Franz Hartmann, one of the most prolific occult writers of the nineteenth century, was born in 1838, in Kempton, a town in Bavaria, Germany. In his youth, he spent much time in nature and reading the works of alchemists like Paracelsus and Cornelius Agrippa. Joseph Ennemoser’s 1844 work, Geschichte Der Magie (History Of Magic,) would have been readily available. “There is no ambiguity in his expressions,” Hartmann says of Paracelsus, “and if we follow the roads which he indicated, progressing at the same time along the path of physical science, we shall find the richest of treasures buried at the places that he pointed out with his magic wand.”[1] From Agrippa, he learned the art of geomancy and sacred symbols. “Natural man is not, as many vainly imagine, a self-existent being, creating his own ideas, thoughts, and feelings,” Hartmann writes, “but as his physical body is the product of the confluence and assimilation of physical atoms, likewise the constitution of his mind is the product of the action of the intellectual and emotional elements entering his psychic organism.”[2] One particular incident from childhood would prove seminal for later research. Hartmann had an out-of-body experience during a dental procedure after he was administered chloroform. According to the works of Paracelsus, this was his “sidereal body.” (“sidereal” meaning “emanating from the stars.”)
In 1845, a German chemist (the successor of alchemy) named Baron Karl Von Reichenbach coined the phrase “Odic Force” as an appellation for his mesmeric theories of a hypothetical vital life force that saturated the universe.[3] Though it was named after the German god, Odin, it had a similarity to the Eastern concept of “Prana” and “Qi.” This cross-cultural trend would only continue. In the 1840s, as Hartmann was coming of age, philologists were making great progress in the translation of ancient South Asian texts, and the first hints of Indian alchemy made their way to Europe. The concept of “Akasa” (“Aether,”) as an Eastern analogue to the alchemical “Quintessence” (“Fifth Element”) was printed in magazines (both academic and popular.)[4] At the same time, American Spiritualism found its way to Germany.[5] Among other things that Spiritualism popularized, one that is often overlooked is the term “obsessed” (and “obsession,”) Though the word entered the English language during the Renaissance, it was rarely used until the end of 1848, peaking at the advent of Spiritualism in 1851.[6] This was likely due to the appearance of Henry Christmas’s 1850 translation of Augustin Calmet’s The Phantom World. Originally published in 1746, the work was essentially an anthology of monster stories from around the world. “Obsessions and possessions of the devil are placed in the rank of apparitions of the evil spirit among men,” the work states. “We call it obsession when the demon acts externally against the person whom he besets, and possession when he acts internally, agitates them, excites their ill-humor, makes them utter blasphemy, speak tongues they have never learnt, discovers to them unknown secrets, and inspires them with the knowledge of the obscurest things in philosophy or theology.”[7] The concept would become something of a fascination for Hartmann.
In 1865, the same year he received his doctorate in Medicine and Natural Science from the University of Munich, Hartmann immigrated to America.[8] He spent 18 years studying various spiritual traditions and investigating Spiritualist phenomena. In 1876, a pioneering Spiritualist named Emma Hardinge Britten published a work titled Art Magic, in which she connects “Akasa” to the same astral solution referenced by Paracelsus.[9] Around this time Hartmann encountered the works of occultist, H. P. Blavatsky, who co-founded the Theosophical Society in 1875 with Col. H. S. Olcott and W. Q. Judge. In her 1877 work, Isis Unveiled, Blavatsky explains away the ghostly explanations of the Spiritualists and substitutes a syncretized creole cosmology of Eastern and Western magic. The phenomena of ghosts were, in her writings, the residue of the multi-layered human body (which ranged on a spectrum from material to spiritual.) The term she uses for one of these so-called “subtle bodies” is the word “Astral Body.” (Evidently using William Howitt’s translation of Ennemoser’s History Of Magic.)[10] Hartmann joined the Theosophical Society in 1883 and subsequently traveled to India to meet Blavatsky in person.[11]
THEOSOPHY IN GERMANY
On July 27, 1884, Germany had its first official Branch of the Theosophical Society, the “Theosophische Gesellschaft Germania.” (Its leadership positions were Dr. Wilhelm Hübbe-Schleiden (President,) Mary Gebhard (Vice President,) Gustav Gebhard (Treasurer,) and Franz Gebhard (Secretary.)) It was at this time that Hartmann’s sister, Countess Caroline von Spreti, joined the Society. (She was the wife of Count Adolphe von Spreti, a retired German army officer.)[12] Both Blavatsky and Olcott spent an appreciable amount of time in Germany that summer, and the movement made great progress. In August, Olcott went to Dresden with Hübbe-Schleiden (a well-known savant and author of Ethiopien.)[13] They spent some time at Weißer Hirsch a summer resort near Dresden. While here they visited Oskar von Hoffmann who was busy producing a German translation of A. P. Sinnett’s Theosophical work, Esoteric Buddhism.[14] It was at his house in Leipzig that the astrophysicist, Johann Karl Friedrich Zöllner (and the other Professors of the Leipzig University) held their séances with the Medium, Henry Slade, in November 1877.[15] (During which the spirits “confirmed Zöllner in his theory of a Fourth Dimension.”)[16]
The new multiplicity of identities, unplanned and haphazardly integrated, produced an urban organism with “multiple personalities.” In came the reformers and self-appointed medical experts who used their authority in public health to define disease and enact state measures for social control. Naturally, there were those who believed in the right to self-determination regarding their physical fate and saw such measures as an affront to their autonomy, way of life, and traditions. (It was, after all, within this milieu that the idea of “human improvement” gained traction. In 1883 Francis Galton, a cousin of Charles Darwin, coined the term “eugenics” to describe “the study of agencies under social control that may improve or impair the racial qualities of future generations either physically or mentally.”) Movements such as allopathy and homeopathy, “physical culture,” and vegetarianism arose as a “back to nature” response to yet another industrial encroachment.[17]
Olcott’s party then went to the Bavarian town of Bayreuth where they were able to attend the Bayreuther Festspiele (an annual celebration of Richard Wagner’s music.)[18] Here they attended the performance of Parsifal in Wagner’s own theatre, the Festspielhaus. Olcott and Hübbe-Schleiden then called on Baron Hans von Wolzogen, Vice-President and Manager of the Wagner Verein. He received them in his library, where he was standing at a high desk correcting proofs of an article on “Theosophy and Wagner.”[19] The coincidence struck them all as strange, especially when Wolzogen, on hearing Olcott’s name, took a copy of The Buddhist Catechism from the bookshelf and said that a friend at Helsingfors had sent it to him the day before. He told them that Wagner was deeply interested in Buddhism, and “Parsifal” was “originally written to represent the Buddha’s struggles after wisdom and his attainment of the Buddhahood. But at the instance of the kings of Saxony and Prussia and other august patrons, he had re-composed it into its present form, a search after the Holy Graal.” Olcott’s party continued on to Munich and called on Countess Caroline von Spreti (Hartman’s sister,) and spent the day visiting galleries. In the evening they were joined by Captain Franz Urban (Count von Spreti’s Aid-de-Camp,) and Herr Diesel (another popular mesmerizer.)[20] It was here that Olcott first met Baron Ernst von Weber, the veteran anti-vivisectionist who, like the von Spretis and Urban, joined the Society.[21] The next morning von Weber accompanied Olcott and Hübbe-Schleiden to Ambach, the summer of Gabriel Max, the German painter. (Max, his wife Emma, and his sister-in-law, Marianne Kitzing, all joined the Society.)[22] They returned to town in the evening but went back again the next day to Ammerland, where the parapsychologist, Carl du Prel, spent his hot-weather seasons.[23] Du Prel would come to be regarded as “the most esoteric and Theosophical writer in Germany.” (He received his doctorate from the University of Tübingen in 1868 for his work on the psychology of dreams, Oneirokritikon: The Dream From The Standpoint Of Transcendental Idealism.) The party returned to Munich (Other members who joined the Society at this time were Baron Adolphe von Hoffman.)[24] From Munich Olcott and company passed on to Stuttgart and Kreuznach, stopping at the Ozone Kurhaus (Cure House,) the summer resort for invalids. At the end of the tour, they returned to the Gebhard mansion in Elberfeld.[25]
After some time away, Blavatsky returned to Germany in late 1885, taking a flat at 6 Ludwigstraße in in Würzburg where she worked on her second major work, The Secret Doctrine.[26] The Würzburg city directory from 1886 states that the property was owned by the banker, Josef von Hirsch.[27] As Josef von Hirsch died in 1885, it is more likely that the property was, at the time, in the hands of his son, Baron Maurice de Hirsch, the creator of The Orient Express. (This would be in alignment with the claims of the American Theosophists who alleged that Baron de Hirsch was a member of the Theosophical Society but “he contrived to keep it pretty dark during his life.”)[28] Her health drastically declined in Würzburg, and the artist, Julia Hoffman Tedesco (wife of artist Michele Tedesco,) and Antonia Schmiechen (wife of the Hermann Schmiechen) helped nurse her back to health.[29] It was during this period, while writing The Secret Doctrine, that Blavatsky revealed to the American occultist, J. R. Skinner, her intention of using the symbol of the swastika inside a circle to indicate the “Aryan Race.” (It would be the first time such an utterance would be made.)[30]
It was around this time, in 1885, when Emily Gerard first introduced the word “Nosferatu” to the English language. In her article, “Transylvanian Superstitions,” for The Nineteenth Century magazine, she explains that they are vampires.[31] The Spiritualist magazines of the 1880s had already introduced to the Anglophone world the Transylvanian ghouls known as “draculi.”[32] Interestingly enough, when Blavatsky moved to 17 Lansdowne Road, London, in 1887, she shared a space with the Theosophist, Platon Drakoules, founder and editor of Greece’s first Socialist magazine, Arden. Writing under the name “Plato E. Draculi,” he was corresponding with Spiritualist magazines at the time in support of the theory of “Inter-Planetary Soul-Communion.”[33] By the mid-1880s, Hartmann himself writes on the subject of vampirism with more frequency. Looking to both ancient alchemical texts, and the latest scientific theories, he endeavored to explain the nature of vampirism. (In this sense, he was not unlike Bram Stoker’s famous vampire hunter, Abraham Van Helsing.)[34] His conclusions, in many ways, anticipate contemporary psychology, for he speculates on the possibility of “psychic vampirism.” “Passion turns them into vampires, and connects them with the object of their passion, provided that there are some elements in these objects which will attract them,” Hartmann writes in his 1887 work, The Life Of Paracelsus, “because the astral body of an evil person cannot influence the mind of a pure person, neither during life nor after death, unless they are mutually connected by some similarity in their psychic organisations.”[35] (In 1889 he published a work on Agrippa, The Principles Of Astrological Geomancy.)
