[Über die esoterische Bedeutung einiger Stellen aus Goethes Faust.]

Translation from the German by Robert Hütwohl^[1]

Six-part Series [Part 1]

“Everyone sees what is in his heart.” — Goethe.

“I will take away the heart of stone from your flesh, and give you a new heart and a new spirit.”—Ezek. XI, 19.

The word “esoteric,” from the Greek eso = internal, means “secret” or “occult” and this is not to be construed as referring to something is to be kept secret and shared only with certain beneficiaries. True, there are things which it is not advisable to say to everyone; for truth is a dangerous thing, and not everyone is sufficiently prepared to handle it; but in its deepest meaning the word “esoteric” refers to what man experiences, senses and experiences within himself, and the very “esoteric school” consists of “learning within” as opposed to “learning by heart.” The first rests on the inner life arising from true self-consciousness, the other on reading, hearsay, external instruction, intellectual speculation, and the play of the imagination.

          The teacher who comes closest to us in the true esoteric school is man’s own higher Ego; the spiritual individuality which in each reincarnation overshadows and affects the transient appearance of the personal man. In this spiritual person the result of his experiences from earlier forms of existence is accumulated. Everyone knows “in spirit” more than what is known to them personally. His own true Self is the treasury of his “unconscious” and the source of his intuition. The “esoteric” teaching consists in man approaching his true Self and receiving its light. In this way, little by little, what the “Spirit” of man (i.e. his divine ray of light) knows, comes to the intellectual understanding of his personality.

          In youth, so long as man does not yet have a mind corrupted by sensuality and sophistry, he is nearer to the pure and ideal and more susceptible to its influences than when he is in the midst of the haze of passions and the fog of intellectual speculation. As we mature, these ideals reappear more easily.

“You approach again, swaying figures,

Which early, once showed itself to the gloomy gaze.

Am I trying to hold you tight this time?

Do I still feel my heart inclined to that delusion?

You’re pushing yourself! Well then, you may rule

How you rise around me out of haze and mist.”

          What Goethe describes here as a “madness” is not to be understood as a delusion. The delusion only sets in when the ideals are torn out of the youthful heart by the brute force of ridicule, doubt and ignorance, and are driven out by wrong upbringing. In favorable cases, mental clarity may return in old age, and the spirit recognizes the highest ideal as the only real thing. This highest ideal is no man’s personal property; one cannot possess it, but can only soar to it and become absorbed in it by overcoming self-conceit and greed.

“What I own, I see far away,

And what disappeared becomes real to me.”

          This merging of the individual in the whole, and the resulting realization of the general ideal by the individual, is also the lesson and the conclusion which can be drawn from Goethe’s Faust. It is the same doctrine which underlies all religious systems, the crux and also the ultimate goal of every true religion, and in this sense Goethe’s Faust is a deeply religious, even theosophical, book. We can safely assume that Goethe understood his Faust, otherwise he would not have written it, but we can also assure the critic that we do not presume to judge what meaning Goethe put into his poetry. We don’t care what he “put” in there, we just look for what’s in it, and to describe all this would probably not suffice human life.

          Once the light of knowledge has dawned in man’s life, he would like to communicate to the whole world what he has seen through its illumination, because it fills him with joy. But how should he do this? How can he explain to the crowd what the crowd doesn’t understand because they don’t have clarity themselves? And this “crowd” is much larger than one is inclined to believe; for out of a thousand people who are “interested in the esoteric” there may be only five who are serious about the matter and who do not want to know the truth just to amuse themselves or to satisfy their curiosity to satisfy. He feels like the theater director in Faust:

“I wished very much to please the crowd,

Especially because she lives and lets live.”

          The crowd would also be a much more grateful public than the circles of scholars and “experts” among whom self-conceit and haughty ignorance have set up their headquarters and parade in the guise of “scientific authority”; for how could one teach anything to those who think they know everything better themselves? After all, the Bible teaches that the hidden wisdom of God (Theo-Sophia) is not for the “princes of this world,” and the well-known mystic, Bishop Tauler, says: “Whoever desires to see the highest must be a lofty star, shunning all earthly and perishable things and being enlightened by the Holy Spirit; otherwise he cannot attain the perception and contemplation of heavenly things.” But that there is still a higher realm of perception above the realm of intellectual research, in which alone the self-knowledge of truth can be found, is least of all understood by those who completely are surrounded by the fog of speculation. Vivekananda says: “A piece of wood does not think because it cannot think; God doesn’t think because he no longer needs to.” Thinking is only a means of gaining knowledge. Where objective observation and thinking ends, Self-awareness begins.

But the great multitude, far from transcending thought, have not even learned to think for themselves.

“And look at who you’re writing for!

If boredom drives him,

If he becomes full from the meal he has served,

And what remains the worst,

Quite a few come from reading the journals.

One hastens to us absent-mindedly, as to the masked festivals,

And curiosity only inspires every step.

The ladies show off their finery,

And play along for free.”

          And all this happens not only on the boards that signify the world, but throughout the world, among all estates and classes, in religious as well as scientific matters, among the exoteric and “esoteric,” and most of all in those societies in where the greatest fanatics are: What sane person could possibly care for the praise or blame of such an audience?

“What makes a full house happy?

Check out the patrons nearby!

They’re half cold, half raw.

Who after the play hopes for a game of cards,

Of a wild night at a harlot bases.

What plagues you poor fools so much

For such a purpose the fair muses? . . . .

only seeks to confuse people;

It’s hard to please.”

          In fact, the question arises whether confusing is not the best way to get the crowd to think for themselves, to shake them out of the deathly sleep of non-thinking and ignorance, and to bring clarity to them by stimulating thinking. There is probably nothing in the world that has done more harm than the misunderstanding of religion, and no atrocity that has not already been committed in its name. If the light of religion had never shone into the world, it would have remained relatively calm in the world; but it would have been the quiet of the grave and dumbing down. If there were no evil in the world, there would be no wisdom and no good either, because good can only be experienced by overcoming evil. Since mankind has created all the evils from which it suffers through its wrong conception of the truth, it must also as a whole, and each individual within it, overcome stupidity and passions through its own thinking and actions. The “devil” is thus to a certain extent the means of redeeming the world, for without overcoming evil no one can attain that clarity which only arises from overcoming it. A “Faust” without “Mephistopheles” would remain a sleep cap for the rest of its life. If everyone were content with darkness, there would be no striving for light.

          But even without the light itself there would be no salvation. The motto of the Rohan family is: “Through night to light!” Man must learn to rise from the night to the light through his own strength; but that power is the light bestowed on him. He could search in the dark for thousands of years with his self-made lantern and still not find the light of the sun; but where the sun is, there is no need of a lantern. Thus only by the power of the light bestowed on us by the grace of God can we come out of the night of ignorance to the true light of God knowledge, and this is also what is meant in that motto and its esoteric meaning.

          Now no one can make someone else understand something esoteric unless each of them already has the esoteric within themselves. Something which can be taught externally, or only grasped externally, is not esoteric but exoteric. Could the sacred mysteries of divine nature be taught to the mindless and unholy and unenlightened minds of those who live only in their brains and whose hearts are petrified, that science itself, like modern rationalism, would have to be mindless. But in every human being there is a spark of divine light which man needs for his enlightenment and which he has received as a birthday present from the hand of his Creator, his enduring individuality. This spark can be awakened in every human being when the human being has attained the necessary maturity. By finding the truth in ourselves, we discover it in other things as well; and if we find it in other things, we finally discover it in ourselves too. One thing grows out of the other; the knowledge of God, man and nature are mutually dependent, and from this interaction the tree of self-knowledge grows, which embraces God, man and nature as one.

“In colorful pictures little clarity,

much error and a little truth;

This is how the best drink is brewed,

which refreshes and builds up all the world.”

           There is truth in all things, but it is not evident to everyone. Poetry is a fraud only to those who cannot distinguish form from substance. The whole world would be a great deceit if it were really what it seems; but as it is, the world is a revelation of truth, and we deceive ourselves by not recognizing it, and believing it to be something other than what it really is. From Jesus of Nazareth to H. P. Blavatsky and many others, all enlightened ones who sought to spread the light were considered impostors by those who deceived themselves by misunderstanding them. God put the world before our eyes and Goethe his “Faust” so that everyone may draw as much knowledge from it as he can grasp, and everyone can only grasp what corresponds to his own innermost truth.

“Everyone sees what is in their heart.”

 Even the great multitude has not yet become insensible.

“They still honor the momentum, delight in appearances.

When you’re done, there’s nothing you can do,

A nascent will always be grateful.”

          All representations and teachings are nothing more than tools for Self-knowledge. The best school through which man attains this is life with its experiences. Everyone learns from it faster the less he is stubborn in his opinions and the less he holds on to his mistakes. Anyone who imagines that they have already “become,” stands still and will remain in the purgatory of this material life and have to return to it again and again until they let go of the errors they cling to, and step into freedom, from which no one can free him without his will. But in order to let go of the errors to which we cling, we must first recognize that they are errors, and this is done through the sufferings arising from these errors, which affect both the individual and the general. However, true freedom only occurs when man steps out of the limitations which his self-conceit imposes on him and recognizes himself as a whole in the whole and one with the whole. This is the ancient teaching which has been preached to mankind for thousands of years, which is still only understood by a few, and which Goethe also made clear to us in his “Faust.”

          Goethe’s “Faust” is the dramatic depiction of an eternal process which is constantly taking place in the world as a whole, as well as in the individual. In all forms the Spirit of God strives for revelation, and the forms resist. In eternity the light shines in the dark, and the dark cannot comprehend the light because it is opposed to it, and only like can recognize like. Whether we regard Faust, Mephistopheles, Gretchen, etc., as historical persons or as symbols of forces at work in general remains the same in the end; for every man is but a personification of a sum total of forces at work in the great nature, and an outwardly visible symbol of qualities which are in themselves invisible. Every creature is, as it were, a focal point in which rays of light contained in all of nature have temporarily gathered and from which they emanate again. In unreasonable beings these powers work without reason, in thinking ones under the direction of reason, in enlightened ones in conscious accordance with the law of spirit in nature. Everything is contained in man himself, God and nature, heaven, earth and hell, and consequently man’s true Self-knowledge encompasses everything contained in the whole universe. Man is originally a celestial being inhabiting an earth-born animal body, and thus the tragedy Faust appropriately begins in heaven, and the Lord God is introduced as a person, though he is not a person, but the One, Eternal, indivisible and omnipresent essence of all things, is the soul of souls; because without such a pictorial representation no representation at all would be possible.

          God is the Lord in the universe and in every creature because his will moves everything. He is also Lord through his righteousness. Whatever resists him perishes in the end. Mephistopheles is the product of egoism, the self-conceit which seeks equality with God, and the stubbornness that springs from ignorance of the truth which comes with error. According to this, all people who think themselves clever and have no faith in their hearts are possessed by the devil, and Mephistopheles, as the mania for doubt, accompanies everyone through life. Man has reason for his protection; but this is not the heavenly light of divine wisdom, but only a reflection of it. Without it, man might be happier, but would not gain wisdom.

“He would live a little better,

Had you not given him the gleam of the light of heaven;

He calls it reason and needs it alone,

To be more animal than any animal.”

          Mephistopheles, regarded as the intellectual principle in man, cannot know anything higher than reason, because he is not of grace, i.e. is not illumined by the light of truth, and since this inward revelation has not yet taken place in man (Faust), Mephistopheles thinks it easy to destroy him. But as long as the divine spark of the light of faith lives in the heart, it can find the right way.

“A good man in his dark urges

Is well aware of the right path.”

          He can pursue this path as long as the freedom of his will is not impaired or destroyed by magical means (hypnotism, etc.), as is all too often the case nowadays. Therefore God commanded Mephistopheles:

“You can only appear freely there”;

i.e., the spirit of another may not take possession of the person, otherwise the freedom of the will of the person possessed in this way is lost, and the person loses his right to self-determination and finally his individuality, the development and strengthening of which is the goal of human existence on earth. It is better for a man to be a criminal than to become another’s mindless automaton, even if only laudable actions are performed by that automaton; because the strong-willed criminal has an individuality which can turn to the good, but the automaton is a willless tool, a dream image, a nothing. He who is under the will of others is not his own master, and the good he does brings him no benefit; because what is “suggested” to him does not come from his own thinking and willing, while in the case of only external influences through persuasion and the like, the decision is still left to one’s own reason.

          Reason is Mephistopheles; she is the protector but also the seductress. It is not a question, as many “pious” think, of ignoring them and sinking down to the level of unreasoning animals, but of going beyond them in spirit, into the kingdom of grace, where only the light of faith shines, which cannot be comprehended by reason. In Dante’s “divine comedy,” Virgil, personifying purified reason, accompanies the poet through purgatory and hell; but he cannot lead him into the kingdom of God; Beatrice, the symbol of divine grace, must show him the way there. Her realm is the realm of love, where all speculation and reasoning ceases, and the light of truth shines without foreign admixture. Likewise, Faust only enters the light of knowledge when he finds selfless love. In her he finds his greatest happiness, but at the same time the annihilation of his self-delusion. It’s over with the speculating, fantasizing and inquisitive “Faust,” but what is essential in him is going to the paradise which his soul has found,

“To be blessed in the All-Blessed.”

(Sequel follows.)

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[Part 2] The Tragedy. Part One.^[2]

For millennia it has been taught by the Indian sages that the first condition for absolute knowledge of truth is the ability to discern the permanent from the non-permanent. “Nitya Anitya Vastu Viveka!” cries Sankaracharya, and the German mystic, Thomas von Kempen, expresses the same thing in other words, saying: “O if the crucified Jesus came into our hearts, how quickly and thoroughly would learning become our property. But this teaching is only understood by very few, and least of all by those who have already been taught or believe they are, because they do not know the permanent, namely Jesus, the God-man, who is “crucified” in their body and not knowing that he is their own true and eternal Self.

          The entire tragedy of “Faust” represents man’s struggle for true knowledge. He searches for that which is permanent or eternal in the impermanent and transitory, and cannot find it, because only that which is eternal in himself can recognize the eternal; he looks for the truth in external things and does not find it, because the knowledge of the truth can only be attained within oneself, since everything external is only an appearance or likeness. He searches for himself in the distance and yet can only find himself within himself. It is true that he has a feeling of infinity within him, but he is only half conscious of it; he tries to grasp it with his sky-storming intellect, but it flees from him because the limited cannot contain infinity within itself. Mephistopheles gives an excellent description of man on earth who seeks truth in the wrong way:

“He is driven far away by gardening;

He is half-aware of his madness.

He demands the most beautiful stars from the sky

And from the earth every highest lust,

And all near and all far

Satisfies not the deep-moving breast.”

          This longing for the unknown, the eternal, which dwells in the breast of every unspoilt human being who has not sunk into the swamp of materialism, is precise proof that this eternal and immortal dwells in himself, because all attraction is caused by the influence of like arising towards like, and the immortal could not attract him if there were nothing immortal within him. Intellectually, however, it is not comprehensible, because earthly common sense also belongs to transitory things.

          And so we now find man busy in his brain-case just as “Faust,” in his narrow “study room,” surrounded by scholarly stuff, fantasies and the smoke of knowledge, searches in vain for the one thing which alone is worth knowing, namely the truth. Not that his education is insufficient, and that another, even more “learned,” might understand it better; but because he has reached the peak of all earthly knowledge, studied philosophy, law and medicine and unfortunately also theology; he has no scruples or doubts, and he is

“[more] clever than all the fools,

Doctors, Magisters, Clerks and Priests;”

but he is dissatisfied with himself and the world, because in this world of appearances everything is only appearance and deception and no truth can be found; with all his arduous searching in external things he cannot recognize

“what the world

Holds together at heart.”

