CHAP. I.
It is now, however, time for me to pass on to the next doubt which you
propose, viz. “_Why it is requisite that the inspector [who presides
over sacred rites] ought not to touch a dead body, though most sacred
operations are performed through dead bodies?_” Again, therefore, that
we may dissolve this doubt, we shall direct our attention to this
apparent opposition; for there is not in reality any, but these things
_alone seem_ to subsist contrarily. For if the laws of sacred rites
ordered that the same dead bodies should not be touched and should be
touched, this would be a thing contrary to itself. But if they order
that some dead bodies should be abstained from as impure, but that
others which are consecrated should be touched, this is not attended
with any contrariety. Farther still, it is not lawful to touch human
bodies when the soul has left them, since a certain vestige, image, or
representation of divine life is extinguished in the body by death. But
it is no longer unholy to touch other dead bodies, because they did not
[when living] participate of a more divine life. To other Gods,
therefore, who are pure from matter, our not touching dead bodies is
adapted; but to those Gods who preside over animals, and are proximately
connected with them, invocation through animals is properly made.
According to this, therefore, no contrariety takes place.
CHAP. II.
After another manner, also, this doubt may be dissolved. For in men,
indeed, who are detained in matter, bodies deprived of life produce a
certain stain; because that which is not alive inserts a certain
defilement in that which is living, in the same manner as the impure in
that which is pure, and that which is in privation in that which is in
habit; and also because that which is dead produces a certain pollution,
through a physical aptitude to a worse condition, in consequence of
having possessed the power of dying. But a dead body cannot produce any
defilement in a dæmon who is perfectly incorporeal, and does not receive
any corruption. For it is necessary that he should transcend a
corruptible body, and not participate of any representation of
corruption from it. And thus much in answer to the contrariety of the
doubt.
CHAP. III.
In the next place we shall explain how divination is effected through
sacred animals, such, for instance, as hawks. We must never say,
therefore, that the Gods accede through bodies that are thus procured,
being employed. For they do not preside over animals, either partibly,
or proximately, or materially, or with a certain habitude towards them.
But to dæmons and these such as are very much divided, to different
orders of whom different animals are allotted, and who proximately
exercise a government of this kind, and do not obtain their proper
dominion in a way perfectly independent and immaterial, such a contact
with the organs of divination must be ascribed. Or, if some one is
willing so to admit, a seat must be attributed to them, through which we
may be able to associate with and employ them. It is necessary,
therefore, to think that this seat should be pure from bodies. For there
can be no communion whatever between the pure and its contrary; but it
is reasonable to admit that this seat is conjoined with men, through the
soul of animals. For this soul has a certain alliance to men, through
homogeneity of life; but it is allied to dæmons, because, being
liberated from body, it has in a certain respect a separate subsistence.
Hence, being a medium between both, it is subservient to its presiding
dæmon, but announces to those who are yet detained in body that which
its prefect commands. And it imparts to both these a common bond with
each other.
CHAP. IV.
It is necessary, however, to think that the soul which uses divination
of this kind, not only becomes an auditor of the prediction, but also
contributes in no small degree from itself to the consummation of it,
and of what pertains to its operations. For this soul is coexcited and
cooperates, and at the same time foreknows, through a certain necessary
sympathy. Such a mode, therefore, of divination as this is entirely
different from the divine and true mode, being alone able to predict
respecting small and diurnal concerns, _viz._ respecting such as being
placed in a divided nature, are borne along about generation, and which
impart motions from themselves to those things that are able to receive
them, and produce multiform passions in things which are naturally
adapted to be copassive. Perfect foreknowledge, however, can never be
effected through passion. For that which is itself especially immutable,
immaterial, and entirely pure, is accustomed to apprehend the future;
but that which is mingled with the most irrational and dark nature of a
corporeal-formed and material essence is filled with abundant ignorance.
An artificial apparatus, therefore, of this kind does not deserve to be
called divination; nor is it proper to bestow much attention upon it,
nor to believe in any other person who uses it, as if it possessed in
itself a certain clear and known indication of truth. And thus much
concerning divination of this kind.
CHAP. V.
Let us, therefore, now discuss another species of doubts, the cause of
which is occult, and which, as you say, is accompanied with “_violent
threats_.” But it is variously divided about the multitude of threats.
“_For it threatens either to burst the heavens, or to unfold the secrets
of Isis, or to point out the arcanum in the adytum,[119] or to stop
Baris, or to scatter the members of Osiris to Typhon, or to do something
else of the like kind._” Men do not, however, as you think, threaten by
such words as these the sun or the moon, or any of the celestial Gods;
for if they did, more dire absurdities would ensue than those which you
lament. But, as we before observed, there is a certain genus of powers
in the world which is partible, inconsiderate, and most irrational, and
which receives reason from another, and is obedient to it; neither
itself employing a proper intelligence, nor distinguishing what is true
and false, or what is possible or impossible. A genus, therefore, of
this kind, when threatenings are extended, is immediately coexcited and
astonished, because, as it appears to me, it is naturally adapted to be
led by representations, and to allure other things, through an astounded
and unstable phantasy.
CHAP. VI.
These things also admit of another explanation of the following kind.
The theurgist, through the power of arcane signatures, commands mundane
natures, no longer as man, nor as employing a human soul; but as
existing superior to them in the order of the Gods, he makes use of
greater mandates than pertain to himself, so far as he is human. This,
however, does not take place as if he effected every thing which he
vehemently threatens to accomplish; but he teaches us by such a use of
words the magnitude and quality of the power which he possesses through
a union with the Gods, and which he obtains from the knowledge of arcane
symbols. This, likewise, may be said, that the dæmons who are
distributed according to parts, and who guard the parts of the universe,
pay so much attention to the parts over which they preside, that they
cannot endure a word contrary [to the safety of these], but they
preserve the permanency of mundane natures immutable. They preserve this
permanency, therefore, in an unchanged condition, because the order of
the Gods remains invariably the same. Hence they cannot endure even to
hear that threatened in which the aerial and terrestrial dæmons have
their existence.
CHAP. VII.
Or this thing may likewise be explained as follows: Dæmons preside with
a guardian power over arcane mysteries, and this in so remarkable a
degree, because the orderly distribution of things in the universe is
primarily contained in dæmons. For the parts of the universe remain in
order, because the beneficent power of Osiris continues sacred and
undefiled, and is not mingled with any opposing error and perturbation.
The life of all things likewise remains pure and incorruptible, because
the occult vivific beauties of the productive principles in Isis do not
descend into body which is born along,[120] and is the object of sight.
But all things continue immoveable and perpetual, because the course of
the sun is never stopped. And all things remain perfect and entire,
because the arcana in the adytum[121] are never disclosed. Hence, in
those particulars in which the whole of things possesses its safety, I
mean in arcana being always preserved occult, and in the ineffable
essence of the Gods, never receiving a contrary condition; in these,
terrestrial dæmons cannot endure, even in words, to hear that they
subsist otherwise than they do, or that they become profaned; and on
this account threatening language has a certain power when employed
against them. No one, however, threatens the Gods, nor is such a mode of
invocation addressed to them. Hence with the Chaldeans, by whom words
used to the Gods alone are preserved distinct and pure, no threats are
employed. But the Egyptians, mingling dæmoniacal words with divine
signatures, sometimes employ threats. You have, therefore, an answer to
these doubts, concise indeed, but I think sufficiently free from error.