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Modern astronomy teaches the science of the bodies of the planets and stars; the Astronomy of Paracelsus speaks of the spiritual forces represented by those planets, the counterparts of which exist in the constitution of man and as every force in nature acts upon its corresponding element in the nature of man, these universal forces produce certain effects upon those elements in man which exist upon the corresponding plane. Thus for instance it requires no argument to prove that the sun is the source of heat and light and life upon this planet, and that the physical body of man as well as that of the earth receives these energies from the radiations coming from the physical body of the sun; this being the corporeal visible centre of a power existing universally, and whose sphere of activity reaches as far as the limits of our solar system. We all live and have our being physically within the sphere of activity and consequently within the physical elements of the sun; in a similar sense we live and have our being spiritually in the spiritual body and substance of Love, and as the sun of the physical world shines upon our body; so the light of divine wisdom is all around us and ready to penetrate into our soul. Thus Paracelsus teaches that the moon corresponds to the astral body of man, and has certain effects upon it, causing certain states which may ultimately become outwardly manifested as certain moral or physical diseases, and similar correspondencies might be shown to exist between the universal powers represented by the visible planets and the corresponding elements existing in the constitution of man; but however important and interesting this subject may be it finds very little attention on the part of popular medical science, which is far too busy in investigating outward effects of a phenomenal character to find time for attending to that which produces all such phenomena and appearances.

If the Astronomy of Paracelsus were understood, it would be found that man, far from creating his own thoughts, merely remodels the ideas that flow into his mind; that "thought-transference," far from being a strange and rare occurrence, is as common as the transference of heat; that owing to the oneness of humanity we all feel and think within each other and act out each other's thoughts. We would know better the real causes of crimes, insanity and disease, and find them to be controvertible terms. We might then perhaps also modify our views regarding the supposed free will and the amount of responsibility of man, and know that the power of will is not a myth, and witchcraft and sorcery no more impossible than the magic action of true love.

The ancient alchemists used a mysterious language when speaking about mysterious things, nor could any modern alchemist express in plain language things for which our language has no words and common minds no conception. Children often speak more wisely than they know, sages know what they speak, but the half learned speak without knowing. The child receiving gifts from its parents on Christmas eve believes that the Christ has sent these presents, but the grown-up and clever boy becomes sceptical and laughs at that story. In that opinion he may now continue all his life, or he may become still more clever and find that the Christ is divine love, from which the love of his parents originated, inducing them to bestow gifts, and that the story which he believed when a child, was true after all. In the same sense Alchemy is either a truth or a superstition; it merely depends on the definition we give to this term.

Professor Justus von Liebig says: "Alchemy was never anything different from Chemistry," and to this we agree in so far as both deal with substantial things, having certain affinities, and not with anything existing outside of nature; but while ordinary chemistry employs merely physical forces for the purpose of composing and decomposing material substances without causing anything new to grow, Alchemy employs the power of life and uses animated forces, establishing conditions under which something visible may grow from something invisible, in the same sense as a tree grows from a seed in the alchemical laboratory of nature. Chemistry and Alchemy are therefore two aspects of one and the same science, the one is the lower, the other the higher part. The chemist who decomposes salt into NA and CL, and recombines it into NACL, practises chemistry; the gardener establishing in his hot house the conditions under which the seed of a plant of a lower type is made to develop into a plant of a higher type, and the schoolmaster who makes an intelligent being out of a dunce, are practicing Alchemy, because they produce something more noble than the materials employed, out of the latent potencies contained therein.

Without the alchemy of nature no "physiological chemistry" could take place; without the action of a universally existing life principle, no human form could grow out of an ovum or foetus, no child develop into a man. The human stomach is an alchemical laboratory in which miracles are performed which no modern chemist can imitate by merely chemical means; milk and bread are transformed into blood and flesh within the living retort of the human body, and wonders performed which modern chemistry in spite of its progress cannot accomplish, because it does not control the organising power of life.

All that popular belief knows of ancient Alchemy is from the misunderstood writings of the ancients, who purposely wrote in a manner incomprehensible to the uninitiated, or from the writings of pretenders and frauds--for at that time there were as many selfish and ignorant people as there are to-day, wasting their time in useless efforts to apply a spiritual science to material purposes, and seeking to employ powers which they did not possess, in the hope of satisfying their curiosity and their greed. Of this kind of "Alchemy," Paracelsus speaks with the greatest contempt.

