Rose Cross

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The Winged Self symbol of the Rose Cross consists of a cross of light, with a white rose at the centre (...).
The Winged Self symbol of the Rose Cross consists of a cross of light, with a white rose at the centre (...).
The Rose Cross Lamen as worn by Adepts in the Roseae Rubae et Auris Crucis, the inner order of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn.
The Rose Cross Lamen as worn by Adepts in the Roseae Rubae et Auris Crucis, the inner order of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn.

The Rose Cross is the central symbol to all groups embracing the Esoteric Christian philosophy of the Rosicrucians.[1][2]

The Rose Cross is, as its name suggests, a cross with a single pure snow-white rose at its centre.[3]

The Rosy Cross is also a Rosicrucian symbol found in some Masonic Christian bodies[4] and para-Masonic groups[5], but derived from the adoption of a red cross, and usually placing instead a red rose at its centre.[6]

A modern form of the Rose Cross is found in a Rosicrucian Christian symbol that places a crown of red roses ennobling a white rose at the centre of the cross;[7] the symbol of the fraternity that has prepared a great lodge for the Brethren to be gathered.[8]

[edit] References

  1. ^ German language original: 'Die Bruderschaft des Ordens der Rosenkreuzer', Fama Fraternitatis, 1614 [in circulation ca. 1610]; 'Bruderschaft Rosenkreuz', Confessio Fraternitatis, 1615
  2. ^ Max Heindel, Christian Rosenkreuz and the Order of Rosicrucians, 1909 [1908-1919]
  3. ^ Albert Pike, Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry, XXX: Knight Kadosh, p. 822, 1872 [1]:
    "Commentaries and studies have been multiplied upon the Divine Comedy, the work of DANTE, and yet no one, so far as we know, has pointed out its especial character. (...) His Hell is but a negative Purgatory. His Heaven is composed of a series of Kabalistic circles, divided by a cross, like the Pantacle of Ezekiel. In the centre of this cross blooms a rose, and we see the symbol of the Adepts of the Rose-Croix for the first time publicly expounded and almost categorically explained."
    Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy, Paradiso, Canto XXXI, ca. 1308-1321:
    "In fashion then as of a snow-white rose
    Displayed itself to me the saintly host,
    Whom Christ in his own blood had made his bride,"
  4. ^ See image The "18° Knight of the Rose Croix" degree of the Scottish Rite
  5. ^ See image Rosy Cross lamen of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn
  6. ^ See also data provided in Rosicrucianism#Some interpretations about the origins
  7. ^ See image The Rosicrucian Fellowship (emblem)
  8. ^ See image The Ecclesia (portico)

[edit] See also