Jacob Böhme - The German Philosopher and Christian Mystic of the 15th century

“My books are written” Böhme said “only for those who desire to be sanctified and united to God, from whom they came . . . Not through my understanding, but in my resignation in Christ . . from him have I received knowledge of his mysteries. God dwells in that which will resign itself up, with all its reason and skill, unto him . . . I have prayed strongly that I might not write except for the glory of God and the instruction and benefit of my brethren.” 

Jacob Böhme (1575-1624)

Jacob Böhme was born at the end of the protestant reformation period in 1575 at the village of Alt Seidenberg, two miles from Goerlitz in Germany and close to the Bohemian border. He is known to be a profound influence upon many renaissance thinkers, pouring forth the beauty of Christo-Sophia at the heart of christianity. And later his works touched the minds of philosophical movements such as German Idealism, and German Romanticism. Hegel described Böhme as “The first German Philosopher” and it was said that Boehmean literature is like a picnic to which Jacob brings the words and the reader brings the meaning. For many, struggled to find this meaning as they were puzzled by Böhme’s fascinating yet confusing or rather unsettling theology. The 18th century mystical poet Gerhard Tersteegen wrote that he “could not understand his works; but I read until I was filled with strange fears and bewilderments… at last I took the books back to their owners, and it was like a weight lifted off of my heart.”

“And like a hidden stream of the Western World, his works were influencing the minds of Newton, Milton, George Fox, The Philadelphian Society, the Cambridge Platonists, the Bavarian Illuminati, Goethe, Kant, Heidegger, Blake Coleridge, Emerson, William Law, Rudolf Steiner, Hegel and Schopenhaur, Wagner and Neitzsche, Martensen and his nemesis Kierkegaard, Carl Jung and Martin Buber; many occultists and many clergymen.”

Böhme, with little education; still managed to comprehend such deep and philosophical concepts regarding the nature and signature of all things . He grew up poor, became a shoemaker by the age of fourteen, and his parents put him to mind their cattle. One day while in the fields, with great despair Böhme thought long and hard within his mind as he was earnestly seeking God and to know his mysteries. He read the scriptures of the Bible, but found it hard to comprehend some things containing within it as he wrestled in his mind the dual nature of all things and how they play into one another. “I knew the Bible from beginning to end, but could find no consolation in Holy Writ; and my spirit, as if moving in a great storm, arose in God, carrying with it my whole heart, mind and will and wrestled with the love and mercy of God, that his blessing might descend upon me, that my mind might be illumined with his Holy Spirit, that I might understand his will and get rid of my sorrow . . .” And so God called him forth to the middle of the fields, where young Böhme had his first vision. Atlas, he was shown, by the mercy and gift of God, his hearts desires. A vision broke out in the midst of the clouds, where a light shone forth. “I stood in this resolution, fighting a battle with myself, until the light of the Spirit, a light entirely foreign to my unruly nature, began to break through the clouds. Then, after some farther hard fights with the powers of darkness, my spirit broke through the doors of hell, and penetrated even unto the innermost essence of its newly born divinity where it was received with great love, as a bridegroom welcomes his beloved bride.” It is said that Böhme was seized by this divine light and at a sudden sight of an alchemical vessel that gleamed with joyous light… he was able to peer into this containment… and thus, it leadeth to the ‘innermost centre of secret nature’ or as böhme calls it ‘the ground’. By the account of Böhme, he entered the portal gates of hell for the duration of a quarter of an hour where he documented his experience shortly after stating; “I recognized and saw in myself all three worlds… and recognized the whole being in good and evil, and the way one originates in the other(…). I saw through into a chaos containing everything in it, but I could not undo it.” he had then recognized the ‘yes and no’ in all things and how one cannot exist without the other and that ‘These are not two things side by side but one thing.’ (…) Were it not for these two, which are in constant conflict, all things would be nothing! As Böhme goes on to describe that the constant conflict of nature is like a turning wheel of anguish, where nature is revealed.

“Böhme was the first to understand cosmic life as a passionate struggle, a movement, a process, an eternal genesis. It was only such direct knowledge of cosmic life that made ‘Faust’ possible, made Darwin possible, Marx, Nietzsche.” (Nicolas Berclyaev, Underground and Freedom, 1958)

After this vision it is said Böhme fell to a great appreciation in his heart, for he knew not what made him so worthy to receive such knowledge from the Lord. “No word can express the great joy and triumph I experienced, as of a life out of death, as of a resurrection from the dead! . . . While in this state, as I was walking through a field of flowers, in fifteen minutes, I saw through the mystery of creation, the original of this world and of all creatures. . . . Then for seven days I was in a continual state of ecstasy, surrounded by the light of the Spirit, which immersed me in contemplation and happiness. I learned what God is, and what is his will. . . . I knew not how this happened to me, but my heart admired and praised the Lord for it!”

