Gichtel, John Georg (1638-1710)
Gichtel, John Georg (1638-1710)
German theosophical mystic in the tradition of Jakob Boehme. He was born at Ratisbon, Germany, on March 14, 1638. He attributed his leaving a legal career to a meeting with Baron Justinianus von Weltz, who presented a vision for the union of Christianity. As a result Gichtel became the head of a small society, the Christerbauliche Jesusgesellschaft. It was not long before the church authorities expressed their disapproval, and Gichtel moved to Holland, the most religiously tolerant country on the Continent at the time. There he discovered Boehme's mystical writings and became an ardent disciple. He saw to the publication of the writings in 1682 and organized a Boehmist society called the Brethren of the Angels. Gichtel's own major literary contribution lay primarily in a number of letters he wrote that were gathered and published by one of his followers as Theosophia practica (1701).