Germany and Humanity’s Salvation: Bô Yin Râ; Jakob Böhme; Magische Blätter; The Bô Yin Râ Foundations; Kober Press; Books to Light...Now becoming more accessible in English. PART 1 OF 2

A Three Sages Special

“Wald im Riesengebirge” (Forest in the Giant Mountains) by Bô Yin Râ. Reproduced with permission of the German Bô Yin Râ Foundation.

Introduction

We are living in a world in crisis with the rise of a multipolar world—the West vs. BRICS, etc. Whether or not the clash of the two poles results in the rumored disaster of another world war, we are clearly watching the turning of a page in humanity’s long journey.

This transition appears to be marked, among many other things, by the rise of a new intensity of spiritual searching among the people of the world that can be discerned going back a century or more.

One of the major fountainheads of this spiritual searching may be found in Germany with the medieval mystics, such as the Dominicans Meister Eckhart, Johannes Tauler, and Henry Suso; the anonymous author of the Theologia Germanica; Thomas à Kempis and Angelus Silesius; as well as the Benedictine Hildegard of Bingen and the Beguine Mechthild of Magdeburg. We might add Johann Huss and Martin Luther, two of the founders of the Reformation, along with Jacob Böhme, “the first German philosopher,” bringing us past the Renaissance into the Baroque period then on to Romanticism and modern times.

In the world of music, the German-speaking world has given us Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Wagner, and many others. In the 18^th-19^th centuries we have Goethe, Schiller, Schopenhauer, and a host of other literary notables. In the early 20^th we have deep Christian witnesses like Albert Schweitzer and Karl Barth. But we also see that what might be called the “sacred” in art, architecture, and daily life was being shattered, as mirrored, for instance, in the writings of novelist Thomas Mann.

This shattering is congruent with the start of the 20^th century, when we saw two world wars break out between the Anglo-American powers and Germany. Even though Germany was able to resurrect itself to become an industrial dynamo after the horrors inflicted by both sides during World War II, Germany as a whole does not appear to have yet regained its political will.

This came vividly home through the ease with which the Anglo-Americans pressured the Germans into supporting their proxy war against Russia in Ukraine. Not to mention the act of making English the official language of the EU, followed ironically with Brexit.

Nevertheless, it is my contention that it will be Germany that helps lead the world into new channels of peace, harmony, love, and even salvation.

How can I possibly say this?

In this essay I do not intend to focus on my own personal background, except to say that I have strong personal and family ties to Germany, along with experience connected through my own spiritual search.

Also, I plan to pass on selective information that I have received from other participants in German wisdom that I may choose not to identify for purposes of individual privacy.

The Central Figure: Bô Yin Râ the Luminary

Bô Yin Râ is the spiritual name of an individual with the birth-name of Joseph Anton Schneiderfranken, who was born in Aschaffenburg, Germany, in 1876. Aschaffenburg is a small city near Frankfurt, located in the ancient region of Franconia, which became attached to the Kingdom of Bavaria after Napoleon abolished the Holy Roman Empire in 1806.

Joseph Anton Schneiderfranken was born into a Roman Catholic family with forebears among the class of devout and literate farmers, rural craftsmen, and foresters who had formed the bedrock of traditional German society for centuries. Gifted with artistic skills, he received an education in the creative arts, apprenticed with a number of notable practitioners, and later was able to earn his living as a landscape painter.

He was also a spiritual master who projected his experiences and into a profound and seminal body of work that began to become available to German-speaking readers prior to World War I.

The best English-language resource on his life is a book of 117 pages entitled Bô Yin Râ: An Introduction to His Works, published by the Kober Press of Berkeley, California (Second Edition 2004), with translation by B.A. Reichenbach (Copyright 1977). Following is a link to Kober Press. The book itself may be ordered HERE.

Following is the book description on Amazon.com:

The articles collected in this volume give the interested reader an overview of the painter and writer Bô Yin Râ, whose writings in the fields of metaphysics, religion, and philosophy are difficult to classify but rich in meaning. The book includes a brief biography and a chronological list and chapter headings of the author’s works, in the order in which they were published in the original German.

The Amazon.com description includes the following quotation by Bô Yin Râ from Chapter 5, “Résumé”:

All knowledge, faith, and forming of hypotheses remains completely worthless so long as it does not effectively determine the conduct of one’s daily life in each and every instance.

