Figures and the Book of Abraham · Lexicon

From the book

Magia Adamica

Thomas Vaughan · Diotimos Editions · 2026

Orientation

At a Glance

The wordFigures are painted or engraved representations that disclose and conceal a natural art. The first agent is said to be figured, not explained in words.
In the bookVaughan quotes an account attributed to Nicolas Flamel as evidence for chymical Kabbalah. The first-person narrator is not Vaughan.
In this editionThe images remain verbal descriptions; no invented reconstruction of the alleged book is supplied, and tentative identifications stay tentative.
A place to readMagia Adamica · p. 54 · Passage 1–Magia Adamica · p. 58, the complete introduction and quoted description of the book.

Meaning

“Figures” names the images described in the Book of Abraham, not simply numerical quantities or rhetorical tropes. Their office is to present an art without openly writing its crucial agent. The passage therefore distinguishes intelligible language about operations from pictorial knowledge requiring trained interpretation.

The “first Agent” is the withheld starting principle of the work as the narrator describes it. The book is said to teach vessels, colours and other matters in common words, but to represent this agent only through the fourth and fifth leaves. Its absence from the verbal instructions is deliberate within the reported narrative.

Use in the book

Vaughan introduces the account at Magia Adamica · p. 54 · Passage 1 as proof that Jewish learning was chymical and culminated in natural performances. Flamel, he says, found the book and eventually attained the philosophers’ stone with its help. The quotation then begins: for two florins the narrator acquired an old gilded book, apparently made from bark, with a brass cover. The careful “as it seemed to me” qualifies the description of its material; it is not a laboratory identification.

The cover’s characters cannot be read by the narrator, who thinks they may be Greek or another ancient language. Inside are coloured Latin letters and twenty-one leaves arranged in three sevens (Magia Adamica · p. 55 · Passage 1). Every seventh leaf bears an image rather than writing: a virgin swallowed by serpents, a crucified serpent, and serpents issuing from fountains. Their recurrence establishes a field of imagery, but the distinct scenes should not be collapsed into one fixed serpent meaning.

The book addresses a dispersed Jewish nation and restricts access to a sacrificer or scribe. Its stated purpose includes relief of captivity and tribute through transmutation (Magia Adamica · p. 56). That social purpose belongs to the quoted account; it is neither Vaughan’s personal autobiography nor proof that the historical book existed exactly as described. The narrator’s speculation that it was stolen also remains speculation.

The fourth and fifth leaves give the decisive pictures. A wing-footed young man with a two-serpent caduceus seems, to the narrator’s limited judgement, to be Mercury. An old winged man carrying hourglass and scythe tries to cut off his feet (Magia Adamica · p. 57). The account does not name that old man. Familiar iconographic associations may suggest an interpretation, but naming him as though the source does would erase the distinction between description and inference.

The flower on the mountain, blue-rooted with white and red blossoms and golden-looking leaves, is surrounded by northern dragons and griffins. The next scene has a rosebush, hollow oak and fountain of white water. People seeking it fail to recognise it although it passes through their hands; an occasional observer who considers weight succeeds (Magia Adamica · p. 58). The narrative makes knowledge of a common presence depend upon judgement, not mere proximity.

The final described picture presents the killing of infants and the sun and moon bathing in gathered blood. This is an image reported as painted in a book. It is not an instruction to harm persons, and the lexicon should not turn emblematic violence into a practical direction. The narrator then refuses to reveal the remaining written leaves, invoking punishment for disclosure. Vaughan closes the quotation explicitly: “Thus farre Nicholas Flammel.”

The whole episode tests the reader’s ability to follow nested testimony. Vaughan cites a narrator who describes a book and interprets some of its signs. Each stage has its own qualifications. The apparent vividness of the images cannot remove those layers of mediation.

Places to read

Magia Adamica · p. 54 · Passage 1Original; Magia Adamica · p. 54 · Passage 2Original; Magia Adamica · p. 55 · Passage 1OriginalVaughan’s introduction, the purchase, materials and arrangement in three sevens.
Magia Adamica · p. 55 · Passage 2Original; Magia Adamica · p. 56Originalrestricted readers, the captive nation and the agent withheld from verbal instruction.
Magia Adamica · p. 57Original; Magia Adamica · p. 58Originalthe pictures, uncertain Mercury identification, recognition through weight and final refusal.

In this edition

The modern reading uses “leaf,” not page, preserving the book’s described organisation. “Caduceus” renders “Caducean Rod,” while “to my limited judgement” retains the uncertainty of “to my small judgement.” “Apparently illuminated” likewise keeps the qualification concerning the pictures. The new edition’s explanatory notes are not missing speeches from the quoted book.

Caduceus

The rod entwined with two serpents carried by the young figure.

The narrator thinks the wing-footed youth may be Mercury, explicitly limiting the judgement. The object helps the identification but does not turn it into an unqualified assertion. The old man threatening the feet remains unnamed in this passage.

Record type: word or phrase.

Historical forms: Caducean Rod.

Attested wording: a Caducean Rod writhen about with two Serpents

Read: Magia Adamica · p. 57 · Original.

Maranatha

A repeated word associated with curses restricting the book’s readers.

The quotation continues onto the following page, where the excluded reader is anyone not a sacrificer or scribe. Its role is to mark guarded access in the Book of Abraham narrative, rather than to provide a separate instruction to curse readers.

Record type: word or phrase.

Historical forms: Maranatha.

Attested wording: this word Maranatha, which was often repeated there

Read: Magia Adamica · p. 55 · Passage 2 · Original.

Three times seven leaves

Twenty-one leaves in the quoted book’s described arrangement.

Every seventh leaf is said to bear an image without writing. A leaf is not automatically one modern page, and the three singled-out pictures are distinct. The count belongs to the narrator quoted by Vaughan, not to the physical extent of this edition.

Record type: word or phrase.

Historical forms: thrice Seven leaves.

Attested wording: It contained thrice Seven leaves

Read: Magia Adamica · p. 55 · Passage 1 · Original.

Weight

The discriminating property considered by the few who recognise the hidden fountain.

Countless seekers handle the white water without recognising it; the occasional observer considers weight. The scene makes proximity insufficient for knowledge. It supplies no numerical weight or practical measurement by which a modern substance could be identified.

Record type: word or phrase.

Historical forms: weight.

Attested wording: One, which considered the weight

Read: Magia Adamica · p. 58 · Original.