The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme · 91 of 159 · tr. Franz Hartmann
Chapter 9 (part 9)
183:1 If man's imagination were not excited by the pictorial representations which the objects of the surrounding world call forth in his mind by means of his external senses, but if his mental activity were restricted to forming images by its own power, his fiery will, from which the recognition of his divine bride has departed, would cause him to become self-conscious in evil.
For this reason asceticism without divine wisdom leads to the acquisition of the powers of black magic.
184:1 Man became an organism wherein the powers of nature are acting, and in identifying himself with nature he began to enjoy and to suffer with her.
185:1 Man's constitution resembles a garden, wherein all kinds of seeds, good and evil, are sown.
Those which he cultivates or permits to glow will become predominant in him.
186:1 If "Eve" had not plucked the fruit from the tree of knowledge for "Adam," that is to say, if he had not desired it merely in his imagination, but plucked the fruit himself by entering therein with his own fiery will, the consequences would have been still more disastrous to him.
The universal man (Adam) would then have become a devil, instead of a semi-animal human being.
186:2 This does not mean to say that the true divine and immortal man did lose his immortality; but man in his aspect as a human being became unconscious of his immortality, and is now seeking for external proof for the purpose of becoming convinced that there may be something immortal in him.
186:3 The more of man identifies itself with the body and its lower principles, the more of him will die.
That part of man which identifies itself with the immortal part within becomes immortal with the latter.
Man should, therefore, not identify himself in thought and will with the lower elements in his constitution, but employ the powers of the latter for the unfoldment of his spirituality.
186:4 As the whole of the animal kingdom exists in macrocosmic man, likewise p.
187 the representative forms or germs of all animals exist in the animal soul of microcosmic man, and they grow and become predominant in him according to his predominant animal tendencies or desires.
They are the elementals which take possession of godless man and render him subservient to their will.
188:1 If man were truly to realise his own divine state, there is no power that would retain him against his will in his semi-animal body.
He would then be the god which in the course of ages he aspires to become.
188:2 In the same sense, the more we cling to merely external pursuits, the more are we liable to lose the power of the true recognition of internal truth, and for this reason we usually find the least amount of spirituality and intuition among those that are very learned.
The more we close our eyes and speculate, the less shall we become capable to see.
189:1 If the senses of man were educated to love that which is true and divine, then would the inner realm become opened to their perception, and man would know "supersensual things." 189:2 Every character, when it is to be expressed, finds its expression in a certain form.
All the animals in this world are incarnations of certain characters, and likewise the qualities of animal man are expressed in his animal soul (on the astral plane) in corresponding animal forms.
The above assertion of Jacob Boehme is, therefore, not a mere figure of speech; but the animal soul of every human being resembles a menagerie composed of different animals, which may be seen by those that are sifted with the astral perception, and according to the quality of the will of man, whereon these animals live, some become sick and die, while others are born and grow.
Themes
◆Alchemical Workpraxis
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 transformation of the soul through 'unfoldment of his spirituality' and cultivating seeds mirrors alchemical processes.
Eckhart's Abgeschiedenheit/Gelassenheit — radical letting-go of will, image, and grasping that opens the soul to God; distinct from inner_silence (quietness) and from material renunciation, and adjacent to Sufi tark and Buddhist non-grasping as a practice rather than a metaphysical claim.
Man is instructed not to 'identify himself in thought and will with the lower elements' but to employ them for spirituality.
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.
Evil is described as 'brute passion took the place of divine self-conscious will,' suggesting a displacement or lack of the good.
The Gnostic myth of Wisdom's prolapse from the Pleroma — her unilateral desire or error producing the Demiurge and the entrapment of divine sparks in matter.
The 'celestial virgin of divine wisdom' is described as having her power united to sweetness before brute passion took the place of divine will.
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 text warns that 'asceticism without divine wisdom leads to the acquisition of the powers of black magic,' framing certain knowledge as dangerous.
Gurdjieff and Ouspensky's claim that ordinary human beings live in a state of waking sleep, reacting mechanically without unified will or consciousness, and that the spiritual path begins with recognising this condition.
The description of man as a 'semi-animal human being' driven by 'animal will' parallels the concept of mechanical reaction without consciousness.
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.
Man is described as 'unconscious of his immortality' and seeking external proof, indicating a state of exile from the divine origin.
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 asserts that qualities of animal man are expressed in corresponding animal forms on the astral plane, reflecting the cosmic structure within the individual.
Salvation through direct experiential knowledge of the divine nature, not through faith, ritual, or moral works alone.
[auto] The passage contrasts asceticism with divine wisdom, implying that true spiritual power requires inner knowledge rather than external discipline alone.
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 explicitly contrasts 'macrocosmic man' and 'microcosmic man,' stating that animal forms exist within the human soul just as they do in the world.
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.
[auto] The text states that if man realizes his divine state, 'He would then be the god which in the course of ages he aspires to become.'