GERMANS AND GERMAN-AMERICANS
In the autumn of 1888, Hartmann stayed a few days with Blavatsky in London, where he met Charles Johnston and Blavatsky’s niece, Vera. (Johnston and Vera would marry a few weeks after their meeting.) Hartmann was on his way to the Bayreuther.[36] It seems that early in 1888, the new Vienna T.S. proposed to hold an adjacent Theosophical Convention in Bayreuth at the same time and host a vegetarian meal during the performances.[37] Hartmann was recently in Philadelphia where he visited the inventor John Keely, a man who claimed to have discovered a powerful new source of energy called the “etheric force,” produced by vibrating the “interatomic ether” in water and air.[38] Joining Hartmann was Dr. Karl Kellner, of the Kellner-Partington Paper Pulp Company. An inventor, occultist, and one of the wealthiest industrialists of the Habsburg Monarch. He joined the Theosophical Society a year earlier (as well as an esoteric order known as the Hermetic Brotherhood of Light.)[39] There were other Germans and German-Americans who joined at this time. There was T. Richard Prater who, before removing to New York, was the Secretary of the Vedanta T.S. (Omaha, Nebraska.)[40] According to some source, Blavatsky gave Prater certain writings that indicated her desire to rename the “Esoteric Section” the “Arcane School.”[41] Then there was Karl Theodor Reuss who joined the Theosophical Society in 1889.[42] Before losing his voice, Reuss was a professional opera singer. In 1880 he attempted a revival of the anti-government organization known as the “Order Of The Illuminati,” but this was unsuccessful. In 1885 he was outed as a German spy by London’s anarchist “Socialist League” (which he infiltrated,) and was forced to leave Britain. In 1888 he joined actor Leopold Engel in Berlin to once again attempt a revival of the “Order of the Illuminati” (and similar enterprises of masonic timbre.)[43] In 1889, Hartmann (along with Alfredo Pioda and Countess Constance Wachtmeister) established a Theosophical lay-monastery at Ascona, a place known for its experiments in anarchist communities.[44]
KILLED BY A VAMPIRE
In January 1889, Hartmann learned of case wherein a certain Viennese lawyer, “Mr. Helleborus,” became enraged at another lawyer, “Mr. Tulip,” over the loss of a lawsuit. Mr. Tulip was a strong, healthy man, but at the beginning of December 1888, he grew more feeble by the day. Mr. Tulip said he “felt as if every day a portion of blood were drawn from him.” The doctors could find no cause for it. Adversely, Mr. Helleborus, he was previously a very feeble, sickly man, began to grow inversely stronger. “On December 20th, 1888, Mr. T. died from exhaustion, after asserting he had been vampirized by H,” writes Hartmann. “From that day Mr. H.’s health began to fail, and on January 1st, 1889, a telegram came from Meran announcing his death. As a matter of course, in this case the scientific proof, such as the sceptic wants, is missing, but to those present all the little details and circumstances connected with the case, and which cannot here be entered into, were sufficient to convince them that it was a case of vampirism.”[45] Discussing this matter in the pages of Lucifer (Blavatsky’s Theosophical journal) in 1889, Hartmann states: “The only rational explanation of such cases, I have found in Paracelsus.”[46]
Such things are easily explainable, Hartmann thought, as soon as one accepted Blavatsky’s hypothesis of the septenary cosmology. [Read my piece on that here.] The human soul was something of a spectrum, with polarities ranging from the “animal” part to the our “Higher Self” at the other end.[47] This “seven-fold” conception of personhood was known as the septenary cosmology.[48] “A knowledge of the odic odor, ‘ethereal body,’ solves many a problem,” Hartmann writes, “but if we wish to explain such phenomena while we ignore all that is not already accepted by official science, we will never find our way through the mysteries presented by the ‘nightside of nature.’” Mere external observations do not get to the root of a thing, “and a science that is proud of ignoring, is no science at all.” Hartmann provides more examples of vampirism that he encountered:
SPIRIT-BRIDES
There was another kind of “vampire” that Hartmann believed more dangerous, as they appeared under the alluring mask of “spirit-brides” and “spirit-lovers.” Regardless of appearance, they were still nothing more than “vampires, extracting vitality from those whom they obsess, and through them from all with whom they come into contact.” (These types of vampires were exceedingly numerous.)[49]
DUALS
There were many spiritistically-inclined people who Hartmann over the years that claimed to live on most intimate terms of soul communion (and even bodily intercourse) with their “duals.” They were always, it seemed, in communication with their unseen friend. It was useless trying to persuade them that they were laboring under a hallucination, and that the spirit was a creation of their own fancy. They felt the presence of that spirit; they asked him questions, and he answered them; they conversed with him, and many instances were known in which such spirits materialized. They were seen objectively and not only by mediums, but other people present as well. In olden times, such observing elementals, if male and attached to a woman, were called “incubi,” if female and attached to a man they were called “succubi.” The history of medieval witchcraft was full of accounts of their doings; “neither can any intelligent reader studying that history set down all the reported cases as being lies and superstitions due to ignorance.” There were as intelligent men during those times as there were now, “and on the whole there was more known at those times about the occult laws of nature than is known at present, and if our modern investigators would take the trouble to study the works of Theophrastus Paracelsus, they might find many a problem already solved, over the solution of which they are vainly breaking their heads.”[50]
A VAMPIRE MARRIAGE
A woman in Germany had an incubus, or as she called it, a “dual” with whom she lived on the most intimate terms, as “wife and husband.” She converses with him, and he made her do the most irrational things. “He has many whims, and she, being a woman of means, gratifies them.” If her dual wanted to go to see Italy “through her eyes,” she had to go to Italy and let him enjoy the sights. She did not care for balls and theatres, but her dual wanted to attend them, and so she had to go. She gave lessons to her dual, and educated him in the things of this world, and committed “no end of follies.” At the same time, her dual drew all the strength from her, and she had to “vampirize everybody with whom she comes into contact to make up for the loss.”[51]
THEIR VICTIMS
People obsessed by a vampire might very well be an intellectual, refined even, but they are always “sensually inclined people,” and usually have secret vices. To sensitive people such as these, their handshakes often feel “clammy and cadaverous.” If you were in their presence for a long time, you would feel exhausted; “it is as if they were drawing strength from you.” It is also very likely that after you leave their presence, you will be in a bad mood for a few days, inclined to argue, find fault in everything, and not infrequently, “feel strongly inclined to commit suicide.” Many people are even driven to suicide by such vampires, Hartmann claims, without even knowing the source of that influence. The abstraction of vitality does not necessarily end when leaving their presence; the connection once formed, “the vampire will follow you to any distance and abstract life from you.” Hartmann knew of a case in which a previously healthy young lady, after visiting such an obsessed person, experienced a continual loss of vitality that caused her to lose three pounds per week.[52]
VAMPIRIZATION
The vampire draws strength from its victim (which Hartmann refers to as a “Medium.) It was because of this that such Mediums usually have a voracious appetite, sleep a great deal, but are nevertheless always exhausted, and never grow strong; entirely unfit for fatiguing labor. They are irritable, highly emotional, “ready to shed tears for insignificant reasons,” and, loving solitude, find their greatest comfort in the intercourse with their duals. Being perpetually “vampirized,” they, in turn, “unconsciously vampirize every sensitive person with whom they come into contact, and they instinctively seek out such persons and invite them to stay at their house.” Hartmann knew of an old lady, a vampire who ruined the health of not a few servant girls. She took the poor women into her service and made them sleep in her room. “They were all in good health when they entered, but soon they began to sicken, they became emaciated and consumptive, and had to leave the service.” Two of them died shortly after.[53]
AN ELEMENTAL AIDED BY A GHOST
A young lady had an admirer who asked for her hand in marriage, but since he was a drunkard she refused and married another suitor. Though the lady loved the other man, she “did not encourage his advances on account of her matrimonial obligations.” The spurned lover shot himself. Soon after that event, a vampire, assuming his form, visited the lady, frequently at night, and when he husband was absent. Though she could not see him, she felt his presence “in a way that could leave no room for doubt.” The medical faculty did not know what to make of the case, calling it “hysterics” and tried (in vain) every remedy in the pharmacopoeia. At last, she had the spirit exorcised by a man of strong faith and it required a long, continuous effort until she was finally free of the incubus. According to Hartmann, after the suicide of the doomed lover, “his astral form became attracted to her, and as she was of a mediumistic temperament, he found the necessary conditions to become partly materialized and trouble her every night.” Hartmann noted that if practitioners of modern medicine were better acquainted with occult laws, many “mysterious” cases that came under their observation might become clear to them, and they would “obtain a deeper insight into some causes of mania, hysteria, [and] hallucination.”[54]
A VAMPIRE BURNT
