112 PARACELSUS 



" The so-called * Dragon ' is an invisible being, which 

 may become visible and appear in a human form and 

 cohabit with witches. This is accomplished by means 

 of the sperma which is lost by masturbators, fornicators, 

 and prostitutes in acte venereo^ and which such spirits 

 use as a corpus to obtain for themselves a human form, 

 because the whole of the human form is typified in the 

 sperma, and if such spirits use the sperma of a certain 

 person, it is as if one man puts on the coat of another 

 man ; and then they have the form of that person 

 and resemble him in all his parts and details " ^ {De 

 Fertilitate, Tract, ii.). 



" Another such hideous monster is the Basilisc, created 

 by Sodomy, and also the Aspis and Leo. There are 

 innumerable bastard forms, half man, half spiders or 

 toads, &c., inhabiting the astral plane, belonging to the 

 ' serpent which is to have his head crushed by the heel 

 of Christ'"^ {Fragm.y 



" If such forms are sufficiently dense to become visible, 

 they appear like a coloured shadow or mist, or black 

 shadows. They have no life of their own, but they 

 borrow it from the person who called them into exist- 

 ence, just as a shadow is cast by a body; and where 

 there is no body, there can be no shadow. They are 

 often generated by idiots, immoral, depraved, or diseased 

 persons, who lead irregular and solitary lives, and who are 

 addicted to bad habits. The coherence of the particles 

 composing the bodies of such beings is not very strong, 

 and they are afraid of draughts of air, light, fire, sticks, 

 and weapons. They are a sort of airy appendix to the 



^ This is the kind of *' spirit " created by the followers of P. B. Randolph, 

 according to the instructions given in his book called ** Eulis." 



2 They cannot, however, become visible, unless they can draw some of 

 the astral essence from the person or persons in whose presence they desire 

 to appear ; in other words, persons must be mediumistic to produce such 

 manifestations of form. 



3 John Scheffler says : *' If you could see the horrible monsters by 

 Y'hich you are surrounded you would be sick from dis^st," 



