DiotimosReading Desk

Celestial and spiritual life

Land of the living

Terra Viventium; Supernaturall East; Cocmah; Binah

The “Land of the Living” is the source from which Vaughan says all life or spirit comes.

From the book

Lumen de Lumine

Thomas Vaughan (Eugenius Philalethes) · Diotimos Editions · 2026

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Orientation

At a Glance

  • The wordThe “Land of the Living” is the source from which Vaughan says all life or spirit comes. He expressly identifies it with the Christian second person and calls it the supernatural east.
  • In this bookThe image joins the natural sunrise, the descent of souls, divine breathing and the spiritual earth that bears souls as flowers. These are connected claims within Vaughan’s Christian Kabbalistic interpretation (pp. 81–82 · Passage A–pp. 84–85 · Passage A).
  • In this editionThe Latin is translated “land of the living.” The modern reading gives Chokhmah for “Cocmah,” while the annotations distinguish Vaughan’s identifications with Son and Holy Ghost from neutral accounts of Jewish doctrine.
  • A place to read1651, pp. 81–85, from the Prester’s source to the image of eternal fire-earth (pp. 81–82 · Passage A–pp. 84–85 · Passage A).

Meaning

“Land” gives spatial and fertile form to a source that Vaughan calls supernatural. It is not introduced as a geographical country to which a map could lead. The immediate analogy is the east: natural sunlight first becomes visible to us there, and supernatural light is said first to manifest itself in the second person. “Living” identifies the land through what comes from it—life and spirit—and later through its production of souls (pp. 81–82 · Passage A; pp. 84–85 · Passage A).

The phrase also belongs to an account of order. Vaughan differentiates the origin of souls in the second person from their communication through the third. This prevents the imagery of a single source from abolishing every internal distinction. His account places conception, reception and breathing in relation; it does not describe three unequal gods or three successive creations of divine persons (pp. 82–83 · Passage C; pp. 83–84 · Passage A).

Use in the book

The phrase occurs as Vaughan gives the Prester an ancestry. After identifying the spirit of life with an influence of almighty God, he says that it comes from “Terra Viventium,” namely the second person. The next designation, “Supernaturall East,” is explained by a carefully stated analogy of manifestation. As the sun’s light appears to human beings first in the east, so the Father’s supernatural light is first manifested in the second person. The claim concerns the way divine light appears in Vaughan’s account, not a geographical relocation of the Trinity (pp. 81–82 · Passage A).

He then quotes the proposition that every good soul is a new soul coming from the east. His explanation identifies that east with “Cocmah,” the second sephirah, and equates it with the Son of God. The limitation “good” should not be lost: the quoted proposition is not worded as an unqualified dictionary definition of all souls. Nor does the adjective “new” by itself establish a full theory of individual human origins; Vaughan uses the sentence to clarify the direction of spiritual descent (p. 82 · Passage A).

A second maxim makes the itinerary more intricate. Souls descend from the third light to the fourth day, then the fifth, and enter the night of the body. Rather than explain every stage, Vaughan concentrates on the third light. He calls it Binah and identifies it with the Holy Ghost. He expressly leaves the fourth and fifth days aside as outside his present design. A lexicon should preserve that limit instead of completing his route with an invented diagram (p. 82 · Passage B; pp. 82–83 · Passage C; pp. 83–84 · Passage A).

The apparent difficulty is how a soul can come from the second person yet descend from the third. Vaughan answers by distinguishing conception and communication. Souls are conceived ideally in the second person; the Holy Ghost receives and breathes them into nature. He invokes the breathing of life into Adam and then interprets the spirit as a river flowing from paradise. Streaming and breathing are parallel images of communication. The maternal title “mother of children” adds delivery: the third person brings forth what has been conceived in the second (pp. 82–83 · Passage C).

Vaughan next supplies scriptural warrants through Christ’s statements about the Spirit receiving what is his and about the world being made through him. He treats these as confirmation of an order or method in the Trinity’s operations. His qualification about equality is decisive: “last” refers to the sequence by which life reaches the creature, not to a lower divine rank. The source contains his theological argument and its citations; the modern edition does not turn it into a settled exposition shared by every tradition he invokes (pp. 83–84 · Passage A).

