Jacob Boehme's Aurora
Chapter 2: An Introduction, shewing how men may come to apprehend The Divine, and the Natural, Being. And further of the two Qualities.
ALL whatsoever that has been mentioned above is called quality, because it qualifieth, operateth or frameth all in the deep above the earth, also upon the earth and in the earth, in one another, as ONE thing, and yet has several distinct virtues and operations, and but one mother, from whence descend and spring all things.
All the creatures are made and descended from these qualities, and live therein as in their mother; and the earth and stones descend or proceed from thence also; and all that grows out of the earth liveth and springeth forth out of the virtue of these qualities; no rational man can deny it.
Now this twofold source, good and evil, in everything, is caused by the stars; for as the creatures in the earth are, in their qualities, so also are the stars.
For from its twofold source, everything has its great mobility, running, springing, driving and growing; For meekness in nature is a still rest, but the fierceness in every power makes all things moveable, running and generative.
For the driving qualities cause a lust in all creatures unto evil and good, so that all [things] are desirous one of another, to copulate and increase, decrease, grow fair, perish, love and hate.
In every creature in this world there is a good and evil will and source; in men, beasts, fowls, fishes, worms, and in all that is upon the earth; in gold, silver, copper, tin, iron, steel; wood, herbs, leaves and grass; as also in the earth, in stones, in the water, and in all whatsoever that can be thought of.
There is nothing in nature wherein there is not good and evil; everything moveth and liveth in this double impulse, working or operation, be it what it will.
But the holy angels, and the fierce wrathful devils, are here to be excepted; for these are severed apart: Each of these liveth, qualifieth and ruleth in his own peculiar quality.
The holy angels live and qualify in the light, in the good quality wherein the Holy Ghost reigneth. The devils live and reign in the fierce wrathful quality, in the quality of fierceness and wrath, destruction or perdition.
Yet both of these, the good and the evil angels, were made out of the qualities of nature from whence all things existed, only they differ in their qualifying, or in their condition.
The holy angels live in the power of meekness, of the light and joyfulness: The devils live in the power of the rising or elevating quality of fierceness, terror and darkness, and cannot comprehend the light, into which condition they precipitated and cast themselves through their pride and elevation of themselves; as I shall shew afterwards, when I shall write of the creation.
If thou wilt not believe that in this world all descendeth or cometh from the stars, I will demonstrate it to thee, if thou art not a blockhead, but hast some little reason and understanding left; therefore take notice of that which followeth.
First behold the sun; it is the heart or king of all stars, and giveth light to all stars from the east to the west; it enlighteneth and warmeth all, all liveth and grows by its power; besides, the joy of all creatures consisteth in its virtue.
If that should be taken away or become extinct, then all would be dark and cold; neither would there grow any fruit, and neither man nor beast could propagate and increase, because their heat would be extinguished and their seed would be cold and torpid. Of the Quality of the Sun.
If thou wilt be a philosopher and naturalist, and search into God's being in nature, and discern how all is come to pass, then pray to God for the Holy Spirit, to enlighten thee with it.
For in thy flesh and blood thou art not able to apprehend it, and though thou dost read it, yet it is but as a fume or mist before thine eyes.
In the Holy Ghost alone, who is in God, and also in the whole nature, out of which all things were made, in him alone canst thou search into the whole body or corporeity of God, which is nature; as also into the Holy Trinity itself.
For the Holy Ghost goeth forth from the Holy Trinity, and reigneth and ruleth in the whole body or corpus of God; that is, in the whole nature.
Even as the spirit of man ruleth and reigneth in the whole body, in all the veins, and replenisheth the whole man; even so the Holy Ghost replenisheth the whole nature, and is the heart of nature, and reigneth in the good qualities of everything.
Now, if thou hast that spirit in thee, so that it enlighteneth, filleth and replenisheth thy spirit, then thou wilt understand what followeth in this writing.
But if not, then it will be with thee as it was with the wise Heathen, who gazed and stared on the creation, and would search and sift it out by their own reason; and though with their fictions and conceits they came before God's countenance or face, yet they were not able to see it, but were stark blind in the knowledge of God.
As the Children of Israel in the desert could not behold the countenance of Moses, and therefore, when he drew near to the people, he must put a veil before his face.
The cause of this was, that they neither understood nor knew the true God and his will, who, notwithstanding, walked among them; and therefore that veil was a sign and type of their blindness and misunderstanding.
As little as a piece of work can apprehend him that made it, so little also can man apprehend and know God his Creator, unless the Holy Ghost enlighten him; which happeneth only to those that rely not upon themselves, but set their hope, will and desires upon God alone, and move in the Holy Ghost, and these are one spirit with God.
