Francis Bacon Research Trust

Bacon, Author of the Modern World?
2026-04-09 18:00 - 21:00 (Europe/London) | St Michael’s Church, St Michael’s Street, St Albans, Herts., England, St Michael's Church, St Michael's Street,, St Albans, Hertfordshire, AL3 4SL, United Kingdom
An evening exploration with Mark Rylance & Peter Dawkins.
Sir Francis Bacon died on the 9th April 1626. Join Mark Rylance and Peter Dawkins on the same day 400 years later to reflect on his life and contribution to the world as we know it today.
Mark and Peter will be exploring Bacon as a polymath and playwright, and offering a fresh examination of Bacon and the famous Shakespeare question.
They will discuss the legacy of Sir Francis Bacon, Baron Verulam of Verulam, Viscount St Alban; his impact on the modern world, the ongoing debate into his authorship of the Shakespeare’s works, the meaningfulness of the titles given him, and his burial in St Michael’s Church and the monument commemorating him.
An interval drink is included, and proceeds from the event will go towards the restoration fund for Bacon’s memorial in St Michael’s chancel.
Tickets available via Eventbrite (£33.22).

The Mystery of the Two Johns, Baptist and Beloved
2026-06-21 17:00 - 18:30
A talk on Zoom by Peter Dawkins about the mystery of John the Baptist and John the Beloved, the different roles they played whilst sharing the same name, and the eternal wisdom and divine law of which they are manifestations – a law that involves all of us.
This mystery involves the Double Truth of polarity, twinship, and initiation, with its lesser and greater mysteries, and how their roles were adopted by the Bacon brothers, Francis and Anthony.
The mystery also involves Time, with its daily, annual, and larger cycles of time, such as a Great Age, and the poles of time and process of life – a process in which we are all engaged, all of the time.
To book, please contact the Organiser (FBRT).
If booking accepted, on receipt of payment, the Zoom link will be sent to you.
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 Organiser (FBRT).
The displayed picture is a coloured version of the AA headpiece printed in the 1593 Shakespeare poem Venus and Adonis.

Francis Bacon’s Founding Role in the Democratic Constitution of the USA
2026-07-04 10:30 - 17:30 | St Michael’s Parish Centre, St Michael’s Street, St Albans, Herts, England.
Come and join us at St Michael’s Church Parish Centre, St Albans, for this day event celebrating the 46th Anniversary of the FBRT and the 250th Anniversary of the Independence of the USA.
During the day we will delve into Sir Francis Bacon’s inspirational, guiding and practical role in founding democracy in North America, wherein (ideally) all men and women are considered to be created equal and endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, including the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, with a guarantee of freedom of speech and faith, and the right of every citizen to vote.
We shall look at Bacon’s role in the Virginia Company and his writing of the 2nd and 3rd Charters of the Virginia Company which democratised the government of the settlers and their descendants.
We shall also look at Bacon’s New Atlantis utopia, wherein he outlined the kind of society he was envisaging, who were practising his Great Instauration and governed by a College of initiates – Freemasons and Rosicrucians – who always acted ethically, morally, charitably, and how freedom, properly understood, is an integral part of this.
We shall also investigate why Francis Bacon was created Viscount St Alban (i.e. St Alban II), and his connection as the founder and first Grand Master of Speculative Freemasonry in England, and how and why the Constitutions of Freemasonry are echoed in some way by the Constitution of the USA.
We shall also look at the symbolism of Francis Bacon’s Memorial Monument in St Michael’s Church, which stands in the chancel above the crypt in which his body was placed when he died, and how it links in a special way with St Alban’s Shrine (i.e. St Alban I) in St Alban’s Cathedral, and with Jamestown on the coast of Virginia, USA, where the first Virginia Company colonists settled.
For information and booking, please contact the FBRT Secretary:
Email: sarah@fbrt.org.uk. Tel: 01295 678 623.

