What I could read from the Kindle store seems to dry up, so I have also started looking at German titles. This one seemed interesting.
This 120 page book in German is only mildly interesting. The general information about alchemy is -ehm- general. Amusing: there is a translation of the Tabula Smaragdina by Newton in German. By way of John Dee, Grippo goes to Elias Ashmole to make the step to Freemasonry, but not until he also dealt with Paracelsus, the Rosicrucians (where he sees a source of Freemasonry) and the Royal Society.
Grippo has a few blunt statements, such as: “One could exaggerate that modern Freemasonry is a German export product.” After the ‘Scotland versus England’ discussion, a very German addition. Of course there had been Mason companies in Germany for a long time, so I see where he is getting at.
There are also statements that are more ‘eyebrow raising’ such as: “There are obvious symbols in alchemy and in Freemasonry – like the hermaphrodite.” or “Nowadays they [true alchemists] no longer call themselves alchemists but have adopted the name “Freemasons”.” This sounds a lot like wishful thinking. I have yet to encounter a hermaphrodite or alchemist within Freemasonry.
The little book will tell you a few things about alchemy and Freemasonry, but the author seems to be not too well informed about the latter subject.
2014 Giovanni Grippo Verlag, isbn 3942187337
