Jacob Boehme's Aurora
Chapter 22: Of the Birth or Geniture of the Stars, and Creation of the Fourth Day.
HERE now is begun the Description of the astral Birth, and it ought well to be observed, what the first Title of this Book means, which is thus expressed, The Day-Spring or Dawning in the East, or Morning-Redness in the Rising. For here will a very simple Man be able to see and comprehend, or apprehend the Being of God.
The Reader should not make himself blind through his Unbelief, and dull Apprehension; for here I bring in the whole or total Nature, with all her Children, for a Witness and Demonstration. And if thou art rational, then look round about thee, and view thyself; also consider thyself aright, and then thou wilt soon find from, or out of what Spirit I write.
For my Part, I will obediently perform the Command of the Spirit, only have thou a Care, and suffer not thyself to be shut up by, or in an open Door; for here the Gates of Knowledge stand open to thee. And
though the Spirit will indeed go against the Current of some Astrologers, that is no great Matter to me, for I am bound to obey God rather than Men; they
Now observe.
Now when upon the Third Day the Fire-flash rose up out of the Light, which was shining in the sweet Water, which Flash is the bitter Quality, which generates itself out of the kindled Terror or Crack of Fire in the Water,
then the whole Nature of this World became springing, boiling, and moving in the Earth, as well as above the Earth, and every where, and begun to generate itself again in all Things.
Out of the Earth sprung up Grass, Herbs and Trees; and in the Earth, Silver, Gold, and all Manner of Oar came to be; and in the Deep above the Earth sprung up the wonderful Forming of Power and Virtue.
But that thou mayest understand what Manner of Substance and Condition all these Things and Births or Genitures have, I will describe all in Order one after another, that thou mayest rightly understand the Ground of this Mystery. And
I will treat,
- 1. Of the Earth.
- 2. Of the Deep above the Earth.
- 3. Of the Incorporation or Compacting of the Bodies of the Stars.
- 4. Of the seven chief Qualities of the Planets, and of their Heart, which is the Sun.
- 5. Of the four Elements.
- 6. Of the outward comprehensible or palpable Birth or Geniture, which exists out of this whole Regimen, or Dominion.
- 7. Of the wonderful Proportion and Fitness, or Dexterity of the whole Wheel of Nature.
Before this Looking-Glass I will now invite all Lovers of the holy and highly to be esteemed Arts of Philosophy, Astrology, and Theology, wherein I will lay open the Root and Ground of them. And
though I have not studied nor learned their Arts, neither do I know how to go about to measure Circles, and use their mathematical Instruments and Compasses, I take no great Care about that. However, they will have so much to learn from hence, that many will not comprehend the Ground thereof all the Days of their Lives. For
I use not their Tables, Formulas, or Schemes, Rules and Ways, for I have not learned from them, but I have another Teacher, or School-master, which is the whole or total NATURE.
From that whole Nature, together with its innate, instant Birth or Geniture, have I studied and learned my Philosophy, Astrology, and Theology, and not from Men, or by Men.
But seeing Men are Gods, and have the Knowledge of God the only Father, from whom they are proceeded or descended, and in whom they live, therefore I advise not the Canons, Rules, and Formulas of their Philosophy, Astrology, and Theology. For I find, that for the most part they stand upon a right Ground, and I will diligently endeavour to go according to their Rules and Formulas.
For I must needs say, that their Formula or Scheme is my Master, and I have my Beginning and first Knowledge from their Formula or Positions: Neither is it my Purpose to go about to amend or cry down theirs, for I cannot do it, neither have I learned them, but leave them standing in their own Place and Worth. But
I will not build upon their Grounds, but as a laborious careful Servant, I will dig away the Earth from the Root, that thereby Men may see the whole Tree with its Root, Stock, Branches, Twigs and Fruits; and may see that also my Writing is no new Thing, but that their Philosophy and my Philosophy are one Body, one Tree, bearing one and the same sort of Fruit.
