Francis Young

“Bacon understood the political significance of alchemy as a source of wealth to the crown. He also speculated on the numerological importance of the number five to the defence of the realm in the form of the Cinque Ports (Sandwich, Dover, Hythe, New Romney and Hastings).21 Bacon’s introduction to the Secreta distinguished legitimate from false astrology, claiming that the Church Fathers had attacked only a false kind of astrology, just as they inveighed against debased forms of the true sciences of geomancy (divination by earth), hydromancy (divination by water), aeromancy (divination by air) and pyromancy (divination by fire). Bacon went so far as to advise Henry III to do nothing without the advice of learned astrologers.”
― Francis Young, Magic in Merlin's Realm: A History of Occult Politics in Britain

“Some occultists themselves believed that the authorities were showing an interest in their activities. Ronald ‘Chalky’ White, a prominent follower of the early pioneer of Neopagan witchcraft Robert Cochrane, claimed he was once visited by MI5 officers in the 1970s and questioned about rituals in which he assumed the identity of Merlin as ‘kingmaker’.119 It is possible that White made up this story in order to inflate his own importance, and it seems somewhat unlikely that British intelligence took seriously magical ritual performances in which members of the covine took on roles such as King Arthur, Merlin, Queen Elizabeth and John Dee.”
― Francis Young, Magic in Merlin's Realm: A History of Occult Politics in Britain