Revealing Westcott’s Lodge of Secret Chiefs: Licht, Liebe, Leben – a Golden Dawn Origins Revelation

The Contents of Lodge L.L.L and it’s Not So Mythical Existence

In this article Ian Hayward Gladwin reveals the lost and forgotten Rosicrucian origins of the Golden Dawn in the lodge Licht, Liebe, Leben in Germany. Mathers and Westcott claimed it was this lodge that was the true source for the Golden Dawn. Most have claimed that this lodge was a mythical invention and nothing has been brought to light regarding this lodge, until now. In this article we reveal some little known facts about the Order, having read through the German source documents. For those interested in the origins of the Golden Dawn this article takes many surprising turns.

The Golden Dawn’s Cipher Manuscripts are the Order’s foundation documents. From their coded blueprint it is said that Mathers and Westcott utilized a cipher developed by Trithemius in the 1500s to reveal its contents and awaken the beginnings of the Golden Dawn. Mysterious as these documents are, they were first alleged to have been received from A. F. A. Woodford by Westcott, as either written by Kenneth McKenzie or passed on to him through his mentor Frederick Hockley. Some researchers have stated the documents were a forgery. [1]

Whatever the truth actually was, through an address inserted into the manuscripts, Westcott is said to have contacted the chief adept of the lodge “Licht, Liebe, Leben” in Germany. This adept went by the name of “Sprengel”, and evolved into the character which came to be known as Anna Sprengel. It is through their communication that the Golden Dawn is said to have to have received the warrant to open a lodge in England and to operate temple grades from 0=0 up to 4=7. According to a history lecture given by Westcott, This made the Lichte, Liebe, Leben in “Nuremberg” temple No. 1, with all other GD lodges numbered in sequence after it:

The Neophyte Grade and the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th Grades, which this present Isis Urania Temple is authorized to confer after due examination and approval, posses rituals and secrets which have been received from the G.H. Chief adepts and these are placed in our hands to use in the tuition of pupils in the ancient methods of this Order. This Temple (Isis Urania) was consecrated as a successor to Hermanubis No. 2 which had ceased to exist owing to the death of all its Chiefs.

The Temple No. 1 of Licht, Liebe, Leben is a group of Continental mystics who have not been in the habit of performing ceremonies in open lodge, but have conferred the grades chiefly in privacy and in the presence of two or three members, so there is no accurate record of name and rank of all these members. Soon after the formation of Temple No. 3, permission was granted for the consecration of Osiris Temple No. 4 at Weston-Super-Mare under rule of V.H. Frater “Crux dat Salubrem” and the West of England has been assigned to him as a province. Almost at the same time, the Horus Temple No. 5 under the rule of V.H. Fratre “Vote Vita Mea” was also consecrated at Bredford in Yorkshire. These three Temples have members also in the United States, Hindustan, Palestine, Denmark, etc. [2]

The exchange between Sprengel and Wescott is said to have taken place in the late 1880s, near the founding of the GD. In seeming support of the exchange, a bill from a hotel in Stuttgart where the first letter was sent to was also included with the letters. Then, in 1890, the final communication from Germany was said to arrive, announcing the death of Sprengel. The Golden Dawn in England was then left free to work on its own.

For some time, many considered the LLL lodge in Germany to be fictitious. However, Golden Dawn researcher and adept Olen Rush revealed that there was actually such a lodge located close to Nuremberg, just 10 miles north, in Erlangen, which went by the name of “Licht, Lebe, Lieben.” [3]

This lead from Olen Rush begged for deeper inspection. What became evident through ensuing research was that the Licht Liebe Leben lodge was just the tip of the iceberg, with an underside revealing multiple connections and possibilities that opened up as many doors as it left many questions still unanswered. Until now, not much has been known about this lodge or those involved with it.

The Foundations of the Licht Liebe Leben lodge

The lodge Licht Liebe Leben was established in 1864. The three L’s of the lodge refer to “Light, Love and Life.” What first makes this lodge interesting, from our point of view, is that by all accounts, documented references in Germany frequently point out that this was an irregular lodge, known for its peculiar rituals and for its refusal to change them; even though it had made frequent and repeated petitions to the Grand lodge for recognition. In short, it was a clandestine lodge which had become notorious for its behavior. [4]

Its founder Dr. Johann Leutbecher was born in 1801 and he taught philosophy for a brief time, but due to his free views, he was forced to teach in private institutions throughout his career. In 1838, he joined the lodge Libanon zu den drei Cedern in Erlangen, and later he joined the Loge Wilhelm zur aufgehenden Sonne (Wilhelm of the Rising Sun) in 1846, in Stuttgart; making him contemporaries with Johann Baptist Krebs (JB Kerning), the founder and steward of that lodge. [5] Leutbecher’s membership in Kerning’s lodge might lead to some interesting implications, but this is a subject that will have to left for later.

