The Hieroglyphic Monad (1564 Antwerp)

PREFACE TO THE KING

1.

You abound [in such wisdom], as one might follow with easy conjecture. Yet, in this lowest and first kind of philosophizing Dee refers to the study of the physical and manifest world as the "lowest" rung of the ladder of knowledge. to establish my position: I do not think I have acted arrogantly. Even if from the ground, my Head sometimes seems to want to lift itself higher: Therefore, from that same degree of GOODNESS, I dare to promise to Your Highness that abundant fruits are to be hoped for from this my Gift.

2.

Furthermore, this Gift of ours is endowed with this Rarity: that it is woven in such a style of Writing, even to the very last thread of discourse, that I have never been able to hear of, nor understand from the Monuments of our Ancestors, any complete Work that has existed in this manner until this very day.

3.

Though I may call it a Hieroglyphic original: Hieroglyphicum; here meaning a sacred symbol that contains hidden, multi-layered meanings. work, yet whoever examines it deeply will admit that there lies beneath it both a Light and a Strength that is, as it were, Mathematical: a thing which is clearly Rare enough to achieve in such Rare matters.

4.

Is it not Rare, I ask, that the common Astronomical Characters of the Planets These are the standard symbols for the planets, such as ♂ for Mars or ♀ for Venus. (known until this hour as Dead, or Mute, or at least as if Barbarian signs) are now imbued with Immortal Life? And that they are now able to explain their own powers most eloquently in every Language and Nation?

5.

To this is also added another very Rare thing: that the External Bodies of these same planets have now been recalled or restored to their mystical Symmetries (by the best Hieroglyphic Arguments). It is as if they had either been the same once before in a prior Age, or as if our Ancestors had wished them to be so.

6.

In the signs of the twelve parts of the Ecliptic original: Eclipticæ Dodecatemoriorū; referring to the twelve signs of the zodiac that divide the sun's path., how we have attempted to provide the same with new and happy success; to see this is as Rare as it is entirely New.

7.

And all these things in a Single, and that MER-