The Magus is one of the primary sources for the study of ceremonial magic, and for a long time was one of the rarest and most sought after of the 19th century grimoires. Barretts' magnum opus embodies deep knowledge of Alchemy, Astrology, and the Kabbalah, and has been cited by the Golden Dawn and other occult and esoteric movements as source material. Written in 1801 in the middle of the 'Age of Reason', sandwiched between Newton and Darwin, this was possibly the last epoch that a work like this could be composed.
BIBLIOGRAPHIC NOTE: The Magus is broken down into two physical volumes. The reference to three books on the title page may be confusing. The third book is the biographical section and comprises part of the second volume. The biographical section has been deprecated by authorities such as Waite, and it's not even certain that it was written by Barrett; it may have been added as filler by the printer.
The Magus, Book I
INTRODUCTION
TO THE
STUDY OF NATURAL MAGIC.
OF THE INFLUENCES OF THE STARS.
IT has been a subject of ancient dispute whether or not the stars, as second causes, do so rule and influence man as to ingraft in his nature certain passions, virtues, propensities, &c., and this to take root in him at the very critical moment of his being born into this vale of misery and wretchedness; likewise, if their site and configuration at this time do shew forth his future passions and pursuits; and by their revolutions, transits, and directed aspects, they point out the particular accidents of the body, marriage, sickness, preferments, and such like; the which I have often revolved in my mind for many years past, having been at all times in all places a warm advocate for stellary divination or astrology: therefore in this place it is highly necessary that we examine how far this influence extends to man, seeing that I fully admit that man is endowed with a free-will from God, which the stars can in no wise counteract. And as there is in man the power and apprehension of all divination, and wonderful things, seeing that we have a complete system in ourselves, therefore are we called the microcosm, or little world; for we carry
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a heaven in ourselves from our beginning, for God hath sealed in us the image of himself; and of all created beings we are the epitome, therefore we must be careful, lest we confound and mix one thing with another. Nevertheless, man, as a pattern of the great world, sympathizes with it according to the stars, which, agreeably to the Holy Scriptures, are set for times and seasons, and not as causes of this or that evil, which may pervade kingdoms or private families, although they do in some measure foreshew them, yet they are in no wise the cause; therefore I conceive in a wide different sense to what is generally understood that "Stars rule men, but a
wise man rules the stars:" to which I answer, that the stars do not rule men, according to the vulgar and received opinion; as if the stars should stir up men to murders, seditions, broils, lusts, fornications, adulteries, drunkenness, &c., which the common astrologers hold forth as sound and true doctrine; because, they say, Mars and Saturn, being conjunct, do this and much more, and many other configurations and afflictions of the two great infortunes (
as they are termed), when the benevolent planets Jupiter, Venus, and Sol, happen to be detrimented or afflicted; therefore, then, they say men influenced by them are most surely excited to the commission of the vices before named; yet a wise man may, by the liberty of his own free-will, make those affections and inclinations void, and this they call "To rule the stars;" but let them know, according to the sense here understood, first, it is not in a wise man to resist evil inclinations, but of the grace of God, and we call none wise but such as are endued with grace; for, as we have said before, all natural wisdom from the hands of man is foolishness in the sight of God; which was not before understood to be a wise man fenced with grace; for why should he rule the stars, who has not any occasion to fear conquered inclinations?--therefore a natural wise man is as subject to the slavery of sin as others more ignorant than himself, yet the stars do not incline him to sin. God created the heavens without spot, and pronounced them good, therefore it is the greatest absurdity to suppose the stars, by a continual inclining of us to this or that misdeed, should be our tempters, which we eventually make them, if we admit they cause inclinations; but know that it is not from without, but within, by sin, that evil inclinations do arise: according to the Scriptures,
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[paragraph continues] "Out of the heart of man proceed evil cogitations, murmurs, adulteries, thefts, murders, &c." Because, as the heavens and apprehension of all celestial virtues are scaled by God in the soul and spirit of man; so when man becomes depraved by sin and the indulgence of his gross and carnal appetite, he then becomes the scat of the Infernal Powers, which may be justly deemed a hell; for then the bodily and fleshly sense obscures the bright purity and thinness of the spirit, and he becomes the instrument of our spiritual enemy in the exercise of all infernal lusts and passions.
Therefore it is most necessary for us to know that we are to beware of granting or believing any effects from the influences of the stars more than they have naturally; because there are many whom I have lately conversed with, and great men, too, in this nation, who readily affirm that the
stars are the causes of any kinds of diseases, inclinations, and fortunes; likewise that they blame the stars for all their misconduct and misfortunes.
Nevertheless, we do not by these discourses prohibit or deny all influence to the stars; on the contrary, we affirm there is a natural sympathy and antipathy amongst all things throughout the whole universe, and this we shall shew to be displayed through a variety of effects; and likewise that the stars, as signs, do foreshew great mutations, revolutions, deaths of great men, governors of provinces, kings, and emperors; likewise the weather, tempests, earthquakes, deluges, &c.; and this according to the law of Providence. The lots of all men do stand in the hands of the Lord, for he is the end and beginning of all things; he can remove crowns and sceptres, and displace the most cautious arrangements and councils of man, who, when he thinks himself most secure, tumbles headlong from the seat of power, and lies grovelling in the dust.
Therefore our astrologers in most of their speculations seek without a light, for they conceive every thing may be known or read in the stars; if an odd silver spoon is but lost, the innocent stars are obliged to give an account of it; if an old maiden loses a favourite puppy, away she goes to an oracle of divination for information of the whelp. Oh! vile credulity, to think that those celestial bodies take cognizance of, and give in their configurations and aspects, continual information of the lowest and vilest transactions of dotards, the most
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trivial and frivolous questions that are
pretended to be resolved by an inspection into the figure of the heavens. Well does our legislature justly condemn as juggling impostors all those idle vagabonds who infest various parts of this metropolis, and impose upon the simple and unsuspecting, by answering, for a shilling or half-crown fee, whatever thing or circumstance may be proposed to them, as if they were God's vicegerents on earth, and his deputed privy counsellors.
They do not even scruple ever to persuade poor mortals of the lower class, that they shew images in glasses, as if they actually confederated with evil spirits: a notable instance I will here recite, that happened very lately in this city. Two penurious Frenchmen, taking advantage of the credulity of the common people, who are continually gaping after such toys, had so contrived a telescope or optic glass as that various letters and figures should be reflected in an obscure manner, shewing the images of men and women, &c.; so that when any one came to consult these jugglers, after paying the usual fee, they, according to the urgency of the query, produced answers by those figures or letters; the which affrights the inspector into the glass so much, that he or she supposes they have got some devilish thing or other in hand, by which they remain under the full conviction of having actually beheld the parties they wished to see, though perhaps they may at the same time be residing many hundreds of miles distance therefrom; they, having received this impression from a pre-conceived idea of seeing the image of their friend in this optical machine, go away, and anon report, with an addition of ten hundred lies, that they have been witness of a miracle. I say this kind of deception is only to be acted with the vulgar, who, rather than have their imaginations balked, would swallow the most abominable lies and conceits. For instance, who would suppose that any rational being could be persuaded that a fellow-creature of proper size and stature should be able by any means to thrust his body into a quart bottle?--the which thing was advertised to the public by a merry knave (not thinking there were such fools in existence), to be done by him in a public theatre. Upwards of 600 persons were assembled to behold the transaction, never doubting but the fellow meant to keep his word, when to the great mortification
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and disgrace of this long-headed audience, the conjuror came forth amidst a general stir and buz of "Ay, now! see! now! see! he is just going to jump in."--"Indeed," says the conjuror, "ladies and gentlemen, I am not; for if you were such fools as to believe such an absurdity, I am not wise enough to do it:"--therefore, making his bow, he disappeared, to the great discomfort of these wiseheads, who straightway withdrew in the best manner they could.
As for the telescope magicians, they were taken into custody by the gentlemen of the police office, in Bow Street; nor would their familiar do them the kindness to attempt their rescue.
But to have done with these things that are unworthy our notice as philosophers, and to proceed to matters of a higher nature: it is to be noted what we have before said, in respect of the influences of the stars, that Ptolemy, in his quadrapartite, in speaking of
generals, comes pretty near our ideas on the subject of planetary influence, of which we did not at any time doubt, but do not admit (nay, it is not necessary, seeing there is an astrology in Nature), that each action of our life, our afflictions, fortunes, accidents, are deducible to the influential effects of the planets: they proceed from ourselves; but I admit that our thoughts, actions, cogitations, sympathize with the stars upon the principle of general sympathy. Again, there is a much stronger sympathy between persons of like constitution and temperament, for each mortal creature possesses a Sun and system within himself; therefore, according to universal sympathy, we are affected by the general influence or universal spirit of the world, as the vital principle throughout the universe: therefore we are not to look into the configurations of the stars for the cause or incitement of men's bestial inclinations, for brutes have their specifical inclinations from the propagation of their principle by seed, not by the sign of the horoscope; therefore as man is oftentimes capable of the actions and excesses of brutes, they cannot happen to a man naturally from any other source than the seminal being infused in his composition; for seeing likewise that the soul is immortal, and endued with free-will, which acts upon the body, the soul cannot be inclined by any configuration of the stars either to good or evil; but from its own immortal power of willingly being seduced by sin, it prompts to evil; but enlightened by God, it springs to good, on
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either principle, according to its tendency, the soul feeds while in this frail body; but what further concerns the soul of man in this, and after this, we shall fully investigate the natural magic of the soul, in which we have fully treated every point of enquiry that has been suggested to us by our own imagination, and by scientific experiments have proved its divine virtue originally scaled therein by the Author of its being.
