VISIO TERTIA, cap. I
The Winds That Turn the Firmament
The visionary sees the east, south, west, and north winds revolving the firmament above the earth and underground, lifting and lowering it with the seasons, while a hidden circle in the upper fire sends a wind that tempers the planets without reaching the world.
I saw, and look — the east wind and the south wind, along with their companion winds, were moving the firmament with the force of their blasts, making it revolve above the earth from east to west, and there the western wind, along with the northern wind and their companions, catching it up and driving it with their breaths, hurled it back underground from west to east. I also saw that from the day when the days begin to lengthen, the aforementioned south wind, along with its companion winds, was gradually lifting the same firmament upward in the southern quarter toward the north, as if propping it up, up to the day when they no longer lengthen, and that from the same day when the days begin to shorten, the northern wind, along with its companion winds, repelling the firmament and shunning the brightness of the sun, gradually pressed it down from the north toward the south, until the south wind would begin to raise it again as the days grew longer. But I also saw that in the upper fire there appeared a circle that surrounded the whole firmament from east to west, from which a wind was compelled to go from west to east against the revolution of the firmament, and this wind, like the other winds mentioned before, did not send its blasts into the world, but only tempered the course of the planets, as has been said.
How the Winds Shape Our Inner Life
The clashing winds and air stir and alter the humors within a person, because each higher element has its own matching air driven by the winds, and when any element is struck by the sun's heat or God's judgment, it sends a mingled wind-air blast that touches the person and changes their humors toward weakness or strength.
Then I also saw that through the varying quality of the winds and of the air, when they meet and clash with each other, the humors that are in a person, once stirred and altered, take on the quality of those winds and air. For to each of the higher elements there belongs an air matching its quality — the air through which that element is driven by the force of the winds to revolve — otherwise it would not be moved; and from each of these, with the service of the sun, the moon, and the stars, the air that governs the world breathes forth. Yet whenever, either through the heat of the sun's course or through God's judgment, any element is struck toward any quarter of the world, there, stirred along with the air moving itself, it sends out from that same air a blast — which is called a wind — into the air below, which then immediately mingles with it, because it too comes in part from that same air and is somewhat similar to it, and so it touches the person, and from this the humors that are in them, being of the same quality as that wind and air, are often changed, whether toward weakness or toward strength.
Read the original Latin
Vidi et ecce ventus orientalis ventusque australis cum collateralibus suis per flatus fortitudinis suae firmamentum moventes, illud ab oriente usque ad occidentem super terram circumvolvi faciebant, ibique ventus occidentalis, nec non et ventus septentrionalis et collaterales ipsorum illud suscipientes, spiraminibusque suis impellentes, ab occidente usque ad orientem sub terra rejiciebant. Vidi quoque quod a die quo dies prolongari incipiunt, praefatus australis ventus cum collateralibus suis, idem firmamentum in australi plaga sursum versus septentrionem usque in diem quo ultra non prolongantur, quasi fulciendo paulatim attolebat, et quod ab eodem die quo dies abbreviari incipiunt, septentrionalis ventus cum collateralibus suis ipsum firmamentum claritatem solis abhorrens a septentrione ad austrum repellendo paulatim deprimebat, usquedum auster illud iterum a longitudine dierum erigere incipiebat. Sed et vidi quod in superiori igne circulus apparebat, qui totum firmamentum ab oriente versus occidentem circumcingebat, de quo ventus ab occidente ad orientem contra circumvolutionem firmamenti ire compellebat, et iste sicut alii praefati venti in mundum flatus suos non emittebat, sed tantum cursum planetarum, ut praedictum est, temperabat. Deinde etiam vidi quia per diversam qualitatem ventorum et aeris cum sibi invicem concurrunt, humores qui sunt in homine commoti et immutati, qualitatem illorum suscipiunt. Unicuique enim superiorum elementorum aer qualitati illius conveniens, per quem illud scilicet elementum vi ventorum ad circumvolutionem impellatur, inest, alioquin non moveretur, et de quolibet istorum cum ministerio solis, lunae et stellarum, aer qui mundum temperat exspiratur. Cum autem aliquando aut per ardorem cursus solis, aut per judicium Dei, quodcunque elementum versus quamlibet plagam mundi tangitur, illud ibi cum aere se movente commotum, ex eodem aere flatum qui ventus dicitur, in subteriorem praefatum aerem emittit, qui se mox illi intermiscet, quia etiam ex aliqua parte ex ipso est, et aliquantum ei consimilis existit, sicque hominem tangit, unde et humores qui in ipso sunt, secundum qualitatem ipsius venti et aeris, cum ejusdem qualitatis sunt, seu ad debilitatem, seu ad fortitudinem saepius immutantur.
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