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Paracelsus and The Quintessential of Life |
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Diego Antolini |
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In
the history of alchemy there is not a more picturesque and incredible
figure as that of Auroelus Philippus Theophrastus Paracelstis Bombast
von Hohenheim, an illustrious physician and exponent of the hermetic
philosophy who chose to be remembered as Paracelsus. Paracelsus was
born in 1493 in Einsideln, near Zurich. His father was the natural
son of a prince and a practitioner of the art of medicine; therefore
he wanted his only son to follow on his very foosteps.
Paracelsus’
first education was then directed to the medical sciences, but the
subject were impressed more upon his imagination by aid of the
alchemy world and its mysteries, rather than via the actual practice
of medicine. He immediately understood that the medical traditions of
the time were nothing more than empty shells from which every
substance had long dried up.
Paracelsus
said:
"...
I considered with myself that if there had not been medical teachers
in the world, how could I learn the craft? In no other way than from
the great open book of nature, written by the finger of God…"
Having
thus detached himself from the bonds of an orthodox and obsolete
medicine, Paracelsus began a personal path that would lead him to
conceive a new system to
replace the old one.
He plunged into the "book of nature" through a long period
of travels, from 1513 to 1524, during
which
he
visited
basically every corner of the known world.
He was imprisoned by
the Tartars (but later he accompanied the Kahn's son to
Constantinople), confronted with
the wizards of Egypt and Arabia, and perhaps even reached India, the
land of the Sufi. He studied metallurgy, chemistry and medicine,
often accompanying himself to wanderers of all kinds.
He
eventually returned to Switzerland (1524) and settled in Basel, then
the meeting place of scholars and doctors, where he obtained the
chair of medicine at the University of Basel,
that
had never before
seen
such more erratic and brilliant a professor than Paracelsus. His
exaggerated language, eccentric behavior and the splendor of concepts
he conveyed through a mist of dark codes, attracted and shocked at
the same time, bringing friends but also attracting
many enemies.
Paracelsus' criticism to Galen’s school
embittered until it reached its
apex when he publicly burned the works of Galen and Avicenna in a
bronze vase in which he had thrown sodium and sulfur. With this act,
Paracelsus ran into the wrath of his more conservative colleagues,
and severed permanently all ties with the academic medicine. Despite
all this, he continued his triumphant career until a conflict with
the city magistrates changed everything: Paracelsus was forced to
leave Basel and, from that moment on, he wandered from place to
place, making a living as best as
he
could.
His death in 1541 is shrouded in mystery. The most
accredited version has him poisoned in a plot instigated by the
medical faculty of Basel.
Interesting as it is, the events of
his life are only a corollary to his works. Not only was Paracelsus
the founder of modern medical science, but Mesmer's theory of
magnetism, the "astral" theory of modern spiritualism, and
Descartes' philosophy are all concepts that have drawn from his
fantastic and not always logical teachings. It was Paracelsus who
revived the "microcosmic" theory of ancient Greece,
attempting to demonstrate that the human body is in fact the quantum
mirror of the Solar System, linking the seven organs to the seven
planets. It was Paracelsus who preached the doctrine of the Will and
its effectiveness – power and imagination – with these words:
"...
It is possible that my spirit, without the help of my body but
through the mere, ardent will, and without a sword, might strike and
hurt others. It is also possible that I could transfer the spirit of
my opponent into an image and keep him there or torture him as I
please..."
"...
Vivid imagination is the beginning of every magic operation..."
"...
Since men neither believe nor imagine in a perfect way, the result is
that the arts are uncertain when they could be entirely certain..."
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The
first principle of his doctrine was the extraction of the
quintessential, or Philosophical Mercury, from every material body.
Paracelsus believed that if the quintessential had been collected
from every animal, plant and mineral, the result would be the
universal spirit or "astral body" within a man, and that a
sip of that extract could restore youth. Eventually he came to the
conclusion that the "astral bodies" exerted a mutual
influence on each other, and declared that he himself had
communicated with the dead and with the living, with the latter even
at a considerable distance.
Paracelsus
was the first to put in place the connection between the astral
influence and that of magnets, using the word "magnetism"
with its modern application. It was thanks to this founding tenet
that Mesmer built his theory of magnetic influence.
Although
immersed in such esoteric studies, Paracelsus did not neglect the
practice of medicine. In fact, both astrology and magnetism became an
integral part of his treatments. When he was called upon by a
patient, his first act was to consult the planets, the origin of the
disease, and if, for example, the sick person was a woman, he assumed
that the cause of evil laid within the Moon’s behavior.
His
anticipation of Descartes' philosophy was in the theory that
harmonizing the various elements of the human body with those of
nature – fire, earth, water, air, light – aging and death could
be delayed indefinitely. His experiment in extracting the essence of
poppies resulted in the production of the laudanum, which Paracelsus
used to prescribe freely in the form of "three black pills".
