I

...they are connected, and their arrangement is called Fate fatum: in this context, the inescapable laws of the physical universe governed by the stars. From there, the Word of God joined with the elements that tend downward—a pure craftsmanship of nature—and it was united with the Craftsman Mind original: "opifici menti"; often referred to as the Demiurge, the divine laborer who shapes the world. For they were of the same substance. The elements of nature that fell downward were left without reason, so that they might be as mere matter.

The Craftsman Mind, together with the Word, containing the circles and turning them with swift speed, turned its machine toward itself and commanded it to roll from beginning to end without end. For it always begins there where it ends. Through the circuit of all these things, just as the Mind itself willed, it forged from the lower elements animals devoid of reason. For it did not grant them reason. The air brought forth flying things, and the water brought forth swimming things.

Water and earth were also distinguished from each other in the manner that had pleased the Mind. Afterward, the Earth brought forth living creatures (which it had held within): namely four-footed things, serpents, wild beasts, field animals, as well as domestic ones.

But the Father of all—being Mind original: "intellectus", Life, and Radiance—procreated a Man similar to himself, and rejoiced in him as His own son. For he was beautiful, bearing the image of his Father. God, truly delighted by His own form, granted all His works for human use.

But Man, when he had considered the creation of all things in his time, also wished to create. Hence, from the contemplation of the Father, he fell down original: "delapsus est"; this suggests the "Fall of Man" in a Hermetic sense—a voluntary descent from the divine realm to the material to the sphere of generation. And since he held all power within himself, he observed the handiwork of the seven governors gubernatorum: the planetary spirits who rule over the seven celestial spheres. These governors, rejoicing in the contemplation of the human mind, each made the Man a participant in their own order. After he learned their essence and perceived their own nature, he then desired to penetrate and break through the boundary of the circles, and the power of the governor presiding over the fire...