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HERICOURT
Hermanssöhne
Hermes Trismegtstus
HERMES TRISMEGISTUS
Hermetische Vrijmetselarij
HERMETIC BROTHERHOOD OF LUXOR
Peter Davidson
Migration to America
HERMETIC SCHOOLS AND MASONRY
Three Hermetic Schools
Symbolical Groups
English Alchemists
Alchemical Groups
Operative and Speculative Masonic
Hermetic and Masonic Symbols
Hermetic Literature
Rosicrucian Influence
German Views
Elias Ashmole
William Backhouse
Ashmole's Initiation
Life of Ashmole
Alchemical Pursuits
The Hermetic Work
AIchemical Stone
Rosicrucian Doctrine
The Ashmole Hypothesis
Robert Fludd
The Operative Brotherhood
A Lost Word
Third Degree
Rabon's Reverie
The Kabalistic School
HERICOURT (DU TROUSSET D') President van het Parlement te Pariijs, in 1773, een van de oprigters van het systema van de Philaleten, en bij de Conventen derzelve, in 1785 en 1787, een van de Commissarissen voor de Archieven, belast met de uitvaardiging van de rondgaande brieven.
Hermanssöhne (Orde van de-), een in Amerika bestaande vereniging van Duitse VV. . MM*, waarvan de leden elkaar helpen en de weduwen en wezen van de leden ondersteunen. Ze hebben onderafdelingen voor ziekenverpleging, begrafenis enz. Bij hun vergaderingen bedienen ze zich van enige zeer eenvoudige maç* vormen. De leden dragen een zwart-rood-gouden band.
Hermes Trismegtstus
Waite
Lennhoff,
HERMES TRISMEGTSTUS-2
Mackey-suplement
(d.w.z. Hermes de driemaal grootste). De Mercurius van de Egyptenaren. Een mythologische figuur, de goddelijke bezitter van alle priesterlijke kunst en wijsheid, die ten tijde van Mozes geleefd en vele heilige geschriften van de Egyptenaren zou vervaardigd hebben. De Grieken noemden die geschriften de Hermetische boeken. De Nieuw-Platoniërs hechtten aan deze boeken de grootste waarde en vereerden ze als de bron van alle geheimen en van alle verborgen wetenschap. Alen beweerde dat deze geheime wijsheid door de overlevering van geslacht tot geslacht aan enige wijze mannen was medegedeeld en noemde dit de hermetische keten, waarvan Proclus (412—485 na Chr.) het laatste lid zou zijn geweest. In later dagen putte Paracelsus uit deze bronnen zijn hermetische geneeskunde. Onder de VV* MM* waren ook die deze geheimzinnigheden bewonderden en zo vormde zich ook een Hermetische Vrijmetselarij (zie t volgende artikel). Daar men aan Hermes Trismegistus de kunst toekende, door magische zegels een vat voor eeuwig te sluiten, ontstond de uitdrukking: hermetisch, d. w. z. luchtdicht gesloten.
HERMES TRISMEGISTUS (driemaal de grootste) werd door de Egyptenaren, als de uitvinder van het letterschrift en van vele andere voor de mens nuttige wetenschappen, goddelijke eer bewezen. Het ontbreekt overigens aan stellige geschiedkundige berichten aangaande hem, zodat men zelfs van gedachte is, dat het enkel een allegorische naam is. De Alchimisten beschouwden hem als hun eerste onderwijzer en patroon.
THOYT, welke de Pheniciërs Thaaut, de Grieken Hermes en de Romeinen Mercurius noemden, gaf de Egyptenaren het eerste onderricht in wetenschappen en aanleiding tot de kunsten. Hij gaf de natuurlijke lichamen eigen namen, vond de leerwijze uit, om zijn gedachten door zinnebeelden uit te drukken, bracht de burgerlijke regering in orde, voerde godsdienstige gebruiken in, stichtte tempels en stelde priesters aan, die zich geheel hieraan moesten wijden. Hij nam de regelmatige loop van de sterren waar, plantte olijfbomen, en bracht de eerste tonen op de lier voort.
HERMES de tweede, een zoon van AGATHODEMOR, verdient vooral genoemd te worden onder de koningen van het oude Egypte, die zich door weldadige handelingen de troon waardig maakten. Hij verbeterde de godenleer van het volk, ontdekte de grondregels van de reken- en meetkunde; hij voerde, in plaats van de zinnebeelden, hiëroglyfen in, en richtte twee kolommen op. op welke hij, met de door hem nieuw uitgevonden schrifttekens, de gehele omvang, van de Egyptische wetenschappen liet uithouwen, in de ijdele hoop, die daardoor te vereeuwigen.
De Nijl vernielde in het vervolg zijn kunstige dammen en overstroomde Egypte, wierp de stenen gedenktekenens van de Egyptische wijsheid neer, en kunsten en wetenschappen gingen voor een tijd ten gronde, tot dat HERMES TRISMEGISTUS verscheen, die de verstrooide overblijfselen van de voormalige kennis opzamelde, de sleutel tot de hiëroglyfen terugvond het verbeterde, en toen de Priesters mededeelde, die deze in het binnenste van de tempel als een geheiligde schat bewaarden.