Neither have I any Command to bring in Complaints against them, to condemn them for any Thing, but for their Wickedness and Abominations, as Pride, Covetousness, Envy and Wrath, against which the Spirit of Nature complains very exceedingly, and not I: For what can I do, that am poor Dust and Ashes, also very weak, simple, and altogether unable?
Only the Spirit shows thus much, that to them is delivered and intrusted the weighty Talent, and the Key; and they are drowned in the Pleasures of the Flesh, and have buried their weighty Talent in the Earth, and have lost the Key in their proud Drunkenness.
The Spirit has a long time waited on them, and importuned them that they would once open the Door, for the clear Day is at Hand, yet they walk up and down in their Drunkenness, seeking for the Key, when they have it about them, though they know it not; and so they go up and down in their proud and covetous Drunkenness, always seeking about like the Country-man for his Horse, who all the while he went seeking for him was riding upon the Back of that very Horse he looked for.
Thereupon, saith the Spirit of Nature, seeing they will not awake from Sleep, and open the Door, I will therefore do it myself.
What could I simple vulgar Layman teach or write of their high Art, if it was not given to me by the Spirit of Nature, in whom I live and am? I am in the Condition or State of a Vulgar or Layman, and have no Salary, Wages or Pay, for this Writing: And should I then oppole the Spirit, that He should not begin to open where, and in whom he pleases? I am not the Door, but an ordinary wooden Bolt upon it: And now if the Spirit should pluck me out from thence, and fling me into the Fire, could I hinder it? [a Subtil or have my Being.]
But if I would be an unprofitable Bolt, which stubbornly would resist to be pulled out, and should bolt up and hinder the Spirit in the Opening, would not the Spirit be angry with me, tear me off, and cast me away, and provide a more profitable and fitter Bolt? Then I should lie on the Ground and be trampled under Foot, when as formerly I made so fair a Show upon the Door: What should this wooden Bar then serve for, but to be cast into the Fire and burnt?
Behold! I tell thee a Mystery, so soon as the Door is set wide open to its Angle, all useless, fatnailed, sticking Bolts or Bars will be cast away, for the Door will never be shut any more at all, but stands open, and then the four Winds will go in and out at it.
But the Sorcerer sits in the Way, and will make many so blind, that they will not see the Door; and then they return Home and say, There is no Door at all, but that it is a mere Fiction, and so they go there no more.
now when this is done, then the Spirit is angry, which has opened the Gates, because none will go OUT and IN at its Doors any more, and then it flings the Door-posts into the Abyss, and then there is no more Time at all. Those that are within, remain within; and those that are without, remain without. AMEN.
Now it may be asked, What are the Stars?
Answer.
Moses writes concerning them thus; 'And God said; Let there be Lights in the Firmament of Heaven, to divide or distinguish the Day from the Night, and let them give [a Gen. 1. 14-19.] Signs and Seasons, Days and Years; and let them be Lights in the Firmament of Heaven to shine or give Light upon the Earth; and it was so done. And God made two great Lights; the greater Light to rule the Day, and the lesser Light to rule the Night; as also the Stars. And God set them in the Firmament of the Heaven, to shine or give Light upon the Earth; and to rule Day and Night; and also to divide or distinguish the Light from the Darkness; and God saw that it was good, so out of the Evening and Morning the fourth Day came to be.
This Description shows sufficiently, that the dear Man Moses was not the original Author thereof; for the first Writer did not know either the true God, or the Stars, what they were. And it is very likely, that the Creation, before the Flood, was not described in Writing, but was kept as a dark Word in their Memories, and so delivered from one Generation to another, till after the Flood, until People begun to lead epicurean Lives in all Voluptuousness. [See ch. 21. v. 11. ch. 36. v. 123, 132. and 1. Apology to Iudah. Zur T.J. then Part 2. N. 11.] And
then the holy Patriarchs, when they saw that, they described the Creation, that it should not be quite forgotten, and that the foolish epicurean World might have a Looking-glass in the Creation, wherein they might see that there is a God, and that this Being of the World did not stand from Eternity; whereby they might have a Glass to look into, and so fear the hidden God.
And it was the chiefest Instruction and Doctrine of the Patriarchs, before and after the Flood, that they led Men to the Creation; as the whole Book of Job also drives at.
