The Magical Writings of Thomas Vaughan E
The Magical Writings of Thomas Vaughan E
The Magical Writings of Thomas Vaughan E
https://books.google.com
NYPL RESEARCH LIBRARIES
3 3433 06181926 8
ешл
VAUGHN
THE
(EUGENIUS PHILALETHES).
THE MAGICAL WRITINGS
OF
THOMAS VAUGHAN
(EUGENIUS PHILALETHES)
BY
NEW YORK
PUBLIC
LONDON
GEORGE REDWAY, YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN
1888p
20
24 ,
THE NEW YORK
PUBLIC LIBRARY
I
CONTENTS .
PAGE
BIOGRAPHICAL PREFACE vii
ANTHROPOSOPHIA THEOMAGICA I
NOTES 155
INDEX 163
BIOGRAPHICAL PREFACE .
MEMORIÆ SACRUM.
N. B.-N. B.—N. B.
When my dear wife and I lived at the Pinner of Wakefield, I
remember I melted doune æquall parts of Talc, and ye Eagle, with
Brimstone, repeating the fusion twice. And after that, going to
draw Spirit of Salt with Oyle of Glass, I chanced (as I think) to
mingle some Bay-Salt, or that of Colla Maris, with the former Com-
position, and I had an oyle with which I did miracles. But assaying
to make more of it, I never could effect it, having forgott the Com-
X BIOGRAPHICAL PREFACE.
position ; but now I am confident the Eagle was in it, for I ever
remember the manner of the first fume that came out, and could
never see the like againe, but when I worked on ye Eagle, though I
never afterwards worked on her præpared as at that time. I know
allso by experience, that Talc and Baysalt together will yeeld 6 times
more spirit, than either of both will yield by it self. And that passage
of Rhasis confirms mee, when hee mentions Aqua Salis trium gene-
rum : but above all that one word of Lullie, namely, Petra Salis,
and especially that enumeration of materials, which hee makes in his
Ars Intellectiva, Nitrum, Sal, Sulphur, vapor, then which nothing
could have been sayd more expressly. And yet I doubt I shall bee
much troubled, before I finde what I have lost, soe little difference
there is between Forgetfulness and Ignorance. T. R. V. 1658.
Quos Deus conjunxit quis separabit?
1658.
N.B.-N.B.-N.B. 1658.
most violently, and still it remaines, but with some little remission.
On the Saturday following being the 17th of July, I could not, for
some secret instinct of spirit, stay any longer at Wapping, but came
that very night to Sir John Underhill, and the Sunday following
after that night, I understood that Mr Highgate was dead , as my
heart gave mee at Wapping, a few dayes before. The will of my
God bee done : Amen and Amen !
That night I came to Sir John, I dream'd, I had lent 20 pounds
to my cousin J. Wakebross, and that his mother had stole the money,
and I was like to loose it. But my cousin advised mee to give out
I had received it, and hee would secure it for mee. I pray God , my
dear wife's things do not miscarrie !
1658.
The month and the day I have forgott : but having prayed
earnestly for Remission of sinns, I went to bed : and dreamed, that
I lay full of sores in my feet, and cloathed in certaine Rags, under
the shelter of the great Oake, which growes before the Court-yard of
my father's house, and it rain'd round about mee. My feet that
were sore with Boyles, and corrupt matter, troubled mee extremely,
soe that being not able to stand up, I was layd all along. I dreamed
that my father and my brother W. who were both dead, came unto
mee, and my father sucked the corruption out of my feete, soe that I
was presently well, and stood up with great Joy, and looking on
my feete, they appeared very white and cleane, and the sores were
quite gone !
Blessed be my good God ! Amen !
in all this vision any sinnfull desyre, but such a Love to her, as I
had to her very soule in my prayers, to which this Dreame was an
Answer. Hereupon I awaked presently, with exceeding great in-
ward Joy. Blessed be my God ! Amen !
shee came close to mee, and I gave her the longer half of the reed,
and the furthest end, and the shortest I kept for my self : but looking
on the broken end of it, and finding it ragged, and something rough,
shee gave mee a knife to polish it which I did. Then wee passed
both out of the churchyard, and turning to the gentleman that
followed mee, I asked him, if hee would goe along with us, but hee
utterly refused, and the truth is, hee still followes the world too
much. Then I turned to my deare wife, to goe along with her, and
having soe done, I awaked.
By this dreame, and the shortest part of the Reed left in my
hand, I guess, I shall not live soe long after her, as I have lived with
her. Praysed bee my God ! Amen !
1
1
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY
working wonders within the domain of natural law and the exaltation
of the intuitive faculties so as to enlarge the sphere of perception
within the Cosmos may not place the observer in such a position as
to make successful philosophic generalisations. On the other hand,
if the Great Secret which is declared to be possessed by the Magi
involves a veritably universal science, if it takes the observer without
the domain of natural law, he is possibly wrapt beyond the domain
of theory, and the temporary enjoyment of a transcendent and deific
form of subsistence eliminates for the time from the mind all con-
sciousness of the common forms of thought and normal intellectual
limitation.
There are three broad divisions of mediæval esoteric knowledge.
The first is described as Natural Magic, the second as Spiritual or
Transcendental Magic, and the third, under the comprehensive title
of Alchemy, embraces a philosophy and a physical practice which
are of the first and consummate importance to the modern student.
The philosophy of the whole subject is embodied in two priceless
collections, the so-called works of Hermes Trismegistus and the
Jewish Kabbalah, which to all intents and purposes is contained in
the Baron de Rosenroth's Kabbala Denudata, a part of which has
been recently translated into English. The expositions of these
philosophical text- books are numerous, and they vary considerably
in value. There is much interesting and important matter to be
found in Cornelius Agrippa's " Three Books of Occult Philosophy,"
albeit this author, so exalted by Thomas Vaughan, is not included
among adepts of the loftiest order. 1 The Hermetic and Kabbalistic
writings are both in great part devoted to the mystical history of
creation, to which the evolution of humanity is considered rigorously
parallel, in virtue of the magical doctrine of correspondence, and
thus an esoteric significance is attributed to those portions which deal
with the development of the material cosmos out of the chaotic
storm of elementary forces.
The Kabbalistic books, in addition to this, treat largely of pneuma-
tology, ofthe hierarchy and classification of spirits, the circular progres-
sion ofthe soul , its nature, origin, and destiny, the divine progress of
"Cornelius Agrippa, who was a seeker all his life, and who attained neither
knowledge nor peace, belongs to another category. His books abound in erudi-
tion and audacity ; his personal character was fantastic and independent, which
obtained him the reputation of an abominable sorcerer and the persecution of
priests and princes ; he subsequently wrote in condemnation of studies from
which he had derived no happiness, and he perished in desolation and misery. ”-
Eliphas Lévi, Histoire de la Magie, pp. 346, 347.
the Royal mellem Esera T EIT
through de ces der
of transcended E
present sage F
by the inceramy & ther
manner in vich das Treative
for they monreir ews
in harmony vm te force EL
An import is e 1
magic, and nay le termen a 2
all the emising น C
excepting the dte Tu
sions cf 1cm x must
The amm mm ell مگاه
variously termix r
tended 1 ri 14TH 1SNIA
cendental am L
which are 2 L
cam CENT anTHE C
tellermal femine mu zilbr 1″L L
T
the mantelzon L
In cre A
appareng £
not generally I.
percalcem 三
L
thamange 2.1 .
physical were - J
stances are events L
Fladd in 20
=
Cross , ZE
East to the side of be
King Solomon mong le
brant of a .
of astrology for astmog I
based on the la dif
the lie of
important by the tapes watn 8
in the past two der
service to the petar som
Spirima or
distinct subtynow a s
XX
1 IVE
)
1
samilies we
study the
Willy bear in
the turba,
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. XXV
the Royal Intellectual Essence from star to star and from sun to sun
through the endless chain of existence, and of the highest problems
of transcendental psychology. Their philosophical interest at the
present stage of exoteric spiritual investigation is scarcely diminished
by the uncertainty of their origin, and the occasionally fraudulent
manner in which individual treatises have been given to the world,
for they undoubtedly embody an antique tradition, and are wholly
in harmony with the sombre sublimity of Jewish genius.
An important division of the Kabbalah is devoted to practical
magic, and may be described as at once the source and synthesis of
all the existing rituals from the days of the Enchyridion, not
excepting those of the Black Art, which are simply infernal perver-
sions of normal and lawful magic.
The nature, processes, and results of Natural Magic have been
variously described by its professors, and its scope is frequently ex-
tended till it includes a large proportion of the spiritual or trans-
cendental branch, as , for instance, the prediction of future events
which are beyond the calculus of probabilities, and therefore
can only be ascertained by the ecstatic transference of the in-
tellectual faculties into another form of subsistence. It is properly
the manifestation of the arcana of physical nature by means of art.
In more common and definite terms, it is the production of
apparently thaumaturgic effects by means of physical laws which are
not generally known, and it has therefore no connection with
psychology. Experimental chemistry produces at the present day
innumerable phenomena which to the vulgar mind are distinctly
thaumaturgic . " That most secret and arcane department of
physical science, by which the mystical properties of natural sub-
stances are developed , we denominate Natural Magic," says Robert
Fludd in his " Compendious Apology for the Fraternity of the Rosy
Cross ;" he cites the three Magi, who were led by the Star in the
East to the cradle of the Grand Christian Initiator, and the mythical
King Solomon, among the most illustrious adepts of this elementary
branch of esoteric wisdom, which culminates in the celestial science
of astrology, for astrology is the calculation of future contingencies,
based on the traditional and observed facts of stellar influence on
the life of humanity at large. It is impressive in its antiquity, and
important by the respect which it has commanded from great minds
in the past, but neither this nor any species of Natural Magic are of
service to the psychic student.
Spiritual or Transcendental Magic comprises in itself several
distinct subdivisions of esoteric art and science. Considered in its
xxvi INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.
OR
BY
EUGENIUS PHILALETHES .
DAN : Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.
Zoroaster in Oracul.-AUDI IGNIS VOCEM.
TO THE MOST ILLUSTRIOUS AND TRULY
REGENERATED BRETHREN
R.C. ,
TO THE PEACE-LOVING APOSTLES OF THE CHURCH
IN THIS CONTENTIOUS AGE,
SALUTATION FROM THE CENTRE OF PEACE.
But there is no reason why I should despair. There shall come those
in the last times who will præfer this my torchlet to the sun of Tus-
cany. And indeed I am a colleague by that shewing of Marcus Tullius,
quod in eandem immortalem tendit noster consulatus. I have wandered ,
like the bees (not those of Quintillian in poisoned gardens), touch-
ing lightly the Coelestiall Flowres, which derive their scents from the
Aromatic Mountains. If here there be aught of honey, I offer unto
4 DEDICATION.
the Second Person is the Light, and the Third is " Fiery Love," or
a Divine Heate proceeding from both. Now, without the presence
of this Heate there is no reception of the Light, and by consequence
no influx from the Father of Lights. For this " Love " is the medium
which unites the Lover to that which is beloved, and probably ' tis
the Platonicks " Chief Daimon , who doth unite us to the Rulers of
Spirits." I could speak much more of the offices of this Loving
Spirit, but these are " Grand Mysteries of God and of Nature," and
require not our discusse so much as our reverence. Here also I
might speak of that supernaturall generation, whereof Trismegistus :
"The one begetteth one, and doth reflect upon itself its own
brightness ; " but I leave this to the Almighty God as his own
essentiall, centrall mystery. It is my onely intention in this place to
handle exterior actions, or the process of the Trinity from the Center
to the Circumference. And that I may the better do it, you are to
understand that God before his work of creation was wrapped up
and contracted in himself. In this state the Egyptians stile him
66
' Solitary Monad," and the Cabalists " Dark Aleph ; " but when the
decreed instant of creation came, then appeared " Bright Aleph,"
and the First Emanation was that of the Holy Ghost into the bosom
Genesis. of the matter. Thus we read that Darknesse was upon the face of
the deep, and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
Here you are to observe that notwithstanding this processe of the
Third Person, yet was there no Light, but darknesse on the face of
the deep, illumination properly being the office of the second.
Wherefore God also when the Matter was prepared by Love for
Light, gives out his Fiat Lux, which was no creation as most think,
but an Emanation of the Word, in whom was life, and that life is
the light of men. This is that life whereof Saint John speaks, that
it shines in the darknesse and the darknesse comprehended it not.
But lest I seem to be singular in this point, I will give you more
evidence. Pimandras, informing Trismegistus in the work of the
creation, tells him the self-same thing. " I am that Light, the Pure
Intelligence, thy God, more ancient than the aqueous nature which
shone forth out of the shadow." And Georgius Venetus in his
book De Harmonia Mundi : " Whatsoever liveth doth subsist by
virtue of its inward heat ; thence that substance of heat, indiscri-
minately distributed through the world, is held to contain within
itself a vital strength ; yea, Zoroaster testifieth that all things were
made out of fire, when he sayeth : all things were produced by a
single fire, that fire, to wit, which God , the inhabitant of essential
flame (as Plato hath it), did bid appeare in the substance of Heaven,
ANTHROPOSOPHIA THEOMAGICA. 13
and Earth, at that time created rude and formless that it might
assume life and symmetrie. Hereupon, the Fabricator did straight-
-
way bring out the Sit Lux - let there be Light — into these
creations, for which term a mendacious rendering doth substitute
FIAT LUX, let Light be made ; but the Light is no way made,
but communicated and admitted to things formerly obscure,
that they may be clarified and made splendid in its beauties."
But to proceed : no sooner had the Divine Light pierced the
bosom of the Matter, but the Idea or Pattern of the whole
material world appeared in those primitive waters like an image
in a glasse. By this pattern it was that the Holy Ghost framed and
modelled the universal structure. This mystery or appearance of
the Idea is excellently manifested in the magicall analysis of bodies ;
for he that knows how to imitate the proto-chymistrie of the Spirit
by the separation of the principles wherein the life is imprisoned
may see the impresse of it experimentally in the outward naturall
vestiments. But lest you should think this my invention, and no
practicall truth, I will give you another man's testimony.
inquire (saith one) what such great philosophers would say, if
they beheld the plant born as in a moment in the glass vial,
with its colours as in life, and then again die, and reborn, and
that daily, and whenever they choose ? But the power to deceive
human senses I believe they include in the art magic of the
demons." They are the words of Doctor Marci in his Defensio
Idearum Operatricium. But you are to be admonished, there is a
twofold Idea- Divine and Naturall. The naturall is a fiery, invis-
ible, created spirit, and properly a meer inclosure, or vestiment of
the true one. Hence the Platonicks called it " the Nimbus of the
descending Divinity. " Zoroaster, and some other philosophers,
think it is "the Soul of the World," but, by their leave, they are mis-
taken ; there is a wide difference betwixt Anima and Spiritus. But
the Idea I speak of here is the true, primitive, exemplar one, and a
pure influence of the Almighty. This Idea before the coagulation
of the seminall principles to a grosse, outward fabrick , which is the
end of generation, impresseth in the vitall ethereall principles a
modell or pattern after which the body is to be framed, and this is the
first inward production, or draught of the creature. This is it which
the Divine Špirit intimates to us in that Scripture where he saith,
that God created every plant of the field before it was in the ground, Genesis.
and every herb of the field before it grew. But notwithstanding
this presence of the Idea in the matter, yet the creation was not
performed “ by the projection of anything outside of the essential
* Note 3.
14 ANTHROPOSOPHIA THEOMAGICA.
archetype," for it is God that comprehends his creature, and not the
creature God.
Thus farre have I handled this primitive supernaturall part of the
creation. I must confesse it is but short in respect of that which
may be spoken, but I am confident it is more then formerly hath
been discovered : some authors having not searched so deeply into
the centre of Nature, and others not willing to publish such spiritual
mysteries. I am now come to the gross work or mechanicks of the
Spirit, namely, the separation of severall substances from the same
masse but in the first place I shall examine that Lymbus or huddle
of matter wherein all things were so strangely contained. It is the
opinion of some men, and those learned, that this sluggish empty
rudiment of the creature was noe created thing. I must confesse
the point is obscure as the thing it selfe, and to state it with sobriety,
except a man were illuminated with the same Light that this Chaos
was at first, is altogether impossible. For how can wee judge of a
nature different from our owne, whose species also was so remote
from anything now existent that it is impossible for fancy to apprehend,
much more for reason to define it. If it be created, I conceive it
the effect of the Divine Imagination, acting beyond it selfe in con-
templation of that which was to come, and producing this passive
darknesse for a subject to worke upon in the circumference.
Trismegistus, having first exprest his Vision of Light, describes
the matter in its primitive state thus :-" And in a short time after
(he saith), the Darkness was thrust downwards, partly confused
and dejected, and tortuously circumscribed, so that I appeared to
behold it transformed into a certain humid substance, and afterwards,
one might say, excited and vomiting forth smoke as from fire, and
giving forth a lugubrious and inexpressible sound. " Certainly these
Tenebræ he speakes of, or fuliginous spawne of Nature, were the first
created matter, for that Water we read of in Genesis was a product
or secondary substance . Here also he seemes to agree further with
the Mosaicall tradition ; for this " Smoke " which ascended after the
transmutation can be nothing else but that Darknesse which was upon
the face of the Deepe ; but to expresse the particular mode or way
of the Creation, you are to understand that in the Matter there was
a horrible confused qualme, or stupifying spirit of moysture, cold,
and darknesse. In the opposite principle of Light there was heate
and the effect of it, siccitie ; for these two are noe elemental qualities,
as the Galenists and my Peripateticks suppose. But they (if I may
say so) the hands of the Divine Spirit by which He did worke
upon the Matter, applying every agent to his proper patient. These
ANTHROPOSOPHIA THEOMAGICA. 15
two are active and masculine, those of moysture and cold are passive
and feminine. Now as soone as the Holy Ghost and the Word
(for it was not the one nor the other, but both— “ the formative
intelligence conjoined with the Word," as Trismegistus hath it—I
omit that speech, Let us make man, which effectually proves their
union in the worke) had applyed themselves to the Matter, there
was extracted from the bosome of it a third Spirituall Cœlestiall
Substance, which receiving a tincture of heat and light proceeding
from the Divine Treasures, became a pure, sincere, innoxious Fire.
Of this the bodyes of angells consist, as also the Empyræall
Heaven, where Intellectual Essences have their residence. This was
"the primeval marriage of God and Nature," the first and best of
compositions. This extract being thus settled above, and separated
from the Masse, retained in it a vast portion of Light, and made the
first day without a sun. But the Splendour of the Word expelling
the Darknesse downwards, it became more settled and compact
towards the centre, and made a horrible thick night. Thus God
(as the Hebrew hath it) was betweene the Light and the Darknesse,
for the Spirit remained still on the face of the inferior portion
to extract more from it. In the second separation was educed " the
nimble atmosphere," as Trismegistus calls it—a spirit not so refined
as the former, but vitall, and in the next degree to it. This was
extracted in such abundance that it filled all the space from the
masse to the Empyræall Heaven, under which it was condensed to
a water, but of a different constitution from the Elementall, and this
is the Body of the Interstellar Skie. But my Peripateticks, following
the principles of Aristotle and Ptolomie, have imagined so many
wheeles there with their final diminutive epicycles that they have
turned that regular fabrick to a rumbling confused labyrinth . The
inferior portion of this second extract from the Moon to the Earth
remained Air still, partly to divide the inferior and superior waters,
but chiefly for the respiration and nourishment of the creatures.
This is that which is properly called the Firmament, as it is plain
out of Esdras :-" On the second day thou didst create the spirit of
the Firmament " ; for it is " the bond of all Nature, ” and in the out-
ward geometricall composure it answers to " the Middle Nature,” for
it is spread through all things, hinders vacuity, and keeps all the parts
of Nature in a firm, invincible union.
