The Little Golden Olympic Treasury

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come / but alone through His hand / that is / through His omnipotence / He took the essence of the earth Limbus terrae original: "Limbus terrae." Paracelsian term for the refined "dust" or spiritualized matter from which Adam was made. / and from it formed Man in His womb Matrix original: "Matrice." Here referring to the universe as the creative vessel of God. / which was the great world / and yet did not leave him in His womb / but took him out of the womb / and placed him in Paradise: Likewise, the man Adam / when he wishes to form or create a human being / does not enter entirely into the womb original: "Matricem" / or the microcosmic system original: "Microcosmiam" / but only as far as his power permits regarding the seed.

And just as in the first creation the Spirit of God hovered upon the water / and separated and formed all things: So also is He carried into the womb of the microcosm original: "Matricem Microcolmi." Referring to the human womb as the "small world" equivalent of the primordial waters. / that is / the heavenly blood / the life-giving fire / that same [fire] forms and sets in the woman the essence original: "Limbun." / or seed into its final being / and into a perfect human / who however does not remain in the womb of his microcosm / but is taken out / and placed into the great world.

At this point I cannot neglect to say something to those who imagine / that every seed is developed in the mother solely through natural heat / to argue against them: For such a claim can have no standing in nature. For it is found from the first creation / that originally all things were dead in their first substance / but for the sake of growth and multiplication / a living spirit / through which growth should occur / was poured into every creature according to its kind and property: And because Man is the image of GOD / and should also generate his like / there has also been poured into his womb original: "Matricem" his like SPIRIT original: "SPIRITVS" / that is / a Spirit of God / who comes from God / and goes back to God / so that He / and not alone the simple heat / though it be necessary for life / just as it is in the great world / forms and fashions the human in the mother / which Spirit hovers in the mother of the microcosm original: "Mutter Microcosmi" / which no other creature has. Therefore, women should rightly not be used for any improper unchastity / on account of the Spirit of God / who hovers in the mother: And because this Spirit and Former of the human seed otherwise has the creature only in the microcosm original: "Microcosmo" / thus all other images / which look like humans / and yet are not born in the true microcosm / are merely monsters Monstra Refers to "monstrous births" or beings considered to be outside the natural divine order, often discussed in 16th-century teratology. / which are indeed human according to the body / but entirely without a soul: Just as there were certain giants / who were indeed from male seed / but born in a foreign mother: For when a foreign animal womb original: "Matrix" receives the human seed with pleasure / then a human body usually becomes therefrom a foreign...