Bridging Bacon to Bacon
The image of the two Bacons is an adaptation by me from pictures I took at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History
In the 13th century, long before telescopes or steam engines, a Franciscan friar at Oxford was writing about flying machines, submarines, and lenses that could see across the world. In legend he became known as Doctor Mirabilis, the 'Wonderful Doctor.'
His name was Roger Bacon. To many of his contemporaries, Roger Bacon was a brilliant mind, but to others he was suspected of being a practitioner of the dark arts - a magician, even a wizard.
Roger Bacon had studied at those two great centres of learning in Medieval times, the Universities of Oxford and Paris. He was steeped in languages and the philosophy of Plato and Aristotle. He was also well-versed in mathematics, medicine and music, as well as optics, alchemy and what he called 'experimental science'. Astronomy/Astrology played a huge part in his life, but he actually dismissed "magic" and certainly did not see astrology as a magical art.
Instead he saw astrology as "by far the most important and practical part of mathematics." By its aid he believed that the future could be foretold and also that marvellous operations and great alterations could be effected throughout the whole world, especially by choosing favorable hours and by employing astronomical amulets and characters. If a doctor does not know astronomy, his medical treatment will be dependent on "chance and fortune". Recent bloody wars might have been avoided had men harkened to warnings written in the sky. Bacon was very desirous that the Church should avail itself of the guidance of astrology. " - L. Thorndike Read more here.
Bacon had studied languages extensively. He sought out Arabic, Hebrew and Greek texts specifically in order to access the advanced knowledge within them. He wrote in Latin and translated works by scholars like Abu Ma'shar (astrology - including looking at the conjunctions of Jupiter and Saturn), Al-Kindi (cryptography), Avicenna (metaphysics), Alhazen (optics) and Averroes, that had been unknown to Western Europe. He also believed that the Bible should only be studied in its original languages.
However, ultimately, Roger Bacon believed that true knowledge came not just from books but from the secret works of art and nature and, at that time, this set him apart from many of his peers.
Images above are all ones I took in Oxford
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Another photo from my personal collection
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A page from Roger Bacon's Opus Majus
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Indeed, this belief earned him both admiration and suspicion. His experiments with gunpowder - already known in China but among the first documented in Europe - produced mini explosions that created 'thunder and lightning' from his Oxford house and laboratory, leading to widespread talk of his 'wizardry'.
From his tower in Oxford, known as Bacon's Tower, he conducted a wide range of investigations: experimenting with light, fire, magnifying glasses, reflection and refraction, perspective, mechanical machines, and acoustics, while also testing his Magic Mirrors (possibly an early form of the camera obscura) and observing the heavens.
From his tower in Oxford, known as Bacon's Tower, he conducted a wide range of investigations: experimenting with light, fire, magnifying glasses, reflection and refraction, perspective, mechanical machines, and acoustics, while also testing his Magic Mirrors (possibly an early form of the camera obscura) and observing the heavens.
A pinhole of light will reflect and invert an image. This is how they tracked the movement of the solar disc in towers
Roger Bacon: the tower known as Roger Bacon's study, Oxford. Coloured line engraving by M.A. Rooker, ca. 1780. Wellcome. Click for licence
Roger Bacon believed that those who held true knowledge must guard it. In his Opus Majus, he explicitly talked about concealing knowledge through ciphers and codes. He also said: "Some things must be concealed from the multitude, lest they be perverted to the destruction of men." For this reason, and for fear of incurring the wrath of Church authorities (in later years he did end up being cast into prison for his unorthodox theological views), he encrypted his ideas, disguising them with symbols or encoding them in veiled language. All this adding to his mystique (and to the rumour mill).
In his Epistola de Secretis Operibus Artis et Naturae Bacon outlined six ways of concealing meaning in writing: 1) use of an unfamiliar language 2) Invented or obscure words 3) The use of altered letters or secret alphabets 4) Transposition of letters 5) Use of symbols, pictures, metaphors 6) a combination of all the above. John Dee owned a copy and centuries later (well after Dee's death) an English translation was available.
