White and Black Magic or The Law of the Spirit in Nature.
By Franz Hartmann, M.D.[1]
Translation from German by Robert Hutwohl
This document incorporates live notes. Click on a superscripted endnote number in the text to jump to its corresponding endnote; click on the superscripted endnote numeral in the endnotes to return to the original text reference.
I – The ideal and reality
The highest ideal of man
is perfection.
The ideal of every creature is that in which its will and striving, feeling and thinking culminate; every being has an ideal that corresponds to its own nature; each has within itself the urge for the perfection of its own being, and the ideal of the highest as well as the lowest, of the good as well as the evil, consists in its attainment. Every being therefore loves, whether instinctively or consciously, the means that lead to the realization of its ideal: The flower the sunshine, the beetle the dung, the dog the bone, the cat the mouse, the miser the moneybag with which it is of one heart and soul, and so on. These things, however, are not the ideal itself, but only the means to its attainment. In reality, the flower’s ideal is the unfolding of its splendor conditioned by the sunshine; the dung beetle’s ideal is comfort; the dog’s and the cat’s ideal is the gratification of desire. The miser’s ideal, the awareness of wealth, etc.—all invisible and intangible things, or rather, states of being. The true ideal of every being consists in its own being and not in the external possession of the means suitable for realizing this ideal; although, as we see daily, the means is often confused with the end. What one fundamentally loves about a thing, even if one is not aware of it, is not the thing itself, nor its form or appearance, but its qualities. And we can only come to the full enjoyment of the qualities we love and admire by having them become our own, by having them become essence within us and find their expression within us. Only that which we ourselves are can we, in the true sense of the word, call our own. It is not the form itself that pleases us, but the beauty of the form, and it pleases us because we possess within ourselves the sense of beauty, which is strengthened and intensified by the sight of the beautiful form. It is not the beautiful words that appeal to us in a book, but the truth contained within them, which, expressed in beautiful words, finds a joyful echo in our own hearts, where the sense of truth resides.
Were man not a composite but a simple being, he would have only a single will, a single thought, a single ideal; but since man’s nature contains many elements, each representing a form of volition, a particular state of consciousness, he also harbors many desires, and each part of his constitution has its own ideal. His material body craves rest, his vital force movement; his inherent animal nature seeks the satisfaction of its various desires and passions, his intellect (Manas) seeks the increase and expansion of his knowledge, but his soul (Buddhi Manas) yearns for the self-knowledge of truth; for union with the highest ideal, with true and real being; the transient in man seeks its happiness in the transient; the immortal in him finds rest nowhere but in immortality itself.
What is the highest ideal that man can sense and conceive? — Universal perfection: to be all in all, to possess all, to know all, to be able to do all, to be loved by all, and to be the sole master of all. Beyond this, no ideal is conceivable. Perfection is inconceivable without essence; a quality does not exist if there is nothing to possess it. The essence of the ideal to which this universal perfection belongs, or would belong if it were realized, is called “God” (Parabrahm). Therefore, God is the highest ideal of humanity, and this ideal can only be realized in man by him becoming God himself. But if the essence in all things is God, then man, too, is already God in his true essence and does not need to become God; for him, it is only a matter of truly recognizing that which is divine in him, namely, his true essence. When he truly recognizes his true essence, he thereby also recognizes God and all of nature. Through this Self-knowledge, the ideal becomes real for him, the divine being within himself becomes reality; he recognizes the truth within himself as his own essence, and this essence as God, for the divine Self-knowledge of man in God (Theosophy) and the knowledge of God in man are one and the same.
There can only be one single, all-encompassing, and all-pervading supreme ideal, which is itself the essence of everything. When this ideal is realized in humanity through its self-recognition and its attainment of self-consciousness, then humanity also recognizes everything, possesses everything, is master of everything, and is itself the truth and essence in everything. But not what is commonly considered to be humanity—neither its body nor its intellect—possesses this capacity for knowledge. They are not God and therefore cannot recognize themselves as God; they are merely reflected rays and shadows of the eternal light. Only the “Son” can recognize the “Father.” Only the divine spark (Atma) [ātmā] within humanity, which is itself an emanation of true essence, can recognize itself as the true essence that it actually is. This true essence within humanity and in everything is its own true self; everything else is transient illusion. If we wish to know the divine or magical powers hidden within our nature, then it is primarily a matter of discovering that which is divine in our being, of rising above all egoism and the delusion of separateness to that level at which that to which these divine powers belong exists. Only in this way can magic be of use to us, for what good are all the rules for the application of powers if we do not possess or recognize these powers and therefore cannot use them?
