CHAPTER XVI.

ANCIENT MAGIC AND MODERN THERAPEUTICS— PARACELSUS AND VON HELMONT.

Ennemoser’s “History of Magic,” translated from the original German into excellent English by William Howitt (to whose other works we have referred), contains an enormous amount of intensely interesting information concerning all mysterious arts and practices, many of which serve to throw a vast deal of light upon matters usually regarded as too obscure or fanciful to merit much serious notice, but which are certainly engaging the profound attention of many of the most brilliant intellects of the present day. Theosophists and Occultists in general have no difficulty in ascribing mysterious phenomena to the action of various orders of Nature Spirits (sometimes designated sprites), who can be rendered submissive to the commanding will of a qualified magician, and if the existence of these fascinating creatures be conceded, an explanation of magical phenomena is by no means difficult. Animals are rightly subservient to humanity, and they gladly obey and serve those who treat them decently; indeed, they are often so greatly devoted to humanity that they continue to evince affection even when the treatment they receive is cruel and barbarous.

On the unseen side of Nature, magicians claim there are races of sub-human entities who sustain a similar relation to humanity to that sustained by animals on the common objective plane, and while it is less easy to gain ascendancy over these races than over physical animals of domesticated types, it is no more difficult for the trained magician to make them his servitors than for an animal trainer to subdue the ferocity of the natives of the jungle, who, by combined firmness and kindness, can always in time be rendered docile, provided the trainer does not allow himself ever to lose self-control. It is not, however, by any means exclusively with “Nature Spirits” that magicians deal, for a very large portion of their most effective work is due to mesmeric or hypnotic influence, also to the projection of thought-forms, which appear as definite on the mental plane as do ordinary material objects on the physical.

We will now proceed to consider a few of the methods employed by the ancient Hebrew Prophets when engaged in their benevolent work of healing the seriously afflicted, and in some cases raising to life again the seemingly dead. Concerning the actual raising of the dead, we know nothing. Bible narratives only inform us that certain people declared that others had actually died when they were so far beyond the reach of ordinary methods that they certainly would have died very shortly had they not been restored by the power of God working through the prophets. We hear a great deal in these days about Divine Healing, and we often wonder whether it can be ever justifiable to apply so great an adjective to any form of healing in particular, seeing that we have no right whatever to limit our idea of Divine activity to those particular modes of practice which we personally employ, or of which we specially approve. An honorable physician who conscientiously administers medicine has quite as much right to affirm that he believes it to be God's will that outward remedies should be administered, as any Christian Scientist has to say that a certain school of mental practice is of divine appointment. It is just at this point that Christian Scientists make themselves ridiculous by claiming everything for those particular methods which they as a denomination endorse and adopt, while they discountenance all beside.

It is quite true that the Jewish religion, as well as the Christian, can reasonably appeal to the Scriptures in support of the plea that even if every wonder of healing now claimed by Christian Scientists is all that it is said to be, there are no miracles performed in this century any greater than those performed long ago in ancient Israel, and at a later period by Christian apostles. Elijah and Elisha are two of the greatest prophets mentioned in the Old Testament as functioning especially in the rôle of healers. Both of these mighty men are said to have raised to life again a widow’s son who was pronounced dead, and both of them, according to the record, employed what we might call in these days a combination of mental, spiritual, and magnetic methods. Prophetic doctrine and practice do much to confirm the idea that God works through all natural instrumentalities, but as man possesses far more of the Divine Spirit than does any sub-human creature, human ability far transcends any curative virtue which we may find in vegetable or mineral. The most extreme cases of suffering, together with the severest and farthest advanced stages of fatal disease, naturally require a mode of treatment far more powerful and effective than ordinary simpler cases; therefore it was always believed that only the greatest among the prophets were able to heal leprosy or to raise to life those who appeared dead, though they might have been only in a dying condition. There is one case which suggests more food for thought, perhaps, than any other in connection with Elisha's ministry, viz., the case of Naaman the Syrian Captain, who was directed by a Hebrew maiden who waited on his wife to the great prophet in Israel, who is said to have received him at first very curtly and to have positively refused to perform any magical acts, no matter how much treasure Naaman was ready to heap upon him.

