Rosicrucianism

The Temple of the Rose Cross, Teophilus Schweighardt Constantiens, 1618.
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The term Rosicrucian (symbol: the Rose Cross) describes a secret society of mystics, allegedly formed in late mediaeval Germany, holding a doctrine "built on esoteric truths of the ancient past", which, "concealed from the average man, provide insight into nature, the physical universe and the spiritual realm. " [1]

Between 1607 and 1616, two anonymous manifestos were published, first in Germany and later throughout Europe. These were Fama Fraternitatis RC (The Fame of the Brotherhood of RC) and Confessio Fraternitatis (The Confession of the Brotherhood of RC). The influence of these documents, presenting a "most laudable Order" of mystic-philosopher-doctors and promoting a "Universal Reformation of Mankind", gave rise to an enthusiasm called by its historian Dame Frances Yates the "Rosicrucian Enlightenment".[2]

In later centuries many esoteric societies have claimed to derive their doctrines, in whole or in part, from the original Rosicrucians. Several modern societies, which date the beginning of the Order to earlier centuries, have been formed for the study of Rosicrucianism and allied subjects. However, many researchers on the history of Rosicrucianism argue that modern Rosicrucianists are in no sense directly linked to any real society of the early 17th century.

Contents

Origins

The Fama Fraternitatis presented the legend of a German doctor and mystic philosopher referred to as "Frater C.R.C." (later identified in a third manifesto as Christian Rosenkreuz, or "Roses-cross"). The year 1378 is presented as being the birth year of "our Christian Father," and it is stated that he lived 106 years. Having studied in the Middle East under various masters, he had failed to interest the powerful people of his time in the knowledge he had acquired and so instead had gathered a small circle of friends/disciples who founded the Order of RC (this can be similarly deduced to have occurred in 1407).

During Rosenkreuz's lifetime, the Order was said to consist of no more than eight members, each a doctor and a sworn bachelor who undertook to heal the sick without payment, to maintain a secret fellowship and to find a replacement for himself before he died. Three such generations had supposedly passed between c.1500 and c.1600 and scientific, philosophical and religious freedom had now grown so that the public might benefit from their knowledge, so that they were now seeking good men.[3]

Reception

The manifestos were and are not taken literally by many but rather regarded either as a hoax or as allegorical statements. The manifestos directly state: "We speak unto you by parables, but would willingly bring you to the right, simple, easy, and ingenuous exposition, understanding, declaration, and knowledge of all secrets". Others believe Rosenkreuz to be a pseudonym for a more famous historical figure, usually Francis Bacon.

It is evident that the first Rosicrucian manifesto was influenced by the work of the respected hermetic philosopher Heinrich Khunrath, of Hamburg, author of the Amphitheatrum Sapientiae Aeternae (1609), who was in turn influenced by John Dee, author of the Monas Hieroglyphica (1564). The invitation to the royal wedding in the Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz opens with Dee's philosophical key, the Monas Heiroglyphica symbol. The writer also claimed the brotherhood possessed a book that resembled the works of Paracelsus.

Martin Luther's seal.

Some say the writers were moral and religious reformers and utilized the techniques of chemistry (alchemy) and the sciences generally as media through which to publicize their opinions and beliefs. The authors of the Rosicrucian works generally favoured the Reformation and distanced themselves from the Roman Church and Islam. The symbol of Martin Luther is a cross inside an open rose.

In his autobiography, Johann Valentin Andreae (1586–1654) claimed the anonymously published Chymische Hochzeit (Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz) as one of his works, although he subsequently described it as a Ludibrium. However, in his later works, alchemy is the object of ridicule and is placed with music, art, theatre and astrology in the category of less serious sciences. His role in the origin of the Rosicrucian legend is controversial.[4]

The Rosicrucian Enlightenment

The publication of the Fama Fraternitatis Rosae Crucis (1614)

The manifestos caused immense excitement throughout Europe: they declared the existence of a secret brotherhood of alchemists and sages who were preparing to transform the arts, sciences, religion, and political and intellectual landscape of Europe while wars of politics and religion ravaged the continent. The works were re-issued several times and followed by numerous pamphlets, favourable and otherwise. Between 1614 and 1620, about 400 manuscripts and books were published which discussed the Rosicrucian documents.

