The Doctrines of JACOB BOEHME THE GOD-TAUGHT PHILOSOPHER FRANZ HARTMANN, M.D. AUTHOR OF "MAGIC, WHITE AND BLACK," "PARACELSUS," ETC. MACOY PUBLISHING CO. NEW YORK. 1919 COPYRIGHT, 1919, BY B. HARDING LUZAC & CO.. LONDON PREFACE This work, which has been out of print for some years, was originally published under the title, "Jacob Boehme." The present title has been selected as conveying a clearer meaning of the message the book contains. In the preface of the earlier edition Dr. Franz Hartmann writes : "The following is an attempt to present an epitome of the principal doctrines of Jacob Boehme in a certain systematic order, so as to afford a general view of them and to serve as an introduction to the study of Boehme's works." "The greatest obstacle to the understanding of the mysteries of the religion of the living Christ, is the very narrow view which we have become accustomed to take of them, according to the merely external and superficial interpretation of the Old and New Testaments. A study of Boehme's writings, by means of entering into the spirit in which they were written, is sure to expand the mind and to elevate the heart of the reader, giving him a greater and more sublime conception of God, Nature, and Man, than any other book of which I know." As a result of the greatest war in history, a spiritual awaken ing has taken place throughout the world. Proximity of death in battle and its reflection of anxious waiting in the home, have forced a conviction that God is a reality. In these pages will be found a basis for religion which should appeal to thoughtful and earnest readers. By continued study, new thoughts will be un covered, as the spiritual insight is opened to their discovery Jacob Boehme wrote of his works as follows: "That* which is (now ignorantly) rejected by my fatherland will (in future days) joyfully be taken up by foreign nations." (Letters March 15th, 1624.) Dr. Hartmann's work is republished in the hope that many may find profit, in its study. B. H. CONTENTS. I. THE LIFE OF JACOB BOEHME. PAGE. ACCOUNT or ms LIFE AND LABORS, AND OF THE INFLUENCE OF HIS WRITINGS UPON THK OUTSIDE WORLD ic II. THE DOCTRINES OF JACOB BOEHME. CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION. The only reality External reasoning is inadequate to compre hend internal truth Historical aspect of the Bible Man created in the image of God The universal and the per verted self-will of man Atonement The Yoga practice Illuminated seers Jacob Boehme's spiritual knowledge and his terrestrial conditions How his writings can be under stood 47 CONTENTS. CHAPTER II. UNITY. PAGE. God in his aspect as the Father The unity of the All Eternity and time The will Eternal wisdom The Son and the Holy Spirit Trinity The will the positive energy Wisdom is merely passive Three-personality of God God revealed in being The magic principle The antithesis or duality Fire and Light 70 CHAPTER III. THE SEVEN QUALITIES. Seven states of eternal nature referring to the Trinity Each quality existing within the others Seven in one Matter, darkness, corporification, motion, consciousness, salt, sul phur, atid mercury The lightning flash, illumination, light, substantiality, the water spirit, sound The seventh form Essential wisdom, the body of God, transcendental magnifi cence, the eternal virgin, glorification 83 CHAPTER IV. CREATION. God the All and nevertheless not the All Pantheism and The ism Personality of God Perfection The subjective becom ing objective Divine love The world not divine Eternal nature, wisdom Differentiation of divine powers Necessity of the dark fire Eternal chaos Beginning, unfolding The seven divine spirits Co-operation of Spirit 100 CHAPTER V. THE ANGELS. Three types of God relatively to the Trinity Sub-divisions of divine intelligences Harmony The seven accords in each body The celestial world objective to the angels Its pro ducts corresponding to their terrestrial types Realms of Lucifer Michael and Uriel, dominions, guardian angels, CONTENTS. PAGE. fidelity, freedom of will Lucifer, his pride and fall Hell pro duced by the ignition of the lower principles Hell not yet complete Evil spirits Lucifer's knowledge merely scientific, but not divine An end of hell inconceivable, unless creation were destroyed in CHAPTER VI. THE RESTORATION OF NATURE. Mosaic account of the restoration of Nature The outcast spirits The allegory of the Flood The appearance of the light The seventh day The separation of the material from the immaterial element of water Their separation not referring to locality The conjunction of the fiery and watery essence life Generation of gold and precious stones Relative good and evil The light that shines into the darkness The sun and the planets Manifestation of divine wisdom The sun the life of the stars The objective planets Sidereal life The spirit of the stars The superiority The third prin- ejolie Man a compendium of Nature and all terrestrial quali ties I~he soul 131 CHAPTER VII. MAN. Man an image of God His celestial body His powers Eden The paradise Man not the equal of God His free will Object of the third principle Object of man's existence The heart of God and its antithesis the devil and the terrestrial world Adam's fall The tree of temptation The protection offered by the terrestrial form against the powers of evil The weakening of the divine image How Adam fell asleep The terrestrial woman the saviour of man Creation of Eve Eating the forbidden fruit The serpent Adam caused Eve to sin and Eve seduced him The rise of the desire for the knowledge of good and evil .. 147 CHAPTER VIII. NATURE, OR THE THIRD PRINCIPLE. The origin of Nature Duality The powers of light and dark ness Lucifer's influence in the world The power of God in the inner world The external sun an image of the divine CONTENTS. PAGE. heart of love The sun omnipresent Ruling of the planets Their good and evil influences Their living power Individual life of the earth Why the earth turns around her axis and around the sun The four elements and the fifth Origin of the terrestrial elements Their attractions and repulsions Latent qualities in the products of the earth The vegetable and animal kingdoms Their relation to paradise The im perishable inner principle The spiritual quality The ex ternal form 171 CHAPTER IX. GENERATION. The Logos The soul in the light of God Self-will destructive to the perception of the divine idea The growth of the mani festation of the evil principle Man creates his own hell His natural protection by means of external life The rise of his natural qualities Primordial man How he became dense and material Death Man's animal nature His senses Will and mind Temperaments Origin of his terrestrial de sires Present method of reproduction caused by man's deg radation The male and the female in one individuality Primitive generation Division of sex Sexual attraction Its necessity Generation of soul Sexual intercourse and its delight Interaction of divine elements during the same The nature of the child dependent on the qualities of the parents Each soul an individual being 186 CHAPTER X. THE CHRIST. Necessity of divine aid Mercy The entering of the spiritual light into the body of humanity Preparation for redemption was made before the world was created The Redeemer in man not perceptible until after the fall The power of the Redeemer pre-eminently manifested in womanhood The ce lestial virgin Her influence over humanity When redemp tion became possible Cain and Abel Genesis The de scendants of Abraham has no terrestrial meaning It is the antitype of Christ The sons of Isaac representing the first and the second Adam and the final conquest of the first by CONTENTS. PAGE. the second The false gods of the sons of Japhet Their oracles, symbols of celestial things The power of the Re deemer present in all mankind Sacrifices External ceremo nies and internal faith The sacrificial fire not of a terrestrial but of a celestial wood The light of the Christ represented within the fire The children of light receiving the substance of Christ 204 CHAPTER XL INCARNATION. The configuration of the person of the Redeemer The Son of God ; the celestial and the terrestrial man Christ's terres trial nature The necessity of his suffering in the flesh The terrestrial virgin overshadowed by the virgin of wisdom The immaculate conception The restoration of the divine image in man by the power of the Holy Spirit The glorifica tion of the virgin the three principles uniting but not min gling with the body and not even with the soul The soul being penetrated and illuminated by the Word, Christ not a limited human being This celestial corporeity likened to the sun The Godhead 228 CHAPTER XII. REDEMPTION. Means of redemption The absolute will becoming relative Necessity of incarnation ; the conquest of death The three temptations The victory Christ's corporeal death Sacrifice of the self-will and also of the holy love-will Its entering into the divine will The transmutation of the body The resur rection and glorification The approaching destruction of the whole terrestrial world The paradisical body The heaven of the Redeemer 245 CHAPTER XIIL REGENERATION. Spirituality The living Christ Christ in man How to effect regeneration The nature of true prayer What is faith ? Spiritual substantiality The new body Dangers The new CONTENTS. PAGE. life The terrestrial man realizing the celestial ideal The three temptations Battle between the high and the low Relation between the outer and inner man Self-sacrifice Conquest of evil Uselessness of external desires Changes in the physical body of man Inner perception of Christ Its realization after the death of the body Trials, trouble, and suffering The mystical death External and eternal posses sions The rinding of salvation 264 CHAPTER XIV. DEATH AND ETERNAL LIFE. Man's existence in three worlds Death of the physical body The soul in her twofold aspect after the death of the body The law of spiritual gravitation The power of self-control lost through death Heaven and hell Animal elementaries Tortured souls Objectivity and corporeity of mental images after death Conscience and remorse No salvation for devils Suffering, fear, and despair The redeemed souls in the light of God Intercourse between spirits and mortals Sanc tified souls Orthodox superstitions Miracles The " Thread-souls " (Sutratma) Kama loca (Purgatory) Dead souls Astral forms of the dead Prayers and ceremonies for the dead 289 CHAPTER XV. CHRIST AND ANTICHRIST. What to believe Babel Christ The true light Th unknown Church Humanity " Practical occultism " Divinity in Humanity 309 APPENDIX. Apparition Asceticism Astral spirit Atonement The Cross Death Doubt God Humility Jesus Christ Man Nature Path Planets Principle Sex Sophia Substan tiality Sulphur, salt, and mercury Word 321 THE LIFE OF JACOB BOEHME. " The fulness of time has taken place, and the kingdom of God has arrived. Repent and believe in the gospel of truth." J. B. JACOB BOEHME was born in the year 1575, at Alt Seid- enburg, a place about two miles distant from Goerlitz in Germany. He was the son of poor country people, and in his youth he herded the cattle of his parents. He was then sent to school, where he learned to read and to write, and afterwards he entered as an apprentice a shoemaker's shop. It seems that even in early youth he was able to enter into an abnormal state of consciousness, and to oehold images in the astral light ; for once, while herd ing the cattle and standing on the top of a hill, he sud denly saw an arched opening of a vault, built of large red stones, and surrounded by bushes. He went through that opening into the vault, and in its depths he beheld a vessel filled with money. He, however, experienced no desire to possess him self of that treasure ; but supposing that it was a prod uct of the spirits of darkness made to lead him into temptation, he fled. On a later occasion, while left alone in the shoe maker's shop, an unknown stranger entered, asking to buy a pair of shoes. Boehme, supposing himself not entitled to make such a bargain in the absence of his master, asked an extraordinary high price, hoping thus to get rid of the person who desired to purchase. Never theless, the stranger bought the shoes and left the shop. After leaving, he stopped in front of the shop, and, i6 LIFE OF JACOB BOEHME, with a loud and solemn voice, called to Boehme : "Jacob, come outside." Boehme was very much astonished to see that the stranger knew his name. He went out in the street to meet him, and there the stranger, grasping him by the hand, and, with deeply penetrating eyes looking into his eyes, spoke the following words : "Jacob, you are now little ; but you will become a great man, and the world will wonder about you. Be pious, live in the fear of God, and honor His word. Especially do I admonish you to read the Bible ; herein you will find comfort and consolation ; for you will have to suffer a great deal of trouble, poverty, and persecution. Never theless, do not fear, but remain firm ; for God loves you, and is gracious to you." He then again pressed Boehme's hand, gave him another kind look, and went away. This remarkable event made a great impression on the mind of Jacob Boehme. He earnestly went through the exercises necessary in the study of practical occult ism ; that is to say, he practiced patience, piety, sim plicity of thought and purpose, modesty, resignation of his self-will to divine law, and he kept in mind the promise given in the Bible, that those who earnestly ask the Father in heaven for the communication of His Holy Ghost will have the spirit of sanctity awakened within themselves, and be illuminated with His wis dom. Such an illumination, indeed, took place within his mind, and for seven days in succession Jacob Boehme was in an ecstatic state, during which he was sur rounded by the light of the Spirit, and his consciousness immersed in contemplation and happiness. It is not stated what he saw during those visions, nor would such a statement have the result of gratifying the curi osity of the reader ; for the things of the Spirit are in conceivable to the external mind, and can only be realized by those who, rising above the realm of the senses and entering a state of superior consciousness, can perceive them. Such a state does not necessarily exclude the exercise of the external faculties ; for while Plato says about Socrates, that he once stood im movable for a day and a half upon one spot in a state LIFE OF JACOB BOEHME. 17 of such ecstasy, in the case of Jacob Boehme we find that during a similar condition he continued the exter nal occupations of his profession. Afterwards, in the year 1594, he became master-shoe maker, and married a woman, with whom he lived for thirty years, and there were four sons born to him, who followed a profession like himself. In the year 1600, in the twenty-fifth year of his age, another divine illumination took place in his mind, and this time he learned to know the innermost foundation of nature, and acquired the capacity to see henceforth with the eyes of the soul into the heart of all things, a faculty which remained with him even in his normal condition. Ten years afterward, anno 1610, his third illumina tion took place, and that which in former visions had appeared to him chaotic and multifarious was now recognized by him as a unity, like a harp of many strings, of which each string is a separate instrument, while the whole is only one harp. He now recognized the divine order of nature, and how from the trunk of the tree of life spring different branches, bearing manifold leaves and flowers and fruits, and he became impressed with the necessity of writing down what he saw and pre serving the record. Thus, beginning with the year 1612, and up to his end in the year 1624, he wrote many books about the things which he saw in the light of his own divine spirit, comprising thirty books full of the deepest mysteries regarding God and the angels, Christ and man, heaven and hell and nature, and the secret things of the world, such as before him no man is known to have com municated to this sinful world ; and all this he did, not for the purpose of earthly gain, but for the glorification of God and for the redemption of mankind from igno rance regarding the things of the Spirit. He taught a conception of God which was far too grand to be grasped by the narrow-minded clergy, who saw their authority weakened by a poor shoemaker, and who therefore became his unrelenting enemies ; for the God of whom they conceived was a limited Being, a Person who at the time of His death had given His divine powers into the hands of the clergy, while the l8 LIFE OF JACOB BOEHME. God of Jacob Boehme was still living and filling the universe with His glory. He says : " I acknowledge a universal God, being a Unity, and the primordial power of Good in the universe ; self- existent, independent of forms, needing no locality for its existence, unmeasurable and not subject to the intel lectual comprehension of any being. I acknowledge this power to be a Trinity in One, each of the Three being of equal power, being called the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. I acknowledge that this triune principle fills at one and the same time all things ; that it has been, and still continues to be, the cause, founda tion, and beginning of all things. I believe and acknowl edge that the eternal power of this principle caused the existence of the universe ; that its power, in a manner comparable to a breath or speech (the Word, the Son or Christ), radiated from its center, and produced the germs out of which grow visible forms, and that in this exhaled Breath or Word (the Logos) is contained the inner heaven and the visible world with all things existing within them." * Moreover, he taught that to be a true Christian it was not sufficient to subscribe to a certain set of beliefs ; but that only he in whom the Christ is living is a true follower of Christ in spirit and in truth. " He alone is a true Christian whose soul and mind has entered again into the original matrix, out of which the life of man has taken its origin ; that is to say, the eternal Word (X7<"). This Word has been revealed in our human nature, which is blind to the presence of God, and he who absorbs this Word with his hungry soul, and thereby returns to the original spiritual state * This conception of the Holy Trinity is very different from that of the orthodox creed, which makes of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost three separated beings, or an unintelligible and unnatural monstrosity. According to Boehme, the Father is the manifested primordial Power : the Son is the eternal Word : the Holy Ghost is the power issuing from the Father through His outspoken Word. Thus a man and his capacity to speak are not two different beings, and the language which God speaks through His Word is not a corporeal and separate being, but His own Spirit. This Spirit, manifested in forms, is the origin and foundation of all the world of corporeal ap pearances, which constitute visible nature. It is the Power and the Light of the Logos, while the Logos itself is the Will of the Father, manifesting itself as divine and universal Love. LIFE OF JACOB BOEHME. 19 in which humanity took its origin, his soul will become a temple of divine love, wherein the Father receives His beloved Son. In him will reside the Holy Ghost. "He alone, therefore, in whom Christ exists and lives is a Christian, a man in whom Christ has been raised out of the wasted flesh of Adam. He will be an heir of Christ not on account of some merit gained by some one else, nor by some favor conferred upon him by some external power, but by inward grace. " To believe merely in a historical Christ, to be satis fied with the belief that at some time in the past Jesus has died to satisfy the anger of God, does not consti tute a Christian. Such a speculative Christian every wicked devil may be, for every one would like to obtain, without any efforts of his own, something good which he does not deserve. But that which is born from the flesh cannot enter the kingdom of the God. To enter that kingdom one must be reborn in the Spirit. "Not palaces of stone and costly houses of worship regenerate man ; but the divine spiritual sun, existing in the divine heaven, acting through the divine power of the Word of God in the temple of Christ. A true Christian desires nothing else but that which the Christ within his soul desires. " All our religious systems are only the works of in tellectual children. We ought to repudiate all our per sonal desires, disputes, science, and will, if we want to restore the harmony with the mother which gave us birth at the beginning ; for at present our souls are the playgrounds of many hundreds of malicious animals, which we have put there in the place of God, and which we worship for gods. These animals must die before the Christ principle can begin to live therein. Man must return to his natural state (his original purity), before he can become divine. * * These " animals " are the very elements of which our own per sonal and illusive self is composed. Each represents an individual state of will, desire, or consciousness ; but in the midst of them shines the divine Light of the Christ. If a man allows one or the other of these " animals " to grow and expand in him, so that its qualities will tincture his whole being, he will then be himself that being in whose possession he is, and become unconscious of his true nature in the Light of the Spirit. Therefore man must rise superior to his animal or worldly thoughts and desires, before he can find tht kingdom of heaven in him. 20 LIFE OF JACOB BOEHME. ' ' There is no other way for Christ to live than through the death of old Adam ; a man cannot become a god and remain an animal still. No one is saved by God as a mark of his gratitude for having attended church and having had the patience to listen to a sermon ; but his attendance to external ceremonies can only benefit him if he hears Christ speak within his own heart. "All our disputations and intellectual speculations in regard to the divine mysteries are useless ; because they originate from external sources. God's mysteries can be only known by God, and to know them we must first seek God in our own center. Our reason and will must return to the inner source from which they originated ; then will we arrive at a true science of God and His attributes. ' ' Man's will and imagination have become perverted from their original state. Man has surrounded himself by a world of will and imagination of his own. Hehas therefore lost sight of God, and can only regain his former state and become wise if he brings the activity of his soul and mind again in harmony with the divine Spirit. "A Christian is he who lives in Christ, and in whom Christ's power is active. He must feel the divine fire of love burn in his heart. This fire is the Spirit of Christ, who continually crushes the head of the ser pent, meaning the desires of the flesh. The flesh is governed by the will of the world ; but the spiritual fire in man is kindled by the Spirit. He who wants to become a Christian must not boast and say : ' I am a Christian I ' but he should desire to become one, and prepare all the conditions necessary that the Christ may live in him. Such a Christian will perhaps be hated and persecuted by the nominal Christians of his time ; but he must bear his cross, and thereby he will become strong. "The theologians and Christian sectarians keep on continually disputing about the letter and form, while they care nothing for the spirit, without which the form is empty and the letter dead. Each one imagines that he has the truth in his keeping, and wants to be ad mired by the world as a keeper of the truth. There fore they denounce and slander and backbite each LIFE OF JACOB BOEHME. 21 other, and thus they act against the first principle taught by Christ, and which is brotherly love. Thus the Church of Christ has become a bazaar where vani ties are exhibited, and as the Israelites dance around the golden calf, so the modern Christians dance around their self-constructed fetiches, whom they call God, and on account of this fetich-worship they will not be able to enter the promised land. ' ' The whole Christian religion is based upon a knowledge of our origin, our present condition, our destiny. It shows first how from unity we fell into variety, and how we may return to the former state. Secondly, it shows what we were before we became disunited. Thirdly, it explains the cause of the con tinuance of our present disunion. Fourthly, it in structs us as to the final destiny of the mortal and im mortal elements within our constitution. "All the teachings of Christ have no other object than to show us the way how we may re-ascend from a state of variety and differentiation to our original unity ; and he who teaches otherwise teaches an error. All the doctrines which have been hung around this fundamental doctrine, and which do not conform with the latter, are merely the products of worldly foolish ness, thinking itself wise ; they are merely useless ornaments which will create errors, and are calculated to throw dust in the eyes of the ignorant. "Whoever presumes to set himself up as a spiritual teacher, and has no spiritual power of perceiving the truth, thinking to serve God by teaching the kingdom of God, of which he practically knows nothing, does not serve the true God, but serves his own self, and nurses and feeds his own vanity. He may have been legally appointed to his clerical office, and yet he is not a true shepherd. Christ says : 'He who does not enter the stable of the sheep by the door, but enters by the window, is a thief and a murderer, and the sheep will not follow him, for they do not know his voice.' He is not in possession of the voice of God, but merely of the voice of his learning. But Christ said : ' All plants which have not been planted by my heavenly Father shall be torn out and destroyed.' How, then, can he who is godless attempt to plant heavenly 22 LIFE OF JACOB BOEHME. plants, having no spiritual seed and no power ? To become a true spiritual teacher, one must teach in the Spirit of God and not in the spirit of selfishness." In regard to the distinction between faith and mere belief, Boehme says : "A historical belie/is merely an opinion based upon some adopted explanation of the letter of the written word, having been learned in schools, heard by the external ear, and which produces dogmatists, sophists, and opinionated servants of the letter. But Faith is the result of the direct perception of the truth, heard and understood by the inner sense, taught by the Holy Ghost, and productive of theosophists and serv ants of the divine Spirit." * As to the question whether or not sins can be for given by a priest, his opinion is not doubtful : " No sin can be taken away by priestly absolution. If Christ is resurrected within the heart, the old Adam will be dead, and with him the sins which he has com mitted. If the sun rises, the night will be swallowed by the day and exist no longer. Dissemble, shout, weep, sing, preach, and teach as much as you please, it will serve to no purpose as long as evil exists in your heart. If I go to confession for 1000 years, and get the priest to absolve me every day, and in addition to that receive the sacrament every four weeks, it will serve me nothing if Christ is not in me. An animal going to church will come out an animal, no matter to what ceremonies it may have been made to submit. "The modern Christians have a building of stone, wherein they serve the goddess of vanity, where they dissimulate, where the people exhibit their fine clothes and the preacher his learning ; but the true Christian has his church within his soul, wherein he teaches and listens. This church is with him and in him wherever he goes, and he is always in his church. His church *" Religion" comes from "religire" to bind back. It means the knowledge of that power which binds man back to that princi ple from which he originated. The principle from which the divine man originated is the Light of the Logos, and that which binds him back to it is not his theories and opinions about the nature of that Light, but the Power of that Light itself. This power is the true Faith. LIFE Of JACOB BOEHME. 23 is thetenple of Christ, wherein the Holy Ghost preaches to all beings, and in everything he beholds he hears a sermon of God. * "The true Christian does not cling to any particular sect. He may participate in the ceremonial service of every sect, and still belong to none. He has only one science, which is Christ within him ; he has only one desire, namely, to do good. Look at the flowers of the field. Each one has its own particular attributes, never theless they do not wrangle and fight with each other. They do not quarrel about the possession of sunshine and rain, or dispute about their colors, Odor, and taste. Each one grows according to its nature. Thus it is with the children of God. Each one has his own gifts and attributes, but they all spring from one Spirit. They enjoy their gifts, and praise the wisdom of Him from whom they originated. Why should they dis pute about the qualities of Him whose attributes are manifest in themselves ? " We have all only one single order to which we be long, and the only rule of that order is to do the will of God, that is to say, to keep still and serve as in struments through which God may do His will. What ever God sows and makes manifest in us, we give it back to Him as His own fruit. The kingdom of heaven is not based upon our opinions and authorized beliefs, but roots in its own divine power. Our main object ought to be to have the divine power within ourselves. If we possess that, all scientific pursuit will be a mere play of the intellectual faculties with which to amuse ourselves ; for the true science is the revela tion of the wisdom of God within our own mind. God manifests His wisdom through His children as the earth manifests her powers through the production of various flowers and fruits. Therefore let each one be glad of his own gifts and enjoy those of the others. Why should all be alike ? Who condemns the birds of the forest because they do not all sing the same tune ; * " Do you not know that you are living temples of the Holy Ghost, and that the Spirit of God is living within you ? " There are some who profess to know this theoretically, but very few who can realize it practically ; neither can it be practically known to any one, unless he permits the Spirit of God to move and act in and through him. 24 LIFE OF JACOB BOEHME. but each praises its Creator in its own way ? Never theless, the power which enables them to sing origi nates in all from only one source." His first work, entitled "Aurora" (the beginning of the new day), was not quite finished, when, by the in discretion of a friend, copies of the manuscript came into the hands of the clergy. The head parson of Goerlitz, whose name was Gregorius Richter, a person entirely incapable of conceiving of the depths of that religion which he professed to teach, in ignorance of the divine mysteries of true Christianity, of which he knew nothing but its superficial aspect and form, too vain to bear with toleration that a poor shoemaker should be in possession of any spiritual knowledge which he, the well-fed priest, did not possess, became Jacob Boehme's bitterest enemy, denouncing and cursing the author of that book, and his hate was raised to the utmost degree by the meekness and modesty with which Boehme received the insults and denunciations directed toward him. Soon the bigoted priest publicly in the pulpit accused Boehme of being a disturber of the peace and an heretic, asking the City Council of Goerlitz to punish the traitor, and threatening that if he were not removed from the town, the anger of God would be awakened, and He would cause the whole place to be swallowed up by the earth, in the same manner in which he claimed that Korah, Dathan, and Abiram had perished after resisting Moses, the man of God. In vain Jacob Boehme attempted to reason personally with the infuriated Doctor of Divinity. New curses and insults were the result of his interview with him, and the parson threatened to have Jacob Boehme arrested and put into prison. The City Council was afraid of the priest, and, although he could not sub stantiate any charge against Boehme, nevertheless they ordered him to leave the town for fear of the con sequences that might result if they did not comply with the Rev. Richter's request. Patiently Boehme submitted to the unjust decree. He requested to be permitted to go home and take leave of his family before going into banishment, and even this was refused to him. Then his only answer LIFE OF JACOB BOEHME. 25 was : "Very well ; if I cannot do otherwise, I will be contented. " Boehme left ; but during the following night greater courage entered into the hearts and a better judgment into the heads of the Councilmen. They reproached themselves for having banished an inoffensive man, and the very next day they called Jacob Boehme back, and permitted him to remain, stipulating, however, that he should give up to them the manuscript of the "Aurora," and that henceforth he should abstain from the writing of books. For seven years Boehme, in obedience to this foolish decree, restrained himself from writing down the ex periences which he enjoyed in the realm of the spirit, and, instead of bringing light to mankind, contented himself with mending their shoes. Hard was the battle required to stem the tidal wave of the Spirit, which with overpowering strength descended upon his soul ; but at last, encouraged by the advice of his friends, who counseled him not to resist any longer the impulse coming from God for fear of disobeying man-made authorities, he resumed the labor of writ ing. The writings of Jacob Boehme soon made their way in the world, and attracted the attention of those who were capable of realizing and appreciating their true character. He found many friends and followers among the high and the lowly, the rich and the poor, and it seemed, indeed, as if a new outpouring of the Spirit of Truth was intended to take place in priest- ridden and bigoted Germany. Jacob Boehme during that time wrote a number of books and pamphlets: "Aurora," "The Three Principles of Divine Being," "The Threefold Life of Man," "The Incarnation of Jesus Christ," "The Six Theosophical Points," "The Book of Terrestrial and Celestial Mysteries," "Biblical Calculation Regarding the Duration of the World," "The Four Complexions, ' his " Defense ; " the book about "The Generation and Signature of all Beings," of " True Repentance," "True Regeneration," "The Supersensual Life," "Regenera tion and Divine Contemplation," " The Selection of Grace," " Holy Baptism," " Holy Communion," "Dis- 26 LIFE OF JACOB BOEHME. course between an Enlightened and an Unilluminated Soul," an essay on "Prayer," "Tables of the Three Principles of Divine Manifestation," "Key to the most Prominent Points," " One Hundred and Seventy-Seven Theosophical Questions," " Theosophical Letters," and other smaller works and articles regarding philosophical matters. In March, 1624, and shortly before his death, began for Jacob Boehme a time of great suffering. In 1623, Abraham von Frankenburg had some of Boehme's works published under the title of " The Way to Christ," and the appearance of this book, full of divine truth, again inflamed the envy and rage of the angry parson of Goerlitz, being blown into a flame by the observa tion of the great favor with which the book was received by all truly enlightened minds. With the utmost fury he began again his persecutions of Jacob Boehme, cursing and damning him from the pulpit, and published against him a pasquillo, full of personal insults and vulgar epithets, which contained neither reason nor logic ; but in their places innumerable calumnies, such as only the brain of a person made insane by passion could invent or concoct. This time Boehme did not remain so passive as on a former occasion, but he handed over to the City Coun cil a written defense in justification of what he had done, and he, moreover, wrote a reply to Richter, answering in a quiet and dignified manner every point of the ob jection raised by Richter, annihilating his arguments by the force of his logic and by the power of truth. This defense was not in an ironical style, but pregnant with love and pity for the misguided man, modest and elo quent to a degree such as rarely can be found even among the greatest orators. The City Council, however, being once more intimi dated by the blustering priest, did not accept Boehme's defense, but expressed a wish that he should voluntarily leave the town ; and they expressed their wish to him in the form of a well-meant advice, to save himself from incurring the fate of heretics, which was to be burned alive on a stake by order of the KurfUrst or Em peror, either of whom might have been inclined to lend a willing ear to the representations of the clergy, being LIFE OF JACOB BOEHME. 27 supposed to hesitate very little to give the requisite order, if the whim of the priesthood could be gratified by such a comparatively insignificant thing as the exe cution of a troublesome person who disturbed their peace. Boehme, in obedience to that advice, which he well knew was a command in disguise, left Goerlitz on the 9th day of May, 1624, and went to Dresden, where he found an asylum in the house of a physician named Dr. Benjamin Hinkelman. There he received many honors and offers of aid, but he remained modest, writ ing to a friend that he intended to put his trust in no man, but in the living God ; and that, as he was doing so, he was full of joy and all was well. About this time Boehme, by order of the Kurftirst, was invited to take part in a learned discussion which was to take place between him and some of the best theologians of those times, including two professors of mathematics. The discussion took place, and Boehme astonished his opponents by the depths of his ideas and by his extraordinary knowledge in regard to divine and natural things ; so that, when asked by the Kur- fiirst to give their decision, the theologians begged for time to investigate still more the matters which Boehme had represented to them, and which seemed to transcend the limits of what they believed themselves capable of grasping. One of these theologians, Ger hard by name, was heard to say that he would not take the whole world if it were offered to him as a bribe to condemn such a man, and the other, Dr. Meissner, an swered that he was of the same opinion, and that they had no right to condemn that which surpassed their understanding ; and thus it may be seen that not all the theologians were like Gregorius Richter, but that in the clerical profession, as in any other, there may be wise men and fools. Such theologians, of noble mind and without bigotry, were henceforth to be found among Jacob Boehme's admirers and friends, and when ever he met them he treated them with respect. Soon afterwards he wrote his last work, entitled " Tables Regarding Divine Manifestation," and, having returned to his home, he was taken sick with the fever. His body began to swell, and he announced to his 28 LIFE OF JACOB BOEHME. friends that the time of his death was near, saying : " In three days you will see how God has made an end of me. " Then they asked him whether he was willing to die, and he replied : " Yes, according to the will of God." When his friends expressed the hope to find him improved on the following day, he said, "May God help that it shall be as you say. Amen." This took place on a Friday, but on the next Sunday, on the 2Oth of November, 1624, before i A.M., Boehme called his son, Tobias, to his bedside, and asked him whether he did not hear beautiful music, and then he requested him to open the door of the room so that the celestial songs could better be heard. Later on he asked what time it was, and when he was told that the clock struck two, he said, "This is not yet time for me, in three hours will be my time. " After a pause he again spoke, and said, "Thou powerful God Zabaoth, save me according to Thy will." Again he said, "Thou crucified Lord Jesus Christ, ha\*e mercy upon me, and take me into Thy kingdom. " He then gave to his wife certain directions regarding his books and other temporal matters, telling her also that she would not survive him very long (as, indeed, she did not), and, taking leave from his sons, he said, " Now I shall enter the paradise." He then asked his eldest son, whose loving looks seemed to keep Boehme's soul from severing the bonds of the body, to turn him round, and, giving one deep sigh, his soul gave up the body to the earth to which it belonged, and entered into that higher state which is known to none except those who have experienced it themselves. Jacob Boehme's enemy, the bigoted head-parson, Gregorius Richter, refused a decent burial to the corpse of the philosopher, and, as the City Council of Goerlitz, again in fear of the priest, were wavering and uncertain what to do, it was already decided to take the body for burial to a country place belonging to one of Boehme's friends, on which occasion, undoubtedly, a row would have taken place, and the ceremony been disturbed by the populace, whose prejudices were aroused by the clergy ; but at the appropriate time the Catholic Count Hannibal von Drohna arrived, and ordered the body to be buried in a solemn manner, and in the presence of LIFE OF JACOB BOEHME. 29 two of the members of the City Council. This took place accordingly, but the parson pretended to be sick, and took medicine so as to avoid being obliged to hold the funeral sermon, and the clergyman who gave the ser mon in his place, although he himself had given abso lution and the sacrament to Boehme shortly before the latter died, began his speech by expressing his great disgust at having been forced to do so by order of the Council. Some friends of Boehme, in Silesia, sent a cross to be put on his grave, but it was soon destroyed by the hands of some bigot, who imagined to please God by insulting the memory of a man who was obnoxious to the priests, but who had done more to bring to man kind a true knowledge of God than priestcraft ever did in modern or ancient times. This cross was very in geniously cut with occult symbols. On the top there was a flaming cross, with a Hebrew inscription signify ing I H S V H, and twelve golden rays. Below this there were the initials of his favorite motto and a pict ure of a child sleeping and resting upon a skull, signi fying the regeneration by means of the mystic death. Then followed an inscription saying, " Here rests the body of Jacob Boehme, born out of God, died in I H S VH, and sealed by the Holy Spirit." At the right of that inscription there was a representation of a black eagle upon a mountain, stepping upon a large coiled snake, while holding with its right claw a palm leaf and in its beak the branch of a lily. On this picture was written Vidt. On the left side there was the represen tation of a lion, with a golden cross and crown. With the right hind leg that lion stood upon a stone in the shape of a cube, and with the left upon a globe ; but in its right paw it held a flaming sword, and in the other a burning heart with the inscription Vici. Below the above-described inscription there was another pict ure, of oval shape, representing a lamb with a bishop's miter and staff, standing near a palm tree, next to a flowing spring, in a field covered with various flowers. Below this was inscribed Vent. The meaning of these three words is : In mundum Veni ; Satanam descender e Vidi ; Infernum Vici. Vivite magnanimi. Finally, upon the lower part of the cross there were inscribed the last 30 LIFE OF JACOB BOEHME. words spoken by Boehme : Now I shall enter the para dise. In his exterior appearance Boehme was little, hav ing a short, thin beard, a feeble voice, and eyes of a grayish tint. He was deficient in physical strength ; nevertheless there is nothing known of his having ever had any other disease than the one that caused his death. But, if Jacob Boehme was small in body, he was a giant in intelligence and a powerful spirit. His hands could accomplish no greater works than to write and to make shoes, but the power of God having be come manifest in that apparently insignificant organism and compound of elements and spiritual principles which represented the man Jacob Boehme on this ter restrial globe, was strong enough to overthrow, and is still overthrowing, the most petrified and gigantic superstitions existing in his own and subsequent cen turies. His "Spirit" is still battling with the powers of darkness, and the Light which was kindled in the soul of poor little Jacob Boehme is still illuminating the world, growing larger and brighter from day to day in proportion as mankind becomes more capable of beholding it and of receiving and grasping his ideas. His spirit, or to speak more correctly, the Spirit of Truth as manifested through the writings of Jacob Boehme, is gradually bringing life into old dry-bone theology, killing clericalism and bigotry, superstition and ignorance, the giant monsters which have been devastating the world for ages past, and to whom more victims have been sacrificed than have died by the hands of the god of war, by pestilence, and drugs. The thinking part of humanity is beginning to see that there is a vast difference between the true spirit of Christian religion, and the external form in which it is represented to the vulgar mind. Even the better class of clergy that is to say, those who are not fully ab sorbed in the dogmatic opinions which were engrafted into their minds in their schools, but who dare to seek for self-knowledge in God know that a clinging to the external forms of religion prevents the mind from pene trating into their depths and grasping the spirit that produced these forms, and which is one and the same in all great religions ; for the truth is universal, external, LIFE OF JACOB BOEHME. 