PARACELSUS VIEWS ON MAGIC AND SORCERY by Franz Hartmann

One of the greatest occultists, philosophers and physicians during the middle ages was Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombast of Hohenheim, better known by the name of Paracelsus.

He was born on November 26, in the year 1493, at Maria Einsiadeln, in Switzerland, and died on September 24, 1541, at Salzburg, in Austria, where his monument, a beautiful pyramid of white marble, containing in its interior a part of his skull, may still be seen at the church of St. Sebastian. It has the following inscription:

PHILIPPI THEOPHRASTI PARACELSI QUI TANTAM ORBIS

FAMAM ESE AURO CHYMICO ADEPTUS EST EFFIG IES ET OSSA

DONEC SURSUS CIRCUMDEBITUR PELLE SUA. — Jou. Cap. XIX.

Paracelsus obtained a world-wide reputation on account of the wonderful cures he performed by means of his spiritual power and his knowledge of nature; he has been very properly called the father of modern medicine, because he refuted the medical quackery of his times and introduced a rational system of curing diseases. He was a great alchemist and philosopher, conscious of his powers, and his device was:

“A Herius non sit qui suus esse potest.”

“Omne donum perfection a Deo, imperfectum a diubolo.”

No one ought to belong to another, if he can be his own.

Every perfect gift comes from God, that which is imperfect from the devil.

We will not occupy ourselves at present with a description of the life and travels of Paracelsus; this has been done on a previous occasion; but will attempt to give some extracts of his writings, consisting of over one hundred books and manuscripts on cosmology, anthropology, pneumatology, medicine, alchemy, philosophy, theosophy, magic and sorcery. ⁽¹⁾

~ * ~

Magic, according to Paracelsus, is not sorcery. Sorcery is the misuse of spiritual powers, such as are hidden within the constitution of man and generally only little developed and known; magic is the employment of such powers for some holy and beneficent purpose.

« There is as much difference between magic and sorcery as there is between light and darkness.  Therefore the use of magical powers for a good purpose is called practicing “white magic,” and their perverted use “black magic,” witchcraft and sorcery. The former is a divine, the latter a devilish art. »

These powers belong to the inner man, the “soul,” and become manifested through the external, physical man. To form a conception of the nature of these powers we must know the sevenfold constitution of man, which, according to Paracelsus, is as follows:

    1. (The divine spark).

    2. The man of the New Olympus (the spiritual body and soul)

    3. The flesh of Adam (the rational soul).

    4. The mumia (animal soul and its “magnetism”).

    5. The sidereal (and ethereal [astral]) body.

    6. The archaeus (the life principle).
    7. The material body (the physical, visible form).    .

In other words; there is the spiritual, the intellectual, the animal man, the spiritual, astral and physical body. They apparently all form the unity called “man,” nevertheless they differ from each other, each having its own qualities and state of development, while they are all pervaded by the one life principle, which has its origin in the Logos, the “Word.” ⁽²⁾

But the psychic powers belonging to the soul and the magical powers of the spirit are in the great majority of mankind still only little developed and known.

They are often exercised unconsciously so that the greatest sorcerer does not himself know by what means his feats are performed; because it is the inner man and not the external personality which uses these powers; the external man only gives his consent. The sorcerer is so to say possessed by a devil, this devil being actually his own inner self, acting through the outer man in conformity to his will.

Moreover, it is a known law of nature, that like associates with like, and if an evil will becomes active, it attracts to itself corresponding evil influences from the invisible realm, which go to assist the sorcerer in his nefarious work.

Paracelsus says:

« Men have two spirits in them, an animal and a human. A man who identifies himself with his animal spirit is in his soul-life an animal with animal instincts and desires.  If the animal spirit alone in him is active, he resembles an animal and may act like a wolf, a dog, a tiger, a snake, etc. The human spirit raises him above the animal state; but if he employs this higher principle for the purpose of serving the lower, he endows his animal soul with human intelligence and becomes an intellectual beast or what is called a devil. »

(De Lunaticis)

The powers which are called into action by the practice of magic are the will and the imagination. These may be aided by the use of ceremonies and prayers (ceremonial magic) and by the employment of the “mumia,” that is to say by some particular magnetism, inherent in some physical substance.

