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Michael Maier

 
Occultism & Parapsychology Encyclopedia: Michael Maier
 
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(ca. 1568-1622)

German alchemist, born at Rensburg in Holstein. He was one of the principal figures in the seventeenth-century Rosicrucian controversy in Germany and the greatest adept of his time. He diligently pursued the study of medicine in his youth, then practiced at Rostock with such success that Emperor Rudolph II appointed him as his physician.

Some adepts eventually succeeded in luring him from the practical work he followed into the complex and tortuous paths of alchemy. In order to confer with those who he believed possessed the transcendent mysteries, he traveled all over Germany. The Biographie Universelle states that in pursuit of these "ruinous absurdities" he sacrificed his health, fortune, and time. On a visit to England he became acquainted with Robert Fludd, the Kentish mystic.

In the controversy that convulsed Germany on the appearance of his Rosicrucian manifestos in the early 1600s, he took a vigorous and enthusiastic share and wrote several works in defense of the mysterious society. He is alleged to have traveled in order to seek members of the "College of Teutonic Philosophers R.C.," and, failing to find them, formed a brotherhood of his own, based on the form of the Fama Fraternibus. There is no adequate authority to support the opinion held by some that toward the end of his life he was initiated into the genuine order (there being serious doubt that any such genuine order ever existed).

A posthumous pamphlet of Maier's called Ulysses was published by one of his personal friends in 1624. There was added to the same volume the substance of two pamphlets already published in German but which, in view of their importance, were translated into Latin for the benefit of the European literati.

The first pamphlet was entitled Colloquium Rhodostauroticum trium personarium per Famem et Confessionem quodamodo revelatam de Fraternitate Rosoe Crucis. The second was an Echo Colloquii by Hilarion on behalf of the Rosicrucian Fraternity. From these pamphlets it appears that Maier considered himself a member of the mystical order.

He became the most profuse writer on alchemy of his time. Most of his works, many of which are adorned with curious plates, are obscure with the exception of his Rosicrucian Apologies.

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Wikipedia: Michael Maier
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Michael Maier (1568–1622) was a German physician, a counsellor to Rudolf II Habsburg and a learned alchemist.

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Biography

Maier was born in Rendsburg, Holstein, in 1568. He studied philosophy and medicine at Rostock (1587), Frankfurt (Oder) (M.A. 1592), and Padua. He attained in 1596 a doctorate in medicine at Basel, and returned to Rostock to practice the medical profession. He also briefly (c. 1601) practised in Konigsberg and Danzig. Around this time he became interested in alchemy. In 1608 he went to Prague, and in 1609 became the physician and imperial counsellor of Rudolf II. The interest of the emperor in the occult was the reason of his high esteem for Maier. Maier wrote commentary on Hermes Trismegistus and was dedicated, along with the emperor, to researching the secrets of nature.

Emblem woodcut from Atalanta fugiens, 1617

Between 1611 and 1616, Maier spent time in England at the court of James I, and also served other German princes, particularly the prince of Nassau, a great protector of alchemy. His Atalanta fugiens, an alchemical emblem book, was published in 1617; alongside images, poems, and discussion, it included fifty pieces of music. In 1619 he became the physician of Landgrave Moritz of Hesse-Kassel (or Hesse-Cassel). In 1620 he moved to Magdeburg to practice medicine, where he died in 1622 at the age of 54, leaving a noteworthy quantity of unpublished works.

A devout Lutheran all his life, Michael Maier had a strong influence on Sir Isaac Newton. He was also involved in the Rosicrucian movement that appeared around this time, which afforded part of the matter of his Themis aurea.[1]

Influence

The 1656 English translation of Themis Aurea: Themis Aurea: The Laws of the Fraternity of the Rosie Cross was dedicated to Elias Ashmole.[2] Under the initials N.L.T.S. and H.S. the dedicators justified their dedication over three pages. Ashmole, they said, began to learn seal engraving, casting in sand, and goldsmith's work when living in Blackfriars, London, at which time he was initiated into rosicrucian "secrets" by William Backhouse of Swallowfield in Berkshire.[3] While illustrating the chain of Rosie Cross links from Michael Maier and Robert Fludd, over William Backhouse to Elias Ashmole the details given about Ashmole's training as a craftsman could illustrate the background of the latter's acception in operative masonry.