The Hidden Foundation of Democracy in North America
2026-09-20 17:00 - 18:30
A talk on Zoom by Peter Dawkins about the role of Sir Francis Bacon and the Virginia and Newfoundland Companies in the colonisation of Newfoundland, Virginia, Nova Scotia and Oak Island, and in the foundation of democracy in North America.
Such a role involved the Freemasons and Rosicrucians – especially the latter, who practised the Hermetic-Magian science of “As above so below, as below so above, for the doing of the Great Work.”
Powerful signs in the starry heavens of the sky, which took place from 1572 to 1604, confirmed to the magi of the English Society of the Golden and Rosy Cross what should be done on earth, both in England and in the world, so as to suitably echo the heavenly signs.
The Shakespeare poetic works, Bacon’s philosophical works, and Bacon’s New Atlantis, are involved in all of this.

To book, please contact the Organiser (FBRT).
If booking accepted, on receipt of payment, the Zoom link will be sent to you.
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 Organiser (FBRT).
The displayed picture is a coloured version of the AA-Gemini-Bride headpiece printed in the 1594 Shakespeare poem Venus and Adonis.

Living the Beauty of Golden Friendship
2026-10-04 14:00 - 2026-10-10 12:00
Shakespeare Mystery in Sardinia
A hybrid event, led by Peter & Sarah Dawkins & Jonathon Tod – part pilgrimage and part talks, attunements and sharing on Zoom.
Sardinia was considered a sacred mountain prior to the last flood and the creation of the Mediterranean Sea. It was formerly joined with Corsica and mainland Europe. It is an island of beauty with 7000 ancient temples and sanctuaries. Many of the temples we will visit were built by ‘the Nuraghe’ (‘the shining ones’) between 2500-3000BC. The Nuraghe were navigators, mathematicians and astronomers.
This hybrid event is part of a sequence of events in which we are working with the Dionysian Mystery of Europe, wherein metaphorically the Bull (or Boar) becomes the Swan, which is a symbolic way of describing the transformation and transmutation of the mortal psyche into an immortal soul.
As Shakespeare says, “we are all actors performing on the stage of the world.” The stage for the Dionysian Mystery is Europe, and the stage for this particular pilgrimage is Sardinia, the root chakra of the Swan landscape temple of Europe.
So far we have pilgrimaged in all the Swan chakras except the root chakra. By performing this Sardinia pilgrimage, we will be bringing the heavenly love-wisdom energy right down to the root of the Swan, so that the kundalini earth energy of the Swan can be awoken, respond in love, and rise up the spine of the Swan to sound the Word and bring illumination.
In this, we work with the Hermetic wisdom, “As above so below, as below so above, for the doing of the Great Work”, and with the lemniscate life process movement of energy through the body, in this case the landscape body of the Swan of Europe. In doing all this, we make friends not only with other human beings but also with nature, including the landscape and the sky above.
The aim of this pilgrimage is to pilgrimage from the north to the south of the island of Sardinia, visiting various sites and temples used by the ancients who knew something of how to work with the energies of the land. We will link with and be supported by other friends who will be carrying out pilgrimages and attunements elsewhere. In this way, via pilgrimage, attunement, meditation, prayer and friendship, the aim of the Mystery event as expressed in its title can be achieved.
PROGRAMME (to be confirmed)

27 September 2026 – Zoom talk about Sardinia.
4-10 October 2026 – Sardinia pilgrimage, with Zoom meetings.
18 October 2026 – Zoom meeting – general sharing and conclusion.

TWO TYPES OF PARTICIPANTS

Virtual pilgrims: attendees of Zoom talk and event Zoom meetings, and who carry out a pilgrimage in their own chosen area.
Sardinia pilgrims: the travelling pilgrims who will pilgrimage in Sardinia and participate in the Zoom talk and all the Zoom meetings.

COST (to be confirmed)

Virtual pilgrims – £50 per person (inclusive of Sardinia meetings and Zoom talk).
Sardinia pilgrims sharing in twinned or double rooms – £2,150 per person
Sardinia pilgrims in single rooms – £2,600 per person

BOOKING
If you are interested in joining this pilgrimage, either as a Sardinia pilgrim or a virtual pilgrim, then please let us know: info@fbrt.org.uk.

The Mystery of the Christmas Saturnalia and Knights of the Helmet
2026-12-20 17:00 - 18:30
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.

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.
To book, please contact the Organiser (FBRT).
If booking accepted, on receipt of payment, the Zoom link will be sent to you.
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 Organiser (FBRT).
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 tributes to Francis Bacon, Manes Verulamiani, published in 1626.
