@prefix vivo: . @prefix edm: . @prefix ns0: . @prefix dcterms: . @prefix skos: . vivo:departmentOrSchool "Arts, Faculty of"@en, "English, Department of"@en ; edm:dataProvider "DSpace"@en ; ns0:degreeCampus "UBCV"@en ; dcterms:creator "Trout, Paul Arno"@en ; dcterms:issued "2010-02-05T23:58:08Z"@en, "1974"@en ; vivo:relatedDegree "Doctor of Philosophy - PhD"@en ; ns0:degreeGrantor "University of British Columbia"@en ; dcterms:description "It is the thesis of this study that during the years of the Puritan Revolution (T640-1660), the occult milieu of England gave repeated expression to what can only be called a millenarian salvational message, that is, to a message which promised a salvation at once collective, terrestrial, imminent, total, and miraculous. It is also argued that the salvational vision advanced by the magicians of the Hermetic magical tradition agreed almost perfectly with the millenarian hopes and dreams of the Puritan sects active during the revolutionary decades. This study offers a hitherto overlooked reason why--during the revolutionary years--Puritans of many persuasions, but particularly those of the left-wing sects, were attracted to, and even sought to revive, the occult sciences. The occult sciences attracted Puritans because they provided beliefs and 'myths' which validated the more or less intense millenarianism which characterized left-wing Puritan groups, those groups dissatisfied with the conservative 'reformation' offered by the Presbyterian and Cromwellian settlements. This study demonstrates that Puritans with many different kinds of millenarian beliefs employed magic--its myths, its doctrines, its prophecies--to validate their own desires for, and expectations of, a 'radical' or 'perfect' reformation of the world--a reformation tantamount to the millennium itself. In an introductory chapter (II), the relationship between magic and millenarianism is explored. This chapter argues that Western magic acquired a salvational mission of millenarian scope and intensity about the time of the Hermetic revival of the Renaissance. This mission enjoined the Hermetic magician to use the powers of magic to redeem all creation, to release both humankind and nature from the Curse. To the Western magician, this redemptive mission meant that the occult sciences were to be used to restore paradise to earth. The restoration of paradise would be accomplished when humankind enjoyed once again all the spiritual and material blessings Adam was thought to have enjoyed while in Eden. From the time of the Hermetic revival through the seventeenth century, the occult sciences gave repeated expression to this millenarian promise of world redemption. Chapter II concludes by showing that Puritan millenarians expected to enjoy in the millennium precisely the same spiritual and material blessings the magicians promised to bestow on all people through magic. The remaining chapters explore the same millenarian motifs and doctrines in the occult milieu of Puritan England. The occult milieu is defined as astrology, Behmenism, and Rosicrucianism. During the Puritan Revolution, each of these occult circles gave repeated expression to a wide variety of millenarian pronouncements, almost all of which validated in some way the millenarianism pervading the Puritan sects during the revolutionary years."@en ; edm:aggregatedCHO "https://circle.library.ubc.ca/rest/handle/2429/19727?expand=metadata"@en ; skos:note "MAGIC AND THE MILLENNIUM: A STUDY OF THE MILLENARY MOTIFS IN THE OCCULT MILIEU OF PURITAN ENGLAND, . 1640--1660 by PAUL ARNO TROUT M.A., Univers i ty of Minnesota, 1968 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in the Department of English We accept this thesis as conforming to the requi red standard THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA December, 1974 In presenting t h i s thesis i n p a r t i a l f u l f i l m e n t of the requirements f o r an advanced degree at the University of B r i t i s h Columbia, I agree that the Library s h a l l make i t f r e e l y available for reference and study. I further agree that permission for extensive copying of t h i s thesis for scholarly purposes may be granted by the Head of my Department or by h i s representatives. It i s understood that copying or publication of t h i s thesis for f i n a n c i a l gain s h a l l not be allowed without my written permission. Department of Engli sh The University of B r i t i s h Columbia Vancouver 8, Canada Date 15 December, 1974 i i ABSTRACT It is the thesis of th is study that during the years of the Puritan Revo!ution (T640-1660), the occul t mi l ieu of England gave repeated expression to what can only be ca l l ed a mi l lenar ian sa lvat ional message, that i s , to a message which promised a sa lvat ion at once c o l l e c t i v e , t e r r e s t r i a l , imminent, t o t a l , and miraculous. It is also argued that the sa lvat ional v is ion advanced by the magicians of the Hermetic magical t rad-i t i o n agreed almost per fec t ly with the mi l lenar ian hopes and dreams of the Puritan sects act ive during the ' revo lu t ionary decades. This study of fers a hi therto overlooked reason why--during the revolut ionary years - -Pur i tans of many persuasions, but p a r t i c u l a r l y those of the le f t -wing s e c t s , were at t racted to , and even sought to rev ive , the occult sc iences . The occul t sciences at t racted Puritans because they provided be-l i e f s and 'myths' which val idated the more or less intense mi 11enarianism which character ized le f t -wing Puritan groups, those groups d i s s a t i s f i e d with the conservative ' reformat ion' offered by the Presbyterian and Cromwel1ian sett lements. This study demonstrates that Puritans with many d i f fe ren t kinds of mi l lenar ian be l i e fs employed mag ic - - i t s myths, i t s doc t r ines , i t s prophecies- - tb va l idate the i r own desires f o r , and expect-ations o f , a ' r a d i c a l ' or ' p e r f e c t ' reformation of the wor ld- -a reformation tantamount to the millennium i t s e l f . i i i In an introductory chapter ( I I ) , the re la t ionship between magic and mi 11enarianism is explored. This chapter argues that Western magic acquired a sa lvat ional mission of mi l lenar ian scope and in tens i ty about the time of the Hermetic revival of the Renaissance. This mission enjoined the Hermetic magician to use the powers of magic to redeem a l l c rea t ion , to release both humankind and nature from the Curse. To the Western magician, th is redemptive mission meant that the occul t sciences were to be used to restore paradise to earth. The restorat ion of paradise would be accomplished when human-kind enjoyed once again a l l the s p i r i t u a l and material b less -ings Adam was thought to have enjoyed while in Eden. From the time of the Hermetic revival through the seventeenth cen-tury , the occult sciences gave repeated expression to th is mi l lenar ian promise of world redemption. Chapter II concludes by showing that Puritan mi l lenar ians expected to enjoy in the millennium prec ise ly the same s p i r i t u a l and material blessings the magicians promised to bestow on a l l people through magic. The remaining chapters explore the same mi l lenar ian motifs and doctr ines in the occult mi l ieu of Puritan England. The occult mi l ieu is defined as as t ro logy , Behmenism, and Rosicrucianism. During the Puritan Revolut ion, each of these occul t c i r c l e s gave repeated expression to a wide var iety of mi l lenar ian pronouncements, almost a l l of which val idated in some way the mi 11enarianism pervading the Puritan sects during the revolut ionary years . CONTENTS Chapter I. INTRODUCTION 1 II. MAGIC AND THE MILLENNIUM 20 Part 1: The Evolut ion of Mi l lenar ian Magic . . . . . . 23 Part 2: The Nature of Mi l lenar ian Magic 57 Part 3: The Mi l lenar ian Mi l ieu of Puritan England . . . 100 III. STARS OVER EDEN: ASTROLOGY AND APOCALYPSE, 1640-1660 129 IV. THE MAGICIANS OF JEHOVAH: BEHMENISM AND THE MILLENNIUM IN ENGLAND 201 Part 1: The Writings of Jacob Boehme . 205 Part 2: Engl ish Behmenists 230 V. THE ROSICRUCIAN REFORMATION OF THE WORLD 249 Part 1: Vaughan and the Manifestos 256 Part 2: The Hart! i b Ci rc le . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . 288 CONCLUSION . . . . . 318 BIBLIOGRAPHY . 327 1 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Several years ago, a student of mi l lenar ian movements observed that the v is ion of the millennium seems to contain cer ta in \"magical over tones .\" 1 Why th is should be so has been invest igated by Professor Bryan Wi lson, in his recent work 2 e n t i t l e d Magi c and the Mi 11enni urn. Using data drawn pr imar i ly from pre l i t e ra te Afr ican c u l t u r e s , Professor Wilson has constructed a theory which accounts for magical elements in mi l lenar ian movements, and for mi 11enarian elements in magical movements. Wilson be-l ieves that magical pract ices and movements can give r i se t o , or can r e i n f o r c e , mi l lenar ian movements, and that they can do th is by o f fer ing to s a t i s f y an unusually intense and Sy lv ia L. Thrupp, \"Mi l lennia l Dreams in Act ion: A Re-port on the Conference D iscuss ion ,\" in Mi l l enn ia l Dreams in Act i on, ed. Sy lv ia L. Thrupp (New•York: Schocken edn. , 1 9 7 0 ) , p.22. The conference was held in 1960. 2 Bryan R. Wilson, Magi c and the Mi 11enni urn: A Soc io log-ica l Study of Rel igious Movements of Protest \"\"(\"New York: Harper and Row, 1973\"). This d i s s e r t a t i o n ~ ¥ a d been ten ta t ive ly en-t i t l e d \"Magic and the Millennium\" before Wilson's study appeared. The t i t l e has been retained because i t succ inc t ly conveys the most apt ind ica t ion of the subject matter of th is study. 2 broad popular demand for ' s a l v a t i o n ' from an ' e v i l ' that is viewed as object ive and pervasive. Magic can sometimes meet such a demand for sa lvat ion by o f fer ing to people a thera-peutic supernatural agency seemingly powerful enough to work a total cu l tura l transformation. According to Professor Wilson, then, there are \"magical overtones\" in some mi l l en -arian movements because par t ic ipants in those movements sometimes bel ieve that the 'mil lennium' w i l l be ins t i tu ted \"by magic\" (p.7) . Even more in teres t ing is Professor Wilson's observation that the magical therapeutic agency of cu l tura l transformation does not necessar i ly have to be absorbed into a mi l lenar ian movement to acquire an e x p l i c i t l y ' m i l l e n a r i a n ' import. As he points out , sometimes a magical movement i t s e l f can be-come \"infused with the ef fects of the c a t a l y t i c experience of the r e v o l u t i o n i s t movement,\" and can i t s e l f acquire a s p i r -3 ations concerning the transformation of the world. Something l i ke this seems to have occurred within the magical t r ad i t ion of Europe around the time of the Hermetic °Magic and the Mil lennium, p.349; p.382. Although m i l -lenar ian movements are not necessar i ly revo lu t ionary , and revolut ionary movements are not necessar i ly mi 11enarian, the two frequently over lap; Professor Wilson occas iona l ly uses the two terms interchangably, perhaps because a mi l lenar ian movement, when a c t i v i s t , of fers the same sweeping reorgani -zation of the world promi sed by a l l revolut ionary movements. \"But where a future messiah is expected, the l i k e l i h o o d of a r e v o l u t i o n i s t response to the world is considerable\" (p. 135; see also pp.365, 23, 272, 196). 3 revival of* the Renaissance. Frances Yates 1 b r i l l i a n t analysis of Renaissance Hermetic magic (Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradi t i on, 1964) has revealed that many magicians (most notably , Bruno and Campanella) were l i t e r a l l y obsessed with dreams of world reform and of the return of the Golden Age, and that they bel ieved that th is transformation of the human condit ion 4 would be brought about by magic. Yates 1 l a tes t study of the o c c u l t , The Rosicrucian En-1i qhtenment (London: Routledge , 1972), i s even more concerned with th is Hermetic dream of world reformation. For the f i r s t time in her studies of the o c c u l t , Professor Yates uses the term ' m i l l e n n i a l ' (or one of i t s var iants) to character ize the reformat ionist message of a magical movement. Influenced by Joachite and Chr is t ian v is ions of a future age of perfec-t i o n , the Brotherhood of the Rosy Cross sounded in i t s second manifesto (the Confess io , 1615) what Professor Yates has described as \"a powerful prophetic and apocalypt ic note\" de-c la r ing that \"the end is at hand,\" and that the \"great reform-ation\" promised by the Rosy Cross \" is to be a mil lennium, a return to the state of Adam in Paradise.\" The message of the Giordano Bruno (New York: Vintage e d n . , 1969), pp.41, 225-33, 262, 279, 286, 339, 343, 386, 408-09, 414. 5 Rosicrucian Enlightenment, p.48. For the Joachite i n f l u -ence, see p.35; a l s o , Paul Arnold , His to i re des Rose-Croix et Tes Ori gi nes de 1 a Franc-Maconnerie ( P a r i s , 1955), pp.132-3; a l s o , genera l ly , Marjorie Reeves, The Influence of Prophecy in the Later Middle Ages: A Study of Joachimism (Oxford: Oxford UT\"P7TT9\"69). — 4 Rosicrucian manifestos, she dec la res , is \"an apocalypt ic mes-sage of universal reformation leading to a millennium\" (p.57). The Rosicrucians believed that the mi 11ennium would be brought about by a revival of the a l legedly 'magical ' wisdom of Adam (p.120), and that they themselves were ordained by God to stimulate th is r e v i v a l . Eventual ly th is rev iva l of the magical wisdom of Adam would lead to a renovation not only of man's s p i r i t , but of his body as well (RE_, p.232), This Rosicrucian dream of reformat ion, Professor Yates has demonstrated, had i t s supporters and missionar ies even in Puritan England. In f a c t , one might even be able to speak of a Rosicrucian revival during the years of the Pur-i tan Revolut ion. The reformat ionist message of the Brother-hood agreed per fec t ly with the general mi l lenar ian enthus-iasm generated by the p o l i t i c a l upheavals of the time. It agreed so w e l l , as a matter of f a c t , that Parliament and the leaders of the Puritan movement gave f inanc ia l assistance to a c i r c l e of adepts whose endeavors were inspi red by the Rosicrucian ideal of world reformation (RE, pp.171-92). This brings us to the subject of the present study. I bel ieve that reformation!'st and mi l lenar ian myths and impulses can be detected throughout the occul t mi l ieu of Puritan England, not being confined merely to Rosicrucianism. In f a c t , i t is the pr inc ipa l thesis of th is study that during th is period the occul t mi 1 ieu gave repeated expression to a^ wide assortment of mi l lenar ian be l i e fs and v i s i o n s . 5 A 'millenarian' or 1reformationist' belief or vision is one which contains a concept of earthly salvation that en-ta i ls a ' rad ica l ' reformation of the world, a re-formation so total and complete that i t brings about a wholly superior social order and a perfected physical order. What shall be improved are the objective conditions of the human situat ion, not the way in which this situation might be personally or subjectively experienced. In other words, the reformation expected amounts to much more than a subjective reorienta-tion towards the world: i t amounts to a new world. 6 Although I use 'reformationist' and 'millenarian' as basically synonymous terms, 'reformationist' is the more in-clusive category, including all sorts of visions (such as the Utopian) that de-emphasize the 'miraculous' element that we find in visions more speci f ica l ly called 'mil lenarian. ' I might point out that I use the form 'reformationist' to sug-gest a breadth of envisioned change and an intensity of hope simply not conveyed by the word 'reformist, ' which is more ameliorative in connotation. In reference to the word 'mi l -lenarian, ' I should point out that i t is used in this study in the broad sense suggested by Professor William Lamont (Godly Rule: Pol i t ics and Religion, 1603-60 [1968]). A l -though to the purist in such matters, the millennium can properly refer only to the fixed period of 1000 years that is found in the Judaic-Christian tradit ions, Lamont believes that this is \"too limited an interpretation\" of the word (p.. 7). He urges a more \"generous reading\" of the term (p.9). Lamont's own usage is consistent with the way such terms are now being used in some anthropological c i rc les . Sylvia Thrupp, for example, says that the term 'millenarian' may \"be applied f iguratively to any conception of a perfect age to come, or a perfect land to be made accessible\" (Millenni al Dreams in Acti on , p.12). Mi 11enarianism, however, is not necessarily messianic. As Professor Wilson explains, \"mi 11enarianism, as such, need not be messianic in the usual sense: some millen-nial movements have expected the restoration of the ancestors, rather than the coming of the new messiah. Equally, messian-ism need not be mi 11ennialist. A 1iving messiah is not, in the normal sense, offering the establishment of a millennium, 6 Professor Norman Cohn has iso la ted what I regard to be the essent ia l c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s of the sa lvat ional message I intend to c a l l ' m i l l e n a r i a n . ' According to Cohn, ' m i l l e n a r i a n ' sects or movements always picture sa lvat ion as: a) col 1ect ive: in the sense that i t is to be enjoyed by the f a i t h f u l as a c o l l e c t i v i t y ; b) t e r r e s t r i a l : in the sense that i t is to be rea l i zed on th is ear th , and not in some other-worldly heaven; c) i mmi nent: in the sense that i t is to come both soon and suddenly; d) t o t a l : in the sense that i t is u t ter ly to transform l i f e on ear th , to make i t perfect ion i t s e l f ; i e) miraculous: in the sense that i t is to be accomplished by, or with the help o f , supernatural agencies.* 7 though he may be o f fe r ing an extensive range of blessings to those who acknowledge his claims\" (Magic and the Mil lennium, pp.135-6). Thus, I use the term 1 messi am* c' to refer to m i l -lenarian myths (etc . ) which emphasize the predominant role of a messiah in bringing about the reformation of the world. The term ' c h i l i a s m ' is employed as a s t y l i s t i c var iant of the term 'mi 11enarianism.' 7The Pursuit of the Mi 11enni urn: Reyoluti onary Mi 1lenar-i ans and Mystical ATTarchists of the Middle Ages, rev, edn. (New York: Oxford U. P. , Galaxy edn. , 1970), p.15. I i n -clude under \"e\" not only mythic persona l i t i es or supernatural f i g u r e s , but also dev ices , procedures or formulae bel ieved to possess miraculous, i . e . , transformati ve powers. The prophetae described by Cohn claimed the same miraculous powers that were claimed as well by la ter magicians. Though Cohn does not seem to use the word 'magical ' in connection with these \"wonder-working sav iours , \" the prophetae he describes would seem to be examples of what Wilson c a l l s \"the thaumaturge as messiah\" (Magic and the Millenniurn, p.133). \"The man who claims to be a messi ah, must of necessity be a thaumaturge\" (p.134). 7 I propose to i l l u s t r a t e in the main body of th is work that the occul t mi l ieu of Puritan England gave repeated ex-pression to mi l lenar ian and reformat ionist be l i e fs and v i s i o n s . That mi 11enarianism was a dominant feature of the occul t arts during the Puritan Revolution has not before been acknowledged or demonstrated. This study w i l l show for the f i r s t t ime, then, the considerable extent to which mi 11enarianism permeated the occul t mi l ieu of Puritan England. It w i l l also describe for the f i r s t t ime, the diverse ways in which the reformat ionist impulse was expressed, and i t w i l l indicate how these manifest-ations of reformationism in the occul t mi l ieu harmonized wi th , and r e i n f o r c e d , the mi l lenar ian myths and expectations of the Q Puritan movement. I use the word 'Pur i t an ' for such groups as the In-dependents, Separatists, B a p t i s t s , Seekers, Waiters, F a m i l i s t s , Quakers, Muggletonians, Behmenists, L e v e l l e r s , Diggers, Rant-e r s , and F i f t h Monarchists, and a l l of the other--more minor--sects to the l e f t of the Presbyter ians. Some might object to the use of one word, or to the use of the term Pur i tan , to cover a c o l l e c t i o n of groups which had no one p o l i t i c a l or re l ig ious b e l i e f in common, and which were i d i o s y n c r a t i c in thei r doc t r ines , espousing, at t imes, strange and out land-ish not ions. Although these groups did not , in f a c t , share a common p o l i t i c a l or re l ig ious program, as such, they were uni ted , in a way, by a ' s p i r i t ' they a l l had in common. That ' s p i r i t ' was the desire for a reformation. And i t is that s p i r i t which can be ca l led 'Puri t a n . ' From i t s beginning in the ear ly days of E l i z a b e t h , Will iam Hal ler wr i tes , the Puritan movement \"sought to push reform of government, wor-ship and d i s c i p l i n e \" beyond \"the l im i ts f ixed by the E l i z a -bethan settlement\" (Li berty and Reformati on i n the Puri tan Revo!uti on, p . x i ) . What the Puritans sought, he says, was a \"perfect reformation\" ( x i i ) . Professor Walzer puts the case in even stronger terms, def ining Puritanism \"as the e a r l i e s t form of p o l i t i c a l radical ism\" (The Revolution- of the Sai n t s , p . v i i ) . What was c h a r a c t e r i s t i c of even mainstream Pur i tans , 8 For the purposes of this study, the 'occu l t m i l i eu ' of Puritan England can be defined in terms of i t s three most prominent and important consti tuents — a s t r o l o g y , Behmeni sm, and Rosicrucianism. We shal l analyze the 'mi l lenar ian message' to be found in each of these occult c i r c l e s , paying p a r t i c u -la r attention to the mi l lenar ian motifs and images with which he argues, was the fact that they \"shared cer ta in key ideas incompatible with the t r a d i t i o n a l system in church and s ta te , ideas which tended cont inual ly to produce radica l and innova-t ive p o l i t i c a l a c t i v i t y \" ( p . v i i i ) . What united the d i f f e r -ent Puritan groups in 1640, then, was the i r h o s t i l i t y to the status quo, to the establ ishment, and the i r desire for i t s reformation. Of course the term ' reformat ion' meant d i f f e r -ent things to the d i f fe rent groups, and whether they wanted an e c c l e s i a s t i c a l or a c i v i l reformation, they seldom or never agreed on what form i t should take. It was the i r very d i f f e r -ent conceptions of what form this reformation should take that separated — and d is t inguished — one group from another. Since the focus of th is study is on the broad desire for reformat ion, the doctr ina l and p o l i t i c a l d i s t i n c t i o n s between these groups need not concern us. If the ' s p i r i t of reformation' is !the common denominator that unites widely divergent groups under the heading of ' P u r i t a n , ' then I would tend to say that the Presbyter ians, in terms of the scope of this study, should not be included under th is term. For although the Presbyter-ians did indeed want a reformation in 1640, they were the party of discontents soonest s a t i s f i e d that an acceptable reformation had taken place. The other groups--those whom I have designated 'Puri tans'—were not s a t i s f i e d by the ' r e f -ormation' offered to them by the Presbyter ians. They were discontent because they sought a \"perfect reformation,\" not merely a workable one. The term 'Pur i tan , ' then, conveys quite n ice ly the ' p e r f e c t i o n i s t ' syndrome unit ing these,groups. They deserve to be ca l l ed 'Pur i tans ' for another reason \"-as-well-. In pursuing a 'godly-thorough reformation' to the ' l as t degree, these groups were keeping a l ive that \"Puritan s p i r i t \" which had once character ized even the Presbyterians before 1640. They were the legit imate inher i tors of the term ' P u r i t a n , ' for they continued to push for reforms of government beyond the boundaries f i x e d by an imperfect s e t t l e -ment, though now the settlement is e i ther Presbyterian or Cromwell 1-an, and not E l izabethan. It was the i r b e l i e f that the perfect reformation was yet to come which made these groups 9 th is message was conveyed.\" 7 We shal l discover that astrology was used not only to spread encouraging propaganda, but that i t was also used to lend credence to a wide var iety of mi l lenar ian expectations and doct r ines . As we shal l also d iscover , the teachings of Jacob Boehme j and his Engl ish d i s c i p l e s possessed powerful apocalypt ic over-tones, and seemed to counsel that the perfect ion of the human order would be accomplished by the revival of magical gnosis. And f i n a l l y , we shal l see how the rev iva l of the reform-a t i o n i s t ideology of Rosicrucianism reinforced popular Visions i of the restorat ion of the Golden Age and the return of paradise. ' P u r i t a n s . 1 There is also another reason to d i s t i n g u i s h , at least in th is study, between Presbyterian and Pur i tan. The Presbyterians were single-minded opponents of every form of occult endeavor, but the Puritans were not. Although Pres-byterian opposit ion may be explained d o c t r i n a l l y , i t can also be explained p o l i t i c a l l y . The occult sc iences , I argue, by furnishing sanctions for ' r a d i c a l ' p o l i t i c a l a c t i v i t y , threat-ened the Presbyterian settlement and the i r more moderate v i s -ion of reform. Thus, i t was the Presbyterian Richard Baxter who most energe t ica l ly asserted that ' f ana t ic ism' was l inked to magic, and that the le f t -wing sects had sprung from the teachings of magicians l i ke Paracelsus and Boehme. The Pur-i t a n s , on the other hand, being discontent with the Presbyter-ian and Cromwellian sett lements, were at tracted to the occult sc iences , and sought to revive them, because they f o u n d i n them sanctions for the i r own p e r f e c t i o n i s t v is ions of reform-at ion . The word ' P u r i t a n , ' then, refers in th is study to those who accepted the rightness of the or ig ina l attempt at reformation in 1640 and 1641, but who wanted to go beyond the boundaries f ixed to this reformation by the Presbyterians and the i r moderate a l l i e s . 9 Professor Edward. Thompson urged us to be sens i t ive to the imagery of mi 1lenarianism, for i t was in the i r imagery that groups \"ar t i cu la ted the i r experience and projected the i r aspi rat i on\" (The Making of the Engli sh Worki ng Class , p.49 j . 