[Schale und Kern]
Translation from the German by Robert Hutwohl[1]
“Only he deserves freedom like life,
Who must conquer them every day. ” (Goethe. “Faust.”)
The first sign of progress in knowledge is when one learns to distinguish between the outer and the inner, between the shell and the core of a thing; But this is not easy for everyone, because we see how everywhere in the world one still confuses the appearance of a thing with its essence, the effect with its cause, the personality with the principle which is represented in it. One tries to kill a Bacillus, but does not care about the development of the miasma which it produces and its spread; you hang and behead criminals and you don’t see the causes which necessarily create criminals; the whole world suffers from the consequences of not knowing its own higher nature, from which selfishness and greed, egoism and sectarianism arise; One tries to combat the consequences of these causes by external means, but ignores the cause itself; One quacks at the external suppression of our social evils and carefully cultivates the roots from which they arise.
If we look at what is now called “religion,” we find an edifice of dogmas and misunderstood tenets and misunderstood allegories misinterpreted as genuine piety. One imagines that one deserves eternal bliss by taking the descriptions of inner processes, which everyone must experience in himself, if the knowledge of the truth is to awaken in him, to be historical events of the past. One thinks one has true faith when, without feeling the truth contained in religious fables and parables, one imagines oneself to believe in their outward forms and images, and takes them literally; although the Bible also teaches that the letter kills and only the spirit gives life, and that true faith is not based on human conceptions and fantasies, fantasies and fantasies, but is a “spiritual power,” i.e., is an inner sensation and mental perception. All external and therefore spiritless belief is based only on ideas and is therefore external, spiritless and powerless; the spiritual power of faith is only present in me when it awakens in me, when I feel it in my soul, when it reaches my consciousness within myself. The latter is the religion of the heart, too often stifled or hindered in its development by the sectarian perversities and prejudices filling the brain.
The word “religion” means that which binds man to God and divine existence. What constitutes this connection cannot be the acceptance of any theories and opinions, not conceit or fancy, not a “hypnotic suggestion,” nor clinging to any authority; it is not an empty, intellectual concept, no hollow knowledge, but the realization of the truth within himself, which can only take place through the light of truth arising in his soul, revealing itself in his heart and becoming his being. All external ecclesiastical affairs, all religious instruction, all ecclesiastical customs, dogmas, images, allegories, fairy tales, etc. only have the purpose of leading people on the way to this knowledge of God or “theosophy,” and they only fulfill their true purpose when the human being does not get stuck in these images and externalities, but grows beyond them through the influence of the divine light; that is, when by the grace of the Holy Spirit of Truth the self-knowledge of the omnipresence of that Spirit awakens within him.
External churchhood differs from the internal spiritual church just as much as matter differs from spirit; yes, with its excesses of clericalism, lust for power and intolerance it is exactly the opposite of these; because it nourishes itself through the roots, which it drives in self-conceit and in the selfishness of people, by promising them a personal continuation of their animal nature in the hereafter and eternal joy in heaven, and it is also impossible to keep one completely stuck in his self-delusional, ignorant man, knowing nothing higher other than his personal existence, in his assumed peculiarity, in any other way than by awakening from the dizziness of the senses and the intoxication of the passions for reflection, the hope of reward and the fear of punishment to lead to a higher existence. Children are attracted to toys; but that doesn’t mean that they should remain foolish, bound forever and keep their hobbyhorses and dolls for life.
The outer church is the shell, the inner is the core. In the inner reigns Christ, the divinity in mankind, in the outer the Antichrist, the devil of self-conceit from which spring all vices, sufferings and errors; the inner, spiritual church teaches selfless love, which is above all self-interest; the outer attracts with promises of personal gain; the spiritual church elevates the soul above material things and shows it as the true dignity of man; the external church degrades it to the level of an animal through fear of punishment, making it a hypocrite and a beggar; the inner church is the home of knowledge, the outer the dwelling place of superstition, and instead of love it gives birth to hate.
True religion is the tree of eternal life; the external form is the bark. The purpose of the bark is to protect the trunk of the tree against harmful external influences; but the bark is not the tree, and the shell is not the egg. Not in the bark, but under it, the sap rises to the summit. Just as the rigid bark is difficult to access to the influence of light and air, so the external church, with its rigid dogmas, closes itself off to the penetration of better knowledge, and the more stubbornly it clings to its peculiarities, the more firmly does its shell hold together.