The word “magic” comes from “mag” = priest, or “magnus” = great; it signifies that great and sublime science accessible only to the spiritual man (Buddhi Manas) and which must forever remain “secret” to both the animal man and the so-called “intellectual man,” who operates only on the intellectual, but not on the spiritual plane (Kama Manas) [kāma manas], because he is incapable of comprehending it. Therefore, the word “magic” is also an empty sound for modern material science, and this higher “esoteric science” does not exist for it; however, it is known to the wise among those peoples who perhaps possess less experience than we do in the science of superficial phenomena in nature, but in whom spiritual life has developed far more fully than among us.
If we examine our much-vaunted European civilization closely, we see that most of what we consider true knowledge is nothing but a web of opinions, theories, and fancies, but without any real understanding of the truth, because truth is not to be found in fantasy, dreams, and opinions, but in the heart. Admittedly, “exact” natural science has made great strides. However, since all of nature itself is merely a phenomenon (maya) [māyā], a reflection in the mirror of the Eternal, this entire science also refers only to appearance and not to the true and actual essence underlying it. It deals with the relationships that exist between these phenomena, and its “exactness” consists in its precise description of these relationships and their laws. Since it deals only with appearances, it is, despite its temporary usefulness, merely a pseudo-science and has no positive value for the Self-knowledge of the eternal and unchanging. To come to know the divine and eternally true, we must go beyond all appearances and concepts in nature, to where the spirit of God lives in our self-consciousness and where truth reveals itself within us in its own power. Where earthly humanity ceases to exist, heavenly humanity begins to work with its divine powers. If the “educated” person cannot grasp this truth, this is not detrimental to the truth itself, but it is detrimental to the “educated” person.
It is common to claim that there is no magic and nothing “supernatural.” Yet the entire world in which we live is a product of the spirit active in nature, and nature (Prakriti) [prakṛti] itself did not arise from itself, but through the power of the spirit (Purusha) [puruṣa], which is qualitatively superior to nature. The Bhagavad Gita states: “Through the magic of My creative power, I brought forth the universe from Myself,”[2] and the Bible confirms this, saying: “All things were made through the Word (Vach), and without it nothing was made that was made.”[3] No scholar has yet provided proof that these words are not true; however, understanding them requires feeling and recognizing within oneself the “I” being spoken of and the power of the inner Word. Schopenhauer seems to have had some inkling of this when he wrote “The World as Will and Representation”. “I,” (Om) says Brahma, “am the source from which the entire universe springs and to which it returns.”[4] — “I am the immortal seed in all things,[5] — “At the beginning of each day of creation (Manvantara), the manifest emerges from the non-manifest, and it disappears into Him who is called the Non-Manifest at the onset of night (Pralaya).”[6] — “Above my visible nature there is an invisible one which does not perish even when all created things disappear.”[7] — “The entire universe has been unfolded through me, by means of my material nature (Mulaprakriti) [mūlaprakṛti]; all things dwell in me, but I (in my Self-consciousness) do not dwell in them.”[8] — “I am the origin of everything. The entire universe springs from me. The sages, who are made in my image, recognize this and worship me.”[9] — “I am the soul that resides in the heart of every creature. I am the beginning, the end and the middle of everything.”[10]
All these and similar wisdom teachings require no external, scientific proof for those who feel the presence of creative power in their own hearts. And for those who are spiritually dead and know nothing of God’s presence in their souls, and refuse to know anything about it, this higher science is irrelevant; they lack the capacity for it, and their opinions on it are worthless. “Veiled by my mystical magic, I am not revealed to everyone. The bewitched world does not know me, the Eternal, Uncreated One.”[11]
Everything that occurs in nature is brought about by nature; but just as the will would remain barren without the generative thought, so too would nature be unable to bring forth anything of its own power without the spirit active within it. The spirit, however, which is unconsciously active in nature, becomes Self-consciousness in the spiritually awakened human being, which elevates them above material nature. Without this, there would be no art, no idealization of the natural world. This spiritual Self-consciousness, which is not science but genius within humanity, raises humanity above nature, but does not place it outside of it.
