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(67) That is, when the Gall overflows, and runs to the Heart, then it kindles the Element of Fire, and the Fire kindles the Astral Spirits which reign in the Blood in the Veins and in the Element of Water; and then the whole Body trembles by Reason of the Wrath and the Poison of the Gall. And

(101) II. Thou canst not deny neither, but that the Gall in a Creature is not exited from the Heart, and yet is the Mobility or Stirring of the Heart, by a Vein that goes from the Gall to the Heart, from whence the Heat exists. But it has its first Original from the Flash of Life, and so when the Life generates itself in the Heart, and the Light rises up in the Water, then the Fire-crack goes before, which rises up out of the Anxiety of the Water in the Heat.

(70) Timaeus: in the burning heat. To this end they drew the channels of the windpipe to the lungs, and placed the lungs as a kind of padding round the heart, in order that, when the passion therein should be at its height, by leaping upon a yielding substance and becoming cool, the heart might suffer less and thereby be enabled the more to be subservient to the reason in time of passion. And all that part of the Soul which is subject to appetites for foods and drinks, and all the other wants that are due to the nature of the body, they planted in the parts midway between the midriff and the boundary

(27) Now the Flash in the Power of these four goes forth in the Heat, and rises up in the sweet Spring Water or Fountain; the Bitter makes it triumphing; the Astringent makes it shining, dry, and corporeal; and the Sweet makes it meek and mild; and so it receives its first Shining and Lustre in the Sweet; and here now the Flash, or the Light, subsists in the Midst or Center, as a Heart.

(106) After the Fire-crack of the Gall, or Mars, was departed from the Light of Life, then the Power pressed out of the Heart through the Light of Life after it, even into the Head into the austere Quality, and when the Power can rise up no higher, then it is stayed or captivated by the austere Birth, and is dried up by the cold.

(37) The Wind-pipe and Arteries, wherein the Air qualifies or operates, signify the Deep betwixt the Stars and the Earth, wherein Fire, Air, and Water, qualify in an elementary Manner, and so the Warmth, the Air, and Water, qualify also in the Wind-pipe and Arteries, as they do in the Deep above the Earth.

(40) The Heart in Man signifies the Heat, or the Element of Fire, and it is also the Heat; for the Heat in the whole Body has its Original in the Heart.

(79) Timaeus: of these processes we must assume to be this. Every living creature has its inward parts round the blood and the veins extremely hot, as it were a fount of fire residing within it; and this region we have, in fact, likened to the envelope of the fish-weel, saying that all that was extended at its middle was woven of fire, whereas all the other and outward parts were of air. Now we must agree that heat, by Nature's law, goes out into its own region to its kindred substance; and inasmuch as there are two outlets, the one out by way of the body,

(34) But that also the Element of Fire is, and rules in the Deep of the Air and Water, thou seest in Tempests of Lightning; also thou perceivest, how the Light of the Sun kindles the Element of Fire on the Earth with its Reflection, although many times aloft in the upper Region towards the Moon it is very cold.

(85) When the Power of the Heart of God pressed forth out of the eternal inexhaustible Fountain of the Water of Life through the Heaven of the Partition, and kindled the Water in the Place of the Sun, then the Flash, understand the Fire-flash, did shoot forth or went forth out of the Water, which was very terrible and bitter, out of which Mars came to be.

(53) All Qualities take their Beginning-Original in their Middle or Center: Therefore observe where the Fire is generated; for there rises up the Flash of the Life of all the Qualities, and is caught in the Water, so that it remains shining; and is dried in the Astringency, so that it remains corporal, and becomes shining, bright, and clear. Observe here, [Finite or transitory Original.]

(55) For the astringent and Fire-Spirit holds it fast, and the meek Water, which melts from the Body of Nature in the Kindling of the Light, that goes through the severe and earnest, cold and fiery Birth or Geniture, and is very sweet, pleasant, and lovely.

(23) I explain: A living body is illuminated by soul: each organ and member participates in soul after some manner peculiar to itself; the organ is adapted to a certain function, and this fitness is the vehicle of the soul-faculty under which the function is performed; thus the seeing faculty acts through the eyes, the hearing faculty through the ears, the tasting faculty through the tongue, the faculty of smelling through the nostrils, and the faculty of sentient touch is present throughout, since in this particular form of perception the entire body is an instrument in the soul's service.

The vehicles of touch are mainly centred in the nerves- which moreover are vehicles of the faculty by which the movements of the living being are affected- in them the soul-faculty concerned makes itself present; the nerves start from the brain. The brain therefore has been considered as the centre and seat of the principle which determines feeling and impulse and the entire act of the organism as a living thing; where the instruments are found to be linked, there the operating faculty is assumed to be situated. But it would be wiser to say only that there is situated the first activity of the operating faculty: the power to be exercised by the operator- in keeping with the particular instrument- must be considered as concentrated at the point at which the instrument is to be first applied; or, since the soul's faculty is of universal scope the sounder statement is that the point of origin of the instrument is the point of origin of the act.

