Light and splendor and life

CREATION ORIGINS

On the creation of the world. God was and is without beginning, before the creation of the world. He himself was and is light and splendor, and he was life. When therefore God wanted to make the world, he made it out of nothing, but the matter of the world was in his will. 

On matter. For just after the will of God manifested itself to work the work [of creation], the matter of the world proceeded forth from that very will, in the manner God willed, like a dark and formless globe.

On the creation of the soul. God made the light, which was swift and could fly everywhere. But in the same counsel by which he made the light, he determined to give a bodily structure to spiritual life, which was the breath of life. This structure was a form drawn out of the clay of the earth. It would not be able to fly or blow away. Due to its lack of capacity it would not even be able to raise itself. It would be bound in this way so that it might look up to God more intensely. The ancient serpent hated this bond [between the human body and soul], because even though human beings were heavy due to the body, they could raise themselves to God through the capacity for reason. 

On the elements and the firmament. And God made the elements of the world. They are in human beings, and humans work with them. For there are fire, air, water, and earth. These four elements are so wound together and joined together that none of them can be separated from the others. They contain each other in such a way that, together, they are called the firmament. 

On the sun and the stars. The sun, which I might call supreme among these elements, sends out its radiance and fire through them. Around it are stars of such size and brightness that they reach through the firmament to the earth like mountains. Hence the closer they are to the earth, the more brightly they appear to shine. Around this same sun are other stars of less size and brightness. They are like valleys compared to the stars mentioned earlier, so that they appear less clearly. (from Causae et curae, translated by Edwin Woodruff Tait, contributing editor to CH)

CREATION USEFULNESS

In the creation of humanity, another earth was taken from the earth. This other earth is the human person. All the elements served him, because they sensed that he was alive. In all his proceedings they worked with him, and he with them. The earth gave its vitality, according to the kind and nature and behaviors of the human person and all his activity. With its useful plants, the earth distinguishes and manifests the activity of the spiritual characteristics of the human person. But with its useless plants the earth points out his useless and diabolical characteristics. . . . 

Certain plants grow in the air. These are light on the digestion and are of a joyful nature. Thus they make the person who eats them joyful. They are likened to human hairs, because human hairs are always light and airy. But certain other plants are windy, so that they grow from the wind. They are dry and heavy on the digestion. And they are of a sad nature, so that they make the person who eats them sad. They are compared and likened to human sweat. But the juice/sap of useless and inedible plants is poisonous, because those plants themselves are deadly as food for humans. They can be compared to human excretion. (from the Physica, translated by Edwin
Woodruff Tait)