WEBVTT - John Dee's Language of the Angels

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of iHeartRadio and Grim

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<v Speaker 1>and Mild from Aaron Mankie listener Discretion advised.

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<v Speaker 2>The year was sixteen sixty two and the owners of

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<v Speaker 2>a little sweet shop in London were running their fingers

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<v Speaker 2>over their newest acquisition, an antique cedar chest. Their fingertips

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<v Speaker 2>found a strange opening in the body of the chest,

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<v Speaker 2>a hidden drawer. Perhaps they used a knife to pull

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<v Speaker 2>at it. The drawer opened, and inside not the treasures

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<v Speaker 2>they may have dreamt of, but a beaded necklace, a cross,

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<v Speaker 2>and some handwritten books the sweetshops made. Wasn't especially interested

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<v Speaker 2>in whatever someone's old books might have to say. She

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<v Speaker 2>had work to do. But as she baked her pies

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<v Speaker 2>atop the pages she was using as parchment paper, the

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<v Speaker 2>smell of caramelized sugar spinning in the air, it was

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<v Speaker 2>hard to ignore an uncomfortable feeling stirring in her gut.

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<v Speaker 2>When she looked at the books pages. They were strange. Yes,

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<v Speaker 2>they contained words and dated entries, as she might have expected,

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<v Speaker 2>But the pages also contained diagrams and signs and symbols

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<v Speaker 2>that she didn't understand. Unnerving symbols, triangles inscribed inside circles,

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<v Speaker 2>intricate stars that pointed toward what might have been Greek letters,

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<v Speaker 2>maps of what might have looked like planets, complex mathematical

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<v Speaker 2>symbols that could only be witchcraft. She quieted her mind.

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<v Speaker 2>She lifted the surely devilish pages one by one, and

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<v Speaker 2>one by one let them blacken in the fire beneath

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<v Speaker 2>her baking pies.

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<v Speaker 1>But it didn't take.

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<v Speaker 2>Long before other people started noticing the strangeness of the

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<v Speaker 2>pages that hadn't been burned. One antiquarian realized that these

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<v Speaker 2>pages weren't just some devil's unhinged ramblings. They were the

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<v Speaker 2>lost diary of Renaissance, England's greatest conjurer, the occultist, once

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<v Speaker 2>employed as astronomer to Queen Elizabeth the First, a man

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<v Speaker 2>named John Dee. John Dee was one of the most

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<v Speaker 2>fascinating characters in all of Elizabethan court history. He was

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<v Speaker 2>a learned mathematician and also a magician, an astronomer, and

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<v Speaker 2>an astrologer. He was a trusted political advisor to the Queen.

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<v Speaker 2>He was a scientist, a cartographer, and even a special

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<v Speaker 2>effects technician. He was also an angelologist, a Christian lawmanser,

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<v Speaker 2>an occultist and a dabbler in alchemy. He was a

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<v Speaker 2>student of Hebrew and the Jewish mystical tradition of Kabbalah.

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<v Speaker 2>In addition to Christianity, he believed he spoke with angels,

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<v Speaker 2>both angels from the Old Testament and some of his

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<v Speaker 2>own discovery. He recorded completely credulously his angelic conversations with

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<v Speaker 2>the likes of the angels Raphael, Gabriel, Michael, and Uriel.

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<v Speaker 2>It may seem impossible to us now that someone so

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<v Speaker 2>invested in the occult in sorcery could have had such

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<v Speaker 2>a serious political career in a royal court. But it

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<v Speaker 2>was the fifteen hundreds, the Renaissance. The classic Renaissance man

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<v Speaker 2>did it all in part because it all was not

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<v Speaker 2>so neatly divided into branches as it is today. Math,

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<v Speaker 2>magic and miracle were not entirely distinct from each other.

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<v Speaker 2>Politics were ordained by God, after all. Queen Elizabeth herself

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<v Speaker 2>believed in the royal touch, the magic of her fingertips

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<v Speaker 2>upon her subject's next to heal their ailments. The latest

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<v Speaker 2>optical science was recognizing that light could bend it separated

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<v Speaker 2>into rainbows through lenses and mirrors and crystals, where was

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<v Speaker 2>the line between that science and the idea that gazing

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<v Speaker 2>into a crystal ball might reveal concealed dimensions of God's creation,

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<v Speaker 2>just as it revealed the different bands of color concealed

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<v Speaker 2>within light. John Dee was a man who studied the heavens,

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<v Speaker 2>and in fifteen seventy two he looked up as all

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<v Speaker 2>of England cowered at a new star that suddenly appeared

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<v Speaker 2>in the night sky, followed by a range comet. In

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<v Speaker 2>fifteen seventy seven, and under the light of that comet,

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<v Speaker 2>the Conjuror John d made a political plan for his queen.

