The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme · 44 of 159 · tr. Franz Hartmann
Chapter 5 (part 8)
36.) "The foundation of hell was from eternity; however, it was not manifest, but hidden until it became awakened." ( Theosophical Questions , xv.
i.) p.
115 "The four lower principles without the eternal light 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, awakening 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 interacted 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 ignition, 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 bitter, 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 benevolence and loveliness, moved to meet it, the heart of the monster appeared dark, cold, hard, and fiery." 1 ( Aurora , xiii.
40–47.) p.
116 "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 spirit, killed its mother, the sweet water.
The sound 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.
19–25.) As the saint becomes identified with God, so the wicked may become identified with the devil.
Either of the two is an "incarnation" of that principle which has attained self-consciousness in him.
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.
The transformation of base substance — outer matter or the inner soul — into a purified, perfected, or 'gold' state; the magnum opus as both laboratory practice and spiritual allegory.
The text uses alchemical metaphors of qualities, generation, fire, and transformation to describe spiritual states.
The Hermetic axiom that the structure of the cosmos is reflected at every scale — 'as above, so below; as within, so without' — making each level a legible map of the others.
The passage draws a parallel between the internal state of spirits and their external identification with God or the devil.
A chain of divine beings or principles flowing downward from a single transcendent source (the One or the Father), each level less perfect than the one above.
The passage distinguishes 'four lower principles without the eternal light' from the higher divine state, implying a stratified structure of being.
Augustinian and Plotinian doctrine that evil has no positive being of its own but is a lack, distortion, or absence of the good — denying ontological dualism while preserving moral seriousness.
Evil is described as love grown cold and a perverted being rather than a positive creation of God.
Transgressive knowing acquired against divine prohibition — the Watchers' teaching of metallurgy, sorcery, and cosmetics in 1 Enoch, the Gnostic Eve narratives, the Promethean mytheme; explicitly contrasted with gnosis_direct_knowledge, which is salvific.
Lucifer's knowledge of creation's foundation led him to desire to be a god and destroy God's formations.
The felt condition of exile from one's divine origin — Rumi's reed flute torn from its bed, Plotinus's 'we have forgotten,' the Gnostic forgetfulness; the affective wound that complements return_to_source and gives the return its motive.
[auto] The passage centrally describes Lucifer's separation from God and the pure angels due to his opposed will.
The doctrine — central to Eastern Orthodox and Maximian theology — that the human person is progressively transformed into a partaker of the divine nature by grace, not merely justified or united in passing ecstasy.
The text states that as the saint becomes identified with God, so the wicked may become identified with the devil.