Leutbecher was known during his own time for writing works on Masonic and esoteric histories and symbolism. One such book was written in 1857 titled, ‘Die Essäer; eine Skizze für Theologen und Freimaurer’ (‘The Essenes. A sketch for Theologians and Freemasons’).[6] In this work, Leutbecher equates the Essenes with the early Christians, the Jewish Levites of Egypt/Palestine and the Therapuetae of Hellenistic Alexandria; placing them all into one grand mystery tradition.  His theories are based partly on the historic accounts of Philo and that of their common observances and practices. In his writings, Leutbecher presents his view of the traditions in a mutual and common light, forming a central basis for his approach to Masonry. It shows that he was quite comfortable describing masonry as a body for the Egyptian, Pagan, Jewish and Christian mysteries all at once; something that doesn’t seem all that common for many others at the time. Interestingly, Westcott wrote about this subject in a paper he wrote in 1915 entitled “Freemasonry and its Relation to the Essenes”.[7]

Leutbecher’s vision however was further revealed in a piece he wrote for Moses S. Polak’s book on symbolism in Masonic carpets (similar to tracing boards) entitled ‘Die Tapis in ihrer historisch-paedogogischen, wissenschaftlichen und moralischen Bedeutung.’ (The Tapis and their Historical Educational Significance for Morals and Science’).[8] In the intro, Leutbecher speaks of the degrees of masonry as representing the mummification of the candidate by mother Isis. He describes a cosmo-theological view of the universe and the universal tradition of the schools, mysteries, and philosophers. He also speaks of the mysticism and the universal embrace of Nature:

The Institute [of Freemasonry] can regain its dignity and efficacy only if it becomes a living and successful organism again, if it works perseveringly with its own and implied means toward its purpose, by which the free spirit of man comes to the development allowing true light to emerge from the clouds enveloping and surrounding him, and thus, like the sun, enlightens and warms man, the same from the sphere of the lower, the earthly and the sensual, into the sphere of sublimity, of the celestial and the divine, vibrating, and again into that harmony in which men – as in the days of the gray pre-world, the patriarchal age – think, feel, and want to be godly, wisely and blessed, to win that immortality which gives them Nature, this most complete and clear revelation of the eternal promise, assured and granted by Deity. [9]

What’s seems clear here is that Leutbecher’s view of Freemasonry is rather idiosyncratic, if not otherwise compatible with the ideas of orders working from a more esoteric, or occult position. In works likes his book on Goethe’s Faust for example, he supports this through knowledge of occult history and its practices quite avidly, drawing examples and comparisons through Faust’s narrative regarding the magic and mysticism of the ancient Hellenes, the Egyptians, the Platonists, the Neoplatonists, Kabbalah, Agrippa, Paracelsus, the Rosicrucians, the Theosophists, Weigel, Boehme, Pordage and more.[10]  

All in all, it seems safe to say that Letubecher was knowledgeable on esoteric and occult history.

Adding more to the mystery, through a forward to Mozes S. Polak’s book, Leutbecher reveals his connection to a lodge in Amsterdam known as Post Nubila Lux. This lodge was formed over ideas of a Nature-based, occult religion founded upon the philosophy of the German author Franz Wilhelm Junghuhn. Junghuhn’s work was considered so radical that it was eventually banned in some parts of Germany and Austria. Leutbecher was an honorary member of this lodge.[11]

Ideas about the LLL in Relation to the GD

To find such a Masonic perspective open to any particular view of Egyptology, Judaism, Christianity or Hellenism during this time is not such an unusual occurrence. It is more rare however to find an example mentioning this all within the context of a single lodge at this time in the 1800s. One of the few active Orders at the time known to work in this fashion might be the Rite of Memphis-Misraim. Leutbecher, however, does not appear connected to it in any way, yet still promotes what appears to be a universalist view of mysticism. One can only guess as to what type of occultism or mysticism the lodge might have taught.

Considering that Leutbecher was at one time working in the lodge of J.B Kerning, and that later, Robert Felkin of the Stella Matutina would claim to have found his Secret Chiefs in Germany —under a particular lineage of Kerning’s Order— things here do start to appear quite interesting.[12] There do also appear to be many symbolic and thematic parallels between Leutbecher’s philosophy and the GD as well.

A few questions though arise if we consider the possibility of the LLL and the GD being connected more deeply. For one, if Westcott didn’t truly receive anything from members of the LLL lodge, would he not have been aware of their existence, or, was it just by coincidence that the name Licht Liebe Lebe was chosen?  The answer to this might seem to fly in the face of the theory that the lodge was an obscure German order without any traceable origins. In fact, activity surrounding Leutbecher’s lodge was published quite widely and was the subject of much debate in several Masonic catalogs and reports in the mid-to-late 1800s. It is of course possible that Westcott read some of this material and saw an opportunity to give credibility to the German roots of the GD. Yet, if we are to go with the theory that his connection to LLL was made up, wouldn’t this have also raised the risk of being discovered by others who might have heard of the LLL also? It certainly makes one wonder.

Several records related to the LLL also appear in English and were distributed beyond the continent. They discussed how Leutbecher and two of his partners left the lodge Libanon zu den Drei Cedern and founded their own lodge, based on their own made-up rituals, and then petitioned repeatedly to be recognized by the Grand Lodges. There are more than few reports which cite the lodge’s unusual rituals and laws and how far  from the ecclesiastic verses and traditions they were.

The lodge was referred to by one as a “wild sapling” planted in the soil; carrying with the implication that it should be rooted out. One publication described him as “indefatigable” and others as rebellious. Leutbecher, in other words, had become quite notorious through these publications.[13]

Knowing Westcott’s involvement with Masonry (initated into a lodge in 1871 with an active involvement in several bodies since then), this would seem to increase the likelihood that he was familiar with the story of the free-thinking Leutbecher and his Licht, Liebe and Leben lodge.[14] If so, perhaps Westcott saw a safe story to graft his own onto, considering that the original lodge had faded out before communication with Sprengel is said to have begun. This is the story some have suggested, yet as late as 1885, the lodge LLL was still in existence. Records indicate that a year before Leutbecher passed away, in 1875, a breakaway group had received the lodge’s inventory from him and was granted recognition as a regular lodge, under a different name, from the Zum Morgenstern (To the Morningstar) lodge in Hof.  (Interestingly, the name of Dr. Felkin’s Stella Matutina, founded later, translates the same, morning star). [15]

This would mean that any irregular material in its rituals would have been taken out at that time. This doesn’t discount however the possibility that a group might have continued on with Leutbecher’s original work. Additionally, as we are made aware through some regular lodges like JB Kerning’s Wilhelm to the Rising Sun for example, a regular lodge can also harbor deeply esoteric teachings even if they don’t appear as such at the surface. The Kerning method of letter mysticism, for example, was a well-known practice in the late 1800s and early 1900s, yet not connected to the practices of any known lodge.

