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THE
MAGICAL WRITINGS OF THOMAS WAUGHAN
(EUGENIUS PHILAZETHES).
THE MAGICAL WRITINGS
OF
THOMAS VAUGHAN
(EUGENIUS PA/LAZAZTHES)
A VERBATIM REPRINT OF HIS FIRST FOUR TREATISES: ANTHROPOSOPHIA
THEOMAGICA, ANIMA MAGICA ABSCONDITA, MAGIA ADAMICA,
AND THE TRUE COELUM TERRAE
WITH THE LATIN PASSAGES TRAAWSLA TED INTO
ENGLISH, AND WITH A BIOGRAPHICAL PREFACE AND ESSAY ON THE
ASOTERIC LITERATURE OF WESTERN CARISTENDOM
BY
ARTHUR EDWARD WAITE
AUTHOR of “LIVEs of ALCHEMYSTICAL PHILOSOPHERs; ” “THE REAL HIStory of the
RosicRUCIANs;” “THE MYSTERIES of MAGIC,” etc.
L O N DO N
GEORGE REDWAY, YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN.
I 888
**
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y
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.
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t
*
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C O N T E N T S.
BIOGRAPHICAL PREFACE . e º & º º e e
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY ON THE ESOTERIC LITERATURE OF
THE MIDDLE AGES, AND ON THE UNDERLYING PRIN-
CIPLES OF THEURGIC ART AND PRACTICE IN WESTERN
CHRISTENDOM e º º & tº -> º
ANTHROPOSOPHIA THEOMAGICA º º º e
ANIMA MAGICA ABSCONDITA . e - º º
MAGIA ADAMICA, OR THE ANTIQUITIE OF MAGIC e
A PERFECT AND FULL DISCOVERIE OF THE TRUE COELUM
TERRAE, OR THE MAGICIAN’s HEAVENLY CHAOS, AND
FIRST MATTER OF ALL THINGS º e º e e
NOTES . º e e
INDEX . e
23 O.808
PAGE
xvii
4. I
77
I24.
I 55
163
BIOGRAPHICAL PREFACE.
E long confusion of Eugenius Philalethes
—otherwise Thomas Vaughan—with the
anonymous cosmopolite adept, Eirenaeus
Philalethes, who is said to have accom-
plished the Magnum Opus at the age of
twenty-two, and to have subsequently wan-
dered over a large portion of the habitable
globe, performing astounding transmuta-
tions under various names and disguises,
i has cast so much doubt upon the history
and identity of the Welsh initiate, that it will be best to present
the reader with certain verbatim citations from the chief authority
cqncerning him, which is the Athenae of Anthony à Wood.
“Thomas Vaughan, who stiles himself in all or most of his writings
which he published, Eugenius Philalethes, was the son of Thomas
Vaughan of Llansomfreid, but born at Newton, in the parish of S.
Bidget, near Brecknock in Brecknockshire, an. 1621, educated in
gammar learning under one Matthew Herbert, entred in Jesus
Coll. in Mich. term, 1638, and was put under the tuition of
a noted tutor; by whose lectures profiting much, he took one
degree in arts, was made fellow of the said house, and afterwards
tiking holy orders from Dr Manwaring, bishop of St. David's, had
about that time the rectory of S. Bridget before-mentioned conferred
º him by his kinsman Sir George Vaughan. But the unsetled-
less of the time hindring him a quiet possession of the place, he
eft it, retired to Oxon, and in a sedate repose prosecuted his
medicinal geny (in a manner natural to him), and at length became
Éminent in the chymical part thereof at Oxon, and afterwards at
London under the protection and patronage of that noted chymist,
Sir Rob. Murrey or Moray, knight, secretary of state for the
kingdom of Scotland. . . . He was a great chymist, a noted son of
the fire, an experimental philosopher, a zealous brother of the Rosie-

viii BIOGRAPHICAL PREFACE,
Crucian fraternity,” an understander of some of the Oriental lan-
guages, and a tolerable good English and Latin poet. He was neither
papist nor sectary, but a true, resolute protestant in the best sense of
the Church of England. . . . He did accompany Sir Rob. Murrey
before-mentioned to Oxon, at what time the great plague at London
drove their majesties and their respective courts to that place, where
he continued for a time. Soon after taking up his quarters in the
house of Sam Kem, rector of Albury, near to Thame and Ricot in
Oxfordshire, [he] died there as it were suddenly, when he was
operating strong mercury, some of which by chance getting up into
his nose, killed him,'t on the 27th of Feb. in sixteen hundred sixty
and five, and was buried on the first of March following in the
church belonging to the said village of Albury alias Oldbury (abºut
8 miles distant from Oxon), by the care and charge of the said Sir
Robert Murrey.”f &
The history of Brecknockshire, written by Theophilus Jonesin
the year 1809, speaks of a farm-house at Newton which was once of
some celebrity, being “occupied by two brothers of the namelof
Vaughan, of very eccentric characters,” but for the facts in the Îfe
of Eugenius, this work is mainly indebted to Wood. It enumerats,
however, the alleged reasons for the expulsion of Thomas Vaughin
from his ecclesiastical position. “He was ousted by the propa-
gators of the gospel in Wales, for drunkenness, swearing, inconth-
ency, and carrying arms for the king.” $
This information, together with a few scraps which may be º:
from Elias Ashmole, has been the sum total of our knowledge Col-
cerning the Welsh Royalist, who is now counted among the first ºf
British mystics and Hermetic adepts. After much research, I an
fortunately able to supplement it from an unexpected quarter. I
have discovered a genuine autograph manuscript, which bears on it.
fly leaf the inscription, “Ax Züris Thomas et Rebecca Vaughan,
1651, Sept. 28. Quos Deus conjunziº guis separabit?” It is entitlel
“Aqua VITA: NoN VITIs, or the Radical Humiditie of Natur:
Mechanically and Magically Dissected by the conduct of Fi

* This statement is twice expressly contradicted by Vaughan himself, who sa
in his Preface to the “Fame and Confession of the Fraternity of R. C.”: “A
for that Fraternity, whose History and Confession I have here adventured t
publish, I have, for my own part, no relation to them, neither do I much desir
their acquaintance.” And again, “I have no acquaintance with this Fraternity
as to their persons.”
+ So Mr Harris of Jesus Coll. Wood, MS. note in Ashmole.
† Athenæ Oxoniens., Ed. Philip Bliss, 4to, 1817, iii. 722.
§ “History of the County of Brecknock,” ii. pt. ii. p. 540.
BIOGRAPHICAL PREFACE. ix
and Ferment;” but it is not a consecutive treatise. It is an oc-
casional diary, and a note book of personal experiments in several
classes of mystic physics. The diurnal memoranda are in English,
and the thaumaturgic recipes in Latin somewhat hard to understand.
The latter, being sufficiently numerous to form a small volume, and
presenting many obvious difficulties of interpretation, are necessarily
withheld for the present, but the fragmentary memorials are suffi-
ciently curious to demand their entire transcription, and I shall give
them as far as possible in their chronological order, without any
further preface. The manuscript is ostensibly written on one side
of the paper only, but the reverse pages are covered with notes,
additions, and with the memoranda which I am about to reproduce.
MEMORIAE SACRUM.
On the same day my dear wife sickened, being a Friday, and at
the same time of the day, namely in the evening, my gracious God
did put into my heart the Secret of extracting the oyle of Halcali,
which I had once accidentally found att the Pinner of Wakefield, in
the dayes of my most deare wife. But it was again taken from mee
by a most wonderfull judgment of God, for I could never remember
how I did it, but made a hundred attempts in vain. And now my
glorious God (whose name bee praysed for ever) hath brought it again
into my mind, and on the same day my dear wife sickened; and on
the Saturday following, which was the day shee dyed on, I extracted
it by the former practice: soe that on the same dayes, which proved
the most sorrowfull to mee, whatever can bee: God was pleased
to conferre upon meeye greatest joy I can ever have in this world,
after her death. -
The Lord giveth, and the Lord taketh away: blessed bee the
name of the Lord. Amen I T. R. V.
N. B.-N. B.-N. B.
When my dear wife and I lived at the Pinner of Wakefield, I
remember I melted doune aequall 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 praepared 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
Az's Zntellectiva, 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 ZXaus conjunziº guis separaółł?
1658.
[This happened on a Sunday night, towards the Day-break, and
indeed I think, it was morning light.]
On the 13th of June I dreamed that one appeared to mee, and
purged herself from the scandalous contents of certaine letters, which
were put into my hands by a certaine false friend. Then shee told
mee, that her father had informed her, that shee should dye againe
about a Quarter of a yeare from that time shee appeared to mee:
which is just the 14th of September next, and on the 28th of the
same month wee were married. It may bee, my mercifull God hath
given mee this notice of the Time of my dissolution by one that is
soe deare unto mee, whose person representing mine, signified my
death, not hers, for shee can dye no more. Great is the love and
goodness of my God, and most happy shall I bee in this Interpreta-
tion, if I may meete her againe so soone, and begin the Heavenly
and Æternall life with her, in the very same month, wherein wee
began the earthly: which I beseech my good God to grant us for
his Deare Son, and our Saviour's sake, Christ Jesus. Amen
[Written on the 14th of June, the day after I dreamed it. 1658.]
N.B. —N.B.-N.B. 1658.
On Friday the 18th of July, I myself sickened at Wapping, and
that night I dream’d, I was pursued by a stone horse, as my dear
wife dream'd before shee sickened, and I was grievously troubled all
night with a suffocation at the heart, which continued all next day
BIOGRAPHICAL PREFACE. xi
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
My most deare wife sickened on Friday in the Evening, being the
I6th of April, and dyed the Saturday following in the Evening, being
the I7. And was buried on ye 26th of the same month, being a
Monday in the afternoone, at Mappersall in Bedfordshire. 1658.
Wee were married in the yeare 1651, by a minister whose name I
have forgott, on ye 28 of September.
God of his infinite, and sure mercies in Christ Jesus, bring
us together againe in Heaven, whither shee is gone before mee, and
with her my heart, and my faith not to bee broken, and this thou
knowest, oh my God! Amen
Meft at Mrs Highgate's.
I. One flatt Trunk of my deare wife's, with her mayden name
upon it.
2. Another Cabinet Trunk of my deare wife's, in which is her
Small rock and Bible, and her mayden Bible I have by mee.
3. One grate wodden Box of my deare wife's, in which is all her
best Apparell, and in that is her grate Bible, with her practice
of pietie, and her other Bookes of Devotion.
4. Another wooden Box with pillowes in it, and a sweet Basket
of my deare wife’s. -
5. One large Trunk of my deare wife's, with my name upon it, in
which are the silver spoons. And in the Drawers are two small
Boxes, one with a lock of my deare wife's hayre, made up with her
Own Hands; and another with severall small Locks in it.
6. One pare of grate Irons with Brass-Knobs, and a single pare
with Brass-Knobs, a fire-shovell, Tongs, and Bellowes; my deare
wife's little chaire, a round Table, Joynt stoole, and Close stoole, with
xii BIOGRAPHICAL PREFACE.
a great glass full of eye-water, made at the Pinner of Wakefield, by
my deare wife, and my sister Vaughan, who are both now with God.
To the end we might live well, and exercise our charitie, which
was wanting in neither of us, to our power: I employed my self all
her life time in the Acquisition of some naturall secrets, to which I
had been disposed from my youth up ; and what I now write, and
know of them practically, I attained to in her Dayes, not before in
very truth, nor after : but during the time wee lived together at the
Pinner of Wakefield, and though I brought them not to perfection
in those deare Dayes, yet were the Gates opened to mee then, and
what I have done since, is but the effect of those principles. I
found them not by my owne witt, or labour, but by God's blessing,
and the Incouragement I received from a most loving, obedient wife,
whom I beseech God to reward in Heaven, for all the Happiness
and Content shee afforded mee. I shall lay them down here in
their order, protesting earnestly, and with a good Conscience, that
they are the very truth, and here I leave them for his use and
Benefit, to whom God in his providence shall direct them. -
On the 28th of August, being Saturday morning, after daylight,
God Almightie was pleased to reveale unto mee, after a wonderful
manner, the most blessed estate of my deare wife, partly by her self,
and partly by his own Holy Spirit, in an express disclosure, which
opened unto mee the meaning of those mysterious words of S. Paul:
“For wee know, that if our Earthly house of this Tabernacle, &c.”
Bless the Lord, O my soul! and all that is within mee, bless his
holy name ! -- T. R. V.
- Quos ZXeus conjunziº, guis separabi: ;
1658.
The Dreame I writt on the foregoing page, is not to beeneglected:
for my deare wife a few nights before, appeared to mee in my Sleepe,
and foretold mee the Death of my deare Father, and since it is really
come to passe, for hee is dead, and gone to my mercifull God, as I
have been informed by letters come to my hand from the countrey.
It concerns mee therefore to praepare my self, and to make a right
use of this warning, which I received from my mercifull and most
loving God, who useth not to deale such mercies to all men ; and
who was pleased to impart it to mee by my deare wife, to assure
mee shee was a Saint in his Holy Heavens, being thus imployed for
an Angell, and a messenger of the God of my salvation. To him,
bee all prayse and glorie ascribed in Jesus Christ for ever ! Amen
T. R. V.
BIOGRAPHICAL PREFACE. xiii
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
1659. April 8th. Die “P.
In the evening I was surprised with a suddaine Heaviness of
spirit, but without any manifest cause whatsoever: but, I thank
God, a great tenderness of Heart came along with it: soe that I
prayed most earnestly with abundance of teares, and sorrow for
Sinn. I fervently sollicited my gratious God for pardon to my self
and my most deare wife : and besought Him to bring us together
againe in his Heavenly Kingdom, and that hee would shew mee his
mercie, and answer my prayers by Such means, and in such a way as
might quicken my spirit, that I might serve him cheerfully, and with
Joy prayse his name. ;
I went that night to bed after earnest prayers, and teares, and to-
wards the Day-Breake, or just upon it, I had this following dreame.
I thought, that I was againe newly married to my deare wife, and
brought her along with mee to shew her to some of my friends, which
I did in these words. Heere is a wife, which I have not chosen of
my self, but my father did choose her for mee,” and asked mee if I
would not marry her, for shee was a beautifull wife. Hee had no
sooner shewed her to mee, but I was extremely in love with her, and
I married her presently. When I had thus sayd, I thought, wee
were both left alone, and calling her to me, I tooke her into my
Armes, and shee presently embraced mee, and kissed mee: nor had I
* This was not true of our temporall marriage, nor of our naturall parents, and
therefore it signifies some greater mercie.
xiv BIOGRAPHICAL PREFACE.
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
April the 9th. Die b. 1659.
I went to Bed after prayers and hearty teares, and had this Dreame
towards Day-Breake. I dreamed I was in some obscure, large House,
where there was a tumultuous, rageing people, amongst whom I knew
not any but my brother H. My deare wife was there with mee, but
having conceived some discomfort at their disorder, I quitted the
place, and went out leaving my deare wife behind mee. As I went
out, I consydered with my self, and called to mind some small, at
least seeming, unkindnesses I had used towards my deare wife in her
life-time, and the remembrance of them being odious to mee, I
wondred with my self, that I should leave her behind mee and
neglect her companie, having now the opportunitie to converse with
her after death. These were my Thoughts, whereupon I turned in,
and taking her along with mee, there followed us a certaine person,
with whom I had in former times revelled away many yeares in drink-
ing. I had in my hand a very long cane, and at last wee came to
a churchyard, and it was the Brightest Day-light, that ever I
beheld: when wee were about the middle of the churchyard,
I struck upon the ground with my cane at the full length,
and it gave a most shrill reverberating eccho. I turned back to
look upon my wife, and shee appeared to mee in green silk downe
to the ground, and much taller, and slenderer then shee was in her
life-time, but in her face there was so much glorie, and beautie, that
noe Angell in Heaven can have more. Shee told mee the noyse of
the cane had frighted her a little, but saying Soe, shee smiled upon
mee and looked most divinely. Upon this I looked up to Heaven,
and having quite forgot my first Apprehension, which was true,
namely that she appeared thus to me after her Death, I was much
troubled in mind lest I should dye before her, and this I feared
upon a spirituall Accompt, least after my death shee might bee
tempted to doe amiss, and to live otherwise than shee did at present.
While I was thus troubled, the cane that was in my hand suddainly
broke, and when it was broken, it appeared noe more like a cane,
but was a brittle, weake reede. This did put mee in mind of her
death againe, and Soe did put mee out of my feare, and the Doubts
I conceived, if I dyed before her. When the Reede was broken,
BIOGRAPHICAL PREFACE. { XV
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
April the 16th, at night. I659.
I dreamed that a flame of a whitish colour should breake out at
the toes of my left foot, and this was told mee in my dreame by a
strange person, and of a dark countenance. It is to bee noted, that
this was the very night, on which my deare wife died, 1658: it being
a Saturday night, and but one short of the number, or true Accompt.
It may bee the disease that shall occasion my death, was shewed
mee on the night wherein shee dyed, for true it is, that in my left
foote there is now a dangerous humor fallen down, and lodgeth
under my very heel, and upon the lifting of my leg upward, it
paineth mee strangely. It fell first into my knee, and what it may
come to, I know not, unless it will end in a gout: but it first of all
troubled mee in the sinews, and caused a contracture of them, and
then I had a dull paine, and still have in the uppermost joynt of the
Thigh. T. R. V.
Many years ago, at Paddington, before my distemper in the Liver
seized mee, there appeared to meetwice in the same night in two
severall dreames, a young, strange person, not unlike to him, who
appeared in a strange manner to mee at Edmond Hall in Oxford.
His countenance was dark, and I believe it is the Evill Genius, but
in this last dreame, I saw him not soe clearly, my life, I bless God for
it, being much amended. The evill hee soe gladly signifies to mee,
frights mee not, for I am ready for Death, and with all my heart
shall I welloome it, for I desyre to bee dissolved, and to bee with
Christ, which is farr better for mee, than to live, and sinn in this
sinnfull Body. T. R. V. 1659. -
God is. T. R. V. Amen and Amen
xvi. - BIOGRAPHICAL PREFACE,
These private memoranda constitute a touching testimony to the
tenderness and humanity of their writer, and, as a mystic, are con-
clusive proof of his sincerity. They establish the fact of his mar-
riage with a lady whose genealogy is unknown; they bear evidence
of his profound religious conviction and of the intensity of his
devotional fervour; they, moreover, enable us to reconcile the
manner of his death, as related by Ashmole and Wood, with the
declamations contained in his books against the merely physical side
of alchemy. We are no longer perplexed by inquiring how an adept
in the spiritual side of the Magnum Opus came to meet his death
through an experiment in common chemistry. He confesses in
these memoranda that he had recourse to the inferior science with
the hope of increasing his means in order to extend his charities,
and he claims the success which appears to have been deserved by
his motives from the standpoint of poetical justice. It is improbable
that future researches will elicit further facts in the life of this
interesting mystic, but I think I am right in affirming that the
fragments which I have fortunately recovered bring us nearer to the
man than any writings of the professed magician, and that our
estimation of his character must increase in proportion to the
proximity of our view.
I need only add that in this edition of some of his most celebrated
treatises a number of long Latin extracts have been translated into
English, and that in so doing I have followed his own method when
he has given an English version of his recondite citations—that is
to say, I have attempted, where necessary, an illustrative and inter-
pretative translation, to elucidate as much as possible the ambiguous
meaning of ultra-mystic writers.
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY
ON THE ESOTERIC LITERATURE OF THE MIDDLE AGES, AND ON THE
TJNIDERLYING PRINCIPLES OF THEURGIC ART AND
PRACTICE IN WESTERN CHRISTENDOM.
E magical writings of Thomas Vaughan
constitute an explanatory prolegomena
not only to the general history of prac-
tical transcendentalism, and to the philo-
sophy of transcendental art, from the
standpoint of a Christian initiate, but
they are specially directed to the inter-
pretation of alchemical symbolism; they
claim to provide the intelligent reader with
a substantially fresh revelation of that mys-
terious First Matter of the Magnum Opus which endows those
who know it, and can avail themselves of its manifold potencies,
with a full and perfect power for the successful conduct of all classes
of theurgic experiment. Adopting the terminology of Hermetic
adepts, Thomas Vaughan enlarges the theoretical scope of alchemi-
cal processes, and delineates the spiritual evolution of humanity,
completely and scornfully rejecting the merely mineral work, and
claiming for the true hierophants of mystic science a personal in-
terest and participation in the whole creative opus. In offering for
the first time to the modern student of ancient mysteries a reprint of
these curious and really important treatises, it seems needful to
attempt a plain statement of the reasons which have led to their re-
production, and of the exact nature of the interest which now
attaches to them. The vast literature of ancient occultism has till
recently possessed little but an archaeological interest, of a naturally
relative kind, as the remains of discredited high thinking in past
ages, and a certain bibliographical value, on account of the extreme
rarity of all esoteric works. This interest and this value would be
an insufficient warrant for their revival in an era of positive science
&

xviii INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.
or in the absence of any message of vital import to this veridic age,
and, therefore, on philosophical, as well as practical and, I may add,
commercial grounds, they would have remained archaeological monu-
ments and book-lovers' treasures alone. But the sudden revival of
psychic research amongst us, and certain discoveries made in the
psychic world, of which many are now well known, and others re-
main in abscondito, have placed the position of old mystics in an
utterly different light, and have created a presumptive probability
that prior claimants have also a right to be heard, and that the con-
ductors of early psychic experiments in ages of single purposemay have
advanced beyond ourselves, and may be qualified for our teachers
and guides. Here are the broad d priori grounds for the revived
interest in the entire circle of esoteric literature. But when the whole
faculty of an impartial and sympathetic mind, Cognisant already
of those ascertained facts to which I have just alluded, is brought to
the adequate study of “the philosophers,” as they were collectively
termed, this general interest is speedily merged in a far more absorb-
ing feeling, for we find ourselves in the presence of a titanic claim,
advanced in a number of cases by intellectual giants and joined to
a height of aspiration, a wealth of spiritual suggestiveness, a cosmic
breadth of view, and a degree of apparent personal sanctity, which
are sufficient to profoundly impress the most unemotional minds,
while vistas of vast possibilities unveil to the prepared imagination
at the magic word of the hierophants. Here are the more particular
grounds for the new interest in ancient esoteric literature, and here
once more the accepted facts of modern psychology are presumptive
evidence for the truth of these claims, and evidence, moreover, which
is, in my opinion, sufficiently strong not only to warrant their ex-
haustive and practical investigation on the lines of the mystics, but
to make investigation imperative with those who, like myself, are
unconditionally devoted to the progress of psychic science. To
place within the reach of like-minded students the works of an
acknowledged adept, which are otherwise almost introuvable, and
thereby to set new sympathetic investigators on the track of the
grand mysteries, is the raison d'être of this reprint. It is due to the
work of the modern theosophists to state that they were substantially
the first to draw attention to the connecting link between the psychic
phenomena of to-day and the ancient thaumaturgy, and the second
spring of magic and of magian thought in England is directly owing
to their influence.
Having paid this just tribute, it becomes necessary to explain the
nature of the psychic facts to which I have several times alluded, as
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. xix
much to prevent misconception as for the use of inquirers at the
early stages of their progress.
The ascertained facts which I consider, in common with numerous
qualified persons, to be presumptive evidence for the truth of the
magical claim, taken broadly in its totality, are quite independent of
any mystical theory, are not confined to any special circle of esoteric
students, and are wholly unconnected with the results which may or
may not have been attained by such colleges of oriental adepts as
theosophists proclaim to exist among the politically unapproachable
fastnesses of the Thibetan highlands. I speak with all deference of
an opinion which is held by several intellectual persons, and with
due appreciation of such evidence as exists on the subject; I an
personally quite uncommitted to any opinion in the matter, except
on the d priori ground of magical possibility. The psychic facts in
question may be verified by any intelligent person who is possessed
of Sufficient perseverance, and is capable of appreciating the issues
which are at stake in such a manner as to conduct his researches
with a view to those issues. They are concerned with the higher
classes of hypnotic phenomena, with ecstatic and trance clairvoyance,
with thought-transference, the transcorporeal action of mind upon
matter, and with such phenomena of modern spiritualism as un-
biassed inquirers agree to be well substantiated. These facts offer a
rational basis for the belief in another form of subsistence than that
of the physical life of man on earth, and naturally terminate the age
of spiritual faith in the first auroral light of an age of spiritual know-
ledge, revealing for the first time, openly and to all mankind, that it
is possible, even in earthly life, to enter into another form of per-
ception and to establish communication with planes of intelligent
existence which are normally beyond our range. -
This communication at present is exceedingly hampered, and the
progress, which has at best been slow, seems at the present moment
to be almost completely arrested, partly owing to the insincerity of
experiment, which is attempted on the lowest planes of physical sub-
sistence, with coarse, degraded, and sometimes diseased instruments,
yet is concerned with the spiritual altitudes, while the ignorance of
a proper method of procedure—the “true process” of alchemical
allegory—creates another and apparently insurmountable barrier. In
this difficulty, the earnest student who turns for illumination to the
Sanctuaries of ancient mystic wisdom and for counsel to its grand
hierophants, finds himself face to face with the departed but still
eloquent representatives of a sacerdotal and royal science which
claims to be exclusively acquainted with the One Way of Rectitude
XX INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.
and the Unerring Path of Light. He discovers that the prodigies of
the elder world are substantially identical with those modern pheno-
mena with which he is already familiar, of whose actuality he is con-
vinced, and which have prompted him in his further quest. The
hypnotic trance, as we know it to-day, is clearly and frequently
alluded to in ancient writings; modern clairvoyance is paralleled by
the magical “vision at a distance; ” for thought-transference, we
have mystical methods of communication with persons however
remote and in the absence of any material means; while an exact
fundamental correspondence may be easily established between many
marvels of American Spiritualism and the ghostly mysteries of necro-
mantic and magical evocation. But whereas our modern pheno-
mena have all the characteristics of a merely initial experience, the
thaumaturgic results obtained by the initiates of old are of another
and loftier order, the fruit of matured methods and of a long
sequence of experimental investigations. There is no doubt or
hesitation in the teachings or claims of the hierophants; they are ever
positive, unflinching, and practically unanimous, and they write under
the shadow of a vast and unlimited subject, embracing the depths and
the heights, and fortified by the sublime consciousness of eternity.
As at present conducted, our modern experiments are devoid of
practical results; the lines of investigation reach a certain point and
there leave us, but the old pioneers of mysticism would appear to
have discovered some hitherto inscrutable means of passing the
barriers which confront us, and in so doing they tell us that they
have come into the possession of a tremendous secret, which they
declare to be of a divine character, and which they dare not publicly
reveal, for incalculable penalties attach to the profanation of the
Grand Mysteries. In their books they protected their knowledge
from the vulgar by means of allegorical language and the use of
symbols, leaving their veritable meaning to be divined by the sincere
student with the help of an insight imparted from the spiritual world.
They also perpetuated their secrets by the initiation of tested
disciples of undoubted discretion, to whom they seem to have
liberally laid open the precious treasures of their knowledge, and in
this manner some of the secret colleges of magic, once apparently
numerous, came to be formed in the West.
Thus, the study of the mystics presents us with obvious difficul-
ties which at the beginning appear insurmountable, but, speaking
from personal experience, I do not hesitate to say that there is no
ground for discouragement in a pure, patient, and active intelligence,
for the elementary phenomena are identical, and thus the modern
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. xxi
psychologist is already in possession of the outer doors of the
sanctuary; but he must carefully bear in mind that a large propor-
tion of Hermetic literature is concerned with a physical process for
the conversion of “base metals” into gold, and that it is equally
vicious and fruitless to force upon merely alchemical writings a
psychic meaning which is completely at variance with the lives and
undoubted aims of their authors. The literature of esoteric
psychology in the past is large enough without the wholesale annexa-
tion which has been rashly, though not inexcusably, attempted by
several critics.
The theurgic and mystical literature of Western Christendom,
with which I am exclusively concerned in the present essay, is only
a branch of universal occultism, but it admits of classification into
several distinct divisions, all requiring consideration which will be
much simplified by a brief preliminary reference to the history of
Christian magic, or rather of magic as it was practised in the
Christian countries of Europe.
The philosophical principles which underlie the theory and practice
of theurgic art are mainly derived from the Platonic School of
Alexandria—the school of Ammonius Saccas, Proclus, and Hypatia,
the school of Synesius, the theosophical dream-interpreter, and of
the angelical mysticism of pseudo-Dionysius. The neo-platonists
were practically the inheritors of the Magian wisdom of Egypt,
Greece, and Rome, and the mystical works of Hermes Trismegistus,
which were the product of this period of Alexandrian illumination,
were no mere inventions of a semi-Christianized sage, but probably
embodied the traditional secrets and cosmic theories of a very
considerable antiquity. The central doctrine of the high theurgic
faith, professed by the grand masters of Alexandrian philosophy,
was that by means of certain invocations, performed solemnly by
chaste, Sober, abstinent, and mentally illuminated men, it was pos-
sible to come into direct communication with those invisible powers
which fill the measureless distance between man and God. A
divine exaltation accompanied this communication with the superior
intelligences of the universe, and man entered into a temporal
participation of deific qualities, while the power and wisdom thus
acquired submitted many hierarchies of spiritual beings to the will
of the Magus.
. The proscription of the old pagan cultus and the bitter and con-
tinual persecution of all professors of secret and magical arts, which
took place in the reign of the infamous emperor Constantine, and
was continued by Valentinian, Theodosius, and other shining lights
xxii INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.
of imperial Christianity, did not eradicate polytheism or destroy
the adepts. The old religion and the old theurgic art took refuge in
remote places; they were practised in stealth and in silence, and
thus were presumably originated many of those mysterious secret
societies which perpetuated the traditions of the Magi through the
whole period of the Middle Ages, and in numerous magical rituals
betray their connection with neo-platonism. #
The proscription of magic and paganism was eventually followed
by the proscription and persecution of the Jews, who, in like manner,
were reduced to practise their religious rites in secret, and whose
oriental vindictiveness was frequently roused to frenzy by their in-
tolerable sufferings and humiliations. Professors of Kabbalistic arts,
firm believers in the virtues of invocations and verbal formulae, and
addicted from time immemorial to every species of superstitious
practice, they directed their mystic machinery to do injury to their
enemies, and the infernal magic of the Middle Ages, with its pro-
fanation of Christian mysteries, its black masses and impious invoca-
tions, is, in part at least, their creation.
Thus, mediaeval occultism was essentially of a composite character.
It borrowed, on the one hand, from the rabbinical wisdom of Israel,
and, on the other, from pagan sources. The Crusades made it sub-
ject to Arabic influence, which was definitely increased by the spread
of alchemical notions from east to west, while from the debris of
every vanished cultus which in barbaric times had ever flourished
among the Teutonic and Celtic nations was built up the mythology
of nature-spirits, the elfin world, and the Strange doctrines concerning
elementary intelligences.
Over this many-coloured garment was invariably spread the sacer-
dotal cope of Christianity, which may have been adopted at first as a
disguise, but which in the majority of cases came eventually to be
beyond suspicion the official religious belief of most European adepts.
The voice of esoteric literature is positively unanimous on this point. .
Whatever the secret teachings which entered into the traditional
science of the Magi, they were not of a nature to interfere with the
sincere profession of Christianity among their later initiates, or
they were modified into harmony with orthodox Christian teaching.
Admitting the claims of magic, it is indeed probable that the secret
knowledge which was perpetuated was concerned more with esoteric
power than with esoteric doctrine—a view which is wholly consistent
with the universal history of magic, for in all ages and nations we
find the same claims to the same preternatural powers advanced in
the interests of the most various systems of religion.
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. xxiii
The magical literature of Europe abounds in potent formulae for
the evocation and control of all classes of spiritual beings, and these
to a large extent are directly taken from the hierarchic liturgies of
Christendom, the miraculous powers inherent in the names of
Jehovah, Jesus, Mary, and similar Sacred names, are explained in
the rituals, and the numerical mysticism of Pythagoras is interpreted
in the interests of Trinitarian doctrine.
There is therefore no ground for supposing that western initiates
had discovered a “religion behind all religions”; they were simply
Christian mystics who never dreamed of looking further than
Christianity for light, and what they pretend to have possessed was
the key of miracles and not the key of religious symbolism. The
professors of goetic magic and the infamous frequenters of the
Sabbath may have denied and rejected Christ, but they did not deny
his power, and if they served another master it was in search of an
immediate recompense, and with a full consciousness of the penalties
that they incurred.