After the Patriarchs came the wise Heathens, who went somewhat deeper into the Knowledge of Nature. And I must need say, according to the Ground of the Truth, that they in their Philosophy and Knowledge did come even before the Face or Countenance of God, and yet could neither see nor know him.
Man was so altogether dead in Death, and so bolted up in the outermost Birth or Geniture in the dead Palpability; or else they could have thought, that in this Palpability, there must needs be a divine Power hidden in the Center, which had so created this Palpability, and moreover preserves, upholds, and rules the same.
Indeed they honoured, prayed to, or worshipped the Sun and Stars for Gods, but knew not how they were created, or came to be, or out of what they came to be: For they might well have thought, that they proceeded from something, and that that which created them, must needs be older and higher, or greater than all the Stars.
Besides, they had the Stones and the Earth for an Example, to show that they must proceed from something, as also Men, and all the Creatures upon the Earth. For all give Testimony, that there must needs be in these Things a mightier and greater Power at hand, which had so created all these Things, in that Manner as they are.
But indeed, why should I write much of the Blindness of the Heathens. Are not our Doctors, in their crowned Ornaments of Hoods and cornered Caps, as blind as they? They know indeed that there is a God, who has created all this, but they know not where that God is, or how he is.
When they would write of God, then they seek for him without, and absent from this World, only above in a Kind of Heaven, as if he was some Image, that may be likened to something. Indeed they grant, that that God rules all in this World with a Spirit; but his corporeal Property or Habitation, they will needs have in a certain Heaven that many thousand Miles off.
Come on ye Doctors if you are in the Right, then give Answer to the Spirit: I will ask you a few Questions. 1.
What do you think stood in the Place of this World, before the Time of the World? Or, 2. Out of what do you think the Earth and Stars came to be? Or, 3. What do you think there is in the Deep above the Earth? Or, 4. From whence did the Deep exist? Or, 5. How do you think Man is the Image of God, wherein God dwells? Or, 6. What do you suppose God's Wrath to be? Or, 7. What is that in Man which displeases God so much, that he torments and afflicts Man so, seeing he has created him? And 8. That he imputes Sin to Man, and condemns him to future Punishment? 9. Why has he created that, wherein, or wherewith Man commits Sin? Surely that Thing must be far worse. 10. For what Reason, and out of what, is that come to be? Or, 11. What is the Cause, or Beginning, or the Birth or Geniture of God's fierce Wrath, out of or from which, Hell and the Devil are come to be? Or, 12. How comes it, that all the Creatures in this World do bite, scratch, strike, beat, and worry one another, and yet Sin is imputed only to Man? Or, 13. Out of what are poisonous and venomous Beasts and Worms, and all Manner of Vermine come to be? Or, 14. Out of what are the holy Angels come to be? And 15. What is the Soul of Man? And lastly, 16. What is the Great God himself?
Give your direct and fundamental Answer to this, and demonstrate what you say, and leave off your verbal Contentions.
Now if you can demonstrate out of all your Books and Writings, 1. That you know the true and only God; and, 2. How he is in Love and Wrath: Also, 3. What that God is. And, 4. If you can demonstrate, that God is not in the Stars, Elements, Earth, Men, Beasts, Worms, Leaves, Herbs and Grass, nor in Heaven and Earth; also that all this is not God himself, and that my Spirit is false and wicked; then I will be the first that will burn my Book in the Fire, and recall, and recant all whatsoever I have wrote, and will accure it, and in all Obedience willingly submit myself to be instructed by you.
I do not say that I cannot err at all. For there are some Things, which are not sufficiently declared, and are described as if it was from a Glimpse of the great God, when the Wheel of Nature whirled about too swiftly, so that Man with his half dead and dull Capacity, or Apprehension, cannot sufficiently comprehend it; but what thou findest not sufficiently declared in one Place, thou wilt find it done in another; if not in this, yet in the other Books.
Now thou wilt say: It does not become me to ask such Questions; for the Deity is a Mystery, which no Man can search into.
Answer.
