Alfred Schuler, by Wikipedia
Posted: Tue Mar 06, 2018 2:35 am
Alfred Schuler
by Wikipedia
Accessed: 3/5/18
NOTICE: THIS WORK MAY BE PROTECTED BY COPYRIGHT
Alfred Schuler (1902)
Alfred Schuler (* 22 November 1865 in Mainz; † 8 April 1923 in Munich) was a religious founder, a gnostic, a mystic and a visionary. Franz Wegener has called Schuler the last of the German Cathars. Schuler saw himself as a reborn Roman of the late imperial era. Also a neopagan, he was the spiritual focus of the "Munich Cosmic Circle", and made a broad impact without ever publishing a book during his lifetime. Stefan George and Ludwig Klages were, amongst others, significantly influenced by him.
Schuler studied Archaeology (and Law) in Munich but came to see archaeologists as "desecrators of graves ripping out of the earth what has been sanctified by the rite of burial, and confining to the unwholesome air of museums the lustrous force rightly working its mighty influence under the cover of darkness". After his studies Schuler made his living as an 'independent scholar' in Munich. He held his own "rebirth into an unpleasant epoch" to be the responsibility of an evil demon. Schuler died during an operation meant to remove a malignant tumour.
"Blood Beacon" and "Cosmic Circle"
"Münchener Kosmiker": Wolfskehl, Schuler, Klages, George, Verwey. Photograph by Karl Bauer
At the turn of the nineteenth century the Munich borough of Schwabing became the center of certain anti-bourgeois forces tending towards an interest in the 'occult', among which were found the secretive cult of the 'Blutleuchte' ("Blood beacon"). An occult circle (Munich Cosmic Circle) gravitating around Karl Wolfskehl, Alfred Schuler and Ludwig Klages developed a doctrine according to which the Occident was plagued by downfall and degeneration, caused by the rationalizing and demythologizing effects of Christianity, held to be responsible for the betrayal of life's primary forces. A way out of this desolate state could, according to the "Cosmic" view, only be found by a return to the pagan origins. No exact common ground did however exist, as to what this "homecoming" would entail.
Alfred Schuler and Ludwig Klages came to know each other in 1893.[1] They were, above all others, the leading personalities of the "Blutleuchte" and, with a few other 'initiates' such as Ludwig Derleth and the poet Karl Wolfskehl, the founders of this "occult circle". The first contact with Stefan George was established through Wolfskehl.
As clearly signalled by the name - "Blutleuchte" - "Blood" and "Light" were to play an important role. With the historical "degeneration of the blood", held to be a sacred life elixir and a metaphysical substrate of souls, "truthful" life was seen as sinking into an ever more weakened state. And thus it was found to be necessary to lead this conception of the blood up to its former state of light and power, as it was thought to have been in heathen times thousands of years ago, and to some degree in antiquity. In the sign of the "Blood Beacon" and the swastika, its incarnate emblem, a healthy state of life were to be regained.
From a chosen few, among which they imagined themselves to be and in which the "untainted blood" was supposed to be still working its healthy influence, a reversal was thought to be possible. By the work of these chosen few, the "incarnation of the undying spark of a distant past" (L. Klages), the founding energies of the "cosmic solstice" were to be rekindled. The occult practices of the Blutleuchte was supposed to be a symbiosis of heathendom and "lordly leadership" in the service of a wayward humanity in need of a fundamental rebirth.
Influence
The influence of the "Cosmic Circle" on Stefan George and his entourage is apparent by his use of the swastika in some of his publications, such as the Blätter für die Kunst. The "cosmic" influence can also be traced in the article "The Seventh Circle" and in his later work. As there was, however, in 1904, a rupture between George and the Schuler circle, its overt influence was intermittent.
From about the turn of the century Schuler kept in touch with occultists such as Henri Papus, and later took part in spiritualist séances directed by Albert von Schrenck-Notzing. Schuler also held a large number of lectures on "ancient heathen mysteries"; and in the "salon" of Elsa Bruckmann a series of speeches (from 1915 to 1923) on the subject of "the eternal city". Rainer Maria Rilke is known to have been present during Schuler's speeches.
The research into Schuler's life has been predominantly concerned with the memetic influence he may have exerted upon certain progenitors of German National Socialism, spurred by his anti-Judaism, his distinct employment of the swastika and, above all, by Robert Boehringer's thesis that Adolf Hitler may have met Schuler in the "salon Bruckmann". Despite his anti-Semitism, Schuler was however neither a National Socialist nor a member of any political party and it may seem likely that he would have found the active, public agitation of a politician to be a sacrilege against his gnostic beliefs.
He is also known to have criticized the "nationalist tumour", and the "Hitler group" as representing the "drunken torchlight of death, leading people into the slaughterhouse".[2]
In later years Schuler has become the subject of some interest as a poet in his own right and as a forerunner of certain experimental practices of modernist literature.
