(28) I. First, there arose the fire-crack, or the mobility in the heat; and that is the beginning of life in the chamber of death. II. After this, secondly, the light in the unctuosity or fatness of the water became shining in the heat; and that is now the sun. III. Thirdly, when now the light of the sun had affected or possessed the whole body of the sun, then the power of life, which rose up out of the first affecting or possessing, ascended, as when wood is kindled, or when fire is struck out of a stone.

(70) But now the earth was the Salitter, which was cast up out of the innermost birth and stood in death: But when the fire-flash, through the word, rose up in the water, then it was a terror or crack, from which existed the mobility in death; and that mobility, in all the seven spirits, is now the astral birth or geniture. The Depth. Understand this aright.

(50) Then the fourth Form in the Center of the Soul broke forth there where the Spirit of the Soul was created, [viz.] between the fourth and fifth Form in the Center, near the Heart of God; and so the fourth Form was in the Glance in the Darkness, out of which the World was created, which in its Form parts itself in its Center into the five Parts in its Rising, till [it attains] to the Light of the Sun. For the Stars also in their Center are generated betwixt the fourth and the fifth Form, and the Sun is the P Spring of the fifth Form in the Center; as in the eternal Center, the Heart and the Light of God [is,] which has no Ground; but this [Center] of the Stars and Elements has its Ground in the fourth Form in the dark Mind, in the Rising up of the awakened [or kindled] Flash of the Fire.

(7) Behold, again, the seven subject Worlds; ordered by Aeon's order, and with their varied course full-filling Aeon! [See how] all things [are] full of light, and nowhere [is there] fire; for 'tis the love and the blending of the contraries and the dissimilars that doth give birth to light down shining by the energy of God, the Father of all good, the Leader of all order, and Ruler of the seven world-orderings! [Behold] the Moon, forerunner of them all, the instrument of nature, and the transmuter of its lower matter! [Look at] the Earth set in the midst of All, foundation of the Cosmos Beautiful, feeder and nurse of things on Earth! And contemplate the multitude of deathless lives, how great it is, and that of lives subject to death; and midway, between both, immortal [lives] and mortal, [see thou] the circling Moon.

(6) The space between B and C marks the orbits or planes of the seven Spiritual Intelligences called the Divine Planets (not the visible planets). According to the Mysteries, the souls of men enter the lower worlds through ring B, the fixed stars. All creation reflects the glory of Schamayim, the energy that filters into the spheres of the elements through the windows of the stars and planets. Between C and D lies the region of the subtle, spiritual air, a subdivision of ether. D to E marks the surface of the earth and sea, by which are also meant grades of ether. E to F marks the lower region, called "The Gathering of the Waters and the Production of the Virgin Earth, " or "Ares. " The alchemists called this "quicksand," the true mystic foundation of the solid earth. F to G marks the circle of the subterranean air, which is more dense and coarse than that in the outer space, C to D. In this denser atmosphere the stellar influences and celestial impulses are crystallized into corporeal spirits, thus forming the multitude of forms which exist without knowledge of their own fiery source. G is the region of the central fire of the element earth, a coarse fire in contradistinction to the divine fiery Schamayim. The sphere of the starry heavens likewise has its opposite in the sphere of the subterranean air; and the sphere of the upper air (or subtle vaporous water) has its opposite in the sphere E to F. The focal point, D to E, between the three higher and the three lower spheres, is called "The Reservoir." It receives impressions from both the superior and the inferior regions and is common to both.

(135) The light went forth from the innermost birth or geniture, and kindled itself in the outermost. It gave again to the outermost a natural peculiar light of its own.

(30) That same light is generated in the midst or centre, out of these four species, out of the unctuosity or fatness of the sweet water, and replenisheth the whole body of this generating. But it is such a meek, pleasing, well-doing, good-smelling and well-tasting relish, that I know no similitude to liken it to, but where life is generated in the midst or centre of death; or as if a man did sit in a huge, scorching, hot, flaming fire, and were suddenly snatched out from thence, and set in such a very exceeding easy place of refreshment, where instantly all the smarting, scalding pains, which he felt afore by the burning of the fire, should suddenly pass away, and he be put into such a pleasing temper and soundness. Just so the generating of the four kinds or species are set or put into such a soft and meek welldoing and refreshment, as soon as the light riseth up in them. Thou must understand me here aright.

(7) There are many planes of Being--many sub-planes of Life--many degrees of existence in the Universe. And all depend upon the advancement of beings in the scale, of which scale the lowest point is the grossest matter, the highest being separated only by the thinnest division from the SPIRIT of THE ALL. And, upward and onward along this Scale of Life, everything is moving. All are on the Path, whose end is THE ALL. All progress is a Returning Home. All is Upward and Onward, in spite of all seemingly contradictory appearances. Such is the message of the Illumined.

(4) And now if we look round about us every where, upon Heaven and Earth, the Stars and Elements, yet we can see and know no Way [or Passage] where we may go to our Rest; we see no other than the Way of the Entrance in of our Life, and then of the End of our Life, where our Body goes into the Earth, and all our Labour (also our Arts and Glory) is inherited by another, who also vexes himself therewith for a While, and then follows after us; and that continues so from the Beginning of the World to its End.

