The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme · 45 of 159 · tr. Franz Hartmann
Chapter 5 (part 9)
1.) "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.) p.
117 "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 shut it out of its own state, so that it could not see God.
Thus it died to the kingdom of goodwill." ( Grace , iv.
46.) "When Lucifer proved to be such a tyrant and corrupter of all that is good, the whole army of heaven turned against him, and he likewise turned against everything.
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 conquered." 1 ( Aurora , xvi.
9.) 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 nevertheless there is neither of them revealed to the other.
Even if the devil were travelling 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 darkness of the wrath of God." ( Mysterium , viii.
28).
p.
118 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, in whose evil parts the evil spirits reside and work, is an obstacle to that.
As man loses his knowledge of God, he correspondingly 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 residing together, and wrestling and battling with each other.
Still those things or beings realise not the wrestling of light, but merely the wrestle of wrath." 1 ( 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.
5.) "There are always two kingdoms (states) to be distinguished 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.) p.
The realm of wrath, darkness, and the 'wrestle of wrath' represents a principle of cosmic disorder and falsity opposed to the light, structurally parallel to Angra Mainyu.
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 text states 'Heaven is in hell, and hell is in heaven,' reflecting a structural correspondence of states.
Narratives or doctrines of cosmic origin — how heaven, earth, and the primordial deities first came into being. The Kojiki's deities born alone on the Plain of High Heaven, Voluspo's Ginnungagap, Genesis's tohu wa-bohu, the Timaeus's Demiurge fashioning the Receptacle, the Hesiodic Theogony, the Kalevala's egg-cosmogony, Egyptian Nun-and-Atum. Distinct from emanation_hierarchy (structural-ontological cascade), letters_of_creation (mechanism of creation), and apocatastasis/frashokereti (end-state restoration); cosmogony is temporally-narrative beginning.
The passage narrates the origin of the separation between light and darkness: Lucifer's departure from God's harmony, the battle, and the establishment of the two realms, constituting a narrative of cosmic origin.
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 describes a hierarchical structure of beings and realms cascading from God's harmony through the world of light down to the realm of wrath, with angels, archangels, and devils occupying different levels.
Final, collective cosmic judgment as an event in which the wicked are sentenced and the cosmos restored; distinct from psychopomp_journey (individual passage at death) and emphasising verdict where Zoroastrian frashokereti emphasises restoration.
The passage explicitly references a 'still greater judgment' and 'the day of reckoning' at which the hellish being will be fully manifest and the devils' fear will be realised, framing a final collective cosmic judgment.
A non-physical dimension of reality, interpenetrating the physical world, populated by forces, beings, and forms ordinarily imperceptible to physical senses and instruments, that can affect embodied life without being seen — Dion Fortune's 'mind-side of nature,' the astral plane of Western esotericism broadly construed. Distinct from astral_light (a specific transmitting medium or fluid operating within this realm, not the realm itself), pleroma (the divine fullness at the summit of a cosmic hierarchy, not a parallel plane coextensive with ordinary life), and animism (particular indwelling spirits bound to specific natural objects, not the general unseen dimension itself).
The passage describes non-physical realms (the world of light, the realm of wrath) that interpenetrate the physical world and affect embodied life, with beings in these realms imperceptible to each other and to ordinary senses.
The divine fullness or totality of the highest realm, populated by aeons and divine attributes, contrasted with the deficient material world.
The 'world of light,' 'holy power,' and 'kingdom of goodwill' function as a divine fullness populated by angelic beings, contrasted with the deficient realm of wrath and darkness.
The Hermetic doctrine that apparent opposites are identical in nature but differ in degree — two extremes of the same scale (hot/cold, love/hate) — such that one pole can be shifted toward its opposite by a change of degree ('mental transmutation'). Distinct from opposites_transcended (a completion-state marking the path's end, not this doctrine's active technique) and magical_equilibrium (balance held BETWEEN two forces, not identity-by-degree of what looks like two forces).
The passage is structured around fundamental polarities—light/darkness, love/wrath, heaven/hell—presented as two kingdoms in the elements, with 'love and wrath still residing together, and wrestling and battling with each other.'
The 'shells' or 'husks' of Kabbalistic doctrine — the obverse, unbalanced counterpart that each Sephira throws off during its own emanation, going off by itself to form its own shadow-sphere in Chaos, the Habitations of Hell, personified as Qlippothic demons (the 'Obscene Ones,' the 'Disputers') mirroring the Archangels of the corresponding Sephira. Distinct from kenoma (the Gnostic void outside the pleroma generally, one undifferentiated realm of deficiency, not this specific one-shadow-per-Sephira structure) and archons (Gnostic planetary rulers governing matter directly, not an unbalanced-emanation byproduct).
The devils are presented as the shadow-counterparts of the archangels (Lucifer mirroring Michael), forming their own 'shadow-sphere' in the realm of wrath after being expelled from the light, structurally parallel to the Qlippothic model of unbalanced emanation byproducts.
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 leaving the harmony of God and the total separation from the world of light.
The 1 Enoch narrative in which a class of originally-good angelic beings (the Watchers) descends, mates with women, and teaches forbidden arts — the substrate that Gnostic archons inherits and inverts: archons are born malevolent, the Watchers fall through transgression.
The passage narrates the fall of originally-good angelic beings (Lucifer and his legions) who rebelled through tyrannical will and were cast out, closely parallel to the Watchers' fall through transgression rather than innate malevolence.