The book of the magi : a complete system of occult philosophy, consisting of natural, celestial, cabalistic, and ceremonial magic ; invocations ; conjurations of spirits, &c., &c. ; biographical sketch of seventeen great philosophers and adepts.

  • Barrett, Francis, F.R.C., Prof. of Chemistry.
Date:
1896
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The book of the magi : a complete system of occult philosophy, consisting of natural, celestial, cabalistic, and ceremonial magic ; invocations ; conjurations of spirits, &c., &c. ; biographical sketch of seventeen great philosophers and adepts. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    Haltsmante finagle. seven days.* The veins, also, and arteries, as physicians say, are moved by the seventh number. Also, judgments in diseases are made with greater mani- festation upon the seventh day, which physicians call critical, i. e. judicial. Also, of seven portions God creates the soul;—the soul, also, receives the body by seven degrees. All difference of voices proceeds to the seventh degree, after which there is the same revolution. Again, there are seven modulations of the voices: ditonus, semiditonus, diatesseron, diapente with a tone, diapente with a half tone, and diapason. There are also, in celestials, a most potent power of the number seven; for seeing there are four corners of the Heaven diametrically looking one towards the other, which indeed is accounted a most full and powerful aspect, and consists of the number seven; for it is made with the seventh sign, and makes a cross, the most powerful figure of all, of which we shall speak in its due place— but this you must not be ignorant of, that the number seven hath a great communion with the cross. By the same radiation and number the solstice is distant from winter, and the winter equinoctium from the summer, all which are done by seven signs. There are also seven circles in the Heavens, according to the longi- tudes of the axle-tree. There are seven stars about the Arctic Pole, greater and lesser, called Charles Wain; also seven stars called the Pleiades; and seven planets, according to those seven days, constituting a week. The Moon is the seventh of the planets, and next to us, observing this number more than the rest, this number dispensing the motion and light thei'eof; for in twenty- eight days, it runs round the compass of the whole Zodiac; which number of days, the number seven with its seven terms, viz. from one to seven, doth make and fill up as much as the several numbers, by adding to the antece- dents, and makes four times seven days, in which the Moon runs through and about all the longitude and latitude of the Zodiac, by measuring and measur- ing again: with the like seven days it dispenses its light, by changing it; for the first seven days, unto the middle as it were of the divided world, it increases; the second seven days it fills its whole orb with light; the third, by decreas- ing, is again contracted into a divided orb; but, after the fourth seven days, it is renewed with the last diminution of its light; and by the same seven days, it disposes the increase and decrease of the sea: for in the first seven of the increase of the moon, it is by little and little lessoned; in the second, by degrees increased; but the third is like the first, and the fourth does the same as the second. It is also applied to Saturn, which ascending from the lower, is the seventh planet, which betokens rest; to which the seventh day is ascribed, which signifies the seven thousandth, wherein, as St. John says, the •There have been some exceptions to this affirmation, one of which fell under my notice of late years: Doctor Edward Spry, of Plymouth Dock, Philosopher, Cabalist, and Physician, lived upwards of two years upon a gooseberry a day in summer, and an oat cake and three glasses of white wine the rest of the season, per day: this gentleman was particularly abstemious in his diet.