IX. PHILOSOPHY AND THEOSOPHY.

Modern philosophy is a system of theoretical spec¬ ulation, based upon reasoning from the known to the unknown, drawing logical deductions from accepted opinions ; but theosophy is the possession of knowl¬ edge obtained by practical experience. To be a phi¬ losopher it is necessary to have acute reasoning pow¬ ers, and to calculate possibilities and probabilities ; to be a tine theosophist it is necessary to have the power of spiritual perception and to know the things perceived, irrespective of any possibilities, probabili¬ ties, or accepted opinions. A speculative philosopher occupies an objective standpoint in regard to the thing which he examines ; the theosophist finds the character of that thing in himself. There is nothing in the Macrocosm of Nature that is not contained in man, because man and Nature are essentially one, and a man who is conscious of being one with Nature will know everything in Nature if he knows only himself. A philosopher having no knowledge of self can only speculate about things which he does not see ; a prac¬ tical theosophist, knowing his own self, does not need to speculate, because he knows what he sees, and he sees what he knows.
“ There is a true and a false philosophy. As the froth in new-made wine swims upon the top and
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hides the true wine below, likewise there is a froth of sophistry and pseudo-philosophy swimming at the top of true philosophy ; it looks like knowledge, but it is the outcome of ignorance, gilded and varnished to deceive the vulgar. It is like a parasite growing upon the tree of knowledge, drawing the sap out of the true tree and converting it into poison. The intellectual working of the brain alone is not sufficient to give birth to a physician ; the true physician is not he who has merely heard of the truth, but he who feels the truth, who sees it before him as clearly as the light of the sun, who hears it as he would hear the noise of the cataract of the Rhine or the whistling of the storm upon the ocean, who smells it and tastes it, it being sweet to him as honey or bitter as gall. Nature produces diseases and effects their cures, and where then could be found a better teacher than nature her¬ self ? That alone which we see and feel and perceive constitutes true knowledge, not that of which we are merely informed in books and which is not con¬ firmed by experience.”
“ The knowledge of nature as it is — not as we im¬ agine it to be — constitutes true philosophy. He who merely sees the external appearance of things is not a philosopher ; the true philosopher sees the reality, not merely the outward appearance. He who knows the sun and the moon has a siui and a moon in him, and he can tell how they look, even if his eyes are shut. Likewise, the true physician sees in himself the whole constitution of the microcosm of man with all its parts. He sees the constitution of his patient as if the latter were a clear crystal, in which not even
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a single hair could escape detection. He sees him as he would the stones and pebbles at the bottom of a clear well. This is the philosophy upon which the true art of medicine is based. Not that your physi¬ cal eyes are able to show you these things, but it is nature herself who teaches it to you. Nature is the universal mother of all, and if you are in harmony with her — if the mirror of your mind has not been made blind by the cobwebs of speculations, miscon¬ ceptions, and erroneous theories — she will hold up before you a mirror in which you will see the truth. But he who is not true himself will not see the truth as it is taught by nature, and it is far easier to study a number of books and to leam by heart a number of scientific theories than to ennoble one’s own char¬ acter to such an extent as to enter into perfect har¬ mony with nature and to be able to see the truth.”
No one can therefore be truly called a theosophist who does not possess the knowledge of his own di¬ vine self which enables man to know all things as only God knows them. This power is in possession of no man, but belongs to the god in man. Only when man has found his god can he partake of di¬ vine wisdom.
Man is a mixed being ; he is a centre or focus in which the three kingdoms ; i.e., the three forms of manifestation of the primordial Will ; the world of darkness or fire, the world of spiritual light and that of external nature are active and in which the powers of either of these three kingdoms may become con¬ scious and manifest. If he is a temple of the holy spirit, God will reveal His wisdom in him ; if he is
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a dwelling of evil will, the devil will become per¬ sonified in him ; if the world of mind, intellect, emotion, etc. (i.e., the “heaven” of the external world), is reflected within his soul, and his mind becomes absorbed by it, he will be a child of the world.
It is most true and certain that if there were no natural world, nature could not become manifested in man, and it is equally true that if there were no God and no Devil, i.e., no supreme power for good or evil in the universe, neither a god nor a devil could become revealed or personified in a man.
There is no seed having the power to attract unto itself the sunlight which it requires to enable it to grow, and in the same sense there is no man having himself the power to attract God unto himself or to unite himself with that which is divine in him, by his own will and pleasure. Only like acts upon like. The natural (physical or astral) principles in man are acted upon by the corresponding powers in nat¬ ure ; the growth of plants is due to the power of the sun being active in them, and the spiritual unfold- ment of the soul of man is also due to the power (the grace) of the God of the universe.1
The knowledge of a man in regard to a truth, how¬ ever learned and intellectual he may be, can be noth¬ ing else but an opinion to one who does not recog-
• God ia the supreme will of the universe, or as Boehme calls it, the will of divine wisdom. It is therefore a divine will, and it could not be divine if it were not free and subject to nothing. This does not im¬ ply that God is something external to Nature ; but that He is superior to it.
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nize the same truth in himself. If we believe or accept the doctrine of another man who perceives the truth, it does not follow that we recognize that truth as our own ; it simply means that we consider his opinion worthy of our belief. A knowledge of the opinions of others may guide us in our researches as long as we cannot find the truth in ourselves, but such a knowledge is as liable to mislead us as to lead us right; the only key to arrive at the recognition and understanding of the truth is the perception and understanding itself. Opinions change, and creeds and beliefs change accordingly ; but the knowledge which we find in our own conscience stands as firm as a rock.
There is no such thing as a theoretical theosophy, because divine wisdom is not a matter of theory, but the divine knowledge of self. To know a thing we must see it and feel it and be identified with it ourselves. Things that transcend the physical power of sight can only be known if they are experienced and felt by the soul. Love or hate, reason and con¬ science, are unknown things to those who do not realize their existence. The attributes of the spirit are not only beyond the power of sensual perception, but they are beyond the power of intellectual com¬ prehension ; they can only be known to the spirit itself, and they are called occult because they cannot be understood without the possession of the light of the spirit.
“ Man has two kinds of reason, angelic and ani¬ mal reason. The former is eternal and of God and remains with God ; the latter is also originating
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PARACELSUS.
from God, but not eternal ; for the body dies and its reason with it. No animal product can be victo¬ rious over death. Death kills that which is animal but not that which is eternal. A man who is not a man as far as wisdom in him is concerned, is not a man but an animal in human shape.” (“ De Funda- mento Sapientiae.”)
To be able to understand good, it is necessary that man should experience evil ; for without the knowl¬ edge of darkness the true nature of light could not be known ; but no amount of evil experience would enable a man to know that which is good and divine if he is not in possession of the true understanding, which endows him with the power to profit by his experience and which is not of his own making, but given to him as a gift by wisdom itself.
“ The wise rules the stars in him ; but animal man is ruled by his stars which force him to do as he is directed by his animal nature. He who has escaped the gallows once will repeat his crimes ; for he thinks that having escaped his piuiishinent once he will escape it again. Such a person is blown about like a reed, and cannot resist the forces which are acting upon him, and the reason of this is that he has no self-knowledge, and does not know that there is in him a power superior to that of the stars. Wis¬ dom in man is nobody’s servant and has not lost its own freedom, and through wisdom man attains power over the stars.” (“ De Fundam. Sap.”)
Intellectual reasoning may arrive at the door of the spiritual temple, but man cannot enter without perceiving that the temple exists and that he has
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the power to enter. This knowledge is called faith ; but faith does not come to those who do not desire it, and a desire for divine wisdom is not created by man. Man’s desires depend on the presence of an exciting cause, and that which attracts him strongest is the thing for which he has the greatest desire. It is not -within the power of the animal or intellect¬ ual nature of man to desire or to love that which he does not know. He may have a curiosity to see the unknown God, but he can love with all his heart only that which attracts him, that which he feels, and that of which he knows that it exists. He must realize the presence of the highest in his own heart before he can know it with his intellect. The spir¬ itual temple is locked with many keys, and those who are vain enough to believe that they can invade it by their own power, and without being shown the way by the light of wisdom, will storm against it in vain. Wisdom is not created by man ; it must come to him, and cannot be purchased for money nor coaxed with promises, but it comes to those whose minds are pure and whose hearts are open to receive it. It is said that those who wish to become wise must be like children, but there are few amongst the learned who would be willing to undertake such a feat. There are few who would be able to realize the fact, even if they were willing to do so, that they themselves are without life, without knowledge, and without power, and that all life and consciousness, knowledge and power, comes from the universal foun¬ tain of all, of which they are merely imperfect instru¬ ments for its manifestation. There are few amongst 21
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the learned who would be willing to give up their illusory independency of thought, their accepted opin¬ ions, their dogmatic reasoning and speculations about possibilities and probabilities, and to submit their own personal will entirely to the will of the wisdom of God, and thus to render their souls fit places for the residence of the truth. Humanity resembles a field of wheat, in which each individual represents a plant, attempting to grow higher than the others and to bear more abundant fruit ; but there are few who desire to be nothing themselves ; so that God may take full possession of them and be all in and through them.