We are reminded here again of Westcott’s words that the lodge No. 1 was “a group of Continental mystics who have not been in the habit of performing ceremonies in open lodge” and who “conferred the grades chiefly in privacy and in the presence of two or three members.” Such an idea protects the likelihood, yet also the obscurity, of clandestine operations taking place in or around regular lodges.

A deeper look into Dr. Johann Leutbecher’s work at this point might reveal what kind of doctrine his lodge may have adhered to. There is a surprising amount of literature connected to him. During this search, some unexpected things turned up, particularly his views which appeared to aim at a restoration of the mysteries within the context of the Enlightenment era. In truth, Leutbecher not only had his own ideas about the Essenes and occultism, but he also fully embraced a doctrine many in the occult world have skipped over; that of panentheism.

To begin this investigation, we should start looking at the influence Leutbecher gained from the Post Nubila Lux lodge; itself adopting a type of Nature religion formed around pantheism (meaning life and God in all Nature). As we will see, Leutbecher gained ideas from the Post Nubila Lux lodge that he had brought forward through his own thinking; ideas that appear quite synonymous with classic ideas of Hermeticism and Rosicrucianism.

We shall also see that what was sought was something quite revolutionary; a revisionist view of God and Nature for the 19^th century. These ideas were most directly seen in the PNL, first coming out of the work of Franz Wilhelm Junghuhn, a figure who’s work was embraced by that lodge.

Franz Wilhelm Junghuhn and his Occult Doctrine in: “Images of Light and Shadow”

To get a grasp of what the Post Nubila Lux adhered to as far as doctrine, we must take a look at Franz Wilhelm Junghuhn. Junghuhn was largely influential in the Netherlands at the time for introducing ideas forming a Nature religion; a theology which asserted an avid socialist and naturalist relationship with the divine.

Junghuhn was born in Westphalen in 1809. In his mid 20s, he joined the Dutch colonial army and was stationed in the Dutch East Indies (Jakarta & Java), where he remained working for the next 12 years. Around 1849, he returned to the Netherlands and began writing out his views on naturalism, socialism and pantheism. Between 1853 and 1855, he published his view in his free-thinking manifesto entitled Licht- en Schaduwbeelden uit de Binnenlanden van Java (Images of Light and Shadow from Java’s Interior). This text was largely informed by his experiences abroad.

Junghuhn was wholly against the Christian and Islamic proselytism he witnessed taking place in Java and Jakarta. Instead, he sought a worldview of a God that existed in everything, yet could be determined through reason. Within this philosophy there were leanings of a humanist nature, yet within it also a clear advocacy of Baruch Spinoza’s adage ‘Deus sive Natura’ (God or Nature) persisted. It was a philosophy that equated God and the spiritual with the Natural, observable universe.[16].

In his book Images of Light and Shadow…, Junghuhn expounds upon the idea through a newly invented mythology, presenting a cast of characters bound to their varying states of natural science through their according religious views. In his narrative, there is a “Brother Day” and a “Brother Night”. Both brothers in the myth make their appeals to the natural people of the land. Brother Night is a Christian fundamentalist. His dualistic message of spirit vs. body fails to reach the understanding ears of the inhabitants. Brother Day on the other hand is a naturalist, and his spiritual message of God and the divine as enfolded in the lyrical wholeness of Nature is, in turn, accepted. The message of religion and nature as one here is clear. [17]

Next arrives “Brother Twilight” and “Brother Red Dawn” (Morgenroth and Abendroth) into the narrative. Brother Twilight is a pantheist while Brother Red Dawn is a materialist. The pantheist accepts all forces of the universe as produced by a single Divine source, while the materialist looks exclusively to the world of physical phenomenon for meaning. In the end, the four Brothers combat their differences, but conclude mutually that it is through the world of Nature where meaning and purpose is made most manifest between their opposing views. [18]

Copies of Junghuhn’s work were made available through members of the PNL, who in turn published  his early writings to members and others outside the lodge. Junghuhn himself was a member of the lodge between 1849-1855. Yet to consider what extent his doctrine had been impressed upon the esoteric sensibility of the group, we shall have to take a look at their own background and literature.

