Paracelsus: The Aurora of the Philosophers · 20 of 22 · tr. Arthur Edward Waite
Section 1t
The Aurora is by some regarded as an instance in point; though no doubt in the main it is a genuine work of the Sage of Hohenheim, yet in some respects it does seem to approximate somewhat closely to previous schools of Alchemy, which can scarcely he regarded as representing the actual standpoint of Paracelsus.
He who created man the same also created science.
What has man in any place without labour?
When the mandate went forth: Thou shalt live by the sweat of thy brow, there was, as it were, a new creation.
When God uttered His fiat the world was made.
Art, however, was not then made, nor was the light of Nature.
But when Adam was expelled from Paradise, God created for him the light of Nature when He bade him live by the work of his hands.
In like manner, He created for Eve her special light when He said to her: In sorrow shalt thou bring forth children.
Thus, and there, were these beings made human and earthy that were before like angelicals.
...
Thus, by the word were creatures made, and by this same word was also made the light which was necessary to man.
...
Hence the interior man followed from the second creation, after the expulsion from Paradise.
...
Before the Fall, that cognition which was requisite to man had not begun to develop in him.
He received it from the angel when he was cast out of Paradise.
...
Man was made complete in the order of the body, but not in the order of the arts.
– De Caducis , Par.
III.
No work precisely corresponding co this title is extant among the writings of Paracelsus.
The subjects to which reference is made are discussed in the Philosophia Sagax .
Before all things it is necessary to have a right understanding of the nature of Celestial Magic.
It originates from divine virtue.
There is that magic which Moses practised, and there is the maleficent magic of the sorcerers.
There are, then, different kinds of Magi.
So also there is what is called the Magic of Nature; there is the Celestial Magus; there is the Magus of Faith, that is, one whose faith makes him whole.
There is, lastly, the Magus of Perdition.
– Philosophia Sagax , Lib.
II., c.
6.
Learn, therefore, Astronomic Magic, which otherwise I call cabalistic.
– De Pestilitate , Tract I.
This art, formerly called cabalistic, was in the beginning named caballa, and afterwards caballia.
It is a species of magic.
It was also, but falsely, called Gabanala, by one whose knowledge of the subject was profound.
It was of an unknown Ethnic origin, and it passed subsequently to the Chaldaeans and Hebrews, by both of whom it was corrupted.
– Philosophia Sagax , Lib.
I., s.
v.
Probatio in Scientiam Nectromantricam .
The object which received the influence and exhibited the sign thereof appears to have been termed Gamaheu, Gamahey etc.
But the name was chiefly given to certain stones on which various and wonderful images and figures of men and animals have been found naturally depicted, being no work of man, but the result of the providence and counsel of God.
– De Imaginibus , c.
7 and c.
13.
It is possible, magically, for a man to project his infiuence into these stones and some other substances.
– Ibid ., c.
13.
But they also have their own inherent virtue, which is indicated by the shape and the special nature of the impression.
– Ibid ., c.
7.
There was also an artificial Gamaheus invented and prepared by the Magi, and this seems to have been more powerful.
– De Carduo Angelico .
Narratives or doctrines of cosmic origin — how heaven, earth, and the primordial deities first came into being. The Kojiki's deities born alone on the Plain of High Heaven, Voluspo's Ginnungagap, Genesis's tohu wa-bohu, the Timaeus's Demiurge fashioning the Receptacle, the Hesiodic Theogony, the Kalevala's egg-cosmogony, Egyptian Nun-and-Atum. Distinct from emanation_hierarchy (structural-ontological cascade), letters_of_creation (mechanism of creation), and apocatastasis/frashokereti (end-state restoration); cosmogony is temporally-narrative beginning.
The passage narrates the origin of the world through God's fiat and the 'second creation' following the expulsion from Paradise, describing how man and the light of Nature came to be.
Pronoia — the doctrine that the divine actively orders the unfolding of the cosmos and human affairs toward intelligible ends, against pure chance or blind necessity.
The Gamaheu stones' natural images are explicitly described as 'no work of man, but the result of the providence and counsel of God,' and the entire creative narrative is framed as divinely ordered.
A historical or mythical chain of transmission for secret wisdom from master to disciple across time and cultures — the credential of the teaching, not merely its content. Distinct from oral_tradition (the spoken-not-written modality of transmission, which a lineage may or may not use) and hidden_sayings (the concealment-for-readiness of a teaching's meaning, independent of who transmitted it or in what unbroken chain).
Cabalistic magic is traced through a chain of transmission: 'of an unknown Ethnic origin, and it passed subsequently to the Chaldaeans and Hebrews, by both of whom it was corrupted.'
The divine reason, word, or ordering principle through which the universe was created; mediates between the transcendent God and the material world.
The passage centrally asserts that 'When God uttered His fiat the world was made' and 'by the word were creatures made, and by this same word was also made the light which was necessary to man,' making the creative divine word the organizing principle of the entire cosmogonic narrative.
The felt condition of exile from one's divine origin — Rumi's reed flute torn from its bed, Plotinus's 'we have forgotten,' the Gnostic forgetfulness; the affective wound that complements return_to_source and gives the return its motive.
The expulsion from Paradise is described as the event that caused man to lose his original cognition and become earthly.
The consecration of an inscribed physical object — seal, pentacle, amulet, character, or figure — so that it holds and channels magical power independent of any ongoing spoken formula, protecting, attracting, or acting on its bearer's behalf. Distinct from sacred_names (the power resides in the name itself, spoken or written, not in a dedicated physical vessel) and from spirit_conjuration (the object is not commanding or binding a spirit but is itself the locus of power).
The Gamaheu stones are described as objects bearing natural images with 'their own inherent virtue, which is indicated by the shape and the special nature of the impression,' and can receive projected magical influence—functioning as loci of power independent of ongoing spoken formula.