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 a little surprise treat, as we continue our exploration of the core philosophy of Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim, a.k.a. Paracelsus. Here, with an extract from Gottfried Armold’s ‘Unparteiische Kirchen- und Ketzerhistorie‘ (Impartial History of the Church and of Heresy, in two volumes 1699/1700); a chapter dedicated to Paracelsus, in which Arnold discusses and defends Paracelsus’ books and publishes after a whole treatise: the ‘Secretum Magicum‘ (the subject of this sharing). From Volume IV, Section II, chapter XXII, page 148 to 168. The Treatise is followed by two appendixes in which Arnold gathers similar material from other identified publications of Paracelsus. As you will see below in the source-text-pictures, there is no break between paragraphs, all in one lump! We have still tried to make the text breathe, when possible, to ensure greater readability.

Here is what Professor Antoine Faivre says about the importance of Arnold’s work as a historian: ‘His ‘Impartial History’ is impartial in name only, for the author is more than favorable to most of the ‘heretical’ currents of Christianity. He amassed an immense body of documentation which he uses to demonstrate that piety and the Church, religion and law, lived experience and dogma are ultimately incompatible, to the point that any religious objectification seems harmful or at least decadent. But, at the same time, with this encyclopedia, Arnold emerges as one of the first historians of ideas, or mentalities, in the West. His work represents a very important contribution to the history not only of established religions and sects but also of certain forms of esotericism (Boehme, the Rosicrucians). Arnold’s originality and the precision of his information have ensured him an influence that remains relevant today and has undoubtedly impacted Lessing, Frederick the Great, Goethe, Rousseau, and many others.’ (Source: Encyclopedia Universalis).

Arnold’s ‘Historie’ was put in the Vatican index of prohibited book as early as 1706 with recurrent notices.

We provide this working translation as a modest but firm contribution, firstly, because we live in an age in which we staunchly believe that a plethora of books, which were made invisible, MUST NOW be RELEASED from the vaults, secondly, because there is actually no English scholarly edition & translation of this historic encyclopedia and we felt sorry for it to be accumulating dust.

Our little sharing is solely meant to offer but a flavour of the original German text, hoping some brave publishing company will take up the challenge to offer this text-in all of its glory-to the English speaking community.

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Introduction

Paracelsus’ ‘Secretum Magicum‘ presents a profound vision of Magic not as demonic sorcery, but as the highest sacred art and wisdom, founded upon a Christian-theosophical understanding of the cosmos. Its central theme is that the true Magus operates through faith in God and the guidance of the Holy Spirit, aligning his will with the Divine to command spirits and nature.

The work is built upon key concepts such as the correspondence between the Macrocosm (the great world) and the Microcosm (man, the little world), who is created in God’s image and intended to be the ruler of nature. Paracelsus details the divine creation through the Tria Principia (Mercury, Sulphur, and Salt) and describes man’s fall from a heavenly, paradisiacal state into a mortal one, now subject to the chaotic and wrathful principle of Turba—a disruptive force that vexes the good and leads to multiplicity and conflict.

True Magic, therefore, is a path of purification and reunion, where the enlightened human will, guided by God, can overcome this Turba, redeem the divine knowledge embedded in nature, the ‘Book of Wisdom‘, and ultimately restore the harmony between heaven and earth.

A Charitable Warning

Paracelsus’s language, already difficult, is made even more so by numerous neologisms and metaphorical concepts, often vaguely explained, drawn from German folklore. He contrasts the bookish and scholarly terminology of his critics and rivals with another, ‘even more outlandish’ terminology, one that reflects life, nature, and the realities of his time.

He was not concerned with form, writing quickly under precarious conditions. Moreover, his writing is not always consistent, as his thought evolved, and he left behind numerous manuscripts in his wanderings. Did he take the time to reread his work, to refine his thinking? Everything suggests not, according to Charles Le Brun. He probably didn’t have the time, and nothing in his volatile temperament inclined him to do so.

According to Bernard Gorceix, his style is convoluted and ponderous, much more so than that of other alchemists of his time. His sentences lack clarity, they ignore punctuation, and they are cluttered with linking words and double coordinating conjunctions. To convince, Paracelsus can repeat, for pages on end, the same accusation or the same argument:

‘Paracelsus speaks a still-young idiom, deliberately confused, open to all linguistic influences. He does not possess Rabelais’s linguistic genius, but like him, he likes to draw from all sources […] He speaks a language entirely different from ours. He is of his time at the very moment he transcends it […] His medicine matures slowly by breaking through the bark; it emerges from the earth and is still in its germinal stage […] He sometimes overflows with contempt because he knows he is renewing his science.” He must, as he himself says, be the separator, “as if he were separating darkness and light, day and night, like God who accomplishes, creating the world, the work of separation‘.

[Paracelsus, Medical Works, PUF, coll. “Galen”, 1968, p. XI-XIII. Translation, preface (translator’s warning) and texts selected by Bernard Gorceix] (Source: French Wikipedia at the article Paracelse).

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Basic information by

‘Theatrum Paracelsicum‘

I. Printing History

 First printed in 1603, edited by Ps.-Johann Huser (with many misreadings).

Printed again in 1608, edited by Benedictus Figulus from a different source.

II. Authenticity, authorship.

Huser’s text was printed allegedly from the autograph of Paracelsus (“ex manuscripto exemplari Theophrasti”). The Kopenhagen manuscript is associated with Philipp Jakob Gustenhofer (dead before 1607) whom Carlos Gilly assumes to be the author. The original title seems to have been Decretum magicum. Probably written in the 1590s or early 1600s.

III. Sources Manuscripts:

Dresden, Sächsische Landesbibliothek: Mscr.Dresd.N.54, f. 1–13.
Kassel, Landesbibliothek: 4° Ms. chem. 60[5,3, f. 106v (Fragment)
Kopenhagen, Det Kongelige Bibliotek: GKS 1769 kvart, f. 1r–41v.
Praha, Strahovská knihovna: DF IV 59, f. 284r–306v.
Tartu, Ülikooli Raamatukogu [University Library]: Mscr. 655, item n° 11.

IV. Early prints

1603 (in: Ps.-Huser, Opera Bücher vnd Schrifften (1603); VD17 12:168390P).

1608 (in: Thesaurinella Olympica aurea tripartita. Das ist: Ein himmlisch güldenes Schatzkämmerlein, ed. Benedictus Figulus, Frankfurt a.M.: Wolfgang Richter for Nicolaus Stein 1608; VD17 3:302600E; Sudhoff, Bibliographia Paracelsica, 477–479 n° 280).

1700 (‘Theophrasti Paracelsi Secretum Magicum’, in Gottfried Arnolds Fortsetzung und Erläuterung Oder Dritter und Vierdter Theil der ‘Unpartheyischen Kirchen- und Ketzer-Historie’ (Frankfurt. M.: Thomas Fritsch, 1700), 148–168). Which is our source text below.

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Now

the text itself :

Chapter XXI

Theophrasti Paracelsi

SECRETUM MAGICUM

Although by the very ancient Philosophers, through long-lasting effort and research, the golden philosophical stone was often found, and through this it was correctly recognized that namely something high must sustain nature, just as their opinion of nature has also been variably and wonderfully described; yet these [ancient philosophers] did not recognize the highest Centrum (Center), from which all circles must be led and found, but rather all their writings and words are a doubtful circling of the elements, sought in a literal and superficial way, and they did not touch the Centrum, much less the holy Trigonum (Triangle), which springs from the circle; but praise God! Afterwards to many Christian Philosophers and men of God—Moses, Ezra, Solomon, the Divine Hermes, Morienus, and others more—also to us Christians, the one Centrum and origin of all things, in the Trigonocentri or in the Divine Trinity, has revealed itself and been given to know.

From the central point we find a higher and safer foundation, concordant with Scripture, of the true Philosophy, what it is and upon what it is founded, from which not only the philosophical stone, but also furthermore the Lapis Medicinalis vegetabilis vel animalis (the vegetable or animal medicinal stone), can be brought forth, tested, and proven. The invalid, however, shall consider their invalidities—yes, if they cannot achieve anything with the foundation or the kingdom of nature—as nothing, and shall commend them to Vulcan, and instead [take] the highest Book of Wisdom, which proceeds from the one Spirit of God, [and] is sought from the Centro (center) of nature: in this very one is the foundation of truth and the experience of all things. This must be attained solely with a humble prayer to God, as Christ himself taught: ‘Quaerite primum regnum Dei’ (Seek first the kingdom of God), and the Apostle James: ‘Si quis indiget sapientia, postulet a Deo’ (If anyone lacks wisdom, let him ask God); for He is the fountain of all wisdom.

This book is called for us Christians the great book of the great nature, which is truly written and imprinted not with ink, but with the finger of God; from this book everyone should learn nature, for in it she is not at all hidden. But how the great book is to be understood (how, I ask?) concerns the great Book of Wisdom, which is impressed upon our heart by the Spirit of God.

This is the first thing to be recognized about nature, that every thing must and should be known from its beginning; what it is, so we must first seek the foundation of the first creation of all things, and call upon the Holy Spirit for understanding from God, so that from it we may find the true knowledge and proper essence of the so-called magical stone. On account of which, I will first describe the Creation, as much as the Holy Scripture and prophecy shows, according to the understanding given to me, and then upon this foundation set and build the three magical stones.

TETRAGRAMMATON

Of the unity of the true GOD, and the other person of the Godhead is born from eternity out of the Father, and from them both proceeds from eternity the third person, the Spirit of God, all three of equal power, in one Divine, indivisible being, through which all things are created and preserved.