31 and only one ; it is the learned ones who take a multi ple aspect of it, and regard it through manifold colored glasses. As to the practical application of this doctrine, Jacob Boehme says : "If we allow our mind to brood over earthly desires, our mind will be captivated by them ; but if we spiritually rise above the world of earthly desires and sensations, the world of light will captivate our will, the terrestrial world will lose its power of attracting our consciousness, and we will enter the divine state of God. The realm of matter and darkness is the realm of anguish, contention, and suffering ; the realm of the Spirit is the kingdom of light, joy, peace, and happiness. There is no human being who would desire to be immersed in material pleasures, if he were able to comprehend and realize the joys of the spiritual state. But if the fire of the soul is not illumined by the divine light, the will of the soul cannot enter that state, but remains in darkness. The superficial rea- soner believes that there exists no faculty of seeing except by the exterior eye, and if that sight has de parted there is an end of seeing. It is very unfortunate if the soul can only see through the external mirror of the eye. What will such a soul see if that mirror is broken ? She will be in darkness, and only perceive the lurid lightnings which are kindled by her own an guish and despair. As long as the soul is connected with the body she may behold the divine light in its modifications as manifested through the intermediate action of the terrestrial sun, and the sun is the source of all her terrestrial joys. Thus the terrestrial sun be comes her God, she mistakes the effect for the cause ; she is drawn away from the source of the real and eternal light and sinks into darkness. But if the divine eternal light is received in the soul, it kindles a fire there in which illuminates the whole substance of the soul, so that the latter becomes luminous, and a mirror, or eye, in which the light of God is reflected. Let, there fore, each man examine himself and see which of the three worlds is master over him, the world of light, the world of illusions, or the world of darkness. Let him search his own soul, to see whether the four elements of evil, ambition, anger, envy, and avarice, are the 33 LIFE OF JACOB BOEHME. rulers therein, or whether universal charity, benevo lence, kindness, meekness, and good will prevail, and let him not grow weak in his battle with the lower elements, so that the Spirit of God may be victorious in him. He who consciously carries the divine image of God will not die when his physical body dies, nor will he lose any of the attributes which his soul has acquired during its life in the physica} body. The world of good and the world of evil are both contained within the world of man. Whatever we make of our selves, that must we be in the future ; whatever we awaken within ourselves will live in ourselves ; in whatever direction we struggle, there shall we receive our guide." Jacob Boehme was in possession of remarkable occult powers. He is known to have spoken several lan guages, although no one ever knew where he had ac quired them, they having probably been learned by him in a previous life. * He also knew the language of nature, and could call plants and animals by their own proper names. He was endowed with psychic faculties, which enabled him to " psychometrically " see the past and " clairvoyantly " look into the future. Many anec dotes are told of him in regard to these powers, of which the following may serve as a specimen : One day a dissolute nobleman railed at Boehme, calling him a false prophet and daring him to tell anything which he had not learned in the ordinary way. Boehme asked to be left in peace ; but as the nobleman continued his offensive language, Boehme at last told him his own past private history, mentioning a great many villain ous things which that nobleman had done in secret. He also predicted that this person would soon come to an untimely end. Thereupon that nobleman flew into a rage, and while he admitted that what Boehme said was true, he bestrode his horse and hurried away. On the next morning he was found dead in the road, having been thrown from his horse and broken his neck. * Each of the four states of consciousness in man has its own mem ories. If he rises up to the plane of the spirit and thus partakes of the nature of that which existed before his present personality came into existence, he will remember the essence of the knowledge at tained by that individuality in its previous incarnations. LIFE OF JACOB BOEHME. 33 Boehme's favorite motto was " Our salvation is in the life of Jesus Christ in us, " This alone is sufficient to show the true character of the Christianity of Boehme, who did not look for salva tion from a dead and historical person, but from the living Jesus, made alive by the Christ within himself ; or to express it in other terms, by the higher Manas (the mind) becoming self-conscious in the light of the Atma-Buddhi (the spiritual soul). When asked for his autograph, he frequently used to write the following * " He to whom time is the same as eternity, And eternity the same as time, Is free from all contention." A similar saying is " He to whom sorrow is the same as joy, And joy the same as sorrow, May thank God for his equanimity." Among the most prominent followers and successors of Jacob Boehme might be named many celebrated theologians and philosophers, such as Dr. Balthasar Walther, Abraham Frankenberg, Friedrich Krause, and even the son of Boehme's worst enemy, Richter of Goerlitz, who published eight books containing extracts of Boehme's works. Boehme's works were translated into different lan guages, and attracted the attention of Charles I. of Eng land, who, after reading his "Answers to Forty Ques tions," exclaimed, "God be praised that there are still men in existence who are able to give from their own experience a living testimony of God and His Word." Johannes Sparrow, in the years 1646-1662, produced a translation in English of Boehme's works, and Edward Taylor another during the reign of James II. A third translation was published in 1755 by William Law, and many authors (the great Newton included) are said to have drawn largely from Boehme's works. His prom- * " Jesus " means the principle of Divine Will and Wisdom. It is the same as the " Iswar ' ' of the Hindus, from which the term may have originated. He in whom divine wisdom grows and becomes manifest will find it to be his Redeemer and Christ. 34 LIFE OF JACOB BOEHME. inent disciples, however, and the ones most capable of grasping his ideas, seem to have been Thomas Brom ley (1691) and Jane Leade (died 1703), the founder of the society of Philadelphians (if comprising under that name all persons who have entered a certain stage of development can be called the founding of a society). Henry Moore, Professor at Cambridge, was requested to examine the books of Jacob Boehme, and to report against them. He examined them ; but his report turned out differently from what had been expected ; for even if he, on account of his own engrafted theological ideas, was not fully able to comprehend Jacob Boehme, and misunderstood him in many ways, nevertheless, he pronounced himself in his favor, and said that he who treated Boehme with contempt could not be otherwise but ignorant and mentally blind ; adding that Jacob Boehme had undoubtedly been spiritually wakened for the purpose of correcting those false Christians who believed merely in an external Christ without regard whether or not they had the Spirit of Christ within themselves. For the instruction of those who believe that the present may learn a lesson from the experience of the past, we must prominently mention the name of Johann George Gichtel, a pious man, and one of the greatest disciples of Boehme, a man of great insight and power. He was a deep thinker, leading a blameless life. In 1682 he republished Boehme's writings, and added to them many valuable engravings, with explanations, showing great profundity of thought andspiritual knowl edge. By exposing the faults of the clergy, he made them his enemies. He wanted to reform them by force. Several times he was put into prison, and once he was even publicly exposed in the pillory in conse quence of his sincerity. He established a society called the "Angelic Brothers," and in which every member was supposed to have actually renounced the world and entered into a state of angelic perfection. These " Angelic Brothers " were to be free from all human imperfections, and so situated as not be pestered with terrestrial cares. They were supposed not to be in clined to marry, and not to do any manual labor ; but LIFE OF JACOB BOEHME. 35 to live in continual contemplation and prayer, and by penetrating to the center of good to abolish all evil, so that the wrath of God might be extinguished within the souls of all men, and universal love and harmony prevail everywhere. They were to depose the clergy, and in their place to be true priests, after the order of Melchisedec, taking upon themselves the Karma of all men and the sin of the world for expiation and redemp tion. Thus, this otherwise well-meaning man forgot that the organization of an angelic brotherhood would require, above all, the acquisition of angels to consti tute its membership. Such angels are not easily to be found, and if they were to be found, they would require no external organization. Nevertheless, Gich- tel's society, although being presumably neither an gelic nor divinely wise, is said to have done a great deal of good, and Henke, a church historian, writes that they especially were tolerant, and never condemned any person on account of his belief or opinions, and that they never boasted, but silently accomplished many good works. The followers of Jacob Boehme were not always left in peace. There will be theological and other bigots as long as ignorance exists in the world. Such persons, incapable of understanding the spirit of Boehme's teach ings, imagined them to contain heresies, and, in 1689, Quirinus Kuhlmann, a follower of Boehme, was burned alive at the stake at Moscow, because he had been too free in expressing his opinions regarding the iniquities of the clergy of those times. All the arguments which the enemies of Jacob Boehme have ever put forward consist merely in the application of vile epithets, such as "Fool ! Atheist ! Swine ! Shoe- patcher ! Crank ! Hypocrite ! " and phrases such as the following : "Boehme's sect is truly devilish, and the vilest ex crement of the devil ; it has the father of lies for its ori gin ; the devil had possession of Boehme, and grunted out of his mouth." (Johann Trick.} "We have no desire to climb up the ladder of dreams Created by Boehme. To do so would be to tempt God and lead us down to perdition." (Delitsch.) "The writings of Jacob Boehme contain as many 36 LIFE OF JACOB BOEHME. blasphemies as there are lines. They have a fearful odor of shoemaker's pitch and blacking. " (Richter. } "The shoemaker is the Antichrist." (Richter.'} "We ask who deserves belief ? The word of Christ or the prejudiced shoemaker with his dirt ? " (Richter.} "The Holy Ghost has anointed Christ with oil, but the villain of a shoemaker has been daubed over with dirt by the devil." (Richter.} "Christ spake about important things ; but the shoe maker speaks about things that are vile." (Richter.} " Christ taught publicly ; but the shoemaker sits in a corner." (Richter.} "Christ used to drink good wine ; but shoemakers drink whisky. " (Rev. Gregorius Richter. ) The above will be sufficient as specimens of the theo logical arguments of those times. However laughable they may appear at the present time, there was a seri ous aspect attached to them for Jacob Boehme and his successors. Hobius, of Hamburga, follower of Boehme, had to leave the city for fear of being assas sinated by the rabble, whose fury was excited against him by the bigoted parson, Rev. J. Frederic Mayer ; and Abraham Hinkelman, from the same cause, died of grief; while Joh. Winkler, a theologian, who had refused to express a contempt for Jacob Boehme, was saved from his persecutors by the protection offered him by the king. On the other hand, there were many of the more enlightened theologians who stood up in defense of Boehme and his doctrines ; foremost of all John Win kler, John Mathaei, Frederick Brenkling and Spencer, and especially so Gottfried Arnold, the author of a his tory of churches and heretics. The wise can find wis dom in everything, even in the prattle of a child ; but the fool sees his own image in everything, and there fore the great historian Mozhof (1688) sees in Jacob Boehme a saint and a sage ; while F. T. Adelung, who wrote a book on human folly, denounces him and Theophrastus Paracelsus as fools. The so-called "Rationalists," and the great bulk of the theologians, combined with each other to fight against that which they were unable to understand, while Johann Salomo Samler, a -self-thinking man and capable of entering LIFE OF JACOB BOEHME. 37 into the spirit of Boehme, calls .the writings of Boehme "a fountain of happiness and spiritual knowledge, from which every one may drink without having the order of his external life disturbed thereby." Among those who were pre-eminently capable of grasping Jacob Boehme's ideas, we will only mention the great theologian, Frederic Christop Oetinger, Pastor Oberlin, and Louis Claude de St. Martin, the "Unknown philosopher," who translated some of his works into French. Many other persons, whose names are well known in history, and who had more or less pene trated to the fountain of truth, such as Henry Jung Stilling, Friederich von Hardenberg, Friederich von Schlegel, Novalis, Heinrich Jacobi, Schelling, Goethe, Franz Baader, Hegel, and many others might be named ; but all this proves nothing. The value of the truth cannot be made to depend on the recommendation or certificate of any person, however great an authority he may be ; it is beyond all praise. The reason why men have so much difficulty in seeing the truth is be cause it is so simple that even a child can behold it ; but the minds of the worldly-wise are complicated, and they seek for complexity in the truth. Let, there fore, those who wish to enter the spirit of the doctrines of Jacob Boehme dismiss their own prejudices, and open their eyes to the light. Those who are able to see it will see it ; while to those whose eyes are closed the writings of Jacob Boehme will be a sealed book, and it will be advisable for them to learn first the lesson taught by terrestrial life before they attempt to judge about the mysteries of the life in the Spirit of God. From the fountain of the interior life in man springs that mysterious power to see and to feel the truth which is called "intuition." It is the power to perceive at once by the sense of touch and interior sight things that belong to the spirit. It is not the understand ing, and there is no sense in speaking of the "reli ability" or the " fallibility " of the intuition ; it is spirit ual perception, and as in outward life we must be able to see a thing, and to feel it by means of the touch, before we can have any true knowledge about its external qualities, so in the contemplation of spiritual things we must be able interiorly to perceive the 38 LIFE OF JACOB BOEHME. object of our investigation before we can understand what it is. The writings of Jacob Boehme are all in accordance with the statements contained in the Christian Bible, and this circumstance will at once prove to be an obstacle in the way of those who have no understand ing for the internal meaning of the Bible accounts, and may frighten them away from giving any attention to his works. The Bible, which, in an external sense, was formerly credulously believed and accepted by the pious and ignorant, is now universally disbelieved and laughed at by the "enlightened" portions of ration alistic humanity ; and very naturally so, because the rationalistic specimens of mankind are not enlightened enough to see the delicious fruit within the indigestible shell ; they do not know that behind these tales, full of absurdity, there is hidden more wisdom than in all the philosophical books of the world. They know nothing about the inner life, the Soul-life of this world, and that the personalities, which are as dramatic actors intro duced to us in the Bible, represent actual living and conscious powers, which may or may not have become objectified and represented in terrestrial forms on the terrestrial plane. If, departing from the pseudo-scien tific standpoint, which regards the world as being made up of a conglomeration of self-existent, individual entities, we look at the world, and especially at our solar system, as being unity, indivisible in its essential nature, but manifesting itself in a multitude of appear ances and forms of life, the history of the Bible will cease to appear to us as the history of persons that lived in olden times, and whose lives and adventures can have no serious interest for us at the present time ; but the history of the evolution as contained in the Bible will be understood to mean the history of the evolution of Man t.e., Adam, the king of the earth, whose body is as great as our solar system ; the his tory of the universal Man, in whom we all exist ; who has become material and degraded ; but was again redeemed and spiritualized by the awakening within him of the immortal life and light of the Christ* * Each individual man is a little world in itself, containing the types of everything that exists in the Macrocosm. A man may be regarded LIFE OF JACOB BOEHME. 39 When or at what time a descent of divine Logos took place is a question which may be left to the decision of the historian and theologian ; to me it is sufficient to know that there is a divine element in humanity, by means of which humanity may be redeemed from mate rialism and ignorance and be brought to realize again its originally divine state. Moreover, each human indi vidual constitutes for itself a little world wherein are contained all the powers, principles, and essences that are said to exist in the great world, the solar system wherein we live. In each of these little worlds the great work of redemption which is described in the Bible as having taken place in the great world is continually going on.* For ever the divine Spirit descends into the depths of matter within our corporeal being, and, by the power of light and love of Christ within the soul, overcomes the lurid fire of the wrathful will within for the purpose of re-establishing in man the divine image of God. For ever the Christ is born amidst the animal elements in the constitution of man, teaching the intellectual powers therein ; crucified on the cross, in the center of the four elements, and resur rected in those who do not resist the process of their own regeneration, whereby they may attain life in the Christ, f It is a process eternally repeating itself ; but that in regard to our world it had a beginning in time, as it has a timely beginning in every individual being upon the earth, seems to be self-evident, for if "Adam had never fallen in sin " that is to say, if the universal consciousness constituting the foundation of our solar as being a whole kingdom full of many peoples and personalities (Elementals). Within himself is Moses and the Israelites, the Sad- ducees and the Pharisees, the patriarchs and the kingdom of heaven and hell. Thus the events described in the Bible, and looked upon by the pious as being things of a past history, are actually de scriptions of eternal processes taking place in the constitution of man. * " You should know that the first book of Moses consists entirely of spiritual allegories. He who wants to know what such stories mean, must figure in himself the old and the new man, and compare Christ and Adam (in him) with each other. He will then under stand all that ; but without this he will see merely a story for children : it being, however, so full of secrets, that no man could describe them all, from his childhood up to old age, even if he had come into the world with a full comprehension of them." (Myser. Magn., xliii, 57. t See " Jehoshua, the Prophet of Nazareth." 40 LIFE OF JACOB BOEHME. system had never sunk into a material state there would have been no occasion for redeeming it by awaking within it a consciousness of a higher kind ; neither can it be supposed that the world is perfect now, and has always been and remained perfect, because we see that it is not perfect, and if it were so, the work of evolution would be useless and come to an end. This work of evolution and redemption is going on continually everywhere. Downwards shines the light of the sun and upwards spring the fountains that come gushing from the womb of the earth. Thus the light of the Spirit comes from the sun of divine wisdom, the sacred Trinity of Will and Intelligence and its manifes tation ; and from the depths of the human heart up-wells the light of love, overruling the arguments of the intel lect that has been misguided by external appearances. The seed is put into the earth, not for the purpose of finding its final object in enjoying itself in the earth, but to gradually die and become transformed while it lives ; to die as a seed, while developing into a plant, whose body is raised out of the dark earth into the light and air, and whose form bears no trace of the original form of the seed ; nor has the seed been put into the ground to die and to rot before becoming a plant. Thus the spiritual regeneration of man is to be effected now, and while he lives in the body, and not after that body, which is necessary for such a transformation to take place, has died and is eaten up by worms or destroyed by fire. When the seed ceases to be a seed, it becomes a plant. When man, the medium between an intellectual animal and a god, ceases to be an animal, he becomes a god. This takes place when the universal God, the Christ, begins to live in him. Then the illusions end, and the interior truth becomes revealed. Not in books, nor in opinions, nor in the vagaries of metaphysical specula tions, but in the living Truth itself is the Light to be found. Thus prepared, we may take up the study of Boehme's doctrines. These doctrines all culminate in the one point that man should accomplish the will of God, and the question therefore arises, ' ' What is the will of God? " LIFE OF JACOB BOEHME. 41 To this Jacob Boehme answers: "We ourselves are God's will for evil and good. Whatsoever of these is manifested in us, we are that ourselves, whether it be in hell or in heaven." The life of man is a form of the divine will, and to do the will of God means, therefore, to become godlike and divine, by trying to realize one's own highest ideal in thoughts, words, and deeds. ' ' God must become man, and man must become God. Heaven must become one with the earth, and the earth must become a heaven, so that her will may become the will of heaven." {Signature, x. 48.) To express this in other words, we may say, "The universal will in its action in man must become divine, so that man may become conscious of being in possession of divine powers. The earthly mind of man must have awak ened within itself the divine light of the spirit, so that a heaven may be created within the mind." The doc trines of Jacob Boehme, therefore, are not so much intended to teach us what we should know or what we should do, but they are to aid us to realize the all- imaortant fact what we must be. He himself says in the introduction to one of his books as follows : " God-loving reader I If it is your earnest and serious will and desire to devote yourself to that which is di vine and eternal, the reading of this book will be very useful to you ; but if you are not fully determined to enter the way of holiness, it would be better for you to let alone the sacred names of God, wherein His supreme sanctity is invoked, because the wrath of God may become ignited within your soul. This book is written only for those who desire to be sanctified and united with the Supreme Power from which they have originated. Such persons will understand the true meaning of the words contained therein, and they will also recognize the source from which these thoughts have come." One of the most enlightened critics of Jacob Boehme says, in regard to his book on divine mysteries : "This book is a treasure-box wherein all wisdom has been hidden from the eyes of the fool ; but to the children of light it is always open. No one will clearly understand it unless he has the key necessary for that 42 LIFE OF JACOB BOEHME. purpose, and that key is the Holy Ghost. He who is in possession of that key will be able to open the door and to enter and see the mysteries of divinity, divine magic, angelic cabala, and natural philosophy. That key opens the door of divinity, and, like a lightning flash, it illuminates the darkness of material conditions ; for its imperishable spirit is contained within all things. The Spirit alone can teach the soul of man from what depths the truths contained in this book have origin ated, for the purpose of glorifying the divinity in nature and man." And, again, he says : "The spirit of man is rooted in God ; the soul of man in the angelic world. The spirit is divine, the soul angelic. The body of man is rooted in the material plane ; it is of an earthly nature. The pure body is a Salt ; the soul a Fire ; the spirit is Light. Spirit and soul have been eternally in God and breathed by God into a pure body. This pure body is a precious treas ure hidden within the rock. It is contained in matter doomed to perish ; but it is neither material nor mortal itself. It is the immortal body spoken of by St. Paul. These things are mysterious, sealed with the seal of the Spirit, and he who desires to know them must be in possession of the Spirit of God. It is this Spirit that illuminates those minds who are His own, and wher ever it is to be found, there will the eagles the souls and the spirits collect. No animal man, living ac cording to his sensual attractions and animal reasoning, will understand it ; because it is above the reach of the senses, and above the reach of the semi-animal intel lect ; it belongs to the holy mountain of God, and the animal touching that mountain must die. Even the sanctified soul rising up to that mountain must bare her feet and leave behind that which is attached to her as a creature. She must forget her personality, and not know whether she is in or out of the body. God knows it. These things are sacred. They are written for children ; to animals we have nothing to say." Let, then, the reader pray ; not with his mouth, nor with mere words, but with his spirit that is to say, let him open his heart to the influence of the power of God, and by the power of the Divine Will rise up to that LIFE OF JACOB BOEHME. 43 universal realm of Light from which Jacob Boehme re ceived his illuminations. It is the realm of the living Word which was in the beginning, and by whose power the world was created ; the Christ that continually whis pers consolation to the despairing and dying soul ; the heart and center of God, of which the material sun that fills our terrestrial world with light and life is merely a symbol, an outward representation. Then shall we see the internal world filled with a supernal and living light, incomparably superior to that of the physical world, and in that world we shall find God and the Christ and the holy Spirit of Truth revealed, together with all the angels and mysteries, truly and satisfac torily beyond the possibility of being disputed away ; because we shall not then need to be taught by mere letters or words, but by the truth itself, and learn what it is, and not what it appeared to be to another, because we shall then ourselves be one with the Truth, and know it by the knowledge of self. In the year 1705 the saintly Gichtel wrote : "Who ever in our time wishes to bring forth anything funda mental and imperishable, must borrow it from Boehme. Boehme's writings are a gift of God, and, therefore, not every kind of reason can apprehend them ; therefore, you must not be satisfied with mere reading and ra tional speculation, but beseech God to give you His Holy Spirit, that shall lead you into all truth." These prophetic words, quoted in Mrs. A. J. Penny's excellent essay on the way how to study Jacob Boehme's writings, have been fully verified by the suc ceeding events ; for every great philosopher that has come before the public since that time seems to have received his inspiration from Boehme's books. Even the great Arthur Schopenhauer, one of the most ad mired modern philosophers, whose works are praised by many who would treat with contempt the works of Boehme, which they have never studied, was a follower of Boehme, and his writings are fundamentally noth ing but an exposition of Boehme's doctrines from the point of view of Mr. Schopenhauer, who misunderstood Boehme in many respects. Schopenhauer likewise says about Schelling's works : "They are almost nothing except a remodeling of 44 LIFE OF JACOB BOEHME. Jacob Boehme's ' Mysterium Magnum,' in which almost every sentence of Hegel's book is represented. But why are in Hegel's writings the same figures and forms insupportable and ridiculous to me, which in Boehme's works fill me with admiration and awe ? It is because in Boehme's writings the recognition of eternal truth speaks from every page, whilst Schelling takes from him what he is able to grasp. He uses the same figures of speech, but he evidently mistakes the shell for the fruit, or at least he does not know how to sep arate them from each other. " (Handschrtften, Nachlass, p. 261.) It would be too tedious to produce a collection of what the various modern philosophers in different na tions have said about the writings of Jacob Boehme ; the only way to form a correct estimate about him is to enter into his spirit and to see as he saw. We will, therefore, in conclusion, merely quote the words of Claude de Saint Martin : "I am not young, being now near my fiftieth year ; nevertheless, I have begun to learn German, merely for the purpose of reading this incomparable author." . . . "I am not worthy to unloose the shoestrings of this wonderful man, whom I regard as the greatest light that has ever appeared upon the earth, second only to Him who was the Light itself." . . . "I advise you by all means to throw yourself in this abyss of knowledge of the profoundest of all truths. " . . . "I find in his works such a pro fundity and exaltation of thought, and such a simple and delicious nutriment, that I would consider it a waste of time to seek for such things in any other place. " (Letters to Kirchberger. ) If we once become acquainted with the writings of Jacob Boehme, we shall be filled with surprise that not every lover of truth knows these books, and considers them his most valuable and useful treasure in spiritual literature. THE DOCTRINES OF JACOB BOEHME "Our whole doctrine is nothing else but an Instruction to show- how man may create a kingdom of light within himself Ha in whom this spring of divine power flows, carries within himself the divine image and the celestial substantiality. In him is Jesus born from the Virgin, and he will not die in eternity." (.Six Points, vii. 33.) " Not I, the I that I am, know these things ; but God knows them in me." (Apology^ Tilken, ii. 72.) CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION. " Science cannot abolish faith in the all-seeing God, without wor- thiping in His place the blind intellect." " The true faith is that the spirit of the soul enters with its will and desire into that which it does neither see nor feel." (Four Complex ions, 85.) IT is self-evident that if we wish to attempt a con templation of that which is divine and eternal, we must first of all not refuse to believe in the possibility that something divine and eternal exists or may reveal itself in the constitution of man. This spiritual principle in man is superior to the animal and reasoning man ; superior to the material body, and superior to the arguing intellect ; it does not need to reason and guess ; it perceives and knows. Being superior to the intellect, it cannot be conceived intellectually ; but it can be perceived by man if he rises above the animal and intellectual plane to the consciousness of his own divine spirit ; or, to express it in the language of Boehme, if he attains self-knowledge in Christ. The animal instincts in man belong to the animal nature in man, his intellectual faculties belong to his intellectual nature, but that which is divine in him belongs to his God, his own true and real and permanent self. "Wisdom is not a knowledge referring to any ex ternal thing, but the understanding itself. It is com parable to the sun, that has his own light, and is the light itself, independent of any object upon which it may shine ; but man's science is like the moon, whose light has been borrowed from the sun." (Tilk. 93.) Merely theoretical speculation in regard to the things that belong to the Spirit in man is therefore entirely inadequate for their true understanding, and is not divine wisdom ; it can only lead to the formation of theories and opinions about it, which may or may not be true, but which do not constitute real knowledge, while true wisdom is the result of practical experience, 48 THE DOCTRINES OF JACOB BOEHME. attainable in no other way than by entering the divine state. In other words, it is the knowledge by which God in " man" knows His own self. ' ' Divine wisdom is a free will. It is the mirror wherein God eternally sees Himself, He being that mirror Himself. In the Love, the Light of God, that mirror is called the Wisdom of God ; but in the Wrath it is called the All-seeing Eye." (Ttlk. 141.) Most surely the attainment of this divine state is not the result of fancy's flights, of pious dreaming, or of allowing the imagination to run away with one's self. There is nothing more positive, real, and practical than the consciousness of being a man, and to find one's center of gravity in the dignity which arises from true manhood ; or in other words, from the knowledge of being a living temple wherein resides the power of one's own immortal self. Every state of knowledge has its uses in the sphere to which it belongs and not to any other. Jacob Boehme says : "The kingdom of God is in power, and not in the terrestrial being ; for the latter is not from eternity, and therefore not eternal. If you wish to investigate the celestial things, you must see first of all that you bring with you a celestial mind. Then will the Spirit of God undoubtedly show you the celestial being, which to the illumined mind is far easier to see than the terrestrial being." (Threefold Life, xviii. 13,) " I do not say that man should not investigate natural sciences, and gain experience in regard to external things. Such a study is certainly useful to him ; but man's own reasoning should not be the basis of his knowledge. Man should not have his conduct guided merely by the light of external reasoning, but he should, with all his reasoning and with his whole being, bow in deep humility before God."* (Calmness, i. 35.)' As long as a man does not recognize the existence of a divine principle within his own self, it will be of little * This is exactly what the rational mind does not do. It examines, so to say, the leaves on the tree of life, and is entirely ignorant of the existence of the trunk from which the leaves receive their life. Thus the rationalist sees only effects, but knows nothing about their universal Cause : he does not/etl the existence of that Cause with in his own heart. INTRODUCTION. 49 use for him to philosophize and speculate about the attributes of the Divinity in the universe ; he cannot know the Holy Ghost as long as the Spirit of Holiness is not active within himself. "Natural man knows nothing about the mystery of the kingdom of God, because he is outside and not within the state of divinity, as is daily proved by the action of the philosophizers who are disputing about the attributes and the will of God, and who neverthe less do not know God, because they do not listen to the word of God within their own souls." (Letters, xxxv. 5.) External man judges according to his external reason ing. Man, depending entirely on his external percep tions, and having neither belief nor confidence in any thing except what he sees with his bodily eyes, knows only that which he sees with those eyes, and is not aware that there is anything superior to that. * "When external reason beholds the things of this world, and how misfortunes befall the pious as well as the godless, and that all things are doomed to death and destruction if it moreover perceives that there seems to be none to save the virtuous from trouble and grief, but that he, like the wicked, sorrowfully enters the valley of death, then man's reason thinks that all things are due to hap-hazard, and that there is no God to take care of those that are suffering." (Contemplation, i. i.) "Our knowing must be complete in the love of Christ (divine love), so that we love each other. Without this our knowledge will be of no real use. If I do not introduce my knowledge, together with my desire, into the love of God, wherein He has loved us in the Christ, and if I do not love my neighbor in the love of God in the Christ, in the love wherewith God loves us, and with which He loves us while we were His enemies, I have then not the light of God dwelling within myself. " (Myst. Magn., li. 14.) If there is no proof of the existence of a benevolent God to be found within the world of phenomena, there * Therefore the sense of seeing and the faculty of reasoning, are alone not sufficient for the acquisition of wisdom. We cannot really know the truth as long as we cannot feel it, and we cannot feel it as long as it does not become manifest in ourselves. 4 50 THE DOCTRINES OF JACOB B OEM ME. is also no divine self-knowledge to be obtained by the superficial reading of Holy Writ, nor by an external study of the Bible, or conceiving of its contents from a merely historical point of view. Neither will listening to sermons be productive of self-knowledge, if he who preaches or he who listens has not the living Spirit of Truth within himself. "All those who desire to speak of or teach divine mysteries ought to be in possession of the Spirit of God. Man should recognize within himself the divine light of the truth, and in that light the things which he desires to represent as being true. He should never be without such a divine self-knowledge, and not make the force of his arguments depend merely on external reasonings or literal interpretations of the Bible. " (Menschwerdung, i- i, 3-) "What would it benefit me if I were continually quoting the Bible, and knew the whole book by heart, but did not know the Spirit that inspired the holy men who wrote that book, nor the source from which they received their knowledge ? How can I expect to under stand them in truth, if I have not the same spirit as they?" (Tilk., ii. 55.) Spiritual truths are above and beyond intellectual reasoning, and can, therefore, not be intellectually ex plained. They can at best be represented by allegories and pictures such as may induce men to give way to exalted thoughts, and thus to acquire a higher state of perception. "The children of God spake as they were made to speak by the Holy Spirit. Therefore their words remain a mystery to the men of earth ; and even if the latter imagine that they understand them, nevertheless they see only the external meaning." (Letters, xi. 40.) " In all things received by mere hearsay, without self- perception, there still remains a doubt as to whether that which one has heard is actually true ; but that which is seen by the eye and understood by the heart carries conviction with it." (Three Principles, x. 26.) It should never be forgotten that speculative philos ophy and theosophy are two entirely different, if not opposite things, and those who clamor for intellectual INTRODUCTION. S 1 explanations of spiritual truths that are beyond intel lectual reasoning have an entirely wrong conception of the meaning of the term " Theosophy." " The true understanding must come from the interior fountain and enter the mind from the living Word of God within the soul. Unless this takes place, all teach ing about divine things is useless and worthless." (Letters, xxxv. 7.) " I do not wish to divert men from the Word as it is written and taught ; but my writings are intended to lead them from a merely historical belief to a living faith, even to Jesus Christ (the Light and Truth) Him self. All preaching and teaching is in vain if it is mere talk, and if the preacher or teacher has not the power of Christ, if not Christ Himself by means of the Word acts within those that teach and within those that listen. (Richter, 45.) By studying a book we may at best imagine what the author believed ; but such an imaginary knowledge is not self-knowledge. Real spiritual knowledge comes only from the awakening of the spirit "I am not collecting my knowledge from letters and books, but I have it within my own self; because heaven and earth with all their inhabitants, and more over, God Himself, is in man." (Tilk., ii. 297.) The essential man is not limited by the visible physi cal form of his material body ; his spiritual substance extends as far as the stars. His true self is the Spirit of God, wherein are existing all worlds. "The spirit of man has not merely come from the stars and the elements, but there is hidden within him a spark of the light and the power of God. It is not empty talk if Moses (Genesis i.) says God created man in His own image. To be His own image created He him." (Aurora, Preface, 96.) The divine Spirit, once awakened in the conscious ness of man, knows all things by the knowledge of its own self. "The soul searches into the Godhead, and also into the depths of nature ; for she has her fountain and ori gin in the whole of the divine Being." (Aurora, Pref ace, 98.) 52 THE DOCTRINES OF JACOB BOEHME. "As the eye of man reaches the stars wherefrom it has its primitive origin, so the soul penetrates and sees even within the divine state of being wherein she lives." {Aurora, Preface, 99.) "Oh, how near is God to all things. Nevertheless, nothing can comprehend Him unless it be tranquil and surrenders to Him its own self-will. If this is accom plished, then will God be acting through the instru mentality of everything, like the sun that acts through out the whole world." (Mystery, 45.) 4 'Why is it that we cannot see God? This world and the devil (perverted good) within the wrath of God are the cause that we cannot see with the eyes of God. There is no other impediment. If any one says, ' I can see nothing divine/ let him understand that flesh and blood and the craftiness of the devil (perverted desires) are to him an obstacle and an impediment. If he were to enter the new life, if he were to step below the cross of Christ, he would then be sure to see the Father and his Redeemer the Christ, and also the Holy Ghost. " * (Menschwerdung, ii. 7. ) Let those would-be philosophers who reject God and that which is divine remember that there can be no divine wisdom without something divine, and that man can become divine in no other way than through the power of Divinity. "There is no spark of divine life in him who is with out God. For this it is not God who is to blame, but the person himself. Such persons have themselves, and by their own will, entered into that state, and have themselves drowned their higher consciousness, while the precious jewel, although unknown to them, is still hidden within the center. Let them, therefore, again go out with their will from their willful ignorance or malignity and enter again into the will of God. " (Men schwerdung, 3, 5.) All this goes to show that it is useless and vain to seek for divine wisdom, meaning a true realization of eternal truth in outward things, in external observations, * " To step below the cross of Christ " means to submit one's own personal will to the divine will : not to the unknown will of some un known and external God, but to the divine will that dwells within the sanctuary of the inner man. IN TROD UCTION. S3 in the reading of books, or in the sayings of the sages, if we do not recognize the truth that exists within our own self. All dependence placed upon external things and persons or gods outside of our own true self, is merely idol-worship and deceptive if we do not recog nize the God that exists within ourselves. The words, "Thou shalt worship no strange gods or idols, but have only one God," mean, Thou shalt have faith and confidence and trust in no other God than in the one whose temple you are, and who resides within your own self.* " God," according to Boehme, is " the will of eternal wisdom." To become strong in God is to become strong in that will which renders one wise. This is the true faith, of which Boehme says that "it is not merely a certain method of thinking, or a belief in certain historical occurrences, but the receiving of the spirit and the power of Christ within one's self." {Letters, xlvi. 39.) "This light and this power of Christ arises in His children within their interior foundation, and illumines the whole of their life. Within that foundation is the kingdom of God in man." (Communion, v. 18.) But what is it that prevents man from recognizing God within his own self ? What hinders him from see ing the light of the truth, and hearing the voice of the Divinity? To this Jacob Boehme answers, "Thy own hearing, willing, and seeing prevent thee from seeing and hearing God. By the exercise of your own will you separate yourself from the will of God, and by the exercise of your own seeing you see only within your own desires, while your desiring obstructs your sense of hearing by closing your ears with that which belongs to terrestrial and material things. It overshadows you * A deeper entering into the philosophy of self-knowledge reveals the fact, that a man cannot really know anything whatever, except what exists within himself. He does not know the objects he sees, . but only the images which their sight produces in him, and he there fore cannot recognize a thing he sees for the first time, unless, having seen something similar before, such an image exists in his mind. Thus nature in him recognizes the image of external nature ; the light in him realizes the presence of light ; the heat in him enables him to feel the radiations of heat ; the man in him knows what it is to be human, and the god in him knows Divine Wisdom. 54 THE DOCTRINES OF JACOB BOEHME. so that you cannot see that which is beyond your own human nature and supersensual. But if you keep quiet, and desist from thinking and feeling with your own personal selfhood, then will the eternal hearing, seeing, and speaking become revealed to you, and God will see and hear and perceive through you. " {Supersensual Life, 1-5.) Here it may be asked by some, "Is it then necessary for us, if we want to attain divine wisdom, that we should sit down, and think, and feel, and do nothing at all ? " Those who ask such a question do not realize that, as there is a region below all feeling and thought, in which man resembles an animal, if not a corpse, there is also another state, beyond all speculative thought, a state of divine being. Not a state in which man imagines himself to be divine, but a condition in which the will of man, having stripped off all that is earthly, becomes divine and absorbed in the self-con sciousness of divinity. "The only true way by which God may be perceived in His word, His essence, and His will, is that man arrives at the state of unity with himself, and that not merely in his imagination, but in his will he should leave everything that is his personal self, or that belongs to that self, money and goods, father and mother, brother and sister, wife and child, body and life, and that his own self should become as nothing to him. He must surrender everything and become poorer than a bird in the air that owns a nest. Man must have no nest for his heart in this world. Not that a person should run away from his home, and desert his wife, child, or relatives, commit suicide, or throw away his prop erty, so that he may not be therein corporeally ; but he should kill and annihilate his self-will, the will that claims all these things as its possessions. He should surrender all this to his Creator, and say with the full consent of his heart, Lord, all is Thine 1 I am un worthy to govern it, but as You have placed me there in, I shall do my duty by surrendering my will wholly and entirely to You. Act through me in what manner You will, .so that Thy will shall be done in all things, and that all that I am called upon to do may be done IN TROD UC TION. 5 $ for the benefit of my brothers, to whom I am serving according to Thy command. He who enters into such a state of supreme resignation enters into divine union with Christ, so that he sees God Himself. He speaks with God and God speaks with him, and he thus knows what is the Word, the Essence, and the Will of God." * (Mysterium, xli. 54-63.) "Follow my advice, and leave off your difficult seek ing for the knowledge of God by means of your selfish will and reasoning ; throw away that imaginary reason, which your mortal self thinks to possess, and your will shall then be the will of God. If He finds His will to be your will in His, then will His will become mani fest in your will as in His own property. He is All, and whatever you wish to know in the All is in Him. There is nothing hidden before Him, and you will see in His own light." (Forty Questions, i. 36.) "All of one's own seeking and investigating of divine mysteries in a spirit of selfishness is useless and vain. The self-will cannot comprehend anything of God, because that will is not in God but external to Him. The will in a state of divine tranquillity compre hends the divine, because it is an instrument of the Spirit, and it is the spirit wherein the will is tranquil that has the faculty of such a comprehension. There are many things, undoubtedly, that may be investigat ed and learned and comprehended in a spirit of selfish ness, but the conception thus formed by the mind is merely an external appearance, and there is no under standing of the essential foundation. " (Signature, 1 5, 33-) To express the above in other words, we might say that the selfish will of man, being limited, cannot con ceive the universal will of God ; it must give up its sel fishness and limitation, to become one in the Spirit of God and understand its own self. Neither can theself- * Divine wisdom is not acquired by going to sleep or by being hyp notized ; neither does the true poet obtain by such means the power that lifts him to the Olympian heights. There are many powers hid den within the constitution of man that are beyond the reach of the rationalistic investigator, because they require not a speculator, but a genius to recognize their nature. 