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.
1222. Under the Heart, Number 49, standeth Paradise: The word beginneth at the outward circle on the left hand, where above, Number 5, is the Spirit of the Great Mystery of the Abyss of Eternity, viz. V J and below, at the same circle, Number 8, Essence is written; and it goeth through the cross, and at the right hand through all the three circles, and into the hberty; which signifieth the 4 station of paradise: It ariseth in the Mystery of eternity, and groweth up through the outward world, and also through the hght world, hidden in the outward world, and manifest in the second Principle in the light world; and therefore that word goeth through all the three circles, signifying the original of the human body. 1 Or own regimen. 2 a show. 3 Or in. 4 Or place. Divine 1 Essentiality; Number 50. 223. For in this place, out of this essentiality, was Adam's body (understand the outward body) created according to the third Principle, and the inward body (understand the body of the image) out of the heavenly part in the light world, out of the divine essentiality, as it is set down at the right hand near Paradise, Number 50. Christ's Flesh; Numbers 51, 52.
2224. That divine essence (understand essence, not spirit) is enclosed in the wisdom of God, and the heavenly tincture is in it: For this essence brought God's Word (which became man, 2 in Mary) into her essentiality (viz. in the body of the image), which was enclosed in death; and in 3 it God and man became one person: For this flesh is Christ's flesh, according to the heavenly part; therefore after essentiality standeth Christ's flesh, Numbers 51, 52. 225. Christ had such flesh in the inward man, as Adam had before Eve [was taken out of him], when he stood in the divine image in purity; and therefore none can enter into paradise, except they obtain that flesh again that Adam had before the fall, and Christ in his incarnation: Therefore we must all be 4 born anew out of the Heart upon the Cross, and put on Christ. 1 Or Substantiality. 2 into. 3 Viz. the essentiality, or substantialilty. 4 regenerated. Mystery; Number 53. 226. Under the word Paradise, Number 53 standeth, 1 Mystery, and the word ariseth at the left hand in the second circle, where above, at the same circle, Number 4, the Character O standeth; and below, Principle and Fire, Number 7; and it goeth to the right hand through the cross, and through the first circle at the right hand: This rightly sheweth man's creation according to the body.
3227. For the body is a Mystery taken out of the inward and outward world, from above and beneath; understand out of the matrix of the earth: This is the matrix of the earth; out of this 2 Principle 3 it is created, and we see that it was created out of the inward and outward 4 essence (that is, out of the dark and light world), and is mixed with evil (that is, with wrath), and also with good. Wonder, Number 54; Angel, Number 55; Spirit, Number 56. 228. But man was created out of the Mystery an image and similitude of God, for 5 a divine wonder: Therefore at the right hand, Number 54, there standeth Wonder; for he was a wonder of all essences, a lord of all essences, taken out of all essences; and he was an angel in the inward image: As next to the word Wonder there standeth Angel, in the liberty, Number 55; for his spirit dwelt in the liberty of God, that is, in the Majesty: As after the word Angel there standeth Spirit, Number 56, which signifieth every true man, viz. the first before the fall, and the second in Christ, into whom he must enter again, or else he remaineth separated from God. 1 Mysterium. 2 Principium. 3 the earth. 4 Or substance. 5 Or a wonder of God. Four Elements; Number 57. 229. Under the word Mystery there standeth, at Number 57, Four Elements, which arise at the outward circle on the left hand, and go to the right hand through
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.
1222. Under the Heart, Number 49, standeth Paradise: The word beginneth at the outward circle on the left hand, where above, Number 5, is the Spirit of the Great Mystery of the Abyss of Eternity, viz. V J and below, at the same circle, Number 8, Essence is written; and it goeth through the cross, and at the right hand through all the three circles, and into the hberty; which signifieth the 4 station of paradise: It ariseth in the Mystery of eternity, and groweth up through the outward world, and also through the hght world, hidden in the outward world, and manifest in the second Principle in the light world; and therefore that word goeth through all the three circles, signifying the original of the human body. 1 Or own regimen. 2 a show. 3 Or in. 4 Or place. Divine 1 Essentiality; Number 50. 223. For in this place, out of this essentiality, was Adam's body (understand the outward body) created according to the third Principle, and the inward body (understand the body of the image) out of the heavenly part in the light world, out of the divine essentiality, as it is set down at the right hand near Paradise, Number 50. Christ's Flesh; Numbers 51, 52.
2224. That divine essence (understand essence, not spirit) is enclosed in the wisdom of God, and the heavenly tincture is in it: For this essence brought God's Word (which became man, 2 in Mary) into her essentiality (viz. in the body of the image), which was enclosed in death; and in 3 it God and man became one person: For this flesh is Christ's flesh, according to the heavenly part; therefore after essentiality standeth Christ's flesh, Numbers 51, 52. 225. Christ had such flesh in the inward man, as Adam had before Eve [was taken out of him], when he stood in the divine image in purity; and therefore none can enter into paradise, except they obtain that flesh again that Adam had before the fall, and Christ in his incarnation: Therefore we must all be 4 born anew out of the Heart upon the Cross, and put on Christ. 1 Or Substantiality. 2 into. 3 Viz. the essentiality, or substantialilty. 4 regenerated. Mystery; Number 53. 226. Under the word Paradise, Number 53 standeth, 1 Mystery, and the word ariseth at the left hand in the second circle, where above, at the same circle, Number 4, the Character O standeth; and below, Principle and Fire, Number 7; and it goeth to the right hand through the cross, and through the first circle at the right hand: This rightly sheweth man's creation according to the body.
3227. For the body is a Mystery taken out of the inward and outward world, from above and beneath; understand out of the matrix of the earth: This is the matrix of the earth; out of this 2 Principle 3 it is created, and we see that it was created out of the inward and outward 4 essence (that is, out of the dark and light world), and is mixed with evil (that is, with wrath), and also with good. Wonder, Number 54; Angel, Number 55; Spirit, Number 56. 228. But man was created out of the Mystery an image and similitude of God, for 5 a divine wonder: Therefore at the right hand, Number 54, there standeth Wonder; for he was a wonder of all essences, a lord of all essences, taken out of all essences; and he was an angel in the inward image: As next to the word Wonder there standeth Angel, in the liberty, Number 55; for his spirit dwelt in the liberty of God, that is, in the Majesty: As after the word Angel there standeth Spirit, Number 56, which signifieth every true man, viz. the first before the fall, and the second in Christ, into whom he must enter again, or else he remaineth separated from God. 1 Mysterium. 2 Principium. 3 the earth. 4 Or substance. 5 Or a wonder of God. Four Elements; Number 57. 229. Under the word Mystery there standeth, at Number 57, Four Elements, which arise at the outward circle on the left hand, and go to the right hand through
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.