Preface.

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...as if into a chaos original: Chaos. In Böhme's time, this did not just mean "disorder," but the primordial "gap" or state of unformed potential where all things exist but are not yet distinct., where everything lies within / but its unfolding unfolding original: Auswickelung. This refers to the process of latent spiritual truths becoming explicit and understandable. was impossible for me.

Twelve years passed before he could bring it into the external world.

But it opened itself from time to time within me / as in a growing plant; although I carried it with me for twelve years / and was pregnant with it within / and felt a violent urge in me / before I could bring it into the external: Until it afterward overtook me like a sudden downpour original: Platz-Regen. A vivid metaphor for a burst of inspiration that strikes suddenly and forcefully. / whatever it hits, it hits; so it went with me too / whatever I could grasp to bring into the external / that I wrote down.

When the sun did not shine for him, he did not recognize his own work.

Although the sun In this context, the "sun" represents the light of divine revelation or spiritual clarity. shone for me for a considerable time thereafter / yet not always persistently: When it hid itself / then I too could hardly understand my own work / and this for the purpose / that man may recognize / that knowledge is not his own / but God's / that God knows in the soul of man / what and how He wills.

Wrote from his own book.

So I have now written / not from human teaching or science gained from book-learning / but from my own book The "own book" refers to the internal revelation written upon the human soul, rather than external academic texts. / which was opened within me / as the noble likeness of God; the book of the noble image (to be understood as the image of God) I was permitted to read / and in it have I...