The world is moving in spirals, and our greatest modern philosophers are nearing a place in their mental orbit where they come again into conjunction with minds like Pythagoras and Plato. -Franz Hartmann 1838-1912
Franz Hartmann's work The Life and Doctrines of Paracelsus was published in 1891. Hartmann was, like Paracelsus, a medical doctor. I am not certain when exactly he began to study Paracelsus, but on reading about Paracelsus through Hartmann's writing and then reading of Hartmann's own life there does seem to be a mirror like reflection going on.
Hartmann wrote of Paracelsus in the latter phase of the 19th century, which was the latter phase of his life. He wrote after years of experiences in various regions of the world and within worlds beyond the realm of medicine.
Paracelsus was born at the end of the 15th century and he experienced life and travel in the era of the sun rising upon the end of the dark middle ages. Hartmann describes this period and Paracelsus' place in it this way.
...and truths that had been monopolized and held captive for centuries by an exclusive caste of priests, became the common property of all that were able to grasp them. Such a great struggle for liberty on the battle field of religious thought could not take place without causing a commotion in other departments where mind was at work. In the department of science there could be seen a general struggle of the new against the old, of reason against sophistry, and of young truths against errors that had become venerable through age. Logic battled against belief in antiquated authorities; and new constellations, composed of stars of the first magnitude, began to rise, sending their rays into the deepest recesses of thought. Luther overthrew the barrier of ecclesiastical hierarchy; Melanchthon and Erasmus liberated speech; Cardanus lifted the veil off the goddess ofNature; and Copernicus, like Joshua of old, bade the sun to stand still, and, obedient to his command, the sun stood still, and the planetary system was seen to move in the grooves in which it was ordained by the wisdom of the Supreme.
Hartman says, as do plenty of others, "One of the greatest and illuminated minds of that age was Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombast,of Hohenheim" .
Right around the time history says Columbus was sailing to America, another event occurred. In a village near Zurich in Switzerland, in the year 1493, a child named Phillippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombast, was born. He was the only child of his parents and was the one who would later be known as Paracelsus.
He was a descendant of the old and celebrated family Bombast who were called -of Hohenheim after their ancient residence Hohenheim, a castle near the village of Plinningen, near Stuttgart in Germany. Other known names of Paracelsus were Helvetius Eremita, Germanus, Seuvus, and Arpinus. I am not sure of the association of these names but likely they were also to do with his place of birth, or perhaps ancestry.
Paracelsus' father, William Bombast of Hohenheim, was a physician and he was first to educated his son as a child, with the foundational sciences of alchemy, surgery, and medicine. He was then schooled by monks and at the age of sixteen he began his studies at the Univerity of Basel. After leaving Basel he was instructed by Johann Trithemius, of Spanheim, one of the greatest adepts of magic, alchemy and astrology. It was Trithemius who cultivated Paracelsus' aptitude for occult studies and applications, but he also studied under other renowned alchemists of his day.
In the years following his studies Paracelsus travelled across Europe, inside Russia. and some stories say he travelled to India as well. Some say he was taken captive by the Tartars while in the Russian regions, and then also taken to Constantinople where, according to some, he received the Philosophers Stone. But also known are the travels in Italy where he was an army surgeon and lived for a time amongst battle fields and executioners. He is said to have lived a wandering sort of life for some of his years, travelling in the regions gypsies, shepherds, midwives, and amongst societies high and low. He was educated by the experiences, information and knowledge he acquired not only from those who were schooled in medicine but even more of what he practiced and studied was from all the people and folklore and practices of the places he would visit and linger in. During this period he had few possesions and very few needs in the material world. After more than a decade of the wandering life he returned to Germany.
In 1592, at the age of 32, Paracelsus went back to Basel, and later became a professor. He taught his own teachings, formulated from his own doctrines and cultivated from his unique studies and experiences. He moved away from the traditional lectures of Hippocrates, Galen and others familiar to the universities and students of the time. He was teaching new and independent thinking in the new era of light at the waning period of a dark age. His work not only in teaching but healing methods as well were bringing new ideas to the students and villages of the renaissance period. His works however were not embraced the establishment. As has come to be the human cycle there were those who chose to remain in hibernation with minds closed even though an era of awakening intelligence had been opening the eyes and minds of many.
