264 PARACELSUS 



are caused by the life of the elements, but there is only 

 one lifCj and the life that causes the instincts of man is 

 contained in all elements — in the stars as well as in 

 vegetable and animal forms. The activity of the life- 

 essence is modified in vegetable, animal, and human 

 forms; it becomes the life of the earth, and the life of 

 the earth is radiated back to the stars. Stars attract 

 and repel each other; they have their sympathies and 

 antipathies ; and these living antipathies and sympathies, 

 attractions and repulsions, could not exist if no vehicle of 

 life existed between them." 



" Primordial matter, forming the basis of the constitu- 

 tion of the human body, has absorbed influences from the 

 stars, and they nourish the elementary (physical) body, 

 and by means of these influences man's soul is connected 

 with and united to the souls of the stars. Having three 

 worlds in him and living in three worlds, man should 

 learn to know the lower elements, understand the 

 sidereal, and know the eternal." 



" The body comes from the elements, the soul from the 

 stars, and the spirit from God. All that the intellect can 

 conceive of comes from the stars." ^ 



" All knowledge comes from the stars (the Universal 

 Mind). Men do not invent or create ideas ; the ideas 

 exist, and men are able to grasp them. If all professors 

 of music in the world would die in one day, heaven, being 

 the original teacher of music, would not die, and it would 

 teach other persons this art. 



" Many ideas exist which men have not yet grasped ; 

 many stars are still too far away to form a connection with 

 the earth. The realm of stars and ideas is infinite, and 

 therefore the source of inventions and discoveries is not 

 yet exhausted." 



" New stars appear and others disappear on the sky. 



^ By " stare " {astro) Paracelsus does not refer to the physical bodies of 

 the planets, but to mental states existing in the Cosmos, and which are 

 represented by the stars. 