Aan deze hersteller van de wetenschappen en kunsten heeft Egypte de glans en roem` te danken, welke Egypte naderhand verkreeg. Dagelijks groeide het welzijn van het land, dat, door de wijste wetten geleid, door vorsten geregeerd werd, die allen tot een Orde behoorden, welker grondregel zuiverheid van de zeden en weldoen was; die geen ander geluk, geen andere hoogmoed kenden, dan om een gedenkteken achter te laten, dat hun zorgen voor het welzijn van het land, konden vereeuwigen; die, daar zij tegelijk medeleden van het Priesterdom en medebewaarders van de geheimen waren, de belangen van de godsdienst, zowel als van den Staat, onverdeeld behartigden.
Al deze verzamelde brokstukken van de oude tijd, zijn uit verschillende geschriften van geleerde mannen opgezameld. Het doel van de meesten van deze strekte, om de Christelijke godsdienst met een nieuw Platonische en Kabbalistische geestdrijverij te verenigen, en deze leer uit filosofischen grondstellingen te verklaren. Dit alles werd met de mantel van de openbaring en van de geheimen omhuld en tot geheimzinnigheid gebracht. Voor dat Alexandrië de zetel van wijsbegeerte en geleerdheid werd, had het mysticisme onder de Grieken niet veel naam bekomen. PYTHAGORAS en sommige van zijn leerlingen begonnen in geheimzinnige bewoordingen te spreken, en zich veel van de openbaringen te laten ontvallen. XENOPHON noemt daarom de Pythagorische leer een wonderbaarlijke wijsheid, en volgens geloofwaardige, oude getuigenissen sprak PYTHAGQRAS van godenverschijingen en buitengewone openbaringen. Doch dit werd onder de filosofen niet algemeen, en duurde ook niet lang. Deze, te zeer de vrijheid ademende en door hun verstand te zeer geleid, zochten door eigen nadenken zelf de waarheid te vinden. Door de vereniging van Griekse en Egyptische wijsbegeerte, begonnen de Platonici van lieverlede het dweepzieke gedeelte van de erfenis van hun voorgangers toe te passen. De liefde tot het wonderbare werd, door de meerdere uitbreiding van het Christendom, meer en meer aangevuurd. Daar de weigeren zagen, dat dit nieuwe systeem het hunne met gehele vernietiging bedreigde; dat vooral door wonderen, proselieten gevormd werden zoo zochten ook zij zich door priesterlisten in het verrichten van wonderen te bekwamen, en konden zij al geen wonderen verrichten, dan werkten zij toch op de verbeeldingskracht van de verblinde menigte met verschijningen en openbaringen.
Hermetische Vrijmetselarij (Rit hermétique) is de naam van een in de vorige eeuw in Frankrijk gesticht systeem, dat de Vrijmij* voor alchimistische doeleinden misbruikte. De stichter was zekere don Pernetti te Avignon (1770). Het hoofdbestuur nam de naam aan "Grande Loge Ecossais du comtat Venaissin" Nadat de Gr* L* van Avignon in 1775 was opgeheven, loste ze zich op in haar dochterloge "St. Lazare" te Parijs, die in 1776 als de Mere-Loge du Rit Écossais philosophique geconstitueerd werd en zins die tijd St. Jean d'Écosse genoemd werd. Een zijtak van het hermetisch systeem was de in 1778 van uit Avignon gestichte Academie des vrais Maçons te Montpellier.
HERMETIC BROTHERHOOD OF LUXOR
Peter Davidson
Migration to America
HERMETIC BROTHERHOOD OF LUXOR
I have been informed by at least one American Mason of excellent standing that this association still exists in the United States and is unobjectionable in its present character. I have no particulars concerning it, and it would seem to be an obscure body. Its Masonic connections now, as at the beginning, may be limited to the fact that its male members are Masons, but there are both sexes. It would not be necessary to mention it on such slender grounds, but it has been noticed in various publications belonging to the Brotherhood in an unofficial sense, while ridiculous periodicals like TNE MASONIC AND ROSICRUCIAN RECORD have put forward spurious claims regarding it. It is distinctly an Order with a past and that past is as follows. In or about the year 1880 an adventurer passing under the name of D'Alton was located at Baildon, near Bradford, and was making inquiries among occult students of the period. He was brought into communication with one who was well-informed on matters appertaining to Alchemy, Magic and later Kabalism, one also who was a clergyman of the English Church and a Past Master of the Masonic Craft. The appearance and expression of D'Alton caused some hesitation about admitting him into any one's house. He was dismissed by the cleric as soon as possible, but there was a feeling that he might return as a burglar. A few months passed away, and then D'Alton was convicted elsewhere of a very bad case of swindling.
