Jacob Böhme's 'The Signature of All Things' presents a metaphysical framework where everything in nature carries a 'signature'—a unique form or essence that reveals the spirit's manifestation from the divine essence through the principle to the voice. This signature, composed within the human mind according to the essence of all essences, allows for genuine comprehension of spiritual discourse. The work describes how the threefold fiat (corresponding to the three worlds) shapes human form through conflict, with sulfur, mercury, and salt representing different aspects of this manifestation. The text explains that the cure for spiritual opposition lies in assimilation, where like attracts like, and that the internal essence continuously strives to manifest outwardly through the forms of all creatures, their sounds, and their behaviors.
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The Signature of All Things - Jacob BoehmeAdded:
The Signature of All Things, by Jacob Böhme. Chapter 1. How everything spoken concerning God without knowledge of the signature remains mute and devoid of understanding.
And how within the human mind the signature lies meticulously composed in accordance with the essence of all essences. Everything that is spoken, written, or taught concerning God, lacking the knowledge of the signature, is mute and entirely devoid of understanding. It stems merely from historical conjecture and the recounting of others, wherein the spirit, bereft of profound knowledge, remains silent.
However, should the spirit reveal the signature to an individual, he subsequently comprehends the discourse of another. Furthermore, he perceives how the spirit has manifested and disclosed itself, emerging from the essence through the principle, culminating in the sound of the voice.
For although I may observe someone speaking, teaching, preaching, and writing about God, and though I may hear and read these words, this alone is insufficient for true comprehension.
Yet, if his sound and spirit, arising from his unique signature and similitude, permeate my own similitude and imprint his essence upon mine, I am then capable of understanding him genuinely and fundamentally, whether his message is spoken or written, provided he possesses the hammer capable of striking my bell. Through this, we recognize that all human faculties originate from a singular source, sharing but one common root and mother.
Were it otherwise, no individual could comprehend another through sound. With sound or speech, the form articulates and imprints itself upon the similitude of another.
A corresponding tone or resonance captures and moves its counterpart.
And within the sound, the spirit imprints its own likeness, which it conceived within the essence and actualized within the principle.
Thus, within the spoken word, one may discern what the spirit has conceived, whether of good or evil.
Endowed with this signature, the speaker enters the form of another and awakens a corresponding form within that second signature, allowing both forms to assimilate mutually into a singular entity.
Consequently, there arises a unified comprehension, a shared will, a single spirit, and a collective understanding. Secondly, we come to understand that the signature or form is not the spirit itself, but rather the receptacle, container, or cabinet wherein the spirit resides.
The signature exists within the essence, akin to a lute lying dormant, a silent object that is neither heard nor comprehended.
Yet, when it is played upon, its true form is revealed, demonstrating the specific tuning it possesses and the precise notes to which it has been set. Similarly, the signature of nature in its intrinsic form is a silent essence.
It functions as a prepared musical instrument upon which the spirit of the will plays. Whichever strings are touched resonate in strict accordance with their inherent properties.
Within the human mind, the signature lies most exquisitely composed, reflecting the essence of all essences.
Man requires nothing more than the wise master capable of striking his instrument, this master being the true spirit of eternity's supreme might. If this spirit is quickened within an individual, stirring and acting at the very center of the mind, it plays upon the instrument of the human form, and only then is the form articulated through the sound of the word. As his instrument was tuned at the moment of his incarnation, so it resonates, and so his knowledge is defined.
The internal manifests itself within the resonance of the spoken word, for that is the mind's natural comprehension of itself.
Indeed, humanity harbors the forms of all three worlds within, serving as a complete image of God, or the supreme being of all beings.
However, this internal order is established at the time of incarnation, for there are three artisans within man that prepare his form or signature, viz.
the threefold fiat corresponding to the three worlds. These masters are locked in contention over the form, and the form is ultimately shaped by this conflict. The instrument is tuned according to whichever master achieves predominant rule and secures sovereignty within the essence.
Meanwhile, the subordinate forces remain hidden, trailing behind with their muffled resonance, as is plainly evident. The moment a person is born into this world, his spirit begins to play upon his instrument, ensuring that his innate, genuine form or signature, whether inclined toward good or evil, is discernible through his words and discourse.
As his instrument sounds, his senses and thoughts emanate accordingly from the essence of his mind, directing the external spirit of the will in its behavior. This phenomenon is observable in both humanity and beasts, highlighting the profound variations in procreation, whereby siblings of the same lineage often behave in vastly different manners.
Furthermore, we must recognize that although one fiat maintains the upper hand and shapes the form in its own image, the other two continue to produce their sound whenever their instrument is played. This is evident in the fact that many individuals, as well as many beasts, despite being strongly predisposed to either good or evil, can be swayed in the opposite direction by a contrary melody. They frequently abandon their inherent signature or figure when an opposing tune is played upon their concealed loot or form.
