7. The first state is the state which precedes, both the state existing from earliest childhood onwards and that existing immediately before regeneration; and it is called a void, emptiness, and thick darkness. And the first movement, which is the Lord's mercy, is 'the Spirit of God hovering over the face ¹ of the waters'.

Footnotes:

1469. That 'Sarai his wife' is truth allied to the celestial things that resided with the Lord is clear from what has just been stated about the meaning of 'Sarai his wife'. The reason for the expression 'truth allied to celestial things' is that all truth resided with the Lord already. That which is celestial has truth with it, one being as inseparable from the other as light from flame. Such truth however was stored away in His Internal Man, which was Divine. The facts and cognitions which He learned were not truths, only recipient vessels, just as something in the human memory is by no means truth even though it is referred to as such. Rather the truth is held within them as its vessels. These vessels were to be formed by the Lord - or rather opened up by Him - through instruction in cognitions from the Word, not only in order that celestial things might be implanted in them but also in order that celestial things might in this way be made Divine; for the Lord joined the Divine Essence to the Human Essence in order that His Human Essence might be made Divine also.