AL-KINDI On Rays - De radiis
Here begins the Theory of the Magical Arts
Chapter 1. On the origin of the doctrine
All men who perceive sensible things by sense grasp them in some form; and by that same act of apprehension they discover, through the motion of reason, that the singular things perceived by sense agree with certain forms and differ from certain others. In this exercise of sense, the office of reason concurs with the ruling unity of each man: namely, reason’s work of comprehending things in one common form, by subtracting what is not common.
And this mental comprehension is the intellect; and what is thus comprehended is called a “universal,” which according to the nature of the form comprehended and the mode of comprehending is divided into five kinds: genus, species, difference, property, accident.
Therefore, when the universal has arisen in the mind of man in the manner described, man, because of an inborn desire to know, investigates its condition by the work of reason. And this knowledge always rises from sense, just as the conception of the universal itself does. But because in like cases a like judgment is always given, it happens that someone attributes by thought to some subject whether singular or universal some condition which he has not learned to belong to it by sense, but which he has learned by sense to belong to something similar; and thus the same agreement is attributed to the thing judged similar.
But if any singular or universal, or any condition, is conceived in thought for which no like thing has been perceived by sense, such a conception of the mind is empty according to the human intellect, which must necessarily arise from sense.
Yet by reason certain universals are formed, and certain of their conditions, which sense has not taught for example, the kinds of powers from which operations proceed in bodies. For the power of heating in fire is grasped by reason, yet nothing like it is perceived by sense; therefore that power is not known in itself even by reason, but is only imagined according to its effect, which has been perceived by sense; and in this way that power is said to be comprehended by reason. And the same must be understood of singular things.
For if no like things of them are subject to sense, the intellect that comprehends a singular in this way is empty, even if it seems to someone that the thing has thus been comprehended.
Now the forming of a universal form from singulars perceived one by one by sense has been given to the human race by a certain necessity, because it is impossible to sense all singulars. But since some can be sensed, it was necessary from certain things perceived by sense to gather a universal which in some manner comprehends all singulars so that, when the universal is known, whatever singular occurs to sense that is contained under that universal may be known.
For universal knowledge is necessary to man for the sake of knowledge of singulars, which alone contain human usefulness, because of the motion which they cause whereas universals never cause motion. Thus, then, the conditions of all things are first known by sense: what they are, of what sort, how great, how acting or being acted upon, and also how they stand in relation to their own or other subjects, whether universal or singular.
But things both singular and universal and also the conditions of things: some are manifest, some more manifest, some most manifest; others are hidden, others more hidden, others most hidden, both to sense and to reason. This diversity is brought about by the nature of the things themselves, producing them under this condition or that.
Some men too are more, and some less, perceptive both in sense and in reason; and this also proceeds from the proper quality of each man, disposing him more or less toward perception.
Hence it comes about that some become wiser than others. And he is wiser, and is called wiser, who perceives things and their conditions that are less perceptible. Hence it is that those who are shaped by a holy desire for wisdom labor most of all to comprehend the hidden condition of things.
Endowed with this desire, the ancient fathers seeing with bodily eyes the manifold diversity of worldly things searched out their origins and other conditions with anxious and keen inquiry; and in these matters they perceived many things by sense; and they found still more by the guidance of reason, things which are held to be beyond human comprehension even by the wise men of our time.
But we believe that they attained these things through a temperance of human nature more perfectly active in them than in other partakers of the same nature, and through uprightness of morals acquired; and through the same [uprightness] and regular exercise they were taught to pursue more diligently the better things for their own perfection so that, with this desire not ceasing, they did not cease from the study of knowing throughout their whole life. In this way it came about that they weighed many things concerning visible matters which seem to have been suggested to them rather by divine inspiration than by human reasoning.
For looking upward, they perceived certain conditions of many stars; among these they strove more earnestly than others to investigate and to know the properties of the seven planets since long experience proved them to be the chief dispensers of worldly things.
Therefore, through sense they attained an undoubted certainty that the disposition of the stars disposes the elemental world and all things composed from the elements within it, in whatever place, in whatever time they are contained so that no substance, no accident here subsists which is not in its own manner figured in the heavens. And this, indeed, is not doubted to come about from the rays of those same stars sent down into the world.
Chapter 2. On the rays of the stars
For every star has its own proper nature and condition, within which the projection of its rays together with others is contained. And just as each has its own proper nature, such as it happens wholly to be found in no other in which the emission of rays is contained so the rays themselves in different stars are of different natures, just as the stars themselves are different in nature.
Moreover every star has its own position in the machinery of the world, different from all the others. Hence it necessarily follows that every star obtains a different relation (respectus) than another to all the others, and to all things and places contained in the world.
Now a varying relation varies the effect of the rays, as do the other properties of the stars themselves. Hence it comes about that every star works something different, and in a different way, in different places and things, however small those places and things may be, and however slightly they differ since the whole operation of the stars proceeds through rays which, in every varying aspect, are varied in themselves.
For the ray which descends from the center of a star to the center of the earth is proved to be strongest in the kind of its operation. But those rays which are made oblique from the center of the earth are weakened in their effect in proportion to the obliquity unless, insofar as they are strengthened by the rays of other stars concurring in the same places.
For into every place every star pours out rays; and therefore the diversity of rays, as though fused into one, varies all the things contained in places since in every different place there is a different “tenor” (course/temper) of rays derived from the total harmony of the stars. And this moreover, because it is continually changed by the continual motion of the planets and other stars, continually moves the elemental world and all its contents in every place into diverse conditions, coming forth into act according to the requirement of the harmony of that time even though to human senses the other things of the world may seem to remain fixed. But that it is not so is more clearly proved by physical reasoning itself, which also takes its origin from sense.
It is clear, therefore, that all different places and all different times constitute different individuals in this world something which the heavenly harmony brings about through rays projected into the world, continually diversifying itself; and this too is shown by sense in some things, and in others not.
Likewise it is gathered by reason that stellar rays affect the same thing composed of elements in diverse ways, according to the diverse nature of the components. For the rays of the Sun, illuminating a dark thing for example the body of a man remain on the surface with respect to color, and are reflected there; but with respect to their heat they enter the body itself and warm it; and with respect to the nature of vivifying which they likewise possess, they strengthen the man’s spirit. And so, in other matters which are not so manifest to sense, it is likely to be the case.
