Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim, a.k.a. Paracelsus.
A 1927 reproduction of an etching by A. Hirschvogel, 1538. In the collections of the Welcome Trust.

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Today’s sharing from the Blue House of Via-HYGEIA, is the third offering of our Little Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim Sampler-also known as Paracelsus-with the Foreword to the ‘Great Astronomia, or the whole subtle Philosophy of the great and small world’-Extracted from : ‘Astronomia magna: oder Die gantze Philosophia sagax der grossen und kleinen Welt‘, Frankfurt, 1571, here collected and presented in French by Jean-Marc Font in his impressive and seminal anthology of esotericism’s key texts, ‘Les Grand Textes de l’Esotérisme depuis l’Antiquité’ published in 2007 by Editions Trajectoire. English translation by Via-HYGEIA. From pages 203 to 211.

Jean-Marc was one of my mentors, with Patrick L, in the hermetic line of Robert Ambelain, and I have a huge gratitude for their demanding care and steady guidance. May God preserves them in this world with His amazing Grace!

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1- Jean-Marc Font – A Paracelsian Biographical Context

Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombast von Hohenheim took the casual name, with which he is famously remembered, of Paracelsus. It is believed that he took that casual name to mark that his knowledge was excelling Celsus, the Roman physician who lived at the time of the Emperor Adrian, nicknamed the Latin Hippocrates.

Born in 1493, son of a doctor and chemist who will transmit him, at a very early age, humanistic ideas, Paracelsus became himself a physician and a chemist (the two specialties being of a neighboring nature). Alike Cornelius Agrippa, he lived a wandering life, his reputation as a doctor and his rather strong temper did have an effect on his chronic mobility. Paracelsus, was, in fact, very critical of the official medicine of his time, which he intended to renovate its foundations that he considered faulty. Taking over hermetic conceptions that he learned from the writings of Marcilio Ficino, he envisioned that health and disease were expressions of the harmony and the imbalance between Nature, the macro-cosmos, and the individual-considered as a micro-cosmos. Consequently, the balance, if it is disturbed, must be re-established within the body, not through a treatment aiming at the purification of the soul-a predominant fashionable obsession of the time.

In practice, he innovated by trying to better understand the functioning of the body, introducing for this purpose the usage of chemical products integrated in medical treatments. Initially, he was ridiculed, but his successes obtained with his new method were later adopted by the entire medical profession. Paracelsus can be considered as one of the founders of modern medicine, as he staunchly advocated the necessity to establish medical science upon practical experience, and not upon the ‘authority of the ancients‘, here Hippocrates & Galen.

Simultaneously, Paracelsus was attracted to alchemy and to astrology. two domains in which he will become a prolific and recognized author. He was not himself an alchemist in the full acceptation of the word, but his treatise left a very deep influence upon western alchemy after his time. If it stayed attached to his name, it is because it was for him a technique allowing him to make remedies and absolutely not about making gold & silver. As for astrology, it was a domain, an integrated part of medical practices, as a mean to develop diagnostics and to elaborate healing talismans; Paracelsus published, at a certain time, an almanach that was very successful with the main public. But, he refused to practice operative magic, even though he was accused of practicing it!

He was a great traveller, who journeyed throughout several middle-european countries and was even the subject of urban legends of travels way beyond the boundaries of the Europe! He eventually settled in Salzburg, where he died still young in 1541 and was buried there. His fame grew in the medical world, but was also subject of a steady rejection from many practitioners who did not agree with his methods and accept his challenging ideas. Only by the end of the century he lived in were his publications greeted with an increasing and favorable reception.

We preferred to give an extract of the  ‘Great Astronomia, or the whole subtle Philosophy of the great and small world’-Extracted from: ‘Astronomia magna‘, in which he presents his less known astrological philosophy, here expended in the foreword below, rather than to present the well known and commented alchemical treatise, ‘The treasure of the treasure of the alchemists‘. It will be followed by his ‘Manual of the Philosophers’ stone’ in which his medical vision is clearly delineated.’ (Via Hygeia note: We will also publish this text in Sampler Part V in the coming future.)

