Esoteric Traditions in the Transylvanian town of Sibiu (Romania)
Until recently, the field of Western Esotericism, like other academic fields, has had an “Iron Curtain” of its own, staying away from Eastern Europe or Russia. In many ways, this omission was not intentional, but resulted from the lack of access to documents trapped on the other side of the Wall. It was then salutary that at this ESSWE conference in Strasbourg (of which you can read more in my previous post) there were presentations on the esotericism of Russia, the Czech Republic and Romania. In many ways, Eastern European countries are an unearthed treasure-trove that demands recovery.
My presentation focused on the town of Sibiu (also called Hermannstadt or Nagyszeben) in Transylvania, a historical province of Romania. Sibiu was named in 2007 as one of the two European capitals of culture, and Sibians are still very proud of this honour, the first one bestowed to an Eastern European city. Sibiu is by many standards a peculiar place, as it was for almost a millennium inhabited mainly by ethnic Germans, locally called “Saxons”, in a province dominated by a Romanian majority and a Hungarian minority. The Germans came here around 1100s, invited by the Hungarian kings to protect the border of Transylvania from Tartar and later Turkish raiders. The Germans occupied a land they called “Siebenburgen” (the seven cities) out of which Sibiu was the most important and best fortified. It was so well fortified that the Pope once praised it for being one of the foremost bastions of Christianity, successfully withstanding Moslem attacks. In 1526, however, Hungary fell to the Turks, and Transylvania (together with Sibiu) became a vassal of the Turks. This was not as bad as it sounded, because the principality was virtually independent, paying a formal tribute to the Ottoman Empire. Hence, when the Austrian Empire tried to take over Transylvania in the 1600s, there was strong local resistance. Eventually, the Austrians did occupy the principality, which became part of the Empire until 1918. Since then, Transylvania (and Sibiu) was part of Romania. However, after 1945, most Germans began to leave the country, with the result that now there are only 3% of them left in Sibiu (albeit the mayor of the town is a German).
From my investigations, Sibiu appears to have a rich esoteric background, focused particularly on alchemy and freemasonry. The key alchemist figure here was Melchior Cibinensis, a mysterious author which composed a famous alchemical work in the 1500s called “the Alchemical Process in the form of a Mass”. This was an audacious piece that made an analogy between alchemy and the Catholic Mass. In the 20th century, Carl Jung used this work to describe his theory of the correspondence between the lapis philosophorum and Christ.
In addition to Melchior, there was a sustained interest amongst alchemists and chemists on the subject of pyrotechny. In the 1600s, officer Conrad Haas wrote a pyrotechnical treatise wherein he introduced the multi-stage rocket. In 1965, research showed that Haas was indeed the inventor of the multi-stage rocket and consecrated him as such.
Sibiu had a strong Renaissance culture, which I have evidenced through the figures of Peter Haller von Hallerstein and Valentin Franck von Franckenstein. The first was a mayor of Sibiu with an inclination for the esoteric: his house, standing in the Large Square of the town, as well as his gravestone, present intriguing Renaissance and alchemical symbolism. Franckenstein was a reputed figure in his age, interested in history, classical literature, art and alchemy. In 1975, Dracula scholar Radu Florescu began his research into the historical roots of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein from a chance encounter with the tomb of Franckenstein in Sibiu. He did not establish a link between Shelley and the Sibiu scholar, but this would be fascinating to investigate in the future.
In the 1700s, Sibiu became an important freemasonic centre in Transylvania. The Sibiu lodge “St Andrew of the three lotus leaves” was set up in 1767 and activated until 1790 (Fisher 49-50). Amongst its most famous members one can find Franz Joseph Muller, the discoverer of the chemical element of tellurium, doctor Michael Neudstater, one of the early pioneers of vaccination against smallpox and Samuel Hahnemann, the creator of homeopathy.
However, the most important Sibiu freemason was baron Samuel von Brukenthal (1721-1803), the governor of Transylvania between 1777 and 1787. A favorite of Austrian empress Maria Theresa, proved a generous patron of the arts, sciences and education, organizing cultural gatherings at his residence and sponsoring reforms. He built the Brukenthal Palace, which he endowed with a rich collection of Renaissance paintings and a huge library of 13,000 volumes, many of which betray his esoteric interests. The palace became a museum in 1817, the first such public institution in South-Eastern Europe. It is now still one of the most important museums of Europe.
It was Brukenthal who in 1777 hosted the founder of homeopathy, Samuel Hahnemann at his residence. Hahnemann was hired to catalogue Brukenthal’s vast collection of books and possibly to act as an informal doctor to the baron. Several scholars have suggested that during his stay in Sibiu, Hahnemann must have become acquainted with Brukenthal’s alchemical and esoteric writings. Hahnemann always claimed that the idea of homeopathy and of the vital force were obtained purely through his experimentation, but many researchers have pointed out resemblances to Paracelsian and Helmontian works. Some of the ideas of homeopathy may have come from Brukenthal’s library.
This has been a quick overview of Sibiu’s contribution to esotericism between the 16th and 18th century. More can be said and investigated about Sibiu’s connection to anthroposophy (Rudolf Steiner visited and taught here) or its homeopathic tradition. Perhaps this could be the topic of a future study. For now, I shall conclude by adding that I have posted the Power Point presentation of my paper on Scribd, at this address: http://www.scribd.com/doc/17256904/Esoteric-Traditions-in-Transylvanian-Town-of-Sibiu-ESSWE-Strasbourg-Conference-. If you want to find out more on Sibiu (or anything else I’m publishing) you can post a question on Twitter, send me an email (on the Contact page) or post on the Esoteric Coffeehouse page on Facebook at http://apps.facebook.com/blognetworks/blog/esoteric_coffeehouse/
Tags: academic, Alchemy, brukenthal, esotericism, esswe, frankenstein, freemasonry, hahnemann, hermannstadt, homeopathy, Jung, romania, sibiu, strasbourg, transylvania