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Translated from John Dee's own copy. Find this on Sacred-texts.com or archive.org
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So, when looking back over the history of esotericism, we could say that Roger Bacon stands as an early reformer; an outspoken visionary, an experimental scientist and cryptographer. He was a huge influence on those who came in the centuries after him, despite some people's best efforts to traduce his character.
In one of his most striking works, his aforementioned Opus Majus, said to be one of the most remarkable books of the 13th century, he had laid out the need for reform of learning, warning that existing education had become corrupted by ignorance and superstition.
He advocated for what we'd now call an interdisciplinary method, uniting philosophy, theology, mathematics, and experiment; seeing himself as a mystical scientist - a part of a Divine order preparing the world for the coming age when science and spirituality would meet. These are the very ideas that underlie Rosicrucianism, which would only publicly emerge centuries later. Also the same idea would be seen in his namesake Francis Bacon's New Atlantis, where a brotherhood of enlightened scientists serve a hidden island state (Salomon's House on Bensalem) through careful observation, discovery, and spiritual morality.
In fact, both Bacons, although living 300 years apart and not being blood relatives, spoke of the importance of knowledge and dreamed of a model of governance where statecraft implied a ruler guided not by politics or war, but by knowledge and truth. Roger Bacon was one of the early translators of the ancient book on Governance by Emperors, Kings and Princes, known as The Secret of Secrets - a book consulted for centuries.
I wrote in this article about how there is a long line of mystics who were "guardians of the flame" of alchemical and esoteric ideas. If we single out the 1200s to the 1600s, we could say this lineage begins with Roger Bacon (Doctor Mirabilis) and his mentor Robert Grosseteste, plus figures across Europe like Albertus Magnus (Doctor Universalis), Ramon Llull, Arnauld of Villanova and Paul of Taranto and then we can trace a whole bridge of people (natural philosophers) spanning an arc of history from Bacon to Bacon.
In one of his most striking works, his aforementioned Opus Majus, said to be one of the most remarkable books of the 13th century, he had laid out the need for reform of learning, warning that existing education had become corrupted by ignorance and superstition.
He advocated for what we'd now call an interdisciplinary method, uniting philosophy, theology, mathematics, and experiment; seeing himself as a mystical scientist - a part of a Divine order preparing the world for the coming age when science and spirituality would meet. These are the very ideas that underlie Rosicrucianism, which would only publicly emerge centuries later. Also the same idea would be seen in his namesake Francis Bacon's New Atlantis, where a brotherhood of enlightened scientists serve a hidden island state (Salomon's House on Bensalem) through careful observation, discovery, and spiritual morality.
In fact, both Bacons, although living 300 years apart and not being blood relatives, spoke of the importance of knowledge and dreamed of a model of governance where statecraft implied a ruler guided not by politics or war, but by knowledge and truth. Roger Bacon was one of the early translators of the ancient book on Governance by Emperors, Kings and Princes, known as The Secret of Secrets - a book consulted for centuries.
I wrote in this article about how there is a long line of mystics who were "guardians of the flame" of alchemical and esoteric ideas. If we single out the 1200s to the 1600s, we could say this lineage begins with Roger Bacon (Doctor Mirabilis) and his mentor Robert Grosseteste, plus figures across Europe like Albertus Magnus (Doctor Universalis), Ramon Llull, Arnauld of Villanova and Paul of Taranto and then we can trace a whole bridge of people (natural philosophers) spanning an arc of history from Bacon to Bacon.
The knowledge was passed along in various forms via Magnus, Llull, Bacon, Villanova and others through the late medieval period. There was Leon Battista Alberti (1404-1472) an architect, philosopher and cryptographer, Johannes Trithemius (1462-1516), the Abbot of Sponheim, who further mastered the occult arts and cryptography. Then came figures like Marsilio Ficino (1433-1499) who established the Platonic Academy of Florence, Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (1463-1494) who synthesised Renaissance humanism with esoteric wisdom and Christian Kabbalah, and of course Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) the sculptor, architect, mathematician and artist who pursued all his studies and drawings with unprecedented precision.
