1.

Introduction
Seen as one of the main magical thinker of the Renaissance, Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa von
Nettesheim's (1486-1535) magical ideas has influenced various thinkers centuries after, and his
work has incessantly excert influence on Western esotericism and what has come to be called
Occultism. This status is to a large extent linked to his extraordinary summa of Renaissance magic,
De occulta philosophia libri tre (1533), hereafter DOP. In this vast work is shown a new way for
the systematization of magic, which has come to be continually cited and used ever after. (Lehrich
2003, s. 1-2, 30). Agrippa's ideas and systematization of magic is, though, usually associated with
black magic and the legens of Faust. However, Agrippa is rather to be seen as a pius Christian, who
emphasized that true magic is anchored in the one God. I can be noticed that Agrippa, during
periods in his life worked as a physician, and that DOP, to some extent, may be perceived as a
medical handbook, by the fact that several of his examples of the workings of the correspondences
is to be seen as connected to sickness, and improvement of the health. This tripartie work of magic's
last part (Book III) contains statements that deal with a spiritual health, so to speak, which can be
interconnected with the concepts of self-deification and true knowledge, or gnosis.
Starting from Agrippa's theory of magic this article intend to adress some views relating to
health linked to the concepts of magic, gnosis, and self-deification. I will argue for how the
preparation to use magic, and the practice itself, correlate to the health of body, mind and soul. This
is done by highlighing the idea of self-deification, read as a purging and refinement of the Magus'
body, mind and soul. The magic, health and self-deification will further on be treated interconnected
with the, for Western esotericism, so important idea of higher or true knowledge, most commonly
signified as gnosis. The strive for, and eventuelly gain of this true knowledge will consequently
show how refinement of the mind and soul will effect the body as well, and how this is done by
magic through various grades of self knowledge understood as simultaneous knowledge of God.
Lets first shortly put Agrippa in a context. He was born in Cologne 1486, as a son in a
family of minor nobility. Agrippa enrolled at the town's University 1499, three years later receive
the magister artium. Early in life he came to develop an interest in esoteric learning. Agrippa's life
was mark by extensively travelling through Europe, which can be connected to the pattern of his
life, being accused of heresy behind his back making it hard to defend himself. An important event
in Agrippa's life is 1509, visiting Johannes Trithemius (1462-1516), Abbot of Sponheim, and expert
on cryptography and magic. The Abbot approved and encouraged Agrippa to (25) continue his
studies. It can also be noted that Agrippa in 1509, the University of Dôle, gave lectures on Johannes
Reuchlin’s (1455-1522) De verbo mirifico (1494), resulting in a doctorate in theology. A sojourn in
1512, at Pavia, he most likely taught a course on the Symposium, and upon returning in 1515 a
course on the first dialogue of the Hermetica, the Pimander. Agrippa also wrote an excursus on Pico
della Mirandola's (1463-1494) Heptaplus, Dialogus de homine. He lived in Geneva in 1521, which
can be noticed since he worked as a physician, and then suddenly in 1533 Agrippa vanishes. His
final years are unknown, but it is known that he died in Grenoble 1535. (Lehrich 2003, s. 25-30)
Returning to the summa of Renaissance magic, DOP, The structure of DOP is connected to
Agrippa's worldview, based on the idea of the cosmos as a huge sphere. The world of man located
in the middle with the moon and planets circling around it. Further on, the stars were believed to
fixed on the interior surface of the sphere. (Hanegraaff 2013, s. 29.). Dutch Western esotericism
scholar Wouter J. Hanegraaff gives a good image connecting the worldview to the notion of God:
”asked […] where God is to be found [Agrippa] would have pointed up to the sky, for just by
moving upwards beyond the fixed stars one was bound to reach the metaphysical world of angelic
and divine realities” (Hanegraaff 2013, s. 30). The work consists of three books which correspond
with a tripartite Platonic worldview: a sublunary, celestial, and divine realm, and by extansion to
three forms of magic, respectively: natural, celestial (mathematical), and ceremonial. (Lehrich 2003,
s. 93.) This makes it possible for Agrippa to lift the idea that the metaphysical world of angelic and
divine realities can be reached by moving upwards, beyond the fixed stars, and, as we have seen,
this is the place where we find God. (Hanegraaff 2009, s. 21). Hanegraaff stresses what we have
seen that the three levels are seen as intimately connected, and further on, that ”the true and pure
magic that [Agrippa's] work was all about was the divine theurgy beloning to the third level. This
magic was all about 'purification and interior elevation'. (Hanegraaff 2009, s. 8)
This article, thus, takes its starting point in the ceremonial magic in the third book, which is
domminated by kabbalah and primarily discusses the angelic and divine realities. However, it is
worth making a brief note about Book I and II. The content in those books are mainly based on the
universal pattern that is the result of mutual attraction and repulsion. Those two books can from a
health perspective, be perceived as more connected to an ”ordinary” physical treatment of man, by
the affection of the correspondences in the university. Bok I and II can be considered useful in the
act of dignifying, as we shall see can be seen as the first steps to put the body into a more purged
condition. A condition, which seems necessary to reach self-deification.
