[Theosophische Korrespondenz. Reinkarnation und Wiederverkörperung.]

Translation from the German by Robert Hutwohl^[1]

The doctrine of the reincarnation of the human spirit is often misunderstood and also often wrongly taught; but to the initiate, reincarnation is a self-evident fact. It is neither the deity embodied in man; for Deity is immutable and remains the same forever; nor is it the same personality of man which reincarnates after death; for all that is mortal in the personality has succumbed to death, and the immortal returns to its source, the Father. God our Father is our own higher Self, he is our origin, in him we live and have our existence; we never step out of it, consciously or unconsciously we are in it; because basically everything is one, only the appearances are different among themselves. Our higher self is like the thread which threads through a string of pearls; our reincarnations are like the pearls, or rather apparitions, arising from the thread itself. Our higher Self is like the sun in the spiritual sky, our personalities represent human plants which are built up by the light rays of this sun. The dead man does not return to a new existence, but the character he has acquired reappears on the world stage in other human forms, and the same ray of heavenly light which underlies the existence of the previous man builds the new shape again. It is, as Gantama [Gautama] Buddha says, “Like as when a candle is kindled on another candle.” It is the same light, but a different vehicle.

          We also see how the light, warmth and power of the terrestrial sun of our world keeps growing new plants of the same kind and with similar properties from the seeds of withered plants with the help of the elements; but while the forms of the lower kingdoms are only concerned with the maintenance and development of classes and species, the human forms, by virtue of their higher organization, are entitled to the development of individual self-consciousness. The individual character that a person has acquired is the seed from which the new human plant arises through the influences of the starry world and which is now enlivened and overshadowed anew by the divine ray of light of the higher Self and can collect new experiences, whereby the character of the personality can be strengthened more and more and equipped with higher and higher powers, so that in the perishable the imperishable is born and the spiritual human being forms the form he needs for his self-conscious existence in the eternity.

Note

^[1] Theosophical Correspondence. Reincarnation. [Theosophische Korrespondenz. Reinkarnation und Wiederverkörperung. Franz Hartmann, M.D. Neue Lotusblüten 2, no. 1-2 (January-February 1909), 60-62] {This article was reformatted from the original, but with the content unchanged other than fixing minor typos. Translation from the German by Robert Hutwohl, ©2025}