(5) For the Soul which is out of the first Principle (out of the Band of the Eternity) was breathed into the Element of the Body, to [be] the Image of God, out of the strong Might of God, and enlightened from the divine Light, so that it has received an angelical Source [or Quality;] but when it went forth out of the Light of God into the Spirit of this World, then there sprung up in it the Source of the first Principle; and it neither saw nor felt the Kingdom of God any more, till that the Heart of God set itself in the Midst again; into that the Soul must enter again, and be born anew.

(3) It is necessary, therefore, to admit a thing of this kind in partial souls. For such as is the life which the soul received, prior to its insertion in a human body, and such as the form which it readily exerted; such also is the organical body which it has suspended from itself, and such the consequent corresponding nature, which receives the more perfect life of the soul. But with respect to more excellent natures, and which, as wholes, comprehend the principle [of parts] in these, inferior are produced in superior natures; bodies, in incorporeal essences; things fabricated, in the fabricators; and, being circularly comprehended in, are directed and governed by, them. Hence, the circulations of the celestial bodies, being primarily inserted in the celestial circulations of the etherial soul, are perpetually inherent in them; and the souls of the worlds [ i. e. of the spheres], being extended to their intellect, are perfectly comprehended by it, and are primarily generated in it. Intellect, also, both that which is partial and that which is universal, is in a similar manner comprehended in the genera that are more excellent than intellect. Since, therefore, second are always converted to first natures, and superior are the leaders of inferior essences, as being the paradigms of them, hence essence and form accede to subordinate from superior natures, and things posterior are primarily produced in such as are more excellent; so that order and measure are derived from primary to secondary beings, and the latter possess that which they are from the former. But the contrary must not be admitted, viz. that peculiarities emanate from things less excellent to the natures which precede them.

(2) Farther still, to the former that which is highest and that which is incomprehensible pertain, and also that which is better than all measure, and is in such a manner formless, as not to be circumscribed by any form; but the latter is vanquished by inclination, habitude, and propensity; and is detained by appetites directed to that which is less excellent, and by familiarity with secondary natures. Hence, in the last place, it is formalized by all-various measures derived from them. Intellect, therefore, which is the leader and king of all beings, and which is the demiurgic art of the universe, is always present with the Gods with invariable sameness, perfectly, and without indigence, being purely established in itself, according to one energy. But soul participates of a partible and multiform intellect, having its attention directed to the government of the whole. It also providentially attends to inanimate natures, becoming at different times ingenerated in different forms.

(23) The Darkness that is in you, which longs after the Light, that is the first Principle; the Virtue or Power of the Light which is in you, whereby you can see in your Mind without [bodily] Eyes, that is the second Principle; and the longing [Power or] Virtue, that proceeds from the Mind, and attracts and fills, [or impregnates] itself, from whence the material Body grows, that is the third Principle. And you [may] understand very exactly, how there is an Inclosure, [Stop," or Knot] between each Principle; and how God is the Beginning and the first Virtue [or Power] in all Things; and you understand, that in this gross, [sluggish, or dull] Body, you are not in Paradise. For that [outward Body] is but a misty, [excrementitious, dusky, opaque Procreation,] or Out-Birth in the third Principle, wherein the Soul lies captive, as in a dark Dungeon: Of which you shall find a very large Description, when we come to write about the Fall of Adam. Or Blindness of Understanding,

(49) But that the Soul of Christ could be generated both in the new, and also in the old earthly Creature, it is because the Gate of the Soul in the first Principle stands in the Source [or Quality] of the Eternity, and reaches into the deep Gate of the Eternity, in the Father's original Will, wherewith he breaks open the Gate of the Deep, and shines [or appears] in the eternal Light.

(15) And thus you are to know, that the second Principle has it [in its Power,] and there only is Wisdom and Understanding; also therein now is the Omnipotence. And this third Principle is the second's proper own, not separate, but one Essence in it, [and with it,] all over, and yet there is a Birth between them, as may be seen, by the hrich Man and Lazarus, the one being in Paradise, and the other in the most original Matrix, or Hell.

(25) For you see, feel, and find, that all these must yet have a higher Root from whence they proceed, which is not visible, but hidden; especially if you look upon the starry Heaven which endures thus unchangeably; therefore you ought to consider from whence it is proceeded, and how it subsists thus, and is not corrupted, nor rises up above, nor falls down beneath, though indeed there is neither above nor beneath there. Now if you consider what preserves all thus, and whence it is, then you find the eternal Birth that has no Beginning, and you find the Original of the eternal Principle, viz. the eternal indissoluble Band: And then, secondly, you see the Separation, in that the material World, with the Stars and Elements, are out of the first Principle, which contains the outward and third Principle in it; for you find in the elementary Kingdom or Dominion, a Cause in every Thing, wherefore it is, generates, and moves as it does: But you find not the first Cause, from whence it is so: There are therefore stwo several Principles; for you find in the visible Things a Corruptibility, and perceive that they must have a Beginning, because they have an End.

(2) The Soul which has its Original out of God's first Principle, and was breathed from God into Man, into the third Principle, (that is, into the syderial and elementary birth) that sees further into the first Principle of God, out of, in and from the Essence and Property of which it is proceeded. And this is not marvellous, for it does but behold itself only in the Rising of its Birth; and thus it sees the Whole Depth of the Father in the first Principle.