Sufficient it is to return to our subject relative to astrology, especially to know what part of it is necessary for our use, of which we will select that which is pure and to our purpose, for the understanding and effecting of various experiments in the course of our works, leaving the tedious calculation of nativities, the never-ceasing controversies and cavillations of its professors, the dissensions which arise from the various modes of practice; all which we leave to the figure-casting plodder, telling him, by-the-by, that whatever he thinks he can foreshew by inspecting the horoscope of a nativity, by long, tedious, and night-wearied studies and contemplations; I say, whatever he can shew respecting personal or national mutations, changes, accidents, &c. &c., all this we know by a much easier and readier method; and can more comprehensively, clearly, and intelligibly, shew and point out, to the very letter, by our Cabal, which we know to be true, without deviation, juggling, fallacy, or collusion, or any kind of deceit or imposture whatsoever; which Cabal or spiritual astrology we draw from the Fountain of Knowledge, in all simplicity, humility, and truth; and we boast not of ourselves, but of Him who teaches us through his divine mercy, by the light of whose favour we see into things spiritual and divine: in the possession of which we are secure amidst the severest storms of hatred, malice, pride, envy, hypocrisy, levity, bonds, poverty, imprisonment, or any other outward circumstance; we should still be rich, want nothing, be fed with delicious meats, and enjoy plentifully all good things necessary for our support: all this we do not vainly boast of, as figurative, ideal, or chimerical; but real, solid, and everlasting, in the which we exult and delight, and praise his name forever and ever: Amen.
All which we publicly declare to the world for the honour of our God, being at all times ready to do every kindness we can to our poor neighbour, and,
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as far as in us lies, to comfort him, sick or afflicted; in doing which we ask no reward: it is sufficient to us that we can do it, and that we may be acceptable to Him who says--"I am the light of the world; to whom with the Father, and Holy Spirit, be ascribed all power, might, majesty, and dominion: Amen."
To the faithful and discreet Student of Wisdom.
Greeting:
TAKE our instructions; in all things ask counsel of God, and he will give it; offer up the following prayer daily for the illumination of thy understanding: depend for all things on God, the first cause; with whom, by whom, and in whom, are all things: see thy first care be to know thyself; and then in humility direct thy prayer as follows.
A Prayer or Oration to God.
ALMIGHTY and most merciful God, we thy servants approach with fear and trembling before thee, and in all humility do most heartily beseech thee to pardon our manifold and blind transgressions, by us committed at any time; and grant, O, most merciful Father, for his sake who died upon the cross, that our minds may be enlightened with the divine radiance of thy holy wisdom; for seeing, O, Lord of might, power, majesty, and dominion, that, by reason of our gross and material bodies, we are scarce apt to receive those spiritual instructions that we so earnestly and heartily desire. Open, O, blessed Spirit, the spiritual eye of our soul, that we may be released from this darkness overspreading us by the delusions of the outward senses, and may perceive and understand those things which are spiritual. We pray thee, oh, Lord, above all to strengthen our souls and bodies against our
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spiritual enemies, by the blood and righteousness of our blessed Redeemer, thy Son, Jesus Christ; and through him, and in his name, we beseech thee to illuminate the faculties of our souls, so that we may clearly and comprehensively hear with our ears, and understand with our hearts; and remove far from us all hypocrisy, deceitful dealing, profaneness, inconstancy, and levity; so that we may, in word and act, become thy faithful servants, and stand firm and unshaken against all the attacks of our bodily enemies, and likewise be proof against all illusions of evil spirits, with whom we desire no communication or interest; but that we may be instructed in the knowledge of things, natural and celestial: and as it pleased thee to bestow on Solomon all wisdom, both human and divine; in the desire of which knowledge he did so please thy divine majesty, that in a dream, of one night, thou didst inspire him with all wisdom and knowledge, which he did wisely prefer before the riches of this life; so may our desire and prayer be graciously accepted by thee; so that, by a firm dependence on thy word, we may not be led away by the vain and ridiculous pursuits of worldly pleasures and delights, they not being durable, nor of any account to our immortal happiness. Grant us, Lord, power and strength of intellect to carry on this work, for the honour and glory of thy holy name, and to the comfort of our neighbour; and without design of hurt or detriment to any, we may proceed in our labours, through Jesus Christ, our Redeemer: Amen.
OF NATURAL MAGIC IN GENERAL.
BEFORE we proceed to particulars, it will not be amis to speak of generals; therefore, as an elucidation, we shall briefly show what sciences we comprehend under the title of Natural Magic; and to hasten to the point, we shall regularly proceed from theory to practice; therefore, Natural Magic undoubtedly comprehends a knowledge of all Nature, which we by no means can arrive at but by searching deeply into her treasury,
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which is inexhaustible; we therefore by long study, labour, and practice, have found out many valuable secrets and experiments, which are either unknown, or are buried in the ignorant knowledge of the present age. The wise ancients knew that in Nature the greatest secrets lay hid, and wonderful active powers were dormant, unless excited by the vigorous faculty of the mind of man; but as, in these latter days, men have themselves almost wholly up to vice and luxury, so their understandings have become more and more depraved; 'till, being swallowed up in the gross senses, they become totally unfit for divine contemplations and deep speculations in Nature; their intellectual faculty being drowned in obscurity and dulness, by reason of their sloth, intemperance, or sensual appetites. The followers of Pythagoras enjoined silence, and forbade the eating of the flesh of animals; the first, because they were cautious, and aware of the vanity of vain babbling and fruitless cavillations: they studied the power of numbers to the highest extent; they forbade the eating of flesh not so much on the score of transmigration, as to keep the body in a healthful and temperate state, free from gross humours; by these means they qualified themselves for spiritual matters, and attained unto great and excellent mysteries, and continued in the exercise of charitable arts, and the practice of all moral virtues: yet, seeing they were heathens, they attained not unto the high and inspired lights of wisdom and knowledge that were bestowed on the Apostles, and others, after the coming of Christ; but they mortified their lusts, lived temperately, chaste, honest, and virtuous; which government is so contrary to the practice of modern Christians, that they live as if the blessed word had come upon the earth to grant them privilege to sin. However, we will leave Pythagoras and his followers, to hasten to our own work; whereof we will first explain the foundation of Natural Magic, in as clear and intelligible a manner as the same can be done.
The First Principles of Natural Magic: Book the First
THE
FIRST PRINCIPLES
of
NATURAL MAGIC.
BOOK THE FIRST.
CHAP. I.
NATURAL MAGIC DEFINED--OF MAN--HIS CREATION--DIVINE IMAGE--AND OF THE SPIRITUAL AND MAGICAL VIRTUE OF THE SOUL.
NATURAL MAGIC is, as we have said, a comprehensive knowledge of all Nature, by which we search out her secret and occult operations throughout her vast and spacious elaboratory; whereby we come to a knowledge of the component parts, qualities, virtues, and secrets of metals, stones, plants, and animals; but seeing, in the regular order of the creation, man was the work of the sixth day, every thing being prepared for his vicegerency here on earth, and that it pleased the omnipotent God, after he had formed the great world, or macrocosm, and pronounced it good, so he created man the express image of himself; and in man, likewise, an exact model of the great world. We shall describe the wonderful properties of man, in which we may trace in miniature the exact resemblance or copy of the universe; by which means we shall come to the more easy understanding of whatever we may have to declare concerning the knowledge of the inferior nature, such as animals, plants, metals, and stones; for, by our first declaring the occult qualities and properties that are hid in the little world, it will serve as a key to the opening of all the treasures and secrets of the macrocosm, or
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great world: therefore, we shall hasten to speak of the creation of man, and his divine image; likewise of his fall, in consequence of his disobedience; by which all the train of evils, plagues, diseases, and miseries, were entailed upon his posterity, through the curse of our Creator, but deprecated by the mediation of our blessed Lord, Christ.
THE CREATION, DISOBEDIENCE, AND FALL OF MAN.
ACCORDING to the word of God, which we take in all things for our guide, in the 1st chapter of Genesis, and the 26th verse, it is said--"God said, let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over
all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth."--Here is the origin and beginning of our frail human nature; hence every soul was created by the very light itself, and Fountain of Life, after his own express image, likewise immortal, in a beautiful and well-formed body, endued with a most excellent mind, and dominion or unlimited monarchy over all Nature, every thing being subjected to his rule, or command; one creature only being excepted, which was to remain untouched and consecrated, as it were, to the divine mandate: "Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat; But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it; for in the day that thou eatest of it, thou shalt surely die." Gen. ii. ver. 16. Therefore Adam was formed by the finger of God, which is the Holy Spirit; whose figure or outward form was beautiful and proportionate as an angel; in whose voice (before he sinned) every sound was the sweetness of harmony and music: had he remained in the state of innocency in which he was formed, the weakness of mortal man, in his depraved state, would not have been able to bear the virtue and celestial shrillness of his voice. But when the
deceiver found that man, from the inspiration of God, had began to sing so shrilly, and to repeat the celestial harmony of the heavenly country, he counterfeited the engines of craft: seeing his wrath
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against him was in vain, he was much tormented thereby, and began to think how he might entangle him into disobedience of the command of his Creator, whereby he might, as it were, laugh him to scorn, in derision of his new creature, man.
Van Helmont, in his Oriatrike, chap. xcii., speaking of the entrance of death into human nature, &c., finely touches the subject of the creation, and man's disobedience: indeed, his ideas so perfectly coincide with my own, that I have thought fit here to transcribe his philosophy, which so clearly explains the text of Scripture, with so much of the light of truth on his side, that it carries along with it the surest and most positive conviction.
