Theos-Talk Archives (April 2004 Message tt00516)

Mar 16 2004

Dear Friends:

Count St. Germain is said to be one of HPB's predecessors in the
centenary cyclic effort to reintroduce the perennial wisdom of THEOSOPHY
to the "West."

Here are some interesting references from theosophical literature.

I find it, in these exchanges ,more accurate and time-saving to quote
actual statements than to offer opinions -- which, due to time-lapse,
etc. may be quite inaccurate.

Best wishes,

Dallas

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QUOTES ON ST. GERMAIN

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ST GERMAIN.DOC
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Great Theosophists: THE COUNT DE ST. GERMAIN


[THEOSOPHY MAGAZINE offers a survey of his life and work:]

One of the most mysterious characters in modern history is the famous
Count de St. Germain, described by his friend Prince Karl von Hesse as
one of the greatest philosophers who ever lived, the friend of humanity,
whose heart was concerned only with the happiness of others. 
Intimate and counselor of Kings and Princes, nemesis of deceptive
ministers, Rosicrucian, Mason, accredited Messenger of the Masters of
Wisdom-the Count de St. Germain worked in Europe for more than a
century, faithfully performing the difficult task which had been
entrusted to him. 

The amazing and inscrutable personality in which the Adept known as St.
Germain clothed himself was the outstanding topic of conversation among
the nobility of the eighteenth century. During the 112 years that he is
said to have lived in Europe, he always presented the appearance of a
man about forty-five years of age. He was of medium height, with a
slender, graceful figure, a captivating smile, and eyes of peculiar
beauty. "Oh, what eyes!" signed the Countess d'Adhemar. "I have never
seen their equal!" He was an extraordinary linguist, speaking French,
German, English, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian and Swedish
without the slightest trace of an accent, and his knowledge of Sanscrit,
Chinese and Arabic showed that he was well acquainted with the East. His
proficiency in music was equally remarkable. As a violinist he is said
to have rivalled Paganini, while his performances on the harpsichord
called forth enthusiastic applause from Frederick the Great. His ability
to improvise made a great impression on Rameau, who met him in Venice in
1710. St. Germain was also a composer. One of his musical compositions
was given to Tchaikowsi, Prince Ferdinand von Lobkowitz inherited a
second, while two others, bearing the dates 1745 and 1760, are the
property of the British Museum. 

The Count de St. Germain was also a painter of rare ability, famed for
his power to reproduce the original brilliance of precious stones on
canvas. Although he refused to betray his secret, it was commonly
supposed that he produced the effect by mixing powdered mother-of-pearl
with his pigments. He was highly esteemed as an art critic and was
frequently consulted in regard to the authenticity of paintings. 

The prodigious memory of the Count de St. Germain was a constant source
of amazement to his friends. He would merely glance as a paper, and days
afterward repeat its contents without missing a word. He was
ambidextrous, and could write a poem with one hand while he framed a
diplomatic paper with the other. He frequently read sealed letters
without touching them and was known to answer questions before they had
been put into words. 
Many of St. Germain's friends had practical proof of his alchemical
knowledge. Casanova relates that one day while visiting St. Germain in
his laboratory, the latter asked for a silver coin. In a few moments it
was returned to Casanova as pure gold. St. Germain also possessed the
secret of melting several small diamonds into one large stone, an art he
learned in India, he said. While visiting the French Ambassador to The
Hague, he broke up a superb diamond of his own manufacture, the
duplicate of which he had recently sold for 5500 louis d'or. On another
occasion he removed a flaw from a diamond belonging to Louis XV,
increasing the value of the stone by 4000 livres. On gala occasions he
appeared with a diamond ring on every finger and with shoe-buckles
estimated to be worth at least 200,000 francs. 

