The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme · 62 of 159 · tr. Franz Hartmann
Chapter 7 (part 4)
28.) "In Paradise the substance of the divine world penetrated the substance belonging to time, comparable to the power of the sun penetrating a fruit growing on a tree, and endowing it with such qualities as render it lovely to the sight and good to the taste." ( Mysterium , xvii.
5.) "Thus the holy divine world was predominant through all the three principles of the human quality, and there was an equal accord, and no enmity or opposite will was manifest betwixt the principles." 1 ( Mysterium , xvii.
20.) There were in Paradise all the products which we meet in the terrestrial world, but they were there in a state of ethereality and of supernatural beauty.
This paradisiacal beauty was, however, not manifested in all parts of the world.
"In Paradise there are growths, the same as in this world, but not in (terrestrial) tangibility.
There Heaven is in the place of the earth, the Light of God instead of the sun, and the Eternal Father in the place of the power of the stars." ( Three Principles , ix.
20.) "The Paradise is not anything corporeal or tangible in a terrestrial sense, but its corporeity and tangibility is like that of the angels.
It is there a clear, p.
147 visible, substance, as if it were material, and it is actually "material;" but it is formed only out of the power, without any addition of terrestrial matter, and it is, therefore, perfectly transparent." ( Three Principles , ix.
18.) "The tangible world, or nature, before the time of the wrath of God, was thin, ethereal, lovely, and clear, so that the sourcive spirits could look through everything and penetrate it.
There were therein neither terrestrial rocks nor earth, and there was no created light needed, such as it is now; but the light was generated in all things in the midst of each thing, and everything was in the light." ( Aurora , xviii.
29.) "The whole world would have been all Paradise if it had not been corrupted by Lucifer.
But as God knew that Adam was going to fall, it bloomed out in only one place, wherein man might find a suitable dwelling-place, and be fortified therein." ( Mysterium , xvii.
7.) "God saw and knew that man was going to fall, and therefore the Paradise did not bloom and bear fruits in the whole of the world by means of the earth, although it was manifest everywhere, but only in the Garden of Eden, wherein Adam was tempted, did it become revealed in its full magnificence." 1 ( Letters , xxxix.
28.) For all that, man, although having been endowed with great splendour by the Creator, did not yet enjoy true similarity with God.
2 "In Adam was manifest the kingdom of grace, the divine life, because he lived in the temperature (harmony) of the qualities, but he did not know that God was p.
148 revealed in him.
Likewise his self-will did not know that which is good, because it had as yet experienced no evil.
How could there be any joy where no sorrow is known?" ( Grace , ix.
15.) "The soul was in her own essence from eternity, but as a created thing she was formed to represent the image of God at the time of the creation of the body.
Nevertheless she is per se not yet the true image, but only an essential fire for its production." ( Tilk ., i.
81.) "The soul of man, which has been breathed into him by God, is from the Eternal Father; but with that she has not yet attained the birth of the Son, wherein is the end of nature, and from which no created being issues." ( Three Principles , ix.
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.
Language of substance penetration and endowing qualities resembles the alchemical transformation of base matter.
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.
[auto] The text explicitly mentions the soul not yet attaining the birth of the Son, which is the end of nature, aligning with the doctrine of 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.
The analogy of the sun penetrating a fruit illustrates the divine substance penetrating time, reflecting macro-micro correspondence.
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 'equal accord' between principles in Paradise suggests a harmonious resonance throughout the cosmos.
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.
[auto] The text explicitly states God knew Adam would fall and therefore restricted Paradise to one place, demonstrating active divine ordering of events.
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 penetration of the 'divine world' into 'substance belonging to time' implies a downward flow from a higher source.
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.
Evil is presented as corruption and enmity manifesting after the fall, contrasting with the prior state of accord.
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.
Adam is described as manifesting the kingdom of grace and divine life within himself, mirroring the divine structure.
The merging of the individual soul or self with the divine, transcending personal identity.
[auto] The text describes the 'substance of the divine world penetrated the substance belonging to time', indicating a union of divine and created realms.
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 text contrasts the harmonious pre-fall state with corruption by Lucifer, implying a separation from the divine accord.
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 passage discusses man being endowed with splendour and representing the image of God, aiming for similarity with the Creator.