Peter Davidson. About the time that he came out of prison the clergyman mentioned received a letter from one Peter Davidson, inviting him to join an Occult Order under the title of the HERMETIC BROTHERHOOD OF LUXOR and stating that its secretary was Mr. Burgoyne, resident at Burnley in Lancashire. Inquiries were made and the respectability of Davidson was vouched for by an old friend of the clergyman, who became a member thereupon. Many applied for admission and paid their entrance fees. The clergyman himself appears to have been unwisely active in securing subscribers among people of his own dass and remutted their monies to Burgoyne, from whom he received in consequence a number of illiterate letters, giving hints about a Heat adept who was behind them. Certain suspicions were aroused and inquiries were made on the spot. It was ascertained that Burgoyne was in collusion with an ex-Brahmin—Hurychund Christaman—who had cheated various people at Leeds, Halifax and elsewhere. Other investigations proved that the handwriting of Burgoyne was identical with that of D'Alton. By means of a photograph Christaman was found to be in communication also with Davidson, to whom the clergyman wrote asking whether he was aware that the Secretary of the HERMETIC BROTHERHOOD, under the alias of D Alton, was a convicted felon. Davidson answered that he knew him as a great occultist. Davidson was regarded therefore as implicated in the rascality of his confederate, and the known members of the Order were communicated with, stating the facts of the case. Davidson and Burgoyne threatened legal action, but the police had been shadowing the latter since he left Armley Jail, and presently he fled with Davidson to America, presumably taking the considerable subscriptions which had been obtained under a pretence of purchasing land in America and erecting suitable buildings for an occult society.
Migration to America The police are said to have recognised that it might have proved an imposture of magnitude, had it not been stopped in time. The HERMETIC BROTHERHOOD was established duly in the States, but a photograph of D'Alton was obtained in his prison-dress and, together with one taken before his conviction, was sent by the clergyman to an American correspondent whom the Order had endeavoured to dupe. Copies of both were printed in juxtaposition, accompanied by an open letter addressed to all transatlantic members. Meanwhile Burgoyne had proved unendurable even to Davidson, who is said to have " turned him out " with a small sum of money, Burgoyne saying —a little tritely—as he went: " The way to make gold is to practise on the credulity of mankind." This time he fled to California, consequently upon the portrait disclosure. He had deserted his wife at Bundey and ultimately he married another woman—I believe in the Far West. But he is said to have led a miserable life, in constant dread of reprisals on the part of those whom he had defrauded. At the sight of any stranger it is reported that he would go into hiding. He died under circumstances which I have not been able to ascertain. Davidson continued to turn occultism to account and apparently the HERMETIC BROTHERHOOD remained in his hands. It must have lived down the rough unveiling of its original secretary. The interests of the Society seem to have been represented for a period by a monthly magazine under Davidson's editorship. It was called THE MORNING STAR.
HERMETIC SCHOOLS AND MASONRY
If we isolate the Building Guilds of the Middle Ages and later from all imputed correspondence by way of descent—with the Ancient Mysteries, with Dionysians and Essenes, Roman Collegia and Crusading Knights, or Solomon and his Temple; if we talke them just as they are, acknowledging that their history is still in cloud and darkness for want of sufficient materials to elucidate it, but supposing that they originated—like other trade unions—as a matter of trade convenience; if we picture them as craftsmen in stone and clay, somewhat roughly banded together; it is still indubitable that out of these Guilds a Speculative Fraternity was either evolved in modern days or another and emblematical concern was superposed thereon. At a given period and in an undetermined place something occurred so to transfigure these artificers that they ceased gradually to hew stones, to make bricks, to plan and to build edifices; that they laid down chisel and hammer, assumed the mantle of philosophers and began to concern themselves—theoretically at least—in the progress of humanity, the improvement of its moral nature, and in that which is termed loosely a spiritual experiment. How this came about is the problem which remains for our consideration and for solution, if that be possible.
Three Hermetic Schools In earlier days of research—the eighteenth century and onward—Emblematic Freemasonry was taken on its own terms. The makers of all the spurious histories, the dreamers of all the fond, romantic dreams—both here and on the Continent —ignored to all intents and purposes the historical distinction between an Operative and a Speculative mode. Was Masonry before the world in God ? Did it date from Adam in Paradise ? Was the first Lodge opened in Egypt ? However the thesis shaped it was Speculative Masonry worked in Three Degrees, having no essential distinction from those which obtain among us; and it was as much in vogue among artists who built the Pyramids, Babel or Solomon's Temple as it was among Essenes and Thebaid hermits, who built only in the heart. When other counsels of research obtained in England and abroad it became, ads we have seen, a custom to explore the records of the Building Guilds. I do not know whether I am the first to say that this quest has failed, but I have not come across my precursor. The multiplication of old Charges and analogous documents, the tabulation of their variants, the criticism of spurious codices have exercised great skill and deserve all praise, being invaluable for the history of architecture; but as to origin or development, Emblematic Freemasonry remains substantially where it was—a great Dramatic Mystery with its origin in the douds. In respect of documentary evidence, we know as little whence it came as those who profess it among us know whither it is going. Under theses circumstances we seem led irresistibly to infer that it originated where and when it was first manifested, being the City of London in the early eighteenth century. But it happens that there is one direction which has been regarded not unfavourably as a possible source of light. It is that of the Hermetic Schools in England, and these-speaking broadly—may be classified as three—Alchemical, Rosicrucian and Kabalistic. They had a common bond of interest and tended, here as elsewhere, to merge into a single school.
