Mysterium Magnum

14 [left]
Of the five Senses. CHAP. 5. [right]

18. My writing here about the Oil and water should be understood in this way: during the kindling of the fire in the Flagrat original: "Flagrat"; refers to a sudden flash, crack, or explosion of energy that marks a transition between states (both in the Flagrat of Joy in the Ens Ens: being or essence of the free Lubet and in the Flagrat of wrathfulness in the impression of the dark spiritual Ens), the Essence which the first desire has coagulated or gathered together is consumed in the fire-Flagrat. That is, it dies, as it were, to its own self-interest and is taken into the Only Spirit. This Spirit has manifested itself here in the fire of wrathfulness and in the light-fire of the Kingdom of Joy. This Spirit now expresses it again, or breathes it forth out of itself as two spiritual worlds.

19. Understand it correctly: out of the fiery property in the breathing original: "Spiration" proceeds the vital Source. According to the Free Lubet, this source is holy and joyful; according to the darkness, it is painful and wrathful. The wrathfulness and painful Source is the root of joy, and the joy is the root of the enmity of the dark wrathfulness. Thus, there is a contrariety original: "contrariety"; an opposition or contrast by which the good is made manifest and known to be good.

20. The mortified original: "Mortifyed"; in alchemy, this refers to the process of stripping a substance of its outward form to release its inner spirit Essence in the fire (which the first desire in the free Lubet has coagulated and made dark) proceeds through the fire’s mortification as a Spiritual Oil. This oil is the property of the fire and light. From that same mortification, a water proceeds—namely, a mortified, sensationless Essence, which serves as a house for the oil. Within this house, the fire-Source or Spirit has its vital region. This oil is the food of the fire-Source, which the fire draws back into itself and devours. By doing so, it allays the fire-Source and introduces it into the greatest meekness, in which the life of the great Love acts: namely, the good taste. Thus, the fire-Source becomes a state of humility or meekness in the oil through the mortification in the water-Source.

21. For no fire-Spirit can be meek without the mortification of its own natural property or peculiar Essence. But the water—which was previously an Essence gathered out of the free Lubet and yet mortified in the fire—can change the Essence of the fire into a meek desire.

CHAPTER V.

Of the five Senses.

Love-fire; Venus.

♀ The astronomical and alchemical symbol for Venus, representing the fifth property of nature: love and harmony.

The fifth form or property is the Love-desire: namely, the holy life or the displayed light-fire. This is awakened or raised up in the wrathful, consuming fire. That is, it receives its luster and shine from the fire. We have a similarity to this in all outward fires; we see that the light arises in the fire, but yet has a completely different source than the fire. For the fire is painful, but the light [continues to next page]