Now when the highest Trinity of God resolved in the Divine will to create the angels, mankind, and in sum the whole of nature, so God the Father created things through the Word, as the second person, not in their final being, but only the primam materiam confusam, that is, the matricem (womb), in which the nature of the whole world was contained in a confused way. Therefore it is then called by the Philosophers, and in the Scripture, Abyssus and Terra (Abyss and Earth): namely, a thing in which all things lie hidden; and the prima materia was the water, upon which the Spirit of God hovered.

In this matrix, in which the world was created in a confused way, anima quatuor elementorum, purum & impurum, aurum & argentum, lucidum & tenebrosum (the soul of the four elements, the pure and impure, gold and silver, the luminous and dark), in and out of this matrix, which was surrounded by the light of God, heaven and earth, air and water were created solely through the little word Fiat (Let there be), and through the Spirit of God, which hovered over the matrix, all things were brought into their final being and repaired in six days with a firm, wise order; light and darkness were separated from one another, and so the most solid, light-filled essence, which in itself is called the tria principia Mercurii, Sulphuris & Salis (the three principles of Mercury, Sulphur, and Salt), was sent to the element of salt and called Firmamentum, that is, the firm [thing]; further, that which should be the vessel and container, which should carry the other three elements, for from the foundation and in the Word lies the proprietas (property), which the highest powers, sin and its band, cannot overcome.

Thus also with the little word Firmamentum, the proprietas comes to contain all graspable, visible understanding, the heaven, which is a thin, light chaos, like a smoke, which must carry and contain the other visible bodies of the elements, keeping them firm and unshaken; the largest, which was in the prima materia from the tribus principiis primis (three first principles), was afterwards created into the elementum terrae (element of earth).

Thus also it is to be understood of the air, to which part of the prima materia it was suited to be created into the same. Thus at first only the corpora elementorum (bodies of the elements) were thus created with the fruit, upon which the creatures should nourish themselves; afterwards the corpora elementorum were further created and repaired. Thus out of the most solid being of the element of salt, the Sun was brought forth, afterwards the Moon and all other stars, just as the trees and fruits of heaven, in which man should live. Thus also the earth was at first a similarly tempered being without fruit, but afterwards was commanded, so that further growth should come forth for man for nourishment; thus also it is to be understood of the other great elements, and He gave to each growing thing its own seed and natural, beloved fruitfulness; that is, all corpora of the elements were at first created lifeless, but through the Spirit of God the anima was given to them, that is, the living, invisible spirit or Quinta Essentia (Fifth Essence), which should sustain the corpora elementorum and preside over them, was impressed upon them.

When now all things were well repaired and finished, God created man in His mother or matrix, that is, in the great world under the Firmament, in Eden, in Paradise, on the limbus terrae (the fringe/zone of the earth), which was the sensual world and limbus of the whole sensus mundi (sense of the world). Therefore he is also called Microcosmus, i.e., parvus mundus (small world), because he was created to fill the number of the fallen angels, and was named Adam, because the limbus was a red, earthly clay, and in Hebrew is called Adam, for the word Adam means not a man, but rightly so because he was made from the red clay of the earth. This body, however, was not yet living, and the man did not yet live in it, it was only the corpus in which the man was to be planted (for the man is formed after the [Divine] image, therefore the soul is the man) and the body is the dwelling, for the man lives eternally and cannot be hindered from it by his descent; which soul, as an invisible, Divine fire from God Himself, was poured into the bodily body of Adam, out of the ground of His body.

But all were created thus, for the reason that man should not, in his Fall, persist against God and be damned like Lucifer; but that he, through the fiery spark of Divine love in the body, could be drawn and moved towards God, as if by a magnet, to repentance, through which he might still attain grace; for if Lucifer had possessed this Divine love, the fiery spark in the body, he would also have had repentance, and through that perhaps might have attained grace, had he not eternally hardened himself in pride. For God has mercy, especially most of all on His own, on His nearest relatives; since then the fiery spirits, or human souls, going out from God, are the very highest in the Divine image. That the materia or limbus, from which the human body was formed, was not a common, raw earth, as some only understand according to the letter, but was formed from the most glorious composito, and subtilissimo extracto totius machinae mundi, ex centro omnium quatuor circulorum (from the most subtle extract of the whole machine of the world, from the center of all four circles), this can be proven sufficiently from nature, but especially from this, that God formed man after His image from a Divine, fiery, pure, invisible Holy Spirit, which is not created, but proceeds from God from eternity, [so] He formed and shaped him in His Divine image; He breathed the spirit of life into the face [of this form], and the man became a living soul: which human soul is the highest thing after God, in heaven and on earth, and therefore it is not to be doubted that God, the fountain of all grace and mercy, created the dwelling of this most noble human creature, the corpus, also from the noblest, purest earthly composito; and not from a common, raw clay, as many want to force according to the letter.

One might, however, object to me and say: it is not without reason that the human body is the most glorious creature among others; nevertheless, it was only a common earth, and it would have been possible for God to create a glorious body from the common earth, since He nonetheless made the whole world from nothing.

To this I answer thus: Concerning the omnipotence of God, I must confess that God would indeed have been possible to create a glorious body from a common earth; but God created all things in summa, from the beginning, in a wise and orderly way, otherwise the order of nature would be disturbed and not comparable. Here now in the right order of things, and through the same until the End of the World, according to nature, not against nature, it is at the very least improbable that in the creation of man or his body something against nature should have been handled, that He should have made him from a crude element of earth; I grant that it was earth, but of the materia limbi, which has the property of earth, but therefore is not a common earth; otherwise it would be foolish talk. The whole machinae mundi (machine of the world) was used to bring forth a corpus, which would be suitable for the above purpose; that the earth is a mother of all elements, therefore it was created before all others; and afterwards from it, furthermore, the Microcosmus was made, that is, a new or small world is meant, as a practical Philosopher proves.

Terra est mater elementorum, de terra procedunt, & ad terram revertuntur omnia, per separationem & impregnationem ascendunt ad coelum, de coelo revertuntur ad terram fam. (Earth is the mother of the elements, from earth they proceed, and to earth all things return, through separation and impregnation they ascend to heaven, from heaven they return to earth.) Et habebis tunc imperatorium et divinum (And you will then have the imperial and divine).

Tract. Smaragd. Herm.

(Emerald Tablet of Hermes).

In summary, God created all things according to right order and nature, and nothing against nature, except the primam materiam, from which afterwards everything is created; the substance is made from nothing, therefore it is also abyssus, that is, the matrix mundi: or the fire, from which afterwards everything is created, this very one is created or made from nothing.

Now, if God had wanted to create something from this materia, or the water, over which the Spirit of God hovered, against nature, He would not have used six days, and created one thing after the other according to His order of nature, as He could have created all creatures outside of the water in uno momento (one moment); but God wanted to make not spirits, but natural creatures, therefore He took Himself the time, in which the seed of the whole nature lay in a lump, confused; that was the eternal fire, whose beginning and end is not, which was wisely separated by the almighty Spirit of God, the heavy from the light, the light from the darkness, and each to its place was wisely ordained, so that it must remain in its right, orderly, natural progression until the end, and everything must perform its officium naturale (natural office) for the good of man and for the glory of its Creator.

Now when Adam was created pure, glorious, and holy, made the highest of the earthly creatures, He also placed him from the beginning, since he was earthly, in a pleasure-garden, the Paradise in Eden, towards the east, took the man out of the world, and set him in Paradise, and not in heaven, so that no discord or evil should arise in heaven after the fall of Lucifer. For God had cast one out of heaven and many more, so He did not place the earthly man in heaven, but in the earthly Paradise, so that He could bring him into fellowship with God on the coming day, and he could enjoy all His creatures and take from them without sin; and the Devil, the envious enemy, seduced him so God gave from the hand to human nature and substance, in which He had placed him in an earthly way, and besides this a matrice from which the woman should be taken out of his own body; so that he should also have a helpmate from his own nature; but so that Adam should not cleave to this helper too much, and rule and dominate from his own lust, that they should be one and united against one superior will, and one should not be able to seduce the other through the lust of their own body.

For God did not give His man a servant, but a helpful, equal companion solely for the propagation of mankind, and such should be performed according to the order of nature, and when a man is born, he must take his human seed from the inner, human matrice, so that through the Spirit of God a new substance is produced in him, and a man is formed from it. And just as God did not create His creation Himself with His hands, but all through a word, so the almighty God also used the limbus of the earth, and then formed man from His matrix (which was the great world) and yet did not leave him in His matrix, but took him out of the matrix and placed him in Paradise; so also the man Adam should form or create other men and not always remain in the matrix… Therefore, so that His power of the seed might be effective, it happened that as in the first creation the Spirit of God hovered over the water and brought all things to life, and formed them, so He also hovered over the matricem microcosmicam, namely the male seed, the same Spirit formed the seed in the womb into the child or fetus in its final being, and completed the human being; but he should not remain in his matrice microcosmi, but be taken out and placed in the great world.

The sanctity does not suffer any damage, something is presumed to be purified; that anyone can think that a seed alone in the mother is brought to speech through the natural heat, for such may have no place in nature: it is found in the first creation, where all things were in their substance, where they were, but on account of the unification and multiplication of each creature, according to its kind and property, a living spirit (through which the creation should be effected) was impressed. And because man should also generate the image of God and his like, so into his matrix the likeness of his kind, i.e., the Spirit of God, which proceeds from God from eternity, was also impressed, that he, and not alone the female, the true, living image of the man (as is necessary in the great world) forms the man in the mother with the body, which Spirit hovers in the matrice microcosmi, and is not otherwise effected than with the verbum (word), which is spoken in its power, which is used in the conjugal act, on account of the other Spirit, which hovers over his mother; and because this forming Spirit (of man, semen virile) has all the imaginem microcosmi (image of the microcosm), so all other images, which look like man, and yet are not born of the right microcosm, or do not have a pure human seed, although they are both in body men, are nevertheless simian-like above; for there are known cases of those who indeed came from a man, but in a foreign matrix with another seed, when a foreign matrix receives the human seed with lust, then a human body will have a foreign soul.