With Da Vinci, however, it is important to note that the popular narrative of him as the lone originator of flying machine concepts is incorrect. It overlooks Roger Bacon's early work and how ideas flowed through the continuous tradition of natural philosophers, alchemists and artists, each building upon each other's insights across the centuries (some of Francis Bacon's futuristic technologies hinted at in New Atlantis align with Roger Bacon's earlier ideas too).
The chain continued through Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa (1486-1535) and his Three Books of Occult Philosophy (check it out!).
With Da Vinci, however, it is important to note that the popular narrative of him as the lone originator of flying machine concepts is incorrect. It overlooks Roger Bacon's early work and how ideas flowed through the continuous tradition of natural philosophers, alchemists and artists, each building upon each other's insights across the centuries (some of Francis Bacon's futuristic technologies hinted at in New Atlantis align with Roger Bacon's earlier ideas too).
The chain continued through Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa (1486-1535) and his Three Books of Occult Philosophy (check it out!).
Click image for book. Don't get too caught up in the word 'Magic' instead think of codes
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Sets of three in nine chambers
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And there was the revolutionary physician-alchemist, Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim aka Paracelsus (1493-1541). Paracelsus had believed, like Roger Bacon, that academics could not teach you everything from books; one had to do the experiments.
Paracelsus wrote: "The physician does not learn everything he must know and master at high colleges alone; from time to time he must consult old women, gypsies, magicians, wayfarers, and all manner of peasant folk and random people, and learn from them; for these have more knowledge about such things than all the high colleges."
The chain of beacons of light included the polymath Girolamo Cardano (1501-1576), and Giambattista Della Porta (1535-1615), who wrote on Natural Magic and ciphers (he was known as The Professor of Secrets) and helped establish early scientific societies.
The late Renaissance brought thinkers such as Giordano Bruno (1548-1600) with his cosmology and Hermetic philosophy, John Dee (1527-1608), Elizabeth Ist's court 'mathmagician', and his colleague Edward Kelly (1555-1597). You may have already seen my article referencing how Dee built upon the ideas of Roger Bacon, Trithemius, Agrippa, and Paracelsus.
Then there was Heinrich Khunrath (1560-1605), who created his Amphitheatre of Eternal Wisdom, and the astronomer, Tycho Brahe (1546-1601) and his assistant, Johannes Kepler (1571-1630). Kepler wrote a short essay on the 'Six-cornered Snowflake' as well as other more famous books such as these below. More on Brahe and Kepler shortly.
And there was the revolutionary physician-alchemist, Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim aka Paracelsus (1493-1541). Paracelsus had believed, like Roger Bacon, that academics could not teach you everything from books; one had to do the experiments.
Paracelsus wrote: "The physician does not learn everything he must know and master at high colleges alone; from time to time he must consult old women, gypsies, magicians, wayfarers, and all manner of peasant folk and random people, and learn from them; for these have more knowledge about such things than all the high colleges."
The chain of beacons of light included the polymath Girolamo Cardano (1501-1576), and Giambattista Della Porta (1535-1615), who wrote on Natural Magic and ciphers (he was known as The Professor of Secrets) and helped establish early scientific societies.
The late Renaissance brought thinkers such as Giordano Bruno (1548-1600) with his cosmology and Hermetic philosophy, John Dee (1527-1608), Elizabeth Ist's court 'mathmagician', and his colleague Edward Kelly (1555-1597). You may have already seen my article referencing how Dee built upon the ideas of Roger Bacon, Trithemius, Agrippa, and Paracelsus.
Then there was Heinrich Khunrath (1560-1605), who created his Amphitheatre of Eternal Wisdom, and the astronomer, Tycho Brahe (1546-1601) and his assistant, Johannes Kepler (1571-1630). Kepler wrote a short essay on the 'Six-cornered Snowflake' as well as other more famous books such as these below. More on Brahe and Kepler shortly.