Symbolical Groups The presence of a non-operative element among Masons at an early period has been suggested by several writers. Mr. R. F. Gould considers that we are justified in inferring that from the fourteenth century, or even earlier, there were associations of a speculative or symbolical character, as apart from practical Masonry, though—with the sincerity by which he was characterised— he adds that on this point the judgment of certain students was opposed to his own. We have seen on our own part that the view is unsupported by evidence. On the other hand, the practice of receiving within the ranks of the Fraternity men who were neither architects nor builders, and that not merely as patrons, is beyond challenge. This practice was characteristic, however, of most Trade Guilds in England. Now, the hypothesis with which I am concerned suggests that the Hermetic Schools intervened for the transfiguration of English Operative Masonry about the middle of the seventeenth century. The Reformation had succeeded the Renaissance, and with all the disabilities attaching to both movements there can be no doubt that there was a great extension of the intellectual horizon. Many new avenues of thought had been thrown open, and men, being comparatively free to speak and act, acted and spoke freely, within the limits of their opportunities, while among other things there was a new impulse in Germany and England given to the prosecution of several branches of inquiry which antecedently could have been and were pursued only at the personal peril of the student. In England the practical experiment of Alchemy was undertaken by numerous persons, and it is just pHor to the date which I have mentioned that the rumour of the ROSICRUCIAN FRATERNITY raised curiosity in Europe. Hermetic literature—not only with a modern accent but almost for the first time in vernacular Extended greatly, and schools of theosophy sprang up in several countries. The root of the Rosicrucian movement was in Germany, but the impulse reached England, and some of the most famous names connected with the subject are identified with this country. Hence came Alexander Seton and hence Eirenaeus Philalethes, who has been regarded as one of the great masters of Hermetic Art. Here also was Robert Fludd, who must—I think—be regarded as not only advocate and apologist in chief of the Rosicrucian Art and Philosophy but as a fountain-head. Here too was Thomas Vaughan—mystic as well as alchemist. And here in 1640 lived Elias Ashmole, alchemist and antiquary—founder also of the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford.
English Alchemists There are evidences to shew that the experiment of Alchemy in England was at the period of Ashmole an exceedingly old pursuit. It was practise I certainly in the time of Chaucer, but the literary remains of the early period are non-existent rather than scanty. Vernacular manuscripts date, broadly speaking, from about the fifteenth century, and Roger Bacon is perhaps the first name which can be cited in connection with the subject. As regards printed books prior to the seventeenth century, these also are few and far between, but no doubt there were many practical processes derived from Latin treatises, and they would have come over chiefly from Germany. At the beginning of the seventeenth century there must have been a great awakening of interest, though it is clear from evidence furnished personally by Robert Fludd that his own voluminous writings several of which bear indirectly on this subject—found a considerable public abroad, and next to none at home. The interest grew, however, and must have been rather widely diffused before the middle of the seventeenth century. It was maintained and stimulated by visitors from abroad, some of whom daimed to possess important secrets of Rosicrucian and Hermetic Art. In the face of possibilities opened by such pretension, but following also the general tradition of the literature—and taught, moreover, like others, by the experience of their own failures—English students came to regard this Art as a secret transmitted rather than as a Mystery that could be acquired by the pains of untutored research; and one result of this feeling would be the association of pupils under the g udance of an adept or master—real or supposed.
Alchemical Groups In this way also informal alchemical associations may have come into being, but they have left no trace behind them. It should be added that the horizon of Alchemy in England was more limited than in some of its developments abroad, where its traditions came almost to rival the so-called universal science of Raymond Lully. By means of Hermetic Art men hoped in England to transmute metals and to produce an elixir which would heal diseases and prolong life. When they sought after these secrets, and when they wrote concerning them, there is little evidence of any ulterior object in view, of Spiritual Alchemy such as we find it abroad, or of the catholic concern of` Paracelsus. Now, it is precisely in the mid-seventeenth century that we meet with traces of a change in this respect, and when Thomas Vaughan wrote his strange little books on the subject Alchemy in England was coming slowly into touch with a wider spirit of researches it was pursued, for example, in Germany—and was assuming something of that accent and intention which help to connect it's it does connect undoubtedly—with certain broad aspects of the initiatory process.
Operative and Speculative Masonic A section of Masonic opinion has looked in the past and a section looks still towards Elias Ashmole and his connections as in some way—yet undetermined—the representatives of the transition from Operative to Speculative Masonry. In France there has been practically no doubt on the subject from the days of Ragon, though concerning the value of his personal view I have spoken with desirable plainness elsewhere in this section. In America the distinguished name of Albert Pike can be cited in support of the thesis. After every allowance has been made for the position of such a speculation, stiU almost inextricable, it can be affinned at least that it might offer a place of repose for all the tolerable views, because it harmonises all—on the understanding that Ashmole and his consociates are not regarded personally but as typifying a leavening spirit introduced there and here, and at work during the period intervening between 1640 and the foundation of the first Grand Lodge in 1717. It would account at once not alone for Hermeticism itself but for alleged Rosicrucian influence as a part thereof, for the obvious presence of Kabalistic elements in Speculative Masonry, and for all other contributories of a mystical character in the sy nbols and legends of the Fraternity, as well as for that otherwise incomprehensible bond of sympathy which—in the eighteenth century and onward for one hundred and more years—subsisted between Masonry and the purely mystical societies, and which developed at one period a most striking sequence of results, as we shall see in its place later on. Pike was like Ragon unfortunately, a man of uncritical mind, and I summarise his findings under all needful reserves.
