An Exposition on the Highest Level

of German Rosicrucian Initiation

By Richard Cloud.

Once considered the crown of Rosicrucian initiation, Alois Mailander’s system of spiritual regeneration reshaped the occult landscape of Europe. Kept under the strictest secrecy, his methods were intended to be at the highest levels of instruction for the original OTO, Adyar Theosophy, Anthroposophy, the Rosicrucian Fellowship, Franz Bardon, Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor, the FRA of Krumm-Heller, Stella Matutina branch of the Golden Dawn and Plummer’s Society of Rosicrucians in America.

Equally remarkable, these groups have lost all trace of its source. How could one Adept be behind so many esoteric impulses and yet remain hidden to all but a few initiates? More so, how could all these groups forget the origins of their highest arcana?

An Authentic Secret Chief of the Rosicrucians

The origins of most occult Orders are obscured in fantastic stories, with many claiming origins linked to hidden or invisible guides of humanity. Largely called “Secret Chiefs” or “Unknown Superiors”, stories of invisible adepts abound, appearing behind Martinism, the Golden Dawn, the Rosicrucian Fellowship and others. Unlike those stories however, the Pansophers knew the identity of their superior. Not only was he a living-breathing master, but his coming was considered the great advent.

Considering that most secret chief stories turned out to be fabrication (like the story Mathers and Westcott invented for the Golden Dawn) or have never revealed the identity of their invisible guides, knowing the identity of Alois Mailander is significant because it reveals for the first time a genuine hidden Rosicrucian adept behind the larger Western esoteric tradition.

A simple weaver and factory worker from southern Germany, Mailander remained mostly unknown to the world. During his lifetime all students swore to keep his identity secret.[1] Only his inner circle knew who he really was. This circle of initiates then took his methods and teachings to the world under the guise of different occult movements, each wrapped in the character and language of the one making it public. As Rudolf Steiner indicated however, the identity of this master could be revealed after 100 years. This revelation occurred in the summer of 2017 when I published the the identity of Mailander with permission granted by the German Pansophers.[2] But Mailander wasn’t only Steiner’s Master. He was also that of Blavatsky, Meyrink, Franz Hartmann and others.

As seen in the previous paper, the Rosicrucian Pansophers comprising the circle around Mailander not only believed he was the return of the Biblical John, but Steiner even considered him Christian Rosenkreutz incarnated. Whether or not that’s true is left for the individual to decide. For the Germans his coming meant the arrival of the promised Elias Artista whom Paracelsus prophesized would return to regenerate the world.[3] This prophesy was well-known among Rosicrucian circles.

In researching the connection between Mailander and the Paracelsian prophesy of Elias Artista we must turn to the celestial events that shaped the Rosicrucian movement. The discovery of two new stars in 1604 is linked to the opening of CRC’s tomb, which the Fama describes as happening that same year.[4] Much early activity on behalf of the Rosicrucian Brotherhood is tied to such appearance of new stars and comets.[5] Those interested may read “The Invisible History of the Rosicrucians” by Tobias Churton for a full description.

Rosicrucians believed that the comets of 1603 and 1604 heralded Elias Artista, the coming prophet of the Rosicrucians. “Europe was pregnant” they said, and about to give birth. The delivery of her child was the Rosicrucian phenomena, unleashing its uproar. Yet there was more to come of her pregnancy.

If Mailander truly was the promised Elias/John as the Pansophers said, then surely his birth would also have been connected to celestial events. While checking for new stars or comets around the time of Mailander’s birth, not only did I discover a comet, but one that was considered the most significant celestial event of the time! Designated the “Great Comet of 1843” it was thought by many to herald the end of the world.[6] This comet wasn’t discovered until the month proceeding Mailander’s birth and reached its greatest intensity in March, the month he was born. Many images were circulated depicting the fireball as it streaked across the sky. A commemorative coin was also issued to mark its passing.

Great Comet of 1843 by Mary Morton Allport & Coin

For the Pansophers this was evidence of his dentity. Oral tradition passed down in Germany says his initiator Prestel was given the responsibility by the Rosicrucians to find him. Upon initiation Mailander began to speak in the voice of “John” as is evidenced in several letters to Meyrink.[7]–[8]

The prophesy of Paracelsus had finally come true for the German Rosicrucians, but what came of it?

The Teachings of the Pansophers and Their Brother John

In 2017 I was given the first outlines of the Mailander system. This led to research determining if the teachings and oral tradition of today’s group represented an authentic lineage to the original Mailander circle. I did in fact find several pieces of evidence. The most accessible sources in English are “A Rosicrucian Notebook” by Willy Schrodter and “Man’s Higher Purpose” by Karel Weinfurter.[9]

The method of spiritual development taught by Mailander consists of a Theosophist (Behmist) form of Rosicrucianism drawing on diagrams from the Golden Rosenkreuzer as well as the teachings of Johann Baptist Kerning, a German esoteric-freemason.[10] Kerning’s teachings were used by Mailander as a central theme regarding Rosicrucian Letter Magic.[11] This is quite remarkable considering Mailander himself was illiterate and indicates a strong oral transmission in Germany.

This image, from Secret Symbols of the Rosicrucians, with its two triangles that converge, was the source for Mailander’s ‘process’ variation of Kerning’s method.[12]

Mailander also taught a type of “spiritual signatures” related to the Paracelsian idea of Nature connected to the alphabet. His student Franz Hartman mentioned that Mailander was thereby able to speak with animals.[13] Thus, to understand Mailander requires not only some understanding of Paracelsus, but also of Kerning and Jacob Boehme and how they intertwine in his Rosicrucian transmission.[14]

First, in Kerning’s letter mysticism the letters of the alphabet are seen as the alchemical “prima materia,” or the original particles of Nature used as the building blocks of all life and form. His meditations focus on repetition of certain letters, words or phrases, accompanied by controlled breathing and (most importantly) the concentration of letters upon specific parts of the body. This constitutes a form of internal alchemy, with the prima-materia being used to awaken the Second Adam. The Great Work of Kerning culminates in awakening the Divine Word, or Logos in the body. For Kerning this meant awakening the prophetic ability in the adept and the internalization of Solomon’s Temple.

This is an important point. The Kerning work describes letter-mysticism as building the temple of Solomon on the body, so that its various pillars, floors and stairs are built into our physical structure. The windows are “opened around the heart”. This constitutes the dawning of the “third temple”, which in Christian doctrine proceeds the second coming of Christ. For Kerning, using the Behmist viewpoint, the second coming of Christ occurs within, in the form of the Adept as Logos. As with Boehme there is also a Sophianic “divine feminine” aspect to this temple for Mailander. For the Pansophers the figure of Sophia and the Temple are one body. When impregnated, she gives birth to the Logos inside us, while the Temple’s arrival heralds Christ’ second coming. Therefore, the alchemical use of letters and the emergence of the temple onto the human body constitute a Rosicrucian “Chemical Wedding”.

The source of Kerning’s mysticism is an intriguing topic we’ll leave for another day. Suffice it to say Kerning drew from Arabic and Persian practices while applying those to the mysteries of the Tower of Babel (Fallen Adam) vs. the Third Temple (Virgin of the Second Adam) as explained by Jacob Boehme in “Mysterium Magnum”, but within a Masonic context. Boehme says the Tower of Babel is an internal quality signifying a false tower built within as a monument to pride which lacks the forces of the five vowels: I, A, O, U, E. He says that the vowels must be added back into the Adept during the building of the true temple within. Boehme importantly says these vowels constitute the vowel-name of Christ and therefore communicate the spirit of the Logos into the Mystic during practice. This mystery of the internalized tower and temple of the heart was common territory between Sufis and Rosicrucians, which led the German Lodge Balduin in Leipzig to recognize their Sufi brothers as equals in 1830.[15] This mutual cooperation led to letter mysticism becoming common ground between the Hurufi and Rosicrucians.[16]

In practice, gestures for the letters IAO are given. The ‘I’ sign is made with the finger pointing up. Meyrink says this means ‘Ignis’ or fire. The ‘A’ sign is made index finger and thumb as a triangle, Meyrink saying it means ‘Aqua’ or water. The ‘O’ sign is made making a circle with the index finger and thumb, but its meaning was not described by Meyrink. Sam Robinson says it means ‘Oroboros.’ Following each letter-sign, gestures are then made on three parts of the body to activate the alchemical furnace. It is also important to note the three gestures given are the grade signs for the first three degrees of Masonry. According to Kerning, the Rosicrucians knew the secrets of Masonry.

