The Trinity is defined in terms of desire and its satisfaction, not of persons: "The desire, or will is the Father; that is, the stirring or manifestation of the Unity, whereby the Unity wills or desires itself", and "The pleasure, or delight is the Son; and is that which the will wills and desires". A reader who comes expecting the creedal formula will find instead a description of an appetite that has an object and a satisfaction — the same structure Boehme uses everywhere else for nature, applied here to God.
Open to all
page 3
19. The desire, or will is the Father; that is, the stirring or manifestation of the Unity, whereby the Unity wills or desires itself.
20. The pleasure, or delight is the Son; and is that which the will wills and desires, viz. his love and pleasure, as may be seen at the baptism of our Lord Jesus Christ, when the Father witnessed, saying, This is my [1] beloved Son, in whom I [2] am well pleased; hear ye him.
[1] or love [2] have pleasure
21. The delight is the [1] compressure in the will, whereby the will in the Unity brings itself a place and working, wherewith the will wills and works; and it is the [2] feelingness and virtue of the will.
[1] or impressure of the will [2] or perception
22. The will is the Father, that is, the stirring desire; and the delight is the Son, that is, the virtue and the working in the will, with which the will works; and the Holy Ghost is the proceeding will, through the delight of the virtue, that is, a life of the will andof the virtue and delight.
23. Thus there are three sorts of workings in the eternal Unity, viz. the Unity is the will and desire of itself: the delight is the working substance of the will, and an eternal joy of perceptibility in the will; and the Holy Ghost is the proceeding of the power: the similitude of which may be seen in a [1] plant.
[1] or herb
24. The [1] magnet, viz. the essential desire of nature, that is, the will of the desire of nature, [2] compresses itself into an ens or substance, to become a plant, and in this compression of the desire becomes feeling, that is, working; and in that working the power and virtue arises, wherein the magnetical desire of nature, viz. the outflown will of God, works in a natural way.
[1] or loadstone [2] or forms
25. In this working perceptibility the magnetical desiring will is elevated and made joyful, and goes forth from the working power and virtue; and hence comes the growing and smell of the plant: and thus we see a representation of the Trinity of God in all [1] growing and living things.
[1] vegetables and animate things
26. If there were not such a desiring perceptibility, and outgoing operation of the Trinity in the eternal Unity, the Unity were but an eternal stillness, a Nothing; and there would be no nature, nor any color, shape, or figure; likewise there would be nothing in this world; without this threefold working there could be no world at all.
Of the Eternal W ord of God
27. The Holy Scripture says, God has made all things by his eternal
Word; also it says, That Word is God, John 1, which we understand thus:
28. The Word is nothing else but the [1] out-breathing will, from the power and virtue; a various dividing of the power into a multitude of powers; a distributing and outflowing of the Unity, whence knowledge arises.
[1] or out-speaking
29. For in one only substance, wherein there is no variation or division, but is only one, there can be no knowledge; and if there were knowledge, it could know but one thing, viz. itself: but if it parts itself, then the dividing will goes into multiplicity and variety; and each parting works in itself.
30. Yet because Unity cannot be divided and parted asunder,therefore the separating consists and remains in the outbreathing will in the Unity; and the separation of the breathing gives the different variety, whereby the eternal [1] Will, togetherwith the [2] Delight and [3] Proceeding, enters into the [4] knowledge or understanding of infinite forms, viz. into an eternal, perceptible, working, sensual knowledge of the powers; where always in the division of the will, in the separation, one sense or form of the will sees, feels, tastes, smells, and hears the other; and yet it is but one sensual working, viz. the great joyous band of love, and the most pleasant only eternal [5] Being.
[1] Father [2] Son [3] Holy Ghost [4] or science [5] essence or substance
Of the Holy Name J EH OVA
31. The ancient Rabbins among the Jews have partly understood it; for they have said that this name is the highest, and most holy name of God [1] by which they understand the working Deity in sense : and it i s true, for in this working sense lies the true life of all things in time and
page 3
19. The desire, or will is the Father; that is, the stirring or manifestation of the Unity, whereby the Unity wills or desires itself.
20. The pleasure, or delight is the Son; and is that which the will wills and desires, viz. his love and pleasure, as may be seen at the baptism of our Lord Jesus Christ, when the Father witnessed, saying, This is my [1] beloved Son, in whom I [2] am well pleased; hear you him.
