Of the Threefold Life

27. Of the condition in the dark nature: darkness longs for the light.

27. So we must now speak of the conditions in the astringent original: "ampere," meaning sour, sharp, or contracting dark nature. For we understand that the darkness has a longing for the light, which stands eternally against it, but in another principle original: "principio" Note this, just as with Lazarus and the rich man, where there was a great chasm between them.

28. Of the first two conditions, the astringent and the bitter: the origin of all being, the eternal will in its mother.

28. For the two conditions, being the astringent and the prickly bitterness, are the origin of all being: and the eternal will is the Mother in which they are born. And it is for us to know that the astringency or the pulling together, by taking hold of the willing, continuously pulls at itself. This pulling is the sting of movement, which the astringency cannot well tolerate: for the contraction desires the astringent, severe enclosure in death: and the prickly bitterness is the closer, and yet in itself there would be nothing without the will.

29. Astringency and bitterness together are an eternal bond which makes itself.

29. Now, as the astringency pulls so severely, it cannot tolerate the sting which is the astringency's own pulling, but moves it even more powerfully. And the astringency or the sharp contraction also cannot tolerate the movement, for it desires still death. Thus, this very thing is a chain and bond which continuously makes itself and has no maker.

30. From where the breaking and woe arise.

30. Now, as this goes so swiftly into one another like a quick thought, the sting wants to escape from the astringency or the contraction and yet cannot, for the astringency bears and also holds it. And because it cannot overcome it or because the sting cannot raise or loosen itself, it becomes turning like a wheel, and thus divides or scatters the attracted astringency, and creates a continuous confusion and mingling, in which the breaking, or woe, exists. Although here there is no feeling, but only the condition of nature: and we understand feeling in this, and yet it is not there: for it is no material, but the origin of the spirit or eternal nature in the eternal will.

31. From where the plurality of essences arises: why the first will takes on, or bears, another will: and falls into great anguish.

31. For the astringent desire pulls and creates a piercing: thus it divides or scatters the bitterness in the turning wheel, so that the plurality of the essences original: "essentien," the active powers or fundamental qualities arises. It is like a madness, or, to use a comparison, a confusion of the eternal movability, a cause of the essences. The eternal will must suffer or endure this in itself, therefore it takes to itself another will to escape from this wheel, and yet it cannot, for it is its own being. And while it cannot, and [since it] also cannot leave its eternal desiring and longing,

[Of the Threefold Life] of Man.

it still holds and pulls at itself; so that the essences are thus continuously born, and yet outside of the desiring are a nothing. And thus the entire three conditions stand in the sound or in the giving of a noise, and are named Mar Böhme likely refers to the root of "Marter" (anguish/torment), "Mare" (sea/bitterness), and "Maria". And as the will then cannot be free, it falls into great anguish (to speak in a human way, so that the reader may understand the sense and the depth).

32. What the will, the counter-will, and the desire are, or what they make.

32. For the will is the acceptance, and that which is accepted in the will is its darkness. The desiring is the essence original: "essentia", and the counter-will is the wheel of the multiplicity of the essences, so that no number is found therein, but according to the movability, there is a multitude. These two conditions are the eternal essences, and the eternal bond, which makes itself and can do nothing else.

33. How the great wisdom desires the narrow, and how there must be a counter-will: nothing is nothing, neither darkness, light, life, nor death.

33. For the great wisdom without end desires the narrow and an inclusion or taking-in in which it may reveal or show itself: for in the vastness and stillness, there would be no revelation. So there must be a pulling and enclosing from which the revelation appears. Also, there must be a counter-will, for a pure still will is like a nothing and bears nothing. But if a will is to bear, it must be in something where it forms and can bear in the thing: for nothing is nothing, but [it is] an eternal silence without movement, where there is neither darkness nor light, neither life nor death.

34. Light and darkness, an eternal moving and forming, are without end: the Angelic world is not outside this place.

34. Since we clearly acknowledge that there is light and darkness, as well as an eternal moving and forming, which may not only be in the place original: "loco" of this world as far as our senses reach, but without end and number, where the Angelic world appears purely, and yet not in the enclosure of the darkness; so it is that we must raise our senses toward the Angelic world, which is yet not outside this place, but [it is] in another property and in the eternal light. And where no light could be, there must then be a Womb.

35. The Womb is a darkness: the birth of the eternal being.

35. If it is to appear out of the Womb, then it must go out of the Womb. For the Womb is a darkness, and yet it would also be nothing if the eternal Word which the eternal will creates or makes did not stand there. And in the creating is the birth of the eternal being. Of which John said: original: "In den beginne was het Woordt, 't selvighe was in den beginne by Godt, alle dinghen zijn door 't selvighe gemaeckt, &c." In the beginning was the Word, the same was in the beginning with God, all things are made through the same, etc.

36. An address to the mind.

36. Consider here, my dear mind, from where light and darkness come, as well as joy and sorrow, love and enmity;