The object of man’s existence is to become per¬ fectly happy, and the shortest way to become so is to be perfect and happy now, and not wait for a pos¬ sibility to become so in a future state of existence. All may be happy, but only the highest happiness is enduring, and permanent happiness can be obtained only by attaining permanent good. The highest a man can feel and think is his highest ideal, and the higher we rise in the scale of existence and the more our knowledge expands, the higher will be our ideal. As long as we cling to our highest ideal we will be happy in spite of the sufferings and vicissitudes of life. The highest ideal confers the highest and most enduring happiness, and the "whole of Theosophy consists in the recognition of the highest ideal and hi a constant adhesion to it, which cannot be loos¬ ened by the illusions of the senses, nor weakened by doubts which an imperfectly developed and short¬ sighted intellect attempts to create, but which may
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be strengthened by a constant regard for the truth and an unwavering attention to duty.1
As long as anyone fancies his highest ideal to exist outside of him, somewhere above the clouds or
in the history of the past, he will go outside of him¬
self to seek for it in
pages of
history. This is not theosophy, but merely a dream¬ ing about it ; for not that wisdom which exists out¬ side of man but that which has taken root in him renders him wise. A child is not born from out¬ side of its mother’s womb, but from within, and the spiritual regeneration of man must be accomplished by that which is existing in him.
The spiritual regeneration of man requires the opening of his inner senses, and this again involves
1 God is the greatest power in the universe, because He is the source and sum of all powers in their highest mode of manifestation. God is therefore absolute consciousness, absolute love, and absolute wisdom. If we wish to accomplish anything great, the first requirement is the presence of God, because He is man’s understanding and power, and resides in man. But God cannot be approached by an intellect that is without love. God is love, and is only attracted by love. We cannot know the principle of love, unless we love it with our heart, and the more we desire it, the more will we be able to comprehend with the heart what this principle is. The love of God is therefore a power transcending the lower nature of man ; it cannot develop itself out of the animal elements of man, but it is a gift from the universal fountain of love, in the Eame sense as sunshine cannot grow out of the earth, but comes from above. God lives in the hearts of men, and if we desire to love Him, we must love all that is good in humanity. The love of humanity is the beginning of the knowledge of God. The intellect is the greatest possession of mortal man, and an intellect that rises to the source of all knowledge by the power of love may know God and all the mysteries of Nature, and become godlike itself; but an intellect without love leads into error, grovels in darkness, and goes to perdition. An intellect combined with love for the supreme good leads to wisdom; an intellect without love leads to the powers of evil.
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the development of the internal organs of the spiritual body, while the latter is intimately connected with the physical form. Thus this regeneration is not an entirely spiritual process, but productive of great changes in the physical body. He who rejects, neg¬ lects, or despises his physical body as long as he has not outgrown the necessity of having such a cor¬ poreal form, may be compared to the yolk in an egg wanting to be free from the white of the egg and the shell, without having grown into a bird.
“Philosophy ” means love of wisdom, and the lover of wisdom is a seeker for knowledge ; he desires to know the secrets of nature and the mysteries of God, which may be found at the very foundation of his own soul. “ Theosophy ” means the wisdom of God, in other words the self-knowledge of God in man. It is not “ man,” but the god in man who knows his own divine self, and it therefore does not rest with the will and pleasure of man to become a theoso- phist, but this depends on the awnkening of the di¬ vine spirit in him. Philosophy argues and deducts, speculates, makes additions and multiplications, and by logical reasonings seeks to prove that for such or such reasons this or that cannot be otherwise than so or so ; but divine wisdom requires no arguments, no logic or reasoning, because it is already the self- knowledge of the One from which all other things are deriving their origin. It is the highest and most exalted kind of rationalism, for there can be nothing more rational than to know the divine fountain of All.
“All numbers are multiples of one, all sciences
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converge to a common point, all wisdom comes out of one centre, and the number of wisdom is one. The light of wisdom radiates into the world, and mani¬ fests itself in various ways according to the substance in which it manifests itself. Therefore man may manifest reason in a threefold manner : as instinct, as animal reason, and spiritual intelligence. The knowledge which our soul derives from the physical and animal elements is temporal ; that which it de¬ rives from the spirit is eternal. God is the Father of wisdom, and all wisdom is derived from Him. We may grow into knowledge, but we cannot grow knowl¬ edge ourselves, because in ourselves is nothing but what has been deposited there by God. Those who believe that they can learn anything without the as¬ sistance of God will fall into idolatry, superstition, and error. But those wiio love the luminous centre will be attracted to it, and their knowledge comes from God. God is the Father of wisdom, and man is the son. If we wish for knowledge we must apply for it to the Father and not to the son. And if the son desires to teach wisdom, he must teach that wis¬ dom which he derived from the F atlier. The knowl¬ edge which our clergymen possess is not obtained by them from the Father, but they learn it from each other. They are not certain of the truth of what they teach, and therefore they use argumentation, circum¬ vention, and prevarication ; they fall into error and vanity, and mistake their own opinions for the wis¬ dom of God. Hypociisy is not holiness, conceit is not power, slyness is not wisdom. The art of de¬ ceiving and disputing, sophisticating, perverting, and
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misrepresenting truths may be learned in schools; but the power to recognize and to follow the truth cannot be conferred by academical degrees ; it comes only from God. He who desires to know the truth must be able to see it, and not be satisfied with de¬ scriptions of it received from others, but be true to himself. The highest power of the intellect, if it is not illuminated by love, is only a high grade of ani¬ mal intellect, and will perish in time ; but the intel¬ lect animated by the love of the Supreme is the in¬ tellect of the angels, and will live in eternity.” (“ De Fundamento Sapientiae.”)
“ All things are vehicles of virtues, everything in nature is a house wherein dwell certain powers and virtues such as God has infused throughout Nature and which inhabit all things in the same sense as the soul is in man ; but the soul is a creature originating of God and returns again to God. Natural (terres¬ trial) man is a son of Nature and ought to know Nature his mother ; but the soul being a son of God ought to know the father, the Creator of all.” (“ Yera influentia rerum.”)
In regard to the true and the false faith Paracelsus says : “ It is not a faith in the existence of a histori¬ cal Jesus Christ that has the power to save mankind from evil, but a faith into the Supreme Power (God), through which the man Jesus was enabled to act. The former ‘ faith ’ is merely a belief and a result of education ; the latter is a faith belonging to the con¬ stitution of man. Christ does not say that if we be¬ lieve in His personal power to accomplish wonderful things wo would be enabled to throw mountains into
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the ocean ; but He spoke of our own faith, meaning the divine power of God in man, that may act through ourselves as much as it acted through Christ, if we become like Him. This power comes from God and returns to Him ; and if one man cures another in the name of Christ, he cures him by the power of God, and by his own faith. That power becomes active in and through him by his faith, and not out of grati¬ tude for his professed belief, or the belief of the patient that Christ once existed upon the earth.”
“ The power of the true faith extends as far as the power of God. Man can accomplish nothing by his own power, but everything may be accomplished through man by the power of faith. If we did not have faith in our ability to walk, we would not be able to walk. If we accomplish anything whatever, faith accomplishes it through us.”
“ Faith does not come from man, and no man can create faith ; but faith is a power coming from God. Its germ is laid -within man, and may be cultivated or neglected by him ; it may be used by him for good or for evil, but it only acts effectively when it is strong and pure — not weakened by doubt, and not dispersed by secondary considerations. He who wants to employ it must have only one object in view. Diseases may be caused and cured by faith, and if men knew the power of faith they would have more faith and less superstition. We have no right to call a disease incurable ; we have only the right to say that we cannot cure it. A physician who trusts only in his own science will accomplish little, but he who has faith in the power of God acting through him, and
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who employs that power intelligently, will accom¬ plish much.”
“ If any one thinks that he can cure a disease or accomplish anything else, merely because he believes that he is able to accomplish it, he believes in a super¬ stition ; but if he believes that he can perform such a thing, because he is conscious of having the power to do so, he will then be able to accomplish it by the power of the true faith. Such a faith is knowledge and gives power. True faith is spiritual conscious¬ ness, but a belief based upon mere opinions and creeds is the product of ignorance, and is superstition.”1
c and which is built up from the nutriments it draws directly and indirectly from the earth, has no spirit¬ ual powers, for wisdom and virtue, faith, hope, and charity, do not grow from the earth. They are not the products of man’s physical organization, but the attributes of another invisible and glorified body,
1 This is the curse of all dabblers in the divine mysteries ; that when they begin to believe that there is something superior to the merely ani¬ mal man, this belief opens the door for superstition and idolatry' ; for hav¬ ing no knowledge of the power of the divine will within their own self they are devoid of the true faith, which is divine self-confidence. They therefore put their trust not in the one true God, but in the gods which they have created within their own imagination. They seek in out¬ ward things for that which they cannot find within their own empty shells. They neglect their duties as men aud revel in dreams wherein there is nothing real. Some put their faith in doctors and priests, others in herbs and roots, still others in magic spells aud incantations; but the wise know that the first step on the road to spiritual unfoldment is the fulfilment of one’s duties as a man ; for no god can grow out of a man unless the man has become truly that which he ought to be. In this fulfilment of one’s duty and becoming true to one’s nature as man rests the germ of true happiness, and from this germ is evolved the re¬ generated man in whom heaven exists and who lives through eternity.
