English Translation

23a Paracelsus has taken a position on almost all human aspects of life. He demands a right that is rooted in the people and born of the living order of life, and he takes a stand against celibacy in harsh and harsh words. Marriage, too, is a law of nature, also part of the divine order of the world. "The fruit of your body is blessed, not your virginity. "In marriage the longing for the wholeness is fulfilled, before motherhood we have to bow in reverence. He makes a front against Judaism, knowing well that a foreign culture and spirit harms one's own people, and out of the knowledge that only the bond to the ground is fruitful. But where does the Jew have the homeland? What helped Paracelsus to achieve his great salvation was the knowledge of the intimate interweaving of man with nature and cosmos. The rhythm of life of the universe and the rhythm of man's life run in parallel, also man is, like the whole living nature, classified into the year-time event, also he has his seasons, in vernacular and transferable meaning. Therefore, every illness must also be treated for himself, for every illness comes to a unique cha- racter. Every generalization in the treatment of the sick rejects the great physician. The psychic forces, the human relations between the doctor and the sick and the will to heal are of decisive influence. But not only body structure, shape and appearance, but also the environment — and not only the earthly, also the cosmic environment — into which the sick person is placed, is of crucial importance for the knowledge of the disease and the healing process. Paracelsus even goes so far as to seek the origin of the illness primarily in the spiritual Seelian. For him, however, love had been the best guide to the sick heart and thus also to its recovery. Until death, Paracelsus remained a lonelier. He always believed that one could commit the little spirits through generosity and kindness, but it was only a faith. Silenced, he expressed his suffering within himself. Willfully and humbly, he surrendered to his fate. Yes, he loved it because it was in harmony with the laws of life, for becoming and passing away as the great law of nature also applies to man. The eternal cosmic order, that all things have their harvest and autumn at their time, is also fulfilled in him. Man takes leave only when his work is completed. "No one dies before the time of his fruit." That was his faith. And yet, although his life was solitude, struggle and desire, Paracelsus loved life with all the power of his great heart. He stood in the middle of life, confessing himself to this beautiful blossoming earth, he said to life despite all suffering. Also Paracelsus was a child of his time, could not free himself from the many superstitions. But he also inserted the magic and cabalistics, astrology and alchemy into his great system of order. Paracellsus has always been whole, even in his contradictions. He lived and suffered in his science and with the people of his century. 30