(17) In such wise than, as I have said, the generation of these seven came to pass. Earth was as woman, her Water filled with longing; ripeness she took from Fire, spirit from Aether. Nature thus brought forth frames to suit the form of Man. And Man from Light and Life changed into soul and mind - from Life to soul, from Light to mind. And thus continued all the sense-world's parts until the period of their end and new beginnings.

(38) And it highly concerns us to know and apprehend, that when the Seed is sown in the Matrix, and that it is drawn together by the Fiat (when the Stars and the outward Elements set themselves in [the Dominion,] and that the Love and Meekness is extinguished; for there comes to be a fierce Substance in the Stopping [or Congealing] of the Tincture) that before the Kindling of the Light of Life, in the Child, there is no heavenly Creature. And although kit be figured [or shaped] with all the Forms [or Parts] of the Body, yet notwithstanding the heavenly Image is not therein, but the bestial. And if that Body perishes [corrupts, or breaks] before the Kindling of the Spirit of the Soul in the springing up of the Life, then nothing of this Figure appears before God on the Day of the Restitution, but its Shadow and Shape; for it has yet had no Spirit.

(28) For behold, when the Gate of this World in the Child is made ready, so that the Child is [become] a living Soul out of the Essences, and now [henceforth] sees only [by or] in the Light of the Sun, and not in the Light of God, then comes the true Artificer, instantly in the Twinkling of an Eye, when the Light of the Life kindles, and figures [that which is] his; for the Center breaks forth in all the three Principles. First, there are the four Essences in the Fiat in the stern Might of God, which there are the Child' own, the Worm of its Soul, which stands there in the House of the great Anxiety, as in the Originality. For the Seed is sown in the Will, and the Will receives the Fiat in the Tincture, and the Fiat draws the Will to it inwardly, Or give himself into the Imagination. and outwardly [draws] the Seed to a rMass; for the inward and outward Artificer is there.

(48) Thus now when the Virtue of the Life and the Spirit of the second Principle, is generated in the first Originality of the first Principle (viz. in the Gate of the deep Darkness, which the Will of the Virtue of the Virgin, in the fierce earnest Flash of the fierce Might of God, did break, and set itself in the pleasant Habitation) then instantly the Essences of the Stars and Elements, in the Flash of the Springing-up of the Life, pressed in also, yet after the Building of the pleasant Habitation first [made.]

(8) Our Life in the Mother's Body has its Beginning wholly, as is above mentioned, and stands there now in the Quality of the Sun and Stars, where then, with the Kindling of the Light, a Center springs up again, where instantly the noble Tincture thus generates itself (out of the Light, out of the joyful Essences of the [sour] harsh, bitter, and fiery Kind [or Quality,]) and sets the Spirit of the Soul in a great pleasant Habitation: And the three i Essences (viz. Harshness, Bitterness, and Fire) are in the Kindling of the Life so very fast bound one to another, that they cannot (in Eternity) be separated one from another, and the Tincture is their eternal House, wherein they dwell, which [House] they themselves generate from the Beginning unto Eternity, which again gives them Life, Joy, and Lust [or Delight.] The strong Gate of the indissoluble Band of the Soul.

(24) Therefore we say now, according to our high Knowledge, that the Source [or active Desire] of all the three Principles does imprint itself together with the Child's Incarnation [or becoming Man,] in the Mother's Body. For after that Man is figured [or shaped] from the Stars and Elements, by the Fiat, so that the Elements have taken Possession of their Regions, [Kingdoms, or Dominions,] viz. the Heart, Liver, Lungs, Bladder, and Stomach, wherein they have their Regions, then must the there stands now the Image of God, and the Image of this World, and there also is the Image of the Devil. Now there must be Wrestling and Overcoming, and there is Need of the Treader upon the Serpent, even in the Mother's [Womb or] Body.

(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.

