HEGEL ON JACOB BOEHME

Por Hegel

[TRANSLATED FROM  HEGEL'S  HISTORY  OF  PHILOSOPHY,  BY  EDWIN  D.  MEAD.]

I.

From  Lord  Bacon,  the English lord  chancellor,  and  the chief leader  of all  external, sensuous philosophizing, we  turn  to  the Philosophus  Teutonicus,  as  he was  called,  to  the  shoemaker  of Lusatia – a man  of whom  we  Germans  need  not  be  ashamed. It was, indeed, through him that philosophy first appeared in Germany with a distinctive German character.  He  stands  in the directly  opposite extreme  to Bacon,  and  was  called  Theosophus  Teotonicus,  even  as formerly  Mysticism was  called Philosophia  Teutonica.

This  Jacob  Boehme  was long  forgotten, and was  decried  as  a pietistic  visionary. The period of enlightenment, especially, limited the number of his students.  Even  Leibnitz  esteemed  him highly; but  not  until  more  recent  times  has  he again been duly  honored,  and  has  the profundity of  his thought  again become acknowledged. It  is  certain  that,  on the  one  hand,  he  does  not  deserve  that  old contempt;  but neither,  on  the other  hand,  is he entitled  to  that high honor  to which  the present has sought to elevate  him.  To call him a visionary signifies nothing. If one pleases, one  can  call every philosopher  so,  including  Epicurus and  Bacon; for even  these have  held  that man  has  his  true reality in something other  than eating and drinking, or  the every-day life of hewing  wood,  or making  clothes,  or buying and selling.

As  to  the high honor to which  Boehme  has  been  elevated,  he  owes  it especially to his  form  of contemplation and  sentiment;  for contemplation and  inward feeling,  praying and longing, the figurative  style of thinking,  allegorizing, and  the  like, are  held by some  to  be the genuine form of philosophy. But it is only in the idea, in thought, that philosophy has its truth – that  the  absolute  can be expressed, or  that  indeed  it is,  as  it  is  in  itself.  On this side Boehme  is  a perfect barbarian – a man nevertheless, who,  along with  his  crude  mode  of representation,  possesses a concrete,  deep heart.  Since  he  has  no method, or order,  it is difficult  to give a presentation of his philosophy.

Jacob  Boehme  was  born  in  1575,  in Old Seidenberg, near Goerlitz,  in Upper Lusatia.  His parents were poor peasants, and in his boyhood he herded cattle.  He was brought up in Lutheranism, to which he always adhered.  The biography which accompanies his work was written by a clergyman, who knew him personally. We find much in this biography concerning the various agitations  through which  he  arrived  at deeper  perception. Even  as  a  herdsman  on  the  pastures, as he  relates  of  himself,  he  had  most  wonderful  visions.  The first wonderful  vision  came  to him  in a thicket,  in which  he saw  a  cavern  and  a  box  of money.  Startled this splendor, he was inwardly awakened out of dull stupidity; but the vision did not reappear. He was afterwards apprenticed to a shoemaker.  It was chiefly  through the  text (Luke  XI, 13), “Your Father in Heaven shall give the Holy Spirit to them that  ask Him”, that he was roused to the thought that  in order to know the truth he should, in simplicity of spirit, earnestly and continually pray, seek  and  knock, until he, then on his wanderings with  his master, should, through the passing of  the Father  into the Son according to  the Spirit, be carried over into the holy Sabbath and glorious day of rest of souls, and that thus his prayer should be answered. Thereupon (according to his own account,) he “was surrounded with  divine light, and  remained  for  seven days in the highest divine  contemplation and fulness of joy”. His  master  dismissed  him on  this account,  with  the  remark  that  he  could  not  afford  to keep a prophet with  him.  After  this  he  lived  in Goerlitz. In  1594  he  became  a master  shoemaker,  and  married.  Later, “in the  year  1600,  in  the twenty-fifth  year of  his age”, the light  appeared to him again in  a  second  vision,  of  the  same sort  as  the  first. According to  his  own  account,  he  saw  a brightly  polished  pewter vessel  in the  chamber,  and “through the  sudden sight of the lovely,  jovial lustre” of  the metal,  he was  conducted (in a fit of abstraction,  and  in the  entrancement of  his  astral spirit) “to  the  central point of  secret  Nature”, and  into the  light  of the Divine  Being. “He  went  out  before the gate and  into the fields,  in order to drive  this vision out of his head, and yet he experienced the feeling none the  less, but rather longer, stronger, and  clearer;  so that,  by means  of the imparted signs or figures, outlines  and  colors,  he  could,  as  it were, see into the heart and innermost  nature  of  all things (which  position, so strongly forced upon him, he also maintains and glorifies in his book De Signatura  Rerum), on  account  of which he overflowed  with great joy, thanked  God, and  turned peacefully to his domestic  affairs”.  Later he wrote many works.  He  remained  in Goerlitz,  working at  his trade,  and  there,  in  1624,  he  died.