Wherefore it is proved by reason that the rays of all the stars have diverse operations in the things of the world, according to the diverse properties of those same things since all things arise and are extended through rays.
But this also is to be carefully noted: since every thing in this world is continually moved by some kind of motion, the form which it receives through motion has as its underlying matter the form of which that same thing is deprived. For every form now existing is the matter of the immediately following one, which passes into it through the motion of stellar rays ruling in the thing with its whole condition.
Hence it comes about that a diverse underlying matter receives through motion a diverse new form namely according as it is more fitted by its own nature to receive that form. And from this it comes about that from wheat-seed a wheat-harvest is produced more readily than a barley-harvest in this place; whereas if barley-seed had been cast there, a barley-harvest would have been generated by that same power of the rays concurring in that place which, being the same in whatever place it exists, works differently according to the diversity of the matter found.
And know this too: that the morals of men and the habits of beasts modify the underlying matter and are often found, as it were, to be part of it in the effect. From this cause it is that the son of a king is king after his father: because the habit of succession, existing in the seed through a quality of customs, affects the son who is generated with the same habit that the father had, by reason of the easy passage from such matter into such a “matter-formed” thing. And the son of a smith is more often born more apt for his father’s craft, the stellar rays dispensing such a motion about the matter.
Therefore the diversity of things appearing in the elemental world at any time proceeds chiefly from two causes: namely from the diversity of matters and the varying operation of stellar rays. And between these, because in some there is a greater, in others a lesser difference, things are produced in diverse places and times some more and some less different. Hence some things are found to differ in genus, some in species, and some only in number.
Underlying matters of things differing in genus had more difference among themselves than the matters from which differences in species proceed. Likewise, the matters from which things naturally differing in species were made differed more among themselves than the matters from which, by nature’s motion, individuals differing only in number were made.
In the same way, the collection of stellar rays which works things differing in genus in diverse places contains more difference and diversity in itself in those diverse places than that which works differences of species. Likewise, that which works things differing in species has more difference and diversity in itself in diverse places than that which works things differing only in number.
For this is the condition of the heavenly harmony: since all stars are of diverse natures, and thus all their rays are of diverse effects, it happens in the elemental world that ray-effects help one another about the same matter, and in other matters hinder one another; and in every thing made by the harmony there is some star predominant, and likewise some sign, which bears the chief rule in the working and governing of that same thing beyond the rest.
From this mutual condition of rays so great a diversity of things arises in this world that nowhere are two or more things actually existing found wholly alike in all respects, even though human sense is not sufficient to grasp the difference.
When, however, from some kind of matter some kind of thing is generated by motions made in that same matter, as happens frequently, such generation is called natural by men. But when beyond what is usual from such a kind of matter such a kind of thing is generated, such generation is judged to be preternatural. Yet in both the same heavenly harmony works, which works so diversely in diverse places and times that now it produces like from like, and now unlike frequently in some cases, rarely in others, very rarely in others, and in others never, so far as men have found.
It also produces like things now by a like motion, now by an unlike; now by a slow motion, now by a swift; and by innumerable other modes.
The things of this world and their motions are found to vary according to places and times; and because they proceed from a heavenly cause, either all of them or some of them will lead into wonder the wise man who knows the power of this cause. For if it were given to someone to comprehend the whole condition of the heavenly harmony, he would fully know the elemental world with all its contents in whatever place and whatever time as an effect known through its cause. And if he knew any thing of this world in its whole condition, the condition of the heavenly harmony would not be hidden from him, since he would grasp the cause through its effect.
For every thing, however small, acting in the elemental world, is an effect of the whole heavenly harmony. Things whatsoever have been and whatsoever shall be are marked in that same harmony, though otherwise than the things which in this time have actual existence.
Hence, whoever had the whole condition of the heavenly harmony known would know past things as well as present as well as future. And conversely, the condition of one individual of this world, fully known, would as through a mirror present the whole condition of the heavenly harmony, since every thing of this world is an example of the universal harmony.
Chapter 3. On the rays of the elements
Proceed then: since the elemental world is an image of the sidereal world, such that every thing contained in it bears its likeness, it is manifest that every thing of this world whether substance or accident emits rays in its own manner, after the likeness of the stars; otherwise it would not fully possess the figure of the sidereal world.
And this is made manifest to sense in certain cases. For fire transmits rays of heat to nearby places, and earth rays of cold. Healing medicines as well, taken inwardly or applied outwardly, seem to diffuse through the body of the recipient rays of their virtue. The collision of bodies also produces sound, which spreads everywhere by rays of its own kind; and every colored thing emits its rays by which it is seen. This too is subtly known in many other cases. Hence it seems established by reason that the same is true in all things.
Therefore, accepting this as true, we say that everything which has actual existence in the elemental world emits rays in every direction, which in their own manner fill the whole elemental world. Hence it comes about that every place of this world contains the rays of all things actually existing in it; and just as each thing differs from another, so the rays of each differ in effect and nature from the rays of all other things. From this it follows that the operation of rays in all diverse things is diverse.
Moreover, the distance of one thing from another produces a difference in the effect of rays in the things of this world. Likewise, a place more or less distant from the center of the earth produces a difference in the rays within the bodies contained there. Likewise, a greater or lesser obliquity of aspect gives rise to a difference in the effect of rays. There are also perhaps other accidents which introduce diversity into the effects of the rays of elemental things.
But this must be known: because rays proceeding from any thing acquire diverse natures and diverse effects from the causes mentioned above, diverse rays of diverse things falling upon the same thing temper one another augmenting the species of the effect where they agree, diminishing their effects where they disagree, or in other ways mutually aiding or hindering one another, just as happens in the parts of the celestial harmony. The diversity of the matter receiving the rays of other elemental things also produces diversity in their effects just as in fire, which by the same rays softens lead but hardens brick, which occurs from the difference of those matters.
But this must be noted: some rays are strong in a certain effect, others weak. Likewise some are greatly aided in their effect by other rays of another kind, while others are little aided by others. Likewise some rays in different places and matters have nearly the same effect, while others have a manifestly different one. Likewise some rays operate greatly at one time, which at another time operate little. Likewise some require many adjuncts in order to operate, and not otherwise; others are content with fewer. And in these things there is such a diversity of modes that no one suffices to define it in words.