"Man being essentially created after the image of God, after that, he rashly presumed to generate the image of God out of himself; not, indeed, by a certain monster, but by something which was shadowly like himself. With the ravishment of Eve, he, indeed, generated not the image God like unto that which God would have inimitable, as being divine; but in the vital air of the seed he generated dispositions; careful at some time to receive a sensitive, discursive, and motive soul from the Father of Light, yet
mortal, and
to perish; yet, nevertheless, he ordinarily inspires, and of his own goodness, the substantial spirit of a mind showing forth his own image: so that man, in this respect, endeavoured to generate his own image; not after the manner of brute beasts, but by the copulation of seeds, which at length should obtain, by request, a soulified light from the Creator; and the which they call a sensitive soul.
"For, from thence hath proceeded another generation, conceived after a beast-like manner, mortal, and uncapable of eternal life, after the manner of beasts; and bringing forth with pains, and subject to diseases, and death; and so much the more sorrowful, and full of misery, by how much that very propagation in our first parents dared to invert the intent of God.
"Therefore the unutterable goodness forewarned them that they should not taste of that tree; and otherwise he foretold, that the same day they should die the death, and should feel all the root of calamities which accompanies death."
Deservedly, therefore, hath the Lord deprived both our parents of the benefit of immortality; namely, death succeeded from a conjugal and brutal copulation;
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neither remained the spirit of the Lord with man, after that he began to be flesh.
Further; because that defilement of Eve shall thenceforth be continued in the propagation of posterity, even unto the end of the world, from hence the sin of the despised fatherly admonition, and natural deviation from the right way, is now among other sins for an impurity, from an inverted, carnal, and well nigh brutish generation, and is truly called original sin; that is, man being sowed in the pleasure of the concupiscence of the flesh, shall therefore always reap a necessary death in the flesh of sin; but, the knowledge of good and evil, which God placed in the dissuaded apple, did contain in it a seminary virtue of the concupiscence of the flesh, that is, an occult forbidden conjunction, diametrically opposite to the state of innocence, which state was not a state of stupidity; because He was he unto whom, before the corruption of Nature, the essences of all living creatures whatsoever were made known, according to which they were to be named from their property, and at their first sight to be essentially distinguished:
man, therefore, through eating of the apple, attained a knowledge that he had lost his radical innocency; for, neither before the eating of the apple was he so dull or stupified that he knew not, or did not perceive himself naked; but, with the effect of shame and brutal concupiscence, he then first declared he was naked.
For that the knowledge of good and evil signifies nothing but the concupiscence of the flesh, the Apostle testifies; calling it the law, and desire of sin. For it pleased the Lord of heaven and earth to insert in the apple an incentive to concupiscence; by which he was able safely to abstain, by not eating of the apple, therefore dissuaded therefrom; for otherwise he had never at any time been tempted, or stirred up by his genital members. Therefore the apple being eaten, man, from an occult and natural property ingrafted in the fruit, conceived a lust, and sin became luxurious to him, and from thence was made an animal seed, which, hastening into the previous or foregoing dispositions of a
sensitive soul, and undergoing the law of other
causes, reflected itself into the vital spirit of Adam; and, like an ignis-fatuus, presently receiving an archeus
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or ruling spirit, and animal idea, it presently conceived a power of propagating an animal and mortal seed, ending into life.
Furthermore, the sacred text hath in many places compelled me unto a perfect position, it making Eve an helper like unto Adam; not, indeed, that she should supply the
name, and
room of a wife, even as she is called, straightway after sin, for she was a virgin in the intent of the Creator, and afterwards filled with misery: but not, as long as the state of purity presided over innocency, did the will of man overcome her; for the translation of man into Paradise did foreshew another condition of living than that of a beast; and therefore the eating of the apple doth by a most chaste name cover the concupiscence of the
flesh, while it contains the "knowledge of good and evil" in this name, and calls the ignorance thereof the state of innocence: for, surely, the attainment of that aforesaid knowledge did nourish a most hurtful death, and an irrevocable deprivation of eternal life: for if man had not tasted the apple, he had lived void of concupiscence, and offsprings had appeared out of Eve (a virgin) from the Holy Spirit.
But the apple being eaten, "presently their eyes were opened," and Adam began lustfully to covet copulation with the naked virgin, and defiled her, the which God had appointed for a naked help unto him. But man prevented the intention of God by a strange generation in the flesh of sin; whereupon there followed the corruption of the former nature, or the flesh of sin, accompanied by concupiscence: neither doth the text insinuate any other mark of "
the knowledge of good and evil," than that they "
knew themselves to be naked," or, speaking properly, of their virginity being corrupted, polluted with bestial lust, and defiled. Indeed, their whole "knowledge of good and evil" is included in their shame within their privy parts alone; and therefore in the 8th of Leviticus, and many places else in the Holy Scriptures, the privy parts themselves are called by no other etymology than that of shame; for from the copulation of the flesh their eyes were opened, because they then knew that the good being lost, had brought on them a degenerate nature, shamefulness, an intestine and inevitable obligation of death; sent also into their posterity.
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Alas! too late, indeed they understood, by the unwonted novelty and shamefulness of their concupiscence, why God had so lovingly forbade the eating of the apple. Indeed, the truth being agreeable unto itself, doth attest the filthiness of impure Adamical generation; for the impurity which had received a contagion from any natural issues whatsoever of menstrues or seed, and that by its touching alone is reckoned equal to that which should by degrees creep on a person from a co-touching of dead carcases, and to be expiated by the same ceremonious rite that the text might agreeably denote, that death began by the concupiscence of the flesh lying hid in the fruit forbidden; therefore, also, the one only healing medicine, of so great an impurity contracted by touching, consisted in washing: under the similitude or likeness thereof, faith and hope, which in baptism are poured on us, are strengthened.
For as soon as Adam knew that by fratricide the first born of mortals, whom he had begotten in the concupiscence of the flesh, had killed his brother, guiltless and righteous as he was; and foreseeing the wicked errors of mortals that would come from thence, he likewise perceived his own miseries in himself; certainly knowing that all these calamities had happened unto him from the sin of concupiscence drawn from the apple, which were unavoidably issuing on his posterity, he thought within himself that the most discreet thing he could do, was hereafter wholly to abstain from his wife, whom he had violated; and therefore he mourned, in chastity and sorrow, a full hundred years; hoping that by the merit of that abstinence, and by an opposition to the concupiscence of the flesh, he should not only appease the wrath of the incensed Deity, but that he should again return into the former splendour and majesty of his primitive
innocence and
purity. But the repentance of one age being finished, it is most probable the mystery of Christ's incarnation was revealed unto him; neither that man ever could hope to return to the brightness of his ancient purity by his own strength, and much less that himself could reprieve his posterity from death; and that, therefore, marriage was well pleasing, and was after the fall indulged unto him by God because he had determined thus to satisfy his justice at the fulness of times, which should,
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to the glory of his own
name, and the confusion of Satan, elevate mankind to a more sublime and eminent state of blessedness.
From that time Adam began to know his wife,
viz. after he was an hundred years old, and to fill the earth, by multiplying according to the blessing once given him, and the law enjoined him--"Be fruitful and multiply."--Yet so, nevertheless, that although. matrimony, by reason of the great want of propagation, and otherwise impossible coursary succession of the primitive divine generation, be admitted as a sacrament of the faithful.
If, therefore, both our first parents, after the eating of the apple, were ashamed, they covered only their privy parts; therefore that shame doth presuppose, and accuse of something committed against justice--against the intent of the Creator--and against their own proper nature: by consequence, therefore, that Adamical generation was not of the primitive constitution of their nature, as neither of the original intent of the Creator; therefore, when God foretels that the earth shall bring forth thistles and thorns, and that man shall gain his bread by the sweat of his brow, they were not execrations, but admonitions, that those sort of things should be obvious in the earth: and, because that beasts should bring forth in pain--should plow in sweat--should eat their food with labour and fear, that the earth should likewise bring forth very many things besides the intention of the husbandman; therefore, also, that they ought to be nourished like unto brute beasts, who had begun to generate after the manner of brute beasts.
It is likewise told Eve, after her transgression, that she should bring forth in pain. Therefore, what hath the pain of bringing forth common with the eating of the apple, unless the apple had operated about the concupiscence of the flesh, and by consequence stirred up copulation; and the Creator had intended to dissuade it, by dehorting from the eating of the apple. For, why are the genital members of women punished with pains at child-birth, if the eye in seeing the apple, the hands in cropping it, and the mouth in eating of it, have offended? for was it not sufficient to have chastised the life with death, and the health with very many diseases?--Moreover, why is the womb afflicted,
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as in brutes, with the manner of bringing forth, if the conception granted to beasts were not forbidden to man?
After their fall, therefore,
their eyes were opened, and they were ashamed: it denotes and signifies that, from the filthiness of concupiscence, they knew that the copulation of the flesh was forbidden in the most pure innocent chastity of nature, and that they were overspread with shame, when, their eyes being opened, their understandings saw that they had committed filthiness most detestable.
But on the serpent and evil spirit alone was the top and summit of the whole curse, even as the privilege of the woman, and the mysterious prerogative of the blessing upon the earth,
viz. That the woman's seed should bruise the head of the serpent. So that it is not possible that to
bring forth in pain should be a curse; for truly with the same voice of the Lord is pronounced the blessing of the woman, and victory over the infernal spirit.
Therefore Adam was created in the possession of immortality. God intended not that man should be an
animal or
sensitive creature, nor be born, conceived, or live as an animal; for of truth he was created unto a
living soul, and that after the true image of God; therefore he as far differed from the nature of an animal, as an immortal being from a mortal, and as a God-like creature from a brute.