Now if we consider rightly of the sun and stars, with their corpus or body, operations and qualities, then the very divine being may be found therein, and we may find that the virtues of the stars are nature itself.
If the whole wheel, circumference or sphere of the stars be well considered, then it is soon found that the same is the mother of all things, or the nature out of which all things are come, and wherein all things stand and live, and whereby everything moveth; all things are made of these powers, and therein they all abide eternally.
Though indeed they shall be changed at the end of this time, when good and evil shall be separated. So in like manner angels and men, in the [particular] virtue of nature, out of which they had gotten their first beginning, shall subsist in God eternally.
But here thou must elevate thy mind in the spirit, and consider how the whole nature, with all the powers which are in nature, also the wideness, depth and height, also heaven and earth, and all whatsoever is therein, and all that is above the heavens, is together the body or corporeity of God; and the powers of the stars are the fountain veins in the natural body of God in this world.
Thou must not conceive that in the body of the stars is the triumphing Holy Trinity, God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, in which there is no evil, for it is the light-holy, eternal fountain of joy, which is indivisible and unchangeable, which no creature can sufficiently apprehend or express; which dwelleth and is above the body of the stars in itself, whose depth no creature is able to measure or fathom.
But we must not so conceive as if God were not at all in the corpus or body of the stars, and in this world: For when we say, ALL, or from eternity to eternity, or All in All, then we understand the entire GOD.
For a similitude or example take man, who is made after the image or similitude of God, as it is written [Gen. i. 27].
The interior or hollowness in the body of man is, and signifieth, the deep between the stars and the earth.
The windpipe and arteries wherein the air qualifieth or operateth, signify the deep between the stars and the earth, wherein fire, air and water qualify in an elementary manner, and so the warmth, the air, and water, qualify also in the windpipe and arteries, as they do in the deep above the earth.
The veins signify the powerful flowings out from the stars, and are also the powerful outgoings of the stars; for the stars with their powers reign in the veins, and drive forth the form, shape and condition in men.
The entrails or guts signify the operation of the stars, or their consuming of all that which is proceeded from their power, for whatsoever they themselves have made that they consume again, and remain still in their virtue and power; and so the guts also are the consuming of all that which man thrusteth and stuffeth into his guts, even all whatsoever grows from the power of the stars.
The heart in man signifieth the heat or the element of fire, and it is also the heat; for the heat in the whole body has its original in the heart.
The liver signifieth the element of water, and it is also the water; for from the liver cometh the blood in the whole body into all the members. The liver is the mother of the blood.
The feet signify near and afar off; for near and afar off are all one in God: And so man by means of his feet can come and go near and far off; let him be where he will, he is in nature neither near nor afar off; for in God these are one thing.
The hands signify God's omnipotence; for as God in nature can change all things, and make of them what he pleaseth, so man also can with his hands change all things which grow in or proceed from nature, and can make with his hands out of them what he pleaseth: He ruleth with his hands the work and being of the whole nature, and so they very well signify the omnipotence of God. Now observe here further,
The whole body to the neck signifieth and is the round circle or sphere of the stars, as also the deep within or between the stars, wherein the planets and elements reign.
The flesh signifieth the earth, which is congealed, and has no motion; and so the flesh in itself has no reason, comprehensibility or mobility, but is moved only by the power of the stars, which reign in the flesh and veins.
No more could the earth bring forth any fruit, nor could there grow any metals, as gold, silver, copper, iron or stones, if the stars did not work in them; nor could there grow any grass without the operation of the stars.
The head signifieth heaven; the same is grown on the body, by the veins, passages and going forth of powers; and so all the powers come again from the head and brain into the body, into the fountainveins or arteries of the flesh.
Now heaven is a pleasant palace of joy, wherein all the powers are, as they are in the whole nature in the stars and elements, but not so hard working and springing. For every power of heaven has but one species, kind or form of power, springing very bright and meek, not promiscuously evil and good one in another, as in the stars and elements in the whole nature, but very pure.
It is made out of the midst of the waters, but not qualifying in such a manner as the water in the elements, for fierceness or wrath is not therein. However, heaven belongeth to nature, because the stars and elements have their original and power from the heaven.
For heaven is the heart of the water. Likewise, in all creatures, and in all that is in this world the water is the heart thereof, and nothing can subsist without water, be it in the flesh or out of the flesh, in the vegetables of the earth or in metals and stones, in everything the water is the kernel or the heart.
