Transcription
History has produced two rather unfortunate and distorted images of the alchemist. The first, and certainly the older of the two, is that of the cunning fraud. By coloring metals using various chemical processes or just plain gold plating, this image of the alchemist is one of deception and treachery. Of course, this is a commonplace theme during the period of historical alchemy, and numerous examples of actual fraud are well, very well documented. We are even told that certain princes had gold-plated gibbets just for hanging fraudulent alchemists, and in Canto 29 of Dante's Inferno, we behold the fraudulent alchemists afflicted with leprosy. Their skin is transmuted, so to speak, from healthy to diseased, and punishment for these false transmutations performed throughout their lives.
The other image of the alchemist that has endured into the present is that of the pious alchemist, seeking to understand and transform nature, especially in the process of transforming themselves as a part of a kind of chemical spirituality. This image is primarily born out of a romantic kind of historical revisionism, mostly in the 19th and 20th centuries, and is basically disconnected from what we know of the actual historical practice of alchemy. Neither of these images or stereotypes is much help in capturing the historical practice of alchemy as it was performed in the European Middle Ages and in the early modern period.
However, if one person can be said to strangely inhabit both stereotypes, fraud and mystic simultaneously, it was without any doubt the English scryer, medium, and alchemist Edward Kelly. Indeed, Kelly may very well have been the ground zero for the alchemist-necromancer stereotype, and not without good reason. Kelly is perhaps best known as the medium employed by Dr. John Dee during the so-called Enochian conversations, or the angelic conversations, where dramatic apocalyptic revelations appeared and angelic language was first recorded. Several modes of divine evocation were produced, and Dee and Kelly were eventually even induced to briefly exchange their wives, all by angelic decree. Despite so much emphasis in the contemporary period on Dr. John Dee, Edward Kelly himself lived an extraordinarily colorful life filled with alchemical and necromantic tales and exploits.
In this episode, we're going to explore the printed alchemical works of Edward Kelly, some of which were produced while he was imprisoned in Bohemia, to get a better understanding of both this strange and contradictory man, but also some insights into the practice of alchemy in the late 16th century. So, I hope you'll join me as we explore the alchemical writings of Sir Edward Kelly. I'm Dr. Justin Sledge, and welcome to Esoterica, where we explore the arcane in history, philosophy, and religion.
[Music]
Edward Kelly was born on August the 1st, 1555, at 4 p.m., at least according to a horoscope drawn up by Dr. John Dee, and this is generally taken to be relatively accurate. His early life is pretty obscure, but it does seem that he briefly studied at Oxford and seems to have had some training as both an apothecary and perhaps as a notary. His early life is also marked by claims of fraud or cosming. We're told that he was pilloried at some point, and that one or both of his ears had been cut off or cropped for coin fraud. Kelly would even don long hair and a cap. In fact, John Dee even admonishes him during the angelic sessions for not removing his hat in the presence of such holy creatures to hide this terrible mutilation.
During Kelly's early years, he also gained a reputation as a necromancer. The famous image from Ebenezer Sibley's 1806 astrology shows Kelly and probably Paul Waring summoning a spirit in a graveyard. And despite the fact this is a third-hand account, it actually first appears in Weaver's Ancient Funeral Monuments. While this tale isn't reliable in many respects, it does reveal something about Kelly's reputation, even if we can't be sure of his skulking around about cemeteries by torchlight.
Kelly also became associated with alchemy early on in his life as well. Indeed, one of the most famous stories about Kelly emerges from this time. We are told that in the area of Glastonbury, this is an area rife with mythological importance, a man had opened up a grave and found a manuscript in an unknown language and two powders, one red and one white. Kelly, upon traveling to the region, instantly recognized them as important alchemical substances, perhaps linked with Saint Dunstan, and immediately purchased them. Now, this tale gets, let's call it, remixed later on after Kelly meets Dee, where he, in fact, claims that a spiritual creature led him to the powder, at least the red powder. These powders are the source of several different, really important and interesting transmutation tales. Indeed, transmutations that impressed Dee and numerous others on the continent enormously during the 1580s and 90s. I'll link to some of those tales below if you want to read through them. Regardless, by the 1580s, it's clear that Kelly was already something of both an alchemist and a sorcerer, and maybe a fraud.
