|
The writings of Jacob Boehme are not for everybody. By that I do not mean, “They are only for spiritual giants.” I mean that they are only for those who are so thirsty for the living water (John 4) that they are not afraid to take forbidden paths in their search for the River of Life. The way of salvation is a forbidden path, and always has been – forbidden by the god of this world (2 Cor. 4:4), the rulers of this world (1 Cor. 2:6-8, Psalm 2), the wise men of the world and especially the religious leaders of the world (Luke 11:52). The Way of Life is hedged with swords. Jacob Boehme has proved a reliable guide on the straight and narrow Way that leads to life.
|
Click the respective item to read the following excerpts from the Writings of Jacob Boehme:
|
"The Clavis or '*Key*' of Jacob Boehme" -- An Exposition of Some Principal Matters and Words in the Writings of Jacob Boehme -- An excellent starting point for delving into the works of this remarkable author, so central for the Christian theosophic and mystical traditions. "But since the lovers desire a Clavis, or key of my writings, I am ready and willing to pleasure them in it, and will set down a short description of the ground of those strange words; some of which are taken from nature and sense, and some are the words of strange masters, which I have tried according to sense, and found them good and fit. I will write but a short description of the divine manifestation, yet as much as I can comprehend in brief; and expound the strange words for the better understanding of our books for the consideration and help of beginners."
Click Here to read: "Selected Quotations from Jacob Boheme, Theosophist and Servant of the Divine Spirit"
Six Mystics -- A Short Explanation Of Six Mystical Points -- Jacob Boehme -- Written In The Year 1620
Essay On, and Exerpts from, Jacob Boehme
Click Here to read: "Fundamental And True Description Of The Threefold Life In Man"
Click Here to read: "Babylon the Great", Mother of Prostitutes and of the Detestable Things of the Earth -- and the Scarlet Beast
"The Aurora ** Mysterium Magnum ** Sex Puncta Theosophica ** Sex Puncta Mystica"
"The Image of the Heavenly"
"Mysterium Pansophicum" or A Fundamental Statement Concerning the Earthly and Heavenly Mystery: How They Are In One Another, and How in the Earthly the Heavenly Is Manifested
"The Incarnation of Jesus Christ" -- CHAPTER VIII -- In What Manner God Forgives Sin, and How You Become A Child Of God
|
Click the respective item to download the following eBooks (.pdf & .exe) by Jacob Boehme:
|
You may purchase a number of Jacob Boehme's books, in hard and soft
cover format, for reasonable prices, at the following link: [  ].
Download "The Time of the Lily" [ Here ] - This book begins with selections from the easiest of JB's writings and goes progressively deeper. It will prove especially to those who are new to Boehme or have tried his more recondite writings and found them difficult.
Please click [ Here ] to download your FREE copy of the eBook (.pdf) - "The Epistles of Jacob Behmen" -- Very useful and necessary for those that read his Writings, and is very full of excellent and plain Instructions on how to attaine to The Life Of Christ.
Here are the complete photocopied texts of the four volume set of Jacob Boehme's works known as the "William Law Edition", published 1764. ** BOOK 1 ** BOOK 2 ** BOOK 3 ** BOOK 4 ** (Note: These are LARGE files - over 60 MB each)
Please click [ Here ] to download your FREE copy of the eBook - "The Collected Works of Jacob Boehme"
Please click [ Here ] to download your FREE copy of the eBook (.pdf) - "The Way to Christ" -- Jakob Boehme was an important influence on later theologians, philosophers, and artists. The Way to Christ brings together several of his works, namely, Of True Repentance, Of Regeneration, Of True Resignation, and The Super Sensual Life. Boehme's works resist the typical mold. He is clearly a Christian mystic, yet his views seem to borrow many ideas from other mystical traditions as well, some of which are not theistic. However, The Way to Christ still provides an insightful edification for the spiritual life. Although Boehme's prose is difficult, it is richly rewarding. Written in short sections, The Way to Christ can provide instructive direction for one's spirituality.
