DE MAGIA-1590
Iordani Bruni Nolani [1548-1600]
DATE: 1590
Before discussing magic ( magia), just as before discussing any subject, the name must be divided into its meanings; but there are as many symbols of magic as there are magicians.
Magus is first taken as a wise man, such as were Trimegistus among the Egyptians, Druids among the Gauls, Gymnosophists among the Indians, Cabalists among the Hebrews, Magi among the Persians (who are from Zoroaster), Sophis among the Greeks, and wise men among the Latins. Secondly, the magician is taken for doing wonders by the mere application of active and passive elements, such as medicine and chemistry of sorts; and this is commonly called natural magic. Thirdly, there is magic when circumstances of this kind are added, by which the works of nature or higher intelligence appear to incite admiration through appearance; and it is that species which is called sorceries. Fourthly, from the virtue of antipathy and sympathy of things, as by what drives them but all things are referred to the spirit or soul existing in things; and this is properly called natural magic. Fifthly, to these are added words, songs, patterns of numbers and times, images, figures, seals, characters or letters; and this magic is also intermediate between the natural and the supernatural, or above, which would be inscribed properly in mathematical magic, and would be more fittingly inscribed under the name of hidden philosophy. Sixth, if the worship or invocation of the intelligences and agents of the external or superiors is added, with prayers, consecrations, fumigations, sacrifices, certain habits, and ceremonies, to the gods, demons, and heroes, then he either comes to the end of contracting the spirit within himself, of which he becomes a vessel; an instrument, that he may appear wise in all things, which, however, the apothecary with the spirit can easily empty out wisdom; and this is the magic of the forlorn which are made vessels of evil demons, which he fills by means of the magic art: or it is for the purpose of commanding and ordering the lower demons, with the authority of the higher demons, the princes; and this magic is transnatural or metaphysical and is called by its own name θευργια [theurgy]. In the seventh, it is either an oath or an invocation, not to demons and heroes, but through them to incite the souls of deceased men; and this species from matter and end is called necromancy. But if matter is not added, but from ενεργουμενψ [ ενεργουμενω Energoumeno], when the spirit is invoking the incubating spirit in its incubating womb, a search is made, then there is a magician, who is properly called a pythonical. for it was so used by Apollo the Pythian in his temple to be ‘inspired’, so to speak. In the eighth, or in the enchantment, whatever parts of things they have taken, may be added, clothing, excrement, excess fat, traces, and all that are believed to have conceived some communication by touch. And then either these things are done to solve, bind and weaken them; then they appoint a sorcerer who is called a sorcerer, if they tend to evil; they are to be referred to the good number of physicians, according to the specified form and method of medicine; or they aspire to extreme destruction and destruction, then they call sorcerers wizards. In the ninth, all are called “magicians,” who, for whatever reason, are girded for conjectures concerning absent and future things, and these are generally called divine from the end, of which the first species are either of four material principles: fire, air, water, and earth, from which they are called pyromancy, hydromancy, and geomancy; or from the three objects of knowledge: natural, mathematical, and divine, and then there are various other kinds of divination.
For augurs, soothsayers, and the like are divined from natural principles, that is, from the inspection of the Physics; From the inspection of the mathematicians, according to the genus, there are geomans, who by numbers or letters or lines and certain figures, likewise the appearance, irradiation, and the positions of the planets and the like; from the use of divine things, such as sacred names, encounters with places, brief accounts and observing circumstances, and these last hence they are called pyromancy, hydromancy, and geomancy; or from the three objects of knowledge: natural, mathematical, and divine, and then there are various other kinds of divination. For augurs, soothsayers, and the like are divined from natural principles, that is, from the inspection of the Physics; From the inspection of the mathematicians, according to the genus, there are geomans, who by numbers or letters or lines and certain figures, likewise the appearance, irradiation, and the positions of the planets and the like; from the use of divine things, such as sacred names, encounters with places, brief accounts and observing circumstances, and these last hence they are called pyromancy, hydromancy, and geomancy; or from the three objects of knowledge: natural, mathematical, and divine, and then there are various other kinds of divination. For augurs, soothsayers, and the like are divined from natural principles, that is, from the inspection of the Physics; From the inspection of the mathematicians, according to the genus, there are geomans, who by numbers or letters or lines and certain figures, likewise the appearance, irradiation, and the positions of the planets and the like; from the use of divine things, such as sacred names, encounters with places, brief accounts and observing circumstances, and these last From the inspection of the mathematicians, according to the genus, there are geomans, who by numbers or letters or lines and certain figures, likewise the appearance, irradiation, and the positions of the planets and the like; from the use of divine things, such as sacred names, encounters with places, brief accounts and observing circumstances, and these last From the inspection of the mathematicians, according to the genus, there are geomans, who by numbers or letters or lines and certain figures, likewise the appearance, irradiation, and the positions of the planets and the like; from the use of divine things, such as sacred names, encounters with places, brief accounts and observing circumstances, and these last Our countrymen do not inscribe the name of magicians, among whom, instead of unworthy usage, the sorcerer sounds ill, but is not called magic, but prophecy. Lastly, magus and magic are taken according to their unworthy meaning, so that they are not counted nor counted among them, so that the sorcerer is a sorcerer, no matter how stupid, who has been informed by interaction with a demon and by some means for his ability to hurt or help; And according to this reason it sounds, not among the wise men or even the grammarians, but the name of the magician Bardoccullus is used by some, such as was the one who made the book about the hammer of witches. And it is used today by all writers of this kind, as you may read in later days, catechisms of the ignorant and dreamers and priests.
The name of the magician, therefore, when it is used, or with distinction, must be taken before it is defined, or if it is taken absolutely, then it is to be taken according to the precept of logic, and especially of Aristotle in V of the Topics, for the most powerful and noble meaning. From philosophers, as it is taken among philosophers, then the sorcerer signifies a wise man with the virtue of acting. It stands, however, that when uttered is taken simply because it is signified by a common voice, and then there is another common voice among one and another class of priests, who philosophize much about a certain demon who is called the devil, in a different way according to the common customs and beliefs of different nations.
After considering this distinction, we understand magic in a general way: divine, physics, and mathematics. Magic is necessarily of the first and second genus of the good and the best, but of the third kind is both good and bad, as magicians use the same things well and ill. Although these three kinds concur in many operations and principal activities, yet malice, idolatry, crime, and the crime of idolatry are found in the third category, where it is possible to err and be deceived; This class of mathematics is not denominated from the species of commonly-called mathematicians, such as Geometry, Arithmetic, Astronomy, Optics, Music, etc., but from their similarity and affinity; It has a likeness with geometry for shapes and characterisation, music for enchantment, arithmetic for numbers, turns, astronomy for times and motions, optics for enchantment, and for the whole class of mathematicians, because it either mediates between the divine or the natural operation, or participates in either of them, or falls short of both; just as some are intermediate on account of the participation of both extremes, and others on account of the exclusion of both; and not only between both as far as outside of both. But from these species it is evident how divine, how physical, how different from these species is.
In order to get to the particulars now, the magicians have an axiom that in every work we must keep in mind that God flows into Gods, Gods into (or celestial bodies) stars, which are corporeal divinities, stars in the demons, who are the worshipers and inhabitants of the stars, of which one is earth, the demons into the elements, the elements in mixed, mixed into the senses, the senses in the mind, the mind into the whole animal, and this is the descent of the ladder; Immediately the animal ascends through the mind to the senses, through the senses into the mixed, through the mixed into the elements, through these into demons, through these [into the elements, through these] stars, through them into incorporeal or ethereal substances or corporeity-gods, through these into the soul the world or the spirit of the universe, through him to the contemplation of one of the simplest, most excellent, greatest, incorporeal, absolute, self-sufficient. Thus there is a descent from God through the world to an animal; He is at the top of the ladder, pure action and active power, the most pure light, but at the root of the ladder is matter, darkness, pure passive power, so that all things can be made powerful from the bottom just as he was able to do all things from above. Between the lowest and the highest degree there are intermediate species, the higher of which share the more light, the act, and the active power, while the lower the darkness, power and passive power.
Hence every light which is in the lower, when it reaches through the higher things, is more eminent in the higher; also all the darkness which is in the higher things is stronger in the lower. Yet the reason and the efficacy of darkness and light are not equal; for light diffuses and penetrates even to the lowest and deepest parts of darkness, but darkness does not so touch the world as the purest light; therefore light comprehends, conquers, and conquers infinity; but darkness not only does not comprehend, nor surpass, nor equal light, but surprisingly falls short of that proportion.
According to the three above-mentioned levels of magic, the three worlds are understood: the archetype, the physical, and the rational. In the archetype there is friendship and strife, fire and water in physics, light and darkness in mathematics. Light and darkness descend from fire and water, fire and water from harmony and discord; therefore the first world produces the third through the second, and the third through the second is reflected to the first. Having omitted those things which regard magic principles as to that which is considered superstitious, which, whatever they may be, are unworthy of the common people, we will turn to only the contemplation of those things which are conducive to supply of wisdom, and may be sufficient for better talents; although no kind of magic is unworthy of knowledge and cognition, since every science belongs to the genus of good, as Aristotle says in the preface to De Anima, that the wicked race of men should be turned to destruction rather than to the welfare of a partner of the race.
In general the efficient is twofold: nature and will. The will presently is threefold: man, human, demon, and divine. Nature in the proposed is twofold: intrinsic and extrinsic. The intrinsic is still twofold: matter or subject, and form with natural power. The extrinsic also is twofold: which is rather called the image of nature, trace and shadow or light, and those which remain in matter and on the subject’s surface, as light and heat in the sun and in other hot things, and those which emanate and flow out from the subject, as light which It is poured out by the sun and is found in illuminated things, and the heat which is accompanied by light in the sun and is found in heated things. From the contemplation of these number we can descend to propagate the power or produce effects from the first cause through the middle to the nearest and lowest, by limiting the universal cause diverse and contrary dispositions of weather and orders. And from the same matter, if we wish to believe those who suspect mutually transmutable elements by the common name, of whom the chief was Plato, who at one time was content with the production of all things, one matter and one efficient one. But whatever is of operation with respect to the first and universal operator, whether it assumes one or more material principles, whichever is in the genus of second causes, whether it be man or demon, is that, according to the multitude and variety of workable species, he recognizes several materials, each possessing an act or form. which the subject can shed something outside of himself.
