The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme

The chapter opens with epigraphs from Six Points and Apology stating that Boehme's doctrine shows how man creates a kingdom of light within himself, and that God knows things in him. Chapter I, "Introduction," begins with epigraphs from Four Complexions on faith. The author argues that contemplation of the divine requires first believing the divine may exist in man, and describes a spiritual principle superior to the animal, intellectual, and reasoning man. Theoretical speculation is called inadequate; true wisdom comes from practical experience. Boehme (Calmness) permits study of natural science but denies reasoning as the basis of knowledge. Quotations from Letters, Contemplation, Menschwerdung, and Tilk assert that natural and external man cannot know God or gain self-knowledge from external Bible study. Further quotations distinguish speculative philosophy from theosophy (Letters, Three Principles, Richter, Tilk). The essential man extends to the stars; Aurora and Mystery quotes affirm the soul's divine origin, and Menschwerdung explains flesh and the devil prevent seeing God. The author states worship belongs to the God within, defines God as "the will of eternal wisdom," and cites Letters and Communion on true faith. Boehme (Supersensual Life) answers that one's own willing and seeing prevent perceiving God. Addressing whether one should do nothing, the author quotes Mysterium on surrendering self-will, and Forty Questions, Signature, and Calmness on abandoning selfish reasoning. Using the worm-and-eagle and sunlight analogies, the author states divine wisdom comes by grace, not effort. The divine man is self-created. Boehme is described as simple and little-educated. He recounts formerly thinking heaven a blue circle, then falling into melancholy over creation's evils, finding no consolation in scripture, and having heathenish thoughts.

Boehme describes (Aurora, xix.4) his spirit rising in God amid sorrow, wrestling with God's love until light broke through the clouds; storming the portals of hell, his spirit penetrated the innermost essence of the newly-born Divinity, received as a bridegroom welcomes his bride, seeing through everything and recognising God in all things, even herbs and grasses. The editor states none enters heaven unless reborn, having died to self-will. Boehme relates (Letters, xii.6–7) that he sought only the heart of Jesus Christ and asked for the Holy Spirit, whereupon the door opened and he learned in a quarter-hour more than years at universities. He declares himself (Tilk, 20–26) a simple man who fought his corrupted nature until a light arose revealing the nature of God and man. The editor discusses resignation and true theosophy as the self-knowledge of God in man. Boehme states (Letters, viii.60) he submits to his Redeemer, and (Letters, xii.60) that praying to have knowledge removed only ignited his inner fire. He says (Letters, xv.10) the Supreme reveals secrets through the foolish, and (Forty Questions, xxxvii.20) that understanding is born of God, not schools. He describes (Letters, ii.10) the Spirit dictating his writing, and (Letters, x.45) inspiration coming like rain. The editor distinguishes inspiration from mediumship. Boehme compares (Aurora, xi.76) the soul's vision to a lightning-flash soon covered by clouds, notes (Aurora, Preface, 100) the soul's dual origin, and admits (Letters, x.29) losing comprehension when God is hidden. He urges following the flights of his soul (Three Principles, xxiv.2), examining one's purpose (Clavis, ii.3), and fighting the devil while descending toward hell (Aurora, xiii.20), the sunrise growing more magnificent. Further quotations (Letters, lv.8; Clavis, Preface, 5) address seeking knowledge in the Spirit. Footnotes clarify Boehme's earlier self-conception, the "devil" as perverted will from Lucifer, and occult knowledge.