A miller had a healthy servant boy who soon after entering service, began to fall ill. Though he had a ravenous appetite, he nevertheless grew more feeble and emaciated by the day. After being interrogated, the boy confessed that “a thing which he could not see, but which he could plainly feel, came to him every night and settled upon his stomach, drawing all the life out of him, so that he became paralyzed for the time being, and could neither move nor cry out.” The miller agreed to share the bed with that boy and told him to give him a certain sign when the vampire arrived. This was done, and when the sign was given, the miller grasped an invisible (but very tangible) being that rested upon the boy’s stomach; and although the invisible horror struggled to escape, the miller grasped it firmly and threw it into the fire. After that time, the boy recovered, and that was an end to these visits. “Those who,” Hartmann writes, “like myself, have on innumerable occasions, removed ‘astral tumors,’ and thereby cured the physical tumors, will find the above neither ‘incredible’ nor ‘unexplainable.’”[55]
VAMPIRES SELF CREATED
How do such vampires grow? How are they attracted? All the seeds for good and evil are contained within the human system. Those that are cultivated, grow by attracting from the astral plane the elements corresponding to their nature. This is similar to the way a seed in the earth attracts its appropriate elements from the earth. If sunshine was the power that stimulates the seed of a plant to grow, than thought is the same power that causes a psychic germ to develop. “If the sexual instinct in a person is very strong and cannot be gratified or overcome, the mind rests upon it, and the thought causes it to grow,” writes Hartmann. “It attracts from the astral form corresponding elemental forces, which take shape in the organism of the medium, are supplied with his own vitality, and assume a form according to his own imagination.” The form of the elemental may be the product of a patient’s fancy, but its substance is real; “it is like every other creature a manifestation of individual will and thought.”[56]
THE VAMPIRE OF THE GRAVE
There were, of course, also vampires of the grave. They used to be known by the name of “ghouls,” and Blavatsky called such beings the “Shudâla-Mâdan,” and stated in Isis Unvelied that such monsters loved haunting murder scenes, places of execution, and burial places.[57] It is possible that this demon elemental that sucks the vitality of living people “and feeds the corpse in the grave to which he is attached,” to preserve the appearance of life in the corpse. This type of vampirism, that is, “vampirism of the grave,” once reached such epidemic proportions (with many victims) that it was made the subject of an official investigation by the authorities in Kisolova, Hungary as well as in Medveda, Serbia, and other places “on which occasion the most horrible details were brought to light.[58] (These, and other accounts, can be read here in German: Die Mystischen Erscheinungen Der Menschlichen Natur.)[59]
THE REAL VAN HELSING
Could Hartmann have served as an inspiration for Bram Stoker’s Abraham Van Helsing in Dracula? Possibly. Hartmann wrote “A Modern Case Of Vampirism” for Lucifer in 1889.[60] Stoker began working on the novel while vacationing at Whitby, England, in March 1890. The idea, Stoker said, came to him in a dream.[61] A direct link between Stoker and the Theosophists can be found in the person of Lady Emily Thornley Stoker (Stoker’s sister-in-law,) who joined the Dublin Lodge of the Theosophical Society in February 1892.[62]
LYING SPIRITS
Innumerable tests of spirit identity are entirely satisfying to a superficial observer. However, these same tests would be found sadly wanting in truth when closely examined. In most cases, it appears as if a “host of lying spirits were assuming the true masks of known persons; the acting is often perfect, but the actor behind the mask is not what he represents himself to be, although many a deluded person, being delighted with the idea of communicating with a beloved friend or relative, is most unwilling to incur the risk of finding himself deceived.” Whenever the communicating spirit represented themself in the attire of a “spirit-lover,” or “spirit-bride,” human vanity becomes excited to the highest pitch, and a cure is all but impossible. “Such persons regard doubts about the identity of their ‘spirits’ as being blasphemy and heresy of the worst kind.” For an example of this delusion, Hartmann reference the case of Henry B. Foulke, who was convinced that he was receiving communications from Blavatsky (who died in 1891.) Back in America, the first Branch for German speakers, “Die Deutsche Theosophische Gesselschaft,” was established in Philadelphia, on November 12, 1890. It began with a membership of five people, George Falkenstein being named President, and Marie Cloeren as Secretary.[63] Falkenstein, at the time, was close to Foulke, and the details likely reached Hartmann through this channel.[64]
LOTUSBLÜTHEN
In 1893, Hartmann published the first issue of the German Theosophical journal, Lotusblüthen (Lotus Blossom,) the first German publication with the theosophical swastika on the cover.[65] In late 1893 Hartmann formed a co-operation with Carl Kellner, having developed a cure-treatment for respiratory disease using the byproduct from the cellulose manufacture in Kellner’s paper plants. Kellner and Hartmann subsequently opened the Lebensreform sanitorium called the “Inhalatorium” in Hallein near Salzburg, Switzerland.[66] (Hartmann was the director.)[67] Charles and Vera Johnston were among the first patients. Having contracted malaria in India, the Johnstons went there for a rest-cure in the winter of 1893.[68] “I was then […] in the Austrian Alps, seeking, amid the warm scented breath of the pine woods and the many-coloured beauty of the flowers, to drive from my veins the lingering fever of the Ganges delta, and steeping myself in the lore of the Eastern wisdom,” writes Johnston.[69]
GERMANIA BRANCH THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY
Back in America, T. Richard Prater and Maria Schirrmeister, along with “a few German ‘free-thinkers,’” applied for a charter to form the German-speaking Sphinx Center T.S. in New York in 1895.[70] (Students of Theosophy who did not have enough members for a regular Branch would form a “Center.”) “Anyone who knows the passiveness of the Germans in America to teachings such as Theosophy,” it was said, “will understand under what difficulties this [Center] has to work.”[71] After the death of Blavatsky Prater in many ways kept the movement in Germany “fertile,” and for many years he mailed pamphlets, writings, letters, doing “his best to prepare the ground and keep up whatever interest might have already been aroused.”[72] In May 1896, just two months after the death of W.Q. Judge, the Deutsche Theosophische Gesselschaft Germania (or, Germania Branch T.S.,) was chartered as an official Branch. Its headquarters was on 607 East 14 Street.[73]
Hartmann was an occultist and a scientist at a time when those fields were competing and overlapping. In 1896, for example, Hartmann’s definition for psychologist was: “people interested in the science of the soul.”[74] This was evidenced by the report of David Starr Jordan (founding President of Stanford University) which appeared Popular Science in September 1896. In the article, “The Sympsychograph,” Jordan described the recent experiments of the Astral Camera Club and the photograph they captured of a cat’s thoughts. He even uses Theosophical terminology. “It is not unlikely that among the latent powers which are conferred upon man by the possession of the astral body,” writes Jordan, “are those which will enable him to read the pictures on the infinite negatives of Nature, and by that means to rescue the records of the vanished past.”[75] The strange findings which the sober-minded “professor of classified knowledge” (as Jordan was known) shook up the thinkers of the Pacific Union and Bohemian Clubs of San Francisco.[76] A reporter for The San Francisco Call interviewed Anderson at the San Francisco T.S. “All such experiments […] are to be welcomed, and by the Theosophist they are, for they are the direct scientific proof of his theories,” said Anderson. “That these experiments have attracted the attention of a scientist of Dr. Jordan’s worldwide reputation is a fact for which humanity may be grateful. It removes such things entirely from the domain of superstition and charlatanry, to which scientists have heretofore been only too prone to regulate them.” This seemingly confirmed, scientifically, the mechanics of Blavatsky’s precipitated messages.[77] Jordan would quickly send a letter to Popular Science stating that his essay was merely a satire. “The methods ascribed to the Astral Camera Club are those which never have yielded and never can yield any results to science,” Jordan wrote. “Scientific investigators are not ‘wizards,’ their discoveries are not presaged by uncanny feelings nor green darkness, nor is there anything ‘occult’ about their ways of working.”[78]
Perhaps it was only natural that “sober-minded” academics, self-conscious of the more charismatic actors in the field of psychology, began to distance the appellation of “psychological” from its earlier synonym, “psychical,” in an effort to be regarded as a serious scientific discipline (and not go the way of Mesmerism or Phrenology.)[79] Hartmann and Kellner saw this first hand in August 1896 when they attended the Fifth Congress of Psychology in Munich, Germany.[80] It was clear that the materialist faction of psychology was beginning to eclipse the “psychical” researchers whose work had informed much of the emerging field.[81] Dr. Carl Stumpf, president of the 1896 congress confessed: “I endeavored to prevent hypnotic and occult phenomena from occupying the foreground, as had been the case in former sessions.”[82] Hartmann and Kellner delivered a lecture on Samadhi with an Indian Yogi named Sen Bheema Pratapa.[83] “[Pratapa] went into the Samadhi sleep for the purpose of exhibiting that state before these professors and scientists so as to attract their attention to the existence of a state of higher consciousness,” Hartmann writes, “during which the body is insensible to pains inflicted upon it.”[84] Hartmann continues: “What appeared to be most strange to the scientists assembled, was that there was no symptom of any bodily disease discoverable. There was no sign of any cataleptic conditions, nor could the sleeping person be made to act upon any hypnotic suggestion.”[85] Kellner, for his part, produced a tract detailing Pratapas’s experience titled: Yoga: A Sketch Of The Psychophysiological Part Of The Ancient Indian Yoga Teaching.[86] Hartmann would later write two essays dealing with his experience, one for W. T. Stead’s Borderland, and one for Theosophy.[87] (It is likely that Charles Johnston notified William James of this experience, for he included it in The Varieties Of Religious Experience.)
