Three Books of Occult Philosophy

BOOK ONE.

...to illuminate. original: "minare"; likely the conclusion of "illuminare" from the previous page. Within water itself is the seminal virtue seminal virtue: the inherent power or "blueprint" within a substance that allows it to generate life of all things: first of animals, whose seed is clearly aqueous; but also the seeds of shrubs and herbs, though they be earthy, must be liquefied by water if they are to be fruitful, whether this happens by the moisture of the earth being absorbed, or by dew, or rain, or by water applied by industry. For only earth and water are described by Moses as producing a living soul. But to water he attributes a double production: namely, of those things swimming in the waters, and of those things flying in the air above the earth. The same scripture Referring to the Book of Genesis. testifies that even earthly productions are partly owed to water, saying that after creation, shrubs and plants had not germinated because God had not yet sent rain upon the earth. Such is the power of this element that even spiritual regeneration original: "spiritualis regeneratio"; referring to the Christian sacrament of Baptism. does not occur without water, as Christ himself testified to Nicodemus. Its power in religion is also greatest, in expiations and purifications, nor is its necessity less than that of fire. Its uses are infinite, and its applications manifold; all things consist of its power, as it possesses the power of generating, nourishing, and increasing.

Hence Thales of Miletus An early Greek philosopher who argued that water was the primary substance of the universe. and Hesiod established water as the principle of all things, and called it the most ancient and powerful of all elements, since it commands all others. For, as Pliny says, waters devour the lands; they kill flames; they climb on high and claim the sky for themselves by the covering of clouds; these same waters falling become the cause of all things born from the earth. Innumerable are the miracles of waters described by Pliny, Solinus, and many historians, of whose miraculous power Ovid also makes mention in these verses:

At midday, your wave, O horn-bearing Hammon, original: "Hammon"; referring to the oracle of Jupiter-Ammon in the Libyan desert, whose spring was said to change temperature.
Is cold, but at sunrise and sunset it grows warm.
It is told that wood is set on fire by the touch of Athamantis’s waters,
When the moon has retreated into its smallest circles.
The Cicones have a river which, when drunk, turns one's
Entrails to stone, and covers touched objects with marble.
The Crathis and the neighboring Sybaris in your lands
Make hair like amber and gold.
What is more wonderful: there are some waters that can change not only bodies,
But even minds. Who has not heard of the obscene waves of Salmacis? In mythology, the spring of Salmacis merged the bodies of a nymph and Hermaphroditus.
Or the lakes of the Ethiopians? If anyone drinks from these,
He either goes mad or falls into a sleep of strange heaviness.
Whoever quenches his thirst from the Clitorian fount
Shuns wine and, becoming abstinent, delights in pure water.
Opposite in effect flows the Lyncestian river:
Whoever drinks from it with an immoderate throat
Stumbles as if he had drunk pure wine.
There is a lake of Arcadia—the ancients called it Pheneus—
Distrusted for its ambiguous waters, which you should fear at night;
Drunk at night, they are harmful, but by day they are drunk without harm.