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<v Speaker 2>He encouraged Elizabeth to follow the path laid by King

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<v Speaker 2>Arthur one thousand years earlier, to expand England into a

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<v Speaker 2>term he coined, a British Empire. But the Great Conjurer

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<v Speaker 2>would also do something else. Under the light of that

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<v Speaker 2>mysterious comet. He would allow a man using a false

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<v Speaker 2>name into his home, a man who would ultimately be

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<v Speaker 2>his downfall. This was a man who would intercede with

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<v Speaker 2>D's angelic conversations and put a wedge between d and

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<v Speaker 2>the court life he was enjoying with Queen Elizabeth. When

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<v Speaker 2>the Great Conjurer looked up into the sky and calculated

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<v Speaker 2>the positions of the planets. It seems he couldn't have

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<v Speaker 2>seen just how tenuous his own position was. I'm Danish

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<v Speaker 2>schwartz and this is noble blood. John Dee was born

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<v Speaker 2>in or around London on July thirteenth, fifteen twenty seven,

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<v Speaker 2>during the reign of King Henry the Eighth. He was

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<v Speaker 2>the son of a merchant who served within the king's court.

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<v Speaker 2>If you're into astrology, you're in luck. With this episode,

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<v Speaker 2>Dee mapped his own birth chart, as well as the

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<v Speaker 2>astrological positionings of many of the events that took place

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<v Speaker 2>throughout the sixteenth century. According to D's calculations, Jupiter and

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<v Speaker 2>the Sun were strong together in Cancer at the moment

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<v Speaker 2>of his birth. I'm sure some of you listeners can

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<v Speaker 2>interpret those signs better than I can. Biographer Benjamin Woolley

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<v Speaker 2>notes that the moon and the Sun were in opposition

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<v Speaker 2>in d'cas charts, and even I could tell you that symbolically,

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<v Speaker 2>at least in literary terms. That suggests some internal conflict

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<v Speaker 2>that might have been brewing inside him. And so we

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<v Speaker 2>begin today's episode appropriately in astrology, a field with plenty

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<v Speaker 2>of adherents still today a realm that draws on astronomical

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<v Speaker 2>science and then, at least in my estimation, heads into

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<v Speaker 2>the direction of belief. By fifteen forty seven, John d

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<v Speaker 2>was nineteen and England was transitioning from the reign of

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<v Speaker 2>King Henry the Eighth to that of his short lived

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<v Speaker 2>only son, King Edward. At that time John Dee was

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<v Speaker 2>in the midst of some personal drama of his own,

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<v Speaker 2>and I mean drama in the quite literal sense. He

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<v Speaker 2>was a student at Trinity College, Cambridge, and he was

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<v Speaker 2>putting on a play. It was a play called Peace

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<v Speaker 2>by an ancient Greek playwright, Aristophanes, and it called for

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<v Speaker 2>a dung beetle to fly with an actor on its back.

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<v Speaker 2>This was the fifteen hundreds. D did not have the

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<v Speaker 2>benefits of electricity in staging his play, let alone projectors,

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<v Speaker 2>lasers or drones. And yet the actor on stage instructed

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<v Speaker 2>his scare a beetle to lift him into the sky,

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<v Speaker 2>and it did. There was a gasp in the audience

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<v Speaker 2>next craned backward to watch in awe. How was it

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<v Speaker 2>possible the flying beetle on stage was like a miracle,

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<v Speaker 2>or else some thought like magic or as some whispered

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<v Speaker 2>as the play went on, it was witchcraft. D must

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<v Speaker 2>have dealt with the devil. Only a few people in

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<v Speaker 2>the crowd recognized that the beatle must have been some

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<v Speaker 2>application of mathematics. D probably used some combination of Pulley's mirrors, springs,

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<v Speaker 2>and pressurized air or gas to create the illusion of

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<v Speaker 2>a flying bug. But this was a time when mathematics

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<v Speaker 2>as a discipline were viewed as essentially indistinguishable from conjuring.

