The Rudolf Steiner Archive

2. German Mysticism and Its Premises: Agrippa von Nettesheim, Paracelsus, Valentin Weigel

[ 1 ] There are three significant successors to Cusanus who mark a very important turning point in the history of German mysticism. All three lived in the sixteenth century. They illustrate the significance that mysticism came to assume through reason. With Agrippa von Nettesheim and Paracelsus, there was a significant shift in mysticism toward the natural sciences. We must realize that, after ancient scholarship had been incorporated into Christianity, the natural sciences were largely neglected, and only the moral, mystical, and spiritual aspects were considered.

[ 2 ] European intellectual life was influenced by political opponents: the Moors and Jews in Spain. They introduced the true nature of Aristotelian natural philosophy, which they had encountered in Syrian writings. Spain was home to prominent mathematicians, astronomers, and natural scientists. A strong wave of these scholars flowed out from there, particularly to Ireland and England. Bacon is actually considered the great pioneer of natural science in the Middle Ages. Cusanus used this education to delve into the depths of mysticism. It was by no means easy to think scientifically in Europe. Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim and Paracelsus had a hard time.

[ 3 ] Agrippa, born in Cologne, worked at universities in France and Germany. In fact, he was a teacher of the wise—those who understood the necessity of first carefully preparing the minds of those to whom knowledge was to be imparted. Specifically, it is said of Bacon that he must already have had knowledge of large (physical) instruments. But because research was frowned upon by the Church—gap; the Faust legend arose at that time. Faust was a figure who sought to penetrate the laws of nature. This was something the Church regarded as a pact with the devil. At the same time, the legend arose that Luther, who swore by the written word, threw an inkwell in the devil’s face.

[ 4 ] One of these “allies” of the devil was Agrippa, and his mysterious teacher, Abbot Trithem of Sponheim. Anyone who reads the abbot’s books initially encounters strangely convoluted material. One needs a key, which was only discovered later, although the initiate always possessed it. Steganography was a method of writing in which certain letters are omitted. The text that remains then reveals something magnificent: profound insights into nature. Agrippa first entrusted these insights to his Philosophia occulta. He did not write like his teacher and reaped the ingratitude of his contemporaries. He was treated as a charlatan. He was as much a natural scientist as he was a mystic. True mysticism arises only through the faithful and devoted exploration of nature, which is reborn in the spirit. – He was well aware that the spirit does not originate from nature, but that nature is the creation of the spirit. Human beings have three natures: first, a physical human being who unites all the physical and chemical forces present in nature—this is the elemental human; a second human being is dependent not only on the elemental realms but also on the celestial bodies, the heavenly forces—he calls this the “astral human.” A third human being, dependent on the soul-spirit that permeates the entire world: the “spiritual-soul human.” …

[ 5 ] This also underlies the teachings of Paracelsus. One can only understand him if one knows that, in addition to intellectual knowledge, there is also a form of immediate, intuitive knowledge that arises from the direct inspiration of the spirit. In a truly Faustian manner, he attempted to read the great book of nature. He saw in human beings a convergence of all the forces at work in the universe—forces that have emerged from the spiritual foundation of nature, sprouting forth from spiritual beings. Human beings are indeed an outflow, but also the highest blossom of nature. … (Goethe’s statement): Nature itself, if it could look at itself, would admire the highest peaks of its power in human beings. The microcosmic human being is a higher nature within nature. Human beings transform the forces of nature within themselves to a higher level. Paracelsus calls this metamorphosis “alchemy.”

[ 6 ] How does he envision the physician? Paracelsus refers to the forces that a person experiences within himself as the forces understood in alchemy. Then he—the human being—is able to find in nature, too, the forces that are akin to him. They are the stages of his own development. Humanity has moved beyond them. Now Paracelsus observes which forces in nature are akin to the soul forces of the human being. Take wormwood, for example: humanity passed through it, took an extract with it, and within that extract an essence of it remains; the intuitive person must now discover the original affinities. Only the one who knows which forces in nature are akin to the human being will be a good physician. – The arrogance for which Paracelsus was criticized was a measure of his self-assurance. “Whoever seeks the truth must follow me … not you … and I not you. Mine is the monarchy!” – He has, as it were, stepped out of his connection with nature, so that it pulses through his veins. According to Paracelsus, the following distinctions can be made:

1. Elemental body.
2. Life force: Archäus. Spiritus vitae.
3. Astral principle, through which human beings reach up to the stars.
4. The animal spirit.
5. The true spiritual soul, which humans no longer share with animals.
6. and 7. Principle: present in potential: the true principle of the world soul as human individuality.
7. The true divine human. Through this, the human being is connected to the entire universe.

[ 7 ] Valentin Weigel: Unfortunately, very little is known about him. He was a simple Protestant pastor in Zschopau; no one knew anything about him other than that he was a somewhat solitary, wandering soul, for it was only after his death that his highly significant works appeared: “The Golden Grip,” “Know Thyself” … A treasure. – In a powerfully beautiful way, he not only raised the problems of cognition but also solved them—problems of which Kant had no idea. Valentin Weigel knows that cognition depends not only on the object but also on the subject. If the eye were structured differently, the world would be a different place. If the ear—that marvelous musical instrument—were not as it is, the world would be a different one. The entire doctrine of the world as a representation can be learned in The Golden Grip. He discovered something else as well: he calls what meets our senses the “counter-object.” It is only through the eye’s interaction with the counter-object that what constitutes the quality of our worldview is conveyed. The one who reads a book must offer something in return; otherwise, he would find no meaning in it. – It does not lie in the “Gegenwurf”; nor does it lie in the subject; Valentin Weigel recognized that there is something higher that encompasses both subject and object and flows forth from the subject. Like positive and negative electricity, charged to balance one another, subject and object stand opposite each other. Through the divine weaving that flows through him, man transcends the counterpoint from which the divine essence—hidden in things—shines forth toward him. – In this way, he recalls Tauler’s beautiful words: Man must become completely silent; then it is not he who speaks, but he is immersed in his innermost being, and the divinity speaks through him. – Weigel calls this speaking of God “the light of grace.” The spirit of nature, the spirit of the world, is present in the human heart.