Abstract
For cosmopolitan religious thinkers, especially in Germany, Goethe personified the omniscient intellect, the persona who had comprehensively and successfully fused all knowledge-making fields—science, religion, philosophy, and literature—into a cohesive whole. Faust, Goethe’s tragic philosopher-healer, embodied the scientist’s resolve, status, and purpose to effectively and creatively explore the depths of life’s secrets. In their spiritual-scientific vision, Goethe’s Faust and his willingness to explore and indulge his thirst for knowledge in the dark caverns of Lucifer’s sphere ideally captured the harmonious material-spiritual expedition that they sought to recapitulate. Goethe’s engagement with the arcane world as a source of erudition reverberated among cosmopolitan spiritual thinkers. One of Theosophy’s first journals in England was called Lucifer, and its two editors, Madame Blavatsky and the occult novelist and anti-vivisectionist campaigner, Mabel Collins (1851–1927), justified the title with the following comment in its initial issue in 1887:From this viewpoint, what was judged as the unholy and cryptic, despite their rejection by society’s intellectually coward, manifested a salient means to shed light on life’s full spiritual essence. According to these cosmopolitan spiritual pundits, their concept of Lucifer, like Goethe’s Faust, provided an efficacious source for reconstituting complete knowledge about human life—“to look truth straight in the face.”
Welche Schauspiel! Aber, ach, ein Schauspiel nur Wo faß ich dich, unendliche Natur?
Euch Brüste, wo? Ihr Quellen alles Lebens,
An denen Himmel und Erde hängt,
Dahin die welke Brust sich drängt—
Ihr quellt, ihr tränkt, und schmacht’ ich so vergebens?
What play! Yet but a play, however vast!
Where, boundless Nature, can I hold you fast?
And where you breasts? Wells that sustain
All life—the heaven and the earth are nursed.
The wilted breast craves you in thirst
You well, you still—and I languish in vain?
Goethe, Faust, trans. Walter Kaufmann (New York: Anchor Books, 1990), 98.
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Notes
- 1.
Extensive scholarship exists on Goethe’s life and his work. A good place to start is Nicholas Boyle’s two-volume biography, Goethe: The Poet and the Age (London: Oxford University Press, 1991–2003).
- 2.
The journal began publication in 1887 and ran for ten years until 1897.
- 3.
“What’s in a Name? Why the Magazine Is Called ‘Lucifer,’” in Lucifer: A Theosophical Magazine. Designed to “Bring to Light the Hidden Things of Darkness,” 1, eds. H. P. Blavatsky and Mabel Collins (London: George Redway, 1887): 1.
- 4.
Wilhelm Hübbe-Schleiden, Das Dasein als Lust, Leid und Liebe. Die alt-indische Weltanschauung in neuzeitlicher Darstellung. Ein Beitrag zum Darwinismus (Braunschweig: Schwetschke & Sohn, 1891), 98. For more background on Hübbe-Schleiden, see Norbert Klatt, Theosophie und Anthroposophie : Neue Aspekte zu ihrer Geschichte aus dem Nachlass von Wilhelm Hübbe-Schleiden (1846–1916) mit einer Auswahl von 81 Briefen (Göttingen: N. Klatt, 1996).
- 5.
For Richard’s bold reading of science and the development of Darwinian thought during the nineteenth century, see the previously cited, The Romantic Conception of Life, in which Richards traces and links German Naturphilosophie, particularly Humboldt, and Romantic Biology to Darwin’s Origins and his thought processes for elaborating natural selection. For a nuanced review of Richard’s book, see Anthony La Vopa’s review in The Journal of Modern History 77.1 (2005): 168–171.
- 6.
Ibid., 516.
- 7.
By the era’s standards, Haeckel’s book, Die Welträtsel , can indeed be categorized as a bestseller. In fact, the book, originally published in 1899, was chosen as the first in Alfred Kröner’s series of classic volumes, published in 1908, which were intended for wider audiences. Haeckel’s book went through multiple editions and is still in print today.
- 8.