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<v Speaker 2>D was cast under suspicion. In another life, we can

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<v Speaker 2>imagine that D might have gone on to become the

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<v Speaker 2>best practical effects guy of the Elizabethan age. We can

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<v Speaker 2>easily imagine a D who went on to be an

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<v Speaker 2>artist of the theater what D himself called art mathematical.

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<v Speaker 2>Of course, his beatle was considered wizardly. After all, what

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<v Speaker 2>is special effects technology today but something we call movie magic.

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<v Speaker 2>But aside from a brief stint when he was a student,

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<v Speaker 2>D wasn't really interested in the theater. For D, the

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<v Speaker 2>mathematical was only in service of his true aim, which

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<v Speaker 2>was the revelation of some universal godly truth through the

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<v Speaker 2>use of sciences that shaded without distinction in his mind

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<v Speaker 2>into magic, and eight years later that lack of distinction

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<v Speaker 2>between the occult and the approved came home to D

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<v Speaker 2>in the form of a court order. It was fifteen

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<v Speaker 2>fifty five and d was under arrest. This was during

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<v Speaker 2>Queen Mary's reign. D stood accused of witchcraft, a serious

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<v Speaker 2>charge under the new Catholic rule, which was definitely not

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<v Speaker 2>opposed to burning heretics at the stake. D was also

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<v Speaker 2>official accused of two other crimes, calculating and conjuring. Again,

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<v Speaker 2>in that language, you can see the closeness of math

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<v Speaker 2>and magic to this day. The word we use for

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<v Speaker 2>solving a math problem calculating, it means something very different

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<v Speaker 2>when applied to a person. A calculating person implies that

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<v Speaker 2>they're sly bad scheming. And John Dee stood accused of

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<v Speaker 2>doing the very thing that so many astrologically inclined bridesmaids

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<v Speaker 2>do for their friends today. That is, mapping the horoscopes

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<v Speaker 2>of Mary and her husband Philip to see if they

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<v Speaker 2>made a good match. Kind of touchingly, de found in

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<v Speaker 2>favor of Mary and Philip's union. It's pretty sweet, actually,

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<v Speaker 2>His calculations suggested that their marriage took place under an

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<v Speaker 2>auspicious rising sign for a new couple. But of course

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<v Speaker 2>flick Queen Mary, defensive about an unpopular marriage, didn't exactly

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<v Speaker 2>take the zodiac as a fun activity for a bridal shower. Luckily,

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<v Speaker 2>Forde he escaped the fate of the heretics and outlived Mary,

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<v Speaker 2>who died in fifteen fifty seven. That was when Mary's

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<v Speaker 2>younger Protestant half sister, Elizabeth, came to the throne. Twenty

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<v Speaker 2>five year old Elizabeth was the daughter of King Henry

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<v Speaker 2>the Eighth and the beheaded Anne Boleyn. She was the

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<v Speaker 2>second woman ever to ascend to a throne that had

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<v Speaker 2>been until recently only occupied by men, and she needed

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<v Speaker 2>to secure her reign. She appointed her favorite Robert Dudley

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<v Speaker 2>to advise her, and Dudley, needing the good graces of

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<v Speaker 2>not only the earthly but heavenly realms as well as

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<v Speaker 2>he put together Elizabeth's coronation, decided that he needed the

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<v Speaker 2>one man in England who could read the planets better

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<v Speaker 2>than anyone else. Robert Dudley called upon John d. When

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<v Speaker 2>John d agreed to choose the date for Queen Elizabeth's coronation,

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<v Speaker 2>it was the beginning of a major life change for him.

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<v Speaker 2>After being arrested under Queen Mary's reign. Now he was

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<v Speaker 2>not only set free, but he was welcomed into Elizabeth's court.

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<v Speaker 2>As his first order of business, D consulted the stars.

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<v Speaker 2>He measured and mapped the angles between the planets, the

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<v Speaker 2>positions of major constellations, the twelve astrological houses, and rising signs.

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<v Speaker 2>At last, he decided that January fifteenth, fifteen fifty nine

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<v Speaker 2>would be the most Heavens approved date for the beginning

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<v Speaker 2>of the Elizabethan Age. Obviously, Mars was in Scorpio that day.