Hermetic and Masonic Symbols Among Masonic symbols which he identifies as used in common by Freemasons and Her-` metic and Alchemical literature are the Square and Compasses, the Triangle, the Oblong Square, the Legend of the Three Grand Masters, the idea embodied in a Substituted Word—which may well be the most important of all—together with the Sun, the Moon and Master of the Lodge. It was, moreover, his opinion, based on this and other considerations, that the Philosophers —meaning in his case the members of Hermetic Confraternities— became Freemasons and introduced into Masonry their own symbolism. He thinks finally that Ashmole was led to be made a Mason because others who were followers of Hermes had taken the step before him.
Hermetic Literature Unfortunately it is very nearly impossible in the existing state of our knowledge to set forth even the outlines of any tolerable hypothesis along these lines, because the connecting links are wanting. if it is worth while to record any personal opinion which I am disposed to hold on the subject, it may be said that at no distant period of time more light is likely to be forthcoming and may determine the question finally on the one or the other side. The Hermetic literature of the seventeenth century is a source from which to expect assistance and a concerted attempt to examine this literature —which is still largely in manuscript—is pending on the part of those who feel that importance attaches to the issue. Any new knowledge will come, however, from analysis of the symbolical documents rather than from what is understood as direct historical evidence. Something will depend also upon new aspects which may be assumed by what has been termed well the Rosicrucian Mystery, and this for the reason that whereas during past investigations reliance has been placed of necessity upon public documents alone it is now recognised—at least in certain circles—that there are other channels of inquiry from which help may be derived. For the moment, however, it is still possible to deal only with the vague outcomes of historical research.
Rosicrucian Influence.The influence of the ROSICRUCIAN FRATERNITY upon that of the Masons has been questioned only by those who have been unfitted to appreciate the symbolism which they possess in common. The nature of the influence is another matter and one, moreover, in which it mav be necessary to recognise the simple principle of imitation up to a certain point. The influence does not belong to the formative period of Emblematic Freemasonry but to that of development and extension. It has been exercised more especially in connection with High Grades, as to which it is impossible—for example—to question that those who instituted the Eighteenth Degree of the SCOTTISH RITE either must have received something by transmission from the old German Brotherhood or, alternatively, must have borrowed from its literature.
German Views Outside the High Grades, there have been writers of consideration—being Germans more especially—who have regarded Freemasonry as actually a final development of the ROSICRUCIAN BROTHERHOOD. The first to advance this hypothesis was Nicolai of Berlin—a bookseller of some literary eminence—in the year I782. He was followed by Buhle, without much otherwise in the way of agreement with the views and claims of his predecessor. Gould has ruled that the speculations of both are dead, but this is true only of the specific complexion which was given them, and he himself would have been doubtless amongthe first to recognise—and does in fact acknowledge implicitly— the likelihood of such a broad and gradual influence as is here under consideration. More than a century prior to the two German writers— that is to say, in the year 1638 Henry Adamson—who is described by Gould as a citizen of Perth—published a metrical account of that city in which are the following lines:
For we are Brethren of the Rosie Cross.
We have the Mason Word and second sight.
Elias Ashmole I do not know whether the significance of this quotation—which is one of the earliest references to the ROSICRUCIAN SOCIETY found in the English language—has been appreciated at its full value. It is the first occasion assuredly on which that Fraternity and Masons are bracketed, so to speak, together; in which connection it should be remembered that the earliest reports in Europe concerning Rosicrucians do not go back much further than 1614. The informal relation instituted by the verses cannot be regarded as evidence, except perhaps of an implied link and bond in the mind of the writer; but even from this point of view it is not without significance. It was several years subsequently— namely, in 1652—that Rosicrucian Manifestoes were first translated into English, and it was a little prior to this time that Elias Ashmole was admitted into the Brotherhood of Masons. That he was connected previously with Rosicrucians themselves, or otherwise with the representatives of some association which had assumed their name, is an inference drawn from his life. His antiquarian studies led him more especially in the direction of Alchemy, but as regards this aft he did not remain an Antiquary, a mere collector of old documents on the subject. He was to some extent a practical student and, moreover, not simply an isolated inquirer. He had secured that assistance which has been regarded always as next but one to essential, namely, the instruction of a Master. The alternative is Divine Aid, which is of course a higher kind of Mastery.
