douard Schur - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=doua...

douard Schur
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Eduard (douard) Schur (January 21, 1841 in Strasbourg April 7, 1929 in Paris) was a French philosopher, poet, playwright, novelist, music critic, and publicist of esoteric literature.

Contents
1 2 3 4 Biography Esoteric and literary meaning Philosophy Works (selection) 4.1 Works available in English 4.2 Original editions

Biography

douard Schur

Schur was the son of a doctor in the Alsatian town of Strasbourg. He mastered French as well as German, and was inuenced by German and French culture in his formative years. Without interest, he studied law at his fathers pleasure. His own interest and studies led to an extensive knowledge of German literature. The discovery of Richard Wagner's "music drama" Tristan and Isolde impressed him suciently to seekand obtain Wagner's personal acquaintance. In France, he published his rst work Histoire du Lieda history of the German folk song, 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. When the Franco-German war of 1870-71 poisoned the German arts for many French, it would seem that Schur was not immune from this inuence. His nationalism is reected in his remarks of this timeand later in his lifein a comparison of gloried 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.

1 of 4

2014-04-14 11:57

douard Schur - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=doua...

After the tide of war had ebbed, Schur reestablished his relationship with Wagner. In 1873, he met the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche; with frequent contact they shared enthusiasm for Wagner. The cultist veneration of Wagner, however, seeded Schur's alienation from the composer. Schur now turned increasingly to the esoteric and the occult. His major inuence being the famous French occultist-scholar Fabre d'Olivet. In 1884, he met the founder of the Theosophical Society 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 Initis (The Great Initiates). In 1900, the actress Marie von Sivers came into contact with him because she intended to translate his works into German (The Great Initiates, The Sacred Drama of Eleusis and The Children of Lucifer). 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 a meeting between Schur and Steiner. Schur was deeply impressed and thought of Steiner as an authentic 'initiate' in line with his The Great Initiates. After hearing Steiner lecture in Paris for the rst time in 1906, Schur in an ecstatic state ran home and wrote down the entirety of the lecture from memory. This rst lecture, and the other lectures in the series (which Schur wrote down) were published as Esoteric Cosmology. Subsequently, Steiner and von Sivers staged Schur's esoteric dramas at the following Theosophical Congresses in Berlin and Munich. Schur's The Children of Lucifer, served as a precursor of Rudolf Steiner's own esoteric dramas. With the outbreak of World War I, Schur's relationship with Steiner and his wife became strained. Schur threw in the two secret intentions about Germanic and Pan and stepped out of Steiner's Anthroposophical Society. Four years after the war, Schur re-consolidated his friendship with Steiner. In subsequent years, Schur published his autobiography and a French translation of Steiner's work Christianity as Mystical Fact as well as The Mysteries of Antiquity Chrtien (French: Le Mystre et les Mystres Antiques).

Esoteric and literary meaning

Schur's The Great Initiates is described by some as a masterpiece. In it, he describes the path allegedly 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 Trismegistus, Socrates, Jesus, Orpheus will nd frequent references in Schur's work. Schur pursued the notion that a secret esoteric knowledge was known to them all, that this group were among the
2 of 4 2014-04-14 11:57

douard Schur - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=doua...

pillars of civilization and represented the founders of spiritual and philosophical ways of being as well as in some casesthough contrary to their message religions. Schur recognized that the path to a harmonious world was not to be found through a bigoted denial of the value found by other civilizations by their own sages. He wanted people to recognize the value of democracy in spiritual, philosophical, and religious ways. That isaccording to himthe case of Gautama Sidharta. Schur wrote a considerable number of books and plays. His plays enjoyed relative fame in his days in Europe, and many of them were put on stage by Steiner. He also inuenced Russian composerSergei Prokoev.

Philosophy
In The Great Initiates, Schur attacked the old idea of an esoteric tradition, the original wisdom of the initiated. Specically, he suspected some kind of traditional secret ongoing behind the philosophies and religions founded by those he described the life and teachings of in the book (Rama, Krishna, Hermes Trismegistus, Moses, Orpheus, Pythagoras, Plato, and Jesus). Unlike older, going back to Plato variants of this idea Schur moved the beginning of the chain of transmission from Persia to India (Rama), like other mystics of the late 19th Century did (the most signicant Madame H. P . Blavatsky).

Works (selection)
Works available in English
The Great Initiates (Novel) The Children of Lucifer (Drama in 5 Acts) The Genesis of Tragedy and The Sacred Drama of Eleusis (Treatise on Theatre, including a reconstruction of an ancient drama) From Sphinx to Christ (Treatise on Occult History) The Priestess of Isis (Novel) Woman the Inspirer (Lecture/Treatise) Ricardo Wagner - His Work and Ideas History of Music Drama

Original editions
Histoire du Lied ou la chanson populaire en Allemagne, 1868 Le drame musical. Richard Wagner, son uvre et son ide, 2 volumes, 1875 Les Grands Initis. Esquisse de l'histoire secrte des religions, 1889 Le drame sacr d'Eleusis, 1890

3 of 4

2014-04-14 11:57

douard Schur - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=doua...

Sanctuaries d'Orient, Paris 1898 Les grandes lgendes de France, Paris, 1893 Les Enfants de Lucifer, 1900 Prcurseurs et revolt, Paris, 1904 La Prtresse d'Isis (Lgende de Pompeii), 1907 Femmes et inspiratrices potes annonciateurs, Paris, 1908 L'volution du sphinx au divine Christ, 1912 Les prophte de la renaissance, 1920 Celtique L'me et le gnie de la France travers les Ages, Paris 1920 Merlin l'enchanteur, Paris, 1921 Le rve d'une vie. Confession d'un pote (autobiography), 1928

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=douard_Schur& oldid=601289450" Categories: 1841 births 1929 deaths People from Strasbourg French music critics French philosophers French dramatists and playwrights French poets French Theosophists Anthroposophists French writers This page was last modied on 26 March 2014 at 02:09. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-prot organization.

4 of 4

2014-04-14 11:57