the 'key' or clavis of jacob boehme

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26/08/11 he 'Key' or Clavis of Jacob Boehme

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The Clavis or 'Key' of

Jacob Boehme

orAn Exposition of some Principal Matters and Words

in the Writings of Jacob Boehme. Written in the

Germane Language in March and April, ANNO, 1624

Printed in the yeare 1647.

Also called Teutonicus Philosophus

The Clavis or'Key'of Jacob Boehme, the seventeenth-century German theosopher, is acondensed version of the principal points of his mystical philosophy.

Boehme, an unschooled shoemaker, experienced while young an intense vision of the

spiritual world - a vision of the origin of the universe, the struggle of polarities in creation, andthe role of Sophia or Divine Wisdom in the world. This vision inspired his writings and left himwith a deep sense of the spiritual all his life. In trying to find a language to communicate hismystical perceptions, he turned to alchemical ideas and Hermetic imagery.

The main period of his writings, 1612-1624, coincided with the Rosicrucian publications, andwhile no definite historical link can be established, Boehme certainly worked within the spiritof the Rosicrucian movement.

Reviews and Comments:

"An excellent starting point for delving into the works of this remarkable author, so central forthe Christian theosophic and mystical traditions." - Arthur Versluis, author ofWisdom'sChildren and Theosophia

John Sparrow - An Exposition of Some PrincipalMatters and Words in the Writin s of Jacob Boehme.


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"But since the lovers desire a Clavis, or key of mywritings, I am ready and willing to pleasure them in it,and will set down a short description of the ground ofthose strange words; some of which are taken fromnature and sense, and some are the words of strangemasters, which I have tried according to sense, andfound them good and fit. I will write but a short

description of the divine manifestation, yet as much as Ican comprehend in brief; and expound the strangewords for the better understanding of our books for theconsideration and help of beginners.

Following is a brief, modern interpretation of the "Threefold Structure" and the"Sevenfold Self-Organization of Reality". It is taken from the book: "Science, Meaning,and Evolution", written by Basarab Nicolescu, a physicist working with "QuantumPhysics". To skip this, and go directly to "The Key", CLICK Here.

A: THE THREEFOLD STRUCTURE

In the cosmology of Boehme, reality is structured in three parts, determined by the action ofthree principles: "Now thus the eternal light, and the virtue of the light, or the heavenlyparadise, moveth in the eternal darkness; and the darkness cannot comprehend the light; forthey are two several Principles; and the darkness longeth after the light, because that thespirit beholdeth itself therein, and because the divine virtue is manifested in it. But though ithath not comprehended the divine virtue and light, yet it hath continually with great lust liftedup itself towards it, till it hath kindled the root of the fire in itself, from the beams of the light ofGod; and there arose the third Principle: And it hath its original out of the first Principle, out ofthe dark matrix, by the speculating of the virtue [or power] of God."

These three principles are independent, but at the same time they all three interact at once:

they engender each other, while each remaining distinct. The dynamic of their interaction is adynamic of contradiction: one could speak of a negative force corresponding to the darkness,a positive force corresponding to the light, and a reconciling force corresponding to whatBoehme called "extra-generation." It is a question of a contradiction among three poles, ofthree polarities radically opposed but nevertheless linked, in the sense that none of the threecan exist without the other two.

The three principles have a virtual quality, for they exist outside our space-time continuum.


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As a result they are, in themselves, invisible, untouchable, immeasurable: "We understand,then, that the divine Essence in threefoldness in the * unground dwells in itself, but generatesto itself a ground within itself . . . though this is not to be understood as to being, but as to athreefold spirit, where each is the cause of the birth of the other. And this threefold spirit is notmeasurable, divisible or fathomable; for there is no place found for it, and it is at the sametime the unground of eternity, which gives birth to itself within itself in a ground." Thefoundation of the Trinity is "subject to no locality, nor limit [number], nor place. It hath no

place of its rest.

* TRANSLATOR'S NOTE: Boehme's term "unground" - Ungrund in German and sans-fond inFrench - refers to this mysterious "bottomless state" which at the same time serves as thebase or foundation or ground where the Trinity dwells.

It is important to stress that it is exactly this process of contradiction which allowsmanifestation. The hidden God (Deus absconditus) is not pure transcendence. Through thetwo other poles of this ternary contradiction, he can show himself, he can manifest, he canrespond to the wish to understand himself. Thus the three forces corresponding to the threeprinciples will be present in every phenomenon of reality: "And no place or position can be

conceived or found where the spirit of the tri-unity is not present, and in every being; buthidden to the being, dwelling in itself, as an essence that at once fills all and yet dwells not inbeing, but itself has a being in itself. . . ." God hidden thus becomes God manifest (Deusrevelatus).

In this context, it is extremely interesting to remark the role that Boehme attributes to our ownworld.

The three principles engender three different worlds which moreover are overlapping - theworld of fire, the world of light, and the exterior world: "And we are thus to understand athreefold Being, or three worlds in one another. The first is the fire-world, which takes its rise

from the centrum naturae. . . . And the second is the light-world which dwells in freedom inthe unground, out of Nature, but proceeds from the fire-world. . . . It dwells in fire, and the fireapprehends it not. And this is the middle world. . . . The third world is the outer, in which wedwell by the outer body with the external works and beings. It was created from the darkworld and also from the light-world. . . .

The exterior world, our world, appears as if it were a world of true reconciliation. It is not theworld of the Fall, the world of man's guilt, of his downfall into matter. As Pierre Deghayeremarks pertinently, our world is a world of reparation: "The body of Lucifer is set on fire andit is destroyed. But this body was the universe before ours. It is the result of this catastropheand in order to repair it that our world was created. Our world is the third principle."

All the grandeur of our world resides in the incarnation of these three principles.

First of all, the threefold structure of reality is inscribed in man himself. Man is theactualization of this threefold structure:" . . . so also in like manner is every mass or seed ofthe Ternary or Trinity in every man," Boehme tells us. Human nature, merging the threeprinciples, "understands therefore, at least potentially, the totality of divine manifestation."What man makes of this human nature is, of course, a whole other story. In our modern


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world, man has forgotten that he is potentially the incarnation of three principles. The verywords "three principles," not to mention their meaning, seem to us strange and absurd. Weare, evidently, far from the work of spiritual alchemy, based on the balance of our ownthreefoldness, a work to which Boehme invites us, and which alone could give this world areal meaning. Otherwise our world is dead, absurd, accidental.

What interests us here in the first place is the manifestation of the threefold structure of all the

phenomena of Nature. Of course, one must not confuse "nature" and "threefoldness": "Natureand the Ternary are not one and the same; they are distinct, though the Ternary dwelleth innature, but unapprehended, and yet is an eternal band. ""' But in every phenomenon ofNature threefoldness perpetually appears. The Trinity, this "triumphing, springing, moveablebeing" is the "eternal mother of nature." Even if the three principles are enclosed "in no timenor place," they manifest themselves nonetheless in space and time. The third principle has acrucial role in this manifestation; it is what "contains the fiat, the creative word of God."'Everything becomes a trace, a sign of threefoldness: man, the planets, the stars, theelements. The alliance between nature and threefoldness is eternal, but man has the choicebetween discovering and living this alliance or forgetting, ignoring, and therefore disrupting it.

One thus understands the deep relationship between the thought of Boehme and that ofGalileo, even if it is implicit and surprising, for their languages are very different. WhenGalileo points out the importance of experimental observation, separating experiment fromsentient evidence (that furnished by the sense organs), he is very close to Boehme, for whomnature is a manifestation of divinity, and insofar as it is a manifestation, is measurable andobservable. Both of them, like Kepler as well, are haunted by the idea of laws and invariance.The idea that it must be possible to reproduce phenomena, fundamental for the methodologyof modern science, comes in here. The "new science" does not concern itself with singularphenomena but with those which are repeatable and which submit to a mathematicformalization. Galileo, like Boehme, did not identify human reason with divine reason.Maurice Clavelin points out that the position of Galileo "is lucid: created by an infinite being,the world is on the scale of his reason, not human reason, which understands it only withinthe limitations of its capacities, that is, through what it has in common with divine reason;mathematics is precisely in this position."

The difference between the two approaches, that of Galileo and that of Boehme, is also ofparamount importance. For Galileo, every divine "cause" must be excluded in the formulationof a scientific theory, while for Boehme the comprehension of reality must take into accountthe participation of the divine in the processes of our world. The mathematics of Galileo isstrictly quantitative, while that of Boehme is qualitative, of a symbolic order.