For example, we observe that a wicked individual is often inspired by a virtuous person to repent and forsake his iniquity, provided the virtuous individual touches and strikes his hidden instrument with a meek and loving spirit. Conversely, it also occurs that when a wicked person strikes the hidden instrument of a righteous individual with the spirit of wrath, the form of anger is subsequently aroused within the righteous person.
Thus, they are pitted against one another, serving potentially as the cure and healer of their counterpart.
For just as the vital signature, that is, the form of life is configured during the fiat at conception, so too is its natural spirit determined. It originates from the essence of all three principles and acts and manifests its will in accordance with its specific properties. However, this will may be broken.
When a stronger force intervenes, elevating his inward signature through an introduced sound and the spirit of his will, the preceding dominion relinquishes its power, right, and authority. We witness this phenomenon in the powerful influence of the sun, whose intense strength tempers a bitter and sour fruit, transforming it into sweetness and pleasantness.
In a similar vein, a virtuous man may be corrupted by wicked company, and a beneficial herb may fail to sufficiently demonstrate its genuine virtues when planted in poor soil.
In the virtuous man, a hidden instrument of evil is awakened, while the herb absorbs a contrary essence from the earth.
Thus, the good is frequently transmuted into evil, and the evil into good.
Observe, therefore, that just as an entity is defined by the power and predominance of its internal qualities, it is correspondingly signed and marked externally in its outward form, signature, or figure.
A person's speech, will, and behavior, along with the physical form of the members he possesses and must employ for that signature, also serve as external markers.
His inward form is etched into the features of his face.
This principle applies equally to beasts, herbs, and trees. Everything is outwardly signed in perfect reflection of its innate internal virtue and quality.
Even though it often transpires that an entity is altered from evil to good, or from good to evil, it retains an external character that allows this transformation, whether toward good or evil, to be visibly recognized. For humanity is known in this regard by its daily practices, as well as by its habits and discourse.
Ultimately, the dominant instrument, which is most forcefully drawn, is the one perpetually played upon. So, too, is it with a wild beast. Once it has been subdued, tamed, and introduced to a different disposition, it does not readily display its original innate form. Yet, if it is provoked, that primal nature erupts, asserting itself above all subsequent forms. This principle applies equally to the herbs of the earth. Should an herb be transplanted from impoverished soil into fertile ground, it quickly develops a more robust structure, accompanied by a more pleasant fragrance and potency, thereby displaying its inward essence externally. Indeed, there is nothing created or born within nature that does not simultaneously manifest its internal form outwardly.
For the internal essence labors continuously, striving to bring itself forth into visible manifestation.
As we perceive it within the power and form of this world, we observe how the single, unique essence has manifested itself through the external birth within the desire for similitude.
How it has expressed itself in the myriad forms and shapes that we behold and recognize within the stars and the elements, as well as in living creatures, trees, and herbs.
Consequently, the most profound understanding resides within the signature through which man, the image of the greatest virtue may not only come to know himself but may also discover the essence of all essences.
For through the external form of all creatures through their instigation, inclination, and desire and likewise through the sound, voice, and speech they utter the concealed spirit is revealed.
Nature has endowed everything with a language corresponding to its essence and form.
Out of the essence, the language or sound originates and the fiat of that essence shapes its quality within the voice or virtue it projects manifesting to the animals in sound and to the essential elements in scent, virtue, and form. Every entity possesses its own mouthpiece for manifestation and this constitutes the language of nature whence everything speaks from its inherent property continually manifesting, declaring, and presenting itself according to its utility or purpose.
For each thing reveals its mother which thereby bestows the essence and the will upon the form.
Chapter 2 of the opposition and combat within the essence of all essences whereby the foundation of antipathy and sympathy in nature may be discerned as well as the corruption and cure of everything. Observing therefore that there are so many and diverse forms and that one continually produces and yields from its property a will distinct from another we thus comprehend the contrariety and combat within the being of all beings perceiving how one opposes, poisons, and extinguishes another that is, vanquishes its essence and the spirit of that essence transmuting it into another form when sickness and pain arise when one essence destroys another.
Herein we also understand the cure, how one heals another and restores it to health.
Were this not so, there would be no nature, but merely an eternal stillness and an absence of will. For the contrary will generates the motion and the origin of the seeking wherein the opposing sound seeks rest. Yet in its seeking it only elevates and further enkindles itself.
Furthermore, we must understand how the cure of everything consists in its assimilate.
For within the assimilate arises the satisfaction of the will, viz.
its supreme joy, because each thing desires a will of its own likeness and is discomfited by a contrary will.