As there are three kingdoms in nature, intimately connected with each other, the kingdom of physical nature, the kingdom of the soul of the world , and the kingdom of the self-conscious spirit; so there are three aspects of Alchemy, intimately connected with each other, one belonging to the physical, the other to the astral, and the highest to the spiritual aspect of man. H. P. Blavatsky says:

"Above all a physician should know that man exists in three substances. That of which he is made has three aspects. Those three make up the whole man, and they are the man himself and he is they, and out of these three substances he receives all his good and evil concerning his physical body. Thus each thing exists in these three substances, and the three together constitute a body, and there is nothing added to it but the life. If you can see these true substances, you then have the eye by means of which a physician ought to be able to see. To see the exterior only is in the power of everybody; but to see within the interior and discover what is hidden, is an art that belongs to the physician."

Those who have thus far followed our line of reasoning will now be ready to acknowledge that an understanding of this superior science, the acquisition of whose knowledge requires a life-time spent by a superior mind, and whose practice involves the evolution of superior faculties, is not to be obtained by a few hours' perusal of a book on Alchemy, and that only those who are practical alchemists are entitled to judge it. Alchemy, far from being an "exploded humbug," is in fact the noblest object for which all humanity and civilization strives. It is the realization of the highest ideal, a feat which cannot be accomplished by anything less than that ideal itself. H. P. Blavatsky says:--

As stated before, there are three aspects of Alchemy:--

The limitation of space in these pages, no less than the insufficiency of our experience in regard to this subject, forbids us to enter into a closer investigation of the relations existing between this aspect of Alchemy and physical chemistry; but we have reason to affirm, that we are on the eve of great discoveries, which will to a certain extent revolutionize the popular chemistry of the present day.

The above will be sufficient to give a hint in regard to the character of Alchemy and its relation to chemistry. Between these two aspects there is a third one, namely, what may be called "Astral Alchemy."

There are at present thousands of medical practitioners, whose only merit is and ever will be, that they have succeeded in passing an examination and obtaining the title M.D.; but the title "doctor" means merely an academical degree; the diploma merely certifies that the examiners believe the student to have fulfilled all that the regulations require, and although such a title may involve the right to poison and kill without being punished for it, the conferring of such a degree does not constitute a physician. The true physician as well as the real priest is ordained by God. Paracelsus says in substance as follows:--

"He who can cure disease is a physician. Neither emperors nor popes, neither colleges nor high schools can create physicians. They can confer privileges and cause a person who is not a physician to appear as if he were one; they can give him permission to kill, but they cannot give him the power to cure; they cannot make him a real physician if he has not already been ordained by God. The true physician does not brag about his cleverness or praise his medicines or seek to monopolize the right of robbing the patient; for he knows that the work must praise the master, and not the master the work. There is a knowledge which is derived from man, and another knowledge which is derived from God through the light of nature. He who has not been born to be a physician will never succeed. A physician should be faithful and charitable. He who loves only himself and his own pocket will be of little benefit to the sick. Medicine is much more an art than a science. To know the experience of others is useful to a physician; but all the learning of books cannot make a man a physician, unless he is one by nature. Medical wisdom is only given by God."

This virtue which constitutes the true physician cannot be created by colleges, nor can it be conferred by anyone personally upon himself. No one can confer upon himself a thing which he does not possess, or without the aid of any higher influence make himself better than that which he is; because, as has been explained above, the power exercised by any form is not the creation of the form, but an eternal principle, entering into objective existence in forms and becoming manifested in and through them by its own power. Neither truth nor wisdom can be manufactured; they exist independently of all opinions, observations, speculation, and logic; they may be hidden from our sight like the sun on a rainy day; but as the sun is independent of our being aware of his presence, so the truth exists eternally whether or not it is acknowledged by us. If the whole generation of mankind at present walking this earth should turn into idiots, the truth would not therefore cease to be, but would become manifested again as wisdom in a more enlightened age.

This science requires not mere words, but self-knowledge. Wisdom can only be taught by Wisdom itself; but a science based upon a recognition of truth disperses the clouds which prevent the light of the truth from entering into the heart and becoming incorporated and manifested in man.

THE FIVE CAUSES OF DISEASE.

If we inquire from modern medical science: What are the causes of diseases? we shall probably be answered:

We will forbear to pass any remarks upon this classification of the causes of diseases, which merely enumerates certain conditions in which diseases may arise, and we will pass on to the classification of the causes of diseases given by Paracelsus; but as this subject has already received attention in a previously published work on the doctrines of Paracelsus, the following is intended merely to supply additional food for thought.

Paracelsus says:

to electric resistance.

to the tension of electromotive force.

to the intensity of the current.

No one would ever think of these three measures as being separate entities, which like "substance, energy and intelligence" are merely three aspects or conceptions of one universal life; but these distinctions are necessary for the purpose of forming a conception.

We will now attempt to define the meaning of these five beginnings.

