From the book
Sal Lumen and Spiritus Mundi Philosophici
Clovis Hesteau de Nuysement · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordAbove and below describe the ordered passage of influence, not merely positions on a page or vessel.
- In Sal LumenII.2 restricts undergoing action to what has a body and calls earth the body of bodies, possessing length, breadth, depth and surface.
- In this editionThe English preserves direction and bodily reception together.
- A place to readDownward in a sphere is toward centre, where influence ends.
Meaning
Above and below describe the ordered passage of influence, not merely positions on a page or vessel. Higher powers require lower bodily recipients to become effective. Direction toward the centre completes the account: what descends must reach and remain within the subject rather than merely pass over its surface.
Use in the book
II.2 restricts undergoing action to what has a body and calls earth the body of bodies, possessing length, breadth, depth and surface. In this cosmology earth is the sole lower recipient of celestial influences. Their powers are to penetrate, heat, purge, separate, vivify, increase, conserve and restore: descent names a differentiated efficacy rather than bare displacement.
The direction is explicitly downward, not upward, since the author says there is nothing above the heavens to receive this influence. In a spherical body, below is toward the centre; consequently the influences terminate and fix their points in earth. This geometrical argument explains the central direction. It is not merely a metaphor for the inner surface of a vessel, nor a claim that ordinary soil alone is the sought ingredient.
The passage provides a vocabulary of orientation for subsequent purification and embodiment. Later ascent and descent can acquire further meanings, including changes of consistency rather than actual travel to the top of a vessel. That later qualification should prevent an overly literal use of the directional words here, while leaving the immediate cosmological hierarchy intact.
Places to read
- Book Two · Chapter 2 · Unit 11Downward in a sphere is toward centre, where influence ends.
- Book Two · Chapter 4 · Unit 23The later interpretation of ascending and descending concerns changes of consistency, not solely spatial travel.
Translation
The English preserves direction and bodily reception together. Extracting only the familiar above/below formula would lose the earth's role as receiver and the requirement of inward penetration. The several actions attributed to the influence are not names of separately measured forces; they articulate the functions the author gathers within one descending agency.
Word family
Dessus, dessous, haut and bas: direction within a receptive world. Exact historical spellings are listed separately.
Attested forms
en bas directement & non en haut; centre; dessus; en bas