From the book
The Sophic Hydrolith, Water Stone of the Wise
Anonymous and companion authors · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordAscending and descending name opposed movements that together preserve a body.
- In the Sophic HydrolithIn Part II: matter and the work · unit 21 the returning moisture descends in drops and refreshes the corpus.
- In this editionBoth aligned units use an approximate expression: the material account says “approximately,” and the theological return says “about.”
- A place to readUpward and downward movement sustains the material body through returning moisture.
Meaning
Ascending and descending name opposed movements that together preserve a body. In the material account, the upward movement is not the whole achievement: what rises must return. The directional adverbs obersich and vndersich make this alternation plain. Later the paired noun phrase auff vnd nidersetzung recalls the same movement in an interpretation of spiritual life.
The family is organised by direction and function, not by a single German lemma. “Ascent” can suggest liberation from the body in isolation, but the text binds it to descent, refreshment and continued nearness. Its vocabulary therefore resists a reading in which salvation simply abandons embodiment.
Use in the book
In Part II: matter and the work · unit 21 the returning moisture descends in drops and refreshes the corpus. The alternation is valued because it prevents exhaustion and burning. The surrounding account demands regulated, patient work rather than hurried intensity. Its approximate repeated number belongs to that narrative; it is not a detached rule sufficient to reconstruct an operation.
Part IV: the spiritual comparison · unit 49 takes up the motion after describing spiritual dying. The soul is drawn upwards “as it were,” while the person’s body remains upon earth. Upward orientation means longing for eternal life and ordering present conduct towards God rather than worldly desires. The author expressly says that this dying is to sin, not the bodily death of the flesh.
The analogy then turns downwards. Body and soul, although represented as separated in a glass, remain near one another, and the soul refreshes the exhausted body. In the school of the cross, heavenly refreshment comforts and preserves the person under tribulation. The ascending soul does not leave an unwanted body behind. The author finally compares the numerical pattern with the earthly ascent and descent, while distinguishing temporal death from spiritual dying and describing the godly person’s continuing union with God’s Spirit.
Places to read
- Part II: matter and the work · unit 21Upward and downward movement sustains the material body through returning moisture.
- Part IV: the spiritual comparison · unit 49Spiritual ascent is joined to bodily continuance and refreshment from above.
Translation
Both aligned units use an approximate expression: the material account says “approximately,” and the theological return says “about.” The historical phrase vngefährlich zum siebenden mahl must therefore not be turned into an assertion of exact measurement. Equally important are the translation’s repeated “as it were,” corresponding to the passage’s analogical language. These words limit the comparison: the believer does not undergo a literal laboratory separation of soul from body. The later paragraph’s explanation that bodily life continues supplies the governing interpretation, rather than an inferred mystical death of the organism.
Attested forms
hernider; obersich; vndersich; auff vnd nidersetzung; vngefährlich zum siebenden mahl