Has anyone heard of any of this and have any thoughts to weigh in on this? Is this no more than patriotic folklore and propaganda (even though most of it seems to be from the Spaniards)?
I had not, though my first thought was a connection to John Dee and his relationship with various navigators of the time. But I found this link to an article which covers the Drake legends:
Then I also found this, which sort of links Drake to Dee:
With respect to this last one, I take some issue with its claims, for instance:
"In 1582 Dee began dabbling in the Black arts, which Drake being a devout Christian, would have abhorred."
Worthy of question, first of all as to when Dee "began". The Drake connection I look forward to enquiring into further.
But also:
"To escape the mob that raised his home, Dee fled to Holland and then to Bohemia."
Factually inaccurate.* This is not why Dee "fled" England. He would learn of the sack of Mortlake much later, while on the continent. He owed a lot of people a lot of money.
*EDIT: I am not entirely certain of the date of the mob attack, but the most recent thing I read on it is that Dee found out from a letter from his brother-in-law after the so-called "break" with Kelley.
But I found this timeline, which might be helpful in correlating with Drake's activities:
It would not surprise me. Back then, most educated men had at least a passing acquaintance with such arts.
I had read a couple of bios on Jerome Cardan (in England during the reign of Edward VI), who basically
lived by omens. The notion that he was not that much different than his contemporaries, though inclined to record them meticulously, I find an intriguing line of inquiry.
But the fact alone that Drake was a sailor - who in all ages have held wonderous and strange beliefs - should say something about him that correlates with occult leanings.
I recall (reading) Bacon defended such saying the just as a doctor needs to know poisons, so the learned man needs to know demons.
Definitely intrigues me as well. It seems to echo Albertus Magnus's view that necromantic books - though "bad" - should not be destroyed, probably for similar reasons. Also, if I recall correctly, Thomas Hobbes seemed inclined to the belief in spirits, though he argued that they were "corporeal", albeit a finer sense, probably because he was a "materialist" in the hard sense. It's interesting to note that Ficino categorized spirits in subtle corporeal terms, if I recall correctly.
All these potential ins and outs are fascinating. Francis Yates suggested, as an appeal to further research, that men like Dee, Bruno (who was in England while Dee was out) and even Agrippa were associated with nascent secret societies that would eventually emerge as the Rosicrucian's, which I think would be easy enough to tie to Bacon.
As I recall Dion Fortune was part of a magical group that thought they influenced WW2
Yes, as recorded in
The Magical Battle of Britain, which is not only interesting occult history, but has practical value and is an insight into Fortune's semi-mediumistic approach.
