(5) And if the star itself was changed and smiled, What became I, who by my nature am Exceeding mutable in every guise! As, in a fish-pond which is pure and tranquil, The fishes draw to that which from without Comes in such fashion that their food they deem it; So I beheld more than a thousand splendours Drawing towards us, and in each was heard: "Lo, this is she who shall increase our love." And as each one was coming unto us, Full of beatitude the shade was seen, By the effulgence clear that issued from it. Think, Reader, if what here is just beginning No farther should proceed, how thou wouldst have An agonizing need of knowing more; And of thyself thou'lt see how I from these Was in desire of hearing their conditions, As they unto mine eyes were manifest. "O thou well-born, unto whom Grace concedes To see the thrones of the eternal triumph, Or ever yet the warfare be abandoned With light that through the whole of heaven is spread Kindled are we, and hence if thou desirest To know of us, at thine own pleasure sate thee."

(31) Behold! the stars are plainly incorporated or compacted out of or from God; but thou must understand the difference between the stars and God, for the stars are not the heart and the meek pure Deity, which man is to honour and worship as God; but they are the innermost and sharpest birth or geniture, wherein all things stand in a wrestling and a fighting, wherein the heart of God always generateth itself, and wherein the Holy Ghost continually riseth up from the rising of the life.

(29) Every star has a several peculiar property, which thou may perceive by the curious ornament of the budding, blossoming earth. And the Creator has therefore rebuilt and revived again the old kindled body into so many and various powers, that through this old life, in the wrath, such a new life might generate itself therein, through the closure of heaven, that that new life might have all the powers and operations that ever the old had before the times of wrath, that it might qualify, mix or unite with the pure Deity, distinct from this world, and that it might be one holy God, together with the Deity without, distinct from this world.

(39) And it is in the stars, as well as in all ends, corners and places, but not in any place comprehensible or palpable, and it at once filleth or replenisheth all alike. It is also in the body of man, and he that thirsteth after this water, and drinketh thereof, in him the light of life kindleth itself, which is the heart of God; and there [in that place] presently springeth forth the Holy Ghost. Now thou askest, How then do the stars subsist in love and wrath? Answer.

(63) This description sheweth that the first writer did not know what the stars are, though he was capable of understanding the right or law of God, and has taken hold on the Deity at the heart, and looked upon or had respect to the heart, to consider what the heart and kernel of this creation is; though the spirit kept the astral and outermost dead birth or geniture hidden from him, and did only drive him in faith to the heart of the Deity.

(29) Thou must not conceive that in the body of the stars is the triumphing Holy Trinity, God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, in which there is no evil, for it is the light-holy, eternal fountain of joy, which is indivisible and unchangeable, which no creature can sufficiently apprehend or express; which dwelleth and is above the body of the stars in itself, whose depth no creature is able to measure or fathom.

(29) But that the birth, or the body of the stars in their seat, does not change or alter (but do as they did from eternity), signifieth that there shall be a constant, continued birth or geniture, whereby, in one uniform operation, which yet stands in the infiniteness, the benumbed body of the earth should continually and constantly be kindled again, and generate itself anew, and so also should the house of darkness of the deep above the earth; whereby the new body might continually and constantly be generated out of death, till time should be accomplished, and the whole newborn body [perfected]. Now thou wilt object and say, Then sure the stars are God, and they must be honoured and worshipped as God.

(32) But the sharp birth or geniture of the stars cannot again apprehend the heart of God, nor the Holy Ghost; but the light of God, which riseth up in the anxiety, together with the moving of the Holy Ghost, remaineth free to itself as the heart, and ruleth in the midst or centre of the closure of the hidden heaven, which is from or out of the water of life.

(25) Now if we consider rightly of the sun and stars, with their corpus or body, operations and qualities, then the very divine being may be found therein, and we may find that the virtues of the stars are nature itself.

(33) For from the heaven the stars have their first kindling, and are only as an instrument, which God useth to the birth or geniture.

(79) Out of the anguishing chamber in the body of this world, out of the seven spirits of God, are risen or sprung forth the stars, which kindle the body of this world; and out of or from the body the fruit or seed generateth itself, which is the water, fire, air and earth.

(72) All the stars which men see, and those which they do not see, they all signify the power of God the Father; and out of these stars is generated the sun, which is the heart of all the stars.

(70) Nevertheless the quality of the stars reigneth in the spirit; yet the spirit can and may raise or demerse itself in its own qualities, or may live in the influences of the stars, as it pleaseth: It is free, for it has got for its own the qualities which it has in itself.

(90) He that does not know nor understand this, he does not at all know the birth of the stars, for all, concreted together, is one body. When once life is generated in any creature, the creature's life stands or subsisteth afterwards in the creature's own body, as the birth or geniture of the natural body of this world stands or subsisteth in its own body; for every life must be generated according to the right, law or ordinance of the Deity, as the Deity generateth itself continually.

(46) Now observe: The sun stirreth in the midst, in the deep between the stars, in a round circle, and is the heart of the stars, and giveth light and power to all the stars, so tempering the power of the stars that all becometh pleasant and joyful.

(94) For when the light is generated, it is generated in the midst or centre of the body, as a heart or spirit out of all powers; and there it stands and remaineth in the place where it had its beginning, and goeth forth through all the powers.

(36) It is not generated in and from the stars only, but in the whole body of this world; but the stars always kindle the body of this world, that the birth or geniture may subsist everywhere. But here thou must well observe this.

(21) Behold, the first, innermost and deepest birth or geniture stands in the centre, and is the heart of the Deity, which is generated by the qualifying or fountain spirits of God; and this birth or geniture is the light, which yet, though it be generated out of the qualifying or fountain spirits, no qualifying or fountain spirit of itself alone can comprehend, but every qualifying or fountain spirit comprehendeth only its own instanding, innate place or seat in the light; but all the seven spirits jointly together comprehend the whole light, for they are the father of the light.

(40) Behold! the stars are risen or proceeded out of the kindled house of God's wrath, as the mobility or stirring of a child in the mother's body or womb in three months. But now they have attained their kindling from the eternal, benumbed, not quite dead, water of life, for in nature that water was never dead.

(70) But here I will shew thee the right Mystery. Behold, the sun is the heart of all powers in this world, and is compacted, framed or composed out of all the powers of the stars, it reenlighteneth all the stars, and all the powers in this world, and all powers grow active, operative or qualifying in its power. [71. "Understand it magically: For it is a mirror, looking-glass, or similitude of the eternal world."]