This is " the sieve of Nature, " as one wittily calls it, a thing Author
Philos.
appointed for most secret and mysterious offices, but we shall Restitut.
speake further of it when we come to handle the Elements particu-
larly. Nothing now remained but the two inferior principles, as we
16 ANTHROPOSOPHIA THEOMAGICA.
repaires the ruins of his building, composeth all disorders, and con-
tinues his creature in his first, primitive harmony. The moon is
"that well-watered and many-founted moist principle," at whose top sit
Jove and Juno in a throne of gold. Juno is an incombustible, eternall
oyl, and therefore a fit receptacle of Fire. This Fire is her Jove, the
little sun we spoke of formerly ; these are the philosophers Sol and
Luna, not gold and silver, as some mountebanks and carbonadoes
would have it. But in respect I have proceeded thus far, I will give
you a true receipt of the Medecine-" Ten parts of cœlestiall slime,
separate the male from the female, and each afterwards from its earth,
physically, mark you, and with no violence. Conjoin after separa-
tion in due, harmonic, vitall proportion ; and, straightway, the Soul
descending from the pyroplastic sphære, shall restore, by a mirific
embrace, its dead and deserted body. The conjoined substances
shall be warmed by a natural fire in a perfect marriage of spirit and
body. Proceed according to the Vulcanico-Magical theory, till they
are exalted into the Fifth Metaphysical Rota. This is that world-
renowned medecine, whereof so many have scribbled and which so
few have known." *
It is a strange thing to consider that there are in Nature incorrup-
tible, immortall principles. Our ordinary kitchin fire, which in
some measure is an enemy to all compositions, notwithstanding doth
not so much destroy as purifie some parts. This is clear out of the
ashes of vegetables, for although their weaker exterior elements
expire by the violence of Fire, yet their Earth cannot be destroyed,
but vitrified. The fusion and transparency of this substance is
occasioned by the radicall moysture or seminall water of the com-
pound. This water resists the fury of the fire, and cannot possibly
be vanquished. " The rose lieth hidden through the winter in this
water" (sayth the learned Severine). These two principles are never
separated, for Nature proceeds not so far in her dissolutions. When
death hath done her worst, there is an union between these two, and
out of them shall God raise us at the last day, and restore us to a
spirituall condition. Besides, there remaines in them that primitive
universall tincture of the Fire ; this is still busie after death, brings
Nature again into play, produceth wormes, and other inferiour
generations. I do not conceive there shall be a Resurrection of
every species, but rather their terrestrial parts together with the
element of water (for " there shall be no more sea ") shall be united Revelations.
in one mixture with the Earth, and fixed to a pure, diaphanous
substance. This is St John's Chrystall Gold, a fundamental of the
* Note 5.
22 ANTHROPOSOPHIA THEOMAGICA.
judges of life and death, but quacks and piss-pot doctors. The
learned Arias Montanus calls this matter "the unique particle of
the multiplex earth. " If these words be well examined, you may
possibly find it out, and so much for his body. His Soule is an
essence not to be found in the texture of the great world, and
therefore meerely divine and supernaturall. Montanus calls it " the
Wind of the Divine Spirit and the Breath of the Life Divine." He
seemes also to make the creation of man a little Incarnation, as if
God in this worke had multiplyed Himself. Adam (saith he)
received his Soule " by a wonderfull and unparalleled inspiration and
fructification of God (if it be lawfull so to speake)." St Luke also
tells us the same thing, for he makes Adam the son of God, not in
respect of the exterior act of creation, but by way of descent, and
this St Paul confirms in the words of Aratus. " For we also Acts.
are his generation." The soul of man consists chiefly of two portions
-Ruach and Nephes-inferior and superior. The superior is mas-
culine and eternall, the inferior fœminine and mortall. In these two
consists our spirituall generation. " As, however, in the rest of the Arias Mon-
animal world, and also in man himself, the conjunction of male and tanus.
female tends towards a fruit and propagation worthy of the nature of
each ; so in man that interior and secret association of male and
female, to wit, the copulation of the rational soul and the animal life,
is appointed for the production of fitting fruit of Divine Life. And
unto this does that arcane benediction and endowed fecundity, that
revealed faculty, and warning, refer-Increase, and multiply, and
replenish the earth, and subdue it, and have dominion. " Out of this,
and some former passages , the understanding reader may learne,
that marriage is a comment on life, a meere hieroglyphick , or outward
representation of our inward vitall composition. For life is nothing
else but an union of male and fœmale principles, and he that per-
fectly knowes this secret, knowes the Mysteries of Marriage, both
spirituall and naturall, and how he ought to use a wife. Matrimony
is no ordinary triviall business, but in a moderate sense sacramentall.
It is a visible signe of an invisible union to Christ, which S. Paul
calls a Great Mystery, and if the thing signified be so reverend, the
signature is no ex tempore contemptible agent . But of this elsewhere.
When God had thus finished his last and most excellent creature, he
appointed his residence in Eden, made him his viceroy, and gave
him a full jurisdiction over all his workes, that as the whole man
consisted of body and spirit, so the inferiour earthly creatures might
be subject to the one, and the superiour Intellectual Essences might
minister to the other. But this royalty continued not long, for pre-
24 ANTHROPOSOPHIA THEOMAGICA .
be very well affirmed, that the tree of life being described in the
same category, as the schoolemen expresse it, was a vegetable also.
But how derogatory this is to the power of God, to the merits and
passion of Jesus Christ, whose gift eternall life is, let any indifferent
Christian judge. Here then we have a certain entrance into Para-
dise, where we may search out this Tree of Knowledge, and (haply)
learn what it is. For seeing it must be granted that by the Tree of
Life is figured the Divine Spirit (for it is the Spirit that quickeneth,
and shall one day translate us from corruption to incorruption), it
will be no indiscreet inference on the contrary, that by the Tree
of Knowledge is signified some sensuall nature, repugnant to the
spirituall, wherein our worldly sinfull affections, as lust, anger, and
the rest, have their seat, and predominate.
I will now digresse a while ; but not much from the purpose,
whereby it may appear unto the reader that the letter is no sufficient
expositor of Scripture, and that there is a great deal of difference
between the sound and the sense of the text. Dionysius the Areo-
pagite in his Epistle to Titus gives him this caveat. " And to know
this is, notwithstanding, the worth of the business-that the tradition
of theologists is twofold-the one mystical and secret, the other
manifest and more known." And in his Book of the Ecclesiastical
Hierarchie, written to Timotheus, he affirms that in the primitive,
Apostolical times, the mysteries of Divinity were delivered " partly
in written and partly in unwritten canons. " Some things, he con-
fesseth, were written in the theological books, and such are the
common doctrinals of the Church now ; in which, notwithstanding
(as St Peter saith) , " there are many things hard to be understood."
Some things again " which wholly transcended carnal understanding
were transmitted without writing from mind to mind, being con-
cealed between the lines of the visible word." And certainly this
orall tradition was the cause that in the subsequent ages of the
Church, all the mysteries of Divinity were lost. Nay, this very day
there is not one among all our school-doctors, or late ex-temporaries,
that knows what is represented unto us by the outward element of
Water in Baptism. True indeed , they tell us it betokens the wash-
ing away of sin, which we grant them, but this is not the full signifi-
cation for which it was ordained. It hath been the common errour
of all times to mistake signum for signatum, the shell for the kernel,
yet to prevent this it was that Dionysius wrote his book of the
Coelestiall Hierarchie, and especially his Theologia Significativa, of
which there is such frequent mention made in his works. Verily,
our Saviour Himself, who is blessed for evermore, did sometimes
26 ANTHROPOSOPHIA THEOMAGICA.
onely, but in all his generations after him, for the influence of this
fruit past together with his nature into his posterity. We are all
born like Moses with a veil over the face ; this is it which hinders
the prospect of that intellectual shining light which God hath placed
in us. And to tell a truth that concerns all mankind, the greatest
mystery both in divinity and philosophy is how to remove it.
It will not be amiss to speak something in this place of the nature
and constitution of man, to make that more plain which hath
already been spoken.
As the Great World consists of three parts-the Elemental, the
Coelestial, and the Spiritual, above all which God himself is seated
in that infinite, inaccessible Light which streames from his own
nature, even so man hath in him his earthly, elemental parts,
together with the cœlestial and angelical natures, in the center of all
which moves and shines the Divine Spirit. The sensuall, coelestial,
æthereal part of man is that whereby we do move, see, feel, taste,
and smell, and have a commerce with all material objects whatsoever.
It is the same in us as in beasts, and it is derived from Heaven,
where it is predominant, to all the inferiour earthly creatures. In
plain terms it is part of the Soul of the World, commonly called the
Medial Soul, because the influences of the Divine Nature are con-
veyed through it to the more material parts of the creature, with
which of themselves they have no proportion . By meanes of this
Medial Soul, or Ethereal Nature, man is made subject to the
influence of stars, and is partly disposed of by the Coelestial Har-
mony. For this middle part (middle I mean between both extreames,
and not that which actually unites the whole together) , as well that
which is in the outward heaven as that which is in man, is of a fruitfull,
insinuating nature, and carried with a strong desire to multiply
itself, so that the Coelestiall Form stirs up and excites the Elementall.
For this spirit is in man, in beasts, in vegetables, in minerals, and
in everything it is the mediate cause of composition and multipli-
cation. Neither should any wonder that I affirm this spirit to be in
minerals because the operations of it are not discerned there. For
shall we conclude therefore that there is no inward agent that actuates
and specifies those passive, indefinite principles whereof they are
compounded ? Tell me not now of blind Peripateticall formes and
qualities ! A forme is that which Aristotle could not define sub-
stantially, nor any of his followers after him, and therefore they are
not competent judges of it. But, I beseech you, are not the faculties
of this spirit supprest in man also when the organs are corrupted,
as it appeareth in those that are blind ? But, notwithstanding the
28 ANTHROPOSOPHIA THEOMAGICA .
eye onely is destroyed and not the visible power, for that remaines,
as it is plain in their dreames. Now this vision is performed by a
reflexion of the visuall radii in their inward, proper cell. For Nature
imployes her gifts onely where she findes a conveniencie and fit
disposition of organs, which being not in minerals, we may not
expect so clear an expression of the naturall powers in them. Not-
withstanding in the flowers of severall vegetables (which in some
sort represent the eyes), there is a more subtile, acute perception of
heat and cold, and other cœlestiall influences then in any other part.
This is manifest in those herbs which open at the rising and shut
towards the sunset, which motion is caused by the spirit being
sensible of the approach and departure of the sun. For indeed the
flowers are (as it were) the spring of the spirit, where it breakes
forth and streames, as it appeares by the odours that are more
cœlestiall and comfortable there. Again, this is more evident in the
plant-animalls, as the Vegetable Lamb, the Arbor Casta, and
severall others. But this will not sink with any but such as have seen
this spirit separated from his elements, where I leave it for this time.
Next to this sensuall nature of man is the angelicall or rationall
spirit. This spirit adheres sometimes to the mens, or superior por-
tion of the Soul, and then it is filled with the Divine Light, but
most commonly it descends into the æthereal inferior portion , which
St Paul calls the natural man, where it is altered by the coelestiall
influences, and diversely distracted with the irregular affections and
passions of the sensuall nature.
Lastly, above the Rational Spirit is the Mens, or Concealed Intelli-
gence, commonly called Intellectus Illustratus, and of Moses the
Breath of Life. This is that spirit which God himselfe breathed into
man, and by which man is united again to God. Now, as the Divine
Light, flowing into the Mens, did assimilate and convert the inferior
portions of the Soul to God, so, on the contrary, the Tree of Know-
ledge did obscure and darken the superior portions, but awaked and
stirred up the animal, sinfull nature. The sum of all is this- Man,
as long as he continued in his union to God, knew the good only,
that is, the things that were of God ; but, as soon as he stretched
forth his hand, and did eate of the Forbidden Fruit, that is, the
Medial Spirit, or Spirit of the Greater World, presently upon his
disobedience and transgression of the commandement, his union to
the Divine Nature was dissolved, and his spirit being united to the
spirit of the world, he knew the evill only, that is, the things that
were of the world. True it is, he knew the good and the evill, but
the evill in a far greater measure then the good.
ANTHROPOSOPHIA THEOMAGICA. 29
they reigne to this houre in our bodies, and not in us alone, but in
every other naturall thing. Hence it is we read in Scripture, that
Job. "the Heavens themselves are not clean in his sight," and to this
. alludes the apostle in that speech of his to the Colossians, that " it
pleased the Father to reconcile all things to himselfe by Christ,
whether they be things in earth or things in Heaven." And here
you are to observe that Cornelius Agrippa mistook the act of genera-
tion for originall sin, which indeed was the effect of it, and this is the
only point wherein he hath miscarried.
I have now done-only a word more concerning the situation of
Paradise, and the rather because of the diversitie of opinions con-
cerning that place, and the absurdity of them. St Paul in his second
Epistle to the Colossians discovers it in these words : " I knew a man
in Christ above fourteen yeares ago (whether in the body or out of
the body, I cannot tell, God knoweth) such a one caught up to the
third Heaven. And I knew such a man (whether in the body or
out of the body, I cannot tell, God knoweth) how that he was caught
up into Paradise." Here you see that Paradise and the Third
Heaven are convertible tearms , so that the one discovers the other.
Much more I could have said concerning the Tree of Knowledge,
being in it selfe a large and very mysticall subject, but, for my part,
I rest contented with my owne particular apprehension and desire.
not to enlarge it any further. Neither had I committed this much
to paper but out of my love to the Truth, and that I would not have
these thoughts altogether perish.
You see now, if you be not men of a most uncouth head, how
man fell, and, by consequence, you may guesse by what meanes he
is to rise. He must be united to the Divine Light, from whence
by disobedience he was separated. A flash or tincture of this must
come, or he can no more discerne things spiritually then he can dis-
tinguish colours naturally without the light of the sun. This Light
descends, and is united to him, by the same meanes as his Soule was
at first. I speake not here of the symbolicall, exteriour descent from
the prototypicall-planets to the created spheres and thence " into the
night of the body," but I speake of that most secret and silent lapse
of the Spirit "through the sequence of naturall formes," and this
is a mystery not easily apprehended. It is a Cabalistical maxime-
Nulla res spiritualis descendens inferius operatur sine indumento-
" No spirituall entity descending into our inferiour plane can mani-
fest therein without an envelope." Consider well of it with your
selves, and take heed you wander not in the circumference. The
Soul of man, whiles she is in the body, is like a candle shut up in a
Back t གངས་
the momen
ther moun [
I make te EL:
DOV I =
redemisex C
her man
God in m
SE NOT
hoy se
paradis mor
in her a
bm mace
2012 De
WOYAL FROM
20sem a
Steve car mice
and me
Bu ma
act at
whaser
the fiuice of the d
spheres of ar 2
is this a face
Princes Aricent T
in maction and aure
an isa
can by an I
though the an
there any the
onely in one paz de
places
30 ANTHROPOSOPHIA THEOMAGICA .
they reigne to this houre in our bodies, and not in us alone, but in
every other naturall thing. Hence it is we read in Scripture, that
Job. "the Heavens themselves are not clean in his sight," and to this
alludes the apostle in that speech of his to the Colossians, that " it
pleased the Father to reconcile all things to himselfe by Christ,
whether they be things in earth or things in Heaven." And here
you are to observe that Cornelius Agrippa mistook the act of genera-
tion for originall sin, which indeed was the effect of it, and this is the
only point wherein he hath miscarried.
I have now done-only a word more concerning the situation of
Paradise, and the rather because of the diversitie of opinions con-
cerning that place, and the absurdity of them. St Paul in his second
Epistle to the Colossians discovers it in these words : " I knew a man
in Christ above fourteen yeares ago (whether in the body or out of
the body, I cannot tell, God knoweth) such a one caught up to the
third Heaven. And I knew such a man (whether in the body or
out of the body, I cannot tell, God knoweth) how that he was caught
up into Paradise. " Here you see that Paradise and the Third
Heaven are convertible tearms, so that the one discovers the other.
Much more I could have said concerning the Tree of Knowledge,
being in it selfe a large and very mysticall subject, but, for my part,
I rest contented with my owne particular apprehension and desire
not to enlarge it any further. Neither had I committed this much
to paper but out of my love to the Truth, and that I would not have
these thoughts altogether perish.
You see now, if you be not men of a most uncouth head, how
man fell, and, by consequence, you may guesse by what meanes he
is to rise. He must be united to the Divine Light, from whence
by disobedience he was separated. A flash or tincture of this must
come, or he can no more discerne things spiritually then he can dis-
tinguish colours naturally without the light of the sun. This Light
descends, and is united to him, by the same meanes as his Soule was
at first. I speake not here of the symbolicall, exteriour descent from
the prototypicall-planets to the created spheres and thence " into the
night of the body," but I speake of that most secret and silent lapse
of the Spirit " through the sequence of naturall formes," and this
is a mystery not easily apprehended . It is a Cabalistical maxime-
Nulla res spiritualis descendens inferius operatur sine indumento-
" No spirituall entity descending into our inferiour plane can mani-
fest therein without an envelope." Consider well of it with your
selves, and take heed you wander not in the circumference. The
Soul of man, whiles she is in the body, is like a candle shut up in a
ANTHROPOSOPHIA THEOMAGICA. 31
dark lanthorn, or a fire that is almost stifled for want of aire. Spirits
(say the Platonicks) when they are “ in their own country," are like De Proclus-
Anima
the inhabitants ofgreen fields, who live perpetually amongst flowers in
a spicy, odorous aire, but here below, " in the circle of generation,"
they mourn because of darkness and solitude, like people lockt up
in a pest-house. " Here do they fear, desire and grieve." This is
it makes the Soule subject to so many passions, to such a Proteus
of humours. Now she flourishes, now she withers , now a smile,
now a tear, and when she hath played out her stock, then comes a
repetition of the same fancies, till at last she cries out with Seneca,
" How long shall these things continue ? " This is occasioned by
her vast and infinite capacity, which is satisfied with nothing but
God, from whom at first she descended. It is miraculous to con-
sider how she struggles with her chaynes when man is in extremity,
how she falsifies with fortune, what pomp, what pleasure, what a
paradise doth she propose to her, selfe ! She spans kingdomes in a
thought, and enjoyes all that inwardly which she misseth outwardly.
In her are patterns and notions of all things in the world . If she
but fancies her selfe in the midst of the sea, presently she is there,
and heares the rushing of the billowes. She makes an invisible
voyage from one place to an other, and presents to her selfe things
absent as if they were present. The dead live to her ; there is no
grave can hide them from her thoughts. Now shee is here in dirt
and mire, and in a trice above the moone :
Above the region of the storms she soars,
Beneath her feet she hears devolving clouds,
And under foot she thrusts the thunders blind.
But this is nothing. If she were once out of the body, she could
act all that which she imagined. " In a moment (saith Agrippa)
whatsoever she desires shall follow." In this state she can " act on
the fluids of the Macrocosm, ” make generall commotions in the two
spheres of air and water, and alter the complexions of times. Neither
is this a fable, but the unanimous tenet of the Arabians, with the two
Princes Avicebron and Avicenna. She hath then an absolute power
in miraculous and more than naturall transmutations. She can in
an instant transfer her own vessell from one place to an other. She
can (by an union with universall force) infuse and communicate her
thoughts to the absent, be the distance never so great. Neither is
there any thing under the sun but she may know it, and remaining
onely in one place, she can acquaint her selfe with the actions of all
places whatsoever. I omit to speak of her Magnet, wherewith she
32 ANTHROPOSOPHIA THEOMAGICA .
can attract all things, as well spirituall as naturall. Finally, " there is
Cornelius no achievement in the whole series of nature, however arduous,
Agrippa.
however excellent, however even miraculous, that the human Soul,
when connected with the source of its divinity, which the Magi term
the Soul Standing, and not Falling, shall not be able to effect by its
own powers and devoid of any external support whatsoever. " But
who is he " amid so many myriads of philosophers," that knows her
nature substantially, and the genuine, speciall use thereof? This is
Sepher Abraham's " Grand Secret, wonderful exceedingly and very occult,
Jetzirah.
sealed with seven seals, and out of these flow fire, water, and air,
which are divided into males and females." We should therefore
pray continually, that God would open our eyes, whereby we might
see to imploy that talent which he hath bestowed upon us, but lies
buried now in the ground, and doth not fructifie at all. He it is to
whom we must be united by " an essentiall contact," and then we
shall know all things, " manifested face to face by a clear seeing into
the Divine Light.'"" This influx from Him is the true, proper effi-
cient of our regeneration, that sperma of St John, the seed of God
which remaines in us. If this be once obtained, we need not serve
under Aristotle or Galen, nor trouble ourselves with foolish Utrums
and Ergos, for his unction will instruct us as in all things. But
indeed the doctrine of the Schoolmen, which in a manner makes
God and nature contraries, hath so weakened our confidence towards
Heaven that we look upon all receptions from thence as impossi-
bilities. But if things were well weighed, and this cloud of tradition
removed, we should quickly finde that God is more ready to give
then we are to receive, for He made man (as it were) for his play-
fellow, that he might survey and examine his workes. The inferiour
creatures he made not for themselves but his own glory, which glory
he could not receive from any thing so perfectly as from man, who,
having in him the spirit of discretion, might judge of the beauty of
the creature and consequently praise the Creatour. Wherefore also
God gave him the use of all his works, and in Paradise how familiar
Genesis. is he, or rather how doth he play with Adam ? " Out of the ground
(saith the Scripture) the Lord God formed every beast of the field ,
and every fowl of the air, and brought them unto Adam to see what
he would call them ; and whatsoever Adam called every living
creature, that was the name thereof." These were the books which
God ordained for Adam, and for us his posterity, not the quint-
essence of Aristotle, nor the temperament of Galen the Antichrist.
