Agrippa: The Philosophy of Natural Magic, Chapter XXIV — What Things Are Lunary, or Under the Power of the Moon · 1 of 2 · tr. Henry Morley; L. W. de Laurence ed.
Chapter XXIV, Section 1a
CHAPTER XXIV.
What Things Are Lunary, or Under the Power of the Moon .
These things are Lunary, amongst the Elements, viz.: The earth, then the water, as well that of the sea as of the rivers; and all moist things, as the moisture of trees and animals, especially they which are white, as the whites of eggs , fat, sweat, phlegm, and the superfluities of bodies.
Amongst tastes, salt and insipid; amongst metals, silver; amongst stones, crystal, the silver marcasite, and all those stones that are white and green.
Also the stone selenite ( i.
e.
, the Moon, Lunary), shining from a white body, with a yellow brightness; imitating the motion of the Moon, by having in it the figure of the Moon, which daily increaseth or decreaseth as doth the Moon.
Also pearls, which are generated in shells of fishes, and stalactites, formed from the droppings of water; also the beryl, or aqua-marine, greenish and six-sided.
Amongst plants and trees, these are Lunary, as the selenotropion, which turns towards the Moon as doth the heliotropion towards the Sun; and the palm-tree, which sends forth a bough at every rising of the new Moon.
Hyssop, also, and rosemary, agnus castus, and the olive-tree, are Lunary.
Also the herb chinosta, which increaseth and decreaseth with the Moon, viz., in substance and number of leaves, not only in sap but in virtue—which, indeed, is in some sort common to all plants, except onions, which last are under the influence of Mars, and have contrary properties.
As amongst flying things the Saturnine bird called a quail is a great enemy of the Moon and Sun, Lu-nary animals are such as delight to be in man's company, and such as do naturally excel in love or hatred, as all kinds of dogs.
The chameleon also is Lunary, which always assumes a color according to the variety of the color of the object—as the Moon changeth her nature according to the variety of the Sign which it is found in.
Lunary also are swine, hinds, goats, and all those animals, whatsoever, that observe and imitate the motion of the Moon, as the baboon, and the panther, which is said to have a spot upon her shoulder like the Moon, increasing into a roundness and having horns that bend inwards.
Cats also are Lunary, whose eyes become greater or less according to the course of the Moon; and those things (which are of like nature, as catamenial blood, of which are made wonderful and strange things by magicians.
The civet cat, also, changing her sex with the Moon, being obnoxious to divers sorceries; and all animals that live in water as well as on land, as otters, and such as prey upon fish.
Also all monstrous beasts, such as without any manifest seed are equivocally generated, as mice, which sometimes seem to be generated of the putrefaction of the earth.
Amongst fowl, geese, ducks, didappers, and all kinds of watery fowl as prey upon fish, as the heron, and those that are equivocally produced, as wasps of the carcasses of horses, bees of the putrefaction of cows, small flies of putrefied wine, and beetles of the flesh of asses.
§ Ask Guru about this passage →Themes
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 links the motion of plants and animals to the Moon's phases, demonstrating a hidden affinity between celestial cycles and terrestrial life.
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