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Article

Authoress

PP.

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Yeats & "Unknown Superiors"

Marsha Schuchard

114-68

[quoted from WWB 1:24-5 :] William Blake's "contemporary, the miniature painter Cosway, kept a house for the study and practice of magic,and left behind him at his death, a considerable bundle of magical formulae."

"Rabbi de Falk, who came to England in 1780" and was a Qabbalist.

"Chain Chenul Falk or Dr Falcon, who lived in London for over thirty years" and was a Qabbalist.

"Johann Friedrich Falk, "son of the preceding" ..., who came from Hamburg to head a" Qabbalistical College in London "until his death in 1824."

"On 8 December 1888, Gustav Mommsen wrote to Notes and Queries :

Johann F. Falk succeeded to the directorate of a secret society of students ... about 1810, in London ... . Its name was 'Chabrah Zereh aur bokher,' ... as [translitterated] into English.".

"The question was answered by Yeats's friend Wynn Westcott on 9 Feb 1889 :

The order of mystics which gave Eliphaz Le'vi ... his knowledge, and of which Johann Falk was at one time the lecturer in London, is still ... in England. ... there is no distinction between men and women ..., and some knowledge of Hebrew is essential ... . Its true name [viz., the name cited by G. Mommsen?] is only told to initiates, and the few outsiders who have heard of its existence only know of the society as 'The Hermetic Students of the G.[olden] D.[awn].'"

p. 116

"The Dr. Falk who had such an influence on Blake's Swedenborgian circle was Dr. Samuel Jacob Hayim Falk (1710?-1782), who lived in London for over forty years ... . ["B-ShL"]

p. 117

In the last five years of his life, Falk played a significant role ... to develop ... Judaeo-Christian Freemasonry, in which there would be no conversionist pressures. ["NRPBM"] This effort ... involved the development of a new mystical religion which would ... transcend all sectarian divisions."

Late in the 19th century, "many Masonic seekers after {Qabbalistic} and Rosicrucian secrets believed that ... in London ..., in Wellclose Square in the East End ... the real Dr. Falk revealed his celestial arcana to Swedenborg and Cagliostro. From there, it became the most secret teaching of the Swedenborgian Theosophical Society that Blake joined in the 1780's."

(1) S^abbatay-S.bi theosophy infused into high-degree Freemasonry.

(2) "Jacobite usage of Masonic lodges in Europe and Sweden to organize the scattered opposition to England's Hanoverian government."

(3) "philo-Semitic and ecumenical work of the Moravian Brotherhood, whose leader Count Zinzendorf often used London as a base".

p. 120

"In Camena Borea (Griefeswald, 1715), Swedenborg utilized Ovidian fables "under cover of which are concealed all that has been going on in Europe ... ."" [L&MES 1:58]

p. 121

"However, Swedenborg seemed to draw more on Pope's Rape of the Lock (1714), in which Belinda's flirtations concealed a serious message of "magical politics." [MMMP, pp. 181-96] That Pope chose a "machiney" of Rosicrucian nymphs and spirits to express his Jacobite themes is relevant to Swedenborg's poetic strategy."

"Andrew Michael Ramsay, celebrated biographer of Fenelon, ... developed the Masonic "Gormogons" into a mystically-oriented system that competed with the Grand Lodge." (HF 3:129-30)

"Ramsay's strange "madness" probably consisted of his universalist and theosophical views, based on his studies of Jewish mystical traditions, which he hoped to incorporate into new Masonic degrees."

p. 127

"Since his visit to the Jewish ghetto of Prague and his increasing immersion in Hermetic literature, Swedenborg had been experimenting with various telepathic and trance states." (PPE, pp. 58-60)

p. 128

"Swedenborg experimented with ... meditation techniques and he recorded his achievement of some kind of psychic trance while in" Amsterdam (C:H 5:126-67).

p. 131

"York Masonry ... condemned Hanoverian Grand Lodge members as modern schismatics. [PFE, pp. 147-8]

As Ramsay and the Eccosais lodges in France developed the Templar higher degrees, the chivalric symbolism found its way into the York rituals. [M:J, pp. 304-5]

Beswick claimed [SR, p. 63] that the Swedish Masons adopted the York custom that allowed the setting up of independent lodges".

