(52) And the third Principle retains its Light wholly for itself, which (as soon as the Light of Life springs up) presses into the Tincture of the Soul, to the Element, and reaches after the Element; but it attains no more than to the Light of the Sun, which is proceeded out of the Quinta Essentia, out of the Element. And thus the Stars and Elements rule in their Light and Virtue, which is the Sun's, and qualify with the Soul, and bring many Distempers, and also Diseases into the Essences, from whence come Stitches, Agues, Swellings and [other] Sicknesses, [as] the Plague, &c. into those [Essences,] and at last their Corruption and Death.

(33) O how many Enemies has the Life among the Constellations [or Stars,] which qualify [or mingle their Influence] with the Tincture and Elements. When the Planets and the Stars have their Conjunctions, and where they cast their poisonous Rage into the Tincture, there arises in the Life of the meek Tincture, stinging, tearing, and torturing. For the sweet [or pleasant] Tincture (being a sweet and pleasing Refreshment) cannot endure any impure Thing. And therefore when such poisonous Influences are darted into it, then it resists and continually cleanses itself; but as soon as it is overwhelmed, that it is darkened, then the Flash goes out, the Life breaks, and the Body falls away, and becomes a Cadaver, Carcase, [or dead Corpse;] for the Spirit is the Life.

(10) And thus yet the one must be parted from the other, viz. the Kingdom of this World, which is a Root, or Stirrer up of the Root of the Fierceness, and therefore it was necessary that God should pass with the new Body into the Separation of the Root, and of the Kingdom of this World, as into the Death of the Fierceness, and should destroy Death, and spring with its own Virtue and Power through Death, as a Flower springs out of the Earth, and so hold the inward Fierceness captive xin his own Virtue of the new Body. 1 1. And this we understand of Christ, who is truly entered in such a Manner, and has taken the strong Anger (and the Devil in it) captive, and has sprung with his holy heavenly Body through Death, and has destroyed Death, so that the eternal Life springs forth through Death; and thus Death was taken captive by the new eternal Body, and it is an eternal Imprisonment; so that an eternal Life is grown in Death, and the new Body treads upon the Head of Death, and of the Fierceness; the Property of Death stands in the Prison of the new eternal Life.

(14) Thus we have got a Prince of the eternal Life, and we need do no more but to press into him with a firm Trust and strong Belief, and then our Soul receives his Love, and springs forth with him through Death, and stands upon that which is earthly, viz. upon Flesh and Blood, and is a Fruit in the Kingdom of God, in the Body of Jesus Christ, and triumphs over the Fierceness; for the Love holds that captive, and that is a Reproach to Death; as Paul says, O Death! where is thy Sting? O Hell! where is thy Victory? Thanks be to God, who has given us Victory.

(47) Here, ye beloved Sheep, observe: When Christ died, he did not cast away his Body (which he had here) and yield it up to the four Elements to be swallowed up, so that he must have wholly a strong Body; no, but zthe Source [or Property] of this World, which is in the Stars and Elements; and the a Incorruptible swallowed up the Corruptible, so that it is a Body which lives (in the Virtue of God) in God, and not in the Spirit of this [sour elementary] World; and Paul says concerning the last Judgment, That the Incorruptible (viz. the new Man) shall overpower the Corruptible, and shall swallow up the Corruptible, so that Death shall be made a Scorn, according to that Saying, [O Death!] where is thy Sting? O Hell! where is thy Victory?

(32) But alas! the Life has many greater and more powerful Enemies; especially the four Elements and the Constellations [or Stars.] As soon as [any] one Element becomes too strong, the Tincture flies from it, and then the Life has its End: if it be overwhelmed with Water, it grows cold, and the Fire goes out, then the Flash flies away like a Glance or Shadow: If it be overwhelmed with Earth, viz. with impure Matter, then the Flash grows dark, and flies away: If it be overwhelmed with Air, that it be stopt, then the Tincture is stifled, and the springing Essences, and the Flash breaks into a Glance, and goes into its Ether. But if it be overwhelmed with Fire or Heat, the Flash is inflamed, and burns up the Tincture, from whence the Blood becomes dark, and swarthy, or black, and the Flash goes out in the Meekness.

(4) Consequently, therefore, though disease, and accident, and what is most terrible of all, death, come upon the Gnostic, he remains inflexible in soul, -knowing that all such things are a necessity of creation, and that, also by the power of God, they become the medicine of salvation, benefiting by discipline those who are difficult to reform; allotted according to desert, by Providence, which is truly good.

