Het tweede boeck des auteurs, handelende van de drie principien

f Or working/operation.
g Or star-spirit.
h Or the property/quality.
i Or governs/rules.

holy Divine birth in the Heavenly being; however, the Sidereal Spirit star-spirit (with which the soul is received) as well as the Elemental Spirit (which has the quallen active qualities and the drive of the blood) see no further than into their Mother, from whom they are, and in whom they live.

5. Therefore, even if I speak and write purely of Heaven and everything of the clear Godhead, I would still be dumb to the reader who does not have the knowledge and the gifts. However, I wish to write in this way (in both a Divine and a creaturely manner) to see if I might entice some to think upon these high things. And if they find they cannot do so, let them at least seek in their desire, and knock, and pray to God for His Holy Spirit, that the door of the second Principle foundational realm of light might be opened to them; for Christ commands us to pray, seek, and knock, and it will be opened to us: for he says: Whatever you shall ask the Father in my Name, He will give it to you: ask and you shall receive, seek and you shall find, knock and it will be opened to you.

i Understanding or science/knowledge.
k Or they are already wise in their own conceit, and seeing in their blindness.

6. Since then my knowledge understanding has come through seeking and knocking, I write the same as a memorial, to see if I might entice someone to seek after it, so that my talent might increase and not lie hidden in the earth. But for those who were already clever, who grasp and know everything and yet nothing, I have written nothing for them; for they are already satisfied wise in conceit and rich; but for the simple, such as I am, I have written, so that I may rejoice with my own kind.

Further concerning Sulfur, Mercury, and Salt.

l Or for which it is loved.
m Or through which.
n First matter.
o Or contains.
p Or the great world.
q Or star-spirit.
r In the second ground of the small world.

7. The word Sul signifies and is the soul of a thing; for it is, in the word, the oil the thing loved or the light which is born from the syllable phur; and it is the beauty or the well-being of a thing, its beloved most loved part. In a creature, it is the light by which through which the creature sees: and therein stands the reason and the senses, and it is the Spirit that is born from the syllable phur. The word or syllable phur is the Prima Materia first matter, and contains holds within itself in the third Principle the Macrocosm the great world, where the Elemental kingdom or being is born: yet in the first Principle, it is the being of the innermost birth, from which God the Father begets His Son from eternity, and from which the Holy Spirit proceeds (understand: from the sul and from the phur). In man, it is also the light which is born from the Sidereal Spirit star-spirit, in the second center of the Microcosm the small world, or man

f Or in the spirit of the souls.

Microcosm: but in the Spiraculo breath of life and soul-spirit in the innermost center, it is the Light of God, which only the soul has that is in the love of God; for it is only ignited and breathed upon by the Holy Spirit.

g Or the eternal Divine working.
h Or fountain-vein of wrath.
i Resting-place or site.

8. Now mark the depth of the birth of God: in God there is no Sulfur sulfur as a physical substance, yet it is born from Him and such power is in Him: for the syllable phur is the innermost power of the original source-vein active quality of the wrath of severity, or of mobility (as is related in the first Chapter) and the same syllable phur has within itself many forms, such as first, harshness, then bitterness, fire, and water. Harshness attracts to itself, and is raw, cold, and sharp, and makes everything hard, murky, and anxious: and this same attraction is a bitter sting, quite terrifying; and in this same anxiousness arises the first climbing up: but as it is from its root resting place, so it reaches into a turning wheel, like a swift thought, in great anxiousness, in which it reaches into a shooting lightning-flash, as if stone and steel were rubbed together with force.

z Or spreads.
a Or shines.
b Or mixes/impregnates.
c Or property.
d Or severity.
e Or mixed with the harshness.
f Lovely or pleasant.
g Or in joy.

9. For the harshness is as hard as a stone: and the bitterness becomes and rages in the harshness like a breaking wheel, which breaks the harshness and strikes up the fire, so that everything reaches into a terrifying state of fire, and flares up, and scatters spreads the harshness, from which the dark harshness is terrified and sinks back beneath itself, becoming as if powerless, or as if it were smothered and dead, lifting itself out, becoming thin, and giving itself up as overcome: but when the severe fire-flash looks back into the harshness and infects mixes with it, it finds the harshness just as if one poured water into a fire, from which a shock arises: but as the shock now happens in the thin overcome harshness, it receives another active quality property, and out of the grim severity wrathful harshness it rises up like an ignited light: for the shock instantly becomes white, clear, and light; for in this way the ignition of the light occurs: as soon as, and in the same moment that the light (that is, the new shock of the fire) infects itself mixes with the harshness, the harshness is then ignited, and is terrified by the great light (which comes into it instantly) as if it woke from death, and becomes soft pleasant, lively, and full of joy, it loses immediately the dark, bitter, and cold power, and climbs up full of joy joyfully.