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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.
111. In Magic are all forms of Being of all beings. It is a mother in all three worlds, and makes each thing after the model of that thing's will. It is not the understanding, but it is a creatrix according to the understanding, and lends itself to good or to evil. 12. All that the will models in wisdom, if the THE FIFTH POINT 145 will of the understanding also enter thereinto, that does ]\Iagic make into a being. It serves those that love God in God's Being; for it makes in the understanding divine substance, and takes this from imagination, as from the gentleness of the light. 13. It is Magic that makes divine flesh; and the understanding is born of wisdom, for it is a disscerner of colours, powers and virtues. The understanding guides the right true spirit with a bridle; for the spirit is soaring, and the understanding is its fire. 14. The spirit is not dissentient, that it should dissent from the understanding; but it is the will of the understanding. But the senses in the understanding are flying-out and dissentient. 15. For the senses are the flash from the fii'espirit, and bring with them in the light the flames of Majesty; and in the darkness they bring with them the flash of terror, as a fierce flash of fire.
216. The senses are such a subtle spirit that they enter into all beings, and take up all beings into themselves. But the understanding tries all in its own fire; it rejects the evil and retains the good. Then Magic, its mother, takes this and brings it into a being. 17. Magic is the mother from which Nature comes, and the understanding is the mother coming from Nature. Magic leads into a fierce fire, and the understanding leads its own mother. Magic, out of the fierce fire into its own fire. 18. For the understanding is the fire of power, 146 SIX MYSTICAL POINTS and JNIagic the burning fire; and yet it is not to be understood as fire, but the power or mother to fire. Fire is called the principle, and Magic is called desire. 19. By Magic is everything accomplished, both good and bad. Its own working is Nigromantia, but it is distributed into all the properties. In that which is good it is good, and in that which is evil it is evil. It is of use to the children for God's kingdom, and to the sorcerers for the devil's kingdom; for the understanding can make of it what it pleases. It is without understanding, and yet comprehends all; for it is the comprehension of all things. 20. It is impossible to express its depth, for it is from eternity a gi'ound and support of all things. It is a master of philosophy, and likewise a mother thereof.
321. But philosophy leads Magic, its mother, as it pleases. As the divine power, viz. the Word (or heart of God), leads the severe Father into gentleness; so also does philosophy (or the understanding) lead its mother into a gentle divine quality. 22. Magic is the book of all scholars. All that will learn must first learn Magic, be it a high or a lowly art. Even the peasant in the field must go to the magical school, if he would cultivate his field. 23. Magic is the best theology, for in it true faith is both grounded and found. And he is a fool that reviles it; for he knows it not, and blasphemes against God and himself, and is more a juggler than a theologian of understanding. THE FIFTH POINT 147 24. As one that fights before a mirror, and knows not what the quarrel is, for his fighting is superficial; so also the unjust theologian looks on Magic through a reflection, and understands nothing of the power. For it is godlike, and he is ungodlike, yea, devihsh, according to the property of each principle. In sum: Magic is the activity in the Will-spirit. THE SIXTH POINT On mystery. What it is. 1. Mystery is nothing else than the magical will, which still lies caught in desire. It may fashion itself in the mirror of wisdom how it will. And as it fashions itself in the tincture, so it is fixed and formed in Magic, and brought into a being.
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.
111. In Magic are all forms of Being of all beings. It is a mother in all three worlds, and makes each thing after the model of that thing's will. It is not the understanding, but it is a creatrix according to the understanding, and lends itself to good or to evil. 12. All that the will models in wisdom, if the THE FIFTH POINT 145 will of the understanding also enter thereinto, that does ]\Iagic make into a being. It serves those that love God in God's Being; for it makes in the understanding divine substance, and takes this from imagination, as from the gentleness of the light. 13. It is Magic that makes divine flesh; and the understanding is born of wisdom, for it is a disscerner of colours, powers and virtues. The understanding guides the right true spirit with a bridle; for the spirit is soaring, and the understanding is its fire. 14. The spirit is not dissentient, that it should dissent from the understanding; but it is the will of the understanding. But the senses in the understanding are flying-out and dissentient. 15. For the senses are the flash from the fii'espirit, and bring with them in the light the flames of Majesty; and in the darkness they bring with them the flash of terror, as a fierce flash of fire.
216. The senses are such a subtle spirit that they enter into all beings, and take up all beings into themselves. But the understanding tries all in its own fire; it rejects the evil and retains the good. Then Magic, its mother, takes this and brings it into a being. 17. Magic is the mother from which Nature comes, and the understanding is the mother coming from Nature. Magic leads into a fierce fire, and the understanding leads its own mother. Magic, out of the fierce fire into its own fire. 18. For the understanding is the fire of power, 146 SIX MYSTICAL POINTS and JNIagic the burning fire; and yet it is not to be understood as fire, but the power or mother to fire. Fire is called the principle, and Magic is called desire. 19. By Magic is everything accomplished, both good and bad. Its own working is Nigromantia, but it is distributed into all the properties. In that which is good it is good, and in that which is evil it is evil. It is of use to the children for God's kingdom, and to the sorcerers for the devil's kingdom; for the understanding can make of it what it pleases. It is without understanding, and yet comprehends all; for it is the comprehension of all things. 20. It is impossible to express its depth, for it is from eternity a gi'ound and support of all things. It is a master of philosophy, and likewise a mother thereof.
321. But philosophy leads Magic, its mother, as it pleases. As the divine power, viz. the Word (or heart of God), leads the severe Father into gentleness; so also does philosophy (or the understanding) lead its mother into a gentle divine quality. 22. Magic is the book of all scholars. All that will learn must first learn Magic, be it a high or a lowly art. Even the peasant in the field must go to the magical school, if he would cultivate his field. 23. Magic is the best theology, for in it true faith is both grounded and found. And he is a fool that reviles it; for he knows it not, and blasphemes against God and himself, and is more a juggler than a theologian of understanding. THE FIFTH POINT 147 24. As one that fights before a mirror, and knows not what the quarrel is, for his fighting is superficial; so also the unjust theologian looks on Magic through a reflection, and understands nothing of the power. For it is godlike, and he is ungodlike, yea, devihsh, according to the property of each principle. In sum: Magic is the activity in the Will-spirit. THE SIXTH POINT On mystery. What it is. 1. Mystery is nothing else than the magical will, which still lies caught in desire. It may fashion itself in the mirror of wisdom how it will. And as it fashions itself in the tincture, so it is fixed and formed in Magic, and brought into a being.
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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