Agrippa: The Philosophy of Natural Magic, Chapter II — What Magic Is, What Are the Parts Thereof, and How the Professors Thereof Must Be Qualified · 1 of 2 · tr. Henry Morley; L. W. de Laurence ed.
Chapter II, Section 1a
CHAPTER II.
What Magic Is, What Are the Parts Thereof, and How the Professors Thereof Must Be Qualified .
Magic is a faculty of wonderful virtue, full of most high mysteries, containing the most profound contemplation of most secret things, together with the nature, power, quality, substance and virtues thereof, as also the knowledge of whole Nature, and it doth instruct us concerning the differing and agreement of things amongst themselves, whence it produceth its wonderful effects, by uniting the virtues of things through the application of them one to the other, and to their inferior suitable subjects, joining and knitting them together thoroughly by the powers and virtues of the superior Bodies.
This is the most perfect and chief Science, that sacred and sublimer kind of Philosophy, and lastly the most absolute perfection of all most excellent Philosophy.
For seeing that all regulative Philosophy is divided into Natural, Mathematical and Theological: (Natural Philosophy teacheth the nature of those things which are in the world, searching and inquiring into their causes, effects, times, places, fashions, events, their whole and parts, also The Number and the Nature of those things, Called Elements—what Fire, Earth, Aire forth brings; From whence the Heavens their beginnings had; Whence Tide, whence Rainbow, in gay colors clad.
What makes the Clouds that gathered are, and black, To send forth Lightnings, and a Thund’ring crack; What doth the Nightly Flames, and Comets make; What makes the Earth to swell, and then to quake; What is the Seed of Metals, and of Gold; What Virtues, Wealth, Both Nature's Coffer hold.
All these things doth Natural Philosophy, the viewer of Nature, contain, teaching us, according to Virgil's Muse: Whence all things flow— Whence Mankind, Beast; whence Fire, whence Rain and Snow; Whence Earthquakes are; why the whole Ocean beats Over its banks and then again retreats; Whence strength of Herbs, whence Courage, rage of Brutes All kinds of Stone, of creeping Things, and Fruits.
But Mathematical Philosophy teacheth us to know the quantity of natural bodies, as extended into three dimensions, as also to conceive of the motion and course of celestial bodies.
As in great haste, What makes the golden Stars to march so fast?
What makes the Moon sometimes to mask her face, The Sun also, as if in some disgrace?
And, as Virgil sings: How th’ Sun doth rule with twelve Zodiac Signs, The Orb that's measur’d round about with Lines— It doth the Heavens' Starry Way make known, And strange Eclipses of the Sun and Moon; Arcturus also, and the Stars of Rain, The Seven Stars likewise, and Charles, his wain; Why Winter Suns make tow’rds the West so fast; What makes the Nights so long ere they be past?
All which are understood by Mathematical Philosophy.
Hence, by the Heavens we may foreknow The Seasons all; times for to reap and sow, And when 'tis fit to launch into the deep, And when to war, and when in peace to sleep; And when to dig up trees, and them again To set, that they may bring forth amain.
Now Theological Philosophy, or Divinity, teacheth what God is, what the Mind, what an Intelligence, what an Angel, what a Devil, what the Soul, what Religion, what sacred Institutions, Rites, Temples, Observations, and sacred Mysteries are.
§ Ask Guru about this passage →Themes
Correspondencecosmology
The Hermetic axiom that the structure of the cosmos is reflected at every scale — 'as above, so below; as within, so without' — making each level a legible map of the others.
The text states that magic teaches concerning 'the differing and agreement of things amongst themselves' and the joining of virtues through application.
All passages →Cosmic Sympathycosmology
The Stoic and Plotinian doctrine that all parts of the cosmos are bound by hidden affinities, so that a movement in one part resonates through the whole; the metaphysical basis for astrology, magic, and divination.
The passage explicitly describes magic as uniting the virtues of things by applying them to inferior subjects and knitting them together thoroughly through the powers of superior bodies.
All passages →Theurgypraxis
Iamblichean ritual practice that engages the gods directly through consecrated material symbols and actions, on the premise that divine power descends into properly prepared matter — distinct from philosophical contemplation alone.
The passage defines magic as a faculty that uses the powers of superior bodies to unite virtues and produce effects through application.
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