Chapter II, titled "The Unity of the All," opens with a quotation from Forty Questions stating all are one body in Christ. The text argues the finite cannot conceive the infinite, using space as illustration, and cites Aurora on describing eternal generation only in temporal, terrestrial terms. Signature and Three Principles state the Godhead has no beginning in time but an eternal beginning and end. Threefold Life and Grace advise regarding such language in a supernatural rather than terrestrial sense. God is described as self-existent infinite Will that, conceiving itself, creates a mirror within itself, paralleled in man's self-consciousness. Menschwerdung, Mysterium, and Forty Questions describe this eternal will and mirroring. The eternal Will as Father conceives itself as Son and expands as Holy Spirit; Mysterium and Grace elaborate this threefold activity of one undifferentiated will. Divine imagination, or wisdom, is described as a passive mirror and mother, the passive productive principle to the Father's active male will (Menschwerdung, Clavis). The Trinity is called inconceivable as spiritual potentiality, comparable to fire (Mysterium, Threefold Life). Magic power is described as the spirit desirous for being (Six Mystical Points). The text states thesis presupposes antithesis, that unity requires duality for self-manifestation, citing Theosophical Questions, Mysterium, and Grace on the "Yes" and "No," fire and light, darkness and light (Threefold Life, Three Principles). The will is declared superior to desire, unity to multiplicity (Inner Mystery). Menschwerdung distinguishes God's light from the fire-spirit called "the wrath of God," and Threefold Life and Clavis describe love overcoming wrath. The chapter closes comparing the germ found only in a plant's flower to the spiritual efflorescence of the soul, with footnotes on nature, self-consciousness, and male/female elements.

The chapter, titled "The Seven Properties or Qualities of Eternal Nature," opens with a diagram of planetary symbols and states that when the Eternal One reveals itself on seven planes, this forms seven rays or states of eternal nature. The first and seventh are assigned to the Father, the second and sixth to the Son, the third and fifth to the Holy Spirit, and the fourth to the division between spirit and matter, with quotations from Threefold Life, Clavis, and Mysterium. Passages from Aurora describe the seven spirits as one, likened to bodily organs and colours in a picture, each generated by the cooperation of all. The text states the properties are never transformed into one another; darkness is illumined but not made light. First Quality: desire, contraction, darkness. Second Form: motion, action and reaction. Eliphas Levi is quoted. Third Quality: anguish, the turning wheel; the three are named salt, sulphur, and mercury. Fourth Quality: the lightning-flash or fire, described with the Cross and "wheel of Ixion"; light conquers but does not destroy darkness. The distinction of fire-principle and light-principle follows. Fifth Quality: sweet love, a luminous water-spirit. Sixth Quality: intelligent life or sound, subtle and heard by angels. Seventh Principle: the corporeal body of God, essential wisdom, the "resurrection of the flesh." The indescribable beauty of divine wisdom, the eternal Virgin, who brings forth without will of her own, is treated. The Father generates the Son through the seven forms; the Son glorifies the Father; the Holy Spirit issues from both. The Trinity manifests everywhere through the seven qualities. A footnote states the spirit of man is universal, mirroring the macrocosm.

The chapter, titled "Creation," opens stating that everything in nature is manifested truth, recognizable only when truth is manifest within. God is defined as the supreme eternal cause who created everything out of Himself; the first powers created were divine, lower ones more material, paralleled in man's thoughts and body. Boehme (Aurora iv.26) says God created angels out of His own self. The text argues that though everything originates from God, remote creations are not God; it cites Tilk. ii.140 on the devil accepting pantheism, and Stief. passages that the external world is not God and that a distinction remains between Godhead and humanity. Using the moon-and-sun analogy, it says man's will is derived yet only human. Stief. i.84 and i.94 state a man dishonours God by claiming to be God's living word; Christ said the words are the Father's. Aurora iii.11 and xxiii.11 describe God as not a blind power but personal, reachable by rising in thought. The text states God did not create to perfect Himself; Aurora xxiii.15 and Signature xvi.2 say creation revealed Him in joy. Signature xiv.7, Baptism i.1, and Signature xvi.1 (apple-and-tree analogy) affirm the world was not made out of something. Aurora iv.34 gives the mother-seed-child figure for angels. Hamberger attributes creation to love. Forty Questions i.273 says the Three desired children. Grace, Three Principles, and Stief. ii.33 describe creation through the Word out of wrath and love. Clavis x.5 and Stief. passages describe wisdom as divine imagination and man as a shadow-image. The mysterium magnum (Clavis vi.23) is the chaos and womb. Creation is a free-will act via the fiat, completed by the seven spirits or elohims. Three Principles xxiii.25 states creation continues until judgment.

