[The following statement is made in a review of Charles W. Heckethorn’s Roses and Thorns; whether the whole review was penned by H.P.B. is unknown.]
Mr. Heckethorn identifies Böhme’s “Three First Properties of Nature” with the “Three Mothers” of Goethe’s Faust. He is quite right, but might have added that the idea, and even its form, are much older than Böhme. Hermes speaks of the Tres Matres—Light, Heat, and Electricity1—who showed to him the mysterious progress of work in Nature; and the “Three Mothers” were much talked about by the older Rosicrucians, who certainly did not derive their knowledge from Böhme.