/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.14464043]

Boehme has his own particular interpretation of Traditional metaphysics. In common with them, he starts with the unmanifest source or all, describes the Law of Three that makes manifestation possible, and then the Law of Seven indicating the stages of that manifestation.

The Ungrund desires to reveal himself through manifestation. The universe is the outcome and development of One Grand Thought. All things are governed by one central law and all planes of existence are related. This is the Law of Correspondences.

The Abyss contains within itself everything and nothing, i.e., everything potentially but nothing manifestly. Within the Abyss is an eternal uncreated Will (Byss). It desires to become manifest, to be something.

The Will fashions a Mirror which reflects all things, making them manifest. The Mirror is Eternal Wisdom, Eternal Idea, Virgin Sophia, and the Infinite Mother, while the Will is the Infinite Father. Like the Tao, Boehme describes this relationship: Abyss => Duality => Trinity.

The Father-Mother begets a Son; these energies are diffused by the Holy Spirit. Through the union of the Will and Wisdom, the unmanifest becomes manifest, the latent becomes active.

In Guenon’s system, the Ungrund is non-being, and Being is its first principle. Boehme claims, moreover, that the Ungrund is God as he is in himself. The Ungrund makes the Ground, i.e., Being, which is the Father. This is similar to the Palamite understanding assuming that the Ungrund is the unknowable essence of God, and the Father is the energies, or the Act of Being as in Thomist metaphysics. The Logos concentrates those energies, which are diffused through the Holy Spirit. Thus, the generation of all things takes place and the unmanifest becomes manifest.

Obviously, this should not be understood temporally, since it is all prior to time itself.

[Anonymous No.14464054]

>>14464043
In Symbolism of the Cross, Rene Guenon describes the three gunas, which are “essential, constitutive and primordial qualities or attributes of beings envisaged in their different states of manifestation”. Boehme likewise recognizes those qualities. There are two which he calls Fire and Light. These contrasting principles exist in all things. The third manifests in our external nature. This can be summarized as:

Fire, Wrath, Law, Dark Principle, latent and unmanifest (non-being)
Light, Mercy, Love
Manifestation or Being

The Dark Principle is unmanifest, since it would be understood as the wrathful or vengeful aspect of God. Nevertheless, Man has free will, so he can will the dark principle. A contrast is necessary for conscious awareness. This is not a problem provided it is transmuted by the Light or Love Principle. Otherwise, man is in the “false imagination”, resulting in a misunderstanding of God and the World.

In other Traditions, these principles are called

Brahma the Creator/Shiva the Destroyer,
Ormuzd/Ahriman,
God/Devil

Vishnu, then, is the Preserver, balancing the two principles. This requires knowledge and wisdom gained through experience. This reconciles Law and Love. By following Truth, man transmutes evil into good, otherwise he becomes a slave to evil.

The Polarity occurs on every plane of manifestation. It is reflected as

Positive/negative
Active/passive
Masculine/feminine
Action/reaction

This Polarity – or Sex – is the law of all manifestation, the creative power of the universe. That is the cosmic order and any deviation from it is disordered.

[Anonymous No.14464057]

>>14464054
Boehme says there are seven properties or forces through which the Divine energy operates. Each quality has its own essence, forming together one harmonious whole. They permeate all manifest things. Although Boehme talks about them as if sequential, they operate simultaneously, outside of time. These are the seven qualities, followed by their names:

Contraction: The desire drawing all towards itself (Desire)
Friction: expansive force creating a dual action and differentiation. Desire going into multiplicity (Motion)
Sensibility: rotary motion of 1 and 2. The wheel of life. (Sensation)
Lightning or Fire: The Spirit diffuses a mild light, transforms the dark principle, ending strife
Love or Light: love binds, builds up and harmonizes the principles of joy
Audibility: intelligible or vital sound. The manifestation of Life. (Intelligence)
Essential Wisdom: gathers the previous six into one harmonious whole

Contraction, Friction, and Sensibility form the “Dark Principle”. Contraction is the desire drawing things to itself; it is harsh, cold, and sharp. It is a kind of magnetic attraction, congealing Nothing into Something. Friction is expansive, thus causing differentiation. It is desire becoming multiplicity. Sensibility is the wheel of life brought about by the action and reaction of Contraction and Friction. This wheel is experienced as wandering and anguish, which amasses itself into an Essence. In other words, the first principle is Attraction, then Repulsion, resulting in Circulation.

