Translation from the German by Robert Hütwohl[1]
The ancient philosophers called the big world around us the “macrocosm” and man “the small world” or “microcosm.” Both are intimately connected with each other, and the forces contained in them are in constant relation and mutual interaction with each other. God created man in his own image, for the microcosm grew out of the macrocosm, and there is nothing in one that is not in the other. Paracelsus says: “If man had something in himself that is not contained in the macrocosm, he would be an unnatural thing, and if he had less than what he contains, he would be an imperfect product of nature.” Just as the concept of “man” includes everything that belongs to man: self-awareness and will, intelligence, life and love, spirit, soul and body, so does the concept of God, insofar as the human mind has a concept of the eternal and infinite, the whole universe with everything that is in it and perhaps also above it, the divinity itself, which is everything in everything and the essence of everything, with all its revelations, appearances and powers, wisdom and harmony, world spirit and world soul and the “material” body of God, all of nature. God is not a being distant from his creation and separate from it, but just as the world of thoughts of man arises from his feeling and thinking, so the whole spiritual and the whole world of appearances arise from the will of divine wisdom. Thought is not man, but inseparable from man. Nature is not God, but in nature divinity can reveal itself. God appears before us as a personal being in all his creatures, in every form we see we see a manifestation of his nature, be it mineral or plant, animal, human or a being from the imperceptible world. Divine qualities and powers are contained in each, though still unconscious and in an undeveloped state.
In the Bhagavad Gita, the deity (Krishna) speaks to the human being (Arjuna): “This whole cosmos is unfolded through me, through my mysterious nature. . . Exalted above all people, Brahma nevertheless dwells in all. Unmoved in himself, he nevertheless moves in all. He is not distributed among beings, and yet he works in all.” Likewise, the Bible teaches that all things are made of the Word of God, and that that Word itself was God in the beginning. But the word is the revelation of a thought, and every thought includes a certain meaning, consequently meaning, thought and word are also the all-creating Trinity and in every creature the father (will), son (thought) and spirit (revelation and form) .
If we want to get an idea of how the world was created, and how worlds continually come into being and pass away, we need only look within ourselves and see how we ourselves create the world in which we live live: First the urge to create something awakens in the artist, then his will takes a certain direction. It is still unclear to him what the work is supposed to be, but now he draws the idea from within himself, from this a definite conception of the object which he wants to represent is formed, and now he uses his physical strength to carry out his work. Nature offers us the same spectacle. Every object is the embodiment of an idea, each with a specific meaning or purpose; each is brought from the invisible and unmanifest to the seen and manifest by the physical forces of nature with her four elements.
In the great nature we find all the elements present in the organization of man. In fact, they do not belong to man, they are only borrowed from nature, he is formed from them and gives them back to nature; his material body is made of the stuff that nature has given him, and he discards it at death; his life is only an individual revelation of the general principle of life which has become a force in him; Light, heat, electricity, magnetism, etc. are universal forces; man can certainly use what is offered to him and transform it into other forms, but create nothing essentially new.
The same is the case with spiritual principles and powers. No one can manufacture wisdom, at most he can acquire it. If there was no intelligence in the universe, there could be no intelligent creatures. Love is as universal a principle as warmth, it manifests itself in all kingdoms of nature, albeit in different ways: among the celestial bodies as attraction, among chemicals as chemical affinity, in the vegetable kingdom as susceptibility to stimuli, in the animal kingdom as affection and desire, in man as passion, etc. The same is the case with all spiritual principles. They are not revealed to us as principles, but the forms are the vessels in which they become powerful and manifest. When man leaves his physical body at death, the physical elements which he possessed during life return to their origin; but when man cultivates the higher spiritual principles bestowed on him, so that they become a force in him, he thereby acquires a permanent possession, for these spiritual forces do not belong to his mortal body, but form parts of his higher psychic organization. But the fact that man possesses such a higher, spiritual, invisible organization is evident from the fact that he is able to carry out spiritual functions. Visible man has hands to grasp visible things and feet to move from place to place, and likewise man’s invisible organism has mental organs to grasp ideas, to dissect them, and to bring them into new forms, he also has the will to put himself in this or that region of thought at will. But who would claim that the world of thoughts is not a real world? It is even more permanent than the physical, for the objects of the sense world are only symbols or representations of things in the world of ideas; the symbols disappear, but the idea endures.
The whole world of appearances has rightly been called by the philosophers an illusion or deception (maya), for what appears to us as the sole reality in one state of existence is invisible to us when we are in another state and does not exist at all. For the dreaming, his dream life is reality and external existence has disappeared; Imaginations and ideas are things that cannot be grasped with the hands, and yet they rule the world. The sensual man and the animal know nothing of the kingdom of God, and yet the kingdom of truth is the sole reality and everything else is appearance.