But this is " tormenting the hornets." Now will the Peripateticks
brand me with their contra principia, and the schoole-divines
ANTHROPOSOPHIA THEOMAGICA. 33
-whence the souls may never come forth , as the divine Plato hath
it. The other, I suppose, is somewhat answerable to the Elysian
Fields, some delicate, pleasant region, the Suburbs of Heaven, as it
were. Those Seven Mighty Mountaines, whereupon there grow
Roses and Lilies, or the outgoings of Paradise in Esdras. Such was
that place where the oracle told Amelius the soul of Plotinus was—
Where friendship is, where Cupid fair to see,
Replete with purest joy, enriched from God
With sempiternall streames ambrosiall,
Whence are the bonds of love, the gentle breath,
The tranquil air of great Jove's golden race.
Stellatus supposeth there is a successive, gradual ascent of the Soul,
according to the process of expiation, and he makes her inter-
residence in the Moon. But, let it be where it will, my opinion is,"
that this middlemost mansion is appointed for such souls whose
whole man hath not perfectly repented in this world, but, notwith-
standing, they are " of the number of the saved," and reserved in
this place to a further repentance in the spirit for those offences
they committed in the flesh. I do not here maintain that Will o'
the Wisp of Purgatory, or any such painted, imaginary Tophet ; but
that which I speak (if I am not mistaken) I have a strong Scripture
It is that of St Peter, where he speaks of Christ being " put to
death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit ; by which also he
went, and preached unto the spirits that were in prison , which some-
tines were disobedient when once the long-suffering of God waited
in the dayes of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few,
that is, eight, souls were saved by water." These spirits were the souls
of those who perished in the Floud, and were reserved in this place
till Christ should have come, and preached repentance unto them.
I know Scaliger thinks to evade this construction with his Qui tunc,
that they were then alive, namely, before the Floud , when they were
preached unto. But I shall overthrow this single nonsense with
three solid reasons, drawn out of the body of the text. First, it is
not said that the Spirit it self precisely preached unto them, but He
who went thither by the Spirit, namely, Christ in the hypostaticall
union of his Soul and Godhead, which union was not before the
Floud, when these dead did live. Secondly, it is written that he
preached unto spirits, not to men, to those which were in prison,
not to those which were " in life," which is quite contrary to
Scaliger. And this exposition the apostle confirms in another place-
"to them that are dead," the dead were preached to not the living. I1 Pet. iv. 6.
Thirdly, the apostle says : these spirits were but sometimes dis-
PHIA
RO POSO MAGI
CA
38 ANTH THEO .
THE END.
ANIMA MAGICA ABSCONDITA :
OR
NATURE ,
BY
EUGENIUS PHILALETHES.
Stapul : in Dion :
Est autem universum speculum unum, ad quod astans Amor, suum efformat idolum.
Dâ a Digon : Hêb Dhú, Hêb Dhim .
AN ADVERTISEMENT TO THE RE
THE END.
ANTEUT
TA ALSO
ཞ
༞
:།
"
.
1
TO THE READER.
whom I have received it. The world then being not able to confute
this man's principles by reason, went about to do it by scandal, and
the first argument they fastened on was that of the Jews against his
Saviour : "Thou art a Samaritan, and hast a devil." The chief in
this persecution is Cicognes, and after him Delrio in his fabulous
"Disquisitions." But Paulus Jovius stirred in the vomit, who
amongst other men's "lives " hath put my author to death. It is
done indeed emphatically betwixt him and his poet, whom he hired
(it seems) to stitch verse to his prose, and so patched up the legend.
"Who would believe (saith he) a monstrous disposition to have been
concealed by the sedate countenance of Henry Cornelius Agrippa ! "
In his subsequent discourse he states his question, and returns my
author's best parts as a libell on his memorie. But that which
troubles him most of all is that Agrippa should prove his doctrine
out of the Scriptures. Then he inculcates the solemn crambo of
his dog-devil, whose collar, emblematically wrought with nailes, made
the russe to his familiar. For a close to the story, he kills him at
Lyons, where, being near his departure, he unravelled his magick in
this desperate dismission : " Begone, abandoned beast, who hast lost
me everything ! " This is the most grosse lie, and the least probable
in every circumstance that ever was related. Devils are use not to
quit their conjurors in the day of death , neither will they at such
times be exterminated . This is the hour wherein they attend their
prey, and from seeming servants become cruell masters. Besides, is
it not most gross, that any should dog this devil from Agrippa's
lodging to Araria, where (sayth this prelate) he plunged himself?
Certainly spirits passe away invisibly, and with that dispatch no
mortall man can trace them. Believe this, and believe all the fables
of Purgatory. Now, reader, thou hast heard the worst, lend a just eare
and thou shalt hear the best. Johannes Wierus, a profest adver-
sarie to ceremonial magick, and sometimes secretary to Cornelius
Agrippa, in his Dæmonomania speaks thus. He wonders that some
learned Germans and Italians were not ashamed to traduce his
master in their publick writings. That he had a dog whose call
was Monsieur he confesseth, and this spaniell during his service he
used to leade, when Agrippa walked abroad, by a hair chain. " And
certainly the dog was a natural male animal " (saith he), to which
also Agrippa coupled a bitch of the same colour called Made-
moyselle. It is confest that he was fond of this dog as some men
are, and having divorced his first wife would suffer him for a
sarcasm to sleep with him under the sheets. In his study too, this
dog would couch at the table by his master, whence this great
TO THE READER. 45
but truly Finitatio, though his own followers falsely render it " the
actuating principle of an organised body." But this definition is
common to beasts and plants, and therefore he hath stumbled on
another ; "the Soul is that principle in which we live, feel, move,
and comprehend. " Now, both these descriptions concerne only the
operations and faculties which the Soul exerciseth on the body, but
discover not her nature or originall at all. It was ingenuously done
of Galen, who confessed his ignorance concerning the substance of
the Soul, but this fellow, who had not so much honestie, is voiced
"prince of philosophers ," and the positions of more glorious authors
are examined by his dictates, as it were by a touchstone. Nay, the
Scripture itself is oftentimes wrested and forced by his disciples to
vote a placet to his conclusions. It is a miserable task to dwell on
this ethnick, to gather his straw and stubble most of our dayes, and
after all to be no better acquainted with our selves, but that the
Soul is the cause of life, sense, motion, and understanding. I pitie
our customarie follies, that we binde our selves over to a prentiship
of expence and study, onely to compasse a few superficiall truths
which every plow-man knows without book. Verily, Nature is so
much a tutor that none can be ignorant in these things, for who is
so stupid as not to know the difference between life and death, the
absence and presence of his Soul ? Yet these very definitions,
though looked upon as rare, profound, philosophicall determina-
tions, instruct us in nothing more. Away then with this Peri-
patetickall philosophy, this " vain babbling " as St Paul justly styles
it, for, sure enough, he had some experience of it at Athens in his
dispute about the resurrection. Let us no more look on this Olla
Podrida, but on that spirit which resides in the elements, for this
produceth real effects by the subsequent relations of corruption
and generation, but the spirit of errour, which is Aristotle's, pro-
duceth nought but a multiplicity of notions. Observe, then, that
this Stagirite and Nature are at a great distance, the one ends in
works, the other in words ; his followers refine the old notions,
but not the old creatures. And, verily, the mystery of their pro-
fession consists onely in their terms ; if their speculations were
exposed to the world in a plaine dress, their sense is so empty and
shallow, there is not any would acknowledge them for philoso-
phers. In some discourses I confesse they have Nature before them ,
but they go not the right way to apprehend her. They are
still in chase but never overtake their game, for who is he amongst
them whose knowledge is so entire and regular that he can justifie
his positions by practice ? Againe, in some things they are quite
D
50 ANIMA MAGICA ABSCONDITA.
besides the cushion ; they scold and squabble about whymzies and
problems of their own which are no more in Nature then Lucian's
Lachanopters or Hyppogypians. Now the reason of their errours is
this, because they are experienced in nothing but outward accidents
or qualities, and all the performance they can do in philosophie is
to pronounce a body hot or cold, moyst or dry ; but if they minde
the essentiall temperament, they are grossly mistaken in stating
these qualifications, for it is not the touch or sight that can discern
intrinsecal, true complexions . A body that is outwardly cold to the
sense may be hotter in the inmost part where the genuine tempera-
ment lies, then the Sun himself is outwardly. But they know not
the providence of Nature, how she interposeth a different resisting
quality in the circumference of everything, lest the qualities of
ambient bodies should conspire in too great a measure with the
center, and so procure a dissolution of the compound. Thus she
interposeth a passive, refreshing spirit between the Centrall Fire and
the Sulphur ; again she placeth the Sulphur between the Liquor of
the Coelestiall Luna and her outward Mercurie—a rare and admirable
texture, infallibly proving that none but God onely wise, who fore-
saw the conveniencies and disconveniencies of his creatures, could
range them in that daring order and connexion . But to go further
with these Peripateticks : their philosophy is a kinde of physiog-
nomy ; they will judge of invisible, inward principles (formes, as
they call them) , which are shut up in the closet of the matter, and
all this in perusing the outside or crust of nature. 'Twere a foolish
presumption if a lapidary should undertake to state the value or
lustre of a jewell that is lockt up, before he opens the cabinet. I
advise them therefore to use their hands, not their fansies, and to
change their abstractions into extractions, for, verily, as long as they
lick the shell in this fashion, and pierce not experimentally into the
center of things, they can do no otherwise then they have done ;
they cannot know things substantially, but onely describe them by
their outward effects and motions, which are subject, and obvious
to every common eye. Let them consider, therefore, that there is
in Nature a certain spirit which applies himself to the matter and
actuates in every generation ; that there is also a passive, intrinsecal
principle where he is more immediately resident than the rest, and
by mediation of which he communicates with the more gross,
materiall parts. For there is in Nature a certain chain , or sub-
ordinate propinquity of complexions between visibles and invisibles,
and this is it by which the superiour, spirituall essences descend,
and converse here below with the matter. But have a care lest you
INSCODEETS
T
IE.
the #
called
the 20
the
is a com
50 ANIMA MAGICA ABSCONDITA.
besides the cushion ; they scold and squabble about whymzies and
problems of their own which are no more in Nature then Lucian's
Lachanopters or Hyppogypians. Now the reason of their errours is
this, because they are experienced in nothing but outward accidents
or qualities, and all the performance they can do in philosophie is
to pronounce a body hot or cold, moyst or dry ; but if they minde
the essentiall temperament, they are grossly mistaken in stating
these qualifications, for it is not the touch or sight that can discern
intrinsecal, true complexions. A body that is outwardly cold to the
sense may be hotter in the inmost part where the genuine tempera-
ment lies, then the Sun himself is outwardly. But they know not
the providence of Nature, how she interposeth a different resisting
quality in the circumference of everything, lest the qualities of
ambient bodies should conspire in too great a measure with the
center, and so procure a dissolution of the compound. Thus she
interposeth a passive, refreshing spirit between the Centrall Fire and
the Sulphur ; again she placeth the Sulphur between the Liquor of
the Cœlestiall Luna and her outward Mercurie—a rare and admirable
texture, infallibly proving that none but God onely wise, who fore-
saw the conveniencies and disconveniencies of his creatures, could
range them in that daring order and connexion . But to go further
with these Peripateticks : their philosophy is a kinde of physiog-
nomy ; they will judge of invisible, inward principles (formes, as
they call them) , which are shut up in the closet of the matter, and
all this in perusing the outside or crust of nature. 'Twere a foolish
presumption if a lapidary should undertake to state the value or
lustre of a jewell that is lockt up, before he opens the cabinet. I
advise them therefore to use their hands, not their fansies, and to
change their abstractions into extractions, for, verily, as long as they
lick the shell in this fashion, and pierce not experimentally into the
center of things, they can do no otherwise then they have done ;
they cannot know things substantially, but onely describe them by
their outward effects and motions, which are subject, and obvious
to every common eye. Let them consider, therefore, that there is
in Nature a certain spirit which applies himself to the matter and
actuates in every generation ; that there is also a passive, intrinsecal
principle where he is more immediately resident than the rest, and
by mediation of which he communicates with the more gross,
materiall parts. For there is in Nature a certain chain , or sub-
ordinate propinquity of complexions between visibles and invisibles,
and this is it by which the superiour, spirituall essences descend,
and converse here below with the matter. But have a care lest you
ANIMA MAGICA ABSCONDITA. 51
from one end to another," and that "his Incorruptible Spirit filleth
all things." But to speak something more immediately apposite to
our purpose, let us consider the severall products that are in Nature,
with their admirable features and symmetrie. We know very well
there is but one matter out of which there are found so many differ-
ent shapes and constitutions. Now, if the agent which determinates
and figures the matter were not a discerning spirit, it were impossible
for him to produce anything at all. For let me suppose Hyliard
with his pencill and table ready to pourtray a rose ; if he doth not
inwardly apprehend the very shape and proportion of that which he
intends to limne, he may as well do it without his eyes as without
his intellectualls. Let us now apply this to the Spirit that worketh
in Nature. This moves in the center of all things, hath the matter
before him, as the potter hath his clay, or the limner his colours,
and first of all he exerciseth his chymistry in severall transformations,
producing sinews, veines, blood, flesh, and bones, which work also
includes his arithmetic, for he makes the joynts and all integrall
parts, nay, as Christ tells us, the very hairs of our heads in a certain
determinate number, which may conduce to the beauty and motion
of the frame. Again, in the outward lineaments or symmetrie of
the compound, he proves himself a most regular mathematician, pro-
portioning parts to parts, all which operations can proceed from
nothing but a Divine, Intellectuall Spirit. For if he had not severall
ideas or conceptions correspondent to his severall intentions, he
could not distinguish the one from the other ; and if he were not
sensible, if he did not foresee the work he doth intend, then the end
could be no impulsive cause, as the Peripateticks have it.
The consideration of these severall offices which this spirit per-
forms in generation made Aristotle himself grant, that in the
seeds of all things there were " potencies similar to designes." We
should therefore examine who weaves the flowers of vegetables ?
who colours them without a pencill ? who bolts the branches up-
wards, and threads (as it were) their roots downwards ? For all
these actions include a certain artifice which cannot be done without
judgement and discretion. Now our Saviour tells us : " My Father
worketh hitherto ; " and in another place, it is " God cloathes the
lilice of the field ; " and again, " not one sparrow falls without your
Father." Verily, this is the truth, and the testimony of truth, not-
withstanding Aristotle and his problems. Neither should you think
the Divine Spirit disparaged in being president to every generation
because some products seem poor and contemptible, for, verily, as
* Note II.
ANIMA MAGICA ABSCONDITA. 55
long as they conduce to the glory of their Author, they are noble
enough , and if you reflect upon Egypt, you will finde the basest of
his creatures to extort a Catholick Confession from the wizards-
Digitus Dei est hic, "the Finger of God is here." That I may Exodus.
come then to the point, these invisible, centrall Artists are Lights
seeded by the First Light, in that primitive emanation, or Sit Lux-
"let there be light " which some falsely render Fiat Lux- "let
light be made." For Nature is "the Voice of God," not a meer
sound or command, but a substantiall, active breath, proceeding
from the Creatour, and penetrating all things. God himself is " a
spermatick Forme ; " and this is the only sense in which a form may
be defined as " the outward expression of an inward essence. " I
know this will seem harsh to some men, whose ignorant zeal hath
made them adversaries to God, for they rob him of his glory, and
give it to his creature, nay sometimes to fancies and inventions of
their own. I wish such philosophers to consider whether in the
beginning there was any life or wisdom beyond the Creatour, and,
if so, to tell us where. Verily (to use their own term) they
can never find this Ubi. For they are gratious concessions or
talents which God of his free will hath lent us, and if he should
resume them, we should presently return to our first nothing. Let
them take heed therefore whiles they attribute generation to quali-
ties, lest the true Author of it should come against them with that
charge which he brought sometimes against the Assyrians. " Shall Isaiah.
the ax boast it self against him that heweth therewith ? or shall the
saw magnifie it self against him that shaketh it ? as if the rod should
shake it self against them that lift it up, or as if the staffe should lift
up it self as if it were no wood ? " Let them rather cashier their
Aristotle, and the errors wherewith he hath infatuated so many
generations. Let them approach with confidence to the Almighty
God, who made the world, for none can give a better account of the
work than the Architect. Let them not despair to attain his fami-
liarity, for he is a God that desires to be known , and will reveale
himself both for the manifestation of his own glory and the benefit
of his Creature. There is no reason then why we should decline
this great and glorious School-Master, whose very invitation speaks
more then our ordinary encouragement. " Thus sayth the Lord , the Is. xlv.
Holy One of Israel, and our Maker : Ask me of things to come con-
cerning my sons, and concerning the work of my hands command
you me. I have made the Earth, and created man upon it ; I,
even my hand, have stretched out the Heavens, and all their
hosts have I commanded." But it will be questioned perhaps,
56 ANIMA MAGICA ABSCONDITA .
nor approach the most sacred Tetrad. Had they mastered all the
books of the wise, were they perfectly conversant with the courses of
the stars, with their virtues, powers, operations, and properties, did
they keenly and clearly understand their types, signets, sigils, and
their most secret things whatsoever, no performance of marvels
could possibly follow these operations without the knowledge of this
principle which cometh out of a principle, and returneth into a
principle ; whence all, without exception, whom I have found ex-
perimenting in natural magic have either attained nothing or, after
long and unproductive operations, have been driven into vain,
trifling, and superstitious pursuits. Now, the second principle,
which is separated from the first in order and not in dignity, which
alone existing doth create the Triad, is that which works wonders
by the Duad. For in the one is the one and there is not the one ;
it is simple, yet in the Tetrad it is compounded, which being puri-
fied by fire cometh forth pure water, and reduced to its simplicity
shall reveal unto the performer of arcane mysteries the completion of
his labours. Here lieth the centre of all naturall magick, whose cir-
cumference united unto itself doth display a circle, a vast line in the
infinite. Its virtue is above all things purified, and it is less simple
than all things, composed on the scale of the Tetrad. But the
Pythagoric Tetrad supported by the Triad, the pure and purified
in one, can, if order and grade be observed, most assuredly perform
marvels and secrets of nature in respect of the Duad within the
Triad. This is the Tetrad within the capacity whereof the Triad
joined to the Duad, maketh all things one, and which worketh
wonderfully. The triad reduced to unity contains all things, per
aspectum, in itself, and it doeth whatsoever it will. The third
principle is by itself no principle, but between this and the Duad is
the end of all science and mystic art, and the infallible centre of the
mediating principle. It is no easier to blunder in the one than in
the other for few flourish on earth who fundamentally comprehend
its mysteries, both progressing by an eight-fold multiplication through
the septenary into the triad, and remaining fixed. Therein is the
consummation of the scale and series of Number. By this hath
every philosopher, and every true Scrutator of naturall secrets,
attained unto admirable results ; by this, reduced in the Triad unto
a simple element, they suddenly performed miraculous cures of
diseases, and of all kinds of sickness in a purely naturall manner, and
the operations of naturall and supernaturall Magick attained results
through the direction of the Tetrad. By this the prediction of future
events was truthfully performed, and no otherwise was the narrow
60 ANIMA MAGICA ABSCONDITA.
entrance unto things kept secret wrested from Nature. By this only
Medium was the secret of Nature laid bare unto Alchemists ;
without it no comprehension of the art can be acquired, nor the
end of experiment discovered. Believe me, they do err, they do all
err, who devoid of these three principles dream it possible for
them to accomplish anything in the secret services of Nature."
Thus far Trithemius, where for thy better understanding of him, I
must inform thee there is a two-fold Binarius, one of light and con-
fusion ; but peruse Agrippa seriously " Of the Scales of numbers,”
and thou mayst apprehend all, for our abbot borrowed this language
from him, the perusall of whose books he had before he published
anything in this nature of his own. Now, for thy further instruction,
go along with me, not to Athens or Stagyra but to that secretary and
penman of God Almighty who stood on a cleft of the rock when he
made all his goodnesse to passe before him. I am certain the world
will wonder I should make use of Scripture to establish Physiologie,
but I would have them know that all secrets, physicall and spirituall,
all the close connexions, and that mysterious Kisse of God and
Nature are clearly and punctually discovered there. Consider that
mercifull mystery of the Incarnation , wherein the fullnesse of the
Godhead was incorporated, and the Divine Light united to the
Matter in a far greater measure then at the first creation. Consider
it, I say, and thou shall finde that no philosophie hath perfectly
united God to his creature but the Christian, wherefore also it is
the onely true philosophie, and the onely true religion, for without
this union there can neither be a naturall temporall, nor a spirituall
æternall life. Moses tells us that in the beginning God created the
Heaven and the Earth , that is the Virgin Mercury and the Virgin
Sulphur. Now, let me advise you not to trouble yourselves with
this Mercurie unlesse you have a true friend to instruct you, or an
expresse illumination from the first Author of it, for it is a thing
attained "by a marvellous Art." Observe then what I shall now
tell you. There is in every star, and in this elementall world, a
certain principle which is " the Bride of the Sun." These two in
their coition do emit semen , which seed is carried in the womb of
Nature, but the ejection of it is performed invisibly, and in a sacred
silence, for this is the conjugall mystery of Heaven and Earth, their
act of generation, a thing done in private between males and females,
but how much more, think you, between the two universall natures ?
