The Baaderian theory of Eros rests on the same principles on all three levels of the divine, natural and human; theseprinciples are energized by their insertion into the scenario of the mythic drama. Before considering the three levelsin their dramatic context, let us try to abstract the principles underlying them.The idea of love is inseparable from that of the triad, through which we must understand the difference that unifies,and the unification that differentiates. The ternary also appears with hate since it is hate that brings together what isunequal, and reunites what is equal. Without original inequality there is no love; without original equality, there is nohate.11 But, this is not what is essential, because Baader does not stop at the ternary. His theosophy, based on an essentially quaternary model, finds this structure in its eroticism on all three levels, and this is the key to whatis going to follow. It is necessary to be aware that there are two forces existing on all levels: an active, masculineone, and a passive, feminine one; each force nonetheless possesses an aspect of the other one, resulting inquadrapolarity. Androgyny is thus ontologically set. When harmony reigns, the passive, gentle and moist femininetincture12 (this adjective should of course be understood metaphorically) spontaneously opens itself to the action ofthe expansive force, in order to constrict it and be constricted by it, whereas the active masculine tincture appears asa departure from itself, seeking to find a place in interiority.Their relationship is found reciprocally within the ascentand descent, which Baader calls ascensus-descensus and which is understood by him to be movement-in-rest and restinmovement.The feminine tincture tempers the masculine and receives warmth from it; the masculine is sustained bythe feminine. There are four generative forces in this erotic-androgynous system, since each of the two tincturespotentially contains something of the nature of the other. The gentle feminine tincture looks for its correspondinggentleness in the harsh masculine tincture, to excite and provoke it out of its latency, so that by uniting with what isfeminine within the masculine, it is able to soften the harshness and keep it from turning itself into a destructive fire.Likewise and inversely, the harsh masculine tincture looks for its corresponding harshness in the femininegentleness, to compel it to leave its passiveness, give form to what is still formless, and prevent this "water" fromremaining stagnant and putrid. Thus, the feminine unites with the feminine within the masculine, and the masculineunites with the masculine within the feminine.13Love onlyexists in freedom; freedom needs subordination and coordination in order to work, though some people think thatserving is not at all liberating.14 Every union becomes one through bondage; it is important for both parts to bedifferent, much as in the case of a musical chord. There is therefore a difference between maintaining one in front ofthe other, or one below the other.15 If I am below and want to raise myself up, I must first pass through themediation of my free self-abasement and recognize the other as my superior.16 Baader often uses the word "center"to qualify the superior element, especially when it concerns the creature's relationship with Godin other words, theperiphery with the center. When the periphery is filled with the center, it does not mean that the center is "emptied";creation, which should not be confused with God's self-evolution, is not a process that consumes the Creator. On ahuman or animal level, the body (periphery) is the pleroma of the head (center). In 1837, Baader cites Nieuwentijdt,for whom the body can be considered as a development of the head; for all that, the head is not the creator of thebody, since both develop at the same time in the embryo. Likewise, it would be erroneous to imagine an active,masculine, motionless element situated exclusively in the center, and a reactive, feminine, mobile elementexclusively in the periphery. Indeedand this point is fundamental for understanding the theosopher's thoughttheexpansion of the periphery occurs at the same time that the center opens, so that in a normal state, i.e., in creativeharmony, there is androgyny.17We see the relationship of the two forces mentioned above from the moment when "centering," the concentration, isinseparable from "departure," or from the fact that a periphery is created ("centering,'' says Baader, is accompaniedby "out of [ex-]centering"). On the divine world level, the identity of the logos endetos and logos ekdetos, or if youpreferof the Son and Sophia, (Virgin, mirror, eye) is a good example of the identity of the active and reactive withinall life-processes. The "ancient theologians and mystics," he writes in 1831 in a text dedicated to the notion of time,correctly liken the reactive to the feminine (the prophet says that woman will encompass man), since the femininerepresents that which does not of itself have any value, that ourselves can convince us of the soundness of this law of identity, or simultaneity of entry and departure: thoughtbegins with an observation (Anschauen), and ends with contemplation (Anschaulichkeit) or "Idea," reminding us ofthe woman or Virgin who encompasses Man, of which she is the image or glory.18Several texts, among them a course on speculative dogmatics (1838), insist on a third term that is inseparable fromthis coupling. Between the internal concentration and external excentration (out of centering), for example, which are"hidden" between the microphysic and the astrophysical "depths," there is an existing "true height" or ''middle" (intermediary) whose role is to open both of them and bring them to light. Thus, says Baader, we can speak ofandrogyny as the union of two demicausalities on a backdrop or positive "middle" which unites, opens, and revealsthem. The theosopher here reminds us of the importance of the "first two natural forms" (Naturgestalten) in JacobBoehme's work. We have here both the concentrating, embracing sour (herb) form and the opening, bitter (bitter)form; the first descends and the other rises. Initially they lack the medium or positive foundation (Grund), because inBoehmian cosmogony they both arose from a negative medium, the "center of