Home Page	SIGNATURA RERUM The Signature of Nature This Docufilm, which looks at the life of Jakob Böhme (Jacob Behmen), has reached the final stage of shooting, all of which has taken place in Germany and Poland. The town in which Jakob Böhme lived most of his life lies on the border between these two countries, one half being called Görlitz, the other half being called Zgorzelec. - More Details on the subject and focus of this Docufilm follows in the space below. Return to the Living Time® Docufilms™ Main Page	Contact Us
	Mystic Symbol engraved on the tombstone on Jakob Böhme More About 'Signatura Rerum' This, perhaps one of the most esoteric of the series of Docu- films, takes us to a remote town in the farthest eastern quarter of Germany that is on the border with Poland. Görlitz, perhaps a name of which very few people are aware, was the home-town of the man whom many hail as the very first "Modern Philos- opher". Jakob Behmen (1575-1624) lived his life here, working as a cobbler for many years before one sudden moment when he "saw the truth of all things". He is what some have called an example of "Cosmic Consciousness". The film-maker jour- neyed to this town in 1995 and 1997 and 2000, each time ultimately finding himself drawn to the same location in the town. For it is in the cemetery of the town that the story really begins, or does it end? - it is really hard to say which. In the town's graveyard are laid the remains of this German Mystic, beneath, not one grave, but two. And it is the symbol upon of these gravestones that forms the pivotal focus of this film - the "Signatura Rerum" as Jakob Behmen calls it. This is to some degree a "travel-film", though it would most definitely not fit into any conventional framework. It is a journey to understand the meaning of a symbol upon a gravestone which ultimately sends the film-maker in search of himself. What does it mean, he asks himself, when a person is so fond of a symbol that he makes sure that it is inscribed upon his grave? Is this not far more than just having one's name inscribed upon a grave? Considering the fervent beliefs of this philosopher and mystic (the key facts of his life emerge in this film so that one might better judge the nature of his experience), is it not like pronouncing one's "faith" even when dead, little different in fact from the publication of a book. And it is, in fact, in the archives of this town that the answer is found to the question - "What does this enigmatic symbol mean?" The film is very experimental in its structure but nonetheless it is possible to divide it into three different stages, which are as follows: 1. Jacob's Journey (From England to Berlin, Dresden to Görlitz) 2. The City of the Dead (The Search for the Philosopher's "Stone") 3. The Signature of Nature (Trying to understand the Heart upon the Stone)