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Title: Occult Science in Medicine
Author: Hartmann, Franz
Language: English
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*** Start of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "Occult Science in Medicine" ***
MEDICINE ***
Transcriber’s Notes
Obvious typographical errors have been silently corrected. Variations
in hyphenation and accents have been standardised but all other
spelling and punctuation remains unchanged.
A variety astrological, alchemical and mystical symbols are used, as
many are unavailable they have been replaced by {symbol}.
The anchor of footnote 22 on page 41 was missing. The present location
was chosen by the transcriber.
The contents list shows five chapters, with chapter V being entitled The
Medicine of the Future. In the body chapter IV is followed immediately
by Chapter VI entitled The Physician of the Future. It is assumed that
this is a missprint rather than a missing chapter and has been altered
accordingly.
Italics are represented thus _italic_, and bold thus =bold=.
OCCULT SCIENCE
IN
MEDICINE
BY
FRANZ HARTMANN, M.D.
(_All rights reserved._)
THEOSOPHICAL PUBLISHING SOCIETY
7, DUKE STREET, ADELPHI, LONDON, W.C.
“THE PATH,” 144, Madison Avenue, New York, U.S.A.
“THE THEOSOPHIST” OFFICE, Adyar, Madras, India.
1893.
DEDICATED
TO EVERY STUDENT OF MEDICINE
“That which is looked upon by one generation as the apex of human
knowledge is often considered an absurdity by the next, and that which
is regarded as a superstition in one century, may form the basis of
science for the following one.” (_Theophrastus Paracelsus._)
PREFACE.
“Nothing designates the character of people so well as that which they
find ridiculous.”—_Goethe._
It is a fact not entirely unknown to those who have studied nature,
that there is a certain law of periodicity, according to which forms
disappear and the truths which they contained reappear again, embodied
in new forms. Seasons go and come, civilizations pass away and grow
again, exhibiting the same characteristics possessed by the former,
sciences are lost and rediscovered, and the science of medicine forms
no exception to this general rule. Many valuable treasures of the past
have been buried in forgetfulness; many ideas that shone like luminous
stars in the sky of ancient medicine have disappeared during the
revolution of thought, and begin to rise again on the mental horizon,
where they are christened with new names and stared at in surprise as
something supposed never to have existed before.
Ages of spirituality have preceded the past age of materiality, and
other eras of higher spiritual thought are certain to follow. During
these preceding ages many eminently valuable truths were known, which
have been lost sight of in modern times, and although the popular
science of the present, which deals with the external appearances of
physical nature, is undoubtedly greater than that of former times, a
study of the ancient books on medicine shows that the sages of former
times knew more of the fundamental laws of nature than what is admitted
to-day.
There is a great science and a little science; one that flies around
the spires of the temple of wisdom, another that penetrates into the
sanctuary; both are right in their places; but the one is superficial
and popular, the other profound and mysterious; the one makes a great
deal of clamour and show, the other is silent and not publicly known.
There are progressive and there are conservative scientists. There are
those whose genius carries them forward and who dare to explore new
realms of knowledge; while the conservative class merely collects
what has been produced by others. An explorer must be a scientist; but
not every scientist is an explorer. The majority of our modern schools
of medicine produce nothing new, but merely deal in goods in whose
production they had no share. They resemble the shop of a huckster who
knows nothing else but the goods which are in his shop. The shelves are
filled with popular theories, fashionable beliefs, patented systems,
and occasionally we find an old article that went out of fashion,
labelled with a new name and advertised as something new, and the
proprietor volubly praises his goods, being as proud of them as if he
had made them himself, while he ignores or denounces everything that
is not to be found in his shop. But the real lover of truth is not
contented to live upon the fruits that have grown in the gardens of
others; he gathers the materials he finds, not merely for the purpose
of enjoying their possession, but for the purpose of using them as
steps to ascend nearer to the fountain of eternal truth.
The present work is an attempt to call the attention of those who
follow the profession of medicine to this higher aspect of science and
to certain forgotten treasures of the past, of which an abundance may
be found in the works of Theophrastus Paracelsus. Many of the ideas
advanced therein, old as they are, will appear new and strange; for
everyone is familiar only with that which is within his own mental
horizon and which he is capable of grasping. The subject treated is so
grand, unlimited and sublime, as to render it impossible in a limited
work of this kind to deal with it in an exhaustive manner; but we hope
that what little has been collected in the following pages will be
sufficient to indicate the way to the acquisition of that higher mystic
science, and to a better understanding of the true constitution of man.
CONTENTS.
INTRODUCTION.
PAGE.
Definition of the term “disease.” Law and order. Harmony
and discords. Obedience. Man a complex being. Health. 9
I.
THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN.
Miracles in nature. Development. The seven principles
in the constitution of man. The anatomy of the “inner man.”
Medicine and religion. Theophrastus Paracelsus. Mysteries.
Mystic science and false mysticism. The powers of the soul. 13
II.
THE FOUR PILLARS OF MEDICINE.
Requisites for the practice of medicine.—_Philosophy._ Natural
sciences. The phenomenal world. The inner temple. Truth.
The four kingdoms and the four elements.—_Astronomy._ Mind.
States of consciousness. “Stars” and constellations. The
_Tatwas_. Sun and Moon. Thinking and the thinker.—_Alchemy._
What alchemy is. Quacks and pretenders. _The Three Substances._
The creative power. Terrestrial Alchemy. Celestial
Alchemy. The Alchemy of the Astral plane.—_The Virtue of
the Physician._ The true physician. Medical science and
medical wisdom. 25
III.
THE FIVE CAUSES OF DISEASE.
_Salt_, _Sulphur_ and _Mercury_.—The _Ens astrale_. The “ether”.
Invisible influences. Microbes. The astral plane. Mental
diseases.—_Ens veneni._ Poisons and impurities. Disharmonies,
sympathies and antipathies in chemistry. A chemical
romance. Sexual impurity. Promiscuous intercourse.
Nutriment. Correspondencies between spiritual powers and
physical forces.—_Ens naturæ._ The macrocosm and microcosm.
Two beings in one man. Terrestrial and the celestial nature.
Generation and incarnation. Heredity. Relationship between
internal organs.—_Ens spirituale._ Consciousness. Spirit and
soul. The thought-body. Re-incarnation. Will. Imagination.
_Arcana._ Memory. The astral light.—_Ens Dei._ God
_Karma_. Science and art. 50
IV.
THE FIVE CLASSES OF PHYSICIANS.
Five classes.—_Naturales._ Therapeutics. Earth. Water.
Air. Fire. Ether; the one element.—_Specifici._ Empiricism.
The chemistry of life. Principles of light and colour. The
astral man.—_Characterales._ Emotions. Hypnotism. Suggestion.
Spiritual powers.—_Spirituales._ Magic.—_Fideles._ The
power of faith. 74
V.
THE MEDICINE OF THE FUTURE.
Ancient and modern quackery. Science and wisdom.
Spirituality and substantiality. Development. Self-control.
Realism and idealism. The realization of the ideal. The
physician of the future. Self-knowledge. The true life. The
awakening of the soul. Phenomena and noumena. The
higher science. Material and spiritual evolution. Intellectuality
and spirituality. Periodicity. Circular motion and
spiral progress. The self-recognition of truth. 86
INTRODUCTION.
“There are two kinds of knowledge. There is a medical science and
there is a medical wisdom. To the animal man belongs the animal
comprehension; but the understanding of divine mysteries belongs to
the spirit of God in him.” (Theophrastus Paracelsus, “_De Fundamento
Sapientiæ_.”)
A great deal has been written in modern books on pathology about the
difficulty of defining the word “_disease_.” The dictionary calls
it “lack or absence of ease, pain, uneasiness, distress, trial,
trouble,” &c., but against either of these definitions objections may
be raised. James Paget says: “Ease and disease, well and ill, and
all their synonyms are relative terms, of which none can be fixed
unconditionally. If there could be fixed a standard of health, all
deviations from it might be called diseases; but a chief characteristic
of living bodies is not fixity, but variation by self-adjustment to a
wide range of varying circumstances, and among such self-adjustments it
is not practicable to make a line separating those which may reasonably
be called healthy from those which may as reasonably be called disease.”
To this occult science answers that _such a standard of health exists
for us as soon as we recognise the unity and supremacy of the law; that
the results of obedience to the law are harmony and health, and the
results of disobedience are called discords or disease_.
Shakespeare says:—
“The heavens themselves, the planets and this centre
Observe degree, priority and place,
Insisture, course, proportion, season, form,
Office, and custom, in all line of order.”
—(_Troilus and Cressida_, i. 3.)
If we regard the order, which “is Heaven’s first law,” as the creation
of the self-adjustment of accidentally arising circumstances, leaving
out of consideration the fundamental Unity of the All and its one
purpose, we would then probably find various laws of order in the
universe, being essentially different from each other; and it would be
difficult to know which of these laws it would be best to follow; but
if we recognise in the order that rules all things a manifestation of
one eternal law of order and harmony, the function of Supreme Wisdom
acting in nature but not being the product of nature, it will remain
for us only to know that supreme Law and obey it. The universe is only
one, and is ruled by only one source of all laws; but there are many
unities within the constitution of this great Unity; they constitute
as many selves within Self, whose separate interests are not identical
with that of the whole, and therefore the order obeyed by these
temporary selves is not the same as that of the eternal whole. Thus the
battle for existence, far from being the cause of the order observable
in the world, is in fact the cause of the disorder existing therein.
If man, like his divine prototype, were a perfect unity, a
manifestation of will and thought identified and one, there would be
only one law to obey: the law of his divine nature; he would be forever
in harmony with himself; there would be no disharmonious elements
in his nature, seeking to create an order of their own, and thereby
causing discords and disease; but man is a compound being, there are
many elements in his nature, each representing to a certain extent an
independent form of will, and the more one of these modifications of
will succeeds in departing from the order that constitutes the whole,
and to enact, be it intelligently or instinctively, a will of its own,
the greater will be the disharmony which it causes within the whole
organism and the greater will be the disease.[1] “A house divided
against itself will fall.” _Disease is the disharmony which follows
the disobedience to the law; the restoration consists in restoring the
harmony by a return to obedience to the law of order which governs the
whole._
The key to the cure of diseases is therefore in the understanding of
the fundamental law which governs the nature of man, and for this
purpose it is necessary that a rational system of medicine should know
the constitution of man; not only that of his physical body, which is
merely the lower part of the house wherein he dwells; but the whole
physical, astral and mental constitution of that being called “Man,”
which is still the greatest mystery to science, and of which little
more than the anatomy, the physiological functions and the chemical
composition of the material organs and substances composing his
corporeal form is either known to or taught by our modern academies.
Great progress has been made by modern science in investigating all
the minor details of the shell which man occupies during his life upon
this planet; but as regards the inhabitant of that house, the inner
man, who is neither wholly material nor wholly spiritual, the ancient
sages knew more about his true nature than is ever dreamed of in our
medical schools, and it will be undoubtedly worth while to examine
their views. Moreover, if the outward body of man is, as they teach,
only the outward expression of the qualities and functions of a more
interior and invisible human organism; then it appears that many bodily
diseases, such as are not caused by direct physical injuries, are the
results of disorders existing within that inner organism, and as every
true physician should seek to know the causes of diseases, and not
merely destroy their external effects, such a knowledge of the “causal
body” of man, whose visible image is his “phenomenal form,” may open a
new field for pathology and therapeutics, from which a rich harvest may
be gathered for the benefit of mankind.
I.
THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN.
From times immemorial the sages have taught that we shall never know
immortal truth, if we do not discover it within our own selves.
Experience has long ago corroborated this theory, for in spite of all
progress in scientific researches concerning the nature of Man, and
which were carried on by means of researches in the external kingdom
of nature, the real constitution of Man and that which constitutes
his essential being has not yet been discovered. We know that from
the ovum the fœtus, from the fœtus the child, from the child the body
of man becomes developed; we know the order in which these processes
take place; but we seem to know nothing about the powers that produce
them. Such an alchemical trick of nature as to make a man grow out
of a cell in which no man is contained would seem absurd, incredible
and miraculous, and would be believed by nobody, if it were not a
well-known fact, and being of daily occurrence it has ceased to appear
surprising, so that it appears now strange if anyone wonders how such a
thing is possible.
_Horne_ says: “By a silent, unseen, mysterious process, the fairest
flower of the garden springs from a small insignificant seed.” A
similar mysterious process takes place in the evolution of the human
body. All these processes are evidently the effects of the action of a
cause adequate to produce them; to deny this would be identical with
affirming the self-evident absurdity, that something could grow out of
nothing, and the law of logic furthermore makes it clear that although
a physical cause can produce a physical effect, a living body can
only be produced by a living power, an intellectual organism by an
intelligent being. Whether or not the animal body of man has evoluted
from the lower animal kingdom, or whether certain animals are the
products of a perversion and degradation of the nature of man, does not
concern us at present. What we know is, that no life and intelligence
can become manifest in a form unless these powers are contained
therein, and we also know that life cannot be created by death nor can
intelligence be created by that which has no intelligence.
But if popular science confessedly knows nothing about the origin of
the manifestation of life, nothing about what is vaguely termed “soul,”
nothing about the nature and origin of the mind (whose functions
are required for the purpose of enabling the brain to investigate
such things) nothing about the spirit and nothing about the higher
constitution of man, whose external expression and symbol is his
physical body; it will not be inappropriate to apply to other sources
for information and hear what the ancient sages taught concerning the
principles that go to make up the constitution of man. _The first
requisite of a rational and perfect system of a medicine is a thorough
knowledge of the whole constitution of man; of the whole, and not
merely of a part of his nature._
The ancient Indian sages compared man to a lotus flower, whose home is
the water (the world), whose roots draw their nutriment from the earth
(material nature), while it raises its head to the light (the spiritual
kingdom), from which it receives the power to unfold the powers latent
in its constitution.
A great deal has already been said in Theosophical literature about the
sevenfold constitution of man: but for the sake of completeness we will
delineate it again.
1. _Rupa._ The physical body, the vehicle of all the other “principles”
during life.
2. _Prana._ Life or vital principle.
3. _Linga Sharira._ The astral body. The ethereal image or counterpart
of the physical body, the “phantom body.”
4. _Kama rupa._ The animal soul. The seat of animal desires and
passions. In this principle is centred the life of the animal and
mortal man.
5. _Manas._ Mind. Intelligence. The connecting link between the mortal
and immortal man.
6. _Buddhi._ The spiritual soul. The vehicle of pure universal spirit.
7. _Atma._ Spirit. The radiation of the Absolute. (For further
explanation see: H. P. Blavatsky, “Key to Theosophy.”)
_Goethe_ says: “A word comes in very conveniently when a conception
is absent.” In our material age the very meaning of terms signifying
spiritual powers and conditions has become lost and perverted; “God”
is supposed to mean an unnatural supernatural being outside of Nature;
“Faith” has become credulity and belief in the opinions of others;
“Hope” has become personal greed; “Love” is supposed to be selfish
desire, etc., etc. It is therefore not surprising if the above terms
are incomprehensible to many or misinterpreted by them, for they all
represent certain states of consciousness, and no one can know a state
of consciousness which he has never experienced. Therein is contained
the mystery.
The philosophers of the middle ages symbolised these seven principles
by the signs of seven “planets” from which seven cosmic bodies visible
in the sky received their names; and if this is understood, it will at
once become clear that those who deny the sevenfold division of the
planets, only expose their own ignorance and misconceptions. No one can
really criticise that which he does not understand; but self-conceit
imagines itself to be superior to everything, and thinks itself wiser
than all the sages; forgetting that Shakespeare says: “_The fool thinks
he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool._” (_As You
Like It_, V., i.)
The ancients based their science of medicine upon the recognition of
a universal, eternal, self-existent, self-conscious cause, the source
of universal life, where popular modern medicine recognises only
the outcome of a blind force. The secret medicine of the ancients
was therefore a religious[2] science, while modern popular medicine
recognises no religious element and therefore no real truth. To
separate science from religious truth is to put it upon an irrational
basis; for “religion” means the relation which man bears to his divine
origin. To leave out of sight the source from which he originated is
to ignore his true nature and to relegate medicine to the realm of
the lowest plane of his existence; namely, that of his most gross and
material form. This is exactly the position which modern medicine
occupies at present, and there is nothing that can elevate it higher
than a recognition of the higher nature in man, and a re-discovery of
divine truth. Such a higher knowledge was formerly considered necessary
for the purpose of constituting a real physician, and for this reason
the practice of medicine was in the hands of those who were born
physicians, sages and saints by the power of the true grace of God,
while among popular practitioners there are, now as then, many dunces
and rascals, having neither spirituality nor morality; for what the
modern physician of the materialistic school requires for his success
is a certain amount of memorizing of the contents of his books, so as
to enable him to pass his examination, and a talent to profit by the
credulity of the people.
When the ancients spoke of “seven planets,” they referred to seven
spiritual but nevertheless substantial states, of which popular
science knows nothing but their external manifestation in the realm
of phenomena. It has truly been said that no one ever saw even the
_earth_; that which we see is merely a manifestation or appearance
of a spiritual principle called “earth” {symbol} The real essence of
“matter” is beyond the conception of the terrestrial mind.
Seen from this point of view, the “seven planets” in the constitution
of man as well as in the constitution of nature as a whole, represent
the following elements, powers, essences, or forms of existence:—
I. {symbol} _Saturn_ (_Prakriti_). Matter; the substance and material element
in all things in all the three kingdoms of nature (the physical, astral
and spiritual plane). It is invisible and known only by means of its
manifestation. It is that which gives fixity and solidity, it is
substantiality itself.
II. {symbol} _Luna_, “the Moon” (_Linga_). The “ethereal or astral” body
of man; the kingdom of dreams, fancies, illusions, in which exists
only the reflection of the true life and light of the sun; it also
represents intellectual speculation without wisdom (recognition of
truth), and the forms belonging to that kingdom are as changeable as
are the opinions of men.
III. {symbol} _Sol_, “the Sun” (_Prana_). Life on the physical and spiritual
plane (_Jiva_). The centre of the planetary system.[3] It is that which
produces the manifestations or activity of life upon every plane of
existence.
{symbol} _Mars_ (_Kama_). The passional, emotional, animal element
in man and in nature; the seat of desire and self-will; that which
becomes manifest as greed, envy, anger, lust and selfishness in all its
forms; but which is also a source of strength. There are many diseases
caused by the excessive or irregular action of powers belonging to this
kingdom; when by combining with {symbol} they become of a terrestrial
nature.
{symbol} _Mercury_ (_Manas_). The Mind; the principle of intelligence
manifesting itself as intellectual power in the kingdom of mind;
giving in its combination with {symbol} rise to earthly thoughts, but
in combination with {symbol} constituting spiritual
knowledge.
{symbol} _Jupiter_ (_Buddhi_). The principle which manifests itself as
spiritual power, be it for good or for evil. Reason, intuition, faith,
firmness, recognition of truth.
{symbol} _Venus_ (_Atma_). The principle which in its
purity manifests itself as universal divine love, it being identical
with divine self-knowledge. If united with {symbol} (intelligence) it
constitutes wisdom. Acting within the animal plane it produces animal
instincts, and upon the physical plane it causes the attractions of
opposite polarities, chemical affinities, &c., &c.
All this is said merely to indicate the key to this kind of science;
for the combinations in which these principles may enter, and the
modifications of their manifestations under different conditions are
almost innumerable; neither can this spiritual science be taught to a
mind (_Manas_) unillumined by the light of the higher understanding
(_Buddhi_). The practical study and application of anything requires
first of all the possession of the object, and if this is true in
regard to physical objects, it is no less true in regard to spiritual
principles, whose nature can only be known when their presence is
realised within one’s own consciousness. The higher aspects of all of
these powers belong to the higher nature of man, and he who desires to
know and apply these laws in the practice of medicine, must first of
all seek to develop his own higher nature by freeing himself from the
elements that govern his lower nature; in other words, he must enter
from the animal-human into the human-divine state, to which the true
physician belongs.