It is no coincidence that he is now celebrated as the first doctor to
have used opium and mercury as well as having recognized the value of
sulfur.
Another controversial subject still debated by
modern science, and which Paracelsus studied extensively, was that of
the possibility of obtaining life from inorganic matter. According to
him
this is possible; Paracelsus
left to posterity a detailed recipe for the creation of the
Homunculus
or Artificial Man: treating in a particular way certain "spagyric"
substances -which, appropriately in our opinion, have never been
specified- Paracelsus declared that he could reproduce a miniature
human child. Such speculations, in a time when virtually every doctor
or scholar used to impose their theories upon the ignorant folks,
could be seen as strategies “of form” rather than of substance.
However, throughout his life Paracelsus showed a peculiar uniformity
of goals, and a real desire to penetrate the mysteries of nature,
even if he often masked them under an arrogant and boastful
attitude.
We have used the term "appropriately” to
justify the fact that Paracelsus himself was aware of possessing an
enlightened, superior knowledge, which could not and should not be
granted to everyone. For this reason, in publishing the nine volumes
of his philosophy under the name Archidoxa
Medicina,
he revealed that he had thought of ten tomes but the last one –
which had to contain the key to understand the first nine – would
be published only under certain conditions:
"...
[the
tenth volume]
is a treasure that men do not deserve to possess, and that can only
be given to the world when Aristotle, Avicenna and Galen shall be
repudiated, and a total submission to Paracelsus will be sworn
upon…"
Of
course the world did not comply to Paracelsus's command and so, under
the pressure of his students, he eventually published the tenth
volume of The
Archidoxa
under the title "The Key Or The Tenth Book Of The
Archidoxa
Taken From An Ancient German Manuscript", but making it even
more hermetic than the others, so that its use as a "key"
would only be possible to the initiates.
On the
quintessence, the main theme in the works
of Paracelsus, should be added that he declared that each body was
composed of four elements, and that the combination of these gave
rise to a fifth element or soul of the mixed bodies: in alchemic
jargon, its “Mercury.” Not
the chemical mercury, but rather, the Philosopher's Mercury.
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Paracelsus
wrote:
"...
There are as many mercuries as there are things in existence. The
mercury of a vegetable, of a mineral or of an animal of the same
species, even if they resemble each other, are not exactly identical,
and it is for this reason that minerals, animals and plants of the
same kind are never the same... the true Philosopher's Mercury is the
radical moisture of each body, and its authentic essence..."
At
some point in his research, Paracelsus decided to explore the plants’
world to find the species that could be compared to gold in the realm
of metals – a plant whose "predestined element" ought to
collect in itself the virtues of the essence of all other plants.
Although very difficult to identify, he recognized with a single
glance (in which way it is not known) the supremacy of the Melissa
over all other plants, and
invested
it with that pharmaceutical crown that the Carmelites would later
consecrate.
From the Melissa
Paracelsus did not take out anything, but rather learned to extract
the "predestined element" of plants, the "original
life" which, according to the fifth book of The
Archidoxa,
combined with other elements could repair and regenerate any living
cell. Much, however, depended upon the relationship that existed
between the character of the plant and that of the individual who
asked to be rejuvenated.
The fact that Paracelsus’
attention focused on plants would seem to deviate from the prominence
that alchemists have always attributed to metals (compared to all
other elements of the natural world) for the realization of the Great
Work. To
Paracelsus, however, it seemed very easy to extract the "original
life" out of the Moon, the Sun, Mars or Saturn, that is, from
silver, gold, iron or lead, as well as from bitumen, sulfur and even
animals.
So his recipe for the completion of the Work had
to move from the most complex, varied and enigmatic kingdom ever, the
plants. It did not matter whether his ideas were in apparent contrast
to those of his fellow alchemists: “Not
in the flowers of the Antimony but in its mercury resides the
arcanum,”
he wrote.
Of the hermetic triad discussed in this study
Paracelsus certainly represents the final stage of a path that
identifies him with the Sefira Atziluth, or the "emanation"
in so much as Cagliostro and the Count of Saint Germain represented
Yetzirah or "training" and Briah or "creation"
respectively, although we can not forget the genius of Fulcanelli,
who will be discussed later.
Whether or not Paracelsus
had managed to find the formula of the Elixir of Immortality, the
Elixir of Youth and even the Philosopher's Stone is still the subject
of debate among alchemists and esoteric scholars. Certainly, his
study of the natural world has shown that, in order to understand its
most hidden secrets, one cannot limit
his or her efforts
just on
a
single category, but in fact it is through the ineffable rhythm of
nature itself that, when the eye is watchful, the endless paths of
the hermetic knowledge are revealed.
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20/08/2020 22:01:21 |
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