Jacob Boehme
1575-1624

      Jacob Boehme was a German Lutheran theosophical author, born in the East German town of Goerlitz in 1575. He had little in the way of an education and made his living as a shoemaker; he married and had four children. His thought drew on interests including Paracelsus, the Kabbala, alchemy and the Hermetic tradition. His first written work, Aurora, went unfinished, but drew to him a small circle of followers. Like Eckhart and others, Boehme's thought drew fire from the church authorities, who silenced Boehme for five years before he continued writing in secrecy. He again raised the cockles of church authorities, and he was banished from his home. He died soon thereafter, in 1624, after returning home from Dresden.

      His last words spoken, as he was surrounded by his family, were reported to be, "Now I go hence into Paradise." His thought has since influenced major figures in philosophy, especially German Romantics such as Hegel, Baader, and Schelling. Indirectly, his influence can be traced to the work of Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Hartmann, Bergson, and Heidegger. Further, Paul Tillich and Martin Buber drew heavily from his work -- as did the psychologist, Carl Jung, who made numerous references to Boehme in his writings.

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Book	Extracts from the Teutonic Theosopher - Table of Contents        The Author's Preface 1. COURTEOUS Reader, I compare the whole Philosophy, Astrology and Theology, together with their Mother, to a goodly Tree, which groweth in a fair Garden of Pleasure. 2. Now the Earth in which the Tree stands affords Sap continually to the Tree, whereby the Tree has its living Quality: But the Tree in itself groweth from th ...read
Article	God is All       Now therefore we say (as the Scripture informs us) that God dwells in Heaven, and it is the Truth. Now mark, Moses writes, that God created the Heaven out of the Midst of the Waters, and the Scripture says, God dwells in Heaven; therefore we may now observe, that the water has its Original from the Longing of the eternal Nature after the eternal Li ...read
Article	Man in "The Image of the Earthy"        "We Have Borne the Image of the Earthy" "Adam was given that which he would have, . . . the terrestrial woman, in place of the celestial virgin; for Adam's treachery toward his heavenly consort, disqualified him for her, and left him only fitted for an 'Eve'! During his sleep, the woman was made out of Adam, and the image of God was destroyed . ...read
Article	Man In "The Image of the Heavenly"       "O great and holy God, I pray thee, set open my inwardness to me; that I may rightly know what I am; and open in me what was shut up in Adam." . . . "God stirred himself to produce creation . . . He was desirous of having children of his own kind . . . Creation was an act of the free will of God; God unfolded his eternal nature, and through his ac ...read
Article	Man in "The Restored Image"        "We Shall also Bear the Image of the Heavenly" "All the teachings of Christ have no other object than to show us how we may re-ascend to our virginal unity with him . . . There is ever a strife over man's image; the devil and hell say, 'It is mine, by right of nature; it is generated out of my root.' The spirit of this world says, 'It is mine, I ...read
Article	Of Heaven and Hell       A Dialogue Between A Scholar And His Master Demonstrating the following; Where the blessed and the damned Souls go when they depart from their Bodies How Heaven and Hell are in Man Where the Angels and Devils dwell in this World's Time How far Heaven and Hell are asunder What and where the Angels and Human Souls are What the Body of Man is W ...read
Article	Of True Repentance        SHOWING HOW MAN SHOULD STIR HIMSELF UP IN MIND AND WILL AND WHAT HIS EARNEST CONSIDERATION AND PURPOSE SHOULD BE How Man must stir himself in Mind and Will; and what his Consideration and earnest Purpose must be, when he will perform powerful and effectual Repentance: And with what Mind he must appear before God, when he would ask, so as to obta ...read
Pamphlet	Of True Resignation: Chapter 1        Of True Resignation OR Dying to SELF by Jacob Behmen (Jakob Boehme) 1575-1624, The Teutonic Theosopher SHOWING How Man must DAILY die to his OWN Will in SELF; how he must bring his Desire into God, and what he should ask and desire of God. LIKEWISE How he must spring up out of the dying sinful Man, with a new Mind and Will through the Spir ...read
	Of True Resignation: Chapter 2        THE SECOND CHAPTER Here Reason will object and say, Is it not right for a Man to attain the Light of God, and also the Light of the outward Nature and Reason, that he may be able to order his Life wisely, as the Scripture directeth? 2. Yes, it is very right; nothing can be more profitable to a Man, neither is he capable of any Thing better; nay ...read
	Of True Resignation: Chapter 3        THE THIRD CHAPTER Whosoever therefore intendeth to do any good and perfect Work, wherein he hopeth eternally to rejoice, let him depart from himSELF, viz. from his OWN Desire, and enter into Resignation, into the Will of God, and work with God. And then though the earthly Desire of SELF in Flesh and Blood cleaveth to him, yet if the Will of the ...read
Article	The Key to Divine Mysteries       A Short Description of the Key which opens the Divine Mysteries, and leadeth to the Knowledge of them. Whosoever is desirous to attain to Divine Vision in himself, and to speak with God in Christ, let him follow this Course, and he shall attain it. 1. LET him gather all his Thoughts and Reason together, and form or bind them into this one full De ...read
Pamphlet	The Supersensual Life: Dialogue I       The Disciple said to his Master: Sir, how may I come to the Supersensual Life, so that I may see God, and hear God speak? The Master answered and said: Son, when thou canst throw thyself into That, where no Creature dwelleth, though it be but for a Moment, then thou hearest what God speaketh. Disciple. Is that where no Creature dwelleth near at h ...read
	The Supersensual Life: Dialogue II: Argument       Herein is described and set forth the Manner of passing the Gulf which divides betwixt the two Principles or States of Heaven and Hell: and it is particularly shewn how this Transaction is carried on in the Soul; what the Partition Wall therein is, which separates from God. What the breaking down of this Partition Wall, and how effected; what the ...read
Pamphlet	The Third Book of Regeneration - Table of Contents        The Third Book of Regeneration, or The New Birth Preface The Author's Preface to the Reader Though I have in my other Writings, set down a clear description of Regeneration, or the New-Birth,from the Ground thereof; yet because everyone hath them not, neither hath everyone the Capacity to understand them; I have therefore, as a Service ...read
Article	The Way from Darkness to True Illumination       Which way one soul should seek after and comfort another, and bring it by means of its knowledge into the paths of Christ's pilgrimage, and faithfully warn it of the thorny way of the world, which leads the fallen soul that naturally walks therein, into the abyss or pit of hell. Composed by a soul that loves all who are children of Jesus Christ, u ...read
Article	Two Dialogues        TWO DIALOGUES BETWEEN A DISCIPLE AND HIS MASTER, CONCERNING THE LIFE WHICH IS ABOVE SENSE. SHOWING How the Soul may attain to Divine HEARING and VISION - to a life above sense; and What its Childship in the Natural and Supernatural Life is; and How it passeth out of Nature into God, and out of God into Nature and Self again;also What its ...read