And then he met Dr. John Dee. John Dee, beard haver and general polymath, was introduced to Kelly in 1582, and their conversations with angels would become the stuff of legend. These sessions lasted for seven years and produced a dizzying array of apocalyptic visions, new psalm-like texts, and an alleged angelic language systems for divine evocations, alchemical experiments, buried treasure, even denunciations aimed at the likes of Emperor Rudolph II. Of course, the charge of fraud is often brought against Kelly vis-à-vis here. We have the idea that the cunning Kelly duped the pious and gullible John Dee, stringing him along for the 50 pounds a year Dee paid him until Kelly could jump ship and serve in the court of the Holy Roman Emperor. Now, this isn't the place for me to settle or really even really dive in deep to just what I think Kelly's role was in the angelic sessions. I've actually published a pretty extensive article on just that question. You can find the link below if you want to read it if you want to know my analysis. But suffice to say that the so-called Enochian sessions, or the angelic conversations, are so provocative that many simply prefer to view them as fraud rather than have them take them seriously at any register. A serious mistake, if you ask me.
Dee and Kelly left for the continent in 1583, and their adventures, both spiritual and political, will all be topics for future episodes. Needless to say, this is one of the great chapters in the history of Western esotericism and includes everything from the angelic language to Kelly nearly killing a guy, a servant, in a drunken rage. Kelly was an incredibly complex human being, perhaps suffering from both physical and mental illness, along with the stresses of papal intrigue, these constant insistence on the scrying sessions, and the new opportunities afforded to him in the occult world of the court of Rudolph II, itself rife with intrigue. Simple terms like fraud or "causener," as he was called back then, simply fail to capture this complexity.
Following the so-called cross-matching instances of Dee and Kelly's wives in 1587, the scrying sessions between Dee and Kelly permanently ended, though Dee would continue speaking to angels for many years with Bartholomew Hickman, although sadly most of these records were destroyed by none other than Dee himself. Kelly, on the other hand, would go on to skyrocket in popularity in Bohemia with his popularity enormously bolstered by several transmutation tales made possible by that mysterious red powder I mentioned earlier that was quickly running out. By now, Kelly had become landed and knighted, that's Sir Edward Kelly to you, mind you, but he was also quickly plunging into debt, and his alchemical promises were just not coming true.
In 1591, Kelly was arrested for dueling, alchemical fraud, debts, or all of the above. He may have also been detained to prevent him from returning to England before actually producing the gold he was so famed for. He might also just have been detained for political reasons. The British Crown also wanted Kelly's insight into the political world of Bohemia. Recall that Dee also operated as a spy. The first and real 007, that number really was given to Dee first, and that basically anyone who traveled to the continent at this time was treated as a de facto informant. He was somewhat able to write himself out of prison in 1595 in return for promises of producing alchemical gold. Failing to do so and racking up even more debt, he was apparently pawning gemstones at the time. He was again arrested.
It was during this time, in his second stint in prison, that he wrote his treatise on the Philosopher's Stone before severely breaking his leg in an attempt to escape imprisonment. Imprisoned again in Prague with his leg terribly broken in three places, he was allowed to see his wife, who he actually married at the behest of the angels years prior, along with his very talented daughter. We're only told that he asked for some water, drank it, and then died. No last words are recorded from a man that had once spoken for a host of angels.
Kelly's only published writings are concerned with alchemy and were published in a Hamburg edition of 1676, 80 years after his death. However, a large volume of Kelly's writings are actually preserved at the University's Bibliotheque Leipzig, manuscript number 0398, which I have to admit, having not been able to consult. It's not yet digitized, and I'm not yet in Leipzig. Pity on both those fronts, given that I'm working primarily with the material published in 1676, and everything I say in this episode is likely to be subject to revision once a more careful analysis of his entire body of work is surveyed. So, I just want to be upfront about where the limits of my knowledge are and to do the best I can given that fact. For a really solid glimpse into the Leipzig material, the best source is Rampling's amazing text. I'll mention it at the end of this episode.
