[Mystik und “Mystizismus.”]
Translation from the German by Robert Hutwohl[1]
If we want to pass judgment on Christian mysticism, we must first of all distinguish it from a pathological mysticism. True mysticism is the spiritual cognition of religious truths which springs from inward illumination by the light of truth (the Holy Spirit); mysticism is a fantasy based on fanaticism, superstition, and misunderstanding of religious teachings. True mysticism belongs to the spiritually reborn, inward, immortal man; mysticism is a product of the brain of the outward, mortal man, and it is therefore understandable that there are many more mystical enthusiasts than genuine mystics. A mystic can neither be made by reading books, nor by unctuous sermons, nor by studying theology, but the ability of one’s own perception, of inner experience, is required for this. Even clairvoyance is not enough for this; because knowledge is required in order to recognize what has been seen and not to be deceived by mental images that have been created in the astral light.
We need not look back to the torture chambers, inquisition tribunals, witch trials, funeral pyres, and religious wars of the Middle Ages to see what abominable blossoms of human stupidity religious superstition and mysticism are capable of cultivating; the ordinary literature of the day contains enough hair-raising accounts of facts springing from a wrong conception of occult teachings, and taking place not only in uncivilized countries but in enlightened Europe and America. We meet there with abominable religious quackery and the most diverse “occult” and “esoteric” schools, led by foolish “superiors” who unknowingly work in the hands of black magic and devil art, and the blind flock which follows their blind bellwether falls with him into the abyss of hell. This is all the easier to do as such endeavors are always surrounded by a halo, and the deadly poison served in a cup wreathed with roses.
From white to black magic is only a small step. It all depends on the purpose you want to achieve. If I want to serve God without thinking of myself and my organism becomes free from selfishness and pure enough for the divine forces to work in me and through me, I am merely a conscious instrument of God (the higher, impersonal Self ), by which God performs his “miracles,” and this is the path to white magic. But if I want to make the Godhead serve me and in my conceit want to take possession of the powers that belong to the divine self, in order to use them for base purposes, whether it be to cure illnesses, to increase my reputation, to earn money, or to satisfying my curiosity and the like, I put my personal, ephemeral self above God and worship the devil (selfhood).
Unfortunately, not everyone is mature enough to understand this, because this includes the distinction between the divine-human and the human-animal and the majority is still so sunk in self-delusion and self-conceit that they cannot feel and perceive the higher.
The general enlightenment has already progressed so far that educated circles no longer cling to the religious superstition that God is a being afflicted with human weaknesses, who allows his subordinates to move his divine will through requests and complaints, ideas and persuasive skills to change and to satisfy people’s personal desires. This superstition, which sprang from stupidity, usually had no worse consequences than wasted time and lost money. In more recent times, however, a far worse sort of mysticism has taken hold, springing from self-conceit and bringing ruin to the soul; for the adherents of this tendency fancy that they can play the part of God in their own self, and command God to do according to their will, and to put His powers at their disposal for their personal advantage, to use as they please.
Let’s look at, for example, a certain class of people who are “healers of health” or disciples of what is called “Christian Science.” They form a sect that is already spread all over the world, which is flourishing especially in America and has already gained many millions of dollars by speculating on the egoism of people and dealing with the healing of diseases by means of divine powers they supposedly master, for a fee. These people are by no means unscrupulous fraudsters; on the contrary, one finds many among them who, from a moral point of view, possess quite commendable qualities, who intend to help other people, and who perhaps distinguish themselves by an impeccable life, observance of ecclesiastical rites, etc., above many others who call themselves “Christians” award. Nor, under normal circumstances, is there anything wrong with a person rendering service to another, taking payment for it.
But in these cases we are not dealing with normal conditions. It is written, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.” The true mystic, when divine powers are manifested through him, gives glory not to himself but to God alone, and the deity who works through him is above all greedy desires and has nothing to do with medical fees and resort taxes. To a certain extent, the true mystic does not act himself and therefore has nothing to demand for his selfhood, neither wealth nor fame. He “leaves everything to God,” that is, he does not leave it to a foreign, external or distant God whom he does not know, but the divine power of love and grace which has become alive in him and has come to his consciousness, which has nothing to do with selfish impulses, works through him. He does not haggle with the divine powers bestowed on him, nor does he regard them as his own, but as the property of the God within him. The pseudo-mystic, on the other hand, who trades in sacred things and boasts of the possession of divine powers, knows no higher god than his personal, mortal self. For a “healer” of this kind, the existence of God in the universe has no higher purpose at all than to help him to heal the sick and to earn money; he subverts spiritual powers to material ends, thereby degrading them as well as himself. The well-being of the material body is paramount to him; the deity is there only for his convenience; he sacrifices the immortal to the mortal part, identifies himself with it, and because he is intimately connected with the material, he shares in its mortality.
