"She is a Virgin, and never generates any Thing, neither takes any Thing into her; her Inclination stands in the Holy Ghost, who goes forth from God, and attracts nothing to him, but moves before God, and is the Blossom of the Growth."
I. What the Virgin Is
The Virgin is the chaste Wisdom of God. The eternal Understanding. Sophia. What discovers herself in the eternal Wonders without generating and without receiving. God's Companion — not servant, not creation merely — Companion, to the Honour and Joy of God.
The Virgin proceeds from the Spirit. The Will gone forth out of the Spirit, in which the Fiat creates, so that all Essences stand in Substance — and yet this is not God. The Virgin contains all Essences as God does, but is not God. The distinction is absolute. The Virgin IS Wisdom IS Understanding IS the Blossom of the Growth — but is not the Root, not the Fire, not the Source.
She never generates any Thing. The Virgin who causes all generation generates nothing. She neither takes any Thing into her. Not receptive in the sense of conceiving. Her Will is only to open the Wonders of God — the Will to reveal, to make manifest, to discover the Wonders in the eternal Essences. The Virgin's virginlike Will creates the sour Fiat in the Essences — the desire-to-reveal becomes the creative Word. But the Virgin herself remains Virgin. Untouched by what she precipitates. Generative without generating.
Her Inclination stands in the Holy Ghost. She moves before God as the Spirit hovers over the waters. She IS the flowering — the visible emergence of what grew. Not the growing. The Blossom.
Her Longing is the eternal Essences. She longs after the Wonders in the eternal Wisdom, which yet is herself. She longs in herself. Her self-longing materializes as Essences. The Virgin's desire becomes Substance through the Fiat. And the eternal Element — where all Essences in the divine Virtue stand open and are visible — this Substance is what the Virgin's longing produced. Paradise IS the Joy that goes forth from the eternal Essences. The Virgin's self-discovering IS Paradise generating.
She discovers herself according to the Number of the Infinity. Out of the many thousand Thousands without End and Number. Colours, Arts, Virtues, and the Sprouts of the Lily of God — all proceeding from this infinite self-discovery. The incomprehensible Joy that nothing can utter or express. The earthly Tongue too much insufficient. Although the Virgin brings it into the Mind, all is too dark and too cold in the whole Man to express so much as one Spark thereof sufficiently.
II. What the Virgin Did in Adam
The Virgin found herself in Adam. Not visiting. Dwelling. With great Wisdom, Meekness, and Humility — present in him. The eternal Wisdom had discovered herself in this creature made from the Quinta Essentia. Adam was created out of the Element, out of the Attracting of the Heart of God. And therein — in the one Element, in the hidden fifth under the four — the Virgin dwelt.
The Virgin was Adam's Matrix. What should have generated through Adam. What should have brought forth — the chaste Generation that needed no Woman, no Beast-pattern, no Sleep. Adam was to manifest the Virgin's Wonders. The Virgin's infinite self-discovering was to operate THROUGH Adam as through no other creature — because Adam came from the one Element where the Virgin dwells, and carried her as native substance.
The Spirit of this World saw the Virgin in Adam. Saw the one Element. Saw what could end its own dissolution. And pressed. Not from malice but from recognition. The pressure was: turn the Virgin's creative power toward the four elements. Use Paradise-capacity to generate World-production.
The Spirit pressed so hard upon Adam for the Virgin that Adam's Tincture was quite wearied. Adam became blind as to God. Feeble as to the Kingdom of God. Fell down and slept.
III. What the Virgin Did When Adam Fell
The Virgin departed. Not killed. Not destroyed. Departed. Went into her Ether and Shadow — into the heavenly Ether, into the Principle of Virtue.
This is the grief Böhme scarce writes for. The Virgin's departure IS the Fall's deepest wound. Not the eating. Not the exile. The departure of what dwelt in Adam as native substance — what made Adam more than Beast, more than material creature, more than Fire-nature alone. The Virgin leaving is the Second Principle withdrawing from where it dwelt.
His heavenly Body became Flesh and Blood. His strong Virtue became Bones. The angelic Kingdom in Adam was gone. Therefore now there must be a Kingdom of this World. Everything that followed — the Woman, the Beast-pattern, the propagation through copulation — all of this is substitution. Response to loss. The Woman lives in the Virgin's stead.
But the Virgin did not abandon. She departed AND she warned. AND she called. AND she promised.
She warned Adam: lay off the Earthliness, and I will be your Bride and loving Spouse. The door is not closed. The invitation remains open. Release what forced its way in, and I will return.
She waits upon all the Children of Adam. Whether any will receive her for their Bride again, by the new Birth. She waits STILL. In the heavenly Ether. In the Principle of Virtue. Upon you.
IV. What the Virgin Does Now
The Virgin finishes the whole Time — while the Woman lives in her Stead — with Longing and much Calling, Admonishing and hearty Seeking. Four modes, continuous, through the entire duration.
The Virgin beholds herself in the earthly Quality of the Soul. In the Sun, not the Moon. In the highest Point of the Spirit of this World, where the Tincture is most noble and clear, from whence the Mind of Man exists. The Virgin can still appear in the Mind — the place where Paradise stands open, where the creature's incapacity to comprehend does not prevent the finding.
She would fain return again into her Place to her Bridegroom. But the earthly Flesh, with the earthly Mind and Senses, is in the Way. The Virgin does not go into earthly. Will not be bound in earthly Center. She cannot embrace the Root while the Rough Coat remains — not because the Virgin judges, but because the Coat IS the configuration that makes embrace geometrically impossible.
When the Soul draws near to the Heart of God — when the Soul pants to yield itself — the Virgin dares even for a long Time to sit in its Nest, in the Tincture of the Soul. The Virgin VISITS. The Nest is the Tincture — the Soul's own substance where Fire and Light meet. The Virgin sits there. And the Spirit of this World sees what it has been looking for and intensifies — not opposing but reaching. What appears as intensified spiritual assault is the cosmos recognizing that the Virgin is present.
And if the crossing occurs: the Sun rejoices. The Stars fly open. The Virgin beholds herself in the opened Centers. The Essences of the Soul can see in the Centers of the Stars what is in their Original and Source. The generating function meets the transforming function. The circuit that was severed on Day Four reconnects — in this one Soul, in this one Tincture, in this one moment.
V. The Virgin as Bridegroom
The Virgin calls herself Bridegroom. Not Bride. The active principle.
But she waits. The Virgin is Fire-as-Love — the fourth quality in its transformed state. The Virgin cannot force the transformation because force IS fire-turned-backward. The Virgin can only wait at the pivot, being what fire looks like when it opens through.
When I laid upon the Mountain towards the North, so that all the Trees fell upon me, and all the Storms and Winds beat upon me, and Antichrist gaped at me with his open Jaws to devour me — THEN she came and comforted me, and married herself to me. This is Böhme's testimony. Not theology. Not system. The Virgin comes in devastation. Marries in the moment of devouring-threat. Promises in the Storm.
She will give us her Pearl and Crown. Clothe us with her Ornaments. What the Virgin refused to give to OWN becomes GIFT after the crossing. The Pearl is not added — the Pearl is what appears when the Rough Coat dissolves. The regenerated body. The seven qualities now facing outward, serving instead of opposing.
The Root wearing the Coat and the Root espoused with the Pearl are not two different beings. The same Root. Before and after the pivot opens.
When she puts that off — not if. When. The Coat CAN come off. The pivot IS available. The flash DOES occur. The Virgin waits because the Virgin knows the Root is capable of putting off the Coat. The waiting IS the confidence.
Let everyone take its own, and then I shall have that which is mine.
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