(20) "(Last Digestion.) IN GREAT MEASURE IT ASCENDS FROM THE EARTH UP TO HEAVEN, AND DESCENDS AGAIN, NEWBORN, ON THE EARTH, AND THE SUPERIOR AND THE INFERIOR ARE INCREASED IN POWER. The Azoth ascends from the Earth, from the bottom of the Glass, and redescends in Veins and drops into the Earth and by this continual circulation the Azoth is more and more subtilized, Volatilizes Sol and carries the volatilized Solar atoms along with it and thereby becomes a Solar Azoth, i.e. our third, and genuine Sophic Mercury, and this circulation of the Solar Azoth must continue until it ceases of itself, and the Earth has sucked it all in, when it muse become the black pitchy matter, the Toad [the substances in the alchemical retort and also the lower elements in the body of man], which denotes complete putrefaction or Death of the Compound.

(11) Whoever has done good in the main, has a power of spirit that is pure and clear when death comes. It passes out by the upper" openings of mouth and nose. The pure and light air-power rises upward and loats up to Heaven and becomes the ive-fold, present shadow-genius, or shadow-spirit. But if, during life, the primordial spirit was used by the conscious spirit for avarice, folly, desire, and lust, and has committed all sorts of sins, then in the moment of death, the power of the spirit is troubled and confused, and the conscious spirit passes, together with the air, through the lower openings to the door of the belly. For if the power of the spirit is turbid and unclean, it crystallizes downward/ sinks down to Hell and becomes a demon. Then not only the primordial spirit loses its nature, but the power and wisdom of the true essence is thereby lessened. Therefore the Master says: If it moves itself, that is not good. If one wants to protect the primordial spirit, one must first not fail "to subjugate the knowing spirit. The way to subjugate it leads through the circulation of the Light. If one puts the circulation of the Light into practice, one must forget both body and heart. The heart must die, the spirit live. When the spirit lives, the breath will begin to circulate in a wonderful way. This is what the Master called the best (5). Then the spirit must be allowed to dive down into the abdomen (solar-plexus). The power then mixes with the spirit, and the spirit unites with the power and becomes crystallized. This is the method of putting the hand to it.

(22) Now the Sun and the Stars [or Constellations] continually kindle the Tincture, for it is fiery; and the Tincture kindles the Body, with the Matrix of the Water, so that they are always boiling, [rising] and seething. The Stars [or Constellations] and the Sun are the Fire of the Tincture, and the Tincture is the Fire of the Body, and so all are seething. And therefore when the Sun is underneath, so that its Beams [or Shining] is no more [upon a Thing,] then the Tincture is weaker, for it has no Kindling from the Virtue of the Sun. And although the Virtue of the Stars and the quality are kindled from the Sun, yet all is too little, and so it becomes feeble, [or as it were dead.] And when the Tincture is feeble, then the Virtue in the Blood (which is the Tincture) is wholly weak, and sinks into a sweet Rest, as it were dead or overcome.

(13) This vital energy has its origin in the spiritual body of the earth. Every created thing has two bodies, one visible and substantial, the other invisible and transcendent. The latter consists of an ethereal counterpart of the physical form; it constitutes the vehicle of archæus, and may be called a vital body. This etheric shadow sheath is not dissipated by death, but remains until the physical form is entirely disintegrated. These "etheric doubles, "seen around graveyards, have given rise to a belief in ghosts. Being much finer in its substances than the earthly body, the etheric double is far more susceptible to impulses and inharmonies. It is derangements of this astral light body that cause much disease. Paracelsus taught that a person with a morbid mental attitude could poison his own etheric nature, and this infection, diverting the natural flow of vital life force, would later appear as a physical ailment. All plants and minerals have an invisible nature composed of this "archæus," but each manifests it in a different way.

(37) And as an Herb (by the pleasant Sun-shine) grows out of the Earth, so our new Man in Christ grows out of the old, sour, cold, harsh Man of our earthly Flesh [and Blood.] And that is the true Light of the Pearl, when we apprehend it truly and really (in the Knowledge) in the new Man; and it is the Sword wherewith we can fight against the Devil. Only we must take the Sword of the Death of Christ into our Hand, which cuts so sharply, that the Devil must fly away. Or Evil.

(2) As it is mentioned above, so the Life in the Anguish, with the Kindling of the Light, takes its Beginning from the Glance of the Sunshine, from the Spirit of the Stars and Elements in the great Anguish, where Death and Life wrestle one with the other. For when Man departed from Paradise into another Birth (viz. into the Spirit of this World, into the Quality of the Sun, Stars, and Elements) then the paradisical [Vision or] Seeing ceased, [or was extinguished,] where Man sees from the divine Virtue, without [Need of] the Sun and Stars; where the Springing up of the Life is in the Holy Ghost, and the Light of God is the Glance of the Spirit, from whence he sees; which went out; for the Spirit of the Soul went into the Principle of this World.