The magical writings of Thomas Vaughan (Eugenius Philatethes) : A verbatim reprint of his first four treatises: Anthroposophia theomagica, Anima magica abscondita, Magia adamica, and the true Cœlum terræ / with the Latin passages translated into English, and with a biographical preface and essay on the esoteric literature of western Christendom, by Arthur Edward Waite.

  • Vaughan, Thomas, 1621-1666.
Date:
1888
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The magical writings of Thomas Vaughan (Eugenius Philatethes) : A verbatim reprint of his first four treatises: Anthroposophia theomagica, Anima magica abscondita, Magia adamica, and the true Cœlum terræ / with the Latin passages translated into English, and with a biographical preface and essay on the esoteric literature of western Christendom, by Arthur Edward Waite. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    196/204 (page 160)
    i6o Note 14 (page 90). Believers in the inherent magical virtues of certain signs should take note of this passage, which indiscriminately denounces all ceremonial magic as a gross and material misconception of Hermetic symbolism. Eugenius Philalethes had, however, transcended, at least intellectually, the common elevation of practical magic, which, as he probably never attempted, he may, quite possibly, have misjudged. No sequence of rites and ceremonies may possess an intrinsic virtue, but they educate and direct imagination as well as the will, and though not to be counted as factors in psychic progress are not to be denounced as useless in their own sphere. Note 15 (page 92). The reunion of Malchuth with the Ilan seems to have been accom- plished by the mystics so far as they were individually concerned, and the true method of this re-union is one of the secrets which the modern mystic should set himself to recover. Note 16 (page 115). It is needless to say that this story, with that of the inscription on Mount Horeb, is in all probability fabulous. I have been personally unable to discover anything concerning it, and as no mystical interest attaches to either, the reservation of the reader’s judgment will not involve much difficulty or disappointment. Note 17 (page 136). In the search for the true process of the spiritual magnum opus, the analogical lines of physical alchemy should be rigorously followed, as I have elsewhere stated. The intimate connection of both operations is shown in the passage to which this note is made, and by which it would appear that the process with metals is simply a digression from the pro- cess of the mystic medicine. But the medicine itself is pneumatic, and the search for the medicine in its highest sense is the search of the mind after Psyche,'of the mind united to Psyche after its own Spirit, and of the hypostatized triplicity after the arch-hypostatic union of the whole man with God. Note 18 (page 141). If this spiritual and glorified condition be in any way possible for the individual, it is possible in some way for the race. If so, it is the end of evolution, and I hope in a forthcoming work—Azoth, or the Star IN THE East—to show how this end may be accomplished. Note 19 (page 142). At the beginning of Anthroposofihia Theomagica this chaos is described as a substance secreted in the very bosom of Nature, and is identified