This story brings out in prominent relief the opposition to ceremonial magic entertained by the Jewish Prophets at a time when it was almost universally believed that sicknesses were caused by evil spirits and that these could be driven out by enchantments. Wherever such a belief is entertained, man is usually made to appear a puppet in the hands of unseen forces, frequently malignant, which can be driven away by some subtle processes performable only by trained exorcists. This theory of suffering, and its remedy, has the very great moral disadvantage of implying that our own mode of life has little (if anything) to do with our general health; a doctrine which is utterly opposed to all the salutary teaching of the Pentateuch, which devotes a large amount of space to minute directions concerning methods of living which, if duly observed, prevent diseases even more effectually than they provide remedies for those which may have already appeared in a community. From the standpoint of sanitation alone, the Mosaic law is highly admirable, and this has been so completely proved many times in Europe during Christian centuries, that one of the charges brought against the Jews in times of general pestilence was that they practiced unholy magical arts which enabled them to withstand the ravages of plagues which decimated surrounding Gentile populations. The real cause of this surprising immunity was a strict observance of the sanitary laws laid down in the Torah. We are now witnessing a very wholesome revival of popular interest in sanitation; few (if any) physicians to-day refusing to admit that if we live clean and wholesome lives we need not suffer as communities from Zymotic and Tuberculous diseases.

The fresh air cure for consumption, taken in connection with general cleanliness and a simple nutritious diet, works hand in hand with all intelligent mental healing. Whatever elevates the mind fortifies the body; whatever depresses the mind, weakens the body; and in like manner whatever injures the body reacts prejudicially on the mind. The absurd and blasphemous idea that God sends sickness (except in the very restrictive sense that we bring it upon ourselves when we act in opposition to some law of nature, which is necessarily an outward expression of Divine order), receives no sanction at the hands of the Bible, though many ministers of religion have told God in their prayers that He has been pleased to send sickness upon members of their congregations, whereas, if they had taken the prophetic attitude, they would have prayed that those who were afflicted might come into a fuller knowledge of Divine law and learn to harmonize their lives with its requirements. When Elisha told Naaman to wash seven times in Jordan, so that he would recover from leprosy, he greatly insulted his haughty visitor, who became very angry, and indignantly refused to pay attention to so impertinent a direction; but after Naaman had returned home, and found his disease making still further progress, he gradually changed his mental attitude, and, returning to Elisha, expressed willingness to comply with his directions. Bathing seven times in Jordan signifies reforming his own life, not simply or chiefly taking a number of baths in a sacred stream.

The vital point in the narrative is where the prophet tells his patient that he must do something for himself, and not expect the doctor to do everything for him. This is a very bold position to take when one is dealing with Army officers or any other people of distinction, who are accustomed to give orders and receive homage rather than obey the directions of others. Probably no one short of a prophet would have sufficient bravery to speak his mind quite plainly to a very wealthy patient occupying a singularly high position in society. There are no incurable diseases, per se, but there are many disorders which are seemingly incurable because we are not in possession of the necessary means for their vanquishment. The law regulating the isolation of lepers may be regarded as a useful and humane one, considering the fact that where no remedy is at hand it is not kindness to the sufferers, but injustice to the populace, to permit persons with infectious diseases to mingle freely with people in general who may be susceptible to contagion. Precautionary measures are, of course, inferior to prophetic power to heal, but we do not attain unto higher powers or greater knowledge by foolishly disregarding useful sanitary regulations. There are probably some people to-day who can quite safely mingle with lepers, and there are certainly a few who know of a cure for leprosy; and it is not too much to hope that in the near future knowledge of how to heal disorders long regarded incurable will have become common mental property. When this happy state of things has come permanently to exist, we may rest assured that the teaching given by true doctors, who are far removed from pharmacists, will be of such a character that the most disagreeable diseases of which people are now most afraid will soon entirely cease, and their very names be blotted from our dictionaries.

