(54) Now heaven kindleth with its power the stars and elements, so that they move and work: And so the head of man is also like heaven.

(15) There the Soul eats of all the Words of God; for the same are the Food of its Life; and it sings the paradisical i Songs of Praise concerning the pleasant Fruit in Paradise, which grows in the divine Virtue [or Power] of the divine Limbus, which is the Food of the kBody; for the Body eats of the Limbus, out of which it is, and the Soul eats of God and of his Word, out of which it is.

(146) Therefore I can bring it no further than from the heart into the brain, before the princely throne of the senses, and there it is shut up in the firmament of heaven; and it goeth not back again through the qualifying or fountain spirits into the mother of the heart, that it might come on to the tongue, for if that were done I would tell it with my mouth, and make it known to the world.

(99) There the tongue is terrified, trembleth and croucheth to the nether gums, and then the spirit cometh forth from the heart, and closeth the word, which conceiveth itself at the hinder gums, in the astringent and bitter quality, in the wrath, and goeth forth mightily and strongly through the fierceness, as a king and a prince, and also openeth the mouth, and ruleth with a strong spirit from the heart through the whole mouth within, and also without the mouth, and makes a mighty and long syllable, as a spirit which has broken the wrath.

(107) But when it cometh forth upon the tongue, then the tongue and the upper gums close the mouth; but when the spirit thrusteth at the teeth, and will go forth, then the tongue openeth the mouth at the teeth, and will go forth before the word, and at the mouth does as it were leap forth for joy.

(2) "The kingdom of heaven is like a head of grain that sprouted in a field. And when it was ripe, it scattered its seed, and again it filled the field with heads of grain for another year. So with you, be eager to harvest for yourselves a head of the grain of life that you may be filled with the kingdom.

(7) "Very well. Cure my teeth, which are really making me suffer day and night, and because of them and of my eyes I cannot be calm and cannot sleep. All of this is because two demons shot me with a pellet [from their blowgun] and for that reason I cannot eat. Have pity on me, then, tighten my teeth with your hands." "Very well, sir. It is a worm which makes you suffer. It will end when these teeth are pulled and others put in their place." "It is not well that you pull my teeth, because it is only with them that I am a lord and all my ornaments are my teeth and my eyes." "'We will put others of ground bone in their place." But the ground bone was nothing but grains of white corn. "Very well, pull them out, come and relieve me," he replied.

(5) But when we will speak of the Source [or Fountain,] and Joy of Paradise, and of its highest Substance, what it is, we have no Similitude of it in this World, we stand in Need of angelical Tongues and Knowledge to express it; and though we had them, yet we could not express it with this Tongue. It is well understood in the Mind, when the Soul rides in the Chariot of the Bride, but we cannot express it with the Tongue; yet we will not cast away the A, B, C, but prattle [or stammer] with the Children, till another Mouth be given us to speak with.

(73) Now when the heaven was made for a distinction or partition between the light of God and the kindled corruption of the body of this world, then was the body of this world a dark valley, and had no light besides the heaven that could have shone forth in the outward body; all powers stood as it were captivated in death, and were in great anguish, till they had heated themselves in the midst or centre of the body.

(50) Now heaven is a pleasant palace of joy, wherein all the powers are, as they are in the whole nature in the stars and elements, but not so hard working and springing. For every power of heaven has but one species, kind or form of power, springing very bright and meek, not promiscuously evil and good one in another, as in the stars and elements in the whole nature, but very pure.

(65) But that the mouth is swiftly opened again after the word is ended, it signifieth, concerning the deep above the earth, that God the Lord will nevertheless dwell there, and reserve his regimen for himself, and hold the devil as a prisoner in the wrath-fire.

(2) These quarters of heaven are honey for all things, and all things are honey for these quarters of heaven. This shining, immortal Person who is in these quarters of heaven, and, with reference to oneself, this shining, immortal Person who is in the ear and in the echo — he is just this Soul, this Immortal, this Brahma, this All.

(115) But that the whole word (Sprach) said, formeth or conceiveth itself at the hinder gums on the tongue in the hollow hole in the centre of the astringent and bitter quality, and snarleth, signifieth that God has conceived or framed the place of this world at the heart in the midst or centre of it, and has built to himself again a house to his praise, against all the grumbling, murmuring and snarling of the devil, in which he ruleth with his Holy Ghost.

(15) Then the word stands in the heart as a self-subsisting person, compacted from all the powers [combined]; it is a word and representeth or denoteth God the Son. Then [also] it riseth up from the heart into the mouth and upon the tongue, which [latter] is the sharpness, and sharpeneth the word, so that it soundeth, and differentiateth it according to the five senses.

(22) First there is the power, and in the power is the tone or tune, which, in the spirit, riseth up into the head, into the mind, as in man in the brain; and in the mind it [the tone] has its open doors or gates; but in the heart it has its seat and its origin, where it springeth [or ariseth] from all the powers.

(1) Whenever by delight or else by pain, That seizes any faculty of ours, Wholly to that the soul collects itself, It seemeth that no other power it heeds; And this against that error is which thinks One soul above another kindles in us. And hence, whenever aught is heard or seen Which keeps the soul intently bent upon it, Time passes on, and we perceive it not, Because one faculty is that which listens, And other that which the soul keeps entire; This is as if in bonds, and that is free. Of this I had experience positive In hearing and in gazing at that spirit; For fifty full degrees uprisen was The sun, and I had not perceived it, when We came to where those souls with one accord Cried out unto us: "Here is what you ask." A greater opening ofttimes hedges up With but a little forkful of his thorns The villager, what time the grape imbrowns, Than was the passage-way through which ascended Only my Leader and myself behind him, After that company departed from us.

(72) This I write as a word which is generated in its heaven, where the holy Deity always generateth itself, and where the moving spirit riseth up in the flash of life; even there this word and this knowledge is generated, and risen up in the lovefire through the zealous spirit of God.

(5) Yet would I not thy neighbours thou shouldst envy, Because thy life into the future reaches Beyond the punishment of their perfidies." When by its silence showed that sainted soul That it had finished putting in the woof Into that web which I had given it warped, Began I, even as he who yearneth after, Being in doubt, some counsel from a person Who seeth, and uprightly wills, and loves: "Well see I, father mine, how spurreth on The time towards me such a blow to deal me As heaviest is to him who most gives way. Therefore with foresight it is well I arm me, That, if the dearest place be taken from me, I may not lose the others by my songs. Down through the world of infinite bitterness, And o'er the mountain, from whose beauteous summit The eyes of my own Lady lifted me, And afterward through heaven from light to light, I have learned that which, if I tell again, Will be a savour of strong herbs to many. And if I am a timid friend to truth, I fear lest I may lose my life with those Who will hereafter call this time the olden."

(99) Woe to you, ye obstinate of heart, who work wickedness and eat blood: Whence have ye good things to eat and to drink and to be filled? From all the good things which the Lord the Most High has placed in abundance on the earth; therefore ye shall have no peace.

(6) Thus do these organs of the world proceed, As thou perceivest now, from grade to grade; Since from above they take, and act beneath. Observe me well, how through this place I come Unto the truth thou wishest, that hereafter Thou mayst alone know how to keep the ford The power and motion of the holy spheres, As from the artisan the hammer's craft, Forth from the blessed motors must proceed. The heaven, which lights so manifold make fair, From the Intelligence profound, which turns it, The image takes, and makes of it a seal. And even as the soul within your dust Through members different and accommodated To faculties diverse expands itself,