Memoirs of the life, death, burial, and wonderful writings, of Jacob Behmen

...or nine English miles distant from Görlitz, in Upper Lusatia A historical region spanning parts of modern-day Germany, Poland, and the Czech Republic.. His father, Jacob, and his mother, Ursula, were both poor, humble peasants of the good old German stock. Having been the child of a Christian and virtuous marriage and born into the light of this world, they named him Jacob—a "supplanter" In the Bible, Jacob supplanted his older brother Esau; here it implies Boehme's spiritual nature overcame his worldly or carnal nature. (as future events would prove) of the Esau-birth.

Once he had grown into a fairly large boy, he was required to tend the cattle in the fields along with the other boys from the same village. In this way, he served his parents in dutiful obedience.

During his time as a herd-boy, he experienced a strange and remarkable event. One day around noon, after wandering a great distance from the other boys and climbing alone to the top of the nearby mountain called Land’s Crown, he reached the summit. (I heard this story from his own lips, and he even pointed the place out to me.) There, he spotted an opening or entrance among the large red stones; it was overgrown with bushes and framed much like a doorway or passage. In his innocence, he went inside and discovered a large portable vessel, or wooden basket original: "pannier", full of money. The sight of it made him shudder with fear. This fear prevented him from touching any of the money and prompted him to find his way out as quickly as possible, without taking even a single coin with him. What is truly remarkable is that although he frequently climbed to the same spot later with the other herd-boys, he could never find that opening again. To me, it seems this may have been a kind of symbolic omen original: "emblematic omen", or