The English Renaissance saw the quest to discover the hidden meaning of the world. Operating like detectives looking for clues, our protagonists experimented to reveal this hermetic knowledge. They tried to find the first God-given language, the Adamic tongue. They sought concealed messages in numbers through the study of gematria. They interpreted the meaning of the cosmos and assessed the significance of new objects in the night sky.
Working on the premise that clues had been handed down through the mists of time, they divined their own place in prophetic testaments. Were they living in the age of the Fiery Trigon? Experiments with lenses, mirrors and perspective both tricked and informed the eye. Crystal balls could reveal angels and demons.
It was a world where algebra and alchemy, calculating and conjuring went hand in hand; where the search for the philosopher’s stone, El Dorado and the Northwest Passage were part of the same mind map.
In the literature of the period, we will find evidence everywhere of the supernatural, whether in Spenser’s Faerie Queene, Shakespeare’s Macbeth or in a King’s book of witchcraft. Join us on the magical mystery tour of the English Renaissance.
