Concerning the Three Principles of the Divine Essence

outward elements, (viz. that which went forth from the element), will have the element, and mix itself therewith ; and then comes the outward fierceness Or by. of the stars, and draws it together * with the outward Fiat, and setts itself [in the rule or dominion], whereby the inward will in the love together with the element and the paradise becomes darkened ; and the love in the paradise goetih into its ether, and is extinguished in the tincture of the seed ; and the heavenly centre goes under, for it passes into its Princip e.

37. And then comes the woman with her stopped [or congealed] blood, with the stars and elements, and setts herself in [the dominion]. And here is the paradisical death, where Adam in the living body died ; that is, he died [as] to paradise and the element, and lived to the sun, stars, and the outward elements ; concerning which, God said to him, That day you eatest of good and evil, you shall die the death ; and this is the gate of the first death in the paradise, in which now man lives in the elementary woman of this world in the corruptibility.

38. And it highly concerns us to know and apprehend, that when the seed is sown in the matrix, and that it is drawn together by the Fiat (when the stars and the outward elements set themselves in [the dominion], and that the love and meekness is extinguished ; for there comes to be a fierce substance in the stopping [or congealCh. 15] KNOWLEDGE OF THE ETERNITY 321

ing] of the tincture) that before the kindling of the light of life, in the child, there is no heavenly creature. And although l it be figured [or shaped] 1 the creature.

with all the forms [or parts] of the body, yet for all that the heavenly image is not therein, but the bestial. And if that body perish [corrupt, or break] before the kindling of the spirit of the soul in the springing up of the life, then nothing of this figure appears before God on the day of the restitution, but its shadow and shape ; for it has yet had no spirit.

39. This figure does not (as many judge) go into the 2 abyss, but as the parents were, so is also their 2 Or hell. figure ; for this figure is the parents', till the kindling of its life, and then it is no more the parents', but its own. The mother affords but a lodging, and the nutriment ; and therefore if she destroys it willingly in her body, she is a murderess, and the divine law judges her to the temporal death.

40. Thus now the stars and the elements (after the withdrawing of the love in the tincture) take the house into possession, and fill it in the first

3 month. And in the second, they sever the 30r moon, members [or parts] by the sour Fiat, as is mentioned before. And in the third, the strife beginns about the regions of the stars and elements, where then they separate, and every element makes its own house and region for itself; viz. the heart, liver, lungs, bladder, and

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322 THE THREE PRINCIPLES [Ch. 15

1 a dwelling stomach ; as also the head to be the l house for the senses . i i • • and thoughts, of the stars, where they have their region [or dominion], and their princely throne, as it follows further :

41. And now after that the stars and elements (as is mentioned before) have gotten their region and the house to dwell in, then beginns the mighty strife in great anxiety about the king of the life. For the chamber of the building [or fabric] stands in very great anguish, and [here] we must consider the original of the essence of all essences, the eternal birth and the root of all things ; as that there is in the house of the anguish, first one only essence [or being],

2 being. and that 2 essence is the mixing of all 8 essences,

» or beings. and ft ^th first a will to 4 generate the forth. light, and that will is attractive [astringent or sour].