Meanwhile in this period, Tommaso Campanella (1568-1639) had envisioned his City of the Sun in 1602, inspired by Plato's Republic and the description of Atlantis in Timaeus. Michael Maier (1568-1622) crafted alchemical emblems and Rosicrucian mysteries, Robert Fludd (1574-1637) was interested in anatomy and further developed Rosicrucian philosophy, memory techniques and harmonic theories, building upon earlier ideas from Giordano Bruno.
Johann Valentin Andreae (1586-1654) authored (or co-authored) The Chemical Wedding and Rosicrucian manifestos. A mysterious figure associated with alchemy, kabbalah and other philosophical esoterica of the 17th century, Andreae later (1618) published an intriguing guide to his "perfect" society called Christianopolis. Meanwhile, Athanasius Kircher (1602-1680) was another in a long line of polymaths. In fact he was known as "Master of a Hundred Arts" but is perhaps best known for his work in Egyptology and mechanical inventions, ensuring a fusion of ancient mysticism and scientific advancement were kept alive.
The list is not exhaustive, but the intellectual bridge reaches completion with Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626), whose utopian book, New Atlantis and his systematic approach to natural philosophy (Great Instauration) formalised the foundations of what would later be known as the modern scientific method.
This lineage shows how the flame of philosophy, mystical insight and natural observation passed from person to person across centuries, each figure adding their own discoveries while preserving the essential vision of Roger Bacon (and we must not forget, he had obtained some of his ideas from his predecessors). All understood that true knowledge comes from direct engagement with Mother Nature and Father Time. All guided, symbolically, by the dual-unity principle, represented by the Sun and Moon and other complementary opposites, and mediated by Mercury. These being external symbols of internal processes.
The true alchemy, as you read in my first article on the Philosopher's Stone and egg, is ultimately about the development of spiritual consciousness. It's about Soul work!
The true alchemy, as you read in my first article on the Philosopher's Stone and egg, is ultimately about the development of spiritual consciousness. It's about Soul work!
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Okay, so now I have traced the bridge of history, let's look a little more closely at where Brahe and Kepler fit into all this and why there was an expansion and public emergence of the Rosicrucians in the early 1600s.
A Transitional Time
In 1603 Queen Elizabeth Ist died and with it the Elizabethan era. Rudolf II's death in 1612 marked not only the end of a reign but the collapse of Prague's golden age as a Magical Metropolis of Mathmagicians and alchemists.
His successor, Emperor Matthias, didn't possess Rudolf's cosmopolitical vision, and the Court's embrace of the mystical gave way to Catholic orthodoxy and political unrest. Indeed, the fragile religious balance in Bohemia eventually completely unravelled, leading to the famous Defenestration of Prague in 1618, when two envoys were thrown from a castle window, igniting the Thirty Years' War.
The dream of a Philosopher-King ruling from Prague was extinguished, and with it the vibrant world of alchemy, astrology, and statecraft that had flourished under Rudolf.
In 1597 the astronomer, Tycho Brahe had argued with the new King of Denmark. Consequently, he had left his castle observatory at Uraniborg built in 1576 (also spelt Uraniburgh, see below) and underground facility at Stjerneborg (1581) in Denmark (further down) both of which were temples to precise astronomical measurement, his 'star catalogues', plus centres of alchemical practice.
His successor, Emperor Matthias, didn't possess Rudolf's cosmopolitical vision, and the Court's embrace of the mystical gave way to Catholic orthodoxy and political unrest. Indeed, the fragile religious balance in Bohemia eventually completely unravelled, leading to the famous Defenestration of Prague in 1618, when two envoys were thrown from a castle window, igniting the Thirty Years' War.
The dream of a Philosopher-King ruling from Prague was extinguished, and with it the vibrant world of alchemy, astrology, and statecraft that had flourished under Rudolf.