Chapter V, "The Angels," opens with a saying of Jacob Boehme on entering the spirit of holiness. The text states that logic cannot replace perception, and that one must seek within for divine powers Boehme describes. God, becoming objective to Himself, assumed a threefold aspect giving rise to three archangels—Michael, Lucifer, and Uriel—representing the Holy Trinity. Citing Aurora, Michael represents God the Father, Lucifer is created after the type of God the Son, and Uriel after the Holy Spirit. From the three result seven qualities and seven high angels, then innumerable subdivisions; the text notes these appear in Hindu mythology under other names, and that myths are not fables. Angels share one love-will, intermingling without envy, each retaining his own centre. They are created from fire and light. The text describes a superterrestrial celestial world with real plants, trees, and fruit, quoting Aurora that this is meant literally. Lucifer's realm embraced earth and the starry sky; Michael's and Uriel's realms lie beyond and equal it. Angels serve as God's instruments governing the world. St. Martin describes the higher world where light sounds and colours move. The text affirms guardian angels, the soul as battlefield between devils and angels, referencing the Bhagavad Gita. Angels must surrender their fire-life self-will to God. Lucifer, though free and beautiful, exalted himself, awakening wrath and the lower qualities, becoming a dark monster; Michael with his legions fought and drove him away. Hell was not created by God but by Lucifer's own turning away. God foresaw Lucifer's fall but could not prevent it. The text concludes that an end to hellish torment is inconceivable, as Lucifer's will refuses humility.

Chapter VI, "The Restoration of Nature and the Generation of Man," opens with a quotation from Principles stating that speaking of heaven and the birth of elements concerns what takes place within one's own self. The text asserts the Mosaic account describes not creation from the beginning but the restoration of the natural world formerly ruled by Lucifer. Citing Aurora, it describes the six sourcive spirits generating the seventh before the wrath, how war with the devils extinguished the light, and how death entered nature, requiring a new creation of light. It states God intended to extract the kernel of perishable formations. Quotations from Aurora, Menschwerdung, Mysterium, and Threefold Life describe how the outcast spirits ignited nature, how God coagulated the essence and spued out Lucifer, how God created water to extinguish the fire (comparing Sodom and Gomorrah), and how God said "Let there be light." The text then proceeds through the days of creation: light stirring, the fourth-day ignition of the sun, six days of motion, the second-day separation of waters by the firmament, and discussion of spiritual and material water and baptism. On the third day the fiery and watery Mercury conjoin, producing grasses, herbs, trees, gold, silver, and metals. It describes the ignition of the sun and stars, the sun as heart of the stars, and the origins of the planets—Saturn, Mercury, Mars, Venus, Jupiter, and Luna. Then sidereal life appears: animals, men, birds, fishes, worms, receiving spirit from the stars and body from earth, with sexes distinguished. Finally man is created; Adam is described as surpassing angels, comprising three principles, made from the four elements by the Fiat. The chapter closes discussing the soul as a hidden seed awakened by God's breath.

The chapter, titled "Man," opens with the statement that God created man in His own image, male and female in one. It asserts that cosmic man surpasses the "man" of anthropology and anatomy, which treat only the gross material body. Three subjects—God, Nature, and Man—are named as three aspects of one, each unintelligible without the others. External science, natural philosophy, and theology are said to separate them. Man is described as a planetary spirit, a luminous sphere, created to be the image of God, containing God, Christ, angels, celestial and terrestrial kingdoms, and the powers of hell within himself. A series of quotations follows, attributed to sources including Stiefel, Menschwerdung, Signature, Mysterium, Tilk., Threefold Life, Forty Questions, Three Principles, Grace, Letters, Aurora, Six Theosophical Points, Eye, and Tabulæ Principiæ. These describe the Spirit of God inbreathed into Adam; Adam receiving the living word; his luminous body in Paradise; the inner holy body penetrating the outer as fire glows in iron; harmony of qualities in the divine light. A comparison notes the Bhagavad Gita's teaching that Atma is a spectator. Further quotations describe Adam's childlike innocent mind, his naming of the animals, his rule over all elements and stars, his invulnerability, and Eden as illuminated locality distinguished from Paradise as the outflowing life of God. The Paradise bloomed fully only in the Garden of Eden because God foreknew Adam's fall. The text then states Adam did not yet enjoy true similarity with God, having known no evil. The soul must put its will into the Son, the Heart of the Father. Man possessed light-principle, fire-principle, and a third sensual-desire principle. All things attracted Adam—the heart of God, the kingdom of wrath, and the world. Making perverted use of freedom, Adam desired the terrestrial world, and the tree of temptation grew, later called by Moses the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

