LIBER CHAOS Bl. Raymond Lull Doctor Illuminatus

Part II
10 Predicates

O - Locus

a.1. Clearly, God is beyond the eighth sphere which contains whatever is sensibly contained, and because God is incorporeal, the surface of the eighth sphere cannot be contained locally. Thus, the outmost surface of the eighth sphere contains all that is within it, including all the loci present under the outmost surface of the eighth sphere. Now all things within the outmost surface are part of corporeal nature and must be contained, but not the outmost surface itself. Nonetheless, locus is real, or else there would be no difference between the emplacement of the outmost surface and the emplacement of its content.

2. In Godhead, the Father produces the Son without locus and the Holy Spirit proceeds from both without locus, while God's essence is present throughout all creation without occupying any locus, nor is heaven located in God. Hence, if locus is something real, the nobility of God's essence and the simplicity of the persons in the immensity of essence are more clearly apparent than if locus is not anything real; and as God's greater apparition to the human intellect convenes with being, with goodness and bonifying, greatness and magnifying etc. locus must be something real.

3. Surely, reason cannot think about the container and the content without an objective locus, just as a man without eyes cannot judge colors. Hence, if locus were nothing, reason would make judgments about things contained in non existing things, and non existing things could effectively influence reason, which is impossible, and therefore locus is something real.

4. If locus exists, so do the locificative, locificable, locating and located; and if locus were nothing, only reason would be locificative and nothing would be really locificable, and the container and the content would agree more with reason than with reality or with the nature of locus, which is impossible.

5. Form wants to have matter in itself and vice versa, and the elemental parts want to be in each other: for instance, fire wants to be in air, water and earth and conversely, so that mixture, digestion and composition can proceed from them as each element seeks its own locus, namely its own sphere toward which it moves like a man seeking his homeland or an animal seeking its territory, and if locus were nothing, natural appetite would be as great on account of something non existent, as it is great on account of something that really exists, which is impossible.

6. The prime Chaos is situated in the four essences, namely igneity etc. and conversely; and in the second Chaos which was situated in the first, one species exists in one locus and another species in another locus, and the third is also in the first. In the third, one substantial part is situated in another, and one accident in another, as well as substance in its accidents and conversely, like color in wine and wine in color. Likewise, both active and passive intense quantity are present in the quantity extended throughout the entirety of substance, quality etc. and conversely. Hence, locus must necessarily exist, or else, without locus and without its natural influence there could be no positioning; and without locus, the third Chaos could not receive influence from the first, nor could the first instill itself into the third, since parts cannot enter into one another without locus. The preposition "in" is as necessary to locus as "now" is to time, and so, just as "now" is nothing without time, so likewise "in" is nothing without locus, and since "in" exists, as shown above, locus also exists.

7. Further, if locus exists, reason can better deal with "in" by referring to something that exists rather than to something non existent. But if locus is nothing, then quite the opposite must follow, which is an impossibility.

8. Further, if locus exists, one supposite can be in one locus and another supposite in another locus, better than if locus were nothing, and the same can be said about a container with its content, and about other similar things etc.

9. Supposing that earth were removed and annihilated from the midst of air, locus would still necessarily be something; for instance, if a vase were entirely emptied of its content, locus would still exist in it. Hence, if the total removal of water and earth from the midst of air were to leave a locus like an empty vase ready to collocate something, then all the more, locus would have to exist on its own, or else locus would have been created not by creating something but by depriving something, which is impossible.

10. The form of the soul is in its matter, and conversely, without locus; the intellective is in the intelligible, and conversely, without locus; and the same applies to memory and will. Hence, if locus were nothing in corporeal things, containers and contents would not be more proportioned to corporeal things than to spiritual ones, which is impossible, and this shows that locus is something real.
 

b. We spoke about locus and proved that it is something real, and now, we will see what the essence, situation and existence of locus are.

