Karl Brandler-Pracht

Karl Brandler-Pracht (1864-1939) was a Austrian-German theosophist and esoteric author who also published under the pseudonym Johannes Balzli.

He was the secretary of the Leipzig Theosophical Society and founder-publisher and editor of several esoteric journals like 'Zentralblatt für Okkultismus' (in 1906), 'Prana' between 1909 and 1919, as well as other astrological journals.

He also founded astrological associations and research groups in several cities, a.o. the First Viennese Astrological Society in 1907 or 1908, the Astrological Society of Berlin in 1913, and others in Zurich, Munich, Leipzig, Hamburg.

Though probably best known for his work as an astrologer and establishing modern astrology in central western Europe in the early 20th century, he is also notable for his biography of Guido von List, and several books with initiation exercises on the topic of spiritual development or initiation.

He wrote his first book on initiation in 1907 (aged 41), and came back to this some 14 years later in the period 1921-23 with several titles - see 'Further reading' section below. The exercises in these books are remarkably similar as those in the first two steps in Franz Bardon's first book in 1958 'The way to true adepthood', in English titled 'Initiation into Hermetics' and referenced as IIH).

Aspects

Brandler-Pracht had an adept master from India who taught through influence and also visited him materializing in person (as referenced by Arnold Krumm-Heller in his 1927 book - there may be more references in other works)
profiles on astro.com and EN wikipedia and DE wikipedia

Illustrations

Coverage reference extracts

1927 - Arnold Krumm-Heller

Dr. Heinrich Arnold Krumm-Heller (1876-1949) was a German doctor, occultist and prolific writer, Rosicrucian, and founder of Fraternitas Rosicruciana Antiqua (FRA), a Hermetic order in Brazil.

Profile (from internet source, written by 'Sabazius', 1997; based on a conversation with Parsival Krumm-Heller on September 7, 1994 and subsequent correspondence) - here shortened:

