We are very happy to release this first English translation of The Law of the Cosmos, by Eberhard Wortmann, one of the greatest Magister Ludi of the Glass Bead Game, acknowledged as such by Hermann Hesse, himself. This strange and mysterious work first came into my hands in 1992, as a German photocopy, through my association with Dr. John Richter, a cosmological and GBG scholar. He had been given his copy by Dr. Peter Westbrook, who had attempted to track down the author, publisher, and family in Germany almost 20 years ago, but with no success. John and Peter were the only two people who had ever seen or heard of this work or it’s author, and I immediately thought it something definitely worth studying and making better known to the world.
Several years later, after creating the Sacred Science Institute, I listed the book on our website, as well as on our Glass Bead Game site (www.glassbeadgame.com), hoping to draw some attention to it, through Wortmann’s fascinating diagrams, and further hoping to discover enough interest in it to develop a translation project to bring the mysterious text into English. To my delight and surprise, the first person to discover the listing and to contact me about it was Rosemarie Mueller, Wortmann’s daughter, who was living in Argentina. She introduced me to her daughter, Veronica Mueller, who developed an interest in archiving and preserving her grandfather’s work, and in seeing the book translated into English for the appreciation of a wider public.
Another six years passed, during which time I had the opportunity to visit Veronica in Florence, Italy, where I was able to peruse her grandfather’s original works and hundreds of hand-drawn and colored diagrams, some of which are contained in this publication. I was as fascinated with this material as ever, and was frustrated with my inability to read German so as to penetrate the text, further fuelling my desire to see it translated into English.
In 2004, we developed the Sacred Science Translation Society initially to bring Hans Kayser’s Textbook of Harmonics into English. Kayser was another Bead Game master and harmonics scholar, who also knew Hesse, and his massive tome on the science of harmonics and vibration was something that was slightly less difficult to raise some donor funds for a first translation. We were very fortunate to be introduced by Joscelyn Godwin, the well known musicological and esoteric scholar and translator, to his son, Ariel, who had just completed his undergraduate studies in German, and had been helping his father with some translations. We arranged to hire Ariel for the difficult task of translating Kayser’s masterpiece, with the fortunate addition of his father’s oversight and editing of the entire work.
This was a great windfall for us, for besides having found the funds to pay for the translation, we now also had secured a translation team of the highest caliber to tackle this Herculean effort. Upon completion of the Kayser translation, we wanted to continue the project by moving on to Wortmann’s Law of the Cosmos, and through the extremely generous contribution of one anonymous angel donor, we were able to keep Ariel engaged in the translation of the work now in your hands.
Our intention with the release of this first Translation Society edition, is to use all proceeds from the sales of this work to fund the further translation of the complete body of Wortmann’s published and unpublished writings. There are two further complete texts that were previously published in very limited editions, another unpublished text recently discovered in Rosemarie’s attic, as well as a collection of miscellaneous essays and lectures, which we would like to bring into English for the fullest appreciation of Wortmann’s mysterious ideas, and for a deeper penetration into the tradition of the Glass Bead Game.
The Law of the Cosmos presents a Pythagorean style, geometric deciphering of the mathematical theories contained in Plato’s Timaeus and Republic, which have befuddled academic scholars for hundreds of years. Wortmann has developed these ideas in a series of intriguing geometrical diagrams, quite unlike those generally known throughout the traditions of sacred geometry and esoteric cosmology. These mysterious and original diagrams outline the Platonic and Pythagorean code hidden within the esoteric mystery schools for millennia. We have already seen scholars apply the principles contained within this work to the psycho-spiritual energetic matrix of the human body, as well as to the field of free energy generation, and we suspect there are many further applications to be discovered when these ideas are more fully digested and understood.
We sincerely hope that this wonderful work inspires the thought and exploration of a new breed of esoteric scientists, willing to look to ancient and unknown sources, in order to discover new applications and principles for the advancement of modern science, technology and civilization. We feel confident that Wortmann’s work has the potential of opening such new doorways, and wish everyone success in penetrating his profound and mysterious thought…
William Bradstreet Stewart
Institute of CosmoEconomics
January, 2006