William Backhouse The charitable instructor in the case of Ashmole was one William Backhouse, of whom few particulars are forthcoming in public beyond his asserted Rosicrucian connections. The assertion may, however, be reducible to the unquestioned fact that he followed Alchemical studies-a recurring confusion of uncritical persons and times. Ashmole was associated otherwise with many of the occult philosophers, alchemists, astrologers and so forth—belonging to his period. The suggestion that he acted as an instrument of the Rosicrucian Brotherhood, or as a member thereof, in the transfiguration of Operative into Speculative Freemasonry is a matter of faith for those who have held or hold it. Of direct or indirect evidence there is not one particle. Supposing that such a design existed at the period he is not an unlikely person to have been concerned in planning it on the part of himself and others, or to have been delegated for such a purpose. But of the design there is again no evidence. The period is for me the beginning of a leavening only and not the result thereof. It has been affirmed further in the interests of the claim that a meeting of an Alchemical— presumably Rosicrucian Order took place in London, and in a hall which was used regularly for Masonic gatherings—meaning Masons' Hall; that Ashmole and his fellow-Rosicrucians—perceiving how working Masons were already outnumbered in membership by persons of education not belonging to the trade—believed that the time was ripe for a complete ceremonial revolution and that one founded on mystical tradition was drawn up therefore in writing, constituting the ENTERED APPRENTICE Grade, approximately as it exists now. The Grade of FELLOW CRAFT was elaborated in 1648 and that of MASTER in the year 1650.
Ashmole's Initiation These are the reveries of Ragon, categorical in nature, accompanied by specific details, all in the absence of one particle of fact in any record of the past. It seems to me therefore that no language would be too strop to characterise such mendacities and that they could belong only to the class of conscous lying; but the charge against Ragon is more especially that he elaborated the materials of a hypothesis which had grown up among successive inventors belonging to the type of Reghellini. If there were Rosicrucians in England at the date in question, if Backhouse was actually a Rosicmcian, it may be presumed that those who according to Ashmole's own statement communicated to him some portions at least of the Hermetic secrets would not have withheld the corporate mysteries of their Fraternity. But on the other hand these is at present no historical evidence that the Hermetic Order possessed any such corporate existence in England at that period and there is no evidence that Backhouse was himself a member—holding from abroad or otherwise. However this may be, in the memoirs of the life of Elias Ashmole, as drawn up by himself in the fonn of a diary, there is the following now well-known entry under date of October 16, 1646:
" I was made a Freemason at Warrington in Lancashire, with Colonel Henry Mainwaring of Kartichan in Cheshire- the names of those that were then at the Lodge: Mr. Richard Penket, Warden; Mr. James Collier, Mr. Richard Sankey, Henry Littler, John Ellam, Richard Ellam and Hugh Brewer."
Life of Ashmole The two noteworthy points in this extract, over and above the main fact which it designs to place on record, are that neither Candidate was an operative by business and that the work of initiation was performed evidently by the brother who acted as Warden. At this period Elias Ashmole was under thirty years of age. His father was a saddler by trade, his mother was the daughter of a draper and he himself solicited in Chancery. But while still in his youth he tells us that he had entered into that condition to which he had aspired always: " That I might be able to live to myself and studies, without being forced to take pains for a livelihood in the world." The admissions of October 16, 1646, are not required to prove the practice of initiating men of other business than that of Masonry and its connected crafts, or even of no business at all, but it should be observed that here—as in cases of earlier date—the reception was in the capacity of simple brothers and not of patrons. The practice is doubtless much older than its earliest record, and there is nothing whatever in the diary of Ashmole to indicate that the occurrence was unusual, or that he and his companion were in any sense favoured specially—as commoners who became Brethren and not as noble patrons.
Alchemical Pursuits The nature of those studies which were engrossing him about the time of his initiation may be learned by the publication, five years later, of his THEATRUS CHEMICUM BRITANNICUM, being a collection of metrical treatises written in English at various dates on the subject of the Hermetic Mystery and the Philosopher's Stone. They appear to be concerned only with what is called technically the physical work on metals arid the physical medicine or elixir, not with those Spiritual Masteries which have passed occasionally into expression under the peculiar symbolism of Alchemy. At the same time Ashmole is careful to explain his personal assurance that the transmutation of metals is only one branch of Hermetic practice.
" As this is but a part, so it is the least share of that blessing which may be acquired by the Philosopher's materia, if the full virtue thereof were known. Gold, I confess, is a delicious object, a goodly light which we admire and gaze upon ut pueri in Junonis avem; but as to make gold is the chief intent of the Alchemists, so was it scarcely any intent of the ancient Philosophers and the lowest use the Adepti made of this materia. For they, being lovers of wisdom more than worldly wealth, drove at higher and more excellent operations; and certainly he to whom the whole course of Nature lies open rejoiceth not so much that he can make gold and silver or the devils be made subject to him as that he sees the heavens open, the angels of God ascending and descending, and that his own name is fairly written in the Book of Life."