Arnoldo (born Arnold) Krumm-Heller was born in Salchendorf, Germany on April 15, 1876. He left Germany at the age of 16 to join his brother at his brother’s farm in the interior of Argentina; but his brother failed to meet him at the station. He went to Chile where he obtained employment with some chemists. He began to travel extensively in 1896, first returning to Germany, then proceeding to France where he met Gérard Encausse (Papus) in about 1900. He also studied with Franz Hartmann during this time period, and thereafter considered Hartmann his primary teacher and influence. He attended the 1908 Masonic and Spiritualist Conference organized by Papus in Paris; and was given authority at that conference to work the Martinist/R.C./Gnostic milieux in Latin America and Spain. He received a document from Papus dated March 13, 1908 appointing him “Délégué Genéral pour le Chili, Perou et Bolivie” of the Martinist Order. He also received, for no fee, a document from Theodor Reuss dated March 15, 1908 appointing him “General Gross-Representanten für Mexico” of the Sovereign Sanctuary of the Antient and Primitive Rite of Memphis and Mizraim. He may have accompanied Papus on one of his trips to St. Petersburg. Some time between 1910 and 1920, he was consecrated in the Gnostic Church by Dr. H.C. Peithmann. In 1910, he began to study medicine in Mexico under Hartmann’s tutelage and at conventional medical schools. He adopted Mexico as his fatherland, and even turned down an offer of U.S. citizenship from General Pershing when Pershing was in Mexico chasing Pancho Villa in 1916. Some time between 1910 and the beginning of WWI, Krumm-Heller founded Fraternitas Rosicruciana Antiqua (F.R.A.) as a vehicle to accomplish his charge to promulgate the esoteric work in Latin America. He also began work within Iglesia Gnostica, developing ecclesiastical rituals influenced by Peithmann’s German liturgies and by Aleister Crowley’s Gnostic Mass.
In 1920, he returned to Germany and bought a printing business there, which he used to finance his lectures and publications. He was strongly opposed to the collectiion of money for any services connected with esoteric studies.
While in Germany, he bought a home in Marburg, where his sister ran a Lutheran orphanage. Some time during the 20’s he met Rudolf Steiner, the founder of the Anthroposophical Society. In 1925, Krumm-Heller published an article on Biorhythms; long before they were recognized by the orthodox scientific community.
Krumm-Heller met with Aleister Crowley on several occasions and, according to his unpublished memoirs, held him in high esteem. He may have visited Crowley in Cefalú. On June 7, 1930, Crowley, Karl Germer and Karl’s first wife Cora met with Krumm-Heller at Krumm-Heller’s house in Berlin, Germany. Parsival, then 5 1/2 years old, was there. Parsival remembers being terrified at first at the presence of “Therion.” Crowley asked Krumm-Heller why he had named his son Parsival, and Krumm-Heller responded that Parsival had been born at the foot of Monsalvat in Spain. Crowley, who spoke in fluent Spanish to Parsival’s father, spoke briefly to Parsival in broken German. Parsival recalls that Crowley’s portrait was one of the five that hung in the F.R.A. lodge, the others being of Reuss, Papus, Hartmann, and Steiner.
In 1936-37, a pamphlet titled “Der Judenkenner” was circulated, in which Krumm-Heller and the late Theodor Reuss were denounced as agents of the “Judaeo-Masonic Conspiracy”. .. The Nazis confiscated Krumm-Heller’s library, but did not destroy it. Krumm-Heller and his son left Germany for America in 1937. The father returned to Germany in 1938, leaving Parsival in Mexico to attend school. Parsival returned to Germany in 1940. Carlotta, Krumm-Heller’s second wife and Parsival’s mother, died in 1945.
Krumm-Heller remained in Germany throughout most of WWII, at his home in Marburg. ... During the war, Krumm-Heller maintained a baseline level of contact with his F.R.A. bodies in South America via mutual contacts in Sweden. When the Americans marched into Marburg, Krumm-Heller greeted them enthusiastically, and was appointed by them as the local director of the Red Cross, with which organization he had long been associated. As soon as the war was over, he immediately re-established full contact with F.R.A. in South America.
Krumm-Heller died in Marburg in 1949 surrounded by his family and friends.
While Krumm-Heller held an O.T.O. charter from Reuss, he always kept his O.T.O. work separate from his F.R.A. work. He never established any O.T.O. groups, initiated anyone into O.T.O. or appointed any O.T.O. officers; preferring instead to work within the F.R.A. context.
...
Krumm-Heller initially gave H. Spencer Lewis authority to operate F.R.A. in the US. However, he later severed his ties with Lewis because he came to believe that AMORC was being operated as a business, rather than as a charitable fraternity.
He later established ties with R. Swinburne Clymer, head of the P.B. Randolph derived Rosicrucian Fraternity in Quakertown, Pennsylvania.

in 'The Tattwameter or the vibrations of the ether' (original in ES 1927 as 'El Tatwámetro o las vibraciones del éter')

On receiving initiation, my Guru gave me detailed instructions on the Tattwas and the tattwameter, but I had never been able to find a form of publishing anything about them. Until, in 1912, I read an article on the subject in Mexico by my friend Brandler-Pracht from Berlin, and then I wrote a brochure on the application of the Tattwas to practical life.
Five years later, we conducted some occult experiments together in Berlin, and Brandler-Pracht told me that he had published a larger book on the same theme. I haven't been able to obtain the latest edition, but it's likely that the present publication, as well as Brandler-Pracht's, offset each other, since we took all this from a common source. At the end of the present book is something by the above-mentioned author.
...
[Brandler-Pracht example]
There are very few beings in the world who have achieved the parallel development of the Tattwas and the elimination of the inner I, and to dominate them at will. Brandler-Pracht relates that he is fortunate enough to know an initiate in remote India, and that from time to time he is given visits by this master. These are hours of ineffable happiness!
These are the Tattwic forces that enable the Hindu friend to abandon the land of every occultist's delights and materialize in a minute before his presence. When he leaves, he always goes to a closed room where he must be left alone. A knock on the door is a sign of farewell and that the room is empty; the master has returned to India.