This was the creation of heaven and earth, which was nothing other than the prima materia, massa confusa, afterwards the matrix of the great world, and was surrounded with the five of God the Word, which from this matrix is the matrix of the small world, and with the male seed, namely with the prima materia, or water over the world: this woman is the matrix of the small world, and is the matrix of all following men, which is surrounded by the great world, and is not a different band.

Now when man lived in the highest righteousness, and with body and soul before God, and with high wisdom and understanding, and was loved by God alone, the highest, true human soul, over all other creatures, bodily and spiritual; and was set as lord over the whole of nature, free, and had the knowledge of good and evil, the only power to act, the Devil, as an envious foe of God among His own, begrudged man such great honor and happiness, and devised a malicious trick and means, how he might turn man away from the love of God, and bring him into great disfavor and eternal damnation; but his intention could not be achieved, except that he might bring them into disobedience and into the same pride (which had also cast him out of heaven into hell) he dared not in his own form he did not dare to appear in his own form, out of fear that they would be frightened and not give him belief, but chose a natural, cunning, very clever means, through which he could perform his office, so that man should hear the natural means, and then use so much the less belief in the other, so he might deceive him more easily: And since he saw that the serpent was cunning and clever above all other animals, and had its dwelling under the forbidden tree, the Devil, by permission, entered into the serpent, and spoke through it to Eve, and not to Adam, and through cunning and deceitful words brought her to the point of the will, although she indeed resisted him. Because, however, she did not consider this to be death, as was known to her in her foundation, and had said the little word forsache (perhaps) doubtfully thereto, ‘perhaps you will die‘, the Devil took further occasion for his cunning and deceit, and said immediately thereafter, that they would have great honor, power, and authority, and they would become like God; so she believed the serpent, as the most clever animal, presumed it could not lie: since now the clever serpent spoke, her great pride allowed it to be pleasing to her, that she might become like God, and she took the apple from the forbidden tree, against God’s command, and gave it to her; as soon as she had eaten from the apple, she immediately received the knowledge of evil, lost the grace of God, and began to waver in the love of God; she then also seduced her wedded husband Adam in a deceitful way, through false appearance and evil suggestion, and persuaded him to the bite of the apple and the breaking of God’s command: And just as Eve was called woman, because she was taken from the man, so the serpent, as the most clever animal, spoke to her and her hidden things; so Adam was also deceived by his wife Eve, that he presumed she would still counsel him for the previous understanding and love to God and him, as she would counsel nothing evil, for he still knew no evil or wile. It went easily for him and he thought well again, that the first woman Eve, but the Eve poisoned by the Devil, had counseled him thus.

When now Adam had broken God’s command, and had fallen from pride into disfavor, he immediately lost all grace of God and the immortality, and made himself guilty of eternal death and damnation, and the Divine great wisdom and love became darkened in his eyes, and not only he, but also the whole machina mundi (machine of the world) lost the immortality and became subject to the miserable, eternal curse of sin, although such was wholly against nature; but God is the truth, He had to let everything that was created remain created, not according to an order, but because of the Word; and so that Adam might not perhaps stretch out his hand and take from the tree of life, through which he might finally live, God drove him out of Paradise again into the world from which he was made, and placed before Paradise the Cherubim and a glowing, flashing sword to guard the way to the tree of life, so that nothing defiled might go therein except those previously well purified through the second Cherubim and fiery sword, that is, through faith and hope and burning love towards God the All-Highest, which must be carried with six fire-flames, that is, with Christian works, and previously well tested: then out of sheer grace the fruit from the tree of life in Paradise, that is, the precious blood of JESUS Christ, which the tree of the holy cross bore, is granted to us to enjoy for life, and thereby to come again with CHRIST into the heavenly Paradise (for which Adam and Eve were first created); but the way to reach it is blocked, confused, and darkened, so that one cannot come to it on account of its height and other inconveniences; indeed, what some think, because it is not to be found [they think it must have been destroyed by the Flood]; no, I say spiritually that Paradise still stands in the old being, and is not destroyed; this is proven from Holy Scripture, that Christ, many hundreds of years after the Flood, spoke on the stem of the holy cross to the thief: ‘Today you will be with me in Paradise‘; this could not be understood of the heavenly Paradise, for Christ is the first fruit who ascended into heaven, through whom the heavenly is opened to the descendants: Christ led not many days after to heaven, not the third heaven, but the earthly Paradise is to be understood. But until then, Christ went to hell, redeemed the same, and fetched them; where were they now until the Ascension? Not in heaven, not in hell, nor on earth; of necessity they must have waited in the earthly Paradise until the Ascension; from this it is proven that Paradise was still present at the time of Christ’s passion.

But if one now would say: it could well have been destroyed after the Ascension, so that it is no longer present: To this I ask: where are now Enoch and Elijah, who are not yet dead, and are nevertheless not in the world, and shall come again on earth before the end to oppose the Antichrist, as also some Church teachers likewise think of John the Evangelist. One cannot honestly deny that they still have body and soul together and are not dead. They will, however, immediately object: It is written, they were taken up with body and soul into heaven, and do not believe that they are in another place. To this I answer thus: that the little word ‘heaven‘ is by no means to be understood according to the mere letter, and not the heavenly Paradise, but the earthly must be understood, from the fact that nothing defiled can or will enter the kingdom of God, except souls that are well purified through the blood of Christ; but the body must purify itself through temporal death, and through the separation of anima and spiritus, as is imposed on a temporal, mortal body; therefore it cannot be granted that they are in the heavenly, but must be in the earthly Paradise until the appointed time, that they shall return here; and because they shall return, they cannot be in heaven; for from the two extremes, heaven and hell, one does not return, but well from the locis intermediis (intermediate places), that is, the earthly Paradise and the infernal Purgatory.

From this it follows that the earthly Paradise still exists today in the old being; about which, however, it remains that the perfect should not undertake to find it in these last times; for it is too high to be found in flesh: ‘You have placed Adam in the Paradise, the pleasure-garden, which you had planted from the beginning, before the earth was?‘ Item Genesis: ‘And/God the Lord planted a region towards the east, in Paradise, a pleasant garden from the beginning, and placed man therein’. From these words it is clear, that/God in the creation had planted Paradise before the creation of the earth and from the beginning, not in the beginning, like heaven and earth, but before the beginning. If it was before the creation of the world, then it cannot be on earth (for it is therefore in another place, a medium between heaven and earth, and a separate land, therefore it is also called a pleasure-garden, it must be); Item, if Paradise were on our earth, why then did God expressly make a difference between Paradise and our earth in His creation, in which it lay, and God drove Adam out of Paradise, and let him live on the earth, from which he was taken, on the miserable, earthly clod.

If now Paradise is separated from the common earth, and is another place, unknown to us, then no one should undertake to find the earthly Paradise, especially because it is also still eternal and not cursed, for the earth, from which man was made, was cursed.

But because we are now cursed, and because of sin unclean and mortal, so our eyes are blinded, so that we can neither see nor perceive the heavenly joy, nor the hellish pain, nor also the earthly Paradise, much less could enjoy the fruit from the tree of life, unless it happens through the intercession of the porter of Paradise, that is the Cherubim and the eternally gleaming sword, that is, we are previously well armed with strong faith and hope in Christ, and thereto with the burning love, equipped with fire-flames or with good works: Then we can also in this life, in a spiritual way, see and discover in our mind how mighty the kingdom of the elect is, how horrible and miserable the kingdom of the cursed, and how beautiful and pleasant the earthly Paradise is, and how sweet, lovely the fruit from the tree of life is.

But if we remain blinded in our sins, dwell and walk in the darkness of sin without the true light, which enlightens every man, and are not born again from God, but continue in our mortal sins, then we can see and recognize only the perishable, temporal, cursed things, and therefore much less the beautiful, pleasant, eternal places, where the elect of God have their dwelling: Therefore, let no one undertake, in a carnal way, to see Paradise, to seek to follow the place carnally to find and to take of the fruits of eternal life; but rather let him strive first to attain such a dwelling from God out of grace, then he will soon find Paradise.

It is indeed reported, how Adam lost the immortality curse is again redeemed; purged from all uncleanness and placed again into their immortality, and provided again with the heavenly garment.

But insofar as the body can also become mortal through the spirit, and is not yet freed from the curse, so that the re-sanctified soul should not have to dwell eternally in the defiled, mortal body, or be separated from it; so God uses the means, that the human’s own elements in the corpore limbo must fight among themselves, or nature must ignite one another through their strife, incendiret, so fight among themselves, that the soul, which cannot dwell in a broken body, can follow it again into the corpore limbo; the soul, which is redeemed and united in the meantime in purgatorio sanquinis Christi (the purgatory of Christ’s blood); when it has not found itself again, it is taken up into the heavenly Paradise; the defiled [go] to their place. And just as the soul has its purgatorium in the blood of Christ, so the body has its purgatorium in the limbo terrae; therefore it must be reduced to its primam materiam, that is, into the limbus terrae, from which it was initially made, through the various elements, which materia afterwards at the last day, purified through the eternal fire, will be brought back into its first immortal, comprehensible, glorious, and eternal Corpus, as the Son of God had after the resurrection of humanity, as Paul says: Seminatur corpus animale, surgit corpus spirituale (It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body).