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2-From Jolande Jacobi’s ‘Paracelsus’

‘…In his ‘Astronomia Magna‘ Paracelsus identifies the nine branches of his philosophia sagax “sagacious philosophy” as:

1. Magica, (on magic and will power).

2. Astrologia, (astrology and spiritual influences).

3. Signatum, (the doctrine of signatures and the knowledge of the inner essence as obtained through outward signs).

4. Nigromantia, (on sorcery and apparitions).

5. Necromantia, (divination through the dead).

6. Artes incertae (on the arts of imagination & inspiration).

7. Medicina Adepta, (the medicine of the adepts and the occult science of supernatural cures).

8. Philosophia Adepta, (philosophy of the adepts and the wisdom of alchemy & contemplation).

9. Mathematica Adepta, (the mathematics of the adept and the science of occult relations, geometry, cosmography, measures weights & numbers)’.

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3- Paracelsus’ Foreword To The ‘Great Astronomia,

Or The Whole Subtle Philosophy Of The Great & Small World’

In order that you may comprehend first all that is needed to discover and to know about this subtle (sagacious) Philosophy, I have thought appropriate, as I also think it is a necessity, to explain in its wholeness the religion of all creatures (A Via-Hygeia Note: think of the root, the latin ‘religare‘, ‘to bind’, ‘to connect’), the  foundations and the art that determines its perfect functioning. Then, if this Philosophy must be fathomed in its foundations and duly witnessed in its existence, it is necessary to divide it into specific branches (of a unique tree), so that its comprehension’s progression is made smoother. This division ought not to be neglected-even though other Philosophers do not approach it in a similar manner-I must in a first step celebrate the said Philosophy for the reason i will delineate here:

God provided, God provides to Man, through the heavens all the art, and this is natural, as the heavens are the natural light and that from them Man inherits what is natural. I must also celebrate the heavens because of their usefulness: From them surge all the necessary arts. The great art of medicine, marvelously created by God, extracts from the art of astronomy (the arts contained in the Heavens) the corner-stone that allows us to recognize a man’s illness, his health and his death, as half of phenomena. If this knowledge is lacking, the sick person and the doctor go astray. The physician who ignores astronomy cannot call himself a complete (holistic) physician, for the simple reason that more than half of the diseases are ruled by the Heavens. But, the noble art (the subtle Philosophy) not only allows medicine to be perfected within astronomy, it also provides, in the domain of natural wisdom, the ability to comprehend in order to discriminate a useless wisdom from an eternal wisdom, thus allowing to recognize the two; otherwise the door is open for mistakes to happen. Many talk in their writings about eternal wisdom, but they were obviously not born from it. So, in order for anybody to recognize the origin of such discourses, the origin of such marvels that were performed, it is therefore necessary to recognize their foundation and to get to know that there is  more than the two indicated points. In fact, the art of astronomy-it has to be noticed-allows to recognize, to reveal the innate arcana in Man, of good & evil that nature has planted within him. Man is the fruit of the Great World (macro-cosmos) and partakes of its nature. Because two different natures exist, the one born from the Heavens and the one born from the Earth. It is necessary to reveal how both express themselves.

I am confident that anybody would have recognized what great treasure I am talking about, without having to unveil all of the powers and arts that flow from it and originate from the stars. Everything that the light of nature teaches Man comes from the very nature of the stars. Please take good note of this point. We are the disciples of the stars. The stars are our teachers. Therefore we ought to follow them, because they accomplish many deeds in synergy with us. God has decided of such an order within natural light, so that we should accept it as our teacher, as we also have God as our main teacher, from Whom we are created and animated.

It is time that bursts in the open the folly of those who deny astronomy-when it should be the corner-stone of their practice: Here we have error and folly pulled down. The fake prophets desecrate this art that reveals them at the same time: it is such a folly-the rejection of the corner-stone-and it is the origin of the fake physicians’ spontaneous generation! Those who are stuck with such folly, know their condition and take great efforts into hiding it, and similarly all those with the eyes veiled by their ignorance of the natural light cannot look at it directly when it incidentally shine upon them. Their actions rely upon this dissimulation, when confronted with the laws that are ruling our human condition, and they purposedly avoid considering the art that deals with them. The same people-making-their-own-laws do not recognize the very foundation and the corner-stone upon which the law from the stars originate. They ignore what the natural light teaches, what God teaches as well, in other words: the source of what is mortal & what is eternal. They also do not understand themselves, because the wisdom of the stars is the tool that can discriminate what is opinion & illusion from knowledge & wisdom: astronomy teaches that everything that is ought to happen with great support from Reason. God teaches what is from his domain and what is connected to the divine steering of the worlds, while the stars teach what is useful to us, mortals beings.

