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Rosicrucianism

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"The Temple of the Rosy Cross," Teophilus Schweighardt Constantiens, 1618.

The Rosicrucian is a legendary and secretive order dating from the 15th or 17th century. It is generally associated with the symbol of the Rose Cross, which is also used in certain rituals of the Freemasons. The Rosicrucian Order is also viewed among ealier and many modern Rosicrucianists as an inner worlds Order, comprised of great "Adepts" who are almost like demi-gods, compared to human beings with their consciousness. This "College of Invisibles" is regarded as the source permanently behind the development of the Rosicrucian movement.

Several modern societies have been formed for the study of Rosicrucianism and allied subjects. However, many researchers on the history of the Rosicrucianism argue that modern Rosicrucians are in no sense directly derived from the "Brethren of the Rosy Cross" of the 17th century, though they are keen followers. Moreover, the 17th century order has been viewed as a literary hoax or prank, rather than an operative society, although history shows them as the genesis of later operative and functional societies.

Origins

According to a legend published in the 17th century Rosicrucian manifestos, the Rosicrucian Order was founded in 1407, 15th century, by a German pilgrim named Christian Rosenkreuz (1378 - 1484), who studied in the Holy Land under various occult masters. During his lifetime, the Order was alleged to be small, consisting of no more than eight members. When Rosenkreuz died in 1484, the Order disappeared, only to be "reborn" in the early 17th century. This legend is accepted to varying degrees by modern Rosicrucians, with some accepting it as literal truth, others seeing it as a parable, and yet others believing Rosenkreuz to be a pseudonym for some other, more famous, historical figure. Francis Bacon is often suggested.

According to a lesser known legend found in Masonic literature, the Rosicrucian Order was created in year 46 when an Alexandrian Gnostic sage named Ormus and his six followers were converted by Mark, one of Jesus' disciples. From this conversion, Rosicrucianism was born by fusing primitive Christianity with Egyptian mysteries. Rosenkreuz would, therefore, only have been initiated into and become the Grand Master of an already existing Order instead of being its founder.

According to Émile Dantinne (1884-1969) the origins of the Rosicrucians may have an Islamic connection since, as told in their first manifesto Fama Fraternitatis (1614), 17th century, Christian Rosenkreuz started at the age of sixteen years his pilmigrage that led him to Arabia, Egypt and Morocco, where he was put into contact with the sages of the East, who revealed to him the universal harmonic science. After learning Arabic philosophy in Jerusalem, he was led to Damcar. This place remains a mystery (it would not be Damascus, but is somewhere not too far from Jerusalem. Then he went to Egypt, ,where he did not stay for very long, and soon afterwards embarked to Fes, which was, at the time, a center of philosophical and occultist studies such as the alchemy of Abu-Abdallah, Gabir ben Hayan, and Imam Jafar al Sadiq, the astrology and magic of Ali-ash-Shabramallishi, and the esoteric science of Abdarrahman ben Abdallah al Iskari. However, Dantinne states that Rosenkreuz may have found his secrets amongst the "Brethren of Purity", a society of philosophers which had formed in Basra (Iraq) during the first half of the fourth century. Their doctrine had its source in the study of the ancient Greek philosophers, but became more pronounced in a neo-Pythagorean direction. They took the Pythagorean tradition of the habit of envisaging things under their numeric aspect and their theurgy taught the divine and angelic names, conjurations, the Kabbalah, exorcisms, and other similar things.

The "Brethren of Purity" and the Sufis were united in many points of doctrine. First, they were both mystical orders deriving from Koranic theology, where the dogma is supplanted by faith in the "Divine Reality". Second, there are to be found many similiarities between the Rosicrucian way, expressed in the manifestos, and the "Brethen of Purity" ways of life. Niether wore any special clothing, both practiced abstinence, they healed the sick, they offered their teachings free of charge, and even in the doctrinal elements of their theurgy and the emanationism related the doctrine and story of Creation in similiar ways.

History

It is on the foundation of these teachings that he conceived the plan for simultaneous and universal religious, philosophic, scientific, political, and artistic reform. For the realization of this plan, he united with several disciples, to whom he gave the name of Rose-Croix.

