(24) Thou shalt not come towards me, thy venom will not penetrate into me. Thy poison is fallen and thrown down, and thy lips are in a hole

(144) Thou hast many examples thereof in this world, that if some creature or man look upon a thing, it perishes because of the poison or venom in the creature: On the other side again, some men, as also beasts and other creatures, can with their tone or words change or alter the malignity or evil of a thing, and bring it into a right form.

(47) Munpus saith: Thou hast already treated sufficiently of Rubigo, O Attamus! I will speak, therefore, of venom, and will instruct future generations that venom is not a body, because subtle spirits have made it into a tenuous spirit, have tinged the body and burned it with venom, which venom the Philosopher asserts will tinge every body. But the Ancient Philosophers thought that he who turned gold into venom had arrived at the purpose, but he who can do not this profiteth nothing. Now I say unto you, all ye Sons of the Doctrine, that unless ye reduce the thing by fire until those things ascend like a spirit, ye effect nought. This, therefore, is a spirit avoiding the fire anda ponderous 22 St e ‘ smoke,* which when it enters the body penetrates it entirely, and makes the body rejoice.* The Philosophers have

all said: Take a black and conjoining spirit; therewith break up the bodies and torture them till they be altered.

(1) The lover invoked blessings on that rough patrol, They were poison to most men, but sweets to him, In the world there is nothing absolutely bad; Know, moreover, evil is only relative. In the world there is neither poison nor antidote, Which is not a foot to one and a fetter to another; To one the power of moving, to another a clog; To one a poison, to another an antidote. Serpents' poison is life to serpents, To the creatures of the sea the sea is a garden,

(37) Neither has man brought the malignity, poison and venom into the beasts, birds, worms, and stones, for he had not their body; otherwise if he had brought malignity and fierceness or wrath into all creatures, then he, like the devils, could never obtain God's mercy.

(35) Certain plants, minerals, and animals have been sacred among all the nations of the earth because of their peculiar sensitiveness to the astral fire--a mysterious agency in Nature which the scientific world has contacted through its manifestations as electricity and magnetism. Lodestone and radium in the mineral world and various parasitic growths in the plant kingdom are strangely susceptible to this cosmic electric fire, or universal life force. The magicians of the Middle Ages surrounded themselves with such creatures as bats, spiders, cats, snakes, and monkeys, because they were able to appropriate the life forces of these species and use them to the attainment of their own ends. Some ancient schools of wisdom taught that all poisonous insects and reptiles are germinated out of the evil nature of man, and that when intelligent human beings no longer breed hate in their own souls there will be no more ferocious animals, loathsome diseases, or poisonous plants and insects.

(14) Why, then, is the serpent called wise? Because even in its wiles there may be found a connection, and distinction, and combination, and conjecturing of the future. And so very many crimes are concealed; because the wicked arrange for themselves so as by all means to escape punishment.

(5) And lo! at one who was upon our side There darted forth a serpent, which transfixed him There where the neck is knotted to the shoulders. Nor 'O' so quickly e'er, nor 'I' was written, As he took fire, and burned; and ashes wholly Behoved it that in falling he became. And when he on the ground was thus destroyed, The ashes drew together, and of themselves Into himself they instantly returned. Even thus by the great sages 'tis confessed The phoenix dies, and then is born again, When it approaches its five-hundredth year; On herb or grain it feeds not in its life, But only on tears of incense and amomum, And nard and myrrh are its last winding-sheet. And as he is who falls, and knows not how, By force of demons who to earth down drag him, Or other oppilation that binds man, When he arises and around him looks, Wholly bewildered by the mighty anguish Which he has suffered, and in looking sighs; Such was that sinner after he had risen. Justice of God! O how severe it is, That blows like these in vengeance poureth down!

(48) Behold, dear Soul, herein lies the heavenly Tincture, which we must set down in a Similitude, and we cannot at all express it with Words. Indeed if we had the Tongue of Angels, we could then rightly express what the Mind apprehends; but the Pearl is cloathed [covered or vailed] with a dark [Cloak or] Garment: The Virgin calls stedfastly to the Heart of God, that he would deliver her Companion from the dark Worm; but the divine Answer still is, The Seed of the Woman shall break the Serpent's Head; that is, the Darkness of the Serpent shall be separated from the Bridegroom; the dark Garment wherewith the Serpent cloaths thy Bridegroom, and darkens thy Pearl and beauteous Crown, shall be broken, [corrupted or destroyed,] and turn to Earth; and thou shalt rejoice with thy Bridegroom in me; this was my eternal Will, it must stand.

(7) So also it is very clear and manifest, that before the Curse there grew not such venomous [or poisonous] Thorns and Thistles, and poisonous Fruits; and if God had not cursed the Earth (from the [one] Element) then no Beast should have been so fierce and [mischievous or] evil; for God said, Let the Earth be cursed for thy Sake. From whence now is also arisen the Disobedience of the Beasts towards Man, and their Wildness, [or flying in their Face,] as also, that they are so [cruel,] fierce, [mischievous,] and evil, and that Man must hide himself from their fierce Rage and Fury;] whereas God (in the Creation) gave all into his Power, all Beasts of the Field should be in Subjection under him, which now is quite contrary; for Man is become a Wolf to them [in devouring the Beasts,] and they are [like] Lions against him, and there is mere Eternity against one another; he can scarce order the tame Beasts, much less the wild.