One of such adept-physicians was _Theophrastus Paracelsus_, the
great reformer of medicine of the sixteenth century, who is properly
regarded as the father of modern medicine, although his successors
are still far from realising the truths which he taught, and will, on
the whole, perhaps not grow up to an understanding of his doctrines
for centuries to come.[4] He was far in advance not only of the
science of his days, but also of that of our present days; for
although he may have known less than we do in regard to the phenomenal
appearances of the manifestations of life on this planet, he knew a
great deal more than our modern science in regard to the causes of
these manifestations and in regard to the _inner_ nature of things.
He was and still is ridiculed and belittled by those who were and
are not capable of understanding him; but he proved the truth of his
theories by performing cures which even modern medicine with all
its new acquisitions cannot perform.[5] He was the first to abolish
a system of unmitigated quackery, based upon mere empiricism, the
remnants of which exist even to-day. He was hated and persecuted by the
quacks and pretenders of those times, who did a lucrative business,
thriving upon the ignorance of the public, as some are doing to-day,
and the vilifications and calumnies thrown out against him by such
still inspire the opinions of many in regard to his person, although
we may safely believe that few of his critics have ever read his
books and still fewer have understood them. Numerous biographies have
been written about him and his personal habits, and it seems that the
majority of his critics have been able to comprehend that when he
died he left a pair of leather pantaloons to his heirs; but as to
his philosophy, this is a _terra incognita_, which surpasses their
understanding; neither could such a knowledge of the secret sciences be
expected from anybody knowing nothing about the fundamental principles
in the constitution of man.
Whether Paracelsus obtained his knowledge in the East, as has been
claimed, or whether it was revealed to him by his own perception of
truth, does not concern us; but there can be no doubt that he knew that
sevenfold classification, for we find him speaking of the following
seven aspects of man:—
1. _The Corpus_, or the elementary body of man. (_Limbus._)
2. _The Mumia_, or the ethereal body; the vehicle of life. (_Evestrum._)
3. _The Archæus._ The essence of life. _Spiritus Mundi_ in Nature and
_Spiritus Vitae_ in man.
4. _The Sidereal body_; made up of the influences of the “stars.”
5. _Adech._ The inner man or the thought-body, made of the flesh of
Adam.
6. _Aluech._ The spiritual body, made of the flesh of Christ; also
called “the man of the new Olympus.”
7. _Spiritus._ The universal Spirit.
There is hardly a page in the philosophical writings of Paracelsus
which does not refer to the twofold nature of man, his terrestrial and
celestial aspect, and of the necessity of the development of his higher
nature and superior (spiritual) understanding.
“Above all, we must pay attention to the fact that there are two kinds
of spirit in man. (One originating in nature, the other coming from
heaven.) Man ought to be a human being according to the spirit of
(divine) life and not according to the (terrestrial) spirit of the
_Limbus_. It is a truth that (the heavenly) man is an image of God,
having in him a divine spirit (life). In all other respects he is an
animal, having as such an animal spirit. These two are opposed to each
other, but one of the two is bound to succumb. Man is destined to be
a human being and not an animal, and if he is to be a human being, he
must live within the spirit of (immortal) life and do away with the
animal spirit.” (“Philosophia Occulta,” Lib. I., Prologue.)
The mysteries of the inner temple of nature are not accessible to the
vulgar and the profane, because every being can realise only that which
corresponds to its own nature. To penetrate into the realm of truth a
true soul is required; an animal can realise only the animal side of
existence.
One well known medical authority on a recent occasion said:
“Paracelsus, who pronounced the anatomy of the dead body to be
useless,[6] and sought for the basis of life (_immortality_) as the
highest goal of knowledge, demanded ‘contemplation’ (_spiritual_)
before all else, and just as he himself arrived in this way at the
metaphysical construction of the _Archaeus_, so he unchained among his
followers a wild and absolutely fruitless mysticism.”[7]
For this unchaining of mysticism, not Paracelsus is to blame, but the
incapacity of his followers, whose animal minds were not capable of
becoming illumined by the spirit of truth. Whenever the terrestrial
mind seeks to grasp the spirit of wisdom, and being unable to rise to
the perception of divine truth to drag it down to its own level, a wild
and absolutely fruitless and foolish mysticism will be the result. With
the same right we may say that the doctrines of Christ filled the world
with superstition, causing the crimes of the crusades, the horrors of
the inquisition, and sectarian intolerance. It is not the fault of the
truth if it is misunderstood.
The vast majority of mankind seek for knowledge for the purpose
of deriving from its possession some personal benefit; be it the
acquisition of wealth or luxury, the gratification of ambition,
the desire to parade before the world as a being in possession of
something great, or for the purpose of satisfying a laudable scientific
curiosity. But the acquisition of medical wisdom requires a love of
the truth, and love means self-sacrifice. The acquisition of wisdom is
therefore possible only if the illusive self with all its desires is
sacrificed to it. The way to wisdom can be shown; but wisdom can only
be taught by wisdom itself; he who loves the realm of illusions cannot
see its true light. How many of the would-be followers of Jesus of
Nazareth have become Christs, and who can understand the profundity of
his thoughts and exercise his divine powers, but he who has become like
him? None of the would-be followers of Paracelsus have grown to be like
this master, none of the representatives of modern medical science have
penetrated deeply into his wisdom.
Popular medical science, being based upon the objective observation of
phenomena, knows more about the realm of visible nature (Maya) than
was known at the time of Paracelsus; but the reason why this popular
medical science, in spite of the aids which it received from chemistry
and physiology, is still incapable of performing the cures which were
performed by Paracelsus, is because its followers only speculate and
draw inferences, while they do not cultivate that spiritual power
of soul knowledge which is called “interior contemplation,”[8] but
which Paracelsus called the _Faith_; a faculty which is at present so
entirely unknown that even an explanation of the meaning of this term
is exceedingly difficult. It is a power which belongs neither to the
physical, nor to the animal, nor to the intellectual nature in man, but
to the spiritual man (Atma-Buddhi-Manas); to that higher part of his
being, which in the vast majority of mankind, however intellectual they
may be, has not yet awakened into life, but is still latent, buried in
the tomb of materiality into which the light of divine truth cannot
penetrate.
“What are ye men in your own powers but nothing? If you wish to obtain
strength take it from faith. If you have faith as big as a mustard
seed, you will be as strong as the spirits, and although you now
appear as men, your faith will make your strength and power equal to
the spirits such as were also in Samson. For by means of our faith we
become spirits ourselves, and whatever we accomplish that surpasses
our (terrestrial) nature is done by the power of faith acting through
us as a spirit and transforming us into spirits.” (“De Origin, Morb.
Invisib.” Introduction.)
Man, even if he obtains occasionally a glimpse of divine truth, is
only too prone to forget it again at the next moment, as the action of
his terrestrial mind is stronger in him than that of his spirit, and
it seems therefore necessary to be reminded over and over again that
the faith of which Paracelsus speaks is not the illusory faith of the
brain, the product of speculation, but a power belonging to those few
living spirits walking within this sleeping world. As physical powers
belong to the physical and terrestrial man, so spiritual powers belong
to the spiritual man who must be born before he can know and exercise
these powers. As yet there appear to be few even among our eminent
scientists and successful practitioners who have become regenerated in
the spirit of truth and filled with the light of divine wisdom, and
if there are any such, we would ask all the students of medicine to
follow their example and by learning the great art of self-control to
become masters over their own nature and over the nature of others.
Humanity is only one, and the realization of this truth will open a new
field for the science of medicine in the future. That part of us which
lives within the heart of others is our own truest and “most profound
Self.”[9] If this self, which lives in the hearts of others, has
awakened to its own consciousness, it will realize its own universal
existence and its own power to act within those in whom it lives.
Thus the physician, having become self-conscious of his own higher
nature, will become a saviour for all the rest of mankind, not only
in regard to their moral evils, but also in regard to their physical
ills; for the spirit and soul and body of man do not live separately;
they are one organic whole, as is the body of humanity, even though the
personalities constituting that body are separated from each other by
the illusion of form.
II.
THE FOUR PILLARS OF MEDICINE.
The pillars upon which the practice of modern medicine rests, are:—
1. _A knowledge of the physical body of man_, the arrangements of
its organs (anatomy), their physiological functions (physiology) and
the visible changes which take place in them when a disease becomes
manifest (pathology).
2. _A certain amount of acquaintance with physical science_, chemistry,
botany, mineralogy, etc., in fact with all that embodies a knowledge of
the outward relations which the things in this phenomenal world bear to
each other and to the body of man, (therapeutics).
3. A certain amount of acquaintance with _the views and opinions of
modern accepted medical authorities_, however erroneous they may be.
4. A certain amount of _judgment and aptitude_ to put the acquired
theories into practice.
All this is very well as far as it goes; but it may be seen at once
that all the knowledge required of a modern practitioner refers only
to the external plane of existence; the animal body of man and its
physical surroundings. As to a science of “psychology,” to call that
which goes by that name as such at present, is a misnomer; for there
can be no science of the soul as long as the existence of a soul
(_pysche_) is not recognized.[10] The invisible, spiritual or causal
body within the nature of man is entirely ignored by science, and even
if any modern physician personally believes in a soul, he will almost
without exception consider this subject as belonging exclusively to the
Church, and as something with which science has nothing to do.
Nevertheless, if the term “religion” means the knowledge of the
relation which the outward terrestrial man bears to the creative
power in him, his own inner Self, which is the seat of not only his
spiritual but also the indirect source of his physical life; it would
seem that a knowledge of that religion which teaches the nature of
this true inner and immortal being, and also the links which connect
that higher nature with the physical form, would be an indispensable
and most important part of a true science and system of medicine based
upon the recognition of truth; and although theory precedes practice,
this knowledge should not be merely of that theoretical kind which is
only imaginary and not real, and which in persons who are attempting
to grasp things which they are not able to realise produces a wild and
absolutely fruitless mysticism; but it should be of that kind which
through experience constitutes self-knowledge, and which is possible
only through the realization of the possession of the ideals one wishes
to know.
According to Theophrastus Paracelsus the following are the four pillars
of medicine:—
I.—PHILOSOPHIA.
The term “Philosophy” comes from _phileo_, to love, and _sophia_,
wisdom, and its true meaning is the love of wisdom and the knowledge
resulting therefrom; for love itself is knowledge; it is the
recognition of self in another form; the love of wisdom is the
recognition by wisdom in man of the same principle of wisdom that is
manifested in Nature, and from this recognition springs the realisation
of the knowledge of truth. True philosophy is therefore not that thing
which at present goes by that name, which consists in wild speculations
about the mysteries of Nature for the purpose of gratifying scientific
curiosity; a system in which there is a great deal of self-love but
very little love of the truth, and whose followers, by means of logic
and argument, inferences, theories, postulates, hypotheses, inductions
and deductions seek, so to say, to break through the back windows in
the temple of truth, or to peep through the keyhole for the purpose
of seeing the goddess unveiled. This speculative philosophy does not
constitute real knowledge. It constitutes that artificial building of
philosophy and so-called science, founded upon arguments and opinions,
which change their aspect in every century, and of which Paracelsus
said that “the things which are looked upon by one generation as the
apex of human knowledge are found to be an absurdity by the next, and
that which is regarded as a superstition in one century forms the basis
of science of the following one.” All information gained by means whose
basis is not a love of truth does not constitute immortal knowledge or
true theosophy; but serves only for temporal purposes and as ornaments
for egotism, springing as it does from the love of the illusion of self
and having illusions for its object.
The whole of nature is a manifestation of truth; but it requires the
eye of wisdom to see the truth and not merely its delusive appearance.
The philosophy of which Paracelsus speaks consists in the power of
recognizing the truth in all things independent of any books or
authorities, all of which can only serve to show us the way to avoid
errors and how to remove the obstacles in our path; but which cannot
make us realise that which we do not realise in ourselves. He who is
not labouring under a load of misconceptions and erroneous teachings,
requires no other book than the book of nature to teach him the truth.
There are few who can read the book of nature in the light of nature;
because having had their minds filled with perverted images and
false views, they have themselves become unnatural, and the light of
nature cannot penetrate into their souls; living in the false light
of the moonshine of speculation and sophistry, they have lost their
receptivity for the light of the truth. Such philosophers live in
illusions and dreams but do not know that which is real:
“There is upon this earth nothing more noble and more capable of
giving perfect happiness than a true knowledge of nature and its
foundation. Such a knowledge produces a valuable physician, but it
should be a part of his constitution and not an artificial fabric
attached to him like a coat; he must himself be born out of the
fountain of that philosophy which cannot be acquired by artificial
means.” (See: “De Generatione hominum,” I. Preface.)
A knowledge based upon the opinion or experience of another is merely
a belief, but does not constitute real knowledge. Books and lectures
may serve to give us advice, but they cannot endow us with the power
of knowing the truth; they may serve us as useful guides, but a belief
in the statements of others should not be mistaken for self-knowledge,
such as arises only from the self-recognition of truth, and which by
means of a love of the truth ought to be cultivated above all else.
To this realm of Philosophy belong all the natural sciences referring
to external phenomena, in the knowledge of which a great deal of
progress seems to have been made since the time of Paracelsus. To this
phenomenal science belongs the anatomy, physiology, the chemistry of
the physical body and all that concerns the interrelations of the
phenomena existing in the grand phantasmagoria of living and corporeal
images called the sensual world. But behind this sensual world there
is a more interior super-sensual world, ignored by popular science,
of which the former is the external expression; the processes taking
place in this interior light of nature, mirror themselves in the light
of the external world, and those souls whose inner perceptions have
become developed in consequence of an awakening of the “inner man,”
do not require the observation of external phenomena for the purpose
of drawing inferences in regard to their internal causes, because
they know the interior causes and processes and also the external
appearances which they will produce. Thus there is an external and
an internal medical science, a science concerning the astral and a
science concerning the physical body of man. The former occupies itself
with the patient, the latter, so to say, with the clothes which he
wears.
To render this still more plain, let us illustrate it by an example.
Let us imagine a magic lantern capable of projecting living and
corporeal images upon a living screen. External science occupies itself
only with these images, the relations which they bear to each other and
the changes taking place between them; but it knows nothing about the
slides in the lantern upon which are the types of these visible images,
and it entirely ignores the light which causes their projection upon
that screen; but he who sees the slides with its pictures and knows
the source of the light which produces these shadow pictures does not
need to study the shadows for the purposes of drawing inferences and
speculating in regard to their causes. Thus there is a superficial
science which is at present the object of pride of the world, and a
secret science of which next to nothing is publicly known, but which is
known to the wise and revealed by one’s own perception of truth.[11]
Truths must be perceived before they can be intellectually grasped,
and therefore this greater and higher science cannot be learned in
books, nor be taught in lectures at college, it is the result of a
development of man’s higher perception, belonging to his higher nature,
and characterises the born physician. Without this superior faculty,
known in its initial stage as the power of “intuition,” a medical
practitioner can find occupation only in the outer yard of the temple,
picking up useful grains among the rubbish; but he cannot enter the
temple in which nature herself teaches her divine mysteries. The minute
details of this rubbish have been studied by modern popular science,
whose attention has been so much absorbed thereby that the temple of
truth itself has been forgotten and the nature of Life has become a
mystery to those who only study its external manifestations.
It will hardly be necessary to say that the above is not intended to
discourage the study of phenomena; for those who have not the power of
reaching higher will gain nothing by remaining ignorant of external
appearances; but it is intended to show that a science referring merely
to the phenomena of terrestrial life and ultimate results is not the
summit of all possible knowledge; for beyond the realm of visible
phenomena there is a far more extensive realm open to all who are
capable of entering: the realm of truth, of which only the inverted
images are seen in the kingdom of external phenomena.
The natural science of the ancient mystics, owing to their deeper
penetration into the so-called supersensual realm, was not limited to
the world which we see with our bodily eyes; for they recognised four
worlds or planes of existence within each other, each of them having
its own forms of life and inhabitants, namely:—
(_a._) _The physical visible world_, being only the reflection of the
three higher ones.
(_b._) _The astral world_, or the psychic realm.
(_c._) _The world of mind_, or the spiritual realm.
(_d._) _The divine state_, the kingdom of God, or the celestial world.
As we perceive the existence of a mineral, vegetable and animal kingdom
upon the sensual plane,[12] so they, by the faculty of the developed
inner sight perceived and described within this world four kingdoms,
or four spiritual, and to us invisible, states of existence, which in
their outward manifestation are called: _Earth_, _Water_, _Fire_, _Air_.
“We will show you that we are not the only intelligent beings
possessing the world, but that our possessions extend over only
one-fourth of it. Not that this world were three times greater than
we know it to be; but there are in it still three-fourth parts which
we do not occupy, and their inhabitants are not inferior to us in
intelligence; the only thing of which we may be proud, is that Christ
(the light of divine wisdom) has taken his habitation in us and
clothed himself in our form, as he might have chosen another nation
(another class of Elementals) for that purpose.” (_Paracelsus_, “Of
the generation of conscious beings in the universal mind,” I. Preface)
All this, however, does not strictly belong to the present purpose
of this work, and is merely mentioned so as to make room for the
conception that nature is far greater than the limits assigned to it by
material science, and that, as a certain philosopher said: “that which
is known is only like a grain of sand on the shore of the ocean of the
unknown.”
II. ASTRONOMIA.
“Astronomy” means the knowledge of the stars, and to the conception
of the modern mind it is the science of “celestial bodies,” such as
are seen at night on the sky; but to the ancient philosophers all
visible things were the symbols and representations of invisible
powers, thoughts and ideas, and the expression “Astronomy,” as used by
Paracelsus, is, therefore, something quite different from the science
of the star-gazers, and refers to the various states of the mind
existing in the macrocosm of nature as well as in the microcosm of man.
“The very word “celestial” or “heavenly,” refers to something superior
to our grossly material nature, and an idea of what are the “stars”
with which ancient astronomy and astrology deal, may be formed by
studying the signification of the planets referred to in the previous
chapter on the Constitution of Man.
The Astronomy of Paracelsus, therefore, does not deal with corporeal,
material, visible, cosmic bodies; but with _virtutes_ (virtues) or
powers and _semina_ (germs), or essences, all of which are spiritual
and substantial; because a power without substance is inconceivable;
“power and substance,” “matter and force” being convertible terms,
states of one unity, divided only in our conception of the modes of
its manifestation. A “star”, in fact, means a _state_, and a “fixed
star” a fixed state of a power in nature; or as it is called in
Sanscrit, a _Tattwa_, which means a state of _That_ or Being, and as
all Being is a manifestation of Life or Consciousness, the “stars” are
certain states of that universal Life or All-consciousness, in other
words, states of the _Mind_.
“You should know that the constellations of the planets and stars on
the sky, with all the firmament, do not cause the growth of our body,
our colour, appearance, or behaviour; and have nothing to do with
our virtues and qualities. Such an idea is ridiculous; the motion of
Saturn interferes with nobody’s life, and makes it neither longer nor
shorter, and, even if there had never been a planet called “Saturn” on
the sky, there would be people born having saturnine natures. For all
that the planet Mars is of a fiery nature, Nero was not its child, and
although they are of the same nature (the same kind of energy being
manifested in either of them) neither one of them received it from the
other.” (“De Ente Astrorum,” _Paramirum_ C. I. 2.)
Perhaps it will not be out of place, for the purpose of facilitating a
comprehension of what Paracelsus meant by the term “Astronomy,” to take
a glance at the Indian teaching in regard to the _Tattwas_.
