The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme · 59 of 159 · tr. Franz Hartmann
Chapter 7 (part 1)
p.
140 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, &c.
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 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 external to nature and man, and beyond their reach.
For this reason the "man" of modern science has become an unnatural being, without any conceivable object for his existence, and nature is to him an organism evolved by accidence and subject to no other than mechanically acting 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, may be conceived of as a planetary p.
141 spirit, a self-conscious, luminous sphere of unimaginable 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 residing in him, and he was penetrated by the light of divine love.
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 unless it enters into his constitution.
Only that which exists in him has existence for him.
Without a realisation of this fact the mysteries of religion will remain incomprehensible.
It may be interesting and amusing 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 perceptions are unfolded and he attains divine knowledge of self, then will he know the Christ and all the celestial powers whose aggregate goes to make up the kingdom of God existing within himself.
"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 illumined p.
142 his interior, as the sun is illuminating the world." ( Stiefel , i.
Eckhart's signature doctrine that the Father eternally begets the Son in the ground of the soul; the human interior as the actual site of the divine generative act, distinct from inner_light's static indwelling.
Adam received the living word of God to furnish food for his soul, indicating divine generation within.
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.
[auto] It states that in man is contained everything, including celestial and terrestrial kingdoms, reflecting the cosmic structure within.
The Stoic and Plotinian doctrine that all parts of the cosmos are bound by hidden affinities, so that a movement in one part resonates through the whole; the metaphysical basis for astrology, magic, and divination.
God, Nature, and Man are interconnected such that neither can be understood without the others.
The claim that the divine realm is present inside the individual, accessible without external mediation.
[auto] The concept of man as a 'cosmic being' with an 'essential body' beyond external observation suggests the divine realm resides within the individual.
Gurdjieff and Ouspensky's claim that ordinary human beings live in a state of waking sleep, reacting mechanically without unified will or consciousness, and that the spiritual path begins with recognising this condition.
The text critiques the modern scientific view of man as an 'unnatural being' subject to mechanically acting law.
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.
[auto] The passage explicitly describes man as a 'macrocosmic and microcosmic' being containing everything.
The recognition of one's own true divine nature as the primary path to liberation; 'know thyself' as soteriology.
[auto] Understanding the inner essence of Man is presented as necessary to understand God and Nature, implying self-knowledge leads to divine knowledge.
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 was created for the purpose of being the 'image of God' with the glory of God residing in him.