Jacob Bohme's Biography(Photos)

acob Bohme (Boehme, Bohm, Behmen, Bome, Beme, etc.) may be
considered as the central figure of Christian Mysticism. He

in 1600 when he passed into the hypnotic state by
accidentally fixing his eye on a burnished pewter dish. Ten

was born 1575 at Old Seidenberg, two miles from Gorlitz,
near the Bavarian border, in what was then German Prussia.

years later his psychic visions had become much clearer and
more tangible. From 1619 to 1624 he produced the "Mysterium

Magnun" and the "Signatura Rerum." In 1624 he was attacked
by fever at the house of a friend in Silesia, was carried at

where he discovered a large wooden vessel full of money,
from which he precipitately fled without touching it, as

his own request to his hometown, and on the 22nd November
expired in a semi-ecstatic condition. The following lines

though it were something diabolical.

appear in the "Lives of Alchymistical Philosophers":

He told his companions, but when they attempted to find the
spot, there was no cave to be found. Bohme had little

"Whate'er the Eastern Magi sought, Or Orpheus sung, or
Hermes taught, Whate'er Confucius could inspire, Or

schooling and was apprenticed to a shoemaker. One day a
benevolent appearing man entered the shop, and beckoning

Zoroaster's mystic fire;
The symbols that Pythagoras drew, The wisdom God-like Plato

Bohme aside said, "Jacob, thou art as yet but little;
nevertheless, the time will come when thou shalt be great,

knew;
What Socrates debating proved, Or Epictetus lived and

and the world shall marvel at thee. Therefore, be pious,
fear God, and reverence the Word. Read the Holy Scriptures

loved;
The sacred fire of saint and sage Through every clime, in

diligently; in these thou shalt have comfort and instruction
through the misery, poverty, and persecution which are in

every age, In Bohmen's wondrous page we view Discovered and
revealed anew.

store for thee. Be courageous and persevere; God loves thee
and is gracious unto thee." The stranger then disappeared

'Aurora' dawned the coming day;
Succeeding books meridian light display Ten thousand depths

leaving Bohme with the determination to be more studious and
pious then ever.

his works explore, Ten thousand truths unknown before,
Through all his books profound we trace, The abyss of

In 1594 Bohme married the daughter of a tradesman, by whom

nature, God and Grace;
The seals are broke, the mystery's past, And all is now

he had four children. In 1598 he had his first real ecstasy,
surrounded by the divine light, and beholding the nature and

revealed at last, The trumpet sounds, the Spirit's given,
And Bohmen is the voice from Heaven."