Yet men have attained part of this knowledge: some things indeed by experiments, others first by reason. But there are other things which are still shut up in the treasuries of nature namely, those which have not yet come to anyone’s knowledge; of which some the capacity of human cognition is not sufficient to comprehend, while others can be known, but to whose knowledge no mind has yet ascended. Some are more perceptible, but their knowledge becomes known to very few; others do not exceed the common understanding of men. And there are others which are known to all, either by sense alone, or by sense together with reason.
The action of each elemental thing, effected by its rays, is exercised either upon what is locally joined to it, or upon what is separate from it.
It acts upon what is locally joined when one thing is applied to another by continuity or contiguity. For then things so joined act upon one another and suffer from one another through the infusion of rays, and produce motion in one another according to the requirement of the nature of the agent and the patient, as is manifest in many cases. Such operations of things are considered and determined by the doctrine commonly called physics.
An elemental thing acts locally upon what is separate by the infusion of rays, just as upon what is joined although this operation is not manifested to sense as clearly as the former, yet in some cases even this is manifest to sense, as the former is. For it is sensibly known that a magnet attracts iron that is separate from it, and that a mirror shows to the eyes images of things separated from the mirror.
This too has been sensibly discovered in many other cases. Wherefore the wise have handed down a doctrine concerning the actions of elemental things upon other things that are distant.
Chapter 4. On the Possible
For the clarification of this matter it must be known that human beings, by their nature and the use of reason, acquire knowledge or belief concerning the conjunction of things; they also conceive will and desire toward things that are good for them, and they exercise free choice in attaining them in certain cases. This we say happens to human beings because of their deficiency in the knowledge of things.
For since all human knowledge arises from sense, and since there are very many properties of things which sense does not apprehend, no scientific knowledge is formed in reason concerning those properties and their conditions. Hence, of the totality of things, some are known, but others are altogether unknown.
But if all things were known by someone, he would know the causal relations of things to one another. He would therefore know that all things that occur and happen in the elemental world are caused by the celestial harmony, and from this he would recognize that the things of this world, insofar as they are related to that harmony, arise of necessity. This has been clearly discovered by the wise in many cases, and for that reason it is judged by human reason that the same holds in all other cases as well.
Now therefore, because this causality is not impressed upon the minds of men except in a few, and even then only in a few particular cases there has arisen in the thought of the majority the opinion of contingency in events. For when they see some event occur at one time and, in similar circumstances, occur otherwise at another time, they judge such an event to be contingent, so that before it happens they think it possible that it may happen, and possible that it may not happen.
Yet if they fully knew the causes, they would hold a fixed opinion toward one side, namely that which the causes demonstrate. Even those who have grasped the universal judge both alternatives as possible by abstract thought concerning things known through sense in particular occurrences, though the wise man, by relating them to causes, knows that one alternative is necessary. Thus all human beings think many things as future contingents; and for this reason they desire what they think possible. But if they had weighed all the circumstances, they would recognize such things as impossible because of necessarily existing causes, and they would neither believe that they will occur, nor conceive desire or hope or fear concerning them. For things known to be impossible do not admit such affections of the soul. Indeed, we desire, hope for, and fear only contingent and possible things.
Therefore, human ignorance is the cause of the opinion of future events; and through this medium, ignorance is the cause of desire, hope, and fear whose cause is also, in another way, the imperfection of existence. Desire, hope, and fear, since they are properties of individuals, are part of the governing unity of that individual; and according as they are present or absent, they produce a difference in the rays that proceed from any individual toward other things, near or far. Thus the addition of will in human action adds something to the effect.
Let no one be troubled by what we have said that elemental individuals act by their rays upon other elemental things. For this is said according to human consideration, which proceeds thus: when one thing is found conjoined with another by some condition, one is considered the active cause of the other, whether the conjoined things are locally joined or separated. Hence fire is called the active cause of the heating of a thing joined to it, and the magnet is called the active cause of the approach of iron which it attracts to itself by its nature.
According to this common manner of consideration, therefore, we say that one elemental thing acts by its rays upon another; although according to strict truth it does not act, but the celestial harmony alone operates all things. Therefore, in elemental things that undergo what we call action and passion, there is only concomitance. And when we consider the conditions and connections of elemental things among themselves, without regard to the celestial cause, the consideration is physical, whether the things are locally joined or separated. But when we investigate elemental events through celestial causes, we undertake a metaphysical consideration.
Chapter 5. On what promotes the effect of motion
Therefore, treating of the effect of rays proceeding from elemental individuals actually existing toward other distant things, we add that all things which exist actually produce some motion, either always, or at some time and not at another.
Those things which always move others, and always in the same way, need not be comprehended under the rules of this doctrine; hence we judge it a useless labor to assign that one thing is related to every other actually existing thing by likeness or unlikeness for this is publicly manifest as always so. But those things which at some time and not at another produce some species of motion, or do so in one manner and not another, are useful to know for the sake of good and evil. Yet amid such great diversity of things, no science is perceptible to human beings except in a few cases, and among those few only in matters that human foresight can weigh. Thus, for the present, only those things that proceed from human will are to be investigated, leaving aside the motions which other elemental things produce in distant things by their rays without human operation.
Man, therefore, by his proportional existence, arises as something similar to the world itself. Hence he is a microcosm, and is so called, because he receives the power of inducing motion in suitable matter by his works, just as the world does through imagination, intention, and faith preconceived in the human soul.
For when a man wills to do something, he first imagines the form of the thing which he wishes to imprint by his work upon some matter. After conceiving the image of the thing, according as he judges it useful or useless to himself, he desires it or rejects it in his mind. Next, if the thing is judged worthy of desire, he desires the accidents by which that thing may come into act, according to the opinion he has assumed.
The accidents that assist in inducing motion are the passions of the soul. Concerning these we say that imagination and human reason acquire a likeness of the world, since the species of worldly things are actually imprinted in them through the exercise of the senses. Therefore the imaginative spirit has rays conformed to the rays of the world; and from this follows the power of moving external things by its rays, just as the world itself both higher and lower moves things by its rays with diverse motions.