p. 133

"illuminist tradition as brought to London by Carl Nordenskjo,ld, his brother Augustus, and Dr. Gumpertz Levison (a Jewish alchemist)" ["B&S"].

p. 135

Praeparing to invade Britain in 1744, "Russian troops were then stationed in [and allied with] Sweden, under General James Keith (an exiled Scot and veteran of the Swedish-Jacobite plot of 1717), who initiated many of Swedenborg's friends into a specially established Ecossais lodge in Stockholm. Russian Masons called Keith -- their Grand Master -- an "image of the dawn," who regenerated Russian ... spiritual life".

p. 137

"His beloved brother-in-law and intellectual mentor, Eric Benzelius, was a ... friend of Francis Mercurius Van Helmont, co-author of the Kabbala Denudata. Moreover, Benzelius worked for many years with ... Rabbi Johan Kemper, on Zoharic manuscripts ... . ... Kemper was a secret adherent of {S^abbatay S.bi} ... . Benzelius's son-in-law, Anders Norrelius, shared these {Qabbalistic} interests ... . ... In 1720 Norrelius edited Kemper's manuscripts and published a learned treatise on the ... {Qabbalism} of Knorr von Rosenroth's

p. 138

Kabbala Denudata and the S[^]abbatian {Qabbalism} of Kemper and Neh[.]emia H[.]ayon. [PhOFVC] ... Swedenborg's eventual contacts with real Jewish "adepts" came through the medium of another secret society, the Moravian brotherhood (or Herrnhu:ttern), which had its own tradition of "hidden superiors." In 1736, when Swedenborg traveled to Europe ..., he was also accompanied by Arvid Gradin, a Swedish disciple of the Moravians ..., for the European Moravians were a quasi-Masonic fraternity that was generally sympathetic to the Jacobite cause."

p. 138

"In Holland and in England, the Moravian chief Count Zinzendorf ... worked for religious union through the via media of {Qabbalism}. ... In the London society, Zinzendorf had introduced secretive rituals for the elite adepts that prefigured much of the structure and symbolism of Illuminist Freemasonry. ... Hinting further at Zinzendorf's collusion with Freemasons, ... the Count praises the Architect of the World and calls for the laying of the Grand-God's foundations ... in egalitarianism and abolition of class distinctions

p. 139

during the "Great Sifting" period instigated by Zinzendorf in the 1750's. ... In the secretive interior section -- called the German Pilgrim Section or Der Pilger -- Zinzendorf revealed an esoteric doctrine of sexual antinomianism that bore striking resemblance to that of radical S[^]abbatianism ... and many of the bizarre sexual passages in Swedenborg's diaries accurately reflect the behavior of the Pilgrim Section. Throughout Swedenborg's association with the Moravians in London, Zinzendorf was actively seeking contact with S[^]abbatian Jews, in the East End of London ... . In 1757-1758 the Count was stirred by reports from Poland about charismatic S[^]abbatian leader Jacob Frank."

p. 140

"Meanwhile, the main S[^]abbatian representative in England was Dr. Falk, whose ... occult expertise ... would eventually make him ... among late eighteenth-century Masons ... the "Unknown Superior." Falk grew up in Podolia, Poland, an area that ... was a stronghold of S[^]abbatianism. He was influenced by the most radical branch of S[^]abbatianism, taught by Baruchia Russo, which called for ... the change of ... prohibitions of the Torah into positive commands (including all the prohibited sexual unions and incest). ... Falk indulged in these licentious practices ..., leading the Archbishop of Cologne to condemn him to death ... . ... he fled to Amsterdam ... .

... Tessin ... acquired a rare book that portrayed Falk as a Rosicrucian adept and Prince of the Jews. [MCR]... In Rantzau's Me'moires (1741), the Danish count described Falk's ... magical exploits at his father's estate in Brunswick. Falk conjured visions of angels before the astounded onlookers and conversed with the celestial spirits in Hebrew. He discovered buried treasures, created occult talismans, and drew magical circles for arcane rites. ... Among the witnesses of Falk's performances were Baron Donop and his son ... . Rantzau was also friendly with the Swedish Count Lo:wenhaupt, a colleague of Tessin ... . Rantzau revealed that Falk ... made his way to London, where he was welcomed by the Portuguese Jews ... . ... Falk ... maintained intense secrecy, as he developed a S[^]abbatian brotherhood in London. He ... eventually acquired an imposing mansion in ... Wellclose Square, where he kept a private synagogue ... . Falk also maintained ... on London Bridge ... an interior chamber for initiates."