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whose germs are laid within man. The physical body changes and dies, the glorified body is eternal. This eternal man is the real man, and is not gen¬ erated by his earthly parents. He does not draw nutriment from the earth, but from the eternal in¬ visible source from which he originated. Neverthe¬ less the two bodies are one, and man may be com¬ pared to a tree, drawing his nutriment from the earth, and from the surrounding air. The roots extend into the earth, and seek their nutriment in the dark, but the leaves receive their nutriment from the light. The temporal body is the house of the eternal, and we should therefore take care of it, be¬ cause he who destroys the temporal body destroys the house of the eternal, and although the eternal man is invisible, he exists nevertheless, and will be¬ come visible in time, just as a child in its mother’s womb is invisible before it is born, but after its birth it may be seen by all but those wrlio are blind ; and as everything returns after a while to the source from whence it came, so the body returns to the earth and the spirit to heaven or hell. Some children are bom from heaven, and others are bom from hell, because each human being has his inherent tendencies, and these tendencies belong to his spirit, and indicate the state in which he existed before he was bom. Witches and sorcerers are not made at once ; they are bom with powers for evil.1 The body is only an instrument ; if you seek for man in his dead body, you are seeking for him in vain.”
1 They are born with the tendencies which they acquired in former lives upon the earth, or upon some other planet.
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PARACELSUS.
But this physical body, which is believed to be of so little importance by those who love to dream about the mysteries of the spirit, is the most secret and valuable thing. It is the true “ stone which the builders rejected,” but which must become the cor¬ ner-stone of the temple. It is the “ stone ” which is considered worthless by those who seek for a God above the clouds and reject Him when He enters their house. This physical body is not merely an instrument for divine power, but it is also the soil from which that which is immortal in man receives its strength. A seed requires the power of the sunshine to enable it to take from the earth the elements necessary for its growth, and in the same sense the spiritual body of man, receiving its nutriment from the spirit, could not unfold and develop if it were not for the presence of the physical body of man with its elementary and elemental forces ; for the physical body is comparable to the wood from which is produced the fire which gives light ; there would be no light if there were nothing to burn. “ The more there is wood to bum, the greater will be the com¬ bustion, and thus it is with the Lapis Philosophorum or Balsamo per pet uo in cor pore humano.” 1 “ But it is not proper to say a great deal about the Lapis Philoso¬ phorum or to boast about its possession ; the ancients have sufficiently indicated the way for its prepara¬ tion to those who are not devoid of the true under¬ standing ; but they have spoken in parables, so that unworthy persons may not know the secret and misuse it. Look at a man, he is not a perfect being,
1 A mas without sexual power is unfit for initiation.
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but only a half a man as long as he has not been made into one with the woman.1 After having be¬ come one with the woman (in him), then will he be not a half, but a whole.” (“ DeLapid. Philosoph.”)
The rock upon which the true (spiritual) church is founded, is not to be found in Rome nor in the realm of fancy, but in the power of faith. “ It is the word of wisdom from which you should leam, and in that word you will find neither statuary nor paint¬ ings, but only the universal spirit. If faith is preached to you, it is done for the purpose of im¬ planting it into your heart, where it may take root and grow and become manifest to you ; but if your faith is not in your heart, but in forms and ceremo¬ nies, and if you cling to these forms you may know that your heart is evil ; because, although the forms and the ceremonies may cause you to weep and to sigh, this sighing and weeping is worthless, because your sentiment comes from those images, and to those images 'null it return. All things return finally to the place from whence they took their origin, and as these things are perishable, the sentiments which they excite will perish with them. God only desires the heart and not the ceremonies. If you do not require the ceremonies, they will be useless in mat¬ ters of faith as well as in the art of magic.”
“ I do not say that images should not be made, and that the suffering of Christ should not be repre¬ sented in pictures. Such things are good to move the mind of man to the practice of piety, virtue, and veneration, and to those who are unable to read
1 Man and woman are both one in the Lord.
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PARACELSUS.
they are very useful and better than many a sermon. I am not speaking against the use of a thing, but against its misuses. Such things are useful if we know their true meaning and understand their ef¬ fects.” (“ De Imaginibus,” iii.)
“ The saints are in heaven, and not in the wood out of which an image is carved. Each man is him¬ self nearest to his own god. I contradict your old fathers because they wrote for the body and not for the soul ; they wrote poetry, but not theology ; they spoke flatteries instead of telling the truth. They were teachers of fashions and usages, not teachers of eternal life. The mere imitation of the personal usages of the saints leads to nothing but to damna¬ tion. The wearing of a black coat, or the possession of a piece of paper signed by some human authority, does not make a man a divine. Those are divine who act wisely, because wisdom is God. A clergyman should be a spiritual guide for others ; but how can a man be a spiritual guide if he merely talks about spiritual things, and knows himself nothing about it ? It may be said that the personal behaviour of a cler¬ gyman does not affect the truth of what he teaches ; but a clergyman who does not act rightly does not possess the truth, and can therefore not teach it. He can only, parrot-like, repeat words and sentences, and their meaning will be incomprehensible to his hear¬ ers, because he knows nothing about that meaning himself.”
“ Belief in opinions is no faith. He who foolishly believes is foolish. A fool who believes unreasonable things is dead in faith because he has no knowledge,
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and without knowledge there can be no faith. He who wants to obtain true faith must know, because faith growls out of spiritual knowledge. The faith that comes from that knowledge is rooted in the heart. He who ignorantly believes has no knowl¬ edge, and possesses no faith and no power. God does not desire that ure should remain in darkness and ignorance ; on the contrary, our knowledge should be of God: we should be the recipients of divine wis¬ dom. God does not rejoice to see fools, blockheads, and simpletons, who are ready to believe anything, no matter how absurd it may be ; neither does he de¬ sire that only one wise and learned man should be in each country, and that the other people should follow him blindly, as the sheep follow a ram ; but we should all have our knowledge in God, and take it out of the universal fountain of wisdom. We should know who and what God is, but we can learn to know God only by becoming wise. The works of God will become manifest to us through wisdom, and God will be most pleased if we become like him. But to become like God wTe must become attracted to God, who is the universal fountain of all ; and the power that attracts us is love. The love to God will be kindled in our hearts by an ardent love for humanity, and a love for humanity will be caused by a love to God. Thus the God of the Macrocosm and the God of the Microcosm act upon each other, and both are one, for there is only one God and one law and one Nature, through which wisdom becomes manifest.” (“De Funda- mento Sapientiae.”)
There is an earthly sun, which is the cause of all
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PARACELSUS.
heat, and all who are able to see may see the sun ; and those who are blind and cannot see him may feel his heat. There is an eternal sun, which is the source of all wisdom, and those whose spiritual senses have awakened to life will see that sun, and be con¬ scious of his existence ; but those who have not at¬ tained spiritual consciousness may yet feel His power by an inner faculty which is called Intuition. Animal reason is active in the animal soul, and angelic wis¬ dom in the spiritual soul. The former sees by the light of Nature, which is produced by a reflection of the rays of the divine light acting in Nature ; but the light of the spirit is not a product of Nature, but the supreme cause of all which in Nature becomes mani¬ fest. Nature does not produce a sage ; she merely furnishes a natural form for a sage. Nature is not perfect, but produces cripples and diseases, abnormal¬ ities and monstrosities, the blind and the lame ; but that which comes from God is perfect. It is a germ which is planted into the soul of man, and man is the gardener and cultivator, whose business it is to sur¬ round it with the elements necessary for its growth, so that when the earthly tabernacle is broken, the spirit, attracted by His love, His eternal home, may return to it, having grown in knowledge, being clothed in purity and illuminated by wisdom.
“ The wisdom of God is not made up of pieces, but is only one. While we are on this earth we ought to keep our mirror in God, so as to be in every re¬ spect as a child is like its father. Thus we ought to be made out of the whole cloth, and not be patched up. The wise man in God has the wisdom of God,
PHILOSOPHY AND THEOSOPHY.
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and lie will teach in a way that nobody can contra¬ dict or resist him, and his teaching will harm no one, but bring joy and gladness and glory to all who will receive it.” (“De Fund. Sap.”)
Spirit passes into the body, and out of it, like a breath of air passing through the strings of an iEo- lian harp. If we succeed in binding it there, we will create a source of undying harmony, and create an immortal being. But to bind spirit we must be able to bind thought. Man is a materialized thought ; he is what he thinks. To change his nature from the mortal to the immortal state he must change his mode of thinking ; he must cease to hold fast in his thoughts to that which is illusory and perishing, and hold on to that which is eternal. The visible uni¬ verse is a thought of the eternal mind thrown into objectivity by its will, and crystallized into matter by its power. Look at the everlasting stars, look at the indestructible mountain-peaks. They are the thoughts of the universal mind, and they will remain as long as the thoughts of that mind do not change. If we could hold on to a thought, we would be able to create. But who but the enlightened can hold on to a thought ? Are not the illusions of the senses con¬ tinually destroying that which we attempt to create ? Men do not think what they choose, but that which comes into their mind. If they could control the action of their minds, they would be able to control their own nature and the nature by which their forms are surrounded.