In the eternal there is stillness, in the temporal there is movement. We can look at the macrocosm as a scale of vibrations of a primordial substance, and compare the different levels of existence to the different octaves of a piano. The lowest octave, where these tonal vibrations are coarsest and densest, represents our visible material world with its various grades of matter, from mineral and bone substance up to the finest neural fluid. The next higher octave represents the region of the invisible to our material sense organs ether with its inhabitants; then comes the world of the astral, the realm of desire and hatred, then the world of the intellectual and the imaginative, the realm of the ideal, and finally the realm of true knowledge and realization. The divine word resounds from the center of the macrocosm: “Let there be!” The becoming of things is the pronunciation of this word. Through the various regions the creative word propagates and brings forth physical, visible forms in our material world. It is the spiritual light which emanates from the spiritual sun of the universe, the source of life, love and the light of the world, which appears at its origin as the sun of wisdom, and of which our visible sun is the symbol, of which our earth receives its earthly light, life and warmth. As the colorless ray of light from our sun divides into the seven colors of the rainbow, so the flood of life, emanating from its divine origin, manifests itself on the different planes of existence and produces in the different worlds different forms and appearances which are as real as our world when they are not physically visible and tangible for us either. After all, on our physical plane there are sounds which are not audible to our ears, colors which are not visible to our eyes, and things that we cannot feel because our sense of touch is not sensitive enough.
But how can you prove the existence of invisible worlds to someone? There are things that everyone has to prove to themselves if they want to get to know them. Even the existence of our physical world could not be proven to us if we had no ability to perceive and recognize it. We ourselves have these higher spheres within us. Within ourselves is the divine Word; it is the spiritual life and consciousness within us, and we express it through action. As we transfer our consciousness to the higher spiritual realms within ourselves, these worlds become alive and knowable.
We need no scholar to prove to us that we possess a material body, for we see and feel it and are conscious of having it even with our eyes closed. We know that we have life within us because we are alive, and no scientific argument could lead us to believe that this life is only a movement of molecules, for we feel life itself as a force within us which can move matter but cannot be produced by it. We know from our own experience that our material body grows from nourishment, which it takes from the products of the material body of our earth, and that it uses this to replace its own material losses. We also know that the sun gives life to all nature through its rays, and that consequently the sun is the source of life. Without them there would be neither light nor warmth nor life in nature. The existence and life of our material body is inseparably connected with the existence and life of the great nature.
Our dream body or “astral body” [etheric body] is just as intimately related to the dream or astral world to which it belongs. As to its existence, anyone can convince himself of its nature by observing and studying his own dream life and comparing it with the experiences of others. We find ourselves in a different state in which we act, be it rational or unreasonable. Most of the time, your own will is not active. We think we want to, but are only driven by instincts. Will and reason are mostly absent in dream life because they belong to a higher level of existence. Often the experiences of the spirit at these higher levels are reflected in the dream consciousness of the sleeper and produce only confused images there, because the physical brain is still too grossly material to take in these mental impressions clearly or to retain them in memory. However, anyone who can consciously put himself in his astral body and leave his physical body in this will not doubt the existence of his astral body, and the conditions prevailing in this dream world will no longer be a secret for him.
Penetrating deeper within, or (which is the same thing) rising above the region of blind animal instincts, we enter the realm of desire and passion, in which the intellect also plays a part; for just as the sun illuminates the moon and the moon illuminates the earth, so the light of the higher penetrates into the lower lying next to it. The spirit of wisdom enlightens the mind, and the light of mind shines into the realm of desire. But when the light of wisdom comes into its own in this realm, the products of the night and the misty figures of the imagination disappear. But as far as the inhabitants of these lower regions are concerned, we can easily get an idea of their nature if we recognize that every character corresponds to a specific form and that half-animal, half-human forms of will consequently form such forms. The animals of our earth are representatives of the qualities embodied in them, and the same is the case with the lower regions of the world soul and the human soul. In dreams, the “alter egos” or “false selves” which have arisen within us often appear objectively and dramatically. We think we are dealing with alien beings, and they are only parts of our personality, ideas that we have created ourselves and equipped with our consciousness. Spiritism as a science and experimental psychology can give us valuable information in this regard.
The world of thoughts does not only exist in us, but everywhere. The realm of ideas is not confined to the heads of individuals, it is like the starry sky that surrounds our world. Ideas are like stars in the spiritual firmament of the macrocosm, you don’t create them, but you perceive them. One and the same star shines for all, one and the same idea can be grasped by all who discover it, a newborn thought is a light for the whole world.