However, if it obtains a will of its own likeness, it rejoices in the assimilate, sinking therein into rest, and thus the enmity is transformed into joy.
For eternal nature has produced nothing within its desire save a likeness of itself, and were there not an everlasting commingling, there would exist an eternal peace in nature.
Yet in such a state, nature would remain unrevealed and unmanifested.
Through combat it becomes apparent, causing each thing to elevate itself in a desire to escape the conflict and enter into tranquil rest.
And thus it rushes to and fro, thereby only awakening and inciting further combat.
We find clearly in the light of nature that there is no superior help or remedy for this opposition, and that it possesses no higher cure than liberty, that is the light of nature, which is the desire of the spirit.
We then discover that the essence cannot be better remedied than by the assimile.
For the essence is a being and its desire yearns for being. Now, every taste desires only its counterpart and upon obtaining it, its hunger is satisfied, appeased, and alleviated.
It ceases to hunger and rejoices in itself, whereby the sickness subsides into a state of rest. For the hunger of the contrariety ceases its labor. Seeing now that man's life consists of three principles, viz. a threefold essence and likewise possesses a threefold spirit derived from the property of each essence.
Viz.
First, in accordance with eternal nature and the property of fire.
Secondly, in accordance with the property of the eternal light and divine essentiality.
And thirdly, in accordance with the property of the external world.
Thereupon, we must consider the property of this threefold spirit, as well as this threefold essence and will, observing how each spirit with its essence introduces itself into strife and sickness, and what its cure and remedy may be. We understand that without nature there exists an eternal stillness and rest. Viz. the nothing.
Subsequently, we understand that an eternal will arises within the nothing, seeking to introduce the nothing into something, so that the will might find, feel, and behold itself. For within the nothing, the will could not be manifest unto itself.
Therefore, we recognize that the will seeks itself and finds itself within itself, and its seeking is a the while its finding is the essence of that desire, wherein the will discovers itself.
It finds nothing save the property of the hunger, which is itself.
This it draws into itself, that is, it draws itself into itself and finds itself within itself. And its attraction into itself creates an overshadowing or darkness within it, which does not exist in the liberty, viz.
in the nothing, for the will of the liberty overshadows itself with the essence of the desire, because it is the desire that creates the essence, rather than the will.
Now, the necessity for the will to exist in darkness constitutes its contrariety.
And it conceives within itself another will to emerge from the darkness back into the liberty, viz.
into the nothing.
Yet it cannot attain this liberty from outside itself, for the desire projects outward, generating source and darkness.
Therefore, the will, understood as the reconceived will, must turn inward, even though there is no separation.
For within itself, prior to the desire, lies the liberty, viz.
the nothing, and the will cannot be a nothing, as it desires to manifest within the nothing.
Yet no manifestation can be achieved except solely through the essence of the desire.
And the more the reconceived will desires manifestation, the more vigorously and eagerly the desire draws into itself, creating within itself three forms, viz.
the desire, which is astringent and produces hardness, for it is an enclosure from which coldness arises, and the attraction causes compunction, as well as a stirring within the hardness, which is an enmity against the attracted hardness.
This attraction is the second form, serving as a cause of motion and life, and it stirs itself within the astringency and hardness, which the hardness, viz.
the enclosing, cannot endure.
Therefore, it attracts more fiercely to contain the compunction.
Yet the compunction is thereby rendered only the more potent. Thus, the compunction strives upwards and whirls crossways, yet cannot accomplish its ascent.
For the hardness, viz.
the desire, stays and detains it.
Therefore, it stands as a triangle and a transverted orb, which, recognizing it cannot remove itself from that place, becomes a wheeling motion.
From this arises the mixture within the desire, viz. the essence or the multiplicity of the desire.
For the turning creates a continual confusion and contrition.
Whence the anguish, viz. the pain, the third form, or the sting of sense, arises.
However, observing that the desire, viz.
the astringency, becomes only the more fortified thereby.
Since from this stirring arises the wrath and nature, viz.
the motion, the initial will toward the desire is rendered entirely austere and transforms into a hunger.
For it resides within a hard, compunctive, and dry essence.
Furthermore, it cannot rid or acquit itself of it, because it creates the essence itself and likewise possesses it.
Thus, it now finds itself emerging from the nothing into the something, and yet this something remains its contrary will. For it is a state of unquietness, whereas the free will is a stillness.
This then is the origin of enmity, wherein nature opposes the free will.
And a thing is at enmity within itself.
Here we comprehend the center of nature with its three forms in the original, viz. In the first principle, it is spirit. In the second, it is love.
And in the third principle, essence.
These three forms are designated in the third principle as sulfur, mercury, and salt.