IAO Signs by Stephen Murtaugh[17]

The ‘I’ sign is given with the index finger in the air. Once the finger becomes warm or resonates, the first-degree sign of Masonry is given; the index finger cutting across the throat to “separate the head” in alchemy. The other two masonic signs cut across the chest and then bowels. These effectively divide the sulfur, salt and mercury. In terms of entering the temple the Rosicrucian casts themselves upon the fires of the burnt altar of sacrifice, which is west of the pillars of Jochin and Boaz. Here we can see in Kerning’s practice a dual meaning related to both alchemy and the temple.

One feature of Kerning and Mailander is the emphasis on beginning the meditative work at the region of feet. Here commences the fiery awakening rather than at the base of the spine as in Eastern mysticism. Mailander, like Kerning, worked the IAO letters on seven parts of the body beginning with the feet, then knees, hips, stomach etc. However, some of Mailander’s students later broke away from the “start at the feet” method and practiced his internal alchemy begining from the base of the spine instead. Here they substituted the seven charkas for the seven body locations used in the older German system.[18] Gustav Meyrink, a direct student of Mailander, illustrates the original method in “The White Dominican,” describing an initiation where the candidate is placed into the tomb position. The adept then blesses mystical letters upon the seven parts of the body for the candidate. This book is most interesting in that Meyrink never broke his oaths yet hid the secrets of Mailander in plain sight.[19] During Mailander’s generation it should be said that several additions were made to the Kerning method. Most notable of these was the addition of a serpent circulation between the elements and Adept.

Another distinguishing feature among the Pansophers is that each of its masters was identified by an initial letter for their name. This began with Kerning who said in his books that the spelling of one’s name was a magical signature of one’s soul, and that the initial letter signifies the causal power of a person. Thereby he named Pythagoras as the first of this doctrine, calling him ‘the P.’

Willy Schroedter writes of another ‘P’ in his “Rosicrucian Notebook”, saying those well informed knew of Mailander’s circle and that “We are interested in someone else who belonged to this group, one P., a Rosicrucian. He was named Prestel and had the ability to convert base metals into noble ones.”[20] Hartmann writes that this was Mailander’s teacher. We have already seen that Mailander was called “the M” by Rudolf Steiner and other disciples. A second evidence of this fact was given by Weinfurter in “Der Königsweg” where he says “the students of the German Master M. (named Mailander), with Gustav Meyrink in the forefront, practiced according to his instruction only in the centre and not in all bodily organs, as Kerning prescribed.”[21] Here we see Meyrink in high position with the Pansophers. He also received the title of “The R”. This will be important in a moment.

In comparison to systems like the Golden Dawn the simple art of Mailander seems embryotic.[22] However, that is just the point and the result and power of the system speaks for itself. Mailander spoke with animals, becoming something of a Rosicrucian saint. His initiator Prestel[23] was able to create projections with his mind that were visible to those gathered.[24] Meyrink, in his paper “Hochstapler der Mystik,” written in his last years, strongly denounces all false gurus but says that “the secret of the Lost Word is the real mystery of all magic”, directly referring to Mailander’s school of thought[25] Similarly Hiram Butler, in the Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor papers entitled “The Narrow Way of Attainment” in 1889, not only mentions contact with Mailander’s circle in Germany, but provides the Pansopher’s method on how to “communicate with a person at a distance” and “make an image stand out from yourself so that you can see it”.[26] He even says that one’s own projection can be materialized to the eyes of a person receiving your message. This sounds very similar to what Blavatsky and Max Heindel said their Masters could do[27], and points to a path few would be willing to embrace.

“If you say, for example, that you are making progress spiritually without being able to feel, hear, or see in an inner sense, then I have to say that this is a complete lie.”

Alois Mailander.

The question remains: Were the teachings of Mailander really used by so many Orders? Let’s examine the various groups that used the system and kept Mailander hidden.[28]

Rudolf Steiner’s Initiator – ‘The M’ – was Mailander

Most occultists were unaware of the Rosicrucian source for Rudolf Steiner’s teachings until our last article where we revealed that “the M” of Steiner was in fact the Rosicrucian adept Alois Mailander.

Steiner explicitly stated in his Temple Legend that Christian Rosenkreutz was an incarnation of John, and furthermore that Saint Germain was another one of his incarnations. Consider the implications. For Rosicrucians in Germany it was known that Mailander spoke in the voice of John, giving Rosicruican sermons and prophecies to those gathered outside the weaving factory. When we look at Steiner’s view of the CRC-as-John incarnations, and knowing that Mailander was Brother John returned, we can easily see how Steiner claimed initiation by C.R.C directly.[29] This direct contact with CRC would later be utilized by Steiner as an important channel for communicating a Rosicrucian transmission to other Rosicrucian bodies. Here we see the entrance of what became known as the Etheric Link.

No confirmation has come regarding whether or not the Pansophers also considered Mailander as CRC, although they did confirm he was made head of the Kerning Order. This is significant because Rudolf Steiner was initiated into a Kerning lodge by Freidrich Eckstein in 1887, around seven years after he met the herb gatherer, Felix Koguski.[30]

It should be mentioned that according to the Pansophers Steiner was rejected by their circle after he broke his oaths and made aspects of their teachings public (This split most likely happened after the founding of Anthroposophy, which took the Rosicrucian teachings and mixed it with Blavatsky’s Theosophy). Again I was able to find confirmation of their oral history.

Steiner partially reveals this separation in his autobiographical “Story of My Life,” wherein he says Friedrich Eckstein believed “one should separate the exoteric strictly from the esoteric, which should remain within the most restricted circles of those who fully understood how to honor it.” This occurred on a very esoteric level. Friedrich Eckstein was his initiator. Steiner, however, replies that “if I was to develop a public activity on behalf of spiritual knowledge, I had determined to break with this tradition.”[31] The implication here is that after being initiated into the Kerning lodge and learning the correspondences of sound, movement, color and particularly Letter Magic, Steiner took it upon himself to “break with this tradition.”

Much of Kerning’s alphabet mysticism became known as “Eurhythmy” in Anthroposophy. Eurhythmy is a series of alphabet figures made with the body, described by Steiner as “visible speech”. However, Steiner was not the only one to do so in this lineage. Mailander’s other student, Franz Hartmann, had disciples in the Mailander process. They also produced alphabet figures drawn with the body but used the runic alphabet (while referencing Kerning[32]). This somewhat triangulates and verifies the influence of the Mailander lineage on its successors.[33]

Readers may refer to Rudolf Sebottendorf’s “Secret Practices of the Sufi Freemasons” for a simplified version of the Kerning work (bearing mind his version of the work is incomplete and may be considered dangerous). Steiner was also known to have communicated the Kerning I.A.O. letter exercises to some of his closest pupils. The Steiner papers on the Mailander process given to Meakin and Felkin will be discussed below. I have copies of these which survived after Felkin took them from Germany to New Zealand. One published example of Steiner teaching the IAO exercise is noted in Ida Wegman’s daily routine under Steiner’s guidance. She was to review her day in reverse in the evenings, and “a breathing exercise that is to be repeated seven times; an IAO exercise; and then the Rose Cross imagination. The imagination was obviously meant to be linked to a mantra referring to the spiritual human form (focusing on the heart and limb organization).”[34] In fact, Steiner publicly revealed a version of the IAO body-positions.

IAO body positions used in Eurythmy

The entire process, including alchemical variations and movements made between each sign as taught by Mailander has never been published. At this stage something becomes clear that distinguishes the Mailander work from the Kerning work however. The IAO signs for Kerning were given as letter signs using the fingers alone. Mailander gave them with both the fingers and entire body, forming letter-shapes. We’ll revisit this in the Golden Dawn section below.

Steiner created his own Masonic Order called the “Misraim Dienst” (Misraim Service). This was a branch of the masonic Egyptian Rite of Memphis Misraim which he used as a framework for teaching the Mailander version of the Kerning work to its initiates.[35] These were essentially Masonic teachings issued within a Rosicrucian context. Steiner even called his system “Rosicrucian Masonry”. This was not something new in Germany. What Steiner encountered in Kerning’s Masonry he incorporated into the Misraim Dienst. Even the idea of an etheric return of Christ first appears in Kerning’s writings.