I am sorry that our school-men, many of them, wish, by their arguments of noise and pride, to draw man into a total animal nature (nothing more), drawing (by their logic) the essence of a man essentially from an animal nature: because, although man afterwards procured death to himself and posterity, and therefore may seem to be made nearer the nature of animal creatures, yet it stood not in his power to be able to pervert the species of the divine image: even so as neither was the evil spirit, of a spirit, made an animal, although he became nearer unto the nature of an animal, by hatred and brutal vices. Therefore man remained in his own species wherein he was created; for as often as man is called an animal, or sensitive living creature, and is in earnest thought to be such, so many times the text is falsified which says, "But the serpent was more crafty than all the living creatures of the
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earth, which the Lord God had made;" because he speaks of the natural craft and subtilty of that living and creeping animal. Again, if the position be true, man was not directed into the propagation of
seed or
flesh, neither did he aspire unto a sensitive soul; and therefore the sensible soul of Adamical generation is not of a brutal species, because it was raised up by a seed which wanted the original ordination and limitation of any species; and so that, as the
sensitive soul in man arose, besides the intent of the Creator and Nature; so it is of no brutal species, neither can it subsist, unless it be continually tied to the
mind, from whence it is supported in its life.
Wherefore, while man is of no brutal species, he cannot be an animal in respect to his mind, and much less in respect to his soul, which is of no species.
Therefore know, that neither evil spirit, nor whole nature also, can, by any means or any way whatever, change the essence given unto man from his Creator, and by his foreknowledge determined that he should remain continually such as he was created, although he, in the mean time, hath clothed himself with strange properties, as natural unto him from the vice of his own will; for as it is an absurdity to reckon man glorified among animals, because he is not without sense or feeling, so to be sensitive does not shew the inseparable essence of an animal.
Seeing, therefore, our first parents had both of them now felt the effect throughout their whole bodies of the eating, of the apple, or concupiscence of the flesh in their members in Paradise, it shamed them; because their members, which, before, they could rule at their pleasure, were afterwards moved by a proper incentive to lust.
Therefore, on the same clay, not only mortality entered through concupiscence, but it presently after entered into a conceived generation; for which they were, the same day, also driven out of Paradise: hence followed an adulterous, lascivious, beast-like, devilish generation, and plainly incapable of entering into the kingdom of God, diametrically opposite to God's ordination by which means death, and the threatened punishment,
corruption, became inseparable to man and his posterity,
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Therefore, original sin was effectively bred from the concupiscence of the flesh, but occasioned only by the apple being eaten, and the admonition despised: but the stimulative to concupiscence was placed in the dissuaded tree, and that occult lustful property radically inserted and implanted in it. But when Satan (besides his
hope, and the deflowering of the virgin, nothing hindering of it) saw that man was not taken out of the way, according to the forewarning (for he knew not that the
Son of
God had constituted himself a surety, before the Father, for man) he, indeed, looked at the vile, corrupted, and degenerated nature of man, and saw that a power was withdrawn from him of uniting himself to the God of infinite majesty, and began greatly to rejoice. That joy was of short duration, for, by and by, he likewise knew that marriage was ratified by Heaven--that the divine goodness yet inclined to man--and that Satan's own fallacies and deceits were thus deceived: hence conjecturing that the Son of God was to restore every defect of contagion, and, therefore, perhaps, to be incarnated. He then put himself to work how, or in what manner, he should defile the stock that was to be raised up by matrimony with a mortal soul, so that he might render every conception of God in vain: therefore he stirred up not only his fratricides, and notoriously wicked persons, that there might be evil abounding at all times; but he procured that Atheism might arise, and that, together with Heathenism, it might daily increase, whereby indeed, if he could not hinder the co-knitting of the immortal mind with the sensitive soul, he might, at least, by destroying the law of Nature, bring man unto a level with himself under infernal punishment: but his special care and desire was to expunge totally the immortal mind out of the stock of posterity.
Therefore he (
the Devil) stirs up, to this day, detestable copulations in Atheistical libertines: but he saw from thence, that nothing but brutish or savage monsters proceeded, to be abhorred by the very parents themselves; and that the copulation with women was far more plausible to men; and that by this method the generation of men should constantly continue; for he endeavoured to prevent the hope of restoring a remnant, that is, to hinder the incarnation of the Son of God; therefore he attempted, by an application of
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active things, to frame the seed of man according to his own accursed desire; which, when he had found vain and impossible for him to do, he tried again whether an imp or witch might not be fructified by sodomy; and when this did not fully answer his intentions every way, and he saw that of an ass and a horse a mule was bred, which was nearer a-kin to his mother than his father; likewise that of a coney and dormouse being the father, a true coney was bred, being distinct from his mother, only having a tail like the dormouse; he declined these feats, and betook himself to others worthy, indeed, only of the subtile craft of the
Prince of Darkness.
Therefore Satan instituted a connexion of the seed of man with the seed and in the womb of a junior witch, or sorceress, that he might exclude the dispositions unto an immortal mind from such a new, polished conception: and afterwards came forth an adulterous and lascivious generation of Faunii, Satyrs, Gnomes, Nymphs, Sylphs, Driades, Hamodriades, Neriads, Mermaids, Syrens, Sphynxes, Monsters, &c., using the constellations, and disposing the seed of man for such like monstrous prodigious generations.
And, seeing the Faunii and Nymphs of the woods were preferred before the others in beauty, they afterwards generated their offspring amongst themselves, and at length began wedlocks with men, feigning that, by these copulations, they should obtain an immortal soul for them and their offspring; but this happened through the persuasions and delusions of Satan to admit these monsters to carnal copulation, which the ignorant were easily persuaded to and therefore these Nymphs are called Succubii: although Satan afterwards committed worse, frequently transchanging himself, by assuming the persons of both Incubii and Succubii, in both sexes; but they conceived not a true young by the males, except the Nymphs alone. The which, indeed, seeing the sons of God (that is, men) had now, without distinction, and in many places, taken to be their wives, God was determined to blot out the whole race begotten by these infernal and detestable marriages, through a deluge of waters, that the intent of the evil spirit might be rendered frustrate.
Of which monsters before mentioned, I will here give a striking example from Helmont: for he says, a merchant of Ægina, a countryman of his,
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sailing various times unto the Canaries, was asked by Helmont for his serious judgment about certain creatures, which the mariners frequently brought home from the mountains, as often as they went, and called them Tude-squils;
1 for they were dried dead carcasses, almost three-footed, and so small that a boy might easily carry one of them upon the palm of his hand, and they were of an exact human shape; but their whole dead carcass was clear or transparent as any parchment, and their bones flexible like gristles; against the sun, also, their bowels and intestine were plainly to be seen; which thing I, by Spaniards there born, knew to be true. I considered that, to this day, the destroyed race of the Pygmies were there; for the Almighty would render the expectations of the evil spirit, supported by the abominable actions of mankind, void and vain; and he has, therefore, manifoldly saved us from the craft and subtilty of the Devil, unto whom eternal punishments are due, to his extreme and perpetual confusion, unto the everlasting sanctifying of the Divine Name.
CHAP. III.
OF AMULETS, CHARMS, AND ENCHANTMENTS.
THE instrument of enchanters is a pure, living, breathing spirit of the blood, whereby we bind, or attract, those things which we desire or delight in; so that, by an earnest intention of the mind, we take possession of the faculties in a no less potent manner than strong wines beguile the reason and senses of those who drink them; therefore, to charm, is either to bind with words, in which there is great virtue, as the poet sings--
"Words thrice she spake, which caus'd, at will, sweet sleep
"Appeas'd the troubled waves, and roaring deep." Indeed, the virtue of man's words are so great, that, when pronounced with a fervent constancy of the mind, they are able to subvert Nature, to cause earthquakes, storms, and tempests. I have, in the country, by only speaking a few words, and used some other things, caused terrible rains and claps of thunder. Almost all charms are impotent without words, because words are the speech of the speaker, and the image of the thing signified or spoken of; therefore, whatever wonderful effect is intended, let the same be performed with the addition of words significative of the
will or desire of the operator; for words are a kind of occult vehicle of the image conceived or begotten, and sent out of the body by the soul; therefore, all the forcible power of the spirit ought to be breathed out with vehemency, and an arduous and intent desire; and I know how to speak, and convey words together, so as they may be carried onward to the hearer at a vast distance, no other body intervening, which thing I have done often. Words are also oftentimes delivered to us, seemingly by others, in our sleep, whereby we seem to talk and converse; but then no vocal conversations are of any effect, except they proceed from spiritual and occult causes: such spirits have often manifested singular things to me, while in sleep, the which, in waking, I have thought nought of, until conviction of the truth taught me credulity in such like matters.
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[paragraph continues] In the late change of Administration, I knew, at least five days before it actually terminated, that it would be as I described to a few of my friends. These things are not alike manifested to every one; only, I believe, to those who have long seriously attended to contemplations of this abstruse nature; but there are those who will say it is not so, merely because they themselves cannot comprehend such things.
However, not to lose time, we proceed. There are various enchantments, which I have proved, relative to common occurrences of life,
viz. a kind of binding to that effect which we desire: as to love, or hatred; or to those things we love, or against those things we hate, in all which there is a magical sympathy above the power of reasoning; therefore, those abstruse matters we feel, are convinced of, and reflect upon, and draw them into our use. I will here set down, while speaking of these things, a very powerful amulet for the stopping, immediately, a bloody-flux; for the which (with a faith) I dare lay down my life for the success, and entire cure.
An Amulet for Flux of Blood.
"In the blood of Adam arose death--in the blood of Christ death is extinguished--in the same blood of Christ I command thee, O, blood, that thou stop fluxing!"