So heaven is the heart in nature, wherein all the powers are, as in the stars and elements, and it is a soft, supple and meek matter of all powers, as the brain in man's head is.
Now heaven kindleth with its power the stars and elements, so that they move and work: And so the head of man is also like heaven.
For as in heaven all powers are meek and full of joy, and as heaven has a closure or firmament above the stars, and yet all powers go forth from heaven into the stars, so the brain also has a closure or firmament between it and the body, and yet all the powers go forth from the brain into the body, and into the whole man.
The head containeth the five senses, viz. seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting and feeling, wherein the stars and elements qualify, and therein existeth the sidereal or heavenly, starry or astral and natural spirit in men and beasts; in this flow forth good and evil, for it is the house of the stars.
Such power the stars borrow from heaven, that they can make in the flesh a living and moving spirit in man and beast. The moving of the heaven makes the stars moveable, and so the head also makes the body moveable.
Now open here the eyes of thy spirit, and behold God thy Creator. Question. Here now the question is, From whence has heaven, or whence borroweth it, this power, that it causes such mobility in nature? Answer.
Here you must lift up your eyes beyond nature, into the light-holy triumphing divine power, into the unchangeable Holy Trinity, which is a triumphing, springing, moveable being, and all powers are therein, as in nature.
For this is the eternal mother of nature, of which heaven, earth, stars, elements, angels, devils, men, beasts, and all have their being; and therein ALL stands.
When we nominate heaven and earth, stars and elements, and all that is therein, and all whatsoever is above the heaven, then thereby is nominated the total God, who has made himself creaturely in these abovementioned beings, in his power which goeth forth from him.
But GOD in his TRINITY is unchangeable, and whatever there is in heaven and upon earth and above the earth, has its spring, source and original from the power which proceedeth from God.
Yet you must not therefore conceive that in God there is good and evil, for God himself is the good, and has the name from good, which is the triumphing eternal joy: Only all the powers which you can search out in nature, and which are in all things, proceed from him. Question.
Now perhaps you may say, Is there not good and evil in nature? And seeing everything cometh from God, must not then the evil also come from God? Answer.
Behold, there is a gall in man's body, which is poison, and man cannot live without this gall; for the gall makes the astral spirits moveable, joyous, triumphing or laughing, for it is the source of joy.
But if it be inflamed or kindled in one of the elements, then it spoils the whole man, for the wrath in the astral spirits cometh from the gall.
That is, when the gall overfloweth and runneth to the heart, then it kindleth the element of fire, and the fire kindleth the astral spirits which reign in the blood in the veins and in the element of water; and then the whole body trembleth by reason of the wrath and the poison of the gall.
Such a source has joy, and from the same substance also as the wrath. That is, when the gall in the loving or sweet quality is inflamed, in that which man is in love withal, then the whole body trembleth for the joy; in which many times the astral spirits are affected also, when the gall is overflown, and is kindled in the sweet quality.
But it has no such substance in God, for he has not flesh and blood, but he is a Spirit, [John iv. 24.] in whom all powers are; as we pray in the Lord's prayer, Thine is the power. [Matt vi. 13.]
As it is written of him, He is Wonderful, [Isaiah ix. 6.] Counsel, Power, Champion, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.
The bitter quality is in God also, but not in that manner as the gall is in man, but it is an everlasting power, in an elevating, triumphing spring or source of joy.
And though it is written in Moses, I am [Exod. XX. 5.] an angry, zealous God [Deut iv. 24], yet the meaning of it is not that God is angry in himself, and that there ariseth a fire of anger in the Holy Trinity.
No; that cannot be, for it is written, against those that hate me; in that same creature, the fire of anger riseth up.
If God should be angry in himself, then the whole nature would be on fire, which will come once to pass on the last day, in nature, but not in God, in God the triumphing joy will burn; it was never otherwise from eternity, nor will it ever be otherwise.
The elevating, springing, triumphing joy in God makes heaven triumphing and moveable, and heaven makes the stars and elements moveable, and the stars and elements make the creatures moveable.
Out of the powers of God are the heavens proceeded; out of the heaven are the stars; out of the stars are the elements; out of the elements are the earth and the creatures come to be.
Thus all had its beginning, even to the angels and devils, which, before the creation of heaven, stars and the earth, were produced from the same power from which the heaven, the stars and the earth were produced.
This is a short entrance or introduction, shewing how one must consider the divine and the natural being. Henceforth I will describe the true ground and depth concerning what God is, and how all things are framed in God's being.
This indeed has been partly concealed from the beginning of the world to this time, and man with his reason could not comprehend it.