[1] or love [2] have pleasure
21. The delight is the [1] compressure in the will, whereby the will in the Unity brings itself a place and working, wherewith the will wills and works; and it is the [2] feelingness and virtue of the will.
[1] or impressure of the will [2] or perception
22. The will is the Father, that is, the stirring desire; and the delight is the Son, that is, the virtue and the working in the will, with which the will works; and the Holy Ghost is the proceeding will, through the delight of the virtue, that is, a life of the will andof the virtue and delight.
23. Thus there are three sorts of workings in the eternal Unity, viz. the Unity is the will and desire of itself: the delight is the working substance of the will, and an eternal joy of perceptibility in the will; and the Holy Ghost is the proceeding of the power: the similitude of which may be seen in a [1] plant.
[1] or herb
24. The [1] magnet, viz. the essential desire of nature, that is, the will of the desire of nature, [2] compresses itself into an ens or substance, to become a plant, and in this compression of the desire becomes feeling, that is, working; and in that working the power and virtue arises, wherein the magnetical desire of nature, viz. the outflown will of God, works in a natural way.
[1] or loadstone [2] or forms
25. In this working perceptibility the magnetical desiring will is elevated and made joyful, and goes forth from the working power and virtue; and hence comes the growing and smell of the plant: and thus we see a representation of the Trinity of God in all [1] growing and living things.
[1] vegetables and animate things
26. If there were not such a desiring perceptibility, and outgoing operation of the Trinity in the eternal Unity, the Unity were but an eternal stillness, a Nothing; and there would be no nature, nor any color, shape, or figure; likewise there would be nothing in this world; without this threefold working there could be no world at all.
Of the Eternal W ord of God
27. The Holy Scripture says, God has made all things by his eternal
Word; also it says, That Word is God, John 1, which we understand thus:
28. The Word is nothing else but the [1] out-breathing will, from the power and virtue; a various dividing of the power into a multitude of powers; a distributing and outflowing of the Unity, whence knowledge arises.
[1] or out-speaking
29. For in one only substance, wherein there is no variation or division, but is only one, there can be no knowledge; and if there were knowledge, it could know but one thing, viz. itself: but if it parts itself, then the dividing will goes into multiplicity and variety; and each parting works in itself.
30. Yet because Unity cannot be divided and parted asunder,therefore the separating consists and remains in the outbreathing will in the Unity; and the separation of the breathing gives the different variety, whereby the eternal [1] Will, togetherwith the [2] Delight and [3] Proceeding, enters into the [4] knowledge or understanding of infinite forms, viz. into an eternal, perceptible, working, sensual knowledge of the powers; where always in the division of the will, in the separation, one sense or form of the will sees, feels, tastes, smells, and hears the other; and yet it is but one sensual working, viz. the great joyous band of love, and the most pleasant only eternal [5] Being.
[1] Father [2] Son [3] Holy Ghost [4] or science [5] essence or substance
Of the Holy Name J EH OVA
31. The ancient Rabbins among the Jews have partly understood it; for they have said that this name is the highest, and most holy name of God [1] by which they understand the working Deity in sense : and it i s true, for in this working sense lies the true life of all things in time and
Here is the physical analogy that carries most of his natural philosophy: "The magnet, viz. the essential desire of nature ... compresses itself into an ens or substance, to become a plant, and in this compression of the desire becomes feeling, that is, working". The marginal gloss on "magnet" reads "or loadstone". Desire is not a metaphor borrowed from human wanting and applied to stones; it is one force, named from the loadstone, of which human wanting is a case. This is the term to hold onto before entering Mysterium Magnum.
glosses Mysterium Magnum, Part One
The argument for why anything exists at all is compressed into two sentences: "in one only substance, wherein there is no variation or division, but is only one, there can be no knowledge; and if there were knowledge, it could know but one thing, viz. itself: but if it parts itself, then the dividing will goes into multiplicity and variety". Division is not the Fall here — it is the precondition of knowing anything whatever. And it is immediately qualified: "because Unity cannot be divided and parted asunder, therefore the separating consists and remains in the outbreathing will", so the division happens in the utterance and not in the One.