The amount of misunderstanding which exists on this point among
even sympathetic inquirers calls for a positive statement to check
the general tendency to read into the writings of Christian adepts a
significance that utterly eliminates all the positive elements of their
faith, which generally was held in sincerity, and too often in the
midst of persecution at the hands of their fellow-believers.
The sincere profession of Christianity by mediaeval and later
adepts is, on a cursory view, unfavourable to the gigantic claim of
magian art and science, for, at least in its exoteric presentment, I
recognize, in common with the general concensus of modern
mystical thinking, that the Christian scheme does not provide us
with an intelligible theory of the universe, and we might reasonably
expect that illuminated persons, who “enjoy free perspicuity of
thought in universal consciousness,” would have entered into pos-
session of a more adequate cosmogonical doctrine.
As one who is a partisan of no special opinion, and as one who
deplores the extreme intellectual folly of making haste towards un-
stable and futile convictions on the most important problems by help
of premature theories, I have no wish to minimise the importance of
difficulties like this, but it is equally easy to overstate their value.
Our modern discoveries in psychology have hitherto assisted us
towards no definite theory of the universe, and it is impossible in
their present condition that they should ever provide us with such.
Their possibly indefinite development in the hands of the ancient
mystics may have equally failed to enlighten them, for the power of
xxiv. 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 mediaeval 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." 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, of the hierarchy and classification of spirits, the circular progres-
sion of the 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. -
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.
totality, it is the synthesis of those methods and processes by which
the ancient mystics claim to have developed their psychic potencies
so as to establish communication with such forms of intelligent
finite subsistence as are without the physical horizon, and therefore
normally invisible, to form a correspondence with the underlying
principles of nature, and thus develop the possibilities which are
secreted like seeds in the heart of all material substances, and so
perform on the physical plane what is beyond the scope of common
physical science, and, lastly, as the crowning aim and magnum opus
of experimental mysticism, to enable the “highest fact in man” to
hold “immediate intercourse with the highest fact in the universe.”
The wonders of Spiritual Magic are said to be accomplished by
means of a certain method of life and a certain sequence of cere-
monies, all of symbolical significance, but unanimously considered
by the highest adepts to be devoid of inherent virtue, and simply
adopted to direct and develop the psychic faculties of will and
imagination which are the grand agents in every magical process.
Eliphas Lévi recommends the postulant in the pronaos of the
Spiritual Temple to “rise daily at the same hour, and at an early
hour, bathe summer and winter before daybreak in spring water,
never wear soiled clothes, to wash them himself if necessary, to ex-
ercise himself by voluntary privations that he may be better able to
bear involuntary ones; finally, to impose silence on all desires save
that of achieving the magnum opus.” But this is simply the pre-
liminary discipline; the preparation of the mystic “sulphur of the
wise’ is of another and higher kind; the student of Thomas
Vaughan will find it described in various parts of his writings, and
especially in the Anima Magica Abscondita ; it is a process of
psychic chemistry of a triadic and absolutely supernatural character,
for the diatribes of modern mystics against the use of the term
supernatural are founded on a fundamental misapprehension of
occultism, and are due to the influence of materialistic philosophy.
It is a doctrine of magical science that there is an inherent imper-
fection in Nature, and that there is an absolute perfection which
transcends Nature; now, the testimony of the visible universe and
the unceasing aspiration of man's higher consciousness are in har-
mony with this doctrine.
The triadic process of which I have spoken is the transmutation
of the physical body by the soul within it, the exaltation and trans-
figuration of the soul by the overshadowing spirit, and the illumina-
tion and deification of the spirit by contact with the Universal
Consciousness. This process accomplishes that regeneration of the
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. xxvii
whole man, which is the true object of transcendental philosophy
and the only safe basis of practical magic. All operations attempted
by the vulgar and the uninitiated, in other words, by unregenerate
persons, are either dangerous or unsuccessful, or, as in the case of
Black Magic, of a dark and abominable nature.
Contemplation and quietism are the keys of this mysterious pro-
cess, which seems to have been carried to its highest point among
Oriental nations. It is described by Roger Bacon as the modifica-
tion of the body by alchemy, which puts much of Hermetic allegory
in a new and more intelligible light.
When this modification, or New Birth, has been accomplished,
the Magus is placed in communication with the creative forces of
the universe, and the avenues of spiritual perception, which are
narrow, difficult, and full of barriers to the psychologist of to-day,
are freely thrown open for unlimited exploration—such, at least, is
the claim of the magical text-books—and the initiated epopt may
proceed to the invocation of the celestial intelligences, the souls of
the great departed, and to the assertion of intellectual dominion
over the hierarchies of elementary being. The depths and heights
of his own immortal nature are also revealed to him, and from
the pinnacles of his spiritual life he may soar into ecstatic yet con-
scious communion with God Himself. On the physical plane he
may perform, by the adaptation of natural laws, many prodigies
which seem to the uninitiated observer in defiance of all law ; he
may endue inert substance with the potency of his individual will,
and this is the philosophical principle of talismanic magic; he can
search all hearts and read all destinies; perceive events happening
at a remote distance; and can impart to suitable subjects a portion
of his own prerogatives, inducing trance, clairvoyance, prophetic
foresight, &c. - -
Such is the great claim of Spiritual Magic, and it involves at least
an aspiration of the highest conceivable kind. Its antithesis exists
in the counter claim of the Black or Infernal Art, with all its
grotesque horrors and barbarous, perverse processes, by which the
initiates of forbidden knowledge employed their developed physical
faculties in operations of darkness and destruction.
The third division of mediaeval esoteric science is, in some
respects, the most important of all, for alchemy is not only the
foundation of that experimental method which has transformed the
face of the earth; it is not only the historical radix of modern
physics, including chemistry, it is not only an arcane process for
the manufacture of material gold, but it has originated a theory
xxviii INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.
which is of the utmost importance to all present students of
psychology.
I have traced the connection between ancient thaumaturgic
mysticism and modern mystic action, I have shown that the hiero-
phants of old were familiar with the spiritual phenomena of to-day,
and they claim to have made such advances in the paths wherein
we are slowly and painfully travelling, that they had entered
into the permanent possession of a power and knowledge which
it was dangerous or impossible for them to reveal, which they con-
sequently spoke of in veiled language, but which they neverthe-
less endeavoured to extend to others, in order that it might be per-
petuated, and to this end they invented their symbols and allegories
in the hope that a divine light would illuminate deserving seekers and
enable them to penetrate to their inner significance. Now, the
grand initiates of ancient magic were the princes of alchemy in a
large number of cases, and these two branches of esoteric wisdom
are intimately and curiously connected both in principle and prac-
tice. The doctrines of mystical and magical regeneration were
expounded by alchemical philosophers, and the psychic manufacture
of gold was taught in return by the magicians. Astrology lent to
both the assistance of her traditional observations and the resources
of her archaic symbolism. Alchemists and magicians lay claim to
the possession of the same tremendous secret, the same indicible
power ; they worked with the same weapons after rigorously
identical methods but in various fields of achievement — the
material world was the province of the followers of Geber; to the
disciples of the Magi were delivered the realms of mind. The
highest inspirations of both schools appear to have been derived
from the Hermetic books, and though the practical alchemy of the
Christian age originated with the Arabian Geber, its sources must
thus be sought in the theosophy of the later Platonists.
Now, whether from hints contained in the Hermetic books or
whether from some adaptation of Kabbalism, or from what source
soever the seeds came which germinated in the minds of the
alchemists, a theory of universal development, capable of application
in almost any direction, was enunciated in this division of esoteric
literature, and constitutes the general and explainable principle of
the Secret Doctrine of Mysticism. I have described this theory at
considerable length, and, I believe, with a certain precision, in an
account of the true principles of the magnum opus, prefixed to the
“Lives of Alchemistical Philosophers,” recently published in London.
This biographical work endeavours, by a consideration of the careers
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. xxix
of adept philosophers, to determine the true nature and object of
practical alchemy, and, so far as this plan is fulfilled, it constitutes
a suitable and necessary introduction to the study of historical
Hermetics. I do not propose to make in the present essay any
substantial repetition of what I have already stated there. The
alchemical theory of universal development includes a philoso-
phical forestatement of the modern evolutionary hypothesis which,
considering the scientific ignorance and darkness of the Middle Ages,
is simply bewildering, and justifies the indignant demand of one
theosophical writer for the restitution of its rightful property to “a
spoliated past.” But the alchemical theory was originated by
thinkers who believed in the paramount reality of spiritual things,
and their doctrine of evolution was extended to the soul and spirit
of man, though its practical application was scarcely attempted by
alchemists outside the metallic kingdom.
I would direct the particular attention of earnest psychological
inquirers to this grand and important doctrine, the highest outcome
of Hermetic speculation which has been openly transmitted from
antiquity. It is founded on a general assumption that the philo-
sophers claim to have demonstrated as experimentally true in at
least one kingdom of Nature, namely, that all existing substances
whatsoever—the substance of spirit and Soul, of animal and vegetable
life, of metals and of stones—contain elements or seeds of a higher
perfection in any given direction than they can normally manifest,
that there is no practical limit to their progress towards perfection,
and that man is the agent and dispenser of Divine power for the de-
velopment of his own and the latent energies of all earthly things.
The union of individual consciousness in the universal conscious-
ness of God was the culminating point of this theory in its extension
to man, and the extraction of a tincture which would transform a
million times its own weight into gold was its last assigned develop-
ment in its relation to metals.
The unity and solidarity of Nature in the midst of infinite formal
differentiation was the first logical outcome of this assumption, the
universal potentiality of improvement constituting the bond of union.
From this dual doctrine of fundamental solidarity and latent power
a practical conclusion was drawn—that the processes for the develop-
ment of inherent energies in the various kingdoms of Nature should
be rigorously parallel, but with due regard to formal difference.
Quod superius sicut quod inferius, et quod inférius sicut quod superius
ad perpetranda miracula rei unius.
The alchemical doctrine of evolution is the philosophical basis of
XXX INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.
the sublime claim of transcendental or spiritual magic which I have
already considered at such length, and the full consequent psychic im-
portance of the literature of alchemy may be shown in a few words.
Though it conceals the first matter of the magnum opus, it describes
the processes which, given the first matter, will ultimately eliminate
the imperfections of metals. These processes are parallel by the
theory in every department of Nature, and thus the magical evolu-
tion, transfiguration, or reconstruction of man is to be accomplished
in a manner which is rigorously similar to the reconstruction in the
mineral world. As man is the subject of spiritual chemistry, the
first matter does not need seeking in this division of the art, and as
man, in the same manner, is that mystic was philosophorum which
has been always a crux for seekers from the days of Geber down-
wards, it is a plain case that the development of his latent spiritual
energies may be accomplished along the lines of the avowed
Hermetic processes as they are described in alchemical works, pro-
vided the assumptions contained in the general Hermetic theory
have a basis, as claimed, in fact. Now the processes in question are
delineated with a tolerable amount of perspicuity, and I submit to
those numerous students of psychology who are turning for light to
the writings and to the alleged achievements of the old mystics, that
here is an adequate warrant for their earnest and exhaustive study,
and some ground for believing that we may strike upon an unwrought
mine of spiritual possibilities in the hidden but not unattainable
mysteries of alchemy.
The practical outcome of my own studies in this direction must
be reserved for the present, as it would be unwise in the limited
space of the present essay to forestall what I subsequently hope to
treat in a comprehensive and complete manner. My present object
is to draw the attention of other investigators to the only lines of
research which are likely to produce a definite and desired result,
and if possible to elicit their collaboration in the first serious
attempt at the mystical reconstruction of humanity. From the
practical magic of the Middle Ages we may learn the identity of new
and old psychological phenomena, from theurgic philosophers we
may ascertain the true nature of the psychic achievements which
transcendental magic claims to have accomplished, for the actual
processes by which it attained its grand results we must study the
turba philosophorum—the long line of alchemists—and that in a con-
secutive and exhaustive manner. But we must carefully bear in
mind that we are in search of the psycho-chemical process, which is
connected, but not identical, with the metallic process of the turba,
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. xxxi
that, the transmutation of material substances into material gold
was the object of alchemy itself, and that it can only provide us with
a parallel. But the exactitude of this parallel is guaranteed by the
theory, “From the greater to the lesser, from the lesser to the
greater, the Consequences are identically connected, and the propor-
tions progressively rigorous.”
The student will also do well to avoid discouragement at the anti-
quated forms of reasoning and the exploded physical notions of all
the Hermetic philosophers. Their conceptions are crude enough,
and sometimes seem scarcely consonant with sanity, but their
psychic knowledge is not to be measured by their progress in physics,
and even a true process for metallic transmutation is not incom-
patible with a disconcerting ignorance of numerous natural laws.
All persons connected with the present revival of mysticism should
endeavour by its logical and consistent study, on an unbiassed
historical method, to recover some positive knowledge from its
secluded sanctuaries. That is an inconsequent interest which is
manifested only in spasmodic investigation; rash and illiberal
theories are its normal results. The secrets of esoteric literature
will only surrender to the searching analysis of sympathetic minds
which have been duly equipped for the task by an acquaintance with
psychic progress in the present, and are endowed with a height of
aspiration which is parallel to the aspiration of the hierophants.
ANTHROPOSOPHIA THEOMAGICA :
OR
A DISCOURSE OF THE NATURE OF MAN AND
HIS STATE AFTER DEATH ;
GROUNDED ON HIS CREATOR'S PROTO-CHIMISTRY,
AND VERIFI’D BY A PRACTICALL EXAMINATION OF PRINCIPLES
IN THE GREAT WORLD.
BY
EUGENIUS PHILALE THES.
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.
Eººl N so much as this votive offering doth entreat
sº Nº. the high priest alone at the high altar, not
}º \ º without sacrilege may it seem to be thrust
sº ſº º #º upon you. Even devotion hath its limits;
tº/NPN'ſ/\. who so approaches unbidden is guilty of
2% (NR ſºº! audacity, not of service. That aforetime
Sº gigantomachia of the poets was concerned
with those who did indeavour to carry
Heaven by storm, nor are fatuous and
vicious sparklings wanting in our own day,
who dream themselves stars and believe that they are equal to the
sun. Be far from Eugenius this arrogance and climax of ambition
This were “to pile Pelion upon Ossa.” .
I, most noble Brethren, am in the vestibule of the Sacrarium, nor
do I set my offering upon the altar, but, more modestly, upon the
threshold. If admitted into the ranks such things would I offer unto
you
Quae secula posterique possint
Arpinis quoque comparare chartis.
But there is no reason why I should despair. There shall come those
in the last times who will praefer 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 tendi 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.
you this honey-comb and bee-hive. Roses, however, are wont to be
Soiled upon the breasts of most persons; peradventure also this
handfull is sullied, for it is of my gathering. What is error is of
Eugenius, what remains is of Truth. Yet to what purpose is this
testimony of Truth, to you emancipated ones, who enjoy the unveiled
manifestation of the triplex Martyrium of Spirit, of Water, and of
Blood? This is no voice of help, however small, but a thing
superfluous. Wise is he who is silent in the presence of Heaven
Receive therefore, most illustrious Brethren, this my mite not as
such that I ought to offer unto you, but as all that I am able. My
good will is in my willing service. This also doth my poverty
premise: weigh not the gift itself but the obedience of
Your suppliant,
THE AUTHOR TO THE READER.
LOOK on this life as the Progresse of an
Essence Royall: the Soul but quits her
court to see the countrey. Heaven hath
in it a Scene of Earth; and had she
been contented with Ideas, she had not
travelled beyond the map. But excellent
patterns commend their mimes: Nature
that was so fair in the type, could not
be a slut in the Anaglyph. This makes
her ramble hither to examine the medall
by the flask, but whiles she scannes their Symmetrie, she
formes it. Thus her descent speaks her Original. God in love
with his own beauty frames a Glasse to view it by reflec-
tion; but the frailety of the Matter excluding Eternity, the
composure was subject to dissolution. Ignorance gave this re-
lease the name of Death, but properly it is the Soule's Birth,
and a charter that makes for her liberty; she hath severall
wayes to break up house, but her best is without a disease. This
is her mysticall walk, an exit only to return.” When she takes
air at this door, it is without prejudice to her tenement. The
Magicians tell me, Anima unius entis egreditur, et aliud ingreditur.
Some have examined this, and state it an expence of influences,
as if the Soul exercised her royalty at the Eye, or had some blinde
jurisdiction at the pores. But this is to measure magicall positions
by the slight, superficial strictures of the common philosophy. It
is an age of intellectuall slaveries; if they meet anything extra-
ordinary, they prune it commonly with distinctions, or dawb it with
false glosses, till it looks like the traditions of Aristotle. His
followers are so confident of his principles they seek not to understand
what others speak, but to make others speak what they understand.
It is in Nature as it is in Religion; we are still hammering of old
elements, but seek not the America that lyes beyond them. The
apostle tells us of leaving the first principles of the Doctrine
of Christ, and going on to perfection: not laying again the founda-
* Note I.
Hebrews

6 THE AUTHOR TO THE READER.
L. Verulam
in his N. H.
tion of repentance from dead works; and of faith towards God, of
the doctrine of Baptism, and laying on of hands, of resurrection, and
the eternal judgement. Then he speaks of illumination, of tasting
of the Heavenly gift, of being partakers of the Holy Ghost, of
tasting of the good word of God, and the powers of the world to
come. Now, if I should question any sect (for there is no com-
munion in Christendom) whither these later intimations drive, they
can but return me to the first rudiments, or produce some emptie
pretence of spirit. Our naturall philosophers are much of a cast
with those that step into the prerogative of prophets, and antedate
events in configurations and motions. This is a consequence of
as much reason as if I saw the Suede exercising, and would finde
his designes in his postures. Friar Bacon walked in Oxford be-
tween two steeples, but he that would have discovered his thoughts
by his steps had been more his fool then his fellow. The Peri-
pateticks when they define the Soul, or some inferior principle,
describe it onely by outward circumstances, which every childe
can do, but they state nothing essentially. Thus they dwell,
altogether in the face, their indeavours are mere titillations,
and their acquaintance with Nature is not at the heart. Not-
withstanding, I acknowledge the schoolmen ingenious : they
conceive their principles irregular, and prescribe rules for
method, though they want matter. Their philosophie is like
a church that is all discipline and no doctrine; for bate me their
prolegomena, their form of arguing, their reciting of different
opinions, with severall other digressions, and the substance of these
Tostati will scarce amount to a Mercury. Besides, their Aristotle
is a poet in text, his principles are but fancies, and they stand
more on Our concessions than his bottom. Hence it is that his
followers, notwithstanding the assistance of so many ages, can fetch
nothing out of him but Notions; and these indeed they use, as he
Sayeth Lycophron did his Epithets, not as spices, but as food.
Their compositions are a meer tympanie of termes. It is better
then a fight in Quixot to observe what duels and digladiations they
have about him. One will make him speak sense, another non-
sense, and a third both. Aquinas palps him gently, Scotus makes
him winch, and he is taught like an ape to shew severall tricks. If
we look on his Adversaries, the least among them hath foyld him,
but Telesius knocked him in the head, and Campanella hath quite
discomposed him. But as that bald haunter of the circus had his
skull so steeled with use it shivered all the tiles were thrown at
it, so this Aristotle thrives by scuffles, and the world cryes him up
THE AUTHOR TO THE READER. 7
when Truth cryes him down. The Peripatetickes look on God, as
they do on carpenters who build with stone and timber, without
any infusion of life. But the world, which is God’s building, is full
of spirit, quick and living. This spirit is the cause of multiplica-
tion, of severall perpetuall productions of minerals, vegetables, and
creatures ingendred by putrefaction, all which are manifest, infallible
arguments of life. Besides, the texture of the universe clearly dis-
covers its animation. The earth, which is the visible natural basis
of it, represents the gross, carnal parts. The element of water
answers to the bloud, for in it the pulse of the Great World beates ;
this most men call the flux and reflux, but they know not the true
cause of it. The air is the outward refreshing spirit, where this
vast creature breathes, though invisibly, yet not altogether insensibly.
The interstellar skies are his vital, aethereall waters, and the stars
his animal, sensuall fire. Thou wilt tell me perhaps, this is new
philosophy, and that of Aristotle is old. It is indeed, but in the
same sense as religion is at Rome. It is not the primitive truth of
the creation, not the ancient, reall Theosophie of the Hebrews and
Egyptians, but a certain preternaturall upstart, a vomit of Aristotle,
which his followers with so much diligence lick up and swallow. I
present thee not here with any clamourous opposition of their
patrone, but a positive expresse of principles as I finde them in
Nature. I may say of them as Moses said of the FIAT : “These are
the generations of the heavens, and of the earth, in the day that the
Lord God made the heavens and the earth.” They are things
“beyond reasoning,” sensible practicall truths, not meer vagaries and
rambles of the braine. I would not have thee look on my indea-
vours as a designe of captivity: I intend not the conquest but the
exercise of thy reason, not that thou shouldest swear allegiance to
my dictates, but compare my conclusions with Nature, and examine
their correspondency. Be pleased to consider that obstinacy
inslaves the Soule, and clips the wings which God gave her for
flight and discovery. If thou wilt not quit thy Aristotle, let not any
prejudice hinder thy further search. Great is their number who
perhaps had attained to perfection, had they not already thought
themselves perfect. This is my advice, but how welloome to thee I
know not. If thou wilt kick and fling, I shall say with the
Cardinall, “My ass also doth kick up his heels,” for I value no
man's censure. It is an age wherein truth is neer a miscarriage, and
it is enough for me that I have appeared thus far for it in a day
of necessity.
E. S.
ANTHROPOSOPHIA THEOMAGICA.
slHEN I found out this truth, that man in his
| originall was a branch planted in God and
that there was a continuall influxe from the
Stock to the Scion, I was much troubled at
his corruptions, and wondered his fruits were
not correspondent to his roote. But when I
was told he had tasted of an other Tree, my
admiration was quickly off, it being my chiefe
care to reduce him to his first simplicitie, and
separate his mixtures of good and evill.
But his Fall had so bruised him in his best part that his Soule
had no knowledge left to study him a cure, his punishment pre-
sently followed his trespasse: “All things became hidden and Q. Agrip,
oblivion, the mother of ignorance, did enter in.” This Lethe éº"
remained not in his body, but passing together with his nature
made his posterity her channel. Imperfection’s an easy inherit-
ance, but vertue seldome finds any heires. Man had at the first,
and so have all Souls before their intrance into the body, an explicit . ——
methodicall knowledge, but they are no sooner vesselled than that \
liberty is lost, and nothing remaines but a vast confused notion of
the creature. Thus had I only left a capacity without power, and a
will to doe that which was far enough above me. In this perplexity
I studied severall arts, and rambled over all those inventions which
the folly of man called sciences; but these endeavours sorting not
to my purpose, I quitted this booke-businesse, and thought it a
better course to study Nature then Opinion. Hereupon I considered
with my selfe that man was not the primitive immediate worke of
God, but the world, out of which he was made. And to regulate
my studies in point of methode, I judged it convenient to examine
his principles first, and not him. But the world in generall being
too large for inquisition, I resolved to take part for the whole, and to
give a guesse at the frame by proportion. To perfect this my essay, I
tooke to task the fruits of one Spring. Here I observed a great many
vegetables fresh and beauteous in their time, but when I looked

IO g ANTHROPOSOPHIA THEOMAGICA.
back on their original, they were no such things as vegetables. This
observation I applyed to the world, and gained by it this inference:
that the world in the beginning was no such thing as it is,” but some
other seed or matter out of which that fabric which I now behold
did arise. But, resting not here, I drove my conclusion further; I
conceived those seeds, whereof vegetables did spring must be some-
thing else at first then seeds, as having some prae-existent matter
whereof they were made, but what that matter should be I could
not guesse. Here was I forced to leave off speculation, and come
up to experience. Whiles I sought the world, I went beyond it,
and I was now in quest of a substance which without Art I could
not see. Nature wrapps this most strangely in her very bosome,
neither does she expose it to any thing but her own Vitall Coelestiall
Breath. But in respect that God Almighty is the onely proper
immediate Agent which actuates this Matter, as well in the work
of generation as formerly in his creation, it will not be amisse to
speak something of him, that we may know the Cause by his
creatures, and the creatures by their Cause.
My God, my Life, whose Essence man
Is no way fit to know or scan,
But should approach thy Court a guest
In thoughts more low then his request;
When I consider how I stray,
Methinks 'tis pride in mee to pray.
How dare I speake to Heaven, nor feare
In all my sinns to court Thy eare?
But as I looke on moles that lurke
In blind intrenchments, and there worke
Their owne darke prisons to repaire,
Heaving the earth to take in aire :
So view my fetter'd Soule, that must
Struggle with this her load of dust,
Meet her addresse, and add one ray
To this mew’d parcell of thy day.
She would, though here imprison'd, see
Through all her dirt thy Throne and Thee.
Lord guide her out of this sad night,
And say once more, Let there be Light.
It is God's own positive truth : In the beginning, that is, in that
dead silence, in that horrible and empty darknesse when as yet
nothing was fashioned, then (saith the Lord) did I consider those
things, and they all were made through me alone, and through none
other, by me also they shall be ended and by none other. That
Esdras.
* Note 2.
ANTHROPOSOPHIA THEOMAGICA. II
meditation forerunns every solemne worke, is a thing so well knowne
to man that he needs no further demonstration of it then his owne
practice. That there is also in God something analogicall to it from
whence man derived this customary notion of his, as it is most
agreeable to reason, so withall is it very suitable to Providence.
“The Gods (saith Jamblichus) did conceive within themselves the
whole design before they generated it.” And the Spirit here to
Esdras, Then did I consider these things; He considered them
first and made them afterwards. God in his AEternall Idea foresaw
that whereof as yet there was no materiall copy. The goodnesse and
beauty of the one moved him to create the other, and truly the
image of this prototype being imbosomed in the second made Him
so much in love with his creature, that when sin had defaced it, he
restored it by the suffering of that patterne by which at first it was
made. Dyonisius the Areopagite, who lived in the primitive times,”
and received the mysteries of Divinity immediately from the apostles,
stiles God the Father sometimes “the Arcanum of Divinity,” some-
times “that hidden supersubstantial Being,” and elsewhere he com-
pares him to a roote whose flowers are the Second and Third Persons.
This is true; for God the Father is the basis or supernaturall founda- & 4
tion of his creatures: God the Son is the Patterne in whose expresse %
image they were made : And God the Holy Ghost is the “Spirit-
Fabricator,” or the Agent, who framed the creature in a just sym-
metrie to his Type. This consideration or type God hath since used
in the performance of inferiour workes. Thus in the institution of
his Temple, he commands Moses to the Mount, where the Divine
Spirit shews him the idea of the future fabrick : And let them make Exodus.
me a Sanctuary that I may dwell amongst them, according to all that
I shew thee, after the patterne of the Tabernacle, and the patterne
of all the instruments thereof, even so shall you make it. Thus the
Divine Mind doth instruct us “by setting forth ideas by a certain
self-extension beyond himself,” and sometimes more particularly in 7.2-& 4.--
dreames. To Nebuchadnezzar he presents a tree strong and high, º
reaching to the heavens, and the sight thereof to the ends of the
earth. To Pharaoh he shews seven ears of corn. To Joseph he Ø-4 z <-
appears in sheafes, and then resembles the Sun, Moon, and Stars.
To conclude he may expresse himself by what he will, for in him
are innumerable, eternall prototypes, and he is the true Fountaine
and Treasure of Formes. But that we may come at last to the scope
proposed: God the Father is the Metaphysicall, Supercelestiall Sun,
* The mystical writings attributed to Dionysius the Areopagite are now almost
universally rejected as forgeries of the fifth century.
I 2 ANTHROPOSOPHIA THEOMAGICA.
<
Genesis.
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
“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
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 Zux, 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 ZXe 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. I3
and Earth, at that time created rude and formless that it might y
assume life and symmetrie. Hereupon, the Fabricator did straight-
way bring out the Sił Zux — 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. “I
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 ZOefensio
Adearum 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 Spirit 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.
I4. ANTHROPOSOPHIA THEOMAGICA.
~y
s—'
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
A 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
Zenebrae 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. I 5
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, Zet 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 Coelestiall
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 Empyraeall
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 Empyraeall 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 ſ
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
appointed for most secret and mysterious offices, but we shali ;...
speake further of it when we come to handle the Elements particu- 2.3.
larly. Nothing now remained but the two inferior principles, as wº: ºt'.
I6 ANTHROPOSOPHIA THEOMAGICA.
Job:
commonly call them—Earth and Water. The Earth was an
impure, sulphureous subsidence, or caput mortuum of the creation.
The water was also phlegmatick, crude, and raw, not so vitall as
the former extractions. But the Divine Spirit, to make his work
perfect, moving also upon these, imparted to them life and heate,
and made them fit for future productions. The Earth was so
overcast and mantled with the Water that no part thereof was to be
seen; but that it might be the more immediately exposed to the
Coelestiall Influences which are the cause of vegetation, the Spirit
orders a retreat of the Waters, “breaks up for them his decreed
place, and sets them bars and doors.” The Light as yet was not
confined, but retaining his vast flux and primitive liberty, equally
possest the whole creature. On the fourth day it was collected to a
sun, and taught to know his fountain. The Darknesse, whence
proceed the corruptions and, consequently, the death of the creature,
was imprisoned in the centre, but breaks out still when the day
gives it leave, and like a baffled gyant thrusts his head out of doors
in the absence of his adversary. Thus Nature is a lady whose face
is beauteous but not without a black bag. Howsoever when it shall
please God more perfectly to refine his creatures, this tincture shall
be expelled quite beyond them, and thus it will be an outward
darknesse from which Good Lord deliver us !
Thus I have given you a cursory and short expresse of the
creation in generall. I shall now descend to a more, particular
examination of Nature and especially her inferior, elementall parts,
through which man passeth daily, and from which he cannot be
separated. I was about to desist in this place to prevent all future
acclamations, for when a Peripatetick findes here but three, nay, but
two genuine elements—Earth and Water—for the Air is something
more—will he not cry out I have committed sacrilege against
Nature and stole the fire from her altar? This is noise indeed, but
till they take coach in a cloud and discover that idol they prefer
next to the moon, I am resolved to continue my heresie. I am not
onely of opinion, but I am sure there is no such principle in Nature.
The Fire which she useth is “the physicall and incorporeall
horizon, the interbinding of both worlds, and the Seal of the Holy
Ghost.” It is no chymaeral, commentitious quirck like that of the
school-men. I shall therefore request my friends the Peripateticks
to return their fourth element to Aristotle, that he may present it to
Alexander the Great as the first part of a new world, for there is no
such thing in the old. •
** . To proceed then : the Earth (as you were told before) being the
ANTHROPOSOPHIA THEOMAGICA. 17
subsidence or remaines of that primitive masse which God formed
out of Darknesse, must needs be a faeculent, impure body, for
the extractions which the Divine Spirit made were pure, oleous,
aethereall substances, not the crude, phlegmatick, indigested
humors settled like lees towards the centre. The Earth is spongy,
porous, and magneticall, of composition loose, the better to take in
the severall influences of heate, rains, and dewes for the nurture and
conservation of her products. In her is the principle residence of
that Matrix which attracts and receives the sperme from the Mascu-
line part of the World. She is Nature's AEtna ; here Vulcan doth
exercise himself—not that limping, poeticall one which halted after
his fall, but a pure, coelestiall, plastick Fire. We have Astronomy
here under our feet, the stars are resident with us, and abundance of
jewels and pantauras; she is the nurse and receptacle of all things,
for the Superior Natures ingulph themselves into her: what she
receives this age, she discovers to the next, and, like a faithfull
treasurer, conceales no part of her accounts. Her proper, con-
geneall quality is cold.
I am now to speak of the Water. This is the first element
we read of in Scripture, the most ancient of principles and the
Mother of all things among visibles. Without the mediation of this,
the Earth can receive no blessing at all, for moysture is the proper
cause of mixture and fusion. The Water hath severall complexions
according to the severall parts of the creature. Here below, and in
the circumference of all things, it is volatile, crude, and raw. For
this very cause Nature makes it no part of her provision, but she
rectifies it first, exhaling it up with her heat, and thus condensing it
into rains and dews, in which state she makes use of it for nourish-
ment. Some where it is interior, vitall, and coelestiall, exposed to the
breath of the First Agent, and stirred with spirituall aeternall windes.