Therefore, to attain a higher science than the everyday one, we must come to know the spiritual forces contained in man and in nature, and above all, man himself. This is impossible, however, as long as we know nothing of his composition or organization beyond what modern anatomy and physiology can tell us, for these sciences do not deal with man, but only his physical appearance; not the inhabitant of the house, but the house in which he lives. Nor will we find much enlightenment in the study of the ancient philosophers, theologians, mystics, and alchemists; they are largely written in an enigmatic language, understandable only to those who already know the subject matter. Only recently have we been given a key, through revelations from the Far East, to a deeper understanding of the mysteries of the soul’s life in nature, and the communication of the doctrine of the seven principles in the constitution of man and nature has suddenly shed light on much that previously seemed incomprehensible and fabulous.[12] Only now do the mysterious things become clear to us, things of which the sages and enlightened beings of all times and peoples wrote and poets sang, but which appeared to us as dreams of eternally unattainable ideals. Now we find that the God for whom science and theology have searched above the clouds and could not find him can be revealed in humanity itself and has his dwelling place not in churches, but in the human heart itself; that man himself has a divine origin and is a citizen of heaven, even though during his periodic appearance on earth he is bound to a body akin to the animal kingdom and chained to the “earth spirit.” Now we also recognize that what is called “luck” or “misfortune” is not a game of blind chance, but that everyone must bear the consequences of what they themselves have created. We also see that the creatures visible to us in this world are not the only living beings, but that besides these there are countless other, even intelligent, beings of which our modern science knows nothing, but whose existence has an extraordinarily great influence on the life of the individual as well as on the whole.
However, this knowledge alone is not enough to set us free and realize the ideal within us; but a true understanding of the secrets of nature teaches us to recognize the obstacles that stand in the way of realizing the ideal. It then remains up to us to remove these obstacles and allow the good within us to become masters of our nature. If we do this, the ideal will realize itself within us. An invisible and unknown enemy is difficult to fight. Once we understand the nature of the enemies that oppose our attainment of perfection and self-aware immortality, the means to combat them will present themselves [to us].
For millennia, humankind was helpless against the workings of blind natural forces because it did not understand their laws. Through the understanding of these laws and by acting in accordance with them, humankind gained a degree of mastery over nature. It learned to harness the earth, water, air, fire, light, steam, and electricity; the forces of nature, its former masters, now became its servants. In this way, earthly humankind secured dominion over the earth. But something even greater awaits. Just as mortal earthly humankind ruled the earth, so too will celestial, imperishable humankind rule the cosmos, the heavens. There, too, forces prevail whose power is infinitely greater than the blind force of the elements in the world of appearances. A person’s happiness, morality, and immortality depend on their knowledge of these forces, on their overcoming the invisible powers that act upon them. And just as man overcomes external nature by acting in accordance with natural law, so too can he rise to become master of the so-called spiritual world by learning the laws that govern it and acting in accordance with the law of spirit in nature.
But by obeying the law of the Spirit of God, man is himself raised to God through the Spirit. When the will of the animal is no longer master in our house and its spirit is overcome, then the will of the higher divine Self can be effective in and through our body. This higher “Self” is the domain of spiritual and magical powers, and as the spiritual organization develops, spiritual consciousness, spiritual sensation, perception, and memory, as well as the spiritual will with its various modes of operation, of which the lowest forms (“hypnotism,” “suggestion,” etc.) are now scarcely known in Europe.
Magic is the art of moving the spirit, of acting through the Self-aware power of the spirit. A person in whom the spirit is not alive and who does not know it cannot set it in motion or consciously direct it; for such a person, there is no magic. But one in whom the spirit has attained self-awareness and who has thereby acquired spiritual powers can use these powers selflessly for good, or selfishly for evil. The entirely selfless application of spiritual powers is called white magic; the application of the same powers to further selfish and therefore evil purposes is called black magic. The former leads to perfection, the latter to ruin. The elevation of the lower to the higher through obedience elevates; the subjugation of the higher to the lower degrades and degrades the person. Especially now, as hypnotism and the like begin to play a role and the beginnings of the forces of evil are becoming noticeable, it would be of great importance to learn about the dangers that are associated with what, when done through “natural” means, is called “crime”; but which, when done through the conscious influence of evil will, belongs to “black magic”.
