In the foreword of some of his writings, Master EK gives thanks to a man who called forth the books into existence – Albert Sassi. He calls him his “spiritual colleague”. In one of his books, on “Master CVV“, he even describes how he came to know Mr. Sassi and met him for the first time in 1963 in the Blue Mountains, the Nilagiris of South India.
Who is this man who gave the impulse for some of the most profound books of Master EK such as Spiritual Astrology, Spiritual Psychology, and the Book of Rituals? And to whom Master EK also gave a text which seems to be lost – or do you know anything about the whereabouts of “Female Hierarchy”? A few days ago, Sri Kumar wrote to me: “What interests me is the text on Female Hierarchy coming from Master EK. If we can trace and publish it that would be very fulfilling. I am on search for it. It is also mentioned in Spiritual Astrology.” So if you know any traces where a copy of this script might be, please let me know.
In search of tracks and traces, I made some very interesting findings.
In 1989, an old theosophist from a town near Frankfort, Johannes Weder, invited me to his home. He wanted to give me all books I wanted to take from his huge library – he was preparing for his passing. I left with two banana boxes filled with valuable old theosophical books, all the books of Master EK published up to then and six volumes of the “Lettres d’Albert Sassi”, the correspondence of Mr. Sassi in French on hectographed paper, from 1960 until shortly before his death in March 1971. I went through the manuscripts, read about Sassis spiritual work and his encounters with Master EK – and put the texts back into the banana box.
With Johannes Weder in Rodgau near Frankfort, August 1898. Click on the pictures to see them enlarged.
The manuscripts of Albert Sassi
When a week ago I saw the video “Master Mountain – A Retreat into Presence“, a sequence about Albert Sassi suddenly caught my attention. I went into the basement to get the manuscripts of his letters. I paged through all of them and marked everything about Rishi Agastya, the Nilagiris and Master EK. While reading my interest rose, and I started translating the paragraphs. Here is the compilation (PDF) – I added some “goodies”.
Albert Sassi, a print-screen from the video of the WTT group of Bangalore.
Little is to be found about him on the web and it is partly in contradiction to what he wrote in his letters: an eulogy without date published at his retirement, a few biographical remarks, and some lines about him in a biography about Elisabeth Warnon (1915-1997), one of his disciples, with whom he lived in India for several years. There Warnon also speaks about her exchange with Master EK on the Feminine Hierarchy (English version see in my translation). Elisabeth also edited the “Lettres d’Albert Sassi”. The following is taken from these letters.
His birth date remains unclear, it must be end of the 19th century in Italy. At the age of 18, he receives a price as a mechanical and electrical engineer. He makes a stage working with electrical machines and then goes to Brazil, installing in 1913 power and electricity in the state of Sao Paolo. In 1915 he becomes volunteer pilot in Italy, and after a short training he is already a pilot instructor. In 1917, he instructs the first American volunteers: “America doesn’t have neither airplanes nor pilots; they sent 1000 volunteers to France and 400 to Italy.” He instructs them on two different airplanes.
In 1919, he returns to Switzerland “for the work of the Master”, as he writes in 1960, to prepare Geneva for the future League of Nations. From 1939 till 1959, he is a high ranking officer at the Geneva Department of Commerce (in 1959), where he served for 30 years, from 1952 he was a professor of Labour Law.
At the same time, he follows an intense spiritual journey, as a very open high dignitary member of the Theosophical Society (TS) in Geneva, a priest of the Liberal Catholic Church founded by theosophists and member of a masonic lodge. Directly after his retirement he goes to India, together with Elisabeth Warnon, first to the seat of the TS in Adyar. On 8 January 1960, he writes: “The 18th, we will leave for OOTACAMUND in the Nilagiri Hills, where there are the mountains inhabited by the spiritual Regent of India, the Grand Rishi AGASTYA. The mountain, where he took his refuge, is located at an altitude of 2.000 m.” Later he is in Kalimpong near Darjeeling a the feet of the Himalayas, where he has profound inner experiences.
In 1961, they settled in Kotagiri in the Nilagiris, where Elisabeth had bought a property they called “Master’s Garden”, located at the boards of the village. There they followed intense spiritual practiced and organised art expositions with spiritual paintings. He was painting himself: “My sleeping-room, the old dining hall, contains the HIMALAYAN LAKE, the portrait of the RISHI AGASTYA, the Himalayan place where the WAISAKH festival takes place, with the Lord Maitreya kneeling down before the great natural monolith.” (22 June 1962 – maybe not referring to his paintings). Sassi is intensely working on the French translation of Esoteric Astrology of Master DK / Alice A. Bailey; later, he organises the publication of the book.
In a letter from 1963, he writes: “Madam R. is living in COONOOR, a terrestrial paradise, which is located vis-à-vis of DROUG, the holy mountain, which for a long time has been inhabited by the spiritual regent of India, the Grand Rishi AGASTYA.”
