Die geheime Naturlehre der hermetischen Wissenschaft

namely the four qualities the characteristics of heat, cold, moisture, and dryness. This is the first and fundamental degree of the primordial birth original: "Urgeburt".

II. Through a mystical distillation a spiritual process of refining and separating, God separated this primordial element or primordial water into four parts and regions. They are called elements. According to their origin and root, as they were first created, they do not allow anything mixed from another to remain with them. Since the Fall the biblical Fall of Man, however, this original purity has been corrupted, and it worsens more every day. The Archaeus the central life force is in the center of every thing, and is the awakener of the elements. The main properties of the elements are that their contrary qualities are in a constant struggle against one another, and they always allow something to flow out, from which, by the help of the harmonious qualities, some middle substances are daily brought forth in natural birth. For this reason, the elements are called the active principles original: "Principia" of all bodies. No mixed body can be dissolved back into these simple principles. Nor can these elements all stick together immediately in a composed or mixed thing, nor exist together at the same time, because of the opposition of the previously mentioned