Heribert von Feilitzsch on Dr. Arnold Krumm-Heller and the Mexican Revolution, Plus a Note on "El Tatwametro"

One hundred years and counting since the explosion of the Mexican Revolution in 1910, treasures are still being pulled out of the dust of various archives, and narratives refashioned accordingly. The latest contribution should spark the interest of anyone who ponders the whys, wherefores and eye-crossing chaos of that tumult-- and the history of German-Mexican relations and of metaphysical religion: The essay by Heribert von Feiltzsch entitled "Medical Doctor, Occultist, Revolutionary, Spy: Arnold Krumm-Heller and the Mexican Revolution," which is included in the anthology edited by Roberto Cantú, Equestrian Rebels: Critical Perspectives on Mariano Azuela and the Novel of the Mexican Revolution (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2016).

Little known as he may be at present, Dr. Krumm-Heller was a key figure in the Mexican Revolution, and in particular, for his role in the defeat of Pancho Villa. Why then have historians, with counted few exceptions, tended to overlook him? I would wager that it could be for one or more of three reasons: (1) lack of archival resources about Krumm-Heller and/or lack of access to those in German; (2) resistance to reconsidering enduring paradigms of the revolution; (3) resistance to considering the occult / metaphysical religion and

anyone connected with it. Indeed, Dr. Krumm-Heller, aka "Maestro Huiracocha," was a flamboyant enthusiast and a prolific author of esoterica, a Spiritist, a Mason, a Theosophist, and a leading figure in 20th century Rosicrucianism and the Ordo Templi Orientis.

For many historians, alas, it has been easier to dismiss such ideas and movements than to dig in and attempt to come to a broader understanding of their nature and context. I know from first-hand experience how challenging this can be: for my book on Manual espírita of 1911, the secret book by the leader of Mexico's 1910 Revolution, Francisco I. Madero, I had to read through a Himalaya of works that were at times for me--as I surmise they would be for most researchers of the Mexican Revolution-- discomfiting in the extreme. (I discuss this challenge at some length in my review of Strieber and Kripal's Super Natural.)

In his detailed and well documented article, von Feilitzsch has made a vital contribution not only to the literature on the Mexican Revolution but also to German-Mexican relations and the history of metaphysical religion. Those interested in the latter subject will recognize names of Dr. Krumm-Heller's teachers and mentors, among them, Madame Blavatsky, Papus, Franz Hartmann, and Rudolph Steiner. 

I am honored that von Feilitzsch cited my work on Madero's Spiritism, as well as some of my correspondence speculating about Madero's attitude towards Theosophy and the nature of Madero's relationship with Dr. Krumm-Heller. 

One thing that jumped out as new to me was von Feilitzsch's mention that Krumm-Heller "had his first training in esotericism through the French spiritist León Denis." Denis was one of the leaders of the Spiritist movement after Allan Kardec. Francisco I. Madero and his father, Francisco Madero, were the sponsors of the Spanish translation of Denis's book, Après la Mort (After Death). Since some historians erroneously claim that that translation was never published, I made this little video showing my copy of that title, Después de la muerte, which was indeed published in 1906. 


Related posts of interest:

>> Professor Roberto Cantú

>> Heribert von Feilitzsch's webpage and Mexican Revolution blog.

>> von Feilitzsch: "A Decision with Grave Consequences: Arnold Krumm-Heller and the Demise of Pancho Villa"

>> My review for Literal of von Feilitzsch's In Plain Sight: Felix A. Sommerfeld, Spymaster in Mexico, 1908-1914 (which mentions Dr Krumm-Heller)


>> Some of my blog posts on Dr Krumm-Heller:

More About the Mysterious Dr. Krumm-Heller and His Book Fur Freiheit und Recht (For Freedom and Justice)

Del Incienso a la Osmoterapia (From Incense to Osmoptherapy) by Arnoldo Krumm-Heller

Arnold Krumm-Heller (1876-1949) and Francisco I. Madero (1873-1913): Some Notes on Sources

A NOTE ON KRUMM-HELLER'S EL TATWAMETRO: LAS VIBRACIONES DEL ETER (The Tatwameter: Vibrations of the Ether)

Dr. Krumm-Heller prepared the draft of El Tatwametro in 1911-- when he was in Mexico with Madero-- although he did not publish it until 1926. The photos shown here are of my copy, a first edition from Barcelona. 

