Translation from the German by Robert Hütwohl[1]
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“This sublime truth, O Bikkschu’s, was not taught to me by anyone and I have not read it in any book, but the eye was opened in myself; The knowledge awoke in me, the truth revealed itself in me, the light appeared in me.” (Gautama Buddha.)
| The name “Freemason” is a bogeyman to many who do not know its true meaning; it has a glorious ring to those who know it, for no one can grasp its true meaning without being a true Freemason himself in his heart, and no one can be this without feeling and recognizing in himself the majesty and greatness of human dignity. The word “Masonry” refers to “liberty” and “wall” or “build up”; the freedom of which is here spoken is the freedom of the spirit from selfishness, intolerance and ignorance, the freedom from the restrictions which fear, self-conceit and false ideas and desires have imposed on the human spirit and which of the lower material human nature, attach to the intellectual animal in man. The “edification” referred to here is the instruction by the temple of wisdom and is by the revelation of truth. The temple of wisdom is the inner man himself, in which truth reveals itself; all outward manifestations and communications have no other purpose than to awaken the inner man and make him receptive to the revelation of truth in his own heart. No description of light can replace light for us; but when the light of truth begins to dawn in one’s own heart, then one’s own knowledge begins, then the cornerstone of the temple of wisdom is laid. |
This true and genuine Freemasonry is also taught in all religious systems based on truth; indeed, this instruction, this awakening of the divine self-awareness in the material human being, whereby the son of earth becomes a son of heaven, in that the highest ideal is realized in him, is the ultimate goal and the sole goal of every true religion. Let’s take, for example, if the Bible is at hand, we find in Corinthians I, 16 and 17 the statement of the apostle Paul, who says: “Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? Whoever destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him, for the temple of God is holy, and such are you.”
We hear such phrases in church, too, but we are used to seeing them thoughtlessly spoken and thoughtlessly heard. How could he understand it who does not know that he is a temple of God and who neither feels nor recognizes the essence of God (the truth) in his soul. Therefore the deepest religious teachings are mysteries and will always remain mysteries, despite all the learned treatises, to one who does not possess in himself the power of knowledge communicated to him by the influence of the light from above.
However, every human being has the ability to know within himself. When he entered the world he received it as a birthday gift from the hand of his “Creator” — not from material nature, but from the kingdom of God (the “Magnum Mysterium”). But this ability to know is stifled in many and their development is hampered in most cases, partly by the demands which man’s lower nature (Kāma-Manas) makes on man, partly by the wrong ideas which he was taught about God, man and nature, especially in European schools and churches. If we ourselves want to remove the obstacles that prevent God from building his temple in us, and if we wish to contribute to this building, we must above all learn to distinguish the real building blocks from the false ones and have no contentment with merely theoretical knowledge and also no religious fanaticism, no mere contemplation or contemplation of the ideal, good and beautiful as if it would be something unattainable and incomprehensible as a matter of course, but the feeling for the sublime and beautiful, which is part of it. We cannot comprehend what we cannot even feel. This feeling is hindered in its development by taking the low for the highest, binding one’s heart to delusion, and ignoring eternal truth.
No theories can liberate us from this love of the sensual and transient, but we can liberate ourselves from it if we are shown the way of truth by those who have progressed on it themselves. Such enlightened people, in whom the light of truth was revealed, such great spirits (Mahā-Ātma) were the founders of all great religious systems, who taught them in their original purity, and such people still live today, albeit unknown to the great multitude and out of reach for the curious. These world sages have been shown to us through H. P. Blavatsky, the real building blocks which are necessary for the building of the temple; they have rent before our eyes the veil which, like a cobweb, hid the truth spun by the perversions of false philosophy and perverted theology; they have led us back to that world view which was the oldest, towards which modern science is striving, and which must be and will remain the final one — not because it is “believed” by the Adepts, but because it is the only true and correct and is the only possible result of divine Self-knowledge.
