49. When nature was enkindled, the element did unfold [and display] itself into four properties, which yet in itself is only one. The real element dwells in the essence which is mortified in the fire, otherwise the earth could bring forth no fruit. Those which now are called the four elements, are not elements, but only properties of the true element.
The element is neither hot nor cold, neither dry nor moist; it is the motion or life of the inward heaven, viz. the true angelical life as to the creature. It is the first divine manifestation out of the fire, through nature: when the properties of the eternal nature work therein; it is called Paradise.
1 Viz. as to your body and outward carcase of clay you art a guest for a while in this outward world, travelling in the vanity of time.
2 Viz. as to your soul, in its own self and creatural being, without the divine light or regeneration, in the abyss of hell.
3 As to your divine image, and spirit of love, in the eternal light.
50. By the word Himmel (heaven) is understood how the water, viz. the grossness in the mortal part, was coagulated, and separated from the holy crystalline water, which is spiritual. There, with the material, time began, as an essence expressed [or spirated] out of the spiritual water.
51. The spiritual water is living, and the spirated is dumb and unfeeling, void of understanding, and is dead in reference to the living water; of which Moses says, God has separated it from the water above the firmament.
52. The firmament is another Principle, viz. another beginning [or inchoation] of motion: the water above the firmament is the spiritual water, in which the Spirit of God rules and works: for Moses says also, the Spirit of God moves upon the water, for the spiritual element moves in the four elements; and in the spiritual element the Spirit of God moves on the spiritual water: they are mutually in each other.
53. The heaven wherein God dwells is the holy element; and the firmament or gulf between God and the four elements is the death;
for the inward heaven has another birth (that is, another life) than the external elementary life has. Indeed they are in one another, but the one does not apprehend the other: as tin and silver never mix aright together; for each is from another [or sundry] Principle; albeit they resemble each other, and have very near affinity to each other, yet they are as the inward and outward water to one another;
wherein also they are to be understood. For the inward and outward Venus are step-sisters; they come indeed from one father, but they have two mothers, the one whereof is a Virgin, the other deflowered; and therefore they are separated till the judgement of God, who will purge away her reproach and shame, through the fire.
54. Moses writes, that God created the heaven out of the midst of the waters; [and] it is very right. The astrum 1) is an external waterspirit, viz. powers of the outward water; and the material water is the body wherein the powers work. Now the fiery, airy and also earthly source is in the astrum;
the like is also in the material water. The superior [astrum] is the life and dominion of the inferior; it enkindles the inferior, whereby the inferior does act, move and work. The inferior is the body or wife of the superior; indeed the superior is couched in the inferior, but as weak, and impotent.
1 Understand by the word astrum, the whole starry heaven, with all its powers, properties, influences, and constellations, internal and external.
49. When nature was enkindled, the element did unfold [and display] itself into four properties, which yet in itself is only one. The real element dwells in the essence which is mortified in the fire, otherwise the earth could bring forth no fruit. Those which now are called the four elements, are not elements, but only properties of the true element.
The element is neither hot nor cold, neither dry nor moist; it is the motion or life of the inward heaven, viz. the true angelical life as to the creature. It is the first divine manifestation out of the fire, through nature: when the properties of the eternal nature work therein; it is called Paradise.
1 Viz. as to your body and outward carcase of clay you are a guest for a while in this outward world, travelling in the vanity of time.
2 Viz. as to your soul, in its own self and creatural being, without the divine light or regeneration, in the abyss of hell.
3 As to your divine image, and spirit of love, in the eternal light.
50. By the word Himmel (heaven) is understood how the water, viz. the grossness in the mortal part, was coagulated, and separated from the holy crystalline water, which is spiritual. There, with the material, time began, as an essence expressed [or spirated] out of the spiritual water.
51. The spiritual water is living, and the spirated is dumb and unfeeling, void of understanding, and is dead in reference to the living water; of which Moses says, God has separated it from the water above the firmament.
52. The firmament is another Principle, viz. another beginning [or inchoation] of motion: the water above the firmament is the spiritual water, in which the Spirit of God rules and works: for Moses says also, the Spirit of God moves upon the water, for the spiritual element moves in the four elements; and in the spiritual element the Spirit of God moves on the spiritual water: they are mutually in each other.
53. The heaven wherein God dwells is the holy element; and the firmament or gulf between God and the four elements is the death;
for the inward heaven has another birth (that is, another life) than the external elementary life has. Indeed they are in one another, but the one does not apprehend the other: as tin and silver never mix aright together; for each is from another [or sundry] Principle; albeit they resemble each other, and have very near affinity to each other, yet they are as the inward and outward water to one another;
wherein also they are to be understood. For the inward and outward Venus are step-sisters; they come indeed from one father, but they have two mothers, the one whereof is a Virgin, the other deflowered; and therefore they are separated till the judgement of God, who will purge away her reproach and shame, through the fire.
54. Moses writes, that God created the heaven out of the midst of the waters; [and] it is very right. The astrum 1) is an external waterspirit, viz. powers of the outward water; and the material water is the body wherein the powers work. Now the fiery, airy and also earthly source is in the astrum;
the like is also in the material water. The superior [astrum] is the life and dominion of the inferior; it enkindles the inferior, whereby the inferior does act, move and work. The inferior is the body or wife of the superior; indeed the superior is couched in the inferior, but as weak, and impotent.
1 Understand by the word astrum, the whole starry heaven, with all its powers, properties, influences, and constellations, internal and external.
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