the first and second birth

The first birth is into the world of matter, where one is a 25 to 28 foot worm coiled in an encasing whose main concerns are incorporation and defecation while “making a living” and recreating with other worm-coiled encasings. The second birth is the opening of the eye of the soul and an increasing “aptitude for theophanic vision” (Henry Corbin’s phrase). The first is the surface or prosaic world. The second is the world of mythopoetry, where the Invisible reveals Itself to the soul’s vision.