The Lightning Flash is the eruption of the Spirit, who transforms the Dark principle by the suffusion of Light. This ends the Strife of Attraction and Repulsion. This is the beginning of Consciousness and Life.

Love then builds up and harmonizes the principles, bring joy and perfection. Audibility brings intelligence. Finally, Wisdom brings harmony and bliss.

This process is the “Great Work”, the Magnum Opus, that must be performed in each of us in order to reclaim our original nature and “the great transmutation which Christ Jesus accomplished in His Own Person.”

[Anonymous No.14464065]

>>14464057
The Uncreated Heaven is perfect and complete and is part of God. However, the Created Universe is outside and apart from God. Therefore, it needs to develop from incompleteness to completeness. This does not exhaust God, who is Infinite, but rather enriches him.

God produces from his own eternal nature and wisdom, in which all things exist as possibilities of manifestation. Created things manifest successively in time. Creation is in Equilibrium, the harmony of the active forces (Light) and passive forces (Dark).

Creation unfolds through endless circles. Outside the circle of the Uncreated heaven, there is the created heaven or angelic world. There are three hierarchies headed by Michael, Lucifer, and Uriel (corresponding to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit).

Although the Dark Principle is passive and unmanifest in God, and never becomes active, the possibility of evil arises in free beings. Free beings can choose to be centered in the natural egoic Self. This is to remain at the level of Contraction. Or else they can be centered in the Light Center, the expansive power of Love. Evil and disorder enter the world when creatures become centered in that lower self. Once selfish desire is kindled, it just becomes stronger. Instead of letting the Divine Light reconcile opposing forces, they get stimulated resulting in anguish. Life becomes struggle and anxiety.

Evil first entered the Cosmos when Lucifer, the head of our universe, became self-centered thereby rejecting the divine order. Lucifer’s fall was the result of pride and the pursuit of knowledge apart from God. He rejected the feeling of humility in the face of the Divine mysteries. Curiosity and the desire for novelty became dominant. Thus evil, Hell, and the Dark Principle entered the world.

Our personal task, therefore, is to reconcile the extremes of the forces of Darkness and Light. As the Hermetists taught, that is necessary for the recovery of the Prima Materia, the element of immortality. Then it can be molded by the Will for creative purposes, without painful toil, “transforming work into play”.

This must begin with self-knowledge in order to recognize the Luciferian temptations in our own souls. This should be easy to do, since Lucifer is the Prince of this World.

[Anonymous No.14464069]

>>14464065
Earth was situated spiritually within the sphere of Lucifer. Lucifer split the world into Darkness and Light, separating God’s Wrath from God’s Love, making Equilibrium difficult. The world became dense and gross.

As we pointed out above, man is not just a “rational animal”, but rather a composite being containing elements of all things. Thus he has facilities to know things on all planes, including the physical, astral, physical, and divine things.

The human race was ethereal, so Adam was a luminous being permeated by a celestial essence. His mind was innocent, no knowledge of evil, without avarice, pride, envy, or anger. Adam’s body was not dense, since the inner life was the master of the body. Adam’s inner life was in touch with Heaven; he could communicate with God, the angels, and nature. His being was tripartite, in harmony with each other:

Spirit: light principle
Soul: dark principle
Body: in the world of sense formed through the union of the light and dark principles

Nevertheless, virtue requires the possibility of vice and the experience of temptation. So Adam was tempted by Lucifer, decentering his attention onto the world. He was tempted to experience the pairs of opposites, thus disturbing his previous state of Equilibrium. This was the Fall into duality: the experience of each side of light and dark in isolation.

Hence, our task to reconcile these opposing principles. Unlike Lucifer’s Fall, Adam did not really wish to oppose God, but merely to experience earthly pleasures. Therein lies the clue to the way back.