Hearken; if it does not become me to ask, then it does not become thee to judge me. Dost thou boast in the Knowledge of the Light, and art a Leader of the Blind, and yet art blind thyself? How wilt thou show the Way to the Blind? Must you not both fall, in your Blindness?
But you will say: We are not blind; for we well see the Way of the Light. Why then do you contend, or dispute about the Way of the Light, as if none can see it rightly?
You teach others the Way, and you are always seeking after it yourselves, and so you grope in the Dark, and discern it not. Or do you suppose, that it is Sin for any Man to ask after the Way?
O you blind Men! leave off your Contentions, and shed not innocent Blood; also do not lay waste Countries and Cities, to fulfil the Devil's Will; but put on the Helmet of Peace, gird yourselves with Love one to another, and practise Meekness: Leave off Pride and Covetousness, grudge not the different Forms of one another, and suffer not the Wrath-fire to kindle in you, but live in Meekness, Chastity, Friendliness and Purity, and then you are and live ALL in God.
For thou needest not to ask; Where is God? Hearken, thou blind Man; thou livest in God, and God is in thee; and if thou livest holily, then therein thou thyself art God. For wheresoever thou lookest, there is God. [see ch. 41. v. 159.]
When thou beholdest the Deep betwixt the Stars and the Earth, canst thou say, that is not God, or there God is not? O, thou miserable corrupted Man! be instructed; for in the Deep above the Earth, where thou seest and knowest nothing, and sayest there is nothing, yet even there is the high-holy God in his Trinity, and is generating there, as well as in the high Heaven aloft above this World.
Or doth thou think, that he departed and went away from his Seat where he did sit from Eternity, in or at the Time of the Creation of this World? O no; that cannot be, for though He could himself do so, He cannot do it, for He himself is All: And as little as a Member of the Body can be rent off from itself, so little can God also be divided, rent, or separated from being every where.
But that there are so many Formings, Figurings, or Framings in him, is caused by his eternal Birth or Geniture, which first is threefold, and out of or from that Trinity, or Ternary, it generates itself infinitely, or immensely, inconceivably.
Of these Births or Generations, I will here write, and show to the Children of the last World, what God is; not out of any Boasting or Pride, thereby to disgrace or reproach any Body! no; the Spirit will instruct thee meekly and friendly, as a Father does his Children; for the Work is not from my fleshly Reason, but the Holy Ghost's dear Revelation, or breaking through in the Flesh. [Or the Reason of my Flesh.]
In my own Faculties or Powers I am as blind a Man as ever was, and am able to do nothing; but in the Spirit of God my innate Spirit sees through ALL, but not always with long Stay or Continuance, only when the Spirit of God's Love breaks through my Spirit, then is the animated or soulish Birth or Geniture and the Deity one Being, one Comprehensibility, and one Light. [Or the Spirit that is generated, or rather regenerated in me.]
Am I alone only? No, but all Men are so, be they Christians, Jews, Turks, or heathens; in whomsoever Love and Meekness is, in them is also the Light of God. If thou sayest, No, this is not so;
Consider,
Do not the Turks, Jews, and Heathens live in the same Body, or Corporeity, wherein thou livest, and make use of that Power and Virtue of the same Body, which thou usest; moreover, they have even the same Body which thou hast, and the same God which is thy God, is their God also?
But thou wilt say: They know him not; also they honour him not.
Answer.
Yes, dear Man, now boast thyself that thou hast hit it well! thou knowest God indeed above others. Behold, thou blind Man, wherever Love rises up in Meekness, there the Heart of God rises up. For the Heart of God is generated in the meek Water of the kindled Light, be it in Man, or any where else without Man; it is every where generated in the Center, between the outermost and innermost Birth or Geniture. And
whatsoever thou dost but look upon, there is God, but the Comprehensibility stands in this World, in the Wrath, which the Devil has kindled; and in the hidden Kernel, in the Midst or Center of the Wrath, the Light or Heart of God is generated, incomprehensibly as to the Wrath, and to each of them remains in its Seat.