But mortal man has no power to control the pow¬ ers of nature in him, unless that power is given to
336
PARACELSUS.
him by God. “We mortals are not from heaven, but from the earth ; we did not drop down from heaven but grew from the earth. Terrestrial powers are moving in us ; but if we are reborn in the spirit then will we move in celestial powers. What is this aid, these powers of which I am writing, but celestial powers ? Who gives and distributes them but God alone ? ” (“ Morb. invisib. v.”) He who trusts in his own power will fail, and become a victim of his own vanity ; he who expects salvation from others will be disappointed. There is no god, no saint, and no man in whom we can put any confidence, faith, or trust for the purpose of our salvation, except the power of the divine principle acting within ourselves. Only when man realizes the presence of God in him will he be¬ gin his infinite life, and step from the realm of eva¬ nescent illusions into that of permanent truth.
APPENDIX.
ADEPTS.
There are Adepts of various grades. There are such as live like normal men in their physical bodies, and who are able to send their astral spirit out of their bodies diming their sleep to any place they choose, and on awakening, their astral spirit returns again into the body to which it belongs ; and there are others who have no physical bodies, because they have arrived at a state of perfection in which such bodies are no longer required for their purposes. “ There are persons who have been exalted ( verzueckt ) to God, and who have remained in that state of exal¬ tation, and they have not died. Their physical bod¬ ies have lost their lives, but without being conscious of it, without sensation, without any disease, and without suffering, and their bodies became trans¬ formed, and disappeared in such a manner that no¬ body knew what became of them, and yet they re¬ mained on the earth. But their spirits and heavenly bodies, having neither corporeal form, shape, nor col¬ our, were exalted to heaven, like Enoch and Elias of old.”1 (“Philosoph.” v.)
1 C. von Eckartshausen speaks in his “ Disclosures of Magic ” (1790) about the Adepts as follows : — “ These sages, whose number is small, 22
338
APPENDIX.
“ There is a great difference between the physical and the spiritual body. The former is visible and tangible, but the latter is invisible and intangible. The body eats and chinks ; the spirit lives in faith. The body is evanescent and destructible ; the spirit eternal. The body dies ; the spirit lives. The body is conquered by the spirit; the spirit is victor. The body is opaque, clouded ; the spirit transparent and clear. The body is often sick ; the spirit knows
are children of light, and are opposed to darkness. They dislike mys¬ tification and secrecy ; they are open and frank, having nothing to do with secret societies and with external ceremonies. They possess a spir¬ itual temple, in which God is presiding.
“ They live in various parts of the earth, and do not meddle with politics ; their business is to do as much good to humanity as is in their power, and to drink wisdom from the eternal fountain of truth. They never quarrel about opinions, because they know the truth. Their number is small. Some live in Europe, others in Africa, but they are bound together by the harmony of their souls, and they are therefore as one. They are joined together, although they may be thousands of mileB apart from each other. They understand each other, although they speak in different tongues, because the language of the sages is spiritual perception.
“No evil-disposed person could possibly live among them, because he would be recognized immediately, for he would be incapable of being illuminated by wisdom, and as a mirror covered with mire cannot reflect the light, likewise his soul cannot reflect the truth. But the more the soul of man grows perfect, the nearer does it approach to God, and the more will his understanding grow and his love be exalted. Thus may man enter into sanctification; he may communicate with perfect beings in the spiritual kingdom, and be instructed and guided by them. He will be a true child of God. All Nature will be subject to him, because he will be an instrument to carry out the will of the Creator of Nature. He knows the future, the thoughts and the instincts of men, because the mysteries of eternity are open beforehim.
“But the plans of the worldly-wise will come to nought. That which took the followers of false science centuries to accomplish, will be wiped out by a single stroke of the finger of God, and a nobler generation will come, which will worship God in spirit and in truth.”
APPENDIX.
339
no disease. The body is dark, but the spirit is light, and may see into the hearts of the mountains and the interior of the earth. The body executes acts which the spirit orders. The body is the mumia ; the sub¬ stance of the spirit is the balsam of life. The former comes from the earth, but the spirit from heaven.” 1 (“ Philosophia,” iv.)
CREATION.
The unmanifested Absolute cannot be conceived otherwise than as a mathematical point, without any magnitude, and such a point in becoming manifest in all directions would necessarily become a sphere. If we imagine such a mathematical point as being self- conscious, thinking, and capable to act, and desirous to manifest itself, the only thinkable mode in which it could possibly accomplish this would be to eradi¬ cate its own substance and consciousness from the
• There are three kinds of knowledge : — 1. External knowledge, or scientific opinions in regard to external things (Galatians vi. 3). This knowledge leads into error, because it concentrates all the attention upon the illusory exterior of things, and keeps the mind in ignorance in regard to interior truths. 2. Knowledge received by entering into the mysteries of Nature ; comprehension of truths, independent of the opin¬ ions of others. It is the beginning of wisdom (Sirach i. 16). 3. Wis¬
dom, or the knowledge of the Supreme Cause of all effects obtained by knowledge of self (Book of Wisdom, vii. 17-27). This is the wisdom of Solomon.
There are three kinds of knowers: — 1. The u scientists," who deal with opinions and with illusory appearances ; the opinionated and dog¬ matists, sceptics, materialists, etc., who continually quarrel about their different opinions. 2. Those who are able to recognize interior truths by the power of their interior perception. 3. The Adepts, who are united with God, and know everything because they know themselves, by the power of the Holy Ghost being manifest in themselves (Prov¬ erbs ix. 7).
340
APPENDIX.
centre towards the periphery. The centre is the Father, the eternal source of all (John i. 4) ; the radius is the Son (the Logos), who was contained in the Father from eternity (John i. 1) ; the sub¬ stance of father and son from the incomprehensi¬ ble centre to the unlimited periphery is the Holy Ghost, the spirit of truth, manifested externally and revealed in visible Nature (John xv. 26). We cannot conceive of a body without length, breadth, and thickness ; a circle or a sphere always consists of a centre, radius, and periphery. They are three, yet they are one, and neither of them can exist with¬ out the other two.1 God sends out his His thought by the power of His will (the Hiaster divides itself). He holds fast to the thought, and expresses it in the Word, in which is contained the creative and conser¬ vative power, and his thought becomes corporified, bringing into existence worlds and beings, which form, so to say, the visible body of the invisible God. Thus were the worlds formed in the beginning by the thought of God acting in the Macrocosm (the
1 The Doctrine of the Trinity is found in all the principal religious systems : In the Christian religion, as Father, Son, and Spirit ; among the Hindus as Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva ; the Buddhists call it Mula- prakriti, Prakriti, and Purush ; the Persians teach that Ormuzd pro¬ duced light out of himself by the power of his word. The Egyptians called the first cause Ammon, out of which all things were created by the power of its own will. In Chinese, Ivwan-shai-gin is the univer¬ sally manifested Word, coming from the unmanifested Absolute by the power of its own will, and being identical with the former. The Greeks called it Zeus (Power), Minerva (Wisdom), and Apollo (Beauty). The Germans, Wodan (the Supreme Cause), Thor (Power), and Freia (Beauty). Jehovah and Allah are trinities of Will, Knowledge, and Power ; and even the Materialist believes in Causation, Matter, and Energy.
APPENDIX.
341
Universal Mind), and in the same manner are forms created in the individual sphere of the mind of man. If we hold on to a thought we create a form in our inner world. A good thought produces a good, and an evil thought an evil form, and they grow as they are nourished by thought or “imagination.”
GENERATION.
All beings are the product of the creative power of the imagination.1 This imagination may proceed (1) from Nature, (2) from man, (3) from God.
There are consequently three modes in which men may come into existence :
1. Natural men, the result of sexual intercourse between men and women. The imagination of the parents creates the sperm ; the matrix furnishes the conditions for its development. “They are born of flesh and their destiny is to be reborn into the spirit ” (St. John iii. 6). 2
2. God-men, the products of the imagination and will of the divine Logos, developed in the bodies of virgins (St. Matthew i. 23; Luke i. 35). “They are already bom of the Spirit ” (St. John i. 14). 3
1 There are three kinds of imagination : Passive imagination, active thought, creative thought.
2 There are three kinds of birth : the birth of the flesh, of the soul, and of the spirit ; and each birth has three stages : generation, germi¬ nation, and fructification. The first birth is the natural birth of man, the second is the awakening of the soul, and the attainment of its power (Ephesians iv. 13) to control the desires and passions; it is, so to say, an invisible fire, penetrating the whole of the body. The third birth is the regeneration of the spirit, its awakening to spiritual consciousness. The last stage is attained by very few (Cor. xv. 47 ; St. John iii. 6).
* Krishna, Buddha, Christ.
342
APPENDIX.
3. Primordial men, without fathers or mothers and without sex ; produced by the thought of God in the matrix of Nature (Hebrews vii. 3). “ They are the
time images of the Creator, the children of God, with¬ out sin and without material elements ” (Luke iii. 38). Being attracted to matter and desiring to enjoy ma¬ terial pleasures, they gradually sink into matter and become material.1
INITIATION.