56 THE DOCTRINES OF JACOB BOEHME. will know even a part of God, because God is one and a Unity, and cannot be conceived in parts. "The will should strive after or desire nothing but the mercy of God in the Christ ; * it should continually enter into the love of God, and not permit anything whatever to turn it away from that object. If external reason triumphs and says, ' I have the true knowledge/ then should the will make that carnal reason bow down to the earth, and cause it to enter into the highest state of humility, and always repeat to it the words, ' You are foolish. You have nothing whatever except the mercy of God. ' Into that mercy you must seek to pene trate and to become entirely nothing within yourself, and step out of all of your own selfish knowing and desiring, regarding it as an entirely impotent thing. Then will the natural self-will enter into a state of help lessness, and the Holy Spirit of God will take a living form within yourself and ignite the soul with its flame of divine love. Thus the high knowledge and the science of the Centre of all being will arise and appear. The human selfhood will then follow in its perceptions the Spirit of God, tremblingly and in the joy of humil ity, and become able to see what is contained in time and in eternity. Everything is near to a soul in that state, for the soul is then no longer her own property, but an instrument of God. In such a state of calmness and humility should the soul then remain, like a foun tain remains at its own origin, and she should without ceasing draw and drink from that well, and nevermore desire to leave the way of God." f (Calmness, i. 24.) As the worm, crawling in the dust of the earth, cannot rise like the eagle above the clouds, so the self- willing thought of man, wandering in the labyrinth of conflicting opinions, does not enter the realm of eter nal truth. But when man attains freedom by giving up * " The mercy of God " means the penetration of the soul by the light of divine Grace ; in other words, by the power of the light of the Logos. This power no one can give to himself, neither can any body attract it by his own merits ; but it is free as the sunshine to all who do not close their hearts against it, because it is inexhaustible and infinite. t The term " calmness " (Gelassenheit) refers to joyful resignation, tranquillity of mind, peace and beatitude, submission and acquies cence. INTRODUCTION. 57 self-will and selfish desires or, to express it in other words, when by means of the Christ (eternal Light and Truth) he arrives at that state of oneness (at-one-ment) with God, which renders his soul godlike and divine, he then also receives in the Christ a true and essential knowledge of God and of Nature. "As soon as the newly-regenerated man becomes manifest, will he attain real knowledge. As the exter nal man sees the external world, so the regenerated man sees the divine world wherein he dwells." (Let ters, xxvii. 3.) This spiritual world, wherein the regenerated ones consciously live, is not an imaginary or illusive world, but perfectly real ; neither has it anything in common with the vulgar conceptions of heaven, which are merely the products of fancy. "It is to be regretted that men are led so blindly by those that are blind, and that the truth is stopped from manifesting itself to us in its glory and purity by our conceptions of external pictures and forms ; for when the divine power in all its splendor becomes manifest and active within the interior foundation of the soul to such a degree that man earnestly desires to depart from his godless ways and to sacrifice his whole being to God, then will the whole of the triune Deity be present within the life and the will of the soul, and the heaven, wherein God resides, will be open to her. " {Mystery, lx. 43-) This is the only way in which a knowledge of God can be attained, and there is no other way. "Christ says : The Son of Man does nothing except what he sees that the Father is doing. If the Son of Man has become our body and His spirit our own, shall we then not be able to know God ? If we live in the Christ the Spirit of Christ will see through us and in us whatever it desires, and that which the Christ de sires we will see and know in Him. The world of the angels is easier and more clearly comprehensible to the regenerated man than the terrestrial world. He also sees into heaven, and beholds God and eternity." (Menschzverdung, ii. 7, 3.) "Our seeing and knowing is in God. He reveals to 58 THE DOCTRINES OF JACOB BOEHME. every one in this world as much as He wills, and as much as He knows will be useful to him. We are not in possession of our own selves. We know nothing of God. God Himself is our knowing and seeing. We are nothing, so that He may be All in us.* We should be blind and deaf and mute, and know nothing and know of no life of our own, so that He may be our life and our soul, and that our work may be His." (Men- schwerdung, ii. 7, 9.) Seen in this true light, how foolish appear the practices of those who seek to obtain spiritual power and greatness by their speculations and mental efforts, without the light of God. It is well known that the light of the sun does not shine upon the earth because we desire it to shine, neither can we attract the sunlight to us. All we do is to step out of the darkness, or climb to the top of the mountain which rises above the clouds. Thus the sunlight of divine wisdom does not enter the mind be cause the mind wills it to enter ; but if our soul rises up to the mountain of the true faith, whose top reaches above the clouds of fear and superstition, and idle spec ulations and conflicting opinions, then will that light come to us by its own sweet grace, and without any merit or effort on our part to attract it. The low cannot produce the high ; neither can any thing give birth to something higher than that which it contains. Neither animal nor reasoning can create God, but the lily-bud of divinity unfolds itself in man by its own power. The divine man creates himself outside of man's willing. He is a god, and therefore self-created and self-existent ; he does neither grow greater nor lesser ; he is what he is ; all that we require is the condition necessary for his revealing himself, and this condition is a pure will and a mind undis- *In most of the modern books on occult subjects the Divinity in man is spoken of as the " higher self " and the personality as the " lower self." This seems to be somewhat misleading and causes some people to imagine that the higher self is only a part of the whole self. The "lower self," however, is no self at all, but a con glomeration of many and everchanging states of consciousness, whose product is the illusive idea of "self." This illusive self forms no more a part of the real self, than a man's shadow a portion of the body of the man, or a candle a portion of the light. INTR OD UC TION. 59 turbed by passions and idle thoughts, a heart full of calmness and peace.* Few indeed are the persons capable of entering into such a state of humility that divine and eternal truth can manifest itself in them without being distorted by selfish thoughts and desires. Not that not all human beings have not within themselves the inherent capac ity for seeing the divine image that exists within them selves ; but the truth is so simple and uncomplicated that it will not be accepted by those whose ways are complicated, and who therefore seek for complexity everywhere. Jacob Boehme was of a simple and unsophisticated nature. Having received but little external education, there was not for him the necessity of unlearning in grafted errors, and erasing misconceptions and acquired prejudices from his mind. Leading a pure life, his soul was like a clear mirror, in which he could perceive the image of the Godhead reflected therein, and his mind was like an unsoiled page, whereon the word of truth was plainly written. Nevertheless he, like all other persons similarly situated, had to overcome a certain amount of illusion arising from external obser vation, and from the reflections of the generally pre vailing ideas within his own mind. He says : "Before I knew that which I deeply know now, I, like others, thought that there was no other true heaven than that which as a blue circle encloses the world high above the stars ; thinking that God had a separate existence therein, and that He was ruling this world by means of His Holy Spirit. But after I had met with many a hard obstacle in following out this theory, I fell into a state of deep melancholy and grief in be holding the great depth of this world, the sun and the stars, the clouds, rain and snow, and in fact the whole of creation. I compared all that with the little speck called 'man,' and how insignificant he is before God, if compared with this great work of heaven and earth, f * I am not born. I do not grow. I do not perish. Birth, growth, and death are attributes of Prakriti. The power to generate action belongs to the Atma, the All-consciousness, and not to Ahankara, th illusive " self. " Sri Sankaracharya. t At that time Boehme, like other persons, mistook his terrestrial 60 THE DOCTRINES OF JACOB BOEHME. Finding, moreover, that there is good and evil in all things, in the elements as well as in creatures, and that in this world the wicked meets with the same fate as the pious, having good and ill luck ; furthermore, that barbarous people occupy the best countries of the world, and are more favored by fortune than those that are pious, I became very melancholy and dejected, and could find no consolation in Holy Writ, although I knew the Bible from beginning to the end. Perhaps it may be that the devil played a part in all that, for I often had heathenish thoughts, of which I will, how ever, say nothing at present.* " When my spirit, full of sorrow, earnestly, and as if moving in a great storm, arose in God, carrying with it my whole heart and mind, with all my thoughts and with the whole of my will, and when I would not cease to wrestle with the love and mercy of God unless His blessing descended upon me that is to say, un less He illumined my mind with His Holy Spirit, so that I could understand His will and get rid of my sor row, then the light of the Spirit broke through the clouds. While in my zeal I powerfully stormed against the portals of hell, as if I had more strength than was in my possession, and willing to risk even my life (all of which would have been impossible to me without the aid of God) ; then after some hard fights with the powers of darkness, my spirit broke through the doors of hell, and penetrated even into the innermost essence of the newly-born Divinity, where it was received with great love, such as is offered by a bridegroom welcom ing hfe beloved bride. "No words can express the great joy and triumph which I then experienced, neither can I compare this personality for his real self, because he had not yet learned to know the God within his own heart, and therefore he felt the insignificance of the former, if compared with the grandeur of the universal power of God manifested in nature, until at last he awoke to a realization of the fact that the universal God and the God within his heart were one, and that his own personality was merely one of millions of similar instruments or organisms through which God is manifesting His power. * The " devil " and the " powers of darkness " are the perverted fiery will, with- his evil productions, originating from Lucifer, the " Dhyan-Chohan " of evil ; the greatest angel before he fell. INTRODUCTION. 6 1 gladness to anything except to a state in which life is born in the midst of death, or with a resurrection of the dead. While in that state, my spirit immediately saw through everything, and recognized God in all things, even in herbs and grasses, and it knew what is God and what is His will. Then very soon my will grew in this light, and received a strong impulse to describe the divine state."* (Aurora, xix. 4.) Truly, none can enter the kingdom of heaven (mean ing spiritual self-knowledge and unspeakable joy) than he who is reborn in the Spirit ; but no one can be re born unless he dies entirely to all sense of self-will, and he then ceases to be a person and becomes pure joy, pure knowledge itself. If this truth is once realized, if it is known that a limited personality, subject to the conditions of time and space, cannot embrace infinite wisdom and joy, then it appears self-evident that all the attempts for the attainment of divine wisdom, as long as one clings to ' ' self, " must necessarily be unsuccessful. In fact no one should seek for spiritual knowledge for the pur pose of rendering himself knowing and wise, but he should strive after dying within the Christ that is to say, to become entirely one with divine truth, so that it is not any longer "he" who lives, but the truth liv ing in him. He should not wish to become celebrated or renowned or self-satisfied, but rather pray that his knowledge should be taken away from him, unless it would lead to the glorification of Divinity in him. In short, " he " should not wish to become anything, but stepping out of all sense of separation and self-will, permit his true Self to manifest its power in him, and thus he should be all knowledge, all joy, wisdom, and glory itself. Boehme says : "I have never desired 'to know anything about divine mysteries, neither did I understand how I might seek or find them. I sought for nothing except the heart of Jesus Christ (the center of truth), wherein I might hide myself and find protection from the fearful * " Rejoice and be glad, and praise the Lord above all ; for His name arises in glory above all the mountains and hills. It grows up like a sprout ana performs great miracles. Who will hinder it ? " (Apologia.) 62 THE DOCTRINES OF JACOB BOEHME. wrath of God, and I asked God earnestly for His Holy Spirit and mercy, that He might bless and conduct me, and take away from me all that could avert me from Him, so that I might not live in my own will but in His. While engaged in such an earnest seeking and desiring, the door was opened to me, so that in one quarter of an hour I saw and learned more than if I had studied for many years at the universities." (Letters, xii. 6, 7.) " I am not a master of literature, nor of arts, such as belong to this world, but a foolish and simple-minded man. I have never desired to learn any sciences, but from early youth I strove after the salvation of my soul, and thought how I might inherit or possess the king dom of heaven. Finding within myself a powerful contrarium, namely, the desires that belong to the flesh and blood, I began to fight a hard battle against my corrupted nature, and, with the aid of God, I made up my mind to overcome the inherited evil will, to break it* and to enter wholly into the love of God in the Christ I therefore then and there resolved to regard myself as one dead in my inherited form, until the Spirit of God would take form in me, so that in and through Him I might conduct my life. This, however, was not possible for me to accomplish, but I stood firmly by my earnest resolution, and fought a hard battle with myself. Now while I was wrestling and battling, being aided by God, a wonderful light arose within my soul. It was a light entirely foreign to my unruly nature, but in it I recognized the true nature of God and man, and the relation existing between them, a thing which heretofore I had never understood, and for which I would never have sought." (Tilk., 20-26.) The realization of the truth that we are nothing, but that God is all, constitutes the beginning of the true faith, which forms the basis of true knowledge and the first step on the road to spiritual unfoldment. To wish, to will, to desire, to know, to do nothing except what God desires, wills, wishes, knows, or does in and through man is true resignation ; it is the deep est humility, for the carnal mind, while at the same INTRODUCTION. 63 time it is the glorification of God in man, and therefore the highest attainable state. " I am continually waiting for my Redeemer, will ing to submit myself entirely to Him, whatever He may do.* If He wants me to know a certain thing, then do I want to know it ; but if He does not, then am I not desirous of knowing it. In Him I have put my will, my knowledge, my desiring and doing." (Letters, viii. 60.) " Hundreds of times have I prayed to God, begging Him to take away from me all knowledge, if it did not serve for His glorification and for the amelioration of the condition of my brothers, and that He should only retain me within His love. But the more I prayed the more the internal fire within myself became ignited, and in such a state of ignition did I execute my writ ings." (Letters, xii. 60.) This interior illumination of the mind by the light of eternal Truth alone, and not any other state or condi tion, is that which constitutes the true theosophy. Therefore, true theosophy does not consist in intellect ual learning of any kind, nor in morality, nor in being pious or virtuous, nor in belonging to any Church or society, nor in humanitarianism, or in anything that can be accomplished by man, but theosophy is the self- knowledge of God in man, the illumination of the mind by the light of the Christ, the eternal Truth itself. Such theosophy is not as some have claimed, "a branch of theology," nor any system of thought, nor a certain school, in which heretofore unknown secrets are divulged, but it is dwine wisdom itself, without any other qualification. It is beyond all merely human conception, inconceivable to the reasoning intellect, and can therefore not be explained. It is itself the most secret thing, which can be known by no one ex cept by him who has experienced it ; neither do those that live entirely within the realm of animality, or within that of the speculating intellect, believe that * " The principle which gives life dwells in us and without us, is undying and eternally beneficent." (Idyll of the White Lotus.) The Redeemer does not come from beyond the clouds in the sky, but manifests His presence in the soul wherein He dwells. 64 THE DOCTRINES OF JACOB BOEHME. such a state is possible, and in fact it is unattainable for any person ; because he who enters into it ceases to be a person, except in regard to his external appear ance and form that is to say, all sense of personality is lost to him, and has ceased to exist in the field of his inner consciousness. It is therefore unnecessary to repeat that this state cannot be entered by the exercise of the self-will of animal man ; neither can it be produced by him by means of any intellectual study ; nor is it dependent on his social condition or education, profession or ex ternal qualifications in life, but it comes to man solely and alone by the mercy and grace of God. It means the presence of the divine light, and that presence de pends on nothing else than on that presence itself. Boehme says : "It is not a very easy thing to become a Christian ; it is the most difficult thing in the world. To become a real Christian, one must break the power of the self ish will, and this no man can do by his own human power. He must render his self-will like dead. He will then live in God and be submerged in the love of God ; while he still continues to live in the external world." (Incarnation, iii. 6, 4.) "It pleases the Supreme to reveal His secrets by means of the foolish, who are looked upon by the world as being nothing ; so that it may be seen that their knowledge does not come from these fools, but from Him. Therefore I ask you to regard my writings as being those of a child in which the Supreme has mani fested His power. There is in them so much, that no kind or amount of argumentation and reasoning can comprehend or grasp it ; but to those that are illumined by the Spirit their understanding is easy and merely child's play." (Letters, xv. 10. ) "Faith (*'. e., the true Faith) is a partaking of the substance of God ; an eating of God's substance ; an introducing of the substance of God within one's soul- fire by means of the imagination, for the purpose of satisfying its hunger. Thereby the soul becomes her self clothed in the substance of God; not (merely superficially) as at the putting on of a garment, but like receiving a body for the soul." (Menschw,, ii. 8, i.) INTRODUCTION. 65 "The understanding is born of God. It is not the product of the schools in which human science is taught. I do not treat intellectual learning with con tempt, and if I had obtained a more elaborate educa tion, it would surely have been an advantage to me, while my mind received the divine gift ; but it pleases God to turn the wisdom of this world into foolishness, and to give His strength to the weak, so that all may bow down before Him." * (Forty Questions, xxxvii. 20.) The reasoning intellect has nothing to do with origin ating perceptions, but is used for the purpose of bring ing the ideas received from the clear perception of truth into a requisite form ; and as the mind is then in a higher than the normal condition, it often happens that on returning to the lower state it does not under stand, and perhaps not even remember, the ideas which it expressed during that time. "I say it before God, and testify before His judg ment-seat, where everything must appear, that I in my human self do not know what I shall have to write ; but whenever I am writing the Spirit dictates to me what to write, and shows me all in such a wonderful clearness, that I often do not know whether or not I am with my consciousness in this world. The more I seek the more I find, and I am continually penetrating deeper ; so that it often seems to me as if my sinful person were too low and too unworthy for the recep tion of knowledge of such high and exalted mysteries ; but in such moments the Spirit unfolds His banner and says to me, ' Behold ! in this shalt thou live eternally, and be crowned therewith. Why art thou terrified ? ' " {Letters, ii. 10.) "I might sometimes perhaps write more elegantly, and in a better style, but the fire burning within me is driving me on. My hand and my pen must then seek to follow the thoughts as well as they can. The inspi- * The reason why the most scientific people are very frequently the most incapable of interior enlightenment by the spirit of Truth is, because the mind, given constantly to analyze and dissect every truth coming before it, loses the power to feel the Unity of the whole. In other words, those who live continually within the moonshine of their brains, gradually lose the power to realize the beauties that spring from the warm sunshine of a true loving heart. 5 66 THE DOCTRINES OF JACOB BOEHME. ration comes like a shower of rain. That which I catch J have. If it were possible to grasp and describe all that I perceive, then would my writings be more ex plicit." (Letters, x. 45.) From this it appears that truly inspired writings are quite different from those produced by ordinary mediumship ; because in the former instance the seer perceives the truths which he is to express, while in the latter case the medium is either an unconscious machine, or feels an inspiration without knowing the nature of the source from which that inspiration comes. * It is also not to be supposed that any person, as long as he inhabits a physical body, and is to a certain ex tent dependent on external conditions, should be at all times in that superior spiritual state necessary to realize fully the eternal glory of the kingdom of God, but that there must necessarily be a return of the lower state of consciousness. Boehme says : "As the lightning-flash arises within the center, and disappears again in a moment, so it is with the soul. When during her battle she penetrates through the clouds, she sees the Godhead like a flash of light ; but the clouds of sin soon gather again around her and cover her sight. " (Aurora, xi. 76.) * True inspiration is not, as some will have it, an infusion of ideas into the carnal mind of man, by means of some holy ghost located outside of the inspired person, but an awakening of the Divinity, which is at once the Light and the Word in man. The inspired in dividual ceases to be conscious of being a personality. He becomes that which he describes and knows what he perceives, because he knows his own self. It is then not the person who speaks, but the Divine Word speaking through him. It is not, then, his personality that knows eternal truth, but eternal Truth knowing itself in him. A so-called " theosophy " that depends for its knowledge upon in formation received from hearsay, or upon visions seen in the Astral- light, is not Wisdom, and being not self-existent, it cannot be divine. " There is no other foundation for true and rightful spiritual knowledge but the Wisdom of God. No other seeking, studying, or investigating will serve for its attainment ; for no spirit can penetrate deeper than within its own depth, wherein it has become kindled, and although it may seek within its own depth, it will find therein nothing more than the shadow or symbol of the thing, like a shadow or dream ; but it cannot see its essentiality : if it wants to know that, it must itself be within the true being of that thing and its true being in that spirit, so that it may see within its own self." (Entitles, xi. 3.) INTRODUCTION. 67 "The soul has her origin partly from nature and partly from God. There is good and evil in nature ; and man, by means of his sinful tendencies, has be come subject to that which is 'fiery in nature, so that his soul becomes daily and hourly spotted with sin. Therefore the power of the soul to recognize external truth is not perfect. " (Aurora, Preface, 100. ) "As long as God watches over me with His protect ing hand, I understand that which I have written ; but whenever He becomes hidden before me, I then no longer recognize my own work, and this proves to me the impossibility of penetrating into the mysteries of God unless by the aid of His Spirit." (Letters, x. 29.) If the carnal mind cannot understand the language of the Spirit, how then could that mind arrive at a true recognition' of the truth by its own reasoning, that reasoning leading at best only to an opinion of what the truth cannot be, but not to a perception of what it is ? Those who wish to understand such writings must enter into the spirit of the author. Mere reasoning will not serve the purpose. " These writings transcend the horizon of intellect ual reasoning, and their interior meaning cannot be grasped by speculation and argumentation ; but it re quires the mind to be in a godlike state, and illumined by the Spirit of Truth. " * (Letters, xviii. 9. ) " If any one desires to follow me in the science of the things whereof I write, let him follow rather the flights of my soul than those of my pen." (Three Principles, xxiv. 2.) This flight into the regions of eternal freedom is im possible for him who is bound by the chains that are forged by the illusion of "self," and is therefore un attainable to those who seek for a knowledge of God with the object of gratifying their curiosity, or with any other selfish object in view. * " If you once understand the true meaning of what I have writ ten, you will then be released from the conflict of opinions and possess self-knowledge ; but, as a matter of course, this is not to be accomplished by the mere reading of the letters, but by the living power of the Spirit of Christ." {Apologia.) 68 THE DOCTKINES OF JACOB BOEHME. "Above all, examine yourself for what purpose you desire to know the mysteries of God, and whether you are prepared to employ^that which will be received for the glorification of Goaand to the benefit of your neigh bor. Are you ready to die entirely to your own selfish and earthly will, and do you earnestly desire to become one with the Spirit? He who has no such high pur poses, and merely seeks for knowledge for the gratifica tion of self, or that he may be looked upon as some thing great by the world, is not fit to receive such knowledge." * (Clavis, ii. 3.) Neither is such a state attained without a hard fight against the powers of darkness. "If any one desires to follow me, let him not be in toxicated by terrestrial thoughts and desires, but girded with the sword of the Spirit, because he will have to descend into a terrible depth, even into the midst of the kingdom of hell. It indeed requires hard labor to fight with the devil between heaven and hell, as he is a powerful lord. During such battles I have often made many bitter experiences, which filled my heart with sorrow. Often the sun has disappeared from my sight, but then he rose again, and the oftener the sun set occurred, the more beautiful, clear, and magnificent was the sunrise." (Aurora, xiii. 20.) He who desires nothing for himself, to him every thing shall be given. The infinite cannot be made to contract, to be comprehended by the finite mind of man ; but let the mind of man expand by the power of the Spirit, and become conscious of its infinity, and it will then conceive of infinite truth. "Spiritual knowledge cannot be communicated from * No amount of torturing the brain for the purpose of finding out how it would be if one were to awaken spiritually, will enable any one to realize such an awakening, as long as it does not take place ; and when it once has taken place, all speculations about it will be rendered unnecessary. That which hinders the grasping of the infinite is the illusive conception of a limited " self" ; that which aids in the real ization of the true self, is the comprehension that God is not only outside of us, but also within ourselves, and that although the world may be full of the principle of Life or Divinity, we cannot live or attain divine attributes, unless that principle becomes active and manifested in us, ourselves. Without this the attainment of immortality will be merely a theory. INTRODUCTION. 69 one intellect to another, but must be sought for in the Spirit of God. Truly theosophical writings will even to the intellect convey here and there a ray of recogni tion ; but if the reader is found worthy by God to have the divine light kindled within his own soul, then will the inexpressible words of God be heard by him." (Letters, Iv. 8.) " He who reads these writings and cannot understand them, should not throw them aside, imagining that they can never be understood. He should seek to change his will, and elevate his soul to God, asking Him for grace and understanding, and then read again. He will then perceive more truth than he did before, until at last the power of God will manifest itself in him, and he will be drawn down into the depths, into the super natural foundation that is to say, into the eternal unity of God. Then will he hear actual but inexpressible words of God, which will conduct him through the divine radiation of the celestial light, even within the grossest forms of terrestrial matter, and from thence back again unto God ; and the Spirit of God will search all things in and with him." * (Clavis, Preface, 5.) * This may perhaps be also expressed in the following words : It is not the mortal intellect, but the divinity in man, which is in posses sion of divine knowledge. ... A man knowing nothing of God, and having no faith in the power of anything divine, which may become revealed in him, cannot be in possession of divine self-knowledge ; but if man, by being obedient to the law, enters into a state of har mony and union with God, then may God become revealed in him, and the mind being penetrated by the light of the divine Spirit, man may partake of the knowledge of divinity. In this way he may learn all about everything in the three kingdoms ; for the Spirit of God pervades the All. Occult knowledge, therefore, does not consist in gathering information or opinions from books and authorities, but its foundation is the recognition of the divine will in man. 70 THE DOCTRINES OF JACOB BOEHME. CHAPTER II. THE UNITY OF THE ALL. " Listen, O blind men ! You live in God and God is in you. If you live holy, then will you yourselves be God, and wherever you look, there will be God." (Aurora, xxii. 46.) " We are all one body in Christ, and have all the Spirit of Christ within our reach. If, then, we enter into the Christ, we may see and know everything by the power of His Spirit." (Forty Ques tions, xxvi. 5.) THAT which is finite cannot conceive of the infinite ; that which has a beginning cannot conceive of that which is without beginning and without an end. Who has measured space? Has it an end? and if so, what is there beyond the utmost limits of space ? But if there is no end to space, does not thought lose itself in seeking to penetrate into its depths ? We cannot con ceive of infinite space, but we can conceive of limited forms, which are space rendered objective ; and in describing a form we describe space in a certain state or condition. Likewise, we cannot describe that which exists eternally in God, nor the eternal processes con tinually taking place within the divine life, in any other way than by speaking of them as if they had a beginning in time, and by using terrestrial terms, all of which are necessarily inadequate to produce a concep tion of that which cannot be conceived by the terres trial mind, because it is infinitely above all terrestrial things. * * There seems to be a great deal of confusion regarding the question as to whether God is personal or impersonal, and neverthe less the answer seems to be plain. God as an infinite and not mani fested Spirit cannot be regarded as a personality ; but whenever the Divinity becomes manifested as a personality, then is He per sonal. In fact, every person, every flower, every thing, having a ray of the divine light, is a god, in a certain sense, but not in every being is God revealed in His Divinity. Thus that which constitutes THE UNITY OF THE ALL. >ji "I cannot describe to you the whole of divinity as it were in a circle, because God is immeasurable ; never theless the Godhead is not inconceivable to the spirit, resting in the love of God. Such a spirit may grasp eternal truth, one part after another, and in this way it may end in perceiving the whole." (Aurora, x. 26.) " If I am to make comprehensible the eternal genera tion, unfolding, or evolution of God out of His own self, I cannot speak otherwise than in a devilish (know ingly erroneous) manner, making it appear as if the eternal Light had ignited itself in the darkness, and as if the Godhead had a beginning. In no other way can I instruct you, so that you may form an approximate conception of it. There is nothing first and nothing last in this generation and evolution, nevertheless in describing it I have to put one thing after another." (Aurora, xxiii. 17-33.) ' ' We do not mean to say that the Deity had a be ginning, we merely wish to show the way in which the Godhead has revealed itself by means of nature. God has no beginning in time ; He has an eternal be ginning and an eternal end." (Signature, iii. i.) "The Godhead is an eternal band, which cannot perish. It generates itself from eternity to eternity, and the first therein is always the last, and the last the first."* (Three Principles, vii. 14.) That which is subject to the conditions of time may conceive of temporal things ; only that which is eternal in man can realize the existence of the eternal. "We cannot speak the language of the angels, and even if we were to speak it everything would appear to the inhabitants of this world as if it did refer to created beings, and before the terrestrial mind it would represent itself as terrestrial. We are ourselves only a rose is impersonal as long as it is unmanif ested ; but when it has become manifest as a rose, then will it be a personal or individual rose. The same may be said about every god, man, angel, and every created being. * God is unchangeable, and has no beginning in time ; the " be ginning" refers only to the manifestation of His power in nature. Nature resembles a continually revolving wheel, wherein forms in which the power of God becomes manifest are born and die. The death of one form is the birth of another. Thus life is born out of death ; but that which produces life and causes death is eternal. 72 THE DOCTRINES OF JACOB BOEHME. parts of the whole, and we can conceive and speak only of parts, but not of the whole." (Threefold Life, ii. 66.) "I advise the reader, whenever I am speaking of the Godhead and its great mystery, not to conceive of what I say as if it were intended to be understood in a terrestrial sense, but to regard it from a higher point of view, in a supernatural aspect. I am often forced to give terrestrial names to that which is celestial, so that the reader may form a conception, and by med itating about it penetrate within the inner foundation." (Grace, iii. 19.) God is self-existent, self-sufficient, infinite Will, having no origin. That Will, by conceiving of its own self, thereby creates a mirror within its own self. The same takes place in the microcosm of man. By conceiving of his own self man creates a mirror in which he ' ' feels " his own self, and thereby he becomes self- conscious and realizes his existence as an individual being. "Within the groundlessness* (that which by some writers is called the ' Non-Being ' a term without any meaning) there is nothing but eternal tranquillity, an eternal rest without beginning and without an end. It is true that even there God has a will, but this will can be no object of our investigation, as to attempt to in vestigate it would merely produce a confusion in our mind. We conceive of this will as constituting the foundation of the Godhead. It has no origin, but con ceives itself within itself." (Metis chwer dung, xxi. i.) "Divine Intelligence is a free will. It never origi nated from or by the power of anything. It is itself, and resides only and solely within itself, unaffected by *The " groundlessness" or the " abyss" or " Parabrahmam" is the universal substratum of all existence. It is everywhere : within the heart of man no less than in every atom of " matter " and in all space. It is called the First Cause ; but it becomes a first cause only when it begins to manifest itself at the beginning of a Manvantara (day of creation). Before such a manifestation takes place it is inconceivable and " nothingness" from our point of view ; nevertheless it is the one essence of everything in the cosmos. (See Subba Row : " Discourses on the Bhagavad Gita.") THE UNITY OF THE ALL. 73 anything, because there is nothing outside or previous to it." (Mysterium, xxix. i. ) "Eternal Freedom has the will, and is itself the will. In the will there is a desire to do or an impulse to wish something. There is nothing besides that will towards which that impulse could be directed. The will there fore sees within itself as within eternity ; it sees what it is itself, and thereby creates within itself a mirror." (Forty Questions, i. 13.) By this eternal mirroring, or God seeing Himself within Himself, divine self-consciousness that is to say, the self-knowledge of God, or, in other words, divine wisdom, exists. The eternal Will, in its aspect as the Father, eternally conceives of itself as the Son, and, so to say, re-expands as the Holy Spirit. The same process on a minor scale takes place in the microcosm of man ; for if he finds himself within him self by penetrating to the boundless abyss within him self, he then finds in the self-consciousness of his own manhood that power and strength by whose expansion his will and thought become powerful to act even at unmeasured distances.* Therefore it is said, that the deeper we lower our selves and enter within our own center, diving down into the groundless foundation of our own soul, even so deep that the sense of our own personality is completely lost, the higher shall we be exalted into the realm of divine and universal being. "The wicked soul does not see God ; because she will not make the will of God her own. Therefore she remains outside of God and within her own self, and God also remains within Himself. Thus one resides within the other, but without knowing each other." (Six Points, v. 10.) " God is the will of eternal wisdom, and the wisdom eternally generated from Him is His revelation. This revelation takes place through a threefold spirit. First, * " The primordial will, a nothing, may be compared to a mirror wherein one sees his own image, as if it were alive ; while nevertheless it is not the life, but merely its semblance that appears therein." (Six Points, i. 7. 1 74 THE DOCTRINES OF JACOB BOEHME. by means of the eternal Will, as such, in its aspect as the Father ; next, by means of the eternal Will in its aspect as divine love, the center or the heart of the Father ; and finally, by means of the Spirit, the power issuing from the will and the love." (Myslerium, i. 2, 4.) The Father Himself is the will of the groundlessness (the Absolute).* This will conceives within itself the desire to manifest itself to itself. This love or desire is the power conceived by the will or Father within itself that is to say, the Son, heart, or seat (the first foundation within the non-foundation or groundlessness), the first beginning within the will. The will is outspoken by means of this conceiving itself, and this issuing of the will in speaking or breathing is the Spirit of the Divinity." f (Mysterium, i. 2.) "The first inconceivable will without any origin generates within itself the one eternal God a con ceivable will, it being the son of the causeless will, but equally eternal with the former. This other will is the sensitivity and conceivability of the primordial will, by means of which that which is nothing finds itself to be something. By so doing the inconceivable causeless will issues by means of that which it has eternally found, and enters into a state of eternal meditation about its own self. The first causeless will is called the eternal Father ; the conceived and generated will of the groundlessness is its inborn Son ; the issue of the fathomless will by means of the conceived Son is the Spirit. Thus the one will of the Absolute, by means of the first eternal and beginningless conception, mani fests a threefold activity, but nevertheless remains only one undifferentiated will. " % (Grace, i. 5-12.) * The Absolute is not the Father ; the father begins to exist only when he produces the son. Neither one of the factors of the Trinity exists without the other two. t The process of a being conceiving of its own self is experienced by its awakening to a consciousness of its own self. That which becomes self-conscious when it awakens, exists even while asleep ; but it does not realize its existence in the body until the body awakens from sleep. J The very same views we find expressed in Subba Row's "Dis courses on the Bhagavad Gita." Parabrahm, which exists before all things in the cosmos, is the one essence from which starts into THE UNITY OF THE ALL. 75 This eternal mirroring, or God beholding Himself within Himself, may be called divine imagination. It is as infinite as the triune Spirit, beholding itself in that infinite mirror of divine wisdom, but it remains a merely passive power in regard to the active will. In the same sense the mind of a man is not the man himself, and the imagination of a man is or should be subject to his will ; while a man without the power to think or im agine is unthinkable, and could not exist as a human being. "The first activity in God is divine contemplation or wisdom, by means of which the Spirit of God, with the outbreathed powers, plays as with one uniform power. This internal imagination is neither great nor little ; it has neither beginning nor an end, but it is infinite, and its formative power is without limits." (Grace, i. 14.) God, in His aspect as the father or creative will, is therefore the active or male element in creation ; while divine wisdom, the mother, is the passive productive principle, having no will whatever of her own, but acting entirely according to the will of the father in her. It is true that the will of the father could produce noth ing if it were not for the presence of the mother in whom the forms are evolved or, to express it in other words, He could not create anything if He had not the wisdom to do so ; but all the wisdom in the world creates nothing unless it is made active by the will. " Wisdom stands before God like a mirror or reflec tion, wherein the Godhead sees its own self and all the great wonders of eternity, which have neither a be- existence a center of energy, called the Logos or " Word." It is also called Iswara, Pratyagatma or Sabda Brahman. It is a center of spiritual energy, unborn and eternal, existing in a latent condition in the bosom of Parabrahm at the time of Pralaya, and starting as a center of conscious energy at the time of cosmic activity. It is not material or physical in its constitution, and it is not objective. It is not differing in its essence from Parabrahm. It has a conscious ness and individuality of its own ; it is the first ego that appears in the cosmos : the beginning of all creation and the end of all evolu tion. It is the one energy in the cosmos. The Light of the Logos is called Daiviprakriti in the Bhagavad-Gita : it is the Gnostic Sophia and the Holy Ghost of the Christians. This Light of the Logos or " Holy Ghost" is the very substance of the Spirit of God, issuing from Him through the outspoken Word : in each individual man no less than in the universe as a whole. 7 6 THE DOCTRINES OF JACOB BOEHME. ginning nor an end in time, but whose beginning and end is eternal. Wisdom is a revelation of the holy Trinity ; but this is not to be understood as if she were revealing herself to God by her own power or choice, but the divine center, the heart and essence of God, be comes revealed in her. She is like a mirror of the God head, and like any other mirror, she merely holds still ; she does not produce an image, but merely conceives it."