VII/18 [1] Said Raphael: "That is only a corresponding picture
of what I have told you about the creation, or rather successive
formation, of a whole heavenly body.
[2] The great primordial spirits are really the thoughts in God and
the ideas going forth from them.
[3] The mystical number seven is to be
understood as that which is completely and primordially divine and
godlike in every thought going forth from God and in every idea
conceived and as if set out of Him.
[4] The First Spirit in God is Love. This
is found in all created things: for without it nothing would have been
created.
[5] The Second Spirit is Wisdom, as the
light going forth from love. This, too, you can see in the form of
every being; for, to the more light a being responds, the more
developed, definite and beautiful will also be its form.
[6] The Third Spirit, going forth from love and
wisdom, is the effective Will of God through which the
envisaged beings become a reality, so that they can really be and
exist. Otherwise all the thoughts and ideas of God would be the same
as your empty thoughts and ideas, which are never put into action.
[7] The Fourth Spirit, issuing in turn from the
three, is called Order. Without this order no being could have
a permanent and lasting form and, therefore, never a definite purpose.
For if you harnessed an ox to a plough and it changed its form and
shape, say, into a fish or a bird, would you ever achieve a purpose
with it? Or suppose you wanted to eat a fruit and it turned into a
stone before your mouth, - what good would the fruit be to you? Or you
walked somewhere on a firm road, and the road turned into water under
your feet, - could even the firmest road be of any use to you? - Look,
all this - and inexpressibly more - is prevented through divine order,
as the Fourth Spirit in God.
[8] The Fifth Spirit in God is called
Divine Earnest, without which nothing would have any
permanence, because this is equal to the eternal truth in God and
gives all beings true stability, reproductive power, growth and
eventual perfection. Without such a Spirit in God all beings would
still be in a very bad way. They would resemble mirages, which appear
to be real while they are visible; but only too soon do the conditions
for their presence change because there is no earnest in them, and the
beautiful and miraculous images fade into nothingness. They seem to be
well arranged but, since there is no earnest in their foundation, they
are nothing but empty and very transient apparitions which cannot
possibly last.
[9] See, there we have already the five great primordial Spirits in
God; let us now turn to the last two, and so listen to me.
[10] Where supreme love, supreme wisdom, the
almighty will, the most perfect order and the firmest, unchangeable
earnest are present, there must obviously be also supreme and
eternally incomparable Patience. For without this everything
would be precipitated and, finally, end in the inextricable chaos of
the ancient sages.
[11] When an architect builds a house he must, besides all his
qualifications, have patience, too; for if he lacks this believe me -
he will never succeed in building that house.
[12] I tell you: If God did not possess this Spirit, no sun would
have been shining to an earth in infinite space for eons and in the
world of spirits it would look most peculiar, - quite unreal. Patience
is the mother of God's eternal, unchangeable mercy. And were it not
for this Sixth Spirit in God, where and what would all beings be
before Almighty God?
[13] If we do wrong in some way and thereby obviously expose
ourselves to the devastating curse of divine love, wisdom and divine
will, followed - evidently because of the preceding order - by His
earnest, we are confronted with divine patience which must - and does
- gradually restore the balance once more; for without this all ever
so perfect beings would be subjected to the eternal judgment of doom.
[14] Divine patience, together with the preceding five Spirits in
God, would, indeed, create on the heavenly bodies one or even
countless human beings and also maintain them; but in that case an
individual, or untold numbers of human beings, would live on for eons
in the heavy flesh, and there would never be a final liberation of the
soul from the shackles of matter. At the same time animals and plants,
as well as men, would continue to multiply and in the end would
populate the limited space on a globe so densely that no one would be
able to make way for another. This is only assuming that a heavenly
body under the control of infinite, divine patience, ever did mature
to a state in which it could carry and keep plants, animals and human
beings. Indeed, even the creation of a material world would be an
infinitely slow process if it depended solely on the six already
mentioned Spirits, and it would be very doubtful if a world would ever
materialize.
[15] However, patience, as said before, is the
mother of divine mercy and, thus, the Seventh Spirit in God is that
very Mercy which we may also call meekness. This accomplishes
everything. It directs all the preceding Spirits and within the proper
time brings about the maturing of a world with all its creatures. It
allocates a certain life-span to everything, and the matured spirits
can look forward to an easy and complete deliverance and will be able
to enter into their eternal freedom and the fullest independence.
[16] It is this
Seventh Spirit in God that made God Himself take on the human flesh,
thereby to deliver, in the shortest possible time, all the imprisoned
spirits from the hard bonds imposed by the necessary judgment of
matter. This is why His act of salvation - the new creation of the
heavens and worlds - can be called God's greatest act because therein
all the Seven Spirits of God play an equal part, which prior to it had
not quite been the case nor could it have been due to the Spirit of
Order in God. Formerly this Seventh Spirit in God, now introduced to
you, cooperated with the other Spirits only to the extent that thereby
all the thoughts and ideas of God became realities; but from now on it
works more powerfully, and the result is complete salvation.
[17] These are the Seven Spirits in God that you could not
comprehend, and all that was created out of the Seven Spirits in God
corresponds in each and everything to these Seven Spirits and contains
them within. And the forever continuing creation and equally
continuing act of creating is what the ancient sages of this earth
used to call "the Wars of Jehovah".
Continued
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