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.
121. Understand it thus: the fire-breath out of the first Principle rules in its original, viz. in its own mother, whence the spirit of God amassed (or moulded) it, viz. in the centre of the eternal nature, in the might of the dark-and-fire-world. And it is the cause of the light-life; and also of the air-life: if that were not, then none of the others would be. 22. And the light-breath rules in the second Principle, viz. in the holy kingdom of the manifested power of God, which is the mansion of the holy spirit of God, the temple of God, viz. in the heavenly holy essence; understand, in the holy spiritual body of the holy pure element, which, with its properties, stands in equal weight and measure, as a fit prepared instrument of the spirit; wherein he manifests God's wonders out of the eternal wisdom, and introduces them into the melody of joy, viz. into the holy harmony of the eternal-speaking Word of God, into the divine kingdom of joy, viz. into the manifestation of the divine powers; in which the holy spirit is the true musician. 23. And the air-spirit rules also in its mother, whence it originally stood, viz in the outward world, in the figure and similitude of the inward world, viz. in the outward mystery of time; and manifests its mother, which is brought forth out of eternity into a time, to the contemplation of the wonders of the wisdom of God.
224. And yet there are not three souls, but only one. But the soul stands in three Principles, viz. in the kingdom of God's anger, and in the kingdom of God's love, and in the kingdom of this world. And if this were not, then it could not be said, the soul went into heaven or hell, if they 1) were not in it. When the air, viz. the outward kingdom of time does leave the soul, then is the soul manifest either in the dark fire-kingdom of God, or in the holy kingdom of light, in the love-fire of the power of God; whereunto it has given up itself in this life-time, therein it stands when it foregoes the outward life. 1 Heaven and hell. 25. And we are in no wise to think that the soul is God himself; who is neither nature nor creature, also dwells in nothing, save only in himself; and yet dwells through all things, and is neither far off nor nigh unto any thing. But the soul is the expressed Word, the formed Word; it is the spirit and the life of the three Principles of divine manifestation. But if it were God, then it were immovable, and no judgement could pass upon it. 26. But a judgement may pass upon it, if it departs out of that order wherein God introduced it in the beginning; if it goes out of the divine harmony, out of the order of the manifested word of God's power, if it cloth manifest or produce another will in itself, viz. other properties out of the strong might of the eternal nature.
327. The whole man with body and soul is threefold; and yet but one only man. The body is out of a threefold essence; and the soul is out of a threefold property of the spirit. An example thereof you have in the fire, light and air: the fire has another property than the light and air have. The fiery body is the eternal constellation, viz. the magical constellation, the Great Mystery, out of which the outward constellation was produced, and brought into a creatural being or creation. 28. The fiery spirit, viz. the fiery soul, dwells in the fiery spiritual body; and in the light's body (which is from the holy element, viz. from the true heavenly image, which consists in a spiritual Sulphur, Mercurius and Sal) dwells the holy soul, viz. the true spirit of the soul, which is a temple of God; and in the outward body (which is a limus of the earth and the other elements), viz. in the outward constellation of the five senses, the outward soul, viz. the real spirit of the outward world does dwell. 29. Each property of the soul has a corporeal property in itself; which may be called a heaven, viz. a sundry special magical astrum; as the fiery property of the soul has a body from the inward constellation of the dark and fire-world, which is a spiritual body.
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.
121. Understand it thus: the fire-breath out of the first Principle rules in its original, viz. in its own mother, whence the spirit of God amassed (or moulded) it, viz. in the centre of the eternal nature, in the might of the dark-and-fire-world. And it is the cause of the light-life; and also of the air-life: if that were not, then none of the others would be. 22. And the light-breath rules in the second Principle, viz. in the holy kingdom of the manifested power of God, which is the mansion of the holy spirit of God, the temple of God, viz. in the heavenly holy essence; understand, in the holy spiritual body of the holy pure element, which, with its properties, stands in equal weight and measure, as a fit prepared instrument of the spirit; wherein he manifests God's wonders out of the eternal wisdom, and introduces them into the melody of joy, viz. into the holy harmony of the eternal-speaking Word of God, into the divine kingdom of joy, viz. into the manifestation of the divine powers; in which the holy spirit is the true musician. 23. And the air-spirit rules also in its mother, whence it originally stood, viz in the outward world, in the figure and similitude of the inward world, viz. in the outward mystery of time; and manifests its mother, which is brought forth out of eternity into a time, to the contemplation of the wonders of the wisdom of God.
224. And yet there are not three souls, but only one. But the soul stands in three Principles, viz. in the kingdom of God's anger, and in the kingdom of God's love, and in the kingdom of this world. And if this were not, then it could not be said, the soul went into heaven or hell, if they 1) were not in it. When the air, viz. the outward kingdom of time does leave the soul, then is the soul manifest either in the dark fire-kingdom of God, or in the holy kingdom of light, in the love-fire of the power of God; whereunto it has given up itself in this life-time, therein it stands when it foregoes the outward life. 1 Heaven and hell. 25. And we are in no wise to think that the soul is God himself; who is neither nature nor creature, also dwells in nothing, save only in himself; and yet dwells through all things, and is neither far off nor nigh unto any thing. But the soul is the expressed Word, the formed Word; it is the spirit and the life of the three Principles of divine manifestation. But if it were God, then it were immovable, and no judgement could pass upon it. 26. But a judgement may pass upon it, if it departs out of that order wherein God introduced it in the beginning; if it goes out of the divine harmony, out of the order of the manifested word of God's power, if it cloth manifest or produce another will in itself, viz. other properties out of the strong might of the eternal nature.
327. The whole man with body and soul is threefold; and yet but one only man. The body is out of a threefold essence; and the soul is out of a threefold property of the spirit. An example thereof you have in the fire, light and air: the fire has another property than the light and air have. The fiery body is the eternal constellation, viz. the magical constellation, the Great Mystery, out of which the outward constellation was produced, and brought into a creatural being or creation. 28. The fiery spirit, viz. the fiery soul, dwells in the fiery spiritual body; and in the light's body (which is from the holy element, viz. from the true heavenly image, which consists in a spiritual Sulphur, Mercurius and Sal) dwells the holy soul, viz. the true spirit of the soul, which is a temple of God; and in the outward body (which is a limus of the earth and the other elements), viz. in the outward constellation of the five senses, the outward soul, viz. the real spirit of the outward world does dwell. 29. Each property of the soul has a corporeal property in itself; which may be called a heaven, viz. a sundry special magical astrum; as the fiery property of the soul has a body from the inward constellation of the dark and fire-world, which is a spiritual body.
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.