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Max Heindel - born Carl Louis von Grasshoff in
Aarhus, Denmark on July 23, 1865 - was a Christian occultist, astrologer, and mystic. He died on January 6, 1919 at Oceanside, California, United States.
Early
infancy
He was born into the royal family of Von Grasshoff, which was
connected to the German Court during the lifetime of Prince Bismarck.
The father of Max Heindel, Francois L. von Grasshoff, migrated to
Copenhagen when he was
a young man and married a Danish woman of noble birth. They had two
sons and one daughter. The oldest of these sons was Carl Louis Von
Grasshoff, who later adopted the pen name of Max Heindel. The
father died when the eldest son was six years of age, leaving the
mother and three small children in straitened circumstances. Max
Heindel's infancy was thus lived in genteel poverty. His mother's
self-denial was carried to such an extreme that her small income
was dedicated to private tutors for her sons and daughter, so that
they might eventually take their place in society as members of the
noble classes.
Life
experience
Heindel left home at the age of sixteen to learn engineering at
the ship-yards of Glasgow,
Scotland. As Chief
Engineer of a trading steamer, he traveled extensively, and
eventually found himself working on one of the large passenger
steamers of the Cunard
Line plying between the America and Europe. From 1895 to 1901, he was a consulting
engineer in New York
City. During this time he married, the marriage being
terminated by the death of his wife in 1905. A son and two
daughters were born of this marriage.
In 1903, Max Heindel moved to Los Angeles,
California, seeking work. After attending lectures by the
theosophist C.W. Leadbeater, he joined the Theosophical Society of
Los Angeles, of which he became vice-president in 1904 and 1905. He
also became a vegetarian, and began the study of astrology, which gave him
the key to unlocking the mysteries of man's inner nature. He met his future wife
Augusta Foss around this time. However, overwork and privation
brought him severe heart trouble in 1905, and for months he lay at
the point of death. Upon his recovery he was more keenly aware of
the needs of humanity. It is said that he spent much of the time
during this illness out of his body, consciously working
and seeking for the truth as he might find it on the invisible planes.
From 1906 to 1907 he started a lecture tour, in order to spread
his occult knowledge. He began in San Francisco and then went to Seattle. After a course of
lectures in that city he was again forced to spend some time in a
hospital with valvular heart trouble. Upon his recovery, still
undaunted, he once more took up his work of lecturing in the
northwestern part of the United States.
Rosicrucian
Initiate
In the fall of 1907, during a most successful period of lectures
in Minnesota, he
travelled to Berlin (Germany) with his friend Dr.
Alma Von Brandis, who had been for months trying to persuade him,
in order to hear a cycle of lectures by a teacher in the occult
field called Rudolf Steiner. During his short stay at
Germany, he developed a sincere admiration of the personality of
this knowledgeable lecturer, as latter shown in the dedication of
his magnum opus ("esteemed teacher and value friend"). He
sat in on several lectures and had one or two interviews with
Steiner and he could learn about occult truth from the founder of
later Anthroposophy, but at the same time he
understood that this teacher had little to give to him. It was
then, with his mind already made up to return, feeling that in vain
he had given up a big work in America to take this trip, that
Heindel reports to have been visited by a Spiritual being (clothed
in his vital
body).
The highly evolved entity that visited Heindel eventually
identified himself as an Elder
Brother of the Rosicrucian Order, an Order in the inner worlds formed in the year 1313 and
having no direct connection to physical organizations which call
themselves by this name. As he afterwards mentions, the Elder
Brother gave him information which was concise and logical and
beyond anything he was capable of writing. Later, he found out that
during a previous visit of the Elder Brother, he was
put to a test to determine his worthiness to be messenger of the
Western Wisdom Teachings. He recounts that only then he was given
instruction how to reach the etheric Temple of the Rose Cross, near
the German/Bohemian border,
and how at this Temple he was in direct communication with and
under the personal instructions of the Elder Brothers of the Rose
Cross. The Rosicrucian Order is described as being composed of
twelve Elder Brothers, gathered around a thirteenth who is the invisible
Head. These great Adepts, belonging to human evolution but having
already advanced far beyond the cycle of rebirth, are reported as being among
those exalted Beings who guide mankind's evolution, the
Compassionate Ones.
Heindel-Steiner
connection
Current research on the connection between the two seers Max
Heindel and Rudolf Steiner describes that "he[Heindel] felt
that what Steiner was doing was not appropriate for America where
pragmatism and clear linear thinking is predominant" and
"that he did not find what he was looking for there (a Western
oriented spirituality that was accessible to the general
public)".[1] It is
also described that Heindel's magnum opus [see following section]
having a "more far-reaching body of Teachings" contains
"information not otherwise available in the public domain or
available without supersensible perception of an advanced
degree".[2] This
body of Teachings, Western Wisdom Teachings, was
further developed in Heindel's subsequent investigations and works
and it is not available in Steiner or any other source as it
contains material and specific clairvoyant accounts "not be found
elsewhere in any occult sources"; thus, it is concluded
through the available sources that "The similarities are due to
a common source to both men (Rosicrucian influences and
teachers)".[3]
Magnum
opus
-
- See article: The Rosicrucian
Cosmo-Conception
Heindel returned to America in the summer of 1908 where he at
once started to formulate the Rosicrucian teachings, the Western
Wisdom Teachings, which he had received from the Elder Brothers,
published as a book entitled The Rosicrucian
Cosmo-Conception in 1909. It is a reference work in the Christian
mysticism practice and in the Occult study literature, containing the
fundamentals of Esoteric Christianity from a
Rosicrucian perspective. The Cosmo contains a
comprehensive outline of the evolutionary processes of man and the universe, correlating science with religion.
