Doctor John Dee (1527-1609) remains one of London’s most intriguing historical figures. He was a confidant of Queen Elizabeth I, who guided the nation through one of its most challenging eras, partly based upon Dee’s unique blend of alchemy, divination and Hermetic philosophy. In fact, the Queen had so much faith in Dee’s calculations she had him choose her coronation date … What is less known is that Dee was obsessed with the apocalypse, and believed he had opened a supernatural gateway leading to a powerful and disgruntled spirit world … Few recall that he coined the phrase “British Empire” and helped shape the emerging ideology of the nation.
… Dee and [occultist and medium Edward] Kelley held various “spiritual conferences”; a quest that Dee believed would render immeasurable benefit to mankind … Kelley became Dee’s regular scryer and the two men appear to have achieved, if not exceeded, their goals, for Dee began to write truly remarkable, albeit sublime, works that he maintained were the product of angels who spoke in language known as Enochian.
… Today, we are uncertain if Dee, Kelley or [Aleister] Crowley did in fact unlock the door of the apocalypse, for it is said the apocalypse is a slow-working mental transformation within the collective unconscious of the human race. The year is 2012. Now, as then, we contemplate the possibility we are living in an Enochian end of days. Doctor Dee influenced history at the highest levels of government. His legacy influenced perhaps the most notorious of occult groups, which in turn influenced the “New Age” and modern occult movement. But was he also instrumental in the opening of a door in human consciousness that would allow the apocalypse to manifest?
— Andrew Gough, “John Dee & the Enochian Apocalypse,” New Dawn No. 133 (July August 2012)
For more in the same general vein, note that in addition to his authorial work Gough edits The Heretic Magazine, which launched last month with an electronic issue featuring articles and essays by the likes of Daniel Pinchbeck, John Major Jenkins, Robert Eisenman, and Robert Bauval, and which promises to be one of the more fascinating esoteric-themed and apocalypse-oriented publications to emerge from the new spiritual/psychedelic counterculture.