For Böhme, I could only imagine how relieving to his soul this was; to grasp these beauties of philosophical understanding through the eyes of God. Through that Macro-cosmic view instead of that miniature view. To be able to see life as a constant Genesis; a beginning that goes and goes and goes; and the way the system of life cannot be governed without opposites; for then neither would be the thing itself without the other. This is an important and vital gnosis we must come to on the path of enlightenment- to understanding the one and the all. This ideology was the starting point to his philosophies and it inspired him greatly to keep pursuing God and praying for his Holy Spirit to reveal more of these mysteries. The way that Böhme described being able to have these visions was like ‘Seeing into a looking glass’ or ‘seeing into the ground- above and outside nature’. For Böhme, no knowledge could be gained through just the ‘corporeal eyes’ but with the eye inside of man that christ says, fills the body with light: ‘The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. ...’ (Matthew 6:22)

Jacob Böhme - Diagrams showing Böhme’s Cosmogony or the Philosophical Sphere (Wonder Eye of Eternity)

"Böhme explained that the divine eye, a circle, must be split into two and the two resulting arcs placed back to back and rotated in opposite directions.”

After this illumination of mind, and the days that followed, the events that took place ushered him forth with great inspiration. While Jacob was at work, it was said that a mysterious man approached him out of thin air, that must have sensed his great and mighty spirit, calling him by his name and saying unto him,

‘Jacob, thou art yet but little, but the time will come when thou shalt be great and the world shall be moved at thee. Read the Holy Scriptures where thou wilt find comfort and instruction, for thou must endure much misery and poverty and suffer persecution. But be courageous and persevere, for God loves thee.’ … The stranger turned and disappeared, and Böhme never saw him again. But the meeting had made a heartfelt impression upon him.

There was also another account of Böhme, one day in his kitchen staring upon the light that shined upon his small pewter plate, nearly blinding his eyes, he began to notice everything grow dim. This intrigued Böhme as his eyes squinted, staring off into what seemed like an abyss the longer his eyes rested out of focus. He thought to himself how the air is usually seen as transparent; although it was actually quiet cloudy because now he saw it become truly transparent, like a cloud clearing. Kind of similar to how the eye of a camera lens, adjusts its focus in and out- and at first it is blurry and somewhat misty before clearing into an image. This to Böhme of course became a philosophy in his mind of creation and Genesis as he began to see an entirely different world open up to him in this long vision. He saw that the spiritual essence of all things was beneath or concealed in a divine “unground” making up the essence of the material thing; like layers of existence. As his vision was making out the object; the cloud of fog before coming into focus, was like the unconscious primordial ground of the image or product that was made conscious. To Böhme this unground is like the innermost hidden aspect of God; (En-Soph) that is trying to identify itself, it longs, it sees, it finds and in the virgin mirror of divine wisdom recognizes itself; and gives birth to its imagination through wisdom; (Sophia).

As Jacob meditated on this- his centre of consciousness had suddenly risen free from his bodily nature, looking down upon himself. It was then that he was experiencing from a different point of view; a mind thinking of Böhme; not Böhme with a mind that is thinking. Anyone else have this experience? I know I have. Böhme was essentially having an out of body experience and hyper awareness of his own nature and God’s nature. The Micro and the Macro. It can become quiet rattling to the mind that seems to forget how miraculous its own creation is- nether less the world that is around him; teeming with life and mystery. It can actually almost seem surreal and dream like. Because it is that realization that life is much more than just the material; it is a macrocosmic mind, a world of images and archetypes that is a web and stream of consciousness making up reality and we are a vessel experiencing this divine wonder eye! This philosophy brings forth Böhme’s idealism; mind before matter. The realization of the first mind; of the Eternal and Holy one. That when man is created in thy image of God; it truly means we are an image inside of the mind of God! And so this became yet another illumination within Böhme’s mind that rattled him but enthralled his senses in excitement, to continue on this seeking.

R. Fludd, Philosophia Sacra, Frankfurt, 1626

In this illustration Robert Fludd followed the interpretation of Genesis in the first book of the Zohar, which provides a visual description in which, in the concealed depths of the unground, the En-Soph, first forms a fog, from which then a spring erupts. In this, the primal point called ‘Reshith”, lights up, the beginning, “the first word of the creation of all things”. The Cabalists identified this primal point as the wisdom of God, “Sophia”. It corresponds to the second Sefira Chochma or Hochma. The seed of all things lies folded into it, carved into it all its characteristics.

in 1599 he became a master shoemaker and married the daughter of a butcher and lived a happy life with her. They had four sons and probably two daughters. As he began to have more revelations and visions from God he began to record them as a help to his own memory and thus was born ‘Aurora’ his first book, finished in 1612. At which he first called; ‘Morning Glow’ but at the suggestion of a friend he altered it to Aurora. Originally, Böhme wrote this book, unfinished, only for himself to read. However when a manuscript copy began to circulate, upon a rigid time where Lutheranism had already become just as strict as old orthodoxy, the book fell into the hands of a pastor at Goerlitz named Gregorius Richter, and it was of course counted as a heretical text and it infuriated Mr. Richter as he hurried to the city council and demanded Böhme should be banished and exiled from the city.