For further reading on Darwin’s influence and the debate around his theories, one might begin with Jonathan Conlin, Evolution and the Victorians ; Peter Bowler, The Eclipse of Darwinism; and again Bowler, Darwinism.
- 9.
Gabriel Max (1840–1915) was an important German painter, born in Prague. See http://www.iment.com/maida/family/mother/vicars/gabrielmax.htm for more biographical detail (accessed on Dec 11, 2017).
- 10.
Haeckel, Natürliche Schöpfungsgeschichte, LVII.
- 11.
The German word Himmel refers both to the English equivalent, sky, but also can mean heaven. Here both meanings are possible, but based on du Prel’s thematic, the latter seems more appropriate. For more background on du Prel’s intellectual views and development, see Tomas Kaiser, Zwischen Philosophie und Spiritismus.
- 12.
The German word, Entwicklung, means development, but combined with Geschichte, or history, I am translating Entwicklungsgeschichte as evolution in this context.
- 13.
Carl du Prel, Entwicklungsgeschichte des Weltalls, xii.
- 14.
Ibid., 11.
- 15.
Ibid., 15.
- 16.
Ibid., 15.
- 17.
For good reason the term race rings uncomfortably in our ears today, but du Prel and most other intellectuals of the era unhesitatingly employed the term. The fascination with biology and the notion that biological metrics could be directly linked to racial characteristics were prominent in the era’s public mind, a topic which we will explore in a later chapter.
- 18.
Annie Besant, Esoteric Christianity or the Lesser Mysteries (New York: John Lane, The Bodley Head, 1902), 202.
- 19.
Ibid., 206.
- 20.
Sinnett, Occult Buddhism (London: Trübner and Co., 1884), 86. My reference here is to Auguste Comte’s understanding of positivism, which assumed that knowledge can only be derived from the scientific method, and thus replaced metaphysics and theology as knowledge sources. In Sinnett’s version of the mechanism that drives evolutionary process, he reverses Comte’s account by advocating metaphysical determinants for knowledge in the world. For an overview of Comte, see Mary Pickering’s Auguste Comte. An Intellectual Biography, vol. II (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2009).
- 21.
Jinarajadasa, Theosophy and Modern Thought, 12.
- 22.
Ibid., 26. Gregor Mendel (1822–1884) was a Silesian Monk, who, through his studies of animal and plant crossbreeding, discovered many of the rules of heredity. Mendel is considered to be the founder of genetics. See Curt Stern, The Origin of Genetics. A Mendel Source Book (San Francisco: W. H. Freeman, 1966), and Robin Marantz Henig, The Monk in the Garden. The Lost and Found Genius of Gregor Mendel, the Father of Genetics (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2000).
- 23.
Ibid., 38.
- 24.
Édouard Schuré, Les Grands Initiés. Esquisse de l”Histoire Secrète des Relgions (1889; Paris: Librairie Académique Didier, 1905), xxii. Schuré’s final sentence here is somewhat cryptic and does not translate well literally into English. What he implied though is that Darwin’s laws explained how the fewest number of species survive—that is, only the fittest, which was ordained by God’s benevolent plan.
- 25.
Schuré, Grands Initiées, 518.
- 26.
See Friedrich Nietzsche, On the Genealogy of Morals (first published in 1887), for his most comprehensive and disparaging treatise of Christian institutions and hierarchies.
- 27.
Guymiot, “Evolution,” in L’Initiation 39–40 (April 1898): 40–41. Guymiot was also a member of Papus’ esoteric circle and known for his translations of Herbert Spencer’s work.
- 28.
This apt and accurate descriptive expression I am borrowing in a slight rephrasing from Corrina Treitel’s excellent book, A Science for the Soul.
- 29.
Sinnett, Esoteric Buddhism, 29.
- 30.
Carl du Prel, “Der Tod,” in Sphinx 2.3 (1887): 306. Du Prel employs the term Entseelung, which I have translated as de-souling.
- 31.
Soul-force is the closest equivalent to Gandhi’s famous idiom, satyagraha. In Gandhi: A Political and Spiritual Life, Kathryn Tidrick insightfully clarifies how Gandhi’s religious ideas were heavily influenced by esoteric Christianity and Theosophy. She also depicts how Gandhi incorporated religious ideas to undergird his political assertions.
