(37) If we will be still so very earthly minded, as to think that God made all the Beasts of a Lump of Earth, of what then is their Spirit made? Seeing that Earth is not very Flesh, and the Blood is not mere Water. Besides, the Earth and the Water is not Life; and though the a Air comes in it, yet it still remains such an Essence as springs only in the Fiat, and the Tincture which rises up in the Fire, and from whence the noble Life is stirred is hidden.

(10) For Adam was the Heart of every Thing in this World, created out of the Originality of all Things; his Soul was out of the first Principle, thoroughly illustrated with the second [Principle;] and his Body was out of the [one] Element, out of the eBarm, or Birth, out of the divine Virtue [which is] before God, which [Body] was entered into the Out-Birth of the [one] Element, viz. into the four Elements, and wholly gone into the Spirit of this World, viz. into the third Principle. And therefore he had the Tincture of every Thing in him, by which he reached into all Essences, and proved [or searched] all Things in the Heaven, Earth, Fire, Air, and Water, and all whatsoever is generated from thence. 1 1. And so one Tincture took hold of the other, and the Stronger has proved [or tried] the Weaker, and given Names to all Things, according to their Essences; and that is the true Ground of Adam's Fall, that he went out of the eternal [Being] into the Out-birth of the corruptible [Being,] and has put on the corruptible Image which God forbade him.

(45) "The universe is surrounded by the sphere of the stars. Beyond that sphere is the sphere of Schamayim, which is the Divine fiery water, the first outflow of the Word of God, the flaming river pouring from the presence of the Eternal. Schamayim, the fiery androgynous water, divides. The fire becomes the solar fire and the water becomes the lunar water. Schamayim is the universal mercury--sometimes called Azoth--the measureless spirit of life. The spiritual fiery original water--Schamayim--comes through Eden (in Hebrew, vapor) and pours itself into four main rivers [the elements]. This is the river of living water--Azoth [the fiery mercurial essence] that flows out from the throne of God and the Lamb. In this Eden [vaporous essence or mist] is the spiritual earth [incomprehensible and intangible], or the dust Aphar, out of which God formed Adam min Haadamah, the spiritual body of man, which body must sometime become revealed."

(20) If Adam had continued in Innocence, then he should in all Fruits have eaten paradisical Fruit, and his Food should have been heavenly, and his Drink [should have been] out of the Mother of the heavenly Water of the Source [or Fountain] of the eternal Life. The Out-Birth touched him not, the Element of Air he had no Need of in this Manner [as now;] it is true, he drew Breath from the Air, but he took his Breath from the Incorruptibility, for he did not mingle with the Spirit of this World, but his Spirit ruled powerfully over the Spirit of this World, over the Stars, and over the Sun and Moon, and over the Elements.

(14) Now therefore we say (as the Scripture informs us) that God dwells in Heaven, and it is the Truth. Now mark, Moses writes, that God created the Heaven out of the Midst of the Waters, and the Scripture says, God dwells in Heaven; therefore we may now observe, that the Water has its Original from the Longing of the eternal Nature after the eternal Light of God; but the eternal Nature is made manifest by the Longing after the Light of God, as is mentioned before; and the Light of God is present every where, and yet remains hidden to Nature; for Nature receives only the Virtue of the Light, and the Virtue is the Heaven wherein the Light of God dwells and is hid, and so shines in the Darkness. The Water is the Materia, or Matter that is generated from the Heaven, and therein stands the third, which again generates a Life, and comprehensible Essence, or Substance, out of itself, viz. the Elements and other Creatures.

(30) Therefore Moses writes, that God created the Heaven out of the Midst of the Waters: [This you must] understand [to be] out of the eternal watery Matrix, which is but a Spirit, wherein the Paradise is, and the Holy Heaven, viz. the divine Virtue, which the dark Matrix lusted after in its Hunger, out of which the visible Matrix of the four Elements is proceeded; out of which the Essence of all Essences, that now are, were created by the Fiat through the Eternal Spirit of God.

(31) Adam was in an angelical Form before the Sleep; but after the Sleep he had Flesh and Blood; and he was (in his Flesh) a Lump of Earth, and he saw from a threefold Spirit. With his Eyes he apprehended the Light of the Sun, and knew the first Image no more; although the four Elements had not yet fallen upon him, nor touched him; for he was yet in Innocence.

