The Foundation

A decorative header consisting of two rows of repeating floral or solar woodcut motifs, topped with a small ornamental figure composed of three circles.

Author’s Preface to the Reader.

1. Since we now, through grace and the light of Christ, find that fallen humanity has so completely turned away from the essence of God original: "Wesen Gottes"; in this mystical context, "essence" refers to the actual substance or presence of God within the soul, rather than just an idea about God. toward earthly, pictorial things or imaginations original: "Imaginationen"; the author uses this to mean mental constructs or fantasies that distract from spiritual reality. with their earthly desires and reason—whereby they have become so blind to the working of God original: "Wirckung Gottes"; the active, transformative power of God within a person. that it is as if they had no heavenly, essential God—we have therefore been caused or moved by the essential God to testify a little concerning the inward, essential working of God (which God works through His Spirit, in a teaching manner, in obedient humanity). In contrast, we aim to reveal and make known the false working of the earthly nature, also in a teaching manner, within the heart of humanity. It is our hope that the Lord will grant His blessing and prosperity to this end, so that blind eyes might be opened a little to perceive the workings of God in the soul, and to distinguish them from the false workings of earthly reason original: "irdische Vernunfft"; for mystical writers like Hiel, "earthly reason" is the limited human intellect that tries to understand God through logic rather than through direct spiritual experience..

2. For as long as humanity does not commit its inward soul out of earthly reason and into the working of God, the senses and thoughts run through earthly reason toward the elemental, pictorial imagi-