Since Nature has a double nature, so also does modern science. Modern science has beendeveloping itself for several centuries on the path traced by Galileo instead of the far moreobscure and complex one implicit in the works of Boehme. Galileo's success was staggering,as much on the level of experiment as on that of theory. His technological applications,demonstrating the mastery of man over nature, seemed to show the indisputable accuracy ofthis approach. Founded on binary logic, that of "Yes" or "No," modern science reached itspeak in the nineteenth century, in a scientistic ideology proclaiming that science alone,human reason alone, had the exclusive right-of-way to truth and reality (though the position ofGalileo was, as we have seen, quite different: non-positivist and nonscientistic). The


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scientistic ideology began to fall apart at the birth of quantum physics, with the discovery of alevel of reality that clearly differs from our own; this, in order to be understood, seemed todemand a threefold logic, that of the included middle.' Moreover, an unexpected encounterseems to be coming about just now between modern physics and traditional symbolicthought. I have analyzed these aspects at length in my book, Nous, la particule et le mondeand I ask the reader to refer to that in order to avoid too many annoying repetitions here. Inany case, the resurgence of* meaning in modern physics,' is the sign of the double nature of

modern science: by excluding meaning from its domain, modern science rediscovered it, bymeans of its own internal dynamic, on its own road.

* AUTHOR'S NOTE: The French word "le sens" ("meaning") has to be understood here in avery general philosophical, metaphysical, and experiential way. At its most basic, "meaning"refers to the fact that many processes which initially seem chaotic or disordered may, ifproperly studied, be seen to have a significance or direction that reveals the presence oforder. In this sense, "meaning" and "laws" are intimately correlated. In a deeper way, andespecially in Boehme's writings, "meaning" refers to the unitive interaction between differentlevels of reality, in a harmonious, evolutionary movement. More precisely, "meaning" is thecontradictory encounter between presence and absence, things sacred and profane. In our

physical universe, since consciousness is thought to be present only on the planet Earth, theindividual and mankind have a cosmic role: to simultaneously discover and produce"meaning." Through his body, senses, and sensations, man becomes the cosmic instrumentof "meaning." Experiences and experiments are two facets of discovering "meaning." This iswhy the study of the universe and the study of man are complementary

Will there then be a return to the ideas of Boehme? It would be hazardous to formulate anysuch affirmation. But what seems certain to me is the current necessity for formulating a newPhilosophy of Nature. Understanding Boehme's work thus has a real immediacy in thiscontext today. A comparison between his idea of threefoldness and that of modern thinkerssuch as Stphane Lupasco or Charles Sanders Peirce would thus be highly instructive but itgoes beyond the framework of this book. It is sufficient to say here that astonishingcorrespondences can be established between the threefoldness of Boehme, the triad ofLupasco (actualization, potentialization, and the T-state, the "included middle"), and the triadof Peirce ("firstness, secondness, and thirdness," as he calls them). Boehme speaks of "threeworlds," Lupasco of "three matters," and Peirce of "three universes." Indeed, the differenttriads evoked are far from identical. The source of threefold thinking in Boehme, Lupasco,and Peirce is equally different: an inner experience on Boehme's part, quantum physics forLupasco, and mathematical graph theory for Peirce. But one and the same law seems tomanifest itself, under different facets, in all who think in threes, and it is that which producesthe threefold structure of reality, in all its manifestations. We are left to understand how a

virtual structure can set in motion the different processes of reality.

B: THE SEVENFOLD SELF-ORGANIZATION OF REALITY

If threefoldness concerns the inner dynamics of all systems, sevenfoldness is, according toBoehme, the basis, in its inexhaustible richness, for the manifestation of all processes.Sevenfoldness functions in continual interaction with threefoldness: it is precisely thisinteraction which furnishes the key to a full comprehension of reality, at least in the viewwhich Boehme proposes to us.


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First of all, why choose the number seven? In the beginning it is difficult to understand whyany number, even on the level of symbolic thought, should be more important than any other,in an absolute and definitive way. Why, for example, should the number 7 exclude all interestin the numbers 4 or 9 or 137 or 1010? Of course, the mystic, theological, or symbolic value ofthe number seven is well known. Alexander Koyr's thesis provides an almost exhaustive listof the different meanings of the number seven which could be applied, more or less, toBoehme's sevenfoldness: the seven lights and the seven angels of the Apocalypse, the

seven lower sephiroth of the Kabbalah, the seven alchemical processes, the seven planets (afavorite hypothesis of Koyre), and so forth.

Personally, I think one can demonstrate that all these are false trails. Correspondencesbetween the different meanings of sevenfoldness could certainly be found, but I believe, forreasons I will explain later, that Boehme had no exterior source of inspiration for his conceptof sevenfoldness other than his own vision. Moreover, sevenfoldness asserts itself in thephilosophy of Boehme as a relentlessly logical consequence (following symbolic logic, ofcourse) of one of the keystones of his thinking: that the basis of all manifestation must be inperpetual interaction with threefoldness.

It is amusing to ascertain that it is precisely this interaction which has plunged many ofBoehme's commentators, as Koyr told us, "into the most cruel difficulty." Koyr himselfspeaks of the "unhappy diagram of seven spirits that Boehme maintains against all odds." Healso says: "it would not be easy to classify these seven powers into three principles and tocoordinate them to the three persons of the Trinity, but Boehme was never able to abandonthis sevenfold framework." Very fortunately, I would be tempted to add.

I do not pretend to offer a unique and definitive solution to this enigma, but I believe I cangive a perfectly coherent reading of it, on the level of symbolic logic, from Boehme's owntexts alone. For Boehme, "God is the God of order . . . Now as there are in him chiefly sevenqualities, whereby the whole divine being is driven on, and sheweth itself infinitely in these

seven qualities, and yet these seven qualities are the chief or prime in the infiniteness,whereby the divine birth or geniture stands eternally in its order unchangeably." Everyprocess of reality thus will be ruled by seven * qualities, seven spirit-sources, seven stages,seven patterns.

* AUTHOR'S NOTE: Since "quality" is a key word in the cosmology of Boehme, it cannot beunderstood through any dictionary-type definition. Boehme's seven qualities are theintermediate, active, informational energies which give shape to all the various levels ofreality. It is important to stress that the seven qualities are each generated by a particularinteraction of the Three Principles. This explains a paradoxical and crucial property of these

seven qualities: they are always the same, even though they adapt to the given level ofmateriality on which they are acting. Different levels of materiality do not imply different levelsof the seven qualities. It is precisely this property of their always remaining the same whichallows the possibility of cosmic unity, through the interaction of all levels of reality. Evolutionitself - cosmic evolution, evolution of the individual, or evolution of mankind- thereforebecomes possible.

The names which Boehme attributes to these seven qualities are poetic and highly evocative,but they can appear somewhat naive and to the modern reader: Sourness, Sweetness,


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Bitterness, Heat, Love, Tone or Sound, and Body. But what interests us here are not thenames, but the meanings which Boehme attributes to them in the context of sevenfoldness.

Restricted by everyday language, Boehme first adopts a linear, chronological description ofhow these seven qualities are linked in the sevenfold cycle, but understanding them comesthrough a simultaneous consideration of their actions. The spirit-sources all give birth to eachother, yet each remains distinct. Again, only a logic of contradictions gives us access to the

meaning of Boehme's sevenfoldness.

To begin with, let us proceed, like Boehme, by stages. The three first qualities proceed fromthe first principle. The God of the first principle is, for us, a God who is impenetrable andunknowable. He appears to us like a God of darkness, a God of terrifying night, because heis unfathomable. One cannot even truly call him God.

An intense and bitter struggle takes place among the first three qualities to permit this God ofdarkness to know himself in his potentiality. Why does this struggle begin among threequalities and not four or six? According to Boehme, the God of darkness, once started on theroad to self-knowledge, must submit to his own threefold nature.

The first quality will thus correspond to a negative force, to resistance, to a cold fire ,responding to the desire of the God of darkness to remain what he is, independent of allmanifestation.The second quality will correspond to a positive, fluid force, inclined towardsmanifestation and thus radically opposed to the first quality: it is like what Boehmecalled a "furious goad."Then the third quality appears like a reconciling force without which no opening towardsmanifestation would be possible. The God of the first principle therefore will engagehimself in a gigantic struggle with himself. Nicolas Berdiaeff speaks rightly of a "divinetragedy" in the mystery of creation. It is quite simply a question of the death of God to

himself inasmuch as he is the God of pure transcendence: "Boehme's God dies beforehe is born," writes Pierre Deghaye. This is an idea which by itself was enough to horrifythe dogmatic theologians of the day and allow them to classify Boehme easily as aheretic.

The merciless struggle among the first three qualities produces a true "wheel of anguish."The world of the first triad of sevenfoldness is a "dark valley," a virtual hell. Boehme speaksof "an anxious horrible quaking, a trembling, and a sharp, opposite, contentious generating."Something must happen to allow the "childbirth," the passage to life, to manifestation.