Here is my translation of the opening page:

THE TATWAMETER, VIBRATIONS OF THE ETHER
By Dr. Krumm-Heller

Upon receiving my initiation, my guru gave me detailed instructions about the tatwas and the tatwameter, but I was never able to find a way to publish them. Around the year 1912 in Mexico I read an article about this matter, by my friend Brandler-Pracht* of Berlin, and then I wrote a 
pamphlet about the practical application of the tatwas.

Five years later in Berlin we had some occult experiences together and Brandler-Pracht told me that he had published a larger work on this same subject. 

I have not been able to find a copy of of the latest edition, but it is likely that my book and Brandler-Pracht's are very similar, since they are based on material from the same source. At the end of this work there is something by that author.

But, what is tatwa?

It is the name the Hindus give to powers that are as mysterious as they are powerful.

For us westerners tatwas is the vibration of the ether.




*Karl Brandler-Pracht was the author of several works on the occult. The German National Library (Deutsche National Bibliotek) has a catalog of his books here. The book he wrote on the tatwas is Tattwische und astrale Einflüsse: ein Schlüssel zur prakischen Verwendung der it dem menschlichen Leben enverbundenen kosmischen Schwingungen, wodurch jedermann sein Geschick günstig beeinflussen kann. Here's my rough go at translating that mouthful: The Tatwas and Astral Influences: A Key to the Practical Use of the Cosmic Vibrations that are Intimately Connected to Human Life, Whereby Everone Can Influence Their Fate Favorably. As far as I can ascertain it was originally published in 1924.



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For those of you wondering what's up with my Far West Texas book and Marfa Mondays Podcasts, bless y'all, and stay tuned. Meanwhile, I invite you to listen in anytime to the 20 podcasts posted to date. The 21st podcast, an essay, has required a heap more background reading than I bargained for... To give you an idea of the complexity, should that be your cup of buffalo blood, check out my review of Hamalainen's The Comanche Empire.




>> YOUR COMMENTS ARE ALWAYS WELCOME. WRITE TO ME HERE.

Reading Mexico: Recommended Reading for a Book Club 

of Extra Curious and Adventurous English-Language Book Club

Biographers International Interview:

A Strange Spark of the Mexican Revolution

On Writing About Mexico: Secrets and Surprises 

(UTEP Centennial Lecture)

Arnold Krumm-Heller (1876-1949) and Francisco I. Madero (1873-1913): Some Notes on Sources

Ready for Hollywood?

***UPDATE Sept 25, 2013: Krumm-Heller's public domain works can be downloaded as PDFs from this website.***


***UPDATE Dec 2013 My book, Metaphysical Odyssey Into the Mexican Revolution, is now available***

A very mysterious and Hollywood-worthy character has emerged of late from the mists of my research on Francisco I. Madero (leader of the 1910 Mexican Revolution and President of Mexico 1911-1913) and his secret book of 1911, Spiritist Manual: 

The German occultist, spy, artillery expert, homeopathist and medical doctor (ayyy, let's pile on some more adjectives: expert on indigenous shamanism with the nom de magique Huiracocha, thaumaturge, Rosicrucian, student of Franz Hartmann and Papus, friend of Aleister Crowley and Rudolph Steiner, devotee of Madame Blavatsky, fighter for Venustiano Carranza and Gnostic bishop): 

Arnold Krumm-Heller.

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As for Krumm-Heller's relationship with Francisco I. Madero, according to Heribert von Feilitzsch, author of the recent deeply researched paradigm-smasher of a biography, In Plain Sight: Felix Sommerfeld Spymaster in Mexico, 1908-1914, Krumm-Heller was none other than President Madero's personal physician-- starting in 1911. His source for that? The US National Archives. Check it out:

NA RB 242 Captured German Documents, T141, Roll 20, von Eckhardt to vn Bethmann Hollweg, May 17, 1916.

>Read von Feilitzsch's blog post on Krumm-Heller.


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Krumm-Heller's Autobiography, from Conferencias Esotéricas
Dated Mixcoac, Mexico (that would be the neighborhood Mixcoac in Mexico City, I believe), March 27, 1909

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Ricardo Pérez Montfort's essay, "El doctor Arnold Krumm Heller en México, 1910-1935. Entre el esoterismo, el nacionalismo y la osmoterapia" is in his collection, Cotidianidades, imaginarios y contextos, ensayos de historia y cultura en México, 1850 1950.

I have yet to get my hands on a copy (I hope this week). . . . 

From the bit I found on-line it seems that Krumm-Heller had his doctor's office in Mexico City on the Calle del Empedradillo near the Monte de Piedad (which is on the corner of the Zocalo next to the Cathedral); he was part of the Junta Permanente of the Second Spiritist Congress, and through these members he met Francisco Madero; later became Madero's doctor.

