The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme · 78 of 159 · tr. Franz Hartmann
Chapter 8 (part 6)
1.) "The terrestrial consciousness corrupted the celestial one, and the former became the Turba of the latter.
Likewise, the Fiat made the earth and stones out of the eternal essentiality." ( Menschwerdung , i.
9.) "But in the earth we find still another tincture hidden away which is like the celestial one, especially in the precious metals." 2 ( Six Theosophical Points , vi.
2.) "Gold is nearly related to the divine substantiality or celestial corporeity.
This would be seen if we could dissolve the dead body of the gold and cause it to become a volatile, active spirit, but this is only possible by means of the power of God." 3 ( Signature , iii.
39.) "As far as precious stones are concerned, carbuncles, rubies, delphines, onyx, &c., they have their origin there where the flash of light arose within love.
This flash is born in meekness, and is the heart in the centre of the p.
176 sourcive spirits.
Therefore are such stones so mild, lovely, and at the same time so powerful." 1 ( Aurora , xviii.
17.) As it is in regard to the mineral kingdom, so it is in regard to the vegetable and animal kingdoms.
There the power of death has also penetrated into everything; but there also are formations existing which show a relationship with the paradise.
"Before the fall the paradise was efflorescing through all trees and through all the fruits which God created for man.
But when the earth was cursed, the curse penetrated into all fruits, and now everything became good and bad.
In all things was death and rottenness, which formerly was only in the one tree, called the tree of knowledge of good and evil." ( Threefold Life , ix.
15.) "The fruits of the earth are not entirely in the wrath of God, for the incorporated word, being immortal and imperishable, was blossoming out again in the body of death, and produced fruits from the mortified body of the earth." ( Aurora , xxi.
24.) "Some animals, especially the tame ones, are closely related to the one element; others, especially the ferocious ones, have more relationship with the four elements." ( Three Principles , xviii.
10.) "There are poisonous animals and worms grown out of the wrathful quality, and formed after the centre of the dark world.
They love to dwell only in the dark, and hide themselves away from the sunlight.
Furthermore, there are many creatures which the spiritus mundi has formed out of the realm of phantasy, such as monkeys and certain animals and birds, who like to play pranks and torment and disturb other creatures, so that one is the enemy of the other, and they are all fighting against each other.
On the other hand, there are also good and p.
177 kind creatures, made after the type of the angelic world, such as the tame animals and birds: among them, however, there are also bad qualities to be found." ( Grace , v.
20.) 1 In each external thing there is hidden an eternal and imperishable something, which issues again in an ethereal form out of the degraded body of the terrestrial substance.
2 "In each external thing there are two qualities, one originating from time and the other one from eternity.
The first or temporal quality is manifest, the other one hidden." ( Signature , iv.
17.) "In the beings of this world we find everywhere two beings in one—first, an eternal, divine and spiritual being, and then one that has a beginning, and is natural, temporal, and corruptible.
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.
[auto] References to dissolving the dead body of gold into spirit and hidden tinctures in metals indicate alchemical transformation themes.
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.
The incorporated word is described as blossoming out again in the body of death.
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 text draws direct parallels between the mineral, vegetable, and animal kingdoms as reflections of divine structures.
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.
Creatures are described as having relationships with elements and the paradise, indicating hidden affinities.
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.
God is described as creating the earth and fruits, with His power governing the transformation of gold.
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] The text describes a flow from eternal essentiality to earth and celestial consciousness to terrestrial consciousness.
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.
Death and rottenness are described as having penetrated everything after the curse, implying evil is a corruption of the original good state.
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.
The tree of knowledge of good and evil is cited as the source where death and rottenness formerly resided before penetrating all things.
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 mineral, vegetable, and animal kingdoms reflects the divine structure of paradise.
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 terrestrial consciousness is said to have corrupted the celestial one, and the earth was cursed after the fall.
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.
Gold is described as becoming a volatile, active spirit by means of the power of God, implying transformation into divine nature.