In this condition it is Nature's wanton—Foºmina Satacissima, as one
calls it. This is that Psyche of Apuleius, and the Fire of Nature is
her Cupid. He that hath seen them both in the same bed will
confesse that love rules all. But to speak something of our com-
mon, elementall Water. It is not altogether contemptible; there
are hidden treasures in it, but so inchanted we can not see them,
for all that the chest is transparent. “The congelated spirit of the
Invisible Water is better than the whole earth,” saith the noble and
learned Sendivogius. I doe not advise the reader to take this
phlegm to task, as if he would extract a Venus from the sea, but I
wish him to study Water that he may know the Fire. . . .”
I have now handled the two Elements, and more I cannot finde: , , , ,
B
18 ANTHROPOSOPHIA THEOMAGICA.
Corn.
Agrippa.
© .
e &
Sº r
* *
I know the Peripateticks pretend to four, and, with the help of
their master's quintessence, to a fifth principle. I shall at leysure
diminish their stock, but the thing to be now spoken of is Air.
This is no element, but a certain miraculous Hermaphrodite, the
caement of two worlds, and a medley of extremes. It is Nature's
common place, her index, where you may finde all that ever she
did, or intends to do. This is the World’s panegyrick, the excursions
of both globes meet here, and I may call it the rendezvous. In this
are innumerable magicall forms of men and beasts, fish and fowls,
trees, herbs, and all creeping things. This is “the sea of things in-
visible,” for all the conceptions “in the bosom of the superiour
Nature” wrap themselves in this tiffany before they imbark in the
shell. It retaines the species of all things whatsoever, and is the
immediate receptacle of spirits after dissolution, whence they passe
to a Superior Limbus. I should amaze the reader if I did relate the
severall offices of this body, but it is the Magician's back door, and
none but friends come in at it. I shall speak nothing more—onely
this I would have you know : the Air is “the envelope of the life of
our sensitive spirit,” our animal oyl, the fuell of the vital, sensual
fire, without which we cannot subsist a minute.
I am now come to the fourth and last substance, the highest in “the
Scale of Nature.” There is no fifth principle, no quintessence, as
Aristotle dreamed, but God Almighty. This Fourth Essence is a
moyst, silent Fire. This Fire passeth thorough all things in the
world, and it is Nature's chariot ; in this she rides; when she moves,
this moves; and when she stands, this stands, like the wheels in
Ezekiel whose motion depended on that of the Spirit. This is the
mask and skreen of the Almighty ; * wheresoever He is, this train
of Fire attends Him. Thus, he appears to Moses in the bush, but
it was in Fire ; the prophet sees him break out at the north, but
like a Fire catching it self. At Horeb he is attended by a mighty
strong winde rending the rocks to pieces, but after this comes the
Fire, and with it a still small voice. Esdras also defines Him a God
whose service is conversant in Winde and Fire. This Fire is the
vestiment of the Divine Majesty—his back parts which he shewed
to Moses, but his naked, royall essence none can see and live—
the glory of his presence would swallow up the naturall man and
make him altogether spirituall. Thus Moses his face, after con-
ference with Him, shines, and from this small tincture we may
guesse at our future state in the Regeneration. But I have touched
the veyle and must return to the outer court of the Sanctuary.
• e * Note 4.
ANTHROPOSOPHIA THEOMAGICA. I9
I have now in some measure performed that which at first I pro-
mised, an exposition of the World and the parts thereof; but in
respect of my affection to Truth and the dominion I wish her, I
shall be somewhat more particular in the examination of Nature,
and proceed to a further discovery of her riches. I advise the
reader to be diligent and curious in this subsequent part of the
discourse, that having once attained to the fundamentalls of science,
he may the better understand her superstructures.
Rnow then that every Element is threefold, this triplicity being
the expresse image of their author, and a seall He hath laid upon
his Creature. There is nothing on earth, though never so simple,
so vile and abject, in the sight of man, but it bears witnesse of God
even to that abstruse mystery, his Unity and Trinity. Every com-
pound whatsoever is three in one and one in three. The basest
reptile even in his outward symmetrie testifies of his Author, his
severall proportions answering to their aeternall superior Prototype.
Now man hath the use of all these creatures, God having furnished
him with a Living Library wherein to imploy himself. But he,
neglecting the works of his Creator, prosecutes the inventions of the
creature, laps up the vomit of Aristotle and other illiterate ethnicks
—men as concerning the faith, reprobate, and in the Law of
Nature altogether unskilfull, scribbling blasphemous atheists “whose
souls hearken to be distracted and torn asunder, and who behold hell”
(as Agrippa hath it). He is much troubled at those mysteries of
the Trinity and the Incarnation ; one denies, another grants them ;
but if they did once see the Light of Nature, they might find those
mysteries by reason which are now above their faith. When I
speake of a naturall triplicity, I speake not of kitchen-stuffe—those
three pet-principles, Water, Oyle, and Earth—but I speake of coeles-
tiall hidden natures, knowne onely to absolute magicians, whose eyes.
are in the centre, not in the circumference, and in this sense every
element is threefold. For example, there is a threefold earth; first
there is “the elementary earth,” then there is “the coelestiall earth,”
and, lastly, “the spiritual earth.” The influences of the spirituall earth
by mediation of the coelestiall are united to the terrestriall, and are the
true cause of life and vegetation. These three are the fundamen-
talls of Art and Nature. The first is a visible, tangible substance—
pure, fixed and incorruptible—of quality cold, but, by application
of a superior agent, drie, and by consequence a fit receptacle of
moysture. This is “Created Aleph,” the true “Adamic Earth,” the
basis of every building in Heaven and Earth. It answers to God
the Father, being the naturall foundation of the creature, as He is
2O ANTHROPOSOPHIA THEOMAGICA.
the supernaturall. Without this nothing can be perfected in Magick.
The second principle is the infallible Magnet, the Mystery of Union.
By this all things may be attracted, whether physicall or metaphysicall,
be the distance never so great. This is Jacob's ladder; without this
there is no ascent or descent, either influentiall or personall. The
absence of this I conceive to be that Gulph between Abraham and
Dives. This answers to God the Son, for it is that which mediates
between extremes, and makes inferiors and superiors communicate.
But there is not one in ten thousand knows either the substance or
the use of this nature. The third principle is properly no principle.
It is not “from whom,” but “by which all things are.” This can do all
in all, and the faculties thereof are not to be exprest. It answers to
the Holy Ghost, for amongst naturalls it is the onely agent and
artificer. Now he that knows these three perfectly with their
severall graduations, or annexed links, which differ not in substance,
but complexion—he that can reduce their impurities to one sincere
consistence, and their multiplicities to a spirituall, essentiall simpli-
city, he is an absolute compleat magician, and in full possibility to
all strange miraculous performances. In the second place you are
to learn that every Element is twofold. This duplicity or confusion
is that Binarius, whereof Agrippa, in scalis numerorum, as also both
himself and Trithemius in their epistles. Other authors who dealt
in this science were pragmaticall scribblers, and understood not this
“Secret of the Shades.” This is it in which the creature prevaricates
and falls from his first Harmonicall Unity. You must therefore
subtract the Duad, and then the magicians' Triad may be reduced
“by the Tetrad into the extreme simplicity of Unity,” and, by conse-
quence, “into a metaphysicall union with the Supreme Monad.”
The Sun and moon are two magicall principles, the one active, the
other passive, this masculine, that foeminine. As they move, so
move the wheeles of corruption and generation. They naturally
dissolve and compound, but properly the moon is “the instrument of
the transmutation of the inferiour Nature.” These two luminaries are
multiplied and fructifie in every one particular generation. There is
not a compound in all nature but hath in it a little sun and a little
moon. The little sun is “the Son of the Sun coelestiall,” the little
moon is “the Daughter of the Moon coelestiall.” What offices soever
the two great luminaries perform for the conservation of the great
world in generall, these two little luminaries perform the like for the
conservation of their small cask, or Microcosm, in particular. They
are “Miniatures of the greater Animall”—Heaven and Earth in a
lesser character. God, like a wise Architect, sits in the centre of all,
ANTHROPOSOPHIA THEOMAGICA. 2 I
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
Juna, 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 coelestiall 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 sphaere, 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.
New Jerusalem, so called not in respect of colour, but constitution.
Their spirits, I suppose, shall be reduced to their first Limbus, a
sphaere of pure, ethereall Fire, like rich eternall tapestry spread
under the throne of God. Thus, Reader, have I made a plenary
but short inquisition into the Mysteries of Nature. It is more then
hitherto hath been discovered, and therefore I expect the more
opposition. I know my reward is calumnie, but he that hath already
condemned the vanity of opinion is not like to respect that of
censure. I shall now put the creatures to their just use, and from
this shallow contemplation ascend to mine and their Author.
Lord God I this was a stone
As hard as any one
Thy Laws in Nature fram'd :
'Tis now a springing Well,
And many drops can tell,
Since it by Art was tam’d.
My God my Heart is so,
'Tis all of flint, and no
Extract of teares will yield :
Dissolve it with thy fire,
That something may aspire,
And grow up in my field.
Bare teares I’ll not intreat,
But let thy Spirit's seat
Upon these waters bee,
Then I, new form'd with Light,
Shall move without all Night,
Or excentricity.
It is requisite now, if we follow that method which God Himself
is Author of, to examine the nature and composition of Man, having
already described those Elements, or principles whereof he was made
and consists. Man, if we look on his materiall parts, was taken out
of the great world as woman was taken out of man. I shall there-
fore to avoyd repetitions, refer the reader to the former part of this
discourse, where if things be rightly understood, he cannot be
ignorant in his materiall frame or composure. We read in Genesis
that God made him out of the Earth: this is a Great Mystery. For
it was not the common pot-clay, but another, and that of a far better
nature. He that knowes this, knowes the subject of the philoso-
phical medecine, and, by consequence, what destroyes or preserves
the temperament of Man. In this are principles homogeneall with
his life, such as can restore his decayes and reduce his disorders to
a harmony. They that are ignorant in this point are not competent
ANTHROPOSOPHIA THEOMAGICA. 23
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 foeminine 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 **
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 foemale 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.
sently upon his preferment there was a faction in the Heavenly
Court, and the Angels scorning to attend this piece of clay, contrived
how to supplant him. The first in this plot was Lucifer–Mon-
tanus tells me his name was Hilel. He casts about to nullifie that
which God had inacted, that so at once he might overreach Him
and his Creature. This pollicy he imparts to some others of the
Hierarchy, and strengthens himself with conspirators. But there is
no counsel against God: the mischief is no sooner hatched but he
and his confederates are expelled from Light to Darknesse, and thus
rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft—a witch is a rebel in physicks,
and a rebell is a witch in politicks: the one acts against nature, the
other against order, the rule of it; but both are in league with the
devil, as the first father of discord and sorcerie. Satan being thus
ejected, as the condition of reprobates is, became more hardened in
his resolutions, and to bring his malice about arrives by permission
at Eden. Here he makes Woman his instrument to tempt Man, and
overthrowes him by the same means that God made for an help to
him. Adam having thus transgrest the commandment was exposed
to the lash, and in him his posterity. But here lyes the knot; how
can we possibly learne his disease, if we know not the immediate
efficient of it? If I question our divines what the Forbidden Fruit
was, I may be long enough without an answer. Search all the school-
men from Ramus to Peter Hispan, and they have no logick in the
point. What shall we doe in this case? To speake anything con-
trary to the sting of Aristotle (though perhaps we hit the mark) is to
expose ourselves to the common hue ; but in respect I prefer a
private truth to a publick errour, I will proceed. And now, reader,
“prick up thine ears,” come on without prejudice, and I will tell thee
that which never hitherto hath been discovered.
That which I now write must needs appeare very strange, and
incredible to the common man, whose knowledge sticks in the barke
of allegories and mysticall speeches, never apprehending that which
is signified by them unto us. This I say must needs sound strange,
with such as understand the Scriptures in the litterall plaine sence,
considering not the scope and intention of the Divine Spirit, by
whom they were first penned and delivered. Howsoever, Origen
being “one chosen out of many,” and, in the judgement of many
wise men, the most learned of the Fathers, durst never trust himselfe
in this point, but alwaies in those Scriptures where his reason could
not satisfie, concluded a mystery.
Certainly, if it be once granted (as some stick not to affirm) that
the Tree of Knowledge was a vegetable and Eden a Garden, it may
ANTHROPOSOPHIA THEOMAGICA. 25
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.
Genesis.
Genesis.
speak in parables, and commanded further that pearles should not be
cast forth unto swine, for “it is not given to all men to know the
mysteries of the Kingdome of God.” Supposing then (as is most
true) that, amongst other mystical speeches contained in Scripture,
this of the Garden of Eden and the trees in it is one. I shall pro-
ceed to the exposition of it in some measure, concealing the
particulars notwithstanding.
Man in the beginning (I mean the substantiall inward Man), both
in and after his creation, for some short time, was a pure Intellectual
Essence, free from all fleshly, sensuall affections. In this state the
Anima, or Sensitive Nature, did not prevail over the spirituall as it
doth now in us. For the superior mentall part of man was united
to God “by an essentiall contact,” and the Divine Light being
received in, and conveyed to, the inferiour portions of the Soul, did
mortifie all carnal desires, insomuch that in Adam the sensitive
faculties were scarce at all imployed, the spirituall prevailing over
them in him, as they do over the spirituall now in us. Hence we
read in Scripture, that during the state of innocence he did not know
that he was naked, but no sooner eats he of the Tree of Knowledge
but he saw his nakednesse, and was ashamed of it, wherefore also he
hides himself amongst the trees of the Garden, and when God calls
to him, he replies: “I heard thy voice in the Garden, and I was
afraid because I was naked, and I hid myself.” But God, knowing
his former state, answeres him with a question : “Who told thee that
thou wast naked P. Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I com-
manded thee thou shouldest not eat?” Here we see a twofold state
of man—his first and best in the spirituall substantiall union of his
intellectual parts to God, and the mortification of his aethereall
sensitive nature, wherein the fleshly, sinfull affections had their
residence—his second, or his fall, in the eating of the Forbidden
Fruit, which did cast asleep his intellectual faculties, but did stir up
and exalt the sensuall. For (sayeth the Serpent) “God doth know that
in the day you eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and you
shall be as gods, knowing good and evill. And when the woman
saw that the Tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the
eyes and a tree to be desired to make one wise ; shee took of the
Fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband, with her,
and he did eat; and the eyes of them both were opened, and they
knew that they were naked.” Thus we see the sensuall faculties
revived in our first parents and brought “from potentiality into
activity,” as the schoolmen speak, by vertue of this Forbidden Fruit.
Neither did this eating suppresse the intellectuall powers in Adam
ANTHROPOSOPHIA THEOMAGICA. 27
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 coelestial and angelical natures, in the center of all
which moves and shines the Divine Spirit. The sensuall, coelestial,
aethereal 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 Æthereal 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 coelestiall 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
coelestiall 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 aethereal 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
Some sparks of grace were left, and though the perfection of
innocence was lost upon his fall from the Divine Light, yet con-
science remained still with him, partly to direct, partly to punish.
Thus you see that this Anima Media, or Middle Spirit, is figured by
the Tree of Knowledge, but he that knows why the Tree of Life
is said to be in the middest of the Garden, and to grow out of the
ground, will more fully understand that which we have spoken.*
We see, moreover, that the faculties which we have ascribed to the
Tree of Knowledge are to be found only in the Middle Nature.
First, it is said to be a tree to be “desired to make one wise,” but it
was fleshly, sensuall wisdom, the wisdom of this world and not of
God. Secondly, it is said to be “good for food and pleasant to the
eyes;” so is the Middle Nature also, for it is the onely medecine to
repaire the decayes of the naturall man, and to continue our bodies
in their primitive strength and integrity.
Lastly, that I may speake something for my selfe: this is no new
unheard of fansie, as the understanding reader may gather out of
Trismegistus. Nay, I am verily of opinion that the Egyptians
received this knowledge from the Hebrews, who lived a long time
amongst them, as it appears out of Scripture, and that they delivered
it over to the Grecians. This is plain out of Jamblichus in his
book De Mysteriis, where he hath these words. “The intellectual
man, considering within himself, was formerly joined to the con-
templation of the gods: afterwards, however, there did enter in
another soul, coeval with the human kind of shape, and on that
account he was bound by the same bond of fate and of necessity.”
And what else, I beseech you, is signified unto us in that poeticall
fable of Prometheus P-that he should steale, a certaine fire from
Heaven, for which trespasse afterwards, God punished the world
with a great many diseases and mortality.
But some body may reply:—Seeing that God made all things good,
as it appeares in his review of the creatures on the sixth day, how
could it be a sin in Adam to eat that which in it self was good?
Verily, the sin was not grounded in the nature of that which he did
eate, but it was the inference of the commandment, in as much as
he was forbidden to eate it. And this is that which St Paul tells us,
that he had not known sin had it not been for the law; and again, in
another place, “the strength of sin is the law.” But presently upon
the disobedience of the first man, and his transgression of the
commandement, the creature was made subject to vanity, for the
curse followed, and the impure seeds were joyned with the pure, and
* Note 6.
3o ANTHROPOSOPHIA THEOMAGICA.
Job.
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
“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—
AWulla 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. 3I
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
the inhabitants of greenfields, 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 P” 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
Proclus—
Le Azazma
32 ANTHROPOSOPHIA THEOMAGICA,
Cornelius
Agrippa.
Sepher
Jetzirah.
Genesis.
can attract all things, as well spirituall as naturall. Finally, “there is
no achievement in the whole series of nature, however arduous,
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 P. This is
Abraham’s “Grand Secret, wonderful exceedingly and very occult,
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 Šo 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
is he, or rather how doth he play with Adam P “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
with a tradafur Satana. I know I shall be hated of most for
my paines, and perhaps scoffed at like Pythagoras in Lucian.
“Who buyeth Eugenius P Who wisheth to be above the best of
men P or to know the Harmony of the World and to live anew P”
But because, according to their own master, opxèg rô rug-
8&rozzov šort, and that an affirmative of this nature cannot fall to the
ground with a Christian, I will come to my oath. I do there-
fore protest before my glorious God, I have not written this out
of malice, but out of zeal and affection to the truth of my Creatour.
Let them take heed then, least whiles they contemn Mysteries, they
violate the Majesty of God in his creatures, and trample the Blood
of the Covenant under foot. But shall I not be counted a conjurer,
Seeing I follow the principles of Cornelius Agrippa, that grand
Archimagus, as the antichristian Jesuits call him P. He indeed is
my author, and next to God I owe all that I have unto him. Why
should I be ashamed to confesse it P. He was, reader, by extraction
noble, by religion a Protestant, as it appeares out of his owne
writings, besides the late but malitious testimony of Promondus, a Promondus
learned Papist. For his course of life, a man famous in his person ...º.
both for actions of war and peace, a favorite to the greatest princes :#.
of his time, and the just wonder of all learned men. Lastly, he was $.”
One that carried him selfe above the miseries he was borne to, and
made fortune know man might be her master. This is answer
enough to a few sophisters, and, in defiance to all calumnies thus
I salute his memory.*
Great glorious penman whom I should not name,
Lest I might seem to measure thee by fame,
Nature’s apostle and her choice high-priest,
Her mysticall and bright Evangelist,
How am I rapt when I contemplate thee,
And winde my self above all that I see?
The spirits of thy lines infuse a fire
Like the World's Soul, which makes me thus aspire.
I am unbodied by thy books and thee,
And in thy papers finde my extasie;
Or if I please but to descend a strain,
Thy elements do skreen my Soul again.
I can undresse myself by thy bright glasse,
And then resume th’ inclosure as I was.
Now I am earth, and now a star, and then
A spirit; now a star and earth agen.
Or if I will but ransack all that be,
In the least moment I ingrosse all three.
* Note 7.
C
34 ANTHROPOSOPHIA THEOMAGICA.
Genesis.
I span the Heaven and earth, and things above,
And which is more joyn natures with their love.
He crowns my soul with fire, and there doth shine
But like the rainbow in a cloud of mine.
Yet there’s a law by which I discompose
The ashes and the fire it self disclose,
But in his em’rald still he doth appear,
They are but grave-clothes which he scatters here,
Who sees this fire without his mask, his eye
Must needs be swallowed by the Light, and die.
These are the mysteries for which I wept,
Glorious Agrippa, when thy language slept,
Where thy dark texture made me wander far,
Whiles through that pathless night I traced the star ;
But I have found those mysteries for which
Thy book was more then thrice-piled o'er with pitch.
Now a new East beyond the stars I see
Where breaks the day of thy Divinitie:
Heav'n states a commerce here with Man, had he
But grateful hands to take and eyes to see.
Hence you fond school-men, that high truth deride,
And with no arguments but noise and pride—
You that damn all but what yourselves invent,
And yet finde nothing by experiment;
Your fate is written by an unseen hand,
But his Three Books with the Three Worlds shall stand.
Thus far, reader, I have handled the composure and royalty of
man; I shall now speak something of his dissolution, and close up
my discourse, as he doth his life, with death. Death is “the reces-
sion of life into the Unknown,” not the annihilation of any one par-
ticle, but a retreat of hidden natures to the same state they were in
before they were manifested. This is occasioned by the dispropor-
tion and inequality of the matter, for when the harmony is broken
by the excesse of any one principle, the vitall twist (without a timely
reduction of the unity) disbands and unravells. In this recesse the
several ingredients of man return to those severall elements from
whence they came at first in their accesse to a compound, for to
think that God creates anything from nothing in the work of genera-
tion is a pure metaphysicall whymsey. Thus the Earthly parts, as
we see by experience, return to the Earth, the coelestial to a supe-
riour, heavenly Limbus, and the Spirit to God that gave it. Neither
should any wonder that I affirm the Spirit of the living God to be
in man, when God himself doth acknowledge it for his own. “My
spirit (saith he) shall not alwaies be sheathed (for so the Hebrew
signifies) in man, for that he also is flesh, yet his dayes shall be an
hundred and twenty years.” Besides, the breathing of it into Adam
ANTHROPOSOPHIA THEOMAGICA. 35
proves it proceeded from God, and therefore the Spirit of God.
Thus Christ breathed on his Apostles, and they received the Holy
Ghost. In Ezeckiel, the Spirit comes from the four winds and
breathes upon the slain, that they might live. Now this Spirit was
the Spirit of Life, the same with that Breath of Life which was
breathed into the first man, and he became a living Soul. But,
without doubt, the Breath or Spirit of Life is the Spirit of God.
Neither is this Spirit in man alone but in all the Great World,
though after another manner. For God breathes continually, and
passeth through all things like an air that refresheth—wherefore also
he is called of Pythagoras “the animating principle of all.” Hence
it is that God in Scripture hath severall names according to those
severall offices he performes in the preservation of the creature.
“Nay also (sayeth the Areopagite) they declare him to be present in
our minds, and in our souls, and in our bodies, and to be in
Heaven equally with earth, and in himself at the same time; the
same also they declare to be in the world, around the world, above
the world, above the Heaven, the superior Essence, sun, star, fire,
water, spirit, dew, cloud, the very stone, and rock, to be in all things
which are, and himself to be nothing which they are.” And most
certain it is because of his secret passage and penetration through
all, that other simile in Dionysius was given him. “He joyns him-
self to the nature of Adam (Saith hee), and to that which is most
mean and irrational, to the worm itself—so has it come down to us
from those who in former times were versed in things Divine.”
Now this figurative kind of speech, with its variety of appellations,
is not only proper to Holy Writ, but the AEgyptians also (as Plutarch
tells me) called Iris, or the most secret part of Nature, myrionymos,
and certainly that the same thing should have a thousand names is
no news to such as have studied the Philosophers' Stone. But to
return thither whence we have digressed. I told you the severall
principles of man in his dissolution part, as sometimes friends do,
severall wayes—earth to earth, as our liturgie hath it, and Heaven
to Heaven, according to that of Lucretius.
And that which first did issue from the earth
Doth now disintegrate to earth again ;
And what was mission'd from aethereall shores,
That Heaven’s resplendent temples welcome back.
But more expressly the Divine Virgil, speaking of his Bees—
And by these signs, by this example set,
Within the bees a part of Mind Divine
And the ethereall sources they discern.
36 ANTHROPOSOPHIA THEOMAGICA.
For through the length and breadth of every land,
Dim ocean's depths and Heaven's effulgent heights;
Extends that active God, from whom the kine,
The beasts of burthen, and the race of man,
With all the raging dwellers of the wild,
Their life derive; who summons to himself
Brief lives but just begun. To him 'tis plain
Must every life dissolved, be late or soon
Surrendered back, nor is there room for death,
But living still the Spirit is enrolled
Among the starry hosts, and refuge finds
In highest Heaven. +
This vanish or ascent of the inward ethereall principles doth not
presently follow their separation, for that part of man which Para-
celsus calls the Sydereall Man, and more appositely “the Brute part
of man,” but Agrippa “the spectre” and Virgil
“Th’ aethereall sense, and heat of simple breath,”
this part, I say, which is the Astral Man,” hovers sometimes about
the dormitories of the dead, and that because of the magnetism, or
sympathie, which is between him and the radical, vital moysture. In
this “Spectre” is the seat of the Imagination, and it retaines after
death an impresse of those passions and affections to which it was sub-
ject in the body. This makes him haunt those places where the whole
man had been most conversant, and imitate the actions and gestures
of life. This magnetism is excellently confirmed by that memorable
accident at Paris which Dr Fludd proves to be true by the testimonies
of great and learned men. Agrippa also, speaking of the appari-
tions of the dead, hath these words:– “But what I myself have
seen with my own eyes and touched with my own hands, I will not
refer to in this place, lest it be my lot to be accused by the ignorant
of falsehood on account of the stupendous strangeness of the occur-
rences.” But this scaene exceeds not the circuit of one year, for when
the body begins fully to corrupt, the Spirit returnes to his originall
element. These apparitions have made a great noise in the world,
not without some benefit to the pope. But I shall reserve all for
my great work, where I shall more fully handle these mysteries.
I am now to speak of man as he is subject to a supernaturall
judgement. And, to be short, my sentiment is this. I conceive
there are, besides the Empyraeall Heaven, two inferiour Mansions,
or Receptacles of Spirits. The one is that which our Saviour calls
“the outer darkness,” and this it is whence there is no redemption
* Note 8.
ANTHROPOSOPHIA THEOMAGICA. 37
—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
for. 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-
times 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 func,
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.
Thirdly, the apostle says: these spirits were but sometimes dis-
I Pet. iv. 6,
38 ANTHROPOSOPHIA THEOMAGICA.
John.
obedient, and withall tells us when, namely, in the dayes of Noah,
whence I gather they were not disobedient at this time of preaching,
and this is plain out of the subsequent chapter. -
“For this cause (sayeth the apostle) was the gospel preached also
to them that are dead, that they might be judged according to men
in the flesh, but live according to God in the Spirit.” Now this
judgement in the flesh was grounded on their disobedience in the
dayes of Noah, for which also they were drowned, but salvation
according to God in the Spirit proceeded from their repentance at
the preaching of Christ, which was after death. I do not impose
this on the reader as if I sate in the infallible chaire, but I am confi-
dent the text of it self will speak no other sense. As for the doc-
trine, it is no way hurtfull, but, in my opinion, as it detracts not
from the mercy of God, so it addes much to the comfort of man.
I shall now speak a word more concerning my self, and another
concerning the common philosophy, and then I have done. It will
be questioned perhaps what I am, and especially what my religion
is. Take this short answer; I am neither Papist nor sectary, but a
true resolute Protestant in the best sense of the Church of England.
For philosophy, as it now stands, it is altogether imperfect, and
withall false—a meer apothecary's drug, a mixture of inconsistent,
contrary principles which no way agree with the harmony and
method of Nature. In a word, the whole Encyclopædia (as they
call it) bateing the demonstrative, mathematicall part, is built on
meer imagination without the least light of experience. I wish,
therefore, all the true sons of my famous Oxford mother to look
beyond Aristotle, and not confine their intellects to the narrow and
cloudy horizon of his text, for he is as short of Nature as the gram-
marians are of steganography. I expect not any thanks for this my
advice or discovery, though perhaps I deserve well for both ; but,
verily, the time will come when this truth shall be more perfectly
manifested, and especially that great and glorious mystery, whereof
there is little spoken in this book. “The alone King Messias, the
Word made flesh of the Father, doth reveal this Arcanum, hereafter
to be more openly manifested in a certain fulness of time”—
Cornelius Agrippa's own prediction, and I am confident it shall
finde patrons enough when nothing remaines here of me but
memory.
My sweetest Jesus ! 'twas thy voice: “If I
Be lifted up, I’ll draw all to the skie.”
Yet I am here; I’m stifled in this clay,
Shut up from Thee, and the fresh East of Day.
ANTHROPOSOPHIA THEOMAGICA. 39
I know thy hand's not short; but I’m unfit—
A foul, unclean thing !—to take hold of it.
I am all dirt, nor can I hope to please,
Unless in mercy thou lov'st a disease.
Diseases may be cur'd, but who’d reprieve
Him that is dead? Tell me, my God, I live.
'Tis true I live, but I so sleep withall,
I cannot move, scarce hear, when Thou dost call.
Sin's lullabies charm me when I would come,
But draw me after thee, and I will run.
Thou know'st I’m sick; let me not feasted be,
But keep a diet, and prescribed by thee.
Should I carve for my self, I would exceed
To surfeits soon, and by self murder bleed.
I ask for stones and Scorpions, but still crost,
And all for love—should'st Thou grant, I were lost;
Dear Lord, deny me still, and never signe
My will but when that will agrees with thine;
And when this conflict’s past, and I appear
To answer what a patient I was here—
How I did weep when Thou didst woo, repine
At thy best sweets, and in a childish whyne
Refuse thy proffer'd love, yet cry and call
For rattles of my own to play withall—
Look on thy Cross and let Thy Blood come in
When mine shall blush as guilty of my sin;
Then shall I live, being rescu'd in my fall—
A text of mercy to thy creatures all,
Who, having seen the worst of sins in me,
Must needs confesse the best of loves in Thee.
I have now done, reader, but how much to my own prejudice I
cannot tell. I am confident this shall not passe without noise, but
I may do well enough if thou grantest me but one request. I would
not have thee look here for the paint and trim of rhetorick, and
the rather because English is a language the author was not born
to. Besides this piece was composed in haste, and in my dayes of
mourning on the sad occurrence of a brother's death. “And who
knoweth how to write amidst a strife of teares and inke?”
To conclude—if I have erred in anything (and yet I followed the
rules of creation) I expose it not to the mercy of man, but of God,
who as he is most able, so also is he most willing to forgive us in
the day of our accounts.
AN ADVERTISEMENT TO THE READER.
Proclus.
IF the old itch of scribbling, a disease very proper to Galenists,
Surprise any of their tribe, I shall expect from them these following
performances. First, a plain, positive exposition of all the passages
in this book, without any injury to the sense of their author, for if
they interpret them otherwise then they ought, they but create errours
of their own, and then overthrow them. *
Secondly, to prove their familiarity and knowledge in this art,
let them give the reader a punctuall discovery of all the secrets
thereof. If this be more then they can do, it is argument enough
they know not what they oppose, and if they do not know, how can
they judge? or if they judge, where is their evidence to condemn.
Thirdly, let them not mangle and discompose my book with a
scatter of observations, but proceed methodically to the censure of
each part, expounding what is obscure, and discovering the very
practise, that the reader may finde my positions to be false, not
onely in their theorie, but, if he will assay it, by his own particular
experience.
I have two admonitions more to the ingenuous and well-disposed
reader. First, that he would not slight my endeavours because of
my years, which are but few. It is the custom of most men to
measure knowledge by the beard, but look thou rather on the Soul,
an essence of that nature “which requireth not the courses of time
for its perfection.” Secondly, that he would not conclude anything
rashly concerning the subject of this art, for it is a principle not
easily apprehended. It is neither earth nor water, air nor fire. It
is not Gold, Silver, Saturn, Antimonie, or Vitriol, nor any kind of
minerall whatsoever. It is not bloud, nor the seed of any indivi-
duall, as some unnaturall, obscene authors have imagined. In a
word, it is no minerall, no vegetable, no animall, but a system, as it
were, of all three. In plain terms, it is Sperma Majoris Animalis,
the seed of Heaven and earth, our most secret, miraculous Herma-
phrodite. If you know this, and, with it, the Hydro-pyro-magical
art, you may with some security attempt the work—if not, practice
is the way to poverty. Assay nothing without science, but confine
yourself to those bounds which Nature hath prescribed you.
