[Über den Fortschritt im Geistigen oder der wahre Weg zur Initiation]
Translation from the German by Robert Hütwohl[1]
“The truth is within us! — In all of us, there is a center in the innermost being where the truth dwells in its fullness, and its knowledge consists rather in opening a way for it through which the closed glory can be revealed than in showing a light apparently coming from without seeks to gain entrance.” — Browning.
“Know that your soul is the center, the dwelling place, and the kingdom of God” — Michael de Molinos.
The word “initiation” (from “initio” = beginning) means as much as the beginning of a new knowledge, a new life, a new existence, a new birth. When a person’s intellectual horizon expands as a result of a new discovery or experience, or a previously unknown realm of knowledge and ability opens up to him through a new experience, or a hitherto unknown truth becomes conscious to him, he enters into a, for him, new world; he then feels as if he were “reborn” and becomes, as it were, “a different person.” Any advance in spiritual, intellectual, or moral respect brings him to a higher level of culture; every elevation of self-awareness and ennoblement of character endows him with increased vigour, and is an initiation or ascent to a higher stage of intellectual or moral development.
But “initiation” in the “occult” or religious sense does not mean the development of this or that personal faculty, but to understand the awakening of the inner man in the outer man, the birth and resurrection of the spiritual man hidden in the personal man as in a tomb. It can be compared to the birth and growth of a child, which also has its own organism, which is different from that of its mother.
Unilateral development of this or that virtue or ability does not bring about rebirth. H. P. Blavatsky says: “Real spiritual growth occurs uniformly throughout man and is not the product of the growth of a series of excesses; just as the organism of the child grows; not the head first and then the hand or foot, but it takes place properly and evenly in all parts. Many people imagine that adeptship is the work of piecemeal construction, and that an adept is a man who, by a systematic process and by following certain rules, has first acquired this power and then that, and then when he has acquired certain occult powers, one would call him an adept. Such people then believe that in order to become adepts they must above all acquire occult powers, become clairvoyant and be able to leave the physical body to walk on the ‘astral plane.’”
An Adept is a perfect human born again in spirit. He is not “superman” in the ordinary sense; i.e., no fool who, rightly or wrongly, imagines that he is better than other men because he has this or that advantage. The born-again is elevated above other creatures in his consciousness only in so far as he is elevated above his own personality, knowing that this is but a shadow of his mind and the house which he temporarily occupies. To him the whole visible world, including his own personality, is a shadow play of the invisible Deity whose glory fills and pervades the universe. For him, corporeal life and the death of the body are only temporary phases of his eternal being; his body is subject to change; but he himself is above sleeping and waking, above life and death.
It is clear that no one can come to this state of exaltation over one’s own self while he is attached to his ephemeral self with all his fibres. He who is completely attached to the sensual and animal world, or surrenders entirely to the games of intellectual powers, who has no higher consciousness in his heart and no spiritual life that is different from and independent of the vital activities of the bodily organs, he is not yet ripe for spiritual progress; for to advance in the Holy Spirit of true self-knowledge one must first of all have that Holy Spirit. But no man can procure this spirit for himself unless it is present in him, and therefore the presence of the celestial spirit in man is the first condition of his progress in the spiritual, and the knowledge of that spirit comes to him, not as a result his curious or scholarly researches, but out of “grace”; i.e., she is the light of truth within him, which gives him the feeling or intuition of immortal existence.
From this feeling springs belief in a higher existence, and it need hardly be said that this living belief has nothing to do with the “dead” belief or belief in any theory of immortality, but springs from the stirrings of the higher life in man himself. This faith is a spiritual force from which inner conviction and certainty grows, and from it is born the distinction (viveka) between truth and deception, between the eternal and the transitory, the permanent and the impermanent. By means of this spiritual power man becomes aware of the difference between God-man and beast-man, between the higher, immortal, all-encompassing I which is a revelation of Deity, and the lower and transitory selfhood born of the delusion of self and self-conceit. Whoever has thus found God in himself and himself in the omnipresence of God also sees God in all his creatures and in every thing; for he recognizes from his own experience that everything is basically just one and all the different phenomena in the kingdom of nature are just revelations of the one life that has its origin in the Godhead. They are all essentially one, though at different stages of evolution; the whole of nature strives for incarnation and through this up to God.