“ Initiation,” or “ baptism,” is the growth of the spiritual principle, which is germinally contained in every man, into consciousness. “Two germs grow into one man. One comes from the spirit, the other germ comes from Nature ; but the two are one. One becomes conscious of Nature ; the other one may be¬ come conscious of the Spirit. One is the child of Adam the other the son of Christ. There are few whose spiritual consciousness is awakened to life, who have died in Adam, and are re-born of Christ ; ’ those who are re-bom know themselves and are ini¬ tiated into the kingdom of the spirit.
1 “ Adam.” The failures of the Dhyan-Chohans.
a The “ flesh of Adam ” forms the animal elements of the soul, but the flesh of Christ is the spirit (the sixth principle). All the animal princi¬ ples existing in Nature exist germinally in the soul-essence of man, and may grow there and develop into entities. The whole of the animal creation may thus be represented in the soul of man, because the growth of an animal passion means the growth of an animal principle in the soul. If such passions are conquered by the power of the spirit, these animal “ creatures” will die and be expelled from the organism of the soul, in the same way as a decayed part of the physical body becomes separated from the physical organism, and as such processes going on in the physical form may be observed during the waking state, likewise
APPENDIX.
343
“Initiation is therefore a matter of growth and cannot be obtained by favour. Ceremonies are only external forms. The true baptism is the baptism of fire, the growth into the spirit of wisdom, the victory of the spirit over the animal nature of man.” 1
We know that nobody can enjoy the possession of any external sense, such as sight, hearing, etc., unless he has organs adapted for that purpose. The same is time in regard to the inner senses of man, which also require the organization of a spiritual but never¬ theless substantial body ; and as the physical body generates its organs in the womb of its mother, so the spiritual body becomes generated in the physical body of man.
“ The form of man must be adapted to his plane of existence. A horseshoe of iron has a form adapted to its purpose, and so has a goblet of silver. Nature has many strange children and so man must have his shape and also that wherein he is made. Therefore Christ says : ‘ He who is with me denies himself.’ This means that he must rise superior to that which belongs to Nature in him. He must take his cross upon his shoulders, namely, the cross which Nature has put upon him. Take Nature upon your shoulders
the corresponding processes going on in the organism of the soul may be observed during a dream.
1 There are three kinds of baptism, by which three different names are received. The first baptism is only an external form, and the name is optional ; the second is the baptism with the “ water of truth,” or the awakening of the soul to a recognition of the truth, by which a new name is received, expressing the quality and destination of the individ¬ ual (1 Moses xvii. 5) ; the third is the baptism with the “ fire of the spirit,” and the name which it confers expresses the power of the per¬ fect and immortal divine man (St. John’s Revelation ii. 17).
344
APPENDIX.
and carry her ; but do not identify yourself with her. Love your neighbour and free yourself of that carnal reason which forces you to be a servant of self.” (“ De Arte Presaga.”)
MEDIUMSHIP.
“ Nature can teach everything belonging to Nature ; she derives her knowledge from the Spirit. But Spirit and Nature are one, for Nature is a light that comes from the Spirit. If Nature leams from the Spirit, the one becomes divided into two : the disci¬ ple asks questions and answers them himself. In a dream the dreamer and the person he dreams of are one ; and in temptation the tempter and the tempted are one.”
“ The light of Nature is a light that comes from the Spirit. It is in man — is bom with him and grows up with him. There are some persons who live in this interior light, but the life of others is centred in their animal instincts, and they grope in darkness and error. There are some who write wiser than they know, but it is wisdom that writes through them ; for man has no wisdom of his own ; he can only come into contact with wisdom through the light of Nature that is in himself.”
“ Those who live in their animal instincts are not wise, and that which they write is inspired by their animal reason. Some animals are murderous and others are greedy ; some are thievish and others are lewd ; but all the elements of the animal kingdom are in the soul of man, and whenever such elements be-
APPENDIX.
345
come alive in liim tliey dominate over his reason, and man becomes like a reasoning animal, and writes as dictated by his animal reason.”
“ That which a man writes is not originated by him, but it existed before him, and wall exist after him ; he only gives it a form. Therefore that which he ■writes is not his, but another’s ; he is only the instru¬ ment through which truth or error expresses itself. There are those who wrrite mechanically, and such writing may come from three causes: intellectual writing may come from over fifty-seven causes, and the waiting of the Word of God may come from ten causes. A person who writes should know the cause from whence his ideas come, for only he who knows wisdom can write wisely.” 1 (“ De Fundamento Sa-
pientise,”)
OCCULT PHENOMENA.
Action at a Distance. — “ The (spiritual) breath of man reaches very far ; for the breath is his spirit and he may send his spirit many hundred miles away, so that it will accomplish all that the man himself could have accomplished. Such a breath travels as fast as the wind or as a ball shot out of a gun, and delivers its message.” (“ Philosoph. tract.” iii.)
Disappearance of Objects. — “ Visible bodies may be
1 There are three distinct classes of mediumship : mechanical me- diumship, in which the physical forces of the medium are used by ex¬ traneous influences (obsession, physical manifestations, etc.) ; emotional mediumship, by which the energies of the soul of the medium are stim¬ ulated, and his feelings and his thoughts aroused (trance speaking and writing) ; spiritual mediumship, in which wisdom manifests itself through transcendentaOy conscious man (ecstasy, illumination).
346
APPENDIX.
made invisible, or covered, in the same way as night covers a man and makes him invisible, or as if he would become invisible if he were put behind a wall ; and as Nature may render something visible or invisible by such means, likewise a visible substance may be covered with an invisible substance, and be made invisible by art.” 1 (“ Philosoph. Sag.” i.)
Palingenesis. — “ If a thing loses its material sub¬ stance, the invisible form still remains in the light of Nature (the astral light) ; and if we can re-clothe that form with visible matter, we may make that form visible again. All matter is composed of three ele¬ ments — sulphur, mercury, and salt. By alchemi¬ cal means we may create a magnetic attraction in the astral form, so that it may attract from the elements (the A’kasa) those principles which it pos¬ sessed before its mortification, and incorporate them and become visible again.”3 (“De Besuscitationi- bus.”)
Occult Letters. — “ If the elementary body may write a letter and send it by a messenger to somebody in a month, why should not the ethereal body of an Adept be able to write a letter and to send it to its desti-
I It is said that “darkness is absence of light.” We may say with equal truth that “light is absence of darkness.” Light and darkness are certain states of the cosmic ether (A’kasa). Light is “ spirit,” darkness is “ matter.” Both have positive qualities (Genesis i. 4).
II Plato, Seneca, Erastus, Avicenna, Averroes, Albertus Magnus, Cas- palin, Cardanus, Cornelius Agrippa, Eckartshausen, and many others wrote about the palingenesis of plants and animals. Kircher resur¬ rected a rose from its ashes in the presence of the Queen Christina of Sweden, 1687. The astral body of an individual form remains with the remnants of the latter until these remnants have been fully decomposed, and by certain methods known to the alchemist it may be re-clothed with matter and become visible again.
APPENDIX.
347
nation (by an elemental spirit) in an hour ? ” ' (“Philos. Sag.” i. cap. 6.)
Transformations. — “There is a species of magic by which living bodies may be formed and one body be transformed into another, as was done by Moses.” * (“Philos. Sag.”)
Transmutations. — “An instance of transmutation may be seen in wood which has become petrified. The form of the wood remains unchanged; never¬ theless it is no longer wood, but a stone.” (“ De Transmutationibus.”)
Passage of Blatter through Blatter. — “ Things that are done by visible means in the ordinary manner may be done by invisible means in an extraordinary way. Por instance, a lock may be opened with a key ; a cut may be made with a sword ; the body may be protected by a coat of mail. All this may be done by visible means. You may grasp a man with your hand without making a hole in him, and you may take a fish out of water without leaving a hole in the water ; or you may put something into water, and if you withdraw your hand no hole will be left in the water. By the necromantic art something may be put through a body or into a body, and no hole will be left in the latter.” 3 (“ Phil. Sag.” i. 4.)
1 The value of a letter should be determined by the quality of its con¬ tents, and not by the manner in which it may have been received.
2 Exodus vii. 10.
* Such manifestations of occult power may be witnessed frequently in spiritualistic seances. The reason why they seem incomprehensible to us is because we habitually look upon form as something real, instead of seeing in it an illusion, and because our accepted opinions in regard to the constitution of matter are fundamentally wrong.
348
APPENDIX.
THOUGHT TRANSFER.
“ By the magic power of the will a person on this side of the ocean may make a person on the other side hear what is said on this side, and a person in the East may thus converse with another person in the West. The physical man may hear and under¬ stand the voice of another man at a distance of a hun¬ dred steps, and the ethereal body of a man may hear what another man thinks at a distance of a hundred miles and more. What may be accomplished by or¬ dinary means in a month (such as the sending of messages) may be done by this art in one day. If you have a tube a mile long, and you speak through it at one end, a person at the other end may hear what you say. If the elementary body can do this, how much easier will it be for the ethereal body, which is much more powerful (in relation to other ethereal bodies) than the former.”1 (“Philos. Sag.” i. cap. 60.)
SPIRITS OF THE DEPARTED.