The founder of the Order of the Rose-Croix belonged, as affirmed by historians, to a noble family, but there is no document that allows us to affirm this peremptorily. However, it is certain is that he was an orientalist and a great traveler.

The publication of the Fama Fraternitatis Rosae Crucis (1614)

What was known in the early 17th century as the "Fraternity of the Rose Cross" seems to have been a number of isolated individuals who held certain views in common, which apparently was their only bond of union. These views were regarding hermetic knowledge, related to the higher nature of man, and also with common philosophical conceptions towards the foundation of a more perfected human society. There is no trace of a Fraternity or secret society which held meetings, or had officers or leaders. So far, as many works are concerned, it is evident that the writers who posed as Rosicrucians were moral and religious reformers, and utilized the technicalities of chemistry (alchemy), and the sciences generally, as media through which to publicize their opinions and beliefs. Their writings included a hint of mysticism or occultism, promotive of inquiry and suggestive of hidden meanings discernible or discoverable only by "Adepts".

The publication of Fama Fraternitatis Rosae Crucis (1614), Confessio Fraternitatis (1615), and Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz (1616), declaring the existence of a secret brotherhood of alchemists and sages, who were interpreted as preparing to transform the arts, sciences, religion, political, and intellectual landscape of Europe, (wars of politics and religion ravaged the continent in those times) caused immense excitement throughout Europe, and they not only led to many re-issues, but were followed by numerous pamphlets, favourable and otherwise, whose authors generally knew little of the real aims of the original author (and doubtless, in not a few cases, amused themselves at the expense of the public). It is probable that the first work was circulated in manuscript form about 1610, according to historical records, but if so, there was no mention of the order before that decade. In fact, research indicates that all three documents were probably the creation of lutheran theologian, considered to be one of the wisest man of those times, Johann Valentin Andreae (1586-1654), although his authorship is only confirmed for the Chymical Wedding, which he subsequently described as a Ludibrium. The authors of the Rosicrucian works generally favoured Lutheranism as opposed to Roman Catholicism.

Around 1530, more than eighty years before the publication of the first manifesto, there was already documented evidences of the cross and the rose: in the Convent of the Order of Christ, home of the Knights Templar (renamed Order of Christ) in Portugal. There were, and are, three bocetes on the abóboda of the initiations' room where the rose can be clearly seen at the center of the cross. At the same time, a minor writing by Paracelsus called Prognosticatio Eximii Doctoris Paracelsi (1530) contains the image of a double cross over an open rose, along with a written reference to it. The occultist Stanislas de Guaita, "Au seuil du Mystère" (1886), uses Paracelsus' writing, and other examples, to prove the "Fraternity of the Rose Cross" existed far earlier than 1614.

It is evident that the first Rosicrucian manifesto, Fama Fraternitatis (1614), was influenced by the work of the respected hermetic philosopher Heinrich Khunrath, of Hamburg. He was author of the Amphitheatrum Sapientiae Aeternae (1609), and was in turn strongly influenced by the work of the mysterious philosopher and alchemist John Dee, author of the Monas Hieroglyphica (1564).

The legend and ideas presented in the first two manifestos and in the "Chymical Wedding" originated a variety of controversial issues and works, of rosicrucianist inspiration. Among these, are the works of Michael Maier (1568-1622) of Germany, Robert Fludd (1574-1637) and Elias Ashmole (1617-1692) of England and other such as Teophilus Schweighardt, Gotthardus Arthusius, Julius Sperber, Henricus Madathanus, Gabriel Naudé, Thomas Vaughan, and many more. Some later works ,with an impact on Rosicrucianism, were the Opus magocabalisticum et theosophicum by George von Welling (1719), of alchemical and paracelsian inspiration, and the Aureum Vellus oder Goldenes Vliess by Hermann Fictuld in 1749.