The Hermetic Work I regard this extract as presenting a theory in brief of the whole Hermetic work, and it is in particular remarkable for its analogies with the books of Thomas Vaughan, a contemporary of Ashmole and about the same age. It is like the opening of a certain door, beyond which there seems to stretch an endless vista, a prospect beyond prospect It is not possible in the present place to attempt any description. It may be observed, however, by way of very brief analysis, that " the chief intent of the alchemists " is not said to attain its term by the common way of the alchemists, being that which Vaughan calls the " torturing of metals." There is a certain matter which in its lowest application can produce gold but in its highest opens a path to Eternal Life. Now, we know otherwise from Hermetic literature that the Stone of the Philosophers was not a stone actually, and that the Powder of Transmutation was not literally and atomically a powder. These modes of language were veils made use of by the adepts, sometimes to shew forth symbolically the higher fields of their concern, sometimes to put on record their acquaintance—hypothetical or practical—with certain renovating and transmuting substances available to operation in the lower branches of their art. It will be obvious, I may assume, that a materia which can be used in the making of material gold does not open the heavens, reveal the Ladder of Jacob, or enable the operator to find his name written in the Book of Life.
AIchemical Stone The language of Ashmole is therefore that of parable, and a similar criticism obtains when he distinguishes elsewhere four speaes of so called Philosophical Stone—mineral, vegetable, magical and angelical. Here is another allegory under which he indicates the four palmary divisions of occult science. The first is concerned with the supposed development and perfection of metallic substances; the second deals with the secret virtues of plants, about which something will be found in such books as the HERBARIUM of Paracelsus; the third is—in modern language—the science of lucidity, vision at a distance, reading in the Astral Light, and so forth; but the fourth is a celestial and divine power, by which the angelical world has supposed to be opened and by which gifts of veridic dream and prophecy were conferred upon the seer. It cans to be said that none of these Philosophical Stones opens the Book of Life, and seeing that Ashmole uses this figurative expression categorically he was either aware that there is a fifth, highest and most catholic Stone—about which he does not speak—or he misconceived the way and end of research in true adeptship. I think personally that he had a very fun conception and grasp of occult initiation but did not know that of the mystics, unless at a far distance and through a dark glass. However this may be, he says generally with regard to Hermetic practice:
" I must confess I know enough to hold my tongue but not enough to speak, and the no less real than miraculous virtues I have found in my diligent inquiry into the arcana lead me to such degrees of admiration, they command silence and force me to lose my speech."
Rosicrucian Doctrine It should be added that Ashmole's exposition is a faithful reflection of Rosicrucian doctrine as this is put forward, directly or indirectly, under the name of the Brotherhood in German books and pamphlets of the early seventeenth century. Supposing that circa 1650 there was a Rosicrucian School in England no person is so likely to have been a number as Ashmole, and it is not possible to imagine him in separation therefrom. Indeed I am by no means certain that his testimony is not thinly presumptive of membership, being so to the manner born of it in thought and figures of speech; and I indine to this new the more
(a) because the literature of the ROSY CROSS at the Ashmole peried and earlier offers little conscious realisation of the highest ends of adeptship, and (b) because the direction in which it falls short is that of Ashmole's own deficiency.. But if we can tolerate—however tentatively—the Rosicrucian initiation of Ashmole we may take it for Wanted that he did not stand alone. On the whole it seems possible that on October 16, 1646, at Warrington in Lancashire, a Brother of the Rosy Cross was made a Mason, with or without an ulterior motive in view. It follows expressly from his frank and honourable testimony concerning himself that he was one who had only seen the end of adept-ship, even within the measures that he conceived it, while as regards any other Rosicrucians to whom he may have been joined we know nothing concerning them, with the sole exception of Backhouse.
The Ashmole Hypothesis It will be seen that the Ashmole hypothesis is but a part of the wider claim of Rosicrucian influence on the development of Emblematic Freemasonry. I have recorded and agree with the opinion that in so far as it has been advanced in the past this claim has lapsed. To put it shortly, the House of the Holy Spirit, being the ROSICRUCIAN BROTHERHOOD in Germany, had a Secret House in England which either transfigured itself into the thing called Speculative Masonry or revolutionised the old operative Craft along speculative lines for its own purposes, presumably that it might have recrating centres available and more or less openly manifest. With this hypothesis there lapses its earlier form, which even now is regarded favourably by a few here and there. Among the great Rosicrucian apologists of the early seventeenth century we have seen that there was the Englishunan Robert Fludd, and it has been sought to connect hun not only with the German Fraternity, but with the transition of Operative into Emblematic Freemasonry by an admixture of Rosicrucian doctrine and symbolism therewith.
Robert Fludd Supposing that the ROSICRUCIAN SOCIETY of 1615 existed otherwise than on paper, Fludd may have been brought within it, for he had certainly wrought and fought for it throughout hsc literary life; but we do not know. He reflected and extended its continental literature. His Masonic connections are still more slender and tentative and are reducible within two simple points of fact:
(I) That he lived in his later years, as indeed he died also, in Coleman Street, close to the Masons' Hill;
(2) That in the year 1660 an Inventory of the Company's goods, taken before the fire of London, has the following entry: " Item I, BOOK OF THE CONSTITUTIONS that Mr. Flood gave." Why it should follow that a person whose house is near Masons' Hall is likely to have been himself a Mason and why the Mr. Flood mentioned in 1660 must be identified with Robertus de Fluctibus, the Kentish philosopher who died in 1637, I am not able to see; but there has been reasoning of this kind. Much has been done recently to elucidate the life and writings of the Kentish occult philosopher, but the last conclusion of his latest biographer, the Rev. J. B. Craven, is that which has been reached previously by first-hand students of his Latin works—namely, that there is no evidence of his allelpd Masonic connections.