1
In this one godly superstition there will be found a
ready, cheap, easy remedy for that dreadful disorder the bloody-flux, whereby a poor miserable wretch will reap more real benefit than in a whole shop of an apothecary's drugs. These four letters are a powerful charm, or amulet, against the common ague; likewise, let them be written upon a piece of clean and new vellum, at any time of the day or night, and they will be found a speedy and certain cure, and much more efficacious than the word
Abracadabra: however, as that ancient charm is still (amongst some who pretend to cure agues, &c.) in some repute, I will here set down the form and manner of its being
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written;
1 likewise it must be pronounced, or spoken, in the same order as it is written, with the intent or will of the operator declared at the same time of making it.
CHAP. VII.
OF THE OCCULT VIRTUES OF THINGS WHICH ARE INHERENT IN THEM ONLY IN THEIR LIFE-TIME, AND SUCH AS REMAIN IN THEM EVEN AFTER DEATH.
IT is expedient for us to know that there are some things which retain virtue only while they are living, others even after death. So in the cholic, if a live duck be applied to the belly, it takes away the pain, and the duck dies. If you take the heart out of any animal, and, while it is warm, bind it to one that has a quartan fever, it drives it away. So if any one shall swallow the heart of a lapwing, swallow, weasel, or a mole, while it is yet living and warm with natural heat, it improves his intellect, and helps him to remember, understand, and foretel things to come. Hence this general rule,--that whatever
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things are taken for magical uses from animals, whether they are stones, members, hair, excrements, nails, or any thing else, they must be taken from those animals while they are yet alive, and, if it is possible, that they may live afterwards. If you take the tongue of a frog, you put the frog into water again;--and Democritus writes, that if any one shall take out the tongue of a water-frog, no other part of the animal sticking to it, and lay it upon the place where the heart beats of a woman, she is compelled, against her will, to answer whatsoever you shall ask of her. Also, take the eyes of a frog, which must be extracted before sun-rise, and bound to the sick party, and the frog to be let go again blind into the water, the party shall be cured of a tertian ague; also, the same will, being bound with the flesh of a nightingale in the skin of a hart, keep a person always wakeful without sleeping. Also, the roe of the fork fish being bound to the navel, is said to cause women an easy child-birth, if it be taken from it alive, and the fish put into the sea again. So the right eye of a serpent being applied to the soreness of the eyes, cures the same, if the serpent be let go alive. So, likewise, the tooth of a mole, being taken out alive, and afterwards let go, cures the tooth-ache; and dogs will never bark at those who have the tail of a weasel that has escaped. Democritus says, that if the tongue of the cameleon be taken alive, it conduces to good success in trials, and likewise to women in labour; but it must be hung up on some part of the outside of the house, otherwise, if brought into the house, it might be most dangerous.
There are very many properties that remain after death; and these are things in which the idea of the matter is less swallowed up,
according. to Plato, in them: even after death, that which is immortal in them will work some wonderful things:--as in the skins we have mentioned of several wild beasts, which will corrode and eat one another after death; also, a drum made of the rocket-fish drives away all creeping things at what distance soever the sound of it is heard; and the strings of an instrument made of the guts of a wolf, and being strained upon a harp or lute, with strings made of sheep-guts, will make no harmony.
The Jewel of Alchymy
TO THE READER.
ALTHOUGH we do not, in any point of science, arrogate perfection in ourselves, yet something we have attained by dear experience, by diligent labour, and by study, worthy of being communicated for the instruction of either the licentious libertine, or the grave student--the observer of Nature; and this, our Work, we concentrated into a
focus: it is, as it were, a spiritual essence drawn from a large quantity of matter; for we can say, with propriety, that this little Treatise is truly spiritual, and essential to the happiness of man: therefore, to those who wish to be happy, with every good intention we commend this Work to be their constant companion and study, in which, if they persevere, they shall not fail of their desires in the attainment of the true Philosophers' Stone.
The Celestial Intelligencer
PART THE SECOND.
CHAP. I.
OF THE FOUR ELEMENTS AND THEIR NATURAL QUALITIES.
IT is necessary that we should know and understand the nature and quality of the four elements, in order to our being perfect in the principles and ground-work of our studies in the Talismanic, or Magical Art.
Therefore, there are four elements, the original grounds of all corporeal things,
viz. fire, earth, water, and air, of which elements all inferior bodies are compounded; not by way of being heaped up together, but by transmutation and union; and when they are destroyed, they are resolved into elements. But there are none of the sensible elements that are pure; but they are, more or less, mixed, and apt to be changed the one into the other: even as earth, being moistened and dissolved, becomes
water, but the same being made thick and hard, becomes earth again; and being evaporated through heat it passes into air, and that being kindled into fire, and this being extinguished, into air gain, but being cooled after burning, becomes earth again, or else stone, or sulphur; and this is clearly demonstrated by lightning. Now every one of these elements have two specifical properties: the former whereof it retains as proper to itself; in the other, as a mean, it agrees with that which comes directly after it. For fire is hot and dry--earth, cold and dry;--water, cold and moist--and air, hot and moist. And so in this manner the elements, according to two contrary qualities, are opposite one to the other: as fire to water, and earth to air. Likewise, the elements are contrary one to the other n another account: two are heavy, as earth and water--and the others are light, as fire and air; therefore the Stoics called the former, passives--but the latter, actives. And Plato distinguishes them after another manner, and
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assigns to each of them three qualities,
viz. to the fire, brightness, thinness, and motion--to the earth, darkness, thickness, and quietness; and, according to these qualities, the elements of fire and earth are contrary. Now the other elements borrow their qualities from these, so that the air receives two qualities from the fire,--thinness, and motion; and the earth one,
viz. darkness. In like manner water receives two qualities of the earth,--darkness and thickness; and the fire one,
viz. motion. But fire is twice as thin as air, thrice more moveable, and four times brighter; the air is twice more bright, thrice more thin, and four times more moveable. Therefore, as fire is to air, so is air to water, and water to the earth; and again, as the earth is to the water, so is water to air, and air to fire. And this is the root and foundation of all bodies, natures, and wonderful works; and he who can know, and thoroughly understand these qualities of the elements, and their mixtures, shall bring to pass wonderful and astonishing things in magic.
Now each of these elements have a threefold consideration, so that the number of four may make up the number of twelve; and, by passing by the number of seven into ten, there may be a progress to the supreme unity upon which all virtue and wonderful things do depend. Of the first order are the pure elements, which are neither compounded, changed, or mixed, but are incorruptible; and not OF which, but THROUGH which, the virtues of all natural things are brought forth to act. No man is able fully to declare their virtues, because they can do all things upon all things. He who remains ignorant of these, shall never be able to bring to pass any wonderful matter.
Of the second order are elements that are compounded, changeable, and impure; yet such as may, by art, be reduced to their pure simplicity; whose virtue, when they are thus reduced, doth, above all things, perfect all occult and common operations of Nature; and these are the foundation of the whole of Natural Magic.
Of the third order, are those elements which originally and of themselves are not elements, but are twice compounded, various and changeable into another. These are the infallible
medium, and are called the
middle nature, or soul of the middle nature; very few there are that understand the deep mysteries
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thereof. In them is, by means of certain numbers, degrees, and orders, the perfection of every effect in what thing soever, whether
natural,
celestial, or supercelestial: they are full of wonders and mysteries, and are operative as in Magic natural, so divine. For from these, through them, proceeds the binding, loosing, and transmutation of all things--the knowledge and foretelling of things to come--also, the expelling of evil, and the gaining of good spirits. Let no one, therefore, without these three sorts of elements, and the true knowledge thereof, be confident that he can work any thing in the Occult Science of Magic and Nature.
But whosoever shall know how to reduce those of one order into another, impure into pure, compounded into simple, and shall understand distinctly the
nature,
virtue, and power of them, in number, degrees, and order, without dividing the substance, he shall easily attain to the knowledge and perfect operation of all natural things, and celestial secrets likewise; and this is the perfection of the Cabala, which teaches all these before mentioned; and, by a perfect knowledge thereof, we perform many rare and wonderful experiments.
CHAP. II.
OF THE PROPERTIES AND WONDERFUL NATURE OF FIRE AND EARTH.
THERE are two things, (says Hermes)
viz. fire and earth, which are sufficient for the operation of all wonderful things: the former is active, and the latter passive. Fire, in all things, and through all things, comes and goes away bright; it is in all things bright, and at the same time occult, and unknown. When it is by itself (no other matter coming to it, in which it should manifest its proper action) it is boundless and invisible; of itself sufficient for every action that is proper to it;--itself is one, and penetrates through all things; also spread abroad in the heavens, and shining. But in the infernal place, straitened, dark, and tormenting; and in the midway it partakes of both.
