Sacred and Truly Christian Philosophy, or Cosmic Meteorology

8 Section I. Portion IV. Part I. Book I.

the surface of the abyss, when he established the heavens above, etc. Proverbs 8:22. And so the hidden God original: "DEVS latens" was made the revealed God original: "DEVS patens", the effect of whose divine splendor in the humid or watery nature was the created light. We have, therefore, from this birth the Tetrahedron A four-faced pyramid, representing the element of fire in Platonic geometry. or the first fire, begotten of the Cube A six-sided solid, representing the element of earth or the "dark father." of its dark father. Then, from the bowels of the Tetrahedron—or the illuminated spirit—the Dodecahedron A twelve-faced solid, representing the heavens or the universe as a whole. is extracted. For when the bright spirit was created on the first day, the Heaven or the Expansion was created from its womb or matrix on the second day of creation, as Moses testifies. This Dodecahedron is formed from pentagonal surfaces, and for this reason (as I believe) heaven is called the fifth essence The "quintessence," a refined substance distinct from the four earthly elements., arguing from this that the fifth element is distinct from those four sublunary elements. The work of the third day, however, is the gathering of the thick or sensible waters into a place destined for them by God; their symbol is the Icosahedron A twenty-faced solid representing the element of water., from whose belly the air immediately flew forth, whose symbol is the Octahedron An eight-faced solid representing the element of air.; for water became air through thinning. The remainder of the dark Cube, however, settled into the earth, and thus it now obtained the name of "fertile earth," which was previously called "void earth" by Moses. Therefore, in the image of these three principles—namely, darkness, waters, and light—the entire spirit of the world is divided into three elements, differing from one another in nature and disposition: namely, into Earth, into the Sphere of Moisture, and into Fire, just as has been more than sufficiently explained in the second book of our History of the Macrocosm.

From these things explained here, there arose so much discrepancy among the leading ancient philosophers concerning the principles of natural things, though their opinions do not seem to differ much from one another if we consider the matter a little more accurately. For Thales of Miletus placed Water as the principle of all things; Anaximenes said that infinite air was the cause of the existence of things, whence Anaximander even made air God. But Zoroaster thought all things were made by fire or light, and the Pythagoreans said fire was the unique thing throughout the whole.

And certainly, as has been said, if we consider the matter well, we will find these men did not wander far from the path. For fire, first emerging from the darkness, revealed the unseen waters by its sudden splendor; the vast, subtle part of these waters is the airy spirit, whence both Thales and Anaximenes seem to agree in a certain way. But indeed, both of these explained only the material or passive principle. But Zoroaster, preferring fire above the rest, quite rightly called it the primary principle, inasmuch as it preceded the moist matter, no differently than action precedes passion, or an act precedes the thing to be produced into action. And yet he himself erred in a way, because an active principle cannot exist except insofar as it relates to a passive principle.

Hence St. Peter said the heaven and earth were made from water and through water by means of the Word—that is, the agent, or the first act. Therefore, with more mature speech, Diogenes spoke of the principles of things, saying that air endowed with divine reason is the principle of things: that is, air or the created moist nature, and the divine light; as if he wished to say with Moses that the Spirit of the Lord, carried over the waters, was the principle of created things along with the waters. And Zeno the Stoic, more cautious in his opinion, attempting to make his sentiment on the principle firmer, says that the substance of Fire converted through air into water is the principle of all things. And Empedocles, proceeding in a coarser manner, established the four elements as the principles of all things. Finally, the error of all these in their judgment of principles was immense, because they did not notice that the divine power or the most holy Word was the more ancient beginning of all these things. If they had understood this with more mature meditation, they would say with Zoroaster, instructed by primary reasons, that the divine light was the Monad The "Unit" or "The One," representing the ultimate source of all being. or primary author of all things, since it is the source and origin of acts and forms; by the revelation of which the number Dyad The number "Two," representing duality or the emergence of a second principle from the first. was produced—namely, the dark Monad which was water along with the bright Monad.

CHAPTER IV.

Concerning the simple accidental principles of meteors; that is, concerning the origin of the nature of the two active qualities, and how the two passive qualities (which we therefore call the "simples of the simples") are derived from them.

Concerning qualities of this sort and the reason for their origin, we have spoken quite fully in Chapter 7, Book 1 of our Physical History of the Macrocosm. However, we think it will be worthwhile to say a few things about them here: specifically, those through whose effects progression is made—both in the thickening and thinning of elements—from the aforementioned principles to the things originated from principles. In these, substances mixed both imperfectly and perfectly are gathered in a homogeneous way, digested, matured, fixed, and led to the goal of perfection; and likewise, heterogeneous things are cut, scattered, dissipated, driven away, and reverberated. This duty is indeed completed by heat, insofar as it is from the most noble and subtle spirit...