Jacob Boehme's Aurora
Chapter 7: Of the Court, Place and Dwelling, also of the Government of Angels, how these things stood at the Beginning, after the Creation, and how they became as they are.
HERE the Devil will oppose like a snarling Dog, for his Shame will be discovered; and he will give the Reader many a sore Stroke, and always put him in doubt that these Things are not so.
For nothing does torment him more, than when his Glory is upbraided to him, by signifying what a glorious King and Prince he has been: When this is objected to him, then he is in a Rage and Madness, as if he would storm and overthrow all the World.
If this Chapter should be lighted upon by a Reader in whom the Fire of the Holy Spirit should be somewhat weak, I fear the Devil would be very busy to set upon him, tempting him to doubt whether the Things set down here be so or no, that his kingdom might not stand so very naked, nor his Shame be so quite discovered.
Now if he can but suppose he shall bring it to pass, to be doubted of in any Heart, he will not fail to use his utmost Skill, Pains, and Labour therein. I see very well already, that he has it in his Purpose.
Therefore I would have the Reader warned, that he be diligent in the Reading hereof, and patient so long, till he comes to the Reading of the Creation and of the Government of this World, and then he will find it plainly and clearly demonstrated from Nature.
Now observe,
When God Almighty had decreed in his Council, that he would make Angels or Creatures out of himself: then he made them out of his eternal Power and Wisdom, according to the Form and Manner of the Ternary in his Deity, and according to the Qualities in his Divine Being.
At first he made three kingly Governments or Dominions, answerable to the Number of the Holy Trinity, and each Kingdom had the Order or Ordinance, Power and Quality of the Divine Being.
Now elevate thy Sense, Thoughts and Spirit into the Deep of the Deity, for here a Gate is opened. The Place or Space of this World, the Deep of the Earth, and above the Earth even to Heaven, as also the created Heaven, which was made out of the Midst of the Waters, which moves above the Stars, and which we behold with our Eyes, whose Depth we cannot found or reach with our Sense; all this Place or Room together was one Kingdom, and Lucifer was King therein before his being thrust out. [Or Center.]
The other two Kingdoms, that of Michael, and that of Uriel, they are above the created Heaven, and are like that other Kingdom.
These three Kingdoms together contain such a Deep, as is not of any human Number, nor can be measured by any Thing.
Yet you must know, that these three Kingdoms have a Beginning and End: But that God, who has made these three Kingdoms out of himself, is infinite, and has no End.
Yet without and beyond, and besides these three Kingdoms, there is likewise the Power of the Holy Trinity, for God the Father has no End.
But thou art to know this Mystery, that in the Center or Midst of these three Kingdoms is generated the Splendor or Son of God. [
This needs Explanation: "Read the Second and Third Part of these Writings, where it is described more fundamentally: For nothing that is divisible, measurable, or circumscribible, is here meant or understood, only it was in Simplicity and Plainness set down so at the first, because of the slow and dull Apprehension."] [The Threefold Life.] [The Three Principles.]
And the three Kingdoms are circular round about the Son of God, neither of them is further or nearer to the Son of God, for the one is equally as near about the Son of God as the other.
From this Fountain, and from all the Powers of the Father, goes forth the Holy Ghost, together with the Light and Power of the Son of God in and through all the said Kingdoms or Dominions; and without, beyond, and besides all the Angelical Kingdoms, which no Angel or Man is able to dive or search into.
[Or Tree.]
Never have I any Purpose to consider of it further, much less to write, but my Reason reaches even into the three Kingdoms, like an Angelical Knowledge.
But not in my Reason or Apprehension, or in Passion like an Angel, but in Part, and so long only as the Spirit tarries in me, further I know it not.
When he parts from me, I know nothing, but the Elementary and Earthly Things of this World: but the Spirit sees even into the Depth of Deity. Question.
Now one may ask, what Manner of Substance or Thing is it, that the Son of God is generated in the Center or Midst of these Three Kingdoms? Surely one Angelical Host must needs be nearer unto him than the other, seeing their Kingdom has so great a Deep.
Then also the Glory, Clarity or Brightness, and Power of the Son of God would not be so great without, beyond, or besides those Kingdoms, as in, with, and among those that are near him, and as in the Angelical Circuit or Court. Answer.
The holy Angels were made to be Creatures from God, that they should praise, sing, sound forth and jubilate before the Heart of God, which is the Son of God, and increase the heavenly Joy.