Thus, at this stage of spiritual advancement, he recognizes not only his brothers and sisters in all men, but his own, all-encompassing, divine Self in all creatures. The awakening of this realization is already an initiation; because through this his spiritual horizon is expanded and a new world opens up before him full of power, love and glory, of whose existence the egoist trapped in his own conceit has no idea and for which the intellect only researching in the ephemeral has no understanding. Anyone who does not have this distinction cannot be artificially taught by anyone; for the Adept cannot be made, but must become himself. The power of this discernment does not belong to the human animal mind, but to the reincarnating inner spiritual man. Its development is the first condition on the way to self-knowledge; but in every normal man there is a divine spark of this knowledge, and it is a law of all kingdoms of nature that like meets like, and is nourished by like. The God Spirit in the macrocosm is the same as the God Spirit in the microcosm, and the great draws up the small. An old proverb says: “As it is above, so it is below, and there is nothing so small in the world that when the below stirs, the superior above does not stir against it and connects with it.” Thus the love of God in man attracts divine love and wisdom, and this lifts man up to itself.
But if the spirit of God in the macrocosm is to raise the spirit of man to Himself, then the indispensable condition for this is that man should not cling to those things which prevent him from this ascent. But these things are his animal passions, personal desires, inclinations and prejudices, and all the desires which spring from his delusions of self when he surrenders to them. That is why the Indian sage Śaṅkarāchārya, more than two thousand years ago, presented desirelessness (Vairāgya) as the second incessant condition on the path of spiritual progress, and taught that the one searching for the light should not claim any reward, neither on earth nor in the “beyond.”[2]
But this “desirelessness” or rather elevation above all worldly desires is a power which belongs to the inner, spiritually awakened human being and which the human being trapped in the external dream life cannot give to himself. All good things come from above. One does not let go of the lower as long as one does not know the higher, and one does not learn to know the higher as long as one remains attached to the lower. It’s like the story of the chicken and the egg. Without the egg there is no hen, and without the hen there is no egg. Thus, here too man would be helpless if he did not have the divine grace coming from above to help him; namely, the consciousness of the higher which is present within him, which grows in him the more the more he turns to it and surrenders to the higher.
This does not mean, however, that the outer human being no longer has any desires, that he should no longer strive for or acquire anything in outer life and should neglect his duties, rather it means that man should control his passions and desires through the power of knowledge that awakens in him; just as a rider does not gain power over his horse by killing it, but by reining it in and controlling it. One must not confuse the spiritual with the material. The Bible teaches, “Give to Caesar (the material) what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.” The outward man has his rights and his duties to perform, but the inward born-again man is free.
In Freemasonry, as in some religious orders, initiation or entry into the higher spiritual life is symbolized by the candidate for initiation pretending to die and being placed on a bier or shroud. Various ceremonies are then performed on him and he is brought back to life, after which he rises again as a supposedly newborn human, is clothed in the robes of the order and given a new name. But what is symbolized in this ceremony, which is often only a farce, takes place naturally through proper initiation; for then the animal element in man dies as it were through the mystical death, or, to put it more correctly, it loses its dominion over man and the inner man, who has attained the consciousness of his true human dignity, attains dominion over the outer man; the “Angel” in man has dominion over the “beast.”
The personal mortal man is called the “natural” in the Bible, the born again the “supernatural” or “spirit man.” Both are distinct from each other, but in the physical body they are joined together, though not inseparably, into one, similar to the horse and rider are joined together. Many a horse is fiery and difficult to control, many a self-aware Spirit is bound to a personality whose passions are difficult to control; but the rider is not the horse, and the horse is not the rider, nor is the spirit the personality with which it is associated. The “natural” man with all his animal powers, thinking faculties, intellectual abilities, learned morals, etc. is a product of material nature and the world of the stars; the “supernatural” spiritual man is a son of God and born of the Spirit of God. Nature works and thinks in earthly man and he cannot rise above himself. The natural man is like the soil in which the seed for the growth of a heavenly human plant is planted. The tree is not the earth on which it stands; but he is rooted in her and needs her strength to nourish himself. For spiritual progress, the forces from which passions spring are like the steps of the ladder up which it must climb. A man incapable of passion would be useless; but while the ignorant man is a servant of his desires, the one who has come to know is the master of them and knows how to use these powers usefully. A true master of the house will not drive away his servants to have peace from them, but he will train them to obey his commands and do his will.
