Manly Palmer Hall
"Robert Fludd, the medieval English alchemist and Rosicrucian, are said to have brought the teachings of C. R. C. from Germany.
The plate he created represents the hierarchies of nature, and its profound lesson for students of occult philosophy lies in the analogy between elements, chemicals, planets, gods, and celestial hierarchies.
The plate is divided into two grand divisions, resembling the horoscope of astrology. The lower half symbolizes the inferior creation, while the upper half represents the superior creation—the cause-all world. In this chart, the superphysical hierarchies and various intelligent powers behind manifestation are laid out.
Within concentric rings, the names of the Powers of the universe are placed, as found in various sacred arts and sciences. The sacred Hebrew names and the Sephira of the Hebrew Qabballah are located between points A and B. The superphysical hierarchies of divine beings, along with the leading angels and rulers of the hierarchies, pass through the sphere marked by the line of B. Below C, there are the astrological worlds, and under D, the natural, chemical, alchemical, mineral, and animal kingdoms laid out as they are found in nature. Beyond point A, in the outside rings, the primitive principles of creation and their role in the unfolding of a universe, an individual, or a protoplasmic cell are found.
Considered one of the most complicated alchemical plates, it can only be satisfactorily explained when the individual has unfolded a very high degree of spiritual sight and insight.
The passage of man through the spiritual worlds of nature and the twelvefold constitution of his own globe and chain results from conscious initiation, concealing mysteries until they are revealed through growth and unfoldment. These plates, like the sacred scriptures of the Illumined, hold great meaning but are forever sealed from the ignorant by their own ignorance.
True illumination comes not from mere intellectual power but from soul qualities, the highest spiritual reflective powers, the co-joining of spiritual reason and mystical intuition. The study of these plates begins with practical self-regeneration, allowing the higher power in man to express its own omnipotent knowledge.
This plate holds the entire secret of spiritual rulership and analogy. However, only the individual can unlock its mysteries by filing from their own organisms the key that reveals the wisdom intended for the wise. Understanding the words of the Illuminated requires one to become illuminated themselves, as the light of spirit shines forth through the regenerated lantern of the philosopher—their own sevenfold body organism." [The All-Seeing Eye Journal, c. 1923-Sep. Vol 1, No. 5, by Manly Palmer Hall]

Joscelyn Godwin
"Universal Causation
This plate is a summation of the two preceding ones, enhanced by the names of God, Sephiroth, and Angels as found in the Great Meteorological Chart (plate 81). Its layout resembles that of Giulio Camillo's 'memory theatre' (see Yates, Theatre of the World) and suggests that it is intended as a pattern to be memorized. Whatever issue may be taken over its details, it illustrates very aptly the doctrines of emanation, correspondence, and cyclicity.
The theory of emanation explains that higher principles do not create lower beings out of nothing: they emanate them as manifestations of themselves on inferior planes of existence. Thus, to take one 'chain' as an illustration, Vau, the archetypal Son or Word, emanates Shin, the Spirit that manifests as Eloah, the personal God. He emanates Grace: the beauty of the universe which is built by the angels called Virtues.
Corresponding to this principle in our little solar system is the Archangel Michael, whose physical body is the Sun. That Sun gives us our vital force, etc. (the lower circles are rather debatable). The doctrine of correspondence states that every level of the hierarchy of being, from the mineral world up to the very archetypes themselves, is a reflection of the one above. This is a necessary corollary to the theory of emanation, for from each archetype is suspended a chain of being that descends to the very bottom of manifestation. So Michael, in the company of the archangels, is like the Sun in the company of the planets, or the heart in the human body, or gold among metals.
The whole of magic, black and white, is based upon this doctrine, for it assumes that actions taken on one level will have repercussions in the corresponding ones. In making ritual objects of gold, for example, one is facilitating the descent of the solar forces into the cup, ring, sceptre, etc., and thereby imbuing the user with them.
The principle of cyclicity is the 'Myth of the Eternal Return': the idea that time is not a straight line, running pointlessly from infinity to infinity, but a system of cycles within cycles, wheels within wheels, each unrolling in imitation of its superiors, from the spirals of electrons up to the birth and death of galaxies and beyond. On a human scale, the cycles are experienced in day and night, the return of the seasons, the individual's periodic descent into incarnation, and the turning of the ages of world history, whether one considers the astrological ages (Piscean, Aquarian, etc.) or the cycle of the four ages of the Hindus and Greeks. All of this adds up to a very profound world view, confirming Fludd's position in the ranks of true esoteric philosophers." [Robert Fludd: Hermetic Philosopher and Surveyor of 2 Worlds, by Joscelyn Godwin]

Manly Palmer Hall
"Wherefore I cordially admonish thee to ascend from this world unto God, that is, to penetrate quite through thyself, for to climb up unto God is to enter into thy self, and not only inwardly to visit thy dearest Soul, but also to pierce into the very centre thereof, to view and behold there thy Creator; which . . . thou mayest the better . . . gather and recollect the beams ofthy inward man from the distractions ofthis outward world, and revoke them from external actions, to participate with thy inward joys ."
— Robert Fludd
"The distinguished English metaphysician, Robert Fludd, Esquire (Robertus de Fluctibus), doctor of medicine, was born in Kent in 1574.
