Theosophical Questions

...use under [penalty of] eternal punishment, as is to be seen in the second of the Ten Commandments; enough has been said here for our own people, and for the godless, a lock is placed before it. The author suggests that while the "children of God" understand these mysteries, they remain "locked" or hidden from the wicked to prevent further blasphemy.

35. The seventh property of the outflowing, longing will is the essentiality Wesenheit: the substance or "body" of a spiritual power, in which all powers lie and work as an essence, as a subject Subjectum: the underlying foundation or vessel of all powers, from which the visible world originated, and through the movement of the wonder-working Name flowed out, and passed into distinction and formality.

36. Therefore, in all beings of this world, both central fires are present, according to God's love and wrath, as can be seen in the creatures.

37. But the Holy Fire lies hidden within, which the curse (as the movement of God's wrath) keeps closed up with sin, as can be understood by the tincture Tinctur: in Böhme’s thought, a spiritual "dye" or medicinal force that can transform and "tinge" base matter into a higher state, and yet an entrance is possible through God's permission.

38. That same outflowing Holy Fire, while it still worked through the earth, was Paradise, and it still is; but man has been cast out, and many seek themselves to death for this fire and yet do not find it, unless they have first found it within themselves.

39. Thus understand us in this question concerning God's love and wrath: that two kinds of fire are understood. (1.) A Love-Fire, where there is pure light; this is called God's love, as the sensitive unity. (2.) And a Wrath-Fire from the relish of the outflowing self-will, through which the Love-Fire becomes manifest. This Wrath-Fire is a foundation of eternal nature, and in the center of its inwardness it is called an eternal darkness and pain. And yet, both fires are only a single ground, and have been so from eternity to eternity; they remain one, but separate into two eternal beginnings, just as one might reflect upon the relationship between a burning fire and its light.

The 4th Question.

What existed before the angels and creation were?

God was with the two central fires, as an eternal generative source of wonders, where all creatures lay within as an IDEA original: "IDEA." Böhme uses this Latin term to describe the eternal, unmanifested patterns of all things within the divine mind., and both central fires were a single essence, however...