Some people sin out of ignorance, yet still harm themselves and others. Whether one burns their fingers intentionally or through carelessness, the pain is the same. One should first learn about the properties of certain forces before using them blindly.
For this reason, the following reflections are intended to show the path to the realization of humanity’s highest ideal, as traversed by the adepts of wisdom, the sons of light, and to draw attention to the dangers that the “brothers of the night” call their art and science. These reflections are not purely speculative, but rather like the accounts of a traveler who reports what he saw on his journey and need not speculate about what he might have seen had he made the journey. They are based on personal experience and, where that is insufficient, on the communication of the experience of those who have attained a higher level of perfection, walk the path of truth, and recognize the law of the spirit.
(Sequel follows.)
II Truth and Illusion.
“I am the way, the truth, and the
life.” John 14:6.
There is hardly a reasonable person in the world who does not want to know the truth, or at least imagines that they do. If they love what they consider their own self far more than the truth, and therefore deceive others when it benefits them, they nevertheless do not love to be deceived by others. However much they may enjoy lying, they still do not love to be deliberately lied to or cheated. But what is truth and what is deception?
It would certainly be absurd to claim that God created the world to deceive humankind, or that nature, through evolution, produced something that is not in accordance with nature. The entire universe is a revelation of truth, of reality, of eternal being, and we recognize the truth within it as soon as we grasp the true essence of this revelation. Every form or appearance in nature is an external image of that stage in the evolution of the thing’s appearance which it represents; deception occurs only when we fail to recognize the essence of a thing and mistake things for what they are not. In this case, it is not the appearance that deceives us, but we deceive ourselves. Truth is essence, reality, an unchanging unity; its appearances and revelations are manifold. Truth is eternal and rests on nothing other than itself; illusions are created by ourselves; we allow ourselves to be deceived by appearances because we do not recognize the true essence, and we cannot recognize it as long as we ourselves are not in possession of the truth, that is, as long as the truth has not become a living force within us, has entered our consciousness. The reason for this is that no thing can attain or possess Self-knowledge of anything other than itself. One must, in truth, become that which one truly wishes to know. Only that which is true within a person can recognize truth in the external or internal world; the person must themselves become true so that truth can recognize itself within them, and they can recognize it in truth. Only when a person recognizes their own true nature can they recognize truth in everything and themselves as a revelation of it. Once they have reached this point, they can rightfully say: “I (in my innermost being) am truth, and my appearance is a revelation of it.”
The truth is revealed to God. How could anyone know God without knowing the truth? Parabrahm, God, the non-manifest, the Absolute, is in relation to nothing and therefore cannot be known by anything; knowledge only occurs when the truth enters into relationship with the knower and is revealed. God, considered as the Absolute, is the “Father,” the primordial source of all being; revealed truth is the “Son”; and the power of truth, drawn from the primordial source of the “Father,” is the “Holy Spirit,” that is, the Spirit of divine self-knowledge. “No one can come to the Father except through the Son,” that is, no one can attain true Self-knowledge in absolute being except by receiving the truth within themselves and having it revealed within them. The truth is revealed to God. How could anyone know God without knowing the truth? Parabrahm, God, the non-manifest, the Absolute, is in relation to nothing and therefore cannot be known by anything; knowledge only occurs when the truth enters into relationship with the knower and is revealed. God, considered as the Absolute, is the “Father,” the primordial source of all being; revealed truth is the “Son”; and the power of truth, drawn from the primordial source of the “Father,” is the “Holy Spirit,” that is, the Spirit of divine self-knowledge. “No one can come to the Father except through the Son,” that is, no one can achieve true Self-knowledge in absolute being except by receiving the truth within themselves and having it revealed within them.
