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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.
16. And as we know that the Light comes to the aid of the stern life of Nature, of the properties of the essences, so that a joyous hfe arises, and is thus changed in the Light; so also we know that the life of dark wrathfulness is the enemy of the Light, for it cannot catch the Light. The eternal Light shines through the darkness, and the darkness cannot comprehend it ; for the plurality of wills in the dark Nature are all shut up in death; the Light shines not in them, but through them ; they seize not, nor do they see the Light. Nevertheless, the Light is in the dark world, but it fills not the dark66 SIX THEOSOPHIC POINTS ness; and therefore the essences of the dark world remain a hostile poison and death, the essences being at enmity with themselves. 7. Thus there are three principles in one another, and one comprehends not the other ; and the eternal Light cannot be laid hold of by anything, unless that thing fall into death, and give its essence voluntarily to the fire of Nature, and pass with its essential will out of itself into the Light, and abandon itself wholly to the Light; and desire to will or to do nothing, but commit its will to the Light, that the Light may be its will.
28. Thus the Light seizes it, and it also the Light. And thus the evil will is given up to the Light, and the Light gives its power to the malignity, and makes of the malignity a friendly good will, which is only a love-desire; for the gentleness of the Light has wholly embodied itself in the hostile will. 9. So then God's will is done, and the evil is transformed into good, and God's love shines from his anger and fierce vn-ath; and no wrath is known in God's Eternal Nature. Thus we are to understand how the eternal Light, or the eternal Power-tree, shines through all the three principles, unapprehended by any of them; for so long as an essence is out of God's will (viz. the gentle light-will), so long is it sohtary and dwells in itself , and comprehends nothing of God. But if it unite itself to God, and break and sink its own will, then it is one spirit in and with God, and God shines from that essence. 10. And we understand also why the wicked soul, THE FOURTH POINT 67 as well as the devil, sees not and knows not God; namely, because their will will not unite itself to God, it will itself be lord. It remains accordingly without God, only in itself, and God remains also in himself; and so one dwells in the other, and knows nothing of the other, for one turns its back to the other, and sees not the face of the other.
311. And thus the world of light knows nothing of the devils, and the devils know nothing of the world of light, save only this, that they were once in it. They represent it to themselves as one who sees in imagination; although the hght-world no longer yields itself up to their imagination, neither do they imaginate after it, for it terrifies them ; also they are ashamed about it. 12. So likewise we are to understand concerning the outer world. God's light shines through and through, but is apprehended only by that which unites itself thereunto. Seeing then this outer world as it were dumb and without understanding in respect of God, therefore it remains in its own will, and carries its own spirit in itself, although God has given it a Nature-god, viz. the sun, into which every being should cast its will and desire; whatever is in this world and does not do so, that remains in itself a great malignity and is its own enmity. 13. And this world is recognized as a special principle because it has a Nature-god of its own, namely the sun; and yet truly the light of the Deity shines through all, through and through. The light of the sun takes essence from God's fire, 68 SIX THEOSOPHIC POINTS
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.
16. And as we know that the Light comes to the aid of the stern life of Nature, of the properties of the essences, so that a joyous hfe arises, and is thus changed in the Light; so also we know that the life of dark wrathfulness is the enemy of the Light, for it cannot catch the Light. The eternal Light shines through the darkness, and the darkness cannot comprehend it ; for the plurality of wills in the dark Nature are all shut up in death; the Light shines not in them, but through them ; they seize not, nor do they see the Light. Nevertheless, the Light is in the dark world, but it fills not the dark66 SIX THEOSOPHIC POINTS ness; and therefore the essences of the dark world remain a hostile poison and death, the essences being at enmity with themselves. 7. Thus there are three principles in one another, and one comprehends not the other ; and the eternal Light cannot be laid hold of by anything, unless that thing fall into death, and give its essence voluntarily to the fire of Nature, and pass with its essential will out of itself into the Light, and abandon itself wholly to the Light; and desire to will or to do nothing, but commit its will to the Light, that the Light may be its will.
28. Thus the Light seizes it, and it also the Light. And thus the evil will is given up to the Light, and the Light gives its power to the malignity, and makes of the malignity a friendly good will, which is only a love-desire; for the gentleness of the Light has wholly embodied itself in the hostile will. 9. So then God's will is done, and the evil is transformed into good, and God's love shines from his anger and fierce vn-ath; and no wrath is known in God's Eternal Nature. Thus we are to understand how the eternal Light, or the eternal Power-tree, shines through all the three principles, unapprehended by any of them; for so long as an essence is out of God's will (viz. the gentle light-will), so long is it sohtary and dwells in itself , and comprehends nothing of God. But if it unite itself to God, and break and sink its own will, then it is one spirit in and with God, and God shines from that essence. 10. And we understand also why the wicked soul, THE FOURTH POINT 67 as well as the devil, sees not and knows not God; namely, because their will will not unite itself to God, it will itself be lord. It remains accordingly without God, only in itself, and God remains also in himself; and so one dwells in the other, and knows nothing of the other, for one turns its back to the other, and sees not the face of the other.
311. And thus the world of light knows nothing of the devils, and the devils know nothing of the world of light, save only this, that they were once in it. They represent it to themselves as one who sees in imagination; although the hght-world no longer yields itself up to their imagination, neither do they imaginate after it, for it terrifies them ; also they are ashamed about it. 12. So likewise we are to understand concerning the outer world. God's light shines through and through, but is apprehended only by that which unites itself thereunto. Seeing then this outer world as it were dumb and without understanding in respect of God, therefore it remains in its own will, and carries its own spirit in itself, although God has given it a Nature-god, viz. the sun, into which every being should cast its will and desire; whatever is in this world and does not do so, that remains in itself a great malignity and is its own enmity. 13. And this world is recognized as a special principle because it has a Nature-god of its own, namely the sun; and yet truly the light of the Deity shines through all, through and through. The light of the sun takes essence from God's fire, 68 SIX THEOSOPHIC POINTS
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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