From the book
Magia Adamica
Thomas Vaughan · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordThe three mothers are the letter-principles aleph, mem and shin, explained in Vaughan’s account through air, water and fire.
- In the bookThe literal scheme becomes an account of natural generation, derived spirits and elemental mixture; Vaughan stops before explaining all ten secret principles.
- In this editionThe printed Hebrew orders and historical transliterations are preserved, while fresh translations of the Latin remain distinct from Vaughan’s English.
- A place to readMagia Adamica · p. 49 · Passage 3–Magia Adamica · p. 51, from the literal veil to the weighing of the mothers.
Meaning
“Mothers” is a generative designation. The three are principles from which further natural relations are explained, not three named human ancestors. Vaughan introduces their Hebrew letters and two arrangements, which he calls masculine and feminine complexions. The historical transliterations are “Emes” and “Asam”; the modern reading names the letters aleph, mem and shin.
The phrase belongs to his division of name and thing. Literal Kabbalah has the letters; natural Kabbalah expounds their significance. The ensuing words about air, water and fire are therefore not incidental comparisons. They are the reality to which Vaughan directs the reader beyond alphabetical arrangement.
Use in the book
At Magia Adamica · p. 50 the authority is attributed to Abraham, or, Vaughan says, as some think to Rabbi Akiba. The alternatives remain alternatives. Neither should be converted into an established authorship by a lexicon. The Latin passage identifies still water, hissing fire and air as the middle spirit; Vaughan repeats it in English and asks the reader particularly to mark the stillness of the water.
A second formula describes heavens created from fire and earth from water, with air proceeding from a spirit standing between. The mediating relation is crucial. The mothers are not simply a list of three familiar materials set side by side; the quoted formulas and Vaughan’s explanation give them an ordered relation. His emphatic comments show which parts he wants the reader to connect with the wider creation account.
The discussion next introduces ten secret principles but explains only the beginning. The first spirit remains in fountain-like recesses, compared with underground water before it emerges. The second is the voice of the first, breaking forth like a spring (Magia Adamica · p. 50). Concealment and manifestation are distinguished through the same water image without making the first spirit an ordinary subterranean stream.
At Magia Adamica · p. 51 the second is called “Spiritus ex Spiritu,” spirit from spirit. The third, “Spiritus ex Spiritibus,” proceeds from both the first spirit and its voice. The plural in the latter formula is therefore meaningful: it is not a stylistic variant to be regularised away. The fourth, “Aqua de Spiritu,” is a water proceeding from the third spirit, out of which air and fire emerge. The formulas preserve different relations of origin.
Vaughan then refuses further public explanation. The account should not be completed by importing an assumed list of six further principles as though he had printed it here. What he claims is enough for his immediate purpose: knowledge of the creature’s origin and of the source to whom it should be ascribed. Reticence is one of the text’s limits, not an editorial omission.
The passage about weighing Aleph with everything supplies the operational analogy. Vaughan calls it plain when one considers the elements’ mixtures and secret proportions. The act upon a letter is explained through relations among elements; literal combinatorics is subordinate to natural proportion. This is precisely the distinction he uses to separate true Kabbalah from alphabetic tricks.
Finally he turns to the metaphysical part and argues that agreement among the children of wisdom proves a universal schoolmaster, God’s Spirit. That conclusion is Vaughan’s interpretation of concordance. The lexicon can explain the ordered phrases without treating his comparison of traditions as an independently demonstrated identity among them.
Places to read
- Magia Adamica · p. 49 · Passage 3Originalmother letters, their printed orders and their place in literal Kabbalah.
- Magia Adamica · p. 50Originalair, water and fire; alternative attribution; the first spirit and its voice.
- Magia Adamica · p. 51Originalthe three Latin derivation formulas, withheld continuation and weighing as mixture and proportion.
In this edition
The source’s “schin” is represented by modern “shin”; this is a naming change, not an added fourth letter. The edition translates the Latin witness afresh and retains Vaughan’s English rather than silently substituting an independent Hebrew edition. “Spirit from spirit,” “spirit from spirits” and “water from spirit” should remain separate lookup phrases because collapsing them would erase the stated derivational order.
Spirit from spirits
The third principle, said to proceed from the first spirit and its voice.
The plural is significant because two prior terms are named as sources. It must not be assimilated to the second principle’s singular “Spiritus ex Spiritu.” The phrases distinguish stages of the cosmological account Vaughan chooses partly to disclose.
Record type: word or phrase.
Historical forms: Spiritus ex Spiritibus.
Attested wording: The third Principle is Spiritus ex Spiritibus
Read: Magia Adamica · p. 51 · Original.
See also: Three mothers.
Water from spirit
The fourth principle, a water proceeding from the third spirit.
Vaughan says air and fire then proceed from that water. The formula marks a relation of origin, not an ordinary material identification. He stops the public explanation soon afterwards, so the omitted remainder of the ten principles is not supplied here.
Record type: word or phrase.
Historical forms: Aqua de Spiritu.
Attested wording: The Fourth Principle is Aqua de Spiritu
Read: Magia Adamica · p. 51 · Original.
See also: Three mothers.
Weighing Aleph
The letter-operation Vaughan interprets as elemental mixture and proportion.
The quoted wording says that Aleph is weighed with all and all with Aleph, likewise the other mothers. Vaughan’s explanatory move is from literal arrangement to natural proportions; it does not make an alphabetic exercise sufficient to perform the natural work.
Record type: word or phrase.
Historical forms: Ponderavit Aleph cum omnibus.
Attested wording: Ponderavit Aleph cum omnibus, & omnia cum Aleph
Read: Magia Adamica · p. 51 · Original.
See also: Three mothers.