* (Menschwerdung, i. i, 12.) That which the father eternally desires to give, the mother eternally desires to receive. Life is male ; the earth, or ' ' matter, " is female. The earth does not cause a seed to grow, but the seed planted into the earth carries within itself the power to grow ; the earth merely furnishes the material which the life in the seed extracts from the earth. Likewise the mother does not create the child, but merely fur nishes the materials required by the creative spirit exist ing within the child, and which, before it is born, attracts from the organism of the mother that which it needs, comparable to the way in which, after the child is born, it draws its nutriment from the mother's breast, f "Wisdom is the outspoken word of divine power, knowledge, and sanctity, an antithesis of the unfathom- *The Light of the Logos has three aspects. First, it is the Life of the cosmos, and as such it is called the Mahachaitanyam ; secondly, it is " force," and as such it is called Fohat in the Buddhist teach ings ; and finally, it is Wisdom, the Chichakti of the Hindus. The Logos or Christ, from which this Light emanates, has also three aspects, and is therefore called Satchtdanandam : from Sat, because it is Parabrahm ; Chit, because it is the foundation of self -conscious ness ; and Anandam, because it is the abode of eternal bliss. (Subba Row.) Thus the Logos, speaking through the mouth of Jesus, says : " I am the Life, the Light, and the Truth." t Terrestrial men and women are male and female organisms, in which the active and passive elements of creation are manifesting themselves in their external expression. Each man has in him male and female elements. A woman in whom merely the principle of will were active, without the presence of thought, would be nothing but an accumulation of blind force. A man without any female ele ment, /'. e., without any will, would be like a mirror full of images, but incapable to produce anything. The true woman, in the ideal marriage of the soul, has no other thought than that of her husband ; neither does, the true man will anything that is not compatible with the desire of his wife. THE UNITY OF THE ALL. 77 able unity in essentiality, wherein the Holy Spirit forms and imagines. She is passive, but the Spirit of God is active, like the soul in the body." (Claws, v. 18.) This eternal Trinity is inconceivable in its aspect as a spiritual potentiality, in the same sense as a fire is inconceivable if it does not burn ; but as the burning fire reveals itself by means of the light and the heat, likewise the divine power reveals itself in a threefold aspect in eternal nature. "The threefold Spirit is a unity, an only being ; or to speak more correctly, not a being, but eternal Reason ; consequently a mystery comparable to the intelligence of man, which is also incomprehensible." (Mysterium, i. 5.) ' The spirit cannot be described, except allegoric- ally, because it is not a creature, but the moving power of God." (Aurora, iii. 24.) "God in His primitive aspect is not to be conceived of as a being, but merely as the power or the intelli gence constituting the potentiality for being as an unfathomable, eternal will, wherein everything is con tained, and which, although being itself everything, is nevertheless only one, but desirous of revealing itself and to enter into a state of spiritual being. This takes place by means of the fire in the desire of love, i. e. in the power of the light." * (Mysterium, vi. i.) Here we have not yet cause to say that God is three persons, but He is threefold in His eternal evolution. He gives birth to Himself in trinity; and in this eternal unfoldment He is nevertheless an only being, neither Father, nor Son, nor Spirit, but only the eternal Life or God. The Trinity will become comprehensible in His eternal revelation only when He reveals Himself by means of eternal nature that is to say, in the light by means of the fire. " (Mysterium, vii. 9-1 2. ) "Within the stillness of eternal freedom the Father does not yet appear as a father. He appears as such * God in the aspect as the Absolute is called Parabrahmam : in His aspect as the creator He is called Brahma. Boehme says : " In that change of name is indicated the entering of the Unity into Trinity and the manifestation of Divinity in Humanity. Therefore Abraham (Brahm) is called the antitype of Christ, blessing all mankind." \Myster. Magn., 35 & 42.) 7 8 THE DOCTRINES OF JACOB BOEHME. only when He is desirous to create, and conceives with in Himself the will to generate nature within Him self." * (Threefold Life, iv. 64.) We cannot conceive of a man without a body of some kind, nor of a universal God without a universal nature. The very essence which constitutes " man " is will and intelligence manifesting itself in a human form. God begins to exist as a being only when He is manifesting Himself in nature. From all eternity has God thus been revealing Himself to Himself; and the cause of this self-revelation rests first of all in the will of God in the Trinity and in the longing of eternal wis dom. ' ' Of eternity we cannot speak otherwise than as of a spirit, for everything was spirit in the beginning ; but it has also from all eternity evolved itself into being." (Menschwerdung, i. 2.) "That which is tranquil and without being, resting within itself, does not contain darkness, but is a calm, clear, lucid happiness. This then is eternity without anything else, and means above all God. But as God cannot be without being, He conceives within Him self a will, and this will is love." (Three/old Life, ii. 75-) "The whole of the divine Being is in a state of con tinual and eternal generation comparable to the mind of a man, but immutable. There are continually thoughts born from the mind of man, and from them arise desire and will. From desire and will orginates action, and the hands do their work, so as to render it substantial. Thus it is with eternal evolution." (Three Principles, ix. 35.) "At first the will is as thin as a nothing, and there fore it desires and longs to be something, and to be- * " As the body desires for nutriment from the father of nature, /. e., from the stars and the elements, and receives it from him ; so the soul desires for the celestial holy father, and is nourished by him with his spirit and joy. There are, however, not two fathers, but only one ; for heaven is made out of his power, and the stars out of the wis dom which is in him. He is called our Father in heaven ; not as if the heaven contained Him for He is greater than All but for the purpose of indicating that the glory and power of the Father appears pure, clear, and radiant in the celestial kingdom, wherein the holy Trinity is triumphantly manifest." (Aurora, iii. 2.) THE UNITY OF THE ALL. jg come manifest to itself. This nothingness causes the will to enter into a state of desire, and this desire is an imagination. The will beholding itself in the mirror or wisdom causes its own image to appear within the groundlessness, and thus it creates a foundation in its own imagination." (Menschwerdung, ii. i.) "Wisdom, the eternal virgin, the playmate of God to His honor and joy, becomes full of desire to behold the wonders of God that are contained within herself. Owing to this desire, the divine essences within her become active and attract the holy power, and thus she enters into a state of permanent being. By this she does not conceive of anything within herself ; her inclination is resting in the Holy Spirit. She merely moves before God for the purpose of revealing the won ders of God." * (Three- Principles, xiv. 87.) The possibility of such an ' ' external " or corporeal revelation of God rests in the divine magic power, which exists within the divine life itself. It is the power of the magic will to produce that which it de sires. ' ' The magic power is the Spirit desirous for being. It is essentially nothing but will, but it enters into exist ence. It is the greatest mystery ; it is above nature, and forces nature to assume forms according to the form of its will. It introduces the foundation into the abyss of the groundlessness, and changes nothing into something. It is the mother of eternity and of the essentiality of all beings. In it are contained all the forms of the latter. It is not the intellect, but it acts according to the will of the intellect. It is not majesty, neither the power itself, but a desire entering into the dark nature (matter) and proceeding by means of that dark nature into the fire, and through the fire into light. Through this magic power the wonders of the number *The identical idea is expressed by Subba Row as follows : " When once this ego, the Logos, starts into existence as a conscious being, Parabrahmam, its own source, appears to it as Mulaprakriti, Para- brahmam is the unconditioned and absolute Reality, and Mulaprakriti is a sort of veil thrown over it. Parabrahmam by itself cannot be seen as it is. It is seen by the Logos with a veil thrown over it, and that veil is the mighty expanse of cosmic matter, the basis of material manifestations therein." This veil is the mirror by means of which the primordial will conceives of its own self. So THE DOCTRINES OF JACOB BOEHME. Three become revealed by means of nature."* (Six Mystical Points, v. i-n.) "The corporeity of God results from His essenti ality. This essentiality is not spirit, but it appears like impotency if compared with the power wherein the Three resides. This essentiality is the element of God, wherein is life but no intelligence." f (Threefold Life ', v. 53-) A thesis presupposes the antithesis. In the One there exists no relation. There can be no conscious ness manifest without something to be conscious of, and without that which is to be conscious. Without nature there could be no freedom of nature ; without the positive there could be no negative ; without the dark basis of fire there could be no light. "The One has nothing within itself which it could possibly desire, neither can such a unity feel its own self. This is possible only in a state of duality." (Theosophical Questions, iii. 3.) " If everything were only one, that one could not be come manifest to itself. If there were no anguish, joy could not be known. " (Mysierium, iv. 22.) " God introduces His will into nature for the purpose of revealing His power in light and in majesty, to con stitute a kingdom of joy. If there were no nature originating within the eternal unity, there would be nothing else but eternal tranquillity. Nature entering into a state of pain, the tranquillity becomes changed into motion, and the powers become audible as the word. " | (Grace, ii. 16.) "The One, the 'Yes,' is pure power, and the life and the truth of God, or God Himself; but God would be * The magic power of the will consists in the will being self-con scious, and therefore capable to act, not according to some impulse given to it by some other source, but according to its own desire. The wonders of the number Three become revealed in nature through will, thought and its manifestation revealing themselves as a triunity therein. t The one undifferentiated element is Mulaprakriti, sometimes called Avyaktam, the veil of Parabrahmam. \ The Hindu writers state that this word, which they call " Vack" is of four different kinds, according to the four planes of existence, on which it becomes manifest. THE UNITY OF THE ALL. 81 unknowable to Himself, and there would be in Him no joy or perception, if it were not for the presence of the 'No.' The latter is the antithesis or the opposite to the positive or the truth ; it causes the latter to become revealed, and this is only possible by its being the opposite wherein eternal love may become active and perceptible." (Theosophical Questions, iii. 2.) "If there is to be a light, there must be a fire. The fire produces the light, and the light renders the fire manifest ; it receives the nature of the fire within itself and resides in the fire." (Afysterium, xl. 2.) " Joy enters the state of desire for the purpose of producing a fiery love, a realm of happiness, which could not exist in the tranquillity. " (Signature, vi. 2. ) "The majesty of God could not become revealed in power, joy, and magnificence, if it were not for the at traction caused by desire. Likewise there could be no light, if desire were not entering and overshadowing, and thereby creating a state of darkness, which grows until the ignition of the fire takes place. " (Grace, ii. 14.) Relative good cannot exist without relative evil, and evil cannot exist without good. The fire can no more exist without the light than the light without the fire. No multiplicity is possible without the unity. Each requires and therefore desires the other. "Light and darkness are opposed to each other, but there is between them a link, so that neither of them could exist without the other." (Threefold Life, ii. 86.) "In God there are two states, eternally and without end namely, the eternal light and eternal darkness. The light is God, and in the darkness there would be no pain if it were not for the presence of the light. The light causes the darkness to long for the light and to suffer anguish therefor. " (Three Principles, ix. 30.) "The will having issued from the state of unity (by assuming a position, as it were, against the unity in desiring its own self), enters as a state of desire, and this desire is magnetic that is to say, indrawing ; but the unity as such is outflowing ; it seeks to issue out wardly, so as to become revealed. The will, having 6 82 THE DOCTRINES OF JACOB BOEHME. issued from the state of unity, desires to enter within itself, so as to attain sensation in the unity, and that thereby the unity may attain sensation in the will." (Theosophical Questions, iii. 9.) "The light-life has its own motion and impulse, and also the fire-life ; but the latter generates the former and the former is the lord of the latter. If there were no fire, there would be no light and no spirit ; and if there were no spirit to breathe upon the fire, the latter would be extinguished and darkness would rule. Each of the two would be nothing without the other ; both are mutually dependent upon each other. " (Forty Questions, i. 62.) There is, however, no equality between this duality, for the unity is superior to the multiplicity, freedom to nature, light to fire ; the higher always rules the lower. "The will as such is an insensible life, but it finds the desire, and in willing to desire it constitutes itself in a being. The will is superior to the desire, for al though the desire is an exciting cause for the will, the will is a life without a cause, and it is also intelligence. It is, therefore, lord over desire. It rules the life of the desire and uses it as it pleases. This eternal will-spirit we know to be God, but the active life of the desire is eternal nature." (Inner Mystery, i. i; iii. 2.) " God is from eternity Power and Light, and is there fore called God according to that, but not according to the fire-spirit. In regard to the latter, we speak of it not as God, but as ' the wrath of God ' and the consum ing part of His power. The light of God has also the quality of the fire, but in it the wrath is changed into love ; hate and bitter pain into mild beneficence and sweet desire or satisfaction." (Menschwerdung, i. 5- 16.) " The fountain of love is a clasping and keeping of the stern wrathfulness, an overcoming of the harsh power, because meekness takes away the rule of the acrid and hard power of the fire. The light of peaceful- ness keeps the darkness imprisoned and resides in the darkness. The stern power desires only wrathfulness and imprisonment in death ; but the mildness issues like THE SEVEN QUALITIES. 83 a sweet growth, it blossoms out and overcomes death, giving- eternal life." (Threefold Life, ii. 92.) "When love becomes revealed in light by means of the fire, it streams over nature and penetrates her, like the sunshine penetrating an herb or fire penetrating through iron." (Clavis, viii. 36.) To understand the above it is only necessary to feel these things within one's own being. To the specu lating intellect they will forever remain a mystery. Not in the trunk, the root, the branches, or the leaves, but only in the flower of a plant, can be found the germ that produces the fruit or seed from which a new plant of a similar kind may grow. Not in the pas sions of man, nor in his intellectual acquisitions, but only in the spiritual efflorescence of his soul, exists the germ for the new-born being capable of obtaining con sciousness of its own immortality. "No one truly knows his own self until he finds his true self in the Unity of the All. " (Kerning. ) CHAPTER III. THE SEVEN PROPERTIES OR QUALITIES OF ETERNAL NATURE.* " He who knows others is clever ; he who knows himself is illumined. (Lao Tse.) WHEN the Eternal One, in its aspect as a Trinity and with reference to divine wisdom, reveals itself on the seven planes of existence, this revelation constitutes * If it is asked how it is possible that Jacob Boehme knew any thing about the invisible spiritual processes taking place in the uni verse, the answer is that the spirit of man is one and universal, and he who knows his own divine self knows the whole of the universe. Seen from the spiritual point of view, the universal cosmic pro cesses in the body of universal nature are internal processes taking place within the organism of macrocosmic man mirrored forth, and 84 THE DOCTRINES OF JACOB BOEHME. seven different rays or states of eternal nature, com parable to the sevenfold scale of colors, tunes, chemical substances, etc., all of which are seven different forms in which the fundamental one is manifesting itself. Of these seven forms or sourcive states of eternal nature, the first and the seventh refer to the Father, the second and sixth to the Sun, the third and fifth to the Holy Spirit, while the fourth represents the balance in which exists the division between spirit and matter. "The eternal Essence, being desirous of revealing itself to itself (to attain self-consciousness), had to con ceive within itself a will ; but as within itself there was no object for its will or desire, except the powerful Word, which in the tranquil eternity did not exist, the seven states of eternal nature had to be born from within. From these, then, proceeded, from eternity to eternity, the powerful Word, the power, the heart, and the life of the tranquil eternity and its eternal wis dom."* (Threefold Life, iii. 21.) " The first and the seventh quality must be regarded as one, also the second and sixth, and also the third and the fifth ; but the fourth is the object of division. The first then refers to the Father, the second to the Son, the third to the Holy Spirit." (Clavis, ix. 75.) By means of the manifestation of these seven qual ities of eternal nature the infinity of divine being does not become limited ; they are merely seven different forms in which the power of God is manifesting itself, and the existence of each of these seven properties depends on that of the rest. "If I speak of the seven states of eternal nature, it is not to be understood as if there were a limitation of the Godhead in regard to object and measure. Its power eternally repeated in the microcosm of the individual. The history of the universe is the history of a man. " Let none wonder if we speak about the creation of the world, as if we had been there and seen it ourselves ; for the spirit that is in us, and which one man inherits from another, has been inbreathed into Adam from eternity. It has seen all that ; it sees everything in the light of God, and to it there is nothing far away or incomprehensible." (Princ., vii. 6.) * " In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." (St. John, i. I.) THE SEVEN QUALITIES. 85 and wisdom is without end, without measure and un speakable." (Mysterium, vii. 17.) " Do not imagine these seven spirits to be standing one by the side of the other, comparable to the stars, which are seen side by side in the sky ; they are all seven like only one spirit. Thus the body of man has many organs, but each organ partakes of the power of the rest." {Aurora, x. 40.) In the same sense we speak of the bones and flesh, the arteries and veins and nerves of a body, all of which go to make up only one organism. Likewise a picture is made up of many different colors, of which each has a certain individuality of its own, while the sum total is necessary to form one individual picture. "As the organs of a man's body love one another, so do the spirits in divine power. There is nothing but longing, desiring, and fulfilling, and each triumphs and rejoices in the other." (Aurora, ix. 37.) They are like seven living and conscious rays con tained within the original colorless ray, and broken into seven different tints by their passage through " matter." "You must know that one spirit alone cannot gener ate another, but the birth of one spirit results from the co-operation of all the seven. Six of them always gen erate the seventh, and if one of them were absent the others could not be there." (Aurora, x. 21.) "All the seven spirits of God are born one in another. One gives birth to the other ; there is neither first nor last. The last generates the first, as well as the first the second, the third the fourth, up to the last. They are all seven equally eternal." (Aurora, x. 2.) " If I am sometimes describing only two or three as being active in the generation of another spirit, I am doing so on account of my weakness, because in my degenerate mind I cannot retain the impression of the action of all the seven in their perfection. I see all the seven ; but when I begin to analyze what I see, I then cannot grasp all the seven at once, but only one after another."* (Aurora, x. 22.) 86 THE DOCTRINES OF JACOB BOEHME. " But the light, which subsisteth in the midst or cen tre in all the seven spirits, and wherein standeth the life of all the seven spirits, whereby all seven become triumphing and joyful, and wherein the heavenly joy- fulness rises up." " This is that which all the seven spirits generate, and that is the son of all the seven spirits, and the seven spirits are its father, which generate the light ; and the light generateth in them the life; and the light is the heart of the seven spirits." " This light is the true Son of God, whom we wor ship and honour, as the second Person in the Holy Trinity." " All the seven spirits of God together, are God the Father." " But the light is another Person, for it is continu ally generated out of or from the seven spirits, and the seven spirits rise up continually in the light; and the powers of these seven spirits go forth continually in the glance or splendour of the light in the seventh nature spirit, and do form and image all in the seventh spirit ; and this out-going or exit in the light is the Holy Ghost." (Aurora, x. 32.) These seven properties are never transformed one into another ; each retains eternally its own specific es sentiality. The relations into which they enter with each other serve foi the purpose of their mutual glori fication; so that they, when they meet each other like strains of sweet harmonies in God's eternal nature, appear like flaming lights of life and joy. Thus mat ter is never transformed into spirit, but illumined and glorified by the latter, while the spirit obtains its cor- porification from matter. " Each of these principles is strongly defined in re gard to its nature, nevertheless there is no antipathy between them. They are all rejoicing in God as one only spirit. Each loves the other, and there is nothing among them but joy and happiness. Their evolution is an eternal "one and never any other." (Aurora, x. 51.) " The higher they become exalted, and the more THE SEVEN QUALITIES. 87 they become ignited, the greater will be their joy in the kingdom of light. " (Mysterium, v. 6. ) ' ' Each quality of the spirit desires the other, and when it acquires its object it becomes as it were changed into that other ; but its own quality is thereby not lost, it merely adapts itself to the other, and manifests another kind of anguish (consciousness), but both retain their own special qualities." * (Threefold Life, iv. 8.) " Each of these divine forms of life desires to govern ; each has a will of its own. Without that there could be no sensibility nor perceptibility, but only eternal tranquillity. Neither, however, of them is pressing forward to make itself manifest more than the rest, but all are in perfect harmony with each other. " (Stiefel, ii. 348.) When the fourth principle enters into the first, all the spirits intermingle their light, triumph, and rejoice. They then arise all one within the other, and evolve each other as if moving in circular motion ; and the light in the midst of them begins to shine and renders them luminous. Their harsh quality then remains hidden like a kernel in a fruit. As a sour or bitter unripe apple by ripening in the sun becomes changed, so that it acquires an agreeable taste, but nevertheless retains the qualities that constitute it an apple, likewise the Godhead retains its own essential qualities, but they become manifest in a sweet and agreeable manner." (Aurora, xiii. 80.) "All the seven principles are spiritual within eternal nature, and appear there in a clear, crystalline, translu cent substantiality." (Grace, iii. 40.) "The seven candlesticks in Saint John's Revelation refer to the seven spirits in the Godhead, also the seven stars. The seven spirits are in the center of the Father that is to say, in the power of the Word. The Word changes the wrathfulness into sweet joy and shapes it into a crystalline ocean ; therein the seven spirits ap pear in a burning form, like seven luminous torches, "t (Threefold Life, iii. 46.) * Thus the darkness is illumined by the light, but it never be comes light itself, nor can the light become darkness. The light shineth eternally into darkness, but the darkness comprehendeth it not. t A variety of colors is necessary to make up a picture, to repre- 88 THE DOCTRINES OF JACOB BOEHME. The First Quality begins when God, for the purpose of revealing His majesty, allows His eternal nature to contract within itself, whereby a state of darkness and corporeity is created. "The first quality is the desire. It is comparable to magnetic attraction, and therefore the comprehensi- bility of the will. The will conceives of itself as some thing. By this act of impressing or contracting it over shadows itself and causes itself to become darkness." (Clavis, viii. 38.) " In this state there is no active life or intelligence ; it is merely the first principle of substantiality, or the first beginning of the becoming." * (Three Principles, vii. ii.) "In eternity beyond nature there can be no dark ness, because there is nothing that could produce it. The will by desiring contracts and becomes substantial. Thus darkness is created within the will, while without that desire there would be nothing but eternal stillness without substantiality. " (Forty Questions. ) ' ' Desire is an acrid, astringent, attracting (contract ing) quality. It is an active power, and without it there would be nothing but tranquillity. It contracts and fills itself with itself ; but that which it attracts constitutes nothing but darkness, a state which is more compact than the original will, the latter being thin as nothing, but it then becomes full and substantial, "f (Threefold Life, ii. 12.) sent an idea, and although the idea represented by the various colors is only one, nevertheless each color retains its essential qualities. The various organs of the human body manifest various powers, nevertheless they all go to make up one manifestation of life. The various planets have each one its own special qualities, nevertheless they go to make up one world. Thus each of the seven forms re mains what it is, but their manifestations differ widely according to the planes and conditions under which they are manifesting them selves. * "I am not rejoicing because I know many things, but because I love the (spirit of) Christ and desire Him always. This it is that fills me with joy ; because to desire is to take." {Tilk., ii. 294.) " Divine desire does not originate from the uprising of the terres trial will, nor from that of the world of darkness. Neither the ter restrial world, nor the world of darkness have within them any divine love or desire,." (Tilk., i. 207.) t The fact of this contractive power of desire, by which the will is rendered substantial, corporeal, and heavy, is experienced by every THE SEVEN QUALITIES. 89 Simultaneously with the appearance of the first enters the Second Form, namely, motion. Matter and motion are co-eternal, and neither of them can exist without the other. There could be no contraction without motion, neither would there be any expansion if there were no desire to contract. With the begin ning of action reaction begins. There is then a duality of manifestation of the eternal One. From this duality of action, having its source in the One, results the manifestation of relative life. ' ' Motion divides the attracted desire and causes dif ferentiation, thereby awakening the true life. " (Clavis, viii. 30.) "From this results sensitiveness in nature, and here in is the cause of differentiation. Hardness (solidity) and the motion of life are opposed to each other. Motion breaks up the solidity (expands), and by means of attraction it also causes hardness (contracts)." (Tabula Princip. , i. 34.) ' ' Desire, being a strong attraction, causes the ethereal freedom, which is comparable to a nothing, to contract and enter into a state of darkness. The primi tive will desires to be free of that darkness, for it desires the light. The will cannot attain this light, and the more it desires for freedom the greater will be the attraction caused by the desire." (Six Theosophical Points, i. 38.) "There must be an opposition, for the will desires not to be dark, and this very desire causes the darkness. The will loves the excitement caused by the desire, but it does not love the contraction and darkening. The will itself does not become dark, but only the desire existing in it. The desire is in darkness, and therefore a great anguish results within the will, as its desire for freedom is strong, but by this desire it causes itself to become still more harsh and dark. " * {Forty Questions. ) The Third Quality, called into existence by the action one who feels the weight of sorrow caused by some unfulfilled desire weighing upon his soul, while freedom from desire, and consequently from care, renders the heart (the will) light and ethereal. * Eliphas Levi expressed a corresponding truth by saying, " The will accomplishes that which it does not desire." A selfish desire for heaven defeats its own object. go THE DOCTRINES OF JACOB BOEHME. and reaction of the absolute One, calls sensation into existence ; or, to express it in other words, absolute consciousness, by manifesting itself, becomes relative. Nothing new is thereby created, only that which already was begins to exist. This relative conscious ness is called "anguish" by Boehme. "The third quality, the anguish, is evolved in the following manner : The hardness is fixed, the motion is fugitive ; the one is centripetal, the other centrifugal ; but as they are one, and cannot separate from each other (nor from their center), they become like a turning wheel, in which one part strives upwards and the other one in a downward direction. The hardness furnishes substantiality and weight, while the ' sting ' (desire in motion) supplies spirit (will for freedom) and fugitive life. All this causes a turning around and within and outwardly, having nevertheless no destination where to arrive. That which the attraction of the desire causes to become fixed is again rendered volatile by the aspiring for freedom. There then results the great est disquietude, comparable to a furious madness, from which results a terrible anguish." (Mysterium, Hi. 15.) The truth of this every one experiences within his own self, because as long as man is nailed to the cross of terrestrial life, there is a continual battle raging in him between his higher and lower impulses, or between his ideal aspirations and his material self- interests. "The more the first principle gathers its hardness for the purpose of arresting the second principle, the stronger does the action of that principle grow, and the stronger is the raging and breaking. The sting re fuses to be subdued, but the will (from which it origi nates) holds on to it with great strength, and it cannot follow its impulse. It strives upwards and the will strives downwards, for the acerbity indraws, rendering itself heavy. Thus the one strives to rise upwards, and the other to sink downwards, while neither of them can accomplish its object, and thus eternal nature becomes like a revolving wheel. " * (Menschwerdung, ii. 4.) * This macfocosmic battle has its counterpart in the microcosm of man. There is in him also the continual fight between matter and THE SEVEN QUALITIES. 91 These three first forms or qualities, wherein the activity of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are represented, or to express it in other words, through which the quality of will and intelligence becomes revealed, are sometimes alluded to under the names of "salt," "sulphur," and "mercury." "The first three principles are not God Himself, but only His revelation. The first of these three states, being a beginning of all power and strength, originates from the quality of the Father ; the second, being the source of all activity and differentiation, comes from the quality of the Son ; and the third, being the root of all life, originates in the quality of the Holy Spirit." (Grace, vi. 9.) "The ancients said that in sulphur, mercury, and salt are contained all things. This refers not so much to the material as to the spiritual aspect of things, namely, to the spirit of the qualities wherefrom material things grow. By the term ' salt ' they understood the sharp metallic desire in nature ; ' mercury ' symbolized to them the motion and differentiation of the former, by means of which each thing becomes objective and en ters into formation. 'Sulphur,' the third quality, signified the anguish of nature." * (Cleans, 46.) The true divine life wherein the substantiality of divine Trinity is revealed is rendered possible only by means of the Fourth Quality, called the lightning-flash, whose ignition is caused by the desire of eternal nature and by the longing of eternal freedom. "The fire is originally darkness, hardness, eternal cold ness, and dryness, and there is nothing in it except an eternal hunger. How then does it become actual fire ? The Spirit of God, in its aspect as the eternal light, comes to the aid of the fire-hunger. The hunger itself orig inates from the light, because when the divine power mirrors itself in the darkness, the latter becomes full of desire after the light, and this desire is the will (of eternal nature). But the will or the desire in the dry- spirit, between desire and renunciation, between the desire for exist ence and the will for that freedom which cannot be found before even the desire for freedom itself is at rest. * See Appendix. 92 THE DOCTRINES OF JACOB BOEHME. ness cannot reach the light, and therein consists the anguish and the craving for light. This anguish and craving continues until the Spirit of God enters like a flash of lightning." * (Three Principles, xi. 45.) "Freedom by means of the eternal will grasp the darkness, and the latter reaches out for the light of free dom, but cannot attain it. It imprisons itself by means of its own desire within itself, and causes itself to be darkness. From these two namely, the dark impres sion and the desire for light or freedom which is direct ed towards the former, there results then in the former darkness the lightning-flash, the primitive condition of the fire. But freedom being a nothing, and there fore inapprehensible, it cannot retain the impression. Therefore the impression surrenders to freedom, and the latter devours the dark nature of the former. Thus freedom governs within the darkness, and is not com prehended by it. " {Signature, xiv. 22.) " Eternal unity or freedom, per se, is of infinite loveli ness and mildness, but the three qualities are sharp, pain ful, and even terrible. The will of the three qualities longs for the mild unity, and the unity longs for the fiery foundation and sensibility. Thus one enters into the other, and when this takes place the lightning-flash appears comparable to a spark produced by the friction of flint and steel. Thereby the unity attains sensibility, and the will of nature receives the mildunity. Thus the unity becomes a fountain of fire, and the fire penetrated by desire, like a fountain of love. " (Clavis, ix. 49.) Thus the light conquers the darkness, but does not destroy it : it merely becomes victorious over it and con sumes it in a manner comparable to that of the assimi lation of food by the organism which conquers and consumes that food by means of the fire of life. "When the spiritual fire and light have become ig nited in the darkness (it having, however, burned from * This ever-turning " wheel of Ixion " is represented by the Cross, the " Tree of Life." Free is the spirit of man before he enters this valley of suffering, but after he enters he is nailed to the cross of his own personal desires. Man himself is the " Cross," and he creates a cross for himself, from which there is no liberation until he discov ers the true spiritual Cross by entering into the realm of light through the power of the fire, which means that his spirit breaks through the bonds of matter and becomes again free. THE SEVEN QUALITIES, 93 all eternity), the great mystery of divine power and knowledge becomes eternally revealed therein, because in the fire all the qualities of nature appear exalted into spirituality. Nature herself remains what she is, but her issue namely, that which she produces, becomes spiritualized. In the fire the dark will is consumed, and thereby issues the pure fire-spirit, penetrated by the light-spirit. "* (Clavis, ix. 64.) ' ' Behold how all life in the external world attracts its food to itself. Thus you may recognize how life originates from death. There can be no life unless that from which life is to issue is broken up in its form. Everything has to enter into the state of anguish to attain the lightning-flash, and without this there will be no ignition." (Menschwerdung ; ii. 5.) This, then, is the beginning of the manifestation of God as the principle of fire and the principle of light. The Godhead, as such, the will of the Trinity willing to enter from the groundlessness into Trinity, is not yet a principle, and has no beginning, but is the beginning itself of itself. ' ' If a thing becomes that which it has not been before, this does not constitute a principle ; a principle is there where a form of life and motion begins, such as has not existed before. Thus the fire is a principle, and also the light which is born from the fire, but which nevertheless is not a quality of the fire, but has a life of its own." (Six Theosophical Points, \\. i.) In the fire there is represented the division of the two aspects in which God is manifesting Himself namely, as God and as nature ; also the division between the sweet life in love and the life in wrath. ''As the sun in the terrestrial plane transforms acerb ity into concord, so acts the light of God in the forms of eternal nature. This light shines into them and out of them ; it ignites them so that they obtain its will and * When this great internal revelation takes place, then is error de stroyed and the internal senses are opened to the direct perception of spiritual truth. There will then be no more necessity for drawing conclusions of any kind in regard to such unknown things, because the spirit perceives that which belongs to its sphere in the same sense as a seeing person sees external things. 94 THE DOCTRINES OF J A COB BOEHME. surrender themselves to it entirely. They then give up their own will and become as if they had no power at all of themselves, and are desirous only for the power of the light." {Six Theosophical Points, v. 3.) By the union of fire and light the third principle attains substantiality. * " If the Godhead according to the first and second principle is to be regarded only as a spirit and without any conceivable essentiality, there is in it nevertheless the desire to evolve a third principle, wherein rests the spirit of the two first principles, and wherein it will be come manifest as an image." (Six Theosophical Points, i- 25,) "The fire, receiving within itself the essence of de sire as its food, so that it may burn, renders a joyful spirit and opens the power of the mild essentiality in the light." (Six Theosophical Points, i. 57.) ' ' The fire, drawing within itself the mild essentiality of the light, there issues from it, by means of the wrath of death, the mild spirit that was enclosed therein, and which has within itself the quality of nature. " (Tilk. , i. 171.) When the power of the light becomes revealed it manifests its activity first of all in the Fifth Quality, which is evolved by means of the preceding four as sweet love, or a luminous water-spirit. "The first three principles are merely qualities con ducive to life, the fourth is life itself, but the fifth is the true Spirit. Whenever this power has been evolved from the fire, it lives within all the others and changes them all into its own sweet nature, so that painfulness and enmity cannot be found therein in any shape whatever." (Tabula Principles, i. 46.) ' ' The fifth quality is the true love-fire, which in the light separates from the painful fire, and wherein divine love appears as a substantial being. It has within it- * The first principle is the dark fiery will ; the second is light, love, and intelligence ; the third principle is the revelation. (Mind.) "The starry . heaven is the third principle of this world. It is a revelation and manifestation of eternity in God." (Threefold Life, vi. 59.) THE SEVEN QUALITIES. 95 self all the powers of divine wisdom ; it is the trunk or the center of the tree of eternal life, wherein God the Father becomes revealed in His Son by means of the speaking Word. " * (Grace, iii. 26.) In the Sixth Quality the divine powers, still united, and therefore undifferentiated and not manifest in the fifth, become differentiated and audible. "The sixth form of eternal nature is intelligent life or sound. The qualities being all in a state of equi librium in the light (the fifth), they now rejoice and acquire audibility. Thereby the desire of the unity enters into a state of (conscious) willing and acting, perceiving and feeling. " (Tabula Principles, i. 48.) "To constitute audible life, or the sound of the powers, hardness and softness, compactness and thin ness and motion are required. To constitute the sixth principle there are therefore required all the other quali ties of nature. The first form furnishes hardness, the second motion ; by means of the third division takes place. The fire changes the harshness of the conceived essence by consuming it into a spiritual being, repre senting mildness and softness, and this becomes formed into sound, according to the qualities which it contains." (MystcHum, v. n.) "Sound is the intelligence, wherein all the qualities recognize each other." (Clav., 240.) "This sound of hearing, seeing, feeling, tasting, and smelling is the true intelligent life ; for if one power enters into another one, then the latter receives the former in sound. When they enter into each other, each then awakens the other and recognizes the other." (Myster. Magn., v. 14.) This sound of course is not to be compared to terres trial audible sound. "In the light of God the kingdom of heaven (the consciousness of the spirit), sound is very subtle, sweet, and lovely, so that if compared with terrestrial noise, it is like a perfect stillness. Nevertheless in the realm of glory it is indeed comprehensible sound, and * " The reason why so few know true Love is because they seek for it within their desires ; but true Love resides within itself and is free from desire." (Supersensual Life. 31.) g6 THE DOCTRINES OF JACOB BOEHME. there is a language which is heard by the angels a language which is, however, only partaking of the nature of their world." * (Mysterium, v. 19.) TTie third principle reappears in the seventh, and there in consists the ' ' resurrection of the flesh. " ' ' The Seventh Principle is the corporeal comprehen sion of the other qualities. It is called ' Essential Wis dom ' or the ' Body of God. ' The third principle appears in the seven forms of nature in so far as they have been brought into comprehensibility in the seventh. This principle or state of being is holy, pure, and good. It is called the eternal uncreated heaven or the kingdom of God, and it is outspoken from the first principle, of the dark fire- world and from the holy light-flaming love- world." (Grace, iv. 10.) "The seventh form is the state of being wherein all the others manifest their activity, like the soul in the body. It is called Nature, and also the eternal essen tial wisdom of God." ( Tabulcs Principles, i. 49.) ' ' The seventh spirit of God is the body, being born from the other six spirits, and in it all the celestial figures are taking form. From it arises all beauty, all joy. If this spirit did not exist God would be imper ceptible." (Aurora, xi. i.) "Wisdom is the substantiality of the spirit. The spirit wears it as a garment, and becomes revealed thereby. Without it the form of the spirit would not be knowable ; it is the corporeity of the spirit. To be sure, it is not a bodily, tangible substance, like the bodies of men, but has nevertheless substantial and visible qualities which the spirit per se does not pos sess." f (Threefold Life, v. 50.) There is no language to describe the beauty and *" The whole cosmos in its objective form is Vaikhari Vach: the light of the Logos is the Madhyama form ; the Logos itself the Pasyanti form, and Parabrahmam the Para aspect of Vach. ' ' (Subba Row.) t Unless a man attains this spiritual substantiality through the process of spiritual regeneration, he will be a bodiless spirit and can nave no individual immortality. He will be like the guest at the marriage feast, mentioned in the Bible ; who was without a wedding garment, and therefore cast into outer darkness. THE SEVEN QUALITIES. 97 splendor of divine wisdom. Whatever there is of magnificence perceptible in this terrestrial world exists in the celestial world in a far superior state, in eternal spiritual perfection. ' ' Earthly language is entirely insufficient to describe what there is of joy, happiness, and loveliness con tained in the inner wonders of God. Even if the eter nal Virgin pictures them to our minds, man's constitu tion is too cold and dark to be able to express even a spark of it in his language." (Three Principles, xiv. 90.) ^ Neither are these superterrestrial pictures mere shadows or creations of fancy. "Just as the earth continually produces plants and flowers, trees and metals, and beings of various kinds, one always more glorious, stronger, and more beautiful than the rest ; and as on our terrestrial plane one form appears while others perish, there being a continual working and evolving of forms, likewise the eternal generation within the holy mystery continually takes place in great power ; so that, in consequence of this perpetual wrestling of spiritual powers, one after an other divine fruits appear by the side of each other, all and each of them in the radiance of beautiful colors. All that whereof the terrestrial world by which we are surrounded is merely an earthly symbol, exists in the celestial realm in exquisite perfection as a spiritual reality. It does not exist there merely as a spirit, a will, or a thought, but in corporeal substantiality, in essence and power, and appears inconceivable merely in comparison with the external material world."* (Signature, xvi. 18. ) This beauty the divine and essential wisdom, the eternal Virgin, does not produce by her own power, but by the power of God that acts within her. She herself is without any will of her own. * A man's heaven exists for him not outside of himself. If heaven is in him : then will he be in heaven and enjoy heaven wherever he may be. " Heaven is throughout the whole world and outside of it ; everywhere, without any separation, locality or place ; existing only within itself through the power of divine (interior) revelation. It is nothing else but a manifestation of the eternal One." (Supersensual Life, 42.) 7 98 THE DOCTRINES OF JACOB BOEHME. "Not wisdom, but the Spirit of God, is the center, or the discloser. As the soul is manifesting itself in the body by means of the flesh, and as the latter would have no power if it were not inhabited by a liv ing spirit, so the wisdom of God is the corporeity of the Holy Spirit, by means of which He assumes substantiality, so as to manifest Himself to Himself. Wisdom gives birth, but she would not do so if the Spirit were not acting within her. She brings forth without the power of the fire-life ; she has no ardent desire, but her joy finds its perfection in the manifesta tion of the Godhead, and therefore she is called a virgin in chastity and purity before God." (Tilk., ii. 64.) Divine wisdom exists only by means of the Trinity, and the latter can be revealed only by forming eternal nature within its own body.