travails and
"openings" Boehme called _Morning Glow_, to which later, through the
suggestion of a friend, he gave {162} the title _Aurora_. It is a
strange _melange_ of chaos where all things lie undifferentiated and of
insight; dreary wastes of words that elude comprehension, with
beautiful patches of spiritual oasis. He himself always felt that the
book was dictated to him, and that he only passively held the pen which
wrote it. "Art," he says, speaking of his writing, "has not written
here, neither was there any time to consider how to set it down
punctually, according to the understanding of the letters, but all was
ordered according to the direction of the Spirit, which often went in
haste, so that in many words letters may be wanting, and in some places
a capital letter for a word; so that _the Penman's hand_, by reason
that he was not accustomed to it, did often shake. And though I could
have wrote in a more accurate, fair, and plain manner, yet the reason
was this, that the burning fire often forced forward with speed, and
the hand and pen must hasten directly after it; for it goes and comes
like a sudden shower."[30] This is obviously an inside account of the
production of inspirational script, amounting almost to automatic
impulsion. Throughout his voluminous writings he often speaks of "this
hand," or "this pen" as though they were owned and moved by a will far
deeper than his own individual consciousness,[31] and his writings
themselves frequently bear the marks of automatisms.

His manuscript copy of _Morning Glow_ was freely lent to readers and
circulated widely. Boehme himself kept no copy by him, but he tells us
that during its wanderings the manuscript was copied out in full four
times by strangers and brought to him.[32] One of the copies fell into
the hands of Gregorius Richter, pastor primarius of Goerlitz, a violent
guardian of orthodoxy and a man extremely jealous of any infringement
of the dignity of his official position. He proceeded at
once--"without sufficient examination or knowledge"--to {163} "vilify
and condemn" the writing, and in a sermon on "False Prophets" he
vigorously attacked the local prophet of Goerlitz, who meekly sat in
Church and listened to the "fulminations" against him.[33] After the
sermon, Boehme modestly asked the preacher to show him what was wrong
with his teaching, but the only answer he received was that if he did
not instantly leave the town the pastor woul