130 PARACELSUS 



" The wisdom which man ought to have does not come 

 from the earth, nor from the astral spirit, but from the 

 fifth essence — the Spirit of Wisdom. Therefore man is 

 superior to the stars and the constellation, provided he 

 lives in the power of that superior wisdom. Such a 

 person, being the master over heaven and earth, by means 

 of his freewill,^ is called a Magus, and therefore Magic 

 is not sorcery, but supreme wisdom " {Be Peste). 



" Christ and the prophets and the apostles had magical 

 powers, acquired less by their learning than by their holi- 

 ness. They were able to heal the sick by the laying on 

 of their hands, and to perform many other wonderful but 

 natural things. Our clergymen talk a great deal about 

 such things ; but where is the priest of to-day who can 

 do like Him ? It has been said by Christ that His true 

 followers would do the same things and still greater ones ; 

 but it would be difficult to find at present one Christian 

 minister who can do anything as Christ did. But if any 

 one who is not a man-made minister comes and cures the 

 sick by the power of Christ acting through him, they call 

 him a sorcerer and a child of the devil, and are willing to 

 burn him upon a stake." 



The first requirement for the study of Magic is a 

 thorough knowledge of Nature. But there is a false 

 and a true natural science. A science may be perfectly 

 logical in all its deductions, but nevertheless false, if its 

 fundamental doctrines are based upon a misunderstand- 

 ing of spiritual truths, which a cold, unspiritual intellect 

 is unable to grasp.^ The true science of Nature draws 

 its logical conclusions from fundamental truths, which it 

 knows to be true, because it perceives them by the power 

 of the mind illuminated by wisdom. False science bases 

 its conclusions in regard to spiritual things upon external 

 appearances caused by the illusion of the senses; true 



1 The will is only free when it is free from the delusion of self and its 

 desires. 



^ All sciences are false if they are godless ; that is, if they seek for the 

 first origin of anything anywhere else but in divine truth. 