Moreover, when a man conceives some bodily thing by imagination, that thing receives actual existence according to its species in the imaginative spirit. Hence the same spirit emits rays that move externals, just as does the thing of which it is the image. Thus the image conceived in the mind agrees in species with the actual thing, according to the exemplar of the image produced either by voluntary work, or by natural work, or by both. Therefore it should not be wondered at if the constellation which produces an image in the mind of a man produces the same image in some other subject, since the latter differs from the former only in matter.
For we see that at one time almost innumerable animals of one species are produced in the world by a single constellation operative of that species. This is because much matter is disposed to receive the same species by the same constellation, and speaking physically by the actions and passions of elemental parts imitating the constellation.
In the same way, the mental image and the real thing, because they are of the same species, follow one another, provided that the matter of each is inclined to receive that form and that the other accidents required by place and time for the generation of the thing concur.
The first and principal accident necessary for the generation of a thing according to the exemplar of a mental image is the desire of the man who imagines that the thing should come to be. For desire joined to imagination is like scammony mixed with a medicine, which by its virtue makes the whole medicine laxative. Thus the desire of a man assumed over some motion to come about for someone or for some individuals, joined with the imagination of that same motion, renders the imagination itself motive of external individuals by the rays transmitted to them, with the effect of motion. And the desire must be intense if it is to have an effect of motion together with the other required factors; for things negligently supplied do not suffice for the intended effect.
Faith concerning the future effect is also an accident necessary together with the foregoing. For one who despairs of the effect frustrates his effort, even if he has wisely executed the other things. For firm faith or hope concerning the desired outcome is the strength and support of desire, aiding desire toward its effect, just as the proper admixture of scammony aids a medicine to act when it is administered.
But this must be carefully noted: even these things joined together do not suffice by themselves to induce motion by their rays in distant things. For imagination, desire, and faith are formed inwardly in the spirit of man; hence they do not have actual existence as things extended in places. Therefore they do not achieve their effect by themselves without some other adjuncts of actual existence except perhaps rarely.
External action, however whether of the one who imagines or of another is an accident which, when concurring with the foregoing, produces motion in matter externally placed, as has been discovered by many. Thus, in order that the thing conceived in the mind may pass into an external act in the world, one procures the actual existence of accidents by work, according as one judges that the thing can come about through operations.
There are two kinds of works through which, when properly performed, the thing conceived in the mind proceeds into act: namely, speech of the mouth and operation of the hand. For there is speech which, when uttered by the mouth of a man together with imagination, faith, and desire of the speaker, sometimes produces actual motions of individuals in the world. This has been clearly proven by frequent experiments, to such an extent that almost all nations of men utter words by which they believe motions are induced in certain elemental things.
Hence prayers are made to God, to spirits, and to various creatures for obtaining good and excluding evil, by motions introduced into things through the utterance of words. Yet with words it is necessary, in most cases, that other things be joined in order to achieve the effect.
Chapter 6. On the Power of Words
Since, then, words are believed by human beings to contain an effect of motion, resuming the matter we say that voices brought forth into act make rays, just as other actual things do, and by their rays they work in the elemental world just as other individuals do. And since the differences of voices are innumerable, each voice, actually uttered, has its own effect upon other elemental things, different from the effect of others; and voices have obtained their effect from the celestial harmony, just as herbs and other things do, and likewise they produce a quality of effect very diverse in diverse cases.
For some voices strengthen the operation of Saturn, others that of Jupiter, others of Mars, others of the Sun, others of Venus, others of Mercury, others of the Moon. Likewise, some agree in effect with certain images of the heavens, others with other images; since certain voices when uttered promote the power and works of Aries in the elemental world, others of Taurus, others of Gemini, others of Cancer, others of Leo, others of Virgo, others of Libra, others of Scorpio, others of Sagittarius, others of Capricorn, others of Aquarius, others of Pisces, and others of other images depicted in the sphere of the fixed stars. From this it happens that some voices, when uttered under one constellation and lordship, have their effect, and others under another.
Likewise, some voices have an effect upon fire, others upon air, others upon water, others upon earth. Likewise, some voices, when uttered, have effect upon animals, others upon trees. Likewise, some have effect upon one species of animal or tree, others upon another. Likewise, some voices have power over one genus of accident, others over another.
Likewise, some voices have power at one time, others at another. Likewise, some have power in one place, others in another. Likewise, some have effect by themselves, others only when uttered together with other things. Likewise, some have one effect when uttered in one manner, others in another manner. Likewise, some have effect only if uttered once, others not unless many times; likewise some by themselves, others not unless with some work.
And in many other ways voices differ in their effects; but all their powers are attributed to the celestial harmony, which dispenses the things of the elemental world according to its diversity.
For an effect to be obtained, there is always required the intention of the speaker along with the imagination of the form which, through the utterance of the voice, he desires to come into the matter actually.
After this it must be known that although all voices existing in act signify the whole universe of things, nevertheless some signify certain things more expressly than others and this is plainly discovered in some cases.
Of things that signify, some signify naturally, namely according to the requirement of the complexion of the speaker, as do the voices of birds and brute animals. Such voices indeed, although they have effect like others through their rays, nevertheless their effect is not known by humans through sense except insofar as, when actually uttered, they excite the mind of another bird or animal hearing them to comprehend something. For it is known that one brute animal calls another, and that they express pain and joy by certain voices which they emit. Such voices also always and everywhere have similar effects, unless they are impeded by disobedience. Therefore we do not discuss such voices here.
But there are other voices that signify things by human imposition, although these too receive signification from the harmonic disposition. For since a human being has his substance and all his accidents from that same harmony in this place and in this time, he also has from the same harmony the disposition of calling a man by this name and an ass by that one, and so for other things, in this place and in this time. And because human beings of diverse places and times are formed with diverse qualities in their governing unities, they have, according to the requirement of their complexion, assumed diverse voices to signify things.
Therefore from the harmony first and through it from the human complexion there descends such an imposition of a voice to signify such a thing. But a voice made significative through human imposition and custom, once brought to signify some property, receives from this a property which it did not have before it became significative. From this it follows that it emits rays of another mode when it is actually uttered than it would emit if it remained without signification, as far as humans are concerned. Hence it happens that it introduces into matter another motion than it would previously have introduced.
