BOOK ONE.

It may be agreed, when to lead forth the armed fleets,
Or when it is seasonable to fell the pine tree in the woods. original: "Conueniat, quando armatas deducere classes, / Aut tempestiuam in syluis euertere pinum." These lines, likely echoing Virgil or Manilius, suggest that even practical or military timing depends on the natural and celestial observations previously discussed.

Theology itself teaches us what God is, what the mind is, what intelligence, what an angel, what finally a demon, what the soul, what religion, what sacred institutions, rites, temples, observations, and sacred mysteries are. It also instructs us regarding faith, miracles, the power of words and figures, the secret operations and mysteries of seals; and as Apuleius says, it teaches us to rightly know and be skilled in the laws of ceremonies, the divine law of sacred things, and the right of religions. But now I shall return to the point. The Sun Agrippa uses "Sol" (the Sun) in the margin here, perhaps to signify the clarifying light of Magic. Magic itself encompasses, unites, and actuates these three most powerful faculties; therefore, it was rightly held by the ancients to be the highest and most sacred science. This science is found illustrated by the weightiest authors and most famous writers: among whom Zamolxis and Zoroaster shone so brightly that they were believed by many to be the inventors of this science. Following in their footsteps were Abbaris the Hyperborean, Charmondas, Damigeron, Eudoxus, and Hermippus. Other more famous priests emerged, such as Hermes Trismegistus, Porphyry, Iamblichus, Plotinus, Proclus, Dardanus, Orpheus the Thracian, Gog the Greek, Germa the Babylonian, and Apollonius of Tyana. Osthanes also wrote excellently on this art; his books, having been dug out from a tomb, Democritus of Abdera illustrated with his own commentaries. The Sun Furthermore, Pythagoras, Empedocles, Democritus, Plato, and many of the most noble philosophers traveled to learn this art; having returned, they preached it with the highest sanctity and held it among their secrets. Note Indeed, we have found it certain that Pythagoras and Plato approached the prophets of Memphis The priests of ancient Egypt. to learn it, and traveled through nearly all of Syria, Egypt, Judea, and the schools of the Chaldeans, so that the most sacred monuments of Magic might not be hidden from them, and so they might be imbued with divine matters. Therefore, whoever now strives to study this faculty, if they are not learned in Physics (in which the qualities of things are declared and the occult properties of every being are opened), and if they are not a practitioner of Mathematics (and in the aspects and figures of the stars, upon which the sublime virtue and property of every thing depends), and if they are not learned in Theology (where the immaterial substances that dispense and administer all things are manifested), they will not be able to understand the rationality of Magic. For no work perfected by magic exists, nor is there any truly magical work, that does not encompass these three faculties.

On the four elements, and their qualities, and their mutual mixtures. Chapter III.

Decorative woodcut initial 'Q' containing a figure seated at a desk or bench, surrounded by ornate floral and scrollwork patterns.
There are four elements and primary foundations of all corporeal things: fire, earth, water, and air. From these, all "elemented" things Things composed of elements. in these lower regions are composed; not by way of a mere pile or heap, but according to transmutation and union. And again, when they perish, they are resolved back into the elements. None of the sensible elements are pure, but they are mixed more or less among themselves and are transmutable into one another: just as earth, becoming muddy and dissolved, becomes water; and that same water, thickened and condensed, becomes earth; through heat...