Fetching
One moment.
Fetching
One moment.
Eleven books by a shoemaker of Görlitz who wrote, by his own account, because he could not help it. Ten of them stand here in the seventeenth-century English of John Sparrow, who translated Boehme within a generation of his death and whose prose is itself now four hundred years old; where that English has drifted out of reach, the facing pane carries a modern register — the same text with archaic inflection and spelling normalised by rule, never paraphrased. Nothing is reworded, and where no register appears beside a passage it is because the rules found nothing to change.
The eleventh book is not in English at all, and it is the reason this note exists.
Des trois principes de l'essence divine, printed at Paris in 1802, is the same work as Concerning the Three Principles of the Divine Essence, which stands here as the second book — the same twenty-seven chapters in the same order, opening `Du premier principe de l'essence divine` against Sparrow's `Of the first Principle of the Divine Essence`. Its translator was Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin, who gave the last years of his life to putting Boehme into French, and who has a shelf of his own in this Lycaeum.
That makes a closed circuit inside this archive, and it is worth naming plainly. Saint-Martin translates Boehme. La Iniciación, printed in Montevideo a hundred and forty years later, traces its own descent through Saint-Martin. A reader can therefore follow one thread from a German mystic of 1619, through the French philosopher who carried him into another language, to a Spanish-language monthly of the 1940s that claimed them both — and read every step of it in the original.
The two are shelved as one work rather than two because that is what they are. They are not set as facing panes: an English translation of 1619 and a French translation of 1802 are two independent readings of a lost German original, and pairing them line by line would assert a correspondence neither translator ever claimed.
1in that he sheweth himself in his operation so various and manifold; so also hath he created three principal angelprinces, according to the highest primacy of his Ternary. 120. In accordance with that he created the princelyangels, according to the seven qualifying or fountain spirits, answerable to their quality, viz. GABRIEL, an angel or prince of the tone or sound, or of swift or speedy messages; as also RAPHAEL; and others besides in the kingdom of MICHAEL. 121. Thou must not understand this, as if these royal angels were to rule in the Deity, that is, in the seven qualifying or fountain spirits of God, which are without or distinct from the creatures; no, but each over his creatures, or the creatures of his own dominion. 122. For as the Ternary of God reigneth over the infinite or endless being, and over the figures and several various forms or ideas in the Deity, and changeth, varieth and imageth or frameth the same: 123. So also are the three angelical kings lords over their angels, even to the heart and deepest ground, though they cannot corporeally or bodily vary or change themselves, as God himself can who hath created them; yet they rule them (viz. the angels) corporeally, and are bound or united to them, as body and soul are bound the one to the other. 124. For the king is their head, and they are the members of the king; and the qualifying [facultating, potentiating] or fountain princely angels are the king's counsellors, or officers [instruments in employment] in his affairs, like the five senses in man, or as the hands and feet, or the mouth, nostrils, eyes and ears, whereby the king
2executeth or accomplisheth his affairs. 125. Now as all angels are bound to the king, so is the king also bound to God his Creator, as body and soul; the body signifieth God; and the soul signifieth the angelical king, who is in the body of God, and is become a creature in the body of God, and abideth eternally in the body of God, as the soul doth in its nest. And therefore also hath God so highly glorified him, as his own propriety, or as the soul is glorified in the body. 126. Thus the king or great prince Michael looks like God the Father in his glorification, clarity or brightness, and is a king and prince of God upon the mount of God, and hath his office in the deep wherein he is created. 127. That circumference or space, region or province, wherein he and his angels are created, is his kingdom, and he is a loving son of God the Father in nature, a creaturely son, in whom the Father delighteth. 128. Thou must not compare him with the Heart or light of God, which is in the whole Father, which has neither beginning nor end, no more than hath God the Father himself. 129. For this prince is a creature, and hath a beginning, but he is in God the Father, and is bound and united with him in his love, as his dearly beloved son, whom he hath created out of himself. 130. Therefore he hath set upon him the crown of honour, of might, power and authority, so that there is in heaven no higher nor more excellent nor mightier than he is, except God himself in his Ternary. And this is one king, rightly described,
3with a true ground in the knowledge of the spirit. Of the second King LUCIFER, now so called, because of his Fall. 131. King LUCIFER, shut thy eyes here a little, and stop thy ears a little, that thou mayest neither hear nor see, or else thou wilt be horribly ashamed that another sitteth upon thy seat, and so thy shame shall be fully discovered yet before the end of the world, which thou hast kept so closely concealed in secret, and suppressed ever since the beginning of the world, wheresoever thou couldst: I will now describe thy kingly primacy, not for thee, but for the benefit of man. 132. This high and mighty, glorious and beautiful king, lost his right name in his fall: For he is now called LUCIFER, that is, one carried forth or expelled out of the light of God. 133. His name was not so at the beginning: for he was a creaturely prince or king of the heart of God in the bright light, even the brightest among the three kings of angels. Of his Creation. 134. As Michael is created according to the quality, manner and property of God the Father, so was Lucifer created according to the quality, condition and beauty of God the Son, and was bound to and united with him in love, as a dear son or heart, and his heart also stood in the centre of light, as if he had been God himself; and his beauty or brightness transcended all. 135. For his circumference, conception or chief mother, was the Son of God, and there he stood as a king or prince of God.