Yet this must be noted: every voice brought into act has its own proper signification committed to it by the harmony, which it does not change so long as the same voice remains; and this is forever just as the species of herbs have their own proper virtues granted by the same harmony, which they do not lose so long as the species endure. But voices thus having their proper significations from the harmony vary them in effect according to the variation of their nature and of the matter which they signify. Hence it happens that the rays they emit when actually uttered sometimes produce motions in matter, sometimes not; and sometimes a greater motion, sometimes a lesser according to the diversity of their nature and of the matter which suffers from the voice when it is uttered.
Thus every voice that signifies by human imposition also signifies by the imposition of the harmony though most often it signifies something else, or in another way, by the one than by the other.
But when in one voice there concur both the imposition of signification made by the harmony and that made by human beings, the power of the signification of that voice is doubled. For if the name homo (“man”) had, from the harmonic disposition, the signification of man in the way it has it from the imposition of Latin speakers, it would operate by its rays in matter, when uttered, with a double power namely natural and accidental and thus it would rise more strongly into effect; and the same holds for all other names.
Such a concurrence of significations comes about sometimes by chance (according to the opinion of the common people), and sometimes by definite human reason. For certain men, searching out the secrets of nature both higher and lower, and comprehending the celestial disposition, have comprehended many hidden things in the elemental world; hence they have often investigated, by the celestial motion, the names of thieves and adulterers and others which they wished to know by an art which they discovered in this wondrous inquiry and by it they found forms of voices and names effective for producing motion in things.
There were also other men endowed with so happy a complexion that the natural efficacy of certain names came to their knowledge by reason or by intellect more often in dreams, sometimes also in waking since their good complexion directed their knowing. Many also hold the opinion that incorporeal substances reveal to human beings many things that become known neither by sense nor by reason founded upon sense.
And by chance too the powers of certain words come into the knowledge of some, who, when they try many things, happen upon something among the things tried; and as often happens, he who has not seen an instance in particulars believes, from what is found by experiment, that it always happens universally.
However the forms of words have come into knowledge together with the power attributed to them: if they are uttered in due places and times, with exact intention and with solemnity, they produce motions and impediments of motions in suitable matter, through the rays that go out from the uttered words into matter capable of suffering from them by its nature. And thus there are produced feats in the elements, and motions both local and of another kind in individuals, and impediments of motions. Thus are certain animals generated and destroyed, and sometimes driven away, sometimes attracted, and other such things which seem marvelous to the common people.
Of such words, some are significative of things among the people of the place where they are uttered, but others signify nothing according to human imposition. But those that lack signification for the speaker if they obtain the effect intended by the speaker have this from their nature given to them by the harmony, just as a power is implanted in plants by the same.
Significative words are sometimes joined grammatically, sometimes without regard to grammatical art. And those that are joined without rule, if they obtain the intended effect, have it from the harmony, just as non-significative voices do. But those that are joined by grammatical art either make a perfect speech or an imperfect one. If imperfect, their power (if they have any) descends from the harmony, like that of voices not significative by human imposition. But if the words are joined in the manner of a perfect speech, that speech will be either indicative, or imperative, or optative, or deprecative, or supplicatory, or execrative, or showing some other affection of the speaker.
Likewise it is sometimes uttered by chanting psalms, sometimes by singing. Likewise such speech is sometimes composed in meter, sometimes in prose. Likewise it is sometimes uttered straight, sometimes backwards. In all the aforesaid modes there are found certain speeches effective for inducing motion or impediment in some individuals if uttered with exact solemnity; and the aforesaid modes of pronouncing were found in those modes by which we have said the speeches themselves were found.
This too has been discovered by experiment: that sometimes a false indicative speech has an effect just as a true one does. Invocation also of imagined things, which do not have actual existence, sometimes works. Supplication also made to non-existent things often induces motion in things.
For all words, as was said above, when uttered produce some change in every elemental matter; but then a greater one when the intention of the speaker is added, and yet a greater one if a work is done which is required by nature for the effect.
Therefore these things always make motion or impediment in individuals; but then only do human beings care, when motion or impediment is perceived by some sense. For then some good or evil proceeds from that motion or impediment to the one who uses words with such intention. But motions which the utterance of words makes by its rays in individuals if they are not perceptible to sense make no good or evil. Hence such utterance is judged to have no effect, because of the smallness of the effect, which human beings do not attend to.
Every word indeed every voice, significative and non-significative has, from the harmony, its own matter upon which it works when uttered with due solemnity, as was said. So much so, indeed, that if the intention of the speaker looks to a different matter than the words naturally seek, the utterance of the words remains void as in many cases.
The matter in which words work most properly is air, and substances having very much of aerial nature. For voices are aerial forms; therefore they are more operative in airy matter than in other. Moreover air is more easily impressed than the other elements; therefore voices have more efficacy in aerial bodies and qualities than in the bodies and qualities of other elements although in these too some words obtain an effect.
From this cause it is that certain words, rightly uttered, change the senses of animals, and especially of human beings. For the spirit of man is of aerial nature; hence it easily receives alteration by words, as also from other causes. And from this it is that by the utterance of certain words images appear in a consecrated mirror; and this too is why voices are sometimes heard that have not been uttered by a man. From this also it is that, at the utterance of certain words, in a man adjured, foreign images are formed in imagination and reason and memory.
From this also it is that, by the utterance of words, diverse passions are altered in the soul of a man fear, hope, joy, grief and these likewise happen in other animals. The will of man too is altered by the utterance of words so that it desires something which, by the course of natural will, it would not desire. Thus the affection of princes is acquired by the utterance of words; women are kindled to love of certain men; and generally every species of animal power in every species of animal can, by words uttered with due solemnity, be transformed into a foreign motion, and that motion is directed into some manner by the harmony just as it is by the harmony that grants power to those words toward the effect of the intended work.
Therefore the spirit of man, or of some other animal, thus altered, causes in its subject a will to move the limbs by some local motion or other motion which it did not have before and would not have if those words had not been uttered. Words also alter that will itself, as was said.
Hence it is that scorpions are driven from their places by words, and wolves and lions, and mice and flies; and in this way animals and birds are sometimes summoned to some place and await capture. For in all such cases either the natural will follows the motion of the spirits of the enchanted animal which was made by the words, or the will itself has received an alteration in itself, transformed by the words into a new form which it would not have by the natural course.
