(Ernest)
FROM FREUD TO MRS. MEIER
Vienna
7 October 1930
Gracious Mrs. Meier,
I received your letter but the sheer number of my duties prevented me from answering you immediately, although I wanted to.
What is most important — Ernest is alive. Perhaps his flight was the fruit of his desire for independence, and I am convinced that I am not wrong when I say that this could be quite positive for his further development.
In terms of the company Ernest is keeping, I think that your friend’s fears are unfounded, since I personally know Mr. Joseph Kowalsky, one of the most talented of the avant-garde poets in German, who was — it is true — a communist in his youth, not an anarchist, but in recent years he has become completely apolitical.
The style of Ernest’s letter — I realize that it is confused and mystical — is probably the consequence of his consorting with poets. I do not have insight into the entirety of his letter, so I cannot say much more, but Constantinople is a city where civilizations, languages, races, dreams and reality all intertwine, and it has certainly left a deep impression on Ernest’s psyche, which is sensitive in the first place.
Your fear related to the confusion about how Ernest knows of the nature of your relationship with Mr. Schleiermacher, is not such a difficult problem to resolve. Mothers and sons, in your case even more so, are connected by intuition; surely you remember in Ernest’s childhood when he became sick and you “felt” something, even though you were not present.
I am absolutely convinced that, in this case, such intuitive knowledge is in question, or better said the suspicion that Ernest childishly relates to the desire for you to die. I talked with him about that several times.
I am convinced that you will gather the strength to overcome the crisis into which you have fallen, and assure you of my profoundest respect.
Sigmund Freud
FROM FREUD TO FERENCZI
Vienna
30 October 1930
My Dear Dr. Ferenczi,
I would like to briefly present you a case which fits perfectly into the sphere of your interests, and a longer letter, an answer to your previous one, will soon follow.
Two years ago, I treated a young man (I am writing a short study about that) who ran away from home in an undetermined direction after our therapy sessions came to an end. Recently, his mother informed me that the young man has been seen in Turkey. A business acquaintance of her father encountered Ernest in Constantinople and spent a while talking to him. Upon arriving in Zürich, the acquaintance reported this news to the mother, and on that occasion renewed a relationship that had been broken off some twenty years before.
Now comes the most intriguing part: soon afterwards, Mrs. Meier received a letter from her son in which he accused her of having relations with the abovementioned gentleman and in which he foretold her death in the near future.
Two days ago, I incidentally heard that Mrs. Meier had died from a bursting aneurism.
Certainly a cause for mourning, but also a useful example for your study of intuition and synchronicity.
Sincerely yours,
S. Freud
FROM FERENCZI TO FREUD
(letter partially damaged)
Dear Herr Doctor Freud,
I received your kind report on a case which, quite by accident, is not completely new to me. Straightaway I must tell you that I am on the trail of a discovery that could radically change our study of the psyche. Namely, J. Kowalsky (whom you also know), with whom I exchange occasional correspondence, wrote me the other day that, in Istanbul… (remainder of the letter destroyed by water damage)
JURGIS BALTRUŠAITIS. FAMA BIROTARIORUM
I
There are very few facts about the mystical order — the Little Brothers of the Evangelical Bicyclists of the Rose Cross. Only one tangible document exists — the Basel Parchment — where one can find, besides the text about which more will be said, a coat of arms: an old-fashioned velocipede, having a handle-bar stem topped with a cross, carrying the motto GENS VNA SVMVS, but the whole thing could easily be a forgery. Some writers, like Herbert Meier, completely reject the idea of the existence of such an order. On the other hand, no less reliable researchers, among whom the authority of Carl Gustav Jung stands out, never question the existence of the order. Jung even mentions it, with some reservation, in one place in his work Wandlungen und Symbole der Libido.
In the circles of the esotericians, the legend is circulating that the Evangelical Bicyclists are the successors of the Byzantine iconoclast tradition and that they celebrate basileus Leo III as their forerunner.*** The following words are attributed to a Grand Master of the order: “Let us pay respect to Leo! All images are the creations of Satan and idolatry. First, people put pictures of God on the wall, then the king, then Stalin. In the end, everyone will idolize their own picture, they will adore and fear themselves.” It would be worthwhile to search for the roots of the geo-political and religious weltanschauung of the Evangelical Bicyclists of the Rose Cross in that allegiance to the Byzantine spiritual tradition. Namely, they do not consider the history of Europe to be legitimate after January 28, 842, when basileus Theophilus died and the iconophiles ultimately triumphed; the Bicyclists believe that God was forever exiled from the human soul into objects — into icons, churches, statues — and that since then every event collides with God’s providence, that they are the work of human and Satanic aims. Consequently, they do not recognize any of the borders or countries that have sprouted up in the territory of the Byzantine Empire.
In addition, their view of Christianity is interesting. Paradoxically, the Little Brothers are convinced that it was the strongest in the 20th century because it was in its most profound crisis. Christianity that is not in crisis is not Christianity for them. There is one apocryphal writing, a bit of yellow paper without a title or a signature, on which the following words can be found:
The misfortune of Europe is not that it became Christianized, as the young Hegel so regrettably interpreted things, but actually because it did not become Christianized enough. Way down in their souls, Europeans are still barbarians. There you will find them bowing down to icons and seeking forgiveness where the sin was committed, in the outside world, and not where it was conceived: in their souls. There you will find them forcing “pagans,” by fire and the sword, to convert to the religion of love. The appearance of Nazism is the proof that they remained more or less secretly pagans. It could be said that people were waiting for centuries for Hitler to appear.
It is astounding, the lack of care which the Evangelical Bicyclists show for their documents, which are anyway so small in number. Their most important work is “Theology and Bicyclism” and, to my knowledge, no one has ever seen the integral version of it. Written on some fifty pages of paper, of various sizes and quality, it is actually not even kept all in one place, but its individual parts can be found among the members of the order for reading or study. The one manuscript readily available, the abovementioned Basel Parchment, is not very convincing. Although perfectly printed in calligraphy, and though the parchment is of excellent quality, the content leaves a lot to be desired: