Concerning the Three Principles of the Divine Essence

Gate passedSeeker and aboveModern transcription — not a facsimileJacob Boehme (1575–1624)PUBLIC DOMAIN as published. Boehme d. 1624; the Sparrow translation is 1656. Per-part determination MADE 2026-08-29: the eight front-matter segments carrying the 2009 electronic edition own introductory apparatus were withheld (three excised in full, five redacted in part where a public-domain title block or Boehme text shared the page). The remaining 5,022 segments are public domain and are open at seeker tier.905 of 1000 segments carry a modern register · 343 pp

Jacob Boehme — the works in English, and one in Frencheditor’s preface to the volume

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.

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1macrocosm, of this world. Eve spake no otherwise, than as the Apostles thought, that Christ was to erect a worldly kingdom ; so Eve thought that her son (as a strong champion) should break the head of the devil, and set up a glorious kingdom ; from whence instantly a twofold understanding [or different condition] followed, and two sorts of Churches ; the one [built or relying] upon the mercy of God ; and the other, upon their own might [authority or power]. And therefore Cain could not endure his brother, because Abel pressed hard upon the mercy of God, and Cain [relied] upon his own power [might and authority]. He thought himself to be the lord of the whole world, as his mother had instructed him ; and therefore now he would break the head of the serpent in his own might as a warrior [or soldier], and began with his brother Abel, for his faith relied not on God, but on his own power ; and here the serpent did sting the Treader upon the Serpent in the heel the first time. Ch. 20] ADAM AND EVE'S GOING OUT OF PARADISE 523 The Gate of the Mysteries, [or the Exposition of the hidden Secrets}.

245. Reason saith, How might that come to pass, that the first man born of a woman was [so evil] a malicious murderer ? Behold, thou immodest vile whorish world, here thou shalt find a glass ; behold thyself [and see] what thou art. Here again the great secrets meet us in the light of nature, very clearly and plainly to be understood. For Adam and Eve were entered into the spirit of this world, and the region of the four stars, with the infection of the devil, had miserably possessed them. And although they did somewhat stick to the word of the promise, yet the true longing and love towards God was very much extinguished ; and on the contrary, the longing and desire after this world was kindled in them ; and besides, they gat (from the region of the stars) a bestial lust [or wanton desire] towards one another, so that their tincture thus became a fierce bestial [lust or] longing ; for they had no law but the light of nature, which they suppressed, and kindled themselves in wanton [lust], to which the devil helped them. 46. And now when Eve *was impregnated, her i now began to , ,. , r , be conceived tincture was wholly murderous and talse, tor ner with child, spirit in the love looked not upon God with a total trust and confidence. Also the wisdom of God stood hidden in the centre of the light of her life. 524 THE THREE PRINCIPLES [Ch. 20 1 Or incline. Eve did not l unite [or yield herself] to it with love

3and confidence, but much rather to the lust of this world ; she must bring it to pass, if anything were to be done ; and being her trust was not in God, so also God was not in her, but in his own centre [or Principle] ; and the wrath began to flow forth [boil or work] ; and this is that which Christ said, An evil tree bringeth forth evil fruit ; and so out of a false tincture grew a sour evil root, and consequently such a tree and fruit. Also that which 2 Or copula- goeth forth [is] as the tincture in the 2 mixture was, tion. and such a child is generated, for the spirit of the life generateth itself out of the essences. 47. And seeing Adam was gone out of Paradise into the spirit of this world, therefore now the strife was already between the two kingdoms (viz. the kingdom of heaven, and the kingdom of hell) about the children of Eve ; and here it is seen that the wrath had the victory ; and the spirit of God complaineth, not without cause, [saying], / am as a grape-gatherer that gleaneth, and yet fain would eat of the best fruit. 48. But the fault lieth in man ; if he did put his trust in the love of God, then the kingdom of God would have the victory ; but if he putteth it in his evil lust and wantonness, in himself, in his own ability [or power], then he is captivated by the wrath, and his body and soul are in the wrath. But when he putteth his mind and confidence in God, then he goeth out from the wrath, and the

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.

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Commentary

whole issue ·

Cross-estate[P-V]translated_asboehme:2:1:003

This English 'Concerning the Three Principles of the Divine Essence' and boehme:11 are the same work in two languages — and the French is not just any translation. It is Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin's own: 'Des trois principes de l'essence divine', issued by the Périsse brothers of the rue Mercière. Saint-Martin learned German in his fifties expressly to read Boehme, and spent his last years translating him. The estate therefore holds, side by side, the text that formed the Unknown Philosopher and the form in which he gave it to France — the single most direct documentary link between the two founders of this corpus.

→ boehme:11