Mahatma
(See Adept.) Maier, Michael: A German alchemist born at Rindsburg in Holstein about the year 1858. He was one of the principal figures in the Rosicrucian Controversy in Germany and the greatest adept of his time. He diligently pursued the study of medicine in his youth and settling at Rostock practised with such success that the Emperor Rudolph appointed him as his physician, ennobling him later for his services. Some adepts eventually succeeded in luring him from the practical work he followed so long into the mazy and tortuous paths of alchemy. In order to confer with those whom he suspected were possessed of the transcendent mysteries he travelled all over Germany. The Biographie Universelle states that in pursuit of these "ruinous absurdities he sacrificed his health, fortune and time. On a visit to England he became acquainted with Robert Fludd the Kentish Mystic. "
In the controversy which convulsed Germany on the appearance of his Rosicrucian Manifestoes, he took a vigorous and enthusiastic share and wrote several works in defence of the mysterious society. He is alleged to have travelled in order to seek for members of the "
College of Teutonic Philosophers R.C.," and failing to find them formed a brotherhood of his own, based on the form of the Fama Fraternibus. There is no adequate authority for this statement, but it is believed that he eventually, towards the end of his life, was initiated into the genuine order. A posthumous pamphlet of Maier's called Ulysses was published by one of his personal friends in 1624. There was added to the same volume the substance of two pamphlets already published in German but which in view of their importance were now translated into Latin for the benefit of the European literati. The first pamphlet was entitled Colloquium Rhodostauroticum trium personarium per Famem et Confessionem quodamodo revelatam de Fraternitate Rose Crucis. The second was an Echo Colloquii by Hilarion on behalf of the Rosicrucian Fraternity. From these pamphlets it appears that Maier was admitted as a member of the mystical order. He became the most profuse writer on alchemy of his time. He died in the year 1622. Most of his works, many of which are adorned with curious plates, are obscure with the exception of his Rosicrucian Apologies. (See Rosicrucians.) Maimonides, Moses (1135-1204) : A great Spanish-Hebrew philosopher and theologian, the author of the Guide of the Perplexed. His theories are Aristotelian and rational, but there remained in his view-point a touch of mysticism.