VISIO QUARTA, cap. LII
Winds Written on the Arms
The principal east and south winds, together with their collateral winds and breathings, are mapped onto the bends, joints, shoulder blades, and hands of the left and right arms.
In the bend of the left arm, the principal east wind is indicated; but in the bend and in the joint where the hand is joined to the same arm, the collateral winds of that arm are shown, and on the shoulder blade and on the hand of that arm the breathings of those same collateral winds are made plain. In the bend of the right arm, the principal south wind is shown; but on the shoulder and in the joint by which the hand is joined to the same arm, the collateral winds of this wind are also declared; and on the shoulder blade and on the hand of the same arm the breathings of those same collateral winds are marked.
The Soul's Wind-Like Motion in the Body
The soul holds a likeness of wind in the limbs, causing natural bending and motion, while the flesh cooperates through its own impulse.
This is what the soul does, holding in the limbs of the human being a likeness of wind: it causes each of them to bend and move naturally, and the human being also, by the taste of the flesh, works along with the soul herself.1
Desire, Moral Polarity, and the Soul-Bond
The soul cannot excuse the human being from sin, since desire makes one work good on the right side and evil on the left, and the soul is joined to the body as winds are joined to one another.
Therefore the soul herself cannot excuse herself from sin, since the human being through the heat of desire is like curdled and conceived milk, and works good through the soul on the right side but evil on the left; and as each wind is joined to another, so the soul is joined to the body.2
Good Knowledge, Bad Knowledge, and Their Works
Good knowledge tends toward God while bad knowledge, like a servant to a mistress, inclines toward evil; yet both kinds of knowledge, like joined hands or the firmament and earth, cooperate in all human works.
A human being also tends toward God in good knowledge, but in bad knowledge — which is subject to good knowledge like a servant to her mistress — inclines toward evil; and just as a mistress is more often offended through her servant, so too good knowledge is sometimes overcome by bad.3 Just as hands too are joined together for working, and as the firmament and the earth agree in some fellowship though they are very far apart from each other, so a human being, through these unlike kinds of knowledge that he holds within himself, accomplishes each of his works.
The Body's Threefold Dimension and Life's Seasons
The threefold dimension of the human body corresponds to the thickness of the world's sphere, and a person's life stages of childhood, youth, and old age mirror that same dimension.
On the threefold dimension of the human body and the thickness of the sphere of the world, and how a person's life through childhood, youth, and old age corresponds to that same dimension.4
Read the original Latin
In flexura etenim sinistri brachii principalis ventus orientalis designatur, in flexura autem, et in junctura ubi manus eidem brachio conjungitur, collaterales venti illius ostenduntur, in scapula quoque et in manu illius flatus eorumdem collateralium ventorum manifestantur. In flexura vero dextri brachii principalis australis ventus demonstratur; in humero vero atque in junctura, qua manus ipsi brachio coadunatur, collaterales etiam hujus venti declarantur; sed et in scapula et in manu ejusdem brachii spiramina ipsorum collateralium ventorum notantur. Hoc est quod anima in membris hominis similitudinem venti tenens, quodlibet illorum flecti et moveri naturaliter facit, et homo etiam secundum gustum carnis cum ipsa operatur. Quapropter ipsa de peccato excusare se non potest, quoniam homo per ardorem libidinis sicut lac coagulatus et conceptus est, et in dextra parte bonum, in sinistra autem malum per animam operatur; et ut quisque ventus alteri, sic anima corpori adjungitur. Homo quoque in bona scientia ad Deum tendit, in mala vero scientia, quae bonae, velut ancilla dominae, subdita est, ad malum se inclinat, et sicut domina per ancillam saepius offenditur, similiter et bona scientia a mala interdum superatur. Quemadmodum etiam manus ad operandum sibi conjunguntur, et ut firmamentum et terra, licet a se invicem plurimum distent, aliqua societate concordant, sic homo per has dissimiles scientias quas in se habet quaelibet opera sua perficit.
De tripertita dimensione humani corporis et spissitudinis sphaerae mundi, et qualiter vita hominis secundum pueritiam, adolescentiam et senectutem eidem dimensioni conveniat.
Notes
- 1 ↩anima rendered 'soul' per lexeme policy; 'ipsa' at the end refers back to the soul as a feminine personification, preserved in 'herself'.
- 2 ↩The image of human desire as 'curdled and conceived milk' is unusual; translated as the most plausible intended sense of the Latin. 'lac coagulatus et conceptus' may carry a compressed metaphor of conception through heated desire.
- 3 ↩scientia rendered 'knowledge' throughout; the passage treats knowledge as morally qualified (good/bad) and uses the servant/mistress image to describe their hierarchical relationship.
- 4 ↩The Latin 'spissitudo' literally means thickness or density; here it refers to the substantial depth or mass of the cosmic sphere.
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