Theosophical Questions

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[there] comes hardness, coldness, dryness and darkness. For the unrestrained nature original: "Ungezogenheit." In Böhme’s thought, this refers to the "undisciplined" or contracting state of the will that has not yet been refined by light. overshadows itself; and this is the true ground of the eternal and also temporal darkness; and the hardness and sharpness is the ground for sensibility The capacity to feel or perceive.. (2) The second property is the movement in attraction, which is a cause of separation. (3) The third property is the true sensation between the hardness and the movement, in which the will perceives itself, for it finds itself in great sharpness, like a great anxiety, so to speak, against the unity. (4) The fourth property is the fire, as the lightning-flash of brilliance; this originates in the conjunction of the great anxious sharpness and the unity: for the unity is gentle and still; And the moving hard sharpness is terrible, as a ground of painfulness.

12. So it is a terror original: "Schrack." Böhme uses this to describe the sudden, transformative "shock" or "crack" when the dark properties meet the light of the unity, resulting in a flash of fire/light. in the conjunction; and in this terror the unity is seized, so that it becomes a glance or luster, as an uplifting joy. For thus the light originates in the midst of the darkness: Then the unity becomes a light, and the pleasantness of the desiring will in the properties becomes a spirit-fire, which takes its source original: "Quall." Böhme frequently puns on the words for "source" (Quelle) and "torment" (Qual) to show how life's energy and its suffering are linked. and origin from the harsh, cold sharpness, in the movement and sensibility in the darkness; and it is the very essence of it, as a terrible consuming power.

13. And thereafter God is called an angry, jealous God, and a consuming fire; Not according to what He is in Himself outside of all receptivity, but according to the eternal fire-ground; and in the darkness the foundation of hell is understood as a forgetfulness of the good, which darkness is completely hidden in the light, as the night in the day, as is to be read in John 1:5 original: "Johannis I: 5.".

14. Thus we see in the above-mentioned properties God's wrath, as the first property of drawing into the No: for it does not liken itself with the Yes, as with the unity, for it makes a darkness in itself, that is a loss of the good.

15. Secondly, it makes a sharpness in itself, that is the ground of the eternal dying of gentleness, from the gentle unity. Thirdly, it makes a hardness in itself, that is eternal death, as a powerlessness. Fourthly, it makes in itself

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