45.15 · The soul’s airy coverings

So it is with the soul. She too has her own incorporeal coverings, since she herself is incorporeal. These coverings are the airs within us. When they are thin, loose in texture, and clear, the soul is intelligent; when, on the contrary, they are dense, thick, and clouded, she cannot see far, as in a storm, but only what lies at her feet.”¹⁶⁰⁸

45.16 · Horus asks about Egypt’s understanding

Horus said, “For what reason, then, mother, are the people outside our most sacred country not truly intelligent in their thinking, as our own people are?” Isis replied: “Earth lies upon her back at the center of the universe, lying like a human being with her gaze upon heaven, divided into as many parts as the human being is divided. She looks upon heaven as upon her own father, so that, as he changes, she too may change her own conditions in concert.¹⁶⁰⁹

45.17 · Earth’s limbs and the directions

She has her head lying toward the south of the universe, ⟨her⟩ right shoulder toward the east, ⟨and her left toward the southwest⟩; her feet are beneath the Bear, ⟨the right beneath its tail,⟩ and the left beneath its head. Her thighs lie in the regions next after the Bear, and her middle parts in the middle regions.¹⁶¹⁰

45.18 · The peoples at the head and shoulders

A sign of this is that the southerners, who dwell at the crown of the head, have fine heads and beautiful hair, while the eastern peoples are ready for battle and skilled in archery, the right hand being the cause of these qualities. Those in the southwest are steadfast [and], for the most part, fight with the left hand; whatever others accomplish with the right side, they apply themselves to with the left;¹⁶¹¹

45.19 · The northern legs and the regions of the thighs

those beneath the Bear excel in their feet, and others have fine lower legs. Those next after them, a little farther away, ⟨inhabiting⟩ what is now the Italian region and the Greek region, all have beautiful thighs and especially fine buttocks, so that the surpassing beauty of these parts leads the people there even to intercourse with males. All these parts, being inactive in comparison with the others, have also produced more inactive inhabitants.¹⁶¹²

45.20 · Egypt as the earth’s heart

But our ancestors’ most sacred country lies in the middle of the earth. The middle of the human body is the enclosure of the heart alone, and the heart is the soul’s starting place. For this reason, my child, ⟨the⟩ people here possess no less of all the other qualities than everyone else, but are exceptionally intelligent and temperate above them all, having been born and brought up at the heart.¹⁶¹³

45.21 · Southern clouds and obscured understanding

Moreover, the south, my child, being receptive to the clouds that gather from the surrounding atmosphere * * (indeed, because they are thus carried down there, people say that our ⟨river⟩ too flows from there as the frost melts there). Wherever a cloud descends, it makes the overlying air misty and brings down, in a fashion, something of smoke. Mist is smoke, an obstacle not only to the eyes but also to the mind.¹⁶¹⁴

45.22 · East, west, and north

The east, Horus of great renown, is continually disturbed and heated by the rising of the Sun; likewise the southwest opposite it shares the same effects at sunset. They provide no clear mental attention in the human beings born in their regions. The north, with its corresponding cold, freezes the minds of those beneath it along with their bodies.¹⁶¹⁵

45.23 · The middle region shares its victory

The region between them, being clear and undisturbed, excels both in itself and in all its inhabitants. Through its continual freedom from care it brings them forth, orders them, and educates them; it competes and conquers only by such means, and skillfully shares its own victory with the conquered, like a good satrap.”¹⁶¹⁶

45.24 · Illness and the soul

“Explain this to me too, lady mother: for what reason, while people are still alive, are speech, reasoning itself, and the soul itself sometimes impaired in prolonged illnesses?”¹⁶¹⁷

45.25 · Affinity and aversion to the elements

Isis answered: “Among living things, my child, some have an affinity with fire, others with water, others with air, others with earth; some with two or three of these, and some with all of them. Conversely, some are averse to fire, others to water, others to earth, others to air; some to two of these, some to three, and some to all of them.¹⁶¹⁸

45.26 · Animals and the elements they avoid

For example, my child, the locust and every fly avoid fire. The eagle, the hawk, and those birds that fly higher avoid water; fish avoid air and earth; the snake turns away from pure air.¹⁶¹⁹