Where else then should the Father place them, but before the Gate of his Heart? Does not all Joy of Man, which is in the whole Man, arise from the Fountain of the Heart? So then in God also there arises the great Joy out of the Fountain of his Heart. And
therefore has he created the Holy Angels out of himself, which are as it were little Gods, answerable to the Being and Qualities of the whole God, that in the Power they should act forth the Praise, and sing and sound forth in the Power, and increase the arising Joy from the Heart of God.
But the Splendor and the Power of the Son of God, or Heart of God, which is the Light or Source and Fountain of Joy, takes up his fairest and most joyful Original, in the Center or Midst of the Kingdoms, and shines into and through all the angelical Gates.
Thou must understand this properly, what the Meaning of it is: For when I speak by Way of Similitude, and liken the Son of God to the Sun, or to a round Globe, it has not that Meaning as if he was a circumscriptive Fountain, which can be measured, or whose Depth, Beginning, or End, could be fathomed. I write to only by Way of Similitude, till the Reader may come to the true Understanding.
For the Meaning is not here, that the Son of God should be generated only in the Center or Midst of these angelical Gates, and no where else without, beyond, or besides these angelical Gates.
For the Powers of the Father are every where, from and out of which the Son is generated, and from which the Holy Ghost proceeds forth; how should he then be generated only in the Center of these angelical Gates?
This therefore is the only Ground and Meaning, that the Holy Father, who is ALL, would have in these angelical Gates his most joyful and most richly loving Qualities, out of which the most joyful and most richly loving Light, Word, Heart, or Fountain of Powers, is generated; and therefore has created his Holy Angels in this Place for his Joy, Honour, and Glory.
In the Abyssal or bottomless Eternity indeed, it is in one Place as well as in another; but where there are no Creatures, it cannot be known but by the Spirit in its Wonders.
And this is the Select Place of the Glory of God, which God the Father, in himself, has made Choice of, wherein his Holy WORD or Heart is generated in highest Glory, Clarity, or Brightness, Power, and triumphing Joy.
For observe this Mystery: The Light, which is generated out of the Powers of the Father, who is the true Fountain of the Son of God, is generated also in an Angel, and a Holy Man, so that in the same Light and Knowledge he triumphs in great Joy.
How then is it that he should not be generated every where, in the whole Father?
For For his Power is ALL, and every where, even there, where our Heart and Senses or Thoughts cannot reach. And
so now, where the Father is, there is also the Son and the Holy Ghost; for the Father every where generates the Son, his holy WORD, Power, Light, and Sound, and the Holy Ghost goes every where forth from the Father and the Son, even within all the angelical Gates, and also without, besides, or beyond the angelical Gates.
Now if a Man likens the Son of God to the Globe of the Sun, as I have often done in the foregoing Chapters; that is spoken in the Way and Manner of natural Similitudes, and I was constrained to write so, because of the Misunderstanding of the Reader, that so he might raise his Sense or Thoughts in these natural Things, and climb from Step to Step, from one Degree to another, till he might come into the high Mysteries.
But it has not this Meaning, that the Son of God is a circumscribed compacted figured Image like the Sun.
For if it was so, then must the Son of God have a Beginning, and the Father must have generated him at once, and then he could not be the Eternal Almighty Son of the Father, but was like a King, who had yet a greater King above him, who had generated him in Time, and in whose Power it was to alter and change him.
This was such a Son as had a Beginning, and his Power and Splendor would be like the Power of the Sun which goes forth from the Sun, the Body or Globe of the Sun standing still in its Place: and if this was so, then indeed one angelical Gate would be nearer to the Son of God than another. [Or Pert.]
But here I will show thee the highest Gate of the divine Mystery, and thou needest seek no higher; for there is no higher.
Observe,
The Father's Power is all, in and above all Heavens, and the same Power every where generates the Light. Now this UNIVERSAL POWER is, and is called the Universal Power of the Father; and the Light which is generated out of that universal Power is, and is called the Son.
But it is therefore called the Son, in that it is generated out of the Father, so that it is the Heart of the Father in his Powers.
And being generated, lo it is another Person than the Father is; for, the Father is the Power and kingdom, and the Son is the Light and Splendor in the Father, and the Holy Ghost is the Moving or Exit out of the Powers of the Father and of the Son; and forms, figures, frames, and images all.
As the Air goes forth from the Power of the Sun and Stars, and moves in this World, and causes that all creatures are generated, and that the Grass, Herbs, and Trees spring and grow, and causes all whatsoever is in this World to be;
so the Holy Ghost goes forth from the Father and the Son, and moves or acts, forms or frames, and images all that is in the whole God.