Please click [ Here ] to download your FREE copy of the eBook (.pdf) - "Forty Questions of the Soul" -- Jacob Boehme wrote this answer to these questions, chiefly for his friend�s sake that sent them to him, as also for the benefit of all such as love the knowledge of Mysteries. This friend of his was Dr Balthasar Walter, who travelled for learning and hidden wisdom, and in his return home, happened to hear of this author in the city of G�rlitz; and when he had obtained acquaintance with him, he rejoiced, that at last he had found at home, that which he had travelled for so far, and not received satisfaction. He then went to the several universities in Germany, and did there collect such questions concerning the soul, as were thought and accounted impossible to be resolved fundamentally and convincingly; which he made this catalogue of, and sent to this author, from whom he received these answers.
Please click [ Here ] to download your FREE copy of the eBook (.pdf) - "The Incarnation of Jesus Christ"
Click Here to read: "Four Tables of Divine Revelation".
Jacob Boehme's "Mysterium Magnum" -- Part One and Part Two. This was his last great book before his death. It contains an explanation of the allegories found in Genesis. From the alphabetical list of topics, names and places appended, one can see how much ground Jacob Boehme has covered.
"We will enlarge this exposition through all the chapters of the first Book of Moses; and signify how the Old Testament is a figure of the New: what is to be understood by the deeds of the holy patriarchs: wherefore the spirit of God did give them to be set down in Moses: and at what the figures of these written histories do look, and aim; and how the spirit of God in his children before the times of Christ did allude with them in the figure concerning the kingdom of Christ; whereby then God has always represented this mercy�seat [or throne of grace] Christ: by whom he would blot out his anger and manifest his grace." ** Jacob Boehme
|
The following four works are considered to be the MAJOR writings of Jacob Boehme, written in the order listed. "Aurora" is his LEAST developed book (and also perhaps the HARDEST to read). Over the following years, the revelations that he was given became clarified and matured, and he grew better able to express them into words.
Please click [ Here ] to download your FREE copy of the eBook (.pdf) - "Aurora the Day-Spring Or Dawning Of the Day In the East" -- 1612
Please click [ Here ] to download your FREE copy of the eBook (.pdf) - "An Alphabetical Table Of The Three Principles"
Please click [ Here ] to download your FREE copy of the eBook (.pdf) - "The Three Principles Of The Divine Essence" -- 1618-19
Please click [ Here ] to read an "Introduction to Boehme's Threefold Life of Man" --- By George W. Allen"
Please click [ Here ] to download your FREE copy of the eBook (.pdf) - "The Threefold Life of Man" -- 1620
Please click [ Here ] to download your FREE copy of the eBook - "The Signature Of All Things" -- 1621
|
|
Click the respective item to read the following eBooks and Essays ABOUT Jacob Boehme:
|
Buy your INEXPENSIVE books at one of these sites: Amazon, Alibris, Abebooks.
Read: "The Key of Jacob Boehme, & The Confessions of Jacob Boehme": with an Introduction by Evelyn Underhill -- Acknowledged as one of the greatest of the western mystics, Jacob Boehme was born in 1575 at Old Seidenberg, a small village in Silesia. A shoemaker by trade, Boehme's whole life was spent in contemplation and prayer, seeking spiritual enlightenment. He was rewarded with piercing visions of God and the nature of reality, revelations which he set down in a series of books. The Clavis is perhaps the most accessible of all these tomes, a detailed, yet succinct, account of the nature of God and Creation, and of humanity�s role within the unfolding evolution of the Universe.
In 1895, the Reverend Dr. Alexander Whyte bemoaned the lack of a Boehme biography, suggesting that a compilation of the many biographic details scattered throughout his works would give the student a better insight into his thoughts and ideas. W. Scott Palmer took up the challenge and the result, "The Confessions of Jacob Boehme", serves to shine a light on the doubts and temptations that lay on the path to Boehme�s eventual enlightenment.
Read (or download) JUST, "The Confessions of Jacob Boehme"
[ Here ].
Download "Jacob Boehme -- A Lexicon of His Terminology" to help you better understand the meaning of various terms used in his writings --- [ Here ] and [ Here ].
