Magical Imagination

Photography by Tim Walker

Paracelsus attributes the five entities:

"of stars (ens astrale)
of poison (ens veneni)
of nature (ens naturale)
of spirit (ens spirituale)
and of God (ens Dei)

All things are poison, and nothing is without poison. Alchemy divides the evil from the good, changes the good into a tincture, conditions the body so it will live, attunes the subject to nature, conditions nature so she becomes flesh and blood.

The inner alchemist, like the exterior, is an artisan that possesses knowledge given by God. It contains virtue, strength and art. The inner alchemist works continuously at separating the useful from the harmful.

So it is that magical imagination proceeds from us to heaven and from them again back to us. Heaven and earth are two similar heavens, and the minerals and stars are two similar stars. The planet and man are one thing, not two, just as fire and wood are one."

~ from Paracelsus' treatise Super Entia Quinque (On the Five Entities), 1520