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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.
171. You may well perceive what we set before you, thus: The zodiac, with the constellations, belong to the mind, as well in the deep of the world, as also in the creature, the twelve signs are the twelve parts which the cross in the centre maketh; from which the upper dominion is divided into twelve parts, as also the mind is: For the six forms in the centre, besides Sol, each of them divide themselves into two parts, [Sol divideth not itself but only into the Number Three, or into the splendour-fire and Tincture], one according to the tincture that hath life [in it], the other according to the tincture of the air, which hath spirit [in it], and yet maketh no life. 72. Thus the signs are twelve, which divide themselves into two governments, viz. into a heavenly, according to the Tincture, and into an earthly according to the spirit of this world, viz. the air; and the two kingdoms are also twofold, viz. in the tincture of the fire there is an angelical kingdom, and backwards [retrograde] a hellish; and the kingdom in the spirit of the air is also twofold: for the inward [kingdom] is the spirit of God, and the outward is the spirit of the creatures; as David saith, The LORD rideth upon the wings of the wind; that is, the spirit of God which cometh to succour and relieve his work.
273. So also the tincture kingdom in God maketh also six forms; and that of the spirit, out of the tincture, which is the Heart and life, and is the spirit of God, maketh also six in number, and they are together twelve in number: These the woman in the Revelation, which the dragon would devour, weareth upon her head, being twelve stars; for one number six she received from the spirit of this world, wherein the Holy Ghost keepeth the eternal life; and the other number six she hath from the eternal tincture, out of the eternal centre, out of the Word: for she weareth the angelical zodiac, and also the human. 74. And each centre hath six in number, which make together the number twelve: the seventh number of the centre is substantiality, and the [dominion or] kingdom; for God became man, and brought the two kingdoms into one: for men and angels are in one kingdom in God. 75. And so the Image [of the woman] in the Revelation hath twelve stars upon the crown: for the Image representeth God; it is the similitude of God, in which he revealeth himself, and wherein he dwelleth. The crown signifieth the power of the Majesty of God, as a king weareth a crown, which signifieth dominion and majesty.
376. But that the Image weareth a crown, with twelve stars upon the crown, it signifieth that the Deity is above the humanity, and that Mary is not God himself; but the crown signifieth God, and the stars [signify] the spirits of God: six in the Deity, and six in the humanity: for God and man are become one person; Therefore Mary also weareth all [the twelve stars], for we are God's children. 77. Seeing then, that the number twelve containeth two kingdoms in the doubled number [of six], viz. an angelical and a human, each in the number of six, which together make twelve, so also the two kingdoms have other two numbers of six in them, ( viz. the fire, the kingdom of the abyss; and the air, the kingdom of living creatures and all earthly things); and these have each of them in the centre the number six, according to the six planets earthy, and according to the six planets fiery, which now together make the number of four- and-twenty, which are the fourandtwenty letters in languages, whence they are sprung; and we perceive that the tongue speaketh that which is good, and that which is evil, that which is heavenly, and that which is devilish, according to the two sources [or properties] of the letters; as proper names intimate, according to the language of nature. 78. Now, when this number, according to 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.
171. You may well perceive what we set before you, thus: The zodiac, with the constellations, belong to the mind, as well in the deep of the world, as also in the creature, the twelve signs are the twelve parts which the cross in the centre maketh; from which the upper dominion is divided into twelve parts, as also the mind is: For the six forms in the centre, besides Sol, each of them divide themselves into two parts, [Sol divideth not itself but only into the Number Three, or into the splendour-fire and Tincture], one according to the tincture that hath life [in it], the other according to the tincture of the air, which hath spirit [in it], and yet maketh no life. 72. Thus the signs are twelve, which divide themselves into two governments, viz. into a heavenly, according to the Tincture, and into an earthly according to the spirit of this world, viz. the air; and the two kingdoms are also twofold, viz. in the tincture of the fire there is an angelical kingdom, and backwards [retrograde] a hellish; and the kingdom in the spirit of the air is also twofold: for the inward [kingdom] is the spirit of God, and the outward is the spirit of the creatures; as David saith, The LORD rideth upon the wings of the wind; that is, the spirit of God which cometh to succour and relieve his work.
273. So also the tincture kingdom in God maketh also six forms; and that of the spirit, out of the tincture, which is the Heart and life, and is the spirit of God, maketh also six in number, and they are together twelve in number: These the woman in the Revelation, which the dragon would devour, weareth upon her head, being twelve stars; for one number six she received from the spirit of this world, wherein the Holy Ghost keepeth the eternal life; and the other number six she hath from the eternal tincture, out of the eternal centre, out of the Word: for she weareth the angelical zodiac, and also the human. 74. And each centre hath six in number, which make together the number twelve: the seventh number of the centre is substantiality, and the [dominion or] kingdom; for God became man, and brought the two kingdoms into one: for men and angels are in one kingdom in God. 75. And so the Image [of the woman] in the Revelation hath twelve stars upon the crown: for the Image representeth God; it is the similitude of God, in which he revealeth himself, and wherein he dwelleth. The crown signifieth the power of the Majesty of God, as a king weareth a crown, which signifieth dominion and majesty.
376. But that the Image weareth a crown, with twelve stars upon the crown, it signifieth that the Deity is above the humanity, and that Mary is not God himself; but the crown signifieth God, and the stars [signify] the spirits of God: six in the Deity, and six in the humanity: for God and man are become one person; Therefore Mary also weareth all [the twelve stars], for we are God's children. 77. Seeing then, that the number twelve containeth two kingdoms in the doubled number [of six], viz. an angelical and a human, each in the number of six, which together make twelve, so also the two kingdoms have other two numbers of six in them, ( viz. the fire, the kingdom of the abyss; and the air, the kingdom of living creatures and all earthly things); and these have each of them in the centre the number six, according to the six planets earthy, and according to the six planets fiery, which now together make the number of four- and-twenty, which are the fourandtwenty letters in languages, whence they are sprung; and we perceive that the tongue speaketh that which is good, and that which is evil, that which is heavenly, and that which is devilish, according to the two sources [or properties] of the letters; as proper names intimate, according to the language of nature. 78. Now, when this number, according to 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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