(31) The good Smell in the Herb, which you should now look for in the many Opinions, is only the new Regeneration out of the old corrupted Adamical mixt Man in the Body of Jesus Christ, in the Power of the Holy Ghost, viz. a new Mind towards God in Love and Meekness; which is not set upon Pride, Covetousness, and seeking his own Honour, Credit, and Esteem, nor upon War, or any Manner of Stir, or Insurrection of Inferiors against their Superiors, but grows in Patience and Meekness, as a Grain of Wheat among Thorns, and brings forth Fruit in its Season. And consider, that where there is such Fruit [in thy Mind,] that is born of God; and it is the noble Virtue in that [Man.] Go out from the other Fruit, which teaches Uproars and Dissension between Inferiors and Superiors, for such [Fruits] are Thistles, and will prick and sting [like Nettles.] God will fan his Wheat himself.

(2) From the horns arose peas (mîgûk), from the nose the leek, from the blood the grapevine from which they make wine—on this account wine abounds with blood—from the lungs the rue-like herbs, from the middle of the heart thyme for keeping away stench, and every one of the others as revealed in the Avesta.

(26) Go into a Meadow, and look upon the Herbs and Flowers which grow all out of the Earth, and always one is fairer and more fragrant in Smell than the other, and the most contemptible [Herb] has many Times the greatest Virtue. Now then the Physician comes and seeks, and often turns his Mind to the lustiest and fairest, because they thrive so in their Growing, and smell strong; then thinks he, these are the best; whereas many Times a small regardless Herb will serve his Turn better in his Physick for his Patient, whom he has under cure.

(114) Behold! man becometh weak, faint and sick, and if no remedy be used, then he soon falls into death. The sickness is caused either by some bitter and astringent herb which grows out of the earth, or else is caused by an evil, mortiferous deadly water, or by several mixtures of earthly herbs, or by some evil stinking and rank flesh or meat, and surfeit from thence to loathing.

The FUMIGATION from AROMATICS. THEE I invoke, blest pow'r of dreams divine, Angel of future fates, swift wings are thine: Great source of oracles to human kind, When stealing soft, and whisp'ring to the mind, Thro' sleep's sweet silence and the gloom of night, Thy pow'r awakes th' intellectual fight; To silent souls the will of heav'n relates, And silently reveals their future fates. For ever friendly to the upright mind Sacred and pure, to holy rites inclin'd; For these with pleasing hope thy dreams inspire, Bliss to anticipate, which all desire. Thy visions manifest of fate disclose, What methods best may mitigate our woes; Reveal what rites the Gods immortal please, And what the means their anger to appease: For ever tranquil is the good man's end, Whose life, thy dreams admonish and defend. But from the wicked turn'd averse to bless, Thy form unseen, the angel of distress; No means to cheek approaching ill they find, Pensive with fears, and to the future blind. Come, blessed pow'r, the signatures reveal Which heav'n's decrees mysteriously conceal, Signs only present to the worthy mind, Nor omens ill disclose of monst'rous kind. Next: LXXXVI: To Death Sacred Texts | Classics « Previous: The Initiations of Orpheus: LXXXIV: To Sleep Index Next: The Initiations of Orpheus: LXXXVI: To Death » Sacred Texts | Classics

The FUMIGATION from AROMATICS. DAUGHTERS of darkling night, much-nam'd, draw near Infinite Fates, and listen to my pray'r; Who in the heav'nly lake (where waters white 3 Burst from a fountain hid in depths of night, And thro' a dark and stony cavern glide, A cave profound, invisible) abide; From whence, wide coursing round the boundless earth, Your pow'r extends to those of mortal birth To men with hope elated, trifling, gay, A race presumptuous, born but to decay; Whose life 'tis your's in darkness to conceal To sense impervious, in a purple veil, When thro' the fatal plain they joyful ride In one great car, Opinion for their guide; 'Till each completes his heav'n-appointed round At Justice, Hope, and Care's concluding bound, The terms absolv'd, prescrib'd by ancient law Of pow'r immense, and just without a flaw; For Fate alone with vision unconfin'd, Surveys the conduct of the mortal kind. Fate is Jove's perfect and eternal eye, For Jove and Fate our ev'ry deed descry. Come, gentle pow'rs, well born, benignant, fam'd, Atropos, Lachesis, and Clotho nam'd: Unchang'd, aerial, wand'ring in the night, Restless, invisible to mortal fight; Fates all-producing all-destroying hear, Regard the incense and the holy pray'r; Propitious listen to these rites inclin'd, And far avert distress with placid mind.