But who was Bô Yin Râ really?

To attempt to answer this question, the reader must refer to his own usually vague understanding that throughout history, there has always been the awareness that somewhere in the visible world, or possibly on some other plane of existence affecting humanity, there is a group or association of enlightened beings who watch over and guide the spiritual evolution of mankind. Examples from the West include, from the Bible, the Three Wise Men; from the Christian religion, the saints and angels; from medieval history, a body of holy knights acting as keepers of the Holy Grail; or from more recent times, the “Ascended Masters.”

Perhaps one of the central ideas of Bô Yin Râ’s work is that there is in fact such a group, though its nature had met much confusion in the popular mind, a group he calls the Leuchtenden des Urlichts, or the “Luminaries of Eternal Light.” Through study of Bô Yin Râ’s writings, chiefly his 32-volume “Lehrwerk” (“Textbook”), known as the Hortus Conclusus, or “Enclosed Garden,” we come to see that he himself was a Luminary, one of the few in the course of history to make himself publicly known. We also learn from his writings that perhaps the most well-known of Luminaries from the past was Jesus Christ.

Readers who wish to learn more about the Luminaries, including why they have made a public appearance at this particular time, must undertake a serious study of Bô Yin Râ’s body of work, which also includes a series of spiritual paintings. A good place to start is perhaps the central volume of Hortus Conclusus, entitled The Book on the Living God, which is available in English as a free download HERE.

Bô Yin Râ’s Work Goes Public

Given that Bô Yin Râ has been a little-known figure to English-speaking audiences, we may ask to what extent did he play a role in 20^th century history during his lifetime?

To the English-speaking reader, this question is impossible to answer, as there are no English-language resources presently available, except the small volume mentioned above from Kober Press. This may soon change, as presently an English translation of a longer biography by Rudolph Schott is in the works.

Within the German-speaking world, however, Bô Yin Râ published extensively—both his 32-volume Hortus Conclusus, along with other books and articles; produced and exhibited numerous paintings; engaged in a voluminous personal correspondence with readers from all walks of life; and acquired what were reportedly millions of German-speaking readers.

Following are some key dates:

November 25,1876—Joseph Anton Schneiderfranken is born in Aschaffenburg, near Frankfurt am Main, Germany.

1890-1899—Schneiderfranken is apprenticed to a wood turner, then is accepted as a student at the Städelsche Art Institute in Frankfurt, studied with leading painter Hans Toma, and graduated from the Städelsche Art Institute in the Master Class of Prof. W.A. Beer.

1900-1903—Continued his art studies in Vienna, Munich, and Paris, and in 1903 married Irma Schönfeld of Vienna, who died of diabetes in 1915.

1904-1912—Worked and exhibited in Berlin-Karlshorst and Munich. In 1906 spent six weeks traveling and painting in Italy and in 1908 visited southern Sweden.

September 1912-August 1913—Traveled to Greece where he met his spiritual mentor, a Luminary who had appeared from the East, as well as other spiritual disciples. Sketched, painted, and wrote several books of the future cycle Hortus Conclusus, while beginning to submit writings for publication with the initials B.Y.R.

1913-1916—Worked as a painter in Munich and Berlin and continued to publish spiritual works with the B.Y.R. initials.

November 1916—After being drafted into the German army during World War I, Schneiderfranken refused to touch any weapons but was assigned to write medical reports and perform administrative work. In March 1917, was transferred to work at a POW camp as a translator for Greek soldiers in Görlitz, Silesia, until the end of the war. Görlitz had been the home of renowned German mystic and philosopher Jacob Böhme from 1599 until his death in 1624. Today, Görlitz is the easternmost town in Germany, situated in the state of Saxony.

1917-1923—Bô Yin Râ continued to reside in Görlitz during a period of intense creativity. In 1918 he married Helene Hoffman, a widow with two daughters, Ria and Ilsa, with whom a third daughter, Datti, was born. In 1920, founded the Jacob Böhme Society (Jakob Böhme-Bund) with fellow artists, and completed his painting cycle of twenty Spiritual Perspectives, later published as Worlds of Spirit. With Kurt Wolff of Leipzig, published the central book of his Hortus Conclusus entitled The Book on the Living God, the first work to show his complete spiritual name of Bô Yin Râ. Numerous additional titles followed.