His  works  have  received special  attention  from  the Dutch, and  therefore  most  of  the  editions  have  been published in Amsterdam,  though  reprinted in Hamburg. His  first work was  the “Aurora”; or, “The Morning Red  in  its Rising”, which was followed by many others; that  entitled “On  the Three Principles”, and  another, “On  the Threefold Life  of Man”, are among those  which  are  worthiest  of  attention. Boehme constantly read the Bible. What other works he read is not known. Very  many  points in his works  prove,  however, that  he  had  read  much,  and especially  mystic,  theosophic, and alchemistic writings; partly, at any  rate,  the works  of Theophrastus Paracelsus  Bombastus,  of Hohenheim – a philosopher of something the  same  sort  as Boehme  himself,  but  peculiarly diffuse  in his writings, and  without  Boehme’s deep feeling. Boehme  was  often persecuted  by the clergy, but  he caused  less  sensation  in Germany than  in Holland  and England,  where  his  works  have  been published in many  forms. His writings make  a strange  impression  upon  the  reader,  and one  must  be  familiar  with  his  ideas  in  order  to  find  the  true meaning in the exceedingly confused  form  of  their expression.

The  content  of Jacob  Boehme’s philosophizing is thoroughly German;  for  that  which distinguishes him  and  makes  him worthy of  attention  is  the  Protestant principle,  already referred  to,  of placing the  intellectual  world  in  the  individual mind – of viewing, and knowing, and  of feeling in the  self consciousness  that which  before  was regarded as  external.  The general idea  of Boehme's  shows  itself thus, on  the  one  hand, deep and  fundamental; on  the  other  hand,  however,  he does not,  with  all  his  desire  and struggle after  determination  and distinction  in  the  universe,  arrive  at  clearness  and  order. There is no coherent system, but the greatest confusion in his distinctions even in  his  “Table”,  wherein  three  numbers appear:

I.

What  God  is, apart  from Nature  and Creation.

II.

Separableness,

God  in Love.

Mysterium Magnum

The  I. Principium, God  in Wrath.

III.

God  in Wrath  and Love.

There  is  no positive determination  of moments  here; we only have  the  sense  of struggle;  now  it is this  distinction,  and now  that, which  is  laid  down; and  as  the  distinctions  are separately referred  to,  they run  one  into  another.

