THE CONNECTION BETWEEN MAX HEINDEL AND RUDOLPH STEINER

THE EVENTS

In 1903, Max Heindel moved to Los Angeles, California, and being very interested in esotericism, he became a member of the Theosophical Society.

Max Heindel showed a great admiration for Madame Blavatsky, but Theosophy did not satisfy him completely because he thought it was too Eastern teaching and with very few references to Christianity.

And that is why when he heard that there was "a spiritual master" who taught in a more Christian way in the old continent, Max Heindel went to Germany for five months, where he frequented German theosophical groups, heard many conferences, and also had several private meetings with Rudolph Steiner, who was the general secretary of the German Theosophical Society Section.

The admiration that Max Heindel initially had for Rudolph Steiner is demonstrated by the dedication he put in his first book "The Rosicrucian Cosmos-Conception" (1909):

« To my valued friend, Dr. RUDOLPH STEINER, in grateful recognition of much valuable information received; and to my friend, DR. ALMA VON BRANDIS, in heartfelt appreciation of the inestimable influence for soul-growth she has excercised in my life. »

Dr. Alma Von Brandis was a Max Heindel’s friend who helped him to go to Germany. But in the second edition of that book (1910), Max Heindel eliminated this dedication.

THE MAX HEINDEL VIEWPOINT

In the preface to that second edition Max Heindel gave his reasons why he decided to remove that dedication:

« From the beginning of November, 1907, to the end of March, 1908, the writer devoted his time to the investigation of the teachings of Dr. Steiner, who was absent from Berlin nearly all that time. In the last of about six personal interviews with Dr. S. the writer mentioned that he had commenced a book along occult lines; a compendium of the teachings of the East and West.

Dr. S. then urged that if any of the teachings promulgated by him were used he ought to be mentioned as authority and source of information. In consequence the writer agreed to dedicate the work to Dr. Steiner.

During January, February and March, 1908, the Elder Brother, whom the writer now knows and reveres as Teacher, came at times, clothed in his vital body and enlightened the writer on various points. In April and May, after unwittingly passing a test, the writer was invited to journey to the estate on which is found the Temple of the Rosy Cross.

There he met the Elder Brother in his dense body; there he was given the far-reaching, synthetic philosophy embodied in the present work — which in the opinion of many old students in England, on the Continent, and in America, embodies everything that has been taught in public or esoterically in the past, besides much more that has never before been printed.

Therefore the unfinished manuscript for the book mentioned to Dr. Steiner was destroyed, but as the later and more complete teaching given by the Elder Brother corroborated the teachings of Dr. S. along main lines, it was thought better to dedicate the book to Dr. S. than seem a plagiarist. Of that there would have been small danger, however, for the plagiarist invariably gives less than the authority from whom he steals, and it will be found that in any case where previous works are compared with the present, this book will in all cases give more information.

The dedication has therefore been a mistake; it has led many people who merely glance at the book to infer that it embodies the teachings of Dr. S. and that he is responsible for the statements made herein. This inference is obviously unfair to Dr. S. and a careful perusal of pages 8 and 9 will show that it was never intended to convey such an idea.

The writer does not see how to convey the true idea in a dedicatory sentence, hence has decided to withdraw the same with an apology to Dr. S. for any annoyance he may be caused by the hasty conclusions concerning his responsibility for the Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception. »

(In RE: DEDICATION)

Later, in a letter that Max Heindel wrote to a student, he mentioned the following:

« October 14, 1911.

In respect to what Dr Steiner’s pupil said, I do not care a snap. Dr. Steiner has no connection with the Rosicrucians since he became General Secretary for the Theosophical Society.

Before that time he received a little instruction from a lay Brother, such as I have since become, and he was never in real touch with the Elder Brothers, and will never attain in this life because his inordinate desire for position and power led him to forsake western Teachings and shirk the pioneer work I am now doing, to oust Mrs. Besant (who is head in name only of the outer section and has no control over his so-called ‘Inner school’).