Click Here to read: "Jacob Boehme -- "Way of Salvation" & "Boehme's Universe"---- From: "Spiritual Reformers in the 16th and 17th Centuries -- Rufus M. Jones"
Click Here to read: "On the Person-hood of the Trinity --- According to Jacob Boehme"
Click Here to read: "Jacob Boehme, The Teutonic Philosopher -- Synopsis of His Mysticism and Divine Philosophy", by W.P. Swainson
"The Essence of His Mysticism" and "Within, Not Without" -- Jacob Boehme
"Boehme For Beginners", by Cynthia Bourgeault -- In this project, I am in part attempting to rescue Boehme from that aura of arcaneness that is so intimidating to most readers. I myself felt drawn toward Boehme for many years, but had always been warned that without extensive knowledge of medieval alchemy it would be useless to proceed. The alchemical aspect is definitely there, and I suspect that initiated Hermeticists travel much further into Boehme than I. But Boehme's importance is not limited to this realm, nor is it accessible only within it. Boehme offers a remarkably unified Christian metaphysic, with cosmology and psychology reinforcing each other in a powerful transformative path. This path needs to be recovered and presented in a way that will invite more people to explore this powerful visionary, whose works, I believe, still hold the key to what inner Christianity is all about.
"An Introduction to Jacob Boehme" -- This volume brings together for the first time some of the world’s leading authorities on the German mystic, Jacob Boehme. It seeks to illuminate his thought and its reception over four centuries for the benefit of students and advanced scholars alike.
Download the .pdf eBook **** "MacDonald and Jacob Boehme", by Dale J. Nelson --- Scholarly readers of George MacDonald have remarked that he drew upon the writings of the German theosophist Jacob Boehme (1575-1624), but the point has not been discussed in detail. This article will attempt to advance the discussion a little.
Read an essay by Nikolai Berdyaev discussing: Concerning Jacob Boehme -- "The Ungrund and Freedom"
Click [ Here ] to access the "Jakob Bohme: The Tragedy of Freedom and the Curse of the Law".
Please click [ Here ] to download your FREE copy of the eBook (.pdf) - "Bohme and Hegel : A Study Of Their Intellectual Development And Shared Readings Of Two Christian Theologoumena -- By: Neil O ’Donnell
William Blake & Jacob Boehme: "Imagination, Experience & the Limitations of Reason" -- William Blake and Jacob Boehme saw true imagination as rooted in living experience, as quite distinct from fantasy, and as such necessary for a fuller knowledge and understanding of reality. Both perceive the significant limitations of reason; that of itself it gives only a partial view, one that can limit and distort our understanding and experience.
|
NOTE: Highly recommended reading in order to clarify some of the more obscure and obtuse teachings of JB, and also to relate his thought to contemporary times. -- An excellent, contemporary book for serious readers of Boehme is entitled; "Science, Meaning, Evolution: The Cosmology of Jacob Boehme" by Basarab Nicolescu (Author) and Rob Baker (Translator).
This is an incisive study by a contemporary scientist and scholar of the startling correspondences between the ideas of modern quantum physics and the cosmology of Jacob Boehme, an early 17th-century Christian mystic. Basarab Nicolescu presents both these mysterious realms - the open-ended universe of the new particle physics and the theological speculations of Boehme's own writings in a way that is at once sophisticated and accessible.
Download a FREE .pdf [ Here ]. ****** You may read one chapter [ Here].
Now if the writings of Boehme seem to you to be rather BIZARRE, you need to read what scientists theorize is the TRUE structure of "REALITY" as defined by the Mathematics of Quantum Physics or Mechanics. An excellent (and not TOO difficult to understand) book is "Schrodinger's Kittens and the Search for Reality: Solving the Quantum Mysteries" by John Gribbin.
|
I would also reccomend, "The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme:" (A Timeless Classic) by Franz Hartmann M.D -- This book is an attempt to present an epitome of the principal doctrines of Jacob Boehme in a certain systematic order, so as to afford a general view of them and to serve as an introduction to the study of his works.
