Hermetic Astrology and Paracelsian Medicine
of the sun is not a matter of hypothesis, since it itself is the ray of light that is seen, the sun illuminates all around the cosmos with its blinding brightness on the upper part as well as on the lower part. Since the Sun is placed at the center of the cosmos, which dresses it like a crown. Corpus Hermeticum, discourse XVI
Hermes Trismegistus would also be invoked by Paracelsus, Gilbert, Bacon, Bruno, Harvey, Fludd, Newton, entire generations of scientists who saw in hermetic doctrines the basis, inspiration or confirmation of their theories. The very idea of lay knowledge independent from ecclesiastical canons is largely due to the spread of the hermetic conception of a prisca theologia preceding the Christian era although equivalent to it. Similarly, attention to experimental practice or constant attention to natural processes according to the famous hermetic saying by which the artist imitates nature are all concepts that draw their founding basis in hermeticism. Gilbert himself appeals to Hermes for the doctrine of terrestrial magnetism. Or, one for all, Newton who dedicated most of his life to the study of hermetic doctrines rather than to physics. One of the English translations of the Emerald Tablet is due to Sir Isaac Newton himself.
And what were the teachings of Hermes Trismegistus and why are they useful to our treatment?
Role in Astrology
Astrology in Hermeticism was presented in a much more philosophical way and had nothing to do with the judicial one. In the Emerald Tablet, a kind of hermetic summa already in circulation in Latin from the 11th century, and in the Corpus Hermeticum there are two principles or themes that are fundamental to our treatment namely:
- the theme of analogy between microcosm and macrocosm
- the theme of spiritual regeneration
Paracelsus
Alchemical Cosmogony of Paracelsus
In Paracelsian Cosmogony, everything that exists derives from the polarization of a single primitive matter, called Yliaster from the syncresis of the words hylé meaning matter and astrum meaning star. In this matter lived mixed the three fundamental principles or substances that Paracelsus identifies with the terms Sulfur, Mercury and Salt. The first, sulfur, identifies everything that is flammable, the second, mercury, that which is volatile and the third, salt, that which is fixed.
From this formless and chaotic matter the four elements are separated, they too expressions of cosmic forces and not indicators of simple material elements:
First the iliaster was divided, which disappeared, giving and making and coordinating the four elements, seed from which the trunk of the tree grows. The element must be framed according to its tendency and not according to its body or substance since what is visible is nothing but the framework, and the element is a spirit that lives in things like the soul in the body[...]
From the fire element or spirit, then derive the qualities of the stars which originate from the multiplicity of this single spirit or fire. This reverberating in the stars, first collectors of this spirit, give rise to metals:
Having then spoken of the simple fire that lives and subsists by itself, it remains now to speak of a multiple spirit or fire that is the cause of the variety or diversity of creatures, such that none can be found exactly equal to another in every part. This can be seen in metals where none has another exactly equal to itself. The Sun produces Gold, the Moon another and largely different metal called silver; Mars another called iron; Jupiter tin; Venus copper and Saturn another called lead, so that all these are different from each other.[...]
These same elements in turn then give rise to the constituent elements of man thus creating a specular and harmonic image between microcosm and macrocosm: man is therefore an image in a mirror, a reflection of the four elements and the disappearance of the four elements entails the disappearance of man.[...]
Thus a network of sympathetic correspondences is created that unite planets, metals and human organs in a table of sympathetic correspondences:
| Planet | Metal | Organ |
|---|---|---|
| Sun | Gold | Heart |
| Moon | Silver | Brain |
| Mercury | Mercury | Lungs |
| Venus | Copper | Kidneys |
| Mars | Iron | Gallbladder |
| Jupiter | Tin | Liver |
| Saturn | Lead | Spleen |
When he had to express himself in this regard, Paracelsus would always try to distance the idea of a causative astrology in favor of a significative astrology of events, however even when he considered in essence the existing influence between the microcosm and the macrocosm he would always be careful to specify that this influence is mutual and not unilateral.
The conjunction between man and the heavens occurs in this way... There is a double firmament, one in heaven and one in every body, and these are connected to each other by mutual concordance and not by unilateral dependence of the body on the firmament. If for example a discord occurs between the celestial disposition on one hand and the human economy on the other, it will be the latter that breaks.[...]
The microcosm namely Man and the macrocosm namely the Universe, are therefore tuned in a perfect anthropo-cosmic resonance that resolves into mutual dependence, saving free will, by which the stars influence man and man influences the stars, according to the saying that he himself would remember: "The Wise man dominates the stars".
The Foundations of Hermetic Medicine
Starting from his alchemical cosmology indissolubly connected to an anthropo-cosmic resonance that linked planets, metals and organs, Paracelsus had as a logical consequence the idea of being able to proceed in the cure of diseases by means of a kind of medicinal alchemy: iatrochemistry. For the first time Paracelsus proposed an unheard theory for the time: namely that of being able to heal a being endowed with life like man through something devoid of life like a metal or mineral. This conceptual revolution, based essentially on his sympathetic conception of nature, thus led him to formulate one of the fundamental ideas at the basis of modern medicine, namely that of being able to heal thanks to the use of a chemical principle. From the development of this idea Paracelsus decided to refound medicine based on