Hartmann wrote to Stead in 1896 stating that he wanted, for some time, to create a periodical after the pattern of Borderland for the German-speaking peoples. “A good metaphysical journal,” said Hartmann, “is much needed, but the soil in Germany is hardly prepared for it.”[88] In the wake of Judge’s death, the Theosophists of America (who declared independence in 1896,) launched a world tour in which they hoped to establish a global Theosophical coalition to rival the India-based Theosophical Society. Hartmann sided with the American “Crusaders,” as they were known, and did much to assist them in establishing the Theosophical Society in Europe (T.S.E.) during their time in Europe.
After coordinating with Paul Zillman, Hartmann met the “Crusaders” at the Potsdam Railway Station.[89] Zillman was the founder of Neue Metaphysische Rundschau (New Metaphysical Review,) an occult journal that focused on both traditional esoteric traditions and new parapsychological research. Inspired by the early nineteenth-century mystic Eckhartshausen, in 1897 Zillman created a quasi-masonic secret school called the Wald Loge (Forest Lodge.)[90] The days were filled with activities thanks to the new German members and many meetings were held.[91] The largest meeting was in the large hall of Vereinshaus where Hartmann occupied the chair. The newspaper reports were ample and friendly one newspaper stating “that instead of saying ex orient lux we ought now to say ex Occident lux.”[92] The first meeting of the Berlin Branch (T.S.E.) was on August 27, 1896.[93] As mentioned before, “a good field was already prepared for the sowing of the seed in Germany” because of Richard Prater.[94] Karl Theodor Reuss was elected President of this Branch.[95] According to Reuss, Kellner had recently been in contact with an esoteric order known as the Hermetic Brotherhood Of Light, which originated in America in 1895.[96] (Hartmann, Kellner, and Reuss would help establish an off-shoot, the Ordo Templi Orientis of Aleister Crowley fame.) On August 30, another Branch was formed in Hamburg. After this a meeting was held to elect the officers of T. S. in Europe (Germany.) Hartmann was elected President; Reuss, Vice-President. (The other officers elected were Dr. Nagel, Secretary; Corvinus, Assistant Secretary, Leopold Engels, Treasurer, Schwabe, Assistant Treasurer, and Paul Raatz, and Zillman to act as Executive Committee.)[97]
Hartmann met the Crusaders once again on September 9, 1896, escorting them from Salzburg Station to his residence at the Inhalatorium in Hallein. The following evening Hartmann and the Crusaders took a moonlight drive to Hotel Stern, to dine with Kellner. Other guests at the dinner table included Dr. Froebe, a Professor of astronomy at the University of Vienna, and his wife, Mrs. Froebe. There was also Omar bey Al-Raschid, and his wife Helene Böhlau. Born Friedrich Arnd, Al Raschid was a German publicist, who converted to Islam in 1886 while traveling in Istanbul. It was there he met Helene, a romance writer who was well-known throughout Germany. Raschid Bey wore a hooded cloak, a red fez, and trousers tucked into his riding boots, and spoke of Theosophy and the Movement in general. Sporting a thick black beard just slightly darker than his brown eyes, Al Raschid, had a certain dashing mystery about him. The meal was served in the open air, according to the good German custom, surrounded by birch trees and green grass. The table was adorned with flowers, provided by Hartmann, and on a nearby pillar was the American flag, in honor of the guests for whom the dinner was given. After dinner, an illuminated address, signed by the Crusaders, was presented to Hartmann, which thanked him for his long-continued services to Theosophy.[98]
SOURCES:
[1] Hartmann, Franz. The Life And the Doctrine Of Philippus Theophrastus Bombast Of Hohenheim Known By The Name Of Paracelsus And The Substance Of His Teachings. Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co. London, England. (1896): 11.
[2] Hartmann, Franz. The Principles Of Astrological Geomancy: The Art Of Divining By Punctuation, According To Cornelius Agrippa And Others. The Theosophical Publishing Company. London, England. (1889): 13.
[3] See: [Reichenbach, Karl, Freiherr von. Physico-Physiological Researches On The Dynamics Of Magnetism, Electricity, Heat, Light, Crystallization, And Chemism, In Their Relations To Vital Force. J. S. Redfield. New York, New York (1851.)]
[4] “Historical Researches On The Origin And Principles Of The Baudda And Jaina Religions.” Journal Of The Asiatic Society Of Bombay. Vol. II, No. 8 (October 1844): 71-110; “Miscellanea Mystica: No. II.” The Dublin University Magazine. Vol. XXVII, No. 158 (February 1846): 155-170; Müller, Max. “Kana’da’s Theory Of The Elements.” The Benares Magazine. Vol. VIII, Pt. II. (1853): 356-365.
[5] Dr. Charles Andree, of Bremen, was conducting “Table Moving” experiments in Augsburg as early as 1853, but no real progress was made until 1869, when Count Poninski delivered lectures on the topic in Leipzig. [“Table Moving In Germany.” The Burlington Free Press. (Burlington, Vermont) April 23, 1853; “Spiritualism In Germany.” The Newcastle Weekly Chronicle. (Newcastle Upon Tyne, England) December 4, 1869.]
[6] (A similar trend for this word would happen during World War I and the 1960s.)
[7] Calmet, Augustin. (tr.) Christmas, Henry. The Phantom World: Vol. I. Richard Bentley. London, England. (1850): 147.
[8] Blavatsky, Helena P. Collected Writings Volume III (1881-1882.) Theosophical Publishing House. Wheaton, Illinois. (1966): Boris de Zirkoff essay on Franz Hartmann: 439-457.
[9] Britten, Emma Hardinge. Art Magic; Or, Mundane, Sub-Mundane And Super-Mundane Spiritism. Emma Hardinge Britten. New York, New York. (1876): 187-188.
[10] Ennemoser writes: “In dreams, man is like plants, which also have their elemental body and their sidereal body (but the spirit of the third is missing.) In sleep, the sidereal body is in free action. It soars up to its fathers; it holds conversations with the stars. For, even after death, it returns to the stars, just as the earthly body returns to the general womb of the earth.” [Ennemoser, Joseph. Geschichte Der Magie. F. Brodhaus. Leipzig, Germany. (1844): 900.] When the work was translated in 1854 by William Howitt, “sidereal body” was changed to “astral body.” A slight difference, but worthy of note, as the former means “emanating from” and the latter means “connected to.” It is unclear why Howitt made this change; Ennemoser uses the term “astral” in the original German text to refer to another class of elemental spirits. [Ennemoser, Geschichte Der Magie, 340, 898.] Howitt’s translation reads: “In dreams a man is like the plants, which have also the elementary and vital body, but possess not the spirit. In sleep the astral body is in freer motion; then it soars to its parents, it holds converse with the stars. And after death also it returns to the stars, and the earthy body descends then into the bosom of the earth. Dreams, forebodings, prescience, prognostications, and presentiments, are the gifts of the sidereal, and are not imparted to the elementary body.” [Ennemoser, Joseph. (tr.) Howitt, William. The History Of Magic: Vol. II. Henry G. Bohn. London, England. (1854): 239.] It is clear that Blavatsky is using this translation, for in Isis Unveiled she writes: “‘In our dreams,’ says Paracelsus, ‘we are like the plants, which have also the elementary and vital body, but possess not the spirit. In our sleep the astral body is free and can, by the elasticity of its nature, either hover round in proximity with its sleeping vehicle, or soar higher to hold converse with its starry parents, or even communicate with its brothers at great distances. Dreams of a prophetic character, prescience, and present wants, are the faculties of the astral spirit. To our elementary and grosser body, these gifts are not imparted, for at death it descends into the bosom of the earth and is reunited to the physical elements, while the several spirits return to the stars. The animals,’ he adds, ‘have also their presentiments, for they too have an astral body.’” [Blavatsky, H.P. Isis Unveiled: Vol. I. J.W. Bouton. New York, New York. (1877): 170.]
[11] Theosophical Society General Membership Register, 1875-1942 at http://tsmembers.org/. See book 1, entry 1811. (Website file: 1A: 1875-1885) Franz Hartmann. (3/25/1883); Hütwohl, Robert. “Some Fragments Of The Secret History Of The Theosophical Society.” Theosophical History Occasional Papers. Vol. VII. (2000): 1-35.
[12] Theosophical Society General Membership Register, 1875-1942 at http://tsmembers.org/. See book 1, entry 2975. (website file: 1B:1885-1890) Countess Caroline von Spreti. (8/9/1884); Theosophical Society General Membership Register, 1875-1942 at http://tsmembers.org/. See book 1, entry 2976. (website file: 1B:1885-1890) Count Adolphe von Spreti. (8/9/1884.)
