My Mercurial Path
Since I started this website I’ve been keenly aware of the lack of personal information, of any real substance, on my author page. Therefore, I have penned this article.
Within it I mention a reason why I feel the timing is right to share this.
Article Number 1 is about the Philosopher's Stone. Number 2 is about the Transmission of the Flame.
This is number 3:
Within it I mention a reason why I feel the timing is right to share this.
Article Number 1 is about the Philosopher's Stone. Number 2 is about the Transmission of the Flame.
This is number 3:
Friends sometimes tell me I should write a memoir. Maybe one day I will.
My life has been unusual and restless. In the The Secret Work of an Age I do mention that my family were not involved in anything esoteric. There were Freemasons in my ancestry but my father had not been a Freemason - he was in the RAF (Royal Air Force) then business. My mother was a housewife. Although my parents lived in the same house for 41 years, my own life has been a peripatetic one involving regularly shifting homes, countries and roles. Not always easy, but always formative.
My life has been unusual and restless. In the The Secret Work of an Age I do mention that my family were not involved in anything esoteric. There were Freemasons in my ancestry but my father had not been a Freemason - he was in the RAF (Royal Air Force) then business. My mother was a housewife. Although my parents lived in the same house for 41 years, my own life has been a peripatetic one involving regularly shifting homes, countries and roles. Not always easy, but always formative.
The 12 Keys of Basil Valentine
If character is shaped in a crucible of fire, then I’ve known that alchemy: continually burning away what no longer served, distilling what remained.
By any measure, it’s been a pretty notable path. I’ve moved through years where my jobs and relationships found me traversing the worlds of high finance, aristocracy, celebrities, politicians, even royalty, while simultaneously having an equal amount of contact with friends in an entirely different milieu - those navigating impecunious circumstances and far harder lives requiring resilience, fortitude and strength.
I’ve treated everyone the same (or hope I have) never being impressed by wealth or status, only character.
I feel that because I’ve known both sides of the spectrum it fosters empathy. I’ve never taken drugs or had any issues with drink, but I know people who have. I also know what it’s like to be in a very, very depressed, desperate, state about life. I have walked around thinking the words 'maybe there'? when scouting out possible locations to end it all, during times when the pain has felt so bad that taking my own life seemed the only option.
Earthquakes (both literal and metaphorical) have shaken the ground beneath me. I’ve known financial security - I’ve also known the exact opposite. I have travelled the world and partied but, at times, I’ve also been abnormally lonely and reclusive. I had a good marriage to a kind man, but a very traumatic pregnancy. When my marriage ended someone I subsequently deeply cared for was abusive and I never saw it coming. Another man I once cared for was later found murdered.
At times, I’ve definitely felt I've been a victim of injustice, but it all helped forge me into a passionate warrior for truth and justice and caused me to look deeply within.
I have been fortunate with my health, but during the pandemic (before the vaccine) I was struck down with an unrelated virus that left me totally deaf in one ear, and it happened overnight. Due to hospitals being overrun, I didn’t get the steroids I needed in time and so the hearing in one ear has never returned. Google SSHL. It has also affected my eyesight on the same side, which is giving me a whole new appreciation for the hearing and eyesight I do still have. It's why I now write less.
And yet, there have been moments of such luck and grace too; I have the most precious gift in my beautiful daughter. Her birth as a very healthy 8lb 80oz perfect bundle of joy is a story that defies belief. I’ve regularly experienced other jaw-dropping miracles though and astonishing synchronicities. Times when it felt as though I was shaping reality itself have also been commonplace. One day I will write fully about these.
I reveal all this to drive home that when I share wisdom teachings it’s from a place of lived experience, a lifetime of struggles, transformation and epiphanies - not some intellectual exercise.
I've spent decades immersed in esoteric philosophy, with teachers showing up just when I needed them. But the real learning came from life's baptism of fire. The philosopher's stone isn't hiding in some textbook. It is forged in the experiences of life and the transmutation of suffering into wisdom - something that no academic degree can give you.
I also think that many of today’s societal problems are caused by an increasingly narcissistic, appearance-based, culture, one that seemingly rewards a lack of authenticity. We need - I feel - to learn to drop masks and value greater truth and honesty as we move into this new era, hence my opening up on this page.
To continue I’d now like to tell you about some uncanny coincidences regarding the places I have lived. I think it’s all relevant.
Living History: A Life in Their Footsteps
I explain in the book that my interest in ancient wisdom - and ultimately the nature of consciousness - began whilst still at school. Later, my very first job was in Stratford-upon-Avon close to where I was born, but just into my twenties I began working for an airline. In fact I worked for three airlines, culminating in British Airways.*
Initially though, when I was still living at home in Shakespeare country, I was required to report for early starts at East Midlands airport in the neighbouring county of Leicestershire. Although at this juncture I was a number of years into my fascination with secret societies, alchemy, and esoteric philosophy, one name had not really registered on my radar. It was that of William Lilly, the famous 17thC English Astrologer.
When I found myself renting a room with some other airline personnel in a village called Diseworth, I realised that this had been Lilly's birthplace so I began reading all about him. See article 2.
Initially though, when I was still living at home in Shakespeare country, I was required to report for early starts at East Midlands airport in the neighbouring county of Leicestershire. Although at this juncture I was a number of years into my fascination with secret societies, alchemy, and esoteric philosophy, one name had not really registered on my radar. It was that of William Lilly, the famous 17thC English Astrologer.
