Great Mystics In Reality: Novalis - Alternative View

Great Mystics In Reality: Novalis - Alternative View
Great Mystics In Reality: Novalis - Alternative View

Video: Great Mystics In Reality: Novalis - Alternative View

Video: Great Mystics In Reality: Novalis - Alternative View
Video: Unseen Worlds and Hidden Realities - ROBERT SEPEHR 2024, March
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The German poet and mystic Novalis did not live to see his 29th birthday in just over a month. He possessed the broadest erudition in all fields of knowledge of the 18th century. Some connoisseurs of creativity even saw Novalis as the predecessor of Sigmund Freud and Albert Einstein. The ideas expressed by him were a century ahead of the ideas of the father of Russian cosmism, Nikolai Fedorov.

Baron Georg Philipp Friedrich von Hardenberg (Georg Philipp Friedrich Freiherr von Hardenberg) signed his works with the name "Novalis". The poet's ancestors, who lived in Lower Saxony in the 12th century, were called Messrs. Von Rohde, which was translated into official Latin at that time as "de Novalie". In the very same name Novalis there is nothing mystical: it means "nova" or "virgin land", cleared for plowing land. Hardenberg himself believed that Novalis was a "cultivator of novina" and pronounced his name, contrary to the custom that was subsequently established, with an emphasis on the first syllable - Nouvalis. And his mother Augusta Bernhardina, née Bölzig and friend Ludwig Tieck, preferred the stress on the last syllable. Both types of stress are allowed in the Latin form of the name.

Friedrich von Hardenberg was born on May 2, 1772 on the family estate of Wiederstedt. Oberwiederstedt Castle - Schloss Oberwiederstep - in the 18th century, went to the poet's great-grandfather after the secularization of church estates. Previously, a convent was located in its place. Frederick was the second of eleven children. He grew up as a sickly child who lagged behind his peers in development. Biographers of Novalis name an absolutely non-mystical reason that transformed his spirit - this happened after diarrhea in a severe form. Like many mystical natures, the child experienced physical catharsis.

At the age of 12, the boy already knew the so-called "dead" languages - Latin and Ancient Greek, studied French, Italian and English. His erudition and breadth of interests matched his fellow countrymen such as Goethe or Leibniz. “Educational extracts or synopses of Novalis, forming entire volumes in the collections of his works, quickly and naturally grow into original research, covering not only the humanities, but also natural and even exact sciences,” writes Russian biographer and translator of Novalis VB. Mikushevich. - Among the fragments of Novalis are accumulating devoted to physics, medicine, mathematics. The gift of anticipation accompanies Novalis in science."

Until the age of 14, the future poet was brought up in an atmosphere of Protestant piety, called pietism, aggravated by the principles of the Hernguthers (so named from the estate of Count Zinzendorf, who patronized this evangelical fraternal community of the Lutheran sect). This will then be reflected in his most mature poetic work - Spiritual Songs (Geistliche Lieder).

Then, until the age of 15, the boy lived in the house of his uncle Friedrich Wilhelm von Hardenberg, his father's older brother. Despite the medieval knighthood of his uncle, who was the lord and commander of the German order, he leads a completely secular lifestyle in the style of the court of the French Louis. Novalis likes this kind of life - the contrast of sophisticated fun and Hernguter's strict morality.

Along with a scattered pastime, Novalis gets acquainted with the fruits of the French enlightenment - the teachings of the Encyclopedists and Freemasonry. Novalis is trying to create his own Encyclopedia, in which, unlike the French, who tried to describe as many different objects as possible from a rationalistic point of view, he seeks to present different views.

In 1790 Novalis moved to Jena, where he studied law at the university. He completed his legal education in 1794 in Wittenberg. In the winter semester of 1790-91, a special course on the history of European states and a separate lecture on the crusades were given by Friedrich Schiller. Under Schiller's influence, Novalis begins to think historically. In October 1791 Novalis continued his studies in Leipzig. Without leaving jurisprudence, he attends lectures in mathematics and natural sciences. As always, for each of the disciplines Novalis makes original judgments, especially in the field of history and philosophy.

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At this time, a friendship develops with such a multifaceted person as Friedrich von Schlegel. It was this contemporary of Novalis who drew him into German culture, revealing to him "deep, captivating secrets." So Novalis found himself not only in the circle of Jena romantics, but also tasted the forbidden fruit, since he was initiated into some mysteries associated with the Fall.

On March 17, 1794, at the house of Captain Johann von Roquentin, Novalis met his stepdaughter Sophie von Kühn, and by his own admission, a quarter of an hour determined his whole life. On March 15, 1795, Novalis became engaged to a 13-year-old girl. Little information has survived about her. Some contemporaries mentioned the mesmerizing gaze of her dark eyes. It is also known that Goethe took part in the fate of a girl suffering from a serious pulmonary disease.

Novalis's father, dissatisfied with his son's decision to marry, soon, under the influence of female charms, Sophie gives his consent. "The eternal maiden is nothing more than an eternal, feminine child … a girl who has ceased to be a true child is no longer a Virgo," Novalis admired the childish in her. The largest researcher of Novalis, Hans-Joachim Mähl, noted that the mythical image of a child appears in his work, uniting all the thoughts and aspirations of the poet. Probably, this is how Novalis's comment about Sophie should be understood: "She does not want to be anything - She is something."

Novalis is depressed by little quarrels and bouts of jealousy of little Sophie. He even thinks about breaking the engagement, which slips into a letter to his beloved brother Erasmus on November 17, 1795. The original feeling returned when Sophie fell ill and, despite surgery, died on March 19, 1797 - two days after her fifteenth birthday. After the funeral, Sophie Novalis wrote in her diary: “At the grave it occurred to me that by my death I would show humanity an example of loyalty to death. I’ll kind of make such love possible.” After the death of his beloved, Novalis realizes that her name is the Wisdom of God. And Sophia is inseparable from the risen Christ. But for the poet there was a mystery or hesitation here: whether Christ leads Sophia to him or Sophia leads Christ.

So in the life-loving, as they said vital, nature of Novalis dawned on the theme of death - "all riddles are resolved." Interestingly, after Sophie's death, natural scientific interests prevail in him over poetic searches. In the autumn of 1797 he entered the Mining Academy in Freiberg (Saxony). In the last years of Novalis's life, the reflection of mysticism falls. As noted by V. B. Mikushevich, in his Freiberg works there is “a mystical pathos, in which not only acceptance, but also the overcoming of death is guessed; some fragments of Novalis could have been picked up by NF Fedorov, who a hundred years later regarded the resurrection of the dead as a scientific and technical problem."

Friedrich von Hardenberg died on March 25, 1801 in Weissenfels from a hemorrhage due to "tuberculosis". He probably contracted the infection while caring for Friedrich Schiller. Starting in August 1800, he suffered from an incurable form of pulmonary disease, which made it impossible to work in his specialty. New research, however, is looking at a hereditary condition called cystic fibrosis (cystic fibrosis) as the true cause of death for the 28-year-old. This conclusion is supported by the fact that from early childhood Novalis suffered from pulmonary diseases and his condition was characterized by general asthenia.

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