[Anonymous No.14464071]

>>14464069
Originally, Adam was a dual unity, including Eve. Boehme describes Adam-Eve like this:

Adam was a man and also a woman, and yet neither of them distinct, but a virgin full of chastity, modesty, and purity, namely the image of God.

When Adam’s attention was enticed by the world, Eve (the feminine part of his nature) prompted him to separate. Noting that the animals were male and female, he/they were overcome with desire to copulate like mammals.

Adam’s deep sleep refers to his forgetfulness of the angelic world; he then awoke in the external world, separated from Eve. He lost the unitive consciousness in dualistic thinking. They ate the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, becoming subject to death, decay, and corruption. Now part of the sidereal universe (i.e., under the stars), they lost awareness of anything higher.

Because of Lucifer and Adam, even nature has become gross. In the world there is a mixture or alternation of the two principles of the Dark and the Light. There are storms and beautiful weather; poisonous plants and delicious fruit; savage beasts and noble animals. Curse, decay, corruption, and death struggle with blessing, health, and life.

Man has sunk to the animal plane of existence, tending towards the bestial. His inner disposition is like the animals. Man must extirpate these instincts to become wholly human, and restore the image of God. Adam should have restored creation to order, following the fall of Lucifer. Unfortunately, he is unable to bring the opposing forces into Equilibrium. Christ, the second Adam, re-establishes man in his primal dignity as Lord of Creation.

[Anonymous No.14464076]

>>14464071
Jesus was a Divine Human Being with the essence of both God and Mary; he combined the highest part of the masculine (forcefulness) with the best attributes of the feminine character (tenderness). Christ is the Son of Virgin Mary, but also of the Heavenly Virgin who united herself with Mary.

Whereas Adam fixed his imagination on the lower world, Jesus fixed his imagination wholly upon the Father subjecting the lower principle to the higher, re-establishing equilibrium. The resurrection body is paradisiacal body, which eventually disappeared (ascended to Heaven). Heaven is not a distinct place, but interpenetrates the physical universe. This is hidden from normal sight.

Regeneration by the Holy Spirit is required for Equilibrium. This requires and inward transformation, not just an historical faith in Jesus. Man must forsake the principles of Darkness and the world (lust and appetites). The Light principle was lost through Adam but regained with Christ. Prayer is the means to soar above the center of nature. Will and desire become one. It is necessary to be in harmony with the Divine Will, and then conscious union and knowledge of God.

On earth, the soul is already either in heaven or hell. So it does not “go” anywhere after death, yet the soul is fixed at the moment of death and cannot be changed. However, souls in a half-regenerate condition can ultimately reach heaven after a period of purgation.

Creation was the act of the Father, the Incarnation was the act of the Son, Holy Spirit will bring about the end of the world. This will bring about nondual awareness. This is reminiscent of Joachim of Fiore.

[Anonymous No.14464085]

>>14464076
Wolfgang Smith, then, interprets Boehme’s theosophy in a nondual way. Christ is the Incarnate God who reveals himself. This happens on several levels:

On the plane of eternal nature as the summation of the septenary cycle
On the plane of human history as Jesus of Nazareth
God becomes incarnate in all who are born in Christ

The first is creative and the second is redemptive, i.e., the restoration of a state which had been lost. Man and cosmos are in flux, a “kind of samsara”, which will have its fulfilment in the Kingdom of God.

Smith concludes this chapter with three questions:

Does Boehme’s doctrine differ from the Kabbalah?
Is it Trinitarian?
Is it Nondualist?

The answer to the first question is a qualified Yes, with some adjustments. But what is more interesting it the idea of a Trinitarian Nondualism, which Smith will develop more fully in the final two chapters on Meister Eckhart. Specifically, Deliverance is not a matter of just knowing the transcendent Father, but of knowing both the Father and the Christ. This is one act of knowing, not two, and is incarnational as well as transcendent. The Mystical Union is the Supreme Identity or, as Boehme describes it:

What is void of will is one with the Ungrund … which is God himself.

[Anonymous No.14464094]

>>14464085
I’ve avoided discussing what is most discussed: e.g., the life and sanctity of Boehme, his siddhis, the sources of his doctrines, or whether they are heterodox. Ultimately, they need to be comprehended, if at all, internally, in one’s conscious life.

