Karl Germer, Meditation, and Bio
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I've read somewhere that Karl Germer despised meditation and he simply couldn't do it. Is this true? I'd have to dig to find the resource...but I find it to be hard to believe given his attainment.
Also, I've heard that he completed his Adeptus Minor Work in a concentration camp. That's pretty extraordinary. I've also heard he was an extremely nice and quiet guy...a little different than the accounts of Crowley.
How did they meet? When did Karl start to work with the A.'.A.'.? Did he have OTO affiliation first? Any information would be great...
I'm sure there are many letters and such corresponding to these subjects. Also, are there plans to ever publish these things, or possibly but a history/biography together regarding the Meral lineage of the A.'.A.'.? JIm?
If not, does anybody know of a biography of Germer, or biography type material, compiled and already published? I'd love to read something like that, if it's available.
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@Frater 639 said
"I've read somewhere that Karl Germer despised meditation and he simply couldn't do it. Is this true? I'd have to dig to find the resource...but I find it to be hard to believe given his attainment. "
Actually, that's a fair representation of his view concerning ritual. He had little regard for initiation rituals, or ritual in general.
He may have said something similar about meditation in some context... some vague memory is pinging off in the deep recesses of back-memory... but it wouldn't have been true in the obvious, surface sense of the words. Karl was a natural at meditation and a deep, spontaneous mystic (especially after he plowed through the dense tortoise-hide of his controlling, rigid personality.
"Also, I've heard that he completed his Adeptus Minor Work in a concentration camp. That's pretty extraordinary. I've also heard he was an extremely nice and quiet guy...a little different than the accounts of Crowley."
Yes, in solitary confinement. He had sufficient privacy
- BTW, what your statement doesn't include is that Crowley was also "an extremely nice ** guy." He prided himself on his gentlemanly graces."How did they meet?"
I think it was at a conference in Germany or Austria where various European Rosicrucian organizations were convening and Crowley hoped to be recognized as their common Superior. Politics and personalities got in the way as usual, but a relationship with Germer was started. (I think that's the story.)
"Also, are there plans to ever publish these things, or possibly but a history/biography together regarding the Meral lineage of the A.'.A.'.? JIm?
"Most of that story is already published. Have you read Soror Meral's serialized biography of Jane Wolfe from In the Continuum? You can get all the issues as free downloads at <!-- w --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.thelema.org/publications">www.thelema.org/publications</a><!-- w -->
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Thanks! I'll check out the link.
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@Frater 639 said
"I've read somewhere that Karl Germer despised meditation and he simply couldn't do it. "
A bit off topic (okay, a lot off topic), but the Dalai Lama stated in one of his books that he is bad at meditation.
Some of Germer's letters have been published. When I get home, I'll look up some references.
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As Jim said, Germer had no interest in ceremonial magic, and took no interest whatever the more formal aspects of grades such as grips, signs, passwords and the like. This is confirmed in letters he wrote to Kenneth Grant in the early 1950s (extracts from these letters were published in the fifth issue of Starfire in 1994). Crowley considered Germer a man of deep and profound attainment, selecting him as successor several years before his death. Nor was this view restricted to Crowley; in Gerald Yorke's correspondence of 1948 and 1949 with Achad, for instance - finally to be published later this year - Yorke also expressed a similar view of Germer.
Germer did a great job in the 1950s and early 1960s, publishing key works of Crowley's - The Vision and the Voice with Crowley's commentary, Magick without Tears, Liber Aleph - with little resources.
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@gmugmble said
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@Michael Staley said
"(extracts from these letters were published in the fifth issue of Starfire in 1994)."Which of course is unavailable.
"That issue of Starfire does come up on the second-hand market from time to time. The extracts were published in the course of an article entitled 'It's an Ill Wind that Bloweth'. Although the article does not appear in Ecpyrosis - a selection of essays and artwork from the first five issues of Starfire - it is available online on Peter Koenig's website.