Introduction to Magic by Julius Evola

Author:Julius Evola
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Tags: Occult/Hermetic Studies
Publisher: Inner Traditions/Bear & Company
Published: 2018-05-17T16:00:00+00:00

De Pharmaco Catholico

(On the Universal Medicine)

Consule te ipsum, noscas temet, et ambula ab intra.

(Take your own counsel that you may know yourself, and walk within.)

It is not without some hesitations that we introduce the readers to an original text of alchemical Hermeticism. The readers already know that the “alchemy” discussed here is not at all the infant and superstitious early chemistry, but rather the coded exposition of an initiatic teaching. In Master Giovanni Braccesco’s Espositione di Geber philosopho (Venice, 1551, f. 77 b), we are warned: “Do not be deceived and do not believe literally the Philosophers of this science, for where they have spoken most openly, there they have spoken most obscurely, namely through enigmas or similitudes.” Thus our readers must remember that, generally speaking, every substance (salt, sulfur, niter, etc.) mentioned here is also a symbol of states of consciousness and of fluidic forces, and that the relative operations indicate first of all the transformations that must be performed through initiatic realization.

The whole problem lies in interpreting the symbolism; this is difficult both because it permeates alchemy and because it is very complex and varied, as well as requiring a truly subtle power of intuition. In the footnotes we will clarify the more important points. However the readers should refer to the previous essays by Abraxas, Luce, and P. Negri, and also read the text many times with patience and intelligence. Julius Evola’s The Hermetic Tradition may also be helpful, since in that work the hermetic-alchemical symbolism is systematically explained.

What we are publishing here is not the unabridged version of De pharmaco catholico, but rather a synthesis made by its own anonymous author. This synthesis occupies pages 62–73 of the original edition found in the Chymica Vannus, which was published in Amsterdam in 1666.

The following is the first direct translation from Latin, done by a friend of ours who has assumed the pseudonym Tikaipôs.

Know first of all that everything was formed and made from three essences, similarly and analogously in the body through astral impression and elementary operation. The elements are found in the metals—not the metals in the elements—insofar as the seed of the metals is not found so far off as many know-it-alls have fancied.81 Even though the elements, in the formation of any body, must cooperate together, they are still not the philosophical Prime Matter, or that Astral Seed. However, they are cause of generation and of corruption, and the corruption of one thing is the generation of another.

According to the ancient philosophers, all things have been created by hatred and by love, by attraction and by repulsion (id est ex sympathia et antipathia), as by two qualities that are mutually contrasted in the Elements, when performing this operation, through a heavenly influx or through a specific astral impression, etc. In every mineral or metal are incorporated the Elements, from which it derives its specific characteristics. The opposite qualities through which every existing thing is conceived and born, are two and only two: Fire is the hot-dry element and Water is the cold-humid element opposed to it.

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