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<v Speaker 2>After the coronation, history loses track of D for about

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<v Speaker 2>five years. I like to imagine the stage magician's sleight

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<v Speaker 2>of hand. Here D ducking into a cleverly designed set

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<v Speaker 2>piece through which the audience of history can't see him.

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<v Speaker 2>But he was somewhere all along, studying the Jewish mystical

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<v Speaker 2>tradition of Kabbalah. He was seeking the secret names of God,

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<v Speaker 2>learning the Hebrew language and its mystical numerology, the alphabet

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<v Speaker 2>arranged around the first letter olive, middle mem, last tav,

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<v Speaker 2>spelling out emmett, the Hebrew word for truth. He was

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<v Speaker 2>seeking divine truth in increasingly more mystical modes, but D

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<v Speaker 2>was far from done with politics. Once history catches up

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<v Speaker 2>with him again, he steps out from behind the curtain.

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<v Speaker 2>On June fourteenth, fifteen sixty four, when he and Queen

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<v Speaker 2>Elizabeth are walking together at Greenwich Palace on the south

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<v Speaker 2>bank of the River Thames. D was holding something in

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<v Speaker 2>his hands, a slim book, and he was brimming with

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<v Speaker 2>excitement and perhaps a little bit of fear. He was

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<v Speaker 2>about to show the Queen the work of his soul,

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<v Speaker 2>his Monas Hieroglyphica. Listener, allow me to tell you the

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<v Speaker 2>monas is truly wild. It's a whole book dedicated to

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<v Speaker 2>explaining a mystical symbol of divine revelation that D invented himself.

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<v Speaker 2>It looks kind of like a cross between the artist

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<v Speaker 2>formerly known as Prince Symbol and Harry Potter's Deathly Hallows.

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<v Speaker 2>D's symbol was a millage of Latin wordplay, alchemy, numerology,

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<v Speaker 2>celestial calculations, and you know, his idea of the unity

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<v Speaker 2>of all things. So was no doubt excited but nervous

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<v Speaker 2>as he walked alongside the Queen, no doubt remembering how

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<v Speaker 2>he had been arrested for doing a Queen's horoscope. Years before,

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<v Speaker 2>Elizabeth had taken D's astrological advice for her coronation date.

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<v Speaker 2>Though perhaps she would be open to his new book

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<v Speaker 2>of divine celestial work, or perhaps she would have him

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<v Speaker 2>arrested on the spot. He offered her the book. Elizabeth

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<v Speaker 2>paused for a moment, observing the symbol. D's pulse pounded.

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<v Speaker 2>Then he saw Elizabeth's eyes light up in curiosity. I

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<v Speaker 2>will be your scholar, she told D if you explain

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<v Speaker 2>this work to me. And so John D sat with

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<v Speaker 2>the Queen of England and described to her his special

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<v Speaker 2>invented brand of mysticism. John D and the Queen went

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<v Speaker 2>on to have a good relationship. She paid him occasional

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<v Speaker 2>visits at his home. She consulted with him about whether

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<v Speaker 2>she should marry one of her suitors, the Duke of Anjou.

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<v Speaker 2>He said she shouldn't, and she didn't. But the greatest

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<v Speaker 2>cause De advocated with Elizabeth, and the one that would

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<v Speaker 2>mark ultimately the end of his close relationship with her

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<v Speaker 2>at court, was a bit of political fortune telling that

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<v Speaker 2>would ultimately come to pass in a big way. It

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<v Speaker 2>was D's deep belief that Elizabeth should set out to

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<v Speaker 2>create a British empire. D wasn't just fortune telling when

0:17:45.240 --> 0:17:48.600
<v Speaker 2>it came to this idea of empire, he was actively

0:17:48.720 --> 0:17:53.560
<v Speaker 2>promoting it. As Sir Francis Drake was circumnavigating the globe,

0:17:53.920 --> 0:17:58.000
<v Speaker 2>D was coining the term British empire. He was hearkening

0:17:58.040 --> 0:18:01.680
<v Speaker 2>back to King Arthur a thousand years before, arguing that

0:18:01.760 --> 0:18:06.080
<v Speaker 2>the British right to an extensive empire had been established

0:18:06.119 --> 0:18:11.199
<v Speaker 2>a millennium ago. He encouraged Elizabeth to challenge the Spanish

