Hermann Beckh

This newly-edited collection of 72 essays provides a unique overview of Hermann Beckh’s notable – and largely overlooked – writing career. Whether in the realm of theology, philosophy, the arts, astrology or esoterica, the articles gathered here, mostly previously unpublished in English, are rare signposts to a Christian initiation grounded in the Rosicrucian tradition and the path of St John’s Gospel. Presented in chronological sequence over a 16 year period – from 1922 to 1938 – and supplemented with biographical notes and introductory material by Neil Franklin and Alan Stott, this volume provides firm ground for a fuller appreciation of Beckh’s prolific output. Hermann Beckh, Ph.D., one of Europe’s few authorities on Tibetan texts, became a founding member of The Christian Community and an inspiring teacher in the Stuttgart Seminary. Collected Articles is a powerful culmination to his Collected Works in English translation. This body of work is a major source of contemporary spiritual research, providing a vital accompaniment to the better-known contributions by Friedrich Rittelmeyer, Emil Bock and Rudolf Frieling, all of whom – not without some reverential awe – expressed their admiration for their esteemed colleague, ‘the Professor’.

Including Posthumous Publications

Collected Articles, 1922-1938

Dieser Buchtitel ist Teil des Digitalisierungsprojekts Springer Book Archives mit Publikationen, die seit den Anfängen des Verlags von 1842 erschienen sind. Der Verlag stellt mit diesem Archiv Quellen für die historische wie auch die disziplingeschichtliche Forschung zur Verfügung, die jeweils im historischen Kontext betrachtet werden müssen. Dieser Titel erschien in der Zeit vor 1945 und wird daher in seiner zeittypischen politisch-ideologischen Ausrichtung vom Verlag nicht beworben.

Verzeichnis der Tibetischen Handschriften der Königlichen Bibliothek zu Berlin

Hermann Beckh’s masterful study of Mark’s Gospel offers much more than scholarly argument. It is the work of a true visionary who allows his readers to discover the meaning of the Earth and of humanity for themselves. Beckh was in the forefront of entirely new research and recovery of the Gospel, writing more for the future than for his own time. It is not uncommon for biblical scholars to view St. Mark’s Gospel as little more than an assemblage of fragmentary sources and a copy of uncertain, early memories. The Gospel is said to have little historical veracity, harmony or guiding structure. Beckh’s contemporary, the German writer Arthur Drews, even argued that the text was nothing more than a simplistic solar myth, wherein another Sun-hero pursued his way around the Greco-Roman constellations. Mark’s Gospel: The Cosmic Rhythm is a response to such twentieth-century materialistic thinking. He was asked to write the book in the 1920s by the leaders of The Christian Community, who sought to rescue the desecrated Gospel from its opponents. Inspired by Rudolf Steiner and a vast knowledge of ancient languages – Tibetan, Sanskrit, Pali and Avestan along with Hebrew, Greek and Latin – the Rev. Professor Hermann Beckh perceived how the Gospel reflects God’s Everlasting Covenant, and meticulously expressed its aesthetic unity, the consonance of its parts and its consequent radiant clarity. His far-reaching understanding of sacred texts in the original languages, always associated with the disciplined meditation he had attained from anthroposophy, led to unprecedented insight. This new edition of his classic study has been revised and redesigned.

The Cosmic Rhythm

Mark's Gospel

The alchemical tradition of understanding and working with substances to perfect or purify them is given a new perspective in this fascinating history.Beckh draws on his extensive knowledge of eastern religion, weaving it into Christian spirituality to present a unique overview of alchemy. The beginning and the end of the Bible are grounded in visionary pictures which draw out the nature and meaning of substance. In a great sweep from the primal matter of creation, to the precious stones of the New Jerusalem, Beckh explores the essence of substance.This is the first time that Hermann Beckh's work has been translated into English, making his ideas and insights accessible to a new readership.

The Mystery of Substance from Genesis to Revelation

Alchemy

As a practising Christian priest, Hermann Beckh was profoundly aware that the mystery of substance – its transmutation in the cosmos and the human being – was a mystical fact to be approached with the greatest reverence, requiring at once ever-deepening scholarship and meditation. He viewed chemistry as a worthy but materialistic science devoid of spirit, while the fullness of spiritual-physical nature could be approached by what he preferred to call ‘chymistry’ or ‘alchymy’, thereby taking in millennia of spiritual tradition. In consequence, Beckh’s Alchymy, The Mystery of the Material World is not limited to the conventional workings of Western alchemy, nor to what can be found in the Bible from Genesis to Revelation – although he does unveil hidden riches there. Neither should Beckh be considered only as a learned Professor with impeccable academic qualifications and European-wide recognition. Beckh writes about such topics as ‘Isis’, ‘the Golden Fleece’, traditional fairy-stories and Wagner’s Parsifal in a way that enables the reader to catch glimpses of the Mystery of Substance; to share the writer’s authentic experience of the divine substantia – the living reality – of Christ in the world. Beckh’s Alchymy set an entirely new standard, and went on to become his most popular publication. This is the first time that it has been translated into English, along with updated footnotes, making his ideas and insights accessible to a wide readership. In addition, this edition features translations of Beckh’s ‘The New Jerusalem’, where theology could best be expressed in verse; his exemplary essay on ‘Snow-white’; observations on ‘Allerleirauh’, and a substantial excerpt from Gundhild Kačer-Bock’s biography of Beckh.

