Note by the compiler
In this chapter William Law introduces some new terms, 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 as contraction, expansion and rotation/spin respectively. I intend to compile some useful links and bibliography later on. Read more about this terminology question (partly borrowed from Paracelsus) at the following site: About Boehme – terminology
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.
6. In this Coagulation, or Impression, or
Desire, or Hunger, by any of which I might express it to the
Understanding, I say, in this Compaction or comprehensive
Complication, we are to understand two Things; 1. The free Lubet,
which is the Wisdom, Power, and Virtue of the Colours; and 2. The
Desire of the free Lubet in itself: For the free Lubet, viz. the
Wisdom, is no Property; but it is free from all Inclination, and is
one with God. But the Desire is a Property: Now the Desire arises
from the Lubet; therefore the Desire conceives and comprehends the
free Lubet all along in the Compaction, in the Impression, and brings
it also in feeling and finding.
7. And understand us right,
and punctually here: The Desire arises out of the Will to the free
Lubet, and makes itself out of the free Lubet, and brings itself into
a Desire; for the Desire is the Father's Property; and the free
Lubet, viz. the Wisdom, is the Son's Property; although God, seeing
he is a [or one] Spirit, is not called Father or Son in this Place,
till the Manifestation through the Fire in the Light; and there he is
called Father and Son ; but I set it down, by Reason of the Birth of
Nature, for a better Understanding of the true Ground, that Man might
understand to what Person in the Deity Nature, and to what the Power
in Nature is to be ascribed. The Center of the Eternal Nature; how
the Will of the Abyss brings itself into Nature and form.
8.The
Desire proceeding from the Will of the Abyss is the first form ; and
it is the Fiat, or, as it is expressed, Let there be; and the Power
of the free Lubet is God; who governs the Fiat; and both together are
named Verbum Fiat, that is, the Eternal Word, which creates where
Nothing is, and [is] the Original of Nature and all Beings.
9.
Saturn ( ). The first Property of the Desire is Astringent, harsh,
eagerly-impressing, conceiving itself, overshadowing itself; and it
makes, first, the great Darkness of the Abyss. Secondly, it makes
itself substantial in a spiritual Manner, wholly rough, harsh, hard,
and thick, and it is a Cause of Coldness, and all Keenness and
Sharpness; also of all whatsoever is called Essence; and it is the
Beginning of Perception, wherein the free Lubet finds and perceives
itself, and introduces the Contemplation of itself; but the Desire in
itself brings itself thereby into Pain and Source: Yet the free Lubet
does only so receive finding [or Perception.]
10. Mercury (
). The second form or Property is the Constringency of the Desire;
that is, a Compunction, Stirring, or Motion; for each Desire is
attractive and constringent; and it is the Beginning of Motion,
Stirring and Life, and the true Original of the Mercurial Life of the
painful [or tormenting] Source. For here arises the first Enmity
between the Astringency or Hardness, and the Compunction or Sting of
Stirring; for the Desire makes hard, thick, and congeals, as the Cold
stiffens and freezes the Water: Thus the Astringency is a mere raw
Coldness; and the Compunction, viz. the Attraction, is yet brought
forth with the Impression (or close constringent Desire.]
11.
It is even here as Father and Son: The Father would be still, and
hard; and the Compunction, viz. his Son, stirs in the Father, and
Causes Unquietness; and this the Father, viz. the Astringency, cannot
endure; and therefore he attracts the more eagerly and earnestly, in
the Desire, to hold, refrain, and keep under the disobedient Son;
whereby the Son grows only more strong in the Compunction [Or Sting].
And this is the true Ground and Cause of Sense; which in the free
Lubet is the Eternal Beginning of the Motion [or Manifestation] of
the powers, Colours, and Virtue, of the Divine Kingdom of Joy: And in
the dark Desire it is the Original of Enmity, Pain, and Torment; and
the Eternal Original of God's Anger, and all Unquietness and
Contrariety, [or Antipathy].