THE END.
ANIMA MAGICA ABSCONDITA:
OR
A DISCOURSE OF THE UNIVERSALL SPIRIT OF
NATURE,
WITH HIS STRANGE, ABSTRUSE, MIRACULOUS
ASCENT, AND DESCENT.
BY
EUGENIUS PHILALETHES.
Stapul: in Dion :
Est autem universum speculum unum, ad quod astans Amor, suum efformat idolum.
IDú a T)igon: Héb Dhû, Hèb I)him.
TO THE READER.
OW God defend what will become of me?
I have neither consulted with the stars, nor
their urinals, the almanacks. A fine fellow,
to neglect the prophets who are read in
England every day ! They shall pardon me
for this oversight. There is a mystery in
their profession they have not so much as
heard of—“the Christian starry Heaven”
—a new Heaven fansied on the whole
earth. Here the twelve Apostles have
surprised the zodiak, and all the saints are ranged on their North
and South sides. It were a pretty vanity to preach when St
Paul is ascendent, and would not a papist Smile to have his
pope elected under St Peter P Reader, if I studied these things,
I should not think myself worse imployed then the Roman
Chaucer was in Troilus. I come out as if there were no houres
in the day, nor planets in the houres, neither do I care for any-
thing but that interlude of Perrendenga in Michael Cervantes:
“Let the old man, my master live, and Christ be with us all.”
Thou wilt wonder now where this drives, for I have neither a Conde
de lemos, nor a cardinal to pray for. I pray for the dead, that is, I
wish him a fair remembrance whose labours have deserved it. It
happened in exposing my former discourse to censure (a custom
hath strangled many truths in the cradle), that a learned man Sug-
gested to me some bad opinion he had of my author, Henricus
Cornelius Agrippa. I have ever understood it was not one but
many in whose sentiment that miracle suffered. It is the fortune of
deep writers to miscarry because of obscurity; thus the spots in the
moon with some men are earth, but it is more probable they are water.
There is no day so clear, but there are lees towards the horizon;
so, inferior wits, when they reflect on higher intellects, leave a mist
in their beames. Had he lived in ignorance, as most do, he might
have past hence like the last yeare's cloudes, without any more
remembrance. But as I believe the truth a maine branch of that
end to which I was born, so I hold it my duty to vindicate him from

44 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 I’
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 hastheard 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 Damonomania 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
philosopher, “absolutely surrounded by his extraordinary manu-
script treasures,” would not sometimes stir out for a whole week
together. So studious was he for the good of posterity, who have
but coldly rewarded him for his pains. I have observed also in his
“Epistles,” that when he was resident at Malines, his domesticks
used to give him an account in their letters how his dogs fared, so
fond was he of those creatures. But to come to the rest of the
legend; Paulus Jovius tells you he died at Lyons “in a squalid and
gloomy inn.” But Wierus, who had more reason to be inquisitive
after his master's death, tells me he died at Granople, and that “ in
the Lord,” not desperately as his enemies would have it. Here
now was a noble stride from Gratianopolis to Lugdunum ; sure this
Paul was a scant geographer. But, reader, it is not my intention to
conceal anything in this matter; know therefore that Agrippa had
another dog, his Filioli, and this last died in more respect then
most of his master's adversaries. For my author, by some secret
meanes having strangely qualified him, divers learned men writ
epitaphs upon him, whereof some have been published and are yet
extant. Out of this fable of the Cerberus, Baptista Possevinus
pumpt these verses.
All ye who, living, gaze upon this tomb,
And deem what lies therein deserving rest,
Know, here entombed, abysmal Styx's king,
On earth protected by a guard from hell,
But in perdition as his warder's prey
Surrendered now. Oh I had he check’d his mind,
He might have risen to the heights as far
As in perdition he is deeply plunged.
Thus have they all-to-be-devilled him ; but why may not truth run
in verse as well as scandal P
Thus great Agrippa did the two fold world
Illuminate, and in a weakly frame
His manifold abilities revealed.
By earth he conquered earth, by Heaven he gain'd,
And master'd heavenly things; alive, he wrote
Amidst the acclamations of the wise,
By naturall things attracting Nature's self,
And so for things supernal. Life Divine
Did recognize this spirit for its own.
He taught in life, and teaches still in death,
And while up starry heights his course ascends
Some magic potence still his hands dispense.
Now, reader, if thou wouldest be further satisfied in his distaste
of black magick, I wish thee to read his most christian invective
46 TO THE READERs
against the German conjurer entertained in the French court.
Nay, so zealous and nice of conscience was he, that being solicited
by some divines for a comment on Trismegistus, he returned them
a very tart answer, referring all true knowledge to the Scripture. In
a word, he did not onely hate impious but vaine arts, for he lost the
favour of the Queen-Mother, because he would not be imployed by
her in Astrologie. A science in whose true naturall part, which
Concernes generation and corruption, he was skilled to a miracle,
but he knew it was bootless to look for fatal events in the planets,
for such are not written in Nature, but in the superior Tables
of Praedestination. Having thus then sufficiently proved his
integrity, I will in a few words discover the grounds of his persecu-
tion. He was a man reformed in his religion, and had I the leisure
to cite his workes I could quickly prove he was not of the Roman
Church. For in his book on the “Vanity of all the Sciences,” he
allows not of monks and friars, but calls them sects “ of which the
Church at its best was devoid.” And certainly that notable jest of
his on the cowle nettles the papists to this day. He disclaimes also
their images, their invocation of Saints, their purgatory and pardons,
and would have the laity communicate “in both kindes.” He
corrects the pope himself sufficiently, and is utterly against the
Inquisition Office. What also his opinion was of Luther is not hard
to guesse out of his Epistles, for in a letter to Melancthon he hath
these words, “Salute through me that invincible heretic, Martin
Luther, who (as Paul Sayeth in the Acts) serveth God according to
that sect which they call heretical.” Lastly, he was altogether for
the written word, preferring it to humane constitutions, which is
contrarie to the papist, who will not allow it to be the judge of
controversies. This is the man, and thus qualified at home,
howsoever the world hath rendred him abroad. Now for his more
mysterious principles, thou hast their name in this discourse, which
if thou can'st apprehend, I know thou wilt style him in particular,
as Trismegistus doth man in generall “the expounder of God,” or
as Panaetius did his Plato, “the most divine, most holy, most wise
man, and the Homer of philosophers.” But this sluttish shuffle
fits not his memorie, and things fall from me now as strictures, not
compositions. I shall say nothing more, but leave thee to thy
studies, whiles I translate this epitaph of Platina to his Tom. 6.
Who e'er thou art, if piously inclined,
Seek not the dead Agrippa to molest,
Nor what with him lies narrowly enshrined,
And only asks to be alone in rest.
ANIMA MAGICA ABS CONDITA,
*Y. ºr/ſº build castles in the air is a common pro-
Fºlºr verb with all men, but a common practice
* NY2 ºff. Sº, with the Peripateticks onely. I have
} **a*\, \! sometimes admired, that the very end
- ºfºl and result of their philosophy did not
clearly discover its falsity. It is a mere
help to discourse. Moode and figure
are their two pillars, their limit; their
heptarchy ends in a syllogism, and the
best professor amongst them is but a
scold well disciplined. Their seven years’ studie are seven years of
famine ; they leave the Soul “not satisfied,” and are more a dream
than that of Pharaoh. For verily if the stage and reign of dreams
be no where beyond fansie, then the fansies of these men being no
where beyond their authors may rest on the same pillow. This sect
then may be styled “an assembly of dreamers; ” their conceptions
are not grounded on any reason existent in Nature, but they would
ground Nature on reasons framed and principled by their own con-
ceptions. Their philosophie is built on generall empty maxims,
things of that stretch and latitude they may be applied to any thing,
but conduce to the discovery of nothing. These are the first
lineaments of their monster, and in reference to them they have
many subordinate errors, which praetend a symmetrie with their
fundamentalls, but in truth have none at all. These latter quillets
are so minced with divisions and distinctions that their very patrons
are dubious how to state them. I could compare their physiologie to
a chase in Arras, where there is much of similitude but nothing of
truth. 'Tis the childe of fancie, a romance in syllogisms, a texture of
their own brain, like that cob-web campagnia which Lucian's spiders
planted betwixt the Moon and Venus. “Nature in generall (say
they) is the principle of motion and rest.” A form is “the outward
expression of an inward essence,” a definition they know not what
to make of, and the Soul is #yrexéxeto, or, the actuating principle of a
mechanical body. These two last descriptions (for they are no
Gº ſ
|
| 2 s
º
Genesis.

48 ANIMA MAGICA ABSCONDITA.
Substantial definitions) are such riddles, that I verily believe Aristotle
made use of those words “form” and “actuality,” because he
would not discover his ignorance in these points. For why should
a form be called Zogos, or in what other author do we find this
“actuality”? But because Nature in generall, that is, in her active
and passive portions, namely, matter and form, together with the
Soul of man, are the main fundamentals whereon to build a philo-
Sophie, and that this Aristotle is so sainted by his clients, that the
divines of Colleni tell us he was “praecursor of Christ in things
naturall” as John Baptist was in things of grace, I shall further
examine these his definitions, and acknowledge the benefit when I
finde it.
In the first place, then, it may be thought I am beholden to this
man for telling me that Nature is a principle. So, I may tell the
reader the Magician's Passive Spirit is a principle, but if I tell him
not what kind of substance it is, I will allow him ten years of studie,
and if the Sun went back every day ten degrees in his diall, he shall
not, without a supernaturall assistance, know what or where it is.
But you will reply: He tells me further; it is a principle causeth
bodies to move and rest. I thank him for his nothing. I desire
not to know what this principle doth, for that is obvious to every eye;
but I would know what it is, and therefore he may pocket his defini-
tion. Again you will object. He tells me not onely that Nature is
a principle, but that “Nature is form,” and, by consequence, “form
is Nature.” This is idem per idem ; he retains me in a circle of
notions but resolves nothing at all essentially. Besides “form,” in
the genuine scope of the language signifies the outward symmetrie
or shape of a compound. But the Peripateticks who impose no
tongues, as they do on Nature, render it otherwise in their books,
and mistake the effect for the cause. I shall therefore take it in
their sense, and be content for once to subscribe to their comments.
Form then in their conception is the same with vis formatrix or
“Formative Power,” which Aristotle defines “the outward expres-
sion of the inward essence.” I must confesse I do not understand
him, and therefore I shall take him upon trust as his disciples
expound him. “It is the Logos (saith Magirus) in so much as it
completes, doth improve and inform natural substance, so that one
thing may thereby be distinguished from another.” This is an
expresse of the office and effect of formes, but nothing at all to their
substance or essence.
Now let us see what he sayth to the Soul of man. The Soul
(sayth he) is in plain terms the consummation, or barbarously
ANIMA MAGICA ABSCONDITA. 49
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 placeſ 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
5o 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
ANIMA MAGICA ABSCONDITA, 5 I
misconceive me. I speake not in this place of the Divine Spirit,
but I speake of a certaine art by which a particular Spirit may be
united to the universall, and nature by consequence may be strangely
exalted and multiplied.* Now then, you that have your eyes in
your hearts, and not your hearts in your eyes, attend to that which
is spoken, and, that I may exhort you to Magick in the Magician's
phrase—“Hear with the understanding of the heart.”
It is obvious to all those whom Nature hath enriched with
sense, and convenient organs to exercise it, that every body in
the world is subject to a certain species of motion. Animals
have their progressive outward, and their vitall inward motions.
The Heavens are carried with that species which the Peripateticks
Call Lation, where, by the way, I must tell you, it proceeds from
an intrinsecall principle, for intelligences are fabulous. The aire
moves variously, the sea hath his flux and reflux. Vegetables have
their growth and augmentation, which necessarily infer a con-
coction; and, finally, the earth with her mineralls and all other
treasures, are subject to alteration, that is, to generation and corrup-
tion. Now, the matter of it selfe being merely passive, and furnished
with no motive faculty at all, we must of necessity conclude
that there is some other inward principle which acts and regulates it
in every severall species of motion. But, verily, it is not enough to
Call this inward principle a Form, and so bury up the riches of
Nature in this narrow and most absurd formality. We should rather
abstaine from scribbling, or study to publish that which may make
something for the author's credit, but much more for the benefit of
the readers. To be plaine then, this principle is the Soule of the
World, or the Universall Spirit of Nature. This Soule is retained in
the matter by certain other proportionate natures, and missing a
vent doth organize the shapeless mass. She labours what she can
to resume her former liberty, frames for her selfe a habitation here
in the center, puts her prison into some good order, and brancheth
into the severall members, that she may have more roome to act and
employ her faculties. But you are to observe that in every frame
there are three leading principles. The first is this Soule whereof
we have spoken something already. The second is that which is
called the Spirit of the World, and this Spirit is the medium whereby
the Soul is infused and doth move its body. The third is a cer-
tain oleous aethereall water; this is the Menstruum and Matrix of
the World, for in it all things are framed and preserved. The Soule
is a compound of “an ether of excessive tenuity and of the most
* Note 9.
52 ANIMA MAGICA ABSCONDITA.
uncompounded form of light.” Hence that admirable Platonicall
poet styled it “the fire of purest ether.” Virgil.
Neither should you wonder that I say it is a compound, for there
is no perfect specificall Nature that is simple and void of composition
but only that of God Almighty. Trust not then to Aristotle, who
tells you that the elements are simple bodies, for the contrary hath
been manifested by absolute infallible experience. The passive
spirit is a thin aeriall substance, the only immediate vestiment
wherein the Soule wraps her selfe when she descends and applies to
generation. The radicall vitall liquor is a pure coelestiall nature,
answering in proportion and complexion to the superiour interstellar
waters. Now, as soone as the passive spirit attracts the Soule,
which is done when the first link in the chain moves (of which we
shall speake in its due place), then the aethereall water in a moment
attracts the passive spirit, for this is the first visible receptacle wherein
the superiour natures are concentrated. The Soule being thus
confined and imprisoned by lawfull magick in this liquid chrystall,
the light which is in her streams thorough the water, and then it is
“the Light made openly visible to the eye,” in which state it is first
made subject to the artist. Here now lies the mystery of the
magician's denarius, his most secret and miraculous pyramid, whose
first unity or cone is alwaies in the “horizon of eternity,” but his
basis or quadrate is here below in the “horizon of the temporal.”
The Soule consists of three portions of light and one of the matter.
The passive spirit hath two parts of the matter and two of the light,
wherefore it is called the “natural medium ” and the “sphere of
equilibrium.” The coelestiall water hath but one portion of light to
three of the matter. Now the chaine of descent which concernes
the spirituall is grounded on a similitude, or symboll of natures,
according to that principle of Osthanes à pious rà puget réprero.1—“One
Nature delights in another.” For there being three portions of light
in the Soule and two in the passive spirit, the inferiour attracts the
superiour. Then there being but one portion in the coelestiall nature,
and two in the middle spirit, this solitary shining Unity attracts
the other Binarius to fortifie and augment it selfe, as light joynes
with light or flame with flame, and thus they hang in a vitall, mag-
neticall series. Again, the chayne of ascent which concerns the
matter is performed thus. The coelestiall nature differs not in sub-
stance from the aeriall spirit but only in degree and complexion, and
the aeriall spirit differs from the aura, or materiall part of the Soule,
in constitution only, and not in nature, so that these three being
but one substantially may admit of a perfect hypostaticall
union, and be carried by a certaine intellectuall light “into
ANIMA MAGICA ABSCONIDITA. 53
the plane of the super-coelestiall world, and so swallowed up
of immortality.” But one thinks Nature complaines of a prostitu-
tion, that Igoe about to diminish her majesty, having almost broken
her seall, and exposed her naked to the world. I must confesse I
have gone very far, and now I must recall my selfe, for there is a
necessity of reserving as well as publishing some things, and yet I
will speake of greater matters. The Soule, though in some sense
active, yet is she not so essentially, but a mere instrumentall agent,
for she is guided in her operations by a Spirituall Metaphysicall
Graine, a Seed or Glance of Light, simple and without any mixture,
descending from the first Father of Lights. For though his full-eyed
love shines on nothing but man, yet every thing in the world is in
Some measure directed for his preservation by a spice or touch of
the first Intellect. This is partly confirmed by the Habitation and
Residence of God, for He is seated above all his creatures, to hatch,
as it were, and cherish them with living eternall influences which
daily and hourely proceed from him. Hence he is called of the
Cabalists Kether, and it answers to Parmenides his “Burning Crown,”
which he placed above all the visible sphaeres. This flux of im-
materiall powers, Christ himself, in whom the fullnesse of the God-
head resided, confirmed and acknowledged in the flesh, for when the
diseased touched his garment, though the press was great, he ques-
tioned who it was, adding this reason—“I perceive (said he) that
vertue is gone out of me.” But, laying aside such proofs, though
the Scripture abounds in them, let us consider the exercise and
practice of Nature here below, and we shall finde her game such she
can not play it without this tutor. In the first place then, I would
faine know who taught the spider his mathematicks? How comes
he to lodge in the center of his web, that he may sally upon all
occasions to any part of the circumference? How comes he to
premeditate and forecast P For if he did not first know and
imagine that there were flies, whereupon he must feede, he would
not watch for them, nor spin out his netts in that exquisite form and
texture. Verily, we must needs confesse that He who ordained
flyes for his sustenance gave him also some small light to know and
execute His ordinance. Tell me, if you can, who taught the hare
to countermarch, when she doubles her trace in the pursuit to con-
found the scent and puzzle her persecutors? Who counsels her to
stride from the double to her form, that her steps may be at a
greater distance, and, by consequence, the more difficult to finde out?
Certainly, this is a well-ordered policy, enough to prove that God is
not absent from his creatures, but that “Wisdom reacheth mightily wisdom.
* Note Io.
54 ANIMA MAGICA ABSCONDITA,
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
lilie 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—
Pigitus 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 Sił Zux—
“let there be light”—which some falsely render Fiat Zux—“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.
how shall we approach to the Lord, and by what means may
we finde him out? Surely, not with words, but with workes,
not in studying, ignorant, heathenish authours, but in perusing
and trying his creatures. For in them lies his secret path, which
though it be shut up with thornes and briars, with outward, worldly
corruptions, yet if we would take the pains to remove this luggage,
we might enter the Terrestriall Paradise, that Hortus conclusus, that
Encompassed Garden, of Solomon, where God descends to walk,
and drink of the Sealed Fountain. But, verily, there is such a
generall prejudice, such a customary opposition of all principles
which crosse Aristotle, that truth can no sooner step abroad but
some sophister or other flings dirt in her face. It is strange that
none of these schoolmen consider how the severall distinctions and
divisions translated from logick to divinity have set all Christendom
on fire, how they have violated the peace of many flourishing king-
doms, and occasioned more sects in religion then there are opinions
in philosophie. Most seasonable then and Christian is that petition
of St Augustine, “Deliver us from logick, O Lord l’ And here I
must desire the reader not to mistake me. I do not condemn the
use but the abuse of reason, the many subtleties and fetches of it,
which man hath so applied that truth and errour are equally dis-
putable. I am one that stands up for a true naturall knowledge,
grounded, as Nature is, on Jesus Christ, who is the true foundation
of all things visible and invisible. I shall therefore in this discourse
touch meerly upon those mysteries which some few have delivered
over to posterity in difficult, obscure termes, that if possible the
majesty of truth and the benefit they shall receive from it may settle
men in a new way, and bring them at last from vain, empty fansies
to a reall, sensible fruition of Nature.
You may remember how in my former discourse of the nature of
man I mentioned a certain triplicity of elements according to their
severall complexions in the severall regions of the world. I shall
now speak of another triplicity much more obscure and mysticall,
without which you can never attain to the former, for these three
principles are the KEY of all magick, without whose perfect know-
ledge you can never truely understand the best idioms in Nature.
The first principle is One in One, and One from One. It is a pure
white Virgin, and next to that which is most pure and simple. This
is the first created unity. By this all things were made, not actually,
but mediately, and without this nothing can be made, either arti-
ficiall or naturall. This is “the Bride of God and of the Stars.” ”
In Gen.
* Note I2.
ANIMA MAGICA ABSCONDITA. 57
By mediation of this, there is a descent from One into Four, and
an ascent from three by four to the invisible, supernaturall Monas.
Who knows not this can never attain to the Art, for he knows not
what he is to look for. The second principle differs not from the
first in substance and dignity but in complexion and order. This
second was the first, and is so still essentially, but by adhaesion to
the matter it contracted an impurity, and so fell from its first unity,
wherefore the magicians stile it Binarius. Separate therefore the
circumference from the centre through the line of the diameter, and
there will appear unto thee the philosopher's Ternarius, which is the
third principle. This third is properly no principle, but a product
of art. It is a various nature, compounded in one sence and decom-
pounded in another, consisting of inferior and superior powers.
This is the Magician's Fire. This is the Mercury of the philo-
sophers, that most celebrated Microcosmos, and Adam. This is
the Labyrinth and Wild of magick, where a world of students
have lost themselves, a thing so confusedly and obscurely handled
by such as knew it that it is altogether impossible to find it in their
records. There is no late writer understands the full latitude and
universality of this principle, nor the genuine metaphysicall use
thereof. It moves here below in shades and tiffanies, above in
white, aethereall vestures, neither is there anything in nature exposed
to such a publick prostitution as this is, for it passeth thorough all
hands, and there is not any creature but hath the use thereof. This
Ternarius, being reduced by the Quaternary, ascends to the magi-
call Decad which is “the exceeding single Monad,” in which state
“it can perform whatsoever things it pleases,” for it is united thus,
“face to face,” to the First, Eternall, Spirituall Unity. But of these
Three, hear the Oracle of magick, the great and solemn Agrippa.
“There are then, as we have said, four Elements, without the
perfect knowledge of which we can effect nothing in Magick. Now,
each of them is threefold, that so the number of four may make up
the number of twelve; and by passing the number of seven into the
number of ten, there may be a progress to the supreame Unity, upon
which all vertue and wonderfull operation depends. Of the first
order are the pure Elements, which are neither compounded nor
changed, nor admit of mixtion, but are incorruptible, and not of
which but through which the vertues of all naturall things are
brought forth into act. No man is able to declare their vertues,
because they can do all things upon all things. He which is ignorant
of these shall never be able to bring to compass any wonderfull matter
Of the second order are elements that are compounded, changeable,
58 ANIMA MAGICA ABSCONDITA.
and impure, yet such as may by art be reduced to their pure
simplicity, whose vertue, when they are thus reduced to their
simplicity, doth above all things perfect all occult and common
operations of Nature, and these are the ſoundations of the whole
naturall Magick. Of the third order are those elements which
originally, and of themselves, are not elements, but are twice com-
pounded, various, and changeable one into the other. They are the
infallible medium, and therefore are called the middle nature, or Soul
of the middle nature. Very few there are that understand the deep
mysteries thereof. In them is, by means of certain numbers,
degrees, and orders, the perfection of every effect in what thing so-
ever, whether naturall, coelestiall, or super-coelestiall; they are full
of wonders and mysteries, and are operative as in Magick Naturall,
so Divine; for from these, through them, proceed the bindings,
loosings, and transmutations of all things, the knowing and fore-
telling of things to come, also the driving forth of Evill, and the
gaining of good, spirits. Let no man, therefore, without these
three sorts of elements, and the knowledge thereof, be confident
that he is able to work anything in the occult sciences of Magick
and Nature. But whosoever shall know how to reduce those of one
order into those of another, impure into pure, compounded into
simple, and shall know how to understand distinctly the nature,
vertue, and power of them in number, degrees, and order, without
dividing the substance, he shall easily attain to the knowledge and
perfect operation of all naturall things, and coelestiall secrets.”
This is he with the “black spaniell,” or rather, this is he “who,
even from his earliest age did ever appear as an inquiring and
intrepid investigator into the abounding operations of things mysteri-
ous and of miraculous effects.” Now, for your further instruction,
hear also the dark disciple of the more dark Libanius Gallius. “The
first principle doth consist in that one substance through which,
rather than from whom, is every potentiality of naturall marvels
developed into the actual. We have said “through which,” because
the Absolute which proceedeth out of unity is not compounded,
neither hath it any vicissitude. Thereunto from the Triad,
and from the Tetrad is an arcane progression to the Monad, for
the completion of the Decad, because thereby is the regression
of number into unity, and, in like manner, the descent unto the
Tetrad and the ascent unto the Monad. By this only can the
Duad be completed. With joy and triumph is the Monad con-
verted into the Triad. None who are ignorant of this principle
which is after the principle of the Monad can attain unto the Triad,
ANIMA MAGICA ABSCONDITA. 59
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
6o ANIMA MAGICA ABSCON DITA.
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
aeternall 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 P
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, 6 I
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
anything by it but diseases and poverty? Did they not in their old
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 adaequate 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 Zºngens, 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 P 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 with the 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 P
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 aeternall 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
most of their instructions addressed to a certaine German postulant.
But that you may the better understand how to come by this Stone,
hear what he speaks in another place. “True knowledge begins
when after the comparison of the imperishable and the perishable,
of life and annihilation, the Soule forcibly attracted by the delights
of the supersensual doth elect to be made one with its divine
spirit. The intellectuall principle doth issue from this know-
ledge, and chooses the voluntary separation of the body, beholding
with the Soule, on the one hand, the foulness and corruption of the
body, and, on the other, the everlasting splendour and felicity of
the Spirit; with this (the Divine Pneuma so ordering) doth it yearn
to be connected, completely discarding the body, that it may seek
only what it knows is encompassed by God himself with salvation
and glory, but he is constrained nevertheless to permit the body
it self to participate in the union of Soule and Spirit; and this is
that marvellous philosophicall transmutation of body into spirit, and
of spirit into body about which this aphorism has come down to us
from the wise of old. ‘Fix that which is volatile, and volatilise that
which is fixed, and thou shalt attain to our Grand Magisterium.’
That is to say, “make the unyielding body pliant, which, by the
supreme vertue of the Spirit acting in concert with the Soule, will
endow the physicall organism itself with an invariable constancy,
and enable it to resist every test.” For gold is proven with fire, by
which process all that is not gold is cast aside. O prae-eminent
Gold of the philosophers with which the Sons of the Wise are
enriched, not with that which is coined. Come hither all ye who
seek with such multitudinous exertions for the Philosophicall Trea-
sure, behold that Stone which you have rejected, and learn first what
it is before you set out in search of it. It is more astonishing than
any miracle that a man should seek he knows not what. It is un-
deniably foolish that an object should be sought by men, about the
truth of which the investigators know nothing, for such a search is
hopeless. Let those whosoever, who seek with so great toil first as-
certain the existence and nature of the object they are in search of,
and thus they will not be frustrated in their attempts. The wise man
seeks what he loves and cannot love what he does not know, other-
wise he would be a fool. Out of knowledge, therefore, springeth Love,
the truth which is in all things, and which alone flourishes in all true
philosophers.” Thus he, and again : “Ye but labour in vain, all ye
exposers of the hidden secrets of Nature, when having entered upon
the wrong path ye endeavour to discover by material meanes the
informing vertues of things material. Learn therefore to know
E
66 ANIMA MAGICA ABSCONDITA,
Heaven by Heaven, not by earth, but the potentialities of the
material learn to discern by the heavenly, No one can ascend into
the Heaven which is thy ambition unlesse he who descended from a
Heaven which thou seekest not, shall first vouchsafe him light.
Ye seek an incorruptible medecine which shall not only transmute
the body from corruption into a perfect organism but shall preserve
that perfected body for an indefinite period, but except in Heaven
itself never anywhere will you discover such a medecine. The coeles-
tiall virtue penetrates all the elements along invisible lines which,
starting from all points, meet at the earth's centre; it generates and
fosters the elementated worlds. No one can be broughtforth therein
save in the likeness thereof which also is drawn therefrom. In like
manner the combined foetus of either parent retains within itself its
special nature, that both parents may be potentially and actually dis-
coverable therein. What shall cleave more closely save the Stone in
philosophicall generation ? Learn from within thyself to know
whatsoever is in Heaven and on Earth, that thou mayst be made wise
in all things. Thou seest not that Heaven and the elements were
Once but one substance, and were separated one from another by
divine skill to accomplish the generation of thy self and all that is.
Didst thou know this the rest could not escape thee, else art thou
devoid of all capacity. Again, in every generation such a separation
is necessary as I have already told thee must thou make before
setting sail in the study of the true philosophy. Never wilt thou
extract the one thing which thou desirest out of the many which
are round thee till from thy self be extracted that one thing which I
have proclaimed to thee. For such is the will of God, that the
devout should perform the devout work which they desire, and the
perfect accomplish another on which they have been bent. To men
of bad will shall there be no harvest other than they have sown;
furthermore, on account of their malice, their good seed shall very
often be changed into cockle. Perform then the work which thou
Seekest in such a manner that, so far as may be in thy power thou
maySt escape a like misfortune.” This is now the true, essentiall
mystery of regeneration, or the spirituall death. This is, and ever
was, the onely scope and upshot of Magick. But, for your further
instruction, ruminate this his other mysticall speech. “Rouse up
now, therefore, my Soule, and bodye alsoe ; rise now, follow the flight
of your Spirit. Let us goe up into that high mountain over against
us, from whose pinnacle I will show you that two-fold road which
Pythagoras spoke of in cloud and darkness. Our eyes are opened,
now shineth forth the Sun of holiness and justice, guided by which we
ANIMA MAGICA ABSCONDITA. 67
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
68 ANIMA MAGICA ABSCONDITA.
Gal. iv. 22.
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
1t not.—
“Hence, hence Profane ones l’”
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 of this 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 AEgyptian 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 P
“For it is written (sayth he), that Abraham had two sons, the one
ANIMA MAGICA ABSCONDITA. 69
by a bondmaid, the other by a free-woman. But he who was of
the bondwoman was born after the flesh, but he of the freewoman
by promise. Which things are an allegorie; for these are the two
Covenants, the one from Mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage,
which is Agar; for this Agar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and an-
Swereth to Jerusalem that now is, and is in bondage with her chil-
dren; but the Jerusalem from above is free, which is the mother of us
all.” I could instance in many more such places, as that of the
royall prophet, “that the dew of Hermon descends to Mount Sion,
which is altogether impossible in the literall sense, for every
geographer knows there is a vast distance between these two. But
to return to my former discourse : some philosophers, who by the
speciall mercy of God attained to the Ternarius, could never not-
withstanding obtaine the perfect medecine, neither did they under-
stand it. I never met in all my reading but with six authors who
fully apprehended this mystery—the first an Arabian, a most pro-
found but exceedingly obscure writer, and from him, I conceive,
Artesius borrowed all his knowledge—The second a most ancient
Christian Anonymous, the greatest that ever was in point of prac-
tice, for he ascended to that glorious metaphysicall height where the
Archtype shadows the Intellectuall Sphaeres. The other four are
famously known in Christendom. To instruct thee then, this
mystery is perfected when the Light in a suddain, miraculous corus-
cation strikes from the Center to the Circumference, and the Divine
Spirit hath so swallowed up the body that it is “glorified like the
Sun and Moon in their splendour. In this rotation it doth passe
(and no sooner) from the naturall to a supernaturall state, for it is
no more fed with visibles but with invisibles, and the eye of the
Creator is perpetually upon it. After this the material parts are
never more to be seen, and this is that sinless and oft-celebrated
invisibility of the Magi.” Verily, this is the way that the prophets
and apostles went; this is the true primitive divinity, not that
clamourous sophistrie of the schooles. I know the world will be
ready to boy me out of countenance for this because my yeares are
few and green. I want their two crutches, the praetended modern
sanctitie, and that solemnitie of the beard which makes up a doctor.
But, reader, let me advise thee if by what is here written thou
attainest to any knowledge in this point (which I hold impossible
without a divine assistance), let me advise thee, I say, not to attempt
any thing rashly ; for Agrippa tells me: “Whosoever doth approach
unpurified, calls down judgment on himself, and is abandoned to
the devouring of the evil spirit.” There is in the Magicall Records
7o ANIMA MAGICA ABSCONDITA.
a memorable story of a Jew, who having by permission rifled some
spiritual treasures, was translated into the wilderness, and is kept
there for an example to others. I will give thee the best counsel
that can be given, and that out of a poet:
“Entreat a sober mind in healthful frame.”
