(101) Now behold! When the seed is generated, it stands in the centre or midst of the body in the heart; for there the mother catcheth the Ternary or Trinity.

(94) Now that seed has first a mother, which is the dark chamber of the house of flesh. Secondly, it has a mother, which is the wheel of the seven spirits, according to the kind and manner of the seven planets. Thirdly, it has a mother that is generated in the circle of the seven spirits in the centre, which mother is the heart of the seven spirits.

(6) Now, the woman whom one may desire with the thought, with her and joining mouth with mouth, he should first inhale, then exhale, and say: c With power, with semen, I reclaim the semen from you! ' Thus she comes to be without seed.

(44) And so now there is a vehement Desire in the Creatures. The Spirit of the Male seeks the loving Child in the Female, and the Female in the Male; for the Irrationality of the Body in the unreasonable Creatures knows not what it does; the Body would not, if it had Reason, move so eagerly towards Propagation; neither does it know any Thing of the Impregnation [or Conception,] only its Spirit does so burn and desire after the Child of Love, that it seeks Love, (which yet is paradisical) and it cannot comprehend it; but it makes a P Semination only, wherein there is again a Center to the Birth. And thus is the Original of both Sexes, and their Propagation; yet it does not attain the paradisical Child of Love, but it is a vehement Hunger, and so the Propagation is acted with great Earnestness.

(41) Now then the feminine Tincture comes in to aid, and strives for the Child, and supposes that it has the Virgin: And the two Tinctures wrestle both of them for the Virgin, and yet neither of them both has her, and which of the two overcomes, according to that the Fruit gets the Mark of Distinction [or Sex.] But because that the feminine [Tincture] is weak, therefore it takes the Blood also to it in the Matrix, whereby it supposes it shall retain the Virgin. The secret Gate of Women.

(93) And then the sweet quality extends itself gently or mildly, and there grow little subtile leaves in the head, which are of the kind of all the qualities, and then the sweet water is as it were a pregnant woman new with child, having conceived the seed, and it always presseth onward, till it openeth the head.

(48) The seed of man is generated in such a manner as the wonderful proportion, harmony or form of nature in its wrestling and rising up is generated, from eternity.

(9) But if he choose to reply, let him first be asked, To what thing he applies the name, animal. And when he has answered this, let him be again asked, what, in his view, the foetus means, whether that which is in the womb, or things already formed and living; and again, if the foetus means the seed deposited, or if it is only when members and a shape are formed that the name of embryos is to be applied. And on his replying to this, it is proper that the point in hand be reasoned out to a conclusion, in due order, and taught.

(82) Here, O man, consider thyself well, and mind what manner of seed thou sowest into the earth, the very same will spring up, and bear blossoms and fruit for ever, either in the love or in the wrath.

(40) If birth is to be obtained over a heap of impurities, a sensation that it is sweet-smelling will attract one towards that impure mass, and birth will be obtained thereby.

(11) But other fell into good ground, and did yield fruit that sprang up, and increased; and bare fruit, some a hundredfold, some sixtyfold, and some thirtyfold.

(32) As above said, the visions of males and females in union will appear. If, at that time, one entereth into the womb through the feelings of attachment and repulsion, one may be born either as a horse, a fowl, a dog, or a human being.

(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

(28) But that the fruits get a body other than the earth is, which body is much fuller of virtue, fairer or more beautiful, also of a better taste, relish and smell, is because the astral birth or geniture receiveth power or virtue from the word, and formeth or frameth another body, which stands half in the death and half in the life, and stands hidden between the wrath of God and the love.

(6) Now, the woman whom one may desire with the thought, 'May she conceive!'— after coming together with her and joining mouth with mouth, he should first exhale, then inhale, and say: * With power, with semen, I deposit semen in you! ' Thus she becomes pregnant.

(94) And then also the sweet quality presseth forth in little leaves, like a woman who is in travail and bringing forth, but the little leaves or blossoms have no more its colour and form, but the form of all the qualities; for now the sweet quality must bring forth the children of the other qualities.

(60) Bonellus* saith: Know, all ye disciples, that out of the elect things nothing becomes useful without conjunction and regimen,* because sperma is generated out of blood and desire. For the man mingling with the woman, the sperm is nourished by the humour of the womb, and by the moistening blood, and by heat, and when forty nights have elapsed the sperm is formed. But if the humidity of the blood and of the womb were not heat, the sperm would not be dissolved, nor the foetus be procreated. But God has constituted that heat and blood for the nourishment of the sperm until the foetus is brought forth, after which it is not nourished, save by milk and fire, sparingly and gradually, while it is dust, and the more it burns the more, the bones being strengthened, it is led towards youth, arriving at which it is independent.t Thus it behoves you also to act in this Art. Know ye that without heat nothing is ever generated, and that the bath causes the matter to perish by means of intense heat. If, indeed, it be frigid, it puts to flight and disperses, but if it have been tempered, it is convenient and sweet to the body, wherefore the veins become smooth and the flesh is augmented. Behold it has been demonstrated to you, all ye disciples! Understand, therefore, and in all things which ye attempt to rule, fear God.

(14) Whatever form is produced, Ο son of Kunti, in any womb, the Great Nature is its womb, and I am the seed-giving Father.

(6) Verily, he who knows procreation (prajatf) procreates himself with progeny and cattle. Semen, verily, is procreation. He procreates himself with progeny and cattle, who knows this. The contest of the bodily functions for superiority, and the supremacy of breath l