Steiner claimed it was only for “esoteric continuity” that he received authority to operate the Egyptian Rite of Masonry from Theodore Ruess,[36] but he effectively set up the Misraim Dienst as the Second and Third Class of the Esoteric School in Anthroposophy, squarely placing Mailander’s transmission at the highest levels. The disagreement with Friedrich Eckstein stems from Steiner taking this system from its private setting (where only a few Masons and Rosicrucians could access it under strict oaths of secrecy) and supplanting it into the Misraim Dienst as the climax of his system.[37]

Robert Felkin and the Etheric Link to Mailander

How did the Golden Dawn receive the Rosicrucian teachings of Mailander? In order to understand this we must first recall that originally Mathers and Westcott said the Golden Dawn had arisen from contact with German Rosicrucian Adepts. This came into question and the Golden Dawn schism of 1901 caused the Order to split into two main factions. On one side Mathers started the Alpha et Omega branch, maintaining he was still in contact with hidden adepts (via channeling and invisible guidance), while the other branch became known as the Stella Matutina under the authority of Dr. Robert Felkin, whose New Zealand temple, called “Whare Ra”, has become famous among occultists.

After the Golden Dawn schism Felkin began looking for his own Secret Chiefs in Germany in order to validate his operations. After returning from Germany he suddenly announced to his G.D members that he had successfully made contact with the true Rosicrucians and now their Order would receive the higher teachings from the Secret Chiefs.

In fact, Felkin went to Germany seeking assistance from Rudolf Steiner. However, before making the trip himself in 1912, he sent Neville Meakin as acting envoy of the Stella Matutina. Meakin was warmly received by Steiner and fully initiated into the Misraim Dienst, receiving Steiner’s version of the Mailander work. Meakin communicated these teachings directly to Felkin before the latter visited Germany.

Most Anthroposophists downplay the connection between Felkin and Steiner (Steiner indeed said he gave him nothing) without fully realizing how much Meakin received and communicated onwards. I have personally seen the Whare Ra version of the Mailander-Kerning documents which preserve the method quite accurately, even if missing some final sections.

Interestingly, those who preserved these teachings in the New Zealand temple of the Stella Matutina did not know of Mailander or the story behind their Rosicrucian transmission until my friend in Germany came forward. It has largely been taught that the documents merely came from Steiner.

At Whare Ra the Kerning method became known as the “Process Documents” (Here Steiner’s version was based on Mailander, which in turn was a Rosicrucian variation and advancement on Kerning’s original). They were donated to our research by Whare Ra successor Tony Fuller in 2017. Steiner’s Process Documents show that the IAO letters were placed on the body but, unique to Steiner, mystical letters were placed on spiritual centers which are activated by yogic eye movements.[38] True to Kerning however, the Temple of Solomon is built into the body as evidenced by the use of the words Jachin and Boaz, which are broken into individual letters and placed over the spiritual centers to awaken them. However, where Mailander and Kerning teach that the method shall “awaken the Word” in Man, a particular flavor is revealed when it’s claimed to “awaken clairvoyance”. This became the language of Mailander’s students. Franz Bardon, Krumm-Heller and Weinfurter all do the same, weaving between the Inner Word, clairvoyance and other psychic abilities.

Max Heindel, an early student of Steiner, inherited these Processes as well. He published a version of the diagrams in the Rosicrucian Cosmo Conception under the title “The Path Of The Unused Sex Currents.” Although Heindel gave nothing on the functionality or use of the diagram (merely presenting it as an x-ray of internal workings) he nevertheless reveals the depth of his Rosicrucian connection.

Heindel’s Process Documents diagram published in the Cosmo Conception

A distinguishing feature is the figure 8 or two interlocking triangles.

‘The Word’ is written to the right.

We should consider what was happening in esoteric circles when Felkin arrived in Germany. For Rosicrucians, the Elias Artista event had recently occurred. Mailander had died only six years previously. There was still something of it hanging in the air. There was a sacred sense that the Rosicrucian mystery had been renewed by the coming of Alois Mailander. This must have left a deep impression on Mailander’s students and those who knew of his coming.

Superficially it seemed like Felkin was setting Steiner up as his Secret Chief. This is certainly what some researchers have incorrectly assumed. This misconception has been perpetuated by both Golden Dawn members and Anthroposophists without full knowledge of facts given here.

Naturally Steiner spoke of his Rosicrucian connections and superior sources. A.E. Waite says when Felkin visited Germany he received “Rosicrucian rites. There would be nothing else available, as it is fully evidenced by his writings that Steiner had connections of this kind.”[39] But was Felkin referring to Steiner or Mailander when he claimed he’d found the Rosicrucians? To be precise, was he referring to Steiner specifically, or the Pansophers?[40] On August 1st, 1912, Felkin told A.E. Waite in person that “Steiner was under the direction of an inner group, through whom he was initiated.” This statement makes it clear Felkin knew about this higher source.[41]

In a lecture delivered to the S.R.I.A. Felkin said “I may mention here that I am pledged not to reveal the name or real person who called himself Christian Rosenkreutz, nor the place in which he was born, but I may say that, in 1914, I was on my way to his birth-place and also to see the vault in which he is buried, which still exists, although it is not in the place in which it is described as being, in any published account.”[42] If Steiner was his guide during this excursion we may safely infer this journey included the tomb of Mailander, located in Kempten. Felkin mentions that the tomb of CRC was not the Rosicrucian Vault of the Fama, but more importantly he said the tomb was to be found in southern Germany (Kempten is nearly the southernmost point). This location is still a pilgrimage site for Pansophers, along with a sacred stone located behind his home which he used to bless initiates.

When taken with the information provided by the Pansophers it seems likely that Felkin did not aim to align his Golden Dawn to Anthroposophy, but to the Rosicrucian Pansophers. This is particularly evidenced in Felkin’s above mention of a group behind Steiner. Still, at Whare Ra lessons of an Anthroposophical nature were circulated. This is because Felkin received the teachings via Steiner, who mixed his Anthroposophy with the original current. Felkin had no way of distinguishing the two.

A.E. Waite’s records of the Felkin-Steiner activity should be read carefully. His notes dated November 13th shows an interesting sequence. Waite was being told by Felkin that he has found the Third Order, but Waite is kept in the dark concerning who the leadership is. Why hide Rudolf Steiner? Felkin clearly knew the Misraim Dienst was not the Third Order of the Golden Dawn, especially considering that during his encounter he immediately recognized the Masonic grades being used. Even so, in his letters he insists that he found the Third Order. During his time with Steiner he was given a connection to the true Rosicrucian source. He in turn gave his Whare Ra members in New Zealand a promise to the same source. That promise was realized with the Ritual of Transmission of the Etheric Link which has been continued in New Zealand and Germany in different forms.

The Ritual of Transmission of the Etheric Link used by the Stella Matutina was reserved for high grade initiates of the RR et AC as a means to communicate the Rosicrucian transmission. The ritual was first published in its Stella Matutina form by Pat Zalewski in his “Secret Inner Order Rituals of the Golden Dawn”. There are three versions of the original German ritual due to changes made over the years.

In the Stella Matutina the purpose of the ritual was to transmit the “etheric link to C.R.C.” Supposedly such a link to Christian Rosenkreutz would help continue the Rosicrucian lineage, communicate teachings and even form a link to C.R.C himself. Such a ritual however was not isolated within the Stella Matutina. Frater Achad (a student of Crowley) also worked with a Pansophic lodge in Germany, eventually receiving a charter from Traenker (whose initiator was Hartmann, who in turn was Mailander’s student). In America he took the German ritual and performed a “Ritual of Transmission of the Starry Body” in 1932, creating a bond to the Body of Light of his initiator, the founder of the “Universal Brotherhood”. Thenceforth the leader of the Universal Brotherhood carries their founder’s Body of Light. Another version of the ritual and its preparation (called the Chain) was given by Julius Evola for his UR group, which had direct contact with Meyrink.[43] It is therefore seen that such practices were not unique to Steiner, or even Mailander, but that the Germans carried a tradition of transmitting the spiritual bodies of their Adepts onto their disciples. But did Felkin receive the entire transmission, or just a part of it?

Recently Samuel Robinson stated that the G.D Etheric Link ritual was one of three phases of transmission originally communicated by Alois Mailander, and that Robert Felkin only received the first of them. For the Pansophers there is a Transmission of the Etheric Link, a Transmission of the Astral Body and a Transmission of the Virgin Body (pearl). In addition, there are rectifications of the Mercury, Salt and Sulphur given along with these. Upon hearing this I wanted to see if there was anything available in the Steiner teachings corresponding to such a claim. Did the Pansophers transmit the etheric body, astral body and then virgin body of their Brother John?