Know also that-I do not want to write a foreword that is too lengthy– that many of those who have let gullibility and ignorance being spread-out of their stubborn blindness, actually boast to ‘own‘ astronomy-and their names, because of that, are much sought-of by the public, even though…the pearl had long ago been cast out by them! What I want to show you briefly is the art of astronomy in nine parts. When those nine parts are re-united, the astronomer is born. As I said earlier, I need to precise the definition for each of them, in order that I may be understood and the public to realize that astronomy is the mother of all arts.

The true physician starts where the astronomer stops. It is here where the true philosopher begins together with eternal wisdom and all of the arts. I am speaking of the composition of all things, from which I want to reveal the nine arts originating from it. Where Astronomy stops, the religions-per-se-begin and none of them can reach perfection without understanding it. When they stop, true divine wisdom begins, and after it is natural light that begins. We should really start by understanding natural light. Only then, are we able to know all the other things God operates through Man’s mandate.

But, it is obvious that this mandate is ignored because they are all enemies to each others, never seeing other people’s light. The vain are eager to juge everything without owning the foundation of all things and without wisdom, not realizing that they are all children from the same Father, God, as we are eager here to demonstrate in our project of writing this very foreword: They do not know the natural light that seven blacksmith produce from their iron, that everyone is in his own right and the part that is allocated to him.

You see, my friends, the degree of gullibility, of madness of the so-called ‘educated ones’, seeing what is revealed from them & their empty pump: the soothsayer does not know the magus, nor the fortune-teller, nor the person who deals with behaviors and finally with the specialist of the ‘uncertain’ arts; but he welcomes the practitioner, who busy himself with the study of signs! This one, in turn, despises the six other! the diviner is mute about all of them. The necromancer ignores all of the others’ foundation of knowledge and the specialist of the ‘uncertain’ arts fancies he is the chosen one! The practitioner uses his apparatus annoying everybody all the time! We here do not speak of the bodies-without-a-soul, that do not partake of natural light.

Even though the foundation of all of the branches has not been delineated with the necessary seriousness, it is urgent to spend some time organizing them into a functioning whole, a true order, to be able to really understand them, in-depth and their proper essence. Once the perfection of their assembling achieved, each part remains itself withing the whole of all the con-joined parts. For instance, until every piece of wood finds its proper place, wood does not need a unique art: there is an art of the wood the burner needs, another art transforms wood into furniture, another transforms small pieces of wood into the handle of knives, into frames for window, etc…Each separate art of wood, is it not legitimate by it-self? it is the same with the eight parts of the labors of a star. Despite their difference, each is, granted by the natural gift they were allotted, an achieved art springing from God’s will-so that on earth, among mankind there is no unity, but diversity, even though there is only one wisdom, one art, but applied in different manners. It is because God wants that his marvels to be seen by his saints, by them we mean his men of divine science. It goes the same way with the arts of natural light, but not for God’s realm, within eternal life. There, on the contrary, is but a unique path, a unique art, one teaching, one manner, one being, one dwelling, one watch-light, one God.

But, within natural light, there are many manners to transform the light, by the craft-men, in the arts, in the different places of learning and in religions. But those transformed lights do not include theology. As a matter of fact, there is but one theology for the person who is granted this gift. There can be quite a few, but all are upon one recognizable path, as there is but one road. Therefore, each art must be perfect in it-self; the astrologer in his domain, the magus in his; the diviner-as well as the necromancer, the person who studies signs, the person who practices the ‘uncertain’ arts, the practitioner and the specialist of his generations’ haunting questions. Noble is the person who has grasped in his brains the unity of all things, of this genealogy and of this family, that has achieved a needed synthesis: this person recognizes God’s marvels and is able to reveal God’s great deeds and to use them also for his actions, etc…

This is why I felt opportune to explain the parts of astronomy, to describe its foundation and its truth, in order to help forget the useless treatises and studies and cast them away, as they scandalously devour our noble time, alike many of the superficialities and customs that plague contemporary youth, very eager to believe in them. Nowadays, they occupy the front stage. Here is what we ought to understand: there are two wisdoms, one that is eternal, the other is of a mortal nature. The eternal wisdom springs in an immediate manner from the light of the Holy Ghost. The other one springs also immediately, but from natural light. The light originating from the Holy Ghost is of a unique nature, a fair wisdom, without any debilities. But the light that is originating from nature has in itself two kinds: one good & one bad: the good one grasps eternal wisdom, the bad one to things doomed. It is, in fact, this divine speech that the astronomer must duly meditate and gauge: ‘I repent having created Man‘.

