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On magic<br />
apprehends all things, however diverse and distant, which are around it<br />
outside of its body. This is a sign that the soul is not included in the body<br />
as its first act and substance, 6 and that it is not circumscribed by the body.<br />
Rather, in itself and by itself, it should be understood only as a second act.<br />
This principle is the cause of innumerable marvellous effects, although its<br />
nature and power need to be investigated. This soul and divine substance<br />
cannot be inferior to the accidents which issue from it as its effects, traces<br />
and shadows. I declare that if the voice operates outside the body which<br />
produces it, and enters as a whole into innumerable ears on all sides, then<br />
why cannot the whole substance, which produces the voice which is tied to<br />
certain organs of the body, be located in different places and parts?<br />
Furthermore, it must be noted that occult intelligence is not heard or<br />
understood in all languages. For the voices spoken by humans are not heard<br />
in the same way as the voices of nature. As a result, poetry, especially of the<br />
tragic type (as Plotinus says), has a very great effect on the wavering<br />
thoughts of the soul.<br />
Likewise, not all writings have the same impact as those markings which<br />
signify things by the particular way in which they are drawn and configured.<br />
Thus, when certain symbols are arranged in different ways, they represent<br />
different things: in a circle, the attraction of love; when opposed, the<br />
descent into hate and separation; when brief, defective and broken, they<br />
point to destruction; when knotted, to bondage; when strung out, to dissolution.<br />
Furthermore, these symbols do not have a fixed and definite<br />
form. Rather, each person, by the dictate of his own inspiration or by the<br />
impulse of his own spirit, determines his own reactions of desiring or<br />
rejecting something. And thus, he characterizes for himself each symbol<br />
according to his own impulse, and as the divine spirit personally exerts certain<br />
powers which are not expressed in any explicit language, speech, or<br />
writing.<br />
Such were the figures, so well designed by the Egyptians, which are<br />
called hieroglyphics or sacred symbols. These were specific images selected<br />
from natural objects and their parts to designate individual things. The<br />
Egyptians used these symbols and sounds to converse with the gods to<br />
accomplish extraordinary results. Later, when Theuth, 7 or someone else,<br />
invented the letters of the type we use today for other purposes, this<br />
6 This sentence is an explicit rejection of Aristotle’s definition of the soul in De anima, II, 1<br />
(412.a.28–30).<br />
7 See Plato, Phaedrus, 274 c–e, for an account of this legend about the origins of written language.<br />
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