Thomas Allen, John Dee and Richard Hakluyt
I recently stumbled across a connection between John Dee and another brilliant mathematician and alchemist of the Elizabethan age who, like Dee, was part of a large network of 16th century scholars, esotericists and alchemists. This man was Thomas Allen. Please note his surname as it could be highly relevant later.
However, before discussing Thomas Allen and his many connections to the influential people of his age, I would first like to say a bit about John Dee. Although, he has been mentioned many times on this thread, when you look at the transcripts, he is seldom, if at all, mentioned in comparison to say Sir Francis Bacon to whom Dee was a mentor. Could it be though that the C’s have on occasion drawn attention to Dee indirectly? For example, there was my suggestion that the C’s might have been referring indirectly to him when they mentioned a link between Cecil (Laura’s abductor), Jack, her father, and St. Albans (see my article ‘The Strange Case of Richard Hesketh’).
Another possible indirect reference to Dee may have been contained in a quote the C’s made in the session dated 23 February 2003:
A: Shakespeare said it: Sound and fury signifying nothing.
Q: (L) I think we ought to check the whole quote at some point and see what all he was saying. I'm not a Shakespeare person. (V) From what work is this quote? (L) I just want you all to know I am not a Shakespeare fan so ... knock it off (laughter as she speaks this to the board)! (V) Can you tell us what Shakespearean work this is from so it can be further ...
A: Tempest.
{It's actually from Macbeth though I suspect the Cs had a purpose in saying "Tempest":
Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
The Tempest tells us:
We are such stuff
As dreams are made on; and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep.
Which conveys a similar meaning, but in different words.}
The main character in Shakespeare’s play The Tempest is the magician Prospero. In a recent post I pointed out that John Dee is considered to have been the model for Prospero. Apparently, the confidential report sent to the Virginia Company council members by
William Strachey concerning the shipwreck on the Bermudas of the Company’s flagship, the Sea Adventurer, provided source material for The Tempest. Hence, could this have been the reason why the C’s wanted to draw our attention to the Tempest and by extension John Dee and his connections to Sir Walter Raleigh and Sir Francis Bacon, who was a major shareholder in the Virginia Company and drew up its constitution (“is Beechnut a company?”).
I was also reflecting recently on another statement by the C’s in an earlier transcript which related to the artefacts linked with the Holy Grail. You may recall in my article on the
Tuatha Dé Danann that I referred to the
four magical treasures of the Tuatha Dé Danann namely:
Well one Forum member subsequently pointed out that the four treasures were comparable to the major arcane of the Tarot deck. I believe there are also correspondences with some of the implements carried by the royalty cards of the four different suits in a conventional pack of playing cards as well. If anyone wants to comment further on this point, please feel free to do so. It so happens that Laura also raised this very same point with the C’s in a session conducted shortly after a dream she had had involving the artefacts in question. Here is what was said:
“Q: Okay, you said that the artefacts provide the key. I had a dream the other night that the artefacts in question were the major arcane of the Tarot deck, that they could be used to discover the mystery. Was this a legitimate clue in my dream?
A: Tools. So are astrological charts.”
Now keep in mind the reference to the word “
key” in Laura’s question as it will become relevant later. I would mention in passing that there is another Indiana Jones movie being shot in Britain at the moment starring Harrison Ford. The first four films have involved the hunt for the Ark of the Covenant, a rare and valuable diamond, the Holy Grail and a crystal skull. I am not aware what the subject of the latest movie is but I would place good money on it being the ‘Spear of Destiny’ (the Spear of Lugh). Interestingly they have been filming in Scotland so it could be the Stone of Scone I suppose. They have also been filming in Northumberland but not alas Alnwick Castle, the main seat of the Percys who are the Dukes of Northumberland (see more below on the Percys and Alnwick Castle). If anyone has further information on this latest movie, please feel free to post it on the thread.
