The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme · 151 of 159 · tr. Franz Hartmann
Chapter 14 (part 4)
Each person feels that according to the quality of his Turba , one in one way and another in another.
The avaricious soul, for instance, suffers from cold; the angry soul from heat; the envious soul experiences bitterness; the conceited is continually flying and dropping into an abyss." ( Forty Questions , xviii.
21.) Moreover, there is within the consciousness of the soul the memory of past deeds, misdeeds, and the reproaches of those whom she has injured, and as in that subjective condition all these subjective images are seen objectively, the soul lives in the miseries which she has created.
In addition to this, the curses of the living (being projections of will) reach the soul and cause her to suffer.
"All sins are objective to the soul in her tincture.
If she remembers the kingdom of heaven—which she, of course, does neither see nor know—she then sees the causes why she is suffering; for she has created these causes herself.
There are within her tincture all the tears of those whom she has injured, and they are fiery, stinging, burning, and gnawing, and cause an p.
296 eternal despair within the essences, and an inimical will towards God." ( Three Principles , xix.
24.) "There the master will have to render account to his servants, if he has, given them a bad example and caused them to enter the way of evil.
Then will the poor soul cry out in despair against her master; for all this is objective before her in the tincture." ( Three Principles , xxiv.
30.) "If a godless person has left behind a great deal of falsehood and deceit, so that the tincture of hell is invoked over his tomb, then will that curse penetrate to his soul.
This (curse) he will have to eat; for it is his food, sent to him by the living.
To send such curses does not, however, belong to the children of God; for by cursing another, man casts seed into hell—into the wrath of God.
Let every one beware, for he will reap that which he sows." ( Forty Questions , xxiv.
4.) During terrestrial life the voice of the conscience can be drowned in the turmoil of external life, and the recollection of evil deeds be driven away by allowing oneself to become immersed in sensual pleasures; but after death it does no longer depend on the will of the soul whether or not to remember the past, and her remorse is intensified to an enormous extent, by the absence of all external distractions.
Moreover, the desire for gratifying her evil instincts still exists in her, but there are no means for such a gratification.
"During terrestrial life the godless feels the presence of hell within his false conscience, but he does not understand it; for he still lives in earthly vanity, wherewith he amuses himself, and which causes him pleasure and lust.
Moreover, his external life is in possession of the light of external nature, and his soul revels therein; so that the internal pain cannot become manifest.
But when the body dies, the soul can no longer enjoy such protection and temporal pleasure.
In p.
297 addition to this, the external light will have been extinguished for her.
Then will she be in an eternal craving after such vanity as she indulged in during her life on the earth; but she can attain nothing except her own false conceived will.
She has now too little of that of which she formerly had too much, and with which she nevertheless was not satisfied.
She would gladly commit still more evil, but has nothing whereby she can accomplish it, and thus she enacts all that within her own self." ( Supernatural Life , xxxix.) Now the godless soul is filled with her own infamy, and there is no room in her for the saving power of faith.
A form of meditation that uses imagery, imagination, or symbolic thought rather than purely empty stillness.
[auto] The text describes a process where subjective images within the soul are seen objectively, indicating an imaginative or visionary internal state.
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 passage utilizes specific alchemical terminology such as 'tincture' to describe the spiritual state and condition of the soul.
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 passage states that subjective images within the soul are seen objectively, reflecting the inner state as outer reality.
Final, collective cosmic judgment as an event in which the wicked are sentenced and the cosmos restored; distinct from psychopomp_journey (individual passage at death) and emphasising verdict where Zoroastrian frashokereti emphasises restoration.
The passage explicitly discusses rendering account after death, curses reaching the soul, and reaping what one sows.
The spiritual danger of attachment to material possessions; wealth as a spiritual obstacle.
[auto] Avarice is specifically identified as a quality that causes the soul to suffer from cold, highlighting wealth attachment as a spiritual obstacle.
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 describes the soul's state of not seeing or knowing the kingdom of heaven and having an inimical will towards God.