He received his M.A. at St. John’s College, Oxford, in 1598. He devoted the next six years to a grand tour of the Continent. He then returned to England, and secured his doctorate in medicine at Christ Church, Oxford, in 1605. He had considerable difficulty, however, in securing his fellowship in the College of Physicians. He was examined three times before final acceptance, probably because the dignitaries of the College suspected the candidate of having a sickly interest in mysticism and the occult arts.
Fludd practiced medicine in London at the same address for the greater part of his life, and gained considerable distinction for his methods of therapy which would be regarded now as verging toward psychology. He insisted that the virtues of his medications must be supported by a noble and right-minded attitude on the part of the patient.
This eccentric doctor maintained a pretentious establishment, and was sufficiently successful to permit him to engage a private apothecary who kept shop on the premises. Emphasis upon spiritual considerations attracted to Dr. Fludd many sufferers who had been given up by other practitioners, and with these cases he was remarkably skillful. Most of his numerous and lengthy writings were dictated, at odd moments between appointments, to an amanuensis, whose principal duty was to be present or available at any hour of the day or night.
Dr. Fludd is remembered mostly for his voluminous books in scholarly Latin, and illustrated with curious figures and symbols derived from anatomy, astrology, numerology, music, comparative religion, and the cabala. His curious little work entitled The Squeezing of Parson Foster's Sponge gained him some reputation as a controversialist, and, while possibly the least of his writings, is one of only two works to be published in English.
The good doctor occupied a strange place in the mental life of his day. He was one of those men born out of time—in this case, too late. His thoughts were concerned principally with subjects and concepts which had disappeared from the public favor. About his only contribution to the furtherance of science was his early research with the barometer, and to the time of his death he stood firmly with Kepler on the wrong side of the controversy over the Copernican system.
When Dr. Libavius published his diatribes accusing the Rosicrucians of attempting to overthrow organized society, he aroused the indignation of many generous scholars and idealists, including Dr. Fludd. This good physician summoned his amanuensis and dictated immediately a lengthy apology for the Rosicrucians, entitled Tractatus Apologeticus Integritatem Societatis De Rosae Cruce Defendens. The book was first issued in Leiden in 1617 because the printers on the Continent produced better work at lower prices than those in England.
While it is evident from the text that Fludd was not at the time a member of the Order, he championed its cause against the attacks of Libavius with sincerity, dignity, and a deep, reverent admiration. Then, fearing that he might have said something in his well-intentioned defense to displease the Society, Fludd appended to his Tractatus Apologeticus a concluding address somewhat in the form of a letter. In this, he wrote: “I desire nothing more fervently than to be the least in your Order, so that I may be able to satisfy the curious and hungry ears of men through worthy and dependable propagation and expansion of your honor and fame.”
If any man of his generation were worthy to be accepted into the house Sancti Spiritus, it was amiable, learned Robert Fludd. Although Fludd’s writings abound with concepts and precepts believed to be essentially Rosicrucian, only one other work associated with his name deals directly with the Fraternity. This consists of fifty-four pages in folio, titled Summum Bonum, usually bound at the end of his Sophiae Cum Moria Certamen, published in Frankfurt in 1629. The Summum Bonum bears no author’s name, and its title page is ornamented with an engraving of an open rose.
The fourth section of this essay attempts to describe the dwelling place of the Brothers of the Rosy Cross. Needless to say, the description is entirely symbolical. The adepts of the Order abide in the house of God, of which Christ is the cornerstone. The temple stands upon the mountain of wisdom, and its dome is supported by those reborn men who have become living pillars in the “everlasting house.”
As further evidence, there is appended to the work a letter written by one of the Brothers of R. C. This letter discusses the immovable palace of the Society which is in the center of all things, “... the resplendent and invisible castle which is built upon the mountain of the Lord, out of whose root goeth forth a fountain of living waters, and a river of love.” Although it is not certain that Fludd was the author of the Summum Bonum, he is fathered with it as the most likely suspect.
The relationship of Count Michael Maier to Fludd’s spiritual life has been much discussed. This distinguished German visited England about 1615. Some assume that he was an emissary of the Rosicrucians and initiated Fludd. Others advance the theory that Maier himself was seeking initiation from the English doctor. The latter seems the more probable, for in spite of all appearance to the contrary, Rosicrucianism almost certainly originated in England and migrated to the Continent in search of suitable publishers for its manifestoes and writings.
The Reverend J. B Craven, who devoted many years of research to the subject, summarizes his own findings and those of most other investigators, thus: “That a Society of the nature of the Rosy Cross existed, and that both Maier and Fludd were initiates, need not, I think, be now doubted by any disinterested students of the history of those wondrous sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. What its origin may have been, we shall, I suppose, never know with any certainty, though there is some ground for supposing that it was in existence in the latter part of the eighteenth century. Its whole story is one of the most curious episodes in history.”
It is regrettable that so little is known about the private life of Robert Fludd. According to the Dictionary of National Biography, he died, unmarried, on the eighth of September 1637, in the house where he had practiced medicine for nearly thirty years. He was buried at Bearsted Church, and his grave was marked by a stone which he had personally prepared before his death. The following year his nephew erected a monument consisting of a figure of Fludd at a desk, with an open book before him. In recent years, members of the English Rosicrucian Society— a research group with no roots in antiquity—have made pilgrimages to this shrine." [Orders of Universal Reformation by Manly Palmer Hall]