10 Of the Threefold Life

If the soul is in the light of God, it is far into the eternal nature. It is without comprehensibility. It is a spirit in seven forms, in which the Kingdom of Heaven and Hell consist. The Author knows or understands the eternal birth.

...in the eternal nature and does not reach the end of nature. For it remains in nature as a created creature from the eternal nature, which is not a tangible thing. It is a spirit in a sevenfold form. Yet in the foundation original: "bevestinge," the primal source or original constitution, only four forms are known which hold the eternal bond. These four are the source-quality in anguish, in which the eternal stands. From these, all the other forms are born, in which God and the Kingdom of Heaven stand. In the four forms stand the anguish and the woe or the pain and sorrow. If these stand bare and alone, then we understand them to be the hellish fire and the eternal wrath of God. And although we do not know the foundation of the essence of God, we still know the eternal birth, which never had any beginning. Since it never had a beginning, it is still the same today as it has been throughout eternity. Therefore, we dare to take hold of that which we see and acknowledge today in the Light of God.

20. The Author excuses himself regarding the knowledge of God's essence, to which no one can come except by grace.

20. And no one should consider us ignorant because God makes His own essence known to us. We cannot and may not deny this, for fear of losing the Divine Light and our eternal salvation. For it is not possible for any human to take this for themselves, unless it is given to them out of grace and in the love of God. And when it is given, the soul stands in the acknowledgment of the wonders of God. It does not then speak of distant and strange things, but of those things in which it stands, and of itself. For it becomes seeing in the Light of God, so that it can know itself.

21. How the soul becomes seeing, to be able to speak of its fatherland.

21. As to how such a thing can be, know that the essences of the soul stand in the foundation in the first principle, and that the Divine Light shines in itself and makes the second principle. Thus, these two are present. The soul sees in the high knowledge of or through the light of the second principle, which shines in it. Why then should it not speak of its homeland original: "vader-landt," meaning its true spiritual place of origin in which it lives? And how would you, dull world, in the third principle, in the spirit or wisdom of the stars and elements, forbid it to do so? You are blind toward God and lie captured in the eternal wrath, in the source-quality of the foundation.

22. Who they are who can understand the Author.

22. Since it is so, we want to set down the ground of the eternal bond as a mirror for those who desire to see. Although it is true that he cannot learn it from us unless...

11 Of the Threefold Life

...unless he himself enters into the new birth in the life of Christ, so that the Divine Light itself shines in him. Otherwise, we are nothing but a story to him, and we are not understood by him.

23. Concerning the origin of the fire of life, whose mother is the eternal will of the Father.

23. But if we speak of the source-quality or the origin of the fire and of its ignition, which we understand as the fire of life, then we know for certain that the same stands in only two forms in the foundation, before the ignition of the fire. It has but a single mother. This mother is harsh original: "amper," meaning sharp, astringent, or contracting and draws toward herself. And yet, she is nothing in herself but a willing of the eternal Father in the eternal nature, which He has placed in Himself to manifest and display His wonders.

24. Concerning the eternal will and the eternal desiring.

24. Now, that same will is eternal and moves out of nothing but itself. If it were not so, everything would be a nothing, neither darkness nor light. And since there is something, it is the eternal will. That will is harsh and desiring, namely, of the wonders of creation. While there is a desiring, the desiring draws into itself. That which is drawn into the desiring makes the will full, so that the desire becomes full or pregnant. For the will is as thin as a nothing, and that which is drawn into the will makes the will thick, and that is its darkness. Thus, the eternal desiring stands in the darkness.

25. How the will impregnates itself.

25. Now, as the will draws to itself in the desiring, the drawing is a sting original: "prickel," a spur or stimulus of movement. For the will is thin and still, like a nothing. Since the will is an eternal desiring, it also draws eternally into itself. And though it has nothing to draw to itself, it draws itself and impregnates itself, so that out of the nothing a darkness is formed. The drawing makes the sting of the first essences, so that there is a movement and an origin of mobility.

26. How the will desires to be by itself; what the second will or the eternal mind is.

26. But now the will cannot endure the drawing with the impregnation, for it desires to be by itself and yet cannot, because it is desiring. And since it is unable to be by itself, it goes with the drawing into itself and conceives within itself another will, to go out of the darkness into itself. And that same other conceived or accepted will is the eternal mind original: "gemoedt," the inner disposition or spiritual intellect. It goes into itself like a quick lightning flash original: "blickem," a sudden spiritual illumination, divides or scatters, goes out into itself, and dwells in itself. In this way, it makes for itself another principle of another quality, for the sting of the movement remains in the darkness.