The center of this world view is the unity of Being in the whole universe, which is only one despite the multiplicity of innumerable forms under which it appears. As with a cut diamond, each surface represents a whole in itself, but in reality only an apparent existence is one with the whole in essence and could not exist without the whole, so also each individual human being is only a temporary appearance in humanity as a whole, and humanity is an outpouring of divinity, of essence, of the source of life, and consciousness in everything. Whoever recognizes this whole and indivisible in himself, or rather he in whom divinity comes to self-knowledge, recognizes the truth in everything and has true knowledge. True knowledge is the self-knowledge of truth, and since there is only one eternal truth, the true knowledge of one man cannot differ from the true knowledge of another. This self-knowledge of the truth forms the basis of all religions, all wisdom and all genuine Freemasonry. It is the cornerstone of the living temple of wisdom, the rock on which the true church stands, the stone on which philosophy rests, and without which science is a dream, morality a chimera.
Every Freemason knows that Freemasonry originated in the East, but not everyone knows the deep meaning of “East,” and not everyone has the clear vision to see past the narrow barriers which a modern understanding of Bible allegories has drawn. It is true that the sun appears to rise in the east, but this east is everywhere, because when it sets in our west, we are in the east of those who live further west. Wellstood in the east, i.e., in Asia, the cradle of the human race that now inhabits the earth; but this circumstance has no special value for us nowadays; he belongs to the past. The mysterious “East” in which the light of knowledge rises, awakened by divine love and strengthened by true faith, the hidden “Bethlehem” in which the eternal light of the transitory world, the Redeemer, is born, is not far away; it needs no ceremonies and no voyage across the sea to reach it; it lies at the core of every human heart, in the “promised land” that everyone carries in their breasts. There alone he finds God and the lost Word, which awakens the dead forces in his soul; there alone he finds the master who teaches him wisdom — not through external words, but by becoming one with the master himself in body and soul. Only someone who has wandered to this East himself, found the light of knowledge within himself and has become a master of his own earthly human nature is a real Freemason. The greatness of such a master of the art of self-control is infinite and incomparable above all the ranks and offices which the world can bestow; it is so great that the petty, lower human nature shrinks into nothingness filled with fear at the sight of it, and this sublimity of the human being filled and enlightened by the spirit of God is so great that the human being clinging to the dust of the earth cannot grasp it; therefore it is also impossible to teach the self-conceited fools a conception of the true essence of genuine Freemasonry. No one can truly recognize what he does not have himself. The infinite size as well as the hidden depth has something of a deterrent for superficial people. Schiller says: “Yes, that’s how they are! Frightens them equally with everything which has depth; nowhere are they happy except where it is quite flat.”
What are all the riches of the world compared to the riches of one who recognizes in himself the existence of that light from which come the rays that create and keep in motion the whole play of shadows that represent the world? What are all scholarly opinions, theories, intellectual conclusions and self-made ideas based on probability compared to the knowledge of someone who is himself the object of his knowledge, who knows the highest ideal not just from hearsay, but because it has realized itself in him, who cannot doubt the existence of the good, because he possesses it himself and is himself the one about whose existence the scholars argue!
It is not our intention to divulge Masonic secrets, but to draw the attention of our friends to the mysteries hidden in their teachings so that they may investigate them for themselves. The true spiritual mysteries cannot be divulged or betrayed, because none can understand them but he who owns the things to which they refer, and sees them within himself. Who can know the nature of love by mere scientific inquiry learn if he does not possess love himself? Who can really know the truth but who feels it in his heart? Who can grasp immortality other than he who has transcended his mortal nature and entered the immortal? Neither the flickering will-o’-the-wisp of ever-changing philosophical speculation, nor the smoky church light which a misguided theology has threw on to deceive mankind, can illuminate the truth, but only serve to obscure it. Truth shines in its own light for those who recognize it; it needs no artificial illumination when it reveals itself in man. That would mean lighting a tallow candle to see the sun.
But in order to get out of the subterranean passages to the surface, where the light of the sun can reach us, it is necessary to follow the teachings which have been communicated to us by the “Sons of Light.” No man can have real knowledge of what is on a higher level of existence than that to which he belongs; but he can certainly receive hints and instructions from those who are on this level, how he can eliminate that which prevents him from reaching this higher level himself. Admittedly, such instructions can be found in the “holy scriptures” of Christians and Jews, Buddhists, Brahmins, Mohammedans, etc.; but for the most part they consist only of instructions about what one should do or not do, without giving an understandable or sufficient reason for doing so. They ask of us a blind faith that too often runs counter to “common sense.” But such a blind faith has become an impossibility in our present enlightened age. Mankind has begun to think and can no longer break the habit of thinking. She wants to know the “how” and “why” of everything; she asks why should I believe or do this or that, and only when she receives an understandable answer to this question does she decide to believe it or to do it. The mere appeal to dogmatics, as was the fashion in the Middle Ages, is of little value today. Anyone who receives an order and misunderstands it or fails to see its purpose will find it difficult to obey it correctly.
