Editing Robert Fludd (section)

==Mystical theory of nature==

===Tripartite division of matter===
Much of Fludd's writing, and his pathology of disease, centered around the sympathies found in nature between man, the terrestrial Earth, and the divine. While Paracelsian in nature, Fludd's own theory on the origin of all things posited that, instead of the [[Outline of alchemy|Tria Prima]], all species and things stemmed from first, dark Chaos, then divine Light which acted upon the Chaos, which finally brought forth the waters. This last element was also called the Spirit of the Lord, and it made up the passive matter of all other substances, including all secondary elements and the four qualities of the ancients. Moreover, the Fluddean tripartite theory concluded that Paracelsus' own conception of the three primary principles—Sulphur, Salt and Mercury—eventually derived from Chaos and Light interacting to create variations of the waters, or Spirit.

The Trinitarian division is important in that it reflects a mystical framework for biology. Fludd was heavily reliant on scripture; in the Bible, the number three represented the ''principium formarum'', or the original form. Furthermore, it was the number of the Holy [[Trinity]]. Thus, the number three formed the perfect body, paralleling the Trinity. This allowed man and Earth to approach the infinity of God, and created a universality in sympathy and composition between all things.

===Macrocosm–microcosm relationship===
Fludd's application of his mystically inclined tripartite theory to his philosophies of medicine and science was best illustrated through his conception of the [[Macrocosm and microcosm]] relationship. The divine light (the second of Fludd's primary principles) was the "active agent" responsible for creation. This informed the development of the world and the Sun, respectively. Fludd concluded, from a reading of Psalm 19:4—"In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun"—that the Spirit of the Lord was contained literally within the Sun, placing it central to Fludd's model of the macrocosm.<ref name="William H. Huffman 146">{{cite book|author=William H. Huffman|title=Robert Fludd|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pTAiTfP5jq4C&pg=PA146|year=2001|publisher=North Atlantic Books|isbn=978-1-55643-373-3|page=146}}</ref> remained in manuscript.<ref name="Debus, p. 255">Debus, p. 255.</ref> As the Sun was to the Earth, so was the heart to mankind. The Sun conveyed Spirit to the Earth through its rays, which circulated in and about the Earth giving it life. Likewise, the blood of man carried the Spirit of the Lord (the same Spirit provided by the Sun), and circulated through the body of man. This was an application of the sympathies and parallels provided to all of God's Creation by Fludd's tripartite theory of matter.

The blood was central to Fludd's conception of the relationship between the microcosm and macrocosm; the blood and the Spirit it circulated interacted directly with the Spirit conveyed to the macrocosm. The macrocosmal Spirit, carried by the Sun, was influenced by astral bodies and changed in composition through such influence. Comparatively, the astral influences on the macrocosmal Spirit could be transported to the microcosmal Spirit in the blood by the active commerce assumed between the macrocosm and the microcosm. Fludd extended this interaction to his conception of disease: the movement of Spirit between the macrocosm and microcosm could be corrupted and invade the microcosm as disease. Like Paracelsus, Fludd conceived of disease as an external invader, rather than a complexional imbalance.