(28) For all whatsoever lives in the third Principle, corrupts, [or passes away,] and goes into its Ether and End, till [it comes] to the Figure of the Tincture; and that continues standing eternally as a Shadow or Will, without Spirit or Mobility: But in the second Principle the Tincture continues eternally standing in the Spirit, and in the Substance [or Essence,] all very powerfully, viz. in Angels and Men, as also in the Beginning [or first Springing] of every Substance; for their Center to the Birth is eternally fixed [or steadfast.] Of its [the Tincture' s] Essences and Property. The deep Gate of Life.

(4) But the Soul of Man, which is enlightened with the holy Spirit of God, (which in the second Principle proceeds from the Father and the Son in the holy Heaven, that is, in the true divine Nature which is called God;) this Soul sees even into the Light of God, into the same second Principle of the holy divine Birth, into the heavenly Essence: But the syderial Spirit wherewith the Soul is clothed, and also the elementary [Spirit] which i rules the Source, or Springing and Impulsion of the Blood, they see no further than into their Mother, whence they are, and wherein they live.

(48) Now we have shown you the first Principle, out of which all Things take their Beginning; and must so speak of it, as if there was a Place, or a separable Essence, where there is such a Kind of Source; to the End that the first Principle might be understood, so that the Eternity, as also the Anger of God, Sin, eternal Death, the Darkness, (which is so called in Respect of the Extinguishing of the Light,) also Hell-fire, and the Devil, might be known and understood [what they are.]

(14) Thus also we know, that the Soul is a Spirit, generated out of God the Father, in the Throne and Entrance out of the recomprehended [or reconceived] Will, out of the Darkness into the Light, to the generating of the Heart of God; and that [Soul] is free to elevate itself above mit in the Will, or in the Meekness in the Will of the Father, to comprehend and incline itself to the Birth of the Heart of God the Father.

(5) God created the soul after the image of His highest perfection. He issued forth from the treasure-house of the everlasting Fatherhood in which He had rested from all eternity. Then the Son opened the tent of His everlasting glory and came forth from His high place to fetch His Bride, whom the Father had espoused to Him from all Eternity, back to that heaven from which she came. Therefore He came forth rejoicing as a bridegroom and suffered the pangs of love. Then He returned to His secret chamber in the silence and stillness of the everlasting Fatherhood. As He came forth from the Highest, so He returned to the Highest with His Bride, and revealed to her the hidden treasures of His Godhead.

(13) The above illustration of the "meditation," and subsequent "awakening from meditation," of THE ALL, is of course but an attempt of the teachers to describe the Infinite process by a finite example. And, yet: "As Below, so Above." The difference is merely in degree. And just as THE ALL arouses itself from the meditation upon the Universe, so does Man (in time) cease from manifesting upon the Material Plane, and withdraws himself more and more into the Indwelling Spirit, which is indeed "The Divine Ego."

(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.]

(13) And as this Place was now twofold, and P with the eternal Originality threefold, viz. [having] the first Principle in the great Anxiety, and the second Principle in the divine Habitation in Paradise, and then the third Principle in the Light of the Sun, in the Quality of the Stars and Elements, so must Man also be created out of all three, if he must be an Angel in this Place, and receive all Knowledge and Understanding, whereby he might have eternal Joy also with [or in] the Figures and Images, which stand not in the eternal Spirit, but in the eternal Figure, as all Things in this World are [to do.]

(62) And this is the Source of the first Principle, which (without the Light of God) cannot be otherwise, neither can it change or alter itself; for it has been so from Eternity. And out of this Source, the Essences of the Worm of the Soul, in the Time of its creating, were extracted by the Fiat of God, and created in Paradise, [and set] before the Light of God, which enlightened the Fire-flash, and put it into very high Meekness and Humility.

(33) For all Things are come to be Something out of Nothing: And every Creature has the Center, or the Circle of the Birth of Life in itself; and as the Elements lie hid in one another in one only Mother, and none of them comprehends the other, though they are Members one of another, so the created Creatures are hidden and invisible to one another. For every Creature looks but into its Mother that is fixed [or predominant] in it. The material Creature sees a material Substance, but an immaterial Substance (as the Spirits in the Fire and in the Air) it sees not; as the Body sees not the Soul, which yet dwells in it; or as the third Principle does not comprehend, nor apprehend the second Principle wherein God is; though indeed itself is in God, yet there is a Birth between: As it is with the Spirit of the Soul of Man, and the elementary Spirit in Man, the one being the Case, [Chest,] or Receptacle of the other; as you shall find, about the Creation of Man.

(2) But indications of this theory worthy of notice may be mentioned, by which it is possible for you, and those who resemble you, to be conducted by intellect to the essence of [real] beings. And with respect to such things as become known by a reasoning process, we shall leave no one of these without a perfect demonstration. But in all things we shall give to each that which is appropriate. And such questions, indeed, as are theological, we shall answer theologically; such as are theurgic, theurgically; but such as are philosophical, we shall, in conjunction with you, philosophically explore. Of these, also, such as extend to first causes, we shall unfold into light, by following them conformably to first principles. But such as pertain to morals, or to ends, we shall fitly discuss, according to the ethical mode. And, in a similar manner, we shall examine other things methodically and appropriately. Let us, therefore, now betake ourselves to your inquiries.

(14) Now therefore the Soul stands in two Gates, and touches the two Principles, viz. the eternal Darkness, and the eternal Light of the Son of God, as God the Father himself does. Now as God the Father holds his unchangeable eternal Will to generate his Heart and Son, so the Angels and Souls keep their unchangeable Will in the Heart of God. Thus it [the Soul] is in Heaven and in Paradise, and enjoys the unutterable Joy of God the Father which he has in the Son, and it hears the inexpressible Words of the Heart of God, and rejoices at the eternal, and also at the created Images, which are not in Essence [or Substance,] but in Figure.