The source text as printed, transcribed diplomatically. Where the source language uses a non-Latin script that reaches us only through a Victorian romanisation, this layer is labelled transliteration, because that is what we hold.
1in that he sheweth himself in his operation so various and manifold; so also hath he created three principal angelprinces, according to the highest primacy of his Ternary. 120. In accordance with that he created the princelyangels, according to the seven qualifying or fountain spirits, answerable to their quality, viz. GABRIEL, an angel or prince of the tone or sound, or of swift or speedy messages; as also RAPHAEL; and others besides in the kingdom of MICHAEL. 121. Thou must not understand this, as if these royal angels were to rule in the Deity, that is, in the seven qualifying or fountain spirits of God, which are without or distinct from the creatures; no, but each over his creatures, or the creatures of his own dominion. 122. For as the Ternary of God reigneth over the infinite or endless being, and over the figures and several various forms or ideas in the Deity, and changeth, varieth and imageth or frameth the same: 123. So also are the three angelical kings lords over their angels, even to the heart and deepest ground, though they cannot corporeally or bodily vary or change themselves, as God himself can who hath created them; yet they rule them (viz. the angels) corporeally, and are bound or united to them, as body and soul are bound the one to the other. 124. For the king is their head, and they are the members of the king; and the qualifying [facultating, potentiating] or fountain princely angels are the king's counsellors, or officers [instruments in employment] in his affairs, like the five senses in man, or as the hands and feet, or the mouth, nostrils, eyes and ears, whereby the king
2executeth or accomplisheth his affairs. 125. Now as all angels are bound to the king, so is the king also bound to God his Creator, as body and soul; the body signifieth God; and the soul signifieth the angelical king, who is in the body of God, and is become a creature in the body of God, and abideth eternally in the body of God, as the soul doth in its nest. And therefore also hath God so highly glorified him, as his own propriety, or as the soul is glorified in the body. 126. Thus the king or great prince Michael looks like God the Father in his glorification, clarity or brightness, and is a king and prince of God upon the mount of God, and hath his office in the deep wherein he is created. 127. That circumference or space, region or province, wherein he and his angels are created, is his kingdom, and he is a loving son of God the Father in nature, a creaturely son, in whom the Father delighteth. 128. Thou must not compare him with the Heart or light of God, which is in the whole Father, which has neither beginning nor end, no more than hath God the Father himself. 129. For this prince is a creature, and hath a beginning, but he is in God the Father, and is bound and united with him in his love, as his dearly beloved son, whom he hath created out of himself. 130. Therefore he hath set upon him the crown of honour, of might, power and authority, so that there is in heaven no higher nor more excellent nor mightier than he is, except God himself in his Ternary. And this is one king, rightly described,
3with a true ground in the knowledge of the spirit. Of the second King LUCIFER, now so called, because of his Fall. 131. King LUCIFER, shut thy eyes here a little, and stop thy ears a little, that thou mayest neither hear nor see, or else thou wilt be horribly ashamed that another sitteth upon thy seat, and so thy shame shall be fully discovered yet before the end of the world, which thou hast kept so closely concealed in secret, and suppressed ever since the beginning of the world, wheresoever thou couldst: I will now describe thy kingly primacy, not for thee, but for the benefit of man. 132. This high and mighty, glorious and beautiful king, lost his right name in his fall: For he is now called LUCIFER, that is, one carried forth or expelled out of the light of God. 133. His name was not so at the beginning: for he was a creaturely prince or king of the heart of God in the bright light, even the brightest among the three kings of angels. Of his Creation. 134. As Michael is created according to the quality, manner and property of God the Father, so was Lucifer created according to the quality, condition and beauty of God the Son, and was bound to and united with him in love, as a dear son or heart, and his heart also stood in the centre of light, as if he had been God himself; and his beauty or brightness transcended all. 135. For his circumference, conception or chief mother, was the Son of God, and there he stood as a king or prince of God.
The source text as printed, transcribed diplomatically. Where the source language uses a non-Latin script that reaches us only through a Victorian romanisation, this layer is labelled transliteration, because that is what we hold.
No commentary for this page.