10 This examination of the mi l lenar ian motifs of the occult mi l ieu is prefaced by a theoret ica l and h i s t o r i c a l inves t iga -t ion of Western magic. Arguing that d i s t i n c t i o n s can be made between modes of the occult in terms of the content of thei r sa lva t i onal mess age, I attempt to explain how one of these modes acquired a sa lvat ional impulse of mi l lenar ian scope and dimensions. This mode of the occul t I c a l l 'm i l l enar ian ' magic. This invest igat ion of the nature of 'm i l l enar ian ' magic w i l l both help to explain why the occul t arts of Puritan England contained mi l lenar ian elements, and c l a r i f y many of the major themes and endeavors we w i l l be encountering--and examining in more d e t a i l - - i n the occul t mi l ieu of Puritan England. It is hoped that this study w i l l contribute to a better understanding of several re la t ionships in the history of ideas. F i r s t , this study w i l l lend support to Professor Wilson's theories regarding the way magic and mi 11enarianism can i n t e r -act . In add i t ion , this study wi l l help to confirm the basic ins ights of Frances Yates concerning the ' m i l l e n n i a l ' impulse of Rosicrucianism. But most important ly , i t is hoped that th is study w i l l shed l igh t on the re la t ionsh ip between magic and Puritan mi 1 -lenarianism during the years of the Revolut ion. The whole re la t ionship between the occult sciences and Puri tanism, and how this re la t ionsh ip might be expla ined, deserves e laborat ion . 11 It has now been general ly recognized that those sects who wanted a more profound ' reformat ion' of church and society than the Presbyterians and more moderate groups were inc l ined to pursue, were sympathetic t o , and supported the rev iva l o f , the occul t sciences during the revolut ionary years . It matters l i t t l e whether we c a l l these sects ' l e f t - w i n g , ' ' r a d i c a l , ' o r , as I do, ' P u r i t a n , ' for the same sects are meant by each one of these terms. Preferr ing to use the terms ' l e f t - w i n g ' and ' r a d i c a l , ' Professors Thomas and H i l l have noted and commented upon the connection between these groups and prophecy. Although the associat ion between prophecy and act ivism (and radical ism) existed long before the Puritan Revolut ion, \"the tendency was taken furthest during the Interregnum, when every kind of prophecy was v e n t i l a t e d . \" ^ Magic enters the re la t ionsh ip because Puritan preoccupation with prophecy almost inev i tab ly enta i led at least a par t ia l acceptance of occul t agencies of p r e d i c t i o n , for there was almost no d i s t i n c t i o n drawn between \"as t ro log ica l forecasts\" and other methods of predict ion (Thomas, p.409). As a consequence, astrology in p a r t i c u l a r became as-sociated with what the Presbyterian Thomas Hall cogently des-cr ibed as the \"Fami1ist ical1-Level l ing-Magical1 temper.\"^ 1 \"The Independents and radical sects of the C i v i l War per iod ,\" explains Professor Thomas, \"were to furnish the astrologers ,Kei th Thomas , Reli gi on and the Peeli ne of Magi c (London ; Weidenfeld and Nico lson , 1971), p.TTO. ^ V i n d i c i a e Literarum (London, 1654), p.199; I b i d . , p.375. 12 with many act ive enthusiasts and supporters\" (Thomas, p.371). But astrology was not the only aspect of magic which at-t racted the le f t -wing Puritan sec ts . Even the more Hermetic forms of magic \"gained new. converts among the radica l sects thrown up by the C i v i l Wars\" (Thomas, p.227). It was even 1 ? Christopher H i l l bel ieves that i t was Will iam L i l l y who did \"much to make, or keep, astrology acceptable to the r a d i -ca ls\" (The World Turned Upside Down [New York: Viking Press , 1 972], p.73). Astrology was \" ' a study much in the esteem of i l l i t e r a t e Ranters , ' \" reports a pamphlet of 1652 ( H i l l , p.233), while another attack on the le f t -wing sects claims that the Fami l is ts were \"very conf ident , that by the knowledge of As -t ro logy , and the strength of Reason, they shal l be able to conquour over the whole World\" (Benjamin Bourne, The Pes cr i p-t i on and Confutation of My s t i c a 11 Ant i -Chr i s t , the Fami l is ts [London, 1 646] , si g . \"T\").. L i l l y , just one of a hundred a s t r o l -ogers act ive during the Puritan Revolut ion, was consulted by several F i f th Monarchists, by Level lers and army r a d i c a l s . A number of f igures \"known to have had sectar ian or radica l associat ions\" consulted L i l l y and his colleagues habi tua l ly (Thomas, p.374). Their c l i e n t s included Anabapt ists , Ranters, Shakers, Quakers, and members of other le f t -wing groups ( Ib id. ) The Ranter and e x - L e v e l l e r , Laurence Clarkson, took up the pract ice of astrology in 1650 ( Ib id . ) . John Pordage, the Beh-menist and p o l i t i c a l radica l , .pract iced ast ro logy , and so did many members of the Inv is ib le College surrounding Samuel Hart-l i b , the crypto-Rosicrucian ( H i l l , p.233). John Webster, a parl iamentarian and Grindletonian , recommended that astrology be taught in the u n i v e r s i t i e s , and Gerrard Winstanley, leader of the mi l lenar ian Diggers, provided for the teaching of ast ro l ogy in his 'u top ia ' (Thomas, p.374). In a d d i t i o n , some of the leading pract i t i oners of astrology were men of ' r a d i c a l ' p o l -i t i c a l and re l ig ious b e l i e f s . Simon Forman was a free th inker , John Pool a republ ican , John Gadbury, ear ly in his career , a Ranter converted by the notorious Abiezer Coppe (Thomas, pp. 374-5); Nicholas Culpepper, who f l i r t e d with several s e c t s , was a democrat and f i f t h monarchist (small l e t t e r s ) ; L i l l y was a parl iamentarian and Independent. Many of these men at one time or another \"predicted the f a l l of Rome and the universal end of monarchy\" (Thomas , p. 299). As Professor Thomas him-s e l f concludes, \"there is much addi t ional evidence for th is l ink between astrology and sectarianism\" (p.374). See below, Chapter III, for more on this r e l a t i o n s h i p . 13 among the \"mystical s e c t s , \" Professor Thomas notes, \"that alchemy struck some of i ts deeper roots\" (p.270). Quakers, Fami l is ts and Behmenists a l l had connections with th is Herm-13 e t i c ar t . Professor H i l l asserts that \"alchemy/chemistry, and espec ia l l y chemical medicine, had radica l a s s o c i a t i o n s . \" ^ 4 We must understand that th is sympathy for the occult was widespread indeed, whatever term we apply to those who were sympathetic to i t . It was the pervasiveness of this at t i tude that made the Interregnum \"an important period in the t rans-la t ion and publ icat ion of standard alchemical and Rosicrucian tex ts , \" and the publ icat ion (or re - issu ing) of native occult works. Professor Thomas has aptly ca l led this phenomenon, the \"democratisation\" of the \"Hermetic magical t r a d i t i o n . \" ^ Thomas, p.271; H i l l , p.148; .see 'a lso H. J . Cadbury, \"Early Quakerism and Uncanonical Lore ,\" Har. Theol . Rev. , 40 (1947), pp.177-205. . ^ H . i l l , p.233. Professor Thomas remarks that \"alchemy was c lose ly l inked with re l ig ious enthusiasm\" during the f i r s t hal f of the seventeenth century (p.27). 15 Thomas, p.270. The spate of t rans la t ions that issued from the press included the pr inc ipa l dialogues of the Herm-et i ca. The Divine Pymander of Hermes Mercuri us Tr i smegi stus appeared in 1650 , while in 1 657 the Asclepi us was published in Eng l ish . The AscIepi us is a darkly chthonic. work exp la in -ing how to animate statues through astra l magic (Hermes Tri s -megi stus: His Second Book , cal1ed Asclepi us [London, 16 57], p.72; see also pp.113-4). Yates wri tes that the \"rehabi1 i ta -t ion of the Asclepi us is . . . one of the chief factors in the Renaissance revival of magic\" (Giordano Bruno, p.37). Professor Thomas bel ieves that the as t ro log ica l and alchem-i c a l lore of the Hermeti ca helped to create an i n t e l l e c t u a l climate conducive to every kind of mystical or magical act-i v i t y (p.225). Most of these t rans la t ions were done by Puritans 14 The evidence of the associat ion between magic and l e f t -wing groups is so overwhelming that Professor Thomas is urged to declare that \"the radi cal sects set out to revi ve al1 the occul t sciences\" (p. 375; i t a l i c s added). What I hope to do in this study is o f fer another reason for why the Pur i tans , as I have defined this term, sought to revive magic. One reason that has already been given is that the ' g n o s t i c ' element in Hermeticism was congenial to the ' i11uminist ' doctr ines in sectar ian thought. Myst ica l ly i n -c l ined Puritans found in cer ta in magical doctr ines support for the i r own claims to mystical gnosis (Thomas, pp.375-6). Another reason that accounts for Puritan in terest in the oc-cu l t sciences maintains that these magical arts provided discontented Puritans with ' v a l i d a t i n g charters ' for what has been ca l led \"Puritan thaumaturgy.\"^ In an e f f o r t to estab-l i s h c r e d e n t i a l s , demonstrate a f f l a t u s , or imbue radica l de-partures from establ ished t rad i t ions with seemingly divine sanct ion , Puritans who were chal lenging the status quo very often claimed to possess miraculous or ' thaumaturgic 1 powers, such as the powers of exorcism, of hea l ing , of ra is ing the dead to l i f e , e tc . In other words, the occult sciences pro-For the concept of va l ida t ing char te rs , see Thomas, pp.125-6, 139-40, 148, 422-3. The term \"Puritan thaumaturgy\" was used by S. R. Maitland in connection with the prophetic and e x o r c i s t i c claims made for and by John Foxe (Notes on the Contri butions o f . . . Townsend . . . to the New Edttion of Fox's [ s i c ] Martyrology (London: Riv ington, 1842) , pp.95-114. 15 vided claimants to thaumaturgic powers with doctr ines and myths that they could use to val idate the i r own assert ions regarding the 'Godly' or 1 d i v i n e 1 - - t h a t i s , the sanct ioned- -or i gin of the i r innovative or radical ideas. The more radica l the i n -novation proposed, the more in need i t was of being va l ida ted , and the more a t t rac t ive and useful became magic as a vehic le for providing such v a l i d a t i o n . If the real revolut ionary and radica l sects were the Puritans most sympathetic to magic, then i t was because they were most in need of the ' v a l i d a t i n g charters ' which magic (and of course other ideologies) could provi de. What I should l ike to suggest here is that the occul t sciences provided Puritans with a way of va l ida t ing the most powerful and pervasive b e l i e f of the revolut ionary years—'the' . b e l i e f in reformation, the dream that the perfect time of the mi 11ennium was about to dawn. Magic, I am suggest ing, pro-vided Puri tans —and espec ia l l y ' r a d i c a l ' Puritans—wi th sus-ta ining 'myths' for the i r own mi l lenar ian be 1iefs and expect-a t ions . ^ ^ After the work of Christopher H i l l , Bernard Capp, and Wil l iam Lamont (and many o thers ) , i t should no longer be By 'myth' I mean a coherent explanation or v i s i o n ; a mi l lenar ian myth is one which provides an integrated and j u s t -i f i e d v is ion of a future age of earthly per fec t ion . Unlike the word ' c h a r t e r , ' which I shal l continue to use, the term 'myth' conveys some suggestion of the oftentimes ' imaginat ive ' or ' p o e t i c ' qual i ty of mi l lenar ian thought. 16 necessary to document at length the statement that m i l l e n -a r ian ism- - in one form or another—was an important element in every one of the Puritan sec ts . One of the leading author-i t i e s on the subject suggests that \"after 1640 many, probably most, Presbyter ians, Independents and sectar ians accepted 1 8 mi l lenar ian ism.\" After the i r i n i t i a l attempt at a reform-a t i o n , however, the Presbyterians were inc l ined to awai t i ts coming, or to hasten i t s a r r i va l through s p i r i t u a l d i s c i p l i n e , not through a c t i v i s t i c p o l i t i c s . In cont ras t , mi 11enarianism was e s p e c i a l l y intense in. those groups that did not —that would not —accept the Presbyterian or Cromwellian sett lements! \"A l l the le f t -wing re l ig ious groups,\" Professor Hudson exp la ins , were \"character ized by a more or less intense mi l l enar ian - ; i s m . 1 , 1 9 Bernard Capp, \"Millennium and Eschatology in England,\" PP, No.57 (Nov, 1 972), p.162. Capp estimates that about 70% of\" the leading clergymen who supported parliament during the Revolution held mi l lenar ian be l ie fs (p.157). Of course, as Capp points out, s t a t i s t i c s cannot record the var ia t ions in the character of the b e l i e f s , or indicate how strongly they were held. 19 • Wi.hthrop.S. Hudson, \"Economic and Social Thought of Gerrard Winstanley,\" J_. of Mod. Hi s to ry , 18, No.l (March 1946), p.5. Although a d i s t i n c t i o n might be drawn between \"conservative mi 11enarianism\" and \"extreme chi l iasm\" (Toon, i n Puri tans, the Mi 11ennium and the Future of Israel , p.7 ) , mi l lenar i an be l i e fs almost always possessed some sort of p o l -i t i c a l imp l i ca t ion . Mi l lenar ian be l i e fs could not but help to give r ise to external ideas regarding the world in which people l i v e d . The recognit ion of th is fact has permitted us to understand the decis ive role mi 11enarianism played i n . f o -menting the Puritan Revolut ion. As one contemporary remarked, \" ' Y e a , a great i n l e t to our late c i v i l wars, hath been the mis interpretat ion of the R e v e l a t i o n \" ( i n W. Lamont, Godly 17 This fact helps explain why the occult sciences were so popular with lef t -wing Puritans during the C i v i l War years . Puritans who sought that 'per fect reformation' were at t racted to magic, I suggest, par t ly because magic rei nforced, and could be used to substanti ate , thei r own mi 11enari an hopes and pronouncements. In other words, the occul t sciences provided Puritans who expected and desired a reformation,with a v a l i d a t -ing myth of the mi 1lennium. How magic could re inforce expectations of world reforma-t ion w i l l be made c lear in Chapter II, where we invest igate the nature of the ' m i l l e n a r i a n ' mode of Western magic. But by way of preface we might now take a look at the way one of the radical sects — the F i f th Monarchists —employed magic to re inforce and leg i t imize the i r expectations of the mil lennium. Under the heading \"Astrologers and Mi 11enarians,\" in his recent study of the radical s e c t s , Professor H i l l has pointed out that \" F i f t h Monarchists in the 1650s c i ted . . . the S ib-y l l i n e prophecies, Nostradamus, Paracelsus and astro logers\" to. support the i r assert ions and programs (p.72; see Thomas, pp.299-300, 373-4). Astrology seems to have been very c lose ly associated with the F i f th Monarchy movement. In f a c t , one Rul e, p.21). Melvin Lasky has gone so far as to suggest that the C i v i l War was actua l ly fought \"between competing schools of eschatology, between protagonists of the lost and future Eden and c r i t i c s of (in C a l v i n ' s words) f o o l i s h Jewish fan-tas ies\" (\"The Bi r th of a Metaphor: On the Or ig in of Utopia & Revolut ion,\" Encounter, 34 [Feb.1970], p.42). 18 contemporary exclaimed that a F i f th Monarchist lecture sounded more l i k e ' \" a reading on as t ro logy ' \" than a sermon (Ephraim P a g i t t , in Thomas, p.638). In his recent study of the F i f th Monarchy par ty , Professor Capp acknowledges that \"the almanacs of L i l l y and others such as John Vaux helped to spread apoca-l y p t i c ideas .\" The evidence would suggest that the F i f th Monarchists were at tracted to astrology because i t re inforced 21 the i r own mi l lenar ian expectations and dreams. As Professor H i l l has observed, other facets of the occul t also appealed to the F i f th Monarchists. Of special in terest to them was the work of Paracelsus and Jacob Boehme, both of whom were mi l lenar ian prophets. Capp implies that i t was the ' i l l u m i n i s t ' elements in these works which appealed to F i f th Monarchists, but this ce r ta in ly does not explain John Rogers' extraordinary c i t a t i o n of the prophecies of Paracelsus in his own mi l lenar ian work. Paracelsus was relevant to Rogers because he had prophesied, according to Rogers, of that same \"great\" The Fi f th Monarchy Men: A Study i n Seventeenth-century Engli sh~RTl1enari ani sm (London: Faber, T972), pp.37 , 188, 236 ; see Thomas, Re 1igion and the Dec! i ne of Magi c , pp. 299 , 371. 21 In 1652, for example, an almanac appeared with the t i t l e The Year of Wonders; o r , the glor ious Rising of the f i fth Mon-arch\" R*any other as t ro log ica l works contai ned -mi 11 enari an p r e d i c t i o n s , some of them overt ly F i f th Monarchist in content. John Sp i t t lehouse , a leading F i f th Monarchist, ca l led astrology \"the Princess to the rest of the Sci ences,\" and defended L i l l y from his Presbyterian de t rac tors , perhaps because of L i l l y ' s frequently mi l lenar ian prophecies (see Rome Ruin'd by Whitehall [1650], \"A general Preface\") . Recently Capp has noted that astro!ogy was often l inked with eschatology in the popular mind (PP, No.57 [Nov.1972], p.159). 19 and \"happy Reformation\" that both he and his party were f u l l y expecting at any moment. It was for a mi l lenar ian purpose that Rogers incorporated the fol lowing Paracelsian prophecy into his own mi l lenar ian t r a c t : \" '0 ! then enters the great Change, whi ch shal1 be ca l led the happy Reformation that fol1ows, whi ch i s without decei t , arts , sub1eties ; but i n p1 ai ne , naked , innocent Laws'\" (in S a g r i r. Or Doomes-day drawing nigh [1 654], pp.. 131-2).. In reference to Paracelsus' f i n a l prophecy Rogers wr i tes: \"And then he goes on in his 32. Predi c t i on, whi ch bears the image of the Sun shining upon a man that is as leep, to shew what glor ious daies succeed to Church and State for ever af ter that .\" It was mi 11enarianism that made Paracelsus relevant to Rogers, and nothing e l s e . At least in some ins tances , Puritans were c lea r l y at t racted to magic because i t provided them with a va l ida t ing myth of the mil lennium, a va l ida t ing myth that could be used to r e i n -f o r c e , and make c r e d i b l e , the i r own reformat!'oni st dreams. My suggestion that Puritans were drawn to the occult mi l ieu because they could f ind there mi l lenar ian myths which re inforced the i r own reformat ionist hopes and v is ions might be ca l led the ' s u b s i d i a r y ' thesis of this study. In summary, t h i s study shal l demonstrate that the occul t mi l ieu of Puritan England gave repeated utterance to a ' m i l l e n -arian sa lvat iona l message,' and attempt to show that i t was th is message which at t racted Puritans to the occul t sciences during the revolut ionary years . 20 CHAPTER II MAGIC AND THE MILLENNIUM Introducti on The primary aim of th is chapter is to define the term 'mi l lenar ian magic, ' to examine the content of i t s sa lvat ional message, and, f i n a l l y , to demonstrate the s i m i l a r i t y between Its motifs and those of the mi l lenar ian movement of Puritan • • • i England. This examination of Western magic w i l l make clear how and why the occul t sciences of even Puritan England came to contain mi l lenar ian myths and impulses. Mi l lenar ian magic w i l l be def ined , in par t , by an analysis of i t s re la t ionsh ip to two other modes of Western magic: thaumaturgy and Hermeticism. It shal l be argued that the 'mi l lenar ian mode' resulted from a fusion of cer ta in thaumaturgical impulses with apocalypt ic expectations de-r i v i n g from both Hermeticism i t s e l f and C h r i s t i a n i t y . The approach to magic adopted here, i t should be pointed out, does not emphasize occult procedures or formulae, but the content of the sa lvat ional message of magi c (as t hi s i s communicated through myths, imagery, and statement). In other words, we are pr imar i ly concerned with the scope and nature of that ' .sa lvat ion' from ' e v i l ' which is offered by 21 the various modes of Western magic. Therefore, the three modes to be discussed can be d ist inguished from each other in terms of the scale and nature of s o t e r i o l o g i c a l r e l i e f each one promises.^ It is my contention that during the Hermetic revival of the Renaissance, a revived but more exaggerated form of thaumaturgic magic combined with apoc-a l y p t i c t rad i t ions to give r ise to a mode of magic whose sa lvat iona l promise was ' m i l l e n n i a l ' in both i t s scope and nature. It is not my in ten t , of course, to write a h is tory of Western magic, or even to present what might be ca l led a 'balanced view' of magic. Others have performed th is task 2 already. What I do intend to do is focus on a hi therto overlooked or ignored element in the Western occul t t r a d i t i o n : the mi l lenar ian element. To do t h i s , I must necessar i ly s l i g h t many facets of magic. Nevertheless, although the fol lowing discussion is not exhaust ive, nor intended to be, The approach to magic adopted here is employed as well by Professor Wilson in Magic and the Mil lennium. I have borrowed some of my terms and concepts from Professor Wilson's study. I should note that Professor Keith Thomas also focuses on the redemptive promises and procedures of the o c c u l t . In add i t ion . to the studies of Yates, see D. P. Walker, Sp i r i t u a l and Demoni c M a g i c: From Fi ci no to Campanel1 a (Lon-don: Warburg I n s t i t u t e , 1958); Wayne Shumaker, The Occult Sciences in the Renaissance (Berkeley: U. of Ca lT~T . , 1972); Kurt Seligmann, Magi c , Supernatural ism, and Rel igion (1948; rpt . New York: Grosset & DunTap, Universal Library edn. , T968) G r i l l o t de G ivry , Wi tchcraf t , Magic & Alchemy, t rans . J . Court-en ay Locke (1931; rpt . New York: Dover, 1971). 22 i t w i l l provide, I b e l i e v e , an h i s t o r i c a l and conceptual overview of the main features of magic, and es tab l ish the c r e d i b i l i t y of the notion that Western magic did in fact develop what might be ca l l ed a mi 11enari an impulse towards 2 the world. 2 Others, of course, have detected p a r t i c u l a r instances of the mi l lenar ian impulse in Western magic, but very few i n -deed have gone so far as to suggest that magic developed what might be ca l led an ' ideology of world reformat ion. ' The f i r s t to recognize th is was Kurt Seligmann. In his Magi c , Supernat-ural ism and R e l i g i o n , Seligmann includes a chapter on the ~~ Hermetic \"Reformers\" of the seventeenth century. Hiram Haydn (The Counter Renai ssahce) and now Frances Yates are two others who have sensed the importance of reformationism in magic. 23 Part 1: The Evolution of Mi l lenar ian Magic Thaumaturgy 'Thaumaturgy' might be ca l led the 1 p e r e n n i a l 1 form of magic. It has been a constant component of human culture ever since man f i r s t emerged from the Olduvai Gorge, and i t is the thaumaturgic mode which s t i l l pers is ts in almost every p r e l i t e r a t e • society today. From the middle ages to the enlightenment, i t thr ived throughout Europe, and in a l -most every level of soc ie ty . The reason for thaumaturgy 1s continuing endurance is • . i not hard to understand. Thaumaturgy has endured because i t answers man's continuing need for s imple , immediate, ad hoc r e l i e f from the da i l y ' e v i l s ' which p e r i o d i c a l l y a f f l i c t him. Thus, thaumaturgy can be defined as 'magica l 1 power used to mit igate the r igor of the human cond i t ion , e i ther by a l l e v i a t i n g cer ta in common forms of s u f f e r i n g , or by protect -ing people from them on an ind iv idua l and ad hoc bas is . This form of magic is espec ia l l y directed at the suf-fer ing associated with sickness and disease. In the past , when the agony of i l l n e s s was experienced without m i t i g a t i o n , thaumaturgy offered the hope of miraculous cures , and of 3 protect ing oneself from malady. But thaumaturgy also responds \"Helplessness in the face of disease was an essent ia l element in the background\" to magic (Thomas, p. 1.4; see ch .7 ) . 24 to other instances of man's v u l n e r a b i l i t y . For ins tance , i t provides protect ion against wi tchcraf t or possess ion , against t h e f t , and even against unhappiness i t s e l f . It also helps to ward of f such diverse miseries as vermin, bad luck , and even poverty, and general ly discharges functions of th is nature for which society has made l i t t l e or no a l ternate pro-. , ' • 4 v i s i o n . Thus, with i t s love pot ions , e l i x i r s , prophylact ic charms, with i t s 's ieve-and-shears hocus-pocus, ' thaumaturgy promises to mit igate s p e c i f i c instances of the poverty, s i c k -ness, and f rus t ra t ion common to everyday l i f e . It of fers to ''\"Thomas, pp.21 2 , 21 3 , 636. What I c a l l thaumaturgy (after Wilson) Professor Thomas c a l l s 'popular m a g i c ' A l -though 'thaumaturgy' may be.more unwieldly, I prefer i t , be-cause i t does not contain the erroneous suggestion that th is form of magic was the only form that was 'popu la r . ' On th is form Professor Thomas wri tes: \"Popular mag ic in 'Eng land di s -charged only a l imi ted number of func t ions ; i t provided pro-tect ion against w i tchcra f t , and various remedies for i l l n e s s , the f t , and unhappy personal r e l a t i o n s h i p s . . . . I t was a c o l l e c t i o n of miscellaneous r e c i p e s , not a comprehensive body of doct r ine . . . . Magic was simply a means of overcom-ing various s p e c i f i c d i f f i c u l t i e s \" (pp.636-7; c f . Wi lson, Magi c and the Mi l lenni urn, pp.24-5, et passim). In the s i x -teenth and seventeenth cen tur ies , these benign and ameliora-t ive functions of thaumaturgy were often maligned as i n -stances of sorcery or black magic, terms which should apply only to ma le f i c , an t i soc ia l forms of magic. Thus, in 1552, a clergyman complained, \" 'a great many of us , when we be in t roub le , or s ickness , or lose anything, we run hi ther and th i ther to witches, or sorcere rs , whom we c a l l wise men . . . seeking aid and comfort at the i r hands'\" (in Thomas, p.177). The same complaint was made a hundred years l a t e r , this time by a Puritan d iv ine : \"'If men have lost anything, i f they be in any pain or d isease , then they presently run to such as they c a l l wisse men'\" ( I b i d . , p.178). Both references are c l e a r l y to magic funct ioning thaumaturgical ly , for the benefi t and r e l i e f of the common man. 25 mankind reassurance, p ro tec t ion , hea l th , and r e l i e f from some of the p a r t i c u l a r physical and emotional stresses that beset the human condi t ion . The more widespread the miseries of da i ly l i f e , the more pressing and intense w i l l be the popular demand for the a l legedly ameliorat ing benef i ts of thaumaturgic magic. When the human condit ion i t s e l f is experienced as e v i l , the popular demand for ' s a l v a t i o n ' can infuse into th is mode of magic a mi l lenar ian import. Under the r ight cond i t ions , then, thaumaturgy can acquire a s o t e r i o l o g i c a l scope that can only be described as mi l lenar ian More w i l l be said on th is topic shor t l y . Under normal cond i t ions , the ' s a l v a t i o n ' offered by the thaumaturgic mode is simple immediate r e l i e f from the occasional e v i l s that a f f l i c t each ind iv idual member of the human s p e c i e s . ( c f . Wilson, p.101). It o f f e r s , then, a s a l -vation that is e s s e n t i a l l y and pr imar i ly ind iv idual in nature. Each person applies to the thaumaturge when he needs r e l i e f from some p a r t i c u l a r manifestation of the inherent l im i ts of the human condi t ion . The supp l ican t , however, does not seek r e l i e f from the human cond i t ion , but only from a p a r t i c -ular e v i l . This is because the ' e v i l ' from which sa lvat ion is sought is depicted or viewed as a consequence of spasmodic \"It is from p a r t i c u l a r incidence — not from the i r un i -versal operat ion—that sa lvat ion is sought\" (Wilson, p.25; a l s o , pp.105, 125). What is of concern here is not the cosmol ogical frameworks that could sustain such b e l i e f s , but the kind of sa lvat ion that is o f fe red . 