Jacob Boehme's Aurora
Chapter 24: Of the Incorporating or Compaction of the Stars.
NOW when the whole Body of Nature in the Extent, Space, or Circumference of this World, was benumbed or deadened, as in the hard Death, and yet that the Life was hid therein, thereupon God moved the whole Body of the Nature of this World on the fourth Day, and generated the Stars from or out of Nature, out of the rilen Light. For the Wheel of God's Birth or Geniture moved itself again, as it had done from Eternity. [† In a printed Copy, Of the dead Nature, and of the fourth Day.]
Indeed it had moved on the first Day, and begun the Birth or Geniture in the Body of the corrupt Nature; for on the first Day the Life separated itself from the Death, and on the second Day a Firmament was created between, and on the third Day the Life broke forth through Death. For there the Light broke forth through the Darkness, and made the dead Body of Nature to spring, flourish, and to be stirring and agile.
For on the third Day the Body of Nature travelled so hard in Anxiety, till the Love-Fire had kindled itself in the Death, and till the Light of Life was broke forth through the congealed Body of Death, and sprung up out of Death; but on the third Day it stood only in the Fire-crack, from whence Mobility existed.
On the fourth Day the Light rose up, and made its Seat in the House of Death, and yet Death could not, nor cannot comprehend it. As little as the austere Birth of God, which stands in the innermost Kernel from whence Life exists, can apprehend the Meekness, and the Light of the Meekness together with the Spirit in the Meekness, so little also can the dead Darkness of this World comprehend the Light of Nature; no more can the Devils neither.
But the Light shines through Death, and has made its royal Seat in the Midst or Center in the House of Death, and of God's Wrath, and generates to itself a new Body of God out of the House of Wrath, which subsists eternally in the Love of God, incomprehensibly to the old kindled Body in the outermost Birth or Geniture. [* Or divine Body.]
Now thou wilt ask:
How shall I understand this?
Answer.
I cannot at all write it in thy Heart, for it is not for every Man's Capacity, Understanding and Apprehension, especially where the Spirit stands in the House of Wrath, and does not qualify, operate, or unite with the Light of God. But I will show it to thee in an earthly Similitude, that thou mightest if possible get a little into the deep Sense.
Behold and consider a Tree; on the Outside it has a hard gross Rind or Bark, which is dead, benumbed, and without Vegetation, yet it is not quite dead, but in a Faintness or Imbecility, and there is a great Difference between it and the Body, which grows next under the Rind or Bark. But the Body has its living Power, and breaks forth through the withered Rind, and generates many fair young Bodies or Twigs, all which stand in the old Body.
But the Rind is as it were dead, and cannot comprehend the Life of the Tree, but only hangs to it, and is a Cover to the Tree in which Worms harbour, which in the end destroy the Tree. And
thus also is the whole House of this World; the outward Darkness is the House of God's Wrath, wherein the Devils dwell, and it is rightly the House of Death, for the holy Light of God has died therein. ["
Understand, it stepped into its Principle, and is the outward Substantiality in God, as it were dead in our Esteem, whereas it lives in God, but in another Source or Quality."]
But the Body of this great House, which lies hid under the Shell or Rind of Darkness, incomprehensibly to Darkness, that is the House of Life, wherein Love and Wrath wrestle one with another.
Now the Love always breaks through the House of Death, and generates holy heavenly Twigs in the great Tree; which Twigs stand in the Light. For they spring up through the Shell or Skin of Darkness, as the Twigs do through the Shell or Bark of the Tree, and are one Life with God.
And the Wrath springs up also in the House of Darkness, and holds many a noble Twig captive in Death through its Infection in the House of Fierceness. And
this now is the Sun, or the Contents of the astral Birth or Geniture, of which I here intend to write.
And now it may be asked: What are the Stars? or out of what are they come to be?
They are the Power of the seven Spirits of God; for when the Wrath of God was kindled by the Devil in this World, then the whole House of this World in Nature, or the outermost Birth or Geniture, was as it were benumbed or chilled in Death, from whence the Earth and Stones are come to be. But when this hard Dross or Scum was driven together into a Lump or Heap, then the Deep was cleared, but was very dark, for the Light therein was dead in the Wrath. But
now the Body of God, as to this World, could not remain in Death; but God moved himself with his seven qualifying or fountain Spirits to the Birth or Geniture.
But thou must understand this high Thing rightly.