Imagination is the power which creates forms, the will endows them with life; ceremonies are used to give external expression to an internal action and substances, as vehicles for certain influences or vibrations are used for the purpose of transmitting the same. A benevolent imagination creates angelic forms of mental matter; an evil imagination causes the formation of monsters, of various kinds.

Here it may be remarked that it is not necessary that a man should himself imagine such forms; because the imagination of nature itself does the work. Good thoughts produce beautiful, evil thoughts evil forms; every thought creates a form corresponding to the character of the thought.

Such forms are visible to the clairvoyant sight and may become temporarily “materialized” by means of ceremonial magic and magnetic attraction (mumia), so that they will be visible and tangible on the physical plane.

Such thought forms being infused with life through the power of the will become for the time being apparently independent beings with an intelligence of their own and the power of individual action, by means of which they execute the commands of the sorcerer; but there is also a class of beings in the super sensual realm incapable of judgment and unreasoning. These beings may be subjected to one’s will by threats and conjurations: but they have no intelligence of their own.

All magical or spiritual power, whether it acts for good or for evil, has its origin in the spirit. It is through the power of the spiritual will that magic feats are performed. This power is called “faith.” The “will” of unspiritual man is only a wish or desire, a product of the intellectual action of his brain; the true will power comes from the heart.

Faith and imagination are the two pillars supporting the arch of the temple of magic. They act powerfully when they are one. Man has a visible and an invisible workshop; the visible one is his body, the invisible one his mind. His will is the creative power and his imagination the soil where forms germinate and become developed.

His imagination may be compared to the sunlight, which causes vegetation to grow. Visible and tangible forms come into existence from the invisible elements contained within air, water and earth, and likewise ethereal images and forms grow from the invisible elements of the ether by the power of man’s thought and imagination.

The great world, wherein we live, is a product of the magic power of the universal mind, our own subjective world with its thought forms which fill its sphere, is the product of the magic power of the same mind acting within our own constitution and being subjected to our own individual will.

In most people the light of imagination is only feeble and the forms created by it are like shadows; but if the imagination becomes exalted to a high degree by the power of faith, it becomes like the sun or a fire, lighting up the deepest recesses of our interior world and the forms created by it become real and living creatures. ⁽³⁾

To Paracelsus that which is to-day called “hypnotism” and ”suggestion” was well known, as well as other acquisitions of modem science, such as thought-transference (telepathy) and other practices of magic, which were for centuries after him looked upon as superstitions.

He says:

« Spirits speak with each other by spiritual means and not by audible speech. While the body of a person is sleeping, his (astral) Soul may go to a distant place and act there in an intelligent way.

One man may communicate his thoughts to another person, with whom he is in sympathy, at any distance, no matter how far away, or he may act upon the spirit of another while that person is asleep in such a way as to make him perform orders communicated to him during that sleep after he awakens. In this way a great deal of injury may be done to a person and upon this law of nature is based the possibility of witchcraft and sorcery. ⁽⁴⁾

However, we shall not act like the heathen of whom it is said that if they cannot persuade a man to do their bidding, they conjure him while his body is asleep and cause him to act against his own will and his own nature. Woe to all who use such contemptible means; their doings will rest heavily upon their souls at the ultimate end and fill them with misery and despair. »

(De conjurationibus)

Nothing can be accomplished without that internal conviction of success, which is called “faith.” If a loaf of bread were laid on a table before a hungry man, and the man did not believe that he could take it, he would starve to death in spite of the loaf. It is the faith which gives power. Through the power of faith we realize that we are spirits ourselves and become able to use spiritual power.