The intension with the article is to adress some views of how the context of self-deification
can be read in relation to health. The main focus is the health of the mind and soul, even though the
body, as shall be seen, is affected as well. This will be done in four steps, where the first deals with
the term self-deification, and the second will connect the term to the notion of gnosis. The third step
deals with the terms in DOP, together with the notion of purging and refinement as different grades
of higher knowledge, or gnosis, within the framework of health as purity of mind and body.

2. Self-deification
The term self-deification seems to be quite central in the history of Western esotericism. Thoughts
and the notion of self-deification is addressed by thinkers before Agrippa, and can be found in
ancient hermetic texts like the Corpus Hermeticum. A brief definition of the term can be laid out as
described by a group of scholars. Beginning with Lina Bolzoni we find a short but vigorous
description in: “[T]he art of transforming the human mind into a divine one”. (Bolzoni 2006, s.
230.) Furher description, by György E. Szönyi, shows a bit more explicit in the notion that it is
about “the liberation of the human spirit, the elevation of the operator’s soul to the sphere of perfect
knowledge”. (György E. Szönyi 2006, s. 305.) Cesare Vasoli presenting Francesco [Zorzi] Giorgio
points out in a wider sense how this is done: “[the] deification of man, with the beneficial use of
astrological and magical techniques that facilitate the celestial ascent”. (Vasoli 2006, s. 396.)
The same idea in ancient texts such as Corpus Hermeticum, Asclepius and the Treatise of the
Eight and the Ninth, indicates that a novice is about to transcend mere rational understanding and
worldly attachments to reach salvation and release through being reborn in a spiritual body of
immaterial light, and that “[t]his process of liberation and transformation culminates in spiritual
ascent and, finally, blissful unity with the supreme powers of Light”. (Hanegraaff 2013, s. 19.) In
short, the material body must be overcome to achieve this goal, and in Corpus Hermeticum there is
an emphasis of the mind as the faculty for attaining truth or gnosis, and by extension what can be
read as self-deification. It can benoted that Hanegraaff puts it that this deification also may be seen
as regained and godlike powers connected to Adam's state before the Fall. The Fall om man
disrupted the inner harmony of man, which by exclusion makes the body suffer various illnesses,
and death. This is a result of man embracing the body, and connected to this is the notion of the
source of all evil and the origin of sins is ignorance of God. (Hanegraaff 2009, s. 20).

3. Gnosis
Before we can interconnect the notion of self-deification to a health perspective, it is necessary to
place the phenomenon within a larger framework of higher knowledge or gnosis. The premise for
the understanding of gnosis is here anchored in the Swedish scholar of religions Henrik Bogdan's
idea of how ”[t]he gnosis which the esotericist strives for is both intellectual and experiental”.
(Bogdan 2012, s. 3), and ”on one level [gnosis] pertains to knowledge transmitted through books,
symbols and rituals, but on another level [gnosis] pertains to an experiential knowledge” (Bogdan
2010, s. 102). Keeping with Bogdan this means that the intellectual knowledge is transmitted
through a construct of tradition, such as books and initiatory societies, meanwhile the experiential
knowledge can be understood as reached by meditation, visions, ritual experience or other
techniques. (Bogdan 2010, s. 102) Somewhat simplified we can look upon DOP as, using
Hanegraaff's words about ancient texts, containing ”technical discussions about the true nature of
God, the world and man, but point out that philosopichal discourse is just a preparation for religious
salvation”. (Hanegraaff 2013, s. 19). The higher knowledge extracted from DOP (intellectual) in a
way becomes useful for the health of body and mind, even though it takes practice as well
(experiential) to complete the gaining of health.