Thou must prepare thy self till thou art conformable to Him
whom thou wouldst entertain, and that “in every respect.” Thou
hast Three that are to receive, and there are three accordingly that
give. Fitt thy roofe to thy God in what thou canst, and in what
thou Canst not he will help thee. When thou hast thus set thy
house in order, do not think thy guest will come without invitation.
Thou must tyre him out with pious importunities,
Perpetuall knockings at his doore,
Teares Sullying his transparent roomes,
Sighes upon sighes; weep more and more,
He comes.
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 I2.
72 ANIMA MAGICA ABSCONDITA,
separate from the magicall compounded earth that principle which
is called “the Middle Earth,” because it is middlemost between the
Unarius and the Binarius, for as it attaines not to the simplicity of
the first, so it is free from the impurities of the second. This is
“the True Chrystalline Stone, a bright virgin earth without spot or
darknesse.” This is “the Magian earth within the luminous aether,”
for it carries in its belly winde and fire. Having got this funda-
mentall of a little new world, unite the heaven in a triple proportion
to the earth; then apply a generative heat to both, and they will
attract from above the Star-Fire of Nature. “So shalt thou possess
the glory of all the world, and all darkness shall flee away from
thee.” Now because the law of Nature is infallible, and confined
to the creature by God's royall assent, think not therefore there is
any necessity upon God, but what he hath enacted in general, he
can repeal in any particular. Remember who translated the dew
from the earth to the fleece, and from the fleece to the earth. God
bestowes not his blessings where they are to turn to curses. He
cursed the Earth once for Adam's sake ; take heed he doth not curse
it again in thy work for thy sake. It is in vaine to look a blessing
from Nature without the God of Nature, for, as the Scripture sayth,
“without controversie the lesser is blessed of the greater.” He must
be a good steward that shall overlook the treasuries of God. Have,
therefore, a charitable, seraphick soul, charitable at home in being
not destructive to thy self, as most men are ; charitable abroad, in a
diffusive goodnesse to the poor, as many are not. There is in every
true Christian a spice, I can not say a grain of faith, for then we could
work miracles. But know thou that as God is the Father, so charity
is the nurse of faith. For there springs from charitable works a
hope of Heaven, and who is he that will not gladly believe what he
hopes to receive? On the contrary, there springs no hope at all
from the works of darknesse, and, by consequence, no faith, but that
faith of devils, to “believe and tremble.” Settle not then in the
lees and puddle of the world; have thy heart in Heaven and thy
hands on earth. Ascend in piety and descend in charity, for this is
the Nature of Light and the Way of the Children of it. Above all
things, avoyd the guilt of innocent blood, for it utterly separates
from God in this life, and requires a timely and serious repentance
if thou wouldst find him in the next. Now for thy study: in the
winter time thy chamber is thy best residence. Here thou maySt
use fumigations and spicie lamps, not for superstition, but because
such recreate the animal spirits and the braine. In the summer,
translate thy self to the fields, where all are green with the Breath of
ANIMA MAGICA ABSCONDITA. 73
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:—
“All things by Phoebus in his musing spake
The bless'd Eurotas heard.”
So have I spent on the banks of Ysca many a quiet hour.
“”Tis day, my chrystal Usk : now the sad night
Resignes her place as tenant to the light.
See the amazed mists begin to flye,
And the victorious sun hath got the skie.
How shall I recompense thy streams, thät keep
Me and my soul awak’d when others sleep?
I watch my stars, I move on with the skies,
And weary all the planets with mine eyes.
Shall I seek thy forgotten birth, and see
What dayes are spent since thy nativity?
Didst run with ancient Kishon P Canst thou tell
So many yeers as holy Hiddekel?
Thou art not paid in this. I’ll leavie more
Such harmless contributions from thy store,
And dresse my Soul by thee as thou do'st passe,
As I would do my body by thy glasse.
What a clear, running chrystall here I find 1
Sure I will strive to gain as clear a mind,
And have my spirits, freed from dross, made light,
That no base puddle may allay their flight.
How I admire thy humble banks 1 Nought's here
But the same simple vesture all the yeer.
I’ll learn simplicity of thee, when
I walk the streets I will not storme at men,
Nor look as if I had a mind to crie—
‘It is my valiant cloth of gold, and I.”
Let me not live, but I’m amazed to see
What a clear type thou art of pietie.
Why should thy flouds enrich those shores, that sin
Against thy liberty, and keep thee in P
Thy waters nurse that rude land which enslaves
And captivates thy free and spacious waves.
74 ANIMA MAGICA ABSCONDITA.
Most blessed Tutors I will learn of those
To show my charity unto my foes,
And strive to do some good unto the poor,
As thy streams do unto the barren shore.
All this from thee, my Ysca? Yes, and more :
I am for many vertues on thy score.
Trust me thy waters yet : why, wilt not so?
Let me but drink again and I will go.
I see thy course anticipates my plea,
I’ll haste to God, as thou dost to the Sea.
And when my eyes in waters drown their beams,
The pious imitation of thy streames,
May every holy, happy, hearty teare
Help me to run to Heaven, as thou dost there.”
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
A'estituta, 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
misſortunes 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 comoedie. 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.
ANIMA MAGICA ABSCONDITA. 75
“O blessed Souls whose watchful care it was
. These saving truths before all truths to know
And so the mansions of the blest attain.
How credible to hold that minds like these
Do equally transcend both human vice
And human folly!”
“If thou, O Jehovah, my God, shalt enlighten me, my darkness
shall be made light.”
M A G IA A D A M I C A :
OR
THE ANTIQUITIE OF MAGIC, AND THE DESCENT THEREOF
FROM ADAM DOWNWARDS PROVED.
WHEREUNTO IS AIDDED
A PERFECT AND TRUE DISCOVERIE OF THE TRUE COEZVM
TERRA, OR THE MAGICIAN’S HEAVENLY CHAOS,
AND FIRST MATTER OF ALL THINGS.
BY
EUGENIUS PHILALETHES.
TO THE MOST ExCELLENTLY ACCOMPLISHED,
My BEST OF FRIENDS,
MR THOMAS HENSHAW.
IR, It was the question of Solomon, and it
argued the supremacie of his wisedom,
Q “What was best for man to do all the
º)/{\º dayes of his vanitie under the sun ?” If
Nº. WN I wish my selfe so wise as to know this
§§ great affaire of life, it is because you are fit
lſº to manage it. I will not advise you to
º Z. pleasures, to build houses, and plant vine-
9:Qº yards, to enlarge your private possessions,
8- tº Yº or to multiplie your gold and silver. These
are old errors, like Vitriol to the Stone, so many false receipts
which Solomon hath tried before you, “And behold all was vanitie,
and vexation of spirit.” I have some times seen actions as various
as they were great, and my own sullen fate hath forced me to
severall courses of life, but I finde not one hitherto which ends not
in surfeits or satietie. Let us fansie a man as fortunate as this world
can make him ; what doth he doe but move from bed to board, and
provide for the circumstances of those two scenes? To day hee
eates and drinkes, then sleeps, that hee may doe the like to morrow.
A great happinessel to live by cloying repetitions, and such as have
more of necessity than of a free pleasure. This is idem żer idem, and
what is held for absurditie in reason can not, by the same reason, be
the true perfection of life. I deny not but temporall blessings con-
duce to a temporall life, and by consequence are pleasing to the
body, but if we consider the Soule, shee is all this while upon the
wing, like that dove sent out of the Ark, seeking a place to rest.
Shee is busied in a restless inquisition, and though her thoughts, for
want of true knowledge, differ not from desires, yet they sufficiently
prove she hath not found her satisfaction. Shew me then but a
practice wherein my Soule shall rest without any further disquisi-
tion, for this is it which Solomon calls vexation of spirit, and you
shew mee “what is best for man to doe under the sun.” Surely,
Eccle ii. 3.
Eccle. ii. II.

8o TO MR THOMAS HENSHAW.
sir, this is not the Philosophers' Stone, neither will I undertake to
define it, but give me leave to speak to you in the language of
Zoroaster: &
“Seek thou the channel of the Soule.”
I have a better confidence in your opinion of mee than to tell you
I love you, and for my present boldness you must thank yourself;
you taught me this familiaritie. I here trouble you with a short
discourse, the brokage and weake remembrances of my former and
more entire studies. It is no laboured piece, and indeed no fitt
present, but I beg your acceptance as of a caveat, that you may see
what unprofitable affections you have purchased. I propose it not
for your instruction; Nature hath already admitted you to her
schoole, and I would make you my judge, not my pupill. If there-
fore amongst your serious and more deare retirements, you can
allow this trifle but some few minutes, and think them not lost, you
will perfect my ambition. You will place mee, sir, at my full height,
and though it were like that of Statius, amongst gods and stars, I
shall quickly find the earth again, and with the least opportunitie
present my self, t
Sir,
Your obedient Servant,
TO THE READER.
ELL fare the Dodechedron I I have ex-
amined the nativity of this book by a
cast of constellated bones, and ZXaux Ace
tells me this parable. Truth (sayd the
witty Aleman) was commanded into exile,
and the Lady Lie was seated in her throne.
To performe the tenor of this sentence,
Truth went from amongst men, but she
went all alone, poore and naked. She
had not travailed very far when standing
on a high mountain, she perceived a great train to passe by. In the
middest of it was a chariot attended with kings, princes, and gover-
nors, and in that a stately Donna, who, like some queen-regent, com-
manded the rest of the company. Poor Truth, shee stood still whiles
this pompous squadron past by, but when the chariot came over
against her, the Lady Lie, who was there seated, took notice of her,
and causing her pageants to stay, commanded her to come nearer.
Here she was scornfully examined whence she came P whither she
would goe? and what about? To these questions she answered, as
the custome of Truth is, very simply and plainly. Whereupon the
Lady Lie commands her to wait upon her, and that in the reare and
taile of all her troop, for that was the known place of Truth. Thanks
then not to the stars but to the configurations of the dice They
have acquainted mee with my future fortunes, and what praeferment
my booke is likely to attain to. I am, for my part, contented, though
the consideration of this durty reare be very nauseous, and able to
spoile a stronger stomach than mine. It hath been said of old :
AVon est Planta Veritatis suffer terram. Truth is an herb that
grows not here below, and can I expect that these few seeds
which I scatter thus in the storm and tempest should thrive to
their full eares and harvest ? But, reader, let it not trouble thee
to see the truth come thus behind ; it may be there is more of a
chase in it than of attendance, and her conditions not altogether so
bad as her station. If thou art one of those who draw up to the
F

82 TO THE READER.
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 praevent 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 praefer Aristotle to AElohim,
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. Æzgo liquido apparef
in hac Mundi structurá, quam cernimus, aliguam triumphare Veri-
fatem , gua foſſies rationem nostram commoveſ, agitat, implicat, explicat,
foſſies inquietatem, foſſies insomnem miris modis sollicitat, non fortuitis,
auf aliunde adventitiis, sed suis et proprits et originariis AWatura illicibus;
gua omnia cum non fºunt frustra, utique contingit, at Zeritatem eorum
qua suni, 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 coelestiall 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 AEther, the Aire, and the most sacred
Earth.” As for this faeculent, 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 esseſ, 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 aequé walidas implesset rebus, gua in Maturá,
ambienteque erant, et pugnos zalide constringens ; Sume (inquit) 6
Sacra Zerra, qua Genetrix omnium es futura, né ullá re egena
Zidearis ; et manus, quales offortet ZXeum 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.
t
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 aestimate 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,
T H E A NT I QUIT IE OF MAGIC.
AT I should profess Magic in this dis-
course, and justifie the professors of it
withall, is impietie with many but religion
with mee. It is a conscience I have
learnt from authors greater than my self,
and Scriptures greater than both. Magic
is nothing else but the wisdom of The
Creator revealed and planted in the crea-
ture. It is a name (as Agrippa saith)
~ - £ps? Avangelio non ingratum, not distaste-
full to the very Gospel it self. Magicians were the first atten-
dants our Saviour met withall in this world, and the onely philoso-
phers who acknowledged him in the flesh before that hee himself
discovered it. I find God conversant with them, as he was formerly
with the patriarchs; he directs them in their travels with a star, as
hee did the Israelites with a pillar of fire; hee informs them of
future dangers in their dreams, that having first seen his Son, they
might in the next place see his salvation. This makes me believe
they were Sons of the Prophets as well as Sons of Art, men that
were acquainted with the very same Mysteries by which the prophets
acted before them. To reconcile this science, and the masters of
it, to the world is an attempt more plausible than possible, the pre-
judice being so great that neither reason nor authority can ballance
it. If I were to persuade a Jew to my principles, I could do it with
two words Eºpon inps, the Hachamim, or Wisemen, have spoken it.
Give him but the authoritie of his fathers, and presently hee submits
to the seale. Verily, our primitive Galileans (I mean those Chris-
tians whose lamps burnt near the cross and funerall) were most com-
pendious in their initiations. A Proselyte in those dayes was con-

88 MAGIA ADAMICA; OR, THE ANTIQUITIE OF MAGIC.
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 1 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 chaſſ, 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 zeritas pendet à solò Acevelantis
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, Mon solilm scientiam,
sed eſſ frincipium scientia esse aliguod dictmus, 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
upon us, wee shall apprehend the Intellectuall Formes, or Types of
all things that are within him. These Formes hee very properly
calls àpovg, because they terminate or end all things, for by them the
creature is defined and hath his individuation, or, to speak with
Scotus, his Hacceitie, by which he is this and not that. This, now,
is the demonstration we should look after, namely, the expansion or
opening of the Divine Mind, not a syllogism that runs perhaps on
all fours. If once wee be admitted to this Communion of Light,
wee shall be able, with the Apostle, to give a reason for our faith,
but never without it. Now, you are to understand that God unfolds
not himself, nisi magno colo priºs patefacto, “unlesse the Heaven of
Man bee first unfolded.” Amozete ergo velamen intellectus zestri, Çornelius
“Cast off the Veile that is before your faces,” and you shall bee no *
more blind. God is not God a far off, but God at hand. “Behold
(Saith he) I stand at the doore and knock.” Open your selves then,
for it is written, “If any man opens, I will come in and sup with
him.” This is the Inward, Mysticall, not the Outward, Typicall
Supper, and this is the Spirituall Baptism with Fire, not that
elemental one with water. Truely, I am much comforted when I
consider two things—first, that Magic did afford the first professors
of Christianity, whose knowledge and devotion brought them from
the East to Jerusalem; secondly, that this art should suffer as
religion doth, and for the very same reason. The main motives
which have occasioned the present rents and divisions of the Church
are the ceremonies and the types used in it, for, without controversie,
the Apostles instituted, and left behind them, certaine elements or
signes, as water, oill, salt, and lights, by which they signified
unto us some great and revered Mysteries. But our Reformers,
mistaking these things for superstitions, turned them all out of
doores. But, verily, it was ill done, for if the shadow of St Peter
healed, shall not these shadowes of Christ doe much more? The
Papist, on the contrary, knowing not the signification of these types,
did place a certain inhaerent holiness in them, and so fell into
a very dangerous idolatrie. I omit many things which he invented
of his own, as images, holy lambes, and reliques, adding these dead
bones to the primitive and beauteous bodie of the Church. Now
to draw the parallel: the Magicians, they also instituted certain
signes, as the Key to their Art, and these were the same with the
former, namely, water, oile, salt, and light, by which they tacitly
discovered unto us their three Principles, and the Light of Nature,
which fills and actuates all things. The common man perusing
their books, but not their sense, took candles, common water,
90 MAGIA ADAMICA; OR, THE ANTIQUITIE OF MAGIC.
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 wox operatur in Magić, mist prius
Det voce formefur, “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 Verðum 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 praetended to Magic, praescribed 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. 9 I
demonstrate the antiquitie of it. For certainly it is with arts as it
is with men, their age and continuance are good arguments of their
strength and integritie. Most apposite then was that check of the
Ægyptian to Solon: O Solon, Solon / Vos Graeci semper pueri estis,
nullam antiquam haffendes Opinionem, nullam disciplinam tempore
canam. “You Graecians (said hee) are ever childish, having no
ancient opinion, no discipline of any long standing.” But as I
Confesse my self no antiquarie, so I wish some Selden would stand
in this breach, and make it up with those fragments which are so
neer dust that time may put them in his glass. I know, for my
own part, it is an enterprise I cannot sufficiently performe, but since
my hand is already in the bag, I will draw out those few pebbles I
have, and thus I fling them at the mark.
This Art, or rather this Mysterie, is to bee considered severall wayes,
and that because of its severall subjects. The primitive, original
existence of it is God himself, for it is nothing else but the practice
or operation of the Divine Spirit working in the matter, uniting prin-
ciples into compounds, and resolving those compounds into their
principles. In this sense wee seeke not the antiquity of it, for it is
aeternall, being a Notion of the Divine Wisdome and existent before
all time, or the creation of it. Secondly, we are to consider it in a
derivative sense, as it was imparted and communicated to man, and
this properly was no birth or beginning, but a discovery or revelation
of the Art. From this time of its revelation wee are to measure the
antiquitie of it, where it shall be our task to demonstrate upon what
motives God did reveale it, as also to whom and when.
The eye discovers not beyond that stage wherein it is conversant,
but the eare receives the sound a great way off. To give an experi-
enced testimonie of actions more ancient than our selves is a thing
impossible for us, unless wee could look into that Glass where all
occurrences may bee seen, past, present, and to come. I must
therefore build my discourse on the traditions of those men to whom
the Word, both written and mysticall, was intrusted, and these were
the Jewes in generall, but more particularly their Cabalists. It is
not my intention to rest on these Rabbins as fundamentals, but I
will justifie their assertions out of Scripture, and entertain my reader
with proofes both divine and humane. Finally, I will passe out of
Judaea into AEgypt and Graece, where againe I shall meet with these
Mysteries, and prove that this Science did stream (as the Chimists
say their Salt Fountain doth) out of Jurie and watered the whole
Earth.
It is the constant opinion of the Hebrewes that before the Fall of
92 MAGIA ADAMICA; OR, THE ANTIQUITIE OF MAGIC.
Adam there was a more plentifull and large communion between
Heaven and Earth, God and the Elements, than there is now in our
days. But upon the transgression of the first man, Malchuth (say the
Cabalists) was cut off from the Ilan,” so that a breach was made
between both worlds, and their channel of influences discontinued.
Now Malchuth is the Invisible, Archetypall Moone, by which our
visible, coelestiall moone is governed and impraegnated. And truly
it may be that upon this retreate of the Divine Light from inferiors,
those spots and darkness which we now see succeeded in the body
of this planet, and not in her alone but about the sun also, as it hath
been discovered by the telescope. Thus (say they), God to punish
the sin of Adam withdrew himself from the creatures, so that they
were not feasted with the same measure of influences as formerly.
For the Archetypall Moone which is placed in the Epºn Hascha-
ſnaim, to receive and convey downe the influx of the six superior In-
visible Planets, was (as the Jewes affirme) either separated from the
Ilan, or her breasts were so sealed up that she could not dispense
her milk to inferiors in that happy and primitive abundance. But
because I would not dwell long on this point, let us heare the
Cabalist himself state it in a clear and apposite phrase. Initia
Creationis Mundi Divina Cohabitatio eraſ descendens in Znferiora,
et cum essef Zivina cohabitatio inferiès reperti sunt Coeli et Terra
uniti, et erant Fontes, et Canales activi in perfectione, et &rahedan-
fur d Superiore ad /nferius, et inveniečatur ZXeus complems
supermē ef infernë, Venit Adam primus, et peccavit, ef dirut; sumá
Descensus, et compact; sunt Canales, et desiit Aquae ductus, et cessaviţ
Divina Cohabitatio, et divisa est Societas. That is : “In the Be-
ginning of the Creation of the world God did descend and cohabitate
with things here below, and when the Divine Habitation was here
below, the Heavens and the Earth were found to be united, and the
vital springs and channels were in their perfection, and did flow from
the Superior to the Inferior World, and God was found to fill all
things both Above and Beneath. Adam, the first man, came, and
sinned, where upon the descents from above were restrained, and
their Channels were broken, and the Water-Course was no more,
and the Divine Cohabitation ceased, and the Societie was divided.”
Thus far my Rabbi. Now because I have promised Scripture to
my Cabalism, I will submit the tradition to Moses, and truly that
Rabbi also is of my side, for thus I read in Genesis, “And to Adam
he said, Because thou hast eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded
thee, saying, Thou shalt not eate of it. Cursed is the ground for
Porta Lucis.
* Note 15.
MAGIA ADAMICA; OR, THE ANTIQUITIE OF MAGIC. 93
thy sake, in sorrow shalt thou eate of it all the dayes of thy life,
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 “tº
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 praevailed, 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.
C. viii. v. 20.
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 of the 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
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. And
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
the Mosaicall and Cabalisticall traditions. He was ignorant, and
therefore hopeless, of Life AEternal, and for this temporall present
life, he was not acquainted with the provisions of it. The elements
of husbandrie were not as yet known; there was neither house
nor plow, nor any of those manuall arts which make up a worldly
providence. He was exposed to the violence of rains and winds,
frosts and snows, and, in a word, deprived of all comforts, spiritual
and natural. What should I say more ? He was a mere stranger
in this world, could not distinguish medecines from poysons, neither
was he skilled in the ordinarie praeparations of meate and drink.
He had no victuals ready to his hands but the crude, unseasoned
herbage of the earth, so that he must either starve or feed, as
Nebuchadnezar did, with the beasts of the field. He heard indeed
sometimes of a tree of life in Eden, but the vegetables of this world,
for ought he knew, might be so many trees of death. I conclude,
therefore, that he had some instructor to initiate him in the wayes
of life, and to shew him the intricate and narrow paths of that
wilderness. For, without question, his outward miseries and his
inward despaire were motives whereupon God did reveall a certaine
art unto him by which he might relieve his present necessities, and
embrace a firme hope of a future and glorious restitution. For God
having ordained a second, aeternal Adam, did by some mysterious
experience manifest the possibility of his coming to the first, who
being now full of despaire, and overcharged with the guilt of his own
sin, was a very fit patient for so divine and mercifull a physician.
But, omitting our own reasons, which we might produce to this
purpose, let us repayre to the Cabalists, who indeed are very high in
the point, and thus they deliver themselves. God (say they) having
made fast the doores of his Paradyse, and turned out Adam, some-
times the dearest of his creatures, did notwithstanding the present
punishment retaine his former affection for him still. For God is
said to love his creatures, not that there is anything lovely in them
without their creator, but in that hee desires their perfection. That
is to say, he would have them conformable to himself, and fitt to
receive his image or similitude, which is a spiritual impress of his
beauty. Now, to restore this similitude in Adam was impossible,
unlesse God should reassume that to himself which was now fallen
from him. So transcendent and almost incredible a mercy had God
treasured up in his secret will, being resolved to unite the nature of
man to his own, and so vindicate him from death by taking him into
the Deitie, which is the true fountain and centre of life. This will
(say the Cabalists) was first revealed to the angels, and that by God
96 MAGIA ADAMICA ; OR, THE ANTIQUITIE OF MAGIC.
Gen. iii. 22.
himself, in these words : Ecce Adam sicut unus ex nobis : “Behold an
Adam like one of us, knowing good and evill !” This speech they
call Orationem occultissimam d Creatore mund; cum beatis angelis
in suae Divinitatis penetralibus habitam, “a most secret conference
which God had with the blessed angels in the inner chambers of
Heaven.” Now that the same Scripture should speak one thing in
the letter and another in the mysterie is not strange to mee, how
difficult soever it may seem to another. For, verily, this text may
not concern the first Adam, who knowing evill by committing it,
could not be like God in respect of that knowledge, which made
him sinfull and altogether unlike him. For God (if I may so expresse
it) knows the evill onely speculatively, inasmuch as nothing can
escape his knowledge, and therefore is not guilty of evill, for, as
Trithemius hath well observed, scientia mall non est malum sed usus—
“The knowledge of evill is not evill, but the practice of it.” It
remains then that this speech concerned the second Adam, Christ
Jesus, who knew the evill but did not commit it, and therefore was
“like one of us,” that is like one of the Trinitie, knowing good and
evill, and yet no way guiltie of the evill. This primitive and com-
pendious gospell was no sooner imparted to the angels but they
became ministers of it, the Law (as St Paul Saith) “being ordained
into their hands,” till Christ should take it into his own, and their
administration to man took beginning with this oracle. Thus (say
the Cabalists), Raziel the angel was presently dispatched to com-
municate the intelligence to Adam, and to acquaint him with the
mysteries of both worlds, aeternall and temporall. For as he could
not obtain the blessings of the aeternall world unless by a true faith
hee apprehended the Three AEternall Principles of it, so neither
could he fully enjoy the benefits of this temporall world unless hee
truly understood the Three Visible Substances whereof it consists.
For there are Three above and Three beneath, Three (as St John
saith) in Heaven and Three on earth. The inferior bear witness of
the superior, and are their only proper receptacles. They are sig-
natures and created books where wee may reade the mysteries of
the supernaturall Trinitie. But to proceed in our former discourse.
The Cabalists doe not onely attribute a guardian to Adam, but to
every one of the patriarchs, allowing them their praesidents and
tutors both to assist and instruct them in their wearisome and
worldly peregrinations—a doctrine in my opinion not more religious
than necessary, how prodigious soever it may seem to some phan-
tastic insipid theologians. For certainly it is impossible for us to
find out mysteries of our selves; wee must either have the Spirit of
MAGIA ADAMICA ; OR, THE ANTIQUITIE OF MAGIC. 97
God or the instruction of his ministers, whether they bee men or
angels. And thus we see out of the traditions and doctrine of the
Jewes how their Cabala and our Magic came first into the world. I
shall now examine the Scriptures and consult with them, where (if I
am not much mistaken) I shall find some consequences which must
needs depend on these principles, and thus I apply myself to the
task.
The first harvest I read of was that of Cain, and the first flocks
those of Abel. A shepheard's life, in those early dayes, was no diffi-
cult profession, it being an employment of more care than art, but
how the earth was plowed up before the sound of Tubal's hammers
is a piece of husbandrie unknown in these dayes. Howsoever, it
was a labour performed, and not without retribution. Cain hath
his sheaves as well as Abel his lambs; both of them receive and
both acknowledge the benefit. I find established in these two a
certain priesthood; they attend both to the altar, and the first bloud
was shed by sacrifice, the second by murder.
Now so dull am I, and so short of syllogismes, those strange
pumps and hydragogues which lave the truth ex puteo, like water,
that all my reason cannot make these men Levites without Revela-
tion. For I desire to know how came they first to sacrifice, and by
whom were they initiated P. If you will say by Adam, the question
indeed is deferred but not satisfied, for, I would know further, in
what schoole was Adam instructed? Now, that it was impossible
for him to invent these shadowes and sacraments of himself, I will
undertake to demonstrate, and that by invincible reason, which no
adversarie dare to contradict.
It is most certain that the hope and expectation of man in matters
of Sacrifices, consist in the thing signified, and not in the signe it
self. For the material, corruptible shadow is not the object of faith,
but the spiritual, aeternall prototype which answers to it, and makes
the dead figure effectual. The sacrifices of the Old Testament, and
the Elements of the New, can be no way acceptable with God but
inasmuch as they have a relation to Christ Jesus, who is the great,
perfect sacrifice offered up once for all. It is plain then that sacri-
fices were first instituted upon supernatural grounds, for in Nature
there is no reason to be found why God should be pleased with the
death of his creatures. Nay, the very contrary is written in that
book, for death, both natural and violent, proceeds not from the
pleasure but from the displeasure of the Creator. I know the
learned Alkind builds the efficacie of sacrifices on a sympathie of
parts with the great world, for there is in every animal a portion of
G
98 MAGIA ADAMICA; OR, THE ANTIQUITIE OF MAGIC.
Porph. De
Sacrif,
the Star-Fire, which Fire, upon the dissolution of the compound,
is united to the general Fire from whence it first came, and pro-
duceth a sense, or motion, in the Limbus to which it is united.
This indeed is true, but that motion causeth no joy there, and, by
Consequence, no reward to the sacrifices; for I shall make it to
appeare elsewhere that the Astral Mother doth mourn and not rejoyce
at the death of her children. Now, if wee look back on these two
first Sacrifices, we shall find Abel and his oblation accepted, which
could not be, had he not offered it up as a symbol, or figure, of his
Saviour. To drive home my argument, then, I say that this know-
ledge of the type, in whom all offerings were acceptable, could not
bee obtained by any humane industrie but by sole revelation. For
the Passion of Christ Jesus was an ordinance wrapt up in the secret
will of God, and he that would know it must of necessitie bee of
his council. Hence it is called in Scripture the Hidden Mys-
terie, for the truth and certaintie of it was not to bee received
from any, but onely from him who had both the will and the power
to ordain it. And if you will tell mee (like the author of the Praedi-
cables) that men sacrificed at first by the instinct of Nature, and
without any respect to the type, I shall indeed thank you for my
mirth whensoever you give mee so just a reason to laugh. It
remaines then a most firme, infallible foundation that Adam was first
instructed concerning the Passion, and, in order to that, he was
taught further to sacrifice and offer up the bloud of beasts as types
and prodroms of the Bloud of Christ Jesus, the altars of the Law
being but steps to the Cross of the Gospell. Now, if it be objected
that severall nations have sacrificed who did not know God at all,
much less the Son of God, who is the prototype and perfection of
all oblations, to this I answer that the custome of Sacrificing was
Communicated to heathens by tradition from the first man, who
having instructed his own children, they also delivered it to their
posteritie, so that this vizard of religion remained, though the sub-
stance and true doctrine of it was lost. And thus, in my opinion, it
sufficiently appears that the first men did sacrifice, not by Nature, as
Porphyrius, that enemie of our Religion, would have it, but some by
revelation, others by custome and tradition. But, now I think upon
it, I have Scripture to confirme me concerning this Primitive Reve-
lation, for Solomon, numbering those severall blessings which the
Divine Wisdome imparted to the Ancient Fathers, amongst the rest
specifies her indulgence to Adam. “Shee praeserved (saith hee) the
first-found father of the world, that was created alone, and brought
him out of his Fall.” Here I find Adam in some measure restored,
MAGIA ADAMICA; OR, THE ANTIQUITIE OF MAGIC. 99
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 praecept, 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- *9.
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-
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To be short, there is no vanity to the vanity of sciences, I mean
those inventions, and their professors, which produce nothing true
and natural, but effects either false or in their ends corrupt and
ºniº violent. But 'tis no conquest to tread on ruines. Cornelius Agrippa
Zºº & a hath already laid these rhodomontados in the dirt, and that so hand-
somely they were never since of a general reputation. Give me an
Art then that is a perfect, entire map of the creation, that can lead
me directly to the knowledge of the true God, by which I can
discover those Universal, Invisible Essences which are subordinate
to him—an Art that is no way subject to evill, and by which I can
attain to all the secrets and mysteries in Nature. This is the Art
wherein the physics of Adam and the patriarchs consisted, and that
this Art was revealed to him, I will undertake to demonstrate by
Scriptures, and the practice of his posteritie.
This truth, I am certain, will seem difficult, if not incredible to most
men, the providence of God being prejudiced in this point, for they
will not allow him to instruct us in naturall things, but onely in
Supernaturals, such as may concern our Soules and their salvation.