- 32.
Sir Oliver Lodge, Science and Religion. By Seven Men of Science, 2nd ed. (London: J. Johnson, 1915), 16.
- 33.
Ibid., 25.
- 34.
Ibid., 25.
- 35.
Excellent studies exist on European spiritism. See Anne Taves, Fits, Trances, and Visions: Experiencing Religion and Explaining Experience from Wesley to James (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1999); for the case of France, John Warne Monroe provides two excellent chapters on spiritism in his book, Laboratories of Faith. Also see Lynn L. Sharp, Secular Spirituality. Reincarnation and Spiritism in Nineteenth-Century France (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2006).
- 36.
Sinnett, Esoteric Buddhism, 69.
- 37.
The notion of seven principles and their corresponding seven phases or spheres of world progression originated in the writings of Blavatsky. See Blavatsky’s The Secret Doctrine (1888), in which she depicts the epochs of the seven root races.
- 38.
Sinnett, Esoteric Buddhism, 27.
- 39.
Ibid., 111.
- 40.
Thanks go to Cècile Fromont for pointing out how such graphic imagery would have aided these cosmopolitan religious movements to assert their scientific legitimacy, a topic that will be broached in the following sections of this chapter.
- 41.
Karl zu Leiningen, “Das Ziel der Mystik,” in Sphinx 31 (1888): 4.
- 42.
Ibid., 5.
- 43.
Jinarajadasa, First Principles of Theosophy, 41. The book is divided into chapters rather than speeches. The speeches have been edited and revised for publication, but specific dates for the speeches are not provided.
- 44.
Ibid., 123.
- 45.
Ibid., 139.
- 46.
Sinnett, Esoteric Buddhism, 36.
- 47.
Lodge, Science and Religion, 27 (capitalization in original).
- 48.
Röntgen’s paper originally titled “Über eine neue Art von Strahlen” appeared in Sitzungsberichte der Physikalisch-Medicinischen Gesellschaft zu Würzburg 9 (1895): 132–41.
- 49.
Wilhelm Hübbe-Schleiden, “Röntgen’s Magic Photography,” in The Theosophist 17 (1896): 358.
- 50.
These authors have all been introduced except Leadbeater, who was a priest in the Anglican Church of England, but left to join the Theosophical Society in 1883. He resigned from the Society in 1906 after a sex scandal involving young boys, but was later reinstated after Besant became president.
- 51.
Charles Barlet, “Essai de Chimie Synthétique” in L’Initiation 17 (1892): 1 (emphasis in original).
- 52.
Ibid., 4.
- 53.
Ibid., 30.
- 54.
Ibid., 34 (emphasis in original).
- 55.
Ibid., 35 (emphasis in original). Peter Tait (1831–1901) was a Scottish physicist, who co-authored The Unseen Universe in collaboration with Balfour Stewart (1828–1887), another Scottish physicist, in 1875.
- 56.
Ibid., 35. The term Aeon in scientific terms is a very long unit of time or era; for these religious trailblazers it refers to an eternal power or correlates to a supreme being.
- 57.
The full title is Occult Chemistry: A Series of Clairvoyant Observations on the Chemical Elements (London: Theosophical Publishing Society, 1908). Besant and Leadbeater are credited as the book’s authors, but the text cites the critical input of Jinarajadasa.
- 58.
Several books have been written on Crookes’ career and influence, the most recent of which is W. H. Brock, William Crookes (1832–1919) and the Commercialization of Science (Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2008). An earlier work of interest is Trevor H. Hall, The Spiritualists: The Story of Florence Cook and William Crookes (New York: Helix Press, 1963).
- 59.
Besant, Occult Chemistry, i. The appendix is at the back of the book and begins and continues pagination in Roman numerals.
- 60.
Ibid., ii (emphasis in original, koilon is my emphasis).
- 61.
