(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.

(3) But among these great Masters of Ancient Egypt there once dwelt one of whom Masters hailed as "The Master of Masters." This man, if "man" indeed he was, dwelt in Egypt in the earliest days. He was known as Hermes Trismegistus. He was the father of the Occult Wisdom; the founder of Astrology; the discoverer of Alchemy. The details of his life story are lost to history, owing to the lapse of the years, though several of the ancient countries disputed with each other in their claims to the honor of having furnished his birthplace--and this thousands of years ago. The date of his sojourn in Egypt, in that his last incarnation on this planet, is not now known, but it has been fixed at the early days of the oldest dynasties of Egypt--long before the days of Moses. The best authorities regard him as a contemporary of Abraham, and some of the Jewish traditions go so far as to claim that Abraham acquired a portion of his mystic knowledge from Hermes himself.

(29) Reader, who lovest God; hereby it will be shown thee, that the great Mysteries meet us, concerning the hidden Things that were in Adam before his Fall, and that yet there are much greater after his Fall, when he was as it were dead, and yet living; and here is shown the Birth of the eternal Essence, and why it still must thus have been, that Adam must have been tempted, and wherefore it could not have been otherwise; though Reason continually a gainsays it, and alledges God's Omnipotence, that it was in him to hinder, or suffer the doing of it.

(2) In my village there was a young man beautiful as Joseph, who fell into a pit and the earth caved in on him. When they got him out he was in a sad state. This excellent young man was called Muhammad, and was liked by every"one. His father groaned when he saw him and said: ' O Muhammad, you are the light of my eyes and the soul of your father. O my son, say one word to your father!' The son said one word and gave up the ghost, and that is all.

O you who are a young pupil on the path of spiritual knowledge and who are able to observe and ponder, think about Muhammad and Adam; think about Adam and the atoms, the whole and the particles of the whole; speak of the earth and heavens, of the mountains and the ocean; speak of the fairies and the gods, of men and angels, of a hundred thousand pure souls; speak of the painful moment of the giving up of the soul; say that every individual, soul and body, are nothing. If you reduce the two worlds to dust and sift them a hundred times, what will it be for you? It will be

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like a palace upside down, and you will find nothing on the surface of the siftings.

This Vallet is not so easy to cross as you in vour simplicity perhaps think. Even when the blood of your heart shall fill Ae ocean, you will only be able to make the first stage. Even if you were to journey over all the ways of the world you would still find yourself at the first step. No traveller has seen the limit of this journey neither has he found a remedy for love. If you halt you are petrified, or you may even die; if you continue on your way, always advancing, you will hear until eternity the cr'; Go still further.' You can neither go nor stay. It is no advantage either to live or to die.

What profit have you derived from all that has befallen you? What have you gained from the difficulties you have been able to endure? It matters little whether you beat your head or no. O you who hear me, remain silent, and work actively.

Give up your useless aims and pursue the essential things. Be occupied as little as possible with things of the outer world but much with things of the inner world; then right action will overcome inaction. But those who find no remedy in acting, had better do nothing since you must know when to act and when to refrain from action. But how to know what you cannot know? And yet it is possible to act as you should, even without knowing. Forget all that you have done up till now, and strive to be independent and sufficient in yourself, though sometimes you will weep and sometimes rejoice. In this Fourth Valley the lightning of power, which is the discovery of your own resources, of selfsufficiency, blazes up so that the heat consumes a hundred worlds. Since hundreds of worlds are reduced to powder is it strange that yours also will disappear?

the astrologer

Have you ever seen a wise man set out a tablet and cover it with sand? There he traces figures and designs, and places

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the stars and planets, the heavens and the earth. Sometimes he makes a prediction from the heavens, sometimes from earth. He also draws the constellations and the signs of the Zodiac and indicates the rising and setting of the stars, and from this he deduces good or bad auguries. When he has cast a horoscope, of good or bad fortune, he takes the tablet by a corner and scatters the sand, and it is as if all those signs and figures had never existed.

The accidental surface of this world is like the tablet. If you have not the strength to resist the longing for the superficial things of this world turn away from it and sit in a corner. Men and women come into life without any idea of the inner and the outer worlds.

(3) And although I write now, as if there was a Beginning in the eternal Birth, yet it is not so; but the eternal Nature thus begets [or generates] itself without Beginning. My Writings must be understood in a creaturely Manner, as the Birth of Man is, who is a Similitude of God. Although it be just so in the eternal Being, [Essence or Substance,] yet that is both without Beginning and without End; and my Writing is only to this End, that Man might learn to know what he is, what he was in the Beginning, how he was a very glorious eternal holy Man, that should never have known the Gate of the strong [or austere] Birth in the Eternity, if he had not suffered himself to lust after it through the Infection of the Devil, and had not eaten of that naked and vain Man in a bestial Form, and lost the heavenly Garment of the divine Power, and lives now in the Kingdom of the Devil, in the i infected Salnitre, and feeds upon the infected Food. Therefore it is necessary for us to learn to know ourselves, what we are, and how we might be redeemed from the anguishing austere Birth, and be regenerated or born anew, and live in the new Man, (which is like the first Man before the Fall,) in Christ our Regenerator.