The Post Nubila Lux Lodge

The Post Nubila Lux (meaning: “Light after Clouds”, or perhaps, “After Darkness, Light”) was formed by Mozes S. Polak in 1850.  Polak was a Dutch Jew, born into an Ashkenazic family in Amsterdam in 1801, with roots in Poland. Early on, he excelled at traditional Jewish studies and  languages; publishing numerous translations of Hebrew and classic Greek texts.[19] He joined the lodge La Charité in Amsterdam under his mentor Johannes Kinker, where in 1830 he was raised to the third degree of the lodge. After some time, when he and some colleagues grew tired of what they as saw as the superficial and secular nature of the Dutch lodges, while seeking deeper spiritual and esoteric content, they founded the PNL. At the lodge’s opening, half of its 36 members were Jewish.  [20]

Polak himself was coming out of the traditions of spiritism, sociology and Spinozian philosophy and used these to form his own esoteric vision. He was also influenced greatly by his mentor Kinker, who, taking Immanuel Kant as his platform, sought to reconcile Kant’s subject and object with Spinozian monism, arriving at the definition of Nature as the ‘divine Aphrodite’.[21]  Polak, like Kinker, however was a pantheist, and he sought to place his ideas of Nature and God into the lodge. While Polak’s view championed reason and philosophy as greater human faculties, he did not fail to recognize an all-encompassing Nature of God, with humankind knowing itself as part of that reality:

While mortal man can only achieve knowledge of God by certain knowledge of his twofold nature, his physical and spiritual characteristics and capacities, the Order should educate her members primarily to self-knowledge.  This will lead to insight into their goal on earth: to be part of the chain of the Infinite, the all-encompassing All.  [22]

The PNL took the work of Junghuhn and made it their doctrine, with a majority of it coming straight out of Junghun’s Images of Light Shadow; which itself was used as their guidebook. However, when some members of the PNL began to see the lodge as too limiting in the scope of their aims, they formed a society called De Dageraad (The Dawn) in 1855. The De Dageraad group soon became something of an inner circle of the Post Nubila Lux and began publishing their ideas in their own journal. Thei journal (which went by the same name, De Dageraad) was in effect a manifesto; a means of reaching the public with their message. The remaining series of Junghuhn’s writings also appeared in De Dageraad. [23]

Elsewhere, we can see that how their concept of a “new Dawn” or a “Rising Dawn” held individual as well as societal ambitions:

We believe that the light of truth does not always have to be kept behind clouds of judgment and prejudice; that these clouds must be swept by force of convictions to eventually disappear and let the light of its rays radiate in all directions . [24]

Things start to take a turn however, when the Post Nubila Lux was refused recognition by the Grand Orient Lodge. Rebuttals and appeals were made, and yet, after lengthy negotiations, the Grand Orient still refused. Polak, in retaliation, published their correspondence openly in his pamphlet, Wat is de vrijmetselarij en hoe wordt zij in Nederland gehandhaafd? (What is freemasonry and how is it enforced in the Netherlands?). As a further result, Polak was banned from the Grand Orient and its affiliates entirely. Of this, he then tried to make amends, but to no avail. On top of it all, De Dageraad had also published some anti-Christian sentiments in their journal. This had also angered the Grand Orient. In further attempt to regain the Grand Orient’s favor, Polak publicly disassociated himself with De Dageraad. This however, was apparently not enough to change the damage which had already been done.  [25]

Afterwards, Polak went back to the De Dageraad, but even then pursued his own path, one which took a new focus of spiritualism. During this time, he wrote books on the nature of the Soul, the philosophy of Nature and the spirit. He had also began attending the seances of Daniel Dunglas Hume. Eventually, he formed a spiritualist society called Veritas (Truth) in Amsterdam.

In 1880, the first Theosophical Society group formed in the Hague, using Polak’s works as the foundation of their organization. They even adopted the name of his lodge as their own. Thus the first instance of the Theosophical Society in the Netherland was known as Post Nubila Lux .[26]

The Influence of the Post Nubila Lux on Leutbecher

Polak made a huge impression on Leutbecher, so much to the extent that Leutbecher had written an entire book on the Post Nubila Lux Lodge, entitled Die Grande Besogne der Niederlande und die Loge Post Nubila Lux (The Great Work of the Netherlands and the Post Nubila Lux lodge). This work was basically a defense of the PNL after their rejection from the Grand Orient. The book was also a declaration of what reformed Freemasonry should look like, one which progressively adhered to the codes and ideals of its oaths. With his support and advocacy of the PNL, Leutbecher was made an honorary member of the lodge.

The free-thinking movement that surrounded the Post Nubila Lux lodge and the De Dageraad society in Amsterdam was clearly something which appealed to Leutbecher in Germany. It seems no coincidence that Leutbecher’s Licht Liebe Leben lodge, considered a clandestine operation, also sought recognition from more than one Grand lodge in Germany. In fact, Leutbecher had tried a few Grand lodges —the Zur Sonne and the Zur Eintracht— both for recognition. Both declined. Like the PNL, the LLL espoused reformist and esoteric doctrines with universalist philosophies that extended beyond that which was normally taught in the lodges.[27] 

It seems that Luetbecher, like Polak, also saw “true Masonry” as discovering its roots within the primordial traditions in addition to what was seen as represented in divine Nature. For example, in his Die Tapis, Polak wrote of Masonry in the context of an “unadaltered Sabaism” (the Sabians are the same group said to have inspired the story of Christian Rosenkruetz in his journey to Damcar).

Leutbecher then spoke of the work of the lodges as unified in a light of a universal brotherhood and enveloped by the ancient mysteries. Here, Leutbecher makes mention of Karl Christian Friedrich Krause, the 18th and 19th century mystic philosopher who himself sought a reformation of the lodges as well as a Universal Brotherhood:

…Masons will make unknown territory a known one. On the basis of the eternal revelation of the One God in nature and its laws, which are at the same time also the laws of the human being, as already recognized by our brother Krause, and always looking back on this book open to every spirit, he bases himself on the scientific-practical system of the free development of man, as indicated in the Masonian carpet, into the sphere of the ever-godlike existence on the irrefutable historical date of Ur-sabaeism. He shows ingenuously how man came to the eternal truths of a self-contained natural religion which were contained later in the Cults, Mysteries and the words of the philosophers. Also then, how the pure, true doctrine of Jesus (which has unfortunately been escorted almost all the way out by many Fathers of the Church, especially by the dogmatic later Hierarchs); nowhere countering, but serving Freemasonry as a basis of Panentheism, with its teaching of uplifting immortality. At the same time, it will become almost self-apparent to many scientifically-educated Freemasons, to recognize the cosmo-theological view of Egypt and Judea that underlies Freemasonry, partly by the Essene or Therapist Confederation of Greece and Rome, and partly also by the Druids and Celtic peoples by means of the Culdees which was further transplanted to the Britons. [28]