It is precisely at this point, when the wheel of anguish turns frantically on itself, in a chaotic,infernal whirlwind, that a principle of discontinuity must be manifested, to open the way fortrue evolutionary movement. This principle of discontinuity is none other than the thirdprinciple, which appears as the fiat of manifestation, the creative word of God. Boehme callsthis discontinuity a "flash": "Behold, without the flash all the seven spirits were a dark valley. "The insane movement of the wheel of anguish stops in order to transform itself intoharmonious movement. It is now that life can be born, that God is born. The fiat ofmanifestation, generated by the third principle, becomes an integral part (although merelyvirtual, because it corresponds to an invisible interruption on the level of manifestation) of the


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second triad of the sevenfold cycle, which equally includes the fourth and fifth qualities: "Nowthese four spirits move themselves in the flash, for all the four become living therein, and sonow the power of these four riseth up in the flash, as if the life did rise up, and the powerwhich is risen up in the flash is the love, which is the fifth spirit. That power moveth so verypleasantly and amiably in the flash, as if a dead spirit did become living, and was suddenly ina moment set into great clarity or brightness." The fact that the fourth and the fifth qualitiesare intimately linked to the lightning flash, and therefore to the third principle, is thus clearly

affirmed.

The cold fire of the first triad thus transforms itself into a hot fire from which light can burstforth: "The fourth property thus plays the role of a turntable or pivot of transmutation for thewhole system, Jean-Francois Marquet has written. I would be tempted to say rather that theturntable is located in the interval between the third and the fourth quality, for it is there thatthe action of the fiat of life, of manifestation, takes place.

"Birth" does not mean a complete manifestation of the light. With the second triad, God isborn, he becomes conscious of himself, but he does not yet manifest himself fully. A secondprinciple of discontinuity must intervene so that the evolutionary movement can continue. The

fiat of affirmation, of the light fully revealed, the heavenly fiat is necessarily the action of thesecond principle. "The second fiat is found at the fifth degree," Pierre Deghaye correctlyaffirms. More precisely, it is found in the interval between the fifth and the sixth quality.

The intervention of the second principle generates a new triad of manifestation ("triad, " foreach principle must submit itself to its own threefold structure). This next triad is composed ofthree elements: one virtual element (the interruption generated by the second principle) andtwo qualities: Tone or Sound, and Body.

The sixth quality is that of heavenly joy, like a joyful sound which runs through the wholemanifestation: "Now the sixth generating in God is when the spirits, in their birth or geniture,thus taste one of another. . . . whereby and wherein the rising joy generateth itself, fromwhence the tone or tune existeth. For from the touching and moving the living spirit


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generateth itself, and that same spirit presseth through all births or generatings, veryinconceivably and incomprehensibly to the birth or geniture, and is a very richly joyful,pleasant, lovely sharpness, like melodious, sweet music. And now when the birth generateth,then it conceiveth or apprehendeth the light, and speaketh or inspireth the light again into thebirth or geniture through the moving spirit." It is at the level of the sixth quality that Boehmeplaced language, discernment, and beauty.

As for the seventh quality, it corresponds to full manifestation, to the "body" of God, which isnone other than nature itself: "Now the seventh form, or the seventh spirit in the divine power,is nature, or the issue or exit from the other six. . . . [This seventh spirit] is the body of all thespirits, wherein they generate themselves as in a body: Also out of this spirit all figures,shapes and forms are imaged or fashioned." The seventh spirit "encompasseth the other six,and generateth them again: for the corporeal and natural being consisteth in the seventh."The loop is thus closed: the seventh quality rejoins the first, but on another level, that ofmanifestation. The line changes into a circle: paradoxically, in the philosophy of JacobBoehme, the Son gives birth to the Father.

I confess I do not understand the perplexity of Boehme's interpreters regarding the interaction

between threefoldness and sevenfoldness, but the interpretation that I propose seems to mecoherent, rational, and completely conforming to Boehme's texts.

The cycle of manifestation ought to demonstrate the full power of threefoldness. This fullpower obtains when each of the three principles manifests its own threefold structure, astructure which results from the perpetual interaction between each principle and the othertwo principles. If each principle does not have a threefold structure, the interaction betweenthe three principles will be mutilated or annihilated. As a result, the cycle of manifestationmust include nine elements (3 x 3 = 9). But two of the elements are virtual, invisible - theycorrespond to two interruptions. Therefore on the visible, natural level, the manifestationcycle would have to be a sevenfold structure (9 - 2 = 7).

Taken in its entirety (including therefore the two intervals where the interruptions take placethat are produced by the action of the second and third principles), this cycle has a ninefoldstructure. One sees therefore the fundamental importance that Boehme accorded to thenumber nine, associating it with what he called the Tincture: "Boehme saw the temporalUniverse as permeated by an immense current of life (Tincture), which, born of thePrincipium or Centrum (Separator) of Divinity, discharges itself upon the world, penetrates it,incarnates itself in it, and vivifying it, brings it back to God. . . The Tincture, which is thenumber nine, is the pure element, the divine element."

Two supplementary remarks need to be mentioned for the clarification of certain aspects ofthe cycle of manifestation.

First, we have spoken of two interruptions, of two fiats, linked to the second and thirdprinciples. Why not speak of a third interruption, linked to the first principle? Certainly "inevery will the flash standeth again to [make an] opening," as Boehme has written. But, theGod of the first principle is completely ungraspable by himself. To speak of a fiat bound to hiswill would be pure verbiage. On the other hand, this God makes himself concrete in the firsttriad of the sevenfold cycle.


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Secondly, the inversion between the action of the third principle and that of the secondprinciple in the course of the sevenfold cycle seems very significant to me: again, the thirdprinciple, that which rules our own world, acts as a reconciling force between the first and thesecond.

It also might be instructive to make a comparative study between the cosmology of Boehmeand that of G. I. Gurdjieff (1877-1949). As with Boehme, the fundamental laws of the universe

are, in the cosmology of Gurdjieff, a Law of Three and a Law of Seven, and their interaction isexpressed as a Law of Nine. The threefoldness, sevenfoldness, and ninefoldness of Gurdjieffare not, indeed, the same as those of Boehme; but their comparative study could revealinteresting sidelights. We cannot attempt such a study here. But it is surprising to remark thatnot one of the numerous analysts of Gurdjieff's ideas speaks of the striking analogy betweenhis laws and those of Boehme. Even his most informed biographer, James Webb, citesBoehme only casually.

Boehme's sevenfold structure penetrates all levels of reality. The birth of God is repeatedendlessly throughout all these levels, in "signatures" or "traces." He writes: "The seven spiritsof God, in the circumference and space, contain or comprehend heaven and this world; also

the wide breadth and depth without and beyond the heavens, even above and beneath theworld, and in the world. . . . They contain also all the creatures both in heaven and in thisworld. . . Out of and from the same body of the seven spirits of God are all things made andproduced, all angels, all devils, the heaven, the earth, the stars, the elements, men, beasts,fowls, fishes; all worms, wood, trees, also stones, herbs and grass, and all whatsoever is."

At a certain level of reality, the sevenfold cycle can develop fully, can stop, or can eveninvolve; the different systems belong to a level of reality that enjoys the freedom of self-organization. The divine Nature and its evolution is predetermined insofar as potentiality isconcerned. But the interruption characterizing the sevenfold cycle introduces an element ofindeterminacy, of liberty, of choice. As Koyr remarks: "The lightning flash is that of freedom

introducing itself into Nature, which is the opposite of freedom." In Boehme's universe,determinism and indeterminacy, constraint and freedom coexist contradictorily.

Is not the God of darkness, the magical source of all reality, in himself, the GreatIndeterminacy? But his "hunger and desire is after substance," and he is obliged to accept acertain determinism, a certain "contraction." As Deghaye points out, "In the Kabbalah of IsaacLuria, there is a similar phenomenon: at the origin of all worlds, the Infinite contracts itself andthus begins the true drama, in the bosom of Divinity." It is on this "divine tragedy" that thegreatness of our own world is founded: that of the full evolution of man. The self-knowledgeof God thus rejoins the self-knowledge of man.