* "The light and the power of the sun disclose the mysteries of the external world by the production and growth of various beings. Likewise God, representing the eternal Sun, or the one eternal and only Good, would not reveal Himself without the presence of His eternal spiritual nature, wherein alone He can manifest His power. . Only when the power of God becomes differentiated and relatively conscious, so that there are individual powers to wrestle with each other during their love-play, will be opened in Him the great and immeasurable fire of love by means of the forthcoming of the Holy Trinity." (Grace, ii. 28.) The Father, ruling the first principle, the fire, gen erates eternally the Son, the light, by means of the seven forms of eternal nature ; and the Son, revealing Him self in the second principle as the light, for ever glori fies the Father, f * He who does good, in him Good becomes manifest, and he is in heaven. He who does evil consciously, in him Evil becomes con sciously manifest, and he is in hell. Thus God creates His own heaven or hell within the soul of man. " In God far and near are only one thing, one conception, everywhere Father, Son, and Holy Spirit." (Aurora, xix. 51.) tit is the omnipresent Father in man, and not any absent " father," who generates for him the Son within his own substance. " God dwelleth in a light, far out of human ken ; Become thyself that light, and thou shalt see Him then." (Angelus Silesius.) THE SEVEN QUALITIES. "The eternal will, the Father, conducts His heart, His eternal Son, by means of the fire into great triumph, into His kingdom of joy. " (Grace, ii. 21.) 'When the Father speaks His Word that is to say, when He generates His Son which is done continually and eternally, that Word first of all takes its origin in the first or acrid quality, where it becomes conceived. In the second or the sweet quality it receives its activ ity : in the third it moves ; in the heat it arises and ignites the sweet flow of power and the fire. Now all the qualities are made to burn by the kindled fire, and the fire is fed by them ; but this fire is only one and not many. This fire is the true Son of God Himself, who is continuing to be born from eternity to eternity. " (Aurora, viii. 81.) " The Father is the first of all conceivable beings, but if the second principle were not becoming manifest in the birth of the Son, He would not be revealed. Thus the Son, being the heart, light, love, and the beautiful and sweet beneficence of the Father, but being distinct from Him in His individual aspect, renders the Father reconciled, loving, and merciful. His birth takes place in the fire, but He obtains His personality and name by the ignition of the soft, white, and clear light, which He is Himself." (Three Principles, iv. 58.) " The Son is perpetually born from eternity to eternity, and shines perpetually into the powers of the Father while these powers are continually generating the Son." (Aurora, vii. 33.) The Holy Spirit, manifesting Himself in the third principle, issues eternally from the Father and the Son, and in and with Him issues the splendor of God's majesty.* " The Eternal Father becomes manifest in the fire, the Son in the light of the fire, and the Holy Spirit in the power of the life and the motion that issues from the fire and the light." (Signature, xiv. 34.) "The Holy Spirit reveals the Godhead in nature. * It will be well to bear in mind that no man can know anything about the splendor of God's majesty, unless that splendor is revealed to him by the power of the Holy Spirit acting within himself. No man can know the divine Trinity, unless that Trinity reveals itself to him in and through his own purified soul. 100 THE DOCTRINES OF JACOB BOEHME. He extends the splendor of the majesty, so that it may be recognized in the wonders of nature. He is not that splendor itself, but its power, and He introduces this splendor of the majesty into the substantiality wherein the Godhead is revealed." (Threefold Life, iv. 82 ; v. 39-) Thus the holy Trinity is everywhere, manifesting itself in and through the seven qualities of eternal nature. ' ' We Christians say that God is threefold, but one in essence, and this is misunderstood by the ignorant as well as by the half learned, for God is not a person except in Christ. He is an eternally generating power and the kingdom with all beings. " (Myst. , Magn. , vii. 5-) " He is generating Himself in a threefold aspect, and in this eternal generation there is nevertheless to be understood only one essence and generation ; neither Father, nor Son, nor Spirit ; but only the one eternal Life, or Good." (Myst. Magn.,, vii. u.) CHAPTER IV. CREA TION. " The seven great Rishis, the four preceding Manus, partaking of my nature, were born from my mind ; from them sprang the human race and the world." {Bhagavad Gita.) GOD is the supreme, fundamental, universal, self- existent eternal cause ; absolute and unimaginable glory, perfection, goodness, beauty, magnificence, and splendor. * He created everything out of His own self, as there was nothing but Himself to create from. It is, therefore, logical to suppose that the first powers which * " Know that the splendor which belongs to the sun and illumines the whole world, which is in the moon and in fire, is in me. Enter ing into the earth, I sustain all things by my energy, and I am the cause of the moisture that nourishes the herbs. " (Bhagavad Gita, xv. 12.) C RE A T.I ON. 1 01 He created and which were nearest to Him must have been divine and spiritual, all lower existences being more remote from His supreme state, belonging to a more "material" condition of creation. The same may be observed in man. His thoughts are nearer to his divine center and self than his muscles and bones, and the realm of his. soul is nearer to his spirit than his material body, and the more holy his thoughts the more will they be capable to communicate with the God in him. Boehme says : "God has created the holy angels, not by means of any substance foreign to His own self, but out of His own self, out of His power and eternal wisdom. " * (Aurora, iv. 26.) Truly, if there was or is nothing but God, it follows that God is the All, and that there is nothing which is not God. Nevertheless, those creations of God which are in a certain sense remote from the divine center are not divine, and therefore not God. "It is said that God is everything, that He is in heaven and earth, and also in the external world, and such an assertion is true in a certain sense ; because everything originates in and from God. But of what use is such a doctrine, which is not a religion ? Such a doctrine was accepted by the devil, who wanted to be manifest and powerful in everything. " (Tilk. , ii. 140. ) Such a system of Pantheism may satisfy the rational istic reasoner, but true divine knowledge has nothing to do with such a Pantheism nor with rationalistic Theism. It does not admit of a confounding of the terms " God " and the " world." The universe is not identical with God, neither is the spirit of man identical with his body. Not even the Christ is identical with God, in so far as He has become human. "The external world is not God, and will not be God in all eternity. The world is merely a state of existence wherein God is manifesting Himself. " f (Stief. , ii. 316.) * Angels are conscious powers. Powers as such are without any de fined form ; but they may assume or become manifested in forms. t Light and heat are both modes of motion ; nevertheless light is not heat. Thus also is Parabrahmam the basis of everything ; but the Logos is not Mulaprakriti; God is not " Matter." " The eternal spirit is the Supreme Brahma" 102 THE DOCTRINES OF JACOB BOEHME. God is not man. ' ' There will always a distinction have to be made between the Godhead and humanity, between the human will and the will of God." (Sttef., ii. 95.) The moon has no light of her own ; she merely re flects the light of the sun. Nevertheless the light com ing from the moon is not equal to sunlight. Likewise man's will and consciousness is derived from God ; but for all that it is only human, and not divine. "If a man says of himself, 'I, the living word of God in this my holy flesh and bone, say and do this or that,' he then dishonors the sacred name of God. This is also against the doctrines of the Bible ; for whenever the intellect of a man was selected for the purpose of prophecy, the prophet did not say, ' I, Mr. So-and-So, say this or that, ' but he said, ' Thus speaks the Lord ! ' This means that the Lord speaks in and through such a man, and the latter is His medium and instrument."* (Stie/., i. 84.) A man can never be God ; not even Christ in His human aspect made ever any such claims. " Christ never said, 'I, in My human selfhood, am the voice of God, I am speaking as God, in or with God,' etc.; but He said, ' The words which I speak are the Father's, who lives in Me ' that is to say, who lives in My human or natural self." (Stief., i. 94.) To the blind reasoner God is an universal blind and unconscious power ; the god existing within the imag ination of the narrow-minded sectarian is equally nar row ; but to the enlightened, God is a personal (indi vidual) God and all-loving Father, residing within His own holy omnipotence, superior to all that can be con ceived, f "Do not imagine God to be a blind power, existing and moving in, or beyond, or above heaven, having neither reason nor knowledge, comparable to the sun, who runs around in his orbit, sending out light and * The Lord is the true and only real Self, the master over all the illusive " selves " or " ego's" that go to form the constitution of man. t Thus a man is superior to the body or the house wherein he lives ; but for all that he does not reside outside of it, nor is the house or body the man himself. CREATION. 103 heat regardless whether it benefits or harms the earth and her creatures. No ! Not thus is the Father; but He is an omnipotent, all-wise, and all-knowing God, in Himself good, kind, and merciful, joyful and even joy itself." (Aurora, iii. n.) "If you consider the depth of heaven, the stars, the elements, and the earth, you will, of course, not grasp with your eyes the pure and clear Godhead, although God is there and within it ; but if you rise up in your thoughts and direct your mind to God, who in His holi ness rules within the All, you are then penetrating through heaven and grasping the very sacred heart of God Himself." (Aurora, xxiii. n.) God is not subject to the law of evolution, but the law has its foundation in Him. God as a Spirit, eter nally perfected within Himself, did not need to create for the purpose of perfecting Himself. There is no being who can perfect itself by its own power, or give to itself anything which is not within its reach. The growth of a plant and the unfoldment of the human soul requires the presence of a superior power. A God capable to grow would presuppose the presence of a superior God from which to draw power. Only that which descends from above can rise again upwards, as is symbolized by the double interlaced triangle. " Before the time of the creation of heaven, the stars, the elements, and also before the creation of the angels, there was nothing but Deity, reproducing itself for ever sweetly and lovely, and conceiving of its own image." (Aurora, xxiii. 15.) " God did not create for the purpose of perfecting Himself, but to reveal Himself to Himself in great joy and magnificence. This joy did not begin with the beginning of creation, but it has been from all eternity a subjective state in God." (Signature, xvi. 2.) God did not make the world out of something intel lectually conceivable or out of something that was not Himself ; neither does a man create the images which constitute his thoughts out of anything outside of his own mind. Before creation took place it was resting (subjectively) like a seed in His own completion and 104 THE DOCTRINES OF JACOB BOEHME. perfection, comparable to the imagination of a man whose mind rests in a peaceful slumber, while for all that the divine spirit in him is self-conscious. * " We cannot truly say that this world has been made out of something-. " Signature, xiv. 7. ) "We cannot reasonably suppose any formation or differentiation to have existed in the eternal One from which, or according to which (formation) something could have been made ; for if such a form, or predispo sition to making a form, had existed, there would have been another cause, besides God, from which the form would have resulted, and then there would have been something else (another god), and not the one only and eternal God." (Baptism, i. i.) "Creation is nothing else but a revelation of the all- essential, unfathomable God, and whatever exists in His own eternal evolution, which is without a begin ning, is also in that creation. But the latter is in re gard to God what an apple that grows upon a tree is to the tree. The apple is not the tree, but grows out of the power of the tree. Likewise all things have their origin in divine desire, and that desire caused them to enter into being. In the beginning there was nothing to produce them, except the mystery of eternal gen eration (evolution)." {Signature, xvi. i.) " Imagine a mother (a womb) having the seed with in herself. As long as she contains the seed as such, it belongs to herself, but when it becomes a child then is the seed not hers, but it is the property of the child. Thus it is with the angels. They have all been config urated out of the divine seed ; but after this has been done each one has its own corporeal being to itself." (Aurora, iv. 34.) "The reason why the eternal and unchangeable God has created the world is an unfathomable mystery ; it can only be said that He did it in His love."f (Ham- berger. ) * " The eternal parent, wrapped in her ever invisible robes, had slumbered again for seven eternities." (H. B. Blavatsky : The Secret Doctrine.) t Boehme says : " Love is greater than God." (Supersensual Life, 27.) Love causes God to create worlds. CREA TION. '05 God, being pure knowledge, does not require to have recourse to reasoning, for the purpose of attaining an object ; He being Himself His own subject and object, self-sufficient and eternal. We can, therefore, only say that He creates ; because He is an ever-flowing fountain of love, in the same sense as the sun shines ; because he is an everlasting source of light. " How it came to happen that God stirred to produce creation, while He Himself is unchangeable, cannot be discovered, and an attempt to do so would merely produce a confusion of mind." (Menschwerdung, i. 2, "We cannot tell how it happened that that which stood eternally in the essentiality of God entered into motion, because there is nothing that could have caused God to move, and the will of God is eternal and unchangeable. We can only say that the Three was desirous of having children of its own kind."* (For ly Questions, i. 273.) The world could not have been made as it exists now, directly out of the purely divine state of being. In its material aspect it is material and not spiritual. God is unchangeable and independent of external conditions (which do not exist for Him) ; but the manifestations of His power change according to the conditions that are caused by their mutual relations. Thus the light of the sun remains always the same ; but it gives vari ous hues to the flowers, according to their own indi vidual qualities. ' ' No creature can issue from the purely divine state of being, because this state has neither cause nor begin ning, nor can it be brought into a beginning." (Grace, viii. 45.) "Within the light and the heart of God, as such, there can be nothing created ; because the light is the end of nature and has no quality. Therefore it cannot * " Creation begins with the intellectual energy of the Logos. The universe in its infinite details and with its wonderful laws does not spring into existence by mere chance, or merely on account of the potentialities locked up in Mulaprakriti, but through the instru mentality of the Logos ; which is the one existing representative of the power and wisdom of Parabrahm" (Subba Row.) lo6 THE DOCTRINES OF JACOB BOEHME. change or be made into anything, but remains for evei the same in eternity." (Three Principles, x. 41.) Nevertheless it is the Triune God that created all things out of eternal nature. We may say that the world, as we know it, is constituted entirely of forms of heat, or of motion, or of electric conditions, or light, etc., etc. All this is true in so far as it refers to the relations which it bears towards ourselves. All these powers are only modes of manifestation of one pri mordial and originally divine power, namely, the will of God acting in His own eternal wisdom. "The eternal Triune God created all things by and through the eternal Word out of His own self, namely, out of His two aspects or qualities ; out of eternal nat ure, the fury or wrath, and out of His love ; by means of which the wrath or ' ' nature " was pacified. Thus He created them, and caused them to enter into exist ence." (Stie/., ii. 33.) "The Father, being primordial Will, speaks out all things by means of the Word, out of the center of free dom ; but the issue from the Father by means of the Word is the spirit of the power, and this spirit gives form to that which has been outspoken, so that it appears as a spirit." (Threefold Life, ii. 63.) This magic * power, or ' ' Word, " has been in God from all eternity, and as such it is God and the "Christ " in its purely divine aspect. There is not any time during which "God goes to sleep " or loses His self-consciousness ; neither does the idea to create come to Him from some outside in fluence ; but God beholds the universe from all eternity in His wisdom as a mirror, and by the act of creation He projects into objectivity (so to say) the image exist ing subjectively in Him. It is, therefore, Nature and not God that goes to rest during the "nights of crea- * " Everything came into existence out of Magia ; for in eternity, in the abyss, there exists nothing but that which is Magia" ( Theos. Quest., 194.) This magic power is non-existent and an absurdity for the ra tional mind ; because that mind cannot grasp the power of the divine Spirit. "Science alone is not the true way for the attainment of knowl edge in the Mystery ; but to be born of God is the true finding, for outside of that there is nothing but Babel." (Theos. Quest., 194.) CREATION. 107 tion," in the same sense as the body of a man goes to sleep, while his spirit remains self-conscious in its own sphere. * " Wisdom is a divine imagination, wherein the ideas of the angels and souls have been seen from eternity ; not as substantial, actual creatures, but non-essential, like the images in a mirror." (Clavis, x. 5.) "The likeness of God, having been seen in the wis dom of God from all eternity, and in which God created Man, was without life and substantiality before the beginning of the time of this world. It was merely a reflection of the image wherein God saw how He would be in an image. " (Stief., ii. 123.) " Man has not been from eternity; but only like a shadow stood the image, wherein God in His wisdom knew all things from eternity, in the mirror of His own wisdom." (Stief., ii. 143.) The will of God is only one ; but by its action within eternal nature a great many divine powers are produced. The ideas existing in the universal mind are innumer able, and therefore there is the possibility of innumer able different forms coming into existence by the action of the divine will. There is, however, nothing fully perfect besides the Godhead, and consequently there exist on all planes beings of different states of perfection, and capable to become more perfect by means of the will of God, which is the law of evolution, f ' ' The kinds of creatures are as varied as are the eter nal thoughts in the wisdom of God." (Three Principles, ix- 37-) "As the divine powers are manifold, even innumer able, so there is a differentiation of ideas and a difference among the angels ; in consequence of which some * " When the time of Pralaya comes, all the bhutams return into Avyaktam ; but there is an entity higher than this Avyaktam, namely Parabrahmam." (Subba Row.) t The original powers remain always the same ; but the Uphadt's or forms wherein they become manifest are subject to change. Thus heat does not evolute into something higher than heat ; but by man ifesting itself in some substance, it may change the form of that substance from the solid to the fluid or gaseous state and produce there in the phenomena of light. Thus Wisdom remains what it is; but if it becomes manifest in the mind it changes the mind and renders it wise. lo8 THE DOCTRINES OF JACOB BOEHME. appear like kings or rulers and others as servants." (Theosophic Questions, v. 9-12.) "There being nothing perfect except the divine Three, consequently all things differ from one another, and likewise the angels have different qualities." (Three fold Life, v. 90. ) These "angels" (good or evil) are living and con scious powers existing in nature. Neither the power of God nor any angel, or devil or creature of any kind, can have any existence outside of Nature, i.e., outside of the dark fire-ground, the will of God, out of which every thing is born. "No created spirit can exist without the fire-world. Even the love of God could not exist, if not the wrath of God, or the world of fire, were existing in Him ; for the wrath or the fire of God is a cause of light, strength, power, and omnipotence. " (Stief. ii. 4.) " The wrath (the fire) is the root of all things and the origin of all life ; in it is the cause of all strength and power, and from it are issuing all the wonders (mani festations of power). Without that fire there would be no consciousness, but everywhere a mere nothing." Three Principles, xxi. 14.) "No being can be born unless it has within itself the fiery triangle, i. e., the first three natural forms."* (Grace, ii. 38.) The foundation from which all powers and ideas spring is eternal ; but the created beings as such have a beginning in time. " Everything has been from all eternity, but merely as ideas, and not as corporeally existing things. Only incorporeal spirits existed (as ideas) in eternity, as in a world of magic, where one thing contains the other in potentiality." (Forty Questions, xix. 7.) "The creation of the angels has a beginning, but not * Every form is the product or manifestation of a power which is building up such forms. Without the presence of such a power there could be no manifestation of it ; neither can any form exercise or know any power except that which resides therein. Therefore a being incapable of any emotion would be unable to rise above the. sphere of emotions ; a being without any energy to commit evil would have no energy to accomplish anything good. CREATION. 109 that of the powers whereof they have been created. The latter are co-eternal with the eternal beginning. " (Mys terium, viii. i.) " In eternity, in eternal Will, there was a nature, but it existed therein only as a spirit, and its essentiality was not manifested except in the mirror of that Will, i.e., in eternal wisdom." {Signature, xiv. 8.) ' ' The mysterium magnum, is the chaos wherefrom originates good and evil, light and darkness, life and death. It is the foundation or womb wherefrom are issuing souls and angels and all other kinds of beings, and wherein they are contained as in one common cause, comparable to an image that is contained in a piece of wood before the artist has cut it out. " * (Clavis, vi. 23.) Creation was an act of the free will of God, and not induced by any inferior cause. The will of God would not be divine if it were not free. It is itself the law, and therefore not subject to "natural law," or the law of mechanics. Creation took place by means of God unfolding His eternal nature, whereby through His active love or desire He caused that which heretofore had been in Him merely as a spirit (subjectively) to become substantial and corporeal (objective).f ' ' The created world was before the mysterium mag num, for all things were then in a spiritual condition in wisdom, as in a continual play or wrestle of love. The one only Will conceived this spiritual form into the Word, and permitted the intelligence (the separate con sciousness i.e. , the acrid and astringent quality), to act without restraint, so that each power could enter or build itself a form according to its own specific quality." (Grace, iv. 12.) "The eternal Mind is always desirous for the power, * In the soul of man exists potentially the whole of the universe heaven and hell, God and the devil, angels and spirits, the whole of the celestial, terrestrial, and infernal kingdoms, with all their powers and essences ; but unless these powers become manifested as forms (created beings on the spiritual, astral, or terrestrial plane), they can have no existence recognizable to his internal senses. t " What springs up in the Logos at first is simply an image, a con ception of what it is to be in the cosmos. This Light or energy catches the image and impresses it upon cosmic matter." (Subba Row.) no THE DOCTRINES OF JACOB BOEHME. and the power is the astringency, and the astringency is the contraction, attraction, or the eternal fiat, which creates and renders corporeal that which the eternal Will desires in its own benevolence. The Will desires by means of the keen fiat to bring into substantiality (render objective) that which it beholds in eternal Wisdom."* (Three Principles, xiv. 74.) Creation could, however, become actually complete only by means of the activity of all the seven divine spirits. It is therefore true that in one sense it was not God, the primordial Cause, that directly created the world, but the elohims or ' ' powers " that created it by means of the power received from the fundamental causation. " The universe with all its beings has been created out of eternal nature, out of the seven spirits of eternal nature." (Threefold Life, iii. 40.) " Whenever anything is born out of the divine Es sence, it is brought into form, not merely by one spirit, but by all the seven." (Aurora, x. 4.) "When the Godhead stirred for the purpose of creat ing a world, it softly moved within the acrid quality and contracted the latter within the divine sal-nitre," (Aurora, xiii. 94.) In the formation of beings, their own spirit co-operates with the universal Spirit. The universal Life could not produce a tree out of the four elements if there were not a seed containing the qualities necessary to grow into a tree. Nevertheless, by the expression ' ' their own spirit," it is not to be understood as if these spirits were anything essentially different from God. They are merely individual centers, receiving their power from the universal Fountain of love. "Originally the spirit is a magic gush or outburst of fire and desires for substantiality that is to say, ' form. ' This is then caused by that desire, and constitutes the corporeity of the spirit, and the spirit is then called a created being. " (Tilk., i. 186. ) Every human being has within himself the capacity * Thus the divine spirit in man, by means of his thoughts, brings the powers which exist in his microcosm into shapes which are objective to him, and which form the soul world wherein he resides. THE ANGELS. 1 1 1 to create, but not every one has that power developed. Everybody can imagine, but not every one is artist enough to bring the objects of his imagination into an external objective form by painting or sculpture. Like wise every one has good and evil powers within him self, but not every one has his spiritual strength suffi ciently developed to create of them living and conscious forms. ' ' The center of each thing is spirit, co-existing with the Word. The separation (differentiation) of a thing (by which it distinguishes itself from other things) is in the quality of its will, by means of which it assumes a form or state of being according to its own essential (predominating) desire." (Letters, xlvii. 5.) "Even to-day the act of creation still continues, and it will not end until the judgment of God arrives. Then will that which has grown in the holy tree of life become separated from the unholy thistles and thorns." (Three Principles, xxiii. 25.) "Whether or not God will create something more out of His will after the end of this time is not percep tible to my spirit, for it does not penetrate deeper than within its own center wherein it lives, and therein is the paradise and the kingdom of heaven." (Principles, ix. 41.) CHAPTER V. THE ANGELS. " If you wish to hear the Holy Ghost speak out of the mouth of another you must first enter yourself with your will into the spirit of holiness." JACOB BOEHME. IT is perfectly useless to attempt to enter into the oretical speculations for the purpose of trying to find out whether or not the doctrines of Jacob Boehme in regard to that which transcends the reasoning power of man are true or not. Logic can never supply the place of perception ; it can at best teach us what a thing cannot be, but it does not enable us to see what 112 THE DOCTRINES OF JACOB BOEHME. it is. The only way to convince ourselves whethef there is a divine state of existence and celestial powers is to seek within ourselves for these powers which Jacob Boehme describes. If we succeed we shall then know the Holy Trinity and the archangels ; in the meantime a consideration of Boehme's doctrines may serve to destroy the erroneous conceptions which hinder us from seeing the truth as it exists in ourselves. God (the divine primordial Will) by becoming ob jective to Himself, and thereby constituting Himself a created being, assumed a threefold aspect, which gave rise to three different self-conscious divine powers, called ' ' archangels, " representing the three types of the Holy Trinity. The angels or powers are called Michael, Lucifer, and Uriel. * "God, constituting Himself a created being, assumed the aspect of such a being in regard to His trinity ; and as this trinity is the greatest and highest in God, also He created three princes of angels (divine reflections of His own image) which are superior to all others. " f (Aurora, xii. 88.) " Michael represents God the Father. | This is not to be understood as if he were God the Father Himself ; but there is among the created beings (the angels) one who represents God the Father. The circle or space wherein he with his angels is created is his kingdom, and he is a beloved son of God, a joy for his Father. You ought not to compare him with the heart or the light of God, which is in the totality of the Father, and which, like the Father Himself, has neither beginning nor end. This prince is a created being, and has (as such) a beginning ; but he is in God the Father, and bound to Him in love. Therefore he wears upon his head the crown of honor, power, and strength, and except God Himself in His trinity, there can be nothing found in heaven that is higher, or more beautiful or powerful, than he. " (Aurora, xii. 86.) * Whether we call them by those names, or whether we adopt the. names by which they are called in other theologies, will be of no consequence, and not alter the fact that such powers exist. t " Some philosophers were of the opinion that the angels were made out of light. They have been in error ; for the angels were not made our of light only, but out of all the powers of God." (Aurora, iv. 26.) \ Jehovah. THE ANGELS. 113 "As Michael has been created after the type and beauty of God the Father, so was Lucifer created after the type and beauty of God the Son, bound to Him in love, and his heart was resting in the center of light, as if he were God Himself." Aurora, (xii. 101.) "The third king, Uriel, is formed after the type and character of the Holy Spirit. He is a magnificent and beautiful prince of God, and also bound up in love with the other princes, as in one heart."* Aurora, xii. 3.) From the three result the seven, according to a law that is manifesting itself eternally on all planes of exist ence. There are seven qualities or properties revealed in the life of God ; there are seven natural qualities, and there are also seven high angels besides the former three, after which follow innumerable subdivisions of angels and spirits, occupying different ranks on the ladder of eternal progression, f These " angels," " thrones," and " dominions" we find also in the Hindu mythology, although under different names. It ought to be kept in mind that ' ' myths " are not ' ' fables. " Myths are representations of actualities clothed in a fabulous form. Their kernel is true, even if the shell in which it is clothed is an illusion. "There are seven principal qualities in the divine Power, wherefrom the center of God is born, and like wise there are some powerful princes of angels created, each one, according to his main quality, being a ruler in the army to which he belongs. Each of them is, next to his king or archangel, the chieftain of other subordinate angels." (Aurora, xii. 7.) " God has also called into existence other princes of * The One, the " /," in its breathing itself out, manifests itself as a trinity " I EH." The " O " represents the circumference ; the " VAH" the joyful issue from the breath. Thus in the word "Jehovah" is represented God and His threefold power, symbolized by the three Archangels : Michael therefore represents strength, Lucifer intel ligence, and Uriel love . All this is also represented in the word AUM. (See Clavis, 16.) t " The angels are many and of many different kinds, having various offices to fulfill." (Myster. Magn., viii. 30) "They are fire-flames illu mined by the light of God." (Three Principles, x. 41.) 114 THE DOCTRINES OF JACOB BOEHME. angels, corresponding to the seven spirits, such as Gabriel, Raphael, etc." (Aurora, xii. 88.) "We have to consider especially seven high princely divisions in three hierarchies, according to the fountain of the seven qualities of nature, each of these forms ultimating in one throne." (Grace, x. 24.) Although these self-conscious powers or angels are differentiated, each class and each individual having its own special characteristics, nevertheless they orig inate all from one common root, and in so far as they have remained faithful to their Creator, they are united by the most powerful love and harmony, and mingle with each other like the individual tones constituting one grand accord in creation. " The angels have among themselves only one love- will. Neither of them envies the other on account of his beauty, but they are in regard to each other like the spirits of God. They love each other, and neither of them imagines himself to surpass another in beauty ; but each rejoices in the beauty and loveliness of the rest." (Aurora, xii. 17.) ' ' When the spirits of God arise in their divine glory, they cannot be bound in such a manner as would pre vent them from intermingling with each other, and the angels are not limited by the locality in which they reside. The spirits of God perpetually rise within each other, and in their eternal generation they enjoy a con tinual exchange of love. Thus the holy angels move within each other and go with each other in all the three kingdoms, whereby each one receives from the other beauty of form, loveliness and virtue, and supreme happiness ; but each one retains the position belonging to him (his center of gravitation) which in his aspect as a created being has been assigned to him as his own special property." (Aurora, xii. 57.) All the angels have been created out of the fire and the light ; each of them is therefore a complete being, having within himself all the seven qualities in various stages of unfoldment. In the evolution of the seventh the corporeal body is formed, because the third quality reappears in the form of the seventh. This reappearance THE ANGELS. 115 of the third within the seventh constitutes the "resur rection of the flesh." Not in a dead and putrefied corpse, but in the living soul, does that resurrection take place. "When God created the angels, the principle of fire and light became manifest. Their spirit or life-anguish (consciousness) has its origin in the fire. From thence it passed through the light, and became there the anguish of love, by which the wrath was extinguished. " (Men- schwerdung, i. 3-10.) "The angels have all been created in the first prin ciple, formed and corporified by the moving Spirit, and illumined by the light of God." (Three Principles, iv. 67.) ' ' From all eternity the light of God was lovely, sweet, and clear ; but when God moved to create, the matrix (the foundation), with its fiery, dark, acrid, and bitter qualities, became manifest ; for the angels have been created out of that matrix into the light, and rendered corporeal by the moving Spirit." (Aurora, v. 24.) "Each angel has the power of the seven primitive spirits within himself." (Aurora, xii. 8.) " The body of the angels that is to say, its appre hensibility, originates from the seventh spirit, and the generating powers in that body are the seven spirits." (Aurora, xvi. 15.) "The body of the angels is the incorporated spirit of nature, and it encloses the seven other spirits. They generate themselves in that body, as is also the case in the Godhead. "* (Aurora, iii. 30.) If the terrestrial world which we know is corporeal to us, having been thrown into objectivity by the power of the divine Will acting upon the images existing in the bosom of eternal Wisdom, there is no reason why the same Will should not have called into existence in the same way a superterrestrial, supersensual, and celes tial world, whose subjects will be as real and corporeal * In the angels, however, the third principle, the reasoning mind, is not unfolded. In them are perception and emotion, but not specula tion ; neither do they require to speculate, because they perceive and know. Il6 THE DOCTRINES OF JACOB BOEHME. to its inhabitants as the objects in our world are cor poreal to us. ' ' There is a life superior to life in this world in eter nity. The spirit of this world (the terrestrial mind) can not conceive of its nature. It has within itself all the qualities of this terrestrial life, but not in such inflamed es sences as the latter. Truly, it also has afire, and a very powerful one, but it burns in a different way ; it is sweet, mild, and without pain ; it does not consume, but causes majesty and living splendor, and its spirit is pure love and joy. " (Threefold Life, viii. i.) "In heaven, in the spiritual world, are the same qualities as there are in the terrestrial world ; but they are there not manifested in such a furious (gross) form but in a superior state, like darkness that is absorbed by light. " ( Mysterium, x. 7. ) As the eyes of the blind are unable to see the objects of the external world, so those whose spiritual percep tions have not been opened will be unable to perceive the objects existing within the inner world. There are objective products in that celestial world which appear there as ' ' natural " as ours appear on the terrestrial plane ; but as the celestial world is far more refined, glorious, and beautiful than the terrestrial world, those products must also be superior to any that can be found upon this earth.* ' ' The celestial powers, by their interaction, generate trees and bushes, whereon grows the beautiful and lovely fruit of life. Likewise, by means of these powers, there arise various flowers of beautiful celestial colors and exquisite odor, in a similar manner as in this perverted * When man, through the power of divine Love becoming active in him, liberates himself from his limited personality and from the bond age of his external senses, he finds himself in a kingdom of light, filled with beautiful forms, whose existence is far more real than that of the things existing upon the sensual plane. All that we know or ;rceive, even in this terrestrial existence, exists within ourselves, hus it is also in the celestial state. All forms are merely symbols of invisible powers. If evil exists in us, we will recognize the sym bols of evil ; if only good exists in us, we will realize only the exist ence of Good. " Within myself is to be the paradise. All that belongs to God the Father will appear in me as a form or image of the essentiality of the divine world.'' (Signatura Rerum. xii, 13.) THE ANGELS. 117 and dark terrestrial valley various kinds of trees, shrubs, flowers, and fruits grow, and as the earth produces beautiful stones, silver, and gold. All these external forms are symbols of the celestial generation. Nature labors very diligently with the degenerated and inert earth, for the purpose of producing celestial forms and kinds ; but she produces only dead, dark, bitter, cold, and evil fruits. In heaven there are no such dead, hard, wooden trees as in the terrestrial sphere, but spiritual growths. Nevertheless we speak, not symbolically, but of real, actual plants, and this is to be taken in no other than in a literal sense." (Aurora, iv. 10. ) The objects existing in the ideal, but nevertheless perfectly real world, are as far above those existing in the external world as the ideal conceptions of a great genius are above what he can possibly execute by his hands. The realm which formerly was governed by Lucifer embraced our earth and the whole depth of the starry sky. The realms of Michael and Uriel are equal in ex tent to the former, and exist beyond * the starry sky. "What Boehme says about the extent of the king doms of Michael and Uriel is not to be taken in an external terrestrial sense. The realm of Lucifer before his rebellion was immaterial like the others, and only afterwards descended into materiality and terrestrial relations to space." (Hamberger.) "The whole locality of this world, the depth of the earth and above the earth, up to the sky and the created heaven itself, which we see with our eyes, but which, nevertheless, we cannot comprehend with our senses all this space is one kingdom, wherein Lucifer was the ruler before his fall ; but the other two kingdoms, that of Michael and Uriel, exist beyond the created heaven and are equal to the former realm." (Aurora, vii. 7.) "The angels are God's instruments in governing the world, and as such they not only glorify the celestial nature wherein they rule, but they also dominate over the terrestrial world and its individual regions." * This " beyond " is not to be supposed to mean " outside of this world : " the three realms are one ; they are three aspects of one light. Il8 THE DOCTRINES OF JACOB BOEHME. They rule the world according to the principle of divine wisdom which is manifested in and through them, and not, like man, according to their notions or smart ness or policy. They execute the will of God, and not any will of their own.* "God the eternal One rules all things by means of the activity of the angels. The power and the action are of God ; but they are His instruments. " (Theosoph- ical Questions, vi. 7. ) ' ' That which the angels will and desire is brought into images and forms by means of their thoughts." (Theosophical Questions, vi. 9.) They are full of the will of divinity, arid therefore their thoughts are rendered effective by that will, and do not vanish like the superficial fancies of man, fed by his imaginary self-will. "Whenever the celestial melody of the angels begins to sound, there are arising within the divine sal-nitre various worlds of growths, figures, and magnificent colors." (Aurora, xii. 24.) Each country has its presiding guardian angel and his legions. There are also angels over the four elements over fire, air, water and earth. They are all servants of the great God. There are also spirits of the world of darkness, that are against the holy world and espe cially opposed to man. "f (Mysterium Magn. , viii. 9. If man knew the beauties of the spiritual world by which he is surrounded, and which he may see when he awakens from the dream of external life by becom ing self-conscious in the spirit, his interest in the affairs * They cannot exercise any " self-will of their own," because they are above reasoning ; not having descended to the plane of the lower Manas, where the illusion of " self " originates. t The belief in guardian angels is not a fable. Man is surrounded by good and by evil, self-conscious and invisible powers, which may influence him for good or for evil. His soul is the battle-field where the combat between devils and angels takes place, and he is free to side with the one or the other, as is beautifully described in the " Bhagavad Gita." The evil influences are easily attracted if we merely remain passive to their power ; but the spirit of holiness can not enter unless unholiness is chased away. In this battle against evil the angels are alway ready to assist man in an invisible manner against the temptations of the " devils," provided that he is willing to receive such an aid. THE ANGELS. \ 19 of this mundane existence would be diminished to a considerable extent. Such a knowledge, however, is only attainable to those who are capable of entering the interior state, and has nothing to do with the dreams of the visionary who revels among the products of his own fancy. St Martin says : "There " (in the higher world) "it is not like in our dark dwelling-place, wherein sounds can only be compared with sounds, colors with colors, and a substance only with that which is directly related to it. There all things are more closely related with each other. There the light is sounding ; melody pro duces light; colors have motions, because they are living, and the objects are all at once sounding, trans parent, moving, and can penetrate each other. " " The external nature of this world cannot com prehend the nature of heaven. Both are compared with each other, like death compared with life. We cannot see the angels according to our external nature, neither can they be with us externally ; but they reside internally with us. Whenever we battle with the devil they ward off his blows, and thus they take under their protection the soul that aspires for that which is holy." {Aurora, xix. 30.) " Know that the devil often fights with the angels. When the soul of man is secure in God, then the devil desires to enter ; but he is stopped, so that he cannot do what he wills. Whenever the soul imagines, and lustful desires begin to arise, then is the devil vic torious."* (Threefold Life, xiv. 13.) "Each principle is attracted by, knows, and loves that which is like unto its own self. The principles existing within the periphery are acting upon their corresponding principles in the center. Love acts upon love, hate upon hate ; good is attracted by good, and evil by evil f If there is no evil desire active in man, * Therefore no man can resist, successfully resist the devil by fighting him on the same level, nor can any one overcome temp tations in the end except by rising above them. t Man without any principle could know nothing ; it is always a certain principle in him that recognizes its corresponding principle in nature. A man without love cannot know what love is. Neither can any one recognize the Christ, or be recognized by Him, unless he has the Christ within his own soul. 120 THE DOCTRINES OF JACOB BOEHME. evil influences cannot take root in his soul. The devil is the poorest of all creatures. He cannot move a leaf upon a tree unless the wrath is contained there in." (Theosophical Points v. 18. ) The self-will, i.e., the will of God perverted in a created being, is the ' ' fire-life " of the latter and the cause of its anguish. All the angels have originally been created out of the light ; but for the purpose of remaining therein they had to give up to God their fire- life, and not rise up in their self-will against the Lord. "Each angel who wishes to live in the light and power of God must give up the selfhood of the domin ion of the fire within the desire ; he must surrender himself and all that belongs to him to the will of God ; he must die in regard to his self-will, and un fold in the light of love as a fruit of divine love, so that the will-spirit (the spiritual will) of God shall rule his life." (Site/., ii. 49.) "The devil was an angel, and it would have been his duty to put his imagination (faith) into the light of God. In that case he would have received the divine substantiality in his imagination, and his light would have remained luminous. The fire fountain would have remained in that essence and quality, and he would have remained an angel. "* (Tilk. i. 187.) In the recognition of good and evil rests the freedom of choice. This knowledge is attained by means of the fourth form. If that quality has awakened in a being, then may he go ahead in a forward direction either toward absolute good or evil until the orbit is reached, where the attraction of one or the other ceases to act. As long as this limit is not reached, a being may either enter the divine love-will, or turn in the opposite direc tion, and sink within the lower qualities of nature. " In the lightning flash, the fourth form of nature, is the origin of life, and it attains perfection in the con stancy of the fire. Here, in the object of division, is the spirit born, and this spirit can either go backwards and enter with his imagination into his mother, the * Thus those who crave for intellectual knowledge, while deserting the basis of the true knowledge of God, will ultimately become the victims of their own conceit, and turn into devils. THE ANGELS. 