Max Heindel

Max Heindel (pseudonym, actually Carl Louis Fredrik Grasshoff ) ( born July 23, 1865 in Aarhus, Denmark, † January 6, 1919 in Oceanside, California, United States) was a Danish / American engineer, author, Theosophist and Rosicrucian. He was the founder of the Rosicrucian Fellowship Rosicrucian school.

Life and work

Childhood, marriages, children, careers

Heindel was born on 23 July 1865 in Aarhus was the first of two sons of Francois L. von Grasshoff ( 1838-1872 ) and Anna Sorine withen († 1916). After the untimely accidental death of his father, a master baker, the widow moved in 1873 to the end of Frederiksberg in Copenhagen. Beginning in 1874 Heindel moved on the way to school in Copenhagen a leg injury to that tormented him for years. What remained was a walking disability, he limped from now on. 1886 married the mother again, from this union with Fritz Nicolaj Povelsen Heindel had a half-sister. In 1884 he left home, went to Glasgow, where he worked as a tobacconist. Here he met Catherine Dorothy Lütjens Wallace ( * 1869), whom he married in Glasgow on 15 December 1885. The marriage produced four children. The couple moved 1885/1886 to Liverpool, where Heindel, like his father, the profession of ship engineer learned and made ​​frequent voyages in the course of this activity. 1888/1889 followed by a further move back to Frederiksberg. Between 1892 and 1896, the couple divorced, the children came into the care of Heindel 's mother, Anna.

Around 1896 broke Heindel alone in the U.S., and called himself, his mother 's maiden name assuming, instead of Max von Grasshoff henceforth Max Heindel. He found in Somerville working as an engineer in a brewery. Here he married again, this time a much older Danish widow with four children, also called Petersen. The end of 1898 moved his four children from his first marriage from Frederiksberg to him in the United States. Her second marriage was divorced in 1899 and moved with his four Heindel own children in the same year to Roxbury. He joined temporarily with the Quakers, and after a difficult job search, he found a job as engineer on a steamer on the Great Lakes. The ship sank, however, and only with difficulty Heindel could save himself. After this experience he returned the shipping back and worked as a heating engineer. Always short of money, he went in 1903 to the " promised land California " to Los Angeles in search of better working conditions. There he worked in the following years as an engineer, but continued to suffer from a chronic lack of money.

On August 10, 1910, he married in Los Angeles for a third time. Augusta Foss (1865-1949) he had met in 1903 in the Theosophical Society. The marriage remained childless.

In the Theosophical Society

After spending several years in Sommerville Heindel came in 1903 to Los Angeles, where it came to an encounter with Charles Leadbeater about his interest in metaphysics. He then joined the Theosophical Society Adyar ( Adyar -TG ), whose California branch he headed 1904-195 as Vice President.

It dealt intensively with theosophy, spiritualism, occultism and astrology apart and was vegetarian for ideological reasons. After he was seriously ill in the summer of 1905, he resigned from the Adyar -TG. He then traveled to lectures on Christian mysticism and astrology through large parts of the U.S..

In the Adyar TG he had Alma von Brandis know that was an esoteric "secret disciple " of Rudolf Steiner. This invited him in 1907 to take their money to Germany to Rudolf Steiner. Steiner was at that time Secretary of the German Section of the Theosophical Society. On Brandis recommendation and because of his former vice president post at the Theosophists in Los Angeles, Steiner accepted him as a " pupil " in his Rosicrucian oriented Esoteric Section, whose founder and autocratic leader, he was. There Heindel took five months, from November 1907 to March 1908, on the secret training and esoteric teachings for. Even in the still more secret Steiner's " Freemasonry " of the so-called Mizraim service he was taken. Steiner spoke at this time, among other things, the Rosicrucians, the papers were embossed using theosophical ideas exclusively of Steiner's own thoughts. Heindel was very disappointed by the remarks Steiner. This led in April 1908 to cool the relationship to Brandis. As this turned out his source of money, he had to return in the summer of 1908 in the United States.

The Rosicrucians

Heindel claims to be, to him in April / May 1908 in Germany an elder brother of the Rosicrucians have visited and have subjected him after a failed test, an initiation. This first Rosicrucian initiation should be further followed later in the USA. Others reportedly, Franz Hartmann said to have introduced him at this time in Rosicrucianism. Anyway Heindel wrote in 1909 in the U.S., a work entitled The philosophy of the Rosicrucians or mystical Christianity. This represents a mixture of original theosophical teachings and ideas from the publications Steiner represents the first English edition of the work still contained a dedication is highlighted in this on Rudolf Steiner. After Steiner's public denigration of Max Heindel as alleged plagiarist of his ideas and as a pupil, who had broken his oath to Steiner's Esoteric Section, this removed the dedication at the next edition. The Christ - concept Heindel differs significantly from the Steiners. It therefore remains unclear what Steiner his accusations against Heindel moved, as he formulated only very simplistic and general.

On August 8, 1909 Max Heindel Rosicrucian Fellowship founded in Seattle to. On a lecture tour of the United States, he cried in a row, several centers for his new Order into being. On August 10, 1910 Heindel married in Los Angeles Augusta Foss, together with her he built now the order further. A suitable site for the future headquarters was purchased on May 3, 1911 in Oceanside. In the following years developed around the so-called Mount Ecclesia a number of buildings, the center of the Rosicrucian Fellowship.

Heindel suffered on January 6, 1919 in his office at Mount Ecclesia in Oceanside a stroke, and shortly afterwards he died at the age of 53 years. His wife Augusta Foss led the Rosicrucian Fellowship on.

Works (selection)

• Astrology, its purpose and limitations. Heindel, Sils -Maria in 1999.
• The Mystical Interpretation of Easter. Heindel, Sils -Maria in 2000, ISBN 3-906414-19-1.
• The mystical interpretation of Christmas. Heindel, Sils -Maria in 2000, ISBN 3-906414-18-3.
• The philosophy of the Rosicrucians or mystical Christianity. Rosicrucian Community, Darmstadt 1997, ISBN 3-88956-005-9.
• Teachings of an Initiate. Heindel, Sils -Maria in 1999, ISBN 3-906414-13-2.