The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme · 76 of 159 · tr. Franz Hartmann
Chapter 8 (part 4)
But the constellation has still another woman, wherein it breeds out its substance, namely, the moon, she being the wife of all the planets, but especially of the sun." 3 ( Mysterium , xi.
31.) p.
171 "As the stars, full of desire, draw unto themselves the power of the sun, likewise the sun penetrates also powerfully into the stars, so that they receive their light from the power of the sun.
The stars then send again their ignited power as their product into the elements." ( Grace , ii.
26.) But as the stars have their origin from the world of light and from the world of darkness, not only the good, but also the evil, existing in the terrestrial world comes from them.
"With the creation of the constellation good and evil became manifest, for in them is manifest the wrathful fiery power of eternal nature, as well as the power of the holy spiritual world, as an outbreathed essence.
Thus there are many dark stars which we cannot see, and there are many shining ones which we see." 1 ( Mysterium , x.
36.) "The evil, like the good, in all things comes from the stars; and as the creatures upon the earth are in their qualities, likewise are also the stars." ( Aurora , ii.
2.) "All that lives and exists is awakened and brought to life by the stars, for they are not only fire and water, but they also possess hardness and softness, sourness and sweetness, bitterness and darkness, even all the powers of nature, and everything that is contained in the earth." ( Threefold Life , vii.
46.) "The constellation is the cause of all arts and science, also of all order and harmony in this world, because it awakens the trees and metals, enabling them to grow.
In the earth is everything that is contained within the stars; p.
172 the constellation ignites the earth, and all this taken together is only one spirit." 1 ( Threefold Life , vii.
48.) In their relations to the earth and the elements, the stars act the part of a higher, living, and, so to say, male power.
"The stars are a quintessence, a fifth form of the elements, and, so to say, the life of the four." ( Threefold Life , vii.
45.) "The starry sky rules in all creatures as it were in its own property.
This sky is the man, and 'matter,' or the watery form, is his wife, who gives birth to what heaven creates." 2 ( Three Principles , vii.
33.) "The upper desires the lower and the lower the higher.
The hunger of that which is above is directed powerfully to the earth, and the hunger of the earth strives for that which is above.
Thus, compared with each other, they are like body and soul, or like man and woman, generating children with each other." ( Grace , v.
19.) But it must be understood that there is a distinct life in the earth.
This is proved by her products, and also by her desire for the sun, in consequence of which she is continually turning around.
3 "If you behold the earth and the rocks you will acknowledge that there is a life in them; for if this were p.
173 not so, there would be in them neither gold nor silver, and neither herbs nor grasses." ( Aurora , xix.
57.) "Each being desires the other.
That which is above desires that which is below, and the lower desires the higher.
The doctrine and worldview that natural phenomena, places, and objects possess inherent spirit, soul, or personality — and that the cosmos is populated by countless local, plural, embodied divine agents: kami in mountain and tree, sidhe in cairn and well, landwights in field and stone, nymphs in spring and grove, haltija in forest and lake, lares and penates in household and threshold, Iamblichean daemons in element and place. Distinct from monotheism (single transcendent God), pantheism (one underlying substance), and emanation_hierarchy (cascading single source); animism's signature is the plurality, locality, and embodied-in-landscape character of the divine.
The passage explicitly asserts a distinct life in the earth, rocks, gold, silver, herbs, and grasses, attributing inherent living force to natural objects and places.
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.
[auto] The passage explicitly states that 'In the earth is everything that is contained within the stars,' reflecting the Hermetic axiom of cosmic reflection.
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 passage describes a mutual desire and hunger between the upper (stars/sun) and lower (earth) realms that binds them together.
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.
Power is described as flowing downward from the sun to the stars and then into the elements and earth.
The Hermetic doctrine that a masculine-feminine generative principle operates on every plane of being, not only the biological — present at all times as a structural feature of creation itself. Distinct from divine_marriage (a specific reunification event or symbol) and aeons (paired divine beings arranged in syzygies, not a universal structural claim).
The passage is pervaded by the masculine-feminine generative principle operating on the cosmic plane: stars as male power, earth as female, sky as man and matter as wife, generating children with each other — presented as a structural feature of creation itself.
A non-physical dimension of reality, interpenetrating the physical world, populated by forces, beings, and forms ordinarily imperceptible to physical senses and instruments, that can affect embodied life without being seen — Dion Fortune's 'mind-side of nature,' the astral plane of Western esotericism broadly construed. Distinct from astral_light (a specific transmitting medium or fluid operating within this realm, not the realm itself), pleroma (the divine fullness at the summit of a cosmic hierarchy, not a parallel plane coextensive with ordinary life), and animism (particular indwelling spirits bound to specific natural objects, not the general unseen dimension itself).
The world of light, the world of darkness, and the power of the stars operating on the earth constitute a non-physical dimension that interpenetrates and affects the physical world.
The doctrine that the cosmos unfolds as a structured descent of spirit into matter — a directional process traced stage by stage from an unconditioned principle down through successive planes to full materialization — complemented by its own eventual return ('evolution'). Distinct from emanation_hierarchy (the static structure of the resulting levels of the cascade) and cosmogony (a single originating event rather than an ongoing staged process) in naming the directional cosmic PROCESS of descent itself, paired with its own complementary ascent.
The passage traces a directional descent from the world of light through the stars into the elements and earth, describing spirit unfolding into matter as a structured process with the stars as an intermediate stage.
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 text identifies the sky as 'the man' and matter as his 'wife,' establishing a direct structural parallel between the cosmos and human/relational forms.
The rule of the stars and planetary powers over mortal destiny — the astrological governors whose spheres bind souls to birth, error, and death; in Sethian gnosis the 'error of the stars' that the savior exposes, and from which the incorruptible generation alone is free. Distinct from cosmic_sympathy (a doctrine of universal affinity) in being a bondage-to-powers claim, and from archons (the rulers as personal beings) in concerning the astral machinery itself.
The passage is centrally about the stars' rule over all earthly life, qualities, arts, and science — the constellation as cause of all order, the stars awakening trees and metals, and the starry sky ruling in all creatures as its own property.