121 dark world, or move forward, and by means of death sink into the anguish of the fire, and then bloom out into life. He is free, and therefore either of these two ways is within his choice. " (Theosophical Points, vii. 2.) Every being is free and responsible only according to the degree of its knowledge ; not its intellectual knowledge, but according to that which is the result of the experiences of its spirit its ''conscience." " In the principle of fire is the turning-point. There the will may move in whatever direction he chooses. If it desires the ' ' Nothing, " i. e. , freedom, it must sac rifice itself to the fire, and sink in the death of that principle.* Then the Father, the eternal Will to nature, will put it into the will of the Son ; where for the great deal which that being has given, it will receive all ; but not to its own honour, but for the glorification and power of God. When this is accomplished, God in such a man is his will and his doing, and his fire be comes a light and a clear mirror ; but if he does not will to do so, but wishes to be himself a master, and to possess multiplicity for his own self, then must he enter into the severe astringency, into the world of darkness, and cannot conduct himself in his principles higher than up to the fire, or rather only up to the lightning flash. He remains in darkness, because only freedom outside of nature can supply the light and the clearness. " f (Theosophical Points, vii. 6). Lucifer could have retained his state of celestial life ; it was by his own will that he surrendered himself to the wrath of nature. J * To " desire the Nothing " does not mean to become unconscious of everything, like a man when he goes to sleep, but it means " con tentment," and a state of perfect rest and happiness to be found in the self-consciousness of being one with the All. tThe fourth form is the object of division after the death of the body, and the center of consciousness will be either with the higher part or the lower, according to the preponderance of either good or evil. The higher consciousness enters the light ; the lower con sciousness continues to exist in its own hell-fire and self-created suffering. God " redeems " man by redeeming Himself from man's animal elements, to which he is tied during the terrestrial life of the personality. t This may perhaps be rendered more plain by expressing it as follows : That quality of the spirit, which is symbolized by " Lucifer," 122 THE DOCTRINES OF JACOB BO EH ME. ' ' The life of the eternal creature was in its beginning entirely free, because it was in the appropriate har monious temperature. The angels were created for heaven, and even if the world of darkness with the realm of phantasy was contained therein, it was in latent condition, and not manifest. By the action of the free will in the fallen angels the world of darkness became objective in them ; because they were inclined towards phantastry (speculation), and consequently the latter took possession of them and arose in their essence. " (Grace, iv. 45.) " One should not think that King Lucifer could not have remained that which he was. He had before him the light of the majesty, just like the other throne angels. If he had contemplated therein, he would have remained an angel ; but because he acted accord ing to his own selfish will, he is now an enemy of the love of God, and of all holy angels. " (Menschwerdung, i. 217.) He knew the will of God, and nevertheless acted in opposition to it, and therefore he did not become merely an idiot, but a devil. "The realm of illusion has been from eternity, and gave cause to the angels' fall ; it presented the con ditions without which such a fall from the angelic state could not have taken place ; but Lucifer entered into it by his own free will, and without any coercion." {Grace, vi. 2.) " Lucifer had within himself the fire and the light He was free. Why then did he imagine (project his consciousness) into the fire ? The light and the power of God did not draw him into the fire, but the wrath of nature. Why did his spirit consent?"* (Menschwer , i. 5.) and characterized especially by expansion and intelligence, became desirous for more light and knowledge, and being unable to rise above its own self, it sought for it within a lower state than the one which it occupied, and thus it was itself drawn into that lower state ; for that which one desires with one's whole energy, that must one become in the end. * Wisdom became perverted in him, owing to the overpowering action of the fire. Thus his love became perverted into lust, and the type of Christ, the angel of Light, became the deus inversus, the king of hell. THE ANGELS. 123 "The fiery lust, which was strong in Lucifer, incited him. Likewise the darkness (matter)wanted to become created (objective) in him." (Mysterium Magnum, ix. 9.) The very divine beauty, and the high power and au thority with which Lucifer was invested, incited him to attempt to rise above God, instead of surrendering him self to Him in humility,* and thus he stimulated the activity of his sourcive spirits (latent principles) in an unnatural manner. "When the kingly body of Lucifer became corpori- fied (organized), and his spirits (principles or qualities) began to become qualified and generated (unfolded), the lightning flash of life arose in his heart, and the spirit went from the heart back again into all the veins of his (organizing) body, inflaming all the seven spirits. Thus he stood, a divine king, in transcendent clear ness." (Aurora, xiv. 4.) "When Lucifer saw that he was so very beautiful, and when he realized his high birth and great power, the spirit which he had generated in himself (i. e., his own free will) arose and became desirous to triumph over the divine birth, and to exalt itself above the heart of God." (Aurora, xiv. 13, 32.) "When Lucifer was in such a kingly form, and placed in such high glory, he ought to have moved in God as God moved in him ; but this he did not do, for after his sourcive spirits were endowed with such a glorious light, they were filled with so much joy that they revolted against the natural right (the law), and desired a still higher, prouder, and more magnificent qualification than God Himself. Then it happened that the acrid quality contracted her essence to such a state of hardness that the sweet water therein became * True humility does not consist in the abasement of the true dignity of man, but in the entire sacrifice of one's lower self, whereby the power and the majesty of God become revealed in man. It is the disappearing of the animal self-will in man, whereby an uprising of the divine will in him is effectuated, such as enables him to realize his own divine state. t His condition may be compared to that of a man who uses the powers which are given him for the purpose of enabling him to riss up to the kingdom of God to feed his own passions. 124 THE DOCTRINES OF JACOB BOEHME. exsiccated. Simultaneously (with that) the lightning flash was so glaring that it became intolerable to the rising spirits, because it went into the acrid quality in such a terrible manner, as if it wanted to burst them asunder with great joy.* (Aurora, xiii. 116. ) It must not be supposed that God created an especial pain for the purpose of punishing Lucifer for his sinful conceit ; but Lucifer himself inaugurated a hell for him self by turning away from God and exciting the lower natural qualities. "God did not create a hell or a special state of suf fering wherein to torment the creatures that deserted Him ; but as soon as the devils went out of the light and attempted to rule by the power of fire over the beatitude in the heart of God, in the same moment they were outside of God and in the four lower quali ties of eternal nature. Thereby they were kept impris oned in the abyss of hell." f (Threefold Life, ii. 53.) "The devil is not affected with any pain coming from the outside, but (the cause of all suffering) is in himself. This is the hell wherefrom he is created, and the light of God is his eternal dishonor, because he is the enemy of God, and no longer in the light of God." (Three Principles, iv. 36.) "The foundation of hell was from eternity ; how ever, it was not manifest, but hidden until it became awakened." ( Theosophical Questions, xv. i.) "The four lower principles without the eternal light * Whenever the spirit of man departs from the eternal Unity and sinks into differentiation : in other words : when the consciousness of man leaves the kingdom of divine Love, Life and Light, and be comes absorbed by merely scientific speculations or selfish desires ; it then loses its power to recognize its own self in the Divine Unity and enters into the realm of illusion. Thus the fall of Lucifer is forever repeated in individual man. Therefore the true Theosophist, however much he may value the acquisition of scientific knowledge, seeks above all to remain within the kingdom of divine Love. Without that Love all learning is folly ; for it is without the true understanding, divine Love being itself divine Wisdom, the self- knowledge of God in man, and therefore the basis of all recognition of truth. t Hell is created in man by the awakening of his lower qualities, whereby they attain self-consciousness and self-will, and refuse to obey the divine will in man. THE ANGELS. I2 S are the abyss, the wrath of God, and hell. Their light is the terrible lightning-flash, wherein they must awaken themselves." (Threefold Life, ii. 50.) "The acrid and stern desire moved in Lucifer, awak ening the sting and the desire of anguish. Thus the beautiful star overshadowed its own light and perished, and its legions acted as he did." (Mysterium, ix. 10.) Neither could Lucifer's legions have acted in any other way, because it was his will acting in them. They are parts of himself. All the forms of nature are warring furiously against each other in Lucifer, being in a state of implacable animosity towards each other. They generate in him a proud and dark monster, instead of a son of God, united with Him in love. "If the spirits arising (in Lucifer) would have inter acted peacefully and according to the will of God, they would have generated a son within themselves who would have been like the Son of God and His beloved brother ; but when they arose in a state of keen igni tion, they generated a self-conceited, triumphant son, who, according to the first quality, was hard, harsh, cold, and dark ; and according to the second, of a bit ter, burning, fiery appearance. The sound in him was a hard fire-sound, and in the place of love there was proud enmity. Thus in the seventh form of nature there appeared a proud monster which fancied to be above God and that there was no equal to it. Love was grown cold ; the heart of God could not touch this perverted being. Whenever that heart, full of benevo lence and loveliness, moved to meet it, the heart of the monster appeared dark, cold, hard, and fiery."* (Au rora, xiii. 40-47.) "The acrid quality was the first murderer, for seeing that he was generating a beautiful light, he contracted still harder than God had created him. The second quality, as the second murderer, went with great strength into the acrid one, as if he wanted to rend its body to pieces. The heat, being the third murderous * The same is the case with every one who turns away from the light and seeks the darkness, until at last he becomes identified with the darkness, and can no longer separate himself from it. 126 THE DOCTRINES OF JACOB BOEHME. spirit, killed its mother, the sweet water. The SOUIH arose so furiously that it sounded like a clap of thunder ; it intended thereby to prove its own new divinity, and the fire arose like a terrible glare of lightning. Thus the whole body became a dark valley, and there was no comfort nor help. Love turned into enmity, and the angel of light became a black and dark devil."* (Aurora, xiv. 1925.) Lucifer having conceived a will entirely opposed to the divine, and intending to put his own products in the place of the formations of God, not only God, but also the pure angels, especially Michael with his legions, separated from him. "Lucifer saw creation and knew its foundation. Thereupon he also wanted to be a god, and to rule in all things by the power of fire. He wanted to bring into form his own thoughts, and not that which the Creator desired. Thus he became an enemy of God, and desired to destroy what was formed by the action of God for the purpose of putting in its place his own effects and figurations. " (Theosophical Questions, x. i.) "Lucifer having left the harmony of God, the holy name of God separated from him and remained in its own unity ; but Lucifer remained in the qualities of the central fire which he had awakened within himself." (Theosophical Questions, x. 6.) " The dark realm of phantasy and the creature which is constituted by the fallen angels is only one thing, one will, one being ; and as this rebellious will did not want to reside and rule solely in the phantasy, but wanted to rule also in the holy power wherein it stood at first, the holy power repelled it out of itself and hid itself away before it that is to say, the inner heaven * Thus in the lower aspect of the Astral-light, or the soul of the world, there are existing monsters of various kinds ; while in the " upper realm of glory " only forms of beauty are to be found. Thus also the lower and animal regions of the soul and the mind of man are peopled with animals and spirits of evil, while in the higher regions of feeling and thought the light of wisdom exists. But there is no separation of the two regions in regard to locality. As the saint becomes identified with God, so the wicked may become identi fied with the devil. Either of the two is an " incarnation" of that principle which has attained self-consciousness in him. THE ANGELS. 127 shut it out of its own state, so that it could not see God. Thus it died to the kingdom of good-will. " (Grace, iv. 46.) " When Lucifer proved to be such a tyrant and cor- rupter of all that is good, the whole army of heaven turned against him, and he also turned against every thing. Then the battle began, and the arch-prince Michael with his legions fought against him, and the devil with his legions conquered not ; but was driven away from his position as one who has been con quered."* (Aurora, xvi. 9.) ' ' The seducer of the whole world is the false will of selfishness ; the first principle in its aspect as the will of hell ; a cause of lies and contradiction ; a departing from good ; an universal spirit of hellish origin. It is not a creature or being, but the false (perverted) mind in the hellish foundation in its aspect as the science of hell." (Thcosophical Questions, xi. 6.) The separation of Lucifer from the world of light was a total separation, but not a local one in the ordinary sense of this word. "The world of light knows nothing of the devils, and the devils know nothing about the world of light except that they once belonged to it." (Theosophical Points, v. 2.) "Heaven is in hell, and hell is in heaven, and never theless there is neither of them revealed to the other. Even if the devil were traveling for many hundred thousands of miles, for the purpose of going to heaven, he would nevertheless always remain in hell. Thus the angels do not see the darkness ; they see only the light of divine power ; but the devils see only the dark ness of the wrath of God. " (Mysterium, viii. 28.) Every being is in that state which constitutes its own consciousness. The hellish being has not yet attained completion in its development. The existence of the terrestrial world, * It must not be supposed that the good angels " made up their minds" to fight Lucifer, but this separation was according to natural laws, in the same sense as water is opposed to fire. Every one ex periences this battle, whenever the light overcomes the powers of darkness in him. 128 THE DOCTRINES OF JACOB BOEHME. in whose evil parts the evil spirits reside and work, is an obstacle to that. As man loses his knowledge of God, he correspond ingly loses his power for evil. A man cannot become a complete devil until he attains godlike knowledge and corresponding powers. "As the devils, led by conceit and wantonness, ignited themselves, they have now been entirely cast out from the generation of light, and cannot conceive or comprehend it in all eternity. Nevertheless the dwelling of Lucifer is not yet completed, because in all things in this world there are love and wrath still resid ing together, and wrestling and battling with each other. Still those things or beings realize not the wrestling of light, but merely the wrestle of wrath. " * {Aurora, xviii. 32.) "The hellish being is not yet fully manifest ; the devils will have to wait for a still greater judgment. The sun and the water keep their kingdom still hidden unto the day of reckoning, and therefore the devils have so much fear of the judgment day." (Theosophical Questions, xiii. 15.) "There are always two kingdoms (states) to be dis tinguished in the elements. In one of these rules the love that issued from God, and in the other His wrath. The devils reside only in the realm of wrath, where they are enclosed within eternal night, and they cannot come in contact with the good powers of the elements." (Theosophical Questions, xiii. 7.) The evil spirits are especially inimical to man ; but they cannot injure him if his will is directed towards the divine, and if he does not permit himself to be captured by evil desire, f * The good which we receive is not recognized, because it causes no pain. No one complains about receiving more blessings than he merits ; but the deserved evil which we receive causes suffering, and the unmerited evil is keenly resented. t It is an eternal law that the will ultimately becomes itself that which it earnestly desires, and as the will is the foundation of human existence, a man may become a god or a devil, according to his heart's desire. For this reason the love of evil ends in evil and the love of good in good. For this reason it is also highly dangerous to indulge in the communication with Elementals, or in the invocation of spirits of evil. (See Subba Row : Discourses.) THE ANGELS. 129 No man, except he who is regenerated in the spirit, is free and his own master. It is always either divine or diabolical influences acting through him ; but he is endowed with a certain amount of divine reason to choose either the one or follow the other. "If we leap into earthly desire, we shall be captured by it, and then will the anguish of the abyss be lord over us. But if by the power of our will we ascend beyond this world, then will the world of life capture our will, and God will be our Lord." (Theosophical Points, vi. 5.) "Let no man think that it is in the power of the devil to tear from his heart the works produced by the light. He can neither see them nor understand what they are. Therefore, even if in the most external gen eration the devil rages and storms, as long as you do not yourself transfer the products of wrath into the light of your heart, your soul will be safe from being injured by the devil, he being deaf and blind in the light." (Aurora, xix. 97.) Lucifer anticipated the misery which he was bringing upon himself ; but his knowledge was only a ' ' science " that is to say, it was not a condition fully realized by his experience ; it was rather of a theoretical character than actual self-knowledge, and having lost the spirit ual power of faith to aid him to maintain his position, this "science" was not sufficient to keep him from his fall. Moreover, he was curious to attain something entirely new. " Did then Lucifer not know of the judgment of God and the fall ? Yes, he knew it well ; but he had this knowledge not in hisfeeh'ng- (he did not realize it as an actual experience) : it was with him merely a science, an intellectual conception." (Mysferium, ix. 9.) "Lucifer knew that he was not God, and he also knew the extent of his power ; but he wanted some entirely new experience, he wanted to be higher than God, and to elevate his power over all kingdoms, and over all of the Godhead." * (Aurora, xiv. 14.) * Thus when there is no true love for Good within the heart, all scientific prying into the mysteries and all moral preaching will be 9 130 T/fE DOCTRINES OF JACOB BOEHME. God also knew, in His eternal wisdom, that the fall of Lucifer would take place. "In eternal wisdom, or, to speak more correctly, In eternal nature, the fall of the devil (and also of man) has been perceived even before the world was created. " (Three Principles, ix. 22.) "The image of the created being has been seen in wisdom according to its aspects in wrath and love. Herein also has the Spirit of God, issuing eternally from the light and the fire of the Father, foreseen the fall namely, that this image, if shaped into a cor poreal being, would be attracted by the wrath, and lose its divine splendor. " (Sfi'ef., iii. 58.) Although God foresaw that fall, nevertheless it could not be prevented. " It may be asked why God did not restrain Lucifer from his evil desire? But how could this have been done? If this being of fire would have been led into still more mildness and love, his glorious light would then have become still more manifest to him, and his fiery self-will would thereby have increased. Should He educate him by punishing him? It was already Lucifer's purpose to excite within himself the magic foundation, and to play with the center of the quali ties."* (Mysterium, ix. 14.) "Behold a thistle or a nettle. The more sunshine and power they receive, the more stings will they pro duce. Thus, if God pours His love into the devil, the products of the devil are anger and hate." (See Grace, iv. 37.) An end of the hellish torment f is inconceivable. Such an end would involve either a change of Lucifer's useless and vain ; while the Love of God is the pinnacle of all human knowledge. * Lucifer wanted to know the darkness, and had no desire for the light. Man must know evil for the purpose of becoming able to realize the good, after which he returns to the latter ; but as every thing seeks for its own corresponding principle, he in whom evil has become paramount will remain in evil. t The word '-' torment " means here not necessarily " pain " but " consciousness." The " devil " does not suffer as long as he is in his own element. THE RES TOR A TION OF NA TURE. 1 3 1 pride into humility, or a destruction of the whole work of creation. " If Lucifer were again to become an angel, to be come such he would have to draw again from the unity and love of God ; his fire-life would have to be con sumed by love, and to be changed into humility ; but this the hellish foundation (the will) in the devils re fuses to permit. " (Theosophical Questions, vii. 5.) "The hellish essence, having an eternal foundation, the will cannot perish, unless the whole of creation would cease to exist and eternal nature in her own loveliness be extinguished. But in this case the king dom of joy would be equally lost* (Theosophical Questions, v. 3.) CHAPTER VI. THE RES TOR A TION OF ATA TURE AND THE GENERA TION OF MAN. " The Highest is immeasurable, and nevertheless a human heart can contain it all." (ANGELUS SILESIUS, 1674.) THE greatest obstacle in the understanding of the doctrines in regard to divine mysteries is that the stu dent imagines that they are dealing with things existing outside of himself and with which he is not concerned. But these doctrines are called "secret," not because they are not to be revealed except to a few favorites, but because they cannot be understood unless the reader can free himself from that delusive conception of self which causes him to fancy that he is something separated from the rest of the world, not only in regard to his bodily form, but also in regard to his real foun dation. ' ' If we speak about heaven and thQ birth of the ele- * That which has become self-conscious in evil cannot be changed into good without first becoming unconscious of its own evil self ; but if the being is wholly evil, such a complete death would also prevent the possibility of its becoming conscious of good. 132 THE DOCTRINES OF JACOB BOEIfME. ments, we are then not telling of things that are far away or foreign to us, but of that which is taking place within our own self, and there is nothing nearer to us than this birth, for we are therein as in our own mother. If we speak of heaven, we then speak of our home, of our own country, wherein the illumined soul can see, even if that country is hidden before the eyes of the body." (Principles, vii. 7.) The Mosaic account of creation was never intended to be a history of the creation of the world from the beginning, but it is a history of the renewal or the res toration of the natural world that was formerly ruled by Lucifer, and which was thrown into disorder and convulsion by his desertion from God. ' ' Before the times of the wrath there were in the lo cality of this world the six sourcive spirits generating the seventh in a sweet and lovely manner, as is even now done in heaven, and there was growing therein not even a spark of wrath. All that was contained therein was light and clear, needing no other light, for the fountain of love within, the heart of God was illu mining all. Nature was then very ethereal, and every thing therein stood in great power. But as soon as in nature the war with the proud devils began, everything took another shape and mode of action. The light became extinguished in the external generation, and therefore the heat became imprisoned in corporeity and could no longer generate its own life. From this cause death then entered into nature, and nature degenerated. Consequently another creation of light had to be inau gurated, and without that the earth would have had to remain in eternal death." * (Aurora, xvii. 2 ; iv. 15.) Everything in nature was to bloom out and become newly-born, as may be seen by beholding minerals and stones, trees, grass, and herbs, and animals of various kinds, and although all these formations were perish able and not pure in the sight of God, nevertheless God intended to extract from them at the end of this time their heart and kernel, and to separate them from the * " Lucifer " is to be regarded not as a separate being within this world, but as a power penetrating the whole of the visible universe, in the same sense as that universe may now be regarded as being the body of universal spiritual man. THE RESTORATION OF NATURE. 133 wrath and death, and then that which had thus been regenerated was to bloom eternally, and to bear again celestial fruits outside of and beyond the locality of this world." * (Aurora, xxiv. 25.) "The same sal-nitre" (the material basis or founda tion), " which at the time of the ignition of the wrath perished in death, has at the time of regeneration been raised in the flash of fire. It has not become anything new, but merely another form of corporeity, which is now in a state of death " (existing relatively to us as gross matter), f (Aurora, xxii. 80.) The outcast spirits, having produced in nature a state of ignition, God gathered together the essence of that nature, and thereby He withdrew it from the reach of those powers, putting a stop to their insolence by means of water. | ' ' The outcast spirits were still in the quality of the Father, and therefore they ignited the quality of nature by means of their imagination, so that the celestial substance became earth and stones, and the sweet spirit of the water a burning sky. After this the crea tion of this world took place. " (Menschwerdung, i. 2- 8.) Creation could not take place as long as all the ele ments were in a state of revolution ; only after the "Spirit of God moved upon the waters of the deep" could the divine Word take form. "When the eternal Word moved, because of the mal ice of Lucifer, and for the purpose of expelling this evil guest from his residence into eternal darkness, the es sence was rendered compact (coagulated). God was not willing to leave the manifested powers, wherein Lucifer ruled as a prince, any longer in his command, but he caused them to enter into a state of coagulation and spued him out therefrom." (Mysterium, x. 13.) * In other words, the tendency of the spiritual principle is to spirit ualize and illumine everything by becoming active therein. t In the same sense the power of a seed to develop into a tree may remain latent for many years until the conditions present themselves for its manifestation. t Thus the fire of passion is subdued in man by the " water " of eternal life distilled from humility, which baptizes the soul and tran quillizes the turbulent elements. 134 THE DOCTRINES OF JACOB BOEHME. "Therein consists the fall of Lucifer, that he awak ened the mother of fire and wanted to rule over the be nevolence in the heart of God. This fire is now his hell ; but this hell God has captured by means of heaven i e. , the mother of water. For while the locality of this world was to burn on his account in the fire, God moved to create, and created the water. From this has resulted the ocean and the unfathomable watery depth. So it was at Sodom and Gomorrha, for when their sin was great and the devil resided therein, desirous of maintaining his power, God permitted that the prince of this world ignited those five kingdoms with fire and sulphur. But while the devil imagined to be lord in that place, and to have there his dwelling, God thought of breaking his pride ; He caused water to come there, and thus He extinguished his glory. " * {Threefold Life, viii. 24.) By His creative will, full of love, God caused the light to arise, and thus He directed the power of dark ness downwards into the depths. Thus, when the soul of man rises up to eternal freedom, the powers of dark ness disappear in the abyss below. ' ' The wrath did not touch the heart of God ; but His benevolent love issues from His heart, penetrating into the most external generation of wrath, and extinguish ing the latter. Therefore He said, Let there be light." f {Aurora, 85.) "When God spoke, Let there be light, the holy power, which was conceived together with the wrath, moved, and the power of the devil was entirely withdrawn from him in its essence." (Mysterium, xii. '4.) "Thus the darkness remained within the quality of the wrath in the substance of the earth, and within the whole depth of this world ; and in the substance of light, the light of nature from heaven i. e., out of the fifth essence, arose that whereof the constellation was * " Darkness vanished and was no more ; it disappeared in its own essence, the body of fire and water, or father and mother." ( The Secret Doctrine. ) t It may be useful to continually remind one's self, that there is no question of any external or an extracosmic God ; but that the omni present God accomplishes all this within and not outside of nature. THE RESTORATION OF NATURE. 135 created. This essence is everywhere, in the earth and above the earth. "* (Aurora, xii. 15.) By means of this new creation of the light, the new life had begun to stir everywhere ; but this creation, in accordance with the number of the divine spirits which were active thereby, arrived at a state of perfection only on the seventh day.f ' ' When God spoke the word, Let there be light, the essence, the being within the quality of the light, stirred not only within the earth, but also within the whole depth, in great power ; wherefrom on the fourth day the sun was created that is to say, ignited. " (Mysterium, xii. 13.) "When God stirred to create this world, it was not that only one part moved and the other one rested, but there was all in motion at once." {Aurora, xxii. 122.) "This motion lasted during six lengths of days and nights, when all the seven spirits of God were in com plete and moving generation, and also the heart of all spirits, and the sal-nitre of the earth turned around in that time six times within the great wheel." (Aurora, xxi. 123.) " The day's works refer to the seven qualities, six of them belonging to the actual regiment, but the seventh, or the essentiality, is that wherein the others are rest ing ; for these qualities have been spoken out by God and rendered visible. " \ Mysterium, xii. 2.) On the second day a separation took place in the power of the light, of the external material from the inner immaterial water, and the firmament (that which is firm) was put in the middle between these two. "The water of life became separated from the water of death ; but in such a way that in the time of this * The same takes place within the heart of man when his mind be comes illumined by the light of divine wisdom that arises from the divine center in him. t The seventh " day " for our planet is always, and nevertheless it has not yet arrived, because the six days belong to time and the seventh to eternity. J The six " days " are the activities of the seven forms of eternal nature, the seventh is their center or rest, or the " temperature." In the seventh, " God " appears as the Christ." (See Grace, iii. 39.) 136 THE DOCTRINES OF JACOB BOEHME, world they are linked together like body and soul. But the heaven, having been made from the middle- part of the water, is like an abyss between the two, so that the conceivable water is a death, but the incon ceivable one is the life." (Aurora, xxi. 7.) "The water upon the earth is a degenerated and deadly being, like the earth herself. This material water, contained within the most external generation, has been separated from the inconceivable one." (Aurora, xx. 27.) "The water above the firmament is in heaven, and the water below the firmament is the material water. " (Mysterium, xii. 24.) "The firmament is the connecting link between time and eternity. God calls it ' heaven,' and makes a dis tinction between the waters ; which is to indicate that heaven is in the world, but not the world in heaven." (Mysterium, xii. 23.) Thus the mind of man is the connecting link between the celestial and terrestrial state. Heaven and happi ness may be in his mind, but not his mind in an ex ternal heaven. The spiritual and the material water are not separated from each other in an external manner, or according to locality, but wherever there is the material water, there is also the spiritual one, and it comes to aid the former. "When I behold the external water, I am forced to say, ' Here in the water below the firmament is also contained water from above the firmament. But the firmament is the middle, and the link (dividing line) be tween time and eternity, so that neither one of them is the other. By means of the external eyes, or the eyes of this world, I see only the water below the firmament ; but the water above the firmament is that which God in Christ has instituted for the baptism of regeneration." (Mysterium, xii. 26.) "All the water in this world is degenerated, and therefore the upper water must come to the aid of the earth, and extinguish her fire and pacify her, so that the true water may be born." (Aurora, xx. 33.) Divine inspiration must come to the aid of the mate rial thought, so that heavenly thoughts may be born. THE RESTORATION OF NATURE. 137 On the third day the fiery and the watery essence, the firmament of heaven and the earth, entered again in conjunction, and from this there were born grasses and herbs and trees, and at the same time there were also formed gold and silver and ores of various kinds. " On the second day God separated the watery and the fiery mercury from each other, and called the fiery one the firmament of heaven. Then in the spirit of ex ternal nature there originated a male and a female kind namely, in the fiery Mercury the male, and in the watery the female one. " (Clam's, 86. ) " On the third day the fiery and the watery Mercury have again entered in conjunction and mixture, and then the sal-nitre * gave birth to grasses and herbs and trees." (Claws, 88.) "After God had put heaven between the love and the wrath, for the purpose of discernment, there on the third day love penetrated through heaven into the wrath. Then the old and deadened body began to stir and to feel the anguish of generation ; for love is ardent, and it ignited the fountain of fire, and the latter caused a friction in the acrid and cold quality of stiffened death, until on the third day the acrid quality became heated, and thus the acrid earth became movable. (Aurora, xxv. 29.) "When the light contained in the sweet water pene trated through the acrid spirit, the lightning flash, hav-i ing become ignited in the water, in the acrid, hard, and dead quality, it caused motion in everything, and thus came movability (life) into existence, not only in the heaven above the earth, but also at the same time within the earth. Then there began life to be generated in all things, and from the earth were produced grass, herbs, and trees, and within the earth there were formed silver, gold, and metals of various kinds." (Aurora, xxi. 132 ; xx. 6.) As the light could be active only in the corrupted essence, there being none other, the products formed thereby were of a mixed kind, half good and half evil. "When the light appeared again within the external conceivableness, the Word brought forth life out of death, and the corrupted sal-nitre produced fruits again ; * Prakriti, 138 THE DOCTRINES OF JACOB BOEHME. but this had to take place in a certain relation to the depraved state existing in the wrath, and as the exter nal forthcoming of those fruits took place from the earth, they had to become evil and good." (Aurora, xxi. 19.) Before the ignition of the sun and the stars took place, nature was resting as in a state of death, and the formations proceeding from her were devoid of the liv ing, growth-producing power. * "Until the third day after the ignition of the wrath of God in this world, nature remained in anxiety, and was a dark valley in death ; but on the third day, when the light of the stars became ignited in the water of life, the life broke through death, and the new generation began." (Aurora, xxiv. 41.) ' ' In the earth there is above all the acrid quality. This contracts the sal-nitre and solidifies the earth, caus ing it to become a corporeal being, forming therein also bodies of various kinds, such as rocks, metals, and manifold roots. When this is formed it has neverthe- theless no life to enable it to grow and expand. But when the heat of the sun acts upon the soil, various formations prosper and grow in the earth." (Aurora, viii. 41.) Likewise the material and earthly elements in man have no power themselves to rise superior to their own nature. This can be done in no other way than by the superior power of the Divine Spirit. Now the eternal light of God shone into the darkness of this world and ignited the heat in the firmament or heaven, and thus out of the fire arose the light that is to say, the sun and the starry sky. f "After the heaven had been made, for the sake of distinction between the light of God and the corrupted body of this world, the latter was a dark valley and * " Darkness alone filled the boundless all ; for father, mother, and son were once more one, and the son had not awakened yet for the new wheel and his pilgrimage thereon." (" The Secret Doctrine") t " Darkness radiates Light, and Light drops one solitary ray into the mother deep. The ray shoots through the virgin egg : the ray causes the eternal egg to thrill, and drop fhe non-eternal germ, which condenses into the world-egg." (H. P. Blavatsky: The Secret Doctrine.) THE RESTORA TION OF NA TURE. 139 without light, and all the powers were captured, as if in death, and very uneasy until they became kindled in the midst of the whole body. But when this took place the love in the light of God broke through that heaven of division and ignited the heat." (Aurora, xxv. 68.) "God, the eternal light and the eternal will, shines within the darkness, and the darkness has captured the will (received its activity). In this will arises now the anxiety, and in this is the fire, and in the fire the light. Thus from the fire the stars have been produced, and from the power of the heavens the sun." (Three Prin ciples, viii. 22.) All this takes place in a corresponding manner dur ing the spiritual regeneration of man. Thereby divine Wisdom has manifested itself, not in an entirely pure, and therefore not permanent and im mutable manner, but nevertheless as in a clear mirror, and it thereby drove the devil backward deep into his darkness. " On the fourth day God, out of His eternal wisdom, created the lord of the third principle (the visible world), the sun and the stars. Herein is now truly seen the Godhead and the eternal wisdom of God, as in a clear mirror. This being, visible before our eyes, is not God Himself, but a God in the third princi ple, which will ultimately return to his ether and take an end." (Three Principles, viii. 13.) "God has made a solid foundation (firmament) called ' heaven,' between the most external and the most internal generation, between the clear Godhead and corrupted nature, through which one must break if one wants to go to God. Of this foundation it is said (Hiob. xiv. 15) that even the heavens are not pure before God, but on the day of judgment the wrath shall be swept therefrom. "* (Aurora, xx. 41.) "At the time of creation another light, the sun, was awakened in this world, it having been corrupted by Lucifer, and thereby the splendor of the devil was * Man judges himself. According to his conscience will turn the scales of the balance. The judgment-day appears when the judg ing spirits awaken in him. 140 THE DOCTRINES OF JACOB BOEHME. taken away. Thus he has been shut in like a prisoner into the darkness between the realm of God and the realm of this world, so that he has no longer anything to rule over in this world, except in the Turba, wherein is awakened the wrath and anger of God." (Menschwerdung, i. 2.) The sun has been revealed by means of the soul of the world, and is made of the influences of all the stars. He is also the life of all the stars. Thus the sun of divine Wisdom in man is representing the col lective knowledge which spiritual man has gathered from his experiences, having as a basis his own divine self-consciousness. Without that self-consciousness in God all his scientific acquisitions are merely vapory, and will pass away. * "In the soul of the external world, and by means of it, God has awakened a king, or, as I would wish to call it symbolically, a natural deity, together with six councilors, to be his assistants, namely, the sun and the six other planets, which were spoken out of the seven qualities from the locus (seat or center) of the sun. The sun receives his splendor from the tincture of the fire-world and the world of light, and is mani fested as a revealed point in relation to the world of fire." (Mysierium, xiii. 16.) ' ' In the death in the center that is to say, in the body or the corporeal substance of the earth, God has awakened the tincture, its luster, splendor, and light, wherein is contained the life of the earth ; but to the depth above the center He has given the sun, which is a tincture of the fire, and which, with its power, reaches into the freedom outside and beyond nature, and from which nature receives its splendor. He is the life of the whole circle of stars, and all these stars are His children. Not that He contains their essences but their life arose from His center in the beginning." (Threefold Life, iv. 27.) ' ' The sun is the heart of all the powers in this world, and is configurated from the powers of all the stars, * Divine Love and Divine Wisdom are one and identical ; for there is no wisdom without self-knowledge, and God could not know Himself if He did not Love Himself ; He Himself is Love. THE RESTORATION OF NATURE. 141 while on the other hand, he illuminates and vivifies all the stars and powers in this world." (Aurora, vii. 42.) Thus the divine principle in man furnishes the intel lect with light and life in the same sense as the sun reflects his light upon the moon. An intellect which has been deserted by Love will perish after its accumu lated strength is exhausted. Only that which the Light knows in us remains permanent. "The sun is in the midst of the depth, and is, so to say, the light or heart of the stars, extracted from all their powers by the power of God, and brought into form. Therefore is he the clearest light of all, and by his luster and heat he ignites all the stars, each one according to its own special quality and power." (Threefold Life, vii. 40.) "This is not to be understood as if by calling the sun the center we meant to say that all the stars were originated from a central point, called the 'sun.' The sun is the center of the powers of the stars, and the cause why they move in their essence. He unfolds their powers and puts his power into them, and this power constitutes their heart. " (Mysterium, xi. 32.) Especially have the seven planets become objective by means of the sun, and in accordance with and cor responding to the seven forms of nature. * ' ' As the sun is the heart of the life and an origin of all the spirits in the body of this world, so is Saturn a beginning of all corporeity and tangibility. Thus he does not derive his beginning and descent from the sun, but his origin is the earnest, acrid, and severe anxiety of the whole body of this world. " (Aurora, xxvi. i.) "When the light became ignited, the conquered power in the astringency became Mercury." (Three Principles, viii. 24.) "Mercury is an agitator, sound-maker, ringer; but he has not yet the true life. The latter originates in the fire. Thus he desires the fierce and storming essence * " Then the Three fall into the Four. The radiant essence be comes Seven inside and outside." (The Secret Doctrine.) 142 THE DOCTRINES OF JACOB BOEHME. to cause fire to appear, and this is Mars." (Threefold Life, ix. 78.) " When the sun became ignited, the terrible fire-flash went from the locality of the sun in an upward direction like a furious stroke of lightning, and this became Mars. He is now there as a tyrant, a raging element, a mover of the whole body of this world, so that all life takes its origin of him. " (Aurora, xxv. 72.) "As soon as the spirits of motion and life, by means of the ignition of the water, arose from the locality of the sun, mildness, being the basis of the water, pene trated, endowed with the power of light, in a downward direction, after the manner of meekness, and from this the planet Venus came into existence." (Aurora, xxvi. I9-33-) " When the fiery terror was captured by the light, the light, by its own power, and being a mild, exalting life, penetrated still higher upwards into the depth, until it arrived in the hard and cold seat of nature. There it remained, and from that power the planet Jupiter came into existence." (Aurora, xxv. 76-82.) ' ' The seventh form is Luna, wherein are sontained the qualities of all the six forms. She is, so to say, the corporeal being of the other forms, all of which throw into her their desire by means of Sol. That which Sol (the sun) is spiritually becomes corporeal in Luna (the moon)."* (Signature, ix. 24.) After the world of stars had begun to exist, the si dereal life appeared by the power of the former that is to say, that living organisms were produced, represent ing, so to speak, "stars of the various elements." "The firmament of heaven, having been made from the medium of the water, this generation penetrates through the external, congealed generation that is to say, through death, and brings forth the sidereal life, such as animals and men, birds, fishes, and worms." (Aurora, xx. 60.) "After God had unfolded the stars and the four ele ments, there were produced creatures in all the four * " He shines forth as the Son ; he is the blazing dragon, divine dragon of wisdom." (Secret Doctrine.