This main frame can be extended with the way Hanegraaff lifts the idea of gnosis, which can
be understood as “built” by three constitutive elements: experience, imagination, and
transformation. (Hanegraaff 1992, s. 17) The elements experience and imagination leads to
transformation as a result of the dynamics of the two, and the first appearance of experience can be
interpreted as the beginning of a process to reach transformation, (Hanegraaf 1992, s. 34) which in
this article is read as self-deification. Gnosis as it seems can also be seen as an upgoing spiral, a
restoration of wholeness (Hanegraaff 1992, s. 35), as “a logical result of the specific character of
'experience', which [...] is typically felt as a 'recollection' of something which had been forgotten,
rather than as the discovery of something radically new”. (Hanegraaff 1992, s. 35)
Further on Hanegraaff connects the imagination, theories of the imagination are to be found
in various Renaissance philosophers and in the works of Agrippa, to the pneuma (a late antique
expression). The pneuma is described as a form, or close to, imagination, (Hanegraaff 1992, s. 32)
something that can be compared with scholar Ioan P. Couliano's ideas of the term. He lays out the
pneuma as a mirror with two faces which reflect the perceptions of the senses and the soul's
imagination, and unless the surface of the soul was pure enough risk individuals to drop to an
almost animalistic state. The surface of the mirror (pneuma) must the be polish up to its original
transparency. It is to be seen as supernatural if it is purified from the "dirt" and impurity, when
purified it becomes receptive. (Couliano 1987, s. 131) It seems, then, possible to say that the way to
reach gnosis is by polish the pneuma, and this in turn makes it possible to connect the strive for
higher knowledge with a perspective of health in DOP, since as we shall see the work is about
preparing the body and mind and by this put in a better condition. Agrippa can be interpreted as
laying out the polishing of the pneuma, which here is read in connection with the purging of the
mind, and how this is done together bodily preparation. Returning to the experience (experiental
knowledge), it is in Agrippa's case based on the Magus divine origin. And this origin is connected to
the pneuma, which can be read as the Magus discovering in himself, hence, “[the pneuma] can
easily be interpreted as a source of power for reaching the divine”. (Hanegraaff 1992, s. 26)
The idea of gnosis as both intellectual and experiential knowledge, together with the notion
of the three elements, which together constitute the phenomenon, makes it possible to understand
gnosis as different grades of higher knowledge. This fits the notion of self-deification as the final
aim and at the same time the gaining of true knowledge, or perfect gnosis.
4. Self-deification, gnosis and De occulta philosophia
Hanegraaff's interpretation of gnosis and self-deification in DOP is based on the understanding that
the work is influenced in an innovative way by a nonmagical text, and how this ”resulting in a new
perspective on how the attainment of a superior gnosis implies the acquisition of suprahuman
powers”. (Hanegraaff 2009, s. 2.). The notion of gnosis is not to be seen as directly magical, and is
instead connected to the idea of something better than magic. This, he says, is the basic message of
the Corpus Hermeticum, which is being missed by Marsilio Ficino (1433-1499) but picked up by
Ludovico Lazzarelli (1447-1500). Ficino, though nevertheless, in Plato's Phaedrus found a close
equivalent, in the ”concept of four types of mania (furor in Latin) […] understood […] as ecstatic
means of access to a superior divine knowledge”. (Hanegraaff 2009, s. 3). The notion of gnosis in
Ficino's way of thinking than had Plato and not Hermes as his main reference.
Lazzarelli on the other hand concentrate entirely on the quest for gnosis, written as
knowledge of one's self and of God, as the only way to reach true felicity. (Hanegraaff 2009, s. 4-5).
This makes, according to Hanegraaff, Lazzarelli posess a central role for the reading of DOP. His
concept of spiritual regeneration leading to a superior gnosis becomes, in mentioned interpretation,
the key to understand both the ideas about true knowledge of God and of the magic in DOP.
