John Dee's Mirror for Speaking with Angels
Queen Elizabeth I's astrologer used a black mirror of polished stone to talk with angels. The mirror came from the Aztecs, and it's in the British Museum.
What was reported
John Dee was a brilliant mathematician, astronomer and adviser to Queen Elizabeth I, and also deeply interested in magic. In the 1580s, with a man named Edward Kelley who acted as his 'scryer', he held sessions in which Kelley gazed into crystals and mirrors and reported messages from angels, including a whole angelic language now called Enochian.
One of the objects Dee used was a disc of polished black obsidian. A 2021 study confirmed that it came from Mexico, an Aztec cult object brought to Europe after the Spanish conquest.
Explanations offered
Historians think Kelley may have invented the angelic messages, though Dee seems to have believed them. The Aztecs used obsidian mirrors in their religion too, linked with the god Tezcatlipoca, 'Smoking Mirror'. The mirror is displayed in the British Museum.
- When
- Used in the 1580s
- Where
- British Museum, London, England, UK
- Witnesses
- John Dee, Edward Kelley and their records
- Status
- Legend
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.
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