References
1. They also knew the "Bohemian Countess" of Schwabing, Fanny zu Reventlow, who was Klages' lover for a period.
2. Franz Wegener, Alfred Schuler, der letzte Deutsche katharer, p.58
Literature
• Alfred Schuler: Dichtungen. München 1930.
• Alfred Schuler: Fragmente und Vorträge aus dem Nachlass. Mit Einführung von Ludwig Klages. Leipzig 1940.
• Alfred Schuler: Gesammelte Werke. Herausgegeben, kommentiert und eingeleitet von Baal Müller. München, Telesma-Verlag, 2007. ISBN 978-3-9810057-4-5
Secondary literature[edit]
• Wolfgang Frommel, Marita Keilson Lauritz, Karl Heinz Schuler: Alfred Schuler. Drei Annäherungen; Amsterdam 1985.
• Baal Müller (ed.): Alfred Schuler. Der letzte Römer. Neue Beiträge zur Münchner Kosmik: Reventlow, Schuler, Wolfskehl u.a. Castrum Peregrini Presse, Bonn 2000. ISSN 0008-7556
• Michael Pauen: Einheit und Ausgrenzung. Antisemitischer Neopaganismus bei Ludwig Klages und Alfred Schuler. In: Renate Heuer, Ralph-Rainer Wuthenow, Konfrontation und Koexistenz. Zur Geschichte des deutschen Judentums. Frankfurt New York 1996 p. 242-269.
• Michael Pauen: Alfred Schuler: Heidentum und Heilsgeschichte. In: Castrum Peregrini 42 (1993) p. 21-54.
• Gerhard Plumpe: Alfred Schuler. Chaos und Neubeginn. Zur Funktion des Mythos in der Moderne. Berlin 1978
• Franz Wegener: Alfred Schuler, der letzte deutsche Katharer. Gnosis, Nationalsozialismus und mystische Blutleuchte (2003) ISBN 3-931300-11-0
• Baal Müller: Kosmik. Prozeßontologie und temporale Poetik bei Ludwig Klages und Alfred Schuler: Zur Philosophie und Dichtung der Schwabinger Kosmischen Runde. München: Telesma-Verlag 2007 ISBN 978-3-9810057-3-8
by Wikipedia
Accessed: 3/5/18
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Alfred Schuler (1902)
Alfred Schuler (* 22 November 1865 in Mainz; † 8 April 1923 in Munich) was a religious founder, a gnostic, a mystic and a visionary. Franz Wegener has called Schuler the last of the German Cathars. Schuler saw himself as a reborn Roman of the late imperial era. Also a neopagan, he was the spiritual focus of the "Munich Cosmic Circle", and made a broad impact without ever publishing a book during his lifetime. Stefan George and Ludwig Klages were, amongst others, significantly influenced by him.
Der junge Alfred Schuler; copyright dla; Ornamentfoto oben: Pompeij, copyright 2002 fw
Schuler studied Archaeology (and Law) in Munich but came to see archaeologists as "desecrators of graves ripping out of the earth what has been sanctified by the rite of burial, and confining to the unwholesome air of museums the lustrous force rightly working its mighty influence under the cover of darkness". After his studies Schuler made his living as an 'independent scholar' in Munich. He held his own "rebirth into an unpleasant epoch" to be the responsibility of an evil demon. Schuler died during an operation meant to remove a malignant tumour.
Alfred Schuler auf dem Totenbett; Foto: Hanns Holdt, copyright dla
"Blood Beacon" and "Cosmic Circle"
"Münchener Kosmiker": Wolfskehl, Schuler, Klages, George, Verwey. Photograph by Karl Bauer
At the turn of the nineteenth century the Munich borough of Schwabing became the center of certain anti-bourgeois forces tending towards an interest in the 'occult', among which were found the secretive cult of the 'Blutleuchte' ("Blood beacon"). An occult circle (Munich Cosmic Circle) gravitating around Karl Wolfskehl, Alfred Schuler and Ludwig Klages developed a doctrine according to which the Occident was plagued by downfall and degeneration, caused by the rationalizing and demythologizing effects of Christianity, held to be responsible for the betrayal of life's primary forces. A way out of this desolate state could, according to the "Cosmic" view, only be found by a return to the pagan origins. No exact common ground did however exist, as to what this "homecoming" would entail.
Alfred Schuler und Ludwig Klages; copyright dla
Alfred Schuler and Ludwig Klages came to know each other in 1893.[1] They were, above all others, the leading personalities of the "Blutleuchte" and, with a few other 'initiates' such as Ludwig Derleth and the poet Karl Wolfskehl, the founders of this "occult circle". The first contact with Stefan George was established through Wolfskehl.