THE PREFACE TO THE READEROF THESE WRITINGS


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1. It is written, The natural man [1] perceiveth not the things of the spirit, nor the Mystery ofthe kingdom of God, they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them: therefore Iadmonish and exhort the Christian lover of Mysteries, if he will study these high writings, andread, search, and understand them, that he do not read them outwardly only, with sharp

speculation and meditation; for in so doing, he shall remain in the outward imaginary groundonly, and obtain no more than a [2] counterfeit color of them.[1] understandeth or receiveth not. [2] or feigned shadow of them2. For a man's own reason, without the light of them. God, cannot come into the ground [ofthem], it is impossible; let his wit be never so high and subtle, it apprehendeth but as it werethe shadow of it in a glass.3. For Christ saith, Without me you cam do nothing; and he is the Light of the World, and theLife of men.4. Now if any one would search the divine ground, that is, the divine [1] revelation, he mustfirst consider with himself for what end he desireth to know such things; whether he desirethto practice that which he might obtain, and bestow it to the glory of God and the welfare of his

neighbor; and whether he desireth to die to earthliness, and to his own will, and to live in thatwhich he seeketh and desireth, and to be one spirit with it.[1] or manifestation5. If he have not a purpose, that if God should reveal himself and his Mysteries to him, hewould be one spirit and have one will with him, and wholly resign and yield himself up to him,that God's spirit might do what he pleaseth with him. and by him, and that God might be hisknowledge, will, and [1] deed, he is not yet fit for such knowledge and understanding.[1] or working6. For there are many that seek Mysteries and hidden knowledge, merely that they might berespected and highly esteemed by the world, and for their own gain and profit; but they attain

not this ground, where the spirit searcheth all things, even the deep things of God: as it iswritten.7. It must be a totally resigned and yielded will, in which God himself searcheth and worketh,and which continually pierceth into God, in yielding and resigned humility, seeking nothing buthis eternal native country, and to do his neighbor service with it; and then it may be attained.And he must begin with effectual repentance and amendment, and with prayer, that hisunderstanding might be opened from within; for then the inward will bring itself into theoutward.8. But when he readeth such writings, and yet cannot understand them, he must notpresently throw them away, and think it is impossible to understand them; no, but he mustturn his mind to God, beseeching him for grace and understanding, and read again; and then

he shall see more and more in them, till at length he be drawn by the power of God into thevery depth itself, and so come into the supernatural and supersensual ground, viz, into theeternal unity of God; where he shall hear unspeakable but effectual words of God, which shallbring him back and outward again, by the divine effluence, to the very grossest and meanestmatter of the earth, and then back and inwards to God again; then the spirit of God searchethall things with him, and by him; and so he is rightly taught and * driven by God.* "driven" (getrieben), "led, actuated."9. But since the lovers desire a Clavis, or key of my writings, I am ready and willing to


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pleasure them in it, and will set down a short description of the ground of those strangewords; some of which are taken from nature and [1] sense, and some are the words ofstrange [2] masters, I have tried according to sense, and found them good and fit.[1] ex sensu [2] artists or mystical authors10. Reason will stumble, when it seeth heathenish terms and words used in the explanationof natural things, supposing we should use none but Scripture phrase (or words borrowedfrom the Bible); but such words will not always ply and square themselves to the fundamental

exposition of the properties of nature, neither can a man express the ground with them: Alsothe wise Heathen and Jews have hidden the deep ground of nature under such words, ashaving well understood that the knowledge of [1] nature is not for every one, but it belongethto those only, whom God 'by nature hath chosen for it.[1] naturally inclined to it11. But none need stumble at it; for when God revealeth his Mysteries to any man, he thenalso bringeth him into a mind and faculty how to express them, as God knoweth to be mostnecessary and profitable in every [1] age, for the setting of the confused tongues andopinions upon the true ground again: Men must not think that it cometh by chance, or is doneby human reason.[1] or seculum

12. The [1] revelations of divine things are opened by the inward ground of the spiritual world,and brought into visible forms, just as the Creator will manifest them.[1] or manifestations13. I will write but a short description of the divine [1] manifestation, yet as much as I cancomprehend in brief; and expound the strange words for the better understanding of ourbooks; and set down here the sum of those writings, or a model or epitome of them, for theconsideration and help of beginners: The further exposition of [2] it is to be found in the otherbooks. or revelation.[1] or revelations [2] the divine manifestation or revelation

THE CLAVIS OR KEY

ORAN EXPOSITION OF SOME PRINCIPAL

WORDS AND MATTERS.

How God is to be considered without Nature and Creature.

14. MOSES saith, The Lord our God is but one only God. In another place it is said, Of him,through him, and in him are all things: in another, Am not I he that filleth all things? And in


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another, Through his Word are all things made, that are made. Therefore we may say that heis the original of all things: He is the eternal * unmeasurable Unity.* "unmeasurable." In the 1730 edition the word "unwandlebar," "immutable," is addedbetween brackets.15. For example, when - I think what would be in the place of this world, if the four elementsand the starry firmament, and. also nature itself, should perish and cease to be, so that nonature or creature were to be found any more; I find there would remain this eternal Unity,

from which nature and creature have received their original.16. So likewise, when I think with myself what is many hundred thousand miles above thestarry firmament, or what is in that place where no creature is, I find the eternal unchangeableUnity is there, which is that only Good, which hath nothing either before or after it, that canadd anything to it, or take anything away from it, or from which this Unity could have itsoriginal: There is neither* ground, time, nor place, but there is the only eternal God, or thatonly Good, which a man cannot express.* "ground, time nor place," lit., "ground, limit nor place."

A further Consideration, How this one God is Threefold.

17. The Holy Scripture sheweth us that this only God is threefold, viz. one only [1] threefoldessence, having three manners of workings, and yet is but one only essence, as may beseen in the outflown power and virtue which is in all things, if any do but observe it: but it isespecially represented to us in fire, light, and air; which are three several [2] sorts ofworkings, and yet but in one only ground and substance.[1] or triune [2] subsistent forms18. And as we see that fire, light, and air, arise from a candle (though the candle is none ofthe three, but a cause of them), so likewise the eternal Unity is the cause and ground of theeternal [1] Trinity, which manifesteth itself from the Unity, and bringeth forth itself, First, indesire, or will; Secondly, pleasure, or delight; Thirdly, proceeding, or outgoing.[1] Father, Son, Holy Spirit19. The desire, or will is the Father; that is, the stirring or manifestation of the Unity, wherebythe Unity willeth or desireth itself20. The pleasure, or delight is the Son; and is that which the will willeth and desireth, viz, hislove and pleasure, as may be seen at the baptism of our Lord Jesus Christ, when the Fatherwitnessed, saying, This is my [1] beloved Son, in whom I [2] am well pleased; hear ye him.[1] or love [2] have pleasure21. The delight is the [1] compressure in the will, whereby the will in the Unity bringeth itself aplace and working, wherewith the will willeth and worketh; and it is the [2] feelingness andvirtue of the will.[1] or impressure of the will [2] or perception

22. The will is the Father, that is, the stirring desire; and the delight is the Son, that is, thevirtue and the working in the will, with which the will worketh; and the Holy Ghost is theproceeding will, through the delight of the virtue, that is, a life of the will and of the virtue anddelight.23. Thus there are three sorts of workings in the eternal Unity, viz, the Unity is the will anddesire of itself: the delight is the working substance of the will, and an eternal joy ofperceptibility in the will; and the Holy Ghost is the proceeding of the power: the similitude ofwhich may be seen in a [1] plant.


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[1] or herb24. The [1] magnet, viz. the essential desire of nature, that is, the will of the desire of nature,[2] compresseth itself into an ens or substance, to become a plant, and in this compression ofthe desire becometh feeling, that is, working; and in that working the power and virtue ariseth,wherein the magnetical desire of nature, viz, the outflown will of God, worketh in a naturalway.[1] or loadstone [2] or formeth

25. In this working perceptibility the magnetical desiring will is elevated and made joyful, andgoeth forth from the working power and virtue; and hence cometh the growing and smell ofthe plant: and thus we see a representation of the Trinity of God in all [1] growing and livingthings.[1] vegetables and animate things26. If there were not such a desiring perceptibility, and outgoing operation of the Trinity in theeternal Unity, the Unity were but an eternal stillness, a Nothing; and there would be * nonature, nor any color, shape, or figure; likewise there would be nothing in this world; withoutthis threefold working there could be no world at all.* "no nature," lit., "no nature nor creature."

Of the Eternal Word of God.

27. The Holy Scripture saith, God hath made all things by his eternal Word; also it saith, ThatWord is God, John 1, which we understand thus:28. The Word is nothing else but the [1] out-breathing will, from the power and virtue; avarious dividing of the power into a multitude of powers; a distributing and outflowing of theUnity, whence knowledge ariseth.[1] or out-speaking29. For in one only substance, wherein there is no variation or division, but is only one, therecan be no knowledge; and if there were knowledge, it could know but one thing, viz, itself: butif it parteth itself, then the dividing will goeth into multiplicity and variety; and each partingworketh in itself.30. Yet because Unity cannot be divided and parted asunder, therefore the separatingconsisteth and remaineth in the outbreathing will in the Unity; and the separation of thebreathing giveth the different variety, whereby the eternal [1] Will, together with the [2] Delightand [3] Proceeding, entereth into the [4] knowledge or understanding of infinite forms, viz,into an eternal, perceptible, working, sensual 'knowledge of the powers; where always in thedivision of the will, in the separation, one sense or form of the will seeth, feeleth, tasteth,smelleth, and heareth the other; and yet it is but one sensual working, viz, the great joyousband of love, and the most pleasant only eternal [5] Being.[1] Father [2] Son [3] Holy Ghost [4] or science [5] essence or substance

Of the Holy Name .........