Yet notwithstanding, I do no way approve or excuse the Unbelief of the Jews, Turks, and Heathens, and their stiff-necked Stubbornness, and their fierce Wrath, furious Malice, and Hatred against the Christians. No; these Things are mere Snares of the Devil, whereby he allures Men to Pride, Covetousness, Envy, and Hatred, that he may kindle in them the hellish Fire: Neither can I say, that these four Sons of the Devil are not domineering in Christendom, nay indeed in every Man.
Now thou sayest: What then is the Difference between Christians, Jews, Turks, and Heathens?
Answer.
1. The first Difference is, which God has always held and maintained, that all those who know what God is, and how they should serve him, that they should be able by their Knowledge to press through the Wrath into God’s Love, and overcome the Devil: But if they do it not, then they are no better than those that know it not.
But if he that knows not the Way, presses through the Wrath into the Love, then is he like him who pressed through by his Knowledge. But those that persevere in the Wrath, and wholly kindle it in themselves, they are all alike; one and the other, be they Christians, Jews, Turks, or Heathens.
Or what dost thou suppose it is, wherewith Man can serve God?
If thou wilt dissemble with Him, and adorn or magnify thy Birth, then I suppose thee to be a very fine Angel indeed: But he that has Love in his Heart, and leads a merciful, meek, and lowly-minded Life, and fights against Malice and Hatred, and presses through the Wrath of God into the Light, he lives with God, and is one Spirit with God.
For God needs no other Service, but that his Creature, which is in His Body, does not slide back from Him, but be holy, as He is.
Therefore also God gave the Law to the Jews, that they should diligently study and endeavour after meek Holiness and Love, that thereby all the World might have them for their Looking-glass or Mirror. But when they grew proud, and boasted in their Birth, instead of entering into Love, they turned the Law of Love into Sharpness of Wrath; then God removed their Candlestick, and went to the Heathens.
II. Secondly, There is this Difference betwixt the Christians, Jews, Turks, and Heathens, that the Christians know the Tree of Life, which is CHRISTUS, CHRIST, who is the Prince of our Heaven and of this World, and rules in all Births or Genitures as a King in God his Father, and Men are His Members. And
now Christians know how they may, by the Power of this Tree, press out from their Death through his Death, to him into his Life, and reign and live with him, wherein they also with their pressing through with their new Birth, out from this dead Body, may be, and are with him in Heaven. [See ch. 21. v. 11. ch. 26. v. 122, 123. and ch. 23. v. 14, &c.]
And though the dead Body is in the Midst or Center of Hell among all the Devils, yet, notwithstanding, the new Man reigns with God in Heaven, and the Tree of Life is to them a strong Gate, through which they enter into Life: But of this thou shalt find more largely in its proper Place.
Now observe,
Moses writes, that God said; Let there be Lights in the Firmament of Heaven, which should there in give a Light to the Earth, and divide or distinguish Day and Night; also make Years and Times or Seasons.
This Description shows, that the first Writer did not know what the Stars are, though he was capable of understanding the Right, or Law of God, and has taken hold on the Deity at the Heart, and looked upon or had respect to the Heart, to consider what the Heart and Kernel of this Creation is; and the Spirit kept the astral and outermost dead Birth or Geniture hidden from him, and did only drive him in Faith to the Heart of the Deity.
Which is also the principal Point most necessary for Man: For when he lays hold on true Faith, then he presses through the Wrath of God, through Death into Life, and reigns with God. [Understand this right.]
But seeing Men now at the End of this Time do listen and long very much after the Root of the Tree, through which Nature fucceeds, that the Time of the Discovery of the Tree is at Hand, therefore the Spirit will show it to them. And the whole Deity will reveal itself, which is the Day-spring, Dawning, or Morning-redness, and the Breaking-forth of the great Day of God, in which, whatsoever is generated from Death, to the Regeneration of Life, shall be restored and rise again. [But seeing Men now at the End of this Time do listen and long very much after the Root of the Tree, through which Nature fucceeds, that the Time of the Discovery of the Tree is at Hand, therefore the Spirit will show it to him. And the whole Deity will reveal itself, which is the Day-spring, Dawning, or Morning-redness, and the Breaking-forth of the great Day of God, in which, whatsoever is generated from Death, to the Regeneration of Life, shall be restored and rise again.]
