(168) III. The Earth signifies or denotes the heavenly Nature, or the seventh Spirit of Nature, in which the Ideas, or Images, Forms and Colours rise up.

(5) And the representation of the earth contains men, cattle, reptiles, wild beasts; and of the inhabitants of the water, fishes and whales; and again, of the winged tribes, those that are carnivorous, and those that rise mild food; and of plants likewise, both fruit-bearing and barren.

(80) The Earth is the Fruit of the seventh Spirit of God, which is Nature or Corporeity, wherein the other six Spirits generate themselves again, and figure or frame the Salitter of the seventh Spirit into infinite Sorts of Forms or Shapes; so that the Earth also generates its Seed, which is the Fruit of Vegetation, as is apparent to the Eye.

(86) Therefore also in the Earth there are found, according to the Quality of each Spirit, mineral Oars, Stones, Water, and Earth; and therefore it is that the Earth is of so many various Qualities, all as each qualifying or fountain Spirit, with its innate instant Birth or Geniture, was at the Time of the Kindling.

(45) The outer circle contains the figures of the Zodiac; the second, their signs and that part of the human body which they rule; the third, the months of the year, with brief notes concerning temperaments, etc. The fourth circle contains the elements accompanied by their appropriate symbols, and the following seven circles mark the orbits of the planets; also the planetary angels, the seven major members of the Universal Man, and the seven metals, each division appearing under its appropriate element according to the elemental names in the fourth circle. In the twelfth circle appear the words: "There are Three Principles, Three Worlds, Three Ages, and Three Kingdoms." In the thirteenth circle appear the names of the twelve arts and sciences which are considered essential to spiritual growth. In the fourteenth circle is the word Nature. The fifteenth circle contains the following words. "It is the great honour of faithful souls, that from their very birth an angel is appointed to preserve and keep each of them." (See first English translation, London, 1893.)

(50) Kircher describes the 21 figures in the central panel thus: "Seven principal triads, corresponding to seven superior worlds, are shown in the central section of the Table. They all originate from the fiery, invisible archetype [the triple crown of the throne]. The first, the Ophionic or IYNX Triad, V S W, corresponds to the vital and fiery world and is the first intellectual world, called by the ancients the Aetherium. Zoroaster says of it: 'Oh, what rigorous rulers this world has!' The second, or Ibimorphous Triad, O Q R, corresponds to the second intellectual, or ethereal, world, and is concerned with the principle of humidity. The third, or Nephtæan Triad, X Y Z, corresponds to the third intellectual and ethereal [world] and is concerned with fecundity. These are the three triads of the ethereal worlds, which correspond to the Father Foundation. Then follow the four triads of the sensible, or material, worlds, of which the first two correspond to the sidereal worlds, G I K and γ δ ε, namely, Osiris and Isis, Sun and Moon, indicated by two bulls. They are followed by two triads--the Hecatine, LM N, and the Serapæan, ζ η θ, corresponding to the sublunary and subterranean worlds. These complete the seven worlds of primary Genii ruling the natural universe. Psellus quotes Zoroaster: 'The Egyptians and the Chaldeans, taught that there were seven corporeal worlds (i. e., worlds ruled by the intellectual powers);the first is of pure fire; the second, third, and fourth, ethereal; the fifth, sixth, and seventh, material; the seventh being the one called terrestrial and hater of light, and is located under the Moon, comprising

(62) The earthly Earth is like the holy Ternary, wherein is the heavenly Aquaster (viz. in the heavenly Earth, which I call the [one holy] Element) which is pure. Thus God is a Spirit, and the pure Element is heavenly Earth, for it is substantial; and the Essences in the heavenly Earth are paradisical Buds [or Fruits;] and the Virgin of Wisdom is the great Spirit of the whole heavenly World, in a Similitude, and that not only opens the great Wonders in the heavenly Earth, but also in the whole Deep of the Deity.

(78) Thou must know, that all the seven Spirits of God are in the Earth, and generate as they do in Heaven: For the Earth is in God, and God never died; but the outermost Birth or Geniture is dead, in which the Wrath rests, and is reserved for King Lucifer, to be a House of Death and of Darkness, and to be an eternal Prison or Dungeon. Of the seven Spirits of God, and of their Operation in the Earth.

(18) I saw the winds on the earth carrying the clouds: I saw ⌈⌈the paths of the angels. I saw⌉⌉ at the end of the earth the firmament of the heaven above. And I proceeded and saw a place which burns day and night, where there are seven mountains of magnificent stones, three towards the east, and three towards the south.

(8) By these seven letters were also made seven worlds, seven heavens, seven lands, seven seas, seven rivers, seven deserts, seven days (as before), seven weeks from Passover to Pentecost, and every seventh year a jubilee.

(75) 9. With the seven double letters He also designed seven earths, seven heavens, seven continents, seven seas, seven rivers, seven deserts, seven days, seven weeks (from Passover to Pentecost), and in the midst of them His Holy Palace. There is a cycle of seven years and the seventh is the release year, and after seven release years is the Jubilee. For this reason God loves the number seven more than any other thing under the heavens.