As for our bodies, he must not praescribe for their necessities by
teaching us the true physic and discovering the lawes of his creation,
for though he made Nature, yet he may not tutor us in natural
sciences. By no means | Aristotle and his syllogism can doe it
much better. Certainly this opinion is nothing different from that
of the Epicure, Z)-um ad Caeli cardines obambulare, et nulla tang?
morta/ium cura, “That God takes the aire, I know not in what
walks and quarters of his Heaven, but thinks not of us mortals who
are here under his feet.” Questionlesse, a most eminent impietie to
make God, as Tertullian said of old, Oñosum et inexercitum meminem
Apolog. Ad- in rebus humanis, “An idle, unprofitable nobody, having nothing to
:* doe with our affaires as they are natural and humane.” Sure, these
men are afraid lest his mercy should diminish his majestie : they
suffer him to trade onely with our immortal parts, not with corruptible
bodies that have most need of his assistance ; they are base subjects
which he hath turned over to Galen and the Apothecaries. Not so,
my friend, he hath created physic, and brings it out of the earth, but
the Galenist knowes it not. Hee it is that pities our afflictions, he
is the good Samaritane that doth not passe by us in our miseries,
but poures oile and wine into our wounds. This I know very well
and will prove it out of his own mouth. Did not hee instruct Noah
to build an Ark, to pitch it within and without, and this to save life
in a time when hee himselfe was resolved to destroy it? In a time
..when the world was acquainted with no mechanics but a little hus-
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MAGIA ADAMICA; OR, THE ANTIQUITIE OF MAGIC. Io 1.
bandrie, and a few knacks of Tubal-Cain and his brethren? But
even those inventions also proceeded from that light which hee planted,
in man, an essence perpetually busie, and whose ambition it is to
performe wonders, yet hee seldome produceth any thing of his owne
but what is fantastic and monstrous. Did he not put his Spirit in
Bezaleel, the son of Uri, and in Aholiab, the son of Ahisamach P Exod. xxxi
Did hee not teach them to devise cunning workes, to work in gold,
in silver, in brasse, in cutting of stones, in setting of them, in carving
of timber, and in all manner of workmanship? But to come nearer
to our purpose: did hee not informe Moses in the composition of the
oile and the perfume P Did hee not teach him the symptoms of the
leprosie, and the cure thereof P Did he not praescribe a plaster of
figs for Hezekiah, and, to use your owne term, an opthalmic for
Tobit? Did not Jesus Christ himself in the dayes of his flesh work
most of his miracles on our bodies, though his great cure was that
of our Soules P Is hee not the same then to day as yesterday ?
Nay, was hee not the same from the beginning? Did he care for
our bodies then, and doth he neglect them now P Or, being seated
on the right hand of the Majesty on high, is hee become less good
because more glorious P God forbid To think so were a sin in
superlatives. Let us then take him for our praesident, “for he is not
(saith S. Paul) such an one which cannot be touched with the feeling Heb. iv. re.
of our infirmities,” but hee is indeed one that looks to our present
estate as well as to our future and is as sensible of our infirmitie as
hee is carefull of our immortalitie. When hee was on earth, with the
dust of that earth hee made the blind to see, and of mere water he
made wine. These were the visible elements of his physic, or rather
(so the notion doth not offend you) of his magic. But shall I shew
you his librarie, and in that his three-fold philosophie? Observe then
first and censure afterwards. “Have salt in your selves,” and again,
“you are the salt of the earth,” and, in a third place, “Salt is good.”
This is his mineral doctrine; will you know his vegetable? It is in two
little books—Mustard-seed and a Lillie. Lastly, he hath his animal
magic, and truly that's a scroll sealed up, I know not who may open it.
“Hee needed not that any should bear witnesse of man, for he Jo. ii. 25.
knew what was in man.” And what of all this blasphemie P sayes
some splenetick sophister? Behold, I will instruct thee! First of
all, have salt in thy self, for it will season thy soule that is infected,
and praeserve thy braines, that are putrified with the dirt of Aristotle.
In the second place, learn what the salt of the earth is, to which
the disciples are compared, and that by a regular, solid speculation.
Thirdly, come up to experience, and by a physicall, legitimate
I O2 MAGIA ADAMICA; OR, THE ANTIQUITIE OF MAGIC.
Luke xi. 15,
and Matt.
xxiii. 35.
Gen xx. 7.
practice know in what sense “salt is most good.” Fourthly,
examine the lilies by fire, and the water of fire, that thou mayst see
their miraculous, invisible treasures, and wherein that speech of
Truth is verified, “That Solomon in all his royaltie was not cloathed
like one of them.” If thou wilt attempt a higher Magic, thou mayst,
being first seasoned, but in this place it is not my designe to lead
thee to it. Animal and vegetable mysteries thou canst never per-
fectly obtain without the knowledge of the first mineral secret,
namely, the salt of the earth, which is salt and no salt, and the
praeparation thereof. This discourse, I confesse, is somewhat
remote from what I first intended, namely, that philosophie was
first revealed to Adam, as well as Divinitie, but some pates are
blocks in their own wayes, and, as I told you formerly, will not
believe that God dispenseth with any naturall secrets. This made
mee produce these few instances out of Scripture, as praeparatives to
the proposition it self, and, if hee be anything ingenious to the
reader. His compliance to my principles I expect not, nay, I am so
far from it, hee may suspend his charitie. Let him bee as rigid as
justice can make him, for I wish not to praevaile in any thing but
the truth, and, in the name of truth, thus I begin.
You have been told formerly that Cain and Abel were instructed
in matters of sacrifice by their father Adam, but Cain having
murdered his brother Abel, his priesthood descended to Seth, and
this is confirmed by those faculties which attended his posteritie, for
Enoch, Lamech, and Noah, were (all of them) prophets. It troubles
you perhaps that I attribute a priesthood to Abel, but I have,
besides his own practice, Christ's testimonie for it, who accounts
the bloud of Abel amongst that of the persecuted prophets and wise
men. Now, to conclude that these men had no knowledge in
philosophie because the Scripture doth not mention any use they
made of it, is an argument that denies something but proves nothing.
To shew the vanitie of this inference, I will give you an example
out of Moses himself. Wee know very well there are no pro-
phecies of Abraham extant, neither doe wee read any where that
ever hee did prophesie, but notwithstanding he was a prophet.
For God reproving Abimelech, King of Gerar, who had taken
Sarah from him, supposing she had been his sister, hath these
words: “Now, therefore restore the man his wife, for hee is a
prophet, and hee shall pray for thee, and thou shalt live.” Hence
wee may learn that the Holy Ghost doth not alwayes men-
tion the secret perfections of the Soul in the public character of
the person. Truly, I should not be so impudent as to expect your
MAGIA ADAMICA ; OR, THE ANTIQUITIE OF MAGIC. Io3
assent to this doctrine if the Scriptures were silent in every text, if
I did not find there some infallible steps of Magick, such as may
lead me without a lanthorn to the archives of the Art it self.
I know the troupe and tumult of other affaires are both the many
and the maine in the historie of Moses. But in the whole current
I meet with some arts which may not be numbered amongst the
fortunes of the patriarchs, but are performances extraordinarie, and
speak their causes not common. I have ever admired that discipline
of Eliezer, the steward of Abraham, who when he prayed at the well
in Mesopotamia could make his camels also kneele. I must not
believe there was any hocus in this, or that the spirit of Banks may
be the spirit of prayer. Jacob makes a covenant with Laban, that
all the spotted and brown cattle in his flocks should be assigned to
him for his wages. The bargain is no sooner made but he finds
an art to multiplie his own colours, and sends his father-in-law
almost a wool-gathering. “And Jacob took him rods of green Gen. xxx. 37.
poplar, and of the hasel and chesnut-tree, and pilled white strakes
in them, and made the white appear which was in the rods; and hee
set the rods which he had pilled before the flocks in the gutters, in
the watering troughs when the flocks came to drink, that they should
conceive when they came to drink. And the flocks conceived
before the rods, and brought forth cattle ring-straked, speckled, and
spotted.” As for that which the Scripture tells us elsewhere, namely,
that “Jacob saw in a dream, and behold the rams that leaped on Gen. xxxi.
the cattle were ring-straked, speckled, and grisled,” this doth no way
impair our assertion, or prove this generation miraculous and
supernatural, for no man, I believe, is so mad as to think those
appearances, or rams of the dream did leap, and supplie the natural
males of the flock, God using this apparition onely to signifie the
truth of that art Jacob acted by, and to tell him that his hopes were
effected. But I shall not insist long on any particular, and therefore
I will passe from this dream to another. Joseph being seventeen
years old, an age of some discretion, propounds a vision to his
father, not loosely and to no purpose, as wee tell one another of our
dreams, but expecting, I believe, an interpretation, as knowing that his
father had the skill to expound it. The wise patriarch being not
ignorant of the secrets of the two Luminaries, attributes males to the
sun and females to the moon, then allowes a third signification to the
minor stars, and lastly answers his son with a question : “What is
this dream that thou hast dreamed? Shall I and thy mother and thy
brethren indeed come to bow down our selves to thee to the earth P”
Now, I think no man will deny but the interpretation of dreams
IO4 MAGIA ADAMICA; OR, THE ANTIQUITIE OF MAGIC.
belongs to magic, and hath been ever sought after as a piece of
secret learning. True it is, when the interpreter receives his know-
ledge immediately from God, as Daniel did, then it falls not within
the limits of a naturall science, but I speak of a physicall exposition,
as this was, which depends on certain abstruse similitudes, for hee
that knowes the analogie of parts to parts in this great body, which
wee call the world, may know what every signe signifies, and, by
consequence, may prove a good interpreter of dreames. As for
Jacob's first practice, which wee have formerly mentioned, namely,
the propagation of his speckled flocks, it is an effect so purely
magicall that our most obstinate adversaries dare not question it. I
could cite one place more which refers to this patriarch and points
at the fundamentals of Magic, but being annexed to this discourse,
it would discover too much ; I shall, therefore, leave it to the search
of those who are considerable proficients, if not masters, in the Art.
The summ of all is this : Man of himself could not attain to true
knowledge; it was God in mere mercie did instruct him. To Con-
firm this, I shall desire the reader to consider his own experience.
Wee have in these our dayes many magicall books extant, wherein
the Art is discovered both truly and plainly. Wee have also an
infinite number of men who studie those books, but after the en-
deavours of a long life not one in ten thousand understands them.
Now, if wee, with all these advantages, cannot attain to the Secrets
of Nature, shall we think those first fathers did who had none of Our
libraries to assist them, nor any learned man upon earth to instruct
them P Could they doe that without means which we cannot doe
with means, and those too very considerable? The Peripatetics
perhaps will tell me their syllogism is the engine that will perform
all this. Let them then in Barbara or Baroco demonstrate the
First Matter of the Philosophers' Stone. But they will tell mee
there is no such thing. Behold, I tell them again, and assure them
too on my salvation there is, but, in truth, their logic will never find
it out. It is clear, then, that God at first instructed Adam, from
him his children received it, and by their tradition it descended to
the patriarchs, every father bequeathing these secrets to his child, as
his best and most lasting legacie. I have now attended Jacob, the
Israel of God, both in his pilgrimage at Padan-Aram and in his
typicall inheritance, the earnest of the land of Canaan. But two
removalls perfect not the wanderings of a patriarch ; God calls him
from the habitation of his fathers to the prison of his posteritie, and
provides him a place of freedom in the house of bondage. I must
follow him where his fortune leads, from Isaac's Hebron to the
MAGIA ADAMICA; OR, THE ANTIQUITIE OF MAGIC. Io 5
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 e
have done? Knew yee not that such a man as I can certainly 9” ”’s
divine P”
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 praetend to our first . .
parents: Eritis sicut Zii, 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 gº º
of Moses, these wonders were effected by enchantments. This is ; V11.
certain, their learning was ancient, for I find magicians in AEgypt
Ioé MAGIA ADAMICA; OR, THE ANTIQUITIE OF MAGIC.
Gen. ix. 41.
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-
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 praetended 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 praetends 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 P 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. Io'7
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.
Moses, and gave it to the seventy.” 25.
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 P 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. 29.
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 Coelestiall 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
Io8 MAGIA ADAMICA : OR, THE ANTIQUITIE OF MAGIC.
De Statze
Eðiscoſº.
they not write as Moses did P. 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 of in 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 Żotabile, 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, row ypogºo, rog and row
Trygvgorog—one literall, another spirituall. And elsewhere hee men-
tions rô polyázavoy row Vázov, xoa row Xpwºrrázavov, the hidden and the
manifest part of the Law, the manifest part (saith he) being
appointed roi; Toxx0% zoz. zórowlyovo, for many men, and such
whose thoughts were fixed here below, but the hidden roig óxfyoug zoºl
r& ovo, ppovovot, 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. Io9
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 aeternall 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 unaequal 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
I IO 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 AEgyptius, 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 tºps, Emes, in the foeminine bºys, Asam, and they are s, aleph,
p, mem, ty, schin. Now I will shew you how the physical Cabala
expounds the literall. Tres Matres ºps, Emes (saith the great
Abraham, or as some think Rabbi Akiba), id est, Aer, Agua, et Ignis;
Agua 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; 7% es Matres ºpx, Emes
in Mundo, Aer, Agua, et Agnis. Coeli ex /gne creat; sumi, Zerra ex
Aguis, 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
the Three Mothers useth no other phrase than this, Ponderavit
4/º/, cum omnibus, et omnia cum Aleph, et sic de singulis. “He
weighed (saith he) Aleph with all, and all with Aleph, and so he did
with the other Mothers.” This is very plain, if you consider the
various mixtures of the elements, and their secret proportions. And
so much for the physicall part of the Cabala; I will now shew you
the metaphysicall. It is strange to consider what unitie of spirit and
doctrine there is amongst all the Children of Wisdom. This proves
infallibly that there is an Universall Schoole-master, who is present
with all flesh, and whose principles are ever uniforme, namely, the
Spirit of God. The Cabalists agree with all the world of Magicians
that man in spirituall mysteries is both agent and patient. This is
plain, for Jacob's ladder is the greatest mysterie in the Cabala.
Here wee find two extremes—Jacob is one, at the foot of the ladder,
and God is the other, who stands above it, emittens (saith the Jew)
Formas et Znſluxus in Jacob, sive Subjectum Hominem—“shedding
Some secret influx of Spirit upon Jacob, who, in this place, typifies
man in general.” The rounds or steps in the ladder signifie the
Middle Nature, by which Jacob is united to God, inferiors united
to superiors. As for the angels, of whom it is said they ascended
and descended by the ladder, their motion proves they were not
of the superior hierarchie, but some other secret essences, for
they ascended first and descended afterwards, but if they had been
from above, they had descended first, which is contrarie to the text.
And here, reader, I would have thee studie. Now to return to
Jacob ; it is written of him that he was asleep, but this is a mysticall
speech, for it signifies death, namely, that death which the Cabalist
calls Mors Osculi, or the Death of the Kisse, of which I must not
speake one syllable. To bee short, they agree with us “in the
arcanum of theology,”—that no word is efficacious in Magic unlesse
it be first quickened by the Word of God. This appears out
of their Semhamphores, for they hold not the names of the angels
effectuall unlesse some name of God, as T', or ºs, be united to
them ; then (say they) in the power and vertue of those names they
may worke. An example hereof wee have in all extracted names, as
Vehu-Jah, Elem-Jah, Jeli-El, Sita-El. Now, this practice in the
letter was a most subtle administration of the conjunction of the
Substantiall Word, or Spirit with the Water. See that you under-
stand me rightly, for I meane with the elements, and so much for
the truth. To conclude, I would have the reader observe that the
false, grammaticall Cabala consists onely in rotations of the alphabet
and a metathesis of letters in the text, by which means the Scrip-
II 2 MAGIA ADAMICA; OR, THE ANTIQUITIE OF MAGIC.
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 summ 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. II3
ABRAHAM THE JEW, PRINCE, PRIEST, LEVITE, ASTRO-
LOGER, AND PHILOSOPHER, TO THE NATION OF THE
JEWES, BY THE WRATH OF GOD DISPERSED AMONG
THE GAULES, SENDETH HEALTH.
After this it was filled with great execrations and curses (with this
word Maranatha, which was often repeated there) against every
person that should cast his eyes upon it, if hee were not sacrificer
or scribe. Hee that sold me this booke knew not what it was worth,
no more than I when I bought it. I believe it had been stolen, or
taken by violence, from the miserable Jewes, or found hid in some
part of the ancient place of their habitation. Within the booke, in the
second leaf, he comforted his nation, counselling them to fly vices,
and above all idolatrie, attending with sweet patience the comming
of the Messiah, who should vanquish all the kings of the earth, and
should reigne with his people in glorie aeternally. Without doubt,
this had been some wise and understanding man. In the third
leafe, and in all the other writings that followed, to help his captive
nation to pay their tributes to the Roman Emperors, and to doe other
things which I will not speak of, hee taught them in common words
the transmutation of mettals; hee painted the vessels by the sides, and
hee informed them of the colours, and of all the rest, except the
First Agent, of the which he spake not a word, but onely (as he said)
on the fourth and fifth leaves he had entirely painted it, and figured
it with very great cunning and workmanship, for though it was well
and intelligibly figured and painted, yet no man could ever have
been able to understand it without being well skilled in their Cabala,
which goeth by tradition, and without having well studied their
bookes. The fourth and fifth leafe, therefore, was without any
writing, all full of faire figures shining, or, as it were, inlightened,
for the worke was very exquisite. First hee painted a young man,
with wings at his ancles, having in his hand a caducean rod, writhen
about with two serpents, wherewith hee strooke upon a helmet
which covered his head; hee seemed, to my small judgment, to be
Mercurie, the pagan God. Against him there came running, and
flying with open wings, a great old man, who upon his head had an
houre-glass fastened, and in his hands a hooke or sithe, like Death,
with the which, in terrible and furious manner, he would have cut
off the feet of Mercurie. On the other side of the fourth leafe, hee
painted a faire flower, on the top of a very high mountaine, which
was sore shaken with the North winds; it had the root blue, the
flowers white and red, the leaves shining like fine gold ; and round
about the dragons and griffons of the North made their nests. On
H
II.4. MAGIA ADAMICA ; OR, THE ANTIQUITIE OF MAGIC.
Luc. xi. 52.
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
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-
copoea, for those sluttish recepts doe but oppresse the stomach, being
no fit fuel for a coelestiall 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. II 5
appears by those fits and pangs she is subject to whenever she is
overcharged. In common, customarie excesses there is not any, but
knows this truth by experience, indeed in spiritual sins, the body is
not immediately troubled but the conscience is terrified, and surely
the body cannot be very well, when the soul itself is sick. We see
then that corruption, and sin do not so much agree with us, as they
do disturb us, for in what sense can our enemies be our friends, or
those things which destroy Nature, be agreeable to Nature? How
then shall we judge of the Gospel? Shall we say that the praeserva-
tion of man is contrarie to man, and that the doctrine of life agrees
not with life itself? God forbid : The laws of the resurrection are
founded upon those of the Creation, and those of regeneration upon
those of Generation, for in all these God works upon one and the
same matter, by one and the same spirit. Now that it is so, I
meane that there is a Harmonie between Nature and the Gospel, I
will prove out of the Sinic monument of Kim Cim, priest of Judaea.”
In the yeare of redemption 1625, there was digg’d up in a village of
China call’d Sanxuen, a square stone, being neer ten measures of
an hand-breadth long and five broad. In the uppermost part of this
stone was figur’d a Crosse, and underneath it an inscription in Sinic
characters, being the title to the monument, which I find thus
render'd in the Latine.
Lapis in Laudem et memoriam aeternam
Legis Lucis, et veritatis portatae
de Judaea, et in China
promulgatae,
Erectus.
That is : A stone erected to the praise, and eternal remembrance of
the Law of Light, and Truth, brought out of Judaea, and published
in China. After this followed the body of the monument, being a
relation how the Gospel of Christ Jesus was brought by one Olopuen
out of Judaea, and afterwards by the assistance of God planted in
China. This happened in the yeare of our Lord six hundred and
thirtie six. Kim Cim, the Author of this historie, in the very be-
ginning of it, speaks mysteriously of the Creation. Then he men-
tions three hundred sixty five sorts of Sectaries, who succeeded one
another, all of them striving who should get most proselyts. Some
of their vaine Opinions he recites, which indeed are very suitable with
the rudiments, and vagaries of the heathen philosophers. Lastly he
describes the professors of Christianitie, with their habit of life, and
the excellence of their law. Difficile (saith he) est ei Momen Con-
* Note I6.
I IG MAGIA ADAMICA ; OR, THE ANTIQUITIE OF MAGIC.
gruum reperire, cum ejus effectus sit Illuminare, omnia Claritate per-
fundere; unde Mecessarium ſuit eam appellare, Kim ki ao, h.e. Zegem
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 kiao, 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 aestimat 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 Magna virtuțis 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
a fundamentis examinantes, inzentmus doctrinam ejus admodum exce/-
lentum, et sine strepitu exteriori, fundațam 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, mec superficie femus 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 praetends 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. I 17
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 aeternall. 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 AEgypt; 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 AEgyptian 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
II.8 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 AEgyptian
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
water, but serpitura agua, “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. II9
central, hypostaticall earth, the fixed starrs. For these inferiors,
according to their doctrine, are provinces, or thrones of those
Superiors, where they sit regent, and paramount. To speak plainly,
Heaven it self was originally extracted from inferiors, yet not so
Intirely, but some portion of the Heavenly natures remained still
below, and are the very same in essence and substance with the
Separated starrs and skies. Heaven here below differs not from that
above but in her captivitie, and that above differs not from this
below but in her libertie. The one is imprisoned in the matter, the
other is freed from the grossness and impurities of it, but they are
both of one and the same Nature so that they easily unite; and
hence it is that the superior descends to the inferior to visit and
comfort her in this sickly infectious habitation. I could speak much
more, but I am in haste, and though I were at leisure, you cannot
in reason expect I should tell you all. I will therefore decline these
general principles to tell you something that makes for the AEgyp-
tian practice, and proves them philosophers adepted. The first
monument I reade of to this purpose is that of Synesius, a very
learned intelligent man. Hee found in the temple of Memphis
Terpoog 616Xous, “bookes of stone,” and in those hard leaves these
difficult instructions
H’ pºorus tº puget repretat
H’ puorus Tāv pugu vukata
H’ puorus Tāv púaw kpatot
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.
OTPANO ANQ, OTPANO KATO,
AXTPA ANC, AXTPA KATO,
IIAN O ANQ, IIAN TOTTO KATO;
TATTA AABE, KAI ETTTKE.
That is,
Heaven above, Heaven beneath ;
Starres above, Starres beneath ;
All that is above, is also beneath;
Understand this, and be happy.
Under this were figur'd certain apposite hieroglyphics, and for a
I 20 MAGIA ADAMICA ; OR, THE ANTIQUITIE OF MAGIC.
close to all this dedicatorie subscription (I find it onely in the Coptic
character, but our founts wanting that letter, I must give it you in
the Greeke).
X′Y′NOPONOIX TOIX EN AITYIITOY,
6EOIX IXIAX APXIEPETX ANEXTHXEN
“Isias the High Priest erected this, to resident Gods in AEgypt.”
And now, though I formerly suspended the authoritie of Tris-
megistus, I might, like the Italian, produce his weapons Sfodrato;
but I love no velitations, and truth is so brave, it needs no feather.
Quod est Superiºs (sayd Hermes) est sicut id quod est inferills, et
quod est inferills est sicut id quod est superius. “That which is
above is in proportion with that which is below, and that which is
below is in proportion with that which is above.” This is his
mysterie, and ’tis great : The benefit that attends the purchase is
no lesse; habeóis gloriam totius Mundi, “All the pomp, and
splendor of the world shall be thine.” To this language, the dialect
of Isias doth so echo, these two, like Euphorbus and Pythagoras,
might pass for one.
Coelum sursum, (sayd he) Coelum deorsum ;
Astra Sursum, Astra deorsum :
Omne quod Sursum, omne id deorsum.
And then follows a reward for the intelligent, Haec cape, et
faelicitare, “understand this, and thou art fortunate.” Thou hast
made thy self very happy. This is enough to prove that magic
sometimes flourished in Egypt, and no doubt but they received the
truth of it from the Hebrewes, who lived amongst them to the
terme of four hundred and thirtie years. This is plain; for their
own native learning was mere sorcerie and witchcraft, and this
appears by the testimonie of Moses, who tells us their magicians
produced their miracles by enchantments. And why I beseech
you, should this instruction seem impossible P For Joseph,
being married to Asenath, daughter of Potipherah, Priest of On,
some of the AEgyptian priests, and those likely of his own alliance,
might for that very relation receive a better doctrine from
him. But this is not all I could say of this nation, and their
secret learning, if I were dispos'd to bee their Mercurie. There
is not any I believe, who praetend to antiquitie or philosophie,
but have seen that famous monument, which Paul the Third bestow'd
on his Cardinal Petrus Bembus, and was ever since called the
Bembine Table. No doubt but the hieroglyphics therein contained,
were they all reduced into letters, would make a volume as ample
MAGIA ADAMICA; OR, THE ANTIQUITIE OF MAGIC. I2 I
as mysterious. But 'tis not my designe to comment on Memphis,
that were to make brick, and look out the straw withall, AEgypt
having no compleat table but the world, over which her monuments
are scatter'd. This place then was the pitcher to the fountain, for
they received their mysteries immediately from the Hebrewes, but
their doctrine, like their Nilus, swelling above its private channel,
did at last over-run the universe. Jamblicus the divine, in that
excellent discourse of his ZXe Mysteriis, tells us that Pythagoras and
Plato had all their learning ex Columnis Mercurit, “out of the
pillars or hieroglyphical monuments of Trismegistus.” But the
ancient Orpheus in his poem De Verôo Sacro, where hee speaks of
God, hath these words.
AWemo Zllum, mis? Chaldao de sanguine guidam progenitus zidit.
“None (saith he) hath ever seen God, but a certain man descended
of the Chaldaean blood.” Now this was Moses, of whom it is
written, that he spake with God face to face, as one man speaks
with another. After this he gives us a short character or description
of the Deitie, not in the recesse, and abstract, but in reference to
the incubation of his spirit upon Nature. Lastly he acquaints us
with the originall of his doctrine, from whence it first came, and
verily he derives it from the well-head.
Ariscorum nos hac docuerent Omnia Vates,
Qata: čázzis tabulīs Dezes olzme tradidić Zllis.
“The priests (saith he) (or prophets) of the ancient fathers
taught us all these things, which God delivered to them here-
tofore in two tables.” Thanks be to that God, who made a
heathen speak so plainly. I need not tell you to whom these
tables were delivered, Cavellero D'epistola can informe you. I
cited this place that it might appeare though the philosophie of
Greece came generally out of Ægypt, yet some Graecians have been
disciplined by the Jews, and this is proved by no contemptible
testimonies. Aristobulus, who lived in the dayes of the Machabies,
and was himself a Jew, writes to Ptolomie Philometor, King of
AEgypt, and affirmes that the Pentateuch, or five books of Moses,
were translated into Greek before the time of Alexander the Great,
and that they came to the hands of Pythagoras and Plato. Indeed
Numenius the Pythagorean calls Plato, Mosem Attică linguá
loquentiºm, “Moses speaking in the Greek dialect”; by which he
minded not a similitude of style, but a conformitie of principles.
There is a storie of Clearcus the Peripatetic in his first ZXe Somno,
how true I know not, but the substance of it is this, He brings in
I 2.2 MAGIA ADAMICA ; OR, THE ANTIQUITIE OF MAGIC.
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 P. 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 puouzó. 20.1 ſovorixó, that is, “Physical and
Mysticall 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 ZDe Zapidibus, 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, (530.70g ºáv
Tz (Lero. AAgváſzewo, zord, rap &pyvp05 x2] xpú00g) 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. I23
upon whom God had poured forth his Spirit. By tradition of the
Jewes, The AEgyptians came to be instructed. From the AEgyptians
these secrets descended to the Graecians, and from the Graecians
(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
praetends 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.
CCE LUM T E R RAE;
OR,
THE MAGICIAN’S HEAVENLY CHAOS AND
FIRST MATTER OF ALL THINGS.
HAVE now, reader, performed my promise,
and according to my ability proved the
antiquitie of Magic. I am not so much a
foole as to expect a generall subscription
to my endeavours, every man's placet is
not the same with mine, but “the die is
cast; ” I have done this much, and he that
will overthrow it must know, in the first
place, it is his task to do more. There
is one point I can justly bind an adver-
sarie to, that he shall not oppose Man to God, heathen romances
to Divine Scripture. He that would foyle me must use such
weapons as I doe, for I have not fed my readers with straw,
neither will I be confuted with stubble. In the next place, it is my
designe to speake something of the Art it self, and this I shall doe
in rationall termes, a form different from the ancients, for I will not
stuffe my discourse like a wilderness with lions and dragons. To
common philosophers that fault is very proper which Quintilian
observed in some orators—Offerum fastigia spectanțur, latent funda-
menta—“The spires of their Babel are in the clouds, its fundamentals
no where ; they talk indeed of fine things but tell us not upon what
grounds.” To avoid these flights in this my Olla (for I care not
much what I shall call it) observe this composition; first, I shall
speake of that One Only Thing, which is the Subject of this Art and
the Mother of all things. Secondly, I will discourse of that most
admirable and more than naturall Medecine which is generated out
of this One Thing. Lastly, though with some disorder, I will
discover the means how and by which this Art works upon the

COELUM TERRAE ; OR, THE MAGICIAN's HEAVENLY CHAOS. 125
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 praejudice is no religion, and, by
consequence, hath no reward. If this Art were damnable, you might
safely studie it notwithstanding, for you have a praecept 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 gua est hic inſerties, dispomitur
secundum Domum Sanctuarii, gua est superiºs: “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
I26 COELUM TERRE ; OR, THE MAGICIAN's HEAVENLY CHAOS,
created by the Universall Agent. This generall patient is the im-
mediate Catholic character of God himself in his unitie and trinitie.
In plain termes, it is that substance which wee commonly call the
First Matter. But, verily, it is to no purpose to know this notion,
matter, unlesse we know the thing it self to which the notion relates;
wee must see it, handle it, and by experimentall ocular demon-
strations know the very centrall, invisible essences and properties
of it. But of these things heare the most excellent Capnion, who
informes his Jew and his Epicure of two Catholic natures, material
and spiritual. Alteram (saith he) gua vider: oculis, et atting; manu
possit, prope ad omne momentum alterabilem. Detur enim venia (ut
ait Madaurensis) movitati Verborum, rerum obscuritatibus inservienti.
Adec iſºsa cum eadem et una Żersistere requeat, nihilominus & tal;
Zirtute animi hospitão suscipitur, pro modo rectiºs quo est, quam quo
non est, gua/is in Zeritate res est, id est, mutabilis. Alteram autem
substantiarum naturam incorruptam, immutabilem, constantem eandem-
gue ac semper existenſem. The English of it speaks thus: “One
Nature is such it may be seen with the eyes, and felt with the hands,
and it is subject to alteration almost in every moment. You must
pardon (as Apuleius saith) this strange expression, because it makes
for the obscuritie of the thing. This very Nature, since shee may
not continue one and the same, is, notwithstanding, apprehended of
the mind under her such qualification, more rightly as shee is than
as shee is not, namely, as the Thing it self is in truth, that is to say,
changeable. The other Nature, or Principle of Substances, is in-
corruptible, immutable, constant, one and the same for ever, and
always existent.” Thus hee; now, this changeable Nature whereof
he speaks is the first visible, tangible substance that ever God
made ; it is white in appearance, and Paracelsus gives you
the reason why. Omnia (saith he) in Dei manu alba sunt, is ea
fingit ut Vult—“All things when they first proceed from God are
white, but hee colours them afterwards, according to his pleasure.”
An example wee have in this very Matter, which the philosophers call
Sometimes their Red Magnesia, sometimes their White, by which
descriptions they have deceived many men; for in the first praepara-
tion the Chaos is blood-red, because the Central Sulphur is stirred
up and discovered by the philosophicall fire. In the second, it is
exceeding white and transparent, like the Heavens. It is in truth
Somewhat like common quicksilver, but of a coelestiall transcendent
brightnesse, for there is nothing upon earth like it. This fine sub-
stance is the Child of the Elements, and it is a most pure, sweet
Virgin, for nothing as yet hath been generated out of her; but if at
any time she breeds, it is by the fire of Nature, for that is her hus-
AND FIRST MATTER OF ALL THINGS. 127
band. Shee is no animal, no vegetable, no mineral; neither is shee
extracted out of animals, vegetables, or minerals, but she is prae-
existent to them all, for shee is the mother of them. Yet one thing
I must Say, shee is not much short of life, for shee is almost animal.
Her composition is miraculous, and different from all other com-
pounds whatsoever. Gold is not so compact, but every sophister
concludes it is no simple; but shee is so much one that no man
believes she is more. Shee yields to nothing but love, for her end
is generation, and that was never yet performed by violence. He
that knows how to wanton and toy with her, the same shall receive
all her treasures. First, shee sheds at her nipples a thick heavy
water, but white as any snow—the philosophers call it Virgin-Milk.
Secondly, she gives him blood from her very heart; it is a quick,
heavenly fire, some improperly call it their sulphur. Thirdly, and
lastly, shee presents him with a secret Chrystall, of more worth and
lustre than the white rock and all her rosials. This is shee and these
are her favours. Catch her if you can.
