The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme · 60 of 159 · tr. Franz Hartmann
Chapter 7 (part 2)
36.) "In Paradise there is perfect life without disturbance, and a perpetual day, and the paradisiacal man is clear like transparent glass, and he is fully penetrated by the light of the divine sun." 1 ( Signature , xi.
5 1.) His body likewise appeared luminous, because its terrestrial substance was absorbed in the celestial essence.
It radiated a pure, divine light.
2 "The inner holy corporeity of the pure element penetrated through the four elements and kept the Limus of earth—that is to say, the external sulphuric (terrestrial) body within itself as in a state of absorption.
Nevertheless, that body was actually present, but in such a way as darkness dwells in light, so that the darkness cannot manifest itself on account of the light." ( Mysterium , xvi.
6.) "All the qualities of the inner and holy body, together with the external ones, were in primordial man attuned in one harmony.
Neither of them lived in its own state of desire; but they had their desire in the soul wherein the divine light was manifest.
This, the divine light radiated through all the qualities, and produced in them an equal, harmonious temperature." ( Mysterium , xvi.
5.) "The inner man kept the external one imprisoned within itself and penetrated it in a manner comparable to iron, which glows if it is penetrated by fire, so that it seems as if it were itself fire.
But when the fire becomes extinct, then does the black, dark iron become manifest." ( Mysterium , xvi.
7.) p.
143 "The pure element penetrated through the external roan and overpowered the four elements; moreover, the power of the heat and the cold was in the flesh.
But as the light of God was shining therein, they were in equal harmony, so that neither one of them became manifest before the other.
Thus God the Father is called a wrathful, jealous God and a consuming fire, and He is all that in regard to His qualities; but of these qualities nothing becomes manifest in His light." ( Stiefel , xi.
75.) "Primordial man in Paradise, being fixed therein, was in a state such as time is before God and God in time.
As time is a spectacle before God, likewise the external life of man was a spectacle before the inner and holy man, who was the true image of God." ( Mysterium , xvi.
8.) In the same sense the Bhagavad Gita says that the true self, the God, Atma , or " Christ," is not a participator, but merely a spectator in that which concerns the external illusion.
"The inner body was a dwelling-place of the Godhead, an image of divine substantiality.
In that body the soul had her meekness, and her fire was rendered mild thereby, for she received there the love and meekness of God." ( Tilk ., i.
233.) Owing to this resemblance to God, Adam's will and thoughts were as one.
His mind was pure and uncomplicated, childlike, unsophisticated, and devoted to God; he did not need to speculate about the unknown, because he had the power to perceive that which he wanted to know.
He enjoyed the perception of divine and terrestrial things.
1 "The mind of Adam was innocent like that of a child, playing with the wonders of its Father.
There was in him no self-knowledge of evil will, no avarice, pride, p.
144 envy, anger, but a pure enjoyment of love." ( Threefold Life , xi.
23.) "When Adam was created in Paradise, there his life was burning like a flame of pure oil.
Therefore his perception was celestial, and his intelligence was surpassing and comprehending things beyond nature." ( Signature , vii.
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 imagery such as iron glowing when penetrated by fire and terrestrial substance being absorbed into celestial essence.
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 relationship between the inner holy man and the external life suggests a mirroring or reflection of states.
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.
Darkness is described as dwelling in light but unable to manifest, and Adam had 'no self-knowledge of evil will,' suggesting evil is an absence or hidden state.
Sufi self-effacement in God — the via by which the lover is unmade as a separate ego and recovered as God's act; specifies the practice/event rather than mystical_union's resulting state.
The terrestrial substance is 'absorbed in the celestial essence,' implying the effacement of the lower nature into the divine.
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.
Primordial man is described as the 'true image of God,' with his external life serving as a spectacle before his inner holy self.
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 terrestrial body is described as being 'absorbed in the celestial essence' and appearing luminous, indicating a transformation into divine nature.