The religious history of all peoples teaches that spiritual truths, which were only partially understood, were wrongly interpreted and led to mankind’s undoing. The spirit said to the Indians: “The woman shall unite with the man in the fire of divine love.” Then the priests took the women whose husbands had died and threw them into the fire, where they were burned alive. The Spirit of God said to the Aztecs: “Offer your hearts to me!” Then the priests took the captive enemies by the thousands, tore their hearts out of their breasts while they were still alive, and offered them up.[2] God said: “Seek the holy land (in your soul), conquer the kingdom of heaven by force!” Then the priests called the people together, encouraged them to plunder and murder, and Palestine was left to desolation and plunder.
God said: “You shall not shed blood!” Then the unloved were burned alive. He said, “Give me what is mine!” (i.e., spirit and love). Then the priest took the poor man’s last cow from the stable and sold it for the benefit of the church. God said to the Mohammedans, “Destroy my enemies!” (i.e., your own evil desires and lusts, which are opposed to my divine nature in you). So they sharpened their swords and went out to the “holy” war to kill their neighbors. Like a ray of sunshine which falls into a dirty puddle is not itself soiled, but serves to develop the poisonous germs contained in the puddle by promoting decomposition and, like clear water, taking on the shape and color of the vessel in which if it is contained, the revelation of the truth is of no use to those who cannot or do not want to recognize it; in perverted minds it is perverted, and even the holiest things are defiled when they come into unholy hands.
Now since truth is a dangerous toy, on which one can easily burn one’s hands if one does not know how to approach it in the spirit of truth, there has always been an “occult science,” which only through the attainment of Self-knowledge was known to “initiates” and these “initiates” were and still are the custodians of it. But this higher science is called “secret,” firstly because it cannot be grasped in practice until one has risen to that stage of spiritual development at which those spiritual forces exist which this science deals with, and secondly, because there are certain mysteries which men, so long as they have not attained mastery over their own nature, would abuse to their own and others’ harm if they came into their possession. For this reason mankind was only ever given as much of the wisdom teaching (insofar as it can be communicated) as was compatible with the respective cultural state of mankind.
However, at all times the truth was there and available to anyone who was able to receive it; but few had this ability, and those who succeeded in lifting the veil were misunderstood by the world and therefore persecuted; others who saw the truth did not have the ability to describe it in an easy-to-understand form. For example, if we take the writings of Jane Leade or Jakob Boehme, one can find the deepest truths in them, provided one already has them and then recognizes them in these forms. For the uninitiated, however, such works lack scientific basis. They appeal (like prayer books in general) only to the feelings, not to the intellect; yes, they reject even the seeking of reason. For this reason they are read by few today, and among them there are very few who understand them. Certainly the awakening of the feeling for the truth belongs above all to the understanding of spiritual truths; but this revival is much more difficult to attain by suppressing reason than by reconciling intellectual knowledge with spiritual knowledge. Many a man struggles with philosophy and theology all his life, and in the end is as clever as before.
Among all peoples only the noblest and best were in possession of the sacred secrets; partly because of the purity of their lives they were able to grasp them, partly they were told them through tradition. In the first place the Adepts in India and Egypt were and still are the keepers of these mysteries, which involve possession of power over certain natural forces; in the second place were the Brahmins, the priests of Isis, the priests of the Greeks and Romans, the Sufis of the Persians, and many a Mohammedan-Danish dervish. In more modern times the Catholic Church was the custodian of religion, and many inner processes well known to the occultist are still found symbolized in the ceremonies of the Catholic Church, though their meaning has become incomprehensible to clergyman as well as layman.[3]
But when, during the darkest period of our Kali Yug, the clergy supplanted the spirit of true religion, so that almost nothing remained but the dead form, when the morality of the clergy had sunk to its lowest, and especially when, with the advent of Protestantism, the higher Perception vanished, rationalism took hold and people no longer wanted to recognize anything that was not worked out with their human ingenuity; as sects murdered one another and books were written on the question of whether or not Adam had a navel, knowledge also dwindled and the “clergy” lost the key to understanding the mysteries of which they were the appointed keeper. Only a few enlightened ones who, despite the night surrounding them, found the glimmer of the light of truth, such as Eckhart, Theophrastus Paracelsus, Jakob Boehme, Malinos [Michael Molinos] and others, remained in possession of it, but were persecuted by the church.