“ If a person dies, it is only his body that dies ; the human soul does not die,2 neither can it be buried, but it remains alive, and knows whatever it knew be-
1 The earthly atmosphere may be, so to say, perforated by a tube or wire, carrying an electric current, and the ether (A’kasa) may be “ per¬ forated” likewise by a current of spiritual force. An electric current passes unimpeded through the earth ; a thought current passes unim¬ peded through the A’kasa.
a The human soul is threefold : the animal, intellectual, and spiritual soul. The imperfect elements of the soul die, that which is perfect re¬ mains alive. Life is threefold : the organic life, the life of the soul, and that of the spirit.
APPENDIX.
349
fore it became separated from the body. It remains the same it was before death : if a man has been a liar in his life, he will be one after death ; and if it has been well experienced in a certain science or art, it will know that science or art ; but a human soul that knew nothing about a certain science during its life, will not be able to leam much about it after death.”
“If we desire to enter into communication with the spirit of a deceased person, we may make a pict¬ ure representing that person, and write his name and the questions we wish to ask him upon it, and put that picture under our head after retiring to rest ; and during our sleep the deceased may appear to us in our dreams and answer our questions. But the experiment must be made in a spirit of unfaltering faith, full of confidence that it will succeed, else it may fail, because it is not the picture that brings the spirit, but our faith that brings us into communi¬ cation with them ; and the picture is only made for the purpose of assisting the imagination and to make it more powerful.” 1 (“ Pliilosopk.” v.)
“Men have two spirits — an animal spirit and a human spirit — in them.5 A man who lives in his animal spirit is like an animal during life, and will be an animal after death ; but a man who lives in his human spirit will remain human. Animals have con¬ sciousness and reason, but they have no spiritual in¬ telligence. It is the presence of the latter that raises man above the animal, and its absence that makes an
1 There are three sources of faith : opinion, belief, and knowledge.
J The human spirit has a twofold aspect, a humanly and a divine one.
350
APPENDIX.
animal of what once appeared to be a man. A man in whom the animal reason alone is active is a luna¬ tic, and his character resembles that of some animal. One man acts like a wolf, another one like a dog, an¬ other one like a hog, a snake, or a fox, etc. It is their animal principle that makes them act as they do, and their animal principle will perish like the animals themselves. But the human reason is not of an animal nature, but comes from God, and being a part of God it is necessarily immortal.” (“ De Lu- naticis.”)
THE ELIXIR OF LIFE.1
Paracelsus, as well as his predecessors, such as Galen, Arnold, de Villanova, Bai murid Lullius, etc., laboured studiously to discover a remedy for the pro¬ longation of life. He did not believe in the possi¬ bility of rendering the physical body immortal, but he considered it the duty of every physician to at¬ tempt to prolong human life as long as it could be prolonged, because it is only diming life upon the earth that man may acquire knowledge and improve his character ; after death he acquires nothing new, but enjoys his possessions. Paracelsus, like Roger Bacon, Verulam, and others, maintained that the human body could be rejuvenated to a certain ex¬ tent by a fresh supply of vitality, and it was his aim to find means by which such a supply could be obtained. He says :
1 The writings attributed to Paracelsus in regard to this subject that are known at present, are partly spurious, partly fragmentary, and the translations incorrect. The extracts given below of his writings on the Elixir of Life are taken from an original MS. in private possession.
APPENDIX.
351
“ K we could extract the fire of life from the heart without destroying the heart, and draw the quintes¬ sence out of inanimate things, and use it for our pur¬ pose, we might live for ever in the enjoyment of health, and without experiencing any disease. But this is not possible in our present condition. We cannot reverse the laws of Nature, and whatever dies a natural death cannot be resuscitated by man. But man may mend that which he himself has broken, and he may break that which he himself has made. All things have a certain time during which they may exist upon the earth. The saints have a certain time during which they may exist, and likewise the wicked. If a man’s time to stay is over, he will have to leave. But many die before their time is over, not by a visitation of Providence, but because they are ignorant of the laws controlling their nature.”
“ Metals may be preserved from rust, and wood may be protected against the rot. Blood may be preserved a long time, if the air is excluded. Egyp¬ tian mummies have kept their forms for centuries without undergoing putrefaction. Animals awaken from their winter-sleep, and flies, having become tor¬ pid from cold, become nimble again when they are warmed. A tree may bear no fruit for twenty years, and then begin again to bloom and bear fruit as it did when it was young ; and if inanimate objects can be kept from destruction, why should there be no possi¬ bility to preserve the life-essence of animate forms ? ”
“ Life itself comes from heaven. It is an emana¬ tion of the Supreme Power of the universe, and it is therefore eternal and unchangeable ; but it requires
352
APPENDIX.
a substantial form for its manifestation. Material forms are earthly, and like all earthly substances they are subject to dissolution and change. To pro¬ long the process of life we must try to protect the material form in which life is active against all in¬ jurious influences that may act upon it. We must therefore attempt to eradicate all physical and psy¬ chical diseases, and to prevent all evils that may be caused by age, occupation, or accidents. We should protect man against all evil influences that may act upon him during the foetal state, in infancy, youth, manhood, and old age ; we should defend him against injurious influences coming from the astral plane ; cause him to avoid immoderate eating and drinking, fatigue of body or mind, excessive joy or grief, or mental excitement of any kind. We must protect him against infectious or epidemic diseases, whether they are of a physical or moral character, and employ such remedies as have been provided by Nature for such purposes.”
“ Such a remedy is the Primum Ens, the source of all life. As the fabulous halcyon becomes rejuve¬ nated and its own substance renewed by drawing its nutriment from the Primum Ens, so may man rejuve¬ nate his constitution by purifying it so that it may be able to receive without any interruption the life- giving influence of the divine spirit.1
“ But the vehicle that forms the medium through which life acts consists of elementary substances that are found in Nature, and which form the quintessence of all things. There are some substances in which
1 Compare “Five Years of Theosophy : ” The Elixir of Life.
APPENDIX.
353
this quintessence is contained in greater quantities than in others, and from which it may more easily be extracted. Such substances are especially the herb called melissa, and the human blood.
THE PRIMUM ENS.
The “Primum Ens ” of a thing is its first begin¬ ning, its Prima Materia ; an invisible and intangible spiritual substance, which may be incorporated in some material vehicle. “ He who wants to separate the Primum Ens from its Corpus must have a great deal of experience in the spagyric art. If he is not a good alchemist his labour will be in vain.” (“De Separat. Pier.”)
“ The Primum Ens Melissse is prepared in the following manner : Take half a pound of pure car¬ bonate of potash, and expose it to the air until it is dissolved (by attracting water from the atmosphere). Filter the fluid, and put as many fresh leaves of the plant melissa into it as it will hold, so that the fluid will cover the leaves. Let it stand in a well-closed glass and in a moderately warm place for twenty-four hours. The fluid may then be removed from the leaves, and the latter thrown away. On the top of this fluid absolute alcohol is poured, so that it will cover the former to the height of one or two inches, and it is left to remain for one or two days, or until the alcohol becomes of an intensely green colour. This alcohol is then to be taken away and preserved, and fresh alcohol is put upon the alkaline fluid, and the operation is repeated until all the colouring matter is 23
354
APPENDIX.
absorbed by the alcohol. This alcoholic fluid is now to be distilled, and the alcohol evaporated until it be¬ comes of the thickness of a syrup, which is the Pri- mum Ens Melissae ; but the alcohol that has been dis¬ tilled away and the liquid potash may be used again. The liquid potash must be of great concentration and the alcohol of great strength, else they would become mixed, and the experiment would not succeed.” 1
1 Lesebure, a physician of Louis XIY. of France, gives, in his “ Guide to Chemistry” (“ Chemischer Handleiter,” Nuremberg, 1685, page 276), an account of some experiments, witnessed by himself, with the Primum Ens Melissa! as follows : — “ One of my most intimate friends prepared the Primum Ens Melissae, and his curiosity would not allow him to rest until he had seen with his own eyes the effect of this arcanum, so that he might be certain whether or not the accounts given of its virtues were true. He therefore made the experiment, first upon himself, then upon an old female servant, aged seventy years, and afterwards upon an old hen that was kept at his house. First he took, every morning at sun¬ rise, a glass of white wine that was tinctured with this remedy, and after using it for fourteen days his finger- and toe-nails began to fall out, without, however, causing any pain. He was not courageous enough to continue the experiment, but gave the same remedy to the old female servant. She took it every morning for about ten days, when she began to menstruate again as in former days. At this she was very much surprised, because she did not know that she had been taking a medicine. She became frightened, and refused to continue the experiment. My friend took, therefore, some grain, soaked it in that wine and gave it to the old hen to eat, and on the sixth day that bird began to lose its feathers, and kept on losing them until it was perfectly nude, but before two weeks had passed away, new feathers grew, which were much more beautifully coloured ; her comb stood up again, and she began again to lay eggs.”
In the “Life of Cagliostro” some such rejuvenating medicine is men¬ tioned, and the names of some persons who succeeded in the experiment are given. These and similar facts have neither been proved nor dis¬ proved by science, but are waiting for an investigation. The judges at the trial of Cagliostro, before the tribunal of the Inquisition at Rome, were only intent to convict him ; but he who can read their report “ be¬ tween the lines ” will find a great deal that speaks in favor of Cagliostro, and much that has not been explained.
APPENDIX.
355
PRIMUM ENS SANGUINIS.
