Three Books of Occult Philosophy/Book 1/Chapter 35
CHAP. XXXV.
Of the Mixtions of naturall things one with another, and their benefit.
IT is most evident, that in the inferiour nature all the powers of superiour bodies are not found comprehended in any one thing, but are dispersed through many kinds of things a mongst us as there are many Solary things, whereof every one doth not contain all the vertues of the Sun: but some have some properties from the Sun, and others othersome. Wherefore it is sometimes necessary that there be mixtions in operations, that if a hundred or a thousand vertues of the Sun were dispersed through so many Plants, Animals, & the like, we may gather all these together, and bring them into one form, in which we shall see all the said vertues, being united, contained. Now there is a twofold vertue in commixtion, one, viz. which was first planted in its parts, and is Celestiall, the other is obtained by a certain, and artisiciall mixtion of things mixt amongst themselves, and of the mixtions of them according to certain proportions, such as agree with the heaven under a certain Constellation; And this vertue descends by a certain likeness, and aptness that is in things amongst themselves towards their superiours, and as much as the following do by degrees correspond with them that go before, where the patient is sitly applyed to its agent. So from a certain composition of Hearbs, vapours, and such like, made according to naturall Philosophy, and Astronomy, there results a certain common form, endowed with many gifts of the Stars: as in the honey of Bees, that which is gathered out of the juice of innumerable Flowers, and brought into one form, contains the vertue of all, by a kind of divine, and admirable art of the Bees. Yet this is not to be less wondred at which Endoxus Gindius reports of an artisiciall kind of honey, which a certain Nation of Gyants in Lybia knew to make out of Flowers, and that very good, and not far inferiour to that of the Bees. for every mixtion, which consists of many severall things, is then most perfect, when it is so firmly compacted on all parts, that it becomes one, is every where firm to it self, and can hardly be dissipated: as we sometimes see stones, and divers bodies to be by a certain naturall power conglutinated, and united, that they seem to be wholly one thing: as we see two trees by grassing to become one, also Oisters with stones by a certain occult vertue of nature, and there have been seen some Animals which have been turned into stones, and so united with the substance of the stone, that they seem to make one body, and that also homogeneous. So the tree Ebeny is one while wood, and another while stone. When therefore any one makes a mixtion of many matters under the Celestiall influencies, then the variety of Celestiall actions on one hand, and of naturall powers on the other hand, being joyned together doth indeed cause wonderfull things, by ointments, by collyries, by fumes, and such like, which viz, are read in the book of Chiramis, Archyta, Democritus, and Hermes, who is named Alchorat, and of many others.