Michael Maier (1568-1622), philosopher, alchemist, a practical chemist, and a doctor in medicine, was ennobled with the title Pfalzgraf (Count Palatine) by Rudolph II, Emperor and King of Hungary and King of Bohemia. He was also one of the most prominent apologists and defenders of the Rosicrucians, clearly transmiting details about the "Brothers of the Rose Cross" in his writings. Maier makes the firm statement that the Brothers of R.C. actually exist to advance inspired arts and sciences, including Alchemy. The researchers of Maiers' writings point out that he never stated, in an objective way, that he had produced gold. Neither Heinrich Khunrath or of the other Rosicrucianists ever said so either. Their writings point toward an highly symbolic and spiritual Alchemy, more than an operative one. In these writings are, sometimes in a more veiled way, other times directly stated, the nine stages of the involutive-evolutive transmutation of the threefold body of the human being, the threefold sould and the threefold spirit, among other esoteric knowledge related to the "Path of Initiation".

Isaac Newton (1642-1727), one of the most important geniuses of mathematics, also possessed many famous and old treaties of Alchemy and also made manuscript copies of alchemical works, found today at the Yale University's Library. One of these works in his collection is the Themis Aurea by Michael Maier, to which he made references and comments about notes relating to hermetic philosophy, in one of his numerous manuscript.

Another way through which this same alchemical work on the "Path of Initiation" has been expressed to the world, according to occultists as Corinne Heline (1882-1975), is through some of the great compositions of classical music, as the nine symphonies of Beethoven (1770-1827) divided into two groups: the first, the third, the fifth, and the seventh are vigorous, powerful and of command, representing the intelect and the second, the fourth, the sixth and the eigth are elegant, ternurent, gracious and beautiful, representing the heart (intuition); they culminate in the symphony with human voices, the ninth symphony: the equilibrium between mind and heart, the "Chymical Wedding" ritual, where the Christ Within, the Adept, is born ("consumatun est"). Johan Herde speeks of Beethoven as "... God acts on earth through evolved men..." and Beethoven speeks of himself as "... I do not have friends, that is why I must live alone, but I know from the deepest of my heart, that God is closer to me than to others. I come close to Him without fear, because I have always known Him...".

Also occultists point that the works of William Shakespeare (1564-1616), like the music-dramas of Wagner, Goethe's Faust, Dante's Divine Comedy or Camoens's epic Lusiads, and a few other books of comparable rank, are designed for esoteric as well as exoteric reading. In Shakespere's works, specific signatures, cryptically conveyed, are also presented. In Love's Labour's Lost a whole scene is devoted to revealing, in an ingenious way, to those possessing the keys, the Rosicrucian connection. The scene closes with a remark addressed to Goodman Dull, representative of the unperceiving multitude, that during the entire scene he has not spoken a word. "No," comes his response, "nor understood none neither.". [1]

In 1710 Samuel Ritcher, like in a previous manifesto of 1618 Pia et Utilissima Admonitio de Fratribus Rosae Crucis by Henrichus Neuhusius, presents the conception that the Rosicrucians had left to the East (René Guénon, 1886-1951, also presents this idea in some of his works) due to the instablity in Europe at the time (Thirty Years' War, 1618-1648). However, another eminent author on the Rosicrucians, Arthur Edward Waite (1857-1942), presents motifs which contrariate this idea. It was in this fertile field, and filling the vacuum left by the original Rosicrucians, that many societies said "rosicrucianists" arose since then, based on the occult tradition and inspired by the mystery of this "College of Invisibles", but, possibly, only a few of them may have something in common with the true Rosicrucian Order, other than the name.

The curious legend, in which the fabulous origin of the so-called society was enshrined (Christian Rosenkreuz had discovered and learned the Secret Wisdom on a pilgrimage to the East in the 15th century), was so improbable, though ingenious, that the genesis of the Rosicrucians was generally overlooked or ignored in the writings of the time. The metaphorical quality of these legends lends to the nebulous nature of the origins of Rosicrucianism. For example, the opening of Rosenkreuz's tomb is thought to be only a way of referring to the cycles in nature and to cosmic events.

