VISIO SECUNDA, cap. XV
The Human Image at the Center of the Wheel
The human figure stands at the center of the cosmic wheel with arms outstretched, signifying humanity's central place in creation and the soul's power reaching over the whole earth.
But the image of a human being appears in the middle of this wheel — its head reaching upward, its feet reaching downward to the circle mentioned earlier, as if touching a strong, white, bright air — while from the right side the fingertips of its right hand, and from the left the fingertips of its left hand, stretch out on either side to the circle marked in the round, because the image had spread its arms in this way. This signifies that in the structure of the world, the human being stands, as it were, in the center, because among the other creatures living in it, the human being is more powerful: certainly small in stature, but great in the power of its soul, its head lifted upward, its feet directed downward, moving both the higher and the lower elements, and also piercing through the works done by both hands, from the right and from the left, because in the powers of the inner person the human being holds this capacity to act. For just as a human being's body surpasses its heart in size, so too the powers of the soul surpass the human body in strength; and just as the human heart lies hidden within the body, so the human body is enveloped by the powers of the soul, since those powers stretch out through the entire circle of the earth.
The Faithful Soul's Unceasing Devotion
The faithful person tends toward God in all circumstances and sees the Creator through all creatures by the eyes of faith.
But also, existing as a faithful person in the knowledge of God, the human being tends toward God in spiritual matters and in necessary worldly affairs alike; in prosperity and in adversity alike the human being strains toward God, pouring out all devotion to God unceasingly in either condition. For just as a human being sees all creatures everywhere with bodily eyes, so in faith the person looks upon the Lord everywhere, and knows the Lord through the creatures, when the person understands that the Lord is their Creator.
The Four Heads of the Beasts on the Wheel
An introduction to the vision of four beast-heads on the wheel and their significance for the world and the human being.
On the four heads of the beasts appearing in the four parts of the same wheel, and what they signify in the world as well as in the human being.
Read the original Latin
Quod autem in medio rotae istius imago hominis apparet, cujus vertex superius, et plantae subterius ad praefatum circulum velut fortis et albi lucidique aeris pertingunt, a dextro autem latere summitas digitorum dextrae manus ejus, a sinistro quoque summitas digitorum sinistrae manus ad ipsum circulum hinc et hinc in rotunditate designatum porrecta est, quoniam eadem imago brachia sua sic extenderat, hoc designat, quod in structura mundi quasi in medio ejus homo est, quia caeteris creaturis in illa degentibus potentior existit, statura quidem pusillus, sed virtute animae magnus, caput silicet sursum, pedes vero deorsum, ad elementa tam superiora quam inferiora movendo, necnon a dextris et a sinistris operibus, quae manibus operatur, illa penetrando, quoniam in viribus interioris hominis potentiam hanc operandi habet. Quemadmodum enim corpus hominis cor suum magnitudine sua excedit, ita et vires animae corpus hominis virtute sua superant, et ut cor hominis in corpore ejus latet, sic corpus hominis viribus animae circumdatum est, cum illae per totum orbem terrae se extendunt. Sed et in scientia Dei fidelis homo existens, et in spiritalibus, ac in saecularibus necessariis causis ad Deum tendit; in prosperitate quoque et adversitate factorum suorum ad ipsum anhelat, cum in illis omnem devotionem suam ad eum incessanter expandit. Nam ut homo corporalibus oculis quasque creaturas undique videt, sic in fide Dominum ubique inspicit, ipsumque per creaturas cognoscit, cum eum Creatorem illarum esse intelligit.
De quatuor capitibus bestiarum in quatuor partibus ejusdem rotae apparentium, et quid tam in mundo quam in homine significent.
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