Tobias Churton
Elias Ashmole (1617â€“1692) was the first to record a personal account of initiation into Accepted Freemasonry. His writings help solve the debate between operative and â€œspeculativeâ€ origins of Accepted Freemasonry, demonstrating that symbolic Freemasonry existed within the Masonic trade bodies. Ashmole was one of the leading intellectual luminaries of his time: a founding member of the Royal Society, a fellowship and later academy of natural philosophers and scientists; alchemist; astrological advisor to the king; and the creator of the worldâ€™s first public museum. While Isaac Newton regarded him as an inspiration, Ashmole has been ignored by many conventional historians.,Tobias Churtonâ€™s compelling portrait of Ashmole offers a perfect illustration of the true Renaissance figureâ€”the magus. As opposed to the alienated position of his post-Cartesian successors, the magus occupied a place at the heart of Renaissance spiritual, intellectual, and scientific life. Churton shows Ashmole to be part of the ferment of the birth of modern science, a missing link between operative and symbolic Freemasonry, and a vital transmitter of esoteric thought when the laws of science were first taking hold. He was a man who moved with facility between the powers of earth and the active symbols of heaven.
History,Biography
The Magus of Freemasonry: The Mysterious Life of Elias Ashmoleâ€”Scientist, Alchemist, and Founder of the Royal Society