(81) In the Earth thou canst not perceive, find, or search out any Thing besides the Herbs, Plants or Vegetables and Metals, more than Astringency, Bitterness, and Water: But the Water now therein is sweet, opposite to the other two Qualities: Also it is thin or transparent, and the other two are hard, rough and sour, and always the one is against the other. Thereupon there is a perpetual Struggling, Fighting, and Wrestling, but in the Struggling of these three, the Life does not yet stand; but they are a dark Valley, and they are three Things which can never endure one another, but there is an eternal Struggling among them. And

(14) They are the Power of the seven Spirits of God; for when the Wrath of God was kindled by the Devil in this World, then the whole House of this World in Nature, or the outermost Birth or Geniture, was as it were benumbed or chilled in Death, from whence the Earth and Stones are come to be. But when this hard Dross or Scum was driven together into a Lump or Heap, then the Deep was cleared, but was very dark, for the Light therein was dead in the Wrath. But

(51) And the earth shall rejoice, c. And the righteous shall dwell upon it, d. And the elect shall walk thereon.

(33) 3rd. Primordial water He extracted from the air. He formed therein twenty-two letters and established them out of mud and loam, making them like a border, putting them up like a wall, and surrounding them as with a rampart. He poured snow upon them and it became earth, as it reads: "He said to the snow be thou earth." (Job. xxxvii. 6.)

(22) For thus stood the Birth or Geniture of Nature in the Time of the Kindling, and was thus together incorporated in the Earth, and must also in such a Birth spring up again: For it is written; 'That the dead Earth should let the Grass and Herbs, and Trees spring up, each according to its Kind,' that is, according to the Kind and Quality, as it had been from Eternity, and as it had been in the heavenly Quality, Kind and Form. For that is called its own Kind, which is received in the Mother's Body or Womb, and is its own by Right of Nature, as its own peculiar Life. [Gen. 1. 12.]

(69) But the Earth is come from the corrupted Saltiter of the outermost Birth or Geniture, which thou canst not deny, when thou lookest on Earth and Stones, for then thou must needs say, that Death is therein: And on the other Hand also thou must needs say, that there is a Life therein, otherwise neither Gold nor Silver, nor any Plant, Herb, Grass, or Vegetable, could grow therein. Now one might ask: Are there also all the three Births or Genitures therein? Answer. *

(2) He continued further in his discourse and said: "The third order is called Triple-faced Hekatē, and there are under her authority seven-and-twenty [arch]demons, and it is they which enter into men and seduce them to perjuries and lies and to covet that which doth not belong to them. "The souls then which Hekatē beareth hence in ravishment, she handeth over to her demons which stand under her, in order that they may torment them through her dark smoke and her wicked fire, they being exceedingly afflicted through the demons. And they spend one-hundred-and-five years and six months, being chastized in her wicked chastisements; and they begin to be dissolved and destroyed. "And thereafter, when the sphere turneth itself, and the little Sabaōth, the Good, he of the Midst, who is called in the world Zeus, cometh, and he cometh to the eighth æon of the sphere which is called the Scorpion, and when Boubastis, whom they call Aphroditē, cometh, and she cometh to the second æon of the sphere which is called the Bull, then the veils which are between those of the Right and those of the Left draw themselves aside and Zorokothora Melchisedec looketh out of the height; and the world and the mountains are agitated and the æons become alarmed. And he looketh on all the regions of Hekatē, so that her regions are dissolved and destroyed, and all the souls which are in her chastisements, are carried off and cast back anew into the sphere, because they are dissolved in the fire of her chastisements."

(27) When the seventh seal was broken there was silence for the space of half an hour. Then came forth seven angels and to each was given a trumpet. When the seven angels sounded their trumpets--intoned the seven-lettered Name of the Logos--great catastrophes ensued. A star, which was called Wormwood, fell from heaven, thereby signifying that the secret doctrine of the ancients had been given to men who had profaned it and caused the wisdom of God to become a destructive agency. And another star--symbolizing the false light of human reason as distinguished from the divine reason of the initiate--fell from heaven and to it (materialistic reason) was given the key to the bottomless pit (Nature), which it opened, causing all manner of evil creatures to issue forth. And there came also a mighty angel who was clothed in a cloud, whose face was as the sun and his feet and legs as pillars of fire, and one foot was upon the waters and the other upon the land (the Hermetic Anthropos). This celestial being gave St. John a little book, bidding him eat it, which the seer did. The book is representative of the secret doctrine--that spiritual food which is the nourishment of the spirit. And St. John, being "in the spirit," ate his fill of the wisdom of God and the hunger of his soul was appeased.

(17) For there, out of the Earth, sprung up Grass and Herbs, and Trees, and there now also it stands written thus: Each according to its Kind. In these Words lie the Kernel of the eternal Birth or Geniture hidden or concealed, and cannot be comprehended or apprehended by or with Flesh and Blood, but the Holy Ghost through the animated or soulish Birth must kindle the astral Man, otherwise he is blind herein, and understands nothing but concerning Earth and Stones, also Grass, Herbs, and wooden Trees. [Gen. 1. 12.]