The “Ur-sabaeism” mentioned here appears as quite telling in the present context of a Hermetic view of the mysteries. Sabaism was, in the early 18^th century, largely understood as the worship of stars or of the spirits within them; especially as practiced in ancient Arabia and Mesopotamia.[29]  The Sabians were often equated with Jewish Christian group the Elcesaites, but also with the Mandaeans and the Hermeticists, since it was also known that the Sabians recognized Hermes Trismegistus as their prophet, and that the Hermetica was their sacred book.

We can also see much of the same language used by Polak in the same work:

…it is well-known that the whole ancient world celebrated these experiences (mysteries) in thankful memorial feasts, for it is well known that the main celebrations of all Sabaeistic religions are only the two great solstices or solar periods at the base, the death and the joyful return of the birth of sunlight. It is well-known that the weeping of the deceased and the cheerful greetings of the resurrected God, Osiris, Thammuz, Adonis, & Christ, had only reference to it; it is well known, therefore, that in all ancient religions, a god died, but had resurrected and resurrected beyond death, and that this myth (as we shall later to be explained in detail) is in all religions, only different in forms, unseparated, changed over. It is known that the Greeks carry the same myth for Ceres and her daughter Persephone, for Ceres, according to Virgilius 2, is evidently Isis, which, in a narrower sense, is her mother earth, with the death of Osiris or the sun lost fertility – her daughter Persephone cries. [30]

Thus far, we have some compelling ideas that we might assume formed the mystic basis of both the LLL and the PNL. However, there is one subject mentioned by Leutbecher that would seem to have brought the LLL one step beyond the PNL. This relates to a “cosmo-theological” worldview, which as we shall see, is explained through the work of Krause and his mystico-philosophic panentheism.

The Panentheism and Pansophy of Leutbecher’s  L.L.L.

Upon initial examination, the philosophies of Polak’s and Junghuhn’s works would appear to mirror that of Leutbecher’s work quite closely; with the subjects of a deistic relationship to Nature, of pedagogy and a universal embrace of Nature with humanity there enfolded. It seems however that Leutbecher was in fact approaching similar themes but from a different point of view; a difference which put a significant spin on the esoteric content of his work. Instead of the pantheistic, yet largely deistic philosophies of Baruch Spinoza, (which Polak subscribed to via his mentor Johanes Kinker) Leutbecher was instead looking at the Panentheism of Karl Christian Friedrich Krause and the Pansophy of John Amos Comenius. 

We know this because Leutbecher wrote books on both Krause and Comenius which refer to their respective (and apparently equivalent) philosophies. These appear with commentary from Leutbecher in Comenius’ Ausgewählte Schriften (Selected Writings) and in his Abriss der Aesthetik, covering Krause’s philosophy.

These two figures —Krause and Comenius— held views which took the immanence of God’s presence found in the Universe as put forth by Polak and Junghuhn’s pantheism and expanded it to reconcile the idea of a monotheistic transcendence. The theology of Krause’s panentheism placed God in a position where the Universe of Nature still reflects God, but as an aspect inside God, whilst not wholly comprising the totality of God. In other words, the divine is immanent in all aspect of the world, since the world is part of the divine, yet the divine still transcended the world.[31] This took the “divine Aphrodite” out from being immanent only in the direct, observable realm of nature (available also through philosophy) and returned her transcendent aspect keeping a foot, so to speak, in both realms. This was an idea which could maintain an empirical understanding through direct experience as the Universe and Nature still within God, yet also recognizing God as expanding into the infinite.

What might be hidden within here (hinted at, in other words) is a certain pietist leaning entering into the vision. If so, (and through his other work this would seem to be the case) it would be significant in shaping the nature of Leutbecher’s occultism. That is, whether it maintained a naturalistic attitude towards magic or spiritualism, or if, for example, it was rather more Platonic (or Neoplatonic) in the sense of acknowledging an aspiration of transcendent union with the divine through recognizing external deity.[32] Krause’s panentheism would certainly seem to confirm this possibility. 

Another interesting connection with Krause is Westcott’s reference to him in the essay “Freemasonry and its Relation to the Essenes”. There, Westcott makes the argument that groups considered as influential at the founding of Freemasonry had in fact distinct beliefs and practices. Yet Westcott also shows familiarity with principles of Krause’s view:

Krause summarises the many clauses of the Essene oath of fidelity into three phrases of his own composition—love of God, love of virtue, and love of mankind—and so he finds a demonstration of the symbolic use of the Bible, Square and Compasses, and of the Three Lights in a Masonic Lodge.  [33]

Looking to the “Three Lights” of the lodge, Krause provided clear indications as to what the nature of “Licht Liebe Leben” was in relation to them:

To the light of this divine knowledge responds in man the intimate inclination of his pure heart; lucid knowledge of God brings to a pure love for God and all his works, therefore man acknowledges God as the supreme good, and seeks to imitate Him in his own life, as the sole role model; lucid knowledge leads people to true religion and godliness of life. [34]

