Agrippa Heinrich Cornelius: Okultna filozofija - prirodna magija

Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa: Occult Philosophy - Natural Magic

I have no doubt at all that the title of the book On Occult Philosophy or Magic, by its rarity, may attract many, among whom there are those with weak reasoning abilities as well as those perverts who will come to hear what I have to say and who, due to rash ignorance, will take the name magic in the worst sense of the word and, as soon as they see that title, shout that I teach forbidden knowledge and skills, I offend pious ears and seduce valid intelligence; that I am a sorcerer, superstitious and that I am in cahoots with the devil and that I am a sorcerer or magician. I reply to such that a magician among learned people does not mean a sorcerer or a sorcerer, nor one who is superstitious or consorts with the devil, but signifies a wise man, a prophet; and that the Sibyls were prophetesses and that they most openly prophesied Christ; and that the Magi, as wise men, thanks to the miraculous secrets of the world, knew that Christ, the creator of this world, was born and were the first to go to worship him; as well as that the name 'magic' was received by philosophers from divine beings, so it is not unacceptable for the Gospel. I think that the haughty censors would sooner condemn the Sibyls, the holy magi, and even the Gospel itself, than they would be favorable to the name of magic; they are so scrupulous that neither Apollo nor all milks, nor an angel from heaven can save me from their curse. Therefore, I advise them not to read our writings, not to try to understand or remember them. For they are pernicious and full of poison; in this book is the entrance to Acheron; stones speak in it, so let them be careful not to break their heads. And you who come without prejudice to read this, if you have enough prudence that adorns bees when collecting honey, feel free to read and believe that you will derive considerable benefit and enjoy a lot; and if you come across something you don't like, stay away from it and don't apply it, because I'm not advocating such things, I'm just presenting them to you; but therefore do not dismiss other things because even those who deal with medical books read about poisons in addition to antidotes and medicine. I admit that in magic there are many superfluous things and strange predictions for the purpose of ostentation; leave them as vain things, but still keep in mind their causes. However, things that can benefit a person, distract him from unpleasant events, erase witchcraft, cure diseases, destroy ghosts, preserve life, honor, wealth or happiness, can be carried out without sin and insulting religion because they are of real benefit and therefore very necessary. But I warned you that I wrote about many things, more descriptive than affirmative; for it seemed to me necessary to go through something which arose from the opinions of the Platonists and other heathen philosophers when they professed to write for our good; therefore, if any mistake has been made or something has been said a little more freely, forgive my youth; because when I wrote it I was young enough to be able to justify myself and say "when I was a child, I spoke like a child and understood like a child, and when I became a man, I renounced the things I did as a child, and in my book On the Nullity and Unreliability of Science I more or less renounced this book as well." But maybe you can blame me here too, saying: "Look, you wrote it as a young man, and now as an older man you renounce it; so what did you prove and how far have you come?" I confess that when I was very young I busied myself with writing these books, hoping to expound them with corrections and additions, for which reason I gave them to the Neapolitan abbot Trithemius, formerly of Spanhais, who is very zealous about secret things. Later, however, this work was cut off before I finished it, and it was carried imperfectly and unpolished to Italy, France, and Germany, passing through many hands, and some, from impatience or imprudence, allowed it to be printed so imperfectly. This confusion affected me, so I decided to exhibit this work myself, considering that it is less dangerous for these books to leave my hands with some corrections than for them to appear torn up and in fragments from the hands of other people. Apart from that and I considered it no transgression if I did not allow this testimony of my youth to perish. We have also added some chapters and inserted some things which seemed to us inappropriate to omit, and which the curious reader will be able to understand by reason of the unevenness of the style itself; because we didn't want to write this work from scratch and mess up everything we've done, but to fix it and make it a little more beautiful. Therefore I now beseech you again, kind reader, not to judge of these things according to the present time of their publication, but to pardon my curious youth if you find in them anything you do not like.