PREFACE

...may shine forth for the brothers of this community (if their deeds harmonize with their words in the same tone). This, therefore, is the chief reason why I have committed myself to their cause: so that we might remove the perhaps ill-founded suspicions of Lord Libavius Andreas Libavius (1555–1616) was a famous German physician and chemist who published several attacks against the Rosicrucian manifestos, accusing them of being magicians or subversives. and others. For, by Hercules original: herculè. A common Latin exclamation used to emphasize a point, similar to saying "by God" or "indeed.", such men are skilled at using the most perverse opinions to judge as either diabolical or lies those things which seem new to the ear, crude and foreign to the sight, or certainly difficult beyond the grasp of the imagination.

Yet, if they explored these things a little more accurately, they would perceive them to be not only evident once discovered, but even easier to perform without any demonic art. We shall declare this clearly in this, our Apology original: Apologia. A formal written defense of a position or group., in which we have proposed two paths—the truest and most certain of all—by which prophecy vaticinium (the power of foretelling the future), the knowledge of spiritual and worldly secrets arcana (hidden mysteries or "inner workings" of the world), and the execution of things commonly admired may be fully completed and led to a desired end.

The first path is by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit original: Spiritus S. (Spiritus Sancti) into men, in the way we read that the Apostles performed their miracles. The second path is by the revelation of mysteries enclosed in the hidden bowels of Nature, which also requires the assistance of a spirit; and in this way, Solomon King Solomon was traditionally viewed by Renaissance scholars and alchemists as the ultimate master of "natural magic"—the ability to understand and use the hidden properties of plants, stones, and animals. was well-versed in every kind of wisdom.

It also happens sometimes that the Devil, through his impious seers—namely, the Necromancers Those who practice divination by communicating with the dead.—speaks the truth and gives forth divinations of future things. Yet he could not do this without the divine will, for without God's permission, his prophecies are only conjectures interspersed with lies. Whence the spirit of the Devil, poured out into the world by his own will, is either a liar or ambiguous or [enigmatic—]