THE FIRST PART.

...am: The text continues from the previous page: "I want to lead you... for I am:" Why do you value that perishable life? You shall enter into an imperishable one that lasts forever.

* Flesh and blood, the old man.

If then great honor meets you in place of your scorn, why do you mourn? Rise up like a flower from the earth out of your Animal original: "Dier." In this mystical context, the "Animal" refers to the biological, instinctual body and its mortal nature, often contrasted with the immortal Spirit. *.

† Wellspring of Life.

That wild Animal speaks to the Soul: I am nonetheless your Animal, and in me you were born; had I not grown, you would not have been either. But the Soul answers: Hear, my Animal, I am greater than you; before you were to be, I was your master-builder; my highest powers are from the root of eternity, but you are of this world and you perish, yet I live in my † Source original: "Wel," meaning a spring or fountainhead of existence. eternally, therefore I am nobler than you. You live in a wrathful Source; but I want to place my wrathful Source into the light, into that eternal joy. My works stand in power, but yours remain only in the figure original: "figuur." A term used to describe the outward, temporary shape or shadow of a thing, as opposed to its eternal essence.. Once I am released from you, I will not take you back as my Animal, but rather my new body, which I bear within you, in your deepest root of the holy Element In the mystical tradition of Jakob Böhme, the "holy Element" refers to a spiritual, heavenly corporality that is pure and undivided, unlike the four conflicting elements of the physical world.. I no longer want your rough offspring of the four Elements; death swallows you: but I turn green with my new body out of you, like a flower from its root. I want to forget you: for God's glory, which cursed you along with the earth, has grafted my root back into his Son, and my body grows in the holy Element before God; therefore you are but my wild Animal, which here hurts and plagues me, upon which the Devil rides as on his cursed horse. And if the world mocks you, I do not heed it; it does so for my sake, yet it cannot see me and does not know me; why then is it so mad? It cannot murder me, for I am not in it.