Conceive of it thus.
Salt constitutes the unencumbered will within the first principle. Or the lubet transitioning from nothingness into substance.
Existing within the liberty devoid of nature. Whereas fur is the desire of the free lubet. And generates within itself, within the fur, viz.
Within the desire and essence, and this essence is rendered austere by virtue of its attraction.
And introduces itself into three forms.
As was previously articulated.
And proceeds thenceforth into the fourth form, viz.
Into the fire. Whereby within the fur, the genesis of both eternal and external nature is comprehended.
For hardness serves as a mother to the sharpness of all essences.
And as a preserver of all essences.
Emerging from the salt, viz.
Out of the lubet of the liberty.
The obscure anguish becomes a radiant light.
And within the third principle, viz.
In the external realm.
Salt functions as the oil of nature.
Wherein life ignites. And all things flourish. But now the fur, viz.
The desire remains undivided from the soul, existing as a singular word, a singular genesis as well, and a singular essence, yet it bifurcates itself into dual properties, viz.
into joy and sorrow, light and darkness, in as much as it engenders two worlds, viz.
a dark fire world within its austerity, and a luminous fire world within the lubid of the liberty.
For the lubid of the liberty serves as the sole cause of the fire's radiance, given that the primordial fire is obscure and black.
For within the radiance of the fire in its genesis, the deity is comprehended, and within the dark fire, viz.
within the wellspring of anguish, the genesis of nature is comprehended.
And herein we further discern the remedy.
The source serves as the remedy for the free lubid, viz.
for the tranquil eternity.
For the stillness discovers itself to be animate therein, propelling itself through the wellspring of anguish into existence, viz.
into the realm of joy, demonstrating namely that the nothingness has become an eternal life, and has realized itself, a condition which cannot transpire within the stillness.
Secondly, we observe that the soul, viz.
the lubid of the liberty, acts as the healer of the desire, viz.
of the anxious nature.
For the brilliance of the liberty does once again, from the enkindled fire arising out of nature, illuminate the dark anguish and permeates or satiates that anguish with the liberty, whereby the wrath is extinguished, and the revolving orb comes to rest and in place of that rotation a resonance is produced within the essence. This now constitutes the form of the spiritual life and of the essential life wherein soul represents the genesis of the joyful life and fur represents the genesis of the essential life while the lubid exists prior to and devoid of nature which is the genuine soul and the spirit is rendered manifest within nature viz.
through the source and that in a dual configuration viz.
in accordance with the lubid of the liberty within a wellspring of joy and in accordance with the lubid of the anxious desire corresponding to the astringency which is compunctive bitter and envious by reason of that compunction and corresponding to the anguish of the wheel which is entirely murderous and hateful and each property resides within itself and yet they exist within one another wherein God's love and wrath are comprehended as they dwell within each other and the one does not apprehend the other and yet the one serves as the remedy for the other which is to be understood through the imagination for the eternal realm is magical.
The second form within nature residing in eternity is the orb containing the compunctive bitter essences.
For therein arises the essence to be understood alongside the perturbation.
For the nothingness remains still and devoid of motion but the perturbation renders the nothingness active but within the third principle viz.
within the dominion of the essence and the wellspring of the external world the form is designated as mercury which is contrary odious and venomous and serves as the cause of vitality and stirring, as well as the cause of the senses.
Herein, a single glance may conceive of itself within the infinity, and subsequently immerse itself into it as well, wherefrom, out of the solitary one, the abyssal, inscrutable, and infinite multiplicity may emerge. This form represents unquietness, and yet remains the seeker of rest, and through its seeking, it generates unquietness, rendering itself its own adversary, while its remedy is twofold, because its desire is likewise twofold, viz. in accordance with the lubit of the liberty, corresponding to stillness and meekness, and subsequently also within the hunger corresponding to the emergence of unquietness, and the discovery of itself, wherein the root desires solely joy through the initial will, and yet it cannot attain it, except by means of the contrary source, for no joy can materialize within the still nothingness, as it must emerge solely through the motion and elevation, whereby the nothingness realizes itself.
Presently, that which is discovered desires to enter once more into the will of the still nothingness, so that it may attain peace and repose therein, and the nothingness serves as its remedy, just as the wrath and the poison act as the remedy for the seeker and the finder, for that constitutes the life which they discover, an example of which we observe in the venomous gall, from which joy and sorrow arise within life, wherein we simultaneously comprehend a dual will, viz.
one directed toward the wrathful fire and the anxious, painful life concerning the genesis of nature and one directed toward the life of light viz. toward the joy of nature which derives its genesis from the eternal nothingness.