It is in stones, and is drawn out by the stroke of the steel; it is in earth, and
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causes it, after digging up, to smoke; it is in water, and heats springs and wells; it is in the depths of the sea, and causes it, being tossed with the winds, to be hot; it is in the air, and makes it (as we often see) to burn. And all animals, and all living things whatsoever, as also vegetables, are preserved by heat;--and every thing that lives, lives by reason of the inclosed heat. The properties of the fire that is above, are heat, making all things fruitful; and a celestial light, giving life to all things. The properties of the infernal fire are a parching heat, consuming all things; and darkness; making all things barren. The celestial and bright fire drives away spirits of darkness;--also, this our fire, made with wood, drives away the same, in as much as it hath an analogy with, and is the
vehiculum of, that superior light; as also of him who saith, "I am the light of the world," which is true fire--the Father of lights, from whom every good thing that is given comes;--sending forth the light of his fire, and communicating it first to the sun and the rest of the celestial bodies, and by these, as by mediating instruments, conveying that light into our fire. As, therefore, the spirits of darkness are stronger in the dark--so good spirits, which are angels of lights, are augmented not only .by that light (which is divine, of the sun, and celestial), but also by the light of our common fire. Hence it was that the first and most wise institutors of religions and ceremonies, ordained that prayers, singings, and all manner of divine worships whatsoever, should not be performed without lighted candles or torches: hence, also, was that significant saying of Pythagoras--"Do not speak of God without a light!"--And they commanded that, for the driving away of wicked spirits, lights and fires should be kindled by the carcasses of the dead, and that they should not be removed until the expiations were, after a holy manner, performed, and then buried. And the great Jehovah himself, in the old law, commanded that all his sacrifices should be offered with fire and that fire should always be burning upon the altar, which custom the Priests of the Altar did always observe and keep amongst the Romans. Now the basis and foundation of all the elements is the earth; for that is the object, subject, and receptacle of all celestial rays and influences: in it are contained the seeds, and seminal virtues of all things; and therefore, it is said to be
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animal, vegetable, and mineral. It, being made fruitful by the other elements and the heavens, brings forth all things of itself. It receives the abundance of all things, and is, as it were, the first fountain from whence all things spring;--it is the centre, foundation, and mother of all things. Take as much of it as you please, separated, washed, depurated, and subtilized, and if you let it lie in the open air a little while, it will, being full and abounding with heavenly virtues, of itself bring forth plants, worms, and other living things; also stones, and bright sparks of
metals. In it are great secrets: if, at any time it shall be purified, by the help of fire,
1 and reduced into its simple nature by a convenient washing, it is the first matter of our creation, and the truest medicine that can restore and preserve us.
Footnotes
77:1 Agrippa here, speaking of the element of earth being reduced to its utmost simplicity, by being purified by fire and a convenient washing, means, that it is the first and principal ingredient necessary to the production of the Philosopher's stone, either of animals or metals.
CHAP. III.
OF THE WATER AND AIR.
THE other two elements,
viz. water and air, are not less efficacious than the former; neither is Nature wanting to work wonderful things in them. There is so great a necessity of water, that without it nothing can live--no herb nor plant whatsoever without the moistening of water, can bring forth; in it is the seminary virtue of all things, especially of animals, whose seed is manifestly waterish. The seeds, also, of trees and plants, although they are earthy, must, notwithstanding, of necessity be rotted in water before they can be fruitful; whether they be imbibed with the moisture of the earth, or with dew, or rain, or any other water that is on purpose put to them.--For Moses writes, that only earth and water can bring forth a living soul; but he ascribes a two-fold production of things to water,
viz. of things swimming in the water, and of things flying in the air above the earth; and
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that those productions that are made in and upon the earth are partly attributed to the very water the same scripture testifies, where it saith, that the plants and the herbs did not grow, because God had not caused it to rain upon the earth. Such is the efficacy of this element of water, that spiritual regeneration cannot be done without it, as Christ himself testified to Nicodemus. Very great, also, is the virtue of it in the religious worship of God, in expiations and purifications; indeed the necessity of it is no less than that of fire. Infinite are the benefits, and divers are the uses, thereof as being that, by virtue of which all things subsist, are generated, nourished, and in creased. Hence it was that Thales of Miletus, and Hesiod, concluded that water was the beginning of all things; and said it was the first of all the elements, and the most potent; and that, because it hath the mastery over all the rest. For, as Pliny saith--"Waters swallow up the earth--extinguish flames--ascend on high--and, by the stretching forth of the clouds, challenge the heavens for their own; the same, falling down, becomes the cause of all things that grow in the earth." Very many are the wonders that are done by waters, according to the writings of Pliny, Solinus, and many other historians.
Josephus also makes relation of the wonderful nature of a certain river betwixt Arcea and Raphanea, cities of Syria, which runs with a full channel all the Sabbath-day, and then on a sudden stops, as if the springs were stopped, and all the six days you may pass over it dry-shod; but again, on the seventh day, no man knowing the reason of it, the waters return again, in abundance as before! wherefore the inhabitants thereabout called it the Sabbath-day River) because of the seventh day, which was holy to the Jews.--The Gospel, also, testifies of a sheep-pool, into which whosoever stepped first after the water was troubled by the Angel, was made whole of whatsoever disease he had. The same virtue and efficacy, we read, was in a spring of the Ionian Nymphs, which was in the territories belonging to the town of Elis, at a village called Heradea, near the river Citheron, which whosoever stepped into, being diseased, came forth whole, and cured of all his diseases. Pausanias also reports, that in Lyceus, a mountain of Arcadia, there was a
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spring called Agria, to which, as often as the dryness of the region threatened the destruction of fruits, Jupiter, Priest of Lyceus, went; and, after the offering of sacrifices, devoutly praying to the waters of the spring, holding a bough of an oak in his hand, put it down to the bottom of the hallowed spring; then, the waters being troubled, a vapour ascending from thence into the air, was blown into clouds, which being joined together, the whole heaven was overspread: which being, a little after, dissolved into rain, watered all the country most wholesomely.--Moreover, Ruffus, a physician of Ephesus, besides many other authors, wrote strange things concerning the wonders of waters, which, for aught I know, are found in no other author.
It remains, that I speak of the air.--This is a vital spirit passing through all beings--giving life and subsistence to all things--moving and filling all things. Hence it is that the Hebrew doctors reckon it not amongst the elements; but count it as a medium, or glue, joining things together, and as the resounding spirit of the world's instrument. It immediately receives into itself the influence of all celestial bodies, and then communicates them to the other elements, as also to all mixed bodies. Also, it receives into itself, as if it were a divine looking-glass, the species of all things, as well natural as artificial; as also of all manner of speeches, and retains them; and carrying them with it, and entering into the bodies of men, and other animals, through their pores, makes an impression upon them, as well when they are asleep as when they are awake, and affords matter for divers strange dreams and divinations.--Hence, they say, it is that a man, passing by a place where a man was slain, or the carcass newly hid, is moved with fear and dread; because the air, in that place, being full of the dreadful species of man-slaughter, doth, being breathed in, move and trouble the spirit of the man with the like species; whence it is that he becomes afraid. For every thing that makes a sudden impression astonishes Nature. Whence it is that many philosophers were of opinion, that air is the cause of dreams, and of many other impressions of the mind, through the prolonging of images, or similitudes, or species (which proceed from things and speeches, multiplied in the very air), until they come to the senses, and then to the phantasy and soul of him that receives
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them; which, being freed from cares, and no way hindered, expecting to meet such kind of species, is informed by them. For the species of things, although of their own proper nature they are carried to the senses of men, and other animals in general, may, notwithstanding, get some impression from the heavens whilst they are in the air; by reason of which, together with the aptness and disposition of him that receives them, they may be carried to the sense of one, rather than of another. And hence it is possible, naturally, and far from all manner of superstition (no other spirit coming between), that a man should be able, in a very small time, to signify his mind unto another man, abiding at a very long and unknown distance from him--although he cannot precisely give an estimate of the time when it is, yet, of necessity, it must be within twenty-four hours;--and I, myself, know how to do it, and have often done it. The same also, in time past, did the Abbot Tritemius both know and do.--Also, when certain appearances (not only spiritual, but also natural) do flow forth from things, that is to say, by a certain kind of flowings forth of bodies from bodies, and do gather strength in the air, they shew themselves to us as well through light as motion--as well to the sight as to other senses--and sometimes work wonderful things upon us, as Platonius proves and teacheth. And we see how, by the south-wind, the air is condensed into thin clouds, in which, as in a looking-glass, are reflected representations at a great distance, of castles, mountains, horses, men, and other things, which when the clouds are gone, presently vanish.--And Aristotle, in his Meteors, shews that a rainbow is conceived in a cloud of the air, as in a looking-glass.--And Albertus says, that the effigies of bodies may, by the strength of Nature, in a moist air, be easily represented; in the same manner as the representations of things are in things.--And Aristotle tells of a man, to whom it happened, by reason of the weakness of his sight, that the air that was near to him became, as it were, a looking-glass to him, and the optic-beam did reflect back upon himself, and could not penetrate the air, so that, whithersoever he went, he thought he saw his own image, with his face towards him, go before him.--In like manner, by the artificialness of some certain looking-glasses, may be produced at a distance, in the air, besides the
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looking-glasses, what images we please; which, when ignorant men see, they think they see the appearances of spirits or souls--when, indeed, they are nothing else but semblances a-kin to themselves, and without life. And it is well-known, if in a dark place, where there is no light but by the coming in of a beam of the sun some where through a little hole, a white paper or plain looking-glass be set up against the light, that there may be seen upon them whatsoever things are done without, being shined upon by the sun. And there is another slight or trick yet more wonderful:--if any one shall take images, artificially painted, or written letters, and, in a clear night, set them against the beams of the full moon, those resemblances being multiplied in the air, and caught upward, and reflected back together with the beams of the moon, another man, that is privy to the thing, at a long distance, sees, reads, and knows them in the very compass and circle of the moon; which art of declaring secrets is, indeed, very profitable for towns and cities that are besieged, being a thing which Pythagoras long since did, and which is not unknown to some in these days; I will not except myself. And all these things, and many more, and much greater than these, are grounded in the very nature of the air, and have their reasons and causes declared in mathematics and optics. And as these resemblances are reflected back to the sight, so also are they, sometimes, to the hearing, as is manifest in echo. But there are many more secret arts than these, and such whereby any one may, at a remarkable distance, hear, and understand distinctly, what another speaks or whispers.
CHAP. V.
THAT THE ELEMENTS ARE IN THE HEAVENS, IN THE STARS, IN DEVILS, ANGELS, INTELLIGENCES, AND, LASTLY, IN GOD HIMSELF.
IN the original and exemplary world, all things are all in all; so also in this corporeal world. And the elements are not only in these inferior things; but are in the heavens, in stars, in devils, in angels, and likewise in God himself, the maker and original example of all things.
