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more blessed he who reads it, most blessed he who understands it, and most godlike he
who obeys it.

Chapter XI. We wish the statements we made in the Fama Fraternitatis concerning the
transmutation of metals and the universal medicine to be lightly understood. While we
realize that both these works are attainable by man, we fear that many really great minds
may be led away from the true quest of knowledge and understanding if they permit
themselves to limit their investigation to the transmutation of metals. When to a man is
given power to heal disease, to overcome poverty, and to reach a position of worldly
dignity, that man is beset by numerous temptations and unless he possess true knowledge
and full understanding he will become a terrible menace to mankind. The alchemist who
attains to the art of transmuting base metals can do all manner of evil unless his
understanding be as great as his self-created wealth. We therefore affirm that man must
first gain knowledge, virtue, and understanding; then all other things may be added unto
him. We accuse the Christian Church of the great sin of possessing power and using it
unwisely; therefore we prophesy that it shall fall by the weight of its own iniquities and
its crown shall be brought to naught.

Chapter XII. In concluding our Confessio, we earnestly admonish you to cast aside the
worthless books of pseudo-alchemists and philosophers (of whom there are many in our
age), who make light of the Holy Trinity and deceive the credulous with meaningless
enigmas. One of the greatest of these is a stage player, a man with

Click to enlarge
A SYMBOLIC DIAGRAM OF THE OPERATIONS OF NATURE.

From Fludd's Collectio Operum.

This plate, engraved by de Bry, is the most famous of the diagrams illustrating the philosophic principles of
Robert Fludd (Robertus de Fluctibus). Three figures are outstanding links between Rosicrucianism and
Freemasonry: Michael Maier, Elias Ashmole, and Robert Fludd. De Quincey considers Robert Fludd to be
the immediate father of Freemasonry. (See The Rosicrucians and Freemasons.) Edward Waite considers
Robert Fludd as second to none of the disciples of Paracelsus, even going as far as to declare that Fludd far
surpassed his master. He further adds, "The central figure of Rosicrucian literature, towering as an
intellectual giant above the crowd of souffleurs, theosophists, and charlatanic Professors of the magnum
opus, who, directly or otherwise, were connected with the mysterious Brotherhood, is Robertus de
Fluctibus, the great English mystical philosopher of the seventeenth century, a man of immense erudition,
of exalted mind, and, to judge by his writings, of extreme personal sanctity. " (See The Real History of the
Rosicrucians.) Robert Fludd was born in 1574 and died in 1637.

The de Bry diagram shown above is almost self-explanatory. Outside the circle of the starry heavens are the
three fiery rings of the empyreum--the triple fire of the Supreme Creator--in which dwell the celestial
creatures. Within he, of the stars are the circles of the planets and elements. After the element of air comes
the circle of the world (earth). The circle of animals is followed by the circle of plants, which, in turn is