m of
Eirenaeus Philalethes.[27] He now became exceedingly active, going and
coming upon the face of the earth. When in England, he divided his time
between Oxford and London (p. 167). Between 1640 and 1644 he visited
Hamburg, the Netherlands, Italy and Sweden (pp. 171-174). It was at this
period that he conceived the design of obtaining a far wider circulation
than they had yet met with for the ideas of Faustus Socinus. Some of the
Rosicrucians were already "accepted masons." Vaughan determined to
capture the vast organization of craft masonry by permeating the lodges
with Luciferianism. His associate in this task was Elias Ashmole, with
whose aid, a few years later, he composed the degrees of Apprentice
(1646), Companion (1648), and Master (1649) (pp. 142, 169-175, 197-206).
The Civil War had now approached. Oliver Cromwell was a freemason, a
Rosicrucian, and a friend of Vaughan's (p. 176). With the execution of
Laud came the crisis of Vaughan's life, his initiation into the highest
degree of Rosie Cross by the hands of Lucifer himself. It took place in
this wise. At the last moment Vaughan was substituted for the intended
executioner of Laud.[28] He had prepared a sacramental cloth which he
soaked in the martyr's blood, and on the same night he sacrificed the
relic to Lucifer. The divinity appeared, consecrated Vaughan as
_Magus_, named him as the next _Summus Magister_ of the Fraternity, and
signed a pact, granting him thirty-three years more life, at the end of
which he should be borne away from earth without death (p. 177). In 1645
Vaughan wrote, but did not yet publish, his most important treatise, the
_Introitus Apertus ad Occlusum Regis Palatium_. In 1645, still following
the direct command of Lucifer, he departed for America. Here he met the
apothecary George Starkey, and in his presence performed the alchemical
feat of making gold (p. 179).[29] Here, too, he lived amongst the
Lenni-Lennaps, where he was united to the demon Venus-Astarte in the
form of a beautiful woman, who after eleven days bore him a daughter.
This girl was brought up among the Lenni-Lennaps under the name of Diana
Wulisso-Waghan, and became Miss Diana Vaughan's great-great-grandmother
(p. 181). In 1648 Vaughan returned to England, and after composing the
masonic degree of Master in 1649 (p. 197), he began the publication of
a series of alchemical and, in reality, Luciferian writings. In 1650
appeared the _Anthroposophia Theomagica_ and the _M