As clearly signalled by the name - "Blutleuchte" - "Blood" and "Light" were to play an important role. With the historical "degeneration of the blood", held to be a sacred life elixir and a metaphysical substrate of souls, "truthful" life was seen as sinking into an ever more weakened state. And thus it was found to be necessary to lead this conception of the blood up to its former state of light and power, as it was thought to have been in heathen times thousands of years ago, and to some degree in antiquity. In the sign of the "Blood Beacon" and the swastika, its incarnate emblem, a healthy state of life were to be regained.
From a chosen few, among which they imagined themselves to be and in which the "untainted blood" was supposed to be still working its healthy influence, a reversal was thought to be possible. By the work of these chosen few, the "incarnation of the undying spark of a distant past" (L. Klages), the founding energies of the "cosmic solstice" were to be rekindled. The occult practices of the Blutleuchte was supposed to be a symbiosis of heathendom and "lordly leadership" in the service of a wayward humanity in need of a fundamental rebirth.
Influence
The influence of the "Cosmic Circle" on Stefan George and his entourage is apparent by his use of the swastika in some of his publications, such as the Blätter für die Kunst. The "cosmic" influence can also be traced in the article "The Seventh Circle" and in his later work. As there was, however, in 1904, a rupture between George and the Schuler circle, its overt influence was intermittent.
From about the turn of the century Schuler kept in touch with occultists such as Henri Papus, and later took part in spiritualist séances directed by Albert von Schrenck-Notzing. Schuler also held a large number of lectures on "ancient heathen mysteries"; and in the "salon" of Elsa Bruckmann a series of speeches (from 1915 to 1923) on the subject of "the eternal city". Rainer Maria Rilke is known to have been present during Schuler's speeches.
The research into Schuler's life has been predominantly concerned with the memetic influence he may have exerted upon certain progenitors of German National Socialism, spurred by his anti-Judaism, his distinct employment of the swastika and, above all, by Robert Boehringer's thesis that Adolf Hitler may have met Schuler in the "salon Bruckmann". Despite his anti-Semitism, Schuler was however neither a National Socialist nor a member of any political party and it may seem likely that he would have found the active, public agitation of a politician to be a sacrilege against his gnostic beliefs.
Most important, the central doctrine of nazism, that the Jew was evil and had to be exterminated, had its origin in the Gnostic position that there were two worlds, one good and one evil, one dark and one light, one materialistic and one spiritual.... The mystical teachings of Guido von List, Lanz von Liebenfels, and Rudolf von Sebottendorff were modern restatements of Gnosticism.
When the apocalyptic promise of Christ's resurrection was broken, the Gnostics sought to return men to God by another route, more Oriental than Hellenist. They devised a dualistic cosmology to set against the teachings of the early Christian Church, which, they claimed, were only common deceptions, unsuited for the wise. The truth was esoteric. Only the properly initiated could appreciate it. It belonged to a secret tradition which had come down through certain mystery schools. The truth was, God could never become man. There were two separate realms -- one spiritual, the other material. The spiritual realm, created by God, was all good; the material realm, created by the demiurge, all evil. Man needed to be saved, not from Original Sin, but from enslavement to matter. For this, he had to learn the mystical arts. Thus Gnosticism became a source for the occult tradition.
A famous medieval Gnostic sect, the Cathars, came to identify the Old Testament god, Jehovah, with the demiurge, the creator of the material world and therefore the equivalent of Satan. Within Gnosticism, then, existed the idea that the Jewish god was really the devil, responsible for all the evil in the world. He was opposed to the New Testament God. The Cathars tried to eliminate the Old Testament from Church theology and condemned Judaism as a work of Satan's, whose aim was to tempt men away from the spirit. Jehovah, they said, was the god of an earth "waste and void," with darkness "upon the face of the deep." Was he not cruel and capricious? They quoted Scripture to prove it. The New Testament God, on the other hand, was light. He declared that "there is neither male nor female," for everyone was united in Christ. These two gods, obviously, had nothing in common.
The synagogue was regarded as profane by Christians. The Cathars -- themselves considered heretical by the Church -- castigated Catholics for refusing to purge themselves of Jewish sources; Church members often blamed the [Cathar] Christian heresy on Jewish mysticism, which was considered an inspiration for Gnostic sorcery.
But Gnostic cosmology, though officially branded "false," pervaded the thinking of the Church. The Jews were widely thought to be magicians. It was believed that they could cause rain, and when there was a drought, they were encouraged to do so. Despite the displeasure of the Roman Popes, Christians, when they were in straitened circumstances, practiced Jewish customs, even frequenting synagogues.
