d and personal in the face and figure of a little
Child, in which the artist suggests in symbolism the infinite depth and
joy and potency of Divinity breaking forth out of mystery into form.
It is precisely this birth of God into visibility that Boehme is
endeavouring to tell. "The Son," however, Boehme says, "is not divided
or sundered from the Father, as two persons side by side--there are not
two Gods. The Son is the heart of the Father--God as Person--the
outspringing Joy of the total triumphing Reality,[14] and through this
eternal movement toward self-consciousness and Personality, God becomes
Spirit, an out-going energy of purpose, a dynamic activity, bursting
forth into infinite manifestation and differentiation--a forth-breathed
or expressed Word.[15] Through {177} this eternal process of
self-differentiation and outgoing activity, the inner spiritual
universe comes into being--as an intermediate Nature or world, between
the ineffable Abyss of God on the one hand, and our world of material,
visible things on the other hand." "The process of the whole
creation," he says, "is nothing else but a manifestation of the deep
and unsearchable God, and yet creation is not God but rather like an
apple which springs from the power of the tree and grows upon the tree,
and yet is not the tree--even so all things have sprung forth out of
the central divine Desire."[16]

This entire manifested or out-breathed universe is, he says, the
expression of the divine desire for holy sport and play. The Heart of
God enjoys this myriad play of created beings, all tuned as the
infinite strings of a harp for contributing to one mighty harmony, and
all together uttering and voicing the infinite variety of the divine
purpose. Each differentiated spirit or light or property or atom of
creation has a part to play in the infinite sport or game or harmony,
"so that in God there might be a holy play through the universe as a
child plays with his mother, and that so the joy in the Heart of God
might be increased,"[17] or again, "so that each being may be a true
sounding string in God's harmonious concert."[18]

This eternal, interior World--the Mirror in which the Spirit manifests
Himself--is a double world of darkness and light, for there can be no
manifestation except through opposites.[19] There must be yes and no.
In order to have a play there must be opposing players. In order to
have life and reality there must be conflict and con