1. The subject of locus is the eighth sphere of the firmament with all the things physically contained in it and under it; and just as wine is a subject of color, so are all bodies subjects of locus. Locus is what enables the container and the content to exist, and one part to exist in another part, like form in matter and conversely, and the elements in one another, and accidents in one another, like heat in moisture and conversely, and substance in accidents and conversely. This is what we investigate and designate as locus, and this locus is simple per se, it is immobile, invisible and unimaginable.

2. The third Chaos is located in the prime Chaos, and the third is divided by accident, as the subjects of loci are clearly divided so that many supposites exist in many loci. Just as the light in glass penetrated by solar rays is located in sunlight without any surface dividing the light, so likewise, all things located in the third Chaos are terminated and contained in the locus of the prime Chaos, without any surface separating the prime Chaos from the third, given that the locus of the prime Chaos is indivisible. But in the third Chaos, locus is divided by accident, due to the numerous individuals that are subjects of locus in the third Chaos.

3. In every elemental supposite, form is in matter and conversely, and one accident in another, and substance is in accident and conversely, without any surface separating form from matter, or one accident from another, or substance from accident. Likewise, no surface separates one form from another, or one matter from another, while one form exists under four forms and one matter under four matters and four forms. The same applies to the parts of these forms and matters, where no surface separates one part from another: as for instance when fire, air, water and earth all blend into one supposite. Clearly, blended substance is located in itself, and its parts exist within each other, undivided by local surface. Hence, the locus of all substance is located in the third Chaos without any surface separating the universal locus from particular loci. And the entire universal locus accidentally transits through all particular loci as the prime Chaos flows into the third, like firelight in a room shines through the air and the atoms of air contained in the room, without any surface separating the light in one atom from the light in another atom.

4. Where wine and water are mixed together, there is no surface between the two, or else their parts would not be within one another. Consequently, there would be no mixture of their essential parts, namely their form and matter, but only of their integral parts. In a sack of wheat, we see a mixture of integral parts, as there is surface between one grain and another; but wine and water cannot mix in this way; and this shows that the prime Chaos is in the third and conversely, without any surface between one locus and the other, although there is surface between one supposite and another. Now the reason why there is no surface between the locus of the prime Chaos and that of the third is that the prime Chaos exists throughout the entirety of the third, just as prime matter is essentially, virtually and locally present everywhere in second matter.

5. In a vase full of wine there are two surfaces, one belongs to the wine and the other belongs to the vase, so that the wine and the vase are two distinct and separate supposites, and hence the wine is not in the essence of the vase, nor vice versa, because then the surface of the wine would be inside the surface of the vase and vice versa, and also the form, matter and quantity of the wine would be inside the form, matter and quantity of the vase and vice versa, which is quite impossible, and clearly shows that the wine is not in the locus of the vase nor vice versa, as each substance has its own locus to which it is subject. The wine is the subject of its own locus, color and quantity; and the same with the vase. But the subject common to the loci of both the wine and the vase, is the locus of the prime Chaos which exists throughout the entirety of the wine and the entirety of the vase, like universal nature in its particulars.

6. Just as glass is colored accidentally by the color of wine in a vase, so from the essence of locus in a supposite and from the essence of this supposite in the prime Chaos, locus is individuated and appears outwardly by accident in a figure. We see this in the container and its content, namely in the vase and the wine coloring the glass of the vase: just as this color is not proper to the glass, so likewise, locus is not proper to the container and the content, but the proper locus of the container and the content is in the prime Chaos.

7. Just as time is described by the present, past and future, so is locus described by the preposition "in" in the container and the content, and just as time is not of the essence of any present, past or future supposite, although the present, the past etc. are subject to time: so likewise, neither "in", nor the container and its content are of the essence of locus, although they are subject to it. Reason intentionally deduces locus from the things it uses to describe it, and we say that this kind of locus is really nothing but a merely rational construct; but the locus we call real is the one we discovered as shown above.