Indeed, solid evidence was again to be found. Virginia Sease, respected Steiner scholar, member of the Executive Council at the Goetheanum for 31 years and key translator for the English versions of the Misraim Dienst rituals,[44] shines some light on this mystery by recounting Steiner’s teachings on the initiations and incarnations of Christian Rosenkreutz in her excellent book “Paths of the Christian Mysteries”:

“The first initiation of Lazarus occurred out of the life forces of the ether body; the second initiation of the youth brought about such a complete purification of the astral body that all the ash present in the physical body as a result of the Fall of Man was eliminated; and now the third initiation takes place…In this initiation, Christian Rosenkreutz is the first to be endowed with the ego of the Christ from the chalice of the Holy Grail. First there is the penetration of the etheric body by the Christ and then the penetration of the astral body by the Christ. In his third initiation, Christian Rosenkreutz receives the ego of Christ itself.”[45]–[46]

For Steiner the three links of ‘Rosicrucian Occultism’ began with CRC receiving them. But was this a Rosicrucian practice actually transmitted by initiates? Indeed! First, in a 1909 lecture for “advanced students” Steiner explained that the etheric body of Zoroaster was transmitted to Hermes and that his astral body was transmitted to Moses, setting the scene for such hidden workings. More importantly, Steiner lays it bare, saying:

“In short, it was known in the mysteries how to preserve the valuable etheric and astral bodies developed by the great initiates, but it would lead me too far afield to speak about this in detail. Suffice it to say that these bodies were kept by the preservers of the mystery schools.”[47]–[48]

The “preservers of the mystery schools” who maintain these three initiations concerning CRC are representative of the three links still transmitted in the Pansophic circle still active in today. Steiner transmitted the first of the three links to Felkin. Felkin then wrapped it in Golden Dawn ritual vocabulary and surrounded it with the strictures existing within the Stella Matutina tradition.

In the Golden Dawn the etheric link is regarded quite highly, even though it was only the first of three transmissions given by Mailander. Waite describes its lesser significance in a note on Sept 2, 1911: “Link between Head Lodge and others by etheric currents” – meaning; all of the Misraim Dienst temples had it, and further it was a link to whoever had it “seated” at the head temple. Here “seated” is different from receiving a transmission of the link itself. When it is “seated” an actual adept has the etheric implantation fully installed. All etheric links transmitted are centralized towards it as a kind of centrifugal force. The Whare Ra version is a link to the person carrying the Etheric Body of C.R.C in Germany.

Plummer’s SRIA version of the process document places Solomon’s Temple on the ‘Grand Man.’ The triangles converge with the YVHV letters.

I am told the actual Adept level is communicated through the astral body and not the etheric link. Meyrink did a brilliant job of veiling this in some of his work. At this level the astral is transmitted/linked to by others and again at its highest level it may be seated. When seated the astral body of Mailander was merged into the astral body of the receiving Adept. When transmitted, the astral link results in “hearing of the voice of John”. It is apparent the Pansophers were correct when they recently said Felkin was on some kind of Rosicrucian probation, and therefore in the process of receiving more of the German current.[49] This further explains why the Process Documents are incomplete as compared to the process outlined in Kerning’s “Letters on the Royal Art.”[50]

It should be clear the Golden Dawn is not the only group that continued this type of transmission (Frater Achad/Evola are but two examples). Consider also Gustav Meyrink and Karl Weinfurter (both students of Mailander), who left successors amongst their students at the Blue Star lodge in Prague. Weinfurter writes about Mailander in several of his books. One of their key successors, Frater Tiberianus (Wilhelm Kaiser), died in 1982. He began training his successor, Frater Gragorianus (Wolfgang Geyer) in 1965. Fra Gragorianus describes his discipleship under his master in his book “Der Rosenbruder – Meisterbriefe an Seinen Schüler” (The Rose-Brother, Master Letters to His Student) published 1986. The living successor of Fra Gragorianus is one of the lineages in support of the blog on which this information is being published, along with its upcoming generation of new Pansophers.

The influence of Mailander on the Golden Dawn was not limited to just the Etheric Link or Process Documents. We have seen that in Kerning’s method the signs for I.A.O were made with the fingers, and once charged, the fingers were placed upon the body. In Mailander’s time they were made with both the fingers and the entire body, giving the I.A.O signs in a way that involved both the arms and legs to form the shapes. The Golden Dawn arm signs of L.V.X for the Adeptus Minor grade were not dissimilar and Felkin immediately knew this. He then coupled them with a new set of L.V.X signs, this time the fingers were paired with the arms signs. These L.V.X finger signs are the grade token for the 5=6 grade at Whare Ra and the N.Z group still active today. Therefore, common to Mailander and Felkin are the letter signs made with both arms and fingers for LVX/IAO.[51] Tony Fuller recently confirmed that the L.V.X finger signs were indeed something Felkin had received in Germany.

The Arcana Arcanorum of the Germans

The question must be asked: Was Steiner alone in placing Kerning teachings at the highest levels?

Traenker (1880-1956), guided by Hartmann, founded the Pansophia lodge in close connection with Theodore Reuss. Reuss awarded Traenker with the X° degree of the OTO. We already know that Reuss also helped Steiner establish his Misraim Dienst. Arnold Krumm-Heller established the Fraternitas Rosicruciana Antiqua (FRA) in close cooperation with both Reuss and Steiner.

Was Mailander’s rendition of Kerning the Arcana that bound all these bodies (the OTO, Misraim Dienst, FRA and Pansophia Lodge) together?

Starting with Traenker, we read in his “Pansophic Intellectualizer” that:

“It is a fact that in the letters of a language lie the primal energies of the entire universe as the purest elements of thinking. They are the pure rays of the divine garment in the world. Within us, too, the spirit of the letters must be awakened to penetrating life. It must be done in such manner that the entire body in all its principles shall be filled with these energies… The student’s entire body and soul must have become but one vibration, one sound, fire, color, and light, representing the letter. This is the true path to the Word. From this experience can be relearned the magic language that gives all things the right name, and that works creatively and formatively out of the primal ideas with spiritual power and wisdom.” “The spiritual magic language knows neither proximity nor distance, neither obstacles nor hindrances, for the divine energies of the language are universal, cosmic ideas above all worlds and conditions. The energies of the letters are the holy tie that unites man with all other energies of nature, and finally with God. Spirit unites with spirit within, in the spirit, the divine centre of the microcosmos.” “Thus, he becomes an invisible member of the anima mundi, attains fully consciously the knowledge of immortality by submerging into the eternal stream of life, and finally withdraw in all his organs, according to the numbers and letters of the great universal man, Adam Kadmon, the cosmos, from the dense low forms and elements and building them anew. The continuous task that the Brothers of the Rose Cross give to their helpers and disciples comprises therefore the following problem: Man, if he wishes to be reborn with the help of God, or to manifest the new man of perfection within him, must awaken to the spiritual life with the aid of the mystic ABC, his inner twelve spiritual members, extract them from the physical elements as a quintessence; Man then becomes a center of the twenty-four creative energies of the mystic alphabet, a servant of the ineffable, eternal Word.. nothing and nobody can give him the word. It must be sought and found by each one entirely alone. The Word is the lapis philosophorum that has been eagerly sought by the alchemists of all times. It is the precious pearl, the holy tincture of the wise; the ineffable mysterium magnum, the magisterium mundi – the mastery of the world.’[52]

There is a lot more to this lecture, including the statement that Christ is the entire alphabet.

Plummer’s triangles/letters building the inner temple to attain the Word

from his ‘Rosicrucian Symbology.’

According to the German Pansophers it was when Traenker’s society was taken over by Eugen Grosche and told to accept Crowley’s religion of Thelema (due to the 1925 Weida conference) that Traenker’s Pansophic body broke into two factions. One side wanted to continue the original Pansophia system as received from Mailander and the other wished to join Crowley. When the loyal Pansophers decided to join under the leadership of Meyrink, Grosche was forced to rename their new Thelemic body the “Fraternitas Saturni”. This caused Meyrink’s faction to grow stronger.