1923-1925—Relocated with his family to Switzerland, settling in a villa in Massagno/Lugano, Tessin, near the Italian border, later becoming citizens. A long period of productivity followed, during which Bô Yin Râ exerted a profound influence on the consciousness of Central Europe up to and through the first years of World War II. One of his contacts was said to be Cardinal Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli, the future Pope John XXIII.

1935—Bô Yin Râ’s spiritual cycle Hortus Conclusus was banned by the Nazi government but remained in print through his Swiss publisher, Dr. Alfred Kober-Staehelin.

February 14, 1943—Bô Yin Râ passed away in Massagno/Lugano, Switzerland, leaving behind forty books and two hundred paintings.

Logos by Bô Yin Râ. Reproduced with permission of the German Bô Yin Râ Foundation.

The Jacob Böhme Society and Magische Blätter

As we have seen, the wartime assignment of Joseph Anton Schneiderfranken/Bô Yin Râ to the small city of Görlitz, hometown of the famous German mystic Jacob Böhme, was an extremely fortuitous conjunction. Through his published writings, Bô Yin Râ was now publicly identifying himself as a Luminary, an extremely rare occurrence. Indeed, there are Luminaries living on earth today, but working among us unnoticed or in deep seclusion.

Görlitz was indeed a location with deep historical roots. Today, the town website gives the following description:

Görlitz is first recorded back in 1071. The city grew at the intersection of Europe’s oldest and most important trade routes, the Via Regia which connected Kiev to Santiago de Compostela, and the Salt Road which linked Prague to the Baltic Sea. Over the centuries, Görlitz became an influential center of trade and science….

With its late Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque and art nouveau buildings, Görlitz is considered an integrated architectural work of art, and fortunately, the city was not destroyed during the Second World War. In particular the buildings in the historic city center never fail to fascinate with the richly decorated facades, artful arches, and frescoed ceilings from different epochs. Nowhere in Germany will you find such a density of lavishly restored listed buildings as in the city on the River Neisse.

Through his work, Bô Yin Râ was to identify Jacob Böhme as not only an enlightened individual, but, while not being a Luminary himself, one who was directly guided by the Luminaries in producing one of the deepest and most spiritually profound bodies of written philosophical discourse in European history. Identified—and sometimes derided—as being a mere shoemaker, Böhme garnered the ire of the Lutheran authorities by demonstrating the ability of a lone individual to experience deep spiritual insight without the mediation of organized religion.

Following is one of the more accessible of Jacob Böhme’s declarations:

If once each hour you can sweep up, out of all creatures, over all sensual thought, into the purest mercy of God, into the suffering of our Lord Jesus Christ, and give yourself into it, you will receive power to rule over sin, death, the devil, hell and the world. Then you can be strong in all temptation.

By forming the Jacob Böhme Society, Bô Yin Râ gave testimony to the affinity of the seer of Görlitz with his own mission, an affinity which stands today as a monument to the continuity of German inspiration. Central to the work which now had begun was the founding by Bô Yin Rá of the periodical Magische Blätter, or “Magic Leaves.” (Much later in 2020 a revival of Magische Blätter took place.)

Of Bô Yin Râ’s Görlitz activities one of my German sources writes:

In 1920, the German painter and writer Joseph Anton Schneiderfranken/Bô Yin Râ (1876–1943), together with the painter Fritz Neumann-Hegenberg, founded the Jakob Böhme-Bund in Görlitz as an association of visual, literal and musical artists — with the stated intention of artistically and personally connecting with the lofty spirit of the Görlitz visionary Jacob Böhme (1575–1624). This impetus led to the founding of the publishing house Magische Blätter (Magic Leaves) in the same year, established by publisher Richard Hummel in Leipzig.…

My source continues:

For over two decades, the journal Magische Blätter…served as a forum for intensive exchange on Jacob Böhme, German mysticism, and sacred art, with the aim of conveying spiritual insights through artistic means….The texts of Hortus Conclusus were also pre-published in this monthly journal, and Magische Blätter was considered Bô Yin Râ’s official publication.