However, I first want to draw people’s attention in the above extract to the word “
Tools” and then to the C’s mention of “
astrological charts”. I would be interested to know whether or not the Forum member who drew attention to the major arcane of the Tarot deck was aware of this exchange in the transcripts when they made the link between the
four magical treasures of the Tuatha Dé Danann and the major arcane. Laura stated in her book ‘
The Secret History of the World’ that she thought the artefacts concerned worked in conjunction with the Grail, perhaps as part of one large machine. If this assumption is correct and the
four magical treasures of the Tuatha Dé Danann are technological devices or tools that work in conjunction with the Grail, this may help to support my contention that the Grail may have travelled with Brigid/Kore/Hagar/Meritaten to Britain and eventually to Ireland and the artefacts are remembered in myth and folklore as the aforementioned
treasures – the Grail being the Dagda’s Cauldron. That doesn’t mean that Kore necessarily retained the Grail since the C’s have also referred to the Argonauts being sent on a retrieval mission, no doubt to bring the Grail back to Egypt and to the Pharaoh. However, I will leave that theory for a later article. I would just add that it is my understanding that the Tarot deck as we know it today originated in ancient Greece but, if we follow the theory that Homer’s tales of the Illiad (concerning the Siege of Troy) and Odysseus were really tales relating to Celtic heroes that were transposed to Greece through the subsequent emigration of Celtic tribes to Greece and the Peloponnese, then one could see how the Tarot may have travelled to Greece with the Celts.
Focusing now on the C’s reference to astrological charts, my first question is why did they make this association? Their reference to astrological charts made me think though of John Dee and John Field, who you will recall were both arrested in 1555 during the reign of Queen Mary Tudor for supposedly reading her horoscope and those of her husband, Phillip II of Spain, and her younger half sister, Elizabeth Tudor, the future Queen Elizabeth I. John Dee was renowned for drawing up astrological birth charts for people, often as a means of raising additional income. John Field (1520/1530–1587) was also an astrologer, as well as being the foremost "proto-Copernican” astronomer in England at that time. You may recall (see my post on this thread dated 27 April 2021) that John Field lived in the village of East Ardsley, near to the City of Leeds, only 28 miles from Doncaster (‘
Dancar’) and near to "
the Chevin", the name given to the ridge on the south side of Wharfdale in Leeds, West Yorkshire. You would have to use the Chevin in order to travel from East Ardsley to Doncaster. I also recently pointed out that ‘
Cloverdale’ was a possible reference to the Yorkshire Dales and, of course, clover is a form of alfalfa, which links with the ‘Highlanders’ and therefore to Celts generally, who may have grown it for their horses and livestock. This might again link the Yorkshire Dales with the Briganti tribe or the Brigantes Celts that occupied the Humber and the River Trent prior to and after the arrival of the Romans in Britain. They, of course, derived their name from the British and Irish goddess Brig or Brigid, who I have suggested was in fact Kore/Hagar/Meritaten and perhaps the real Helen of Troy.
However, John Dee and John Field were not the only prominent Elizabethan astronomers to dabble in astrology since their contemporary Thomas Allen did so as well. Earlier in this article I mentioned that we should note Allen’s surname and also keep in mind the reference to the word “key” in Laura’s question to the C’s. This is because of the following exchange between Laura and the C’s in the
Session dated 3 May 1997:
Q: Okay, discovered that one of the Percy estates was called 'Alnwick,' which startled me a bit after tracking wicks all over the place. But, what is the meaning of 'Alnwick?'
A: Discover. Invert. Allan. Check Hebrew root of Allan.
Q: The Counts of Flanders and Champagne were the sponsors of Chretien de Troyes who wrote the original Grail stories in which Perceval figures so prominently. These guys were also connected with the Templars. Well, it seems that the Templars were not the only ones getting picked on during certain periods. The Percy family has had much MORE than its share! Why?
A: You will be "picked on" too, if you learn too many secrets!!
Q: So, the Percys DID know something. I understand that the Percy family has a collection of 62 alchemical manuscripts... which is actually how I found out about Alnwick - I was tracking these alchemical texts....
A: But if you go there, do not ask for the key!
Q: Does the current head of the family know the secret?
A: Getting "warmer."