Faith renders the spirit strong, doubt hinders or destroys the work. Faith requires no proof; it is spiritual knowledge, and that which we recognize and know to be true, does not need to be proved. He who asks for proofs departs from faith. The good as well as the evilly disposed can only be strong through faith; it is a power which may be used for good or for evil purposes. ⁽⁵⁾

Faith is not a mere belief or credence; it is a spiritual power, and like any other power or force cannot be known unless a man is himself conscious of its possession. No one can know what love, justice, modesty are, if he does not possess them.

Faith is the power by which one may cure diseases even at a distance, and it is also the cause of witchcraft and sorcery, by means of which one person may injure another without running much risk of discovery; because he may kill or injure his enemy without going near him and that person cannot defend himself as he might, if he were attacked by a visible foe.

« Thus it has often happened that nails, hair, needles, bristles, pieces of glass, and many other things (even living snakes) have been cut or polled out of different parts of the bodies of patients from under the skin and were followed by other things of a similar character, and such a state of affairs has continued for months, while the physicians stood there unable to help and not knowing what to do, because they knew nothing about the magic power of witchcraft and sorcery.

Nevertheless there is nothing supernatural about it. We may put our hand holding a stone into a basin of water. We deposit the stone in the water and take our hand out. There will be no hole left in the water and nevertheless the stone is within. In a similar way some evil spirit may pass some material object through solid matter or put rags, nails or other objects into a man’s body, without making a hole in his skin. »

(De Sagis et earum operibus) ⁽⁶⁾

A strong will subdues a weaker one and therefore weak-minded persons can easily be influenced by others having more self-reliance and a stronger will, and thus they can be made to do things against their own reason.

These are cases of obsession, whether the obsessing influence comes from a living person or from an inhabitant of the astral plane; they constitute feats of black magic and are very injurious to the subject and even more so to the performer in the end.  Such obsessions may also take place while a person is asleep, so that after awakening he will perform actions which he has been ordered to perform during his sleep, and which he would not have performed if left in possession of his own free will.

« You have a visible and material body; but there is another man with an invisible, ethereal (astral) body within yon and that inner man is yourself too. Each act performed by your external body is performed and caused by the invisible man; the one acts in a visible, the other in an invisible manner. If an injury is inflicted upon the invisible man, it will be reproduced on his visible body. » ⁽⁷⁾

In the same way as thoughts can be transmitted from one person to another one at a distance, so also the magic power of the imagination may be made to act upon an absent person, be it for good or for evil, and the imagination may be aided and rendered more powerful by using certain external means, such as pictures or images of the person upon whom it is desired to act.

Thus, for instance, the witches and sorcerers use images of clay or wax of the persons whom they wish to injure, and the evil thoughts directed upon these images take effect upon the persons represented thereby, provided the imagination of the sorcerer is strong enough and the receiver a weak-minded person. ⁽⁸⁾

In regard to ceremonies and ceremonial magic Paracelsus says:

« Our faith ought to be put in God and not in ceremonies and images or prayers; because all power comes only from God and not from the image or prayer, or from the person through whom the divine power may act.

If you believe that St. James or St. Peter can cure you, your belief is a mere superstition. Nevertheless your faith may cure you; but it is neither St. James nor St. Peter, but your own faith which cured you, and if you had put your faith in God you would have been cured just the same and received the Kingdom of God in addition.

Everything returns to its first origin, from which it was born; if you put your faith in a perishable object, it will perish with it. If your prayer is blessed by God, it will be your blessing; if not, it will be a merely superstitious action, if not a blasphemy; for even the Paternoster is poison in the heart of the evil doer and his eternal death, while within the heart of the just it leads to eternal life.

All real strength comes from God. If a soldier’s courage in battle has not this origin, he will be the first one to run away. ⁽⁹⁾  No matter how saintly a person may be, he can accomplish nothing by his own power, because all spiritual power comes from God.

