96 PARACELSUS 



" The quality of the dreams will depend on the har- 

 mony that exists between the soul and the Astrum 

 (Universal Mind). To those who are self-conceited and 

 vain of their imaginary knowledge of exterior things, 

 having no real wisdom, nothing can be shown to them, 

 because the perverted action of their own minds opposes 

 the harmonious action of the Universal Mind and re- 

 pulses it. The spheres of their souls become narrow and 

 contracted, and cannot expand towards the whole. They 

 rest self-satisfied, buried in the shadow of their own 

 ignorance, and are inaccessible to the light of Nature. 

 Their attention is fully absorbed by the smoke of the 

 candle-wick of their material reason, and they are blind 

 to the light of the spiritual sun. The activity of the 

 Universal Mind can only come to the consciousness of 

 those whose spheres of mind are capable of receiving 

 its impressions. Those who make room for such im- 

 pressions will receive them. Such impressions are pass- 

 ing in and out of the sphere of the individual mind, 

 and they cause visions and dreams, having an important 

 meaning, and whose interpretation is an art that is 

 known to the wise" (Fhil. Sagax). 



" Thus one spirit may teach another during the sleep 

 of the body; for spirits deal with each other and teach 

 each other their art. A foreign spirit cannot enter into 

 a body which does not belong to him ; it is bound to 

 its own body. Therefore, the body of man must learn 

 from its own spirit, and not from a foreign one ; but his 

 spirit must learn from other spirits, for it cannot always 

 have everything out of its own self " {Philos., v.). 



the body can neither instruct nor seduce the spirit. The body eats and 

 drinks, but the nourishment of the spirit is faith. The body perishes, 

 the spirit is eternal. The body is subdued by the spirit, but not the 

 spirit by the body. The body is dark, the spirit light and transparent. 

 The body is subject to disease ; the spirit remains well. Material things 

 are dark to the body, but the spirit sees through everything. The body 

 (mind) speculates ; the spirit (the will) acts. The body is Mumia, the 

 spirit is lalsam. The body belongs to death, the spirit to life. The body 

 is of the earth ; the spirit from heaven and God " {Phil. Tract,, iv.). 



