(12) Understand rightly the Manner of the Existence of this Mercurius. The Word M E R, is first the strong, tart, harsh Attraction; for in that Word (or Syllable Mer) expressed by the Tongue, you understand that it jars [proceeding] from the Harshness, and you understand also, that the bitter Sting or Prickle is in it; for the Word M E R is harsh and trembling, and every Word [or Syllable] is formed or framed from its Power or Virtue, and expresses whatsoever the Power or Virtue does or suffers. You [may] understand that the word [or syllable] C U, is [or signifies] the Rubbing or Unquietness of the Sting or Prickle, which makes that the Harshness is not at Peace, but heaves and rises up; for that Syllable [thrusts itself or] presses forth with the Virtue [or Breath] from the Heart, out of the Mouth. It is done thus also in the Virtue or Power of the Prima Materia [or first Matter] in the Spirit, but the syllable C U having so strong a Pressure from the Heart, and yet is so presently snatched up by the Syllable R I, and the whole Understanding [Sense or Meaning] is changed into it, this signifies and is the bitter prickly Wheel in the generating, which vexes and whirls itself as swiftly as a Thought: The Syllable U S is [or signifies] the swift Fire-flash, that the Materia, or Matter, kindles in the fierce Whirling between the Harshness and the Bitterness in the swift wheel; where you may very plainly understand [or observe] in the Word, how the Harshness is terrified, and how the Power or Virtue in the Word sinks down, or falls back again upon the Heart, and becomes very feeble and thin: Yet the Sting or Prickle with the whirling Wheel, continues in the Flash, and goes forth through the Teeth out of the Mouth; where then the Spirit hisses like a Fire in its kindling, and returning back again strengthens itself in the Word. mark.

(10) Here observe, the Shriek or Crack of the Fire is kindled in the Anguish in the Brimstone Spirit, and then the Shriek flies up triumphantly; and the aching, or anxious Harshness, or Brimstone- Spirit, is made thin and sweet by the Light. For as the Light or the Flash becomes clearer or brighter from the Crack of the Fire in the vanquished harsh Tartness, and loses its wrathful fierce Property, so the Tartness loses its Authority by the Infection or Mixture of the Light, and is made thin or transparent, and sweet by the white Light: For in the Original the Harshness or Astringency was altogether dark, and aching with Anguish, by Reason of its hardness and attracting; but now it is wholly light, and thereupon it loses its own Quality or Property, and out of the wrathful Harshness there comes to be an Essence that is sharp, and the Light makes the Sharpness altogether sweet. The Gates of God.