0:18:11.240 --> 0:18:16.520
<v Speaker 2>and Portuguese claims to the New World, especially Spain's claims

0:18:16.560 --> 0:18:22.120
<v Speaker 2>in North America. His suggestions were even more persuasive than usual,

0:18:22.520 --> 0:18:26.520
<v Speaker 2>because just as D was petitioning Elizabeth on the idea

0:18:26.680 --> 0:18:30.760
<v Speaker 2>of expansionism, there was a strange thing going on in

0:18:30.760 --> 0:18:35.280
<v Speaker 2>the world, something that could seem like a message directly

0:18:35.359 --> 0:18:38.880
<v Speaker 2>from the heavens, something no one in all of Britain,

0:18:39.080 --> 0:18:43.399
<v Speaker 2>in all of Europe could possibly miss. All anyone needed

0:18:43.440 --> 0:18:46.639
<v Speaker 2>to do was step outside and crane their necks back

0:18:47.240 --> 0:18:50.679
<v Speaker 2>as they had years ago to gaze at John D's

0:18:50.800 --> 0:18:54.639
<v Speaker 2>flying beetle on stage. But this time the magic was

0:18:54.720 --> 0:18:59.919
<v Speaker 2>taking place on a much bigger stage, the night sky itself,

0:19:00.840 --> 0:19:03.320
<v Speaker 2>And if anyone looked up to the night sky in

0:19:03.440 --> 0:19:09.879
<v Speaker 2>November of fifteen seventy seven, there it would be the great, glittering,

0:19:10.320 --> 0:19:16.280
<v Speaker 2>terrifying thing, the bright light with a luminous tail, a comet.

0:19:17.160 --> 0:19:22.679
<v Speaker 2>Many believed that the cosmic event signaled some vexation from God,

0:19:23.200 --> 0:19:27.280
<v Speaker 2>some calamity to befall mankind, or thought many of the

0:19:27.320 --> 0:19:32.560
<v Speaker 2>English to specifically befall England or the Queen. But Elizabeth

0:19:32.720 --> 0:19:37.480
<v Speaker 2>wasn't going to believe just anybody's fears about this strange

0:19:37.640 --> 0:19:41.960
<v Speaker 2>celestial happening. She was going to consult one man when

0:19:41.960 --> 0:19:46.520
<v Speaker 2>it came to the skies, John D. The comet is

0:19:46.560 --> 0:19:50.160
<v Speaker 2>nothing to fear, he advised her. It is not important

0:19:50.240 --> 0:19:55.960
<v Speaker 2>of approaching doom, but of your approaching greatness. Perhaps the

0:19:56.000 --> 0:19:59.240
<v Speaker 2>bright light with the tale that arcing through the sky

0:19:59.800 --> 0:20:03.439
<v Speaker 2>is a a sign of England's destiny to be the

0:20:03.560 --> 0:20:08.000
<v Speaker 2>bright light with a long tail that is a global empire.

0:20:09.000 --> 0:20:14.040
<v Speaker 2>Of course, D's vision for English expansionism is exactly what

0:20:14.280 --> 0:20:18.800
<v Speaker 2>would happen. The English would defeat the Spanish Armada in

0:20:18.880 --> 0:20:22.320
<v Speaker 2>fifteen eighty eight, when D was not yet sixty years old.

0:20:23.160 --> 0:20:27.480
<v Speaker 2>But ultimately D had nothing to do with Elizabeth's actions,

0:20:27.760 --> 0:20:30.200
<v Speaker 2>as she set out in favor of the empire that

0:20:30.240 --> 0:20:34.600
<v Speaker 2>he had initially encouraged. The comet lit the sky, and

0:20:34.800 --> 0:20:39.080
<v Speaker 2>D's eyes were drawn heavenward. He lost interest in court.

0:20:39.600 --> 0:20:42.040
<v Speaker 2>He had begun his life with one interest, and it

0:20:42.119 --> 0:20:45.879
<v Speaker 2>was not the earthly realms of battle and conquest and bloodshed,

0:20:46.359 --> 0:20:51.119
<v Speaker 2>though his concept of empire would inevitably contain all three.