JEHOVA

31. The ancient Rabbins among the Jews have partly understood it; for they have said that


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this name is the highest, and most holy name of God [1] by which they understand theworking Deity in sense : and it is true, for in this working sense lieth the true life of all things intime and eternity, in the ground and abyss; and it is God himself, viz, the divine workingperceptibility, sensation, * [2] invention, science, and love; that is, the true knowledge,understanding in the working Unity, from which spring the five senses of the true life.[1] or Jehova is the sensual name of the working Deity [2] finding knowledge* "invention, science" ( Wissenschaft), "knowledge."

32. Each letter in this name intimateth to us a peculiar virtue and working, that is, a [1] form inthe working power.[1] difference or distinction

J

33. For I is the effluence of the eternal, indivisible Unity, or the * sweet gracefulness of theground of the divine power of becoming ** [1] somethingness.[1] I, I-hood, self, or selfness* "sweet gracefulness" (Heiligkeit), "holiness." Both. 1682 and 1730 editions have the latter

word, but the 1730 has also, in brackets, "Huldigkeit," "grace," or "graciousness."** "somethingness" (Ichlheit), "I-ness," or own-ness; the same applies to the following pars.where the word "somethingness" is used.

E

34. E is a threefold I, where the Trinity shutteth itself up in the Unity; for the I goeth into E,and joineth I E, which is an outbreathing of the Unity in itself.

H

35. H is the Word, or [1] breathing of the Trinity of God.[1] or speaking

O

36. 0 is the circumference, or the Son of God, through which the I E and the H, or breathing,out-speaketh; from the compressed delight of the power and virtue.

V

37. V is the joyful effluence from the [1] breathing, that is, the proceeding spirit of God.[1] or speaking

A


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38. A is that which is proceeded from the power and virtue, viz the wisdom; a subject of theTrinity; wherein the Trinity worketh, and wherein the Trinity is also manifest.39. This name is nothing else but an out-speaking, or expression of the threefold working ofthe holy Trinity in the Unity of God. Read further of this in the Exposition of the Table of thethree Principles of the Divine Manifestation.

Of the Divine Wisdom.

40. The Holy Scripture saith, The wisdom is the breathing of the divine power, a ray andbreath of the Almighty; also it saith, God hath made all things by his wisdom; which weunderstand as followeth.41. The wisdom is the outflown Word of the divine power, virtue, knowledge, and holiness; * asubject and resemblance of the infinite and unsearchable Unity; a substance wherein theHoly Ghost worketh, formeth, and modelleth; I mean, he formeth and modelleth the divineunderstanding in the wisdom; for the wisdom is the passive, and the spirit of God is theactive, or life in her, as the soul in the body.* "a subject and resemblance" (Gegenwurf), lit., "a counter-throw." Reflection or reproduction,counter-effluence.

42. The wisdom is the great Mystery of the divine nature; for in her the powers, colors, andvirtues are made manifest; in her is the variation of the power and virtue, viz, theunderstanding: she is the divine understanding, that is, the divine [1] vision, wherein the Unityis manifest.[1] or contemplation43. She is the true divine chaos, wherein all things lie, viz, a divine imagination, in which the[1] ideas of angels and souls have been seen from eternity, in a divine type and resemblance;yet not then as creatures, but in resemblance, as when a man beholdeth his face in a glass:therefore the angelical and human idea did flow forth from the wisdom, and was formed intoan image, as Moses saith, 'God created man in his image; that is, he created the body, andbreathed into it the breath of the divine effluence, of divine knowledge, from all the threePrinciples of the divine manifestation.[1] forms or images

Of the Mysterium Magnum

44. The [1] Mysterium Magnum is a subject of the wisdom, where the breathing word, or theworking willing power of the divine understanding, floweth forth through the wisdom, whereinalso the Unity of God together floweth out, to its manifestation.[1] or Great Mystery45. For in the Mysterium Magnum the eternal nature ariseth; and two [1] substances and wills

are always understood to be in the Mysterium Magnum: the first substance is the Unity ofGod, that is, the divine power and virtue, the outflowing wisdom.[1] essences or beings46. The second substance is the separable will, which ariseth through the breathing and out-speaking word; which will hath not its ground in the Unity, but in the mobility of the effluenceand out-breathing, which bringeth itself into one will, and into a desire to nature, viz. into theproperties as far as fire and light: in the fire the natural life is understood; and in the light theholy life, that is, a manifestation of the Unity, whereby the Unity becometh a love-fire, or light.47. And in this place or working God calleth himself a loving, merciful God, according to the


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sharpened fiery burning love of the Unity; and an angry [1] jealous God, according to the fieryground, according to the eternal nature.[1] or zealous48. The Mysterium Magnum is that chaos, out of which light and darkness, that is, thefoundation of heaven and hell is flown, from eternity, and made manifest; for that foundationwhich we now call hell (being a Principle of itself), is the ground and cause of the fire in theeternal nature; which fire, in God, is only a burning love; and where God is not manifested in

a thing, according to the Unity, there is an anguishing, painful, burning fire.49. This burning fire is but a manifestation of the life, and of the divine love; by which thedivine love, viz, the Unity, [1] kindleth up, and sharpeneth itself for the fiery working of thepower of God.[1] or over-inflameth50. This ground is called Mysterium magnum, or a chaos, because good and evil arise out ofit, viz. light and darkness, life and death, joy and grief, salvation and damnation.51. For it is the ground of souls and angels, and of all eternal creatures, evil as well as good;it is a ground of heaven and hell, also of the visible world, and all that is therein: therein havelain all things in one only ground, as an image lieth hid in a piece of wood before the artificerdoth carve it out and fashion it.

52. Yet we cannot say that the spiritual world hath had any beginning, but hath beenmanifested from eternity out of that chaos; for the light hath shone from eternity in thedarkness, and the darkness hath not comprehended it; as day and night are in one another,and are two, though in one.53. I must write distinctly as if it had a beginning, for the better consideration andapprehension of the divine ground of the divine manifestation; and the better to distinguishnature from the Deity; also for the better understanding, from whence evil and good arecome, and what the [1] Being of all beings is.

[1] or Essence of all essences

Of the Center of the Eternal Nature.

54. By the word [1] center, we understand the first beginning to nature, viz, the most inwardground, wherein the [2] self-raised will bringeth itself, by a reception, into [3] somethingness,viz, into a natural working; for nature is but a tool and instrument of God, which God's powerand virtue worketh with, and yet it hath its own [4] motion from the outflown will of God: thusthe center is the point or ground of the own receivingness to somethingness; from whencesomething cometh to be, and from thence the seven properties proceed.[1] Centrum [2] or own arisen [3] I-hood, or I-ness, or own-ness [4] or mobility

Of the Eternal Nature, and its Seven Properties.

55. Nature is nothing but the properties of the receivingness of the own arisen desire; whichdesire ariseth in the [1] variation of the breathing word (that is, of the breathing power andvirtue), wherein the properties bring themselves into substance; and this substance is calleda natural substance, and is not God himself.[1] or separation56. For though God dwelleth [1] through. and through nature, yet nature comprehendeth him


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but so far as the Unity of God yieldeth itself into, and communicateth itself with, a naturalsubstance, and maketh itself substantial, viz, a substance of light, which worketh by itself innature, and pierceth and penetrateth nature; or else the Unity of God is incomprehensible tonature, that is, to the desirous receivingness.[1] or thoroughly inhabiteth, totaliter57. Nature [1] ariseth in the outflown word of the divine perception and knowledge; and it is acontinual framing and forming of sciences and perception: whatsoever the word worketh by

the wisdom, that nature frameth and formeth into properties: Nature is like a carpenter, whobuildeth a house, which the mind figured and. contrived before in itself; so it is here also to beunderstood.[1] or consisteth58. Whatsoever the eternal mind [1] figureth in the eternal wisdom of God in. the divinepower, and bringeth into an idea, that, nature frameth into a property.[1] or modeleth59. Nature, in its first ground, consisteth in seven properties; and these seven dividethemselves into infinite.

The First Property.

60. The First property is the desire which causeth and maketh [1] harshness, sharpness,hardness, cold, and substance.[1] or astringency

The Second Property.

