Jacob Boehme

Jacob Boehme (1575–1624) was a German shoemaker turned mystic whose ecstatic visions birthed the movement known as Christian Theosophy.

Theosophy and Alchemy

In his masterwork Aurora, Boehme utilized the language of Paracelsian alchemy (the Tria Prima) to describe the inner life of God. He argued that God contains an inner wrath or dark fire that must be alchemically refined into love and light. Boehme shifted the focus of alchemy from laboratory metallurgy (chrysopoeia) to a purely spiritual, psychological cosmology. His concept of a universe born from divine tension heavily influenced later German Idealism and Romanticism.