Review
The Law of the Spirit according to Dr. Franz Hartmann.[1]
Translation from German by Robert Hutwohl
Just as everything has its number, so too does everything have its measure in time. Day and night, summer and winter, ebb and flow, years, yugas, manvantaras (creation periods), kalpas, and mahakalpas of 311,040,000,000,000 years recur regularly, and there is nothing more astonishing about this than that a violet ray of light consists of 759 quintillion etheric vibrations per second. Nations and civilizations arise, have their infancy, their period of growth, their old age, and ultimately decline; sciences, arts, and religious systems emerge and disappear, reappearing in altered form. Fashion returns, in clothing as well as in scholarly studies, and in the shops of our universities, one finds many long-discontinued but once again fashionable goods, freshly refurbished and adorned with new labels. For example, the origins of man are described far better in the writings of Theophrastus Paracelsus than ever by Darwin, and “hypnotism” and “suggestion” are merely new versions of Paracelsus’s doctrine of “magica” and “imaginatio.” All of nature is subject to a periodically recurring cycle; everything returns to its beginning in the end, and nothing would be gained if, with each revolution, the axis of the wheel did not come a little closer to the center (of truth), thus transforming the eternal cycle into a spiral.
But this law of periodicity doesn’t only prevail on the physical plane; the higher spheres also obey it. The duration of a person’s life doesn’t depend on chance, but is the consequence of causes that have specific effects. Whoever uses their free will to act against this law and willfully shortens their own life will not be redeemed from it. They will not be rid of their body, but merely its material appearance. They will only deprive themselves of the means to be active on the physical plane; they are like a person who has their limbs amputated and must live without them until their time comes. Even after death, a person, consciously or unconsciously, follows this law. Their sojourn in the “Land of the Blessed” (Devachan) is of a certain duration, which depends on the causes they themselves have created. When the effects of these causes have ceased, they reappear as a new personality in earthly life, on this planet or perhaps on another. He is the same actor in a new role, although, as long as he lacks self-knowledge, he cannot know anything about his previous roles, and the role he is destined to play in his new life depends on the way in which he appeared in his previous existence; His fate is determined by his karma, which is the law of cause and effect on the moral plane, in other words, the law of divine justice (Nemesis). Thus, it may happen that some great figures of the earth, who abuse their position in this life, must play a pitiful role in their next life, a role that may serve to bring them to enlightenment, and some who must endure being kicked in the teeth in this life may be able to repay it in their next life on earth. Theologians have created great confusion by placing the “future life” somewhere above the clouds. Reincarnation, when properly understood—not as our scholars imagine “transmigration of souls”—is also taught in the Bible. The best proof of its validity, however, is when a person attains spiritual consciousness, which enables them to remember their previous forms of existence. Against this proof, there are no more arguments.
Since all creatures are essentially one, they are all intimately connected and influence one another, consciously or unconsciously. A good or evil thought is like a star in the firmament of thought, whose ray can strike even the most distant person, if they are receptive, take root in their soul, and become an action within them. No one needs to be “hypnotized” for this to happen; one person “hypnotizes” another without knowing it. Ideas are just as much things as outwardly visible things; indeed, they are far more enduring: for the appearance fades, but the idea persists.
Since every human soul is one with the world soul (Mahat), and therefore everyone is in their innermost being the “other” as well as “themselves,” no one can inflict a wrong on another that does not also affect them in its consequences. Indeed, every creature ultimately returns to its creator; the evil thought returns to where it was conceived; the will is a part of our self; when it is sent forth, it returns to ourselves.
The Self is everything. The various personalities are merely reflections in which the one person sees themselves multiplied as an appearance; what arises from the consciousness of the individual appearance returns to it. The deed in itself is nothing. If someone were to destroy the entire world without knowing or intending to do so, they would bear no responsibility. Will and thought (consciousness) are everything. When a conscious deed comes into being, a creature is created that lives in the realm of creation of the one who created it and takes revenge on its creator for its own existence.
“Thus the murderer’s dagger turns against him, the unjust judge pronounces his own sentence, the liar deceives himself, and the thief throws away his property” (Arnold, “Light of Asia”).
Just as good rewards itself, so evil punishes itself. Outside the comedy of humankind in earthly life, there is no arbitrary punishment or reward, but only the determined consequences of specific causes, which in turn create new causes that give rise to the endless entanglements of fate, from which human karma is composed. This is the law of spirit in nature: that everything is led back from multiplicity to unity, and this requires the restoration of world harmony, made possible only by overcoming self-created discord (pages 86–90).
Note:
[1] Review. The Law of the Spirit according to Dr. Franz Hartmann. (Magic. By Dr. Franz Hartmann. Leipzig, W. Friedrich.) Sphinx 19, no. 105 (November 1894), 384-386 [Das Gesetz des Geistes nach Dr. Franz Hartmann. (Magie. Von Dr. Franz Hartmann. Leipzig, W. Friedrich.)] [Translation from the German Blackletter by Robert Hutwohl, ©2025]