For a decade after the “Mathematical Preface” a veil falls over our knowledge of John Dee's interest in intermediary agencies, his commitment to ascending to the supernatural levels of the cosmos, his fascination with universal sciences, and his provocative “archemastrie.” The veil lifts in 1581, just as Dee was about to enter into his collaboration with Edward Kelly, when he addressed a prayer to God explaining how and why he communicated with angels. Today it stands as the preface to the first surviving angel diary. The preface captures another important moment in the history of the conversations, in this case not an ending but a beginning, a moment of reflection for Dee as he made a transition between two scryers and renewed his attempts to climb to the heavens and achieve certain wisdom. The political difficulties Dee would later experience in the Rudolphine court in Prague, the serious danger posed by his overexposure to so many curious eyes, and the struggles he would have with his irascible new scryer were all in the future.