Chapter 9 (part 2)

If the soul does not do this, but imagines within herself, in her own fierce forms or states conducive to the fire-torture (passion), and not in the fountain of love, then will her self-torture arise from her harshness, acridity, and bitterness, and the image of God will be swallowed up in the wrath (the dark fire)." ( Eye , xiii. 15.) "The soul is per se a fire-torture, and contains within herself the first principle, the harsh acridity, which has for its object the fire. If from this birth (evolution) of the soul is withdrawn the mildness and love of God, or if she becomes infected with very strong matter (gross material desire), she will then remain a severe harshness, consuming itself, and nevertheless continually generating new hunger within her own will." ( Menschwerdung , i. 2.) Thus has man, by his withdrawal from God, attracted unto himself the wrath of God and opened for himself the kingdom of hell, and he now forms in himself hellish figures. 1 "After Adam had lost the pure and beautiful image, his soul stood then only in the quality of the Father; that is to say, in eternal nature, which, apart from the light of God, is a wrath and a consuming fire." ( Tilk . i. 285.) "By means of the fall there was in man a door opened in the wrath of God, namely, hell. The jaws of the devil were opened, and thereby was inaugurated the realm of illusion." ( Grace , vii. 7.) p. 183 "If we investigate the substance of the soul and its essences, we find that it is the most harsh thing in man; it is fiery, acrid, and bitter. If it entirely loses the virgin of divine power who accompanies it, and from which the light of God (in the soul) is born, it then becomes and is a devil." ( Three Principles , xiii. 30.) "After man had entered the realm of his selfish enjoyment and turned his will away from God, he then began to produce hellish figures, such as cursing, blaspheming, and lying." ( Prayer , 53.) "We, the poor children of Eve, have to feel within ourselves, in great suffering, sorrow, and misery, how the wrath moves, guides, and torments us, so that we now no longer walk together in the love of God, but, full of poison, envy, murder, and animosity, we persecute each other, we denounce, dishonour, and vilify, wishing to one another death and all kinds of evil, and enjoying each other's misery." ( Tilk . i. 4.) "That which malicious persons of this world do in their malignity and falsehood is also done by the devils in the world of darkness." ( Six Theosophical Points , ix. 18.) "Each person causes suffering to another, and is therefore the other's devil." ( Threefold Life , xvii. 10.) God has, however, given to man protection, so that he may not so easily become a devil, and He did this by causing him to enter into external terrestrial life. 1 "God caused the soul to enter into flesh and blood, so that she may not so very easily become capable to receive the wrath. Thus (during her terrestrial existence) she p. 184 enjoys herself in the mirror of the sun, and is glad in her sidereal essence." ( Six Theosophical Points , vii. 19.) "Not without cause has God breathed into the nostrils of Adam the external spirit, the external life. Adam might have become a devil, like Lucifer, but the external mirror prevented it." ( Forty Questions , xvi.