Though in a very large majority of instances we may fairly attribute so-called magical cures of disease to faith and imagination in the patient—imagination being a therapeutic agent of immense power and value—it by no means necessarily follows that there is no value whatever in magical ceremonials which are conducted with earnest confidence by disciplined magicians, and there is yet another aspect of the subject which must not be overlooked, viz., the actual efficacy, on the psychical as well as on the physical plane, of certain medicaments employed in occult medical arts. Dr. Franz Hartmann, in a very instructive treatise on this question, has shown how different orders of practitioners in the Middle Ages had recourse to knowledge of the potencies of many plants and herbs not included in the common pharmacopœia.

The general doctrine of Occultists of all schools being to the effect that there are various planes of Nature, unseen as well as seen, and that we can learn how to render the unseen as well as the seen serviceable to us—a plant or herb in the eyes of an Occultist is an existence on some other plane in addition to the physical—therefore it can be reasonably claimed that occult medication is applicable to the psychical as well as to the physical side of human necessity. Some of the grosser means employed in Europe a few centuries ago may appear disgusting, as well as stupid, from the standpoint of fastidious sentiment, but we cannot boast of a medical system to-day entirely free from extremely disagreeable practises. If we take exception to some of these, we are instantly told by their advocates that a doctor’s work is to strive to the utmost to deliver his patient from the clutch of disease; therefore, we cannot be fastidious where life and death may be involved; and this position is fundamentally so sound that it is well-nigh indisputable. We can, however, raise our protest against lymphs, serums, etc., which we know to be foul and pernicious, and especially against such as can only be obtained at the expense of great cruelty, which is never tolerated, whether practised on man or beast, by any Occultist of the beneficent type. It is highly noteworthy that the most vigorous protests against vivisection proceed from students of Occultism who have plunged somewhat deeply into the abyss of mystery which has for ages enshrouded all magical ceremonial.

Dr. Anna Kingsford and Edward Maitland, who gave us "The Perfect Way," were among the most vehement denouncers of all experiments on living animals: and the Theosophical Society, as a body, is at present definitely active in the interests of the suppression of vivisection, not only out of regard for the sufferings of animals, but also in the interests of humanity, whose cause can never be truly served by outraging humane sentiments which, in addition to cultivating much that is sweet and beautiful in our dispositions, also serve the purpose of safeguarding us on unseen planes of Nature. It may prove interesting and instructive to briefly outline a few of the prominent methods in vogue among magicians, so far as they have been publicly recorded, that we may compare them with some of the therapeutic measures accounted valid to-day. In comparatively recent times no name stands out more conspicuously in the annals of magical healing than that of Theophrastus Paracelsus, who founded a very remarkable school in which Magnetism was extolled as the mighty agent through which healing is to be accomplished. We are so thoroughly used to the term "magnetic healing," and it is often so vague as well as comprehensive, that it seldom conveys any very clear idea of claims made or methods employed beyond the commonly accepted idea that magnetizers put their hands on their patients and claim that some efficacious emanation is transferred from one body to another. Paracelsus, being a man of profound learning and deep insight into the hidden realms of Nature, would naturally give us views on magnetic healing very different from those expressed by comparatively illiterate people who often accomplish much good without any scientific understanding of how they do it. Paracelsus taught a doctrine, with certain modifications of his own, which had been handed on from age to age from the remotest period of which we have any records, and it was to his combined knowledge and skill that he owed his marvellous abilities as wonder-worker as well as teacher.