Influence on Freemasonry

"18° Knight of the Rose Croix" (Masonic's Scottish Rite)

Although there have been many serious research attempts to find out about the change of the operative Masonry to the speculative Masonry, no concrete answer has yet been found, other than that it occurred between the end of 16th century and the beginning of the 17th century. There are various interpretations about the influence of Rosicrucianism in the speculative Masonry. Two of the first speculative Masons were Sir Robert Moray (1600-1675), masonic lodge of Warrington, Lancashire, and Elias Ashmole (1617-1692), documented to be from a masonic lodge of Edinburgh, Scotland. It is probable that it may have been through Elias Ashmole, philosopher and alchemist of Rosicrucianist writings, that the iniciatic value of the later "18th Grade: Knight of the Rose-Croix" was introduced. According to Chistopher McIntosh, Robert Fludd (1574-1637) may have been a Mason and also Arthur Edward Waite (1857-1942) refers to that Fludd may have introduced a Rosicrucian influence into Freemasonry. However, there is no real evidence. Robert Vanloo states that earlier 17th century Rosicrucianism had a considerable influence on the anglo-saxonic Masonry and Hans Schick sees, in the Rosicrucian works of Comenius (1592-1670), the ideal of the new born, English Masonry, before the foudation of the Grand Lodge in 1717. Comenius was in England during 1641 and it may have been the link between the original Rosicrucian thought and the english Freemasonry.

Another point of similarty between the two groups was found, during the 18th century. The masonic circle "Gold und Rosenkreuzer" (Golden and Rosy Cross), published the Geheime Figuren or "The Secret Symbols of the 17th and 18th century Rosicrucians" in 1785 and 1788. This circle, oriented by Hermann Fictuld since 1777 along masonic lines, had important branches in Russia, which may have introduced Freemasonry and Martinism into the region.

According to Jean Pierre Bayard, from the end of 18th century emerged two rites of rosicrucian inspiration. One was the Rectified Scottish Rite which was wide spread in Central Europe, where there was a strong presence of the "Golden and Rosy Cross". The other was the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, practiced in France. During the 18th century, there were several rites practiced in Freemasonry based on the Renaissance universe of hermeticism and alchemy, which was created by the Rosicrucians of 17th century or earlier.

Rose Cross: Alchemy and Divine Sciences of Healing & of the Stars

File:Pparacel.jpg
Paracelsus (symbolical representation)

The alchemy in the laboratory (the ancestor of modern chemistry), where the ultimate goal was understanding of the laws of Nature in order to aid the individual's quest for perfection, recalls another type of alchemy, the one called spiritual. The true alchemists, or philosophers of the fire, often make reference in the their works to the blowers, meaning all those who were just interested the creation of gold and the material aspects of alchemy.

In his laboratory, the alchemist works on the materia prima and surrounds himself, among other tools to accomplish the operations, of a furnace with a peculiar form, called athanor.

In the point of view of the Spiritual Alchemy [2], the materia prima is the human soul, and about the athanor, it is constituted by the physical body and the subtle bodies; these last ones maintain the life of the most dense one and assure the connection with the soul. The laboratory is the human existence during which the soul has the possibility of accomplishing the learning needed to perfect itself, operating the transmutation of the vices and defects of the vil metal into spiritual, that is, into related virtues and qualities.

The first Rosicrucians praticticed the operative alchemy, in vogue at that epoch, of interest even to the higher ranks, as popes and kings. The Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz is a major writing which clearly makes reference, through its title, to this work on the matter, in the laboratory.

Current-day Rosicrucians (like modern Freemasons, who do not construct cathedrals anymore) direct their concentration toward the work of spiritual alchemy.

3rd Natal Chart of The Rosicrucian Fellowship (1911)

According to the early Manifestoes, the Rosicrucians were a "secret" Order. Their members believed or could "demonstrate" healing powers that were believed to be a gift from God: Spiritual Healing. In other Orders these powers were explained by egyptian mysteries and again, differently in the hermetic Order. Members were admitted on this basis alone and the "membership" was very selective. The writers, philosophers and people of the time became curious and infuriated because they were denied entrance into these secret meetings. Most of the writings of the time are biased or speculatory for this reason. Many modern Rosicrucian organizations hold the belief that these God given powers may be used to help others.

Some interpretions, used as an idea or icon by persons or groups either Gnostic Christian or simultaneously Christian and trans-Christian, are described as being Rosicrucian: for example, a cult that centers around the Virgin Mary yet openly or secretly identifies her to the Virgo constellation of the Zodiac.