The very foundation is also to be found in astronomy, as it also reveals God repentance of having created Man to His image, as He fixed it in Paradise, and not in our world. God repented having created Man to his image seeing it not dwelling in its rightful place, but living in a mortal manner in the lower world. If Man would have stayed in Paradise, we could easily image with what kind of other philosophy God would have created our world and probably a completely different genus to dwell in it. Because Man was created through natural light, the result is that he has the ability to fathom what is good & evil-not through blood and flesh, but in his blood and flesh by the mediation of the stars. Hereby lies the treasure, the supreme and eternal good. Is it not a precious treasure for Man to be able to recognize eternal wisdom from mortal wisdom, as he is made at the image of God? Through this medium he understands what is natural is without value, when compared to what is eternal.

Therefore, he ought to seek what is in conformity with the image, and ought to know how to distinguish natural wisdom in its good & bad aspects. Which means that he can accept evil & good, knowing what is the purpose of evil, and who benefits from good. I actually appreciate as a great good the separation of the two essences, because everybody can differentiate what is good-first eternal wisdom, then mortal wisdom-by keeping its good aspect and casting away the bad one: It does not co-erce you; only you may oblige yourself.

Of course, it would be great to hold now some discourse about salvation and the acquisition of eternal wisdom! It would be beneficial, but it is not for me to have the audacity to do so, as I only want to write about mortal wisdom, as it is completely possible for me to reach it by the means of astronomy. I would regret being incarnated on this very earth if I-and every other human being-would not being able to confirm in me the natural light and therefore shine it also, so to access consequently eternal light-in the will of God-the supreme level, so that our light may gleam into the eyes of all mankind.

But, what can i answer to those who would accuse me that I do not behave rightly, acting like those enthusiasts, who despise their Lord by their faith in justification? How could they not cause harm to natural light? Know that God will not be angry at me, because in His creation, there are two creators, each triple in their own persons and in their eternal deity. The first one, in His quality of Father has created Man starting from bottom, while the other, in His quality of Son, started from above. The two creatures then came into existence, the first one was assigned to natural light by God the Father in the might of the Holy Spirit.

Therefore, when the fallen human beings have learned and lived by drawing from eternal light, and when they have received from the Holy Ghost the image- originally created for their dwelling in eternal light-this very image returned back from where it came from, which means that when we humans die, the flesh goes back to the earth, but the soul invigorated by the image goes back into God’s hands. So, if I speak of the natural light of the Father, why would the Son be irritated? As I also take into account His Wisdom.

The two wisdoms both own an indivisible spirit, and they don’t lack unity, especially when Man is inherently of a double nature, mortal for one part and eternal for another. And each part takes its light from God, the mortal part & the eternal one, so there is nothing that does not take God as its origin.

Why then would the light of the Father be recognized and judged as pagan, and why, would I be recognized and judged as a pagan, when I am a Christian and I live in the Christian light; i do live in both, the light of the Father and the light of the Son, in the old and in the new. If the Father and the Son would be mixed, how would I honor two lights? I would be judged an idolater.

But, numbers are my voucher. And if my love has two objects and if I share their lights to anybody, according to the talents God has granted to him, how could I deemed a pagan? Therefore-drawing a conclusion to this- the body cannot only be sustained by a food reserved for the soul, and vice-versa; but to each part is allocated what it needs best. And if I give to each part what it needs, should I be called names, a pagan, a mameluk excommunicated from the Christian world?

I know very well that natural light is not eternal, and that it is eternal light that will bring me back into eternity. Can I not try to bring closer to each other the perishable light of the soul & eternal light? Body and soul are obvious neighbors. Why wouldn’t we use both lights-the two light above mentioned-because God made these two essences in Man, the earthly one & the eternal one, con-joined until judgment day and resurrection? Then, when all is accomplished, the terrestrial body will go be to its element, and the eternal body will journey back to God’s Kingdom. I write as a Christian, i am not a pagan but a German, and finally, neither a glossator, nor a sophist.