The  manner  and  method  of his presentation  must,  therefore, be  called  barbaric.  The  modes  of expression in his  works prove  this; as when,  for  instance,  he speaks of  the  divine salitter,  the mercurius,  and  so  forth.  As  Boehme places the life,  the movement  of  absolute Being, in  the  soul,  so  he  also views  all conceptions in an actuality; or  he  uses  actualities  as conceptions  (that  is, natural things and  sensible qualities arbitrarily, instead  of definitions) to represent his  ideas.  For  instance,  sulphur and  the  like  mean,  with  him,  not  the things that we  so  name,  but  their  essence; or  a  certain conception has  this specific form  of reality. Boehme is most deeply interested in the  idea,  and struggles  sorely with  it.  The  speculative  truth which  he wishes  to represent,  requires, in order  to make  himself comprehended,  essentially  thought and  the form  of thought.  Only in thought can  this unity, in whose central point his spirit  stands,  be comprehended, but  it is precisely the  form of thought which  he  lacks.  The forms which he uses are essentially no categories of thought.  They are  on the  one  side  sensible, chemical determinations;  such qualities as harsh,  sweet,  sour, grim; or feelings such as anger, love; or tincture,  essence,  pain, etc.  These  sensuous forms,  however, do not have with him their peculiar sensuous significance; but he  uses  them  in order  to give words  to  his thoughts. It is at once apparent how arbitrary this  mode  of presentation must be,  since only  thought is capable of unity. Thus  it  seems strangely  confusing when  we  read  of  the  bitterness  of God, of lightning, etc.  We must have the idea beforehand, and then, indeed, we may find  it figured in  these strange similes.

The  second point is  that  Boehme  uses  as  form  of  the idea  the, Christian  form,  particularly the  form  of  the Trinity, which  was  that which lay nearest  to him.  The sensuous form and the religious form of imaging, of sensuous pictures and representations, he strangely mixes together. Crude  and  barbarous  as  this  is, on  the  one  hand,  and  hard  to endure by those who  persevere  in reading Boehme  and try  firmly to  hold  his thoughts (for one's  head  is kept  whirling with “qualities”, “spirits”,  “angels”), it must nevertheless be recognized that these pictures and representations  speak out  of his reality – out of his  soul.  This rough,  deep  German  mind,  that deals with  the  innermost,  exercises,  peculiarly  indeed,  a  tremendous might and  power to use reality as  a conception,  and  to keep about  him  and  within  him  whatever  goes on  in Heaven.  As Hans  Sachs,  in  his  manner,  has represented the Lord  God, Christ,  and  the Holy Ghost  as  common  citizens  like  himself, and  has  treated  in the  same  manner  the angels and patriarchs, instead  of taking them  as bygone and  historic beings,  just so Boehme.

In  the eyes of  faith  spirit has  truth,  but  in  this  truth  the moment  of certainty is lacking. That the subject of Christianity is truth, or the spirit, we have seen.  This is given to faith as immediate truth.  But  faith has  it unconsciously, without knowledge, without knowing it  as  self-consciousness; and  since  in  self-consciousness  the thought, the  conception, is essential – Giordano Bruno’s unity of opposites – faith lacks precisely this unity. It’s moments fall apart as separate forms, particularly its highest moments the good and the evil, or God and the Devil.  God is, and so is the Devil; both are for themselves.  If  God,  however,  is  the absolute Being, the question arises:  What  absolute Being is  this  to which  all reality, and especially the  evil,  does  not appertain? Boehme is therefore compelled  partly to conduct the  soul of man to divine life, to place this  life  in  the  soul itself,  to regard the  strife as one in the soul,  and  to make  it the soul’s own work and  endeavor; and partly, for that very ground, to  show  that  the  evil  is  contained  in  the good – a problem which  also agitates our  own time.  But  as  Boehme has next got hold of  the  idea,  and  is  in  so  far  behind  in  the culture of thought, this process  appears as a fearful,  painful struggle of  his soul and consciousness with language; and  the object of  this struggle is  to  obtain the profoundest idea  of God, which may  bring together and bind in one the most absolute opposites – not, however, for thinking reason. If one may so express  it, Boehme struggles (since to him God is all) to  conceive  the negative – the  evil,  the  devil – in and  from God, to comprehend God  as  absolute; and  this struggle characterizes  his  entire writings, and  is the  travail  of  his  soul.  It is a tremendous,  wild,  crude  effort of  the  inner being to bind together  things that  in  form  and  appearance are  so  far  from one  another.  In  his strong soul Boehme brings both together, and  in that  act  breaks  to pieces all  that  immediate  appearance of reality which  both  possess.  When,  however,  he  conceives this movement,  this spiritual nature  in  itself  thus internally, the  definition  of  the moments approaches, after  all,  simply nearer  to  the  form of  self-consciousness – of  the  idea  devoid of  sensuous  form.  The  speculative  thought  stands, indeed,  in the background; but it does not come to its proper  representation. Popular crude  methods  of representation are employed; a perfect looseness  of speech  appears,  which  to  us  seems  vulgar. With  the  devil  Boehme  has especially much  to do,  and he  addresses  him  often.  “Come here”,  he  says,  “thou Black-Jack.  What wilt  thou?  I will write  for  thee  a prescription”.  Shakespeare's  Prospero, in the Tempest,  threatens  Ariel  that  he  will  cleave  an  oak  and peg him  in  the knotty entrails  for  a  thousand  years;  thus  Boehme's great soul  is pegged in  the  hard,  knotty oak  of  the sensuous, imprisoned in the knotty, hard growth of  the imagination, without being able  to  come  to  the free representation of  the  idea.

