The Elemental Virtues of Natural Things — Agrippa, B1C9

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Since we have established that Classical Elements of Air, Fire, Water, and Earth are present in a mixture in all things, organic and inert, Agrippa instructs us now in how the Elements lend certain Virtues, or Qualities, to all things, in proportion to the Elemental mixture it contains.

First Qualities

The First Qualities are ‘Elementary’, the foundations of the Elemental essence itself. They are:

• To heat (Fire)
• To cool (Earth)
• To moisten (Water)
• To dry (Air)

Secondary Qualities

Once we move farther away from the more pure forms of the Elements themselves, we deal with Compound forms, which generate the compounded Virtues, called by Agrippa the “Secondary Qualities” of manifest reality.

Secondary Qualities include virtues such as maturating, digesting, resolving, hardening, corroding, burning, evaporating, mitigating, attracting, stupefying, bestowing, etc.

Third Qualities

When a substance is produced as a result of the Secondary Qualities, such as the provoking of urine or expressing of mammary milk, those substances produced are considered to be the Third Qualities of the Virtues of the Elements.

The Elemental Virtues of Natural Things Yield Wisdom

By understanding the fundamental virtues of natural things and meditating upon the interrelation between their Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary Qualities, the essence of a thing can be strengthened or weakened by the Will of Humanity. Therefore, study these qualities so you might create curative/restorative medicines, or cause disease and entropy to weaken barriers and enemies.

Source: Agrippa of Nettesheim, H. C. (2009). Three Books of Occult Philosophy (D. Tyson, Ed.; J. Freake, Trans.; First Edition, Eleventh Printing). Llewellyn Publications.