26 or random ac t ion . Ev i l is not seen as an incessant , pervasive , or continuous aspect of the human order a f f l i c t i n g everyone at once, and thus requir ing c o l l e c t i v e suppl icat ion or r e l i e f . As a consequence, what is ca l l ed for is not a program, po l icy or new soc ia l order , but therapy or p r o p i t i a t i o n , repeated performances of magical , r i t u a l i s t i c ' c u r e s , ' ad hoc and ad homi nem (Wilson, p .101) . 6 Before thaumaturgy can give r ise to mi l lenar ian magic, ev i l must be seen as an elemental part of the human condi t ion . When i t i s , then a new kind of magic is ca l l ed f o r , a magic powerful enough to transform that very human condit ion viewed as e v i l . Although thaumaturgy has many functions in common with r e l i g i o n , 7 the two agencies are not, of course, the same. In °\"The i n d i v i d u a l ' s concern,\" writes Professor Wi lson, is \" r e l i e f from present and s p e c i f i c i l l s by specia l dispensations The demand for supernatural help is personal and l o c a l : i t s operation is magical [ i . e . , coerc ive ] . Salvat ion is immediate but has no general appl icat ion beyond the given case and others l i k e i t\" (pp.24-5). Elsewhere he writes that the thaumaturgical response to ' e v i l ' i s e s s e n t i a l l y a \"specia l claim for personal dispensation from the normal operation of natural causation by the invocation of p a r t i c u l a r s p i r i t aids\" (p.71). 7 I t would be wrong. Professor Thomas remarks, \"to regard magic and r e l i g i o n as two opposed and incompatible systems of b e l i e f . There were magical elements surv iv ing in r e l i g i o n , and there were r e l i g i o u s facets to the pract ice of magic\" (Rel igion and the Decline of Magic, p.26; for his comments on ' e c c l e s i a s t i c a l magic, ' see pp. 277-8, 256, 273-4, 29, 32, 49). R e l i g i o n ' s inveterate h o s t i l i t y to popular magic (or thaumaturgy) Professor Thomas explains in terms of the com-pet i t ion that natura l ly ex is ts between two r i v a l systems of explanation and assuagement (pp.264, 273-4; a l s o , Wi lson, p.70) 27 f a c t , what allowed thaumaturgy to survive centuries of e f fo r ts to suppress i t has been the very d is t inc t iveness of i t s s a l -vat ional message. Thaumaturgy of fers a form of ' s a l v a t i o n ' that many people have found more appealing than the sterner sa lvat ion offered by orthodox C h r i s t i a n i t y . What makes the sa lvat ion of magic more appealing was detected by S i r Jcurnes Frazer. The average clergyman of the past , Frazer wrote, must surely have f e l t great h o s t i l i t y for a \" r iva l p r a c t i -t i o n e r , who preached a surer and smoother road to fortune Q than the rugged and s l ippery path of d iv ine favour.\" This observation points to the essent ia l , d i f ferences between 8The Golden Bough, 3rd edn. (1932), I, p.226 (quoted in Thomas, p.253). A remarkably s im i l a r c r i t e r i o n is used by Professor Voegelin to explain the pecul iar and continuing a t t ract ion of ' g n o s t i c ' p e r f e c t i o n i s t ideas concerning earthly redemption from e v i l . Images of earthly p e r f e c t i o n , he ex-p l a i n s , are an expression of the psychic need for \"a stronger cer ta inty about the meaning of human ex is tence , in a new knowledge of the future that l i e s before us, and in the cre-ation of a more secure basis for action in the future\" (p.107). In C h r i s t i a n i t y , a l l hangs on the thread of f a i t h . \"Man is given nothing tang ib le . The substance and proof of the un-seen are ascertained through nothing but f a i t h , which man must obtain by the strength of his s o u l . . . . Not a l l men are capable of such s p i r i t u a l stamina; most heed i n s t i t u -t iona l he lp , and even this is not always s u f f i c i e n t \" (pp. 108-09). As C h r i s t i a n i t y expanded, i t included more men \"not strong enough for the heroic adventure of f a i t h , \" and thus \"became suscept ib le to ideas that could give them a greater degree of cer ta inty about the meaning of the i r ex-istence than f a i t h \" (p.109; E r i c Voegel in , Sci ence , Pol i t i cs and Gnosticism [Chicago: Henry Regnery, Gateway edn. , 1 968] , esp. \"Ersatz Re l ig ion\" ) . Voegel in 's explanation of the appeal of ' g n o s t i c ' v is ions exp la ins , as w e l l , the appeal of ' m i l l e n a r i a n ' magic, which of fers to mankind a paradis ic Vis ion of the future . It could also explain the appeal of most revolut ionary movements as w e l l . 28 thaumaturgy and orthodox C h r i s t i a n i t y . Thaumaturgy tends to o f fer a more r e l i able and materi al sa lvat ion than r e l i g i o n o f f e r s . A word or two on th is subject w i l l further c l a r i f y the nature of thaumaturgic magic. Although the be l i e f that earthly events can be i n f l u -enced by supernatural intervent ion is not i t s e l f a magical one, thaumaturgy claims that i t s spe l l s work mechani c a l l y and coerc ive ly (Thomas, p.41). A prayer is a form of sup-p l i c a t i o n , not a command, and thus contains no guarantee of success; but a magical spe l l , on the other hand, a l legedly works automatical ly ( i f the procedures of the r i t u a l are cor rec t ly followed that i s ) . Thus, in the face of misfortune, magic dares to promise the wretched successful r e l i e f from the i r torments. In cont rast , the basic sa lvat ional message of orthodox C h r i s t i a n i t y when faced with misfortune is 9 \" s t o i c i s m . \" Orthodox r e l i g i o n cannot, i t w i l l not , guarantee r e l i e f . It is no wonder that the sa lvat ional promise of thaumaturgic magic would appear to some more appealing than r e l i g i o n ' s stern ins is tence that one must surrender to the inscrutable w i l l of G o d . 1 0 ^\"The mechanical philosophy of the la ter seventeenth century,\" writes Professor Thomas, was reconci led with ortho-dox r e l i g i o n because \"stocis im had become the basic r e l i g i o u s message for those in misfortune\" (p.640). 1 0 \" ' F o r i f we stand in necessity of corporal hea l th , whither go the common people but to charms, w i t c h c r a f t s , and other delusions of the D e v i l ? ' \" (in Thomas, p.639). Rel igion would not promise hea l th , but magic would (see p.24, n.4). 29 The sa lvat ion offered by thaumaturgy is not only more r e l i ab le , i t is more materi al as w e l l . As Frazer recognized, the prac t ica l and surer road of magic leads \"to for tune.\" There is a tendency in thaumaturgy to o f fer more than mere r e l i e f ; thaumaturgy wants to bless man with \"prosper i ty\" a l s o . This prosper i ty usual ly takes the form of earthly success, f e r t i l i t y , honor, and material goods. Though v i l l a g e thau-maturgy occ^sJ^n^l_Ly_ of fers such p rosper i t y , the Renaissance form of thaumaturgy was bras hiy m a t e r i a l i s t i c , promising to people much more than just r e l i e f from backache and sexual impotence. Surveying his 'heavenly' necromantic books, Faustus e x c l a i m s : . . ' ' . 0, what a world of prof i t , and d e l i g h t , Of power, of honour, of omnipotence, Is promis'd to the studious ar t isant I ' l l have them [ i . e . , s p i r i t s ] f l y to India fo r g o l d , Ransack the oceans for or ient p e a r l , And search a l l corners of the new-found world For pleasant f r u i t s and pr ince ly de l ica tes ; , 'T is magic, magic, that hath rav ish 'd me. 11 The m a t e r i a l i s t i c dream of thaumaturgy we w i l l encounter in an even more extreme form in mi l lenar ian magic. This v is ion of 'worldly prosper i ty ' was the nucleus around which Christopher Marlowe, Doctor Faustus, ed. John J . Jump, Revels Plays (1962; rpt . London: Methuen, Univers i ty paperback e d n . , 1970), I , i , 52-4, 81 - 4 , 109. The word ' rav ished ' was often used to describe the force and i n t e n s i t y with which th is m a t e r i a l i s t i c v is ion gripped one's mind and s o u l . 30 the new mode developed. But in mi l lenar ian magic, as we shal l see, Faustus' \"world of p r o f i t and d e l i g h t , / Of power, of honour, of omnipotence,\" is not the pr ivate property of the \"studious a r t i s a n , \" the magician, but the publ ic domain of a l l humankind. Faustus looks forward to entering a sort of private paradise, a personal garden of earthly d e l i g h t s . But in the mi l lenar ian mode, the world i t s e l f w i l l become paradise, 12 a n d a l l p e o p l e s h a l l inhabit i t . In contrast to both thaumaturgy and mi l lenar ian magic, orthodox C h r i s t i a n i t y tends to re ject such m a t e r i a l i s t i c 1 3 v i s i o n s . Although there were sometimes exceptions t o . t h i s , orthodox C h r i s t i a n i t y on the whole did not set out to promise hea l th , worldly success, r iches to those who followed the word of God. Protestant clergymen, for example, \" t r ied to \"\"Although true sorcery and wi tchcraf t usual ly involve some form of overt malefi ciurn, or hos t i l e act directed against another (Thomas, pp.460, 436), many seventeenth-century Eng-lishmen used these opprobrious terms to condemn the Faustian impulse, that drive for power and wealth — that maniacal s e l f -assert iveness--which seemed to threaten the piety and soc ia l s t a b i l i t y of the realm. Good magicians, or 'white' magicians, rejected the se l f -aggrandiz ing mania of Faustianism, but they did not repudiate Faustus' mater ia l ism; on the contrary , they embraced i t with abandon, as we shal l d iscover . 13 P e r i o d i c a l l y r e l i g i o n has advanced a m a t e r i a l i s t i c promise which is more f i t t i n g l y the prerogative of magic. In the middle ages, for example, e c c l e s i a s t i c a l author i t ies had developed formulae designed to draw down God's p rac t i ca l b lessing upon every kind of secular a c t i v i t y (Thomas, p.29). Even some of the Protestant reformers maintained that there was \"no bene f i t , which the pious Chr is t ian might not a t ta in by praying for i t . . . . Health, p rosper i ty , good harvests, a safe del ivery in ch i ld b i r t h . . . . a l l these were in the Lord's power to bestow\" (Thomas, p.113; also p.89). 31 bring s p i r i t u a l conso la t ion , not the hope of material pros-per i t y . \" As Professor Thomas puts i t , the sa lvat iona l mes-sage of r e l i g i o n i s , on the whole, a rather \"gloomy p h i l o s -ophy, teaching men how to s u f f e r . \" At i t s most o p t i m i s t i c , orthodox r e l i g i o n promises that those who bear \"pat ient ly with the e v i l s of this world would have a chance of being rewarded in the next\" (Thomas, p.112). Orthodox r e l i g i o n tends to repudiate the temporal blessings of this l i f e , for • 14 the joys of a heaven to come af ter death. Magic does not. The thaumaturgical impulse towards the world was revived during the Renaissance, when i t furnished the basis for the operative mode of Hermetic magic. We shal l therefore return to the subject of thaumaturgy when we come to consider th is aspect of the occult t r a d i t i o n . Leaving behind thaumaturgy for the moment, we shal l now look more c lose ly at the Hermetic magic of the Renaissance. Hermeti ci sm 'Hermeticism' is a term often used to cover the be l ie fs and myths that converged during the Renaissance to form what '\"'The prospect of \"material r e l i e f by divine means\" los t c r e d i b i l i t y in orthodox re l ig ious c i r c l e s by the end of the seventeenth century (Thomas, p.640). And even when prayer was thought to bring material rewards, i t was the orthodox teaching that \"the less material the request the more l i k e l y was i t to be granted; \"'If thou ask no earthly or worldly th ings , but such things as are s p i r i t u a l and heavenly, them thou shal t be sure to obta in ' \" (in Thomas, p.46). 32 has been ca l led the ' i n t e l l e c t u a l ' t rad i t ion of Western magic. In a more l imi ted sense, 'Hermeticism' could be said to be that complex system of occul t endeavors and be l i e fs which were thought to have been sanctioned by the writ ings a t t r ibuted to the legendary Egyptian pr ies t and magus, Hermes Tr ismegistus. It was, in f a c t , the revival of these Hermetic wr i t ings , Frances Yates has argued, which provoked the re-. 1 5 v ival of magic in the Renaissance. The Hermetic wri t ings are made up of various dialogues between 'Hermes' and assorted human and s p i r i t u a l f i g u r e s . These dialogues contain two re lated but d i s t i n c t l e i tmot ives , each giving r ise in the Renaissance to two c lose ly re lated forms of magic. The more m y s t i c a l , s p i r i t u a l and gnostic dialogues gave r ise to what might be ca l led a contemplative or de i f icatory . magic; the dialogues more overt ly concerned with the physics of this world, and with the worship of Nature, gave r i se to what might be ca l led operative magic (a more exaggerated form of thaumaturgy). Under the i n -'^Gi ordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradi t i on (1 964; rp t . New York: Random House, Vintage e d n . , 1969), e s p . ' c h s . 1-3. For an e luc ida t ion of the magical elements in ear ly Hermetic thought, see J . R. Par t ington, A Hi story of Chemi s t r y , 4 v o l s . (London: Macmi11 an , 1970), I, \"TheoreticaT~Background,\" and ch. 12: \"The Hermetic Books.\" S t i l l the most author i ta t ive study of Hermetic magic is R. P. Festugiere , La Revelation D'Hermes Tr ismegiste , 4 v o l s . , Vo l . I: L 'Ast ro !og ie et Tes Sciences Occultes (Par is : J . Gabalda, 1 950). See a l s o , W. Scot t , e d . , Hermeti ca (Oxford: Oxford U. P . , 1924-36), Vo l . I: Introduct ion. Hermeti ci sm has been branded \"one of the most i n t e l l e c t u a l l y chaotic systems ever devised by the human mind\" (James R. King, Studies in Six 17th Century Writers ,p.115). 33 f luence of mi l lenar ian prophet ic ism, th is operative mode gave r i s e to a new form of magic, to a magic which promised to transform the world, to make the whole earth a. paradi se. The mi 11enarian mode wi11 be examined s h o r t l y , but r ight now our concern is with contemplative and operative magic. The 'end' of the contemplative or de i f i ca to ry mode is reached when the magus has saved h imsel f , or dei f i ed himself by achieving union with God, Whose divine nature the magus worships and contemplates in perfect b l i s s and peace. The end of operative magic is reached when the magus acquires and then exercises the c r e a t i v e , transformative powers of God. The di f ference between these two modes is pr imar i ly a matter of emphasis. The contemplative mode is more pass ive , the op-e r a t i v e , more ac t ive . The f i r s t emphasizes the peace and t r a n q u i l i t y of mystical union, the second, the joy and exc i te -ment of operation and manipulation. What is important to recognize is that both of these modes enta i l the same pro-cedure of s a n c t i f i c a t i o n leading to the formation of the magus. The salvat ion/contemplat ion of the f i r s t mode, and the oper-at ive power of the second both come through gnosis . In the f i r s t , the emphasis is on the power of gnosis to transform, or t ransf igure the magus into a de i t y ; in the second, the emphasis is upon the power of gnosis to transform the external world i t s e l f . Thus, these two modes are not incompatible at a l l , and the magus w i l l embody aspects of both, though his work or teachings may elevate one over the other. 34 To understand these two forms of Hermetic magic, we must understand the gnostic b e l i e f upon which they were based. As Frances Yates has remarked, \"Gnosticism and magic go together\" (Giordano Bruno, p.44). The old gnostic heresy of the second century provided magic with the doctr ine that man was once, and can become again—through his i n t e l l e c t — the r e f l e c t i o n of the divine mens, and thus a d iv ine being ( I b i d . , p . l l l ) . The dream of becoming once again a 'd iv ine being' enticed some magicians towards the contemplative g o a l , and others towards the operative goa l ; in the f i r s t , he would be a demi-god, in the second, prelapsar ian Adam—but in e i ther case, he would be a 'd iv ine be ing . ' This central tenet of the old gnostic heresy inf luenced Hermetic thought, and thus, throughout the Hermetica i t s e l f , one w i l l f ind the message that through the i n t e l l e c t — a n d through knowledge (or gnosis)—man can once again become a div ine b e i n g . 1 6 \"Contemplative Magic.\" In the contemplative mode, becoming a 'd iv ine being' meant d e i f i c a t i o n , or the acqu is i t ion of God's divine and perfect nature. This t ransf igura t ion would express i t s e l f On the gnostic inf luence on Hermeticism, see Hans Jonas , The Gnosti c Re l ig ion: The Message of the Al ien God and the Begi nni ngs of C h r i s t i a n i t y , 2na ecTn. , rev. (Boston: Beacon Press , 1963), pp.147-73. Consult as w e l l , Robert M. Grant, Gnosticism and Early C h r i s t i a n i t y , rev. edn. (New York: Harper & Row, Torchbook edn . , 1966); J . R. Partington , A His tory of Chemi s t r y , 4 v o l s . (London: Macmil lan, 1970), T , ch. ^\" - \" \"Gnost ic ism,\" pp.250-73. 35 in worship and contemplation of the One, in which the magus now res ides . The pr inc ipa l elements of th is mode can be found in P ico 's Oration o_n the. Di gni ty of Man, the work which i n t r o -duced into Western thought the powerful image of Man as Magus (Yates , Bruno, pp.110-1). The gnost ic procedure of s a n c t i f i c a t i o n out l ined by Pico resul ts in the formation of the magus. Transf igurat ion resul ts from the study of the l i b e r a l arts of moral phi losophy, d i a l e c t i c , natural phi losophy, and f i n a l l y theology. These are ca l l ed the 'expiatory sciences . ' Af ter man has pur i f i ed himself by moral philosophy (ethics) and d i a l e c t i c (reason-i n g ) , he advances, Pico exp la ins , to natural philosophy (or s c i e n c e ) , that i s , the study of c r e a t i o n , whereby the adept improves his knowledge of things div ine by understanding the \" v i s i b l e signs of n a t u r e . \" 1 7 Upon studying v i s i b l e c r e a t i o n , the adept w i l l become intoxicated with the i n v i s -ib le things of God's house, in which, \" i f we prove f a i t h f u l , J i k e Moses, hallowed theology shal l come and inspi re us with a double frenzy\" (p.234). This a f f la tus t ransf igures the i n -i t i a t e into a demi-god (\"A sound magician is a demi-god\"), an earthly creature who enjoys while yet a l i v i n g being the a t t r i butes —and the powers and p r iv i l eges — of d i v i n i t y . \"Who would not d e s i r e , \" Pico enquires, \"to become the guests of The Renai ssance Phi 1osophy of Man: Select iohs i n t rans-l a t i o n , ed. Ernst C a s s i r e r , e t . a l . (1948; rp t . Chicago: U.of 'Chi cago P . , Phoenix e d n . , 1963). 36 the gods while yet l i v i n g on ear th , and, made drunk by the nectar of e t e r n i t y , to be endowed with the g i f t s of immort-a l i t y though s t i l l a mortal being?\" (p.233). The term 'demi-god' simply does not convey the extent of the t ransf igura t ion of the adept. The perfected man, Pico f o r t h r i g h t l y a s s e r t s , \" is in God and God in him, nay, ra ther , God and himself are one\" (p.228). Thus, at the las t stage in the process of s a n c t i f i c a t i o n l i e s d e i f i c a t i o n , for \"we shal l no longer be ourselves but shall 'become He Himself Who made us\" (p.234). De i f i ca t ion is expressed in contempla-t i o n , o r , as Pico put i t , in the \"study of heavenly and divine things\" (p.247). \"Nothing moves one to r e l i g i o n and to the worship of God more than the d i l i g e n t contemplation of the wonders of God\" (p.249). This is why, he says, magic is good. In terms of i t s ' s a l v a t i o n , ' the contemplative mode i s , of course, even more narrow and l imi ted than thaumaturgy. Only a few w i l l ever be able to proceed through that rigorous s p i r i t u a l and i n t e l l e c t u a l course charted by P ico . But what th is ' s a l v a t i o n ' loses in scope, i t gains in i n t e n s i t y . Pico does not o f fer mere release from occasional a f f l i c t i o n but permanent t ransformat ion, inde fec t ib le release from the human condit ion i t s e l f . Yet, because th is release can only be enjoyed by the few, the contemplative mode, by i t s very nature, can never respond to a broad popular demand for c o l l e c t i v e s a l v a t i o n . It provides no hope for a cu l tura l t ransformation. The contemplative mode of fers sa lvat ion only to the e l i t e , 37 and the sa lvat ion i t of fers does not change the external order of the world, but the inner being of the ind iv idua l magus. The magician of this mode is content to perfect h imsel f , and fee ls no urge to perfect the world around him. His v is ion of b l i s s is contact with the Divine One, not l i f e in an earthly paradise. The mi l lenar ian impulse to reform the world, to restore paradise to a l l mankind, came not from contemplative magic, but from magic which seeks to operate upon the world. \"Operati ve Magi c . \" In operative magic, emphasis f a l l s not on the s p i r i t u a l perfect ion of the magus—even though i t is th is s p i r i t u a l perfect ion (achieved through gnosis) which gives him his powers—but on his operative powers over c rea t ion . When man is regenerated in th is mode, that i s , \"brought back into communion with the ru ler of 'the a l l ' through mag ico - re l ig -ious communion with the cosmos,\" he regains man's primal , o r ig ina l d i v i n i t y . That i s , he becomes Adam before the F a l l , and thus possesses once again that power over nature 1 o which Adam enjoyed in paradise. Although Pico writes of th is mode as well in his O r a t i o n , ] Henry Cornelius Agrippa expressed more e n t h u s i a s t i c a l l y the Frances Yates, \"The Hermetic Tradi t ion in Renaissance Science,\" in A r t , Science and Hi story in the Renai ssance, ed. C. S. Singleton (Ba1timore: Johns HopkTns~PT, 1967), p. 257. 19 See pp.248-9 for the magician's a b i l i t y to release the miraculous powers stored in nature. 38 central message of th is occul t mode. As the fol lowing passage makes c l e a r , even operative magic is premissed on the gnostic heresy that man can once again become divine through his i n -t e l l e c t : True occul t phi losophy, he exp la ins , is to know God himsel f , the worker of a l l th ings , and to pass into him by a whole image of l ikeness (as by an essent ia l contact , and bond) whereby thou maist be transformed, and made as God . . . . This is that t rue , high Occult Phylosophy of wonderful! works [!] . The key thereof is the i n t e l l e c t : for by how much higher things we understand, with so much sublimer vertues are we endowed, and so much greater things do work, and that more e a s i l y , and e f f i c a c i o u s l y . 20 As this passage i n d i c a t e s , the end of s a n c t i f i c a t i o n or t ransf igura t ion was not contemplation or worship, but the exerci se of power over nature. Gnosis meant to Agrippa knowl-edge of how the world operates.comprehens1 on of the physical Henry Cornelius Agr ippa, Three Books of Occult P h i l -osophy , t rans. J . F. (1510; London e d n . , 165TT. p.559. The ' J . F . ' who did the t rans la t ion has usual ly been i d e n t i f i e d as John Freake (Thomas, p.223, n . l ) , but a more l i k e l y can-didate i s , I be l i eve , John French, an Independent who was immersed in magical l o r e . He also t ranslated Glauber and Sendivogius, while wr i t ing his own alchemical books (The Art of D i s t i l l a t i o n , 1651). A ' J . F . ' also wrote the pref-ace to John Everard's t rans la t ion of the Di vi ne Pymander of Hermes Trismegistus (London, 1650). I bel ieve this too was French, for he was act ive at the time, and both he and Ev-e ra rd , another Pur i tan , were alchemists ( for th is see E1 ias Ashmole (161 7-1692): His Autobiographi cal and Hi s tor i cal Notes, ed. C. H. Jos ten , 5 vols [Oxford: Clarendon Press , 1966], I, pp.121-2). The spurious Agrippan t r e a t i s e , Hi s Fourth Book of Occult Phi 1osophy, was t r a n s l a t e d , with other deeply chthonic works, by Robert Turner in 1 655. For a thorough study of Agr ippa, see Charles G. Nauert, Agri ppa and the C r i s i s of Renaissance Thought ( U r b a n a U . of I l l i n o i s Press , 1965). 