The Signature of All Things

by Jacob Boehme

Overview

Jakob Bohme (also spelled Jacob Boehme), was a German mystic and theologian who lived during the 16th and 17th centuries. De Signatura Rerum (The Signature of All Things), was written in 1621 and is considered his greatest work. From the preface: "THIS book is a true mystical mirror of the highest wisdom. The best treasure that a man can attain unto in this world is true knowledge; even the knowledge of himself: For man is the great mystery of God, the microcosm, or the complete abridgment of the whole universe: He is the mirandum Dei opus, God's masterpiece, a living emblem and hieroglyphic of eternity and time; and therefore to know whence he is, and what his temporal and eternal being and well-being are, must needs be that ONE necessary thing, to which all our chief study should aim, and in comparison of which all the wealth of this world is but dross, and a loss to us."

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9788829567973
Publisher:	Blackmore Dennett
Publication date:	12/05/2018
Sold by:	StreetLib SRL
Format:	eBook
File size:	624 KB

About the Author

Jacob Boehme (1575 - 1624) was a German Christian mystic and theologian of the Lutheran tradition. Boehme's view of a universe where a creative and destructive principle are in conflict was later repurposed by Hegel as the dialectic. Newton, Nietzsche, the Quaker George Fox, and even Phillip K. Dick have all been cited as being influenced by Boehme.

Table of Contents

Preface to the Reader by Clifford Bax
I. How that all whatever is spoken of God without the Knowledge of the Signature is dumb and without Understanding, and that in the Mind of Man the Signature lies very exactly composed, according to the Being of all Beings
II. Of the Opposition and Combat in the Essence of all Essences, whereby the Ground of the Sympathy and Antipathy in Nature may be seen, and also the Corruption and Cure of each Thing
III. Of the great Mystery of all Beings
IV. Of the Birth of the four Elements and Stars, in the metalline and creaturely Property
V. Of the Sulphurean Death, and how the dead Body is revived and replaced into its first Glory or Holiness
VI. How a Water and Oil is generated; and of the Difference of the Water and Oil, and of the vegetable Life and Growth
VII. How Adam (while he was in Paradise) and also Lucifer were glorious Angels, and how they were corrupted and spoiled through Imagination and Pride
VIII. Of the Sulphurean Sude, or Seething of the Earth; how the Vegetation proceeds from the Earth; and also the Difference of Sex, and various Kinds of Creatures; an open Gate for the searching Philosopher
IX. Of the Signature, shewing how the inward [Ens] signs the outward
X. Of the inward and outward Cure of Man
XI. Of the Process of Christ in his Suffering, Dying, and Rising again: Of the Wonder of the Sixth Kingdom in the Mother of all Beings; how the Consummatum Est was finished, and how likewise, by way of Similitude, it is accomplished and effected in the Grand Philosophic Work, or Universal Tincture
XII. Of the Seventh Form in the Kingdom of the Mother; shewing how the Seventh Kingdom, viz. the Solar Kingdom is again opened and revived, set forth in the Similitude of Christ's Resurrection
XIII. Of the Enmity [contrary Will or annoying Distemper] of the Spirit and Body, and of their Cure and Restoration
XIV. Of the Wheel of Sulphur, Mercury, and Salt; of the Generation of Good and Evil: how the one is changed into the other, and how the one manifests its Property in the other, and yet remains in the first Creation in the Wonder of God to his own Manifestation and Glory
XV. Of the Will of the great Mystery in Good and Evil; how a good and evil Will originally arises, and how the one introduces itself into the other
XVI. Of the Eternal Signature and Heavenly Joy; why all Things were brought into Evil and Good; wherein the real Ground of Election and Reprobation may be rightly understood
Of the Supersensual Life: Two Dialogues between a Scholar or Disciple and his Master -
Dialogue I.
Dialogue II.
The Way from Darkness to True Illumination: A Discourse between a Soul Hungry and Thirsty and a Soul Enlightened

Editorial Reviews

Boehme’s text was an important influence on modern accounts of the relation of God as Trinity to the cosmos, creation or ‘nature’, including those of Hegel, William Blake and Alfred North Whitehead. The reissue of the Elliston English translation as revised by William Law is therefore a welcome new book from Lutterworth Press.

Vol. 127, No. 2, November 2015 - Michael Northcott