The will of a perfect man is free. The freedom of the will means that the will is free from all personal desires and strivings, and since the outward personal man cannot live without personal striving, only the will of the inward, cognizant man is perfectly free. The outward man has his needs and must provide for them; the inner man has nothing to do with them and does not need to worry about them. When the Bible speaks of desirelessness, it refers to spiritual things, but not to external life. In this the rule is: “Help yourself, and God will help you”; but the inner spiritual growth takes place all the faster, when the fewer egoistic wishes come into consideration; the person born again in the spirit grows by himself without external help. He who is intent on his own progress will make little progress, for his egoism stands in his way like a ghost whose shadow veils the light of knowledge. A farmhand who does his duty for love of work is nearer to initiation than a fool who seeks spiritual gain by holding his nose and practicing Hatha Yoga. An old proverb says: “If you ask for nothing for yourself, everything will be given to you, and if you ask for something for yourself, what you already have will be taken away from you.” Egoism is the poison tree in whose shadow everything perishes. “Therefore ye shall not worry, saying, What (heavenly food) shall we eat? What (a heavenly light) shall we drink? With what shall we (when we lay aside our earthly body) be clothed? Seek above all the kingdom of God and his righteousness (the kingdom of freedom from self-delusion and selfishness), and everything you need (for your spiritual progress) will come to you.”[3]
Since the will of the divine Master, who has taken His throne in the sanctuary of our soul, is free, so that our will may be free from selfish desires, we need do nothing but listen to His voice and do His will. As we entrust ourselves to His guidance and align our will with his, His will becomes our will. But the will of the Master consists in nothing other than obedience to the law of God in the universe. By acting according to the law, man makes himself the law.
This is the case in the material as well as in the spiritual. If we want to accomplish anything in the material world, we must obey the laws given by nature; then nature brings about through us what we desire. The same is the case in the spirit. As we work according to the law of God, God works in and through us, and we thereby come into union with the divine will, which is the law of order and justice throughout the universe.
“Whoever follows Me does not walk in darkness,” says a well-known master.[4] He who follows the advice of the Master, whose voice speaks within, in all circumstances, acts rightly; for no one can do better than act to the best of his knowledge and belief; however, he must have the power of discernment already mentioned to discern the voice of the Master and not confuse it with the voices of desires of which his nature is composed, each having its own way of speaking. To hear clearly the voice of the Master who is the Higher Self within us, one must be filled and imbued with His love; Only then “can one keep our hearts and thoughts constantly focused on him and recognize him, only then our love and knowledge will be perfect; for one does not know what one does not love, and one cannot truly love what one does not know. But the love for the Master finds its expression in the love for all humanity and for all creatures; for there is only one God who dwells in the heart of all and is the soul of all.
The world is still deep in the dark of not knowing what is true. One loves the darkness and therefore cannot see the light of truth. One thinks one loves the truth and yet loves only the advantage which one thinks one can get from it. Many educate themselves to be “theosophists,” to be friends of the wisdom of God and close their hearts to this wisdom, because they only know and love the wisdom of this world, the human cleverness which arises from self-conceit. How few there are to whom the possession of wealth and power over other people does not appear to be the greatest good, who do not strive for fame, gratification of their vanity, addiction to astral abilities, etc., and are not always ready to barter such a dish of lentils the right of their firstborn in the realm of truth. One loves the truth as the butcher loves the cow he slaughters. He doesn’t love the cow, but the profit it brings. One prefers to close the gate to a truth which brings no personal benefit. Selfishness and self-conceit rule the world and the most sacred goods are haggled. Everywhere swindle associations flourish, which under the mask of holiness speculate on the stupidity of the believers and promise to give them possession of occult powers which, if they could attain them, would be the greatest misfortune for them, because a person who is not mature enough to possess occult powers very easily falls into the abuse of them, and falls into the greatest misfortune that can affect man — black magic.
The Bhagavad Gita teaches: “The self is man’s friend, but also his enemy.” — Without self-delusion and self-love there would be no individual development. The animal as well as the child needs selfishness for its protection; for every organism, be it a person, a club, a church, a state, its own self is the support and the center around which everything revolves. Now everyone is the enemy of the neighbor as soon as the neighbor stands in his way, and therefore the kingdom of nature is the kingdom of opposites and struggle and disharmony. It is different with the kingdom of God, for this is the kingdom of harmony; no one stands in the other’s way because everyone recognizes themselves in the other. Now selfhood is the greatest enemy of anyone who wants to enter this kingdom of God, because the illusion of selfhood and separateness from the whole prevents him from finding himself as a whole in the whole and realizing his unity with the whole. Delusion of self is the “custodian of the threshold” at the entrance to the sanctuary, tempting anyone who wishes to enter the kingdom of God. Jesus of Nazareth was also tempted by this devil in the desert, and Gautama Siddharta had to overcome him before he became a Buddha, an enlightened One.