We can all teach theoretically what we have intellectually grasped, but to make practical demonstrations of our knowledge requires much more than mental information; thus it has always been proven that a peculiar mode of life must be followed by those who would successfully officiate as demonstrators of healing by magnetic means, for in magnetic treatment the individuality and personality of the operator must be involved to a much greater extent than in a conventional practise of medicine where the written prescription is regarded as a factor of prime importance. But though the administration of compounded medicine constitutes a large part of accepted medical practice, it is well known, and freely admitted throughout the medical profession, that the personality of the doctor weighs very heavily in the scale of his failure or success, and as a personality which some people may think charming is distasteful to others, and magnetic emanations which quiet some sufferers disturb others, uniform success in all cases judged similar from symptoms, rarely if ever falls to the lot of any practitioner. Occultists teach that we have peculiarities of inner as well as of outer organizations which need to be ministered to in a specific manner, and because the broad term magnetism is often employed to cover the psychic effluence of a mental as well as physical practitioner, such a saying as I like, or I do not like, that person’s magnetism, is heard frequently in circles where the scientific aspects of the question are totally unknown. The system of Paracelsus has sometimes been denominated “mineral,” because he taught that the mineral as well as the vegetable and animal kingdoms contains a subtle elixir of life which can be scientifically distilled when one is sufficiently acquainted with magical formulas.

Had Paracelsus lived at such a time as the present, he would probably have had much less recourse to a terminology which has been called “mystical jargon,” as this hieroglyphic means of communication between teachers and pupils, and between fellow initiates, was not intended only to preserve secrets from the “profane,” but was very largely employed as a necessary precaution in times when every one suspected of practising magic was in serious danger. With a key to interpretation of mysterious symbols, one can readily uncover a good deal of the teaching of Paracelsus, but his entire body of doctrine is written in a double cipher, so that it has intentionally two distinct but closely related meanings, one pertaining to the literal practise of the healing art, the other to the demonstration of arcane teaching concerning the work of transmutation, which has, in its turn again, two distinct significations. There can be no doubt that Paracelsus was naturally quite highly gifted, and that he also used his talents with a very special view to rescuing the practise of medicine from the abject degeneracy into which it had fallen in his day, when the disciples of Galen spent most of their time in foolish controversy and dispute, and accomplished very little in the way of healing.

The claim of Paracelsus was that he went direct to Nature, repudiating all the teachings of the schools which in his day were very nearly worthless. He had studied Metallurgy, and had become a mining expert; he travelled widely, and gathered information wherever he went, all of which he turned to excellent account. His biographers say of him that he learned of all kinds of people, and was never too proud to accept knowledge from even the very humblest. When he had already acquired great fame as a healer of wounds, as well as possessor of an immense amount of miscellaneous information, he became a lecturer in the University of Basle, to which the most celebrated men were attracted from all over Europe. He manifested in his teachings great veneration for Hippocrates, who had pursued the very method by which he himself sought truth. He declared that apothecaries were opposed to him because he would not endorse their charlatanry; his own recipes were very simple, never consisting of from forty to sixty ingredients, as did those of the Galenic doctors. In an essay on the power of the magnet, he says: “The magnet has long lain before all eyes, and no one has ever thought whether it was of any further use or possessed any other property than that of attracting iron. Sordid doctors complain that I will not follow the ancients, but in what should I follow them? All that they have said of the magnet amounts to nothing. Place what I have said of it in the balance, and judge. Had I blindly followed others, and not myself made experiments, I should know no more than what every peasant sees, that a magnet attracts iron. A wise man must inquire for himself, and it is thus I have discovered that the magnet, besides this obvious power of attracting iron, possesses another and concealed power.

“In sickness, you must lay the magnet in the center from which the sickness proceeds. The magnet has two poles, one attracting, one repelling. It is not a matter of indifference to which of these poles a man applies. In falling sickness and every kind of epilepsy, where the attack affects particularly the head, it is proper to lay four magnets on the lower part of the body with the attracting pole turned upward, and only one on the head with the reflecting pole downward, and then you bring other means to their aid.” Paracelsus considered that more valuable information was condensed in these few paragraphs than was spread over all the verbose statements of the ordinary physicians of his time.

