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The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme · 70 of 159 · tr. Franz Hartmann

Chapter 7 (part 12)

145:1 This was the divine Man, out of whom the world was created, while the natural man is a product of the world. 145:2 Because everything was within his own will, within himself. 145:3 This celestial Adam has not died, but still exists in all of us; but on account of our state of degeneration, caused by the attraction of the lower principles, we have forgotten our own divine nature. 146:1 It was Adam's own state of feeling and thinking that created an Eden for him, and thus each human being creates his or her own Paradise. 147:1 This Paradise ( Deva-loca or Devachan ) is described in Eastern books as an "illusion;" but it is no more an illusion to its inhabitants than the dream called "terrestrial existence" is an illusion to us. On the contrary, it is far more permanent and beautiful than this terrestrial world. 147:2 He could not enjoy similarity with God, because he did not possess divine self-knowledge. To attain this knowledge of self he had to eat from the tree of the self-knowledge of good and evil, and then return to his original divine state. 148:1 This the soul can surely not do by seeking for the Son or the Heart of God in anything outside of her own sphere, and with which she is in no way related. Therefore the meaning of the words, "Thou shalt worship only one God," is "Thou shalt have faith in no other God except the one who is seeking to reveal Himself within your own conscience, and not worship any strange idols, such as exist in the imagination of men." 149:1 God being a unity, has no other will or object in view than to give birth to His Son, i.e. , to manifest His outspoken Word as wisdom in man. 150:1 The spiritual will of man is free; not so the will of semi-animal man, for freedom depends on the extent of knowledge. When man's knowledge becomes divine, then will his will be free—wholly free. 150:2 Man requires the material (animal) element in him to endow him with strength to rise above it by the power of God. Man may be regarded as a god crucified within an animal. The god furnishes him with wisdom, the animal with strength. We are to overcome the animal in us by the power of divine wisdom. He who has nothing to overcome can gain no victory. We cannot rise above a thing as long as we have not attained its highest level. 151:1 It would be foolish to worry about what Adam ought or ought not to have done. The meaning is, that we who have "Adam" in us should enter now with our will into the will of God. 152:1 If primordial man had never fallen from his purely spiritual state and "refused to create," he would never have learned to know the wonders of creation, the unfoldment of the third principle. The external world, as we know it, was created by Adam's fall. 152:2 The "devil" means spiritual will perverted. If it is perverted in a personal being, then will there be a personal devil. 153:1 God (Christ), nature, and the devil (Antichrist— i.e. , Christ perverted) are seeking to attain self-consciousness in man. Man's consciousness is, therefore, continually changing, and in reality not his own. Only when the principle of either good or evil has become self-conscious in man, and he has become identified with it, will he know his true impersonal self. Only then will he be a free and responsible agent. 153:2 It was his desire that the lower qualities should become conscious in himself, each according to its own nature.
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Themes
Anthropomorphismtheology

Attributing human characteristics, emotions, or form to the divine; embodied divine imagery.

[auto] The divine is explicitly characterized as a 'divine Man' and 'Adam,' using human imagery for the creator.

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Birth Of Word In Soulanthropology

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 passage describes God's will as giving birth to His Son and manifesting His Word as wisdom specifically within man.

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Body As Obstacleanthropology

The material body viewed as a prison, tomb, or source of error that hinders spiritual knowledge and return.

The natural man is described as a product of the world subject to lower principles that obscure divinity.

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Divine Sparkscosmology

Fragments of divine light or spirit trapped inside material bodies, awaiting liberation and return to their source.

[auto] The celestial Adam exists within all humans, representing a divine nature that has been forgotten.

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Emanation Hierarchycosmology

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.

A hierarchy is implied where the world flows from the divine Man, and the natural man is a product of the world.

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Gnosis Direct Knowledgesoteriology

Salvation through direct experiential knowledge of the divine nature, not through faith, ritual, or moral works alone.

[auto] The passage explicitly states that attaining divine self-knowledge is the necessary path to return to the original divine state.

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Inner Lightanthropology

The divine spark or luminous quality residing within the human person, potentially recognisable through introspection.

[auto] The divine nature is described as residing within the human being, obscured by lower principles.

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Kingdom Withinanthropology

The claim that the divine realm is present inside the individual, accessible without external mediation.

[auto] The passage asserts that Paradise is created within the individual and God should not be sought outside one's own sphere.

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Logoscosmology

The divine reason, word, or ordering principle through which the universe was created; mediates between the transcendent God and the material world.

The divine Man functions as the creative principle out of whom the universe was created.

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Mystical Unionsoteriology

The merging of the individual soul or self with the divine, transcending personal identity.

[auto] The ultimate aim described is attaining similarity with God and returning to the original divine state.

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Paradox As Teachingethics

Using apparent contradiction, reversal, or riddle to destabilise ordinary understanding and induce insight.

[auto] The text uses a paradoxical comparison between Paradise as an illusion and terrestrial existence as a dream.

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Return To Sourcesoteriology

The soul's journey back to its divine origin, reversing the fall into matter through stages of purification or illumination.

[auto] The text describes the goal as returning to the original divine state after a fall into degeneration.

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Self Knowledgesoteriology

The recognition of one's own true divine nature as the primary path to liberation; 'know thyself' as soteriology.

[auto] Divine self-knowledge is identified as the primary means to attain similarity with God and overcome ignorance.

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Spiritual Ascentpraxis

A staged journey of the soul upward through heavenly realms or levels of being toward the divine source.

[auto] The soul is described as needing to return from a state of degeneration to its original divine state.

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Theosis Deificationsoteriology

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 text describes man as a 'god crucified within an animal' and speaks of returning to an original divine state through wisdom.

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Unity Of Beingtheology

The doctrine that all existence is ultimately one substance or one divine reality; non-duality as a theological claim.

The text states that everything existed within the divine will and within himself before creation.

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