Dearly beloved readers:
It is with great pleasure that I address you to send you the interpretation of this engraving entitled…
…CONTEMPLATION OF DIVINE REVELATION
First of all, we must know that this illustration was the work of the great German mystic named Jacob Böhme. This engraving is the title page of a work by the aforementioned author and the publishers asked Jacob Böhme 177 theosophical questions, of which the author answered 15.
Before our eyes there stand out, first of all, in the upper part of this beautiful engraving, three crowns surrounded by Angelic Choirs, the two above, while the third crown shines on the head of a man who carries the letter A at his side, indicative of the divine Adam, made in the image and likeness of the Creator according to the Holy Scriptures.
Below the aforementioned crowns we can see three letters. On the far left an M and on the far right a V. Those letters are engulfed in fire. The lower crown, which sits above the primeval Adam, is accompanied by an I. The three form a triangle with the apex facing downward. The letters marked: M-V-I, should be translated as Mysterium Verbi Ignei, ‘the mystery of the igneous verb’. We all know that creation is the child of omniscient fire. We are not speaking here of the fire in the kitchen or in the chimneys, but of that verb to which HERACLITUS, the great Greek philosopher, was referring when he exclaimed: “God is not any individual or entity, but a fire that kindles itself or quenches itself, omniscient, omnipotent, and it creates or destroys according to its laws…..
This profoundly Gnostic argument reminds us of that transcription that was written on the top of the cross on which the Rabbi of Galilee ─V.M. Aberamentho─ was crucified and which read: INRI, meaning in its translation: IGNI NATURA RENOVATUR INTEGRA, ‘fire renews all of Nature entirely’. We need to understand that the supra-dimensions of the Cosmos are nothing else than different forms of energy —namely: Fire— which have been crystallizing over millions and millions of years. This is what makes up a MAHA-MANVANTARA according to the Hindustanis. On the other hand, it is interesting to know that the word IEHOVA —read: JEHOVAH—in the Hebrew language is to be understood as IOD-HEVE, which enunciates the two masculine and feminine polarities. They, the Elohim, created in their temples, at the beginning of creation, by means of a sacred copulation and with the use of the divine word or sacred language, the various cosmoses with all their galaxies, solar systems, worlds or planets, and human races. This is how man was created in theimage of his creator, and by then that Adam was either androgynous –male-female– or divine androgynous, endowed with the golden language.
Man, therefore, was a divine emanation of the very THEOMEGALOGOS Himself ─the Lord of the Great Word─ and therefore had control over the four elements of Nature according to Gnosis. And it was there, in that HAGIOCOSMOS –HOLY COSMOS– that the Elohim carried out the creation of man, using, as we have already said, the archetype of what would later become the human race. In all this, the fire of the Eternal intervened. That is why the letter I appears exactly above the head of the man in our engraving.
It is also very appropriate to point out the two circles that enclose the Angelic Choirs, for they are the high spheres in which the divine will is manifested. Just where these two great circles we are describing meet, two circles appear before us that enclose a cross. These two circles are, once again, the reminder of the HAGIOCOSMOS, which is precisely governed by three laws: Holy Affirming, Holy Denying and Holy Conciliating. These three forces act by means of the crossing of the masculine lingam with the feminine yoni of those Elohim whom we have also previously cited. That is why “The power is in the cross…”, the millennial Gnostic texts tell us.
Let us now turn to the description of the man who is the centre of our engraving. He is enclosed within a circle that extends to the waist. This indicates that from the waist up is the sublime part of Homo sapiens sapiens and from the waist down are the forces that will define his status a posteriori. The Kabbalah tells us that the Sephiroth YESOD is in touch with our creative organs. And there, in that region, the destiny of the human race is defined, whether to become a FORNICATING RACE or perhaps to reach the heights of SCIENTIFIC CHASTITY through the sublimation of the sexual energies.
It is for this reason that there, in that area, a circle opens that connects divine life with human or material life. And, curiously, it is in the Sephiroth MALKUTH –the material or three-dimensional world– where souls have to fight for the Intimate Self-Realization of their BEING or let themselves be swallowed by the laws of Nature until they INVOLUTE… That is the reason why we see a sheep and a goat there. The sheep symbolizes the souls who love God and the goats are those souls who deny the divine and worship Satan.
In this half-circle representative of the material world we can glimpse a Sun and a Moon, alchemical symbols that allude to the SULFUR of the sages and to MERCURY –the genesiac waters of the devotee–. By mixing the two ingredients –the alchemists said–, the GREAT INNER WORK can be created. This is the mystery of ARCANUM A.Z.F. of Gnosis.
We can also contemplate a total of twenty-three stars, the kabbalistic sum of which would give us the number 5. The number 5 represents the five-pointed star, the self-realized man, integrated with his inner Real BEING so as to live according to the right way of feeling, the right way of thinking and the right way of acting.
It is also appropriate to point out that the man in our subject holds in his left hand a kind of stick of dynamite to indicate to us that only by fire can all the great spiritual achievements be accomplished, which are, by the way, enclosed in a wheel containing all the letters of the Latin alphabet, with the symbol of the cross in the center. By this we are being told that, as in the alphabet, from the beginning to the end we must work with fire…, always using the mysterium regeneratoris of the crossing of the masculine and feminine polarities.
I now send you some sentences that deserve our reflection:
“Know thyself.”
Socrates
“One must know oneself. If this does not serve to discover Truth, it at least serves as a rule of life, and there is nothing more just or more profitable.”
Pascal
“The most difficult thing in life is to know yourself.”
Thales of Miletus
“There is nothing wanted if it is not known.”
Saint Augustine
“Consciousness of a fact is not knowing it; if it were, the fish would know more of the sea than geographers and naturalists.”
Bernard Shaw
FINIS CORONAT OPUS.
─’The end crowns the work’─.
KWEN KHAN KHU