} THE RESTORATION OF NATURE. 143 elements, such as birds in the constellation of the air, fishes in the constellation of the water, animals and four-legged beings in the constellation of earth, and spirits in that of the fire. "* (Mysterium, xliv. i.) These creatures received their spirit from the stars, or rather from the spirit of this world, but their body they received from the earth. According to the pre dominance of the fiery or the watery form there re sulted also an antithesis of sex. " By the power of His word, Fiat, God caused all beings to come forth from the matrix of nature on the fifth day, all according to their qualities ; the fishes in the water, the birds in the air, the other animals upon the earth. They received their corporeity from the fixedness (rigid ity) of the earth, and their spirit from the Spirifus Mundi." (Grace, v. 20.) "All creatures have been created of the life below and the life above. The matrix of the earth gave the body, and the stars the spirit." (Three/old Life, xi. 7.) "As the spirit of the stars, or the spirit in the fire- form, by the power of its longing, became mixed with the watery one, there resulted two senses from one and the same essence. The one, the male, in a fiery, and the other, the female, in a watery shape (state), "f (Three Principles, viii. 43.) Finally, man (Manu) was created, and out of him (the mind) there was to come forth a celestial army, and in the midst of the time its King, in the place of the out cast Lucifer. "God willed to create an angelic army. Thus He * " Then Svdbhavdt sends Fohat to harden the atoms. Each is a part of the web. Reflecting the Self -existent Lord like a mirror, each becomes in turn a world." (Secret Doctrine.) tAll this refers not only to beings such as are visible to us, but, likewise to such that exist on other planes of creation, and which can therefore not be seen with our eyes There are male and female elemental beings, moll and dur accords in music, positive and nega tive forces in all departments of nature, from the spiritual down to the most material plane. In all creatures the will is the executing and female, corporifying, and the imagination the superintending, directing, male element. 144 THE DOCTRINES OF JACOB BOEHME. created Adam, and he was to generate out of his own body creatures of his own kind ; but in the midst of the time there was to be born out of the body of a man the King of all men, and He was to .take possession of the new kingdom as a ruler over these created beings, in the place of the degenerated and outcast Lucifer. " * (Aurora, xxiv. 18. ) Man, however, was to surpass the angels (in perfec tion), for he was to be a complete image of divine glory, while the angels have been created out of only two principles, f "Adam was to be a perfect symbol of God, created out of the eternal Magia, the substance of God ; he was to be something made out of the nothing, out of the spirit the ideal into the body. " J (Menschwerdung, I 5.) "The angels are created out of two principles, but the soul, with the body of the outer life, out of three principles. Therefore man is higher than the angels, provided that he remains in God." (Forty Questions, i. 263.) "We human beings are a far greater mystery than the angels, and we shall surpass them in celestial wis dom. They are fire-flames, illumined by the light of God, but we attain the great fountain of meekness and * In regard to the " stuff out of which man is made,' ' Theophrastus Paracelsus says : " It is an extract of all beings that exist in heaven and upon the earth, of the souls of all things, all creatures, spirits, elements, and minds, attracted to a focus by means of the spiritual center residing within each form. It is the quintessence of all things and man is a macrocosm, differing from the macrocosm only in so far as in his constitution the things which constitute the macrocosm appear in another image, order, or shape. In him are all the poten cies and qualities that exist in the universe, active or latent. His terrestrial substance is from the earth, his mental faculties from the universal mind, his worldly wisdom is from the light of nature ; but the divine wisdom in him belongs to God." t While the angels are made only out of fire and light, which en ables them to will and perceive, man, in addition to that, has a third principle, the mind, enabling him to reason and judge. t " In Adam the external body was hidden latent within the inner one, comparable to darkness being hidden within the light, and the Spirit of God was dwelling within that inner body, for it held within itself the second principle as the kingdom of heaven." (Tilken, i. 233-) THE RESTORATION OF NATURE. 145 love which is welling up within the holy essentiality of God."* (Menschwerdung, i. 5.) Man comprises all three principles : the principle of darkness or fire, from which originates his soul ; the principle of light, from which his spirit originates ; and the third principle, which is the basic element of his body. " In the life of man there are three states to be dis tinguished from each other first, the innermost, that is to say, God being eternally hidden within the fire; secondly, the middle part, which from eternity has stood as an image or likeness in the wonders of God, compar able to a person seeing himself in a mirror ; thirdly, has this living image received still another mirror in creation wherein to behold itself, namely, the spirit of the external world, or the third principle, which is also a form (state) of the Eternal." (Threefold Life, xviii. 4.) "The darkness in man longing for light is the first principle ; the power of the light the second ; and the longing power which attracts and becomes full (sub stantial), and whereof the material body grows, is the third principle. " (Three Principles, vii. 26;) "The sou!, or the first principle, is founded on the fire of eternal nature ; the spirit, or the second principle, roots in the light ; and the body is the third principle, or the substantiality of the visible world. "f (Tabulce Principice, 65.) Adam was to rule over all nature, and therefore his body was taken from all the powers of the external world ; but the third principle, as well as the first one, appeared in him subject to the second, the light. * In studying the " anatomy " and " physiology " of the inner man, it will be necessary to remember that, in dealing with anthropology and cosmology from a spiritual point of view, we must be able to dis card from our mind all the vulgar conceptions of what is usually called " matter " by that science which deals merely with external appearances, and we must look upon all things as being manifes tations of an universal consciousness acting upon internal or external planes of existence, while the visible form is nothing but a passing apparition. t Man is made out of will and intelligence ; in other words, "fire" and " light." The manifestation of fire and light (thought) produces that which appears to us as " substance " or " form." 10 146 THE DOCTRINES OF JACOB BOEHME. "If you will behold your own self and the outer world, and what is taking place therein, you will find that you, with regard to your external being, are that external world. You are a little world formed out of the large one, and your external light is a chaos of the sun and the constellation of stars. If this were not so, you would not be able to see by means of the light of the sun. " * (Mysterium, ii. 5. ) "If man, as the image of God, is to rule over the fishes and fowls, the animals, and the whole of the earth, as well as over the essence of all the stars, then must he be out of all three, for each spirit can rule only in his mother, wherein he originated." (Mysterium, xiv. 8.) "Terrestrial man had in his constitution the kingdom of this world, but there were not ruling in him the four elements (separately) ; but they were in one, and the terrestrial order of things was hidden in him. He was to live in celestial state, and although everything was stirring (alive) within him, nevertheless he was to rule over the terrestrial anguish (external consciousness) by means of the celestial quality (inner consciousness) of the other (second) principle, and to retain dominion over the kingdom of the stars and elements by means of the Paradisiacal quality, "f (Menschwerdung, i. 2.) Man must rise, not merely in his imagination, but with his will, above all that which is earthly, sensual, or merely intellectual, if he desires to be a power in the kingdom of the Spirit. Thus will the ideal become real to him. "Adam's body (the ethereal body of aboriginal man) was created out of the four elements of external nature, and out of the (essences of the) stars, by means of the eternal Fiat. Thus he was in possession of divine and * It is not " man " in the abstract who recognizes anything. It is always a certain principle, having become active in him, that recog nizes its own counterpart in external nature, when it comes in contact with it. Only he in whom is light can see the light ; only the element of love can feel love ; only the divinity in man can know God in and tnrough man. t " From the Divine Man emanated the forms, the sparks, the sacred animals, and the messengers of the sacred fathers within the holy Four." ( Secret Doctrine.) THE RESTORATION OF NATURE. 147 terrestrial essentiality ; but the terrestrial one was in the divine one like consumed or impotent (latent). The substance or the matter from which the body was made or created contained itself also the first principle within itself, but it was not stirring therein." (Mcn- schwerdung, i. 3, 15.) "As God resides within Himself and penetrates through all His works, incomprehensible to the latter, and without His being affected by anything, so His image (man) originated from the pure element. He also was created in this world ; but the kingdom of this world was not to comprehend him, but he was to rule powerfully in this world by means of the es sences from the pure element." (Three Principles, xiii. '5.) The expression that God created man from a clod of clay is not to be taken in any other sense than that God, by means of desire, drew together all the terrestrial qualities.* "If Moses says that God created man out of a clod of clay, and that he breathed into him the living breath, that is not to be understood as if God had acted in a personal manner standing there like a man and taking up a lump of earth and making a body out of it ; but the Fiat, that is to say, the desire of the Word, was contained within the eternally-perceived model of man, which stood in the mirror of wisdom, and it drew the Ens (the principle) of all the qualities of the earth (matter) into a body, and this was the quintessence made out of the four elements. " (Grace, v. 27.) But the essence of the soul, being rooted in that whole, did not become manifest in man before God awakened it by the breath of His Word.f * Therefore Theophrastus Paracelsus says : " Natural man is made out of the world, and not the world out of him. He is a child of nature, and has all of his mother's qualities in himself, neither more nor less. But the true spiritual man is a son of God. Natural wis dom is not divine, but divine wisdom is above all. t And thus at this very day each person who has not yet begun to be regenerated in the spirit is in the same condition in which Adam was before the Spirit of God breathed in him. Man's soul resembles a seed containing the potency of conscious immortality in an uncon- 148 THE DOCTRINES OF JACOB BOEHME. "The sourcive spirits within the whole could not b.e- come immediately ignited by the soul, for the soul was only as a seed within the whole, hidden away with the heart of God in His heaven, until the Creator expanded the whole by His breath. Then the sourcive spirits ignited the soul, and then body and soul were living at once. The soul truly possessed her life before the body existed ; but it was within the heart of God, hid den within the whole in heaven, and was nothing but a holy seed, a center of power in God." (Aurora, xxvi. 126.) Neither does at this present day the soul of man manifest divine life as long as the Spirit of God is only moving upon the surface and does not stir within the depths. CHAPTER VII. MAN. " God created man in His own image. Male and female (in one) created He them." MAN in his cosmic aspect is a being very superior to that which is commonly looked upon as a "man," and which is described in books on anthropology, anatomy, etc. Such external sciences deal only with the grossly material body of external terrestrial man, while the essential body of macrocosmic and microcosmic man is beyond the reach of external observation. In the study of man as a cosmic being there are three subjects to be considered, although the three are only three aspects of one. These three subjects are God, Nature, and Man, and neither one of them can be understood in its inner essence without an understanding of the other two. External science, "natural philosophy," and theology seek to separate them. They regard man scious state. There is nothing immortal in man except God, and by the awakening of that which is divine in him he attains the self-con sciousness of his own immortality. MAN. 149 as a being separated, distinct, and independent of nature, and nature as something independent of man ; while of God they know nothing, and regard the divine power, which is the cause of all life, as if it were something foreign or external to nature and man. For this reason the " man " of modern science has become an unnatural being, without any conceivable object for his existence, and nature an organism evolved by acci dent, and subject to no other than accidental law. The divine, spiritual, creative, and hidden powers in man and in nature are entirely removed from the field of perception of the "rationalist." Man, as a whole, maybe conceived of as a planetary spirit, a self-conscious, luminous sphere of unimagi nable extent ; as, in fact, at present the mental sphere of man has no defined limits ; it reaches as far as his thoughts can go. He was created for the purpose of being the image of God. The glory of God was re siding in him, and he was penetrated by the light of divine love. "All human beings are fundamentally only one man. This Man is the trunk, the rest are the branches, receiving all their power from the trunk, and producing fruit out of one and the same root. What folly is it, then, if the branch wants to be a tree for itself, as if the branch next to it were not of the same trunk. God has given to man only one life, and the life of all men comes from this one Man. " (Mystery. Magn. , xxiv. 15.) In man is contained everything, God, and the Christ, and the angels, the celestial and terrestrial kingdoms, and the powers of hell. Outside of him is nothing of which he can conceive ; he can know nothing except that which exists in his mind. No god or devil, no spirit or any power whatever, can act within man un less it enters into his constitution. Only that which exists in him has existence for him.* * Without a realization of this fact the mysteries of religion will re main secret and incomprehensible. It may be interesting and amus* ing to speculate about all the different gods and celestial hosts that go to make up the Pantheons of the various nations, but such a study does not constitute real knowledge. Only when man's spiritual per ceptions are unfolded and he attains divine knowledge of self, then will he know the Christ and all the celestial powers whose aggregato goes to make up the kingdom of God existing within himself. 150 THE DOCTRINES OF JACOB BOEHME. "The Spirit of God resides from eternity to eternity only in heaven that is to say, in His own essence, in the power of the majesty. When it became inbreathed into the image of man, then was heaven in man ; for God willed to reveal Himself in man, as in an image created after His own likeness, and to manifest the great wonders of His eternal wisdom." (Stiefel, i. 36.) "Simultaneously with the introduction of His divine image, Adam received also the living word of God (spiritual intelligence) to furnish food for his soul." (Menschwerdung, i. 3, 24.) " God created Adam to (enjoy) eternal life in Paradise in a state of paradisiacal perfection. Divine love il lumined his interior, as the sun is illuminating the world." {Stiefel, i. 36.) "In Paradise there is perfect life without disturbance, and a perpetual day, and the paradisiacal man is clear like transparent glass, and he is fully penetrated by the light of the divine sun." * (Signature, xi. 51.) His body likewise appeared luminous, because its terrestrial substance was absorbed in the celestial es sence. It radiated a pure, diAdne light, f "The inner holy corporeity of the pure element penetrated through the four elements and kept the Limus of earth that is to say, the external sulphuric (terrestrial) body within itself as in a state of absorp tion. Nevertheless, that body was actually present, but in such a way as darkness dwells in light, so that the darkness cannot manifest itself on account of the light." (Myslerium, xvi. 6.) "All the qualities of the inner and holy body, to gether with the external ones, were in primordial man attuned in one harmony. Neither of them lived in its own state of desire ; but they had their desire in the soul wherein the divine light was manifest. This, the * The term " Paradise " means a state of purity and innocence and happiness, but not necessarily knowledge, Man had to learn to know evil so as to be able to realize good. t His thoughts and will were pure, and therefore his spirit (the union of will and thought) manifested itself in producing a pure and luminous form, not burdened with the gross material elements which form at present the bodies of human beings. Then, as now, his body was the product of his own thoughts. MAN. 151 divine light radiated through all the qualities, and pro duced in them an equal, harmonious temperature." (Mysterium, xvi. 5.) "The inner man kept the external one imprisoned within itself and penetrated it in a manner comparable to iron, which glows if it is penetrated by fire, so that it seems as if it were itself fire. But when the fire be comes extinct, then does the black, dark iron become manifest." (Mystertum, xvi. 7.) " The pure element penetrated through the external man and overpowered the four elements ; moreover, the power of the heat and the cold was in the flesh. But as the light of God was shining therein, they were in equal harmony, so that neither one of them became manifest before the other. Thus God the Father is called a wrathful, jealous God and a consuming fire, andHe is all that in regard to His qualities ; but of these qualities nothing becomes manifest in His light." Sticfel, xi. 75.) " Primordial man in Paradise, being fixed therein, tvas in a state such as time is before God and God in time. As time is a spectacle before God, likewise the external life of man was a spectacle before the inner and holyman, who was the true image of God." * Mysterium, xvi. 8.) "The inner body was a dwelling-place of the God head, an image of divine substantiality. In that body the soul had her meekness, and her fire was rendered mild thereby, for she received there the love and meek ness of God." (Tilk., i. 233.) Owing to this resemblance to God, Adam's will and thoughts were as one. His mind was pure and unconv- plicated, childlike, unsophisticated, and devoted to God ; he did not need to speculate about the unknown, because he had the power to perceive that which appeared before him. He enjoyed the perception of divine and terrestrial things, f * In the same sense the Bhavagad Gita says that the true self, the God, Atma, or " Christ," is not a participator, but merely a spectator in that which concerns the external illusion. t Logical proof is only useful as long as we are blind in regard to the nature of a thing. After that thing has become a part of our- 152 THE DOCTRINES OF JACOB BOEHME. "The mind of Adam was innocent like that of a child, playing with the wonders of its father. There was in him no self-knowledge of evil will, no avarice, pride, envy, anger, but a pure enjoyment of love." (Threefold Life, xi. 23.) ' ' When Adam was created in Paradise, there his life was burning like a flame of pure oil. Therefore his perception was celestial, and his intelligence was sur passing and comprehending things beyond nature." (Signature, vii. 2.) " The inner man stood in heaven ; his essences were the Paradise ; his body was indestructible. He knew the language of God and the angels, and the language of nature, as may be seen by Adam giving names to all creatures, to each according to its own essence and quality." (Forty One Questions, iv. 7.) ' ' Adam, after having been created by God, was in Paradise in a state of joy and glorification, beautiful and filled with knowledge. God then brought before him, as the lord of the world, all the animals, so that he might behold them, and give a name to each ac cording to its special essence and power. And Adam knew that he was within every creature, and he gave to each its appropriate name. God can see into the hearts of all things, and the same could be done by Adam."* (Three Principles, x. 17.) In this state of godlike being he had power over all things ; for all things existed in him and he in all, and there was nothing that could have done him any ex ternal injury. To express it in other words, all things existed subjectively in his mind, as they now do in ours, but his mind was his "body," and where the center of his consciousness was, there was his "form." f selves and we perceive it, no more proof of its existence will be re quired. * Adam was in harmony with creation and as one with all nature. Therefore he could experience the feelings of all beings in nature within himself, and express them accordingly. t Even now man is still there where his consciousness exists ; but as his physical, body is too gross to follow the movements of his thoughts, the body becomes unconscious whenever his consciousness concentrates itself at another place. MAN. '53 " As God is a Lord over all, so man in the power of God was to be a lord over this world. " ( Menschwcr- dung, i. 4, 7.) "The soul in the power of God penetrates through all things, and is powerful overall, as God Himself; for she lives in the power of His heart." (Three Prin ciples, xxii. 17.) "As gold is incorruptible in the fire, so man was subject to nothing, only to the One God dwelling in him, and manifested in him by the power of His holy being." (Mysterium, xvi. 12.) "Everything was subject to Adam ; his rule extended into heaven and over the earth, and in all elements and stars. This was because divine power was manifested in him."* (Mysterium, xvi. 2.) "The will-spirit of man penetrated through all creat ures, and was injured by none, because none could grasp it. No creature can apprehend the power and light of the sun in its own will, but must remain pas sive to become penetrated by it ; thus it was then the case with the will-spirit of man." (Grace, vii. 2.) " Before his fall, man could rule over the sun and the stars. Everything was in his power, f Fire, air, water, and earth could not tame him ; no fire burned him, no water drowned, no air suffocated him ; all that lived stood in awe of him." (Threefold Life, xi. 23.) "No heat, no cold, no sickness, no raccident, nor any fear could touch or terrify him. His body could pass through earth and rocks without breaking any thing in them ; for a man who could be overpowered by the terrestrial nature, or who could be broken to pieces, would not be eternal." J (Menschwerdung, \, ^, I3-) Likewise that nature which surrounded him, and which is called Eden, was illuminated by the celestial light, and it was thereby exalted to paradisiacal mag nificence. * This was the divine Man, out of whom the world was created, while the natural man is a product of the world. t Because everything was within his own will, within himself. \ This celestial Adam has not died, but still exists in all of us ; but on account of our state of degeneration, caused by the evolution of the lower principles, we have forgotten our own divine nature. 154 THE DOCTRINES OF JACOB BOEHME. "Adam was in Paradise, that is to say, in the tem perature. Thereby he was placed in a certain locality, namely, in that where the holy world was blooming out through the earth and bearing the fruits of Paradise. ' (Grace, v. 34.) ' ' ' Eden ' means the locality, but ' Paradise ' is the outflowing or the life of God in divine harmony." (Letters, xxxi. 28.) " In Paradise the substance of the divine world pene trated the substance belonging to time, comparable to the power of the sun penetrating a fruit growing on a tree, and endowing it with such qualities as render it lovely to the sight and good to the taste. " (Mysterium, xvii. 5.) "Thus the holy divine world was predominant through all the three principles of the human quality, and there was an equal accord, and no enmity or opposite will was manifest betwixt the principles."* (Myste rium, xvii. 20.) There were in Paradise all the products which we meet in the terrestrial world, but they were there in a state of ethereality and of supernatural beauty. This paradisiacal beauty was, however, not manifested in all parts of the world. ' ' In Paradise there are growths, the same as in this world, but not in (terrestrial) tangibility. There Heaven is in the place of the earth, the Light of God instead of the sun, and the Eternal Father in the place of the power of the stars." (Three Principles, ix. 20.) "The Paradise is not anything corporeal or tangible in a terrestrial sense, but its corporeity and tangibility is like that of the angels. It is there a clear, visible substance, as if it were material, and it is actually ' material ; ' but it is formed only out of the power, without any addition of terrestrial matter, and it is, therefore, perfectly transparent" (Three Principles, ix. 1 8.) "The tangible world, or nature, before the time of * It was Adam's own state of feeling and thinking that created an Eden for him,- and thus each human being creates his or her own Paradise. MAN. 155 the wrath of God, was thin, ethereal, lovely, and clear, so that the sourcive spirits could look through every thing and penetrate it. There were therein neither ter restrial rocks nor earth, and there was no created light needed, such as it is now ; but the light was generated in all things in the midst of each thing, and everything was in the light" (Aurora, xviii. 29.) "The whole world would have been all Paradise if it had not been corrupted by Lucifer. But as God knew that Adam was going to fall, it bloomed out in only one place, wherein man might find a suitable dwelling- place, and be fortified therein." (Mystertum, xvii. 7.) " God saw and knew that man was going to fall, and therefore the Paradise did not bloom and bear fruits in the whole of the world by means of the earth, although it was manifest everywhere, but only in the Garden of Eden, wherein Adam was tempted, did it become revealed in its full magnificence. " * (Letters, xxxix. 28.) For all that, man, although having been endowed with great splendor by the Creator, did not yet enjoy true similarity with God. f ' ' In Adam was manifest the kingdom of grace, the divine life, because he lived in the temperature (har mony) of the qualities, but he did not know that God was revealed in him. His self-will did not know that which is good, because it had as yet experienced no evil. How could there be any joy where no sorrow is known?" (Grace, ix. 15.) " The soul was in her own essence from eternity, but as a created thing she was formed to represent the image of God at the time of the creation of the body. * This Paradise (Deva-loca or Devachan} is described in some books as an " illusion ; " but it is no more an illusion to its inhabit ants than the dream called " terrestrial existence " is an illusion to us. On the contrary, it is far more permanent and beautiful than this terrestrial world. The illusion in either case consists only in the mistaking of that which exists within our own self, for something foreign and isolated from our real self. t He could not enjoy similarity with God, because he did not pos sess divine self-knowledge. To attain this knowledge of self he nad to eat from the tree of the self-knowledge of good and evil, and then return to his original divine state. 156 THE DOCTRINES OF JACOB BOEHME. Nevertheless she is per se not yet the true image, but only an essential fire for its production." ( Tilk., i. 8t. ) "The soul of man, which has been breathed into him by God, is from the Eternal Father ; but with that she has not yet attained the birth of the Son, wherein is the end of nature, and from which no created being issues." (Three Principles, ix. 13.) Man can attain real similarity to God and perfect beatitude only by decisively willing to put his will into the Son, as the Heart or Light of the Father. " God has the eternal and unchangeable will to gen erate His Heart and his Son, and thus the soul should put her immutable will into the heart of God. Then would she be in heaven and Paradise, and enjoy the inexpressible happiness of God the Father, which He enjoys in the Son, and she would hear the inexpressible words in the heart of God."* (Three Principles, x. 14.) "Adam was conceived in the love of God and born into this world. He was in possession of a divine substan tiality, and his soul was of the will, the first principle, the quality of the Father. This will should be directed, together with the imagination, into the heart of the Father, that is to say, into the Word and the Spirit of love and purity. Then would man's soul retain the substance of God in the Word of Life." (Menschwer- dung, i. 10, 2.) " The living soul, from the eternal will of the Father, was breathed into man, and this will has no other purpose than to give birth to His only Son.f Of this will God the Father infused into man, and this is the eternal soul of man. The soul ought to put her regener ated will into the eternal will of the Father, in the heart of God. Then will she receive the power of the heart of * This the soul can surely not do by seeking for the Son or the Heart of God in anything outside of her own sphere, and with which she is in no way related. Therefore the meaning of the words, " Thou shalt worship only one God," is " Thou shalt have faith in no other God except the one who is seeking to reveal Himself within thy own conscience, and not worship any strange idols, such as exist in the imagination of men." t God being a unity, has no other will or object in view than to give birth to His Son, /'. e., to manifest His outspoken Word as wis dom in man. MAN. 157 God and also His holy eternal light, wherein arises the Paradise and the celestial kingdom and eternal joy." (Three Principles, xxvi. 16.) "The only foundation of our religion is that we love the Christ in us, and that we love each other after the manner of Christ. This love does not become manifest in a man, unless the Christ is born and becoming man ifest in Him. He then gives to us His love, so that we love ourselves in Him as He loves us ; for He gives to our soul His flesh and blood (His substantial Light), and there is no divine Life in a soul that does not eat and drink of it." {Selection of Grace, xiii. 23.) ' ' If the soul sinks her will into the meekness, i. e. , the obedience of God, she becomes a fountain of the heart of God, and receives divine power, and all her essences become angelic and joyful. Then her harsh essences will also be useful to her, and appear to her more mild and useful, than if they had already origi nally been entirely sweet and mild. " (Three Principles, xiii. 31.) It was within his power to decide, and he was free to do so, because there was in him not only the principle of light, but also the fire-principle, not only perception, but will. ''The light and the power of the light is a desire, and wants to come in possession of the noble image made after God's likeness, because it has been created for the world of light. Likewise the dark world or the craving wrath desires the same, for man has all the worlds within himself, and there is a great battle taking place in man. That principle with which he identifies himself within his desire and his will, will rule in him." (Tilk., i. 381.) "As the soul is essential and her very substance is a desire, it is clear that she is in two kinds of Fiat. The first is her own soul-property ; the other belongs to the second principle, issuing from the will of God in the soul. The soul desiring for God for the purpose of forming herself in His image and likeness, this desire of God acts as a Fiat in her own center ; for the desire of God wants to possess the soul. On the other hand, she herself desires to possess the center in the power 158 THE DOCTRINES OF JACOB BOEHME. of the fire, wherein the life of the soul originates." (Eye, vii.) "The will of the soul is free, and she can either sink into nothing within herself and conceive of herself as the nothing, when she will sprout like a branch out of the tree of divine life, and eat of the love of God ; or she may in her own self-will rise up in the fire and desire to become a separate tree. " * (Forty Questions, ii. 2.) There existed in man also the third principle, wherein resides sensual desire. He was not endowed with this principle for the purpose of surrendering himself to it, but that he might introduce it into the light of God, and glorify Him by means of that light f " Man was a mixed individuality, and destined to be an image according to the inner, and also according to the outer world ; but as the symbol of God, he was to rule with the inner consciousness over the external one." (Menschwerdung, i. 3, 13.) " When man remains in harmonious order, so as not to let one world into the other, he is then the likeness of God ; but the image or the mirror of the world of light he should surely introduce into the external world." (Six Theosophical Points, vi. 12.) "The constellation (the astral influences) of the macrocosm should not be permitted to rule over man ; but he has his own constellation (the spirit, the idea) within himself, which is capable of becoming attuned to the harmony of the rise and evolution of the divine world within. " (Letters, i. 8. ) "All of man's desire should have been placed into the light ; then would the light have shone within his * The spiritual will of man is free : not so the will of semi-animal man, for freedom depends on the extent of knowledge. When man's knowledge becomes divine, then will his will be free wholly free. t Man requires the material (animal) element in him to endow him with strength to rise above it by the power of God. Man may be regarded as a god crucified within an animal. The god furnishes him with wisdom, the animal with strength. We are to overcome the animal in us by the power of divine wisdom. He who has noth ing to overcome can gain no victory. We cannot rise above a thing as long as we have not attained its highest level. MAN. 159 essence and desire, and filled everything as with one will." (Tilk., i. 542.) ' ' The soul of Adam could have ruled powerfully over the external principle if she had entered again with her will into the heart of God, into the word of the Lord." * (Forty Questions, iv. 2.) Thus it was intended that, by means of the instru mentality of man, the paradisiacal splendor should be continually spread out and increased over terrestrial nature, and that all the hidden treasures of nature should be uncovered. " The external world is also of God and belonging to God, and man has been created therein, so that he may bring again the external into the internal one ; the end into the beginning. " (Letters, xi. 1 8. ) ' ' Adam was also created in the external quality, so that he may manifest in forms and execute in works that which had been perceived in eternal wisdom." (Menschwerdung, i. 4.) "Man has been created in Paradise, for it was out- blooming through the earth, and from the earth of Paradise was Adam's body created, because he was a lord of the earth, and it was his destiny to unfold the wonders of the earth. If it had not been for that pur pose, God might have endowed him with an angelic body ; but in that case the substantiated being with its wonderful qualities would not have been unfolded." f (Menschwerdung, ii. 12.) But while in Adam all the three principles were originally in unity and harmony, there was attracting him outwardly in a powerful manner, not only the heart of God, but also the devil and the kingdom of the ter restrial world, f * It would be foolish to worry about what Adam ought or ought not to have done. The meaning is, that we who have " Adam " in us should enter now with our will into the will of God. t If primordial man had never fallen from his purely spiritual state and " refused to create," he would never have learned to know the wonders of creation, the unfoldment of the third principle. The external world, as we know it, was created by Adam's fall. t The " devil " means spiritual will perverted. If it is fully per verted in a personal being, then will there be a personal devil. 160 THE DOCTRINES OF JACOB BOEHME. "Man stood in three principles, and they were in equal concordance in him, but not outside of him ; for the dark world had a desire different from that of the world of light, and the external world also had a desire differing from that of the dark world and from the world of light. Thus the image of God was betwixt three principles, which all of them in their desire were con ducive to that image. Each of them wanted to become manifest in Adam to have him within its own regiment or as a ruler, and to manifest its wonders through him. " (Mysterium, xvii. 34.) " Everything attracted Adam and wanted to take pos session of him. The heart of God wanted to have him in Paradise and to reside in him, for it said, ' He is my image and likeness. ' The kingdom of wrath wanted him, for it said, ' He is mine ; for he has issued out of my fountain, out of the eternal mind of the darkness. I will be in him, and he shall live in my power ; I will manifest through him strong and great power. ' Finally, the kingdom of the world likewise said, ' He is mine, for he bears my image ; he lives in me and I in him ; he must be obedient to me, for I have all my members (organs) in him and he has his members in me, and I am greater than he. He shall be my steward, and manifest my power and wonders. '" * ( Three Principles, xi- 33-) Adam, making a perverted use of the freedom granted to him, allowed his lower qualities to be awakened to an evil desire that is to say a desire for the terrestrial world, which is divided within itself. "In primitive man before the fall, the qualities for differentiation and self-enjoyment were in equal will power, and their desire was introduced into the unity of God. This the devil begrudged to them, and he deluded the seven qualities of life by awakening within them a * God (Christ), nature, and the devil (Antichrist /'. e., Christ per verted) are seeking to attain self-consciousness in man. Man's con sciousness is, therefore, continually changing, and in reality not his own. Only when the principle of either good or evil has become self- conscious in man, and he has become identified with it, will he know his true impersonal self. Only then will he be a free and responsible agent. MAN. 161 perverted desire, persuading them that it were good, and that they would become wise, if the qualities, each according to its own kind, would enter into their own accord,* and that in this way the spirit would taste and recognize that which was good and evil." (Tabula Principice, 68. ) "The soul of Adam f fell in love with the creation of the formed word in its differentiation, and not being conscious of the power of distinguishing, she entered into lust, into differentiation." (Grace, vi. 33.) "The soul wanted to know how it would be if the temperature were to become separated that is to say, divided, as heat and cold, moisture and dryness, hard ness and softness, acridity and sweetness, bitterness, and that which is sour ; she wanted to taste these and the other qualities all in their separateness, although it had been prohibited to Adam by God." \ ( Grace, iii. 34.) ' ' If Adam had remained in paradise, he would have had nevertheless the power to unfold still better the wonderful things of God ; for they would have been nearer to him in his angelic form ; but the spirit of this world also wanted to reveal its wonders in him. Of this, however, we cannot write much ; it being a mys tery which we know, but which we must not reveal." (Princ. xx. 1 1. ) Owing to this perverted desire, there grew in him the tree of temptation, wherein the terrestrial qualities, as such, became manifest. * It was his desire that the lower qualities should become con scious in himself, each according to its own nature. t "Eve." J This is the difference between life in the terrestrial and life in the celestial states of nature, that the former is differentiated into forms, each of which loves to live in the consciousness of its own illusive self /. e., in a state of isolation and separatedness, and en joying its own qualities; while in the celestial state the individual powers intermingle, each living, so to say, in the consciousness and enjoying itself in the life of the other, while all strive towards unity and rest in it, like a tree, whose many branches and leaves receive their life all from one common trunk. This "tree of temptation " is still growing in every human being, as is represented in the allegorical " Adam." The lower qualities in man still strive for outward manifestation, and can be overcome in no other way than by his rising above them into the higher ones. it 1 62 THE DOCTRINES OF JACOB BOEHME. "Adam's spirit was lusting after terrestrial fruit, such as was of the nature of the corrupted earth, and there fore nature formed for him a tree that was like the cor rupted earth ; for Adam was the heart in nature, and therefore his spiritual soul aided in the formation of that tree, of which he desired to eat" (Aurora, xvii. 20.) "The tree of temptation grew by the power of the hunger after self-knowledge of good and evil. It should not be said that it was any other kind of a product than the rest of such trees ; only there was manifest in it the terrestrial desire for conscious evil and good ; while the other trees and plants were penetrated by the holy, paradisiacal Mercury, so that in them the qualities were in equal accordance, and heat and cold were not sep arately manifested in them." (Stie/el, ii. 280.) "Thus has man fallen into great misery, and the kingdom of the stars and elements has taken possession of his corporeal constitution. Whatever they put into him ; that will he be in his own nature. They make one man great and another man little ; one straight, another crooked ; to some they give fortune and riches and to others poverty. Some they make cunning and artful according to the ways of this world, and another they turn into a fool. They cause one to become a king, and another one they destroy. They kill one and give birth to another. They rule the mind of man at all times ; but only in regard to idle endeavors, trouble and vanity." (Princ. xvii. 70.) "In the tree of self-knowledge of good and evil there were the qualities in the curse, such as is the case at present that is to say, each of them was manifest in itself, and seeking to preponderate. They had gone out of their harmony, and thus all the three principles, each separately, were manifest in that tree. Therefore Moses (wisdom) calls it the tree of knowledge of good and evil." (Mysterium, xvii. 15.) The forthcoming of the tree of temptation is not to be wondered at, because Adam was endowed with great powers, and an earthly form as a protection to him against the powers of hell.* * It is self-evident that man can attain knowledge of a thing only MAN. 163 " Reason (man's reasoning) says, ' Why did God per mit Adam to draw the tree of temptation out of the earth by means of his imagination ? ' Christ said, ' If you have faith as big as a mustard-seed, and you say to the mountain : throw thyself into the sea ; it shall be done as you say.' The soul-spirit was produced out of the divine omnipotence, out of the center of eternal nature, wherefrom all beings have been created. Why should it then not be powerful ? It was a fire-spark out of God's power, but after it had been gathered into a created being (individualized as an organism) it gave way to its own selfish desire, and broke away from the whole, and thus it caused corruption unto itself. The soul-power, before vanity entered, was so strong as not to be subject to anything, and would be so now, even this very day, if the understanding had not been taken away." (Mysterium, xvii. 41.) "Divine prevision recognized that the devil was going to winnow mankind, and to introduce them into evil desire ; and therefore God put before them the tree of life, and of the knowledge of good and evil, by means of which the breaking up (the death) of the ex ternal body was inaugurated. He did this lest man should long after the center of the dark world. " * (Mys terium, xvii. 38.) Formerly Adam belonged to the celestial world and to eternity ; but now, the image of God having begun to pale in him, he sank into the terrestrial state, and thereby into impotency and sleep. "A reasonable person will easily perceive that there could be no sleep in Adam as long as he was in the image of God, for at that time he was such an image as we shall be in the resurrection of the dead. We by giving attention to it. In doing so, he directs his consciousness to it. The Light of Man's consciousness became centered within the lower principles constituting the sensual world, and thereby it lost its seat and center of gravity in the Supreme. If it had not been for this attraction which the material world exercised upon man, he might have sunk still lower, and entered absolute evil, the kingdom of Lucifer. * " Adam would have fallen into the unfathomable abyss of hell, if, besides the celestial state, which in consequence of his sin became pervented into a hellish one, there had not been still another, namely, the terrestrial region." (ffamberger.) 164 THE DOCTRINES OF JACOB BOEHME. shall then not need the elements, neither the sun nor the moon, and also require no sleep ; but our eyes will be open to see always and eternally the glory of God." (Three Principles, xii. 17.) "The image of God does not sleep. In it there is no time. With sleep, time became manifest in man. He fell asleep in the angelic world, and awoke rela tively to the external world."