Here Mr. Richter himself wrote a horrifying commentary towards Böhme’s book;

“There are many blasphemies in this shoemaker’s book as there are lines; it smells of shoemaker’s pitch and filthy blacking. May this insufferable stench be far from us. The Arian poison was not so much deadly as this shoemaker’s poison” — Gregorius Richter following the publication of Aurora.

Which followed Böhme’s somewhat humorous response;

“I must tell you sir, that yesterday the pharisaical devil was let loose, cursed me and my little book, and condemned the book to fire. He charged me with shocking vices; with being a scorner of both Church and Sacraments and with getting drunk daily on brandy, wine, and beer; all of which is untrue; while he himself is a drunken man.” — Jacob Böhme writing about Gregorius Richter

This however was not the end. The members of the council, fell to a shame after banishing the poor Böhme, for his stainless reputation, and delicacy to the attendance of church, that they told him that he may come back under one condition. ‘Write no further books’

So of course, this led to Jacob having to go through a long period of silence, taking his works underground. This along the way, led some attraction from alchemists and mystics alike; who had read of Böhme’s book and wanted to lend him other secret works that could teach him the alchemical and hermetic wisdoms; as Paracelsus was a huge influence upon these mystics and wanted Böhme to study the works of Paracelsus with them. So this inspired Böhme’s interest further into Nature mysticism and Alchemy. But it is also important to note, that Böhme was indefinitely influenced by Jewish Kabbalah and that his earliest adversaries took note of this, noticing the similarities of the ideas that played into Böhme’s philosophies. By this time Böhme was quietly writing six other tracts, that were to only be read by a small number of people in his circle. The second period of writing for Böhme was around 1619 where he defiantly renewed his writing for he could no longer deny his inner knowing that God was calling him to share his revelations among men. In these last ten years of his life he composed around 30 works; all of which regarded God and Angels, Christ and Man, heaven and hell, and the secret wonders of this realm. Some of which were named; De Tribes Principiis (The Three Principles of the Divine Essence), The Threefold Life of Man, Answers to Forty questions on the Soul, The Mysteries Pansophicum and informatorium novissimorum (of the Last Times). All of which these works were hand copied by his group of friends and circulated quietly to fellow men. Gregorius Richter of course, did not leave Jacob alone and Jacob was thrown much backlash his way by scurrilous treatises commenting upon his writings saying, “Will Ye have the words of Jesus Christ or the words of a shoemaker?” whereupon Jacob answered with dignity in a composed manner, “It is not I that knows these things, but God knows them in me.” As it was further stated by Böhme; “I acknowledge a universal God, being a unity, and the primordial power of Good in the universe; self-existent, independent of forms, needing no locality for its existence, unmeasurable and not subject to the comprehension of any being. I acknowledge this power to be a trinity in one, each of the three being of equal power, The Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. I acknowledge this triune principle fills at one and the same time all things; that it has been, and still continues to be, the cause, foundation, and beginning of all things. I believe and acknowledge that the eternal power of this principle caused the existence of the universe; that its power, in a manner comparable to a breath or speech (the word or logos being christ), radiated from its centre, and produced the germs out of which grow visible forms, and that in this exhaled breath or word is contained the inner heaven and the visible world with all things existing within them.”… I mean, could you imagine the foolish adversaries standing around Jacob as he speaks such wise words beyond their understanding? I could imagine they must have been puzzled but too puffed up in ignorance and pride to even grasp Böhme’s understanding of the mysteries. But like the wise scripture says; Don’t cast your pearls before swine.

But this sadly was not the end of Böhme’s backlash. In 1624 his friend Abraham von Frankenburg republished a selection of his writings under the title The Way to Christ. Its radiant beauty impressed many who belonged to the Orthodox Church and this of course inflamed the Tertullians of his native town. Again they banished Böhme on charge of impiety and even refused that he may say farewell to his wife and sons whereupon Böhme left to Dresden. By the end of the year, Böhme died, peacefully in the presence of his beloved son where they played soft music near a window by his bed, and he let out a long sigh saying; ‘Now I go hence to Paradise’.

The sad truth; is that there was no mercy shown in the face of the countless hatred that was thrown towards Böhme, to the point where there was even a refusal of a burial service, and the very priest who attended him in death, being forced by the council to make an oration, began by declaring that he would rather walk twenty miles than give any praise towards the works of Böhme. As his cross that was put upon his tomb by his fellow friends, was torn down in fury for being adorned with several alchemical and mystical symbols.

It is sad to think that such a man like Jacob, was persecuted to the extent that he was, but yet is no surprise. We must remember the unbearable times this truly was. But yet, it is noble men like Jacob who gave rise to movements that have greatly influenced our western world and the minds of many free thinkers.

“We Must choose safety or romance, and mysticism is the romance of religion; the mystic an explorer in the spiritual world.” - Clifford Bax on his commentary of Signature of All Things by Jacob Böhme