A large majority of modern Rosicrucians believe in the study of Spiritual Astrology as a key to the Spirit, designed toward spiritual development and self-knowledge, as well as an aid to healing through Astro-Diagnosis. [3]

The Manifestos

Father C.R.C. - Christian Rose Cross (symbolical representation)

If one abstracts from the symbolic associations of the rose and the cross which have been visioned by many since ancient epochs, it is known, as evidence, that in 1614, 1615 and 1616 were published three treaties or manifestos, in German language, which gave rise to this movement:

Between 1614 and 1620 about 400 manuscripts and books were published which discussed the Rose-Croix documents.

The peak of the "Rosicrucianism furor" (as it was called) was reached when in 1622 appeared two mysterious posters in the walls of Paris within few days from each other. The first one started saying "We, the Deputies of the Higher College of the Rose-Croix, do make our stay, visibly and invisibly, in this city (...)" and the second one ended with the words "The thoughts attached to the real desire of the seeker will lead us to him and him to us".

In The Muses' Threnodie by H. Adamson (Perth, 1638) are the lines: "For what we do presage is riot in grosse, for we are brethren of the Rosie Crosse; We have the Mason Word and second sight, Things for to come we can fortell aright."

Modern groups

A Rose Cross symbol embroidered on an altar cloth (20th century)

Esoteric Christianity groups vs. Para-Masonic groups

During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, various groups styled themselves Rosicrucian. Almost all claimed to be authentic heirs to a historical Rosicrucian tradition. These include the Ancient Mystical Order Rosae Crucis (AMORC), the Confraternity of the Rose Cross (CR+C), Fraternitas Rosae Crucis, the Rosicrucian Fellowship, the Rosicrucian Order Crotona Fellowship, Societas Rosicruciana, the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia, and others as well. These diverse groups can be divided into two categories: the para-Masonic groups and the Esoteric Christianity groups. There has never been any connection between these two following streams.

Para-Masonic groups may be defined as being late heirs of the alchemy and hermetic knowledge created by the original 15th or 17th century "College of Invisibles" (which may have also influenced Christianity, at the time, through the reformist Lutheran movement) and with their inner structure based upon masonic lines (grades, initiations, titles); while Esoteric Christianity groups regard themselves as representing a "rebirth", in the New World, of the inner worlds original Rosicrucian Order, with the mission of preparing the whole world for a new phase in Religion during the next six centuries to come: toward the Age of Aquarius.

List of 'Para-Masonic' groups

List of 'Esoteric Christianity' groups

Reference literature

  • António de Macedo, Instruções Iniciáticas - Ensaios Espirituais, Hughin Editores, 2 ed., Lisbon, 2000 [7]
  • Jean Palou, A Franco-Maçonaria Simbólica e Iniciática, Pensamento, 9 ed., 1998
  • Christopher McIntosh, The Rose Cross and the Age of Reason, Brill Academic Pub, 1997
  • Jean-Pierre Bayard, Les Rose-Croix, M. A. Éditions, Paris, 1986
  • Roland Edighoffer, Rose-Croix et Société Idéale selon Johann Valentin Andreae, Paris I-1982, II-1987
  • Frances Yates, The Rosicrucian Enlightment. London; New York: Routledge, 1972. ISBN 0-415-26769-2
  • Bernard Gorceix, La Bible des Rose-Croix, Paris, 1970
  • Manly Palmer Hall, Rosicrucian and Masonic Origins, 1929 [8]
  • Manly Palmer Hall, The Secret Teachings of All Ages, 1928 [9]
  • Rudolf Steiner, Esoteric Christianity and the Mission of Christian Rosenkreutz, 1912 [10]
  • Max Heindel, Christian Rosenkreuz and the Order of Rosicrucians, 1909, [11]
  • William Wynn Westcott, Rosicrucian Thoughts on the Ever-Burning Lamps of the Ancients, 1903, [12]
  • Hargrave Jennings, The Rosicrucians: Their Rites and Mysteries, 1870, advanced an eccentric solar-phallic interpretation of the brotherhood.

Fictional literature

See also

Organizations

The Temple

Studies

Other resources

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