Preface

...tree high? and wide over them, and corrupted them with its wild power.

48. Then the Prince of Grimness (original: Grimmigkeit). In Böhme’s thought, this refers to the harsh, wrathful, or severe quality of nature that has not yet been softened by light and love. in nature gave the tree his power, to corrupt the people who ate of the merchant’s wild fruit. Because they forsook the Tree of Life and sought their own cleverness—just as Mother Eve original: Mutter Heva. A common 17th-century spelling of Eve. did in Paradise—their own inborn quality (original: Qualität). Böhme uses this to mean a specific characteristic, drive, or inner essence. ruled over them, and they fell into such powerful error, as Saint Paul says in 2 Thessalonians 2:11. “And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie.”

49. And the Prince of Grimness stirred up war and storm-winds from the wild tree out of the original: Mitternacht (midnight). In this context, it refers to the North, often associated in Böhme’s geography with the source of harshness and cold. North over the peoples who were not born of the wild tree; and they fell in their weariness and weakness before the tempest that came out of the wild tree.

50. And the merchant beneath the good tree behaved hypocritically with the peoples toward the South and the West, and toward the North, and praised his wares highly. He deceived the simple-hearted with cunning, and the clever he made into his own merchants and peddlers (original: Krämer). A derogatory term for those who trade in spiritual things for worldly gain., so that they also had their profit from it. He continued until he brought it to the point that no one truly saw or recognized the holy tree anymore, and he claimed the land as his own property.

51. Then he had it proclaimed, referencing 2 Thessalonians 2: “I am the trunk of the good tree, and I stand upon the root of the good tree, and I am grafted into the Tree of Life; buy my wares which I sell to you, and you shall become healthy from your wild birth and live eternally. I have grown from the root of the good tree, and I have the fruit of the Holy Tree in my power. I sit upon the throne of divine power, and I have authority in heaven and on earth; come unto me, and—”