17. Astrologyb

Paracelsus was perhaps the last of the great practical astrologers; he cured diseases by talismans formed under astral influences; he distinguished upon all bodies the mark of their dominant star; there, according to him, was the true Universal Medicine, the Absolute Science of Nature, lost by man's own fault and recovered only by a small number of initiates. To recognize the sign of each star upon men, animals and plants, is the true natural science of Solomon, that science which is said to be lost, but the principles of which are preserved notwithstanding, as are all other secrets, in the symbolism of the Kabalah. It will be understood readily that in order to read the stars one must know the stars themselves; now, this knowledge is obtained by the kabalistic DOMIFICATION of the sky and by mastering the celestial planisphere, as rediscovered and explained by Gaffarel. In this planisphere the constellations form Hebrew letters, and the mythological figures may be replaced by the symbols of the Tarot. To this same planisphere Gaffarel refers the origin of patriarchal writing, and the first lineaments of primitive characters may very well have been found in the chains of starry attraction, in which case the celestial book would have served as the model of Enoch's, and the kabalistic alphabet would have been a synopsis of the entire sky. This is not wanting in poetry, nor above all in probability, and the study of the Tarot, which is evidently the primitive and hieroglyphic work of Enoch, as was divined by the erudite William Postel, is sufficient to convince us hereof. The signs imprinted in the Astral Light by the reflection and attraction of the stars are reproduced therefore, as the sages have discovered, on all bodies which are formed by the co-operation of that light. Men bear the signs of their star on their forehead chiefly, and in their hands; animals in their whole form and in their individual signs; plants in their leaves and seed; minerals in their veins and in the peculiarities of their fracture. The study of these characters was the entire life-work of Paracelsus, and the figures on his talismans are the result of his researches; but he has given us no key to these, and hence the astral kabalistic alphabet, with its correspondences, still remains to be constructed. As regards publicity, the science of nonconventional magical writing stopped with the planisphere of Gaffarel. The serious art of divination rests wholly in the knowledge of these signs. Chiromancy is the art of reading the writing of the stars in the lines of the hand, and physiognomy seeks the same or analogous characters upon the countenance of querents. As a fact, the lines formed on the human face by nervous contractions are determined fatally, and the radiation of the nervous tissue is absolutely analogous to those networks which are formed between the worlds by chains of starry attraction. The fatalities of life are therefore written necessarily in our wrinkles, and a first glance frequently reveals upon the forehead of a stranger either one or more of the mysterious letters of the kabalistic planisphere. Should the letter be jagged and scored deeply, there has been a struggle between will and fatality, and in his most powerful emotions and tendencies the individual's entire past manifests to the Magus. From this it becomes easy to conjecture the future; and if events deceive the sagacity of the diviner from time to time, he who has consulted him will remain none the less astounded and convinced by the superhuman knowledge of the adept. The human head is formed upon the model of the celestial spheres; it attracts and it radiates, and this it is which first forms and manifests in the conception of a child.