The charming personality of the Count de St. Germain made him a welcome
guest in the homes of the nobility of every land. But while he often sat
at table with his friends, his own food was specially prepared for him
in his own apartments. He ate no meat and drank no wine, his favorite
beverage being a tea which he prepared for certain herbs, and which he
frequently presented to his friends. His extraordinary popularity was
due to his prowess as a raconteur, to his well known intimacy with the
greatest men and women of the day, to his familiarity with occult
subjects, and especially to the mystery of his birth and nationality,
which he consistently refused to reveal. He spoke with feeling of things
which had happened hundreds of years in the past, giving the impression
that he himself had been present. One evening, while he was recounting
an event which had happened many centuries before, he turned to his
butler and asked if any important details had been omitted. "Monsieur le
Comte forgets," his butler replied, "that I have been with him only five
hundred years. I could not, therefore, have been present at that
occurrence. It must have been my predecessor." If, as many claimed, St.
Germain affirmed that he had lived in Chaldea and possessed the secrets
of the Egyptian sages, he may have spoken the truth without making an
miraculous claim. There are Initiates, and not necessarily of the
highest, who are able to recall many of their past lives. This may have
been St. Germain's way of calling attention of his friends to the
doctrine of reincarnation. Or perhaps he knew the secret of "the Elixir
of Life." 

Although no one knew when the Count de St. Germain was born, his life
from 1710 to 1822 is a matter of history. Both Rameau and the Countess
de Georgy met him in Venice in 1710. Fifty years later the aged Countess
met him in Madame Pompadour's house and asked him if his father had been
in Venice that year. "No, Madame," the Count replied, "but I myself was
living in Venice at the end of the last and the beginning of this
century. I had the honor to pay you court then, and you were kind enough
to admire a little Barcarolle of my composing." The Countess could not
believe her ears. "But if that is true," she gasped, "you must be at
least a hundred years old!" The Count smiled. "That, Madame, is not
impossible!" 

In 1723 the Count showed his mother's portrait, which he always wore on
his arm, to the mother of the future Countess de Genlis. It was a
miniature of an exceptionally beautiful woman, dressed in a costume
unfamiliar to the Countess. "To what period does this costume belong?"
the Countess inquired. The Count merely smiled and changed the subject. 
>From 1737 to 1742 the Count de St. Germain was living in the Court of
the Shah of Persia, occupied with alchemical research. On his return
from Persia he settled in Versailles and became an intimate friend of
Louis XV and Madame Pompadour. In the following year he was caught in
the Jacobite Revolution in England. From there he went to Vienna, and
afterward visited Frederick the Great in his castle of Sans-Souci in
Potsdam, where Voltaire was also an honored guest. Although Voltaire was
opposed to St. Germain's fellow-Theosophist Saint-Martin, his admiration
for St. Germain was unbounded. In a letter to Frederick, Voltaire
expressed his opinion that "the Count de St. Germain is a man who was
never born, who will never die, and who knows everything." 

In 1755 the Count de St. Germain accompanied General Clive to India. On
his return to France Louis XV gave him a suite of apartments in the
Royal Chateau of Chambord, in Touraine. Here he often entertained the
King and members of the Court in the alchemical laboratory with the King
had provided for him. 

In 1760 Louis sent the Count de St. Germain on a delicate diplomatic
mission to The Hague and London. At that time he discovered the Duc de
Choiseul, who up to that time had been implicitly trusted by the King,
was playing a double game. Although St. Germain confided this fact to
the King, the former was determined that the Peace Treaty between
England and France should be signed, no matter who received the credit.
So one evening in May, 1761, St. Germain called upon the Duc de Choiseul
and remained closeted with him the whole night. This conference resulted
in the celebrated alliance known as the Family Compact. This in its turn
was the forerunner of the Treaty of Paris, which brought the colonial
war between England and France to a close. 

