Robertus de Fluctibus

(1574-1637 e.v.)

by T. Apiryon
Copyright © 1995 Ordo Templi Orientis. All rights reserved.

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Robert Fludd was a Kentish Anglican alchemist, Paracelsist physician, mathematician, astronomer, cosmologist, Qabalist, Rosicrucian apologist, and alleged 16th Grand Master of the Prieuré de Sion. Fludd was considered by Crowley to be an Adeptus Exemptus. Fludd was a prolific writer, and many of his works on alchemy, Rosicrucianism, occult medicine, the "magnetic" philosophy and various scientific theories survive. The illustration of a "Design suitable for top of altar," Plate 2(b) of Book IV, Part III, is from Fludd's Utriusque Cosmi Historia. Fludd was allegedly a member of the committee which drafted the "King James" translation of the bible in 1611.

His thirteen published works include A Compendious Apology for the Fraternity of the Rosy Cross (1616), The Apologetic Tractatus for the Society of the Rosy Cross (1617), Utriusque Cosmi Historia (1617-19), Summum Bonum (1629), and Clavis Philosophiae et Alchymiae (1633).

References:

Baigent, Michael; Richard Leigh and Henry Lincoln; Holy Blood, Holy Grail, Dell, NY 1982
Godwin, Joscelyn; Robert Fludd: Hermetic Philosopher and Surveyor of Two Worlds, Phanes Press, Grand Rapids, MI 1991
Huffmann, Wm. H.; Robert Fludd and the End of the Renaissance, Routledge, London 1988
Mackey, Albert G.; Encyclopedia of Freemasonry, Masonic History Co., NY 1909
McIntosh, Christopher; The Rosicrucians, the History and Mythology of an Occult Order, Crucible, Wellingborough 1987
Turner, Robert; Elizabethan Magic, Element, Longmead 1989
Waite, Arthur Edward; The Real History of the Rosicrucians, London 1887
Yates, Frances; The Rosicrucian Enlightenment, ARK, London 1972/1986

Also see these articles: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6.

5/24/95

Originally published in Red Flame No. 2 -- Mystery of Mystery: A Primer of Thelemic Ecclesiastical Gnosticism by Tau Apiryon and Helena; Berkeley, CA 1995 e.v.