Finally published in 1533 Agrippa's first volume of Occult philosophy proves to be a book that looks backwards to the medieval and classical world rather than forward from the renaissance. It is a collection of folk tales, classical anecdotes, powerful words of wisdom derived from the cabala and ancient writings believed to be by Hermes Trismegistus. It is all bound up in a belief that the earth is the centre of the universe and that Gods influence reaches down through all matter; celestial, animal, vegetable and mineral to have various effects on mankind. Agrippa gives us many examples of the many wonders that can be believed and in a chapter devoted to properties that remain in animal parts which are still alive, we get:

"If you take a heart, newly taken out of an animal, and while it is still yet warm, hang it on one who has a quartan fever, it will drive it away. So if any one swallow the heart of a lap wing, or a swallow or a mole, whist it is yet warm with natural heat, it shall be helpful to him for remembering, understanding, and for fortelling. Also they say that if the eyes of a frog before sunrise be bound to the sick party, and the frog be let go again, blind into the water they will drive away tertian ague, as also they will, being bound with the flesh of a nightingale, keep one always watchful without sleep..............."

Cornelius Agrippa wrote his Occult philosophy at the age of 23 as a precocious student of Latin and Greek texts, who was also delving into the recently discovered Hebrew Texts that pointed towards the mysticism of the Cabala. It was a heady mixture, but Agrippa's writing infused it all with a belief in Christianity that made it acceptable to his patrons. He provided answers to many of the mysteries of life with a mixture of astrology, enchantments, augury and a Neo-Platonist view of the world. He clamed that natural Magic comprehends, unites and actuates; natural, mathematical and theological philosophy.

An overriding theme of his book is the power of imagination; armed with Agrippa's Natural Magic there is hardly anything that could not be achieved if the practitioner believed in what he was doing. He gives examples of how he has used telepathy, saying he knows how to do it and has often done it.

My Dover edition of the book edited by Willis F Whitehead is illustrated with tables and examples from the tarot and the cabala. It also contains useful commentary by Henry Morley that puts Agrippa in the context of his times and also explains his standing among the Rosicrucians.

As a book, Agrippa's Natural Magic seemed like so much mumbo-jumbo to me, however reading it was useful to establish the mind set of a certain intellectual elite in the Renaissance period. Heaven forbid that anyone should take this stuff seriously today. Three stars. ( )