Jacob Boehme's Aurora
Chapter 4: Of the creation of the Holy Angels. An Instruction or open Gate of Heaven.
THE Learned, and almost all Writers, have very much incumbered, and troubled their Heads greatly, to search, contrive, and conceive in Nature (and have brought forth many and various Opinions) concerning how, and of what the Holy Angels were framed: And on the other Side, what that horrible Fall of the Great Prince Lucifer was, or how he became so base a wicked, and fierce wrathful Devil. From whence that Evil Quality should spring, or what drove him to it.
And though this Ground and great Mystery has remained hidden from the Beginning of the World, and that human Flesh and Blood is not able to conceive or apprehend it,
yet God, who created the World, will reveal himself now at the End; and all great Mysteries will be manifested or revealed, to intimate, that the great Day of Revelation and final Judgment is near, and daily to be expected.
On which will be restored again all that which has been lost through Adam, and in which the Kingdom of Heaven, and the Kingdom of the Devil, shall be severed asunder, in this World.
But how all this will be done, God will reveal in the highest Plainness and Simplicity, so that no Man will be able to oppose him.
Therefore every one should lift up his Eyes, for his Redemption draweth near; and not seek after base Covetousness, Pride, and wanton luxurious Stateliness, supposing it the best Life to be here; whereas in their Luxury they sit in the Midst of Hell, to wait upon Lucifer as his Guard.
Which themselves shall suddenly be sure to see with great Terror, Anguish, and eternal Despair, as also to their Shame and Scorn: of which the Devils are a terrible Example, who were once the fairest and brightest Angels in Heaven, as I shall reveal, write, and manifest as follows. I will suffer God’s Impulse, I am not able to withstand it,
Of the Divine Quality.
Since you have perceived, in the Third Chapter, the Ground of the Ternary in the Divine Being, I shall here shew plainly the Power and Operation, as also the Qualities, or Qualification, in the Divine Being; or from what the Angels were properly and peculiarly created, or what their Body and Power are. And,
as I said before, all the Powers or Virtues are in God the Father, and no Man with his Sense and Thoughts can reach to apprehend it. But in the Stars and the Elements, as also by all the Creatures in the whole Creation of this World, a Man may clearly know it.
All Power and Virtue is in God the Father; and proceeds also forth from him, as Light, Heat, Cold, Soft, Gentle, Sweet, Bitter, Sour, Astringent or Harsh, Sound or Noise, and much more that is not possible to be spoken or apprehended. All these are in God the Father, one in another as one Power, and yet all these Powers move in his Exit or going forth.
But the Powers in God do not operate or qualify in that Manner, as in Nature, in the Stars, and Elements, or in the Creatures.
No, you must not conceive it so: For Lord Lucifer in his Elevation made the Powers of impure Nature thus burning, bitter, cold, astringent, sour, dark, and unclean.
But in the Father all Powers are mild, soft, like Heaven, very full of Joy, for all the Powers triumph in one another, and their Voice or Sound rises up from Eternity to Eternity.
There is nothing in them but Love, Meekness, Mercy, Friendliness, or Courtesy; even such a triumphing, rising Source or Fountain of Joy, wherein all the Voices of Heavenly Joyfulness sound forth, so as no Man is able to express it, nor can it be likened to any Thing.
But if a Man will liken it to any Thing, it may nearest be likened to the Soul of Man, when kindled or enlightened by the Holy Ghost. [See Chap. 3. v. 39.]
For then it is thus joyful and triumphing, and all Powers rise up in it and triumph, and so raise the Bestial Body, that it trembles: This is a true Glimpse of the divine Quality, as the Quality is in God. But in God all is Spirit.
The Quality of Water is not of such a running and qualifying Condition or Manner in God, as it is in this World, but is a Spirit, very bright, clear, and thin, wherein the Holy Ghost riseth up, a mere Power.
The bitter Quality qualifies in the sweet, astringent or harsh and sour Quality, and the Love rises up therein from Eternity to Eternity.