All Growing or Vegetation, and Forms in the Father, arise and spring up, in the moving of the Holy Ghost; therefore there is but ONE only GOD, and three distinct Persons in one Divine Being, Essence, or Substance.
Now if a Man should say, the Son of God was an Image, circumscriptive or measurable like the Sun, then the Three Persons would only be in that Place where the Son is, and his Splendor or Shining would be without or beyond him, and as gone forth from the Sun, and the Father would be One, only externally, without or besides the Son, and then the Power of the Father, which would be afar off, and wide distant from the Son, would not generate the Son and Holy Ghost, externally, without and beyond the angelical Gates; and so there would be a Being not almighty, externally, without or besides this Place of the Son; and, moreover, the Father would be a circumscribed or measurable Being. [Threefold Life.] [Three Principles.]
Which is not so: But the Father every where generates the Son out of all his Powers, and the Holy Ghost goes every where from the Father and the Son, and so there is but ONE only God in one Being, with three distinct Persons.
Of which you have a Similitude in the precious Gold-Oar, or a Gold-Stone unseparated. First there is the Matter, that is, the Saltiter and Mercurius, which is the Mother or the whole Stone, which generates the Gold every where in the whole Stone, and in the Gold is the glorious Power or Virtue of the Stone.
Now the Saltiter and Mercurius signify the Father, the Gold signifies the Son, and the Power or Virtue signifies the Holy Ghost: In such a Manner also is the Ternary in the holy Trinity, only that all moves and goes forth therein universally. Men find also
in a Gold-Stone a little Piece of it in some Place, wherein there is more and purer Gold, than in another not discerned, though there is Gold in the whole Stone or Oar.
Thus also is the Place or Space in the Center, or Midst of the angelical Gates, a more pleasant, more gracious, amiable, and blessed Place to the Father, wherein his Son and Heart is generated in the most richly and fully loving Manner, and wherein the Holy Ghost goes from the Father and the Son, in the most richly and fully loving Manner.
Thus also you have the right Ground of this Mystery, and you ought not to think that the Son of God was generated of the Father, at once, at a certain Time, as one that has a Beginning, and that he stands now as a King, and will be worshipped.
No; this would not be an eternal Son, but one that had a Beginning, and was under, beneath, or inferior to the Father that had generated him.
Neither would he be omniscient, for he could not know how it was before his Father had generated him.
But the Son is generated continually from Eternity unto Eternity, and shines always continually from Eternity into the Powers of the Father again, whereby the Powers of the Father are always from Eternity to Eternity continually impregnated with the Son, and generates him continually.
Out of which the Holy Ghost continually exists from Eternity to Eternity, and so continually from Eternity to Eternity goes forth from the Father and the Son, and has neither Beginning nor End.
And this Being is not only so in one Place of the Father, but every where, in the whole Father, who has neither Beginning nor End; into which no Creature can reach with its Senses or Thoughts.
Of the Nativities or Genitures of Angelical Kings, and how they come to be.
["This also is more fundamentally described in the Second and Third Book."]
The Person or Body of a King of Angels is generated out of all the Qualities, and out of all the Powers of his whole Kingdom, through the moving boiling Spirit of God, and therefore such a one is their King, in that his Power reaches into all the Angels of his whole Kingdom, and he is the Head and General or Leader, the most beautiful and most powerful Cherubim or Throne Angel. And such a one was Lord Lucifer also before his Fall. ["And this also is more fundamentally described in our Second and Third Book; viz. in the Three Principles of the Divine Being; and in the Threefold Life of Man."]
Of the Ground or Foundation, and Mystery.
If a Man will find out the Mystery, and deepest Ground; he must diligently and exactly view and consider the Creation of this World, the Government or Dominion, and Order or Ordinance, as also the Qualities of the Stars, and the Elements.
Though there are of a corrupted and twofold Being, which is not living, nor has Understanding; for it is but the corrupt Salitter and Mercurius, in which King Lucifer kept House, wherein is both Evil and Good, though it be indeed the real Power of God, which before its Corruption was bright and pure, as now it is in Heaven.
This Power of the Stars and Elements did the Creator, after the horrible Fall of Lucifer's Kingdom, frame and put into such Order again, as the Kingdom of the Angels stood in, in the Divine-Pomp, before his Fall.
Only thou must not think, that the angelical Kingdom with its Creatures were so rolled, wheeled, and turned round about, as now the Stars are, which are only Powers, and in Regard of the Birth or Geniture of this World are thus wheeled or turned about, whose Birth or Geniture stands in the moving boiling Anguish in Evil and Good, in Corruption and Redemption, till the End of this Enumeration, or the Last Day.