Q: Has this person also been pursuing the secret?
A: Pour suivant.
Q: What does that mean, Frank? (F) For, to follow. (T) Why did you say that in French?
A: Look for clues, and do not have expectations!
For the Wikipedia biography of Thomas Allen see the following link:
Thomas Allen (mathematician) - Wikipedia
In my earlier article, we used the French expression “pour suivant” meaning “for following” or “pursuing” (from which this English word probably derives) to look into Laura’s ancestry through the Percy line as well as looking at the Breton and Hebrew roots* of the Allen family from which the Stuart line of kings and queens derives. The Allen line also includes the FitzAlan family, the Earls of Arundel (1267–1580) who are related to the Stuarts and the Fitzalan Howards who are the Dukes of Norfolk.
*See my article on
“Allen” and the Nordic Covenant for a discussion of the Hebrew origins of the Allen family.
Looking at the engraving of Thomas Allen shown above, I am struck (assuming this was a faithful likeness) by just how large his cranium appears. It makes me wonder whether this is a possible sign of his having Merovingian ancestry, since some Merovingian skulls, as we saw previously, have proven to have been much larger than normal skulls and remind one of Nefertiti and her daughter Meritaten’s enlarged hybrid skulls.
We note in the above transcript that Laura had discovered that the Percy family has a collection of 62 alchemical manuscripts stored at Alnwick Castle in the possession of the current head of the Percy family, the Duke of Northumberland. However, the C’s cryptically pointed out that if she should go there, she should not ask for the key. When she queries whether the current head of the family knows the secret, the C’s suggest that she is getting warmer. This makes me think of Laura’s statement quoted earlier that the artefacts that the C’s previously spoke about might provide the “key”. The C’s say that these are merely tools as are astrological charts. This is a curious statement. It makes me wonder whether the C’s meant this because astrological charts may indicate a person’s destiny and links with their genealogy, bloodlines and their DNA, something the C’s have stressed on more than one occasion. For example in the session dated 6 June 1998 the C’s said:
“(A) The original questions was whether we should follow this bloodline research... to what purpose?
A: Bloodlines reveal destiny. Why do you think they have been covered up so thoroughly?
Q: What is it in this bloodline that makes it so important to cover it up?
A: It would lead directly to verity on a scale never before seen on earth while at 3rd density STS.
Q: And what would be the result of this verity?
A: The truth shall set you free... as you are imprisoned!”
They also added in the
session dated 23 March 1996:
“
Q: (L) We are talking about a genetic bloodline that activates certain abilities and genes that interface with the corresponding soul that has prepared for this manifestation of the bloodline?
A: Yes.”
No doubt the Allens are part of the special bloodline the C’s have previously referred to, as are the Percys, who may ultimately be descended from the
Perseids (originating with Perseus and Andromeda) and specifically from Kore.
With regard to the 62 alchemical manuscripts mentioned above, I previously copied a link to them in an earlier post. Some of these manuscripts are apparently connected with Sir Francis Bacon. However, it was Laura’s ancestor,
Henry Percy, 9th Earl of Northumberland (1564 – 1632), the “Wizard Earl”, who perhaps holds the most interest for us, since he had a great interest in scientific experiments and his library was one of the largest in England at the time. I previously pointed out that he was a patron to
Thomas Harriot,
Nicholas Hill,
Robert Hues,
Nathaniel Torporley and
Walter Warner. John Dee, who at Mortlake lived nearby to Henry’s London residence at Syon House, was also a friend of Henry Percy and their two circles overlapped. This meant that Henry Percy probably knew
Sir Phillip Sydney, a friend of Dee, who was supposed to have met with
Giordano Bruno. However, another man strongly linked to Henry Percy was Thomas Allen and Allen also had connections to John Dee, particularly through one
Edward Talbot otherwise known to history as
Edward Kelley, John Dee’s most famous skryer.