According to these doctrines, the Universe is a manifestation of _That_
(existence or being), manifesting itself as Life (_Prana_) within
the universal _Akâsa_ (primordial matter, which, for all practical
purposes, may be regarded as the “cosmic ether” of space). Prana
manifests itself upon the various planes of existence in various
_Tattwas_ or forms of existence, corresponding to the principles in the
constitution of man enumerated above. Of these seven Tattwas five are
manifested, corresponding to the five senses of the human body, and
they are called as follows:—[13]
1. _Akasa Tattwa_; the _one_ element forming the substantial basis of
the other four, and corresponding to that which upon the physical plane
becomes ultimately manifested as audible sound.
2. _Vayou Tattwa_; representing the principle which renders possible
the sensation of feeling or “touch,” upon all planes of existence.
3. _Taijas Tattwa_; that form of existence which represents that state
which manifests itself upon all planes as Light.
4. _Apas Tattwa_; that principle which renders possible the sensation
of taste upon all planes of existence.
5. _Prithivi Tattwa_; that principle which renders possible the
sensation of smell upon all planes of existence.
Words are altogether insufficient to give an idea on which to form a
conception of things which are beyond our intellectual comprehension
as long as they do not live in our own consciousness; but we may look
upon the seven _Tattwas_ as represented by seven modes of vibrations of
a cosmic ether, differing from each other not only quantitatively, but
qualitatively, so that, for instance, _Akasa Tattwa_ has a circular,
_Vayou Tattwa_ a spiral movement, etc.; but such a conception is quite
inadequate, as we have to do with living forces, with states of the
universal life or consciousness, manifesting themselves not only as
the causes of the five modes of perception on the physical plane, but
also upon the higher planes; enabling man, for instance, not only to
feel the touch of an object upon the physical plane, but to feel with
his astral sense the presence of an object upon the astral plane, and
in his heart the touch of a spiritual power; to see not only physical
light with the eyes of his body, but things in the astral light with
his astral organs of seeing; to see intellectual truths and ideas with
the eye of his intellect in the light of his intellect, and spiritual
things with the eye of the spirit. In fact, everything that exists is
a manifestation of _Tattwas_, or “vibrations of ether;” stationary
in its aspect as “matter,” progressive in its aspect as “force;”
matter is latent energy, force is active substance;[14] everything is
life, consciousness, intelligence, dormant or active according to the
conditions existing upon the plane upon which it becomes manifest;
every substance is mind, and the forms which we see are only the
symbols of the thoughts represented therein.
It is not our purpose within the narrow limits of this work to enter
into a deeper investigation of this most interesting, sublime, and
elevating science, which has been discussed at length in H. P.
Blavatsky’s “Secret Doctrine”; we merely touch upon these points for
the purpose of calling attention to it, as it represents an aspect
and conception of nature immeasurably higher than the one represented
by popular science, and therefore attainable only to those whose
aspirations reach beyond this grossly material plane.
The “Secret Doctrine” informs us that in the course of evolution,
this our planet has only attained its _Kâmarupa_ or animal form of
existence, and that the next higher state of _Manas_ (mind) has hardly
begun to become developed. This may be the reason why the science of
mind is at present in its infancy, and grasped only by those gifted
spirits who, like Paracelsus and others of his kind, by nobility of
character and spirituality have outstripped the rest of mankind in
higher knowledge; forming, so to say, the vanguard of the army, as it
proceeds into the regions of the—not absolutely unknowable—but the
_unknown_.
Modern astronomy teaches the science of the bodies of the planets and
stars; the Astronomy of Paracelsus speaks of the spiritual forces
represented by those planets, the counterparts of which exist in
the constitution of man and as every force in nature acts upon its
corresponding element in the nature of man, these universal forces
produce certain effects upon those elements in man which exist upon the
corresponding plane. Thus for instance it requires no argument to prove
that the sun is the source of heat and light and life upon this planet,
and that the physical body of man as well as that of the earth receives
these energies from the radiations coming from the physical body of
the sun; this being the corporeal visible centre of a power existing
universally, and whose sphere of activity reaches as far as the limits
of our solar system. We all live and have our being physically within
the sphere of activity and consequently within the physical elements
of the sun; in a similar sense we live and have our being spiritually
in the spiritual body and substance of Love, and as the sun of the
physical world shines upon our body; so the light of divine wisdom is
all around us and ready to penetrate into our soul. Thus Paracelsus
teaches that the moon corresponds to the astral body of man, and has
certain effects upon it, causing certain states which may ultimately
become outwardly manifested as certain moral or physical diseases, and
similar correspondencies might be shown to exist between the universal
powers represented by the visible planets and the corresponding
elements existing in the constitution of man; but however important and
interesting this subject may be it finds very little attention on the
part of popular medical science, which is far too busy in investigating
outward effects of a phenomenal character to find time for attending to
that which produces all such phenomena and appearances.[15]
If the Astronomy of Paracelsus were understood, it would be found that
man, far from creating his own thoughts, merely remodels the ideas
that flow into his mind; that “thought-transference,” far from being a
strange and rare occurrence, is as common as the transference of heat;
that owing to the oneness of humanity we all feel and think within
each other and act out each other’s thoughts. We would know better
the real causes of crimes, insanity and disease, and find them to be
controvertible terms. We might then perhaps also modify our views
regarding the supposed free will and the amount of responsibility of
man, and know that the power of will is not a myth, and witchcraft and
sorcery no more impossible than the magic action of true love.
III.—ALCHEMY.
Not being masters of Alchemy, we are not capable of teaching the
science of this pillar of medicine; neither could any information in
regard to the way in which certain mysterious powers are used be of
any service to those who, not having developed these powers, are not
in possession of them. The following remarks are therefore rather
intended to show what Alchemy is _not_, than to show what it is; for
like every term symbolising a spiritual truth, which ever fell into the
hands of the vulgar, so this term has been “besmirched with mud and
prostituted openly in the market place,”[16] so as to be now almost
beyond recognition.
The ancient alchemists used a mysterious language when speaking about
mysterious things, nor could any modern alchemist express in plain
language things for which our language has no words and common minds no
conception. Children often speak more wisely than they know, sages know
what they speak, but the half learned speak without knowing. The child
receiving gifts from its parents on Christmas eve believes that the
Christ has sent these presents, but the grown-up and clever boy becomes
sceptical and laughs at that story. In that opinion he may now continue
all his life, or he may become still more clever and find that the
Christ is divine love, from which the love of his parents originated,
inducing them to bestow gifts, and that the story which he believed
when a child, was true after all. In the same sense Alchemy is either a
truth or a superstition; it merely depends on the definition we give to
this term.
Professor Justus von Liebig says: “Alchemy was never anything different
from Chemistry,” and to this we agree in so far as both deal with
substantial things, having certain affinities, and not with anything
existing outside of nature; but while ordinary (physical) chemistry
employs merely physical (mechanical) forces for the purpose of
composing and decomposing material substances without causing anything
new to grow, Alchemy employs the power of life and uses animated
forces, establishing conditions under which something visible may
grow from something invisible, in the same sense as a tree grows from
a seed in the alchemical laboratory of nature. Chemistry and Alchemy
are therefore two aspects of one and the same science, the one is the
lower, the other the higher part. The chemist who decomposes salt
into NA and CL, and recombines it into NACL, practises chemistry; the
gardener establishing in his hot house the conditions under which the
seed of a plant of a lower type is made to develop into a plant of a
higher type, and the schoolmaster who makes an intelligent being out
of a dunce, are practicing Alchemy, because they produce something
more noble than the materials employed, out of the latent potencies
contained therein.
Without the alchemy of nature no “physiological chemistry” could take
place; without the action of a universally existing life principle, no
human form could grow out of an ovum or fœtus, no child develop into a
man. The human stomach is an alchemical laboratory in which miracles
are performed which no modern chemist can imitate by merely chemical
means; milk and bread are transformed into blood and flesh within the
living retort of the human body, and wonders performed which modern
chemistry in spite of its progress cannot accomplish, because it does
not control the organising power of life.
All that popular belief knows of ancient Alchemy is from the
misunderstood writings of the ancients, who purposely wrote in a manner
incomprehensible to the uninitiated, or from the writings of pretenders
and frauds—for at that time there were as many selfish and ignorant
people as there are to-day, wasting their time in useless efforts to
apply a spiritual science to material purposes, and seeking to employ
powers which they did not possess, in the hope of satisfying their
curiosity and their greed. Of this kind of “Alchemy,” Paracelsus speaks
with the greatest contempt.[17]
For the purpose of practising chemistry physical powers and scientific
acquisitions are required; for the purpose of practising alchemy
living spiritual powers and wisdom are necessary. Chemistry belongs
to the terrestrial man, _the higher aspect of Alchemy belongs to the
spiritually regenerated man having passed through the_ MYSTIC DEATH
_into the resurrection of the true and immortal life_.[18]
As there are three kingdoms in nature, intimately connected with each
other, the kingdom of physical nature, the kingdom of the soul of the
world (the astral plane), and the kingdom of the self-conscious spirit;
so there are three aspects of Alchemy, intimately connected with each
other, one belonging to the physical, the other to the astral, and the
highest to the spiritual aspect of man. H. P. Blavatsky says:
“_Everything which exists in the world around us is made up of three
principles (substances) and four aspects. (The triple synthesis of
the seven principles.) As Man is a complex unity, consisting of a
body, a rational soul and an immortal spirit, so each object in nature
possesses an objective exterior, a vital soul, and a divine spark
which is purely spiritual and subjective. Thus, as with all natural
objects, so every science has its three fundamental principles and may
be applied through all three or by the use of one of them._”[19]
These three states of existence in the universe were called by the
ancient alchemists the _Three Substances_, and symbolized as _Salt_,
_Sulphur_, and _Mercury_.
With the same right as the modern chemist symbolizes his chemical
substances by means of letters; such as _O_ for oxygen, _H_ for
hydrogen, _N_ for nitrogen, _C_ for carbogen,[20] etc., which symbols
are incomprehensible to those who do not know what they mean; the
ancient alchemists expressed the nature of spiritual essences, powers
and principles with which they dealt by certain alchemical signs,
such as {symbol} for _Salt_, or the substantial principle in all
things; {symbol} for _Sulphur_, or the energies contained therein;
and for {symbol} _Mercury_, or the principle of intelligence latent
in everything, whether manifested or not; but the living essences or
states in the universe which become manifested upon these three planes
they symbolized by the signs of the planets, as has already been
specified above. These principles are eternal; but their manifestations
differ according to the plane upon which they become manifest. Thus,
for instance, love is eternal, manifesting itself in the kingdom of
God as divine self-consciousness; upon the astral plane as affection,
desire and passion; upon the physical plane as gravitation, attraction,
chemical affinity, etc. The power is always the same; but its action
appears different under different conditions.
“Above all a physician should know that man exists in three
substances. That of which he is made has three aspects. Those three
make up the whole man, and they are the man himself and he is they,
and out of these three substances he receives all his good and evil
concerning his physical body. Thus each thing exists in these three
substances, and the three together constitute a body, and there
is nothing added to it but the life. If you can see these true
substances, you then have the eye by means of which a physician
ought to be able to see. To see the exterior only is in the power of
everybody; but to see within the interior and discover what is hidden,
is an art that belongs to the physician.” (“Paramirum,” _Lib._ I. s.b.)
Those who have thus far followed our line of reasoning will now be
ready to acknowledge that an understanding of this superior science,
the acquisition of whose knowledge requires a life-time spent by a
superior mind, and whose practice involves the evolution of superior
faculties, is not to be obtained by a few hours’ perusal of a book on
Alchemy, and that only those who are practical alchemists are entitled
to judge it. Alchemy, far from being an “exploded humbug,” is in fact
the noblest object for which all humanity and civilization strives.
It is the realization of the highest ideal, a feat which cannot be
accomplished by anything less than that ideal itself. H. P. Blavatsky
says:—
“_When there appeared on earth men endowed with a superior
intelligence, they allowed this supreme power (the divine spark) to
have full and uncontrolled action, and from it they learnt their first
lessons. All that they had to do was to imitate it. But in order to
reproduce the same effects by an effort of individual will, they were
obliged to develop in their human constitution a (creative) power
called_ KRIYASAKTI _in occult phraseology_.”
We should be extremely happy to make the acquaintance of a modern man
of science who obeys divine law to such an extent as to let the power
of God (the Holy Ghost) have full control over his thoughts, will, and
desires. Such a person without selfish desires, without ambition or
vanity, without any greed for money or fame, acting as an instrument of
divine love, would be a rare specimen of humanity; but unfortunately
such a saint and sage will hardly be found in our present generation;
for a thousand links tie the human animal to the region of his desires,
and how could he who is bound by a thousand chains to the _Moon_ employ
the energy of the _Sun_, whose influence he will not permit to enter
his nature, and which therefore cannot nourish his body and grow into
a power in him. Gold and silver may form an alloy; but they never
become identical with each other. Thus their spiritual representatives,
Divine Wisdom and the carnal intellect, will never be one and the
same, although the light of wisdom will throw its reflection upon the
terrestrial mind.
As stated before, there are three aspects of Alchemy:—
_Terrestrial Alchemy._ This in its lower aspect includes the whole
science of chemistry with all the discoveries that may be made in the
future. This alchemy still recognizes four _elements_[21], and the
fifth, the one element, from which the four take their origin; in
other words four states of matter and a fifth one (partly recognised
by science); namely, the solid (substantial), liquid, fluidic, and
ethereal state[22]. These are described as follows:—
_a._ {symbol} (_Earth._) That which gives substantiality to all
things, whether solid, liquid, gaseous, ethereal or spiritual.
(_Solidity_ or _Stability_.)
_b._ {symbol} (_Water._) That state which moves and renders things
liquid on either plane of existence. (_Motion_).
_c._ {symbol} (_Air._) That which enables things to assume a gaseous
form. (_Extension._)
_d._ {symbol} (_Fire._) That which endows them with force. (_Energy._)
_e._ {symbol} (_Ether._) This fifth element, in which the attributes
of all the other states have their basis, will be the principal object
for scientific research in the coming centuries, and is in fact the
first and the _one_ element.
These elements represent themselves as the _Tattwas_ enumerated in the
preceding chapter, and correspond to them as follows, if we adopt the
above line of order:—
_a._ _Prithivi._ Solidity. (Earth.)
_b._ _Apas._ Movement. Bulk. (Water.)
_c._ _Vayu._ Extension. (Air.)
_d._ _Taijas._ Energy. Intensity. (Fire.)
_e._ _Akâsa._ The one _Tattwa_ forming the basis of the rest.
(Sound.)[23]
The limitation of space in these pages, no less than the insufficiency
of our experience in regard to this subject, forbids us to enter into
a closer investigation of the relations existing between this aspect
of Alchemy and physical chemistry; but we have reason to affirm, that
we are on the eve of great discoveries, which will to a certain extent
revolutionize the popular chemistry of the present day.
_Celestial Alchemy._—Even if it were within our power to describe
the secrets of celestial alchemy, by means of which the universe
was created and which includes the regeneration of man and the
attainment of conscious immortality, and if this could be done publicly
without profaning those mysteries, the explanation would probably be
comprehensible only to those who, knowing it already, do not require
it. Those who wish to investigate this subject for the love of wisdom
will find the whole process fully described symbolically in “The
Secret Symbols of the Rosicrucians of the 16th and 17th Century,”[24]
a book easily comprehensible if studied by the light of wisdom, but
unintelligible for the carnal mind, that sees all truths perverted.
Some explanations have also been attempted in the book entitled “In
the Pronaos of the Temple.”[25] We will only say that there the _Three
Substances_ appear as the _Three Beginnings_; the first manifestation
of the Unity as a Trinity, and the Seven _Tattwas_ as the seven
primitive spirits,[26] or “living breaths” issuing from the bosom of
Parabrahm.[27]
The Universe is the _Macrocosm_, and Man the _Microcosm_, and as the
first great Cause is the creator of the world and the cause of all
evolution, so is individual man the creator in his own interior and
external world, capable of causing certain superior states in his
mind by the power of his will in obedience to the law, and to create
forms by means of his thoughts, while the condition of his interior
state will in time produce corresponding effects and transmutation
in his physical body. Well will it pay him to devote all his time to
this practice of Alchemy and obtain the pure gold of wisdom from the
inferior metals represented by his animal passions. These passions are
the capital lent to him by nature to make them into “silver and gold,”
while he lives upon this earth: they are the steps upon which he can
climb up to immortality and find his own true divine Self.
To practise this kind of Alchemy he will require no books, no furnaces
and no tools; for he is himself the alembic, the fire and the
substance to be ennobled. There, in his silent laboratory and with
doors closed against all vain and carnal desires and selfish thoughts,
he may _mortify_ his terrestrial nature by gaining the victory of
self-control, so that his higher nature may become _liberated_ from
animal bonds by entering into the _resurrection_ from the tomb of
ignorance into the light of self-knowledge. To accomplish this he will
have to _purify_ his mind and let his soul become _animated_ by the
power of the spirit of truth; that which is inert in him must become
_sublimated_ in the fire of divine love, so as to rise to heaven in
the shape of holy aspirations, while the smoke of sophistry, dogmatism,
false science and self-righteousness must be permitted to pass out
through the chimney, to return no more. In this way will he be able to
find the way of combining {symbol} with {symbol} and thus to make it
into substantial gold that will last through eternity.
The above will be sufficient to give a hint in regard to the character
of Alchemy and its relation to chemistry. Between these two aspects
there is a third one, namely, what may be called “Astral Alchemy.”
_The Alchemy of the Astral Plane._—As the lower Alchemy requires for
its practice the faculties of the physical body, and the celestial
Alchemy the energy of the spirit having become a power in the body of
man: so the practice of Alchemy in dealing with that which belongs
to the astral plane requires the evolution of consciousness and
perception in the astral organism of man; for in the majority of those
who live on the physical plane, the astral form is as unconscious of
its surroundings upon the plane to which it belongs, and as ignorant
of their nature, as a babe is ignorant of the meanings of things
in this world. It is, however, not our purpose to enter into this
subject, as this would bring us into the almost inexhaustible realm
of spiritism, hypnotism, witchcraft and sorcery: all of which things
are superstitions if believed in by those who know nothing about their
laws, but realities for those who know the laws by which such phenomena
take place.[28] The key to the understanding of these phenomena is in
the realization of the truth that the Universe is a manifestation of
power upon the three planes of existence. The spiritual plane has its
seven states of existence, representing self-conscious intelligent
powers, thrones and dominions, angels and archangels, all of these
being manifestations of the primordial cause called _God_. The physical
plane has its seven states of existence, represented as powers in which
consciousness is still latent. In the _middle region_, the astral
plane, we also find again seven states of existence in the form of
living forces attaining consciousness in the organization of man. There
the “seven planets” manifest themselves either for good or for evil
according to the nature of the person in whom they become manifest.
Thus, for instance, that universal element which is symbolized as
{symbol} will become manifested in man as universal love or as
selfishness according to his condition. If {symbol} rules his {symbol}
he will have self-control; but if his {symbol} rules his love, he will
give way to his lusts. If the element of {symbol} in him rules his
{symbol}, his intelligence will be of a terrestrial nature belonging
to the spirit of the earth; but if his intelligence is master over
his earthly elements, he will be capable of high aspirations. If the
element of {symbol} rules his {symbol}, he will employ his intellect
for the purpose of satisfying his greed, but if {symbol} is the master
of his {symbol} he will be of a noble character.