Then the purified, redeemed, eternal soul will rejoice in its also purified, clarified, and brought to the highest state body, and unite with it again, and through the ascension of God, clarified, enter into the new heavenly Jerusalem, and rejoice there with God in eternity; but this will be understood only by the elect; for whoever will enter the kingdom of God, must first go with the body into his mother, and die therein, then he first attains thereby an eternal life; the soul, which has gone out, if it will live eternally, must go again into its mother in God, and turn to Him alone, and die in Him; then it attains thereby an eternal life; that is, to overcome freely all kinds of worldly and devilish attacks; then it is purified through Christ’s blood, and finally made free again, as Christ himself says: ‘Whoever will live for me, must also die for me, so that he may be purified through the eternal fire on the last day, and live eternally again‘.

Just as now man regains immortality and eternity through the means that he goes again into his mother’s body, and thereby is renewed and regenerated, freed from the curse; so also must the whole machina mundi (machine of the world), the great world, in order to attain the unification, go again into its mother, from which it was made, die therein, and be again reduced into its primam materiam, massam confusam, et abyssum, terram (first matter, confused mass, and abyss, earth), and thereby be regenerated again and made eternal, as then all natural arcana have an end, and the almighty God, as the author and source of all things, is again brought home under the natural subjection, and the heavenly sun will begin to shine.

Insofar as now the creation of the whole of nature is a fall, and because of this the curse followed, and finally also its redemption and resurrection, as much as is revealed to us through Holy Scripture from the Most High, Moses and Isaiah, and as we will recognize or learn more fully, we find fulfilled from this, that God, as all things are created eternally for the sake of man, and for the sake of man has also subjected them to perishability, not from nature, but because of the Word, which the almighty God swore to nature as a punishment, and imposed.

Insofar as now God so highly esteemed man that He gave him the highest means, through which the soul and the body can again come into the eternal punctual seat and be reduced, He also did not want to forget the lowest, that is, of the temporal, miserable life, which man must bring to an end with much struggle and strife in the perishable body, soon with one, soon with another sickness and hardship; but also, as other natural things are subject, and to make the sick healthy and perfect, yet He wanted to grant each in its nature; for out of crude, imperfect metal, no man can be made, but each is perfected in its own nature to the point where it can be united with all natures, because the whole perfect nature and being of the whole great world lies hidden therein, and if the curse and a certain sorrow were not imposed on man because of sin, it would be possible, and indeed, to preserve the corpus microcosmi (body of the microcosm) in eternal health through the lignum vitae (wood of life); but nature must yield blindly to the Word and law of God.

On this account, this high art of medicine in man shows its provision not otherwise than [by healing] all sickness, to which man himself gives cause, through which he shortens his definitive term, to ruin him completely, and furthermore preserves and makes the corpus in the highest health until its determined end, and not only makes the man healthy and rich, but, as can be proven from Holy Scripture in many places, when it is used in true fear of God, it bestows upon man still higher things: Namely, that through such high treasure Quinta Essentia, from which he has his four elements, he becomes like God, as in a mirror, and can thereby wholly recognize the omnipotence and eternal wisdom, and thereby be given understanding and rational channels into the whole of nature; therefore such is an eternal fire, through which man’s understanding and wisdom is ignited. When then this high treasure in all its properties is called a fire, and a glorious example of its virtue is set before us in the second book of Moses, where Aaron the high priest of Moses, while Israel was straying in the absence of Moses, erected a golden calf as an idol; when Moses afterwards saw this, he became very angry with the people, because they worshipped a foreign God, so that he also threw the first tablets, in which great mysteries were, to pieces, considering that they were not worthy of such. What Moses did further, that the calf was utterly cursed by Moses and was so blind with seething eyes, that they could not recognize the works of God, and because the people would not go unpunished, therefore he sought a means, how he might not destroy them and bring them to knowledge of the sin, and of the omnipotence of God in heaven, he therefore let them grind the golden calf and burn it with fire, strew it upon the water, and gave it to the Israelites to drink, then the people came again to the knowledge of the almighty God in heaven, and no longer worshipped foreign gods.

One also finds in the fourth book of Ezra, that fire imparts understanding and wisdom: As the book of Ezra reveals the mysteries, what had happened, and what would happen in the future. There God used the means of fire, as Ezra himself testifies and says: ‘And he gave me a full cup of fire, and its color was as fire, and I drank it, and then wisdom grew in me: and God gave the spirit of understanding, and my spirit was in great memory, and my mouth was opened, and no longer shut, and when forty days were over, the Highest spoke to me. And I wrote two books, two tablets for the wise, and those worthy to read, written through the greatest’.

Insofar as it is such a high treasure, which is endowed with wisdom, understanding, riches, and the highest health, we shall with God’s permission strive after it; therefore from the following theory, I want to propose the practice, the practica in praeparatione lapidis benedicti (practice in the preparation of the blessed stone), for which I will now begin to describe. Since we know that the temporal, mortal man has fallen from something high, from an eternal, blessed sulphur and spiritual tinctura (tincture), and must lose it again and sacrifice it to the lust, on account of their inner, stinking, inferior Luciferian fire, which stimulates the Mercurium cerebrum (the Mercurial brain), which, ignited by a dark accident, burns its own corpus, and thus separates body and soul: Therefore a means must be sought, which endows their seed, and purges their corpora together with the soul’s tinctura from their innate, motherly uncleanness, clarifies them, and then leads and introduces them into the eternal being. Such a means, however, cannot be found among themselves, because they are all unclean, and none can purify itself from the curse.

Because they still have a small spark of the eternal invisible fire, the high Quinta Essentia from the Father inherited, yet because the people of Israel in the absence of Moses erected the golden calf for the sake of the soul-related tincture akin to him as an idol, Moses afterwards found this, he became so fiercely angry at the people because they had worshipped a foreign GOD and had thrown the great secrets into pieces, that he also broke the first tablets, therein considering that they were not worthy of them. But what did Moses do? Because he saw that the people were completely hardened by lucifer and, despite seeing eyes, were utterly blind, so that they could not recognize the benefits of the LORD, and well feared that GOD would not leave them unpunished; therefore he sought a means how he might nevertheless bring them to the recognition of their sins and of the omnipotence of GOD in heaven, he therefore had the golden calf brought, and burned it with fire, ground it to powder, scattered it into the water, and gave it to the children of Israel to drink, whereby the people came again to the recognition of the almighty GOD in heaven, and worshipped no foreign gods any more.

Also one finds in the fourth book of Esdras, that the fiery ordeal also imparts wisdom: As when God wanted to reveal to Esdras the secrets, what had happened and would yet happen in the future. There GOD first uses the means of fire, as Esdras himself confesses and says: And he gave me a cup full of fire, and its appearance was like fire, and I drank it, and then wisdom came into me: and GOD has given the fifth understanding and my spirit retained it in the memory, and my mouth was opened, and was no longer closed, and when forty nights were over, then 204 books had been prepared, 70 of them for the wisest, and they were worthy to be read, written on the bark of trees.

Since it is such a high treasure, adorned with wisdom, understanding, riches, and the highest health, we shall humbly, with the help of God, search for the same; we therefore wish to describe from the following Theoretica, the Practica or the proposed practice, to take in hand the preparation of the blessed stone. After we see how the destructible imperfect metal is born from what is an eternal, procreating sulphur and spiritual tincture, but has lost this again and had to sacrifice it to the air, because of its burning, stinking, impure luciferian fire, which it inherited from the menstruum of Mercury, which, through a mere accidental astrum, ignited, burned its own corpus, and thus separated body and soul: Therefore a means must be sought, which pays their debt, and purges, clarifies their corpora together with the soul-related tincture from their inherited maternal impurity, and then raises itself into the eternal being. Such a means, however, cannot be found among them themselves, because they are all themselves impure, and none can redeem itself from the curse and its debt.

Because they still have a small spark of the eternal invisible fire-the high Quinta Essentia of the Father inherited-still with them, but it lies enclosed in all corrupted metals; it lies in its heaven, that is the body of the sun, and since the golden heaven cannot be opened by anything impure, much less can its golden son enter into a defiled, impure corpus. Now, however, he must unite with a metallic corpus of feminine gender, insofar as he wants to redeem the metals. Therefore, because the common metallic mother, Mercury, is impure because of her fall, the grandfather of all metals, sol, sulphur, prepares for himself through the natural motion and circulation of the elements, a beautiful mercurial water, which is by nature very beautiful and pure, separated from all uncleanness, subtilized by its own natural sublimation & circulation, and is free and released from the menstrual stain, as the common metallic mother, Mercurius vulgi, is with itself. Into this, the life-giving, fruitful spirit | of the metals is poured, as is the prima materia Philosophorum. In this salty water or beautifully purified fountain, the golden heaven, the golden book, in which the Father, Son and Spirit, that is sal, sulphur and Mercurius, lie enclosed, must be let down, because it is no longer surrounded by its earthly heaven, but has lowered itself from it; This King, although he is by nature, due to the equality of the elements, eternal and immortal; nevertheless, because he should wash off the impurity of other metals, he willingly sheds his blood for them: Therefore you must kill his metallic body, adopted from Mercury, again, that is, you must dissolve him again in his mercurial mother in his proper water bath, or because of his high essence, since he is the true Philosophia solis et salis secundæ, or the media persona in the intimum solis itself, so he is in his power and virtue so mighty, that he does not let his adopted mercurial body last long, but just as he gives the soul its refreshment from its mother, that is from the spirit of God imparted from above, he nourishes, refreshes, and sustains it until the final victory, as Christ himself says, man lives not by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God; thus he also gives to the habitation of the soul, that is, the human body, abundantly surplus nourishment, through which it can renew and sustain itself every day; for the body which we have from our natural father Adam, would in eternity soon be consumed and dead, if we did not daily feed it with the body of mercy, which we obtain from the nutriments and transmit into our body; yet among all nourishing things, the bread for which we daily pray is the foremost, and the closer to the bread, the better the health. But so that GOD shows us His mild, rich grace, He gives us not only the bread for which we pray, but also we may easily find the method and cure. Moreover, God has mercy on fallen mankind.

