Jakob Böhme

“ That which thou desirest should happen to the Body, the same must first happen to that which shall Cure the Body: To the Cure of a foul Sickness there belongs a foul Brimstone, and so to a cold or hot Sickness the like is to be understood; for look in what Degree of the Fire or cold Mercury is enkindled, and in what Form among the seven Properties of Nature; that is, what Salt soever among the seven Salts is enkindled, such a Salt belongs to the Cure: For Sickness is Nothing else but an Hunger; now the Hunger desires Nothing else but its Likeness ”

“ The raw opposite Body does not belong to the Cure, but its Oil, which must be mollified with its own Love, understand with a meek Essence, which also belongs to the same Property; for the seven Forms of Nature are only one in the Centre: Therefore that Oil must be brought so far in the Wheel, till it enters into its highest Love-Desire, and then it is rightly fit for Cure; for there is Nothing so evil but it has a Good in it, and that very Good resists its Evil [or poisonful Malignity] . ”

“ But seeing the eternal Lubet to Nature introduces itself with Nature into a Desire; thereupon this Desire cannot die either in the Cold or Heat, for it takes its origin neither in the Heat or Cold, but in the Nothing; and so it is, after it proceeds from the Dying in the Fire, again desiring, namely of its own Property, and impresses itself, for in the Fire it has taken the Impression. ”

“ Though we Men have not full Power to do it in Self-Might, yet it may be done in God's Permission, who has again turned his Mercy towards us, and again opened Paradise and its Comprehension in Man: Hath God given us Power to become his Children, and to rule over the World? ”

“ So long as it has the Cold's Substance to live upon, its Life arises, and yet it is Nothing but a constant Dying and consuming, and in its devouring is the greatest Hunger after Substance; this same [Hunger] passes forth through and with the devouring out of the Dying of the Fire, and dwells in the Nothing, yet it may not be a Nothing, and also it cannot be a Nothing, therefore it draws the Fire again into itself ”

“ The speaking works in itself, viz. in the Eternity, and the spoken also in itself, viz. in the Time; the speaking is the Master, and the spoken is the Instrument; the speaking makes the Nature of Eternity, and the spoken makes the Nature of Time; each makes in its Comprehension two Properties, viz. Light and Darkness, wherein the Element of all Beings consists, which in the expressed Word operates itself into four Elements, but in the speaking Word there is but one: The Element in itself is neither hot nor cold, also neither dry nor moist; but it is a Lubet, viz. ”

“ Now all this is twofold, viz. the Desire makes in itself in its Impression the Darkness, wherein is the strong Might of the Enkindling of Nature, and it is painful; and the free Lubet to the Desire makes in itself through the Enkindling of the Desire Light and pleasing Motion; the Light is the Power and Lustre, and the Element is its Body, or Essence ”

“ Now in this Time of the four Elements there is mere Pain and vexation; the Soul amuses itself on the outward Astrum, which forces into it, from whence its false Imagination arises, and the Body stirs up the poisonful Mercurial Wheel, from whence Sickness and Pains befall it; therefore the Soul must be cured with the inward Perfection, viz. by the speaking Word, wherein it stands in God's Hand, which alone is able to tincture the Soul, and bring it into rest: The outward Body must be tinctured and healed with the expressed Mercury ”

“ Let none hold it for impossible; there is required only a divine Understanding and Knowledge thereunto, which shall blossom in the Time of the Lily, and not in Babel, for whom we also have not written. ”

“ For if the Life shall subsist in its own Right, then the Heat and Cold must stand in Equality, that so they may Accord one with another, and no Enmity or Disaffection be at all in any of them; the one must not exceed or over-top the other, but they must stand in one Will ”

“ Of the Enmity of the Spirit and of the Body, and of their Cure and Remedy
1. Everything is in itself a senseless, and as a dead Thing or Being; it is only a Manifestation of the Spirit, which is in the Body: The Spirit is signed with the Body; whatever the Spirit is in itself in an incomprehensible [imperceptible] Operation, the same is the Body in the comprehensible and visible Working. There is one Form of the seven Forms of Nature superior and chief; the other hang to it, and give their signs also, according as each of them is strong in the Essence ”

“ Now it behoves the Physician to know how he may deal with the Medicaments in the Likeness, so that he does not enrage them, and bring them into another Property; for in their Property they are even as a Man's Life is: He must take Care that they remain in their Degree, as they are originally brought forth in their Mother; for Nothing can come higher than it is in the Centre of its Original according to the Hiddenness ”

“ But seeing the Self-hood, viz. the Self-Will, strives against this, and will in no wise die to its Self-hood (understand the Will of the outward World, which is from the outward Stars and four Elements) , therefore God's Food must be given to the inward Will of the Spirit to eat of, that it may live without Need and Hunger as to the outward Being, that it may continually mortify and break the Will of the earthly Self-hood, till the Earthliness, viz. ”

“ There is not anything but it has its Soul in it according to its Property, and the Soul is a Kernel to another Body: Whatever lives and grows has its Seed in it; God has comprehended all Things in his Word, and spoken them forth into a Form, as the Will had Formed itself in the Desire, the expressed Word is a Platform of the speaking, and has again the speaking in it; this same speaking is a Seed to another Image according to the first, for both work, viz. ”