In the following year St. Germain was called to St. Petersburg, where he
played an important part in the revolution which placed Catherine the
Great upon the throne of Russia. he left the country in the uniform of a
Russian general, with full credentials to which the imperial seal of
Russia was affixed. Shortly afterward he appeared in Tunis and Leghorn
while the Russian fleet was there, again in Russian uniform, and known
under the name of Graf Saltikoff. 
After the death of Louis XV in 1774, St. Germain spent several years
travelling in Germany and Austria. Among the Kings, Princes, Ambassadors
and scholars who met him during those years, how many suspected that the
soul of a great Adept looked out through the eyes of the Count de St.
Germain? How many realized that they were conversing with an emissary of
that Great Fraternity of Perfected Men who stand behind the scenes of
all the great world-dramas, one who was directly not only the minor
currents of European history, but some of the major currents as well?
How many were aware of St. Germain's real mission, part of which was the
introduction of Theosophical principles into the various occult
fraternities of the day? 
The Rosicrucian organizations were certainly helped by him. While
Christian Rosencreuz, the founder of the Order, transmitted his
teachings orally, St. Germain recorded the doctrines in figures, and one
of his enciphered manuscripts became the property of his staunch friend,
Prince Karl von Hesse. H.P.B. mentions this manuscript in The Secret
Doctrine (II, 202) and quotes at length from another (II, 582). While
St. Germain was living in Vienna he spent much of his time in the
Rosicrucian laboratory on the Landstrasse, and at one time lived in the
room which Leibniz occupied in 1713. St. Germain also worked with the
Fratres Lucis, and with the "Knights and Brothers of Asia" who studied
Rosicrucian and Hermetic science and made the "philosopher's stone" one
of the objects of their research. 

Although an effort has been made to eliminate St. Germain's name from
modern Masonic literature, careful research into Masonic archives will
prove that he occupied a prominent position in eighteenth century
Masonry. He acted as a delegate to the Wilhelmsbad Convention in 1782
and to the great Paris Convention of 1785. Cadet de Gassicourt described
him as a travelling member of the Knights Templar, and Deschamps says
that Cagliostro was initiated into that Order by St. Germain. 

The Count de St. Germain is said to have died on February 27, 1784, and
the Church Register of Eckernforde in Danish Holstein contains the
record of his death and burial. But as it happens, some of St. Germain's
most important work was done after that date. This fact is brought out
in the Souvenirs de Marie-Antoinette, written by one of her
ladies-in-waiting, the Countess d'Adhemar. This diary was started in
1760 and ended in 1821, one year before the death of the Countess, and a
large part of it is concerned with St. Germain's efforts to avert the
horrors of the French Revolution. 

Early one Sunday morning in 1788 the Countess was surprised to receive a
visit from the Count de St. Germain, whom she had not seen in several
years. He warned her that a giant conspiracy was under foot, in which
the Encyclopaedists would use the Duc de Chartres in an effort to
overthrow the monarchy, and asked her to take him to the Queen. When
Madame d'Adhemar reported the conversation to Marie-Antoinette, the
Queen confessed that she also had received another communication from
this mysterious stranger who had protected her with warnings from the
day of her arrival in France. On the following day St. Germain was
admitted into the private quarters of the Queen. "Madame," he said to
her, "for twenty years I was on intimate terms with the late King, who
deigned to listen to me with kindness. He made use of my poor abilities
on several occasions, and I so not think he regretted giving me his
confidence." After warning her of the serious condition of France, he
asked her to communicate his message to the King and to request the King
not to consult with Maurepas. But the King ignored the warning, and went
directly to Maurepas, who immediately called upon Madame d'Adhemar. In
the midst of the conversation St. Germain appeared. He confronted
Maurepas with his treachery and said to him: "In opposing yourself to my
seeing the monarch, you are losing the monarchy, for I have but a
limited time to give to France. This time over, I shall not be seen here
again, until after three successive generations have gone down to the
grave." 

The second warning from St. Germain came on July 14, 1789, when the
Queen was saying farewell to the Duchesse de Polgnac. She opened the
letter and read: "My words have fallen on your ears in vain, and you
have reached the period of which I informed you. All the Polignacs and
their friends are doomed to death. The Comte d'Artois will perish." 
His farewell letter, addressed to Madame d'Adhemar, arrived on October
5, 1789. "All is lost, Countess!" he wrote. "This sun is the last which
will set on the monarchy. Tomorrow it will exist no more. My advice has
been scorned. Now it is too late. x" In that letter he asked the
Countess to meet with him early the next morning. In that conversation
the Count de St. Germain informed her that the time when he could have
helped France was past. "I can do nothing now. My hands are tied by one
stronger than myself. The hour of repose is past, and the decrees of
Providence must be fulfilled." He foretold the death of the Queen, the
complete ruin of the Bourbons, the rise of Napoleon. "And you yourself?"
the Countess asked. "I must go to Sweden," he answered. "A great crime
is brewing there, and I am going to try and prevent it. His Majesty
Gustavus III interests me. He is worth more than his renown." The
Countess inquired if she would see him again. "Five times more," he
answered. "Do not wish for the sixth." 

