1 Ed. Strunz, p. 97. [For the translation of the direct quotations from Paracelsus in the text and footnotes of this section I am indebted to Dr. R. T. Llewellyn.—TRANSLATOR.]
2 “De caducis,” ed. Huser, I, p. 589.
3 “Therefore Christian knowledge is better than natural knowledge, and a prophet or an apostle better than an astronomer or a physician . . . but I am compelled to add that the sick need a physician not apostles, just as prognostications require an astronomer not a prophet” (“Von Erkantnus des Gestirns,” ed. Sudhoff, XII, pp. 496f.).
4 He says in the fourth treatise of Paramirum primum (ed. Sudhoff, I, p. 215), speaking of the “ens spirituale” of diseases: “If we are to talk of the Ens Spirituale, we admonish you to put aside the style which you call theological. For not everything which is called Theologia is holy and also not everything it treats of is holy. And, moreover, not everything is true which the uncomprehending deal with in theology. Now although it is true that theology describes this Ens most powerfully, it does not do so under the name and text of our fourth Pagoyum. And, in addition, they deny what we are proving. But there is one thing which you must understand from us. namely, that the ability to recognize this Ens does not come from Christian belief, for it is a Pagoyum to us. It is, however, not contrary to the belief in which we shall depart from this life. Accordingly, you must recognize that in no way are you to understand an Ens as being of the spirits, by saying they are all devils, for then you are talking nonsensically and foolishly like the Devil.”
5 Cf. “Labyrinthus medicorum,” ed. Sudhoff, XI, pp. 207f.: “And as the Magi from the East found Christ in the star by means of this sign, so is fire found in the flint. Thus are the arts found in nature, and it is easier to see the latter than it was to look for Christ.”
6 De vita longa (1562), p. 56. In “Caput de morbis somnii” (ed. Sudhoff, IX, p. 360), Paracelsus says of the lumen naturae: “Look at Adam and Moses and others. They sought in themselves what was in man and have revealed it and all kabbalistic arts and they knew nothing alien to man neither from the Devil nor from the spirits, but derived their knowledge from the Light of Nature. This they nurtured in themselves . . . it comes from nature which contains its manner of activity within itself. It is active during sleep and hence things must be used when dormant and not awake—sleep is waking for such arts—for things have a spirit which is active for them in sleep. Now it is true that Satan in his wisdom is a Kabbalist and a powerful one. So, too, are these innate spirits in man . . . for it is the Light of Nature which is at work during sleep and is the invisible body and was nevertheless born like the visible and natural body. But there is more to be known than the mere flesh, for from this very innate spirit comes that which is visible . . . the Light of Nature which is man’s mentor dwells in this innate spirit.” Paracelsus also says that though men die, the mentor goes on teaching (Astronomia magna, ed. Sudhoff, XII, p, 23; “De podagricis,” ed. Huser, I, p. 566).
7 Occulta philosophia, p. lxviii. The lumen naturae also plays a considerable role in Meister Eckhart.
8 Cf. the fine saying in “Fragmenta medica” (ed. Huser, I, p. 141): “Great is he whose dreams are right, that is, who lives and moves harmoniously in this kabbalistic, innate spirit.”
9 “Caput de morbis somnii,” ed. Sudhoff, IX, p. 361.
10 Astronomia magna, ed. Sudhoff, XII, p. 23; also “Lab. med.,” ed. Sudhoff, ch. II. and “De pestilitate,” Tract. I (ed. Huser, I, p. 327). The astrum theory had been foreshadowed in the Occulta philosophia of Agrippa, to whom Paracelsus was much indebted.
11 Astronomia magna, ed. Sudhoff, XII, pp. 36 and 304.
12 Paramirum, pp. 35f.
13 “Lab. med.,” ed. Sudhoff, ch. VIII.
14 “De podagricis,” ed. Huser, I, p. 566.
15 “De nymphis,” prologue (ed. Sudhoff, XIV, p. 115).
16 Adam von Bodenstein and Gerard Dorn, for instance.
17 “De caducis,” ed. Sudhoff, VIII, p. 267.
18 I used the edition of 1584, “as finally revised by the author.”
19 He did, however, once remark that he had found the stone which others sought “to their own hurt.” But many other alchemists say the same.