          He is not lacking in external knowledge, but in that inward enlightenment which is not the work of man, but can only come about when the truth reveals itself, in its own light, within the man who has become free from the delusion of separateness. One could call all earthly knowledge “anthroposophy,” even when it relates to metaphysics and supernatural things; the higher and true knowledge, on the other hand, is given in the Bible (1 Corinthians II, 7) Theo-Sophia, i.e. called knowledge of God, and has nothing to do with learned theology or speculative philosophy. It is the revelation of truth, the ultimate goal of human existence, and that wisdom of which the German mystic, Bishop Tauler, says: “Whoever desires to see God (truth) must (above all self-delusion and self-conceit) be a star; he must avoid all earthly and perishable things and be enlightened by the Holy Spirit (the spirit of truth), otherwise he cannot attain the vision and contemplation of heavenly things,” and the “heretic” Michael de Molinos puts it even more clearly by saying: “God grant that we may seek true wisdom in nothing but Jesus Christ (in us), and that in him and through him alone we may come to perfection.”

          The soul of “Faust” has not yet been freed from the delusion of peculiarity, and therefore he cannot understand this. He, like millions of his peers, considers the human personality to be something essential, and therefore he himself wants to know personally, touch personally, own and have. The sinking of the “I’s” which arose from his own imagination into nothingness and the resulting freedom of the spirit is incomprehensible to him, and since in the material world he cannot find what he is looking for and also cannot rise intellectually into the world of the spirit, he turns to “magic” with the question,

“Whether not many a secret would be made known to me by mental strength and mouth.”

         But even if an angel descended from heaven and told us what it was like in the highest spiritual regions, we would not know whether what he says was true, nor could we understand it, only we could make any idea of it. Everything that is only known by hearsay is not true knowledge; this is only attained by becoming aware of what is to be recognized, by learning, experiencing and recognizing it for oneself. Whoever wants to know heavenly things must open up heaven in his own heart. Only then does he recognize what the wise man is saying:

“The spirit world is not closed;

Your mind is closed, your heart is dead!

On! bathe, pupils, undaunted

The earthly breast in the dawn.”

The world of spirits is not closed, but one does not reach one’s goal by looking at it objectively. We can perhaps get an idea of what it looks like in the macrocosm, and

“As heavenly forces rise and fall,”

but do not come any closer to the original source of all existence, which has its dwelling in us; the mere contemplation brings before our eyes only a spectacle, which is nothing more than a spectacle.

“What a spectacle! But alas, only a spectacle!”

          The ideal always remains just an ideal as long as it is not realized in ourselves. Contemplating the forces of nature does not reveal the spirit which moves them. Before we desire to grasp the mysteries of the universe, it will be appropriate to get to know our own spirit, the spirit of the microcosm. Faust unwillingly turns the page over and sees the sign of the earth spirit.

“How differently does this sign affect me!

You, spirit of the earth, are closer to me.”

          Faust has invoked the spirit of mankind and, in his self-conceit, imagines that he is on an equal footing with it; but when true human nature is revealed to him, he is terrified of its greatness; he cannot endure the sight of it, and, seized by the feeling of his nothingness, he is horrified at himself.

“What a pitiful horror

Seize, superman, you! Where is the soul call?

Where is the breast that made a world seven

And carried and cherished those who trembled with joy

Swelled up to lift us like the spirits?

Where are you, Faust, whose voice came to me

Who pushed at me with all his might?

Is it you who, surrounded by my breath,

In all depths of life trembles,

A worm writhing away in fear!”

Faust’s ambition rears up once more; he imagines that he is perfect as a human being.

“Shall I give way to you, formation of flames?

It’s me, it’s Faust, I’m your equal!”

But his higher nature corrects him;

“You are like the spirit which you comprehend,

Not me!”

          Then Faust collapses in the feeling of his own nothingness. He had imagined himself to be an image of Godhead, and finds that he has not even truly become a man, and how can he comprehend the greatness of God who does not even comprehend mankind in its true greatness? Faust is destroyed, but this realization of his own nothingness is his “most beautiful happiness” because he has recognized that there is something higher than the personal self; he has learned to sense the permanent in the non-permanent.

          Now follows the scene in which Faust is interrupted in his meditation by Wagner and is again drawn down from the contemplation of the ideal, which is basically the only real thing, into this world of appearances and deception. H. P. Blavatsky rightly says in The Secret Doctrine: “Modern science is distorted old thinking and nothing more.” There is no talk of self-knowledge; yes, only rarely does a “scholar” understand what is meant by the word Self-knowledge. The expression “scholar” already means a person who only knows what has been taught and taught to him by others, but who knows nothing about himself. Any thinking of one’s own is frowned upon, and the educational establishments are like a general store where nothing else happens other than dealing in things which others have deposited there. The feeling for the higher is suppressed, and with it the ability to understand it also perishes.

“If you don’t feel it, you won’t pursue it.”

          It’s all brainwork, the intellect is engorged on a jumble of untrue and useless things, and the heart is starved. Nothing new is created, only the old is concocted; Not the love of truth, but ambition, lust for fame, greed and vanity are the mainsprings of the comedy that is being played out. Whenever a genius reveals himself as a school scholar and succeeds in breaking through despite the envy that surrounds him, it is not because such a person is a scholar, but because, despite his learning, he has not lost his feeling for the true.

“You just always sit, glued together,

Brew a ragout from another feast,

And blow the puny flames

Get out of your pile of ashes!

Admiration of children and of monkeys,

If your taste buds are after it;

But you will never create heart to heart,

If it’s not from your heart.”

          Book learning is opposed to true knowledge. One is mindless, loveless and empty; it springs from curiosity, which is the child of egoism, and finally stops at no cruelty to satisfy its curiosity, finally stifling the voice of conscience by pretending that it is working for the good of mankind. The other springs from the unselfish love of good, the germ of which is contained in all creatures.

“You have not won any refreshment there,

If it does not swell from your own soul.”

          But he who has recognized the truth, felt the sanctity of life, and understood the spirit in nature, will soon come to the conviction through experience that it is better to hide pearls than to show them openly.

“The few who recognized something of it,

Who, foolish enough, did not keep their full hearts,

Revealed their feeling and vision to the rabble

Has one ever been crucified and burned?”

To make a worldly-minded person who has no feeling for the spiritual understand that there is something higher than theoretical speculation, is an impossibility. A head,

“who always clings to stale stuff,

With greedy hand digs for treasure,

And happy when he finds earthworms.”

will never understand this. Wagner doesn’t understand it either, and Faust realizes that it would be useless to try to teach him.

“I beg each, friend, it is deep in the night,

We’ll have to break it this time.”

          Faust has fallen from his heaven and sunk back into his selfhood. He did have the power to attract his higher Self, but he didn’t have the power to hold it. In that blissful moment he felt so small as Faust, but so great in his union with the supernatural.

“You pushed me back cruelly

Into the certain desert.”

There, he now understands the impermanence of all that is impermanent, including his own person.

“I am not like the gods. It is deeply felt;

I am like the worm which rummages through the staff;

The one that lives in the dust, nourishing itself,

Destroy and bury the wanderer’s footsteps.”

The earthly knowledge, the earthly trinkets, the junk and tinsel of this moth world disgusts him, he longs to escape from the existence which binds him to this monkey business, in order then, as he believes,

“To penetrate the ether on a new path,

To new spheres of pure activity.”

He wants to measure himself,

“open the gates,

          Before which everyone likes to sneak past,”

and grab the poison cup. Then the voice of wisdom reminds him that existence on earth has a higher purpose; that not through the destruction of the body, but only through the overcoming of our shortcomings, the God-man in us can reach resurrection, and only those who love find bliss,

“The saddening

Healing and practicing

Pass an exam.”

          All this is indeed a memory, but not only a memory of something he heard in his youth, but rather of what he felt then, when he was still closer to the divine and his mind was not yet darkened by scholasticism. It is an echo from eternity, the impression of an experience from a higher life which belongs to his higher being. This time the spirit triumphs over the sensual, knowledge over ignorance.

“O keep on singing, you sweet heavenly songs;

The tears well up, the earth has me again.”

          Not reason, but faith saved him.

(Sequel follows.)

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[Part 3] The Tragedy. Part One.^[3]

The striving of most thinking people is to convince themselves of the immortality of their own personality. This striving is based on egoism, and it never leads to the goal, because egoism prevents the awakening of the consciousness of impersonality, and because there is no immortality of the personal, animal man, but the immortal higher spiritual individuality only those elements from which the personality is a composite, can absorb that which corresponds to their own divine nature. Everything else belongs to the realm of matter and is subject to dissolution and change. “Faust,” as a representative of this class of thinking people, only tasted the consciousness of immortality for a moment, namely at the moment when, permeated by the feeling of his own nothingness, he felt the true human greatness which was yet to be attained. Now he is an ordinary man again, and disgusted by the arrogant ignorance of our age, which parades in the guise of science, he throws away the hard-earned scholarly stuff and gives in to the enthusiasm for nature. He has studied the freaks of life, now he wants to get to know nature itself, in its unvarnished simplicity, and find satisfaction in it.

“Big and small rejoice contentedly;

Here I am human, here I am allowed to be.”

          If man contained no higher element than the sensuous, he could also find full satisfaction in enjoying the external phenomena of nature. One of our finest modern metaphysicians and philosophers, Dr. Carl Du Prel says aptly: “The most hideous thing is thinking.” A stone or a tree is never dissatisfied; a cow chewing the cud lacking nothing is the image of contentment; only the thinking animal suffers, even in full bodily well-being, because it not only feels but thinks. The fish is happy in the water, the bird in the air, the worm in the earth, the soul in the light. The human being, who is composed of all four elements, can enjoy the splendor of the whole of nature, and the more he forgets himself and in the sight of the great nature becomes completely absorbed in it and feels as one with it, the greater is his Enjoyment.

          But even this pleasure is not permanent; he is a delight in appearances that come and go. The sun goes down and the sunset disappears, the spectacle is over and makes way for another

“A beautiful dream, meanwhile she escapes!

Oh! to the spirit’s wings becomes so easy

No physical wing join.

But it is innate in everyone,

That his feeling pushes up and onward,

When above us, lost in the blue space,

Her blaring song the lark sings.”

          But this feeling, which is innate in everyone, can take us much higher than the realm of natural phenomena; for as it emanates from the divine spark in man’s heart, it elevates the soul to the throne of truth, to God, offering self-forgetfulness and a sense of oneness with all nature, without thereby losing individuality or ceasing the faculty of thought a type for us of the state entered by an enlightened yogi who has come to perfect self-knowledge and has become not only one with nature but also one with the Creator; it gives us a picture of nirvana, which is still taken by foolish people to mean merging into “nothingness.” The soul of the yogi, absorbed not in nothing but in the light of Divine Wisdom, is one with God; she recognizes herself as the Lord of Nature, and the universe as his body. He himself is nature and also its creator. Since everything is contained in himself, nothing is hidden from him either; he has entered the supreme perfection, and there can be nothing beyond it. Such a man can truly exclaim with the Indian sage:

“It is I who stale the sea-girded earth!

I myself am the sea-girded earth!”

          Anyone who does not have this feeling, the so-called “sober intellectual person,” will take all this to be a game of imagination, and in fact it is imagination when a fanatic imagines himself to be a god or even the world spirit; but there is a divine spark in man, which can become light in the flame of love of God and rise in the light of omniscience if the deception of selfhood does not prevent the soul from escaping its prison, spreading out and stepping into freedom.

          The drugged by sensuality, the self-indulgent who has become unnatural, the greedy and thirsty for knowledge brooding, the selfish intellectual, none of them know this feeling; they can only dissect, compose, classify, and preserve that which is as low as themselves. But the soul of a normal human being has two poles, like a magnet, one striving up and the other down.

“Two souls dwell, alas, in my breast,

One wants to separate from the other;

One holds in rough love lost

Face the world with clinging organs

The other violently rises from the dust

To the realms of high ancestors.”

          The lower soul forces have their focus in the material, the upper in the spiritual; each part gravitates to where its own being is attracted and where it belongs. The body is attracted to the earth by its heaviness and finds rest in the grave; the heavenly soul strives up to the world of the gods through its love for the highest and finally finds its rest in God. Spirit and matter are married to each other on this earth; but they don’t stay together forever. Each eventually returns to its source.

          Faust would like to get to know the world of spirits, and since he himself is not yet able to rise to the highest level and grasp it, he wishes to establish contact with the spirits of the central region. The opportunity to do this presents itself to him immediately; for it is much easier to let the devil come than to keep him at bay. As always, he appears now in the form of canine devotion and flattery. He can do all sorts of arts, is very intelligent, sharp-witted, witty, a sophist and egotist who always knows how to cover up his wickedness and to gloss over it by himself; but on closer inspection one finds in him despite his docility

“not the track

Of a spirit, and everything is dressage.”

          “Natural idealism” has borne its fruit, Faust has brought the devil home with him, and its influence is immediately felt as Faust begins to adapt the text of Scripture to his rationalism.

“It is written: ‘In the beginning was the Word’.”

          Intellectually unable to comprehend the Logos, the creative spirit in the universe, he finally translates:

“In the beginning was the deed.”

          With that he has reached the bottom of mindless materialism, which only knows the mechanical workings of blind natural forces, but not their spiritual causes. It is the nonsensical theory of force and matter, which lacks the main thing, consciousness. However, as usual, the devil is right from his superficial point of view, for action (kāma) is the beginning of becoming; but the deed is conditioned by the will, and thus the divine will permeated with wisdom is the beginning of the deed from which revelation and creation, spring.

          Faust’s better nature resists this “scientific” profanation of the sanctuary; he tries to suppress his doubts, but this is precisely how they gain strength. His faith tells him that the devil who possesses him is nothing more than a wily “errant scolast” who has no true knowledge but is super-wise, a corrupter and a liar; Nevertheless, Faust’s scientific curiosity stirs and he wishes to tie him to him. The natural consequence is that the devil succeeds in putting him to sleep, i.e. to numb his conscience and plunge him into that “sea of ​​madness” in which most people swim constantly. They lack the higher enlightenment which is necessary to reveal the divine mysteries in nature, and not wanting to bother to become capable of that enlightenment, and yet wanting to know, they invoke inductive speculation to help, which always goes astray, because it can only infer unknown things from known things, and nothing can be known to it which goes beyond its own being, i.e. the intellectual comprehension of the earthly human being. Therefore “Mephistopheles”

“The lord of rats and mice,

Of flies, frogs, bugs, lice” etc.

          For the earth-born intellect is itself born of the dust, creeps around in the dust forever and cannot rise above it. This, of course, is not to be construed as despicable from the human point of view, for without it man would be and remain an idiot, but it is the ancient Yoga teachings which point out to us that all human knowledge is only fragmentary which “the natural man hears nothing of the spirit of God, it is folly to him” (I. Corinth. II, 14), and that there is still a higher kingdom above the kingdom of external observation and logical speculation, that of true religious knowledge, which neither a mindless science nor an unenlightened theology can penetrate.

          Faust has toiled long enough to arrive at higher knowledge on the usual path, and describes the result to us as empty pseudo-knowledge, as it cannot be otherwise, since it itself derives from appearances, but not from the revelation of the truth has emerged from within. He only concerned himself with the names and appearances of things, but not with the essence of all things, and therefore did not know their essence either.

Faust: “What do you call yourself?”

Mephistopheles: “The question seems small to me

For one who despises the word so much

who, far removed from all appearances,

Only seek into the depths of beings.”

