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.
125. We are now to understand that the first Principle is magical in origin ; for it is generated in desire, in the will. Hence its craving and contrawill to bring forth is also magical, namely to bring forth the second Principle. 20 SIX THEOSOPHIC POINTS 26. And whereas in the first and second principle only a spirit without comprehensible [corporeal] being is understood; yet there is also the cra\ang to give birth furthermore to the third Principle, wherein the spirit of the two principles might rest and manifest itself in similitude. 27. And though each principle has its centre, the first principle stands in magical quality, and its centre is fire, which cannot subsist without substance; therefore its hunger and desire is after substance. 28. And in regard to the first principle, if we speak only of one (though it is not single and solitary) , we are to understand that the unfathomable will in the centre of the unground, in which the eternal Word is continually generated from eternity, is desirous ; for the will desires the centre, viz. the word or heart.
229. Secondly, it desires that the heart should be manifest. For in the unground there is no manifestation, but an eternal nothingness;; a stillness without being or colours, neither any \drtue — (but in Desire colours, power and virtue come to be) — and is thus hidden in itself, and were eternally not manifest ; for there would be no light, splendour or majesty, but a threefold spirit in itself, which were without source (Qual) of any being. 30. And thus we are to understand the essence of the deepest Deity, without and beyond Nature. 31. Further, we are to understand that the eternal will of the Deity desires to manifest itself from its own ground in the light of Majesty, whereTHE FIRST POINT 21 by we apprehend the first will of the Father to the Son and to the light of Majesty to be desirous. And that in two ways : The first way to the centre of the Word; the second to Light or manifestation of the Word. And we find that every desire is attrahent, though in the unground there is nothing that can be drawn; hence the desire di'aws itself, and impregnates the other will of the Father, which imaginates for the hght of Majesty from the centre of his word or heart. 32. Now is the heart pregnant with Light, and the first will pregnant with Nature; and yet were none of this manifest, if the principle were not generated.
333. The Father generates from the first will the first Principle, as the nature which in fire attains to the highest perfection; and then he generates the second Principle in and from the other will to the Word, in that he desires the manifestation of the Word in the Hght of Majesty. Thus the fire of the second principle in the light of Majesty is a satisfying or appeasing of the first will : namely gentleness, which is opposed to the fire of the first principle, and quenches its fierce wrath, and brings it into an essential substance as into an eternal life. But the fire is hidden in the light, and gives to the light its power, strength and might, so that together there is an eternal union, and one without the other would not be. 22 SIX THEOSOPHIC POINTS Of the first Principle in itself; what it is (singly) in itself. 34. We are to consider Desire; for every desii'e attracts what is in the desiring will. 35. God, however, desires only light, viz. the lustre from his heart, that he may shine forth in wisdom, and the whole God thus be manifest in himself, and by the forth-going Spirit out of himself, in the virgin of his wisdom; and that there be an eternal perfect joy, delight and satisfaction in him. 36. Now this can be accomplished in no other way than through fire, where the will is brought into the deepest sharpness of omnipotence, as it becomes consuming in fire. Contrariwise, light is a gentleness of the genetrix of the omni-substantiality.
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.
125. We are now to understand that the first Principle is magical in origin ; for it is generated in desire, in the will. Hence its craving and contrawill to bring forth is also magical, namely to bring forth the second Principle. 20 SIX THEOSOPHIC POINTS 26. And whereas in the first and second principle only a spirit without comprehensible [corporeal] being is understood; yet there is also the cra\ang to give birth furthermore to the third Principle, wherein the spirit of the two principles might rest and manifest itself in similitude. 27. And though each principle has its centre, the first principle stands in magical quality, and its centre is fire, which cannot subsist without substance; therefore its hunger and desire is after substance. 28. And in regard to the first principle, if we speak only of one (though it is not single and solitary) , we are to understand that the unfathomable will in the centre of the unground, in which the eternal Word is continually generated from eternity, is desirous ; for the will desires the centre, viz. the word or heart.
229. Secondly, it desires that the heart should be manifest. For in the unground there is no manifestation, but an eternal nothingness;; a stillness without being or colours, neither any \drtue — (but in Desire colours, power and virtue come to be) — and is thus hidden in itself, and were eternally not manifest ; for there would be no light, splendour or majesty, but a threefold spirit in itself, which were without source (Qual) of any being. 30. And thus we are to understand the essence of the deepest Deity, without and beyond Nature. 31. Further, we are to understand that the eternal will of the Deity desires to manifest itself from its own ground in the light of Majesty, whereTHE FIRST POINT 21 by we apprehend the first will of the Father to the Son and to the light of Majesty to be desirous. And that in two ways : The first way to the centre of the Word; the second to Light or manifestation of the Word. And we find that every desire is attrahent, though in the unground there is nothing that can be drawn; hence the desire di'aws itself, and impregnates the other will of the Father, which imaginates for the hght of Majesty from the centre of his word or heart. 32. Now is the heart pregnant with Light, and the first will pregnant with Nature; and yet were none of this manifest, if the principle were not generated.
333. The Father generates from the first will the first Principle, as the nature which in fire attains to the highest perfection; and then he generates the second Principle in and from the other will to the Word, in that he desires the manifestation of the Word in the Hght of Majesty. Thus the fire of the second principle in the light of Majesty is a satisfying or appeasing of the first will : namely gentleness, which is opposed to the fire of the first principle, and quenches its fierce wrath, and brings it into an essential substance as into an eternal life. But the fire is hidden in the light, and gives to the light its power, strength and might, so that together there is an eternal union, and one without the other would not be. 22 SIX THEOSOPHIC POINTS Of the first Principle in itself; what it is (singly) in itself. 34. We are to consider Desire; for every desii'e attracts what is in the desiring will. 35. God, however, desires only light, viz. the lustre from his heart, that he may shine forth in wisdom, and the whole God thus be manifest in himself, and by the forth-going Spirit out of himself, in the virgin of his wisdom; and that there be an eternal perfect joy, delight and satisfaction in him. 36. Now this can be accomplished in no other way than through fire, where the will is brought into the deepest sharpness of omnipotence, as it becomes consuming in fire. Contrariwise, light is a gentleness of the genetrix of the omni-substantiality.
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.