p. 141

"Swedenborg ... moved to the Wellclose Square area, where he achieved the ecstatic trance that transformed him ... into a full-fledged visionary. ... It seems probable that "Emanuel, ... of France," whom Falk mentioned in his commonplace book was Emanuel Swedenborg."

p. 142

"Even in London, the secretive Ecossais ... Master, Pierre Lambert de Lintot, ... drew on Swedenborgian teachings and was later visited by Falk and his prote'ge' Cagliostro"

p. 143

"After a colorful episode as the ... king of Corsica [HMC, pp. 68-172 & 336-61] in 1736, ... Rantzau ... included a eulogy to "King" Theodore along with his account of Falk ... . Now in London, Theodore collaborated with Falk on various treasure-finding and {Qabbalistic} schemes, while continuing to initiate friends into his neo-Masonic "Order of Deliverance." "Theodore was accompanied to Falk's inner chamber, where the master kept his box of mystical manuscripts, by a Dr. Smith" ("K&C"). The physician ... Dr. Smith ... treated Swedenborg for an hallucinatory ... phase".

p. 144

"A Russian actor, Dimitrevsky Narykov, ... On his return to Russia, ... played a leading role in the foundation of a lodge of Swedenborgian Masonry that preserved the tradition of Dr. Falk as an "Unknown Superior.""

p. 145

"the Duke of Chartres -- Grand Master of the Grand Orient in Paris -- visited the {Qabbalist} [Falk] in Wellclose Square circa 1777." ["B-ShL", p. 165]

"the Landgrave sent Simon von Geldern, his "Court Cabbalist," on a Masonic mission to seek Falk's secrets in Wellclose Square." [HHVSG, pp. 44-62]

"During this London visit (his third), Swedenborg also began a secretive association with some actors ... who knew Theodore and were employed by David Garrick (who often performed in the Wellclose Square neighborhood). Jean Monnet, who came from Paris to work for Garrick in 1748-1749, lived with Theodore and later wrote a colorful, fictionalized account of the Jewish Rosicrucian who taught them {Qabbalah} (... Falk). [SRC, 38-54 & 184-226] ... Monnet later recommended to Garrick the French artist Phillipe Jacques de Loutherbourg ... . ... Loutherbourg later painted a series of symbolic illustrations of Cagliostro's Masonic rites, derived from the teachings of Falk and Swedenborg. Monnet also sent to Garrick a French composer and violinist -- Francis H. Barthelemon -- who became a Swedenborgian Freemason and an early member of Blake's Swedenborg Society." ["FB"] ... Richard Cosway would later develop contacts with visiting Russians and Poles ..., as he immersed himself in Swedenborgian, {Qabbalistic}, and Hebrew studies." [CREWRC, 14, 24, 39]

p. 144

"The Marquis de Thome' ... cooperated with J. P. Moe:t in the first French translations of Swedenborg's works. ["SPIA", pp. 2-4 & 103] Both men were high-ranking Freemasons, and Thome' founded a Swedenborgian lodge in Paris in 1773, shortly after the seer's death. ["BC", p. 260] ...

p. 145

In 1783 Thome' visited London, where he played a ... role in the organization of the Swedenborgian Theosophical Society that Cosway joined in 1784 and William Blake some years later."

"In 1771 the Grand Master, Landgrave Ludwig of Hesse-Darmstadt, corresponded with Swedenborg on occult subjects." (L&MES 2:736-53)

p. 145

"in the "Indissoluble Lodge" at The Hague ... Falk was listed as a member of this lodge, and Cagliostro ... used the Dutch lodge as the lauching pad for Falk's system of Egyptian Masonry. Serving as the emissary of the "Great Cophta," whose identity as Falk was kept secret except from elite adepts, Cagliostro planned to visit Swedenborgian

p. 146

lodges in Germany, Poland, and Russia, in order to win them over to the new ... form of Freemasonry. ...