Krumm-Heller also taught the method. In his lecture “Pisces”, Krumm-Heller writes that Johannes (John) and the name IAO are the mantra of the earth, and that we “can obtain initiation by the Living Verb, the Logos within us, which unites us with the Verb of the Earth.”[54] This work then continues using the vowels, starting at the feet. We know that it was drawn from Kerning because Krumm-Heller writes in “Taumaturgia” that “One of the enlightened masters, a perfect initiate, was the writer John Baptist Krebs, called J.B. Kerning. This great Mason has left a whole series of books and manuscripts from the Supreme Sanctuary. Of them I have taken most of what I write, after having successfully experienced it for forty years.”[55] Thus we see Krumm-Heller mention these teachings were not only the source for most of his writings, but he provides us with the X° of the OTO, or Rex Summus Sanctissimus. His work “Logos Mantram Magic” is entirely dedicated to the method. More importantly, in the Order papers circulated in the FRA there is mention of dialogues between Krumm-Heller and a figure by the name of ‘Johannes’ indicating direct inspiration from Mailander.

The OTO itself viewed through the lens of its true founder, Karl Kellner, is quite telling. Like Traenker’s faction, Kellner’s OTO represents the pre-Crowley phase of activity. Kellner was in fact a student of Mailander and claims have been made that he got his ideas as a direct result of his initiation into the Kerning circle. June 1903 Reuss and Kellner published a paper entitled ‘The Secret of the High Degrees of our Order – A manifesto of the Greater Orient,’ which reads “The secret which our order possesses in its highest degree is that it provides the well-prepared brother with the practical means to erect the true Temple of Solomon in Man and to find the Lost Word again.” The references to the Lost Word and Internal Temple should now be clear. Kellner also says, “Among the Christian mystics, Jacob Boehme in his discourse between the Master and his disciple, and JB Krebs [Kerning] represent the best that has ever been written in German about Yoga practices.”[53]

Clearly, Steiner’s Misraim Dienst, Traenker’s Pansophia, the original OTO and the FRA each shared the occult teaching of Mailander as their highest arcana. Bear in mind, Traenker’s Pansophia was Rosicrucian, whereas the OTO and M.D were masonic, yet each still maintained one crowning system.[56]

This brings us to the matter of the Arcana Arcanorum. Traditionally, bodies of Memphis Misraim posses a higher teaching called the “Arcana Arcanorum” or A.A, wich is a series of high degrees in Hermetic masonry, as well as communicating a system of internal alchemy for regeneration. There are several versions of the A.A in circulation. To posses the A.A implies one has a valid lineage and is able to transmit the secret work for creating the body of light. The A.A are said to come from Cagliostro and contain a solar and lunar regeneration. Several versions hail from Italian Hermetic brotherhoods.

Reuss and Steiner were both working the lineage and tradition of the Egyptian Rite of Memphis Misraim. All Egyptian Rites are validated by the A.A, yet the OTO and Misraim Dienst did not possess them. The reason for this is simple; the Germans did not look to a foreign source for their higher teaching. They already had a system of internal alchemy from their own German teachers Kerning and Mailander. It has only been one hundred years, but most have forgotten that originally for the OTO, FRA, Steiner and Traenker, the method of Mailander constituted the German Arcana Arcanorum.

Indeed, the coming of John in Germany had far reaching consequences. But there was one more surprise.

Blavatsky’s Master Moyra was Mailander

Finally, Madam Blavatsky as never told before. This section is most interesting because the lead was given in private communications from one of the last living Pansophers. Upon being told that Mailander was the actual ‘Master M’ of Blavatsky I was incredulous at first. The timeline didn’t add up. But if the last paper taught me anything it was to research before forming an opinion.

It is known that Madame Blavatsky, founder of the Theosophical Society, was a one-time student of Mailander.[57] She even mentions that “there is only one Adept in Germany, and he lives in Kempten.”

In private the Pansophers stated that ‘Mailander was transformed into the fantasy guru Master Moyra, and that when Blavatsky spoke of being in the mountains of Tibet and staying with her Master M, she was in fact located in the Alps of Bavaria. There was only one Master M, and when people came looking she hijacked the title and used it for her own imagined guru.’[58]

This is no lightweight statement and flies in the face of several of Theosophy’s founding beliefs. It needs careful attention. First, let us consider her masters.

Blavatsky claimed to have guidance from several masters including Moyra, St Germaine, Serapis Bey etc. Most of her communications with the masters were received in the “Mahatma Letters” which scholars now largely agree were forgeries, implying the masters themselves were figments of her imagination. But were they? The issue arises as to when and where her masters first appear. Blavatsky also makes the claim that they guided her during childhood. Theosophy students often take this as fact. Yet this claim was not made until much later in her life, only after her stories of contact with masters began.

In his excellent work “In Search of the Masters” Paul Johnson says that “Blavatsky’s relatives had never heard of her Indian masters until she began writing about them in 1892.’[59] It appears that Blavatsky then backdated her contact with the M, all the way back to the 1860’s. Perhaps the truth is somewhere in the middle. Paul Johnson’s theory is “the Masters that Blavatsky wrote about and produced letters from were actually idealizations of people who were her mentors.’[60]

If this is the case Mailander should share definitive commonalities with Moyra or other masters. In fact, Mailander shares several with “John King” – Blavatsky’s earliest master.[61] Far from being a marginal figure in Blavatsky’s life, she expresses enormous gratitude to John King, even calling him “my only friend”.[62] Theosophists have never known his identity, just as Anthroposophists never knew the identity of Steiner’s ‘M’ until it was published last year. Blavatsky mentions him from 1874, a time when Mailander was 30 years old and known already in Kempten.[63]

The similarities between Mailander and John King become obvious when we examine the sources.

Blavatsky’s John King was an initiate[64], belonged to an Order[65], was a Rosicrucian Master, who wore a Rosicrucian pendant about his neck. Describing John King’s portrait Olcott said “They (the words) and the signs and the jewel John King wears upon his breast are all Rosicrucian symbols, he having been a brother of the Order, and this being the tie which binds him to our gifted friend Mme. de B. (Blavatsky).”[66] This Order was the Kerning Order to be exact, headed by Mailander.

This John King (King John?) was most importantly called “Brother John” by Blavatsky, a name commonly used for Mailander by his students.[67] Two Brother Johns who are both Rosicrucian masters? You will recall how Mailander, using Kerning’s mysticism, taught the ‘I’ sign with the masonic apprentice grade sign, the ‘A’ sign with the entered apprentice grade sign, and the ‘O’ sign with the sign of a Master Mason. Blavatsky likewise says John King expects her to learn the mysticism of the masonic grade signs.[68] Blavatsky also noted in her scrapbook that she had been ordered to found a “secret society like the Rosicrucian lodge”. As late as 1878 Blavatsky and Olcott were still considering making the Theosophical Society a Masonic order entirely.[69]

But how does John King relate to Blavatsky’s Master Moyra? With all the above information in mind we can be certain that Blavatsky based her masters on real people she knew. Blavatsky says that John King was responsible for a “radical change in my ideas of life”, that he was her only friend and had “transformed her”. He made her lead a dual life, occupied her body and taught her to leave her body. With him she felt “afraid of nothing”. John King played such an important role, it leads many to ask: “But wasn’t Morya Blavatsky’s teacher?”

Some have concluded that Blavatsky transformed John King into Morya. Solovyoff in 1895 noted that in Blavatsky’s accounts John King disappeared from her life as Moyra became increasingly important for her. He writes “Here are the first traces of the gradual transformation of John King into Mahatma Moyra.”[70] CG Harrison in “The Transcendental Universe” writes: “Accordingly, it was only necessary for her to re-christen ‘John King,’ and confer brevet rank upon the ‘spirit’ of her old nurse Marya, known afterwards as “Mahatma Morya”.[71] That’s two independent sources saying Moyra was a fictional development of the early John King. The problem for Theosophists believing blindly in Blavatsky and refuting any connection between John King and Moyra, is that they did not know Mailander was called both “Brother John” and “the M”. For Blavatsky the transformation of John into the M was actually an easy one. The Pansopher’s oral history indicating Blavatsky hijacked the ‘M’ seems true after all.

So, was Blavatsky truly in the mountains of Tibet with Moyra or actually in the Bavarian Alps with Mailander when she spoke of her Master M? A very interesting account is told by Harvey Spencer Lewis (founder of AMORC) in the Mystic Triangle magazine dated May 1929. Lewis describes being welcomed by Rosicrucians in Basil, Switzerland, just over the border from Kempten, where Franz Hartmann was initiated into the Rosicrucian brotherhood. We already know Hartmann was a student of Mailander, and Lewis learns from his Rosicrucian hosts that “it was while he (Hartmann) was a student in this town that Mme. Blavatsky came for the purpose of writing a part of her great books, while hidden away from the profane world, and when she was believed to be in India or other parts of Europe.” [72]

Lewis continues that very few were permitted to know of her real location and that in Basil she had contact with her Master M. Steiner gave several clues on the matter as well concerning the identity of Blavatsky’s real master. Steiner said in the Esoteric Section that Morya has a “true name” revealed only to advanced pupils. He further says that C.R.C inspired Blavatsky’s first book, Isis Unveiled. One has to understand here that when Steiner said C.R.C. he was referring to Alois Mailander.

