This outlines
the apparent history and apparent influence of what must be described as the
quintessential secret society. It also
argues rather well that underlying all this type of activity was an urge to
preserve aspects of gnostic teachings as surely did the Albigensians as well
and the Templars. For all that, secrecy
was the hallmark and always in serious opposition with religious orthodoxy.
Thus we are
describing outbursts of enthusiasm for Gnosticism when all knew full well this
was long established heresy. It may
never start out that way but it opened the door.
In my personal
view, the Catholic Church is completely correct to oppose any form of mystery
religion whatsoever, if only because any such structure becomes the natural
home of any pervert. Any form of
perversion can only be mastered and controlled in broad daylight. Thus religion and secrecy must never be
combined.
Mystery
religions also make salvation exclusive which is also a nonstarter.
The
Rosicrucian Vision
May 17, 2014
By CHRISTOPHER MCINTOSH
The word “Rosicrucian” is one that most
readers will have heard many times. Yet if I were to ask for a definition of
the word I would probably be given a wide variety of different answers. I might
be told that it was something to do with esoteric Christianity, with alchemy,
or with Cabala. All of these things are part of the answer, but not the whole
answer.
So what is Rosicrucianism? For the time
being let us call it a current of thought and ideas which has been flowing
through history for at least three and a half centuries and probably quite a
bit longer, sometimes underground, sometimes coming to the surface, but
always pushing human beings towards certain goals. I say that we can trace the current back three and a
half centuries because that was when it first came to the surface. So let
us go back to that moment in history.
The opening scene is Germany at the
beginning of the 17th century. The Reformation had taken place just over a
hundred years earlier. Now part of Germany was Protestant, part was still
Catholic. The two sides had not yet reached any proper modus vivendi, and
the tension between them was soon to erupt into the Thirty Years War, which was
to prove one of the most disastrous wars in European history. So there was
an expectation of coming calamity. And there was a feeling that European
civilisation in general had somehow gone wrong. Now it was at this time that
strange things began to happen in a certain part of Germany.
We now focus on the town of Kassel. It was
here, in 1614 and 1615, that there appeared two mysterious manifestos of
unknown authorship. The first was in German, but its title was a mixture of
German and Latin. It was called Fama Fraternitatis dess Löblichen Ordens
des Rosenkreutzes, which means: The Fame (or Proclamation) of the
Praiseworthy Order of the Rosy Cross. The second was called the Confession Fraternitatis,
the Confession of the Fraternity.
These documents told a curious story. They
told of somebody called Christian Rosenkreutz who was born in the year 1378. As
a boy of 16 he travelled to the Middle East and spent some time at Damcar in
Arabia where there evidently existed some kind of utopian community. As
the Confessio puts it: “those who dwell in the City of Damcar in
Arabia… have a far different political order from the other Arabians. For there
do govern only wise and understanding men, who by the King’s permission make
particular laws.”
At Damcar Rosenkreutz learned Arabic and
received scientific and occult teaching and came into contact with a mysterious
book, referred to simply as “the Book M”, which he translated into Latin.
After three years at Damcar he was directed
to go, via Egypt, to Fez in Morocco, which was, and still is, one of the holy
cities of Islam and the site of one of the oldest universities in the world. So
at the time Rosenkreutz is said to have gone there it would already have been a
great centre of learning for many centuries. This is how
the Fama describes his experience at Fez:
“At Fez he did get acquaintance with those
which are commonly called the Elementary Inhabitants, who revealed to him many
of their secrets…” (Possibly what is meant by Elementary Inhabitants are the
“Elemental Spirits” of magic).
After two years at Fez he went to Spain
hoping to impart his new-found knowledge but met only with hostility and
mockery. And this experience was evidently repeated in other countries. So he
returned to Germany and eventually gathered about him a small group of men who
shared his ideals, and this was the beginning of the Fraternity of the Rosy
Cross. The Fraternity had, as its headquarters, a building called the House of
the Holy Spirit. The brothers dedicated themselves to studying and spreading
the ancient wisdom and also travelled around doing good work such as healing the sick. One of them,
it is said, went to England where he cured the young Earl of Norfolk of
leprosy. Christian Rosenkreutz himself lived for 106 years, dying in 1484.
