The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme · 95 of 159 · tr. Franz Hartmann
Chapter 10 (part 2)
8.
1.) "The name Jesus was incorporated into the image of eternity as a future Christ, that it may become a redeemer of men, and out of the dying in the wrath regenerate them again into the pure being of divine and paradisiacal power." ( Stiefel , ii.
74.) "The word which God spoke in regard to the power that was to bruise the head of the serpent, was a spark of love from the divine heart of God, and therein has the Father from eternity seen and elected humanity.
In this spark of divine love-light the whole world was to live, and Adam was already therein while his creation took place, as is also expressed by Paul (Eph.
i.
13), where he says that man was elected in Christ before the foundation of the world was made." 1 ( Three Principles , xvi.
107.) As long as Adam had not ceased to resemble God, the Redeemer within him did not render Himself perceptible.
This, however, took place immediately after the fall.
2 "From all eternity stood the name Jesus in immovable love in man as the image of God.
But when the p.
202 soul lost the light, then the Word spoke the name of Jesus into what was movable; into the faded ens of the heavenly world's substance." 1 ( Grace , vii.
34.) "Before the fall Adam received the divine light out of Jehovah; that is to say, out of the one only God, wherein was hidden the name of Jesus .
But during the time of suffering when the soul fell, God manifested the treasure of His glory and holiness, and by means of the living voice of the Word He incorporated Himself with the divine fire of love into the eternal image, representing the banner of the soul, which she was to follow as a guide.
But if she was not able to penetrate therein, being as one dead relatively to God, nevertheless the divine breath penetrated into her, and warned her to stop her evil activity, so that its voice might again begin to become active within the soul." ( Grace , vii.
32.) "As Adam manifested in himself the centre of wrath, God instituted opposition to evil, and manifested in him the power that bruises the heel of the serpent, which heretofore, at the time when sin had not yet appeared, had been hidden (latent) in the power of God, and in Jesus as the love of God, in divine unity." 2 ( Stiefel , ii.
161.) The power of the future Redeemer became first of all active in Eve.
3 "The in-speaking of the devil, wherefrom evil will originated, took place in Adam while he was still man and woman, and yet neither the one nor the other, but an image of God.
From Adam it penetrated into Eve, p.
203 who began to sin.
Then occurred the in-speaking of God, and this took place at first in Eve as the mother of all mankind, and opposed itself through her to the consciousness of sin that had begun to be manifested in Adam." ( Grace , vii.
47.) "Not in the tincture of man, which represents the fiery essence, did the word of promise desire to become incorporated, but in the tincture of the light, in the virginal centre, which was to generate magically in Adam, in the celestial substance of the holy generatrix, because in that tincture of light the fiery soul-essence was weaker than in the fiery nature of man." ( Mysterium , xxiii.
43.) "Not through Adam's fire-tincture was this event to take place, but in and through Adam's light-tincture, wherein the love was burning that had become separated from him to constitute woman, the mother of all mankind.
In Western Hermetic Qabalah, the specific harmonizing cosmic force symbolised by Tiphareth, the central Sephira of the Tree of Life — the equilibriating, compensating, healing, redeeming, and purifying factor of the universe, recognised by the occultist as one power among the hierarchy of supreme cosmic forces rather than assigned the exclusive position it holds for the Christian mystic. Distinct from logos (the ordering principle through which the universe was created, not this specific mediating/healing Sephirotic force) and trinity (a claim about the Godhead's internal three-personed structure, not a single emanation's function within a tenfold system).
Christ functions as the specific harmonizing and redeeming cosmic force — 'the power that bruises the head of the serpent,' 'the future Redeemer,' 'the Redeemer within him' — a mediating, healing, and purifying principle active in the cosmos.
Ontological opposition between two primal principles (light/darkness, truth/lie, spirit/matter) as the fundamental structure of reality.
The passage posits an ontological opposition: the devil's 'in-speaking' wherefrom evil will originated, versus God's 'in-speaking' that opposed it; the 'centre of wrath' versus the 'love of God'; the fiery tincture versus the light tincture — two primal principles in structural opposition.
The uncreated luminous quality of the divine, sometimes experienced directly in mystical states; illumination as revelation.
[auto] The text repeatedly references light imagery, stating the world was to live in a 'spark of divine love-light' and noting when the soul lost 'the light'.
Fragments of divine light or spirit trapped inside material bodies, awaiting liberation and return to their source.
[auto] The passage explicitly describes a 'spark of love from the divine heart' and a 'spark of divine love-light' in which Adam existed before creation.
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).
Adam is described as 'still man and woman, and yet neither the one nor the other,' and the love that 'became separated from him to constitute woman, the mother of all mankind' — a masculine-feminine generative principle operating as structural feature of creation.
The doctrine that the divine or a spiritual principle takes on a specific, bounded material or bodily form — descending from an unconditioned state into individual, corporeal existence — as a discrete act rather than a diffuse pervading presence. The Christian Word made flesh, the Hindu avatara, the Egyptian pharaoh as living Horus, the Vajrayana tulku. Distinct from divine_immanence (the general claim that the divine pervades all of creation diffusely, not a specific embodiment-event) and separation_from_source (the felt exile FROM origin, the opposite motion) in describing a specific, individuated descent INTO a particular body or form.
The passage describes the divine name of Jesus being 'incorporated into the image of eternity' and the Word 'incorporating Himself with the divine fire of love into the eternal image' — a specific, individuated descent of the divine into a bounded form.
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.
Adam is described as the 'image of God' wherein the whole world was to live, reflecting the cosmic structure in the human.
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 fall is described as the soul 'losing the light,' becoming 'as one dead relatively to God,' and the name of Jesus being spoken 'into the faded ens of the heavenly world's substance' — a clear affective and ontological exile from the divine.
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 goal is to 'regenerate them again into the pure being of divine and paradisiacal power', indicating transformation into divine nature.
The doctrine and practice that spoken or sung word carries causal-magical force — that uttering names, formulas, songs, or incantations alters reality directly rather than merely communicating about it. Vainamoinen's runo-songs that move mountains and command iron, Norse galdr, Vedic mantra, Shinto kotodama, the magician's barbarous names in the Greek Magical Papyri, Iamblichean arcane signatures and inexplicable symbols, biblical creation-by-word. Distinct from sacred_names (the ontological power of names themselves) and prayer (address to the divine); word_power_incantation is the magical-causal efficacy of the spoken word as such.
The spoken Word has direct causal-magical efficacy: 'the Word spoke the name of Jesus into what was movable,' 'the living voice of the Word' incorporated God into the eternal image, and 'the word of promise' became incorporated in the tincture of light — utterance directly alters ontological reality.