Other virtues or forms or accidents which are conveyed from subject to subject are manifest, such as those which are in the genus of active and passive qualities, and of those which immediately follow them, such as heating to cool, to dampen, to dry, to soften, to harden, to assemble, to disperse; Others are more hidden according to their hidden effects, such as exhilarate, saddened, desire or boredom, fear and daring, as are motives from extrinsic species, through the action of thought in man and the estimative in brutes; experience conceives of an image of enmity, or fear of its death or destruction; the reason of which is related to the internal sense, which is, of course, influenced by external species. However. For as nature gave existence to species, and likewise to each object’s desire for preserving itself in its present state, so too has it impressed an internal spirit, or would you prefer to be called sense, to all things, in which they may know and shun the most unfriendly by a certain superscription; we see, but also in all those things which seem to be dead and incomplete, in which there is nevertheless a spirit, desiring to preserve the present species, by all means; they are crowded together in those falling drops, which, lest they should fall, are crowded together, and in those which have fallen, which, lest they should flow away and are scattered about, strive toward the center, and endeavor to bolster themselves in their parts toward the globe; and also on straw or sticks slid into the fire, and on skins or parchments, which jump up and in a certain way escape their corruption. This sense is innate in all things, and life, which, according to popular people, we do not call animal, referring to a particular soul, since neither can these animals be called parts, but in the order of the universe, which one spirit is diffused on every side, and the senses everywhere and everywhere the intellect perceives such effects and passions in a thing, though it is possible to contemplate it in all things. For just as our soul from the whole body produces the whole work of life first and universally, yet afterwards, although it is wholly in the whole and wholly in every part, yet it does not therefore make the whole whole and whole of each part, but makes us see with the eye, and hear with the ear to taste in the mouth (which if the eye were everywhere, it would see everywhere; if everywhere the organs of all the senses were indeed, neither can these parts be called animals, yet in the order of the universe, which one spirit diffuses from every quarter, and senses such effects and passions everywhere and everywhere for the apprehension of a thing, it is permissible to contemplate in all things. For just as our soul from the whole body produces the whole work of life first and universally, yet afterwards, although it is wholly in the whole and wholly in every part, yet it does not therefore make the whole whole and whole of each part, but makes us see with the eye, and hear with the ear to taste in the mouth (which if the eye were everywhere, it would see everywhere; if everywhere the organs of all the senses were indeed, neither can these parts be called animals, yet in the order of the universe, which one spirit diffuses from every quarter, and senses such effects and passions everywhere and everywhere for the apprehension of a thing, it is permissible to contemplate in all things. For just as our soul from the whole body produces the whole work of life first and universally, yet afterwards, although it is wholly in the whole and wholly in every part, yet it does not therefore make the whole whole and whole of each part, but makes us see with the eye, and hear with the ear to taste in the mouth (which if the eye were everywhere, it would see everywhere; if everywhere the organs of all the senses were they would feel it on every side), thus also the soul of the world in the whole world, wherever such matter has been acquired, there produces such a subject and thereby produces such operations.
Therefore, although it is everywhere equally, it does not act equally everywhere, because matter is not equally distributed everywhere it is administered. Thus, therefore, as the whole soul is in the whole body, and in the bones, and in the veins, and in the heart, it is not more present to one than to the other part, nor less present to one than to all, and to all, than to one; yet this makes the nerve to be nerve, there the vein to be a vein there blood is blood, there heart is heart. And just as it happens to them to be changed either by an extrinsic efficient or a passive intrinsic principle, so the act of the soul must necessarily take place one way or another. This is the main beginning and the root of all the principles in order to produce the most wonderful things in nature namely, that on the part of the active principle, and of the spirit or of the universal soul, there is nothing so unfinished, incomplete, and incomplete, and at length overlooked in the eyes of the opinion, that it cannot be the principle of great operations; Indeed, a resolution must be made for the most part of this sort, so that a new sort of world may be generated from them. For just as brass is more similar to gold than copper ashes, and more similar to its perfection than ash from brass, yet in this transformation, the ash of copper is closer to the form of gold than brass. the species themselves, as well as other species, however similar and proximate, and related. He believes otherwise, and is equally as someone, thinking that an ape could be more easily formed into a man; and the spirit or the universal soul is nothing so unfinished, incomplete, and imperfect, and at length overlooked in the eyes of the opinion, that it cannot be the beginning of great operations; Indeed, indeed, a very powerful resolution must be made for this sort of thing, so that a new sort of world may be generated from them. For just as brass is more similar to gold than copper ashes, and more similar to its perfection than ash from brass, yet in this transformation, the ash of copper is closer to the form of gold than brass. the species themselves, as well as other species, however similar and proximate, and related. He believes otherwise, and is equally as someone, thinking that an ape could be more easily formed into a man; and the spirit or the universal soul is nothing so unfinished, incomplete, and imperfect, and at length overlooked in the eyes of the opinion, that it cannot be the beginning of great operations; Indeed, a resolution must be made for the most part of this sort, so that a new sort of world may be generated from them. For just as brass is more similar to gold than copper ashes, and more similar to its perfection than ash from brass, yet in this transformation, the ash of copper is closer to the form of gold than brass. the species themselves, as well as other species, however similar and proximate, and related. He believes otherwise, and is equally as someone, thinking that an ape could be more easily formed into a man; that it could not be the beginning of large operations; Indeed, indeed, a very powerful resolution must be made for this sort of thing, so that a new sort of world may be generated from them. For just as brass is more similar to gold than copper ashes, and more similar to its perfection than ash from brass, yet in this transformation, the ash of copper is closer to the form of gold than brass. the species themselves, as well as other species, however similar and proximate, and related. He believes otherwise, and is equally as someone, thinking that an ape could be more easily formed into a man, that it could not be the beginning of large operations; Indeed, indeed, a very powerful resolution must be made for this sort of thing, so that a new sort of world may be generated from them. For just as brass is more similar to gold than copper ashes, and more similar to its perfection than ash from brass, yet in this transformation, the ash of copper is closer to the form of gold than brass. the species themselves, as well as other species, however similar and proximate, and related. He believes otherwise, and is equally as someone, thinking that an ape could be more easily formed into a man; and to its perfection more similar to that of ash from brass; yet in this transformation the ash of copper is closer to the form of gold than brass; so that we also see that all the seeds which are nearest to the species to be produced are nearer to this, that they may be species themselves, than any other species, however much similar and proximate and related.
He believes otherwise, and is equally as someone, thinking that an ape could be more easily formed into a man, and to its perfection more similar to that of ash from brass; yet in this transformation the ash of copper is closer to the form of gold than brass; so that we also see that all the seeds which are nearest to the species to be produced are nearer to this, that they may be species themselves, than any other species, however much similar and proximate and related. He believes otherwise, and is equally as someone, thinking that an ape could be more easily formed into a man, which seed was injected into the matrix, which was the nearest nourishment or bread. Nevertheless, it is necessary that the likeness and the form of the same species be present in every production, so that in the products of the model, which is in the mind of the artist, the house and the clothing are produced; in natural production the species of things are produced and defined by the model, which is the most closely related to the form of matter. For example, we see that the same species of nourishment, the same heaven, and water, and habitation, are converted into substance, a dog in a dog, a man in a man, a cat in a cat, and through the same dog breeds a dog, a man a man; where it is opened, that the whole cause of the crisis is on account of the idea, which is presented everywhere to nature in general, and afterwards is limited to this and that species, as the latter is the nearest or the former. So, too, whoever chooses to perform works like nature’s sorcerer It is that it knows chiefly the ideal principle, which is specific from the species, and soon numerical to number, or individual to individual. From this the fabrication of images and a portion of matter is so formed, and not without a clear cause and a confirming effect by the power of the magician and philosophy, many practice witchcraft and medicine by means of certain figures destined for certain parts, or those things which have some communication, participate in doing evil or remedying and thus the work is contracted and limited to a certain individual.
From the experience of these things and the other reasons mentioned above, it is evident that every soul and spirit have a certain continuity with the spirit of the universe, so that not only is it understood to be there and included in where it feels, where it gives life, but also beyond its essence and the substance is diffused, as many of the Platonists and Pythagoreans thought. Hence it is that the species most distant from the eye perceives suddenly without motion, apart from the fact that the eye or any of the eyes is moving suddenly to the stars, or suddenly from the stars to the eye. Moreover, the mind itself, with its power, is in some way present to the universe, as such a substance, which is not included in the body by the living body, although bound to it. Therefore, when certain baggage is removed, and immediately and suddenly present, it has the most remote species, which are not joined to it by motion, so that no one will deny that; therefore also by a certain presence. Experience also teaches him, in those who, after their nose had been cut off, made a new limb to grow up to themselves from the flesh of another; for at the passing of that day, whose flesh was, according to the manner in which his body rots, even the borrowed nose rots. From this it is evident that the soul diffuses more out of the body through the whole horizon of its nature. Hence it happens that he knows not only his own members, but also all with whom he has acquired some experience, participation, and communion. Nor is there an argument which the stupid adduce, but lacking the principle of philosophy, because it does not perceive another thing on contact with another; which, of course, is true in one way by distinguishing species from species, individual from individual, while it is false by distinguishing part from part. For just as if a man has touched his finger or has pricked one part of his body with a needle, the whole body will be shaken from time to time according to all the members, not according to that part alone, although only on that side; but also all with whom he contracted some experience, participation, and communion. Nor is there an argument which the stupid adduce, but lacking the principle of philosophy, which, when touched by another, does not perceive another; which, of course, is true in one way by distinguishing species from species, individual from individual, while it is false by distinguishing part from part. For just as if a man has touched his finger or has pricked one part of his body with a needle, the whole body will be shaken from time to time according to all the members, not according to that part alone, although only on that side; but also all with whom he contracted some use, participation, and communion. Nor is there an argument which the stupid adduce, but lacking the principle of philosophy, because it does not perceive another thing on contact with another; which, of course, is true in one way by distinguishing species from species, individual from individual, while it is false by distinguishing part from part. For just as if a man has touched his finger or has pricked one part of his body with a needle, the whole body will be shaken from time to time according to all the members, not according to that part alone, although only on that side , So when the mind is of one of each of the connection is with the soul of the universe, it does not follow that the impossibility, which is said to have in our bodies, which are not mutually penetrate each other; for in spiritual substances of this kind there is another reason, as if innumerable lamps were lit, which combine to the power of one light, it does not happen that another light impedes, or blunts, or shuts off. The same is true of many voices diffused at the same time through the same air, and also of many visual rays, as we speak in the usual way, because they are explained for the purpose of conceiving the whole of the same visible world, where they all penetrate through the same medium, and some obliquely and rightly; innumerable spirits and souls diffused through the same space do not hinder themselves, so that the diffusion of one hinders the diffusion of an infinite number of other things.