After his death the brotherhood was
continued by his successors. Then in 1604 the brethren were carrying out some
rebuilding in their headquarters when they came across a hidden door on which
was written in Latin: “after 120 years I shall open.” Behind the door they
found a seven-sided vault illuminated by an artificial Sun placed in the middle
of the ceiling. The floor, walls and ceiling of the vault were covered in
symbolic figures, and there were also chests containing books and ritual
objects. In the middle of the vault was an altar, and beneath the altar was a
coffin containing the perfectly preserved body of Christian Rosenkreutz.
This description of the vault was to capture
many people’s imaginations. Two and a half centuries later the English occult
society, the Golden Dawn, actually made a vault corresponding to the
description in the Fama. One of the key rituals of the order, the Adeptus
Minor initiation ritual, was a re-enactment of the discovery of Rosenkreutz’
body.
The discovery of the vault was taken by the
brethren as a sign that the time was ripe for the society to declare its existence
publicly and to invite people of learning and goodwill to participate in the
society’s aims and ideals. What were those aims and ideals? We don’t get a very
clear idea from the manifestos, but it appears that the brethren believed in
a system of universal knowledge incorporating theology, philosophy,
mathematics, astrology, and so on. They were firm believers in Christ
and the Scriptures. Furthermore, they claimed to have access to an ancient and
secret body of wisdom which enabled them to interpret the scriptures correctly.
What they appear to be referring to here is Cabala, which is, among other
things, a means of decoding the Bible. They talk about being able to understand
certain characters and letters which form the basis of all creation. Again, this
seems to refer to the cabalistic notion that the universe is actually made up
of the letters of the Hebrew alphabet in different combinations.
Their beliefs can perhaps best be summed
up in the word Gnosticism. By Gnosticism I mean the ancient belief that man’s
spirit is imprisoned in matter by a mischievous creator. Man is, as it
were, living underwater, not realising that up above is light and air and that
if only he could swim to the surface he could get back to his true element. In
the Gnostic view this predicament is not entirely hopeless because there are
some people who possess Gnosis, that is, knowledge or wisdom which enables
them to swim up and to teach this to others. (This Gnosis, this lifebelt of
wisdom, is very often represented by a female figure. The Greeks called her
Sophia.) This is the essence of
Gnosticism, and this is, I believe, what lies behind Rosicrucianism.
The Rosicrucians also knew about alchemy, in
the sense of a dual process, physical and spiritual, in which the spiritual part
was the more important. The early Rosicrucians clearly belonged to the
Protestant rather than the Catholic camp. (There are some very contemptuous
references to the Pope in the manifestos.) But, they felt that all of
Christendom was in need of a new impulse. They believed that Europe was on the
threshold of a new age in which spiritual, intellectual and political
enlightenment and brotherly love would flourish, and they saw their role as
being able to help usher in this new age.
That essentially was the message of the
first two manifestos, but, of course, what is not clear is whether the
brotherhood existed at all or whether it was a deliberately created myth.
In 1616 appeared a third Rosicrucian
document published at Strassbourg, in German, under the title ofDie Chymische
Hochzeit Christiani Rosenkreutz (The Chemical Wedding of Christian
Rosenkreutz). The title is slightly misleading because it is not about the
wedding of Rosenkreutz himself but purports to be an account by him of his
experiences as a guest at the wedding of a King and Queen. The wedding takes
place in a castle which Rosenkreutz reaches after an arduous journey.
The story is full of occult imagery. For
example, on the fifth day of the celebrations, the guests are taken to an
island in seven ships flying flags bearing the symbols of the planets. On the
island an alchemical operation is conducted in a seven-storied tower, in which
two homunculi are created from the bodies of six people who have been killed.
