The Last Great Alchemist

Hermes came from Switzerland!
Not really, but Paracelsus did and was known as ‘The Swiss Hermes’.

Born in Switzerland in 1493, Paracelsus became fascinated by medicine by the age of 16 and gained a doctorate degree in that subject. He learnt much of his practical medicine by working as a military surgeon in the service of the Venetians. He travelled widely. He had a license to practice as a physician in Basel and this gave him the opportunity to lecture at the University. Unlike most of his contemporaries he did not lecture in Latin but in German. He wished what he taught to be understood by everyone.

Known as Bombastus he lived up to the name, picking fights with many of the medical experts of the day whose ignorance he found highly irritating. He even went so far as to burn the books of Avicenna and Galen, in order to make the point that practice was much more important than theory.

As we see in the novel Time Knot, Paracelsus travelled widely  in order to garner the wisdom that was held most commonly by women living in the countryside.

“A doctor must seek out old wives, gipsies, sorcerers, wandering tribes, old robbers, and such outlaws and take lessons from them. A doctor must be a traveller.…Knowledge is experience.”

We know that he travelled to Sweden, and he was living in turbulent times. Paracelsus commented that there were those who would happily see both himself and Luther in the flames. Around the time that he visited, the Swedes were seeking to throw off the yoke of the Catholic king of Denmark. They were of subject peoples. The coming of the Reformation allowed them to both reject Catholicism and the Danish king.

Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim became known simply as Paracelsus later in his career, making the point in his name that he equalled the eminence of the ancient doctor, Celsus.

Paracelsus gained the title of the Swiss Hermes because of the extraordinary breadth of his knowledge and the fact that it connected to the wisdom of the ancients. In his research he discovered both hydrogen and nitrogen, and he developed the protocols for the treatment of certain diseases using mercury.

He was also a student of alchemy. He could foresee a time would come when medical treatments would be completely separated from religious ideals. He saw this trend towards materialism is very dangerous. Practical therapy, in his view, had to go alongside an understanding of the reality of the soul.

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In the novel Time Knot  we meet Paracelsus in the depth of the Swedish forest, in the grip of an unusually long winter. His understanding of the closeness of the unseen world to the seen world is explored in a crucial part of the story. A short extract introducing Paracelsus within the story can be heard being read by the author, here.

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Paracelsus meets Håkan, one of Rhory's companions, and helps the two teenagers in their battle against dark magic and the desecration of the sacred Judge Circle near Håkan's home.

Find Time Knot here

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The wisdom whose roots were in ancient Egypt and whose brilliance was developed by the ancient Greeks, had its final flowering in Alexandria. The rise of militant Christianity led to the closure of the mystery schools. One of the final great exponents of this ancient wisdom, was the celebrated female mathematician Hypatia. After her murder at the hands of zealots, many aspects about wisdom disappeared for generations. It was outlawed by the church.

However, Paracelsus remembered or rediscovered many of the doctrines and insights that had been part of the great pre-Christian wisdom.

In particular, he taught about the nymphs, the sylphs and the salamanders. He said that these were flesh and blood beings, but they did not originate from Adam. For this reason they were able to pass through walls and to our eyes, appear and disappear at will. They were not human but they were not truly spirit either.