The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme · 108 of 159 · tr. Franz Hartmann
Chapter 10 (part 15)
"The Spirit of Christ in His children is not bound to a certain form, so that He could say nothing but what is found in the writings of the apostles; but as the Spirit was free in the apostles, and as they did not all use the same expressions, but were all teaching in one spirit and foundation, each one as he was influenced by the Spirit to speak, likewise the Spirit of Christ still speaks out of His children, and needs no previously prepared formula of the literal Word, but itself reminds the spirit of man of that which is contained within the letter." ( Mysterium , xxviii.
52).
"You need not be surprised that reason is manifesting itself in many different forms, in one in a way different from that of the other, and that the children of God do not all speak the same language and words.
Each one speaks out of the wisdom of the mother, whose number is without beginning and without end.
Their aim is the heart of God, wherein they all meet.
This, then, is the test by which you must know whether the spirit speaks out of God or out of the devil." ( Threefold Life , v.
73.) 213:1 " Esau ," gross, sensual nature.
( Mysterium Magnum , iv.) 214:1 Evidently all these Bible allegories represent cosmic processes which have actually taken place in the history of the world.
They are, so to say, the genealogy of Humanity, in which at the fulness of the times the Divinity became manifest.
214:2 The "heathen," then, seem to be those prehistoric races that were cultivating magic arts.
215:1 "The mysteries of nature were not so deeply hidden to those (prehistorical) peoples as they are to us, because they were not so deeply hidden (immersed) in materiality and sin.
Therefore they knew the relationship between the paradisiacal (ethereal) forms of nature and their corporeal visible embodiments.
They knew the qualities and the true nature, not only of animals, but likewise of plants and minerals.
Man himself was the heart of all beings, and he created them.
He could therefore give to each its appropriate name, as if he were in these things himself, and (felt and) experienced their conditions himself." ( Three Principles , xxi.
8.) 217:1 Thus it appears that a person's true Christianity does not depend on his or her being learned in regard to theology, nor in subscribing to a certain creed or belief, nor in going through certain ceremonies, but in their being penetrated by that principle of love and wisdom which constitutes the Christ.
"It is very deplorable to see the world revile and storm, blaspheme and denounce, whenever the gifts of God manifest themselves in mankind in different ways, and if they have not all the same quality of knowledge.
What can a man take if it is not generated within him?
This (the quality of his understanding) is not a matter of his choice, but as his heaven (his mental constitution) is, so will God become revealed to him." ( Letters , i.
14.) "We ought not to persecute each other on account of the difference of the gifts given to us, but rather rejoice in love towards each other, seeing that the wisdom of God is so inexhaustible, and we should think thereby of the future, and what would become of us if all knowledge were to become manifest only from one and within one single soul." ( Grace , xiii.
Platonic recollection: knowledge as the soul's recovery of what it knew before birth, with learning as remembering rather than acquisition.
The Spirit 'reminds the spirit of man of that which is contained within the letter,' framing spiritual knowledge as recollection of what already dwells within rather than external acquisition.
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 Spirit of Christ speaks out of His children, suggesting an internal generative act.
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).
The passage describes 'that principle of love and wisdom which constitutes the Christ' as a penetrating, harmonizing force within individuals, functioning as a mediating and redeeming cosmic power rather than a fixed doctrinal formula.
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.
The text explicitly describes the relationship between ethereal forms of nature and their corporeal visible embodiments.
The doctrine that the divine is present within all things and the universe itself, pervading creation rather than remaining solely transcendent above it. Distinct from unity_of_being (the general claim that all existence is one substance, agnostic about whether that substance indwells its parts) and from kingdom_within (the divine present specifically IN THE INDIVIDUAL human, accessible without mediation) — divine_immanence is the general pervading-presence claim applied to all of creation, not a human-specific indwelling.
The Spirit of Christ is described as actively present and speaking within the children of God, pervading creation rather than remaining solely transcendent above it.
The doctrine that emotions constitute a valid and necessary mode of knowing reality, complementing or surpassing intellectual cognition.
The passage identifies 'that principle of love and wisdom which constitutes the Christ' as the criterion of true Christianity, making love a mode of knowing that penetrates and transforms rather than merely intellectual assent.
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 passage explicitly describes 'paradisiacal (ethereal) forms of nature' as a non-physical dimension interpenetrating the corporeal world, known by prehistoric peoples who perceived the relationship between these hidden forms and visible embodiments.
The divine conceived as active, present, and dynamic—not an abstract principle but a personal responsive reality.
[auto] The Spirit is described as actively speaking out of children and influencing them, portraying the divine as dynamic and present rather than abstract.
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 passage states that man was the heart of all beings and experienced their conditions himself, mirroring the cosmos.
Sacred knowledge transmitted as living speech rather than fixed writing — scripture carried in memory, song, and telling, renewed in each generation; the unwritten canon of a tradition.
The passage emphasizes that the Spirit 'needs no previously prepared formula of the literal Word' and speaks through living individuals in diverse expressions, privileging living speech over fixed writing.
The soul's journey back to its divine origin, reversing the fall into matter through stages of purification or illumination.
The passage states 'Their aim is the heart of God, wherein they all meet,' describing the soul's directed return toward its divine origin as the telos of spiritual life.
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 passage describes being penetrated by the principle of love and wisdom which constitutes the Christ.
The doctrine that all existence is ultimately one substance or one divine reality; non-duality as a theological claim.
[auto] The passage emphasizes that all saints and children of God teach from 'one spirit' and meet in the 'heart of God', indicating a fundamental divine unity.