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In (the sublime and novelesque) I Speak of the City: Mexico at the Turn of the Twentieth Century, Mauricio Tenorio-Trillo writes about what he terms Mexico's "India odalisque mania" and one its great examples:

Arnold Krumm-Heller, who was in Mexico City in the 1900s, returned to Germany in the 1920s, and wrote vastly on the racial superiority of the Aryan and Aztec races. He blended theosophy, Freemasonry, racial theories, and his own orientalism vis-a-vis pre-Hispanic Mexico. By 1914, for him, Carranza's Mexico would resist the lure of the American (U.S.) mermaids, and would follow Germany's spiritualist call, rediscovering their Aztec (quasi-Aryan) past. 

Tenorio-Trillo's sources for this:
R. William Weisberger, Wallace McLeod, and S. Brent Morris, ed., Freemasonry on Both Side of the Atlantic: Essays Concerning the Craft in the British Isles, Europe, the United States, and Mexico (Boulder: East European Monographs; New York: Columbia University Press, 2002); Arnold Krumm-Heller, Mexiko, Mein Heimatland! (1919); and Roberto Pérez Montfort's essay noted above.

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More detail on Krumm-Heller in Spanish on the website for the Fraternitas Rosicruciana Antigua, a Venezuelan organization based on his teachings. It claims that when Krumm-Heller arrived in Mexico he joined the Masonic Lodge, Gran Logia Valle de México. 

In 1911 Krumm-Heller wrote Los Tatwas y su aplicación en la vida práctica, which he revised and published in 1926 as El Tatwámetro o las vibraciones del éter. (Download the free PDF here.)

Also according to this article, in 1912 his play, La Ley de Karma, was performed in Mexico City at the Teatro Abreu and in 1913 he published Conferencias Esotéricas, la evolución del planeta  y de las razas humanas, curación de las enfermedades y la prolongación de la vida por medio de ejercicios repiratorios (PDF download). 

The English translation of that would be:

Esoteric Lectures: The Evolution of the Planet and Human Races, Healing Illnesses and the Prolongation of Life by Means of Breathing Exercises

Conferencias esotericas has some rich autobiographical information which is summarized on the www.gnosis2022.com website (in Spanish).

Arnold Krumm-Heller

And I note that the Spanish translation of his novel, Rosa Cruz, novela de ocultismo iniciático, was published by Maucci in Barcelona-- the very same to publish an edition (not the original) of Madero's Manual Espírita in 1911. 

This Fraternitas Rosicruciana Antigua website also notes his many later works, among them:

El zodiaco Azteca en comparción con el de los Incas (1910)
Plantas sagradas (1934)
Del Incienso a la Osmoterapia (1934) 

Arnoldo Krumm-Heller
Ediciones Botas México

Osmotherapy! The idea was like aromatherapy, I suppose. (I just googled and found some Chinese doctors prescribe it for kidney ailments.)

>Find a scribd listing of downloadable copies of many more of Krumm-Heller'sbooks here.


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Krumm-Heller aka Huiracocha, also wrote about tuning the chakras with vocalizations. This YouTube video is a lecture about that by his follower Samael Aun Weor, author of 70 books and founder of the modern Gnostic movement. Weor has more to say about vocalizations and Krumm-Heller here. (The video is in Spanish but even if you can't understand it, it's fun to hear the vocalizations.)

(Interestingly: similar idea over at sound therapist Jonathan Goldman's site which sells a handy chakra tuning app.)

(Fuzzy on the concept of chakras? Get your brief overview here.)

UPDATE: Blog post on this book here.

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Dr Krumm-Heller
President Madero's Doctor

Another batch of information is in the detailed on-line biography by Peter R. Koenig, which asserts that

In 1915, President Madero procured a professorship in German language and literature for him, also making him a lieutenant-colonel and physician to the General Staff.

But of course by 1915 Madero had been dead and buried for two years. Could be a typo? Did he mean Carranza? Not sure what the sources are.

