Rothko Sunday (Paracelsus 3)

           Of such were the secrets known by Paracelsus, and it was inthe application of these hidden natural forces to purposes of medicine that hemade at once so many admirers and enemies. For the rest, he was by no means a simple personality like Postel;  he was naturally aggressive and of themountebank type; so did he affirm that his familiar spirit was hidden in thepommel of his great sword, and never left his side.  His life was an unceasing struggle; hetravelled, debated, wrote, taught.  Hewas more eager about physical results than moral conquests, and while first amongpractical magicians he was last among adepts of wisdom.  

           His philosophy was one of sagacity and, onhis own part, he termed it philosophiasagax. [1]   He divined more thananyone without knowing anything completely. There is nothing to equal his intuitions, unless it  be the rashness of his commentaries.   He was a man of intrepid experiences,intoxicated with his own opinions, his own talk, intoxicated otherwise onoccasion, if we may believe some of his biographers.  The works which he has left are precious forscience, but they must be read with caution. He may be called the divine Paracelsus, understood in the sense ofdiviner; he is an oracle, but not a true master.  He is great above all as a physician, for hehad found the Universal Medicine.   

          Thisnotwithstanding, he could not prolong his own life, and he died, while stillyoung, worn out by work and by excesses. [2]   He left behind him a name shining with fantastic and ambiguousglory, due to discoveries by which his contemporaries failed to profit.  He had not uttered his last word, and is one of those mysterious beings of whom it may be said, as of Enoch and St.John:  He is not dead, and he will comeagain upon earth before his last day.

[1]  This is reallythe title of a particular treatise, but it is exceedingly long and may be saidto be de omnibus rebus, it may be nottaken unjustly to represent his philosophy at large.

[2]  The latest andmost successful apologist of Paracelsus says that the charge of intemperancewas invented by his enemies.  See the Life of Paracelsus, by Miss Anna M.Stoddart, 1911.

Eliphas Levi, The History of Magic (Including A Clear And Precise Exposition Of Its Procedure, Its Rites And Its Mysteries), 1860 (translated by A.E. Waite, 1913). Float.  Serene.  Occupy.