Coelum Terrae

let us hear the admirable Agrippa state it: he from whose lips Truth breathed, knowing no other oracle. “The heavenly powers, while they exist in themselves and flow from the Giver of Lights through the holy intelligences and the heavens, have a good influence as far as the moon, as though in the first degree. Afterwards, however, when that influence is received in a baser subject, it too becomes base.” [Vaughan’s English:] the heavenly powers or spiritual essences, while existing in themselves, or before union with matter, are showered down from the Father of Lights through the holy intelligences and the heavens until they reach the moon. Their influence is good, as in the first degree; but when received in a corrupt subject, the influence too is corrupted. So much for Agrippa. Now astronomers claim a strange familiarity with the stars, and natural philosophers talk in the same way. An ignorant person might well think they had been in heaven and conversed, like Lucian’s Menippus, with Jove himself. But in earnest these people are no more eagles than Sancho. Their fancies resemble his flights in the blanket and fall equally short of the skies. Simply ask where and how the influences are received; require them to prove through sound experience that they are present in the elements, and you have undone them. If