MAGIC AND SORCERY 129 



not beloDg to the personal self. Therefore he who desires 

 to know and to use the powers of magic must rise above 

 the delusion of self, and become impersonal in the spirit. 

 He must learn to distinguish between that which is divine 

 and eternal and that which is animal and selfish in him. 

 But there is also another art, called "black magic" or 

 sorcery, which consists, not in acting in and through the 

 power of God, which commands the elemental forces of 

 Nature, but by propitiating the evil elementals, and in 

 asking favours of them, becoming their slave. Paracelsus 



" Magic and sorcery are two entirely different things, 

 and there is as much difference between them as there is 

 between light and darkness, and between white and black. 

 Magic is the greatest wisdom and the knowledge of super- 

 natural powers.-^ A knowledge of spiritual things cannot 

 be obtained by merely reasoning logically from external 

 appearances existing on the physical plane, but it will 

 be acquired by obtaining more spirituality, and making 

 one's self capable to feel and to see the things of the 

 spirit. It would be well if our clergymen, who are 

 called spiritual guides, would know more of spiritual 

 things tlian what they have read in their books, and if 

 they had some practical experience in divine wisdom, 

 instead of merely repeating the opinions of the other 

 people believed to have been divine." 



therefore not surprising that in an age in which the very meaning of the 

 term * spiritual ' became incomprehensible to the learned, the meaning of 

 'magic' has become also a mystery." 



^ The word "supernatural," as employed by Paracelsus, does not imply 

 anything beyond Nature as a wliole, because nothing exists beyond the 

 All, but it means that which transcends Nature in her lower aspect, or 

 a higher or spiritual aspect of Nature than the merely mechanical and 

 physiological part of her work. If, for instance, we follow our instincts, 

 we act naturally — that is to say, according to the demands of our animal 

 nature ; but if we resist natural impulses by the power of will and reason, 

 we employ powers belonging to a higher order of Nature. If we avoid to 

 do evil on account of the evil consequences which it would cause to our- 

 selves, we act naturally ; but if we avoid it on account of an inherent love 

 of principle, we act in the wisdom of God, 



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