The Jacob Böhme Society dissolved after Bô Yin Râ emigrated to Switzerland with his family for political reasons in 1923, and after Fritz Neumann-Hegenberg died in 1924. This shifted the focus of the publication from art to a publication by Bô Yin Râ’s students. This development was also reflected in a name change in 1927; from then on, the monthly journal was called Die Säule (“The Column”).

The last issue appeared in February 1941. The editorial office was shut down by the nationalists [i.e., Nazis], and the authors were arrested. The monthly publication certainly played a significant role in ensuring that the circulation of Hortus Conclusus was considerably higher than it is today [2025], until its prohibition in 1935.

Since it was never Bô Yin Râ’s intention to found a new religion or faith community, this periodical, beyond Hortus Conclusus, was the only link between Bô Yin Râ and his readership. A hundred years ago (1926), there were three titles in the German newspaper landscape that placed Bô Yin Râ at the center of their content: Theosophie, Magische Blätter, and Opus Magnum.

Testimony of a Pupil

In an undated text of the era entitled “A Buried Temple” Bô Yin Râ expressed the importance of art in ancient times by saying that:

Even “artists” in the sense of purest recognition of the laws reflected in all “art'“ on Earth, the first beings had no better means at their disposal if they wanted to create helpers than to familiarize suitable humans with the laws of art, which are simultaneously the most tangible form of the laws of the spirit.

In conversations with a pupil named Elisabeth von Oldenburg, Bô Yin Râ also reflected on past eras by expressing the hope:

…that a coming generation will once again see princes who fulfill their high position as true “priest-kings.’”Such priest-kings are by no means bound to the romantic wardrobe of ancient times, and when I speak here of the need for priest-kings to arise if the world is to heal, I see them coming entirely as modern people, whose crown and scepter are of a spiritual nature and can never be taken away from them by any external force.

Following is a translation of Elisabeth von Olderburg’s rendition of the Lord’s Prayer, written in light of her experience with Bô Yin Râ’s teachings:

Father! Hallowed be Your name: I will keep the "I" within me, my "God-Self," holy and not misuse it for things that could force "It’"to withdraw from me, a human being.

Your kingdom come: Your kingdom of "love in itself" unfold in me and through me.
Your rich will be done: Your will of "love in itself" become action through me.

In all my actions. Give us daily our necessary bread: Give my soul daily nourishment from Your Self, which is "love in itself," so that I may continually retain the strength to act from this love.

Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.... 

Lead us not into temptation: Do not make the path too hard for us through trials that are too difficult by allowing beings of the intermediate world to lead us into dangers that can inhibit or even hinder us on our path to the light.

Do not, through these beings, place us before abysses. Let us ascend "in the sun."

Deliver us from evil: Free us from the destructive will of fallen masters; let us be surrounded by a protective wall of your helpers to protect us against the power of these evil ones.

For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever: For I know that ours is the kingdom of love and light, ours the power of love, ours the glory forever— if —reborn as a "star" —we learn to grasp that "love in itself'" is the "fulfillment of the law." 

Bô Yin Râ on the Cinema

The period between the world wars saw a momentous cultural change due to the rapid development of motion pictures that was taking place throughout Europe and America. As part of his work with the full range of artistic expression and the intimate participation and interest with which he followed artistic trends, Bô Yin Râ published the following article in Görlitzer Anzeiger. His words resonate strongly nearly a century later. They are particularly applicable at a time such as ours that has seen such a vast proliferation of imagery created and broadcast via the internet.

For years, cinema has been churning out its horror dramas, its deceitful detective stories, and outrageous sensational films without anyone raising an objection, right up to the present day.

Now, however, a sense of unease is gradually dawning, and, quite apart from the various demonstrations by young people, which are probably not very effective, more and more important voices are being heard in the fight against “cinematic trash.”

Insightful people have long recognized the plague that was eating away at our national body, but their discontent did not grow into loud protest, and when someone dared to call a spade a spade, their words found little resonance….

Even today, one shouldn’t succumb to the pious belief that one has the support of the majority of serious people when pointing out the harmfulness of cinematic performances. In large circles, among whom one would assume the psychological problematic nature of cinematic dramas would be readily apparent, one encounters an incomprehensible laxity of judgment.

