Cause Principle Unity

On magic
While bronze is more similar to gold and is closer to the distinctive properties
of gold than are the ashes of bronze, still, in a transmutation, these
ashes of bronze are closer to the form of gold than is bronze. Likewise, we
see that all seeds, which are oriented to producing a particular species, happen
to be rather alike as though they were of the same, and not different,
species, since they are similar and distinctive and related. He who believes
otherwise is like someone who thinks that an ape can be changed into a
human more easily than the seed, implanted in a woman, which previously
was food and bread.
Nevertheless, in every production, there must be present a similarity and
a form of the same species. Just as a house or a garment results from a model
in the maker’s mind in the case of artefacts, likewise, in the productions of
nature, a species of things is generated and defined by the exemplar, which
is distinctive of the matter which generates the form. For example, we see the
same types of food, and the same heavens, water and houses reproduced in
substance: a dog into a dog, a human into a human, a cat into a cat. And a dog
generates the same species of dog, and a human the same species of human.
From this, it is clear that the entire cause of the differences is due to an
idea, which is generally present everywhere in nature, and which is later
limited to this or that species, depending on whether one or other species
resembles the idea more. As a result, any magician who wishes to carry out
his work in accordance with nature must especially understand this ideal
principle and how it applies specifically to species, numerically to numbers
and individually to individuals. From this, he formulates an image and the
proportions of the matter so formed, and with good reasons reinforces the
result with the wisdom and power of his magic. Many also bring about
cures and injuries by connecting symbols with particular components or
by appealing to those who communicate with or take part in curing or
destructive forces. In this way, the work of magic is restricted and applied
to a particular individual.
Leaving aside other arguments, it is clear from these experiences that
every soul and spirit has some degree of continuity with the universal
spirit, which is recognized to be located not only where the individual soul
lives and perceives, but also to be spread out everywhere in its essence and
substance, as many Platonists and Pythagoreans have taught. As a result,
vision grasps the most distant things immediately and without motion,
and, indeed, the eye, or some part thereof, extends immediately to the stars
or immediately from the stars to the eye.
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