(9) Now these two Gates are in one another; the nethermost goes into the Abyss, and the uppermost goes into Paradise; and a third Gate comes to these two, out of the Element with its four Productions, and presses in together with the Fire, Air, Water, and Earth; and their Kingdom is the Sun and Stars, which qualify with the first Will; and their Desire is to be filled, to swell, and to be great. These draw into them, and fill the Chamber of the Deep, [viz.] the free and naked Will in the Mind; they bring the Glimpse [or Glance] of the Stars into the Gate of the Mind, and qualify with the Sharpness of the Glimpse [or Flash;] they fill the broken Gates of the Darkness with Flesh, and wrestle continually with the first Will (from whence they are gone forth) for the Kingdom [or Dominion,] and yield themselves up to the first Will, as to their Father, which willingly receives their Region [or Dominion.] For he is obscure and dark, and they are rough and sour, also bitter and cold; and their Life is a seething Source of Fire, wherewith they govern in the Mind, in the Gall, Heart, Lungs, and Liver, and in all Members [or Parts] of the whole Body, and Man is their own; the Spirit which stands in the Flash brings the Constellation into the Tincture of its Property, and infects the Thoughts, according to the Dominion of the Stars; they take the Body and tame it, and bring their bitter Roughness into it.

(4) Nearer approached we, and were in such place, That there, where first appeared to me a rift Like to a crevice that disparts a wall, I saw a portal, and three stairs beneath, Diverse in colour, to go up to it, And a gate-keeper, who yet spake no word. And as I opened more and more mine eyes, I saw him seated on the highest stair, Such in the face that I endured it not. And in his hand he had a naked sword, Which so reflected back the sunbeams tow'rds us, That oft in vain I lifted up mine eyes. "Tell it from where you are, what is't you wish?" Began he to exclaim; "where is the escort? Take heed your coming hither harm you not!" "A Lady of Heaven, with these things conversant," My Master answered him, "but even now Said to us, 'Thither go; there is the portal.'" "And may she speed your footsteps in all good," Again began the courteous janitor; "Come forward then unto these stairs of ours." Thither did we approach; and the first stair Was marble white, so polished and so smooth, I mirrored myself therein as I appear.

(21) This symbolic figure, representing the way to everlasting life, is described by Khunrath in substance as follows: "This is the Portal of the amphitheatre of the only true and eternal Wisdom--a narrow one, indeed, but sufficiently august, and consecrated to Jehovah. To this portal ascent is made by a mystic, indisputably prologetic, flight of steps, set before it as shown in the picture. It consists of seven theosophic, or, rather, philosophic steps of the Doctrine of the Faithful Sons. After ascending the steps, the path is along the way of God the Father, either directly by inspiration or by various mediate means. According to the seven oracular laws shining at the portal, those who are inspired divinely have the power to enter and with the eyes of the body and of the mind, of seeing, contemplating and investigating in a Christiano-Kabalistic, divino-magical, physico-chemical manner, the nature of the Wisdom: Goodness, and Power of the Creator; to the end that they die not sophistically but live theosophically, and that the orthodox philosophers so created may with sincere philosophy expound the works of the Lord, and worthily praise God who has thus blessed these friend, of God." The above figure and description constitute one of the most remarkable expositions ever made of the appearance of the Wise Man's House and the way by which it must be entered.

(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.

(37) And which, seeing it qualifieth or uniteth with the innermost birth of the astral birth or geniture, cometh to help the Salitter of the corrupted earth, and quencheth its wrath; whereby, in the astral birth or geniture, all stands in the life. And so the earth generateth the life through the death. The Gate of the Mystery.

(9) Hence come the seas and all the mountains, from him flow the rivers of every kind; hence come all herbs and the juice through which the inner Self subsists with the elements.

(7) The other Gate or Chain is the Flesh and Blood, with the Region [or Dominion] of the Stars; there the Soul is fast bound, and swims therein, as in a great Sea, which daily so stirs up the Soul, that it is kindled.

(52) I see not this knowledge with my fleshly eyes, but with those eyes wherein life generateth itself in me; in that seat the gates of heaven and hell stand open to me, and the new man speculateth into the midst or centre of the astral birth or geniture, and to him the inner and outermost gate stands open.

(43) Now the innermost birth of heaven reflects strongly upon the earth, and holdeth the outermost water upon the earth strongly captive, together with the earth also.

(19) Keeping the thoughts on the space between the two eyes allows the Light to penetrate. Thereupon, the spirit crystallizes and enters the centre in the midst of the conditions. The centre in the midst of the conditions is the lower Elixir- ield, the place of power (solar plexus).

(1) Likewise it carried Smell across. When that was freed from death, it became wind. This wind, when it has crossed beyond death, purifies.

(116) This, as is mentioned above, is that fair, bright and holy heaven, which is thus in the total Deity, and which has neither beginning nor end, whither no creature with its sense can reach.

(14) Wandering, in Heaven, one eats the spirit-power of the receptive. This shows how the spirit penetrates the power, and how Heaven penetrates the Earth; this happens so that the fire can be nourished.

(4) 'These are the two ends, air among the Devas, breath among the senses (prânâh).' ________________

(29) This therefore is the only ground and meaning, that the holy Father, who is ALL, would have in these angelical gates his most joyful and most richly loving qualities, out of which is generated the most joyful and most richly loving light, word, heart, or fountain of powers; and therefore has he created his holy angels in this place for his joy, honour and glory. [30. "In the abyssal or bottomless eternity indeed, it is [the same] in one place as in another; but where there are no creatures nothing can be known, except by the spirit in its wonders."]

(103) Thou child of man, behold now, how great a gate of heaven, of hell, and of the earth, as also of the whole Deity, the spirit openeth to thee.

(5) The upper gate is the Udâna (out-breathing), that is air, that is ether. Let a man meditate on that as strength and greatness. He who knows this, becomes strong and great.

(21) The Mind has from the Beginning of the World had so very much to do about this Gate, and has continually so searched therein, that I cannot reckon the wearisome Heap of Writers [about it.] But in the Time of the Lily this Gate shall flourish as a Bay-Tree [or Laurel- Tree;] for its Branches will get Sap from the Virgin, and therefore will be greener than Grass, and whiter than the [whitest] Roses, and the Virgin will bear the pleasant Smell thereof upon her pearly Garland, and it will reach into the Paradise of God.

(5) And the Lord opened ^evgnflood-gates^ of heaven, And the mouths of the fountains of the great deep, seven mouths in number.

(24) And thence a Fiery Whirlwind drawing down the brilliance of the flashing flame, penetrating the abysses of the Universe; for from thence downwards do extend their wondrous rays.