Terri and I got an answer from Alan Thorogood that points to the exact same source.  According to him, Deacon was a friend of Ian Flemming's AND an author on the subject of espianoge and intelligence.  It would appear that the Dee=007 story appears first in his work, and no source for it is given.  Thus, it seems likely Deacon invented it as an in-joke between himself and Flemming.  

After all, 007 or not, Dee was Protestant England's "first spy."  (He was working for Elizabeth before Walsingham began building his intelligence networks.)  So it looks like Ian Flemming was not nodding toward Dee with "007", but Deacan was nodding at both Dee and Bond at once with his hitorical invention.

BTW - the image we most often see of "Dee's 007 signature" - does that also originate with Deacon, or does it come from elsewhere?

LVX
Aaron

--- On Sun, 8/15/10, mandrake <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> From: mandrake <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Re: [ACADEMIC-STUDY-MAGIC] John Dee's 007 Signature
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Date: Sunday, August 15, 2010, 5:16 AM
> Aaron Leitch wrote:
> 
> You may well be right - think i first read that in:
> 
> Richard Deacon's "John Dee: Scientist, Geographer,
> Astrologer and Secret Agent to Elizabeth I "
> so not a "net legend" - can't find my copy now so not sure
> if he backs it up?
> 
> Mogg
> 
> > Greetings!
> > I am currently co-authoring an essay about John Dee,
> in which we will explore the legend of Dee as England's
> "first spy." As such, we are looking for some information
> about Dee's oft-cited by never referenced "007" signature.
> See below for Terri's request for info on this topic:
> > ----------
> > Greetings. For various reasons, Aaron and I are
> combing through Dee
> > manuscripts… or does one even need a reason to do
> this?
> > 
> > Anyway, Aaron brought up an interesting point when we
> were talking off list,
> > which is: exactly WHERE does Dee sign his name as 007?
> You can find this as a
> > persistent net legend, with alleged scanned in copies
> of the signature, as well
> > as assertions and debunkings that this was how he
> signed his name in dispatches
> > from Europe to William Cecil (something I suspect may
> never have really
> > happened.) The signature also looks like a pair of
> eyeglasses, so that data
> > point becomes also attached to the legend he was the
> "eyes" for Elizabeth. But
> > where does the signature actually occur?
> > 
> > [For instance, the Sir Francis Bacon site, which
> continues to suggest Bacon was
> > Shakespeare despite mounds of evidence to the
> contrary, offers such a graphic –
> > see http://www.sirbacon.org/links/dblohseven.html -- and
> says "Dee signed his
> > letters with two circles symbolising his own two eyes
> and indicating that he was
> > the secret eyes of the Queen. The two circles are
> guarded by what may be
> > considered a square root sign or an elongated seven.
> For Dee, seven was a sacred
> > cabbalistic and lucky number.(Richard Deacon)." But if
> you try to find where
> > Deacon gets his information—well, I hope you have
> better luck than I did.
> > 
> > Of course, throughout the angelic workings, he writes
> his name with the sign of
> > Delta, then as now also a fire triangle. These are
> personal, not
> > correspondence, so there's no reason he would sign
> them "007."
> > 
> > Julian Roberts and Andrew Watson, in their excellent
> study of Dee's library
> > catalog and other places where Dee's non-catalogued
> books appear, point out that
> > Dee used particular "flower signs" to identify his
> books (rather than, say, a
> > signature); these same flower signs, Jan Backlund
> points out, appear in
> > manuscripts in Copenhagen associated with an
> alchemical circle around Kelley and
> > Dee. Neither writer as far as I am aware mentions
> anything about a 007
> > signature. (Some of you on this list have Watson and
> Roberts book, so please
> > correct me if I'm wrong. I just check it out of the
> library when I need it, and
> > I'm being lazy and not doing so for this post. )
> > 
> > Dee's private diary has no 007 signature, but again it
> is not correspondence.
> > The nativities there have no 007 signature, but they
> are for his private use.
> > 
> > I was hoping I would find this signature at the end of
> his Compendious
> > Rehearsal. That at least would seem a logical place,
> given the contents and
> > given that its written to Queen Elizabeth. No such
> luck.
> > 
> > So, does anyone here know of a specific identifiable
> archived bit of writing by
> > John Dee, most likely some sort of correspondence,
> where he signs his name in a
> > way that "Dee" if rotated 90 degrees looks like 007,
> as it appears over and over
> > on the net, but without reference to where it comes
> from?
> > 
> > LVX,
> > 
> > Terri
> > ----------
> > We have already received some information on this
> (apparently the signature is a hoax) - but if nothing else I
> would like to know where the "007" image actually comes
> from, if it is not Dee's signature...?
> > LVX
> > Aaron
> > 
> > 
>