Theosophical Questions

XVIII. Theosophical Questions. Fragment 3.

...kingdom of joy and of powers; and in the center of the wrath-fire, there is the greatest, most terrible darkness, pain, and torment.

28. And these two are within one another like day and night, where neither can comprehend the other, but one dwells in the other, and they constitute two Principles Principia: foundational sources or origins of reality, as two eternal beginnings.

29. The first beginning is called the Kingdom of God in Love; and the other beginning is called the Kingdom of God’s Wrath, as the foundation of Hell, in which the cast-out spirits dwell.

30. The foundation of the Kingdom of God is pure Yes original: "Jah." Böhme uses this as a mystical abbreviation for the divine name and as a symbol of the creative "Yes.", as the powers of the distinguishing Word; and the foundation of the Wrath of God is pure No, from which lies originate. For this reason, Christ said: the devil is a father of lies, for his foundation is pure No and a contradiction of the truth, which is the Yes.

31. The sixth property in the outflowing will is resonance, sound, understanding, speech, or discernment—as true intellect. It stands in both central fires at once. In the center of the self-gratification of the natural fire, without the cooperation of the Holy Fire (as far as these two fires are separated, as is understood with the devils and damned souls), it is not true understanding, but only cunning and shrewdness, as a testing of the foundation of nature; a vain misuse of nature’s powers, from which deception, suspicion, folly, foolishness, and frivolity originate.

32. Within this sixth property stand the Holy Names, as the divine powers in the unfolding of the Unity, in acting and willing; and they stand in both fires simultaneously—in the fire of natural mobility and in the fire of the love-flame.

33. Here stands the wonder-working Word in its operation, for the great name of God, the TETRAGRAMMATON original: "TETRAGRAMMATON" (Greek: "four letters"). Refers to the sacred Hebrew name of God, YHWH. (JEHOVAH), is the center of God’s wonders here; it works in both central fires, which the evil spirits misuse in their transformation according to the center of nature’s fire.

34. And the foundation of the entire CABALA original: "CABALA." Böhme refers to the tradition of mystical interpretation of the divine names and the structure of the universe. and MAGIC original: "Magia." In this context, Böhme means the spiritual art of directing the will and powers of nature, rather than common sorcery. is contained within this ground; for these are the actual powers where the insensible works within the sensible. And in this place lies the Law of Moses against mis-