Their degrees.14. But to speak more nearly unto their natures, they are of the source of the Stars, and have their degrees of continuance, where of*[* whereof] some live hundreds, some thousands of years: Their food is the Gas of the Water, and the Blas of the Air: And in their Aspects, or countenances, they differ as to vigour and cheerfulness: They occupy various places of this world; as Woods, Mountains, Waters, Air, fiery Flames, Clouds, Starrs, Mines, and hid Treasures: as also antient Buildings, and places of the slain. Some again are familiar in Houses, and do frequently converse with, and appear unto mortals.
Their actions and affections 15. They are capable of hunger, grief, passion, and vexation: they have not any thing in them that should bring them unto God: being meerly composed of the most spiritual part of the Elemeuts†:[† n reversed] And when they are worn out, they return into their proper essence or primary quality again; as Ice when it is resolved into Water: They meet in mighty Troops, and wage warr one with another: They do also procreate one another; and have power sometimes to make great commotions in the Air, and in the Clowds, and also to cloath themselves with visible bodies, out of the four Elements, appearing in Companies upon Hills and Mountains, and do often deceive and delude the observers of Apparitions, who take such for portents of great alterations, which are nothing but the sports and pastime of these frolick Spirits: as Armies in the Air, Troops marching on the Land, noises and slaughter, Tempest and Lightning, &c.
The distinct orders of starry Spirits.16. These Astral Spirits are variously to be considered; some are beings separate and absolute, that are not constitute to any work or service: Others are subservient to the Angels that have dominion over the Influences of the Stars: Others are the Astral Spirits of men departed, which (if the party deceased was disturbed and troubled at his decease,) do for many years, continue in the source of this world; amongst these airy Spirits, to the great disquietness of the soul of the person, to whom they belong: Besides the causes are various that such Spirits rest not; 1. When by Witchcraft they are inchanted, and bound to wander so many years; as thrice or fourtimes seven, before they can be resolved into nothing. 2. When the person hath been murthered; so that the Spirit can never be at rest, till the crime be discovered. 3. When desires and lusts, after Wife, or Children, House, Lands, or Money, is very strong at their departure; it is a certain truth, that this same spirit belonging to the Starrs will be hanckering after these things, and drawn back by the strong desires and fixation of the Imagination, which is left behind it: Nor can it ever be at rest, till the thing be accomplished, for which it is disturbed. 4. When Treasure hath been hid, or any secret thing hath been commit/ted42. by the party; there is a magical cause of something attracting the starry spirit back again, to the manifestation of that thing. Upon all which, the following Chapters do insist more largely and particularly.
Chap. II.
Of the Good and Evil Dæmons or Genii: Whither they are; what they are, and how they are manifested; also of their names, powers, faculties, offices; how they are to be considered.
1.ACcording The office of Dæmons or Genii.to the disposition of the mind, or soul, there is a good or evil Dæmon that accompanies the party visibly, or invisibly; and these are of such rancks and orders, and names, as the capacity of the persons soul is, to whom they belong: Their Office is said to be, fore-warning the person of eminent danger, sometimes by inward instinct, sometimes by dreams in the night, and sometimes by appearing outwardly. The Dæmon or Genius changeth its nature and power, as the person changeth his: and if from good, the party degenerate to iniquity; then by degrees the good Angel leaves him, and an evil Dæmon doth naturally succeed: for each thing draws after that which is like it self.
2. MagiciansThree ways of enjoying their society. mention three several wayes of enjoying the society of the Bonus Genius; The first way.first by intellectual association, when secret and mental instigations do arise in their hearts, to do this or that, and to forbear the other: as in the Manuscript of Nagar the Indian, his own testimony of himself is to this effect: My blessed Guardian Damilkar, hath now so sweetly communicated himself unto me; That by all the manifestations, whereby a holy Dæmon can attend and converse with mankind, he appeareth unto me: first in the intellectual way, he is ever present, and every moment prompts me, what to act, what to forbear from acting: Ah had he not rushed up through the powers of my soul, and suddenly warned me in my Travel to Quiansi in China, through the airy Region, to turn nimbly to the right hand, at an instant, a mighty Troop of Devils, whose Leader was Grachnoek, coming through that tract of air, had crusht me into a thousand peices: This is the first degree of its appearing.
The second way.3. Then he proceedeth in the language of Sina, describing the second way of its manifestation: And when the deepest sleep hath overpoured me, I am never without him; sometimes my Damilkar stands before me like a glorious Virgin, administring to me a Cup of the drink of the Gods, which my Intellectual man exhausteth: sometimes he brings cælestial Companies, and danceth round about me; and when after the weariness of the Senses, through contemplation I fell into gentle sleep on the holy Mountain of Convocation, which is called Adan, he shewed me the motion of the Heavens, the nature of all things, and the power of every evil Dæmon.
The third way of their appearance.4. Thirdly, he continueth to describe the External appearance of the Genius, to this effect: Damilkar appears before me at my desire; for my desires are as his desires: When I slept a long space in my private dwelling, he appeared outwardly, and watering me with the dew of the fourth Heaven, I awakned, when he had thrise said Nankin Nagar; so the time being come, we mounted through the Air, unto the holy Mountain of Convocation.