When I dedicated the first edition of the Cosmo I was ignorant of his true position and his jealousy has made him forget even the courtesy of a common gentleman for he has never thanked me for the book with autograph I sent him. »

(Letter to Mrs. Laura Bauer, the translator of the Cosmo into German)

And to further illustrate this theme, Augusta Foss who was Max Heindel's wife, she gave the following explanations:

« About this time a friend who was traveling in Germany had contacted Dr. Rudolph Steiner and became greatly enamored of the Doctor's teachings. In her letters she urged Max Heindel to come to Germany to hear this man, but Heindel was very happy in his work in the north, and furthermore he was not able financially to take such a journey.

But this friend was so persistent that she came back to America to persuade him in person to accompany her back to Germany to meet this teacher. Her offer to pay his round-trip fare at last persuaded Heindel to give up his classes and leave for Germany.

This journey was taken in the fall of 1907. After he had attended some of Dr. Steiner's classes and lectures, he became disheartened and restless, for what was being taught he already knew; the teachings were similar to his own knowledge. And when he mentioned this to the friend she greatly resented it, and this broke up the friendship between them.

He returned to his room dejected and discouraged, feeling that he had given up a fertile field of work in America and come over to Europe, only to learn that he had not found what he expected. He forthwith made preparation to return to America.  At this time the Teacher, an Elder Brother of the Rosicrucian Order, one of the Hierophants of the Mysteries, came to him and offered to impart to him the teachings which he desired, provided that he kept them secret.

Max Heindel had for years searched and prayed that he might find something wherewith to appease the soul hunger of the world. Having suffered and known the longings of his own heart, he could not give the promise to the Elder Brother, and refused to accept anything that he could not be permitted to pass on to his soul-hungry brothers.

The Teacher left him.

Can one imagine the feeling that would naturally come over a starving man, denied food for some time, to be offered a piece of bread, but before he could taste it have it snatched away?

His last condition would be more wretched than the first. So it was with Max Heindel. His disappointment, in going that long distance to meet one who, he had been given to understand by his friend, had much new occult knowledge to give him, and finding that she had been mistaken, was intense.

He sat for hours as one stunned after the Teacher left him. In his disappointment at having to return to America and start where he left off, feeling that he had wasted time and money in coming, he spent a number of unhappy days.

Later, the Teacher appeared in his room again and told him that he, Max Heindel, had stood his test. If he had accepted the offer, namely, to keep the teachings a secret from the world, he, the Elder Brother, would not have returned.

He was also told that the candidate [Rudolph Steiner] whom they had at first chosen, who had been under their instruction for several years and who by the way happened to be the very one whom they had used as an attraction to bring Mr. Heindel to Berlin, using his friend as a means of inducing him to go.

Unfortunately that individual had failed to pass his test in 1905; also that he, Max Heindel, had been under the observation of the Elder Brothers for a number of years as the most fit candidate should the first one fail.

In addition, he was told that the teachings must be given out to the public before the close of the first decade of the century, which would be the end of December, 1910.  At this last interview with the Teacher he was given instructions as to how to reach the Temple of the Rose Cross.

At this Temple, Max Heindel spent a little over one month in direct communication with and under the personal instructions of the Elder Brothers, who imparted to him the greater part of the teachings contained in The Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception.

. . .

When Max Heindel reached the Temple of the Rosicrucian Brotherhood, as directed, he was strangely surprised, for in his mind's eye he had pictured this headquarters as a massive and beautiful structure, and it was quite otherwise.

He was ushered into what was apparently the modest but spacious home of a country gentleman, a building which no one would ever take to be the world headquarters of such an ancient and powerful group of mystics.

Hundreds of curious men and women have scoured Germany in the hopes of finding this building, but they, like Max Heindel, have ever pictured it as a grand and noble Temple.

And so he found it, when his eyes were opened to perceive the spiritual Temple interpenetrating and enveloping the physical structure. There, as already stated, they imparted to him the teachings of that wonderful book, The Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception, which was to be the textbook of the association which the Brothers told Max Heindel he was expected to form: The Rosicrucian Fellowship.

They also told him that the 350 or more pages of this manuscript would be enlarged and rewritten after he reached the electrical atmosphere of America. Max Heindel doubted this, for he was so elated over what he had received from the Brothers that he could not imagine rewriting it, but such was the case. »

(Memoirs about Max Heindel and the Rosicrucian Fellowship)

THE RUDOLPH STEINER’S REACTION

Rudolph Steiner was very upset. He declared that he had been betrayed, plagiarized and his teaching distorted.

