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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.
116. And the going within itself to the centre of the ground is Spirit; for it is the finder, who from eternity continually finds where there is nothing. It goes forth again from the centre of the ground, and seeks in the will. And then the mirror of the eye, viz. the Father's and Son's wisdom, becomes manifest; and wisdom stands accordingly before the Spirit of God, who in it manifests the unground. For its virtue, wherein the colours of the wonders shine forth, is revealed from the Father of the eternal will through the centre of his Heart or Ground by the forthgoing Spirit. 17. For it (wisdom) is that which is uttered, which the Father utters out of the centre of the Heart by the Holy Spirit, and stands in divine forms and images, in the ocular view of the Holy Tri-unity of God ; but as a virgin without bringing forth. It generates not the colours and figures which shine forth in it, and are revealed in the ground and essence; but all is together an eternal Magia, and dwells with the centre of the heart in itself, and by the spirit goes forth from the centre out of itself, and manifests itself in the eye of virgin wisdom endlessly. 18. For as the essence of the Deity has no gi-ound from which it arises or proceeds, so also the Willspirit has no ground where it might rest, where there were a place or limit, but is called Wonderful. And its word or heart, from which it goes 18 SIX THEOSOPHIC POINTS
2forth, is called the eternal Power of the Deity ; and the will which generates the heart and the power in itself is called eternal Counsel. 19. Thus the essence of the Deity is everj^where in the deep of the ungi'ound, like as a wheel or eye, where the beginning hath always the end ; and there is no place found for it, for it is itself the place of all beings and the fulness of all things, and yet is apprehended or seen by nothing. For it is an eye in itself, as Ezekiel the prophet saw this in a figure at the introduction of the spirit of his will into God, when his spiritual figure was introduced into the ^visdoni of God by the Spirit of God; there he attained the vision, and in no other way can that be. The Second Text. 20. We understand, then, that the divine Essence in threefoldness in the unground dwells in itself, but generates to itself a ground within itself, viz. the eternal word or heart, which is the centre or goal of rest in the Deity; though this is not to be understood as to being, but as to a threefold spirit, where each is the cause of the birth of the other. 21. And this threefold spirit is not measurable, divisible or fathomable; for there is no place found for it, and it is at the same time the ungi'ound of eternity, which gives birth to itself within itself in a ground. And no place or position can be conceived or found where the spirit of the tri-unity is not present, and in every being; but hidden to the THE FIRST POINT 19
3being, dwelling in itself, as an essence that at once fills all and yet dwells not in being, but itself has a being in itself; as we are to reflect concerning the ground and unground, how the two are to be understood in reference to each other. 22. Thus, we understand eternity: (1) How it was before the times of the creation of this world. (2) What the divine Essence is in itself without a principle. (3) What the eternal beginning in the unground is, and the eternal end in its own ground generated in itself, viz. the centre to the wordi, which word is the centre itself. (4) And yet the eternal birth of the Word in the will in the miiTor of the eternal wisdom, in the virgin, continually takes place from eternity to eternity without a genetrix or without bringing forth. 23. And in this virgin of the wisdom of God the eternal principle is as a hidden fire, which is recognized as in a mirror by its colours. It has been known from eternity to eternity in figure, and is known also thus to all eternity in the eternal origin, in wisdom. 24. And in this mirror, where the principle is disclosed from the eternal Unground, the essence of the three principles, according to the likeness of the holy triad, has been seen with their wonders as in an unfathomable deep, and that from eternity.
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.
116. And the going within itself to the centre of the ground is Spirit; for it is the finder, who from eternity continually finds where there is nothing. It goes forth again from the centre of the ground, and seeks in the will. And then the mirror of the eye, viz. the Father's and Son's wisdom, becomes manifest; and wisdom stands accordingly before the Spirit of God, who in it manifests the unground. For its virtue, wherein the colours of the wonders shine forth, is revealed from the Father of the eternal will through the centre of his Heart or Ground by the forthgoing Spirit. 17. For it (wisdom) is that which is uttered, which the Father utters out of the centre of the Heart by the Holy Spirit, and stands in divine forms and images, in the ocular view of the Holy Tri-unity of God ; but as a virgin without bringing forth. It generates not the colours and figures which shine forth in it, and are revealed in the ground and essence; but all is together an eternal Magia, and dwells with the centre of the heart in itself, and by the spirit goes forth from the centre out of itself, and manifests itself in the eye of virgin wisdom endlessly. 18. For as the essence of the Deity has no gi-ound from which it arises or proceeds, so also the Willspirit has no ground where it might rest, where there were a place or limit, but is called Wonderful. And its word or heart, from which it goes 18 SIX THEOSOPHIC POINTS
2forth, is called the eternal Power of the Deity ; and the will which generates the heart and the power in itself is called eternal Counsel. 19. Thus the essence of the Deity is everj^where in the deep of the ungi'ound, like as a wheel or eye, where the beginning hath always the end ; and there is no place found for it, for it is itself the place of all beings and the fulness of all things, and yet is apprehended or seen by nothing. For it is an eye in itself, as Ezekiel the prophet saw this in a figure at the introduction of the spirit of his will into God, when his spiritual figure was introduced into the ^visdoni of God by the Spirit of God; there he attained the vision, and in no other way can that be. The Second Text. 20. We understand, then, that the divine Essence in threefoldness in the unground dwells in itself, but generates to itself a ground within itself, viz. the eternal word or heart, which is the centre or goal of rest in the Deity; though this is not to be understood as to being, but as to a threefold spirit, where each is the cause of the birth of the other. 21. And this threefold spirit is not measurable, divisible or fathomable; for there is no place found for it, and it is at the same time the ungi'ound of eternity, which gives birth to itself within itself in a ground. And no place or position can be conceived or found where the spirit of the tri-unity is not present, and in every being; but hidden to the THE FIRST POINT 19
3being, dwelling in itself, as an essence that at once fills all and yet dwells not in being, but itself has a being in itself; as we are to reflect concerning the ground and unground, how the two are to be understood in reference to each other. 22. Thus, we understand eternity: (1) How it was before the times of the creation of this world. (2) What the divine Essence is in itself without a principle. (3) What the eternal beginning in the unground is, and the eternal end in its own ground generated in itself, viz. the centre to the wordi, which word is the centre itself. (4) And yet the eternal birth of the Word in the will in the miiTor of the eternal wisdom, in the virgin, continually takes place from eternity to eternity without a genetrix or without bringing forth. 23. And in this virgin of the wisdom of God the eternal principle is as a hidden fire, which is recognized as in a mirror by its colours. It has been known from eternity to eternity in figure, and is known also thus to all eternity in the eternal origin, in wisdom. 24. And in this mirror, where the principle is disclosed from the eternal Unground, the essence of the three principles, according to the likeness of the holy triad, has been seen with their wonders as in an unfathomable deep, and that from eternity.
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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