But beyond all this, God has provided for mankind yet a higher universal medicine, in which lies not one element, but all elements and the Quinta Essentia (Fifth Essence) of the Machina Mundi (World Machine), so that nothing higher in nature for the benefit of the human body can be found. And there is also nothing more related or greater for the human body than this. For when he partakes of it, he receives the Quintam Essentiam (Fifth Essence) and the entire renewed new world, which, as a regenerating force, consumes the destructive old world—that is, the deficient being in man—and brings the entire Microcosmus (Microcosm) into its correct temperament, wherein it is preserved until the appointed time of death, which is imposed because of sin. And not only does he cure and heal mankind from sickness and decay, but also all related bodies, and he brings them into their correct temperament. Thus, he cures all imperfect metals and transmutes them into the most constant body of the Solis (Sun).

Thus, it is also to be understood here concerning the metals: that the eternal, immortal Tinctur (Tincture), which they also have within them, though invisibly and somewhat tarnished, should not eternally dwell in the unclean body, or when they are destroyed by the occidental fire, should not be destroyed, nor should it eternally have to be separated from them. The Son of the Philosophical Metals has mercy on those who have so fallen, and has drawn him out from the seed of the woman—that is, from Mercurii (Mercury)—through the circulation of the elements, [to be] a pure, immaculate mother: the true Philosophical Mercurium (Mercury), which is rightly compared to the Virgin Mary—not to Eve, but to Mary, upon whom the golden crown of the Trinity was placed—[and] has sublimed, subtilized, and prepared it in the visceribus terrae (bowels of the earth) into a pure Mercurial fire. To it [the mother] he has also allied the middle soul of the whole of nature; to which the Son of Philosophy is related, as the spirit is communicated to the soul of the woman in the matrix (womb). This pure, immaculate Virgin, or Mercurius (Mercury), and not the common, opens the heaven of the Divinity to the other metals, so that they may perceive the Son of Philosophy.

For the gold has enclosed its high essence, and the Son [has enclosed himself] eternally in his heavenly body, and would not impart of his essence if this pure, immaculate Virgin were not present.

Just as Mary, in a supernatural and invisible manner, through the Holy Spirit, conceived the Son of GOD from the Father in a salified state, so has our pure Virgin, the Philosophical Mercurius (Mercury), in a wonderful way, through the Holy Spirit—that is, here through the Sulphur (Sulphur), as the mediator and light of the Godhead—the Spiritum Mercurii (Spirit of Mercury) which is in the Sole (Sun), or rather, the high Quinta Essentia (Fifth Essence) of all things, received. But mark how such a conception comes to pass: So Mary was not completely pure and free from sin, and if she had not had the soul, together with the spirit of GOD—which, as reported in the story of creation, is given to every woman in the mother—she could not have conceived the Son of GOD. For through the soul she knew God and believed God, and through the spirit of GOD she was, in the mother, overshadowed from the consent of the pure soul, and thereby the Son of GOD became man in her fleshly body invisibly, magically, from the consent of the soul, led by the spirit of GOD, so that God and humanity were united with one another.

Thus also, when our Mercurius (Mercury) or the Philosophical Virgin were not beforehand sufficiently united and subtilized, and purged of the Stimulo Menstruali (Menstrual Stimulus), and did not have the middle-soul of all metals within it, then it could not receive the being, the Tincture, or the Sulphur of the Sun. But since it has such a middle-soul—that is, one comparable to the spiritus matricis mulierum (spirit of the woman’s womb)—the Spiritus Mercurii (Spirit of Mercury) purifies itself in the same, as the tertiam personam Trinitatis (third person of the Trinity), with its like, the related essence of the spiritus Mercurii which is hidden in our Mercurio (Mercury) or Miriem Philosophorum (Mary of the Philosophers).

Thus the spiritus Mercurii (Spirit of Mercury) becomes a Domicilium (Dwelling) for the high Quintae Essentiae (Fifth Essence) of the Mediatoris (Mediator), that is, the Sulphur. So the spiritus Mercurii Solis (Spirit of the Mercury of the Sun), when it is united with the spiritus Mercurii lunae (spirit of the Mercury of the moon), secretly draws with it in a heavenly manner into our Mary the Mediator & Mercurium Solis (Mercury of the Sun), the heavenly seed. In an instant, the conception and incorporation of the highest being takes place, and the high Quinta Essentia (Fifth Essence) of the Sol (Sun) unites itself through an insemination with the pure, beautiful body of the Mercurii (Mercury), as the mother of all metals.

And after she had carried this for a time in her natural womb, she finally gives birth for us to the Saviour of all metals, who, received from the highest being in the pure mother and born outside the element—where he is open and not hidden to us—is this King; although he is, on account of the elemental temperature, eternal and immortal. However, because he wishes to pay the debt of the other metals and wash away their impurity from them, he willingly sacrifices himself for his enemies, sheds his blood, and redeems them through his innocent, bloody death—that is, he goes back into his mother, into his Mercurium (Mercury), which separates all his members from one another, sheds his blood, and kills him—that is, it dissolves him again, and also puts him back together through its own almighty power.

Then the united God and humanity, which had suffered there and has risen again, goes back to heaven, returns to his heavenly Father who sent him, and unites himself with Him. And then he sends his faithful the spirit, through which he finally elevates them into the heavenly kingdom and makes them partakers of eternal joy.

So also here: the united and reborn infans (infant) of the high, fifth wisdom of gold and the Mercurial essence is united again with its father in the golden heaven from which it came forth—that is, with the body of gold. There, the King in nature is born, has died, and is again found victorious, and is elevated into his heavenly kingdom and united with his father, where he reigns eternally, dies no more, and cures all poor, sick metals—if they conduct themselves towards him and turn to him—in soul and body, and carries them into the beautiful golden kingdom.

If he now does such a wonder in the entirely mortal bodies of the metals and thereby makes their bodies eternal and constant, how much more will he do in the human body and make it, according to its kind, also eternal and constant. For the human body, the Microcosmus (Microcosm), is most closely related in its nature and property to this golden King, with the exception of the form, as far as the eyes are concerned.

And not only does he let the human body remain in its coarse state, but rather, through the orderly increase of the fire, he takes his Mercurial, yet ever-rejuvenating, and clarified body back to himself, unites himself with it, and makes it rise again alive. As one must reunite him with his father in heaven, so that the Trinitas (Trinity) may rule in every being, united with Mercurial substance and essence, and lead others with itself into the golden heaven.

That is, you must place such a Lapis (Stone)—which in itself has and comprises the secundam & tertiam personam Solis (second and third person of the Sun), together with the Mercurial body and soul—again into the golden heaven. That is, you must cement it onto the body of the Sol (Sun) and clarify it, make it equal, and reunite it with its father, that is, with the O in O, so that the Trinitas Solis (Trinity of the Sun)—Sal (Salt), Sulphur (Sulphur), and Mercurius (Mercury)—are together again in the golden heaven.

And because the persona media (middle person) has taken on the adopted Mercurial, metallic body with itself, and has united it with the Trinitas Solis (Trinity of the Sun) and thereby clarified it, it can thereby easily help the weak Mercurial bodies so that they all together may be saved into the golden heaven, if they but turn to him. For the Trinitas Solis (Trinity of the Sun), der Stein der Weisen (the Philosophical Stone), can never forsake that which it has adopted, namely the Mercurial, soul-like body, but comes to its help at all times.

But when such a stone is to be used for the human body, it should first be dissolved in a water, or a subtle spirit, so that it can permeate the whole body, and should be used in a very small dose with caution.

Just as it has been said of the stone of gold, in which the treasure of the whole of nature lies, so it may be understood from the aforesaid creation that a similar magical stone is to be found in the Lymbo Microcosmi (Limbo of the Microcosm). For it has all natures and essences in itself, like the golden stone, with the sole exception of the difference, as was indicated in the creation—which is unnecessary to repeat. Because every creature through death is reduced back into its primam materiam (first matter), it is nevertheless possible to bring forth a new, more noble birth. And because the Microcosmus (Microcosm) was created from all four elements in correct proportion, although he was distempered through the curse and made mortal, it follows that his materia reducta & vera soluta (reduced and truly dissolved matter) must also have in itself all 4 elements in equal weight of their virtue and their Essentia (Essence). And because every thing generates its like, it follows that from this Limbus compositus (Composite Limbo) or materia (matter), a new world may be born. And just as every thing in the new birth nevertheless has its being as in its first life—for through death the curse is taken away—so from this foundation, not only can the Microcosmus (Microcosm) be led back into a new, paradisiacal life, but also the fruit of all elements, so that it can thereafter produce its virtue more and better than in the first life, they were affected with the flaw [of sin]. Behold, you can already recognize the highest secrets and mysteries by their scent; but they appear as rough goats, nettles, or roses, because they still stand in their own natural state of impurity and death, and thus show only poor effects.

But when you take them and so dissolve them—that is, separate them through calculation and bring the elements back together, and through the circulation of the elements bring forth the new birth from the pure separated from the impure, then you will see how powerfully they prove themselves in their efficacy in the human body, which they were not capable of in their first life!