As long as the true spiritual church has not taken root in the hearts of men, the rigid adherence of the external church to its dogmas seems necessary. What would become of her if today this and tomorrow that were preached in her, what one considers to be true at the moment? Through a blind “faith” a unity so necessary for them is artificially produced, even if it inhibits all intellectual progress. Thus the preacher is not there to present his own views; rather, as a servant of the church, he is paid to proclaim what his church teaches, even if it disagrees with or contradicts what he as a man believes or recognizes to be true. This stubbornness to cling to their forms, which, for example, the fact that the Catholic Church, in spite of science, maintains Galileo’s doctrine of the rotation of the earth on its axis, of banned books for three hundred years, owes its unity and longevity to that Church, while Protestantism, as a result of its numerous sects, and the influence of the enlightenment made possible by the tear of its bark is decomposed and disintegrates in itself. Knowledge does not come from a change in the prescribed opinions, but from inner enlightenment, and it is a great step forward that the insightful Pope Leo XIII. has done by allowing a deeper meaning to be attached to the biblical narratives, rather than a mere historical value. May the “Supreme Council of Churches” follow this example.
It would be a very easy thing to attain immortality, forgiveness of sins, and eternal salvation, if these could be obtained by the observance of any ecclesiastical dogma. What is, for example, more convenient than to imagine that another being has served as the scapegoat for all mankind, to gratify the wrath of a vengeful god, and that one can now live happily after one’s sensual inclinations without further concern for one’s salvation, or to live a holy life. But errors of this kind spring from a wrong and superficial conception of religious teachings, the deeper meaning of which is “occult,” i.e. hidden, but which can be sensibly clear to every discerning person. Also, real ministers are well aware of this sense and take upon themselves the work of their salvation (from “self”); But he is incomprehensible to head-lovers and dreamers, and they try to rid themselves of their guilt by thinking they can shift it onto someone else.
The Holy Spirit, the spirit of holiness in us, and not an external creature, is our liberator, he is the spiritually divine life in us, and only he who is baptized by this spirit and awakened through him and in him to true consciousness finds in him eternal life. That is why the pious Angelus Silesius says in his book “The Cherubic Wanderer”[2]:
“You don’t want to be a saint and still go to heaven!
O fool! only saints are admitted.
You mustn’t cry out to God; the fountain is in you;
Don’t plug the exit; he would float for and for.
I must be Mary and give birth to God in me,
Should he grant me eternal bliss.
If Christ is born a thousand times in Bethlehem,
And not in you, so too you are lost.
The cross of Calvary cannot save you from evil,
Where it is not raised up in you too, redeem.
Become God, if you want to be God. God doesn’t mean you,
With that which is not in Him, God will be what “He is” etc.
It is therefore not a matter of empty, theoretical knowledge, but of experience; not about accepting misunderstood dogmas as true, but about the experience within. However, it is correct to say that one should not “ponder” but “believe” when it is a matter of truth which our limited reason cannot yet comprehend; This does not mean however, that one should get stuck in a wrong view that contradicts all reason and knowledge and blindly take it to be true, but one should nourish and cultivate spiritual faith in one’s heart, open one’s soul to the light of truth through love for the True, because knowledge arises from it.
The knowledge of the truth is not the exclusive property of any church, sect, or association; it is open to everyone, but everyone must achieve it for themselves; everyone must attain to the true religion in himself; everything external can at most only be a stimulus and guide. You are the means, not the end; they are guides on the way, but they do not carry us. They are signposts which are only of use to us when we walk the path ourselves. They can be useful to anyone who recognizes their purpose; they are an obstacle to those who cling to them. “Lots of heads, lots of sense!” — Where there is no self-knowledge of truth, there the struggle for existence reigns among opinions, but the truth is only one. Where it reveals itself, there all strife, all delusions of authority, all conceit and imagination cease, and in the knowledge of the One who dwells in the heart of all, towards whom all nature strives, and whose temple we are destined to be, there are no more dogmas and denominations; in him all people come together in the end.
Notes
[1] The Shell and the Seed. [Schale und Kern. Franz Hartmann, M.D. Neue Metaphysische Rundschau 5, no. 1 (January 1902), 1-6 [Later in, Theosophischer Wegweiser 5, no. 2 (November 1902)] {This article was reformatted from the original, but with the content unchanged other than fixing minor typos. Translation from the German by Robert Hütwohl, ©2025}
[2] Geistreiche Sinn-und-Schlussreime zur göttlichen Beschaulichkeit (translated: “Ingenious Aphorisms in End-Rhymes to Divine Tranquility,” (1657), or “Witty Aphorisms in End-Rhymes to Divine Tranquility”) renamed in the 2nd edition (1674) to Der Cherbinische Wandersmann (“The Cherubinic Pilgrim”)