A New Light of Alchemy

8Now to our subject: the courses of waters and the sea's ebb and flow, and how waters are carried along the polar axis from one pole to the other. There are two poles: the Arctic in the upper, northern region, and the Antarctic beneath earth in the southern region. The Arctic pole has the magnetic power of attraction; the Antarctic has the magnetic power of expulsion. Nature shows us an example in the magnet. The Arctic pole therefore draws waters through the axis. Having entered, they break out again through the Antarctic pole's axis. Since air does not permit inequality, they are compelled to return once more to the Arctic pole, their centre, and so maintain their continual course. In this passage from Arctic to Antarctic, through the world's middle or axis, they spread through earth's pores. Springs arise in greater or lesser quantities, meet, grow into rivers, and return once more to their starting place. This occurs ceaselessly through universal motion. As I have said, some people, ignorant of universal motion and the poles' operation, say these waters are consumed in the heart of the sea but generated by the stars. Yet stars produce or generate nothing material. They only impress powers and spiritual influences, which add no weight.