This is the path to black magic and perdition that is being trodden by thousands today without their knowing it. The true mystic elevates his soul to divinity, he sacrifices his selfhood in it, and through this union partakes in its divine powers; the pseudo-mystic seeks to appropriate these powers by persisting in his self-conceit. So he crucifies Christ in himself and keeps the highest prisoner in the low.
One finds everywhere advertisements from schools of occultism, in which, for a certain sum, one can allegedly learn how to acquire occult powers in a short time and with little effort, and how to set up a business on them. But this does not agree with Christian teaching; for it is written that when Simon the magician saw that the Holy Spirit was given to those on whom the apostles laid hands, he offered them money, saying, “Give me this power also.” But Peter said: “Your money will be damned! for you think that the gift of God could be bought with money.”[2]
It is not in accepting payment that the evil lies when dealing in spiritual things, but in self-delusion, self-conceit and self-importance. It is nowhere written that when Jesus of Nazareth healed a sick person, he asked for payment, or that he said, “I have healed you,” but he said, “Go, your faith has healed you.”
Just as foolish as those who barter away the gifts of the Holy Ghost are those who receive them, or steal them, and seek to benefit from them, without being grateful to the source of all good and its instrument. They deceive God and the doctor, and thereby themselves. It is a law of justice in matters spiritual that everyone gets as much as he gives. The Bhagavad-Gītā says: “Whoever takes that (spiritual) which is given to him without repaying anything to the source from which it came, he is a cheat and a thief.” (III, 12.)
But it is not our purpose to discuss the fallacies of so-called “Christian Science”; suffice it to point out the contradiction of this system, in that it denies the existence of matter, and asserts that it is all spirit, and yet counts on making the spiritual subservient to the material; our purpose is to show that no one, however outwardly moral and pious, can become a true mystic so long as he is possessed by self-delusion; for this delusion is the obstacle which stands in the way of his spiritualization and the awakening of his spiritual life.
An instructive example in this respect is the life story of the famous Christian mystic and preacher Dr. John Tauler of Strasbourg. He was famous for his piety, and his rich sermons attracted thousands of followers. Among his listeners was a seemingly ordinary person, a Swiss named Nikolaus from the Bernese Oberland [in Switzerland]. He asked Tauler to teach him how to gain the kingdom of God while still alive in the world. Tauler agreed and composed a sermon in which he described twenty-four characteristics by which one might recognize those who are true mystics.
Nikolaus thanked him and wanted to say goodbye to him, but Tauler asked him to stay and listen to several more sermons. To this Nicholas replied that he had not come to hear sermons, but to give him (lazy) counsel with the help of God, and when the idler was astonished that a casual layman should dare to speak in this way to so great a preacher, Nicholas said to him:
“You are a great scholar and gave a good sermon; but you don’t live yourselves as you preach. You want me to hear one more sermon; but know that human words have hindered me more than helped me, and that when God comes to me, He teaches me more in an hour than all the doctors put together, from Adam to the youngest. The good precepts you have preached condemn yourselves; for they are but the letter of the law which kills. Spirit gives life, but in the life you have now there is no light, only darkness. You may well understand the letter of the law, but you have not tasted the sweetness of the Holy Ghost.”
The result of the conversation which now followed was that the big Tauler became the pupil of little Nicholas. After two years of following the rules given to him, experiencing poverty, persecution, and all kinds of suffering, being abandoned by his friends, and forbidden to preach by the church, enlightenment of the holy spirit finally came upon him. He became famous and his writings were the origin of the great Reformation.
To become a true mystic requires not only instruction but one’s own spiritual development. Even with regard to external objects, complete knowledge does not result from accepting descriptions and theories as true, but from one’s own perception, insight and experience. As long as I only grasp thoughts of another person, of which I cannot know whether they correspond to the truth, the knowledge thus acquired is not my own. But this circumstance applies even more to spiritual things. Where external, visible things are concerned, we can draw conclusions about the unknown by comparison with things we already know; but in spiritual things which lie beyond the sphere of consciousness of the earthly human mind, there is no point of reference, no comparison. Then this mind gropes in the dark if it is not enlightened by the light which comes from the upper region of the soul, which belongs to the immortal part of man. One can thus be well versed in mystical literature, have read all sorts of books on occult things, have studied theology, and know the Bible by heart, and yet not have become a mystic or a Theosophist. Inner enlightenment and bliss do not depend on outer knowledge and erudition, but on the awakening of the divine life in man. “Whoever has the Son of God has life; if you don’t have it, you don’t have life.”[3]
True mysticism is therefore not fantastic fanaticism, but a sacred science that emerges from one’s own inner experience and relates to religious things, which belong to a higher sphere of existence than this visible world of appearances, which is why they are also unprovable for the “carnally minded person,” for “the natural man hears nothing of the Spirit of God; it is folly to him.”[4]
