The Confessions of Jacob Boehme
and striking and arrogant self-will among men and beasts." The light-world is the sphere of all determined goodness and beauty ; the state of being towards which the fiery impulse of becoming should tend. It is the Word, or " Heart of God," as distinguished from His Will, and holds within itself all those values which we speak of as divine. In the Light is " the eternal original of all powers, colours, and virtues." Here again, we perceive the Platonic ancestry of one of Boehme's most characteristic ideas. In and through this Light the crude strivings of the fiery lifeforce are sublimated ; its titanic zest is transformed into "the desire of love and joy." The Dark is necessary to it, because " nothing without opposition can become manifest to itself."
The outer world in which we dwell according to the body is the creation of the Fire and the Light. Ignoring the separate existence of the dark- world, which
INTRODUCTION xxix
is then looked upon as one aspect of the Fire, Boehme sometimes speaks of this physical order as the third Divine Principle, or sphere of the Holy Spirit, the " Lord and Giver of Life " ; who is thus assigned a position very close to the Plotinian Psyche, or "soul of the world." This outer world, he says, is "both evil and good, both terrible and lovely," since in it love and wrath strive together. "The Nature-life works unto Fire, and the Spirit-life unto Light." The business alike of universal and of human life, the essence of its " salvation," is the bringing of the Light out of its fiery origin — spiritual beauty out of the raw stuff of energetic nature. This perpetual shooting up of life from nature-dark to spiritlight is sometimes called by Boehme the "new birth of Christ" and sometimes the "growing up of the Lily." It is happening all the while ; the triumphant selfrealization of the perfection of God. He xxx CONFESSIONS OF JACOB BOEHME sees the universe as a vast alchemic process, a seething pot, perpetually distilling the base metals into celestial gold.
As with the cosmos, so with its microcosm man. He, too, is in process of becoming. The " great work" of the hermetists must be accomplished in him, and he must accept its " anguish " — the conflict of the fire and the light. " Man must be at war with himself, if he wishes to be a heavenly citizen." The combat is inevitable, and the victory is possible, because we have the essence of all three worlds within us, and are " made of all the powers of God." The eternal Light 11 glimmers " in every consciousness. "When I see a right man," says Boehme, " there I see three worlds standing.'* Hence human life is "a hinge between light and darkness ; to whichever it gives itself up, in that same does it burn." Its possibilities of adventure are infinite. The arc through which it may swing is as wide
INTRODUCTION xxxi
and striking and arrogant self-will among men and beasts." The light-world is the sphere of all determined goodness and beauty ; the state of being towards which the fiery impulse of becoming should tend. It is the Word, or " Heart of God," as distinguished from His Will, and holds within itself all those values which we speak of as divine. In the Light is " the eternal original of all powers, colours, and virtues." Here again, we perceive the Platonic ancestry of one of Boehme's most characteristic ideas. In and through this Light the crude strivings of the fiery lifeforce are sublimated ; its titanic zest is transformed into "the desire of love and joy." The Dark is necessary to it, because " nothing without opposition can become manifest to itself."
The outer world in which we dwell according to the body is the creation of the Fire and the Light. Ignoring the separate existence of the dark- world, which
INTRODUCTION xxix
is then looked upon as one aspect of the Fire, Boehme sometimes speaks of this physical order as the third Divine Principle, or sphere of the Holy Spirit, the " Lord and Giver of Life " ; who is thus assigned a position very close to the Plotinian Psyche, or "soul of the world." This outer world, he says, is "both evil and good, both terrible and lovely," since in it love and wrath strive together. "The Nature-life works unto Fire, and the Spirit-life unto Light." The business alike of universal and of human life, the essence of its " salvation," is the bringing of the Light out of its fiery origin — spiritual beauty out of the raw stuff of energetic nature. This perpetual shooting up of life from nature-dark to spiritlight is sometimes called by Boehme the "new birth of Christ" and sometimes the "growing up of the Lily." It is happening all the while ; the triumphant selfrealization of the perfection of God. He xxx CONFESSIONS OF JACOB BOEHME sees the universe as a vast alchemic process, a seething pot, perpetually distilling the base metals into celestial gold.
As with the cosmos, so with its microcosm man. He, too, is in process of becoming. The " great work" of the hermetists must be accomplished in him, and he must accept its " anguish " — the conflict of the fire and the light. " Man must be at war with himself, if he wishes to be a heavenly citizen." The combat is inevitable, and the victory is possible, because we have the essence of all three worlds within us, and are " made of all the powers of God." The eternal Light 11 glimmers " in every consciousness. "When I see a right man," says Boehme, " there I see three worlds standing.'* Hence human life is "a hinge between light and darkness ; to whichever it gives itself up, in that same does it burn." Its possibilities of adventure are infinite. The arc through which it may swing is as wide
INTRODUCTION xxxi
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