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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.
132. But if it be kept a prisoner in the earthly desire, then it is shut up in death, and suffers agony. And thus is sin to be understood. THE FOURTH POINT How CHRIST WILL DELIVER UP THE KINGDOM TO HIS FATHER. 1. At the creation of the world and of all being, the Father put himself in motion in accordance with his property, viz. by the centre of Nature, by the dark world and the fire-world. These continued in motion and domination till the Father moved himself in accordance with his heart (and the light-world), and God became man. Then the love of the hght overcame the Father's fierce wrathful property, and the Father ruled in the Son with love. 2. Then the Son had dominion in those that did cleave unto God; and the Holy Spirit (that proceeds from the Father and Son) drew men in the light of love, through the Son, to God the Father. 3. But in the end the Holy Spirit moves in the Father's and also in the Son's property, and both properties become active at once. The spirit of the Father reveals itself in fire and light, as also in the wrath of the dark world. Then the kingdom falls unto the Father. For the Holy Spirit must govern eternally, and be an eternal revealer in the light -world and also in the dark world. 4. For the two worlds will stand still; and the Holy Spirit who proceeds from the Father and 141 142 SIX MYSTICAL POINTS Son, bears rule eternally in the two worlds, according to each world's nature and property.
25. He alone will be the revealer of the wonders. And thus to the Father (who is all) the eternal dominion, which he exercises with the Spirit, is delivered by the Son. THE FIFTH POINT On magic. What magic is. What the magical ground is. 1. Magic is the mother of eternity, of the being of all beings; for it creates itself, and is understood in desire. 2. It is in itself nothing but a will, and this will is the great mystery of all wonders and secrets, but brings itself by the imagination of the desireful hunger into being. 3. It is the original state of Nature. Its desire makes an imagination (Einhildung) , and imagination or figuration is only the will of desire. But desire makes in the will such a being as the will in itself is. 4. True Magic is not a being, but the desiring spirit of the being. It is a matrix without substance, but manifests itself in the substantial being. 5. ]\Iagic is spirit, and being is its body; and yet the two are but one, as body and soul is but one person. 6. Magic is the greatest secrecy, for it is above Nature, and makes Nature after the form of its will. It is the mystery of the Ternary, viz. it is in desire the will striving towards the heart of God. 7. It is the formative power in the eternal wisdom, as a desire in the Ternary, in which the eternal 143 144 SIX MYSTICAL POINTS
3wonder of the Ternary desires to manifest itself in co-operation with Nature. It is the desire which introduces itself into the dark Nature, and through Nature into fire, and through fire, through death or fierceness into the light of Majesty. 8. It is not Majesty, but the desire in Majesty. It is the desire of the divine power, not the power itself, but the hunger or craving in the power. It is not God's Almightiness, but the directrix in God's power and might. The heart of God is the power, and the Holy Spirit is the revelation of power. 9. It is, however, the desire not only in the power, but also in the conducting spirit ; for it has in it the Fiat. What the Will-spirit reveals in it, that it brings into a being by the sourness which is the Fiat; all according to the model of the will. According as the will makes a model in wisdom, so does desiring Magic receive it; for it has in its property imagination as a longing. 10. Imagination is gentle and soft, and resembles water. But Desire is harsh and dry, like a hunger; it makes the soft hard, and is found in all things, for it is the greatest thing ( Wesen) in the Deity. It leads the bottomless to foundation, and the nothing into something.
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.
132. But if it be kept a prisoner in the earthly desire, then it is shut up in death, and suffers agony. And thus is sin to be understood. THE FOURTH POINT How CHRIST WILL DELIVER UP THE KINGDOM TO HIS FATHER. 1. At the creation of the world and of all being, the Father put himself in motion in accordance with his property, viz. by the centre of Nature, by the dark world and the fire-world. These continued in motion and domination till the Father moved himself in accordance with his heart (and the light-world), and God became man. Then the love of the hght overcame the Father's fierce wrathful property, and the Father ruled in the Son with love. 2. Then the Son had dominion in those that did cleave unto God; and the Holy Spirit (that proceeds from the Father and Son) drew men in the light of love, through the Son, to God the Father. 3. But in the end the Holy Spirit moves in the Father's and also in the Son's property, and both properties become active at once. The spirit of the Father reveals itself in fire and light, as also in the wrath of the dark world. Then the kingdom falls unto the Father. For the Holy Spirit must govern eternally, and be an eternal revealer in the light -world and also in the dark world. 4. For the two worlds will stand still; and the Holy Spirit who proceeds from the Father and 141 142 SIX MYSTICAL POINTS Son, bears rule eternally in the two worlds, according to each world's nature and property.
25. He alone will be the revealer of the wonders. And thus to the Father (who is all) the eternal dominion, which he exercises with the Spirit, is delivered by the Son. THE FIFTH POINT On magic. What magic is. What the magical ground is. 1. Magic is the mother of eternity, of the being of all beings; for it creates itself, and is understood in desire. 2. It is in itself nothing but a will, and this will is the great mystery of all wonders and secrets, but brings itself by the imagination of the desireful hunger into being. 3. It is the original state of Nature. Its desire makes an imagination (Einhildung) , and imagination or figuration is only the will of desire. But desire makes in the will such a being as the will in itself is. 4. True Magic is not a being, but the desiring spirit of the being. It is a matrix without substance, but manifests itself in the substantial being. 5. ]\Iagic is spirit, and being is its body; and yet the two are but one, as body and soul is but one person. 6. Magic is the greatest secrecy, for it is above Nature, and makes Nature after the form of its will. It is the mystery of the Ternary, viz. it is in desire the will striving towards the heart of God. 7. It is the formative power in the eternal wisdom, as a desire in the Ternary, in which the eternal 143 144 SIX MYSTICAL POINTS
3wonder of the Ternary desires to manifest itself in co-operation with Nature. It is the desire which introduces itself into the dark Nature, and through Nature into fire, and through fire, through death or fierceness into the light of Majesty. 8. It is not Majesty, but the desire in Majesty. It is the desire of the divine power, not the power itself, but the hunger or craving in the power. It is not God's Almightiness, but the directrix in God's power and might. The heart of God is the power, and the Holy Spirit is the revelation of power. 9. It is, however, the desire not only in the power, but also in the conducting spirit ; for it has in it the Fiat. What the Will-spirit reveals in it, that it brings into a being by the sourness which is the Fiat; all according to the model of the will. According as the will makes a model in wisdom, so does desiring Magic receive it; for it has in its property imagination as a longing. 10. Imagination is gentle and soft, and resembles water. But Desire is harsh and dry, like a hunger; it makes the soft hard, and is found in all things, for it is the greatest thing ( Wesen) in the Deity. It leads the bottomless to foundation, and the nothing into something.
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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