This is clearly difficult because of the falls of Lucifer and Adam. We have lost our birthright gift of understanding transcendence due to our attachment to the glamor of the world process. These are some exercises in conscious awareness that you can try at home.

Lucifer exchanged an intellect centered on God to one centered on the world. Cunning, guile, idle curiosity, and the like, replaced genuine creativity. See The Intellectual Center for the distinction between the higher and lower functions of the intellect.
Adam rejected a vision of wholeness for dualist knowledge and attachment to the natural world. He entered a world of Strife instead of one of Love, all the while assuming he can somehow remain on the “pleasant” side of duality.
In that state, it is assumed that only the physical world exists and all problems have a scientific or material solution. The very idea of a quest for higher consciousness is rejected.
By his attachment to sexual reproduction and its ersatz simulations, he finds it difficult to refocus attention upwards. The same sexual energy could be used to achieve the original wholeness, or alchemical marriage, or even like Dante and Beatrice, to achieve the mystical union.

These aspects of consciousness need to be experienced personally. Unless there is an awareness of being in a fallen state, then the very idea of redemption makes no sense.

[Anonymous No.14464134]

>>14464043
based shoemakerposter. i read aurora but didn't understand a fucking word of it.

[Anonymous No.14464139]

is this thread worth reading?

[Anonymous No.14464143]

>>14464043
>>14464054
>>14464057
>>14464065
>>14464069
>>14464071
>>14464076
>>14464085
>>14464094
>The phenomenon of dwelling was one research theme in architectural phenomenology. Much of the way it was understood in architecture was shaped by the later thought of Martin Heidegger as set in his influential essay: "Building Dwelling Thinking." He links dwelling to what he refers as the "gathering of the fourfold," namely the regions of being as entailed by the phenomena of: "the saving of earth, the reception of sky (heavens), the initiation of mortals into their death, and the awaiting/remembering of divinities." The essence of dwelling is not architectural, per se, in the same manner that the essence of technology for him is not technological per se.

[Anonymous No.14464252]

Excellent. Conveyed eloquently what I’ve always thought myself about unknown and known/unqualified and qualified God.
Is there any essential secondary lit on Boehme?

[Anonymous No.14464328]

>>14464139
yes

[Anonymous No.14464423]

>>14464054
Shiva isn't evil, but is the higher form of destruction, with cause.

[Anonymous No.14464677]

>>14464252
Berdyaev.

http://www.berdyaev.com/berdiaev/berd_lib/1930_349.html

[Anonymous No.14464919]

>>14464043
>Obviously, this should not be understood temporally, since it is all prior to time itself.
Wouldn't it be right to call it simultaneous with time itself?

[Anonymous No.14465000]

>>14464043
heresy

[Anonymous No.14465002]

>>14464054
>Fire, Wrath, Law, Dark Principle, latent and unmanifest (non-being)
Do you say non-being as in it is an essential essence of its character and simultaneous with it, or the baseline state for it within God is non-being, and non-being a category which it might fall under?

[Anonymous No.14465057]

>>14464065
>the Created Universe is outside and apart from God
hol' up

I think at this point one should add a Heraclitean, Aristotlist Schelling-esque philosophy to the mix.

[Anonymous No.14465076]

>>14464071
>implying storms aren't based

[Anonymous No.14465100]

>>14464139
Yes but the guy looses his way after the first two posts, often missing the simple truth by a necessarily complexified justification for something else.

Best thing to do would be interpret the thread by Plato's Theaetetus and the conscious/unconscious/collective unconscious, and take away the sacredness of being.

[Anonymous No.14465131]

>>14464043
These guys never get it right. There's no justification for any of it, especially in this case (1)why The Will would desire to become manifest at all, obviously the most important part of this.
(2) the fallacy that comes whenever someone tries to enumerate in philosophy: why is there seven properties, how do you know you didn't miss one, or that two of them are actually different aspects of the same one? What's the significance of 7?
Plus, they always talk about nonbeing (retroactively refuted by Parmenides).
I stopped reading after the second post. It's like these guys all grasp a small part of the nature of polarity and just run wild with it like children. baka

[Anonymous No.14465137]

>>14465131
and for anyone who's gonna say
>it's not justified you have to intuit it brah
I know, I have, and my version makes a hell of a lot more sense than this

[Anonymous No.14465179]

>>14465131
>Plus, they always talk about nonbeing (retroactively refuted by Parmenides).

he didn't refute shit, he just didn't talk about it. read stanley rosen.

