The Golden Builders: Alchemists, Rosicrucians, First Freemasons

421 Pages·2005·1.59 MB·English

by  Churton

What are those golden builders doing? Where was the
burying place
Of soft Ethinthus? Near Tyburns fatal tree? Is that
Mild Zions hills most ancient promontory: near mournful
Ever weeping Paddington? Is that Calvary and Golgotha?
Becoming a building of pity and compassion? Lo!
The stones are pity, and the bricks, well wrought affections:
Enameld with love and kindness, & the tiles engraven gold
Labour of merciful hands: the beams and rafters are
forgivenness:
The mortar and cement of the work, tears of honesty: the
nails,
And the screws & iron braces, are well wrought
blandishments,
And well contrived words, firm fixing, never forgotten,
Always comforting the remembrance: the floors, humility,
The ceilings, devotion: the hearths, thanksgiving:
Prepare the furniture O Lambeth in thy pitying looms!
The curtains, woven tears & sighs, wrought into lovely forms
For comfort, there the secret furniture of Jerusalems chamber
Is wrought: Lambeth! The Bride the Lambs Wife loveth thee:
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Thou art one with her & knowest not of self in thy supreme
joy
Go on, builders in hope: tho Jerusalem wander far away,
Without the gate of Los: among the dark Satanic wheels.
Jerusalem XII.25-40. William Blake, 1804
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This edition first published in 2005 by
Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC
York Beach, ME
With offices at:
368 Congress Street
Boston, MA 02210
www.redwheelweiser.com
Copyright © 2002 Tobias Churton
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means,
electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording,
or by any information storage and retrieval system, without
permission in writing from Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC.
Reviewers may quote brief passages. First published in 2002
by Signal Publishing, Lichfield, Staffordshire.
Cataloging-in-Publication Data available upon request from
the Library of Congress.
ISBN 1-57863-329-X
Printed in Canada
TCP
12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05
8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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CONTENTS
Preface
Acknowledgements
Introduction
PART ONE THE HERMETIC PHILOSOPHY
Chapter One Hermes - Star of Alexandria
The Vision of Hermes
Neoplatonism and the Hermetic Tradition
Chapter Two Alchemy
Zosimos of Panopolis
Chapter Three Hermes meets Islam
Gnosis in Harran and Baghdad
Thabit
Thabit and the Gral
The Sabian inheritance in the west
Alchemy in the middle ages
Sir George Ripley (c.1415-1490?)
Chapter Four The Hermetic Reniassance
The Mercurial Spirit
Lodovico Lazzarelli - born again gnostic
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At the Hermetic bowl
In the Sun
Chapter Five The Hermetic background to the first
Rosicrucians
Paracelsus (1483-1541)
The Amphitheatre of Eternal Wisdom
Notes to Part One
PART TWO THE TRUE STORY OF THE
ROSICRUCIANS
Chapter Six The Fame of the Fraternity
The Fama
The myth of Christian Rosenkreuz
In the House of the Holy Spirit
Haslmayr and Paracelsus
Plötzkau
Chapter Seven The New Age
Apocalyptic
John Dee: Apocalyptic Prophet
Saving the world
The Fiery Trigons
The breaking of the seals
Tobias Hess and the apocalyptic numbers
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Chapter Eight Hess and Andreae
Andreae and radical reform
Caspar Schwenckfeld (1489-1561)
Sebastian Franck (1499-1542)
Piety & Mysticism
Christoph Besold (1577-1649)
Chapter Nine The Greatest Publicity Stunt of all Time
The Rose
The Furore begins
The Stone falls
The Devil in Paris
The Assassination of Truth
Andreae calls Time
Johann Valentin Andreae and History
Chapter Ten Others have Laboured
Hit by the Stone
The Stones in Action
Comenius (1592-1671)
A new Court at the Hague
The Royal Society
The Return of the Fama
Witch Hunt
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Haunted by Dee's Spirits
Notes to Part Two
Illustrations
PART THREE ELIAS ASHMOLE (1617-1692)
Chapter Eleven A Mighty Good Man
His Life
Restoration
Chapter Twelve Elias Ashmole and the origins of Free
Masonry
The Mainwarings
Warrington - what happened?
The Old Charges
The Lodge is in the Head – The Acception and the London
Masons Company
Notes to Part Three
Bibliography
Index
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