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The most detail about Krumm-Heller is in the biography by one of his disciples, H.S. Tsadhe, Krumm Heller el Rosa Cruz (link downloads the complete PDF)

Biography by H.S. Tsadhe
(en español)

Of Krumm-Haller's time in Mexico, Tsadhe writes (my translation):

"In February 1911, when Madero launched the revolutionary struggle by combat, his friend Arnold Krumm Heller accompanied him, as well as many friends from his lodge and who shared his ideas. Krumm Heller had studied homeopathy in Germany with the direct disciples of Hahneman, and Occult Medicine with Papus in France (he also knew the natural medicine of the indigenous Mapuches, Incas, Mayas and Aztecs) and he was an experienced medium and genuine healer of a thousand remedies. He worked on these daily in his Mexico City laboratory and office. Now our man participates alongside Madero in his revolutionary act as he assumes the office of Inspector General of Medical Services in the Campaign."

En Febrero de 1911, Madero emprende la lucha revolucionaria en el frente de combate; su amigo, Arnoldo Krumm Heller le acompaña, entre otros muchos compañeros de logia y de ideales. Krumm Heller que había estudiado Homeopatía en Alemania, con los discípulos directos de Hahneman, y la Medicina Oculta, con Papus en Francia; (la medicina natural de los, aborígenes mapuches, incas, mayas y aztecas, le era también conocida) era un experimentado taumaturgo y genuino sanador de mil recursos. A diario lo reiteraba en su laboratorio y consultorio de Ciudad de México. Ahora nuestro hombre participa al lado de Madero en su gesta revolucionaria y asume las funciones de Inspector General de los Servicios Médicos en Campaña.

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Those up on their Mexican revolution reading will want to ask, is Arnold Krumm-Heller mentioned in Friedrich Katz's The Secret War in Mexico: Europe, the United States, and the Mexican Revolution? 

Why, yes, indeed, pp. 428-429, but abruptly, starting when Krumm-Heller described only as a "doctor," who "rallied to Carranza in 1913 and had sent messages to the German authorities  then supporting Huerta in which he urged them to back Carranza. The reply was hardly flattering: the German authorities called him a criminal and a madman..." 

Katz cites the source for that as AA Bonn, Mexico 16, vol. 3, Eckhardt to Reichskanzler, 7 August 1918. 

The problem in evaluating this is, as Katz himself says, though in reference to a different matter, the German secret services were in continual conflict among themselves. 

Was Krumm-Heller a madman? Well, it's important to remember that many people (then and now) considered anyone who showed even the slightest interest in Spiritism, Theosophy, in short anything in anyway occult, loonier than a loon, and certainly Krumm-Heller was very interested all such matters, so it is not surprising that someone somewhere made such a statement about him.

Krumm-Heller was an ardent German patriot and he was back in Germany during the Third Reich, but he was accused of being a "Judaeo-Masonic" conspirator and the Nazis confiscated his library. (See quote from Sabazius below. . . )

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Francisco I. Madero
President of Mexico

As for my own research to date re: Francisco I. Madero, I have not found any other references to Krumm-Heller in the main literature on Madero and the Revolution 1910-1911, nor in Madero's collected correspondence (Epistolerio 1900-1909 vol I and 1910 vol. II). 

Didn't find any in Rogelio Fernández Guell's La Revolución Mexicana, either. And I thought I would since Fernández Guell was the editor of Helios, a Spiritist magazine supported by Madero. Maybe I missed it. (Did I?)

Nope, not in David Dorado Romo's Ringside Seat to a Revolution, either (though he says quite a lot about Teresa de Urrea and the Spiritist Lauro Aguirre).

Neither is there a mention of Krumm-Heller in Yolia Tortolero's (magnificent) El espíritismo seduce a Francisco I. Madero.

However, the world of esoteric studies in Mexico was a small one and Madero did attend and in fact sponsor several magazines and conferences both before and after 1910, when Krumm-Heller, fresh from his esoteric studies in Latin America and Paris-- with none other than Papus the great occultist--- arrived in Mexico City. It would be strange indeed if their paths had not crossed. 

Furthermore, both Madero and Krumm-Heller were Masons of the 33rd Degree and both were enthusiastic homeopathists. 

No doubt there are avenues aplenty for research here.... More info? Comments?

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Eliphas Levi
French occultist

In the remains of Madero's library at Mexico City's Centro de Estudios de Historia de Mexico CARSO, I found some books, including one of Krumm Heller's; Ciencia oculta de la medicina by Franz Hartmann, a translation from the English, Occult Science in Medicine (a German Theosophist and translator of the Bhagavad-Gita, Hartmann had been at Adyar, India with Madame Blavatsky); L’occultisme en le Spiritualisme, by Gérard Encausse, offering chapters on the astral body, the esoteric history of the white race, and the secret histories of the lost continents Atlantis and Lemuria (Encausse was a medical doctor and hypnotist otherwise known as “Papus,” the most famous Theosophist-turned-Occultist of his time, friend to the Spiritists and mystic to the Tzar of Russia (very down on Rasputin)—just to offer a grossly abbreviated description of this most energetic and charismatic Parisian personality); and Les mystères de l’être, by Ely Star-- any or all of which could have been on Krumm-Heller's own shelves and, who knows, may even have been gifts to Madero from Krumm-Heller himself. But I underline: that's just my own speculation. 