Now it must be understood that in these inferior bodies the elements are gross and corruptible; but in the heavens they are, with their natures and virtues, after a celestial and more excellent manner than in sublunary things: for the firmness of the celestial earth is there without the grossness of water; and the agility of air without exceeding its bounds; the heat of fire without burning, only shining, giving light and life to all things by its celestial heat.--Now
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amongst the stars, or planets, some are fiery, as Mars, and the Sun--airy, as Jupiter, and Venus--watery, as Saturn, and Mercury--and earthy, such as inhabit the eighth orb, and the Moon (which by many is accounted watery), seeing that, as if it were earth, it attracts to itself the celestial waters, with which being imbibed it does, on account of its proximity to us, pour forth and communicate to our globe.
There are, likewise, amongst the signs, some fiery, some airy, some watery, and some earthy. The elements rule
them, also, in the heavens, distributing to them these four threefold considerations of every element, according to their triplicities,
viz. the beginning, middle, and end.
Likewise, devils are distinguished according to the elements: for some are called earthy devils, others fiery, some airy, and others watery. Hence, also, those four infernal rivers: fiery Phlegethon, airy Cocytus, watery Styx, earthy Acheron. Also, in the Gospel, we read of comparisons of the elements: as hell fire, and eternal fire, into which the cursed shall be commanded to go;--and in Revelations, of a lake of fire:--and Isaiah, speaking of the damned, says that the Lord will smite them with corrupt air;--and in Job, they shall skip from the waters of the snow to the extremity of heat; and, in the same, we read, that the earth is dark, and covered with the darkness of death, and miserable darkness.
And these elements are placed in the angels of heaven, and the blessed intelligences: there is in them a stability of their essence, which is an earthy virtue, in which is the stedfast seat of God. By the Psalmist they are called waters, where he says--"Who rulest the waters that are higher than the heavens;"--also, in them their subtile breath is air, and their love is shining fire; hence they are called in Scripture, the wings of the wind; and, in another place, the Psalmist speaks of them thus--"Who makest angels thy spirits, and thy ministers a flaming fire!"--Also, according to the different orders of spirits or angels, some are fiery, as seraphims, authorities, and powers--earthy, as cherubim--watery, as thrones and archangels--airy, as dominions and principalities.
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And do we not read of the original Maker of all things, that the earth shall be opened and bring forth a Saviour?--Likewise it is spoken of the same, that he shall be a fountain of living water, cleansing and regenerating and the same spirit breathing the breath of life; and the same, according to Moses' and Paul's testimony--
a consuming fire.
That the elements are, therefore, to be found every where, and in all things, after their manner, no man will dare to deny: first, in these inferior bodies, feculent and gross; and in celestials, more pure and clear; but in super-celestials, living, and in all respects blessed. Elements, therefore, in the exemplary world, are ideas of things to be produced; in intelligences, they are distributed powers; in the heavens, they are virtues; and in inferior bodies, are gross forms.
CHAP. VII.
OF THE SPIRIT OF THE WORLD.
NOW seeing that the soul is the essential form, intelligible and incorruptible, and is the first mover of the body, and is moved of itself; but that the body, or matter, is of itself unable and unfit for motion, and does very much degenerate from the soul, it appears that there is need of a more excellent medium:--now such a medium is conceived to be the spirit of the world, or that which some call a quintessence; because it is not from the four elements, but a certain
first thing, having its being above and beside them. There is, therefore, such a kind of medium required to be, by which celestial souls may be joined to gross bodies, and bestow upon them wonderful gifts. This spirit is, in the same manner, in the body of the world, as our spirit is in our bodies; for as the powers of our soul are communicated to the members of the body by the medium of the spirit, so also the virtue of the soul of the world is diffused, throughout all things, by the medium of the universal spirit; for there is nothing to be found in the whole world that hath not a spark of the virtue thereof. Now this spirit is received into things, more or less, by the rays of the stars, so far as things are disposed, or made fit recipients of it. By this spirit, therefore, every occult property is conveyed into herbs, stones, metals, and animals, through the sun, moon, planets, and through stars higher than the planets. Now this spirit may be more advantageous to us if we knew how to separate it from the elements; or, at least, to use those things chiefly
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which are most abounding with this spirit. For those things in which the spirit is less drowned in a body, and less checked by matter, do much more powerfully and perfectly act, and also more readily generate their like; for in it are all
generative and
seminal virtues. For which cause the alchymist endeavours to separate this spirit from gold and silver, which, being rightly separated and extracted, if it shall be afterwards projected upon any metal, turns it into gold or silver; which is no way impossible or improbable, when we consider that by art that may be done in a short time, what Nature, in the bowels of the earth (as in a matrix), perfects in a very long space of time.
CHAP. XVI.
OF THE SCALE OF UNITY.
NOW let us treat particularly of numbers themselves; and, because number is nothing else but a repetition of unity, let us first consider unity itself; for unity doth most simply go through every number, and is the common measure, fountain, and original of all numbers; contains every number joined together in itself entirely; the beginner of every multitude, always the same, and unchangeable; whence, also, being multiplied into itself, produceth nothing but itself: it is indivisible, void of all parts. Nothing is before one, nothing is after one, and beyond it is nothing; and all things which are, desire that one, because all things proceed from one; and that all things may be the same, it is necessary that they partake of that one: and as all things proceed of one into many things, so all thin-s endeavour to return to that one, from which they proceeded; it is necessary that they should put off multitude. One, therefore, is referred to the most high God, who, seeing he is one and innumerable, yet creates innumerable things of himself, and contains them within himself. There is, therefore, one God--one world of the one God--one sun of the one world--also one phœnix in the world--one king amongst bees--one leader amongst flocks of cattle--one ruler amongst herds of beasts--and cranes follow one, and many other animals honour unity. Amongst the members of the body there is one principal, by which all the rest are guided; whether it be the head, or (as some will) the heart. There is one element, overcoming and penetrating all things,
viz. fire. There is one thing created of God, the subject of
all wondering which is in earth or in heaven--it is actually animal, vegetable, and mineral; every where found, known by few, called by none by its proper name, but covered with figures and riddles, without which neither Alchymy, nor Natural Magic can attain to their complete end or perfection. From one man, Adam, all men proceeded--from that One, all became mortal--from that one,
Jesus Christ, they are regenerated; and, as saith St. Paul., one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, one
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[paragraph continues] Mediator betwixt God and man, one most high Creator, who is over all, by all, and in us all, For there is one Father, God, from whence all, and we in him; one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom all, and we by him; one God Holy Ghost, into whom all, and we into him.
THE SCALE OF UNITY.
| In the Exemplary World, | Jod. | One Divine Essence, the fountain of all virtues and power whose name is expressed with one most simple letter. |
| In the Intellectual World, | The Soul of the World | One Supreme Intelligence, the first creature, the fountain of life. |
| In the Celestial World, | The Sun. | One King of Stars, the fountain of life. |
| In the Elemental World, | The Philosophers' Stone. | One subject, and instrument of all virtues, natural and supernatural. |
| In the Lesser World, | The Heart. | One first living and last dying. |
| In the Infernal World, | Lucifer. | One Prince of Rebellion, of Angels, and Darkness. |
CHAP. XLIV.
OF THE IMAGES OF THE MANSIONS OF THE MOON.
THEY made, also, images for every mansion of the Moon as follows:--
In the first, for the destruction of some one, they made, in an iron ring, the image of a black man, in a garment of hair, and girdled round, casting a small lance with his right hand: they sealed this in black wax, and perfumed it with liquid storax, and wished some evil to come.
In the second, against the wrath of the prince, and for reconciliation with him, they sealed, in white wax and mastich, the image of a king crowned, and perfumed it with lignum aloes.
In the third, they made an image in a silver ring, whose table was square; the figure of which was a woman, well clothed, sitting in a chair, her right hand being lifted up on her head; they sealed it, and perfumed it with musk, camphire, and calamus aromaticus. They affirmed that this gives happy fortune, and every good thing.
In the fourth, for revenge, separation, enmity, and ill-will, they sealed, in red wax, the image of a soldier sitting on a horse, holding a serpent in his right hand: they perfumed it with red myrrh and storax.
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In the fifth, for the favour of kings and officers, and good entertainment, they sealed, in silver, the head of a man, and perfumed it with red sanders.
In the sixth, to procure love between two, they sealed, in white wax, two images, embracing one another, and perfumed them with lignum aloes and amber.
In the seventh, to obtain every good thing, they scaled, in silver, the image of a man, well clothed, holding up his hands to Heaven, as it were, praying and supplicating, and perfumed it with good odours.
In the eighth, for victory in war, they made a seal in tin, being an image of an eagle, having the face of a man, and perfumed it with brimstone.
In the ninth, to cause infirmities, they made a seal of lead, being the image of a man wanting his privy parts, covering his eyes with his hands; and they perfumed it with rosin of the pine.
In the tenth, to facilitate child bearing, and to cure the sick, they made a seal of gold, being the head of a lion, and perfumed it with amber.
In the eleventh, for fear, reverence, and worship, they made a seal of a plate of gold, being the image of a man riding on a lion, holding the ear thereof in his left hand, and in his right holding forth a bracelet of gold; and they perfumed it with good odours and saffron.
In the twelfth, for the separation of lovers, they made a seal of black lead, being the image of a dragon fighting with a man; and they perfumed it with the hairs of a lion, and assafœtida.
In the thirteenth, for the agreement of married people, and for dissolving of all the charms against copulation, they made a seal of the images of both (of the man in red wax, and the woman in white), and caused them to embrace one another; perfuming it with lignum aloes and amber.
In the fourteenth, for divorce and separation of the man from the woman, they made a seal of red copper, being the image of a dog. biting his tail; and they perfumed it with the hair of a black dog and a black cat.