I also pointed out that I had suspicions that some of those people I named who had received the patronage of Henry Percy may have been among the ranks of the
Philosophers of Dancar. I would now like to add Thomas Allen to that list. However, before looking more closely at Allen and his works and contacts, I would like to dwell first on his links to Edward Kelley, since this brings us back to the C’s and another possible meaning of the expression ‘
pour suivant’.
Thomas Allen and Edward Kelley
John Dee first met Edward Kelley on 8 March 1582 when he arrived at the door of his house in Mortlake in the company of a Mr. Clerkson, who acted as an agent for scholars and itinerant skryers (spirit mediums) – introducing them to their perspective patrons. At that first meeting, Kelley passed himself off as Edward Talbot. He may have done this because Talbot was the family name of the Earls of Shrewsbury based in Lancashire and he thought the surname might impress Dee and his previous employer who could well have been Thomas Allen. Benjamin Woolley in his book ‘The Queen’s Conjuror – The Life and Magic of John Dee’ proposes that Dee may have heard of Kelley working under the name Talbot for his fellow scientist Thomas Allen. Speculating here, it is possible that Kelley might even have worked for the Earl of Shrewsbury at Alton Castle (in whose grounds Alton Towers was subsequently constructed in the 19th century) prior to working for Allen and Dee, since many noble families employed spirit mediums as it was quite fashionable at that time to do so. If so, it may explain why he appropriated the Talbot name for the reason expressed above. Allen’s name had also been linked with Dee’s in a political pamphlet, as both were suspected of political ‘figuring’ and ‘conjuring’ for Robert Dudley, the Earl of Leicester (a notable statesman and favourite of Queen Elizabeth I who was reputed to be her lover). There is also one extant source showing a link between Kelley (Talbot) and Allen in ‘Athenae Oxeniensis’. Allen and Dee certainly knew each other, as Allen had been appointed the receiver for the Cathay Company after the city merchant Michael Lok, it principal shareholder, was declared bankrupt. The Cathay Company had financed the Frobisher expedition to the New World but it failed to make a return on the investment, which led to Lok’s bankruptcy. John Dee had provided his services (mainly from a navigational point of view) to the expedition, which saw the English making their first footfall in North-East Canada and claiming the land for the nascent British Empire.
It is interesting to note that Dee drew up an astrological birth chart for Kelley, which shows him as being born in Worcester on 1 August 1555, which made him 26 at the time when he first met Dee. There is in fact an extant parish register showing that an Edward Kelley (son of Patrick) was christened on 2 August 1555 at St Swithin’s Church, Worcester. Apart from this, there is no other official documentary evidence of Kelley’s life before he met Dee. However, there are many legends that surround Kelley. One of these concerns a tale told about Kelley by the alchemist William Backhouse to the English antiquary, proto-Freemason, astrologer and student of alchemy Elias Ashmole (1617-1692), who created the famous Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology in Oxford. Woolley describes in his book how Backhouse, knowing of Ashmole’s interest in Dee and Kelley, told Ashmole that Kelley had once ‘Cheated a lady of certain jewels’. Kelley made his escape with his booty but was soon being chased by an unidentified ‘Pursevant’ (pursuer). Kelley then arrived at Dee’s house under a false name (Talbot) with the intention of lying low. However, the Pursevant finally caught up with him at Mortlake and confronted him. Kelley then somehow persuaded him that he would recompense the lady for the crime whereupon the Pursevant let him go. It is impossible to verify this story at this distance in time as Backhouse through Ashmole is the only source for it. Although Dee made no reference to this episode in his diaries he did write three months after their original meeting that ‘I have confirmed that Talbot was a cosenor’ – in other words a fraud.
According to Backhouse, one reason that Kelley decided to follow Dee to the Continent eighteen months after their first meeting was that he was still being stalked by the Pursevant. Apparently, hearing stories of Kelley’s subsequent fame as an alchemist in Bohemia, he travelled out there and confronted him again. However, this time he was rewarded with one of Kelley’s celebrated ‘alchemical projections’. Using just a tiny scattering of the magic red powder (see earlier post for details of this), Kelley produced two thousand pounds worth of gold, which he handed over, together with a sample of the powder, to the now placated Pursevant. Supposedly the Pursevant took the booty home and used it to buy up large tracts of land in Warwickshire.
