ABSTRACT
And firstly it is here to be noted, that the Sages have called this decomposed product, on account of its blackness (Cant. 1), the raven's head. In the same way Christ (Isa. 53) had no form nor comeliness, was the vilest of all men, full of griefs and sicknesses, and so despised that men even hid their faces from him, and he was esteemed as nothing. Yea, in the 22nd Psalm [Vulgate] he complains of this, that he is a worm and no man, the laughing-stock and contempt of the people; indeed, it is not unfitly compared with Christ when the putrefied body of the Sun lies dead, inactive, like ashes, in the bottom of the phial, until, as a result of greater heat, its soul by degrees and little by little descends to it again, and once more infuses, moistens, and saturates the decaying and all but dead body, and preserves it from total destruction. So also did it happen to Christ himself, when at the Mount of Olives, and on the cross, he was roasted 338 by the fire of the divine wrath 339 (Matt. 26, 27), and complained that he was utterly deserted by his heavenly Father, yet none the less was always (as is wont to happen also to an earthly body through assiduous care and nourishing) comforted and strengthened (Matt. 4, Luke 22) and, so to speak, imbued, nourished, and supported with divine nectar; yea, when at last, in his most sacred passion, and at the hour of death, his strength and his very spirit were completely withdrawn from him, and he went down to the lowest and deepest parts below the earth (Acts 1, Eph. 1,1 Peter 3), yet even there he was preserved, refreshed, and by the power of the eternal Godhead raised up again, quickened, and glorified (Rom. 14), when finally his spirit, with its body dead in the sepulchre, obtained a perfect and indissoluble union, through his most joyful resurrection and victorious ascension into heaven, as Lord and Christ (Matt. 28) and was exalted 337 Mus. Herm., pp. 11 ηί. 338 "Assatus." The word was used by the alchemists to denote the roasting of the ore. 339 "The fire of divine wrath" suggests Boehme's "divine wrath-fire." I do not know whether there is direct connection between them. In our treatise God's wrath, falling upon Christ, turns against God himself. Boehme discusses this question in "Aurora" (Works, I), VIII, 2off., pp. 62ff., and Quaestiones theosophicae (Amsterdam edn., 1682, pp. 3, nff.), and says that on the one hand the wrath-fire comes from the "dryness," one of the seven "qualities" of Creation, and on the other hand it is connected with the first principle of "divine revelation," the darkness (Gen. 1 : 2), which "reaches into the fire" ("Tabula principiorum," I, pp. 2ff.). The fire is hidden in the centre of the light as well as in all creatures, and was kindled by Lucifer.