At any rate, the exact path of the publication of Kelly's work is a bit of a mystery. I've done some digging, but I can't seem to find any account of how the works that Kelly wrote, especially those in prison, made their way to publication and print. It's possible that his wife or children may have preserved the text in the autograph, or they were taken from the Leipzig codex. Exactly how that codex was produced is unclear too. While Kelly's stepdaughter, Elizabeth Jane Weston, became something of a famous latinist, one of her published texts was actually an elegy for her mother, Kelly's wife, who died in 1606. Weston herself died in 1612, and Kelly's stepson died at the age of 20 in 1600, not longer after entering college at English Dot. Of course, the Kelly family inherited their father's considerable debt, and publishing his alchemical works, which would have had a really wide and interested audience at that time, could have proved profitable. However, that they were published 70 years after his wife's death contradicts this motive. The exact path to publication isn't clear to me at all, and if anyone has any further information, please let me know in the comments.
The 1676 edition of Kelly's works is preserved in Latin and contains three separate tractates: The Stone of the Philosophers, The Humid Path, and The Theater of Terrestrial Astronomy, along with some short letter fragments and a couple of other fragments of alchemical procedures. The entire text was translated and published in English with further English language texts about Kelly and a biographical introduction by the mystic and occultist author Edward Waite in 1893. While it's possible to date Kelly's text on the Philosopher's Stone, it was in fact written during his second and final imprisonment, along with some of the letters. They actually have dates on them. The others are rather difficult to date, and the third text, the one on terrestrial astronomy, has been doubted as a work of Kelly, though I actually suspect that it is. More on that in a moment.
Overall, the texts are rather clear, and all things told, intentional obscurity is something that Kelly disdains in the texts as we have them. And may present a rather standard alchemical theoretical account of transmutation, though they reveal Kelly to have had substantial laboratory experience as well. Further, they place Kelly at the crossroads of the three major alchemical theories of his day, something that he was clearly wrestling with both theoretically and practically. Written, as Kelly quote, "has twice suffered chains and imprisonment in Bohemia and dedicated to Rudolph II, probably in hopes of him being freed again." Other alchemists actually had some success in writing texts to get freed.
This text on the Philosopher's Stone is a series of propositions laying out a general outline of alchemical theory in the interest of transmuting base metals into gold. The propositions themselves build one upon the other in a somewhat axiomatic style, with an enormous array of alchemical literature being brought to bear to support each of Kelly's propositions. The text describes the standard account of nature at that time, with nature falling into three categories: the mineral world, the vegetable world, and the animal world. These composed of four elements, which are in turn either active or passive nature. Kelly also interestingly notes that chaos is the common matter to all three categories. Common to many alchemical theories of the time, the metals are formed by earth in the form of sulfur and water in the form of mercury. Here, Kelly seems to adopt a version of the what is called the mercury alone theory, found in texts like the Semiperfectionist and also importantly accepted by John Dee as early as his 1564 Monas Hieroglyphica. Though Kelly can't quite make up his mind between this theory, the mercury alone theory, and the more standard mercury-sulfur theory, and for good reason. There's a natural question here: how does one fix mercury, that is to say, solidify it into a metal, without at least some adjunct of sulfur as a fixed earth, to use the alchemical language? The problem is that on the mercury alone theory, sulfur is a kind of impurity, with gold containing basically none of it, silver a bit, and lead most of all. In this theory, one purifies a metal of the impure sulfur to transmute it. But pure mercury, despite Kelly's referring to the Philosopher's Stone as "quote, nothing but animated quicksilver," clearly isn't gold. The mercury alone theory often requires something else, often seeds of gold and silver. So, it really isn't a mercury alone theory, but it so heavily prioritizes mercury that some other explanation is often needed. Indeed, here Kelly advises a slow distillation of mercury fed with seeds of the metal you wish to project. Importantly, he advises against subjecting this compound to caustic substances like aqua fortis or aquaria, something he isn't terribly consistent about in other texts.