It may be that there is no link between the C’s use of the expression “pour suivant” and the English term ‘Pursevant’ meaning pursuer in relation to Edward Kelley and it is just a mere coincidence. However, the C’s did add “Look for clues, and do not have expectations!” Hence, following their advice, I thought I would draw your attention to this potential link, especially as it involves alchemy and the C’s had pointed out when Laura asked whether the current head of the Percy family knew the secret of alchemy that she was getting warmer - and it would appear from this story, if true, that Kelley certainly knew the secret. Indeed, the C’s deliberately placed the word “warmer” in quotes, which suggests to me that their use of the term in this way holds a deeper meaning. Of course, the use of the expression pour suivant may just mean that Laura should not look to the current head of the Percy family but perhaps to an ancestor such as Henry Percy, 9th Earl of Northumberland or the ‘Wizard Earl’, who was well known not only to John Dee but to Thomas Allen, a fellow scientist and alchemist.
Thomas Allen the Astrologer and Alchemist
As his Wikipeadia biography shows, Allen corresponded with Henry Percy, 9th Earl of Northumberland. Percy invited Allen to visit and he spent some time with the Syon House group around the Wizard Earl. Through this group he became acquainted with Thomas Harriot, John Dee, and other leading mathematicians of the period. Allen was also noted as an astrologer to
Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester, as Dee was for Queen Elizabeth. One interesting observation from his biography is that Allen drew up a horoscope for the teenage
Sir Phillip Sydney that runs to 62 pages (it still survives), which by an odd synchronicity equals the number of alchemical manuscripts held at Alnwick Castle. Sydney you may recall was an Elizabethan courtier, statesman, soldier, poet, and patron of scholars and poets, and was considered as being the ideal gentleman of his day. He died at the relatively young age of 31 fighting in the Netherlands. Curiously, the number 31 is, of course, half of 62, but perhaps this is just a mere coincidence. However, his poetry and verse had a marked impact on English poetry and the literature of the age and, along with the works of Shakespeare, Spencer and Marlowe, can be seen to have been in a literary vanguard that transformed English literature and poetry into the great force it would become in the 17th century and in subsequent centuries.
So now we have three leading scientists who were mathematicians, astronomers and alchemists but who were also astrologers, casting horoscopes and birth charts for some of the most important people in England. Could this be a reason why the C’s mentioned that astrological charts were another means, along with the aforesaid artefacts, to discover the mystery? Could the casting of a person’s birth chart assist in some way in discovering their bloodline and destiny? Remember the C’s have also told us that the secret of alchemy is really the transmutation of self. Moreover, the C’s have also told us that the famous philosopher’s stone of the alchemists was an idea centre. Did men like John Dee, Thomas Allen, John Field and Henry Percy possess the secret? If so, were they linked to the enclave of alchemists (including Nicolas Flamel) in the Pyrenees the C’s have spoken about who were otherwise described as the ‘
great council of the elect’ in the Rosicrucian manifestos, and if so, were any of these men involved in that strange mission to Oak Island?
Well one clue may be found in the
Session dated 11 April 1998:
Q: Well, I just thought I would ask! What I found out was that this wonderful Hakluyt Society that chronicled the funny business in the Canary Islands {which I had read previously, and which claimed that the Ark of the covenant was there} also kept track of the goings on in Ethiopia. One of the things they told about was the carrying of the Ark in procession by red or blond headed guys. And there was the Croix Patte of the Templars on a number of objects in Ethiopia. The Rose Croix. Did we have Templars there, or what was going on? Was the Ark there and was it then taken somewhere else?
A: The Ark of the Covenant is not what you think it is.
Q: You guys said that it was a power cell. I don't have some sort of romantic idea of it. I can accept that. But there are all these stories about it and a lot of people have mythologized it. What do you mean by saying such a thing. What is the Ark?
A: See Oak Island.