0:20:51.160 --> 0:20:55.120
<v Speaker 2>The comet faded from the sky, and John D left

0:20:55.160 --> 0:21:04.399
<v Speaker 2>his influence at court behind. From there, the rest of

0:21:04.520 --> 0:21:08.879
<v Speaker 2>D's life became ever more involved in the occult. He

0:21:08.960 --> 0:21:13.119
<v Speaker 2>worked closely with scriers, people who divined things via the

0:21:13.240 --> 0:21:17.400
<v Speaker 2>use of objects like crystal balls. Some or I might

0:21:17.480 --> 0:21:22.639
<v Speaker 2>say all of these were frauds. D's closest scrier was

0:21:22.720 --> 0:21:27.520
<v Speaker 2>a man who first entered his life calling himself Edward Talbot.

0:21:28.200 --> 0:21:31.800
<v Speaker 2>Talbot would later re enter D's life using his real name,

0:21:32.359 --> 0:21:36.760
<v Speaker 2>Edward Kelly, which goes to show the type of upstanding

0:21:36.800 --> 0:21:41.760
<v Speaker 2>honesty we're dealing with here. With Kelly's help, D communed

0:21:41.840 --> 0:21:46.760
<v Speaker 2>with the angels in a special language called Inokian. D

0:21:47.040 --> 0:21:50.840
<v Speaker 2>and Kelly conversed with some of the people you may

0:21:50.840 --> 0:21:54.679
<v Speaker 2>have learned about in religious schools, like Raphael and Michael

0:21:54.760 --> 0:21:59.919
<v Speaker 2>and Gabriel and Uriel. In his diaries, d earnestly record

0:22:00.240 --> 0:22:05.040
<v Speaker 2>these angelic conversations. Uriel would say things like, quote, we

0:22:05.119 --> 0:22:08.520
<v Speaker 2>cannot visit thee now at the twelfth hour, thou shalt

0:22:08.600 --> 0:22:12.480
<v Speaker 2>use us. Then at the twelfth hour Michael would say

0:22:12.520 --> 0:22:16.800
<v Speaker 2>something like, quote, divide the seven parts of the circle

0:22:17.240 --> 0:22:23.840
<v Speaker 2>everyone into seven by seven. All government is to my understanding,

0:22:23.920 --> 0:22:29.240
<v Speaker 2>It's not exactly a clear message. Sometimes D worried that

0:22:29.400 --> 0:22:33.200
<v Speaker 2>he and Kelly were communicating with devils instead of angels,

0:22:33.720 --> 0:22:37.800
<v Speaker 2>but for the most part D believed in Kelly. He

0:22:37.960 --> 0:22:42.240
<v Speaker 2>and Kelly even traveled to Poland and Prague together, where

0:22:42.240 --> 0:22:45.880
<v Speaker 2>they wound up banned by the Holy Roman Emperor Rudolph

0:22:45.960 --> 0:22:52.080
<v Speaker 2>the Second on suspicion of necromancy. Eventually, Kelly received a

0:22:52.160 --> 0:22:57.240
<v Speaker 2>message that he and D should share not only spiritual experience,

0:22:57.760 --> 0:23:02.280
<v Speaker 2>but something a little closer to home, their wives. This

0:23:02.480 --> 0:23:08.040
<v Speaker 2>experiment in sister wifing lasted only about one night. It

0:23:08.160 --> 0:23:13.040
<v Speaker 2>seemed like a horrible incident for D's wife Jane, and

0:23:13.080 --> 0:23:16.000
<v Speaker 2>in the end it sat very badly with D as well.

0:23:16.560 --> 0:23:21.919
<v Speaker 2>Shortly after his relationship with Kelly finally broke down. Still,

0:23:22.000 --> 0:23:26.720
<v Speaker 2>the timing of the wife swapping did throw the paternity

0:23:26.840 --> 0:23:30.600
<v Speaker 2>of one of D's sons into doubt. To Dee's credit,

0:23:30.760 --> 0:23:33.760
<v Speaker 2>he treated the boy as his own. He was an

0:23:33.800 --> 0:23:37.080
<v Speaker 2>involved father to all of his children with Jane, who

0:23:37.200 --> 0:23:40.920
<v Speaker 2>was his third wife. He was such an involved father

0:23:41.080 --> 0:23:43.280
<v Speaker 2>that he even asked one of his sons to be

0:23:43.359 --> 0:23:46.800
<v Speaker 2>a scrier for him, which ultimately wound up as a

