maiden, Madimi,
15:49were mysterious and unheard of.
15:53Dee fervently recorded every last detail of the scrying sessions in his diary.
15:59Dee was working in a world where it wasn't magic that he was doing.
16:04It was a science of angels.
16:06This is somebody approaching this unearthly territory with incredible scientific method.
16:15And Dee was clearly bewitched by this extraordinary set of creatures that Kelly presented to him.
16:22And not only were the angels sort of interesting, they were delivering fantastic material.
16:28They seemed to be delivering some sort of coded message that would reveal the secrets of the universe.
16:39Dee was now convinced that he was close to fulfilling his ultimate ambition.
16:44And the angelic conversations took over his life and work.
16:50Mortlake would never be the same again.
16:54Dee's young wife, Jane, detested Kelly.
16:57She believed that he was evil and that the angelic conversations would lead them to ruin.
17:06Angel magic's an odd one.
17:09It is, despite wearing these ostentatious trappings of piety, at core black magic.
17:17In some ways it's difficult to think of anything more blasphemous than trying to get the angels of the Lord
17:22to do your bidding.
17:26While Dee was in the midst of his seances with Kelly at Mortlake, this extraordinary figure, this Polish prince called
17:32Lasky turned up on the royal barge.
17:34He was doing a tour of the country at the time.
17:37And he actually managed to work his way into these seances, which was an incredibly dangerous thing to be involved
17:45in.
17:47Lasky's presence at Mortlake was now raising grave concerns at court.
17:54When Elizabeth was trying to steer a very careful course through European politics, when her rivals were far more powerful
18:04and were all Catholic meant that almost certainly Dee's association with Lasky meant he was being followed, he was being
18:12watched.
18:12They were wondering if an influential character like Dee, who remember still had this kind of dubious reputation in the
18:18popular mind, was involved in something he shouldn't be.
18:22Informers working for Elizabeth's chief spymaster, Sir Francis Walsingham, now had Mortlake under constant surveillance.
18:30The atmosphere there grew increasingly tense as the angel Madimi revealed, through Kelly, that Walsingham was plotting Dee's downfall.
18:41Madimi appeared to us and said, they will shortly lay a bait for thee. They are determined to search your
18:47house. They hate thee. Trust them not.
18:54In Mortlake, things become more and more paranoid, and they're fearful of spies in England.
19:02And Madimi, their angel, is telling them that they must leave, and they must follow Lasky, who will be their
19:09patron, and they will be able to pursue the language of the angels over in Poland.
19:20He knew how dangerous it was to be involved in the kind of activities that him and Kelly were involved
19:26in, and he carried on with them. He risked everything for this.
19:34There was a great tempest of wind at midnight, as we left Mortlake with our wives and children, toward two
19:40ships waiting for us near Gravesend.
19:49So, Dee decides to up and leave, take his family, and on the words of Madimi, go to Poland. And
19:56if he does this, the angels have promised him great secrets are going to be revealed.
20:03I mean, this is an amazing thing for him. It's a lifetime, a one-time opportunity to try to find
20:10out why we're here, how things work, why they work. And the angels have promised him that. So, yeah, of
20:16course, you're going to go along with what the angels say. Why wouldn't you?
20:25As soon as Dee left Mortlake, a mob descended upon the house, and his library and alchemical laboratories were ransacked.
20:32For Dee, Kelly, and their families, there was no going back.
20:44After an epic six-month journey, Dee and Kelly finally arrived in the Polish capital, Krakow. As soon as they
20:52got there, they began scrying again, and the angelic messages were delivered with even greater intensity.
20:59It seemed to Dee that his unshakable faith in the angels was about to be rewarded.
21:04They are told that a powerful message is going to be dictated to them. The first angel begins to talk
21:11to them about a lost book of Enoch, which is the language of the angels, the original language spoken by
21:17Adam before the fall.
21:21The angel told us, I will open to thee the secrets of nature and the riches of the world, many
21:29thousand secrets in which you are still yet but children.
21:35This was the same language that was revealed to Enoch, who in biblical tradition was the first person to speak
21:43with God after the fall of man.
21:44The language, it is said, is the power by which we were all made, by which nature was framed and
21:50the whole universe was constructed. It is the very mathematics, it is the very framework of all the mystery of
21:57all creation.