I DO want to offer this word of CAUTION to those reading this book. While it offers an EXCELLENT, systemic overview of the teachings and doctrines of Jacob Boehme, you need to be aware of the bias of Mr. Hartmann in his comments and notes.
He seems to embrace Buddhism -- and feels that there is great similarity between the basic tenets of Christianity, Buddhism and Krishna. Jacob Boehme, on the other hand, while having NO use for "religious, christian dogma and orthodoxy", FULLY embraced the BASIC TENETS of the Christian Faith. These are:
(1). Man - originally created in the divine image, possessing divine attributes, and intended to live in the divine realm - fell from this position by his own volition and entered into the life of created matter.
(2). Being impotent to alter his (Man's) own condition, God entered into human form and nature through the god/man Jesus Christ in order to restore the divine image and life once again to Man.
(3). Jesus Christ entered into THIS creation in REAL Time and Space, as a REAL flesh and blood man, incarnating within himself the Divine Presence.
(4). He was physically crucified, died and rose again - and returned back from THIS creation into the presence of His (and our Father) in the divine realm.
(5) Either individual man appropriates this work and presence of The Christ into his OWN life by his OWN will and volition - and thereby restores to his "Inner Man" the divine life and presence - or, upon death, he remains SHUT OUT from the presence of God.
Whatever terminology these concepts might be expressed in (they certainly DON'T have to be put in "Biblical" form to remain true), they constitute what is termed, "The Christian Faith". However, whatever DOES NOT embrace these concepts IS NOT (whatever it professes). As Shakespeare so aptly phrased it, "A rose by any other name would smell as sweet. However, a skunk DOES NOT become a rose MERELY because you choose to call it so" !!
Please click [ Here ] to download your FREE copy of the eBook - "The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme"
|
|
Click the respective item to access the following resources about Jacob Boehme and Mysticism in general:
|
There are two videos available which examine the Life and Teaching of Jacob Boehme:
One - "The Life and Legacy Of Jacob Boehme", A highly-rated documentary by Lukasz Chwalko - "a unique film in which the ideas and the visually stunning language of the 'first German philosopher' (Hegel) play the lead role".
Click on the following links: [
[ Trailer on YouTube ] , Buy or Rent the German version or the English version on Amazon.
Two - "Dawn In Ascent: An Homage To Jacob Boehme" is not a conventional biopic. It is a beautiful, minimalist film which uses only Boehme's own words, and features a single actor who bears a striking resemblance to some of the old portraits of JB.
Available on Amazon UK click [ HERE ] for mp4 download or DVD. The film is in German with English, French, Dutch and Polish subtitles. English transcript also available.
Theater promo (German, with translation available).
Description ].
Click [ Here ] to access the "New World Encyclopedia" -- the free encyclopedia -- for a full array of Jakob B�hme resources
Click [ Here ] to access the "Jakob Bohme Wikiwand" -- from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia -- for a full array of Jakob B�hme resources
Click [ Here ] for an excellent site devoted to Jacob Boehme, "Jacob Boehme Online"
Click [ Here ] for an excellent site devoted to Jacob Boehme, "The Works of Jacob Boehme: Authentic On-Line Manuscripts"
Explore "The Mystic Will", by Howard H. Brinton -- The author's main contention is that there are two wills in man, one which is directed outwards into Nature toward the finite, and the other which is directed inward, toward the infinite, into God. The mystical experience is whereby "God" and the "Soul" are united in an indivisible experience which no symbol can adequately represent. It considers also the consequences of yielding oneself to (being guided by) either of these wills
For a comprehensive (though rather dry and scholarly) look at the world of "mystical tradition" that Jacob Boehme was acquainted with, I would recommend, "Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism" - by Gershom Scholem. In particular, MUCH space is devoted to that form of mysticism called, "Kabbalism".
Please click [ Here ] to download your FREE copy of the eBook - "The Secret Doctrine of the Rosicrucians", by Magus Incognito (1918)
Read - "An Introduction and Notes", by Jacob Needleman to "Tao Te Ching", compiled by Lao Tsu
|
