Translation from German by Robert Hutwohl[1]
There is only one kind of magic, namely the application of spiritual-divine powers to work on the material plane. Whether this application is holy or unholy depends on the purpose and intention pursued. In the former case, magic is called “white,” in the latter case “black.” In order to be able to exercise magical powers, one must first of all possess them. This possession can be achieved in two ways: either by freeing oneself from all egoism, raising oneself spiritually to the divine and striving to unite with God, or by calling upon astral beings and with their help to draw magical (divine) powers down to oneself in order to use them for base purposes. There are therefore three kinds of magic, namely:
- Devilish magic, which consists in using magical powers, either acquired in a previous existence and brought into the world with one, or acquired later, to harm other people. This type is called “witchcraft” or “magic,” and it is practiced today on a scale whose magnitude very few people have any idea.
- Black magic, which is practiced without malice and may even be predominant in the intention of being useful to others, but which arises from self-conceit because the practitioner intends to make the divine serve his own personal ends and places this person above the deity. This type of magic is practiced by many people unconsciously, i.e. without clear understanding; they believe that they are doing useful works, pursuing scientific goals, etc., but in fact they are only acting out of egoism and ignorance and thereby attract a number of harmful influences, which ultimately lead to their ruin. We have no shortage of sad examples of this kind in recent times.
- True or “white” magic, which can only be practiced by those who have outgrown old conceit and egoism and in whom the spiritual-divine powers have become apparent and have come to their personal self-consciousness.
In short: the “white magician” is in his personality a servant of God; he has no personal will “himself” that is different from the will of God, but his will is united with the divine will that has become conscious in him, and he carries out the will of God that has set up its throne in his heart. He does not seek to counteract the law (karma), but to fulfill it. The “black magician”, on the other hand, seeks to make God serve his personal purposes and thus to humiliate him. Instead of elevating himself to the status of deity, he seeks to pull it down to himself and use it personally. This type of black magic is also used every day, albeit unconsciously, in the church; for what purpose do all so-called “prayers” and selfish requests for favors and what purpose do all the persuasive arts used to persuade an externally conceived God have other than to compel this God to fulfill the will of the petitioners and thus place him in the service of the church? Everything depends on the purpose and the intention. The meaning that lies behind a thing is its life and spirit. When people pray in the churches for emperors and kings or the sick, and this outward prayer is the expression of a benevolent disposition, this is useful and good; but if they imagine that they can move God to change his will or to perform a miracle, they are sacrificing themselves on the altar of their own conceit.
The same applies to “praying for healing” or the so-called “Christian Science” [which is neither “Christian” (in the ordinary sense of the word) nor a “science”]. What comes from the knowledge of God is from God; what springs from self-conceit belongs to the devil. Only what is done in the “name of God,” i.e. in the power and knowledge of God, is good in the exercise of spiritual powers. In order to be able to work in the “name of God,” however, man must first have fulfilled the first condition set by Sankarācārya [R.H.—Śaṅkarācārya] in his “Tattva Bodha,” i.e. he must have attained the distinction between essence and appearance, the eternal and the transitory, between divinity and humanity, which is not everyone’s cup of tea.
Every thought that has reached maturity and is animated by the will combines with a similar influence from a higher region (astral plane) to form an independent being of a longer or shorter duration, depending on the intensity of the will that brought it into existence. Thus, one can send a helpful angel to someone by sending him a good and constant thought, or, on the other hand, harm him through a thought filled with evil will. False magicians (fakirs,[2] faith healers and others who act without knowledge of God) attract astral beings that are similar to their own nature; they become possessed by them, and since these belong to a higher (or lower) level of existence than the physical one, they can also produce miraculous phenomena through the magician, which astonish those who do not know the laws of occult science.[3] Some illnesses can also be cured in this way; but how the misuse of magical powers relates to the law of karma is another question. The true yogins of India would even refuse to use divine powers to heal their own physical ailments.
The so-called “Christian Science” is nothing new. It contains a fragment of the theosophical teachings known to mystics of all ages, and contained in the religious writings of all peoples. As with other things, commercial speculation and pickpocketing have taken hold of them, and it would be a waste of time to enlighten the public, since the understanding of such things is not yet mature in general, and warnings are neither believed, understood, nor heeded, so long as there is no personal knowledge, which each person must ultimately acquire by his own experience in successive forms of existence.
Note:
[1] Hartmann, F. (1906). “White and Black Magic and Christian Science.” Hutwohl, R. (trans.), Theosophischer Wegweiser 8, no. 1 (October), 22-26. [Translation from the German by Robert Hutwohl, ©2025]
[2] [R.H.—A Hindī not a Sanskrit word.]
[3] [R.H.—By employing, mainly, elementals.