Such a virtue, since it is not only of the soul, but also of certain accidents, such as voice, light, sight, in the manner in which the soul is whole in the whole and in every part of the body, and all around it outside its own body, takes on very different and diverse species, it is a sign Reply to Objection 3: The first act and the substance are not included in the body; it is not prescriptive in the body, but only definitively in order to explain the second act in it and the second act. Behold, the principle by which reason and virtue is sought for the cause of the innumerable effects which cause admiration, is brought to him; nor should this divine substance and soul be of a worse condition than the accidents which proceed from it as its effects, traces and shadows. If, I say, the voice works outside the proper body, in which it grows, and is wholly round about in innumerable ears, Why should not the whole substance, which produce the voice, be in different places and parts, and be bound to certain members?
To this point it is also to be observed that the ears of hidden intelligence do not pay attention to all idioms or intelligence; for the voices, which are from the institution of men, are not considered as natural voices. For this reason, the songs, and especially the tragic ones (as Plotinus notes), have the greatest efficacy in doubting the soul. In like manner all writings are not of that importance, of which there are those characters who indicate the realities themselves by a fixed guidance and figure; hence certain signs leaning toward one another, respecting one another, embracing, and constraining them to love; but those who decline are opposed, and are scattered to hatred and divorce; cut up, incomplete, broken through to destruction; the nodes are linked, and the characters are explained by the dissolution And these are not in a certain definite and definite form, but each, according to the dictate of his fury or impulse of his spirit, in the performance of his work, as he desires or curses something, so however much he designates a thing by a certain impulse by the knots of it himself, and, as it were, in the presence of the god, he experiences certain strengths which he might experience in no speech or elaborate speech or writing. Such letters were more conveniently defined among the Egyptians, which are called hieroglyphics or sacred characters; taken from the things of nature or their parts; Such writings and such expressions came in use, by which the Egyptians were captivated by the conversations of the Gods to carry out their wondrous works. After the letters were invented by Teutus or another according to this description, which we use today along with another kind of industry, the greatest loss of memory, both of divine science and magic, occurred. Accordingly, according to their likeness to certain fashioned images of the present day, the characters and ceremonies, which consist in a certain gesture and a certain dress, explain their vows, as it were by fixed gestures, to explain what they are meant to be. the same, just as the species of nature remains the same. In the same way the divinities speak to us through visions and insomnia, which, although to us they are called enigmas, [yet] on account of the disuse, ignorance, and dullness of our capacity, yet they are the very words and the very boundaries of things that can be represented; But just as these words are related to our comprehension, so our Latin, Greek, and Italian expressions are related, so that they may be heard and understood by the deities, sometimes higher and eternal, who differ from us in particular, so that it may not be easy for us to be able to dealing with them, rather than with eagles or with men. And just as men of one race with men of another race without sharing in idioms have no conversation or contraction, except through gestures, so we can do with a particular kind of deities, and only through certain definite signs, seals, figures, characters, gestures, and other ceremonies. to be partici- pious. Who But just as these words are related to our comprehension, so our Latin, Greek, and Italian expressions are related, so that they may be heard and understood by the deities, sometimes higher and eternal, who differ from us in particular, so that it may not be easy for us to be able to dealing with them, rather than with eagles or with men. And just as men of one race with men of another race without sharing in idioms have no conversation or contraction, except through gestures, so we can do with a particular kind of deities, and only through certain definite signs, seals, figures, characters, gestures, and other ceremonies. to be partici- pious. Who But just as these words are related to our comprehension, so our Latin, Greek, and Italian expressions are related, so that they may be heard and understood by the deities, sometimes higher and eternal, who differ from us in particular, so that it may not be easy for us to be able to dealing with them, rather than with eagles or with men. And just as men of one race with men of another race without sharing in idioms have no conversation or contraction, except through gestures, so we can do with a particular kind of deities, and only through certain definite signs, seals, figures, characters, gestures, and other ceremonies. to be partici- pious. Who they differ from us in species, so that we cannot easily have intercourse with them, rather than eagles with men. And just as men of one race with men of another race without sharing in idioms have no conversation or contraction, except through gestures, so we can do with a particular kind of deities, and only through certain definite signs, seals, figures, characters, gestures, and other ceremonies. to be partici- pious. Who they differ from us in species, so that we cannot easily have intercourse with them, rather than eagles with men. And just as men of one race with men of another race without sharing in idioms have no conversation or contraction, except through gestures, so we can do with a particular kind of deities, and only through certain definite signs, seals, figures, characters, gestures, and other ceremonies. to be partici- pious. Who Therefore, the magician can scarcely advance anything without that kind of magic, especially that which is theurgical, without words and scriptures of this kind.
With respect to the communion or sharing of things.
From this one may believe and consider the cause, by which the action is not only related to the proximate cause, but also to the remote according to the senses; for in reality, as was said above, through the communion of the universal spirit, which is wholly in the whole and in every part of the world. Whence it turns out that just as different lights come together in the same space together, so different bodies of souls in the universe are united according to their potential or actuality, according to the finite or infinite number of souls in the universe; and also innumerable parts consist in diverse and innumerable places (where we understand space). Thus, therefore, the body can by no means act into the body, nor matter into matter, nor can the parts of the same matter and the body act on other parts of the body but every action is from quality, from form, and finally from the soul. This first changes the dispositions, so that the dispositions may then change the bodies. Thus the body acts into a distant body, both near and in its proper parts, by a kind of agreement, union and union, which is from a form; And because for this reason every body is ruled by the soul, or by a certain spirit connecting its parts, just as it happens that one soul acts on the other everywhere and everywhere close to it, so it also necessarily happens that it acts on the body wherever it is that which supplies and is subject to that soul. He who knows, therefore, that this unbreakable continuation of the soul, and that it is bound by a certain necessity to the body, will have no small beginning, both for acting, and for contemplating more truly about the nature of things. And hence there will be an easy reason by which there is no vacuum, namely space without a body; for not one body departs from one place, except one succeeding another. For the soul lacks the proper body in life, but cannot even deprive the whole body; or, if you prefer, to say that it is deprived of the whole body; for leaving one simple or composite thing, it will be conveyed into another, or composite, or simple one, or, if left by one body, it is anticipated or relieved by another. Therefore it has an indissoluble connection to universal matter; and therefore, since his nature is everywhere whole and continuous, it recognizes everywhere corporeal matter. From this it follows that the conclusion is not that there is a vacuum without a body, but that there is a space in which different bodies succeed and move in motion. Hence also there is a continuous movement of the parts of one body toward the parts of the other body, namely, through a continuous space and not interrupted as it were by means of a vacuum between full and full, unless we would like to call a vacuum the space in which no sensible body is.
( 18 dies. ) The body truly continuous body imperceptible breath of the air or ethereal, and it is activissimum and the most effective, because of a close companion on account of the similarity, in which it departs more from the thickness of the more blunt substance of sensible composites. that there are insensible bodies and spiritual things of the above efficacy; and from which there is truly all power in sensible bodies themselves, the air itself indicates the spirit, which shakes and disperses the whole sea, and the invincible attack of the wind, which, when the most serene and purest air exists, shakes the earth, breaks trees, demolishes buildings. As Lucretius notes very well, this is a spiritual body which operates in the senses themselves; hence most philosophers did not consider it to differ from the soul itself; whence the poet says “as much as the fires of the soul are strong,” that is, the air. Fire also, which does not consist of coarse matter, such as coal, and from which bodies are said to be ignited, is not understood to differ from air except by some accident. Indeed, the true fire is the true spirit, which is standing in sparkle, torpid outside it is ignited, living; the flame is in an intermediate position, as it were in a kind of motion. By this spirit different bodies and animals are formed in different ways. If not all composite bodies are animals, yet we must understand that all living things are, namely, that in all things there is a soul of one kind, though not of one and the same act, on account of other and other dispositions of matter and the ideas exposed. From this it happens that, since the forms are diverse and contrary, and not only in reason and difference, by which some intersect with others, so too are the places of impulse and impulse contrary, and shun one from one another, and pursue one another, which proceeds entirely from the condition of composition.
And just as all desire to be conserved in their own right, so they are torn apart in spite of the place of self-preservation and consistency, and are not incompatible without a strong resistance, which is so strong that the sun or fire did not first draw water to itself through the space of the air, which it likened to the air. convert vapor into consistency When this has been done, then that substance which was water is not drawn involuntarily, but by the same impulse by which it is attracted, it strives through itself, as it were, by consent; On the other hand, the body, which is contained by the spirit in the form of a very fine fire, will, in a contrary order, grow into a thickening or thickening form of water. So then from water to vapor, from steam to air from air into a very small and penetrating ethereal body of the same substance and matter, which the Egyptians, Moises, Diogenes, and Apolloniates call spirit, but they differ, because Moises does not distinguish spirit from soul made a distinction. Another substance is dry substance or atoms which are indissoluble, solid bodies, which have of themselves no continuity nor division, and therefore are not convertible into another body; for the substance of water or spirit or of air, which is the same, will never migrate into the substance of dry atoms, nor vice versa.