But how does a person attain the revelation of truth? Truth is eternal, self-existent, and not the work of any human being. It cannot be created or produced through manual labor or intellectual activity. Its existence does not depend on human knowledge, but human knowledge does depend on the presence of truth. If there were no truth, no one could know it. If it were a product of human beings, one person’s truth would differ from another’s. Truth is eternal reality, which can be known but not manufactured; it is omnipresent and attains knowledge within us when there are no obstacles preventing its revelation in our consciousness. Everything that a person can achieve with their supposed knowledge and research is therefore only a removal of the illusions that oppose the recognition of truth, not a creation of truth itself. Whoever finds truth unrevealing itself through their own power has no true knowledge, no matter how learned they may be or how many opinions they possess.
But what are the illusions that oppose the revelation of truth in our consciousness? — Nothing other than our own false conceptions, according to which we take a thing for something it is not, and therefore do not recognize it for what it actually is. We form these false conceptions by judging things only by their outward appearance, their appearance, and therefore misunderstanding their true inner nature, their essence, their being. Now, it has been said above that everything that nature produces is, in its outward appearance, a true image of its true essence, and it should therefore be easy to judge the essence from the appearance if nature itself were the essence. But nature in its appearance is not the essence. We perceive truth only insofar as we possess a sense of truth within ourselves. That which is truth within us recognizes truth in appearance; That part of us which is merely appearance sees only the appearance, and if it considers itself to be the true essence, then it also considers the external appearances to be the true essence of which they are symbols, and judges incorrectly because it does not recognize the truth itself.
The greatest deception, but also the most widespread, from which all other deceptions arise, is egoism, the superstition of the personal “I,” the delusion that people, as well as all things in this world, are separate entities not only in terms of their form and appearance, but also in their true essence, and that they could have self-interests that are fundamentally not identical with the interests of the whole, since they all originate from eternal unity, and this unity is the basis of the existence of all things as a whole, and nothing can exist “outside of the whole.” It is not our appearance that deceives us, but rather we deceive ourselves by mistaking our “self,” limited in time and space, transient and changeable, for our true essence, and therefore failing to recognize our true, real “I,” which transcends all limitations, is self-existent, independent of time and place, life and death, eternal and unchanging. We live as outward appearances in a world of appearances and judge by appearances; we enjoy our illusory lives and are happy in them for a time, but even happier is he who has freed himself from illusion and recognizes his true nature. His happiness is not temporary, but eternal. The ox on a lush pasture is happy, as is the inquisitive person with his books, from which he gathers the opinions of various authors and preserves them in his memory. But just as the knowledge of a scholar ranks above the digestion of an ox, so too, and even more so, does the self-knowledge of the wise person (Theosophy) surpass all learned scholarship, which, without personal knowledge of the truth, is merely delusion.
Without this Self-knowledge of truth within humanity, there is no true science and no true religion; even art and poetry are perfect only insofar as they give expression to truth, free from accidental distortions of the external world, and a book has value only insofar as it contains truth, even if in a fictional form. Belief in God is a delusion as long as we consider him something outside of eternal unity, separate from the whole, or regard him as a figment of our own imagination and fail to recognize him within our own being. Life is a deception if we do not recognize its foundation and imagine that life itself is its purpose. Even our own existence is an illusion, for that which is not conscious of itself is unconscious of itself, and unconsciousness is death; but how could one truly be conscious of one’s true existence if one has no awareness of one’s true existence? Gautama Buddha once posed the question: “How long does a person’s life last?” He declared the correct answer to be: “Only one breath.” Indeed, the outer person is not the same for two breaths, for in every moment the matter from which his body is composed changes, and his thoughts and feelings change. Only the divine self within him, which worldly man does not know and whose knowledge slumbers in his soul, is eternal; but since he does not know it, he also has no part in its existence. A “human being” who lacks true Self-consciousness is not a human being in reality, but merely as a phenomenon. One can only truly say of him: He is a thing that looks like a human being, that dreams it is alive, but in whom the true human being still slumbers. His outward appearance is a true expression of the higher animal nature that formed his body with its cognitive abilities, but the true essence of humanity has not yet found expression in it. He is a creature from which a true human being can emerge, but he is not yet one and cannot be as long as he remains unaware of his true humanity. Nor can he know the forces that belong to the divine human nature as long as he does not know this nature of his own. He is an organism in which various natural forces are active; Nature lives, feels, thinks, and acts in him and through him, guiding him in everything he does. He is a different person every moment, and his delusion that he constantly possesses the same individuality stems from his nature’s ability to retain received impressions in memory, thus linking past and present. He will only become a true human being when not blind, material nature, but “God” lives, feels, thinks, and acts in him and through him.