{Trans-dimensional Atomic Remolecularizer?}
What is said here should also be linked to the earlier
session dated 3 May 1997:
“A: Connect the Rosicrucians to your favourite island by the "beech." Horticulturally, please, and family.
Q: Oak Island?
A: Yup! Then, connect the Pyrenees to the Canaries.”
Richard Hakluyt
See
Richard Hakluyt - Wikipedia for his Wikipedia biography.
The particular link between these two sessions referring to Oak Island and the Canary Islands that I would like to focus on is the mention of the
Hakluyt Society (see more below on this), since the name of the society refers to the English Elizabethan geographer
Richard Hakluyt who may have been taught by Thomas Allen. Mathematical geography was an important topical subject in regard to which Allen was highly reputed during the Elizabethan Age, as no doubt was John Dee. Allen also taught
Robert Fludd and
Sir Thomas Aylesbury and, according to the Priory of Sion Dossier secrets, Fludd was supposed to have been a Grand Master or Nautonnier (Navigator) of the Priory of Sion, as well as being a leading Rosicrucian.
Richard Hakluyt (1552–1616) was an English writer and religious cleric. He is known for promoting the English colonisation of North America through his works, notably
Divers Voyages Touching the Discoverie of America (1582) and
The Principall Navigations, Voiages, Traffiques and Discoueries of the English Nation (1589–1600). Between 1583 and 1588 he was chaplain and secretary to Sir
Edward Stafford, the English ambassador at the French court. It is worth recalling that Francis Bacon had also travelled to the French court in 1576 as part of an English diplomatic mission led by an earlier English ambassador. Moreover, John Dee was also on the Continent in the same time period as Hakluyt, although primarily travelling in central and eastern Europe in his case.
Hakluyt was the personal chaplain to
Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury, principal Secretary of State to Elizabeth I and James I. He was also the chief promoter of a petition to James I for letters patent to colonise Virginia, which were granted to the
London Company and
Plymouth Company (referred to collectively as the
Virginia Company) in 1606. Hence, like Sir Walter Raleigh and Sir Francis Bacon, we find Hakluyt closely connected to the Virginia Company, which would become the main driving force in the early English colonisation of North America (see more below on this).
While a Queen's Scholar at Westminster School, Hakluyt visited his guardian, whose conversation, illustrated by "
certain bookes of cosmographie, an universall mappe, and the Bible," made Hakluyt resolve to "prosecute that knowledge, and kind of literature”. Entering
Christ Church, Oxford, in 1570 with financial support from the Skinners' Company, "his exercises of duty first performed," he set out to read all the printed or written voyages and discoveries that he could find. He took his Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) on 19 February 1574, and shortly after taking his Master of Arts (M.A.) on 27 June 1577, began giving public lectures in geography. He was the first to show "
both the old imperfectly composed and the new lately reformed mappes, globes, spheares, and other instruments of this art”. Hakluyt was ordained a minister in 1578, the same year he began to receive a "pension" from the
Worshipful Company of Clothworkers to study divinity. The pension would have lapsed in 1583, but William Cecil intervened to have it extended until 1586 to aid Hakluyt's geographical research. Hence, we already see a strong connection to Robert Cecil, the most important and powerful statesman in Elizabethan England and also a link with geographical research, a passion he seemed to share with John Dee and Thomas Allen.
As chaplain and secretary to Sir Edward Stafford, the English ambassador at the French court based in Paris in 1583, Hakluyt acted in accordance with the instructions of Secretary
Francis Walsingham (Queen Elizabeth’s chief spymaster). He occupied himself chiefly in collecting information of the Spanish and French movements, and "
making diligent inquirie of such things as might yield any light unto our westerne discoveries in America."
Hence like Sir Francis Bacon and John Dee, we see Hakluyt engaged in spying activities on behalf of the English Crown (and perhaps the Rosicrucians?).