(6) My beloved Reader, just thus is our Mind also. It is the indissoluble Band, which God by the Fiat in the moving Spirit breathed into Adam out of the eternal Mind, [from whence] the Essences are a Particular, or a Sparkle out of the eternal Mind, which has the Center of the Breaking, and in the Breaking has the Sharpness in itself; and that Will drives [forth] the Flash [or Glimpse] in the Breaking, and the Sharpness of the Consuming of the Darkness is in the Glimpse [or Flash] of the Willing, and the Will is our Mind. The Glimpse is the Eyes in the Fire-flash, which discovers itself in our Essences hin us, and without us, for it is free, and has both the Gates open, that [Gate] in the Darkness, and that Gate in the Light. For although it continues in the Darkness, yet it breaks the Darkness, and makes all Light in itself; and where it is, there it sees. As our Thoughts, they can i speculate a Thing that is many Miles off, when the Body is far from thence, and it may be never was in that Place; the Discovery or Glimpse [or piercing Sight of the Eye of the Mind] goes through Wood and Stone, through Bones and Marrow, and there is nothing that can withhold it, for it pierces and breaks the Darkness every where without rending the Body of any Thing, and the Will is its Horse whereon it rides. Here many Things must be concealed, because of the devilish Inchantment, (or else we would reveal much more here,) for the Nigromanticus [Necromancer] is generated here.

(16) In 1609 Henry Khunrath's Amphitheatrum Sapientiæ Æternæ was published. Eliphas Levi declared that within its pages are concealed all the great secrets of magical philosophy. A remarkable plate in this work shows the Hermetic sciences being attacked by the bigoted and ignorant pedagogues of the seventeenth century. In order to express his complete contempt for his slanderers, Khunrath made out of each a composite beast, adding donkey ears to one and a false tail to another. He reserved the upper part of the picture for certain petty backbiters whom he gave appropriate forms. The air was filled with strange creatures--great dragon flies, winged frogs, birds with human heads, and other weird forms which defy description--heaping venom, gossip, spite, slander, and other forms of persecution upon the secret arcanum of the wise. The drawing indicated that their attacks were ineffectual. Poisonous insects were often used to symbolize the deadly power of the human tongue.

(104) For the qualifying or fountain spirits of the devils are shut up in the hard wrath; their bodies are a hard death, and their spirits are a fierce sting of the wrath of God, and their qualifying or fountain spirits generate themselves continually in the innermost sharpness, according to the sharp law [right or order] of the Deity.

(35) But Zimon* saith: Hast thou left anything to be said by another? And the Turba: Since the words of Nicarus and Bacsen are of little good to those who seek after this Art, tell us, therefore, what thou knowest, according as we have said. And he: Ye speak the truth, O all ye seekers after this Art! Nothing else has led you into error but the sayings of the envious,t because what ye seek is sold at the smallest possible price.* If men knew this, and how great was the thing they held in their hands, they would in no wise sell it. Therefore, the Philosophers have glorified that venom,t have treated of it variously, and in many ways, have taken and applied to it all manner of names, wherefore, certain envious persons have said: It is a stone and not a stone, but a gum of Ascotia, consequently, the Philosophers have concealed the power thereof. For this spirit which ye seek, that ye may tinge therewith, is concealed in the body, and hidden away from sight, even as the soul in the human body.} But ye IIO seekers after the Art, unless ye disintegrate this body, imbue and pound both cautiously and diligently, until ye extract it from its grossness (or grease), and turn it into a tenuous and impalpable spirit, have your labour in vain. Wherefore the Philosophers have said: Except ye turn bodies into notbodies, and incorporeal things into bodies, ye have not yet discovered the rule of operation. But the

Turba saith: ‘Tell, therefore, posterity how bodies are turned into not-bodies. And he: They are pounded with fire and Ethelia till they become a powder.* And know that this does not take place except by an exceedingly strong decoction, and continuous contrition, performed with a moderate fire,t not with hands,?

with imbibition and putrefaction, with exposure to the sun and to Ethelia. The envious caused the vulgar to err in this Art when they stated that the thing is common in its nature and is sold at a small price. They further said that the nature was more precious than all natures, wherefore they deceived those who had recourse to their books. At the same time they spoke the truth, and therefore doubt not these things. But the

Turba answereth: Seeing that thou believest the sayings of the envious, explain, therefore, to posterity the disposition of the two natures. And he: I testify to you that Art requires two natures, for the precious is not produced without the common, nor the common without the precious.

