Mária Szepes

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Mária Szepes [ˈmaːriɒ ˈsɛpɛʃ] (December 14, 1908 – September 3, 2007) was a Hungarian author. She worked as a journalist and screenwriter, as well as an independent author in the field of hermetic philosophy since 1941. She would sometimes write under the pseudonyms Mária Papir or Mária Orsi.

[edit] Life

Szepes was born Magdolna Scherbach into a Hungarian family of theater stars in Budapest. Her father, Sándor Papir, was a bon vivant and great star of Budapest's stages. Her mother was primadonna. Her parents and her brother were to her like "Brothers and Sisters in spirit", as well as she admitted only spiritual relationship: "Everything else is just experience, engagement, disengagement – karma."

From 1916 to 1933 she appeared as a film actress (mostly under the name Magda Papir). One year after marrying Béla Szepes, she accompanied him to Berlin, where they lived until Hungary's Anschluß towards war's end. In her book Magie der Liebe ("Magic of Love"), Mária Szepes reports on the marriage, which lasted 56 years, and discusses the so-called "Alchemistic Marriage", the dissolution of the ego in the other.

Szepes studied literature, art history, and biology in Berlin. Back in Hungary she first worked as a journalist, screenplay writer, and author. Her first novel The Red Lion was written in a hideout during World War II and became a worldwide bestseller of esoteric literature. The two Raguel Volumes are referred to as her chief work by Szepes herself.

[edit] The Red Lion

The first novel by Mária Szepes was published 1946 in Hungary (original title: "A Vörös Oroszlán"). During the communist regime Rákosi The Red Lion was considered to be nonconformistic and therefore was prohibited. All copies of the book were ordered to be destroyed. Except that the librarian and novelist Béla Hamvas had managed to save four copies. Then several supporters of the author typed up the novel, made templates for printing, and released the self-made copies into the underground. Almost 40 years later the novel arrived at the desk of the Heyne publishing company via the agency Utoprop. The book was translated into German by Gottfried Feidel and was published as paperback in 1984. More details regarding the history of origin are reported by Hans Joachim Alpers in his preface of the 2002 re-issue.

Szepes tells the story of unhappy Hans Burger, a miller's son born in the 16th century. After the death of his weak father and of a likewise miserable but beloved teacher, he becomes afraid of the unavoidable death of all living things. Driven by omnipresent rumours of an elixir of eternal life, he accompanies a mysterious alchemist. Instead of listening to his warnings, Burger, in his feverish greed, does not shrink away from murder; therefore he gets hold of the elixir spiritually unprepared. This is the starting point of a journey through the centuries, because from now on Burger can physically die, but is born into different circumstances over and over again and retains his full memory. Several times he tries to perform the great transmutation, which delivers him from his self-imposed curse. In front of the background of last five centuries' European history Hans Burger undergoes a dramatic personal development: at first an unconscious, even infamous, character, he grows on the problems confronting him. He reaches human perfection and finally becomes a Magus, an initiate.