Every created thing bears a signature — an outward mark that reveals its inner nature. The wise learn to read these signatures as others read books. This is not superstition but attention. "The external form," Böhme wrote, "is the utterance of the internal spirit."
Consider the lion: its mane is solar, its roar is authority, its form declares its nature. Consider the lamb: its softness, its whiteness, its vulnerability speak without words. "God has written His character upon all things," Böhme declared. "We have only forgotten how to read."
"The whole outward visible world
Is a signature of the inward spiritual world.
Whatever is internally is also externally.
The spirit of each creature
Forms its body as an expression of itself."
This doctrine has practical implications. Paracelsus had taught that herbs bear signatures indicating their medicinal uses — the walnut resembles the brain and nourishes it, the lungwort's spotted leaves suggest its benefit for spotted lungs. Böhme extended this: "Every creature teaches us about the Creator. Every conflict in nature mirrors a conflict in the spirit. Every harmony below reflects a harmony above."
Of human beings, he wrote: "Your face is your signature. Your posture, your voice, your manner of walking — all reveal what you are within. The hypocrite thinks he can hide, but the wise see through the mask to the signature beneath."
"Learn to read the book of nature.
Each flower is a letter, each tree a word.
The mountains speak of permanence,
The rivers of constant change,
The stars of light in darkness.
When you can read these signatures,
You need no other scripture."
But the greatest signature, Böhme taught, is within the human being itself. "You are a microcosm containing all signatures. The stars are in you; the elements are in you; heaven and hell are in you. To know yourself fully is to know the entire creation."
This is why self-knowledge is the beginning of wisdom. Not the self-knowledge of psychology — the cataloguing of preferences and traumas — but the deeper reading of one's own signature, the recognition of what forces move within, what principles contend for mastery.
Teaching 15
Every created thing bears a signature revealing its inner nature. Learn to read these signs — in nature, in others, and above all in yourself. The outer world is a book written in the language of the spirit. You are both reader and text.