Know therefore that it is impossible for you to extract or receive
any seed from the sun without this foeminine principle which is the
Wife of the Sun. Now then my small sophisters of the Stone, you
ANIMA MAGICA ABSCONDITA. 61
that consume your time and substance in making waters and oyles
with a dirty Caput Mortuum, you that deal in gold and quick-silver,
being infatuated with the legends of some late and former
mountebanks, consider the last end of such men. Did they obtain
any thing by it but diseases and poverty ? Did they not in their old
66
age, the greybeards of an evil time," fall to clipping and counter-
feiting of coyne? and for a period to their memory did they not die in
despair, which is the childe of ignorance ? Know then for certain
that the magician's Sun and Moon are two universall peeres, male
and female, or king and queen regents, alwayes young, and never old.
These two are adæquate to the whole world, and coextend thorough
the universe. The one is not without the other, God having united
them in his work of creation in a solemn sacramentall union. It will
then be a hard and difficult enterprise to rob the husband of his
wife, to put those asunder whom God himself hath put together, for
they sleep both in the same bed, and he that discovers the one must
needes see the other. The love betwixt these two is so great, that if
you use this Virgin kindly, shee will fetch back her Cupid, after he hath
ascended from her in wings of fire. Observe, moreover, that materiall
principles can be multiplied but materially, that is, by addition of
parts, as you see in the augmentation of bodies, which is performed by
a continual assumption of nutriment into the stomach , but it is not
the body that transmutes the nutriment into flesh and bloud, but that
spirit which is the light and life of the body. Materiall principles
are passive, and can neither alter nor purifie, but well may they
be altered and purified ; neither can they communicate themselves
to another substance beyond their own extension which is finite
and determinate. Question not these impostors then who tell you of
a Sulphur Tingens, and I know not what fables ; who pin also that
narrow name of Chemia on a science both ancient and infinite. It
is the Light onely that can be truely multiplied, for this ascends to,
and descends from, the first fountain of multiplication and genera-
tion. This Light, applied to any body whatsoever, exalts and
perfects it after its own species. If to animals, it exalts animals ; if
to vegetables, vegetables ; if to minerals, it refines minerals, and
translates them from the worst to the best condition. Where note,
by the way, that every body hath passive principles in it self for this
Light to work upon , and therefore needs not borrow any from gold
or silver. Consider then what it is you search for, you that hunt
after the Philosophers' Stone, for " it is his to transmute who
creates ; you seek for that which is most high, but you look on that
which is most low." Two things there are which every good Chris-
62 ANIMA MAGICA ABSCONDITA.
tian may and ought to look after the true and the necessary.
Truth is the Arcanum, the mystery and essence of all things, for
every secret is truth, and every substantiall truth is a secret. I
speak not here of outward historicall truths, which are but relatives
to actions, but I speak of an inward essentiall truth which is Light,
for Light is the truth, and it discovers falshood , which is darknesse.
By this truth all that which is necessary may be compassed, but
never without it. "I preferred wisdom (said the wise king) before
scepters and thrones, and esteemed riches nothing in comparison of
her. Neither compared I unto her any precious stone, because all
gold in respect of her is as a little sand , and silver shall be counted
as clay before her. I loved her above health and beauty, and chose
to have her instead of light, for the light that cometh from her
never goeth out. All good things came to me together with her,
and innumerable riches in her hands. And I rejoyced in them all,
because wisdom goeth before them , and I knew not that she was the
mother of them. If riches be a possession to be desired in this life,
what is richer then wisdom that worketh all things ? for she is
privy to the mysteries of the knowledge of God, and a lover of his
works. God hath granted me to speak as I would, and to conceive
as is meet for the things that are given me, because it is he that
leadeth unto wisdom and directeth the wise, for in his hand are
both we and our words, all wisdom also, and knowledge of work-
manship. For he hath given me certain knowledge of the things
that are, namely, to know how the world was made, and the opera-
tion of the Elements. The beginning, ending, and middest of the
times, the alterations of the turning of the sun, and the change of
seasons, the circuit of yeares and the position of stars, the natures of
living creatures and the furies of wild beasts, the violence of windes
and the reasoning of men, the diversities of plants and the vertues
of rootes, and all such things as are either secret or manifest,
them I know. For wisdom, which is the worker of all things,
taught me. For in her is an understanding spirit, holy, onely
begotten, manifold, subtil, lively, clear, undefiled, plain, not sub-
ject to hurt, loving the thing that is good, quick, which cannot
be letted, ready to do good, kind to man, stedfast, free from care,
having all power, overseeing all things, and going thorough all un-
derstanding, pure, and most subtill spirits . For wisdom is more
moving then any motion, she passeth and goeth thorough all things
by reason of her purenesse . For she is the brightnesse of the
everlasting light, the unspotted mirror of the power of God, and the
image of his goodnesse. And being but one she can do all things,
ANIMA MAGICA ABSCONDITA. 63
and remayning in her self she maketh all things new, and in all ages
entring into holy souls, she maketh them friends of God and
prophets. For God loveth none but him that dwelleth with wisdom.
For she is more beautifull then the sun , and above all the order of
stars, being compared withthe light, she is far before it, for after
this cometh night, but vice shall not prevail against wisdom." Thus
Solomon, and again a greater then Solomon : " First seek you the
Kingdom of God, and all these things shall be given you." For, of
a truth, temporall blessings are but ushers to the spirituall, or to
speak more plainly, when once we begin to love the Spirit, then he
sends us these things as tokens and pledges of his love, for pro-
motion comes neither from the East nor from the West, but from
God that giveth it. " He truly is ( saith one) from whom nothing is
absent, whom nothing supports, and whom nothing, much less, can
harm—that all necessary thing, having which it is impossible to be
destitute. Truth, therefore is the highest excellence and an im-
pregnable fortress, having few friends abiding therein and assailed
by innumerable enemies, invisible in these days to well nigh all the
world, but an invincible security to those who possess it. In this
Citadel is contained the true and undoubted Philosophers' Stone
and the Treasure, which uneaten by moths and unstolen by thieves
remaineth to eternity, though all things else dissolve, set up for
the ruin of many and the salvation of some. This is the matter
which to the crowd is vile, exceedingly contemptible and odious,
yet not odious but love-worthy and precious to Philosophers above
gems and gold, itself the lover of all, to all well nigh an enemy,
to be found everywhere, yet by few, scarcely by any, discovered ;
crying along the streets unto all, Come to me all ye who seek, and
I will lead you into the true path. This is that one thing pro-
claimed by the veritable Philosophers, which overcometh all, and is
itself overcome by nothing, searching heart and body, penetrating
everything stony and solid, and strengthening all things tender,
and establishing its own power on the opposition of that which is
most hard. It doth set itself before us all, crying and proclaiming
with uplifted voice : I am the way of truth , walk by me, for there is
no other path unto life ; and yet we will not hearken to her. She
giveth forth the odour of sweetness, but we do not perceive it.
Daily doth she liberally in sweetness offer herself to us in the
holy festivals, and we will not taste her. Softly she draws us
to salvation, and resisting her pressure , we refuse to endure it.
For we are become as stones, having eyes and seeing not, having
ears and hearing not, having nostrils and smelling not, furnished
64 ANIMA MAGICA ABSCONDITA .
with mouth and tongue yet not tasting nor speaking, with hands
and feet yet neither working nor walking. O most miserable race
of men , which is not superior to stones, yea, so much the more
inferior because to this and not to those is given knowledge
of their acts. Be ye transmuted (she cries), be ye transmuted
from dead stones into living philosophical stones. I am the true
Medicine, rectifying and transmuting that which is no more into
that which it was before corruption, and into something better
by far, and that which is not into that which it ought to be.
Lo, I am at the door of your conscience, knocking night and day,
and ye will not open unto me, yet I stand mildly waiting ; I do not,
depart in anger ; I suffer your insults patiently, hoping by that
patience to lead you to that which I exhort you to. Come again
and again, often come, ye who seek wisdom, and purchase gratis,
not with gold nor with silver, still less with your own labours , what
is voluntarily offered to you. O sonorous voice, O voice sweet and
gracious to the ears of the sages, O fount of inexhaustible riches to
those thirsting after truth and justice ! O solace to the need of
those who are desolate ! Why seek ye further, anxious mortals ?
Why torment your minds with innumerable anxieties, ye miserable ?
Prithee, what madness blinds you ? When in you , and not without
you, is all that you seek outside you instead of within you. This
characteristic is commonly the vice of the vulgar, that despising their
own they desire ever what is foreign to them, and not altogether
unreasonably, for of our own selves we possess nothing that is good ;
for if it be possible for us to have within us any goodness, we receive
it from Him who alone is æternall Goodness, while, on the contrary,
our disobedience hath appropriated the Evil of our nature out of an
evil principle without us. Man, then, hath no possession of his own
beyond the evil which he individualises within him. Whatsoever is
good within him he receives from the Lord of goodness, not from
himself; nevertheless, he hath the faculty of incorporating what he
receives from the good principle. That Life which is the light of men
shineth (albeit dimly) within us, that Life which is not of us, but from
Him who possesses it from Everlasting. He hath implanted it in
us, that in his Light, who dwelleth in light inaccessible, we may
behold the Light ; by this doe we surpass the rest of his perishable
creatures ; thus are we fashioned in his own likeness, because he
hath given us one ray of his own inherent illumination. Truth must
not, therefore, be sought in our lower selves, but in the likeness of
God which is within us." This is he to whom the Brothers of R. C.
gave the title of Sapiens , and from whose writings they borrowed
ANIMA MAGICA ABSCONDITA. 65
cannot possibly turn aside from the waye of truth. Turn first thine
eyes to the right path, lest they behold vanity before they distinguish
wisdome. See you not that splendid and impregnable tower?
Therein is the Philosophical love from whose fount floweth living
water, and he who once drinkes of it shall never more thirst after
vanity. From that how pleasant and delightfull place is a plain
path to that more delightfull yet, wherein the Divine Sophia tarries,
from whose fount leap waters far more blessed than the first, and
which they who give to an enemy, he is forthwith forced to grant
them peace . Most of those who go there direct their course still
higher, but not all can accomplish their desire. There is another
place which mortals may scarcely attaine, unlesse they are received
by the Divine Numen into the plane of immortality, and before they
are introduced, they are constrained to put off the world, being
weighted by the garments of perishable life. In those who attaine
it there is no longer any fear of death , much rather do they from day
to day welcome it with more favour because they judge that whatso-
ever is in nature is worthy of their embrace . Whosoever doth
progresse beyond these three places vanishes from the eyes of men.
If so be that it be granted us to behold the second and the third
places, let us ascend higher. So, beyond the first chrystalline arch,
ye behold a second of silver, beyond which there is a third of
adamant, but the fourth falls not within sense till the third be passed
under. This is the golden region of undying felicity, voide of care
and filled wholly with perpetuall joy."
This is the pitch and place, to which if any man ascends he enters
into chariots of fire with horses of fire, and is translated from the
earth, soul and body. Such was Enoch , such was Elijah, such was
Esdras, to whom this medecine was ministred by Uriel the angel.
Such was St Paul , who was carried up to the third Heaven ; such was
Zoroaster, who was transfigured, and such was that Anonymous men-
tioned by Agrippa. " The same wise man (sayth he) did also appear
in such wise that burning rays came from him with a great sound. "
This, I suppose, was R. C. , the founder of a most Christian and
famous society, whose body also by vertue of that medecine he took
in his life time is preserved entire to this day, with the epitomes of
two worlds about it. Such Elijahs also are members of this
Fraternitie, who, as their own writings testifie, walk in the super-
natural light. "To join our assembly it is needful that thou
shouldst perceive this Light , for without it, it is impossible to
behold us, save when we ourselves may will it." I know some
illiterate school divines will no sooner read this but they will cry
889
68 ANIMA MAGICA ABSCONDITA.
out with the Jewes : " Away with such a fellow through the Earth."
Truly they are the men to whom I also do advise that they read not
our writings, neither master, nor remember them ; for they are
harmful and venomous to such, and for them the mouth of hell is in
this book. It utters not words but stones ; let them beware lest it
cast them on their heads. Let them not mind it, buy it not, touch
it not-
66 Hence, hence Profane ones ! "
Go on still, and proceed in your own corrupt fancies , that the
occasion of justice may be upheld. Follow your old beggarly
elements, the rudiments ofthis world, which hitherto have done
despight to the Spirit of Grace, which have grieved that holy and
loving Spirit of God, whereby you are sealed to the day of redemption.
But consider whiles you are yet in the flesh, whiles it is to day with
you, and timely to consider, that God will use those men whom you
revile for his truth as witnesses against you in a day when you shall
have nothing to speak for your ignorance, unless you plead your
obstinacie. Of a truth, God himself discovered this thing to the
first man, to confirm his hopes of those three supernaturall mysteries,
the Incarnation, Regeneration, and Resurrection , for Jamblichus,
citing the Ægyptian records with " It is to be believed on the
authority of secret wisdom, " hath these very words, " that a certain
substance has been handed down from the gods by means of sacred
shows, and that consequently it was known to those same men
who transmitted it. " And our former Christian author in a certain
place speakes thus : " It is indisputable that Deity revealed to the
patriarchs, by the Holy Ghost, a certain medecine whereby they
healed the corruption of the flesh, and when he spake to them, did
enter into a most binding compact with them." Let me tell you
then that the period and perfection of magick is no way physicall
for this art
" Touches the seat of Jove, and things Divine essays."
In a word, it ascends " through the light of Nature to the light of
grace," and the last end of it is truely theologicall. Remember,
therefore, that Elijah deposed his mantle, and past thorow the
waters of Jordan before he met with the chariots of Israel. But as
Agrippa sayth : " The storehouse of truth is closed ." The Scripture
is obscure and mysticall even in historicall passages. Who would
believe that in the history of Agar and Sarah, the mystery of both
Testaments was couched, but that St Paul himself hath told us so ?
Gal. iv. 22. " For it is written (sayth he), that Abraham had two sons, the one
ANIMA MAGICA ABSCONDITA. 69
This is the way thou must walk in, which if thou doest, thou shalt
perceive a sudden illustration, and then shall there abide in thee fire
with light, wind with fire, power with wind, knowledge with power,
and the integrity of a healthy mind with knowledge. This is the
chain that qualifies a Magician, for sayth Agrippa " to inquire into
things future, and into things present, and into other arcane
matters, and into the things which are indicated to men by divine
providence, veracious maxims, and to perform works which do
exceed the common course of Nature, is not possible apart from a
profound and perfect doctrine, an immaculate life, and faith, and is
not to be performed by light-minded and unlearned men." And in
another place : " No man can give that which he himself hath not.
But no man hath save he who, having suspended the elementary
forces, having overcome Nature, having compelled Heaven, having
attained the angelical, doth exceed his own archetype, co-operating
then with his works he can accomplish all things." This is the
place where if thou canst but once ascend, and then descend,
" Then oft the Archetype of the World attain
And oft to him recur, and, face to face,
Unhindered gaze upon the Father's grace "
Then, I say, thou hast got that Spirit whom all portentous mathe-
maticians, wonder - working magicians, invidious alchemisticall
torturers of nature, and venomous necromancers more evil than
demons, dare to promise, that Spirit who doth discern and perform ,
ANIMA MAGICA ABSCONDITA. 71
and that without any crime, without offence to God, and with no
injury to Religion. Such is the power he shall receive, who from
the clamourous tumults of this world ascends to the supernaturall
still voice from this base earth and mud whereto his body is allyed
to the spiritual, invisible elements of his soul. " He shall receive
the life of the gods ; he shall behold the Heroes intermingled with
the deities, and shall himself be beheld by them." This, reader, is
the Christian Philosopher's Stone, a Stone so often inculcated in
Scripture. This is the Rock in the wildernesse, because in great
obscurity, and few there are that know the right way unto it. This
is the Stone of Fire in Ezekiel ; this is the Stone with Seven Eyes
upon it in Zacharie, and this is the White Stone with the New
Name in the Revelation . But in the Gospel, where Christ himself
speakes, who was born to discover mysteries and communicate
Heaven to Earth, it is more clearly described. This is the Salt
which you ought to have in your selves ; this is the Water and
Spirit, whereof you must be born again, and is that Seed which falls
to the ground and multiplies to an hundredfold. But, reader, be
not deceived in me. I am not a man of any such faculties, neither
do I expect this blessing in such a great measure in this life ; God
is no debtor of mine. I can affirm no more of myself, but what my
author did formerly. " Hold me, I bid thee, as a finger post which,
ever pointing forward, shews the way to those undertaking a jour-
ney." Behold ! I will deal fairly with thee ; shew me but one
good Christian who is capable of and fit to receive such a
secret, and I will show him the right, infallible way to come by it.
Yet this I must tell thee ; it would sink thee to the ground to hear
this mystery related, for it cannot ascend to the heart of the naturall
man how neer God is to him, and how to be found. But of this
enough. I will now speak of a Naturall, Coelestiall medecine, and
this latter is common amongst some wise men, but few are they who
attain to the former. The common chymist works with the common
fire, and without any medium, wherefore he generates nothing, for
he works not, as God doth, to preservation, but to destruction ;
hence it is that he ends alwayes in the ashes. Do thou use it cum
phlegmati medii, so shall thy materialls rest in a third element, where
the violence of this tyrant cannot reach, but his Anima. There is
also a better way, for if thou canst temper him with the Spirit of
Heaven, thou hast altered him from a corrupting to a generating fire.
Sublime the Middle Nature Fire " by the Triad and the Circle,"
till thou comest to a breach of inferiors and superiors. Lastly,
* Note 12.
72 ANIMA MAGICA ABSCONDITA.
God, and fresh with the Powers of Heaven. Learn to refer all
naturals to their spirituals " by help of the secret analogy," for this
is the way the magicians went and found out miracles. Many there
are who bestow not their thoughts on God till the world failes them.
He may say to such guests, " When it can be forced on no one else,
it is brought to me." Do thou think on him first and he will speak
to thy thoughts at last. Sometimes thou mayst walk in groves,
which, being full of majestie, will much advance the Soule, sometimes
by clear, active rivers, for by such (say the mystick poets) Apollo
contemplated :
This is the way I would have thee walk in, if thou doest intend to
be a solid, Christian philosopher. Thou must, as Agrippa sayth,
" live only to God and the angels," reject all things " which are in
opposition to Heaven," otherwise thou canst have no communion
with superiors. Lastly, " be single, not solitary." Avoid the multi-
tude, as well of passions as persons. Now for authors, I wish thee
to trust no moderns, but Michael Sendivow, and that other of Physia
Restituta, especially his first aphoristicall part. The rest whom I
have seen suggest inventions of their own, such as may passe with
the whymzies of des Chartes, or Borillus his " Mathematicall Roses. "
To conclude, I would have thee know that every day is a yeer con-
tracted, that every yeer is an extended day. Anticipate the yeer in
the day, and lose not a day in the yeer. Make use of indeterminate
agents till thou canst find a determinate one. The many may wish
well, but one onely loves. Circumferences spread but centers con-
tract ; so superiors dissolve and inferiors coagulate. Stand not long
in the sun, nor long in the shade. Where extremes meet, there look
for complexions. Learn from thy errors to be infallible, from thy
misfortunes to be constant. There is nothing stronger then perse-
verance, for it ends in miracles. I could tell thee more, but that
were to puzzle thee. Learn this first, and thou mayst teach me
the last,
Thus, reader, have I published that knowledge which God gave
me " to the fruit of a good conscience." I have not busheld my
light nor buried my talent in the ground. I will now withdraw and
leave the stage to the next actor-some Peripatetick perhaps, whose
sic probo shall serve me for a comedie. I have seen scolds laughed
at, but never admired, so he that multiplies discourse makes a
serious cause ridiculous. The onely antidote to a shrew is silence,
and the best way to convince fools is to neglect them.
J
ANIMA MAGICA ABSCONDITA. 75
OR
WHEREUNTO IS ADDED
BY
EUGENIUS PHILALETHES.
