Paracelsus: Essential Readings

by Paracelsus, Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke (Editor)

Regarded today as the father of modern medicine, Paracelsus (1493-1541) was in fact much more besides. Natural scientist, philosopher, alchemist, with a deep distrust of orthodoxy and rational thought, he intermixed Christian theology with the Qabalah, believing that magic reveals the invisible influences behind things, bringing heavenly forces down to earth.

Genres: History, Occult, Philosophy, Alchemy, Spirituality, Esoterica, Physics

208 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1990

About the author

Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim, who published under the name Paracelsus ("greater than Celsus," a reference to the first-century Roman encyclopedist Aulus Cornelius Celsus) was a Renaissance physician, botanist, alchemist, astrologer, and occultist. He pioneered the use of chemicals and minerals in medicine, and was among the first to credibly suggest that illness was the result of the body being attacked by outside agents, rather than an imbalance of the four Hippocratic humours. However, he is today remembered more for his contributions to alchemy and his magical theories, which stood in contrast to those of Cornelius Agrippa and Nicolas Flamel.

Reviews

[Warwick · Rating 3 out of 5]

(Scene: a makeshift workshop in an Alpine village, circa 1538.)

ACOLYTE: O wise Paracelsus, greatest of alchemists, I have journeyed many German miles to converse with thee. Tell me, master, what mysteries art thou working on?

PARACELSUS: Behold! For I have discovered the high arcanum of how to create life independently of any woman!

ACOLYTE: That is hidden knowledge indeed! Do thou instruct me on how this wonder is achieved!

PARACELSUS: Well, it's like this. You take a large, ripe horse. Wait for it to take a shit. You want to get it fresh, while it's still as hot as possible. Next, get your dick out and masturbate until you come all over the horseshit. Keep the blended jizz and faeces in a glass container for about forty days until it's nice and fermented, then slash your arm and add plenty of human blood. At this point a homunculus will emerge about three inches high, which will dance over to you, take your hand, and you can both take a bow together!

ACOLYTE: Jesus Christ.. What kind of an act do you call that?

PARACELSUS: The Aristocrats!

(jazz hands)

[A. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good text compilation by Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke, helpful in knowing what to read next, depending on the reader's preferences. "Astronomia magna - Philosophia sagax" sounds very promising, more than Paramirum and Paragranum.


"You are serpents and I expect poison from you. With what scorn have you proclaimed that I am the Luther of physicians, with the interpretation that I am a heretic. I am Theophrastus and more so than him to whom you compare me. I am that and am a monarch of physicians as well, and can prove what you are not able to prove. I wish I could protect my bald head against the flies as efficiently as I can defend my monarchy. Let me tell you this, the stubble on my chin knows more than you and all your scribes, my shoebuckles are more learned than your Galen and Avicenna, and my beard has more experience than all your high colleges."

"Medicine must be understood and classified internally. You should not call a thing cold, hot, humid, or dry but should say, this is Saturn, this Mars, this Venus, this the Pole. The physician should know how to bring about a conjunction between the astral Mars and the grown Mars (i.e. the herbal remedy)."

"There are three substances which give every single thing its body. The names of these three things are Sulphur, Mercury, and Salt. Take a piece of wood. It is a body. Now burn it. The flammable part is the Sulphur, the smoke is the Mercury, and the ash is the Salt. "

"Because if there is sickness in the body, all the healthy organs must fight against it, not only
one, but all."

"There are two ways in which the spirit can cause disease in the body. Firstly, when the spirits injure each other, without any will or thought on the part of man; in the second case, one
should note that it is possible to hurt another by the unified force of thought, feeling, and will. This determined and directed will is a mother of the spirit ... If I desire to hurt another with all my will, this will-power is a creature of my spirit and acts against the spirit of the one concerned. He will suffer physically, and yet this pain does not come from the body but from the spirit. Likewise, there can be a fight between the two spirits and one will overpower the other and win. If my opponent
succumbs, this is due to his spirit not being so ardently inflamed against me as is mine against him."


Consequently, if a philosopher is not born out of theology, he has no cornerstone upon which to base his philosophy. For truth springs from theology, and cannot be discovered without its help.

It follows that chiromancy understands the signatures of such secrets, and the nature of each
man’s soul accords with these lines and veins. The same is true of the face, which is shaped and formed according to the content of the mind and soul, and the same is again true of the
proportions of the human body."

[Bert Carson · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good book for the student of the esoteric. More general info than in depth discussion.

[Laura Leilani · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic story of a fascinating man; very well told.