39 p r i n c i p l e s according to which i t is organized. In the oper-at ive mode, then, t ransf igura t ion brought, through gnos is , the power to manipulate the world according to the w i l l of the magi ci an: Therefore [Agrippa expla ins] Our mind being pure and div ine . . . . [ i t ] doth . . . sud-dainly comprehend . . . & beholdeth a l l the s t a t i o n s , grounds, causes and sciences of things both natural and immortal. . . . Hence i t comes to pass that we, though Natural . . . . receiveth th is miraculous power in cer ta in things by command to be changed. Hence i t comes to pass that though we are framed a natural body, yet we sometimes praedominate over nature, and cause such wonderfu l l , sod-ain and d i f f i c u l t operat ions, as that the ev i l s p i r i t s obey us, the stars are d isordered , the heavenly powers compelled, the Elements made obedient; so devout men and those elevated by these Theological ver tues, command the Elements, drive away Fogs, ra ise the winds, cause r a i n , cure d iseases , ra ise the dead, a l l which things . . . have been done. 21 The references to 1 cur ing diseases' and ' r a i s i n g the dead 1 reveal that Renaissance operative magicisa revived form of Three Books of Occult Philosophy (London, 1651), p.357. In another passage Agrippa explains that being \"conjoyned\" to God, the magus has \"power over a l l th ings , ru l ing over a l l \" (p.525): \"the soul therefore being converted, and made l i ke to God, is so formed of God, that i t doth above a l l i n t e l l e c t , know a l l things by ascerta in essent ia l contact of D i v i n i t y . . . . Now then the soul being so converted into God . . . obta in 'd the s p i r i t of prophecie, sometimes work wonderfull th ings , and greater than the nature of the world can do, which works are cal 1 ed mi racl.es\" (pp. 507-08). Oper-at ive magic was thus a c ruc ia l theme in Agrippa^s works as even Thomas Vaughan recognized. He quotes him to the e f fect that the i11umtnated.man can \"'perform works exceeding the common course of the powers of Nature*\"(p.111), can \" 'over -come Nature , ' \" and thus \" 'accomplish a l l th ings ' \" (Works, p. 112). Elsewhere Vaughan asserted th is operative power (p.48) . 40 thaumaturgy ( 'cur ing d i s e a s e s ' ) , but a thaumaturgic form whose pretensions have become more exaggerated ( ' r a i s i n g the dead ' ) . Though somewhat more grandiose in i t s ambit ions, operative magic—like thaumaturgy — i s magic dedicated to helping man-kind. As a matter of f a c t , Agrippa e x p l i c i t l y defends th is mode of magic on the very grounds that i t seeks to p r o f i t mankind: But those things which are for the p r o f i t of man, for the turning away of e v i l events, for the destroying of s o r c e r i e s , for the curing of d iseases , for the exterminating of phan-tasmes, for the preserving of l i f e , honor, for tune, may be done without offence to God, or in jury to R e l i g i o n , because they are , as p r o f i t a b l e , so necessary. 22 It should be noted that even the Engl ish t rans la tor of th is work endorses the 'thaumaturgic' aspect of the operative mode. Magic allows the adept, he e x p l a i n s , \"to defend Kingdoms, to discover the secret counsels of men, to overcome enemies, to redeem cap t i ves , to increase r i c h e s , to procure the favor of men,• to.expel 1 d iseases , to preserve hea l th , to prolong l i f e , to renew youth, to forete l l future events\" ( s i g . A 5 V ) . In shor t , the magicians of the operative mode of the Renaissance were dedicated to using magic \"to operate wonderfull things\" for the \" p r o f i t of man.\" 2 2 T h r e e Books, s i g . A l v . If the good magician sought power, he sought i t to be of serv ice to a l l mankind. In cont ras t , Faustus sought power only so that he could gra t i fy his own a p p e t i t e s . t h o u g h he b r i e f l y thinks of using magic p a t r i o t i c -a l l y (I, i , 89-96). 41 Operative magic is thus a more a s s e r t i v e , more grandiose form of ancient thaumaturgy. It is much more consciously manipulative than thaumaturgy, whose promise of r e l i e f seldom enta i led a change of external nature. Operative magic's s a l -vational promise is also somewhat more i n c l u s i v e , for i t seeks the ' p r o f i t of mankind,' or of society more than the r e l i e f of ind iv idual suppl icants . Though these di f ferences may appear minor, they were exceedingly important in terms of the development of a new mode of magic--mi11enarian magic. In mi l lenar ian magic, the operative imperative to use magic for the ' p r o f i t of a l l men,' and not jus t a few, assumed even more expansive dimensions: a l l mankind was to be blest with the treasures of paradise i t s e l f . Whether or not the essent ia l d i f ference between operative and mi l lenar ian magic is quan-t i t a t i v e or qua l i t a t i ve is less important than the recognit ion that on occas ion , under the r ight circumstances, the v is ion of operative magicians acquired a mi l lenar ian scope and d i -mension. The nature of this v i s i o n , and how i t came about, shal l now be considered. Mi 11enari an Magi c Mi l lenar ian magic, b r i e f l y def ined, i s the use of occul t operative power to 'redeem' from the e f fec ts of the Curse both nature and soc ie ty . Its goal is not ind iv idual r e l i e f or apotheosis, nor even the 'defence of kingdoms' and the preservation of hea l th , but the perfect ion of the world, the 42 parad is ic transformation of human l i f e . i t s e l f . Mi l lenar ian magic is not opposed to the other forms of magic at a l l , but includes the i r 'ends' or goals in i t s own mission to r a d i c a l l y ( ' r o o t ' ) , and fundamentally transform the natural order of society and nature, to ' pe r fec t ' both men and th ings. For Western magicians, th is mission meant that magic was to be used to restore to mankind general ly the glor ious existence that prelapsar ian Adam enjoyed in paradise. The at t r ibutes of th is parad is ic existence shal l be discussed in deta i l in Part 2 of this chapter. What concerns us here is how opera-t ive magic, on occas ion , acquired a mi l lenar ian sa lvat ional impulse. An explanation of the ideo log ica l roots of mi l lenar ian magic must take into account the inf luence of second-century gnost ic ism. I have already acknowledged that the 'gnost ic heresy' underl ies a l l forms of Hermetic magic. But what gnosticism contr ibuted to the mi l lenar ian mode s p e c i f i c a l l y was an ' apoca lyp t i c ' view of the world, of r e a l i t y i t s e l f . As I have already s a i d , the mi l lenar ian demand for a tota l cu l tura l transformation can only come about when ' e v i l ' is viewed as object ive and pervasive , an elemental part of the very order of things (see above, p.2). We might c a l l this an ' apoca lyp t i c ' view of the world. Gnosticism contributed prec ise ly such a view to the Hermetic w r i t i n g s , for i t de-picted ev i l as t o t a l , and associated th is ev i l with the 43 present order of the world. Whereas thaumaturgy depicts ev i l as ad hoc instances of personal malevolence, second-century gnosticism depicted ev i l as the essent ia l c h a r a c t e r i s t i c of the human cond i t ion , permanent and unavoidable. For the g n o s t i c s , s a l v a t i o n , in the s t r i c t e s t sense, could not take place in th is world as i t now i s . This b e l i e f led in two d i r e c t i o n s . In gnosticism i t s e l f i t led to the tota l repud-ia t ion and re ject ion of this world. Salvat ion could only be experienced in a transmundane realm, u t ter ly remote from this corrupt world. But in the Renaissance, at least in occult c i r c l e s , i t led to a sa lvat ional mission devoted to transform-ing th is world. The mi l lenar ian mode, in other words, accepted the ' apoca lyp t i c ' view of gnost ic ism, but rejected gnost ic ism's pass iv i t y in the face of e v i l . This world is indeed corrupt to i t s very foundation, i t maintained, but through magic th is 03 world can be redeemed. \" G n o s t i c i s m ' s repudiation of th is world was so complete, so t o t a l , that i t did not develop, as Renaissance magic d i d , a v is ion which in any way enta i led the t ransformat ion, or even amel iorat ion , of earthly ex istence. Theore t ica l ly and a c t u a l l y , a reformation of the world was simply impossib le , as far as the gnostics were concerned. Thus, in no way did the sa lvat iona l message of this sect convey any hope of mod-i f y i n g the object ive condit ions of human existence (Jonas, The Gnostic R e l i g i o n , pp.250-1). What gnosticism did promise was release from this world, release in the sense of escape. Gnostic thought of the second century was thus character ized by as cet i ci sm, not act iv ism (Jonas, p.144), for no act could improve a irredeemably corrupt world. As a predominantly ascet ic movement, gnosticism repudiated a l l the material ben-e f i t s ava i lab le to. people, those very b e n e f i t s , i t should be pointed out , which i t was the task of mi l lenar ian magic to bestow on mankind. Consequently, in gnost ic ism, ravishing 44 This op t imis t ic b e l i e f in the power of magic to redeem the world i t s e l f was a r e s u l t , at least in par t , of the s c i e n -t i f i c rev iva l of the Renaissance. The science of this period gave to mankind--or at least seemed to give — greater control 24 over nature than had been dreamed p o s s i b l e . These new d i s -coveries of science—and the new powers over creation that they brought with them--were read i ly in te rpre ted , I be l i eve , as heralds of even more wonderful things to come. They re-leased man's imagination to conjure up v is ions of miraculous transformations accomplished through magico-science. It was natural that Renaissance magicians should come to bel ieve that dreams of an earthly paradise were viewed as s i n i s t e r induce-ments from an ev i l god to ensnare in the body the divine spark of man. This ideology of world denigration natura l ly led to a severe eschatology. The blandishments of the messianic t r a d i t i o n , for example, had no e f fec t on gnost ic ism. Marcion of Sinope argued that the messiah awaited by the Jews was the son of the ' e v i l ' Demiurge who ruled the corrupt world, and that the messiah's reign would be t y r a n n i c a l . He went on to argue that th is messiah's coming had nothing whatever to do with the sa lvat ion brought by C h r i s t , which is acosmic in nature, and which, as Jonas puts i t , \"does not change the course of worldly events, not even in the sense of ameliora-t ion\" (p.140). Gnost ic ism, there fore , u t ter ly despised the mi l lenar ian hope of a 'new heaven and a new e a r t h . ' When gnostics do talk about a ' r e s t o r a t i o n 1 or ' r e s t i t u t i o n , ' they are not ta lk ing about a change in earthly a f f a i r s , but about the restorat ion of each separate spark of l i gh t to i t s o r ig ina l unity with the transmundane Light (p.59). Such a restorat ion of each p a r t i c l e of l i g h t does not improve the con-d i t ion of the world, but makes i t worse, for i t 'darkens' i t . As a. matter, of f a c t , th is r e s t o r a t i o n , the gnostics be l ieved , would bring about the long-awaited f i n a l destruct ion of th is world, and of the cosmos of which i t was a part (p.61). 24 See Marie Boas, The S c i e n t i f i c Renaissance, 1450-1630 (1962 ; rpt . New York: Harper & Row, Torchbook edn. , 1966), esp. ch. 6: \"Ravished by Magic.\" 45 they would soon possess the power to l i m i t l e s s l y transform the human condit ion and the ontological regime of the world. What they expected was the power to make the world completely mal-l e a b l e , to make i t conform to the i r v is ions of per fec t ion . With such powers, the world i t s e l f could be re-formed, healed, cured, perfected—released from the e f fects of the Curse. This op t imis t ic b e l i e f in the power of • magi co-science to redeem the world and the human condit ion was also a resu l t of another 1 revi val 1 of the Renai ssance —a mi 11 enari an r e v i v a l . During th is per iod , v is ions of world reformation f l o u r i s h e d . These v is ions came not only from the apocalypt ic t rad i t ions of C h r i s t i a n i t y : they came as well from Hermeticism i t s e l f . In one of the important dialogues of the Corpus Hermet-i cum, in the As c lepi us , there occurs a prophetic v is ion that may very well have been responsible for implanting in the minds of Renaissance magicians the notion that a revival of 25 Hermetic magic would lead to a reformation of the world. The v is ion occurs in the famous \"Lament\" port ion of the d i a l -ogue. Hermes is recounting to Asclepius the terrors that w i l l accompany the demise of Egypt's magical r e l i g i o n . The pious worship of the magical ly animated statues shal l one day \"The r e h a b i l i t a t i o n of the AscIepi us ,\" Professor Yates w r i t e s , \" is . . . one of the chief factors in the Renaissance rev iva l of magic\" (Giordano Bruno, p.41; also p.42). See also D. P. Walker, S p i r i t u a l and Demonic Magi c (1958), p. 37. The AscTepius was ' r e h a b i l i t a t e d ' by Mars i l io F i c i n o , a magus. 46 \"become Void ,\" Hermes expla ins . Egypt, the \"image of Heaven,\" w i l l then be \"dest i tu te of R e l i g i o n , and deprived of the 2fi presence of the Deity .\" As th is magical r e l i g i o n f a l l s into desuetude, t e r r i b l e torments w i l l a f f l i c t Egypt. The earth shal l be b l i g h t e d , and human society rent by l i c e n t i o u s n e s s , c r u e l t y , and bloodshed. But these apocalypt ic terrors are only the blackness before the dawn. The \"Lament\" of Hermes ac tua l ly concludes with a v is ion of a new age, with an exhi lara t ing prophecy of a future reformati on, somewhat reminiscent of the Book of Revelat ion: When these things shal l happen, 0 AscIepi us , then that Lord and Father God Almighty . . . w i l l end th is world, and restore i t to i t s ancient beauty; so that the world i t s e l f may seem to be admired and honoured: And God, the Creatour and Restorer of so great a work, shal l of a l l men then being, be magnified with con-t i n u a l ! praises and thanksgivings. For th is generation of the World, and the reformation of a l l good th ings , and the most holy and re l ig ious r e s t i t u t i o n of nature i t s e l f , in due time both i s , and hath been eternal from the beginning. 27 Frances Yates has percept ively remarked that what the \"La-Hermes Tr ismegistus , His Second Book, ca l led AscIep-ius (London, 1657), p.77; for astra l magic to animate the statues of the gods, see p.72. The t rans la t ion was done by John Everard, a Pur i tan . 27 I b i d . , pp.78-9. For a d iscussion of the \"Lament,\" see Frances Yates, Gi ordano Bruno, pp. 38-42. As we shal l see, ' reformat ion' and ' r e s t i t u t i o n ' were key terms in the mi l lenar ian movement of Puri tanism. 47 ment\" sect ion of the As c lep i us r e a l l y implies is that the decay of as t ra l magic brought the decay of the world, and that only a rev iva l of Hermetic magic can restore the world (Giordano Bruno, pp.41-2) . It may have been th is re form-a t i o n i s t prophecy that convinced Renaissance thaumaturges that Hermetic magic was destined to restore to mankind \"a l l good things\" lost with the F a l l . The e x p l i c i t l y reformat ionist message of the \"Lament,\" and the hope for a reformation that runs through some of the other dialogues help e x p l a i n , I b e l i e v e , why a reformat ionist fervor swept through Hermetic c i r c l e s soon af ter the appearance of F i c i n o ' s t rans la t ion of the Corpus Hermeti cum (Trev iso , 1471). \"The augury of great events,\" writes Professor Gar in , \"of the mutation of the world, was spreading increas ing ly at the end of the century. Astrologers studied the heavens for the conjunctions of major s t a r s , which f o r e t o l d changes in re igns , empires, and r e l i g i o n s . . . . For Mars i l io F ic ino the stars denoted the rule of Saturn and the golden age.\" As we sha l l see, p rec ise ly the same mi l lenar ian v is ions dom-inated the a s t r o l o g i c a l mi l ieu of Puritan England as w e l l . Eugenio Gar in , Por t ra i ts from the Quattrocento, t rans. V ic tor A. and El izabeth Velen (New YorFT Harper & Row, Torch-book e d n . , 1972), p.226. \"Visions of imminent earthly para-dise\" (p.227) were provoked by the conjunction of Jupi ter and Saturn in p a r t i c u l a r , because th is conjunction was thought to signal the completion of the Great Year, that i s , the time i t takes the ent i re so lar system to revolve to the posi t ion i t was given at the Creat ion. It was thought that the res tor -ation of the heavens would bring about a restorat ion of the 48 The \"Hermetic\" o r ig in of th is mi 11enarianism has been noted by Professor Chas te l , who has shown that expectations of \"le regne de Saturne,\" o r , as one contemporary put i t , of \" ' l ' a g e d'or si longtemps cele'bre par la S i b y l l e et les de-v i n s , l 'age annonce par Platon ou la connaissance de son oeuvre sera i t p a r f a i t e , ' \" obsessed not just F i c i n o , but! almost every magician of the age. F ic ino was merely one earth as we l l . The as t ro loger , Paul of Middelburg, a c o r -respondent of Mars i l io F i c i n o , ca lculated that the innova-t ions in r e l i g i o n heralded by the stars would begin in i 1 484 • ('Dona 1 d Weinstein, Savonarola and FI orence : Prophecy and Pa t r io t i sm in the RenaissTnce LPrinceton: Princeton U. P . , 1971], pp.88-92\"T \"If people have been agitated for cen tur ies , \" writes Professor Gar in , \"by prophecies and por tents , in the second hal f of the Quattrocento in p a r t i c u l a r they l i ved in an incubator of great events. . . - T h e myth of r e b i r t h - - t h a t i s , of the new age cycle about to begin, with the whole com-plex of p rac t i ca l consequences which accompany a forecast that is bel ieved and that tends-to become rea l i zed to the extent that i t is bel ieved--and the idea of a rad ica l change which must come about in the f i f t een th century- - that i s , the idea of the Renaissance i t s e l f . . . may have a not incon-s iderable as t ro log ica l component\" (p.p. 133-4). The revival of mi l lenar ian fervor during the Renaissance, Garin seems to be say ing , may have been provoked by a s t r o l o g i c a l prophecies. 2 9 Andre / Chastel , \" L' Antechri st \\ la Renaissance,\" in L'Umanesimo e i l Demoni aco ne l1 'ar te , At t i del II Congresso In ternaz ionaTeTi Studi Umanistici a cura di Enrico C a s t e l l i (Rome and Mi lan: F r a t e l l i Bocca E d i t o r i , 1952), p.178. This important a r t i c l e contains much evidence i l l u s t r a t i n g the extent to which mi l lenar ian expectations preoccupied the greatest adepts of the I ta l ian Renaissance. Though Chastel is wont to use the term piatoni sm to explain the extraordin-ary outburst of reformat!onist f e r v o r , his own evidence c l e a r -ly demonstrates that Hermeti ci sm played the leading role in-st imulat ing th is outbreak: \"Les . 'voyants' excites jusqu'au de l i r e prophetique, n 'eta ient pas rares dans les v i l l e s d ' l t a l i e : le 2 a v r i l 1484 [the date prophesied by Paul of Mld'delburg]. un extravagant, couronne' d'e'pines, bizarrement drape, parcourut a cheval les rues de Rome, en d is t r ibuant des t r a c t s , et en annoncant que le monde a l l a i t changer, 49 of the f i r s t to announce that \"Ve platoni sme\"--pi atom'sm, as Chastel points out , leavened by \"T'hermet isme\"--\"etai t 1'•in-strument d'une renovation totale de la pensee the'ologique et les moeurs qui ouvrait une etape magnifique de I ' h i s t o i r e humaine.\" Such a mi l lenar ian expectation dominated the minds 30 of magicians for the next one hundred and f i f t y years . grace a la reve lat ion d'Hermes\" (p.178). As Frances Yates has also pointed out , the ' core ' of Renaissance Neo-Platonism, as formulated by Mars i l io F i c i n o , was \"Hermetic, involv ing a view of the cosmos as a network of magical forces with which man can operate\" (\"The Hermetic Tradi t ion in Renaissance Sc ience ,\" p.256 ). 30 Expectations of world reformation, or of the r e s t i t u -t ion of the past paradise of Eden, of the Golden Age, ravished the leading o c c u l t i s t s of the age, both Cathol ic and Protest -ant. P i c o , F i c i n o , Melanchton, Servetus, PosteT, Reuchl in , Bruno, Campanella, Parace lsus- -a l1 not only took an act ive in terest in the occul t (some of these men were prac t is ing magicians) , but helped spread the message of an imminent res t i tu t i o omni a or reformati o mundi that would perfect the human condi t i on. Pico believed that the rediscovery of Herm-e t i c and c a b a l i s t i c 'wisdom' would lead to a re l ig ious en-lightenment in which doctr ina l disputes would van ish , and in which there would consequently be a reunion of a l l people, and peace on earth. This enlightenment would also enta i l a reformation of soc ie ty . Pico ended his l i f e as a supporter of Savonarola, whom Pico viewed as a revolut ionary magus, a student of. Neopl aton'i sm and the Cabala (Donald Weinstein, Savonarola and Florence [1971], p.196). Other o c c u l t i s t s also viewed th is revolut ionary monk as a sort of 'Hermetic messiah. ' Giovanni Nes i , in his Oraculurn de Novo Saeculo (1497), uses as t ro logy , Hermeticism, and Chr is t ian apocalypti c t rad i t ions to depict Savonarola as both the prophet of the Chr is t ian millennium and the oracular fount of esoter ic knowl-edge. As such, Nesi argued, Savonarola dispenses the div ine i l luminat ion by which man w i l l be able to \"reconstruct F lo r -ence in l i b e r t y , s p i r i t u a l i t y , and t r u t h , according to the models of both the c e l e s t i a l Jerusalem and the Platonic re-pub l ic . On the basis of Savonarola's teachings, Florence would augment her i mperi urn and create the new era. . . . I n Florence Chr ist rei gned and the golden age had begun\" ( Ib id. , pp.31-2) . The impetus for Nesi 's messianism was at least in 50 Aside from the occult tradition i t s e l f , the most import-ant influence on the formation of millenarian magic came from par t Hermetic. \"As Nesi saw i t , the millennium announced by Savonarola would be a new start as well as a climax, an in-i t ia t ion into man's ultimate enlightenment, when spir i tual renewal and moral perfection would at last permit man to open al l those mysteries to which he was heir. . . . The idea was best expressed in those writings which were ascribed to Her-mes Trismegistus. . . . According to the Hermetic teachings, spir i tual and moral perfection made man a very god in wisdom and power\" (pp.197-8). Weinstein is thus convinced that the Hermetic revival in Florence \"was an important factor in the enthusiastic reception of the Savonarolan movement\" (p.202). Others shared much the same beliefs regarding the new age. Guillaume Postel (1510-1581) , translator of the Cabal a, en-visaged the new age \"as a return to the earthly paradise of Genesis , in which man is to be f ina l ly delivered from bond-age to Satan and restored to his original innocence; hence i t is the rest i tut io omnium, in which mankind will be united in a common speech (Hebrew), a common government, and a com-mon religion based on Cabala in which what had hitherto been the possession of a few ini t iates wil l become the common property of a l l mankind\" (William J . Bouwsma, \"Postel and the Significance of Renaissance Cabal ism, p.231). Giordano Bruno believed that reform of the celestial images used in astral magic would bring about \"universal religious and moral re-form\" (Yates, Giordano Bruno, p.232). His disciple in magic, Tomasso Campanella, interpreted the six planets in ascendant at his birth as a sign of his role \"to be the reformer of the world\" (Nell Eurich, Science in Utopia [Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard U. P., 1 967], p.l16). As Yates also points out, he believed that astrological and prophetic pronouncements of a new age to begin around 1600 indicated that he was to lead \"a universal magico-religious reform\" (p.360). Michael Ser-vetus (1511-1553), at once \"a disciple of the Neoplatonic Academy at Florence and of the Anabaptists\".'(p.4) , was fam-i l i a r with Hermetic and occult l i terature (pp.131, 134), and a practising astrologer and alchemist, at the same time that he entertained \"eschatological reveries\" of world reformation (Ronald Bainton, Hunted Heretic: The Li fe and Death of Michael Servetus [1 953 ; rpt. Boston: Beacon Press ,~T9~60J\\ esp. pp. 110-15). For Melanchthon, see Lynn Thorndike, \"The Circle of Melanchthon,\" in A Hi story of Magi c and Experimental Science (New York: Columbia U. P., 194TJ, V, ppT3T8-405; John W. Mont-gomery, \"Cross, Constellation, and Crucible: Lutheran Astrol-ogy and Alchemy in the Age of the Reformation,\" Ambix, 11 , No. 2 (June 1963) , 65-86; Cl i f ford Davidson, \"Doctor Faustus of 51 the Christian apocalyptic tradit ion. Joachimism, prophetism, messianic expectation rooted in the Bible, paganism and Jewish lore, al l helped to validate the reformationist dreams of Hermeticism. In fact , as early as the fourth century, Hermetic mi 1lenarianism had already merged with Christian apocalyptic thought. Lactantius, perhaps the most influential figure in early messianic thought, frequently quotes Hermes to support his own millenarian doctrines. Lactantius thus set an example that many later mi 11 enarians —even some Puritan ones—were to follow. At one point, he even quotes at length from the famous \"Lament\" of the AscIepius, focusing attention on its prophecy of the restoration of \"all good things.\" The Wittenberg,\" SP_, 59, No. 3 (July 1962), 514-23; Clyde L. Man-schreck, Melanchthon: The Quiet Reformer (New York: Abingdon, 1958), esp. ch. 8: \"Stars, Dreams, and Omens.\" For Postel, see William J . Bouwsma, \"Postel and the Significance of Ren-aissance Cabal ism,\" J_HI_, 1 5 (1954), 218-32 ; and Idem, Con-cordia Mundi: The Career and Thought of Gui11aume Postel (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard U. P. ,19577, esp. p.101, pp.282-83, and chs. 2, 5, and 6; also, Francois Secret, \"Guillaume Postel et les Courants Prophetiques de la Renaissance,\" Studi Franesi , 1 (Gennaio-Aprile 1957), 375-95 ; and Thorndike, A History of Magic, VI, p.344. For ReuchTin, see Lewis Spitz , \"\"\"Reuchl in ' s Phi 1 osophy: Pythagoras and Cabala for Christ,\" Archiv fur Ref ormati onsgeschi chte, 47(1956), 1 -19, esp. 14-15. The predictions ana dreams of these Renaissance reformers was known to visionaries of the Puritan Revolution. The author of A brief Description of the Future History of Europe (London, 1650), for instance, cites the millenarian prophecies of Reuchlin (p.21), Savonarola and Pico (p.18). 31 Lactantius, The Di vi ne Insti tutes , in The Ante-Ni cene Fathers: Translations of the Writings of the Fathers down to A. D. 325, ed. Alexander Robert and James Donaldson, rev. with prefaces and notes by A. Cleveland Coxe (1886; rpt. