Author: win r

"If unwilling to seek for proof or receive information from mediaeval, hermetic philosophy, we may go still further back into antiquity, and select, out of the great body of philosophers of the pre-Christian ages, one who can least be accused of superstition and credulity - Cicero. Speaking of those whom he calls gods, and who [...]

"If we now refer to mediaeval ages, we find, among others, Cornelius Agrippa telling us precisely the same: "The ever-changing universal force, the 'soul of the world', can fecundate anything by infusing in its own celestial properties. Arranged according to the formula taught by science, these objects receive the gift of communicating to us their [...]

""Magic is based on the existence of a mixed world placed without, not within us; and which we can enter in communication by the use of certain arts and practices....An element existing in nature, unknown to most men, gets hold of a person and withers and breaks him down, as the fearful hurricane does a [...]

""History", says Du Potet, the prince of French mesmerists, "keeps but too well the sad records of sorcery. These facts were but too real, and lent themselves but too readily to dreadful malpractices of the art, to monstrous abuse!...But how did I come to find out that art? Where did I learn it? In my [...]