Despite the enormous pile of quotations, which probably make up more than half of this work and are really testament to Kelly's wide study of alchemical literature, there isn't much in the way of theoretical innovation or practical advice in this text on the Philosopher's Stone. I suspect that this tract was written less for his fellow alchemists, but more to show the Emperor Kelly's deep and broad learning in the hopes of again being reinstated to his former alchemical posts, or at least being allowed out of prison again. This has kind of worked last time in 1595, maybe it would work now. Just how this text made it out of Kelly's castle prison and manuscript isn't exactly clear, although it does seem clear that Kelly felt that this wasn't really going to work, hence his failed escape attempt. One, however, does get the sense of Kelly's desperation in the last lines of the text. He writes, "As for me, how much I've suffered on account of this art, history will reveal to future ages." I think such a line would be a fitting epitaph for Kelly the alchemist. This text, as a survey of alchemical literature in defense of a version of the mercury alone theory of transmutation, is interesting regardless of Kelly's motivation in actually writing it. I just don't think this was much of a get-out-of-jail-free card.
Unfortunately for Kelly, the second published tractate, Kelly's Via Humida, is a much more interesting alchemical text from both a theoretical and a practical point of view. Interestingly enough, Kelly seems to adopt a much more Paracelsian approach in this text, with the introduction of salt as one of the basic alchemical principles, along with sulfur and mercury becoming something like quasi-metallic essences, or the form and matter of the metallic substances, to put a more Aristotelian air to it. For instance, sulfur just becomes the name for the theoretical manner by which the mercury becomes fixed again. This text seems to be an attempt to harmonize the mercury alone theory with the more avant-garde Paracelsian alchemy of Kelly's day. Further, astrological forces play a determining role in metallic fixation, unlike in the Philosopher's Stone, with a kind of astral heat cooking the mercury-salt-sulfur trifecta into the various fixed forms of the various alchemical metals. The later part of the text involves an astrological metallic chemical called the Greater Menstruum. This is a kind of universal solvent or alcohol popular in alchemical theory, by which sulfur could be reduced to its pure form before being transmuted into the various metals. Here we have a really complex and difficult to follow discussion on the sympathetic and antagonistic relationships between the planets and by the law of sympathy, the various metals. Though the exact details for creating these compounds which dissolve each other based on their metallic constituents is mostly lacking, though this is pretty typical of alchemical texts of the time. They often begin with a really tight theoretical approach and a very clear laboratory practice, and as they get closer to the production of the actual Philosopher's Stone, various theoretical moves or various kinds of speculations supplant much in the way of practical laboratory procedure. We might just take this as a kind of signpost as to just how far that particular alchemist got in their actual laboratory experiments.
While Kelly's Via Humida is really a snapshot into the state of alchemical theory and practice in the late 16th century, especially the interaction between the more traditional mercury-sulfur theory and then of course the mercury alone theory that he seems to have been partial to, along with the new Paracelsian salt-mercury-sulfur theory, especially in terms of astrological influence, you can't say that much new is being done in this text. However, it is marked by a kind of clarity which does make the text interesting from the point of view of alchemical research. Though I will say that the brief fragments at the end of the Via Humida are wonderful examples of straightforward laboratory alchemy, especially the text on creating potable gold. Of course, I would say straightforward, but yet still pretty difficult to tease out exactly what's going on in the alchemical technique. But this would be exactly the kind of alchemical procedure that I would love to recreate in a contemporary laboratory setting. What's also fascinating is that some of these alchemical procedures were apparently being performed by Edward Kelly during his first imprisonment, perhaps in an attempt to be released. These, along with other records in Leipzig manuscript 0398, seemed to indicate that Kelly was being supervised, with reports on the alchemical progress being sent back to Prague. All the while he was doing these alchemical experiments, it does seem that Kelly's alchemical prowess were impressive enough from these smaller texts to actually secure his initial release. Though from the earlier tract on the Philosopher's Stone, written during his second stint in prison, we know that he wasn't free all that long.
Sadly, the final text I want to discuss in Kelly's published alchemical works is The Theater of Terrestrial Astronomy, which is honestly a rather lovely little hermetic ditty. Though there is some question about its authorship. Some people think that Kelly may not have written this. I'm rather convinced that Kelly did for a few reasons. One, it lines up from both the theoretical and practical angle compared to the other texts we reviewed. It appears in Kelly's other writings in the Leipzig manuscript, and there are certain elements which clearly reflect a deep knowledge of Dr. John Dee's 1564 Monas Hieroglyphica, including the title of the text. As you may recall, Dee denoted alchemy as "astronomia inferior," and in the first chapter of Kelly's text, he makes a mention of "the quaternary that rests in the ternary and the quote, horizon of eternity." All of these rather obscure terms are lifted directly from the Monas Hieroglyphica. This kind of familiarity with Dee's alchemical theory, though Kelly never name-drops Dee, though he does name-drop Ficino, who wasn't really much of an alchemist, but still, I guess he was. Ficino may indicate personal familiarity with Dee himself.