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Wm. B. Eerdmans Co. , 1970), Vol. x v i i i , p.215. For a discussion of Lanctaritius' relationship to the Hermetic writings, see Yates, Giordano Bruno ^ pp. 7-^ 8, passim. Another 52 example of Lactant ius , therefore , provided Renaissance magicians with a ' C h r i s t i a n ' l eg i t im iza t ion of the central mi l lenar ian prophecy of the Hermetic t r a d i t i o n . Occult v is ions of a future reformation of the world were seen as tantamount to Chr is t ian expectations of the coming millennium. Indeed, in Puritan England, as we shal l see, the two t rad i t ions were often con-f l a t e d , and the occul t t r ad i t ion was seen as a legit imate source o f v is ionary prophecies supporting the mi 11enarianism of the Chr is t ian t r a d i t i o n . Mi l lenar ian magic, then, must be seen within th is apoc-a lyp t i c context. Some Renaissance magicians, e s p e c i a l l y those immersed in the Hermetic wr i t ings , excited by the miraculous powers of transformation seemingly inherent in s c i e n t i f i c and magical gnosis , and s t i r r e d as well by the revival -of m i l l e n -arian prophecies and expectat ions, such Renaissance magicians arrogated to themselves the mission of working the transform-ation of the world so long awaited and so avidly sought. scholar comments, \"The Divine I n s t i t u t e s , in par t icu1ar , are f u l l of references to th is Hermes, references which, together with quotations from the various s i b y l s , are used by the author as. prophecies of Chr is t and testimonies to the truth of C h r i s t i a n i t y from author i t ies that his pagan audience would accept.\" As th is author points out , Lactantius c i tes Hermes at least t h i r t y times by name, drawing most quotations from the Poimandres and the As c lepi us (Kathleen E l len Hartwel l , Lactanti us and Mi 1 ton [Cambridge, Mass.: H a r v a r d U . P . , 1929], p.116). \"See also Eugenio Gar in , Portrai ts from the Quattro-cento, p. 148; and J . F. Par t ington, A History of Chemistry, I , p.243. The whole re la t ionsh ip between Chr is t ian mi l lenar -ianisrri and occul t prophecies deserves further study. 53 Some Renaissance magicians, hearing the cry for reformation, one might say, and be l iev ing themselves possessed of the power to bring such a reformation about, some of these adepts began to look upon themselves as messiahs d iv ine ly appointed to bring about the millennium. They bel ieved themselves to be the agency through which God would make good His promise of a new heaven and a new earth. The millennium would come 32 through magi c. In summary, i t can be said that at the time of the Ren-a issance, the simultaneous revival of both Hermeticism and mi 11enarianism transmuted an already extreme and assert ive Campanella, perhaps the most fanat ic of Renaissance magicians, ac tua l ly helped plan and execute an armed revo l t designed to bring about the messianic age. Frances Yates writes of th is episode: \"When we look at the propaganda for the Calabrian r e v o l t , we f ind that i t is f u l l of mystical imper ia l ism, of prophecy of the return of an imperial golden age, such as Lactantius and the S iby ls speak o f , combined with apocalypt ic prophecy, Joachism, and the l i k e . Campanella believed from the portents that the hour had struck for such a renewal of the age\" (Giordano Bruno, p.386). The in te r - . pretat ion of magic I have been advancing would help to ex-pla in why, as Frances Yates remarks, messianic delusions were so c h a r a c t e r i s t i c of Renaissance magicians (p.339). The thaumaturge's acqu is i t ion of a messianic role is d i s -cussed from an anthropological point of view by Professor Wilson, who wr i tes: \"The. hope, reassurance, renewal which he claims as an i n t r i n s i c qual i ty of his thaumaturgical ski11 , are rea l i zed by the confidence he generates and the prac t ica l steps which he takes to win and keep his fo l lowing . In such circumstances of d e - t r i b a l i z a t i o n [or cu l tura l cr i si S - -PT] the thaumaturge becomes the messiah, the c h i e f , the now-and-coming king. The l i v i n g god, the man who claims to be a messiah, must of necessi ty be a thaumaturge\" (Magic and the Mi 11enni urn, pp.1 33-4). The evolution of magic into chi l iasm is discussed as well by Max Weber, The Soci ol ogy of Rel.i gi-on, t r a n s . Ephraim F ischof f from the 4th e d n . , rev. (T956) (Boston Beacon P . , 1964), ch. 11, esp. p.175. 54 form of thaumaturgy. into a new kind of magic, into a magic devoted to a mi l lenar ian sa lvat i onal miss ion , into a magic animated by a messi ani c impulse towards the world. Like the many mi l lenar ian movements which preceded i t , Renaissance magic, at least in th is mode, offered to mankind a salvat ion that was at once col 1ecti ve , t e r r e s t r i al , i mmi nent, tota l , and miraculous (that i s , accomplished by occult and divine powers; see above , p. 6 , n . 6 ). Now we better understand why, from the Renaissance on, the occult sciences possessed myths and motifs of a future Golden Age, of an earthly paradise and new and perfect world. From the Renaissance on, one mode of magic was preoccupied with perfect ing the world through magic i t s e l f . When we come to study the occul t mi l ieu of Puritan England, we wi l l f ind there the same mi l lenar ian dreams and v is ions that obsessed Renaissance Hermetic reformers. And we wi l l also see, when we come to th is subject , that the occult sciences the Puritan rad ica ls sought to revive offered to mankind the same kind of ear th ly millennium so av id ly expected by Puri tan chi 1 i as ts . That thaumaturgic magic can undergo a transformation that imbues i t with a mi l lenar ian impulse has also been argued by Professor Bryan Wilson, in Magic and the Mil lennium. His study of th i rd-wor ld prophetical movements has revealed that thaumaturgical movements not infrequent ly acquire a 55 reformat ionist or mi l lenar ian or ientat ion towards the world. Although the 'normal l o g i c ' of development is for a thauma-turg ic response to precede a mi l lenar ian movement, and for the mi 11enarian movement to then acquire magical overtones by absorbing thaumaturgic elements, mi l lenar ian expectations of extreme in tens i ty can work d i r e c t l y on the magical system i t s e l f , by broadening i t s sa lvat ional message, and thus im-buing i t with a mi 11enarian v i s i on and mission in the world. Intense popular demand for a total cu l tura l transformation can, in f a c t , transmute the thaumaturgic agency into a mi l lenar ian magical movement. Thaumaturgy responds to such a demand for c o l l e c t i v e t e r r e s t r i a l sa lvat ion by o f fer ing the people a to ta l reformation that w i l l expunge a l l e v i l , and perfect the whole world. So far we have traced the evolution of the mil lenary mode of magic, and discussed the nature of i t s sa lvat ional J J \" F o r a time, mi 11ennialism may draw some strength from thaumaturgical preoccupat ions, p a r t i c u l a r l y in the promise of a future time when i l l n e s s and old age wi l l not occur. . . . But sometimes, the thaumaturgy is i t s e l f of a new type, is i t s e l f infused with the ef fects of the c a t a l y t i c experience of the r e v o l u t i o n i s t movement\" (Wilson, p.349). If i n t e n s i f i e d and given a \"soc ie ta l connotat ion,\" Wilson exp la ins , the \"de-mand for thaumaturgy may take on what amounts to intense de-si re for tota l cu l tura l transformati on\" (p.216; p.383 ; i t a l i c s added). What follows is a strong \"demand for a new and more powerful magic, for thaumaturgy on a_ soc ie ta l scale\" (p. 219; i t a l i c s added). Thaumaturgy on a soc ie ta l scale I have ca l led 'mi l lenar ian m a g i c ' As long as.the thaumaturgi cal demand p e r s i s t s , Wilson concludes, the \"mi l lennia l dream [ w i l l ] i n -termi t tent ly recur\" (p.383; pp.349, 382). 56 message. In Part 2 I should l ike to discuss in more deta i l the substance of th is message, the be l ie fs and hopes that composed the 'mi l lenary dream' of th is form of the occu l t . The evidence to be reviewed in Part 2 w i l l support the thesis that magic did acquire a mi l lenar ian impulse towards the world, and wi l l reveal the mi l lenar ian s ign i f i cance of the myths, v is ions and preoccupations we shal l soon encounter in the occul t mi l ieu of Puritan England. We shal l now ex-plore more deeply the nature of the mi l lennia l mode of magic. 57 Part 2: The Nature of Mi l lenar ian Magic The Restorati on of Paradi se The sa lvat ion promised by the mi l lenar ian mode of magic amounted to the restorat ion of paradise. The ' re - format ion ' of the world, then, rea l l y meant the r e h a b i l i t a t i o n of Eden or of the Golden Age. \"The central concern of the Hermetic phi losophers ,\" Hiram Haydn percept ively remarked, \"was with the ' rejuvenat ion and renovation of men and th ings ' \" (The Counter Renaissance, p.514). Though Haydn did not use the term ' m i l l e n a r i a n ' to character ize this impulse, he never-theless understood that Paracelsus' dream regarding the \" ' r e -generation of nature, and the restorat ion of youth, ' .\" was a promise to restore paradise to ear th , through magic. Ren-aissance magicians, Haydn went on to e x p l a i n , dreamed \"of renovating and restor ing to nature her p r i s t i n e v i g o r * ' l o s t since the F a l l \" (p.191). The concept of 'reformation , 1 then, enta i led for the magicians a restorat ion or r e s t i t u t i o n of the lost Eden of Adam. This dream of restor ing paradise to earth —a dream which has long haunted the imagination of Western man — gained greater currency during the Hermetic rev iva l because of the widely held b e l i e f that magical gnosis was a r e s t i t u t i o n of the wis-dom of Adam himself . Most magicians believed that t r a n s f i g -urat ion enta i led the acqu is i t ion ( rea l ly the ' r e - a c q u i s i t i o n ' ) of the powers and p r i v i l eges Adam possessed in paradise. Adam 58 exercised his dominion over nature and enjoyed the physical b lessing of paradise , Renaissance magicians be l ieved , by v i r -34 tue of his occul t wisdom and magical powers. When the adept was t ransf igured into an Adam/Magus (\"the ' i l luminated p r i e s t ' was pre-1apsarian Adam\"—Haydn, p.514), he recaptured, so to speak, Adam's wisdom and his power, and, with these, 35 Adam's parad is ic existence as we l l . Thus, when a man became a true magus, he not only i n -her i ted Adam ' s power and wisdom, he also entered, so to speak, 3 See Thomas Vaughan, Magi a Adamica: or the Ant iqui ty of Magi c , in The Works of T h o m a s Vaughan: Mys 11c and Ale hem-TTt, ed. Arthur Edward Faite (1919; rpt . New York: Univer-s i t y Books, 1968). In seventeenth-century alchemical thought, the fecundi ty , r i c h n e s s , secur i ty and general perfect ion of the garden of Eden, were explained magi cal 1 y,. as. products of Adam's magi cal knowledge and of his possession of the Stone. Thus, in the alchemical t ract en t i t l ed \"Liber Patr is Sap-i e n t i a e , \" i t is wr i t ten: The mightti Ston that ys so p rec ius , Thys ryche reby, that ston of pryce, The whych wosse send owt of Paradyce: (in Theatrum Chemi cum Bri tanni cum, comp. E l ias Ashmole, the Sources of Science s e r i e s , No.39 [1652; rpt . New York: John-son Reprint , 1967], p.211). 3 c 3 Agrippa also bel ieved that the i l luminated pr ies t be-came \"pre-1apsarian Adam.\" Professor Nauert wr i tes: \"The enlightened s o u l , the soul which had attained a true under-standing of God's r e v e l a t i o n , would not only regain mastery over i t s own body but would also win power over a l l nature.\" Agrippa himself had s a i d , \" ' F o r the basis of a l l miracles is knowledge, and the more things we understand and know, the more read i ly and e f f i c a c i o u s l y do we work.' It was prec ise ly this power over nature which Adam had los t by or ig ina l s i n , but which the pur i f i ed soul , the magus, now could regain\" (Agri ppa and the Cri s i s of Renai ssance Thought, p.48). \"Once the soul has at ta i ned iTTumi nati on, i t returns to something l i ke the condit ion i t had before the f a l l of Adam, when the seal of God was upon i t and a l l creatures feared and revered man\" (p.284). 59 a sort of 'p rov is iona l paradise' here on earth. One has only to reca l l Faustus' \"world of p r o f i t and d e l i g h t , / Of power, of honour, of omnipotence,\" to f ind th is dream ex-pressed in a l l i t s vigor and energy. Cornelius says to him, The miracles that magic w i l l perform Will make thee vow to study nothing e l s e . The s p i r i t s t e l l me they can dry the sea And fetch the treasure of a l l foreign wrecks, Ay, a l l the wealth that our forefathers hid Within the massy e n t r a i l s of the earth. Then t e l l me, Faustus, what shal l we three want? Faustus rep l i es: Nothing, Corne l ius . 0, th is cheers my s o u l ! Come, show me some demonstrations magical , That I may conjure in some lusty grove And have these joys in f u l l possession. 36 But a d i s t i n c t i o n must be drawn between the impulse that motivates Faustus and the impulse that motivates the Hermetic reformers of the Renaissance. And this d i s t i n c t i o n is important, for i t di f fere n.ti ate s between what has been ca l led black magic (the magic of Faustus) and white magic (that of the Hermetic reformers) . What must f i r s t be recognized is that both forms (white and black) are materi a l i s t i c. ' P r o f i t and de l igh t ' are the goals of both forms. What rea l l y separates these two kinds of magic is the s p i r i t in which ' p r o f i t and de l igh t ' are pursued. The Faustian magician uses magic to create a 'world of Doctor Faustus , ed. Jump, I,i ,1 35-6 , 143-5.1. 60 p r o f i t and de l igh t ' for himself alone. His whole purpose is to acquire the physical treasures of paradise in order to g ra t i f y his own s e l f i s h desires and l u s t s , to aggrandize him-s e l f alone. From the viewpoint of the Hermetic reformers, the Faustian magician d is tor ted the true purpose of magic--to perfect the world and restore paradise to a l l people. The white magic of the Hermetic reformers (Bruno, Paracelsus, the Rosicruc ians , for example) i s , in cont rast , a l t r u i s t i c , p h i l -anthropic , and char i tab le . Its shibboleth i s , ' fo r the p r o f i t of m a n k i n d . ' 3 7 J / F a u s t u s was condemnable, at least according to the Hermeti c is ts ' , because he was i l l i b e r a l and dangerously s e l f -i s h . In a way, i t was these vices which made his brand of magic ' b l a c k . ' Faustianism, I suggest, was l inked to the demonic because of the destruct ive and a n t i - s o c i a l impulses i t expressed. I understand that th is in terpre ta t ion goes against the widely held b e l i e f that Faustus' magic was black, and that he was e v i l , because he derived his powers from the D e v i l . But as i t is expressed, th is b e l i e f is! woe-f u l l y s i m p l i s t i c . To suggest that the demonic or ig in at-t r ibuted to Faustianism is intended as a symbolic expression of the ev i l tendencies of Faustus' impulses is not to suggest that seventeenth-century people did not bel ieve in d e v i l s . No doubt they d i d . But i t is to suggest, however, that these devi ls in which they believed were often subconscious repre-sentations (or symbols) of the impulses and desires in human nature the cul ture at large deemed ' e v i l ' and ' s u b v e r s i v e . ' The demonic nature of Faustianism symbolizes the se l f ishness and inhumanity of th is magical ideology. In shor t , demons do not symbolize themselves, no matter how many people be-l ieve in the i r object ive r e a l i t y , but the destruct ive tend-encies in human nature i t s e l f . This is to suggest no more than what others have already asserted and demonstrated (see, among others , Rollo May, Love and Will [1969, 1973], esp. \"Love and the Daimonic,\" and \"The Daimonic in Dialogue;\" Ruth Nanda Anshen, The Reali ty of the Devi 1: Ev i l i n Man [1970, 1972]; Henry Ansgar K e l l y , The D e v i l , Demonc-logy and Witchcraft : The Development of Chri stTan BelTef s i n Ev i l S p i r i t s LT968, 1974]; and Dr. Martin Grotjahn, The Voice of 61 But th is emphasis oh char i ty did not mean that the good magician was denied pleasure and power and wealth. He was not asked to be a s c e t i c ; paradise was not closed to him. On the contrary , i f the good magician pursued magic piously and humbly, and for the purpose of benef i t ing a l l mankind, then he would in fact enjoy a l l that Faustus coveted and more. He would possess the material benef i ts that Adam enjoyed in Eden. the Symbol [1971, 1973]. It should be noted that sixteenth and seventeenth-century people also believed in w i tchcra f t , but th is fact has not prevented contemporary scholars from recognizing that w i tchcra f t , regardless of i t s subject ive r e a l i t y , was an expression of soc ia l tensions inherent in v i l l a g e l i f e (Thomas, and o thers ) , and that an accusation of w i tchcra f t , regardless of i t s s i n c e r i t y , was often a way of l a b e l l i n g somebody a r e l i g i o u s heret ic (Trevor-Roper) . In shor t , wi tchcraf t stood for others thi ngs, not for witches, even though the people believed in them\"] ine in terpreta t ion of black magic that I have advanced here assumes greater c r e d i b i l i t y when i t is recognized that even a magician who enjoyed his powers from God Himself could deserve the fate of Faustus i f \"he abused his powers, and did not use them for the benef i t of mankind. In shor t , i t was the char i tab le use of magic which r e a l l y d ist inguished good magic from bad. One seventeenth-century adept wr i tes , \"I exhort a l l that possess th is Treasure, to use i t to the praise o f /God, and the good of the i r neighbours [! ] , in order that they may not at the las t day be e te rna l ly doomed for the i r ingrat i tude to the i r Creator\" (The Hermetic Museum, Restored and Enlarged, t rans , from the 1678 edn. by Arthur Edward Waite, 2 vo ls . [London: James E l l i o t t , 1893], II, p.198). The o r ig in of the powers is not what is of importance to th is adept, but the use to which they are , , or are not , put. The- same point is made by another adept. The r ight use of alchemy, 'Hermes' himself a s s e r t s , brings \"to the pious earthly honour and long l i f e , but to the wicked who misuse i t , Eternal Punishment\" (\"The Book of the Revelation of Hermes,\" in Benedictus F i g u l u s , comp., A Golden and Blessed Casket of Nature's Marvels, t rans, un ident i f ied LT608; London: James E l l i o t t , 1893], p.36). Obviously, not even the divine o r ig in of magical powers could protect one from eternal damnation i f one abused such powers by using them s e l f i s h l y . 62 Renaissance magicians found a warrant for such a b e l i e f in the story of Solomon. Solomon's 'wisdom' was usual ly i n -terpreted as occul t wisdom; i t was his knowledge of occul t f o r c e s , magicians be l ieved , which brought Solomon the material 38 blessing he enjoyed. Thomas Vaughan, for example, refers to Solomon to support his contention that 'wisdom' can bring back paradise to earth. \"'I preferred wisdom'- -said the wise k i n g - - ' b e f o r e sceptres and thrones, and esteemed riches nothing in comparison to her.'•\" But, as he goes on to ex-p l a i n , his choice of 'wisdom' brings to him a l l the physical treasures the world can o f fe r : \" ' a l l good things together came to me with her [ i . e . , wisdom], and I re jo iced in them 39 a l l , because she was the mother of them.'\" An Engl ish adept of Independent sympathies says of Solomon that he was \"exce l lent ly acquainted with this Mystery\" of magic. His \"knowledg of Nature was such, and so per fec t , that he knew and understood the vir tues and propert ies of a l l Trees, P lan ts , Beas ts , 'Fowls , and F ishes , \" and employed h i s gnosis to perfect the universal medicine that would cure \"a l l Di seases.\" C i t ing Josephus as his author i ty , this author i d e n t i f i e s Solomon as the wri ter of thOse \"Books of Invocations and Inchantments to cure Diseases, and to expel ev i l Spi r i ts\" (Hardi ck Warren , Magi ck & Astrology Vi ndicated [London, 1 650] , p.13). 39 The mi l lenar ian message i m p l i c i t in this dream comes to the surface in Solomon's remark that Wisdom \"can do a l l th ings,\" and can \"maketh a l l things new\" (p.97). The echo of the promi se of Revel ati on l inks the renovation of the world not to a messiah from heaven, but to gnosis and occult wisdom. And the power which makes a l l things new, Norman 0. Brown has reminded us, is magic (\"Apocalypse,\" the Phi Beta Kappa oration del ivered at Columbia Univers i ty in 1 960 , in The Borzoi Col lege. Reader , 2nd edn. , p.57). Note the repeti t i on of the phrase from the Asclepi us--\"al1 good t h i n g s \" - - i n Solomon's descr ip t ion of the f r u i t s of occul t gnosis (see above, p.46). 63 That this is what the example of Solomon teaches us Thomas Vaughan himself makes quite c l e a r . After this passage from Solomon, Vaughan quotes St. Matthew: \"'Seek ye f i r s t the kingdom of God and His r ighteousness; and a l l these things sha l l be added unto you '\" (Works of Thomas Vaughan, p.98). \"For of t ru th , \" Vaughan concludes, \"temporal blessings are but ushers to the s p i r i t u a l , o r - - t o speak more p l a i n l y [and more accurately- -PT]- -when once we begin to love the S p i r i t then He sends us these things as token and pledges of His love .\" As a consequence of this doc t r ine , even the myst ica l ly inc l ined Vaughan believed in the power of magical wisdom to permit mankind to once again \"enter the T e r r e s t r i a l Paradise, 40 that Encompassed Garden of Solomon.\" ' + u To Vaughan, the encompassed garden of Solomon was a symbol of s p i r i t u a l p e r f e c t i o n , and of an earthly existence which was also blessed by long l i f e , health and peace. Others, however, interpreted i t d i f f e r e n t l y . For S i r Epicure Mammon , the encompassed garden of Solomon was an Adamite's garden of earthly de l igh ts : For I do mean To have a l i s t of wives, and concubines, Equal with Solomon; who had the stone A l i k e , with me: and I w i l l make me, a back With the e l i x i r , that shal l be as tough As Hercules, to encounter f i f t y a night . (The Alchemist , ed. Douglas Brown, New Mermaid edn. [New York: H i l l & Wang, Dramabook e d n . , 1 966], II , i i ,34-39). The story of Solomon was an archetype for seventeenth-century o c c u l t i s t s . It appears again in the work of John Heydon, an Englishman who professed to knowing the secrets of Rosicrucianism. Be-cause Solomon asked for nothing but 'wisdom' or 'understand-i n g , ' Heydon exp la ins , God gives him those things for which he did not ask, \"r iches and honour; and so w i l l God doe to a l l those that mind wisdom and vertue\" (The English Physit ians Guide [London, 1662], p.10). This b e l i e f was en t i re ly cons is -tent with the Puritan notion of 'evangel ica l poverty . ' As 64 It should be pointed out that Vaughan was no eccentr ic in this regard. ' As we shal l see when we come to examine the occul t mi l ieu of Puritan England, th is dream of entering a paradise on earth obsessed the imaginations of scores of Engli sh adepts. Well before the Puritan rad ica ls set out to revive a l l the occult sc iences , European and Engl ish magicians believed that i f they employed magic piously and phi1anthropical1y , they would inher i t a l l the s p i r i t u a l and physical blessings of Eden. As one alchemical t r a c t expressed the idea , \" . . . you, who. are endued with a more noble S p i r i t [than avar ic ious adepts] , F i r s t seek the Kingdom of God, which is e i ther const i tuted or propagated by Charity to your Neigh-bour [! ] , and al1 other Things, which other men so impiously seek [Faustus?] , shal l be added to you. Professor H i l l has observed, si nee 'evangel ica l poverty' is s p i r i t u a l in nature, i t may consist with great r iches (The World Turned Upside Down, p.265). The example of Solomon would have meant something to Puritans as w e l l , for the very idea of the ' e l e c t ' people implied that they were to prosper in th is world as well as to inher i t the next (Ibid . , p.122). The 'enclosed garden' is mentioned in the Song of Solomon, 4:12. Ev ident ly , the Song of Solomon was often ci ted by a l -chemists as an occult work in which the secrets of transmu-tat ion were intimated (see Henry Stubbe, Legends no His tor ies [London, 1670], p.51). • , • • A 1 Theodore K i r k r i n g i u s , in Bas i V Valent ine: Hi s Tr i um-phant Chariot of Antimony, annotated by Ki rkr ing ius (London, 16 78), p.64. Note that Ki rkr ingius also quotes St. Matthew, as Vaughan d id . George R ip ley , in his \"Compound of Alchymie,\" also wrote that . renuncia t ion of temporal blessings w i l l lead to the acqu is i t ion of those very blessings that were renounced: 65 The ' a l l other th ings' which the adept shal l enjoy were hea l th , r i c h e s , s e c u r i t y , a long l i f e , and everything else that people have thought Adam enjoyed in paradise. The true adept \"shal l not see poverty, no Disease shal l touch him, nor no sickness hurt him,\" asserts a seventeenth-century a l -42 chemist. He also wrote that a phi lanthropic exercise of his magical powers w i l l y i e l d the adept \"many commodities, both for hea l th , and temporal necess i ty ; by which means you wi l l be freed from want in th is World; which is a thing of so great Moment, as no S a c r i f i c e of Gratitude can be found suf-And for soe much as we have for thy sake Renowncyed the World, our Wyl ls , and the Fleshys Lus t , As thyne owne wyl fu l l professyors us take; Syth in thee only dependyth a l l our t r u s t , We can no f e r t h e r , to thee enclyne we must: Thy secret T resorars , vouchsafe to make us, Show us thy Secre ts , and to us be bounteous, (in As.hmo.le, comp. , Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum, p. 122). Ripley also warns the alchemist to use the powers of alchemy \"to Gods pleasure; do good wyth them what ever thou may\" (p. 120). 'Eirenaeus• Phi 1aiethes' exhorts a l l who possess the ' t reasure ' of alchemy \"to use i t to the praise of God, and the good of the i r neighbours\" (The Hermetic Museum, II, p. 1.98). An Engl ish exponent of Paracelsianism wrote; \"So that the scope of Phylosophy is to seeke to g l o r i f i e God in his wonder-f u l l workes: to teach a man how to l i ve w e l l , and to be char-i tab ly af fected in helping our neighbour\" (T. Timme, t r a n s . , in Josephus Querci'tanus [Joseph DuChesne], The pract i se of • chymi c a l l and hermeti ca l l phys i eke [London , 160 5] , si g .A4r) . Professor Manuel notes that in good magic the Stone is used \"for the love of man\" (A Portrai t of Isaac Newton, p.168). 42 / Basi l Va lent ine , 0_f Natural Supernatural Things (Lon-don , 1 670), p.71. For a f a i r l y t rad i t iona l account of the s p i r i t u a l and physical blessings enjoyed by Adam in paradise, see St. Anselm(us), Man i n Glory: o r , a Di scourse of the Blessed state of the Sai nts i n the New Jerusalem, i n The Works of Henry Vaughan, ed. LeonarcTCyri1 Mart in , 2 v o l s . ( O x f o r d - \" Oxford U. P. , 1914)., I. The t rans la t ion was by Vaughan. 