To this character and discoverie of my owne, I shall adde some
more descriptions, as I find her limm'd, and drest by her other
lovers. Some few (but such as know her very well) have written
that shee is not onely one and three, but withall foure and five, and
this truth is essentiall. The titles they have bestowed on her, are
divers. They call her their Catholic or Magnesia, and the Sperme
of the World, out of which all naturall things are generated. Her
birth (say they) is singular, and not without a miracle; her complexion
heavenly, and different from her parents. Her body also in some
sense is incorruptible, and the common elements cannot destroy it,
neither will shee mix with them essentially. In the outward shape
or figure, shee resembles a stone, and yet is no stone, for they call
her their white gum, and water of their sea, water of life, most pure,
and most blessed water, and yet they minde not water of the clouds,
or rain-water, nor water of the wel, nor dew : but a certain thick
permanent, saltish water, a water that is drie, and wetts not the
hand, a viscous, slimie water generated out of the saltish fatnesse of
the earth. They call her also their twofold Mercurie, and Azoth
begotten by the influences of two globes, Coelestiall, and terrestriall.
Moreover they affirme her to be of that nature, that no fire can
destroy her, which of all other descriptions is most true, for shee is
fire her self, having in her a portion of the universal fire of nature,
and a secret coelestiall spirit, which spirit is animated, and quickened
by God himself, wherefore also they call her their most blessed stone.
Lastly they say shee is a middle nature between thick and thin, neither
128 COELUM TERRAE ; OR, THE MAGICIAN's HEAVENLY CHAos,
altogether earthly, nor altogether firie, but a mean aereall substance
to bee found every where, and every time of the year.
This is enough : but that I may speak something my self in plain
termes, I say shee is a very salt, but extreme soft, and somewhat thin
and fluid, not so hard, not so thick as common extracted salts, for
shee is none of them, nor any kind of salt whatsoever that man can
make. Shee is a sperme that Nature her self drawes out of the
elements, without the help of art; man may find it, where Nature
leaves it, it is not of his office to make the sperme, not to extract it,
it is already made, and wants nothing but a matrix, and heat con-
venient for generation. Now should you consider with your selves
where Nature leaves the seed, and yet many are so dull, they know
not how to work, when they are told what they must doe. Wee see
in animal generations, the sperme parts not from both the parents,
for it remaines with the female, where it is perfected. In the great
work though all the elements contribute to the composure of the
sperme, yet the sperm parts not from all the elements, but remains
with the earth, or with the water, though more immediately with the
one, than with the other. Let not your thoughts feed now on the
phlegmatic, indigested vomits of Aristotle, look on the green, youth-
full, and flowerie bosome of the earth; consider what a vast univer-
sall receptacle this element is. The starrs and planets overlook her,
and though they may not descend hither themselves, they shed
down their golden locks, like so many bracelets, and tokens of their
love. The Sun is perpetually busie, brings his fire round about her,
as if he would sublime something from her bosom, and rob her of
some secret, inclosed jewell. Is there anything lost since the crea-
tion P Would'st thou know his very bed and pillow P It is the
earth. How many cities dost thou think have perished by the
sword? how many by earthquakes? and how many by the deluge P
Thou doest perhaps desire to know where they are at this present:
believe it they have one common sepulcher, what was once their
mother, is now their tombe. All things return to that place from
whence they came, and that very place is earth. If thou hast but
leisure, run over the alphabet of Nature, examine every letter, I
mean every particular creature in her booke—what becomes of her
grasse, her corne, her herbs, her flowers? True it is both man and
beast doe use them, but this only by the way, for they rest not till
they come to earth again. In this element they had their first, and
in this will they have their last station. Think (if other vanities
will give thee leave) on all those generations that were before thee,
and anticipate all those that shall come after thee. Where are all
AND FIRST MATTER OF ALL THINGS. I 29
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 scaene 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 coelestiall 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, faeculent, 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 coelum terræ, and terra coeli, not this dirt, and dust,
but a most secret, coelestiall, invisible earth. Raymund Lullie in his
compendium of Alchimie calls the principles of art magic—spiritus c. I.
fugitivos in aere condensatos, in formá monstrorum diversorum, et
animalium etiam hominum, qui wadunt sicut nubes, modo hile, modo
I
I3o COELUM TERRAE ; OR, THE MAGICIAN's HEAVENLY CHAOS,
illièc. “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. I31
valour. Now Nature is a free spirit, that seeks no applause, shee
observes none more than her self, but is pleased with her own magic,
as philosophers are with their secret philosophie. Hence it is
that we find her busie, not only in the potts of the balconies, but in
wildernesses, and ruinous places, where no eyes observe her but
the starrs and planets. In a word, whersoever the fire of nature
finds the Virgin Mercurie, there hath he found his love, and there
they will both fall to their husbandrie, a pleasure not subject to
Surfets, for it still presents new varieties. It is reported of Marc
Antonie, a famous, but unfortunate Romane, how he sent his agent
over the world to copie all the handsome faces, that amongst so
many excellent features, hee might select for himself the most
pleasing face. Truly Nature is much of this straine, for shee hath
infinite beautous patternes in her self, and all these shee would
gladly see beyond her self, which she cannot doe without the
matter, for that is her glasse. This makes her generate perpetually,
and imprint her conception in the matter, communicating life to it,
and figuring it according to her imagination. By this practice shee
placeth her fancie, or idea, beyond her self, or as the peripatetics
Say, extra intellectum, beyond the divine mind, namely in the matter;
but the ideas being innumerable, and withall different, the pleasures
of the agent are maintain’d by their variety, or to speak more
properly by his own fruitfulness, for amongst all the beauties the world
affords, there are not two that are altogether the same. Much
might be spoken in this place concerning beautie, what it is, from
whence it came, and how it may be defaced, not onely in the out-
ward figure, but in the inward idea, and lost for ever in both worlds.
But these pretty shuttles I am no way acquainted with, I have no
mysteries but Nature, wherefore I shall leave the fine ladies to fine
lads, and speak of my simple AElia Loelia.
It was scarce day, when all alone
I saw Hyanthe and her throne.
In fresh, green damascs she was drest,
And o'er a sapphire globe did rest.
This slipperie sphaere when I did see,
Fortune, I thought it had been thee.
But when I saw shee did present
A majestie more permanent,
I thought my cares not lost, if I
Should finish my discoverie.
Sleepie shee look’d to my first sight,
As if she had watched all the night,
And underneath her hand was spread,
The white supporter of her head.
132 coeLUM TERRE ; OR, THE MAGICIAN's HEAVENLY CHAOS,
But at my second studied view,
I could perceive a silent dew
Steale down her cheeks; lest it should stayne
Those cheeks where only smiles should reigne.
The tears stream'd down for haste, and all
In chaines of liquid pearle did fall.
Faire sorrows; and more dear than joyes,
Which are but emptie ayres and noyse,
Your drops present a richer prize,
For they are something like her eyes.
Pretty white foole ! why hast thou been
Sulli’d with teares, and not with sin P
'Tis true; thy tears, like polish’d skies,
Are the bright rosials of thy eyes,
But such strange fates doe them attend,
As if thy woes would never end.
From drops to sighes they turn, and then
Those sighs return to drops agen :
But while the silver torrent seeks
Those flowers that watch it in thy cheeks,
The white and red Hyanthe weares,
Turn to rose-water all her teares.
Have you beheld a flame that springs
From incense, when sweet, curled rings
Of smoke attend her last weak fires,
And shee all in perfumes expires?
So dy’d Hyanthe. Here (said shee)
Let not this vial part from thee.
It holds my heart, though now 'tis spill’d,
And into waters all distill’d.
'Tis constant still; trust not false Smiles,
Who smiles, and weeps not, shee beguiles.
Nay, trust not teares; false are the few,
Those teares are many that are true.
Trust mee, and take the better choyce,
Who hath my teares can want no joyes.
I know some sophisters of the Heptarchie, I mean those whose
learning is all noyse, in which sense even py-annets and paraquitoes
are philosophicall, will conclude this all bayt and poetrie, that wee
are pleasing, not positive, and cheat even the reader's discretion.
To prevent such impotent calumnies, and to spend a little more of
our secret Light upon the well-disposed student, I shall in this place
produce the testimonies of some able philosophers concerning the
First Matter it self, as it is naturally found, before any alteration by
art. And here, verily, the reader may discover the mark; it is most
easily done, if he will but eye the flights of my verse, or follow the
more grave pace of their prose. The first I shall cite is Arnoldus de
Villa Nova, an absolute perfect master of the Art; hee describes the
philosophicall Chaos in these plain termes. Zapis est et non lapis,
AND FIRST MATTER OF ALL THINGS. I33
Spiritus, Anima, et Corpus ; Quem si dissolvis, dissolvitur, et si coagules
coagulatur, et si volare facts, volat; estenim volatilis, albus ut lacryma
ocult; posted efficitur citrinus, salsus, £ilis carens : quem memo suá linguá
tangere £otest. Ecce ipsum fam sua demonstravi descriptione non tamen
zºominavi. Modo zolo iſºsum nominare, et dico, quod si dixeris eum
Aquam esse, verum dicts; et si dixeris eum Aquam non esse, mentiris.
Awe igiºur decipiaris pluribus descriptionibus et operationibus, unum
enim guid est, cut nihil alient infertur. “It is (saith hee) a stone
and no stone, Spirit, Soule, and Body; which if thou dissolvest, it
will bee dissolved, and if thou doest coagulate it, it will bee coagu-
lated, and if thou doest make it fly, it will fly, for it is volatile, or
flying, and clear as a teare; afterwards it is made citrine, then
saltish, but without shoots or chrystals, and no man may touch it
with his tongue. Behold, I have described it truly to thee, but I,
have not named it ! Now, I will name it, and I say that if thou
sayest it is Water, thou doest say the truth, and if thou sayest it is
not Water, thou doest lie. Bee not, therefore, deceived with mani-
fold descriptions and operations, for it is but one thing, to which
nothing extraneous may be added.” Thus Arnoldus, and he
borrowed this from the Turba. Let us now heare his disciple,
Raymund Lullie, who speaking very enviously and obscurely of
seven metallic principles, describes the third, wherein foure of the
seven are included, in these words. Tertium (saith hee) est Aqua
clara composita, et illa est res Argento vivo magis propinqua, quae
guidem reperitur supra terram currens et ſluens. Ef isſud argentum
vivum in omni Corpore Elementato d materiff aris est proprie generatum,
et ideo ipsius humiditas est valde ponderosa. That is : “the third
Principle is a cleare compounded water, and it is the next substance
in complexion to Quick-Silver, it is found running and flowing upon
the earth. This Quick-Silver is generated in every compound out
of the substance of the aire, and, therefore, the moysture of it is
extreme heavy.” To these I will add Albertus Magnus, whose
suffrage in this kind of learning is like the stylanx to gold, for hee
had thoroughly searched it, and knew very well what part of it would
abide the test. Mercurius Sapientum (saith hee) est Elementum
Aquam frigidum, et humidum, Agua permanens, spiritus Corports,
Zapor unctuosus, Agua Benedicia, Agua virtuosa, Agua Sapientum,
Acetum Philosophorum, Agua Mineralis, Ros calestis grafia, Zac
Virginis, Mercurius Corporalis, et aliis infinitis nominibus in Philoso-
phorum libris nominatur, quae guidem nomina quamvis Zaria sunt,
semper tamen unam et eandem rem significant, utpoſſe Solum Mercurium
Sapientum. Ex iſ so toto elicitur omnis virtus Artis A/chimiaº, et suo
134 coelum TERRAE; OR, THE MAGICIAN's HEAVENLY CHAOS,
modo Złnctura 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 Zapidis
(saith hee) est frigidum et humidum in Manifesto, et in Occulio
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 isłud es; lapis fugitivus, et est
aereum et zolatile, 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 aereal and volatile, cold and
moyst, hot and drie.” To these subscribes the author of that
excellent tract intituled Ziber 7%rium Verôorum. Hic est Ziber
(saith hee) Trium Verôorum, Ziber Zapidis preciosi, gui est Corpus
areum et Zſolatile, frigidum et humidum, aquosum et adustivum, et in
eo est caliditas et siccitas, frigiditas eſſ humiditas, alia Zirtus 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 aereal 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 Zapidem mon
esse lapidem, apud idiotas vile et incredibile. Quis enim credef Zapidem
aquam, et aquam lapidem ſieri, cum nihil sit diversius Ž Attamen
revera ifa est. Zapis enim est hac ipsa Żer manens agua, 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 P
And yet in very truth it is so. For this very permanent water is the
AND FIRST MATTER OF ALL THINGS. I35
stone, but whiles it is water, it is no stone.” But in this sense the
ancient Hermes abounds, and almost discovers too much. Scitote
Jälä sapientum, quod priscorum philosophorum aqua est divisio, quae
dividić if sam in alia quatuor. “Know (saith he), you that are the
children of the wise, the separation of the ancient philosophers was
performed upon water, which separation divides the water into other
foure substances.” There is extant a very learned author, who hath
written something to this purpose, and that more openly than any,
whom we have formerly cited. Sicut; mundus originem debet aqua,
cut Spiritus Pomini incubabat, rebus tam caelestibus, guðm terrestribus
omnibus indé prodeuntibus; ita Zimbus hic emergit ex aqué non vul-
gari, neque ex A'ore Coelesti, aut ex aere condensato in cavernis terra,
we! in recipiente ipso, non ex abysso maris, fontibus, pufeis, fluminibusqué
Žausta, sed ex aquà quadam Aerpessà, omnibus obvić, Žaucissimis cog-
niţă, gua in se habet, qua cumque ad totius operts complementum sunt
necessaria, omni amoto extrinseco. “As the world (saith he) was gene-
rated out of that water, upon which the Spirit of God did move, all
things proceeding thence, both coelestiall and terrestriall, so this chaos
is generated out of a certain water that is not common, not out of dew,
nor ayre condensed in the caverns of the earth, or artificially in the
receiver; not out of water drawn out of the sea, fountains, pitts, or
rivers, but out of a certain tortured water, that hath suffered some
alteration, obvious it is to all, but known to very few. This water
hath all in it, that is necessarie to the perfection of the work, without
any extrinsecal addition.” I could produce a thousand authors more,
but that were tedious ; I shall conclude with one of the Rose
Brothers, whose testimonie is aequivalent to the best of these, but
his instruction far more excellent. His discourse of the first matter
is somewhat large, and to avoyd prolixitie, I shall forbeare the Latin,
but I will give thee his sense in punctuall, plaine English.
“I am a Goddesse (saith hee, speaking in the person of Nature) for
beauty and extraction famous, born out of our own proper Sea, which
Compasseth the whole Earth, and is ever restlesse. Out of my
breasts I poure forth milk and blood; boyle these two, till they are
turned into silver and gold. O most excellent subjectſ out of which
all things in this world are generated, though at the first sight thou
art poyson, adorn'd with the name of the flying eagle. Thou art the
first matter, the seed of Divine benediction, in whose body there is
heat and rain, which, notwithstanding, are hidden from the wicked
because of thy habit, and virgin vestures which is scatter'd over all
the world. Thy parents are the Sun and Moon, in thee there is
Water and Wine, gold also and silver upon earth, that mortall man
136 COELUM TERRAE ; OR, THE MAGICIAN's HEAVENLY CHAOS,
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
praeparation by which this matter was to bee praepared, 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. I37
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 P
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. Amplits fibi dico, quod
nullo modo invenire potuimus, mec similiter invenire poſſuerunt?hilosophi,
aliguam rem perseverantem in igne, misi solam unctuosam humiditatem.
Aqueam humiditatem widemus de facili evaporare, arida remaneſ, et ideo
separanfur, quia non sunt naturales. Sº autem eas humiditates con-
Syderemus, gua difficulter separanžur aſ his qua sunt naturales, non
* Azºrelia Occulta Philosoph., Pt. II. Theat. Chem., IV. p. 499.
I38 COELUM TERRAE ; OR, THE MAGICIAN's HEAVENLY CHAOS,
Theor, cap.
6.
invenimus aliguas mist unctuosas, et viscosas. “I tell thee furthur
(Saith hee) that wee could not possibly find, neither could the
philosophers find before us, anything that would persistin the fire, but
only the unctuous humiditie. A waterie humiditie, we see will easily
vapour away, and the earth remains behind, and the parts thereof
separated, because their composition is not natural. But if we con-
sider those humidities which are hardly separated from those parts
which are naturall to them, wee find not any such, but the unctuous,
viscous humidities.” It will be expected perhaps by some flint and
antimonie-doctors, who make their philosophicall contrition with a
hammer, that I should discover this thing out-right, and not suffer
this strange bird-lime to hold their pride by the plumes. To these,
I say, it is water of silver, which some have called Water of the Moon,
but 'tis Mercurie of the sun, and partly of Saturn, for it is extracted
from these three metalls, and without them it can never bee made.
Now they may unriddle, and tell me what it is, for it is truth, if they
can understand it.
To the ingenious and modest reader, I have something else to
replie, and I believe it will sufficiently excuse mee. Raimund
Lullie, a man who had been in the center of Nature, and without
all question understood a great part of the Divine will, gives mee a
most terrible charge not to prostitute these principles. Juro tibi
(Saith hee) suffra animam meam, quod si ea reveles, damnatus es.
Mam a Deo omne procedit bonum, et et soli debetur. Quare servabis,
et secretum tenebis illud, quod ei dečefur revelandum, et affirmabis
quam per rectam proprietatem subtrahis, gua ejus honori debentur.
Quia si revelares breviºus veróis illud Quod longinguo tempore formavit,
in die magni judicii condemnareris, tanguam qui perpetrator existens
contra majestatem Dei laºsam, nec fiót remitterefur casus lasa
majestatis. Zalium enim revelatio ad ZXeum, et mom ad alterum
spectat. That is ; “I swear to thee upon my soule, that thou art
damn'd, if thou shouldest reveale these things. For every good
thing proceeds from God, and to him only it is due. Wherefore
thou shalt reserve, and keep that secret, which God only should
reveal, and thou shalt affirme thou doest justly keep back those
things whose revelation belongs to his honour. For if thou shouldest
reveale that in a few words, which God hath been forming a long
time, thou shouldest be condemned in the great day of judgement
as a traytor to the majestie of God, neither should thy treason be
forgiven thee. For the revelation of such things belongs to God,
and not to man.” So sayd the wise Raymond.
Now, for my part, I have always honoured the magicians, their
AND FIRST MATTER OF ALL THINGS. I39
philosophie being both rational and majestic, dwelling not upon
notions, but effects, and those such as confirme both the wisdome
and power of the Creator. When I was a meer errant in their
books, and understood them not, I did believe them. Time
rewarded my faith, and payed my credulitie with knowledge. In
the interim, I suffered many bitter calumnies, and this by some
envious adversaries, who had nothing of a scholar, but their gownes,
and a little language for vent to their non-sense, but these could not
remove mee; with a Spartan patience I concocted my injuries, and
found at last that Nature was magicall, not peripateticall. I have no
reason then to distrust them in spirituall things, whom I have found
So Orthodox and faithfull even in naturall mysteries. I doe believe
Raymund, and in order to that faith, I provide for my salvation. I
will not discover, that I may not be condemn'd. But if this will not
Satisfie thee, who ever thou art, let me whisper thee a word in the
ear, and afterwards doe thou proclaim it on the housetopps. Doest
thou know from whom, and how that sperme or seed which men, for
want of a better name, call the first matter, proceeded? A certain
illuminatee, and in his daies a member of that societie, which some
painted buzzards use to laughat, writes thus; Deus optimus maximus ex see Jacob
nihilo aliquid creavit, illud aliquid vero fiebat unum aliquod, in quo .
omnia, creatura caelestres et terestres. “God (saith hee) incomparably cellent and
good and great, out of nothing created something, but that some- %. of
thing was made one thing, in which all things were contained, %.
Creatures both coelestiall and terrestrial.” This first something was &
a certain kind of cloud, or darknesse, which was condensed into
water, and this water is that one thing in which all things were con-
tained. But my question is, what was that Nothing, out of which
the first cloudy chaos, or something was made P Canst thou tell
mee P It may be thou doest think it is a meere nothing. It is
indeed nihil gilo ad mos, nothing that wee perfectly know. It is
nothing as Dionysus saith, Mihil eorum quae sunſ, et nihil eorum gua:
non sunſ. “It is nothing that was created, or of those things that
are : and nothing of that which thou doest call nothing, that is of
those things which are not, in thy empty destructive sense.” But, by
your leave, it is the true thing, of whom we can affirme nothing; it is
that transcendent essence, whose theologie is negative, and was known
to the primitive church, but is lost in these our dayes. This is that is.…..
Nothing of Cornelius Agrippa, and in this nothing, when hee was tyr'd ºneg.
with humane things, I mean humane sciences, hee did at last rest:
ſtižić scire (sayd hee) est vita felicissima, “to know nothing is the
happiest life; ” true indeed, for to know this Nothing, is life eternall.
14o COELUM TERRAE ; OR, THE MAGICIAN's HEAVENLY CHAOS,
Gen. c. 1.
Learne then to understand that magicall axiom, Ex invisible factum
est visibile, “the visible was formed from the non-visible,” for all
visibles came out of the invisible God, for hee is the Well-Spring
from whence all things flow, and the creation was a certain stupen-
dous metaphysicall birth, or deliverie. This fine virgin-matter, or
chaos, was the second nature, from God himself, and, if I may say
so, the child of the Blessed Trinitie. What doctor then is hee whose
hands are fit to touch that subject upon which God himself, when
he workes, lays his own spirit, for, verily, so we reade; The Spirit of
God moved upon the face of the water P And can it bee expected
then, that I should prostitute this mysterie to all hands whatsoever,
that I should proclaim it, and crie it, as they cry oysters ? Verily,
these considerations, with some other which I will not for all the
world put to paper, have made mee almost displease my dearest
friends, to whom, notwithstanding, I owe a better satisfaction. Had
it been my fortune barely to know this matter, as most men doe, I
had perhaps been lesse carefull of it. But I have been instructed in
all the secret circumstances thereof, which few upon earth under-
stand. I speak not for any ostentation, but I speak a truth which
my conscience knowes very well. Let me then, reader, request thy
patience, for I shall leave this discoverie to God, who, if it bee his
blessed will, can call unto thee, and say: “Here it is, and thus I
worke it.” I had not spoken all this in my own defence, had I not
been assaulted (as it were) in this very point, and told to my face I
was bound to discover all that I knew, for this age looks for dreams
and revelations, as the traine to their invisible righteousnesse. I
have now sufficiently discoursed of the matter, and if it be not thy
fortune to find it by what is here written, yet thou canst not bee
deceived by what I have sayd, for I have purposely avoyded all
those termes, which might make thee mistake any common salts,
stones, or minerals for it. I advise thee, withall, to beware of all
vegetables, and animals, avoyd them and every part of them what-
soever. I speak this because some ignorant, sluttish broylers are of
opinion, that man's bloud is the true subject. But alas ! is man's
bloud in the bowels of the earth, that metals should be generated
out of it? or was the world, and all that is therein, made of man's
bloud, as of their first matter? Surely no such thing. The first
matter was existent before man, and all other creatures whatsoever,
for shee is the mother of them all. They were made of the first
matter, and not the first matter of them. Take heed then, Let not
any man deceive thee. It is totally impossible to reduce any
particular to the first matter, or to a sperm, without our Mercurie,
AND FIRST MATTER OF ALL THINGS. I4 I
and being so reduced, it is not universall, but the particular sperm
of its own species, and works not any effects but what are agreeable
to the nature of that species, for God hath seal’d it with a particular
idea.
Let them alone then who practise upon man's bloud in their
chemicall stones, and athanors, or, as Sendivow hath it, in formaculis
mirabilibus; they will deplore their error at last, and sit without sack-
cloth, in the ashes of their compositions. But I have done; I will
now speak something of generation, and the wayes of it, that the pro-
cess of the philosophers upon this matter, may be the better under-
stood. You must know that Nature hath two extremes, and between
them a middle substance, which elsewhere wee have call'd the middle Anima
nature. Example enough wee have in the creation. The first "***
extreme was that cloud, or darkness, whereof we have spoken
formerly; some call it the remote matter, and the invisible chaos,
but very improperly, for it was not invisible. This is the Jewish
Ensoph outwardly, and it is the same with that Orphic Night—
“O Night ! thou black nurse of the golden stars.”
Out of this darkness all things that are in this world came, as out of
their fountain or matrix: hence that position of all famous poets and
philosophers, omnia ex Mocte prodiisse, “that all things were brought
forth out of Night.” The middle substance is the water, into which
that night or darkness was condensed, and the creatures framed
out of the water make up the other extreme. But the magicians
when they speak strictly, will not allow of this last extreme, because
Nature doth not stay here, wherefore their philosophie runs thus ;
Man (say they) in his natural state, is in the meane creation, from
one of which hee must recede to one of two extremes; either to
corruption, as commonly all men doe, for they die, and moulder
away in their graves: or else to a spirituall glorified condition, like
Enoch and Elijah, who were translated, and this (say they) is a true
extreme, for after it there is no alteration.* Now the magicians
reasoning with themselves, why the meane creation should be
subject to corruption, concluded the cause and original of this
disease to be in the chaos it self, for even that was corrupted, and
cursed upon the Fall of Man. But examining things further, they
found that Nature in her generations did onely concoct the chaos
with a gentle heat; shee did not separate the parts, and purifie each
of them by it self, but the purities and impurities of the sperme
remained together in all her productions, and this domestic enemie
* Note 18.
I42 COELUM TERRAE; OR, THE MAGICIAN's HEAVENLY CHAos,
prevayling at last, occasioned the death of the compound. Hence
they wisely gathered, that to minister vegetables, animals, or minerals
for physic, was a meer madness, for even these also had their own
impurities and diseases, and required some medicine to cleanse
them. Upon this adviso, they resolved (God without all question
being their guide) to practise on the chaos it self; they opened it,
purified it, united what they had formerly separated, and fed it with
a twofold fire, thick and thin, till they brought it to the immortal
extreme, and made it a spirituall Heavenly body.* This was their
physic, this was their magic. In this performance they saw the
image of that face, which Zoroaster calls Triadis Vultus ante
essentiam, etc. They perfectly knew the secundea, which contains
all things in her naturally, as God contains all things in himself
spiritually. They saw that the life of all things here below was a
thick fire, or fire imprisoned and incorporated in a certaine incom-
bustible aereall moysture. They found, moreover, that this fire
was originally derived from Heaven, and in this sense Heaven is
styled in the oracles,
Ignis, Ignis derivatio, et ignis penu.
In a word, they saw with their eyes, that Nature was male and
female; Agni's ruffer super dorsum ignis candidi, as the cabalists
expresse it: “A certain fire of a most deep red colour, working on
a most white, heavy, salacious water, which water also is fire in-
wardly, but outwardly very cold.” By this practice, it was manifested
unto them, that God himself was Fire according to that of Eximidius
in Turóa Omnium rerum initium esse AVaturam quandam eamque-
Aerpetuam infinitam, omnia foventem coquentemque. “The beginning
of all things (sayth he) is a certain nature, and that eternall, and
infinite, cherishing and heating all things.” The truth is, life, which
is nothing else but light and heat, proceeded originally from God,
and did apply to the chaos, which is elegantly called by Zoroaster,
fons fontium, et fontium cunctorum, matrix continens cuncta. “The
fountain of fountains, and of all fountains, the matrix containing all
things.” Wee see by experience that all individuals live not only
by their own heat, but they are preserved by the outward universal
heat, which is the life of the great world. Even so truly the great
world it self lives not altogether by that heat which God hath
inclosed in the parts thereof, but it is praeserved by the circumfused
influent heat of the Deitie; For above the heavens God is mani-
fested like an infinite burning world of light and fire, so that hee
* Note 19.
AND FIRST MATTER OF ALL THINGS. I43
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 Chaldaean. 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 COELUM TERRAE ; OR, THE MAGICIAN’s HEAVENLY CHAOS,
with a still, piercing, vitall heat. It is continuall, and therefore at
last alters the chaos, and corrupts it: The proportion and regiment
of it is very scrupulous, but the best rule to know it by, is that of
the synod : facite né fasianus volet ante insequentem. “Let not the
bird fly before the fowler;” make it Sit while you give fire, and then
you are sure of your prey. For a cloze, I must tell thee the philoso-
phers call'd this fire their balneum, but it is baſneum natura, “a
natural bath,” not an artificial one, for it is not any kind of water,
but a certain subtill temperate moysture which compasseth the
glasse, and feeds their Sun, or Fire. In a word, without this bath
nothing in the world is generated. Now that thou mayst the better
understand what degree of fire is requisit for the work, consider the
generation of man, or any other creature whatsoever. It is not
Ritchen fire, nor feaver that works upon the sperm in the womb, but
a most temperate moyst, natural heat, which proceeds from the very
life of the mother. It is just so here ; Our matter is a most deli-
cate substance, and tender like the animal sperme, for it is almost a
living thing, nay in very truth it hath some small portion of life, for
Nature doth produce some animals out of it. For this very reason
the least violence destroyes it, and prevents all generation, for if it be
over-heated but for some few minutes, the white, and red sulphurs
will never essentially unite, and coagulate. On the contrary, if it takes
cold but for half an hour, the work being once well begun, it will
never sort to any good purpose. I speak out of my own experience,
for I have (as they phrase it) given my self a box Ch the eare, and
that twice or thrice, out of a certain confident negligence, expecting
that, which I knew well enough could never bee. Nature moves
not by the theorie of men, but by their practice, and surely wit and
reason can perform no miracles, unlesse the hands supplie them.
Bee sure then to know this Fire in the first place, and accordingly
bee sure to make use of it. But for thy better securitie, I will
describe it to thee once more. It is a drie, vaporous humid fire; it
goes round about the glasse, and is both equall and continuall. It
is restlesse, and some have call’d it the white philosophicall
coale. It is in it self naturall, but the praeparation of it is artificial:
it is a heat of the dead, wherefore some call it their unnatural,
necromantic fire. It is no part of the matter, neither is it taken
out of it, but it is an external fire, and serves only to stirr up,
and strengthen the inward oppressed fire of the chaos. But let
us hear Nature her self, for thus shee speaks in the serious
romance of Mehung. Post putrefactionem sit iſ sa generatio, id gue
per infernum incomburičilem calorem, ad azgent; zivi frigiditatem
AND FIRST MATTER OF ALL THINGS. I45
calefaciendam, quod tantum equidem patitur, ut tandem cum sulphure
suo uniatur. Omne illud uno in Zase complexum est, ignts, aer,
et aqua widelicit, qua in terreno suo vase accipio, eademque uno in
alemóico relinguo 5 et ſum coquo, dissolvo, et sub/imo, absgue malleo,
forcipe, wel lima, sine carbonibus, vapore, igne auf mdria-balneo, et
sophistarum alembicis, calestem, namque meum ignem habeo, qui
elementatem, prout materia idoneam decentemque formam habere
desyderat, excitat. That is: “After putrefaction succeeds genera-
tion, and that because of the inward incombustible sulphur, that
heats or thickens the coldness and crudities of the quicksilver,
which suffers so much thereby, that at last it is united to the sulphur,
and made one body therewith. All this (namely fire, ayre, and
water) is contained in one vessell; in their earthly vessel, that
is, in their grosse body, or composition, I take them, and then
I leave them in one alembic, where I concoct, dissolve, and
sublime them without the help of hammer, tongs or file ;
without coals, Smoake, fire, or bath, or the alembics of the sophisters.
For I have my heavenly fire, which excites, or stirs up the elementall
one, according as the matter desires a becomming, agreeable forme.”
Now Nature every where is one and the same, wherefore shee reades
the same lesson to Madathan, who thinking in his ignorance to
make the stone without dissolution, receives from her this check.
Aze tu nunc cochleas, vel cancros cum festis deziorare miteris & An mon
frius d vetustissimo planetarum coquo maturari, et praeparari illos
oportet # “Doest thou think (says hee) to eat oysters, shells and
all? Ought they not first to bee opened, and prepar’d by the most
ancient cooke of the planets?” With these agrees the excellent
Flammel, who speaking of the Solar, and Lunar Mercurie, and the
plantation of the one in the other, hath these words. Sumantur
iłaque, et noctu, interdiuque assidué supra ignem in alembico foºleanſur.