The remedy for the initial will is the lubit of the liberty and should it secure that it subsequently engenders triumphant joy within itself while the wrath within the famished desire acts as the healer and benefactor of the secondary will viz.
the will of nature and herein God's love and wrath are comprehended as well as how evil and good reside at the center of every life and how no joy could emerge in the absence of sorrow and how the one serves as the healer of the other.
Furthermore, here we comprehend the third will which derives its genesis from both of these viz.
out of such an essence viz. out of the mother viz.
the spirit which harbors both of these properties within it and acts as a son of the properties whilst also serving as their sovereign.
For within him resides the power allowing him to awaken whichever he pleases as the properties lie dormant within the essence and function as a soundly constituted life or as an instrument possessing many strings which remain still in the spirit viz.
the emanation is the genuine life allowing him to play upon the instrument as he so chooses in evil or in good in accordance with love or wrath and exactly as he plays and as the instrument resonates so is it apprehended by its counter tenor viz.
by the assimilate should the melody of love be played viz.
the desire of liberty then the resonance is received by that same liberty and love lubit.
For it constitutes its pleasing relish and remains agreeable to the desire of its will as one similar lubit embraces another.
And thus, it is likewise to be understood concerning the enmity and the contrary will.
For should the instrument be struck in accordance with the desire toward nature, viz.
within the wrath, anger, and bitter falsehood, then that same contrary resonance and wrathful desire receives it.
For it belongs to its inherent property and serves as a satiation of its hunger, wherein we comprehend the desire of the light and additionally of the dark world, representing a twofold wellspring and property. The desire of the liberty is meek, gentle, and pleasant, and it is designated as good, whereas the desire toward nature renders itself internally dark, arid, famished, and wrathful, which is designated as God's wrath and the dark world, viz. the first principle, while the luminous world constitutes the second principle.
Moreover, we are to understand that this is no divided essence, but rather one holds the other concealed or enclosed within it.
And the one acts as the genesis and cause of the other, as well as its healing and remedy, so that whichever is awakened and stirred up, that very one assumes dominion and manifests itself externally through its character and forges a form and signature in accordance with its will within the external realm fashioned after itself.
A similitude of this we observe in an enraged man or beast.
For although the outward man and beast do not reside within the inward world, yet the outward nature possesses the very same forms, for it arises originally from the inward realm and stands firmly upon the inward root. The third form constitutes the anxiousness which arises within nature from the first and second forms and serves as the upholder or preserver of the first and second as it is in itself the sharp fiat, while the second form possesses the verbum vis, the property pertaining to the word, and it consists of three properties and fashions out of itself alongside the three the fourth vis, the fire within the external birth vis, in the third principle it is termed sal or salt in accordance with its material nature. However, within its spirit it assumes manifold forms, for it is the fire root, the profound anguish. It arises between and out of the astringency and bitterness within the austere attraction. It constitutes the essentiality of that which is drawn together vis, the corporality or comprehensibility.
Derived from sulfur, it possesses a brimstone quality and from mercury a blaze or flash. It is intrinsically painful vis, an agonizing sharpness of death originating from the fierce attraction of the astringency. It harbors a twofold fire, one cold and the other hot. The cold fire arises from the astringency and the sharp attraction manifesting as a dark black flame, whereas the hot fire arises from the expulsion of the the within the anguish driven by the desire for liberty.
This liberty serves as its enkindler and the raging compunction acts as the awakener of the cold fire.
These three forms exist within one another as a singular unity and indeed they are but one.
Nevertheless, they separate themselves through their origin into manifold forms.
Yet, they share a single mother, viz.
the desiring will toward manifestation which is termed the father of nature and of the being of all beings.
We must now consider the hunger of the anxiety or the salt spirit alongside its satiation or fulfillment. This anguish contains within it two wills stemming from the origin of the first will out of liberty toward its own manifestation.
Namely, the first will is directed toward nature and the second re-conceived will is the son of the first which retreats from manifestation back into itself and into liberty.
It has thus become an eternal life in nature yet it does not possess nature essentially.
Rather, it dwells within itself and penetrates nature like a transparent radiance.
The first will projects outward for it represents the desire for manifestation.
It seeks itself outside of itself yet simultaneously amasses the desire within yearning to draw the internal outward from itself.
Thus, it possesses two properties.
Through the inward seeking it establishes the center of nature.
It resembles a poison a will of dreadful aspiration akin to lightning and a thunderclap.
For this desire craves only anguish and horror, seeking to find itself within itself, emerging from the nothing into the something. The second form proceeds forth as a flagrant or produces sound from within itself. For it is not the desire of the first will to remain in this horrible death, but solely to extract itself from the nothingness and to discover itself. By this center in itself, alongside the aspiring wrathfulness and the wrathful will toward nature, we understand the dark world.
