Three Principles of the Divine Essence Chap. 8-16 - meuser

is the aquastrish [or watery] Spirit; they come forth only out
of the Matrix of the Earth, that they might be of the Essence of
the Earth, and so they might eat of the Fruits that grow out of
the Earth. For every Spirit lusts after its Mother from whence
it came.
39. Now then if the Beast’s [or Animal’s Nature] was merely
out of a Lump of Earth, then they would eat Earth; but feeling
f it is proceeded out of the Matrix of the Earth by the Fiat,
therefore it desires also such Food as the Matrix affords out of
its own Essence; and that is not Earth, but Flesh. Yet this
Flesh now is a g Mass whence the h Body comes, and the Spirit
of the Constellation makes the i Tincture therein; which [Spirit]
rules over all as in one Mother, and in every Life it makes the
z The Universities.
a Or Breath.
b Animals, or living Creatures.
c Without Order.
d Rule or Government.
e Mars.
f The bestial Nature.
g Or Concretion.
h Corpus.
i Penetrating the Life and the Blood.
Understanding. For the Spirit of the Constellation rules in all
Things, in the Earth, Stones, Metals, Elements and Creatures.
40. For in the Beginning of the Creation, at the Time when
the Earth became material, all was generated out of one only
Substance, and there was no more done but a Separation made
of one k from another: Therefore in every Separation there
must needs be always a vehement Hunger of one l after another.
An Example whereof you have in Propagation; for the Sake
whereof the Separation was so made: For you see that there
is a Male and a Female; and that the one continually desires
Copulation with the other, that they may generate. This is a
great hidden Secret. Observe, when the Creator by the Fiat
separated the Matrix from the Aquaster [or watery Mother;]
for the first Form is heavenly and incorruptible, as long as the
Kingdom of this World stands, and the Root of the first Form
m holds Paradise.
I will set it down more intelligibly [or plainly] for the simplest
Reader’s Sake.
41. Observe, as has been often mentioned, that as in the Fiat,
in the aching Matrix (viz. the dark Harshness, [or Sourness])
the fire rose up in the Breaking­wheel in the Kindling; and that
in the fiery, the Light of the Sun, and of all the Stars [sprung
up,] (which is [done] in the harsh Matrix, which from the
Light is become thin, lowly, and material Water,) and the
pleasant Source of Love [sprung up,] so that one Form vehemently