THE GOLDEN BUILDERS. Alchemists, Rosicrucians and the first Free Masons Tobias Churton, Signal Publishing, Lichfield, 2002. Paperback, 250 pages, £16.95. ISBN 0-9543309-0-0. Copies available from Central Regalia.

However our Freemasonry grew into its modern form, one of its major sources is Hermetic philosophy: the initiatory and spiritual works attributed to the mythical Hermes Trismegistus. These works informed both Paganism and Christianity and in the Renaissance the two spiritualities were drawn together for mutual benefit. In some manner, out of the Renaissance, speculative Freemasonry emerged. A prime figure in the early days of speculative Freemasonry is Elias Ashmole; his is the first recorded initiation into a non-operative masonic lodge in England and Ashmole was also a major – perhaps the major – figure in contemporary Hermetic philosophy. Is there a connection? Tobias Churton shows that there is. His book is important reading for all those interested in what lies at the very soul of Freemasonry; at the deepest levels of its rituals and its philosophy.
    The Golden Builders, explains and explores how Hermetic philosophy carried by the Renaissance Magi permeated European thought: for "Science is the child of the Magi". The book is divided into three sections: the first explains Hermetic philosophy in a manner which manages to maintain a simplicity without losing any of the profundity of the subject. "Infinity," writes Churton, "is Hermes’ natural tendency"; an approach to the pure view of infinity is what we get from Hermetic endeavour.
    The second part of the book looks at the story of the Rosicrucians: an allegory devised by those who tried to bring the stars down to the earth; who felt they lived in the "New Age"; who tried to create a new world where all men would strive, in love, to know God directly rather than to be waylaid by institutionalised belief; a world in which Truth would reign supreme. Churton’s history and analysis of the Rosicrucian age is the finest yet to appear in print and is a major contribution to a comprehension of the subject: from his harbour all subsequent voyagers must set sail.
    The book ends by focussing upon Elias Ashmole, who knew "the true Matter of the Philosopher’s Stone", and moves through a detailed investigation of his milieu, illuminating his commitment to Hermetic philosophy and Freemasonry drawing together much recent work which revises our view of pre-Grand Lodge speculative Freemasonry. I urge readers not to hesitate: buy it, read it.
    Michael Baigent