Part I.'

CEREMONIAL MAGIC*
7*
dreams is from the ftrength of imagination , fo to underhand them is from the ftrength of the underftanding. They, therefore, whofe intelledt being over- whelmed by too much commerce of the flefh is in a dead fleep, or its imagi- native or phantaftic power or fpirit is too dull and unpolifhed, that it cannot receive the fpecies and reprefentation which flow from the fuperior intellect j this man, I fay, is altogether unfit for the receiving of dreams and prophe- fying by them.
Therefore it is neceffary that he who would receive true dreams fhould keep a pure undifturbed, and an undifquieted imaginative fpirit, and fo com- pofe it that it may be made worthy of the knowledge and government by the mind and underftanding ; for fuch a fpirit is moft fit for prophefying, and is a moft clear glafs of all the images which flow (every where) from all things. When therefore we are found in body, not difturbed in mind, our intellect not dulled by meats and drinks, not fad through poverty, not pro- voked through luft, not incited bv any vice, not ftirred up by wrath or anger, not being irreligioufly and prophanely inclined, not given to levity, not loft in drunkennefs, but chaftely going to bed, fall afleep ; then our pure and divine foul, being free from all the evils above recited, and feparated from all hurtful thoughts, and now freed by dreaming, , is endowed with this divine fpirit as an inllrument, and doth receive thofe beams and reprefentations which are darted down,, as it were, and fhine forth from the Divine Mind into itfelf ; and, as it were in a deifying glafs, it does more certain, more clear and efficacioufly behold all things than by the vulgar inquiry of the intelledt, and by the difcourfe of reafon. The divine powers inftrudting the foul, being invited to their fociety by the opportu- nity of the no&urnal folitarinefs, neither, will that genius be wanting to him when he is awake, which rules all his actions.
Whofoever therefore, by quiet and religious meditation, and by a diet temperate and moderate according to nature, preferves his fpirit pure fhall very much prepare himfelf, and by this means become (in a degree) divine and knowing all things, juftly merits the fame. But whofoever, on the contrary, languifhes with a fantaftic fpirit, he receives not perfpicuous and
diftant
/
72 THE CABALA, ETC. Book II.
diftant vifions ; but even as the divine fight, by reafon of its vifion, being weakened and impaired, judges confufedly and indiftin&ly, fo alfo when we are overcome with wine and drunkennefs, then our fpirit, being opprefled with noxious vapours (as a troubled water is apt to appear in various forms) is de- ceived, and waxes dull ; therefore thofe who would receive oracles by dreams, and thofe oracles true and certain, I would advife him to abftain one whole day from meat, and three days from wine or any ftrong liquors, and drink no- thing but pure water ; for, to fober and religious minds, the pure fpirits are adherent, but fly thofe who are drowned in drunkennefs and furfeiting. Although impure fpirits do very often adminifler notable fecrets to thofe who are apparently befotted with wine or liquors ; yet all fuch communications are to be contemned and avoided.
But there are four kinds of true dreams, viz. the firft, matutine , i. e. between fleeping and waking ; the fecond that which one fees concerning ano - ther ; the third, that whofe interpretation is fhewn to the fame dreamer in the nodturnal vifion ; and, laftly, the fourth, that which is repeated to the fame dreamer in the nodturnal vifion.
END .OF PART -FIRST-
THE
t • * ' .
i
THE PERFECTION AND KEY
OF
THE CABALA,
O R
CEREMONIAL MAGIC.