Just
exactly who was the original 007 and dashing British secret agent
to her Majesty's secret service? Nope! If you guessed James Bond
or Sean Connery, the actor first portraying James Bond on the
movie screen - then you're not even in the right "ball park."
To
find the original British secret agent to her Majesty's secret
service, you must travel with me all the way back in time to 16th
century England and to John Dee, a scholar of St. John's College,
Cambridge.
John
Dee (1527-1608) was an English mathematician, professor, astronomer,
and spy who gave it all up for the (at that time) more lucrative
occupation of being an astrologer. And it was John Dee who was
the original British secret agent to her Majesty's secret service.
Jerome
Cardan Connection
In 1552, the famous Italian astrologer and physician Jerome Cardan
briefly visited England. In Cardan's role as both astrologer and
physician, he'd been invited to cast an astrological chart and
prescribe for the young and deathly ill King Edward VI.
Court
circles, in the know, felt certain that the young king was dying
from consumption. During the period of time Cardan that remained
in England, the younger John Dee - already no stranger to the
royal circles - briefly came under the older Cardan's tutelage,
instruction, and inspiration.
When
performing the young King Edward VI's "geniture" (birth
chart interpretation), Cardan had forecasted an average length
of life and marriage for the young king.
However,
shortly before the soon-to-be death of Edward VI, Jerome Cardan
wisely chose to depart England and return to his native Italy.
In
later writings, Cardan protested that his forecast for the young
king was incorrect due to a mistake on his part (a calculation
he had failed to perform). According to Cardan, his leaving was
not a matter of "getting out while the getting was good."
The
Royal Sisters - Mary and Elizabeth
According to one version of the story, shortly following the death
of Edward VI - the newly crowned Queen Mary invited John Dee to
her court for purposes of drawing up her horoscope.
However,
it soon became apparent to everyone in court that the young Dee
was much more interested in the Queen Mary's younger sister, Elizabeth,
who was at the time being held in semi-captivity. The young Dee
drew up Elizabeth's chart and then reportedly made a grave error
in judgment by sharing with Elizabeth the differences between
the two sister's charts.
Loose
Lips Sink Ships
Soon after, John Dee was arrested on charges of treason
and suspected "enchantments" against Queen Mary's life.
Fortunately, he was eventually acquitted of these charges - and
in the short biography, John Dee - Elizabethan Mystic and
Astrologer, G.M. Hort reports that "the rest of Queen
Mary's troubled reign, passed for him peacefully enough."
According
to Benjamin Woolley's fascinating book, The Queen's Conjurer,
during this period of time Dee became part of Queen Mary's entourage
- and he (Dee) may have been secretly in the service of Elizabeth.
Elizabeth
After Queen Mary's death in 1558, the younger Elizabeth remembered
John Dee and brought him back to court in order to calculate a
favorable day for her crowning.
After
that, Dee was reported to be "continually busied about one
thing and another at the fancy of the Queen."
To
make a very long story short, John Dee eventually got a wee bit
too caught up the politics and intrigue of the day and reportedly
briefly became a secret double-agent for Queen Elizabeth I in
England's bid to thwart Spain.
In
Dee's private communications with the Queen, the secret name identifying
him to Queen Elizabeth is believed to have been none other than
that of 007. In Hort's biography of Dee, it mentions only a "journey
on some unnamed business of the Queen's."
Perhaps,
just as interesting, it has also been contended that the character
Prospero from Shakespeare's "The Tempest" was Shakespeare's
idealized portrait of John Dee.
Final
Notes
Here's one final interesting gem of information passed onto me
by astrologer Rick Levine at StarIQ. One possibility, according
to astrologer Rob Hand, is that - rather than signing his letters
to the Queen with the numbers 007 - John Dee's secret signature
may have instead been a glyph word picture depicting a pair of
handheld eyeglasses that looked like the numbers 007.
As
such, Dee would have also been slyly passing on the message that
he was "the Queen's eyes."
Not
having access to any original documents, here's an imaginative
guess as to what Dee's secret signature may have looked like.
007
or a pair of handheld eyeglasses... one can't help but wonder
that if subsequent historians hadn't had such blurry vision; then.
perhaps, the dashing secret agent James Bond would have been known
as "four-eyes." Call me a sentimental old fool, but
it just doesn't seem to have the same sense of panache and/or
verve...
Weird and Wonderful 