Preface

77. And the tree of the fierce quality quality: Böhme's term for a "source-property" (Quellgeist) or fundamental driving force, which is the second part in nature, was also ignited, and burned in the fire of God's wrath with a hellish blaze; and the fierce source-spring original: "Quell"—referring to the fountain-like welling up of a fundamental force rose up into eternity, and the Prince of Darkness with his legions remained in the fierce quality as if in his own kingdom. In this fire, the earth, the stars, and the elements perished, for everything burned at once, each in the fire of its own quality, and everything became separated.

78. Then the Ancient One original: "der Alte"—referring here to the eternal Godhead or the Primordial Ground of being moved Himself, in whom is all power and all creatures and everything that may be named; and the power of heaven, of the stars, and of the elements became thin original: "dünne"—meaning subtle or ethereal, returning from a material state to a spiritual essence again, and were formed into the shape they had before the beginning of creation. However, the two qualities—evil and good—which had been within one another in nature, were separated from each other. The evil was given to the Prince of Malice and Fierceness as an eternal dwelling, and that is called Hell or Rejection; the good quality never again grasps or touches it in eternity. It is a forgetting of all good, and that into its own eternity.

79. In the other quality stood the Tree of Eternal Life, and its source-spring originates from the Holy Trinity, and the Holy Spirit shines within it. And all people who had come from the loins of Adam, the first man, came forth, each in his own power and in the quality in which he had grown on earth. Those who had eaten from the good tree on earth, which is named Jesus Christ, in them the mercy of God had welled up toward eternal joy. They possessed the power of the good quality within themselves; they were taken up into the good and holy quality and sang the song of their Bridegroom A traditional mystical reference to Christ as the husband of the human soul, each with his own voice according to his holiness.

80. But those who were born in the light of nature and of the spirit, and had never rightly recognized the Tree of Life on earth, but had nonetheless grown in its power—which had cast its shadow over all people on earth, such as many heathens original: "Heyden"—referring to non-Christians or those outside the formal church, nations, and the innocent original: "Unmündigen"—literally the "un-mouthed," referring to children or those without the capacity for legal speech or complex reason—these were also taken up into that same power in which they had grown and with which their spirit was clothed. And they sang the song of their power from the noble Tree of Eternal Life.