Prophecies of Paracelsus

THEOPHRASTUS BAUMBAST VON HOHENHEIM, commonly known as Paracelsus, the famous Swiss Physician, Alchemist and Occultist of the sixteenth century, was born on the 10th November, 1493, at Sihlbrücke, near Einsiedeln, Canton Schwyz, and died on the 24th September, 1541, at Salzburg.

Contemporary with Charles V, Luther, Erasmus, and Cornelius Agrippa, Paracelsus stands out as an extraordinary character that has been for a long time misunderstood by the majority of the learned and unlearned alike.

Living in the age of the Reformation, siding neither with Catholic nor Protestant, he distinguished himself as a free lance in Medical Science and Occult Philosophy, and would have been known as a Mystic had his religious writings not been so carefully suppressed as to be altogether forgotten. Paracelsus then claims our attention as Alchemist, Physician, Occultist, Mystic, Astrologer and lastly as Prophet, and it is in this last capacity that we shall regard him, as we are about to study and thereby rescue from oblivion those at one time famous predictions, of which some have been remarkably accomplished,, while others may be considered to be still in actual course of fulfilment.

Excerpt:

'THE world, as the Eddas say, is ruled by three Fates, the Past, the Present, and the Future. The Present rests upon the Past and proceeds from it, the Future from the Present. But it is the Future that holds the ideal to which the world moves, and therefore it is she who conditions both the Present and the Past. The Three are inextricably One.'--H. Fielding Hall, The World Soul.

THERE is not the slightest doubt that if the Present is the result of the Past, the Future will be the result of the Present. The three being one, the Future should be as easily read as the Past. But this can only be done when the finite mind of the Seer becomes one with the infinite mind of the Seen, by a manifestation of the Soul, which is the Creator, and source of Truth.

The Prophecies of Paracelsus are set forth in thirty-two 'magical' or allegorical Figures with Prognostications to each Figure, a Preface and an Epilogue or Elucidation written by Paracelsus.

The entire work evidently relates to predictions of mundane events, some to ecclesiastical affairs, others to social political upheavals and changes that have since happened, are actually becoming accomplished or may still come to pass.

The Predictions, apparently limited to 24 or 42 years (both numbers are given) from 1530, about which time they appeared, were possibly occultly intended to mean mystic years, meaning either the fulness of time, or 240 or 420 years, which latter term would include the affairs of the present critical time.

Whoever studies these predictions cannot fail to see how worldly affairs have followed the course Paracelsus foretold for them either by mystic inspiration or astrological calculation.

Concerning the time when certain predictions should come to pass, an eminent seer of the Middle Ages, the Hermit Johannes Liechtenberger, aptly observed:

'Although Almighty God alone has retained the time and hour in his power, and he alone knows future things, and although there is no one in this world who can predict anything with certainty for to-morrow, or for some days to come, nevertheless the same merciful Deity, of his overflowing Love, has poured various gifts unto his creatures, whereby in things that are still distant and in the future, He allows us to understand and know, not wholly, but in divers parables, symbols and comparisons of things already happened with those that are to take place in the future.'

These Predictions were at their first publication in great demand and often reprinted. Professor Sudhoff mentions numerous editions and reprints, but they would have fallen altogether into oblivion had not the noted Kabbalist, Eliphas Lèvi, drawn attention to them by counselling their suppression.

True Initiates are ever on the side of Law and Order, and maintain that the secrets of the Occult should remain occult. But these are times when the old order changes and what has been kept occult must become manifested.

The time has thus arrived for making known what has been kept in concealment or lapsed into oblivion for centuries; for as Paracelsus quaintly observes: 'when the time comes then comes also that wherefore the time has come.'