(32) And as the fierce [wrathful] Essence of the Anger of God pressed into Adam, whereby he entered into Death, of which God spoke, saying, If thou eatest of the Tree, thou shalt die the Death, understand the Death in the Flesh, even while they were in the earthly Life, so the sharp Nails must pierce through the Hands and Feet of Christ, and so he must enter into Death; and as there is in the human Essences (before the Light of God) a Cross-Birth, so when the Light of God shines therein, all is turned into a pleasant flourishing Blossom, wherein the sharp Essences are not found or perceived.

(39) 1 have told you before, out of what Power the Tree is grown; viz. that it grew out of the Earth, and has wholly had Might. the Nature of the Earth in it, as at this Day all earthly Trees are [so,] (and no otherwise, neither better nor worse,) wherein Corruptibility stands, as the Earth is corruptible, and shall pass away in the End, when all shall go into its Ether, and nothing else shall remain of it besides the Figure. Now this was the Tree which stood in the Midst of the Garden in Eden, whereby Adam must be tempted in all Essences; for this Spirit should rule powerfully over all Essences, as the holy Angels, and God himself does.

(26) Under the appellations of the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil is concealed the great arcanum of antiquity--the mystery of equilibrium. The Tree of Life represents the spiritual point of balance--the secret of immortality. The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, as its name implies, represents polarity, or unbalance--the secret of mortality. The Qabbalists reveal this by assigning the central column of their Sephirothic diagram to the Tree of Life and the two side branches to the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. "Unbalanced forces perish in the void," declares the secret work, and all is made known. The apple represents the knowledge of the procreative processes, by the awakening of which the material universe was established. The allegory of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden is a cosmic myth, revealing the methods of universal and individual establishment. The literal story, accepted for so many centuries by an unthinking world, is preposterous, but the creative mystery of which it is the symbol is one of Nature's profoundest verities. The Ophites (serpent worshipers) revered the Edenic snake because it was the cause of individual existence. Though humanity is still wandering in a world of good and evil, it will ultimately attain completion and eat of the fruit of the Tree of Life growing in the midst of the illusionary garden of worldly things. Thus the Tree of Life is also the appointed symbol of the Mysteries, and by partaking of its fruit man attains immortality.

The human being Adam was revealed through the bright shadow within. And Adam’s ability to think was greater than that of all the creators. When they looked up, they saw that Adam’s ability to think was greater, and they devised a plan with the whole throng of rulers and angels. They took fire, earth, and water, and combined them with the four fiery winds. They wrought them together and made a great commotion. The rulers brought Adam into the shadow of death so that they might produce a figure again, from earth, water, fire, and the spirit that comes from matter, that is, from the ignorance of darkness, and desire, and their own false spirit. This is the cave for remodeling the body that these criminals put on the human, the fetter of forgetfulness. Adam became a mortal being, the first to descend and the first to become estranged. The enlightened afterthought within Adam, however, would rejuvenate Adam’s mind. They put their tree of life in the middle of paradise. I shall teach you the secret of their life, the plan they devised together, the nature of their spirit: The root of their tree is bitter, its branches are death, its shadow is hatred, a trap is in its leaves, its blossom is bad ointment, its fruit is death, desire is its seed, it blossoms in darkness. The dwelling place of those who taste of it is the underworld, and darkness is their resting place. But the rulers lingered in front of what they call the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which is the enlightened afterthought, so that Adam might not behold its fullness and recognize his shameful nakedness. But I was the one who induced them to eat. I said to the savior, Master, was it not the snake that instructed Adam to eat? The savior laughed and said, The snake instructed them to eat of the wickedness of sexual desire and destruction so that Adam might be of use to the snake. This is the one who knew Adam was disobedient because of the enlightened afterthought within Adam, which made Adam stronger of mind than the first ruler. The first ruler wanted to recover the power that he himself had passed on to Adam. So he brought deep sleep upon Adam. I said to the savior, What is this deep sleep? The savior said, It is not as Moses wrote and you heard. He said in his first book, He put Adam to sleep. Rather, this deep sleep was a loss of sense. Thus the first ruler said through the prophet, I shall make their minds sluggish, that they may neither understand nor discern.

(28) And it is the Gate of the Lily, concerning which the Spirit witnesses, that it will hereafter grow in the wrathful Tree, and when it grows, it will bring us true Knowledge, by its pleasant and fragrant Smell, in the Holy Trinity; by which Smell Antichrist will be stifled, and the Tree of the stern Anger be broken down, and the Beast enraged, which has its flight and Strength from the Tree for a Time, till it be dry and fiery, because it can get no more Sap from the wrathful Tree that is broken down; and then it will smell [or lift up itself] in the [fierce, tart] Wrath against the Tree, and the Lily, till the Tree of which the Beast did eat and was strong) destroys the Beast, and his Power remains in the Fire of the Originality. And then all Doors [will] stand open in the great Tree of Nature, and the Priest Aaron [will] give his Garment and fair Ornament to the Lamb, that was slain and is [alive] again.