(8) Pyruacoras saith:—I affirm that God existed before all things, and with Him was nothing, as He was at first. But know, all ye Philosophers, that I declare this in order that I may fortify your opinion concerning these four elements and arcana, as well as in the sciences thereof, at which no one can arrive save by the will of God. Understand, that when God was alone, He created four things—fre, air, water, and earth, out of which things He afterwards created all others, both the sublime and the inferior, because He predestinated from the beginning that all creatures extracted from water should multiply and increase, that they might dwell in the world and perform His judgments therein. Consequently, before all, He created the four elements, out of which He afterwards created what He willed, that is to say, diverse creatures, some of which were produced from a single element.*

The Turba saith:—Which are these, O Master?

And he:—They are the angels, whom He created out of fire. But the Turspa:—Which, then, are created out of two?

And he:—Out of the elements of fire and air are the sun, moon, and stars composed. Hence the angels are more lucid than the sun, moon, and stars, because they are created from one substance, which is less dense than two, while the sun and the stars are created from a composition of fire and air.

The Turba saith: And what concerning the creation of Heaven?

Then he:—God created the Heaven out of water and air, whence this is also composed of two, namely, the second of the rarer things, which is air, and the second of the denser things, which is water. And they:—Master, continue thy discourse concerning these three, and rejoice our hearts with thy sayings, which are life to the dead. But the

other answereth:—I notify to you that God hath further made creatures out of three and out of four; out of three are created flying things, beasts, and 4 vegetables; some of these are created out of water, air, and earth, some out of fire, air, and earth. But the Turba saith:—Distinguish these divers creatures one from another.

And he:— Beasts are created out of fire, air, and earth; flying things out of fire, air, and water, because flying things, and all among vegetables which have a spirit, are created out of water, while all brute animals are from earth, air, and fire. Yet in vegetables there is no fire, for they are created out of earth, water, and air. Whereat the Turba saith:—Let us assume that a fire, with your reverence’s pardon, does reside in vegetables.

And he:—Ye have spoken the truth, and I affirm that they contain fire. And they:—Whence is that fire?

He answereth:—Out of the heat of the air which is concealed therein; for I have signified that a thin fire is present in the air, but the elementary fire concerning which you were in doubt is not produced, except in things which have spirit and soul. But out of four elements our father Adam and his sons were created,* that is, of fire, air, water, and likewise earth. Understand, all ye that are wise, how everything which God hath created out of one essence dies not until the Day of Judgment. The definition of death is the disjunction of the composite, but there is no disjunction of that which is simple, for it is one. Death» consists in the separation of the soul from the body, because anything formed out of two, three, or four components must disintegrate, and this is death. Understand, further, that no complex substance which lacks fire eats, drinks, or sleeps, because in all things which have a spirit fire is that which eats.*

The Turba answereth:—How is it, Master, that the angels, being created of fire, do not eat, seeing thou assertest that fire is that which eats! And he: Hence ye doubt, each having his opinion, and ye are become opponents, but if ye truly knew the elements, ye would not deny these things. I agree with all whose judgment it is that simple fire eats not, but thick fire. The angels, therefore, are not created out of thick fire, but out of the thinnest of very thin fire; being created, then, of that which is most simple and exceedingly thin, they neither eat, drink, nor sleep.

And the Turba:— Master, our faculties are able to perceive, for by God’s assistance we have exhausted thy sayings, but our faculties of hearing and of sight are unable to carry such great things. May God reward thee for the sake of thy disciples, since it is with the object of instructing future generations that thou hast summoned us together from our countries, the recompense of which thou wilt not fail to receive from the Judge to come!

ArisLEeus saith:— Seeing that thou hast gathered us together for the advantage of posterity, 1 think that no explanations will be more useful than definitions of those four elements which thou hast taught us to attain.

And he:—None of you are, I suppose, ignorant that all the Wise have propounded definitions in God. The

Tureva answereth:—Should your disciples pass over anything, it becomes you, O Master, to avoid omissions for the sake of future generations.

And he:—If it please you, I will begin the disposition here, since envious men in their books have separated that, or otherwise I will put it at the end of the book.* Whereat the

Turba saith:—Place it where you think it will be clearest for future generations.

And he:—I will place it where it will not be recognised by the foolish,+ nor ignored by the Sons of the Doctrine, for it is the key, the perfection and the end.

(53) 4. The three Mothers, א מ ש, in the universe are: air, water, and fire. Heaven was created from the elementary fire (or ether) ש, the earth, comprising sea and land, from the elementary water, מ, and the atmospheric air from the elementary air, or spirit, א, which establishes the balance among them. Thus were all things produced.

