Theosophical Correspondence.
Translation from German by Robert Hutwohl[1]
The Word.
Question: — What is meant by the “word”?
Answer: — Goethe says: “In the beginning was the deed!” — The “word” in the spiritual sense is the deed which is the true expression of will and thought. Will, thought and revelation through speech or action must be in complete agreement; then they have a magical effect within the human being, then “the word is with God”, i.e. with the will. If one speaks words and thinks or wants something else, the word is only an empty sound and has no spiritual power. The will is the father, the thought is the son, and the word which reveals the will of the father (the meaning of the thought) through the word or the deed is the creative spirit contained in the father and the son.
Inhabitants of the Moon.
Question: — Are there any reasons to assume that the moon is inhabited by living beings?
Answer: — The first task of a person striving to know the truth is to investigate himself, and for this he need not concern himself with the inhabitants of the moon; nor is it our calling to engage in speculation about questions whose answers are only intended to satisfy curiosity. However, since true self-knowledge also includes knowledge of all the laws of nature and its phenomena, the above question is justified, and its answer can serve to guide us to a higher world view.
We know that the whole of nature is a revelation of the ONE life in the universe and that there is nothing absolutely dead in it. When life activity leaves a material body, the astral body still remains. The moon is a dead planet; according to the “Secret Doctrine” it is the father of our earth. From this dead body there is also the astral body, or, as it is more correctly called in Sanskrit, the Linga-Śārīra [R.H.—liṅga-śarīra], which, as the word “lingam” [liṅgaṃ] already indicates, is the seat of the sexual principle and from which come the emanations which have a certain influence on the sexual life of men and animals. There is therefore reason to assume that a lower animal life is active in the “astral body” of the moon, and since life always forms when the necessary conditions are present, it is also probable that astral beings dwell there, comparable to the corpse worms of an animal body. Nor is it improbable that the side of the moon illuminated by the sun is, so to speak, “cleaner” than the dark side, which some mystics claim is inhabited by astral monsters of all kinds and is a veritable hell. (There is a picture of such beings in Jakob Böhme’s writings.) We have nothing more to say about this; The moon is known to be the symbol of imagination and the sun the symbol of wisdom. Anyone who looks at the dark side of their own imagination will perhaps find in it many things that do not fit into the heavens and cannot bear the light of wisdom.
Freedom.
Question: — How can people attain freedom?
Answer: — By learning to control themselves, and this can only happen through the power of the higher, i.e. by their higher nature entering into their self-consciousness. As long as people do not control their passions, they are controlled by them and cannot be free. As long as the lower or animal nature rules in people, they are subject to its laws, and then the right of the stronger or cleverer animal prevails. The God-man is free; because he is in harmony with the law of God. What the Church teaches is quite correct, namely that there is no other redeemer than Christ, but we must not expect this redemption from any external distant savior; the only true redeemer is the God-man (Christ) within us, born of the power of true self-knowledge. We ourselves must become divine through our will, thoughts and actions; then we are free and are no longer affected internally by transitory things and external events, because the God-man is on a higher level of existence. If, on the other hand, the animal-people are given the freedom to do what they like, they only sink deeper into the slavery of their desires, and finally the stronger devours the weaker. True freedom cannot be given to another; it is something that everyone must achieve for themselves through the power of true knowledge. Without the power to distinguish between the permanent and the transitory, all spiritual striving leads to nothing.
Desire.
Question: — Is it correct to teach that we should not desire anything?
Answer: — Spiritual things must be understood spiritually. The Bible says: “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.” The “Kingdom of God” is the kingdom of true self-knowledge, and the kingdom of Caesar is the physical world. One should be just both to oneself and to all other creatures. A person who did not desire anything to eat would soon starve to death, and someone who did not want to know anything would remain a fool all his life. Anyone who sits back and waits idly for God to do the work that he himself should do is waiting in vain. Spiritual gifts are a different matter. Man cannot obtain these himself; he can only strive to create the conditions under which he can receive them. The greatest obstacles to this are conceit, selfishness and greed. The Holy Spirit will not allow himself to be dragged down to serve the animal man. He who wants to attain true wisdom must renounce egoism and make an inner sacrifice to it. The more he abandons the madness of selfishness and the desires that arise from it, the more he is raised to the kingdom of wisdom. He who gratefully accepts what is given to him from above, without thinking of his own personal advantage, thereby makes himself capable of receiving even more from the ever-flowing source of wisdom and also receives more, but a dissatisfied, importunate and greedy beggar is shown the door.
Dogmas and authorities.
Question: — Should we not believe in dogmas and authorities?
Answer: — If someone wanted to say this, he would present it as a dogma and himself as an authority. One should not believe something blindly and just because it is a dogma or because some respected authority has said it, but one should seek the truth contained in the dogma. One should not reject the authorities, but strive to reach one’s own knowledge. Anyone who has achieved this is an authority himself. Anyone who is perfect no longer needs a teacher; but the imperfect need instruction in order to get on the path to perfection. Everyone has his master within himself, but anyone who does not know him needs an external guide to find him.
Intuition.
Question: — Where does our intuition come from?
Answer: — From the experiences we have had in this or a previous existence. The inner man knows more than the outer personality and communicates his knowledge to the outer man through intuition. Light penetrates the ether, the ether the air, the air the water, the water the earth. In a similar way the light of the spirit communicates itself to the soul, the light of the soul illuminates the inner man, and the reflection of this is reflected in the consciousness of the outer man. Through reading and teaching what a man already knows inwardly is brought to his outer consciousness and recalled to his memory. An idea which a man does not already know inwardly is difficult for him to grasp, for it is like a seed in the earth which must first germinate and take root before it can become a plant or a tree, and often such a “seed” is surrounded by prejudices and false concepts as by a shell which must first decay and fall off. This is done through the light of intuition. Just as the warmth of the sun penetrates the seed hidden in the earth and brings it to life until the plant finally emerges into the light of day, so the light of intuition makes us feel a truth and the thought spreads and grows until it finally reaches full knowledge. Books that deal with spiritual matters are often only understood after repeated reading, as these truths have taken root in the mind. The best books are those where the reader finally comes to the conclusion that there is nothing new in them for him and that what is taught in them he has basically known himself for a long time.
Development.
Question: — What is meant by “development”?
Answer: — The elimination of everything that hinders growth. We are all still more or less stuck in a swamp of passions, desires and errors, and this is not just a figure of speech; for to the inner senses this state actually appears as a swamp inhabited by half-human, half-animal creatures, the representatives of human-animal passions. The animal man cannot rise from this swamp without the power of the higher, spiritual self that is within him, and thus self-conscious development begins only when man attains religious feeling, i.e. when he feels the power of the higher within himself and thereby comes to distinguish between the eternal and the transitory. The forces that develop from the animal belong to the eternal and rise to it; everything else remains in the swamp. Man is only free and redeemed when, instead of being controlled by his animal instincts, he controls them through the power of the Higher Being that is inherent in him.
Note
[1] Hartmann, F. (1908). “Theosophical Correspondence. The word. Inhabitants of the moon. Freedom. Desire. Dogmas and authorities. Intuition. Development.” Hutwohl, R. (trans.), Theosophischer Wegweiser 9, no. 5 (February), 164-168. [Translation from the German by Robert Hutwohl, ©2025]