JOHN DEE AND ASTROLOGY IN ELIZABETHAN ENGLAND

Abstract

Without doubt, John Dee was a learned and expert astrologer. He has also gained a reputation as a unique and revolutionary thinker in this area of knowledge. However, by looking at his published and unpublished writings and at the relationship of his theories and practices to those of his contemporaries, this chapter will seek to show that a dichotomy existed in Dee’s approach to astrology. This will reveal that, in different contexts, he was both revolutionary and reactionary.