(30) And they say, Yes, we will take thee in, for thou art a Member of our Spirit; thou shalt dwell in us, and strengthen the Essences of our Spirit, that it may not faint; yet we must also have the Children of the Earth (for they have our Quality also in them) that we may rejoice. And the Spirit of the Lungs says; Then I will live in you wholly, and rejoice myself with you. The Gate of the Syderial, or Starry Spirit. 3 1. Thus now when the Light of the Sun, which had discovered and imprinted itself in the Fire-flash of the Essences of the Spirit, and was shining in the Fire-flash (as in a strange Virtue, and not in the Sun's own Virtue,) [when he] sees that he has gotten the Region, and that the Essences of the Soul (which are the Worm or the Spirit) as also the Elements will rejoice in his Virtue and Splendor, and that the Elements have made their four Regions [or Dominions] and Habitations, for an everlasting Possession, and that he should be a King, and that they should serve at Court (in the Spirit of the Essences) in the Heart, and so exceedingly love him, and rejoice in their Service, and have besides brought the Children of the Earth, that the Spirit might present them (where then they will first be frolick and potent, and eat and drink of the Essences of the Children of the Earth) then i he thinks with himself, it is good to dwell here, thou art a King, thou wilt bring kthy Kindred [Offspring, or Generation] hither, and raise them up above the Elements, and make thyself Gate where the Children of this World are wiser than the Children of Light. O Man! consider thyself! And he draws the Constellations to him, and brings them into the Essences, and sets them over the Elements, with their wonderful and unsearchable various Essences, (whose Number is infinite,) and makes himself

(43) Now God said, Let all Manner of Beasts come forth, every one after its Kind; and so there came forth out of the Essence of every one's kind, a Male and Female. And thus the Spirit of the Stars, or the Spirit of the Form of Fire, had now by its Longing copulated with the watery [Spirit,] and two Sexes sprung out of one Essence; the one according to the Limbus in the Form of Fire, and the other according to. the Aquaster [or Spirit of the Water] in the watery Form; yet so [blended or] mixed, that they were alike as to the Body. And so the Male was qualified according to the Limbus, or Form of Fire, and the Female according to the Aquaster in the watery Form.

(32) "After this manner were the seven men generated. Earth was the female element and water the male element, and from the fire and the æther they received their spirits, and Nature produced bodies after the species and shapes of men. And man received the Life and Light of the Great Dragon, and of the Life was made his Soul and of the Light his Mind. And so, all these composite creatures containing immortality, but partaking of mortality, continued in this state for the duration of a period. They reproduced themselves out of themselves, for each was male and female. But at the end of the period the knot of Destiny was untied by the will of God and the bond of all things was loosened.

(36) Thus I give you accurately to understand what Man is, and what Man sows, and what grows in the Seed, viz. three Kingdoms, as is above-mentioned; and seeing the three Kingdoms are thus sown, so are they in like Manner before the Tree of Temptation; and there begins the Struggling and great Strife; there stands the three Kingdoms in one another. The Element in Paradise will keep the pure Mind and Will, which stands in the Love in the Tincture of the Seed; and the outward Elements, viz. that which went forth from the Element, will have the Element, and mix itself therewith; and then comes the outward Fierceness of the Stars, and draws it together i with the outward Fiat, and sets itself [in the Rule or Dominion,] whereby the inward Will in the Love together with the Element and the Paradise becomes darkened; and the Love in the Paradise goes into its Ether, and is extinguished in the Tincture of the Seed; and the heavenly Center goes under, for it passes into its Principle.

(70) Although indeed, Nature takes hold of the Child in the Mother's Body [or Womb,] and [shapes, figures, or] images it; yet the Region of the Stars has no other than the Image in the four Elements, and not [that] in the holy Element. And although indeed it images [or frames] a Man in the outward bestial Mind with a little Understanding many Times, yet that is no Matter; the outward Man is the Beast of the Stars, but the inward in the [one] Element is the Image of God; and the divine Framing [Figuring or Imaging] is not performed in the a outward, but in the inward Element.