[13] Theosophical Society General Membership Register, 1875-1942 at http://tsmembers.org/. See book 1, entry 2958. (website file: 1B:1885-1890); Dr. [Wilhelm] Hübbe-Schleiden. (7/27/1884); The Society For Psychical Research. “Proceedings Of The General Meetings In May And June 1885: Report Of The Committee Of The Society For Psychical Research, Appointed To Investigate The Evidence For Marvellous Phenomena Offered By Certain Members Of The Theosophical Society.” Proceedings Of The Society For Psychical Research. Vol. III. (1885): 201-400.
[14] Theosophical Society General Membership Register, 1875-1942 at http://tsmembers.org/. See book 1, entry 2474. (website file: 1A:1875-1885); Oskar von Hoffman. (11/2/1883)
[15] Sargent, Epes. The Scientific Basis Of Spiritualism. Colby & Rich. Boston, Massachusetts. (1887): 81-83.
[16] Olcott, Henry S. “Old Diary Leaves: Second Oriental Series: Chapter XIII.” The Theosophist. Vol. XIX, No. 8. (May 1898): 449-456.
[17] Cayleff, Susan E. Nature’s Path: A History of Naturopathic Healing in America. Johns Hopkins University Press. Baltimore, Maryland. 1-11.
[18] (In 1888 performances of Parsifal and the Meistersinger were held on alternate days from July 22 to August 19.) [“Notes.” The Meister. Vol. I. (1888): 33-35.]
[19] This is probably the article written by Édouard Schuré that Emilie de Morsier references in “Psychic Currents.” [de Morsier, Emilie. “Psychic Currents.” The Theosophist. Vol. VI, No. 8 (May 1885): 173-175.] Schuré joined the T.S. in February 1885. [Theosophical Society General Membership Register, 1875-1942 at http://tsmembers.org/. See book 1, entry 3188. (website file: 1B:1885-1890); Édouard Schuré. (2/18/1885.)]
[20] Theosophical Society General Membership Register, 1875-1942 at http://tsmembers.org/. See book 1, entry 2974. (website file: 1B:1885-1890) Captain Franz Urban. (8/9/1884.)
[21] Theosophical Society General Membership Register, 1875-1942 at http://tsmembers.org/. See book 1, entry 2982. (website file: 1B:1885-1890); Ernst von Weber. (8/9/1884.) Weber would be a Delegate for Germany at the 1887 Convention at Adyar. An experience he would describe in the pages of Über Land Und Meer. [Von Weber, Ernst. “Die Theosophische Bewegung In Indien.” Über Land Und Meer. Vol. 59, No. 5 (1887): 604-697.]
[22] Theosophical Society General Membership Register, 1875-1942 at http://tsmembers.org/. See book 1, entry 2980. (website file: 1B:1885-1890) Emma Max. (8/9/1884); Theosophical Society General Membership Register, 1875-1942 at http://tsmembers.org/. See book 1, entry 2981. (website file: 1B:1885-1890); Gabriel Max. (8/9/1884); Theosophical Society General Membership Register, 1875-1942 at http://tsmembers.org/. See book 1, entry 2979. (website file: 1B:1885-1890) Marianne Kitzing. (8/9/1884.)
[23] Theosophical Society General Membership Register, 1875-1942 at http://tsmembers.org/. See book 1, entry 2977. (website file: 1B:1885-1890) Baroness Albertine de Prel. (8/9/1884); Theosophical Society General Membership Register, 1875-1942 at http://tsmembers.org/. See book 1, entry 2978. (website file: 1B:1885-1890) Baron Carl de Prel. (8/9/1884.)
[24] Theosophical Society General Membership Register, 1875-1942 at http://tsmembers.org/. See book 1, entry 2869. (website file: 1B:1885-1890); Alphonse von Hoffman. (5/26/1884); Theosophical Society General Membership Register, 1875-1942 at http://tsmembers.org/. See book 1, entry 2968. (website file: 1B:1885-1890) Evelina von Hoffman. (8/3/1884.)
[25] Blavatsky, H.P. “To The Editor Of ‘Light.’” Light. Vol. IX, No. 440. (June 8, 1889): 277-278; Johnston, Vera (trans.) “Letters Of H.P. Blavatsky Pt. VII.” The Path. Vol. X, No. 3 (June 1895): 73-78; Olcott, Henry S. “Old Diary Leaves: Second Oriental Series: Chapter XIII.” The Theosophist. Vol. XIX, No. 8. (May 1898): 449-456.
[26] Wachtmeister, Constance. Reminiscences Of H.P. Blavatsky And The “Secret Doctrine.” Theosophical Publishing House. London, England. (1893): 18-21, 101; Johnston, Vera (trans.) “Letters Of H.P. Blavatsky Pt. IX.” The Path. Vol. X, No. 5 (August 1895): 139-142; Buck, Jirah Dewey. Modern World Movements: Theosophy And The School Of Natural Science. Indo-American Book Company. Chicago, Illinois. (1913): 39-41.]
[27] Adreß Und Geschäfts-Handbuch Für Die Kgl. Bayer. Kreis-Haupt Und Universität Stadt Würzburg. Stüber. Würzburg, Germany. (1886): 54.
[28] During the 1896 Convention of the Theosophical Society in America, it was stated: “A number of resolutions were read, one of which hailed the late-Baron de Hirsch as a true Theosophist (he contrived to keep it pretty dark during his life,) and called for the placing of his picture in place of honor at headquarters.” [“An Occult School To Be Founded Here.” The New York Journal. (New York, New York) April 27, 1896.] It is possible that Hirsch was the wealthy friend whom J.D. Buck mentions a wealthy patron who sponsored the publication of Vol. II of The Path. [Buck, J. D. “His One Ambition.” Theosophy. Vol. XI., No. 2. (May 1896): 41-43.] This would be sympathetic to the ethos of Hirsch’s views on Philanthropy: “In relieving human suffering I never ask whether the cry of necessity comes from a being who belongs to my own faith or not…” [Baron de Hirsch. “My Views On Philanthropy.” The North American Review. Vol. CLIII, No. 416. (July 1891): 1-4.] Countess Wachtmeister states: “Our visitors were very few. Once a week the doctor called to enquire after H. P. B.’s health, and he would stay gossiping for more than an hour. Sometimes but rarely, our landlord, a Jew of material tendencies, would tell a good story of life as he saw it through his spectacles, and many a laugh we all had together—a pleasant interruption to the daily monotony of our work. [Wachtmeister, Constance. Reminiscences Of H.P. Blavatsky And The “Secret Doctrine.” Theosophical Publishing House. London, England. (1893): 23.]
[29] Blavatsky writes: “I have frightened them all, poof people […] I am told that for half an hour I was like one dead. They brought me back to life with digitalis. I fainted in the drawing room, and returned to consciousness when undressed in my bed, with a doctor at the foot of my bedstead, and Mlle. Hoffman crying her eyes out over me […] and my kindly ladies, wives of the painters Tedesco and Schmiechen, and Mlle. Hoffman sat up all night with me.” [Johnston, Vera (trans.) “Letters Of H.P. Blavatsky: Pt. IX.” The Path. Vol. X, No. 5 (August 1895): 139-142.] The “Mlle. Hoffman” may have been a sister of Julia Hoffman Tedesco, whose father was Franz Hoffman, a philosophy professor. [Giannelli, Enrico; Dalbono, Eduardo. Artisti Napoletani Viventi: Pittori, Scultori Ed Architetti: Opere Da Loro Esposte, Vendute E Premii Ottenuti In Esposizioni Nazionali Ed Internazionali. Melfi & Joele. Napoli, Italia. (1916): 278-280.] The wife of the painter Schmiechen was Antonia Schmiechen, wife of Hermann Schmiechen. [Theosophical Society General Membership Register, 1875-1942 at http://tsmembers.org/. See book 1, entry 2901. (website file: 1B:1885-1890); Hermann Schmiechen. (6/20/1884); Theosophical Society General Membership Register, 1875-1942 at http://tsmembers.org/. See book 1, entry 2902. (website file: 1B:1885-1890); Antonia Schmiechen. (6/20/1884.)] Though less likely, owing to the “Mlle” honorific indicating and unmarried woman, the un-named Hoffman lady could be the Theosophist Eveline Von Hoffman. Her husband, Oskar von Hoffmann, also a Theosophist, made a German translation of Esoteric Buddhism. Olcott and Dr. Wilhelm Hübbe-Schleiden spent some time at Weißer Hirsch (a summer resort near Dresden) in the summer of 1884. It was at his house in Leipzig that Zöllner and the other Professors of the Leipzig University held their séances with Slade “which confirmed Zöllner in his theory of a Fourth Dimension.” [Theosophical Society General Membership Register, 1875-1942 at http://tsmembers.org/. See book 1, entry 2474. (website file: 1A:1875-1885); Oskar von Hoffman. (11/2/1883) Olcott, Henry S. “Old Diary Leaves: Second Oriental Series: Chapter XIII.” The Theosophist. Vol. XIX, No. 8. (May 1898): 449-456.] Von Hoffman’s wife, Evelina, was also a Theosophist. [Theosophical Society General Membership Register, 1875-1942 at http://tsmembers.org/. See book 1, entry 2968. (website file: 1B:1885-1890) Evelina von Hoffman. (8/3/1884); Martin, Rudolf: Jahrbuch Des Vermögens Und Einkommens Der Millionäre Im Königreich Sachsen. 1912. Rudolf Martin. Berlin, Deutschlnad. (1912): 224-225.]