[Anonymous No.14465240]

>>14465131
>>14465137
>taking it literally
>"all of the world's great geniuses were just stupid, but me, I get it completely right after thousands of years"
You're a brainlet who can't receive the value of it, obviously reflective of an essence within the framework of human movement as seen within>>14464143 , what Jung would call the archetypal image in the presentation of archetypes as such, a necessary image which is not necessarily presenting as much as simultaneous in this essence of experience known by experience.

In this case your intuition is at be representative of your own subjectivity.

[Anonymous No.14465246]

>>14465131
>>14465137
>>14465240
oh, and read Plato.

[Anonymous No.14465305]

>>14465179
Because it's not worth talking about since it is no thing, and you can only think about/talk about/be conscious of things
>>14465240
>all of the world's greatest geniuses
>shitty theologians like Boehme and Guenon
I already get your point with the rest of your post, but the OP and similar writing clearly miss the mark. Not saying I've got it completely right, but I can notice when it is wrong
>>14465246
lol I've read way more Plato than you

[Anonymous No.14465340]

>>14465305
Alright I don't really see that much value in Guenon, but Boehme? I think it's obvious even from the little writing in this thread that he has much value.

>Not saying I've got it completely right, but I can notice when it is wrong
Alright fair enough but could you explain how he is wrong in comparison to your formulations? To provide equal footing for both.

>lol I've read way more Plato than you
You feel the need to boast when we both have most likely read all of Plato's works? I don't see how you cannot look through this thread in terms of the Theaetetus.

[Anonymous No.14465385]

>>14465340
>could you explain how he is wrong in comparison to your formulations
I don't care to draw out the criticisms much beyond my original post. He falls to the same fallacies that all religious dogma does (although he is sincere): overcomplications, loose syncretizing, fallacies, and lack of reasoning. Besides being a good expression of Western esotericism, I don't see how this is more valuable than something like Mormonism.
>I don't see how you cannot look through this thread in terms of the Theaetetus.
That would be naive. Yes the Theaetetus is the source and heart of Western esotericism, which is what you see in this, but this is inspired and synthesized from many other sources.

[Anonymous No.14465424]

>>14464043

schelling does this stuff best

[Anonymous No.14465465]

Sounds kinda shitty, "cosmological" poetry at the expense of Reason.

[Anonymous No.14465817]

>>14465385
>Besides being a good expression of Western esotericism, I don't see how this is more valuable than something like Mormonism.
Anon please, be reasonable, don't be a fedora. You have read him haven't you?

>That would be naive. Yes the Theaetetus is the source and heart of Western esotericism, which is what you see in this, but this is inspired and synthesized from many other sources.
No but I'm saying don't you see the same value in this as in Plato's Theaetetus? They're really the same concept just extrapolated in a given direction. And that direction makes it different from Theaetetus I admit, but no so much as to not have a value in that difference or from the advancement of Theaetetus' ideas.

So you really think Boehme's "theology" is nothing more than an artificial production of no meaningful relevance to us like Mormonism is? You don't usually "get" the occult straight away until applying the necessary, learned, ideas. But I guess some people just don't have an interest in it.

[Anonymous No.14465875]

>There are Nine Light Crystal Eggs of Being and Nine Dark Crystal Eggs of Non-Being. One Light Egg and One Dark Egg from each Ennead is paired, produces Ordered and Chaotic byproducts, egg-fragments. There are Eighty One egg-fragments which form the different aspects and dimensions of reality.

What is the point of anthropomorphizing aspects of an ineffable experience in this way when it explains nothing, and it's either you experience the transcendental yourself already so there's no need or you don't and you won't get it?

[Anonymous No.14465930]

>>14465875
>he doesn't see the numbers