Schuré, Edouard

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Édouard Schuré.

Eduard (Édouard) Schuré (January 21, in Strasbourg 1841 – April 7, 1929 in Paris), French philosopher, poet, playwright, novelist music critic and publicist of esoteric literature.

[edit] Introduction

Author of Les Grands Initiés ("The Great Initiates") (1889) (described by some as a masterpiece.) in which he describes the path followed by some of the ancient philosophers in search of profound esoteric knowledge, often called the "initiation", as describing the process of becoming a mystic master or spiritual healer."

Those familiar with Rama, Hermes, Socrates, Jesus, Orpheus will find frequent references in Schuré's work; Schuré pursued the notion that a secret esoteric knowledge was known to them all ; this group are among the pillars of civilization; founders of spiritual and philosophical ways of being and in some cases, though contrary to their message, religions. Schuré recognized that the path to a harmonious world was not to be found through a bigoted denial of the value found by other civilizations in their own sages. Schuré would have that we recognize the value of democracy in spiritual, philosophical and religious ways.

That is the case of Gautama Sidharta who introduced Buddhism to India, then to China, a philosophy which found sustenance all over the world. Schuré wrote many books and plays. His plays enjoyed relative fame in his days in Europe and many of them were put on stage by the Austrian philosopher, writer and educator Rudolf Steiner, he the same, whom was admired and followed by Schuré, also Prokofiev happened to be reading Schuré in July 1916.

[edit] Biography

Edouard Schure, bilingual, the son of a doctor in the Alsatian town of Strasbourg and influenced by German and French culture in his formative years. Without interest, he studied Law at his fathers pleasure. Schuré's own interest and studies led to an extensive knowledge of German literature. Schuré's discovery of Richard Wagner's "music drama" Tristan and Isolde impressed him sufficiently to seek and obtained Wagner's personal acquaintance. In France he published his first work "Histoire du Lied", which earned him some recognition in the country of his family. With the publication of the essay Richard Wagner et le drame musical, he established himself as a major French Wagner expert and advocate of the time. The Franco-German war of 1870-71 poisoned the German arts for many French and it would seem that Schuré was not immune from this influence; his nationalism is reflected in his remarks of this time - and later in his life - in a comparison of glorified Celtism (France) and a negatively viewed "teutonism" (Germany). On a trip to Italy during this time he met, twenty years his junior, a Greek girl, Marguerita Albana Mignaty, whom he subsequently described as his "muse", although he himself was married. After the tide of war had ebbed, Schuré reestablished his relationship with Wagner . In 1873, Schuré met the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche; with frequent contact they shared enthusiasm for Wagner. The cultist veneration of Wagner, however, seeded Schuré's alienation from the composer. Schuré now turned increasingly to the esoteric and the occult. In 1884 he met the Russian occultist Helena Petrovna Blavatsky. Although unwelcome in the Theosophical Society, he nevertheless entered. In 1889 he published, after some smaller works on similar topics, his major work "Les Grands Initiés". In 1900 the actress Marie von Sivers came into contact with him because she intended to translate one of his works into German. At the German Section of the Theosophical Society, he met the Austrian philosopher and later founder of Anthroposophy, Rudolf Steiner. In 1906, Sivers brought about an engagement between Schuré and Steiner. Schuré was deeply impressed and thought of Steiner as one 'initiated' in line with his Les Grands Initiés. Subsequently Steiner and von Sivers brought the esoteric Schuré dramas to the stage. With the outbreak of World War I Schuré's relationship with Steiner and his wife became stained. He threw in the two secret intentions about Germanic and Pan and stepped out of the Anthroposophical Society, which Steiner developed from the Theosophical Society. Four years after the war Schuré returned to Steiner and asked him for forgiveness. In subsequent years, Schuré published his autobiography and a French translation of Steiner's, Christianity as Mystical Fact and the Mysteries of Antiquity chrétien (French: Le Mystère et les mystères antiques). He died in 1929 in Paris at the age of 88 years.

[edit] Philosophy

In Les Grands Initiés Schuré attacked the old idea of an esoteric tradition, the original wisdom of the initiated. Specifically, he dealt with it the life and teachings of Rama, Krishna, Hermes, Moses, Orpheus, Pythagoras, Plato and Jesus, which he described as the great initiates. Behind the philosophies and religions founded by them, he suspected some kind of traditional secret ongoing. Unlike older, going back to Plato variants of this idea Schuré moved the beginning of the chain of transmission from Persia to India (Rama), as well as other mystics of the late 19th Century did (the most significant Madame H.P. Blavatsky).

[edit] Works

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[edit] original editions

Histoire du Lied ou la chanson populaire en Allemagne, 1868

Le drame musical. Richard Wagner, son œuvre et son idée, 2 volumes, 1875

Les Grands Initiés. Esquisse de l'histoire secrète des religions, 1889

Le drame sacré d'Eleusis, 1890

Sanctuaries d'Orient, Paris 1898

Les grandes légendes de France, Paris, 1893

Les Enfants de Lucifer, 1900

Précurseurs et revolt, Paris, 1904

La Prêtresse d'Isis (Légende de Pompeii), 1907

Femmes et inspiratrices poètes annonciateurs, Paris, 1908

L'évolution du sphinx au divine Christ, 1912

Les prophète de la renaissance, 1920

Celtique L'âme et le génie de la France à travers les Ages, Paris 1920

Merlin l'enchanteur, Paris, 1921

Le rêve d'une vie. Confession d'un poète (autobiography), 1928

[edit] Books

• History of Musical Musical
• Ricardo Wagner his Work and Ideas
• The Great Initiates
• The Divine Evolution and the Great Initiates
• Rama y Moises: The Aryan Cycle and The Mission of Israel
• The Mystery of Dionysos and the Sacred Drama of Eleusis