lykomancer | For my own convenience

Robert Browning's Paracelsus:
Paracelsus Aspires (I)
Paracelsus Attains (I)
Paracelsus
Paracelsus Aspires (II)
Paracelsus Attains (II)

Wikipedia-- Theocrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim
Catholic Encyclopedia-- Theophrastus Paracelsus
AlchemyLab-- Paracelsus
Occultpedia-- Paracelsus (Excellent list of dead-tree resources.)

Wikipedia-- Thule Society

"...Paracelsus is credited with the introduction of opium and mercury into the arsenal of medicine [italics mine]."

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"Paracelsus is a phenomenon in the history of medicine, a genius tardily recognized, who in his impetuosity sought to overturn the old order of things, thereby rousing bitter antagonists. He sought to substitute something better for what seemed to him antiquated and erroneous in therapeutics, thus falling into the mistake of other violent reformers, who, during the process of rebuilding, underestimate the work of their contemporaries. He was not in touch with the humanist movement or with the study of anatomy then zealously pursued, the most prominent factors in reorganization; leaving out of consideration his great services to special departments, he stands alone and misunderstood. His influence was felt specially in Wittenberg, but only in a few schools of Germany, while he was entirely discounted throughout Italy."

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"His wanderings took him through Germany, France, Hungary, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, and Russia. In Russia, he was taken prisoner by the Tartars and brought before the Grand Cham at whose court he became a great favorite. Finally, he accompanied the Cham's son on an embassy from China to Constantinople, the city in which the supreme secret, the universal dissolvent (the alkahest) was imparted to him by an Arabian adept. For Paracelsus, as Manly Hall has said, gained his knowledge 'not from long-coated pedagogues but from dervishes in Constantinople, witches, gypsies, and sorcerers, who invoked spirits and captured the rays of the celestial bodies in dew; of whom it is said that he cured the incurable, gave sight to the blind, cleansed the leper, and even raised the dead, and whose memory could turn aside the plague.' [italics mine]"

"What is odd is that not one of his biographers seems to have found anything remarkable in the fact that at sixteen years of age, Paracelsus was already well acquainted with alchemical literature [italics, again, mine]. (O_o! What an interesting coincidence, ne?) Even allowing for the earlier maturity of a man in those times, he must still have been something of a phenomenon in mental development. Certainly, few of his contemporaries either could or would grasp his teachings, and his consequent irritation and arrogance in the face of their stupidity and obstinacy is scarcely to be wondered at. Although he numbered many enemies among his fellow physicians, Paracelsus also had his disciples, and for them no praise was too high for him. He was worshipped as their noble and beloved alchemical monarch, the 'German Hermes.'"
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Wooooooowwww... See, now that all's damn interesting-- Oh, the shinies!-- I just wish I had a better idea of what to do with it.

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"There is an inmost centre in us all,
Where truth abides in fulness; and around,
Wall upon wall, the gross flesh hems it in,
This perfect, clear perception--which is truth.
A baffling and perverting carnal mesh
Binds it, and makes all error: and to know
Rather consists in opening out a way
Whence the imprisoned splendour may escape,
Than in effecting entry for a light
Supposed to be without. Watch narrowly
The demonstration of a truth, its birth,
And you trace back the effluence to its spring
And source within us; where broods radiance vast,
To be elicited ray by ray, as chance
Shall favour..."
-- Browning, Paracelsus Aspires (I)

Compare this to Hohenheim's speech to Ed in episode 50 about how alchemists have a small Gate (where Ed claims he saw the "Truth beyond the truth") within them, and that he must find a way to open that Gate and reclaim his own body in order to go home.

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Reject those glorious visions of God's love
And man's design; laugh loud that God should send
Vast longings to direct us; say how soon
Power satiates these, or lust, or gold; I know
The world's cry well, and how to answer it

--Browning, Paracelsus Aspires (I)