The Three Tables of D.A. Freher

Dionysius Andreas Freher (1649-1728) was one of the most important of those who worked and followed in the stream of mystical hermeticism initiated by Jacob Boehme. Regrettably, Freher's contribution to mysticism is now almost completely unknown and unrecognised.
This work is well known through the three astounding complex engravings with opening sections which appeared in the William Law edition of the works of Boehme. As you lift up sections of the engraving more interior spaces are revealed. For this book, I have photographically disassembled the tables into a series of openings by manipulation of the images thus showing progessively the journey into the interior of each of the tables.
The three Tables illustrate, in essence, the process of the spiritual evolution of mankind. The first Table presents us with the process of the involution of the human soul into matter, its descent from the heights of the cosmic periphery into the deepest point of dense materiality where the human soul can still touch on the divine spirit.
The second Table shows in a pictorial way the present state of the human soul, struggling while immersed in the material world to keep a vision of the spirit, suspended between the worlds of spirit and matter, the inner and the outer.
The third Table attempts to illustrate the process of regeneration, or spiritual evolution, through which the human soul can become respiritualised.
Although this process is taken directly from Jacob Boehme, this doctrine of spiritual evolution is found in many mystery religions, and indeed resonates with our present day conception of humankind's relationship to the spiritual.
The picture of spiritual evolution presented in the Three Tables, lets us envisage our life's journey as a grand alchemical experiment, in which we inwardly struggle with the powerful forces of the spirit and material to purify and perfect the inmost essence of our being. Far from being merely the obscure output of a self-effacing and humble man, the Three Tables is a document which still speaks vitally to us today, resonating with the present condition of our souls, which are uncomfortably immersed in material things yet seek and yearn for a deeper spiritual content to our lives.