The Operative Brotherhood When the question at issue has been relieved from these reveries there remains the more reasonable suggestion that the Operative Brotherhood came gradually and not unnaturally under the influence of persons who belong ed to both associations. It is reasonable
(a) because of the non-operative element within the Craft,
(b) because this element began to predominate,
(c) because a Craft Mystery so curiously qualified was antecedently likely to attract the members of other confraternities, having Mysteries of their own. It would attract also those who were simply Hermetic students, though isolated and unattached as such. Attached or otherwise, Ashmole is a case in point. The influence which in this manner would begin to be exercised, consciously or unconsciously, would be Hermetic in a general sense rather than Rosicrucian exclusively; but this is a distinction which will not be realised readily by those who are acquainted only at second hand with the mystical and occult movements of the seventeenth century. Finally, it may have been even older than the Commonwealth and Restoration. As to the Ritual side of the Operative Mystery in that century we know next to nothing, while of Rosicrucian Ritual procedure—if any—we know nothing at all.
A Lost Word The Adamson couplet is evidence that there was a Mason's Word at the period, whereas Speculative Masonry is concerned with the Quest of a Lost Word. The distinction seems therefore generic. Granting for a moment the fact of Hermetic influence I conceive that it was gradual and indeed very slow in its working, and at circa 1650 we are far enough away from the invention of the Third Degree and far away from the Legend of Solomon's Temple. The latter connotes a more fully developed Kabadism than belongs to the English Hermetic Schools of the date in question.
Third Degree Such in rough outline is the case as it stands for the interference of Hermetic Schools in Freemasonry. prior to the first historical evidence for the Ritual of the THIRD CRAFT DEGREE and apart from any long since exploded hypothesis which has sought to connect the Brotherhood with older Mysteries, by means of direct transmission within their own bonds, I have registered my feeling that some day it may assume a less uncertain aspect—in other words, that sources of additional knowledge may become available. It is not worth while to exaggerate the importance of the question since that which is at issue is larfy a point of date. I know that the root-matter of the THIRD DEGREE belongs to the Secret Tradition and is not only of the Hermetic Schools but of Schools thereunto antecedent. This is not a speculative question or one of simple persuasion. It is, moreover, no question of history and does not stand or fall with particular personalities and dates, and with claims made concerning them. As regards both these there is work remaining to be done—that is to say, in the purely historical field; but unfortunately the subject has only a few syrnpathisers in England, and among these a small proportion only who are qualified to work therein.
Rabon's Reverie In France I have indicated that the Ashmolean hypothesis is practically an accepted explanation by those who are at the pains to seek for any: it has followed the lead of Ragon and has remuned in uncritical hands, which have built up further fabrics of speculation in the guise of historical theses that cannot be called in question. Thus a late President of the Martinist Order in Paris found it possible to state with authority as certain facts:
(I) That Freemasonry was established in England by members of the FRATERNITY OF THE ROSE-CROSS, who were anxious to create a centre for the protection of their Order and for recruiting purposes.
(2) That the earliest Masonic Lodges were of a composite character, in part consisting of operative craftsmen and in part of men of understanding imbued with these ulterior motives.
(3) That the Rosicrucian link with Masonry began unquestionably through Ashmole. The enunciation of empirical suppositions in this language of certitude reduces an important matter of speculative ret search to a byword among serious students. To sum up on my own part, the Ashmolean hypothesis is a name which stands for an idea; his personal intervention in Masonry is not a matter of importance, but he represents a school, and it is the interference of the school in question which—in the opinion of a few—may enable us to understand better the rise and development of Emblematic Freemasonry and the existence among us of that MASTER-GRADE which is at once the foundation and keystone of the whole" speculative edifice.
The Kabalistic School I have dealt so far with two out of the three schools; and it seems to me that their position, so far delineated, is not altogether unlike that of speculation on Comacines, Roman Collegia and Dionysian architects, except that these latter were obviously Building Guilds, while the former were symbolists, speaking a tongue of symbolism. Some of them were concerned only or chiefly with the ascent of the soul in God, some of them worked in metals, with a view to their material transmutation; but while the dedication of the former was ab origin spiritual that of the latter in a sense became spiritual, for such was their kind of chemistry that they claimed to behold in their alembics a reflection of the work of God in creation and the analogy of that redeeming process by which the soul is transmuted in God. They made use of these correspondences freely in their cryptic books, which deserve at their best to be termed books of devotion as well as records of physical experiments. The integration of men like these in Lodges of Masons could not fail of effect; we know that it occurred in the case of Ashmole; our difficulty is to ascertain that there were others who followed in his steps; and this is our hindrance about the hand of Hermetic Schools in Freemasonry. When we pass, however, in its proper place to a consideration of the Kabalistic or third Hermetic School the position will prove, I think, different, though it may not take us further back than the eighteenth century.