On the Fourfold Root of the Principle of Sufficient...

Vol. ii. p. 274: "Imagination comes from longing and desire: envy, hatred, proceed from longing, for they do not arise unless you long for them. As soon as you wish, the act of the imagination follows. This longing must be quick, ardent, lively, as that of a pregnant woman, &c. &c.—A general curse is commonly verified. Why? It comes from the heart, and the seed lies and is born in that coming from the heart. Thus parents' curses also come from the heart. The curse of the poor is likewise imaginatio. The prisoner's curse, also mere imaginatio, comes from the heart.... Thus too, when one man wishes to stab or paralyze, &c., another by means of his imaginatio, he must first attract the thing and instrument to himself and then he can impress it (with his wish): for whatever enters into it, may also go out of it again by the medium of thought as well as by that of the hands.... In such imagining, women outdo men ... for they are more ardent in revenge."

p. 298: "Magica is a great occult wisdom; just as Reason is a great, open folly.... No armour avails against sorcery, for it wounds the inner man, the vital spirit.... Some magicians make an image in the shape of a man they intend [to harm], knock a nail into the sole of its foot, and the man is invisibly struck with lameness, until the nail is removed."

p. 307: "We ought to know, that we may convey the spirit of any man into an image, solely by faith and by our strong imagination.—No incantation is needed, and the ceremonies, drawing of circles, fumigations, seals, &c. &c. are mere humbug to mislead.—Homunculi and images are made, &c. &c. ... by which all the operations, powers and will of man are carried out.... The human heart is indeed so great a thing, that no one can express it: as God is eternal and imperishable, so also is the heart of man. If we men thoroughly recognised our heart, nothing would be impossible for us on earth.... Perfect imagination, coming from the stars (astris) arises from the heart."

p. 513: "Imaginatio is confirmed and rendered perfect by the belief that it really takes place: for every doubt injures the effect. Faith must confirm the imagination, for faith decides the will.... But just the fact that man does not always perfectly imagine, perfectly believe, causes acts to be called uncertain, which nevertheless may certainly and quite well exist." A passage from Campanella's book, "De sensu rerum et magia," may serve to elucidate this last sentence. Efficiunt alii ne homo possi futuere, si tantum credat: non enim potest facere quod non credit posse facere (l. iv. c. 18).

Agrippa von Nettesheim[310] speaks in the same sense. "Non minus subjicitur corpus alieno animo, quam alieno corpori;" and:[311] "Quidquid dictat animus fortissime odientis habet efficaciam nocendi et destruendi; similiter in ceteris, quæ affectat animus fortissimo desiderio. Omnia enim quæ tunc agit et dictat ex characteribus, figuris, verbis, gestibus et ejusmodi, omnia sunt adjuvantia appetitum animæ et acquirunt mirabiles quasdam virtutes, tum ab anima laborantis in illa hora, quando ipsum appetitus ejusmodi maxime invadit, tum ab influxa cœlesti animum tunc taliter movente."[312]—"Inest hominum animis virtus quædam immutandi et ligandi res et homines ad id quod desiderat, et omnes res obediunt illi, quando fertur in magnum excessum alicujus passionis, vel virtutis, in tantum, ut superet eos, quos ligat. Radix ejusmodi ligationis ipsa est affectio animæ vehemens et exterminata."

Recepta injecta. § 12. Quum hostis naturæ (diabolus) ipsam applicationem complere ex se nequeat, suscitat ideam fortis desiderii et odii in saga, ut, mutuatis istis mentalibus et liberis mediis, transferat suum velle per quod quodque afficere intendit.[315] Quorsum imprimis etiam execrationes, cum idea desiderii et terroris, odiosissimis suis scrofis præscribit.—§ 13. Quippe desiderium istud, ut est passio imaginantis, ita quoque creat ideam, non quidem inanem, sed executivam atque incantamenti motivam.—§ 19. prout jam demonstravi, quod vis incantamenti potissima pendeat ab idea naturali sagæ.

De injectis materialibus. § 15. Saga, per ens naturale, imaginative format ideam liberam, naturalem et nocuam.... Sagæ operantur virtute naturali.... Homo etiam dimittit medium aliud executivum, emanativum et mandativum ad incantandum hominem; quod medium est Idea fortis desiderii. Est nempe desiderio inseparabile ferri circa optata.