The first fruits of Hakluyt's labours in Paris were embodied in his important work entitled
A Particuler Discourse Concerninge the Greate Necessitie and Manifolde Commodyties That Are Like to Growe to This Realme of Englande by the Westerne Discoueries Lately Attempted, Written in the Yere 1584, which
Sir Walter Raleigh commissioned him to prepare. Hakluyt revisited England in 1584, and laid a copy of the
Discourse before Elizabeth I (to whom it had been dedicated) together with his analysis in Latin of Aristotle’s
Politicks. His objective was to recommend the enterprise of establishing English plantations in the unsettled region of North America, and thus gain the Queen's support for
Raleigh's expedition. Hence, we now see a clear link to Walter Raleigh who acted as his patron when commissioning Hakluyt’s 1584 book.
Hakluyt also interested himself in the publication of the manuscript journal of
René Goulaine de Laudonnière,
L'histoire notable de la Floride située ès Indes Occidentales in Paris in 1586. The attention that the book excited in Paris encouraged Hakluyt to prepare an English translation and publish it in London under the title
A Notable Historie Containing Foure Voyages Made by Certayne French Captaynes unto Florida (1587). Rene Goulaine de Laudonnière (c. 1529–1574) was a French Huguenot explorer and the founder of the French colony of
Fort Caroline in what is now
Jacksonville, Florida.
Admiral Gaspard de Coligny, also a Huguenot, sent
Jean Ribault and Laudonnière to explore potential sites in Florida that might be suitable for settlement by the French Protestants. It should be recalled that Sir Walter Raleigh enjoyed a close relationship with the Huguenots in France, spending three years fighting with them against French Catholic forces. We also know that Raleigh had designs on Florida. Furthermore, we also learned that against Jesuit opposition, French Huguenots joined the expedition that would eventually lead to the founding of the colony of French Acadie (Arcadia) in what is now North-Eastern Canada and Nova Scotia, which encompasses Oak Island. It should also be noted that after the French Wars of Religion broke out between French Catholics and Huguenots, Ribault fled France and sought refuge in England. One can only wonder who Ribault may have consorted with whilst in England.
In the same year (1586), Rene Goulaine de Laudonnière’s edition of
Peter Martyr d'Anghiera's
De Orbe Nouo Decades Octo saw the light at Paris. This work contains an exceedingly-rare
copperplate map dedicated to Hakluyt and signed F.G. (supposed to be Francis Gualle); it is also the first map on which the name "
Virginia" appears. It is telling that this map should be dedicated to Hakluyt.
Between 1598 and 1600 the final, reconstructed and greatly enlarged edition of Hakluyt’s
The Principal Navigations, Voiages, Traffiques and Discoueries of the English Nation appeared in three volumes. In the dedication of the second volume (1599) to his patron, Robert Cecil, Hakluyt strongly urged the minister as to the expediency of colonising Virginia. A few copies of this monumental work contain a map of great rarity, the first on the
Mercator projection made in England according to the true principles laid down by
Edward Wright. It should also be recalled that the renowned cartographer Gerard Mercator was a great friend of John Dee and, starting in 1548, the two had studied and worked together at the university of Louvain in what is today Belgium. Mercator gifted Dee two of his famous globes, which would mysteriously go missing during Dee’s later sojourn on the Continent.
Although we have focused up to now on the roles played by John Dee, Sir Walter Raleigh and Sir Francis Bacon in establishing England’s North American colonies, it would seem that Richard Hakluyt also played a great part in this enterprise. Hakluyt was, like Bacon, a leading adventurer of the
Charter of the Virginia Company of London and as a director thereof in 1589. In 1605 he secured the prospective living of
Jamestown, the intended capital of the new colony of Virginia. When the colony was at last established in 1607, he supplied this benefice with its chaplain, Robert Hunt. In 1606 he appeared as the chief promoter of the petition to James I for letters patent to colonise Virginia, which were granted on 10 April 1606. It seems somewhat strange to me that a senior English church cleric should have been so heavily invested in such a venture (he was not a pre-eminent statesman like Cardinal Wolsey for example). These were affairs of state not affairs of God and there does not appear to have been much talk of converting the natives either. I may be doing him an injustice but Hakluyt did not seem blessed with the missionary spirit or evangelical zeal to preach the gospel to the heathen in the way that Catholic orders like the Jesuits, the Dominicans and the Franciscans were. Were his motives purely nationalistic or perhaps pecuniary? In fairness, I would point out that Cardinals Richelieu and Mazarin were senior clerics of the Catholic Church who would play the role of leading statesmen in 17th century France. However, Hakluyt was not a high profile officer of state as they were.