Behold, when God said, Let there be Light, then the Light in the Powers of Nature, or the seven Spirits of God, rose up, and the Firmament of Heaven, which stands in the Word, in the Heart of the Water, between the astral and outermost Birth or Geniture, was closed or shut up, by or with the Word and Heart of the Water, and the astral Birth is the Place of the Parting-mark or Limit, which stands half in Heaven, and half in the Wrath.
For from or out of that half Part of the Wrath, the dead Birth generates itself continually, and out of the other half Part, which reaches with its innermost Degree, even into the innermost Heart and Light of God, the Life generates itself now continually through Death, and yet the astral Birth or Geniture is not two, but one Body.
But when in these two Days the Creation of Heaven and of Earth was completed, and that the Heaven was made in the Heart of the Water, for a Difference or Distinction between the Light of God, and the Wrath of God, then on the third Day, through the Terror or Crack of the Fire-flash, which rose up in the Heart of the Water, and presses through Death, incomprehensibly as to Death, there sprung up all Manner of Ideas, Forms, and Figures, as was done before the Time of the kindled Wrath.
But seeing the Water, which is the Spirit of the astral Life, stood in the Midst or Center of Wrath, and also in Death, thereupon also every Body formed itself as the Birth or Geniture to Life and Mobility was.
Of the Earth.
But now the Earth was the Saltiter, which was cast up out of the innermost Birth, and stood in Death: But when the Fire-flash, through the Word, rose up in the Water, then it was a Terror or Crack, from which exilted the Mobility in Death; and that Mobility in all the seven Spirits, is now the astral Birth or Geniture.
The Depth. Understand this right.
Now when on the third Day the Fire-flash in the Water of Death had kindled itself, then the Life pressed forth quite through the dead Body of the Water and of the Earth.
But yet the dead Water and Earth comprehend no more than the Flash, or Terror, or Crack of the Fire, through which their Mobility exists: But the Light which rises up very softly, gently, or meekly in the Fire-flash, that neither the Earth, nor the dead Water can comprehend.
But it retains its Seat in the Kernel, which is the Unctuosity or Fatness, or the Water of Life, or the Heaven; for it is the Body of Life, which the Death cannot comprehend, and yet it rises up in the Death.
Neither can the Wrath take hold of it or apprehend it, but the Wrath remains in the Terror or Crack of the Fire-flash, and makes the Mobility in the dead Body of the Earth and the Water.
But the Light presses in very gently after, and forms the Birth, which through the Terror or Crack of the Fire-flash has got its compacted Body.
Of the Growths or Vegetables of the Earth.
When now the wrathful Fire-flash awakened, and rouzed up the Spirits of Nature, which stand in Death in the Earth, and made them moveable by its fierce Terror or Crack, then the Spirits begun, according to their peculiar divine Right, to generate themselves, as they had done from Eternity, and form, figure, or frame a Body together, according to the innate infant Qualities of that Place. [Or Inflamming.]
Now that Kind of Saltiter which in the Time of the Kindling of the Wrath died in Death, as it did qualify or operate at that Time, in the innate infant Life of the seven Spirits of God, so also it did rise again in the Time of the Regeneration in the Fire-flash, and is not become any new Thing, but only another Form of the Body, which stands in the Comprehensibility or Palpability in Death.
But now the Saltiter of the Earth and of the Water is no more able to change or alter itself in its dead Being, and show forth itself infinitely, as it did in the heavenly Place or Seat; but when the qualifying or fountain Spirits form the Body, then it rises up in the Power and Virtue of the Light.
And the Life of the Light breaks through the Death, and generates to it another Body out of Death, which is not conformable to, or of the Condition of the Water, and the dead Earth; also it does not get their Taste and Smell, but the Power of the Light presses through, and tempers or mixes itself with the Power of the Earth, and takes from Death its Sting, and from the Wrath its poisonous venomous Power, and prefers forth up together in the Midst or Center of the Body, in the Growth or Vegetation, as a Heart thereof.