“First came selfishness, Attavada,
which as in a mirror in the world,
Always only happy sees her own face,
And when she calls out “I,” everyone wants that,
Your “I” should respond in echo.
May everything perish if she only stays.”[5]
If self-delusion is overcome, then everything is conquered, for all human passions stem from this source. Their father is self-conceit, their mother self-love, and they are born in the night of ignorance of true selfhood.
Would people realize what man in his true nature is, that although in physical respect he is a child of the earth, in spiritual respect he is a son of God and is above all angels and gods and also has the ability to express himself in truth to be recognized as king of heaven and earth, the struggle for existence would come to an end and the earth would again ascend to heaven. Man, considered as an animal organism, is the “crown of creation” because in him the qualities of the various animal species are united into a whole; but in relation to his divine origin he is not a product of creation, but one with divinity and consequently the Creator himself. Man, lost in the realm of illusion and in the desert of passion, having lost the memory of his true home, is the “prodigal son.” The reawakening of God consciousness is initiation. In this way he returns to his homeland, and as the “Father” takes him back into his being, he becomes one with Him again.
This realization is both the beginning and the end of initiation. Spiritual progress begins with her, and even the greatest Adept can achieve nothing higher than the full knowledge of being one with the Godhead. In the beginning it is only a longing for the infinite, the feeling of the presence of a high ideal striving to be realized in us, but as this ideal takes shape in man, the feeling grows with certainty, and out of complete self-knowledge comes knowledge of God.
All such things are preached daily in the churches, but few understand them, for few realize that in order to become a “Son of God” or “Adept,” a pious desire is not enough, but complete self-sacrifice is necessary, and it is easier to expect this self-sacrifice from another than to sacrifice one’s own illusory self. The Bible, like the sacred writings of other peoples, contains the supreme religious mysteries and all that is necessary to know for the attainment of initiation; but these mysteries will not be understood until their teachings are followed. The crucifixion of a son of God two thousand years ago cannot be of any use to us if this process, symbolically represented in the Bible, does not take place within us and we ourselves do not let the “old Adam” die the mystical death in us, so that the God-man in us can celebrate his resurrection and introduce us to eternal life through it, that the consciousness of this immortal existence awakens in us.
Where the delusion of selfishness ends, the sun of universal consciousness rises in the divine. The heavenly soul of the universe and the heavenly part of the human soul are one. The God of the universe is not divided into beings, and what is godlike in man has its root in God. Everything in us which is not God is an illusion created by ourselves, and that is why “Meister Eckhart” also teaches: “Take away everything that is not God, and then only God remains.” This means: “When all illusions, deceptions, errors and prejudices disappear, the truth is revealed.”
Everything is essentially truth, but the human being restricted to his sensory life does not recognize it, he only sees the phenomena in nature, which are pictorial and symbolic representations arising from their revelation, which the limited understanding takes for reality itself because it is the essence has not yet learned to distinguish from appearance. Nature is not God, but the veil behind which the deity hides itself, and without the deity nature would be insubstantial, i.e., there would be no nature, just as there would be no shadow play on the wall, if the light which creates the shadow images were not there. The wise man does not take the representations in the great cinematograph theater for reality; he recognizes that he himself, neither his body nor his mind nor his personality, but in his higher self-consciousness is above all these things and needs them only as his tools and means for the perfection of his being. He therefore does not despise them either, but tries to use them according to their purpose. He knows that his physical body contains all the powers and essences he needs for his spiritual growth and he knows how to value this wealth and how to use it properly. He regards his own personality as the pupil whose education is entrusted to him; for he recognizes the master within himself and through his connection with him he is himself a student and master. He knows that in his capacity as a student he needs a material body for his development, because without it the spiritual rebirth and formation of the transfigured “sun body” of immortality is an impossibility. He knows that if he does not succeed in attaining this resurrection in this life, he must appear again and again in a new embodiment on the stage of this life and gain experience in the school of suffering; for without the possession of an organism suitable for eternity, personal immortality is also only a dream, and man is still a dream entity, which sooner or later melts away after the death of the physical body. The Master is immortal, but for the disciple there is no other salvation than union with the Master (Jesus), the Higher Self, and this is true initiation.