[30] Blavatsky writes: “Where [do] I get ‘my authority from’? From the Book of Dzyan, or Wisdom! & Masters in whom you have hitherto declined to believe, only, perhaps, because They are living & mortal men. I am curious to know what you make of [Swastika in circle,] the Swastika within the circle which became the “sacred sign” with the Atlanteans, & by being transformed into (minus its circle) thus became the first phallic sign of the accursed materialistic Race—the Fourth & of our own—the Fifth.” [Blavatsky, Helena Petrovna to Skinner, February 17, 1887. Harvard Divinity School Library, Harvard University. Skinner. J. Ralston Papers bMS 516.] The greater public would first learn of these teachings in October 1888 with the release of The Secret Doctrine. [Blavatsky, Helena Petrovna. The Secret Doctrine: Vol. II. Anthropogenesis. The Theosophical Publishing Company. London, England. (1888): 101.] For those who had not purchased the book, the topic was addressed in a sample chapter from The Theosophist in November 1888. [Blavatsky, Helena Petrovna. “A Chapter From ‘The Secret Doctrine.’” The Theosophist. Vol. X, No. 110 (November 1888): 69-82.] It was further expounded upon in Blavatsky’s Key To Theosophy. [Blavatsky, Helena Petrovna. The Key To Theosophy. The Theosophical Publishing Company. New York, New York. (1896): 270.]
[31] Gerard, Emily. “Transylvanian Superstitions.” The Nineteenth Century. Vol. XVIII, No. 101 (July 1885): 130-150.
[32] “The Superstitions of Roumania.” The Spiritualist. (London, England) October 21, 1881; Romana, Umbra. “The Truth About Ghosts.” The Daily Telegraph. (London, England) October 11, 1881.
[33] Theosophical Society General Membership Register, 1875-1942 at http://tsmembers.org/. See book 1, entry 2994. (website file: 1B:1885-1890) Plato E. Draculi. Corfu. (8/31/1884); Draculi, Plato E. “Inter-Planetary Soul-Communion.” Light. Vol. VII, No. 361. (December 3, 1887): 569; “The Cause In Greece.” Justice. (London, England) November 16, 1889.
[34] In Dracula, Van Velsing states: “I have studied, over and over again since they came into my hands, all the papers relating to this monster; and the more I have studied, the greater seems the necessity to utterly stamp him out. All through there are signs of his advance; not only of his power, but of his knowledge of it. As I learned from the re searches of my friend Arminus of Buda-Pesth, he was in life a most wonderful man. Soldier, statesman, and alchemist—which latter was the highest development of the science-knowledge of his time. He had a mighty brain, a learning beyond compare, and a heart that knew no fear and no remorse. He dared even to attend the Scholomance, and there was no branch of knowledge of his time that he did not essay. Well, in him the brain powers survived the physical death; though it would seem that memory was not all complete.” [Stoker, Bram. Dracula. Modern Library. New York, New York. (1897): 281.]
[35] Hartmann, Franz. The Life And the Doctrine Of Philippus Theophrastus Bombast Of Hohenheim Known By The Name OF Paracelsus And The Substance Of His Teachings. Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co. London, England. (1896): 106-107.
[36] (In 1888 performances of Parsifal and the Meistersinger were held on alternate days from July 22 to August 19.) [“Notes.” The Meister. Vol. I. (1888): 33-35.]
[37] [“Theosophical Activities.” The Path. Vol. II, No. 11 (February 1888): 355-356.] In 1884, Colonel Olcott, Dr. Wilhelm Hübbe-Schleiden, Dr. Elliott Coues, and Rudolph Gebhard attended a performance of “Parsifal” at the Bayreuther Festspiele (an annual celebration of Richard Wagner’s music) in Wagner’s own theatre, the Festspielhaus. Olcott and Hübbe-Schleiden then called on Baron Hans von Wolzogen, Vice-President and Manager of the Wagner Verein. He received them in his library, where he was standing at a high desk correcting proofs of an article on “Theosophy and Wagner.” This was probably the article written by Édouard Schuré that Emilie de Morsier references in “Psychic Currents.” [de Morsier, Emilie. “Psychic Currents.” The Theosophist. Vol. VI, No. 8 (May 1885): 173-175.] Schuré joined the T.S. in February 1885. [Theosophical Society General Membership Register, 1875-1942 at http://tsmembers.org/. See book 1, entry 3188. (website file: 1B:1885-1890); Édouard Schuré. (2/18/1885.)] The coincidence struck them all as strange, especially when Wolzogen, on hearing Olcott’s name, took a copy of The Buddhist Catechism from the book-shelf and said that a friend at Helsingfors had sent it him the day before. He told them that Wagner was deeply interested in Buddhism, and “Parsifal” was “originally written to represent the Buddha’s struggles after wisdom and his attainment of the Buddhahood. But at the instance of the kings of Saxony and Prussia and other august patrons, he had re-composed it into its present form, a search after the Holy Graal.” [Olcott, Henry S. “Old Diary Leaves: Second Oriental Series: Chapter XIII.” The Theosophist. Vol. XIX, No. 8. (May 1898): 449-456.]
[38] Bloomfield Moore, Clara. Keely and His Discoveries Aerial Navigation. Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co. London, England. (1893): 89-103.
[39] Theosophical Society General Membership Register, 1875-1942 at http://tsmembers.org/. See book 1, entry 4214. (website file: 1B:1885-1890) Dr. Carl Kellner. (10/26/87); “The Kellner-Partington Paper Pulp Company Limited.” The Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser. (Manchester, England) May 22, 1889; Urban, Hugh. “The Yoga Of Sex: Tantra, Orientalism, And Sex Magic In The Ordo Templi Orientis.” Essay in Hidden Intercourse: Eros And Sexuality In The History Of Western Esotericism., edited by Wouter J. Hanegraaff and Jeffrey J. Kripal. Brill. Boston, Massachusetts (2008): 402-443; Baier, Karl. “Yoga Within Viennese Occultism: Carl Kellner and Co.” Essay in Yoga in Transformation. Historical and Contemporary Perspectives. Edited by Karl Baier, Philipp A. Maas, and Karin Preisendanz. Vienna University Press. Vienna, Austria (2018): 389–438.
[40] Theosophical Society General Membership Register, 1875-1942 at http://tsmembers.org/. See book 1, entry 4426. (website file: 1B: 1885-1890) Richard Prater. (4/18/1888); “Theosophical Activities.” Lucifer. Vol. VI, No. 32 (April 15, 1890): 161-170.
[41] Alice Bailey writes: “[Prater] gave me the esoteric section instructions as given to him by H.P.B. They are identical with those I had seen when in the E.S. but they were given to me with no strings attached to them at all and I have been at liberty to use them at any time and have used them. When he died many years ago his theosophical library came into our hands with all the old Lucifers and all the old editions of the Theosophical magazine, plus other esoteric papers which he had received from H.P.B. Among the papers which he gave me was one in which H.P.B. expressed her wish that the esoteric section should be called the Arcane School. It never was and I made up my mind that the old lady should have her wish and that was how the school came to get its name. I regarded it as a great privilege and happiness to know Mr. Prater.” [Bailey, Alice A. The Unfinished Autobiography Of Alice A. Bailey. Lucis Publishing Companies. New York, New York. (2013): 190-191.
[42] Theosophical Society General Membership Register, 1875-1942 at http://tsmembers.org/. See book 1, entry 5603. (website file: 1B: 1885-1890) Theodor Reuss. (12/3/1889.)
[43] König, Peter-Robert. “Theodor Reuss As Founder Of Esoteric Orders (Part II of the OTO.)” Theosophical History. Vol. IV, No. 6-7 (April 1993-July, 1993): 187-193.
[44] Goodrick-Clarke, Nicholas. The Occult Roots Of Nazism. Tauris Parke. New York, New York. (1985): 25.
[45] Hartmann, Franz. “Vampires.” Borderland. Vol. III, No. 3 (July 1896): 353-356.
[46] Hartmann, Franz. “A Modern Case Of Vampirism.” Lucifer. Vol. IV, No. 21 (May 15, 1889): 241-242.
[47] Blavatsky states: “The future of the Lower Manas is more terrible, and still more terrible to humanity than to the now animal man. It sometimes happens that after the separation the exhausted Soul, now become supremely animal, fades out in Kâma-Loka, as do all other animal souls. But seeing that the more material the human mind, the longer it lasts, in that intermediate stage, it frequently happens that after the actual life of the soulless man is ended, he is again and again reincarnated into new personalities, each one more abject than the other. The impulse of animal life is too strong; it cannot wear itself out in one or two lives only. In rarer cases, however, something far more dreadful may happen. When the lower Manas is doomed to exhaust itself by starvation; when there is no longer hope that even a remnant of a lower light will, owing to favorable conditions––say, even a short period of spiritual aspiration and repentance––attract back to itself its Parent Ego, then Karma leads the Higher Ego back to new incarnations. In this case the Kâma-Mânasic spook may become that which we call in Occultism the ‘Dweller on the Threshold.’ This ‘Dweller’ is not like that which is described so graphically in Zanoni, but an actual fact in nature and not a fiction in romance, however beautiful the latter may be. Bulwer must have got the idea from some Eastern Initiate. Our ‘Dweller,’ led by affinity and attraction, forces itself into the astral current, and through the Auric Envelope of the new tabernacle inhabited by the Parent Ego, and declares war to the lower light which has replaced it. This, of course, can only happen in the case of the moral weakness of the personality so obsessed. No one strong in his virtue, and righteous in his walk of life, can risk or dread any such thing; but only those depraved in heart. Robert Louis Stevenson had a glimpse of a true vision indeed when he wrote his Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. His story is a true allegory. Every Chela would recognize in it a substratum of truth, and in Mr. Hyde a ‘Dweller,’ an obsessor of the personality, the tabernacle of the ‘Parent Spirit.’” [Blavatsky, Helena P. Collected Writings Volume XII (1889-1890.) Theosophical Publishing House. Wheaton, Illinois. (1980): 636-638. [E.S. Instruction No. III.]]
