Forty questions of the soul concerning its original, essence, substance, nature or quality and property, what it is from eternity to eternity : framed by a lover of the great mysteries, Doctor Balthasar Walter, and answered in the year 1620 / by Jacob Behme, called Teutonicus Philosophus ; Englished by John Sparrow ...

The Second Form.

23. The Second-Form is, that it is Desirous, and yet hath nothing but it self; therefore its desiring draweth the * 1.1 Model: of its will in it self, and impregnateth it self, so that a darkness or † 1.2 overshadowing com∣eth to be in the will, which the will yet

would not have; but the Desiring, the Seek∣ing maketh it, and there is nothing that can consume or drive away the Desiring.

24. For that which is before the Desi∣ring, beyond or besides the seeking, is Free and a Nothing, and yet it Is; but if it were any thing apprehensible or compre∣hensible, it were a Substance, and stood a∣gain in a substance, that did afford it: But being without Substance, it is the Eternity, that is the GOOD; for it is no source or pain, and hath no alteration or change, but is a Rest and an Eternal Peace.

25. But seeing the great Space is without ground: or foundation, where is no number nor end, and also no beginning, therefore it is like a Looking-Glass. It is ALL, and yet also as a NOTHING: it beholdeth it self, and yet findeth nothing but an A that is its eye; * 1.3 AVge.

26. * 1.4AV: That is, the Eternal Original that something is; for it is the Eternal Beginning, and the Eternal End. Thus the Abysse seeth in it self, and findeth it self.

27. * 1.5The A is below, and the V is above; and the O is, AVge, the Eye, and yet is in it self no Substance; but thus is the Original of Substance: there is neither below nor above, onely its Looking-Glass in the AV is thus a seeing.

28. But since there is no ground, there∣fore its Looking-Glass is such an O Eye AVge: For God himself saith in the Apocalips, * 1.6 I am A and O, the beginning and the end; the first and the last.

29. * 1.7 Observe this according to its pretious intimate sublimity; for we speak not here in Nature, in a form, but in the Spirit above Nature, in Chara∣cter GOTTes, in God's Cha∣racter or Letter. T.

30. The O is, GOTTes AVge, God's Eye, the Eye of Eternity, that maketh and is a Looking-Glass, and is a round circle like a globe, ⊙, not a ring, O. Since we cannot otherwise describe it,

thus understand hereby; the Globe ☉ of the Eternity, wherein standeth the ground of Heaven and Earth, and of the Elements, together with the star∣ry † 1.8 Wheel or Sphere;

31. For that is a Globe ☉ like an eye, and is God's Wonder-Eye, where∣in from Eternity all Substances or things have been seen or discerned, but without substance, as in a Looking-Glass or Eye; for the Eye is the Eye of the Abysse; of which we have no pen or tongue to write or speak, only the Spirit of Eternity bringeth the Souls eye thereinto, and so we see it, else it would remain in silence mute, and undescribed by this Hand.

32. Thus there is in the Eternity such an Eye, which is God himself, and yet is not called GOD, but Eternity; yet as to the Eye, is A and O. Before the A there is NOTHING, and in the O there is ALL; and in the A and O beginning and end: therefore we fundamentally apprehend, that in the O there is a Will, and the Will is the O it self, and maketh the A; viz. the eternal beginning of the Seeking; so that the Abysse beholdeth it self, and so in it self maketh a * 1.9 Form like a Globe ☉.

33. For the Eye findeth no ground or foundation, therefore it closeth it self up as in a Looking-Glass, into a round Globe, so that it is the Eternities similitude, that can it self find it self; for in the Abysse there is no finding, for there is no * 1.10 place or limit, but only the Abysse; and when thus it findeth it self in the Eye, yet then it findeth nothing but the Eye, that is the Globe.

34. Now the Eye maketh the Globe, and is the Globe; and all this is together in the Will to seek it self, and so to see what the Eternity is, which becometh ma∣nifest or revealed in the Eye.

35. For the Eye maketh a beginning and an end, and yet there is nothing that affordeth it, but in giveth or affordeth it self, and is from Eternity in Eternity, and the Eternity it self; it toucheth nothing, for it is in nothing, but in it self.

36. Now being there is a Will, which is the Eye, which † 1.11 holdeth or re∣taineth the eye, therefore that holding is a Desiring, viz. of the Eye, and so the Desire is at∣tracting into the Eye, and yet nothing is there but the Eye, and the Desiring only

draweth it self in the Eye, and impregna∣teth the Eye with that which is attracted, so that it is full, and yet is nothing but a darkness of the free Eye, although the Eye becometh not dark, but the Desiring in the Eye, impregnateth it self in it self.

37. The will of the Eye is still or quiet, and the desiring of the will maketh it full, and the Eye remaineth free in it self; for it is from Eternity, free: and that we call the Eternal Liberty in all our Writings.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Or Representation.
• † 1.2

  Or, a shadowing every where, to make the repre∣sentation of figures, as blak shadowings or drawings on white, or shadowings of all colours, to represent things lively by, And this is done in the Mind as to all Re∣presentations.
• * 1.3

  AVge signifies an Eye in the German Tongue.
• * 1.4

  [illustration]
• * 1.5

  [illustration]
• * 1.6

  Rev. 1. 8. I am A and O, Alpha and Omega, the Begining and the End.
• * 1.7

  GOTT in the German tongue is GOD.
• † 1.8

  Wheel, Sphere, or Globe.
• * 1.9

  Or Fi∣gure.
• * 1.10

  Or Circum∣scription.
• † 1.11

  Or con∣taineth.