Thus, as is fitting for a physician, you can prepare all kinds of arcane bodies, and guide their Tincturas (Tinctures) and Arcana (Secrets) into the new birth, and not use the old or first [substances], and pay close attention to the means and the process in the preparation; for Putrefactio (Putrefaction) is the foremost degree, in which all living things rot and die, and all dead things become alive again. As the grain of wheat, which Christ himself cast forth, gives us indication that it must first rot and die, otherwise it would bear no fruit.

FINIS.

*

Chapter XXII

First Appendix shared

by Gottfried Arnold

‘Upon Magic’.

Since in the history of the aforementioned Paracelsus, as also with the Rosicrucians and other similar writings, the matter of Magia (Magic) occurs very often, but is commonly interpreted without distinction as the damnable art of sorcery; therefore, some descriptions and notes on this subject may fittingly find their place here. And indeed, from a book which appeared around the beginning of the 17th century under the title: ‘Magia Veterum‘ (The Magic of the Ancients).

In Aphorism 1,  He is and is called a Magus (Magician), to whom, from divine grace, the essences and beings serve—not in a bodily or tangible form, but solely in their essential nature, yet visibly and manifestly—for the knowledge of the creation of the world and of every nature contained within it, be they visible or invisible, perceptible or imperceptible, in rational or irrational things.

This description of the Magus is far-reaching, comprehends much in itself, and is universal. From this, it is now to be concluded that Magia is a wisdom of the creatures, and knows their natures, and knows how to use their hidden beings and properties to advantage. Such art, however, and this wisdom, is twofold: one uses it for good, another for evil. Therefore, one is wise and clever for good, another for evil and wicked ends. The good we have just described; the evil we will also make known in the next Aphorism.

But we wish first to distinguish Scientiam boni & mali (the knowledge of good and evil), that is, the wisdom to distinguish between good and evil, which Magia is good and which is evil; since indeed the first man desired to know both these things in Paradise, to his harm and ruin, as Moses in Scripture, and also Hermes, testify.

Scientia boni

(The Knowledge of Good)

is divided into:

A. Notitia verbi DEI

(The Knowledge of the Word of GOD)

B. Notitia regiminis DEI per Spiritus

(The Knowledge of the Governance of GOD through Spirits)

These are explained as follows:

Scientia boni is the wisdom of the good in the Creator’s works, knowing how to assess and speak of the mighty in His will, in the wisdom of good and not in evil; and such a Magus is skilled in the knowledge of the word of God and divine wisdom.

Notitia regiminis DEI per Spiritus is the knowledge of the governance of GOD through the Angels. He knows that the Almighty rules the world through the Spirits or Angels, whom the Holy Scripture calls Watchers, and he knows the service of the Angels and understands how good spirits are created and ordained for mankind, to serve them; he who also has a good understanding of these same spirits, and in what ways they interact with us, he is a good Theologian, and that is the true beginning of Magia, without which he can accomplish nothing in what follows.

Notitia verbi DEI is the knowledge of the word of God, that is, of the good and just will of God, not according to man’s own whims, but according to the word of God. He is skilled in the understanding and application of the words of God; and this is divided into Theosophiam and Anthroposophiam.

Theosophia is the Divine wisdom.

Anthroposophia is the human wisdom, which is not directed towards one’s own pride, but shows itself for the common good and for the benefit of everyone; and this is divided into Scientiam rerum naturalium.

Scientia rerum naturalium is the knowledge of natural things and their powers, when one can use the natural fruits of the elements for oneself or for others without harm to anyone. He is a prudent man, who directs his life not according to the will of the flesh, but according to the word of God; for he who does not do this has no understanding, though he thinks himself a good AnthropoSophist and a good Magus.

Prudentia rerum humanarum (Prudence in Human Affairs) is the foresight and justice in human matters; that is, he who has understanding and wisdom in all good things for the edification and preservation of the common good, without anyone’s detriment.

This, then, is the knowledge of the good, which the true Magi follow, and do not misuse their art, but have applied it in the fear of God, with piety, with their teaching and long life—as Enoch with his transformation; the Patriarch Joseph with his prognostication; the great Prophet Moses with his recognition of the two tables of Moses; Samson with his strength; David with his victory and special fear of God; Solomon with his greatest wisdom; Daniel with his visions and angels; and likewise countless others, both among the Heathens and the people of God, which cannot all be told.

Now the author speaks of false magic thus:

In Aphorism 2. He speaks of a Cacomagus or devilish sorcerer is he to whom, by God’s permission, the evil spirits serve for the temporal and eternal ruin and harm of mankind, to blind them, to deceive them, and to turn them away from God. Such a Magus was that Simon, called the great Magus, of whom mention is made in Acts VIII, and especially in the element [of air], whom St. Peter cast down to the earth, whom the unclean spirits had raised and carried in the air; and many other such wonderworks with transformation of form, and other strange things, which he did before the Emperor and all the people, as did also other sorcerers like him. To this second class also belong all those who are judged, sentenced, and indicated by the two tables of Moses on account of their harmful and damaging sorcery.

So that they may be better distinguished and understood, we will also set forth their subdivision in a figure, in which everyone may see how far they depart from the first, and that from both it may be known what the Magus should adopt and what he should flee, towards what he should strive and how far he should endeavor to reach the proper, lawful end and purpose of life. And this is the figure:

Scientia mali

(The Knowledge of Evil)

is divided into:
A. Cacosophiam (Cacosophy, Evil Wisdom)

B. Cacodæmoniam (Cacodemonia, Evil Demonology)

Cacosophia, which is double, consists of:

Contemptus verbi DEI (Contempt for the Word of GOD).

Ignorantia regiminis DEI per Angelos (Ignorance of the Governance of GOD through Angels).

Cacodæmonia, which is also double, consists of:

Veneficium (Poisoning/Sorcery) & Maleficæ Artes (Malefic Arts/Witchcraft)

These are explained as follows:

Scientia mali (The Knowledge of Evil) is the wisdom of man which allows itself to be led into wicked and evil cunning, and does not wish to remain in a simple understanding. It is divided into two parts, namely into Cacosophiam and Cacodæmoniam.

Cacofophia is the perverted and impure understanding and mind, which is inclined to all evil with malice. This accursed wisdom—which would be better called a folly—is in turn divided into Contemptum verbi DEI and Ignorantiam regiminis per Spiritus Angelicos.

Contemptus verbi DEI is the contempt of the word of GOD; namely, when man will not let himself be guided or led by the Biblical scriptures, but directs his life according to the course of the world and the will of the devil, remains in his own pleasure, lust, and courage, which is the greatest idolatry.

Ignorantia regiminis DEI per Angelos is the ignorance of the governance and rule of GOD through the Angelic spirits; namely, when man does not know or believe that God has appointed good angels for every land, every dominion, every action in all elements, to govern, to lead, to preserve, or to destroy, as also for man himself. Out of this ignorance, he despises, scorns, and ridicules the protection and custody of the angels, and thus enters into association with the devil. Under this Ignorantia is also comprised idolatry, and the doing or practice of all godlessness.

Cacodæmonia, or sorcery, is the whole devilish art, all its parts and works. And it is divided into Veneficium and Maleficas Artes.

Veneficium is the art and wisdom of those who use poison and other sorcerer’s works with natural things; namely, when man uses the plants and other fruits of all elements for all kinds of harm and evil against GOD and his neighbor.

Maleficæ artes is such understanding and wisdom which is found in all evil arts for the harm and destruction of mankind, when man uses them for the shame and blasphemy of GOD, to the harm and detriment of man.

Further on, p. 7, we see Aphorism III: ‘This is the preparation whereby everyone who wishes to be a good Magus must order and dispose himself unto his art‘. There are seven precise points to care about:

Firstly, it is necessary that he who desires to be a Magus should day and night, early and late, according to his utmost strength, constantly meditate and ponder (as Cornelius Agrippa also commanded in his ‘Occulta Philosophia‘) how he may come to a true knowledge of God—which every man can and should do well, both through contemplation of the imperishable word of God, namely the Holy Scripture, which has been revealed to man by God’s goodness in the Bible from the beginning of the world, and thereafter also through die Scalam der Creation und derer Creatorum (Ladder of the Creation and of the Creatures); that is, through the grades and steps of the creations, how the government of the same reaches from the smallest thing to the highest head. Moreover, through the miraculous effects and powers which the visible and invisible creatures of God display and manifestly reveal, that He alone is the Lord, and that all things are and remain according to His will.

Secondly, it is necessary, when he now recognizes and rightly holds himself in both parts, that he learns to serve the eternal God with the one part (which in him is immortal), namely with the soul together with the spirit, to love and to fear Him, and thus to worship Him in the spirit and in the truth (as Christ also instructed the Samaritan woman, John IV). For God is a spirit, as is written in the same chapter, therefore He wants to have such worshippers as worship Him in spirit and in truth. But with the mortal part—that is, just as well with the heavenly or subtle as with the earthly body—he should also do what is pleasing to God; namely, that according to the commandment he should be to his neighbor in brotherly love, and make himself useful with good works.

Thirdly, note also this rule, which the Royal Prophet David prescribes in Psalm 36, when he says: “Reveal and commit your way to the Lord, so will He Himself make it happen.” And for a certain consolation, ponder also what God says in Isaiah 48: “I am the Lord your God, who teaches you what is useful, who also leads you in the way you should walk.” Furthermore, know that God is willing to fulfill all your desires, if you but seek Him rightly; and that you may be certain of this, pay special attention to that divine saying which He Himself said through King David, Ps. 31: “I will give you understanding, and will teach you in the way you should go; I will guide you with my eye and lead you.“

Fourthly, mark also this rule, which Christ says in the Gospel: “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, then all other things will be added to you” (Matthew VI). This you should understand thus: that you should always, before all your works, think upon how you wish to enter heaven through Christ and through His holy suffering, of which you make yourself a partaker through good works—and that is God’s righteousness, without all hypocrisy—in order to lead your will, so that you think more upon the spiritual than upon the bodily.