[48] The seven-fold conception of personhood can be visualized as a Russian nesting-doll; a single “doll” in seven layers. The smallest four dolls being the soul’s lower “animalistic” parts. The largest three “dolls” would be the trinitarian aspect of our “High Selves,” or our “Christos.” Blavatsky, Helena Petrovna. The Key To Theosophy. Theosophical Publishing Company. New York, New York. (1896): 63-64; Ludlow, William. “Theosophy.” The Detroit Free Press. (Detroit, Michigan) January 24, 1892; Cavé. “Questions and Answers.” The Theosophical Forum. Vol. IV, No. 2 (June 1898): 1-4; “Fifty Years.” The Theosophical Quarterly. Vol. XXIII. No. 3. (January 1926.) 209-211.
[49] Hartmann, Franz. “Vampires.” Borderland. Vol. III, No. 3 (July 1896): 353-356.
[50] Hartmann, Franz. “Vampires.” Borderland. Vol. III, No. 3 (July 1896): 353-356.
[51] Hartmann, Franz. “Vampires.” Borderland. Vol. III, No. 3 (July 1896): 353-356.
[52] Hartmann, Franz. “Vampires.” Borderland. Vol. III, No. 3 (July 1896): 353-356.
[53] Hartmann, Franz. “Vampires.” Borderland. Vol. III, No. 3 (July 1896): 353-356.
[54] Hartmann, Franz. The Life And the Doctrine Of Philippus Theophrastus Bombast Of Hohenheim Known By The Name OF Paracelsus And The Substance Of His Teachings. Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co. London, England. (1896): 107; Hartmann, Franz. “Vampires.” Borderland. Vol. III, No. 3 (July 1896): 353-356.
[55] Hartmann, Franz. “Vampires.” Borderland. Vol. III, No. 3 (July 1896): 353-356.
[56] Hartmann, Franz. “Vampires.” Borderland. Vol. III, No. 3 (July 1896): 353-356.
[57] Blavatsky writes: “The Shudâla-Mâdan, or graveyard fiend, answers to our ghouls. He delights where crime and murder were committed, near burial-spots and places of execution. He helps the juggler in all the fire-phenomena as well as Kutti Shâttan, the little juggling imps. Shudâla, they say, is a half-fire, half-water demon, for he received from Siva permission to assume any shape he chose, transform one thing into another; and when he is not in fire, he is in water. It is he who blinds people ‘to see that which they do not see.’ Shûla Mâdan, is another mischievous spook. He is the furnace-demon, skilled in pottery and baking. If you keep friends with him, he will not injure you; but woe to him who incurs his wrath. Shûla likes compliments and flattery, and as he generally keeps underground it is to him that a juggler must look to help him raise a tree from a seed in a quarter of an hour and ripen its fruit.” [Blavatsky, H.P. Isis Unveiled: Vol. I. J.W. Bouton. New York, New York. (1877): 495-496.]
[58] Hartmann, Franz. “Vampires.” Borderland. Vol. III, No. 3 (July 1896): 353-356.
[59] “The vampire story in the Hungarian village of Kisolova in 1725 began after the death of Peter Plogojowiz, who had been buried 10 weeks earlier and who had killed 9 people by strangling them in 8 days. The residents were further strengthened in their belief when [Plogojowiz’s] wife, after previously testifying that her husband had come to her and wanted his shoes, left Kisolova and went to another village. When the grave was opened, the corpse was found incorrupt, the beard, hair, and nails still growing, fresh blood, even in the mouth, and other wild signs which were treated with great respect. A number of deaths caused by vampires occurred in 1732 in the Serbian village of Medveda. All of this led to judicial investigations, during which the graves of the suspects were opened 40 or more times according to their location, and the corpses that were found to be incorrupt, with fresh blood flowing out, were burned after a stake had been driven through them.” [Perty, Maximilian. Die Mystischen Erscheinungen Der Menschlichen Natur. C. F. Winter. Leipzig, Germany. (1872): 389-390.]
[60] Hartmann, Franz. “A Modern Case Of Vampirism.” Lucifer. Vol. IV, No. 21 (May 15, 1889): 241-242.
[61] Ludham, Harry. A Biography Of Dracula: The Life Story Of Bram Stoker. W. Foulsham & Company. London, England. (1962): 106-107; Belford, Barbara. Bram Stoker: A Biography Of The Author Of Dracula. Phoenix Giant. London, England. (1997): 220-221.
[62] Theosophical Society General Membership Register, 1875-1942 at http://tsmembers.org/. See book 1, entry 9968. (website file: 1C:1890-1894) Lady Emily Thornley Stoker. Joined 2/18/92.
[63] Theosophical Society General Membership Register, 1875-1942 at http://tsmembers.org/. See book 1, entry 6249. (Website file: 1B:1885-1890) Ferdinand Falkenstein. [Deutsche T.S. 2241 West Tenth Street. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (10/25/1890); Theosophical Society General Membership Register, 1875-1942 at http://tsmembers.org/. See book 1, entry 6250. (Website file: 1B:1885-1890) Charles Falkenstein. [Deutsche T.S. 2241 West Tenth Street. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (10/25/1890); Theosophical Society General Membership Register, 1875-1942 at http://tsmembers.org/. See book 1, entry 6251. (Website file: 1B:1885-1890) Marie Cloeren. [Deutsche T.S. 2241 West Tenth Street. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (10/25/1890.) [“Theosophical Activities.” The Path. Vol. V, No. 9 (December 1890): 293-296.]
[64] “Mr. Foulke’s Answer.” The Philadelphia Times. (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) December 12, 1892.
[65] Goodrick-Clarke, Nicholas. The Occult Roots Of Nazism. Tauris Parke. New York, New York. (1985): 25.
[66] Goodrick-Clarke, Nicholas. The Occult Roots Of Nazism. Tauris Parke. New York, New York. (1985): 24.
[67] Regarding the “Inhalatorium,” Hartmann states at the time: “Recently I have been writing a book on occult science in medicine. My studies of occultism, the German mystics, and alchemists have led me to make an important medical discovery, which is already known throughout Europe under the name of Lignosulfit. It is used by the principal medical authorities in Austria, Germany and other countries. By this discovery even consumption in the last stage has been cured. My object is now to introduce the invention in this country as it has been introduced in England […] The remedy is not to be taken as medicine usually is. Its odor is inhaled, and for the purpose of inhaling it public sanitariums have been established in Vienna, Berlin, Munich, Weisbaden, Reichenhail, Morrannes and othering watering places. The result has been so extremely favorable that some of the authorities Austria and Germany have written books on the subject and are now applying it in the hospitals. This discovery in one of the practical results of the study of Theosophy. It was discovered by me some time after traveling through India with Dr. Koch.” [“Dr. Hartmann And His Works.” The New York Tribune. (New York, New York) April 23, 1897.]
[68] Johnston, V. V. “Letters of Vera Johnston,” [g.] December 1893, Hotel Stern, Hallein. Salzburg, Austria, entry.
[69] Duessen, Paul; Johnston, Charles (tr.) The System Of The Vedanta. The Open Court Publishing Company. Chicago, Illinois. (1912): v-vi.
[70] Theosophical Society General Membership Register, 1875-1942 at http://tsmembers.org/. See book 1, entry 4426. (website file: 1B: 1885-1890) Richard Prater. (4/18/1888); Theosophical Society General Membership Register, 1875-1942 at http://tsmembers.org/. See book 1, entry 8398. (website file: 1C: 1890-1894) Maria Schirrmeister. H.P.B. Branch. (7/10/1892.)
[71] “Mirror of the Movement.” Theosophy. Vol. XI, No. 2. (May 1896): 62-64; G.E.S. “German New York.” The Theosophical News. Vol. I, No. 41. (March 29, 1897): 1.
[72] E.T.H. “The Screen Of Time.” Theosophy. Vol. XI, No. 7 (October 1896): 193-198.
[73] G.E.S. “German New York.” The Theosophical News. Vol. I, No. 41. (March 29, 1897): 1.
[74] Hartmann, Franz. “An Indian Yogi Before A Tribunal Of European Psychologists.” Theosophy. Vol. XII, No. 3 (June 1897): 89-91.