The text itself is a wonderfully clear little romp through alchemical theory, practice, and symbolism, and all the nicer with these little quaint emblems which appear throughout the text. Indeed, I would really recommend this book as a kind of first alchemical textbook for someone just starting to learn alchemical theory, alchemical practice, and alchemical symbolism. In 13 steps, Kelly walks the adept through the purification of mercury, the seeding of that mercurial waters with sulfur, gold, and silver, and the multi-color transformation of the elixir until the red tincture, capable of projection or transmutation, is finally produced. Each step is associated with a rather simple alchemical diagram, which Kelly systematically explains. It's like having an alchemical cheat sheet for the symbolism of the book, something we almost never get in alchemical texts. Indeed, as I mentioned earlier, Kelly laments the intentional obscurity of the alchemists in the introduction, and the theater is meant to clearly put on the show of alchemy. Curiously, the underlying theory here seems much less Paracelsian, even kind of traditional, or even old-fashioned compared to the mercury alone theory that we saw earlier. But he covers a great deal of ground in a very brief text and mentions alchemical classics like the peacock's tail, the black head of the raven, the green lion devouring the sun, etc. All of these make an appearance in this rather little fun alchemical tract, clocking in only at about 30 pages in the original published Latin edition. Indeed, I would again really recommend this text, both in Latin and in English, for anyone wanting a little fun and foundational introduction to alchemical literature more generally.
Sadly, Edward Kelly's reputation is either simplified into that of a devious con man or just overshadowed by that of Dr. John Dee and the angelic conversations. In both of these cases, something of importance is lost. Kelly was many things. He was really shady, that's of course true, but he was also a complex, thoughtful figure whose alchemical writings and practice are rather interesting and really worthy of further study. Sadly, the vast codex containing his other works is unlikely to be published anytime soon, but hopefully, it will be digitized at some point for posterity and further study. Edward Kelly wasn't a perfect man, who is? But his contributions to the history of Western esotericism are certainly worthy of deeper study and appreciation. I hope this episode has given you a glimpse of his life and work, a little bit beyond the shadow cast by Dee and the angels. And if you want a task, once you go to Leipzig and publish that manuscript.
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I've included links below so you can consult the 1676 Latin edition of Kelly's writings if you'd like, along with a link to Waite's English translation. You can also get the reprinted version of his translation pretty cheap, so it's well worth having if you're interested in alchemy. So far as I can tell, the translation seems pretty sound. He was a pretty good translator in general, though I'm not quite sure of the units of conversion in some of the shorter preparations, such as the one on the secret of the four waters of perfection. Also, and this should just go without saying, I think, please never attempt to recreate alchemical experiments without proper training and equipment. The chemicals involved, acids, mercury, and antimony, all of these are extremely toxic, and exposure to them, even briefly, can cause lifelong illness, brain damage, and death. So, if your life doesn't involve a fume hood on a daily basis, then the answer is no, please no.
Also, just let me recommend in the highest possible terms Jennifer Rampling's recently published masterpiece, The Experimental Fire. This book is, for me at least, hands down the single most exciting book about alchemy to appear in at least a few years, and I'm just blown away by how superb the scholarship is in this text. I had the honor to present a paper with Dr. Rampling at a John Dee conference at Cambridge a few years ago, and I'm just so incredibly happy to see her amazing work in print. Also, as I mentioned earlier, she covers some of the Kelly material I don't have access to from the Leipzig manuscript, so you definitely want to check out her work as well if you're interested in Kelly's alchemy. If you're interested in alchemy, this is just a must-read. It is really, honestly, a great time to be learning about alchemy.
Until next time, I'm Dr. Justin Sledge, and you've been watching Esoterica, where we explore the arcane in history, philosophy, and religion.