De magnetica vulnerum curatione. § 76. Igitur in sanguine est quædam potestas exstatica, quæ, si quando ardenti desiderio excita fuerit, etiam ad absens aliquod objectum, exterioris hominis spiritu deducenda sit: ea autem potestas in exteriori homine latet, velut in potentia; nec ducitur ad actum, nisi excitetur, accensa imaginatione ferventi desiderio, vel arte aliqua pari.—§ 98. Anima, prorsum spiritus, nequaquam posset spiritum vitalem (corporeum equidem), multo minus carnem et ossa movere aut concitare, nisi vis illi quæpiam naturalis, magica tamen et spiritualis, ex anima in spiritum et corpus descenderet. Cedo, quo pacto obediret spiritus corporeus jussui animæ, nisi jussus spiritum, et deinceps corpus movendo foret? At extemplo contra hanc magicam motricem objicies, istam esse intra concretum sibi, suumque hospitium naturale, idcirco hanc etsi magam vocitemus, tantum erit nominis detorsio et abusus, siquidem vera et superstitiosa magica non ex anima basin desumit; cum eadem hæc nil quidquam valeat, extra corpus suum movere, alterare aut ciere. Respondeo, vim et magicam illam naturalem animæ, quæ extra se agat, virtute imaginis Dei, latere jam obscuram in homine, velut obdormire (post prævaricationem), excitationisque indigam: quæ eadem, utut somnolenta, ac velut ebria, alioqui sit in nobis quotidie: sufficit tamen ad obeunda munia in corpore suo: dormit itaque scientia et potestas magica, et solo nutu actrix in homine.—§ 102.

Satan itaque vim magicam hanc excitat (secus dormientem et scientia exterioris hominis impeditam) in suis mancipiis, et inservit eadem illis, ensis vice in manu potentis, id est sagæ. Nec aliud prorsus Satan ad homicidium affert, præter excitationem dictæ potestatis somnolentæ.—§ 106. Saga in stabulo absente occidit equum: virtus quædam naturalis a spiritu sagæ, et non a Satana, derivatur, quæ opprimat vel strangulet spiritum vitalem equi.—§ 139. Spiritus voco magnetismi patronos, non qui ex cœlo demittuntur, multoque minus de infernalibus sermo est; sed de iis, qui fiunt in ipso homine, sicut ex silice ignis; ex voluntate hominis nempe aliquantillum spiritus vitalis influentis desumitur, et id ipsum assumit idealem entitatem, tanquam formam ad complementum. Qua nacta perfectione, spiritus mediam sortem inter corpora et non corpora assumit. Mittitur autem eo, quo voluntas ipsum dirigit; idealis igitur entitas ... nullis stringitur locorum, temporum aut dimensionum imperiis, ea nec dæmon est, nec ejus ullus effectus; sed spiritualis quædam est actio illius, nobis plane naturalis et vernacula.—§ 168. Ingens mysterium propalare hactenus distuli, ostendere videlicet, ad manum in homine sitam esse energiam, qua, solo nutu et phantasia sua, queat agere extra se et imprimere virtutem aliquam, influentiam deinceps perseverantem, et agentem in objectum longissime absens.

P. Pomponatius also says: Sic contigit, tales esse homines, qui habeant ejusmodi vires in potentia, et per vim imaginativam et desiderativam cum actu operantur, tales virtus exit ad actum, et afficit sanguinem et spiritum, quæ per evaporationem petunt ad extra et producunt tales effectus.[316]

Jane Leade, an English mystic visionary of Cromwell's time and pupil of Pordage, has given us some very curious disclosures of this kind. She is led to Magic in a very singular way. For, as the doctrine of their becoming one with the God of their religion is a fundamental characteristic of all Mystics, so is it with Jane Leade also. Now, with her however, the human will has its share in the omnipotence of the Divine will as a consequence of the two having become one, and accordingly acquires magic power. What other magicians therefore believe to be due to a compact with the Devil, she attributes to her becoming one with her God. Her Magic is therefore in the highest sense 'white Magic.' Besides, this alters nothing as to the practice and results. She is reserved and mysterious, as people had to be in those times; still it is easy to see that the thing is not a mere theoretical corollary, but that it has sprung from knowledge and experience obtained in another way.