By the egress out of itself toward manifestation, we understand the outward world. And by the second will emerging from the first, which reenters liberty, we understand the light world, the kingdom of joy or the true deity. The desire of the dark world strives toward manifestation, viz. toward the outward world, seeking to attract and draw that same essentiality into itself, thereby satisfying its wrathful hunger.
Conversely, the desire of the outward world strives toward the essence or life that arises from the pain and anguish.
Its inherent desire is the wonder of eternity, a mystery, a mirror, or that which is comprehended from the first will toward nature. The desire of the outward world is sulfur, mercury, and sal, for it is exactly such an essence in itself, viz. a hunger for itself, while also serving as its own satiation.
Sal desires fur, and fur desires mercury, and both of these desire sal.
For sal is their son, whom they incubate within their desire, and who subsequently becomes their habitation, as well as their sustenance. Each desire yearns only for the essentiality of salt, according to its own property.
Salt is indeed diverse. One part is the sharpness of cold, and another the sharpness of heat.
Similarly, one part is brimstone, and one part is saltpeter derived from mercury.
These properties exist within one another as a unified whole, yet they sever themselves, each dwelling within its own confines, for they are of differing essences.
When one enters into another, enmity ensues, accompanied by a flagrat.
A similitude of this may be apprehended in thunder and lightning.
This phenomenon occurs when the great anguish, viz.
the mother of all salts, understanding this as the third form of nature, impresses itself.
This is brought to pass by the aspect of the sun, which stirs the hot form of fire, rendering it penetrative according to the fire's intrinsic property.
When it reaches the saltpeter, it enkindles itself.
The saltpeter is in itself the great flagrat in mercury, viz.
the flash or compunction, which permeates the coldness, and thereby enters the cold sharpness of the salt spirit. This coldness is exceedingly dismayed by the flash of the fire, and in an instant, it wraps or folds up within itself.
From this reaction arises the thunderclap or the tempestuous flash, delivering a stroke within the flagrat.
The flagrat descends, being heavy by reason of the coldness, while the sal nitre spirit ascends, being light by reason of the fire.
This spirit carries the thunder or sound laterally, as is heard during tempests and thunderstorms.
Immediately thereafter, the wind or spirit emerges from all four forms, clashing against one another, as they are all enkindled within the penetrating flagrat. Upon this follows hail and rain. The hail folds itself together in the coldness, assuming the property of the cold salt spirit.
For the wrath attracts it and transmutes the water into ice.
The water itself arises from the meekness, viz.
from the desire of the light, for it is the essentiality of that meekness.
The cold salt spirit congeals this moisture into drops and distills it upon the earth, whereas prior to congelation, it exists merely as a mist, a steam, a vapor, or a dampness.
Thus, we observe this foundational principle very exactly and properly in thunder and lightning.
The flash, lightning, or ethereal blaze always precedes, for it is the enkindled sal nitre.
Thereupon follows the stroke in the flagrat of the coldness, as is evident as soon as the stroke is delivered. The astringent chamber opens, and a cool wind ensues, often times whirling and wheeling.
This occurs because the forms of nature have been awakened, acting as a turning wheel, and thereby they carry their spirit, which is the wind.
Chapter 3 of the grand mystery of all beings.
Courteous reader, observe the meaning correctly.
By this description, we do not imply a beginning of the deity, but rather we illustrate the manifestation of the deity through nature. God is without beginning, possessing an eternal beginning and an eternal end, which he himself embodies.
Similarly, the nature of the inward world shares this identical essence from all eternity. We offer this to your understanding regarding the divine essence.
Apart from nature, God remains a mystery, understood as existing within the nothing.
For outside of nature is the nothing, which is an eye of eternity, an abyssal eye that stands or sees within the void.
For it is the abyss itself.
This very eye is a will, understood as a longing for manifestation, seeking to discover the nothing.
Yet, there is nothing before the will wherein it might find something or secure a place to rest.
Therefore, it turns inward, entering into itself, and discovers itself through nature.
Within this mystery, apart from nature, we recognize two forms in the first will.
The first form is directed toward nature, aimed at the manifestation of the wonder eye.
The second form is produced from the first, representing a desire for virtue and power.
It is the son of the first will, its desire for joyfulness.
Understand us thus, the desire is aggressive, and that which proceeds forth is the spirit of the will and desire, for it is in motion. The desire creates a form within the spirit, viz.
The formings of the infinite mystery.
This form or likeness is the eternal wisdom of the deity. Herein we comprehend the trinity of the singular deity.
We cannot know its deepest ground, how the first will, which is called the father, arises in the abyss from eternity. Yet we do know the eternal birth and we thereby distinguish the deity, viz.