Point 15 states the forthcoming of the tree of temptation is unsurprising, since Adam had great powers and an earthly form protecting him against hell. Reason asks why God permitted Adam to draw the tree from the earth by imagination; Christ's saying about mustard-seed faith is cited. The soul-spirit came from divine omnipotence as a fire-spark, but gave way to selfish desire and caused its own corruption. Divine prevision foresaw the devil winnowing mankind, so God set before them the tree of life and knowledge, inaugurating the body's death, lest man long after the dark world. Formerly celestial, Adam's image of God paled and he sank into terrestrial impotency and sleep; the image of God does not sleep. After Adam was overcome, the tincture became terrestrial and the celestial virgin left him into her own principle; his celestial body became flesh, blood, and bones. This impotency served salvation, and a terrestrial woman was given in place of the virgin, lest Adam become a devil through fire. The devil infected the Sal-nitre, so the Creator built a wife. Eve was extracted substantially from Adam's rib, before bones hardened; she was lovely, not misshapen. Adam awoke, saw Eve, imagined into her, and took her; Eve likewise imagined into Adam. God commanded not to eat the fruit; the devil, envious, resolved to seduce them, using the serpent as a living symbol of the tree, mixing lies and truth, promising they would become like God. Adam's perverted desire entered Eve, who was seduced first, falling in love with the serpent's cunning and consenting to eat, falling from divine harmony. The devil desired the fire-life; Adam desired terrestrial things, then pride arose. Thus the first act ends: a god became man; in the second he rises again.

The chapter opens with an epigraph attributed to Johannes stating that the godless seek God outside themselves while the true Christian knows God within the soul. The text states the image of all that existed was in the light when God began to create a new world, and that the external world Adam became subject to originates in God's eternal nature and its prototype in His wisdom. It compares the external world to images on a screen cast by a magic-lantern: images as world, slide-pictures as ether, light as the Spirit of God. Quotations from Menschwerdung, Six Theosophical Points, and Mysterium describe the third principle, the birth of the great Mysterium, and time originating in eternity. It states two powers—holy divine power and darkness—are manifest, darkness preponderating, and attributes the darkness's power not to God but to Lucifer and Adam's fall. Further quotations (Aurora, Menschwerdung) describe nature's wrestling and the devil residing in wrath. God acts through the inner light-world without changing the external. The sun is presented as a symbol of God's heart of love, ruling the world, present everywhere, so the whole world is "all sun." The planets and stars receive power from the sun and convey good and evil to earth. The stars act as a male power over the earth, which has its own life and turns toward the sun. The four elements are qualities of one true element, separated in order fire, air, water, earth, existing in strife. Minerals, metals, precious stones, plants, and animals are described as retaining hidden celestial tincture despite death and the curse. Each thing contains temporal and eternal qualities (tree example). External formations proceed from fire-life through tincture and oily quality. Finally, the signature of things symbolizes their inner essence, grounding the language of nature.