          The name of a thing serves to designate that force which the thing represents and of which it is a symbol; for everything we see consists of symbols in which invisible inner forces are represented outwardly. All of nature is a sum of symbols through which the Spirit of God speaks to us in the universe. A natural thing, a tree, a stone, a cat, represents nothing other than what it is. It is a symbol of his nature, and rightly bears his name. But if we look at men, we find that most of them represent something which in reality they are not; for in order to be a real human being, and to be worthy of that name, one must first become aware of true human dignity. In most of the people of our age, humanity is contained only in germs. Everywhere one finds people who represent something they are not and bear a name that is not theirs. It is believed that a so-called “Christian” really has the essence of Christ within him, that a so-called “theosophist” really has to have knowledge of God. Everywhere there is only appearance without essence, and therefore the world is full of deception. Only he who recognizes God in his heart knows the true nature of things.

          Also, because the human mind is a composite piecework, but the essence of all things (God) is a whole, it cannot absorb the same. Faust, like millions of his fellow human beings, considers his personality to be a whole and yet is only a part. If he wants to recognize the essence of all things, he must grow out of his personality in spirit and his individuality must become one with the whole.

“I’ll tell you a modest truth.

When the human being, the little fools go far,

Usually considers a whole.”

          Only when the human soul has become one with the world soul through the power of selfless love, and has thus also become great enough to feel itself as the whole, can the human being finally recognize itself as the all-encompassing whole. This knowledge is the correct Theosophy, and Goethe’s “Faust” is a textbook which shows how man arrives at it by way of experience.

          We have the solid ground on which we stand not above us but below us, and so it is in the spirit. That is why true knowledge cannot be attained by meaningless raving about the ideal. Anything that the sorceress imagination tells us, anything

“What the tender spirits sing to you,

The beautiful pictures they bring,”

is after all nothing but a spectacle and pastime, because true knowledge is conditioned by one’s own becoming. All church life, all ceremonies, all external praying and singing is far from being a religion, but rather playing with religion and a pastime. True religion does not consist in belonging to any church, upholding dogmas, finding devotional writings beautiful, and then contentedly putting them aside, or being enthusiastic about religious things. All of these are at most a means of attaining true religion, which only begins when knowledge of the highest awakens in the heart. All objective knowledge is external; the only true knowledge is self-knowledge, and no one can truly know himself as something that he is not truly himself. Only God alone is truly a “Theosophist,” i.e. none but God (in man) can possess divine wisdom; no one but God can truly know himself as God and Lord of the universe. If man wants to recognize God (the truth), he must be absorbed in God consciousness and become one with God. This is an impossibility as long as he finds his base and support in the consciousness of his personality (in self-delusion) and would like to know, personally have and possess, because all these desires spring from egoism, which is the enemy of true knowledge. The egoist wants to appropriate everything, but remains in his limitations and finds nothing but disappointment:

“I only wake up in horror in the morning,

I want to cry bitter tears,

To see the day that’s coming my way

Will not grant one wish, not one;

Who mitigates even the notion of every pleasure with stubborn criticism,

The creation of my lively breast with a thousand grimaces of life hinders.”

          Egoism always turns on itself and gets no further; the egoist sees himself as the center of world and seeks to satisfy its desires; he wants to possess the truth for himself. Here it will be asked, “How shall one come to the knowledge of the truth unless one desires to possess it, nor can it be attained by those who desire to possess it?” The answer is that he who seeks it, must love truth for its own sake, and not for possessing it; not to appropriate it and get some benefit from its possession, but to enter into it and dwell in it; just as a lover loves the object of his love not out of selfishness, but for the sake of its beauty, and does not think of himself. Whoever is animated by a high principle has no “own soul” and no longer lives “himself,” but the principle is his soul; it fills him and lives in and through him, and through it he is immortal; for death does not strike the principle, but only the vessel in which it is manifest. Faust also says in relation to the death of those who renounce earthly existence out of love for a high principle:

“O blessed is he to whom he shines in victory

The bloody laurels twine around the temple.”

          Even dying for a base principle is glorious, only selfishness is reprehensible and base, even if it results in wealth and reputation. Renouncing him is the great renunciation. Nothing is served by renouncing the world, or, like Faust, cursing it unless he can renounce his own imaginary self.

“Curse the blinding of the apparition,

Which presses on our senses.”

One must first become a human and feel one with humanity before one can transcend it and assimilate divinity.

“Stop playing with your grief,

which eats your life like a vulture!

The worst company makes you feel

like you’re a man with men.”

          Not to destroy the world, or to live alone in it, but to blossom out of it and overcome it, that is what man is in the world for. He who overcomes himself overcomes the world. The outer world, with its attractions and connections, is designed to lure us out of our selfishness and teach us to love something other than our supposed self. The love of family, nation, etc., is not to be suppressed or discarded, but still grow beyond all things, until it extends to humanity as a whole and finally finds its fulfillment in what is called humanity into being. But this is not done through empty fanaticism, a cult of personality, or morality based on self-conceit, but through selfless doing. Whoever participates in the sufferings and joys of mankind, thereby learns to know mankind; Whoever does good in the power of selfless love strengthens this power in himself and thus benefits himself the most.

As long as man is bound to his “self,” he himself must strive for something higher.

“If I ever calm down and lie down on a lazy bed,

So be it done for me at once.”

          True bliss can only be found in stillness; the rest, which can no longer be disturbed by anything, is in the consciousness of eternity. Anyone who enters this bliss no longer belongs to the age.

“I will say at the moment:

Beautiful moment! Do not pass away!

Then you may put me in chains

Then I would like to perish.

Then let the death knell ring

Then you are free of your service;

The clock may stand still, the pointer may fall,

It’s time for me!

          For a man who had nothing more to strive for or attain, existence would no longer have any purpose; Only he who is already living in the eternal in time is elevated above all personal desire and striving.

“The striving of all my strength

Is just what I promise.”

          The Bhagavad Gita of the Indians also teaches this vigorous striving, but it is to be done in the power of knowledge, not to gain any benefit from it in this world or in heaven; because even the intention to personally attain heavenly happiness is based on a reprehensible egoism.

“I don’t care about that over there;

Then you smash this world to pieces,

The other may arise afterwards.”

          Christianity also teaches that one seeks good only for its own sake and everything in the name of God, i.e. in the power of the knowledge of good, and should not do it out of self-conceit. “We should relate everything to God as the ultimate goal” (Thomas of Kempen). It is also true that those who “devote themselves to the devil,” i.e. makes it his own, then has to serve it in the future; for the egoism to which we invoke becomes our own nature, and every creature is compelled by its nature to act according to its constitution, until, as may be the case in man, it has overcome it again by the power of God.

          Mephistopheles promises Faust all sorts of sensual pleasures; but Faust does not desire them for the sake of sensual pleasure; he does not want to amuse himself, but to experience in order to learn, and is therefore on the right path, despite his aberrations.

“You hear it, Freud is not mentioned.

My bosom, healed of thirst for knowledge,

Shall no pain close itself in the future,

And what is allotted to all mankind,

I want to enjoy in my inner self,

Grasp the highest and lowest with my spirit,

heap their weal and woe on my bosom,

And so extend my own self to her self,

And like them, in the end I too will shatter.”

          It is an impossibility for a man to come by experience to the knowledge Faust desires, and Mephistopheles speaks true when he says:

“Believe our one, this whole thing

Made for one god only”;

for even if a human were to live millions of years, he would never finish witnessing the ever-changing sensations and experiences of each and every human being. However, true knowledge comes only from what one experiences and experiences for oneself, and in order to really know life as a whole in all its details, one would have to be a god oneself, i.e. be the creator of it all.

“He finds himself in his eternal splendor;

He brought us into darkness.”

          Only two paths remain open, the arduous path of spiritual faith, which leads to true self-knowledge, and its surrogate, intellectual faith, from which not true personal knowledge but pseudo-knowledge springs. Since the latter way is more convenient, Mephistopheles uses his arguments to persuade Faust that this pseudo-knowledge is just as useful as true knowledge.

“If I can pay six stallions,

Aren’t their powers mine?

I run to and I’m a right man

As if I had twenty-four legs.”

          In order to properly characterize this pseudo-knowledge, which for mortal man, who is himself only a pseudo-being, this acquired training, which is easily attainable for everyone, the scene follows between Mephistopheles and the pupil, who wishes to choose a faculty. The whole satire applies to our present-day conditions just as well as to Goethe’s time, and needs no comment. In the end, the devil turns out to be writing the saying “Eritis sicut Deus” (become like God) instead of “Eritis Deus” (become God) in the pupil’s register; for whoever proudly wants to become equal to God in his own nature will fall, but whoever renounces his self and enters into God no longer exists as a human being, but becomes God, and his is God’s greatness, God’s omnipotence, wisdom and glory.

(Sequel follows.)

---

[Part 4] The Tragedy. Part One.^[4]

The devil speaks true when he says:

“Scorn only reason and science,

man’s supreme power,

and let the lying spirit

strengthen you in dazzling and magical works,

so I’ve got you absolutely.”

          Reason and science are the supreme powers of mortal man, and he who despises them sinks below the unreasonable beast. It is most despised by those who misuse their reason and knowledge for irrational, selfish or devilish purposes. Knowledge that is not based on true knowledge leads to conclusions which give rise to the greatest follies, from the consequences of which all mankind suffers, of which the aberrations of modern medical “science” give us examples, among other things.^[5]

          It is no use ignoring and despising science because of the errors it contains without knowing it, rather it is a question of knowing these errors in order to overcome them.

          The earthly, i.e. the animal intellectual man, has nothing higher than his reason, and should act according to it. The animal acts according to its reason and therefore acts rationally; man alone has the power to abuse his reason and to act contrary to it. He then acts not only unreasonably, but foolishly. A science whose theories are contrary to common sense and based on wrong views is folly. Above reason, however, is the power of knowledge, which does not belong to the earthly human being but to the inner spiritual human being. Above the realm of intellectual activity stands the genius, without which even the best speculator remains a bungler, the artist remains only a craftsman. Human comprehension is something high; but it is not able to comprehend what goes beyond all human concepts and where only pure perception can penetrate, and therefore the intellect can only form ideas about the divine mysteries in nature, but not fathom them. The relative mind cannot grasp the absolute. Of course, Faust could not find the truth in the realm of the intellectual, which was above the intellectual, the absolute truth. Tired of futile searching and still unable to raise himself to the spiritual, he sinks to sensuality. He does not find the divine life, and now he wants to get to know the animal life and seek satisfaction in it. He does not need to search long for manifestations of the lower forces of nature. He finds them embodied in those destined to be the future teachers of the people and stewards of the welfare of the state. They sit together in Auerbach’s cellar, and they feel good

“Quite cannibalistic,

Than like five hundred swine.”

          Let’s hope that before they start their profession, they will get tired of this condition and overcome it.

          Faust is already too high to find pleasure in this hustle and bustle, which can satisfy a pig but no human being in the long run, because it contains a striving for something higher, even if it is unconscious of it. But the illusions of this dream life lose their value completely when one recognizes them for what they really are, namely as illusions.

          The poem now introduces us to the witches’ kitchen. Behind all the mumbo-jumbo presented to us, behind all the “nonsense” the witch speaks, we find a deep philosophy and a surprising knowledge of alchemical mysteries. The aging Faust needs youthful strength to throw himself into full human life. He is supposed to rejuvenate himself, and the “magic potion” that the witch brews is the means to do so. The symbolism of the scene in the witch’s kitchen allows for various interpretations. We only want to briefly hint at one of them. We can think of the witch as the spirit of nature, through whose power everything is rejuvenated and reborn. The ”beasts” are the animal forces in nature from which the spirit draws its power, and which act blindly until the guiding spirit appears. It is destined for man to rule both over the spirit of nature and over the forces that serve it; but it may be millions of years before he evolves to become aware of his power. But what the law of evolution brings about only slowly, the “alchemist” or “yogi” can achieve in a short time through knowledge, art, determination, perseverance and patience.

“Not art and science alone,

Patience wants to be in the work.

A quiet mind is busy for years;

Only time makes the fine fermentation powerful.”

          True alchemy is the art by which man can transform the lower natural forces at work in him into higher spiritual forces, or as it is symbolically expressed, the lower “metals” into the “gold” of wisdom. No external hand tools are required for this. Theophrastus Paracelsus says about this: “What can one say of the many recipes and vessels, of stoves, glasses, shards, water, oils, salts, sulphurs, . . . of galvanizing, sublimating, solvating, fixing, coagulating, digesting, testing, etc.? All this is wasted labor and labor in alchemy. In truth, there is nothing to be made of this, but you have to drive and leave everything as it is.”^[6]

          Man himself is the vessel, the “pot” in which both the forces of nature and the power of God rule and work and boil. He is himself the fire, the furnace and the retort. If he does not let the fire of divine love cool in his heart and constantly raise his will and thinking to the highest level, then the gold of wisdom “sublimates” from the noble feelings, which brings him to the consciousness of immortality and to eternal life. but

“The silly fool,”

He doesn’t know the pot

He doesn’t know the cauldron.”

          He constantly looks in sweet things for the strength he can only find within himself; he pursues external ideals, which elude him as soon as he tries to grasp them, instead of grasping the ideal within himself, and he loses himself in the realm of imagination.

          Every human being is free to become immortal through the divine power within him. Through bodily nourishment he absorbs the material life of nature, but its vessel, the body, is perishable and dies. Intellectual life nourishes his intellect, but intellectual activity does not last long either; knowledge is piecemeal and decays. But if he absorbs the spiritually divine life within himself, he connects himself with the source of eternal life, which people call “God.” God is one and all; man without God is nothing, a zero. If this zero is combined with unity, then ten arises and man finds his real existence in God. Thus the art of attaining immortality consists in the exercise of the power to turn one into ten.

“You have to understand that!

Make ten out of one.”

          Unity exists for zero only when zero recognizes it. A divine existence, which man does not feel and of which he is not aware, is nothing for him. Therefore he considers the illusion of his ephemeral personality to be the unit around which everything revolves. So he lives and dies in his delusion; for him there is no knowledge of the truth.

          Furthermore, it says in the “Witch Once-One”:

“The two let go.”

          This means that as long as man clings to duality and separateness, he cannot find unity. If he considers himself and God to be two different beings, he opposes God and cannot recognize the Deity, the essence of all appearances, as his own. Not that man should imagine that he is a “superman” or God, but that the realization should awaken in his innermost consciousness that God is his true Self and the true Self of all his creatures.

          Nor can two opposites come together without a third in which they agree.

“Three is the same,

so you’re rich.”

          A figure cannot be formed from two opposing points. On the two-dimensional plane there is only toggling, attraction and repulsion, struggle and strife, but no embodiment; only in the perfect triangle is there harmony and form. The mutual love between two ephemeral beings is ephemeral; but when the two come together in a love of an enduring ideal, then it endures. The realm of the two-dimensional is the realm of imagination and incorporeal. A shadow, a reflection has no substance. Subject and object cannot recognize each other unless the third, the power of knowledge, is present, and only those who have become one with the truth, who recognize themselves in it, are rich in knowledge.

The saying:

“Lose the four”

can refer to the squaring of the circle, but also to the fact that the four elements arise from the fifth, the “quintessence” of all things, and whoever masters this fifth possesses the creative word from which everything arises. In the same way, the sixth sense, the spiritual power of perception, should unfold from the five senses, and when in the center of the star with the six visible rays, which represents the human being, the seventh hidden therein, wisdom, is revealed in him the six the seven. Eight, however, signifies mystical death, and nine is the number of sensuality and selfishness, which disappears in ten.

“Out of Five and Six,

So says the witch

Make seven and eight

That’s it.

And nine is one

And ten is not one.”

          It is not within the scope of this work to go into detail about an explanation of occult mathematics, and these few indications must suffice. Anyone who understands the essence of this theory of numbers needs no explanation, and for those who cannot grasp it all these explanations are useless; he will say like Faust:

“What nonsense is she telling us?

It’s about to break my head.

Methinks I hear a whole choir

of a hundred thousand fools speak.”

