I borrowed the title
for this painting “The Last Kingdom”, (Das Lezte Konigreich”)
from a line in a poem written in 1801 by the famous German writer
Novalis (Fredrich von Hardenberg). When I read it there was an
immediate resonance with the concepts involved.
The last kingdom
struck me as the “ultimate kingdom” rather than the “final
kingdom”. This is not the description of the eschaton but of the
ideal pinnacle where we strive for the understanding that Jacob
Boehme pointed too. A scene of dynamic resolution not a vision of
destruction.
Boehme’s writings
are a blueprint of the spiritual universe. However, understanding
the mechanics of nature is not enough. Later writers who
surreptitiously fed off Boehme work (Kant, Hegel, Marx) misunderstood
Boehme’s processes and their descendants would interpret their work to see the universe as a grand device. Once all the inputs,
programs, knobs, and gears were mapped and subjected to taxonomy then
it could be manipulated to enhance the personal power of the
technicians.
Von Hardenberg
intuitively grasped the “meta” program that was running
underneath the words of Boehme and in his poem “To Tieck” he
introduced the concept of “the abundance of being”. This
acknowledged the true mission as mystical. Understanding the
mechanisms of God’s universe was not an exercise in positivism or
philosophical materialism rather it was the search for fulfillment
not affluence.
D S Reif
The original extended essay (and translation) about the painting refereed to above can be viewed on the website of
the International Jacob Boehme Society, CLICK HERE