It is in her "Revelation of Revelations"[317] that we find the chief passage; but the following one, which is rather an abridgment than a literal quotation and is contained in Horst's "Zauberbibliothek,"[318] comes from the same book: "Magic power enables its possessor to rule over and to renew the creation—i.e. the animal, vegetable and mineral kingdoms—so that, were many to co-operate in one magical power, Nature might be created anew as a paradise.... How is this magic power to be acquired? By renascence through faith: that is, by our will harmonizing with the divine will. For faith subjects the world to us, inasmuch as our own will, when it is in harmony with the divine will, results, as St. Paul tells us, in making everything submit to and obey us." Thus far Horst.—p. 131 of the "Revelation, &c.," Jane Leade shows that it was by the force of his will that Christ worked miracles, as, for instance, when he said to the leper: "I will; be thou clean." Sometimes however he left it to the will of those who, he saw, believed in him, saying to them: "'What will ye that I shall do unto you?' in which cases no less was done for them than they had desired in their will that the Lord should do. These words of our Saviour's are well deserving of notice, since the highest Magia lies in the will, so far as it is in union with the will of the Almighty: when these two wheels fit into each other, becoming in a sense one, they are, &c."—Again, p. 132, she says: "For what could resist that which is united with the will of God?

The power of such a will is so great, that it always achieves its end. It is no naked will deprived of its clothing, or power; on the contrary, it brings with it an irresistible omnipotence, which enables it to uproot, to plant, to put to death and to bring to life, to bind and to loose, to heal and to injure, which power will be collected and concentrated in its entirety in the royal, free-born will. Of this power we shall attain knowledge, when we shall have been made one with the Holy Ghost. or when we shall be united in one spirit and being."—Again, p. 133: "We must quench or drown altogether the many multifarious wills which arise out of the mixed essence of souls, and they must lose themselves in the abysmal depth from which there will then arise and present itself the virgin will, which was never the slave of anything belonging to degenerate man; on the contrary, it stands in connection with the Almighty Power, quite free and pure, and will infallibly produce fruits and results quite similar to those of the divine will ... wherefrom the burning oil of the Holy Ghost flows up in Magic, as it emits its fiery sparks."

Jacob Böhme too[319] speaks of Magic precisely in the sense here described. Among other things he says: "Magic is the mother of the essence of all beings: for it creates itself and is understood in desire.... True Magic is not a being, but the desiring spirit of the being.—In fine: Magic is action in the will's spirit."

In corroboration, or at any rate in explanation, of the above view of the will as the real agent in magic, a curious and interesting anecdote, related by Campanella, from Avicenna, may here find its place.[320] "Mulieres quædam condixerunt, ut irent animi gratia in viridarium. Una earum non ivit. Ceteræ colludentes arangium acceperunt et perforabant eum stilis acutis, dicentes: ita perforamus mulierem talem, quæ nobiscum venire detrectavit, et, projecto arangio intra fontem, abierunt. Postmodum mulierem illam dolentem invenerunt, quod se transfigi quasi clavis acutis sentiret, ab ea hora, qua arangium ceteræ; perforarunt: et cruciata est valde donec arangii clavos extraxerunt imprecantes bona et salutem."

Krusenstern[321] gives a very curious and minute description of maleficent sorcery as practised, it is said successfully, by the priests of the savage tribes on the island of Nukahiva, the procedure in which is exactly similar to that of our cures by charms.—This fact is especially remarkable on account of the identity of the thing, notwithstanding the distance from all European tradition. With it ought to be compared Bende Bendsen's account of a headache he caused in another person by sorcery, through the medium of some of that person's hair which had been cut off. He concludes with the following words: "As far as I can learn, what is called witchcraft consists simply in preparing and applying noxious magnetic charms combined with a maleficent influence of the will: this is the detestable league with Satan."[322]

The agreement of all these writers, not only among themselves, but with the convictions to which Animal Magnetism has led in latter years, and finally even with what might be concluded from my speculative doctrine on this point, is surely a most remarkable phenomenon. This much is at any rate certain, that at the bottom of all the experiments, successful or unsuccessful, which have ever been made in Magic, there lies an anticipation of my Metaphysic. For in them is expressed the consciousness, that the causal law only connects phenomena, while the inner nature of things remains independent of it; and also, that if any direct influence on Nature be possible from within, it can only take place through the will itself. But even if Magic were to be ranked as practical Metaphysic, according to Bacon's classification, it is certain that no other theoretical Metaphysic would stand in the right relation to it but mine, by which the world is resolved into Will and Representation.

The zealous cruelty with which Magic has always been persecuted by the Church and to which the papal malleus maleficarum bears terrible evidence, seems not to have for its sole basis the criminal purposes often associated with the practice of Magic or the part assumed to be played by the Devil, but rather to proceed partly from a vague foreboding and fear lest Magic should trace back its original power to its true source; whereas the Church has assigned to it a place outside Nature.[323] The detestation shown by the cautious clergy of England towards Animal Magnetism[324] tends to confirm this supposition, and also the active zeal with which they oppose table-turning, which at any rate is harmless, yet which, for the same reason, has been violently assailed by the anathemas of the French, and even of the German, clergy.[325]