More About Johann Wolfgang von Goethe –
Did you know that he studied alchemy?
If there is one historical figure who exemplifies what my Substack is all about, it is Goethe, the German poet, play-right, and writer who also, unbeknownst to many who respect and cherish his work, spent over forty years studying botany, geology, color and optics, and other subjects related to natural history. I already wrote about his way of doing science and his color theory, if you want to learn more about him.
Perhaps it is incorrect to divide his work into two distinct subject matters, because for Goethe art and science were intrinsically connected. It’s no coincidence that the protagonist of his most famous work, Faust, is a scientist (incidentally, the historical Johann Georg Faust from the 15th century was known as a physician, doctor of philosophy, alchemist, magician and astrologer). What I find so fascinating, then, is Goethe’s worldview, or Weltanschauung, as one would say in German. The meaning of the word Anschauung is actually preferable to the meaning of ‘view’ – the former is related to contemplation and implies an active participation of the viewer, instead of passive viewing. For Goethe, the observer – whether as a scientist or as a poet for example – was never separate from the observed. He knew that the duality between subject and object was an illusion.
Maybe this has to do with the fact that Goethe spent many years of his youth and as a young man with the serious study of alchemy, neo-Platonism, and other esoteric writings. He himself kept fairly quiet about these studies, communicating about them only in letters to close friends, knowing perhaps that they would not further his reputation as a serious scientist. It has to be kept in mind, however, that even in the early 19th century alchemy was an accepted, if not all-too-common practice. Here is a short biographical summary of Goethe’s early years, focusing on his propensity for alchemical and other occult or mystical literature during this time, as well as on several psychic experiences he had.
Goethe was born in Frankfurt/Germany in 1749, into the Age of Enlightenment, an age when human intellect and reason experienced unprecedented advancement in mastering the natural world. Cartesian-Newtonian cosmology had established a mechanical clockwork universe which could be analyzed, objectified, and ultimately controlled. Seen from this perspective, it might be surprising that Goethe turned to alchemy, neo-Platonism, and other rather occult teachings in his youth. A look at his family background, however, provides the necessary clues for understanding his interest in the mystical and esoteric. It should also be kept in mind that alchemy, while certainly on the decline as a respectable occupation, still captured the interest of such serious scientists as Isaac Newton.
While Wolfgang’s father was a rational and rather pedantic man who rose to the position of City Councillor through ambition and shrewdness, Goethe’s mother’s family displayed more unusual qualities. His maternal grandfather had what was known as ‘second sight’ -- he frequently perceived events in his dreams which would happen later in real life. Although all close family members knew about this capacity, they kept quiet about it to outsiders. After all, Goethe’s grandfather was a Chief Magistrate in Frankfurt, not likely to jeopardize his respectability by admitting to fanciful premonitions. Goethe writes about his grandfather’s psychic gift in the first book of his memoirs, Dichtung und Wahrheit (translated as: ‘From My Life: Poetry and Truth’), but he fails to mention the fact that his aunt, his mother’s sister, displayed the self-same ability. Fear of criticism may have motivated Goethe to remain silent about these matters; however, they have been preserved in a collection of family-anecdotes written by his mother. It is even quite likely that Goethe himself had the gift of second sight, and possibly other non-ordinary mental capacities. We learn from the annals of his secretary Eckermann that Goethe had a premonition of the Messina Earthquake (February 5, 1783) on the exact night that it happened. His sentiments on such matters may be deduced from a statement he made to Eckermann on October 7, 1827:
“We all walk in mysteries... So much is certain -- that in particular cases we can put out the feelers of our soul beyond its bodily limits, and that a presentiment, nay, an actual insight into the immediate future, is accorded to it”
Conversations with Goethe, Johann Peter Eckermann
Goethe was not even sixteen when he read De Vanitate Scientiarium by von Nettesheym (a contemporary of Paracelsus), a book which, he writes later, “set my young brains in a considerable whirl for a long time”. At about the same age, his deep interest in the neoplatonist Plotinus was awakened which lasted several years. For reasons of his own, he left any mention of these studies out of his works.
At the age of sixteen, Goethe traveled from Frankfurt to Leipzig to enter the university. On this trip, he had a strange experience which he describes in great detail in his memoirs. It was a rainy night; the stage-coach was slipping on the muddy uphill road, and Goethe felt it was safer to walk. In a ravine on the side of the road, he saw something like an amphitheater, strangely illuminated by …
innumerable little lights... they shone so brilliantly that the eye was dazzled. But what still more confused the sight was, that they did not keep still, but jumped about here and there, as well as downwards from above as vice versa, and in every direction... Now, whether this was a pandemonium of will-o’-the-wisps, or a company of luminous creatures, I will not decide.1
Apparently, none of the other passengers had noticed anything.