According to Franz Hartmann's work:
Paracelsus was capable to read in the books of nature; while the medlicasters of his time merely believed in what was written in their medical books, He [Paracelsus] says: "This is the cause of the misery in this world that all your science is founded upon lies. You are yourself full of lies, and therefore all your philosophy consists of errors and lies."
Of course his approach did not make him any friends in high places.
In addition to his professorship Paracelsus also held the office of city physician in Basel. In this position he brought to the city council a proposal to oversee the druggists and eliminate the corruption and cheating that the powerful group of would be healers were engaged in. His action of course drew reaction and those who would be unveiled by the change in trend became loud with slander against Paracelsus. And silence was their response in reference to the increasing levels of cures and visible benefits of health in the community. Lives that previous to Paracelsus were left to die now were able to recover with new ways and means of treatments. The clash was inevitable.
Paracelsus' nonconformity to the long outdated practices of physicians and his outspoken protests against low quality remedies and high fees of druggists worked to advantage for the populace of this region, but not well for Paracelsus himself. He was forced to leave Basel.
His work, knowledge, and gifts were true and thorough, but the overly quick push for change pushed back at him. Leading the blind through thorny patches requires a walking pace, not a race.
Paracelsus left Basel and resumed again his travelling lifestyle. But now he had followers, he had acquired disciples and students. He still would practice medicne and heal the patients who came to him in cities and towns, but the regualr physicians denounced him as a charlatam, a quack.
But as ages passed there were found in the archives of cities such as Nuremberg and others, records of Paracelsus challenging the claims against him by asking tthese city councils to send the uncurable patients to him, which he cured. In these various city archives are said to have been found the testimonials supporting this.
But even without the archives there is the legacy. Five hundred years later we are still discussing him and his great works.
By 1538 he had come to Salzburg at the invitation of Prince Palantine, Duke Ernst of Bavaria. It was in Salzburg that Paracelsus was eventually appreciated and gained the reverence for his healing and his legacy was preserved.
Sadly his life there was short. He died in 1541 at the age of 48.
The lingering story that tells of his death seems also to have been proven many years after his death. His contemporaies told that Paracelsus, while at a banquet, had been attacked by hired thugs, hired by certain enemies. During the attack he fell upon a rock and fractured his skull which caused his death three days later.
"Paracelsus, one of the greatest alchemists of all time, is considered the founder of modern medicine, because he began using chemicals in the treatment of disease. His hybrid of alchemy and medicine, which he named iatrochemistry, became very popular in the sisteenth and seventeenth centuries." - Dennis William Hauck
Paracelsus is said to be the link between the medieval and scientific thought, said to be the first modern scientist.
"Paracelsus, an almost legendary figure in our time, was a preoccupation of mine when I was trying to understand alchemy, especially in connection with natural philosophy." -Carl Gustav Jung
He established the practice of using antiseptics to eliminate microorganisms that might cause disease. His work was the precursor of modern wound surgery, homeopathy and more.
"Even as bizarre a character as Paracelsus (1493–1541) discovered interesting chemical transformations in the course of his alchemical and pharmaceutical studies. The fact that he was drunk for a good deal of his life tells us something about the nature of genius. The writings of Paracelsus are voluminous and arcane but contain perceptive observations of human diseases and details of effective cures. He was obviously a most unpleasant man but, judged by the standards of his time, a great scientist. He was the first to mention the metal cobalt and thus contributed to the emergence of "new elements," which made chemistry so exciting during the 18th and 19th centuries." -Anthony R. Butler, School of Chemistry, University of St. Andrews, Fife, Scotland. From the Article Chemistry's Coming of Age
Sourced mainly from The Life and Doctrines of Paracelsus - Franz Hartman published 1891
PARACELSUS. PEOPLE. OLD BOOKS. TIME TRAVELLER
