The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme · 157 of 159 · tr. Franz Hartmann
Chapter 14 (part 10)
When, then, death actually takes place, and separates the soul from the body, the poor soul will then cling to that thread and refuse to let go her hold of it, but all her essences are still deeply immersed in the wrath of God; she is tortured by her gross sins, and the thread of faith (the umbilical cord) of the new-born being is very feeble.
1 Therefore when the bridegroom says 'Come!' the poor soul answers, 'I cannot; my lamp is not yet ready;' but she clings to the thread and puts her imagination into the heart of God, and thus she becomes ultimately redeemed by the suffering of the Christ (in her) from the pool of putrefaction; i.e.
, from her fearful sins that are burning in the wrath of God and wherein she is immersed." ( Three Principles , xix.
41.) A soul that has gathered her divinity around herself like a garment of light and cut loose from all earthly attractions will have no desire to return to the earth and takes no interest in terrestrial affairs, which in fact she has forgotten, like a person who forgets his external circumstances after he goes to sleep; but a soul still held captive by the terrestrial essence or state may reappear among mortals in her sidereal (astral) body for the purpose Of seeking gratification for some personal wish.
Such souls sometimes return for the purpose of asking the living to aid them with prayer.
p.
308 "When a person dies the external body becomes decomposed and returns to that of which it has been formed, but the soul born from eternal nature, and having been introduced into the Adamic essence by the Spirit of God, cannot die; for she has not originated in time, but from the eternal generation.
If the soul has introduced her will into temporal things, she has then conceived of the quality of those things in her desire, and holds to them magically, as if she were possessing them corporeally.
Of course she cannot keep the elementary (physical) body, but she may retain her sidereal body until it leas been consumed by the constellation (the astral elements).
Thus it happens sometimes that persons after death are seen in their houses, in their own body, but that body is cold, dead, and stiff, and the soul-spirit attracts it only by means of the astral spirit, until the (physical) body is decomposed." ( Letters , xxii.
8.) "Souls that have not yet reached heaven have still the human state, with its deeds, clinging to them, and therefore many a soul of that kind returns in her sidereal form and haunts her house, and is seen in human form.
She may then ask for this or that, and think to be able to obtain the blessing of the saints for her rest (by means of the prayers she asks), and she may likewise concern herself about children or friends.
All this, however, does not last any longer than until her astral spirit has been consumed, and then she will enter into rest.
After that all leer sorrow and trouble is over, and she has then no more knowledge of it; only that she sees it in the wonders, in the magia (of the spirit)." ( Forty Questions , xxvi.
8.) "Christ says, 'Wherever your treasure is, there is your heart.' Thus it has often happened that unfortunate souls have reappeared in their community and asked for help by way of prayer, and that they fancied that in this way they might find relief.
Out of such facts the doctrine of the purgatory has originated." ( Threefold Life , xii.
24.) p.
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 employs alchemical metaphors such as 'pool of putrefaction' and the astral spirit being 'consumed by the constellation' to describe spiritual purification.
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 text states redemption comes through the suffering of the Christ 'in her,' echoing the concept of divine generation within the soul.
John of the Cross's stage of contemplative purgation: a felt absence and aridity of God that strips the soul of attachments to its own consolations en route to deeper union.
The soul is tortured by gross sins and immersed in the wrath of God, describing a state of purgative suffering before redemption.
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 text describes the ideal state as cutting loose from all earthly attractions and having no desire to return to the earth.
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 mentions sins burning in the wrath of God, implying a judgmental state for the soul after death.
Direct address to the divine, whether petitionary, contemplative, or liturgical; speech and silence offered upward.
[auto] The passage explicitly details souls returning to ask the living for prayer as a means of relief and identifies this practice as the origin of the doctrine of purgatory.
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.
Souls are described as deeply immersed in the wrath of God and held captive by terrestrial essence, indicating a state of exile.
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 soul gathers divinity around herself and is redeemed by Christ's suffering within her, implying transformation into the divine nature.