Of the Threefold Life

to show, which are born out of the first four forms.
66. The Godhead is subject to no change: the Author speaks in parts, for he cannot speak in angelic words.
67. The Divine mind in the heart of God is alone the perfection. And how we grasp the whole in the mind.
68. How one shall speak rightly of God.
69. Repetition of the origin of the fire.
70. How the wheel of the essences stands in trembling: the flash, the spirit of the essences.
71. How the birth stands, and of the essences and the fire-spirit.
72. How death is terrified before life: from whence weight comes into nature.
73. Astringency original: "Amperheyd" is the mother of the sting, how it loses its fiery right, and how it becomes rich in joys in the freedom: and how the fifth form arises.
74. How the true origin of life is in the fifth form: a comparison, and how the light shines in the darkness: and the darkness remains nonetheless.
75. Description of the first eternal will, which is named God.
76. In what manner God the Father is without a name.
77. God the Father takes His will out of nothing, only purely out of and in Himself, and how we understand the Birth-Giver original: "Gebarerinne" in which the essence is born.
78. The Word creates in the Birth-Giver: what the eternal still joy may be: in which nature is born.
79. Without nature there would be no Word which creates in the Birth-Giver.
80. The Word takes its origin in nature: in nature two words are born, the first speaks out the severe power, being the Father's nature.
81. Description of the second word, which is named God.
82. From whence the luster arises.
83. Outside of nature there is no luster: how the word of love brings forth out of nature.
84. How the second word dwells in the first will.
85. How the second word is the Son, and the luster of the Father: how love and enmity stand against one another.
86. How love is the death of the wrath.
87. The first will causes the birth of love: the origin of the name Father and Son.
88. Why the Begetter of the word is named Father.

of Man.

89. How the light stands against the darkness: the light is Lord.
90. Description of the darkness: after which God is named a consuming fire.
91. Address to the Philosophers.
92. The Fountain of love is a victory over the severe power.
93. Of the severity and the gentleness, and their struggle.
94. Address to the Theologians: he admonishes and reproves them.

The Second Chapter.

further

Concerning the Birth-Giver.

1. Of the foundation of the birth-giver or mother-womb, and the circle of life.

1. An ornate drop-cap letter N begins the paragraph. Since we have then shown you such a foundation, we wish further to show you the foundation of the Birth-Giver original: "Ghebarerinne," or Mother-Womb: for we see such clearly in this world, in the government of the Elements: (and yet much more in ourselves, in our mind, from which the thoughts arise, through which human running, walking, and all his doing is directed:) that there is a Birth-Giver that births the spirit. If there is to be a Birth-Giver, then there must be a center original: "centrum" or circle of life, in which the Birth-Giver takes her government. For nothing moves itself, but if there is a movement that moves all kinds of life, then it must not be foreign, since it is the spirit and life in all things: in the growing and the mute, as well as in the living things.

2. Warning against the hypocrites and those learned only in the letter.

2. And do not let yourself be led astray by the hypocrites original: "Hipocrypten," a term Böhme uses for book-learned or superficial scholars, who are only learned in history those who know the Bible as a historical record but lack spiritual experience, and go about parading with foreign languages, and desire to be honored for them, though they do not understand them in the least. They do not understand their mother tongue: if they understood it rightly (as well as the Spirits of the letters) they would recognize or understand nature therein.