In the fifteenth, to obtain friendship and good will, they made the image of a man sitting, and inditing letters, and perfumed it with frankincense and nutmegs.
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In the sixteenth, for gaining much merchandising, they made a seal of silver, being the image of a man, sitting on a chair, holding a balance in his hand; and they perfumed it with well smelling spices.
In the seventeenth, against thieves and robbers, they sealed with an iron seal the image of an ape, and perfumed it with the air of an ape.
In the eighteenth, against fevers and pains of the belly, they made a seal of copper, being the image of a snake with his tail above his head; and they perfumed it with hartshorn; and said this same seal put to flight serpents, and all venomous creatures, from the place where it is buried.
In the nineteenth, for facilitating birth, and provoking the menstrues, they made a seal of copper, being the image of a woman holding her hands upon her face; and they perfumed it with liquid storax.
In the twentieth, for hunting, they made a seal of tin, being the image of Sagittary, half a man and half a horse; and they perfumed it with the head of a wolf.
In the twenty-first, for the destruction of some body, they made the image of a man, with a double countenance before and behind; and they perfumed it with brimstone and jet, and put it in a box of brass, and with it brimstone and jet, and the hair of him whom they would hurt.
In the twenty-second, for the security of runaways, they made a seal of iron, being the image of a man, with wings on his feet, bearing a helmet on his head; and they perfumed it with
argent vive.
In the twenty-third, for destruction and wasting, they made a seal of iron, being the image of a cat, having a dog's head; and they perfumed it with dog's hair taken from the head, and buried it in the place where they intended the hurt.
In the twenty-fourth, for multiplying herds of cattle, they took the horn of a ram, bull, or goat, or of that sort of cattle they would increase, and sealed in it, burning, with an iron seal, the image of a woman giving suck to her son; and they hanged it on the neck of that cattle who was the leader of the flock, or they sealed it in his horn.
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In the twenty-fifth, for the preservation of trees and harvest, they sealed, in the wood of a fig tree, the image of a man planting and they perfumed it with the flowers of the fig tree, and hung it on the tree.
In the twenty-sixth, for love and favour, they sealed, in white wax and mastich, the figure of a woman washing and combing her hair; and they perfumed it with good odours.
In the twenty-seventh, to destroy fountains, pits, medicinal waters, and baths, they made, of red earth, the image of a man winged, holding in his hand an empty vessel, and perforated; and the image being burnt, they put in the vessel assafœtida and liquid storax, and they buried it in the pond or fountain which they would destroy.
In the twenty-eighth, for getting fish together, they made a seal of copper, being the image of a fish; and they perfumed it with the skin of a sea fish, and cast it into the water where they would have the fish gathered.
Moreover, together with the aforesaid images, they wrote down also the names of the spirits, and their characters, and invoked and prayed for those things which they pretended to obtain.
CHAP. XLVI.
THE CONCLUSION OF THE CONSTELLATORY PRACTICE, OR TALISMANIC MAGIC; IN WHICH IS INCLUDED THE KEY OF ALL THAT HAS BEEN WRITTEN UPON THIS SUBJECT; SHEWING THE PRACTICE OF IMAGES, &C. BY WAY OF EXAMPLE, AND LIKEWISE THE NECESSARY OBSERVATIONS OF THE CELESTIALS, TOWARDS THE PERFECTION OF TALISMANICAL OPERATIONS.
WE will now shew thee the observations of celestial bodies, which are required for the practice of these things, which are briefly as follow: --
To make any one fortunate, we make an image at that time in which the
significator of life, the giver of life, or
Hylech, the signs and planets, are fortunate: let the ascendant and mid-heaven, and the lords thereof, be fortunate; and also the place of the Sun and Moon; part of fortune and lord of conjunction or prevention, make before their nativity, by depressing the malignant planets,
i.e. taking the times when they are depressed. But if we would make an image to procure misery, we must do contrary to this; and those which we before placed fortunate, we must now make unfortunate, by taking the malignant stars when they rule. And the same means we must take to make any place, region, city, or house unfortunate. But if you would make any one unfortunate who hath injured you, let there be an image made under the ascension of that man whom thou wouldst make unfortunate; and thou shalt take, when unfortunate, the lord of the house of his life, the lord of the ascendant and the Moon, the lord of the house of the Moon, the lord of the house of the lord ascending, and the tenth house and the lord thereof Now, for the building, success, or fitting of any place, place fortunes in the ascendant thereof; and in the first and tenth, the second and eighth house, thou shalt make the lord of the ascendant, and the lord of the house of the Moon, fortunate. But to chase away certain animals (from any place) that are noxious to thee, that they may not generate or abide there, make an image under the ascension of that animal which thou wouldst chase away or destroy, and after the likeness thereof; for instance, now, suppose thou wouldst wish to chase away scorpions from any place: let an image of a scorpion be made, the sign
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[paragraph continues] Scorpio ascending with the Moon; then thou shalt make unfortunate the ascendant, and the lord thereof, and the lord of the house of Mars; and thou shalt make unfortunate the lord of the ascendant in the eighth house; and let them be joined with an aspect malignant, as opposite or square, and write upon the image the name of the ascendant, and of the lord thereof, and the Moon, the lord of the day and hour; and let there be a pit made in the middle of the place from which thou wouldst drive them, and put into it some earth taken out of the four corners of the same place, then bury the image there, with the head downwards, saying--"This is the burying of the
Scorpions, that they may be forced to leave, and come no more into this place."--And so do by the rest.
Now for gain, make an image under the ascendant of that man to whom thou wouldst appoint the gain; and thou shalt make the lord of the second house, which is the house of substance, to be joined with the lord of the ascendant, in a trine or sextile aspect, and let there be a reception amongst them; thou shalt make fortunate the eleventh, and the lord thereof, and the eighth; and, if thou canst, put part of fortune in the ascendant or second; and let the image be buried in that place, or from that place, to which thou wouldst appoint the gain or fortune. Likewise, for agreement or love, let be made an image in the day of Jupiter, under the ascendant of the nativity of him whom you would wish to be beloved; make fortunate the ascendant and the tenth, and hide the evil from the ascendant; and you must have the lords of the tenth, and planets of the eleventh, fortunate, joined to the lord of the ascendant, from the trine or sextile, with reception; then proceed to make another image, for him whom thou wouldst stir up to love; whether it be a friend, or female, or brother, or relation, or companion of him whom thou wouldst have favoured or beloved, if so, make an image under the ascension of the eleventh house from the ascendant of the first image; but if the party be a wife, or a husband, let it be made under the ascension of the seventh; if a brother, sister, or cousin, under the ascension of the third house; if a mother, of the tenth, and so on:--now let the significator of the ascendant of the second image be joined to the significator of the ascendant of the first, and let there
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be between them a reception, and let the rest be fortunate, as in the first image; afterwards join both the images together in a mutual embrace, or put the face of the second to the back of the first, and let them be wrapped up in silk, and cast away or spoiled.
Also, for the success of petitions, and obtaining of a thing denied, or taken, or possessed by another, make an image under the ascendant of him who petitions for the thing; and cause the lord of the second house to be joined with the lord of the ascendant, from a trine or sextile aspect, and let there be a reception betwixt them; and, if it can be so, let the lord of the second be in the obeying signs, and the lord of ascendant in the ruling: make fortunate the ascendant and the lord thereof; and beware that the lord of the ascendant be not retrograde, or combust, or cadent, or in the house of opposition,
i. e. in the seventh from his own house; let him not be hindered by the malignant planets, but let him be strong and in an angle; thou shalt make fortunate the ascendant, and the lord of the second, and the Moon: and make another image for him that is petitioned to, and begin it under the ascendant belonging to him: as if he is a king, or prince, &c. begin it under the ascendant of the tenth house from the ascendant of the first image; if a father, under the fourth, if a son, under the fifth, and so of the like; then put the significator of the second image, joined with the lord of the ascendant of the first image from a trine or sextile, and let him receive it; and put them both strong and fortunate, without any hinderance; make all evil fall from them; thou shalt make fortunate the tenth and the fourth, if thou canst, or any of them; and when the second image shall be perfect, join it with the first, face to face, and wrap them in clean linen, and bury them in the middle of his house who is the petitioner, under a fortunate significator,
the fortune being strong; and let the face of the first image be towards the north, or rather towards that place where the thing petitioned for doth remain; or, if it happens that the petitioner goes forward to obtain the thing desired or petitioned for, let him carry the said images with him. Thus we have given, in a few examples, the key of all Talismanical operations whatsoever, by which wonderful effects may be wrought either by images, by rings, by glasses, by seals, by tables, or any
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other magical instruments whatsoever; but as these have their chief grounds in the true knowledge of the effects of the planets, and the rising of the constellations, we recommend an earnest attention to that part of Astrology
1 which teaches of the power, influences, and effects of the celestial bodies amongst themselves generally; likewise, we would recommend the artist to be expert in the aspects, motions, declinations, risings, &c. &c. of the seven planets, and perfectly to understand their natures, either mixed or simple; also, to be ready and correct in the erecting of a figure, at any time, to shew the true position of the heavens; there being so great a sympathy between the celestials and ourselves; and to observe all the other rules which we have plentifully recited: and, without doubt, the industrious student shall receive the satisfaction of bringing his operations and experiments to effect that which he ardently desires. With which, wishing all success to the contemplator of the creature and the Creator, we will here close up this Second Part of our Work, and the conclusion of our Book of Talismanical Magic.
THE END OF THE FIRST BOOK.
Footnotes
175:1 Those who would be perfect in the necessary knowledge of Astrology, ought to study from Coley, his book, called Clavis Astrologiæ Elimata, or his Key new filed--Salmon's Soul of Astrology--Lilley's, or Partridge's, Vade Mecum--or Middleton's Astrology.