There is no mention about Master EK in his lettters before 1965, but Master EK writes in the booklet on Master CVV about the fascinating encounter in 1963:
“While I was its editor (of the astro-spiritual magazine “Mihira”), I discussed an issue in the magazine. It related to the eight planetary conjunctions that was taking place at that time and its significance vis-a-vis the future of the world. During those days in prayer I noticed a comet as also the purpose of the planetary conjunction. Later I came to know that Master C.V.V. himself indicated the comet to his disciples.
This article of mine was noticed and studied by one Mr. Albert Sassi, a senior member of the Theosophical Society. He came from Madras to Guntur to see me, inspired by the article. He had an Ashram in the Nilagiris (Blue Mountains) where he sought discourses from me on Yoga. In 1963, I stayed in his Ashram for a month. On the first day of my stay in the Ashram he did not allow me into his prayer room. This was on account of the restrictions he had as a member of the Theosophical Society. While he was conducting meditation, I was carrying out the prayer of Master C.V.V. After the day’s activity Mr. Sassi expressed that in meditation he saw a new Master whom he did not know before. He explained the noble and the majestic features of the person whom he saw. He enquired who my Master was and asked me to show his picture. I showed the photograph of Master C.V.V. and Mr. Sassi confirmed that it was he who appeared to him in the meditation. He offered his worship to the Master. Thereafter we prayed and meditated together. During my stay with him Mr. Sassi knew fully the Yoga path of Master C.V.V. All the members of the Ashram joined us in the meditation. Besides teaching Yoga I explained the synthesis of the work carried out by the Masters of Wisdom. Mr. Sassi stated that he was striving to know one more Master apart from the Masters of Wisdom named by the Theosophical Society. He had also distinct information, he stated, that this Master belonged to the Ashram of Sage Agastya and that he lives in the caves of Nilagiris. He further stated that he had this information relating to the Master of Nilagiris from one of the direct disciples of a Master of Wisdom. He proceeded to describe that this Master is the spark on the planet of that Great Light Agastya. I understood in the prayers gradually that this new Master whom Mr. Sassi was referring to was Master C.V.V. Master C.V.V. is the Master of the Aquarian age and the sage Agastya is described in the scriptures as the product of Aquarius of higher cycles.
Next day I revealed to Mr. Sassi my experience in the prayer Mr. Sassi also confirmed through his meditation that the unknown Master working with the Master, of wisdom was none other than Master C. V. V. He took a photograph of the Master C.V.V. and placed it in the center of the altar of his prayer hall. He made similar adjustments in the shrine rooms of those who followed him in Belgium and France. From that time the prayer of the Master is carried out in those centres of the West.” (From: Master CVV)
At the May Call 2011, Sri Kumar spoke about this encounter between Master EK and Albert Sassi, saying: “There was a theosophical house in the Nilagiris and Master EK was meditating to Master CVV in his own room. Then one day Albert Sassi gave the pictures to Master EK, all that we have and who were not known at these times – of Maria, Jesus, Lord Maitreya… He asked him, ‘Which Master you are praying to?’, and Master EK took out the picture of Master CVV. In the Theosophical Society, they have the pictures of all the Masters but not of the Master of the Nilagiris, and he (Sassi) meditated upon Master CVV and understood that it was the Master of the Nilagiris, and he said to him, ‘We had been waiting for this Master’s picture.’ It is he (Sassi) who gave the full text of invocation to Master EK, it was not given out, only 4 stanzas. That was given to him by Albert Sassi, the whole invocation. He invited Master EK to the west. Master EK knew that he had to go to the West, his program was the spiritual fusion of east and west, and that was what he did.”
In a letter from Brussels, 19 March 1968, Sassi wrote:
“You ask me for the fifth strophe of the Great Invocation! As per this subject, I would like to immediately specify a point. The text which I will submit to you in the following has absolutely not OFFICIAL character and does not emerge from any authority in that matter.
At his time, the Tibetan has announced that “When the Coming of the Lord will be near, HE would give the fifth strophe of the Great Invocation. As far as I am concerned, I have simply tried to “guess”, to perceive what could be the content of the 5th strophe. I have tried to let play my intuition and the following text is just the result of this purely personal effort. As far as I am concerned, I like to anticipate the “events” and I like to try to scrutinize the future. After all, did not the Tibetan declare that the Coming of the Lord depends from us, depended from the Call of the humanity!
Here is my text in English:
‘From the Avatar of Synthesis who is to come
Let HIS ENERGY pour down upon all Kingdoms
May He lift up the Earth whole
To the Beauty of the King’ ”
In a letter from Kotagiri, 29 September 1965, Sassi wrote the first time about Master EK and the beginnings of Spiritual Astrology:
“Very quickly after having the English text from Krishnamacharya about the Female Hierarchy, the latter has started dictating during nearly a month, an important contribution entitled SPIRITUAL ASTROLOGY, of which the text of 322 pages has just arrived with us, very magnificently bound, although it is a work in typewriting – in big format.