In order to get an idea of the nature of true mysticism, we must above all get to know the composition of the human organism as spirit, soul and body and between the inner (individual) man and his outer personality (the “natural” man) differentiate. Every non-mindless human being is a ‘spirit’ attached to and embodied in an appearance endowed with human faculties (sensing, thinking, willing, etc.) which we call his ‘personality.’ This “spirit” is the inner man, which has an individual existence very different from the outer personality (composed of many elements), though the two are bound together during earthly life. The inner, spiritual human being is immortal, so to speak, the personality is subject to constant change, and when it dies, nothing remains of it in the end but what has become immortal through a union with the immortal part, perhaps with the aroma can be compared to a flower. Most people are only conscious of their personal existence (as appearance); but from the reports of the mystics, who have come to the self-knowledge of the spiritual man, it emerges that the inner man belongs to a completely different sphere of existence than the outer one. Personality is a product of the external forces of nature; it draws what it needs for its growth from the physical and astral world and from the realm of the intellectual (the world of thoughts); the inner man, on the other hand, comes from the regions of the spiritual (heavenly) world and draws his nourishment from it. The outward man has a visible body, an invisible astral body, and his earthly “spirit” or mind. The inner man has his own spiritual organism, his “soul” and his intelligence, which is different from the earthly human spirit. The life of the natural (born of nature) man depends primarily on the existence of the inner man; but the life of the inner man does not depend on the existence of the outer. The personality is the shell; the inner man is the core. The outward man is subject to the workings of the laws of nature and all sorts of afflictions; the inner man is above the influences of material nature and has nothing to do with the afflictions to which the personality is subjected. The immortal inner man has many lifetimes of experience, the mortal personality lives only once. In the inner man is the seat of religious knowledge and mystical knowledge; the outer man only knows as much of this as reaches his personal consciousness through the light of intuition, which comes from the inner man. The inner man thus knows much more than the outer man as to spiritual things, and the latter can only participate in the knowledge of the former to the degree that he unites with it, or is filled with its spirit, and his mind is enlightened by that light.
The “spirit” of the outward mortal man is mortal; it is a product of nature and ephemeral like all her products. He is born of the material, gravitates towards the material and the sensual, and returns to the material. The spirit of the inner immortal man is immortal; he comes from above, strives upwards and returns there. He is a resident of the overworld; Heaven is its home, and as it draws up the spirit of mortal man, the soul of man can see heavenly things which actually exist, and hear words unspeakable.[5] There the mystics are revealed to the mystic the mysteries of the kingdom of God, which remain forever hidden from the science that clings to the earthly.
This ascension to the Divine comes today only to a select few, those who are ripe for it. The earthly common sense can neither rise nor sink under its own power to where the deity is enthroned. This occurs only in the power of the Holy Spirit, which is the power of the inner man’s spiritual self-knowledge, and it goes without saying that this cannot be bought with money. Anything a man can do to partake of this inner enlightenment is: To create the necessary conditions for this; for as sunshine penetrates wherever it finds an open window, so the light of the spiritual sun of the universe penetrates wherever it finds an open heart to receive it.
Neither by upholding articles of faith, nor by any works of self-conceit, nor by clinging to externals and customs, but only through the awakening of the spiritual life within, does the realm of true mysticism open to man. The key to this realm is the will, which can be directed towards either “good” or “evil.” The kingdom of good is the kingdom of selflessness, the kingdom of love, the light of knowledge and true life. The kingdom of evil is the kingdom of selfishness, self-conceit and greed with their attendants. In him the powers of the kingdom of God are reversed into their opposites. In him, love has become selfishness, deception and fantasy have replaced true knowledge, and a dream life has replaced true self-confidence.
Both kingdoms are united or potentially contained in man during his temporal life. He has it in his power, through the power of the word which creates in him (Fiat! = Let there be!), to call one or the other kingdom into being and to spread himself by means of the “wings” of his soul, that is, through their powers (will and thought) to the kingdom of light.[6]
In this visible world of ours, both good and evil forces are at work, and from their action, depending on the properties of the seeds hidden in the earth, the most diverse plants arise, both lilies and thistles, suffering and joy, bliss and ruin; for there is only one force, one will, that moves everything. Will is everything, and thought is there to point it in the right direction. If the will is perseveringly directed towards the good, knowledge arises from it, which cannot be attained by mere reading of books. A pure heart is far more necessary to the true mystic than a head full of learning, and he who wishes to follow the light can find nothing better to guide him than the light which is hidden within every human being and which everyone finds when it is found which is revealed in him.
Notes:
[1] The Mystic and “Mysticism.” [Mystik und “Mystizismus.” Franz Hartmann, M.D. Neue Lotusblüten 1, no. 1-2 (January-February 1908), 73-92] {This was reformatted from the original, but with the content unchanged other than fixing minor typos. Translation from the German by Robert Hütwohl, ©2025}
[2] Acts VIII, 20.
[3] I John V, 12
[4] I. Corinth. II, 14.
[5] II Corinth. 12, 4.
[6] Compare the image.