Three Books of Occult Philosophy

Josephus Flavius Josephus (c. 37–100 CE), a Romano-Jewish historian also reports the wonderful nature of a certain river between the cities of Arcea and Raphania in Syria: = Though it flows with a full channel, it soon fails as if its springs were stopped up for the entire Sabbath; for six whole days it offers a dry passage through its bed, and then on the seventh day, by unknown causes of nature, it returns to its former abundance of water. For this reason, the inhabitants named it the Sabbatical River, on account of the seventh day sacred to the Jews. The Gospel also testifies to us concerning the Sheep Pool original: "piscina Probatica"; refers to the Pool of Bethesda in Jerusalem described in John 5:2, into which—after the water was stirred by an angel—whoever descended first was freed from whatever illness they had. The same force and power is read to have belonged to the fountain of the Ionid Nymphs, which stood in the territory of the Eleans at the village of Heraclea near the river Cytheron; anyone who descended into it with a sick body would emerge healthy and whole, with every physical defect driven away. Pausanias A 2nd-century Greek traveler and geographer relates that on Mount Lycaeus in Arcadia there is a fountain called Agria. Whenever a drought in the region threatened the destruction of the crops, the priest of Lycaean Jupiter, after sacrificing victims and venerating the sacred waters with holy prayers, would dip an oak branch held in his hand into the surface of the sacred fountain. Then, the waters being stirred, a vapor rose up from there into the air and was gathered into clouds; as the mists converged, the whole sky was covered with clouds, which shortly after dissolved into rain and healthfully watered the entire region. Truly, concerning the miracles of water, besides many other authors, the physician Rufus of Ephesus wrote wonderful things found in no other author that I know of. = It remains to speak of the Air. This is the vital spirit original: "spiritus vitalis", permeating all beings, providing life and consistency to all, binding, moving, and filling all things. Hence the doctors of the Hebrews do not count it among the elements, but regard it as a medium and a glue original: "glutinum" joining diverse things together, and like a resounding spirit of the world's instrument. For the air most closely receives the influxes of all celestial things into itself and communicates them to the other elements and to all mixed things. It also receives and retains within itself—like a certain divine mirror original: "deificum quoddam speculum"—the forms original: "species"; in Renaissance philosophy, these are subtle images or essences emitted by objects of all things, both natural and artificial, as well as of all speeches. = Carrying these with it and entering the bodies of men and animals through the pores, it impresses them during sleep as well as while awake, providing the material for various miraculous dreams, omens, and signs. From this, they say it happens that when someone passes a place where a man has been killed, or where a fresh corpse is hidden, they are stirred by fear and dread. Because the air there is full of the horrible forms of the homicide, it affects and disturbs the spirit of the person as it is inhaled, leading to terror; for everything that makes a sudden impression stuns nature. For this reason, many philosophers have thought that air is the cause of dreams and of many other impressions on the soul, through the transmission of idols original: "idolorum"; subtle reflections or mental images, or likenesses, or forms, which are shed from things and speeches and multiplied in the air until they reach the senses, and finally the imagination and soul of the receiver—specifically one who is free from cares and unhindered, as these forms...