I will briefly indicate  Boehme's  main  ideas,  and  then point out  several separate forms  in which  he  revels; for he  does  not abide  in one  form,  since  neither  the  sensuous  nor  the religious suffices  him. Although he copiously  repeats  himself,  the forms  of  his main representations are  still everywhere different,  and  students  will  be  deceived  who  undertake  to give a systematic  development of Boehme's representations,  especially as they advance  in their  task.  One must expect in Boehme neither a systematic representation nor an accurate management of particulars.  One cannot speak much of his thoughts without assuming his own form of expression and quoting directly concerning particulars, for otherwise it is impossible to express his thoughts. The fundamental idea of Jacob Boehme is the struggle to maintain all things in an absolute unity. He  desires to  exhibit  the  absolute,  Divine unity, and  the  union  in God  of all  antitheses.  His main thought – one may indeed say his only thought, that  which  runs through all his works – is to conceive in all things the Holy  Trinity; to recognize all things as its revelation and representation, so that it  is the universal principle in which and through which all is; and this in this way: that all things have only this divine Trinity in themselves, not as a trinity of the imagination, but as the reality of the absolute idea. All that exists is, according to Boehme, only this Trinity; this Trinity is all. The  universe  is thus  to him  one divine  life, and a universal  revelation of God; so that from the one essence  of God, the source of all powers and qualities,  the  Son  is eternally born – the Son who is manifested  in those  powers;  and  the  inner unity of  this light with the  substance  of  the powers  is the spirit. The representation is no darker, now clearer. What  follows  is  the explication of  this Trinity; and here especially  appear  the  various  forms which  he uses to denote the distinction which occurs in the Trinity.

In  the  “Aurora”,  the “Root, or Mother  of Philosophy, Astrology, and Theology”, Boehme attempts a  classification, in which  he places these  sciences  side by  side,  yet without clear  distinctions,  simply  passing over  from one  to  the other. “(1.) In Philosophy he treats of the divine power, what  God is, and how, in the being of God, nature, the stars, and the elementa are made; whence all things have their origin; how heaven and  earth are made; also, angels, men, and devils, heaven and hell, and all  that is created; also, what the two qualities in nature are, in the impulse and  actions  of God. (2.) In Astrology, the  powers of  nature,  the  stars  and  the elements  are treated;  and  how  from  these  all  creatures  have proceeded; how good and  evil  are wrought,  through  them,  in men  and  animals. (3.) Under Theology he  treats  the kingdom of Christ;  how  this  is conditioned; how  it is opposed to the kingdom of  hell; also,  how  it struggles in nature  with  the kingdom of  hell”.

