The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme · 67 of 159 · tr. Franz Hartmann
Chapter 7 (part 9)
If it had not been for that circumstance, he would in his selfishness even have become a devil by the power of the fire." 4 ( Stiefel , ii.
363.) "When the devil saw that lust resided in Adam, he acted still more powerfully upon the Sal-nitre in Adam, and infected it still stronger.
Then it was time that the Creator should build him a wife, who afterwards indeed caused the sin to be acted out, and who ate of the evil fruit.
Otherwise, if Adam had eaten of the tree before the woman was made out of him, he would have fared still worse." ( Aurora , xvii.
21.) Therefore woman (spirituality) is, and will always be, the saviour of man.
The woman was extracted from all the powers of Adam.
Relatively to her substance, she was formed out p.
158 of a "rib," which at that time had not yet degenerated into stiff bone.
1 "Eve has been extracted from Adam, not as a mere spirit, but entirely substantial.
It should be said that Adam received a cleft, and that the woman is bearing Adam's spirit, flesh and bone." ( Three Principles , xiii.
14.) "Reasoning says, 'If Eve has been made out of a rib of Adam, she must be very inferior to man.' This is, however, not so, but the Fiat , in its aspect as sharp attraction (the first quality), took her from all essences and qualities of each power of Adam." 2 ( Three Principles , xiii.
18.) "Adam's body had not yet received hard bones and osseous substance.
This took place only when Eve tasted the apple and gave to Adam to eat thereof." "It is true that the infection and the terrestrial death were already in him as a tendency and deadly disease, but the 'bones' and 'ribs' were nevertheless still power and strength, and thus Eve was created out of that power or strength which (later on) was to become rib ." 3 ( Three Principles , xiii.
13.) Eve was not misshaped.
She lived with Adam in p.
159 [paragraph continues] Paradise; but the pure likeness of God was then in neither of them.
"Eve was not misshapen, but very lovely; nevertheless she too bore the signs (of corruption), and could not be anything more than a wife of Adam.
Both were still in Paradise, and if they had not eaten from the tree, but turned to God by changing their imagination, they would have remained in Paradise." ( Three Principles , xiii.
36.) "Adam and Eve had still a paradisiacal consciousness, but it was mixed with terrestrial desire.
They were naked, and had animal organs for procreation; but they did not know this, neither were they ashamed of them, for the spirit of the great world had not yet obtained rule over them before they had eaten of the terrestrial fruit." ( Menschwerdung , i.
6, 15.) "No one can truly say that Eve, before coming in contact with Adam, had been a pure and chaste virgin, because, as soon as Adam awoke from his sleep, he saw her by his side.
He soon imagined into her (fell in love with her).
He took her unto himself and said, 'This is flesh of my flesh and bone of my bone.
She will be called woman , because she has been taken from man.' Eve likewise began to put her imagination into Adam, and each one ignited the desire of the other.
Where, then, is the pure chastity and virginity?
Is this not animal?
Has not the external image become an animal?" 1 ( Forty Questions , xxxvi.
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 terminology such as Sal-nitre, fire, powers, and qualities to describe spiritual states.
The reunification of complementary divine principles (male-female, spirit-matter) as a symbol of wholeness and salvation.
[auto] The passage explicitly identifies woman (spirituality) as the saviour of man, emphasizing the necessary union of male and female principles for salvation.
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.
The Creator builds a wife for Adam to prevent him from faring worse in his selfishness.
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.
Infection and death are described as a tendency or disease rather than original substance.
Transgressive knowing acquired against divine prohibition — the Watchers' teaching of metallurgy, sorcery, and cosmetics in 1 Enoch, the Gnostic Eve narratives, the Promethean mytheme; explicitly contrasted with gnosis_direct_knowledge, which is salvific.
Eating the evil fruit from the tree is the central transgression leading to infection and death.
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 containing all essences and qualities from which Eve is formed, reflecting the cosmos within man.
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 pure likeness of God was absent in both Adam and Eve even before eating the fruit, indicating a state of separation.