Commentary on Genesis (Mysterium Magnum)

something / or near to something / He is through all and in all: His birth is everywhere / and without Him there is nothing else: He is time and eternity / ground and abyss / and yet nothing grasps Him but the true understanding / which is GOD Himself.

The 2nd Chapter.

Concerning the Word or Heart of GOD.

1. This is now what St. John says in the 1st Chapter: In the beginning was the Word / and the Word was with GOD / and GOD was the Word / the same was in the beginning with GOD. The (Word) (In) is the will of the Ungrund abyss: (Beginning) is the grasping of the will / where it grasps itself / and leads itself into an eternal beginning. The (Word) is now that which is grasped, which in the will is a nothing / and with the grasping becomes a begetting / that was in the beginning with the will and in the will: But with the will’s delight it takes its beginning in the will’s grasping / therefore it is called heart as a Centrum center or life-circle / therein the primordial state of eternal life is.

2. And John says further: Through the same all things are made / and without the same is nothing made / that is made. In Him was the life / and the life was the light of men. Here, man, take now the same life-light / that was in the Word / and is eternal / and behold the being of all beings / and especially yourself / because you are the image / life / and being of the ungrounded GOD / and a likeness after Him. Here consider time and eternity / heaven / hell / and world / light and darkness / pain and torment / life and death / something and nothing: Here test yourself / whether you have the life and light of the Word in you / that you may see and understand all things. For your life has been in the Word / and has become manifest in the image (that GOD created): It has been breathed into it by the spirit of the Word: Now lift up your understanding in the light of your life / and behold the formed Word: Consider its inner begetting / for in the light of life everything stands manifest.

3. If you say I cannot / I am corrupted: Listen / then you are also not yet born again out of GOD: Otherwise, if you had the same light again / you could. Now well then / we indeed all lack the glory / which we ought to have in GOD / but