Arcana Coelestia #7
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'.
Voetnoten:
1. literally, The faces
Psalms 104:25
25
So is this great and wide sea, wherein are things creeping innumerable, both small and great beasts.