(4) Here now stand the great Secrets (which we cannot see with our earthly Eyes) wholly naked and plain, and there is no Vail before it, only we are blind to the Kingdom of God; for God cursed the Earth, and said, it should now bear Thorns and Thistles, and Man should eat the Fruit of the accursed Earth. This indeed is a new Thing. He allowed them not in Paradise to eat of the earthly Herbs, but of the pleasant Fruit. And if he had eaten of the Herbs of the Fields, yet that which he had eaten, was heavenly; and when the Lord cursed the Earth, then all became earthly; and the holy Element was withdrawn, and the Fruit did grow in the Proceeding-forth of the four Elements, in the Kindling of the Fierceness, out of which Thorns and Thistles grew.

The FUMIGATION from AROMATICS. DAUGHTERS of Jove and Themis, seasons bright, Justice, and blessed peace, and lawful right, Vernal and grassy, vivid, holy pow'rs, Whose balmy breath exhales in lovely flow'rs All-colour'd seasons, rich increase your care, Circling, for ever flourishing and fair: Invested with a veil of shining dew, A flow'ry veil delightful to the view: Attending Proserpine, when back from night, The Fates and Graces lead her up to light; When in a band-harmonious they advance, And joyful round her, form the solemn dance: With Ceres triumphing, and Jove divine; Propitious come, and on our incense shine; Give earth a blameless store of fruits to bear, And make a novel mystic's life your care. Next: XLIII: To Semele Sacred Texts | Classics « Previous: The Initiations of Orpheus: XLI: To Mises Index Next: The Initiations of Orpheus: XLIII: To Semele » Sacred Texts | Classics

(47) This herb, which I mean here, from whose fragrancy my spirit taketh its refreshing, every country ploughman does not know it, nor every doctor, the one is as ignorant of it as the other; it grows indeed in every garden, but in many it is quite spoiled and bad: for the quality of the soil or ground is in fault. And therefore men do not know it, nay the children of this Mystery do hardly know it; although this knowledge has been very rare, dear and precious, from the beginning of the world to this time.

The FUMIGATION from every kind of SEED, except BEANS and AROMATICS. O Goddess, Earth, of Gods and men the source, Endu'd with fertile, all destroying force; All-parent, bounding, whose prolific pow'rs, Produce a store of beauteous fruits and flow'rs, All-various maid, th' eternal world's strong base Immortal, blessed, crown'd with ev'ry grace; From whose wide womb, as from an endless root, Fruits, many-form'd, mature and grateful shoot. Deep bosom'd, blessed, pleas'd with grassy plains, Sweet to the smell, and with prolific rains. All flow'ry dæmon, centre of the world, Around thy orb, the beauteous stars are hurl'd With rapid whirl, eternal and divine, Whose frames with matchless skill and wisdom shine. Come, blessed Goddess, listen to my pray'r, And make increase of fruits thy constant care; With fertile Seasons in thy train, draw near, And with propitious mind thy suppliant hear.

(29) The angelical and heavenly fruit has not such [an evil quality or] substance: Indeed it is most certain and true that there are all manner of fruits in heaven, and not types and shadows merely: Also that the angels pluck them with their hands, and eat them, as we that are men do, but they need not any teeth to do it withal, neither have they any, for the fruit is of a divine power.

The FUMIGATION from AROMATICS. I Call great Cupid, source of sweet delight, Holy and pure, and lovely to the sight; Darting, and wing'd, impetuous fierce desire, With Gods and mortals playing, wand'ring fire: Cautious, and two-fold, keeper of the keys Of heav'n and earth, the air, and spreading seas; Of all that Ceres' fertile realms contains, By which th' all-parent Goddess life sustains, Or dismal Tartarus is doom'd to keep, Widely extended, or the sounding, deep; For thee, all Nature's various realms obey, Who rul'st alone, with universal sway. Come, blessed pow'r, regard these mystic fires, And far avert, unlawful mad desires. Next: LVIII: To The Fates Sacred Texts | Classics « Previous: The Initiations of Orpheus: LVI: To the Terrestrial Hermes Index Next: The Initiations of Orpheus: LVIII: To The Fates » Sacred Texts | Classics

