Jakob Böhme, answered from the texts and cited to the page.
You ask whether it is natural philosophy, myth, or pantheism, and I must refuse the last first, for it supposes that God and nature are either one thing or two things sundered. I say neither. Nature is a tool and instrument of God, which his power and virtue work with, and yet it has its own motion from the out-flown will of God.1 God dwells through and through nature, yet nature comprehends him only so far as the unity of God yields itself into a natural substance and makes itself substantial, a substance of light; otherwise the unity of God is incomprehensible to nature, to the desirous receivingness.2
Nature is a natural substance, and is not God himself.3 Whoever reads the Aurora's word, that nature is the body of God, must read it with this: the body is not the speaker. Nor is it a myth that I spun for pleasure. Nature ariseth in the out-flown Word of the divine perception, and is a continual framing and forming of what the Word works by the Wisdom; it is like a carpenter who builds a house which the mind had figured and contrived before in itself.4
Whatever the eternal mind figures in the eternal Wisdom, nature frames into a property.5 And these properties are seven, and divide themselves into infinite.6 The first is the desire that makes harshness, hardness, cold and substance; the second is the stirring that stings and breaks the hardness, the Vulcan that strikes fire; the third is the feeling in that breaking, the ground of anguish, where the eternal will desires to be manifest as a fire or light.7
Then fire, light, sound, and last the body, which is the mansion and house of all the rest, the body of the Spirit wherein the Spirit works and plays with itself.8 Here is no tale of gods but an order in which each form causes the next, and none is first or last.9 Why must there be this order at all? Because the fullness of joy must know itself in itself; the keen tartness of the source must be a cause of the joy, and the darkness a manifestation of the light, which could not be in the One.10
In Saturn's hard impression and Jupiter's sensible power, which proceeds from the free Lubet, are pictured God's kingdom and the kingdom of his anger together: a wrestling combat, one making good, the other evil, and yet it is all good.11 That is no pantheism, for the creature is the spoken Word and not the Speaker. And the signature is nothing but this order read from the outside.
The whole outward visible world is a figure of the inward spiritual world; whatever is inwardly, so it has its character outwardly, as the spirit of each creature sets forth the form of its birth by its body.12 The internal holds the external before it as a glass wherein it beholds itself.13 So the form that is chief in the working spirit most signs the body, and the others hang to it, in shape and gait, in voice and speech, in trees and herbs, stones and metals.14
This is no fancy of mine, but the physician's art: he who can read the signature knows which property is wounded and which will heal it. I give you, then, a philosophy of nature, if you mean one that goes down to the ground of things. Call it myth only if you take the heavenly understanding for a fable because it must speak in the earthly tongue.
Everything visible is the signature of something inward: the whole outward world with all its being is a figure of the inward spiritual world, and every thing has its mouth to manifestation, the language of nature in which it speaks out what it is.15 Nature is God's manifestation, an eternal nature of seven properties that the outward world copies in time, and in the Aurora he calls it the body of God.1617
The alchemists' sulphur, mercury and salt and the astrologers' planets are figures of the same properties, and the work on metals is a figure of the new birth. God is in all things and is not any thing: the creature is God's speaking, not God.
Nature is but a Toole and Instrument of God, which Gods Power and vertue worketh with; and yet it hath its own Motion, from the out-flowne will of GodThe Clavis or Key
though God dwelleth through and through Nature, yet Nature comprehendeth him but so farre, as the unity of God yieldeth it selfe into, and communicateth it selfe with a Naturall SubstanceThe Clavis or Key
this substance is called a Naturall substance, and is not God himselfe.The Clavis or Key
Nature is like a Carpenter, who buildeth a House which the mind figured and contrived before in it selfeThe Clavis or Key
Whatsoever the Eternall minde figureth in the Eternall wisdome of God in the Divine Power; and bringeth into an Idea, that, Nature frameth into a Property.The Clavis or Key
Nature in its first ground consisteth in seven Properties: and these seven divide themselves into infinite.The Clavis or Key
The second Property is the stirring, or Attraction of the Desire it maketh stinging, breaking, and dividing of the hardnesse"; "it is the Vulcan that striketh fire.The Clavis or Key
as a mansion and house of all the rest or as a body of the Spirit wherein the Spirit worketh, and playeth with it selfeMysterium Magnum, an Exposition of Genesis, parts I-III
where the one doth cause and make the other, and none of them is the first or last, but it is the Eternal BandSignatura Rerum, the Signature of All Things
That the fullness of joy might know it selfe in it selfe, the Keen Tartnesse of the Source must be a cause of the joy; and the darknesse a manifestation of the lightMysterium Magnum, an Exposition of Genesis, parts I-III
they are two Properties in the manifestation of God according to Love and Anger... one maketh Good, the other Evil, and yet it is all GoodSignatura Rerum, the Signature of All Things
The whole outward visible World with all its Being is a Signature, or Figure of the inward spiritual WorldSignatura Rerum, the Signature of All Things
the internal holdeth the external before it as Glass, wherein it beholdeth it self in the property of the generation of all Forms, the external is its Signature.Signatura Rerum, the Signature of All Things
the Superior Form, which is chief in the Spirit of the working in the Power, doth most especially sign the Body, and the other Forms hang unto itSignatura Rerum, the Signature of All Things
CHAP. IX. Of the Signature, shewing how the Internal doth Sign the External. 1. THe whole outward visible World with all its Being is a Signature, or Figure of the inward spiritual World; whatsoever is Internally, and howsoever its operation is, so likewise it hath its Character externally; like as the Spirit of each Creature doth set forth and manifest the internal Form of its Birth by its Body, so doth the Eternal…Signatura Rerum, the Signature of All Things
The seven Forms do make them a Body according to their Hunger out of their own Property; therefore all whatsoever the Spirit hath in all Properties, lieth in the Body. 16. Further we are to know, that there is a Severation made in the Creation of this World; for this is to be seen in the Sun and Stars, so likewise in all Creatures, also in Metals, Stones and Earths; for this same is the manifestation of God. 17.Signatura Rerum, the Signature of All Things
Now therefore understand us aright, what we mean by these three words, Sulphur Mercury and Sal: In the Eternity all is Spirit; but when God moved himself with the eternal Nature, wherein his own manifestation doth consist, he did produce out of the spiritual Essence a palpable and manifest Essence, and introduced it into a Creatural Being according to the eternal Properties, which also consists of Spirit and…Signatura Rerum, the Signature of All Things
The part of the work that made him a source for Hegel, Schelling and the Romantic philosophy of nature and the part his critics found most fantastic; whether it is metaphysics, symbol or a lost science runs through the whole reception.