"God has caused living creatures to exist in all the elements, and there is nothing empty of life. That which becomes manifested in the visible kingdom has come into existence by being generated in the upper regions. Without such a generation above, it could not have become manifested below."

The astral plane is the plane of desires, emotions, and passions; that is to say, the plane of those influences , which become manifested as desires, emotions, and passions in the animal organism, and if we were to enter this subject, it would bring us within the realm of the supersensual but nevertheless actual kingdom of living elemental powers belonging to the soul of the world. If our eyes were opened to the perception of thoughts, it would be seen how a continual thought-transference is taking place among individual minds, influencing and determining their actions, even if they are not aware of it, causing not only individual moral diseases, insanities, obsessions and crimes, but whole epidemics of such kinds. There is an immense field for investigation for the psychologist; not for that kind of "psychologists" who imagine that insanity is under all circumstances a disturbance of the functions of the brain from physical causes, but for those who can realise that the functions of the brain may be disturbed by the disordered action of the mind; for although in many cases of brain disease it is as difficult to determine whether the disorder of the mind or that of the brain existed first, as it would be to answer the question, which existed first, the hen or the egg? nevertheless a lesion of the tissues of the brain does not take place without a cause, and this cause in the majority of such cases comes from the sphere of the emotions and thoughts.

If there is no mind, there can be no mental disease. If mind is something , it must be something substantial, and being something substantial, it is able to produce substantial effects; moreover, its actions show a certain order and harmony, which go to prove that mind has an organisation. If this order and harmony be disturbed, discord, disease, insanity will be the result. Without the presence of mind nothing would come into existence; without the consciousness in the All, no brain would be able to manifest consciousness, and this is what Paracelsus means when he says:--

Nothing is poisonous or impure if it stands by itself, only if two things whose natures are incompatible with each other come into contact, can a poisonous action take place or an impure condition be produced.

"Everything is in itself perfect and good. Only when it enters into relation with another thing does relative good and evil come into existence. If anything enters into the constitution of man, which is not in harmony with its elements, the one is to the other an impurity, and can become a poison."

There is no doubt that modern chemistry, physiology and pathology teach more than ancient science in regard to the chemical constitution, the physiological action of poisons and of the pathological effects which they produce in the animal body; but to explain the order in which a process takes place is not sufficient to explain why it takes place, and there is still a wide field open for investigation; for at present we can only record the fact that certain physical substances have a destructive action upon the human body; while the same substances with a little difference in the arrangements of their molecules, are not only not injurious, but even used as food; that certain substances have a specific action upon the emotional nature in man, causing an inclination to certain states of his astral constitution, such as irritability of temper, anger, cupidity, etc., which they could not have if no corresponding elements were contained in them; while others have a specific action upon the mind, such as the fading of memory, paralysis of the will, excitement of the imagination, all of which they could not accomplish if no substantial mind principle existed in them.

To material science the universe is a product of mechanical force created by unconscious matter; to the idealist it is a dream which has nothing real in it; but seen with the eye of wisdom it is a manifestation of life, with the potentiality of consciousness contained in everything. Love and hate exist in minerals as they do in men, only in another state of consciousness, and a tragedy or comedy might be written in regard to their family history; describing, for instance, how the beautiful Princess Sodium fell in love and was married to a fiery youth called Oxygen, and how the happy union lasted until one day a jealous knight, named Chlorine, fell in love with her, and although he himself was married to a flighty woman whose name was Hydrogenia, he abducted the princess, and there was nothing left for poor Oxygen but to take the deserted woman and turn to water with her. Such a story would differ from a similar one enacted in human life only in so far as the actors in the latter would intelligently and consciously follow certain laws which are enacted without individual intelligence in the mineral kingdom. There is only one Consciousness and one law of Harmony in the world, and according to it accords and discords arise in all the three kingdoms of nature.

The influence of the light of the truth is a poison to the erroneous conceptions existing within the mind, and earthly thoughts are impurities to the mind that aspires to the kingdom of heaven. Evil desires create evil thoughts and give birth to evil acts; good acts procreate their species, giving rise to good thoughts and aspirations, from which good children are born. The sum of men's individual desires constitutes the desires of the soul of the world; the sum of the thoughts and opinions of mankind constitutes the mental atmosphere by which the world in general, and each locality in particular, is surrounded; and the state of the mind ultimately expresses itself upon the outward plane of manifestation. It is not more difficult to poison a mind with impure thoughts than to poison a body with drugs. Impure is he who has many diverging desires, pure is the mind having only one will.

"If a woman leaves her husband, she is then not free from him, nor he from her; for a marital union having once been established, remains a union for all eternity."