          Also, the attempt to get spiritual secrets to be understood by the great crowd has always brought only misfortune. Just think of the controversy over the nature of the Trinity.

“It was the way of all times,

Then three and one and one and three

spreading error instead of truth”;

because the human mind cannot comprehend the essence of the Holy Trinity, which, like space, matter, and motion, is one, unless it is manifested in man himself. One argues about words for which one has no or wrong terms.

“In this way one chats and teaches undisturbed;

Who wants to deal with the fools?

Ordinarily, when man hears only words, he believes

There must also be something to think about.”

          If the external faculty of comprehension were supreme, the divine mysteries in nature would forever remain hidden from man; but there, where all research and speculation comes to an end, the realm of knowledge of the soul begins. What science cannot illuminate, wisdom makes clear. A stone does not think because it cannot think; the deity does not think because it no longer needs it by recognizing. Inquiring science and inquiring wisdom are two different things. One arrives at true self-knowledge not through brooding and reasoning, but through revelation arising from one’s own becoming. Thats’ why the witch is right when she says:

“The high power of science,

Hidden from the whole world!

And who does not think, it will be given to him,

He has her with no worries.”

          Not knowing and craving in our selfhood, but entering into the light is the path to enlightenment. But it is impossible to make this comprehensible to the clever ones of this world as long as that soul power is not awakened in him, which raises him above the realm of speculation to the light of truth.

          This is taught in all religious systems and by the sages of all nations. Thus says, for example, Saint Bonaventure: “If you want to know how it is that man directly receives the clarity of God, ask grace and not doctrine; the desire and not the mind, the devotion and not the reading, the Bridegroom, not the Master, God, not the man, the darkness, not the clarity, not the light, but the fire, which kindles the soul and introduces it into God and is God himself.” But the great of this world will not understand this in their self-conceit, and will not grasp that “whoever is the smallest on earth (in selfhood) will become the greatest in heaven (in the knowledge of God, which encompasses everything)” (I. Corinth. II, 14.)

          Finally, the witch delivers a song.

“Here’s a song!

If you sometimes sing it

This way you will feel a special effect.”

          We will hardly be wrong if we understand this song to be an “occult exercise” (mantram), the power of which lies in the fact that everything in the universe is composed of the vibrations of a fundamental tone (Ākāsha), and that whoever masters the spirit of this tone can achieve magical effects. The Bible says, “In the beginning was the Word.” It’s all created from the Word. The Word itself is the spirit and the creative power. For the immature, however, the awakening of this power is a gift from the devil; because if

“The power penetrates through the inside and outside,”

          Thus the whole of nature awakens in man, and not only his good tendencies awaken, but also his bad tendencies, like the sprouts of plants in a field when the sun shines on it

“And soon you feel with deep delight,

          How Cupid moves and jumps every now and then.”

          Thus, any zealous aspirant to magic should beware of trespassing into this field until he has attained the maturity, purity, and self-control which are absolutely necessary.

          The ancient Freemasons knew this, and hence the custom arose of thrice insistently asking the candidate whether he was dutifully and truly prepared to enter the Lodge before he was permitted to enter, and in the Christian church the ceremony of baptism is the symbol of purification which must precede all others. But because such ceremonies are nothing more than empty ceremonies for most people, their religion is also nothing but a ceremony and a gimmick.

“When Judas took the morsel, Satan entered into him.”^[7] Those who take in the Spirit of God and then abuse it are preparing their own judgment.

          In dealing with those invisible beings which, depending on their special properties, can be described as “ghosts,” “demons,” “elemental beings,” “secret natural forces” etc., and whose existence we can neither prove to the unbelieving doubter, nor do we desire to prove, three types are to be distinguished. The first kind is that to which every man is more or less subject, so long as he has the capacity to feel passion; because what is it if e.g. man becoming angry or passionate, other than a kind of possession by the spirits of anger, passion, &c., etc. No one ever acts of free will until he has mastered himself and his desires; everyone is also, without knowing it, influenced by the will, feelings and thoughts of other people, and consequently does not act himself, but as a tool of these invisible “spirits,” whose effects are called instincts, desires, ideas, etc. A person who cannot rule over them is a fool; a sage is he who controls them.

          The second type is by intentionally attracting and connecting with these demonic influences. This happens because one seriously desires and wants them, which is symbolically expressed in “Faust” by the fact that he commits himself to the devil with his blood

“Blood is a very special liquid”

          It is the bearer of life and will power, and a drop of bad will is enough to attract evil spirits, while good will elevates the soul to the good spirits. Devil sorcerers, miraculous fakers, etc., who connect with these beings, are possessed by them, and by driving out the spirit of the “medium” or paralyzing its activity, they take possession of the human body, impart their qualities to him, and use it as a tool to bring forth their amazing phenomena through it. While they seem so at the service of man, they make themselves at the service of men, because they rob them of their free will, communicate their being to them, which they cannot easily get rid of again, and thereby make it their own.

“I will join here to your service,

Do not rest at your beck and do not rest;

If we find ourselves over there

So you shall do the same to me.”

          Therein lies the danger of mediumship, “hypnotism” and “witchcraft”; which man loses his individuality and becomes a part of the being by which he now voluntarily lets himself be guided and later has to let himself drift because he can no longer resist it.

          The third type is true magic, which consists in the fact that the man who has come to Self-knowledge rises above all demonic influences and through the power of wisdom, first the instincts, desires, passions and thoughts existing in himself, and then the corresponding powers in who governs external nature; for without the control of the inner, a control of the outer in spiritual things cannot take place, because every power works from its center, and the center of spiritual powers is present in the human being himself. If you don’t exercise self-control, you can’t become a magician.

          Faust is not a magician, but rather a man obsessed with a thirst for knowledge and completely subordinate to it. He must experience the disadvantages of this submission in order to resolve to throw off the slavery of the senses and advance to freedom. If he were the master of himself, the sight of the beautiful Gretchen would not exert such an irresistible attraction on him that he would lose his reason and the sense of justice. He thinks he has free will, while all his will and thoughts are subject to the desire to possess Gretchen and he himself is the slave of his passion. In vain does his mind remind him of the law.

“My Lord Magister lobesan,

Leave me alone with the law!

And I’ll tell him that in a nutshell

If not the sweet young blood

rest in my arms tonight

So we divorced at midnight”

          All this is something quite natural for the human being who is subject to his temperament, but what a wretched part does the human being who is supposedly striving for the highest play in this; he for whom the world was not enough, he

“The image of the deity that is already

Seemed very close to the mirror of eternal truth,

His self enjoyed in celestial splendor and clarity,

And cast off the son of the earth”

          This example really makes the difference between fantastic enthusiasm and true self-confidence clear. Even the most sensuous man can have moments when his imagination raves on sublime things, and the greatest hypocrites often possess a liveliness of feeling and a gift of eloquence which enables them to use the most unctuous phrases, while they themselves lack inner substance and firmness. The spirit of such people is like the wind which blows in one window and out the other; it goes in and out, but it becomes the “philosopher’s stone” only when it is fixed in man’s heart. Only then does the spiritual church arise in man, “Peter,” the rock on which it is built, the true consciousness of divine being, which no storm of passion can overwhelm and which resists all temptations. Without this firmness, all enthusiasm for the higher is only lyric or “poetry,” i.e. the higher, the spiritual, is thereby condensed and brought to a dreamlike image; but where it finds no ground for growth, it goes up again in mist. Faust, the imaginary “superman,” whining for a garter, is a type of “aesthete” and “cream puff,” ruled by anything but himself.

“Give me a scarf from her breast,

A garter of my love lust.”

          What is passion but a form of the universal will in nature, which manifests itself in animals as well as in humans. The “natural man” is subject to it, but a “Faust,” a “clergyman, ”i.e., a spiritually struggling man must strive, through the exercise of his innate spiritual power, to rise above nature to its creator.

          Knowledge alone cannot give people moral strength. It is of little use to talk learnedly about things that one does not own and therefore does not really know. Of what use is his doctorate and his studies in philosophy to Faust, since in spite of everything he has now become a fool in love.

“Poor Faust!” I do not know you anymore.”

          He fancied that he could bend the realm of spirits to his will, and now a little creature appears in which the spirit of feminine beauty is embodied, and

Big Hans, oh, how small!

Lies melted at her feet.

          Here we think it appropriate to make an aside. The question, somewhat odd-sounding, is often raised as to whether an “occultist” or a “cleric” should marry. The correct answer seems to be this: Marriage may even be necessary and useful for a man entering the path to a higher life, and it may serve to furnish him with experiences needed for his advancement. But for one who has crossed the threshold and attained to the higher life, this would be a great obstacle, since he would have to neglect either the goal he is striving for or his family. No one can direct all his energies to one subject without paying less attention to the other than he deserves. No one can love God with all his heart, mind, and strength, while assuming other obligations, as the Bible dictates for those who want to be spiritual. A real minister naturally always lives a heavenly existence and consequently in “celibacy.” But this rule is not for those who still want to participate in the life of this world, but only for those who want to get a direct view of God. They too can say of God, like Faust of Gretchen:

          Whoever recognizes the light of God in his heart, this light also shines in all beings, and nowhere more than in the eyes of a loved one, but man can only attain a direct vision of God within himself, where divinity disclosed itself. Nor does wisdom tolerate rivals; the shooter who has his eyes on other things misses the mark. If you want to become a real theosophist, you have to give yourself completely to God in order to absorb the wisdom of God. He must have no other gods besides God. Knowledge and bliss arise from this complete devotion.

“To give oneself whole and a bliss

To feel that must be eternal.”

          The Bhagavad Gita and experience teaches that every being ultimately enters into that which one loves from the heart, because love itself is the spirit and essence of all things. He who surrenders completely to the highest, enters Him; whoever sacrifices himself to the ephemeral remains ephemeral. Only that which is eternal can bring eternal delight.

          With the acquaintance between Faust and Margarete, a love story begins, as it often happens in human life, and which needs no explanation. Faust and Gretchen are not driven to crime by love, but by desire, which is the perverse reflection of real love. True love drives no one to crime; she knows no selfishness and greed; she asks nothing for herself, but gives herself entirely. It is said that in one of his incarnations the Buddha had his body eaten by a hungry tigress, feeling sorry for her and her cubs in need of food,^[8] and that Christ “died,” for the love of humanity, i.e., renounced his divine existence and accepted a life in the flesh, which is to be regarded as a death. These are examples of true selfless love without selfish considerations. Gretchen’s love, like that of women in general, is basically selfless and therefore sacred, while Faust’s love is consumed in the fire of passion; but Gretchen’s love is without wisdom and therefore blind. She wants nothing more than to fulfill her lover’s wishes and completely entrusts herself to his wisdom. This is her undoing, but it grants her an experience she needs. In her refusal to leave the dungeon with Faust, in her cry:

“Heinrich! I dread you!”

expresses unmistakably that her soul has learned to distinguish between the higher and the lower which presents itself in Faust’s personality.

          As long as a person has not completely become the devil, his conscience stirs in him from time to time, which is nothing other than an admonition to his personality from the higher Ego within him. The pure in man painfully feels the presence of the impure and tries to push it away; the lust of the flesh is the torment of the soul, and this torment of soul communicates itself at suitable moments to the consciousness of the personal man, insofar as he has not yet become soulless; for there are also soulless people who have shrewdness but no longer have a conscience, such as one sometimes finds among flayers and vivisectors.

          But the life of the ordinary man is like a pendulum, which swings now to one side, now to the other, until it finally comes to rest in the centre. Day and night change not only in outer nature, but also in us. Now we are more spiritual, now more material; we rise and fall and rise again, and this is a necessity because spirit and matter need each other. Matter is permeated and animated by spirit, and spirit acquires substance and strength through matter.

          Faust, too, soon came to the realization that the life of the senses cannot satisfy his higher nature; but it is difficult for man to separate himself from his animal nature once it has become intimately connected with it and it has completely taken possession of it. Thus Faust complains:

“Exalted spirit, you gave me, you gave me everything

why I asked. Since did not give me in vain

turned your face in the fire;

gave me the glorious nature to the kingdom,

Strength to pale them, to enjoy them. . .

. . . you gave to this bliss

that brings me nearer and nearer to the gods,

Me the companion that I no longer have

Can do without, if he is equally cold and impertinent

Humiliated myself to myself, and to nothing

With a breath of words transforms your gifts.”

          And yet this “Mephistopheles” that is in every human being is not to be despised; for what would the world be without the devil? How could one come to the knowledge of good without the knowledge of evil, the truth without error, knowledge without doubt. The angels are forces ignorant of evil, and thus lack the steps to advance. But man is higher than all angels, for he has the power within himself to overcome evil; he shall learn both the angels and the devils, i.e., to harness the good and evil powers contained in it. In this sense, the devil is a savior of the world, because if he were not there, one could not overcome it, and only by overcoming it can one attain mastery over oneself and salvation.

          This is also stated in the “Prologue in Heaven” when the Lord says:

“Man’s activity can all too easily slacken,

He soon loves the necessary rest;

That’s why I gladly give him the journeyman,

He provokes and works, and has to create as a devil.”

          Thus the devil also has his good, and there is neither absolute good nor absolute evil in the world. “Good” and “evil” are relative terms and refer to the way a power is used and whether its use is beneficial or harmful. “Good” is that which leads to the highest existence, “evil” is that which leads to degradation and annihilation. The source of all evil is ignorance of the common good, the cure of all suffering is knowledge of it. The obstacle to knowledge is doubt; but without this man would succumb to superstition and the games of the imagination.

“From the Bits and Pieces of Imagination

I checked you for a while.”

          But whoever holds on to doubt against his better judgment remains stuck in it and perishes. The greatest obstacle to spiritual belief is intellectual doubt, and it is usually thought that it must be overcome by argument. This can take place where an intellectual belief is involved, but the intellectual belief is above all intellectual concepts and has nothing to do with arguments. Faust has the correct theory about religion. He says of his belief in God:

“Who can name him?

And who confess:

I believe him.

who feel

And subdue

To say: I don’t believe him?”

          But this faith that he feels has not yet become a living force in him, otherwise he would no longer need Mephistopheles. Gretchen also feels this from his words:

“If you hear it like that, it would seem tolerable,

          But it’s always wrong;

Because you have no Christianity.”

          But true Christianity does not consist, as she thinks, in going to mass and confession, but in the life of the God-man becoming power and life in man himself. This spiritually divine life is spiritual faith, the self-knowledge of the soul; in other words, “theosophy.”

          Love for Gretchen has softened the hard crust which selfishness had put on his heart and lifted him into a higher spirit, which also took his faith up a notch. When he reached for the poisoned cup in his study, he was not yet capable of the feelings that now uplift and move his soul. His thirst for knowledge has given way to another, nobler desire; he got to know love, even if part of that power turned into passion. Knowledge only fills the head; love ennobles the heart. True love stirs in him. In vain he struggles against his passion, and reproaches himself; it is stronger than his faith. He acts under a compulsion which he cannot resist because he does not have the willpower to do so.

“You, your peace I must undermine!

There, hell, you had to have this sacrifice!

Help, devil, shorten my time of fear!

What must happen, may it happen soon!

May her fate crash upon me,

And they perish with me.”

          Mind without love leads to the abyss of hell; love without understanding is blind. Faust loses his self-control and, carried away by passions, first becomes a liar, then a poisoner and murderer. Gretchen, as a result of her blind devotion, is tricked into poisoning her mother and killing her own child. But while Gretchen acts without judgement, and as it were as a blind tool of the lover whom she trusts unconditionally, Faust gives his intellectual assent to the crime he is committing. Gretchen acts like a person under the influence of someone else’s will. Faust agrees to his evil intuitions.

