Paracelsus’s Doctrine of Signatures Reconsidered

This article examines Paracelsus's doctrine of signatures as a crucial component of his challenge to humoral medicine, integral to his localist understanding of diseases and drugs action. It addresses the boundaries that lead scholars to regard these aspects of Paracelsus's thought as "scientific," while the doctrine of signatures is associated with "religion" or "magic." By considering overlooked theological tracts, it demonstrates the interconnectedness of the three aspects of his thought, tracing Paracelsus's reinterpretation of the signatures as invisible signs back to his belief that all Gewächse (i.e., animals, plants, stones, and metals) grow from an invisible tree sprouted from God.