Another interesting surprise is that Mailander’s successor, Meyrink, actually received the title of the Master R, who has become quite a famous figure for Theosophists. That Meyrink received the title of ‘the R’ is seen in a series of letters from Mailander to Meyrink, addressing him as ‘Brother Rueben’ as early as 1899.[73] Meyrink was also a member of the Kerning Order[74] which addressed Prestel as ‘the P,’ Mailander as the ‘M,’ and naturally Rueben was ‘the R.’ Yet confusion of the Master R arose later in Theosophy as the name circulated, so that it would later be attributed to a Master Rakoczy. The Theosophical master was called ‘Master R’ or ‘Lord R’ interchangeably. Weinfurter describes a meeting in the late 1890’s where Meyrink was also called ‘Lord R’ at the Blue Star Theosophical Lodge.[75] However, the great Count Saint Germaine of Blavatsky only became associated with Alice Bailey’s Rakoczy later in 1912. This occurs in Annie Beasant’s “The Masters” which is twenty years after the true Master R (Meyrink) was known to have attended the Prague Theosophical lodge. Finally in 1925 Rakoczy is announced as one of the Mahatmas by C.W. Leadbeater in “Masters of the Path”. “Both these sources are likely to be behind Ballard’s own new construction of Saint Germaine.”[76] Interestingly, German book collectors have noticed that Ballard plagiarized several sections directly from the writings of Kerning in his “I AM” teachings, attributing them to Saint Germaine, which somewhat makes sense in this lineage, given the true sources Mailander used.

“The human soul, being the offspring or emanation of its God, the ‘Father and the Son’ become one, ‘the divine fountain flowing like a stream into its human bed’. In exceptional cases, however, the mystery becomes complete; the Word is made Flesh in real fact, the individual becoming divine in the full sense of the term, since his personal God has made of him his permanent life-long tabernacle – the ‘Temple of God’ as Paul says.”[77] Blavatsky on the Inner Temple and Word Made Flesh in Adyar Theosophy.

In Closing

It can be seen that the Pansophers transmitted their Arcana Arcanorum (Process Documents) and the teachings of their prophet Mailander to several groups. A network clearly once existed, tied together under the wings of the Pansophers, connected with Mailander’s etheric and astral bodies, or subtle the bodies of their own lead Adepts. In total, many groups have claimed connections to a Third Order or Unknown Superiors when in fact these groups had Mailander as their Secret Chief. Somehow knowledge of this extensive network was all but lost to most – until now.

We have not yet mentioned several other groups or teachers who drew from Kerning and Mailander. Readers of Franz Bardon will recognize that Bardon reserved this system for his highest students, even referencing Kerning in his third book “Key to the True Kabbalah.” All of his training climaxed in the letter mysticism of the Pansophers. In addition, George Winslow Plummer is another strange figure who still needs explanation. His work titled “Rosicrucian Symbology” contains one of the better versions of the Process Documents, complete with the interlocking triangles used in the other versions. He replaced the divine name IAO with YHVH upon the body however.[78] His source is not given but he says that it is published “with approval by the Rosicrucian Brotherhood”, squaring his SRIA within the same network.

Credit goes to Samuel Robinson as a major source of information and to Giorgio Tarditi Spagnoli for his insights into Steiner and Felkin. Special thanks to Tony Fuller and those members of the Misraim Alliance in Sweden and Denmark who helped us in discussions and provided many keys. Lastly, utmost thanks goes to Frater Echo, and ‘The S.’ – the two living Pansophers who quietly informed this work.

A note to the curious: please do not ask for source ‘Process Documents’ from Whare Ra that we have drawn from. These remain the property of those discrete Orders who use them within their higher grades (Whare Ra and Misraim Dienst). Other versions of the process documents can be found in the footnotes (Narrow Way of Attainment, Weinfurter, Kerning’s original etc.) The Pansophers are not taking any students at this time and no questions regarding membership will be answered.

Final Thought:

Alois Mailander stands at the center of several converging occult streams. From this simple man came spiritual impulses that revolutionized the western esoteric tradition. His words and teachings, hidden for the last hundred years, are here revealed as the Golden Thread woven through the highest levels of Rosicrucianism. It seems, after all, that Mailander was a weaver in more ways than one.

May the Rose Bloom Upon Your Cross.

Richard Cloud

August 2018.

Now, you can read the full Rudolf Steiner Rosicrucian Review here for those interested in Steiner and his Misraim Dienst system.

New readers, don’t forget to sign up to our blog to read other more interesting articles just like this. We’ll never send you marketing emails. Just a quarterly update on the most recent top post. Sign up if you love this reading and Pansophers!

Notes:

[1] See Man’s Higher Purpose, Chapter 6. Regarding Mailander, Weinfurter states “In our leader’s lifetime everyone had to strictly hide being his disciple.”

[2] http://pansophers.com/dem-m-revealed/

[3] Quod utilius Deus patefieri sinet, quod autem majoris momenti est, vulgo adhuc latet usque ad Eliæ Artistæ adventum, quando is venerit. – Paracelsus, ‘De Mineralibus,’ also -Hoc item verum est nihil est absconditum quod non sit retegendum; ideo, post me veniet cujus magnale nundum vivit qui multa revelabit.

[4] Frances Yates, RC Enlightenment

[5] The opening paragraph of chapter VIII in the Confessio Fraternitatis states:

“God, indeed, hath already sent messengers which should testify His will, to wit, some new stars which have appeared in Serpentarius and Cygnus, the which powerful signs of a great Council shew forth how for all things which human ingenuity discovers, God calls upon His hidden knowledge, as likewise the Book of Nature, though it stands open truly for all eyes, can be read or understood by only a very few.”

[6] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Comet_of_1843

[7] The Letters to Meyrink were published by Meyrink’s biographer Eduard Frank. See also “Die Fledermause”.

[8] Rudolf Steiner, one of Mailander’s students, wrote something very similar to the Rosicrucian notion that ‘Europe was pregnant and about to give birth’ saying “You can well imagine that when something new, like a product of the cosmic feminine, breaks into the evolution of humanity, it can cause tumults that are obvious enough, but that people prefer not to notice! It is possible, however, to make people conscious that certain events of earthly existence are connected with the existence of comets. Just as something new, a gift from the woman, may enter into the everyday bustle of the family, so it is with the comets. As when a new little child is born, so it is when, through the return of a comet, something quite new is produced” (The Reappearance of Christ in the Etheric, IV, ‘Mysteries of the Universe: Comets and the Moon’).

[9] For further sources see: The Burning Bush by Weinfurter, The White Dominican by Meyrink, The Narrow Way by Hiram Butler, Turkish Freemasonry by Sebottendorf and the letters to Meyrink by Mailander.

[10] https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Baptist_Krebs

[11] Willy Schrodter writes in his Rosicruican Notebook pg. 132 “On his return from a prolonged sojourn in India, Dr. Franz Hartmann landed in Naples in 1889. He was able to recognize Christian mystics in quite humble people (Mailander among them) and practiced with them. Mailander used the so-called “Kerning exercises” by which he professed to be able to understand the language of the animals.”

[12] Steiner gave this as well in the 4th degree of the Misraim Dienst; source – Mikael Gejel.

[13] Willy Schrodter, RC Notebook, pg. 132.

[14] Weinfurter (student of Mailander) writes in ‘Man’s Higher Purpose, pg 84-85: “As soon as we have progressed, we must practice the letters in all parts of our body, in all muscles, bones, nerves, veins, teeth, ears, eyes, etc.; in a word, the letters must penetrate ALL OUR ATOMS TO VIVIFY THEM. But I warn everyone not to hasten with the practice in the upper parts, although striking results have been obtained. For the ordinary man it is advisable to practise the first six months only up to the knees. Nobody need fear being at any time without advice. The sentence and the word practices are an inheritance of the Rosicrucians, one of whom initiated the leader of our school.” In reading Willy Schrodter’s work it becomes clear that this Rosicrucian initiator was Prestel himself.