61. The Second property is the stirring or attraction of the desire; it maketh [1] stinging,breaking, and dividing of the hardness; it cutteth asunder the attracted desire, and bringeth itinto multiplicity and variety; it is a ground of the bitter pain, and also the true root of life; it isthe [2] Vulcan that striketh fire.

[1] or pricking [2] faber or smith

The Third Property.

62. The Third property is the perceptibility and feelingness in the breaking of the harshhardness; and it is the ground of anguish, and of the natural will, wherein the eternal willdesireth to be manifested; that is, it will be a fire or light, viz, a flash or shining, wherein thepowers, colors, and virtues of the wisdom may appear: in these three first propertiesconsisteth the foundation of anger, and of hell, and of all that is [1] wrathful.[1] grim, fierce, cruel, odious, or evil

The Fourth Property.

63. The Fourth property is the fire, in. which the Unity appeareth, and is seen in the light, thatis, in a burning love; and the wrath in the [1] essence of fire.[1] operation or property

The Fifth Property.


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64. The Fifth property is the light, with its virtue of love, in. and with which the Unity workethin a natural substance.

The Sixth Property.

65. The Sixth property is the sound, voice, or natural understanding, wherein the five senseswork spiritually, that is, in an understanding natural life.

The Seventh Property.

66. The Seventh property is the subject, or the [1] contence of the other six properties, inwhich they work, as the life doth in the flesh; and this seventh property is rightly and trulycalled the ground or place of nature, wherein the properties stand in one only ground.[1] compass, conclusion, comprising, or continent

The First SUBSTANCE in the Seven Properties.

67. We must always understand two substances in the seven properties: we understand the

first, according to the abyss of these properties, to be the divine [1] Being; that is, the divinewill with the outflowing Unity of God, which together floweth forth through nature, andbringeth itself into the receivingness to sharpness, that the eternal love may become workingand sensible thereby, and that it may have something which is passive, wherein it maymanifest itself, and be known; and of which also it might be desired and beloved again, viz.the [2] aching passive nature, which in the love is changed into an eternal joyfulness: andwhen the love in the fire manifesteth itself in the light, then it * inflameth nature, as the sun aplant, and the fire [3] iron.[1] essence or substance [2] or painful [3] a red-hot iron* "inflameth nature," lit., "inflameth nature and penetrateth it."

The Second SUBSTANCE.

68. The Second substance is nature's own substance, which is [1] aching and passive, and isthe tool and instrument of the agent; for where no passiveness is, there is also no desire ofdeliverance, or of something better; and where there is no desire of something better, there athing resteth within itself.[1] painful69. And therefore the eternal Unity bringeth itself by its effluence and separation into nature,that it may have an object, in. which it may manifest itself, and that it may love something,and be again beloved by something, that so there may be a perceiving, or sensible workingand will.

An Explanation of the Seven Properties of Nature.

The First Property.

70. The First property is a desirousness, like that of a [1] magnet, viz, the compression of thewill; the will desireth to be something, and yet it hath nothing of which it may make somethingto itself; and therefore it brin eth itself into a receivin ness of itself, and com resseth itself to


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something; and that something is nothing but a magnetical hunger, a harshness, like ahardness, whence even hardness, cold, and substance arise.[1] or loadstone71. This compression or attraction overshadoweth itself, and maketh itself a darkness, whichis indeed the ground of the eternal and temporary darkness: At the beginning of the world,salt, stones, and bones, and all such things were produced by this sharpness.

The Second Property.

72. The Second property of the eternal nature ariseth from the first, and it is the drawing ormotion in the sharpness; for the magnet maketh hardness, but the motion breaketh thehardness again, and is a continual strife in itself.73. For that which the desire compresseth and maketh to be something, the motion cuttethasunder and divideth, so that it cometh into forms and images; between these two propertiesariseth the bitter [1] woe, that is, the sting of perception and feeling.[1] or pain74. For when there is a motion in the sharpness, then the property is the [1] aching, and thisis also the cause of sensibility and pain; for if there were no sharpness and motion, there

would be no sensibility: this motion is also a ground of the air in the visible world, which ismanifested by the fire, as shall be mentioned hereafter.[1] or painful75. Thus we understand that the desire is the ground of somethingness, so that somethingmay come out of nothing; and thus we may also conceive that the desire hath been thebeginning of this world, by which God hath brought all things into substance and being; forthe desire is that by which God said, [1] Let there be. The desire is that Be it, which hathmade something where nothing was, but only a spirit; it hath made the Mysterium Magnum(which is spiritual) visible and substantial, as we may see by the elements, stars, and othercreatures.[1] or Fiat76. The Second property, that is, the [1] motion, was in the beginning of this world theseparator or divider in the powers and virtues, by which the Creator, viz, the will of God,brought all things out of the Mysterium Magnum into form; for it is the outward movable world,by which the supernatural God made all things, and brought them into form, figure, and [2]shape.[1] or stirring [2] or images

The Third Property.

77. The Third property of the eternal nature is the anguish, viz, that [1] will which hath brought

itself into the receivingness to nature and somethingness: when the own will standeth in thesharp motion, then it cometh into anguish, that is, into sensibility; for without nature it is notfeelable, but in the movable sharpness it becometh feeling.[1] or Velle78. And this feelingness is the cause of the fire, and also of the mind and senses; for the ownnatural will is made volatile by it, and seeketh rest; and thus the separation of the will goethout from itself, and pierceth through the properties, from whence the taste ariseth, so that oneproperty tasteth and feeleth the other.79. It is also the ground and cause of the senses, in that one property penetrateth into the


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other, and kindleth the other, so that the will knoweth whence the passiveness cometh; for iffeeling were not, the will could know nothing of the properties, for it were alone: and thus thewill receiveth nature into it, by feeling the sharp motion in itself.80. This motion is in itself like a turning wheel; not that there is such a turning and winding,but it is so in the properties; for the desire attracteth into itself, and the motion thrustethforwards out of itself, and so the will, being in this anguish, can neither get inwards noroutwards, and yet is drawn both out of itself and into itself; and so it remaineth in such a [1]

posture as would go into itself and out of itself, that is, over itself and under itself, and yet cango no whither, but is an anguish, and the true foundation of hell, and of God's anger; for thisanguish standeth in the dark sharp motion.[1] form, manner, or condition81. In the creation of the world the sulphurspirit, with the matter of the sulphureous [1] naturewas produced out of this ground; which sulphurspirit is the natural life of the earthly andelementary creatures.[1] or property82. The wise heathen have in some measure understood this ground, for they say, that in [1]Sulphur, [2] Mercury, and [3] Sal, all things in this world consist; wherein they have not lookedupon the matter only, but upon the spirit, from which such matter proceedeth: for the ground

of it consisteth not * in salt, quicksilver, and brimstone, they mean not so, but they mean thespirit of such properties; in that, everything indeed consisteth, whatsoever liveth and growethand hath being in this world, whether it be spiritual or material.[1] Spiritual corporeality [2] the Word or speaking [3] the gross palpable corporeality* "in salt" (im groben sale), "in gross salt."83. For they understand by Salt, the sharp magnetical desire of nature; and by Mercury, theymean the motion and separation of nature, by which everything is [1] figured with its ownsignature; and by Sulphur, they mean the perceiving [sensible] [2] willing and growing life.[1] or marked with its own image or shape [2] desiring vegetable life84. For in the sulphur-spirit, wherein the fiery life burneth, the oil lieth; and the quintessence

lieth in the oil, viz, the fiery Mercury, which is the true life of nature, and which is an effluencefrom the word of the divine power and motion, wherein the ground of heaven is understood;and in the quintessence there lieth the tincture, viz, the paradisical ground, the outflown wordof the divine power and virtue, wherein the properties lie in [1] equality.[1] temperature or harmony85. Thus, by the Third property of nature, which is the anguish, we mean the sharpness andpainfulness of the fire, viz, the burning and consuming; for when the will is put into such asharpness it will always consume the cause of that sharpness; for it always * [1] striveth toget to the Unity of God again, which is the rest; and the Unity thrusteth itself with its effluenceto this motion and sharpness; and so there is a continual conjoining for the manifestation ofthe divine will, as we always find in these three, viz. in salt, brimstone, and oil, a heavenly in

the earthly; and whosoever doth but truly understand it, and considereth the spirit, shall find itso.[1] or throngeth after* "striveth," "throngeth after," "thrusteth itself"; these are renderings of the one word "dringen,"which implies an urge, a forceful penetration.86. For the soul of a thing lieth in the sharpness, and the true life of the sensual nature andproperty lieth in the motion, and the powerful spirit which ariseth from the tincture lieth in theoil of the Sulphur: Thus a heavenly always lieth hidden in the earthly, for the invisible [1]


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spiritual world came forth with and in the creation.[1] viz., the light and dark world; God's love and wrath

The Fourth Property.

