The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme · 110 of 159 · tr. Franz Hartmann
Chapter 11 (part 1)
p.
224 CHAPTER XI.
INCARNATION—THE CELESTIAL VIRGIN.
The doctrine of the incarnation of Christ, or, to express it in other words, of the awakening of the germ of divine self-knowledge in man, is so grand, that it is impossible to form a conception of it as long as we occupy a narrow-minded, personal, or sectarian point of view.
If we desire to feel the power of the universal Redeemer within our heart, we must allow our mind to expand and embrace in our love all that is divine, noble, and ideal in humanity.
In considering the contents of the following chapter it will be especially recommendable to keep in mind the great occult maxim, that it is below as it is above, and that everything above has its corresponding part below; so that the great processes taking place in the macrocosm produce corresponding processes on the microcosmic plane, and that which exists eternally in heaven (the spiritual plane) seeks to be embodied and represented in terrestrial forms upon the earth.
It is also well to remember that completion is attained only by the reappearance of the third principle in the seventh; that is to say, by the spiritualisation of matter and the acquisition of form.
A being or power belonging to an entirely ideal plane cannot produce any direct reaction in the grossly material state of existence, no more than a tree can grow out of the idea of a tree existing within the mind, but it needs a material seed or kernel to serve as a material focus for the attraction and distribution of material principles.
For similar reasons it was necessary that the Logos 1 should actually become flesh and enter the human p.
225 state so as to produce a fundamental and radical change in the will of humanity by starting a new activity of light and love in its very centre or heart.
This process is beautifully and allegorically described in the New Testament.
In the configuration of the person of our Redeemer there are to be distinguished three factors: the eternal generation of the Son of God, His birth as a celestial Man, and, finally, His being incarnated as a terrestrial person.
1 "Christ is greater than any angel in heaven, because He has a celestial human body; He also has the eternal celestial bride, the virgin of divine wisdom, and, finally, the Holy Trinity in His possession.
We can truly say of Him that He is an individuality in the Holy Trinity in heaven, a true man in heaven, and an eternal king in this world, a lord of heaven and of the earth." ( Three Principles , xxii.
8 6.) "The Word, or the second person in the Godhead, has been from eternity in the Father, and by becoming p.
226 incarnated in humanity it did not change its nature and become something else, but remained in.
the Father, in its centre and seat, as it had been from eternity.
The other (second) formation took place in a natural manner at the time of the annunciation by the angel Gabriel, 1 when the virgin said to the angel, 'Let it be done as you say.' The fulfilling of this Word was effected in the celestial element, as was the creation of the first Adam before the fall.
The third formation took place simultaneously with the second, and at once, as when a terrestrial seed is sown whereof a child grows." ( Three Principles , xviii.
45.) "The holy Spirit of God formed the celestial, angelic substantiality within the one element by means of the virgin; but the planets and elements of this world formed the external man, providing him with a natural body and soul exactly like that of other human beings, and both in one person.
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 is described as the 'universal Redeemer' whose power works within the heart as a harmonizing, redeeming, and purifying cosmic force in the centre of humanity.
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 cites the occult maxim 'it is below as it is above' as a central principle for understanding the chapter.
The uncreated luminous quality of the divine, sometimes experienced directly in mystical states; illumination as revelation.
The passage speaks of 'a new activity of light and love in its very centre or heart' and the 'luminous' quality of the celestial element as the uncreated radiance of the divine.
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.
It describes processes in the macrocosm producing corresponding processes on the microcosmic plane.
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).
The celestial virgin as 'the eternal celestial bride, the virgin of divine wisdom' and the Son of God's generation establish the masculine-feminine generative principle operating on the divine plane.
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 entire chapter is titled 'Incarnation—The Celestial Virgin' and the passage systematically describes the divine principle descending into specific bodily form through three stages.
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 describes the celestial element, the spiritual plane, and the celestial human body as non-physical dimensions that interpenetrate and interact with the material world.
The doctrine that the cosmos unfolds as a structured descent of spirit into matter — a directional process traced stage by stage from an unconditioned principle down through successive planes to full materialization — complemented by its own eventual return ('evolution'). Distinct from emanation_hierarchy (the static structure of the resulting levels of the cascade) and cosmogony (a single originating event rather than an ongoing staged process) in naming the directional cosmic PROCESS of descent itself, paired with its own complementary ascent.
The passage describes the directional process of spirit descending into matter: 'that which exists eternally in heaven seeks to be embodied and represented in terrestrial forms upon the earth.'
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 passage states that processes in the macrocosm produce corresponding processes on the microcosmic plane.
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 'spiritualisation of matter' and the 'fundamental and radical change in the will of humanity' describe a progressive transformation of the human into a partaker of the divine nature.
The doctrine that the one Godhead or first principle subsists as three co-equal aspects or persons rather than a bare unity — the Christian Father/Son/Holy Ghost invoked in the recurring liturgical formula 'In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost,' but structurally the same pattern as the Egyptian Amen/Ptah/Osiris, the Hindu Brahma/Vishnu/Siva, and the Kabbalistic Chochmah/Binah/Kether triads that esoteric writers explicitly map onto it as instances of one universal law. Distinct from unity_of_being (the general claim that all existence is one substance, agnostic about internal plurality) and divine_simplicity (God as having no parts or divisions at all) in asserting a definite three-aspected differentiation within a single divine essence.
The passage explicitly references the Holy Trinity, the second person in the Godhead, the Father, and the Holy Spirit forming the celestial substantiality.