          Herein lies the important difference, recognized perhaps not by earthly law, but recognized by divine justice (kāma). The bad idea alone has no essence, is not yet an “evil spirit” and does not yet lead to action, but is like a dream, a creation of the imagination; for otherwise all writers who write horror novels and murder stories would have to be possessed by the devil. Thought receives its life, its power, its spirit through the will. If the intellect agrees, the thought becomes animated and becomes an essence; a new “appearing self” is thereby born within, which, when nurtured, grows and eventually impels man to accomplish as a part of his nature. But it gets its nourishment from the evil thoughts and forms of will that are similar to it in the astral light of nature; because people’s thinking and willing are forces that have an effect on other people, even without them knowing it, and everywhere the same attracts the same. Love is nourished by love, hate by hate, thought by imagination, will by perseverance, and from these ultimately deed springs. “Each mature thought enters another world and becomes a self-acting creature, merging, as it were, with beings conforming to its nature and inhabiting that world (the astral plane). Thus a benevolent genius is created by a good thought, a malicious devil by an evil thought.”^[9] It can thus be explained quite scientifically when one says that a good man is surrounded by angels, and a bad man by demons, for every form of will imbued with consciousness represents such a “spirit” with which the thought-sphere of man is filled; every thought enlivened by the will is a force generated by man, which has an effect on him again. Thus man lives as the creator in a spiritual world created by him, the inhabitants of which can be objectively perceived by the inner senses and, under certain circumstances, can even be seen from the outside. In this world of thoughts man is supposed to be the ruler; but if the Creator is ruled by the beings created by him, the order is wrong. Then the multiplicity prevails over the unity and the whole falls apart.

          This dream and magic world with its fantasies, which permeate our entire civilization, is described in “Walpurgis Night.” The world imagines that it no longer believes in ghosts and witches, and yet all classes are found delusional and bewitched by the false ideas which have taken possession of them. Will-o’-the-wisps in the guise of scientific authorities illuminate the paths and lead the crowd streaming after them into the abyss, the deceptive moonlight of the misguided intellect throws dark shadows into human life, under the protection of which pernicious theories shoot up from the earth like poisonous mushrooms. Well dawns in the east the semblance of truth,

“And even to the deepest chasms

He scents the abyss”;

but the faint splendor is darkened by the freaks of ignorance which rise from the abyss.

“There a steam rises, there wafts,

Here glows embers from haze and flor,

Then she creeps like a delicate thread,

Then it bursts out like a fountain.”

          Everywhere we see how the night of spiritual ignorance reigns, and at innumerable points the embers of ambition light up and the flame of passion blaze. The “Blocksberg” is everywhere, we don’t need to wander far to look for it. Mass murder and destruction in the guise of medical science is sweeping the land; folly erects monuments to men who deserve the gallows, and the people cheer for their executioner. The truth, as always, is laughed at, and the pillars of the Temple of Wisdom are thrown down.

“Listen, the pillars are splitting

Eternally green palaces.”

           The teachings of the wise are no longer understood and no longer heeded; they are replaced by the empty chatter of modern speculation, which lacks the basis of any thorough knowledge, the knowledge of the truth. To be sure, anyone who does not want to be swept away by the gale of popular unreason must stand firm in his belief in the truth.

“You must grasp the rock’s old ribs,

Otherwise it will throw you down into this abyss.”

          There we see thousands who would like to advance in knowledge, but cannot because, instead of strengthening their own strength through practice, they cling to the authorities in order to be carried along comfortably by them.

“We’d like to go up there with you!

We wash and we are completely clean,

But also eternally barren.”

          They don’t have time to develop their own power because they have spent their lives studying theories which will teach them how you could fly if you had the power. They call:

“Take me with you! Take me with you!”

but the knowledge of others is not our own. No man can make progress for another; at most he can describe to him the path that the seeker must go himself.

          So the dream life on the Blocksberge of this world is a great fool’s comedy in which, like in a chicken coop, everything is busy without accomplishing anything essentially useful. Everything goes in circles, and after a lot of effort you are back where you started. There are hundreds of “fires” to stoke, party interests, pursuit of wealth, prestige, fame, etc. Each seeks to increase at the expense of the other.

“It pushes and pushes, it ratchets and clatters!

It hisses and whirls, it pulls and babbles! . . .

One dances, one chats, one cooks, one drinks, one loves;

Now tell me, where is there anything better?”

          One might well laugh at this aimless hustle and bustle if it were not painful to see the innumerable and dreadful sufferings of mankind which spring from his ignorance. Of course, like earthly pleasures, they are transitory; but the heart of the humanitarian bleeds to see how easily they might be avoided if men would heed the voice of truth and recognize their own higher nature. As long as humanity prefers the darkness of ignorance and the glimmer of deceit to the light of truth, it will also have to suffer in order to turn to good through the knowledge of evil.

“There the crowd flocks to evil;

There’s a lot of mystery to be solved.”

Only when the sun of knowledge rises in the heart of mankind will Walpurgis Night come to an end.

“Clouds and wisps of fog

Light up from above.

air in the leaves and wind in the reed,

And everything fell apart.”

          The first step to knowledge is repentance. Faust, informed of Gretchen’s fate, becomes disgusted with Mephistopheles, i.e., before himself, seized.

“Don’t bare your voracious teeth at me like that.

                                           I’m disgusted! —

Great, glorious spirit, you to appear to me

                                  who appreciated my heart

Know and my soul, why at the disgraceful fellows

                                           forge me that

Gloating over the damage and dying at the end?”

          He would certainly like to get rid of the evil spirit he has absorbed, but he can no longer do without it. He does not regret the wrong he has committed, but only its consequences, and would like to prevent them. For this he needs the help of evil. He tries to free Margarete; but the evil associated with him is recognized by the latter and repels her; she refuses to follow him, and this saves her; while Faust, driven by selfishness, seeks safety instead of dying with Gretchen. But this is the test of a pure and good soul, that it refrains from evil, not because of the harm it might do to it, but because it is contrary to its nature.

(End of the first part.)

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[Part 5] The Tragedy. Second Part.^[10]

Clearly Laid Out.

In the first part Faust is described how he studied the small world, the microcosm, and, tempted by his thirst for knowledge, did not shy away from any means to achieve his goal. In his dealings with Margarete he got to know the human heart and tasted sensual love, and was driven by the passion that dominated him to lies, deceit, poisoning and murder. Now he longs to get to know the big world, to gain honour, wealth and power, and since the usual path to this is far too long, the power of evil, deceit, deception and magic is also required here.

          Faust has been accused of gross sensuality; but this is not correct. If he were completely immersed in sensuality, there would be no salvation for him; for then that which is of a divine nature in him would disappear from his being. However, he is at times carried away by lust; but its chief passion is the greedy thirst for knowledge, that impetuous thirst for the gratification of scientific curiosity, which leads science astray when it abandons the religious basis of true knowledge, and ruins the man who follows it, because out of it springs the disregard for the sanctity of life, desecration, cruelty and bestiality.

          There are two ways to come to the knowledge of truth, namely direct knowledge of God (theosophy), which can only be attained through inward sanctification, enlightenment and revelation of the truth in the heart of man and is therefore very difficult to attain, and secondly, the observation of the shadow play of nature, whereby one does not recognize the light itself, but can draw conclusions about its nature from its effects. Faust prefers the second, more convenient way. Disguised as a fool, he sneaks into the emperor’s court camp, arouses the admiration of the onlookers with his magic arts, exposes the ideal to their mockery, and wins the favor of the emperor. He himself seeks to grasp the being in the empty appearance; carried away by the deception of appearances, he wants to capture the ideal, but an explosion ensues and his spirits go up in smoke.

          Poetry now introduces us into the realm of those perverted sciences which hold the mind to be a product of mindless forms. Wagner wants to make a human being by mixing different ingredients; but since he cannot dispose of the spirit of God, which enlivens everything and from which all forms spring, he brings about nothing other than an imaginary structure animated by himself, a reflection of his being, a “homunculus.” Guided by him, Faust embarks on the “classic Walpurgis Night” and searches for the realization of his ideal among the figures of Greek mythology.

          Now Helena appears with her entourage. Her story is a symbolic representation of the eternal truth which man can only attain his ideal by realizing it within himself; for all external possession is only a semblance of possession. The realization of the divine ideal in man is only possible through self-denial and self-sacrifice. Helena, the human soul, shrinks from this sacrifice; it forgets its true, eternal essence and clings to form. As a result, she becomes an idol herself, and Faust uses a ruse to gain possession of him. The ideal disappears, only the garment remains.

          The disappearance of the ideal leaves a desolation and emptiness in Faust. Mephistopheles tries in vain to tempt him to indulge in hedonism. On the other hand, the thirst for action awakens in him; he wants to achieve something great, and for that he needs possessions. Through deceit he wins the emperor’s battle and is rewarded by him with land possessions.

          He has now become ruler of a great country, but his desires are insatiable. He has a lot, but he wants everything. The fact that the little estate does not yet belong to him makes him very annoyed; he takes possession of it by force, murdering the inhabitants. Now remorse seizes him; he curses his covenant with evil and the possessions obtained through it. He sees that one must first become a man before one can become a “superman,” and that whatever springs from man’s self-conceit is worthless and brings ruin.

          Faust goes blind; but within him comes the realization that man’s true happiness is not to be self-sufficient, to own and enjoy for himself, but to recognize the spirit of the whole in himself, and in that spirit as one part of the whole to work selflessly for the general. This awakens in him the consciousness of humanity and the foreboding of the happiness which he has created through his work for a large part of humanity, and consequently also for himself as a part of it. With that, his self-delusion and egoism is over, and he has no need to go on living as an individual, as a creature separated from one humanity; he dies.

          The good which was in him has won the victory over evil. The devil can get nothing else out of man than what corresponds to his own nature and is of a devilish nature. Faust’s soul detaches itself from everything impure, tears away all earthly ties which belonged to his personal self, and his immortality is conquered by the angels, i.e., carried up to higher consciousness by the heavenly powers within him. There he also finds the immortal part of Margaret, for both are connected by what was ideal and immortal in their love. They are one in this love and cannot be separated from each other. Then his soul also attains a transfigured body in which it emerges again in the “first youthful strength,” and this will enable him, after a period of rest in which he has enjoyed heavenly bliss, to build up a new physical organism again in order to to further walk the path of progress when he reappears on earth.

          It is not our intention to write a scholarly treatise on the individual parts of Goethe’s Faust, or to explain the mythological figures which appear in it. We leave that to the scholars who know better. Our job is only to draw attention to the mystical significance of some prominent passages. Everyone is free to correct any errors that may occur.

---

Act I

(Faust, lying on a bed of a flowery lawn, tired, in search of sleep.)

Small elf spirit in size

Hurry, where she can help;

Whether he is holy, or whether he is evil,

the unlucky man wails.

          Sleep, like its brother, death, is a deep mystery. Official science can perhaps describe some of the physiological processes which occur when the body, the instrument which man uses in waking, falls asleep; but occult science knows more. It teaches us that in deep sleep the human spirit retreats to its innermost sanctuary, to its divine origin, and that a dream life only takes place in the border region where consciousness vacillates between the spiritual and the material. Personality consciousness is an illusion created by the desire for being special and the loss of true self-knowledge and supported by sensory impressions. The Spirit of God in man is not a person, and the soul which has become free is unaware of any personal existence. With the disappearance of self-delusion in the sanctuary of the soul, all personal relationships of its earthly shell also come to an end. There the saint is no longer a saint, the criminal is no longer a criminal. Whether it was good or evil, the spirit finds rest beyond the dream world, in sleep as well as in death; for even the dreaded middle region of suffering souls is nothing other than a world of dreams, no matter how real they may appear to those who live there.

          Rest of the body alone cannot still the mind. What soothes the soul are the higher forces within it, through the concentration of which consciousness withdraws from the lower forces. They are the elves which Ariel commands:

“You who hover around this head in airy circles,

Show yourself here in the noble elven way:

Soothe the heart’s rage Strauss.

Removes the fiery darts of reproach,

His inner being is cleansed of the horror he has experienced.”

          They are the ones who carry the soul, both in sleep and in death, to those regions of peace where no more evil desire can torment it, no evil memory can reach it. Even waking life on earth is to a certain extent a confused and wild dream; but we are always free, through our indwelling power “Ariel,” to summon these angels and elves and let them open the gate of peace for us. But the realm of inner calm and peace is also the realm of light and knowledge for the soul, and therefore what is the deepest sleep (Sushupti) for the body is the highest awakening for the soul.

“Four are the rumen of a night’s while;

Now without hesitation she kindly fills in:

First lower his head on the cool pillow,

Then bathe him in the thane of Lethe’s flood;

The convulsively rigid limbs are soon articulated,

When he rests strengthened for the day.

Performs the elves’ finest duty,

Give him back to the holy light.”

          All occult symbols have at least a triple meaning, depending on the point of view from which one looks at them, and we can apply the above description with equal justification to external awakening, to internal awakening to the light of knowledge, and also to the soul’s entering into the world of the gods (Devachan), even refer to the re-embodiment of the soul on earth. We cannot judge what the poet was thinking; for he often feels more than is clear in his consciousness or imagination, and more than he can express in words.

          The yogi or saint has no need of bodily sleep in order to become absorbed in himself, to bathe in Lethe’s tide, and to forget all earthly things. This state of rapture is known to have occurred in people who were being tortured or burned at the stake. Now, apparently, the sleep of the body is not the cause but the consequence of the liberation of the soul, while under other circumstances the paralysis of the functions of the brain by stupor may loosen the bonds which deprive the soul of its liberty. But whoever is master of himself through the power of God is free to rise to the light of knowledge or to remain in the dark, or to linger in the shadowy world where light and dark border one another, in the dream world of speculation where the soul floats now higher, now lower.

          What is the difference between sleep, death and sanctification? — In sleep the soul withdraws from the bodily bonds, but without completely severing them, penetrates the dream world and enters the regions of the spirit, from which it returns to its home. Man awakens to external life and naturally has no recollection of what his soul experienced, because his soul is a strange being to him. The same thing happens in death, only with the difference that the soul is completely free of the body and has to build up a new human organism on the way to reincarnation for the purpose of renewed earthly activity. But a sanctified, enlightened person who has found his heavenly soul and become one with it in his consciousness lives in the light of the soul and participates in its experiences. This highest goal of human existence is only granted to those who love the light of wisdom, direct their gaze to it and strive up to it.

          To make this more understandable, it will be good to consider the different states of consciousness or “levels” which the soul must rise above in order to attain to the true light:

1. 1. 1. The objective consciousness, caused by external sensory stimuli.
      2. The instinctive or astral consciousness evoked by the instinctive perception or sensation of externally unseen influences. This is often more highly developed in animals than in humans.
      3. The psychic-animal consciousness, or the region of thoughtless desires and passions.
      4. The lower intellectual consciousness, the realm of ideas, be they good or bad, the realm of thoughts, in which the delusion of selfishness and self-conceit is also involved. The realm of speculation.
      5. The knowing consciousness or realm of perception and cognition. Here the “self-esteem” and self-delusion recede into the background; the hard shell of egoism is loosened and the light pours in.
      6. The spiritual consciousness or realm of light. The delusion of being special has disappeared, the truth is revealed. The mind is above all inquiry; the enlightened one no longer needs to think; he himself is the light.
      7. All-Consciousness, Omniscience, the Spirit-Sun of Wisdom.

          The highest three states of consciousness are attainable for the spiritual man; the four lower ones belong to the shell, to the earth-born man of the earth, whose life without the spiritual light is only a dream life. The sunrise in outer nature is a parable of inner awakening.

“Wish to obtain desires,

look at the splendor there!

You are quietly only surrounded

Sleep is a shell, throw it away!

Don’t hesitate to dare

When the hesitant crowd wanders;

The noble can do anything

Who understands and grasps quickly.”