The ... Italian painter Joseph Balsamo arrived in London in 1771 ... . ... After five ... years in Europe, when he learned {Qabbalistic} and alchemical skills, Balsamo returned to London in 1776 as the flamboyant Cagliostro -- ... a prote'ge' of Falk. Cagliostro worked with Falk and Wiliam Bousie ... to develop a new system of "Egyptian" Masonry that would merge Falk's {Qabbalism} and Swedenborg's theosophy into a new Judaeo-Christian rite {wherein the Christian element would derive from the Coptic Church?}. Falk and Cagliostro visited London lodges, including two associated with Lintot's "Rite of Seven Degrees ["R7D"]," and ... Cagliostro set out for The Hague, where Falk had many admirers. [C, pp. 49-71] As the emissary of the Great Cophta, he made a sensation among the Swedenborgian Masons in northern Germany. ...

p. 147

Cagliostro traveled to Poland, where the Freemasons subsequently praised Dr. Falk and Jacob Frank as true {Qabbalists}; to Frankfurt ... to meet the leaders of the ... Illuminati; and to Vienna, where he ... met the Comte Saint-Germain (... now Rosicrucian mentor to Prince Carl of Hesse-Cassel). [MASHCC, pp. 7-13] ...

p. 148

Arriving in Strassbourg, Cagliostro moved into the house of Jean Benoit Scherer, the eminent historian, who had known Swedenborg personally in Sweden and who was considered an expert on Scandinavian Masonry. Scherer's friend, Frederick Rudolph Saltzmann, another admirer of Swedenborg's works, left a valuable record of his conversations with Cagliostro in November-December 1780".

p. 148

"in 1782 the Duke of Brunswick and Prince Carl of Hesse-Cassel organized a Masonic convention at Wilhelmsbad in order ... to bring order and coherence into the Strict Observance. [F-M, pp. 611 sq] ... Savalette de Langes, head of the Philale'thes lodge of research in Paris, preapred a secret briefing notebook for the use of his representative ... :

... This Dr. Falc ... is a most extraordinary man. ... He is practically inaccessible. In all the higher Sects of Adepts in the Occult

p. 149

Sciences he passes as a man of higher attainments. ["SLPhCW", pp. 153-4]

Savalett went on to reveal that Baron von Gleichen, the Danish diplomat, knows Falk; that Waldenfels, the German Rosicrucian, knows Falk ... ." ["SLPhCW", pp. 155-65]

The delegates at Wilhelmsbad had hoped to get answers from ... the chief English representative -- General Charles Rainsford -- ... [who] knew personally Falk's Jewish patrons in Holland (the Boas family). ... Rainsford ... in October 1782 ... wrote to the Philale'thes :

As to the {Qabbalah}. all is upset by the unexpected death of Dr. Falk. ... Up to now, ... relating to that rabbi, ... I have found news ... among the Jews of Algiers, and they have told me some extraordinary stories about him".

"At the Wilhelmsbad Convention, the Strict Observance disintegrated ... . The Duke of Brunswick and Prince Carl of Hesse-Cassel became Grand Masters in the new "Order of Asiatic Brethren," which merged S[^]abbatian {Qabbalism} into ... theosophy drawn from

p. 150

Swedenborg, Saint-Martin, and Georg Welling. [J&FE, pp. 29 & 39-53] At first, when the society was headquartered in Vienna, the Jewish elements predominated. Prince Carl opened lodges in Copenhagen and Danish-controlled Schleswig. ... The Duke of Brunswick oversaw the "Asiatics" at Berlin and Hamburg. In the latter city, the "Asiatics" drew on the S[^]abbatian teachings of Rabbi Jonathon Eibeschu:tz, who had earlier maintained a mysterious relation with Elias Artista (Johannes Mu:ller), the Rosicrucian patron of Swedenborg in Hamburg." ["FKJDM"]

p. 150

"Swedish ... King Gustav III ... In 1785 ... sent General Toll to Aix-la-Chapelle, where he interviewed a shadowy Baron Reuschenberg about the Rosicrucians in northern Italy."

p. 151

"In 1793, Johann Caspar Lavater (Blake's idol) visited the remnant of the "Asiatic" lodge at Copenhagen, where he achieved the ecstatic visionary experience that seemed to fulfill the earlier promises made by "Gablidone, the spirit of a [Qabbalistic] Jew." [LPSFG] Lavater had learned of Gablidone's prophecies from Count Thun, an early member of the "Asiatics." [E, pp. 485-8] Henry Fuseli, the painter and friend of Blake, received from Lavater his account" [JHF, 1:254].