If we turn for a moment to Johann Gottfried Herder now, another who was an influence on Leutbecher (he mentions Herder in his forward to Polak’s book), we can see exactly where the name relating to the “three lights” comes from:

Herder…his tomb, since 1819 [with] the grave plate produced by the Berlin Prussian iron foundry, which adorns a mysterious, ancient mystic-gnostic symbol of eternity, a serpent biting its tail (Ouroboros), and is modeled after his seal. In the middle of the serpent the signs Alpha and Omega are to be seen, because the revelation of John was his favorite work of the Bible (John: 22,13: “I am the A and the O, the first and the last, the beginning and the end the goal.”). On the inside of the serpent stands the motto of Herder, who was also on his seal: “Light – Love – Life” (John 8:12, First John 2,10; 4,16). [35]

Herder was an occultist and philosopher who comes across in some instances as a Platonist or a Hermeticist. His view contained ideas of God being present in all things, with the divine wedded to material form, with the All existing in each single part of Nature, and with all creation unified in a single spirit and “vital flame”. All of this sounds rather Pythagorean or perhaps influenced by ideas from Giordano Bruno, Ficino or Plato. Herder saw that man was “the middle ring between two adjoining systems of Creation, the natural and spiritual worlds.” [36] Leutbecher of course used Herder’s motto “Licht Liebe Leben” as the name of his lodge.

Getting More Rosicrucian?

Looking at Leutbecher’s influence from Comenius, we should peer beyond the ideals of education and more towards his Universalist aim of seeking the perfection of man as a reflection of the divine. Comenius’ mission in reality fell nothing short of calling for the purification of all souls, for eliminating all prejudice and seeing the common God in all. 

Comenius was a disciple of Johann Valentin Andreae, and the two exchanged many letters with each other in the early 1600s. From Comenius’ works, his vision grew outward into circles formed and dedicated across Europe for his “invisible” Pansophic college. It was a network which including those like Samuel Hartlib in London, and others who sought societal change from behind the scenes. It is even said that Comenius’ treatise Via Lucis was responsible for instigating the forming of the Royal Society itself in London.

We also know that Comenius referenced the works of Francis Bacon, in addition to Andreae, through his proposal of a utopian world view causing the restoration of humanity.

In many ways, Comenius’ ideas echoed those of the Renaissance, wherein Hermeticism and Humanism became tantamount to the illuminating age of alchemy, magic, theosophy, Cabbala and the reformation of society. Such ideas appeared in the works of Ficino, della Mirandola, Trithemius, Paracelsus, Agrippa, Campanella, Bruno and the way to the Rosicrucian movement. Many of these are figures who Leutbecher had earlier referenced.

So much was the consideration of Krause and Comenius belonging to a Rosicrucian and Pansophic light, that through his Universal Pansophic Society, Heinrich Traenker honored both as foundations (along with Heinrich Nolius) for his Pansophy. In his essay “History of the Rose Cross Movement” they formed a beginning, middle and end for this Pansophic outlook:

There in the western part of Germany, all pansophists of any distinction were gathered… above all Heinrich Nollius, today an almost entirely unknown pansophist, whose genuinely Pansophic-Rosicrucian writings announced the great reforms in all fields long before the public appearance of the Fraternity.

Further on,

After being ordained priest, he (Comenius) began his systematization of pansophy, which became his life work. Comenius tried to change the “Collegium ad Spiritum Sanctum” of the fraternity into a more scienfic-philosophic “Collegilum Lucis”, for which purpose he wrote the secret pansophic ‘Via Lucis’.

And later,

An expounder of pansophy, too,was the freemason K. Chr. Fr. Krause, who always considered himself a follower of Comenius. Krause completed the pansophy of Comenius in the philosophic aspects. He also tried to reform freemasonry in a pansophic sense.  Herein he met great resistance, [but] in its stead he founded on March 21, 1808, the “Universal Union of Humanity” [37]

One can see that between the works of Leutbecher and Traenker it becomes obvious that in Germany several Rosicrucian bodies looked to these figures as authoritative Rosicrucian sources.

With respect to Krause, an emancipation of women was even addressed in his work. This is something also interesting when considering the open admission sought by the later Hermetic orders and schools, of the Golden Dawn is included.

Further Thoughts on Leutbecher, the LLL and the GD

With all things considered, it is clear that the LLL and its “sister lodge” the PNL shared many esoteric aspects which could work in the making of an order such as the Golden Dawn. They were masonic, interested in the ancient mysteries and followed ideas of an Egyptian, Christian and Hermetic outlook. These elements all appear in the work of the Golden Dawn system. That being said, there is certainly much more to account for beyond the mystic or occult outlook necessary to draw conclusions to its system; a system which seems clearly to have been the work of someone else (likely the work of Westcott or Mathers). On the other hand, we have the intellectual environment of the time framing their emergence, and so it could be comfortably said that there seems nothing behind the influences of the LLL which would be incompatible with that of the GD.

Perhaps there was an influence there, that Westcott had known enough about Leutbecher and the LLL to have cited the lodge as its predecessor. Perhaps he knew enough about them to grant himself the cover of a Continental transmission in the story as well. Maybe it was all legend-building.

Then again, from a traditionalist standpoint, it could be argued along other lines. The Cipher Manuscripts were said to have crossed the hands of both Kenneth Mackenzie and Eliphas Levi himself. Though the original lodge LLL closed its doors in 1875, this does not discount the possibility that a splinter lodge may have kept going in Germany that later influenced or made contact with the G.D. To add further intrigue, Levi himself had ties to Germany through his student Mary Gebhard as early as 1871 (who herself was an occult collector). This may have given just enough time for the LLL system to have left Germany in his hands. This is all just speculation, but it could be something worthwhile to look further into.

