(1) "O Shem, the disturbance that occurred at my wish happened so that nature might become empty. For the wrath of the darkness subsided. O Shem, the mouth of darkness was shut. No longer does the light that shone for the world appear in it, according to my will. And when nature had said that its wish was fulfilled, then every form was engulfed by the waters in prideful ignorance. Nature turned her dark vagina and cast from her the power of fire, which was in her from the beginning through the rubbing of the darkness. It lifted itself up and shone upon the whole world instead of the righteous one. And all her forms sent forth a power like a flame of fire up to heaven as a help to the corrupted light, which had lifted itself up. For they were members of the chaotic fire. And she did not know that she had harmed herself. When she cast forth the power, the power that she possessed, she cast it forth from the genitals. The demon, who is a deceiver, stirred up the womb in every form.

(4) "And the light that was in the hymen was disturbed by my power, and it passed through my middle region. It was filled with the universal thought. And through the word of the light of the spirit it returned to its rest. It received form in its root and shone without deficiency. And the light that had come forth with it from silence went in the middle region and returned to the place. And the cloud shone. And from it came an unquenchable fire. And the portion that separated from the astonishment put on forgetfulness. It was deceived by the fire of darkness. And the shock of its astonishment cast off the burden of the cloud. It was evil, since it was unclean. And the fire mixed with the water so that the waters might become harmful.

(2) "And in order that the demons also might become devoid of the power that they possessed through the impure intercourse, a womb was with the winds resembling water. And an unclean penis was with the demons in accordance with the example of the darkness, and in the way he rubbed with the womb from the beginning. And after the forms of nature had been together, they separated from each other. They cast off the power, being astonished about the deceit that had happened to them. They grieved with an eternal grief. They covered themselves with their power.

(32) And there the Devil bestirred himself, and slipt into the Serpent, (which he himself is, in his own proper Form,) and laid himself at the Tree, and strewed Sugar upon it; for he saw well that Eve was a Woman, and that she was infected with the four Elements; and although she did strive a little, and objected God's command [against the Devil,] yet she suffered herself very easily to be persuaded, when the lying Spirit said, That the Fruit would make her wise, and that her Eyes should be opened, and she be as God, knowing Good and Evil; yet he told her not, that (if she eat thereof) she must die; but [he said] she should be wise and fair; which Disease [Desire or Lust] sticks still in the Brains of the Woman, that she would fain be the fairest Beast.

(32) But that, he did not, but reached back from the love into the wrath, and lusted after his dead or mortal mother, to eat of her, and to suck her breast, and to stand upon her stock.

(45) Reason saith, how might that come to pass, that the first Man born of a Woman was [so evil] a malicious Murderer? Behold, thou immodest vile whorish World, here thou shalt find the great Secrets meet us in the Light of Nature, very clearly and plainly to be understood. For Adam and Eve were entered into the Spirit of this World, and the Region of the four Stars, with the Infection of the Devil, had miserably possessed them. And although they did somewhat stick to the Word of the Promise, yet the true Longing and Love towards God was very much extinguished; and on the contrary, the Longing and Desire after this World was kindled in them; and besides, they got (from the Region of the Stars) a bestial Lust [or wanton Desire] towards one another, so that their Tincture thus became a fierce bestial [Lust or] Longing; for they had no Law but the Light of Nature, which they suppressed, and kindled themselves in wanton [Lust,] to which the Devil helped them.

(96) And the evil wind that was behind (him) he let loose in her face

(5) There where the name thereof becometh void Did I arrive, pierced through and through the throat, Fleeing on foot, and bloodying the plain; There my sight lost I, and my utterance Ceased in the name of Mary, and thereat I fell, and tenantless my flesh remained. Truth will I speak, repeat it to the living; God's Angel took me up, and he of hell Shouted: 'O thou from heaven, why dost thou rob me? Thou bearest away the eternal part of him, For one poor little tear, that takes him from me; But with the rest I'll deal in other fashion!' Well knowest thou how in the air is gathered That humid vapour which to water turns, Soon as it rises where the cold doth grasp it. He joined that evil will, which aye seeks evil, To intellect, and moved the mist and wind By means of power, which his own nature gave; Thereafter, when the day was spent, the valley From Pratomagno to the great yoke covered With fog, and made the heaven above intent, So that the pregnant air to water changed; Down fell the rain, and to the gullies came Whate'er of it earth tolerated not;

(106) It flattered with the bitter quality, and with the heat, and persuaded them that they should elevate themselves and be kindled, and so together they would destroy their mother, and turn her into a sour form or property, whereby they would domineer with their spirit very sharply over the whole Deity: All must bow down and incline to them; and they would form, frame, figure and image all with their sharpness.

(13) Now when these evil, devilish spirits (understand the centre of the genitrix) moved or boiled in God's Salitter, and made havock, or spoiled all therein, then there was nothing but stinging, burning, murdering, robbing, and a mere opposite or contrary will.

(46) And now when Eve was impregnated, her Tincture was wholly murderous and false, for her Spirit in the Love looked not upon God with a total Trust and Confidence. Also the Wisdom of God stood hidden in the Center of the Light of her Life. Eve did not unite [or yield herself] to it with Love and Confidence, but much rather to the Lust of this World; she must bring it to pass, if any Thing was to be done; and seeing her Trust was not in God, so also God was not in her, but in his own Center [or Principle;] and the Wrath begun to flow forth [boil or work;] and this is that which Christ said, An evil Tree brings forth evil Fruit; and so out of a false Tincture grew a sour evil Root, and consequently such a Tree and Fruit. Also that which goes forth [is] as the Tincture in the Mixture was, and such a Child is generated, for the Spirit of the Life generates itself out of the Essences.

