Cause Principle Unity

On magic
This is what alteration, mutation, passion and even corruption are: namely,
the separation of certain parts from others, and their recombination with
still others. For death is nothing more than such a disintegration. No spirit
and no body ever perishes; rather, there is only a continual change of
combinations and actualizations.
Parallel to the various actualizations, which arise from the various compositions
of things, there are various loves and hates. As was said, everything
desires to remain in its present state of existence and does not comprehend,
or even think about, any other new state of being. Therefore, there is, in
general, a bonding of reciprocal love of a soul for its own body, and of that
body (in its own way) for its soul. Thus, the diversity of natures and drives
gives rise to a variety of bonds which affect both spirits and bodies. We will
discuss these bonds immediately after we have first defined the analogy
between spirits and composites.
On the analogy of spirits
Porphyry, Plotinus and the other Platonists assign bodies to spirits as follows.
The best and purest spirits, which are also called ‘gods’, have bodies
of fire, which is the purest and simplest substance. The spirits which have
denser elementary bodies exist only by sharing in a more subtle element.
Thus, airy spirits have bodies mixed with air and fire; aqueous spirits have
bodies mixed with air and fire; terrestrial spirits have bodies mixed with
water, air and fire. These substances are invisible because of their thinness.
Furthermore, terrestrial and aqueous spirits sometimes choose to make
themselves visible by means of dense and concrete vapours, and they
appear in the purer regions, where the air is more calm and quiet.
I, myself, have seen them at Mount Libero and at Mount Lauro. And
they have appeared not just to me, but frequently to the local inhabitants
to whom they are sometimes hostile (but only moderately so), by stealing
and hiding the local animals, which they later return in a few days to their
stables.
It is well-known and widely accepted as true that these spirits have
also frequently appeared to workers in gold mines and in other underground
places, for example, in the mountains of Gebenna. These spirits
sometimes harmed them, sometimes helped them and sometimes predicted
events. This same type of spirit is found near Nola in a desolate place
near the temple of Portus, and under a certain cliff at the foot of Mount
126