All this is merely said to hint at the sublimity of alchemical science
and call attention to the universal truth; that _every principle, in
whatever plane of existence it may exist, is not a product of the form
in which it develops and manifests itself; but that the form is the
field for its development and manifestation_; in the same sense as the
universal sunlight is not a product of the bodies upon which it shines,
but the bodies are instruments for the development and manifestation
of the qualities of light. Thus the life, consciousness, will, virtue,
passion, or any other spiritual, emotional, or physical state of a man
is not the product of his form, but a manifestation of a universal
life principle becoming manifested in him according to the conditions
presented by his constitution. Life is only one, manifesting itself in
animals as animal life, in plants as vegetable life, etc. Consciousness
is only one, manifesting itself as true self-consciousness in spiritual
beings, and as instincts in the lower animal kingdom. Love is only
one and universal, otherwise it could not manifest everywhere the
same qualities; it does not belong to one individual or one country;
it is born in heaven; but it becomes manifest upon the earth in men,
animals, plants and minerals, under different aspects according to
the conditions which it finds. Everything is a manifestation of one
primordial Unity revealing itself in a threefold aspect. Man himself is
nothing more than a manifestation of the universal power that called
him into existence and built up his bodily form. He is not his body nor
his mind; but the expression upon a lower plane of a higher individual
state of being; one of the letters that constitute the great alphabet
of humanity. Being continually deluded by the illusion caused by the
apparent isolation of his form and its separation from other forms of
existence, he imagines himself to be something essentially separated
from other beings, and thus he forgets his own universal nature. Only
when man begins to realise what he himself in reality is, can he begin
to attain real knowledge in regard to three kingdoms of Nature. The
object of science is said to be the recognition of truth, but it is
also self-evident that no true science can exist as long as the truth
is not recognised and even rejected; for nothing less than by the power
of truth in man can the truth be known. No man can have self-knowledge
of anything which is not within himself.
It will be clear that this subject is so vast as to render it
impossible, in a work of this kind, to do more than merely skim over
the surface, and a thousand things have to remain unsaid which ought to
be explained; but it is not our purpose to enter into the details of
the science of the _Astronomy of Life_ or the _Chemistry of Life_, or
to discuss at length the highest problems of _Occult Philosophy_. The
object of the present work is merely to remove existing misconceptions,
and to throw out seeds, which, if they fall upon a fruitful ground,
will grow and bear fruits, such as ripen not in the outer shell of
Nature, but within her inner temple, in the higher regions of thought.
IV. THE VIRTUE OF THE PHYSICIAN.
“Virtue” means _power_; it is said to be derived from _vir_, Man, and
means manly power, efficacy, strength. Man being somewhat more than a
physical body or an animal, it means a superior, spiritual, substantial
power, such as becomes manifested as nobility of character, purity
of heart, clearness of mind, strength of will, firmness of decision,
quickness of perception, penetration of thought, benevolence, kindness,
honesty, truthfulness, unselfishness, modesty. This virtue is something
infinitely superior to the common “virtuosity,” which consists in an
outward appearing of being virtuous and pious for fear of exposure
and dread of criticism, and it is also infinitely superior to what is
called “morality” by the moralists; a thing praised as the highest
attainable object; but being in fact nothing more than a conforming to
certain customs and views. There is not necessarily any self-sacrifice
in practising morals, but it is more often a means for gratifying one’s
vanity. The word “moral” comes from _mores_, manners. What is according
to the manners and customs in one country, and therefore regarded as
“_moral_” there, is immoral in another place where different manners
exist. A morality without spirituality is of no real value. The same
may be said of “ethics,” derived from _ēthos_, custom, and which
seems to be one of the terms that have been invented for the purpose
of creating confusion, and avoiding calling spiritual things by their
right names.
The _virtue_ which, according to Paracelsus, is the fourth pillar of
the temple of Medicine, has nothing to do with shams; it means _the
power resulting from being a man in the true sense of this term and
being in possession of not merely the theories regarding the treatment
of Disease but of the power to cure them oneself_.
There are at present thousands of medical practitioners, whose only
merit is and ever will be, that they have succeeded in passing an
examination and obtaining the title M.D.; but the title “doctor”
means merely an academical degree; the diploma merely certifies that
the examiners believe the student to have fulfilled all that the
regulations require, and although such a title may involve the right to
poison and kill without being punished for it, the conferring of such
a degree does not constitute a physician. The true physician as well
as the real priest is ordained by God. Paracelsus says in substance as
follows:—
“He who can cure disease is a physician. Neither emperors nor popes,
neither colleges nor high schools can create physicians. They can
confer privileges and cause a person who is not a physician to
appear as if he were one; they can give him permission to kill,
but they cannot give him the power to cure; they cannot make him a
real physician if he has not already been ordained by God. The true
physician does not brag about his cleverness or praise his medicines
or seek to monopolize the right of robbing the patient; for he knows
that the work must praise the master, and not the master the work.
There is a knowledge which is derived from man, and another knowledge
which is derived from God through the light of nature. He who has not
been born to be a physician will never succeed. A physician should
be faithful and charitable. He who loves only himself and his own
pocket will be of little benefit to the sick. Medicine is much more
an art than a science. To know the experience of others is useful
to a physician; but all the learning of books cannot make a man a
physician, unless he is one by nature. Medical wisdom is only given by
God.” (Comp. “Paragranum,” i. 4.)
This virtue which constitutes the true physician cannot be created by
colleges, nor can it be conferred by anyone personally upon himself.
No one can confer upon himself a thing which he does not possess, or
without the aid of any higher influence make himself better than
that which he is; because, as has been explained above, the power
exercised by any form is not the creation of the form, but an eternal
principle, entering into objective existence in forms and becoming
manifested in and through them by its own power. Neither truth nor
wisdom can be manufactured; they exist independently of all opinions,
observations, speculation, and logic; they may be hidden from our
sight like the sun on a rainy day; but as the sun is independent of
our being aware of his presence, so the truth exists eternally whether
or not it is acknowledged by us. If the whole generation of mankind at
present walking this earth should turn into idiots, the truth would not
therefore cease to be, but would become manifested again as wisdom in a
more enlightened age.
Nothing can rise to heaven but what has descended from it, we can
only by overcoming that which is false render ourselves receptive for
that which is true. _Eckhart_ says:—“Divine Wisdom is to God what the
sunlight is to the sun; it is one with Him, a necessary activity, a
never dying fountain, having its source in the heart of God.”
This brings us back again to a _religious_ basis (if we are permitted
to use this ill-treated and misunderstood term), and to the necessity
that he who makes it his profession to employ the laws of nature and
treat the body of man should know the position which man occupies in
nature and the position which nature occupies in regard to the origin
from which it originates.
This science requires not mere words, but self-knowledge. Wisdom can
only be taught by Wisdom itself; but a science based upon a recognition
of truth disperses the clouds which prevent the light of the truth from
entering into the heart and becoming incorporated and manifested in
man.
III.
THE FIVE CAUSES OF DISEASE.
If we inquire from modern medical science: What are the causes of
diseases? we shall probably be answered:
1. _Age._ 2. _Heredity._ 3. _Intermarriage._ 4. _Sex._ 5.
_Temperament._ 6. _Climate and locality._ 7. _Town or country._ 8.
_Hygienic conditions._ 9. _Occupation._ 10. _Air._ 11. _Previous
disease._ 12. _Mental and moral conditions._ 13. _External physical
conditions._ 14. _Poisons._ 15. _Temperature._ 16. _Diet._ 17.
_Epidemic disease, contagion, malaria, parasites and growths._[29]
We will forbear to pass any remarks upon this classification of the
causes of diseases, which merely enumerates certain conditions in which
diseases may arise, and we will pass on to the classification of the
causes of diseases given by Paracelsus; but as this subject has already
received attention in a previously published work on the doctrines of
Paracelsus[30], the following is intended merely to supply additional
food for thought.
Paracelsus says:
“_All diseases have a beginning in either of the three substances;[31]
Salt, Sulphur, or Mercury_; which means that they may take their
origin either within the kingdom of matter, within the realm of the
soul, or in the sphere of the spirit. If body, soul and mind are in
perfect harmony with each other, no disharmony exists; but if a cause
of discord arises in either one of these three planes, it communicates
itself to the rest.”
Before proceeding further we will inquire about the nature of these
_three Substances_:
SALT {symbol}, SULPHUR {symbol}, AND MERCURY {symbol}, which may be
translated as Matter, Energy and Intelligence. They are in fact not
three essentially different things, but only three modes of activity of
one and the same thing; for everything is substantial, each contains a
latent or active force, in each is the potentiality of consciousness,
if it has not already become manifested therein. Everything exists,
therefore, by reason of these “three substances,” and if we for the
sake of forming some idea of their nature look at the world as a
manifestation of _electricity_ (which must necessarily be substantial,
as there could be no force without substance), we may compare them as
follows:
{symbol} to electric resistance.
{symbol} to the tension of electromotive force.
{symbol} to the intensity of the current.
No one would ever think of these three measures as being separate
entities, which like “substance, energy and intelligence” are merely
three aspects or conceptions of one universal life; but these
distinctions are necessary for the purpose of forming a conception.
“Nothing can be thoroughly known without a knowledge of its beginning.
Man is placed into _three substances_, in each of which he has a
beginning; and each thing has its substance, its number and measure
(constituting their harmony). From (the state of) these three
substances originate all causes, origins, and also the understanding
of diseases. These three substances, _Sulphur_, _Mercurius_, _Sal_,
give to everything its corporeality, each substance having its own
qualities. If these qualities are good (in harmony with each other)
there will be no disease but if they enter into opposition to each
other, disease (disharmony) will be the result. (_Paracelsus_,
“Paramirum,” _Lib._ I., 1, 2, and 3).”
Within these three kingdoms disorders may arise from either of the
following _five causes of disease_:
1. From the _Ens astrale_; namely from surrounding conditions in
external nature.
2. From the _Ens veneni_; meaning from poisons and impurities.
3. From the _Ens naturæ_; including causes inherited from the parents.
4. From the _Ens spirituale_; especially those caused by an evil will
or morbid imagination.
5. From the _Ens Dei_; to which belong the ills arising from evil
_Karma_ acquired during this or a previous incarnation; in other words,
the result of _divine justice_.
We will now attempt to define the meaning of these five beginnings.
I.—ENS ASTRALE.[32]
_Diseases arising from external influences_; whether from physical
nature or from deeper causes; the planet upon which we live being
itself an _astrum_ (star), having a physical and ethereal body, a life,
a soul, a mind and a spirit.
“The stars on the sky do not form a man. Man grows out of two
beginnings; the _Ens seminis_ (the male sperm) and the _Ens virtutis_
(the reincarnating spiritual monad). He has therefore two natures, a
corporeal and a spiritual nature, and either of these two requires
its _digest_ (_matrix_ and nutriment). As the womb of the mother is
the world surrounding the child, from which the fœtus receives its
nutriment, so is terrestrial nature from which the terrestrial body of
man receives the influences acting in his organism. The _Ens astrale_
is a thing which we do not see, but which contains us and everything
that lives and has sensation. It is that which contains the air, and
from which and in which live all the elements, and which we symbolize
as M (_Mysterium_), (“Paramirum,” _Lib._ I.)
This _Ens Astrorum_ is therefore evidently the _Akâsa_, which forms
the basis of all material things in physical nature, and if the
close relation between man’s physical nature and the physical nature
surrounding him were better known, it would become more comprehensible
how the states of the all-penetrating ether, changes in temperature,
heat and cold, electric and magnetic conditions in nature, come to
affect the physical nature of man, acting internally by inducing
corresponding changes in his microcosm, even if he is protected against
the direct action of rain, storm, moisture, cold, heat, etc., etc. A
sudden change of conditions in the outside air can affect a patient
imprisoned in a room where no such change is perceptible, and a cloudy
day produce a melancholy effect even upon a blind person. There are no
end of diseases which for want of a better explanation are attributed
to “catching cold,” etc., while in fact it is the existence of certain
conditions in the all-pervading ether, which induces similar conditions
in the body of the patient. Thus, for instance, changes of the moon,
or the position of the moon, or the magnetic currents of the earth,
produce certain effects in certain persons, even if these persons know
nothing about these laws, for it is a fact well known to the ancients,
but which has almost been lost sight of by modern medicine, that man,
apart from the order in which his organs are arranged, is essentially
a counterpart of nature, an image of the world on a smaller scale, a
_microcosm_ within the macrocosm. An atmospheric pressure in outside
nature produces an atmospheric pressure in him; if nature rejoices in
the sunlight of spring, his heart rejoices with it; if storms rage on
the outside, similar storms may be aroused in him, etc., etc. He is,
in fact, only a laboratory in which the universal forces of nature are
performing their work. To this chapter also belong all miasmas and
contagious influences, with all the bacteriæ, microbes, amœbæ, bacilli,
etc., etc., which are the pride of modern discoverers, but whose
characteristics, if not the forms of their bodies, were well known to
Paracelsus, who describes them under the names of _Talpa_, _Matena_,
_Tortilleos_, _Permates_, etc. He says:
“God has caused living creatures to exist in all the elements, and
there is nothing empty of life. That which becomes manifested in the
visible kingdom has come into existence by being generated in the
upper regions. Without such a generation above, it could not have
become manifested below.” (“Lib. Meteorum,” I. 4.)
Since the modern discovery of the cholera, tubercle bacilli, and
other micro-organisms spreading contagious diseases, it has been
the opinion of many, that the presence of such microbes was the
only and fundamental cause of such diseases; but still more recent
investigations have shown such that the presence of these microbes
does not constitute the whole cause; for they have been with impunity
introduced into the human organism, and have also been found to
exist in persons who had fully recovered from such a disease. This
surely shows that there must be an influence causing the microbes to
come into existence, after which they can spread and multiply if the
conditions are favourable, and the fundamental cause of such epidemics
is therefore not the presence of the microbes, this being merely a
symptom, but the influences which cause them to come into existence,
producing _states_ of which the bodies of these organisms are a product
and expression and which appears to proceed from causes situated deeper
than visible physical nature, if we do not mistake the form for the
“spirit” of which the form is the symbol.
“Human science knows how to philosophize about the things that come
within its external observation; but Wisdom shows what is contained in
the _Prima Materia_, which is a greater and higher knowledge than that
of the _Ultima Materia_ (the physical plane).” (“Meteorum,” I. 4.)
This “higher region,” from which such injurious influences originate,
causing the growth of miasmas and microbes, is the “_astral plane_,”
or the soul of the world, and as the evil states in the soul of the
world are caused by the evil states of the human mind, it becomes
comprehensible how epidemic diseases, pestilence and plague, no less
than wars, are the ultimate results of disharmonies and depraved
spiritual states in the soul of humanity. The greatest truth if
seen through a perverted mind appears distorted as a caricature and
superstition; it can be seen in its own light, only if properly
understood.
The astral plane is the plane of desires, emotions, and passions;
that is to say, the plane of those influences (forms of the universal
will), which become manifested as desires, emotions, and passions in
the animal organism, and if we were to enter this subject, it would
bring us within the realm of the supersensual but nevertheless actual
kingdom of living elemental powers belonging to the soul of the world.
If our eyes were opened to the perception of thoughts, it would be seen
how a continual thought-transference is taking place among individual
minds, influencing and determining their actions, even if they are not
aware of it, causing not only individual moral diseases, insanities,
obsessions and crimes, but whole epidemics of such kinds. There is an
immense field for investigation for the psychologist; not for that kind
of “psychologists” who imagine that insanity is under all circumstances
a disturbance of the functions of the brain from physical causes,
but for those who can realise that the functions of the brain may be
disturbed by the disordered action of the mind; for although in many
cases of brain disease it is as difficult to determine whether the
disorder of the mind or that of the brain existed first, as it would
be to answer the question, which existed first, the hen or the egg?
nevertheless a lesion of the tissues of the brain does not take place
without a cause, and this cause in the majority of such cases comes
from the sphere of the emotions and thoughts.
If there is no mind, there can be no mental disease. If mind is
something (even if it were, as some imagine, the product of the
physiological function of the brain), it must be something substantial,
and being something substantial, it is able to produce substantial
effects; moreover, its actions show a certain order and harmony, which
go to prove that mind has an organisation. If this order and harmony
be disturbed, discord, disease, insanity will be the result. Without
the presence of mind nothing would come into existence; without
the consciousness in the All, no brain would be able to manifest
consciousness, and this is what Paracelsus means when he says:—
“Whatever exists upon this earth, also exists in the _firmament_
(space). God does not make clothes for men, but he gives them a
tailor. (Forms do not grow by accident; but they are the ultimate
result of the action of the constructive power in nature.) The essence
of things is hidden in space; existing invisibly in the _firmament_,
and impressing itself upon material substances, when it becomes
visible by entering within our sphere of perception.” (“Meteorum,” I.
4.)
Thus we have in the _Ens Astrale_ a field in which exist the causes
of numerous kinds of diseases; the thorough understanding of which
requires a still deeper penetration into the secrets of nature and a
higher conception of its constitution than is at present presented by
the natural sciences of this day.
II.—ENS VENENI.
_Diseases originating from poisonous actions and impurities_ in all
three planes of existence.
Nothing is poisonous or impure if it stands by itself, only if two
things whose natures are incompatible with each other come into
contact, can a poisonous action take place or an impure condition be
produced.
“Everything is in itself perfect and good. Only when it enters into
relation with another thing does relative good and evil come into
existence. If anything enters into the constitution of man, which is
not in harmony with its elements, the one is to the other an impurity,
and can become a poison.” (“Paramirum,” II. 1.)
There is no doubt that modern chemistry, physiology and pathology teach
more than ancient science in regard to the chemical constitution, the
physiological action of poisons and of the pathological effects which
they produce in the animal body; but to explain the order in which a
process takes place is not sufficient to explain why it takes place,
and there is still a wide field open for investigation; for at present
we can only record the fact that certain physical substances have a
destructive action upon the human body; while the same substances with
a little difference in the arrangements of their molecules, are not
only not injurious, but even used as food;[33] that certain substances
have a specific action upon the emotional nature in man, causing an
inclination to certain states of his astral constitution, such as
irritability of temper, anger, cupidity, etc., which they could not
have if no corresponding elements were contained in them; while others
have a specific action upon the mind, such as the fading of memory,
paralysis of the will, excitement of the imagination, all of which they
could not accomplish if no substantial mind principle existed in them.
To material science the universe is a product of mechanical force
created by unconscious matter; to the idealist it is a dream which
has nothing real in it; but seen with the eye of wisdom it is a
manifestation of life, with the potentiality of consciousness contained
in everything. Love and hate exist in minerals as they do in men, only
in another state of consciousness, and a tragedy or comedy might be
written in regard to their family history; describing, for instance,
how the beautiful Princess Sodium fell in love and was married to a
fiery youth called Oxygen, and how the happy union lasted until one day
a jealous knight, named Chlorine, fell in love with her, and although
he himself was married to a flighty woman whose name was Hydrogenia,
he abducted the princess, and there was nothing left for poor Oxygen
but to take the deserted woman and turn to water with her. Such a story
would differ from a similar one enacted in human life only in so far
as the actors in the latter would intelligently and consciously follow
certain laws which are enacted without individual intelligence in the
mineral kingdom. There is only one Consciousness and one law of Harmony
in the world, and according to it accords and discords arise in all the
three kingdoms of nature.
The influence of the light of the truth is a poison to the erroneous
conceptions existing within the mind, and earthly thoughts are
impurities to the mind that aspires to the kingdom of heaven. Evil
desires create evil thoughts and give birth to evil acts; good acts
procreate their species, giving rise to good thoughts and aspirations,
from which good children are born. The sum of men’s individual desires
constitutes the desires of the soul of the world; the sum of the
thoughts and opinions of mankind constitutes the mental atmosphere
by which the world in general, and each locality in particular, is
surrounded; and the state of the mind ultimately expresses itself upon
the outward plane of manifestation. It is not more difficult to poison
a mind with impure thoughts than to poison a body with drugs. Impure
is he who has many diverging desires, pure is the mind having only one
will.
