Carl Happich

Carl Happich (born April 19, 1878 in Speckswinkel , † June 18, 1947 in Darmstadt ) was a German meditation teacher and therapist, Freemason , gynecologist and doctor in charge of the Elisabethenstift in Darmstadt . Today he is almost forgotten, although he is one of the pioneers of modern meditation practice. He developed new forms of meditation, which he used in psychotherapy and for spiritual reform projects within the framework of Freemasonry and the Protestant Church. His attempts were located in the milieu of bridging institutions that tried to mediate between traditional organizations with religious goals and modern forms of life in the secular area.

Life

Little is known about Happich's childhood, Pastor Friedrich Happich was his brother. He became chief physician in Darmstadt after completing a medical degree in Marburg and Munich and temporarily working as an assistant doctor in the gynecological clinic of the University of Marburg . He was married and had a daughter, Ingeborg Haller (born Happich, 1910–1996). After the First World War he was Gausanitätsleiter of the Stahlhelm Bund der Frontsoldaten .

Carl Happich was a founding member and the first lodge master (from 1921 to 1930) of the Masonic lodge Zum Flammenden Schwert in Darmstadt, which still exists today . His meditative but also mystical approaches are still cultivated there. Erwin Rousselle and Karl Bernhard Ritter were also members of the same lodge. It works under the constitution of the Grand Lodge of the Freemasons of Germany . After all Masonic lodges in Germany were closed by the National Socialists , Happich was put under observation.

He was one of the founders of the "School of Wisdom" established by Hermann Graf Keyserling in 1920 , which Keyserling founded at the invitation of the former Grand Duke Ernst Ludwig of Hesse and with his support and the support of the publisher Otto Reichl. The "School of Wisdom" sees itself as a school of life and, above all, a meeting place for key personalities in intellectual life. Thomas Mann was one of the prominent sponsors of the project . Between 1921 and 1924 regular, multi-day retreats and meditation exercises were carried out there, the creator and director of which was the philosopher and later sinologist Erwin Rousselle , who was also a member of the Darmstadt Masonic lodge "Zum flammenden Schwert". He is one of the signatories of the "Berneuchener Buch" published in 1926. From 1930 he taught meditation in the Berneuchen movement and in 1931 he was a founding member of the Protestant Michael Brotherhood with Wilhelm Stählin and Karl Bernhard Ritter .

plant

After the First World War, Happich began to work as a psychotherapist in addition to his medical work. He himself described his work as "therapeutic meditation". In 1932 he published in the "Zentralblatt für Psychotherapie" an astonishing and highly innovative contribution: The image consciousness as a starting point for psychological treatment .

In the Protestant Church and in Freemasonry, Happich worked as a spiritual reformer. In Freemasonry he tried to use special exercises to open up a new way of dealing with Masonic symbols and rituals. He understood the basic meaning of meditation as "walking into the middle". To go to the center meant for him to leave the consciousness of the mind and to go into the soul center. Today it is clear that this is a description of a certain act that is repeatedly performed in the ritual work during the first six degrees (of 10 degrees) of the "Great State Lodge of the Freemasons of Germany". In the middle of the temple there is a work board (also called a work carpet). In the "Great State Lodge of the Freemasons of Germany" each grade has its own work table. While in the temple the passage to the center is tangibly recreated in order to give the Freemason a kind of initial spark for the spiritual walk into the center, the meditative path into the soul center is intended to change consciousness. According to Happich, the field of rational thinking is a recent achievement that emerged most strongly during the Enlightenment . As a result, the consciousness of thought prevails today: it is based on an archaic layer of consciousness that Happich calls "image consciousness". He understands “images” as meaningfully vivid, predominantly visual fantasies and memories. The image consciousness functions with him as an intermediate layer between the unconscious or the imageless soul ground hidden in its depth and the consciousness of thought. [...] In healthy people there is a constant balance between thought and image awareness.

In his writings he consciously uses crosses as a projection surface for meditations. It becomes clear that his meditative approach is written from the point of view of an Andrew Master (VI. Degree), but for the needs of everyone who tries to meditate. Happich probably derived his practical reference to meditation through crosses from his Masonic environment. The central theme remains the St. Andrew's cross .

method

The self-practices developed by Happich, which he describes in his book "Instructions for Meditation", offer an unfolding of reality on the level of allegorical thinking, a new understanding of symbols and parables and, last but not least, as a mediator of the tangible reality of God. According to him, the natural balance between both types of consciousness (thought and image awareness) has been lost and must be learned and trained again through meditation. Part of it is capable of z. B. to give the Masonic ritual on the way, but some things fall by the wayside; owed to the rigid framework of a ritual. Carl Happich goes one step further and complements the Masonic ritual and uses meditation on different types of crosses as an aid; just as Freemasonry uses rituals as carriers of its basic moral ideas.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Karl Baier: Meditation and Modernity. Publishing house Königshausen u. Neumann. Würzburg 2009. pp. 660-670 and pp. 673-685
2. ↑ Paragrana. International journal for historical anthropology published by the interdisciplinary center for historical anthropology. Free University of Berlin. Volume 22. 2013. Issue 2. Editors Almut-Barbara Renger and Christoph Wulf. Academy publishing house. P. 51.
3. ↑ W. Fenske: Innerung and Hunch. Meditation and Liturgy in the Hermetic Theology of Karl Bernhard Ritters. Leipzig 2011, p. 156, note 533
4. ↑ Paragrana. International journal for historical anthropology published by the interdisciplinary center for historical anthropology. Free University of Berlin. Volume 22. 2013. Issue 2. Editors Almut-Barbara Renger and Christoph Wulf. Academy publishing house. P. 52.
5. ↑ http://darmstadt-freimaurer.de/
6. ^ Ch. C. Thomas: Compass, Square and Swastika: Freemasonry in the Third Reich. PhD thesis A&M University. Texas 2011. pp. 41f.
7. ↑ http://www.ipph-darmstadt.de/schule-der-weisheit/
8. ↑ Ute Gahlings: Hermann Graf Keyserling, Darmstadt 1996, p. 130 f.
9. ^ Hermann Graf Keyserling: The book of personal life. Deutsche Verlagsanstalt Stuttgart 1936. p. 660
10. ↑ cf. Zentralblatt für Psychotherapie, Volume 5, 11th issue, Verlag Hirzel, Leipzig 1932. P. 669
11. ↑ cf. Zentralblatt für Psychotherapie, Volume 5, 11th issue, Verlag Hirzel, Leipzig 1932. P. 663–677
12. ↑ Paragrana. International journal for historical anthropology published by the interdisciplinary center for historical anthropology. Free University of Berlin. Volume 22. 2013. Issue 2. Editors Almut-Barbara Renger and Christoph Wulf. Academy publishing house. P. 59.
13. ↑ Carl Happich: Instructions for meditation commented by Giovanni Grippo. 4th edition. G. Grippo Verlag. Oberursel 2014. pp. 33–35
14. ↑ Carl Happich: Instructions for meditation commented by Giovanni Grippo. 4th edition. G. Grippo Verlag. Oberursel 2014.
15. ↑ Carl Happich: Instructions for meditation commented by Giovanni Grippo. 4th edition. G. Grippo Verlag. Oberursel 2014. pp. 115-131.