          All ignorance, passion, superstition, theories, speculation, daydreaming, fanaticism, etc., belong to the shell, to the outer man; in the realm of truth there is full light. The truly enlightened one is raised above waking and sleeping, above life and death, because these are all only states that concern his personal appearance, but not the light with which he is united. “What wakefulness is for earth-born men, that is derangement for him, and what sleep is for them, that is for the soul born of light, the son of heaven, the luminous day.”^[11]

          Despite all the reading of the Bible, theology and religious instruction, the large number of people who have not yet become conscious of their soul life know nothing about this inner light that permeates the whole world. It looks for an external light above the clouds, for an alien savior, for an external god, clings to external authorities and advocates, relies on external things, finds no support within itself, and is always deceived in the end. The truly noble finds all that he needs in his higher nature, in the sanctuary within, in the light of God that dwells in his heart, and has the courage to grasp it.

          All external life in nature is a symbol of the inner life of the soul. Just as the light of the earthly sun is necessary to enjoy the beauties of nature, so the eternal light of divine wisdom is necessary to partake of divine existence and to fathom the divine mysteries of God in nature. By this light all errors are scattered like fog in sunlight. When the light of knowledge dawns within, then the voice of truth will also be heard there. When within the will of God the creative word rings out: “Let there be light!” then it is also light; then the inner revelation comes into being; because in the power of God willing and speaking and what happens, light, sound and revelation are only one.

“Sounding becomes for spirit ears

Already the new day born.

The unheard of does not sound.”

          No human ear has yet heard this voice of God; but when one’s own will and thought stand still, and the delusion of selfhood disappears, when “the fiery force withdraws into the inmost chamber of the heart, where the mother of the world dwells, then she will rise and the breath of the one Be All Soul, the voice that fills the universe, the voice of the Master.”^[12]

          As in outer nature the highest mountain peaks greet the day before the twilight penetrates the deep valleys, so pure and sublime human souls are able to take in the light of truth long before it penetrates the hearts of the crowd bedazzled by ignorance, where superstition, thirst for doubt and mania for authority prevail.

“Looked up! The mountains peak giants

Already announce the solemn hour.

You may enjoy the eternal light early,

That late turns down to us.”

          Great men striving for freedom, even if they are not yet free from the delusion of selfhood, shine the light of truth; but when the sun of the knowledge of God itself rises in the heart, its splendor is like a consuming fire that destroys that delusion.

“So it is then, when a yearning hope

True to the highest wish,

Gates of fulfillment find wings open.

But now breaks from those eternal reasons

An excess of flames, we stand in awe;

We wanted to light the torch of life,

A sea of ​​fire embraces us, what a fire!

So that we look down to earth again,

To shelter us in the most youthful veil.”

          Man has the way to direct knowledge of truth through self-sacrifice and sanctification; but it is difficult to walk, and Faust shrinks from this greatness. He chooses the easier way, the observation of the phenomena of human life in order to draw his conclusions about the nature of the forces at work in it. The sun itself, the source of all light, blinds him; but by its rays refracted in the drops of the waterfall, ör wants to study the essence of light, in the doings of people the forces that move them.

“So let the sun stay behind me,

The waterfall roaring through the cliff,

I look at him with growing delight . . .

It reflects human endeavor.

Ponder it and you will understand more precisely:

We have life in the colored reflection.”

---

Imperial Palatinate.

In order to get to know the life of the big picture through experience, Faust throws himself into the maelstrom of the world.

“Where deformity switches to deformity,

The unlaw ruled by law.

And, a world of error unfolds.”

          If it is true what the sages of every place teach, and what is the basis of religion, namely, that God is the true essence of all things, it follows that if man came out of his assumed selfhood and his own divine indwelling would recognize nature practically, he would find himself as God and Creator of all things. But he does not want to let go of the delusion of uniqueness and the totality of the sole remaining; he clings to his foolish self-delusion and wants to play the god in his own person and acquire divine qualities. Therefore he enters “disguised as a fool”into the farce of this world, where he can find folly but no true wisdom; for man finds this only within himself, in God, after he has swum through the sea of ​​error. Whoever wants to find the truth must not expect that it will be procured for him from outside; he must search within himself for that hidden pearl.

“Take a hoe and a spade, dig yourself,

Farm work makes you great

And a herd of golden calves

They tear themselves off the ground.”

          But the world, which itself is only the product of appearances, only loves appearances and doesn’t want to know anything about the truth. It hunts for and is content with external proofs of the existence of truth. It denies truth and proves truth on truth itself. Everyone longs to know the way of truth, but no one bothers to walk it himself, and everyone stays where he is. Many pretend to want to walk this path to Self-knowledge of the Eternal; but for the time being they feel they must still settle their temporal affairs and indulge themselves wholly in those pleasures which they find most desirable.

“Let the time be spent in merriment,

And Ash Wednesday is very welcome.

In the meantime, we’re definitely celebrating

Only funnier the wild carnival.”

          For the wise, religion is the display of an inward divine power which awakens him to the consciousness of a higher existence; to the fool it is a gimmick and pastime; they think that knowing the doctrine is enough; it never occurs to them to follow them; They do not know that theory and practice are mutually dependent, and that without practice, teaching cannot be properly grasped.

“How merit and happiness are linked,

That never occurs to fools.

If they had the philosopher’s stone,

The sage lacked the stone.”

As fools they come into the world, as fools they go out again.

“Come in, out, be undeterred!

In the end it stays the same

With their hundred thousand antics

The world is one big gate.”

          The world is a theater and worldly life a masquerade, which is only the mask that everyone wears; because just as the word “persona” means a mask, so is every personality the mask that the actual person wears. Then everything revolves around this personality; personal reputation, personal inclination, self-aggrandizement, personal possessions, etc. is the ultimate goal of all striving, and yet it is only a semblance that shines and dazzles the great crowd. The lie is cheered and the truth laughed at by stupidity.

“Although I know how to proclaim masks,

Alone to fathom the essence of the shell

Are not Herold’s court affairs;

That calls for a sharper face.”

And if in the end the whole artificially made structure goes up in flames, then the downfall is only an appearance, because where nothing essential is present, nothing essential can perish either.

Curiosity, greed and self-indulgence have no limits. The Emperor has obtained all that the earth can offer him; now he demands that the world of the gods come down at his command to serve him for his amusement.

“The Emperor wants, it must be done at once,

Wants to see Helena and Paris before him;

The model image of men, so of women

He wants to see in clear forms.”

          In this he is like certain spiritists who, if they could, would not hesitate to disturb the rest of the blessed in heaven and compel them to come down to amuse their time and answer curious questions. Anyone who wants to associate with the gods must rise up to them. Mephistopheles knows well how this can happen; but he cannot do it himself; for as the personification of the lower intellect and lust of evil, he has no elevating divine power; therefore Faust has to take the risk himself, and thereby proves to be more powerful than the devil. Mephisto says:

“With witch faxes, with ghost webs,

I am at the service of cranky dwarves;

But darling devil, if not to scold,

They cannot apply to heroin.”

Yet thousands of credulous people accept them as such, and make fun of them.

Mephistopheles now gives Faust a very excellent theoretical guide to higher magic:

“I’m reluctant to discover higher secrets.

Goddesses enthrone in solitude,

Around her no place, still less a time;

Talking about them is embarrassment. It’s the mothers” . . .

          If you want to find something in the world, you have to be in the world yourself. Whoever wants to find something in the eternal must above all find himself in the eternal, where the “mothers” dwell, in the realm of eternally creative fire, of abstract ideas and immortal principles, in the realm of the voice of silence. There is no way for individuality into this realm:

“No way! Into the untrodden,

Untreadable, a way into the unbidden,

Unsolicited.”

There is nothing objectively to be explored or attained. The seeker must spiritually enter into that which he is seeking; become himself the power he desires.

“And if you had swum the ocean,

seen the limitless there,

So you saw waves coming there,

Even if you dread going under.

You saw clouds moving, sun, moon and stars,

You will see nothing in the eternally empty distance,

Not hearing the step you take

Find nothing solid where you rest.”

          In the eternal there is no room for the transitory. For those who cannot know the eternal, their perishable personality and everything connected with it is everything, and the eternal is nothing; for the one who finds the eternal within himself, the ephemeral is a shadow, a nothing. Faust feels that nothing is lost with the disappearance of place, time and individuality, but rather everything is gained.

“Just keep going! We want to explore

In your nothingness I hope to find all.”

In order to enter into this nothingness which contains the All, the torpor caused by self-delusion must cease and limitation dissolve. Therefore Faust says:

“But I don’t seek my salvation in freezing.”

          “Know that all is One, and that One is you.”^[13i]

          This requires a “key,” i.e., an inward spiritual power, whether we call it “faith,” “love,” “knowledge,” “consciousness,” “devotion,” “concentration,” “prayer.” All these words will not explain this power to those who do not have it. It is the power of God’s spark which “shines and flashes” in the heart of man.

“Well! grasping him tightly, I feel new strength,

The breast expands for great work.”

In this power of God the soul can immerse itself in its innermost sanctuary; one can also say to rise to the highest, because both are one.

“Sink then! I could also say: climb!

it doesn’t matter. Escape the created

Kingdoms unbound in the structure.”

There exist, as Plato says, “the archetypes of all ideas,” or, as Meister Eckhart put it, “all things in God,” and by the divine creative power they are drawn from the inmost and come back into existence.

“A glowing tripod will finally tell you,

You are in the deepest, deepest ground.”

          This tripod is the symbol of the Holy Fire-permeated Trinity, in which the knower, the known, and knowledge are no longer separate but one, and this union gives the spirit magical power over the secret forces of nature.

          Faust has achieved his purpose and presents the paragons of human perfection to the pleasure-seeking court and the onlookers. But what use does the multitude make of the sublime when it appears among them? Instead of consecrating themselves to the divine and thereby becoming divine themselves, they seek in every way to profane it and make it serve their whims. No one loves what is true, good, and beautiful for its own worth, but only for the purpose for which it can be used or misused. The mean sees even in the most sublime only his own meanness reflected; the filthy sees his own filth in the purest crystal. Paris and Helena are criticized and applauded. Faust, enraptured by the beauty of the ideal, is inflamed with the desire to possess it. He wants to make Helena his own and separate her from Paris. The explosion occurs and the ghosts disappear.

“There you have it now! laden with fools,

In the end that will harm the devil himself.”

---

Act II. “Homunculus.” [artificially created humanoid beings]

          Faust, carried away by the attraction of appearance and the desire to possess form, lost consciousness of the high ideal and fell down from the realm of absolute knowledge to the ground of objectivity. There he is again, where he once was, in his fantasy-filled “study-chamber”; his intellectual powers of cognition are paralyzed, and Mephistopheles takes on the role of knowledgeless, scientific speculation, which always thinks it is creating something new, and in doing so it turns in circles forever, because it is the center of all knowledge, the absolute around which the circle moves, does not recognize. H. P. Blavatsky rightly says: “Modern science is distorted old thinking.”

“Who can think something stupid, who can think something clever,

The ancient world didn’t already think that.”

          What is today regarded as the supreme wisdom is tomorrow derided as a superstition, and what is considered superstition today is tomorrow held to be the pinnacle of all knowledge. A science without the knowledge of God can only deal with appearances; it can only know what things appear to be, but not what they really are. It can pick apart forms and put them back together again, but it cannot create spirit or life from itself. Knowledge without wisdom is fragmentary, lacking in the main thing, the realization of the unity in all, and thus many a lifelong toil with their books and speculations may well say at the end of their lives:

“I gently search for hidden golden treasure,

And dreadful coals I carry away.”

          This does not mean, however, that one should despise science and remain a fool, but that religious knowledge of the Eternal is higher than all human knowledge, without which all knowledge is only superficial knowledge and a labyrinth of errors.

          So we also find the learned “Wagner,” the model of mindless school wisdom, shut up in his laboratory and striving to make a human being in an artificial way. He has studied the substances of which the human body is composed and now thinks that by mixing them properly, he can produce spirit and life.

“Now one can really hope

That if we made a lot of hundred substances

Through mixture — because mixture is what counts,

Compose the human stuff leisurely,

Lost in a flask

And cob him properly

So the work is done in silence.”

          In the writings of the philosophers of the Middle Ages, such artificially created humanoid beings, called “homunculi,” are often mentioned. Theophrastus Paracelsus speaks of it, and a book^[14] published in Vienna in 1873 entitled “Sphinx” by Dr. Emil Besetzny leaves little doubt that Count Johann Ferdinand von Kufstein in Tirol in 1775 succeeded in creating ten such homunculi by magical means, with the help of a certain Abbé Geloni. These “ghosts” consisting of a king, queen, knight, nun, builder, miner, and white and red spirits were kept in sealed jars and displayed in the Masonic lodge to which the Earl belonged. These spirits possessed a certain intelligence, but each could only give information about his specialty; the king over politics, the master builder over architecture, the miner over mining, etc. Everyone was like a being in whom only one single idea and what was connected with it had crystallized. Wagner’s words may refer to this:

“What was praised as mysterious in nature,

We wisely dare to try

And what else made her organize

We’ll let that crystallize.”

          Anyone who knows how the human body came about will not deny the possibility of generating such homunculi externally. Śaṅkarāchārya, who describes in detail the stuff of which man is made, teaches that there are three things to be distinguished in man, quite apart from the divine nature dwelling in him, viz.:

1. 1. 1. The physical, visible body, grown from the composites of the five basic elements, earth, water, air, fire and ether.
      2. The psychic or astral body with its five modifications of life force, five powers of cognition, five powers of action, etc.
      3. The mental or thought body, the mind, which is the cause of the arising of the astral body while the physical organism develops from it.

          Everywhere we see how the form arises from thought, which can then become visible through the aids which nature offers. Worlds pass and new ideas are formed from the ideas of the old ones. In the spirit of the disembodied human the desire for a new existence on earth arises, from this idea arises his psychic-etheric form, which embodies itself in the womb with the help of the five elements, is reborn and appears again as a visible human being on the stage of life. The sculptor apprehends an idea, his thought gives it form, and he depicts it by external means, bringing what exists within himself into external representation. Everywhere the same law rules; first thought, then form, and then revelation or appearance. Every thought which arises in man is like an egg from which an “astral form” can develop; However, the fact that there are also ways and means of making these astral forms visible and tangible from the outside is already sufficiently known from the so-called “spirit materializations” of the spiritists.

          Be that as it may, man constantly creates such homunculi, even without wanting or knowing it, not in a glass, but within himself. He himself is the retort in which these spirits are created through his desire, will and thinking. Every thought generated in him by a desire and enlivened by his volition represents, when it has matured, such a crystallized homunculus that man enlivens with his own spirit and nourishes through his thinking. Such a “spirit” is not a human being, but it is a living fantasy created by human beings. Thus man constantly populates the world in which he lives with such self-made creatures, the products of his inwardly creative word, and these creatures form his nature, which he himself must obey as long as he is not elevated above his nature and himself as the lord of his creation.

“In the end we hang out

Of creatures we made.”

(Conclusion follows.)

---

Note^[15]

[Part 6] Final. Classic Walpurgis Night.^[i]

Guided by imagination, the man who has not yet come to true knowledge enters the realm of the ideal and searches for the object of his worship, but cannot find it because he regards the principle which he seeks as an object, and thereby separates himself from separates him instead of merging into this ideal and realizing it in himself. The old human riddle is presented here in a different form, which can never be solved theoretically but only practically, and which therefore everyone must solve for themselves by solving it themselves.

“Try to dissolve yourself deeply.”

          Whoever wants to know God must merge into God and thereby become God, or in other words: When the true self is revealed in man, the mirror image of the deceptive selfhood that man has created for himself disappears.

