MAGNETISM AND MAGIC. 355
abysmal depth from which there will then arise and present itself the virgin will, which was never the slave of anything belonging to degenerate man; on the contrary, it stands in connection with the Almighty Power, quite free and pure, and will infallibly produce fruits and results quite similar to those of the divine will . . . wherefrom the burning oil of the Holy Ghost flows up in Magic, as it emits its fiery sparks."
Jacob Böhme too 1 speaks of Magic precisely in the sense here described. Among other things he says: "Magic is the mother of the essence of all beings: for it creates itself and is understood in desire … True Magic is not a being, but the desiring spirit of the being … In fine: Magic is action in the will's spirit."
In corroboration, or at any rate in explanation, of the above view of the will as the real agent in magic, a curious and interesting anecdote, related by Campanella, from Avicenna, may here find its place. 2 "Mulieres quaedam condixerunt, ut irent animi gratia in viridarium. Una earum non ivit. Ceterae colludentes arangium acceperunt et perforabant eum stilis acutis, dicentes: ita perforamus mulierem talem, quae nobiscum venire detrectavit, et, projecto arangio intra fontem, abierunt. Postmodum mulierem illam dolentem invenerunt, quod se transfigi quasi clavis acutis sentiret, ab ea hora, qua arangium ceterae perforarunt: et cruciata est valde donec arangii, elavos extraxerunt imprecantes bona et salutem." [Some women had arranged to go to a pleasure garden for a change. One of them did not come. The others in jest took an orange and pierced it with sharp needles and said: "Thus we pierce the woman who has refused to come with us"; whereupon they threw the orange into a well and went off. They then found the woman in pain, because she had the feeling as if she were being pierced by sharp nails from the very hour when the others had pierced the orange. She was in great pain until the others had extracted the needles from the orange, wishing her good health and all good things.]
Krusenstern 3 gives a very curious and minute description of maleficent sorcery as practised,
1 J. Böhme, Erklärung von sechs Punkten [Explanation of six points], under Punkt v.
2 Campanella, De sensu rerum et magia, Lib. iv. c. 18.
3 Krusenstern's words are: "A universal belief in witchcraft, which is held to be very important by all islanders, seems to me to be connected with their religion; for they assert that the priests alone possess magic power, although some of the common people also, it is said, profess to have the secret, probably in order to make themselves feared, and to exact gifts.
