The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme · 54 of 159 · tr. Franz Hartmann
Chapter 6 (part 7)
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 sidereal life appeared by the power of the former—that is to say, that living organisms were produced, representing, 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 elements, there were produced creatures in all the four 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." 1 ( Mysterium , xliv.
1.) 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 predominance of the fiery or the watery form, there resulted 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 (rigidity) of the earth, and their spirit from the Spiritus Mundi ." ( Grace , v.
20.) p.
135 "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." ( Threefold 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)." 1 ( Three Principles , viii.
43.) Finally, man was created, and out of him there was to come forth a celestial army, and in the midst of the time its king, in the place of the outcast Lucifer.
"God willed to create an angelic army.
Thus He 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." 2 ( Aurora , xxiv.
18.) Man, however, was to surpass the angels (in perfection), for he was to be a complete image of divine glory, while the angels have been created out of only two principles.
p.
136 "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." ( 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 wisdom.
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 passage uses alchemical imagery such as Sol becoming corporeal in Luna and the transformation of spirit into body via Magia.
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 links celestial bodies (stars, Sol, Luna) and elements directly to the nature of creatures (birds in air, fishes in water).
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 entire passage is a narrative of cosmic origin: from the spiritual becoming corporeal, through the emergence of stars, elements, creatures in each element, and finally man and the celestial army.
Pronoia — the doctrine that the divine actively orders the unfolding of the cosmos and human affairs toward intelligible ends, against pure chance or blind necessity.
God actively orders the unfolding of the cosmos and human affairs through His will and word.
Naturally-existing, non-human intelligences native to a single element — earth, air, fire, or water — rather than the fourfold-composite human nature: Paracelsus's gnomes, sylphs, salamanders, and undines; the Deva Kingdom or fairy kingdom of Western occultism, forming their own parallel kingdom capable of incarnating in or forming relationships with humans. Distinct from artificial_elemental (a manufactured thought-entity deliberately created by a single operator, not a naturally-occurring species) and animism (the general doctrine that nature-places host indwelling spirits, of which this is one specific taxonomic system organised around the four elements rather than locality).
The passage explicitly assigns creatures to each of the four elements—birds in air, fishes in water, animals in earth, and spirits in fire—forming a parallel kingdom of elemental intelligences.
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.
[auto] The passage describes a downward flow from spiritual Sol to corporeal Luna and from stars to living creatures.
The Hermetic doctrine that a masculine-feminine generative principle operates on every plane of being, not only the biological — present at all times as a structural feature of creation itself. Distinct from divine_marriage (a specific reunification event or symbol) and aeons (paired divine beings arranged in syzygies, not a universal structural claim).
The masculine-feminine generative principle operates at the level of cosmic creation itself—fiery (male) and watery (female) forms as structural features of all being, not merely biological.
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 'spirit of the stars,' 'Spiritus Mundi,' and 'spirits in that of the fire' describe a non-physical dimension interpenetrating the physical world that imparts spirit to embodied creatures.
The doctrine that the cosmos unfolds as a structured descent of spirit into matter — a directional process traced stage by stage from an unconditioned principle down through successive planes to full materialization — complemented by its own eventual return ('evolution'). Distinct from emanation_hierarchy (the static structure of the resulting levels of the cascade) and cosmogony (a single originating event rather than an ongoing staged process) in naming the directional cosmic PROCESS of descent itself, paired with its own complementary ascent.
'That which Sol is spiritually becomes corporeal in Luna' describes the directional descent of spirit into matter as a structured process from unconditioned principle to full materialization.
The human being as a small-scale image of the entire cosmos; the body, soul, and intellect mirroring the structure of the heavens and the divine — distinct from correspondence in that it makes the human the privileged mirror.
Man is described as a 'perfect symbol of God' and a 'complete image of divine glory', mirroring the cosmos.
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 male in fiery shape and female in watery shape arise from one and the same essence, expressing the doctrine that apparent opposites are identical in nature differing only in degree or form.
The rule of the stars and planetary powers over mortal destiny — the astrological governors whose spheres bind souls to birth, error, and death; in Sethian gnosis the 'error of the stars' that the savior exposes, and from which the incorruptible generation alone is free. Distinct from cosmic_sympathy (a doctrine of universal affinity) in being a bondage-to-powers claim, and from archons (the rulers as personal beings) in concerning the astral machinery itself.
Creatures 'received their spirit from the stars' and the stars are the source of the spiritual principle governing earthly beings, establishing a rule of celestial powers over mortal nature.
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.
Man is created out of the 'substance of God' and is intended to surpass angels in perfection if he remains in God.