PHILOSOPHY TO THE ATHENIANS.

...air, earth, and fire become, and look like their seed, and yet are not. All elements, along with other births, may spring from this into the third generation. Although urine is a creature Paracelsus often viewed biological waste as a "creature" because it was a product of the body's internal alchemical processes, a division occurs between it and its source. Thus, the Great Mystery Mysterium Magnum: The primordial, undifferentiated substance from which God created all things. is prepared, uncreated, by the Highest Artist, and nothing will ever be its equal again, nor will it ever return. For just as cheese never turns back into milk, the process of generation will never return to its first matter. It is true that all things return to their first essence, but not into the Mystery itself: for what is consumed cannot be brought back, nor does it happen. But things do return to that state which existed before the Mystery.

The Third Text.

f. *
Dung original: "Stercus"

And although the Great Mystery is a mother to all creatures, both sentient and insentient, not all plants were already formed within her, nor animals, nor many other such things. Rather, it should be understood that she has left behind all general mysteries: to humans, their mystery; to animals, the ability to multiply in their own form; to the flowing things, their essence; and similarly, she assigned other specific mysteries to their own forms. Thus, in this way, a mystery takes its origin from that which may be born from it, just as the mystery has ordained. For the star The original text uses "Stern" (star) but lists it alongside animals, perhaps suggesting a celestial influence on biological forms is a mystery of the horse, the beetle, the gnat, and the fly. Milk is the mystery of cheese, butter, and whey, and such things. Cheese is the mystery of the maggots and worms that grow within it; and in turn, the maggot is the mystery of its waste original: "Fæcuræ," referring to excrement or byproduct. Thus there are two kinds of mysteries: the great one, known as the uncreated mystery original: "Mysterium increatum", and the others, called special mysteries, which are like grandchildren.

The Fourth Text.

Since all other mortal things have grown and sprung from the uncreated mystery, it is now to be understood that no creature was created more freely, later, or more specifically than any other, but rather all together. For the highest secret Arcanum: In Paracelsian philosophy, an Arcanum is the "secret" or "virtue"—the celestial, life-giving essence of a substance. and great good of the Creator placed all things into the Uncreated, not in their final form, essence, or quality. Instead, they were in the Uncreated like a statue is inside a piece of wood: although the image is not seen, it is there, until the excess wood is cut away, after which the statue is recognized. Thus, the Uncreated Mystery is not to be understood as anything other than this: that the fleshly and the insentient, through their separation, each came into its own form and shape. No "wood chip" was thrown away; rather, everything became form and essence. No woodcarver will ever be found, through all eternity, who can turn even the smallest and most useless grain into something useful and living in such a way.

The Fifth Text.

Thus it should be understood that no "house" was built out of the Great Mystery, nor were animals gathered or "made up," nor were the other plants. Instead, it is like a physician who mixes a compound original: "Compositum" of many virtues; although it is a single matter, none of the individual virtues appear the same as they lie hidden within it. Therefore, one should remember that all kinds of creatures contained in the ethers original: "Etheren" are ordered together in the Great Mystery. They were not perfect in their substance, form, and essence, but existed in a perfectly subtle way that is unknown to us mortals, enclosed within the one. For we are all created from the mortal, grown in no other way than the procreations of Saturn original: "Procreationes Saturni." In alchemy, Saturn often represents the leaden, dark, or initial stage of transformation that contains all hidden colors and potentials., which in its separation gives all colors and forms, though none are visible within it. And if the mysteries of Saturn show such procreations, how much more does the great wonder, the Great Mystery, hold within it? In its separation, all things are carved from their remainders, and yet nothing is found to be leftover, like a work in which nothing goes to waste; it gives birth to another plant or matter after it.

The Sixth Text.

It should be recognized that in the carving-work of the Great Mystery, there were many kinds of "off-cuts": some into flesh, and that in wonderfully many shapes and forms; some into sea monsters, with many kinds of forms and appearances; some into herbs, some into wood; some into stone and metals. For it cannot be measured how Almighty God carved these, other than what is found: that He brought His art into two ways and two paths. One way was that He ordained for things to cease living and growing. The other way was that they are not just a single matter. For when a statue is carved from wood, the chips are all still wood—which was not the case here—but He gave them His handiwork, form, and movement.

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