(Hanegraaff 2009, s. 5-6). The highest of the four Platonic furores (the frenzy of Venus in DOP), by
Agrippa is about the mind's convertion and transmutation into God. By this it is restored to its true
nature of the likeness of the divine. This is connected to the thesis of Lazzarelli, that the
”regenerated man who has attained true gnosis thereby also attains superhuman powers. Because he
has come to share in the very essence of the divinity, he necessarily participates in God's powers of
creation, the example par excellence of which is God's power to create souls. (Hanegraaff 2009, s.
9). The human soul is created after the image of the Logos, and therefore when a man attains true
knowledge his soul is reborn from God, which makes man to participate in God's powers of
creation, or generation, this since the reborn thereby return to his original unity with that divine
image. (Hanegraaff 2009, s. 12.)
Hanegraaff focuses on Agrippa's idea of a supreme arcanum, and his reading about the
effects of spiritual rebirth, which is the result of the attainment of true gnosis. (Hanegraaff 2009, s.
13). In short, what Hanegraaf wants to emphasize is that ”the power of the regenerated man is
actually the divine power of creation, not magical power as commonly understood”, (Hanegraaff
2009, s. 14.) and ”that 'magical powers is a result of man's assimilation into God, not the instrument
for attaining it”. (Hanegraaff 2009, s. 14). This article will argue for the idea that gnosis can be
connected both to magic before self-deification as an instrument to gain perfect gnosis, or true
knowledge/felicity, and to what above is signified as ”better than magic”. The argument is primarily
that the gaining of gnosis is a graded sequence where the mind is getting more and more godlike,
aligned with the idea of knowing the self and God is interconnected. This sequence is linked to the
preparations of the mind, and body, and the idea of receivng gnosis by interacting with divine
entities. The preparation, or purging/refinement, of the Magus inner is then possible to understand
as a way of putting mind and body into a better condition.
The way to self-deification in DOP, thus, seems to be all about purging and refinement, and
this in turn can be read as performed throught different steps. Purity of body and mind might be
read as essential for working with magic, and then making magic a tool for further refinement of the
practitioner. In short, some of the preparations can be connected to the purification of the Magus'
physical body and other to the purification of the mind, which is necessary for working with
ceremonial magic. This in turn, interconnected to health, can be interpreted as purity of body and
mind as a necessary preparation for magic, and the latter as a instrument for further refinement of
the mind and soul, which affects the body as well.
The content in DOP indicates that the mind is beclouded by vain idleness, declining to the
frailty of the earthly body and vices of the flesh. This means that the mind must be disengaged from
the flesh and the body, which beclouds the mind, and affects the soul. The reading done here is that
the beginning of this purging enables the magician to manipulate sublime substances, hence work
with ceremonial magic, which can be seen as a requirement for the self-deification. The first
chapters of the third book highlight how the truth only can be received by the rightly purged mind
and spirit. This makes it possible to tie purging and refinement to the the idea of gaining absolute
knowledge and the notion of self-deification: ”[A] firm and stout mind […] can we not otherwise
obtain, than by integrity of life, by piety, and last of all, by divine religion: for holy religion purgeth
the mind, and maketh it divine”. (Agrippa 2010/1533, s. 441.) Later on, the same chapter shows
what looks like a twofold purging: ”[T]herefore we ought, being first purged, to offer and commend
ourselves to divine piety and religion”. (Agrippa 2010/1533, s. 441.) The first can be interpreted as
an initial preparation, and the latter as pointing to a refinement, which is based on the former.
Several chapters in the third book contain discussions of purging in some sort of preparation
framework, which can be boiled down to ”[b]e clean within and without, in a clean place”. (Agrippa
2010/1533, s. 672.) Plenty of those chapters deal with proper washing, restrictions concerning food
and other quite concrete physical preparations, and also the act of putting away all filthiness of the
mind: ”[N]ot only if they be in mind and spirit, but also if they be in body, or about the body: for
such an external cleanness is believed not to help a little to the purity of mind”. (Agrippa
2010/1533, s. 641.) The Magus has to be pius and to put his body, which affects the mind, into the
right condition. This in turn allows for a connection to Book I and II in DOP, which shows how the
correspondenses affects the body and mind. In short, this means that things have to be lawfully and
rightly prepared. This is to be seen in Chapter III, where purging is emphazised for reaching a
dignifying state, where dignifying can be read as the worthiness of manipulating sublime substances
in the practice of ceremonial magic. Agrippa here lays out that when the highest faculty of the soul
is overwhelmed with to much commerce with the flesh, it is not able to work in magic, and he
carries on with that

it is meet [to] meditate of two things: first, how we should leave carnal affections, frail sense, and material
passions; secondly, by what way and means we may ascend to an intellect pure and conjoined with the powers of
the gods, without which we shall never happily ascend to the scrutiny of secret things, and to the power of
wonderful workings, or miracles. (Agrippa 2010/1533, s. 448.)

