54 PARACELSUS 



Nature may be discovered, and it is necessary that a 

 physician should be instructed and become well versed in 

 this art, and that he should be able to find out a great 

 deal more about the patient's disease by his own inner 

 perception than by questioning the patient. For this 

 inner sight is the Astronomy of Medicine, and as physi- 

 cal Anatomy shows all the inner parts of the body, 

 such as cannot be seen through the skin, so this magic 

 perception shows not only all the causes of disease, but 

 it furthermore discovers the elements in medicinal sub- 

 stances in which the healing powers reside.^ That which 

 gives healing power to a medicine is its ' Spiritus ' (an 

 ethereal essence or principle), and it is only perceptible 

 by the senses of the sidereal man. It therefore follows 

 that Magic is a teacher of medicine far preferable to all 

 written books. Magic power alone (that can neither be 

 conferred by the universities nor created by the award- 

 ing of diplomas, but which comes from God) is the true 

 teacher, preceptor, and pedagogue, to teach the art of 

 curing the sick. As the physical forms and colours of 

 objects, or as the letters of a book, can be seen with the 

 physical eye, thus the essence and the character of all 

 things may be recognised and become known by the inner 

 sense of the soul." ^ 



self, and the idea of there being two minds is only an illusion ; the two 

 are one. 



^ It would be difficult to find many practitioners of medicine possessed 

 of genuine powers of true spiritual perception ; but it is a universally re- 

 cognised fact that a physician without intuition (common sense) will not 

 be very successful, even if he knew all medical books by heart. We should 

 be guided by wisdom but not by opinions. The opinions of others may 

 serve us, but we should not be subservient to them. 



2 Von Eckartshausen describes this inner sense as follows : " It is the 

 centre of all senses, or the inner faculty of man, whereby he is able to feel 

 the impressions produced by the exterior senses. It is the formative 

 imagination of man, whereby the various impressions that have been re- 

 ceived through the outer senses are identified, and brought into the inner 

 field of consciousness. It is the faculty through which the spirit interprets 

 the language of Nature to the soul. It changes bodily sensations into 

 spiritual perceptions, and passing impressions into lasting images. All the 

 aenses of man originate in one sense, which is sensation." 