0:23:46.840 --> 0:23:51.720
<v Speaker 2>failed experiment. By the final years of D's life, he

0:23:51.800 --> 0:23:56.040
<v Speaker 2>had outlived Jane and five of their eight children. He

0:23:56.080 --> 0:24:00.600
<v Speaker 2>had also outlived Queen Elizabeth. He died in in December

0:24:00.800 --> 0:24:04.359
<v Speaker 2>sixteen o eight at the age of eighty one. His

0:24:04.480 --> 0:24:08.199
<v Speaker 2>hidden diaries would be baked under the Sweet Shop Pies

0:24:08.400 --> 0:24:12.880
<v Speaker 2>fifty four years later. D may have been the inspiration

0:24:13.160 --> 0:24:16.520
<v Speaker 2>for a lot of canonical characters who are well known

0:24:16.640 --> 0:24:23.440
<v Speaker 2>to English lit majors. William Shakespeare's magician Prospero, Christopher Marlowe's

0:24:23.480 --> 0:24:29.200
<v Speaker 2>necromancer Faust, Edmund Spencer's meditative Old Sage in the House

0:24:29.240 --> 0:24:33.439
<v Speaker 2>of Temperance in The Fairy Queen. But above all, Dee's

0:24:33.520 --> 0:24:39.119
<v Speaker 2>legacy is as a figure who strived earnestly for divine revelation,

0:24:39.960 --> 0:24:44.520
<v Speaker 2>often in ways that seem profoundly unscientific to us today,

0:24:45.560 --> 0:24:51.200
<v Speaker 2>and yet even today, the great contemporary mathematician Edward Frankel

0:24:51.680 --> 0:24:55.679
<v Speaker 2>went on Lex Friedman's podcast this April to discuss the

0:24:55.800 --> 0:25:00.640
<v Speaker 2>present state of math. They talked about contemporary physicist and

0:25:00.800 --> 0:25:04.840
<v Speaker 2>the so far in vain quest for a grand, unifying

0:25:05.040 --> 0:25:09.200
<v Speaker 2>theory of everything, and they joked about when you show

0:25:09.280 --> 0:25:11.760
<v Speaker 2>up and meet God and there's one equation on the

0:25:11.760 --> 0:25:15.800
<v Speaker 2>board and the two of you just chuckle. Unlike D,

0:25:16.200 --> 0:25:21.760
<v Speaker 2>scholars today have separated math and science from religion. Yet

0:25:21.760 --> 0:25:26.280
<v Speaker 2>the image of God's chalkboard is still there, even metaphorically.

0:25:26.880 --> 0:25:30.120
<v Speaker 2>There's still some sense that when we try to derive

0:25:30.240 --> 0:25:34.680
<v Speaker 2>the mathematical and physical underpinnings of the world, we are

0:25:34.720 --> 0:25:39.520
<v Speaker 2>dealing with something bigger than ourselves. John D, for all

0:25:39.560 --> 0:25:44.120
<v Speaker 2>he foresaw and failed to foresee about the future, probably

0:25:44.119 --> 0:25:55.000
<v Speaker 2>would be happy about that. That's the story of Queen

0:25:55.080 --> 0:25:59.520
<v Speaker 2>Elizabeth's court astrologer John D. But stick around after a

0:25:59.560 --> 0:26:02.520
<v Speaker 2>brief sponsor break to hear a little bit more about

0:26:02.560 --> 0:26:13.840
<v Speaker 2>his astrological birth chart. All right, for all of you

0:26:13.960 --> 0:26:17.439
<v Speaker 2>astrology buffs out there, let's dig some more into D's

0:26:17.600 --> 0:26:20.679
<v Speaker 2>birth chart. First of all, D wrote his chart in

0:26:20.720 --> 0:26:24.359
<v Speaker 2>the form of a square. More like the Vedic style

0:26:24.480 --> 0:26:28.200
<v Speaker 2>natal chart than the typical circular charts he might see today.