Esoteric
school
-
- See article: The
Rosicrucian Fellowship
From 1909 to 1919, suffering a severe heart condition and with
an adverse financial situation, but with an indomitable will and
great energy, Max Heindel was able to accomplish the great work for
the Brothers of the Rose Cross. With the help, support and
inspiration of his wife Augusta Foss, to whom in August 1910 he was
joined in marriage, he gave successful teaching lectures; he sent
correspondence lessons to the students, who formed groups in many
of the larger cities; he wrote volumes which are translated into
many languages all over the world; he founded The Rosicrucian Fellowship in 1909/11
at Mount
Ecclesia, Oceanside (California); he published the Christian
Esoteric magazine Rays from the Rose Cross in
1913 and, above all, he launched the Fellowship's Spiritual Healing
service.
It is described that, at his death, his body dropped slowly as
if loving hands were holding him and laying him down gently; as he
looked up, smiling into Mrs. Heindel face, he spoke his last words:
"I am all right dear".
Last, it is worthy of mention that the work prepared by Max
Heindel, has been, since then, continued through students of the
Western Wisdom Teachings who, as Invisible Helpers of mankind, assist the
Elder Brothers of the Rose Cross to perform the Spiritual Healing around the world. This
is the special work in which the Rosicrucian Order is
interested[4] and is
provided according to the commands of Christ, namely, "Preach the gospel and heal the
sick."
Occult
writings
- The Rosicrucian
Cosmo-Conception, first edition in 1909 (ISBN 0-911274-34-0) www www2 (1911 ed.) www3 (1920 ed.)
- The Rosicrucian Christianity Lectures (ISBN 0-911274-84-7) www
- The Rosicrucian Philosophy in Questions and Answers - Volume I
(ISBN 0-911274-89-8) www www2
- The Rosicrucian Philosophy in Questions and Answers - Volume II
(ISBN 0-911274-90-1) www www2
- The Rosicrucian Mysteries (ISBN 0-911274-86-3) www a review www2 www3
- Letters to Students (ISBN 0-911274-09-X) www
- Gleanings of a Mystic (ISBN 0-911274-87-1) www www2
- Mysteries of the Great Operas (ISBN 0-911274-88-X) www www2
- Teachings of an Initiate (ISBN 0-911274-19-7) www
- Ancient and Modern Initiation (ISBN 0-911274-82-0) www
- The Web of Destiny (ISBN 0-911274-17-0) www www2
- Freemasonry and Catholicism (ISBN 0-911274-04-9) www www2 www3
- The Vital Body (ISBN 0-911274-16-2) www
- The Desire Body (ISBN 0-911274-03-0) www
- The Rosicrucian Principles of Child Training (ISBN
0-911274-62-6) www
- How Shall We Know Christ at His Coming? (ISBN 0-911274-64-2) www www2
- The Mystical Interpretation of Christmas (ISBN 0-911274-65-0)
www www2
- The Mystical Interpretation of Easter (ISBN 0-911274-69-3) www
- Nature Spirits and Nature Forces (ISBN 0-911274-70-7) www
- The Message of the Stars (ISBN 0-911274-18-9) www www2
- Simplified Scientific Astrology (ISBN 0-911274-01-4) www www2
- Astro-Diagnosis - A Guide to Healing (ISBN 0-911274-06-5) www
- Occult Principles of Health and Healing (ISBN 0-911274-81-2) www
- Blavatsky
and The
Secret Doctrine, from his 1905/6 lectures (edited 1933;
Introduction by Manly Palmer Hall) www, an addendum
- New Age Vegetarian Cookbook, 492 pages
Quotations
An insight into the starting point of the author's writings:
- When a new philosophy is presented to the world it is met
in different ways by different people. (...) Both these classes
stand in their own light. "Set" ideas render them impervious to
rays of truth.
- Buddha, great, grand and sublime, may be the "light of
Asia," but Christ will yet be acknowledged the "Light of the
World." As the sun outshines the brightest star in the heavens,
dispels every vestige of darkness and gives life and light to all
beings, so, in a not too distant future, will the true religion of
Christ supersede and obliterate all other religions, to the eternal
benefit of mankind.
- In our civilization the chasm that stretches between mind
and heart yawns deep and wide and, as the mind flies on from
discovery to discovery in the realms of science, the gulf becomes
ever deeper and wider and the heart is left further and further
behind.
- Only when that co-operation is attained and perfected will
man attain the higher, truer understanding of himself and of the
world of which he is a part; only that can give him a broad mind
and a great heart.
- Across every threshold the skeleton form of Death throws
his fearsome shadow. Old or young, well or ill, rich or poor, all,
all alike must pass out into that shadow and throughout the ages
has sounded the piteous cry for a solution of the riddle of
life--the riddle of death.
- The man who realizes his ignorance has taken the first step
toward knowledge.
- Christ said, "The Truth shall make you free," but Truth is
not found once and forever. Truth is eternal, and the quest for
Truth must also be eternal.
Notes
- ^
David, Alexandre, Heindel-Steiner Connection
and ResolutionPDF (1677 KiB). Accessed January 8, 2008
- ^
Weber, Charles, The Heindel-Steiner
Connection, 2005
- ^
Auen, Jeff, Heindel-Steiner connection according Jeff
Auen, in spiritualscience and
rosicruciansophia groups
- ^
"Their agreement was this: First, That none of them should
profess any other thing, then to cure the sick, and that
gratis" in Fama Fraternitatis, 1614
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