According to his contemporaries, Oughtred had interests in alchemy and astrology.Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic (1973), p. 322 and 452n. The Hermetic science remained a philosophical touchstone among many reputable scientists of his time, and his student Thomas Henshaw copied a Diary and "Practike" given to him by his teacher.D.R. Dickson, 'Thomas Henshaw and Sir Robert Paston's pursuit of the Red Elixir: an early collaboration between Fellows of the Royal Society', Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London, Vol. 51, No. 1 (Jan. 1997), pp. 57-76, at pp. 67-72. He was well-acquainted with the astrologer William Lilly who, as noted above, helped to prevent his ejection from his living in 1646.
