We are told that while one day sitting in his room he noticed a burnished pewter dish, which reflected the sunlight with such a degree of brilliancy that he was overcome with an inward ecstasy, and it seemed to him as if he could now look into the principles and deepest foundations of things. He believed that it was only fancy, and in order to banish it from his mind he went out into the fields about the Town. But here he remarked that he gazed into the very heart of things, the very grass and herbs ; that actual Nature harmonized with what he had seen ; and that he could distinguish the essences, uses, and properties in a manner that was to him a most wonderful insight or Revelation. He is said to have kept his knowledge of the occurrence very much to himself, and returning home continued to take care of his family and worked on in silence until the year 1610, when a further Illumination occurred to him, and of which he wrote a Memorial.
Of his insight into these Mysteries he says : “ I never desired to know anything of the Divine Mystery, much less understood & the way to seek and find it. I knew nothing of it, as is the ‘^condition of poor laymen in their simplicity. I sought only after the Heart of Jesus Christ, that I might hide myself therein from the wrathful Anger of God, and the violent
* Hahnmann also derived his principles of Homoeopathy from Jacob Boehme, as described in the “ Signatura Rerum.”
c
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Assaults of the Devil. And I besought the Lord earnestly for His Holy Spirit and His Grace, that He would please to bless and guide me in Him, and take that away from me which turned me from Him ; and I resigned myself wholly to Him, that I might not live to my own Will, but °His ; and that He on!y might lead and direct me — to the End I might be His Child in His Son Jesus.
“ In r this my earnest and Christian seeking and Desire (wherein I suffered many a shrewd repulse, but at last resolved rather to put myself in Hazard than give over and leave off) the Gate was opened to me, and in one quarter of an hour I saw and knew more than if I had been w many years together at an University, at which I exceedingly admired, and thereupon turned 'fay Praise to God for it.
“For I saw and knew the Being of all Beings, the Byss*and the Abyss, and the Eternal Generation r of the Holy Trinity, the Descent and Original of the World, and of the Creatures through the Divine Wisdom. I knew and saw in myself all the three Worlds, namely, the Divine, Angelical, and Paradisaical ; a^id the Dark World, the original of the Nature to the Fire ; and then, thirdly, the External and visible World, being a Procreation or External Birth from both the Internal and Spiritual worlds. And I saw and knew the whole working Essence, in the Evil and the Good, and the Original and Existence of each of them, and likewise how the fruitful bearing Womb of Eternity brought forth.
“So that I did not only greatly wonder at it, but did also exceedingly rejoice, and presently it came powerfully into my Mind to set the same down in writing, for a Memorial for myself, though I could scarcely apprehend the same, in my external man, and express it with the Pen.”
The Memorial which Jacob Boehme wrote of his first Illumination is entitled “ Aurora, or the Morning Redness but before the Manuscript was completed it was seen by Carl VON ENDERN, a Nobleman of philosophical tastes, who, being very much interested in it, prevailed upon Boehme to lend it to him, and, having obtained the loan of it, he had several copies of it made, which thus got into general circulation. A copy also came into the possession of one who became a bitter Persecutor of JACOB Boehme ; and who in that relation will £ver be associated*- with him — Gregory Richter, the Primate or Chief Clergyman 1 of Qoerlitz y whose life-long resentment against Boehme appears to have already originated in an incident, ludicrous as it was trivial, which is related as follows :
It appears that a Baker in Qoerlitz , desiring to make some cakes for sale at Eastertide, and not having any money with
‘Prefatory ^Memoir . vji
We are told that while one day sitting in his room he noticed a burnished pewter dish, which reflected the sunlight with such a degree of brilliancy that he was overcome with an inward ecstasy, and it seemed to him as if he could now look into the principles and deepest foundations of things. He believed that it was only fancy, and in order to banish it from his mind he went out into the fields about the Town. But here he remarked that he gazed into the very heart of things, the very grass and herbs ; that actual Nature harmonized with what he had seen ; and that he could distinguish the essences, uses, and properties in a manner that was to him a most wonderful insight or Revelation. He is said to have kept his knowledge of the occurrence very much to himself, and returning home continued to take care of his family and worked on in silence until the year 1610, when a further Illumination occurred to him, and of which he wrote a Memorial.
Of his insight into these Mysteries he says : “ I never desired to know anything of the Divine Mystery, much less understood & the way to seek and find it. I knew nothing of it, as is the ‘^condition of poor laymen in their simplicity. I sought only after the Heart of Jesus Christ, that I might hide myself therein from the wrathful Anger of God, and the violent
* Hahnmann also derived his principles of Homoeopathy from Jacob Boehme, as described in the “ Signatura Rerum.”
c
! 'Prefatory ^Memoir
Y 1
Assaults of the Devil. And I besought the Lord earnestly for His Holy Spirit and His Grace, that He would please to bless and guide me in Him, and take that away from me which turned me from Him ; and I resigned myself wholly to Him, that I might not live to my own Will, but °His ; and that He on!y might lead and direct me — to the End I might be His Child in His Son Jesus.
“ In r this my earnest and Christian seeking and Desire (wherein I suffered many a shrewd repulse, but at last resolved rather to put myself in Hazard than give over and leave off) the Gate was opened to me, and in one quarter of an hour I saw and knew more than if I had been w many years together at an University, at which I exceedingly admired, and thereupon turned 'fay Praise to God for it.
“For I saw and knew the Being of all Beings, the Byss*and the Abyss, and the Eternal Generation r of the Holy Trinity, the Descent and Original of the World, and of the Creatures through the Divine Wisdom. I knew and saw in myself all the three Worlds, namely, the Divine, Angelical, and Paradisaical ; a^id the Dark World, the original of the Nature to the Fire ; and then, thirdly, the External and visible World, being a Procreation or External Birth from both the Internal and Spiritual worlds. And I saw and knew the whole working Essence, in the Evil and the Good, and the Original and Existence of each of them, and likewise how the fruitful bearing Womb of Eternity brought forth.
“So that I did not only greatly wonder at it, but did also exceedingly rejoice, and presently it came powerfully into my Mind to set the same down in writing, for a Memorial for myself, though I could scarcely apprehend the same, in my external man, and express it with the Pen.”
The Memorial which Jacob Boehme wrote of his first Illumination is entitled “ Aurora, or the Morning Redness but before the Manuscript was completed it was seen by Carl VON ENDERN, a Nobleman of philosophical tastes, who, being very much interested in it, prevailed upon Boehme to lend it to him, and, having obtained the loan of it, he had several copies of it made, which thus got into general circulation. A copy also came into the possession of one who became a bitter Persecutor of JACOB Boehme ; and who in that relation will £ver be associated*- with him — Gregory Richter, the Primate or Chief Clergyman 1 of Qoerlitz y whose life-long resentment against Boehme appears to have already originated in an incident, ludicrous as it was trivial, which is related as follows :
It appears that a Baker in Qoerlitz , desiring to make some cakes for sale at Eastertide, and not having any money with
‘Prefatory ^Memoir . vji
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