The highest and most divine and true, inasmuch as it is in harmony with nature, is philosophy, which posited the principles of things as water, or the abyss, or the styx, and also the dry land or atoms or earth (not I say earth), also the spirit or air or the soul, and the fourth light; for these are so distinct from each other, that one cannot ever be transformed into the nature of another; but these things come together and are well associated, where more, where less, where all things, where are some.
Of the movement and attraction of two things.
The movement of things is twofold: natural and preternatural; the natural who is from an intrinsic principle, the preternatural who is from an extrinsic principle; likewise the natural, which is befitting to nature, consistency, or generation, and preternatural, which is not. And this is twofold: violent, which is contrary to nature; and orderly or coordinated, which is not incompatible with nature. Natural motion, generally speaking, is considered in all categories or all categories, not distinguishing between motion and change. In all the other motions of the present and of their species aside, we say that “being” is the same, considering the motion of the second place twofold: the other of things naturally constituted and living in their proper place, and this motion is either circular, or imitates circular motion; the other is of natural things not naturally constituted, and this motion is upright. For straight air is moved to fill the void; The stone is carried through the air by a straight line, and the heavier bodies are conveyed by penetrating through the water, so that they may have a place in which they either naturally rest or move; In a straight line, as far as possible, the opposite flees from the opposite, as smoke, vapor, water, from fire (for through that line the faster it is brought to greater distances); The same line also tends to the like and fitting to it, as the chaff to the ember, the iron to the magnet, so that it may be better and better to rest or toss. There is a third species of motion, which is the flow and influx of all natural parts of all parts, which, on every side, are hurled from themselves by themselves, some according to a manifold reason; and this motion in the present is called spherical. For it is not according to one straight line, either as from the middle, or as to the middle, or around the middle, but according to an infinite number of lines, as from the same centre; they receive and introduce them; but they grow up and grow vigorously, when the influx of more suitable things exceeds the outflow; and, on the other hand, they grow old, decrease, and become sluggish, when the influx of outside and natural outflows becomes greater; and at length from this cause there is corruption and change in things, which is every change or alteration and dissolution. Of the first two movements of the kind and this motion in the present is called spherical. For it is not according to one straight line, either as from the middle, or as to the middle, or around the middle, but according to an infinite number of lines, as from the same centre; they receive and introduce them; but they grow up and grow vigorously, when the influx of more suitable things exceeds the outflow; and, on the other hand, they grow old, decrease, and become sluggish, when the influx of outside and natural outflows becomes greater; and at length from this cause there is corruption and change in things, which is every change or alteration and dissolution. Of the first two movements of the kind and this motion in the present is called spherical. For it is not according to one straight line, either as from the middle, or as to the middle, or around the middle, but according to an infinite number of lines, as from the same centre; they receive and introduce them; but they grow up and grow vigorously, when the influx of more suitable things exceeds the outflow; and, on the other hand, they grow old, decrease, and become sluggish, when the influx of outside and natural outflows becomes greater; and at length from this cause there is corruption and change in things, which is every change or alteration and dissolution. Of the first two movements of the kind since from the whole convex perimeter, or surface, all bodies shake and release something from the internal, they again receive and introduce them into themselves; but they grow up and grow vigorously, when the influx of more suitable things exceeds the outflow; and, on the other hand, they grow old, decrease, and become sluggish, when the influx of outside and natural outflows becomes greater; and at length from this cause there is corruption and change in things, which is every change or alteration and dissolution. Of the first two movements of the kind since from the whole convex perimeter, or surface, all bodies shake and release something from the internal, they again receive and introduce them into themselves; but they grow up and grow vigorously, when the influx of more suitable things exceeds the outflow; and, on the other hand, they grow old, decrease, and become sluggish, when the influx of outside and natural outflows becomes greater; and at length from this cause there is corruption and change in things, which is every change or alteration and dissolution.
Of the first two movements of the kind and finally, from this cause corruption is in things and change, which is every change, or alteration, and dissolution. Of the first two movements of the kind and finally, from this cause corruption is in things and change, which is every change, or alteration, and dissolution. Of the first two movements of the kind there is no controversy according to the senses, as their consideration and enumeration have been published; but if one examines it more closely, the third will be found not only true and appropriate, but also necessary. That sense is especially in those which have the most sensible qualities, such as in fire, which does not heat to one side or one side, but around on every side, when it is suddenly roused up, inflames and illuminates on every side; and so the voice, sound, and the middle ground, arranged evenly on all sides, penetrates evenly around on all sides. Likewise, according to the sense of the smell, it is evident that certain parts of odoriferous things flow forth immediately; for that accident does not spread around the composite without certain parts or certain substances falling away. Similarly with the appearance to the image and to sensible accidents of this kind innumerable other accidents are poured out with certain parts, and these parts are truly wonderfully removed from those smallest sensibles, as is evident even in certain things which smell for many years, however of little quantity. Beyond these sensible qualities or virtues, which are transmitted around the globe by the body, there are also other, more spiritual and duller spirits, who act not only on the body and in the senses, but also on the spirit and the deeper faculties of the soul. it is known about the power of many stones, roots, and minerals. It is also evident in fascinations and in those things which are performed actively and passively through the eyes of a cast, as a nobleman destroys in the field of sight even from a man looking at a distance. which parts, indeed, are strangely removed from those least sensible things, as is evident even in certain things which smell for many years, however small in size. Beyond these sensible qualities or virtues, which are transmitted around the globe by the body, there are also other, more spiritual and duller spirits, who act not only on the body and in the senses, but also on the spirit and the deeper faculties of the soul. it is known about the power of many stones, roots, and minerals. It is also evident in fascinations and in those things which are performed actively and passively through the eyes of a cast, as a nobleman destroys in the field of sight even from a man looking at a distance. which parts, indeed, are strangely removed from those least sensible things, as is evident even in certain things which smell for many years, however small in size. Beyond these sensible qualities or virtues, which are transmitted around the globe by the body, there are also other, more spiritual and duller spirits, who act not only on the body and in the senses, but also on the spirit and the deeper faculties of the soul. it is known about the power of many stones, roots, and minerals. It is also evident in fascinations and in those things which are performed actively and passively through the eyes of a cast, as a nobleman destroys in the field of sight even from a man looking at a distance. however of little quantity. Beyond these sensible qualities or virtues, which are transmitted around the globe by the body, there are also other, more spiritual and duller spirits, who act not only on the body and in the senses, but also on the spirit and the deeper faculties of the soul. it is known about the power of many stones, roots, and minerals. It is also evident in fascinations and in those things which are performed actively and passively through the eyes of a cast, as a nobleman destroys the sight of a man even from afar, in battle. however of little quantity. Beyond these sensible qualities or virtues, which are transmitted around the globe by the body, there are also other, more spiritual and duller spirits, who act not only on the body and in the senses, but also on the spirit and the deeper faculties of the soul. it is known about the power of many stones, roots, and minerals. It is also evident in fascinations and in those things which are performed actively and passively through the eyes of a cast, as a nobleman destroys in the field of sight even from a man looking at a distance. and they reach the deeper faculties of the soul by striking them with certain affections and passions, as has been reported about the virtue of many stones, roots, and minerals. It is also evident in fascinations and in those things which are performed actively and passively through the eyes of a cast, as a nobleman destroys the sight of a man even from afar, in battle. and they reach the deeper faculties of the soul by striking them with certain affections and passions, as has been reported about the virtue of many stones, roots, and minerals. It is also evident in fascinations and in those things which are performed actively and passively through the eyes of a cast, as a nobleman destroys in the field of sight even from a man looking at a distance.
How does a magnet draw iron, coral blood etc
(22). From these follows the reason by which the magnet attracts the second kind. Moreover, the attraction is twofold: some by consent, as when the parts are moved to their whole, and located to their place, the like are carried away by the like, and the fittings by the fitting together; the other is without consent, as when the opposite is drawn from the other on account of the victory of the other, which it cannot escape, as when the moisture is carried away by fire, as is evident in the fiery basin placed on top of the basin containing water, which is absorbed by the power of heat, so as to rise up rapidly. The same is evident in the eddies and whirlwinds which occur in the sea, so that sometimes the ships themselves, with the waves on high, are carried away at great distances. But to be raped in this way happens in three ways. In one way by sensible reasons, as in the numbered manner, and also as where with the attraction and absorption of the air, those things which are in the air are also attracted; and it is also evident in the tubes, through which the water is drunk, in ascending to all the differences of the place, by the said method; because, the air inhaled in a tube contained in it, since no other air can replace it, water, or earth, or something else that fills the place. But if nothing can succeed, the air itself is reduced and retained by the force of space, as is the case at times when the mouth is blocked while drinking or drinking, whose tongue or lips By the power of the mediating and compressed air they are very firmly attached to the orifice, and vice versa are bound up, so that from their pores a spirit may be drawn out to restore or refresh that which had been withdrawn from space or space.