And herein flicks now the Kernel of the Deity in the Center in its Heaven, which stands hidden in the Water of Life, if thou canst now apprehend or lay hold of it.
Of the Metals in the Earth.
The Metals have the same Substance, Condition, and Birth or Geniture, as the Vegetables upon the Earth have. For the Metals or mineral Oars, at the Time of the Kindling of the Wrath in the innate infant Wheel of the seventh Nature-Spirit, stood in the Fabrick, Work or Operation of the Love, wherein the meek Beneficence or Well doing, generates itself behind the Fire-flash; wherein the holy Heaven stands, which in this Birth or Geniture, when the Love is predominant, presents or shows forth itself in such a gracious, amiable, and blessed Clarity or Brightness, and in such beauteous Colours, like Gold, Silver, and precious Stones.
But Silver and Gold in the dead Palpability or Tangibility are but as a dark Stone, in Comparison of the Root of the heavenly Generating; but I set it down here only, that thou mayest know from whence it has its Original.
But seeing it has been the most excellent rising up, and generating, in the holy heavenly Nature, therefore also it is loved by Man above all other in this World. For Nature has indeed wrote in Man's Heart, that it is better than other Stones and Earth; but Nature could not reveal or manifest to him the Ground thereof, from whence it is come or proceeded, whereby now thou mayest observe the Day-spring or Morning-redness.
There are many several Sorts of mineral Oars, according as the Saltiter in Nature's Heaven was predominant at its Rising up in the Light of Love: For every qualifying or radical Spirit in the heavenly Nature contains the Property or Kind of all the qualifying or fountain Spirits, for it is ever infected, or affected with the other, from whence the Life and the unsearchable Birth or Geniture of the Deity exists: But yet it is predominant as to its own Power, and that is its own Body, from whence it has the Name.
But now every qualifying or fountain Spirit has the Property of the whole or total Nature, and its fabriek or Work, at the Time of the Kindling of the Wrath, was together all incorporated in Death; and out of every Spirit’s fabriek or Work, Earth, Stones, mineral Oars, and Water came to be.
Therefore also in the Earth there are found, according to the Quality of each Spirit, mineral Oars, Stones, Water, and Earth; and therefore it is that the Earth is of so many various Qualities, all as each qualifying or fountain Spirit, with its innate instant Birth or Geniture, was at the Time of the Kindling.
Nature has likewise manifested or revealed so much to Man, that he knows how he may melt away the strange or heterogeneous Matter from every qualifying or fountain Spirit’s strange infected innate Birth or Geniture; whereby that qualifying or fountain Spirit might remain Chief in its own Primacy.
You have an Example of this in Gold, and in Silver, which you cannot make to be pure or fine Gold or Silver, unless it be melted seven Times in the Fire. But when that is done, then it remains in the middle or central Seat in the Heart of Nature, which is the Water, fitting in its own Quality and Colour. [Psalm 12. 6.]
I. First, the astringent Quality, which holds the Salitter captive in the hard Death, must be melted away, which is the gross stoney Dross.
II. Then secondly, the astringent Death of the Water is to be separated, from which proceeds a poisonous venomous Water of Separation or Aquafortis, which stands in the Rising up of the Fire-flash in Death, which is the evil Malignant, even the very worst Source of all in Death, even the astringent and bitter Death itself; for this is the Place where the Life, which exists in the sweet Water, died in Death: And that separates itself now in the second Melting. [Or died the Death.]
III. Thirdly, the bitter Quality, which exists in the Kindling of the Water in the Fire-flash, is melted away, for that is a Rager, Raver, Tyrant, and Destroyer. Also no Silver nor Gold can subsist, if that be not killed or mortified, for it makes all dirty and brittle, and presents or shows forth itself in several Colours; for it rides through all Spirits, glimming the Colours of all Spirits.
IV. Fourthly, the Fire-Spirit also, which stands in the horrible Anguish and Pangs of Life, must be also melted away, for it is a continued Father of the Wrath, and out of or from that is generated the hellish Woe.