22:01Dee believed that the language he was about to receive would be the key to unlocking the secrets of the
22:07universe.
22:10Letter by letter, the dictation of the Enochian language began.
22:17After months of scrying and hundreds of hours looking into the crystal ball, the angels revealed what appeared to be
22:25a completely new language.
22:27The Enochian language is designed to express the primal essence of things. When it's spoken, it's supposed to be spoken
22:35from the stomach, from using the magical voice. It's a very barbarous and rich sounding language.
22:51Spirits of the fourth angle are nine, mighty in the firmament of the waters.
23:01The Enochian language is based on an alphabet of 22 letters. The language has its own words, grammar and syntax
23:09and resembles no known tongue.
23:12Although some scholars have compared it to Hebrew, attempts to discover its origins have been unsuccessful.
23:21To suppose that this is an invented language, invented by Kelly, you would have to suppose that Kelly was some
23:28sort of creative and linguistic genius,
23:32who was able to spontaneously invent a functional working language complete with grammar and vocabulary,
23:40and not only invent it, but invent it backwards.
23:48With the dictation of the Enochian language complete, the angels set D an extraordinary test.
23:57And as he's receiving this angelic data very, very fast, and he can hardly keep up,
24:04all of a sudden out of the blue, Madimi says that he has to go and see Rudolf II,
24:09the most powerful man, the ruler of Bohemia and of the Holy Roman Empire.
24:16And he has to go and tell him that he is possessed, he's an evil man.
24:22It's like a death sentence if he goes.
24:26Dee had already given up everything in England in his thirst for hidden knowledge.
24:30But was his belief in the angels strong enough to carry out this suicidal mission?
24:40In August 1584, John Dee made his way to Prague to confront the Holy Roman Emperor.
24:48He was effectively an enemy, and this enemy figure went into the very heart of the enemy territory,
24:56to the seat of power in Prague.
25:02In the 16th century, the Holy Roman Empire was a vast kingdom that covered the large part of Northern Europe.
25:09The empire was ruled by Rudolf II, a notoriously enigmatic and volatile man.
25:18Rudolf was a great patron of alchemists and indulged his passion for the bazaar
25:23with his own personal regiment made up entirely of dwarves.
25:29The Holy Roman Empire was vital to Rome in the uneasy balance of power between the Catholic and Protestant churches.
25:37This is Rudolf's palace. This is the very church that Dee would have had to walk past on his way
25:42to the confrontation with Rudolf.
25:43And this gives you an idea of the power of the church, the money and the power that it has.
25:49And this is what he's taking on.
25:50The Holy Roman Empire of the Old Testament
26:04This is a heretical Protestant.
26:19and he's about to give a message to Rudolf
26:23that he's been asked to give by the angels.
26:25And this is a lethal thing to do.
26:28His back is right up against the wall now.
26:30He's probably shaking in his shoes.
26:32He's terrified for his own family.
26:37The angel of the Lord hath appeared to me
26:39and rebuketh you for your sins.
26:42If you will not hear me,
26:44the Lord will sweep you off the face of the earth
26:46and you shall perish miserably.
26:50And the message he has to say
26:51is that Rudolf is an evil man,
26:54that he has demons around him
26:55and that if he doesn't listen to Dee and the angels
26:58and what they have to say,
27:00that God will put his foot on Rudolf's breast
27:02and push him off his throne.
27:04But if he does listen to the angels,
27:07then he will become a supreme emperor
27:09and will overcome the devil.
27:18He is a man going into very much
27:21the lion's den of Roman Catholicism
27:23and saying,
27:24you must live and rule
27:25according to the revelation that I have.
27:30Here we see Dee in the role as prophet.
27:32Here we see Dee as a man
27:34convinced of his mission
27:36and willing to put his life on the line
27:39to deliver that message.
27:42Rudolf was both astounded
27:44and intrigued by Dee's speech.
27:46Whilst Dee waited anxiously
27:48for the emperor's reaction,
27:50the angels became impatient,
27:52ordering Dee to deliver a new message to Rudolf.
27:55It was obvious that some new PR strategy
27:59was needed on behalf of the angels.