For the Love in the Light and Clarity, or glorious Brightness, goeth forth from the Heart or Son of God, in all the Powers of the Father, and the Holy Ghost moves in them all.
And this, in the Deep of the Father, is like a Divine m SALITTER, which I must needs liken to the Earth, which before its Corruption was even such a Salitter.
But not so Hard, Cold, Bitter, Sour, and Dark, but like the Deep, or like Heaven, very clear and pure, wherein all Powers were good, fair, and heavenly; but that Prince Lucifer thus spoiled them, as you shall perceive hereafter. [Or SAL NITRUM.]
This Heavenly Salitter, or Powers one in another, generate heavenly joyful Fruits and Colours; all Manner of Trees and Plants, on which grow the fair pleasant and lovely Fruits of Life.
There spring up also in these Powers and Virtues, all Manner of Blossoms and Flowers, with fair Heavenly Colours and Smells.
They are of several Tastes, each according to its Quality and Kind, very Holy, Divine, and full of Joy.
For every Quality bears its own Fruit, as it is in the corrupted murtherous Den or dark Valley and Dungeon of the Earth; there spring up all Manner of Earthly Trees, Plants, Flowers, and Fruits.
Also within the Earth, grow curious precious Stones, Silver, and Gold, and these are a Type of the Heavenly Generating or Production.
Nature labours with its utmost Diligence upon this corrupted dead Earth, that it might generate Heavenly Forms and Species or Kinds; but it generates only dead, dark, and hard Fruits, which are no more than a mere Shadow or Type of the Heavenly.
Moreover its Fruit are altogether fierce, or biting, bitter, four, astringent, or harsh and hot, also cold, hard and evil; they have scarce any Spark or Spice of Goodness in them.
Their Sap and Spirit is mixed with hellish Quality, their Scent or Smell is a very Stink; thus has Lord Lucifer caused them to be; as I shall clearly show hereafter.
Now when I write of Trees, Plants and Fruits, you must not understand them to be Earthly, like those that are in this World: For it is not my Meaning, that there shall grow in Heaven such dead hard Trees of Wood, or such Stones as consist of an earthly Quality.
No, but my Meaning is heavenly and spiritual, yet truly and properly such: I mean no other Thing than what I set down in the Letter.
In the Divine Pomp and State are especially two Things to be considered: First the Saltiter or the Divine Powers, which are moving springing Powers. [the Saltiter or the Divine Powers]
In that same Power grows up and is generated Fruit according to every Quality and Species, or Kind, viz. heavenly Trees and Plants, which without ceasing bear Fruit, fairly blossom, and grow in divine Power, so joyfully, that I can neither speak nor write it down,
but stammer it like a Child, that is learning to speak, and can by no Means rightly call it as the Spirit gives it forth to be known.
The second Form or Property of Heaven in the divine Pomp or State, is Mercurius, or the Sound, as in the Saltiter of the Earth there is the Sound, whence there grows Gold, Silver, Copper, Iron, and the like; of which Men make all Manner of Musical Instruments for sounding, or for Mirth, as Bells, Organ-Pipes, and other things that make a Sound: There is likewise a Sound in all the Creatures upon Earth, else all would be in Stillness and Silence. [Musical Instruments] [Mercurius]
By that Sound in Heaven all Powers are moved, so that all Things grow joyfully, and generate very beautifully: And as the Divine Power is manifold and various, so also the Sound or Mercurius is manifold and various. [Mercurius]
For when the Powers spring up in God, they touch and stir one another, and move one in another, and so there is a constant Harmony, Mixing, or Comfort, from whence go forth all Manner of Colours. And
in those Colours grow all Manner of Fruits, which rise or spring up in the Saltiter, and the Mercurius or Sound mingles itself therewith, and rises up in all the Powers of the Father, and then Sounding and Tunes rise up in the heavenly Joyfulness.
