VISIO DECIMA, cap. I
The Wheel of Marvelous Breadth
The seer beholds a vast wheel shining like a white cloud, crossed by a dark line and a dawn-like ray, with its upper half showing green and red hues and its lower half pale and shadowed.
Then, near the mountain I had seen, as was said before, as if in the middle of the eastern region, I saw something bearing the likeness of a wheel of marvelous breadth, like a shining white cloud and turned toward the east; a line of dark color, like the breath of a human being, ran across its middle, from its left side all the way to its right side, so that another line, glowing like the dawn, descending from the very top of the wheel down to the middle of that line, also revealed the half of the same wheel that lay above that line. Now the upper part of the middle portion of the same wheel, from the left side to its midpoint, gave off something like a green color, and from the right side to its midpoint a red color shone out, so that these two colors were divided between themselves by an equal measure of space. But the half of the same wheel that was drawn crosswise beneath the aforementioned line displayed a pale color mixed with a certain darkness.
Love Enthroned Upon the Wheel
The figure of Love, previously known to the seer, is now seen seated on the wheel's cross-line, radiant with a sun-like face, purple robe, jeweled golden torque, and lightning-bright sandals.
And look, in the middle of the same wheel, on the aforementioned line, I again saw an image seated there that had earlier been named Love to me, yet now it appeared to me adorned differently than I had seen it before. For its face shone like the sun; its robe gleamed like purple; and it had around its neck a golden torque adorned with precious stones; it was dressed in sandals that gave off the brightness of lightning from themselves.
The Tablet of Divine Mystery
A crystal tablet before Love declares that the Godhead's brightness surpasses all beginning, and that divine secrets cannot be fully grasped by mortal knowledge.
But before the face of the same image, something like a tablet, clear as crystal, appeared, on which was written: "I will reveal a beautiful form of silver color, because the Godhead, which has no beginning, possesses great brightness; yet everything that has a beginning is uncertain and full of terrors, and the secrets of God cannot be grasped with complete knowledge." And this image was gazing at the aforementioned tablet.
The Wheel in Motion and the Heavenly Voice
The wheel's cross-line moves, transforming the wheel's colors from watery to reddish to bright and finally stormy, as a heavenly voice begins to speak to the seer.
And so the line on which it sat was in motion, and as soon as that same line appeared joined to the left side of the aforementioned wheel, the outer part of the wheel was, for a short stretch, somewhat watery, and then a little beyond the middle of the middle portion of the same wheel — which was drawn crosswise beneath the aforementioned line — reddish, and afterward pure and bright, and at last, near the end of that same middle portion where the aforementioned line was fixed to the wheel, it became like a turbulent and stormy tempest. And I heard a voice from heaven saying to me:
Read the original Latin
Deinde juxta montem quem velut in medio orientalis plagae conspexi, ut praedictum est, quasi rotam mirae amplitudinis similitudinem candidae nubis habentem, et ad orientem versam vidi, quam in medio in transversum, scilicet a sinistro latere usque ad dextrum latus suum, linea obscuri coloris velut halitus hominis est distinguebat, ita ut etiam ejusdem rotae medietatem quae super eamdem lineam erat, alia linea quemadmodum aurora rutilans, a summitate ipsius rotae usque ad medietatem praefatae lineae descendens ostenderet. Superior autem pars medietatis ejusdem rotae a sinistro latere usque ad medietatem sui quasi viridem colorem emittebat, et a dextro latere usque ad medietatem sui velut rubeus color fulgebat; ita ut hi duo colores aequali mensura spatiorum inter se dividerentur. Medietas vero ejusdem rotae, quae sub praedicta linea in transversum ducta erat, colorem pallidum quadam nigredine intermistum demonstrabat. Et ecce in medio ejusdem rotae in praefata linea iterum vidi imaginem, quae charitas mihi prius denominata est sedentem; alio tamen ornatu eam nunc apparentem, quam prius vidissem. Nam facies ejus ut sol lucebat, tunica autem ipsius ut purpura fulgebat, et torquem auream pretiosis lapidibus decoratam circa collum suum habebat; calceamentis claritatem fulguris ex se reddentibus induta. Sed et ante faciem ejusdem imaginis quasi tabula ut crystallus perlucida apparebat, in qua scriptum erat: Pulchram formam argentei coloris manifestabo, quia divinitas quae initio caret magnam claritatem habet; sed unumquodque quod initium habet ambiguum in terroribus est; nec secreta Dei in plena scientia capere potest. Et imago haec praedictam tabulam inspiciebat. Unde et linea in qua sedebat movebatur, et mox ubi eadem linea praedictae rotae in sinistra ejus parte conjuncta videbatur, exterior pars ipsius rotae per breve spatium aliquantulum aquosa, et deinde aliquantulum ultra medietatem medietatis ejusdem rotae, quae sub praefata linea in transversum ducebatur rubicunda, et post modum pura et lucida, et tandem velut turbida et procellosa tempestas efficiebatur, scilicet prope finem ejusdem medietatis, ubi praefata linea ejusdem rotae affixa erat.
Audivique vocem de coelo mihi dicentem:
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