THE STAGE OF MAX HEINDEL INTO THE THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY

MAX HEINDEL'S FIRST MEETING WITH ESOTERISM
AND WITH THE THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY

In 1903, Max Heindel lived in Boston, but he went to Los Angeles, to look for work. One day, at the end of December, while he was walking, he noticed a sign over Blanchard Hall announcing a lecture on esoterism by Charles Leadbeater.

Heindel wrote the following letter to Leadbeater:

« Los Ángeles, California, January 15, 1904.

Dear Sir,

Before you leave California I desire to thank you for your lectures, all of which I have attended with great benefit to myself.

Curiosity drew me to hear your first lecture; your statement that every man had in him clairvoyant faculties — which I reasoned would benefit me personally — prompted me to attend.

Your 2nd lecture, in the hope of getting some information on how to develop this much desired and desirable power and when in your 2^nd lecture you said that this faculty should not be used for selfish purpose — I sneered inwardly — what good would it do a man if he did not use it to his own interests?

The next day I applied for the “Astral Plane” at the library, that was the plane I wanted to find out about where one could go and, with advantage to himself, learn other people’s secrets. However I did not get it—the librarian had none to loan or for sale; they were all out.

But I got Mrs. Besant’s “Karma” and “Reincarnation” and when I had read them I understood why occult powers must be used reverently as a help to humanity and not for personal gain. I saw that I had a place in this great cosmic scheme and it seemed all so real to me that I needed no argument. I believed every word I read and it was in a frame of mind very different indeed from what it had been at the first two lectures that I presented myself at your lecture on Reincarnation.

I have since then been literally devouring Theosophy and I have put in practice in my life by discontinuing the use of intoxicants and tobacco, though I did not know until the other day that that was one of the Buddha’s precepts, but worse than that I was a sensualist and a liar and I never had any idea that I could help it or that my thoughts did any harm or that I could banish them, but when I found out that I could control my thoughts I set out with a steady purpose and rejoice to say that my waking hours are very nearly free from obscene thoughts; if I could but say the same of my sleeping hours I would be happy indeed, but I have no doubt that by persistent effort I shall soon have it entirely obliterated, specially as I have started a few days ago to live on a vegetable diet after reading your argument in “Glimpses of Occultism.”

I hope my long letter has not tired you, for long as it is it does not cover a tenth of what I would like to say if I could but find words to express myself. It is wonderful I can scarcely realize it that I who thought myself a mere earthworm living today and as I believed dead for all eternity when I died, that I am to live for ever.

Do you wonder that I feel grateful and feel the need of expressing my gratitude to you who opened my eyes to the high and noble destiny in front of me?

Once more I thank you and wish you god speed.

Yours truly

MAX HEINDEL. »

(The Theosophist, April, 1949, p.17)

And Augusta Foss, who later became Max Heindel's wife, about that event she narrated the following:

« I was acting as usher at a lecture delivered in Blanchard Hall, Los Angeles, California, by C.W. Leadbeater, the late theosophical leader, that the writer ushered a very pleasant-faced man to a seat; the next afternoon, while she was assisting the librarian to serve the callers in the theosophical rooms, this same pleasant man came into the room and requested the loan of a book written by the man whose lecture he had heard the day before.

After a short visit with him, it was found that he was a neighbor of the writer and naturally he was invited to visit her elderly mother and herself. This visit was followed by others and ended in a beautiful friendship and cooperative studies.

Max Heindel and Mother became fast friends and he spent many hours talking with her about the old philosophers, for Mother was a great reader. »

(Memoirs about Max Heindel and the Rosicrucian Fellowship)

MAX HEINDEL BECOMES AN ACTIVE MEMBER
OF THE THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY

About this, Aungusta Foss said:

« Max Heindel became a member of the Los Angeles Theosophical Lodge [March 9, 1904], and was one of the most enthusiastic admirers of Madame Blavatsky and her Secret Doctrine, although he was not entirely satisfied with the Eastern teachings and was ever longing for a Christian Philosophy.

In a short time he was elected vice-president of the Lodge. During the three years that he was the elected vice-president of the Lodge [1904-1905], a group of the members became interested in the study of astrology.

Max Heindel was one of them, and the writer (a student for some years) assisted them in their study of the stars, for previous to that time the members of the Lodge were averse to astrology and Miss Foss alone was interested. »

(Memoirs)

And Jinarajadasa, who was Leadbeater's main disciple, narrated the following:

« I owe a good deal to Max Heindel. When I met him in Tacoma, Washington, he was a Theosophical lecturer, and informed me that he was lecturing with slides. It was to me a novel idea, and at my desire to be better informed he took me to his room and showed me his slides and how he used the magic lantern [slide projector] with a white sheet for his enlarged diagrams.

I saw the new possibilities of lecturing with diagrams, and on my return to Chicago I mapped out various diagrams, which were then drawn beautifully for the purpose of slide making. These diagrams, including others taken from books, formed the work, First Principles of Theosophy. »

(Theosophist)

MAX HEINDEL SEPARATES FROM LOS ANGELES
THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY

Aungusta Foss said the following:

« In the summer of 1905 he was taken seriously ill, and for a number of months was at death's door with leakage of the heart. After this illness he withdrew from the Theosophical Lodge; and in April, 1906, started for the northern part of the state. He reached San Francisco on the morning of the 17th of April but could not content himself; something urged him to leave at once for Seattle, and he did so.

On the 18th of April, 1906, San Francisco was visited with a devastating earthquake and fire. Upon reaching Seattle he began to teach classes in astrology, rebirth, etc., but his health again broke. The poor heart would not function; he again spent some time in the hospital, but an indomitable will would at all times save him from becoming a chronic invalid.

Against his physician's will he again started his work of lecturing and teaching. He taught classes in Portland, Oregon; Seattle and Yakima, Washington; and Duluth, Minnesota, in which he was very successful.

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. »

(Memoirs)

MAX HEINDEL SEPARATES COMPLETELY
FROM THE THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY

After five months studying in German Theosophical groups (which were directed by Rudolf Steiner) and which I related in the article before this.

Max Heindel returned to the United States where he soon published his main book "The Rosicrucian Cosmos Conception", which was very successful. And he also founded his own organization "The Rosicrucian Fraternity" which had a rapid growth.

But unfortunately Max Heindel adopted many of the lies invented by Charles Leadbeater and Rudolf Steiner, thus contaminating the teaching he imparted with the same falsehoods.