12. Mars ( ). The third Property
is the Anguish [distress], or Source, or rising Spring, which the two
first Principles make. When the Compunction, viz. the Stirring,
strives and moves with Rage in the Hardness, or Impression, and
bruises the Hardness, then in the Contrition [brokenness] of the
Hardness the first Sense of Feeling arises, and is the Beginning of
the Essences; for first it is the Severation, whereby each Power
becomes sensible [Feeling or distinct] and separable in itself in the
free Lubet, in the Word of the Powers; it is the Original of
Distinction, (or different Variety) whereby the Powers are mutually
manifest, each in itself; also the Original of the Thoughts and Mind.
13. For the Eternal Mind is the All-Essential Power of the
Deity: But the Senses arise through Nature with the Motion in the
Division of the Powers, where each Power perceives, and feels itself
in itself; it is also the Original of Taste and Smell: When the
Perception of the Powers in the Distinction has mutual Intercourse,
and Entrance into each other, then they feel, taste, smell, hear, and
see one another; and herein arises the Source of Life, which could
not be in the Liberty in the Stillness of the Power of God: Therefore
the Divine Understanding brings itself into spiritual Properties,
that it might be manifest to itself, and be a Working Life.
14.Now
we are to consider of the Anguish in its own Generation and peculiar
Property. For like as there is a Mind, viz. an Understanding in the
Liberty, in the Word of the Power of God, so likewise the first Will
to the Desire brings itself in the Desire of the Darkness into a
Mind, which Mind is the Anguish Source, viz. a Sulphureous Source;
and yet here [the] Spirit is only to be understood.
15.The
Anguish-Source is thus to be understood. The Astringent Desire
conceives itself, and draws [contracts] itself into itself, and makes
itself full, hard, and rough; now the Attraction is an Enemy of the
Hardness; the Hardness is retentive; the Attraction is fugitive; the
one will have it into itself, and the other will out of itself. But
seeing they cannot separate, and part asunder one from the other,
they remain in each other as a rolling Wheel; the one will ascend,
the other descend.
16. For the Hardness Causes Substance and
Weight; and the Compunction gives Spirit and the Active Life: These
both mutually circulate in themselves and out of themselves and yet
cannot go any where [parted]. What the Desire, viz. the Magnet, makes
hard, that the Attraction again breaks in Pieces; and it is the
greatest Unquietness in itself; like a raging Madness; and it is in
itself an horrible Anguish; and yet no right feeling is perceived [to
be understood] till the Fire (kindling of the Fire in Nature, which
is the fourth Form, wherein the Manifestation of each Life appears).
And I leave it to the Consideration of the true understanding
Searcher of Nature, what this is, or means; let him search and
bethink himself; he shall find it in his own natural, and paternal
Knowledge.
17. The Anguish makes the Sulphureous Spirit; and
the Compunction makes the Mercury, viz. the Work-Master of Nature, he
is the Life of Nature; and the astringent Desire makes the keen
Salt-Spirit; and yet all three are only one. But they divide
themselves into three forms, which are called Sulphur, Mercurius, and
Sal: These three Properties impress the Free Lubet into them, that it
also gives a material Essentiality, which is the Oil of these three
forms (viz. their Life and joy) which mollifies, meekens, and allays
their Wrathfulness; and this no rational Man can deny. There is a
Salt, Brimstone and Oil in all Things; and Mercurius, viz. the vital
Venom [poison Life], makes the Essence in all Things; and so the
Abyss brings itself into Byss and Nature.
18. Sol( ). The
fourth Form of Nature is the Enkindling of the Fire ; where the
sensitive [ Feeling and Understanding] and intellective Life first
arise, and the hidden God manifests himself. For without Nature he is
hid to all Creatures; but in the Eternal and Temporal Nature he is
perceived and manifest.
