Franz Hartmann - Secret Symbols of the Rosicrucians (510.0 Kb)
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The bulk of this book is a translation of a German work published at Altona in two parts in 1785 and 1788 (Die Lehren der Rosenkreuzer and Geheime Figuren der Rosenkreuzer).The 25 plates of symbolic figures with accompanying text are taken from this, as are the alchemical texts making up the first half of Part II (they have been somewhat re-arranged from the original edition). The introduction and 'Vocabulary of Occult Terms' are by Hartmann, as are the annotations to the alchemical and allegorical texts.Text pieces OCRed an... More >>>Book can be downloaded.
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The bulk of this book is a translation of a German work published at Altona in two parts in 1785 and 1788 (Die Lehren der Rosenkreuzer and Geheime Figuren der Rosenkreuzer).
The 25 plates of symbolic figures with accompanying text are taken from this, as are the alchemical texts making up the first half of Part II (they have been somewhat re-arranged from the original edition). The introduction and 'Vocabulary of Occult Terms' are by Hartmann, as are the annotations to the alchemical and allegorical texts.
Text pieces OCRed and proofed by Frater T.S. from scans of photocopies of the 1888 edition. Further proofreading may be necessary.
By an editorial error, a section of the 'Glossary' (from a note to 'Macrocosm and Microcosm' through to 'Materia Prima') was placed out of sequence in the print edition this has been corrected.
The alchemical and allegorical texts in Part II were translated by Hartmann, and somewhat re-arranged and hacked around, from the Aureum Seculum Redivivum (Golden Age Restored) and Tractatus Aureus (Golden Tractate), two German alchemical tracts of the early 17th century, which prior to their appearance in the Geheime Figuren had been translated into Latin and published in the Hermetic Museum Restored and Enlarged.
Hartmann's footnotes may have been intended to mislead and can probably be safely ignored.
A more complete English translation of the Geheime Figuren was issued at some point in the first half of the twentieth century by the American 'Rosicrucian' society AMORC and has seen a number of reprints it includes 11 plates of symbolic figures and two short alchemical writings omitted in the present edition.
This work is in the public domain.
About Author:
Franz Hartmann (1838-1912) - was a German physician, theosophist, occultist, geomancer, astrologer, author of esoteric and occultism works. Franz Hartmann wrote esoteric studies and a biography of Jakob Bohme and of Paracelsus. He translated the Bhagavad Gita into German and was the editor of the journal Lotusbluten. He was at one time a co-worker of Helena Blavatsky at Adyar. In 1896 he founded a German Theosophical Society. He also supported the Guido-von-List-Society (Guido-von-List-Gesellschaft). He cofounded the Ordo Templi Orientis with Carl Kellner and Theodor Reuss.
Hartmann was born November 22, 1838, in Bavaria, Germany, though he claimed descent on his mother's side from the old Irish kings of Ulster. He became a physician and immigrated to the United States in 1865, traveling as a doctor to various cities and also visiting Indian tribes and studying their religious beliefs. He became interested in Spiritualism and later corresponded with leading Theosophists after the founding of the Theosophical Society in 1875.
Hartmann was invited to the society's headquarters at Adyar, India, where he lived during the furor over Helena Petrovna Blavatsky 's alleged miracle working. He published his own Report of Observations During a Nine Months' Stay at the Headquarters of the Theosophical Society at Adyar (Madras), India (1884).
When Richard Hodgson of the Society for Psychical Research, London, published his devastating exposure of claimed trickery and fraudulent phenomena by Blavatsky in 1885, Hartmann accompanied her to Europe and then returned to his hometown in Bavaria. There he claimed to have encountered a sect of secret Rosicrucians from whom he acquired many mystical insights. He was president of the Theosophical Society in Germany for a brief period, but eventually resigned to found independent societies. During his later years he spent much time in the Untersberg Mountains near Salzburg, Austria, where he believed he encountered gnomes, water nymphs, and other nature spirits and also wrote his more memorable books. He died at Kempten, Bavaria, August 7, 1912.
Partial bibliography
* Magick: White and Black
* The Life of Jehoshua, the prophet of Nazareth
* The Principles of Astrological Geomancy
* Correlation of Spiritual Forces
* With the Adepts: An Adventure Among the Rosicrucians
* Life and the Doctrines of Philippus Theophrastus Bombast of Hohenheim Known as Paracelsus
* In The Pronaos Of The Temple Of Wisdom Containing The History Of The True And The False Rosicrucians
* Alchemy And Astrology
* Metafisica Medicina y Sanacion
* Philosophy and Theosophy
* The Four Pillars of Occult Medicine
* An Adventure Among the Rosicrucians: A Student of Occultism
* Among the Adepts: The Brotherhood of the Golden and Rosy Cross and Their Occult and Mysterious Powers
* To Will, to Dare and to Be Silent in Magic