The Signature of All Things

"'It is not to be thought that the life of darkness is sunk in misery and lost as if in sorrow. There is no sorrowing. For sorrowing is a thing swallowed up in death, and death and dying are the very life of the darkness.' Jacob Boehme's mystical pantheism and dialectical conception of God - in which good and evil are rooted in one and the same being - soon brought him into conflict with Lutheran orthodoxy. It is in 'The Signature of all Things' (Signatura Rerum) that the tenets of Boehme's theosophy are related in their greatest detail. Casting the reader into the vortex of his cosmological universe, Boehme's endeavour to express a new sense of the human, divine and natural realms attains its apotheosis in his conception of the Ungrund, the uncertainty that precedes the divine will's arousing itself to self-awareness. Challenging and rewarding in equal measure, this is a profound text, deeply influential upon devotional writers such as William Law, visionaries such as William Blake (informing The Marriage of Heaven and Hell) and, more recently, upon cultural production as diverse as the psychology of Carl Jung and Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy."

Table of Contents:
Preface to the Reader by Clifford BaxI. 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

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.

Review :
"We had great expectations about J. Boheme's work and the discussions arisen around it: 'The first German philosopher', Hegel claimed." Dialogo Filosofico vol III, issue 14, September/December "We had great expectations about J. Boheme's work and the discussions arisen around it: 'The first German philosopher', Hegel claimed"Dialogo Filosofico vol III, issue 14, September/December "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." -Michael Northcott, The Expository Times, Vol. 127, No. 2, November 2015