Cornelius Agrippa's Philosophy
Paracelsus - The Power of the Magnet and Will - Weapon Salve - Witchcraft - The Case of Jane Brooks - Occult Virtues of Herbs, Stones, Gems and Crystals.
Although there are many remarkable features of interest in the writings of Cornelius Agrippa, we deem it unnecessary to give farther citations of magical practices. The reader, desirous to accomplish himself in the Magician's art, would derive but little encouragement from a study of Agrippa's works, especially as he repeatedly affirms that "a man must be born a Magician from his mother's womb." This passage, with others of a kindred character, plainly imply the great Magician's belief, that what we have so often termed naturally prophetic, or Mediumistic endowments, are far more available to procure communion with, and control of spirits, than any arts which he can recommend. Again and again, too, Agrippa enlarges on the potency of the will to produce magical results. His opinion of this great instrument of power is conveyed in the following quaint passage:
"Notwithstanding the use of all these signs, and whether or not the Magician shall make every pentacle duly, and write every name in order, even if he do speak all which is here set down in every circumstance; yet, when no spirit cometh, it is the mind of the invocant which doth fail him, for all these things are but as winds, which do blow on the temper of the mind, to stir it up to action." "Unless a man be born a Magician, and God have destined him even from his birth to the work, so that spirits do willingly come of their own accord - which doth happen to few - a man must use only of these things herein set down, or written in our other books of occult philosophy, as means to fix the mind upon the work to be done; for it is in the power of the mind itself that spirits do come and go, and magical works are done, and all things in nature are but as used to induce the will to rest upon the point desired."