The Light of God, which is the Son of God, as also the Holy Ghost, died not, but the Light, which is gone forth from or out of the Heart of God from Eternity, and has enlightened Nature, which is generated out of the seven Spirits, that is departed or gone away from the hard corrupted Nature; from whence it is, that the Nature of this World with its Comprehensibility or Palpability has remained in Death, and cannot apprehend the Light of God, but is a dark House of Devils.
Upon this, on the fourth Day of the Creation, God regenerated anew the whole House of this World, with the Qualities thereof, and has placed or set the qualifying or fountain Spirits in the House of Darkness, that he might generate to himself again out of that a new Body, to his Praise, Honour, and Glory.
For his Purpose was, to create another angelical Host or Army out of this House, which was thus to be done. He would create an Angel, which was Adam, who should generate out of himself Creatures like himself, which should possess the House of the new Birth, and in the Middle of Time, their King should be generated or born out of a human Body, and possess the new-born Kingdom as a King of these Creatures, instead of the corrupted and expelled Lucifer.
And at the Fulness or Accomplishment of this Time, God would adorn and trim this House with its Qualities, as a royal Government, and let the very qualifying or fountain Spirits possess the whole House, that they might, in that House of Darkness and of Death, bring forth Creatures and Images again, as they had done from Eternity, till the Accomplishment or Fulfilling of the whole Host or Army of the new created Angels, which were Men. And then God would bolt and bar up the Devil in the House of Darkness in an eternal Hole, and then kindle the whole House in its own Light again, all but the very Hole, Hell, or Dungeon of the Devils.
Now it may be asked, Why did not God bolt him up instantly, and then he had not done so much mischief?
Answer.
Behold! this was God's Purpose, and that must stand, which is, he would re-edify out of the corrupted Nature of the Earth, or build again to himself an angelical Host or Army: Understand a new Body, which should subsist eternally in God.
It was not God's Intention at all to let the Devil have the whole Earth for an eternal Dwelling-house, but only the Death and Fierceness of the Earth, which the Devil had brought into it.
For what Sin had the Salitter committed against God, that it should stand totally in eternal Shame? None: It was only a Body, which must remain still, when the Devil elevated or swelled himself therein.
Now if he should have instantly left it to the Devil for an eternal Dwelling-house, then out of that Place a new Body could not have been built. Now what Sin had that Space, Place, or Room committed against God, that it should stand in eternal Shame? None; and therefore that were unequal to be so.
Now the Purpose of God was, to make a curious excellent angelical Host or Army out of the Earth, and all Manner of Ideas, Forms, or Images. For in and upon that all should spring, and generate themselves anew, as we see in mineral Ores, Stones, Trees, Herbs and Grass, and all manner of Beasts, after a heavenly Image or Form.
And though those Imagings were transitory, seeing they were not pure before God, yet God would at the End of this Time extract and draw forth the Heart and the Kernel out of the new Birth or Geniture, and separate it from Death and Wrath, and the new Birth should eternally spring up in God, without, distinct from this Place, and bear heavenly Fruits again.
But the Death of the Earth and the Wrath therein should be Lord Lucifer's eternal House, after the Accomplishing of the new Birth or Geniture. In the mean while Lord Lucifer should lie captive in the Darkness in the Deep above the Earth; and there he is now, and may very shortly expect his Portion. And
that this new Birth or Geniture might be accomplished, whether the Devil will or no, the Creator has therefore in the Body of this World generated himself, as it were creaturely, in his qualifying or fountain Spirits, and all the Stars are nothing else but God's Powers, and the whole Body of this World consists in the seven qualifying or fountain Spirits.
But that there are so many Stars of so manifold different Effects and Operations, it is from the Infinity, which is in the Efficiency of the seven Spirits of God, in one another, which generate themselves infinitely. [a Efficiency or Affecting.]
But that the Birth or the Bodies of the Stars do not change or alter in their Seat, but as they did from Eternity, it signifies that there shall be a constant continued Birth or Geniture, whereby the benumbed Body of the Earth should continually and constantly, in one uniform Operation, which yet stands in the Infinity, be kindled again, and generate itself anew, and so also should the House of Darkness of the Deep above the Earth; whereby the new Body might continually and constantly be generated out of Death, till Time should be accomplished, and the whole new Body. Now thou wilt object and say: Then sure the Stars are God; and they must be honoured and worshipped as God.
