The Magus of Freemasonry

from the INTRODUCTION

Ex Uno Omnia
Lichfield has been considered by some to be the true spiritual center of England. And, as freemasons should know, "at the centre of the circle, a master mason cannot err." Right at the center of that circle was Elias Ashmole, the privileged blend that is Renaissance Man, the British Hermetic philosopher par excellence , the self-styled Mercuriophilus Anglicus , and "Mighty Good Man." And if Elias, the "expected one," the harbinger of new arts and revealed knowledge, was indeed at the center, then Elias Ashmole was everything and everywhere. For 20th century English mage Edward Alexander Crowley, Ashmole was a saint of the Gnostic Church.

Ashmole was a magus. He inhabited a world where science and magick were still handmaidens to religion and philosophy. He was one of the last men of learning to enjoy that world before the family broke up. All too soon, science would leave home to plough her own furrow independently and, at times, in contempt of her troubled parents. Nevertheless, Ashmole was a founding member of the Royal Society--a harbinger of that fateful parting--and was himself unconcerned with theological disputes. The philosophy he espoused stood above them; and so did he. . . .

ALCHEMY

Elias Ashmole began calling himself the Mercuriophilus Anglicus (the English Mercury Lover) during the 1650s, after the illegal execution of King Charles I and the beginning of Oliver Cromwell's decade of power. Mercurius was the Latin form of the Greek Hermes. As the divine Mercurius, Hermes, the pater philosophorum (father of philosophy), was crowned as the lord of the ancient art of alchemy.

Alchemy was the subject of Ashmole's first three books. Mercurius is also a staple element of alchemical processes. In simple words, there could be no alchemical transformations without the implicit principle of transformation, mercurius . Hermes was the psychic lord ( psychopomp ) of the Art.

Alchemical mercury is not to be

Acknowledgements

Introduction: Ex Uno Omnia
The Great Man
The Magus
The Hermetic Magus
Alchemy
Lichfield
C.H. Josten

One: The Coming One
The Ashmoles
Formative Influences
Mother

Two: Lichfield--the Hidden Light of England
St. Chad and the Origins of Lichfield
Gaia
Childhood

Three: London Calling

Four: War
Astrology
The Intelligencer
Ashmole's Persona
Defending Oxford
Dreams and Spires
Women
Worcester

Five: Defeat and Rebirth: Freemasonry
Free Masonry
Secret Signs

Six: Return to London
Women Again
Lady Mainwaring

Seven: The 1650s (I): The Philosopher's Stone
Ex Uno Omnia
Fasciculus Chemicus
One Hieroglyph--New Being
The Theatre of British Chemistry
Ashmole and the Rosicrucians
The Rose Cross Fraternity
A Gathering Reputation
The Way to Bliss

Eight: The 1650s (ii): Study to Be Quiet
Secret Work
A Journey to Staffordshire
Contemplative Men and Antiquarian Recreation
The Tradescant Deed of Gift

Nine: The Windsor Herald
The Royal Society
The Antiquarian
The Masterpiece
Astro-Politics

Ten: Lichfield--the Reconstruction
Restaurator
The Loving Cup
Our Magus
Ashmole's Politics
Bills, Bills, and More Bills
Ashmole and the Mason's Company
The Origins of Freemasonry

Eleven: The Museum
The Tradescant Rarities
The Ashmolean
"Those Fatall Flames"

Twelve: Coming Home
Saving Dee
Sendivogius, Kelley, and Dee
Toward Home
Postscript

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Tobias Churton is Britain's leading scholar of Western Esotericism, a world authority on Gnosticism, Hermeticism, and Rosicrucianism. He is a filmmaker and the founding editor of the magazine Freemasonry Today. An Honorary Fellow of Exeter University, where he is faculty lecturer in Rosicrucianism and Freemasonry, he holds a master's degree in Theology from Brasenose College, Oxford, and created the award-winning documentary series and accompanying book The Gnostics, as well as several other films on Christian doctrine, mysticism, and magical folklore. The author of many books, including Gnostic Philosophy, The Invisible History of the Rosicrucians, and Aleister Crowley: The Beast in Berlin, he lives in England.

"Reads like an adventure novel. Ashmole was one of the leading intellectual and spiritual lights of the time, an accomplished alchemist, and close friend to some of the most brilliant men in England. Churton has given us a compelling picture of Ashmole's life, the city in which he lived, and the guild structure of the time." Scottish Rite Journal of Freemasonry, Southern Jurisdiction, USA