Thus innumerable comparisons may be drawn and analogies be found, and cases cited to prove the correctness of this theory, if our space would permit it, and if it were necessary to prove by arguments and facts the truth of the unity of the all, which must be self-evident to everyone taking the trouble to seek for the answer to such questions within himself.

But the highest cannot act upon the lowest without an intermediary link connecting them, the spirit cannot act upon the body without the connecting link of the soul, nor the soul upon the body except by means of the life. We cannot cook a dish of soup for a starving beggar by means of the fire of love; but love moves the will and induces actions which the mind directs, and thus the soup may be cooked after all owing to the power of love or charity. The greatest difficulty in the understanding of occult laws arises from the circumstance that we cannot perceive remote causes or seek to connect them with ultimate effects without being able to see through the intricate network of intermediary causes between the two ends.

Man is a perfect child of nature. There is not a single essence in his constitution which does not exist in nature; neither is there any substance or power to be found in nature which does not exist in him, either actually or potentially, undeveloped or developed.

Man has two kinds of natures. His physical organism is a product of that nature which he received from his terrestrial parents; his mental organisation is the result of a higher and quite different kind of evolution. His terrestrial nature includes not only his visible organism, but also the organisation of his astral form and his mental constitution.

The quality of the constitution of a man determines the length of his natural life.

This class includes all internal diseases originating from disorders arising among the interaction of the physiological functions of the organs of the body, or of the interaction between these and those of the soul and mind .

This system of Paracelsus includes the whole realm of modern physiology and pathology; but it penetrates deeper, for it investigates the functions of soul and mind, and follows the development of an evil desire or thought until it ultimately finds its expression in an external manifestation of visible pathological states. To enter into the details of this field of pathology is not possible within the limits of this book.

There is no indication that the sympathies and antipathies, in other words the physiological relations existing between the different organs in the human body, are better known at the present time than they were at the time of Paracelsus: on the contrary, he speaks of the currents of the life-principle taking place between these organs, while modern anatomy speaks only of nerves, which are in regard to the "life-fluid" what electric wires are in regard to electricity.

In regard to this subject modern medical science says:--

"A wide basis of positive knowledge in regard to this subject does not exist. The physiology of the different departments of the sympathetic system of nerves is now only beginning to shape itself, while on the side of pathology and morbid anatomy there is even still less of definite knowledge. Thus it happens that for the most part only conjectures, often very insecurely based are current, or can be said to exist in regard to the dependence of definite sets of symptoms, or distinct diseases, upon disordered actions or morbid changes occurring in one or other part of the sympathetic system of nerves."

Both ancient and modern science are right as far as they go; only while modern science pays all of its attention to the forms , which are merely the products of certain principles and powers and the instruments for their activity, ancient science deals with these powers themselves, taking only into secondary consideration the visible instruments in and through which they become manifest. Modern science, so to say, studies the muscular movements of a musician, occult science knows the art of music itself. Material science is the servant mixing the paints for the painter; the true physician is the artist who knows how to paint. The one studies the tools which the workman uses; the other sees also the workman himself. These comparisons are not drawn for the purpose of throwing discredit upon modern medical science, nor for the purpose of blaming any modern physician for not employing powers which he does not possess; but for the purpose of indicating that a knowledge of physical phenomena and visible forms is not the limit of all attainable knowledge, and that there exists a higher and more important kind of knowledge, based upon a higher perception, such as is attained only through the higher development of the spiritual character of man; which becomes possible only when earthly presumption and vanity are overcome and when, by stepping up higher, he realises the nothingness of the terrestrial illusion of "self."

"That is a spirit, which is born from our thoughts; immaterial and in the living body. That which is born after our death is the soul."

"The spirit is not born from reasoning, but from the will."

A great deal has been written about the power of will and imagination in Nature, by means of which the types existing in the memory of the universal mind continually find re-expression in physical visible forms; in this place we have to deal only with the qualities of these three functions, and the effects which they produce in the body of man.

In the previous three divisions of this chapter we have had under our consideration causes of diseases originating in the terrestrial part of the human constitution; this and the following deals with his spiritual part.

"There are two subjects in man, one is a material, the other a spiritual being , impalpable, invisible, subject to its own diseases ; one belonging to the material, the other to the spiritual world, each having its own states of consciousness, perception and memory, its own associations with beings of its kind. Nevertheless, both are one during this life, and the spirit influences the body; but not the body the spirit. Therefore if the spirit is diseased, it is of no use to doctor the body; but if the body is diseased, it can be cured by administering remedies to the spirit."

The resurrection of the physical body is a modern superstition in which none of the ancient philosophers or real Christians ever believed.

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