In the roof of the Tower is a hole through which two souls descend and enter
the homunculi. Finally, the company returns to the castle, this time in twelve
ships flying flags of the zodiacal signs.
The author of this document was a 19-year
old man, Johann Valentin Andreae. Andreae
was in fact a very important figure. He was a Protestant pastor and theologian,
immensely influential in the German Protestant movement – in fact almost a kind
of Luther of his day. And the strange thing about him is that in some of his
later writings he referred very contemptuously to the Rosicrucian movement. In
his autobiography, for example, he called it a “jest” – and this had led some
people to say that the Chemical Wedding was in fact an attempt to
debunk Rosicrucianism. I don’t believe this myself. I believe Andreae was – at
least when he wrote the Chemical Wedding – very deeply involved with
the whole Rosicrucian movement. So these three manifestos are the basis of the
Rosicrucian movement as we know it.
The effect of the three manifestos was
astonishing. They stirred up a tremendous controversy in Europe. Many people
wrote to the brotherhood hoping to be admitted. If any received replies
they remain unrecorded. Other people attacked the brotherhood. Others claimed
to be members of it. And in due course many societies were set up imitating the
one that is described in the original manifestos – which, as I say, may or may
not have existed. So what you ended up with was a core of mystery with huge
ramifications, emanating out from these publications.
Part of the appeal of the Rosicrucian
movement lies in the richness of the Rose Cross symbol. It is possible to
interpret this in all sorts of different ways. Both the cross and the rose are
very ancient motifs. The cross appears in many religions and mythologies and
seems to indicate a universal tendency for man’s inner consciousness to seek
fourfold patterns: you have four points of the compass, four seasons, four
elements, four worlds in the Cabala, and so on. The cross also suggests
masculinity, and – in the Christian tradition – suffering, sacrifice and death.
As for the rose, this can also be seen in
many different ways. One of the things that the rose stands for is secrecy. The
sign over Roman taverns signified that anything said in drunkenness would not
be repeated – hence the expression sub rosa, meaning confidential. On
another level the rose can be seen as the Western form of the lotus. Now
the lotus, in Hindu mythology, represents the female life principle and is the
symbol of the yoni or female sexual organs. So we have lotus/rose as
female, cross as male.
And if we look at ancient Egyptian mythology
we find that Osiris, the god of the underworld who died and came to life
again, is often shown wearing a crown of lotus flowers. So here we have another
possible interpretation: lotus/rose = resurrection, cross = death. In other
words, the Rose Cross represents the balance between a series of polarities:
death and resurrection, male and female, sacrifice and the reward of sacrifice.
It is an elusive symbol, but a very
suggestive and powerful one. And it is typical of the great inner wisdom
tradition of which Rosicrucianism is part, to use these shorthand emblems which
carry deep layers of meaning. Many examples can be found in the emblem books of
the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries – for example the famous image of the dolphin
curled around an anchor, with the motto festina lente (“hasten
slowly”). These emblems serve as a secret code through which those in touch
with the inner traditions can communicate their ideas, but they also work at a
deeper level than a message which is framed in straightforward words.
So did the Rosicrucian plan misfire? I
think not, because this is an interesting example of what happens when you
plant a mystery in the collective mind of society. It’s like dropping a stone
into a pond: the ripples go on and on. And, in this case, the initial impact
was so strong that the ripples are still going today.
And this, I believe, is exactly what the
authors of the manifestos intended. They took the view that if you wanted to
bring about a new age, the way to do it was to frame your ideals in the form of
a legend, to cloak the legend in mystery and then to launch it in such a way
that it was bound to create endless debate and controversy.
How successful was this ploy? Did those men
who launched the manifestos succeed in bringing about any of the reforms that
they desired? You may well say – looking at the state of Western civilisation –
that they failed. But before we judge, let’s look a bit more closely at some of
the repercussions of the manifestos.
Although the Rosicrucian philosophy was
presented as a total package of religion, science, etc., it tended to divide
into three different streams: first, there was the scientific, philosophical
stream; secondly, the social and political stream; thirdly, the
Hermetic-Cabalistic-Alchemical stream.