TO THE MOST EXCELLENTLY ACCOMPLISHED,
MY BEST OF FRIENDS,
MR THOMAS HENSHAW .
chariot, pause here a little in the reare, and before thou dost addresse
thy self to Aristotle and his Lady Lie, think not thy courtship lost if
thou doest kisse the lips of poor Truth. It is not my intention to
jest with thee in what I shall write, wherefore read thou with a good
faith what I will tell thee with a good conscience. God when Hee
first made man, planted in him a spirit of that capacitie that he
might know all, adding thereto a most fervent desire to know, lest
that capacitie should be useless. This truth is evident to the pos-
teritie of man, for little children, before ever they can speak, will
stare upon anything that is strange to them ; they will cry, and are
restless, till they get it into their hands, that they may feel it and
look upon it, that is to say, that they may know what it is in some
degree, and according to their capacitie. Now, some ignorant nurse
will think that they doe all this out of a desire to play with what they
see, but they themselves tell us the contrarie, for when they are past
infants, and begin to make use of language, if any new thing appeares
they will not desire to play with it, but they will ask you what it is,
for they desire to know. And this is plain out of their actions, for
if you put any rattle into their hands, they will view it and studie it
for some short time, and when they can know no more, then they
will play with it. It is well known that if you hold a candle near
to a little child, hee will (if you prævent him not) put his finger
into the flame, for hee desires to know what it is that shines so
bright. But there is something more than all this, for even
these infants desire to improve their knowledge. Thus, when they
look upon anything, if the sight informes them not sufficiently,
they will, if they can, get it into their hands, that they may feel
it, but if the touch also doth not satisfie, they will put it
into their mouthes to taste it, as if they would examine things by
more senses than one. Now, this desire to know is born with them,
and it is the best and most mysterious part of their nature. It is to
be observed that when men come to their full age, and are serious
in their disquisitions, they are ashamed to erre, because it is the
proprietie of their nature to know. Thus we see that a philosopher
being taken at a fault in his discourse, will blush as if he had com-
mitted something unworthy of himself, and truly the very sense of
this disgrace prevailes so far with some, they had rather persist in
their error, and defend it against the truth, than acknowledge their
infirmities, in which respect I make no question but many Peripa-
teticks are perversely ignorant. It may bee they will scarcely hear
what I speak, or, if they hear, they will not understand. Howsoever,
I advise them not wilfully to prevent and hinder that glorious end
TO THE READER. 83
and perfection for which the very Author and Father of Nature
created them. It is a terrible thing to præfer Aristotle to Elohim,
and condemn the truth of God to justifie the opinioun of Man. Now,
for my part, I dare not be so irreligious as to think God so vain and
improvident in his workes that he should plant in man a desire to
know, and yet deny him knowledge it self. This, in plain termes,
were to give me eyes, and afterwards shut me up in darknesse, lest
I should see with those eyes. This earnest longing and busie inqui-
sition wherein men tyre themselves to attain to the truth, made a
certain master of truth speak in this fashion. Ergo liquido apparet
in hac Mundi structurâ, quam cernimus, aliquam triumphare Veri-
tatem ; quæ toties rationem nostram commovet, agitat, implicat, explicat;
toties inquietatem, toties insomnem miris modis sollicitat, non fortuitis,
autaliunde adventitiis, sed suis et propriis et originariis Naturæ illicibus;
quæ omnia cum non fiunt frustra, utique contingit, ut veritatem eorum
quæ sunt, aliquo tandem opportuno tempore amplexemur. "It is clear
therefore (saith he) that in this fabric of the world, which we behold,
there is some truth that works, which truth so often stirs up, puzzles ,
and helps our reason, so often sollicites her when shee is restless, so
often when shee is watchfull, and this by strange meanes, not casual
and adventitious, but by genuine provocations and pleasures of
Nature ; all which motions being not to no purpose, it falls out at
last that in some good time wee attain to the true knowledge of
those things that are." But because I would not have you build
your philosophie on coralls and whistles, which are the objects of
little children, of whom we have spoken formerly, I will speak some-
what of those elements in whose contemplation a man ought to
employ himself, and this discourse may serve as a preface to our
whole philosophie. Man, according to Trismegistus, hath but two
elements in his power, namely, earth and water, to which doctrine
I adde this, and I have it from a greater than Hermes, that God
hath made man absolute Lord of the First Matter, and from
the First Matter, and the dispensation thereof, all the fortunes of
man, both good and bad, doe proceed. According to the rule and
measure of this substance, all the world are rich or poore, and hee
that knows it truly, and withall the true use thereof, he can make
his fortunes constant, but hee that knowes it not, though his estate
be never so great, stands on a slipperie foundation. Look about
thee then, and consider how thou art compassed with infinite trea-
sures and miracles, but thou art so blind thou doest not see them ;
nay, thou art so mad, thou doest think there is no use to be made
of them, for thou doest believe that knowledge is a mere Peripa-
84 TO THE READER .
teticall chat, and that the fruits of it are not works but words. If
this were true, I would never advise thee to spend one minute
of thy life upon learning. I would first be one of those should
ruine all libraries and universities in the world, which God forbid
any good Christian should desire. Look up then to Heaven,
and when thou seest the cœlestiall fires move in their swift and
glorious circles, think also there are here below some cold natures
which they overlook, and about which they move incessantly to heat
and concoct them. Consider, again, that the Middle Spirit, I mean
the aire, is interposed as a refrigeratorie to temper and qualifie that
heat, which otherwise might be too violent. If thou doest descend
lower and fix thy thoughts where thy feet are, that thy wings may
be like those of Mercurie at thy heeles, thou wilt find the earth
surrounded with the water, and that water, heated and stirred by the
sun and his starrs, abstracts from the earth the pure subtil and saltish
parts, by which means the water is thickened and coagulated as with
a rennet. Out of these two Nature generates all things. Gold and
silver, pearles and diamonds, are nothing else but water and salt of
the earth concocted. Behold ! I have in a few words discovered
unto thee the whole system of Nature, and her royal high-way of
generation. It is thy duty now to improve the truth, and in my
book thou may'st, if thou art wise, find thy advantages. The foure
elements are the objects and, implicitly, the subjects of man, but
the earth is invisible. I know the common man will stare at this,
and judge me not very sober when I affirme the earth, which of all
things is most gross and palpable, to be invisible. But, on my
Soule, it is so, and, which is more, the eye of man never saw the
earth, nor can it be seen without art. To make this element visible
is the greatest secret in Magic, for it is a miraculous Nature, and of
all others the most holy, according to that computation of Trisme-
gistus "the Heaven, the Æther, the Aire, and the most sacred
Earth ." As for this fæculent, gross body upon which we walk, it is
a compost and no earth, but it hath earth in it, and even that also
is not our Magicall Earth. In a word, all the elements are visible
but one, namely the earth, and when thou hast attained to so much
perfection as to know why God hath placed the Earth in abscondito,
thou hast an excellent figure to know God himself, and how he is
visible, how invisible. Hermes affirmeth that in the beginning the
earth was a quakemire, or quivering kind of jelly, it being nothing
else but water congealed by the incubation and heat of the Divine
Spirit. Cum adhuc (sayth hee) terra tremula esset, lucente sole
compacta est. "When as yet the earth was a quivering, shaking
TO THE READER. 85
substance, the sun afterwards shining upon it, did compact it, or
make it solid." The same author introduceth God speaking to
the earth, and impregnating her with all sorts of seeds, in these
words : Cumque manus æquè validas implesset rebus, quæ in Naturâ,
ambienteque erant, et pugnos valide constringens ; Sume (inquit) ô
Sacra Terra, quæ Genetrix omnium es futura, nè ullâ re egena
videaris ; et manus, quales oportet Deum habere, expandens, demisit
omnia ad rerum constitutionem necessaria. "When God (saith
he) had filled his powerfull hands with those things which are
in Nature, and in that which compasseth Nature, then, shut-
ting them close again, hee said : Receive from me, O holy
Earth ! that art ordained to be the Mother of all, lest thou
shouldst want any thing ; when presently opening such hands as it
becomes a God to have, hee poured down all that was necessary to
the constitution of things." Now, the meaning of it is this : the
Holy Spirit moving upon the Chaos, which action some divines
compare to the incubation of a hen upon her eggs, did together
with his heat communicate other manifold influences to the matter.
For as wee know the sun doth not onely dispense heat but some
other secret influx, so did God also in the Creation, and from him
the sun and all the starrs received what they have, for God himself
is a Supernaturall Sun, or fire, according to that oracle of Zoroaster :
The Architect who by his power alone
Built up the cosmos, manifests himself
Another orb of flame.
He did therefore hatch the Matter and bring out the secret essences,
as a chick is brought out of the shell, whence that position of the
same Zoroaster-
One single heat did all that is produce.
Neither did he only generate them then, but he also preserves
them now, with a perpetuall efflux of heat and spirit. Hence hee is
styled in the Oracles,
Eternal Father both of Gods and Men
Who doth the fire, the light, the starry air,
And all the golden sequence of the worlds,
Most copiously animate.
This is advertisement enough : and now, reader, I must tell thee
I have met with some late attempts on my two former discourses,*
but truth is proof, and I am so far from being overcome that I am
* Note 13.
86 TO THE READER.
no where understood. When I first eyed the libell, and its addresse
to Philalethes, I judged the author serious, and that his design was
not to abuse mee but to informe himselfe. This conceit quickly
vanished, for, perusing his forepart, his eares shot out of his skin,
and presented him a perfect asse. His observations are one con-
tinued " asse's skin," and the oyster-whores read the same philosophie
every day. 'Tis a scurril, senselesse piece, and, as he well stiles him
self, a chip of a block-head.
His qualities indeed are transcendent abroad, but they are peers
at home ; his malice is equall to his ignorance. I laughed to see
the foole's disease—a flux of Gale which made him still at the chops,
whiles another held the presse for him like Porphyry's bason to
Aristotle's well. There is something in him prodigious ; his excre-
ments run the wrong way, for his mouth stools, and hee is so far
from man that hee is the aggravation of a beast. These are his parts,
and for his person, I turn him over to the dog-whippers, that hee
may be well lashed, a posteriori, and bear the errata of his front
imprinted in his rere. I cannot yet find a fitter punishment, for
since his head could learn nothing but nonsense, by sequel of parts,
his tayle should be taught some sense.
This is all, at this time, and for my present discourse, I wish it
the common fortune of truth and honestie, to deserve well and hear
ill. As for applause, I fish not so much in the aire as to catch it.
It is a kind of popularity, which makes mee scorn it, for I defie the
noyse of the rout, because they observe not the truth, but the success
of it. I do, therefore, commit this piece to the world without any
protection but its own worth, and the æstimate of that Soule that
understands it. For the rest, as I cannot force , so I will not beg
their approbation. I would not bee great by imposts, nor rich by
briefes. They may be what they will, and I shall be what I am.
EUGENIUS PHILALETHES .
MAGIA ADAMICA ;
OR,
firmed with a simple " Believe," and no more. Nay, the solemnitie
of this short induction was such that Julian made it the topic of his
apostasie : " You have (sayd he) nothing more than your Crede to
establish your religion." Such was the simplicitie of those first times,
"Whilst as yet shone the blood of Christ," whiles his wounds were
as yet in their eyes, and his bloud warm at their hearts. But, alas !
those holy drops are frozen, our salvation is translated from the
crosse to the rack, and dismembered in the inquisition-house of
Aristotle. Bee not angry, O Peripatetick ! for what else shall I call
thy schooles, where by severall sects and factions Scripture is so
seriously murdered pro et con ! A spleen first bred and afterwards
promoted by disputes, whose damnable divisions and distinctions
have minced one truth into a thousand hereticall whimzies. But
the breach is not considered ; divinitie is still but chaff, if it be not
sifted by the enginge, if it acts not by the demonstrative hobby-
horse. Thus, zeale, poysoned with logic, breathes out contentious
calentures, and faith, quitting her wings and perspective, leans on
the reed of a syllogism. Certainly I cannot yet conceive how reason
may judge those principles, Quorum veritas pendet á solâ Revelantis
authoritate, "whose certaintie wholly depends on God," and, by
consequence, is indemonstrable without the Spirit of God. But if
I should grant that, which I will ever deny, verily, a true faith con-
sists not in reason, but in love, for I receive my principles, and
believe them being received, solo erga Revelantem amore, " onely out
of affection to Him that reveales them. "
Thus our Saviour would have the Jewes to believe him first for
his own sake, and when that failed for his worke's sake. But some
divines believe onely for Aristotle's sake ; if logic renders the tenet
probable, then it is Creed, if not ' tis Alcoran. Nevertheless,
Aristotle himself, who was first pedlar to this ware, and may for
sophistrie take place of Ignatius in his own conclave, hath left us
this concession : " That reason is subject to error as well as opinion."
And Philoponus expounding these words of his, Non solùm scientiam,
sed et principium scientia esse aliquod dicimus, quo cognoscimus terminus,
that is, "We say not onely science but the principle also of science
to be something whereby we understand the termes," hath this
excellent and Christian observation : " Taking indeed (saith hee)
the mind to bee the principle or first cause of knowledge, not our
own, but that of God which is above us ; but taking the Termes to
be Intellectuall and Divine Formes ." Thus, according to Aristotle
(if you trust the comment), the Divine Mind is the first cause of
knowledge, for if this Mind once unfolds himself, and sheds his light
MAGIA ADAMICA ; OR, THE ANTIQUITIE OF MAGIC. 89
oile, and salt, and began to consecrate and exorcize them, to make
up his damnable and devilish magic. The magicians had a maxim
amongst themselves, Quod nulla vox operatur in Magia, nisi prius
Dei voce formetur, " That no word is efficacious in Magic, unless it
be first animated with the word of God. " Hence in their books
there was frequent mention made of Verbum and Sermo, which the
common man interpreting to his own fansie, invented his charmes
and vocabula, by which he promised to do wonders. The magicians
in their writings did talk much of triangles and circles, by which
they intimated unto us their more secret Triplicitie, with the
rotation of Nature from the beginning of her Week to her Sabaoth.
By this circle also, or rotation, they affirmed that Spirits might be
bound, meaning that the Soul might be united to the body.
Presently upon this the common man fansied his triangles and
characters, with many strange cobwebs or figures, and a circle to
conjure in ; but knowing not what spirit that was which the
magicians did bind, he laboured and studied to bind the devill. *
Now, if thou wilt question mee who these magicians were, I must
tell thee they were Kings, they were Priests, they were Prophets-
men that were acquainted with the Substantial, Spirituall Mysteries
of Religion, and did deal or dispense the outward, typicall part of
it to the people. Here then wee may see how Magic came to be
out of request, for the lawyers and common divines, who knew not
these secrets, perusing the ceremonial, superstitious trash of some
scribblers, who prætended to Magic, præscribed against the Art
itself as impious and antichristian, so that it was a capital sin to
professe it, and the punishment no lesse than death. In the interim ,
those few who were the first masters of the science, observing the
first monitories of it, buried all in a deep silence. But God having
suffered his truth to be obscured for a great time, did at last stirr up
some resolute and active spirits, who, putting the pen to paper,
expelled this cloud, and in some measure discovered the light. The
leaders of this brave body were Cornelius Agrippa, Libanius Gallius,
the philosopher, Johannes Trithemius, Georgius Venetus, Johannes
Reuchlin, called in the Greek Capnion, with severall others in their
severall dayes, and after all these, as an usher to the train, and
one born out of due time, Eugenius Philalethes.
Seeing then I have publickly undertaken a promise, which I
might have governed privately with much more content and advan-
tage, I think it not enough to have discovered the abuses and mis-
fortunes this science hath suffered, unless I endeavour withall to
* Note 14.
MAGIA ADAMICA ; OR, THE ANTIQUITIE OF MAGIC. 91
thy sake, in sorrow shalt thou eate of it all the dayes of thylife,
thornes and thistles shall it bring forth unto thee, and thou shalt eate
the herb of the field. In the sweate of thy face shalt thou eate Genesis c. iii.
V. 17.
bread, untill thou returne unto the ground, for out of it wast thou
taken, for dust thou art, and to dust shalt thou returne." This is
the curse, and Adam was so sensible of it that he acquainted his
posterity with it. For Lamech, prophesying of his son Noah, hath
these words. " This same shall comfort us, concerning our worke and Gen v. 29.
toyle of our hands, because of the ground which the Lord hath
cursed." And this indeed was accomplished in some sense after the
Floud, as the same Scripture tells us. " And the Lord said in his Gen. viii. 25.
heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake.”
Here now we are to consider two things : first, the curse itself, and
next the latitude of it. To manifest the nature of the curse, and
what it was, you must know that good essentially is light, and evill is
darkness. The evill, properly, is a corruption that immediately
takes place upon the removall of that which is good . Thus, God
having removed his candlestick and light from the elements, pre-
sently the darkness and cold of the matter prævailed, so that the
earth was nearer her first deformitie, and, by consequence less fruitfull
and vitall. Heaven and Hell, that is, light and darkness, are the
two extremes which consummate good and evill. But there are
some meane blessings which are but in ordine, or disposing to
Heaven, which is their last perfection , and such were these blessings
which God recalled upon the transgression of the first man. Againe,
there are some evills which are but degrees conducing to their last
extremitie, or Hell, and such was this curse , or evill, which succeeded
the transgression. Thus our Saviour under these notions of blessed
and cursed comprehends the inhabitants of light and darkness :
Come you blessed, and goe you cursed. In a word then, the curse
was nothing else but an act repealed, or a restraint of those blessings
which God of his mere goodness had formerly communicated to
his creatures. And thus I conceive there is a very fair and full
harmonie between Moses and the Cabalists. But to omit their
depositions, though great and high, we are not to seek in this
point for the testimonie of an angel. For the tutor of Esdras,
amongst his other mysterious instructions, hath also this doctrine.
“ When Adam transgressed my statutes, then was that decreed which
now is done. Then were the entrances of this world made narrow, Es. vii. 11-13.
full of sorrow and travell : they are but few and evill, full of perils,
and very painfull. But the entrances of the elder world were wide
and sure, and brought forth immortall fruit. " Thus much for the
94 MAGIA ADAMICA ; OR, THE ANTIQUITIE OF MAGIC.
curse it self ; now for the latitude of it. It is true that it was
intended chiefely for man, who was the only cause of it, but extended
to the elements in order to him, and for his sake. For if God had
excluded him from Eden, and continued the earth in her primitive
glories, he had but turned him out of one Paradise into another,
wherefore he fits the dungeon to the slave, and sends a corruptible man
into a corruptible world. But in truth it was not man, nor the earth
alone, that suffered this Curse, but all other creatures also ; for saith
God to the serpent : " Thou art cursed above all cattle, and above
every beast ofthe field," so that cattle and beasts also were cursed
in some measure, but this serpent above them all. To this also
refers the apostle in his Epistle to the Romans, where he hath
C. viii. v. 20. these words : " For the creature was made subject to vanitie, not
willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope.
Because the creature it self also shall be delivered from the bondage
of corruption into the glorious liberty of the Children of God. " Here
by the creature he understands not man but the inferior species,
which he distinguisheth from the Children of God, though he allows
them both the same liberty. But this is more plaine out of the
subsequent texts, where he makes a clear difference between man
and the whole creation. " For we know (saith he) that the whole
creation groaneth and travaileth together in paine untill now.
not only they but ourselves also, which have the first fruits of the
Spirit, even we our selves groane within our selves, waiting for the
adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. Here we see the
first fruits of the Spirit referred to man, and why not some second
subordinate fruits of it to the creatures in general ? For as they
were cursed in the fall of man, for man's sake, so it seems in his
restitution they shall be also blessed for his sake. But of this
enough. Let us now summe up, and consider the severall incon-
veniences our first parent was subject to, for they will be of some use
with us hereafter. First of all, he was ejected from the presence of
God, and exposed to the malice and temptations of the devill. He
was altered from good to bad, from incorruptible to corruptible.
" In the daye (saith the Scripture) thou eatest thereof thou shalt dye
the death. " He was excluded from a glorious paradyse, and confined
to a base world, whose sickly, infected elements, conspiring with his
own nature, did assist and hasten that death which already began to
reign in his body. Heaven did mourn over him, the earth, and all
her generations, about him. He looked upon himself as a felon and
a murderer, being guilty of that curse and corruption which succeeded
in the world because of his fall, as we have sufficiently proved out of
MAGIA ADAMICA ; OR, THE ANTIQUITIE OF MAGIC. 95
and how could that bee but by discovering unto him the Great
Restorative, Christ Jesus, the second Adam, in whom he was to
believe ? for without faith he could not have been brought out of
his Fall, and without Christ revealed and preached unto him, hee
could have no faith, for hee knew not what to believe. It remaines
then that hee was instructed, for as in these last dayes wee are taught
by the Son of God and his apostles, so in those first times they were
taught by the Spirit of God and his ministering angels. These were
their tutors, for of them they heard the Word, and verily wee are
told that faith comes by hearing.
