(41) And now after that the Stars and Elements (as is mentioned before) have got their Region and the House to dwell in, then begins the mighty Strife in great Anxiety about the King of the Life. For the Chamber of the Building (or Fabrick] stands in very great Anguish, and [here] we must consider the Original of the Essence of all Essences, the eternal Birth and the Root of all Things; as that there is in the House of the Anguish, first one only Essence [or Being,] and that Essence is the Mixing of all P Essences, and it has first a Will to generate the Light, and that Will is attractive, [astringent or sour.] Or Hell, A Dwelling for the Senses and Thoughts,

(11) And now it may very exactly be understood by the Essences and Property of the Soul, that in this House of Flesh (where it is as it were generated) it is not at Home; and its horrible Fall may be also understood [thereby.] For it has no Light in itself of its own, it must borrow its Light from the Sun; which indeed springs up along with it in its Birth, but that is corruptible, and the Worm of the Soul is not so; and it is seen that when a Man dies it goes out. And if then the divine Light be not again generated in the Center, then the Soul remains in the eternal Darkness, in the eternal anguishing [Source or] Quality of the Birth, where nothing is to be found in the kindled Captive. Fire, but a horrible Flash of Fire, in which [Source, Property, or] Quality, also the Devils dwell; for it is the first Principle.

(17) Now Man being thus fallen out of the Holy into the Unholy, out of the Image of God into the earthly Corruptibility, therefore his Body stood in the corruptible Death, and his Soul in the eternal Will of the Father, yet turned away from the Heart of God, into the Spirit of this World, captivated by the eternal Darkness; for whatsoever goes out from God, goes into the eternal Darkness, and without the Heart of God there is no Light.

(2) of the Treasury of the Light which I had received from the twelve ministers of the Midst, I cast into the sphere of the rulers. And the decans of the rulers and their servitors thought that they were souls of the rulers; and the servitors brought them, they bound them into the body of your mothers. And when your time was completed, ye were born in the world without souls of the rulers in you. And ye have received your portion out of the power which the last Helper hath breathed into the Mixture, that [power] which is blended with all the invisibles and all rulers and all æons,--in a word, which is blended with the world of destruction which is the Mixture. This [power], which from the beginning I brought out of myself, I have cast into the First Commandment, and the First Commandment cast a portion thereof into the great Light, and the great Light cast a portion of that which it had received, into the five Helpers, and the last Helper took a portion of that which it received, and cast it into the Mixture. And [this portion] is in all who are in the Mixture, as I have just said unto you."

(16) And now as we understand, that Man (with the Similitude wherein God dwells) is not merely at Home in this World, much Hurts, or moves. less in the stinking Carcase, so it is manifest (in that we are so very blind as to Paradise) that our first Parents (with their Spirit) are gone out of the heavenly Paradise into the Spirit of this World, where then the Spirit of this World instantly captivated their Body, and made it earthly, so that Body and Soul are perished; and now we have the pure Element no more for our Body, but the Out-Birth, (viz. the four Elements, with the Dominion of the Stars) and the Sun only is the Light of the Body; also this Body does not belong to the Deity. God does not discover himself in the stinking Carcase [or Corpse,] but in the holy Man, in the pure Image which he created in the Beginning.

(90) Now the heavenly [Body] must overcome the earthly, that the earthly may be as it were dead and impotent, and that the heavenly may xkeep the Dominion. And now as Adam stood in the Angle (between Love and Wrath) when he was tempted, there stood both Kingdoms against him, and pulled at him; and as God the Father (direct forward in his reconciled Will) is the Kingdom of Heaven, and the clear Deity; and backward (in the eternal Root of Nature) there is his Wrath and Anger, and yet both of them are in the eternal Father; and as in the eternal Nature of the Wrath, the Light or the Kingdom of Heaven is not known, and also in the eternal Light, the Kingdom of Fierceness and Wrath is not known, because each Kingdom is in itself, so is the Soul of Man also; it has Kingdoms in it, in which it a trades, in that it stands. If it trades in the Kingdom of Heaven, then the Kingdom of Hell is dead in it; not that it is ceased, but the Kingdom of Heaven is predominant, and the Kingdom of Fierceness is changed into Joy; so also, if it trades in the Kingdom of Wrath, then that is predominant, and the Kingdom of Heaven is as it were dead; although indeed (in itself it does not vanish) yet the Soul is not in it.

