Three Books of Occult Philosophy/Book 1/Chapter 49
by reason of the disposition of the body, as the Peripateticks will have it, or which is more true, by reason of the good pleasure of him that bestows it, who gives it to every one as he pleaseth. From thence it passeth to the fancy, yet above the sense, but only imaginable, and thence to the sence, but especially to that of the eyes; In them it becomes a visible clearness, and is extended to other perspicuous bodies, in which it becomes a colour, and a shining beauty, but in dark bodies it is a certain beneficiall and generative vertue, and penetrates, to the very center, where the beames of it being collected into a narrow place, it becomes a dark heat, tormenting, and scorching, so that all things perceive the vigour of the light according to their capacity, all which joyning to it self with an enlivening heat, and passing through all things, doth convey its qualities, and vertues through all things. Therefore Magicians forbid the Urin of a sick man to be sprinkled in the shadow a sick man, or to be uncovered against the Sun or the Moon, because the rayes of the light penetrating, bringing suddenly with it the noxious qualities of the sick bodies, convey them into the opposite body, and affect that with a quality of the same kind. This is the reason why Enchanters have a care to cover their Enchantments with their shadow. So the Civet cat make all Dogs dumb with the very touch of her shadow. Also there are made artificially some Lights, by Lamps, Torches, Candles, and such like, of some certain thing, and liquors opportunely chosen, according to the rule of the Stars, and composed amongst themselves according to their congruity, which when they be lighted, and shine alone, are wont to produce some wonderfull, and Celestiall effects, which men many times wonder at, as Pliny reports out of Anaxilaus, of a poison of Mares after copulation, which being lighted in Torches, doth monstrously represent a sight of horse heads: the like may be done of Asses, and flies, which being tempered with wax, & lighted, make a strange sight of flies: and the skin of a Serpent lighted in a Lamp, maketh Serpents appear. And they say when Grapes are in their flower, if any one shall bind a Viall to them full of Oile, and shall let it alone till they be ripe, and then the Oile be lighted in a Lamp, it makes Grapes to be seen. And so in other fruits. If Centory be mixed with Honey, and the blood of a Lapwing, and be put in a Lamp, they that stand about will seem a great deal bigger then they are wont: and if it be lighted in a clear night, the Stars will seem to be scattered the one from the other. Such force also is in the inke of the Cuttle fish, that it being put into a Lamp, makes Black-mores appear. It is also reported, that a Candle made of some certain Saturnine things, if being lighted, it be extinguished in the mouth of a man newly dead, will afterwards, as oft as it shines alone, bring great sadness, and fear upon them that stand about it. Of such like Torches, Lamps, doth Hermes speak more of, also Plato, and Chyrannides, and of the latter writers Albertus in a certain Treatise of this particular thing. Colours also are a kind of lights, which being mixed with things, are wont to expose them to those Stars, to which they are agreeable. And we shall afterwards speak of some colours, which are the lights of the Planets, by which even the natures of fixed Stars themselves are understood, which also may be applyed to the flames of Lamps, and Candles. But in this place we shall relate how the colours of inferiour mixt things are distributed to divers Planets. For all colours, black, lucid, earthy, leaden, brown, have relation to Saturne. Saphire, and airy colours, and those which are alwaies green, clear, purple, darkish, golden, mixed with Silver, belong to Jupiter. Red colours, and burning, fiery, flaming, violet, purple, bloody, and iron colours, resemble Mars. Golden, Saffron, purple, and bright colours, resemble the Sun. But all white, fair, curious, green, ruddy, betwixt saffron, and purple, resemble Venus, Mercury, and the Moon. Moreover amongst the houses of the heaven, the first and seventh hath white colour: the second, and twelfth green: the third, and eleventh saffron: the fourth, and the tenth red: the fift, and ninth honey colour: the sixt, and eighth, black. The Elements also have their colours, by which Naturall Philosophers judge of the complexion and property of their nature; For an earthy colour, caused of coldness, and dryness is brown, and black, and manifests black choller, and a Saturnine nature; the blew tending towards whiteness, doth denote flegme: for cold makes white, moisture and dryness makes black: reddish colour shews blood, but fiery, flaming, burning hot, shew choller, which by reason of its subtilty, and aptness to mix with others, doth cause divers colours more: for if it be mixed with blood, and blood be most predominant, it makes a florid red; if choller predominate, it makes a redish colour; if there be an equall mixtion, it makes a sad red. But if adust choller be mixed with blood, it makes a Hempen colour, and red, if blood predominate, and somewhat red if choller prevaile; but if it be mixed with a melancholy humour, it makes a black colour, but with malancholy, and flegme together, in an equall proportion, it makes a Hempen colour: If flegme abound, a mud colour, if melancholy, a blewish; but if it be mixed with flegme alone, in an equall proportion, it makes a citrine colour; if unequally, a pale, or palish. Now all colours are more prevalent, when they be in silk, or in metals, or in perspicuous substances, or pretious stones; and in those things which resemble Celestiall bodies in colour, especially in living things.
Chapter l. Of Fascination, and the Art thereof.
[edit]Fascination is a