28:02It was at this point that the angels
28:03apparently suggested to Dee
28:05that the Philosopher's Stone
28:07would be enough of a crowd puller
28:10to get people like Rudolf on their side.
28:15When Edward Kelly first arrived at Mortlake,
28:18he had a small bag of red powder
28:20that he said had been stolen
28:22from an ancient site at Glastonbury.
28:24He believed it to be the vital ingredient
28:26that would help make the Philosopher's Stone.
28:30The Philosopher's Stone being the formula
28:31that would basically give the person who had it
28:34the alchemical means of turning
28:36base metal into gold,
28:38but also any form of purification,
28:40indeed the secret of life, effectively.
28:45This Philosopher's Stone
28:46was a world-changing concept.
28:50The Philosopher's Stone was the H-bomb.
28:53If you had the Philosopher's Stone,
28:55you had complete financial and thus military superiority
28:59over every other nation in the world.
29:03Rudolf chose to ignore Dee's ominous prophecy,
29:07but the prospect of finding the Philosopher's Stone
29:10proved irresistible.
29:12He decided to allow Dee and Kelly
29:14to set up an alchemical laboratory in Bohemia.
29:17Dee and Kelly set about trying to produce gold.
29:22The dream of finding the Philosopher's Stone
29:24had been an obsession in Europe for centuries.
29:27With advances in chemistry and metallurgy,
29:30the belief that it might be possible
29:32to make gold from base metal
29:34reached a fever pitch in 16th century Bohemia.
29:47This has to be the part of the building
29:49where they were.
30:00Oh, what kinds of stuff in here?
30:02Oh, my goodness, look.
30:05These are definitely alchemical.
30:07This is some sort of scroll?
30:11Scroll.
30:12It's got symbols here.
30:14Oh, wow, look at that.
30:16Definitely a magical text then.
30:18Yeah.
30:19Yeah, look.
30:19Oh, yeah.
30:20Yeah, there's a magical spell there.
30:22Yeah.
30:22A satora.
30:23Yeah, let's see.
30:24Arapa here, opera here.
30:27Rotas, it's satora.
30:29Satora rotas.
30:30That's something to do with Solomon's key.
30:33Ah, key of Solomon.
30:35Oh, my goodness, what's this?
30:37That's definitely powder, isn't it?
30:39Yeah, powder.
30:40This could be the very powder
30:42that they were using to produce gold 500 years ago.
30:46By narrow experiments.
30:47Here in Bohemia, yeah.
30:49They truly believe they could make gold.
30:51Yes.
30:53Rumors that the famous Dr. D
30:55had found the secret of the Philosopher's Stone
30:57spread across Europe like wildfire.
31:01You can see why people like the Tsar in Russia
31:04would have been offering D and Kelly a fortune
31:08to go and work as the Russian alchemist.
31:13You can see why Elizabeth herself was getting nervous,
31:17was worried in case D and Kelly were out there
31:21creating gold for foreigners,
31:23in which case she was insistent that they be returned home
31:26to create gold for England.
31:32Throughout this period, the angelic conversations continued.
31:36The angels repeatedly told D that he would soon be given the key
31:40to using the Enochian language.
31:53The Catholic authorities in particular did not regard D as some sort of dodgy sorcerer
31:58who had just come in and was trying to make trouble.
32:09The Pope's spies reported back to Rome that D was an important and dangerous adversary,
32:16and the author of a new heresy predicting that Rome was about to fall.
32:24Anybody who claims to have God's personal mobile number is a tremendous threat to the established church.
32:33The church, in spiritual terms, is a collection of middlemen.
32:38If you had an entire population who were capable of communicating with spiritual forces for themselves,
32:45then popes, priests, cardinals, bishops, all of these would have been redundant.
32:51That was the threat that John Dee posed to the religious authorities.
32:57Anybody who had informational knowledge which didn't fit with the established orthodoxy was cruising for a brosing.
33:10Pope Sixtus, determined to get rid of D at any cost,
33:14presented a document to the emperor accusing D of being a black magician.
33:19Papal ambassadors made repeated demands to question D,
33:23and they tried to seize the heretical books of angelic conversations.
33:29Finally, the Pope demanded that D and Kelly come to Rome.