Although the effect of words is greater and easier in spiritual matter, nevertheless words, uttered with due solemnity, have effect and the property of changing all the elements into certain new forms, and of dulling their natural forms so that they do not do what they would do in the usual course.
For the earth, although naturally cold, is heated by the force of words and retains heat. Water too, which by its nature permits heavy bodies to be received within it, is deprived of that nature by the force of certain words, so that iron floats upon the waters. Air too, by words, ceases from blowing and from generating rain. Fire also ceases from burning by words, even when combustible things are applied to it.
From this it comes that heavy bodies are often carried through the air beyond the usual course of nature; and light bodies by the force of words descend downward. Lightnings and flashes and clouds and darkness and other accidents of the elements are produced. But in all these, the rays proceeding from the voice give to the thing or take from it, by their harmonic property some form which it would otherwise have, as was said; and as appears clearly in the magnet, which deprives iron of the nature of descending to the center when it is applied to it.
Therefore, when words significative by human imposition, joined in the manner of a perfect speech, are uttered, they often obtain from their conjunction an effect by their rays which they do not have when uttered separately just as herbs compounded in a compound acquire by the composition an effect which they do not have when separate, especially when the desire of the speaker lends aid.
Among all the kinds of speech, however, the optative has more efficacy, as being that which signifies desire by its meaning and proceeds from desire in its natural existence; and therefore its rays work motion in suitable matter more effectively than the rays of other kinds.
For the desire of man is in the heart, which is the center from which all voluntary operations proceed; and this center has its centric nature in some manner conformed to the center of the world. For the individual man, individualized by his complexion, arises conformed to the world, since every part of the world works toward his individuation. Hence the center of the world, in its manner, produces centricity in every individual man indeed in every animal. Therefore the center of man governs him in his motions, as the center of the world in its manner governs the world in its motions; and from this it is that rays proceeding from the property of the center of man namely his desire are more powerful in producing motion in suitable matter than rays proceeding from other parts of the individual man or from their properties.
And it must be known that the desire of one man is naturally more powerful in making motions outwardly than that of another, since the complexion of each limits the quantity and quality of his power, even where equally intense wills and desires are found in different persons. Moreover, even where desires are equal by nature of complexion, if the desire of one rises into act more intensely than another’s then the one that is more intense contains greater efficacy in making outward motions.
And when someone’s desire is so intense that it induces other works which are necessary for the effect, together with the utterance of words the rays of that same desire assume a consummating power, so that in externally placed things and chiefly in aerial bodies motions are made now greater, now lesser, according as place and time and other circumstances promote the effect of that desire: since the celestial harmony makes all things in the elemental matter, here acting, there suffering, by the formative power of that same harmony.
Therefore, speaking more perfectly of supplication and adjuration, we say that men, using sense and thereby attaining the use of reason, recognized that certain things in this world exist as causes of other things, and they perceived sensibly that there are causes of causes in many things. Hence, by the guidance of reason inferring from the sensible condition of things known by sense they conjectured that the supreme cause of things exists. And scrutinizing its condition by reason (since they could not by sense), trying to exalt it above every condition made known to them by sense, and with intellect failing, they established it by reason.
Therefore they judged names suitable to sensible things to be wholly unsuitable to that supreme cause, thinking it impossible that it be named by any proper name. Yet, in order that some discourse about it might exist among men, they accommodated certain names that properly belong to sensible things though wholly improper to it calling it the cause of causes, the god of gods, the lord of lords, the first principle, god, creator, and many other names signifying majesty and preeminence. Yet it would be more suitably designated by negations: that it is infinite, uncreated, immortal, impassible, and other names of this kind although even so it is named equivocally with all other things.
Therefore names assumed by human imposition to signify it, though improperly, nevertheless have some effect when actually uttered, just as other names imposed on things do. For they change matter by their rays, and are the more efficacious in moving insofar as the mind of the speaker believes and intends that it names something greater.
Hence supplications and prayers are made by men to God understood in the manner said by the wise, and contemplated by the common people through the doctrine or imagination of the wise so that almost all men who use sense and reason believe that prayers made to God in customary words profit themselves and others. Therefore a solemn custom has grown up among men of worshipping and supplicating God for goods and evils these to be obtained, those to be driven away and such prayers are often effective in result, often without effect.
The effect follows when place and time and other circumstances lend aid; it fails when something is lacking which is necessarily required for prayers to obtain effect. Hence prayers offered by men to God, when they lack intense desire and an earnest intention of obtaining, are found to be said in vain, since what is intended is not obtained, insofar as it can be known by sense although even these do something, provided that the speaker’s intention lends some aid.
For such words, like all others, when uttered in act with some intention, make a change in matter by their rays illuminating that matter, though they do not perfect what is desired. Even when supplications are uttered to God by men who have attained no knowledge of God, provided that desire of obtaining is present and hope or faith of obtaining, the words so spoken have their effect even if the one who speaks with will to obtain has no faith about God. For no man can know God; but such ignorance in the speaker does not impede the effect of motion upon matter, provided the speaker’s wish is present, together with the other solemnity that is required by the harmonic dispensation.
Therefore prayers and supplications are to be made by men concerning contingent cases, with devout minds and intense desire; for they will not lack effect although as to the very case for which they are made, sometimes they do not avail. Yet they profit in some way for us, to whom ignorance of causes produces the opinion of contingency regarding things which, according to the order of causes, arise of necessity within which order it is established that this or that should happen through prayers along with other causes.
Therefore prayers to God are necessary to men for obtaining good and avoiding evil, because of their ignorance concerning the order of the harmony, in which it is often disposed thus: that a thing does not happen unless prayers, together with other causes, work the effect of the thing in the elemental world.
But this must not be thought of God that he who is wholly immobile is moved in any way by the prayers of men, however great the desire with which they are uttered. Rather, once God is prayed to, elemental matter is moved by the prayers (if we speak physically), which by the celestial disposition first and chiefly receives such a motion so that we may state simply the effect of the metaphysical cause. Therefore, when supplications are made to God by men of devout mind and inclined desire, with due solemnity, for inducing some motion in subjected matter, the desired effect follows, the harmony first procuring all things in all things.
Nor are supplications directed only to God, but also to spirits, which some men believe to exist, though their existence is not perceptible to human senses. For many believe angels to be incorporeal substances having power to make motions in elemental things. Men also believe those freed from the body to retain spiritual existence and sometimes to make motions in this world, and to be induced to do so by the affectionate prayers of men.
