ISO PARACELSUS 



thought, supported by a strong faith, changes or creates 

 currents that act upon the sidereal man/'i 



The astral currents created by the imagination of the 

 Macrocosmos act upon the Microcosmos, and produce 

 certain states in the latter, and thus also the astral 

 currents produced by the imagination and will of man 

 produce certain states in external Nature, and these 

 currents reach very far, because the power of the imagi- 

 nation reaches as far as thought can go. The physio- 

 logical processes taking place in the body of living 

 beings are caused by their life currents, and the physio- 

 logical and meteorological processes taking place in the 

 great organism of Nature are caused by the life currents 

 of Nature as a whole. The astral currents of either act 

 upon the other, either consciously or unconsciously, and 

 if this fact is properly understood it will cease to appear 

 incredible that the mind of man can produce changes in 

 the universal mind, which will cause changes in the 

 atmosphere, winds and rains, storms, hail, and light- 

 ning, or that evil may be changed into good by the 

 power of faith. " Heaven (the mind) is a field into 

 which the imagination of man throws the seeds. Nature 

 is an artist that develops the seeds, and what is caused 

 by Nature may be imitated by Art " {Be Sagis et eorum 

 Operihus). 



" To conjure the spirit of a thing means to seek after 

 the truth which that thing represents. To see the spirit 

 of a thing means to recognise the character of that 

 thing, with all its qualities and attributes.^ To make 

 the spirit of a thing subservient to one's power is to 

 know how to use the powers that are hidden in such 

 a thing for our own purposes. If I know the attributes 



^ " The whole world is like a man and a woman, and has also its 

 anima and its spiritus imaginationis ; only much stronger and more 

 powerfully than man." The spirit orders, the will (matter) obeys ; 

 thought (imagination) directs, the soul (the body) executes and produces, 

 be it intellectually or without intelligence. 



2 The " spirit " of a thing is represented by the sum of its qualities. 



