16世纪中叶有一位举止古怪的医生,名叫帕拉塞尔苏斯,他在欧洲各地放浪形骸,同时撰写了大量医学、炼金术和占星学书籍。此君傲慢易怒,酗酒贪杯,恶闻不断,都说他嗜好男色,爱吹牛撒谎,是个大骗子。虽然诽谤缠身,他却与伊拉斯谟(Erasmus von Rotterdam)❸这样的大学者有着密切的书信来往,关于魔法和哲学方面的学识,更是无人可与其比肩,近代魔法方士们❹都尊他为伟大先驱。
据说帕拉塞尔苏斯出生时,太阳与天蝎座正处于同一位置,所以他天生就有着高傲好斗的一面。帕拉塞尔苏斯的父亲威廉(卒于 1534 年)相传是一位化学家(也相当于当时的炼金术士)兼医生,是施瓦本贵族家族(Bombast von Hohenheim)的私生子(在一些介绍帕拉塞尔苏斯的文章中帕拉塞尔苏斯的父亲也被形容成一位穷困潦倒的乡村医生,略微了解炼金术)。据说,父亲在为他取名时,用古希腊矿物学者特奥夫拉斯特(Theophrastus)之名为他取了名字。
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A Book on Nymphs, Sylphs, Pygmies, and Salamanders, and on the Other Spirits
在初步了解了帕拉塞尔苏斯的为人、思想模式及中世纪当时的医疗、宗教、科学环境后,让我们再次将视野聚集在“温蒂妮”这一存在上。温蒂妮(Undine,Ondine),这一名字首次出现在帕拉塞尔苏斯的炼金术著作
「
A Book on Nymphs, Sylphs, Pygmies, and Salamanders, and on the Other Spirits」
中。这篇文章据wiki考证,创作于帕拉塞尔苏斯生命的晚期(1493/1494 - 1541),具体撰写年份不详。这篇论文在帕拉塞尔苏斯死后才得以出版,于1556年首次作为单独的印刷品出现,次年则集成于其学术著作一同出版。
他的这些认知和观点集成在
「
A Book on Nymphs, Sylphs, Pygmies, and Salamanders, and on the Other Spirits」
这篇论述中,值得一提的是,如果直接将这篇论文的英文原名丢进机翻中,它会被译
为
《一本关于仙女、精灵、俾格米人、蝾螈和其他精灵/精神的书》,有一说一初看还挺像那么回事的,只有实际查证文献内容的时候,才会发现直译翻出来的巨大问题…
Yet, the Elementals are not spirits, because they have flesh, blood and bones; they live and propagate offspring; they cat and talk, act and sleep, &c., and consequently they cannot be properly called ‘spirits.’ They are beings occupying a place between men and spirits, resembling men and spirits, resembling men and women in their organization and form, and resembling spirits in the rapidity of their locomotion.
(Philosophia Occulta, translated by Franz Hartmann.)
The Nature spirits cannot be destroyed by the grosser elements, such as material fire, earth, air, or water, for they function in a rate of vibration higher than that of earthy substances.
They live in the four elements: t
he Nymphæ in the element of water, the Sylphes in that of the air, the Pigmies in the earth, and the Salamanders in fire
.
They are also called Undinæ, Sylvestres, Gnomi, Vulcani, &c
. Each species moves only in the element to which it belongs, and neither of them can go out of its appropriate element, which is to them as the air is to us, or the water to fishes; and none of them can live in the element belonging to another class. To each elemental being the element in which it lives is transparent, invisible and respirable, as the atmosphere is to ourselves.
(Philosophia Occulta, translated by Franz Hartmann.)
Man lives in the exterior elements and the Elementals live in the interior elements. The latter have dwellings and clothing, manners and customs, languages and governments of their own, in the same sense as the bees have their queens and herds of animals their leaders.”
——Philosophia Occulta, translated by Franz Hartmann.
Salamanders have been seen in the shapes of fiery balls, or tongues of fire, running over the fields or peering in houses.”
(Philosophia Occulta, translated by Franz Hartmann.)