(103) Though this great work in man has remained hidden till this very day, yet God be praised, it will now once be day, for the dayspring or morningredness breaketh forth. The breaker through, or opener of the innermost birth, sheweth and presenteth itself with its red, green and white flag, in the outermost birth upon the rainbow. Observe: Now thou objectest, How then could there be day and night, and not also morning and evening? Answer.

(104) Morning and evening are and reach up from the earth to the moon only, and take their original from the light of the sun, and this makes evening and morning, as also the outward day, and the outward dark night, as every one knoweth.

(99) The writer, Moses, saith, [Gen. i.] God separated the light from the darkness, and called the light day, and the darkness night, so out of evening and morning the first day came to be.

(7) Thus they spoke while they saw and invoked the coming of the sun, the arrival of day; and at the same time that they saw the rising of the sun, they contemplated the Morning Star, the Great Star, which comes ahead of the sun, that lights up the arch of the sky and the surface of the earth, and illuminates the steps of the men who had been created and made.

(17) Sun and Moon - one* the day, the other the night, bow to the dust in adoration; and from their worship comes their movement. It is God who has spread out the day in whiteness, it is he who has folded up the night and blackened it.

(62) Moses writeth, that God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of heaven, which should therein give a light to the earth, and divide or distinguish day and night; also make years and times or seasons.

(41) For the sun changes oft for a blessing or a curse, And the course of the path of the moon is light to the righteous And darkness to the sinners in the name of the Lord, Who made a separation between the light and the darkness, And divided the spirits of men, And strengthened the spirits of the righteous, In the name of His righteousness.

(12) The creation of the day and the renewal of the month which they might behold

(101) For evening and morning were not before the time of the sun and stars, which most certainly and really were first created but on the fourth day, which I shall demonstrate from an assured, certain ground, concerning the creation of the sun and stars.

(4) But what slipped from our view in the midst of our discourse, the Good is Cause of the celestial movements in their commencements and terminations, of their not increasing, not diminishing, and completely changeless, course, and of the noiseless movements, if one may so speak, of the vast celestial transit, and of the astral orders, and the beauties and lights, and stabilities, and the progressive swift motion of certain stars, and of the periodical return of the two luminaries, which the Oracles call "great," from the same to the same quarter, after which our days and nights being marked, and months and years being measured, mark and number and arrange and comprehend the circular movements of time and things temporal. But, what would any one say of the very ray of the sun? For the light is from the Good, and an image of the Goodness, wherefore also the Good is celebrated under the name of Light; as in a portrait the original is manifested. For, as the goodness of the Deity, beyond all, permeates from the highest and most honoured substances even to the lowest, and yet is above all, neither the foremost outstripping its superiority, nor the things below eluding its grasp, but it both enlightens all that are capable, and forms and enlivens, and grasps, and perfects, and is measure of things existing, and age, and number, and order, and grasp, and cause, and end; so, too, the brilliant likeness of the Divine Goodness, this our great sun, wholly bright and ever luminous, as a most distant echo of the Good, both enlightens whatever is capable of participating in it, and possesses the light in the highest degree of purity, unfolding to the visible universe, above and beneath, the splendours of its own rays, and if anything does not participate in them, this is not owing to the inertness or deficiency of its distribution of light, but is owing to the inaptitude for light-reception of the things which do not unfold themselves for the participation of light. No doubt the ray passing over many things in such condition, enlightens the things after them, and there is no visible thing which it does not reach, with the surpassing greatness of its own splendour. Further also, it contributes to the generation of sensible bodies, and moves them to life, and nourishes, and increases, and perfects, and purifies and renews; and the light is both measure and number of hours, days, and all our time. For it is the light itself, even though it was then without form, which the divine Moses declared to have fixed that first Triad of our days. And, just as Goodness turns all things to Itself, and is chief collector of things scattered, as One-springing and One-making Deity, and all things aspire to It, as Source and Bond and End, and it is the Good, as the Oracles say, from Which all things subsisted, and are being brought into being by an all-perfect Cause; and in Which all things consisted, as guarded and governed in an all-controlling route; and to Which all things are turned, as to their own proper end; and to Which all aspire --the intellectual and rational indeed, through knowledge, and the sensible through the senses, and those bereft of sensible perception by the innate movement of the aspiration after life, and those without life, and merely being, by their aptitude for mere substantial participation; after the same method of its illustrious original, the light also collects and turns to itself all things existing--things with sight -- things with motion--things enlightened--things heated--things wholly held together by its brilliant splendours--whence also, Helios, because it makes all things altogether (ἀολλῆ), and collects things scattered. And all creatures, endowed with sensible perceptions, aspire to it, as aspiring either to see, or to be moved and enlightened, and heated, and to be wholly held together by the light. By no means do I affirm, after the statement of antiquity, that as being God and Creator of the universe, the sun, by itself, governs the luminous world, but that the invisible things of God are clearly seen from the foundation of the world, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Deity.

(17) Therefore, beforehand, will arise the dawning of the day, or morning redness, whereby the day may be known or taken notice of.