But the realm of thoughts in the microcosm and macrocosm is not unlimited either. Above him, within us and without us, lies the realm of the ideal. If we rise to this, logical thinking is at an end, and we live in the contemplation and enjoyment of the object of our devotion. If you go deep enough into your innermost consciousness, you will find there the highest ideal, the divinity in humanity. But this deepening is also the highest elevation, because the spirit of God in the universe is not enclosed in the body of man, it is one and the same in the macrocosm and microcosm. The Spirit of God fills all of nature. It is in a sense our own spirit, for we are all in it and it is in us. In our innermost being we are all the only God, but we do not recognize it. This is not only a matter of faith, but also logical from a philosophical point of view, for if God is the essence of everything, then he is also our true self and the cause of our personal appearance. If it is omnipresent, it is also within us and in every atom of our body. If everything was made from the Word, and the Word was God in the beginning, then we too are made from the Word and from God, and it is only necessary that this Word work creatively in us again, i.e. that the knowledge of the divine existence awakens in us again, so that we can attain true self-awareness and the knowledge of God.
The microcosm therefore contains everything which man needs for his development and perfection, but he needs the inflow of forces originating from the macrocosm in order to stimulate and strengthen the forces contained within himself. The attainment of self-knowledge, then, is not just a matter of reason, intellectual inquiry, or science, but of growth, becoming, and nurturing. The human body gets its nourishment from the products of the earth. By surrendering to his desires and passions, man attracts corresponding influences from the astral plane, thereby nourishing them as like associates with like. By absorbing the thoughts of others, man nourishes his understanding and enlarges his sphere of knowledge; but neither from human knowledge nor from the morality which underlies self-consciousness does true spiritual growth and self-consciousness proceed. This only happens by nurturing and influencing the divine in man. “On Gods’ blessing,” says the proverb, “everything depends.” Without the spirit of self-knowledge, man is like the earth without the light.
No one can give himself this spirit, just as no one can make the sun shine on the earth when the sky is cloudy; but the spiritual sun of the universe is continually sending out its rays, and it is up to us to open the windows within and receive life and light. But this happens because man keeps his eyes directed towards this light, i.e., he should carry the highest divine-human ideal in his heart and allow it to be embodied in himself. The poorest of all mortals is he who has no higher ideal to look up to, cling to, and unite with. Like unites with like, and as man opens his heart to the Deity, the Deity descends to him.
Such a divine-human ideal is presented to man as a model to be imitated in all major religious systems, usually in the form of a personality in which this ideal has been realized. Knowing whether such a person was and lived as described in the religious books is not decisive, because for us it is not a matter of realizing the original, but the ideal. The question of when this or that great redeemer of the world lived, what he looked like, what his name was and what his fate was can be left to historians and scholars. Within us and above us is the power of salvation, and it is not a matter of history or understanding, but purity of heart. Anyone to whom the Master and Redeemer has become evident within himself will also find him in the big world and the divine mysteries will become clear to him. In the writings of the Egyptian Hermes he says: “Arise and embrace me with all your heart, and I will show you marvelous things.”
The way to union with the divine is the love for it. One cannot love what one does not feel, and one cannot feel what one does not touch. From touch comes feeling, from feeling faith or conviction, from faith love, from love union, and from this self-knowledge, which is based on one’s own experience and cannot be replaced by mere knowledge. In the beginning was the word: the thought of God expressed through deeds. That Word was God, and that God died for us, pouring himself into the human forms to awaken in them the consciousness of his presence and divine existence, and thereby make them partakers of his divine existence. When man arranges his life in such a way that he is completely permeated by the idea of God and this idea is embodied in him through his actions, then he has found the lost word again, then the divine-human ideal is realized in him, then the son celebrates God’s resurrection in man, and man becomes immortal in him.
“Whoever has the Son of God has eternal life. Anyone who does not have it does not have eternal life.” It does not matter whether a person is rich or poor, learned or unlearned, but only he has the Son of God within him who is conscious of his existence within himself, for the possession of something of which one has nothing, feeling and knowing nothing, is useless because one cannot make use of it. An inheritance which comes to us without our knowing it has no value for us until we learn about it and can take possession of it.
In the microcosm all forces are contained in the germ which is present in the macrocosm, but man only comes into possession of them when he knows how to use them. Therefore, everyone should strive to get to know the physical, psychological, spiritual and divine powers within him, to develop them and to guard against misusing them. Only when he has all his powers in his might and knows how to use them correctly is he a perfect human being. Through his becoming one with the creative thought of God, his consciousness, his will, becomes one with the will of divinity, the law of harmony and justice; he thereby becomes what he is destined to become, the crown of creation and lord over all of nature.
Notes:
[1] Macrocosm and Microcosm [Makrokosmos und Mikrokosmos. Franz Hartmann, M.D. Neue Lotusblüten 2, no. 1-2 (January-February 1909), 11-28.]{Lecture delivered October 4, 1908 to the Christo-Theosophical Society in London.}] {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}