In the conference he gave in Oslo, on October 5, 1913, he said:

« You see, we already have enough enemies and they act in a quite peculiar way. I don't wish to speak of this now, perhaps you already know about it from reading the “Newssheet”. You also know the strange fact that there are people who have been saying for a long time now that what I teach is infected with all kinds of dogmatic Christianity, even with Jesuitism.

Especially certain followers of the so-called Adyar-Theosophy talk in the worst way about this supposed Jesuitism, as well as many more hateful, unscrupulous things. And a certain source claiming outrage at the narrow-mindedness and perversity of our teaching, then completely falsified it. A man from America learned our teaching over a period of many months, wrote it down, brought it to America in a watered down version and then published a Rosicrucian Theosophy, which he copied from us.

He says that he learned a lot from us, but that he was then called by the masters and learned more from them. He was silent about the fact that he took the more profound things from my unpublished lecture cycles.

One could accept that such a thing could happen in America One could, like Hillel, remain meekly silent — even when it spreads to Europe.

Those who are most enraged at us here make a translation and in the translation say: Although there is also a Rosicrucian world view in Europe, it is narrow-minded and Jesuitical, and it can only thrive in the pure air of California.

Well, that's enough!  That is our enemies' method. We can look at these things not only calmly, but also with compassion — but we may not close our eyes to them. When such things happen, then care must be taken by those who for years indulged such people who acted without scruples. I would really prefer not to speak about such things, were it not necessary in the service of truth. One must see everything with clarity. »

(The Fifth Gospel, chapter 5)

In a conference he gave in Leipzig, on June 10, 1917, he said:

« I am going to speak of an occurrence that happened some time ago....A certain Herr Grashof [Max Heindel] became a member of our Society. For a time he attended lectures in every town where they were given; he was always there. Naturally, you may ask,

Why was he admitted to membership?

In certain circumstances it is impossible to refuse admittance to people, especially if they are introduced by trusted persons. It would be a question of foreseeing the future!

Suppose a man like Grashof were to come and I were to say:

-      “We cannot admit him. Well, why not? Oh, because later on he will be a traitor to the Society.”

One cannot adopt this attitude about something that has not happened yet but will only happen in the future. Such people quite obviously must be admitted to the Society.

This man Grashof attended every lecture that he possibly could. He borrowed notes made by the members and copied them all. And what people were unwilling to give him he extracted through the inter- mediary of the person who had introduced him.

Then, after a time, he returned to America, whence he had come, and wrote a book, compiled from everything he had heard in the lectures and found in the books and had also amassed from unpublished lectures. But he made no mention of this. He wrote a preface to his book in which he said:

-      “I heard this and that from Dr. Steiner but felt that I was not ready for it. Then I was ordered to go to a master [a Master in the transylvanian Alps of course!] and from this Master I learned the deeper truths that I still lacked.”

But, the “deeper” and “higher” in this book is copied down from my lectures and books and from notes made by other members. His book was published in America, under the title of Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception — and even that was a plagiary.

Some people might have said: Well, after all, that is American and perhaps one can expect nothing else...but here in Germany there was a publishing company, managed by a Dr. Hugo Vollrath. He was quite eager to translate the book into German, and he did so, bringing it out as a series of Letters of Instruction.

His preface stated that some of the contents had, it was true, first been given in Germany, but had had to mature in the pure air of California!

In the literary world proper such scandalous procedure is unthinkable. It is a scandal which ought every-where to have been recognized as such — and it would have been if there had been any soundness of judgment. I should really like to count the names of the people who know the real facts. Few take any interest in such matters, however, and so they recur repeatedly. »

In the conference he gave in Dornach, on March 28, 1921, he said:

« What was his name? In his books he called himself Max Heindel, but here he had another name, his name was Grashof.

This man had initially recorded everything he could record in our public lectures and books. And of all this he wrote a book "Cosmo Rosicrucian", and then also included in a second edition what is in the cycles and what he has discarded otherwise.

When he back to the United States, he told his people that he had taken the first step here with us, but to win the second step, he had gone to Hungary to become a teacher. And then he claimed that he had obtained that level. However, the reality is that he only copied what he had received here, and especially all the lectures he had heard.