If you should in this World bring many thousand Sorts of musical Instruments together, and all should be tuned in the best Manner most artificially, and the most skilful Masters of Music should play on them in Concert together, all would be no more than the Howlings and Barkings of Dogs, in Comparison of the Divine Music, which rises through the Divine Sound and Tunes from Eternity to Eternity.
Further, if you will consider the heavenly Divine Pomp, State, and Glory, and conceive how it is, and what Manner of Sprouting, Branching, Delight, and Joy there is in it,
view this World diligently, and consider what Manner of Fruit, Sprouts, and Branches, grow out of the Salitter of the Earth, from Trees, Plants, Herbs, Roots, Flowers, Oils, Wine, Corn, and whatever else there is that your Heart can find out; all is a Type of the heavenly Pomp.
For the earthly and corrupt Nature has continually laboured from the Beginning of its Creation to this Day, to bring forth heavenly Forms or Shapes in the Earth, as also in Man and Beasts; as Men very well see that every Year new Arts are invented and brought to Light, which has been constantly so from the Beginning to this Time.
But yet Nature has not been able to bring forth heavenly Power, Virtue, and Qualities, therefore its Fruit is half dead, corrupt, and impure.
You must not think, that in the Divine Pomp there come forth Beasts, Worms, and other Creatures in Flesh, as in this World they do; No; but I mean only the wonderful Proportion, Power, Virtue, and Comeliness of Feature in them. And
Nature labours with utmost Diligence, to produce in its Power heavenly Figures, Shapes, or Forms, as we see in Men, Beasts, Fowls, and Worms, as also in the Increase or Growth of the Earth, that all Things are done, show, and appear most curiously, artificially, and delicately:
For Nature would willingly be delivered from this Vanity, that it might procreate heavenly Forms in the holy Power.
For in the Divine Pomp likewise go forth all Manner of Sprouting and Vegetation of Trees, Plants, and all Manner of Fruit; and every one bears its own Fruit, yet not in an earthly Quality and Kind, but in a Divine Quality, Form, and Kind.
Those Fruits are not of dead, hard, bitter, sour, and astringent a Relish for Food; nor do they rot and grow stinking, as those in this World do, but all consist in holy Divine Power.
Their Constitution or Composition is from Divine Power, from the Salitter and Mercurius of the Divine Pomp, and they are the Food of the Holy Angels.
If Man's abominable Fall had not spoiled it, he would have been seated in such a Manner in this World, and have eaten such Fruits as indeed were presented to him in Paradise, in a twofold Manner.
But the infectious Lust, Longing, and Malady of the Devil, who had infected and spoiled the Salitter of which Adam was made, that brought Man into an Evil Longing or Lust to eat of both the Qualities, the Evil and the Good, of which I shall write clearly, as follows, and demonstrate it.
Of the Creation of Angels.
The Spirit shows plainly and clearly, that before the Creation of Angels, the Divine Being, with its Rising and Qualifying, was from Eternity, and remained so in the Creation of Angels, as it is also at this Day, and will so continue in and to Eternity. And
the Space, Room, or Place of this World, together with the creaturely Heaven, which we behold with our Eyes, as also the Space or Place of the Earth and Stars, together with the Deep, was in such a Form as now at this Day it is in, aloft, above the Heavens, in the Divine Pomp.
It was the Kingdom of the great Prince Lucifer, in the Creation of the Angels: ["Understand according to the second Principle, out of which he was thrust forth into the B. or outermost, which also is the very innermost of all,"]
who by his proud Elevation in his Kingdom kindled the Qualities, or the Divine Salitter, out of which he was made; ["Understand the Center of his Nature, or the first Principle;"] and set it on Fire;
supposing thereby he should grow greatly and highly light and qualifying, above the Son of God; but he became a Fool, therefore this Place or Space in its burning Quality could not subsist in God, whereupon the Creation of this World ensued.
But this World at the End, in God's appointed Time, will be set again into its first Place, as it was before the Creation of Angels, and Lord Lucifer will have a Hole or Dungeon for his eternal Habitation therein, and he will remain eternally in his kindled Quality, which will be an eternal base filthy reproachful Habitation, an empty void dark Valley, or Dungeon, a Hole of Fierceness or Wrath.