There is evidence the first of these two
streams gave rise to a number of learned institutions in various parts of
Europe, including the Royal Society in England, which of course was, and still
is, one of the most important scientific bodies in the world. Many of the
inventions and discoveries that have shaped our environment have come out of
the Royal Society. I shall not go in detail into the connection between the
Rosicrucian movement and the Royal Society, but one link, for example, is
through an interesting man called Comenius: a Bohemian refugee, a member of the
Andreae circle, interested in Utopian ideas, who envisaged an ideal state in
which science and religion would flourish side by side and in which men of all
creeds and races would be respected. Comenius came to England in about the
1640’s and he knew the leading scientists of the time. And furthermore, it is
clear that scientists such as Robert Boyle and John Wilkins knew all about the
Rosicrucian movement. When the Royal Society was founded in 1660 it is very
likely that it was in some sense an attempt to realise the scientific and
philosophical side of the Rosicrucian ideal.
It is also possible that Rosicrucian
influences were behind the creation of speculative masonry.
For example, there is a Scottish poem of the
year 1638, which contains the lines:
“For we be brethren of the Rosie Cross
We have the Mason’s word and second sight”1
So clearly there is at least some connection
between Rosicrucianism and the early history of masonry. And in masonry we see
really a combination of all three of the streams that I mentioned: the
philosophical, the social and the esoteric. Here again there may be a link with
Comenius, as he also knew many of the men who were behind the formation of the
Grand Lodge of London.
Think for a moment of the multifarious ways
in which Masonry has influenced the world: its role in promoting the ideas of
the Enlightenment, its influence on the French Revolution, the fact that a
large proportion of the signatories of the American Declaration of Independence
were Masons, the way in which it has impacted on literature, art, architecture
and music, the famous figures who have been Freemasons, from Voltaire to Goethe
and from Mozart to Churchill. It can be argued that all of this is indirectly
part of the Rosicrucian heritage.
Let me give you another example of the
influence of Rosicrucianism in history. I mentioned earlier that many societies
and fraternities have adopted the Rosicrucian label. One of the most important
was a German fringe masonic group called the Order of the Golden and Rosy
Cross. This Golden and Rosy Cross was a remarkable phenomenon. It was a kind of
Golden Dawn of its day, bringing together many different elements and fusing
them together in the same sort of way that the Golden Dawn did. In fact the
Golden Dawn adopted the grade system used by the Golden and Rosy Cross.
The aim of the order was described as
follows: “to make effective the hidden forces of nature, to release nature’s
light which has become deeply buried beneath the dross resulting from the
curse, and thereby to light within every brother a torch by whose light he will
be able better to recognise the hidden God… and thereby become more closely
united with the original source of light.”2
That passage is pure Gnosticism, and it
confirms what I was saying earlier about the Gnostic character of the whole
Rosicrucian movement.
The Golden and Rosy Cross was founded in
about 1757, and it soon had lodges all over the German-speaking world. There
was, for example, a very active lodge in the duchy of Sulzbach. And it is no
coincidence that Sulzbach at the time was a tremendous centre of Hermetic and
Cabalistic studies. There was even a Hebrew press there.
But the real heyday of the order came when
one of its members became King of Prussia in 1786. This was King Frederick
William II, successor to Frederick the Great. During his reign the court and
government were dominated by a Rosicrucian clique led by the King’s two
Rosicrucian mentors, Wöllner and Bischoffswerder. Wöllner was something of a
fanatic, and there is a story that on one occasion he wrote to a fellow member
of the order telling him to stop doubting that adepts of the 8th degree had the
ability to hatch chickens out of hard-boiled eggs.
Under Frederick William II Prussia became
for a time virtually a Rosicrucian state. Unfortunately it all collapsed
because Wöllner and Bischoffswerder pursued thoroughly reactionary policies,
made themselves very unpopular, and were eventually turfed out when the King
died and his son came to the throne. So the Rosicrucians – like any other body
of men – sometimes failed.
