Concerning the Three Principles of the Divine Essence
The motive for this whole teaching of "forms" or " qualities " is, owing to the abundance and variety of imagery, not easy to discern or point out. But we may venture to suppose that the philosopher was guided by his awareness of the presence of good and evil in all things, and that he found the good in the visibility, the audibleness and the form, in the intellectual side, in short of nature, wherefrom he took light, sound and loveliness as the last three forms ; while the impression of the " furious madness " of mutually antagonistic elemental forces in lifeless inorganic nature furnished material for his first three forms. Describing the arising of the anguish (3rd form) out of the two first forms, Boehme uses the following words: "The hardness " (1st form) is a holding, and the drawing [or pull] is " afleeing. One wills (to stay) in itself ; the other (to " go) out of itself ; but as they cannot yield or part, they " become, within one another, as a turning- wheel .... " and hence follows a fearful anguish [terror]." Now, on reading the above, everyone will probably be reminded of Attraction and Repulsion, the struggle of which begets, in a body circumscribed in space, limitation, or, as Boehme calls it, " the anguish." Only here, as everywhere, other elements have been brought into this view of the fundamental facts of nature, and distort it so as
INTRODUCTION Ixi
to make it well-nigh unrecognizable. Yet the underlying idea ever breaks through, namely, that the peculiar essence of the first three forms, and, through these, of the others, is a hunger, a desire, a will which in the fourth form becomes fire, the origin of life, and that therein also the forms of light and love have their foundation. "The wrath is the root of all things." " And if the will be in darkness, it is then in the " anguish ; for it desires (to be) out of the dark- " ness .... and excites the root of the fire .... and " dwells in the broken [burst] darkness, in the light, in " sweetness and joy in itself " (Three Principles, xxi. 13, 16).
The fourth form, the fire, is the centrum natures ; it is the pivot between the kingdom of light and that of darkness, between love and anger, between good and evil ; it is the turning-point whence the will may exercise its sway in either direction, be it backward into the darkness, or forward into the world of light and divine love. "It is free, and has the choice between both of these."
The freedom of the will — Boehme develops this theme in connection with Biblical tradition and through a highly spiritual treatment of the same — leads to the fall, which consists in a breaking away of self-will from the divine will. The fall of Adam is preceded by that of Lucifer. The latter was created the mightiest angel in heaven; but instead of setting his "imagination in the light of God," and to " walk in God," he attempted, on the strength of his free-will, to measure himself against God, "triumph over the divine birth and lift himself above the Heart of God," and thereby "he removed himself out of God's love into God's anger," inclined himself towards "the dark world with the kingdom of phantasy," went out of the light, became limited to the first forms, which without the eternal light, constitute the Abyss, the anger of God and hell. "The foundation of hell is from all eternity, but was
Ixii THE THREE PRINCIPLES
The motive for this whole teaching of "forms" or " qualities " is, owing to the abundance and variety of imagery, not easy to discern or point out. But we may venture to suppose that the philosopher was guided by his awareness of the presence of good and evil in all things, and that he found the good in the visibility, the audibleness and the form, in the intellectual side, in short of nature, wherefrom he took light, sound and loveliness as the last three forms ; while the impression of the " furious madness " of mutually antagonistic elemental forces in lifeless inorganic nature furnished material for his first three forms. Describing the arising of the anguish (3rd form) out of the two first forms, Boehme uses the following words: "The hardness " (1st form) is a holding, and the drawing [or pull] is " afleeing. One wills (to stay) in itself ; the other (to " go) out of itself ; but as they cannot yield or part, they " become, within one another, as a turning- wheel .... " and hence follows a fearful anguish [terror]." Now, on reading the above, everyone will probably be reminded of Attraction and Repulsion, the struggle of which begets, in a body circumscribed in space, limitation, or, as Boehme calls it, " the anguish." Only here, as everywhere, other elements have been brought into this view of the fundamental facts of nature, and distort it so as
INTRODUCTION Ixi
to make it well-nigh unrecognizable. Yet the underlying idea ever breaks through, namely, that the peculiar essence of the first three forms, and, through these, of the others, is a hunger, a desire, a will which in the fourth form becomes fire, the origin of life, and that therein also the forms of light and love have their foundation. "The wrath is the root of all things." " And if the will be in darkness, it is then in the " anguish ; for it desires (to be) out of the dark- " ness .... and excites the root of the fire .... and " dwells in the broken [burst] darkness, in the light, in " sweetness and joy in itself " (Three Principles, xxi. 13, 16).
The fourth form, the fire, is the centrum natures ; it is the pivot between the kingdom of light and that of darkness, between love and anger, between good and evil ; it is the turning-point whence the will may exercise its sway in either direction, be it backward into the darkness, or forward into the world of light and divine love. "It is free, and has the choice between both of these."
The freedom of the will — Boehme develops this theme in connection with Biblical tradition and through a highly spiritual treatment of the same — leads to the fall, which consists in a breaking away of self-will from the divine will. The fall of Adam is preceded by that of Lucifer. The latter was created the mightiest angel in heaven; but instead of setting his "imagination in the light of God," and to " walk in God," he attempted, on the strength of his free-will, to measure himself against God, "triumph over the divine birth and lift himself above the Heart of God," and thereby "he removed himself out of God's love into God's anger," inclined himself towards "the dark world with the kingdom of phantasy," went out of the light, became limited to the first forms, which without the eternal light, constitute the Abyss, the anger of God and hell. "The foundation of hell is from all eternity, but was
Ixii THE THREE PRINCIPLES