Fifthly, is that you should not worry about the spirits; they shall finally lead you, for the Lord’s eye’s sake, into no misfortune.

Sixthtly, if you perhaps doubt, when God is pleased to send His angel to you, that He wants to test you in persevering in prayer; therefore you should not cease, but remind the Almighty of His many faithful promises, and often admonish Him, especially of the comforting assurance Christ has subjected to His believing Christians in the Gospel, Luke X., among other things he spoke: ‘You, who have followed me, shall give a change to the children, how much more will my Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to all those who ask Him for it‘.

Seventhly, let it also be of no small importance to you to consider often what Christ says in the Gospel of John, chapters VIII and XIV: ‘If you do the will of my Father in heaven, then you are truly my disciples, and we will come to you and make our abode with you‘.

These Seven Points drawn from Scripture so far, if you bring them from the dead letter into a living and living unification in the spirit, into practice, then you will finally not err in magic, nor fall into sorcery or other misfortune, but you will attain the desired at the right time, and not fall from your set goal and end; GOD will also teach you Himself through His Holy Spirit, and guide you in useful things in the truth, not only in dreams, but also waking, in contemplation, in reading, in thoughts and reflections, as well in words as in imagination, etc. He will also give and assign His holy loving angels to serve you, who will be your helpers, teachers, and guides, not only for your undertaken work, but also in all secrets of the whole world; if you remain and persist in the aforementioned practice, then He will also command not only the spirits, but finally also all creatures, that they obey you, are subject and serviceable to you, so that you can say with good conscience and with the holy Prophets: ‘Even the spirits are subject to you‘, Luke X. Especially, which will be the greatest and most excellent work for you, that your name is written in heaven.

Conclusion

Paracelsus’ advice 

‘Just as there is only one GOD, from whom all good flows, so there is also only one sin, namely disobedience against the will of GOD and His commandments, from which all evil comes. Thus, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom (Ps. 111:10), and of the useful practice of Magia. For the fear of the Lord follows after obedience and the will of GOD. To this God-fearingness then follows the presence of God and of the Holy Spirit, and thereto also the servitude of the holy angels and all good things from the inexhaustible treasures of GOD. For as it is written in Psalm 145, ‘The LORD is near to all who call on him in truth. He will fulfill the desire of those who fear him; he will also hear their cry and save them.’ (Ps. 145:18-19).

But the harmful and damnable Magia comes from this: when we cast the fear of GOD out of our hearts and allow sin to rule over us, then immediately the god of this world (2 Cor. 4:4) and the prince of darkness (Eph. 6:12) is present, who fills such a man with his godless army, then as a spider a fly assaults such man, which in its web is hanging; so also the Devil entangles his affairs, his lusts and desires, until he such a one finally a captive wild game with the snares of evil completely sucks out, and dries up into the material and firewood of the eternal and hellish fire. He does, however, such people for a time good, brings them to honor and elevates them highly, so that they afterwards all the more heavily and more horribly again down fall and thus are cast down!

Therefore, gracious dear Reader, raise now the eyes of your spirit, if you this book with diligence use, several times consider, and into the practice of your understanding have brought; raise your eyes, I say, and look around in all kinds of histories of the Divine and heathen writings; Look and observe also otherwise in the world and pay attention, according to my afore-written instruction, to everything that daily happens and occurs, so will you perceive that everything is full of Magi, more evil than good, according to the twofold knowledge of the good and evil, as in the first two Aphorisms is indicated’.

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Second Appendix shared

by Gottfried Arnold

‘Upon Magic’

We now want to add one and another promotion on this matter from the most prominent author of such things, namely the in the 16th book oft-mentioned Theophrastus Paracelsus, whose own words are the following, and are quite clear, where he reveals the history and origin of true Magic alongside its promotion and the distinction from false Magic in the ‘Aurora Philosophorum‘, in the Appendix of his chemical writings (cap. 1, 2, and 3, p. 73, etc.):

‘The Chaldeans, Hebrews, Persians, and Egyptians have always, next to the theology and instruction in Divine matters, also had the free, natural arts set before their rulers, priests, and high priests, as the highest Philosophers and wisdom, to learn. Just so it also happened with the faithful of God, when they were chosen as priests, namely Moses and Aaron, as knowledgeable in Magic and Nature; these, as those who might maintain health, especially in the knowledge of the office, those in the preparation of medicines for the preservation of human welfare. So also was Moses himself instructed and taught in all kinds of good arts in Egypt through the diligent care and foresight of the daughter of Pharaoh, so that he was mighty in wisdom, as Acts VII. 22. can be seen.

‘In the same way, Daniel was also appointed from youth to the art and teachings of the Chaldeans, in that he, alongside his three companions, was taught for three years in the Chaldean writings and languages. As his prophecy and interpretation of the words ‘Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin’, Dan. V. 26., proves, which happened 420 years after the giving of the Law, the Chaldean words had to be understood and explained through the prophetic spirit and Cabalistic art. This Cabalistic art and wisdom was very common and usual through male instruction and teaching of the father to the son with Moses and the Prophets. But not only the children of Israel, but also the old heathens, learned to recognize God and His Word rightly from the natural, secret arts, and therefore also undertook to walk in a quiet, devout and righteous way. So one also finds in the books of Samuel, that the Pythians did not have fellowship with the devil, nor followed him; but that they, from the providence of God, had become truly knowing and prophesying ventriloquists; as we will discuss further in the book on heavenly things‘.

‘Also such a high spirit was given to all the Prophets and God-fearing people (who walked in the contemplation of the Word of God) and was granted by GOD. It was also a custom among the Persians, that no one should be chosen as king, or properly elevated to the throne, unless he were such a highly wise, secure man both in name and deed; from which it is also proven that they called their kings Sophos, that is, the Wise. Just such were also the three Kings from the Orient, who sought Christ Jesus from the rising of the sun, and were called nature-knowing Prophets. So the Egyptians, after they had learned such Magic and Philosophy from the Chaldeans and Persians, also wanted that their priests and rulers should diligently investigate and learn such wisdom. There they achieved such a level, that they became famous in all neighboring lands. On which account Hermes was rightly and well called Trismegistus, the very greatest, most powerful, and wisest. Because he was a king, priest, prophet, wise and clever lord in all natural things, as after him also Zoroaster‘.

Of the same Paracelsus writes p. 79, Chapter 11:

‘Since now the great flood after the Fall was around the year of the creation of the world approximately 1680, in the seven and twentieth year after the flood, the third part of the world was possessed, this art broke forth with force, as it were, in Chaldea and Persia, and subsequently also spread to Egypt. When now the idolatrous and superstitious heathens smelled this, some among them, who were the most sensible and understanding, traveled to Chaldea and Egypt, so that they might draw and learn such wisdom from the schools. But because the teaching of the Divine Word from the Holy Bible and the Law of Moses did not please them, they relied on their reason and own understanding, wanted to be wiser and more clever than God Himself, they were turned away from the foundation and ground of the true, natural, secret and hidden Art, and fell into their own darkness: as can be found from their books, that they thus deviated, wrote and held Cabalistically and highly proudly from the teaching of Moses. But it was the custom among the Egyptians, that they did not present such, their teaching of wisdom, clearly, openly, and clearly, but in a figurative and hidden way, with entangled words and foreign introductions, in books. Which the Greek poet Homer afterwards taught veiled in his verses. To him came Pythagoras, who had learned from the Law of Moses and the Old Testament, with many others. Likewise Hippocrates, Thales Milesius, Anaxagoras, Democritus and others more, who, I confess, also let their understanding run free from them; none of them had the right, true Astronomy, Geometry, Arithmetic and Mechanics, that they were capable of the science of the stars, earth-measurement, number-science and atom-science, nor had their true, proper practice. For their own pride and presumption hindered them and led them into error. For when they had grasped something small from the Chaldeans and Egyptians, they became proud and conceited, trusted their understanding much more and higher than was in their nature, and began to burden the matter with many false, invented findings, and undertook to write a new, own Philosophy sprung from their own brain, which not only gained the upper hand among them, but was also subsequently spread from them to the Latins, which the Greeks did no less, since they, having attained a little instruction, also wanted to let their understanding run free, and with their addition help, increase, adorn and improve. From such is now the aforementioned presumed Philosophy spread into all of Europe, has passed through almost all Academies and High Schools, such were set up for their sake, and the youth were instructed in them, and still today one is so stubbornly infatuated with it, that they, forgetting Moses and the Prophets, adhere to such almost as to God Himself, and are blown up with it, not only in Germany, but also almost by all other nations; so that if someone brings forth something that corresponds to the right, true Philosophy grounded in God’s Word, which is not their foundation, he must not only be despised, mocked and laughed at, but also well and truly persecuted; thus remains the old proverb: mundus vult decipi, the world wants to be deceived. So be it done to them according to their will’.

And further p. 80:

‘The right, true Magician is one who has such an art and skill, through which one attains to the knowledge of the highest things, of their entire essence, power, efficacy, virtue, and hidden workings; the Cabala, however, from the content of its high, divine understanding, shows the right way and manner for man to come to GOD the LORD, how one should deal with Him, and what one should reveal and make understandable from His Word. For the Cabala (which is a secret, holy conversation with God) is full of heavenly mysteries; just as Magic is the wisdom of the natural, hidden things. This teaches how one should prophesy and predict from the natural things the present and future things. For the working reveals in the future first the restless and dark, as well as the quiet; both inner and outer; namely, what forces and secret workings lie hidden in each and every thing, to which they are ordained and appointed from the beginning, and with what own virtues they are endowed. So also the bands are known, through which the heavenly things are linked and bound with the earthly things, as this can sometimes be shown visibly and tangibly from the operative and working. So also the union or marriage of the heavenly powers with the earthly elemental powers is called by the Magi and Wise Gamaea, that is, unio and matrimonium (marriage) of the heavenly powers and properties with the subterranean powers, like the man and the woman.