Because they themselves are capable of watching the most ludicrous absurdities of the flickering image pass before them without suffering psychological harm, they believe it is essentially just a “fairly harmless thing,” for they cannot, or will not, put themselves in the emotional state of young people or those with limited judgment in order to recognize the poisonous effect of the vast majority of films.

I am certainly not thinking only of depictions whose sole purpose is to arouse the senses, even if no nudity or any situations deemed “immoral” by censors are shown. However, I also cannot agree in any way with those who almost celebrate the crudest stimulation of sensuality as having a cultural purpose, because I believe that the sensual drives in humans are naturally strong enough and, in healthy individuals, least of all young people, certainly do not require any special stimulation.

In any case, cinema is not unique in this respect, because as far as the crude intention of arousing sensual titillation is concerned, many an “industry” achieves at least its equal, from postcards to novels pretending to be literary and theatrical kitsch that prey on theatergoers’ wallets like a highwayman.

... What seems far worse to me is the devastating effect of cinematic dramas, due to the mendacity of their portrayals and their depictions of milieu. – The film industry, which is ultimately solely responsible for all the damage, since the cinema owner takes what it offers because he can’t get anything else, prides itself on working as realistically as possible. But let’s take a closer look at this “realism”! Where in the world are there as many idlers as in cinematic dramas?

Where in the world do working people, scholars, inventors, merchants, artists, live in the way that cinema pretends to show their lives? Where in the world can ordinary, well-off people afford the luxuries of the milieu that constantly recurs in these cinematic dramas? – The ostentatiously cluttered apartment of a black marketeer in Berlin West, whether he “made” his wealth before, during, or after the war, is certainly not the typical apartment of every wealthy person! And just as little do men and women from respectable, propertied circles dress in the manner favored by the male and female social circles of big-city nightclubs, who can afford to do so at other people’s expense.

What is the ordinary man, already harboring bitter dreams of a life like that of the “rich,” a life that only rarely becomes reality in the rare cases of a money-grubber who rose from the dregs of a big city—what is the young man from impoverished circumstances supposed to take away from such depictions, if not hatred and rage against all these wealthy idlers, or, at best, a completely exaggerated idea of ​​the lives of affluent circles and prestigious professions, and an equally exaggerated desire to emulate them as soon as possible?!…

The same applies to the ever-popular detective stories, which defy all reality and often resemble “training courses for criminals and those who aspire to be.” It would be an interesting task for criminologists to investigate what percentage of crimes committed by juveniles, or otherwise law-abiding citizens, are attributable to an “initial stimulus” from the cinema. – – As you can see, there are good reasons why serious men and women today view the “cinema problem” with concern, when we finally begin to see what a devastating plague is raging in our midst, and are looking for ways to contain it. – – As I have already noted, it is entirely wrong to view the cinema owner as the pest. Such an entrepreneur would gladly decorate even the most culturally valuable institution with the same care if it could bring him more, or even the same, profit. And if truly good, truly instructive films were available today in as great abundance as the lavishly offered, glossy trash, then there would already be cinemas whose programs could entice even a reasonably tasteful, and above all, responsible person to attend….

If the youth, here and elsewhere, have taken up the issue of cinema, I believe it wouldn’t be so bad if the formation of a powerful German organization for the transformation of cinema were also initiated by the youth. – In any case, more substantial success could be expected here than can ever be hoped for from the rather misguided demonstrations in movie theaters. – There would certainly be no lack of support. Once a start has been made, I no longer doubt that in a few years, good films will be produced in sufficient quantity, “obeying necessity, not their own impulse,” as far as the film companies are concerned….

People come primarily to see moving life on the screen. That this moving life can be eminently meaningful, instructive, entertaining, and highly interesting without being corrupting is beyond question.

But the magnificent possibilities of the film image, which can allow us to see all the wonders of the fairy-tale world as reality and convey the deepest, most primal poetry, will never be exploited in any way other than that adapted to the Berlin night-time café unless a respectable number of men and women can be found throughout Germany (I am referring here primarily to young men and women) who will at least tell our German film companies, once and for all, with absolute clarity, how the German people want to see the inherently wonderful invention of the moving image utilized...

