(1) Moreover, with respect to the tenuity and subtilty of light, the Gods extend a light so subtle that corporeal eyes cannot sustain it, but are affected in the same manner as fishes, when they are drawn upward from turbid and thick water into attenuated and diaphanous air. For men who survey divine fire are not able to breathe, through the subtilty of it, but become languid as soon as they perceive it, and are deprived of the use of their connascent spirit. Archangels, also, emit a light which is intolerable to respiration, yet their splendour is not equally pure with that of the Gods, nor similarly overpowering. The presence of angels renders the temperature of the air tolerable, so that theurgists are capable of being united to it. But when dæmons are present, the whole air is not at all affected; nor does the air, which surrounds them, become more attenuated; nor does a light precede them, in which, being previously received and preoccupied by the air, they unfold the form of themselves; nor are they surrounded by a certain splendour, which diffuses its light everywhere. When heroes appear, certain parts of the earth are moved, and sounds are heard around them; but, in short, the air does not become more attenuated, nor incommensurate to theurgists, so as to render them unable to receive it. But when archons are present, an assemblage of many luminous appearances runs round them, difficult to be borne, whether these appearances are mundane or terrestrial. They have not, however, a supermundane tenuity, nor even that of the supreme elements. And to the psychical appearances the air is more allied, and, being suspended from them, receives in itself their circumscription.

(86) And as is the rising up of the spirits in every place, so the tone also formeth itself, but very meekly, and incomprehensibly to the bodies of the angels, but very comprehensibly to the animated or soulish birth or geniture of angels: and as the Deity presenteth itself in each place, so the angels also present themselves: For the angels were created out of this being, and have among them their princes of the qualifying or fountain spirits of God, as these princes are in the birth or geniture of God.

(65) As the Son of God, without or distinct from the angels, is generated in the middle or central fountain spring, in the heat, in the sweet water, out of or from all the seven spirits of God, and reenlighteneth back again all the seven spirits of God, whence they have their life and joy:

(36) Now, that qualifying or fountain spirit in the Deity which does shew itself then specially or more distinctly with its rising up and love-wrestling, as if it had become the prince or chief of them, that very angelprince belonging to it beginneth instantly his heavenly music with his own legions, according to his quality, with singing, ringing forth piping melody, and in all the manners of heavenly skill and art, which riseth up in the spirits of God.

(39) Now that light in Lucifer was so fair, bright and beautiful, that he excelled the bright form of heaven, and in that light was perfect understanding; for all the seven qualifying or fountain spirits generate that same light.

(46) But now the qualifying or fountain spirits in Lucifer did not so; but they, seeing that they sat in the highest primacy or rank, moved themselves so hard and strongly that the spirit which they generated was very fiery, and climbed up in the fountain of the heart, like a proud damsel or virgin.

(10) Here thou must know that the angels are not all of one quality, neither are they equal or alike to one another in power and might: Indeed every angel has the power of all the seven qualifying or fountain spirits, but in every one there is somewhat of one quality more predominant and strong than another, and according to that quality is he also glorified.

(5) 'Having dwelt there, till their (good) works are consumed, they return again that way as they came , to the ether, from the ether to the air. Then the sacrificer, having become air, becomes smoke, having become smoke, he becomes mist,

(31) In this tone riseth up the power of all the six spirits, and becometh a palpable body, to speak after an angelical manner, and subsisteth in the power of the other six spirits, and in the light; and this is the body of nature, wherein all heavenly creatures, ideas, figures and sprouts or vegetations are imaged or fashioned. The Holy Gates.

(142) Now for such an end has God created the angels, and they do so too: for their spirit, which in the centre or heart goeth forth from their light in the power of all the seven qualifying or fountain spirits, that goeth forth at their mouth, as God the Holy Ghost goeth forth from the Father and Son, and helpeth to form, image or frame all in God (that is to say, in the divine nature) through the Mercurius, song and speaking and sport or scene of joy.

(60) For in the first four qualifying or fountain spirits stands the divine birth or geniture; therefore they must be very earnest and strong also, though they, too, have among them their meek mother, the sweet water; and in the fifth stands the gracious, amiable and blessed love; and in the sixth the joy, and in the seventh the framing, imaging or comprehensibility.

(113) Now their foot does stay upon the seventh spirit of God, which is solid like a cloud, and clear and bright as a crystalline sea, wherein they walk upward and downward, which way soever they please. For their agility or nimbleness is as swift as the divine power itself, yet one angel is more swift than another, and that according to the quality of each.

(111) The whole nature of the heaven stands in the seven qualifying or fountain spirits, and in the seventh consisteth nature or the apprehensibility of all the qualities: This now is very lightsome and solid as a cloud, but very transparent and shining, like a crystalline sea, so that a man can see through and through it all: Yet the whole depth upward and downward is wholly thus.

(125) For their bodily or corporeal birth stands only in the seven qualifying or fountain spirits, but the animated or soulish birth in the angels uniteth, mixeth or operateth with God; but it is not so in the devils.

(16) Therefore the qualifying or fountain spirits became stately and proud, and supposed they had a much fairer little son or light than the Son of God was; and therefore they would also the more earnestly and eagerly qualify or operate, and elevate themselves, and so despised the qualifying or acting which is in God their Father; and they despised the birth of the Son of God, as also the exit or going forth of God the Holy Ghost, and supposed they could do it; because they were so gloriously incorporated or compacted together, therefore they would now exalt themselves gloriously and stately, and shew forth themselves, as if they were the most fair and beauteous bride of heaven.

(49) To this end God the Father has created the angels, that as he is manifold and various in his qualities, and in his alteration or variegation is incomprehensible in his loveplay, so the little spirits also, or the little lights of the angels, which are as the Son of God, should play or sport very gently or lovely in the great light before the Heart of God, that the joy in the Heart of God might here be increased, and that so there might be a holy sport, scene or play in God.

(62) This other part of the astral birth, which stands in the love in the sweet water, is the firmament of heaven, which holdeth captive the kindled wrath, together with all the devils, for they cannot enter thereinto; and in that heaven dwelleth the Holy Spirit, which goeth forth from the heart of God, and striveth or fighteth against the fierceness, and generateth to himself a temple in the midst, in the fierceness of the wrath of God.

(1) Moreover, the gifts arising from the manifestations are not all of them equal, nor have the same fruits. But the presence of the Gods, indeed, imparts to us health of body, virtue of soul, purity of intellect, and in one word elevates every thing in us to its proper principle. And that, indeed, in us which is cold and destructive it annihilates; that which is hot it increases, and renders more powerful and predominant; and causes all things to accord with soul and intellect. It also emits a light, accompanied with intelligible harmony, and exhibits that which is not body as body to the eyes of the soul, through those of the body. The presence of archangels imparts likewise the same things, except that it does not impart them always, nor in all things, nor does it bestow goods which are sufficient, perfect, and incapable of being taken away; nor is their appearance accompanied with a light equal to that of the Gods. The presence of angels imparts divisibly still more partible goods, and the energy through which it becomes visible falls very short of comprehending in itself a perfect light.

(44) But the seven spirits, which are in an angel, and which generate the light and understanding, are bound and united with the whole God, that they should not qualify any other way, either higher or more vehemently, than God himself; but that there should be one and the same manner and way between them both.

(108) For in the light in the sweet water all astringency and hardness and bitterness and heat are mitigated and made pleasant, and so there is in the seven spirits nothing else but a pleasant striving, struggling and wonderful generating, like a divine holy sport or scene of God.