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The Bones of Avalon

Page 43

by Phil Rickman


  Thanks also to:

  From the British Society of Dowsers: Graham Gardner, Helen Lamb, Ced Jackson, John Moss, Richard Bartholomew.

  In Glastonbury: Geoffrey Ashe, Jackie Edwards, Sig Lonegren, John Mason, Simon Small, Francis Thyer.

  The tireless Mairéad Reidy supplied me with more background information and commentary on Dee than I even knew existed.

  Prof. Bernard Knight on matters of decomposition and crucial forensic details.

  Caitlin Sagan, curiously, on the Bible.

  Sir Richard Heygate, co-author with Philip Carr-Gomm of The Book of English Magic and his, um, friend from Mortlake for personal information not available in the biographies.

  Grant Privett for astronomical lore.

  Geraldine Richards for early French.

  The Tudor oracle David Starkey directed me to the fascinating work of James P. Carley, author of Glastonbury Abbey, the Holy House at the Head of the Moors Adventurous. Starkey’s own works on Elizabeth and Henry VIII were hugely valuable, even if he doesn’t seem to have much regard for Dee – but, then, he wouldn’t, would he?

  Tracy Thursfield’s informed esoteric advice was as perceptive and valuable as ever.

  Adrian Vine and Brian Morgan at Nant-y-groes (both of them) showed us the Dee family’s Welsh roots.

  Frances Yates’s book The Occult Philosophy in the Elizabethan Age still stands alone. From it comes the explanation of John Dee as a Christian cabalist. Ruth Elizabeth Richardson’s Mistress Blanche, the Queen’s Confidante, collects virtually all that’s known about Dee’s cousin, Blanche Parry. And The Ends of Life by Keith Thomas is a wonderful guide to the psychology of the sixteenth century.

  Thanks to my paranormally laid-back editor, Nic Cheetham, who’s been pushing me at Dee for well over two years. To my agents Andrew Hewson and Ed Wilson for encouraging noises throughout. As for my brilliant wife Carol, devious plot-doctor, assiduous researcher, ruthless editor… words like chestnuts… fire… yet again… come to mind.

  For the record, John Dee was never a sorcerer and there’s no evidence that he was psychic (much as he would have loved to be).

  The Monas Hieroglyphica, Dee’s first significant book, was finally published in 1564, four years after the events related here. It’s JD at his most impenetrable, a meditation on a symbol which connects astrology with the creation theories in the Cabala and a supporting element of Christianity. The circle is the sun, the semi-circle the moon, below which we have the cross and, at the foot, the symbol of Aries, the first sign of the zodiac, the very base of creation.

  The dot in the middle says,

  You are here.

  Table of Contents

  Cover

  Copyright

  JOHN DEE

  Matters of the Hidden

  PART ONE

  I: Lest Graves Be Open

  II: Hares

  III: His Second Coming

  IV: Stability of the Realm

  V: Bones

  VI: The Holy Heart

  VII: Awe and Stupor

  VIII: Without the Walls

  IX: Called into Service

  PART TWO

  X: Relics

  XI: Delirium

  XII: Watchtower

  XIII: Elixir

  XIV: A Mortifying of the Flesh

  XV: Maggots

  XVI: Love the Dead

  XVII: Crazed Bitch

  XVIII: The First Age of Light

  XIX: Beyond Normal

  PART THREE

  XX: Our Sister

  XXI: What Constitutes Sorcery

  XXII: Black as Pitch

  XXIII: Lowest Form of Doctoring

  XXIV: Fungus Dust

  XXV: Trade

  XXVI: Le Fay

  XXVII: A Sister of Venus

  XXVIII: The Great Unspoken

  XXIX: The Storm

  XXX: Like to the Sun

  XXXI: Haze

  PART FOUR

  XXXII: The Word

  XXXIII: A Man’s Path

  XXXIV: Venus Glove

  XXXV: Black Energy

  XXXVI: What’s Coming

  XXXVII: The Heresy

  XXXVIII: Old Bones, New Bones

  XXXIX: Nothing to Hide

  XL: A Different Canon

  XLI: Who Fears For His Immortal Soul…

  XLII: Twin Souls

  XLIII: Drawings for Children

  XLIV: Harlot

  XLV: Eye

  XLVI: The Vision of Heaven

  XLVII: Little Bear

  XLVIII: Black Hearts

  PART FIVE

  XLIX: His Diversion

  L: Emanation

  LI: Reward

  LII: Abominations

  LIII: In the Night Garden

  LIV: A Cold Inversion

  LV: Tainted

  LVI: Brown Blanket

  LVII: The Void

  ENDWORD

  Notes and Credits

 

 

 


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