This week I’ve been reading about Robert Fludd (1575 – 1637), a British physician, author and mystical philosopher with a penchant for the occult. He derived his ideas from a range of sources such as alchemy, fortune-telling, astrology and magic, and was primarily concerned with drawing parallels between man and the world, the Microcosm of human life on earth and the Macrocosm of the universe.

What fascinates me the most about Robert Fludd, are his images of the divine - published in his masterwork Utriusque Cosmi (History of the Two Worlds), a book split into two volumes, a marvel of intricate engravings and extraordinary images. His fascination with God and the natural human worlds led him to argue that the materials of the universe were separated out of chaos where God acted in the manner of a laboratory alchemist.

Fludd’s diagrams are both powerful and beautiful, depicting the creative, healing forces of light, where light and darkness are represented by two intersection cones, or pyramids. The base of ‘pyramidis formalis’ was found in the Empyreum of God and signified rays of divine light, while the base of the ‘pyramidis materialis’ was placed on the earth pointing upward towards God. As these two pyramids meet, they form a lozenge shape where Fludd places the sun, balancing the oppositions of spirit and matter, male and female, sulphur and mercury. I urge you to delve into the work of this interesting soul.

See you next week,

Cathy x