Francis Bacon Research Trust

The Mystery of the Christmas Saturnalia and Knights of the Helmet
2026-12-20 17:00 - 18:30 (Europe/London)
A talk on Zoom by Peter Dawkins about midwinter’s Saturnalia and Twelve Days of Christmas, including that of 1594/5 when Gray’s Inn hosted a grand entertainment during which the Shakespeare play, Comedy of Errors, was enacted, followed by the masque, The Order of the Knights of the Helmet.
This “Gesta Grayorum”, as it was called in Latin, announced and made public many things previously kept secret, including the hint that the Knights of the Helmet are the true Spearshakers, or Shakespeares, who, like St George, shake their spears of inspiration at the dragons of ignorance, so that the dragons might come to know the truth.

Cost £15. To book, please contact the FBRT Secretary:
Email: sarah@fbrt.org.uk. Tel: 01295 678 623.
On receipt of payment, the Zoom link will be sent to you.
For those who attend this talk, there will be time for questions, answers and insights after the talk. This post-talk sharing is usually full of extra information.
A recording of the talk (but not of the sharing afterwards) can be made available for attendees if requested, as also for those who pay for the talk but do not attend it live on Zoom. Please contact the FBRT Secretary.
The displayed picture is a coloured version of the AA-Gemini-Spearshakers headpiece printed in Francis Bacon’s 1623 De Dignitate et Augmentis Scientiarum and in the 1627 Manes Verulamiani tributes to Francis Bacon.

Tetrahedral Pyramids in Francis Bacon’s Rosicrucian Work
2027-03-21 17:00 - 18:30
A talk on Zoom by Peter Dawkins explaining the use and symbolism of two tetrahedral pyramids in the philosopher Sir Francis Bacon’s ‘Great Instauration’ – the work that is designed to bring about a “total reconstruction of the sciences, arts, and all human knowledge raised on proper foundations”.
Peter will explain how this is a Rosy Cross (or Rosicrucian) work, which was taken up by the Magian societies of Europe, especially by those in the German States, and spread abroad, first to North America, then to South America, and eventually to the whole world. It is a work that aims at reforming the world so as restore a state of paradise upon earth, but coupled with the illumination of mankind, wherein humanity knows the truth because it practices truth, which truth is love in action.
Cost £15. To book, please contact the FBRT Secretary:
Email: sarah@fbrt.org.uk. Tel: 01295 678 623.
On receipt of payment, the Zoom link will be sent to you.
For those who attend the talk, there will be time for questions, answers and insights after the talk. This post-talk sharing is usually full of extra information.
A recording of the talk (but not of the sharing afterwards) can be made available for attendees if requested, as also for those who pay for the talk but do not attend it live on Zoom. Please contact the FBRT Secretary.
The displayed picture is a coloured version of the Bride-Gemini headpiece printed in the 1624 Cryptomenytices et Cryptographiae by Gustavus Selenus, a pseudonym of Augustus II, the Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg.