Paracelsus was also an astrologer, and laid great stress on Siderial magnetism, which he regarded as both spiritual and physical. In this he agreed substantially with the renowned Chaldeans of old, who attributed the influence of the planets to their spiritual energy far more than to their physical movements. He has much to say concerning “Magnes Microcosmi,” the little world which he regards as the universe in minimum. Man, he teaches, contains the four great elements, fire, air, water and earth, and must be nourished by them, not only palpably through the stomach, but also imperceptibly through the magnetic force resident in all nature, from which every individual draws specific nourishment. He has also much to say concerning our reciprocal relations with the Sun and the various planets, maintaining that they receive from us even as we receive from them. His celebrated “Magisterium Magnetis” is a tincture extracted from the magnet which he declares is a specific capable of drawing out every variety of diseases from the human body. He even went so far as to claim that this mysterious tincture communicated its properties to all objects near it, and that it did not only attract iron, but also other bodies of various kinds.

Paracelsus compares the human body to wood, and the life within it to fire. He calls magic the philosophy of Alchemy. He declares that a certain attractive power is born with all men, and through this power we become capable of continually attracting into our bodies the properties of the elements. In close harmony with this idea, he explains the cause and method of infection, which he rightly considers to apply to the contagion of health as well as disease, a claim which lies at the root of all modern as well as ancient magnetic treatment. This remarkable man declared that though he founded his doctrine on his own experience, he discovered it to be in very close accord with the teachings of the Bible, which he had studied so fully that he knew almost the entire Book by rote. It certainly does seem remarkable that people who profess to credit as genuine the wonderful accounts of magnetic healing, which are scattered all over the Bible, should take exception to the laying on of hands and other simple magnetic methods as means of cure, though it may be argued that the mineral magnet is not mentioned in the Scriptures in connection with the work of healing accomplished by either Jewish prophets or Christian apostles. The spirit of the elements, claims Paracelsus, rules the lower propensities of man, but as there is in reality only one life, a common essence pervades all forms of existence. All created things he denominates letters and books, describing human origin and descent. The human body is, according to his system, a perfect microcosm which man himself must learn to completely control, for while the body comes from the earth, the spirit comes from a higher world. Concerning divination, he has much to say, especially with regard to the Astral body, which he clearly distinguishes from the elementary body which rests during sleep, while the Astral continues active. In this Mediæval teaching we find the word “astral” directly derived from the stars, from which it is said to emanate, and among which it is capable of travelling. Animals as well as men possess Astral bodies, and are therefore capable of experiencing presentiments. Paracelsus wrote a curious book on “Fools,” whom he declares all contain some measure of wisdom, which occasionally breaks forth like sunshine through a fog. This comparison agrees well with many present-day statements concerning the human aura, which is really an atmosphere or photosphere surrounding every individual, bright and luminous in the case of highly developed natures, dark and murky in cases where little progress above animality has been made. We find in the teachings of Paracelsus a firm belief expressed in the efficacy of enchantments, but while he believes in the power of curses as well as of blessings, he makes it clear to students that it is only the weak, the foolish and the vicious who can be seriously affected by any sort of malediction, while blessings can be fully received by the most highly cultured and spiritually advanced members of the human race. With regard to the highest kind of magic, he says that to practice it requires a powerful imagination, in addition to firm faith; no ceremonies are really necessary, and they are usually nothing but humbug. “The human spirit is so great a thing that no man can express it; as God is eternal and unchangeable, so also is the mind of man. If we rightly understood this mind, nothing would be impossible to us. Imagination is invigorated and perfected through faith; every doubt seriously hinders a magical operation, for it is faith that establishes the will. Because men do not perfectly imagine and believe, their arts are uncertain while they might be perfectly certain.”

Another very wonderful man—one of the worthiest and ablest of the successors of Paracelsus —was Baptista Von Helmont, who, on account of his vast knowledge, acute judgment, and amazing penetration, created a new epoch in medicine. In the history of magnetism he takes the very first rank, since he brought into this dark field a clearer light than anyone before or since has done. Deleuze, in his famous work on “Animal Magnetism,” speaks of Helmont in terms of unstinted praise, and gives a great deal of interesting information concerning his life and methods. He was the first to give the name of gas to aerial fluids. In Ennemoser’s “History of Magic,” we are told that this good and great man had often to defend his doctrine and practice against the stupid charge that its origin was diabolical, and to the satisfaction of the learned and intelligent of his day, his logical rebuttals proved quite convincing, though the ignorant and fanatical still clung to that senseless and debasing delusion.