To make the Primum Ens Sanguinis, take blood from the median vein of a healthy young person, and let it run into a warm bottle that has been weighed upon scales, so that the exact quantity of the blood used may be known. Add to this blood twice its quantity of alcahest, close the bottle, and permit it to remain in a moderately warm place for about four¬ teen days, after which the red fluid is to be separated from the sediment, filtered, and preserved. This is the Primum Ens Sanguinis, and it is used in the same manner as the Primum Ens Melissae.
THE ALCAHEST.
The celebrated Alcahest is an universal medicine whose preparation was also known to Helmont and to some Rosicrucians. It was considered by them as one of the greatest mysteries. It is prepared as follows : —
“Take freshly prepared caustic lime, if possible still warm ; powder it quickly in a dry place, and put it into a retort. Add as much absolute alcohol as the powder may absorb, and distil the alcohol at a moderate heat, until the powder in the retort is left perfectly dry. The distilled alcohol is now to be poured again upon the lime, and distilled, and this operation repeated ten times. Mix the powder with the fifth part of its own weight of pure carbonate of potash. This must be done very quickly and in a dry atmosphere, so that it may not attract any moist-.
356
APPENDIX.
ure. Insert the mixture of the two powders into a retort and heat it gradually, after putting about two ounces of absolute alcohol into the recipient. White vapours arise from the powder, and are attracted by the alcohol, and the heating is to be continued as long as this takes place. Pom’ the alcohol from the recipient into a dish, and set it on fire. The alcohol burns away, and the alcahest remains in the dish. It is an excellent medicine, and is used in the same manner as the Primum Ens Melissse.” 1 On account of the great powers contained in the limestone, Para¬ celsus says that “ many a man kicks away with his foot a stone that would be more valuable to him than his best cow, if he only knew what great mysteries were put into it by God by means of the spirit of Nature.” a
ZENEXTON.
One of the greatest sympathetic remedies of Par¬ acelsus, for the possession of which he was envied a great deal, and the preparation of which he kept veiy secret, was his Zenexton. His disciple Oswald Sroll,
1 We give these and the following prescriptions as curiosities, for what they are worth. They contain great truths, but only those who know will be able to understand and to prepare them.
a The alchemistical writings of Paracelsus are as obscure for the un¬ initiated as those of any other alchemist, but to the initiated they are plain enough. He gives, however, many plain directions in regard to the treatment of special diseases, and which can easily be followed out. The reason why the doctrines of Paracelsus are not more extensively followed out by modern physicians is that his system is, unfortu¬ nately, little known, and still less understood. The time may come when the resurrected doctrines of Paracelsus will create again a revolu¬ tion in medical science, as the man Paracelsus did three hundred years ago.
APPENDIX.
357
in his “ Basilica Cliemica,” pp. 210-213, describes its preparation as follows : —
“ Make an instrument of good steel, by which you may cut some small tablets of the size of a penny, and whose composition will be given below. The in¬ strument consists of two disks, which can be con¬ nected together by a middle piece in the shape of a ring, forming a hollow space between the two disks, and the latter are provided with handles. Upon the inner side of one disk is engraved a snake, and the inner side of the other represents a scorpion, so that the substance which is to be put into the hollow space between the two disks will receive the impres¬ sion of the snake on one side and of the scorpion on the other. The instrument is to be made at a time when sun and moon are together in the sign of the Scorpion.1 By this process the upper bodies will be joined to the lower ones in an inseparable sympa¬ thetic union.”
“ The substance of which the tablets are made is prepared as follows : — Take about eighteen live toads, dry them by exposing them to the sun and the air, and powder them. They must be dried very quickly, else they will rot. Take a number of menstrual cloths from young girls ; white arsenic, auro-pigment, half an ounce of each ; roots of Diptamus albus and Tormentilla erecta, of each three drachms ; one drachm of small pearls ; red corals ; pieces of hya¬ cinths and smaragds, half a drachm of each ; oriental saffron, forty grains ; and a few grains of musk and
1 This takes place in the Macrocosm during the time of the new moon, occurring each year between October 23 and November 23.
358
APPENDIX.
amber. Powder all fine, mix it all together, and make a paste out of it with rose-water and gum trag- acantli. Make a paste out of it at the time when the moon is in the sign of Scorpion, cut it into tablets, and seal them with the instrument. Dry the tablets, cover them with red silk, and wear them by a string around your neck, but they ought not to touch the bare skin. Such an amulet protects the wearer against the plague, sorcery, poison, and evil astral influences ; it draws poisons out of the body, and absorbs them entirely.”1
1 It seems unnecessary to add that this prescription is not to be taken in its external and literal sense, but that it is written in an allegorical language, referring to certain processes going on in the elemental world composing the soul, and which may be controlled by the power of the illuminated spirit of the awakened.
INDEX
Including all the Terms Peculiar to Paracelsus
— * —
Abessi, or Rebis, 37 Abnormal forms, 79 Absolute, the, 339 Abstinence, 102, 140-3 Acthna, 38 Acthnici, 38
Adam and Eve, 90-9, 101, 126 Adept, 6
Adepts, different grades, 337 Admisural, 38 Adorp, Azane, or Azor, 38 A’kasa, 38 Alcahest, 39
Alchemical processes, 39 Alchemist, 215 Alchemists, sign of, 286 Alchemy, not for common use, 295 Alcol, 40
Amore hereos, 138 Amputations, curious effects of, 264 Amulets, 358 Anatomy, 74, 234 Aniada, 40 Aniadum, 40 Aniadus, 40
Animal instinct, 248 reason, 168 Angels, 130 Anyodei, 40 Apparitions, 54 Aquastor, 40 Archseus, 221-4 Archates, or Archalles, 40 Ares, 40
Artificial clairvoyance, 169 gold, 306
physicians (see Physicians) Arupa devas, 146 Astral bells, 111 bodies, 42
cause of disease, 222 currents, 186 entities, 144 force, 42 influence, 42, 53 life, 116
light (see Archseus) power, 54
Astralic diseases, 241-5 Astrology, 285 Astronomia, 70 Astronomy, 208, 235
360
INDEX.
Astrum, 41, 122 Asuras, 146 Aura seminalis, 93 Avitchi, 41 Azotli, 42
Baptism, 342-3 Basilisc (basilica chemica), 141 357
Beasts, 146 Belief, 332 Beryll mirror, 147 Beryllus, 42 Birth, 85
three kinds, 341 Black magic, 49 Blessings, 190 Blue milk, 190-1 Bodies, astral, 170 invisible, 133 siderial, 109
Body, the elementary, 103 value of, 380 Bruta, 42
Caballi, 42, 134 Cagliostro, 354 Carpenter of the universe, 57 Causes of disease, 222 Celibacy, 102, 140 Ceremonials, idle, 201-2 Ceremonies, 17, 177, 309 Ceremony, 137 Chaomantia, 43 Chaos, 58
Chemistry of life, 287-9, 215 Cherio, 43
Children, 85, 98, 146, 270
Christ in man, 38, 116
had magical power, 163 Clairvoyance in dreams, 167 Clergymen, 332 Clissus, 43 Conception, 85 Conjunction of planets, 300 Conjuring spirits, 243 Constitution of man, 103 Corals, 136, 357 Corpse, sidereal, 109 Corpus, invisible, 43 Cosmology, 57 Cosmos, 58 Creation, 57 Creative power, 57 Cremation, 107 Cross, sign of alchemists, 288 Cubitali (see Pygmsei)
Cure of obsession (see Obses¬ sion)
Cures by saints, 183 by faith (see Faith)
Curses, 199
Death, 123 Decomposition, 107 Derses, 43 Desires, evil, 268 Devachan, 43 Devils, 109, 130 very poor, 159 Dhyan-Chohans, 146 Diseases, causes of, 241-5 cured by faith, 184 by magic, 188 divine causes, 273 spiritual causes, 222 Dissolving bodies by magic, 198
INDEX.
361
Divertellum, 44 Divination, 148 Dogmatic science, 86 Double members, 45, 55, 88, 107
Dragons, 141 Dreams, 45
pure and impure, 121 spiritual and natural, 117— 119
Durdales, 44 Dwarfs, 158
Earth, 254
Eckartshausen (C. Yon), 72, 75, 337-8
Edelpbus, 44 Electrum, 297-8 magicum, 44 how to compound, 350 recipe for, 300 Elemental spirits, 60
of air, earth, fire, and wa¬ ter, 60
Elementals, 44, 110 Elementaries, 44-51 Elementary body, 44 Elements, 60 Elementum, 45 Elixir of life, 227, 350 Emanations, 93 Ens deale, 269 seminis, 25 spirituale, 269, 290 virtules, 25 Erodinium, 4fi Essence of life, 57 primordal, 58 Eternity, 310
23
Evestra, 114 Evestrum, 45 of man, 112 Evil desires, 268 imagination, 139 spirits, 159
Excrements, 29, 224, 227-8 Existence, former state of, 26 Exorcisms, 143
Faith, 178-9
in medicine, 189, 281 Familiar spirits (see also Nee- tromantia), 136 Fancy, 211 Fate of sorcerers, 189 Fevers, 239 Fifth essence, 43 Flagie, 46
Foreseeing future events, 112, 114
Forms, manifestations of, 124r- 5, 236, 252 Fortune-tellers, 114
Generation of man, 82, 341 Giants, 158 Gigantes, 46 Gnomes, 84, 156 Gnomi, Pygmaei, Cubitali, 46 God, man’s evestrum, 113, 117 kills no one, 282 Gold, 192
artificially produced, 306 transmutation of, 295 Good and evil, 182 Graveyards, 107 Guardian spirits (see Spirits)
362
INDEX.