In 1597 the astronomer, Tycho Brahe had argued with the new King of Denmark. Consequently, he had left his castle observatory at Uraniborg built in 1576 (also spelt Uraniburgh, see below) and underground facility at Stjerneborg (1581) in Denmark (further down) both of which were temples to precise astronomical measurement, his 'star catalogues', plus centres of alchemical practice.
Brahe's decades of planetary observations meant that he had amassed the most accurate astronomical data that the world had perhaps ever seen, yet he still believed deeply in astrology and the mystical 'as above, so below' hermetic correspondences between heaven and earth.
Science Museum Group. Stjerneborg Observatory. 1937-615 Science Museum Group Collection Online. https://collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/objects/co56806/stjerneborg-observatory. Click for licence
All those who thought like him were working in, or travelling to, Prague at that time so Brahe made his way to the city, too. Here he was invited to Rudolf's Court and was appointed as Imperial Mathematician to Rudolf in 1599.
In 1600, Brahe was joined by a young assistant, Johannes Kepler. It was to be a short-lived relationship though as Brahe unexpectedly fell gravely ill in 1601. Before he died, Brahe had specifically urged Kepler to ensure all his hard work would not be lost. Kepler inherited both Brahe's title and, despite some initial legal issues with Brahe's relatives, he also inherited his treasure trove of observational data. This access would prove transformative for human understanding of the Cosmos and truly spark a scientific revolution.
In 1600, Brahe was joined by a young assistant, Johannes Kepler. It was to be a short-lived relationship though as Brahe unexpectedly fell gravely ill in 1601. Before he died, Brahe had specifically urged Kepler to ensure all his hard work would not be lost. Kepler inherited both Brahe's title and, despite some initial legal issues with Brahe's relatives, he also inherited his treasure trove of observational data. This access would prove transformative for human understanding of the Cosmos and truly spark a scientific revolution.
By Johannes Kepler - Public Domain
Kepler's early work prior to joining Brahe, had been Mysterium Cosmographicum, a book on the geometrical nature of the world (the five platonic solids as nested orbits - see above) but after Brahe’s death in 1601, when Kepler inherited Brahe's precise planetary data, he had tried to fit Brahe’s measurements of Mars’s orbit into the traditional model of perfect circles, but the numbers simply wouldn’t work. In the end, Kepler made a ground-breaking discovery. He recognised that planets move in ellipses.
This marked a complete shift in how people understood the cosmos.
Kepler’s three laws of planetary motion became the foundation of modern astronomy, pushing science out of the realm of mystical interpretations. At this time, Kepler also struggled with astrology as a divinatory tool, and yet, he never fully let go of his belief in it. Indeed, a big part of the role of Imperial Mathematician was still around astrological advice so he did continue to draw up charts and interpret them.
Additionally, Kepler famously also studied comets, supernovae and Jupiter-Saturn conjunctions, recognising their significance in celestial mechanics and historical cycles - including the birth of Jesus. In De Stella Nova (1606), as well as discussing the New Star, he mapped successive Jupiter/Saturn conjunctions, showing how they formed near-perfect triangles when plotted against the circle of the zodiac. These alignments had long been viewed, even by Roger Bacon and others centuries before him, as omens of political, civilisational and spiritual change. They were - and are - without doubt considered the most important conjunctions in the sky (hence why my book was published on one!).
This marked a complete shift in how people understood the cosmos.
Kepler’s three laws of planetary motion became the foundation of modern astronomy, pushing science out of the realm of mystical interpretations. At this time, Kepler also struggled with astrology as a divinatory tool, and yet, he never fully let go of his belief in it. Indeed, a big part of the role of Imperial Mathematician was still around astrological advice so he did continue to draw up charts and interpret them.
Additionally, Kepler famously also studied comets, supernovae and Jupiter-Saturn conjunctions, recognising their significance in celestial mechanics and historical cycles - including the birth of Jesus. In De Stella Nova (1606), as well as discussing the New Star, he mapped successive Jupiter/Saturn conjunctions, showing how they formed near-perfect triangles when plotted against the circle of the zodiac. These alignments had long been viewed, even by Roger Bacon and others centuries before him, as omens of political, civilisational and spiritual change. They were - and are - without doubt considered the most important conjunctions in the sky (hence why my book was published on one!).