As long as we do not recognize our own true self, our entire life, knowledge, and actions are based on deception. Everything is self-deception that rests on our self-created false ideas, whether these arise solely from sensory impressions or are the result of our intellectual activity. The true essence within us alone can recognize the true essence of all things, and it cannot do so as long as it remains unconscious within us. It is said, “God placed man in the world to attain Self-knowledge in him,” and indeed, the man who truly knows himself is a god, because truth within him is not limited; like its form, but within it he attains an unlimited, omnipresent existence. To the worldly man, who is a product of the earth spirit, everything that belongs to the higher human nature, which he does not know, appears as a dream or chimera; the divine man, in possession of the self-consciousness of his higher nature, recognizes his true essence and sees the world of appearances (the physical world) for what it actually is: A dream, a deception, a play of shadows, produced by the action of the eternal light in matter, and he recognizes this light because it is his own origin, his own Essence.
All “magical,” and therefore spiritual, powers in the human organism belong to the spiritual being, not the material being (animal-being). Anyone who wishes to learn magic practically must first and foremost strive to acquire spiritual powers, for what good would it do to receive instructions on how to use powers if they do not possess these powers and therefore cannot apply them? The prerequisite for studying magic is to truly become a human being; The first and most important experiment in the practical application of magic is to transform an animal into a human being. This is achieved by the god within gaining mastery over its animal nature. Only in this way do we gain mastery over our body and mind—in other words, Self-mastery, which, like any other art, cannot be learned from books but can only be attained through actual practice. Only when we have learned to master our own nature can we consider controlling the natural forces outside our organism through our will and making them subservient to us.
The first step in this process is to learn to distinguish truth from illusion, being from appearance. This means recognizing and removing falsehood not only in the external world, but above all within ourselves, so that the truth within us can be revealed. For this, there is no better scientific guidance than the teachings of the Indian leaders who, having attained this stage of Self-knowledge, are able to speak from their own experience, unlike other philosophers whose knowledge is based on hearsay. It may be a disappointment for many that this instruction in “magic” is not limited to teaching hocus-pocus for amusement, but concerns a matter of the highest interest to all humanity. The teachings of the adepts encompass the entire constitution of the universe, as well as that of humanity, which is most intimately connected with it, and of humankind as an individual manifestation of the eternal unity reflected in the mirror of nature (Maya) [māyā].
The study of this science, which includes overcoming the delusion of one’s own “self,” is long and arduous, but unlike our material science, it is not limited to a single earthly lifetime. That which is once gained for the eternal remains eternal and outlasts death, which does not affect our eternal essence but only our material appearance. The school of the disciple of divine wisdom has many classes, and it may take millennia before he completes them. But what are thousands or millions of years to that which exists eternally, independent of all things, transcending the concepts of space and time? Again and again, after periods of stillness, the spirit lowers its feelers into matter, forms a new dwelling in order to wander within it on a planet, to experience pleasure and pain, to gather experiences, and through deception to arrive at truth, through night to light. Dark is its path as long as it seeks it where it is not, namely outside itself. But once it has grasped that this path is not outside its own being, but that true humanity is itself the path, the truth, and the life, then this path becomes for it a path of light, as it recognizes the eternal unity of all things, and itself as this unity, in truth.
Notes:
[1] White and Black Magic or The Law of the Spirit in Nature. Franz Hartmann, M.D. I. The ideal and reality. Lotusblüten 3, no. 16 (January 1893), ”-62; II. Truth and Illusion. Lotusblüten 3, no. 17 (February 1893), 110-124 [Translation from the German by Robert Hutwohl, ©2025]
[2] Bhagavad Gita, XV, 12.
[3] John, 1, 3.
[4] Bhagavad Gita, VII, 6.
[5] Ibid., VII, 10.
[6] Ibid., VIII, 18.
[7] Bhagavad Gita, VIII, 20.
[8] Ibid., IX, 4.
[9] Ibid., X, 18.
[10] Ibid., X, 20.
[11] Bhagavad Gita, VII, 25.
[12] See “Lotusblüten,” no. VII—XII.