A New Light of Alchemy

5The waters rest upon earth's foundations as in a vessel, contained by the motion of air and pressed by it towards the Arctic pole, for there is no vacuum in the world. For this reason a fire of infernal heat exists at earth's centre, governed by nature's Archeus. At the beginning of the world's creation, God the best and greatest first raised the quintessence of the elements from that confused chaos, and it passed beyond. Afterwards he lifted the purest substance of fire above everything, to establish his most holy majesty there, and set and fixed it within its bounds. At the centre of chaos, by the will of immeasurable divine wisdom, that fire was kindled which afterwards distilled those purest waters. But since the purest fire had now occupied the firmament with the throne of the Most High God, the waters remained beneath it and were condensed into heavens below that fire. To make them firmer, a fire grosser than the former then emerged by distillation—always through the agency of the central fire—and remained in the sphere of fire beneath the waters. Thus the waters were congealed and compressed into heavens between two fires.