33:34Being asked questions by the Inquisition was seldom a comfortable position to be in,
33:40not least because the entire process could quite easily end up with you being barbecued.
33:48They refused to go to Rome,
33:50but Pope Sixtus finally forced Emperor Rudolf to expel D and his family from the Holy Roman Empire.
34:01They were given six days to get out of the empire,
34:04and fled Prague in fear for their lives.
34:20Expulsion from the Holy Roman Empire
34:22once again saw John Dee, Edward Kelly, and their families on the run.
34:27With nowhere to go, and no prospects of patronage,
34:31things were looking desperate
34:32when they received word that a nobleman from southern Bohemia
34:36requested their alchemical services.
34:39Even more surprising,
34:41Emperor Rudolf had sanctioned the arrangement.
34:44The relief that John Dee must have felt
34:47after being persecuted,
34:49kicked out the popes after him.
34:51He's got nowhere to stay.
34:53His family's stuffed into two carriages
34:55with all his books and possessions.
34:56And finally, he's allowed to find sanctuary here in Chavon,
35:00in Rosenberg's castle.
35:05Elizabeth I wasn't a real patron to John Dee.
35:08He wasn't funded enough to pursue his experiments and his science.
35:12For the first time, this is a safe haven for them.
35:15It's a sanctuary.
35:19Rudolf II was under extreme pressure from the Pope,
35:23but believed that Dee and Kelly were on the verge
35:25of finding the formula of the philosopher's stone.
35:29He did not want to openly defy the Pope,
35:32and secretly installed them in alchemical laboratories
35:35in the town of Trebon,
35:37a hundred miles south of Prague.
35:43The pressure was now on to produce gold,
35:46and Kelly wanted to devote all of his energy to alchemy.
35:50He became increasingly reluctant
35:52to enter into the angelic conversations
35:54that he felt were leading nowhere.
35:58Dee wanted more than material wealth,
36:00and refused to let go of what he saw as a greater prize.
36:05He had risked everything for the angels.
36:08Along with the Enochian language,
36:10they had revealed to him
36:11what appeared to be an entire magical system.
36:14He believed that once the angels gave him the key to these things,
36:18all would be revealed to him.
36:20Time after time, he forced Kelly back to the crystal
36:23to continue with the angelic conversations.
36:27He pushes Kelly almost to exhaustion.
36:29They're scrying for ten hours a day,
36:30and Kelly suffers because of this.
36:33He gets headaches, he gets pangs in his stomach,
36:36he hears voices in his head.
36:38He even has wheels on his arm,
36:40which he says demons have given him through attacks.
36:45It's a dangerous task
36:46because also the angels could be demons.
36:52You were looking at the world in the glass
36:55probably more often than you were looking at the world outside the glass.
36:59You can see how that could take you mentally
37:01into some very dangerous territory indeed.
37:05He was suddenly plunged through a trapdoor
37:10in Elizabethan logic
37:12into this world.
37:16Many, many times he recorded his own body
37:19inflamed, engulfed in flame,
37:21his mind burning, his body burning.
37:24Many times he struggled with the revelation,
37:26trying to understand more deeply,
37:28but at the same time terrified of what he was experiencing.
37:35Kelly knew it was black magic
37:37and got cold feet on this account
37:39on a number of occasions.
37:41And it was always Dee who talked him around.
37:43Indeed, there are a number of occasions
37:45when Kelly's visions
37:48took on a demonic, hellish character.
37:52And this didn't seem to trouble Dee at all.
37:57Edward Kelly was in a reality
37:59where he was working with this psychopath.
38:04This guy was prepared to conjure
38:07all the forces of heaven and hell.
38:14The angelic conversations
38:16were becoming increasingly sinister.
38:19The angel Madimi seemed now
38:21to have lost her innocence
38:22and, according to Kelly,
38:24began to showeth her shame.
38:33Right in the middle of all of this,
38:35something extraordinary happens.
38:37It's just absolutely off the map.
38:38If everything else has been extraordinary,
38:39this is off the map.
38:43They carry on the angelic conversations here
38:46and it takes a very sinister and very strange twist
38:48because Madimi, their spirit guide,
38:50their angel,
38:51makes a request.
38:53They get asked to do something very bizarre.