Kepler. Planetary Cycles
His later book, Harmonice Mundi (1619), explored the idea that mathematics and music were deeply connected, echoing ancient Pythagorean ideas about the music of the spheres.
At the same time Kepler was unravelling the secrets of planetary motion though, he was also laying the groundwork for a new way of thinking about physical reality itself. In 1611, he turned his attention to sphere packing, exploring the most efficient way to stack spheres, like arranging cannonballs or fruit in a market stall. His insight, known as the Kepler Conjecture, influenced later developments in the study of atomic structures.
The Rudolphine Tables and the Legacy of Transmission
When Rudolf II died in 1612 and the political and religious turmoil engulfed Prague, Kepler fled the country but continued his work and remained under the employ of the next two emperors from afar. However, to honour his predecessor and Rudolf II, he published the Rudolphine Tables in 1627, an accurate ephemeris of planetary positions that would serve astronomers and navigators for decades. This work became a foundation stone of the new scientific worldview.
At the same time Kepler was unravelling the secrets of planetary motion though, he was also laying the groundwork for a new way of thinking about physical reality itself. In 1611, he turned his attention to sphere packing, exploring the most efficient way to stack spheres, like arranging cannonballs or fruit in a market stall. His insight, known as the Kepler Conjecture, influenced later developments in the study of atomic structures.
The Rudolphine Tables and the Legacy of Transmission
When Rudolf II died in 1612 and the political and religious turmoil engulfed Prague, Kepler fled the country but continued his work and remained under the employ of the next two emperors from afar. However, to honour his predecessor and Rudolf II, he published the Rudolphine Tables in 1627, an accurate ephemeris of planetary positions that would serve astronomers and navigators for decades. This work became a foundation stone of the new scientific worldview.
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It was from this collapse of the old order that the Rosicrucians emerged, drawing inspiration from the synthesis of mysticism and natural philosophy that had flourished in Rudolf's Prague. The anonymous manifestos were printed in Kassel in Germany in 1614-1616 (although some had been circulating already) under the patronage of Landgrave Moritz von Hesse-Kassel. Read more here. This promised a reformation of learning ' for the whole wide world' that would unite spiritual wisdom with practical knowledge. The movement spread rapidly across Europe, with mysterious posters appearing on the walls of Paris in 1623, revealing their presence.
Together these alchemists and spiritually-minded forward thinkers ensured that the wisdom cultivated under Rudolf would not be lost but transformed for a new age. From this pivotal moment around the early 1600s begins a journey that would ultimately lead through the rise of Freemasonry to the founding of America, a story that traces its roots back to the collision of magic and mathematics in Rudolf's Prague and Elizabethan England that I have been discussing in these articles.
You can read what happened from the 1600s through to the founding of Washington DC in my book and learn all about the language of symbolism that initiates are exposed to - and how, even to this day codes and ciphers are utilised and hidden in plain sight. The book culminates with a chapter, Chapter 9, that promises to cause a paradigm shift in your views about religion and the true nature of consciousness.
Thanks for reading.
Kate
Please use the drop down menu for the other 5 articles.
Together these alchemists and spiritually-minded forward thinkers ensured that the wisdom cultivated under Rudolf would not be lost but transformed for a new age. From this pivotal moment around the early 1600s begins a journey that would ultimately lead through the rise of Freemasonry to the founding of America, a story that traces its roots back to the collision of magic and mathematics in Rudolf's Prague and Elizabethan England that I have been discussing in these articles.
You can read what happened from the 1600s through to the founding of Washington DC in my book and learn all about the language of symbolism that initiates are exposed to - and how, even to this day codes and ciphers are utilised and hidden in plain sight. The book culminates with a chapter, Chapter 9, that promises to cause a paradigm shift in your views about religion and the true nature of consciousness.
Thanks for reading.
Kate
Please use the drop down menu for the other 5 articles.