This phenomenon was repeated three times in Brandler-Pracht's life. On the penultimate occasion, he wanted to convince himself of the absolute materiality of the being visiting him, since he had thought it might be the result of a telepathic phenomenon provoked by the master from India. The master smiled and, without further ado, entered the adjoining room. By the time he heard the knock on the door, the master had disappeared. After ten minutes or so, while he charged his inner self believing that because of his doubt he had lost the master, he looked up to find her at his side, still with a peaceful face and her gaze full of tenderness. "Excuse me for leaving you, I've been called away," was all he said. When after a moment he said again that he had to go, he ordered her to put her hand in his pocket where there was only a handkerchief. "When you hear the sign of my departure again, you will insert your hand into your pocket again," and without saying anything more, he blessed her and left for the other room. Entering the room again after his departure, he felt a little jolt in the pocket and found there a piece of quartz the size of his hand, which we could see had just been torn from the rock a few minutes before.

1996 - Claudia von Schierstedt

biographical profile as astrologer, computer translation of an article in series 'Astrologische Pioniere in Deutschland im 20. Jahrhundert' published in Meridian 5/1996, titled: 'Karl Brandler-Pracht - der Wiedererwecker und Neubegründer der deutschen Astrologie'

Since the Age of Enlightenment, astrology had been almost completely forgotten in Central Europe. In England, astrology had been revived in the last quarter of the 19th century with Alan Leo and the theosophical movement, but in Germany there were no astrologers and no textbooks for those interested. The ephemeris and house tables that were so important for astrologers at the time had to be obtained from abroad or laboriously calculated by the astrologer himself.
Karl Brandler-Pracht was born on February 11, 1864 at 5:21 a.m. in Vienna, where he also grew up. His parents came from Bohemia and imagined their son as a future school teacher or businessman. But Karl was much more drawn to artistic things, literature and acting. After secretly taking acting lessons, he soon had his first successes on the stage. He continued his acting career with a tour of the USA. During this tour, he married Eleonore Balawelder in New York in 1895, who later became known as the astrologer Elli Brandler-Pracht. Back in Germany, he performed in many German-speaking theaters and ended his acting career after 12 years with his last engagement at the Stadttheater in Basel.
In the last years of his acting career, Karl Brandler-Pracht was already intensively involved with various humanities and came into closer contact with astrology through a work by the medieval astrologer Antonius de Montulmo. In Basel, he moved in a spiritualist circle where a medium revealed to him that his life's work would lie in the revival and renewal of astrology.
In 1905 he published his first astrological textbook, the 'Mathematical-instructive textbook of astrology' in Leipzig. In the following years he tirelessly gave numerous lectures and

founded astrological research groups and associations in several cities (1908 founding of the 'First Astrological Society of Vienna', 1913 founding of the 'Astrological Society of Berlin', 1914 in St. Gallen and Zurich, Munich, Leipzig, Hamburg, 1920 co-founding of the 'Astrological Society eV' in Berlin)

founded magazines (1906 the 'Zentralblatt für Okkultismus', 1909 'Prana', 1910 the 'Astrologische Rundschau' and the 'Hohe Warte', 1914 'Psyche' and the excellent magazine of the 'Astrologische Blätter').

