The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme · 61 of 159 · tr. Franz Hartmann
Chapter 7 (part 3)
2.) "The inner man stood in heaven; his essences were the Paradise; his body was indestructible.
He knew the language of God and the angels, and the language of nature, as may be seen by Adam giving names to all creatures, to each according to its own essence and quality." ( Forty Questions , iv.
7.) "Adam, after having been created by God, was in Paradise in a state of joy and glorification, beautiful and filled with knowledge.
God then brought before him, as the lord of the world, all the animals, so that he might behold them, and give a name to each according to its special essence and power.
And Adam knew that he was within every creature, and he gave to each its appropriate name.
God can see into the hearts of all things, and the same could be done by Adam." 1 ( Three Principles , x.
17.) In this state of godlike being he had power over all things; for all things existed in him and he in all, and there was nothing that could have done him any external injury.
To express it in other words, all things existed subjectively in his mind, as they now do in ours, but his mind was his " body," and where the centre of his consciousness was, there was his "form." 2 p.
145 "As God is a Lord over all, so man in the power of God was to be a lord over this world." ( Menschwerdung , i.
4, 7.) "The soul in the power of God penetrates through all things, and is powerful over all, as God Himself; for she lives in the power of His heart." ( Three Principles , xxii.
17.) "As gold is incorruptible in the fire, so man was subject to nothing, only to the One God dwelling in him, and manifested in him by the power of His holy being." ( Mysterium , xvi.
12.) "Everything was subject to Adam; his rule extended into heaven and over the earth, and in all elements and stars.
This was because divine power was manifested in him." 1 ( Mysterium , xvi.
2.) "The will-spirit of man penetrated through all creatures, and was injured by none, because none could grasp it.
No creature can apprehend the power and light of the sun in its own will, but must remain passive to become penetrated by it; thus it was then the case with the will-spirit of man." ( Grace , vii.
2.) "Before his fall, man could rule over the sun and the stars.
Everything was in his power.
2 Fire, air, water, and earth could not tame him; no fire burned him, no water drowned, no air suffocated him; all that lived stood in awe of him." ( Threefold Life , xi.
23.) "No heat, no cold, no sickness, nor accident, nor any fear could touch or terrify him.
His body could pass through earth and rocks without breaking anything in them; for a man who could be overpowered by the terrestrial nature, or who could be broken to pieces, would not be eternal." 3 ( Menschwerdung , i.
2, 13.) p.
146 Likewise that nature which surrounded him, and which is called Eden, was illuminated by the celestial light, and it was thereby exalted to paradisiacal magnificence.
"Adam was in Paradise, that is to say, in the temperature.
Thereby he was placed in a certain locality, namely, in that where the holy world was blooming out through the earth and bearing the fruits of Paradise." ( Grace , v.
34.) "'Eden' means the locality, but 'Paradise' is the out-flowing or the life of God in divine harmony." ( Letters , xxxi.
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 the metaphor 'As gold is incorruptible in the fire' to describe man's spiritual perfection and indestructibility.
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.
Adam naming creatures according to their 'own essence and quality' reflects the Hermetic principle that inner structure corresponds to outer reality.
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.
The 'will-spirit of man penetrated through all creatures' suggests a hidden affinity connecting the human to the cosmos.
The claim that the divine realm is present inside the individual, accessible without external mediation.
[auto] The passage explicitly states that the inner man stood in heaven and his essences were Paradise, locating the divine realm within the individual.
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 states that 'all things existed in him and he in all,' defining Adam as a microcosm containing the macrocosm.
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.
The mention of the Fall contextualizes the current state as one of separation from the original divine unity.
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.
[auto] Adam is described as being in a 'state of godlike being' with divine power manifested in him, central to the text's description of pre-fallen humanity.