#4 THE MYSTERY OF ST GERMAIN
So who was the mysterious St Germain, and what was a Master?
When King Louis XV of France gave a short, intense man the title of Claude-Louis, Comte de Saint-Germain, he already had many names.
His story could have begun in 1707 with the birth of the third son of Francis II Rakoczi, the deposed Prince of Transylvania or it could have begun with the birth of the illegitimate son of Maria-Anna, the widow of King Charles II of Spain – or it could have begun with the birth of an unknown Portuguese Jew. Saint-Germain’s origin and birth are obscure and during his lifetime he never clarified who he really was. But thirty-five years later when he blazed across the European sky in pre-revolutionary France, he had become a French count who was a linguist, violinist, raconteur, philosopher, mystic and an alchemist. A man of indeterminate age who dazzled his admirers with his huge glittering jewels and his mesmerizing stories of exotic travels and exploits in bygone eras. At the same time, as the Count’s star ascended he was passionately denounced by prominent men as a charlatan, a trickster and spy. Voltaire described him sarcastically as the man who never dies and knows everything (“C’est un homme qui ne meurt jamais et qui sais tout.”)
Saint-Germain’s first properly documented appearance is not in France but in London in 1743 where he met Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778). Two years later he was in Edinburgh where he was arrested as a Jacobite spy. He was released and returned to London where his fame spread as a violinist. Horace Walpole (1717-1797) the English man of letters observed to a friend “he sings, plays the violin wonderfully, composes, is mad and not very sensible.”
Described as of medium build and height, with dark hair and a pleasant countenance, our one painting of the Count has him adorned in a white wig, clean-shaven with the shadow of a beard, a large nose and direct, full, dark eyes. While he wore large diamonds on his shoes and on every finger of both hands, otherwise he showed some restraint and dressed plainly.
Louis XV, after bestowing on him his title, gave him a suite of rooms in the Chateau de Chambord adjoining Versailles where he could, supposedly remove any flaws from the King’s diamonds, turn base metals into gold and prepare for the King’s mistress, Madame de Pompadour, the elixir of youth. With that job description, it’s no wonder he has been called a charlatan!
Louis XV also employed Saint-Germain without the agreement of his Foreign Affairs minister, the Duke of Choiseul, on secret diplomatic missions to promote a united states of Europe. The Duke tried to have Saint-Germain arrested in Holland after he had interfered at the King’s behest in a dispute between Austria and France by using Holland as a intermediary. Saint-Germain fled to England in 1760. By 1762, he was in St Petersburg where he is supposed to have played an important role in the conspiracy which deposed Tsar Peter III and placed Catherine the Great on the Russian throne.
As the Count moved around Europe, he used a variety of names: Surmount in 1763, Count Tsaroqy in 1774, Chevalier Welldone in 1776 and Francis Rakoczi II in 1784. During this time, according to Count di Cagliostro, he founded European freemasonry by establishing lodges throughout Holland, Belgium, Denmark, Germain, Russia, Austria, Poland and France. Fortunately his knowledge of languages was extensive; he spoke fluently English, Spanish, Italian, German and French with a Piedmontese accent. He is also said to have mastered Greek, Latin, Chinese, Arabic and Sanskrit.
Saint-Germain is quoted by contemporaries as saying he lived when Jesus Christ lived, again at the time of a Roman Emperor and again in medieval France. The implication drawn from his claims was that he lived the seven hundred years continuously since being born in medieval France and never died. He is supposed to have eventually died of pneumonia at the Court of Prince Karl of Hesse in Schleswig in 27 February 1784 but his tombstone reads He who called himself Comte de St Germain and Welldone, of whom there is no other information, has been buried in this church.
Saint-Germain left behind a manuscript called the Most Holy Trinosophia – a work of Hermetic, Kabalistic and Masonic mystery; an indifferent poem: Sonnet sur la Création and an opera Incostanza Delusa. There is also a book on palmistry attributed to him.
Once the Count was dead, his life became more interesting – and people keep bumping into him in the most amazing places. The Comte de Saint-Germain now blends with the ascended master, St Germain, to inspire the works of Madame Blavatsky, the founder of theosophy. He acquires magical powers, whereby he can influence people, including her, telepathically, walking through walls and teleporting vast distances. He bases his activities, she says, in Tibet.
In his biographies, Saint-Germain has become the “wonder-man of Europe” skilled in the use of medicinal herbs, anti-ageing potions and able to extract flaws from diamonds. Not only is he an accomplished alchemist, he is able to meditate in the lotus position, calm distraught animals and then disappear into thin air. From time-to-time he retreats from public life to work in his chemical and technological experiments including laying out the groundwork, as he told a contemporary for the invention of the steam engine a hundred years later, manufacturing paint, leather treatments and even hair dye. He bases his activities; it is claimed, in Transylvania.
Saint-Germain taught Mesmer how to mesmerize and while he spent time with Casanova the commentaries are silent on what exactly he taught him although he managed to turn his copper penny into a gold coin.
One biographer claimed Saint-Germain tried unsuccessfully to warn Queen Marie Antoinette of the impending bloodbath of the French Revolution and of her inevitable death.
In yet another account, Saint-Germain worked behind the scenes to help found the United States of America and using Masonic imagery designed the great seal of the United States. For these interventions and more he based his activities in Mt Shasta. There is nothing, it seems, he could not do and nowhere he hasn’t been! Is this what it meant to be a Master? To be an enigmatic, talented polymath who could hypnotize and do tricks and have a complex life, work with secret societies which specialized in ceremonial magic; work as a diplomat spy in a shadowy world full of ambiguity and after disputed accomplishments, ascend and inspire the twentieth century? Who was this man really? And what was a master?