The chapter, titled "Generation," opens with an epigraph from Manu urging every Brahman to contemplate nature in the Divine Spirit. The editor states God evolves the centre of light within Himself and that the soul desires to penetrate the second principle. Quotations from Four Complexions and Threefold Life describe the soul as a magical fire and God the Father generating His heart. Citing Tabulæ Principæ, Mysterium, and Grace, the text explains that when the soul, like Adam, does not surrender her will, the divine idea becomes inactive rather than annihilated. Then the wrath-principle becomes perceptible, illustrated through Eye, Menschwerdung, Tilk, Three Principles, and Prayer, describing Adam's fall opening hell and man producing hellish figures. The editor notes God gave man protection by placing the soul into flesh (Six Theosophical Points, Forty Questions, Threefold Life). The soul became captured by the spirit of this world; Adam was commanded not to eat from the tree of self-knowledge (Baptism, Stiefel). Eating made bodies terrestrial (Mysterium, Grace), Eve breaking the fruit, and man became subject to death and animal nature (Aurora, Mysterium, Three Principles). Man's senses became earthly; the serpent addressed Eve. The temperaments—choleric, sanguine, phlegmatic, melancholy—are described (Four Complexions). Man's reproduction originated in the fall; Adam was originally male and female, able to generate virginally (Mysterium, Stiefel, Threefold Life). After separation of sexes, each seeks the other (Three Principles). Conjugal love is tolerated though lust is an abomination (Stiefel, Three Principles). The soul is generated like a branch; the child resembles its parents (Forty Questions). A child from bad parents may still turn to God. Extensive footnotes elaborate Boehme's meaning.

The chapter opens with quotations stating that the inner element holding the world became the eternal body of Christ, and that without divine aid humanity would have perished. Passages from Forty Questions and Aurora affirm that the heart of God and the divine love sustained Adam. Three Principles states God desires all to be saved and is love, not wrath. Further quotations declare there was no salvation unless the Son or Light of God entered the soul, which had left God's light for this world. Preparations for redemption were made before creation, the name of Jesus being embodied in man before Adam's fall, as noted with references to Peter and Paul. The Redeemer became perceptible only after the fall. The power of the future Redeemer first became active in Eve, in the light-tincture rather than the fire-tincture, and in her celestial essence rather than her terrestrial body. From Eve the power radiated over humanity, perpetuated from man to man as a spark until Mary. This could not occur earlier due to corruption, but the power resisted Satan and awakened prophets, though Christ moved only in the spirit of Adam, Abel, Enoch, Noah, Isaac, Jacob, and David. Eve, when bearing Cain, believed the serpent-bruiser had come. Abel was born as antithesis to Cain, representing an anti-type of the Redeemer; Cain killed Abel. Seth was to be the third son, continuing the covenant line. Mercy was shown to Cain, protected by sevenfold vengeance. Cain's descendants turned to arts, Seth's to contemplation. Noah's sons Sem, Ham, and Japhet represent three races. Abraham, Isaac versus Ishmael, and Jacob versus Esau are presented as antitheses. The descendants of Japhet fell into idolatry and oracles; pure heathen attained knowledge through the mirror of nature.

The text opens with quotation 9 from Mysterium: heathen highly intellectual in the light of nature mirrored the interior holy realm and, at the restoration of all beings, shall live in the huts of Sem. It states the Redeemer's power, spoken into Eve, was active in heathen as well as Israelites. Quotations describe Adam entering selfhood and ignorance, leading all with him, after which grace offers itself to heathen and Jews alike; Paul (Rom. ix. 24) is cited for God calling the Gentiles. Children of wrath are excepted. The text turns to sacrifice before Christ's incarnation. Quotations state the name of Jesus was within the covenant, that sacrifices were antitypes of Christ's manhood, and that reconciliation came not from the external act but from accompanying faith. Regarding Cain and Abel, the free will of the soul must die to selfhood and conceive itself into something as faith does. Further quotations describe Adam's body from the Limus of earth and heaven; Cain bringing fruits of the earth, Abel the first-born of his flocks, both ignited by fire; the holy fire from the highest tincture consuming the victim; the Father's wrath and Son's love within the fire; God smelling only the will of man; and the bruiser of the serpent's head imagined in the fire. Israelites received Christ's flesh and blood symbolically; Jews ate the flesh and drank the blood in power, not substance. Footnotes explain God's threefold moving (Father, Son, Holy Spirit), note the historical question of Christ, and define allegorical names—Adam, Abel, Cain, Enoch, Noah, Isaac, Jacob, David, Seth, Sem, Ham, Japhet, Eve, Abraham—as states of universal mind, and quote Boehme on the written Word as instrument.