.
In 1910 he initiated the excellent book series 'Astrologische Bibliothek'.
Karl Brandler-Pracht worked tirelessly to spread astrology. Just as he was on tour as an actor, he was now on tour for astrology. He stayed in Hamburg, London and Berlin, where his wife and colleague Elli died on December 13, 1914. Elli Brandler-Pracht translated several articles from English for the first issues of the 'Astrological Review', including 'The 100 Rules of Ptolemy'.
During the First World War he lived in Switzerland; after the end of the war in 1918 he returned to Berlin, where he published his large 6-volume basic textbook 'Astrological Collection for Self-Study'. This work achieved an incredible total circulation of 165.000. Further stops were Munich, Vienna and Salzburg, where he lost his second wife after 12 years of marriage. He then went to Frankfurt and Mainz.
Karl Brandler-Pracht not only wrote astrological textbooks, but also countless series of articles and individual articles for all German-language astrological journals. He also wrote an astrological tragedy, the drama 'Der Famulus', which received excellent reviews after its premiere.
He taught in lectures and courses and the list of his students reads like a who's who of the German astrologer elite of that time. His students included the publisher and editor of the 'Spiegel', Hermann Bauer, the psychoanalyst Johannes Dressler, Wilhelm Knappich, Arnold Grohn, the publisher of many astrological works Hugo Vollrath, Alfred Witte, Arthur Grobe-Wutischky, Elsbeth Ebertin, Bert van Solden, Erich Wiesel.
Karl Brandler-Pracht made astrology popular and socially acceptable in Germany. He laid the foundation for the astrological movement in German-speaking countries that continues to this day. His astrological works are characterized by the intention of compiling traditional techniques and rules of interpretation and thus providing astrologers with basic tools. Brandler-Pracht repeatedly compiled different traditional techniques for various astrological sub-areas and gave the reader the freedom to gain an overview of the various methods (e.g. in his series of articles on birth time correction in the Astrologische Rundschau 2nd year). He studied mundane astrology intensively, discussed horoscopes of monarchs, interpreted the sinking of the Titanic and wrote annual forecasts for Germany. He also dealt intensively with astrological botched work and fought against the practice of fairground horoscopes.
Karl Brandler-Pracht died on September 10, 1939 in Berlin in the late afternoon hours at the age of 75. Karl Brandler-Pracht had a daughter, Maritha, who later married the astrologer Bruno Noah and continued her father's astrological legacy.

Discussion

Related pages

References and further reading

Karl Brandler-Pracht
- initiation:
  - [1] 'Lehrbuch der Entwicklung der okkulten Kräfte im Menschen' (in DE 1907, 1920, republished 1998; in EN 2007 as ''How to Develop Your Occult Powers: A textbook for the development of spiritual powers'
  - Der Heilmagnetismus Vom Okkulten Standpunkt (1914, also 1922 and republished 2006)
  - [2] 'Geheime Seelenkräfte' - Unterrichtsbriefe zur Entwicklung der Willenskraft und der okkulten Fähigkeiten; ein erprobter Lehrgang in 10 Stufen (1921 or 1923, published as Johannes Balzli; republished Rüggeberg 2005; also with other title as 'Magisch okkulte Unterrichtsbriefe: zehn Lehrbriefe zur Entwicklung der Willenskraft und der okkulten Fähigkeiten' (republished 1985 and 2002 by Schikowski)
  - [3] 'Suggestions-Atem' Wie erhält man körperliche und geistige Kraft, Gesundheit, Schönheit, Jugendfrische bis in das hohe Alter? (1922, 1936; republished 2003 and 2008)
- astrology, see list here
- other
  - 'Guido v. List: Der Wiederentdecker Uralter Arischer Weisheit - Sein Leben und sein Schaffen' (first in DE 1917, later republished by Adolf Schleipfer; translated: Guido v. List - The Rediscoverer of Ancient Aryan Wisdom - His Life and His Work)
  - 'Die Tatwas und ihre Bedeutung für das praktische Leben' (1911)
  - [4] 'Tattwische und Astrale Einflüsse' (1920)
  - Die Sintflut kommt wieder! Ein Nachweis der Wiederkehr der grossen Weltkatastrophe auf Grund astronomisch-geologischer Feststellungen (1920)
  - not confirmed as titles by this author:
    - Das Problem des Cölibats vom Standpunkte des Okkultismus
    - Eurhythmie
    - 'Geistige Erziehung (1921) - probably another title of [1] or [2]

Various other

Dr. Cl.-Dierst: 'Zum 70. Geburtstag Karl Brandler-Prachts', in: Zenit 5 (1934, Heft 2)
Johannes Dressler: 'Nachruf auf Karl Brandler-Pracht' in Mensch im All (1939-40, Heft 2)
Uwe Schellinger: 'Geburtsstunde eines Sterndeuters. Der Astrologe und Okkultist Karl Brandler-Pracht (1864-1939) in seiner Ortenauer Zeit' In: Geroldsecker Land. Jahrbuch einer Landschaft 51 (2009) 92-105