My Mercurial Path
Since I started this website I’ve been keenly aware of the lack of information, of any real substance, on my author page about me and my qualifications to have written The Secret Work of an Age. Therefore, I have penned an additional article. I mention another reason within what follows as to 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. Article Number 4 is about Number, Math, Mystery and Meaning.
This is number 3. Here it is.
Article Number 1 is about the Philosopher's Stone. Number 2 is about the Transmission of the Flame. Article Number 4 is about Number, Math, Mystery and Meaning.
This is number 3. Here it is.
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. 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 countries, homes, 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. 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 countries, homes, 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 moving through 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.
It’s likely that I have empathy with everyone because I’ve known both sides of the spectrum. 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 but I’ve also been abnormally 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 been a victim of injustice, but it all helped forge me into a passionate warrior for truth and justice.
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 am far more reclusive.
And yet, there have been moments of such luck and grace too; I have the most precious gift in my beautiful daughter. I’ve regularly experienced jaw-dropping miracles, astonishing synchronicities, and times when it felt as though I was shaping reality itself have also been commonplace.
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 degree can give you.
I also think that many of today’s societal problems are caused by a narcissistic, appearance-based, culture that seemingly rewards a lack of authenticity. We need to learn to drop masks and value greater truth and honesty as we move into this new era.
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
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 obviously I began reading all about him.
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 obviously I began reading all about him.
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 are 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. It was here that Queen Elizabeth 1, the Earl of Leicester and other luminaries regularly visited.
Although in England one is never very far from history, 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.
I’ve also lived where Queen Elizabeth I once ruled in Richmond and in Windsor, near the Castle.
Barnes and Mortlake are 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. It was here that Queen Elizabeth 1, the Earl of Leicester and other luminaries regularly visited.
Although in England one is never very far from history, 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.
I’ve also lived where Queen Elizabeth I 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 Influence sub-heading).
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 Influence sub-heading).
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 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
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
Thanks for reading,
Kate.
May 2025
*For the astrologers amongst you, the planet Uranus is in my 10th. In astrology we deal with complementary opposites and planets in one house can be associated with correspondences (NOT causes) in the other, so a planet in the 10th will find expression through the 4th (home, land, ancestry) too. Mercury is in my 1st.
I have obviously had other jobs since BA including in politics and business, but 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.
First Image at top showing Mercury (two of them) by the fire also by Michael Maier
I have obviously had other jobs since BA including in politics and business, but 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.
First Image at top showing Mercury (two of them) by the fire also by Michael Maier
Three horary forecasts by William Lilly