Popular medicine deals only with external effects and physical causes,
occult science goes deeper, seeking for fundamental causes and
final effects, which are of far greater importance than the passing
manifestations taking place in the physical form. Thus, for instance,
a promiscuous sexual intercourse not only causes venereal diseases;
but as during that act a commingling of the inner natures takes place
to a certain extent, a man cohabiting with a depraved woman takes on
some of her characteristics and joins to a certain extent her future
_Karma_ and destiny to his own. The basis of the existence of human
beings is what, for want of a better expression, has been called the
_Will_ (Spirit or Life), and as one body may colour or poison another,
likewise a colouring, and perhaps poisoning, takes place by a blending
of spirit during sexual intercourse; this “spiritual substance” being
the essence of each human being.
“If a woman leaves her husband, she is then not free from him, nor he
from her; for a marital union having once been established, remains a
union for all eternity.” (“De Homunculis.”)
That which nourishes a thing, goes to make up its substance. The
physical body receives its nutriment from the physical plane, the soul
is nourished by the influences coming from the soul of the world, the
intellect is nourished, grows and expands in the intellectual plane;
an ill-fed body becomes diseased; a soul living on morbid desires and
inordinate longings becomes depraved, a mind fed with false theories,
errors and superstitions becomes dwarfed, perverted and unable to turn
its face towards the sunlight of truth. The food for soul and mind is
as substantial to them as material food is substantial to the material
body; body, soul, and spirit being three states of the eternal _One_,
manifested on three different planes of existence, being governed by
only one fundamental law. What the stomach is in the body, the memory
is in the mind. Both are related together; a dyspeptic stomach causes a
defective memory and an irritable mind; an irritable temperament causes
indigestion and forgetfulness; forgetfulness can cause inattention,
irritability and dyspepsia. Soul, body and mind are one in man, and
disorders existing in one can cause impurities in the other; each
passion in man, each superstition in which he firmly believes, is
capable of poisoning his body and of producing a certain disease. A
belief in salvation made easy renders a man indolent, indolence causes
want of self-control, which causes want of resistance to injurious
influences in the physical plane. Repeated physical misfortunes may
make a man a coward, and his cowardliness prevents him from letting go
of a doctrine which he intuitively known to be false. Anger is not only
injurious to bodily health, but drives away reason by confusing the
mind; wrath causes not only mental but also physical shortsightedness,
and hard-hearing is often the only cause of a suspicious character.
Thus innumerable comparisons may be drawn and analogies be found, and
cases cited to prove the correctness of this theory, if our space would
permit it, and if it were necessary to prove by arguments and facts the
truth of the unity of the all, which must be self-evident to everyone
taking the trouble to seek for the answer to such questions within
himself.
But the highest cannot act upon the lowest without an intermediary
link connecting them, the spirit cannot act upon the body without the
connecting link of the soul, nor the soul upon the body except by
means of the life. We cannot cook a dish of soup for a starving beggar
by means of the fire of love; but love moves the will and induces
actions which the mind directs, and thus the soup may be cooked after
all owing to the power of love or charity. The greatest difficulty in
the understanding of occult laws arises from the circumstance that we
cannot perceive remote causes or seek to connect them with ultimate
effects without being able to see through the intricate network of
intermediary causes between the two ends.
III.—ENS NATURAE.
_Diseases which have their origin in certain conditions inherent in the
constitution of man._
Man is a perfect child of nature. There is not a single essence in
his constitution which does not exist in nature; neither is there any
substance or power to be found in nature which does not exist in him,
either actually or potentially, undeveloped or developed.
“There are many who say that man is a _microcosm_; but few understand
what this really means. As the world is itself an organism with all
its constellations, so is man a constellation (organism), a world
in itself, and as the firmament (space) of the world is ruled by
no creature, so the firmament which is within man (his mind) is
not subject to any other creature. This firmament (sphere of mind)
in man has its planets and stars (mental states), its exaltations,
conjunctions and oppositions (states of feelings, thoughts, emotions,
ideas, loves and hates), call them by whatever name you like, and as
all the celestial bodies in space are connected with each other by
invisible links, so are the organs in man not entirely independent of
each other, but depend on each other to a certain extent. His heart
is his {symbol}, his brain his {symbol}, the spleen his {symbol},
the liver {symbol}, the lungs {symbol}, and the kidneys {symbol}.”
(“Paramirum,” III. 4.)
Man has two kinds of natures. His physical organism is a product of
that nature which he received from his terrestrial parents; his
mental organisation is the result of a higher and quite different kind
of evolution. His terrestrial nature includes not only his visible
organism, but also the organisation of his astral form and his mental
constitution.
“There are two kinds of flesh. The flesh of _Adam_ (the physical body)
is gross earthly flesh; the flesh that is _derived from Adam_ is of
a subtle kind. It is not made of gross matter, it penetrates through
all walls without requiring doors or holes; nevertheless both kinds
of flesh have their blood and bones, and both differ again from the
spirit.” (_Paracelsus_, “De Nymphis.”)
Man having within himself the same essences and powers, and there
being only one universal law of evolution, there takes place in him
a development similar to, if not identical with, the development in
eternal and internal nature. Accords and discords in his nature can
grow and swell into harmonies or disharmonies, and constitute the whole
man a symphony or cacophony, colouring his whole being and transmitting
this to his offspring. A seed of wheat and a seed of barley resemble
each other, and nevertheless wheat grows out of one and barley out of
the other. The _ovum_ of a human being shows no essential difference
from that of a monkey; nevertheless out of the one grows a human being
and out of the other a monkey. The nature of man is fully expressed in
every part of his organism, and in the sperm of the father is contained
not only the quality of this or that part of his nature, but the
potentiality of the whole.[34]
The quality of the constitution of a man determines the length of his
natural life.
“If a child is born, its _firmament_ (astral body and mind, etc.) is
born with it, containing the seven principles, of which each has its
own potencies and qualities. What is called ‘_predestination_’ is
only the quality of the powers in man. The weakness or strength of
his constitution determines whether his life is to be short or long,
according to natural laws; the planets in him run their course whether
he has a long or a short life, only in the former case the course
of his planets is of a longer, and in the other case of a shorter
duration. The quality of the constitution which a man receives at his
birth determines the length of his natural life, just as the quantity
of sand in an hour glass determines the time when it will have run
down.” (“Paramirum,” L. I., Tr. iii., C. 5.)
The _Ens Naturæ_ therefore refers to those beginnings in man’s
constitution which are the result of the quality of his body, soul
and mind as he received them from nature, and includes all inherited
physical diseases, qualities of temperament and mental peculiarities;
for the earthly part of the mind (_Káma Manas_) belongs to terrestrial
nature and its tendencies are inherited; while the spiritual part
of the mind (_Manas Buddhi_) is not inherited from the parents, but
belongs to the spiritual man whose parent exists in eternity.[35]
This class includes all internal diseases originating from disorders
arising among the interaction of the physiological functions of the
organs of the body, or of the interaction between these and those of
the soul (the emotions) and mind (thoughts).
This system of Paracelsus includes the whole realm of modern physiology
and pathology; but it penetrates deeper, for it investigates the
functions of soul and mind, and follows the development of an evil
desire or thought until it ultimately finds its expression in an
external manifestation of visible pathological states. To enter into
the details of this field of pathology is not possible within the
limits of this book.
There is no indication that the sympathies and antipathies, in other
words the physiological relations existing between the different
organs in the human body, are better known at the present time than
they were at the time of Paracelsus: on the contrary, he speaks of
the currents of the life-principle taking place between these organs,
while modern anatomy speaks only of nerves, which are in regard to the
“life-fluid” what electric wires are in regard to electricity.
“The heart sends its spirit (will power) through the whole of the
body, as the sun his power to all the planets and earths; the {symbol}
(the intelligence of the brain) goes to the heart and back again
to the brain. The fire (heat) takes its origin in the (chemical)
activity of the organs (the lungs), but pervades the whole body. The
_liquor vitæ_ (essence of life) is universally distributed and moves
(circulates) in the body. This ‘humor’ contains many different powers,
and cause in him ‘metals’ (virtues or vices) of various kinds.”
(“Paramirum,” L. I. Tr. 3.)
In regard to this subject modern medical science says:—
“A wide basis of positive knowledge in regard to this subject does not
exist. The physiology of the different departments of the sympathetic
system of nerves is now only beginning to shape itself, while on
the side of pathology and morbid anatomy there is even still less
of definite knowledge. Thus it happens that for the most part only
conjectures, often very insecurely based are current, or can be said
to exist in regard to the dependence of definite sets of symptoms, or
distinct diseases, upon disordered actions or morbid changes occurring
in one or other part of the sympathetic system of nerves.” (“H.
Charlton Bastian.”)
Both ancient and modern science are right as far as they go; only while
modern science pays all of its attention to the forms (organs, nerves,
etc.), which are merely the products of certain principles and powers
and the instruments for their activity, ancient science deals with
these powers themselves, taking only into secondary consideration the
visible instruments in and through which they become manifest. Modern
science, so to say, studies the muscular movements of a musician,
occult science knows the art of music itself. Material science is the
servant mixing the paints for the painter; the true physician is
the artist who knows how to paint. The one studies the tools which
the workman uses; the other sees also the workman himself. These
comparisons are not drawn for the purpose of throwing discredit upon
modern medical science, nor for the purpose of blaming any modern
physician for not employing powers which he does not possess; but for
the purpose of indicating that a knowledge of physical phenomena and
visible forms is not the limit of all attainable knowledge, and that
there exists a higher and more important kind of knowledge, based
upon a higher perception, such as is attained only through the higher
development of the spiritual character of man; which becomes possible
only when earthly presumption and vanity are overcome and when, by
stepping up higher, he realises the nothingness of the terrestrial
illusion of “self.”
IV.—ENS SPIRITUALE.
_Diseases arising from spiritual causes._
“Spirit”—from _spiro_, to blow—means breath. “Breath means a
power, quite distinct from mechanical force, as being endowed with
consciousness, life and intelligence. In its aspect as an universal
power, it means the breath of God which caused the universe to come
from a subjective state into objective existence; in its individual
aspect it means the spiritual power dwelling in man.[36]
_Spirit is Consciousness in every plane of existence_; but from this
it does not follow that all the forms in which it dwells necessarily
manifest self-consciousness or are even conscious of existence. For
the manifestation of perfect spiritual self-consciousness a spiritual
organism is required, such as an average man does not possess, if he
has not been reborn in the spirit. In the forms of the mineral kingdom
the presence of spirit is perceptible by the manifestations of mineral
life, in the vegetable kingdom by the manifestations of vegetable life,
and in the animal kingdom by those of animal life, for spirit is itself
the basis of life in the physical, astral, intellectual and spiritual
world; and as the spirit of the universe is the spiritual breath of
God, issuing from the centre and returning to it, so is the spirit of
man the spiritual power which enters into his constitution, and issues
again when the body dies.
“That is a spirit, which is born from our thoughts; immaterial and
in the living body. That which is born after our death is the soul.”
(“Paramirum,” L. I., C. iv., 2.)
“The spirit is not born from reasoning, but from the will.” (_Ibid._
3.)
“Spirit,” in other words, is a form of _Will_ endowed with thought; a
spiritual power, neither good nor evil in itself; but which becomes
good or evil according to the purpose for which it is employed. Its
functions are willing, imagining, and remembering.
A great deal has been written about the power of will and imagination
in Nature, by means of which the types existing in the memory of the
universal mind continually find re-expression in physical visible
forms;[37] in this place we have to deal only with the qualities of
these three functions, and the effects which they produce in the body
of man.
In the previous three divisions of this chapter we have had under our
consideration causes of diseases originating in the terrestrial part of
the human constitution; this and the following deals with his spiritual
part.
“There are two subjects in man, one is a material, the other a
spiritual being (thought-body), impalpable, invisible, subject to its
own diseases (discords); one belonging to the material, the other to
the spiritual world, each having its own states of consciousness,
perception and memory, its own associations with beings of its kind.
Nevertheless, both are one during this life, and the spirit influences
the body; but not the body the spirit. Therefore if the spirit is
diseased, it is of no use to doctor the body; but if the body is
diseased, it can be cured by administering remedies to the spirit.”
(_Lib._ “Paramir.,” I., iv., 4 and 7.)
This spiritual part, or the thought-body of man, is the vehicle for the
reincarnating spirit, when the spiritual individuality evolves a new
personality upon the earth. For the purpose of understanding what is
said in the following division of this chapter, it will be necessary to
understand the theory of _Reincarnation_, of which we can only present
an outline within the space of this work. H. P. Blavatsky says that
which reincarnates is:
“_The Spiritual thinking Ego, the permanent principle in man, or
that which is the seat of the Manas._ _It is not_ ATMA, _or even_
ATMA-BUDDHI, _which is the individual or divine man, but_ MANAS; _for
Atman is the Universal All, and becomes the Higher Self of man only
in conjunction with_ BUDDHI, _its vehicle, which links_ IT _to the
individuality (or the divine Man)_.”[38]
The resurrection of the physical body is a modern superstition in which
none of the ancient philosophers or real Christians ever believed.[39]
_Will._
“Will” comes from _willan_, desire; but is quite distinct from that
selfish desire which is the result of the fancies of the brain; the
true will is a strong power which comes from the centre, the heart, and
in its highest aspect it is that creative power which called the world
into existence. All the voluntary and involuntary actions in nature and
in the organism of man originate in the action of will, whether or not
we are conscious of it.
“You do not know a tithe of the real power of the will.”
(_Paracelsus_, “Paramir.,” I., iv., 8.)
Upon the physical plane the will acts, so to say, unconsciously,
carrying out blindly the laws of nature, causing attractions,
repulsions, guiding the mechanical, chemical and physiological
functions of the body without man’s intelligence taking any part in
the process. Man is himself a manifestation of will, and the will
(spirit) in him can perform many things without depending on the
intellectual activity of the brain; all of which is left unexplained
by modern physiology, although it cannot deny the facts. Thus an
experienced pianist does not require to determine first which movement
he should give to the muscles of his fingers before striking a key; but
he does this instinctively after his spirit has been educated to it.
Rope-walking, gymnastic feats and acts of all kinds are the products
of a trained will, and would be impossible without that. They may be
superintended by the intellect, but are not guided by it. Its sphere of
action is limited to that of the body in which it dwells.
In its higher aspect the will is a conscious power, manifesting itself
as emotions, virtues and vices of various kinds. Its sphere of action
extends as far as the sphere of the influence of the individual mind.
Thus the will of a superior person exercises an influence over his
inferiors, a teacher over his pupils, a general over his army, a sage
over the world.
In its highest aspect the will manifests itself as a self-conscious
power, capable of acting far beyond the limits of the corporeal form
from which it issues, constituting, so to say, an independent organized
spiritual being acting under the guidance of the intelligence of the
person from whom it is born. Strange as this assertion may appear, it
is nevertheless true, and the now accepted phenomena of “hypnotism”
have opened the door to the understanding of such phenomena.[40] An
investigation into this subject would bring us within the realm of
magic, spiritism, witchcraft, sorcery, etc., etc., which does not
belong to our present purpose, and which has been treated in a previous
work.[41]
As an evil will is the cause of many diseases, so is a good will a
great remedy for curing them. While two fools hypnotizing each other
will produce a mixture of folly, the magic power of the self-conscious
benevolent will of an enlightened physician is able to arouse the
confidence and restore health in many cases where all the remedies of
the pharmacopœia are of no avail, and the cultivation of this power is
therefore of supreme importance, even more so than a knowledge of all
the details in regard to the action of drugs. Science and wisdom should
be cultivated together, but not the former at the expense of the latter.
_Imagination._
“Imagination” means the power of the mind to form _images_; from the
shadowy images of a dream up to the corporeal and living images formed
by the power of an Adept. This faculty, which was well known to the
ancient sages who were in possession of it, is almost entirely ignored
by popular medical science, which in spite of its recent discoveries
of what is now called “suggestion,” does not yet seem to suspect the
extent of its power. It is a power whose application cannot be taught
to those who do not possess it, and there are very few who have this
power developed; for our present generation is of a pre-eminently
_adamic_ (terrestrial) and impotent kind; leading a dream-life, and
being itself composed of dreams, its imagination is as feeble as a
dream. The real power of active and effective imagination belongs to
the spiritual inner man, who in the vast majority of mankind has not
yet awakened to life. Only when men and women have entered into the
true life—in other words, when the spirit in them will have become
self-conscious—will they be able to possess and to exercise spiritual
powers, such as constituted the _Arcana_ of Theophrastus Paracelsus, on
which there has been so much speculation in modern literature and yet
so little really known—the stumbling block and fruitful source of error
for so many of our modern _surface_ observers.[42]
We do not blame popular medical science for not knowing that which it
does not know; but we believe that the presumption of those who figure
temporarily as the representatives of science, and who dogmatically
pronounce useless and absurd everything which they do not possess,
ought not to be encouraged. It is not so very long since recognised
science laughed at the rotundity of the earth, and declared officially
that no meteors could fall from the sky “because there were no stones
in heaven;” denounced the belief in “psychic phenomena” as being a
degrading superstition, and ridiculed the idea of building steamboats
and telegraphs, etc. These errors originate not from science, but
from stupid ignorance and self-conceit; they are the result of human
infirmities, which exist now as in times of old, and can be cured only
by the development of a superior power for knowing the truth.
_Memory._
The third great power of the spirit manifested in the mind is the
power of memory, which is, in fact, the power of man’s spirit to visit
those places within the sphere of his mind where the impressions of
former experiences are preserved, and thus to bring them again within
the field of consciousness. Whatever function the physical brain may
exercise in using this faculty of the spirit, the brain is no more
the memory than the eye the sight; it is merely an instrument for
perception, but not the perceiver nor the object of perception, nor
the perception itself. To remember a thing is to see its impression or
image in the _astral light_; to recollect a thing is to gather together
one’s own attention at the place where its impression is stored up in
the mind, and the power which enables a person to do so is the relation
which exists between the creator and his creatures; man having formed
a thought or idea, or perceived an image, is able to recollect it,
because the impression is his creation—having issued from himself, it
is a part of his world.
It depends upon the degree of spiritual power of perception in man,
whether he can clearly and vividly see these images in the Astral
Light, or whether they appear to him dim, uncertain and indistinct; but
in the vast majority of men and women in our present generation this
power of perceiving does not penetrate deeper nor rise higher than the
Astral Light, while the spiritually developed man can penetrate deeper,
and behold the memories of not only his present incarnation, but also
those referring to his previous states of existence.
Will, Imagination and Memory are the cause of many diseases and
such may be caused by one’s perverted use of those faculties, or by
being practised upon another. A thought of any kind, be it wicked
or virtuous, if rendered strong and substantial by the consent of
the will, becomes born in the inner world as an elemental being,
which grows by being cultivated, so that it may ultimately obsess
its own father and produce visible effects upon the physical frame.
The imagination of animals produces change in the colour of their
offspring, the imagination of a mother can produce marks upon the
child; the recollection of evil events and keeping such memories
constantly in the mind gives rise to melancholy, ill temper, and
despondency, anger, greed, lust, avarice, etc. All forms of evil will
produce not only morbid states of the mind, but also certain definite
changes in the physical body; all of which offer a vast field for a
science of psychology in the future. An exposition of such a mental
science cannot be attempted within the limited space of this work;
but there already exists a vast amount of literature on this subject
ignored by official science.
V.—ENS DEI.
_Diseases arising from eternal Retribution._
A definition of the word “Deus,” God, is an impossibility, because it
refers to a state beyond the conception of the limited mind. Eckhart
says:—“A god of whom I could conceive would not be a god, but a
limited creature.” We can therefore only say, God is the universal will
in its highest aspect as divine love; which is the supreme law and the
life of all things. A necessary consequence of the action of divine law
is divine justice; because it would be impossible to imagine how one
being could be favoured without doing injustice to another, and thus
depriving the law of universal divine love of its unity and equality.
