Wirdig's Magnetic Sympathy
Wirdig's Magnetic Sympathy
A theory of magnetic attraction and repugnance formulated by Tenzel Wirdig, professor at Rostock, who published his Tenzelius Wirdig, Nova medicina spirituum in 1673. Wirdig believed that everything in the universe possessed a soul, and that the Earth itself was merely a larger animal. Between the souls of things in accordance with each other there was a "magnetic sympathy" and a perpetual antipathy existed between those of an uncongenial nature. To this sympathy and antipathy Wirdig gave the name magnetism. He stated:
"Out of this relationship of sympathy and antipathy arises a constant movement in the whole world, and in all its parts, and an uninterrupted communion between heaven and earth, which produces universal harmony. The stars whose emanations consist merely of fire and spirits, have an undeniable influence on earthly bodies; and their influence on man demonstrates itself by life, movement, and warmth, those things without which he cannot live. The influence of the stars is the strongest at birth. The newborn child inhales this influence, and on whose first breath frequently his whole constitution depends, nay, even his whole life."