Hades, 48 Happiness, 322 Harmony, 122 Haunted houses, 108, 134 Health, 143 Heaven, 68 Hell, 68
Herbarium spirituale, 75 Hidden treasures, 147 Holy water, 137 Homunculi, 46
imagunculae, 46 Human beings, without human parents, 302 how to grow them, 303 Hypericum perforatum, 230-1 Hypnotizers, 284
Ideas, 249 Ideos, 58, 60
Ilech primum, Ileias, Ileadus, 47
crudum, 47 magnum, 47 supernaturale, 47 Iliaster, 47 Images, 331 Imaginatio, 47 Imagination, 245 of men, 96 of women, 173 Impressions, 47 Impurities, inhalation of, 245 Incubus and succubus, 47, 140 Individuality and personality, 71-3, 86
Infallibility in physicians, 275 Interlaced, triangle double, 70 Intuition, 342
Invisible causes of disease (see Disease)
Invisible man (see Man) Invisibility, 86
Jesus of Nazareth, 326
KAMA-loca, 42, 48 rupa, 48 Karma, 273-4
Knowers, three kinds of, 339 Knowledge, 219
of good and evil, 316 of nature, 316 of self, 316, 317
Language, 29 Larvae, 143 Leffas, 48 Lemures, 48 Letters, closed read, 147 Life, 63
chemistry of, 215 elixir of, 350
essence of (see Mumia), 57 forms of, 63 Light of nature, 344 Lilith, 137 Limbus, 91 magnus, 48 Liquor vitae, 92, 221 Logos, 340 Love, 258, 263 charms, 196 Lying spirits, 109
Macrocosm, 90 Magic, 48
a study, 163
INDEX.
363
Magic, black, 49
both a science and art, 161 term as used by Paracel¬ sus, 49
Magical mirror, 301 mirrors, 147 Magicians, 189 Magisterium, 49 Magnetic cures, 188 Magnets, 231
Magnum, mysterium, 97, 128 Magnus limbus, 59 Man, animal, 320 derivation of, 80 divine, 125, 129 elementary body, 103 magical power in, 72 object of his existence, 322
plane of, 343 sidereal, 65, 67 soul, essence of, 85 spiritual essence of, 85 Mangonaria, 49 Marriage, 98 Martial diseases, 232 Masses for the dead, 109 Materia prima, or matter pri¬ mordial, 58, 62 Matrices, 49 Matrix, 83 Matter, 269
like coagulated smoke, 64 Mayavi rupa, 53 Medical wisdom, 205, 210 Medicine, 203
five forms of practice of, 276-7
practice of, 203
Medicine, qualifications ior practice, 205-7 Mediums, 112 Mediumship, 344 Melissa, 288 Melosinae, 49 Men, primordial, 342 Menstrual blood, 192 Menstruum, 187 Mercury, 238
Mesmerism, discovered by Par¬ acelsus, 227 Microcosm, 61 Mind, 69, 173, 264 universal, 122 Mirrors, 147 Modern spiritism, 110 Mohinis, 146 Monsters, 50, 139 Moon, 192-4
evil influence of, 243 Mothers, 96 Mumia, 50
drowned, 189 of criminals or suicides, 188
three kinds, 189 used in witchcraft, 194 Mysterium magnum, 97, 128
Natural man, 67, 73 physician, 211 Nature, 62
first men taught by, 280 light of, 237, 344 love of, 258
the ignorant refuse to learn, 280
Necrocomica, 51
364
INDEX.
Necromancy, 108, 168 Necromantia, 51 Nectromantia, 51, 168 Nectromanticus, or seer, 168 Nenufareni, 51 Nerve aura, 140 Nymphae, 51 Nymphs, 156
Obsession, 143 cure of, 143
Occult action at a distance, 345 Occultism, 52
letters read through, 346 Olympic spirit, 299 Omens, 112, 114 Omnipresent principle in life, 63
Onan, 138 Opinions, 332
Organic functions of man, 220 Organism of man, 237
Palingenesis, 346 Paracelsus, his life and writ¬ ings, 3-36
list of his special terms, 37-55
parentage and birth, 3 early education, 4 travels, 5
receives philosopher’s stone, 6
appointed professor at Basle, 7
resumes his travels, 9 denounced as an impostor, 9
his death, 10
Paracelsus, his remains ex¬ humed, 11
tradition that he still lives,
12
nature of his writings, 14- 26
personal habits, 26 opinions of him by emi¬ nent men, 28-9 list of his writings, 30-6 Parasites, 142
Passage of matter through mat¬ ter, 347 Passions, 195
angry, injure through the eye, 195 Pentacula, 52 Perception, 317 Personalities, 153 Personality, 22 Phantasmata, 52, 231-6 Philosopher’s stone given to Paracelsus, 6 secret of, 286
Philosophy, 82, 208, 246, 317 Planetary conjunctions, 300 influences on man, 309 on spirits, 309 Plants, 229
list of, with planetary con¬ nections, 260-1 rules for gathering, 260 Platonic ring, 89 Pneuma, or soul, 131 Poison, 272 Poisons, 124
Practice, four pillars of, 208 Praesagium, 53 Prayer, 18
INDEX.
365
Praying, 201 Primordial essence, 58 man, 80 matter, 58, 312 Primum ens, 353 melissse, 353^4 recipe for, 353 sanguinis, 355 Prophecy, 121 Prophets, 117
Psychometry (see Nectroman- tia)
Pygmaei, 53
Quackery, 251 Quacks, 253 Quintessence, 43
meaning of (see Cherio)
Raksasas, 146 Reading closed letters, 346 Reason, 165 Reasoners, 185 Reasoning, 124 Rebis, 37 Rejuvenation, 295 Relics of saints, 183, 334 Remedies against witchcraft, 192
Remedy against obsession, 143 Resurrection, 104 Rosicrucians, 355 Rule of the planets, 291 Rupa, 53
devas, 146
Sagani, 53, 150 Saints, 195
working miracles, 118
Salamanders, 152 Salamandri, 53 Salt, 238, 278
Salt, hundreds of kinds, 294 Scaiolae, 53 Science, modern, 249 Second sight, 31, 43 Semen, 93, 95-6 Sensation, 133 Senses, the natural, 111 Seven principles, 111 Sex, 99-100 Sidereal body, 103 Signatures, 72, 252 Sleep, 119-20 Somnia, 53 Sorcerers, fate of, 189 Sorceries, 179
Sorcery, no wisdom in, 310 Sortilegium, 148 Soul, or pneuma, 131 essence of, 84 of man, 87 Souls of things, 114 Sperma, 192 Spiders, 80
crushed, in sorcery, 198 Spirit, 53-4, 84, 157 drowned, 189 of the departed, 348 pure has no form, 14-5 Spiritual essence, 269 causes of disease, 266 consciousness in men, perception, 317 Spiritual temple, 317 Spiritualistic phenomena, 119 Spirits of many kinds, 145-6 red and blue, 304-5
3G6
INDEX.
Spiritus vitae, 54 animalis, 54 Stars, 257
corresponding to metals, 244
Stones, with magic characters, 46
Succubi, 137 Suicides, 133, 136 Sulphur, 238 Sun’s action, 172 influence, 255 Supernatural, the, 162 in dreams, 117-119 Superstition, 137 Sylphs, 54, 84 Sylvestres, 54, 152 related to man, 153 Sympathetic remedies, 356 Sympathy of plants with the macrocosm, 74 of the planets with man, 76
Talking images (see Modern Spiritism)
tables, 110, 114, 117 Theosophia, 54 Theosopliist, 317 Theosophy, 54 Thought transfer, 348 Three substances, 292-3 Tinctura physica, 296 Toads, 357 Transformations, 347 Transmutations, 347 Transplantation of disease, 229 Trarames, 110, 112
Treatment of disease, 261 by Paracelsus, 282-3 Triangles interlaced, 70 Trinity, 340
Tritheim (Abbot J.), 289 Truth, 167, 175 Twins, 96
Umbratiles, 55 Undines, 84, 156 Universal matrix, 94 mind, 69, 341 Universe, 323
Vaccination, 224 Vampires, 55, 135 Visible and invisible man, 88, 237
Vital force, 225 Vulcani, 292
Warning to dabblers in magic, 290
Wax figures or images, 194, 271 Wisdom, 48, 163, 205, 210 Witch trials, 173 Witchcraft, 179 Witches, 155, 190 Will, acting at a distance, 182 Will-power, 182 Will-spirit, 128, 268 Woman, 28, 94, 100 Woman, imagination strong in, 173
microcosm of, 193 will-power of, 181 Words of Paracelsus on medi¬ cine, 203-5
INDEX.
367
World macrocosm, 115 mental horizon of, 119
Yliaster, 56, 58, 59, 60, 66
Zenexton, 356
recipe for, 357-8
Xeni nephidei, 56
*
I