Conclusion
Looking at all these connections between noted European statesmen, scholars, scientists, poets, navigators, cartographers and adventurers of the 16th century, one begins to see, I believe, an extensive network of agents, a spider’s web that may have revolved around the Rosicrucians, who seemed to be carefully steering events from the shadows. It also appears to me that people like John Dee and Sir Francis Bacon may have been somewhere near the centre of this web. Moreover, this web was pan-European and not nation specific in spite of the economic rivalry between the great European powers who were competing with each other to exploit the riches of the New World. This point should be borne in mind when we consider the Oak Island mystery, since the alchemists who made the voyage to Oak Island at some date in the 16th century were an international group and were probably Rosicrucians. The Curse of Oak Island researchers have certainly found evidence for an English naval presence on the island on and around the 16th century and only recently the Lagina brothers have discovered a pine tar kiln dating from this period as further proof of such a presence. The tar manufactured in situ may have been used for sealing ship hull planks or for waterproofing the timbers used in the construction of the so-called ‘money pit’. However, proof of an English ship visiting the island does not of itself prove that this was an English expedition per se. If the C’s are right, the real sponsors of this mission were the alchemists/Rosicrucians. N.B. I hope to make more observations about this strange mission of the alchemists in a subsequent post.
The Hakluyt Society
The
Hakluyt Society, which was mentioned in the
session dated 11 April 1998, publishes scholarly editions of primary records of historic voyages, travels and other geographical material and was named after Richard Hakluyt on its formation in 1846.
Although many of the Society's past editions relate to British ventures, with documentary sources in English, the majority concern non-British enterprises and are based on texts in languages other than English. Translations from Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, French or Dutch have regularly appeared, and occasional translations from Russian, Greek, Latin, Amharic, Mandarin, Persian or Arabic.
It was through the Hakluyt Society that Laura discovered more about the strange sightings regarding the
Virgin of Candeleria in Tenerife whilst also being made aware of the strange goings on in Ethiopia, where there seemed to be possible links to the Knights Templar with the Croix Patte (rose cross) of the Templars being displayed on a number of objects in Ethiopia.
Judging from what the C’s said in the
session dated 11 April 1998, one also wonders whether the Rosicrucians (as the Rosteem) had long had a base in Ethiopia from where the legendary Queen of Sheba hailed from, a woman who would become the famous lover of the Biblical King Solomon (Pharaoh Narmer or Hermes Trismegistus?) and bear him a son:
“Q: … Okay, in 1306 a mission from the Ethiopian King went to visit Pope Clement V. Exactly one year later the Templars were arrested. What did the Pope and the Ethiopian king and all the others talk about at that meeting?
A: Whether or not orders were being realized. Goodnight.”
Although the reason usually given for the destruction of the Templars was to break their financial power and political influence (the two usually go together) throughout Europe, where so many European monarchs, including King Phillipe IV of France, were heavily in debt to the them, perhaps the ulterior reason was to take possession of the Ark of the Covenant in which the Holy Grail was contained. It was the Grail the Rosicrucians were really after and they still are.
As for the Virgin of Candeleria, there is a reference in the transcripts to strange processions and lights accompanying the statue, which were witnessed by the native Guanches. We know from the C’s that the statue was teleported there before the Spanish Castilians arrived and conquered Tenerife and the Celts were apparently responsible for this. We also know that the beings observed with the statue were a mixture of 4th density STS and STO beings. The only thing I would add here is that one astute observer on the Curse of Oak Island thread noted that strange lights and apparitions have also been reported in connection with Oak Island, where we know a TDARM is buried. This suggests to me that the TDARM may be creating some kind of portal or window facilitating such lights and apparitions. One wonders whether something similar may also apply to the Holy Grail.