20 [Personal physician to Ferdinand I. Cf. Jung, “Paracelsus the Physician,” pars. 21f.—EDITORS.]
21 Epistolarum medicinalium Conradi Gessneri, fol. IV.
“I’m left to struggle still towards the light:
Could I but break the spell, all magic spurning,
And clear my path, all sorceries unlearning,
Free then, in Nature’s sight, from evil ban,
I’d know at last the worth of being man.”
(Faust: Part Two, trans. Wayne, pp. 263f.) Faust’s belated insight never dawned on Paracelsus.
23 This expression was in fact used by an insane patient to describe her own neologisms. [See “The Psychology of Dementia Praecox,” pars. 155, 208—EDITORS]
24 He calls this procedure likewise a “pagoyum.” “De pestilitate,” Tract. IV, ch. II (ed. Huser, I, p. 353).
25 For instance, the violent form of St. Vitus’s Dance is cured by “a wax manikin into which oaths are stuck.” “De morbis amentium,” Tract. II, ch. III (ed. Huser, I, p. 501); also Paramirum, ch. V.
26 “Archidoxis magicae,” ed. Huser, II, p. 546.
27 Theatrum chemicum, III (1659), pp. 758ff. Cf. Psychology and Alchemy, pars. 480ff.; Aurora Consurgens (ed. von Franz), p. 43: “For [the science] is a gift and sacrament of God and a divine matter.”
28 Cf. Psychology and Alchemy, Part III, ch. 5: “The Lapis-Christ Parallel.”
29 He mentions Hermes, Archelaus, Morienus, Lully, Arnaldus, Albertus Magnus, Helia Artista, Rupescissa, and others.
30 Artis auriferae (1593), I, p. 185.
31 “De natura rerum,” ed. Sudhoff, XI, p. 313.
32 Das Buch Paragranum, ed. Strunz, p. 13.
33 His influence showed itself not so much in any essential modification of alchemical methods as in deepened philosophical speculation. The most important of these philosophical alchemists was the physician Gerard Dorn, of Frankfurt am Main. He wrote a detailed commentary on one of Paracelsus’s rare Latin treatises, De vita longa. See infra, pars. 213ff.
34 “Nam Planetae Sphaerae et elementa in homine per revolutionem sui Zodiaci verius et virtuosius operantur, quam aliena corpora seu signa superiora corporalia” (For the planets, spheres, and elements in man work more truly and powerfully through the revolution of their zodiac than foreign bodies or the higher bodily signs). Theatr. chem., V (1660), p. 790.
35 “Liber Azoth,” ed. Huser, II, p. 522. The Cagastrum is an inferior or “bad” form of the Yliastrum. That it is this “cagastric” magic which opens the understanding is worth noting.
36 Hermes is an authority often cited by Paracelsus.
37 Quoted from the version in Rosarium philosophorum, vol. II of De alchimia (1550), p. 133. Reprinted in Bibliotheca chemica curiosa, II, pp. 87ff.
38 The light arises from the darkness of Saturn.
39 Quoted from the version of Rosarium in Art. aurif., II, pp. 379 and 381. The original (1550) edition of the Rosarium is based on a text that dates back to about the middle of the 15th cent.
40 Mylius. Philosophia reformata, p. 244. (Mylius was the greatest of the alchemical compilers and gave extracts from numerous ancient texts, mostly without naming the sources.) Significantly, the oldest of the Chinese alchemists, Wei-Po-yang, who lived about A.D. 140, was familiar with this idea. He says: “He who properly cultivates his innate nature will see the yellow light shine forth as it should.” (Lu-ch’iang Wu and T. L. Davis, “An Ancient Chinese Treatise on Alchemy,” p. 262.)
41 Preisendanz, Papyri Graecae Magicae, I, p. 137, Pap. IV, line 2081, concerning the acquisition of a paredros.
42 Quoted in Rosarium (Art. aurif., II, p. 248). Cf. Preisendanz, II, pp. 45-46. line 48: “I know thee, Hermes, and thou knowest me. I am thou and thou art I, and thou shouldst serve me in all things.”
