Theos-Talk Archives (September 1995 Message tl01112)

Great Theosophists:
The Count De St. Germain

 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
exciphered 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?

Theosophy Magazine, November 1938