SLOANE MS 3188
Spiritual Diaries — Transactions with Madimi
Dr. John Dee & Edward Kelley · Mortlake, England · 1582–89 · excerpt from the unpublished Twentieth Session
The following extract is taken from the unpublished Twentieth Session of Dr. Dee’s angelic conversations, held at Mortlake on the 14th day of January, 1583, and transcribed at the time by Edward Kelley. The session opens unremarkably; the matter of A. is broached, on Dr. Dee’s initiative, only at folio 4r. Madimi, the spirit habitually consulted in such sessions, responded as follows.
Dr. Dee. Most gentle spirit, we have prepared a question. We desire to know — if it be lawful to ask — what is the nature of the entity called by some vas patens, by others l’innommé, and by the brethren of Konstanz that whereof they declined to speak.
[Pause. Madimi turneth her head as if to one side.]
Madimi. Ask another question.
Dr. Dee. We have prepared no other question.
Madimi. Then prepare one.
[Dr. Dee conferreth with Mr. Kelley in a low voice for several moments. The candles, Mr. Kelley afterwards reporteth, dim during this consultation by a degree he found to be remarkable, though no draught was observed.]
Dr. Dee. Most gentle spirit, we have prepared a second question. We desire to know — if it be lawful to ask — whether the entity which is the subject of our former question is to be considered angelic, demonic, or of some third nature.
Madimi. I have already answered.
Dr. Dee. With respect, most gentle spirit, we believe thou hast not answered.
Madimi. I have answered. The answer is in the answer.
[Mr. Kelley reporteth at this point that he was unable to continue scrying for a period of approximately one-and-a-half hours, during which the chamber grew gradually but unmistakably colder. Dr. Dee did not address Madimi during this period. Madimi did not depart. The transcript records no words.]
a silence of one hour and four-and-thirty minutes
[At length Mr. Kelley reporteth that Madimi had withdrawn her countenance from the stone; the temperature in the chamber returned to its ordinary degree; the candles brightened. Dr. Dee, on closing the session, did not ask a fourth question.]
Sloane MS 3188, ff. 4r–5v. The transcript of this session was excluded from Casaubon’s 1659 published edition of the spiritual diaries at the publisher’s discretion. The omission has been described, by every subsequent editor, as “sensible.” The session was, as a matter of historical record, the only one in the entire corpus during which Madimi declined to deliver a substantive answer; the only one during which Dr. Dee declined to press her; and the only one which Edward Kelley refused, on subsequent occasions, to discuss.