The idea of an “ultimate atom” sounds remarkably similar to Goethe’s notion of the Urphänomen, or Urpflanze, which Boyle describes as “primal plant,” that “exemplified in nature the basic pattern of plant growth” in Goethe: The Poet and the Age, vol. 1, The Poetry of Desire (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991), 472; for more on Goethe’s concept, see Astrida Orle Tantillo’s The Will to Create: Goethe’s Philosophy of Nature (Pittsburgh: Pittsburgh University Press, 2002), 64-ff.
- 62.
Besant, Occult Chemistry, ii.
- 63.
Ibid., iv (my emphasis).
- 64.
Ibid., v.
- 65.
Ibid., v.
- 66.
Credit goes to one of the anonymous reviewers who underscored this point by citing Aristotle’s experiments with the falling speed and mass of falling objects, which was later proven false by Galileo. To do so, Galileo dropped differently weighted balls from the Tower of Pisa, all which landed simultaneously. See Michael Sharratt, Galileo. Decisive Innovator (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996) for more background.
- 67.
Besant, Occult Chemistry, viii.
- 68.
Lodge’s short text was first published in 1907. A reprint is available: The Density of Æther: From the Philosophical Magazine for April 1907 (Boston: Adamant Media Corporation, 2007), ix.
- 69.
This section of the book is a reprinted version of an entry in the theosophical journal, Lucifer , from November 1895.
- 70.
Besant, Occult Chemistry, xii.
- 71.
Ibid., xii.
- 72.
Ibid., xix.
- 73.
For further reading on Ostwald and Monism, see Erika Krauße, “Wissenschaftliche Weltauffassung – wissenschaftliche Weltgestaltung – Wissenschaftsreligion. Wilhelm Ostwald (1853–1932) und der Monistenbund,” in Mitteilungen der Wilhelm-Ostwald Gessellschaft 2 (1997): 42–64; Wilhelm Ostwald at the Crossroads of Chemistry, Philosophy and Media Culture, eds. Britta Görs, Nikos Psarros, and Paul Ziche (Leipzig: Leipziger Universitätsverlag, 2005); and Paul Ziche, “Wilhelm Ostwalds Monismus: Weltversicherung und Horizonteröffnung,” in Jahrbuch für Europäische Wissenschaftskultur (2007), 117–134, which provides an excellent depiction of Max Weber’s criticism of “energetische Kulturtheorien” and also Andreas Braune, Fortschritt als Ideologie: Wilhelm Ostwald und der Monismus (Leipzig: Leipziger Uni Verlag, 2009).
- 74.
Ostwald, Die Energie (Leipzig: Verlag von Johann Ambrosius Barth, 1908), 13. Ostwald uses the term Energetik as a concept for his ideas on energy.
- 75.
Ostwald, Die Energie, 88.
- 76.
Ibid., 88.
- 77.
Ibid., 94.
- 78.
Robert Mayer (1814–1878) was a German scientist, who is best known for his work in thermodynamics. See Kenneth L. Caneva, Robert Mayer and the Conservation of Energy (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993).
- 79.
Ibid., 96.
- 80.
Ibid., 127.
- 81.
Ibid., 121.
- 82.
Ibid., 134.
- 83.
Geist or geistig in German have various related, but highly nuanced, differences. The term can refer to the spiritual, but also to cognitive, processes. Cosmopolitan religious pioneers tended to incorporate both the spiritual and cognitive into their use of the term, which emulated their precept that the physical and spiritual domains must be unified.
- 84.
Ibid., 130.
- 85.
Ibid., 143.
- 86.
Ibid., 144. Here Ostwald was referring to the chemical energy processes that he reviewed in previous chapters and viewed as a driving and guiding force unaccounted for in the physical world.
- 87.
Ibid., 144 (emphasis in original with enlarged font).
- 88.
Ibid., 145.
- 89.
Ibid., 154–55.
- 90.
Ibid., 147.
- 91.
Ziche, “Wilhelm Ostwalds Monismus,” 120.
- 92.
Ostwald, Die Energie, 156.
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Myers, P. (2021). The Progress of Evolution and Spiritual Science. In: Spiritual Empires in Europe and India. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-81003-0_3
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