Avon autem ignis carbonarius,zel & ligmo confectus, sed clarus fellucidusque
ignis sit, non secus ac Solipse, qui nunquam plus fusio calidus ardensque
sed omni tempore ejusdem caloris esse debet. “Take them therefore
(sayth hee) and cherish them over a fire in thy Alembic. But it
must not be a fire of coales, nor of any wood, but a bright shining
fire, like the sun it self, whose heat must never be excessive, but
alwayes of one and the same degree.” This is enough, and too much,
for the secret in it self is not great, but the consequences of it are
so, which made the philosophers hide it. Thus, reader, thou hast
the outward agent most fully and faithfully described. It is, in truth,
a very simple mysterie, and if I should tell it openly, ridiculous.
Howsoever by this, and not without it, did the magicians unlock the
R
I46 COELUM TERRAE ; OR, THE MAGICIAN’s HEAVENLY CHAOS,
chaos, and certainly it is no newes that an iron-key should open a
treasurie of gold. In this Universall Subject they found the natures
of all particulars, and this is signified to us by that maxim : Qui
Profeum novit, adeaf Pana. “He who is familiar with Proteus is on
the threshold of the knowledge of Pan.” This Pan is their chaos, or
Mercurie, which expounds Proteus, namely the particular Creatures,
commonly call’d individuals ; for Pan transformes himself into a
Proteus, that is, into all varieties of species, into animals, vegetables,
and minerals; for out of the universall Nature, or first matter, all
these are made, and Pan hath their proprieties in himself. Hence
it is that Mercurie is call'd the interpreter, or expositor of inferiors
and superiors, under which notion the ancient Orpheus invokes him.
“Hear me 6 Mercurie, thou messenger of Jove, and son of Maia,
the expositor of all things.” Now, for the birth of this Mercurie,
and the place of it, I find but few philosophers that mention it.
Zoroaster points at it, and that very obscurely, where he speaks of
his Jynges or the Ideas in these words:
Mulţa guidem ha scandung lucidos mundos,
Znsilentes : quarum summitates sunt tres.
Suðjectum est &psis principale pratum.
This pražum, or meadow of the ideas, a place well known to the
philosophers (Flammel calls it their Garden, and the Mountain of
the Seven Metals, see his Summarie, where hee describes it most
learnedly, for he was instructed by a Jew) is a certain secret, but
universall region : one calls it regio lucis, “the region of light,” but
to the cabalist it is Mox Corporis, a terme extremely opposite and
significant.* It is in few words the rendezvous of all spirits, for in
this place the ideas when they descend from the bright world to the
dark one, are incorporated. For thy better intelligence thou must
know, that spirits whiles they move in Heaven, which is the fire-
world, contract no impurities at all, according to that of Stellatus;
Omezze Quod est supra luzzam, atter”zemque bozzumgue
Asse scias, mec triste aliquid callestia tangit.
“All (sayth hee) that is above the moon, is eternall and good, and
there is no corruption of Heavenly things.” On the contrary, when
spirits descend to the elementall matrix, and reside in her kingdom,
they are blurred with the original leprosie of the matter, for here the
curse raves and rules, but in Heaven it is not praedominent. To
put an end to this point, let us hear the admirable Agrippa state it ;
this is hee between whose lipps the truth did breathe, and knew no
* Note 20.
AND FIRST MATTER OF ALL THINGS. I47
#
other Oracle. Coelestium zires, dum in se existunt, et à ZXafore Zumi. Qccult
zzm Żer sancias intel/ gentias, et calos inſºuzentur, quousque ad Zumam
fervenerint: earum in/uentia bona est, tanguam in primo gradu ;
deinde autem quando in suffecto viſioni suscipitur, ifºsa etiam Zilescit.
That is ; “the Heavenly powers or spirituall essences whiles they
are in themselves, or before they are united to the matter, and
are shower'd down from the Father of Lights through the holy
Intelligences and the Heavens, untill they come to the moone: their
influence is good, as in the first degree; But when it is received in
a corrupt subject, the influence also is corrupted.” Thus he ; now
the astronomers pretend to a strange familiaritie with the starrs, the
natural philosophers talk as much : and truly an ignorant man
might well think they had been in heaven, and conversed, like
Lucian's Menippus, with Jove himself. But, in good earnest, these
men are no more eagles than Sancho ; their fansies are like his
flights in the blanket, and every way as short of the skies, Ask
them but where the influences are received, and how ; bid them by
faire experience prove they are present in the elements, and you
have undone them ; if you will trust the foure corners of a figure, or
the three legs of a syllogism, you may ; this is all their evidence.
Well fare the magicians then, whose art can demonstrate these
things, and put the very influences in our hands. Let it be thy
studie to know their Region of Light, and to enter into the treasures
thereof, for then thou mayst converse with spirits, and understand
the nature of invisible things. Then will appear unto thee the
Universal Subject, and the Two Mineral Spermes, white and red, of
which I must speak somewhat, before I make an end.
In the Pythagoricall synod, which consisted of threescore and ten
philosophers, all masters of the art, it is thus written. Agni's spissum
in aera cadłł, aeri's zero sp?ssum, et quod ex igne Spišso congregafur,
an aquam incidž; aquae quoque sp?ssum, et gºod ex ignis et aeris Spisso
coadunafur, in terrá quiescit. Zsia isłorum 7%ium spissitudo in Zerra
quiescit, inque ed conjuncta sunt. Zºsa ergo ferra omnibus cæteris
elementis spission est, uti paldm appareſ et videre est. That is, “the
thicknesse, or sperme of the fire falls into the ayre; the thickness
or spermatic part of the ayre, and in it the sperm of the fire, falls
into the water; the thickness or spermatic substance of the water,
and in it the two spermes of fire and ayre, fall into the earth, and
there they rest, and are conjoyned. Therefore the earth it self is
thicker than the other elements, as it openly appears, and to the eye
is manifest.” Remember now what I have told thee formerly con-
cerning the earth; what a generall hospitall it is, how it receives all
* *
• e
* *
:
:
© º *
© a C &
Philosophy.
I48 COELUM TERRAE ; OR, THE MAGICIAN's HEAVENLY CHAOS,
Gen. c. 3,
ver. Ig.
:
:
:
:
e
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
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. I49
and divide the essences thereof, not by violence, but by naturall
putrefaction, such as may occasion a genuine dissolution of the
compound. Here thou shalt find a miraculous white water, an
influence of the Moone, which is the Mother of our Chaos; it rules
in two elements—earth and water. After this appears the sperm or
influx of the sun, which is the father of it. It is a quick coelestiall
fire, incorporated in a thin, oleous aereall moysture. It is incom-
bustible, for it is fire it self, and feeds upon fire, and the longer it
stays in the fire, the more glorious it growes. These are the two
mineral spermes, masculine and foeminine: if thou doest place them
both on their crystalline basis, thou hast the philosopher's flying fire-
drake, which at the first sight of the sun breathes such a poyson,
that nothing can stand before him. I know not what to tell thee
more, unlesse in the vogue of some authors, I should give thee a
flegmatic description of the whole process and that I can dispatch
in two words. It is nothing els but a continual coction, the volatile
essences ascending and descending, till at last they are fix’d accord-
ing to that excellent prosopopoeia of the stone.
Mon ego continuo morior, dum spiritus exit,
AWam redit assidia, quamzis et sape recedat,
Aï muzhi rezanc magzza es: anima, zzzzzzczzella facultus.
Plus ego sustinui, quame corpus debuit unum ;
Zºres animas habazz, gzzas ozºnes intus habebam,
Discessere duo, sed tertia Žane secuta est.
I am not dead, although my spirit's gone,
For it returns, and is both off, and on,
Now I have life enough, now I have none.
I suffer'd more, than one could justly doe;
Three soules I had, and all my own, but two
Are fled : the third had almost left mee too.
“I have written, what I have written.” And now give me leave Joh. 19, 22.
to look about mee. Is there no powder-plott, or practice P What's
become of Aristotel, and Galen? Where is the scribe and pharisee,
the disputers of this world? If they suffer all this and believe it
too, I shall think the general conversion is come about, and I may
sing, --
Jam redit et zirgo, redeunt Saturnia regna.
But come what will come, I have once more spoken for the truth,
and shall for conclusion speak this much again. I have elsewhere
call'd this subject, limus cælestis, “a coelestial slime,” and the middle
I5O COELUM TERRAE ; OR, THE MAGICIAN's HEAVENLY CHAOS,
Anthropo-
sophia. Theo-
area.gica.
nature: The philosophers call it the venerable nature, but amongst
all the pretenders I have not yet found one, that could tell me why.
Hear me then, that whensoever thou doest attempt this work, it may
be with reverence, not like some proud, ignorant doctor but with
lesse confidence and more care. This chaos hath in it the foure
elements, which of themselves are contrarie natures, but the wisdome
of God hath so placed them that their very order reconciles them.
For example, ayre and earth are adversaries, for one is hot and
moyst, the other cold and drie. Now to reconcile these two, God
placed the water between them, which is a middle nature, or of a
mean complexion between both extremes. For she is cold and
moyst, and as she is cold, she partakes of the nature of the earth,
which is cold and drie, but as she is moyst, she partakes in the
nature of the ayre, which is hot and moyst. Hence it is, that ayre
and earth, which are contraries in themselves, agree and embrace
one another in the water, as in a middle nature which is proportionate
to them both, and tempers their extremities. But, verily, this salvo
makes not up the breach, for though the water reconciles two
elements like a friendly third, yet shee her self fights with a fourth,
namely with the fire: For the fire is hot and drie, but the water is
cold and moyst, which are clear contraries. To prevent the distem-
pers of these two, God placed the ayre between them, which is a
substance hot and moyst; and as it is hot, it agrees with the fire,
which is hot and drie ; but as it is moyst, it agrees with the water,
which is cold and moyst; so that by mediation of the ayre, the other
two extremes, namely fire and water, are made friends and reconciled.
Thus you see, as I told you at first, that contrarie elements are united
by that order and texture wherein the wise God hath placed them.
You must now give me leave to tell you that this agreement, or
friendship, is but partial, a very weak love, cold and skittish : for
whereas these principels agree in one qualitie, they differ in two, as
your selves may easily compute. Much need, therefore, have they
of a more strong and able mediator to confirme and preserve their
weak unitie, for upon it depends the very aeternitie, and incorruption
of the creature. This blessed caement, and balsam, is the Spirit of
the living God, which some ignorant scriblers have call’d a quint-
essence, for this very Spirit is in the chaos, and, to speak plainly, the
fire is his throne, for in the fire he is seated, as we have sufficiently
told you else where. This was the reason why the Magi call'd the
First Matter their Venerable Nature, and their Blessed Stone, and,
in good earnest, what think you? is it not so? This blessed Spirit
fortifies, and perfects that weak disposition which the elements
AND FIRST MATTER OF ALL THINGS. I5I
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 P 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
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.
I52 COELUM TERRAE; 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. Mè 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, I53
Anthroposophia, but I have been since aquainted with that world
and I have found it base, and unworthie: wherefore I shall keep in
my first happy solitudes, for noyse is nothing to me, I seek not any
man's applause. If it be the will of my God to call me forth, and
that it may make for the honour of his Name, in that respect I may
write again, for I feare not the judgment of man, but in the interim
here shall be an end.
FINIS.
And now my book, let it not stop thy flight,
That thy just Author is not lord or knight.
I can define myself; and have the art
Still to present one face, and still one heart.
But for nine years some great ones cannot see
What they have been, nor know they what to bee.
What though I have no rattles to my name,
Do’st hold a simple honestie no fame?
Or art thou such a stranger to the times,
Thou canst not know my fortunes from my crimes?
Goe forth, and fear not : some will gladly bee
Thy learned friends whom I did never see,
Nor shouldst thou fear thy welcome: thy small price
Cannot undo ’em, though they pay excise ;
Thy bulk's not great : it will not much distresse
Their emptie pockets, but their studies lesse.
Th’ art no Galeon, as books of burthen bee,
Which cannot ride but in a librarie ;
Th’ art a fine thing and little: it may chance
Ladies will buy thee for a new romance.
Oh how I’ll envy thee when thou art spread
In the bright sun-shine of their eyes, and read
With breath of amber, lips of rose that lend
Perfumes unto their leaves, shall never spend :
When from their white hands they shall let thee fall
Into their bosomes, which I may not call
Ought of misfortune, thou do'st drop to rest
In a more pleasing place, and art more blest.
There in some silken, soft fold thou shalt lye
Hid like their love, or thy own mysterie.
Nor shouldst thou grieve thy language is not fine,
For it is not my best, though it be thine.
I could have voyc’d thee forth in such a dresse,
The spring had been a slut to thy expresse;
Such as might fill the rude unpolished age,
And fix the reader's soule to ev’ry page:
But I have used a coarse and homely strain,
Because it suits with truth, which should be plain.
I54 COELUM TERRE ; OR, THE MAGICIAN's HEAVENLY CHAOS,
Last, my dear book, if any looks on thee
As on three suns, or some great prodigie,
And swear to a full point, I do deride
All other sects, to publish my own pride;
Tell such they lie, and since they love not thee,
Bid them go learne some high-shoe heresie.
Nature is not so simple, but shee can
Procure a solid reverence from man;
Nor is my pen so lightly plum'd that I
Should serve ambition with her majestie.
'Tis truth makes me come forth, and having writ
This her short scaene, I would not stifle it:
For I have call’d it childe, and I had rather
See’t torn by them, than strangl’d by the father.
SOLI DEO GLORIA,
Amen.
N O T E S.
NOTE I (page 5).
THIS is an important and conspicuous instance of direct, though veiled,
reference to the most exalted phenomena of the ecstatic trance, to which
the common magnetic trance of modern psychology is scarcely the
threshold or the stepping-stone. The ancient mystics would appear to
have discovered an arcane process for the elevation of hypnotism by
which the divine everlasting pneuma was joined for a period to the
psyche, or sensitive soul, and the spiritual correspondences of the subject
were extended in an upward direction, so as to establish an ineffable
intercourse with superior forms of subsistence. This condition of lucidity
is unapproached by the operations of mesmerism, which are formed by
the intervention and influenced by the special characterization of another
and human mind. Now, it must be established as a radical principle,
from the true mystic standpoint, that the elaboration of the arch-natural
faculties in man can never be accomplished by this process. The
creation of the Magus is personal in the strictest sense. “Magnetism
between two individuals,” says Eliphas Lévi, “is undoubtedly a marvel-
lous discovery, but to create in one's self the magnetic condition, to induce
one's own lucidity, and to direct one's own clairvoyance, is the perfection
of magical art.” Those of impressional temperament, and especially
women, who imagine by the subjection of their individuality to a stronger
and positive mind to make progress in practical mysticism should learn
on the authority of practical mystics that they will not attain their end.
Possibly the dangers of ordinary mesmerism in its other than healing
branches have been to some extent exaggerated, but it is not exaggera-
tion to affirm that the many mansions of the mystic house of light are not
to be discovered by the exploration of blind avenues.
NOTE 2 (page IO).
This passage, as will readily occur to the student, is equivalent to an
informal statement of the evolutionary hypothesis, and can also be recon-
ciled with the cosmical expirations and inspirations of Para-Brahma.
The substantial identity of the first universal matter or chaos with the
philosophical chaos which is the root of the universal medicine, and with
I56 NOTES.
the red Adamic earth, is a point of particular importance. This first
matter is still the foundation or heart of things, and is said to be strangely
secreted in the “very bosome” of Nature. Its application to man is one
part of the “grand secret” of the mystics; its extraction from man is
another part, and both branches of the art are among those magnalia
Dei et AWatura which were piously preserved by the adepts, but are now
gradually transpiring.
NOTE 3 (page 13).
The phenomena of vegetable palingenesis, now generally rejected as
fabulous, are described seriously by several writers of the past. Duchêne
states that he was acquainted at Cracovia with a Polish doctor who had
the ashes of numerous plants separately preserved in phials, and that the
heat of an ordinary candle was sufficient to revive the perfect simulacrum
of a rose. Palingenesis, however, was not confined to plants, and there
are ghastly details in such writers as Van der Beck concerning the
apparitions of moaning phantoms from the fumes of distilled blood.
NOTE 4 (page 18).
With this fourth essence—the chariot of Nature, the mask of the
Almighty, the vestment of the Divine Majesty—may be profitably com-
pared the hypothesis of the Astral Light as elaborated by Lévi. This
light he describes in a number of symbolical terms, which are rigorously
E. with those I have just cited—e.g., “the burning body of the Holy
Ost.”
NOTE 5 (page 21).
Numerous true recipes for the universal medicine are given in mystic
physics, and all in their literal sense have as much value as alchemical
formulae. Such mystifications were often resorted to by even the highest
adepts, not excluding “the dark disciple of the more dark Libanius
Gallius,” the illustrious Trithemius, who has left us the following pro-
CeSS :—
The Far-famed Medicinal Pozwder of Trithemius.
Calami Aromatici. T
Gentianae.
Cimini.
Sileris Montani.
Anisi. } 15 gram. 625 milligr. of each.
Carvi.
Ameos.
Sem. petroselini.
Spicaº nardi. -
Coralli rub. l
Unionum sive perlarum mes }. I56 gr. 250 milligr. of each.
perforatum. J
NOTES. I57
%. albi.
Amari dulcis. to &
Foliorum :ne }o gr. 331 milligr. of each.
Tartari adusti.
Macis.
Cubebarum.
Cariophyllorum, 27 gram. 344 milligr.
Reduce into powder.
} 7 gr. 813 milligr. of each.
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.
NOTE 6 (page 29).
The Great Arcanum, according to Eliphas Lévi, is concerned with the
mystery of universal generation ; the “Doctrine and Ritual of Transcen-
dental Magic” contain many important references to the mysticism of
the Garden and Tree. Students will be aware that the Pentagram is
the sign of the Microcosmos, or Man, and by considering the nature of
the Terrestrial Paradise of Man, and the tree which is in the centre of
that, the Hermetic Doctrine of Analogy will lead them upward by several
singular speculations to the secrets of psychic generation.
NOTE 7 (page 33).
The original edition of Anthroposophia. Theomagica is embellished with
a portrait of Cornelius Agrippa, which it has been deemed unnecessary
to reproduce.
NOTE 8 (page 36).
The hypothesis of the astral body, and the part which it plays in the
phenomena of apparitions, is now so well known that it scarcely requires
explanation, but a full and synthetic account will be found by those
who desire it in the third division of “The Mysteries of Magic.”
NOTE 9 (page 51).
This passage concerning a “certain chain’’ in Nature is of high
mystical importance. It contains an explanatory theory of the inter-
communion of the several worlds of spirits, and of the possibility of our
establishing, even in this life, an ecstatic correspondence with other forms
of subsistence. This “certain chain” is the Jacob's Ladder whose typology
is explained elsewhere in the writings of Eugenius. The union of the
I58 NOTES.
individual spirit with the universal god-consciousness, if not actually
declared in this passage is at least analogically implied, and a secret of
spiritual procreation or multiplication is also hinted at darkly. Those
who are resolved to attempt the practical application of mystic principles
should apply themselves with particular devotion to the philosophical
expositions of this ineffable union which are to be found in the writings
of adepts. They will also do well to seek with due discrimination for
side-lights in the works of orthodox Christian mystics, who were un-
doubtedly in possession of the keys of the process, though they do not
seem to have unlocked the most secret doors, and whose principles were
developed with more perspicuity than the professed expositors of the
mysteries. There is much to be learned from the treatise of S. Bona-
ventura, entitled Itinerarium Mentis ad Deum, who borrowed from
Trismegistus, and seems to have been on the track of the Great Arcana.
NOTE IO (page 53).
There is one substantial ground for the hope that consistent and
painstaking students of the mystics may yet penetrate the “luminous
obscurities” of Hermeticallegory, 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. .
NOTE II (page 54).
The evolution of the whole physical cosmos out of a single homogeneous
substance of infinite tenuity is a hypothesis which has found favour with
the scientists of to-day; but how motion and differentiation originated in
this homogeneous substance has been a serious crux for the theorists.
Here in mystic physics we find the same doctrine, that “the original of
all things is one thing,” that “there is but one matter out of which there
are found so many different shapes and constitutions,” while the difficulty
which has baffled materialism is overcome by recourse to the postulate
of “a discerning spirit,” which actuates this substance, that divine,
intellectual agent which is always ultimately inevitable in any intelligent
solution of the great problem of existence. It is worth noting that the
fundamental distinction between matter and mind which has serious
philosophical obstacles is practically destroyed by this hypothesis in its
mystical aspect, which may be briefly epitomized as follows: There is
but one substance infinitely differentiated in the universe.
NOTES. I59
NOTE I2 (pages 56 and 71).
The passages which are considered in this note are devoid of apparent
connection, but I have an object in thus combining them which is not at
variance even with their obvious significance. With regard to the “pure
white Virgin,” “the Bride of God and of the Stars,” I cannot do better
than cite an important passage from the late Edward Vaughan Kenealey's
“Book of God,” a work which I personally consider to have been written
in the interests of a fraudulent theory, but it constitutes, together with its
numerous sequels, a mine of theosophy, mythology, and legend, which is
scarcely surpassed by “Anacalypsis,” or by Cudworth’s “Intellectual
System.”
“God, though One, the ancients did not suppose, as modern ascetics
do, to be alone in solitary and morose magnificence. . . . Albeit none
could share with HIM, the glory and surpassing majesty of the Supreme
heaven, they declared nevertheless that He was perpetually surrounded
by other gods of light, beauty, purity, and divineness : immortal in their
essence, for it emanated from the Most High ; but all proceeding in fiery
stream from Him ; and all alike dependent upon His laws, as they were
encompassed by His love. Chief among these—pre-eminent in wisdom,
loveliness, and all that is essentially celestial and most pure, they held
one Divine Nature to be. . . . The golden fancy of the Past exhausted
itself in describing the matchless glory of this exalted Being. She was
the Virgin-Spirit of most ineffable liveliness; the Logos, the Protogonos;
the Mimra-Daya, or Word of God, by whose intermediate agency the
whole spiritual and material Universe was developed, fashioned, beautified,
and preserved.”
Now, there is an interior and spiritual Virgin in every man, through
whom he can work upward to Divinity, and can ascend to the invisible
elements of his own undying Pneuma. This Pneuma corresponds in
the microcosmos to the uncaused God as the psychal Virgin corresponds
to the “Virgin-Spirit.” The Psyche is thus the very key and root of the
divine mysteries, and through her, in the mystical doctrine of pneuma-
tology, is accomplished the progress to those powers and capacities which
are described on page 70.
NOTE I3 (page 85).
The attempts here referred to were from the pen of the illustrious
Platonist, Henry More, who in the year 1650 published, under the name
of Alazonomastix Philalethes, some “Observations upon Anthroposophia
Theomagica and Anima Magica Abscondita.” Two rejoinders were
issued by Eugenius—“The Man-Mouse taken in a Trap and tortur'd to
Death for gnawing the Margins of Eugenius Philalethes,” 1650, 8vo, and
“The Second Wash, or the Moore scour’d once more,” 1651, 8vo. Both
writers had recourse to the scurrility of the period, but in wealth of
opprobrious epithets, Thomas Vaughan proved superior to his opponent.
He has been termed an irascible alchemist using a Billingsgate phraseo-
logy; but the controversy which obtained him this apposite description
is without interest to the modern student of mysticism.
I6o NOTES.
NOTE I4 (page 90).
Believers in the inherent magical virtues of certain signs should take
note of this passage, which indiscriminately denounces all ceremonial
magic as a gross and material misconception of Hermetic symbolism.
Eugenius Philalethes had, however, transcended, at least intellectually,
the common elevation of practical magic, which, as he probably never
attempted, he may, quite possibly, have misjudged. No sequence of
rites and ceremonies may possess an intrinsic virtue, but they educate
and direct imagination as well as the will, and though not to be counted
as factors in psychic progress are not to be denounced as useless in their
own sphere.
NOTE I5 (page 92).
The reunion of Malchuth with the Ilan seems to have been accom-
plished by the mystics so far as they were individually concerned, and
the true method of this re-union is one of the secrets which the modern
mystic should set himself to recover.
NOTE 16 (page II 5).
It is needless to say that this story, with that of the inscription on
Mount Horeb, is in all probability fabulous. I have been personally
unable to discover anything concerning it, and as no mystical interest
attaches to either, the reservation of the reader's judgment will not involve
much difficulty or disappointment. f
NOTE 17 (page 136).
In the search for the true process of the spiritual magnum opus, the
analogical lines of physical alchemy should be rigorously followed, as
I have elsewhere stated. The intimate connection of both operations is
shown in the passage to which this note is made, and by which it would
appear that the process with metals is simply a digression from the pro-
cess of the mystic medicine. But the medicine itself is pneumatic, and
the search for the medicine in its highest sense is the search of the mind
after Psyche, of the mind united to Psyche after its own Spirit, and of the
hypostatized triplicity after the arch-hypostatic union of the whole man
with God.
NOTE I8 (page I41).
If this spiritual and glorified condition be in any way possible for the
individual, it is possible in some way for the race. If so, it is the end of
evolution, and I hope in a forthcoming work—AZOTH, OR THE STAR
IN THE EAST-to show how this end may be accomplished.
NOTE I9 (page 142).
At the beginning of Anthroposophia. Theomagica this chaos is described
as a substance secreted in the very bosom of Nature, and is identified
NOTES.
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 Avor Corports
would be involved in the evolution of the mystic trance, and this night is
apparently the entrance to the Regio Lucis.
NOTE 21 (page 15).
This expectation will be commonly identified with the “firm hope of a
glorious resurrection,” but it admits also of another interpretation. The
unceasing yearning of the universal soul of humanity towards a more
perfect environment survives the faith in resurrection and does not depend
thereon, and her whole physical environment is, in a sense, the soul's body.
This desire for a better life, which takes a thousand shapes, may be viewed
as a consciousness of the tendency and end of evolution, and evolution,
interpreted by mystics, promises that spiritualised perfection of the body
which alone the soul expects.
I N DE X.
AELIA LOELIA, 131.
Agrippa, Cornelius, not a supreme
adept, xxiv.; his defence by Euge-
nius, 33; calumnies of his detractors,
43-46.
Air, not an element, 18.
Alchemy, the historical radix of modern
physics, xxvii.
Alexandrian Philosophy, xxi.
Aleph, Dark and Bright, 12.
Aqua vitae, a MS. treatise by Thomas
Vaughan, viii.
Archetype, I3.
Aristotle and the Peripateticks, 5, 7,
a' I5, I6, 18, I9, 27, 47-50, 54, 74, 82,
88, IO7, I29, I49.
Astral Light, Note 4.
Astral Mother, 98.
Astrology, xxv., xxviii.
Aurum Potabile, Io&.
Azoth, I27.
Azoth, or the Star in the East, forthcom-
ing work on the Transfiguration of
Humanity, Note 18.
BLACK Magic, xxv., xxvii.
Bonaventura, S., his mystical theo-
logy, Note 9.
CHAOS, the original darkness, and the
philosophical, Io, 12, 14, 16, 17, 118,
I32, I39, I49, I5O, Note II, Note 19.
Contemplation, key to the triadic pro-
CeSS, XXV1.
DEATH, a recession into the unseen,
34.
EARTH, as a subsidence of the primi-
tive chaos, 17; a three-fold earth,
I9 ; man made of an arch-natural
earth, 22; this the subject of the
philosophical medicine, 22, Note 2.
See also p. 147.
Elements, two in number, 17; all
elements three-fold, 19; four ele-
ments in magic, 57 ; magical opera-
tions futile without them, 58; Tris-
megistus on elements, 83.
Empyreall Heaven, 15, 36.
Evolution, xxix., and Note 2.
FALL of man, 9, 24, 92.
Fire of Nature, &c., 16, 18, 57.
Fire of the Philosophers, I43.
Flamel, Nicholas, his Book of Abra-
ham the Jew, II2-II.4.
Fludd, Robert, his apology for the
Rosicrucian order, xxv.
GRAND Magisterium, 65.
Grand mysteries and secrets, Note 9.
HYPNOTISM, exaltation of, xxvii., Note I,
Hypostatic union, xxvii., Notes Ioand I7.
IMAGINATION of Deity, I4.
JACOB's Ladder, 20, and Note 6.
KABBALAH, an esoteric and pneumatic
philosophy, xxiv.; its greatest mystery
is the typology of Jacob's Ladder,
III ; a true and false Kabbalah, Io9.
Kether, 53.
Key of Magic, 56, 89.
Riss of God and Nature, 60.
Death of the Kiss, III.
LUCIFER, 24.
Lully, Raymond, his penetration to the
centre of Nature, I3O.
MAGIC, the wisdom of the Creator,
87; primevally derived from God, 91.
Magical Records, 69.
Magician's Fire, 57.
Magnesia, Red and White, 126; Catho-
lic Magnesia, I27.
Marriage and its mysteries, 23.
Magnet, the Soul’s Magnet, 3.I.
Man, sidereal man, 36 ; once a pure,
intellectual being, 27
Matter—the First Matter—God its im-
I64
INDEX,
mediate agent, Io; identified with
philosophical magnesia, I26; testi-
monies of philosophers concerning it,
I32; man absolute lord of the First
Matter, 83 ; identified with the minera
of man, IO7.
Medicine of the Philosophers, practical
recipes, 21 ; Note 5 ; the Adamic
Earth as the subject of this medicine,
22; the Perfect Medicine not obtained
by all adepts, 69; generated out of
one thing, I24; attained by the Gate
of Fire, 136.
Memphis, mystic inscription in Temple,
II9.
Menstruum of the World, 51.
Metaphysical Sun, II, 85.
Mercury, Virgin, 131 ; Mercury of the
Wise, I33, I34, I45.
Middle Nature, I5, 27, 29, I43.
Middle Spirit, 84.
Monad, 57, 58.
Moon, a magical principle, 28; the
Mystic Moon, Mother of the Philoso-
phical Chaos, I49; a Receptacle of
Souls, 37.
Mothers, the Three Mothers, III.
Mystic walk, 5.
NATURAI, Magic, its scope and nature,
xxiv., xxv.
Nature, the Voice of God, 53.
Numbers and their virtues, 20, 56, 57,
58, 59, 60.
Mox Corporis, 146, and Note 20.
PALINGENESIS, I3, and Note 3.
Paracelsus, judgment on, I43.
Paradise, its situation, 30; the Terrestrial
Paradise, 56.
Phenomena, Psychic, identity with
ancient magical phenomena, xix.,
XX.
Progress of the Roya Essence, 5.
Proto-chemistry, 13.
Pythagorical Synod, I47.
RATIONAL Spirit in man, 28.
Receptacle of spirits, 38.
SOUL of the world, 27, 51.
Soul of man, divine and supernatural,
23; her imprisonment in the body,
3O; intellectual flights, 31 ; her
power in transmutation, 31; an in
strumental agent, 53.
Sun and moon of magicians, 20, 61.
Sulphur of the Wise, 126.
TERNARIUS, its attainment, 69.
Theosophists, originators of the present
revival of mysticism, xviii.
Tradition, 25.
Transcendental Magic, its nature and
Scope, XXV.
Transmutation, psychic, 31.
Tree of Knowledge, 24, 26, 28, 29,
Note 6.
Trismegistus, II 7, I2O.
UNIVERSAL Agent and Patient, 125.
Universal consciousness, illumination of
the human spirit by union with, xxvi.
UNIVERSAL DEVELOPMENT, a Hermetic
theory, xxviii.; the Secret Doctrine of
Mysticism, xxviii.; a Doctrine of
Evolution extended to the spiritual
world, xxix.; the philosophical basis
of Spiritual Magic, xxx.; see also
Note II.
Universal Magnet, 125.
Universal Subject, I46.
VIRGIN, the pure white Virgin, 56; the
Virgin Logos, Note I2.
Virgin Earth, 72.
Virgin Mercury, 131.
WATER, the most ancient of principles
and mother of all things, 17; the
Psyche of Apuleius, 17 ; an oleous
water, 5.I.
Wild of Magic, 57.
Wood, Anthony à, an authority for the
life of Vaughan, vii.
Philalethes, Eirenaeus, usually confused
with Thomas Vaughan, vii.
Philosophers’ Stone, 63, 71, 72, I33,
I34.
Phtha, first emanation of the Egyptian
Deity, I 17.
Principles, three eternal and three
visible, 96.
Process, true process of alchemy, xix.
TURNBULL AND SPEARS, PRINTERS, EDINBURGH.
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