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.
1103. Under Mercury standeth the moon, and there the sinking standeth still, and is a substance mixed of all: it affordeth the carcass, and all that belongeth thereto: it taketh all to it, and maketh the whole image as a beast; it is the corporeity: Venus congealeth in it; it retaineth all; for it letteth nothing sink down, and it standeth always in fear of falling, in respect of the earth, which standeth under it; for it feeleth the anger in the earth, and therefore is afraid, and doth not sink down, but runneth and maketh haste about, as if it were fugitive: It is a false thing, for it desireth both that which is superior and that which is inferior, and flattereth with the centre of the earth, and with the centre of the sun. 104. And as this dominion or government is in itself, so is the dominion in every creature, also their life standeth thus: and you see how the wheel turneth round, as [in] the centre, and the body with the essences standeth still. 105. The six planets run round about the sun, as about their heart, and afford virtue to it, and draw virtue from the sun: so also the life windeth itself thus about the heart, and penetrateth into the heart; for the spirit-life penetrateth to the soul, which burneth as a light out of the heart, out of the tincture of the heart, and windeth itself inwards thereinto, and they always drive forth one another: and so this form is as a turning wheel: for the life of the spirit is thus, in its original.
2106. They who say, that the sun goeth forth, speak as the blind do of colours, and have never known the centre [of nature] ; yet they are not to be blamed for that: for it was reserved [or sealed] till the seal of the sun opened itself at the seventh sounding of the trumpet. Observe this, it is no fiction or boasting: It doth concern you all, or else you will die in blindness, for which God is not to be blamed. 107. The world, after the Fall, hath but one eye, for it hath lived under the six seals; understand, under the six planets, with its knowledge: but you shall see the seventh seal with the eye of Sol; we here speak what we know. 108. Understand us aright, thus we will give light to those that hardly apprehend i t: Behold, and observe: The whole government of this world, in every life, cometh from the constellations, good and evil; and they are also the cause that the four elements, fire, air, water, and earth, were stirred up: else all in this world would be still. 109. And so now you see the upper government, especially in the seven planets: for they are
3the government or dominion of the spirit, and that is twofold: They have the tincture-government, viz. the fire-life, and also the air-government, viz. the water-life: The three planets above the sun, together with the sun, manage the fire-life and government: and the three beneath the sun, are the going forth of the fire's tincture, and are a sinking down, and together with the sun manage the air-government, and have the female kind, for they have the substantiality of the matrix, and the tincture of the upper matrix; the tincture retaineth the soul, and the nether matrix of Venus [retaineth] the spirit. 110. Thus the upper desireth the lower, and the lower desireth the upper, and is indeed but one body: for Sol is the heart, and hath the lustre of the Majesty of this [outward third] Principle. 111. Thus you understand the two kinds, the male and the female: The [male or] man is the head, and hath in him the upper government, with the fire of the tincture, and he hath in his tincture the soul, which is desirous of Venus, which is the corporeal matrix: for the soul will have spirit, and also body, and that hath the matrix of the [female or] woman. 112. And the lower government is the [female or] woman, and her government consisteth in the Moon: for Sol affordeth it heart, and Venus [affordeth it] tincture, and yet hath no fiery, but
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.
1103. Under Mercury standeth the moon, and there the sinking standeth still, and is a substance mixed of all: it affordeth the carcass, and all that belongeth thereto: it taketh all to it, and maketh the whole image as a beast; it is the corporeity: Venus congealeth in it; it retaineth all; for it letteth nothing sink down, and it standeth always in fear of falling, in respect of the earth, which standeth under it; for it feeleth the anger in the earth, and therefore is afraid, and doth not sink down, but runneth and maketh haste about, as if it were fugitive: It is a false thing, for it desireth both that which is superior and that which is inferior, and flattereth with the centre of the earth, and with the centre of the sun. 104. And as this dominion or government is in itself, so is the dominion in every creature, also their life standeth thus: and you see how the wheel turneth round, as [in] the centre, and the body with the essences standeth still. 105. The six planets run round about the sun, as about their heart, and afford virtue to it, and draw virtue from the sun: so also the life windeth itself thus about the heart, and penetrateth into the heart; for the spirit-life penetrateth to the soul, which burneth as a light out of the heart, out of the tincture of the heart, and windeth itself inwards thereinto, and they always drive forth one another: and so this form is as a turning wheel: for the life of the spirit is thus, in its original.
2106. They who say, that the sun goeth forth, speak as the blind do of colours, and have never known the centre [of nature] ; yet they are not to be blamed for that: for it was reserved [or sealed] till the seal of the sun opened itself at the seventh sounding of the trumpet. Observe this, it is no fiction or boasting: It doth concern you all, or else you will die in blindness, for which God is not to be blamed. 107. The world, after the Fall, hath but one eye, for it hath lived under the six seals; understand, under the six planets, with its knowledge: but you shall see the seventh seal with the eye of Sol; we here speak what we know. 108. Understand us aright, thus we will give light to those that hardly apprehend i t: Behold, and observe: The whole government of this world, in every life, cometh from the constellations, good and evil; and they are also the cause that the four elements, fire, air, water, and earth, were stirred up: else all in this world would be still. 109. And so now you see the upper government, especially in the seven planets: for they are
3the government or dominion of the spirit, and that is twofold: They have the tincture-government, viz. the fire-life, and also the air-government, viz. the water-life: The three planets above the sun, together with the sun, manage the fire-life and government: and the three beneath the sun, are the going forth of the fire's tincture, and are a sinking down, and together with the sun manage the air-government, and have the female kind, for they have the substantiality of the matrix, and the tincture of the upper matrix; the tincture retaineth the soul, and the nether matrix of Venus [retaineth] the spirit. 110. Thus the upper desireth the lower, and the lower desireth the upper, and is indeed but one body: for Sol is the heart, and hath the lustre of the Majesty of this [outward third] Principle. 111. Thus you understand the two kinds, the male and the female: The [male or] man is the head, and hath in him the upper government, with the fire of the tincture, and he hath in his tincture the soul, which is desirous of Venus, which is the corporeal matrix: for the soul will have spirit, and also body, and that hath the matrix of the [female or] woman. 112. And the lower government is the [female or] woman, and her government consisteth in the Moon: for Sol affordeth it heart, and Venus [affordeth it] tincture, and yet hath no fiery, but
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.