Now observe,
The Sun stands in the Center or Midst of the Deep, and is the Light or Heart which proceeded out of all Stars: For when the Salitter and Mercurius, before the Creation of the World, in the Kingdom of Lucifer, became thin or dim, and had qualified one with the other, then God extracted the Heart out of all the Powers, and made the Sun thereof. And
therefore the Sun is the most shining and brightest of all, and re-enlightens all the Stars again; all the Stars work in its Power, and itself has the Power of all the Stars; it kindles all the Powers of the Stars with its Splendor and Heat, and so every Star receives from the Sun, according to its Power and Condition, or Kind.
Thus also is the Frame and Constitution of the Angelical Kingdom: The Sun signifies the Supremest Throne-Angel, the Cherubim or King, in an Angelical Kingdom: Such a one as Lord Lucifer also was before his Fall: He had his Seat in the Center or Midst of his Kingdom, and reigned by his Power in all his Angels.
As the Sun rules in all the Powers of this World in the Salitter and Mercurius, that is, in Softness and Hardness, in Sweetness and Sourness, in Bitterness and Astringency, in Heat and Cold, in Air and Water.
As is apparent in Winter, when there is so hard Cold or Frost, that the Water becomes Ice; though the Sun shines somewhat warm through all the cold Frost, yet for all its Beams, by which it shines on them, it freezes into Snow and Ice.
But here I will show thee the right Mystery. Behold, the Sun is the Heart of all Powers in this World, and is compacted, framed, or composed out of all the Powers of the Stars, it re-enlightens all the Stars, and all the Powers in this World, and all Powers grow as it were, operative, or qualifying in its Power. ["
Understand it Magically: For it is a Mirror, Look-ing-Glass, or Similitude of the Eternal World."]
As the Father generates his Son, that is, his Heart or Light, out of all his Powers, and that Light which is the Son generates the Life in all the Powers of the Father, so that in the same Light, in the Father’s Powers, goes forth all Manner of growing, vegetation, springing, Ornaments and Joy: Of such a Condition is the Kingdom of Angels, all according to the Similitude and Being of God.
A Cherubim or Leader of a Kingdom of Angels, is the Fountain or Heart of his whole Kingdom, and is made out of all the Powers out of which his Angels are made, and is the most powerful and brightest of them all.
“
The Angelical King is the Center or Fountain; as Adam’s Soul is the Beginning and Center of all Souls; and as from the Place of the Sun was created and generated the Planetic Wheel or Sphere, wherein each Star is desirous of the Splendor and Power of the Sun, so the Angels are desirous of their Cherubim or Prince; all according to God, and to his Similitude.”
For the Creator has extracted the Heart out of the Saltiter and Mercurius of the divine Powers; [“Understand he has composed it by the Fiat, viz. the Center of Nature;”]
and he has formed out of that the Cherubim or King, that he might press or penetrate again with his Power into all the Angels, and affect them all with his Power.
As the Sun with its Power presses into all the Stars, and affects them all; or as the Power of God the Son presses into all the Power of God the Father, whereby they are all affected, wherein the Birth or Geniture of the heavenly Joyfulness springeth up;
in this Form, Condition and Manner it is also with the Angels. All the Angels of one Kingdom signify the many and various Powers of God the Father; the Angelical King signifies the Son of the Father, or the Heart out of the Powers of the Father, out of which the Angels are made; the Exit out of the King of Angels, or his going forth into his Angels, or his affecting of his Angels, signifies God the Holy Ghost. And
as the Holy Ghost goes forth from the Father and the Son, and affects all the Powers of the Father, he also all heavenly Fruits and Forms, from whence all has its rising, and wherein the heavenly Joyfulness does consist;
just in such a Manner is the Operation or Power of a Cherubim or Throne-Angel, which works or operates in all his Angels, as the Son and Holy Ghost operates in all the Powers of the Father; or as the Sun operates in all the Powers of the Stars.
Whereby all Angels obtain the Will of the Throne-Angel, and are all obedient to him; for they all work in his Power which is in them all.
For they are the Members of his Body; as all the Powers of the Father are Members of the Son, and he is their Heart; and as all heavenly Forms and Fruits are Members of the Holy Ghost, and he their Heart in whom they rise up.
Or as the Sun is the Heart of all the Stars, and all Stars are Members of the Sun, and work one among another as one Star, and yet the Sun is the Heart therein; though indeed there are many and various Powers, yet all work in the Power of the Sun, and all has its Life from the Power of the Sun, look on what you please, be it in Animals, Metals, or Vegetables of the Earth.