A Primary Source Analysis: Archidoxes of Magic by Theophrastus Paracelsus, 1527

A Primary Source Analysis: Archidoxes of Magic by Theophrastus Paracelsus, 1527

This is a book which discusses various types of illness and how to make medicines appropriate for each type of illness with the help of the celestial qualities. This, he argues, is not only possible but also rational because it is obvious that “Diseases come to men for the most part from the power and influence of the Stars upon the bodies of men,” and “they do encrease [sic.] in process of time by little as it were a distillation.” It is also obvious that he is likening this healing process to the distilling process of alchemy. And this distillation is done, as if metals and minerals were concocted in human vessel, through celestial influences on human beings. Paracelsus, thus, argues that the spirits, or the nature, of metals correspond to those of the planets in the heavens. And by means of alchemical practices on those metals, we can extract the essence and the power inherent in the planets above. Thence extracted tinctures from the metals are used to cure various diseases by applying them to humans, who are a part of the nature, as he says in The Prologue, “why therefore may not the splendor of Nature, and the influences of the Heavens, Stars, Planets… which we use to extract out of Metals, Herbs, Stones… give their virtue into the bodies of men, and penetrate into… the Nervs, [sic.] Veins, and other internal Defects lurking in the flesh and blood of men [?]” As this passage tries to convince the readers that cure by means of celestial influence is in fact rational, it can be easily surmised that Paracelsus was not going against the norm, and that many people did not agree with him. In fact, he tells us that many accused him for working with the Devil, “[t]hey say, How can it be possible, that Metals being engraven [sic.] upon only with Characters, Letters and Words, should have any such [curing] power, unless they were prepared through the Craft and Assistance of the Devil?” Many in fact, accounted such powers to be “superfluous and wicked operations, and against nature; that they are idolatrous operations,” and Paracelsus was clearly conceived as a heretic. He responses, however, with the argument that it does not make sense for these people to attribute the powers to the devil and not to God, who is the creator of all things, “are you not able also to believe that God… hath as much power in Heaven, and also that he giveth power and virtue to those operations in Metals, Herbs, Roots, and Stones…?” and accuses them for “mak[ing] the Devil more wise and powerful, than the only Omnipotent Lord God, who of his great Mercy, hath Created all Metals, Herbs, Roots, Stones, and all things whatsoever, that live, or move… for the benefit of mankind.” The repetitious comparison of the Metals, Herbs, Roots and Stones as created and endowed with power by God throughout the text is clearly an attempt to habituate us into thinking that these things belong to the same category, and therefore speaking of the created things medicinally as though they possess healing power, is not contrary to God’s divinity. Having established that metals and the like share God’s divine power, Paracelsus goes on to argue that they are alive. Seeing as commonsense tells us that things in nature “have the greatest strength and virtue to restore and preserve the life of man,” he argues that it also follows that they have life as well, for “if they had not life, how could they help Diseases, and restore the decayed Members of the Body, by putting life, and stirring up corporeal vegetation in them [?]” These things in nature have various kinds of life in them, he argues, if they do not seem to have one certain type of life, in accordance with “their Creation and growth, and the due observation of the time contingent thereunto.” Hence, it can be explained why “Diseases, Infirmities, and Accidents, are divers [sic.] [and] so likewise are the several Cure thereof to be opposed to them according to qualities, in their peculiar dayes [sic.] and times.”

He then proceeds to enumerate various diseases and cures unique to them in the following chapters of the book. But one thing stands out as peculiar, and that is the 9^th and 10^th chapter on Sympathetic Ointment and Weapon Salve. It is peculiar to other cures, because these medicines are said to cure wounds from a distance. At the beginning of the chapter 9, Paracelsus explains, “[s]impathy, or compassion, hath a very great power to operate in humane things,” and it will cure “be it never so great, without Plaster, or Pain.” He further tells us that “you may Cure any one that is wounded [with this medicine], though he be ten miles distant from you, if you have but his blood.” How the cure occurs is explained as follows: once the ointment is ready, “keep it in a Box. And when any wound happens, dip a stick of wood in the blood… which being dryed [sic.], thrust it quite into the aforesaid Ointment, and leave it therein.”

The list of ingredients for the cure does not make the matter any more clear as to the nature of such medicine, since we are told to take the moss that grows upon a skull, of man’s grease, of mummy, man’s blood, linseed oil, oil of roses and bole-Armoniack in mixed form. Not only is it hard for ordinary people to obtain the moss of the skull, but also one must wash the wound with his own urine every morning for it to take effect with no explanation whatsoever is asking too much. Quite naturally, this medicine can be applied to many other things that exist in nature, owing to its sympathetic nature, such as to teeth-ache and horse’s foot when it is pricked with a nail. A small section follows the chapter on the sympathetic ointment, and that is a chapter on the Weapon Ointment. Here, Paracelsus does not explain what the mechanics of the medicine are, as one is probably referred back to his earlier statement that everything in nature is somehow connected by virtue of being created by God. The recipe for the weapon ointment is similar to that of the sympathetic ointment described above, except that honey and ox-fat must be added to it. The wounds are cured in the same way as well; that is, by anointing the weapon that inflicted the wound, and let it leave in the box. Paracelsus, however, recommends the use of the sympathetic ointment rather than the weapon ointment, for he says, “the Weapons cannot always be had, [so] the Wood aforesaid is better.”

Though it was first published in 1570 after Paracelsus’ death, it was written by him in 1527. The chapter I am focusing in this book is Of the Mysteries of the Signes of the Zodiack: Being the Magnetical and Sympathetical Cure of Diseases, as they are appropriated under the Twelve Signes ruling the parts of the Body, or Celestial Medicines.

Paracelsus, Celestial Medicine, 100.

Ibid., 99.

Ibid., 92.

Ibid.

Ibid.

Ibid., 93.

Ibid., 94.

Ibid., 99.

Ibid., 117.

Ibid.

Ibid.

The moss of the skull was a rare ingredient because it takes at least 6 months after the person whose skull it is has died. The soul is said to escape from the tip of the head, but when the person suffers an instant, violent death, the soul fails to escape from the head, and get stuck, as it were, at the tip of the skull. The greenery moss is said to grow there.

For instance, what happens if the patient is ill and his or her urine is qualitatively different? As uroscopy was still largely practiced, such concerns must have been serious. Also, there is a general sense of disgust and aversion to use human parts as cure, as various satirical prose composed in the later centuries attest, viz. A Modest Proposal by Jaonathan Swift, for instance, where he mocks practitioners who use human feces as essential process of cure, mirroring the general feeling of people towards such cure.

Paracelsus, Celestial Medicines, 118.

Ibid.

Ibid.