43 Amphitheatrum sapientiae aeternae, p. 197: “Hie, filius mundi maioris, Deus et creatura . . . ille (scl. Christus) filius Dei θεάνθρωπος, h. e. Deus et homo: Unus in utero mundi maioris; alter in utero mundi minoris, uterque Virgineo, conceptus. . . . Absque blasphemia dico: Christi crucifixi, salvatoris totius generis humani, i.e., mundi minoris, in Naturae libro, et ceu Speculo, typus est Lapis Philosophorum servator mundi maioris. Ex lapide Christum naturaliter cognoscito et ex Christo lapidem.”
44 Mylius (Phil. ref., p. 97) says of the filius ignis: “Here lies all our philosophy.”
45 Thus Spake Zarathustra (trans. Kaufmann), p. 176: “Lonely one, you are going the way to yourself. And your way leads past yourself and your seven devils. . . . You must consume yourself in your own flame; how could you wish to become new unless you had first become ashes! Lonely one, you are going the way of the creator: you would create a god for yourself out of your seven devils.” Cf. “Consilium coniugii,” Ars chemica, p. 237: “Our stone slays itself with its own dart”; and the role of the incineratio and the phoenix among the alchemists. The devil is the Saturnine form of the anima mundi.
46 These were known to the alchemists since earliest times. Olympiodorus, for instance, says that in lead (Saturn) there is a shameless demon (the spiritus mercurii) who drives men mad. (Berthelot, Alchimistes grecs, II, iv, 43.)
47 Born in Danzig at the beginning of the 16th cent., studied in Basel.
48 Epistolarum medicinalium Conradi Gessneri, Lib. I, fol. 2r.
49 This is a recurrent formula in alchemical treatises.
50 The corpus glorificationis of other authors.
51 “De religione perpetua,” ed. Sudhoff, Part 2, I, pp. 100f. An equally presumptuous view is expressed in “De podagricis” (ed. Huser, I, p. 565): “Thus man acquires his angelic qualities from heaven and is heavenly. He who knows the angels knows the astra, he who knows the astra and the horoscopum knows the whole world, and knows how to bring together man and the angels.” [This and the above passage in the text are translated by Dr. R. T. Llewellyn.—TRANSLATOR.]
52 In Zosimos the “man of light” (ϕώς = man, ϕῶς = light) is simply called ϕῶς. He is the spiritual man who has clothed himself in Adam’s body. Christ let Adam approach (προσῆν) and accepted him into paradise (Berthelot, Alch. grecs, III, xlix, 5-10). Cf. Psychology and Alchemy, par. 456.
53 “De arte cabalistica,” Opera omnia, I.
54 Occulta philosophia.
55 Astronomia magna, ed. Sudhoff, XII, p. 55.
56 Ibid., p. 62.
57 Ed. Strunz, p. 56; also “Von der Astronomey,” ed. Huser, I, p. 215.
58 Strunz, p. 55.
59 Pico della Mirandola also uses this term in Heptaplus, I, ch. VII (Opera omnia, I, p. 59).
60 De vita longa (ed. Dorn), pp. 169ff. Adech is the “interior man,” presumably identical with Aniadus and Edochinum (see infra). Concerning the homo maximus see Paragranum, pp. 45, 59. Dorn calls Adech the “invisibilem hominem maximum.”
61 “Von den dreyen ersten essentiis.” ch. IX, ed. Huser, I, p. 325. The idea that the Primordial Man consists of four parts is found also in Gnosticism (Barbelo = “God is four”).
62 The Iliastrum (or Iliaster) is something like the spiritus vitae or spiritus mercurialis of the alchemists. This is the occult agent in quicksilver, which, extracted in the form of the aqua permanens, serves, in highly paradoxical fashion, to separate the occult agent, the anima (soul), from the body (or substance). The contradiction is due to the fact that Mercurius is a self-transforming being, represented as a dragon that devours itself from the tail (uroboros = tail-eater), or else as two dragons eating each other. The function of the Iliaster is just as paradoxical: it is itself a created thing, but it brings all creatures out of a potential state of existence in the world of ideas (which is probably the meaning of Paracelsus’s Neoplatonic “Ides”) into actual existence. [See also infra, pars. 170ff.]
63 “De tartaro: Fragmenta anatomiae,” ed. Sudhoff. III. p. 462.
64 Ibid., p. 465: “He is the first man and the first tree and the first created of everything whatsoever.”
65 = “First Thomas,” i.e., the first unbeliever and doubter.
66 Bousset, Hauptprobleme der Gnosis, pp. 16ff.