This divine law of justice, according to which every cause created by a
rational being returns with all its effects to its creator, is called
in the East the law of _Karma_, and may be translated as the law of
Eternal Retribution. H. P. Blavatsky says:—
“_Karma is the unerring law which adjusts effect to cause, on
the physical, mental, and spiritual planes of being. As no cause
remains without its due effect from greatest to least, from a cosmic
disturbance down to the movement of your hand, and as like produces
like, Karma is that law which adjusts wisely, intelligently and
equitably each effect to its cause, tracing the latter back to its
producer._”[43]
This law of _Karma_ is in common parlance called the Will of God;
which means the action of divine justice throughout the universe, and
it is the cause not only of social evils, distinctions of classes in
society, of the unequal distribution of wealth and comfort, good luck
and misfortune, but also of defects of character, mental abnormalities
and physical diseases.
All diseases in fact are effects of the law of _Karma_, the effects of
causes, which are all based upon one universal Law; but this is not to
be understood as if it meant “fatality,” or as if nothing could be done
to cure such effects; for _Karma_ is also the source of good, and if
the patient finds a physician able to cure him, it proves that it was
his _Karma_ to find him and that he should be cured by him.
“All health and all disease comes from God, who also furnishes the
remedy. Each disease is a purgatory, and no physician can effect a
cure until the time of that purgatory is over. Ignorant physicians are
the devils of that purgatory; but a wise physician a redeeming angel
and a servant of God. The physician is a servant of nature, and God
is its Lord. Therefore no physician ever performs a cure unless it is
the will of God curing the patient through him.” (“Paramir.,” I., C.
iv., 2 and 7.)
To know the theory of a thing is a science, to know how to use it
successfully is art.[44] It was the view of the ancient philosophers,
and it will also be the view of the physician of the future, that
Medicine is not merely a science but a holy art, and that a mere
science without true goodness and wisdom is without real value. The
practice of medicine must be based not merely upon scientific theories
in regard to the laws of that part of nature which is its lowest plane
of manifestation, the plane of physical appearances; but at the bottom
of all science must be the recognition of eternal Truth itself. Health
and disease in man are not determined by physical laws alone, such
as govern the lowest orders of being; neither are the laws of Nature
created by Nature; _but all natural laws are the outcome of spiritual
law acting in Nature_, and in those kingdoms where intelligence
plays a part, where the will begins to become free and individual
responsibility takes place, a more direct action of divine law becomes
manifest. Although therefore a knowledge of the laws of physical nature
is extremely useful and necessary, the student of medicine should above
all cultivate nobility and spirituality of character, such as is the
result of the recognition of the fundamental law of Divine Wisdom, upon
which is based all the order and harmony that exists in the world. Thus
the practice of medicine has for its foundation not a merely technical
side, and is not merely a trade or profession, which anybody may enter
who chooses for the purpose of making a living; but it requires for its
legitimate object the employment of such faculties as are the result of
a development of the higher and nobler elements, the spiritual part in
the constitution of man.
IV.
THE FIVE CLASSES OF PHYSICIANS.
There being five causes of disease, and as each disease ought to be
treated with reference to its cause, there may be distinguished five
distinct modes of treatment, which, however, must not be confounded
with five different systems such as anyone may choose at his own
pleasure, for each of these modes requires the possession of certain
distinct natural qualifications, of which the higher are at present
only rarely to be found. While the science of the lower methods, such
as prescribing drugs, using hot or cold water, or applying any other
physical forces, may easily enough be taught to anybody in possession
of an ordinary amount of intelligence, the real art of medicine
requires higher gifts and talents, which cannot be acquired in any
other way than according to the law of spiritual evolution, by the
higher development of the inner man. A physician in possession of the
powers conveyed by wisdom may also acquire a knowledge of the medical
views and technicalities which form the stock in trade of the lower
orders of physicians; but a physician of a lower order cannot practise
the art of the higher order without becoming initiated into that order
by means of the development of the power required for it.
This will make it clear that the quality of the physician himself is
of as much importance as the system which he practises, and Paracelsus
distinguishes five classes of physicians: the three lower classes
seeking for their resources in the material plane; the two higher
classes employing remedies belonging to the supersensual plane; but
he also says that, owing to the unity of nature, either one of these
classes of physicians may accomplish cures in either one of the five
fields, and that no physician ought to change around from one system to
another; but each ought to stick to that “sect” to which he naturally
belongs.
These five classes of physicians he describes as follows:
1. _Naturales_; such as employ physical remedies, acting as opposites;
which means, using physical and chemical means, heat against cold,
etc., etc. (Allopaths).
2. _Specifici._—Those who employ certain remedies which experience has
shown to act as _specifica_ (Empirics, Homœopaths).
3. _Characterales._—Such as employ the powers of the mind; acting upon
the will and imagination of the patient (Mental healers, Mind cure,
Mesmerism, &c.).
4. _Spirituales._—Those who are in possession of spiritual powers,
using the magic power of their own will and thought (Magic,
Psychometry, Hypnotism, Spiritism, Sorcery).
5. _Fideles._—Those through whom “miraculous” works are performed in
the power of the true faith (Adepts).
To which of these five “sects” or faculties a physician belongs, he
ought to be thoroughly versed and experienced in that department,
having not merely a superficial but a thorough knowledge of it.
“In whatever faculty one desires to acquire a degree and obtain
success, he should, besides regarding the soul and the diseased body
of the patient, exert himself to obtain a thorough knowledge of that
department, and be taught more by his own intuition and reason than by
what the patient can tell him; he ought to be able to recognise the
cause and origin of the disease which he treats, and his knowledge
ought to be unwavering and not subject to doubts.” (“Paramir.,” I.,
Prolog.)
There are, therefore, in each of these classes three grades to be
distinguished, namely: (1) those who possess the full requirements of
their art; (2) those who have attained only mediocrity; (3) dunces,
pretenders and frauds; to which belong the vast array of licensed and
unlicensed quacks, such as thrive upon the ignorance and credulity of
the people and by means of their poisons and drugs “kill annually more
persons than war, famine and the plague combined.” But neither of these
five classes of physicians should regard their own system as the only
true one, and reject the others or consider them useless; for in each
is contained the full and perfect power to cure all diseases that come
from either of the five causes, and each will be successful if such is
the will of the Law.
I.—NATURALES.
To this class belongs the vast army of what is to-day usually termed
“regular practitioners,” meaning those who move in the old ruts of
official medical science, from the more or less progressive physician
down to the vendor of drugs. The remedies which they employ belong to
the three kingdoms of physical nature, and according to the elements
which they represent, may be divided as follows:
1. _Earth._—This includes all mineral, vegetable, and animal substances
that may be required for medical purposes, drugs, herbs, and their
preparations, chemical agents, &c.
2. _Water._—To this belongs the water cure, hot and cold baths, and
whatever may be connected with it.
3. _Air._—The therapeutic results which can be accomplished by means
of inhaling certain gases and vapours are at present comparatively
little known, except in so far as changes of climate are resorted to
for such purposes. The employment of such things as pure air, sunlight,
etc., is far too simple to find full appreciation of its value by a
generation whose mode of thinking is too complicated to enable them to
perceive simple truths, and is therefore considered to belong rather to
“hygiene” than to “therapeutics.”
4. _Fire._—To the agents belonging to this class may be counted
any kind of energy, heat and cold, sunlight and the actions of its
variously coloured rays,[45] physical electricity, mineral magnetism,
etc., all of which have thus far received very little attention from
modern medicine; while the ancients employed such remedies for the cure
of many diseases.[46]
5. _Ether._—The one element and its action is thus far hardly
theoretically admitted by modern science and practically almost
unknown. Only very recently a great step of progress in this direction
has been made by the discovery of the therapeutic action of the solar
ether, and by the employment of an apparatus for the employment of its
radiations.[47]
But the sphere of activity for the natural physician is not limited
to the extent of the merely physical plane. If he goes a step higher
he may employ not only the products of life, but the activity of life
itself, in a higher form.[48] The sources from which he receives the
physical remedies are the physical products of nature; the sources from
which he draws living powers are living organisms. To this department
belongs the employment of “animal magnetism;” the transfer of life
(_Mumia_); the transplantation of diseases[49] and similar things
thoroughly described by Paracelsus, Cornelius Agrippa and others, but
which for our present official medical science do not exist.
Even those who employ only gross material principles also employ,
without being conscious of it, the higher principles contained therein;
for every physical substance, to whatever kingdom in nature it may
belong, is an expression of not only one of the four elements, but of
all four, and contains all the higher principles. Thus, for instance,
it has been shown that the action of certain drugs corresponds to that
of the colours which they exhibit in the solar-spectrum;[50] each state
of matter also corresponds to a certain state of electric tension;
each particle of food proves the presence of the life principle in
it by being nutritious; each poisonous drug acting upon the mind,
shows thereby that the mind principle therein is in a high state of
activity. There is no “dead matter” in the universe; each thing is a
representation of a state of consciousness in nature, even if its state
of consciousness differs from ours, and is therefore beyond the reach
of our recognition; everything is a manifestation of “Mind,” even if
does not exhibit any intelligent functions, or what we are capable of
recognising as such.
For the comprehension of these things, the position adopted by modern
natural science is altogether insufficient, and such a philosophical
knowledge is required as shall constitute the first pillar in the
temple of medicine. There is a vast field still unexplored by modern
medical science, and if things which were known to the ancients are
not known at present, it is not because such sciences have never
existed, but because they have ceased to be understood owing to the
materialising tendency of this age.
II.—SPECIFICI.
To this class belong all physicians who under certain circumstances
employ certain remedies, of which they know from experience that under
similar circumstances similar remedies have proved successful. This
system may therefore be called “_Empiricism_,” and it constitutes the
greatest part of modern therapeutics; for what little is known to-day
of the physiological and therapeutic actions of medicine on the whole
the result of observation, and not of a knowledge of the fundamental
laws of nature which cause medicines to act as they do.
Heat is a specific remedy for cold, and moisture for dryness; but even
the very opposite remedies often have the same specific effect. Thus,
for instance, the pain caused by an inflammation, and the inflammation
itself, may be cured by cold as well as by hot applications to the
inflamed part; for in one case the walls of the blood vessels contract,
diminishing the quantity of the blood rushing to them, while in the
other case these vessels dilate, rendering the rush of blood painless
and easy. The specific action of chemicals is due to their chemical
affinities (harmonies). Thus the invigorating action resulting from the
inhalation of fresh air is caused by the affinity which Oxygen has for
the Carbon in the blood, and by the life principle of the air upon the
life principle in the body. Thus the tubercle-bacilli in the lungs may
be destroyed by the specific action of certain gases, which, inhaled,
form certain chemical compounds with certain elements contained in
these micro-organisms, and thereby cause their destruction.[51]
Everything in the universe takes place for a certain reason and has a
certain specific action depending on certain conditions. If we know
the laws and conditions, experience becomes a science; but where our
science is blind, experience can be our guide.
Like knows like. The physical senses only recognise physical things;
but all visible things are an expression of soul, and what can we
know about the _Soul of Things_, if we do not know that soul which is
our own? There can be no motion, where there is no emotion to produce
it, either directly or indirectly. All motions are manifestations of
energy; energy is a manifestation of consciousness; consciousness is a
state of the mind; mind is a vehicle for the manifestation of spirit;
spirit is the “Breath” by which the world was _created_.
If the colours of the _Tattwas_ and their nature were studied, a new
field for medical science would open. It would become possible to
explain why a raving maniac kept in a room of blue light will become
quieted, and a melancholy person improve in a room filled with red or
yellow rags; why a steer will become excited at the sight of red, and
a mob infuriated by the sight of blood. Where the laws in consequence
of which certain effects occur are unknown, we can only register
the facts. If we recognise a truth by experience we can make use of
it, leaving it to sceptical science to arrive at its recognition by
hobbling along on its crutches of external observation and inference.
These inferences are often drawn from wrong premises; effects mistaken
for causes; drugs administered where the sources of the diseases exist
in moral and mental conditions upon which drugs have no effect, etc.,
etc. The application of specific remedies therefore requires not merely
a knowledge that this or that remedy has effected such and such cures,
but also a knowledge of the circumstances in which it will produce such
effects again. The real _Arcanum_ is the understanding of the relation
existing between cause and effect. To those shortsighted practitioners
who behold in every disease nothing but the manifestation of a purely
physical or chemical cause, and to whom “mind,” “soul” and “spirit” are
terms without meaning or merely physiological functions of unconscious
matter, the _Arcana_ of such cures will ever remain unknowable
mysteries; for they can be known only to those who understand the
organization of the inner nature of man. The phenomena caused by life
are incomprehensible as long as life is regarded as a product of
forms without life; but he who is able to see in every living thing
a manifestation of the _One Life_ pervading all nature, a function
of universal will, has already entered the precincts of that higher
science, which cannot be explained by words, if it is not known to the
heart.
III.—CHARACTERALES.
A physician of this class is the one whose very presence inspires the
patient with confidence in recovery. Consciously or unconsciously such
a physician acts upon the two great motive powers in the constitution
of the patient, namely his will and his imagination. He who can restore
tranquillity of the soul by creating confidence, creates the condition
required for the cure of the disturbance of the elements producing
discord.
All the processes taking place in the physical body originate in the
unconscious or conscious action of the will and the imagination, to
which must be added the power of memory; for the existence of former
impressions either consciously or unconsciously produces certain states
in the imagination, which again determine the direction of will. The
average physician often employs these powers unknowingly; a physician
of the higher class can employ them intelligently. A sudden strong
emotion may in a moment cure a paralytic affection of long standing, a
sudden danger arouse the unconscious will. Perhaps in the majority of
cases it is not that which the patient takes but that which he imagines
that it will cure him, which effects the cure, and without this power
of the imagination very few medicines would produce any beneficial
results.
To this department belong so-called “hypnotism” and “suggestion,” two
old things described under new names. Paracelsus says of this action of
the spiritual will:
“It is as if one orders another to run and he runs. This takes place
by means of the word and through the power of the word; the word being
the character.” (“Paramir.,” Prolog. III.)
So-called “_hypnotism_” is the overcoming of a weak will by a stronger
one. The superior will of the physician overcomes the will of the
patient and forces it to act in a certain direction. It is an art
which is practised continually and constantly by one half of mankind
on the other half, from the will power of a general commanding his
army down to the unconscious influence unknowingly exercised by one
mind over another, without the subject being aware of its source. Evil
thoughts originating in one person create corresponding impulses in
others, and if the unconscious action of will and the relations which
it causes among sympathetic minds were truly known, human freewill and
responsibility would perhaps appear in a different light.
Similar to that is what has been called “suggestion,” which Paracelsus
calls the virtue of the imagination. It is the imagination of one mind
overpowering the mind of another and creating therein a corresponding
imagination, which is perfectly real to the patient, because it is in
reality his own creation produced unconsciously by himself.
“The visible man has his laboratory (the physical body), and the
invisible man is working therein. The sun has his rays, which cannot
be grasped with the hands, which are nevertheless strong enough to set
houses on fire (if gathered by a lens).
Imagination in man is like a sun, it acts within his world wherever
it may shine. Man is that which he thinks. If he thinks fire, he is
all on fire; if he thinks war, he is warring; by the power of thought
alone the imagination becomes a sun.” (“De virtute imaginativa,” V.)
The imagination becomes strong through the will and the will becomes
powerful through imagination. Either of these two is the life of the
other, and if they become one and identical, they constitute a living
spirit to which nothing inferior offers resistance. In the ignorant and
doubtful, in those who do not know their own mind and doubt the result
of success, consequently in the majority of experiments carried on for
the purpose of gratifying a scientific curiosity or for some other
selfish purpose, the will and imagination are not one, but act in two
different directions. If we look with one eye to heaven and with the
other to the earth, or with one to the restoration of the patient’s
health and with the other to the profits knowledge or renown we may
receive from it ourselves, there is no unity of motive or purpose, and
consequently a lack of the principal condition for success. A physician
desirous of employing such means should therefore be of such a nobility
of character as to be above all selfish considerations, and only intent
upon doing his duty according to the commands of divine love.
Only that which comes from the heart goes to the heart; the power that
comes from the brain alone has no magic effects unless it becomes
united with that which comes from the heart. It resembles the cold and
ineffective moonlight, but it becomes a strong power by its union with
the sunshine that radiates from the centre of the heart.
“Thus the imagination becomes a spirit, and its vehicle is the body,
and in this body are generated the seeds which bear good and evil
fruits.” (“De virtute imaginativa,” III.)
IV.—SPIRITUALES.
Up to this class we have had to deal with forces which are, even if
not fully recognized, at least admitted by modern science; but now we
are going to speak of the action of a spiritual power, which, being
in the conscious possession of only a few persons, is almost entirely
unknown. This is the power which the self-conscious spirit exercises
over the unintelligent forces in nature, and which comes under the head
of “Magic,” a term whose meaning is understood only by few.
“Magic”—from _mag_, priest—means the great power of wisdom, an
attribute of the self-conscious spirit, holy or devilish according to
the purpose to which it is applied. It is therefore a power which does
not belong to the terrestrial intellectual man; but to the spiritual
man, and it may even be exercised by the latter without the external
man being aware of the source of this power acting in him. For this
reason we often see that some remedy proves very efficacious in the
hands of one physician and entirely useless in the hands of another
equally learned and intellectual. Paracelsus says:
“Such physicians are called _spirituales_, because they command the
spirits of herbs and roots, and force them to release the sick whom
they have imprisoned. Thus if a judge puts a prisoner in the stocks,
the judge is his physician. Having the keys, he may open the locks
when he chooses. To this class of physicians belonged Hippocrates and
others.” (“Paramir.,” Prolog. III.)
Such an assertion appears to be incredible only as long as nothing is
known about the constitution of matter; but if we call occult science
to our aid and realise that all things in the world constitute certain
states of one universal consciousness, and that the foundation of all
existence is Spirit, it not only becomes comprehensible, but even
self-evident, that the self-conscious spirit of a person can move and
control the products of nature’s imagination according to its own
action in them, and we may truly say that in such cases it is the
spirit of the physician acting by means of the spirit of the remedies
which he employs, and herein is the solution of the secret of the
wonderful cures of leprosy, etc., effected by Theophrastus Paracelsus,
which have been historically proved, but which are unintelligible if
examined from the point of view of material science.
An investigation into this subject would take us within the realm of
white and black magic, witchcraft and sorcery, which have received
attention already on a previous occasion,[52] and whose further
elucidation would be premature and altogether impossible within the
limited space of this work.
V.—FIDELES.
The word “fidelity”—from _fido_, to trust—means faith, confidence,
conviction arising from the perception of truth; knowledge, such as
results from experience, and the class of physicians here referred to,
includes those who, remaining true to their own divine nature, are in
possession of divine powers, such as have been attributed to Christ,
the apostles and saints.
“They restore health by the power of faith; for he who believes in
truth becomes healed by its own power.” (“Paramir.,” I., Prol. 3.)
So-called “faith” is in most cases illusive, and consists merely in an
accepted or pretended belief in the correctness of certain opinions or
theories. The true faith of the spiritual man is a living spiritual
and divine power, resulting from the certitude of the spiritual
perception of the eternal law of cause and effect. As we most certainly
are convinced that day follows upon the night, and night after day,
so the Adept-physician, knowing the spiritual, moral and physical
causes of diseases, and appreciating the flow of their evolution and
progress, knows the effects created by such causes, and controls the
means for their cure. No one can destroy effects caused by the law of
divine justice. If he hinders the manifestation of divine law in one
way, it will manifest itself in another way, such is the action of
divine law in nature; but he who lives in the truth and in whom divine
truth becomes manifest, is thereby raised superior to nature, for he
enters into that from which nature took its origin. This uplifting and
all-saving power is the true faith in man which can cure all diseases.
