OF THINGS, CHAPTER II.

afterward harsh, prickly, and hostile-bitter from the sting; and after the anguish of the wheel, entirely murderous and hostile. Each property dwells within itself, and yet they are within one another. Herein, God’s Love and Wrath are understood; they dwell in one another, and neither grasps the other, and yet one is the physician of the other: understand this through the ImaginationIn Boehme's thought, "Imagination" is the creative, formative power of the mind or spirit to give shape to desire., for the eternal is MagicalReferring to the "Magia," the supernatural power by which the will brings forth substance from nothing..

The second form in Nature, in Eternity, is the wheel with the prickly, bitter essences; for there the essence arises—understand, with the commotionoriginal: "verwirrung." While it can mean confusion, in this context it refers to the stirring or agitation that breaks the stillness of the void.. For the "Nothing" is still, without motion; but the commotion makes the "Nothing" movable. However, in the Third PrincipleThe visible, material world, as opposed to the first (dark/fire) and second (light/love) spiritual principles.—that is, in the kingdom of the essence and the torment of the outer world—this form is called MercuriusMercury; here representing the principle of movement, vitality, and the "spirit of life" in both alchemy and metaphysics.. This is hostile and poisonous, and the cause of life and of rain, as well as the cause of the senses; as when a glimpse creates itself in infinity, and may then also plunge deep into it, so that from a single thing, the bottomless and the innumerable may be understood. This form is Unrest, and yet it is the seeker of Rest; and with its seeking, it creates Unrest. It makes itself into its own enemy. Its medicine is twofold, for its desire is also twofold: namely, for the delight of Freedom, and for stillness and gentleness; and then also in the hunger for the up-