          Faust wants to remain the “Faust” that he is, and yet possess for himself personally the One Supreme, which belongs only to himself and belongs to no person, i.e., he loves himself above all else, and secondarily he loves the ideal because of the pleasure he expects from possessing it. He is thus a type of millions of people who fancy themselves seeking and loving the truth, loving only the personal gains they expect from the possession of the truth, and by seeking the ideal only in outward appearances, but do not let it be revealed in themselves, they swarm in the realm of fables, where the ideal always remains distant and unattainable like the stars.

          Truth is one whole and indivisible, in its light all men and gods come together in one indivisible whole; but opinions abound, and therefore the men of darkness are divided by what they hold to be true. Each worships his own ideal, and thinks he must show the love he has for his ideal by despising the ideal of the other.

“For everyone who has his inner kingdom

Doesn’t know how to rule, loves to rule

Neighbor’s will, according to one’s own proud sense.”

          But the light of truth is not found by any external means, by no compulsion, no persuasion, no belief in authority; it is the light which springs from the fire of the pure love of truth in one’s own heart.

“But if I didn’t know anything better for our salvation,

As everyone may by the fires

Try your own adventure.”

          Faust now wanders through “the labyrinth of flames” that burn on Walpurgis Night, but everywhere he finds only greedy desires, theories and fantasies of all kinds. The philosophers argue because everyone thinks they have the “only right opinion”; each thinks he sees the truth in his own light, and in the end it’s all just a semblance, a delusion of the imagination, a glass shattered on the steps of the throne of wisdom.

---

Act III. Helena.

          Helene is the personification of perfect beauty, which is inseparable from truth and goodness. As such it can serve for us as a symbol of the heavenly human soul in its original state of purity, and its history is the history of the “fall” and redemption, i.e., of sinking into the material and resurrection to the consciousness of freedom. The same story is found described in different forms in the mythologies of peoples.

          If we, for example, compare the story of the Trojan War with that of the war between the Kaurauven [Kaurava-s (sons of Kuru)] and Pandaven [Pāṇḍava-s (Princes)] described in the Bhagavad Gītā, we find much resemblance between the two. In the first, Helena, the lawful wife of Menelaus, king of Lacedaemonia, is kidnapped by Paris, and the war ensues that ends with the destruction of Troy. In the latter, King Yudishtira [King Yudhiṣṭhira] loses his kingdom Hastinapura [the city, Hāstinapura] (the Kingdom of Heaven) and his wife Drupadi [Draupadī] at play, and the struggle ensues. In the Bible, Eve is seduced by the serpent, man loses his heavenly homeland and has to win it back. To what extent all these stories have an external historical background, we need not worry about that. The outward life is a temporary appearance and manifestation of inward working powers governed by eternal laws, and as such everything on earth is but a symbol. We are not concerned with judging the symbols, but with knowing what they represent.

          Seen from this point of view, Helena is the human soul in its reincarnation. “Helena” was in this world before. After leaving the body she inhabited, she went to “Cytheren’s Temple,” i.e., into the world of the gods (Devachan), where she rested in her bliss until “the Phrygian robber,” the desire for personal existence, attacked her again. Now she has returned again to “the king’s palace,” the earthly body, the temple of God, and wants to penetrate inside her property.

“Sound me in! And everything stays behind me,

What flowed around me up to here, fateful;

‘Cause ever since I left this place carefree,

Visiting Cytheren’s temple, according to sacred duty,

but me there a robber the Phrygian,

Much has happened that people far and wide

He likes to talk, but doesn’t like to hear

From which the legend grew into a fairy tale.”

          As she is about to enter the sanctuary of her temple, an ugly old woman, Phorkyas, the symbol of her karma from her previous life, meets her on the threshold; it is the personification of evil, the masked “Mephisto,” the nemesis who has rested while the soul was in heaven, but now also comes into being again with her; for this world is hell, in which everyone reaps what he previously sowed

“The miracle rips open quickly from the ground;

Commandingly representing my way, it shows

In gaunt size, hollow, bloody-cloudy look,

Strange education, how it confuses eyes and mind”

          Nobody can escape his karma as long as he is still under the spell of self-delusion; but when the king, the sun of self-knowledge (Phoebus), appears, selfhood disappears and with it the spawn of the night it has produced.

“There she sees herself! She even dares to come out into the light!

Here we are masters until the Lord and King comes.

The lover of beauty urges the dreadful night births

Phoebus into caves or subdue them.”

          In that depth within, or, what is the same, on that height where eternal rest reigns, in that light in which the delusion of selfhood disappears like a shadow, everything which concerns selfhood disappears with it; man united with God is no longer touched by suffering.

“Because he does not see the ugly,

As his holy eye still

Never saw the shadow.

But compels us mortals, alas,

Unfortunately, sad mishap

To the unspeakable pain in the eyes

The reprehensible, eternally unfortunate

excites beauty lovers.”

          In the chorus of captive Trojans we see man’s own personal virtues, powers, and abilities, which are his servants and companions; Teacher and seducer at the same time, depending on what is needed.

“Not what the servant is, asks the master, only how he serves.”

          The incarnate soul (Manas) which has escaped from heaven is the queen, her consort is the divine spirit (Ātma-Buddhi). Now if the queen is to regain her rights, she must again unite with the king, i.e., the will of God must be revealed in man and man must obey that will. But the will of God is nothing other than his divinity to be made manifest in mankind, and man’s obedience consists in the sacrifice of his self. Man’s “self” is, as it were, his son, because it was created by himself. In the Bible this self-sacrifice is symbolized by the sacrifice of Abraham. Abraham is willing to sacrifice his son, his own will, to the divine Will, and God accepts the sacrifice. This does not destroy the will power which is in Abraham, but only ceases to be his own will. By coming into accordance with the will of God, it is itself incorporated into God and of a divine nature.

Helena is also supposed to make this sacrifice. The king commanded:

“If everything is not seen according to order,

Then take as many tripods as you think necessary.

And various vessels, which the sacrificer himself

Tsar’s hand demands, performing sacred festival use.

The cauldrons, also the bowls, like the flat round;

The purest water from the holy spring

In tall jars, and also the dry wood,

Receptive to the flame quickly, stand ready;

Last but not least, a well-honed knife is missing.”

          But the king does not designate what is to be sacrificed, and man could not sacrifice it either, because the self is not above itself and cannot sacrifice itself. It is God himself who makes this sacrifice, he offers it to himself; all man can do is let it happen, being ready and not resisting.

“Nothing

With living breath the organizer draws,

That he wants to slaughter to worship the Olympians.

It’s worrying, but I don’t worry anymore

And everything remains in the hands of high gods,

Who accomplish what they think they have in mind.”

But now “Phorkyas” announces to the man who identifies with his “self” that he himself is destined to be this victim.

“Queen, you are meant.”

And with the personal man all his good and bad qualities also disappear.

“She dies a noble death,

But on the high beam inside that supports the gable of the roof,

Like larks catching birds, you wriggle after the yard.”

          Through this sacrifice and self-renunciation the soul enters a higher existence; but also all that was of a noble nature in her powers shares her immortality. Therefore it says at a later point:

“Although we are no longer persons,

We feel that, we know that

But we never return to Hades.

Eternally living nature

cast ghosts upon us,

We fully claim them.”

          They are manifestations of eternal principles which bestow upon man his personal qualities, but do not perish with his personality.

          The soul, which remembers its heavenly nature only in a dream and has become an idol to itself, shrinks from this sacrifice, which Phorkyas describes to it as extremely dreadful.

“Come on, you gloomy, spherical monster!

Roll over here! Here you can do harm as you please.

Give way to the portable altar, the one with gold horns;

The ax lies gleaming over the silver rim;

Fill the water jars, wash it up

The horrible defilement of black blood.

Comfortably spread the carpet here in the dust,

So that the sacrifice kneel royally,

And wrapped up, with separated heads, right away

Decently worthy, but buried.”

          It is not surprising then that the soul, having lost the consciousness of its immortality, is filled with pain and seeks salvation for itself and those close to it.

“Let these fears! I feel pain, no fear;

But if you know salvation, be thankful for it.”

          Then evil tempts the soul and advises it, instead of ascending to the queen of heaven through self-sacrifice, to save its apparent self and take refuge in the lower regions where the human-animal and mortal (Faust) has lodged during the absence of the king to search.^[16]

          Thus Helena now falls into the arms of Faust, the higher, immortal, infinite self of the limited, ephemeral “I.” It becomes dark around the soul which sinks into the material.

“Yes, all of a sudden it gets dark, floats away without shine

the fog.”

          Faust is happy to receive the goddess and offers her all his treasures; but in his own conceit he wants to put himself on an equal footing with her.

“Encourage me as co-ruler of yours

Boundary unconscious realm, win you

Worshiper, servant, guardian all rolled into one.”

          Faust’s wishes are now fulfilled; he is connected to Helena. But even this connection is only a temporary dream, because what has connected itself with Faust is not the heavenly soul itself, but only the illusion created in it by the delusion of selfhood; not the one, indivisible, limitless, eternal truth and beauty itself, but only a reflection of it, intuition. From this, heaven-storming poetry is born.

“Holy poetry,

Climb them to heaven!”

          Egoism arrests its flight, it falls and crashes on the hard ground of material reality; only the empty form, the dress, remains. But when poetry is gone, the ideal also disappears. Faust’s dream is over; happy for him if his sense of beauty doesn’t disappear with the ideal,

“Hold on to what’s left of everything!

The dress, don’t let go. There tap

Demons at the ends, would like to

Tear it to the underworld. Hold on!

It is no longer the goddess that you lost, but it is divine.

Use the high Priceless Favor and lift yourself up!

It quickly carries you above all mean things

On the ether while you can last.”

          When the knowledge of the eternally beautiful, which reveals itself in a temporary appearance, has disappeared, only the empty appearance remains, the perception of beauty of form.

“Here remains enough to initiate poets,

To incite guild and craft envy;

          And if I can’t lend the talents, I’ll at least hide the dress.”

          The beauty of the forms is not to be despised; but man should strive not to let his senses be captivated by forms, but to rise spiritually above the worship of forms to the knowledge of the Eternal, which is exalted above all forms and gives forms their beauty. This is the key to understanding true religion. Without this distinction between the imperishable principle and the perishable form there can be no knowledge of the divine and of immortality, and as the multitude does not have this distinction, because they do not practice it, they live and die in the frenzy of the physical world, as described at the end of this act.

“And in between screams irrepressibly shrill Silenus’ eared animal.

Nothing spared! Forked claws tread down all custom,

All the senses whirl in a daze, the ear is horribly deafened.

Drunkards grope for the bowl, heads and chests are overflowing;

One and the other is still worried, but it increases the tumult;

Because in order to salvage new, you must quickly empty the old hose.”

---

Act IV.

          Sated thirst for knowledge and disappointed sensuality have left a deep desolation and emptiness in Faust. Comfort, pleasure, prestige, love of women, etc. no longer appeal to him; on the other hand, the desire for power rises in him; he wants to do something great.

“This circle of earth

Still grants room for great deeds.

astonishing should guess,

I feel strength for bold diligence.”

Nor is it his concern to gain fame, but he wants to rule.

“I win dominion, property!

The deed is everything, the glory nothing.”

          He wants to overcome nature and win a piece of land from the sea. For this he needs authority, and he obtains it by joining the emperor and winning victory over the opponent emperor by means of magic arts, for which he is awarded the beach of the sea.

---

Brawler, Havebald, Hold fast.

          At the beginning of this act we are advised that the world did not come into being out of blind chance through the cooperation of purely mechanical forces, but that there are intelligences in nature which govern and direct these forces, destructive, productive and sustaining powers, consequently not only “God,” but also its opposite, the “devil,” has its part in the creation story. In fact, every force at work in nature can be regarded as a form of consciousness; each has a spiritual background, as it cannot be otherwise according to the teaching of the Bible; for if everything was created from the Word of God, and consequently every power is a revelation of the spirit, then every one must also be spirit in its inmost being. What we, for example, call “Electricity” is the outward manifestation of a living force, which is spiritual, i.e., comes from an intelligent source, which, however, we must not judge by the intelligence of people. Higher science teaches us that there is nothing absolutely inanimate in nature, but that everything is a manifestation of the one life in nature, and that life is a product of mental activity. The mythologies of all peoples depict these living forces of nature as gods, demons, etc. in various symbols, the common people suspect them, only science, which is limited to the realm of the sensually perceptible, knows nothing about it.

“The laud of strange crowds still stares;

Who gives an explanation of such a slingshot night?

The philosopher cannot grasp it;

There lies the rock, you have to leave it there,

We already thought to shame.

The faithful common people alone understands

And can’t be bothered about it;

His wisdom has long since matured:

It is a miracle; satan is honored.”

Theology teaches the existence of different hierarchies, potentates, rulers, forces, and good and evil powers.

“An evident secret, well kept,

And will only be revealed to the peoples late.”

          So it says in the second letter from Paul to the Ephesians (chapter VI, v. 12): “We do not have to fight with flesh and blood, but against the powers, against the authorities, against the world rulers of this darkness, against the evil spirits under heaven.” In all religions there is talk of a struggle between good and evil powers in nature; The quarrel which takes place in the macrocosm is reflected in the human being, and just as self-conceit and stupidity fight against the knowledge of truth in man, so darkness and desire fight against the light in the great nature, and this fight is a necessity, because all evolution of forms rests on the urge to create, grow, and sustain one’s self. Not love, which unites everything and knows no difference, but one’s own desire, egoism, is the cause of the multiplicity of forms; he, the devil, was present at creation.

“I was there when it was still simmering down there

The abyss swelled and bore streaming flames,

As Moloch’s hammer, forging rock against rock,

Debris of mountains banged in the distance.”

         The Elohim, which the Bible teaches to have created the world, represent a seven-fold power of Deity, and each of these powers manifests itself on each of the four planes of existence in a manner appropriate to the conditions at hand. Indian philosophy describes these creative powers, and as the enlightened seer Jakob Böhme refers to them as the “seven source spirits of nature.” Our very world is “hell,” because in it the third principle (sensibility) is dominant, which is due to the stirring of sensuality in the mind; it is formed by the radiations of the holy world of light and the world of darkness; in it light and darkness, love and hate, good and evil meet; but in comparison with the spiritual world it is like a smoke or mist.^[17]

          We therefore find three basic properties everywhere in nature, which, depending on the type of their occurrence, present themselves as unconsciousness (death), movement and consciousness, as matter, power and spirit, as darkness, fire and light, as stupidity, striving and knowledge; in Indian philosophy these are described as tamas (darkness), rajas (passion) and sattva (goodness). They are contained in every thing, every thing in nature is composed of these three basic qualities, and, as everyone knows, they rule all mankind and one or the other is manifested daily in the individual human being.^[18] In “Faust” we find them personified as “Raufebold” (anger), “Habebald” (greed) and “Haltefest” (greed), and it is very doubtful whether a general would ever succeed in winning a battle if he would only rely on the army’s love for Caesar, without resorting to these three powers which are the motive of all worldly action. These also multiply, i.e., they appear in various roles, as superstition, envy, striving, ambition, self-conceit, national pride, etc. Everywhere it is the “spirits,” good or bad, which direct the struggle; the visible material is only the means to an end, and whoever knows how to awaken the right spirits is the correct magician who wins the empire for the emperor.

          But the “emperor” in this case represents the man who has come into possession of his wealth in an unnatural way and who therefore lacks the inner strength to hold on to it; for only what grows naturally out of our own inner strength is our true property and belongs to our own nature. All knowledge which has not sprung from within us, but has only been attached to and learned from the outside, does not have its roots in us, does not belong to us, and is difficult to retain. Thus the emperor is also forced to give away most of the empire he had won through fraud, in order not to lose the external pillars that would keep his pseudo-rule for a while; yes, he is even forced to prescribe what he does not yet have.

