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The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme · 139 of 159 · tr. Franz Hartmann

Chapter 13 (part 7)

27.) The first and greatest danger for the new-born being arises from pride; as is illustrated in the New Testament, for hardly is the new-born Saviour laid in the cradle, standing between the ox of self will and the ass of ignorance in the stable, represented by the animal constitution of man, when the king of pride (Herod) finds his kingdom endangered, and seeks to kill the child, which is to become the ruler in the new Jerusalem within the consciousness of man. 1 "The enlightened children of God are threatened by a great danger; namely, in many of them who enjoyed the great sight of the holiness of God, wherein the triumph of life is attained, carnal reason mirrors itself therein and seeks to intrude its selfishness into the interior centre from whence the light shines. From this results miserable pride and self-conceit; and selfish reason,—being, moreover, nothing but a reflection of the eternal light,—fancies itself to be more than that. It thinks that it may now do as it pleases, and that, whatever it does, it is the will of God doing it in it, and it believes itself to be a prophet. Nevertheless it enters nowhere p. 275 except within its own self, and moves within its own desire, whereby the centrum naturæ soon begins to arise. Then the devil of flattery comes forward, and man becomes drunk with self-conceit, persuading himself that it is God who compels him to act as he does. Thus he ruins the good beginning, during which the light of God began to shine within nature, and then the light of God departs from him. There is then nothing left but the light of external nature within the creature, but self-assertion puts itself therein and fancies that it is the original light received from God." 1 ( Calmness , i. 8.) Within the human constitution the old terrestrial and the new celestial states are dwelling together, and this necessarily causes within the regenerated a continual battle during the term of his terrestrial life. This battle between the higher and the lower consciousness, between earthly desires and celestial joy, is experienced by every one, but it is especially marked in those in whom, on account of a higher degree of spirituality, the spiritual sensitiveness is more keen. "Not in the terrestrial essence does God become manifest in us, but in the true image that became weakened in Adam; but the external thing clings to the internal, the inner man manifests the divine mystery, and the external one the external mystery or the mirror of wonders. From this results the battle in the new-born man. The new man wants to be lord, for he perceives the divine world; but the terrestrial man is opposed to him, and wants to rule also, for he perceives the external world." ( Forty Questions , xvii. 14.) p. 276 "The cause of the antagonism between the flesh and the spirit can easily be found without much seeking, for the inner spirit has the body of God, born from the sweet essentiality, and the external spirit has the body of the fiery mirror of wrath, which continually seeks to awaken wrath; namely, the great wonders which are in the Arcanum in the sternness of the soul. The inner love-spirit protests and will not let the external spirit arise and fire the soul; because it would cause it to lose its own happiness and form, which would then be destroyed by the wrath." ( Forty Questions , xvii. 14.) "There are two kinds of will to be distinguished in the constitution of man. One arises within the lily and grows in the kingdom of God; the other sinks into the darkness of death and desires for the earth, she being its mother. This latter will continually battles against the lily, and the lily flies from its roughness.
Themes
◆Alchemical Workpraxis

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.

The regeneration of the new-born being implies a spiritual transformation of nature into a purified state.

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◆Detachment Gelassenheitpraxis

Eckhart's Abgeschiedenheit/Gelassenheit — radical letting-go of will, image, and grasping that opens the soul to God; distinct from inner_silence (quietness) and from material renunciation, and adjacent to Sufi tark and Buddhist non-grasping as a practice rather than a metaphysical claim.

The passage warns against selfish will and self-assertion obstructing the divine.

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◆Evil As Privationtheology

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.

Pride is described as a reflection of light that fancies itself to be more than it is.

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◆Microcosm Macrocosmcosmology

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 constitution is presented as a mirror of the divine mystery and the stable allegory.

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◆Mystical Unionsoteriology

The merging of the individual soul or self with the divine, transcending personal identity.

The inner man manifests the divine mystery through the shining light of God.

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◆Separation From Sourcesoteriology

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 text warns that the light of God departs when pride ruins the beginning.

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◆Theosis Deificationsoteriology

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 inner spirit is described as having the body of God within the regenerated man.

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◇Birth Of Word In Soulanthropology

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 depicts the new-born Saviour arising within the human consciousness as a central doctrine.

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◇Body As Obstacleanthropology

The material body viewed as a prison, tomb, or source of error that hinders spiritual knowledge and return.

[auto] The 'animal constitution of man' is depicted as the stable where the danger to the new-born being arises.

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◇Childlike Innocenceanthropology

The infant or child as symbol of the unfallen, undivided spiritual state; return to primordial simplicity.

[auto] Uses the 'new-born being' and 'new-born Saviour' as symbols of the spiritual state.

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◇Cosmic Dualismtheology

Ontological opposition between two primal principles (light/darkness, truth/lie, spirit/matter) as the fundamental structure of reality.

[auto] Presents a clear opposition between the eternal light and the forces of pride, self-will, and ignorance.

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◇Divine Lighttheology

The uncreated luminous quality of the divine, sometimes experienced directly in mystical states; illumination as revelation.

[auto] References to 'eternal light' and its reflection are central to the warning against pride.

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◇Gnosis Direct Knowledgesoteriology

Salvation through direct experiential knowledge of the divine nature, not through faith, ritual, or moral works alone.

[auto] Mentions the 'great sight of the holiness of God' as a state attained by enlightened children.

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◇Inner Lightanthropology

The divine spark or luminous quality residing within the human person, potentially recognisable through introspection.

[auto] The text describes an 'interior centre from whence the light shines' within the human being.

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◇Kingdom Withinanthropology

The claim that the divine realm is present inside the individual, accessible without external mediation.

[auto] The passage explicitly states the new Jerusalem is 'within the consciousness of man'.

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◇Rejection Of Hypocrisyethics

Critique of outward religious observance that lacks inner transformation; form without substance.

[auto] Critiques those who believe themselves prophets due to selfish reason rather than true divine will.

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◇Tripartite Soulanthropology

Division of the human being into three principles: spirit (pneuma), soul (psyche), and body/matter (hyle or soma).

[auto] Distinguishes between the 'animal constitution' (body), 'carnal reason' (soul/mind), and 'interior centre' (spirit).

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Related passages · 2 parallels
◆neoplatonism|Select Works of Plotinus|Select Works, Section 493
“Section 1 1. All human beings from birth onward live to the realm of sense more than to the Intellectual. Forced of necessity to attend first to the material, some of them elect to abide by that order and, their life throughout, make its co…”
Both passages discuss the internal struggle between higher spiritual aspirations and lower, earthly desires. They describe a battle within the individual, where the higher self seeks divine connection while the lower self is mired in material concerns and pride.
◆neoplatonism|Select Works of Plotinus|Select Works, Section 499
“Section 7 7. Knowledge in the reasoning soul is on the one side concerned with objects of sense, though indeed this can scarcely be called knowledge and is better indicated as opinion or surface-knowing; it is of later origin than the objec…”
Both passages discuss the internal struggle between higher spiritual aspirations and lower, earthly desires. They describe a battle within the individual, where the higher self seeks divine connection while the lower self is mired in material concerns and pride.