There are many other examples I could give
you of the practical influence of Rosicrucianism. I could point to the mystical
community of German settlers in Pennsylvania that was influenced by Rosicrucian
ideas. I could point to the Golden Dawn and the enormous ramifications which that
has had. I could point to the vast amount of literature, art, even music,
inspired by Rosicrucianism.
So it begins to look as though those early
Rosicrucians did achieve something after all.
When we look at something like
Rosicrucianism, or at the Templars or at Freemasonry or at the legends of the
Holy Grail, we are looking at the tip of an iceberg. I believe that behind
these phenomena lies a very ancient current. What precise form it takes I know
not, but I believe that every so often in human history this current comes to
the surface. It can emerge in the obvious form of an esoteric movement. It can
also come out in more subtle ways. It can come out in the arts or in science;
in architecture, in garden design, in craftwork, in typography. But one usually
recognises it when one sees it because it has a certain stamp of yearning for
eternal beauty and truth.
And at this point I should like to mention a
piece of fiction that struck me as being a remarkable allegory of the
Rosicrucian movement. It comes in a short story by Jorge Luis Borges
called Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius. The essence of the story is this: you
are asked to imagine a group of people who come together and decide that they
will invent a fictitious country. They then decide that they cannot invent a
country in isolation so they must invent an entire planet. And this is what
they do. Furthermore they produce an encyclopedia of 40 volumes all about this
planet, which they call Tlön. The encyclopedia contains minutely detailed
descriptions of every aspect of this imaginary world: its geography, history,
folklore, its religions, its languages and their grammar, its literature, and
so on. Then they surreptitiously leak out clues about the imaginary world – at
first just little things such as religious objects. Then they plant a copy of
the encyclopedia in a library, and gradually this mysterious world starts to
capture people’s imaginations to such an extent that the real world starts to
imitate it. And towards the end of the story Borges writes: “A scattered
dynasty of solitary men has changed the face of the world. Their task
continues.” That could equally well describe the men who launched the
Rosicrucian movement.
In conclusion let me address the question:
what is the relevance of all this to us today? In the first place, it is
possible to draw certain parallels between the age of the Rosicrucian
manifestos and the present day. There was the same feeling then, as there is
today, that the world was in chaos and needed a change of direction. And there
was the same expectation of a coming New Age. The Rosicrucians linked it with
certain astrological indications. Likewise we link it with the Age of Aquarius.
The Rosicrucian vision of the New Age is one
that makes a lot of sense today. I mentioned the Rosicrucian emphasis on
universality. One aspect of this is the need to draw together religion and
science, so that the scientist always works in a spirit of service to God, as
the alchemists did. Today we are seeing a renewed striving to reconcile science
and spirituality. Furthermore this holistic vision has begun to embrace not
just religion and science but many other areas of our culture including art,
architecture, technology, politics and ecology.
I think perhaps the most important thing
about the relevance of the Rosicrucian path for us today is that it involves
not only personal enlightenment but also service in the widest sense. We are
talking about a complete vision, a dream of what humankind and the world could
be like. If you want to have a dream, the Rosicrucian one is still alive.
The above article is reprinted with
permission from The Inner West: An Introduction to the Hidden Wisdom of
the West, edited by Jay Kinney (published by Jeremy Tarcher/Penguin USA).
It originally appeared in Gnosis 6 (winter 1987-88) under the title
“The Rosicrucian Dream”.
If you appreciated this article, please
consider a digital subscription to New Dawn.
Footnotes
1. Henry Adamson, Muse’s Threnodia, quoted
in Knoop, Jones and Hamer, Early Masonic Pamphlets(Manchester, 1945);
p.30; cited in Frances A. Yates, The Rosicrucian
Enlightenment (Boulder, Co: Shambhala, 1978), p. 211
2. J.J. Bode, Starke
Erweise (Leipzig: Goschen, 1788), p. 25.
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