[15] The Belgrade Lodge, called Alikotsch worked with Lodge Balduin from Leipzig

[16] https://archive.org/stream/freemasonsquart09unkngoog/freemasonsquart09unkngoog_djvu.txt

[17] Courtesy of Stephen Murtaugh ©

[18] Traenker and Hartmann were of this school. Weinfurter toyed with it but went back to the original.

[19] Meyrink for examples describes the fulfilment of the Elias Artista prophecy of the Rosicrucians in his book, saying “the church began with Peter, it is only completed by John.”

[20] A Rosicrucian Notebook’ page 131-132

[21] Karel Weinfurter ‘Der Königsweg’ writes: “Es ist also die Frage: Welche Mantraübungen führen direkt zur Erweckung der Schlangenkraft? Antwort: Nur solche, die der Schüler im ganzen Körper übt, also nicht nur ins Zentrum. Zum Beispiel die Schüler des deutschen Meisters M. (namens Mailänder — Anm. E. S.), mit Gustav Meyrink im Vordergrund, übten nach seiner Anweisung nur ins Zentrum und nicht in alle körperlichen Organe, wie es Kerning vorschreibt. Kernings Übungen von Buchstaben, Wörtern und Sätzen erwecken zum Schluß die Schlangenkraft, weil der Schüler seine Übungen auch auf das Rückenmark konzentrieren muß und somit auf jene Lotosblüten, in deren untersten die Schlangenkraft ruht.“

[22] In fact, the work demands extreme concentration, and high creative imagination, a problem for some members.

[23] Willy Scrodter writes in his Rosicrucian Notebook of Mailander’s great initiator: “Prestel was one of those who came to Germany. He was a nomadic and mysterious old man. He was a master joiner by profession but could produce magical phantasmagoria.”

[24] In “Magic, Black & White” Hartmann says: “We have reasons to believe in the genuineness of these documents; and if looked at from the standpoint of Occultism, it does not at all seem improbable that gold can be made in that manner. Moreover, we have some personal experience to support our belief; for there lived about ten years ago a person whose name was Prestel, within a short distance of the town where we are now writing, who was a reputed Rosicrucian and Alchemist. We personally knew this man and are well acquainted with two of his still living disciples. This man was generally known as an eccentric and mysterious person. He possessed great powers of projecting the images formed in his own mind upon the minds of others, so that they believed to see things which, however, had no objective existence. For instance, he was once waylaid by an enemy, and as the latter bounced upon him, he caused him to see a terrible sight of a scaffold and an executioner, so that the person was terrified and ran away; and it was not Prestel who told this story, but the man himself who attacked him: the former kept silent about it.”

[25] Interestingly, Meyrink met a Mailander imposter whom he mentions in this book, a young man who also pretended to be the prophet John returned. Fortunately Meyrink left us with a clear description: This person was blond, younger than himself and from Saxony (east Germany), none of which describe Alois Mailander.

[26] Hiram Eurastus Butler ‘The Narrow Way of Attainment’ 1901, first prepared 1889. This book mentions Mailander’s group several times, naming ‘Rosicrucians’ he was in contact with in Germany, and that he practiced the method for fourteen years himself. This book directly translates a Kerning book into English as well. Search the book for the term “factory” which appears around page 20 of most PDF versions.

[27] In the Rosicrucian Cosmo Conception Max Heindel says initiates possessing the “Jupiter Consciousness” can project mental images, so that if the adept were to say a color, the person to whom he was speaking would get an image of the exact color in their mind. He further states that the Elder Brothers of the RC Order possess this level of consciousness.

[28] See the Narrow Way of Attainment, page 20 (PDF page 20) where Hiram Butler mentions a factory of poor workers who worked with the Kerning method.

[29] The fact of Steiner’s distance from Kempton (Mailander’s location) is of little consequence, as attested to by Friedrich Rittlemeyer when he personally asked Steiner (in 1915) if he still saw the M occasionally. Steiner replied, “I have no need of that.” According to Rittlemeyer “He felt secure because he was able to establish a spiritual connection at any time, without any physical presence.”- Friedrich Rittlemeyer, Meine Lebensbegegnung mit Rudolf Steiner, Stuttgart 1983.

[30] (https://www.mysterienkunst.eu/misraim/) The full quote in German is here: “Hinter jeder theosophischen Loge stand eine okkult arbeitende. Eine zentrale Stellung im deutschsprachigen Raum nahm die Wiener Loge des Friedrich Eckstein ein. Er war ein hervorragender Kenner der Geheimlehre Blavatskys und ein Schüler des ausgezeichneten Maurers und Kabbalah-Eingeweihten Kerning, der ein Opernsänger war. Zu dieser Loge gehörten die künstlerischen und philosophischen Größen dieser Zeit: Anton Bruckner, Gustav Meyrink, Jules Sauerwein, der Erbgraf von Leiningen-Billigheim (Sekretär der Theosophischen Gesellschaft in Wien). 1887 circa wird Rudolf Steiner in diese Loge eingeweiht. Dort lernt er die Bewegungen der Laute, ihre Farbgebung, Planeten-, Elementen- und Tierkreiszugehörigkeit kennen, wurde mit der Hierarchienlehre vertraut und mit den entsprechenden Gebärden.” (NOTE: Oddly, since my discovery this website has been taken down.)

[31] Rudolf Steiner, Story of My Life, Chapter XXIX.

[32] Karl Spiesberger ‘Rune Magic.’ Speisberger was a student of Traenker, who was a student of Hartmann.

[33] “One of the lesser known but highly powerful magical techniques explored by German magicians ever since the beginning of the 19th century is letter magic, a sort of vibrational alchemy effective on the physical, mental and spiritual level. Generally speaking you can find two main branches: firstly, rune magic, which is fairly popular now in English Paganism too (even though adepts who can read German might be in for a great surprise or two if they read some German authors on this subject as this knowledge has so far hardly even been scratched); secondly, we find the techniques relation to the tradition which Rudolf von Sebottendorf (1875-1945?) called ‘Turkish Freemasonry’ in 1924. Provided the system is really of oriental extraction, it would be more correct to speak of Dervish or Sufi knowledge, mainly of the Bektashi and Mevleki tradition but then Sebottendorf’s personal claim to initiation into Dervish orders is a bit dubious at best. It is almost certain that he plagiarized the works of Swabian Freemason Johann Baptist Kerning (1744-1851) whose pupil Karl Kolb published these exercises as early as 1857. They were supposedly used by the secret inner circle of early Adyar-Theosophy, by the OTO, by Rudolf Steiner and Franz Bardon and one can even find remnants in certain practices of Christian Science…” Frater UD, The IAO Formula and the Alchemy of Letters, in the magazine The Lamp of Thoth, (Leeds), 13/Vol 11, No.7, 1984.

[34] Peter Selg’s book ‘Rudolf Steiner and Christian Rosenkreutz’, pg. 100

[35] Mailander’s version of the Kerning system included such changes as the introduction of a Serpent into the internal alchemy.

[36] See Freemasonry and Ritual work by Rudolf Steiner

[37] “And so we want to establish a school of wisdom, a universal wisdom, a “Pan Sophia” wisdom so that one can say that that which is in Goethe’s Wilhelm Meister, which was represented in the Wander Years, is a continuation of what Amos Comenius wanted.” – Rudolf Steiner from his “Things in Past and Present in the Spirit of Man”, Lecture 5

[38] Krumm-Heller uses the letters on the centers as well.

[39] A.E. Waite, Autobiography, Shadows of Life and Thought, 1938

[40] “As is well known to one of you, for some years I was much troubled about the origins and genuineness of the Order Stella Matutina and R.R. et A.C. Circumstances arose in 1906 which led me to the conclusion that either I must find out the whole truth of the matter or drop the whole of my connection with the Orders. From that time to the present I have used every effort and have spent a good deal of money, if so be, I could come into real contact with what we have been led to suppose was the Third Order. I have been able to do this to my own satisfaction.” – Statement issued to Adepts of the SM by Robert Felkin on March 17, 1914.

[41]“I…have felt from the time I first knew anything about the origin of the … [GD Order] …that it was very doubtful if it had any real connection with the real Rosicrucian Order at all. […] I at last have come on the track of what I think is the real thing and I am on the way to get what I want but I am hampered in getting full information by being unable to go over and spend the necessary time myself.” – Felkin, in a letter to Brodie-Innes dated June 11, 1912.

[42] 14th February 1916 Lecture for the SRIA: ‘THE ROSICRUCIAN SOCIETY IN EUROPE A LECTURE GIVEN TO THE STUDY GROUP by R.W. Frater R.W. Felkin, VIIIº, 9º Honoris Causa’

[43] ‘Introduction to Magic Vol II’ Julius Evola.