The ensuing image of eternal fire-earth gathers the argument into a visible analogy. This land buds and sprouts; its fiery spiritual flowers are souls. The Prester is accordingly the flower of thin fire. Ordinary earth and plants provide the comparison, but the higher source also grounds the whole natural fabric. When Vaughan asks what supported creation before there was any created ground, he answers that God founded nature upon his own supernatural centre. The land of the living belongs to this continuing support as well as to the initial bestowal of life (pp. 84–85 · Passage A).

Places to read

  1. The Prester of Zoroaster · Passage A · pp. 81–82OriginalThe Prester comes from the land of the living, identified as the second person and supernatural east (pp. 81–82 · Passage A).
  2. The Prester of Zoroaster · Passage A · p. 82Original; The Prester of Zoroaster · Passage B · p. 82OriginalThe good soul from the east is related to Chokhmah; a second maxim supplies the soul’s descent (p. 82 · Passage A; p. 82 · Passage B).
  3. The Prester of Zoroaster · Passage C · pp. 82–83OriginalBinah, divine breathing, the river from paradise and the maternal Holy Ghost explain communication of souls (pp. 82–83 · Passage C).
  4. The Prester of Zoroaster · Passage A · pp. 83–84OriginalScriptural sayings support Vaughan’s order of operations; the fourth and fifth days are left unexplained (pp. 83–84 · Passage A).
  5. The Prester of Zoroaster · Passage A · pp. 84–85OriginalEternal fire-earth bears spiritual flowers and nature rests upon a supernatural centre (pp. 84–85 · Passage A).

In this edition

The modern reading translates “Principium Alterationis” literally as “the principle of alteration,” then preserves Vaughan’s theological paraphrase, “the beginning of God’s ways.” These are adjacent historical expressions rather than proof that the Latin words alone mean the entire theological explanation (pp. 81–82 · Passage A).

Chokhmah and Binah are presented in readable modern forms, but the annotations expressly assign their Christian identifications to Vaughan. “Night of the body” preserves the maxim’s image of descent into embodiment. The edition does not supply the missing account of the fourth and fifth days, and neither does this entry (p. 82 · Passage A–pp. 83–84 · Passage A).

Historical forms and local uses: Terra Viventium, land of the living; Supernaturall East, Vaughan’s name for the source of supernatural light; Cocmah, Vaughan’s printed form for Chokhmah; Binah, the third light in Vaughan’s Christian interpretation.

Supernatural east — Supernaturall East

Supernaturall East. The analogy by which Vaughan identifies the second person as the first manifestation of the Father’s light. Natural sunlight first appears to us in the east; supernatural light is given a corresponding source of manifestation. The phrase is theological and relational, not a geographical identification.

Read: The Prester of Zoroaster · Passage A · pp. 81–82 · Original.

Chokhmah — Cocmah

Cocmah. Vaughan’s printed form in the explanation of a good soul’s coming from the east. He calls it the second sephirah and identifies it with the Son of God. The modern edition uses Chokhmah and marks the identification as Vaughan’s Christian Kabbalistic interpretation.

Read: The Prester of Zoroaster · Passage A · p. 82 · Original.

Binah

Binah. The third of the supreme lights in Vaughan’s explanation of the soul’s descent. He identifies it with the Holy Ghost and explains its role through receiving and breathing life into creatures. The account explicitly denies that the order of operation implies inequality among divine persons.

Read: The Prester of Zoroaster · Passage C · pp. 82–83 · Original.

Night of the body — Corporis Noctem

Corporis Noctem. The phrase in the quoted maxim describing the souls’ entry into embodiment after descent through the third light and fourth and fifth days. Vaughan explains the third light at length but leaves the two days aside. The darkness-image therefore survives without a completed map of every stage.

Read: The Prester of Zoroaster · Passage B · p. 82 · Original; The Prester of Zoroaster · Passage A · pp. 83–84 · Original.