THE BIRTH OF THE ROSICRUCIAN FELLOWSHIP

IN ORDER to make the origin of the Pellowship clear to
our readers we will give a history of how and when Max
Heindel met the Elder Brothers of the Rosierueian Order.
We will, moreover, use his own words at times to make the
matter more clear.

During the summer of 1905, through overwork on account
of his extreme desire for spiritual knowledge, Max Heindel
was taken very seriously ill in Los Angeles with heart trouble,
so ill that for months his life was despaired of. Much of the
time during this illness he spent out of the body, consciously
working and seeking for the truth as he might find it on the
invisible planes. He was undaunted by hardship, and there
were times during the period of his life when he was devoting
himself to occult researeh that he lacked the actual bread to
eat. The writer has known him to state that he had been on
cecasions almost two days without the food to satisfy his
hunger. Throughout it all he continued to search for truth,
and as soon as health permitted, he went on the lecture
platform to spread his occult knowledge.

In May 1906 this work was eut short in San Francisco by
the great earthquake, and his lecture tour then led him to
Seattle and the northern part of the country. After a course
of lectures in that city he was again forced to spend some
time in a hospital with valvular heart trouble. Undaunted
he once more took up his work of lecturing in the
northwestern part of the United States.

In the fall of 1907 daring a most successfil period in
Minnesota, a friend came to Mr. Heindel, who had for
months been begging him to go to Berlin to meet a man
whom she claimed to be a most wonderful lecturer and
teacher. Failing by correspondence to induce him to leave
his work in Ameriea, she had come to Minnesota for the ex-
press purpose of personally urging him to go. She was
suecessful at last in persuading him to make the trip...