There is also another species of insensible attraction by which the magnet draws iron, the reason of which we cannot relate to vacuum or the like, but only to the flow of parts from all bodies or atoms. For it turns out that when the atoms of one genus, like or related to the atoms of a genus or generative species, come together and meet one another, then the appetite and impulse of one body is inflamed to the other, so that from time to time the whole which has been conquered may be moved to a more powerful whole; for to which all parts have an impact, and it is necessary to call them all. This manifests itself sensibly in lighted lamps, of which, if the nearest lower part is extinguished, by the smoke itself or those flowing out of the spirit (which are in the nearest arrangement, such as flame or fuel fire) the flame will descend as if it were carried downwards to kindle the lower torch. Thus, too, it seems that in the case of small flames, which, lest they be destroyed by the moisture in their proper substrate, they exert openly the approach arranged in the material, they proceed to the place of the larger flame, either in a straight line or in a transverse way, or in passing through it. Thus it happens that, after the parts have been conquered, the iron, which run in every direction toward the magnet, is attracted by another kind of virtue or quality (for even in natural and mixed things this kind of activity is not to be referred to only the active and passive qualities), although sometimes they concur also of necessity, but not principally. But that this attraction arises from the outflow of the parts, which is made from such subjects as this, is indicated by the fact that when rubbed in a magnet, and in the drawing of chaff, and in iron, they are strengthened so much more; For that heat induces a greater outflow of the parts, in virtue of which it is necessary to open the pores and to rarefy the body.
It is also evident from this that a similar judgment is made in the manner in which the rhabbarb derives its cholera from the extremities or circumferential parts of the animal to the intestines; That even in a magnet and the like, the attractive power and efficacy are not from a passive or active quality, according to the common type of action or passion, as it is found in the four forms of the elements iron But if it were from an elementary quality, this would not have happened; for heat and cold, when accidentally advancing on their subjects, disappear with the absence of the heater. It is therefore necessary to refer to the outflow of the parts which flowing from a magnet and flowing into iron is a spiritual substance. It is difficult to formulate a different or probable explanation of these effects, and it is easy to examine the various chimeras and dreams which have been discovered by this attraction, in view of this, which is evident from all sides.
It is related to the same judgment and cause, which a diamond is said to impede on this attraction, and likewise various other things, which, by a certain power of their own, have been produced by a certain effigy, to dull another’s virtue, just as to intensify and sharpen some other things, as the diamond is said to impress upon the magnanimity of the one who bears the spirit.
(23).But as to the attraction of the magnet from the pole, it is not easy to bring the case, if that which they say is not true, that in that region there are found very numerous and great mountains of similar species, which, however, is difficult to persuade. Suppose it is: it is asked why there is such an attraction at every distance. For we are not speaking here of the attraction of a magnet, not active but passive; but whether a magnet draws a magnet, I have not yet tried this. If there are also mountains of this character, and they possess such strength at such a distance, certainly if they draw a needle from the torrid zone or from the tropics, they ought to draw armed men from our country; but this seems utterly ludicrous. Cast iron that draws the magnet, when there is nothing in between except the air, and in a straight line, just from our regions to those parts, where are the mountains and rocks of the magnet, beyond the North Sea, a great swelling of the earth intercedes. Therefore the magnet would draw iron, or (if it were drawing by reason of similarity) the magnet, if our magnet existed in A, the mountains would be in D; only they are necessarily found in B or C, so that there is clearly a great distance between them
a right line AB or AC marked, and also a huge swelling of the earth marked by the arc AB and AC. Therefore that absolute common and famous reason appears in many ways. And with the reasons stated above, we annex this also, that these mountains of a magnet do not have the power to be attracted by reason of their resemblance to the magnet; for if this were the case, we would see a large magnet to draw a small piece of the magnet. Therefore we do not give any reason for the attraction of this effect, because, as has been said, the more reasonable iron would be drawn from it, but rather the flight from the antipathy; for the contrary is the nature of that mineral and iron, which are the offspring of the earth and of the cold earthly consistency. Whence it comes about against them, and almost all the flowers, which are converted to the sun, and are pursuing the same by looking at the way of the sun, as not now You may see in this account what is said of the heliotrope, but in the flower of narcissus, saffron, and countless others. These things, therefore, we will safely say, as it were an enemy to the sun and heat.
Epilogue to the motions by which some things are moved.
We find, therefore, that to be moved locally, we find it to occur for several reasons: first, to the consistency and preservation of life, which is through motion (for by the power of our natural soul and spirit things are moved in a circle in their place, as was said above); secondly, by the flight of the enemy; thirdly, by attending to what is becoming or good; fourthly, by expulsion or extrusion from the opposite driving; fifthly, by the violent attraction even of the contrary of the needy or the desiring, the matter itself is convertible into itself; sixth, through animal choice concurrent with the consent of the natural power; lastly, by violence, which by art or study also hinders and distorts the forces of nature in another, or even of nature itself; rivers flowing from the ocean to the sea, which suffer from the flow of the sea, so that for many miles they flow back toward their springs and themselves.
Of the bonds of spirits.
It has been said above that spirits inhabit some coarser, some more subtle matter, some in composite things, some consist in simpler bodies, some sensible, some insensible; wherefore the operations of the soul are more ready for some, some more difficult, some dulled, some adapted, others taken away. Some operate more powerfully in one genus, others more powerfully in another; Hence, certain operations and actions and pleasures were given to men by which the demons were deprived of them; and vice versa. To them, however, the penetration around the bodies and the injection of thoughts is quicker, since they so far push up certain impressions from the internal senses, that we may sometimes seem to think through ourselves the things which they themselves suggest. For it seems that their information is proportionately related, and there is a certain analogy In order that one may wish to arouse some sense, and in a more distant place, there is need of a shout, that the conceptions of someone may be brought to the internal sense through the hearing; therefore there is no need for a nearby shout, but in a more low voice; it is sufficient to whisper to the ears at the last; but to the demon there is no need even in the ears, nor in a voice, nor in a whisper, but so penetrates into the internal sense itself, as has been said. Thus they introduce not only dreams and make voices to be heard and whatever but even to those who are awake certain thoughts appear, which they are scarcely known to be by another, sometimes by means of riddles, sometimes by instilling the truth with more expressive senses, and sometimes perhaps deceiving; but all things are not lawful to all, since all things are carried out in a definite order and order.
Nor do all spirits or demons alike consist of all things, and are lawful and well understood; for we find that there are far more species of them than they can be of sensible things. Wherefore some of them are brutish animals, and without reason injurious, so that they live much below human wisdom, yet they can injure men as much as the pernicious animals and their poisons. Such is the kind which Marcus calls the deaf and dumb, that is, without reason, because he knows no government, hears and receives no threats, and receives no prayers; and therefore the powerless protested that they should be cast out, but they said that that kind could be overcome and overcome by fasting, or abstinence, and speech, or uplifting of mind, and the energy of the senses. And this is physical, since gross things of that kind, like fodder and other attractions,
There is also another kind of timid, suspicious, and credulous person that hears and understands the voices, but does not distinguish between the possible and the impossible, suitable and unreasonable, like the dreamers and those whose imagination has been disturbed. and this kind is wont to be driven from the bodies by the threats of death, prison, fire, and the like.
There are also others wiser, of whom that simple substance is more airy, who are moved by no worship, no religion, no speeches; they constantly assert, as being an unpopular kind, that they instill confusion and doubt in the minds and minds of men.
But the ethereal, pure and bright race all agree in that he is altogether good and a good friend to upright men, but no enemy, just as some men of the air are friends to one another, and to others they are enemies and hostility.
The water and earth are either enemies or not friends, since they are less rational and therefore more fearful, and according to that which they fear, they hate and injure willingly.
But the fiery ones, who are properly called gods and heroes, are called the ministers of God, whom the Cabalists call Fissim, the Seraphim, and the Cherubim, of whom the prophet Psalter said, “He who makes his angels spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire”; Whence Basil and Origen rightly conclude that the angels are not at all incorporeal, but spiritual substances, that is, the animals of the most subtle body, which divine revelation signifies by fire and flame.
In every order of spirits there are presidents and princes, pastors, leaders, rulers, and degrees, within whom the wiser and the more powerful, the weaker and the more learned, rule and prescribe; and these commands are not eternal, nor as short of consistency as human, since their lives are in many ways comparable to ours, since it is easier for a simple body to reconcile the soul to itself, than to a simple body composed of contrary things, such as ours. they readily defend that their bodies are most easily passible, just as air and water are more vulnerable than certain composite bodies. Moreover, they are refreshed with the same ease, as the broken up air is most easily restored, and the parts of the water meet after they have been penetrated; and it is not a ludicrous and poetic fiction, that Virgil asserts that Aeneas, with his drawn sword passing through the shadows, terrified them.
Some human spirits, some other animals inhabit the bodies, some plants, some stones and minerals, and nothing at all is destitute of spirit and intellect, and the spirit never acquires the eternal seat destined for it; spirit from one thing to another; and this is alteration, change, passion, and finally corruption, namely, separation from certain parts and from certain parts and composition with certain parts; for death is nothing else but dissolution. But neither any spirit nor any body perishes, but only a continuous change of temperament and actions.
According to the various acts, which proceed from various compositions, there are various loves and hatreds, since they desire that all things, as has been said, consist in the present, since they either understand or are uncertain that the whole state is different and new; therefore there is a general bond of love inversely between the soul to its own body and (in its own way) to the soul of the body. Hence depends on the diversity of the natures and the impact of the bonds by which both spirits and bodies are bound, the diversity of which will be discussed soon after we have defined the analogy of spirits and composites.
On the analogy of spirits.
Porphyry, Plotinus, and the other Platonists distribute bodies to spirits in such a way that the purest and best, who are also inscribed in the name of the Gods, are fiery substances in the body, and that they are the simplest and most pure; but they, which consist of the other grosser elements, do not consist without the participation of a more subtle element, so that the air may have air mixed with fire, aqueous air with fire, earthly air and water with fire. Invisible substances are on account of their slenderness of body. Moreover, terrestrial and aqueous substances are sometimes rendered visible by the choice of concrete and thickened gas, and appear even in more serene and tranquil regions in the purer air. And It happened to me to have seen them at the mountains of Liber and Laurus, and not only to me, but frequently appear to the inhabitants of that place, to whom they are sometimes (yet moderately) aggressive, leading them away and hiding the beasts, which they return again after some days to their own stables. In gold mines and other subterranean places, such as in the mountains of Gebenna, it is quite common and well-informed that diggers occur most frequently, to whom sometimes they are both troublesome, as well as helpers, and signifiers of disasters. To this kind are related those who were in a solitary place near Nola, near the temple of the Porti, and also under a cliff at the foot of Mount Cicadus, which was formerly the cemetery of the pestilented; who at a very small distance, most of them from the head and other parts of the body, leaping with great impetuosity, attacking them out of season, at a moderate distance, but never did they inflict any injury to the body, both to me and to all others who testify to the same thing. Of these Psellus mentions in his book on the demons, calling them lucifers, throwers of stones, whose throws are still empty.
That there are subterranean demons not only of sense, experience, and reason, but also of a certain divine authority confirms among the wisest and many philosophies and the most profound book of Job. He, cursing of the day in which he was born, uses these words when he says, “Let the day in which I was born perish” etc., where he concludes after a few sentences, “Why is light given to the miserable , and life to those who are bitter in soul?” “why did I not immediately fall out of the womb?”, “or did I not stop as I hid as a stillborn child?”, “for now I was asleep, and I had no rest in sleep with the kings and princes of the earth, who build deserts for themselves and fill their houses with silver”; but when these words were uttered from the mouth of Job himself, nothing is more expressly proposed.
Even so, as was said above, some spirits are confined to other bodies, distributing these degrees in a certain order and justice; and Origen, Pythagoras and the Platonists numbered men among the demons; life is arranged and impaired. For this reason both Christian theologians and the better sects of philosophers call this life a kind of way and passage, pilgrimage and service. The same is true of other types of consistency. Moreover, in the best of these, to which when the soul or spirit becomes, it is understood to persist for a very long time; and this is what we said at the beginning that every spiritual substance is reduced to one, every material being one to three, that the soul is one, its God, and that the first mind is one above all, that the soul of the universe is one.
In addition to these it is very likely that all diseases are evil demons, whence they are banished by singing, and by prayer, and by contemplation, and by ecstasy of the soul, and are incited to the contrary. Nor is it to be denied by certain men that there are certain rulers of spirit , by whose virtue certain kinds of diseases are scattered, as they say of Cyrus and other kings of the Persians, who cured the splenic by the touch of the thumb. The same thing is commonly known and well known among the kings of Gaul, who care for scrophules by the touch of the thumb; the same saliva is said to be able to produce the seventh child born of the same parent without a female.
The demons are therefore corporeal, and according to their various and diverse bodies, various and diverse, the argument is that they have affections, lusts, anger, zeal, similar to human affections, and of composite animals of grosser and sensible matter; for by them were found the sacrifices and slaughter of the animals, by whose equipment and smoke they protested exceedingly to take pleasure in them; and these must be very closely allied to our constituency, of whom some have been affected by other races and nations, detesting and loathing all the others. Some of these are famous, famous and powerful, and others more common people, whom the Romans called the pans of the gods, namely, by whom the sacrifices and oblations were not defined. It is not credible for them that such dishes are as necessary and pleasant (for they themselves can procure for themselves the things which are necessary for themselves) however, these things were found out for their luxury, which, without the management of men, they did not procure for themselves; for although they know many things better than us, yet they cannot move and alter as much as we do, by themselves of a more spiritual, nobler, and milder complexion. There are more people They take pleasure in fumigations, in which incense, saffron, moss, amber, and fragrant flowers were formerly sufficient to stand before them.
They are said to be of a nobler and more eminent condition, by whom hymns, chants, and musical instruments all smile.
In addition to these conditions, there is the condition of the Gods, whose nature “is not wanting to us, nor is it well received for our merits, nor touched by anger”; for it is ill-treated by us, and it is well with those things which they can by some means require and receive from us, so that they may have it better and more pleasant; but this seems by no means appropriate to those who are in the most fortunate state.
In the end it must be firmly asserted and held in mind that all things are full of spirit, soul, divinity, God or divinity, and intellect and soul are everywhere and whole, but not everywhere makes all things. The poet insinuated this from the Pythagorean dogma:
Pythagorico:
Principio caelum et terras camposque liquentes
Lucentemque globum Lunae Titaniaque astra
Spiritus intus alit, totamque infusa per artus
Mens agitat molem, et totus se corpore miscet.
Hinc hominum pecudumque genus vitaeque volantum
Et quae marmoreo fert monstra sub aequore pontus.
In the first place, the
flowing heaven and earth and the plains, the
Spirit nourishes within the moon’s pale globe and Titan’s stars , and the
mind moves the whole mass through the limbs , and mixes itself entirely with the body.
Hence the race of men and beasts and the flying life and the
wonders which the marble sea carries under the sea.
The same is said of the sense of sacred mysteries received by all people, as in the Psalm and Book of Wisdom, “the Spirit of the Lord fills the world and that which contains all things”, and elsewhere “I fill heaven and earth.”
But corporeal substance differs from this substance of mind, soul, and sublime spirit, that the whole body is the whole in the whole and the universe, but it is the whole in each part, namely, everywhere constituting a whole, and referring to the image of the whole; where in many respects, as the species of the same idea and light is related entirely to the particles of all matter, just as the whole is from the whole matter, which it is permissible to contemplate in a large mirror, because it represents one image of one thing, and the same thing again, broken into a thousand pieces, still intact from all parts. returns the picture. Thus also the different parts and hypostases of the water, torn off from the whole Amphitrite or universal ocean, receive different names and properties, all of which, from time to time confluence into one ocean, have one name and property; thus, if all spirits and parts of the air were to flock together into one ocean, they would form one soul, which would otherwise be many and innumerable. Hence, according to the original consistency, the philosophers call matter one, one spirit, one light, one soul, one intellect.
Now we will turn to the manifold link of the spirits, where all the teaching of magic will be contained.
(according to § 3) The first bond by which spirits are bound is general, by which trivia-headed Cerberus, metaphorically speaking, is supposed to be bound by the gatekeeper of hell; There is a threefold capacity which is required for a binder or magician: physics, mathematics, and metaphysics. The first is the foundation, the second step, and the third the top of the ladder: the first has the character of active and passive principles; the second of times, places, and numbers; the third of universal principles and causes. This is a triple cord, which is easily broken.
(§5) The second link is threefold, which is required both in the operator, and in the operator, and in the person around whom the operation is performed, and is constant in faith or belief; for it is of the soul to effectively change the body or the composite, but to change the soul materially of the body. Unless these things come over or are present, nothing will be done especially in caring, moving, and hustle; hence he is a very fortunate sorcerer, to whom many believe he is of great persuasion.
(§ 11) III. The bond, which is considered efficient, is the number of princes, who are distributed according to the four poles of the universe to those works which are ascertained from heaven and from nature. Besides these, there are leaders who do not have a specific place for voluntary and external effects.
(§ XII) IV. The bond is the soul of the world, or the spirit of the universe, who unites all things and unites them to all; hence, access to all things is given by all, as was said above.
(§ 13) V. They are the bond of the soul of the stars and the chiefs of the places, of the winds, of the elements.
(§ XIII) VI. The souls or demons presiding over times, days, storms and the elements themselves.
(§ XIV and XXV) VII. The souls of men of tyrants, of princes, and of those who have distinguished themselves by some celebrity, from which they escaped among the deities.
(§ XV) VII. The divine names and the names of the divine orders.
(§ XVI) IX. Characters and seals.
(§ 17) X. Protestations, conspiracies, which are committed by the power of the superior to the lower, so that those who by good men cast out evil demons, others by the superiors, by the evil ones, are inferior. They are also attracted by sacrifices and holocausts, are terrified by threats, and are incited by the powers of rays and influences.
(§ 18) XI. By the power of the threefold world: elementary, celestial, and intellectual.
(§ 19) XII. The disposition of the one who seeks goods from the good, chastity, honesty, cleansing, abstinence.
(§ 20) XIII. There is also an addition of worship and natural things, in which those spirits lie who have an analogy to those whose works are sought out.
(according to § XXI) XIV. The patterns of worship are based on their differences.
(§ 22) XV. The power of the consecrations preserving, on the part of the prayer, and on the part of the rite.
(§ 23) XVI. Knowledge of holidays, calendars, calendars, days and hours.
(§ 24 and 27) XVII. Religious observances which consist in the purity of the places, washings, contacts, suspensions, clothing, fumigations, sacrifices, according to the differences of opinion and means.
(§ 27) XVIII. The application of active and passive elements, such as the first or next elements, from time to time of stones, metals, plants, and animals according to the conditions of the fourteen.
(§ XXVIII) XIX. Rings.
(§ XXIX) XX. Crafts of Enchantments.
Besides these general bonds, which are collected in seventeen articles from the doctrine of Albert, some of which have been related, some remain to be related.
Of the bonds of spirits
and first of that which is from the threefold nature of the agent, matter and application.
(§ 24)In order that actions may be performed in things, three things are required: active power in the agent, passive power in the subject or passive disposition, which is an aptitude or non-resistance or inability to resist (all of which are reduced to one term, namely, the power of matter); the required application, which is due to the circumstances of the time, place, and other concurrent matters; to say all things in one word, to the agent, matter and application Every action, simply speaking, is hindered by a lack of these three, since even if the player is perfect, the flute is hindered by the imperfection, and the application of one to another is in vain. Therefore the inability of matter places powerlessness in the agent and inconsistency in the application. This is what we say, absolutely speaking, that action is hindered by a lack of three; properly inspecting only two, or only one, but not definitely from one, but individually understanding of all, as when the flute is perfect and the application is lacking, and the flute is lacking; or with the flute and the flute, the true application is hindered. But when the whole system of efficiency resides in the application, then the first method concurs with the third; For the coating is sometimes nothing else than the applicator, and the effect is nothing else than applying.