66 43 f i c i e n t to answer th is favour of God showed to you.\" Yet another adept urges alchemists to \"do good to the poor,\" so that they \"may l i v e in a heal thful state . . . and may have a l l whatsoever [they] desire on E a r t h . \" 4 4 \"He that has once found this Ar t , \" wrote a seventeenth-century a lchemist , \"can 45 have nothing e l s e . i n a l l the world to wish f o r . \" Almost a l l adepts bel ieved that the. benef i ts conferred by magic \"in 46 c i r c 1 e a'11 temporal f el i ci ty .\" Basi1 Valenti ne: His Tr i umphant Chari ot of Antimony , pp.156-7. Abject confessions of grat i tude and humil i ty no doubt served to a l lay the conscience of adepts somewhat troubled by the b la tant ly m a t e r i a l i s t i c creed of the magic they espoused. In a way, the doctrine that the good magician used his powers a l t r u i s t i c a l l y helped j u s t i f y the mater ia l -i s t i c p r i v i l eges magicians were bel ieved to enjoy. 44 -John Horland, \"A Work of Saturne,\" in Natural &•Super-natural Thi ngs, by Basi l Valentine (1670), pp.220-21. 45 Hermeti c Museum, II, p.197. 4 6 E l i a s Ashmole [\"James Hasol le , \" pseud. ] , Fasciculus Chemi cus: or Chymi cal Col 1ecti ons. Expressi ng the Ingress , Progress, and Egress, of the Secret Hermeti ck Science (Lon-don, 1650), s ig - . * *8 . See also Hermeti c Museum, I ,86, for another use of the phrase \"a l l temporal f e l i c i t y . \" It was also said that the adept would possess \"the g lo r ie of this world\" (Hortulanus, quoted in Mirrer of Alchimy [London, 1 597], p>25); also see the t ract enti t led \"The Glory of the World; o r , Table of Paradise,\" in Hermeti c Museum, I. Alchemy, wrote the Engl ish adept, E l ias Ashmole, of fers the magus \"great and inexhaust ible\" t reasures , for she holds forth \"length of days\" in her r ight hand, \"and i n her 1 eft hand , r i ches and honor (Fasci cuius Chemi cus, s i g . * * 8 ) . Ash-mole was s u c c i n c t l y epitomizing a very large body of opinion on th is subject . Tract a f ter t ract descri bes the -gl ories of the r ight and l e f t hand of magic. One after another asserts that the phi lanthropic adept w i l l acquire \"great Riches\" (Theatrum, p.320) . m a t c h l e s s \"r iches\" (p.357), \"a l l worldly Treasure\" (p.402), \"more Tresour then hath the King of Inde\" (p.403), \"a l l the Treasure and Gould in Craesus cof f re (p.399) 67 In review, i t was a central be l i e f of the magical t rad-i t i on that i f the adept used magic c h a r i t a b l y , then he would possess earthly treasures and temporal blessings in abundance. He would inhab i t , so to speak, a provis ional earthly paradise. \" r i c h e s , and honour\" (John French, Art of D i s t i l l a t i o n , s i g . *3 ) , \" i n f i n i t e r iches\" (Hermetic Museum, II, 227 ) , \"sol id good fortune\" and \"prosper i ty\" (HM, I, 86), and \"a l l good fortune\" (Fasci culus , s i g . * * 8 ) . Through the Stone Solomon procured for himself \"long l i f e and boundless r iches (HM , I, 86-7). One alchemical t ract is even subt i t l ed the \"book of honouring, increasing r i c h e s , and the book of the needy, putting to f l i g h t poverty\" (IHM, 11 , 3). As the or ig ina l preface to the Hermetic Museum boldly dec la res , the ancient theomagus had at hi s command \"the most ef fectual means of becoming r i c h , and of possessing not only s u f f i c i e n t to 1ive upon, but a l l the comforts and pomp of l i f e \" (HM., I, 2). \"Length of days,\" held in the r ight hand of alchemy, was held to be an even more precious g i f t : \"If a l l the mountains were of s i l v e r and go ld , what would they p r o f i t a man who l ives in constant fear of death? Hence there cannot be in the whole world anything better than our Medicine, which has power to heal a l l the diseases of the f l e s h . Wealth, and r i c h e s , and go ld , a l l y i e l d the pr ize to th is glor ious pos-session\" (HM, II, 223). The E l i x i r was the \"cure of human woe\" i t s e l f , for i t could free mankind from the worst e f fect of the Fa l l - rdea th i t s e l f . For instance, Ashmole suggests that the Stone is so strong a preservat ive and r e s t o r a t i v e , that \" ' t i s made a question whether any Man can Dye that uses i t\" (Theatrum, s i g . B l v ) . S i m i l a r l y , Edwardus Anglicus wrote in 1562, \" ' the learned stand in doubt whether a man can dye or not that hath this stone\" (in Manuel , A Portrai t of Isaac Newton, p.169). Through magic, in other words, the adept is blessed with \"continued l i f e and health\" (HM, II, 227), \"health & length of dayes\" (Art. of D i s t i l l a t i o n , * 3 r ) , \" l a s t -ing health\" (HM_, 1 , 292), \"long l i f e , health\" (Solomon T r i s -mos i n , Splendor Sol i s , no t rans. [London: Kegan Pau l , n . d . ] , p.80-81). Adam, i t was be l ieved , almost attained the m i l -lennial age of 1000 years through alchemy (he died at 930). Morienus, Pythagoras, Geber and Hermes did l i ve 1000, thanks to the Stone (HM, I, 188). See also HM, I, 326, 71, 87-8; II, 222 ; Splendor S o l i s , p.80; Art of D i s t i l 1 a t i o n , s i g . A 3 r ; P_r. Faustus (I, i ,24-6 ; see above, p . 3 9 T Part of what is p r o m T T e d - f o r the mil lennium, Professor Wilson points out , is \"the cessation of i l l n e s s , the ageing process, and death\" (Magi c and the Mi 11enni Urn, p.365). 6 8 I have emphasized th is po in t , and have described in deta i l the joys of this' paradise, because the b e l i e f in the 'p rov is iona l paradise' provided the foundation for mi l lenar ian magic. Impl ic i t in the phi lanthropic, imperative is a mi l l en -arian d i r e c t i v e : the height of char i ty and philanthropy would be for the magus, who inhabited a sort of paradise on ear th , to use his magic to extend to a l l people the same treasures and blessings he himself enjoys in such profusion. To put i t another way, the s incere ly thankful magus could best express his grat i tude to God by opening up to a l l mankind the gates of that t e r r e s t r i a l paradise he entered when he was t ransf igured into Adam/Magus. This is what is behind the mi l lenar ian im-pulse of Renaissance and seventeenth-century magicians. We wi l l encounter i t again, in a p r i s t i n e form, in the Har t l ib c i r c l e of Puritan England. This in terpre ta t ion reveals the mi l lenar ian message of Paracelsus' c rypt ic remark, \"the s t r i v -ing for 'wisdom' is the second paradise of the w o r l d . \" 4 7 He was saying no more than what Professor H i l l has said regarding the sal vationaV message of magic. \"Through mastery of the secrets of nature,\" H i l l has wr i t ten , magic offered mankind. AQ \" l i b e r a t i o n from the consequences of the F a l l . \" Paracelsus: Selected Wr i t ings, ed. Jolande Jacobi , Bol l ingen Series xxvi i i (New York: Pantheon, 1957 ), p . l x i i i . AO The World Turned Upside Down, p.31. This was prec ise ly the message of the Rosicrucian movement. The Brotherhood's prophecy of a ' reformat ion' through magic excited the people to dream of inhabi t ing an ear th ly paradise, of acquir ing the 69 The \"Mi 11ennary Dream\" of Alchemy Although the desire or impulse to l ibera te mankind from the consequences of the Fal l permeated a l l the occul t arts a f te r the.Renaiss.an.ee, i t was espec ia l l y strong in what has 49 been ca l l ed ' e x o t e r i c ' alchemy. As the occul t science of material treasures of Adam. . Hearing the Rosicrucian message, the people be l ieved , recounts Comenius, that they could \"know everything\" \"without e r r o r , \" \"without want have s u f f i -c ient of everything; l i ve for several hundred years without sickness and gray h a i r , i f they oniy wished i t . And they ever repeated: 'Happy, v e r i l y happy, is our age! . . . And almost everyone burnt with the desire of obtaining these goods\" (Co-menius, The Labyrinth of the World, in Yates, Rosicrucian En-lightenment, p.163). The Rosicrucian movement would seem to b e a n example of a magical movement responding to the demands of the people by o f fe r ing them a sa lvat ion c l e a r l y mi l lenar ian in nature. The mi 11enarianism of the Rosicrucian movement explains why there was an attempt to revive the movement in Puritan England. As we shal l see, Rosicrucianism re inforced the c h i l i a s t i c expectations so rampant in the Puritan and occul t c i r c l e s of revolut ionary England. 49 As a resu l t of the in teract ion between early chemistry and gnost ic ism, Western alchemy, from the second century on, has offered two concomitant p u r s u i t s , a m a t e r i a l i s t i c one, directed outwards, towards the world ( ' e x o t e r i c ' ) , and a mystical one, d i rected inwards, towards the soul (or psyche) of the adept ( ' e s o t e r i c ' ) . The goal of exoter ic alchemy was to 'redeem' base metals by completing the i r natural progress to being ' g o l d , ' a progress arrested by the F a l l . Exoteric alchemy absorbed the mi l lenar ian impulse coming out of the Hermetic rev iva l of the Renaissance. It was easy to believe that the whole world wanted to become ' g o l d , 1 that i s , per-f e c t . Had i t not been for the F a l l , the earth would have been as i t was in the Golden Age. In cont ras t , the goal of esoter ic alchemy was the redemption of the soul of the adept (see H. J . Sheppard, \"Gnosticism and Alchemy,\" Ambi x, 6 [Dec. 1957], 86). Although these two pursuits would appear to be incompatible, the alchemist Ripley could accept the fact that \"worshyp and pro fy t , \" \"conyng and . . . a l l manner of grace\" went together. The ' e s o t e r i c ' may seem the t ruer or more important pursui t only because we have refused to take exoter ic alchemy s e r i o u s l y , or see i t s importance. Like R ip ley , I think of them as equals , though I focus on the exoter ic . 70 material redemption, at least in i t s exoter ic aspect , alchemy was the perfect vehic le for s a t i s f y i n g the mi l lenar ian impulse to transform the world. Because th is occul t science was viewed as e s p e c i a l l y appropriate for bringing about the per-fect ing of the world, Mircea El iade talks about alchemy's 50 \"mi 11ennary dream.\"• An alchemical t ract en t i t l ed \"The Glory of the World\" gave cogent expression to th is \"millennary dream\" (see Herm-e t i c Museum, I). The work explains that the d isease , decay and corruption which Adam's sin f i r s t introduced into creat ion f rust ra ted God's w i l l that man should l i ve \"a f u l l thousand years\" • (p.188). To r e c t i f y th is flaw in the c r e a t i o n , the Almighty, out of His mercy, bestowed on the exi led Adam two sublime g i f t s that would r e p a i r , to a great extent, his loss 51 of paradise. One was a mystical balm that would wipe away man's s p i r i t u a l torments, and the other a physical balm, de-signed to cure his bodi ly torments. The second g i f t was the The Forge and the Cruci b i e , t rans. Stephen Corrin ( 1 956 ; New York: Harper & Row, Torchbook e d n . , 1971), p.172. See E l i a d e ' s d iscussion of Jung's theories concerning the messianic mission of alchemy, pp.221-26. 51 This b e l i e f may have come from c a b a l i s t i c sources. The magical wisdom of the Cabala was a l legedly given to Adam af ter he was expelled from Eden. As James Howell put the myth, \"Adam, who being thrust out of Paradise, and s i t t i n g one day very sad, and sorrowing for the loss of the knowledge he had of that dependence the Creatures have on the i r Creator , the Angel Raquel was sent to comfort him, and ins t ruc t him, and repair his knowledge herein\" (Episto 1ae Ho-El i anae : The Fam-i1 i ar Letters of James Howel1, ed. Joseph Jacobs [London: David Nutt, 1S92J, I7~P.315).\" ~ 71 miraculous restorat ive of alchemy. What this t ract suggests is that alchemy was ordained by God to undo the work of the Fa 11 . The mi l lenar ian power of alchemy is also the central message of a work e n t i t l e d The Book of the Revelation of 53 Hermes. Accepted as a work written by Hermes Trismegistus h imsel f , and a l legedly t ranslated and interpreted by Para-c e l s u s , th is t ract must be considered to be in the mainstream of the Hermetic alchemical t r a d i t i o n , and thus representat ive of i t s dominant ideas. Therefore the impl icat ions of i t s t i t l e are espec ia l l y important: \"the book of the revelat ion of Hermes\" reveals the intent of magic to of fer mankind an a l ternat ive path, perhaps a more d i rec t and secure route, to that earthly millennium promised in the nebulous future by St. John, in his Book of Revelat ion. 5 2 The Chr is t ian myth that Adam l i ved almost 1000 years may have provided alchemists with an incentive to bel ieve in the messianic mission of alchemy. To l ive almost a m i l -lennium, even when out of Eden, Adam must have been given a powerful r e s t o r a t i v e , created by God Himself to restore to him the most coveted g i f t of parad ise- - long l i f e . The a l -chemists reasoned that this blessed g i f t must have been passed on, for the benef i t of Adam's progeny. Alchemy was thus viewed as God's own, approved, redemptive agent. As i t was used to allow Adam to l i v e almost a 1000 years , so i t would someday allow God's chosen people to also l i ve the 1000 years fore to ld in Revelat ion. Alchemy thus came to be seen as the redemptive agency God would use to f u l f i l 1'•Hi.s . sa lvat ional promise of restor ing to mankind the los t paradise of Eden. 5 3 In Bene di c t'u s F i g u l u s , comp. , A Go! den and Bl essed Casket of Nature's Marvels, t rans, out of the German edn. of 1608, t rans, unknown (London: James E l l i o t t , 1893). 72 The sa lvat ional powers of alchemy are related through a very t rad i t iona l analysis of the d i s t i n c t i v e powers of each state of the Stone as i t proceeds towards i t s consummate per-f e c t i o n . In i t s f i r s t s t a t e , the Stone wi l l heal \"genera l ly , inwardly and outwardly\" (p.39). In addit ion to repair ing wounds and in ju r ies (the second s t a t e ) , the Stone performs \"many wondrous works, producing beauty and strength of body\" (p.39). In i t s fourth cond i t ion , the Stone, now referred to as the s p i r i t of the quintessence, can make old men young and \"revive those at the point of death\" (p.40). Even \"in small doses to. old people, i t removes the diseases of age, giving the old young hearts and bodies\"• (p .40) . And l a s t l y , in i t s f i f t h nature, \" i t possesses a l l previous powers and vir tues in a higher and more wondrous degree. Here i t s nat-ural works are taken for mirac les . When applied to the roots of dead trees they rev ive , bringing forth leaves and f r u i t s . \" It transforms simple c rys ta ls into precious jewels , \" i t heals a l l dead and l i v i n g bodies without other medicines.\" It \"re-veals a l l treasures in earth and sea , converts a l l meta l l ic bodies into go ld , and there is nothing l i ke i t unto heaven\" (pp.40-1). It w i l l furnish not just the adept, but a l l men \"with l i f e - l o n g abundance and r iches\" (p.44). Thus, awaiting mankind, is a paradise of \"a l l temporal happiness, bodily hea l th , and earthly for tune,\" a paradise created by magic. By means of the quintessence, the t ract cont inues, even \"Hatred and Sorrow\" shal l be driven away, ev i l expe l led , and 73 \"Poverty and Misery\" destroyed. In the i r place shal l come the blessings of Eden, \"Health, Joy, Peace, Love,\" and \"a l l 54 good th ings .\" Yet, th is paradise to be created through magic shal l not be a mere re -creat ion of Eden, which was defect ive in at least one important respect: i t permitted the Fa l l of man. This new paradise shal l be even better than Eden, for the El i x i r wi11 make a second Fal l and expulsion u t ter ly impossible . Alchemy, i t is s a i d , w i l l make \"a l l e v i l words and thoughts\" impossible or needless. Since a l l of mankind's desires and appetites shal l be s a t i s f i e d , there shal l be no 55 need to covet , steal or sin in any way. Near the end of the t ract Hermes re i te ra tes the para-d i s i c a l blessings people may soon expect from mi 11enarian alchemy. Alchemy wi l l confer \"a l l joy , r i c h e s , f r u i t f u l n e s s of l i f e , \" and bestow on everyone \"a l l material joy\" (p.46): 0 desirable knowledge . . . by which Nature is strengthened, and heart and limbs are renewed, blooming Youth is preserved, old age driven away, weakness destroyed, beauty in i t s perfect ion pre-served, and abundance ensured in a l l things pleasing to man! (p.46) 54 The phrase \"a l l good things\" occurs in the English trans la t ion of the A s d epi us (1 657 ) and in Vaughan's t rans la t ion of Solomon's t r ibute to 'wisdom' (above, p.63). 55 The Book of the Revelation of Hermes, p.36. Ashmole made the same c la im, assert ing that alchemy could (somehow) prevent man from having \"corrupt , or s i n i s t e r Thoughts\" (Fas -ci cu1us Chemi cus, si g .A) . 74 As a young adept says, af ter being told to understand what is r e a l l y meant by the promise \"to make new worlds of Gold ,\" I s tayd, I saw, J_ t ryde , and understood, t Heav' n on Ear th , an ever last ing good. 56 The \"millennary dream\" of alchemy e n t a i l e d , in a quite 1j teral sense, the restorat ion of Eden. Mankind would 'enter ' the 'enclosed garden' not only in terms of possessing mater-ia l wealth, but also in terms of inhabi t ing a transformed world. \"Part of what is promised for the mil lennium,\" ob-serves Professor Wilson, \" is the e l iminat ion of the threa ts , i l l n e s s , and the tension of everyday l i f e . It is always a transformative experience, not only in i t s eradicat ion of p o l i t i c a l and socia l oppression, as this has been c o l l e c t i v e l y experienced, but also in the prospect of permanent r e l i e f from physical a i lments, personal problems, and fears and tensions in socia l re la t ionsh ips\" (Magic and the Mil lennium, p.365). We have now seen that magic, and p a r t i c u l a r l y a l c h e m y , offered preei se.ly th is kind of s a l v a t i o n . By means of the \"earthly Anti dote,\" one t ract a s s e r t s , man \"may even in th is World, secure himself against a l l bodi ly distempers, put to f l i g h t anxiety and care , and refresh and comfort his heart in the hour of trouble\" (HM, I, 237-8). As God's g i f t \"to re le ive the estate of man, 1 T —another work exp la ins , alchemy puts \"an end to va ing lory , hope., and fea r , and removes ambit ion, v i o -lence, and excess. It mitigates advers i ty , and saves men from being overwhelmed by i t\" (HM, 11,11). And Ashmole wrote that alchemy could ext i rpate \"the root of al1 e v i l , (Covet-ousness; ) , \" from the world, and Somehow immunize everyone from having any \"corrupt or s i n i s t e r thoughts\" (Fasci culus Chemi cus , s i g . A ) . Thus, the sa lvat ional promise of magic i n -eludes in every deta i l the g i f t s and vir tues promised by mi l lenar ian movements: the el iminat ion of i l l n e s s , the ageing process, and death; the disappearance of e v i l , the e l iminat ion of th rea ts , i n s e c u r i t y , and the tensions of every-day l i f e , and the total transformation of man's soc ia l con-d i t ion (Wi 1 son , p.365). In l i gh t of the c r i t e r i a estab-l ished by Professor Wilson, then, i t is appropriate indeed to speak of the \"millennary dream\" of magic and alchemy. 75 The Hermetic reformers, those whom Professor Haydn has ca l l ed \"the Renovators,\" wished \"to e f fec t a return to the puri ty of the youth of the world . . . and to a renewed Nature\" (The Counter Renaissance, p. 514). In an alchemical context , th is desire meant the use of nostrums and e l i x i r s to restore to the physical world i t s o r ig ina l Edenic fecund-i t y . Magic, in other words, would actua l ly transform the f l o r a and fauna of the world! Hermes himself had taught, that alchemy could restore dead trees to l i f e , and imbue the i r branches with leaves and f r u i t s (Book of the Revela-t i o n , p.41 ). This not ion , expressed in a var iety of ways in many other occul t works, gave r ise to what might be ca l l ed alchemical husbandry, or magical ecology, a movement we w i l l see most f o r c e f u l l y expressed in the Rosicrucian 57 mil ieu of Pur i tan-England. In 1562 an alchemist claimed that \"the vegetable stone is of a growing nature & works miraculous e f fects in veget-ables & growing th ings , as in the nature of man and b e a s t . \" 5 Ripley believed that the Stone could \"pur i f i e th Nature per-59 f e c t l y . \" For Paracelsus, the pur i fy ing of Nature was* the \" S e e below, Chapter V, pp.301-1.4. CO Edwardus Generosus Ang l icus , \"The Epitome of the Treat-ise of Health\" (1562), ms. in the possession of Newton, quoted by Frank E. Manuel, in A Por t ra i t of Isaac Newton, p.168. 59 Jheatrum Chemicum Britannicum, p . 391. By working i n -cessant ly , \"It maketh a l l things to grow I say, /And chaseth Ugly things away\" (p.391). 76 primary mission of the adept. \"The Resurrect ion, and re-newing of Natural l Things,\" he dec la res , \" is not the l e a s t , but a prof ound,. and great secret in the Nature of Things, and rather D iv ine , and A n g e l i c a l l , then Humane, and Naturall Advancing the hope of Hermes, Paracelsus also taught that the Stone could in fact \"renovate & restore a l l Cattel , f r u i t s , herbs, and t r e e s . \" 6 1 This dream of using magic to renovate a l l nature was well known, and widely accepted, in Puritan England. E l ias Ash-mole, for instance, bel ieved that the 'vegetable stone' pos-sessed the power to make \"a l l kinds of Trees, P lan ts , Flowers\" \"Grow, F lour ish & beare F r u i t , \" not merely in season, but 6 2 \" in the depth of Winter.\" John French, the mi l lenar ian who translated Sendivogius, also taught that adepts could bring fi 3 \"dying plants into Trui t f ul ness.e\" through alchemy. Be l iev -,,60 fin Theophrastus Paracelsus, Of the Nature of Things (Lon-don , 1650 ), p . 51 . fi l Paracelsus His Arch idox is , t rans. J . H. (London, 1660), p.13. fi ? Theatrum Chemi cum Bri tanni cum , si g .B. In Flores Para-dise (1608), Hugh P i a t t , an Engl ish o c c u l t i s t , speculates that i t was e i ther through the \"vegetable Philosophy\" or \"with a graine or two of the great E l i x i r applied to the roote , that [the] Blackthorne bush . . . which blossometh . . . neere or upon the b i r th day of our Lorde God . . . had his [ i t s ] strange nature given, unto i t . \" R ip ley , \"that re-nowned Alchymist ,\" was executed, P ia t t says , \"for making a Peare-tree to f r u c -t i f i e in Winter\" (p.6) . Flora fed. with magically prepared unctions P ia t t c a l l s \"phi 1osophical1 pi ants\" (p.5) . P ia t t and his la ter d i s c i p l e s w i l l be discussed in Chapter V. fi 3 John French, The Art of Dist i11at ion , s i g . A 3 r . 77 ing alchemy could l i f t the Curse from \"a l l plants and animals\" (HM, I, 188), alchemists of the seventeenth century, and es-p e c i a l l y during the Puritan Revolut ion, f u l l y expected to transform the whole earth into one great garden of f lowers, p lan ts , and f r u i t t rees . Like so many other o c c u l t i s t s of the seventeenth century, Henry Madathanas awaited that golden time when, through magic, \"the whole earth [would be] p. A renewed\" (HM, I, 66). Alchemy thus seemed to hold the promise of e f fec t ing a world-wide transformation of nature, of furn ishing that mir-aculous cure which would heal the world and restore i t to i t s pre-1apsarian vigor and fecundi ty . Simply put, alchemists be l ieved , as one of them wrote, that \"every imperfect , d i s -eased, and defect ive thing in the whole world might be re-newed, and restored to i t s former vigour\" by magic. As Hiram Haydn recognized, that 'former vigour' was that \" p r i s -t ine v igor , los t since the F a l l \" (The Counter Renaissance, p. 191). This was the \"millennary dream\" of alchemy. 0 4 A s ; we shal l see, this, was a dominant mi l lenar ian motif in the occult mi l ieu of Puritan England, and a prominent dream in Rosicrucian c i r c l e s . In one of his t r a c t s , Thomas Vaughan repr ints the fol lowing passage from a genuine Rosicrucian doc-ument: \" ' A f t e r a l l these things and near the day break there sha l l be a great calm; and you shal l see the Day-Star ar ise and the dawning w i l l appear and you shal l perceive a great t reasure. The ch ie fest thing in i t and the most perfect is a cer ta in exalted T i n c t u r e , with which the world — i f i t served God and were worthy of such gi f ts—might be tinged and turned into most pure gold\" (The Works of Thomas Vaughan, p.262). Simi lar ideas shal l be found in the mi 11enari an prophecies of Jacob Boehme. and-of .'hi s Engl i sh d i s c i pies (see Chapter IV). 78 In summary, i t can be said that the purpose of the mi l lenar ian alchemist was to complete, so to speak, the re-demptive mission i n i t i a t e d , but not completed, by C h r i s t . C h r i s t ' s mission was unf in ished , according to the Hermetic reformers, because the sa lvat ion He brought embraced only man's s p i r i t u a l nature. Chr is t ' s ' mission l e f t unaffected man's body, his world, nature i t s e l f . They remained unre-deemed and corrupt . The alchemist saw himself as God's 'messianic ' agent in f u l f i l l i n g the prophecy of Revelation concerning the renovation of the ear th . Both man and nature were to be freed from the i r ancient bondage to corruption by alchemy, which was given to mankind to save the world. Through i t , people would once again inhabit paradise , and the earth would once again be l i ke it-was in Eden. Myths of the Hermeti c Messi ah i n the Occult Tradi t i on Given the reformat ionist expectations and desires of mi l lenar ian a lchemists , it. is not surpr is ing that they were often at t racted t o , and many times themselves advanced, prophecies of a new age, a Golden Age, of a mi l lenar ian para-dise to be wrought by a messiah i n i t i a t e d into the Hermetic myster ies. Thomas Norton, the late-medieval English alchemist , prophesied of a realm to be establ ished by a sort of messianic thaumaturge: 79 One who shal l have obtained his honours by means of th is Art [ i . e . , alchemy], w i l l mend old manners, and change them for the bet ter . When he comes, he w i l l reform the kingdom, and by his goodness and vir tue he w i l l set an ever las t ing example to r u l e r s . In his time the common people w i l l r e j o i c e , and render praise to God in mutual neighbourly love. 0 King, who art to accomplish a l l t h i s , pray to God the King, and implore His aid in the matter! So the glory of thy mind wi l l be crowned with the glory of a golden age, which shal l not then be hoped for as future . 