(79) Out of the anguishing chamber in the body of this world, out of the seven spirits of God, are risen or sprung forth the stars, which kindle the body of this world; and out of or from the body the fruit or seed generateth itself, which is the water, fire, air and earth.

(11) But mark the Depth, in a Similitude which I set down thus; the harsh Spring in the Original is the Mother out of which the other five Springs are generated, viz. Bitterness, Fire, Love, Sound, and Water. Now these are Members of this Birth [of their Mother,] and without them there would be nothing but an anguishing dark Vale [or vacuum,] where there could be no Mobility, nor any Light or Life: But now the Life is born in her by the kindling of the Light, and then she rejoices in her own Property, and labours in her own tart sour Quality to generate again; and in her own Quality there rises a Life again, and a Center opens itself again, and the Life comes to be generated again out of her in a six-fold Form, yet not in any such Anguish as at the Beginning, but in great Joy.

(21) As we see that here out of the Earth there springs Plants, Herbs, and Fruits, which receive their Virtue from the Sun, and from the Constellation: So the Heaven or the heavenly Limbus is instead of the Earth; and the Light of God instead of the Sun; and the eternal Father instead of the Virtue of the Stars. The Depth of this Substance is without Beginning and End, its Breadth cannot be reached, there are neither Years nor Time, no Cold nor Heat; no moving of the Air; no Sun nor Stars; no Water nor Fire; no Sight of evil Spirits; no Knowledge nor Apprehension of the Affliction of this World; no stony Rock nor Earth; and yet a figured Substance of all the Creatures of this World. For all the Creatures of this World have appeared to this End, that they might be an eternal figured Similitude; not that they continue in this Spirit in their Substance, no not so: All the Creatures return into their a Ether, and the Spirit corrupts [or fades,] but the Figure and the Shadow continue eternally.

(41) Now in the same way that the human life riseth up, so also in that way has the birth of the seven planets and stars risen and sprung up; and therein there is no difference at all. The Centre or Circle of the Birth of Life. The great Depth.

(37) And which, seeing it qualifieth or uniteth with the innermost birth of the astral birth or geniture, cometh to help the Salitter of the corrupted earth, and quencheth its wrath; whereby, in the astral birth or geniture, all stands in the life. And so the earth generateth the life through the death. The Gate of the Mystery.

(42) But now God separated the Fire (viz. the fifth Essence or Form) from the Water, and out of that made the Stars; and the Paradise is hid in the Matrix. Therefore now the Mother of the Water desires with great Earnestness the Mother of the Fire, and seeks the Child of Love; and the Mother of the Fire seeks it in the Mother of the Water, where it was generated, and there is between them a continual vehement Hunger one after another to copulate.

(34) This I have here shown very briefly and summarily, and not according to all the Circumstances, that it might thereby be somewhat understood [by the Way, what] the Life [is.] In its due Place all shall be explained at large, for herein is very much contained, and there might be great Volumes written of it; but I have set down only this, that the Overcoming and the Sleep might be apprehended. The Gate [or Explanation] of the heavenly Tincture, how it was in Adam before the Fall, and how it shall be in us after this Life.

(120) But it has its life in its seat, and that cannot be taken from it, but death hangeth to it in the outermost birth or geniture, as also the wrath in death; for the wrath is the life of death and of the devil; and in the wrath stands also the corporeal being, or the bodies of the devils, but the dead birth or geniture is their eternal dwelling-house. The Depth in the Circle of the Birth or Geniture. Now one might ask, What manner of substance has it, or what is the condition thereof, that the astral birth of the earth did begin its qualifying, operating and generating one day sooner than the astral in the deep above the earth; seeing the fire in the deep above the earth is much sharper and easier to be kindled, than the fire in the earth; and seeing also that the earth must be kindled by the fire in the deep above the earth, else it can bear no fruit? Answer.

(2) All things being undefined and yet unwrought, the light things were assigned unto the height, the heavy ones had their foundations laid down underneath the moist part of Dry Space, the universal things being bounded off by Fire and hanged in Breath to keep them up. And Heaven was seen in seven circles; its Gods were visible in forms of stars with all their signs; while Nature had her members made articulate together with the Gods in her. And [Heaven's] periphery revolved in cyclic course, borne on by Breath of God.

(84) Thus far the power of the life reached forth from the sun, and not higher; but the lustre or shining thereof, which has its power also, reacheth even to the stars, and through the whole body of this world. But thou must understand this exactly, from whence these two Planets are come to be.

(6) Seeing then we clearly see and understand, that we have our Beginning altogether Earthly, and are sown in a Field (as Grain is sown in the Earth) where our Life springs up, grows, and at length flourishes, as Corn [or Grain] does out of the Earth; where we can know in us nothing but an earthly Life; yet we see very well that the Constellations and Elements qualify [or work] in us, and nourish, drive, govern, and guide us, also fill us and bring us up, and so preserve our Life a While, and then break it again, and turn it to Dust and Ashes; like all Beasts, Trees, Plants, and all [Things] that grow; but we see not how it is with us afterwards, whether all be ended with it, or whether we go with our Spirit and Conversation into another Life; and therefore it is most necessary to learn, and to seek the right Way.