(25. 26)Not every thing is born to suffer from all, nor to act in everything, but, as stated in the Physics, every passion is in a contrary way, and every action is in the opposite direction, and not always, but rather disposed; hence the common saying is that “the actions of the active in the patient are well designed.” From this it is evident the reason by which water is mixed with water, and water is tempered by water, on account of the similitude or knowledge or symbol; because parts of wine have in themselves some heat and air and spirit, they do not have a universal symbol, and therefore they are not mixed according to the smallest things, but according to such a notable mass, they are distinctly preserved in a heterogeneous compound, so that they may again be isolated by certain art, as also happens in sea-water; which sublimated in a certain way expresses sweet water, and likewise served in waxen vessels, which, if the mixture were perfect, would not occur. But the oil is never mixed with water, because the parts of the oil, as it were loved, cling together and are attached to one another; from the sides of the water. It is much to be noted, therefore, in the condition of the parts when attempting the admixture of bodies with bodies; for all things are not mixable with all.
(27) We must, therefore, consider the location, composition and difference of the parts, since the whole is able to penetrate the whole through one side, but not through the other; for it is so in all things, as is evident in stones and wood and in the flesh itself, which are penetrable or piercing on one side or side rather than on the other, as is evident in the flow of fluids driven through long fibers, because wood is more easily cut in length. but from the liquid, they penetrate more easily through the breadth than through the length; since, when inserted between the fibers, they allow the pores or ducts in that order.
(28) Therefore, the quality and location of the parts must not only be inspected, but also the condition of the whole form; For there are certain passions adapted to be received by one subject which are not received by another: for instance, numbness is caused by a torpor in the fisherman’s hand, not in wallets; .
(29) It also occurs in thunders, which sometimes dissolve a sword or steel sheath, if not altered; so also a strange thing happened at Naples, in a certain noble and beautiful girl of the kind, whose hair only burned near her womb; it is reported that, when the wood of the barrel was burned, the wine was left standing or frozen on the outside. And most things of this kind come about on account of the last hidden reason, which is in the atoms of that kind of fire, which is so active in one thing that it is not active in another. They also report that the laurel and the eagle are the insignia of emperors and poets, because they are never touched by lightning, as if they were so friendly to Apollo and Jupiter, and to the nobles and poets.
But as regards men, all of whom have not likewise happened to be those girls, the reason stands for the fact that not all are of the same complexion and temperament, and admit of the same quality of spirit; so that even in certain cases such a spirit exists, that the rains may impede, the winds and other storms may rule. In this way, too, to be referred to a certain complexion, the wonderful things that happen in bodies, where some are from the privilege of the whole species, and others from a certain prerogative of particulars, on account of the innumerable differences which exist in them.
In such things, therefore, the magicians contemplate both species and individuals as a beggar for the effects of virtue; and prudent generals, not nobles, friends, being recommended to them, prefer their armies and military officers; They likewise regard certain plants and minerals by suspension, driveway, and other such application, to reconcile certain prerogatives of the virtues to themselves as a means of contact, so that emperors, protected by a laurel wreath, do not fear lightning.
(30)To this it looks that certain animals are poisonous, such as hemlock generally to man, which is generally the most pleasant food to take, so that all of it may easily get fat. Similarly, we must look at the differences of nutrients, poisons, and antidotes for various species. Hence it is not a little principle of magic and medicine to distinguish between the differences of temperament and types of diseases and health, and the principles of changing habits or dispositions, or of observing them, through the application of external factors. The chemist also knows that strong water acts on hard objects, such as iron, silver, ore; but not in gold and lead; again, how the quicksilver absorbs the living silver oil, which is completely repudiated and discarded from gold. Accordingly, the verbena seed or juice has an immediate potential to break the stone into the bladder,
(32) There are some who may refer to the looseness or narrowness of the apertures, which I have easily conceded in some cases, but it is not at all true in the most important and in many respects, as in all those enumerated. For there is no reason by which strong water penetrates one rather than the other, on account of the greater expansion of the apertures; in like manner also that spirit of vervain, which is opposed to stone, but not to the bones and flesh, although the pores are rather loose. And what will he say about the diamond, which indeed is not cut asunder by the subtlest of bodies and the most penetrating spirit of fire, but which is pierced by the blood of the goat’s blood?
We must, therefore, remain in that general notion, that not all things suffer from all; and the reason for these must be taken from the effects and cases themselves, when the proper procedure is required. But names are not imposed on these hidden differences or forms, nor are they sensible to come to the eye or to the touch, nor to reason, which can definitely be elicited from the differences of eyes and touches, and their origin, so that we may be able to say of them only as they are; but on account of which we judge that it is not easy to treat even the demons themselves, if they wish to define with us by our words and senses the things signified by our words.
The second link consists of voice and song.
(33) The second dimension of the bond is from the conformity of numbers to numbers, measurement to measure, moment to moment; whence those rhythms and songs are said to have the greatest efficacy. Accordingly, some are more affected by certain tragedies, some by comical harmony, some are affected in general by all; some, as they relate about a certain barbarian emperor, who, when he hears musical instruments, says that he prefers to hear the neighing of a horse; who, plainly unworthy of a human form and endowed with injustice, is convicted by this very fact.
Of the song, however, we understand not only the harmonious, but also under a more general meaning; since the most powerful, as some have experienced, the songs or songs seem to have more dissonance than consonance; for example, even to the sensible harmony of the eyes which it looks, the horse’s love is surpassed in one number by the love of the horse, in the other by the human, and in the other by the dog’s mind; so that the differences of beauty vary according to the condition of each species. Therefore, just as there is a proverb about the ass to the lyre, not all songs are suitable for all, and just as various harmonies bind various souls, so also various magicians bind various spirits.
(34) These restraints, however, are not only tenacious by this very fact, that they are perceived by the ear, or acquire access in the soul, as the voice of Mars and Psyllus is the most powerful voice in the serpent; but even in a hidden whisper, even when the thing does not come to be overcome, the effect of the bonds is perfected by the analogy of the spirit to the spirit, of the one that binds to the binding; for they do not always receive the voices of the enchanters when enchanted, or they are affected sensibly and immediately excepted.
(35) It looks to this that the numbers of one voice or the appearance of another voice confuse and dull the numbers; whence, when they see the wolf, whom they commonly call a hart, some lose their voice by being bound by that spirit, and cannot easily form words. They report a tool made from lamb’s skin from the wolf’s skin it loses sound altogether, though it may otherwise be attacked by loud noises and stronger blows, since the spirit, which is of some sort in dead skin, is able to overcome and control the spirit by that participation in the antipathy and predominance that exists among the living. I have not tried this as they relate to whether it is so, but it has a plausibility and a reason, which, however, is not entirely from the nature of life to life and species to species, since the donkey fears the wolf no less than the sheep; worn out of his skin, perhaps unless he restrain the wolf’s drum with just the beat, yet he will prevail with greater thickness.
(36) To this he also looks at strings composed of strings of sheep and strings of wolves never consonant with strings. It is also common knowledge among many, that if two lyres or a lyre are equally tempered, one of which is played closer to the other, the harmony of the one will move not only in unison to the other in strings, but also in motion equally; and this is very reasonable. Hence it also happens that the spirit of one man is affected by a certain voice and gesture or a similar appearance in the presence of another, so that indissoluble friendships may arise. There are those whom we hate rashly, even as we love without cause; and this hatred and love are sometimes reciprocal, but sometimes not, which happens from a predominance of one over the other according to one species of affection, which is hindered by another species of affection which is in the other; we are drawn to them, which, however, when struck by fear, shun and hate us.
(40) To this class belong the prayers and prayers, by which some peers or princes solicit, (where) they have no effect, nor the reasons alleged, or the pretenses of honesty and justice; by which sometimes more can be put forward by a single idiot and a buffoon, so that sometimes wiser men are wont to entangle the minds of the leaders by means of such expressions as the more well-adapted bonds, as in Julius III. The Pontiff abolished the information which he abolished when praying, praying, and in tears; but if any one had come after the kiss of his feet with one scorn or another of sorts, he could obtain from him whatever he desired.
He looks, therefore, to the art of enchantment, and to that form of the spirit of the bond, which is through singing or songs, whatever the orators treat, making them to persuade, and advance, or to arouse the affections; they omit the other part of this art, and allow themselves to be lurking in the bosom of the magi, or philosophers, or the more crafty statesmen; which, however, Aristotle has in great part embraced in his Rhetoric to Alexander, and which is reduced to two points of consideration; and the other, what pleases him by singing or tying, he smiles, considering his manners, his posture, temperament, and experience, which there is no place to unravel and bring into the present world.
The third kind of bonds is from sight.
(41) The spirit is also conquered by the sight, as was also mentioned in various places above, while the forms appear in one way or another before the eyes. From this the active and passive fascinations proceed from the eyes and enter through the eyes; whence it is said, “I do not know who bewitches me with the tender eyes of lambs.”
The appearance of the beautiful also shakes off the affection of love; against abomination and hatred. And through the affections of the soul and spirit something is also transferred into the body itself, which consists in the rudderless temper of the soul and the spirit. There are also other kinds of affections, which are also received through the eyes, and affect the body itself at once in some way; for by some sad faces we are stirred up to sadness, and compassion, or sadness, as if for obvious reasons.
There are others who also impose worse impressions on the mind and body through the eyes, but not clearly by means of which we can judge; yet they move most effectively through the things that are in us, namely, through the manifold spirit and soul. since, although one soul thrives in the whole body, and all the members supply one thing above all, yet because in a certain spirit the whole soul and the whole and the parts of the universe are quickened, the reason of many spiritual affections must be related to something else that it knows and lives in us, which is affected by these things. and he is disoriented, by whom we are not at all disturbed and affected. And sometimes we are touched and hurt more by those of whom we do not feel the blows which we feel; and so many things seen and heaped up by the eye do not form a sense of disturbance in the exposed and extrinsic sensory powers, which, however, may even fatally affect the more profoundly immersed, whose immediate senses are related to the internal spirit, as it were to another sense and animal. Whence we will not so lightly be incompatible with some Platonists and all Pythagoreans, who place one man as many living animals of themselves, of which sometimes, if one has been killed, or primarily, the other survive for a long time.