It was at that time that the first Masonic and Rosicrucian lodges were formed, and those who still found a spark of human dignity took refuge in them.[4] They formed the oases in the desert of the spiritual and moral depravity of that time, and for a long time they were and partly still are what they are supposed to be, places where humanity and the love of truth are nurtured. But the enemy also crept into the lodges of the Freemasons; Masonry was defiled by black-feathered birds, degrees created which serve vanity rather than inner enlightenment, and many places of edification became associations whose end in the end is only social amusement and pastime. At the beginning of this century there were lodges in which occult science was practiced; today we know nothing more about it. We will be answered that the “enlightenment” brought about by modern science would have dispelled this superstition; The fact is that a rooster found a peacock’s feather on the dunghill and forgot the precious pearl lying next to it.
But the zeitgeist is advancing; he doesn’t stand still. He does not wait for those who are sitting by the way waiting for the stagecoach. The Keepers of Secrets in the East, through H. P. Blavatsky, have proclaimed to the profane teachings which seemed eternally unattainable even to the greatest of Masons of the past. These include the doctrine of the seven principles in the constitution of man and in the organism of all nature, the doctrine of reincarnation or the reshaping of a human personality by the immortal spirit, the doctrine of karma or retribution according to the law of necessity, and the Doctrine of that universal and therefore divine love which is not based on an artificially made morality, but on the recognition of the unity and inseparability of the whole.
The light of modern Freemasonry in Europe and America is the Bible derived from Judaism. but precisely because the allegories and symbols contained therein have been misinterpreted and are generally misunderstood; That is why the Bible no longer finds the consideration it deserves in the eyes of the enlightened. We find the key to their understanding in the “secret doctrine”[5] communicated to us by the Adepts through H. P. Blavatsky, which, however, still includes the main key, the spiritual cognitive ability (intuition). But this is inevitable, because the truth does not degrade. One can let light shine into the darkness, but not force the darkness (matter) to understand it.
The teachings discussed here are not a new invention. We find them hidden in the secret figures of the Rosicrucians of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries; we find it in the hieroglyphs of the Egyptians, in the mysteries of the Greeks and Romans, and most clearly in the Upanishads of the Indians. Arthur Schopenhauer says of them as he found them in the Oupnek’hat:
“How the Oupnek’hat breathes the holy spirit of the Vedas! How is each line so full of serious, definite, and consistently coherent meaning! Deep, primal, sublime thoughts emerge from every page, while a high holy spirit hovers over it all. And oh, how the spirit is washed clean of all early inoculated Jewish superstition and all philosophy that indulges in it. It is the most instructive and sublime reading possible in the world; it has been the consolation of my life and will be that of my death.”[6]
Indeed, the Bible is a book which requires knowledge of the teachings contained in the Upanishads in reading it, and the Upanishads provide the key to understanding the Bible. By studying the Indian teachings the field of vision is broadened, and we find general forces of nature and divine beings, where formerly only persons whose family affairs do not concern us, Jewish patriarchs, etc., were seen. There “Abraham” is transformed into the symbol of Brahma, “King Solomon” into the symbol of the sun of wisdom with triple names, Sol, Om and On (Latin, Sanskrit and Chaldean). There we find that the true Redeemer of mankind is not dead, but still lives and works in all mankind and in each individual today, and that the attainment of self-conscious immortality is not at the whim of a god, but of God in our own hands. There we convince ourselves that although man, viewed as an animal, is a product of the evolution of matter, the spiritual man who stands above him and animates him is a citizen of heaven, and that every life on earth is but one of the many trials which everyone must pass in order to attain perfection. Then we see that both life and death are illusions, and that neither affects the one who has come to know himself.[7]
There may well be a few who do not need all these teachings because they are enlightened by wisdom itself, and a better teacher cannot be found. But the mind of most mortals is like a page covered with the writing of error and falsehood, and there is no blank spot for truth to write. To destroy this false writing; to cleanse the slate, to make the mind susceptible to the knowledge of truth, and to build up the temple of God in man, this, and not the mere gratification of scientific curiosity, is the purpose of theosophical teachings.