Goethe studied law at the university of Leibniz but got ill; he had to return to Frankfurt where he was nursed by his mother and sister. In January of 1769, his long period of physical and mental suffering which today would be diagnosed as serious depression, reached a life-threatening climax. Dr. Metz, a friend of the family who was also an alchemist, had often mentioned a potent secret elixir of his making, too valuable and strong to be used against ordinary disease. Goethe’s mother implored the doctor to apply some of this potion to save her son; the medicine was administered, and Goethe’s health improved instantly. This incident increased his interest in alchemical books and experiments. He studied the works of Basilius Valentinus, Paracelsus, van Helmont, Starkey, and the anonymously published Aurea Catena Homeri. He even conducted some of his own experiments, none of which achieved the desired results.
When he continued with his studies of law at the University of Strasbourg in 1770, he was certainly still fascinated by alchemy, but there is no indication that he continued with practical experiments.
My mystico-alchemical pursuits had led me into shadowy regions, and I was ignorant for the most part of what had been going on in the literary world at large for some years past,
he wrote in Dichtung und Wahrheit. This changed somewhat when he met Johann Gottfried Herder in the autumn of 1770. The older man soon became a fatherly friend who introduced Goethe to contemporary literature and culture, and generally encouraged him towards a more scientific and less occult direction in his studies. However, while Goethe felt quite unable to hold his own against the older man’s critical attitude, he did not abandon his interest in alchemy, but merely kept it to himself.
But most of all, I concealed from Herder my mystico-cabalistical chemistry and every thing related to it; although, at the same time, I was still very fond of secretly busying myself in working it out more consistently than it had been communicated to me,
he wrote in the tenth book of Dichtung und Wahrheit.
Goethe left Strasbourg soon after his graduation in 1771 to return to Frankfurt. A few days before his departure, he had another uncommon experience:
I saw, not with the eyes of the body, but with those of the mind, my own figure coming towards me, on horseback, and on the same road, attired in a dress [coat] which I had never worn -- it was pike-grey... with somewhat of gold.2
He claims that eight years later, he found himself riding on the same road, in exactly such a coat. The significance of this event, as Raphael points out, lies in Goethe’s choice of words -- he saw himself with the eyes of the mind. It is another indication for Goethe’s highly developed psychic capacities which he rarely spoke or wrote about, but which so clearly show in his work. In the years between 1771 and his move to Weimar in 1775, Goethe attempted a more rational course of study by occupying himself with the works of Swedenborg and Lavater. It should also be mentioned that the publication of The Sorrows of Young Werther in 1774 made him famous almost overnight, and firmly established him as one of the leading literary figures of his time.
The direction towards “scientific modes of thought” was further strengthened once Goethe took up his duties at the court of Duke Carl August who soon became a personal friend. After his move to Weimar in 1775 there are no further indications of alchemical or other occult studies. In Weimar, he began his investigations into botany, mineralogy, geology, anatomy, and other natural sciences which would occupy him for the rest of his life.
On his way to Rome, Goethe recorded a dream he had had a year earlier, in 1785, which bears testimony to the significance of alchemical imagery in his life. He dreamt that he sailed to an island on a little boat, and the people of the island brought him many pheasants which had, however, tails of beautiful peacock feathers. They arranged the pheasants with the heads pointing inwards, so that the tailfeathers formed a glorious circle.
Such dreamy visions have a charm, inasmuch as springing from our mental state, they possess more or less of analogy with the rest of our lives and fortunes,
he wrote in his journal. Duties at court, social obligations, several love affairs, and his scientific studies left Goethe barely any time for his literary pursuits, and his journey to Italy was a period of regeneration and rebirth. Although he may have never looked at an alchemical book again, his studies as a youth established a firm ground for what he called his “personal religion”.
Neoplatonism lay at the foundation; the hermetical, the mystical, the cabalistic, also contributed their share; and thus I built for myself a world that looked strange enough,
he wrote in his autobiography vol. 6 . His Fairy Tale (The Green Snake and the Beautiful Lily) is one of the few of his literary works in which he uses the language and imagery of alchemy quite openly. In my next post, we will look at it and at the alchemical symbols of transformation Goethe used.
Goethe and the Philosophers’ Stone by Alice Raphael, p. 9
Raphael, p.38
Many thanks. This illuminated Goethe’s brilliance beyond what I already knew. I’m eager for the next part. ♥️♥️♥️
Thank you Jessica, that was a great dose of Goethe.