19. And this Manifestation is first
effected by the Awakening of the Powers, viz. by the three
above-mentioned Properties, Sulphur, Mercurius, and Sal, and therein
the Oil, in which the Life has its vital Being and Beauty, Life and
Lustre [burns and shines]: The true Life is first manifest in the
fourth Form, viz. in the Fire and Light; in the Fire the Natural, and
in the Light the Oily Spiritual; and in the Power of the Light the
divine intellectual [or understanding Life is manifest.]
20.
Reader, attend, and mark right; I understand here, with the
Description of Nature, the Eternal not the Temporal Nature: I only
show thee the temporal Nature thereby, for it is expressed, or spoken
forth out of the Eternal, and therefore do not folst in or alledge
Calves, Cowes, or Oxen, as it is the course of irrational Reason in
Babel to do.
21. First know this; that the Divine
Understanding does therefore introduce itself into Fire, that its
Eternal Lubet might be majestical and Lustrous [a Light]; for the
Divine Understanding receives no Source into itself: It also needs
none to its own Being; for the All needs not the Something; the
Something is only the Play of the All, wherewith the All does
melodize and play; and that the TOTAL or All might be manifest to
itself, it introduces its Will into Properties: Thus we as a Creature
will write of the Properties, viz. of the manifested God; how the
All, viz. the Immense, Abyssal, Eternal Understanding manifests
itself.
22. Secondly, the Abyssal and Divine Understanding
does therefore introduce itself into an anxious Fire-will, and Life,
that its great Love and Joy, which is called God, might be manifest;
for if all were only One, then the One would not be manifest to
itself; but by the Manifestation the Eternal Good is known, and makes
a Kingdom of Joy : Else, if there were no Anguish, then Joy would not
be manifest to itself; and there would be but one only Will, which
would do continually one and the same Thing. But if it introduces
itself into Contrariety, then in the Contest, the Lubet of Joy
becomes a Desire, and a Love-play to itself; in that it has to work
and act, to speak according to our human Capacity.
23. The
Original of the Eternal Spiritual and Natural Fire is effected by an
Eternal Conjunction or Copulation, not each seperately, but both
jointly; viz. the Divine Fire, which is a Love-flame; and Natural
Fire, which is a Torment, and consuming Source: Understand it thus,
as it is.
24. One Part, viz. the Will of the Father, or of
the Abyss, introduces itself into the greatest Sharpness of the
Astringency, where it is a cold Fire, a cold painful Source, and it
is Sharpened by the Astringent Compunctive Anguish; and in this
Anguish it comes to desire the Liberty, viz. the free Lubet, or
Meekness; and the other Part is the Free Lubet, which desires to be
manifest; it longs after the Will of the Father, which has generated
it without Nature, and uses it for its Play; this here does again
desire the Will, and the Will has here re-conceived itself to go
again out of the Anguish into the Liberty; viz. the
Lubet.
25.Understand; that it is the re-conceived Will which
desires the Free Lubet of God: But now it has taken into itself the
horrible, astringent, hard, compunctive Sharpness; and the Free Lubet
is a great Meekness, in reference to the wrathful Nature, as a
Nothing, and yet it is: Now both these dash together in one another;
the sharp Will eagerly and mightily desires the Fire-Lubet, and the
Lubet desires the Austere Will, and in that they enter into and feel
each other, a great Flagrat is made, like a Flash of Lightning; in
manner as the Fire, or celestial Lightning, or etherial Blaze, is
enkindled in the Firmament.
26. And in this Flagrat the Fire
is enkindled: for the Astringent harsh Darkness, which is cold, is
dismayed at the Light and great Meekness of the Free Lubet, and
becomes in itself a Flagrat of Death, where the Wrathfulness and cold
Property retires back into itself, and closes up itself as a Death;
for in the Flagrat the dark Mind becomes essential; it sadly betakes
itself into itself; as a great Fear before the Light [as being
afraid, or dismayed at the Light]; or as an Enmity of the Light; and
this is the true Original of the dark World, viz. of the Abyss, into
which the Devils are thrust, which we call Hell.
Legenda: as
in Chapter two. Rarely, a conjugation has been modernized.
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