It is now (as I think) sufficiently proved that Adam had his meta-
physics from above. Our next service (and perhaps somewhat difficult)
is to give some probable, if not demonstrative, reasons that they came
not alone, but had their physics also to attend them. I know the
Scriptures are not positive in this point, and hence the sects will
lug their " consequence of reprobation." Truly, for my part, I
desire not their ruin, but their patience. I have, though against
the præcept, for many years attended their Philosophie, and if they
spend a few hours on my Spermalogie it may cost them some part of Acts xvii. 18.
their justice but none of their favours. But that we may come to
the thing in hand : I hold it very necessary to distinguish arts, for
I have not yet seen any author who hath fully considered their
difference. The Art I speak of is truly physicall in subject, method,
and effect, but as for arts publickly professed, and to the disadvantage
of truth allowed, not one of them is so qualified, for they are mere
knacks and baubles of the hand or braine, having no fundamentals in
Nature. These, in my opinion, Solomon numbers amongst his vanities,
when hee speakes in a certaine place, " That God had made man Eccles . vii.
upright but hee had sought out many inventions." Of these inven- 29.
tions we have a short catalogue in Genesis, where Moses separates
the corn from the chaff, the works of God from the whymzies of
man. Thus wee read that Jubal was the father of such as dwell in
tents , his brother Tubal the father of all such as handle the harp and
organ, and Tubal- Cain an instructer of every artificer in brasse and
iron. What mischiefs have succeeded this brasse-and-iron Cyclops,
I need not tell you. If you know not the fates of former times, you
may studie the actions of your owne ; you live in an age that can
instruct you. Verily, it is worth our observation that these arts, and
their tooles, proceeded not from the posterity of Seth, in whose line
our Saviour stands, for, as wee shall make it appeare hereafter,
questionlesse they had a better knowledge, but they proceeded from
the seed of Cain, who in action was a murderer, and in the circum-
stances of it a fratricide.
100 MAGIA ADAMICA : OR, THE ANTIQUITIE OF MAGIC .
Goshen of Pharaoh, then back again to the cave and dust of Mach-
pelah. As for his sons and their traine, who attended his motion
thither, I find not any particular remembrance of them, onely Moses
tells one of a generall exit : " Joseph died, and all his brethren, and Exod. i. 6.
all that generation. " I must now then, to prove the continuance of
and succession of this Art, addresse my self to the court, where I
shall find the son of Levi newly translated from his ark and
bulrushes. Yet there is something may be said of Joseph, and,
verily, it proves how common Magic was in those dayes, for having
conveyed his cup into the sack of Benjamin, and by that policie
detained his brethren , hee asks them : " What deed is this that you
have done ? Knew yee not that such a man as I can certainly Gen. xliv. 15
divine ? ”
In this speech he makes his brethren no strangers to the per-
formances of Art, but rather makes their familiarity therewith an
argument against them : " Knew you not ? ” But the following
words are very effectuall, and tell us what qualified persons the
ancient Magi were. They were indeed (as hee speaks of himself)
such as Joseph was, princes and rulers of the people, not beggarly
gipsies and mountebanks, as our doctors are now. It was the
ambition of the great in those days to bee good , and as these secrets
proceeded from God, so were they also entertained by the Gods, I
mean by Kings, for saith the Scripture, “ I have said yee are Gods,"
a name communicated to them because they had the power to doe
wonders, for in this magicall sense the true God speaks to Moses :
“ See, I have made thee a God to Pharaoh, and thy brother Aaron Exod. vii. 1 .
shall bee thy prophet. ” And, verily, this true knowledge, and this
title that belongs to it, did that false serpent prætend to our first
Gen. iii. 5.
parents : Eritis sicut Dii, scientes bonum et malum, “ You shall be as
gods, knowing good and evill." But 'tis not this subtill dragon, but
bonus ille Serpens, that good, crucified serpent, that can give us both
this knowledge and this title, " for by him all things were made, and John i. 3.
without him not anything was made that is made." If hee made
them, then hee can teach us also how they were made. I must now
refer my self to Moses, who, at his first acquaintance with God, saw
many transmutations- one on his own flesh, another of the rod in
his hand, with a third promised and afterwards performed upon
water. It is written of him that he was skilled in all the learning of
the Egyptians, but, for my part, I doe much question what kind of
learning that was, the Scripture assuring mee, and that by the pen
Exod. vii.
of Moses, these wonders were effected by enchantments. This is II, 12.
certain, their learning was ancient, for I find magicians in Ægypt
106 MAGIA ADAMICA ; OR, THE ANTIQUITIE OF MAGIC.
four hundred and thirty years, and upwards, before Jamnes and
Jambres. This is confirmed by Pharaoh's dream, which his own
sorcerers and wizards could not interpret, but Joseph alone ex-
Gen. ix. 41. pounded it. Verily, it cannot bee denyed but some branches of
this art, though extremely corrupted, were dispersed among all
nations by tradition from the first man, and this appeares by more
testimonies than one. For in the land of Canaan, before ever
Israel possessed it, Debir, which Athniel, the son of Kenaz,
conquered, was an universitie, at least had in it a famous librarie,
wherefore the Jewes called it Kiriath-Sepharim. I might speak in
this place of the universalitie of religion, for never yet was there a
people but had some confused notion of a Deitie, though accom-
panied with lamentable ceremonies and superstitions. Besides, the
religions of all nations have alwaies prætended to powers extraor-
dinarie, even to the performance of miracles, and the healing of all
diseases, and this by some secret meanes not known to the common
man and, verily, if wee examine all religions, whether false or true,
wee shall not find one but it prætends to something that is mysticall.
Certainly, if men be not resolved against reason, they must grant
these obliquities in the matters of faith proceeded from the corrup-
tion of some principles received (as we see that heretics are but
so many false interpreters), but notwithstanding in those very errors
there remained some marks and imitations of the first truth. Hence
comes it to passe that all parties agree in the action but not in
the object. For example, Israel did sacrifice, and the heathen did
sacrifice, but the one to God, the other to his idol. Neither were
they onely conformable in some rites and solemnities of divinitie,
but the heathen also had some hints left of the Secret Learning and
philosophie of the patriarchs, as wee may see in their false Magic,
which consisted, for the most part, in astrologicall observations,
"
images, charmes, and characters. But it is my designe to keep in
the road, not to follow these deviations and misfortunes of the Art,
which, notwithstanding, want not the weight of argument, the exist-
ence of things being proved as well by their miscarriage as by their
successe. To proceed then, I say that during the pilgrimage of the
patriarchs, this knowledge was delivered by tradition from the father
to his child, and indeed it could be no otherwise, for what was Israel
in those dayes but a private familie ? Notwithstanding, when God
appointed them their possession, and that this private house was
multiplied to a nation, then these secrets remained with the elders of
the tribes, as they did formerly with the father of the familie. These
elders, no doubt, were the Mosaicall Septuagint, who made up the
MAGIA ADAMICA ; OR, THE ANTIQUITIE OF MAGIC. 107
Sanhedrim , God having selected some from the rest to be the stewards
and dispensers of his mysteries. Now, that Moses was acquainted
with all the abstruse operations and principles of Nature, is a truth, I
suppose, which no man will resist. That the Sanhedrim also partici-
pated of the same instruction and knowledge with him is plain out
of Scripture, where wee read that " God took of the spirit that was in Numb. xi.
25.
Moses, and gave it to the seventy."
But, lest any man should deny that which wee take for granted,
namely, the philosophie of Moses, I shall demonstrate out of his own
books, both by reason as also by his practice, that hee was a Natural
Magician.
First of all then, it is most absurd , and therefore improbable, that
hee should write of the creation who was no way skilled in the secrets
of God and Nature, both which must of necessitie be known before
wee should undertake to write of the creation. But Moses did write
of it, ergo . Now, I desire to know what hee hath written-truth
or lie. If truth, how dare you denie his knowledge ? If a lie
(which God forbid), why will you believe him ? You will tell mee
perhaps he hath done it onely in generall termes, and I could tell
you that Aristotle hath done no otherwise ; but think you in good
earnest that he knew no more than what hee did write ? There is
nothing you can say in this point but wee can disprove it, for in
Genesis he hath discovered many and especially those secrets which
have most relation to this Art. For instance, hee hath discovered the
minera of man, or that substance out of which man and all his
fellow-creatures were made. This is the First Matter of the Philoso-
phers' Stone ; Moses calls it sometimes water, sometimes Earth, for,
in a certain place, I read thus : " And God said , Let the waters Gen. i. 20.
bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowle
that may fly above the earth in the open firmament." But elsewhere
wee read otherwise : " And out of the ground the Lord God formed Gen. ii. 19.
every beast of the field and every fowle of the aire." In this later
text hee tells us that God made every fowle of the aire out of the
ground, but in the former it is written hee made them out of the
water. Certainly, Aristotle and his organ can never reconcile these
two places, but a little skill in Magic will make them kisse and be
friends without a philtre. This substance then is both earth and
water, yet neither of them in their common complexions, but it is a
thick water and a subtle earth. In plain termes it is a slimie, sper-
matic, viscous masse, impregnated with all powers cœlestiall and
terrestriall. The philosophers call it water and no water, earth and
no earth, and why may not Moses speak as they doe ? or why may
108 MAGIA ADAMICA : OR, THE ANTIQUITIE OF MAGIC.
they not write as Moses did ? This is the true Damascene Earth, out
of which God made man ; you then that would be chimists, seem not
to be wiser than God, but use that subject in your Art which God him-
self makes use ofin Nature. He is the best workman, and knowes what
matter is most fit for his work ; hee that will imitate him in the effect
must first imitate him in the subject. Talk not then of flint stones
and antimonie ; they are the poet's pin- dust and egg-shells ; seek this
earth, this water. But this is not all that Moses hath written to
this purpose ; I could cite many more magicall and mysticall places,
but in so doing I should be too open , wherefore I must forbeare.
I shall now " speak of his practice, and, truly, this is it which no
distinction, nor any other logicall quibble, can waive, nothing but
experience can repell this argument, and thus it runs : " And Moses
took the calf which they had made, and grinded it to powder, and
strewed it upon the water, and made the children of Israel drink of
it." Certainly, here was a strange kind of spice, and an art as
strange as the spice it self. This calf was pure gold, the Israelites
having contributed their eare-rings to the fabric. Now would I
gladly know by what meanes so solid and heavy a body as gold may
be brought to such a light powder that it may be sprinkled on the
face of the water and afterwards drunk up. I am sure here was
Aurum potabile, and Moses could never have brought the calf to this
passe had he not plowed with an heifer. But of this enough ; if
any man think hee did it by common fire, let him also doe the like,
and when he hath performed he may sell his powder to the
apothecaries. If I should insist in this place on the Mosaicall
ceremoniall law, with its severall reverend shadows and their signi-
fications, I might lose my self in a wilderness of mysteries both
divine and naturall, for, verily, that whole system is but one vast
skreen, or a certain majestic umbrage drawne over two worlds,
visible and invisible. But these are things of a higher speculation
than the scope of our present discourse will admit of. I onely
informe the reader that the Law hath both a shell and a kernell ; it
is the letter speaks, but the spirit interprets. To this agrees Gregorie
Nazianzen, who makes a two-fold Law, του γραμματος and του
De Statu TVεUTOS-one literall, another spirituall. And elsewhere hee men-
Episcop. tions τὸ φαινόμενον του νόμου, και του χρυπτόμενον, the hidden and the
manifest part of the Law, the manifest part (saith he ) being
appointed τοῖς πολλοῖς και κάτωμινουοι, for many men, and such
whose thoughts were fixed here below, but the hidden rois óíɣ015 zai
Tá aves ppovovor, for few onely, whose mindes aspired upwards to
heavenly things. Now that the Law, being given, might benefit the
MAGIA ADAMICA ; OR, THE ANTIQUITIE OF MAGIC. 109
people in both parts, spiritual and literal, therefore did the Lawgiver
institute the Sanhedrim, a councell of seventy elders, upon whom
hee had poured his spirit, that they might discerne (as Esdras did)
the "deep things of the night," in plain termes, the hidden things of
his Law. From these elders the Cabala (I believe) had its originall,
for they imparted their knowledge by word of mouth to their
successors, and hence it came to passe that the Science it self was
styled Cabala, that is, a Reception. This continued so long as
Israel held together, but when their frame began to discompose, and
the dilapidations of that house proved desperate, then Esdras, a
prophet incomparable (notwithstanding the brand of Apocrypha)
writ that Law in tables of box which God himself had sometimes
written in tables of stone. As for the more secret and mysterious
part thereof, it was written at the same time in seventy secret bookes,
according to the number of Elders in whose hearts it had been
sometimes written.
And this was the very first time the Spirit married the Letter, for
these sacraments were not trusted formerly to corruptible volumes,
but to the æternall tables of the Soul. But it may bee there is a
blind generation who will believe nothing but what they see at
hand, and therefore will deny that Esdras composed any such
bookes. To these owles (though an unequal match) I shall
oppose the honour of Picus, who himself affirmes that in his time
hee met with the Secret Bookes of Esdras, and bought them with a
great price. Nor was this all, for Eugenius, Bishop of Rome,
ordered their translation, but hee dying, the translators also fell
asleep. It is true indeed some thing may be objected to me in this
place concerning the Cabala, an art which I no way approve of,
neither doe I condemn it, as our adversaries condemne Magic,
before I understand it, for I have spent some yeares in the search
and contemplation thereof. But why then should I propose that
for a truth to others which I account for an error my self? To this
I answer, that I condemne not the true Cabala, but the inventions
of some dispersed, wandering rabbis, whose braines had more of
distraction than their fortunes. Of this thirteenth tribe I understand
the satirist when hee promiseth so largely—
" What dreames soe'er thou wilt, the Jews will sell. ”
These, I say, have produced a certain upstart, bastard Cabala,
which consists altogether in alphabeticall knacks, ends alwayes in the
letter where it begins, and the vanities of it are grown voluminous.
As for the more ancient and physicall traditions of the Cabala, I
110 MAGIA ADAMICA ; OR, THE ANTIQUITIE OF MAGIC.
embrace them for so many sacred truths, but, verily, those truths
were unknown to most of those rabbis whom I have seen, even to
Rambam himself, I mean Rabbi Moses Ægyptius, whom the Jewes
have so magnified with their famous hyperbola, " From Moses until
Moses there hath not arisen one who is like unto Moses."
But, to deale ingenuously with my readers, I say the Cabala I
admit of consists of two parts, the Name and the Thing. The
former part is merely typicall in reference to the latter, serving only
as the shadow to the substance. I will give you some instances.
The literal Cabala, which is but a veile cast over the secrets of the
physicall, hath Three Principles, commonly styled Tres Matres, or
the Three Mothers. In the masculine complexion the Jewes call
them DN, Emes, in the fœminine DN, Asam, and they are N, aleph,
, mem,, schin. Now I will shew you how the physical Cabala
expounds the literall. Tres Matres DN, Emes (saith the great
Abraham, or as some think Rabbi Akiba), id est, Aer, Aqua, et Ignis;
Aqua quieta, Ignis sibilans, Aer spiritus medius. That is, "the
Three Mothers, Emes, or Aleph, Mem, and Schin, are Aire, Water,
and Fire ; a still Water (mark that), a hissing Fire, and Aire, the
middle spirit. Again, sayth the same rabbi ; Tres Matres D , Emes
in Mundo, Aer, Aqua, et Ignis. Coeli ex Igne creati sunt, Terra ex
Aquis, Aer egressus est ex spiritu qui stat medius. "The Three
Mother Emes in this world are Ayre, Water, and Fire. The
Heavens were made of the Fire, the Earth was made of the Water
(mark well this Cabalism) and the Ayre proceeded from a middle
spirit. Now, when the Cabalist speaks of the generation of
the Three Mothers, he brings in Ten Secret Principles, which, I
think, ten men have not understood since the Sanhedrim, such
nonsense doe I find in most authors when they undertake to
discourse of them. The First Principle is a Spirit which sits.
in retrocesso suo fontano, " in his primitive , incomprehensible re-
treats," like water in its subterraneous channel before it springs.
The Second Principle is the Voice of that First Spirit ; this breaks
forth like a well-spring, where the water flowes out of the earth and
is discovered to the eye. They call it " Spirit from Spirit." The
Third Principle is " Spirit from Spirits," a Spirit which proceeds both
from the First Spirit, and from his Voice. The Fourth Principle is
"Water from Spirit," a certain Water which proceeded from the
Third Spirit, and out of that Water went Aire and Fire. But God
forbid that I should speak any more of them publickly ; it is enough
that wee know the original of the creature, and to whom wee ought to
ascribe it. The Cabalist when hee would tell us what God did with
MAGIA ADAMICA ; OR, THE ANTIQUITIE OF MAGIC. III
ture hath suffered many racks and excoriations. As for the true
Cabala, it useth the letter onely for artifice, whereby to obscure and
hide her physicall secrets, as the Egyptians heretofore did use their
hieroglyphics. In this sense the primitive professors of this Art had
a literall Cabala, as it appeares by that wonderfull and most ancient
inscription in the rock in Mount Horeb. It containes a prophecie
of the Virgin Mother, and her Son, Christ Jesus, engraven in Hiero-
glyphics, framed by combination of the Hebrew letters, but by whom
God onely knows ; it may be by Moses or Elijah. This is most
certain ; it is to be seen there this day, and wee have for it the
testimonie of Thomas Obecinus, a most learned Franciscan, and
Petrus a Valle, a gentleman, who travailed both of them into those
parts. Now, that the learning of the Jewes, I mean their Cabala,
was chimicall, and ended in true physicall performances, cannot be
better proved than by the Booke of Abraham the Jew, wherein he
layd down the secrets of this Art in indifferent plaine termes and
figures, and that for the benefit of his unhappy country-men , when
by the wrath of God they were scattered all over the world. This
book was accidentally found by Nicholas Flammel, a French-man,
and with the help of it hee attained at last to that miraculous
Medecine which men call the Philosophers' Stone. But let us hear
the Monsieur himself describe it.
" There fell into my hands (saith he), for the sum of two florins,
a gilded Book, very old and large. It was not of paper nor parch-
ment, as other books bee, but it was made of delicate rindes (as it
seemed to mee) of tender young trees. The cover of it was of
brasse, well bound, all ingraven with letters or strange figures, and
for my part, I think they might well bee Greek characters, or some
such ancient language. Sure I am, I could not read them, and I
know well they were not notes, nor letters of the Latine, nor of the
Gaule, for of them I understood a little. As for that which was
within it, the bark leaves were ingraven, and with admirable diligence
written, with a point of iron, in faire and neat Latin letters, coloured.
It contained thrice seven leaves, for so were the leaves counted at
the top, and alwayes every seventh leaf was without any writing, but
instead thereof, upon the first seventh leafe, there was painted a
Virgin, and serpents swallowing her up ; in the second seventh a
Crosse, where a Serpent was crucified ; and in the last seventh there
were painted Deserts, or Wildernesses, in the middest whereof ran
many faire fountains, from whence there issued forth a number
of Serpents, which ran up and down here and there. Upon the
first of the leaves was written in great capitall letters of gold-
MAGIA ADAMICA ; OR, THE ANTIQUITIE OF MAGIC. 113
the fifth leafe there was a faire Rose tree flowered in the middest of
a Sweet Garden, climbing up against a hollow oake, at the foot
whereof boiled a fountain of most white water, which ran headlong
down into the depths, notwithstanding it passed first among the
hands of infinite people, who digged in the earth, seeking for it ;
but because they were blind none of them knew it, except here and
there one, which considered the weight. On the last side of the
fifth leafe was painted a king with a great faulchion, who caused to
bee killed in his presence by some souldiours a great multitude of
little infants, whose mothers wept at the feet of the mercilesse soul-
diours. The bloud of these infants was afterwards gathered up by
other souldiours, and put in a great vessell, whereto the Sun and
the Moone came to bathe themselves. And thus you see that
which was in the first five leaves. I will not represent unto you
that which was written in good and intelligible Latin on all the
other written leaves , for God would punish mee because I should
commit a greater wickednesse than he who (as it is sayd) wished
that all the men of the world had but one head, that hee might cut
it off at one blow."
Thus farre Nicholas Flammel.