What purely and exclusively pertains to the deity or to the good from nature and reveal to you the arcanum of the most profound mystery.
Namely how the abyss or the deity manifests itself through this eternal generation.
For God is a spirit as subtle as a thought or a will and nature is his corporeal essence.
Understanding this to be the eternal nature and the outward nature of this visible, comprehensible world is a manifestation or external birth of the inward spirit and essence in both evil and good. That is it is a representation resemblance and symbolic similitude of the worlds of dark fire and of light.
And just as we have demonstrated concerning the origin of thunder and lightning with their tempestuous strikes so too does the inward nature of the inward world exist and stand within this generation.
For the outward birth derives its origin from the inward. The inward birth is incomprehensible to the creature whereas the outward is perceptible to it.
Nevertheless each property apprehends the mother from which it was brought forth.
Just as the soul comprehends the inward eternal nature and the spirit of the soul viz.
The precious image created in the likeness of God comprehends the birth of the angelic world of light and the sidereal and elemental spirit comprehends the birth and property of the stars and elements.
So every eye sees into the mother from which it was brought forth.
Therefore, we shall delineate the generation of all essences from all mothers and beginnings illustrating how one generation proceeds from another and how one serves as the cause of another.
This we shall accomplish from the perspective of all three mothers.
Let no one deem this impossible given that man is a likeness according to and within God an image of the being of all beings.
Yet this relies not upon the power of the creature but upon the might of God.
For the vision and knowledge of all essences resides solely within the clearest light. We have previously mentioned how the external birth viz.
the essence of this world consists of three principles viz.
sulfur mercury and sal.
We must now articulate and declare what this entails seeing that all things arise from a single origin and subsequently explain how its inward separation is affected such that from one beginning myriad beginnings are produced. This is now to be understood as previously mentioned concerning the center of all essences.
For sulfur in its eternal beginning consists of two forms as it does in the outward beginning of this world.
viz. In the internal the first form viz.
the soul subsists in the eternal liberty.
It is the lubit of the eternal abyss, viz. a will or an origin to the desire.
The second origin is the desire itself, which is the initial motion, viz. a hunger for something.
Within this very hunger lies the eternal beginning of the pregnant nature.
And it is called sulfur, viz.
a conception of the liberty, viz.
of the good and a conception or comprehension of the desire, viz.
of the austere attraction within the desire.
Soul in the internal realm is God and fur is nature for it generates a spirit akin to the nature of brimstone.
This can be observed externally in the property of brimstone whose substance is a dry, constringent matter possessing a painful, anxious, and fiery quality forcing itself outward it draws into itself with eager severity parching like a dry hunger while its painful property vehemently and anxiously propels itself forth. The cause and origin of this lie in its standing within two beginnings.
Viz.
within the property of the desire, which is an attraction and within the property of the light or liberty which is a driving forth or a pressing toward manifestation through the desire of nature. The desire, viz. the attraction creates hardness and is the cause of the fire whereas the lubit is the cause of the fire's luster or light.
Soul is light and fur creates fire.
Yet, within sulfur alone, it cannot be reduced merely to fire and light, but must be reduced within mercury and ultimately within cell.
The latter constitutes the true body, not of the brimstone, but of the essence and water.
Understand therefore that within the primal desire, which arises in the lubid of liberty, all things exist and are rendered substantial and essential.
From this the creation of this world preceded.
Herein we discover the properties of the earth as well as those of all metals and stones, the astrum and the origin of the elements, all emerging from a single mother, which is the lubid and the desire from which all things have preceded and continue to proceed. For mercury is generated within sulfur.
It is the severing viz.
of light and darkness from one another, the breaking wheel, and the cause of various divisions or multiplicity.
It separates the dark essentiality from the essentiality of the light.
Viz. the metals from the gross, astringent, dark, stony, and earthly properties.
For the property of the desire produces and constitutes the dark essence, while the property of the free lubid produces the light essence. Viz.
metals and all things of a similar kind and resemblance.
In the beginning of its birth, mercury possesses three properties.
Viz.
the trembling within the austereness, the anguish arising from the severe impression of the astringent hard desire, and the expulsion of multiplicity viz.
the essential life.
For the desire attracts with immense force unto itself, and this attraction creates motion or the sting of trembling or a profound compunction.
That which is impressed constitutes the anguish.
However, if the liberty is comprehended therein, it resists this and from this resistance arises the origin of enmity and severance, causing one form to separate from another and giving rise to a twofold will.
For the lubit of liberty directs its desire once more into the stillness, viz.
into the nothingness, and forces its way out of the darkness of the desire's austerity back into itself, viz.
into the liberty devoid of the wrath of enmity.
