Paracelsus And The Guardians Of The Human Race

It’s sometimes said that walking amongst us are Guardians of the Human Race. These individuals are serving, seeking, searching and experiencing – but with self made rules and standards. Robert Browning wrote of Paracelsus:

“Such men are even now upon the earth,
Serene amid the half-formed creatures round.
For men begin to pass their nature’s bound,
And find new hopes and cares which fast supplant
Their proper joys and grief; they grow too great
For narrow creeds of right and wrong.”

As for Paracelsus himself Wikipedia describes him thus:

“Paracelsus (born Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim, 11 November or 17 December 1493 – 24 September 1541) was a German-Swiss Renaissance physician, botanist, alchemist, astrologer, and general occultist. He founded the discipline of toxicology. He is also known as a revolutionary for insisting upon using observations of nature, rather than looking to ancient texts, in open and radical defiance of medical practice of his day. He is also credited for giving zinc its name, calling it zincum, and for the terms “gas”, “chemistry” and “alcohol”. Modern psychology also credits him for being the first to note that some diseases are rooted in psychological illness.”

As an aside, it’s interesting the knowledge that JK Rowling had of magic and alchemists. Paracelsus appears as a bust placed in the halls of Hogwarts and is also included as a card in the Harry Potter Packets of Chocolate Frog candy.

Here are 10 Quotes from Paracelsus:

Life is like music, it must be composed by ear, feeling and instinct, not by rule. Nevertheless one had better know the rules, for they sometimes guide in doubtful cases, though not often.

Thoughts are free and subject to no rule. On them rests the freedom of man, and they tower above the light of nature … create a new heaven, a new firmament, a new source of energy from which new arts flow.

He who knows nothing, loves nothing. He who can do nothing understands nothing. He who understands nothing is worthless. But he who understands also loves, notices, sees … The more knowledge is inherent in a thing, the greater the love.… Anyone who imagines that all fruits ripen at the same time as the strawberries knows nothing about grapes.

Be not another, if you can be yourself.

The dreams which reveal the supernatural are promises and messages that God sends us directly: they are nothing but His angels, His ministering spirits , who usually appear to us when we are in a great predicament.

A mortal lives not through that breath that flows in and that flows out. The source of his life is another and this causes the breath to flow.

All things are poisons, for there is nothing without poisonous qualities. It is only the dose which makes a thing poison.

Man is a microcosm, or a little world, because he is an extract from all the stars and planets of the whole firmament, from the earth and the elements; and so he is their quintessence.

Thoughts create a new heaven, a new firmament, a new source of energy, from which new arts flow.

Once a disease has entered the body, all parts which are healthy must fight it: not one alone, but all. Because a disease might mean their common death. Nature knows this; and Nature attacks the disease with whatever help she can muster. 

I guess the lesson from Paracelsus is that we should dare to think for ourselves and not follow the well trodden path to sameness and mediocrity.

Other Random Posts:
The Handed Down 30 Pearls Of Wisdom
Words Of Immortality And The Big Bang
An Ode To Coincidence Via The Lord of The Rings

Source: http://www.67notout.com/2013/10/paracelsus-and-guardians-of-human-race.html