Lux Esoterica (Nifiluz)

The Philosopher of the Invisible Fire In the mid-seventeenth century, as England was torn apart by civil war and religious strife, a small group of philosophers sought refuge in the study of the mysteries of nature and the human soul. Among the most poetic and speculative of these thinkers was Thomas Vaughan , a Welsh clergyman, alchemist, and Hermetist who published his works under the pseudonym Eugenius Philalethes . While his twin brother, Henry Vaughan, achieved fame as a metaphysical poet, Thomas dedicated his life to the laboratory furnace and the deciphering of the secret signatures of the cosmos. Vaughan's seminal treatise, Anthroposophia Theomagica ( Theomagical Knowledge of Man ), published in London in 1650, represents a landmark in the history of Western esotericism. It is not a textbook of practical chemistry or a collection of recipes for the transmutation of metals; instead, it is a work of high nature-mysticism, combining the Christian Kabbalah of Heinrich Corne...