(13) The adherents of Basilides are in the habit of calling the passions appendages: saying that these are in essence certain spirits attached to the rational soul, through some original perturbation and confusion; and that, again, other bastard and heterogeneous natures of spirits grow on to them, like that of the wolf, the ape, the lion, the goat, whose properties showing themselves around the soul, they say, assimilate the lusts of the soul to the likeness of the animals. For they imitate the actions of those whose properties they bear. And not only are they associated with the impulses and perceptions of the irrational animals, but they affect the motions and the beauties of plants, on account of their bearing also the properties of plants attached to them. They have also the properties of a particular state, as the hardness of steel. But against this dogma we shall argue subsequently, when we treat of the soul. At present this only needs to be pointed out, that man, according to Basilides, preserves the appearance of a wooden horse, according to the poetic myth, embracing as he does in one body a host of such different spirits. Accordingly, Basilides' son himself, Isidorus, in his book, About the Soul attached to us, while agreeing in the dogma, as if condemning himself, writes in these words:

(15) III. The Plant Soul By the term "The Plant Soul," the Rosicrucians seek to indicate the Soul embodied in the Vegetable Cellular Substance of which a very large proportion of the human physical body is composed. Apart from advanced scientists and advanced occultists, few realize how great proportion of the processes of the human and animal body is really vegetable in nature. The growth of bodily tissue, of parts and organs, is distinctively vegetable in character.

The FUMIGATION from AROMATICS. MUCH-nam'd, and best of dæmons, hear my pray'r, The desart-loving, deck'd with tender hair; Joy to diffuse, by all desir'd is thine, Much form'd, Eubulus; aliment divine Female and Male, all charming to the sight, Adonis ever flourishing and bright; At stated periods doom'd to set and rise, With splendid lamp, the glory of the skies. 8 Two-horn'd and lovely, reverenc'd with tears, Of beauteous form, adorn'd with copious hairs. Rejoicing in the chace, all-graceful pow'r, Sweet plant of Venus, Love's delightful flow'r: Descended from the secret bed divine, Of lovely-hair'd, infernal Proserpine. 'Tis thine to fink in Tartarus profound, And shine again thro' heav'ns illustrious round, With beauteous temp'ral orb restor'd to sight; Come, with earth's fruits, and in these flames delight.

The FUMIGATION from AROMATICS. NYMPHS, who from Ocean's stream derive your birth, Who dwell in liquid caverns of the earth Nurses of Bacchus secret-coursing pow'r, Who fruits sustain, and nourish ev'ry flow'r: Earthly, rejoicing, who in meadows dwell, And caves and dens, whose depths extend to hell: Holy, oblique, who swiftly soar thro' air, Fountains and dews, and mazy streams your care: Seen and unseen, who joy with wand'rings wide And gentle course, thro' flow'ry vales to glide; With Pan exulting on the mountains height, Loud-founding, mad, whom rocks and woods delight: Nymphs od'rous, rob'd in white, whose streams exhale The breeze refreshing, and the balmy gale; With goats and pastures pleas'd, and beasts of prey, Nurses of fruits, unconscious of decay: In cold rejoicing, and to cattle kind, Sportive thro' ocean wand'ring unconfin'd: Nysian, fanatic Nymphs, whom oaks delight, Lovers of Spring, Pæonian virgins bright. With Bacchus, and with Ceres, hear my pray'r. And to mankind abundant favour bear; Propitious listen to your suppliants voice, Come, and benignant in these rites rejoice; Give plenteous Seasons, and sufficient wealth, And pour; in lasting streams, continued Health. Next: LI: To Trietericus Sacred Texts | Classics « Previous: The Initiations of Orpheus: XLIX: To Lysius Lenæus Index Next: The Initiations of Orpheus: LI: To Trietericus » Sacred Texts | Classics

The FUMIGATION from AROMATICS. CERALIAN queen, of celebrated name, From whom both men, and Gods immortal came; Who widely wand'ring once, oppress'd with grief, In Eleusina's valley found'st relief, Discovering Proserpine thy daughter pure In dread Avernus, dismal and obscure; A sacred youth while thro' the world you stray Bacchus, attending leader of the way; The holy marriage of terrestrial Jove Relating, while oppress'd with grief you rove; Come, much invok'd, and to these rites inclin'd, Thy mystic suppliant bless, with fav'ring mind. Next: XLI: To Mises Sacred Texts | Classics « Previous: The Initiations of Orpheus: XXXIX: To Ceres Index Next: The Initiations of Orpheus: XLI: To Mises » Sacred Texts | Classics