Robert Fludd (1574-1637), English alchemist, physician, astrologer and mystic. Fludd, also known as Robertus de Fluctibus, authored many works on alchemy, occult medicine and chiromancy. A follower of Paracelsus and the Kabbalah (a Jewish mystical tradition), he is associated with occultist opposition to the growing development of science in the 17th century. He has been called the father of freemasonry" because he developed it from Rosicrucianism, which he had introduced to England from the Continent."