200 PARACELSUS 



are threatened and when they will end ; but he takes 

 only one of the five causes into consideration, and the 

 chances are four to one that his predictions will prove to 

 be wrong, and that he will be laughed at by those who 

 have only a superficial knowledge, and who do not know 

 the cause of his failure. 



I. Diseases caused hy Astral Causes, 



" The world is the Macrocosm and man the Microcosm, 

 and the elements of all that exists in the former exist in 

 the latter. All the influences that come from the sun, 

 the planets, and stars act, therefore, invisibly upon man, 

 and if these influences are evil they will produce evil 

 effects. No vegetables would grow without the influence 

 of the sun, but if that influence is too strong they will 

 wither and perish. The world is surrounded by a 

 vaporous sphere, like an Q^g surrounded by a shell. 

 Through that shell the cosmic influences pass towards 

 the centre, and on that occasion they may become 

 poisoned by the miasmas in the air, and create epidemic 

 diseases. An evil astral influence does not poison the 

 whole world, but only those places where causes for 

 infection exist. If no germs of disease exist in our 

 atmosphere, the astral influences coming from the out- 

 side will cause no harm. If evil elements exist in the 

 sphere of our soul, they attract such astral influences as 

 may develop diseases. If the water in a lake freezes to 

 the bottom the fish will die, and they will likewise die 

 if the water gets too warm ; and if certain evil elements 

 exist in the water which attract certain correspondingly 

 evil planetary influences,^ a great many fish may die, and 

 no one may know the cause " (Paramirum). 



"The astral influences are the servants of man and 



^ Such influences consist in certain states of electricity, magnetism, 

 miasmas, and other " forces," for which modern science has no names and 

 modem languages no words, but which we may call "modifications of 

 Prana." 



