MAGUS. The Invisible Life of Elias Ashmole Tobias Churton, Lichfield, Signal Publishing, 2004. Large format paperback. xxi and 231 pages, £16.95. ISBN 0-9549909-8-7 Signal Publishing, 34 Netherbridge Avenue, Lichfield, WS14 9UF

Every Freemason who dips even a little into masonic history will read that on October 16th, 1646, Elias Ashmole, was 'made a Freemason at Warrington in Lancashire.' This is the earliest recorded initiation of an English mason. And there the interest seems to stop. Masonic history is notoriously satisfied with its shopping lists of events and notoriously ignorant about the lives and societies these events represent. But in 1646 Ashmole was initiated into an existing lodge which was clearly well established. Where did it come from? What was its context in the society of the time? And Ashmole himself - often dismissed as a dilettante by masons who should know better - was a man with wide interests, impressive knowledge and a rich life where his curiosity was avidly pursued: he was an antiquarian and a Hermetic philosopher of insight and accomplishment. We need to know more. Churton obliges.
    Ashmole's birthplace in Breadmarket Street, Lichfield, still exists; we begin there. The Ashmoles were a prominent family in the city, Elias' grandfather was twice mayor. From this small town in an ancient landscape Ashmole moved out into the world. During the Civil War he supported the King; he also studied in Brasenose College, Oxford where he made a particular investigation of astrology (he was a friend of the prominent astrologers, William Lilly and George Wharton) and Hermetic wisdom. Magus provides a particularly welcome study of Ashmole's astrology - it looks like he later provided astrological advice to King Charles II - and his later interest in Freemasonry and Alchemy.
    Ashmole always hoped for 'a great flowering of alchemical knowledge and cosmic insight led by coming philosophers'. He avoided religious debate: Churton explains, 'True religion must be rooted in something more than doctrinal disagreement, however sincerely held. Ashmole was always looking for the roots of things. Really, his religion was cosmic, Gnostic and personal. This was, I believe, his ideal Church for England.' Churton writes almost wistfully as if he too believes such would be an ideal Church. As wistfully, I find myself in agreement. Magus is intriguing, fascinating, impeccably researched and well illustrated. And, in his revealing of Ashmole's life, Tobias Churton shows that wisdom, and the search for it, cannot be separated; each depends upon the other.
    Michael Baigent