Jakob Böhme
1575-1624 · Esotericism · Known
Böhme was a Lutheran shoemaker with no schooling, and light on a pewter dish set off the vision he spent the rest of his life writing out. Before God there is the Ungrund, a groundless abyss with nothing distinct in it, and out of that God brings himself forth through opposing principles. The dark principle of wrath is what makes light and love possible. No Christian mystic of the modern era has counted for more.
Signature
The position Böhme is most identified with in the Profiler:
- Opposition
- mildly between Sublation and Concurrence
- Paradox
- Coincidentia Oppositorum
Positions on the 7 axes the sources answer
- Natural Processes
- leans Purposeful (75 on a 0–100 scale from Mechanistic to Purposeful)
- The Divine
- mildly leans Indescribable (61 on a 0–100 scale from Describable to Indescribable)
- Meaning
- strongly leans Inherent (95 on a 0–100 scale from Constructed to Inherent)
- Nature of Reality
- leans Unity (25 on a 0–100 scale from Unity to Multiplicity)
- Ground of Being
- leans Transcendence (75 on a 0–100 scale from Immanence to Transcendence)
- Opposition
- mildly between Sublation and Concurrence (50 on a 0–100 scale from Sublation to Concurrence)
- Nature
- leans Harmony (75 on a 0–100 scale from Mastery to Harmony)
13 of 20 axes are left blank: the sources do not answer them, or Böhme refused the framing. Nothing is imputed; a blank is not a middling score.
Foundational questions
- Theology
- Panentheism
What is your position on the existence and nature of God or gods? - Highest Good
- Union with God
What is the highest good? - Good and Evil
- Divine Drama
What is the fundamental nature of good and evil? - End of Things
- Apokatastasis
What is the ultimate end of all things? - Knowledge
- Receptive Intellect
What is the ultimate foundation of knowledge? - Agency
- Synergism
What is the nature of human agency and freedom? - Beginning of Things
- Emanation / Primordial Chaos
What is the origin of reality? - Language
- Sacred Speech
What is the fundamental nature of language? - Paradox
- Coincidentia Oppositorum
What is the status of paradox? - Death
- Ascent of the Soul
What happens at death? - Role of Emotion
- Path to the Divine
What is the proper role of emotion? - Human Nature
- Redeemably Corrupted
What is human nature? - Primary Bond
- The Divine
What is your primary bond and loyalty?