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5 How the Divided and Separated Chaotic Water Is Regenerated Into the Common Universal Seed, Usually Called the Soul or Spirit of the World
Chapter outline
The four elements must remain differentiated while continually regenerating their common origin.
The beginner must understand this foundation before attempting procedures.
All material things remain water and spirit, whether liquid or dry, dissolved or coagulated.
Subtlety produces movement and heat; celestial vapour descends into air.
The elements transmit motion and combine their outflows to produce the world spirit.
From what has been said, a lover of the art can see and understand how the first and ancient Chaos was divided into four parts, according to the teaching of all the wise and by God’s irrevocable ordinance: heaven, or properly the element fire, air, water and earth. Since God commanded them not to flow together again until a further ordinance, he also gave them the word of multiplication: all together they must continually regenerate and bring forth anew the divided chaotic water, or universal seed, world spirit, soul of the world, spirit of the world, for the generation, preservation and destruction of every single thing. Some will find this strange and think: “When will this fellow forge the first Chaos anew, after it has been separated for so many thousands of years?” Indeed it sounds strange—especially to a peasant, who, together with his three, might well marvel at it, although he sees it with his own eyes and handles it every day. Because it is called by another name, he does not understand what it is or what lies hidden beneath that name. He is content that it makes his fields and meadows grow, feeding him and his cattle, and speculates no further. But a learned man and a beginning student should pay closer attention. Plainly, if someone does not understand the principal aim, the underlying ground and the foundation, how will he advance in the art? It is lamentable that so many apply themselves to it fruitlessly, bringing it more disgrace than honor: they rush thoughtlessly straight to the procedures and do not once consider the origin of each thing.
It is known that the four elements—fire, air, water and earth—arose from Chaos, all from one matter and ground. They therefore cannot differ in such a way that one might say to another: “I was born from a different and nobler matter.” No: the matter is one. The difference is that through putrefaction heaven became subtle and volatile and soared to the highest place together with air, whereas earth and water became fixed and sank into the depths by their weight. But if heaven is made fixed, it too is earth; and if earth is made volatile and subtle, it too is heaven. The same holds for air and water. One must be capable of changing into the other, or they would not be of one matter. Neither growth nor diminution could occur if one could not change into the other. These four arose from Chaos; Chaos was nothing other than water and spirit, two things comprehended in one. These two things divided into four, and the four are still nothing other than water and spirit. We must therefore understand water and spirit to be distributed through every member of the four—heaven, air, water and earth. Not the smallest part can be found in any of the four in which this water and this spirit are not present throughout. Whether liquid or dry, dissolved or coagulated, each and every thing in the whole world is water and spirit, and a dissolved or coagulated word of the eternal Creator. For the word became water: thus everything that subsists and lives is word.
It is also known that the subtler a thing is, the purer, livelier and more mobile it is. The more mobile it is, the more spirit it contains, and this movement makes it ever more mobile. Movement causes warmth: the more a thing is moved, the hotter it becomes, until it also warms and heats what is nearest to it. We must acknowledge that heaven is very subtle. Its subtlety keeps it continually in motion, and through that constant movement it heats itself. Since heaven is water and is made from water, this heating causes it to steam, exhale and sweat. But this vapour or sweat cannot go farther upward, because God has set it a limit. It must press downward, descending from above into the air. The coarsest part is held and captured there by the air. The subtle part rises back up through heaven’s attraction and travels to and fro until circulation has thickened and coarsened it enough for the air to retain it too. This is the influence we receive from heaven through the air, and the astral seed. Just as heaven is mobile, it makes its nearest neighbour, air, mobile as well; air moves water, and water moves earth. All proceeds in the most beautiful order, like clockwork in which one wheel drives another. As heaven gives forth its outflow, so do air, water and earth. Together, within their proper universal matter, they forge the common seed or world spirit.