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(August 1886)
Publications:
- The Path, vol. I, no. 5, August 1886, pp. 149-152
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DATA
Title for references: Boehme J - On the Soul of Man
Short description:
Not a Theosophical work: a reprint, two centuries before the Theosophical Society, of Boehme's replies to two of his Forty Questions Concerning the Soul (1620), from the 1647 English translation, headed "Being the Replies to Two out of Forty Questions, by Jacob Behmen, in the year 1620. From the translation made in 1647."
149
After what manner doth the soule come into the Body of Man?
My beloved friend: I understand this question to be meant concerning its propagation; for Moses telleth you how it came into Adam, and we have declared that before; but if you ask concerning its propagation, how it cometh into a childe in the mother's wombe, we must put on another habit.
2. You know what is written in our third booke very punctually and at large, with many circumstances concerning its propagation; how he was created one Image, he was both man and woman before Eve; he had (within him) both Tincture of the Fire, and of the Water; that is soule and spirit; he should have brought his similitude out of himself, an image of himself, out of himself by his imagination and his owne Love, and that he was able to do without rending of the body.
3. For, as we have mentioned before, the soule had power to change the body into another forme, and so also it had power to bring forth a twig out of itself, according to its property, if Adam had stood out in the Triall.
4. But when he imagined according to the Omnipotence, and let in the spirit of this world into the soule, and the serpent into the Tincture, and tooke a longing in himself after the earthly fruite, to eate of evill and good, then also his Tincture conceived such an image as was half earthly; viz: a monster, into which also the Turba (the gross lower elements), then instantly insinuated itself and sought the limit (that is, filled it as far as possible).
150 5. And so the noble image was found in the earthly, and then destruction and death began, and Adam could not bring forth, for his omnipotence was lost.
6. And should indeed have ever been lost, if the heart of God had not instantly turned itself with the word of promise, into Adam's soule; which did so preserve it, that its image must perish and the soule must sinke downe with the heavenly body through death into the new life, where its spirit will be renewed again.
7. And thus Adam in impotence fell asleep; and then the second creation began, for God tooke the Tincture of the Water, as a twig out of Adam's soule, and a rib out of Adam, and halfe of the crosse that was in Adam, and made a woman of them.
8. As you know that the woman hath the one halfe crosse in her head, and the man the other, for the spirit of the soule dwelleth in the head, in the braine, out of which spirit God hath taken a twig (viz: a childe out of the spirit of the soule of Adam) and hath given it to the woman.
9. And hath given the tincture of the water to her, that she should not bring forth Devills, and the man hath the tincture of fire, viz: the true Originall of Life.
10. And therefore the woman hath gotten the matrix, viz: the tincture of Venus, and the man hath the tincture of fire: understand, the woman hath the tincture of Light, which cannot awaken Life—the Life ariseth in the tincture of fire.
11. And so it cannot be otherwise now, but that they must propagate as beasts doe, in two seeds: the man soweth soule, and the woman soweth spirit; and being sowne in an earthly field, it is also brought forth after the manner of all beasts.
12. Yet nevertheless all the three principles are in the seed, but the inward cannot be knowne by the outward, for in the seed the soule is not living: but when the two tinctures are brought together, then it is a whole essence: for the soule is essential in the seed, and in the conception becometh substantiall.
13. For so soon as the fire is struck upon by Vulcan, the soule is wholly perfect in the essence and the spirit goeth instantly out of the soule into the tincture, and attracteth the outward dominion to itself, viz: the Starres together with the Aire.
14. And then it is an eternall childe, and hath the corruptible spirit also with the Turba cleaving to it, which Adam tooke in by his imagination.
15. Then instantly the Turba seeketh the limit in the spirit of this world, and will enter into the limit, and so soone as
151 the body is old enough to die: and thus, many a soule perisheth in the Essence,[1] while it is in the sulphur in the seed.
16. But that you may perceive that the man hath the tincture of the fire, and the woman the tincture of the light in the water, viz: the tincture of Venus; you must observe the eager imagination of both towards one another: for the seed in the essence eagerly seeketh the life, the masculine in the fire, in the woman in Venus, and the feminine in the man: as we have very cleerly demonstrated in the third Booke, and therefore we refer the reader thither.
17. And we answer here, that soule cometh not at all into the body, or is breathed into it from without, but the three principles have each them its own artificer: one worketh with fire in the centre, and the other maketh tincture and water, and the third maketh the earthly Mysterium Magnum.[2]
18. And yet it (soule) is not any new thing, but the seed of man and woman, and is onely conceived in the mixture, and so onely a twig groweth out of the tree.[3]
How and where is it seated in Man?
A thing which is unsearchable, and yet seeketh and maketh a ground in itself; that hath its originall, and seat in its first conception, where it conceiveth itself in itself: therein is its limit, viz: in the most innermost, and it goeth forth out of itself, and seeketh forward, where then it always maketh one glasse according to the other, untill it finds the first again, viz: the unsearchable limit.
2. Thus also is the soule, it is in God conceived in the heart, and the word which conceived it was in the heart, viz: in the centre; and so it continueth in the figure and in the seat, as it was comprehended by the fiat; and so it is still at this day.
3. It dwelleth in three principles: but the heart is its originall; it is the inward fire in the heart, in the inward blood of the heart; and the spirit of it which hath a glance from the fire is in the tincture: for it is cloathed with the tincture, and burneth in the heart.
4. And the spirit moveth upon the heart in the bosom of the heart, where it burneth in the tincture in a brimstony light: and diffuseth itself abroad into all the members of the whole body: for the tincture goeth through all the members.
152 5. But the true Firesmith in the centre—master workman—sitteth in the heart, and governeth with the spirit in the head where it hath its counsell house, viz: the mind and senses, also the five chief counsellors, the five senses, which arise from the five spirits of understanding, as we have declared in our third booke; and in our second, and in our first.[4]
6. The soule is indeed seated in the inward principle, but it moveth even in the outward, viz: in the starres and elements, and if it be not an ape, and suffer itself to be captivated, it hath power enough to rule them, and if the soule plungeth itself into God, the outward must be obedient to it.
7. And if it cometh again into the outward, riding upon the chariot of the bride, and so have the Holy Ghost for an assistant, no assault of the Devill is of any consequence, it destroyeth his nest, and driveth him out, and he must stand in scorne and shame.
8. And this is our answer to this question; but it must not be so understood as that if a man be beheaded, and so his blood gush out and the outward life perishes, this reacheth the soule and killeth that; no, it loseth one principle indeed thereby, but not even the essence of that principle, for that essence followeth it in the tincture, in the spirit, as a shadow.
9. For the outward essence reacheth not the inward in the soule, but onely by the imagination; there is nothing else in this world, no fire, nor sword, that can touch the soule, or put it to death, but onely the imagination; that is its poyson.
10. For it originally proceeded from the imagination, and remaineth in it eternally.
Footnotes