Zirkoff B. - Footnotes to The Life of Paracelsus: Difference between revisions

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{{HPB-CW-comment|[Early in 1887, Dr. Franz Hartmann published his valuable work on The Life of Paracelsus and the Substance of his Teachings (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co., Ltd.). This book must have appeared before April, 1887, as it is mentioned in that month’s issue of The Path, New York (Vol. II, p. 21). H.P.B. contributed to it the following footnotes which appear on pages 30, 45, 46 and 69 respectively.}}

{{HPB-CW-comment|The first one is appended to the definition of the technical term Acthna, which Dr. Hartmann defines as “an invisible, subterrestrial fire, being the matrix from which bituminous substances take their origin, and sometimes producing volcanic eruptions. It is a certain state of the ‘soul’ of the earth, a mixture of astral and material elements, perhaps of an electric or magnetic character.” To this H.P.B. says:]}}

{{HPB-CW-comment|[The second footnote is appended to the definition of the term Acthnici, as being “elemental spirits of fire; spirits of Nature. They may appear in various shapes, as fiery tongues, balls of fire, etc. They are sometimes seen in ‘ spiritual séances’.” To this H.P.B. says:]}}

The Yliaster of Paracelsus corresponds to the “+<” of Pythagoras and Empedocles, and it was Aristotle who spoke first of the form in potentia before it could appear in actu—the former being called by him “the privation of matter.”