While this selection from Bô Yin Râ’s contemporary cultural commentary may be “dated,” though recognizable as part of the tumult taking place in Germany during the period of the Weimar Republic, it is clear that the issues facing the producers and consumers of modern media depictions are as prominent and urgent in our own day as they were when he wrote.

These media depictions have the same power to degrade or elevate now as they did then, along with the vast outreach capabilities of on-line streaming, computerized video production, etc. A particular travesty has been the expropriation of media depiction of all kinds for political propaganda and mendacious advertising.

The World Since Bô Yin Râ’s Lifetime

When Bô Yin Râ passed away peacefully in Masagno/Lugano, Switzerland, in February 1943, the tide was turning against Germany in World War II with the start of the Wehrmacht’s retreat from Stalingrad and its expulsion from North Africa. That year Mussolini was overthrown, and soon the Allies would start their invasion of Italy. Soon, with the bombs raining down on the homeland, much of the German-speaking world would disappear beneath rubble.

Still, from a broader perspective, we can see that Bô Yin Râ had come at a time when the world had begun to witness an explosion of ostensibly new spiritual teachings, many influenced by Oriental religions, including Islam, that resulted in the creation of a vast number of groups, centers, cults, esoteric and occult societies, brotherhoods, theosophical or masonic lodges, spiritualist or séance circles, programs of “exercises” and “tasks,” magic and witchcraft orders, congregations of “new thought,” “spiritual science,” etc.

Why did all this happen? One of my confidants suggested that such waves may be set in motion when a genuine Luminary appears on the world stage. Others have speculated that a large number of individuals waiting in a pre-birth limbo were ready to incarnate in order to board the train, as it were, for the future they had been awaiting in the world beyond. Or perhaps it’s a function of societal panic and a need by people to wake up in the face of approaching world catastrophe. Or for many other reasons.

None of these factors necessarily provides a key to understanding the teachings of Bô Yin Râ. Yet despite the plethora of such groups, “systems,” “societies,” etc., Bô Yi Râ advised against the creation of any new sects, religions, or congregations. His focus was uniquely on the individual who can find all he or she seeks by looking within. For companionship, he cited the saying of Jesus—“where two or three are gathered together.” Yet he could also write, ‘Wherever they have been received, my books transform bewildered souls that lost all hope into secure and joyful human beings.”

Building momentum during the latter part of the 19^th century and into the 20^th, the wave of spiritual upheaval seemed to survive the two world wars and peak by the 1970s as outward events slouched toward today’s world crisis, even as human consciousness has unquestionably been shattered on the rocky shores of drugs, social breakdown, and the cybernetic revolution, with all the attendant social, political, economic, and spiritual disorder.

Much of this ferment seemed to play itself out within the general prosperity and elation over victory in war of the English-speaking world, whereas within the war-torn nations of Europe, especially Germany, Eastern Europe, and the Soviet Union/Russia, physical survival alone seemed to border on the miraculous. Yet the teachings of Bô Yin Râ, with the master secure in a remote corner of Switzerland, persisted up until his passing in 1943, then beyond into the post-war world among at least a handful of individuals.

But change was in the air. Soon the world saw, along with the founding of the United Nations, the formation of what would become the European Union taking place alongside the Catholic breakthrough marked by Vatican II. Both of the latter two epochal events were influenced, says a confidante, by the teachings of hope and tolerance emanating from Bô Yin Râ’s teachings.

Now new hope on the continent dared to raise its head above the age-old ramparts, along with the unleashing of hordes of American tourists wanting to see what was left of the Old World. To their amazement, what was left, including thousand-year-old Gothic cathedrals and quaint villages, and many cities rebuilding from the war, stirred the soul of some in contemplation of what else might be found to feed the spirit among the medieval remnants.

By the mid-1970s, stalwart followers of Bô Yin Râ also began to reenter the public sphere. In Switzerland and Germany, foundations were created to preserve and advance his legacy. In the United States, a new publishing house began to release English-language translations of his books. Throughout Europe, translations into other languages began to be created.

These developments will be discussed further in Part 2.

Sanctuary of Apollo in Delphi by Bô Yin Râ. Reproduced with permission of the German Bô Yin Râ Foundation.

This Ends Part 1 of 2.

Fair Use Claimed for All Quotations from Published Sources.