The Mystery of the Material World

Alchymy

That there is a living stream of Johannine Christianity can no longer be doubted. There is now an abundant literature from Rosicrucian and esoteric traditions – from the deepest prayer and meditation – that addresses the exalted nature of John the Evangelist as expressed through his Gospel, Letters and the Book of Revelation. Yet it fell to Hermann Beckh to elucidate clearly how the individual known as ‘John’ became the source of such undying love and wisdom in Christ. According to Rudolf Steiner, John was the ailing Lazarus, called from death to a new life as ‘the disciple Jesus loved’. Beckh demonstrates how John’s invaluable writings were based on personal spiritual knowledge and experience, expressing the divine work of the Cosmic Christ on human nature and on the Earth, leading far into the future. Whilst Beckh’s authorship originated within the context of the emerging Christian Community founded in 1922, his profoundly original books could not be confined to its framework. Not only could Beckh tackle original texts in Tibetan, Sanskrit and Avestan, but – through his independent vision – he was able to establish new links with philosophical Alchemy, Jakob Böhme, Goethe, Nietzsche and Novalis. He thereby stands with these figures as a co-worker in a greater community. Having prepared the way with his Mark’s Gospel of 1928, John’s Gospel could be described as the capstone of Beckh’s writings – as a triumphant announcement that theology and the study of John’s Gospel have finally come of age. Appearing here in a freshly revised translation by Alan Stott, the current volume is enhanced by a series of valuable addenda that shed further light on Beckh’s significant achievements.

The Cosmic Rhythm, Stars and Stones

John’s Gospel

Rudolf Frieling

‘Astrology is a concern of the Christ and the work of Michael.’ – Hermann Beckh During the brief window between the two World Wars, the Rev. Prof. Hermann Beckh led research at The Christian Community Seminary in Stuttgart. In those precious years he published on music, the gospels and the ancient Mysteries. By 1930, in his Contributions to the Priests’ Newsletter, he had produced the most far-reaching account of the cosmic order ever written. The typescript of this great work was destined to gather dust in the Berlin Archiv, however, until it was discovered in recent years. Published here for the first time, it is the crowning masterpiece to Beckh’s Collected Works. The translated and annotated text is accompanied by Rudolf Frieling’s in-depth application of Beckh’s principles of the cosmic starry order to the Creed of The Christian Community, and by a number of appreciations and relevant book reviews. Through ever-deepening meditation guided by Rudolf Steiner, and his vast knowledge of Tibetan, Sanskrit, Pali and Avestan sacred texts – scarcely to be equalled in Europe at the time – Beckh came to the first-hand realization that human and cosmic life was ordered. He perceived directly that this cosmic order was: good, as originating from the World-Will; true, as from World-Thinking; and beautiful, as from World-Feeling. All three could be personally experienced in disciplined consciousness that could enter dream, sleep and pre-natal life. This, then, was Beckh’s method and inspiration, as shown in this extraordinary work. ‘The time will come when Beckh’s “Christened” star-knowledge, which signifies a basic overturning of today’s decadent astrology, will be appreciated for its significance.’ – August Pauli

Zodiac and Planets in Relation to the Human Being – The Cosmic Rhythm in the Creed

The Language of the Stars

‘Beckh ventures into provinces that I have not had the opportunity of investigating myself…’ – Rudolf Steiner Lost for decades, the manuscript of Hermann Beckh’s final lectures on the subject of music present fundamentally new insights into its cosmic origins. Beckh characterises the qualities of musical development, examines select musical works (that represent for him the peak of human ingenuity), and throws new light on the nature and source of human creativity and inspiration. Published here for the first time, the lectures demonstrate a distinctive approach founded on the raw material of musical perception. Beckh discusses the whistling wind, the billowing wave, the song of the birds and particularly the theme of longing. Never losing the ground from under his feet, he penetrates perennial themes: from the yearning for real spontaneity and the ‘Mystery background’ uniting heaven and earth, to spiritual knowledge that can meet the demands of the twenty-first century. Out of the cosmic context, Beckh writes to the individual situation. From there, he seeks again the re-won cosmic context. He does not write as a musical specialist and then turn to universal human concerns; rather, Beckh writes from universal human concerns and reveals music as of special concern to everyone. In addition to the transcripts of fifteen lectures, this book contains a valuable introduction and editorial footnotes. It also features appendices including Beckh’s essay ‘The Mystery of the Night in Wagner and Novalis’; reminiscences of Beckh by August Pauli and Harro Rückner; Donald Francis Tovey’s ‘Wagnerian harmony and the evolution of the Tristan-chord’, and several contemporaneous reviews of Beckh’s published works.

Hermann Beckh

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