Thus, it has merely sharpened itself within the austere impression of mercury, becoming a moving, feeling life.
Its liberty is honed to become a luster, which constitutes and engenders a kingdom of joy within that liberty.
Understand us thus, the spirit's dominion, viz.
the spirit and the essence separate in this manner.
The essence remains within the impression and becomes material.
This is not God, but rather gold or any other metal corresponding to the property of the first conception within the sulfur, or it becomes stone or earth arising from the desire's own peculiar property, all in accordance with the first seed or seething within mercury.
For no metal can be generated without sal nitre, which is the flagrat in mercury.
This also becomes material within the astringent impression and divides itself during the separation.
One part into brimstone, another into sal nitre, and a third into a salty sharpness.
Yet, there can be no corporeal essence within all these, but only the spirit of the essence.
The essence proceeds entirely out of death through mortification, which is effected within the profound anguish of the impressure.
There a dying source exists, which is the mercurial life, wherein the sal nitre flagrat arises as an opening, displaying flash. For the liberty, viz.
the property of the eternal lubet, separates itself there, and yet the attracted essence, drawn from the lubet of liberty, remains continuously within the comprehension of the attraction in the astringent, austere, dark anguish.
Now, if the wrath enters so vehemently into itself as to raise up the sal nitre flagrat, it apprehends the essentiality of the free lubet within itself, from whence the flagrat arises.
For there the wrath apprehends the meekness, which is akin to water being poured into fire, producing a flagrat.
Subsequently, the wrath of the great anguish dies, and with the flagrat, joy ascends.
The flagrat emerges from mercury, or from the anguish of death, and it also becomes material.
However, by virtue of the liberty, it transforms into white, which is sal nitre. Now, if the fire, viz.
the dreadful and anxious sharpness, does once again enter into it, then the sal nitre becomes dismayed and issues a repulse. For the first property, which existed before death, is enkindled anew with the spirit of brimstone.
A sufficient resemblance of which may be observed in gunpowder, which constitutes the material basis of these properties.
Furthermore, we must comprehend this dying alongside the enkindling of the fire, all of which occurs within the flagrat.
For it is a flagrat leading both to death and to life.
One portion immerses itself into the property of death, viz. into the wrath of the austere desire, while the other portion, which derives from the lubit or love essentiality, ascends into the kingdom of joy.
But seeing that a mortification also occurs within the free materia, though it is not truly a mortification, but rather a redemption from the wrath, as the materia of liberty seeks to be free from this wrath.
This materia subsequently falls downwards, becoming water.
While it does not belong to the property of the wrath, the wrath nevertheless holds it captive within itself.
Yet, they remain separated from one another in both essence and source, where the essence of the wrath produces earth and stones, and the essence of liberty yields water, which arises alongside the enkindling of the fire through the mortification born from the meekness of the light.
Yet, recognizing that this water also separates itself within the salnitral flagrat, and whereas previously the salniter was entirely and mutually enwrapped together, it thereupon acquires distinct properties through the separation.
Thus, a diversity of water emerges, and this manifold diversity of properties provides each property with a bodily or corporeal essence, entirely in accordance with the initial separation of mercury within sulfur.
For during the mortification within the sal nitre flagrat, two entities are affected and brought forth, viz. a life and a body corresponding to that life, meaning an essential body and a lifeless, senseless body whose materia undergoes mortification in the flagrat.
Consequently, there exists a diversity of water, a diversity of life, and a diversity of the body or of the materia.
As each body is constituted, so too is its essential spirit. Now, we must consider this from its first original, proceeding from the lubid of liberty and from the desire toward nature or the manifestation of the abyss.
Firstly, within the sal nitre flagrat, a sulfurous water is produced from the anguish through this anxious mortification, which yields a brimstone, as we plainly observe, alongside all whatsoever shares a similar nature and resemblance.
Secondly, there is generated from the astringent, austere, and attractive property, which draws inward unto itself, a salt water.
Its materia is salt, and should it be impressed once more through fire or heat, it transforms into salt, and everything that is sharp and attractive, whether in herbs or in trees, proceeds from thence.
There is as great a diversity of brimstone and salt as there is variety of taste and fire to be found across all creatures, herbs, and trees.
Moreover, everything that lives and grows possesses brimstone and salt. As the saltish property attracts and preserves the body while the brimstone contains the oil or light wherein the free lubit towards manifestation consists from which all growth arises.
Thirdly, through the sal nitre flagrat out of the property of the bitter compunctive attraction there is brought forth in the spirits first impression and earthly property of water.
Its materia is earth for this arises from the dark essentiality where the darkness impresses itself upon the initial desire wherein Do you want access to this and all the complete audiobooks on the channel plus the ebook version?
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