The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme · 75 of 159 · tr. Franz Hartmann
Chapter 8 (part 3)
Thereby it receives the form of the latter as a light and power, without, however, being able to grasp the interior spirit itself; for the spirit does not dwell in the exterior, but has possession of its own self in its own interior state." 1 ( Six Theosophical Points , vi.
9.) God exercises this blissful power especially by means of the sun, who, being a true image of the divine heart of love, illuminates all the visible world, and restrains the wrath of the dark world.
"The Godhead, the divine light, is the centre of all life, and likewise in the manifestation of God the sun is the centre of life." ( Signature , iv.
17.) "God the Father generates love by means of His heart, and the sun symbolises His heart.
He is in the external world a symbol of the eternal heart of God, which gives to all beings and existences their power." ( Signature , iv.
39.) p.
169 "God gave to the external world the light, by the out-breathing of His power through the rays of His light, and with the sun and the moon He rules within the things of this world.
The stars take their light from the outpoured radiance .
of His light, and by means of this very light God ornaments the earth with beautiful plants and flowers, and makes glad everything that lives and grows.
( Prayer , xlvii.) "This world has a natural God of its own, namely, the sun; but he takes his being from the fire of God, and this again from the light of God.
Thus, the sun gives his power to the elements, and they give theirs to the creatures and herbs of the earth." ( Six Theosophical Points , v.
13.) "The abyss of hell is in this world, and the sun is the only cause of the existence of water, and of the fact that the depth above the earth is lovely, pleasing, mild, and delightful." ( Threefold Life , vi.
3 6.) "All that is powerful in the essence of the holy world is hidden in the wrath and curse of God in the quality of the dark world; but it blooms by means of the power of the sun and the light of external nature through the curse and the wrath." 1 ( Mysterium , xxi.
8.) As the sun rules over all the terrestrial world, he must be present in his essence and power everywhere in that world.
"The sun is not very different from water, for water has the quality and essence of the sun.
Without that the water would not receive the light of the sun.
Although the sun is a body having a form, nevertheless the essence p.
170 of the sun is also in water, but not manifest.
In fact, we recognise that the whole world is all sun , and the locality of the sun would be everywhere if God would want to ignite it and cause it to become manifest, for all existence begins in the light of the sun." 1 ( Six Theosophical Points , vi.
10.) "If God would ignite the light by means of the heat, the whole world would be sun (manifest), for the power of the sun is everywhere, and before the body of the sun existed the whole locality of the world was as shining as the sun is at present, but not so insupportable, but mild and delightful." 2 ( Aurora , xxv.
63.) The planets are also ruled by the sun, from which they receive their powers, and they communicate these powers in their turn to terrestrial objects.
"The sun is the centre of the constellation (solar system), and the earth is the centre of the elements.
Both, if compared with each other, are like spirit and body, or like man and woman.
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 passage establishes structural parallels between the sun/earth and spirit/body or man/woman, reflecting cosmic order at different scales.
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 text states that planets receive powers from the sun and communicate them to terrestrial objects, indicating interconnected cosmic influence.
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.
[auto] Light flows from God through the sun and stars to the earth, establishing a downward chain of power and illumination.
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.
The relationship between the sun and earth is explicitly compared to spirit and body or man and woman, mapping cosmic relations onto human/archetypal forms.