Maier's Septimana Philosophica: Qua Aenigmata Aureola de omni Naturae genere a Solomone Israelitarum Sapientissimo Rege, et Arabiae Regina Saba, nec non Hyramo, Tyri Principe, sibi invicem in modum Colloquii proponuntur et enodatur -Francfurti Typis Hartmanni Palthenii 1620[4] has Salomon, Sheba, and Hiram of Tyre discuss on the secrets of the universe. Over six days of the week -the seventh being Sabbath day- they investigate the nature of the universe from mineral to man. Under Vegetable Life the Rose is described. White and Red, the colours for Silver and Gold: "The center of the Rose is green- an emblem of the green Lion which philosophers know well."[5] The conference on man is illustrated with a print representing a globe in a frame, supported on the one side by a masculine figure with a compass, on the other by a skeleton holding a vase with smoking contents.[6]

The reverend J.B.Craven who gave detailed descriptions of the works above in his catalogue raissonée (1910) of Michael Maier also included the 1654 English translation of Lusus Serius: or, Serious Passtime. A Philosophical Discourse ...wherein Hermes or Mercury is declared King of all Wordly things. The copy from the Bodleian Library described by Craven[7] was dedicated "To the Honourable Cary Dillon, Esq., Son (sic) to Robert, late Earle of Roscommon by J. de la Salle". This is a fair example of the intellectual circle in which Maier's work circulated contemporary with the association of Rosie Cross with Elias Ashmole.

What J.B. Craven described as "one of the most curious and rare of Maier's books" he knew only in a 1758 French translation[8] Michael Maieri Cantilenae Intelectuales de Phoenice Redivivo; ou Chansons Intelectuelles sur la resurection Du Phenix...traduites...par M.L.L.M.. The original was first printed in Rome 1622, the translation is from the 1623 print at Rostock.

  • "The title promises much- "Nine Triads of Intellectual Songs on the Resurrection of the Phoenix: or the most precious of all medicines, the Mirror and abridgement of this Universe, proposed less to the ear than to the mind, and presented to the wise as the key of the three impenetrable Secrets of Chemistry."
The plan of the squared Triads:-
1.The names.
2.The allegories.
3.The application of the Mysteries of the Art to those of Religion.
The volume is dedicated to Frederick, Prince of Norway."
J.B.Craven in Count Michael Maier - Life and Writings Kirkwall 1910

Notes

  1. ^ Hereward Tilton, The Quest for the Phoenix: Spiritual Alchemy and Rosicrucianism in the Work of Count Michael Maier (1569-1622 (de Gruyter) 2003:30ff "Spiritual alchemy, Rosicrucianism and the work of Count Michael Maier".
  2. ^ The Rev.J.B.Craven, D.D. Count Michael Maier - Life and Writings Kirkwall, 1910 reprinted Photolithography Unwin Brothers 1968 SBN 7129 0335 6 pg 98
  3. ^ Craven, 1910 pg 99
  4. ^ Craven, 1910 pg 132
  5. ^ Craven 1910, pg 136
  6. ^ Craven 1910, pg 138
  7. ^ Craven, 1910 pg 53
  8. ^ Craven, 1910 pg 146. The work (1758) is in Latin and French, in parallel pages.

References

  • Paul Arnold, Histoire des Rose-Croix, Mercure de France, Paris, 1955.
  • James B. Craven, Count Michael Maier, doctor of philosophy and of medicine, alchemist, Rosicrucian, mystic 1568-1622: life and writings, Berwick: Ibis Press, 2003. ISBN 0892540834
  • H.M.E. de Jong, Michael Maier's Atalanta Fugiens: Sources of an Alchemical Book of Emblems, York Beach: Nicolas-Hays, 2002. ISBN 0877289484
  • John Warwick Montgomery, "Lutheran Astrology and Alchemy in the Age of the Reformation," Ambix: The Journal of the Society for the Study of Alchemy and Early Chemistry, Vol. 11 (June 1963), pp. 65-86.
  • Hereward Tilton, "The Life and Work of Count Michael Maier (1569-1622): Understanding Christian Alchemy in the German Calvinist States," Theology and Religion, Vol. 1 (1999), pp. 23-42.
  • The Rev. J.B.Craven, D.D. Rector of St Olaf's Church, Kirkwall, Count Michael Maier, Doctor of Philosophy and Of Medecine, Alchimist, Rosicrucian, Mystic -1568-1622- Life and Writings William Peace & Son, Albert Street Kirkwall, 1910 -reprinted 1968, Dawsons of Pall Mall SBN 7129 0335 6

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