The wise Heathen also came to this, who indeed in their sharp or acute Understandings far excelled our Philosophers; but the right Door of Knowledge has remained yet hidden to them.
Behold! the Stars are plainly incorporated or compacted out of or from God; but thou must understand the Difference between them, for they are not the Heart, and the meek pure Deity, which Man is to honour and worship as God; but they are the innermost and sharpest Birth or Geniture, wherein all Things stand in Wrestling and Fighting, wherein the Heart of God always generates itself, and the Holy Ghost continually rises up from the Rising of the Life.
But the sharp Birth or Geniture of the Stars cannot apprehend the Heart of God again, nor the Holy Ghost; but the Light of God, which rises up in the Anxiety, together with the Moving of the Holy Ghost, remains free to itself as the Heart, and rules in the Midst or Center of the Closure of the hidden Heaven, which is from or out of the Water of Life.
For from the Heaven the Stars have their first Kindling, and are only as an Instrument, which God useth to the Birth or Geniture.
It is just such a Birth as is in Man; the Body is even the Father of the Soul, for the Soul is generated out of the Power of the Body, and when the Body stands in the anguishing Birth or Geniture of God, as the Stars do, and not in the fierce hellish Birth, then the Soul of Man qualifies, mixes, or unites with the pure Deity, as a Member in or of his Body.
Thus also is the Heart or Light of God always generated in the Body of this World, and that generated Heart is one Heart with the eternal Unbeginning infinite Heart of God, which is in and above all Heavens.
It is not only generated in and from the Stars, but in the whole Body of this World; but the Stars always kindle the Body of this World, that the Birth or Geniture may subsist every where.
But here thou must well observe this.
The Light or the Heart of God takes not its Original barely from the wild rough Stars, where indeed Love and Wrath are in one another, but out of or from the Seat where the meek Water of Life is continually generated.
For that Water, at or in the Kindling of the Wrath, was not apprehended by Death, but subsists from Eternity to Eternity, and reaches to all the Ends and Parts of or in this World, and is the Water of Life, which breaks through Death, out of which the new Body of God in this World
is built.
But it is in the Stars, as well as in all Ends, Corners, and Places, but not in any Place comprehensible or palpable, but fills or replenishes all alike at once. It is also in the Body of Man, and he that thirsteth after this Water, and drinks thereof, in him the Light of Life kindles itself, which is the Heart of God, and there presently springs forth the Holy Ghost.
Now thou askest: How then do the Stars subsist in Love and Wrath?
Answer.
[The first inward Stirring of Life in the Child.]
Behold! the Stars are risen or proceeded out of the kindled House of God's Wrath, as the Mobility or Stirring of a Child in the Mother's Body or Womb in three Months. But now they have attained their Kindling from the eternal benumbed, not quite dead, Water of Life; for that Water in Nature was never dead. [As Gen. 3. 24.]
But when God moved himself in the Body of this World, then on the third Day the Anxiety, in the Birth of this World, rubbed itself, from whence the Fire-flash exists, and the Light of the Stars kindled itself in the Water of Life.
For till the third Day from the Time of the Kindling of God's Wrath in this World, Nature in the Anxiety was a dark Valley, and stood in Death, but on the third Day the Life broke through Death, and the new Birth begun.
For so long, and not an Hour longer, the new born King and grand Prince of this World, JESUS CHRIST, rested in Death, and has born or generated the first three Days of the Creation of Nature, and that very Time, in Death to Light again, that this Time might be one Time with the eternal Time, and that no Day of Death might be between; and that the external Love, and the new-born or regenerated Love out of the new Body of Nature, might be one eternal Love; and that there might be no Difference between the Love, and the new-born or regenerated Love, but that the new-born Love might reach into the Being or Substance which was from Eternity, and itself also be in Eternity.
Thus the new-born Love, which rose out of the Water of Life in the Light in the Stars, and in the whole Body of this World, is wholly bound and united with the external unbeginning infinite Love, so that they are one Heart and one Spirit, which supports and preserves all.
In this Kindling of the Light, in the Stars and Elements, the Birth of Nature did not thereupon wholly transmute or change itself into the holy Meekness, as it was before the Time of the Wrath, so that the Birth of Nature is now altogether holy and pure: No, but it stands in its sharpest, sufferest, and most anxious Birth, wherein the Wrath of God continually springs up like hellish Fire. [continually springs up]
For if Nature had fully changed itself with its sharp Birth into Love, according to the heavenly Right, Law, or Manner, then were the Devils again in the Seat of God.