39:03Madimi appeared
39:04and she said,
39:06nothing is unlawful
39:08which is unlawful unto God.
39:11One committing adultery on my behalf
39:13shall be blessed eternally
39:14and given a heavenly reward.
39:19The angels on Madimi reveals herself
39:23naked in the crystal
39:25and says that they have to cross-match
39:27with each other's wives.
39:29Dee and Kelly have to swap wives.
39:31Now, this is a terrible thing.
39:35Jane Dee detests Kelly.
39:37Poor Jane cries for 15 minutes.
39:40She won't do it.
39:42Kelly's not happy.
39:43He thinks they're in league with demons.
39:45Really, it must seem like they are now
39:47to be asked to do such a terrible thing.
39:49But for Dee, it's a final test
39:51for him to get the secrets of nature
39:53at the end of this.
39:54He will reach the next level,
39:55go to the next stage.
39:59The test seemed to be an affront
40:00to the laws of God
40:02and it shook Dee to the core.
40:04He had risked everything for the angels
40:07but was he now prepared to risk his soul?
40:12And he battles against it
40:13and he says he won't do it
40:15and he says he can't do it
40:16and then he gives in
40:17and ultimately he becomes
40:20the instrument of the angels.
40:22Ultimately, they take him over
40:23and he does everything
40:24that they tell him to do.
40:26So, here, they draw up
40:29a contract after two days
40:31that they all solemnly sign
40:33and they do go ahead
40:35and recording in Dee's diary
40:37the pact is fulfilled.
40:45I can see there is no other remedy
40:47but for our cross-matching.
40:49So it must be done.
40:51I offer my soul as a pawn.
40:55There is something very empowering
40:58about the breaking of taboo.
41:01Certain sex practices
41:02are seen as being able to enhance
41:06magical awareness
41:08to put you into a different state
41:09of consciousness.
41:13Laying there in a room
41:16listening to your wife have sex
41:19with your business associate
41:22and magical associate
41:23while you were laying there
41:25with their wife.
41:27This very real physical act
41:31might have been a step too far.
41:35This was as far from theory
41:37as it could possibly get.
41:44So there's actually much more
41:46going on spiritually
41:47than just some wife-swapping here.
41:48They're not just swingers,
41:49they're sinners.
41:50And in Renaissance Europe,
41:52that really is tampering
41:53with eternity.
41:59But it spells the absolute end
42:01of Dee and Kelly.
42:03Nothing is the same again.
42:05It changes everything
42:07and the angelic conversations
42:08come to an end.
42:22For Dee, the wife-swapping
42:24did not produce a great revelation.
42:27And after seven years
42:28of tireless scrying,
42:30Kelly finally freed himself
42:31of Dee
42:32and the angelic conversations.
42:35He devoted himself to alchemy
42:37and was invited to work
42:39directly for Rudolf in Prague.
42:42Suddenly, Kelly appeared
42:43to have found the secret formula
42:45of the philosopher's stone.
42:46He became famous
42:48throughout Europe.
42:48He was made a baron,
42:50given a castle,
42:51and lived a life
42:52of outrageous success.
42:54He's personally working
42:55with Rudolf II
42:56on alchemyical experiments,
42:58making gold.
42:59He seems to be able
43:00to make gold.
43:01And people witness it.
43:02They see it.
43:02And word spreads
43:03like wildfire.
43:05Even when they went
43:06back to England,
43:06Elizabeth I sends out spies
43:08to come over
43:09and try and get Kelly back.
43:14Kelly's fall
43:15was as swift
43:16as his rise.
43:17He was unable
43:18to produce unlimited
43:19quantities of gold,
43:20and Rudolf threw him
43:22and Rudolf threw him in prison.
43:24Was it because Rudolf
43:25realized that he'd been
43:26the victim of a clever
43:27contract or that Kelly
43:29refused to reveal
43:30his secret formula?
43:32No one will ever
43:34know the truth
43:34as Kelly died
43:36attempting to escape
43:37from prison.
43:47Although we never really
43:48know the truth
43:49about Kelly's death,
43:49Dee does mention him
43:51in his diary.
43:51It's a small entry.
43:52He just says
43:52Kelly is slain.
