Page:The Great Book of Magical Art, Hindu Magic and East Indian Occultism.djvu/500

 482 THE GREAT BOOK OF MAGICAL ART

center belongs to Medicine; that which is localized — i. e., circumscribed or confined to a certain locality belongs to Surgery.

Each physician, no matter to which sect he belongs, should know the five causes of diseases and the five methods of treatment; but each method may be in itself sufficient to cure all diseases, no matter from what cause they originate.

No knowledge is perfect unless it includes an understanding of the origin; i. e., the beginning, and as all of man's diseases originate in his constitution it is necessary that his constitution should be known if we wish to know his diseases.

"The Bible states that man is made out of nothing; that is to say, his spirit, the real man, is from God, who is not a thing, but the eternal reality; but he is made into three somethings or 'substances/ and these three constitute the whole of man; they are himself and he is they, and from them he receives all that is good or evil for him. Every state in which man can possibly enter is determined by number, measure and weight. The "Three Substances" are the three forms or modes of ac- tion in which the universal primordial Will is manifesting itself through- out Nature, for all things are a Trinity in a Unity. The "Salt" repre- sents the principle of corporification, the astringent or contractive and solidifying quality; or, in other words, the body. The "Sulphur" rep- resents the expansive power; the centrifugal force, in contradistinction to the centripetal motion of the first quality, it is that which "burns 9 '; i. e., the soul or light in all things, and the "Mercury" is the life; i. e., that principle or form of will which manifests itself as vitality. Each of these forms of will is an individual power; nevertheless, they are substantial, for "spirit" and "force" are one and originate from the same cause. The three substances held together in harmonious pro- portions constitute health ; their disharmony constitutes disease and their disruption death.

These three substances should be practically known to the physician, for his usefulness does not consist in merely possessing theoretical knowledge, but in his ability to restore health. He must learn to know these substances by studying them by Nature's Light, not by seeking them in his ow r n imagination ; he should become able to see Nature as she is and not as he or others may imagine her to be. His art should be baptized in the fire; he must be himself born from the fire and have been tested in it seven times and more. No one is born a physician out of himself, but out of the light of Nature, and this light is the great world ; he should pass through the examination of Nature and know her laws. He should not seek for wisdom in his own brain, but in the light of Nature, and from the ability to recognize this light springs the true science. Not in the physician, but in the light of Nature is to be foutid true wisdom and art, theory and practice; but those who cannot find