"In 1806 another Swedenborgian Freemason -- J. E. Harmensen -- ... in France ... claimed contact with the spirit of Swedenborg, and he was counseled by Corberon to follow the instructions" [USSS, pp. 371-98].

p. 151

"in Germany, the Jewish descendants of the "Asiatics" ... In 1807 ... turned to the revolutionary

p. 152

government in France for help and succeeded gaining recognition from the Grand Lodge of Paris. [J&FE, p. 57] They resumed the name of the lodge Aurore Naissante or, in German, Zur augehenden Morgenro:the."

Also, "the Jewish brethren found support in London, where the Duke of Sussex, Grand Master of the reunified English system, granted the Frankfurt Morgenro:the full Masonic authority. [J&FE, p. 69] Sussex, who was first initiated in Berlin in 1793, was an enthusiastic philo-Semite and diligent student of Hebrew. He collected a valuable library of {Qabbalistic} works, including the rare manuscripts of the radical S[^]abbatian Abraham Cardozo. [BS, 1, #8, 31 & 42] Sussex ...

p. 153

was the confidante and ally in ... Masonic affairs of the Duke of Gloucester ... . Sussex was also the patron and friend of Solomon Bennett, the talented artist, engraver, and Hebrew litterateur ... . [JGZ, pp. 16-26] A politically liberal ... Grand Master (serving from 1813 to 1843), the Duke of Sussex ...

to maintain a universalist creed in English Freemasonry, ... led ... to suppress the exclusively Christian rites of the Knights Templar.

{The historical Knights Templar, however, were accused (at least) of tolerating >islam (which was an official excuse for their being suppressed by the government of France), and thus made for a possible instance of "a universalist creed".}

One ... was Waller Rodwell Wright, the poet and reviver of Stuart-Templar traditions, who was also a friend of William Blake." ["WWRW"]

"one of the few people who described accurately Blake's radical, antinomian, and Swedenborgian beliefs (which drew on S[^]abbatian-Rosicrucian traditions) was Henry Crabb Robinson, who maintained close ties with illuminist Masons in Germany and who had access to the secret history of the "Asiatics." [HCR&DF 2:403-4] In the 1830's, Robinson became an intimate friend of Molitor, who discussed his Masonic philosophy of ... {Qabbalism} with the visiting Englishman. Molitor ... joined the Morgenro:the in 1808 and wrote the secret manuscript history of the order in 1829 ... . ...

Robinson ... became friendly with Lyon Goldsmid, whose ancestors had been the major patrons of Falk and whose relatives in Germany were members of the Morgenro:the. [DR&C 1:124, 279; 2:83, 267, 295] ...

Crabb Robinson ... died at age 92 in 1867."

p. 152

"it is possible that the Johann F. Falk of Golden Dawn legend was a real person, who may have come to London circa 1810 as an emissary of the Morgenro:the. The Dr. Falk who died in 1782 had ... kinsmen in Germany. From Kalisch's diary, it is clea that Falk maintained contacts with S[^]abbatians [viz., who may have been his own relatives] in Hamburg and Altona."

p. 154

"the version of Blakean and Rosicrucian history that Yeats revealed in the 1890's has some plausibility. [allusion to p. 114 supra] ... . ... Kenneth Mackenzie ... in Vienna ... studied and acted as a tutor in the family of Count Apponyi. [MMFHW, p. 34] ... Anton Apponyi was the son of Anton Georg Apponyi (1751-1817) ... . Apponyi pe`re was the Masonic patron of Haydn and Mozart ... . ... Mackenzie ... translated Lessing's Ernst und Falk into English and joined Samuel Beswick's "revived" Swedenborgian Rite of Masonry ...? ["WW&ES", pp. 8 & 20 & 24] ... Mackenzie [found out] the history ... of the "German

p. 155

Golden Dawn," it is possible that the original German manuscripts were found (or even survive) among the papers of the Duke of Sussex, who collected ... S[^]abbatian and Rosicrucian materials."

"Theodore Mommsen and his brother Augustus (Gustav? [allusion to p. 115 supra]) both visited England in the 1880's. [ThM, pp. 125-8] An ancestor, "Dr. T. Mummsen," had played a leading role in Swedish Rite Masonry in Prussia in the 1770's".