(92) But when the body begins to be too strait or narrow for it, that it can extend or stretch it no more, and that the contention is too great, then the bitter must yield itself captive. Yet, for all that, the astringent cannot kill the bitter, but only holds it captive, and so the strife in them is so great that the bitter breaks out of the body in strings [fibres] like threads, and taketh some of the son's sap or body along with it. And this now is the vegetation or growing, and incorporating or embodying of a root in the earth. Now thou askest, How can God be in that birth or geniture? Answer.

(2) Indeed it has a true foundation, which, in the spirit, I know to be so; but their knowledge stands only in the house of death, in the outward comprehensibility or palpability, and in the beholding with the eyes of the body; but the root of this tree has hitherto remained hidden from them.

(108) But seeing the deep, that is, the whole space of this world, was the body of the Father, (understand the Father of the Heart of God), understand the Father's body, and the Heart in the whole body did shine forth, viz. the Father's lustre or brightness, then the corrupted Salitter was affected or possessed everywhere with the light; and the Heart of God could not fly out from it, but did hide its lustre and shining light in the body of the whole deep, from the horrid kindled spirits of devils.

(5) "And that nothing might be hidden from you, Shem, the thought, which the spirit from the greatness had contemplated, came into being, since the darkness was not able to restrain his evil. But when the thought appeared, the three roots became known as they were from the beginning. If the darkness had been able to restrain his evil, the mind would not have separated from him, and another power would not have appeared.

(65) But seeing men now, at the end of this time, do listen and long very much after the root of the tree, through which nature sheweih that the time of the discovery of the tree is at hand, therefore the spirit will shew it to them. And the whole Deity will reveal itself, which is the Dayspring, Dawning, or Morning- redness, and the breakingforth of the great day of God, in which whatsoever is generated from death to the regeneration of life shall be restored and rise again.

(19) Fear them not therefore: for there is nothing covered that shall not be revealed; and hid that shall not be known. What I tell you in darkness that speak ye in light: and what ye hear in the ear, that preach ye upon the housetops. And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

(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.

(70) But if thou, in the spirit, breakest through the death of the flesh, then thou seest the hidden God. For as the marrow in the bones penetrateth, presseth or breaketh through and giveth virtue, power and strength to the flesh, and yet the flesh cannot comprehend or apprehend the marrow, but only the power and virtue thereof, so no more canst thou see the hidden Deity in thy flesh, but thou receivest its power, and understandest therein that God dwelleth in thee.

(128) But when God shall bring forth the hidden things, at the end of this time, then you will discern in what God's love or wrath has been. Therefore have a care, and take heed, and turn thy eyes from evil, or else thou undoest thyself, and so bringest thyself into perdition.

(76) Man at his birth is supple and weak; at his death, firm and strong. (So it is with) all things. Trees and plants, in their early growth, are soft and brittle; at their death, dry and withered. Thus it is that firmness and strength are the concomitants of death; softness and weakness, the concomitants of life. Hence he who (relies on) the strength of his forces does not conquer; and a tree which is strong will fill the out-stretched arms, (and thereby invites the feller.) Therefore the place of what is firm and strong is below, and that of what is soft and weak is above.

(25) And as for this fragrant tree no mortal is permitted to touch it till the great judgement, when He shall take vengeance on all and bring (everything) to its consummation for ever. It shall then be given to the righteous and holy.

(21) But seeing the eternal word must qualify, mix or unite with the corruption in the wrath, thereupon the bodies of the fruits were evil and good. For the outward birth or geniture of the fruits must be out of or from the earth which is in death; and the spirit of life must be out of the astral birth which stands in love and wrath.

(61) And these measures shall reveal all the secrets of the depths of the earth, And those who have been destroyed by the desert, And those who have been devoured by the beasts, And those who have been devoured by the fish of the sea, That they may return and stay themselves On the day of the Elect One; For none shall be destroyed before the Lord of Spirits, And none can be destroyed.

(4) Here now stand the great Secrets (which we cannot see with our earthly Eyes) wholly naked and plain, and there is no Vail before it, only we are blind to the Kingdom of God; for God cursed the Earth, and said, it should now bear Thorns and Thistles, and Man should eat the Fruit of the accursed Earth. This indeed is a new Thing. He allowed them not in Paradise to eat of the earthly Herbs, but of the pleasant Fruit. And if he had eaten of the Herbs of the Fields, yet that which he had eaten, was heavenly; and when the Lord cursed the Earth, then all became earthly; and the holy Element was withdrawn, and the Fruit did grow in the Proceeding-forth of the four Elements, in the Kindling of the Fierceness, out of which Thorns and Thistles grew.

(27) For thou seest plainly how all the fruits of the earth, whatsoever it bringeth forth, must putrefy and rot; also that they are a death.