I could now pass from Moses to Christ, from the old testament
to the new not that I would interpret there, but request the sense
of the illuminated. I desire to know what my Saviour means by
Luc. xi. 52. the key of knowledge, which the lawyers (as he tells mee and them
too) had taken away. Questionlesse it cannot signifie the Law
itself, for that was not taken away, being read in the synagogue every
Sabaoth. But to let go this : I am certain, and I could prove it all
along from his birth to his passion, that the doctrine of Christ Jesus.
is not only agreeable to the Laws of Nature, but is verified and
established thereby. When I speak of the laws of Nature, I mind
not her excessive irregular appetites and inclinations, to which shee
hath bin subject since her corruption, for even Galen looked on
those obliquities as diseases, but studied Nature herself, as their
cure. We know by experience that too much of any thing weakens,
and destroyes our Nature, but if wee live temperately, and according
to law, wee are well, because our life accords with Nature. Hence
diet is a prime rule in physic, far better indeed than the pharma-
copœa, for those sluttish recepts doe but oppresse the stomach, being
no fit fuel for a cœlestiall fire. Believe it then, these excessive
bestiall appetites proceeded from our fall, for Nature of her self is
no lavish insatiable glut, but a most nice delicat essence. This
MAGIA ADAMICA ; OR, THE ANTIQUITIE OF MAGIC. 115
gruum reperire, cum ejus effectus sit Illuminare, omnia Claritate per-
fundere ; unde Necessarium fuit eam appellare; Kim ki ao, h.e. Legem
claram et magnam . That is : " It is a hard matter to find a fit name
for their law, seeing the effect of it is to illuminate, and fill all with
knowledge ; It was necessarie therefore to call it Kim ki ao, that is,
the great Law of Light ." To be short, Ole puen was admitted to
the court by Tai cum veu huamti, king of China ; here his doctrine
was thoroughly searched, examined, and sifted by the king himself,
who having found it most true and solid, caused it to be proclaim'd
through his dominions, Now upon what this doctrine was founded,
and what æstimat the king had both of it and it's professors, we may
easily gather from the words of his proclamation. First then where
he mentions Olo puen, he calls him Magnæ virtutis Hominem, “ a
man of great virtue or power ; " it seems he did something more than
prate and preach, could confirm his doctrine, as the Apostles did .
theirs, not with words only, but with works. Secondly the proclama-
tion speaking of his doctrine runs thus ; Cujus intentum docendi nos
afundamentis examinantes, invenimus doctrinam ejus admodum excel-
lentum, et sine strepitu exteriori, fundatam principaliter in creatione
mundi : That is, " the drift of whose teaching, we have examin'd
from the very fundamentals, we find his doctrine very excellent,
without any worldly noyse, and principally grounded on the Creation
of the world." And again in the same place. Doctrina ejus non est
multorum verborum, nec superficie tenus suam fundat veritatem : " His
doctrine is but of few words, not full of noyse and notions, neither
doth he build his truth on superficial probabilities." Thus we see
the Incarnation, and birth of Christ Jesus (which to the common
philosopher are fables and impossibilities, but in the Booke of Nature
plaine evident truths) were proved, and demonstrated by the primi-
tive Apostles and teachers out of the creation of the world. But
instead of such teachers, we have in these our days two epidemical
goblins, a schoole-man, and a saint forsooth . The one swells with a
syllogistial pride, the other wears a broad face of revelation. The
first cannot tell me why grasse is green : The second with all his
devotion knows not A. B. C. , yet prætends he to that infinite Spirit
which knows all in all ; and truly of them both this last is the worst.
Surely the Devill hath been very busie, to put out the candle, for
had all written truths been extant, this false learning and hypocrisie
could never have prevailed. Kim Cim mentions seven and twenty
books which Christ Jesus left on earth to further the conversion of
the world. It may be we have not one of them ; for though the
books of the new Testament are just so many, yet being all written,
MAGIA ADAMICA ; OR, THE ANTIQUITIE OF MAGIC. 117
at least some of them a long time after Christ, they may not well
passe for those Scriptures which this author attributes to our Saviour,
even at the time of his ascension. What should I speak of those
many books cited in the old testament, but no where to be found,
which if they were now extant, no doubt but they would prove so
many reverend, invincible patrons of magic. But ink and paper will
perish, for the hand of man hath made nothing æternall. The Truth
only is incorruptible, and when the letter fails, she shifts that body
and lives in the spirit.
I have not without some labour , now traced this science from the
very fall of man to the day of his redemption—a long, and solitary
pilgrimage, the paths being unfrequented because of the briars and
scruples of antiquitie, and in some places overgrown with the poppie
of Oblivion. I will not deny but in the shades and ivie of this
wildernesse , there are some birds of night, owles and bats , of a
different feather from our phoenix ; I meane some conjurers whose
dark indirect affection to the name of magic, made them invent
traditions more prodigious than their practices . These I have pur-
posely avoyded, lest they should wormwood my stream, and I seduce
the reader through all these groves and solitudes to the waters of
Marah. The next stage I must move to, is that whence I came out
at first with the Israelites, namely Ægypt ; here if bookes faile me,
the stones will cry out ; Magic having been so enthron'd in this
place, it seems shee would bee buried here also ; so many monu-
ments did shee hide in this earth, which have been since digged up ;
and serve now to prove that shee was sometimes above ground .
To begin then , I will first speak of the Ægyptian Theologie, that
you may see how far they have advanc'd , having no leader, but the
light of Nature. Trismegistus is so orthodox and plain in the
Mysterie of the Trinitie, the Scripture it self exceeds him not ; but
hee being a particular Author, and one perhaps that knew more
than those of his order in generall, I shall at this time dispense with
his authoritie. Their Catholic Doctrine, and wherein I find them
all to agree, is this. Emepht, whereby they expresse their supreme
God, and verily they mind the true one, signifies properly an
intelligence, or spirit converting all things into himself, and himself
into all things. This is very sound divinitie and philosophie, if it
be rightly understood. Now (say they) Emepht produc'd an egg
out of his mouth, which tradition Kircher expounds imperfectly,
and withall erroneously. In the production of this egg was mani-
fested another Deitie, which they call Phtha, and out of some other
118 MAGIA ADAMICA ; OR, THE ANTIQUITIE OF MAGIC.
natures and substances inclos'd in the egg, this Phtha formed all
things. But to deale a little more openly, wee will describe unto
you their hieroglyphic, wherein they have very handsomely, but
obscurely discovered most of their mysteries. First of all then ,
they draw a circle, in the circle a serpent, not folded, but diameter-
wise, and at length ; her head resembles that of a hawke, the tayle
is tyed in a small knot, and a little below the Head her wings are
volant. The circle points at Emepht, or God the Father being
infinite, without beginning, without end. Moreover it comprehends,
or conteines in it self the second Deitie Phtha, and the egg or chaos,
out of which all things were made. The hawke in the Ægyptian
symbols signifies light, and spirit ; his head annexed here to the
serpent represents Phtha, or the Second Person, who is the first
light, as wee have told you in our Anthroposophia. Hee is said to
forme all things out of the egg, because in him, as it were in a glasse ,
are types or images, namely, the distinct conceptions of the Paternall
Deitie, according to which, by cooperation of the Spirit, namely, the
Holy Ghost, the creatures are formed. The inferiour part of this
figure signifies the matter or chaos, which they call the egg of
Emepht. That you may the better know it, wee will teach you
something not common. The body of the serpent tells you it is a
fierie substance, for a serpent is full of heat and fire, which made
the Egyptians esteem him Divine : This appears by his quick
motion without feet or finns , much like that of the pulse, for his
impetuous hot spirit shootes him on like a squib . There is also
another analogie, for the serpent renews his youth, so strong is his
natural heat, and casts off his old skin. Truely the matter is a very
serpent, for shee renews herself a thousand wayes, and is never a
perpetuall tenant to the same forme. The wings tell you this sub-
ject or chaos is volatile, and in the outward complexion ayrie, and
waterie. But to teach you the most secret resemblance of this
hieroglyphic, the chaos is a certain creeping substance, for it
moves like a serpent sine pedibus, and truly Moses calls it not
66
water, but serpitura aquæ, The creeping of water," or a water that
creepes. Lastly, the knott on the tayle, tells you this matter is of a
most strong composition, and that the elements are fast bound in it,
all which the philosophers know to be true by experience. As for
the affinitie of inferiors with superiors, and their private active love,
which conflicts in certain secret mixtures of Heaven with the matter,
their opinion stands thus. In the vital fire of all things here below,
the sun (they say) is King. In their secret water the moon is
Queen. In their pure aire the five lesser planets rule ; and in their
MAGIA ADAMICA ; OR, THE ANTIQUITIE OF MAGIC. 119
That is, " One Nature delights in another ; One Nature overcomes
another ; One Nature overrules another." These short lessons, but
of no small consequence, are fathered on the great Hostanes. The
second monument is that admirable, and most magical one men-
tioned by Barachias Abenesi, the Arabian. This also was a stone
erected neare Memphis, and on it this profound scripture.
ΟΥΡΑΝΟ ΑΝΩ, ΟΥΡΑΝΟ ΚΑΤΩ,
ΑΣΤΡΑ ΑΝΩ , ΑΣΤΡΑ ΚΑΤΩ,
ΠΑΝ Ο ΑΝΩ , ΠΑΝ ΤΟΥΤΟ ΚΑΤΩ,
ΤΑΥΤΑ ΛΑΒΕ, ΚΑΙ ΕΥΤΥΚΕ.
That is,
Heaven above, Heaven beneath ;
Starres above, Starres beneath ;
All that is above, is also beneath ;
Understand this, and be happy.
his Master Aristotle relating how he met with a very reverend and
learned Jew, with whom he had much discourse about things natural
and divine, but his special confession is, That he was much rectified
by him in his opinion of the Deitie. This perhaps might be, but
certainly it was after he writ the Organon, and his other lame
discourses, that move by the logical crutch. Now if you will ask
me, what Greek did ever professe any magicall principles ? To this
I answer that if you bate Aristotle and his Ushers, who are born
like the insecta, ex putredine, " out of their master's corruptions,"
Greece yeelded not a philosopher who was not in some positions
magicall. If any man will challenge my demonstration herein ,
I doe now promise him my performance. To give you some
particular instances, Hippocrates was altogether chemicall, and
this I could prove out of his owne mouth, but at this time his
works are not by me. Democritus who lived in the same
age with him, writ his quoixà xaι μvorixá, that is, " Physical and
Mystical Things," in plaine English, " Natural Secrets." To this
mystical piece Synesius added the light of his Comments, and
dedicated them to Dioscorus, priest of Serapis. Of this Democritus,
Seneca reports in his Epistles, That he knew a secret coition
of pebbles, by which he turned them into emeralds. Theophrastus,
a most ancient Greek author, in his Book De Lapidibus, mentions
another mineral work of his own , wherein he had written something
of Metals . True indeed, that discourse of his is lost, but notwithstand-
ing his opinion is upon record, namely that he referred the originall
of metalls to water. This is confirmed by his own words, ( idaros Év
τα μεταλλευόμενα κατά περ ἄργυρος και κρύσος ) as I find them cited by
Picus in his Book De Auro. But that the Art of transmutation was
in request in his dayes, and no late invention or imposture, as some
think, appears by the attempts and practice of that Age of the
same Theophrastus ; for he mentions one Callias, an Athenian,
who endeavouring to make gold, brought his materials into cinnabar.
It were an endless labour for me to recite all the particulars, that
Greece can affoord in order to my present designe. I will therefore
close up all in this short summarie. There is no wisdome in
Nature but what proceeded from God, for he made Nature ; he first
found out, and afterwards ordained the very wayes, and method
how to corrupt and how to generate. This , his own wisdome and
knowledge, he communicated in some measure to the first man ;
from him his children received it, and they taught it their posteritie ;
but the Jewes having the spiritual birthright, this mysterie was their
inheritance, and they possest it entirely, being the Annointed Nation,
MAGIA ADAMICA ; OR, THE ANTIQUITIE OF MAGIC. 123
upon whom God had poured forth his Spirit. By tradition of the
Jewes, The Ægyptians came to be instructed. From the Ægyptians
these secrets descended to the Græcians, and from the Græcians
(as we all know) the Romanes received their learning, and amongst
other common arts, this magicall mysterious one. This is con-
firm'd by some proper, genuine effects and monuments thereof,
namely that flexible malleable glasse, produced in the dayes of
Tiberius, and the miraculous Olybian Lamp. But these times
wherein I am now, and those through which I have past, are
like some tempestuous day ; they have more clouds, than light. I
will therefore enter Christendome, and here I shall find the Art in
her infancie : True indeed, the cradle is but in some private hands,
few know where, and many believe there is no such thing. The
schoolemen are high in point of noyse, and condemne all but what
themselves professe. It is Aristotle's Almodena ; they expose his
Errors to the sale, and this continues for a long time. But every
thing (as the Spaniard saith) hath its Quando ; many years are past
over, and now the child begins to lisp , and peeps abroad in the
fustian of Arnold and Lullie. I need not tell you how he hath
thrived since ; doe but look upon his traine, for at this day who
prætends not to magic, and that so magisterially, as if the regalos of
the Art were in his powers ? I know not any refragans, except
some sickly Galenists, whose pale tallow faces speak more disease
than physic. These indeed complaine their lives are too short,
Philosophie too tedious, and so fill their mouths with Ars longa,
Vita brevis. This is true (saith the Spanish Picaro) for they cure
either late or never, which makes their Art long ; but they kill
quickly, which makes life short, and so the Riddle is expounded.
COELUM TERRÆ ;
OR,
Subject ; but these being the keyes which lead to the very Estrado
of Nature, where she sits in full solemnitie, and receives the visits
of the Philosophers, I must scatter them in severall parts of the
discourse. This is all, and here thou must not consider how long
or short I shall be, but how full the discoverie ; and truly it shall be
such, and so much, that thou canst not in modestie expect more.
Now then, you that would be what the ancient physicians were, "the
health-imparting hands of the gods," not quacks and salvos of the
pipkin ; you that would performe what you publickly professe, and
make your callings honest and conscionable, attend to the truth
without spleen. Remember that præjudice is no religion, and, by
consequence, hath no reward. If this Art were damnable, you might
safely studie it notwithstanding, for you have a præcept to " prove
all things," but to " hold fast that which is good." It is your duty
not to be wanting to your selves, and , for my part, that I may be
wanting to none, thus I begin.
Said the Cabalist, Domus Sanctuarii quæ est hic inferiùs, disponitur
secundum Domum Sanctuarii, quæ est superiùs : " The Building of
the Sanctuarie which is here below is framed according to that of the
Sanctuarie which is above." Here wee have two worlds, visible and
invisible, and two universall natures, visible and invisible, out of
which both those worlds proceeded . The Passive Universall Nature
was made in the image of the Active Universall One, and the con-
formitie of both worlds, or sanctuaries, consists in the originall con-
formitie of their principles. There are many Platonicks (and this
last centurie hath afforded some apish disciples) who discourse very
boldly of the similitude of inferiors and superiors, but if we thoroughly
search their trash, it is a pack of small conspiracies, namely, of the
heliotrope and the sun, iron and the loadstone, the wound and the
weapon. It is excellent sport to hear how they crow, being roosted
on these pitiful particulars, as if they knew the Universall Magnet
which binds this great frame and moves all the members of it to a
- mutual compassion . This is an humor much like that of Don
Quixote, who knew Dulcinea but never saw her. Those students
then who would be better instructed must first know there is an
Universall Agent, who when Hee was disposed to create had no
other patterne or exemplar whereby to frame and mould his
creatures but himself, but having infinite inward ideas or concep-
tions in himself, as Hee conceived, so He created that is to say,
Hee created an outward forme answerable to the inward concep-
tion or figure of his mind. In the second place, they ought to
know there is an Universall Patient, and this Passive Nature was
126 COELUM TERRÆ ; OR, THE MAGICIAN'S HEAVENLY CHAOS,
those beauties, the times past have produc'd, and what will become
of those that shall appear in future ages ? They will all to the
same dust, they have one common house, and there is no familie so
numerous as that of the grave. Doe but look on the daily sports of
Nature, her clouds and mists, the scane and pageanterie of the aire.
Even these momentary things retreat to the closet of the earth. If
the sun makes her drie, shee can drink as fast, what gets upon
cloudes, comes down in water, the earth swallows up all, and like
that philosophicall dragon eats her own tayle. The wise poets saw
this, and in their mystical language call'd the earth Saturne, telling
us withal shee did feed on her own children. Verily there is
more truth in their stately verse, than in Aristotle's dull prose, for he
was a blinde beast, and malice made him so. But to proceed
a little further with you, I wish you to concoct what you reade, to
dwell a little upon earth, not to fly up presently, and admire the
meteors of your own braines. The earth you know in the winter
time is a dull, dark, dead thing, a contemptible frozen phlegmatic
lump. But towards the Spring, and fomentations of the sun, what
rare pearls are there in this dung-hill ? what glorious colours, and
tinctures doth she discover ? a pure eternall green overspreads her,
and this attended with innumerable other beauties ; roses red and
white, golden lilies, azure violets, the bleeding hyacinths, with their
severall cœlestiall odours and spices. If you will be advised by me,
learn from whence the earth hath these invisible treasures, this
annuall flora, which appears not without the complements of the
sun. Behold I will tell you as plainly as I may. There are in the
world two extremes, matter and spirit ; one of these I can assure
you is earth. The influences of the spirit animate and quicken the
matter, and in the material extreme the seed of the spirit is to be
found. In middle natures, as fire, aire, and water, this seed stays
not, for they are but dispenseros, or media, which convey it from
one extreme to the other, from the spirit to the matter, that is to
the earth. But stay my friend, this intelligence hath somewhat
stirr'd you, and now you come on so furiously, as if you would rifle
the cabinet. Give me leave to put you back. I mind not this
common, fæculent, impure earth, that falls not within my discourse,
but as it makes for your manuduction. That which I speak of is a
mysterie, it is a cœlum terræ, and terra cœli, not this dirt, and dust,
but a most secret, cœlestiall, invisible earth. Raymund Lullie in his
compendium of Alchimie calls the principles of art magic-spiritus c. I.
fugitivos in aere condensatos, in formâ monstrorum diversorum, et
animalium etiam hominum, qui vadunt sicut nubes, modo huc, modo
I
130 CŒLUM TERRÆ ; OR, THE MAGICIAN'S HEAVENLY CHAOS,
illuc. " Certain fugitive spirits condensed in the aire, in the shape of
divers monsters, beasts and men, which move like cloudes hither
and thither." As for the sense of our Spaniard, I refer it to his
readers, let them make the most of it.
This is true ; As the ayre, and all the volatile substances in it, are
restlesse, even so it is with the first matter. The eye of man never
saw her twice under one and the same shape, but as clouds driven
by the winde are forced to this and that figure, but cannot possibly
retain one constant forme, so is shee persecuted by the fire of
Nature ; for this fire, and this water are like two lovers, they no
sooner meet, but presently they play and toy, and this game will not
over till some new babee is generated. I have oftentimes admired
their subtil perpetual motion, for at all times, and in all places
these two are busie, which occasioned that notable sentence of
Trismegistus, that action was the life of God. But most ex-
cellent, and magisterial is that oracle of Marcus Antoninus, who
in his Discourse to himself, speaks indeed things worthy of himself.
The Nature (saith he) of the universe delights not in any thing so
much, as to alter all things and then to make the like again. This
is her tick tack, shee plays one game, to begin another. The matter
is placed before her like a piece of wax, and shee shapes it to all
formes, and figures. Now shee makes a bird, now a beast, now a
flowere, then a frog, and shee is pleas'd with her own magicall
performances, as men are with their own fancies. Hence she is
call'd of Orpheus, " the mother that makes many things, and
ordaines strange shapes, or figures." Neither doth she, as some
sinfull parents doe, who having their pleasure, care not for their
child ; she loves them still after shee hath made them, hath an eye
over them all, and provides even for her sparrowes. 'Tis strange to
consider that shee workes so well privately as publicly, not only in
gardens where ladies may smell her perfumes, but in remote soli-
tudes and deserts. The truth is, shee seeks not to please others so
much as her self, wherefore many of her works, and those the
choysest, never come to light. Wee see little children, who are
newly come under her hand, will be dabling in dirt and water, and
other idle sports affected by none but themselves. The reason is,
they are not as yet captivated, which makes them seek their own
pleasures ; but when they come to age, then love or profit makes
them square their actions according to other men's desires. Some
cockney claps his revenues on his backe, but his galanterie is spoil'd,
if his mistress doth not observe it. Another fights, but his victory
is lost, if it be not printed, it is the world must heare of his
AND FIRST MATTER OF ALL THINGS. 131
modo Tinctura alba et rubea. In plain English thus : " The Mercurie
of the Wisemen is a waterie element, cold and moyst. This is
their permanent water, the spirit of the Bodie, the unctuous vapour,
the Blessed Water, the virtuous water, the water of the Wisemen,
the Philosopher's Vinegar, the Mineral Water, the Dew of Heavenly
Grace, the Virgin's Milk, the Bodily Mercurie, and with other
numberlesse names is it named in the bookes of the Philosophers,
which names, though they are divers, notwithstanding, alwayes
signifie one and the same thing, namely, the Mercurie of the
Wisemen. Out of this Mercurie alone all the Virtue of the Art is
extracted, and, according to its Nature, the Tincture, both red and
white." To this agrees Rachaidibi the Persian : Sperma Lapidis
(saith hee) est frigidum et humidum in Manifesto, et in Occulto
calidum et siccum. " The Sperme, or first matter, of the Stone, is
outwardly cold and moyst, but inwardly hot and drie," all which is
confirmed by Rhodian, another instructor (it seemes) of Kalid,
King of Persia. His words are these : Sperma est album et
liquidum, postea rubeum. Sperma istud est lapis fugitivus, et est
aereum et volatile, et est frigidum et humidum, et calidum et siccum.
