The inflowing from their mirrored life, who themselves receive it from the
Condition of Fire, falls upon the Winding Path called the Path of the
Serpent, and that inflowing coming alike to men and to animals is called
natural. There is another inflow which is not natural but intellectual,
and is from the fire; and it descends through souls who pass for a lengthy
or a brief period out of the mirror life, as we in sleep out of the bodily
life, and though it may fall upon a sleeping serpent, it falls principally
upon straight paths. In so far as a man is like all other men, the inflow
finds him upon the winding path, and in so far as he is a saint or sage,
upon the straight path.