What continues to make Leutbecher and his LLL so compelling here is, we can see in Leutbecher one who appeared to have his finger on the pulse which gave the Rosicrucian spirit new life as it evolved into the 19^th century. Other lodges or orders typically claim to have been “Rosicrucian” because they had an “RC” grade in their system, or because they have a lineage by some leads to the Gold und Rozenkreutzers of the 1700s. Instead of this, figures like Leutbecher, Polak, Krause and Comenius were rather “Rosicrucian by example”.

Yet beyond these factors, there are some in the midst of the Golden Dawn who themselves who continued seeking a Rosicrucian origin in Germany. One of those was Dr. Robert Felkin, who traveled to Germany seeking a Rosicrucian master. Initially, he was there tracking down one who he thought was a relative of Sprengel from the Cipher Manuscript, but instead he ended up meeting Rudolf Steiner. Felkin’s opinion on the Cipher Manuscript, as we shall see, is rather interesting because he actually considered the outer order rituals to have come out of the Cipher Manuscript and the Sprengel letters to be real. In a letter to John William Brodie-Innes dated 11 June 1912, he stated the following:

I am not satisfied with the present situation, you seem to be [in], in other words you are content to rest your grades on the Cypher MSS, and a Ritual which certainly came through D.D.C.F. [Mathers] and him alone.

I have come to the conclusion that we had better drop all discussion of German matters until such time as I can reply to the many points you raise. They want nothing from me, or from you. They offer me, and if you wish it, you through me, certain things which I want.

I on the other hand have felt from the time I first knew anything about the origin of the [G.D. in the] Outer and the Inner [Order, R.R. et A.C.] that it was very doubtful if it had any real connection with the real Rosicrucian Order at all.

I have spent years and much money and work in trying to clear the matter up. I find that the Sprengel letters were real but that those who received them did not, as they should have done, follow them up. Had they done so the whole position would have been clear. I at last have come on the track of what I think is the real thing and I am on the way to get what I want but I am hampered in getting full information by being unable to go over and spend the necessary time myself.  [38]

Christopher McIntosh, who wrote a paper on the Sprengel letters entitled “Fräulein Sprengel and the Origins of the Golden Dawn: A Surprising Discovery”, stated that there was some possibility that the author of the letters (claimed in the letters to be the secretary of Chief Adept Sprengel) could have been a non-native German transcribing for Sprengel. This might explain some of the criticisms made about the letters being faked because the German written therein was poor. 

Finally, we reach some rather strange twists with discovery that the German groups themselves claimed to have possessed knowledge about Sprengel and the chartering of the early GD lodges; all done against the will of the chiefs in Germany. In AE Waite’s notebooks for example, which recorded the meetings between he and Dr. Felkin in 1911, he covers this issue. He explains that after Felkin’s return from Germany in 1910, and then after he sent his pupil, Nevill Meakin, back to Germany to become initiated in Steiner’s Memphis Service, the following information was returned:

Germans say SDA [Sapiens Dominabitur Astris; Freulein Sprengel] story (i.e. Woodford & SA [Westcott]) true but will send no more warrants as they have been lost. They recognise I[sis]−U[rania] which is in FRs [Dr. Robert Felkin’s] hands. [39]

Apparently, this means that in Germany, those who were among Steiner’s circle considered the Sprengel story to have been true. Or, were they just bluffing?

If this isn’t enough, another German occultist with Rosicrucian ties, Heinrich Traenker, mentioned again, in a review of Israel Regardie’s later work, seems to have held the same opinion as those in Steiner’s camp:

Regardie admits that the birth of the English Order of the Golden Dawn is veiled in darkness. He mentions, however, as its possible mother, Fraeulein Anna Sprengel, of Nuremberg, Germany. For us the possibility is documented certainty. The leaders of the Rosicrucian movement on the European continent never sanctioned the step taken by Fraeulein Sprengel in starting the English Order of the Golden Dawn. Consequently, when the time came for obtaining secret instructions beyond the degree of enlightenment reached by Fraeulein Sprengel, the European adepts refused to communicate with them. [41]

If, in Germany, the tradition existed that a Chief adept “Sprengel” was actually real, and that they acknowledge a relationship to Westcott and the Golden Dawn, this definitely leaves us with some compelling information to consider. 

We shall leave the question now open, closing here with some further thoughts on the matter by A.E. Waite from his memoir Shadows of Life and Thought:

On the balance of probability, I conclude—with almost utter detachment over the whole subject (i) that the G.D. Ritual Notes were produced well after 1870—perhaps even ten years later; (2) that they were not the work of Westcott, Woodman and Mathers; (3) that it is unsafe to challenge their remote German connections …; (4) that the original Isis-Urania Temple may have started work in London with the tacit recognition of the fact on the part of some not dissimilar Institution existing previously in Germany…[41]

Were these “remote German connections” that Waite mentions the Licht Liebe Leben as Westcott claims?  If not, then who?

