Jakob Böhme

“ And here, thou dear Seeker, when thou seest the crimson-coloured Blood of the young Man arise out of Death with the Virgin's white Blood, then know that thou hast the Arcanum of the whole World, and a Treasure in this Valley of misery, which surpasses the value of Gold ”

“ The human Fire-Life consists in the Blood, and therein rules the Wrath of God; now another Blood, which was born out of God's Love-Essence, must enter into the angry human Blood; they must go both together into the Death of the Wrath, and the Wrath of God must be drowned in the divine Blood, and therefore the outward Humanity in Christ must die, that it Might not any more live in the Wrath's Property, but that the heavenly Blood's Mercury, viz. the speaking Word, Might alone live in the outward Humanity, and Solely rule in peculiar divine Power in the outward and inward Humanity ”

“ Jupiter is not as Mars; Mars, viz. the Fire-Spirit, is not as the Light of the Sun; and the Sun is not as Venus with her meek Water-Source; and Venus is not as Mercury with his Sound; for she is meek and still, and Mercury Sounds and sets up his Note; and Mercury also is not as Luna, which as a simple Body does give Body to all the rest for Manifestation; one is far otherwise than another, and has not one Property and Will; and yet they are in the Centre of the Essence, viz. in Luna and Saturn, in the Property of the Soul and Body, all of them one and the same Lump. ”

“ This Champion or Lion is no Man or Woman, but he is both; the Tincture of the Fire and Light must come into one, viz. of the Essence which is Venus, and of the Spirit which is Mars in Mercury; the Father's Love and Anger must become one Thing, and then this one Thing is called the Kingdom of Joy; so long as it is separated, there is in the Thing only Anguish and Torment, and mere Desire; but when it burns in one Will, it is a joyful proceeding forth from itself: And this egressive Property is called the Holy Ghost, viz. ”

“ Here the Virgin does again take the Soul into herself, and gives it her Crown of Pearl, as to a noble Champion, and calls him in his own Name the white Lion or Champion. O ye Children of Men, observe it, I beseech you; open the Gates of the World in your Heart ”

“ We are to know, that the Essence of this World, together with Man, consists in two Properties, viz. in Fire and Light, that is, in Love and Anger: Now the Fire is twofold, and the Light is also twofold, viz. a cold Fire from the Impression, and an hot Fire from the Power of Mercury in Sulphur; and so likewise there is a cold Light from the cold Fire, and a warming Light from the hot Fire; the cold Light is false, and the hot Light is good; not that it is false in its Property, only in the Impression, in the cold Sulphur; in the Sharpness of the Wrath it turns to a false Desire, viz. ”

“ Even as it so came to pass when the divine Love-Desire did manifest itself with its great Meekness to the false, cold, proud, and austere Fire-Desire of the Saturnalians, Martialists, and especially of the false Mercurialites: It was a great Opposition and Enmity to them, that Love should rule in the Death of Poison, and dwell therein, this they could not, nor would not endure; for Heaven was come into Hell, and would overcome the Hell with Love, and take away its Might; as it is to be seen in the Person of Christ ”

“ His Mother is the Christian Church upon Earth, wherein the Children of God are begotten according to the Spirit, whom he should take care for, and guide and lead them, till the number of the Humanity out of the Flesh shall be accomplished, and then the Spiritual Body shall arise, and shall be proved in Christ's Death, in his entrance into the Anger, where he changed the Anger into Love; and the Kingdom with the Source of Darkness shall be separated from it. ”

“ God the Father, who gave his dear Heart into the Humanity to help Mankind, did now thirst after the Humanity, viz. after his Heart or Word of Power; and the Deity in the Humanity, viz. the Heart of the Father, did thirst after the Father; and the Love or the Essence of the Light did thirst after the Fire's Essence: For the Fire's, or Soul's Essence in Adam was departed out of the Love-Essentiality (wherein the Paradise did consist) into a Selfishness, and was become disobedient to God ”