44:02This extraordinary
44:03relationship,
44:05this partnership,
44:06the greatest
44:06occult partnership
44:07ever,
44:08has finally
44:09come to an end.
44:16With Kelly's death,
44:17the angelic conversations
44:19were at an end.
44:21The promises of the angels
44:23had come to nothing,
44:24and Dee's dream
44:25of finding the secrets
44:26of the universe
44:27was over.
44:29Dee returned to England
44:31in 1589.
44:33Queen Elizabeth
44:34had lost interest
44:35in her noble intelligentsia,
44:37and Dee was desperately
44:39short of money.
44:41The final blow came
44:42when his wife Jane
44:43gave birth to a boy,
44:45the product of our
44:46unholy union with Kelly.
44:49What was passing through
44:52Dee's mind
44:52in those last days?
44:54Did I get it wrong?
44:55Did I think
44:56that they were saying
44:57to me something
44:58that was just me,
45:00was just my hopes
45:02and fears projected?
45:03Were they ever there
45:04at all?
45:12Dee never questioned
45:14the validity of his angelic actions
45:17in the sense
45:18that he never thought
45:19he'd just been defrauded
45:20by Kelly,
45:21that he'd been strung a line.
45:23He believed in them
45:23right to the end.
45:25He buried his papers
45:26or hid them
45:27in secret drawers
45:28in chests.
45:30That's how they were found
45:31subsequently.
45:31He did so
45:32because he wanted
45:33the message
45:33to be carried on
45:34into future generations.
45:37Dr. John Dee
45:38died in 1608.
45:40He never deciphered
45:42the Enochian language,
45:43but it formed the basis
45:45of a magical system
45:46that continues
45:47to be practiced
45:48by occultists.
45:50The language's origin
45:51and what happened
45:52between Dee and Kelly
45:53during the angelic conversations
45:55remains a mystery.
45:57Dee has suffered a lot
46:00at the hand of history.
46:01You could say
46:03he backed
46:03the wrong intellectual horse.
46:05Certainly few people today
46:06are interested
46:07in angel magic
46:08outside of the fringes
46:10of the occult.
46:11I think we should remember him
46:13as someone
46:14who was willing
46:15to risk everything
46:16to know.
46:17Someone for whom
46:19the pursuit of knowledge
46:20was worth risking
46:22his body,
46:24his immortal soul,
46:25his reputation,
46:26everything.
46:29All Dee wanted to find
46:31was the truth.
46:33The path he went down,
46:34the extraordinary lengths
46:35he went to,
46:36and what is left
46:38is inexplicable.
46:40It's an enigma,
46:42it's a mystery.
46:43But in the end,
46:45Dee did it
46:45because he wanted
46:46to find out
46:47the real truth
46:48behind everything.
46:50Today,
46:50no one believes
46:51that angels
46:52can provide the answers
46:53to the secrets
46:54of the universe,
46:55but modern science
46:56has shown that
46:57Dee's instincts
46:57were fundamentally correct.
47:00Scientists have now
47:01discovered that there
47:02are unseen forces
47:04that govern
47:05the physical world.
47:06We are surrounded
47:07by ugliness
47:09and war
47:11and inhumanity
47:14and squalor.
47:15We perhaps all
47:17have feelings
47:18that things should
47:20be better than this,
47:21that there is
47:23something beneath
47:24the skin of reality
47:26that would make sense
47:27of all this.
47:29And you can certainly
47:31see what an attractive
47:33vision that is,
47:35how it might be worth,
47:37sacrificing everything
47:38for just the slimmest
47:40chance of that
47:42heaven-opening
47:43possibility.
47:52are you fascinated
47:53by masters of darkness?
47:55We'll put your questions
47:56to expert Aaron Paramore
47:58in a few minutes
47:58at Channel 4.com
47:59History.
48:00And that was the last one
48:01in this series.
48:02Next Tuesday at 10 and 4
48:04it's the invasion
48:04of the body snatchers.
48:06Check it out
48:06in just a moment.
48:07Back to tonight
48:08and next up,
48:09animal cops
48:10have their work
48:11cut out for them
48:11in New York City.
48:12Some extreme cases
48:14of cruelty and neglect
48:15which make for
48:16compulsive viewing
48:17if only because
48:18it's so shocking.
48:19Stay with 4.