Bô Yin Râ
Bô Yin Râ (civil name Joseph Anton Schneiderfranken), was born on 25 November 1876 in Aschaffenburg, Germany, near Frankfurt am Main. He was a mediator of spiritual wisdom, a poet, and a painter. Bô Yin Râ’s oeuvre comprises 40 books and nearly 200 paintings. His most important gift to humanity is a spiritual teaching work consisting of 32 books under the collective title “Hortus Conclusus.” In the booklet “Why I Bear My Name,” he explains why the works created from 1913 onward were signed with his spiritual name, Bô Yin Râ, or with its initials, B.Y.R.
Joseph Anton’s family moved to Frankfurt in 1880, where he spent the following years of his childhood, attended elementary school, and later the Merian School. Owing to financial difficulties that befell the family, he had to discontinue his studies and, in early youth, support his parents through hard factory work during the years 1890–1892.
Young Joseph Anton was drawn with irresistible force toward the visual arts, and when he was scarcely sixteen years old his dreams came true. He was admitted to the Städel Art Institute, where he studied from 1892 to 1895.
After his art studies, he worked as a stage decorator at the Frankfurt municipal theatre. During this period he became acquainted with one of the best-known German painters of his time, Hans Thoma, who, delighted by the young artist’s talent, gave him private lessons free of charge. In 1899 he brought his studies at the Städel Art Institute to a close by completing its Master Class.
The urge to continue his studies in the field of art and to deepen what he had already learned led the young artist, in the years 1900–1902, to the art academies in Vienna (Kaiserlich-Königliche Akademie der bildenden Künste), Munich, and Paris (Académie Julian).
In 1903 he again studied in Vienna and there married Irma Schönfeld.
The years 1904–1908 were rich both in activity and in travel. Longer stays in Berlin alternated with work in Munich, Leipzig, and Vienna, and his first journeys to Sweden and Italy also took place. In the spring of 1906 a Berlin publishing house issued two series of his pen drawings, and his drawings and paintings were also presented at an art exhibition in Leipzig. During this period Joseph Anton became acquainted with several well-known artists, such as Max Klinger and Fritz Boehle. From 1909 until 1912 he lived and worked in Munich.
In the years 1912–1913 he undertook a journey to Greece that decisively influenced his life and art. The events and developments that took place there culminated in a spiritual consecration on the island of Syros. In 1913 he sent from Athens to the public for the first time his spiritual teaching text, “Light from Himavat,” which was published by the Leipzig publishing house Weissen Bücher. He signed this text for the first time with the initials of his spiritual name, B.Y.R.
In 1915 the E. Schulte Gallery in Berlin exhibited his collection of Greek landscapes. In 1916 Bô Yin Râ published two further texts, “Words of the Masters” and “From the Lands of Light,” and a third, “The Will to Joy,” in 1917. All three texts, originally published separately, belong to the first book of Bô Yin Râ’s spiritual teaching work, “The Book of the Royal Art.”
During this period he was also struck by severe personal hardships: in 1915 his wife Irma died of an incurable illness, and in 1916 he was compelled to enter military service. At first he was assigned administrative duties in Königsberg, and later, owing to his good knowledge of the greek language, he was appointed to work as an interpreter in a camp for Greek prisoners of war in Görlitz.
After being released from military service in 1918, he remained in Görlitz, married Helena Hoffmann, who had been widowed by the war, and in 1919 their daughter Devadatti was born.
During the Görlitz period, the second writing of the spiritual teaching work appeared: “The Book of the Living God,” which he signed for the first time with his spiritual name Bô Yin Râ. At that time he also created twenty paintings belonging to the very special book “Worlds,” in which cosmic views are interwoven with explanatory text. In addition, from 1919 to 1921 he served as chairman of the Oberlausitz Art Association and in 1920 founded the Jakob Böhme Society. He later devoted a separate chapter to the Silesian mystic Jakob Böhme in the book “Signposts Along the Way.”
In 1923 he moved with his family to Horgen, on the shore of Lake Zurich in Switzerland. Then in 1925, he moved with his entire family to Lugano, where he lived until his departure from earthly life. Today his former home Villa Gladiola, is Bô Yin Râ house museum and may be visited by prior arrangement.
During the time he lived and worked in Lugano, all the books of the spiritual teaching work were completed and published in succession. Since 1927 these books have been published and distributed by the Swiss publishing house Kober Verlag AG.
The final book of the spiritual teaching work, “Hortus Conclusus,” or “The Enclosed Garden,” appeared in 1936. Bô Yin Râ also gave the title “Hortus Conclusus” of this book as the collective title for the entire spiritual teaching work, which comprises 32 books.
In 1938 the Schneiderfranken family was granted Swiss citizenship.
After the publication of “Hortus Conclusus” in 1936, several writings closely related to the spiritual teaching work appeared in the following years, in which the author further explains and deepens his spiritual legacy. Among these are the books “Codicil to My Spiritual Teaching Work,” “Marginalia,” “Spiritual Relationships,” “On Godlessness,” and several others.
Bô Yin Râ died in Lugano on 14 February 1943.
His inexhaustible legacy was then introduced further by his daughter Devadatti, who continued this work while living in the Lugano family home until her death in 2015.
Today Villa Gladiola is a house museum administered by the Bô Yin Râ Swiss Foundation (www.bo-yin-ra.ch), and it may be visited during periods agreed upon.