Page:Three Books of Occult Philosophy (De Occulta Philosophia) (1651).djvu/598

 is false, and counterfeiting holiness are alwaies ready to deceive with their craft, that they may be worshipped, and adored: and because women are rnost desirous of secrets, and less cautious, and prone to superstition, they are the more easily deceived, and therefore give up themselves the more readily to them, and do great prodigies. The poets sing of Circe, Medea, and others of this sort; Cicero, Pliny, Seneca, Austin, and many others as well Philosophers as Catholike Doctors, and Historians, also the Scriptures, testifie the like. For in the books of the Kings we read, that a woman who lived at Endor, called up the soul of Samuel the Prophet, although many interpret it not to be the soul of the Prophet, but an evil spirit, which took upon him his shape. Yet the Hebrew masters say that Austin to Simplicianus doth not deny but it might be the true spirit of Samuel, which might easily be called up fom its body before a compleat year after his departure, as also the Goetians teach. Also Magician Necromancers suppose that might be done by certain natural powers and bonds, as we have said in our books of Occult Philosophy. Therefore the ancient Fathers, skilfull of spiritual things, did not without cause ordain that the bodies of the dead should he buried in a holy place, and be accompanied with lights, and sprinkled with holy water, and be perfumed with fiankincense, and incense, and be expiated by prayers as long as they continued above ground. For as the Masters of the Hebrews say, All our body and carnal Animal, and whatsoever in us depends upon the matter of the flesh, being ill disposed, is left for meat to the Serpent, and as they called it, to Azazel, who is the Lord of the flesh and blood, and the Prince of this world, and is called in Leviticus the Prince of deserts, to whom it is said in Genesis, Thou shalt eat dust all the daies of thy life. And in Isaiah, Dust thy bread, i.e. our body created of the dust of the earth, so long as it shall not be sanctified, and turned into better, that it be no longer an effect of the serpent, but of God, viz. a spiritual made of carnal, according to the word of Paul, saying, that which is sowed a carnal, shall arise a spiritual; and els where, All indeed shall rise