distress."19 Instead of affirming eachother and reaching harmony, they reciprocally deny each other, losing themselves in a perpetual ascent-descentdeprived of internal law or measurement, much as one still finds today among intelligent or nonintelligent creatures.Similar to the manner in which a stone laying on the ground only appears to be resting, for the weight does not createunion, so is our heart heavy, mean, and born to despair when it does not find anything that elevates it, and haughty(hochfahrend) when in its exaltation, it finds no limit to center it.In connection with this, Baader brings up fire and water. If fire represents that which is elevated, it does not subsistwithout sustenance, in other words, without the "aqueous, descending spirit" which binds to it in order to allow bothto find their support, bodies, and place (he uses the words "Bestand" "Leib" "beleiben," and "bleiben" here in asuggestive manner). Nourishment has no less need of hunger in order to materialize than hunger has need ofnourishment. Woman needs man in the same way. Nevertheless, the first meeting of the two principles, which isnegative, must be followed by a second or true foundation (Grndung), which is positive. According to Baader,theologians would do well to differentiate more clearly on this point, between what is the simple, immediate, created nature of the creature ( for example, the nature this creature has whenit comes into the world), and what is the divine relationship it acquires when by a second birth it is allowed tobecome a child of God. The creature is not immediately good and perfect; these two qualities wait to be "fixed" andconsolidated.20 The symbol that best designates the positive fixation or consolidation is shown in FermentaCognitionis as Mercury, because it accounts for the "androgynous nature of the spirit"; it expresses the identity of"content" and ''form," or rather the identity of the principle revealed in them. Here we understand "content" to be thefeminine factor that supplies the envelope; it is an intensive element, and has a tendency to be filled; "form" is to bethe masculine factor that furnishes the soul, is an extensive element, and has a tendency to fill. The first factor istraditionally represented by " " and the second one by " "; their union (the concept of union is represented by across) gives us the key Alchemist sign of Mercury: " ". The spirit, as Hegel saw it, is certainly life, center,middle.21

On the Divine Level

But, these diagrams and structures are inseparable from historyand above all, from metahistory. Everythingobviously begins with the Ungrund, of which Jacob Boehme has revealed the mystery. In the beginning there was thepassive desire of Divinity, comprised of the androgynous potentiality to be filled and made fertile. Whatcharacterizes a divine causality such as the Father is not so much the fact that it is without a cause, as that it iswithout foundation, i.e., deprived of a foundation on which to carry out its own activity in order to later rejoice on theSabbath day of rest, as mentioned in the first book of Genesis. Thus there is originally an Ungrund; as in anybeginning situation, it represents the potentiality and instability of the very figure, that it is a matter of moving withindefinite boundaries, from potency to act.22 Jacob Boehme never speaks of the androgyny of the Ungrund; Baader,however, does bring up the two complementary aspects of mirror and volition, both without a beginning in thebosom of this Ungrund, just as Thomas Aquinas differentiates between the Sapienta ingenita (as genitrix) and theSapienta genita (the virgin son, Jungfrauensohn) within the Father. The eternal Father,in the union of his fiery, eternal and harsh potency (Potenz) with the gentle luminous potency (Sophia), begets hisSon.23 Father, Mother and Son are the potencies within the Verselbstndigung, the true individuation or conquest ofauthentic Selbstheit-the identity of Self on all levels.He who is called Father-Being, the First Person, is already the result of a distinction, or the will to reproduce in theSon. The Son was potentiality, and begetting means to set into motion the potentiality of the feminine tincture andthe potency of the masculine nature; it is the giving of nourishment to the appetite, of substance to nourishment, ofmeaning and consistency to desire; it is obliging the unstable duality to take root and form within a ternary.24 On thisdivine level, we recognize the descensus, or first dialectic moment of entrance, during which the matrix is filled, andthe ascensus, the moment the Son emerges. We know that this process repeats itself constantly. What Boehme andthe theosophers who followed him see in the Ungrund is, above all, the source of a passive, feminine divineness andan active, masculine appetite, which arouse each other just as we have seen when nourishment (woman) arouseshunger (man) and hunger seeks nourishment. This dialectic of desire puts the Ungrund in a state of continuousinflammability, brought out in the Bible in the form of ignis divinus. Still it is necessary to differentiate betweenactive inflammation, exemplified in anger, the fire of the Father, and passive inflammation, which means that thematrix, as the root of being, consumes itself and longs to be filled. Today we can still see how Nature, in spite of herprofound degradation, had her origin in fire, as is demonstrated by electric and magnetic phenomena.25Divine self-generation, which tends toward the Verselbstndigung, is also called the "center of nature" by Baader; itis a passive moment represented as a trianglefigure of the root feminine principleand inscribed within acircumference.26 Every birth brings with it the danger of not being able to cross the fire of the Center of Natureunharmed (danger is often qualified by Baader as Periculum Vitae). The birth of a son brings with it thepotentialization of the inflammability of feminine nature. Its appeasement does not indicate the extinction of initialdesire-appetite, but rather its transformation into fulfillment and joy.The matrix finds its completeness whereas theFather, seeing a form given to his expansion, rejoices in the peace of the Sabbath. The Son, or the reality of foundation, represents the correct relationship between the productive forces of the Father andMother.27