Now when the Wrath of these four Spirits is killed, then the mineral oary Salitter stands in the Water like a tough Matter, and looks like that Spirit which is predominant in the mineral Ore; and the Light, which stands in the Fire, colours it according to its own Quality, be it Silver, or Gold. [Or tinctures.]
And now this Matter in the fourth Melting looks like Silver or Gold, but it is not yet fixed, nor is it tough or malleable, and pure enough; its Body indeed is subsistent, but not the Spirit. [Subfistent.]
V. Now when it is melted a fifth Time, then the Love-Spirit rises up in the Water through the Light, and makes the dead Body living again, so that the Matter, which remained in the first four Meltings, gets Power or Strength again, which was the proper own of that qualifying or fountain Spirit, which was predominant in this mineral Oar.
VI. Now when it is melted the sixth Time, then it grows somewhat harder, and then the Life moves, which is risen up in the Love, and lifts itself. And from this Stirring exists the Tone in the Hardness, and the mineral Oar gets a clear Sound, for the hard and dead Beating, or Noise of the bitter fiery Matter, is gone away.
In this sixth Melting, I hold to be the greatest Danger for *Chemists about the *preparing of their Silver and Gold. For there belongs, and is required, a very subtile Fire for it, and it may soon be burnt and made dead or deaf; and it becomes very dim or blind, if the Fire be too cold. [Or malting.] [Den Alchimisten.]
For it must be a middle or mild Fire, to keep the Spirit in the Heart from rising, it must be gently Simpering, then it gets a very sweet and meek ringing Sound, and continually rejoices, as if it should now be kindled again in the Light of God.
But if the Fire be too hot in the fifth and sixth Melting, then the new Life, which has generated itself in the Love in the Rising up of the Light’s Power out of the Water, is kindled again in the Fierceness in the Wrath-fire, and the mineral Oar becomes a burnt Scum and Dross, and the Chemist has Dirt instead of Gold.
VII. Now when it is melted the seventh Time, then there belongs and is required yet a more subtile Fire, for therein the Life rises up, and rejoices in the Love, and will show forth itself in Infinity, as it had done in Heaven before the Time of the Wrath.
And in this Motion it grows unctuous or fat, and luscious or luxuriant; it increases and spreads itself, and the highest Depth generates itself very joyfully out of or from the Heart of the Spirit, just as if it would begin an angelical Triumph, and present or show forth itself infinitely in divine Power and Form, according to the Right of the Deity: And thereby the Body gets its greatest Strength and Power, and the Body colours, or tinctures itself with the highest Degree, and gets its true Beauty, Excellence, and Virtue.
And now, when it is almost made, then it has its true Virtue and Colour, and there is only one Thing wanting, that the Spirit cannot elevate itself with its Body into the Light, but must remain to be a dead Stone; and though indeed it be of greater Virtue than other Stones, yet the Body remains in Death.
And this now is the earthly God of blind Men, which they love and honour, and leave the living God, who stands hidden in the Center, sitting in his Seat. For the dead Flesh comprehends only a dead God, and longs also only after such a dead God. But it is such a GOD, as has thrown many Men headlong into Hell.
Do not take me for a Chemist, for I write only in the Knowledge of the Spirit, and not from Experience. Though indeed I could here show something else, viz. in how many Days, and in what Hours these Things must be prepared; for Gold cannot be made in one Day, but a whole Month is requisite for it.
But it is not my Purpose to make any Trial at all of it, because I know not how to manage the Fire; neither do I know the Colours or Tinctures of the qualifying or fountain Spirits in their outermost Birth or Geniture, which are two great Defects; but I know them according to (another,) or the regenerate Man, which stands not in the Palpability.
At the Description of the SUN you will find more and deeper Things concerning it: My Intention is only to describe the whole or total Deity, as far as I am capable in my Weakness to apprehend, viz. how that is in Love and Wrath, and how it generates itself now at present in this World. You shall find more concerning Jewels and precious Stones at the Description of the seven Planets.
Of the Deep above the Earth.