In certain chapters of this Oeuvre absolutely unpublished, Krishnamacharya goes very far in the astrological esotericism, especially as far as the discipline related to different Moon phases is concerned. In this aspect, Krishnamacharya goes much farther than the Tibetan in his ESOTERIC ASTROLOGY. And all this is just a beginning.
Indeed, with Krishnamacharya, we could realized here, at Masters’ Garden, an embryo, a prelude, of this FUSION EAST-WEST, which is demanded by the MASTER….
You will be particularly interested to know that Krishnamacharya sees emerging in the future a very close collaboration between FRANCE and INDIA, which has to be build up mutually, through their complementary aspects. And Krishnamacharya likes to define the collaboration in the depths that he has realized with us, like the new Franco-Indian Link, that he constitutes as his new task in this life. This is promising! Because, as I have told you, Krishnamacharya is a fountain of science.”
And some weeks later, he writes in another letter:
“At this moment I prepare the manuscript of Krishnamacharya of 322 pages and the more I go through this extraordinary text, the more my breath is taken by its profoundness. In this extremely compact book, there is material for 3 years of conferences and courses in Europe with a group of selected students. But this is only a beginning, for 6 other books have been announced to us by Krishnamacharya, in addition to a strictly esoteric activity, of which we will speak to you at our return.”
In 1967, Albert Sassi had to return to Europe due to his bad health, and he settled in Belgium.
In a letter from Bandol, 3 November 1968, Sassi gives another invocation, which is also used in groups of the WTT: “Dear Friend, here is the PLANETARY INVOCATION, which you have asked for and which we recite every day:
“With DARJEELING and all the Sons of ASIA,
With TOKYO and all the Japanese Associates,
With LUXOR and all our African Brothers,
With GENEVA and all the citizens of EUROPE and of RUSSIA,
With LONDON and all our British brothers,
With NEW YORK and all our Friends of America,
We bow down in homage and adoration
To the mighty Hierarchy, the inner Government of the world,
And to its very exquisite jewel, the Star of the Sea, the WORLD MOTHER.”
Beginning of 1971, Albert Sassi is back to India. In spite of his bad health, he goes first to the Nilagiris and then visits Master EK in Visakhapatnam:
“We were in haste to visit the community of Krishnamacharya, a spiritual community, which is a model of the kind. Everywhere mutual help. No TITLE for any director. Five homeopathic hospitals and several private schools totally at the costs of the promoters, where the teachers have no salary but offer freely their help. The Father of Krishnamacharya is a Grand Seer, and a grand Saint. He has 73 years. An admirable monograph has been published at the occasion of his anniversary. After six weeks of convalescence, I haven’t yet re-found my forces. We leave, though I am still very weak.”
His last letter he writes from Calcutta, on 24 February 1971, on the way to Katmandu, describing his visit in Visakhapatnam:
“And now we arrive at our Major Experience of our stay in India, with the visit of the group, the team of workers constituted by our Friend, the Dr. Krishnamacharya.
This experience has surpassed our expectation. This is an spiritual event of great importance for the work of the New Age.
I will describe it in detail in a long message, which I will edit at my return. The day of our arrival, the 19th, Krishnamacharya awaited us at the airport. He drove us to a magnificent Indian home of great standing, the apartment of the greatest magnate of the place. The architecture of the Indian house is very beautiful, very artistic. We have been treated as great friends of the family.
The evening in front of 350 men, women and children connected to the United Lodges” of the Indian Theosophical Society, I spoke during 45 minutes and Krishnamacharya has commented in Telugu during 1 ½ h. With the prayers, this was 3 hours of session! Nobody moved! 700 brilliant eyes looking at you, like suns of fire!
Here under these circumstances, you speak always with inspiration. I have had the power to go to the limit. The next day, at 10.30h, I spoke in front of a chosen group. The evening at 6.30 pm, I spoke in the garden. I could transmit the essential ideas of my last exposés.
It is one of the only groups on the planet which, according to my opinion, plays the role of the Fusion East-West as it is understood by the Instructor, with the acceptance of the teaching of MAITREYA, this makes all the difference.
So tomorrow at Katmandu, with the grace of God and if God wants it!
Sincerely yours A. Sassi.”
Seriously sick, he returned from Katmandu to Geneva and did not recover. On 28 March 1971, he passed over to the subtle realms.
In the book “Spiritual Fusion of East and West”, Dr. Parvathi Kumar writes:
“Responding to the call of Albert Sassi, Master E.K. made his first tour to the West in April, 1972. Even by the time Master E.K. responded to the call of Albert Sassi, the latter departed from the physical. Master E.K. therefore, had to work with the followers of faith left behind by Albert Sassi, who were mostly aged.”
The encounter between Albert Sassi and Master EK opened the doors for the unfoldment of the wisdom teachings of the World Teacher Trust in the West.
Albert Sassi: Cartas desde la India