The Artifact Redux: The Mirrors of Dr. Dee

In this episode of STBYM’s The Artifact, Robert discusses the mirrors of English occultist Dr. Dee, including the so-called Devil’s Looking Glass. (Originally published 1/6/2021)

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hey, Welcome to The Artifact. Uh, this is Robert Lamb. Oh,
and I'm Joe McCormick. I mean, I guess you recorded
this one by yourself, didn't you. That's how we've been
doing or that's how we were doing them. I don't know.
We're we're recording this a couple of months in advance,
so who's to say what happens between now and the
time when we actually published this. But yeah, it's spring break,
so we have a repeat episode of The Artifact for

(00:27):
you as as I think this may be the first
Artifact repeat, the first Artifact Vault episode ever, but suitably
it concerns a mirror, which is perfect because we've are
other Vault episodes this week concerned Gorgon's. Yeah. Okay, all right,
well let's dive right in. Welcome to Stuff to Blow

(00:48):
Your Mind, a production of My Heart Radio. Hi, my
name is Robert Lamb, and this is The Artifact, a
short form series from Stuff to Blow Your Mind, focusing
in on particular objects, ideas, and moments in time. Elizabethan
scholar Dr John d was one of the most learned

(01:09):
men of the sixteenth century, applying his intense mathematical intellect
to matters scientific, political, alchemical, and occult. He advised Queen Elizabeth,
sought communion with angelic beings, advocated British expansion, and plunged
the depths of human knowledge in an age of great change.
While D's most famed possession was his expensive library of books,

(01:32):
he was also known to possess various mirrors and glasses
of peculiar power. One of these was the magical speculum,
or the devil's looking glass. If you're envisioning an ominous
framed mirror of darkness, you may be disappointed to see

(01:53):
what looks more like a slate painting palette, or perhaps
part of an ikea end table. The mirror itself has
a diameter of eighteen point four centimeters and a width
of three centimeters. It is circular, with a perforated notch
for hanging, handling, or mounting. The mirror substances that of
polished obsidian, volcanic in origin and believed to have been

(02:14):
crafted by the Aztecs between the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries.
If you visited the British Museum you may have seen it.
The mirrors. A leather case features an inscription informing us
that it is quote the black stone into which Dr
D used to call his spirits unquote. These words are
attributed to the eighteenth century art historian Horace Walpole, along

(02:36):
with a pair of crystal spheres. D used this object
in his pursuit of angelology and sorcery, possibly brought back
from the voyages of Sir Francis Drake. The obsidian mirror
was likely used in scrying rituals by Aztec priests in
the worship of tez Catala PoCA, the god also known

(02:57):
as the Lord of the Smoking Mirror, due to the
black mirrors used by his priests and his overall connection
to the dark volcanic glass of obsidian. But D also
possessed another amazing mirror, an artifact bequeathed to him by
Sir William Pickering in sixteen seventy five. It was a
noted curio of the time. D even demonstrated the properties

(03:18):
of this mirror to Queen Elizabeth herself. As Benjamin Wooly
points out in his book The Queen's Conjuror, it is
unlikely that he ever used this mirror in his occult practices. No,
the Great Perspective Glass had a place in John D's
purely logical interests. Wooly writes that D kept the mirror
proudly displayed in a corner of his study. Anyone who

(03:42):
lunged at the mirror with a dagger or sword founded
their reflection lunging back at them with like hand and weapon. This,
of course, is not the typical way of mirrors, and
the effect was said to be quite unsettling, But D
explained the effect to his guests via the mathematics of perspective,
rather than the supernatural. A typical mirror doesn't so much

(04:06):
as flip your image, but turn it inside out. The
text on your shirt appears backwards in the mirror, just
as the text also appears backwards if you were to
withdraw your head into the shirt and read the text
from within the garment. So the Great Perspective Glass was
likely a nonreversing mirror, which can be accomplished by connecting

(04:27):
two regular mirrors at their edges at a ninety degree angle,
among other strategies. Of course, even a typical mirror's reflection
can feel unsettling, is Argentinean writer jore Lewis Borges wrote,
quote the Crystal Spies on us if within the four
walls of a bedroom, a mirror stairs, I am no

(04:48):
longer alone. There is someone there in the dawn reflections
mutevous stage a show unquote. As we grow accustomed to
the inside out stranger, how ranger still is the rarely seen,
non reversed stranger, or the smoky shade of tes Catl
Polca's dark Realm. Tune in for additional editions of the

(05:14):
Artifact each week, hosted by either Joe or myself. As always,
you can email us at contact at stuff to Blow
your Mind dot com. Stuff to Blow Your Mind is
production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts from my

(05:37):
Heart Radio, visit the i Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.