You ought to notice that for the two lights that we have spoken about in length above, one immortal & one mortal, the first one achieves its transformation within the soul and the latter one in the body. The mortal light operates in natural light and the eternal one in eternal light. This is how divine Providence has decreed, as it rules the worlds: It gave to the mortal body its proper destiny and task, as to make it busy the whole time we are imparted on earth, so that we can cast aside while journeying empty thoughts, so that we may live according to the divine will into the divine light. The body opened to the divine light, is then able to unfold the natural art and acquire through the imitation of nature God’s marvels. Therefore, Man should not spend all of his time within natural light, but also progressively dwell into the light that belongs to God’s image. As a result, Man must live within these two lights without one impeding the other: they are con-joined, like husband & wife.

This being said, why would the mortal physician and the eternal physician live in permanent distrust? Let’s precise our thought by giving an example: The mortal physician restores a patient’s health, the apostle also. That the apostle exceeds the natural physician, this is the trial and proof of the new birth. But because of that, natural light should not be rejected also-as the divine realm would not allow it. The apostle brings life back to what is dead-not the natural human being-and in this the natural physician does agree that his art is but a stool, in regard of the eternal Man.

The prophets did predict that astronomers would not be able to find, to journey towards, the foundation of all things. But, would this be a piece of evidence against astronomy? It is not because it is mute about what it ignores that it ought to be despised…So should we also despise astronomy for what it provides and know well? How to proceed then with discoveries?

Did the multitude of prophets speeches render obsolete astronomy? Prophets talk sourcing their inspiration from above, while the others from below-and both are legitimate streams in their respective light. Even though the apostle and the saints did operate multiple healings, a greater number of sick people were they not granted to natural medicine? Those sick people were not healed by the apostles and the saints. Ought we not to consider also that the apostles and the saints did resurrect the dead and restored to normal health the paralytics? Yes, but they are not to be found easily among us. Therefore their deeds are not very well known to the general public. The physician’s vocation is not to be useless because then the saints and the apostles would take his place. But, the saints and the apostles are not to be found everywhere and their deeds not having a greater impact, then it is the  physician’s duty and task to be present and take their place and role.

This is exactly what happened to the man from Jericho. he was rescued by physicians, not by saints. He was treated by medicine, not by spiritual might. Therefore, we can say that natural light is the administrator of the saints working on their behalf.

What harm can the speech of fire do to natural speech? Or what does the speech of fire subtract to natural speech? Hence, this is similar to a man and a woman; together they bring to life a child-a task that needs a double presence. We are, alike, the inheritors of those two lights, proclaimed to be within a single human being, by divine decree.

I wish to conclude this foreword, having the project to present what are the nine parts of astronomy, to vindicate them enough and to show their strength & possibilities. In this foreword, I have delineated everything according to my plan, so to vindicate myself upon a Christian point of view: I do not want to be called a magician, a pagan, a bohemian; what I want is through my writing to express my Christian faith, leaving the parading peacocks that call themselves Christians-who only serve me fake leaven-to chatter their nauseating hubbub away.

I was my good pleasure to write about astronomy in the following chapters of my new treatise you are about to discover. And, even though I write with a mortal light, I think I can satisfy the mortal body, soothe it, only within natural light, in which God has manifested his grace.

I do not have the gift to speak with a speech of fire, and to describe nature using such a speech. Again, even though i did not receive the gift of writing what the Pentecostal school would inspire me-the only school to teach what is eternal-but because both are con-joined as we have seen earlier, I was still graced with the gift and the drive of such a spirit, born from the Son’s mediation that comes also from the Father through eternal light.

Nature, in fact, helps me to demystify the multitude of those among mankind that are seen as fake heros or dubious saints, when we should judge them more pitiful than corpses. It is a fact that the devil spreads his satanic powers to steer mankind against God.

Therefore, it is necessary to learn how to recognize what legitimate light is, so that we can get rid of this satanic parasitic nuisance. And I hope that my dear readers will find me filled with as many truths God gave us by mediation of the spirit-from natural light-hoping that this very spirit will illuminate and perfect our deeds & labors, our faculties & doctrines. So mote it be!

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Coming soon:

A Little Aureolus Theophrastus

Bombastus von Hohenheim Sampler –

Part IV, Paracelsus Intimate 

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