Sources:
Lang-Wescott, Martha. Asteroids-Mechanics: Ephemerides II.Conway, MA: Treehouse Moun-
tain, 1990.
———. Mechanics of the Future: Asteroids.Rev. ed. Conway, MA: Treehouse Mountain, 1991.
Schwartz, Jacob. Asteroid Name Encyclopedia.St. Paul, MN: Llewellyn Publications, 1995.HEINDEL, MAX
Max Heindel, founder of the Rosicrucian Fellowship, was born July 23, 1865, as Carl
Louis von Grasshof, the oldest son in an aristocratic German family. He went to Glas-
gow, Scotland, to study maritime engineering at age 16 and eventually became chief
engineer on an ocean liner. He moved to New York City in 1895, worked as a consulting
engineer, and married. He moved to Los Angeles eight years later. There he began
occult studies, soon joining the Theosophical Society in America, led by Katherine Tin-
gley. Heindel served as vice president of the Los Angeles branch in 1904–5. He became
interested in astrology and began lecturing on it in various cities on the West Coast.
In Germany in 1907, according to Heindel, a spiritual being later identified as an
elder brother of the Rosicrucian order appeared in his room, informing him that he had
passed a test. He subsequently traveled to the Temple of the Rosy Cross near the border of
Germany and Bohemia and remained for a month. There he received information that
became The Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception.He then returned to the United States, and
in Columbus, Ohio, established the first center of the Rosicrucian Fellowship in 1908.
Heindel’s teachings differ from the Theosophical Society’s in their greater
emphasis on astrology, Christianity, Christian symbols, and a Rosicrucian heritage.
His ideas reflect those of Rudolf Steiner.
Following the Ohio center, Heindel soon established centers in Seattle, Wash-
ington; North Yakima, Washington; Portland, Oregon; and Los Angeles, California.
He had a heart problem and was hospitalized in March 1910. While there, he had an
out-of-body experience that showed him plans for future work. In August 1910, he
married Augusta Foss, a woman he had known before his first wife died in 1905. Part
of his hospital vision was fulfilled when Rosicrucian headquarters were established at
Mt. Ecclesia near Oceanside, California, in 1911. The grounds included a sanctuary,
offices, a woman’s dormitory, cottages, and a vegetarian cafeteria.
Heindel’s final years were productive ones in which he wrote several volumes
and a regular column in the Rosicrucian Fellowship’s monthly, Rays from the Rosy
Cross.The fellowship was a major force in the spread and popularization of astrology.
Astrologers not connected with the fellowship nevertheless use the annual ephemeris
and table of houses, both published in Oceanside. Heindel’s wife assumed leadership
of the fellowship after he passed away in 1919.Sources:
Heindel, Max. The Message of the Stars.Oceanside, CA: Rosicrucian Fellowship, 1963.
———. The Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception.Seattle: Rosicrucian Fellowship, 1909.
———. Simplified Scientific Astrology.Oceanside, CA: Rosicrucian Fellowship, 1928.
Melton, J. Gordon. Religious Leaders of America.Detroit: Gale, 1991.Heindel, Max
[296] THEASTROLOGYBOOK