It behoves you, therefore, O all ye investigators of this Art, to follow the sayings of Victimerus,* when he said to his disciples: Nothing else helps you save to sublimate water and vapour. And the Turba: The whole work is in the vapour and the sublimation of water. Demonstrate, therefore, to them the disposition of the vapour. And he: When ye shall perceive that the natures have become water by reason of the heat of the fire, and that they have been purified, and that the whole body of Magnesia is liquefied as water; then all things have been made vapour, and rightly, for then the vapour contains its own equal, wherefore the envioust call either vapour, because both are joined in decoctions, and one contains the other. Thus our stag finds no path to escape, although flight be essential to it. The one keeps back the other, so that it has no opportunity to fly, and it finds no place to escape; hence all are made permanent, for when the one falls, being hidden in the body, it is congealed with it, and its colour varies, and it extracts its nature from the properties which God has infused into His elect, and it alienates it, lest it flee. But the blackness and redness appear, and it falls into sickness, and dies by rust and putrefaction; properly speaking, then, it has not a flight, although it is desirous to escape servitude; then when it is free it follows its spouse, that a favourable colour may befall itself and its spouse; its beauty is not as it was, but when it is placed with coins, it makes them gold. For this reason, therefore, the Philosophers have called the spirit and the soul vapour. They have also called it the black humid wanting perlution; and forasmuch as in man there are both humidity and dryness, thus our work, which the envious have concealed, is nothing else I but vapour and water.

The Turba answereth: Demonstrate vapour and water! And he: I say that the work is out of two; the envious have called it composed out of two, because these two become four, wherein are dryness and humidity, spirit and vapour.

The Turba answereth: Thou hast spoken excellently, and without envy. Let Zimon next follow.

(78) For the devil could not touch the heart, neither could he touch the innermost birth or geniture of the qualifying or fountain spirits; for his glory of the seven spirits was already mortified in the first flash of kindling, and was presently held captive and imprisoned in the first exit of the animated or soulish spirit.

(33) O how many Enemies has the Life among the Constellations [or Stars,] which qualify [or mingle their Influence] with the Tincture and Elements. When the Planets and the Stars have their Conjunctions, and where they cast their poisonous Rage into the Tincture, there arises in the Life of the meek Tincture, stinging, tearing, and torturing. For the sweet [or pleasant] Tincture (being a sweet and pleasing Refreshment) cannot endure any impure Thing. And therefore when such poisonous Influences are darted into it, then it resists and continually cleanses itself; but as soon as it is overwhelmed, that it is darkened, then the Flash goes out, the Life breaks, and the Body falls away, and becomes a Cadaver, Carcase, [or dead Corpse;] for the Spirit is the Life.

(124) He who has no wound on his hand, may touch poison with his hand; poison does not affect one who has no wound; nor is there evil for one who does not commit evil.

(25) The white serpent has struck his ka , and his ka has struck the white serpent

(413) And is not this involuntary deprivation caused either by theft, or force, or enchantment? Still, he replied, I do not understand you. I fear that I must have been talking darkly, like the tragedians. I only mean that some men are changed by persuasion and that others forget; argument steals away the hearts of one class, and time of the other; and this I call theft. Now you understand me? Yes. Those again who are forced, are those whom the violence of some pain or grief compels to change their opinion. I understand, he said, and you are quite right. And you would also acknowledge that the enchanted are those who change their minds either under the softer influence of pleasure, or the sterner influence of fear? Yes, he said; everything that deceives may be said to enchant. Therefore, as I was just now saying, we must enquire who are the best guardians of their own conviction that what they think the interest of the State is to be the rule of their lives. We must watch them from their youth upwards, and make them perform actions in which they are most likely to forget or to be deceived, and he who remembers and is not deceived is to be selected, and he who fails in the trial is to be rejected. That will be the way? Yes. And there should also be toils and pains and conflicts prescribed for them, in which they will be made to give further proof of the same qualities. Very right, he replied. And then, I said, we must try them with enchantments—that is the third sort of test—and see what will be their behaviour: like those who take colts amid noise and tumult to see if they are of a timid nature, so must we take our youth amid terrors of some kind, and again pass them into pleasures,

(2) These inform us what ought to be done, and from what it is fit to abstain. They also give assistance to just works, but impede such as are unjust; and as many endeavour to take away unjustly the property of others, or basely to injure or destroy some one, they cause these to suffer the same things as they have done to others. But there is, likewise, another most irrational genus of dæmons, which is without judgment, and is allotted only one power, through an arrangement by which each of these dæmons presides over one work alone. As therefore, it is the province of a sword to cut, and to do nothing else than this, thus also of the spirits which are distributed in the universe, according to the partible necessity of nature, one kind divides, but another collects, things which are generated. This, however, is known from the phænomena. For the Charonean spiracles, as they are called, emit from themselves a certain spirit, which is able to corrupt promiscuously every thing that falls into them. Thus, therefore, of certain invisible spirits, each is allotted a different power, and is alone adapted to do that which it is ordained to perform. He, therefore, who turns from their natural course things which contribute to the universe in an orderly manner, and illegitimately performs a certain thing, in this case receives the injury arising from that which he uses badly. This, however, pertains to another mode of discussion.