Paracelsus, the Soul is Life in Itself

If not the connection between Alchemy and light, this idea certainly represents the connection between Paracelsus’ medicine and his medicaments called “Arcana“. To this purpose, Paracelsus said openly that the human being has two bodies, one physical and the other astral. And this is for all existing bodies. The idea of two bodies, one physical and the other astral, is an alchemical axiom, the basis and foundation of Alchemy. The foundations of Paracelsus’ Medicinal Arcana pass through a “medium” that presents many similarities with the astral body. The penetration of the Arcana into the human body occurs through an enveloping medium which has many similarities with the astral body.

This statement may be surprising today, but not to the scientists of Paracelsus’ time, who thought that beings and objects on earth were in close connection and integral unity with the macrocosm of stars and planets. The magical, astronomy, ritual and pharmacological theories of antiquity were based on this idea. It was also Paracelsus’ thought that we were penetrated by the stars. It is interesting to note, in this regard, that the human part for Paracelsus was composed of the elements water and earth, while the sidereal part was composed of fire and air. Yet, for Paracelsus it was not a simple penetration through a medium, but rather thanks to similarities, called “signatures”, that could only be deciphered by an elite of wise men.

More than the modern philosophical concept of meaning and signifier, here we must return to the concreteness of stellar impressions and emanations on the earth.

The unique identity of the human physical and astral body, and of the physical and astral cosmos, is the very foundation of sacred art. An alchemist would take the “single identity” of human physical and astral body and physical and astral cosmos as the union of the Mercurius Sideribus (of the stars) with the earthly Mercurius; and as the union of the microcosm with the macrocosm, i.e., the Philosophers’ Stone. Which ultimately is not very different from the theurgic idea of the sacred banquet (in Alchemy, everything that transmutes or eats or is eaten symbolically).

In a certain sense, ultimately, we can say that there are many analogies between the “call of the deities” and the concept of “single identity”. But Paracelsus made medicines, his Arcana.

True. Paracelsus called Archeon this natural property of amplifying stellar influences in us. And it goes without saying that he knew how to prepare medicines, the Arcana, which could heal the ailment. The Paracelsian idea of purifying materials to make them suitable for receiving stellar influences has generated confusion among his followers with spagyrics. Actually, Paracelsus often speaks of purification of materials to welcome stellar influences and little of extraction of Spiritus Mundi from earthly materials. This aspect could in fact place him in the list of spagyrists and not of alchemists. Yet, he himself specifies that the Azoth, or stellar emission as he calls it, is solar emission that fell on the earth through rain.

Very good! In the time of Paracelsus, distillation was the supreme method to purify, and spiritualize at the same time, raw matter. Conversely, man himself was represented by Paraclesus as a natural distiller. But the very process of the circulation of the earth’s waters was considered a process of distillation. For Paracelsus we, as well as the earth, have a natural internal alchemist to amplify the stellar influences within us.

Exactly! Paracelsus called Archeon this natural property of amplifying stellar influences in us. And it goes without saying that he knew how to prepare medicines, the Arcana, which could heal the ailment. On the other hand, Paracelsus said that the cosmos had the form and function of a still. The Paracelsian idea of purifying materials to make them suitable for receiving stellar influences has generated confusion among his followers with spagyrics. Actually, Paracelsus often speaks of purification of materials to welcome stellar influences and little of extraction of Spiritus Mundi from earthly materials. This aspect could in fact place him in the list of spagyrists and not of alchemists. Yet, he himself specifies that the Azoth, or stellar emission as he calls it, is solar emission that fell on the earth through rain.

Of course, a modern physicist would speak of a wave-particle function. After all, photons, neutrinos and electrons make no difference between human and cosmic.

Almost certainly, an ancient philosopher would understand the “single identity” of human physical and astral body and physical and astral cosmos as the union with the archetype.

I would like to answer you as an alchemist, but I can’t find any other words than to think of modern physics. Paracelsus’ concept of imagination might be more interesting to a physicist than to a psychologist. In fact, the former speaks openly of the wave-particle effects of the photon and the electron on human brain matter (and not only), the latter is still wondering where consciousness resides, and struggles to admit that, after all, we are interactions of photons and electrons.

This is according to an alchemical tradition. It remains to be seen what kind of ray of the radiation spectrum the angle of the hilt of the symbolic sword of Paracelsus could reflect or disperse or deflect or magnify. The tradition of Paracelsus’ sword as a method of “cutting the continuum between one body and another” was mathematical and concerns the ancient belief that there was no void between one body and another but only a continuum so dense that it could be cut, precisely, by a sword.

I don’t know. I can imagine he meant a spider’s ability to sense the threads of its web. A metaphor that could fulfill both the world of light and the world of sound.