Concerning Magnetism he says that it is of a heavenly nature and unrestrained by the boundaries of space. Whoever, therefore, avails himself of magnetic means, undertakes a God-pleasing business. Regarding the power of suggestion, he has left many worthy sayings on record, proving that our modern methods were well known and largely practised by Alchemistical Philosophers, who in some notable instances seem to have attributed all efficacy to suggestion, though incantations and other ceremonies were often used; in this they forestalled the conclusions of many learned psychologists of to-day. The power of evil is very much restricted in the doctrine of Helmont, who by no means denies it in toto, but distinctly shows how evil (i. e., disorderly) influences can be operative only on the surface of existence, while whatever is good (i. e., orderly) possesses practically unlimited power, because it is working with (not against) the great purpose of the universe. The use of herbs entered largely into Helmont’s practise, and to many vegetable products he assigns magical properties; as, for instance, when he says that if you hold a certain extraordinary herb crushed in your hand, and at the same time hold the hand of another person, he or she will retain a great liking for you for at least several days. A singular story is told by this acutely observant man of a sensitive woman, who invariably suffered an attack of gout if she occupied a seat on which a brother of hers used to sit regularly five years previously; this man had suffered acutely from the distressing malady. Persons of blunt and irresponsive temperament may readily laugh at such tales, because they have no experiences of their own calculated to confirm them, but highly sensitive natures know that such facts do occur, and it is quite in accord with the best and wisest sanitary regulations of our day to admit the reality of such phenomena sufficiently to induce us to cremate all articles which have been long associated with chronic invalidism as well as with avowedly infectious maladies.

Helmont, in common with all magicians, does not only acknowledge the power of men over animals, he also teaches the influence exerted by animals over all ordinary men, and he tells many a weird tale of animal fascination, and cites some of his own experiences in support of his contention. Fascination is a very powerful weapon with which animals are equipped, and without it in the struggle for existence many would have been swept away which now exist and multiply. Psychometry is now confirming many of Helmont's narratives, and as it certainly seems that the average sensitiveness of civilized humanity is palpably increasing, we may soon need to know quite a great deal of mystical philosophy to enable us to enjoy good results of this increasing sensibility, instead of being embarrassed and debilitated thereby. A very beautiful summary of Helmont’s truly sublime philosophy we present in the following quotation: “When God created the human soul, He imparted to her essential and original knowledge. The soul is the mirror of the universe, and stands in relationship to all living things. She is illuminated by an inward light; but the tempest of passions, the multitude of sensual impressions, the dissipations, darken this light, whose glory only diffuses itself when it burns alone, and all is peace and harmony within us. When we know ourselves to be separated from all outward influences, and desire only to be guided by this universal light, then only do we find in ourselves pure and certain knowledge. In this state of concentration, the soul analyses all objects on which her attention rests. She can unite herself with them, penetrate through their substance, penetrating even to God Himself, and feeling Him in the most important truths.” Another great statement of this wonderful man reads thus: “The physician chosen of God is accompanied by many signs and wonders for the schools. He will give the honor to God, as he employs his gifts to assuaging the sufferings of his neighbor. Compassion will be his guide. His heart will possess truth and his intellect science. Love will be his sister; and the truth of the Lord will illumine his path. He will invoke the grace of God, and he will not be overcome by the desire of gain. For the Lord is rich and bountiful, and pays hundredfold in heaped measure. He will make his labor fruitful, and he will clothe his hands with blessings. He will fill his mouth with comfort, and His word will be a trumpet before which diseases will fly. His footsteps will bring prosperity, and sickness will flee before his face, as snow melts in a summer morn. Health will follow him. These are the testimonies of the Lord to those healers whom He has chosen— this is the blessedness of those who pursue the way of kindness; and the Holy Spirit will, moreover, enlighten them as the Comforter.”