"The Sperm (saith hee) is white and liquid, afterwards red. This
Sperm is the flying stone, and it is æreal and volatile, cold and
moyst, hot and drie.” To these subscribes the author of that
excellent tract intituled Liber Trium Verborum. Hic est Liber
(saith hee) Trium Verborum, Liber Lapidis preciosi, qui est Corpus
æreum et volatile, frigidum et humidum, aquosum et adustivum, et in
eo est caliditas et siccitas, frigiditas et humiditas, alia virtus in occulto
alia in manifesto. "This is the Book of Three Words," meaning
thereby Three Principles, " the Book of the Precious Stone, which
´is a body æreal and volatile, cold and moyst, waterie and adustive, and
in it is heat and drought, coldnesse and moysture, one virtue in-
wardly, the other outwardly. " Belus, the philosopher, in that famous
and most classic Synod of Arisleus, inverts the order, to conceale
the practice, but if rightly understood, he speaks to the purpose.
Excelsum (sayth hee) est hoc apud Philosophos magnos Lapidem non
esse lapidem, apud idiotas vile et incredibile. Quis enim credet Lapidem
aquam, et aquam lapidem fieri, cum nihil sit diversius ? Attamen
revera ita est. Lapis 66 enim est hæc ipsa per manens aqua, et dum aqua
est lapis non est. Amongst all great philosophers it is magisterial,
that our stone is no stone, but amongst ignorants it is ridiculous and
incredible. For who will believe that water can be made a stone,
and a stone water, nothing being more different than these two ?
And yet in very truth it is so. For this very permanent water is the
I
D
T
Compasse
breast
turned max se
all things is
art poyson, acum
first matter, the seco
heat and rain , which ma
because of thy habit, and
the world. Thy parents
Water and Wine, gold also
134 CŒLUM TERRÆ ; OR, THE MAGICIAN'S HEAVENLY CHAOS ,
modo Tinctura alba et rubea. In plain English thus : " The Mercurie
of the Wisemen is a waterie element, cold and moyst. This is
their permanent water, the spirit of the Bodie, the unctuous vapour,
the Blessed Water, the virtuous water, the water of the Wisemen ,
the Philosopher's Vinegar, the Mineral Water, the Dew of Heavenly
Grace, the Virgin's Milk, the Bodily Mercurie, and with other
numberlesse names is it named in the bookes of the Philosophers,
which names, though they are divers, notwithstanding, alwayes
signifie one and the same thing, namely, the Mercurie of the
Wisemen. Out of this Mercurie alone all the Virtue of the Art is
extracted, and, according to its Nature, the Tincture, both red and
white." To this agrees Rachaidibi the Persian : Sperma Lapidis
(saith hee) est frigidum et humidum in Manifesto, et in Occulto
calidum et siccum. " The Sperme, or first matter, of the Stone, is
outwardly cold and moyst, but inwardly hot and drie,” all which is
confirmed by Rhodian, another instructor (it seemes) of Kalid,
King of Persia. His words are these : Sperma est album et
liquidum, postea rubeum. Sperma istud est lapis fugitivus, et est
aereum et volatile, et est frigidum et humidum, et calidum et siccum.
" The Sperm (saith hee) is white and liquid, afterwards red. This
Sperm is the flying stone, and it is æreal and volatile, cold and
moyst, hot and drie." To these subscribes the author of that
excellent tract intituled Liber Trium Verborum. Hic est Liber
(saith hee) Trium Verborum, Liber Lapidis preciosi, qui est Corpus
æreum et volatile, frigidum et humidum, aquosum et adustivum, et in
eo est caliditas et siccitas, frigiditas et humiditas, alia virtus in occulto
alia in manifesto. "This is the Book of Three Words," meaning
thereby Three Principles, " the Book of the Precious Stone, which
is a body areal and volatile, cold and moyst, waterie and adustive, and
in it is heat and drought, coldnesse and moysture, one virtue in-
wardly, the other outwardly." Belus, the philosopher, in that famous
and most classic Synod of Arisleus, inverts the order, to conceale
the practice, but if rightly understood, he speaks to the purpose.
Excelsum (sayth hee) est hoc apud Philosophos magnos Lapidem non
esse lapidem, apud idiotas vile et incredibile. Quis enim credet Lapidem
aquam, et aquam lapidem fieri, cum nihil sit diversius ? Attamen
revera ita est. Lapis enim est hæc ipsa per manens aqua, et dum aqua
66
est lapis non est. Amongst all great philosophers it is magisterial,
that our stone is no stone, but amongst ignorants it is ridiculous and
incredible. For who will believe that water can be made a stone,
and a stone water, nothing being more different than these two ?
And yet in very truth it is so. For this very permanent water is the
AND FIRST MATTER OF ALL THINGS . 135
may rejoyce. After this manner, God sends us his blessing and
wisdome with raine, and the Beams of the Sun, to the eternal glory
of his name. But consider, O man, what things God bestows upon
thee by this means. Torture the eagle till shee weeps, and the lion
bee weakened and bleed to death. The blood of this lion, incor-
porated with the teares of the eagle, is the treasure of the earth.
These creatures use to devoure and kill one another, but, notwith-
standing, their love is mutuall, and they put on the proprietie, and
nature of a salamander, which if it remains in the fire without any
detriment, it cures all the diseases of men, beasts and metals. After
that the ancient philosophers had perfectly understood this subject,
they diligently sought in this mysterie for the center of the middle-
most tree in the terrestrial paradyse, entering in by five litigious
gates. The first gate was the knowledge of the true matter, and here
arose the first, and that a most bitter, conflict. The second was the
præparation by which this matter was to bee præpared , that they
might obtain the Embers of the eagle , and the Blood of the Lion.
At this gate there is a most sharp fight, for it produceth water and
blood, and a spirituall bright body. The third gate is the Fire,
which conduceth to the maturitie of the Medicine. The fourth gate
is that of multiplication and augmentation, in which proportions and
weights are necessarie. The fifth and last gate is Projection. But
most glorious, full rich and high, is he who attains to the fourth
gate, for hee hath got an Universall Medicine for all diseases.
This is that great character of the book of Nature, out of which
her whole alphabet doth arise. The fifth gate serves only for
metals. * This mysterie, existing from the foundation of the world,
and the Creation of Adam, is of all others the most ancient, a know-
ledge which God Almighty, by his word, breathed into Nature, a
miraculous power, the blessed fire of life, the transparent carbuncle,
and red gold of the wise men, and the divine benediction of this
life. But this mysterie, because of the malice and wickedness of
men, is given only to few, notwithstanding, it lives and moves every
day in the sight of the whole world, as it appears by the following
parable. I am a poysonous dragon, present every where, and to bee
had for nothing. My water and my fire dissolve and compound ; out
of my body thou shalt draw the Green, and the Red Lion : but if
thou doest not exactly know mee, thou wilt with my fire destroy thy
five senses. A most pernicious quick poyson comes out of my
nostrils, which hath been the destruction of many. Separate there-
fore the thick from the thin artificially, unlesse thou dost delight in
extreme povertie. I give thee faculties both male and female and
* Note 17.
AND FIRST MATTER OF ALL THINGS. 137
the powers both of Heaven and earth . The mysteries of my art are
to bee performed magnanimously, and with great courage, if thou
wouldest have mee overcome the violence of the fire, in which attempt
many have lost both their labour and their substance. I am the
Egg of Nature known only to the wise, such as are pious and modest,
who make of mee a little world. Ordain'd I was by the All-Mighty
God for men, but (though many desire mee) I am given only to few,
that they may relieve the poore with my treasures, and not set their
minds on gold that perisheth. I am call'd of the philosophers,
Mercurie my husband is gold (philosophicall. ) I am the old
dragon that is present every where on the face of the earth ; I am
father and mother ; youthfull and ancient ; weak and yet most
strong ; life and death ; visible and invisible ; hard and soft, descend-
ing to the earth, and ascending to the heavens; most high and most
low; light and heavy ; in mee the order of Nature is oftentimes in-
verted, in colour, number, weights and measure. I have in mee the
light of Nature ; I am dark and bright ; I spring from the earth, and
I come out of Heaven ; I am well known, and yet a meer nothing ;
all colours shine in mee, and all metals by the beams of the sun. I
am the Carbuncle of the Sun, a most noble clarified earth, by which
"*
thou mayest turn copper, iron, tin, and lead into most pure gold. "
Now, gentlemen, you may see which way the philosophers move ;
they commend their secret water, and I admire the teares of Hyanthe.
There is something in the fansie besides poetrie, for my mistriss is
very philosophicall, and in her love a pure platonic. But now I
think upon't, how many rivals shall I procure by this discourse ?
Every reader will fall to, and some fine thing may break her heart
with non-sense. This love indeed were meer luck, but for my part
I dare trust her, and lest any man should mistake her for some
things formerly named, I will tell you truly what shee is ; She is not
any known water whatsoever, but a secret, spermatic moysture, or,
rather, the Venus that yeelds that moysture. Therefore do not you
imagine that shee is any crude, phlegmatic, thin water, for shee is
a fatt, thick, heavie, slimie humiditie ; But lest you should think I
am grown jealous, and would not trust you with my mistriss, Arnoldus
de Villa Nova shall speak for me ; hear him. Ampliùs tibi dico, quod
nullo modo invenire potuimus, nec similiter invenire potueruntphilosophi,
aliquam rem perseverantem in igne, nisi solam unctuosam humiditatem.
Aqueam humiditatem videmus de facili evaporare, arida remanet, et ideo
separantur, quia non sunt naturales. Si autem eas humiditates con-
syderemus, quæ difficulter separantur ab his quæ sunt naturales, non
* Aureliæ Occultæ Philosoph. , Pt. II . Theat. Chem. , IV. p. 499.
138 COELUM TERRÆ ; OR, THE MAGICIAN'S HEAVENLY CHAOS,
overlooks all that he hath made, and the whole fabric stands in his
heat and light, as a man stands here on earth in the Sun-shine. I
say then that the God of Nature employes himself in a perpetuall
coction, and this not onely to generate, but to preserve that which
hath been generated ; for his spirit and heat coagulate that which is
thin, rarifie that which is too grosse, quicken the dead parts, and
cherish the cold. There is indeed one operation of heat, whose
method is vitall and far more mysterious than the rest ; they that have
use for it, must studie it. I have for my part spoken all that I intend to
speak, and though my book may prove fruitless to many, because not
understood, yet some few may be of that spirit as to comprehend it :
ampla mentis ampla flamma, sayd the great Chaldæan. But because
I will not leave thee without some satisfaction, I advise thee to take
the Moone of the Firmament, which is a middle nature, place her so
that every part of her may be in two elements at one and the same
time, these elements also must equally attend her body, not one
furthur off, not one nearer than the other. In the regulating of
these two, there is a twofold geometrie to be observed, natural and
artificial. But I may speak no more. The true furnace is a little
simple shell, thou mayst easily carry it in one of thy hands. The
glasse is one, and no more, but some philosophers have used two,
and so mayst thou. As for the work it self, it is no way trouble-
some ; a lady may reade the “ Arcadia,” and at the same time
attend this philosophie without disturbing her fancie. For my part
I think women are fitter for it than men, for in such things they are
more neat and patient, being used to a small chemistrie of sack-
possets, and other finicall sugar-sops. Concerning the effects of
this medecine, I shall not speak anything at this time ; hee that
desires to know them, let him read the Revelation of Paracelsus, a
discourse altogether incomparable, and in very truth miraculous.
And here without any partialitie, I shall give my judgement of
honest Hohenheim. I find in the rest of his works, and especially
where he falls on the stone, a great many false processes, but his
doctrine of it in general is very sound. The truth is, hee had some
pride to the justice of his spleen, and in many places hee hath erred
of purpose, not caring what bones he threw before the schoole-men :
for he was a pilot of Guadalcana, and sayled sometimes in his Rio
de la recriation. But I had almost forgot to tell thee that, which is
all in all, and it is the greatest difficultie in all the art, namely the
Fire. It is a close, ayrie, circular, bright fire ; the philosophers call
it their sun, and the glasse must stand in the shade. It makes not
the matter to vapour, no not so much as to sweat ; it digests only
144 CŒLUM TERRÆ ; OR, THE MAGICIAN'S HEAVENLY CHAOS,
things, not only beasts and vegetables, but proud and glorious man :
when death hath ruined him, his coarser parts stay here, and know
no other home. This earth to earth, is just the doctrine of the
Magi ; metalls (say they) and all things may be reduc'd into that
whereof they were made. They speak the very truth ; it is God's
Gen. c. 3,
ver. 19. own principle, and he first taught it Adam. " Dust thou art, and to
dust shalt thou return." But lest any man should be deceived by
us, I think it just to informe you, there are two reductions ; one is
violent and destructive, reducing bodies to their extremes, and
properly it is death, or the calcination of the common chimist. The
other is vital, and generative, resolving bodies into their sperm, or
middle substance out of which Nature made them, for Nature makes
not bodies immediately of the elements, but of a sperm which shee
drawes out of the elements. I shall explain myself to you by
example. An egg is the sperm, or middle substance out of which a
chick is engendred, and the moysture of it is viscous and slimie, a
water and no water, for such a sperme ought to bee. Suppose Dr
Coale, I meane some broyler, had a minde to generate something
out of this egg : questionlesse he would first distill it, and that with
a fire able to roast the hen that layd it ; then would he calcine the
caput mortuum, and finally produce his nothing. Here you are to
observe that bodies are nothing else but sperm coagulated, and he
that destroyes the body, by consequence destroyes the sperm . Now
to reduce bodies into elements of earth and water, as wee have
instanc'd in the egg, is to reduce them into extremes beyond their
sperm, for elements are not sperm, but the sperm is a compound
made of the elements, and containing in it self all that is requisite to
the frame of the body. Wherefore be well advis'd before you distill,
and quarter any particular bodies, for having once separated their
elements, you may never generate, unless you can make a sperm of
those elements, but that is impossible for man to doe, it is the
power of God, and Nature. Labour then you that would be
accounted wise, to find out our Mercurie, so shall you reduce things
to their mean spermaticall chaos, but avoyd the broyling destruction .
This doctrine will spare you the vain task of distillations, if you will
but remember this truth : that spermes are not made by separation,
but by composition of elements, and to bring a body into sperm , is
not to distill it, but to reduce the whole into one thick water, keep-
ing all the parts thereof in their first natural union. But that I may
return at last to my former citation of the Synod ; all those influences
of the elements being united in one mass, make our sperm or our
earth, which is earth and no earth. Take it if thou doest know it,
AND FIRST MATTER OF ALL THINGS. 149
already have to union and peace, (for God works with Nature, not
against her,) and brings them at last to a beauteous specificall fabric.
Now, if you will aske me, where is the Soul, or as the School-men
abuse her, the form all this while ? What doth she doe ? To this I
answer, that shee is, as all instrumentals ought to be, subject and
obedient to the will of God, expecting the perfection of her body ;*
for it is God that unites her to the body, and the body to her.
Soule and body are the work of God, the one as well as the other :
the soul is not the artificer of her house, for that which can make a
body, can also repayre it, and hinder death ; but the soule cannot
doe this, it is the power, and wisdom of God. In a word to say that
the soule form'd the body, because she is in the body, is to say that
the jewell made the cabinet, because the jewell is in the cabinet, or
that the sun made the world, because the sun is in the world, and
cherisheth every part thereof. Learn therefore to distinguish between
agents and their instruments, for if you attribute that to the creature,
which belongs to the Creator, you bring your selves in danger of
hell-fire, for God is a jealous God, and will not give his glorie to
another. I advise my doctors, therefore, both divines and
physicians, not to bee too rash in their censures, nor so magisterial
in their discourse, as I have known some professors of physic to be ;
who would correct and undervalue the rest of their brethren, when,
in truth, they themselves were most shamefully ignorant. It is not
ten or twelve years experience in druggs and sopps can acquaint a
man with the mysteries of God's creation. "Take this and make a
world : "" " Take I know not what, and make a pill or clyster," are
different receipts. Wee should, therefore, consult with our judge-
ments , before wee venture our tongues, and never speake but when
we are sure we understand. I knew a gentleman, who meeting with
a philosopher adept, and receiving so much courtesie as to be
admitted to discourse, attended his first instructions passing well.
But when this magician quitted my friend's known roade, and began
to touch, and drive round the great wheele of Nature, presently my
gentleman takes up the cudgells, and urging all the authorities
which his vain judgement made for him, opprest this noble philoso-
pher with a most clamorous, insipid ribaldrie. A goodly sight it
was, and worthy our imitation, to see with what an admirable patience
the other received him . But this errant concluded at last, that lead
or quicksilver must be the subject, and that Nature worked upon
66
one of both. To this the adeptus replied, Sir, it may be so at
this time, but if here after I find Nature in those old elements, where
* Note 21.
152 COELUM TERRÆ ; OR, THE MAGICIAN'S HEAVENLY CHAOS,
I have sometimes seen her very busie, I shall at our next meeting
confute your opinion." This was all hee said, and it was something
more than hee did. Their next meeting was referr'd to the Greek
Calends, for he could never be seen afterwards, notwithstanding a
thousand sollicitations. Such talkative babbling people as this
gentleman was, who run to every doctor for his opinion and follow
like a spaniell every bird they spring, are not fit to receive these
secrets ; they must be serious, silent men, faithful to the art, and
most faithfull to their teachers. Wee should always remember that
doctrine of Zeno : "Nature (said hee) gave us one tongue, but two
eares, that we might heare much, and speak little." Let not any
man, therefore, be ready to vomit forth his own shame and ignorance :
let him first examine his knowledge, and especially his practice, lest
upon the experience of a few violent knacks, hee presume to judge
Nature in her very sobrieties. To make an end ; if thou doest
know the First Matter, know also for certain , thou hast discovered
the sanctuarie of Nature ; there is nothing between thee and her
treasures, but the doore : that indeed must be opened. Now if thy
desire leads thee on to the practice, consider well with thy self what
manner of man thou art, and what is that thou would'st do, for it
is no small matter. Thou hast resolved with thyself to be a
co-operator with the Spirit of the living God, and to minister
to him in his worke of generation. Have a care therefore
that thou doest not hinder his work : for if thy heat exceeds the
naturall proportion, thou hast stirr'd the wrath of the moyst Natures,
and they will stand up against the central fire, and the central fire
against them, and there will be a terrible division in the chaos ; but
the sweet spirit of peace, the true eternal quintessence, will depart
from the elements, leaving both them and thee to confusion ; neither
will hee apply himself to that matter, as long as it is in thy violent
destroying hands. Take heed, therefore, lest thou turn partner
with the Devill, for it is the Devil's designe from the beginning of
the world to set Nature at variance with her self, that he may totally
corrupt, and destroy her. Ne tu augeas fatum, " doe not thou
furthur his designs. " I make no question but many men will laugh
at this, but, on my soule, I speak nothing but what I have known
by very good experience ; therefore, believe mee. For my own
part, it was ever my desire to bury these things in silence, or to
paint them out in shadowes, but I have spoken thus clearly, and
openly out of the affection I beare to some, who have deserved
much more at my hands . True it is, I intended sometime to
expose a greater work to the world, which I promised in my
AND FIRST MATTER OF ALL THINGS. 153
FINIS.
Zingiberis albi.
Amari dulcis.
Foliorum senæ. 19 gr. 331 milligr. of each.
Tartari adusti.
Macis.
Cubebarum . 7 gr. 813 milligr. of each.
Cariophyllorum, 27 gram. 344 milligr.
Reduce into powder.
Dose :-5 gr. 859 milligr. taken morning and evening in brodium or
wine, during the first month ; during the second month, in the morning
only ; during the third month, thrice a week, and so thenceforward
through life. It strengthens the stomach, clears the brain, preserves the
sight, invigorates memory, and prevents epilepsy and apoplexy.
There is one substantial ground for the hope that consistent and
painstaking students of the mystics may yet penetrate the "luminous
obscurities " of Hermetic allegory, and that ground is the great additional
perspicuity which characterises the expositions of the highest pneumatic
mysteries, as compared with those upon subjects which, however strange
and marvellous, are of indefinitely minor importance to the true soul-
seeker. The passages which occasion this remark, and to which this
note has reference, are a practically direct explanation of the significance
of the magical duad in the three intelligible worlds, and should be
marked for particular investigation ; and the hypostatic union of the soul
with God is controversially based on analogies alleged to exist in the
occult principles of the natural world.
with the Adamic earth. It is evident from the context that the purifica-
tion of this chaos described in the passage to which these remarks attach,
involved an experimental investigation into the substance of life. Of
this life the chaos is the first envelope, a point which is sufficient to show
the extent to which the philosophers claim to have carried their investi-
gations.
NOTE 20 (page 146).
In this connection it should be marked that a certain Nox Corporis
would be involved in the evolution of the mystic trance, and this night is
apparently the entrance to the Regio Lucis.
Ad i
1
OCT 8-1932