“There is neither good nor bad luck; but every effect is due to a
cause. Each one receives his reward according to the way he walks and
acts. God has made all men out of only one substance, and given to
all the same power to live, and all human beings are therefore equals
in God. The sun and the rain, winter and summer, are the same for
everybody; but not everybody looks at the sun with the same eyes. God
loves all mankind alike; but not all men love God with the same kind
of love. Each of God’s children has the same inheritance; but one
squanders, while another preserves it. That which God has made equal
is rendered unequal by the actions of men. Each man taking his cross
upon himself finds therein his reward. Every misfortune is a fortune,
because divine goodness gives to everyone that which he most needs for
his future development; the suffering begins only when discontent,
the result of the non-recognition of eternal law, steps in. The
greater the obstacle to combat, the greater will be the victory.”
(“Philosophia,” V.)
The art of medicine has not been instituted for the purpose of defying
the laws of God; but for the purpose of aiding in the restoration of
the harmony, whose disturbance caused disease, and this restoration
takes place through obedience to the law. There is no more a
“forgiveness of the sin of disease” than there is a forgiveness of
moral sins. The cure takes place by means of a re-entering into harmony
with the laws of nature, which after all are the laws of God manifested
in the natural realm. Neither is the health restored or sins pardoned
for the purpose that man with lessened fear of punishment may go and
sin again; but after the effects of the discords are overcome, he
obtains again the power to sin, so that he may have a fresh opportunity
for overcoming temptation and thus attain mastery over himself during
his life upon this earth. He who is master over himself is his own law
and not subject to any disharmony, and it is this which Paracelsus
expressed in his favourite motto:
“Non sit alterius qui suus esse potest,”
which may be translated, “He who is master over himself belongs to
nothing else but himself”: for that Self which conquers “self” is God,
the Will of Divine Wisdom, the Lord over All.
VI.
THE MEDICINE OF THE FUTURE.
There is no doubt that the average physician of the present age
occupies on the whole a much higher position than was occupied by the
average physician of the last centuries when the wisdom of the ancients
had become a forgotten truth, and modern science was in its infancy.
Although there were even during the middle ages physicians of deep
insight, and in possession of a profound knowledge of the mysteries of
Nature, such as the modern profession may acquire again by slow growth
within the next centuries, the popular medicine of these times was a
mixture of ignorance and quackery, the remnants of which are still to
be found in our days. Of this class of the physicians of those times
Paracelsus says:—
“There are a great many among them who have no other object but to
satisfy their greed, so that one has to be ashamed to belong to a
profession in which so much swindling takes place. They speculate
on the ignorance of the people, and he who succeeds in amassing the
greatest amount of money by robbing them is looked upon as the leading
physician. Mutual love and charity is entirely out of fashion, and the
practice of medicine is degraded to the standard of a common trade,
in which the only object is to take as much money as one can obtain,
and those who have the gift of the gab, and clamour the loudest,
succeed best in cheating mankind; for as long as the world is filled
with fools, the biggest fool will necessarily be the ruler, if he only
succeeds in making himself conspicuous.” (“Defensio,” V.)
The science of medicine is not to blame for the existence of such
a state of things; but it is one of the attributes of human animal
nature, and we leave it to the intelligent observer to judge whether
this nature has changed a great deal since the time of Paracelsus,
or whether there is still an army of quacks, legalized or illegal,
who have written the motto “_Mundus vult decipi, ergo decipiatur_”
upon their flag. Official science has undoubtedly progressed
during this century, but merely intellectual acquisitions do not
necessarily make a man wiser; the greatest scoundrels have been men
of great intellectuality without spirituality. Wisdom consists in the
self-recognition of truth, and there are many who are “ever learning
and never able to come to the knowledge of truth.”[53]
This spiritual knowledge does not belong to the faculties of men’s
lower intellectual nature, but to his higher nature alone; and it
is therefore of paramount importance that the development of that
higher nature should receive more attention than it is receiving at
present. A mere improvement in morals or ethics is quite insufficient
for that purpose. Morality is the outcome of reasoning; Spirituality
is the superior power due to the manifestation of self-consciousness
on a higher plane of existence, the illumination of the mind and
body of man by the power and light of the spirit filling the soul.
When spirituality becomes substantiality in man, then only will his
knowledge be of a substantial kind.
This spiritual substantiality, or, in other words, the realization of
the highest ideal, is the work of the gradual evolution of mankind;
which, as has been said by the ancient alchemists, “may require for its
accomplishment thousands of ages; but which can also be accomplished
in a moment of time.” It is not a product of man’s labour, but of the
descent of the light of divine truth, the “grace of God” which will
come to everyone whenever he is ready to receive it. It is therefore
not dependent on anyone’s willing or running,[54] but on the action of
the spirit of the true divine Self, which is ever striving to become
manifest in man.
This interior development is not the consequence of the acquisition of
any new theories in regard to the nature of the constitution of man;
but takes place through the overcoming of the lower elements in his
nature, by means of which his higher nature can become manifest. But
in order to induce and enable him to employ his powers intelligently
for the purpose of conquering his lower nature, he should learn to know
theoretically his own constitution and the nature of the higher powers
in him.
These are the elements of that higher science which the physician of
the future will have to learn, first theoretically and afterwards in
their practical application. Without a spiritual recognition of the
fundamental principles of Nature, a seeking from a superficial point of
view for a discovery of the mysteries of being is like an unfruitful
wandering in a fog. It resembles a search from the periphery of a
sphere of unknown extent for a centre whose locality is unknown; while
if we have once a correct conception of the situation of that shining
centre, its light will act as a guiding star in our wanderings through
the fogs which pervade the realm of phenomena.
Science comes from man; wisdom belongs to God. Of sciences there are
many; wisdom is only one. The sciences should be cultivated, but wisdom
not be neglected, for without wisdom no true science can exist.
“Nothing (real) is of ourselves; we do not belong to ourselves, but
we belong to God. Therefore we must try to find in ourselves that
which is of God. It is his and not ours. He has made a body for us,
and given us life and wisdom in addition to it, and from these come
all things. We should learn to know the object of our existence, and
the reason why man has a soul, and what is the will of God that he
should do. A study of (terrestrial) man will never reveal the secret
and object of his existence, and the reason why he is in the world;
but if we once know his creator, we shall also know the qualities of
his child; for he who knows the father knows also the son, because the
son inherits the (nature of) the father. Each man has the same amount
of truth given to him by God; but not everyone recognises that which
he has received. He who sleeps knows nothing; he who lives an idle
life does not know the power which is in him, and wastes his time. Man
is so great and noble that he bears the image of God, and is an heir
to the kingdom of God. God is supreme truth, and the devil is supreme
falsehood. Falsehood cannot know truth. Therefore if man wants to
come into possession of truth, he must know the wisdom which he has
received from God. Cleverness belongs to the animal nature, and in
regard to many scientific acquisitions animals are superior to man;
but the understanding is an awakening which cannot be taught by man.
That which one person learns from another is nothing unless there is
an awakening. A teacher can put no knowledge into his pupil, he can
only aid in the awakening of the knowledge which is already in him.”
(“De Fundamento Sapientiæ,” I.)
Wisdom is the recognition of God. God is the truth, the knowledge of
one’s own true self is divine wisdom. He who knows his true self knows
the divine powers belonging to his God.
“God is Wisdom. He is not a sage or an artist, he is for himself
(absolute), but all wisdom and art is born from him; if we know God,
we also know his wisdom and art. In God all is one and no pieces. He
is the unity, the one in everything. A science dealing only with a
piece of the whole, and losing sight of the whole to which it belongs,
is abortive and not in possession of truth. He who sees in God nothing
but truth and justness sees rightly. All wisdom belongs to God; that
which is not of God is a bastard. Therefore the kingdoms of this world
fall to pieces, scientific systems change, man-made laws perish, but
the recognition of eternal truth is eternal. He who is not a bastard
of wisdom, but a true son of the father, is in possession of wisdom.
This wisdom is that we live in regard to each other as the angels
live, and if we live like the angels they will become our own self, so
that nothing divides us from them but the physical form, and as all
wisdom and art is with the angels, so it will be with us. The angels
are the powers through which the will of God is executed. If the will
of God is executed through us, we shall be his angels ourselves. The
will of God cannot be performed through us unless we are ourselves
after the will of God. A fool or a dunce or a greedy person is not
after the will of God; how could that will be executed through him? It
is of little use to believe that Solomon was wise, if we are not wise
ourselves. We are not born for the purpose of living in ignorance, but
that we should be like the father, and that the father may recognise
himself in the son. We are to be lords over nature, and not nature be
lord over us. This is spoken of the angelic man (_Buddhi_) in whom
we shall live and through whom we shall see that all our doing and
leaving undone, all our wisdom and art is of God.” (“De Fundamento
Sapientiæ,” II.)
All this, however, will be incomprehensible and be condemned as
nonsense by what Paracelsus justly calls the “scientific fool,”
because the wisdom of which he speaks is not the intellect of the
terrestrial, but the understanding of the celestial mind. It is that
rare power of spiritual self-knowledge which cannot be taught in words,
but which is the result of an interior unfolding of the faculties of
the soul. The true physician is not made by schools of learning; he
becomes one through the light of divine wisdom itself.
“Man has two understandings; the angelic and the animal power of
reason. Angelic understanding is eternal; it is of God and remains
in God. The animal intellect also originates from God and within
ourselves; but it is not eternal; for the animal body dies and its
reason dies with it. No animal faculty remains after death; but death
is only a dying of that which is animal and not of that which is
eternal.” (“De Fundamento Sapientiæ,” II.)
The term “wisdom” comes from _vid_, to see, and _dôm_, a judgment;
it therefore refers to that which is seen and understood, but not to
opinions or theories derived from inference, or based on the assertion
of others. It is not the product of observation and speculation, memory
or calculation, but is the result of interior growth, and all growth
comes from nourishment. As the intellect is enlarged by intellectual
acquirements, so divine wisdom in man grows by absorbing the nutriment
which it receives from the light of Divine Wisdom.
“Everything is of the nature of that from which it is born. The
animal in man is nourished by animal food, the angel in him by the
food of the angels. The animal spirit belongs to the animal mind,
and in the animal mind of man are contained all the potentialities
which are separately possessed by the different classes of animals.
You may develop in a man the character of a dog, a monkey, a snake,
or of any other animal; for man in his animal nature is nothing more
than an animal and the animals are his teachers and surpass him in
many ways; the birds in singing, the fish in swimming, etc. He who
knows many animal arts is for all that not more than an animal or a
menagerie of different animals; his virtues, no less than his vices,
belong to his animal nature. Whether he possesses the fidelity of a
dog, the matrimonial affection of a dove, the mildness of a sheep, the
cleverness of a fox, the skill of a beaver, the brutality of an ox,
the voracity of a bear, the greed of a wolf, etc., all this belongs
to his animal nature; but there is a higher nature of an angelic
character in him, such as the animals do not possess, and this angelic
being requires that nutriment which comes from above and corresponds
to its nature. From the hidden animal spirit in nature grows the
animal intellect; from the mysterious action of the angelic spirit
grows the super-terrestrial man; for man has a father who is eternal
and for him he shall live. This father has placed him in an animal
body, not that he should only dwell and remain therein, but that he
should by living in it overcome it.” (“De Fundam. Sap.,” III.)
The animal mind, filled with self-conceit and pride in its evanescent
possessions, is entirely incapable of conceiving the nature of the
angelic mind, or of forming an idea of the extent of its powers;
neither can it grasp the true meaning of a language that deals with
the things that belong to that higher nature and believes it to be but
delusions and dreams.
“The vanity of the learned does not come from heaven, but they learn
it from each other and upon this basis they build their church.” (“De
Fund. Sap.” Fragm.)
“Faith without works is dead,” and as we are speaking of spiritual
things, the “work” which the true faith requires is of a spiritual
character, meaning spiritual action, growth and development. A faith
without substantiality is merely a dream; a science without true
knowledge is an illusion; a merely sentimental desire without any
active exercise for the attainment of truth is useless. A person living
in such dreams and fancies about ideals which he never attempts to
realise, dreams only of treasures which he does not possess. He is like
a person wasting his life in studying the map of a country in which
he might travel, but never making a start. A merely ideal religion,
which is never realized and does not substantially nourish the soul,
is only imaginary and serves but to amuse; a science which is not
practically employed remains an unfruitful theory, serving at best for
the gratification of animal curiosity.
The work which _Faith_ requires is a continual _Self-Sacrifice_, which
means a continual striving to overcome the animal and selfish nature,
and this victory of the high over the low is not accomplished by that
which is low, but can only take place through the power of divine
_Love_, which means the recognition of the higher nature in man and its
practical application in daily life. This is the kind of love of which
the great mystic of the 17th century, John Scheffler, speaks when he
says:
“Faith without love aye makes the greatest roar and din,
The cask sounds loudest when there is nought within.”
Without this practical application all virtues are only dreams and
cannot grow into substantial powers, nor be employed as such.
Shakespeare says:
“It is a good divine that follows his own instructions.”—“Merchant of
Venice.”
but such characters are at the present time very rare, for the world
now lives only in dreams. “There are “divines” knowing nothing of
any divinity; medical practitioners knowing nothing about medicine;
“anthropologists” knowing nothing about the nature of man; lawyers
knowing nothing of justice; “humanitarians” beggaring their employees;
“christians” to whom Christ is unknown. In every sphere of life the
external is mistaken for the internal, the illusion for the reality,
while the reality remains unrealized and therefore unknown.
A superficial science can concern itself only with superficial causes
and effects, however deeply it may enter into the details of such
superficialities. The mysterious powers in nature, the intelligent
forces in man, are at present almost entirely unknown, and _there is no
other way of penetrating into the deeper secrets of nature except by
the development of the higher nature of man_.
In ancient times the physician was considered sacred and belonged to
the priesthood, not to a priesthood appointed only by man, but to
a strong and real priesthood anointed by God. The physician of the
future will be again a king and a priest; for only he who is not merely
nominally but truly divine can be in possession of divine powers. In
him the triangular pyramid consisting of science, religion and art
will culminate in one point, called Self-knowledge or Divine Wisdom,
where man himself becomes identified with that superior light and
intelligence—his true self—of whose ray his personality is a vehicle,
image and symbol.
There is a long and weary road to be travelled yet before mankind will
arrive at this summit of perfection, and the goal is so far away that
only few are able to see it, while to many it will be an apparently
unrealisable ideal, and, like a mountain peak lost in the clouds,
inconceivable; but the ideal exists and the clouds that hinder us
from seeing it are our own errors and misconceptions; it remains with
ourselves to clear them away.
We ourselves, by the power of so much of the perception of truth as we
have already received and which has become our own, have it within our
reach to overcome the darkness and open our minds to the influence of
the light. But the light itself we cannot create or manufacture; it is
not the product of our calculations, influences and theories. The truth
is self-existent, eternal; it may be perceived, but it cannot be made.
The reason why so few can realise the meaning of the term
“self-knowledge,” is that the knowledge obtained in our schools is
exclusively of an artificial kind. We read that which other men have
believed and known and we imagine we know it. We fill our minds with
the thoughts of others and find little time to think for ourselves.
We seek to arrive at a conviction of the existence of this or that
object by means of arguments and inferences, while we refuse to open
our eyes and to see ourselves the very thing about whose existence we
argue. Thus from a theosophical point of view we should appear to a
higher being like a nation of people with closed eyes arguing about
the existence of the sun and unable or unwilling to look at it for
ourselves.
There is only one way to arrive at real self-knowledge, and this is
_Experience_. By external experience we attain knowledge of external
circumstances; by experiencing internal powers we attain internal
knowledge of them. _To know_ in reality means _to be_. By becoming
material we learn the laws ruling in matter; by becoming spiritual we
learn the laws of the spirit; our will is free to guide us in either
direction. We cannot know truth in any other way than by becoming
true, nor wisdom except by becoming wise. We can know any external
or internal power, be it heat or light, love or justice, only by the
effects which we experience from its action upon or within our own self.
Man’s life in his present condition resembles a dream, and the dreams
of humanity as a whole, no less than those of the individual, repeat
themselves over and over again. They come and go and come again,
appearing perhaps in changed forms, like clouds floating upon the sky
and assuming different shapes, but representing the old, ever-returning
illusions. While above them, unseen and unknown, shines the sunlight
of eternal, unchanging truth, whose presence may be felt like the warm
rays of the sun penetrating the clouds, but which to be known requires
to be seen. The temple of nature is open to everyone who is able to
enter; its light is free to everyone who is able to see; everything
is a manifestation of truth, but it requires the presence of truth
in ourselves to enable us to perceive it. That which hinders us from
entering the temple of nature, from seeing the light and perceiving the
truth, are the shadows which we ourselves have created. The real object
of the lights kindled by science is not to reveal the truth—which
requires no artificial light to be seen, and whose own light is quite
sufficient for that purpose—but to destroy the fogs which hinder us
from seeing the truth. No one would think of examining the sun by
the light of a candle; but the candle-light may guide us through the
dark passages of the labyrinth of matter to the door which opens upon
the surface, where after the daylight is seen, artificial help is no
longer required. But as in seeking our way through a tunnel the best
guide is the light that shines from afar through the entrance, so a
perception of truth in the heart is the only reliable guiding star in
the labyrinth of ever-changing illusions.
All the scientific lights in which this light of eternal truth
is not reflected, however radiant they may be, are only so many
will-o’-the-wisps misleading the wanderer. All scientific theories
and hypotheses based upon a non-recognition of the inner constitution
of man and denying his super-terrestrial origin are founded on a
misconception of truth. Such opinions are continually subject to
change, and no new theory of that kind exists at present which has
not existed in some similar shape before. But the truth itself is
independent of these opinions, it has always existed and there have
always been some who were capable of recognising it, and others
who, unwilling or unable to see it, based their knowledge upon
misconceptions and superstitious beliefs founded upon other men’s
assertions.
Modern medical science, with all its modern aids and paraphernalia,
has only succeeded in working itself up to a more detailed knowledge
of some less important phenomena in the kingdom of matter; while a
great number of far more important things that were known to the
ancients have been forgotten. As to the power of the soul over the
body, tremendous as it is, almost nothing is known; because the souls
of those who live entirely in the kingdom of speculations evolved by
their brain, are asleep and unconscious. An unconscious soul can no
more exert any power than an unconscious body; its motions can at best
be instinctive, because deprived of the light of intelligence. It is
far more important to the progress of real science that the soul of man
should awaken to a recognition of its own higher nature, than that the
treasures of a science dealing with the illusions of life should be
enriched by any new theories in which there is no recognition of the
one foundation of truth. All that any sound theory or any reliable book
can possibly do, is to displace a false theory which prevents man from
seeing correctly; but the truth itself can be exhibited or revealed
by no man and no theory, it can be seen only by the eye of the true
understanding, when it reveals itself in its own light.
It has been said that it is not within the reach of science to enter
the realm of noumena which underlie all phenomena and are their cause
of manifestation; but without a recognition of the _noumenon_ from
which all phenomena spring, a true science (from _scio_, to know)
will be as impossible as a system of mathematics with an ignoring
of the existence of the number _one_ from which all other numbers
take their origin and without which no number exists. The soul in
us is fundamentally identical with the One from which all phenomena
originate. The soul which _is_ can know that which is, while that in
us which merely _appears_ to be belongs to and deals with the realm of
appearances.
The acquisition of this higher science therefore requires less an
exertion of the speculative faculties of the brain than an awakening of
the soul; is advanced less by an evolution of thoughts of various kinds
than by the development of the inner man who is doing the thinking and
causing the evolution of thoughts, for if that which is able to know in
man does not know its own self, all the thoughts and ideas inhabiting
the sphere of man’s mind will have no legitimate owner, but exist there
merely as the reflections of the thoughts of other men, gathered around
an illusion called the personal self.