It is said that pictures, ceremonies and religious plays are made in memory of the New Testament, but the New Testament is not a dead thing of the past, but still living.  Such things may be amusing, but the Holy Ghost is not in them; He does not enter into man through the worship of sensual things but through the heart, and we must seek and approach him by means of the true spirit of prayer, by faith and contemplation. »

(De Suggestitionibus)

« All things were in the beginning made by God and consecrated by Him, and therefore all things are holy and need not be consecrated by man.

Such consecrations of localities, cross-roads, circles for conjurations, swords, clothes, candles, water, oil, fumigations, writings, books, pentacles, crowns, belts, rings, etc., and whatever the necromancers make and use for protection against the spirits, as if they could not be overcome otherwise, may well be dispensed with; because our power rests in our faith in God, and not in ceremonies and conjurations.

But the consecration of the sacraments, especially of baptism, marriage and of the body and blood of Christ upon the altar, ought to be held in high esteem until the day when we all shall be perfectly sanctified and clothed with a celestial body. »

(De consecrationibus)

« Although by means of conjurations of spirits certain things may be accomplished, nevertheless nothing good can be obtained thereby; they are against divine law and ought to be prohibited. »

(De conjurationibus)

There is no difficulty in causing evil spirits to come; they answer our thoughts and come without being called. Far more important it is to protect ourselves against their intrusion, and this may be done by the power of faith, which surrounds the faithful like an impenetrable coat of mail.

« There are, however, certain words and signs in use for the purpose of affording protection against evil spirits and of such signs one is the double interlaced triangle and another, still more powerful, one is the pentagon with the five syllables of the holy name of God Tetragrammaton inscribed within the five comers. By the use of these signs a person obsessed by an evil spirit or bewitched in some way may have the evil influence expelled and be cured.

The sign may also be made upon a piece of bread or cake and given to the obsessed person to eat. All evil spirits and also those who live in the four elements are in fear of these signs, which are exceedingly powerful and useful during diseases caused by magical spells; but they ought never to be misused. »

(De characteribus)

« There are many ills, having their origin in the misuse of magic power, and which can only be cured by corresponding magical means. It may for instance, happen that upon a man’s body boils, stripes and blue spots appear, as if he had been beaten all over with a stick, and if such things have not been due to some physical cause, they may be supposed to have been caused by some person using black magic. ⁽¹⁰⁾

And there are also diseases caused as a punishment from God, ⁽¹¹⁾ which no physician can cure. There are certain things which a physician ought to know no taught in the high schools, but nevertheless true. »

Sorcerers and witches use for their nefarious practices the "mumia,” which means the "magnetic” or “odic” influences, inhering in certain substances or emanating from living persons or animals, or from dead bodies.

These etheric emanations contain some of the life principle and character of the things from which they come, as may be seen by a “mesmerize” transferring some of his vitality to his subject. These emanations are invisible, but nevertheless something substantial and semi-material, and vehicles for forces which may produce good or evil effects.

Paracelsus writes:

« In the mumia is contained great power and great cures have been performed by its use, although they are little understood by the vulgar; because they are the results of the action of invisible things, and that which is invisible is beyond the comprehension of such ignorant persons. As the odour of a lily emanates from the flower and Alls the surrounding air, so the vital force emanates from the invisible (astral) body through the visible form.

The mumia, being the vehicle of vitality is invisible; nevertheless it is an ethereal substance, containing the essence of life and its currents can be guided by the will and thought of the operator and be made to act upon other forms, to which they impart their own qualities.

Thus the “mumia” of the plague carries its contagion and by infection causes epidemic diseases; the sun, the moon and each star has its emanations, those of the sun give life, while those of the moon are injurious and therefore the astral influences of the moon are used by witches for the purpose of practicing sorcery. The mumia may be transferred from one person to another, it is the vehicle of vitality and the true elixir of life. »

(De origine morb invisib)

On the magnetic power of the mumia rests the efficacy of charms, sympathetic cures, the occult influences of precious stones, plants, relics, etc. Thus, for instance, metals and stones may be used for vehicles and accumulators of astrological influences.