So his work was a complete and simple plagiarism!

And something hilarious happened then. His book has been translated into German, with the observation that in Europe one can get the same teaching, but that it would be better to obtain it in the way it could arise under the free sun of America !!! »

(SE 203-305)

And in a letter Rudolph Steiner wrote to Eduard Selander, who was the head of the Helsinki section, he wrote him the following:

« In this respect, I mention only that, recently, a large part of my theosophical work has been industriously printed in America without my permission, and in an unprecedented way.

The danger does not lie in the fact that it is a plagiarism. That is of no consequence; people can plagiarize as much as they like for all I care. In the field of theosophy that is not of the least importance. What is important, is that my work is printed in a completely distorted manner and that the distortions are harmful.

Therefore, if I do not have the things printed as they should be, great harm will eventually occur. It must, after all, be a matter of some concern that not all of our theosophists are capable of discernment and that there are theosophists in western Europe who think that the distorted, false publications are the real ones. »

(Correspondence and Documents, p.287)

MY OPINION

Rudolph Steiner's followers accuse Max Heindel of stealing the anthroposophical teachings. While Max Heindel's followers claim that he did not steal them, but he had an instructor from the same Rosicrucian source, who also instructed Rudolph Steiner, and Max Heindel received even more teachings.

However, I do not agree with either of those two sides, and I will tell you what I think about it. But, before, I will summarize the situation to clarify the context.

A friend of Max Heindel, who was a very Rudolph Steiner’s admirer, convinced Heindel to accompany her to Germany. And when Max Heindel returned to the United States, he put in his first book, a dedication thanking Steiner and his friend very deeply for everything they had given him.

But then in the next edition, Max Heindel retracted giving the explanation that he had promised Steiner to mention him in his book, but since people were mistakenly thinking that his book was a copy of Rudolph Steiner's teachings, he removed that dedication, because although he could confirm that Rudolph Steiner’s teachings were in line with the "Rosicrucian Master" that taught to Max Heindel in Germany.

Instead that the Master taught him much more and therefore his book "The Rosicrucian Cosmos-Conception" contained much more information than Steiner’s teachings.

But the truth is that Max Heindel's explanation does not convince me.

First, because his dedication shows a sincere and enormous gratitude, it is not a simple commitment that he would have promised, but it is really a very grateful to Steiner and his friend.

And second, because after having studied Rudolph Steiner’s teachings, I am convinced that Max Heindel’ story (that he met a great Rosicrucian Master) is false, because the Rudolph Steiner’s work is one of the most terrible teachings, I have found.

And therefore it makes NO sense that a great Rosicrucian Master has taught the same lies, nonsense and absurd things that Rudolph Steiner taught:

• The sun, the moon and the planets came out Earth.

• After the sun came out, life became very inhospitable on Earth, and that is why the Lemurian humans went to live on the other planets. But later they returned to Earth, when the moon also left Earth and life improved during the Atlantean era.

• And as humans had acquired different characteristics on the different planets that caused the different races that are currently on Earth.

• There existed two Jesus, two Mary and two Joseph. One of the Jesus children was a “immaculate zombie” and the Zoroaster spirit lived in the other child, but when the child has twelve years old, Zoroaster went to live inside the other child.

• And when Jesus' body was placed in the grave, a tremor caused the earth to open, the body fell into the crack, the earth closed again and that is why the next day people found the grave empty.

• It is not the heart that makes circulate the blood, but it is the circulation of the blood that makes the heart beat.

• The brain is a second stomach, where potatoes end up digesting, and that is why there are now many journalists, because people eat a lot of potatoes.

• Etc.

So as you can see, Rudolph Steiner's teachings are tremendously crazy, and it makes no sense that a true teacher said all these absurdities.

In other words, Max Heindel did a big mistake having copied Rudolph Steiner´s teachings.

And if Max Heindel had studied Theosophy more deeply, he would have noticed that Rudolph Steiner was a big charlatan. But instead, he accepted him, as he also accepted the falsehoods taught by Leadbeater and Annie Besant.

CONCLUSION

All this shows me that Max Heindel failed to distinguish between true instructors and false instructors. And his story of having been contacted by the Rosicrucian Masters was only a lie invented by him to give himself more prestige.