[75] Jordan writes: “[An] English experimenter, attempted to secure the image of a thought. Placing his own eye in the focus of a lens in absolute darkness, he thought intensely of the face of a certain cat. After a long exposure, necessary on account of the comparative grossness of the photographic materials, a picture was formed. The negative shows a rounded outline evidently that of the enlarged pupil of the eye, and in its center was formed a faint image, which could be mistaken for nothing other than a cat. An account of this experiment was given in the daily press, but its true bearing was first seen at Alcalde. At the meeting of the Astral Camera Club held in Alcalde on April 1st of this current year, its president, Mr. Asa Marvin, read a paper on these discoveries, calling attention to their astral significance. The supremacy of mind over matter, already indicated in a hundred ways, was thus splendidly illustrated. As a thousand miles of ether may be made to vibrate at the command of the will of the psychical adept, so may the grosser forms of matter be shaken or removed when this subtle and resistless force acts upon it.” [Jordan, David Starr. “The Sympsychograph: A Study In Impressionist Physics.” Appleton’s Popular Science Monthly. Vol. XLIX, No. 46 (September 1896): 597-602.]
[76] “The Picture Of A Thought.” The San Francisco Call. (San Francisco, California) September 7, 1896.
[77] Anderson stated: “That is, mutatis mutandis, the history of matter. The lowest plane of astral matter is that which lies just above the sense of sight. Pure astral matter is so much finer than the physical that it takes form almost instantaneously at the bidding of thought. These forms of astral matter are perfectly capable of being photographed upon semi-astral substances, Buch as the gelatin of a sensitized plate. They are precipitated upon the plate by the will of the operator in a manner exactly similar to that in which Madame Blavatsky could by her superior will power, precipitate color upon ordinary physical matter, for example, cardboard or paper. That Madame Blavatsky did produce pictures in this manner is indisputable. Several of these pictures are in existence today and I hope one of these days to see one. An adept can easily form a model in astral matter by the power of thought, and it would seem that the model almost Instantly fills with physical atoms, which flow into it as into a mold, thereby giving it visible form. This is the art of astral statuary, or, in plain English, the whole secret of ‘materialization’ as practiced by so-called spirit mediums. The whole subject is one of the most absorbing interest, and I am glad to see that it appears to awaken public interest. The truths of theosophy can all be worked out by a thinking mind, and when once learned furnish the clue to many mysteries.” [“Astral Photography.” The San Francisco Call. (San Francisco, California) September 8, 1896.]
[78] Jordan, David Starr. “The Moral Of The ‘Sympsychograph.’” Appleton’s Popular Science Monthly. Vol. L, No. 13 (December 1896): 265.
[79] Dommeyer , Frederick C. “Psychical Research At Stanford University.” The Journal of Parapsychology. Vol. XXXIX, No. 3. (September 1975): 174-203.
[80] “Psychological Congress.” The Boston Evening Transcript. (Boston, Massachusetts) May 7, 1896.
[81] Penzig, Ottone. “Some Notes On The Fifth Congress Of Psychology.” The Theosophical Review. Vol. XXXVI, No. 215. (July 1905): 454-458; Sommer, Andreas. “Psychical Research and the Origins of American Psychology: Hugo Münsterberg, William James and Eusapia Palladino. History of the Human Sciences. Vol. XXV, No. 2. (2012): 23-44.
[82] Alvarado, Carlos S. “Telepathy, Mediumship, And Psychology: Psychical Research At The International Congresses Of Psychology, 1889–1905.” The Journal Of Scientific Exploration. Vol. XXXI, No. 2 (June 30, 2017): 255–292.
[83] Theosophical Society General Membership Register, 1875-1942 at http://tsmembers.org/. See book 1, entry 4214. (website file: 1B:1885-1890) Dr. Carl Kellner. (10/26/87); “The Kellner-Partington Paper Pulp Company Limited.” The Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser. (Manchester, England) May 22, 1889; “Dr. Hartmann And His Works.” The New York Tribune. (New York, New York) April 23, 1897; Urban, Hugh. “The Yoga Of Sex: Tantra, Orientalism, And Sex Magic In The Ordo Templi Orientis.” Essay in Hidden Intercourse: Eros And Sexuality In The History Of Western Esotericism., edited by Wouter J. Hanegraaff and Jeffrey J. Kripal. Brill. Boston, Massachusetts (2008): 402-443; Baier, Karl. “Yoga Within Viennese Occultism: Carl Kellner and Co.” Essay in Yoga in Transformation. Historical and Contemporary Perspectives. Edited by Karl Baier, Philipp A. Maas, and Karin Preisendanz. Vienna University Press. Vienna, Austria (2018): 389–438.
[84] Hartmann, Franz. “An Indian Yogi Before A Tribunal Of European Psychologists.” Theosophy. Vol. XII, No. 3 (June 1897): 89-91.
[85] Hartmann, Franz. “A Yogi In Europe.” Borderland. Vol. III, No. 4 (October 1896): 461-462.
[86] Baier, Karl. “Yoga Within Viennese Occultism: Carl Kellner and Co.” Essay. In Yoga in Transformation. Historical and Contemporary Perspectives, edited by Karl Baier, Philipp A. Maas, and Karin Preisendanz. Vienna University Press. Vienna, Austria (2018): 389–438.
[87] Hartmann, Franz. “A Yogi In Europe.” Borderland. Vol. III, No. 4 (October 1896): 461-462; Hartmann, Franz. “An Indian Yogi Before A Tribunal Of European Psychologists.” Theosophy. Vol. XII, No. 3 (June 1897): 89-91.
[88] Stead, William T. “A Borderland For Germany.” Borderland. Vol. III, No. 3 (July 1896): 307.
[89] “Mirror Of The Movement.” Theosophy. Vol. XI, No. 7 (December 1896): 219-224.
[90] Goodrick-Clarke, Nicholas. The Occult Roots Of Nazism. Tauris Parke. New York, New York. (1985): 33-48; Pennick, Nigel. Secrets of The Runes. Thorsons. London, England. (1998): 9-40.
[91] Patterson, H.T. “On The Continent.” Theosophical News. Vol. I , No. 12. (September 28, 1896): 1-2; H.T.P. “The Stop At Interlaken.” The Theosophical News. Vol. I, No. 16 (October 5, 1896): 1-3.
[92] Wright, Leoline Leonard. “Paris, Amsterdam And Berlin.” The Theosophical News. Vol. I , No. 13. (September 7, 1896): 1, 2; Lawrence, George. “Theosophy In France.” The Theosophical News. Vol. I , No. 23. (November 23, 1896): 2; Patterson, H.T. “On The Continent.” The Theosophical News. Vol. I , No. 12. (September 28, 1896): 12.
[93] The Berlin Branch of the T.S. in Europe (Germany) was formed on June 24, 1896, with s membership of twenty-five. Paul Raatz was elected President; D. Corvinus, Secretary; C. Schwabe, Treasurer. [“The Crusade.” The Theosophical Forum. Vol. II, No. 4 (August, 1896): 62-64.]
[94] [Theosophical Society General Membership Register, 1875-1942 at http://tsmembers.org/. See book 1, entry 4426. (website file: 1B: 1885-1890) Richard Prater. (4/18/1888.)] In September 1895, Richard Prater and Maria Schirrmeister, along with “a few German ‘free-thinkers,’” applied for a charter to form the German-speaking Sphinx Center T.S. in New York. (Students of Theosophy who did not have enough members for a regular Branch would form a “Center.”) “Anyone who knows the passiveness of the Germans in America to teachings such as Theosophy,” it was said, “will understand under what difficulties this [Center] has to work.” In May 1896 this became the Germania Branch T.S., or the Deutsche Theosophische Gesselschaft Germania, which met at 607 East 14 Street. [“Mirror of the Movement.” Theosophy. Vol. XI, No. 2. (May 1896): 62-64; G.E.S. “German New York.” The Theosophical News. Vol. I, No. 41. (March 29, 1897): 1.]
[95] König, Peter-Robert. “Theodor Reuss As Founder Of Esoteric Orders (Part II of the OTO.)” Theosophical History. Vol. IV, No. 6-7 (April 1993-July 1993): 187-193.
[96] Urban, Hugh. “The Yoga Of Sex: Tantra, Orientalism, And Sex Magic In The Ordo Templi Orientis.” Essay in Hidden Intercourse: Eros And Sexuality In The History Of Western Esotericism. (eds.) Hanegraaf, Wouter J; Kripal; Jeffrey J. Brill. Boston, Massachusetts. (2008): 402-443; Baier, Karl. “Yoga Within Viennese Occultism: Carl Kellner and Co.” Essay in Yoga in Transformation. Historical And Contemporary Perspectives. (eds.) Baier, Karl; Maas, Philipp A; Preisendanz, Karin. Vienna University Press. Vienna, Austria. (2018): 389–438.]
[97] Theosophical Society General Membership Register, 1875-1942 at http://tsmembers.org/. See book 1, entry 1,0298. (website file: 1D: 1894-1897) Paul Raatz. (11/7/1893); E.T.H. “The Screen Of Time.” Theosophy. Vol. XI, No. 7 (October 1896): 193-198; “Mirror Of The Movement.” Theosophy. Vol. XI, No. 9 (December 1896): 283-288.
[98] H.T.P. “The Stop At Interlaken.” The Theosophical News. Vol. I, No. 16 (October 5, 1896): 1-3; E.T.H. “The Screen of Time.” Theosophy. XI, No. 7 (October 1896): 193-198; “The Crusade.” The Theosophical Forum. Vol. II, No. 6 (October 1896): 95-95; “The Crusade.” The Theosophical Forum. Vol. II, No. 7 (November 1896): 110-112.