[44] Freemasonry and Ritual Work by Steiner. This book contains the main rituals of the Misraim Dienst.

[45] Paths of the Christian Mysteries: From Compostela to the New World, by Virginia Sease, and Manfred Schmidt-Brabant, published by Temple Lodge Publishing, 2003, pg. 160-162

[46] Each of these links not only embody a living connection to the founder of the RC movement, but when properly understood reveal a great mystery about Rosenkreutz himself. Sease further states, “[A]t the awakening of Lazarus, every part of his body is another being. In the intellectual-soul is the Hiram-ego, and all other soul members are other beings. The sentient soul is Mary Magdalene, and the consciousness soul is John the Baptist, the Adam-ego.” The mystery of how CRC incarnates is contained within the above quote, and it is in this light that we must consider how Mailander could have worn the symbolic name of Christian Rosenkreutz.

[47] The Principle of Spiritual Economy, Schmidt Number: S-2012, Lecture XI “From Buddha to Christ.” https://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA109/English/AP1986/19090531p01.html

[48] The lecture further reads: “When the first disciple was reincarnated as Hermes, he bore within him the astral body of Zarathustra, who had revealed to him not only his teachings, but also his own nature. Such a transfer is possible for what Hermes had received was nothing else but the astral body Zarathustra had sacrificed for him…. The other disciple, to whom Zarathustra had given wisdom through the etheric body, was also born again. When he reincarnated, the etheric body that Zarathustra had sacrificed was woven into him. This disciple was Moses….Zarathustra was reincarnated as a contemporary of the great Buddha. He could then build up the etheric and astral bodies that he had sacrificed. He was reborn as Zarathas or Nazarathos, and he became the teacher of Pythagoras, who himself was reincarnated as one of the three Wise Men of the East and became one of the disciples of Jesus of Nazareth. Zarathustra, who had once sacrificed his etheric and astral bodies, was also able to give up his external sheath to Him whose coming he had once announced. As the Jesus of Nazareth of Western occultism, he could place his physical body at the disposal of the Sun Spirit and was then able to say, “I am the Light of the World!”… Many copies of the etheric and astral bodies and of the ego of Jesus of Nazareth exist in order to be incorporated in the preliminary bearers of the Christ-Principle…. St. Augustine, for example, bore within him a copy of the etheric body of Jesus of Nazareth; and once you know that, you will be able to appreciate his life, his errors, and his accomplishments. His ego and his astral body were left to their own resources, and only in his etheric body did his great mystical gift come to life. St. Francis of Assisi and Thomas Aquinas had copies of the astral body of Jesus of Nazareth woven into their souls, and it is this fact that allowed them to be such dynamic teachers. They worked from a sphere in which Christ had once lived.”

[49] The N.Z group and Tony Fuller have already confirmed that the Astral and Virgin Links were not placed into the higher grades of the 8=3 and 9=2 by Felkin in his higher-grade rituals. Hence, Whare Ra never received them.

[50] A fine piece of reading on the original method. These letters were never meant to be published but were written from Kerning directly to a friend and brother R.C. These letters constitute the finest published outline of original form of the method before Mailander enhanced it with his Rosicrucian teachings. One must bear in mind that the documents of the Kerning Order are still unpublished and held in German masonic archives (Leipzig).

[51] Golden Dawn scholars have pointed out that Wynn Westcott also received the transmission of the Etheric Link from Felkin. There are some clues as to what extent Westcott may have been informed by Felkin concerning the Pansophers. First, Westcott did not deal with Steiner, but wrote Mailander’s main successor Gustav Meyrink directly in a series of letters. Meyrink is known to have received the Cipher Manuscript and the G.D Tarot attributions, so what did he hand over to Westcott in return? By writing Meyrink, Westcott effectively went over Steiner’s head. According to the Pansophers Westcott transmitted some Tarot keys to Meyrink not used in today’s G.D. – Second, one of the all-important features of Kerning’s system is the use of an internal tower built into the body. The four windows around the heart are not unlike the four windows of the oratory one must create during the operation of Abramelin the Mage. In Cagliostro’s version the four windows are built on a tower. For Kerning the tower is created on the body, with four window sections around the chest, specifically using 16 consonants of the alphabet (four per window). These sixteen letters clearly constitute the sub-elements. Although the document is not dated (as far as I know), Westcott or Mathers went on to place the four Enochian watchtowers about the heart in the Sphere of Sensation (magical aura built around the body). The Enochian watchtowers also consist of 16 sub-angles. The two systems are far too similar and Meyrink was the key. It would have been only natural for Mathers or Westcott to see how Enochian could be applied to such a system and the source for this idea can now be seen.

[52] September 1937. Pg 145 onwards, ‘Pansophic Intellectualizer’ by Traenker.

[53] Bair, the Yoga of Karl Kellner.

[54] Pg. 128 ‘Gnostic Rosicrucian Astrology’ Krumm-Heller.

[55] Krumm Heller – ‘Curso de Taumaturgia’ section II.

[56] Each used different rituals of initiation to communicate Mailander’s method as the Arcana Arcanorum. A subject for another day.

[57] Willy Schroedter says she was a member page 131 in his ‘Rosicrucian Notebook.’

[58] The original statement was given in four conversations, not one. This part is a summary.

[59] Paul Johnson, page 41.

[60] Ibid.

[61] http://blavatskyarchives.com/sisson1.htm#4.%20John%20King%20and%20the%20Fraternity%20of%20Luxor

[62] “Moreover the spirit John King is very fond of me, and I am fonder of him than anything on earth. He is my only friend, and if I am indebted to any one for the radical change in my ideas of life, my efforts and so on, it is to him alone. He has transformed me, and I shall be indebted to him, when I ‘go to the upper story,’ for not having to dwell for centuries it may be in darkness and gloom.” (Solovyoff, 247)

[63] Some authors have pointed out that before 1881 there was no mention of John King for Blavatsky.

[64] “Try to get private talk with ‘John King’ – he is an initiate , and his frivolities of speech and action are meant to cover serious business. You can see him at Herne’s or Williams’ and privately arrange with him to come and talk to you and bring others“. (Godwin 1990, 108)

[65] “…the Cabalistic, employed by Rosicrucians and other Brotherhoods of the Occult Sciences. I am not at liberty to read them out to you, until allowed. Do not take these words for a dodge. I give you my word of honour it is so. John knows to write that way of course, for he belonged as you knew to one of the orders . Preserve all that you may receive in such a waycarefully.” (HPB Speaks I, 97)

[66] (HPB Speaks I, 79)

[67] May 1875. In this letter, Brother “John” already appears as a link between Olcott and the Hierarchy: “Sister Helen is a valiant, trustworthy servant. Open thy spirit to conviction, have faith and she will lead thee to the Golden Gate of truth. (…) Our good brother “John” hath verily acted rashly, but he meant well. Son of the World, if thou dost hear them both, then TRY. (…) Brother “John” hath brought three of our Masters to look at thee after the séances, thy noble exertions on behalf of our cause now give us the right of letting thee know who they were…”

[68] “John asks you to give your attention to the flying figure of the spirit above – “mother and child”. Says you will recognise her. I do not. Johny wants you to try and understand all the symbols and masonic signs.” (HPB Speaks I, 64).

[69] Page 5, Paul Johnson.

[70] (Solovyoff, 247)

[71] CG Harrison’s The Transcendental Universe, pg. 171

[72] http://www.iapsop.com/archive/materials/mystic_triangle/mystic_triangle_v7_n4_1929_may.pdf

[73] Eduard Frank, biographist of Gustav Meyrink published in „die Fledermäuse“ these letters between Mailänder and Meyrink. Pages 407 to 411 in particular show ‘Johannes’ writing ‘Rueben.’ The letters were dictated by Mailander and recorded by his students.

[74] ‘Kerning’s Testament’ published by Meyrink is a set of lectures he attended at the Kerning Order.

[75] ‘But Lord “R.” a very sentimental and giving man gave me a chain. And then came the celebratory meeting, in which would be the “initiation.” Karl Weinfurter’s “History of Occultism”, published in 1932, referenced by Milko Boogard in his Fudosi series.

[76] Page 158 ‘Handbook of the Theosophical Current.’

[77] The Secret Doctrine: Occultism, 1st Ed, 1897, pg. 57-58

[78] ‘Rosicrucian Symbology’ originally published in 1916 by Khei (George W. Plummer)