The Angelical Stone of Elias Ashmole
Matthew D. Rogers, Aries, Volume 5, Number 1, 2005 , pp. 61-90(30)
I have just been reading this article and must say I found it rather strange. The first part of this begins by drawing to our attention the idea of a “lapis angelicus” (a kind of sub-species of the Philosophers’ Stone) found in a 1660 alchemical manuscript in the circles around Samuel Hartlib. Rogers then goes on to explore the appearance of this idea in Ashmole’s writings and draws parallels with Edward Kelly and also echoes of this Robert Boyle’s works. He then looks at the manuscripts of Robert Plot and the writings of John Pordage.
This article is rather interesting and follows the usual scholarly methodology, so it is with an enormous surprise to read the closing section of the article which suddenly goes off into what can best be described as a flight of fantasy. Here Rogers introduces the idea that this Angelical Stone may have been some sort of psychedelic substance. He gives no evidence and instead cites as sources such unlikely writers as Terrance McKenna and even the totally speculative book by Clark Heinrich Strange Fruit. The article is a weird hybrid of a scholarly opening section with an esoteric speculative coda. I must say I found this approach unsettling. It seems likely that unscholarly people, not being able to see the segue from scholarly to speculative will take this entirely as a work of scholarship. I hope this is not an approach that others will emulate.
Last edited on Sat Oct 25th, 2008 04:29 pm by adammclean
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