1.  The  First  is God,  the Father.  This  First  has  at  the  same time  a  distinction  within  itself,  and  is  the unity of  the  distinction. “God  is all”,  he says. “He  is darkness  and light, love  and anger, fire and light; but He  calls  Himself  alone  one God,  after  the light of His  love.  There  is an  eternal  contrarium  between  darkness  and light; neither  holds  the other,  and neither  is the other; and yet there  is but  one single  Being  only with  the Qual – torture – in  distinction;  so  with  the  will, there being,  however, no separable  Being.  Only one principium divides  this:  that  one  is  in the  other  as  a nothing, and nevertheless  is;  but according to  its quality, wherein  it is not manifest”. By the Qual  (“torture”) is expressed that which is  absolute, even  the  self-conscious,  felt negativity, the  self-determining  negative, which  is  therefore  absolute  affirmation. Around  this point all  of Boehme's  efforts turn;  the principle of conception is  in  him throughout  alive,  only he  cannot  express  it in the form of thought. All depends upon this:  to think the negative as simple, when it is at the same time an opposite. Thus  the  torture  is  this  inner self-opposition, and yet at  the  same  time  the simple. From  this  word Qual  (torture) Boehme  derives Quellen  [sources] – a  good play  upon  words;  for  the Qual  (torture) – this  negativity passes  into vitality,  activity   and  thus  he brings it also together with Qualitat  (quality). The absolute identity of the  different  is everywhere  present with  him.

a. Thus  Boehme  does  not represent  God  as  an empty  unity, but  as  the self-dirempting  nity of  the absolutely  opposed. The First One, the Father, has at the same time  the manner of natural existence. Concerning this, he speaks thus: that God is the simple Essence; quite like Proclus.  This simple Essence he calls the Hidden; he defines it also as the Temperamentum – that unity of differences in which all is tempered. We find, too, in this connection, much about the great salitter – now the divine, now the salitter of nature – also called salniter. When be discourses about this great salitter as of something known, one does not immediately understand what he means. It is, however, a cobbler-like murder of the words sal nitri, i.  e., saltpetre (which, in Austria, is  still  called salniter). This figures thus the neutral and truly universal Being; this is the  divine splendor. In  God  is  a splendid  nature – trees, plants, etc. “In  the divine splendor, two things are especially to  be  considered:  the  salitter,  or  the  divine  powers, which produce all  fruit,  and  the mercurius,  or  sound”.  This great salitter  is  the  unrevealed Being, even  as  the New  Platonic unity is without  self-cousciousnes,  and  so equally unknown.

b. This first substance contains all powers or qualities, as not yet differenced; so then this salitter appears as the body of God, which contains all qualities in itself. Quality is a main idea, and the first determination with Boehme; and he begins with the qualities in his work, “The Morning Red in its Rising”. With  the quality he  also  after wards brings  together  inqualiren  (inqualitize), and  there says: “Quality is the mobility, the Quallen  (pain), or  unrest of  a thing”. These qualities he  then  defines,  but  it is  an  obscure representation: “It is as  the  heat,  which  burns, consumes,  and  drives  out  all  that  comes  into  it which  is not  of  its own quality. On  the  other  hand,  it lights and warms  all  that  is cold,  wet,  and  dark,  and  makes  the soft  hard.  But  it has  two species in  itself,  namely,  light and rage”  (negativity); “the light the heart  of  the heat is  a lovely,  joyful  sight, a power  of  life, a part, or  a  source  of  the heavenly  joy; for  it makes everything in  this world  alive  and moving. All  flesh, as  well  as  all  trees,  foliage, and grass,  grow in  this world by the  power  of light, and  have  life  therein, as  in  the good. On the other hand, it possesses  rage, which  burns,  consumes, and rains.  This rage swells, drives, and uplifts itself in the light, and causes the light to move. They struggle and fight with each other in their twofold source.  The light exists  in God  without  heat,  but  it does  not  exist  in  nature;  for  in nature  all qualities are  one  in another,  according to kind  and manner. Even as God is everything, God” (the Father) “is the heart”, says Boehme.  In another place (in the work on the “Threefold Life of Man”) he says “the Son is the heart of God”. Again, the spirit is also called the heart, “or fountain of nature; from Him proceeds everything”.  Now,  heat rules  in  all  forces  of  nature,  and  warms  them  all  and  is  a source  in  all.  The light in the heat, however, gives to all qualities the power that  makes  them lovely and delightful. Boehme  enumerates  a whole  list of qualities:  cold,  hot,  bitter, sweet,  raging,  harsh,  hard,  rough  qualities,  Sound,  etc. “The  bitter quality is also  in God,  yet not  after  the  same  sort and  manner,  as gall is in man.  It is rather an eternally continuing force, a great triumphing source of joy. Out  of  these qualities all  creatures  are made,  and they come  thence  and live  therein  as  in their mother”.