(100) But seeing these words, evening and morning, are contrary to the current of philosophy and reason, therefore it may be conceived that Moses was not the sole original author thereof, but that it was derived down to him from his forefathers, who reckoned all the six days of the creation in one continued course, and preserved and kept the memory of the creation from Adam, in an obscure word, and so left it to posterity.

(80) [And in those days the sun shall be seen and he shall journey in the evening †on the extremity of the great chariot† in the west] And shall shine more brightly than accords with the order of light.

(83) 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 things in this world. For nature has indeed written 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 may observe the Dayspring or Morningredness.

(1) "I advertise the Reader who loveth God, that this book, the Aurora or Morning-Redness, was not finished. [See Appendix: letter to Abraham Sommerfeld.] For the devil intended to put a stop to it, and suppress it, when he perceived that the Day would break forth therein. And the Day has clearly made haste after the Morning-Redness, so that it is become very light. There wants yet about thirty sheets to the end of it. But seeing the storm has broken them off, therefore it was not finished; and in the meanwhile it is come to be Day, so that the Morning-Redness is passed away, and since that time the work has gone on by Day. And it shall so stand, for an eternal remembrance, seeing the defect herein is supplied in the other books." [The Three Principles, The Threefold Life of Man] Jacob Behme, 1620. Note. [See Epistles of Jacob Behmen, Ep. 2, v. 66.] The Dawning or Morning-Redness riseth up from the infancy and childhood, and sheweth or demonstrated the creation of all beings, but very mystically, and not sufficiently clear, though full of magical understanding, for there are some Mysteries therein which are yet to come to pass. Note. This is the deep, hidden, magical book, which the author at that time might not make clearer, but may now do it through the grace of God. 1621. Note. This book is written in a magical sense or understanding, for the author himself alone, who knew of no other Readers; he supposed he made this work only for himself, but God has disposed it otherwise. Note. The author expressed the first syllable MER, in the word MERCURIUS, with an A, as MAR, MARCURIUS, not without a special mystical cause, with the first vowel, A. But because the self-conceited wise in reason dislike it, accounting it but a country, vulgar expression, therefore the transcriber of the High Dutch copy, from whence this was translated, wrote it according to the commonly received word, MERCURIUS. The corn grows against the will of the enemy. [See Epistle 3] For that which is sown by God, no man can prevent or hinder the growing thereof. [The above five Notes are in the 1656 German ed., with the exception of the words in the last one, "therefore the transcriber of the High Dutch copy," etc. The fifth Note, literally translated, reads: "It is not without a certain mystical purpose that the author pronounced [and wrote] the word Mercurius as if spelt with an A, i.e. Marcurius; though selfwise reason would consider it as mere boorish simplicity." The later German eds. have the first Note only.] NOTE: IT is necessary for the Reader to peruse the book of The Three Principles, and the book of The Threefold Life of Man, also with this; and then he will be able to conceive aright of the ground in this book, Aurora. For since the time of the writing of this book, Aurora, Dayspring or Morning Redness, the lovely bright day has appeared unto the author. And all that which is too obscure here, is held forth most clearly in them; which is truly a great WONDER, as the Reader who loveth God will find. Although the author indeed had written this book only for himself, according to the gift of God's spirit, but he knew not then the counsel or will of God concerning it. Begun the 27 of January, in the year 1612, on the Friday after the conversion of Paul.

(21) The coming of the sun was hailed with joy; the time of its departure was viewed as a period to be set aside for sorrow and unhappiness. This glorious, radiant orb of day, the true light "which lighteth every man who cometh into the world," the supreme benefactor, who raised all things from the dead, who fed the hungry multitudes, who stilled the tempest, who after dying rose again and restored all things to life--this Supreme Spirit of humanitarianism and philanthropy is known to Christendom as Christ, the Redeemer of worlds, the Only Begotten of The Father, the Word made Flesh, and the Hope of Glory.

(145) Thus you may understand what the creation of heaven and earth signifieth and is, also what God made on the first day. Though indeed the first three days were not distinguished or severed asunder by evening and morning, but a time is to be reckoned and accounted as of twentyfour hours, as there is on high above the moon such a time and day.

(5) But we have spoken of these things in our Symbolical Theology. Let us now then celebrate the spiritual Name of Light, under Which we contemplate the Good, and declare that He, the Good, is called spiritual Light, on the ground that He fills every supercelestial mind with spiritual light, and expels all ignorance and error from all souls in which they may be, and imparts to them all sacred light, and cleanses their mental vision from the mist which envelops them, from ignorance, and stirs up and unfolds those enclosed by the great weight of darkness, and imparts, at first, a measured radiance; then, whilst they taste, as it were, the light, and desire it more, more fully gives Itself, and more abundantly enlightens them, because "they have loved much," and ever elevates them to things in advance, as befits the analogy of each for aspiration.

(150) In such manner and colours the heaven of God's nature sheweth or presenteth itself in the rising up of the spirits of God: Now when the light of the Son of God shineth therein, then it is like a bright clear sea of the colours of the abovementioned precious stones or jewels. Of the wonderful Proportion, Alteration or Variation, and Rising up of the Qualities in the heavenly Nature.

(1) HERE now is begun the describing of the astral birth. It ought well to be observed what the first title of this book meaneth, which is thus expressed: The DaySpring 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.