VISIO SECUNDA, cap. XVI
The Four Winds and the Beasts of Temptation
The four principal winds take the forms of a leopard, wolf, lion, and bear, and these same powers assail the human soul at the crossroads of worldly cares through fear of hell, dread of God's judgment, and bodily tribulation.
And toward those same parts four heads appear — like the head of a leopard, a wolf, a lion, and a bear — because in the four parts of the world there are four principal winds; yet they do not exist in their own forms, but in their own powers, imitating the nature of the beasts just named. A human being, too, just as when standing at a crossroads of worldly cares, is assailed by very many temptations — in which, as if in the head of a leopard, that is, when with the fear of the Lord he remembers the punishments of the infernal realm as though in a wolf, and as if in a lion, fearing even the judgment of God, when as though in a bear he is shaken in bodily tribulation by very many storms of distress.✦
The East Wind in the Circle of Pure Ether
A question is raised about why the principal east wind appears above the human image in a circle of pure ether as a leopard's head, with its two collateral winds shown as a crab and a stag.
Why does the principal east wind appear above the head of the image of man in a circle of pure ether in the manner of a leopard's head, and why are its two collateral winds also shown — one in the appearance of a crab's head, the other in the likeness of a stag's head?
Read the original Latin
Sed et versus easdem partes quatuor capita scilicet, quasi caput leopardi et lupi, ac velut caput leonis et ursi apparent, quia in quatuor partibus mundi quatuor principales venti sunt, non tamen sic in formis suis existentes, sed in viribus suis naturam denominatarum bestiarum imitantes. Homo quoque quemadmodum in quadruvio saecularium curarum existens, quamplurimis tentationibus appetitur, in quibus etiam quasi in capite leopardi, id est cum timore Domini velut in lupo infernalium poenarum recordatur, et quasi in leone judicium etiam Dei metuens, cum velut in urso in corporali tribulatione quamplurimis tempestatibus angustiarum quatitur.
Quare principalis ventus orientalis in modum capitis leopardi super caput imaginis hominis in circulo puri aetheris videatur, cur etiam duo collaterales ejus venti alter in specie capitis cancri, alter instar capitis cervi ostendatur.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Prov.9.10 — The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.
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