The means seems to point at the superstructure of the first purging. Agrippa shows how the initial
dignity, is supplemented with ceremonial magic as the means by which the pure intellect is
conjoined with the powers of the gods. Hence, the first purging makes it possible to approach the
sublime substances by ceremonial magic, and, with the help of them refine the inner self, or the
soul. And through this prepare it by degrees to become ready to receive perfect knowledge read as
self-deification. The aspect of health is, thus, so far a cure of the mind and soul. The idea is to try to
show how the way to this self-deification can be interpreted as ascending and how this at the same
time means a refinement of the soul, connected to the gaining of higher knowledge and preparation
of the mind tied to the sublime substances connected to the different levels ascended.
Earlier on the idea of the necessity of conjoining with divine powers is mentioned. In
Chapter V (Agrippa 2010/1533, s. ) and VI (Agrippa 2010/1533, s. ) Agrippa highlights the use of
religion to purge the mind and how it is moving towards divinity, mostly by pointing out three
guides: love, hope, and faith. These two chapters initially seem to point at how these guides, are
closely connected to the soul’s ascent up into the divine nature, and is made a worker of miracles.
But at the end of chapter VI, this idea takes a turn. Approaching God and seeking self-deification by
working with pure religion seems to be portrayed as dangerous:

[N]o man can work by pure religion alone, unless he be made totally intellectual: but whosoever, without the
mixture of other powers, worketh by religion alone, if he shall persevere long in the work, is swallowed up by
the divine power and cannot live long: but whosoever shall attempt this and not be purified, doth bring upon
himself judgement, and is delivered to the Evil Spirit, to be devoured. ( Agrippa 2010/1533, s. 455.)

The importance of purification is clear, and Agrippa's idea can be read as if faith needs a protective
supplement, interpretad as other powers. Working with pure religion alone is only possible in a state
of self-deification, at the same time the work pre-self-deification has to be done with mixture of
other powers, and this can be read as approaching God with the intent of self-deification has to
involve assistance by other divine substances. This reading that seems to differ from Hanegraaff's,
which rather emphasis that faith, for Agrippa, surpasses any form of knowledge, and that it is the
perfect 'instrument' of knowledge, and at the same time ”it is not freely available to just anyone; it
can only be used by man who, with total and singular determination, transcends inferior and
sensible things and sets his course straight toward the mind itself”. (Hanegraaff 2009, s. 22). This
connects to Agrippa's writings about the centrality to live by the mind, a turning towards God
adorned with hope, directed by faith, and burning with love. (Hanegraaff 2009, s. 23. We find
therefore that

[o]nly the person who has transcended all bodily and carnal concerns, and has made the ascent to the mind, can
truly be said to have 'faith'. But such a person has also come to into the possession of the divine power of
creation itself, so that nothing is impossible for him – a power, in other words, that transcends any human ability
normally referred to as 'magic'. (Hanegraaff 20009, s. 23)

The emphasis on faith would possibly mean thar Agrippa is a mystic rather than an esoteric.
Hanegraaff concludes with that Agrippa's ”true and pure divine magia – the sublime theurgy
belonging to the third and highest level in his system – had nothing to do with astral magic or any
other procedures or techniques that were under man's control”. (Hanegraaff 2009, s. 23) This perfect
knowledge, or gnosis, is, according to Hanegraaff's reading, only given by faith in God. Hanegraaff
emphasizes that Agrippa understands the attainment of such gnosis “in terms of the ecstatic ascent
of the soul, driven by the frenzy of eros as described in Plato's Phaedrus [---] man once more enjoys
the 'generative' powers of God himself”, (Hanegraaff 2009, s. 24) and it is stressed that it is indeed
possible to attain such a supreme state during this life, although rarely. The state gained with
Hanegraaff's words “makes man into much more than a 'magician'; his powers are not human but
divine”. (Hanegraaff 2009, s. 24), further on linked to the already mentioned arcanum:

[W]ho can give a soul to an image, or make a stone to live, or metal, or wood, or wax? And who can raise out of
stones children unto Abraham? Certainly this arcanum doth not enter into an artist of a stiff neck: neither can he
give those things which hath them not. Nobody hath them but he who doth (the elements being restrained, nature
being overcome, the heavens being overpowered) transcend the progress of angels, and comes to the very
Archetype itself, of which being then made a cooperator may do all things, as we shall speak afterwards.
