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.

primarypage 278

1seen. Thus likewise (understand us, I prithee, thou very precious and noble mind) this second surpassing excellent creation is in the Fiat ; when God saw and took notice of our miserable fall, he did illustrate [or manifest] himself by the holy eternal virgin of his wisdom in the eternal wonders, in 3 mercy which always floweth out of his heart, and did comprehend with his speculation [or manifestation] the throne ; and did further illustrate himself in the throne into many millions without number, and established his covenant with his oath therein, with his precious promise of the woman's seed. 19. Thus, my very precious mind, apprehend it aright. This same throne was made in time (as the time of his covenant was revealed) an angelical principality in the mercy of God, in the holy pure element, in the sacred Ternary, that is, in the holy earth, wherein the Deity is substantially known; so that the whole mercy of God (which is unmeasurable, and everywhere in the sacred Ternary ; 8 BamrihertzigJceit. Ch. 23] THE PRECIOUS TESTAMENTS OF CHRIST 643

2which is likewise so great in the holy element, that it compriseth heaven and this world) became a man ; that is, a substantial similitude of the spirit of the Trinity, in which (likeness) the Trinity dwelleth with complete fulness ; and in this great angelical throne and principality stood in the beginning, and from eternity, the aspect in the infinite multiplicity proceeding from all the essences in the limbus of the Father, and became truly illustrate [or manifest] in the time of the promise. 20. Thus now even unto this very day all things are yet in the Fiat, or creating, and the creation hath no end until the judgment of God, where that which hath grown on the holy tree shall be separated from the unholy thistles and thorns ; and we men are these innumerable aspects (or ideas) in the Fiat of the great princely throne ; and we, who are holy, shall be created in the body of this Prince in God ; but we that degenerate, or perish, shall be cast out as naughty x apples unto the swine of 1 fruit, the devil. 21. Thus we were foreseen [or elected] in Christ Jesus before the foundations of the world were laid, that we should be his angels and servants in his high princely throne, in the body of his element, in which his spirit, viz. the Holy Trinity, will dwell. 22. This I would clearly demonstrate unto thee * in the kingdom of this world, yea in all things ; 2 Or upon it, thou shalt not be able to name any thing out of example.

3644 THE THREE PRINCIPLES [Oil. 23 which I will not demonstrate it unto thee, if God give us leave ; but seeing it will here take up too much room, I will write a book by itself of it, if the Lord permit. 23. Therefore, my beloved soul, be lively, and see what thy noble bridegroom hath left thee in his Testaments for a legacy ; as namely, in the Baptism, the water of his covenant, flowing from his holy original body. Whereas we in this world, viz. in the extern birth of his body, do acknowledge four things, namely, fire, air, water, and earth, wherein our earthly body consisteth ; so likewise in the heavenly body there are four such things. The fire is the enkindling of the divine desire. The water is that which the fire desireth, whence it becomes meek, and a light. The air is the joyful spirit which bloweth up the fire, and maketh in the water the motion. And the earth is the true essence which is born in the three elements, and is rightly called Ternarius Sanctus [the sacred Ternary], in which the tincture is brought forth in the light of the meekness ; and therein also is born the holy blood out of the water, being an oil of the water, in which the light shineth, and the spirit of life consisteth. 24. Understand it thus, that water is the water 1 Or seed. of the eternal life in the llimbus of God in the holy Ternary ; and that is the water which bap20rceiebra- tizeth the soul, when we keep the 2use of his tion.

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.

primarypage 278

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