(47) And here the Virgin turned her to the Heart of God, and said; My Heart and my Beloved, thou art my Virtue, from thee I am clear and bright, from thy Root I am generated from Eternity; deliver me from the Worm of Darkness which infects, [poisons,] and tempts my Bridegroom, and let me not be darkened in the Obscurity; I am thy Ornament, and am come that thou shouldst have Joy in me: Wherefore then shall I stand with my Bridegroom in the Dark? And the divine Answer said; The Seed of the Woman shall break the Head of the Serpent, or Worm.

(30) And this they practised so long till they had murdered their mother, the sweet water; and therein the whole body became a dark valley, and there was no more remedy or council in God that could help here: For love was turned into enmity, and the whole body became a black dark Teufel (devil).

(2) And on this manner may this deceit befall. A young man or a woman new set to the school of devotion heareth this sorrow and this desire be read and spoken: how that a man shall lift up his heart unto God, and unceasingly desire for to feel the love of his God. And as fast in a curiosity of wit they conceive these words not ghostly as they be meant, but fleshly and bodily; and travail their fleshly hearts outrageously in their breasts. And what for lacking of grace and pride and curiosity in themselves, they strain their veins and their bodily powers so beastly and so rudely, that within short time they fall either into frenzies, weariness, and a manner of unlisty feebleness in body and in soul, the which maketh them to wend out of themselves and seek some false and some vain fleshly and bodily comfort without, as it were for recreation of body and of spirit: or else, if they fall not in this, else they merit for ghostly blindness, and for fleshly chafing of their nature in their bodily breasts in the time of this feigned beastly and not ghostly working, for to have their breasts either enflamed with an unkindly heat of nature caused of misruling of their bodies or of this feigned working, or else they conceive a false heat wrought by the Fiend, their ghostly enemy, caused of their pride and of their fleshliness and their curiosity of wit. And yet peradventure they ween it be the fire of love, gotten and kindled by the grace and the goodness of the Holy Ghost. Truly, of this deceit, and of the branches thereof, spring many mischiefs: much hypocrisy, much heresy, and much error. For as fast after such a false feeling cometh a false knowing in the Fiend’s school, right as after a true feeling cometh a true knowing in God’s school. For I tell thee truly, that the devil hath his contemplatives as God hath His.

(19) For as the exhalations which arise from the earth, and from marshes, gather into mists and cloudy masses; so the vapours of fleshly lusts bring on the soul an evil condition, scattering about the idols of pleasure before the soul.

(92) Here it may be seen very plainly, that the Devil had lost his angelical Image; and comes now in the Form of a Serpent, with his murderous Lying, and beguiles the Woman. Because he had not been able to overthrow Adam wholly, therefore he sets upon the Woman; and promises her Wisdom, and the Riches of this World, and that she should be therein like God; the Devil mingled Lies and Truth together, and said, She shall be as God; but he meant, according to the Kingdom of this World, and according to the first Principle of the [fierce] Wrath, and let Paradise out; but Eve understood it, that she should continue in the Paradise, in the divine and pleasant Joy.

(3) Each one her breast was rending with her nails; They beat them with their palms, and cried so loud, That I for dread pressed close unto the Poet. "Medusa come, so we to stone will change him!" All shouted looking down; "in evil hour Avenged we not on Theseus his assault!" "Turn thyself round, and keep thine eyes close shut, For if the Gorgon appear, and thou shouldst see it, No more returning upward would there be." Thus said the Master; and he turned me round Himself, and trusted not unto my hands So far as not to blind me with his own. O ye who have undistempered intellects, Observe the doctrine that conceals itself Beneath the veil of the mysterious verses! And now there came across the turbid waves The clangour of a sound with terror fraught, Because of which both of the margins trembled; Not otherwise it was than of a wind Impetuous on account of adverse heats, That smites the forest, and, without restraint, The branches rends, beats down, and bears away; Right onward, laden with dust, it goes superb, And puts to flight the wild beasts and the shepherds.

(1) "And I said to her, 'May seed and power come forth from you upon the earth.' And she obeyed the will of the spirit that she might be brought to naught. And when her forms returned, they rubbed their tongues with each other and copulated; they produced winds and demons and the power that is from the fire and the darkness and the spirit. But the form that remained alone cast the beast from herself. She did not have intercourse, but she was the one who rubbed herself alone. And she brought forth a wind that possessed a power from the fire and the darkness and the spirit.

(3) For if thou should’st regard that supreme [point] of time when . . . the one nature doth pour forth the young into the other one, and when the other greedily absorbs [it] from the first, and hides it [ever] deeper [in itself]; then, at that time, out of their common congress, females attain the nature of the males, males weary grow with female listlessness. And so the consummation of this mystery, so sweet and requisite, is wrought in secret; lest, owing to the vulgar jests of ignorance, the deity of either sex should be compelled to blush at natural congress,—and much more still, if it should be subjected to the sight of impious folk. XXII

(85) But seeing it [The astringent or harsh spirit] could not do anything alone, it flattered and played the hypocrite with the other spirits, so that they followed it as their father, and did all that they saw it do, each in its own quality.