* (Mysterium, xix. 4.) After Adam had been overcome, the tincture, wherein the beautiful virgin had previously dwelt, became ter restrial, faint, and feeble. The powerful source of the tincture, wherefrom the virgin had her power, without being subjected to sleep, left Adam and went into its own principle." (Three Principles, iii. 8.) "Thus Adam became a victim of Magic, and now his magnificence was gone. Sleep signifies death and surrender. The terrestrial realm had conquered him and ruled over him. (Menschwerdung, i. 5. ) ' ' After the lust of the spirit of this world had con quered in Adam, he fell asleep. Then his celestial body became flesh and blood, and his strong power became rigid bones. Then the celestial virgin went into the celestial ether, in to the principle of power. " f (Three Principles t xiii. 2.) This impotency was to be a means of salvation for Adam, and moreover there was given to him the ter restrial woman in the place of the celestial virgin, who had passed away from him. t This was done to save him from arriving at a still greater depth of degradation. * God (divine self-consciousness) never sleeps ; it is only nature in man that causes him to sleep and wake alternately. No man is fully awake and self-conscious as long as he has not found his own god through becoming regenerated. t The " history of Adam " is the history of mankind as a whole. Its truth may be recognized by every one capable of self-examina tion. Adam is still asleep. { " Adam now represents the tincture of the spirit of man, Eve the tincture of his soul. In perfect man, spirit and soul, male and female, are one. The divine image was destroyed in Adam when the woman was made out of him. He then kept only the tincture of the fire, and the woman the tincture of the spirit." (Forty Questions, xxx. 60.) From such a degradation may have resulted the tribe of the monkeys, descended from aboriginal man. (See Secret Doctrine, by H. P. Blavatsky.) MAN. 165 "When Adam left God and entered into selfishness, God permitted it to happen that a deep sleep fell upon Adam. If it had not been for that circumstance, he would in his selfishness even have become a devil by the power of the fire." * (S fie/el, ii. 363.) "When the devil saw that lust resided in Adam, he acted still more powerfully upon the Sal-nitre in Adam, and infected it still stronger. Then it was time that the Creator should build him a wife, who afterwards indeed caused the sin to be acted out, and who ate of the evil fruit. Otherwise, if Adam had eaten of the tree before the woman was made out of him, he would have fared still worse." (Aurora, xvii. 21.) Therefore woman, the soul of life, is, and will always be, the saviour of man.f The woman was extracted from all the powers of Adam. Relatively to her substance, she was formed out of a "rib," which at that time had not yet degen erated into stiff bone. | "Eve has been extracted from Adam, not as a mere spirit, but entirely substantial. It should be said that Adam received a cleft, and that the woman is bearing * The " Sal-nitre " means the material element in man. t " That where by the man attains to manhood is woman. It is his power to recognize, appreciate, and appropriate her, that stamps him physically man. She it is who, influencing him through the affections kindled by her in him, withdraws him from his outward and aimless course, in which, left to himself, he would sooner or later be lost, dissipated and lost And all that the woman on the planes physical and social is to man, that she is also on the planes intellectual and spiritual ; for as soul and intuition she withdraws him physically and mentally from dissipation and perdition in the outer and material, and by centralizing and substantializing him, re deems and crowns him, from a phantom converting him into an en tity; from a mortal into an immortal; from a man into a god." (A. Kings ford and E. Maitland, " The Perfect Way.") \ The woman is made out of the more refined and spiritual es sences of man ; for this reason woman even to-day is more refined and intuitional than man ; while the organization of the body and also the mind of the male is on the whole more gross and material ; and he reasons where woman perceives. There were not all the female elements removed from man in the creation of the woman. If man had no such elements in him he would be a brute. Neither could any woman be visible and tangible and man's associate if she had none of the male and grossly material elements of Adam in her organization. 166 THE DOCTRINES OF JACOB BOEHME. Adam's spirit, flesh and bone. " (Three Principles, xiii. 14.) "Reasoning says, 'If Eve has been made out of a rib of Adam, she must be very inferior to man.' This is, however, not so, but the Fiat, in its aspect as sharp attraction (the first quality), took her from all essences and qualities of each power of Adam." * (Three Prin ciples, xiii. 1 8.) "Adam's body had not yet received hard bones and osseous substance. This took place only when Eve tasted the apple and gave to Adam to eat thereof." It is true that the infection and the terrestrial death were already in him as a tendency and deadly disease, but the ' bones ' and ' ribs ' were nevertheless still power and strength, and thus Eve was created out of that power or strength which (later on) was to become rib.""\ (Three Principles, xiii. 13.) Eve was not misshaped. She lived with Adam in Paradise ; but the pure likeness of God was then in neither of them. | ' ' Eve was not misshapen, but very lovely ; never theless she too bore the signs (of corruption), and could not be anything more than a wife of Adam. Both were still in Paradise, and if they had not eaten from the tree, but turned to God by changing their imagination, they would have remained in Paradise." (Three Principles, xiii. 36.) "Adam and Eve had still a paradisiacal conscious ness, but it was mixed with terrestrial desire. They were naked, and had animal organs for procreation ; but they did not know this, neither were they ashamed of them, for the spirit of the great world had not yet * It was a part of the higher and more celestial elements which left " Adam " at the time of the creation of " Eve." t It may be well to remember that at the time of Jacob Boehme it was considered a crime to disbelieve even in the literal and external interpretation of the Bible allegories, and that his explanations would have been incomprehensible and unacceptable if his expressions had not been such as to correspond with the terms of the Bible. | " Adam was created before Eve, because the life of both tinct ures is only one being in the image of God. In eternity Man is not in two separate lives, male and female. Thus also the Father and Son are only one God and not divided." (Sel. of Grace, vi, 58.) MAN. 167 obtained rule over them before they had eaten of the terrestrial fruit." (Menschwerdung, i. 6, 15.) "No one can truly say that Eve, before coming in contact with Adam, had been a pure and chaste virgin, because, as soon as Adam awoke from his sleep, he saw her by his side. He soon imagined into her (fell in love with her). He took her unto himself and said, ' This is flesh of my flesh and bone of my bone.' She will be called woman, because she has been taken from man. Eve likewise began to put her imagination into Adam, and each one ignited the desire of the other. Where, then, is the pure chastity and virginity ? Is this not animal ? Has not the external image become an animal?"* (Forty Questions, xxxvi. 6.) God had ordered mankind not to eat from the fruits of the tree of temptation ; but the devil thought of in ducing them to disobey the command, and they were, moreover, incited to do so by the spirit of the world, and by their own perverted desire. "The holy-speaking Word of God, after the Trinity of the unfathomable Godhead, gave to the fiery intelli gence of the soul the command, ' Eat not of the tree of knowledge of good and evil ; or, if you do that, you will die in the image of God on the same day. ' That is to say, 'the fiery soul will lose her light, and thereby mortality, the quality of the dark world, from the cen ter of the first three principles, will creep forth and man ifest itself in the tree, and swallow up the Kingdom of God therein. ' " (Grace, vi. 17.) ' ' When Adam and Eve were in Paradise as man and * Woman in all departments of life is a saviour of man. Even the most degraded woman may be a saviour for still more degraded man, by keeping alive in him a feeling for an ideal a low ideal, it is true, but one that keeps him from sinking into still lower depths, and which may become more refined. The mission of woman to save man ceases only when man has found the celestial virgin within himself. In regard to the marriages between men and women, Boehme says that there are affinities existing between certain persons, and if the union is made according to them (the two being brought together by the law of Karma), then will the marriage be fortunate; but if selfish motives guide the choice, then will the marriage be unfortunate. (See Select, by Grace, viii, 48.) 1 68 THE DOCTRINES OF JACOB BOEHME. woman, being still in possession of a celestial essence, although the latter was mixed (with materiality), the devil would not suffer this to be so, for his envy was great. Then, after Adam had been brought to fall and deprived of his angelic form, and seeing that Eve was his wife, the devil in them thought that they might generate children in Paradise and remain therein. He then made up his mind to seduce them to eat of the for bidden fruit, so that they might become earthly thereby." (Menschwerdung, i. 7.) "Adam was urged on by the power of the tree, which was also within himself, so that one lust infected an other. He was also urged by the spirit of the great world, so that his strength became overpowered." (Three Principles, xi. 40.) For the purpose of seducing mankind, the devil availed himself especially of the services of the serpent, which, being a living symbol of the tree of temptation, caused them to imagine that, by eating the forbidden fruit, they would become godlike.* "The devil introduced his poisonous imagination into the human quality. Therefrom resulted in man the ardent desire to eat of evil and good, and to live in the self-will ; that is to say, his will left the harmony of unity and went into the multiplicity of the qualities. The devil, by means of the serpent, represented to him that he would become like God, and that his eyes would open ; which then actually took place in the fall, so that they could now recognize, taste, see, and feel evil and good." f (Mysterium, xvii. 37.) ' ' The devil mixed lies and truth together, and said to the first human beings that they would be like God. His meaning was that they would be so, according to the first principle of wrath ; but about the Paradise he said nothing." (Three Principles, xvii. 96. ) "The substance of the snake, its celestial aspect, was a great power, as there was also a great celestial power * The " serpent " is the astral light, in whose folds and tempta tions the will of man is entangled. t Evil desires always enter the heart of man silently and worm- like, until the 'soul becomes entangled therein as in the folds of a serpent. MAN. 169 in the devil, for he was a prince of God. Thus he intro duced his cunning and lies into a strong state of will, for the purpose of making illusions therewith as his own god." (Mysteriutn, xx. 16.) "The imagination of the devil poisoned the substance of the serpent, so that the latter, in consequence of the division of its powers that formerly were in paradisiacal unity, formed itself into a serpent. Thus he used the snake as his instrument." * (Letters xxxix. 21.) "The snake was a living symbol of the tree of temp tation. The tree of temptation was in mute power, and the serpent was in a living power, and the serpent attached itself to that tree, it being of its own nature." f Mysterium, xx. 20.) After Adam had introduced his perverted desire into Eve, the latter was the first to be seduced to fall away from God.J The lust originated in Adam, but thereupon this perverted desire began to be excited in the woman." (Stiefel, ii. 375.) "Eve was lusting after the fruit of the tree of knowl edge of good and evil, but there was the prohibition before her, and she was afraid of God, and did not want to act against the prohibition. Then the devil entered into the substance and cunning of the snake, and turned this power and craftiness around, so that Eve could see and know that the serpent was very artful and cunning. She clung to the forbidden tree, and it did her no harm ; but she looked at the serpent and fell in love with his cunning and cleverness, also with his agility and artful ness, and she lusted to eat of the tree. The serpent advised her to do so by the sound and voice of the devil, * The serpent is not himself the devil, but the devil is the evil will that causes the serpent to move. t There is no mortal man to whose tree of life the serpent of de sire is not attached during his terrestrial existence. | If woman represents the will and man the intellectual power of mankind as a whole, it naturally follows that the will was seduced by the desire before the intellect followed in its track. If the intellect had become seduced first, it would have become separated from the "woman," and man would have become a clever fool, an intellectual maniac, an unspiritual but cunning scientist, without any soul or faith a "materialist." 170 THE DOCTRINES OF JACOB BOEHME. and pretended that he derived his cunning and artfulness from the tree." (Mysterium, xx. 22.) "The devil told her that the fruit would do her no harm, but that the eyes of her understanding would be opened, and she would be like God. She thought it would be a good thing to be a goddess, and she con sented ; and in consenting she fell from the divine har mony, from the peace in God, and from divine faith, and entered with her desire into the serpent and into the cunning, the desire, and vanity of the devil. " * (Myste- rium, xx. 25.) While the devil was desirous directly for the fire-life, man at first was only desirous after the terrestrial things, but thereby his lust of pride began to arise. "The devil went with his imagination into the fiery foundation, but Adam into the watery quality. " (Signa ture, vii. 4.) "Unlike Lucifer, Adam did not actually desire to awaken the first principle ; his desire was rather to taste good and evil that is to say, the vanity of the earth." \Mysterium, xviii. 31.) "In the external part of the soul originated the ter restrial lust to eat of the manifold qualities ; but in the interior fiery part of it originated lust for pride, to know evil and good, and to be like God. " f (Mysterium, xviii. 30.) Thus the first act of the great drama ended, "and a god became a man. In the second act He rises again up ward toward His former divine state, no more innocent * Actual " sin " begins only where there is a knowledge of evil. A mere evil desire does not constitute " sin " as long as the desire has not the consent of the intellect. t The more man seeks for the object of his existence in external and sensual things, the more will he depart from his spiritual faith or point of gravitation from his own divine center or God. He be comes experienced in external and superficial things, and loses sight of that which is real and divine. His external knowledge, which after all is only imaginary, as it deals only with passing illusions, awakens his pride and self-conceit ; he begins to assert his personal ity against immortality; he becomes cruel, and selfish, and passion ate; and unless he be redeemed by the awakening of spirituality within himself, he will end in awakening in him the "fiery founda tion," the principle of evil, the " devil." Instead of the Christ, Lu cifer will be revealed in him. NATURE, OR THE THIRD PRINCIPLE. 171 and ignorant of evil, but taught by experience, know ing and wise, a conqueror over "matter," and a true Lord over all. CHAPTER VIII. NATURE, OR THE THIRD PRINCIPLE. " The external principle is the cause of a continual warfare. It causes continual combats between animals, for all the animals are a fruit of the third principle, and they have the life of that principle ; both its spirit and body. Everything that moves in this world, and also man, as far as his visible body and his (mundane) spirit in flesh and blood is concerned, is also a fruit of that principle, and nothing more." (Six Points, iii, 53.) " It is the Amsa which emanates from me, and which is manifested from the beginning of time, that becomes the Jiva in the world of living beings, and attracts mind and the other five senses, which have their basis in Prakriti." (Bhagavat Gita, xv. 7.) THE image of everything that ever existed was in the light at the time when God began to create a new world. The external world, to which Adam hadbecome subjected in consequence of his degradation, has its origin in God's eternal nature and its prototype in His wisdom, wherein it was spiritually contained from the beginning. We may compare the external world to the imagery seen upon a screen, upon which it has been projected by the light of a magic-lantern. The images represent the world, the pictures on the slide the ether, and the light itself is the Spirit of God. " The third principle, the spirit and torment of this world, has been hidden from eternity in eternal nature, and was discovered by the light-flaming spirit in God's wisdom and the divine tincture. Then the Godhead moved according to the nature of the producing mother, and the great Mysterium was born, wherein was con tained everything that is within the power of eternal nature. This, however, was only a Mysterium, and had no resemblance to any created being. There every thing was as if (mixed) together, like a cloud of dust." * (Menschwerdung, i. i, 10.) * The external consciousness was hidden within the internal one, in the same sense as the character of a tre is hidden within the seed. 1 72 THE DOCTRINES OF JACOB BOEHME. "If we rightly consider the creation of this world and the spirit of the third principle, or the spirit of the great world with its stars and elements, we find therein the qualities of the eternal world as if in a state of mixture ; wherein Deity willed to manifest the eternal wonders that were hidden, and to bring them into ob jective existence." (Six Theosophical Points, ii. 6.) " The external world, in being born (coming into objectivity), makes for itself anew principium or begin ning. The generatrix of the temporal is a reproduction of the eternal generatrix, time originates in eternity and even here eternity, with its wonderful production, appears, in its powers and capabilities, in an especially temporal form and shape." * (Mysterium, vi. 10.) In this external world, called the third principle, there are manifest two powers the holy divine power and the power of the darkness. The latter is even prepon derating. "The third principle, or the visible elemental world, is an issue of the first and second principles, which is produced by the motion and outbreathing of divine power and divine will. In it is figured the spiritual world according to light and darkness, and brought into a created (objective) condition." (Tabula Prin ciple, 5.) "The external world has been outbreathed from the holy and from the dark world. It is, therefore, evil and good, and in love and wrath ; but, compared with the spiritual world, it is only like a smoke or a fog. " (Mysterium, iii. 10.) "The word moved the Fiat in all forms of eternal nature, in harmony with the world of light and the world of darkness ; so that the desire after the quality of both worlds entered into being. This caused good and evil to originate in the essentiality, and thereby was created the external visible world, with stars and ele ments as a particular life. " (Stiefel, i. 31.) * Therefore the life that exists in external nature (which is the only nature known to the reasoning mind) is not the true and eternal life, but merely a reflection of that. There is a higher life, which surpasses nature, and which is therefore supernatural, but for all that not outside of nature. NATURE, OR THE THIRD PRINCIPLE. 173 ' ' This terrestrial world is based upon the world of darkness, and if the good had not been also embodied therein, there would be in it no other doing than that of the world of darkness ; but this is prevented by the divine power and by the light of the sun. " * (Six Theosophical Points, ix. 17.) The rainbow has the colors of all the three principles ; namely the color of the first principle, which is red or dark brown ; signifying the world of darkness and fire ; the kingdom of the wrath of God. The color of the second principle is white and yellow ; representing the majesty; the symbol of the celestial world ; the love of God. The color of the third principle is green and blue, namely blue from the Chaos, and green from the water of the Sal-nitre." (Myster. Magn. xxxiii. 27.) "This world is rooted in evil and good, and there can be neither one of them without the other. But the great misfortune in it is that evil is preponderat ing therein over good, and the wrath stronger than love, and this is due to the sin of the devil and of man, who excited nature by their perverted desires, so that the world is now powerfully qualified in wrath, acting like a poison within the body. " f (Mysterium, xi. 15.) That the darkness has obtained so much power in this world is not the fault of God, but it is due to Luci fer, who corrupted the primordial creation, and who in consequence of Adam's fall is now still more enabled to act within the dark element of nature. \ "Within all nature there is a continual wrestling, battling, and devouring, so that this world may truly be called a valley of sorrow, full of trouble, persecu- * The visible sun in the sky is the exterior manifestation of an in visible spiritual power. As tho visible sunlight dries up swamps and destroys impurities, so is the spiritual sunlight opposed to the evil influences that arise from the astral plane. t Nature exists in universal man, and he is existing hi her. Na ture receives her consciousness from man, and as the will in him has become tinctured with evil desires, so nature the product of his imagination became tinctured with evil likewise. I Neither Christ, nor " Lucifer," nor "the Antichrist," is outside of the world, but a power active within it, in the same sense as a man's health or disease does not exist outside of his own body, but within it. 174 THE DOCTRINES OF JACOB BO EH ME. tion, suffering, and labor ; for when the spirit of creation went into the middle, it had to form the world from the midst of the kingdom of hell. " (Aurora, xviii. 112.) " Nature, up to the day of judgment, has two inhe rent qualities ; one is lovely, celestial, and holy, and the other one wrathful and hellish. The good quality works with great diligence for the purpose of produ cing good fruits under the influence of the Holy Spirit, and the evil quality labors for the purpose of produ cing evil fruits, receiving power and incitement thereto by the devil." (Aurora, Preface, x. 10. ) "The devil resides in this world, and he continually infests external nature ; but he has his power only in the wrath, in bitter desire. " * (Menschwerdung, i. 2, 4. ) God acts with the holy power of his inner world against the corrupting power of Lucifer, but the exter nal world is not thereby changed in its own particular essence, f "The inner world, the world of light, dwells in the external world, and the latter receives power from the former. She blooms in the external power, but this power knows nothing of it. " J (Six Theosophical Points, vi. 2.) "The powers of eternity work through the powers of time, like the sun that shines through water, while the water does not apprehend the sun, but only receives the heat ; or, like a fire, which glows in the iron, but the iron remains iron nevertheless." (Mysterium, xii. 20.) * If it had not been for Lucifer's seduction and Adam's fall, prim ordial man would havo remained for ever in blissful ignorance of the lower qualities, in a spiritual state, which he could not have fully en joyed, because he did not know its opposite, namely, suffering. Thus the devil brought suffering into the world, and is therefore man's benefactor ; provided that man learns by the experience afforded to him in this way, and does not become absorbed by evil, but con quers it. t If it were not for the omnipresent and superior power of good, there would be no possibility for man to conquer his evil desires. This absolute good is the One, without which the Two (relative good and evil) could not exist. \ Thus also in man. The interior spiritual understanding resides within the externally reasoning mind ; but before the awakening takes place the external mind knows nothing about the presence of that inner light, although it receives its own reasoning power from it. NATURE, OR THE THIRD PRINCIPLE. 175 "The spiritual world is hidden within the visible elementary world, and acts through the latter, and by means of the separator, or the soul of the outer world, it shapes itself in all things according to the character and quality of each thing ; but the visible beingreceives the invisible one not in its own power, neither does the external thing become changed into the inner one, but the inner power merely takes shape therein, as we may see if we observe the growth of herbs, trees, and metals." (Contemplations, iii. 19.) " We see that the earth has a great hunger and desire after the power and the light of the sun, and likewise the external being craves for the interior one. There by it receives the form of the latter as a light and power, without, however, being able to grasp the interior spirit itself ; for the spirit does not dwell in the exterior, but has possession of its own self in its own interior state. "* (Six Theosophical Points, vi. 9.) God exercises this blissful power especially by means of the sun, who, being a true image of the divine heart of love, illuminates all the visible world, and restrains the wrath of the dark world. "The Godhead, the divine light, is the center of all life, and likewise in the manifestation of God the sun is the center of life." (Signature, iv. 17.) "God the Father generates love by means of His heart, and the sun symbolizes His heart He is in the external world a symbol of the eternal heart of God, which gives to all beings and existences their power." (Signature, iv. 39.) "God gave to the external world the light, by the outbreathing of His power through the rays of His * The earth, like every other cosmic body, is a form of manifesta tion of will, and has a sensation of its own. Every part of the earth strives for the full enjoyment of the beneficent sun-rays, and when arriving at the meridian it would fain stand still, as if in mute adora tion and worship of the glory of the celestial orb, but is pushed on by those parts that follow. Thus every part alternatively embraces the sunlight and sinks again into darkness once during the daily rev olution of our planet. In man his " earth " is his terrestrial mind, receiving its light from the sun of wisdom, as it manifests itself in him. In his " earth " there are also revolutions and alternative changes between darkness and light. 176 THE DOCTRINES OF JACOB BOEHME. light, and with the sun and the moon He rules within the things of this world. The stars take their light from the outpoured radiance of His light, and by means of this very light God ornaments the earth with beauti ful plants and flowers, and makes glad everything that lives and grows." (Prayer, xlvii.) "This world has a natural God of its own, namely, the sun ; but he takes his being from the fire of God, and this again from the light of God. Thus, the sun gives his power to the elements, and they give theirs to the creatures and herbs of the earth." (Six Theosophi- cal Points, v. 13.) "The abyss of hell is in this world, and the sun is the only cause of the existence of water, and of the fact that the depth above the earth is lovely, pleasing, mild, and delightful. " (TJiree/old Life, vi. 36.) " All that is powerful in the essence of the holy world is hidden in the wrath and curse of God in the quality of the dark world ; but it blooms by means of the power of the sun and the light of external nature through the curse and the wrath."* (Mysterium, xxi. 8.) As the sun rules over all the terrestrial world, he must be present in his essence and power everywhere in that world. "The sun is not very different from water, for water has the quality and essence of the sun. Without that the water would not receive the light of the sun. Al though the sun is a body having a form, nevertheless the essence of the sun is also in water, but not manifest. In fact, we recognize that the whole world is all sun, and the locality of the sun would be everywhere if God would want to ignite it and cause it to become manifest, for all existence begins in the light of the sun. "f (Six Theosophical Points, vi. 10.) * The world is the body of universal man ; the spiritual sun is his heart, and the moon is the symbol of his imagination (or fancy;. The true meaning of Boehme's writings, like those of the Bible, will only be understood if we cease to look upon the cosmos from our limited personal point of view, and, by becoming identified in our consciousness with the All, realize that the All is our Self. " You cannot grasp it-if you cannot fee/ it." (Goethe.} t It may be remarked that at the time of Jacob Boehme it was not generally known that the sun has a hydrogen atmosphere, nor NATURE, OR THE THIRD PRINCIPLE. 177 "If God would ignite the (universal) light by means of the heat, the whole world would be sun -(manifest), for the power of the sun is everywhere, and before the body of the sun existed the whole locality of the world was as shining as the sun is at present, but not so in supportable, but mild and delightful." * (Aurora, xxv. 63.) The planets are also ruled by the sun, from which they receive their powers, and they communicate these powers in their turn to terrestrial objects. ' ' The sun is the center of the constellation (solar system), and the earth is the center of the elements. Both, if compared with each other, are like spirit and body, or like man and woman. But the constellation has still another woman, wherein it breeds out its substance, namely, the moon, she being the wife of all the planets, but especially of the sun. " f (Mysterium, xi. 31.) "As the stars, full of desire, draw unto themselves the power of the sun, likewise the sun penetrates also powerfully into the stars, so that they receive their light from the power of the sun. The stars then send again their ignited power as their product into the elements. " (Grace, ii. 26.) that water was composed of oxygen and hydrogen, the most com bustible gas. * The same doctrine applies to the light of the Spirit. The Christ- spirit is everywhere ; but it is not manifest in every person. Little would it benefit the blind to know of the light merely from hearsay. Little would it profit the " Christian " if he knew of a historical Christ, and could not perceive the glory and majesty of the Atma Buddhi within his own soul. Boehme says : " The light and the power of Christ arises within His children in the interior foundation and illumines the whole course of their life. Within this fountain of light is the kingdom of God in man. He who is not in possession of it cannot bring it into himself by means of any creed, opinions, or theories ; but if he possesses it, then from that fountain will arise many streams of pure love." (Communion, v. 18.) t So with the mind of man, it being the " constellation of stars, thoughts, and mental powers wherein he lives," he receives its light from the divine sun that shines in the center of his own being. There are thoughts of which we are conscious, and others which remain hidden until they are called forth by that power which rests in th spirit of man. 12 178 THE DOCTRINES OF JACOB BOEHME. But as the stars have their origin from the world of light and from the world of darkness, not only the good, but also the evil, existing in the terrestrial world comes from them. " With the creation of the constellation good and evil became manifest, for in them is manifest the wrathful fiery power of eternal nature, as well as the power of the holy spiritual world, as an outbreathed essence. Thus there are many dark stars which we cannot see, and there are many shining ones which we see."* (Myslerium, x. 36.) "The evil, like the good, in all things comes from the stars ; and as the creatures upon the earth are in their qualities, likewise are also the stars." (Aurora, ii. 2.) "All that lives and exists is awakened and brought to life by the stars, for they are not only fire and water, but they also possess hardness and softness, sourness and sweetness, bitterness and darkness, even all the powers of nature, and everything that is contained in the earth." (Threefold Life, vii. 46.) " The constellation is the cause of all arts and science, also of all order and harmony in this world, because it awakens the trees and metals, enabling them to grow. In the earth is everything that is contained within the stars ; the constellation ignites the earth, and all this taken together is only one spirit, "f (Threefold Life, vii. 48.) In their relations to the earth and the elements, the stars act the part of a higher, living, and, so to say, male power. "The stars are a quintessence, a fifth form of the ele- * This is also asserted in Sinnett's Esoteric Buddhism. Ideas have their regular revolutions in the mental world, comparable to the plan ets in the sky. They arise and disappear from the mental horizon of the individual, and also from that of humanity as a whole, accord ing to cosmic laws. The universal mind has also its subjective and objective ideas, and therefore space its visible and invisible planets. t To realize the nature of the relation existing between the macro cosm and the microcosm, it is necessary that man should learn to realize his own existence as a macrocosmic being. Without such a practical realization, a merely theoretical study of such mysteries is difficult, and of little use. This realization is possible only through the power of divine love. NATURE, OR THE THIRD PRINCIPLE. 179 ments, and, so to say, the life of the four. " (Threefold Life, vii. 45-) "The starry sky rules in all creatures as it were in its own property. This sky is the man, and 'matter/ or the watery form, is his wife, who gives birth to what heaven creates."* (Three Principles, vii. 33.) "The upper desires the lower and the lower the higher. The hunger of that which is above is directed powerfully to the earth, and the hunger of the earth strives for that which is above. Thus, compared with each other, they are like body and soul, or like man and woman, generating children with each other. " (Grace, v. 19.) But it must be understood that there is a distinct life in the earth. This is proved by her products, and also by her desire for the sun, in consequence of which she is continually turning around, "f* "If you behold the earth and the rocks you will acknowledge that there is a life in them ; for if this were not so, there would be in them neither gold nor silver, and neither herbs nor grasses." (Aurora, xix. 57.) ' ' Each being desires the other. That which is above desires that which is below, and the lower desires the higher. Thus the earth is filled with hunger after the stars and after the spiriius mundi, so that they have no peace." (Clavis, no.) "The earth is turning around because she has both fires, the hot and the cold fire, and that which is below always desires to rise upwards towards the sun, because she receives spirit and power only from the sun. There fore she is turning. The fire, her desire for light, is turning her, for it wishes to be ignited, and to have a life of its own. Having nevertheless to remain in * All material forms are nothing but ultimate expressions of ideas, shaped into forms by thought and caused to grow and become ob jective by the power of will which is inherent in everything. t There is only one universal life ; but its action becomes differen tiated and modified in each individual form by the qualities of the latter. It then becomes therein, as it were, a distinct and separate life, differing not in essence but in quality from that of other forms. This individual life constitutes the individuality of the form. The external expression which results from the action of this individual life constitutes the personality. 180 THE DOCTRINES OF JACOB BO Elf ME. death, still it desires after the life above and attracts the latter, and opens its center forever to receive the tincture and fire of the sun." * (Threefold Life, xi. 5.) The four elements are actually only qualities (mani festations) of the true one element, f which is hidden behind the external four elements. "That which we call at present four elements are in fact not elements, but merely qualities of the one true element." (Three Principles, xiv. 54.) "The quintessence is a paradisiacal substance in the celestial world, but enclosed in the external world ; that is to say, not imprisoned therein, but only rendered invisible." (Clavis Specialis.) "Fire, air, water, and earth have issued from the center of nature, and consisted in the ignition of one substance. Since that ignition took place they appear in four forms, which are called ' elements ; ' but they are still interiorly, and in reality there exists, only one. There are not four elements in heaven, but only one ; but all four states are contained therein." (Threefold Life, v. 105.) From this superterrestrial basis have proceeded the external terrestrial elements. There was first separated from it the fire, next the air, then the water, and finally the element of earth. J "The four forms which are hidden within the one true element have become active by means of the igni tion or excitation of the lower principles, and they now appear in their external substance comprehensible to the creatures." (Threefold Life, v. 105.) "From the fire originates the air, and from the air * If the whole world is a manifestation of consciousness, there can be nothing absolutely unconscious in it. Each thing has its own state of consciousness, but is not necessarily therefore self-conscious or aware of its own qualities. If it were so, the world would be a hell. t The " Kutastham " of the Hindus. \ The same order may be observed in the microcosm of man. First comes the desire, which is of a fiery nature ; then the idea, which is still airy and indefinite, but which becomes concrete as a thought by the aid of the "watery element," and ultimately there results the act or the material corporification. NATURE, OR THE THIRD PRINCIPLE. 181 the water, and from the water earth ; i. e,, a substance which is of an earthly nature, and thus the elements are merely an external manifestation of the inner eter nal element and an ignited smoke of the latter."* (Mysterium, vii. 19.) The elements having issued from their original unity, strongly desire each other, but at the same time there are dissensions and strifes among them. ' ' The four elements are only qualities of the one in- differentiated element. Therefore there is a great anx iety and desire among them. They constitute interiorly only one sole principle, and therefore they instinctively long one after the other and each seeks for the inner principle within each other. " (Clavis, 106.) "After from the one element, which has only one single will, the four elements had originated, which are now existing in one single body, there is among them much strife and dissension. Heat is against cold, and fire against water ; the air is against earth, and each causes the death and breaking-up of the other. " (Sig nature, xv. 4.) In many of the products of the earth for instance, in many of the minerals the true essence seems to be entirely hidden in death ; but in others, especially in the noble metals and precious stones, it still manifests its brightness.f " It seems strange to the reasoning mind, if we ob serve the earth with its solid rocks and its rough and harsh appearance, that big rocks and stones have been created, whereof a part is useless, and which are only an obstacle for the creatures of this world." (Afysfe- rium, x. i.) "The terrestrial consciousness corrupted the celestial * This, of course, will appear only as an unintelligible ''jargon " to the externally reasoning mind ; but it will be exceedingly plain to the interior understanding, which deals not in mere appearances, but with interior powers, and in which the one element knows its own self. t In the mineral kingdom precious stones may be compared to the eye in the animal realm, in so far as the same is said to be the mirror of the soul ; i. e., of the interior quality. 182 THE DOCTRINES OF JACOB BOEHME. one, and the former became the Turba of the latter. Likewise, the Fiat made the earth and stones out of the eternal essentiality." (Menschwerdung, i. 9.) " But in the earth we find still another tincture hidden away which is like the celestial one, especially in the precious metals."* (Six Theosophical Points, vi. 2.) "Gold is nearly related to the divine substantiality or celestial corporeity. This would be seen if we could dissolve the dead body of the gold and cause it to be come a volatile, active spirit, but this is only possible by means of the power of God."f {Signature, iii. 39.) ' ' As far as precious stones are concerned, carbuncles, rubies, delphines, onyx, etc., they have their origin there where the flash of light arose within love. This flash is born in meekness, and is the heart in the center of the sourcive spirits. Therefore are such stones so mild, lovely, and at the same time so powerful."! (Aurora, xviii. 17.) As it is in regard to the mineral kingdom, so it is in regard to the vegetable and animal kingdoms. There the power of death has also penetrated into everything ; but there also are formations existing which show a re lationship with the paradise. "Before the fall the paradise was efflorescing through all trees and through all the fruits which God created for man. But when the earth was cursed, the curse penetrated into all fruits, and now everything became good and bad. In all things was death and rotten ness, which formerly was only in the one tree, called the tree of knowledge of good and evil." (Threefold Life, ix. 15.) "The fruits of the earth are not entirely in the wrath of God, for the incorporated word, being immortal and imperishable, was blossoming out again in the body of death, and produced fruits from the mortified body of the earth." (Aurora, xxi. 24.) * All forms are expressions of originally spiritual powers, and the qualities of such powers are more manifest in precious stones than in any other material substance. t For this reason it requires the possession of divine power to practise alchemy. It is a divine and not merely a "natural " science. t For the true signification and magic powers of precious stones see " ** tht Pronaos of the Temple of Wisdom" NATURE, OR THE THIRD PRINCIPLE. 183 " Some animals, especially the tame ones, are closely related to the one element ; others, especially the fero cious ones, have more relationship with the four ele ments." (Three Principles, xviii. 10.) "There are poisonous animals and worms grown out of the wrathful quality, and formed after the center of the dark world. They love to dwell only in the dark, and hide themselves away from the sunlight. Furthermore, there are many creatures which the spiritus mundi has formed out of the realm of phantasy, such as monkeys and certain animals and birds, who like to play pranks and torment and disturb other creatures, so that one is the enemy of the other, and they are all fighting against each other. On the other hand, there are also good and kind creatures, made after the type of the angelic world, such as the tame animals and birds : among them, however, there are also bad qual ities to be found." * (Grace, v. 20.) In each external thing there is hidden an eternal and imperishable something, which issues again in an ethe real form out of the degraded body of the terrestrial substance, f " In each external thing there are two qualities, one originating from time and the other one from eternity. The first or temporal quality is manifest, the other one hidden." (Signature, iv. 17.) " In the beings of this world we find everywhere two beings in one first, an eternal, divine and spiritual being, and then one that has a beginning, and is natu ral, temporal, and corruptible. The outbreathed desire that is to say, the love of the divine power for nature, wherefrom nature and self-will have originated is longing to get rid of the natural perverted self-will, and is destined, at the end of time, to be free of the illusion thus acquired, and to be brought into a clear, crystal line nature." (Contemplations, i. 30.) * For description of the elementals inhabiting the astral plane see Paracelsus. t The spiritual being is the one that is not subject to the dissolu tion of the physical form, but " reincarnates " periodically ; that is to say, it creates for itself again other forms in which it may find to a certain extent an outward expression. (Compare Myster. Magn., 29. 45-) 184 THE DOCTRINES OF JACOB BOEHME. ' ' Behold a tree. Outwardly it has a hard and rough shell, appearing dead and encrusted ; but the body of the tree has a living power, which breaks through the hard and dry bark and generates many young bodies, branches, and leaves, which, however, all are rooted in the body of the tree. Thus it is with the whole house of this world, wherein also the holy light of God appears to have died out, because it has withdrawn into its principle, and therefore it seems dead, although it still exists in God. But love ever again and again breaks through this very house of death and generates holy and celestial branches in this great tree, and which root in the light." (Aurora, xxiv. 7.) All these external formations proceed from the fire-life by means of the tincture and the oily, spiritual quality, which manifests its power and activity in contrast with the elements.* " Each thing is like a fire. However, the torture of the fire is not a true life, but the tincture that originates from the fire." (Three/old Life, viii. 18.) ' ' As the spirit is in a thing, so is the tincture, for the tincture issues from the spirit and is its delight." (Three Principles, xiii. 45.) " Where a desire exists there is a fire, for the fire desires substantiality, so that it may have something to consume. It cannot make for itself any substantiality, but it makes a tincture, and that tincture produces the substantiality." (Threefold Life, viii. 33.) " The tincture produces all colors, because it intro duces the quality of fire and light into the water. Thus it also transforms water into blood." (Six Mystical Points, i. 5.) " The oily quality is in stones, metals, herbs, trees, animals, and men. The deadly quality is in the earth, in water, fire, and air. Those four qualities are, in fact, like a dead body, but the oil therein is a light or a life, wherefrom results the desire or the growth, the out- * In other words, each thing is an expression of will-power. The will alone, however, does not constitute its true consciousness ; the latter results from the action of the will upon the imagination within the interior'foundation ; in other words, it is a reflected ray from the sun of Divine Wisdom. NATURE, OR THE THIRD PRINCIPLE. 185 blooming from this deadly quality. The oily quality could not, however, be a life if it were not in the anxiety of death. The latter arouses the former, and renders it movable, because the oily quality desires to fly from the anxiety, and to issue from thence, and thereby the growth is caused. Thus death itself has to be a cause of life and motion." (Signature, viii. 5.) The external appearance or signature of things is a symbol of what they actually are in their inner essence, or of what principle is preponderating in their charac ter, and therein is the basis of the language of nature. " All the external visible world, in all its states, is a symbol or figure of the internal spiritual world. That which a thing actually is in its interior is reflected in its external character." (Signature, ix. i.) " That principle which in the spirit of its action is superior to the rest, engraves its character principally upon the corporeal being, and the other qualities are only secondary additions to it, as may be seen in all living creatures. " (Signature, ix. 4. ) ' ' The inner form characterizes man, also in his face. The same may be said of animals, herbs, and trees. Each thing is marked externally with that which it is internally and essentially. For the internal being is continually laboring to manifest itself outwardly. Thus everything has its own mouth for the purpose of revealing itself, and therein is based the language of nature, by means of which each thing speaks out of its own quality, and represents that for which it may be useful and good."* (Signature, i. 11-17.) This inner essence and the restorer of all things is the divine Light of the Logos, the Breath or Word of the Father of All, which being omnipresent, is contained within everything ; it being itself the true Life of everything, and known within the heart of man as his Redeemer and Christ. " 'The seed of the woman f shall crush the head of * See " Magic, White and Black." t No one can, by means of his self-will, overcome his own self-will and the evil desires resulting therefrom. This can be done only by the " seed of the woman " in him ; i.