Translation from German by Robert Hutwohl[1]
Theosophy in scholarly circles.—The fact that even the greatest learning does not necessarily atrophy the soul, provided that the spark of divine knowledge is not extinguished within it, is proven by the life and thought of the recently deceased famous anatomist Josef Hyrtl. He said the following, verbatim:
“We have not penetrated and will never be able to penetrate the mysteries of the ultimate causes of existence and the world. But has the infinite spirit, which has written down its knowledge everywhere in clear outlines, placed in our hearts the danger of a hopeless longing that can never be satisfied?
“Here science stands at the end of its research. The boldest spirit of research becomes silent. Faith comes into its sacred right; the faith that science cannot refute or prove. Extinguish this heavenly light and the suicide of your soul will turn the proud lord of the world into nothing more than a heap of nitrogen-rich fertilizer for the field.”
Similar thoughts shine through Billroth’s letters. He feels, as he says, one with the spirit of all nature and sees in its splendor the reflection of the transfigured divine self. Each of Billroth’s published letters to his friend could be considered a model of theosophical views and proves that one can be a great scholar and still think and feel great and sublimely.
Theosophy is the knowledge of one’s own divine self and has absolutely nothing to do with modern natural science; for it is not based on any objective observations or reasoning or opinions and is above all mere knowledge. The spirit (Atma-Buddhi) recognizes itself in man for no other reason than because it recognizes itself, and it recognizes itself for what it is because it has come to the knowledge of its existence in man. Theosophy therefore does not belong to “science” or to earthly man (Kama-Manas [R.H.—kāma-manas]), but stands above all cobbled-together knowledge; it is the self-knowledge of the spirit of God (Atma-Buddhi [R.H.—ātma-buddhi]), which has come to self-consciousness in the human spirit (Buddhi-Manas). Natural science can gradually work its way up to agreement with the theosophical view, but not Theosophy, i.e. the knowledge of truth, must be reconciled with the errors of modern science.
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Mystics and mysticism.—True mysticism is the knowledge through the power of the mind of the all-embracing, all-pervading, unlimited, infinite and indivisible One, which is inherent in the diverse, limited, changeable and finite, and which is the unity of the essence in everything and the first cause of all the diversity of phenomena, which cannot be understood by the limited human mind, but can be grasped spiritually, i.e. can recognize itself in man. The morbid mysticism of our time, which is unfortunately also spreading in Germany, and which is believed by many to be “occultism” and passed off as such, consists partly in meaningless religious enthusiasms and dreams, partly in games with spiritualism, hypnotism, table-turning, spirit-seeing and similar things, which serve more as a pastime than for the knowledge of the truth, all the more so because those who are immersed in it look for the causes of such phenomena somewhere completely different from where they really are. The true mystic is a person in whom the higher life of the soul has awakened and has achieved self-consciousness; the bungler in mysticism is a limited creature without true self-consciousness, a dreamer who raves about dreams that will never be realized in him.
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Occult science and mediumship. — It is a law of nature according to which there is no other real knowledge in the spiritual realm than self-knowledge. That which one wishes to know not merely in appearance but in essence, one must possess in one’s own nature and be one’s own self; therefore, for the person who does not know his own true nature and lives only in appearance, everything that goes beyond mere appearance is occult. Occult science deals with the knowledge of soul forces which one must possess oneself before one can know what they are. For an ox, the human mind is an occult force which it cannot comprehend because it does not possess it. For someone who has no love, love is an occult, incomprehensible thing; it cannot be felt and therefore cannot comprehend it. The same applies to reason, faith, knowledge, justice, truth, constancy, patience, modesty, righteousness, purity, chastity, self-control, sincerity, sublimity, etc. All these are not self-created qualities that anyone can create for themselves at will, but rather states of the soul and soul-powers that must be developed and unfolded in man, just as a plant unfolds from a seed. The occultist knows these powers of his own, he controls them and uses them.
Mediumship, on the other hand, is only another name for weakness and lack of character. A “medium” is a man who is never himself, but perhaps someone else ten times a day, according to the mood that possesses him; for he is not master of his house, he does not know himself or his own powers; he lives constantly outside himself, and his house is possessed by strangers, whims and fancies and thoughts that do not belong to him. He can, without wanting to, become a thief, murderer, adulterer, etc.; neither his virtues nor his vices really belong to him; they are only the results of passing moods or emotions over which he has no control; he himself is an irresponsible creature in all that concerns the will. As the wind passes through the leaves of a tree, and moves them hither and thither, so the spirit of the world and of fashion passes through the hollow heads and empty hearts of those who have no self-knowledge, and therefore no self-control, and moves them wherever it will.
The real occultist, on the other hand, knows and recognizes that all human knowledge, all human thought and feeling, everything that moves his heart or occupies his mind, does not belong to himself but only to his mortal nature; he himself lives in the self-consciousness of his immortality and freedom from everything that is not himself. The desires that awaken in his nature do not move him. From his height in eternal peace he looks down on the sufferings as well as the joys that fill his nature, like an uninvolved spectator; he neither despises what moves his mortal nature, nor is he seized by its desires; he recognizes appearance as appearance and essence as essence, judges everything according to its true value and controls its nature.
Note:
[1] Little things. Various—Theosophy in scholarly circles; Mystics and mysticism; Occult science and mediumship. Franz Hartmann, M.D. Lotusblüten 4, no. 25 (October 1894), 769-775. {Translation from German by Robert Hutwohl, ©2025}