(Agrippa 2010/1533, s. 404.)

The problem is that we know that working with pure religion is dangerous. One possible reading of
this chapter in DOP is that the Magus in a strive for true gnosis conquers those things, rather than
that they are conquered after reaching self-deification. The idea of using ceremonial magic in an act
of purging, or refining, the mind and soul is linked to the need for a pure intellect, conjoined with
the power of the gods, and the influence that is attributed to these sublime substances: ”[W]hen a
good spirit has influence upon a soul, it doth exalt it to the light of wisdom [and] purge the soul
most perfectly”. (Agrippa 2010/1533, s. 522.) This can be noticed together with how Agrippa
mentions that ”there are various cooperators and instruments of God [---] which we must implore as
porters, interpreters […] mediators [---] the deities are as it were passages to that very God”.
(Agrippa 2010/1533, s. 652f.) In addition, assuming that conjoinment and work with other powers
can be read as a form of intermediate of higher knowledge, and connect this to the fact that Agrippa
in several places highlights hierarchies of sublime substances. There is the possibility to interpret a
refinement of the soul as tied to various degrees of sublime substances, which can be found, for
example, in chapters dealing with angelic hierarchies in the sephiroth structure. The sublime
substances can then be read in accordance with an ascending by degrees towards God.
This refinement by degrees can, then, be read as though the gaining of higher knowledge is
connected to the different levels. This levels, here read as connected to a rising hierarchy of divine
entities, enlighten the mind and soul, thus, make it more and more attuned to understand and receive
God. The divine substances can be read as “spiritual teachers” and whose influence, or outpouring
of wisdom, can be understood as a form of initiation. The Magus is further and further initiated into
the knowledge of God and as we have seen runs parallel with the knowledge of the self. This
reading makes way for an interpretation that highlights different levels of higher knowledge, or
gnosis. This would make the intermediate knowledge both a higher knowledge in itself, and at the
same way a necessary enlightenment making the Magus prepared to reach the next degree of gnosis.
The closer the divine substance is to God the higher the gnosis attained. Read as an act of
ascending, this upward movement fits within the notion of transformation, as we have seen earlier is
an element of gnosis, as a ascent to wholeness, or a restored state of being. Where wholeness is
interpreted as the last degree of attained gnosis, and we can connect this to Hanegraaff's notion of
perfect gnosis. I interpret the attaining of gnosis and finally perfect gnosist as connected to the
interacting with divine substances within a hierarcial structure, until the soul is refined to perfection.
Put shortly, DOP can be read as dealing with various stages of purity, the first, to a great
extent, interconnected to Book I and II, necessary to work with magic. This initial purging is the
tied to body and mind, meanwhile the other stages of purity in linked to the practice itself. The
initial purging is required for success in practical magic, by which further refinement is completed.
Those different levels of purity can be perceived as expressions of good health, together with
attaining them.
We can keep this interpretation in mind when we return to the content in Hermetic literature.
We find in this ancient corpus that the seekers, to quote Hanegraaff, ”are initiated step-by-step into
successively more exalted states of consciousness [---] and finally [...] moves towards the eight and
the ninth sphere where he is granted the ecstatic vision of ultimate divine reality”, (Hanegraaff
2013, s. 96.) hence gnosis. Also returning to the means by which the conjoinment is done, it may be
connected to the ceremonial magic, and the best example would be this practice in the form of
divine frenzy: ”Now the second phrensy [---] divert the soul into the mind, the supreme part of
itself, and makes it a fit and pure temple of the gods, in which the divine spirits may dwell”.
(Agrippa 2010/1533, s. 621.) The practice by which this form of frenzy is produced is a bit unclear
in DOP, even though there are some remarks, and it is mentioned how it fills the soul with wisdom.