Then the wonderful mediations of all heavenly and earthly bodies follow, namely of the sun and planets, item Vegetabilium, Mineralium, et Animalium (likewise of Plants, Minerals, and Animals), that is, of the growths, herbs and metals. The Devil has likewise striven with all diligence and earnest to imitate and counterfeit this; it has not yet quite succeeded for him, after which he has seduced all of Greece, and at the same time, human speculations, fantasies, and blasphemies against God, the Almighty and His only-begotten Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. For the right, true Magic has its origin from the Divine Ternary and Imprint of God. Because God the Almighty first of all marked the uncreated Sophia (Wisdom) with this Ternary and threefold number, and engraved many highest hidden and secret Trinity with His Divine finger, in such a way that nothing among all natural things in the whole world can be found or brought forth, that is lacking and missing the mystery of the Divine Trinity, or that may not be set before the eyes, as it were, visibly. For the creature and the work is like a mirror and to recognize just as, as the Holy Apostle Paul attests, Rom. 1. 20. the bond of this Divine Ternary, which is spread through the whole essence of all essential things, is indissoluble, through which we also write the secrets of the whole nature from the 4 elements. For the Ternary or threefold number brings forth with the magical Quaternity, that is, the fourfold number, the complete Septenary, that is, the sevenfold number, endowed with many mysteries. And yet the Quaternity is contained in the Ternary, so arises the sevenfold number in the horizon of the earth, and leads us before the whole bond with God our heavenly Father.

Then further follow the powers and workings of all creatures, and their use in their mysteries, signs, Characters and figures, marked in such a way, that also hardly the most insignificant thing remains hidden in them, that may not be revealed through diligent examination. For if the Quaternity and Ternary dissolve into the Unity, then an eternal, relating Unity results. In which all secret and hidden wisdom of all things, which God the Almighty has so placed in His Word, as in the created works of His hands, is contained, so that people have a true knowledge of those things, which are explained in another place’.

Also we have the definition of Magic Paracelsus gives in his ‘Philosophia Occulta‘, p. 398:

‘Magia is in itself the highest art and greatest wisdom of supernatural things on earth: And what human reason finds impossible to experience and to fathom, that can be experienced and fathomed through the art of Magic. For it is a great hidden wisdom, which is an open great truth for reason. Therefore it would also be good and not unpleasant that the Theologians also would hit upon something to say about it, and also experience what Magia is, and not so unjustly slander it as sorcery. For Magia would be useful to them themselves, if they wanted to be true teachers and masters, as they persuade themselves, although I do not mean that they should labor in the magical field, or use it for something: but that they would have a good experience of it, and would have applied their effective [power] from the way of the high, great Mysteries, which are hidden in the H. Scripture, and have been worked through the Apostles, Prophets, and through Christ Himself, which we with our reason, red and white, can neither fathom nor grasp.

For which Theologian (who does not build on the Magic of faith) has driven out a devil, or forced a spirit, or brought it to him? or what is even more and greater, that he has made a sick person healthy, or done a miracle, solely through his faith? I doubt that he has thereby moved a great mountain, and thrown it into the sea. From this it follows, that they themselves understand little or nothing of that faith of which Scripture speaks, and yet daily lead it in their mouth, teach and learn much about it, and yet will not test it themselves, and perform a sign with it, so that one might say, they understood the faith, knew how to use and prove the substance. And when another comes, who performs a sign with it, be it good or bad, they immediately slander him as a sorcerer, because it is above their reason and human wisdom, and cannot distinguish between Magic and sorcery.

For Magic is a living, pure Art, not stained and defiled with ceremonies or conjurations, as in Necromancy. For in it are neither Ceremonias, Conjurationes, Confectiones, Benedicia nor Maledicta (Ceremonies, Conjurations, Preparations, Blessings nor Curses) used or undertaken, but solely the faith of which Scripture speaks, which moves mountains, and casts them into the sea: which also has to command all spirits and elements, can compel and subdue them, the substance and therein leads his life, is the true one, who comes from the birth, as an apostate, a self-willed beast; for he is a schismatic intention, and does not hang on the free will. And we understand all from a single turning from God: As Lot’s wife became a pillar of salt, all have an occasion in it, the Magic of nature is made false, and offers only three kinds of single life, one according to God’s will, and the other according to the grim will, and that is Babel with the Antichrist in the spirit.

Everything that proceeds from God’s will with its own will, that belongs in Babel, that you see in Jews and Heathens in all lands. The Heathens remain in their own Magic in it, but those who went out from the cursed apostasy and not from nature, because they did not know God and lived without faith, remained therein or were of the free will’s kind, and in them the spirit of the world has revealed great wonders in their Mysteries, as can be seen from their left-behind wisdom.

The others, however, who live only in their own magical spirit-will from flesh and blood, their folk is in the Turba (Note: The chaotic, wrathful principle within creation that disrupts unity, vexes the good, and leads to a state of multiplicity, conflict, and corruption), and the Turba rules in their will, and gave them the spirit, after the manner of the spirituality and grimness, they have only the number of the multitude as regiments and kingdoms. And when the Turba could not bear the authority, it became enraged and often fell upon the Turba, and from this arose war, from this kind and goes the multitude, and belongs with it to the Mysterium of grimness.

The same were also the Jews, God gave them the law, but they also brought two wills to it, as a part kept the commandment with their will, directed in God’s will, as the tribes under the kingdom of Israel; the other part mixed the will with the letter of the law and hung with their will on the other poisoned Magic, as the whole, and led only their number of the multitude. Their mouth was a synagogue, and the confused Babel-like pure, a whore and Antichrist with a good spiritual appearance of the heart.

And thus it is also in Christendom and with all, the Babel-like pure with the Antichrist has been introduced. So that one lets two regiments run alongside each other at the same time and does not let them mix in the inner spirit, that they become one, just as fire and water do not mix: they mingle indeed according to the body, but their spirits are separate, as I said, as the Prophet Daniel says.

Therefore, whoever will know the Antichrist, let him only look around, he finds him in all houses!

But the worst is the scribal pure: and their pastors, who lead them out of the baptism of the unity, make many, who from the one will of God lead into many wills, that they have only the number of the multitude, and would like to be great. And the other part, a will of God goes out with their magical will, lives from themselves like heathens, as in the one unspiritual will of God, who walk backwards in the magical new garment. Their life is over bread, and goes for itself, and their folk is not in the bread, but goes out from itself from the curse of God. And those who live with the will in God, always die; these are the first, right Magi. For God’s spirit dwells in their pure will, and reveals to them the warmth of God, and their spirit of life dwells in the wonders. And these are foreign to Babel and the Antichrist, they are the unified and blessed ones. For the right formation of God lies in the will-spirit, which is born from the spirit of the heart. So are all in Magic in one another, in and out. They love, as each other is, and the mediator-spirit, into which the devil has nothing; and in God’s spirit the love is the only thing. And I cannot warn him more than that he mark himself, to what his desire and lust drive him, the life had a leader, and often helped him. So he has the power, that he tames and changes the living will, for he is a Magician and has the power: But it must be, for he must tame the foreign spirit that rules in him; to this belongs a next, still life with hard renunciation of the world’s will. For to tame the foreign spirit helps not little nor much, but moderation of life with hard going out from the stillness: The strange could not bring him into the will, therefore it is not (so an easy thing) to become a child of God, it belongs to the greatest work with much dying to the life. And yet the Antichrist dares to call himself a child of God; But God says: Not all will come into the Kingdom of Heaven, who say, Lord, Lord, have we not in your name cast out devils and done deeds? But he says to them: ‘Depart from me, I never knew you. You have done it from the false Magic, and were never known in my spirit and will. You were in a spiritual, new, wicked tyrant, scribe, poisonous, voluptuous: you have used my name to scratch the ears, but you have not opened your mountain of voluptuousness, and were in the Turba. You must be proven through the fire, for in my kingdom there is no fire‘.

I might also suitably quote the saying from Luther, where he likewise very wisely reveals his opinion about Magic; in the ‘sermon on the day of the 3 Saintly Kings‘, p. 190, of the Gospel he calls them Magi, which we in German call soothsayers, not as the Prophets prophesy, but as one calls the wise men and wise women, who can tell people all kinds of things, know many secret arts, and drive divination. And the art is called Magic and soothsaying through black arts, and through devilish fellowship, yet not entirely as the sorcerers and witches do. For Magic imitates the right Prophets, but not from God’s spirit, therefore they sometimes hit right, for their thing is not pure devil’s thing, like the sorcerers’, but mixed with natural reason and devil’s understanding‘.

The END

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Original German

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Source

1700 (‘Theophrasti Paracelsi Secretum Magicum‘, in Gottfried Arnolds Fortsetzung und Erläuterung Oder Dritter und Vierdter Theil der ‘Unpartheyischen Kirchen- und Ketzer-Historie‘ (Frankfurt. M.: Thomas Fritsch, 1700), 148–168). We will also dedicate a Sampler series to Gottfried Arnold soon, as his ‘Historie‘ is a true treasure trove! 🥳

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We invite you to discover

a text by Jacob Boehme

on the same subject

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Coming soon

A Little Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim Sampler–

Part VI: ‘Manual of the Philosophers’ Stone’,

in which his medical vision is clearly delineated.

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