In chapter 3, some new terms are introduced, like the Flagrat (German: Schreck, English: fright, astonishment, dismay) and Lubet (German: Lust, which means a longing desire, but also joy, delight, imagination. In man it manifests as a moving will to good/evil or love/anger). Jacob Boehme's work becomes difficult to understand if you don't know about the original words he used. Also, it is useful to know that the first three properties of nature in Boehme's description can be understood in one aspect as contraction, expansion and rotation/spin respectively. Some useful links and bibliography can be found at my Boehme page . Read more about this terminology question (partly borrowed from Paracelsus) at the following site: About Boehme - terminology
The signs of the planets are so well known that they are omitted after the name of the planets in the text that follows.
The third chapter
How out of the Eternal Good an Evil is come to be ;
which in the Good had [has] no Beginning to the Evil:
And of the Original of the Dark World, or Hell, wherein the
Devils dwell.
1. Now then, seeing Light and Darkness, moreover Pain and Source, are seen in the outward World, and yet all originally proceed from the Eternal Mystery, viz. from the inward spiritual World, and the inward spiritual World proceeds out of the Eternal Generating and Speaking Word, thereupon we are to consider, how out of the Eternal Good an Evil is come to be, which in the Good has no Beginning to the Evil; whence Darkness, Pain, and Source arise; and then from whence a Lustre or Light arises in the Darkness
2. For we cannot say that the Eternal Light, or the Eternal Darkness, is created; otherwise they should be in a Time and a comprehensive Beginning; and of this they are void; for they are concomitant in the Generation; yet not in the Wisdom, or Generation of the Word of the
Deity; but they take their Original in the Desire of the Speaking
Word.
3. For in the Eternal Speaking Word (which is void [Beyond or without] of all Nature, or Beginning) is only the Divine Understanding or Sound; there is neither Darkness nor Light; neither thick nor thin; neither Joy nor Sorrow; moreover, no Sensibility, or Perception [Finding or Apprehension] ; but it is barely a Power of the Understanding in one Source, Will, and Dominion; there is neither Friend nor Foe to it, for it is the only Good, and nothing else.
4. Seeing then this Eternal Good cannot be an Insensible Essence, (for so it were not manifest to itself) it introduces itself in itself into a Lubet, to behold and see what itself is; in which Lubet is the Wisdom. And then the Lubet thus seeing what itself is, it brings itself into a Desire to find out and feel what itself is ; viz. to a sensible Perception of the Smell and Taste of the Colours, Powers, and Virtue. And yet no Perception could arise in the free spiritual Lubet, if it brought not itself into a Desire, like a Hunger.
5. For the Nothing hungers after the Something, and the Hunger is a Desire, viz. the first Verbum Fiat, or creating Power. For the Desire has nothing that it is able to make or conceive; it conceives itself, and impresses itself; it coagulates itself; it draws itself into itself, and comprehends itself, and brings itself from Abyss into Byss, and overshadows itself with its Magnetical Attraction; so that the Nothing is filled, and yet remains as a Nothing. It is only as a Property, viz. a Darkness. This is the eternal Original of the Darkness; for where there is a Property, there is already Something ; and the Something is not as the Nothing; it yields Obscurity [causes Darkness], unless something else, viz. a Lustre, fills it; and then it is Light, and yet it remains a Darkness in the Property.
In chapter 3, some new terms are introduced, like the Flagrat (German: Schreck, English: fright, astonishment, dismay) and Lubet (German: Lust, which means a longing desire, but also joy, delight, imagination. In man it manifests as a moving will to good/evil or love/anger). Jacob Boehme's work becomes difficult to understand if you don't know about the original words he used. Also, it is useful to know that the first three properties of nature in Boehme's description can be understood in one aspect as contraction, expansion and rotation/spin respectively. Some useful links and bibliography can be found at my Boehme page . Read more about this terminology question (partly borrowed from Paracelsus) at the following site: About Boehme - terminology
The signs of the planets are so well known that they are omitted after the name of the planets in the text that follows.
The third chapter
How out of the Eternal Good an Evil is come to be ;
which in the Good had [has] no Beginning to the Evil:
And of the Original of the Dark World, or Hell, wherein the
Devils dwell.
1. Now then, seeing Light and Darkness, moreover Pain and Source, are seen in the outward World, and yet all originally proceed from the Eternal Mystery, viz. from the inward spiritual World, and the inward spiritual World proceeds out of the Eternal Generating and Speaking Word, thereupon we are to consider, how out of the Eternal Good an Evil is come to be, which in the Good has no Beginning to the Evil; whence Darkness, Pain, and Source arise; and then from whence a Lustre or Light arises in the Darkness
2. For we cannot say that the Eternal Light, or the Eternal Darkness, is created; otherwise they should be in a Time and a comprehensive Beginning; and of this they are void; for they are concomitant in the Generation; yet not in the Wisdom, or Generation of the Word of the
Deity; but they take their Original in the Desire of the Speaking
Word.
3. For in the Eternal Speaking Word (which is void [Beyond or without] of all Nature, or Beginning) is only the Divine Understanding or Sound; there is neither Darkness nor Light; neither thick nor thin; neither Joy nor Sorrow; moreover, no Sensibility, or Perception [Finding or Apprehension] ; but it is barely a Power of the Understanding in one Source, Will, and Dominion; there is neither Friend nor Foe to it, for it is the only Good, and nothing else.
4. Seeing then this Eternal Good cannot be an Insensible Essence, (for so it were not manifest to itself) it introduces itself in itself into a Lubet, to behold and see what itself is; in which Lubet is the Wisdom. And then the Lubet thus seeing what itself is, it brings itself into a Desire to find out and feel what itself is ; viz. to a sensible Perception of the Smell and Taste of the Colours, Powers, and Virtue. And yet no Perception could arise in the free spiritual Lubet, if it brought not itself into a Desire, like a Hunger.
5. For the Nothing hungers after the Something, and the Hunger is a Desire, viz. the first Verbum Fiat, or creating Power. For the Desire has nothing that it is able to make or conceive; it conceives itself, and impresses itself; it coagulates itself; it draws itself into itself, and comprehends itself, and brings itself from Abyss into Byss, and overshadows itself with its Magnetical Attraction; so that the Nothing is filled, and yet remains as a Nothing. It is only as a Property, viz. a Darkness. This is the eternal Original of the Darkness; for where there is a Property, there is already Something ; and the Something is not as the Nothing; it yields Obscurity [causes Darkness], unless something else, viz. a Lustre, fills it; and then it is Light, and yet it remains a Darkness in the Property.
No commentary for this page.
There is commentary on page 1.