Spirit (consciousness) without a body is insubstantial. In order to enjoy an individual existence in each of the three worlds, the spirit requires an organization suitable for its abode. In a way, we already live in the three worlds; through our physical body we live in the physical world, through our dream body in the astral, and through our intellectual organization we come into contact with the realm of the intellect. But these three kingdoms are also subject to arising and passing away and changeable. Nothing is immortal but God, and in order to attain the vision of God, a higher organism is required in addition to God’s presence, which is capable of this vision and the absorption of divine forces and whose cognitive faculty is strong enough to penetrate the whole world, as yes the human heart is big enough to embrace the whole world in love. St. John’s Apocalypse and the Indian yoga philosophy deal with the nature of this “sun body.”
The mysteries of initiation have at all times been communicated only to those who have been found worthy of initiation by virtue of the purity of their character; for it is easily understood that instruction in the manner of acquiring magical powers and power over the free will of one’s fellows is most dangerous to those who have not yet attained the moral purity and firmness of character such powers if they owning them, not misusing them. Therefore, in the sacred writings of all peoples, these teachings are hidden behind allegories and symbols, and the betrayal of religious secrets was punishable by death.
In more recent times these mysteries have been thrown at the feet of a foolish crowd, and the “educated” rabble have taken possession of them. Now unreasonable people play with holy things. Everyone would like to be “initiated” in some convenient way, and since inward purification, self-sacrifice, self-restraint, and active philanthropy are not for everyone, a fertile field has opened up for the most diverse sects and bogus societies, which, be it from ignorance, or out of greed offering to teach the believers how, without inward purification, one can easily attain magical powers, become an Adept, and, burdened with all passions, invade the kingdom of God. Now the book market is flooded with the products of this trashy literature, which sell like hot cakes, and the number of insane, possessed and suicide falling victim to the advertised “hatha yoga practice” for which they are not mature is increasing daily. In these circumstances it may be appropriate to refer to the words of a Master who says: “True spirituality can only be attained through a pure and virtuous life, and for the neophyte who wishes to attain spiritual rebirth and initiation a perfect pure and chaste life is the most indispensable condition. If he is not imbued with the highest aspiration, is not guided by the loftiest philosophy, and does not practice strict morals, his chances are very slim, while the bungler in occult matters achieves nothing but injuring his intellect, engaging in the childish games of psychism and falling prey to evil influences from the world of phantasms, or corrupting his soul through the filthy acts of phallic service and black magic, as is being done by thousands of misguided people everywhere today.”
“Quod licet Jovi, non licet bovi.” — “All that is allowed to Jupiter is not permitted to the ox.” Rose water will not be poured into a vessel containing herring broth, the angels of heaven will not send their holy influences where nothing but fetid self-conceit and filth is to be found, and the heavenly maiden (Buddhi Manas) will not choose the temple of Venus to dwell. Even prayer in the mouth of the egoist is a crime, and a mantra uttered with selfish intent attracts evil influences. Anything that the ignorant man, attached to his passions, does to improve himself in his own power is useless. Man does not attain knowledge through his own chasing and running, but through the influence of the light from above. Like the tree in the garden, the soul grows by itself when the conditions are there for it to grow. In “Light on the Path” it is written: “Grow as the flower grows, without knowing it, but filled with longing to open the soul to the influence of the (spiritual) air. Not the greed for growth, but the Eternal itself must produce beauty and strength in you; then your soul will flourish in the fullness of purity, while in the other case your heart will be hardened by the craving for personal greatness.”
The butterfly is the symbol of rebirth. As a caterpillar it feeds on coarse fare, but as a risen butterfly it hovers from flower to flower in search of honey. In the same way, the human spirit returns to earth again and again to feed on the “dust of the earth” as a caterpillar, and as a butterfly it flutters from one life to another to find spiritual nourishment. How many reincarnations it takes for the caterpillar to become an immortal butterfly is difficult to determine and depends on the karma that everyone creates every day.
Notes:
[1] Concerning Progress in the Spiritual or the True Path to Initiation [Über den Fortschritt im Geistigen oder der wahre Weg zur Initiation. Franz Hartmann, M.D. Neue Lotusblüten 4, no. 9-10 (September-October 1911), 257-283] {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] F. Hartman. Sankaracharya. Tattwa Bodha or Realization.
[3] Cf. Matthew VI. 31.
[4] Thomas a Kempis “Following Christ.” {The Imitation of Christ, 1441.}
[5] Edwin Arnold. “The Light of Asia.”