(68) So also it is with the damned [Soul,] when the Body breaks, the Soul needs no flying forth, or departing far away; it remains in that which is Outermost a without the four Elements, in the Darkness, and in the anguishing Source; its Source is [that which comes] after the Light, and its Rising [or Springing-up] is Enmity against itself, and so climbs continually aloft over the Thrones of the Deity, and finds them not, to Eternity; but it rides in its Pride aloft over the Thrones, in their own Game, with the strong Might of the Grimness; of which you shall find at large, about the Description of the last Judgment.

(6) When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest, and findeth none. Then he saith, I will return into my house from whence I came out; and when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished. Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first. Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation.

(3) But now that the Wrath devours all, and wholly darkens the Mysteria, [Mysteries or hidden Secrets,] and makes the Source [or Quality] of the eternal Birth [to be] a Darkness, only that it may exalt its Wrath, and sees nothing in the Birth of Eternity, but brings all Things that are therein to nothing; that is a very great Babel, for it not only devours itself, but makes itself stark blind in Nature; and it makes of Man's Image mere evil wolfish Beasts, which think that they are gone out from Babel, and yet are begotten in Babel, and are in the Body of the evil devouring Beast, and so devour the House of their Mother, and manifest it to be a vile stinking Lake; and yet themselves will not go out from it, and it is altogether a Kingdom, which continually generates itself, in its own Voluptuousness and Pride, and also continually manifests its own Shame, and devours itself in the Wrath of its own Sins, and is rightly called Babel.

(10) For as all in the Fiat was held and created according to the [Will of the] a Fashioner, which was the sole and total Workmaster in all Things, in the seven Spirits of Nature, which broke nothing when he fashioned it, nor threw one [Part] from the other when he had made it, but every Thing separated itself, and stood in the Source of its own Essences, so there shall not need much Blustering, Thunder and Lightning, and Breaking, as this World in Babel teaches, but every Thing perishes in itself; the Source [or Flowing forth] of the Elements ceases, as a Man when he dies [ceases from working,] and all passes into its Ether [or Receptacle.] 1 1. And at the Time (before this Fabric [of Heaven and Earth] perishes and passes into its Ether) comes the Judge of the Living and the Dead; there all Men must see him in his, and in their Flesh; and all the Dead must rise through his Voice, and stand before him; and there the angelical World shall be manifested. And all the Generations of the Earth (which are not comprehended in the Body of Christ) shall howl, and then they shall be separated into two Flocks; and the Sentence of Christ passes over all, both Good and Bad; and there will be Howling, Trembling, Yelling, Roaring, and cursing themselves, the Children cursing their Parents, and wishing that they had never been born.

(9) Seizing me, he led me down to the House of Darkness, the dwelling of Irkalla, to the house where those who enter do not come out, along the road of no return, to the house where those who dwell, do without light, where dirt is their drink, their food is of clay, where, like a bird, they wear garments of feathers, and light cannot be seen, they dwell in the dark, and upon the door and bolt, there lies dust. On entering the House of Dust, everywhere I looked there were royal crowns gathered in heaps, everywhere I listened, it was the bearers of crowns, who, in the past, had ruled the land, but who now served Anu and Enlil cooked meats, served confections, and poured cool water from waterskins. In the house of Dust that I entered there sat the high priest and acolyte, there sat the purification priest and ecstatic, there sat the anointed priests of the Great Gods.

(19) But then the Darkness and Source [or Pain] were in the Midst in the Center, wherein Death, the Wrathfulness, Decay, and the Corruptibility did stick; and if that had not been, this World would have stood for ever, and Adam should not have been tempted: P They also, like a Death, (or a corrupting Worm of the Source,) did work together, and generate the Tree of Good and Evil in the Midst of its Seat [or Place,] because Death stuck in the Midst of the Center, by which this World shall be kindled in the Fire at the End of the Days. And this Source is even the Anger of God, which by the Heart or Light of God in the Eternal Father is continually put into the Meekness; and therefore the Word or Heart of God is called the Eternal Mercifulness of the Father.

(41) And there I saw the mansions of the elect and the mansions of the holy, and mine eyes saw there all the sinners being driven from thence which deny the name of the Lord of Spirits, and being dragged off: and they could not abide because of the punishment which proceeds from the Lord of Spirits.

(42) And so now the Angels and blessed Men [will] remain in the Birth of the Light; and the Spirits of Alteration out of Light into the Source [or Torment,] together with the Spirits of the wicked Men [will remain] in the eternal Darkness, where no Recalling is to be found; for the Spirits cannot go into the Corruptibility [or Transitoriness] again. They are created out of the aLimbus of God, out of the harsh Matrix, out of which the Light of God exists from Eternity; and not like the Beasts out of the Out-Birth, which went forth out of the Limbus of the conceived Purpose of God, which is finite [or takes an End,] and has been [or appeared] here, only that it might be an eternal Shadow and Figure.

