Agrippa: The Philosophy of Natural Magic, Chapter XXXVI — Of the Union of Mixed Things, and the Introduction of a More Noble Form and the Senses of Life · 1 of 1 · tr. Henry Morley; L. W. de Laurence ed.
Chapter XXXVI, Section 1
CHAPTER XXXVI. Of the Union of Mixed Things, and the Introduction of a More Noble Form and the Senses of Life . Moreover , we must know, that by how much the more noble the form of anything is, by so much the more prone and apt it is to receive, and powerful to act. Then the virtues of things do then become wonderful, viz., when they are put to matters that are mixed, and prepared in fit seasons, to make them alive , by procuring life for them from the Stars, as also a sensible Soul as a more noble form. For there is so great a power in prepared matters, which, we see, do then receive life when a perfect mixtion of qualities seems to break the former contrariety. For so much the more perfect life things receive, shews by how much their temper is more remote from contrariety. Now, the Heaven, as a prevalent cause, doth (from the beginning of every thing to be generated by the due concoction and perfect digestion of the matter), together with life, bestow celestial influences and wonderful gifts, according to the Capacity that is in that Life and sensible Soul to receive more noble and sublime virtues. For the Celestial Virtue doth otherwise lie asleep, as sulphur kept from the flame, but in Living Bodies it doth always burn, as kindled sulphur; and then by its vapor, like the lighted sulphur, it fills all the places that are next to it. So certain wonderful works are wrought, such as are read of in the book of Nemith, which is titled a Book of the Laws of Pluto, because such kind of monstrous generations are not produced according to the Laws of Nature. For we know that of worms are generated gnats; of a horse, wasps; of a calf or ox, bees; of a crab, his legs being taken off and he buried in the ground, a scorpion; of a duck, dried into powder and put into hot water, are generated frogs; but if the duck be baked in a pie, and cut into pieces, and then put into a moist place under the ground, toads are generated of it. Of the herb garden basil, bruised betwixt two stones, are generated scorpions; and of the hairs of a catameniel person, buried under compost, are bred serpents; and the hair of a horse's tail, put into water, receiveth life and is turned into a pernicious worm. And there is an art wherewith, by a hen sitting upon eggs, may be generated a form like to a man (which I have seen and know how to make), which magicians say hath in it wonderful virtues; and this they call the true mandrake. You must, therefore, know which and what kind of matters are either of Nature or Art, begun or perfected, or compounded of more things, and what celestial influences they are able to receive. For a congruity of natural things is sufficient for the receiving of influence from those celestial; because when nothing doth hinder the Celestials to send forth their lights upon Inferiors, they suffer no matter to be destitute of their virtue. Wherefore, as much matter as is perfect and pure, is not unfit to receive the celestial influence. For that is the binding and continuity of the matter to the Soul of the World, which doth so daily flow in upon things natural, and all things which Nature hath prepared, that it is impossible that a prepared matter should not receive life, or a more noble form.
Themes
◆Alchemical Workpraxis
The transformation of base substance — outer matter or the inner soul — into a purified, perfected, or 'gold' state; the magnum opus as both laboratory practice and spiritual allegory.
The passage explicitly describes the transformation of base matter into a more noble form through concoction and digestion, mirroring the alchemical process.
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.
It describes celestial influences flowing upon inferior things and filling places next to them, indicating a resonant connection between heavenly and earthly realms.
Form-mutability as a constitutional property of divine and preternatural beings — gods, heroes, spirits, and their human practitioners possessing inherent capacity to alter form across human, animal, plant, or elemental states. Loki and Odin's transformations in Norse, Math's pigs and Blodeuwedd's owl-shape and Pwyll's exchange with Arawn in the Mabinogion, the Greek Proteus, the Indian dasavatara, Vainamoinen's bird-flight in the Kalevala, Ovid's metamorphoses, the shamanic and witch's capacity for ritual form-change. Distinct from anthropomorphism (divine taking specific human form, single embodiment) in that anthropomorphism establishes a stable form whereas this concept establishes form's plurality and instability.
The passage details numerous examples where base substances are transformed into animals or human forms through specific preparations and mixtures.