Further Agrippa shows how the third kind of frenzy ”make[s] the soul rise above the mind, by
joining it with deities, and demons”. (Agrippa 2010/1533, s. 623.) The practice in question can be
seen as part of the means by which the magician creates conditions to prepare the mind and
conjoins it with other powers, that is the work and mixture with other powers to refine the mind and
soul by levels, and through this preparing it to receive the truth and perfect knowledge, and by that
transform into a godlike state which is to be interpreted as self-deification.
The outcome of the refinement, and the effects of the receiving of perfect knowledge, and by
extension self-deification, highlighted by the highest frenzy, proceeding from Venus, which “do by
a fervent love convert, and transmute the mind to God, and makes it altogether like to God, as it
were the proper image of God”. (Agrippa 2010/1533, s. 627.) This is the moment of self-deification,
and we can see how the Magus reaches a new state and a higher status: “such a man is more
excellent than they that are in heaven, or at least equal to them”.(Agrippa 2010/1533, s. 627.) This
can also be read in correlation with gnosis as an hierarchial knowledge of the self and God, here in
connection with the thought of the receiving of knowledge and power works in an upward
movement, and how it strengthens the magician to ascend to higher degrees:

Whosoever therefore shall know himself, shall know all things in himself; especially he shall know God,
according to whose image he was made [---] by how much more everyone shall know himself, by so much he
obtaineth the greater power of attracting it, and by so much operateth greater and more wonderful things, and
will ascend to so great perfection. (Agrippa 2010/1533, s. 580.)

Gradual obtaining of knowledge then can be linked to the purging of the mind and refinement of the
soul, as a form of preparation to enable more knowledge. The more knowledge attained the greater
the the power to work, read as refinement this means that the higher the knowledge, the higher
“spiritual teacher” in the hierarchial system can be interacted with. This in turn can be read as a
gradual transformation as ”we have relinquished the animal and the human life, by so much the
more we live like angels, and God, to which being conjoined, and brought into a better condition”,
( Agrippa 2010/1533, s. 644.). The Magus ascending is then to be linked with the idea of
successively more exalted states of consciousness tied to higher knowledge, which then is a result
of the ceremonial magic. This ascending, hence as we have seen, can be interpreted as a necessary,
by grades, preparation to be able to understand God. Each grade of knowledge of the self and of
God, is both higher knowledge in itself and at the same time the preparation for gaining further
knowledge, or enlightenment. This is repeated until perfection is reached, and the end of refinement
can be perceived as the last part of the preparation and how this higher knowledge, which can be
linked to imagination and experience, makes way for transformation, hence self-deification. This
reading can thus be considered based on that ”I would have you know, that is to know God himself,
the worker of all things, and to pass into him by the whole image of likeness […] whereby thou
mayest be transformed, and made as God”.(Agrippa 2010/1533, s. 681.) This will both fit the idea
of gnosis as the three elements of imagination, experience, and transformation, and the idea of
gnosis as intellectual and experiental knowledge. Both, in turn, fit, my interpretation, within the
framwork of health by the notion of a purging and refinement of the inner of the Magus. Where it
all begins in the purging of body and mind, which can be expressed with the image of the polishing
of the pneuma. The purging can as well be described as a form of refinement of the Magus self,
hence knowledge of the self, which we have seen is strongly connected to the knowledge of God.
Hanegraaff menations that knowledge of the self and of God can be seen as one and the same thing,
and even that knowledge of the self has to mean knowledge of the divine, (Hanegraaff 1992, s. 20)
and by extension to the notion that only the like can be supposed to know the like. In short, to know
God means to be godlike, and at the same time “if man and God were completely identical no wish
could possibly arise to know 'the other'”. (Hanegraaff 1992, s. 22).