 There is one law of universal harmony, according to which there is a relationship existing between spiritual, ethereal and physical substances; like associates with like, and the higher vibrations acting upon the lower ones, strengthen and increase their activity.

Man is a little world in which all the essences and powers of the universe are represented. His physical body is his "earth,” composed of the four elements, his sidereal body is his ethereal realm, his mind is his heaven, his spirit from God, and all the powers existing within the universe correspond with, nourish and act upon the principles contained within man's little world.

His body receives his nutriment from the products of the material plane; his sidereal body is formed and developed by the influence of the stars, his mind receives its nutriment from the realm of ideas, his spirit obtains its divine life from God, the origin of all power and life, and if we learn to know all the virtues contained within the great storehouse of nature, we shall be enabled to make use of them for our welfare.

« But whatever virtues suns and planets, stones, plants or any other thing may manifest, all these powers come from God ; the planets, stones and herbs are only the vehicles of the one essentially divine life in the universe called into existence by the divine Word of God (the universal soul), the cause of all life and all power.

Nature creates nothing herself; she is only the workshop in which the power of the one life-principle becomes manifested according to the conditions existing within her productions. Principles and virtues are eternal and uncreated, and if man possesses any virtue or power, it cannot be said that he has created it, but that it has become developed and manifested in him. »

(De vet a influentia rerum)

« There is only one divine wisdom, and as all the millions of human beings are only parts of the one universal humanity, likewise human wisdom is only one, but it manifests itself in mankind in many different ways, giving rise to different sciences and arts according to the capacity of the instrument for its manifestation.

Therefore we find two different degrees of wisdom in man, the wisdom belonging to the man of this world, “the son of man,” whose wisdom is imperfect, and the divine wisdom and light of God, manifested in the truly wise, who by this spiritual illumination has become a “son of God” and obtained the conscious realization of his divine state and immortal being.

The kingdoms of this world perish, the laws made by man are not enduring, men hate and fight each other and bring misery into the world, owing to their non-recognition of eternal truth; but God wills that we should become useful instruments for his divine wisdom. If the will of God were to be done on earth, our earth would be like heaven and we should be like the angels.

But how can a fool or a man without knowledge be godlike or live according to the will of God or be like an angel?

God has not sent us into the world in order that we should remain stupid or ignorant of his laws and the relation of things in nature; but that we should become wise and intelligent, so that his wisdom may become manifested by us. Man has two kinds of reason, animal and angelic intelligence.

The animal mind too is from God, but it is not immortal. The body dies and the animal intellect ceases to act; but not the angelic mind. Only the animal dies, but not that which is eternal.  Man has an animal body but he is not of animal origin.  He lives in his animal body, but he has an eternal father, and in him his mind and consciousness ought to dwell. »

(De Fundamento Sapientia)

(The Occult Review, November 1910, p.273-282, the complete title of the article is "Theophrastus Paracelsus, a study of his views on magic and sorcery", and you can download the facsimile here.)

Notes

1. F. Hartmann, The Life of Paracelsus and the Substance of his Teachings, Kegan Paul, London, 1896.
2. John (1:1).
3. De virtute imaginativa.
4. Philosophia occulta.
5. De morbis invisib.
6. Phenomena of this kind seem to occur only rarely at present; but they happened very often during the middle ages and even as late as 1850. Gorres, in his Christlike Mystic, and Ch. Bloomhardt give many well authenticated accounts of such cases.
7. This explains why, for instance, a hypnotized person, having his skin touched by a cold piece of wood, may have a bum produced upon his body if he is made to believe that he is touched by a hot iron. His imagination produces a bum upon his astral body and this becomes reproduced on the physical form.
8. Nowadays photographs might be found more convenient; but fortunately there are not many people having the necessary powerful imagination.
9. This means that his courage must come from God through his own higher impersonal consciousness, be it called patriotism, sense of duty or otherwise.
10. Philosophia occulta. Of the misuse of magic.
11. The law of Karma. Diseases incurred by, caused, created in some preceding incarnation.