87. The Fourth property of the eternal nature is the spiritual fire, wherein the light, that is, theUnity, is made manifest; for the [1] glance of the fire ariseth and proceedeth from the outflown

Unity, which hath incorporated and united itself with the natural desire; and the burningproperty of fire, viz, the heat proceedeth from the sharp devouringness of the first threeproperties; which cometh to be so as followeth.[1] shinning luster or brightness88. The eternal Unity (which I also in some of my writings call the liberty) is the soft and stilltranquillity, being amiable, and as a soft comfortable ease, and it cannot be expressed howsoft a tranquillity there is without nature in the Unity of God; but the three properties (in order)to nature are sharp, painful, and horrible.89. In these three painful properties the outflown will * consisteth, and is produced by theWord or divine breathing, and the Unity also is therein; therefore the will longeth earnestly forthe Unity, and the Unity longeth for the sensibility, viz, for the fiery ground: thus the one

longeth to get into the other; and when this longing is, there is as it were a [1] cracking noiseor flash of lightning, as when we strike steel and a stone together, or pour water into fire: thiswe speak by way of similitude.[1] crashing* "consisteth" (stehet), "stands," or "is"90. In that flash the Unity feeleth the sensibility, and the will receiveth the soft tranquil Unity;and so the Unity becomes a shining glance of fire, and the fire becometh a burning love, for itreceiveth the [1] ens and power from the soft Unity : in this kindling the darkness of themagnetical' compressure is * pierced through with the light, so that it is no more known ordiscerned, although it remaineth in itself eternally in the compressure.[1] or entity* "pierced through" (durchdrungen), "penetrated," or "permeated."91. Now two eternal Principles arise here, viz. the darkness, harshness, sharpness, and paindwelling in itself; and the feeling, power and virtue of the Unity in the light; upon which thescripture saith, that God (that is, the eternal Unity) dwelleth in a light to which none can [1]come.[1] or approach92. For so the eternal Unity of God manifesteth itself through the spiritual fire, in the light, andthis light is called Majesty; and God (that is, the supernatural Unity) is the power and virtue ofit.93. For the spirit of this fire receiveth ens [or virtue] to shine, from the Unity, or else this fiery

[1] ground would be but a painful, horrible hunger, and pricking desire; and it is so indeed,when the will breaketh itself off from the Unity, and will live after its own desire, as the devilshave done, and the false soul still doth.[1] or spirit94. And thus you may here perceive two Principles: the first is the ground of the burning ofthe fire, viz. the sharp, moving, perceivable, painful darkness in itself; and the second is thelight of the fire, wherein the Unity cometh into mobility and joy; for the fire is * an object of thegreat love of God's Unity.


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* "an object" (ein Gegenwurf); see *, p. 8.95. For so the eternal delight becometh perceivable, and this perceiving of the Unity is calledlove, and is a burning or life in the Unity of God; and according to this burning of love, Godcalleth himself a merciful loving God; for the Unity of God loveth and pierceth through the [1]painful will of the fire (which at the beginning arose in the breathing of the word, or outgoingof the divine delight), and changeth it into great joy.[1] aching

96. And in this fiery will of the eternal nature standeth the soul of man, and also the angels;this is their ground and center; therefore, if any soul breaketh itself off from the light and loveof God, and entereth into its own natural desire, then the ground of this darkness and painful[1] property will be manifest in it; and this is the hellish fire, and the anger of God, when it ismade manifest, as may be seen in Lucifer; and whatsoever can be thought to have a being[2] anywhere in the creature, the same is likewise without the creature everywhere; for thecreature is nothing else but an image and figure of the separable and various power andvirtue of the universal Being.[1] or source [2] or everywhere97. Now understand aright what the ground of fire is, viz, cold from the compressure, andheat from the anguish; and the motion is the [1] Vulcan ; in these three the fire consisteth, but

the shining of the light ariseth and proceedeth from the conjunction of the Unity in the groundof fire, and yet the whole ground is but the outflown will[1] or striker of fire98. Therefore in fire and light consisteth the life of all things, viz, in the will thereof, let thembe [1] insensible, * vegetable, or rational things; everything, as the fire, hath its ground, eitherfrom the eternal, as the soul, or from the temporary, as astral elementary things; for theeternal is one fire, and the temporary is another, as shall be shown hereafter.[1] or inanimate, or dumb* "vegetable" (wachsenden), "growing

The Fifth Property.

99. Now the Fifth property is the fire of love, or the [1] world of power and light; which in thedarkness dwelleth in itself, and the darkness comprehendeth it not, as it is written, John i.The light shineth in the darkness, and the darkness comprehendeth it not: Also, the Word isin the light, and in the Word is the true understanding life of man, viz, the true spirit.[1] power and light world100. But this fire is the true soul of man, viz. the true spirit, which God breathed into man for acreaturely life.101. You must understand, in the spiritual fire of the will, the true desirous soul out of theeternal ground; and in the power and virtue of the light, the true understanding spirit, in which

the Unity of God dwelleth and is manifest, as our Lord Christ saith, [1] 'The kingdom of God iswithin you; and Paul saith, [2] You are the temple of the Holy Ghost, who dwelleth in you; thisis the place of the divine inhabiting and revelation.[1] Luke 17:21 [2] 1 Cor. 6:19102. Also the soul cometh to be damned thus: when the fiery will breaketh itself off from thelove and Unity of God, and entereth into its own natural propriety, that is, into its evilproperties. This ought further to be considered.103. 0 Zion, observe this ground, and thou art freed from Babel!


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104. The second Principle (viz, the angelical world and the thrones) is meant by the fifthproperty: for it is the motion of the Unity, wherein all the properties of the fiery nature burn inlove.105. An example or similitude of this [1] ground may be seen in a candle that is lighted. Theproperties lie in one another in the candle, and none of them is more manifested thananother, till the candle be lighted; and then we find fire, oil, light, air, and water from the air:all the four elements become manifest in it, which lay hidden before in one only ground.

[1] or thing106. And so likewise it must be conceived to be in the eternal ground; for the temporarysubstance is flown forth from the eternal, therefore they are both of the same quality; but withthis difference, that one is eternal and the other transitory, one spiritual and the othercorporeal.107. When the spiritual fire and light shall be kindled, which hath indeed burned from eternity[in itself], then shall also the Mystery of the divine power and knowledge be always mademanifest therein; for all the properties of the eternal nature become spiritual in the fire, andyet nature remaineth as it is, inwardly in itself; and the going forth of the will becomethspiritual.108. For in the [1] crack or flash of the fire the dark receptibiity is consumed; and in that

consuming, the pure bright fire-spirit, which is pierced through with the glance of the light,goeth forth; in which going forth we find three several properties.[1] hissing or noise109. The first is the going upwards of the fiery will; the second is the going downwards, orsinking of the watery spirit, viz, the meekness; and the third is the going out forwards of theoily spirit, in the midst, in the center of the fiery spirit of the will; which oily spirit is the ens ofthe Unity of God, which is become a substance in the desire of nature; yet all is but spirit andpower: but so it appears in the figure of the manifestation, not as if there were any severing ordivision, but it appears so in the manifestation.110. This threefold manifestation is according to the Trinity; for the center wherein it is, is the

only God according to his manifestation: the fiery flaming spirit of love is that which goethupwards, and the meekness which proceedeth from the love is that which goeth downwards,and in the midst there is the center ([2] of) the circumference, which is the Father, or wholeGod, according to his manifestation.[1] or111. And as this is to be known in the divine manifestation, so it is also in the eternal nature,according to nature's property; for nature is but a * [1] resemblance of the Deity.[1] picture, representation, or shadow* "resemblance" (Gegenwurf); see *, p. 8.112. Nature may be further considered thus the flash of the original of fire is a crack, andsalnitrous ground, whence nature goeth forth into infinite divisions, that is, into multitudes or

varieties of powers and virtues; from which the multitude of angels and spirits, and theircolors and operations proceeded, also the four elements in the beginning of time.113. For the [1] temperature of fire and light is the holy element, viz, the motion in the light ofthe Unity; and from this salnitrous ground (we mean spiritual, not earthly salnitre) the fourelements proceed, viz, in the [2] compressure of the fiery Mercury, earth and stones areproduced; and in the quintessence of the fiery Mercury, the fire and heaven; and in themotion or going forth, the air; and in the disruption or rending of the desire by the fire, thewater is produced.