(29) Thus now in the Essence of all Essences, there are three several distinct Properties, which yet are not parted asunder, with one Source [or Property] far from the other; but they are in one another as one only Essence, and yet the one does not comprehend the other. As these three Elements, Fire, Air, Water, are all three in one another, and neither of them comprehends the other; and as one Element generates another, and yet is not of the Essence nor Source [or Property] thereof; so the three Principles are in one another, and one generates the other, and yet no one of them all comprehends the other, and none of them is the Essence [or Substance] of the other. The Depth in the Center [or Ground.]

(20) But that Moses presses so hard upon it, and says, God created Man of a Lump of Earth; there the Vail is before his Face, so that the earthly Man cannot look him in the Face; indeed he was rightly a Lump of Earth, and Earth, when he had eaten earthly Fruit, which God did forbid him; but if Adam (before the Fall) had been of the Earth earthly, then God would not have forbid him the earthly Fruit; as also, if he had been created out of the earthly Element, why did not the earthly Element put its Clothes upon him instantly with a rough Skin? Why did that [earthly Element] leave Man naked and bare? And when it had plainly possessed him, yet it left him naked.

(73) Before the times of the creation he sat in the Salitter of the earth, when the Salitter was yet thin or transparent, and stood in a heavenly, holy birth or geniture, and he was in the whole kingdom of this world, therein was neither earth nor stones, but a heavenly seed, which was generated out of the seven qualifying or fountain spirits of nature; for in the kingdom of this world sprang up heavenly fruits, forms and ideas, which were a pleasant, delightful food of angels.

(47) Adam stood forty Days in an angelical Image before his Sleep, and there was neither Day nor Night in him, also no Time; though indeed he was not (as an Angel) a mere Spirit; for his Body was out of the Element, which is no understanding Spirit, but [is] the Attraction [Concretion or Congelation] in the Will of God, or the Limbus, which stands before God, wherein the (Chaste Virgin, the divine Wisdom dwells, which discovered and created the Image out of the Element by the Fiat.

(77) Out of and from the same body of the seven spirits of God are all things made and produced, all angels, all devils, the heaven, the earth, the stars, the elements, men, beasts, fowls, fishes; all worms, wood, trees, also stones, herbs and grass, and all whatsoever is. Question.

(63) For because Man was to be eternal, therefore he must also come to be out of the Eternal; for nothing is created out of the Fountain of the Heart of God. For that is the End of Nature, and has no such Essences; no comprehensible [or palpable] Thing enters therein; otherwise it would be a Filling and Darkness, and that cannot be: Also from Eternity, there has been nothing else but only the Source [or working Property] where the Deity continually rises up, as is mentioned before.

(51) It is made out of the midst of the waters, but not qualifying in such a manner as the water in the elements, for fierceness or wrath is not therein. However, heaven belongeth to nature, because the stars and elements have their original and power from the heaven.

Adam’s soul came from a breath. The soul’s companion is spirit, and the spirit given to him is his mother. His soul was [taken] from him and replaced with [spirit]. When he was united with spirit, [he] uttered words superior to the powers, and the powers envied him. They [separated him from his] spiritual companion…hidden…bridal chamber….

(2) Air is, therefore, twofold in nature-tangible atmosphere and an intangible, volatile substratum which may be termed spiritual air. Fire is visible and invisible, discernible and indiscernible--a spiritual, ethereal flame manifesting through a material, substantial flame. Carrying the analogy further, water consists of a dense fluid and a potential essence of a fluidic nature. Earth has likewise two essential parts--the lower being fixed, terreous, immobile; the higher, rarefied, mobile, and virtual. The general term elements has been applied to the lower, or physical, phases of these four primary principles, and the name elemental essences to their corresponding invisible, spiritual constitutions. Minerals, plants, animals, and men live in a world composed of the gross side of these four elements, and from various combinations of them construct their living organisms.

(8) On the second Day, God created the Firmament of the Heaven, viz. the strong Inclosure, [Fence, or Stop] to the Darkness of the original Matrix, that it might no more kindle itself, and generate Earth and Stones. And therefore he made the Inclosure or Firmament out of the Midst of the Waters, which stays the Might [Force, or Power] of the Fire, and became the visible Heaven, whence the Creatures are proceeded, from whence now the Elements, Fire, Air, and Water proceed.

(22) Reason must not imagine, that God ever made any Beast out of a Lump of Earth, as a Potter makes a Pot. But he said, Let there come forth all Sorts of Beasts, every one after its Kind; that is, out of all Essences, every one after the Property of its Essence; and so also it was (by the Fiat) figured according to the Property of its own Essence; and in like Manner, all Trees, Herbs, and Grass, all at once together. How then should the image of God be made out of the fragile [or corruptible] Essences? But it [must be and] was made in the Paradise out of the eternal [Essences.]