IH Gladwin

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Footnotes:

1. For a list of research on the subject, refer to:Howe, Ellic. The Magicians of the Golden Dawn: A Documentary History of a Magical Order 1887-1923 (Weiser, 1978); Gilbert, Robert A. Golden Dawn Scrapbook – The Rise and Fall of a Magical Order (Weiser, 1998); Runyon, Carroll. Secrets of the Golden Dawn Cipher Manuscripts (C.H.S., 1997); Küntz, Darcy, The Complete Golden Dawn Cipher Manuscript (Holmes Publishing Group, 1996)
2. For the lecture, https://www.sacred-texts.com/eso/historic.htm
3. See: https://gyllenegryningen.blogspot.com/2010/07/fraulein-sprengel-and-licht-leben-und.html?m=1
4. “Die Bauhütte: Organ für die Gesamt-Interessen der Freimaurerei” Volume 31, 1888. page 5
5. “Allgemeines Handbuch der Freimaurerei”, Volume 1. January 1, 1900. Page 612
6. Leutbecher, Johann Dr. Die Essäer. Eine Skizze für Theologen und Freimaurer. (Thomas, Liepzig 1857). Also in: Schauberg, Joseph Dr. Vergleichendes Handbuch der Symbolik der Freimaurerei mit besonderer Rücksicht auf die Mythologieen und Mysterien des Alterthums (Sändig, Zürich 1861)
7. Westcott, William “Freemasonry and its Relation to the Essenes”, List of Papers in Art Quartuor CoronatorumVol XXVIII, Part2. March, 1915.
8. Polak, Mozes Salomon Die tapis in ihrer historisch-paedagogischen, wissenschaftlichen und moralischen Bedeutung: oder Geschichte der Urreligion als Basis der Freimaurerei (Günst, Amsterdam, 1855)
9. Ibid, pp V-XII
10. Leutbecher, Johann Dr. Ueber den Faust von Goethe (Nürnberg. Verlag von Renner li Comp. 1838)
11. “De dageraad: tijdschrift toegewijd aan de verspreiding van waarheid en verlichting in den geest van de natuurlijke godsdienst en zedeleer”, Volume 6. Günst, 1858
12. For an account of Felkin’s whole story, see:https://gyllenegryningen.blogspot.com/2009/05/rudolf-steiner-and-golden-dawn.html
13. These accounts appear in various records of English- speaking Grand lodges as “Proceedings” which include also the accounts of Proceedings distributed from various other European Grand lodges.  Examples here include the “Journal of proceedings of the M. W. Grand Lodge of the Ancient and Honorable Fraternity of Free and Accepted Masons, of the State of New Hampshire” (1869), and “Proceedings of the Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of the State of New York” (1865).  Other records pertaining to their irregularity and clandestine nature can again be seen in Die Bauhütte” Volume 31, 1888. page 5, as well as the “Geschichte der Grossloge zur Sonne in Bayreuth”, Joseph Gabriel Findel, 1897.
14. See GILBERT, R. A. “William Wynn Westcott and the Esoteric School of Masonic Research” for detailed history of Westcott’s masonic involvement. http://www.mastermason.com/luxocculta/westcott.htm
15. Findel, J.G. Signale für die deutsche Maurerwelt (Liepzig, 1906). p 24.
16. Thissen, Siebe.  “Images of Light and Shadow: Spinozism Bursts Forth into Dutch Cultural Life”, from Disguised and Overt Spinozism Around 1700: Papers Presented at the International Colloquium, Held at Rotterdam, 5-8 October 1994 (Leiden, Boston. Brill. 1995)
17. Ibid
18. Ibid
19. Meijer, Floor “Een Onnut Meubel In De Maatschappu”, from Vrijmetselaren: 250 jaar en meer (Berlin. Springer, Synthese. 2006) p. 269
20. Frishman, Judith Dutch Jewry in a Cultural Maelstrom, 1880-1940 (Amsterdam University Press, 2007)
21. Ibid
22. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Vrije_Gedachte
23. Boska, Ilona “The Rationalist” http://therationalist.eu.org/kk.php/s,4513/k,2
24. Frishman p.136
25. Ibid, pp 136-138
26. Ibid
27. “Journal of proceedings of the M. W. Grand Lodge of the Ancient and Honorable Fraternity of Free and Accepted Masons, of the State of New Hampshire”, 1869.
28. Forward by Leutbecher, Johann; in Polak, Mozes Salamon Die tapis in ihrer historisch-paedagogischen, wissenschaftlichen und moralischen Bedeutung (Amsterdam. Günst. 1855)
29. https://www.encyclopedia.com/philosophy-and-religion/other-religious-beliefs-and-general-terms/religion-general/sabian#1O214Sabian
30. Die Tapis…, p 33
31. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/panentheism/
32. Ho, Pao-Shen Plotinus’ Mystical Teaching of Henosis: An Interpretation in the Light of the Metaphysics of the OneInnsbruck 2014
33. Westcott, William “Freemasonry and its Relation to the Essenes”. Ars Quator Coronatorum Vol 28, 1915. pp 73
34. Lecture: Karl Christian Friedrich Krause “Spiritualization of the Greater Lights in Masonry, Presented at the Opening of the Lodge’s Works in the Winter of 1809 – 1810.”
35. https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Gottfried_Herder
36. Gibbons, Brian Spirituality and the Occult (London, New York. Routledge. 2001)  p 131
37. Traenker, Heinrich “History of the Rose Cross Movement” Pansophic Intellectualizer,Vols I No. 5, No. 7, No. 9, No. 1. 1935-1936.
38. Howe, Ellic Magicians of the Golden Dawn: A Documentary History of a Magical Order, 1887-1923 (Wellingborough, Northamptonshire. THE AQUARIAN PRESS. 1972) p 264
39. Waite, Arthur Edward “Ordo R-R et AC. Meeting with FR, Sept.26, 1911”
40. Traenker, Heinrich “The Order of the Golden Dawn” Pansophic Intellectualizer,Vol 2, No 2. 1936
41. Waite, A.E. Shadows of Life and Thought (London: Selwyn and Blount. 1938) p 225