The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme · 96 of 159 · tr. Franz Hartmann
Chapter 10 (part 3)
It was she in whom the voice of God promised again to introduce the living, holy substance from heaven, and to generate anew and in divine power the faded image of God that was contained therein." 1 ( Grace , vii.
18.) This, however, did not take place in her terrestrial body, but in her celestial essence, which on account of the sin had weakened.
"When God said, 'I will put enmity, and the seed of the woman shall bruise the head of the serpent,' then the holy voice went from Jehovah into the weakened celestial substance of the woman for the purpose of introducing therein a new living and celestial state, and to conquer the kindled wrath of God by means of the most exalted divine love, whereby the monstrosity and its desire should p.
204 be entirely killed and exterminated." ( Mysterium , xxiii.
29, 37.) "The voice of God, speaking to Eve, entered into the seed of the woman; but the true woman was the eternal virgin, and this virgin became revealed by the power of the voice speaking into her in the name of Jesus, which (name) had evolved from Jehovah, and promised that in the fulness of time the holy, celestial love-essence would again be introduced into the weakened image." 1 ( Grace , vii.
33.) From Eve, out of whom the Saviour as an incarnation was to issue in the fulness of time, the blissful power radiated and expanded over the whole of humanity.
2 "God spoke into the image of Adam, that had become weakened relatively to its divine life, His holy word, 'The seed of the woman shall bruise the head of the serpent.' By the action of this voice the destitute soul regained a divine life, and this very voice (inner consciousness) was perpetuated from man to man as the covenant of mercy." ( Grace , vii.
16.) "Christ was perpetuated in all men as a glowing spark of divine light, according to the quality of the true image, and as a potentiality (or seed of immortal being), but, as a matter of course, not in the external flesh of the terrestrial world, but within the second principle." ( Stiefel , ii.
318.) "The word that had been incorporated in the seed of Eve became perpetuated from man to man in his celestial part as a sound (conscience) or spark of the divine and p.
205 holy fiery light, until the time when Mary was awakened, when the time for the fulfilment of the covenant had arrived and the doors of the closed chamber were opened." 1 ( Mysterium , xxiii.
31.) This event could not take place earlier on account of the great depth of human corruption, but in the minds of those that were willing to submit to divine mercy this power resisted Satan, and even awakened prophets among them.
2 "Christ remained in Adam and Eve as a divine mystery, and did not take human substance in them.
He remained motionless until the time (for His manifestation) arrived; only then He moved within the seed of the woman." ( Stiefel , 448.) "The seed of the woman received its anointment by means of the motion of the name of Jesus only in Mary, but not in Adam, Abel, Enoch, Noah, Isaac, Jacob, and David.
The ancient prophets did not know Christ in their seed, and that Ile had moved within their carnal seed, but only within their spirit and soul, within their p.
206 desire for faith (spiritual knowledge)." 1 ( Stiefel , ii, 453.) "The (astral) soul of Adam and Eve and of all human beings was still too rough, unmanageable, and impregnated by the first principle.
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.
Terminology such as 'tincture', 'seed', and 'anointment' reflects alchemical transformation of the human substance.
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 divine voice enters the seed of the woman to generate a new living state within the human essence.
The uncreated luminous quality of the divine, sometimes experienced directly in mystical states; illumination as revelation.
[auto] The passage centrally contrasts 'fire-tincture' with 'light-tincture' and emphasizes the introduction of 'holy substance from heaven' and a 'celestial state'.
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.
Events are ordered by God 'in the fulness of time' according to a divine promise and covenant.
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.
Sin is described as having 'weakened' the celestial substance and faded the image, implying evil as a lack of divine fullness.
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 human image is presented as containing the 'faded image of God', reflecting the divine structure within man.
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 human image is described as 'weakened' and 'faded' due to sin, indicating a fall from divine origin.
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 text speaks of generating anew the 'image of God' and regaining a 'divine life' within the human essence.