The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme · 112 of 159 · tr. Franz Hartmann
Chapter 11 (part 3)
Now can I truly say, 'The soul of Christ is my brother, and the body of Christ is the nutriment of my soul.'" ( Three Principles , xxii.
78.) p.
229 But if Christ had come only from a terrestrial virgin He would not have come from above, and would not have been pure.
"Christ said to the Jews, 'I am from above, but you are from below; I am not of this world, but you are of this world.' If He had become human in an earthly tabernacle, and not in a pure, celestial, and chaste virgin, such as Mary had become in consequence of her having been blessed, He would have been of this world." ( Menschwerdung , i.
9, 20.) "All that is born from the flesh and blood of this world is impure, and a pure virgin cannot be born in this corrupted flesh and blood; but Christ has been received and born without sin from a pure virgin." 1 ( Three Principles , xxii.
36.) According to the external flesh, Mary descended from Joachim and Anna; but she was also the daughter of the covenant, and as such she was blessed (penetrated) by the virgin of wisdom.
2 "Mary was generated from the seed of Joachim and Anna in the same manner as other human beings are p.
230 generated; but she was blessed among women, so that in her the eternal virgin became revealed." ( Threefold Life , vi.
72.) "Mary, in whom Christ became man, was truly the daughter of Joachim and Anna, according to the external flesh, and generated out of their seed; but in regard to the will she was the daughter of the covenant of promise, the object of the covenant, wherein the same became accomplished." ( Menschwerdung , i.
8.
2.) "The pure and immaculate virgin in whom God was born is before God, and an eternal virgin.
She was pure and without blemish even before heaven and earth were created; and this pure virgin became incorporated in Mary, so that it rendered her a new being within the holy element of God.
Therefore she was blessed among women, and the Lord was with her, as was said by the angel." ( Three Principles , xxii.
38.) The celestial virgin did not become terrestrial in Mary (or enter into her mechanically from the outside); but the omnipresent celestial virgin became revealed (unfolded) within Mary's innermost being.
1 "We cannot say that the celestial virgin, when she entered into Mary, became terrestrial by the order of God, but we say that the soul of Mary took hold of the celestial virgin, and the latter adorned the soul of Mary with the pure garment of the holy element, a pure, regenerated human being, and therein has Mary received the Saviour of the world, and given birth to Him in this world." ( Three Principles , xxii.
44.) "No other woman, ever since the time of Adam, became clothed with the celestial virgin except Mary; but p.
231 this took place in the soul-principle, and not in the terrestrial flesh." ( Forty Questions , xxxvi.
12.) "Mary received the celestial token which was unknown to nature, .and which was also unknown to her in her external womanhood, namely, the celestial virgin, and in that virgin she received the Word of the Eternal Father." ( Three Principles , xxii.
43.) By means of this unfolding or state of bliss the Word was enabled to take up the human state in Mary, and thus the celestial virgin that had become weakened in Adam became again strong and substantial in her.
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.
[auto] The passage centrally argues that the Word took up human state in Mary specifically within the 'soul-principle' rather than just terrestrial flesh.
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 links the celestial virgin to Mary's inner being, reflecting a cosmic structure within the human.
Ontological opposition between two primal principles (light/darkness, truth/lie, spirit/matter) as the fundamental structure of reality.
[auto] The passage explicitly contrasts origins 'from above' versus 'from below' and purity versus corrupted flesh as fundamental ontological distinctions.
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.
Mary's soul serves as the site where the divine Word takes human state, mirroring cosmic principles.
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.
Mary is described as being rendered a 'new being within the holy element of God' through this spiritual incorporation.