(3) "And when I had put them to shame, I arose with my garment in the power—which is above the beast, which is a light—in order that I might make nature desolate. The mind that had appeared in the nature of darkness, and that was the eye of darkness, at my wish reigned over the winds and the demons. And I gave him a likeness of fire, light, and attentiveness, and a share of guileless reason. Therefore he was given of the greatness in order to be strong in his power, independent of the power, independent of the light of the spirit and intercourse of darkness, in order that, at the end of time, when nature will be destroyed, he may rest in the honored place. For he will be found faithful, since he has loathed the unchastity of nature with the darkness. The strong power of the mind came into being from the mind and the unconceived spirit. But the winds, which are demons from water and fire and darkness and light, had intercourse unto perdition. And through this intercourse the winds received in their womb foam from the penis of the demons. They conceived a power in their womb. From the breathing, the wombs of the winds girded each other until the times of the birth came. They went down to the water. And the power was delivered, through the breathing that causes the birth, in the midst of the rubbing. And every form of the birth received shape in it. When the times of the birth were near, all the winds were gathered from the water that is near the earth. They gave birth to all kinds of unchastity. And the place where the wind alone went was permeated with unchastity. Barren wives came from it and sterile husbands. For just as they are born, so they bear.

(69) Besides, the Kingdom of Hell, and of [fierce] Wrath, always gape after the Soul, and set their Jaws wide open to devour the captive Soul; which is held fast fettered with two strong Chains; the one of the Kingdom of Hell; the other of the Kingdom of this World; and it is continually led by the heavy, lumpish, bestial, and sickly Body, as a Thief who is often led to the Place of Execution, and still by a Petition reprieved, and laid in Prison again, and the poor Soul must lie thus in Prison the whole Time of the Body; where the Devil on the one Side very suddenly rushes upon it with his devouring Fierceness, Wrath, and Malice, and would carry it into the Abyss. Then instantly [it is beat upon by] the glistering [flattering] World, with Pomp, Bravery, Covetousness, and Voluptuousness of Perdition; presenting [again come upon it] Sickness and Fear, and it is continually trembling and quaking; and when Man goes but in the Dark, how is it amazed, and continually afraid that the Executioner will take it, and tdo Execution upon it! The Gate [or Explanation] of the great Sin, and Contrariety of Will against God, in Man.

(112) But because the Essences of the Soul were infected with the Poison of the Devil, and of Hell, so that the Soul could not be helped again, except it were born anew through the Word, out of the Mouth of God, viz. through his beloved Heart, (if ever it should attain the paradisical Joy and Source, [Condition or Quality] again, and qualify or mingle in the paradisical Essences, and if ever its Body should come out of the Element again to the Soul) then the Word (in the Virgin-Chastity) must become Man, and take Man's Flesh and Blood, and become a human Soul, and enter into Death, as also in the first Principle, into the dark Mind of the Eternity, where the Soul has its Original, into the Ground of Hell, and break in Pieces the dark Gate in the Ground of the Soul, and the Chains of the Devil, and generate [or beget] the Soul anew again out of the Ground [thereof,] and present it as a new Child (without Sin and Wrath) before God.

(34) But when the Kingdom of the Fierceness of the Wrath, of Death, and of Hell, saw that it had lost, and could not keep Man, then it said, I am Death, and a Worm, and my Virtue [or Power] is in him, and I will grind him and break him to Pieces, and his Spirit must live in me; and although thou World supposest that he is thine, because he bears thy Image, yet his Spirit is mine, generated out of my Kingdom; therefore take what is thine from him, I will keep that which is mine.

(19) Thus the Soul stood with great Longing and Desire; also was many Times in great Combat with the Hunter, who would still throw it to the Ground. When it set itself in Opposition against him, then he took all the Vices (which stuck in Flesh and Blood) and cast them upon the Soul, that he might intangle it with them, and hinder it from comprehending the Virgin again; he made a great Mountain of the Sins in the Flesh and Blood, and therewith covered and shut close up the Mercy of God, viz. the new Man in Christ, and the Gates of Heaven, which stood open before, were shut up close: Misery and great Trouble were heaped upon the Soul, till at length once again, from the Breath of God (which came into it again) it was moved to break the Devil's Chains in Pieces, and it entered into Combat with him, so that he was quite thrown to the Ground, and its Covering was rent in Pieces, and then the Soul saw its beloved Virgin again. What friendly Welcoming there was then, I had rather the Reader might find by Experience, than that I should write of it.

(9) Of the holy house, the house of the gods, the habitation had not been made