Ordo Templi Orientis

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The Invisible Basilica: Arnold Krumm-Heller
by Sabazius
An online biographical sketch 

According to Sabazius:

"[Krumm-Heller] received a document from Papus dated March 13, 1908 appointing him "Délégué Genéral pour le Chili, Perou et Bolivie" of the Martinist Order. He also received, for no fee, a document from Theodor Reuss dated March 15, 1908 appointing him "General Gross-Representanten für Mexico" of the Sovereign Sanctuary of the Ancient and Primitive Rite of Memphis and Mizraim." 

Theodor Reuss was the head of the OTO. More about him in the on-line article by T. Apiryon.

So Krumm-Heller was involved with the OTO = Ordo Templi Orientis
Here's what I could find about that:
Some basic background from the USA OTO website:

The letters O.T.O. stand for Ordo Templi Orientis, the Order of Oriental Templars, or Order of the Temple of the East. O.T.O. is dedicated to the high purpose of securing the Liberty of the Individual and his or her advancement in Light, Wisdom, Understanding, Knowledge, and Power through Beauty, Courage, and Wit, on the Foundation of Universal Brotherhood.
Ordo Templi Orientis is the first of the great Old Æon orders to accept The Book of the Law, received byAleister Crowley in 1904 EV. This book proclaims a New Æon in human thought, culture and religion. The Æon arises from a single supreme injunction: the Law of Thelema, which is Do what thou wilt.

U.S. Grand Lodge is the governing body of O.T.O. in the United States. It is the most populous and active branch of O.T.O., with many local bodies spread throughout the country.

Love is the law, love under will.

What did/ does the OTO have to with other Rosicrucian groups? Here's a compare and contrast on all the main modern Rosicrucian groups.



The Sabazius bio also covers Krumm-Heller during WWII (source was Krumm-Heller's son Parsival):

In 1936-37, a pamphlet titled "Der Judenkenner" was circulated, in which Krumm-Heller and the late Theodor Reuss were denounced as agents of the "Judaeo-Masonic Conspiracy". Parsival recalls the circulation of ths pamphlet to their neighbors as a particularly frightening experience, but Krumm-Heller seemed relatively unconcerned for his safety until the last days of the war. The Nazis confiscated Krumm-Heller's library, but did not destroy it. Krumm-Heller and his son left Germany for America in 1937. The father returned to Germany in 1938, leaving Parsival in Mexico to attend school. Parsival returned to Germany in 1940. Carlotta, Krumm-Heller's second wife and Parsival's mother, died in 1945.

Krumm-Heller remained in Germany throughout most of WWII, at his home in Marburg. Marburg was a relatively tolerant university town and Krumm-Heller lived there in precarious safety even though he passively resisted the Nazis by such acts as flying the Mexican flag above the required Nazi flag in front of his house. During the war, Krumm-Heller maintained a baseline level of contact with his F.R.A. bodies in South America via mutual contacts in Sweden. When the Americans marched into Marburg, Krumm-Heller greeted them enthusiastically, and was appointed by them as the local director of the Red Cross, with which organization he had long been associated. As soon as the war was over, he immediately re-established full contact with F.R.A. in South America. Krumm-Heller died in Marburg in 1949 surrounded by his family and friends. He was cremated in his Red Cross uniform.

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It occurs to me that anyone who wants to do more research might find an angle in the papers of Aleister Crowley at the Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas, Austin. I did check the list of correspondents listed on-line and Krumm-Heller is not among them. But there might be something more. I would think. 

P.S. Portuguese website which argues that Krumm-Heller, of the white lodge, was against Crowley, of the black lodge. 

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La Sagrada Biblioteca IGEOM (en español) has a page on Krumm-Heller
Excerpt (my translation):

Arnold Krumm-Heller is an occultist who apprenticed in the old esoteric societies of the 19th century. He is a master of the white brotherhood, whose spirit is Archbishop in the Gnostic Church of the Inner Worlds, and we have this autobiographical note of his, we can get a precise idea of how he was and how he thought, which is always revealing. . . . read more

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Comments?