But there are others whose knowledge and faith are derived from sense alone, and therefore they do not believe in a nature of spirits existing in any manner that can come to human knowledge. What motions and images occur in air or in another element or in an elementate things not usually produced by the commonly known course of nature are not from the operation of spirits, but only from the condition of the celestial harmony disposing the matter to receive such motions and such images through the actions of other corporeal things moving that matter to the likeness of the harmony, such as prayers and names and certain other things, such as herbs and gems.
Whatever the faith of the one who supplicates regarding these matters, the effect follows provided he pronounces with the highest desire and with the due solemnity of work or other motion. And this has been said concerning supplication, which is a deprecative speech directed to an operative power for drawing forth motion in some matter assumed in the thought of the speaker.
But adjuration is a deprecative speech directed to the matter of motion, setting forth the condition both of the operative power and of the matter itself. For adjurations are made by the works of God and of spirits either true or supposed which either have been done or are thought to have been done. Likewise adjuration is made by the passions which the subjected matter has, or has had, or is thought to have, or to have had: as when water is conjured by its liquidity and by the passion of solidity which it once had in some place, according to the relation of history.
But it matters little for obtaining an effect of motion whether the operations and passions by which the adjuration is made are or are not, were or were not provided there is intense desire in the adjurer with due solemnity. For false speeches sometimes have an effect of motion in matter by celestial largess, just as true ones do.
Execrative speech is the laying-on of evils by words upon the matter of motion, in a manner of speaking either optative or imperative or supplicatory; and some such speeches have an effect of motion if performed with exact solemnity.
Interrogative speeches and declarative speeches of praise or blame are sometimes found to have effect through the desire of the one intending, but they are not so effective in most cases as supplicatory and conjuring speeches.
Moreover, the manner of speaking sometimes works toward the effect. For often what is pronounced by singing or psalmody works an effect which it will lack if it is uttered uniformly; and this diversity like the others is wrought by the celestial dispensation which works all things in all things by its formative power.
Therefore concerning words significative by human imposition, let this suffice for the present adding that there are certain names which have received no signification from human imposition, yet when uttered with intention are found to have great effect. And among these, some are considered names of God, others of spirits, or of stars, or of signs.
Names of God are attributed to him by men because, in their natural existence, they have a respect toward God not that they define God (for that is impossible for any particular thing), but because they contain, in their natural signification, a sign of his majesty more express and more than other names, in a manner befitting voices. And therefore such names are more efficacious in effect, the celestial harmony producing them in their active properties with respect to supreme majesty.
In like manner names are formed in the elemental world by harmonic operation, conformable in power to spirits and to the individual stars and signs, each singly. Hence when they are uttered with intention and due solemnity, they work in matter what spirits and signs and stars comparable to them by nature have to work. For one works through another in such matters, since the operation of the higher is the operative cause of the comparable name, with the tempering of all the other celestial bodies.
And as spirits and stars and signs differ in many ways in nature and work, so names have received from them diverse nature in essence and in working motion in elemental matter, through the rays they emit upon elemental things when they are uttered with intention and in due solemnity. And knowledge of certain such names was attained by certain ancient sages, who by their utterance and power, with due solemnity, performed many marvels indeed they procured by their work a suitability in celestial and elemental nature.
And let these things said about the power of words suffice.
Chapter 7. On Figures
Manual operation sets elemental things in order for producing an effect of motion. For by many repeated experiments the sages have proved that figures and characters, engraved by human workmanship in diverse materials, with intention and due solemnity of place and time and other circumstances, have had an effect of motion upon external things. And this is because every actual figure indeed every form impressed in elemental matter begets rays which work certain motions in other things, as has been said above. And each figure has its own nature and virtue different from another, just as their forms are diverse.
Wherefore there are certain characters having power and virtue over fire, others over air, others over water, others over earth; some also in the east, others in the west, others in the south, others in the north; some in what is high, others in what is deep; some in the species of man, others in other species of animals; some in herbs and shrubs of this species, others in herbs and shrubs of another species. Certain characters also, engraved with due solemnity, strengthen the operation of Saturn, others that of other planets, others that of the fixed stars. Likewise some agree in effect with Aries, others with other signs. And all this diversity, concerning figures in power and effect, is wrought by the celestial harmony, assigning to each its own virtue of producing motions in bodies placed outside, by the rays which it emits, of diverse effect according to the diversity of the figures in their forms just as was said above concerning voices.
Therefore every figure of a body works by its rays some motion of some kind in other bodies; yet that figure has chiefly such an effect which proceeds into act by the will and work of man, through the intention of making some motion, with its proper place and time and other circumstances applied, according to the requirement of the demonstration of the harmony.
Hence, by the sages who have perceived the secrets of both natures, certain characters have been found which, engraved with due solemnity, bring an effect in driving away or in inducing diseases in men or other animals. Likewise certain characters are such that, made in suitable matter and with due solemnity, by their rays they drive away wolves or serpents or flies from places near or far. And it has been found which character has which effect, and what solemnity is to be applied in making a character of any figure: in some cases by celestial disposition showing it; in some by the industry of the student finding it; in some by revelation of spirits, both in dreams and in waking; and in some by casual experience just as was said above concerning the effect of words.
Chapter 8. On Images
Images also are made of men and of animals of diverse species, with observation of place and time and other solemnities; and when these are brought solemnly into actual existence by human work intending some “theme,” they obtain an effect of motion in things namely of promotion or prohibition the celestial harmony informing an image so made in its virtue through the projection of its rays.
And the image, after the likeness of that which it represents, casts its rays into elemental things and moves them in some manner by the power of its rays which it has received from the harmony. And the species of images require diverse materials according as they are made under diverse constellations, and likewise diverse solemnities of operation. Knowledge of all these proceeds from knowledge of the nature of the stars and of the nature of matter concordant or discordant with the property of the constellation, and from knowledge of the power of words and works which are required, together with the intention of the operator, in the formation of the image.
Thus consecrated images, made by men who know these secrets of nature, endure, retaining the effect of motion, as has appeared clearly in many cases. But an image of an animal because it is a likeness of an animal which has a center and a governing unity approaching more nearly to equality, like the world is more apt to receive virtue through words and works exhibited by a man in its formation, intending the effect of some theme, with will and sufficient desire, than are the species of things which have a center and a governing unity far removed from equality. For these bear in themselves and in their rays a greater likeness to the world which is of perfect equality than those do.
