Book Discussion Paracelsus - fav books, pamphlets, essays, etc.?

[Ilúvatar]

My interest in Paracelsus has taken a spike up lately mostly because of some recent reading: Frater Acher's chapter on Paracelsian Magic in Ingenium is really good. And then only a week prior I had read Jung's two addresses on Paracelsus in Vol 20 of his Collected Works, which was also very good. And a few months ago, I finally got my hands on Uccello's Occlith v 0, which has several pieces by Paracelsus - also interesting... Anyway, a common image emerges of a rebel thinker who learns from nature itself, who has great disdain for "authorities" and dogma, and who see the potential for inner transformation in every human being.

I'm interested in learning more, so I thought I'd ask the forum for their favorite books, pamphlets, essays, etc, about or by Paracelsus.

By the way, Aula Lucis just put out a nice edition of his De Natura Rerurm (On the Nature of Things), which I bought but have not cracked yet. They are also publishing an edition of A.E. Waite's The Hermetic and Alchemical Writings of Paracelsus, but no date yet.

 

[stalkinghyena]

You might want to try The Life of Paracelsus by Anne M. Stoddart - I think published in 1911 almost like an hour after she died. While she did heavy research and travelled all the sites he was known to frequent in his wanderings, the book kind of smacks of "hero worship". I found her excerpts regarding his theory of alchemical Salt particularly interesting, though I think she could have gone deeper into his occult influences and practices. It seems like there are things she deliberately avoids or downplays in the text that I have heard of in modern authors. This ranges from his use of sympathetic magic for cures, his foul mouth and temper and his drinking habits. Still, I found it a good biography that gave me a framework for further inquiries - and it was really the only one I could find during that period of search.