This sheds light on an otherwise incomprehensible recurring theme within Nazi literature, as, for example, "The Earth-Centered Jew Lacks a Soul," by one of the chief architects of Nazi dogma, Alfred Rosenberg, who held that whereas other people believe in a Hereafter and in immortality, the Jew affirms the world and will not allow it to perish. The Gnostic secret is that the spirit is trapped in matter, and to free it, the world must be rejected. Thus, in his total lack of world-denial, the Jew is snuffing out the inner light, and preventing the millennium:
Where the idea of the immortal dwells, the longing for the journey or the withdrawal from temporality must always emerge again; hence, a denial of the world will always reappear. And this is the meaning of the non-Jewish peoples: they are the custodians of world-negation, of the idea of the Hereafter, even if they maintain it in the poorest way. Hence, one or another of them can quietly go under, but what really matters lives on in their descendants. If, however, the Jewish people were to perish, no nation would be left which would hold world-affirmation in high esteem -- the end of all time would be here.
... the Jew, the only consistent and consequently the only viable yea-sayer to the world, must be found wherever other men bear in themselves ... a compulsion to overcome the world.... On the other hand, if the Jew were continually to stifle us, we would never be able to fulfill our mission, which is the salvation of the world, but would, to be frank, succumb to insanity, for pure world-affirmation, the unrestrained will for a vain existence, leads to no other goal. It would literally lead to a void, to the destruction not only of the illusory earthly world but also of the truly existent, the spiritual. Considered in himself the Jew represents nothing else but this blind will for destruction, the insanity of mankind. It is known that Jewish people are especially prone to mental disease. "Dominated by delusions," said Schopenhauer about the Jew.
... To strip the world of its soul, that and nothing else is what Judaism wants. This, however, would be tantamount to the world's destruction.
This remarkable statement, seemingly the rantings of a lunatic, expresses the Gnostic theme that the spirit of man, essentially divine, is imprisoned in an evil world. The way out of this world is through rejection of it. But the Jew alone stands in the way. Behind all the talk about "the earth-centered Jew" who "lacks a soul"; about the demonic Jew who will despoil the Aryan maiden; about the cabalistic work of the devil in Jewish finance; about the sinister revolutionary Jewish plot to take over the world and cause the decline of civilization, there is the shadow of ancient Gnosticism.
-- Gods & Beasts: The Nazis & the Occult, by Dusty Sklar
He is also known to have criticized the "nationalist tumour", and the "Hitler group" as representing the "drunken torchlight of death, leading people into the slaughterhouse".[2]
In later years Schuler has become the subject of some interest as a poet in his own right and as a forerunner of certain experimental practices of modernist literature.
References
1. They also knew the "Bohemian Countess" of Schwabing, Fanny zu Reventlow, who was Klages' lover for a period.
2. Franz Wegener, Alfred Schuler, der letzte Deutsche katharer, p.58
Literature
• Alfred Schuler: Dichtungen. München 1930.
• Alfred Schuler: Fragmente und Vorträge aus dem Nachlass. Mit Einführung von Ludwig Klages. Leipzig 1940.
• Alfred Schuler: Gesammelte Werke. Herausgegeben, kommentiert und eingeleitet von Baal Müller. München, Telesma-Verlag, 2007. ISBN 978-3-9810057-4-5
Secondary literature[edit]
• Wolfgang Frommel, Marita Keilson Lauritz, Karl Heinz Schuler: Alfred Schuler. Drei Annäherungen; Amsterdam 1985.
• Baal Müller (ed.): Alfred Schuler. Der letzte Römer. Neue Beiträge zur Münchner Kosmik: Reventlow, Schuler, Wolfskehl u.a. Castrum Peregrini Presse, Bonn 2000. ISSN 0008-7556
• Michael Pauen: Einheit und Ausgrenzung. Antisemitischer Neopaganismus bei Ludwig Klages und Alfred Schuler. In: Renate Heuer, Ralph-Rainer Wuthenow, Konfrontation und Koexistenz. Zur Geschichte des deutschen Judentums. Frankfurt New York 1996 p. 242-269.
• Michael Pauen: Alfred Schuler: Heidentum und Heilsgeschichte. In: Castrum Peregrini 42 (1993) p. 21-54.
• Gerhard Plumpe: Alfred Schuler. Chaos und Neubeginn. Zur Funktion des Mythos in der Moderne. Berlin 1978
• Franz Wegener: Alfred Schuler, der letzte deutsche Katharer. Gnosis, Nationalsozialismus und mystische Blutleuchte (2003) ISBN 3-931300-11-0
• Baal Müller: Kosmik. Prozeßontologie und temporale Poetik bei Ludwig Klages und Alfred Schuler: Zur Philosophie und Dichtung der Schwabinger Kosmischen Runde. München: Telesma-Verlag 2007 ISBN 978-3-9810057-3-8