A Mysterium passage states the Spirit of Christ is not bound to fixed form but speaks freely through His children. A Threefold Life passage says God's children speak variously from the mother's wisdom, testing whether the spirit is of God or devil. Notes gloss Esau as sensual nature, Bible allegories as cosmic processes, and the "heathen" as prehistoric magic-using races. Further quotes describe prehistoric peoples' knowledge of nature, true Christianity as love, rejoicing in differing gifts, unity in Christ's body, internal sacrifice, killing sensual animals, and the Son uniting with the Father.

The chapter opens with editorial statements framing the incarnation of Christ as the awakening of divine self-knowledge in man, invoking the maxim "as it is above, so it is below" and the principle that completion comes through spiritualisation of matter. It states the Logos had to become flesh, and distinguishes three factors in the Redeemer: the eternal generation of the Son, His birth as a celestial Man, and His incarnation as a terrestrial person. Boehme quotations follow, describing three formations of the Word: remaining in the Father, forming in the celestial element at Gabriel's annunciation when the virgin consented, and the terrestrial formation in Mary's womb. The text then argues against those who claim Christ is not created or that Mary was an eternal virgin not born of Joachim and Anna. Quotations affirm Christ took a human soul from Mary, that His soul is a creature "our brother." It states Christ came from above yet was born of Mary, daughter of Joachim and Anna according to the flesh but daughter of the covenant blessed by the virgin of wisdom. The celestial virgin unfolded within Mary rather than becoming terrestrial. Further quotations explain Mary could not achieve this by her own power but by the Holy Spirit, and that she received Christ's tincture. The text stresses Mary was not deified, attaining perfection only through her Son. Christ received earthly essences from Mary, growing naturally over nine months. In Christ the three principles united without commingling, so He remained sinless; the eternal Word never mingled with His body or soul, illustrated by fire penetrating iron. Christ became human everywhere, celestially unlimited, compared to the sun immeasurable yet bodily. This celestial being remains lower than the Godhead.

The chapter opens with a passage (Threefold Life xi.106) stating that God lives in man, that loving one's true self is loving God, that what is done to each other is done to God, and that all are one body of many members. The editor states God willed to become human to reinstate degenerated man, restating this as God's wisdom becoming manifest in human form through Christ (the Truth, Life, and Light). Quotations follow: Three Principles xxiii.21 (the world-spirit captured the body); Threefold Life i.17 (the soul cannot achieve new birth alone); Threefold Life xxi.21 (God aided the human spirit in bursting the doors of darkness); Stiefel ii.168 (Christ heals Adam's injury and bruises the serpent's head). The editor states incarnation was necessary; passages from Signature xi.7, Baptism ii.36, Three Principles xvi.35, and Stiefel ii.442 elaborate. The Redeemer entered death to conquer it (Threefold Life viii.39; Tilk i.513; Menschwerdung i.3,7; i.11.6; ii.6,9; Mysterium xxviii.17, with the seed simile). The temptation is treated: the devil's envy over Lucifer's throne (Grace vi.13; Signature vii.46; Three Principles xii.91; Mysterium xxiv.24). The first temptation offers earthly food, which Christ's soul rejects (Three Principles xxii.100–105); the second excites vanity, which Christ overcomes (xxii.108); the third offers rule over the world, which Christ refuses, saying "Depart from me, Satan," then performs miracles (xxii.3). The editor states death was still required (Signature ii.12–17); Satan incited authorities and clergy against Christ (Signature x.78). Christ's blood extinguishes the wrath (Signature ii.10; Stiefel ii.494, ii.205); Christ cries "My God, why hast Thou forsaken me?" (Signature xi.87). His soul and external being are not annihilated but enter the divine will (Mysterium xxxix.24; Signature xii.1; Three Principles xxv.53; Menschwerdung i.8,11; ix.16; Signature xi.41, xii.5). His blood sanctifies flesh for resurrection (Signature xi.5; Stiefel ii.209), and through glorification He overcomes hell.

