Mysterium Magnum

and yet he dwells through and in the elements. He works through the physical original: Sensible life and essence, just as the mind works in the body.

4. For visible, physical things are an essence of the invisible. From the invisible and incomprehensible, the visible and comprehensible have proceeded. The visible essence came into being from the expression, or breathing out original: Spiration, of the invisible power. The invisible spiritual word of divine power works with and * In. through the visible essence, just as the soul works with and through the body.

5. The inner spiritual soul of man was breathed into the visible image by the in-speaking, or inspiration, of the invisible Word of divine power. This was done to provide understanding to the created image. In this soul, man’s science and knowledge of the invisible and visible essence consists.

6. Thus man has now received ability from the invisible Word of God for re-expression. He again expresses the hidden word of divine science into formation and arrangement original: setteration, in the manner and form of temporal creatures. He forms this spiritual word according to animals and vegetables. By this, the invisible wisdom of God is portrayed and modeled into several distinct forms. We plainly see that human understanding expresses all powers in their specific properties and gives names to all things according to each thing's property. By this, the hidden wisdom is known and understood in its power. The hidden God is made manifest † In. with visible things for the delight and play of divine power. In this way, the invisible might play with the visible and thereby introduce itself into its own sight and sense.

7. Just as the mind introduces itself into senses and thoughts through the body, and thereby works and acts in a way it can perceive, so also the invisible world works through and with the visible world. We should not imagine in any way that a man cannot search out what the hidden divine world is, or what its operation and essence are. In the visible essence of creation, we see a figure of the internal spiritual operation of the powerful world.

8. We ought not to think of God in any other way than that he is the most internal ground of all essences. Yet, he is such that he cannot be grasped original: comprehended by anything through its own power. Just as the sun introduces itself with its light and power into living, physical things and works in all things, also introducing itself into an essence, the same should be understood concerning the divine Word with the life of the creatures.

9. Therefore, this visible world is the expressed, formed word, according to God’s love and anger. It follows the Grand Mystery of the eternal spiritual nature. This spiritual world is hidden in the visible world. Yet, the human soul is a spark from the eternal speaking word of divine science and power. The body is an ens Ens: A Latin term meaning 'essence' or 'being'. In Böhme’s philosophy, it refers to the essential substance of a thing. of the stars and elements. It is also, in its internal ground, an ens of heaven, which is the hidden world. Therefore, man has the might and ability to speak of the Grand Mystery from which all essences originally arise.

10. Since the great mysteries, the beginning, and the origin of all things come to us by divine grace, we are able to understand them through the ground of the soul in real knowledge, with the inspired word of divine science. We will write down its ground, as far as we are permitted, in...