Agrippa's summa of Renaissance magic seems to contain conceptions of how magic
practices and power can be instrumental in preparation, and attaining results relating to a
perspective of health. Purity of body and mind, where the purging of the former affects the latter,
can be said to relate to good health, and to be of importance to the practice of ceremonial magic, as
well as the results of the practice in itself. This initial purging primarily relate to health prior to the
magic in Book III, whose result is linked to the refinement of the Magus “inner”, a spiritual
refinement, so to speak. This inner development leads at its perfection to true knowledge, and self-
deification, hence perfect gnosis. The resulting state involves perfect health by being interpreted as
the state before the Fall, an Adamic state, so to speak. Finally, we can return to the beginning of the
third book, and the notion that “unless the mind and spirit be in good case, the body cannot be in
good health”, (Agrippa 2010/1533, s. 441.) which read in reverse, should give that the restored
mind and soul, as the result of the self-deification, brings the body into a better state as well.
Agrippa can be perceived utter this when he says that ”man being united to God [---] drawing with
itself even the body […] leading it forth into a better condition, and an heavenly nature, even until it
be glorified into immortality”. (Agrippa 2010/1533, s. 580.)
5. Concluding remarks
It is time to conclude this brief exposition on health interconnected with magic, true knowledge, and
self-deification in De occulta philosophia libri tres. Reading Agrippa's summa makes it possible to
establish that some notions of health can be connected to the Magus strive for true knowledge,
hence, self-deification. I have discussed how purging of body and mind can be seen within a
framework of striving for and attaining perfect gnosis, the transformation of the Magus which
implies self-deification. I have argued that the initial effort is the purging of the body and mind,
which in turn is a necessary preparation to success in the practice of ceremonial magic. Further on
this practice is read as the tool used to interact with intermediates, divine substances, necessary in
the by degrees gaining of gnosis. The intermediates are as we have seen porters and passages to
God, and the good spirits infuses light and purify the mind, which can be connected to Agrippa's
emphasis on the danger of not working with other powers. I stress that this gnosis is linked to the
gaining of increasing knowledge of the self and God, which is interpreted as a refinement of the
soul, as a mean to prepare the Magus to lastly understand God, based on the notion that knowledge
of the self and of God are an interacting course of events. This allows an understanding of gnosis as
a raising hierarchial structure, both as higher knowledge and the means to be able to gain gnosis of
higher degrees.
Self-deification is then the end of the soul's refinement, which also exalts the body into a
better condition, an Adamaic state, so to speak. I agree in Hanegraaff's statement that perfect gnosis
is better than magic, in the common use of the term. My interpretation is based on the idea that the
Magus that reaches self-deification and perfect gnosis gain powers beyond magic, the Magus is part
of God, meanwhile the Magus working with magic in a strive for perfect gnosis is to be seen as only
channeling the work of God. It might even be interpreted unnecessary to work in magic for the self-
deificated Magus, since the power to control all divine substances and the absolute truth is already
gained. I do argue for the notion that ceremonial magic linked to various practice can be interpreted
as the instrument to reach self-deification, and perfect gnosis. Various practice of ceremonial magic
can be interpreted as ultimately leading to a spiritual transformation by degrees. The Magus will
become more and more prepared in the strive for perfect knowledge.The fact that Hanegraaff use
the term perfect gnosis indicates that there are other forms of gnosis as well. These other levels of
gnosis is important since they, here, are linked to the degrees of divine substances, interacted with
through the magic in Book III. Ceremonial magic becomes the instrument for the Magus to interact
and conjoin his mind with other powers, or divine substances, which we have seen is necessary to
reach absolute truth, meanwhile the other way around seems a bit backward.
My intension, which I hope have been fulfilled, has been to show the relationships between
health and the preparation for, and the attainment of self-deification.
7. References
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Publications, 2010/1533.
Balzoni, Lina, 'Camillo, Giulio', in Dictionary of Gnosis & Western Esotericism Bd. 1/2, (2006),
229-230.
Bogdan, Henrik, 'New Perspectives on Western Esotericism', in Nova Religio: The Journal of
Alternative and Emergent Religions 13:3 (2010), 97-105.
Bogdan, Henrik, 'Introduction: Modern Western Magic', in Aries: Journal for the Study of Western
Esotericism 12:1 (2012), s. 1-16.
Couliano, Ioan P., Eros and Magic in the Renaissance, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press,
1987.
Hanegraaff, Wouter J., 'A Dynamic Typological Approach to the Problem of 'Post-Gnostic'
Gnosticism', in Aries: Journal for the Study of Western Esotericism 16 (1992), 5-43.
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Hanegraaff, Wouter J., Western Esotericism: A Guide for the Perplexed, London: Bloomsbury
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