The text corrects the notion that Christ's soul left His body to travel to hell and bind the devils; instead, at the moment Christ laid off the kingdom of this world, His soul entered death and God's wrath, reconciling the wrath in love (Three Principles). Death wrestled with the external man, but the Word of God within captured and destroyed death (Forty Questions). God ignited the darkened fire in the soul's essence into light (Tilk.). Christ's soul brought God's light into the wrath, imprisoning it and closing off hell (Three Principles). Consequently the holy ones of old attained resurrection, clothing themselves in the body of Christ (Three Principles); the fathers of the Jews, having known Christ in prototype, were now filled with celestial substantiality, and many were raised and seen at Jerusalem (Grace). The conquest was accompanied by earthly phenomena: the earth trembled, the sun darkened, rocks burst, tombs opened, and the Temple curtain—the veil of Moses—was torn (Grace, Menschwerdung, Mysterium, Signature). Christ's risen body was paradisiacal, passing through rocks, requiring no stone removed except to show the Jews' folly and aid the disciples' weak faith (Three Principles). The heaven He entered is the fulness of divine power, ruling over terrestrial and hellish worlds (Baptism). The text then states that the Bible history describes inner processes of the regenerated, that Christianity is based on love, not history. It defines the three grounds in man (Grace) and the meaning of "Christ" as penetrator (Signature). Footnotes elaborate: redemption as an intracosmic allegory, the three temptations of the regenerated (self-love, spiritual pride, misuse of powers like Lucifer), the necessity of sacrificing self-will, and closing with a passage from Illumined Soul on abandoning selfish will.

The chapter opens under the heading "Regeneration" with epigraphs from John iii. 10 and Luke ix. 23, followed by the statement that spiritual self-knowledge comes only through the divine Spirit attaining self-knowledge in man. Quotations from Regeneration cite Christ on becoming like children and being born of water and Spirit, and on eating the flesh and drinking the blood of the Son of Man. It states that mortal flesh returns to earth and cannot be a temple of the Holy Spirit, while the true Christian is born out of Christ. The editor states that historical belief is insufficient; one must eat Christ's flesh within. Man is described as threefold: dwelling in heaven, subject to darkness, and made of mortal flesh, yet one being. Quotations distinguish light, darkness, day, night, time, and eternity, and describe three worlds. Asked how regeneration is effected, the answer is that man accomplishes nothing by his own power, only by grace, likened to "prayer." Quotations from Prayer describe hunger for Christ, the name Jesus, and turning from creatures. The editor calls prayer union with God, a "Yoga practice." Quotations from Mysterium, Letters, and Menschwerdung describe the new corporeal body, baptism by water, blood, and fire. The soul is described as fettered by three chains: God's wrath, the devil, and mortal flesh (Three Principles). Passages describe dangers from the devil, the pearl-tree's growth, and the soul's marriage to Sophia. Further quotations describe the iron-and-fire analogy, the crown taken and stored, pride illustrated by Herod seeking to kill the child, and the continual battle between inner and outer man, with two kinds of will contrasted as lily and darkness.