True to his word, the Count de St. Germain appeared to the Countess
d'Adhemar on five different occasions: at the beheading of the Queen; on
the 18th Brumaire; the day following the death of the Duc d'Enghien in
1804; in January, 1813; on the ever of the assassination of the Duc de
Berri in 1820. Presumably the sixth time was on the day of her death, in
1822. 
What happened to the Count de St. Germain after that date? Did he, as
Andrew Lang asks, "die in the palace of Prince Karl von Hesse about
1780-85? Did he, on the other hand, escape from the French prison where
Gorsley thought he saw him, during the French Revolution? Was he known
to Lord Lytton about 1860? Who knows?" Who indeed. One of the Masters
spoke of the "benevolent German Prince from whose house, and in whose
presence he (St. Germain) made his last exit-home." 

In the last decade of the eighteenth century St. Germain confided his
future plans to his Austrian friend, Franz Graeffer, saying, 

"Tomorrow night I am off. I am much needed in Constantinople, then in
England, there to prepare to new inventions which you have in the next
century-trains and steamboats. Toward the end of this century I shall
disappear out of Europe, and betake myself to the region of the
Himalayas. I will rest; I must rest. Exactly in 85 years will people
again set eyes on me. Farewell. " (Kleine Wiener Memorien.) 

These words were spoken in 1790. Eighty-five years from that date brings
us to 1875. What part did St. Germain play in the Theosophical Movement
of last century? What part is he going to play in the present century?
H.P.B. gave a cryptic suggestion of the time when he would again appear:


The Count de St. Germain was certainly the greatest Oriental Adept
Europe has seen during the last centuries. But Europe knew him not.
Perchance some may recognize him at the next Terreur, which will affect
all Europe when it comes, and not one country alone. 
Was the event of which she spoke the last great War, or does the real
Terreur still lie before us? 
from Theosophy Magazine [November, 1938]

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"St. Germain, the Count of. 

"Referred to as an enigmatical.. personage by modern writers. Frederic
II., King of Prussia, used to say of him that he was a man whom no one
had ever been able make out. Many are his " biographies ", and each is
wilder than the other. By some he was regarded as an incarnate god, by
others as a clever Alsatian Jew. One thing is certain, Count de St.
Germain-whatever his real patronymic may have been-had a right to his
name and title, for he had bought a property called San Germano, in the
Italian Tyrol, and paid the Pope for the title. 

He was uncommonly handsome, and his enormous erudition and linguistic
capacities are undeniable, for he spoke English, Italian, French,
Spanish, Portuguese, German, Russian, Swedish, Danish, and many
Slavonian and Oriental languages, with equal facility with a native. He
was extremely wealthy, never received a son from anyone-in fact never
accepted a glass of water or broke bread with anyone made most
extravagant presents of superb jewellery to all his friends, even to the
royal families of Europe. His proficiency in music was marvellous; he
played on every instrument, the violin being his favourite. "St. Germain
rivalled Paganini himself", was said of him by an octogenarian Belgian
in 1835, after hearing the "Genoese maestro". "It is St. Germain
resurrected who plays the violin in the body of an Italian skeleton ",
exclaimed a Lithuanian baron who had heard both.

He never laid claim to spiritual powers, but proved to have a right to
such claim. He used to pass into a dead trance from thirty-seven to
forty- nine hours without awakening, and then knew all he had to know,
and demonstrated the fact by prophesying futurity and never making a
mistake. It is he who prophesied before the Kings Louis XV. and XVI.,
and the unfortunate Marie Antoinette. 

