MEDICINE *^5 



and are my disciples. They will be taught by the light 

 of wisdom, and God will perform His miracles through 

 their instrumentality " {Be Virtute Medici), 



Arcana (Mysteries) 



Why is the practice of medicine of Theophrastus Para- 

 celsus almost incomprehensible to the modern prac- 

 titioner? It is because the latter seeks to treat the 

 diseased organs themselves, which are as such merely 

 the external effects of internal causes, and he knows of 

 no other way to act upon them except by mechanical 

 or chemical means ; while the method of treatment of 

 Paracelsus, by means of which he made the most wonder- 

 ful cures, is to change the interior spiritual causes from 

 which the outward effects grow ; to treat the very essences 

 out of which corporeal organs become crystallised, and 

 to supply them with the power of vitality of the quality 

 which they require. To accomplish this, deep insight 

 into the causes of disease, spiritual perception, spiritual 

 knowledge, and spiritual power are needed, and these 

 qualities belong not to that which is human in man, but 

 to the light of the spirit which shines into him. For this 

 reason the Arcana of Paracelsus have been universally 

 misunderstood, and it is believed even to this day that 

 his * secret remedies * were certain compounds which he 

 concocted, and which might be prepared by any apothe- 

 cary, if he were put in possession of the prescriptions for 

 them. This is, however, not the case. A prescription 

 that might be learned from books is not an Arcanum ; ^ 

 a secret that might be communicated intellectually from 

 one person to another is not a divine or spiritual mystery. 

 A cow can give birth to nothing else but a calf, a monkey 



* An Arcanum is incorporeal and indestructible of eternal life, super- 

 human and beyond Nature. In us is the Arcanum Dei and the Arcanum 

 Natura; the Arcanum is the virtue of a thing in its highest potency ; the 

 Arcanum Hominis is that p'^wer of man which is eternal in him " (Archi' 

 doxes, De Arcanxt). 