65 The same sort of mi 11 enari an v is ion of a Hermetic messi ah — a reformer i n i t i a t e d into the secret art of alchemy or m a g i c -can be found in the works of the most important magicians of the seventeenth century. Such v is ions were also prominent in the occul t mi l ieu of Puritan England, as we wi l l come to see when we invest igate in some deta i l the occul t sciences of the Revolutionary years. Paracelsus was p a r t i c u l a r l y preoccupied with v is ions of a reformed world and earthly paradise, and vented many of these Vis ions in mi 11enarian prophecies. In the las t of his ser ies of .predic t ions, he connects the discovery of the \"pear l\" of alchemy, that i s , the Stone i t s e l f , with the estab-lishment of an earthly paradise under an imperial monarch: Then shal l the P e a r l , so long l o s t , be found by one of humble es ta te , and wi l l be se t , as a jewel , in gold. It w i l l be given to the Prince of a l l beasts, that i s , to the r ight L ion . He w i l l hang i t about his neck, and wear i t with honour. He wi l l r e s i s t the Bear Hermetic Museum, II, 4. 80 and the Wolf, and rend them asunder; so that the beasts of the forest shal l be safe . Then wi l l the Old Art [ i . e . , alchemy] f l o u r i s h and no heed wi l l be given to the New [Galenism?]. Then w i l l the New World begin, and the White and the Black shal l disappear. A l l Vain glory w i l l be ended, and the plumes of the bird of the East shal l be burnt by the Sun of the South. 66 His equal ly c rypt ic t h i r t y - f i r s t prophecy also advances a v is ion of the new age: There shal l be such a tota l renewal and change that they w i l l be as chi ldren that The: Propheci es of Pa race!sus , t rans. 0. K. (London: Wil l iam Rider, 1915), pp.119-20. The prophecies were f i r s t pr inted in 1530. In the i r e f fo r ts to speed that \"general reformat ion, both of divine and humane things\" (p.27) which they expected, the Rosicrucians. offered to the German prince who would move against the Pope and the Turk \"our prayers , s e c r e t s , and great treasures of Gold\" (The Fame and Confes-si on of the Fraterni ty of R: C_: Common!y, of the Rosi e Cross , a facsTmi 1 e repr int of tTfe London edn. of T6\"52, with an introduct ion and notes by F. N. Pryce [Margate: W. J . Par-re t t L t d . , 1923], p.35). The animal imagery of Paracelsus' prophecy probably derives from the hera ld ic emblems of European r u l e r s . The edi tor of Paracelsus' predict ions de-tects the mi l lenar ian t rad i t ion within the Western occult movement. He repr in ts the fol lowing prophecy he \"found in a contemporary alchemical work: \"'Many prophecies there are of times to come, and those days are even said to be at hand, when the Fourth Monarchy, which is the In te l lectua l reign of Truth and Peace, shal l predominate, when the Mother of Sciences w i l l come f o r t h , and greater things be discovered than have been hi therto in the past monarchies of the world. . . . A better age is approaching, which at some period of time must come, when abundance of a l l things by an equitable d i s t r i b -ution of al 1, shal 1 help to break down the competitive barr ier of s o c i e t y , and introduce a co-operat ive a l l i ance among man-k ind , then th is incent ive to inquiry may not be inopportunely offered in the service of t r u t h . ' Curiously enough [continues the ed i tor ] Paracelsus also connects the establishment of the 'Fourth Monarchy' . . . with a rediscovery of Alchemy and a universal knowledge of the secret of transmutation of metals\" (•pp..32-3). SendiVogius was the basis for th is modern prophecy. 81 know nothing of the cunning and int r igues of the o l d . This shal l be when they count LX, a l i t t l e l e s s , but not more. Therefore i t is well that we should remember that the time appeareth to be a long time according to a man's l i f e t i m e , but as a short time should we observe and consider i t . For to cause so much to f a l l and to be overthrown, with such a raging and roaring l ion that has so long grown, th is cannot be done in a moment. 67 It was this prophecy that John Rogers , the mi 11enarian , revived in 1654 to re inforce his own F i f th Monarchist hopes and pro-nouncements (see above, p.18). Other myths of the Hermetic messiah and other occul t prophecies of the millennium were used by both adepts and Puritan . ch i1 iasts as va l ida t ing charters for messianic and ref ormati oni s't dreams. Another very i n f l u e n t i a l prophecy was uttered by the a l -chemist, Michael Sendivogius , a d i s c i p l e of Paracelsus , and a f igure widely known in the occult c i r c l e s of Puritan England. In his prophecy, Sendivogius conflated the v is ion of the F i f th Monarchy (computed numerically and h i s t o r i c a l l y ) with the s i b y l l i n e v is ion of the Northern Monarchy, a messianic reign computed geographical ly : Now those times are coming, in which many secrets of Nature shal l bee revealed. Now that fourth Monarchy of the North is about to begin: Now the times are at hand; the Mother of Sciences wi l l come: greater things shal l bee discovered then hath been done in these three las t past Monarchies. Because this Monarchy The Prophecies of Paracelsus , p.101. The overt ly rev-olut ionary fervor of this prophecy no doubt made i t that much more a t t rac t ive to Rogers and his F i f th Monarchist col leagues. 82 (as the Ancients have foreto ld) God wi l l plant by one of his P r inces , being enriched with a l l manner of vertues, whom haply times have already brought f o r t h . . . . In th is Northerne Monarchy God the maker of a l l th ings , w i l l without doubt bring to l igh t greater secrets in Nature, then in those t imes, when Pagan, and Tyrant Princes reigned. . . . In th is Northern Monarchy, where the a t t rac t ive pole is . . . Mercy and Truth are met to-gether; Peace, and Just ice shal l k isse each other , Truth shal l r ise out of the ear th , and Just ice shal l looke from heaven. One sheep-f o l d , and one Shepheard. 68 As Sendivogius sees i t , an Hermetic enlightenment of the occult secrets of nature w i l l soon take place under the reign of a mysterious northern p r ince , who w i l l reform the world, and bring back the Golden Age. This prophecy was also revived during the Puritan Revolution to support the mi 1.1 enari ani sm-so rampant at the time. It was t ranslated into Engl ish by John French, the Puritan Independent who was very act ive in the occul t mi 1ieu of Puritan England. Sendivogius 1 prophecy appealed to him because he also harbored expectations of a new age through magic. A. year af ter he published his t rans-la t ion of Sendivogius he wrote: A New Light of Alchymie, t rans. John French (London, 1650), pp.79-80. For a d iscussion of the iden t ica l nature o f \\ the F i f th and Fourth (Northern) monarchies, see Ezerel Tonge, The Northern Star: The B r i t i s h Monarchy: o r , the Northern the Fourth Universal Monarchy (London, 1680), s i g . B 2 . Both Tonge and the o r ig ina l compiler expected a \"Transcendent Metamor-phosis of Humane A f f a i r s . \" Tonge claims that this anthology, of occul t prophecies was compiled during the Puritan Revolu-t ion , around 1648. Sendivogius, Paracelsus, the Rosicrucians and sundry other o c c u l t i s t s are quoted to val idate and support th is prophecy of an expected metamorphosis of human a f f a i r s . 83 I am of the same mind with Sandivogius, that that fourth Monarchy which is Northerne, is dawning, in which . . . a l l Arts and sciences shal f l o u r i s h , and greater and more things shalbe discovered then in the three former. These Monarchies the Philosophers reckon not according to the more potent, but according to the corners of the wor ld , whereof the Northerne is the l a s t , and indeed is no other then the golden Age, in which a l l tyranny, oppression, env ie , and covetousnesse shal cease, when there shal be one prince and one people abounding with love and mercy & f l o u r -ishing in peace: which day I earnest ly expect.69 The ' Sendivogian prophecy had wide currency in Puritan England; in f a c t , i t was c i ted not only by adepts l i k e French, but by the most important mi l lenar ians of the age, inc luding Johann Heinrich Alsted and Nathanael Homes, both of whom used i t to lend added support to the i r own predict ions of the mi l l en -nium. We wi l l return to th is prophecy, and to the subject of i t s use by Puritan m i l l enar ians , in Part 3 of th is chapter. John French, The Art of D i s t i l l a t i o n (London, 1651), \"To the Reader.\" During the Puritan Revolution there were many prophecies concerning a northern monarch who would come to restore the world. One such prophecy can be found in A br ie f Descript ion of the Future History of Europe (1650; s i g s . A3v-A4, and p.28) ; another can be found in Will iam Li 11y 1s Monarchy or No Monarchy i n Engl and (1651), an attack on the notion that the 'northern' country was Scot land. Concerning the author of A b r ie f Descri pti on L i l l y wr i tes: \"I_n hi s 28. page, he w i l l h~ave us to understand, that he [the monarch] must not be a Moyses of the Jewes blood, but a_ Captai ne from the North, who shal l restore the Jewes, and worke the w'orkes of God in r ighteousness, and make peace, and 1 ike a mi ghty stream overf1ow the whole Earth\" (p. 1 4). Others argued that the prophecy referred to a German monarch, and thus the Rosi -crucians c o l l e c t i v e l y came to be viewed by some as 'the ru le r ' prophesied of by the S iby ls and Sendivogius and others. For another prophecy of an Hermetic reformer of the world, see Grimmelshausen's Simpl ic ius Simplicissimus (1668), III, ch .4 . 84 Another prophecy that both C h r i s t i a n i t y and the occult t r a d i t i o n had in common was the prophecy regarding the coming of E l ias (or E l i j a h ) . The f igure of E l las is e x p l i c i t l y mentioned in several B i b l i c a l p a s s a g e s , 7 0 and other passages hint darkly of such a f igure . For our purposes, the two most important references are to E l ias the Prophet, who is to come \"before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord\" (Maiachi 4:5) , and to E l ias the Restorer of a l l th ings: \"And Jesus answered and said unto them, E l ias as t ru ly shal l f i r s t come, and restore a l l things\" (Mat t .17 :11) . 7 1 This mysterious f igure seemed to have possessed special appeal for a lchemists. No doubt part of the reason for this was the fact that Maiachi 3:3 was also believed to be a prophecy of E l i a s : \"And he shal l s i t as a re f iner and p u r i f i e r of s i l -ver: and he shal l pur i fy the sons of L e v i , and purge them as 72 gold and s i l v e r \" (Ki ng James v e r . ) . This meta l lurg ica l imagery could eas i ly be interpreted as possessing secret a l -chemical s i g n i f i c a n c e , and that is jus t how many alchemists no doubt interpreted i t . At any ra te , under the inf luence of / uDe_ut. 18:18; Acts 3:22; John 15:26; Mai achi 4:5; Matt. 18:11. 7 1 F o r typ ica l discussions of the B i b l i c a l prophecy of E l i a s , see S i r John Harington, \"A Discowrse Shewing that Elyas. must personal ly come before the Day of Judgment,\" in Nu.gae An t i quae, cbmp. Henry Harington (London: J . Wright, 1 804) , II, 281 -304 ; Nathanael Homes Apokalypsis Anastaseos (1 653), pp .352-5 ; Henry More, Divine Dialogues , .pp.. 355-69 . 72 More c a l l s th is a descr ipt ion of E l i as (p.357 ). 85 Paracelsus this f igure was adopted into the occult t rad i t ion of messianic prophecy. What Paracelsus did was to transmogrify th is Chr is t ian 'prophet' into an alchemist: in an i n f l u e n t i a l prophecy, Paracelsus referred not to E l i as the Prophet, but to E l i as the Ar t i s t , that i s , one i n i t i a t e d into the art of alchemy. As a r e s u l t , E l ias became a sort of messianic a l -chemist, the long-awaited Hermetic messiah who would use magic to renovate the earth . Many subsequent alchemists be-l ieved themselves E l i a s , and even the Rosicrucian brotherhood was gi ven the name. The Paracelsian prophecy concerning E l ias the A r t i s t was t ranslated by Basi l Va lent ine , who also provides a com-mentary on the p red ic t ion . Are not the times at hand, Va l -entine encouragingly asks, in which E l ias the A r t i s t , re-vealer of the secrets of transmutation, is to come? He then quotes from Paracelsus' Book of Minerals the predict ion that the secrets of nature would remain hidden unt i l the coming of \"E l ias as the A r t i s t , others read, unt i l the Art of E l i a s , when he comes.\" \"Therefore,\" Valentine assures his readers, \"be comforted, 0 Lover of Chymi s t r y , and prepare the way of E l i a s , who.brings happy t imes, and wi l l reveal more Secrets than our Ancestors , by reason of Envy, and the Iniquity of the i r Days durst d iscover . Whosoever thou a r t , conversing in th is A r t , confer some small matter of this f e l i c i t y ; and le t us give the World that Medicine, which by reason of e v i l Humors predominant, i t cannot take a l l at once, by degrees, 86 that i t may gradually recover of i t s Disease, and the Times of E1i a s come . . . where i t w i l l be lawful l for us to speak f ree ly of those Things, and openly to do good to our Neigh-73 bours, without persecution of the Impious. As one can read i ly see, the prophecy of this Hermetic messiah became something of a talisman for the alchemists of the mi l lenar ian mode. The \"Messiah of the Hermetic Mysteries ,\" as Edward Waite puts i t , \"was expected ardently by several successive generations\" of a l c h e m i s t s . 7 4 One grand adept a f ter another was thought to be E l i as the A r t i s t . The f i r s t impulse was to ident i fy Paracelsus himself with this mysterious reformer (Waite, p.57), but la ter adepts found in the c a l l for a 'universa l reformation' uttered by the Ro'si cruci ans a r e f l e c t i o n of the sa lvat ional mission of the Restorer of A l l Thi ngs (Wai te , p.242). One of the o r ig ina l supporters of the Rosicrucian move-ment wrote in a l e t t e r published as a preface to the f i r s t manifesto, \"So we trace and conclude that ye now are the men sent from God, to spread the knowledge of the eternal Theo-phrasti a [Paracelsus?] and of the Divine Wisdom, reserved unt i l now in such wonderful manner; i t may be, to be kept guarded unt i l the time of E l i as the A r t i s t fore to ld in proph-Triumphant Chariot of Antimony (1670), p.90. 74 Arthur Edward Waite, The Brotherhood of the Rosy Cross (rpt . New York: Univers i ty Books, n.d.) , p.57. 87 „75 ecy. This analogy was accepted by Englishmen as we l l . At mid-century, the two Rosicrucians c a l l i n g for a reformation of the world were published in England under the pseudonym oseo .by Thomas Vaughan. He says of the Rosicrucians , \"Such E l i j ahs [ i . e . , E l i a s e s ] also are the members of this F r a t e r n i t y , who--as the i r own writ ings t e s t i f y — walk in the supernatural l i g h t . \" \" 7 6 E a r l i e r , Robert Fludd, the f i r s t defender of the Brotherhood and an Engl ish exponent of the i r ' ph i losophy , 1 said of i t s members, \"They have knowledge of the true mystery and of that key which leads to the joy of Paradise. They have therefore the freedom of Paradise, even as E l i as of o l d . \" ' 7 7 The Rosi cruci ans-thus were viewed -as'.a . \"corporate'.El i as\" (Waite, p.242), and the i r quest for a universal reformation of both human and divine things became i d e n t i f i e d with the B i b l i c a l prophecy of a messianic f igure who would restore a l l t h i n g s . 7 8 7 c Adam Haselmeyer, \"Reply to the Laudable Fraterni ty of Theosophists of the Rosy Cross N. N. ,\" t rans . F. N. Pryce, in The Fame and Confession of the Fraterni ty of R_: C_: Common ly of the Rosie Cross (rpt . of the London edn. of 1652; Margate: W. J . Par re t t , 1923), \" Introduct ion,\" p.60. 7 6 T h e Works of Thomas Vaughan, ed. Waite, p.107. 7 7 W a i t e , The Brotherhood of the Rosy Cross, p.291. 78 Robert Burton c a l l s \"E l i as Ar t i fex\" the Theophrastian master \"of the Ros ic ruc ians ,\" whom \"some w i l l have to be the renewer of a l l Arts & Sci ences, reformer of the world, & now l i v i n g \" (The Anatomy of Melancholy, ed. Floyd Dell and Paul Jordan-Smith LNew York: Tudor Pub. C o . , 1 955] , p . 100). A Rosicrucian aura surrounds the f igure of E l ias in the alchem-i c a l t ract e n t i t l e d \"The Golden C a l f , \" a l legedly written by 88 This fact alone may very well have made the whole Rosi -crucian movement more palatable to Puritan rad ica ls and even to mainstream Pur i tans. For expectations of the coming E l i as were widespread in both occul t and mi l lenar ian c i r c l e s during the Puritan Revolut ion. In more than one instance, in f a c t , talk of E l i as occurs in a context that is at once o c c u l t , mi l lenar ian and Pur i tan. One example of th is occured in 1650, when Robert G e l l , a Puritan clergyman l inked to the Fami l ists (Thomas, p.377), appeared before the Society of Astrologers of London to discuss his mi 11enarian b e l i e f s . He reminded his audience, most of whom were supporters of Parl iament, 7 Q that \" E l i a s t ru ly sha l l f i r s t come, and restore a l l th ings .\" He also urged them to keep the i r eyes r iveted on the s k i e s , for l i ke the f i r s t magi, Engl ish astrologers w i l l surely be the f i r s t , to see C h r i s t ' s return as the Messiah. The prophecy of E l i as acquired great c r e d i b i l i t y for Englishmen because of i t s use by the European m i l l e n a r i a n , Johann Heinrich Alsted (1627). It was almost his exact words Helvet ius . He re lates a meeting between himself and E l ias the A r t i s t , who came to him to reveal the secrets of t rans-mutation. Concerning the subsequent disappearance of E l i a s , Helvetius says, \"Let the most wise King of Heaven Under the . Shadow of whose Wings he hath hi therto lay hid . . . accom-pany him.\" The phrase, 'under the shadow of whose wings, ' was a sort of Rosi cruci an password (Frances Yates, The Ros i -cruci an Enlightenment, ch. 91 \"Franci s Bacon 'Under the Shadow of Jehova 1 s Wings,\" pp.118-29). The t ract also refers to Heinrich Khunrath, author of an important Rosicrucian text (Yates, RE_, pp.38-9, passim). 79 A Sermon Touching Gods government of the World, p.33. 89 that George Hakewill used when he assures his readers, in 1635, just f ive years before the s tar t of the C i v i l War, that \"e i ther E l ias himsel f , or some other great hero ica l l s p i r i t matchable to him, is yet to bee sent , for the accomplishing 80 of th is great businesse in res tor i ng a l l th i ngs.\" State-ments such as these may have made Engl ish mi l lenar ians more sympathetic to occul t prophecies of the Hermetic messiah who would reform the world. A l s t e d , as a matter of f a c t , was evident ly most sympathetic to such occult prophecies. What should be pointed out is that Alsted employed the Hermetic form of the E l i a s i a n prophecy, not the Scr ip tura l form. The prophecy of E l i as he kept within an alchemical context. Hakewi l l , G e l l , and the sundry other Englishmen who read and revered Alsted were thus to ld that \"many Writers of the former, and this present Age, have published many things concerning E l i a s the A r t i s t , who is to come; Of the Lion of the North, who is neer at hand; Of a fourth Northern Monarchy; of a great Reformati on . . . and the l i k e . \" In a side note, Alsted directed his. readers to the occul t prophecies of Paracelsus and Sendivogius. Thus, through A l s t e d , i f not from other sources, Engl ish mi l lenar ians became fami l i a r with the occult form of the prophecy of E l i a s , and were given another example (along with Lactant ius) of a highly respected George Hakewi 11 , An_ Apol ogi e or Peel arat i on of the Power and Providence of God in the Government of the World (Oxford, 1 635), 3rd edn. , rev. , p.54. 90 mi l lenar ian resort ing to the magical t rad i t ion to support his 81 own c h i l i a s t i c b e l i e f s . Not s u r p r i s i n g l y , the messianic prophecy of E l ias the A r t i s t was also widely current in occul t c i r c l e s in England. In f a c t , native occul t publ icat ions must have done much to popularize the prophecy. In one instance, an Engl ish adept, th is one associated with the Har t l ib c i r c l e , presented him-s e l f as a kind of precursor of E l i a s , an Hermetic 'John the Bapt is t ' to the promised Messiah of magic. 'Eirenaeus P h i l -a lethes ' ( l i k e l y the Puritan magus John Winthrop) fuses the coming of E l i as the Alchemist with the descent of the New Jerusalem, an i d e n t i f i c a t i o n that no doubt appealed to Pur-i tan mi l l enar ians , whatever the i r sect : The time has arr ived when we may speak more f ree ly about this Ar t . For E l ias the Art ist , is at hand, and alor ious things are already spoken of the City of God. . . . I hope that in a few years gold (not as given by God, but as abused by men) w i l l be so common that those who are now so mad af ter i t , shal l contemptuously spur aside this bulwark of A n t i c h r i s t . Then wi l l the day of our del iverance be at hand when the streets of the new Jerusalem are paved with go ld , and i t s gates are made of great Johann Heinrich A l s t e d [ i u s ] , The Beloved City or , The Saints Rei gn on Earth a_ Thousand Yeares, t rans . William Bur-ton (1 627 ; LorTcTon, 1 643) , p.61. For a d iscussion of A ls ted 's mi 11enarianism and in f luence , see R. G. Clouse, \"The Rebirth of Mi 11enarianism ,\" in Peter Toon, e d . , Puri tans , The M i l l e n -nium and the Future of Israel (London: James Clarke , 1970), pp.42-56; and, Brian G. Cooper, \"The Academic Re-Discovery of Apocalypt ic Ideas in the 17th Century,\" Baptist Quarter ly , 1 8 (1 959-60) , 358-62. 91 diamonds. The day is at hand when by means of this my Book, gold w i l l have become as common as d i r t ; when we Sages shal l f ind rest for the soles of our f e e t , and render fervent thanks to God. . . . These words I utter forth with a hera ld 's c la r ion tones. My Book is the precursor of E l i a s , designed to pre-pare the Royal way of the Master; and would to God that by i t s means a l l men might be-come adepts in our Ar t . 82 The a v a i l a b i l i t y of alchemical go ld , the passage seems to suggest, w i l l make covetousness and greed vanish , and thus lead to a new age of brotherhood and peace. The mi l lenar ian fervor of exoter ic alchemy found re-l e a s e , then, in prophecies of a Hermetic messiah, whether he be a northern monarch or E l ias himself . According to Hermeticists in both Europe and England, the 'new heaven and new earth' of Revelation would be brought about through magic. Hermetic Museum, II, 178. This prophecy seems to be echoed in the one quoted by the Engl ish. edi tor of the proph-ecies of Paracelsus (see above, p.80, n.66). There is also a s t r i k i n g s i m i l a r i t y between the sentiment expressed by 'Eirenaeus Ph i la le thes ' ( l i k e l y the Pur i tan , John Winthrop), and that of Gerrard Winstanley, to whom go ld , money, buying and s e l l i n g were the handiwork of . A n t i c h r i s t . ' Winstanley w i l l be mentioned in Part 3 of th is chapter, and in Chapter V. The messianic prophecy of E l i as the A r t i s t was also pop-u lar ized by an admirer of Boehme, Paul Felgenhaure. He wrote that E l i as sha l l come from the north and wi l l \"put a l l the Prophets of Baal to the sword, and wi l l destroy them by the sword of the S p i r i t wherewith he k i l l e t h A n t i c h r i s t , and makes an End of him\" ( P o s t i l i o n , or a_ New Al manacke and As -t ro log i eke, propheti cal , Prognosti cati on [London, 1 655], p. TY. Fei genhaure seems to conflate the prophecy of E l ias with that of the Lion of the North. Professor Thomas mentions several fanat ics who thought themselves E l ias (Reli gi on and the Dec!i ne of Magi c , pp.133-5). 92 What we have invest igated so far has revealed, I be l i eve , the relevance of this material to the occult mi l ieu of Puritan England. We have seen how the Hermetic revival of the Ren-aissance gave r ise to a new kind of magic, to a magic with a mi l lenar ian impulse towards the world. And we have also seen how this mi 11enarian . impulse animated even Engl ish adepts, men l i ke E l i as Ashmole, Thomas Vaughan, and John French. Like the Hermetic reformers before them, these men believed in the powers of magic to reform the world, to r e v i v i f y nature and to perfect the human cond i t ion . This chapter has broadly traced the evolution or development of th is mi l lenar ian v is ion in the Western magical t r a d i t i o n , and has described in deta i l the content of i t s sa lvat ional promise to man. By exploring the nature of mi l lenar ian magic, this chapter'has attempted to explain why and how the occult sciences of England came to possess the i r mi l lenar ian b e l i e f s , v is ions and expecta-t i o n s . When we examine as t ro logy , Behmenism, and Rosic.ru-cianisfn, we w i l l discover many more instances of the mi l len -arian obsession of the occult sc iences. The addi t ional e v i -dence to be brought forward in the subsequent chapters of this study wi l l indeed demonstrate that between 1640 and 1660, the occul t mi l ieu of Puritan England gave repeated expression to a wide assortment of mi l lenar ian b e l i e f s . The material we have reviewed so far has also indicated that occul t prophecies of a Hermetic golden age, or of the restorat ion of paradise , were often used by seventeenth-century 9 3 mil lenar ians to support, lend credence to , or in some way val idate the i r own pronouncements concerning the reformation of the world, or the coming of the mil lennium. Once again, we wi l l see more evidence of th is when we come to invest igate the occul t mi l ieu of Puritan England. The evidence we shal l f ind there w i l l strengthen my thesis that Puritan rad ica ls were at t racted to magic because magic provided them with va l ida t ing charters for the i r own mi l lenar ian be l ie fs and expectat ions. The reason for this a t t rac t ion w i l l i t s e l f be demonstrated in Part 3 of th is chapter, where I show the s i m i l a r i t y between the mi l lenar ian v is ions of magicians, and i those of Puritan mi l lenar ians . But f i r s t I should l i ke to consider the work of one seventeenth-century wri ter who implied some of the points I have been arguing here- - that magic possessed mi l lenar ian elements, and that Puritans were, (or would be) at tracted to magic because of these mi l lenar ian elements. Let us now turn to Ben Jonson. Ben Jonson and the ' F i f t h Monarchy' of Alchemy One of the f i r s t (and few) thinkers to recognize the mi l lenar ian impulse (and messianic impl icat ions) of this new form of magic was Ben Jonson. His ins ight into the m i l l e n -arian nature of alchemy has hi therto been overlooked, and therefore been unappreciated. But a br ie f analysis of his treatment of the Hermetic art w i l l not only uncover the true nature of hi therto neglected passages, but support the p r i n -94 c i pal thesis o f this chapter. Although Jonson explores the connection between p o l i t i c s and Puritan in te res t in the occul t arts through the f igures of T r ibu la t ion and Ananias, he develops the theme of the mil lenary nature of alchemy in his treatment of S i r Epicure Mammon. Like so many real magicians of the t ime, Mammon is motivated by both Faustian and phi lanthropic impulses. Like Faustus., he wants to use magic to recreate the world c loser to his ' l u s t f u l ' heart 's des i re . Magic promises, to him, a world of exquis i te f l e s h l y d e l i g h t s . In a f i t of voluptuary d e l i r i u m , Mammon makes c lear that what impells him is the desire to enter that enclosed garden of Solomon: For I do mean To have a l i s t of wives, and concubines, Equal with Solomon; who had the stone A l i k e , with me; and I w i l l make me, a back With the E l i x i r , that shal l be as tough As Hercules, to encounter f i f t y a night . 