Many were the still living witnesses in the first quarter of this
century who testified to his marvellous memory; he could read a paper in
the morning and, though hardly glancing at it, could repeat its contents
without missing one word days afterwards; he could write with two hands
at once, the right hand writing a piece of poetry, the left a diplomatic
paper of the greatest importance. He read sealed letters without
touching them, while still in the hand of those who brought them to him.
He was the greatest adept in transmuting metals, making gold and the
most marvellous diamonds, an art, he said, he had learned from certain
Brahmans in India, who taught him the artificial crystallisation
("quickening ") of pure carbon. 

As our Brother Kenneth Mackenzie has it :-" In 1780, when on a visit to
the French Ambassador to the Hague, he broke to pieces with a hammer a
superb diamond of his own manufacture, the counterpart of which, also
manufactured by himself, he had just before sold to a jeweller for 5500
louis d'or". 

He was the friend and confidant of Count Orloff in 1772 at Vienna, whom
he had helped and saved in St. Petersburg in 1762, when concerned in the
famous political conspiracies of that time; he also became intimate with
Frederick the Great of Prussia. As a matter of course, he had numerous
enemies, and therefore it is not to be wondered at if all the gossip
invented about him is now attributed to his own confessions: e.g., that
he was over five hundred years old; also, that he claimed personal
intimacy "with the Saviour and his twelve Apostles, and that he had
reproved Peter for his bad temper "-the latter clashing somewhat in
point of time with the former, if he had really claimed to be only five
hundred years old. if he said that "he had been born in Chaldea and
professed to possess the secrets of the Egyptian magicians and sages ",
he may have spoken truth without making any miraculous claim. 

There are Initiates, and not the highest either, who are placed in a
condition to remember more than one of their past lives. But we have
good reason to know that St. Germain could never have claimed "personal
intimacy " with the Saviour. How ever that may be, Count St. Germain was
certainly the greatest Oriental Adept Europe has seen during the last
centuries. But Europe knew him not. Perchance some may recognise him at
the next Terreur which will affect all Europe when it comes, and not one
country alone."	T Glos 308-9

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"Were not St. Germain, and Cagliostro, both gentlemen of the highest
education and achievements -- and presumably Europeans -- not "niggers"
of my sort -- regarded at the time, and still so regarded by posterity
-- as impostors, confederates, jugglers and what not? Yet I am morally
bound to set his mind at rest -- through your kind agency -- with regard
to H.P.B. deceiving and imposing upon him. He seems to think he has
obtained proofs of it absolutely unimpeachable. I say he has not. What
he has obtained is simply proof of the villainy of some men, and
ex-theosophists such as ." MAHATMA LETTERS P. 306


"One must have the key to it and that key is a science per se.
Rosencranz [Rosencreutz] taught orally. Saint Germain recorded the good
doctrines in figures and his only cyphered MS. remained with his staunch
friend and patron the benevolent German Prince from whose house and in
whose presence he made his last exit -- HOME."
MAHATMA LETTERS p. 280

----------------------------------

Other references:

THEOSOPHICAL MOVEMENT Mag.. Vol. 33, p. 416
THEOSOPHY Mag.	Vol. 27, p. 3;
LUCIFER Vol. 10, pp 246-7,
THEOSOPHIST Vol. 5, pp 288-9 [Reminiscences of]; 
THEOSOPHIST,	Vol. 7, p. 79 (col. 2)
Amer. Revolution: La Fayette & Van Steuben,	
Mod. Panarion 44, 371, 
and Amer. Revolution; THEOSOPHY Mag.	Vol 21, p. 390 
And French Revolution	THY. Art & Notes, 126; 
THEOSOPHY Vol 76, p. 136;
And Masonry	HPB Articles III p. 149
Rosicrucian MSS left by	S D II 202	
W Q J Articles II p. 74-5
Biography	Blavatsky: COLLECTED WORKS Vol. 10, 523
Diplomatic work, Ragon on	B C W 11, p. 183
A 7th rounder	Five Years of THEOSOPHY (2nd Ed.) p. 152
Q & A on The OCEAN OF THEOSOPHY p. 181

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-----Original Message-----
From: stev
Sent: Friday, April 16, 2004 2:34 AM
To: 
Subject: MAGICK OR MAGIC ? ST. GERMAIN

Can anybody do me a favor, and give me a cite where Blavatsky 
mentions St. Germaine?

cut