The more the mind analyses a thing and enters into its minor details
the easier does it lose sight of the whole; the more man’s attention
is divided into many parts, the more will he step out of his own
unity and become complicated himself. Only a great and strong spirit
can remain dwelling within its own self-consciousness, and, like the
sun, which shines into many things without becoming absorbed by them,
looks into the minor details of phenomena without losing sight of the
truth which includes the whole. The most simple truths are usually
the ones which are the most difficult to be grasped by the learned,
because the perception of a simple truth requires a simple mind. In
the kaleidoscope of ever-varying phenomena the underlying truth cannot
be seen upon the surface. As the intellect becomes more and more
immersed in matter, the eye of the spirit becomes closed; truths which
in times of old were self-evident have now been forgotten, and even
the meaning of the terms signifying spiritual powers has become lost
in proportion as mankind has ceased to exercise these powers. Owing to
the conceit of our age of selfishness, which seeks to drag spiritual
truths down to the scientific conception of a narrow-sighted animal
rationalism, instead of rising up to their level, the character of
modern popular science is shown in the amount of cleverness with which
illusory self-interests are protected; “faith,” the all-saving power
of spiritual knowledge, is believed to be superstition; “benevolence”
folly, “love” means selfish desires, “hope” is now greed, “life” the
creation of a mechanical process, “soul” a term without meaning,
“spirit” a nonentity, “matter” a thing of which nothing is known, etc.
All this has been written to no purpose, if we have not succeeded in
making it clear that real progress in the knowledge of human nature is
only possible by means of a higher development of the inner nature of
the physician himself. No one can attain any real knowledge of man’s
higher state unless he attains to it himself by purity of motive and
nobility of character. Only by recognising his body as a vehicle for
the development and manifestation of a superior intelligence will he be
able to realise the meaning of the words of Carlyle, who tells us that
man in his innermost nature is a divine being, and that whoever puts
his hand upon a human form touches heaven.
Wisdom must be the Master, science the servant. Science is the handmaid
of wisdom; wisdom the queen. Science is a product of man’s imagination;
wisdom the spiritual recognition of truth. Material science is a
product of the essentially selfish desire to know; wisdom recognises no
separation of interests, it is the self-recognition of universal and
eternal truth in man. Science, guided by wisdom, can enter into the
deepest mysteries of universal being by entering into the Unity of the
All; but if science attempts to employ wisdom for the gratification
of curiosity or other selfish ends, it is in opposition to wisdom and
becomes folly. Therefore a favourite motto of the ancient Rosicrucians
(of which Theophrastus Paracelsus was one), but which is understood by
only a few, said: “_I know nothing, I desire nothing, I love nothing,
I enjoy nothing in heaven or upon the earth but Jesus Christ and him
crucified._” This did not mean that they resolved to remain ignorant,
or to lose themselves in pious reveries and dreams of past events, for
Paracelsus also said: “God does not desire us to be ignorant blockheads
and stupid fools”—but it meant that they had given up the whole of the
illusion of self with all its necessarily illusive knowledge, desires,
attractions and joys, and entered into the consciousness of that divine
intelligence which during this earth-life is as it were crucified in
man, and by entering into the higher spiritual state they had become
one with Him, who is Himself the Truth in themselves and the source of
all knowledge in heaven and upon the earth.
Forever the truth shines in the eternal kingdom of Light but the world
of mind wherein our terrestrial nature moves, has its astrological
laws, comparable to those that rule in the visible world and are
known to astronomy. As the earth recedes from the sun in winter time
and approaches it in the summer, so the spiritual evolution of man
has its periods of spiritual enlightenment and of mental darkness,
and there are little periods within the large periods, as here are
days and nights in the year. Man, whether considered as representing
humanity as a whole, a nation a people, a family, or an individual,
resembles a planet revolving around its own axis between the two poles
of birth and decay. That which is uppermost turns down and that which
is below rises again to the surface. Truths disappear and are forgotten
only to reappear again embodied in new and perhaps improved forms.
Civilizations, systems of philosophy, religion and science come and go
and come again, the absurdities of fashion that have been the pride
of our parents and were laughed at by us become again the objects of
admiration for our children, and the forgotten wisdom of the past will
be again the wisdom of future generations. Thus the wheel would ever
revolve in a circle, there would be no progress and no object of life,
if the presence of the eternal sun of Divine Wisdom acting upon the
centre of the wheel did not attract it towards itself and thus in the
course of ages gradually transform the circular motion into a spiral
gyration. At every turn of the great wheel its axis moves imperceptibly
a little nearer to the source of all Life, although every period of
evolution begins again at the foot of the ladder. The ladder upon which
we are climbing stands perhaps upon a little higher ground than the one
upon which our ancestors climbed, or which we climbed ourselves during
previous incarnations; but there are many steps upon it which our
forefathers have ascended and which we shall have to reach. The science
of medicine forms no exception to this general rule, and we may safely
assert that _the system of medicine of Theophrastus Paracelsus, in its
recognition of fundamental laws of nature is of such a high character
that it will be for the medical science of the coming centuries to grow
up to its understanding_, nor will this advance in science be possible
without a corresponding development, and this development will be
inaugurated by a correct conception of the constitution of man.
While modern medical science has become degraded almost into a mere
trade, flourishing under the protection of its self-interests which
it receives from Governments, the medicine of the ancients was a holy
art, requiring no artificial protection, because, standing upon its
own merit, it rested upon its own success. The adept-physicians of
the past performed cures which whenever exceptionally performed at
present are called miraculous, and their possibility is denied by the
majority of the learned; because they are not in possession of the
spiritual powers required for their accomplishment, and consequently
cannot conceive of the existence of such powers. Where is the
physician of the present day who knows the extent of the power of the
spiritually-awakened will acting at a distance of thousands of miles,
or the power which human thought can exercise over the imagination of
nature? Where is the professor of science who can consciously transfer
his soul to a distant place by the power of thought and act there as
if he were bodily present? The proof that these things have been done
and are done even now is established as much as any other fact resting
upon observation and logic; nevertheless it is popularly considered
“scientific” to deny such facts and to treat the theory which explains
them with contempt. The finer forces of nature are so thoroughly
unknown to gross material minds that to mention their existence raises
a roar of merriment among those who, being ignorant of the extent of
the powers hidden in the constitution of man, require a sledge-hammer
to kill a fly and a cannon to shoot at a sparrow.
While the eyes of material science are directed downwards, seeking
within the bowels of matter and finding only perishing treasures,
the sentimental idealist revels in dreams without substance. Being
habituated to objective contemplation, the idealist obtains nothing
real; for keeping distant from the object of his research for the
purpose of seeing it objectively, he prevents himself from becoming
identified with that object, and he cannot have any self-knowledge of
that which he is not himself. Neither can the materialist who denies
the existence of Spirit in the universe have any real knowledge, for
he ignores that which alone is real and deals only with the relations
existing between phenomena which the unknown spirit produces.
Real knowledge such as is the product not of mere knowing, but of
_becoming_, ought to be the basis of all true science. This it is which
constitutes that _Theosophia or Self-recognition of Truth_, which will
be the guiding star of the physician in the future as it has been in
the past.
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FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 1: _Jacob Boehme_ says: “If an essence (a form of
will-substance) enters into another whose nature is of a different
character, an antagonism is created and a strife for supremacy ensues.
One quality disrupts the other, which ultimately causes the death of
the form; for whatever is not in harmony cannot live eternally; but
whatever is in perfect harmony has no elements of destruction within
itself; for in such an organism all the elements love each other, and
love is the creator and preserver of life.”—“Mysterium magnum,” xxi. 5.]
[Footnote 2: Let it be clearly understood that by using the term
“religious” we do not refer to any of the existing systems of religious
doctrines or forms of worship; but to the spiritual recognition of
divine truth.]
[Footnote 3: The order here adopted is to facilitate the comparison
with the above given classification; the planets not being stationary,
but shifting their positions and significations according to the
aspects we take.]
[Footnote 4: Even of his cotemporaneous disciples there were few
capable of grasping his ideas and of leading the life necessary for
that purpose. He says: “Twenty-one of my servants have become victims
of the executioner (the spirit of this world); Gode may help them! Only
a few have thus far remained with me.” (“Defensio,” VI.)]
[Footnote 5: See “The Life of Theophrastus Paracelsus,” London, 1887.]
[Footnote 6: This is not correct; Paracelsus says: “The anatomy of man
is twofold. One aspect consists in dissecting the body, so as to find
out the position of its bones, muscles, veins, &c.; but this is the
least important; the other is more important, and means to introduce
a new life into the human organism; to see the transmutations taking
place therein, to know what the blood is and what kind of {symbol},
{symbol} and {symbol} (Sulphur, Salt and Mercury) it contains.”
(“Paramirum,” Lib. I. Cap. 6.)]
[Footnote 7: Prof. Rud. Virchow’s lecture on Pathology, delivered in
London, March 6th, 1893.]
[Footnote 8: The word “contemplation”—from _con_=with, and
_templum_=temple—means evidently not mere objective observation,
but an indwelling in the same temple with the truth which is to be
known, an identification of subject and object in the light of divine
wisdom, the temple of truth. The attainment of knowledge by such a
contemplation is only possible for those whose spiritual perception
is open. A blind person may dwell forever in the temple of truth
without being able to know it. To those who by an unfoldment of their
spirituality have attained this power of contemplation, its sufficiency
for the attainment of spiritual knowledge is self-evident and requires
no arguments. Those who do not possess this power will find it
difficult to understand the meaning of this term, and suppose it to be
imagination.]
[Footnote 9: Herder.]
[Footnote 10: Only very recently in the courts of Vienna during a
sensational trial in regard to the state of _non compos mentis_,
concerning a nobleman, who left a considerable fortune to his servants,
the total ignorance of the experts on “psychology” regarding all
matters concerning the soul, and their total incapacity to judge of
the character and motives of a person, became so plain and was exposed
in such a ludicrous manner, that it became the public opinion, which
was also expressed by the judge, that the custom of calling in medical
men as experts in such things ought to be abandoned, and that actors,
novel-writers, or such as possess more capacity to know the motives of
human nature should be selected for that purpose.]
[Footnote 11: We may read at any time that the views of the ancients in
regard to this or that were “very vague”; while in fact the vagueness
is with the critic who does not understand what the views of the
ancients were. Words are made for the purpose of expressing ideas, and
if the ideas are not perceived the words are only misleading. If we
interpret the meaning of a term according to our own fancy, we shall
find therein only the misconception put into it by ourselves, but not
the original meaning.]
[Footnote 12: We call this the _sensual plane_, merely because it
includes that which is perceived by the senses of our _physical_ body.
If the senses of the _astral_ form are developed, the astral plane
will also be our _sensual_ plane. There can be no knowledge without
perception, and no perception without a sense for that purpose. A
system of philosophy based merely upon speculation, and without any
perception of truth, is no philosophy at all; but consists merely of
vagaries, illusions and dreams.]
[Footnote 13: See Rama Prasad’s “Nature’s Finer Forces.”]
[Footnote 14: See “Magic, white and black,” 4th edition, London, 1893
(Kegan, Paul and Co.).]
[Footnote 15: The more the minds of men become complicated by attending
to a multiplicity of details, the more will they lose sight of simple
facts. Thus the action of the sunlight and its various colours, of
which each has its special therapeutic qualities, is far too simple a
thing to find popular favour.]
[Footnote 16: “The Secret Symbols of the Rosicrucians,” II., pp. 16.
(Occult Publishing Co., Boston, Mass., 1888).]
[Footnote 17: “Paracelsus,” p. 168. (London, 1887: Trübner & Co.)]
[Footnote 18: The regenerated spiritual man is not a dream or an
unrealisable ideal, but far more substantial than the terrestrial man.
_William Law_ says: “Where Christ is born or His Spirit rises up in
the soul, there all self is denied and obliged to turn out, there all
carnal wisdom, arts of advancement, with every pride and glory of this
life, are so many heathen idols, all willingly renounced, and the man
is not only content, but rejoices to say that his kingdom is not of
this world.” (“William Law,” London, 1893.) See also “Jacob Boehme,”
page 263. London, 1891.]
[Footnote 19: “Theosophical Siftings.” Alchemy. (London: Theo. Pub.
Soc., 1891.)]
[Footnote 20: We purposely say “carbogen” and not “carbon,” because we
refer to that invisible element, whose product upon the visible plane
is carbon or coal.]
[Footnote 21: As we are not writing for children, it is unnecessary
to refute the puerile objection and say that the sixty-four so-called
single bodies of chemistry are not elements of nature, although they
may be regarded as the elements of the science of chemistry.]
[Footnote 22: In everything are there five elements or qualities
contained, because everything consists of vibrations of the one
element, called by the Alchemists _prima materia_, in which these
qualities are latent (potentially contained). Everything is a
manifestation of substance. That which is essential in it, is the
substance and not the form. Thus for instance that which is essential
in a diamond is the carbon; but carbon is not composed of diamonds.
Carbon is a substance universally distributed in nature in solid,
watery, gaseous, fiery form, and all these forms of carbon are certain
states of the one element “Carbogen” which is at the root of their
existence.]
[Footnote 23: _Vach._—If we remember that according to the Bible all
things were made of the _Word_, and that “the Word was God” (John i.,
1), we may obtain the key to the understanding of what generated the
_Akâsa_.]
[Footnote 24: Occult Publ. Co., Boston, Mass.; and Theosoph. Publ.
Soc., London.]
[Footnote 25: Occult Publ. Co., Boston, Mass.; and Theosoph. Publ.
Soc., London.]
[Footnote 26: _Jacob Boehme._]
[Footnote 27: “Secret Doctrine,” Vol. I., p. 106.]
[Footnote 28: “Superstition”—from _super_ = over and _sto_ = to
stand—is a belief in the knowledge of the attributes of a thing, while
these attributes are beyond our conception. A superstition is therefore
a misconception of an existing thing, or a creation of fancy: an
erroneous conclusion arrived at by the observation of a phenomenon,
without an understanding of the law which produced the phenomenon.]
[Footnote 29: _Richard Quain_, “Dictionary of Medicine,” 1883.]
[Footnote 30: “Paracelsus.” (London: Trübner and Co., 1887.)]
[Footnote 31: The word “substance” comes from _sub_, under, and _sto_,
to stand, and means the principle underlying phenomenal existence, the
basis of the manifestation of power. It is only too customary to give
to such terms a wrong interpretation, and then to fight the man of
straw created by oneself.]
[Footnote 32: “_Ens_” means a beginning.]
[Footnote 33: It is hardly necessary to furnish examples, such as, for
instance, presented by Strychnine, composed of C₂₁ H₂₂ N₂₂ O₂₂, a very
poisonous substance; while the same elements combined in a different
proportion are contained as gluten in our food. If we accept the theory
of vibration, which appears as a necessary result of the universe
being substance in motion, the cause of such secrets will easily be
found in the discords existing between the vibrations constituting
these substances. This theory of harmony will also explain why certain
chemicals combine with others in certain proportions.]
[Footnote 34: In the recognition of the law is contained the key to
the understanding of chiromancy, phrenology, physiognomy, psychometry,
etc., and their value in practising medicine; for although the physical
form, owing to external physical conditions, may not be an exact image
of the internal nature of man, nevertheless the character of the mind
is to a certain extent impressed visibly upon each part of the body,
and being a whole and a unity, the whole of that character may be read
in every part of the body, if we know how to read it; in the same sense
as a botanist can tell the character of a tree by examining one of its
leaves, for he knows at once to what class of trees it belongs.]
[Footnote 35: “The character of a man and his talents, aptitude,
dexterity, etc., are not given to him by (terrestrial) nature. His
spirit is not a product of nature, but comes from the incorporeal
realm. You should not say that he receives these things from nature;
the sages never said so.” (“Paramirum,” L. I., Tr. iii., C. 2.)]
[Footnote 36: “Then shall the dust return to earth as it was, and the
spirit shall return to God who gave it.” (“Ecclesiastes,” xii., 7.)]
[Footnote 37: See: “Magic, white and black,” “Paracelsus,” “Boehme,”
etc.]
[Footnote 38: “Key to Theosophy,” p. 121 (London, 1889).]
[Footnote 39: “There is an invisible organism in man, not placed within
the _three substances_; a body which (unlike the material one) does not
come from the _Limbus_ (matter) but has its origin in the living breath
of God. It is not a body coming into existence after death, to rise up
on the judgment day; for the physical body being a nonentity (unreal)
cannot become resurrected after death, neither shall we be called upon
to give account about our physical health and disease; but we shall be
judged according to the things that have issued from our will. This
spiritual body in man is the flesh that comes from the breath of God.
There are two bodies, but only one flesh.” (“Paramir.” _Lib._ II., 8.)]
[Footnote 40: Any person wishing for information on such points may
find it in the literature of spiritism, mediæval witchcraft, in the
“Lives of the Saints,” etc., etc. Volumes might be filled with such
accounts, but phenomena are proofs only to him to whom they occur. A
person having no experience of a thing is always at liberty to deny its
existence, and it is far easier to call it a “superstition” than to
arrive at its understanding by studying secret laws.]
[Footnote 41: See: _Thomson Jay Hudson_. “The Law of Psychic
Phenomena.”]
[Footnote 42: “Arcanum” means mystery. The key to a mystery is its
understanding. The Arcana of Paracelsus were not, as has been asserte
by certain “authorities,” patent medicines whose composition he kept
secret; but they were his knowledge of the means for effecting a cure.
He says:—“If there is a stone in the bladder, the _arcanum_ is the
knife (for performing lithotomy), in (acute) Mania phlebotomy is the
arcanum. An arcanum is the entering into a new state, the giving birth
to a new thing.” (_Lib._ “Paramir.,” I. 5, II. 2.) Every plane of
existence has its own mysteries and arcane remedies.]
[Footnote 43: H. P. Blavatsky’s “Key to Theosophy,” p. 201.]
[Footnote 44: The cause of a certain disease may exist not only in one
of these five classes, but in more. For instance, a hæmorrhage of the
womb may be caused by mental excitement in connection with a state of
weakness of resistance in the tissues of the organs; insanity may be
caused by mental, moral or physical circumstances; blindness may be the
result of physical causes or of mental excitement; a bodily defect the
result of antenatal _Karma_, or of physical causes. In the clockwork
of nature all the wheels are connected by one common chain. Therefore
not only one of these causes but all of them ought to be known and
taken into consideration; but each of the corresponding five methods
of treatment contains in itself all the elements for effecting a cure.
It is therefore not necessary that a physician should practise all the
five methods of treatment; but he should have a thorough knowledge of
the method which he has chosen, and be well versed in it and stick to
his method; but he should not believe his own method to be the only
true one, and reject others of which he knows nothing.]
[Footnote 45: The soothing power of blue, the exciting effects of
red, the invigorating effects of yellow, etc., deserve a great deal
more attention than they receive at present. The reason why the “blue
light cure” has caused only a passing excitement, is because it was
indiscriminately used and its laws not understood.]
[Footnote 46: “Paracelsus,” p. 141.]
[Footnote 47: Professor O. Korschelt in Leipzig invented an instrument
for that purpose.]
[Footnote 48: See “Paracelsus,” p. 138.]
[Footnote 49: All forces may become manifest in a threefold form. There
are universal, animal and spiritual “magnets”; a physical electricity,
an electricity of life, a spiritual electricity, etc., etc.]
[Footnote 50: _Dr Babbitt’s_ “Principles of Light and Colour.”]
[Footnote 51: F. Hartmann, “Eine neue Heilmethode.” W. Friedrich,
Leipzig, 1893.]
[Footnote 52: “Magic, white and black.” (London, 1893.)]
[Footnote 53: I. Timothy, III., 7.]
[Footnote 54: Romans, IX., _ib._]
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