The text compares a sprout drawn from the earth toward sunlight to the divine Sun drawing the new man (the human lily) out of evil until he becomes a tree in the kingdom of God, letting the husk drop to earth (Menschwerdung). It states the inner man requires the outer for experience, likening the terrestrial body to rough rock bearing gold that is not itself gold (Grace, Menschwerdung). In the battle between terrestrial and celestial nature, it advises defence rather than aggression, rising by surrender to the Supreme; Adamic man may live in Paradise by surrendering to God's heart (Three Principles), and is victorious in Christ (Forty Questions). It states overcoming desire is easier than destroying its embodied substance (Three Principles, Mysterium), condemns craving things not one's own (Mysterium), and urges temperance against over-eating and intoxication (Six Theosophical Points). The inner man changes but cannot fully spiritualize the outer body; one must continually die in Christ, the will as faith reshaping the body impermanently; one may say "I am in Christ," not "I am Christ" (Stiefel, Forty Questions). It notes the spiritual sun makes both good and evil germs grow, and saints may relapse into selfishness (Calmness). Life is continual repentance; the true Christian is self-accusing and does not claim holiness (Stiefel, Communion, Threefold Life). Suffering benefits the new life (Mysterium, Menschwerdung), and at bodily death the inner man becomes manifest, a rose among thorns (Supersensual Life). One should die to selfhood as an instrument of God, where self departs love dwells (Stiefel, Supernatural Life, Signature, Calmness). Possessions should be held without possessing one; all fortune and misfortune become one to the surrendered will (Forty Questions, Mysterium). Conquering desire grants power over external nature through surrender to Christ (Supersensual Life). The celestial body forms through the terrestrial; after death there is no regeneration (Forty Questions, Threefold Life).

The chapter, titled "Death and Eternal Life," opens with the statement that the mystic death begins eternal life and that man is a product of three worlds: spirit from God, soul from the astral constellation, body from terrestrial elements. Citing Threefold Life, Three Principles, and Menschwerdung, it describes the original order of the three principles being disturbed, life derived from sun, stars, and elements, and the body's dissolution at death, when the four elements separate and the tincture withdraws. After death man remains twofold—celestial spirit and astral body—producing the soul's division and judgment. Quoting Mysterium, it describes the soul passing before the angel bearing death and life, admitted through Paradise's portal only if born of the celestial woman. Various citations state that after death the soul remains fixed in one principle and cannot change her will, while during terrestrial life she may destroy her entanglements. An anti-Christian will yields a perverted, evil essence; the soul assumes the animal form dominant in her—a dog-character is given as example. Devoid of divine light, the soul is tormented by the four lower qualities like a turning wheel, suffering according to her Turba. Memory of misdeeds, tears of the injured, and curses of the living torment her. The godless soul, filled with her own infamy, eventually surrenders to the devil, becoming a fool and enemy of God, trembling before judgment day. These are called "black magicians." Contrastingly, souls who fought their evil desires carry the divine image, are filled with God's light, and experience joy; their good works follow them. Citing that no man is without sin, forgiveness through Christ's blood restores God's image. The departed blessed souls rest as in sweet sleep.

The text describes souls in the heavenly essentiality (Devachan), who cannot be disturbed unless they wish, and who ignore terrestrial things except for God's glorification (Forty Questions xxvi.22). Boehme's letter states he cannot know of intercourse with departed souls unless within them; all share one body in Christ; the dead cannot come to mortals, but mortals may penetrate to them (xxv.1). Fully sanctified souls possess great self-knowledge; it is erroneous to attribute wisdom to a soul barely escaped the devil (Three Principles xix.61). Boehme calls it absurd that departed souls petition God for the living; salvation depends on one's own entering (Forty Questions xxvi.23). Departed saints performed "miracles" through a conjunction of the faith of living and departed; forefathers appeared because the faith of the living penetrated heaven, one faith grasping another (xix.63; Three Principles xviii.80; Forty Questions xxvi). The text then treats souls in whom good and evil remain undivided, called Kama loca or Purgatory. Souls mixing doubt and faith stand in the portal, held by the Turba, until the spark of faith releases them (xxiv.5; xviii). A soul stripped of higher principles suffers nothing; one retaining intelligence undergoes painful separation. A sinful soul, fearing hell at death, clings to a thread of faith; when the bridegroom says "Come!" she answers her lamp is not ready, yet is redeemed by Christ's suffering (Three Principles xix.41). Souls held by earthly essence reappear in sidereal bodies seeking gratification or prayer; the body decomposes while the soul retains its sidereal body until consumed (Letters xxii.8; Forty Questions xxvi.8; Threefold Life xii.24). Prayer cannot revive the dead, but living Christians in regeneration, especially blood relatives, may aid the dying to burst the devil's chains (Forty Questions xxiv.12; Three Principles xix.55).