0:26:28.840 --> 0:26:32.000
<v Speaker 2>In a box at the center of D's chart, his

0:26:32.240 --> 0:26:37.320
<v Speaker 2>careful script recorded the following his birthday fifteen twenty seven

0:26:37.560 --> 0:26:43.280
<v Speaker 2>July thirteenth, his birth time four hours and two minutes

0:26:43.359 --> 0:26:48.080
<v Speaker 2>in the afternoon, and his birthplace latitude fifty one degrees

0:26:48.240 --> 0:26:52.680
<v Speaker 2>and thirty two seconds north latitude. We don't know what

0:26:52.800 --> 0:26:56.439
<v Speaker 2>D made of his own chart. Surely he read a

0:26:56.480 --> 0:26:59.240
<v Speaker 2>lot of meaning into it, but none of that made

0:26:59.280 --> 0:27:03.720
<v Speaker 2>its way to us today, which leaves many modern biographers

0:27:04.080 --> 0:27:09.640
<v Speaker 2>and podcasters a lot of interpretive wiggle room. Biographer Benjamin

0:27:09.760 --> 0:27:13.400
<v Speaker 2>Woolley notes that the star Antaris in the planet Mars

0:27:13.440 --> 0:27:17.840
<v Speaker 2>were together on D's chart, which, in his interpretation, was

0:27:17.920 --> 0:27:22.680
<v Speaker 2>a disturbing or threatening sign. We reached out to a

0:27:22.680 --> 0:27:26.360
<v Speaker 2>friend who's an amateur chart reader and with no knowledge

0:27:26.359 --> 0:27:29.800
<v Speaker 2>of whose chart this was. She looked at the eleventh

0:27:29.840 --> 0:27:34.560
<v Speaker 2>House and said, ruled by Mercury and reflects the archetypes

0:27:34.640 --> 0:27:40.080
<v Speaker 2>of Aquarius, so futuristic ideas, thinking about innovation and the future,

0:27:40.560 --> 0:27:45.400
<v Speaker 2>sort of space alien stuff. But a different friend replied

0:27:45.480 --> 0:27:49.199
<v Speaker 2>that astrology is pseudoscience and no place to end a

0:27:49.440 --> 0:27:55.199
<v Speaker 2>historical podcast, although to be fair, one could argue that historically,

0:27:55.359 --> 0:27:59.560
<v Speaker 2>during this period in question, astronomy was thought of as

0:27:59.600 --> 0:28:03.080
<v Speaker 2>a sign. But for those who think like the second

0:28:03.119 --> 0:28:07.600
<v Speaker 2>Friend and to be blunt, think like me. One final, cold,

0:28:07.760 --> 0:28:13.440
<v Speaker 2>hard fact the astronomy in D's chart is remarkably correct.

0:28:14.040 --> 0:28:19.080
<v Speaker 2>Using Ptolemy's formulas, decalculated the positions of the known planets

0:28:19.119 --> 0:28:23.240
<v Speaker 2>at the time of his birth with extreme accuracy, within

0:28:23.400 --> 0:28:28.080
<v Speaker 2>a few thirtieths of a degree. The least accurate calculation

0:28:28.240 --> 0:28:31.240
<v Speaker 2>he made was for mercury, and even then, with the

0:28:31.320 --> 0:28:35.520
<v Speaker 2>science of the sixteenth century, he was only off by

0:28:35.760 --> 0:28:36.760
<v Speaker 2>two degrees.

0:28:43.400 --> 0:28:47.720
<v Speaker 1>Noble Blood is a production of iHeartRadio and Grim and

0:28:47.800 --> 0:28:52.160
<v Speaker 1>Mild from Aaron Manky. Noble Blood is created and hosted

0:28:52.200 --> 0:28:56.880
<v Speaker 1>by me Dana Schwartz, with additional writing and researching by

0:28:56.960 --> 0:29:02.480
<v Speaker 1>Hannah Johnston, Hannahswick, Mira Hayward, Courtney Sender, and Lori Goodman.

0:29:02.960 --> 0:29:06.760
<v Speaker 1>The show is edited and produced by Noemi Griffin and

0:29:07.000 --> 0:29:12.680
<v Speaker 1>rima Il Kahali, with supervising producer Josh Thain and executive

0:29:12.760 --> 0:29:16.480
<v Speaker 1>producers Aaron Manke, Alex Williams, and Matt Frederick.

0:29:16.960 --> 0:29:18.200
<v Speaker 2>For more podcasts

0:29:18.240 --> 0:29:23.840
<v Speaker 1>From iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever

0:29:23.920 --> 0:29:25.440
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