Now Observe,
God in his Moving created the holy Angels at once, not out of a strange Matter, but out of himself, out of his own Power, and eternal Wisdom.
But the Philosophers had this Opinion, as if God had made the Angels only out of the Light; but they erred therein, for they were made not only out of the Light; but out of all the Powers of God. And
as I have shown before, there are two Things especially to be observed in the Deep of God the Father; first, the Power, or all Powers of God the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, are very lovely, pleasant, and various, and yet are all One in another as one Power. And
as the Powers of all the Stars rule in the Air, so also in God: But every Power in God shows itself with its Operation severally and distinctly.
Then afterwards the Sound is in every Power, and the Tone or Tune of the Sound is according to the Quality of every Power; and therein consists the total heavenly Kingdom of Joy; and so from this divine Salitter and Mercurius all Angels are made, viz. out of the Body of Nature.
Question.
Answer.
If I had the Tongue of an Angel, and thou hadst an angelical Understanding, we might very finely discourse of it. But the Spirit only sees it, and the Tongue cannot advance towards it. For I can use no other Words than the Words of this World; but now the Holy Ghost being in thee, thy Soul will well apprehend it.
For behold the total Holy Trinity has with its moving composed, compassed, or figured a Body, or Image out of itself, like a little God, but not so fully or strongly going forth, as the whole Trinity, yet in some Measure according to the Extent and Capacity of the Creatures.
For in God there is neither Beginning nor End; but the Angels have a Beginning and End, but not circumscriptive, apprehensive, palpable, or conclusive; for an Angel can sometimes be great, and suddenly little again; their Alteration is as swift as Man's Thoughts are. All Qualities and Powers are in an Angel, as they are in the whole Deity.
But thou must rightly understand this. They are made and compacted together, or figured out of the Salitter and Mercurius, that is, out of the Exit or Excrefcence.
Consider this Similitude: Out of the Sun and Stars go forth the Elements, and they make in the Salitter of the Earth a living Spirit, and the Stars remain in their Circle or Sphere, and that Spirit likewise gets the Quality of the Stars.
But now the Spirit after its Compaction is a separate distinct Thing, and has a Substance of its own, as all the Stars have, and the Stars also are and remain separate and distinct Things, each of them is free to itself.
Nevertheless the Quality of the Stars reigns in the Spirit; yet the Spirit can it may rise, or demerit itself in its own Qualities, or may live in the Influences of the Stars, as it pleases: For it is free, for it has got the Qualities which it has in itself for its own.
And though it had them at the Beginning from the Stars, yet they are now its proper own: Just as a Mother when she has the Seed in herself, as long as she has it in her, and that it is a Seed, it is hers; but when the Seed is become a Child, then it is no more the Mother's, but is the Child's proper own.
And though the Child is in the Mother's House, and the Mother nourishes the Child with her Food, and the Child could not live without the Mother, yet both the Body and the Spirit, which are generated out of the Seed of the Mother, are the Child's proper own, and it retains its corporeal Right to itself.
And in this Manner it is with the Angels, they are also all composed, framed, or figured out of the Divine Seed, but every one has his own Body to itself, though they are in God's House, and feed on the Fruit of their Mother, out of which they were made, yet the Bodies are their proper own.
But the Quality externally without them, or externally without their Bodies, viz. their Mother's, is not their Propriety, as also their Mother is not the Child's Propriety; also the Mother's Food is not the Child's Propriety; but the Mother gives it to the Child out of Love, seeing she has generated the Child.
She may well also thrust the Child out of her House, when the Child is stubborn, and will not be obedient, and may withdraw her Food from it, which also thus befell the Principality of Lucifer.
Thus God may withdraw his Divine Power, which is externally without the Angels, when they elevate themselves against him; but when that is done, a Spirit must faint and perish.