83 Later in the p lay , this v is ion of a hortus conclusus of ear th ly del ights gives way to a v is ion of U t o p i a , a brave new world of ravishing sensat ions: We'l l therefore go with a l l , my g i r l , and l i v e In a free s ta te ; where we w i l l eat our mul le ts , Soused in high-country wines, sup pheasants' eggs, And have our cock les , boi led in s i l v e r s h e l l s , Our shrimps to swim again, as when they l i v e d , Ben Jonson, The Alchemi s t , ed. Douglas Brown, New Mermaid ser ies (New York: H i l l & Wang, 1966), I, i i , 344-49. 95 In a rare but ter , made of dolphins' mi lk , Whose cream does look l i ke opals: and with those Del icate meats, set ourselves high for p leasure , And take us down again, and then renew Our youth, and st rength , with drinking the e l i x i r , And so enjoy a perpetuity Of l i f e , and l u s t . 84 Mammon's v is ion is hardly d is t inguishable from that of Faustus, who also imagines the del ights he personally wi 11. enjoy when he enters the earthly paradise of m a g i c . 8 5 But Mammon is also motivated by an impulse that can only be ca l led ph i lan throp ic . Many passages indicate that he wants to employ alchemy to help and gra t i fy others. His desire is obviously 1 genuine: even before Subtle admonishes him to use the stone for the \"publ ic good\" and \"dear char i ty\" ( I I , i i i , 16-17), Mammon contemplates employing his expected wealth and powers to confer honour, love , respect , long l i f e Give sa fe ty , valour: yea , and v i c t o r y , To whom he w i l l . In eight and twenty days, I ' l l make an old man, of fourscore , a c h i l d . 86 Bel ieving that the E l i x i r \"cures a l l d iseases ,\" that i t w i l l wipe away \"a month's g r i e f , in a d a y \" - - a l l t r ad i t iona l be-l i e f s--Mammon promises to \" f r ight the plague/ Out o' the king-dom, in three months\" (II , i ,69-70): B 4 I V , i , 1 55-66. 85 Cf. Doctor Faustus, I , i ,79-84. The fact that Mammon is a comic f igure does not undermine my point here. I I , i , 50 -53; 54-8. 96 I ' l l give away so much, unto my man, Shall serve th 1 whole c i t y , with preservat ive . 87 And, l i ke a good adept, Mammon also vows: I shal l employ i t a l l , in pious uses, Founding of c o l l e g e s , and grammar schools , Marrying young v i rg ins , bui ld ing h o s p i t a l s , And now, and then, a church. 88 Even the r e a l i s t i c Subtle recognizes the s i n c e r i t y of Mammon's \" ' 1 1 , 1 , 7 3 - 4 . Eirenaeus Phi la le thes wr i tes: in the th i rd p lace , the alchemist \"has an Universal Medicine, with which he can cure every conceivable d isease , and, indeed, as to the quantity of his. Medicine, he might heal a l l s ick people in the world\" (HM_, 11 ,198) . The sa lvat ional scope of th is project is m i l l enar ian : healing a l l people bodi ly would be the' function of the messiah; such healing was also thought to be one of the g i f t s of the mil lennium. Professor Frank Manuel recognizes the phi lanthropic imperative of alchemy: \"Concen-t ra t ion on the production of gold was looked upon as a corrup-t ion of the alchemical phi losopher 's true mission which was . . . to cure a l l the diseases besett ing mankind. The con-coction of th is universal medicine and i t s d i s t r i b u t i o n to suf fer ing mi l l ions was regarded as an act of Chr is t ian char-i ty demanded by God of the chosen philosopher whom He had guided to the secret\" (Por t ra i t of Isaac Newton, pp.167-8). As we shal l see, E l i a s Ashmole's mi l lenar ian expectations took the form of a v is ion of the revival of Hermetic physic . o o 1 1 , i i i ,49-52. Although the humor of these l ines should not be overlooked, more important is that Jonson understood the basic sa lvat ional message of alchemy, and evident ly knew that p rec ise ly such endeavors had been 'performed' by other alchemists. If he could only acquire the stone, one adept s a i d , Then would I make upon the plaine Of Sa l i sbury glor ious to be fa i r e , Fi f teen Abbi es in a l i t t l e whi le , One Abbie in the end of every mi le . (Thomas Norton, \"The Ordinal l of Alchimy ,\". in Theatrum Chem-i cum Bri tanni cum, p.24). In 1651, John French wrote, \"as long as I have sense or reason, I shal l improve them to the honour of . . . Alchymie. In the perfect ion thereof there are r i c h e s , honour, hea l th , & length of dayes: by i t Artesi us l i ved 1000. yeares , Flammell b u i l t 28. Hospitals with large revenues to them, besides Churches and Chappells\" (Art of Dis-t i l l a t i o n , s ig ,A2v ) . 97 a l t r u i s t i c dreams. He envisions Mammon f r e n e t i c a l l y scurry-ing about, reforming the world around him. 'I see h im, 1 Subtle muses, entering o r d i n a r i e s , Dispensing for the pox; and piaguey-houses, Reaching his dose; walking Moorfields for l epers ; And of fer ing c i t i zens wives pomander-bracelets, As his preservat ive , made of the e l i x i r ; Searching the s p i t t l e , to make old bawds young; And the highways, for beggars, to make r i c h : •I see no end of his labours. He wi l l make Nature ashamed, of her long s leep: when a r t , Who's but a step-dame, shal l do more, than she, In her best love to mankind, ever could . 89 The comic r i d i c u l e of Mammon that we can detect in these l ines does not negate the point that he is indeed impelled by a de-s i re to reform the world, to hea l , l i ke some crazed thaumaturge, the ' p h y s i c a l , • s o c i a l , and s p i r i t u a l i l l s of mankind. Even Subtle recognizes t h i s , for he remarks, \" i f his dream l a s t , h e ' l l turn the age, to gold\" (I , i v , 2 9 ; i t a l i c s added). Like Norton, Parace lsus, Sendivogius, and French, Mammon too would employ magic to transform the world and restore the Golden Age. That Mammon's dream i s e s s e n t i a l l y m i l l e n a r i a n , that i t i s - - i n f a c t - - o v e r t l y mess i ani c , Jonson seemed to have under-stood. In his attempt to seduce Doll Common to his ' f ree s t a t e , ' Mammon says that he talked to her Of a f i f t h monarchy I would e rec t , With the phi losopher 's stone. ( IV,v,25-6) I,i v , 1 8-28. 98 These are ex t raord inar i l y reveal ing l i n e s . Jonson reveals his understanding that the sa lvat iona l promise of alchemy is as messianic as the apocalypt ic t rad i t ion of C h r i s t i a n i t y i t s e l f . Both o f f e r , as Jonson somehow knew, an earthly para-dise to las t at least 1000 years . Jonson was perceptive in another regard as w e l l . His two Pur i tans , Ananias and T r i b u l a t i o n , take an act ive in te r -est in alchemy, and thus foreshadow events that were to take place during the Puritan Revolut ion, when the radica l sects set out to revive a l l the occult sciences (Thomas, p.375). Alchemy is a t t rac t ive to these two Puritans only because i t seems to promise them a way of gaining p o l i t i c a l power, and of becoming ru lers of the realm. This cer ta in ly is the constant message of Subt le 's ' p i t c h ' to them, and Subtle is the consummate con man.'Have I to ld y o u , ' he asks them, of the \"good\" the Stone \"shal l bring your cause?\" It shal l pay for the \"h i r ing [of] forces\" to advance your revolut ionary ob jec t i ves , he informs them. \"Even the medicinal use shal l make you a f a c t i o n , / And party in the realm\" (111 , i i ,20-6). \" V e r i l y , ' t i s t rue ,\" T r ibu la t ion acknowledges, \"we may be temporal l o r d s , ourse lves , I take i t . \" Thus, since they have been convinced that the \"restorat ing of the si lenced Saints\" cannot be accomplished save \"by the phi losopher 's stone\" ( I I I , i , 39 -40) , these two Puritans use alchemy to fur -ther the i r holy cause (111 , i , 11 - 12 ) . And what, p r e c i s e l y , is the i r holy cause? Like Mammon's, i t is e s s e n t i a l l y m i l -99 l e n a r i a n , for the i r struggle is against 'the A n t i c h r i s t i a n Hierarchy of Bishops' ( I I ,v ,82-4) , the rooting out of which w i l l usher in the millennium of the Sa in ts . I cannot but think that in these l ines Jonson himself was prophet ic . In a way, the action of the The Alchemist could be viewed as a rehearsal of the 'movement' of ideas during the eventful years of the C i v i l War. For when John French, A l s t e d , John Rogers, Hakewi11 , Nathanael Homes, and sundry o thers , use magic and alchemy to support the i r own vis ions of a F i f th Monarchy of earthly perfect ion and Puritan s w a y -when they themselves l ink together Magic and the Millennium— they seem to be performing the i r parts in a revolut ionary drama Jonson presc ient ly perceived was about to be staged. 100 Part 3: The Mi l lenar ian Mi l ieu of Puritan England Introducti on When Mammon dreams aloud of a \"F i f th Monarchy\" to be wrought by the phi losopher 's stone, i t is implied that magic offered subs tan t ia l l y the same millennium as F i f th Monarchism d i d . A br ie f survey of the mill.enarian expectations preva-lent in England during the Puritan Revolution—when c h i l i a s t i c expectations were most intense—wi11 uncover substant ia l l y the same sa lva t iona l hopes, sometimes the same myths and dreams, we have already found in the mode of magic we have been examining. The fact that the same s o t e r i o l o g i c a l e l e -ments occur in both contexts provides, I bel i eve ,' ad-di t i onal j u s t i f i c a t i o n for character iz ing th is mode of the occult as 'mi 1 1 e n a r i a n . ' And i t w i l l also explain why i t was so r e l a -t i v e l y easy for English mi l lenar ians to accept the reforma-t i o n i s t pronouncements they found in the occul t mi l ieu of 90 Puri tan England. The fol lowing analysis concentrates on the more 'mun-dane' aspects of mi 11enarianism , those aspects which focused attention on the kingly mission of the messiah, and on the material or p o l i t i c a l benefi ts which were to be derived from the messiah's earthly ru le . Yet I have not ignored the other side of the mi l lenar ian movement, the side which s p i r i t u a l i z e d , under the inf luence of the doctrine of the Holy S p i r i t , the external manifestations of the apocalypt ic hope. Professor Gohen has argued that these two types of mi l lenarianism were c lose ly re la ted . The S p i r i t u a l mi l lenar ians understood that the f u l l outpouring of the S p i r i t in the saints was determined 101 Mi l lenar ian Rhetori c The reformat ionist v is ions of magicians were often couched, as we have seen, in such terms as a reformati on of of the world, the renovati on or rej uvenati on of men and th ings , the res t i tut i on of past times (see above, pp.41-5) . These, and s imi la r terms, can a l l be found in the occult mi l ieu of Puritan England. What is e s p e c i a l l y important is the fact that the same terms and concepts were often used by Puritan mi l lenar ians to suggest the i r notions of what the millennium would be l ike. . In the 'over turn ing ' years of the 1640s, Ger-rard Winstanley, the leader of the Diggers, was confident that the \" S p i r i t of the whole Creation . . . is about the Reforma-91 t ion of the World.\" Others expected an \"innovation\" or ren-h i s t o r i c a l l y and rea l i zed in time. A cer ta i n age would be the age of the S p i r i t . As Cohen makes c l e a r , they believed that the culminating age was \" t e r r e s t r i a l and not concerned with a supernatural world to come that followed the eschatological day of judgment\" (p.234). Conversely, the material mi l lenar -ians also expected s p i r i t u a l renewal in the mil lennium. In shor t , the f ina l period expected by both of these groups is to be a kind of fusion of internal and external glory (Al f red Cohen, \"Two Roads' to the Puritan Mil lennium: William Erbury and Vavasor Powel l ,\" Church H is to ry , 32 (1963); a l s o , John F. Wi lson, \"Comment on 'Two Roads to the Puritan Mi l lenn ium, ' \" I b i d . ) . 91 The Law of Freedom i n a_ PI atform or , True Magi stracy Restored, ed. Robert W. Kenny (1941; rpt . with a new i n t r o -duction , New York: Schocken Books, 1973), p.50. The Puritan clergyman Thomas Case was so carr ied away by reformat ionist v is ions , that he ca l l ed for a 'reformation of reformation i t -s e l f (Two Sermons [London, 1641], s ig .A4v ; pp.21-2) . Nathan-ael Homes (or Holmes) quotes the rabbi Aben Ezra concerning \" ' a t o t a l , and universal reforming, or new-framing of the world. And although the Text hath i t , New Heavens, yet there is no necess i ty , nor doth the sense require i t , that we should 102 ova t ion , that i s , the time promised by St . John i n Revelati on, 92 \"when a l l things shal l be made new.\" Some held that the awaited renewal or renovation would come at the \"generall res- ' t a u r a t i o n , wherein a l l men shal l be reconci led to God and saved.\" John Archer also i d e n t i f i e d the \"restor i ng [of] a l l 94 things\" with the \"making [of] a l l things new.\" Frequently, the mi 11enniurn was depicted as \"the Rest i tut ion of a l l th ings .\" understand New Heavens, to be meant of other Heavens . . . but only that there shal l be a cer ta in Instaurati on, and Reforma-t i on of them into be t te r 1 \" (in The Resurrecti on Revealed [Lon-don, 1653], p.425). Homes also quotes Calvin concerning the \"Reparation of the world\" (p.190). See also John Napier, A p1 a i n e di scovery of the whole Revelation of Saint John (Eden-burgh , 1593), in which he ca l led for \"a speedy and generall Reformation both in Church and State ; and that from the high-est to the 1owest\" (p .4) . 92 Johann Heinrich A l s t e d , Beloved C i t y , p.31. See also James Brocard, The reye 1 ati on of S_. John re vel ed, t rans. J . Sanford (London, 1582), p .155f .v; John Swan, Speculum Mundi (Cambridge, 1 635) , c h . l , s e c t . 2 , p.5; Stephen Marshall coun-se l l ed Parliament at the star t of the war that i t s mission was \"the plant ing of a new heaven and a new earth among us\" (1641; in Michael Walzer, The Revolution of the Saints [1965; rpt . New York: Atheneum, 1969], p . l ) . 93 Thomas Edwards, Grangraena: or a Catalogue (London, 1 646), p.167, error 35. See also TFomas Vaughan, Works, p. 392 ; John Rogers, Othel or Beth-shemesh (London, 1653) , p.19. 94 The Personal 1 Rei gne of Chr ist upon Earth (London, 1642), p.10. As one t ract puts i t , the dream of the F i f th Monarchy party is nothing less than \"the redeeming of whole Z i o n ,\" \"the restorat ion of the whole Creati on\" (A Standard Set Up [London, 1657], p. l7T7~ 95 A Standard Set Up (1657), p.21 and t . p . The promise of a \" r e s t i t u t i o n of a l l things\" occurs i n Acts 3:21 (St. James v e r . ) . The French mystic and o c c u l t i s t , Guillaume P o s t e l , helped popularize the b e l i e f that the new age would bring a \" r e s t i t u t i o omnium\" (William J . Bouwsma, Concordi a Mundi [Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard U. P . , 1957], p.216). \"The 103 Eden and the Golden Age What the Engl ish mi l lenar ians expected to be restored was Eden or the Golden Age, that i s , some kind of earthly paradise. 1 Mi 11ennial ism, ' explains Mircea E l i a d e , always \"implied the restorat ion of Paradise. . . . There w i l l be an 96 abundance of a l l th ings , as in the Garden of Eden.\" We have already seen that magic, at least in i t s mi l lenar ian form, promised to restore to mankind the existence Adam enjoyed in Eden before the Fal l (see above, pp .57 f f ) . This is exactly what most Engl ish mi l lenar ians also expected. Nathanael Homes, 97 an i n f l u e n t i a l spokesman for the c h i l i a s t cause, bel ieved whole time of C h r i s t ' s kingdom,\" explains John Archer , \" is t ruely ca l led a time of r e s t i t u t i o n \" (Personal! Reigne, p.10); what the saints sha l l receive as the i r inher i tance is \"the r e s t i t u t i o n of a l l things\" (T. B . , The Saints Inheritance [London, 1643], p.11). Hansard Knollys also expected in the messianic age \"the Rest i tu t ion of a l l things\" (Apocalypti cal Mysteries [London, 1 667], Book III, pp.11-12; see also John Rogers, Othel or Beth-shemesh [1653], p.53, p.28). As the date of the miTTennium predicted by Alsted and many others drew near (ca.1700; \"and the thousand yeares w i l l be about the yeare of our Lord, 1700\"--Personal1 Reigne), people began to talk once again about \"the Rest i tu t ion of a l l things\" (A Short Survey of the Ki ngdom of Chri st [London, 1699], s i g . i i i ) . For the concept of \" r e s t i t u t i o n \" in le f t -wing sectar ian thought of the Reformation, see Frank J , Wray, \"The Anabaptist Doctrine of the Rest i tu t ion of the Church,\" MOJ*, 28 (1954), 186-96; F. H. L i t t e l l , The Origins of Sectarian Protestantism ( 1 952 ; New York: Macmi11 an, paperback e d n . , 1964) , ch . 2. 96 Myth and R e a l i t y , t rans . Wi1 lard R. Trask ( 1963; rp t . New York: Harper & Row, Torchbook e d n . , 1968), p.65. Pro-fessor E l i a d e ' s books have proved invaluable to me, and are a mine of br i11iantobservat ions on apocalypse and magic. Peter Toon, e d . , Puri tans, The Millennium and the Future of Israel (1970), p.111. 104 that a l l of Adam's inheri tance was not fo re fe i ted at the Fa l l (p.132), and that i t would be enjoyed once again during the millennium: \"A l l . . . shal l be as in Paradise, before Adams f a l l . \" 9 8 This longing for paradise was frequently expressed as a longing for the Golden Age. Mi 11enarianism, explains a student of such movements, \" is based on the b e l i e f in a Golden Age which is going to return or which can be restored in the f u l l -99 ness of t ime.\" It is \"exactly th is 'Golden Age, ' or paradise, which the founder of the messianic movement wants to inaugu-rate\" (p.12). In the mi l lenar ian mode of Western magic, as ^\"Nathanael Homes, Apokalypsi s Anastaseos. The Resur-rect ion Revealed (London , 1653), p.527 , hereafter c i ted as Resurrection Revealed. Even \"the lowest of this s ta te , \" ex-pla ins Homes, \"shal l be according to that of Adams innocency\" (p.530). Mary Cary also taught that people wTTl be l i ke \"Adam in innocency\" (The L i t t l e Horns Doom [London, 1651], p.302). Another wrote that the r e s t i t u t i o n of a l l things to the i r f i r s t perfect ion could only mean the restor ing of them to that state in which \"Adam found them in . . . at his Creation\" (A Short Survey [1 699] , p.16-17 ; p.37). Homes also bel ieved that the \"restaurat i on of a l l things\" meant the i r restorat ion \"as at the f i r s t Creation\" (p.535). He also quotes the Koran (!) to the e f fect that \"after the Resurrecti on [true be l ievers ] shal l enj oy the immense piea-sures of Paradise\" (p.416). George Hakewi11 wrote that the reward of the f a i t h f u l would be \"a pleasant garden or Paradise of del ight\" (An Apologie or Dec lara t ion , 3rd edn. [Oxford, 1635], p.601). See a l s o , Mary Cary, The L i t t l e Horns Doom, p.305; and, T. B . , The Saints Inheri tance, p.26. Images of paradise were p a r t i c u l a r l y prominent in the Rosi -crucian mi l ieu of Puritan England (see Chapter V). 99 Stephen Fuchs, Rebel 1i ous Prophets: A Study of Mes-s i ani c Movements i n Indian Rel igions (London: Asia Publ ish-ing House, 1961 ), p.15. Prophecies of the Golden Age were very frequent in the as t ro log ica l mi l ieu of Puritan England. 105 we have seen, restorat ion of the Golden Age meant, most f r e -quent ly , the r e v i v i f i c a t i o n of the natural order through magic. No less ardent ly , Engl ish mi 11enarians also expected the res -torat ion of the Golden Age, and understood by the term the same kind of fecund paradise being pursued by the magicians. The t rans la tor of A ls ted 's messianic t r a c t , Beloved Ci ty (1641 ) , explains that the \"great Sabbath and time of Rest\" to l as t \"1000. yeares\" is \" t ruely [the] Golden Age\" (si g. xvi i i ) . . 1 0 0 \"This thr ice happy and golden age is now at hand\" ( s i g . x x ) . Some years la te r a F i f th-Monarchist almanac also predicted the imminent dawning of the \"Golden Age,\" and i d e n t i f i e d i t s restorat ion with the \"glor ious Rising of the f i f t h M o n a r c h . \" 1 0 1 Soon af ter Nathanael Homes quoted C a l v i n ' s explanation that \" ' the Instaurat i on of a_ Perfect State ' \" would be none other than the restorat ion of \" ' that Golden Age . . . in which, be-fore the f a l l of man, f u l l f e l i c i t y f l o u r i s h e d ' \" (p.190). Once again we see that both Engl ish magicians and Puritan mi l lenar ians awaited the same kind of earthly paradise. Lactantius had written that the las t times would possess a l l those things \"'which the Poets fable to have beene in those golden Times of Saturnes r e i g n ' \" (quoted in A l s t e d , Beloved C i t y , p.49). Images of the Golden Age were also very prominent in European Rosicrucian c i r c l e s . 1 0 1 T h e Year of Wonders (London, 1652), t . p . Another as t ro loger , th is one not necessar i ly a F i f th Monarchist, predicted that af ter the amazing s t e l l a r events of 1652, \"there shal l immediatly succeed a golden Age\" (Vincent Wing, Almanack and Prognosti cation [1 654], s ig .C3v ) . Brahe's prophecy of the TGolden Age' was p a r t i c u l a r l y i n f l u e n t i a l . 106 Vis ions of Temporal Fei i ci ty As we have seen, in the magical t rad i t ion the symbols of the Golden Age and of Eden stood for 'whatsoever man de-s i res on earth ' (see above, pp.64-6). These inexhaustible treasures were usual ly summed up in such often-repeated 102 phrases as \"a l l good for tune,\" \"the g lo r ie of the world,\" \"a l l material joy , \" \"a l l temporal happiness,\" \"a l l temporal f e l i c i t y . \" S imi lar phrases were used by both Engl ish o c c u l t -i s t s and Puritan mi l lenar ians to describe the g i f t s of the millennium they mutually expected. Nathanael Homes, using the words of the Koran, persuades his readers that \" ' they shal l have a l l sweet contentment, and a l l at thei r p ieasure, wi thout di f f i c u l t y , or del ay'\" (p.419). In his own words Homes asserts \"that the Sai nts may enjoy a l l in the i r per-fec t ion\" (p.53). Like the magicians who expected \"a l l tem-poral happiness\" and \"a l l temporal f e l i c i t y , \" John Archer , a leading Puritan mi l lenar ian during the 1640s, asserted that the age of perfect ion would contain \"a l l fulnesse of a l l tem-pora l ! b less ings\" (Personal! Reigne, p.29). Whatever may make the i r l i v e s comfortable and p leasurable , w i l l be enjoyed by the Saints in the mil lennium. In phrases that resemble those of the alchemists (\"all material joy , \" \"a l l the comforts The m i l l e n a r i a n , John Rogers, used the phrase \"the q1ory of the world\" to describe what he would have inher i ted i f he Fad made use of \"Necromancy & Ni gromancy\" and \"Magi ck\" (Othel or Beth-shemesh [1653J, p .433] / 107 of th is world\") , Mary Cary, an outspoken m i l l e n a r i a n , promises her readers that in the millennium they shal l enjoy every con-ceivable \"outward b l e s s i n g , \" every imaginable \"creature com-for t\" ( L i t t l e Horns Doom , p.302). And Homes promises the \"confluence of a l l Comforts\" in the new age about to dawn (p.536; p.533). It is thus no wonder that Mary Cary echoed Boehme's prophecy concerning an age of ' g o l d , ' and that Homes c i ted the occul t prophecies of both Paracelsus and Sendivogius. As both recognized, magic promised what they themselves wanted, a fact which helps to explain the popular i ty of the occult during those years when Puritan mi 11enarianism was most i n -tense. The phrases we have just reviewed were intended to en-c i r c l e both the 'emotional ' b lessings of paradise , and i t s more d i r e c t l y physical and material joys as w e l l . Concerning the 'emotional ' b l e s s i n g s , what is frequently promised for the millennium is the el iminat ion of the threats and tensions of everyday l i f e (see above, p.74, n.56). As Professor Wilson says, mi 11enarianism usual ly promises r e l i e f from a l l \"personal problems, and fears and tensions in soc ia l r e l a t i o n s h i p s , \" as well as the \"erad icat ion•of p o l i t i c a l and soc ia l oppression\" (Magic and the Mil lennium, p.365). Magic, as we have already seen, promised to mankind prec ise ly these g i f t s . The Stone was thought to put to f l i g h t \"anxiety and care ,\" and to com-for t and refresh man's heart in the hour of t roub le , mi t igat -ing a l l advers i ty . One adept taught that alchemy could put 108 an end to a l l \"Hatred and Sorrow,\" \"Poverty and Misery,\" re-placing them with \"Health, Joy, Peace, Love,\" and \"a l l good th ings .\" In a d d i t i o n , i t was thought that magic would el im-inate soc ia l oppression as w e l l , by putt ing \"an end to vain-g l o r y , hope, and fear , \" and by removing from the hearts of people \"ambit ion, v io lence , and excess.\" Even the root of a l l soc ia l ev i1 - -\"covetousnesse\"- -can be ext irpated by a l -103 chemy. Thus, John French, while endorsing the messianic prophecy of Sendivogius, predicts the imminent return of the \"golden Age,\" in which \"a l l tyranny, oppression, env ie , and 104 covetousnesse shal cease.\" What these European and Engl ish alchemists dreamed of corresponds almost per fec t ly with what Puritan mi l lenar ians expected in the mi 11ennium. In the mi 11ennium there shal l be no more \"sorrow, nor c r y i n g , nei ther shal l there be any more 105 pa in .\" Nor shal l there be any \" fear , t e r rour , and dread\" (p .175 ) . 1 ^ 6 A f f l i c t i o n s such as these wi l l end because socia l 103 E l i as Ashmole, Theatrum Chemicum Bri ta.nni.cum, s i g . B 2 . 1 0 4 A r t of D i s t i l l a t i o n (1651), sig.