And this thou mayest very well perceive and understand in extreme Heat and Cold, as also by the Poison, Bitterness, and Sourness in this World; all which stand in the Birth or Geniture of the Stars, wherein the Devil lies captive.
The Stars are only the Kindling of the great House; for the whole House is benumbed in Death, as the Earth is; for the outermost Birth or Geniture is dead and benumbed, as the Rind, Shell, or Bark of a Tree. But the astral Birth is the Body in which the Life rises up.
But it is in its Body very sharp; yet the new Birth, which rises up in the Water of Life, and presses through Death, mitigates it. But it cannot alter the Kernel of the sharp Birth, but is generated out of it, and keeps its holy new Life to itself, and presses through the angry Death, and the angry Death comprehends it not.
Now this Love and Wrath is indeed one Body, but the Water of Life is the Heaven of Partition between them, so that the Love does not receive or comprehend the Wrath, nor the Wrath the Love, but the Love rises up in the Water of Life, and receives into itself from the first and austere Birth the Power, which is in the Light, which is generated out of the Wrath; so that the new Body is born out of the old.
For the old Body, which stands in the austere Birth, belongs to the Devil for a House, and the new belongs to the Kingdom of Christ.
Now it may be asked:
Are not all the three Persons of the Deity in the Birth or Geniture of Meekness in this World?
Answer.
Yes, they are all three in this World in the full Birth or Geniture of Love, Meekness, Holiness, and Purity, and they are always generated in such a Substance and Being, as was done from Eternity.
Behold! God the Father spoke to the People of Israel on Mount Sinai, when he gave the Law to them, saying; 'I am an angry, zealous, or jealous God to those that hate me.' [Exod. 20. 5. Deut. 5. 9.]
Now thou canst not make of this one only Father, who is both angry and also full of Love, two Persons, but he is one only Father, which continually generates his heartily beloved Son, and from both these the Holy Ghost goes forth continually.
Observe the Depth in the Center.
The Father is the one only Being, who himself is ALL, who continually generates his heartily beloved Son from Eternity, and in both of them the Holy Ghost is continually standing in the Flash, wherein the Life is generated.
But now from the austere and earnest Birth or Geniture of the qualifying or fountain Spirits of the Father, wherein the Zeal or Jealousy and the Wrath stands, the Body of Nature always comes to be, wherein the Light of the Son, viz. of the Father's Heart, stands incomprehensibly as to Nature.
For the Light is in the Midst or Center of the Birth or Geniture, and is the Place of Life, wherein the meek Life of God is generated from or out of all the Powers of the Father, and in the same Place the Holy Ghost goes forth from the Father and the Son.
Now those Powers of the Father, which stand in the Kindling of the Light, are the holy Father, and the meek Father, and the pure Birth or Geniture of God, and the Spirit, which rises therein, is the holy Spirit. But the sharp Birth or Geniture is the Body, wherein this holy Life is continually generated.
But when the Light of God shines through this sharp Birth or Geniture, then it becomes very meek, and is as it were like a Man that is asleep, in whom the Life still moves, and the Body is in a sweet quiet Rest. And
in this Body of Nature now was the Kindling made, for out of this Body the Angels also were created; and if they had not elevated and kindled themselves in their Highmindedness, then their Body might have stood eternally in a Stillness, and in an incomprehensible Meekness, as it is in the other Principalities of Angels that are without, distinct from this World, and their Spirit had generated itself eternally in their Body of Meekness, as the holy Trinity does in the Body or Corporiety of God, and their inborn or innate Spirit had been one Heart, one Will, and one Love with or in the holy Trinity: For to that End also they were created in the Body of God, to be a Joy to the Deity.
But Lord Lucifer would himself be the mighty God, and kindled his Body, and excited or stirred up therein the sharp Birth of God, and opposed the Light or bright Heart of God, intending to rule therein with his Sharpness, which was a Thing impossible to be done.
But seeing he elevated and kindled himself against the Right of the Deity, thereupon the sharp Birth in the Body of the Father rose up against him, and took him as an angry Son Prisoner or Captive in the sharpest Birth, and therein now is his eternal Dominion.