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Act V.

          Human striving only ends where there is nothing more to strive for; earthly desire only disappears when there is no longer any object that arouses desire. The infinite desire of the soul for the Divine is the best proof of the existence of the Eternal; for like attracts like, and where there is nothing eternal in the heart of man, there also the longing for the eternal ceases. Therefore, whoever denies the existence of God in the universe denies nothing but the existence of his own divine nature and demeans himself, and whoever aspires to the transitory may conclude that he is driven by that which is transitory in himself. The eternal and the transitory attract the soul in opposite directions; that to which she marries herself becomes herself.

          Faust has become the lord of a great country which he wrested from the sea; but a small house in which a few old people live, and which is not his property, disturbs his megalomania.

“The elders above shall give way,

I wish the linden trees to sit,

The few trees not my own

spoil my world possessions.”

          The three mighty ones are given the task of taking away the inhabitants of the hut; but these defend themselves and perish; the hut goes up in flames. That wasn’t what Faust wanted, but it makes him see his wrongness. He realizes that he cannot attain mastery over himself and freedom in this way; he wishes to be free from all mystical frenzy, to leave the delusion of the “superhuman” and to become human again.

“I haven’t fought my way out yet.

Could I remove magic from my path

Completely forgetting the spells

Hour I, Natar, before you a man alone,

It was worth being human.

That was me before I looked for it in the dark

Cursed me and the world with sacrilege.

Now is the loft so full of such spooks

That no one knows how to avoid it.”

          These words deserved to be engraved in gold on marble as a warning to any supposed “superman” and mystical enthusiast, be they “theosophist,” “occultist,” or “spiritist,” who seeks to penetrate the supernatural realm for the gratification of his thirst for knowledge, without first having mastered his own inner being; for whoever wants to become “supernatural” before he has become natural becomes unnatural, and where true faith is not present, superstition sets in.

“Even if a day makes us laugh rationally,

The night entangles us in a web of dreams;

We return gladly from young fields,

A bird croaks; what is he croaking mishap.

Ensnared by superstition early and late —

It suits, it indicates, it warns —

And so shy, we stand alone.”

          The human being who loses himself becomes in the end the being towards whom all his thinking and striving is directed, because his nature becomes equal to the nature of this being.^[19] Those who devote themselves to the sensual perish in the sensual, those who dedicate themselves to the divine merge in the divine existence; he who regards the material as supreme sinks into the material, he who gives in to drunkenness is stunned by it, he who gives in to the dream life of the ghostly realm becomes lost in it; Whoever allows the spirit of truth to be revealed within him will be carried up to the light of true knowledge. Therefore we do not need to concern ourselves with the underworld and its inhabitants, nor should we imagine ourselves to be gods, but let the spirit of the highest be revealed in us; in its light all mysteries become clear to us.

          The denial of a supernatural world springs from the stupidity of self-conceit, from curiosity about things one is not yet ready to understand, from passion. Without the clarity of mind necessary for knowledge, speculation about the spirit realm is of little value and tends to create confusion and a morbid mysticism. Faust experienced this in himself:

“I know enough about the earth,

On the other side, the prospect is lost to me;

Fool, whoever blinks his eyes there,

Dense over clouds of his kind!

He stand firm and look around here!

This world is not dumb to the capable.

Why does he need to wander into eternity!

What he recognizes can be grasped.

He walks thus through the earthly day;

When ghosts haunt, he goes his own way;

As he goes on he finds torment and happiness,

He, unsatisfied every moment.”

          That is to say, that we should be concerned first of all with what comes first, and strive to fulfill our purpose on this earth, which is to be truly human; for until humanity is manifest in us, neither can divinity be manifest in us. In our selfhood we do not need to wander into eternity and would find nothing there, because the limited common sense cannot comprehend the unlimited. Only what is eternal within us recognizes itself as eternal and understands itself as such. The largest skull in the world cannot contain the infinite, but the smallest heart is large enough to contain the entire universe to be embraced in love, and it is from this fire that the light of knowledge springs from its flame. This inward enlightenment does not belong to the external personal man, but to the immortal part thereof, and to the external man, who does not know his immortal Self, all speculation as to what belongs to the eternal is of little use. External knowledge does not bring happiness, but internal possession. It is better to be wise than to know theoretically what wisdom consists of.

          Worrying about what you don’t have prevents you from enjoying what you do have. The concern speaks:

“Whoever I own once

All the world is of no use to him;

Eternal gloom descends,

Sun doesn’t rise nor set.

Happiness and misfortune become a cricket,

He starves in abundance.”

Worry itself is a spawn of the night of ignorance and is dissipated by the light of knowledge. True knowledge, true being and true bliss are inseparably one.

“The night seems to penetrate deeper,

Only inside is there a bright light.”

           This light fills him with the feeling of true greatness and bliss, because he recognizes himself in it as one with the big whole, as the power which wants to complete a work that does not specifically benefit his person but humanity; he feels the future happiness of many in his own heart; the same bliss that everyone feels who does good without thinking of himself.

“In anticipation of such high happiness

I’ll enjoy the highest moment now.”

          With that, however, the right time has come for his death; he has risen from selfhood to Allness, he is free from self-delusion and has no more business in this world. Faust dies, and with that it is over with him, with the apparition that was called “Faust.” The immortal in him, though intimately connected with him during life, is as different from his person as a rose is different from the rosebush on which it grew. His soul is not “Faust,” but the flower of his life, which, having freed itself from everything transitory, has nothing to do with the devil. Hell is the state of the self-obsessed soul, in which the fire of passion burns. The mouth has many,

“After standing dues and dignities she wraps up”;

but for the soul which has risen above this delusion there is no hell. Unselfish love and free will are the wings that carry you to heaven.

You are you little soul, Psyche with wings;

If you pull it out, it’s a nasty worm.”

          Heaven is a state into which only that which is of a heavenly nature can enter. Man as the son of light has his real home in heaven, and everything about him that is not full of light and heavenly does not belong to his nature and must be discarded. Therefore the “Choir of Angels” sings:

“What doesn’t belong to you

Do you have to avoid

What bothers you inside

you must not suffer.

it penetrates powerfully

must we be efficient;

love only lovers

Lead in.”

          Pure unselfish love is a fire which hate and malice cannot endure, and from which greed and self-conceit flee; but for the celestials it is the life and spirit which they breathe, whether in this world or in another.

“For this is the food of the spirits,

Which reigns in the freest ether,

eternal love’s revelation,

Which unfolds to bliss.”

          Love is divine power that reconnects and brings back to unity all that is separated. It is not desire, for it knows nothing but itself, and it is itself in everything; There is nothing for it to desire, but because it is in everything, it creates the desire for union in all forms, and the more man recognizes the highest, the more his love for the highest grows in himself and in everything, the closer he comes to God, absorbs God, the highest, and thereby becomes aware of his divine existence.

“Climb up to high circles,

always grows unnoticed,

How, in an eternally pure way,

God’s presence amplified.”

          The apparent purpose of all evolution and involution is to transform mankind’s unknowing love into a knowing one. Therefore, divine love, the Son of God, sends its powers (the angels) into the hearts of men to transform their lower soul powers into higher ones, and they then carry with them what has ripened for immortality back up to heaven; they pluck the flower from the tree of life, the withered leaves return to the elements. They have not acquired a name, i.e., no permanent individuality; Self-glorification has no place in the Eternal.

“He who has not earned a name, nor wants anything noble,

Belongs to the elements; so go there!

Being with my queen desires me ardently;

The person protects us not only merit, but also loyalty.”

                                                                        (Act IV.)

          Now that Faust’s soul, through its unselfish love of good, has risen above the love of “self,” it has attained a higher existence, and “the angels hovering in the higher atmosphere” carry Faust’s immortality aloft.

“Whoever strives

We can redeem him;

And even has love in him

Part taken from above

Meet him the blissful crowd

With warm welcome.”

          In this life, as well as after death, the higher nature is so intimately united with the lower nature that no other power than the power of love of the Highest can separate them.

“No angel separated

United nature

The intimate two;

Eternal love only

able to separate.”

          No man can break these chains by his own lower power and without this grace springing from his higher self; the self cannot redeem itself from itself.

“Who tears by his own strength

The lust chains?

How quickly the foot slips away

Sleek smooth ground?

Who doesn’t bewitch a look and a greeting

Flattering Oden?”

          Therefore, for liberation and salvation, there is need of the power, grace, and light of the Queen of Heaven, the heavenly part of the mind, the heavenly human soul, likened to a pure virgin untouched by anything external, from within the heart through the ye indwelling Spirit of God the light of knowledge is born. It is the “will substance” which carries this light, and without which it could not come to our consciousness. Consequently she is the mediator between the spirit of God and the mind of man, whose head is surrounded by the radiance of the light of truth, and who has under her feet the moon, the symbol of matter, and the serpent of sensuality within us head crushed.

“Supreme Ruler of the World

leave me in the blue

Outstretched heaven

look at your secret.

Appraise what man’s chest

Seriously and gently moved

And with a holy burden of love

towards you,”

          As long as man lives on earth, all heavenly and earthly powers are available to him, and therefore this world is the place to accomplish his great work of alchemy, and to transform his base “metals” into the gold of wisdom. After the soul has left the body, it can no longer make use of what life on earth offered it, but can only free itself from everything that still binds it to the lower regions. But that is not the end of its progress because it is precisely in the higher spiritual atmosphere of love that she now breathes that the germs of knowledge that she absorbed during her life on earth unfold in her, and the light that shines in her is also shared with others Souls with as much as the light of one planet shines on the others, and all together enjoy the light of the sun. Comparable to a child, the soul enters the heavenly world and gradually unfolds the powers it has collected. Faust experienced a lot and thereby learned a lot. His soul unfolds quickly.

“It’s already overgrowing

on mighty limbs,

Will reward faithful care

Reply richly.

We were removed early

From the chorus of life;

But he learned:

He will teach us.”

          However, “heaven” or the “world of the gods” is not yet the highest. Although the soul in this state of consciousness sees God, i.e., is much closer to the realization of eternal unity than it was when it was still held prisoner by the personal, there is still the idea of ​​form (māyā) which only disappears in nirvana, i.e., the soul there called the “Body of Transfiguration,” called by Sankaracharya “Anandamaya-kosha” [Ānandamaya-kośa] (form of blissful existence), and described it as a conception of the Karāna Sharira [Kāraṇa Śarīra] (the thought-body), which still has the deception of the soul that it is not quite one with the All-Soul. Thus, the soul of Gretchen, i.e., the flower of the immortal belonging to the personality called “Gretchen” on earth as an individual appearance in heaven, and is still connected to the soul of Faust by the same love in which their souls were united on earth, and this love helps him to free himself from earthly bonds and to rise to her.

“See how he binds every earthly bond

snatched from the old shell,

And of ethereal robes

Emergence of the first youth force!

Allow me to teach him!

The new day still blinds him.”

Thus the love of God works through the love of men, and when one rises from two souls united in love, the other follows.

“Come! Raise yourself to high spheres!

If he anticipates you, he will follow.”

          The fleeting passion burned out, the pure immortal love remained. The “masculine” in the universe is the creative power of intelligence, the imagination which creates forms in which life manifests itself; but the “eternal feminine” is the will of God, love, which is true life itself and gives life to all forms. Now since the idea in itself is nothing but an illusion, and an illusion can also produce nothing but illusions, all formations of form in the world or in heaven or in the underworld are in themselves nothing other than illusions or symbols of ideas, and as such transitory. But the true nature of all forms is the one will of God, love, the spirit, which cannot be described, but only felt and only then recognized.

“Everything ephemeral

Is just a parable;

The Inadequate

Here it will be event;

The indescribable

Here it is done;

The Eternal Feminine

Pull us up.”

Notes:

^[1] Six part series, consecutively included in this document: Concerning the esoteric meaning of some passages from Goethe’s “Faust.” [Über die esoterische Bedeutung einiger Stellen aus Goethes Faust. [Part I.] Franz Hartmann, M.D. Lotusblüten 14, no. 82 (July 1899), 441-457] {These articles were reformatted from the original, but with the content unchanged other than fixing minor typos. Translation from the German by Robert Hütwohl, ©2025}

^[2] Six part series, consecutively included in this document: Concerning the esoteric meaning of some passages from Goethe’s “Faust.” [Über die esoterische Bedeutung einiger Stellen aus Goethes Faust. [Part I.] Franz Hartmann, M.D. Lotusblüten 14, no. 82 (July 1899), 441-457] {These articles were reformatted from the original, but with the content unchanged other than fixing minor typos. Translation from the German by Robert Hütwohl, ©2025}

^[3] Concerning the esoteric meaning of some passages from Goethe’s “Faust.” [Über die esoterische Bedeutung einiger Stellen aus Goethes Faust. [Part II.] Der Tragödie erster Teil. Franz Hartmann, M.D. Lotusblüten 14, no. 83 (August 1899), 563-575] {These articles were reformatted from the original, but with the content unchanged other than fixing minor typos. Translation from the German by Robert Hütwohl, ©2025}

^[4] Concerning the esoteric meaning of some passages from Goethe’s “Faust.” [Über die esoterische Bedeutung einiger Stellen aus Goethes Faust. [Part III.] Der Tragödie erster Teil. Franz Hartmann, M.D. Lotusblüten 14, no. 84 (September 1899), 590-610] {These articles were reformatted from the original, but with the content unchanged other than fixing minor typos. Translation from the German by Robert Hütwohl, ©2025}

^[5] Concerning the esoteric meaning of some passages from Goethe’s “Faust.” [Über die esoterische Bedeutung einiger Stellen aus Goethes Faust. [Part IV.] Der Tragödie erster Teil. Franz Hartmann, M.D. Lotusblüten 14, no. 85 (October 1899), 667-703] {These articles were reformatted from the original, but with the content unchanged other than fixing minor typos. Translation from the German by Robert Hütwohl, ©2025}

^[6] These include e.g. the generation and spread of tuberculosis by the so-called “protective smallpox vaccination,” the inoculation of disease substances, the apparent results of which are deceptive, while in reality they produce incurable diseases, etc.

^[7] “Coelom Philosophorun” p. 588.

^[vii] John XIII, 27.

^[8] Edwin Arnold, “The Light of Asia,” C.V, p. 117.

^[9] Compare F. Hartmann, “Magic,” p. 119.

^[10] Concerning the esoteric meaning of some passages from Goethe’s “Faust.” [Über die esoterische Bedeutung einiger Stellen aus Goethes Faust. [Part V.] Der Tragödie zweiter Teil. Übersichtliches. Franz Hartmann, M.D. Lotusblüten 14, no. 86 (November 1899), 763-794] {These articles were reformatted from the original, but with the content unchanged other than fixing minor typos. Translation from the German by Robert Hütwohl, ©2025}

^[11] Cf. Bhagavad Gita, chapter II, verse 69.

^[12] “Lotusblüten” Book I, “The Voice of Silence,” p. 19.

^[13] Lotusblüten 1894 I, 8. 87.

^[14] Published by L. Rosner, Vienna, Tuchlauben 22.

^[15] Concerning the esoteric meaning of some passages from Goethe’s “Faust.” [Über die esoterische Bedeutung einiger Stellen aus Goethes Faust. [Part VI.] Schluss. Klassische Walpurgisnacht. Franz Hartmann, M.D. Lotusblüten 14, no. 87 (December 1899), 829-863] {These articles were reformatted from the original, but with the content unchanged other than fixing minor typos. Translation from the German by Robert Hütwohl, ©2025}

^[16] The dotted line indicates the boundary between the eternal and the ephemeral.

^[17] Compare Jakob Böhme, “Mysterium magnum” III.

^[18] Bhagavad Gita Ch. XVII.

^19] Bhagavad Gita Ch. VIII, 6.

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