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[1] temperament or harmony [2] compressure or impressure. In every place where that wordis used following:114. The fiery Mercury is a dry water, that hath brought forth metals and stones; but thebroken or divided Mercury hath brought forth wet water, by the mortification in the fire; andthe compressure hath brought the gross rawness into the earth, which is a gross salnitrousSaturnine Mercury.115. By the word Mercury, you must understand here, in the spirit, always the outflown

natural working Word of God, which hath been the separator, divider, and former of everysubstance; and by the word Saturn, we mean the compressure.116. In the fifth property, that is, in the light, the eternal Unity is substantial; that is, a holyspiritual fire, a holy light, a holy air, which is nothing else but spirit, also a holy water, which isthe outflowing love of the Unity of God, and a [1] holy earth, which is all-powerful virtue andworking.[1] Ternarium Sanctum117. This fifth property is the true spiritual angelical world of the divine joy, which is hidden inthis visible world.

The Sixth Property.

118. The Sixth property of the eternal nature is the sound, noise, voice, or understanding; forwhen the fire flasheth, all the properties together sound: the fire is the mouth of the essence,the light is the spirit, and the sound is the understanding wherein all the propertiesunderstand one another.119. According to the manifestation of the holy Trinity, by the effluence of the Unity, thissound or voice is the divine working word, viz. the understanding in the eternal nature, bywhich the supernatural knowledge manifesteth itself; but according to nature and creature,this sound or voice is the knowledge of God, wherein the natural understanding knowethGod; for the natural understanding is * a platform, resemblance, and effluence from the divineunderstanding.* "a platform," etc. (Gegenwurf); see *, p. 8.120. The five senses lie in the natural understanding, in a spiritual manner, and in the secondproperty (viz, in the motion in the fiery Mercury) they lie in a natural manner.121. The sixth property giveth understanding in the voice or sound, viz, in the [1] speaking ofthe word; and the second property of nature is the producer, and also the house, tool, orinstrument of the speech or voice: in the second property the power and virtue is painful; butin the sixth property it is joyful and pleasant; and the difference between the second and sixthproperty is in light and darkness, which are in one another, as fire and light; there is no otherdifference between them.[1] articulation

The Seventh Property.

122. The Seventh property is the substance, that is, the subjectum or house of the other six,in which they all are substantially as the soul in the body: by this we understand especially,as to the light-world, the paradise or budding of the working power.123. For every property maketh unto itself a * subject, or [1] object, by its own effluence; andin the seventh all the properties are in a temperature, as in one only substance: and as theyall did proceed from the Unity, so they all return again into one ground.


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[1] or resemblance* "subject or object" (Gegenwurf); see *, p. 8.124. And though they work in different kinds and manners, yet here there is but one onlysubstance, whose power and virtue is called tincture; that is, a holy penetrating, growing orspringing * bud.* "bud" ( Wesen), essence or being125. Not that the seventh property is the tincture, but it is the [1] body of it; the power and

virtue of the fire and light is the tincture [2] in the substantial body: but the seventh property isthe substance which the tincture * penetrateth and sanctifieth; we mean, that it is thusaccording to the power and virtue of the divine manifestation; ** but as it is a property ofnature, it is the substance of the attracted desire of all properties.[1] corpus aut substantia [2] or with* "penetrateth and sanctifieth." The original proceeds: "therefore paradise is [consists in] aspiritual budding in the seventh property."** "but as it is," etc., lit., "but, as a property of nature, it is," etc.126. It is especially to be [1] observed, that always following the First and the Seventhproperty are accounted for one; and the Second and Sixth; also the Third and Fifth; and theFourth is only the dividing mark or [2] bound.

[1] See the table following [2] or limit127. For according to the manifestation of the Trinity of God, there are but three properties ofnature: the first is the desire which belongeth to God the Father, yet it is only a spirit; but inthe seventh property the desire is substantial.128. The second is the divine power and virtue, and belongeth to God the Son; in the secondnumber it is only a spirit; but in the sixth it is the substantial power and virtue.129. The third belongeth to the Holy Ghost; and in the beginning of the third property it is onlya fiery spirit; but in the fifth property the great love is manifested therein.130. Thus the effluence of the divine manifestation, as to the three properties in the firstPrinciple before the light, [1] is natural; but in the second Principle in the light it is spiritual.

[1] appeareth131. Now these are the seven properties in one only ground; and all seven are equallyeternal without beginning; none of them can be accounted the first, second, third, fourth, fifth,sixth, or last; for they are equally eternal without beginning, and have also one eternalbeginning from the Unity of God.132. We must represent this in a typical way, that it may be understood how the one is bornout of the other, the better to conceive what the Creator is, and what the life and substance ofthis world is.


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Of the Third Principle, viz. The Visible World;whence that proceeded; and what the Creator is.

133. This visible world is sprung from the spiritual world before mentioned, viz. from the

outflown divine power and virtue; and it is a * subject or object resembling the spiritual world:the spiritual world is the inward ground of the visible world; the visible subsisteth in thespiritual.* "subject or object" (Gegenwurf); see *, p. 8.134. The visible world is only an effluence of the seven properties, for it proceeded out of thesix working properties; but in the seventh (that is, in paradise) it is in rest: and that is theeternal Sabbath of rest, wherein the divine power and virtue resteth.135. Moses saith, God created heaven and earth, and all creatures, in six days, and restedon the seventh day, and also commanded [1] it to be kept for a rest.[1] or to rest on it136. The understanding lieth hidden and secret in those words. Could not he have made all

his works in one day? Neither can we properly say there was any day before the sun was; forin the deep there is but one day [in all].137. But the understanding lieth hidden in those words. He understandeth by each day'sworking, the creation or manifestation of the seven properties; for he saith, In the beginningGod created heaven and earth.

The First Day

138. In the FIRST 1 motion, the ma netical desire com ressed and com acted the fier and


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watery Mercury with the other properties; and then the grossness separated itself from thespiritual nature: and the fiery became metals and stones, and partly salnitre, that is, earth:and the watery became water. Then the fiery Mercury of the working became clean, andMoses calleth it heaven; and the Scripture saith, God dwelleth in heaven: for this fieryMercury is the power and virtue of the firmament, viz, an image and resemblance of thespiritual world, in which God is manifested.[1] the first day

139. When this was done, God said, Let there be light; then the inward thrust itself forththrough the fiery heaven, from which a shining power and virtue arose in the fiery Mercury,and that was the light of the outward nature in the properties, wherein the [1] vegetable lifeconsisteth.[1] or growing

The Second Day.

140. In the SECOND day's work, God separated the watery and fiery Mercury from oneanother, and called the fiery the firmament of Heaven, which came out of the midst of thewaters, viz. of Mercury, whence arose the male and female [1] kind, in the spirit of the

outward world; that is, the male in the fiery Mercury, and the female in the watery.[1] or sex141. This separation was made all over in everything, to the end that the fiery Mercury shoulddesire and long for the watery, and the watery for the fiery; that so there might be a desire oflove betwixt them in the light of nature, from which the conjunction ariseth therefore the fieryMercury, viz, the outflown word, separated itself according both to the fiery and to the waterynature of the light, and thence comes both the male and female kind in all things, bothanimals and vegetables.

The Third Day.

142. In the THIRD day's work, the fiery and watery Mercury entered again into conjunction ormixture, and embraced one another, wherein the salnitre, viz, the separator in the earth,brought forth grass, plants, and trees; and that was the first generation or production betweenmale and female.

The Fourth Day.

143. [n the FOURTH day's work the fiery Mercury brought forth its fruit, viz, the fifth essence,a higher power or virtue of life than the four elements, and yet it is in the elements.: of it thestars are made.144. For as the compression of the desire brought the earth into a [1] mass, the compressureentering into itself, so the fiery Mercury thrust itself outwards by the compressure, and hathenclosed the place of this world with the [2] stars and starry heaven.[1] or lump [2] or constellations

The Fifth Day.

145. In the FIFTH day's work the [1] spiritus mundi, that is, the [2] soul of the great world,opened itself in the fifth essence (we mean the life of the fiery and watery Mercury); therein


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God created all beasts, fishes, fowls, and worms; every one from its peculiar property of thedivided Mercury.[1] spirit of the world [2] amima macrocosmi146. Here we see how the eternal Principles have moved themselves according to evil andgood, as to all the seven properties, and their effluence and mixture; for there are evil andgood creatures created, everything as the Mercury (that is, the separator) hath figured and [1]framed himself into an ens, as may be seen in the evil and good creatures: And yet every

kind of life hath its original in the light of nature, that is, in the love of nature; from which it isthat all creatures, in their kind or property, love one another according to this outflown love[1] or imaged .

The Sixth Day.

147. In the SIXTH day's work, God created man; for in the sixth day the understanding of lifeopened itself out of the fiery Mercury, that is, out of the inward ground.148. God created him in his likeness, out of all the three Principles, and made him an image,and breathed into him the understanding fiery Mercury, according to both the inward andoutward ground, that is, according to time and eternity, and so he became a living

understanding soul: and in this ground of the soul, the manifestation of the d

the 'key' or clavis of jacob boehme

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