But now when the Father kindled himself in the Body of the Sharpness, he did not by that means kindle the holy Source, wherein his most loving Heart generates itself, and so thereupon his Heart should sit in the Source of Wrath. No! that is impossible that it should be, for the sharp Birth cannot apprehend the holy and pure Birth, but the holy and pure presses quite through the sharp, and generates to itself a new Body, which stands again in Meekness.
And that new Body is the Water of Life, which is generated when the Light presses through the Wrath, and the Holy Ghost is the Former or Framer therein. But Heaven is the Partition between Love and Wrath, and is the Seat wherein the Wrath is transmuted or changed into Love.
Now when thou beholdest the Sun and Stars, thou must not think that they are the holy and pure God, and thou must not offer to pray to them, or ask any Thing of them, for they are not the holy God, but are the kindled, austere Birth or Geniture of his Body, wherein Love and Wrath wrestle one with another.
But the holy God is hidden in the Center of all these Things in his Heaven, and thou canst neither see nor comprehend him; but the Soul comprehends him, and the astral Birth but half, for the Heaven is the Partition between Love and Wrath. That Heaven is even where, even in thyself. And
now when thou worshippest or prayest to the holy God in his Heaven, then thou worshippest or prayest to him in that Heaven which is in thee, and that same God with his Light; and therein the Holy Ghost breaks through in thy Heart, and generates thy Soul to be a new Body of God, which rules and reigns with God in his Heaven. [Or new divine Body.]
For the earthly Body, which thou bearest, is one Body with the whole kindled Body of this World, and thy Body qualifies, mixes, or unites with the whole Body of this World; and there is no Difference between the Stars and the Deep, as also the Earth and thy Body; it is all one Body. This is the only Difference, thy Body is a Son of the Whole, and is in itself as the whole Being itself is. And
now as the new Body of this World generates itself in its Heaven, so the new Man also generates himself in his Heaven, for it is all but one Heaven, wherein God dwells, and therein thy new Man dwells, and they cannot be divided asunder.
But if thou art wicked, then thy Birth or Geniture is not capable of Heaven, but of the Wrath, and remains in the other Part of the astral Birth or Geniture, wherein the earnest and austere fire-source rises up, and bolts it up into Death, so long, till thou breakest through Heaven, and livest with God.
For instead of thy Heaven, thou hast the Wrath-Devil fitting there; but if thou breakest through, then he must get him gone, and the Holy Ghost rules and reigns in that Seat, and in the other Part, viz. the Fierceness, the Devil tempts thee, for it is his Seat; and the Holy Ghost opposes him, and the new Man lies in his own Heaven hidden under the protection of the Holy Ghost, and the Devil knows not the new Man, for he is not in his House, but in Heaven, in the Firmament of God.
This I write as a Word, which is generated in its Heaven, where the holy Deity always generates itself, and where the moving Spirit rises up in the Flash of Life; even there this Word and this Knowledge is generated, and rises up in the Love-fire through the zealous Spirit of God.
I know very well what the Devil intends; for that Part of the earnest and austere Birth or Geniture, wherein Love and Wrath are set opposite one to another, fees into his very Heart. For when he comes with his fierce and hellish Temptation, like a fawning Dog, then he sets upon us with his Wrath in that Part, wherein the austere Birth and Geniture stands, and therein the Heaven is set in Opposition to him, and there the fair Bride is known.
For he stings through the old Man, with an Intent to spoil or destroy the new; but when the new rises against him, then the Hell-hound retires, and then the new Man feels very well what Device the Hell-hound has darted or spit into the astral Birth, and then is it Time to purge and scour it out.
But I find, that the most cunning Devil is set against me; he will raise Scorners and Mockers, who will say, that I intend by mine own Conceit to grope, dig deeper, and then out the Deity. Yes, Mr. Scorner, thou art an obedient Son to the Devil, thou hast great Cause to mock God's Children, as if I was able in mine own Power to fathom the Depth of the Deity: No! but the Deity searches the Ground in me: Or, dost thou think, that I am strong enough to stand against it?
Indeed, thou proud Man, the Deity is a very meek, simple, and quiet still Being, and gropes not in the Bottom of Hell and Death, but in his Heaven, where there is nothing but an unanimous Meekness; therefore it is not meet for me to do so.
But behold! it is not I that have made Way for this, but thy Desire and highly raised lofty Lust has moved the Deity to reveal to thee the Desire of thy Heart, in the highest Simplicity in the greatest Depth, that it may be a Witness against thee, and Denunciation of the earnest severe Day of God.