Now, the faculty presiding over sensation and impulse is vested in the sensitive and representative soul; it draws upon the Reason-Principle immediately above itself; downward, it is in contact with an inferior of its own: on this analogy the uppermost member of the living being was taken by the ancients to be obviously its seat; they lodged it in the brain, or not exactly in the brain but in that sensitive part which is the medium through which the Reason-Principle impinges upon the brain. They saw that something must be definitely allocated to body- at the point most receptive of the act of reason- while something, utterly isolated from body must be in contact with that superior thing which is a form of soul of that soul apt to the appropriation of the perceptions originating in the Reason-Principle.

Such a linking there must be, since in perception there is some element of judging, in representation something intuitional, and since impulse and appetite derive from representation and reason. The reasoning faculty, therefore, is present where these experiences occur, present not as in a place but in the fact that what is there draws upon it. As regards perception we have already explained in what sense it is local.

But every living being includes the vegetal principle, that principle of growth and nourishment which maintains the organism by means of the blood; this nourishing medium is contained in the veins; the veins and blood have their origin in the liver: from observation of these facts the power concerned was assigned a place; the phase of the soul which has to do with desire was allocated to the liver. Certainly what brings to birth and nourishes and gives growth must have the desire of these functions. Blood- subtle, light, swift, pure- is the vehicle most apt to animal spirit: the heart, then, its well-spring, the place where such blood is sifted into being, is taken as the fixed centre of the ebullition of the passionate nature.

(14) Behold all the seven Spirits without the Flash were a dark Valley, but when the Flash rises up between the astringent and bitter Qualities, in the Heat, then it becomes shining in the sweet Water, and in the Flames of the Heat it becomes bitter, and triumphing and living, and in the astringent it becomes corporeal, dry and bright. And

(23) The region of air (e) is a partial exception to this order. While air is close to the light and filled with beautiful spirits, it is also the habitation of Beelzebub, the Evil Spirit of the air, with his legion of elemental demons. Upon the subtle element of air are impressed the influences of the stars; the thoughts, words, and deeds of man; and a myriad of mysterious influences from the various planes of Nature. Man inhales these impressions, and they produce diverse effects upon his mind. In air are suspended also the seed germs by which water is impregnated and made capable of bringing forth forms of organic and inorganic life. The grotesque figures seen in crystal caves and frost pictures upon windows are caused by these aerial impressions. While the air elementals are great and wise, they are treacherous and confused because amenable to both good and evil impressions. The mighty elemental beings who inhabit the watery light fire of the region X cannot be deceived by the spirits of darkness. They love the creatures of the waters, for the watery element (d) proceeded from the fiery water (X). Mortal man cannot endure the society of these fiery spirits, but gains wisdom from them through the creatures of the waters in which they continually mirror themselves. Figure 59 represents this solar system, with W and X as the locality of the Garden of Eden.

(38) In the Middle, or central Fountain or Well-spring, which is the Heart, where the Birth rises up, the astringent or harsh Quality rubs itself with the bitter and hot; and there the Light kindles, which is the Son, of which it is always impregnated in its Body, and that enlightens and makes it living.

(72) This Spirit takes its Original in the Fire-flash, that is, in the bitter Quality, and rises up in the Flash through the sweet Water, wherein it mitigates itself, so that it becomes clear and bright, and is reserved and kept in the astringent Quality, and there it touches or stirs all the Spirits; and from this Touching or Stirring rises up the Tone; its rising Source or Quality stands in the Flash, and its Body or Root stands in the sweet Water in the Love.

(121) For the Spirit, which is generated in the Heart, must in its Body walk through the Midst or Center of the Hellish Gates, and may very easily be kindled; they are as Wood and Fire, which will burn, if thou pourest no Water in among them.

(62) This other Part of the astral Birth, which stands in the Love in the sweet Water, is the Firmament of Heaven, which holds the kindled Wrath together with all the Devils captive, for they cannot enter thereinto; and in that Heaven dwells the Holy Spirit, which goes forth from the Heart of God, and strives or fights against the Fierceness, and generates to himself a Temple in the Midst, in the Fierceness of the Wrath of God.

(13) Since the superior (or spiritual) center is in the midst of the other two, its analogue in the physical body is the heart--the most spiritual and mysterious organ in the human body. The second center (or the link between the superior and inferior worlds) is elevated to the position of greatest physical dignity--the brain. The third (or lower) center is relegated to the position of least physical dignity but greatest physical importance--the generative system. Thus the heart is symbolically the source of life; the brain the link by which, through rational intelligence, life and form are united; and the generative system--or infernal creator--the source of that power by which physical organisms are produced. The ideals and aspirations of the individual depend largely upon which of these three centers of power predominates in scope and activity of expression. In the materialist the lower center is the strongest, in the intellectualist the higher center; but in the initiate the middle center--by bathing the two extremes in a flood of spiritual effulgence--controls wholesomely both the mind and the body.