When I found myself renting a room with some other airline personnel in a village called Diseworth, I realised that this had been Lilly's birthplace so I began reading all about him. See article 2.
V0003570 William Lilly. (adapted) Lithograph by C. Hullmandel.
Credit: Wellcome Library, London. CC by 4.0
The next job was based at Heathrow airport. That required me to move around 120 miles south. Through an extraordinary turn of events (too long to recount here) and certainly not by conscious choice, I ended up in West London in Barnes.
Barnes and Mortlake is essentially one place (or was then) It could be described as a large village. It was in Mortlake that the Mathematical Magus Dr John Dee lived and pursued his alchemical experiments and studies. Queen Elizabeth 1, the Earl of Leicester and other luminaries regularly visited his home.
Although in England one is never very far from history, in later life I realised that the places I have lived have uncannily matched the footsteps of the great minds I study, often down to hundreds of yards, not miles. It is not that I have written about them because of this, just some strange synchronicity or turn of the cosmic loom.
I’ve also lived where Queen Elizabeth Ist once ruled in Richmond, and in Windsor, near the Castle.
Barnes and Mortlake is essentially one place (or was then) It could be described as a large village. It was in Mortlake that the Mathematical Magus Dr John Dee lived and pursued his alchemical experiments and studies. Queen Elizabeth 1, the Earl of Leicester and other luminaries regularly visited his home.
Although in England one is never very far from history, in later life I realised that the places I have lived have uncannily matched the footsteps of the great minds I study, often down to hundreds of yards, not miles. It is not that I have written about them because of this, just some strange synchronicity or turn of the cosmic loom.
I’ve also lived where Queen Elizabeth Ist once ruled in Richmond, and in Windsor, near the Castle.
Richmond Palace
My daughter was born when we lived in Twickenham near Pope's Grotto and Twickenham Park, a house closely tied to Francis Bacon. Most people associate him with Gorhambury House in St Albans or houses in central London, but he lived in Twickenham for a lengthy period.
Sojourns in America and in France have also featured in my long list of residences, but for the last six years I have found myself in Oxfordshire, surrounded by incredible buildings and immersed in the legacy of some of the greatest lives and minds such as Roger Bacon, and Elias Ashmole, whose works and legacies around esoteric philosophy still resonate today.
Ashmole was one of the first known English Freemasons, being admitted in Oct 1646 and to my mind he was also undoubtedly a Rosicrucian (see this link under the sub-heading Influence.)
Sojourns in America and in France have also featured in my long list of residences, but for the last six years I have found myself in Oxfordshire, surrounded by incredible buildings and immersed in the legacy of some of the greatest lives and minds such as Roger Bacon, and Elias Ashmole, whose works and legacies around esoteric philosophy still resonate today.
Ashmole was one of the first known English Freemasons, being admitted in Oct 1646 and to my mind he was also undoubtedly a Rosicrucian (see this link under the sub-heading Influence.)
Roger Bacon by the alchemist, Michael Maier
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Elias Ashmole. HIs collections form The Ashmolean Museum.
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Now interestingly, Elias Ashmole was very closely acquainted with William Lilly and they were both very aware of, and fascinated by, John Dee. So I have unwittingly followed in the footsteps of those three men - as well as Sir Francis Bacon and William Shakespeare. And, as you will hear in my book, they are all interlinked.
While John Dee had died when Lilly was very young and Ashmole had yet to be born they were avid collectors of the works of Dee and their lives did overlap with his children, including his first-born son Arthur. You can read all about this in Article 2 (Who Really Wrote the Monas Hieroglyphica? The Forgotten Friar who Claimed it Was His), which I hope you will find extremely interesting.
Article 1 about the Philosopher's Stone is here
Article Number 4 is about Number: Math, Mystery and Meaning.
Number 5 is about Cosmopolitics and Statecraft.
Thanks for reading,
Kate.
May 2025
While John Dee had died when Lilly was very young and Ashmole had yet to be born they were avid collectors of the works of Dee and their lives did overlap with his children, including his first-born son Arthur. You can read all about this in Article 2 (Who Really Wrote the Monas Hieroglyphica? The Forgotten Friar who Claimed it Was His), which I hope you will find extremely interesting.
Article 1 about the Philosopher's Stone is here
Article Number 4 is about Number: Math, Mystery and Meaning.
Number 5 is about Cosmopolitics and Statecraft.
Thanks for reading,
Kate.
May 2025
*I have obviously had other jobs since BA, including in politics and business, and I have been a part-time consultant to one astrological organisation for 30 years.
** Obsidian is a volcanic stone that has been revered for centuries. You can hear more about it here in this interesting lecture.
The first image at the top showing Mercury (two of them) by the fire is also from a book by Michael Maier
An English translation of a book by Maier on Rosicrucian laws was dedicated to Elias Ashmole.
** Obsidian is a volcanic stone that has been revered for centuries. You can hear more about it here in this interesting lecture.
The first image at the top showing Mercury (two of them) by the fire is also from a book by Michael Maier
An English translation of a book by Maier on Rosicrucian laws was dedicated to Elias Ashmole.
Three horary forecasts by William Lilly