(42) To judge, therefore, that we are only injured or affected by the visible species, which induce only a manifest disturbance of the senses and the mind, is manifest stupidity; to inflict a puncture on a needle or spine that pricks around the skin, rather than a blade administered from one side to another, the effect of which is at last felt more severe, but without a sense of injury at that moment in which it penetrates the parts of the body. Thus, indeed, many spirits captivate and inculcate, even by the eye, to the destruction of the soul by stealth, although they do not induce that disturbance than the lighter objects; as those who see certain gestures or feelings or emotions are compelled to shed tears some, too, watching the blood poured over another’s body, are compelled to do so, even to the unconscious of the soul; and for this there is no other cause other than the affection which binds through the eyes.
The fourth link is from the imagination.
(47, 48) The function of which is to receive species drawn from the senses, and to contain them, and to compose and divide them, which happens in two ways: in one way, by the choice or choice of the imaginary, such as is the function of poets and painters, and of those who compose fables; composing in another way outside of choice and choice. And thus in two ways: either through a cause that chooses and voluntarily, or moves it from without. And this is twofold: either mediate, as in a person who induces disturbances by sight or by hearing, through voices or specters; or immediate things, such as the spiritual, the rational, or the demon who acts in the phantasy by dreams, or even by awakes, so moving his inward appearance so that something of the external sense may be seen to be apprehended. Whence some possessed men seem to themselves to see certain spectacles, and to hear certain voices and opinions, which they think is truly insinuated by external subjects; whence they most outrageously and most steadfastly assert that they have seen and heard truths, where doubtless their senses are not deceived, but their reason; for they hear what they hear, what they see, they see; yet what is objected to them by the internal sense by means of a imaginative form, the same by the external sound, by the ears, and the external form heaped on the sight, and they think that the intentions of the internal senses are themselves. It so happens that even those who are not willing to be recalled to a sounder mind are not even by bystanders They think that they see the same thing by the external sound, by the ears, and the external form heaped on them by the sight, and they think that the intentions of the internal senses are themselves. It so happens that even those who are not willing to be recalled to a sounder mind are not even by bystanders They think that they see the same thing by the external sound, by the ears, and the external form heaped on them by the sight, and they think that the intentions of the internal senses are themselves. It so happens that not even those who are bystanders are unwilling to be recalled to a more sensible they prefer to advance their own imagination, whom they truly regard as deaf and dumb; and the physicians refer to these things as mania and melancholia, which by them are called waking dreams.
(49) Moreover, in this bond there is neither a pure material principle, which is of the opinion of the grossest and most outrageous obstinacy of some common physicians, nor is that pure effect of a diabolical or diabolical kind, which some theologians for their part defend; but both come together, materially melancholic humor, which we call the tavern or bath of the saturnal demons; to which the more subtle and less accessible the senses, the body is a tribute to nature, in which genus of animals it is said that no fewer species are found than there are living, composite, and sensible objects. Just as, therefore, the seed that is suitably defined in a definite place, as it were, the soul, as it were, emerges, or from it, as it were, emerges, produces and causes a certain form of an animal or of a living thing to emerge, so that from this seed an olive may be born, from that dog, from that man, likewise in this body, so or so the latter grow more conveniently when complexioned, but more conveniently the former; whence the poet says, “Here the corn, there the grapes come more happily”; thus from a certain temperament and temperament and temperament and temperament of the heart, or brain, or disorder of the heart, as it were in its own field and from its own seed, whence the poet says, “Here the corn, there come the more fortunate the grapes.” thus from a certain temperament and temperament and temperament and temperament of the heart, or brain, or disorder of the heart, as it were in its own field and from its own seed, whence the poet says, “Here the corn, there come the more fortunate the grapes.” thus from a certain temperament and temperament and temperament and temperament of the heart, or brain, or disorder of the heart, as it were in its own field and from its own seed, good or bad spirits and the principles of intentions grow out. Whence there is a mutual consequence, that such bodies, such souls, such souls, produce such bodies into consistency, according to the substantial, which they call, and the specific difference and subsistence; so other spirits coming and coming, on account of some accidental temperaments or added to the body, follow that predominance of an insane spirit, which can indeed be removed from the middle, as well as by enchantment, rhetoric, and friendly and medical persuasion, by restoring the besieged spirit, as well as by the evacuation or expulsion of the noxious of matter by means of purgative drugs, as well as by the advantages of Jupiter, Solar, and other suitable nourishments of human life, which may subject matter to the better spirit, or lessen and temper that inferiority, which sometimes passes into complexion. Thus neither does the spirit pursue these vital organs and animals, nor does it take on the body without the spirit; For these, therefore, whether good or bad, whether according to the nature of the species, or outside the notion of the species, a material principle is required, and according to the formal or efficient genus. In the mean time it is reasonable enough that for the treatment of the disordered phantasy and the dissolution of the internal sense, in this way a simple cleansing of the fluids and a simple diet plan will suffice; but it is not concluded for this purpose, as a certain physician of the juicy Minerva concludes, who, under the title of the occult miracles of nature, produced more nonsense than he could write down letters and syllables; For these, therefore, whether good or bad, whether according to the nature of the species, or outside the nature of the species, a material principle is required, and according to the formal or efficient genus. In the mean time it is reasonable enough that for the treatment of the disordered phantasy and the dissolution of the internal sense, in this way a simple cleansing of the fluids and a simple diet plan will suffice; but it is not concluded for this purpose, as a certain physician of the juicy Minerva concludes, who, under the title of the occult miracles of nature, produced more nonsense than he could write down letters and syllables; For these, therefore, whether good or bad, whether according to the nature of the species, or outside the notion of the species, a material principle is required, and according to the formal or efficient genus. In the mean time it is reasonable enough that for the treatment of the disordered phantasy and the dissolution of the internal sense, in this way a simple cleansing of the fluids and a simple diet plan will suffice; but it is not concluded for this purpose, as a certain physician of the juicy Minerva concludes, who, under the title of the occult miracles of nature, produced more nonsense than he could write down letters and syllables; that for the treatment of the disordered phantasy and the dissolution of the internal sense, in this way a simple cleansing of the fluids and a simple diet may be sufficient; but it is not concluded for this purpose, as a certain physician of the juicy Minerva concludes, who, under the title of the occult miracles of nature, produced more nonsense than he could write down letters and syllables; so that for the treatment of the disordered phantasy and the dissolution of the internal sense, in this way a simple cleansing of the fluids and a simple diet plan may be sufficient; but it is not concluded for this purpose, as a certain physician of the juicy Minerva concludes, who, under the title of the occult miracles of nature, produced more nonsense than he could write down letters and syllables; By such amazing intentions they are expelled and expelled from the children, and arranged them, and are thrust out, he concludes, that they are nothing but humors; from which we might equally say his excellence, which compels the souls of many to depart from the body by means of a sewer, so that he regards the soul itself as moisture or excrement; or if by want of food and drink he is compelled to leave his home and home, on account of his ignorance of medicine and of the open nature of colors and expressions; let us consider him to be nothing else than the genus of those who drive him.
By all these means, when it happens that the senses are bound and bound, the physician or magician must especially care about the work of the imagination; for this is the gateway and principal avenue to the actions and passions and feelings of all who are in the animal; and from this binding follows the binding of a more profound power, which is the thought.
Of the fifth bond, which is from the thought.
(L, 51) The bond of phantasy is essentially trivial, if it does not double the powers of the thought. For those specters which bind and bind the mind of unlearned, foolish, credulous, and superstitious intellects, are ridiculed, despised, and as empty shadows by a sober, well-born, and disciplined genius. Whence all workmen, whether magicians, physicians, or prophets, make nothing without prior faith, and work according to the numbers of previous faith. — Here we receive the faith according to the more universal reason, that it is taken by each of them and by all. —
(52) In some he is moved by these things, as if well arranged and arranged by the previous powers, but by some as if they were disturbed; but the ligaments which are from the mouth of the speaker make a great deal, from the appearance from which a certain disposition arises and is fostered in the imagination, which is the only gate of all the internal affections, and is the bond of bonds. Hence the common saying of Hippocrates is that the most efficacious of physicians is the one to whom many believe, and this is because he conquers the most by speech, or by presence, or by reputation; and not only of a physician, but of any kind of magic, or of another under another title of power;
(53) And the theologians believe, and agree, and preach about him who by himself can do all things, which he could not cure those who did not believe; for the co-cousins, who had known of that low birth and education, despised and derided the physician and the divine; whence it was reported that “no prophet is accepted in one’s country.” It is easier, therefore, to bind those with whom he is less known, as from the opinion and apparatus of faith, whose power of the soul indeed disposes itself in a way, opens, and explains, as if he would open the windows to conceive the sun, which he might otherwise shut up; which the art of the binder searches for by striking the following bonds, which are hope, compassion, fear, love, hatred, indignation, anger, joy, endurance, contempt of life, death, fortune, and all of which transfer their strength from mind to body.
But how they alter the other species of the bonds which follow the faith and opinion of those enumerated is not a very profound speculation. Now, as regards the more spiritual powers of the soul that follow, namely, memory, reason, experience, understanding, and mind, it is not worth the present speculation; since the acts of those powers do not tend to the body nor alter it; but the whole change is originally in the powers before the thought. but effectively and principally from the thought. From this all active and passive magical power and species are subjected to magical bonds, and, as Plotinus also asserts, both the wise and the unwise can be bound in it by natural principles, unless there exists a principle in the subject that can hit back or shake off magical missiles; since As was said above, all things do not penetrate into all things, nor are they intermingled with all things, just as oil is not mixed with water. Thus Plotinus testifies of himself, and Porphyry confirms in the Life of Plotinus, that the witchcrafts of a certain Egyptian, by whom he endeavored to bind and injure Plotinus, was turned into the author himself. And these Concerning bonds in general .
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