Customary works of men induce customary passions in bodily things, and unusual works introduce unusual passions into things. For by habit worldly matter is disposed to receive customary forms through customary actions.
But actions done beyond the customary do not find matter accustomed to them. Wherefore it is necessary that strange forms be produced by such actions. Hence it is that the backward utterance of words produces in some matter an unusual form and motion; and likewise the twisting back of a spinner causes a motion which ordinary twisting does not cause and the same is in all human works done against custom with the intention of inducing some kind of motion in imaginative matter.
Yet not whatever is intended by such works proceeds at once into act, but only when at length such a power is inserted into that work by the celestial harmony. When and how that comes about in certain cases has been discovered by the sages by one of the modes aforesaid.
Chapter 9. On Sacrifices
Among the manual works of men, sacrifices are found to have greater efficacy and power for inducing motions in the elements and elemental things those sacrifices by which certain individuals are destroyed from actual existence into non-being. And the more the things which are destroyed into non-being by human action approach an equal temperament, the more that work is found (most often) to have a greater effect. Hence the killing of an animal, with the intention of the killer and the other solemnities, works more effectively than other sacrifices toward what is intended which seems to have a natural reason.
For every animal has a center and a governing unity and a temperament proportioned in its parts, whereby it is made like the whole elemental world, which has a center and a governing unity and a temperament proportioned in its parts such as it receives from the celestial harmony producing the world so; and likewise that same harmony produces every animal in all its condition. Hence it is that while an animal lives, that animal informs the parts of the elemental world by its rays and in its way acts upon them as upon matter. But when it dies naturally, its death does not change the world except according as universal nature shows in its course. Yet when it dies by the action of man, against nature’s course, the matter of the world incurs a change contrary to nature; and for this reason matter, thus altered, is made fit in some part of itself to receive a motion and form which, by its own natural course, it ought not to receive. Therefore the imagination of man, and his intention and desire, concurring with the work of the animal’s killing, obtains the effect of the “theme,” when exact solemnity is applied.
For the imagination of man and his intention toward moving and informing matter, together with outward work, have power, because they arise in man who is called the lesser world by reason of a center and a tempered governing unity and a universality of things contained in the place of imagination, whereby he is like the whole world in power and effect. And when a sacrifice is applied by man, that power is doubled, for the cause stated.
Therefore sudden motions occur both in the elements and in elemental bodies, both animate and inanimate through sacrifices of animals duly performed with the proper solemnity, with intention and desire to bring the theme into act, the celestial harmony dispensing the effect of the work, as has been often said. And one species of animal, in some theme, is more efficacious for inducing motion than another, if it be sacrificed; and this proceeds from the celestial cause, which those know who by long study or in some other way have attained the knowledge of nature’s secrets.
Other sacrifices also are performed by men intending to induce motions and forms in some underlying matter, different from the aforesaid. For the flesh of animals is burned in fire; incense and other kinds are consumed by fire under the name of sacrifice. And because it has been found by sages to avail toward the effect of some theme, such sacrifices are made by men intending the effect of the desired theme. Yet sacrifices of this kind do not, by their nature, have the efficacy which the killing of an animal has, because the things offered in such sacrifice do not have so much likeness to the world as animals have, since they are farther from an equal temperament. Hence their destruction by fire or otherwise by man does not move worldly matter so much as does the destruction of an animal by man unless perhaps the addition of certain words and something else increases the effect, which happens in many cases.
Men, however, who have the belief that spirits have being in their own manner and produce motions and forms in elemental matter, believe that those spirits are induced by sacrifices to do what the intention of the sacrificer desires. Therefore, for the honor and appeasement of spirits as though they have power, they offer sacrifices, hoping and believing that by their aid evil is excluded and good procured according to the kind of theme intended. Yet this opinion, as was said above, does not arise in the soul of man from the natural root of sense, and therefore whether it is erroneous is unknown to every man. But the falsity of the opinion does not hinder the effect in the work of the sacrificer, provided that the sacrifice has received from the celestial harmony the virtue of doing what is intended just as a herb applied to a wound is not hindered from its natural effect even if the one who applies it does not believe it will avail.
To God also sacrifices of diverse kinds are offered by men who believe that He is appeased by sacrifices and made favorable so as to grant good things and drive away evils. But even if this opinion does not contain the truth, the sacrifice nevertheless avails toward the effect of the theme intended, by reason of its nature and the property of its rays which it has received from the celestial cause, if it be offered with due solemnity just as very many sages have proved by experiments.
It is also good to know that the star and the sign holding dominion in the celestial harmony at the beginning of any voluntary work govern that work until its end. Hence, if they are fortunes, they preserve that work from hindrance; but if they are infortunes, they entangle that work in hindrance.
And since each star and each sign has its own proper names and its characters conformable to it in power and effect, as has been said, the utterance of names is necessary at the beginning of any voluntary work. If they agree with the star or sign, they naturally direct the work; but if they disagree, they pervert the work.
Likewise the forming of figures at the beginning of any voluntary work is useful for speeding it or hindering it, according as those figures agree with the stars then ruling and the signs, or disagree. But which names and which characters agree with which works or do not agree is known by one of the modes aforesaid in such matters.
From this it is manifest that prayers and supplications and adjurations made with significant voices according to human choice, with will and desire at the beginning of any voluntary work, avail for directing that work or, if an imprecation is made, for hindering the work. For such words change the matter of the work either always or more often namely, when they agree with the constellation of that time in which they are uttered, or when they disagree.
Likewise sacrifice at the beginning of any voluntary work, duly performed, has great efficacy in rectifying or distorting that same work, provided it is performed in the necessary place and time and other circumstances.
The ancient physicians, knowing the said power of words and figures, gathered all herbs which they plucked to make medicines with the aforesaid incantations or the forming of figures, or both together, thinking that the strength and virtue of the herbs to drive away diseases would thereby be increased.
And this indeed is not doubtful to be true for those who have knowledge of the secrets of celestial and elemental nature.
Here ends the theory of the magical art. Here ends Al-Kindi on the rays of the stars.