Chapter One.

Classes. Those of the first class are completely pure, uncompounded, unchangeable, suffer no mixing, are indestructible, and through them all the powers of things obtain their reality. The elements of the second class are changeable, manifold, impure, and can be brought back to their original purity through artIn this context, "Art" (German: Kunst) refers to alchemy or the technical application of hidden knowledge to refine and transform nature.. Those of the third class are not actually elements in themselves; they are changeable, manifold, decomposed, and mutually transformable into one another; they are the actual so-called middle beingsOriginal: Mittelwesen. These are transitional substances or forces that bridge the gap between the purely spiritual and the purely material realms., and are also called the middle nature. Their powers are less known, and yet all effects of natural and divine magic rely on this important knowledge, just as, in general, no magical effect can be produced without the science and insight of these three classes of elements.

Fire and earth, or the active and the passive, are sufficient for all natural effects. Fire is in everything, permeates and illuminates everything, and its origin is unknown and hidden. Without matter upon which it can manifest its effect, it is immeasurable and invisible; it has the ground of its effect within itself, is movable, intangible, and everywhere present; it suffers no loss and shares itself with everything. It is one, and as the PythagoreansFollowers of Pythagoras, the ancient Greek philosopher who believed the universe was structured according to mathematical ratios and that fire was a central cosmic principle. claim, it is extended and radiant in the heavenly regions; in the