Integrum Morborum Mysterium (Medical Mysteries)

Deuteronomy 28

...he addressed the sinner and the transgressor of the law according to his Northern nature. "Because you were unwilling to hear my voice, I will strike you with poverty and cold, and I will give you a trembling heart and sorrow of soul, until you perish." original: "Quoniam noluisti audire vocem meam, percutiam te egestate & frigore..." Deuteronomy 28. For all those are morbid meteors In the 17th-century context, "meteors" referred to any atmospheric phenomena, including vapors and winds, believed to cause disease. of a Northern nature, which Moses says Jehovah will bring upon the transgressors of the law. And immediately after the pronouncement of that judicial sentence, we have depicted—not without sufficient reason—a malevolent Angel of the North riding upon a Salamander While usually linked to fire, the author here describes the salamander as a "serpent familiar with cold." as a creature familiar with the cold. This angel, with all his chilled troops, has received from the First Mover The "First Mover" (Primum Mobile) refers to God as the ultimate source of all motion in the universe. the authority to seize the "bulwark of health" of that man—namely, his fortification facing the North, which is assigned to the care of the Angel Gabriel. Even with the good Angel of Life offering no resistance, the malevolent spirit is given the power of besieging and invading.

Finally, in the last place, regarding the Western property of an angry God (which concerns the watery spirits, whose role is not only to fill the macrocosmic spirit The "macrocosm" is the great world or universe. with watery humor, but also that of the microcosm The "microcosm" is the human being, viewed as a miniature reflection of the universe. or man), there is set in motion in the first place the Western Angel, namely Mahazael. To him is given the power to harm the earth and the sea from the Western side, according to his duty toward the "fortification of health"—that specific bulwark which faces the West. This happens while the good Angel Raphael remains at rest, grants permission, or hides himself. Hence the text says: "Thus he sends forth the waters so that he submerges and confounds the earth," etc., which indeed is to be understood not only of the macrocosmic earth, but also of the microcosmic body (inasmuch as it is its own earth).

Job 12

Therefore, in respect to this, we have imagined God in His Western property; and from the Western region, He has brought forth such words against the sinner: "Thus I will send forth my watery spirits, so that I may subvert the earth of your body." Job 12. "I will strike you with dropsy." original: "percutiam te hydrope." Hydrops or dropsy refers to the painful swelling of soft tissues due to fluid accumulation. Luke 14. "I will make you a lunatic, and afflicted by a mute spirit." Matthew 17:15, Luke 9:17. "I will dissolve you with paralysis, so that your functions are hindered, and I will shut your mouth so that you cannot speak." 1 Maccabees 9:15, etc. Once these words are brought forth by the First Mover, power is suddenly given to the Angel Azael, who rides upon a whale original: "cetum." The whale or sea monster represents the elemental power of water. with his troops of watery spirits, to move against and assault the bulwark of health, with the vigor and power to break into it.

Finally, because we have spoken quite fruitfully and copiously about all these things—both in our third book concerning the differences of diseases or "morbid meteors," and regarding their efficient causes—we shall discuss them no further in this place. Instead, I shall proceed to dip my pen a little deeper into the very marrow of this subject.

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