“ For the Materia becomes as black as a Raven, for Venus has resigned its Life, from whence the Glance [or Splendour] arises, as it is to be seen by Christ, that the Sun lost its Light, and there was a great Darkness contrary to the common Course of Nature. ”

“ Nothing should perish [or be lost] in Man, for God had created him to his Image.
41. Thus let the Philosopher observe, that when the three Murtherers, viz. Saturn, Mars, and Mercury, sink in the crimson-coloured Blood of the Lion, they do not perish; but they are pardoned, that is, their Wrath is changed into a Love-Desire, viz. out of Venus into Sol; for when the fiery Desire enters into the Watery Desire, then a shining, viz. a glorious Splendour, arises from and in the Fire; for Venus is white, and the Fire-Desire is red. ”

“ When Mars, Mercury, and Luna also see this, then they cry crucifige, away with him, he is a false King in our Garment; he is a Man as we are, and will be God, that is, they cast their poisonful Desire through the purple Garment upon the Child, and so the Artist will see that the Child will appear in his own Form, as if it were full of Streaks from the poisonful Rays of Mercury and Mars, which they lay upon the Child through the Impression of Saturn ”

“ Christ is thy Husband, all these are Strangers and Hirelings, unless they walk in thy filial Love, and humble themselves towards the Mother, and provide for her as Ministers, else they be all Wolves, Bears, and tearing Lions; though there were many Thousands of them, yet one is not at all better than another, unless he comes forth in the Line of John, and takes care of Christ's Mother, and provides for the Mother with Earnestness in Christ's Spirit: Which if he has not, he is not then called of Christ to be a Guardian or Curate to the Mother ”

“ Now when the heavenly Body, and also the earthly, do thus yield unto these three Murtherers, then appears the Image of John and Mary by the Cross as a Type; for the young Man's Life, and also the Virgin's in the young Man, has freely surrendered, and given forth itself: And now the two Properties, viz. the divine and human, divide themselves in the Form of each Power, which the Artist may see if he has the eyes and Understanding thereunto. ”

“ For we the poor Children of Eve are not presently wholly changed according to the outward Man; but we must also pass into Death, and putrify, that the Wrath also in the Flesh may rot and putrify, and the Spirit might rest in the Death of Christ till the general Resurrection and transmutation of the outward Man ”

“ He will see in his Work all whatever God did in the Humanity; when he brought it again into the Universal, viz. into Paradise, he will see how the Wrath devours and swallows up the fair Venus into his pricking thorny Essence, and how Venus does fully yield in herself; and how the Wrath also dies away in Venus, and becomes wholly dark and black as a Coal; for Death and Life lie together both in Death, viz. ”

“ He must likewise be a John, and know that his business is about the Mother, and that his Work in this World is not wholly heavenly: He will not so manifest Paradise, that God will appear, and be manifest Face to Face in his Work: No, he remains in the Mother, yet he obtains the Universal in the Mother ”

“ Like as the Candle dies in the Fire, and out of that Death the Light and Power proceed, viz. the great Painless Life; so out of Christ's Dying and Death the eternal divine Sun should and must arise in the human Property ”

“ When Adam was in the Image of God, and was neither Man nor Woman, but both; he stood forty Days in Paradise without wavering, and when he fell he stood even till the third Day, viz. forty Hours in the Sleep, even till God did make or build the Woman out of him. Thus Israel must be tempted forty Days on Mount Sinai, whether they would live in the Obedience of God under the Wonders and mighty acts ”

“ So should all the Disciples and Teachers of Christ do, and take care of the poor Christendom, as Sons, with great Humility towards the Mother, provide for, and cherish her with Diligence and Circumspection, and serve her with all discreet Modesty, Courtesy, and Humility ”

“ So likewise the Philosopher reaches to the Blessing in this Valley of Misery, that he is able to bless his corrupt Body, that is, tincture it and free it from Sickness, even to the limit of the highest Constellation according to Saturn ”