Pisces – Outer Circle

During the period of decline and stillness, the higher influences continued to act upon that which remained concealed within the lower and moist regions, where corruption and barrenness had already begun to spread.
The most harmful forces were restrained through proper preparation and by means of that which was ordained to preserve life against contrary influences. Then arose suffering and affliction among men, while those skilled in the art of healing endeavoured to maintain balance against the advance of disorder.
Reason and discernment did not wholly descend into darkness, for there yet remained powers capable of raising once more that which had fallen into decay. Beneficial influences worked at times through coldness and at others through prudent observation and tempered judgment.
Amid corruption and heaviness, life manifested itself anew among living creatures, and that which was noble began slowly to reveal itself once more. No remedy attained its full virtue without the balance of opposing forces, nor without the necessary reversal of the course of influences.
The signs of disorder then appeared upon the bodies and reached even the nerves and the vital breath. Impure influences brought corruption among men, yet the purified preparation made it possible gradually to separate that which destroyed from that which preserved life.
At length, the preparation attained its perfection and acted according to its true nature. The harmful residue then lost its dominion over the breast and over the breath, and the work of the remedy was completed through a patient and carefully ordered purification.
Thus was balance restored after the time of disturbance, conflict, and decline.

[Complete translation]