In the spiral cycle of human evolution, our sex has once again reached the point where children’s shoes no longer fit. The world rubs the sleep out of its eyes, begins to think and no longer wants to believe in Jewish old wives’ tales if you don’t tell them what’s behind them. It demands a reasonable basis for the world view presented to it and refuses to believe that which contradicts both the feeling of truth in the heart and sound reason. Here the secret doctrine of the East appears as a saving angel. It gives religion a scientific support and demands as the basis of higher scientific research the unselfish love of truth, the natural basis of religion; it makes blind faith see by removing what kept our eyes closed. Now the deep meaning of religious allegory becomes clear to us and we find it very ridiculous that we used to find ridiculous what we misunderstood. Thus the word of truth ceases to be an empty sound to us, and we recognize the spirit animating dead form and dead letter. Touched by the magic wand of knowledge, everything turns to life, and the light of truth destroys folly as the light of the sun disperses mists.
The true secrets of genuine Freemasonry are the secret forces working in the soul of the world according to the law of the spirit in nature, the processes taking place in the inner sanctuary of the great lodge of mankind, which embraces the whole world. The greatest mystery which cannot be imparted is man himself. The passage from one degree to another in this lodge may take millions of years, and it is only in the last degree that he finds the great mystery of his own divine self. Human races come and go and fall from the tree of life like dry leaves in autumn that are blown away by the wind, but each blossom contains the germ of a new fruit The forms pass away, but the spirit rules forever The light penetrates deeper and deeper into the interior of the purifying matter, to the heart, where the divine spark rests, which it awakens and kindles.
Many dream of the ideal and the beautiful, of virtue, greatness and strength; few ensure that the ideal can be realized in them and that greatness and power can be revealed in them. There are many flowers in the field that dream of the sun and wither; Few are the diamonds, rubies and sapphires whose body the light of the sun penetrates, so that it becomes their own and is reflected in them. So there are also many who are overshadowed by the spirit, but only superficially and outwardly, and others who are penetrated deep into the heart by the spirit of divine love. Through this penetration the mystery becomes clear and edification occurs. In this way the spirit enters eternal freedom and the purpose of Freemasonry is fulfilled. When the light of truth penetrates the soul and body and ignites the divine spark; when selfishness and self-love and all that is impure in man’s mind is burned up, then the true man arises like a phoenix from the flames and soars to heaven, his home, where the pelican (Hamsa) dwells, who feeds his young with his own feeds the flowers and gives them eternal life. Only then is man in the true sanctuary, where the widow’s son finds his father again, and where is the stone that the henchman rejected, but which has become the keystone of the arch of the temple.
If all mankind entered this temple, then there would be peace on earth. Were the whole world to truly understand the Masonic mysteries, it would also understand itself and the truth. But these mysteries only become apparent when one recognizes the truth. Thus the one necessitates the other, the beginning the end and the end the beginning, the truth itself is the alpha and the 22, the means to the end and the end itself. It remains forever a mystery to those who make it their own personal and material purposes; whoever wants to know her must leave “himself” and raise his true self to her through the power of truth. Only then does Freemasonry fulfill its purpose.
Notes:
[1] Light From the East. An investigation of the basis, the being and the mysteries of genuine freemasonry. [Licht vom Osten. Eine Untersuchung der Grundlage, des Wesens und der Geheimniße der echten Freimaurerei. Franz Hartmann, M.D. Lotusblüten 3, no. 16 (January 1893), 15-43] {This article was reformatted from the original, but with the content unchanged other than fixing minor typos. Translation from the German by Robert Hütwohl, ©2025}
[2] Sphinx, July 1892. Page 24.
[3] Incidentally, the Roman Catholic customs originally came from the Buddhism of the north, and we still find the Mass in Tibet today, etc.
[4] The first Masonic Lodge was established on June 24, 1717 at the Apple-tree Tavern, Charles Street, Covent Garden, London.
[5] See „Lotusblüten,“ No. VI—XIII.
[6] Parerga II, page 427. [Parerga und Paralipomena. Kleine philosophische Schriften. Zweiter Band. Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860). Berlin, Druck und Verlag von A. M. Hahn, 1851]
[7] Bhagavad Gita, II, note.