“The powers of the stars are nature.  All things in this world originate from the stars.  That  I  will  prove  to  thee,  if thou  art  not  a blockhead,  and  hast  but  a  little  reason.  If one considers  the  whole curriculum, or the  entire  circle  of  the still's, one soon finds that it is the mother of all things, or nature, out of which all things have grown, and in which all things stand  and  live, and through which all things have their movement; and  all things are made out of the same forces, and continue therein eternally”.  Thus, we say, God is the reality of all realities. Boehme continues: “Thou must  here, however, lift up  thy feeling in the spirit, and consider how entirely  nature,  with all the powers which are in nature the wide, the deep, the high, Heaven, earth, and all that therein are, and that are above the Heaven – are  the body of God; and how the powers of the stars are the chief  arteries in the natural body of God in this world.  Thou  must  not  think  that in the  corpus of  the stars  the entire triumphant  Holy  Trinity – God  the Father,  Son,  and Holy Ghost –  exists.  But  this  is not  to be  thus  understood  that He  is not  at  all  in the  corpus of  the  stars  and  in  this world.  Here,  then,  is the question: Whence  does  Heaven  obtain  or  take  these  forces,  that  it produces  such mobility in  nature?  And  here  must  thou  look/above  and  outside  of  nature  into  the holy  light,  triumph ant,  divine  power – into  the unchangeable,  holy  Trinity, which  is  a triumphant,  originating,  moving  Being; and  all powers are therein, as  in  nature.  Therefrom  have  Heaven, earth,  stars,  elementa,  devils,  angels,  men,  animals,  and every thing  risen,  and  therein everything has  its  stand.  Thus  we call  Heaven  and  earth,  the  stars  and  elements,  and  all  that therein  is,  and  all  that  is  above  the  heavens – GOD;  who thus,  in these  many  enumerated beings, in  the  power  which proceeds from Him,  hath  made  Himself a  creature”.

c. Again, Boehme  defines  God,  the  Father, as  follows: “When,  now,  we  consider  all  nature  and  its qualities, we see the  Father;  when  we  view  he Heaven  and  the  stars,  we see His  eternal  power  and  wisdom.  Thus  many stars  twinkle under  the Heaven,  innumerable; thus great and  varied  are  the powers and  wisdom  of  God,  the  Father. Every star has its own quality. Thou  must  not,  however, “think  that every power  that  is  in the Father occupies a  certain part  and place in the Father, as  the  stars  in the Heaven.  No! But the spirit shows that all powers in the Father are in one another, as one power”. This  whole  is the  universal  power  in general, which exists  as God, the Father,  in which  the  differences  are united; but  it exists createdly as  the totality of  the  stars,  therefore  as diremption into  the different qualities. “Thou  must  not  think that God  in Heaven,  and  above  the Heaven,  stands,  as  it were, and  undulates  as  a power  and quality, which  has  no  reason and knowledge in  itself –  as  the sun, which courseth through its circle  and  sheds  from  itself warmth  and light, which bring alike  harm  and help to  the  earth  or  the creatures.  No! Thus is not the Father.  He  is  an almighty,  all-wise,  all-knowing, all-seeing,  all-hearing,  all-smelling,  all-tasting  God,  who  is  at the  same  time  in Himself gentle,  friendly,  lovely, merciful,  and joyful – yea, is joy itself”.

FONTE: HEGEL, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich. Jacob Boehme. Edwin D. Mead (trad.). In The Journal of Speculative Philosophy. vol. 13, n. 3 (July, 1879), pp. 269-280. Disponível em: <http://www.jstor.org/stable/25667761?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents>. Acesso em: 28 jun. 2015.