The peak of the so-called "Rosicrucianism furor" was reached when two mysterious posters appeared in the walls of Paris in 1622 within a few days of each other. The first one started with the 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".[5]

The legend inspired a variety of works, among them the works of Michael Maier (1568–1622) of Germany, Robert Fludd (1574–1637) and Elias Ashmole (1617–1692) of England, Teophilus Schweighardt Constantiens, Gotthardus Arthusius, Julius Sperber, Henricus Madathanus, Gabriel Naudé, Thomas Vaughan, and others.[6] In Elias Ashmole's Theatrum Chimicum britannicum (1650) he defends the Rosicrucians. 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 was ennobled with the title Pfalzgraf (Count Palatine) by Rudolph II, Emperor and King of Hungary and King of Bohemia. He also was one of the most prominent defenders of the Rosicrucians, clearly transmitting details about the "Brothers of the Rose Cross" in his writings. Maier made the firm statement that the Brothers of R.C. exist to advance inspired arts and sciences, including alchemy. Researchers of Maier's writings point out that he never claimed to have produced gold, nor did Heinrich Khunrath nor any of the other Rosicrucianists. Their writings point toward a symbolic and spiritual alchemy, rather than an operative one. In both direct and veiled styles, these writings conveyed the nine stages of the involutive-evolutive transmutation of the threefold body of the human being, the threefold soul and the threefold spirit, among other esoteric knowledge related to the "Path of Initiation".

In his 1618 pamphlet, Pia et Utilissima Admonitio de Fratribus Rosae Crucis, Henrichus Neuhusius writes that the Rosicrucians left for the East due to the instability in Europe caused by the start of the Thirty Years' War, an idea afterwards echoed in 1710 by Samuel Ritcher, founder of the secret society of the Golden and Rosy Cross. More recently René Guénon, a researcher of the occult, presented this same idea in some of his works.[7] However, another eminent author on the Rosicrucians, Arthur Edward Waite, presents arguments that contradict this idea.[8] It was in this fertile field of discourse that many "Rosicrucian" societies arose. They were based on the occult tradition and inspired by the mystery of this "College of Invisibles".

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

The literary works of the 16th and 17th centuries are full of enigmatic passages containing references to the Rose Cross, as in these lines (somewhat modernised):

“ 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 foretell aright.

 ”

—Henry Adamson, The Muses' Threnodie (Perth, 1638).

The idea of such an order, exemplified by the network of astronomers, professors, mathematicians, and natural philosophers in 16th century Europe and promoted by men such as Johannes Kepler, Georg Joachim Rheticus, John Dee and Tycho Brahe, gave rise to the Invisible College, a precursor to the Royal Society formed during the 17th century. It was constituted by group of scientists who began to hold regular meetings in an attempt to share and develop knowledge acquired by experimental investigation. Among these were Robert Boyle, who wrote: "the cornerstones of the Invisible (or as they term themselves the Philosophical) College, do now and then honour me with their company...";[9] and John Wallis, who described those meetings in the following terms: "About the year 1645, while I lived in London (at a time when, by our civil wars, academical studies were much interrupted in both our Universities), ... I had the opportunity of being acquainted with divers worthy persons, inquisitive natural philosophy, and other parts of human learning; and particularly of what hath been called the New Philosophy or Experimental Philosophy. We did by agreements, divers of us, meet weekly in London on a certain day and hour, under a certain penalty, and a weekly contribution for the charge of experiments, with certain rules agreed amongst us, to treat and discourse of such affairs..."[10]

Rose-Cross Degrees in Freemasonry

18° Knight of the Rose Croix jewel (from the Masonic Scottish Rite)

According to Jean-Pierre Bayard,[11] two Rosicrucian-inspired Masonic rites emerged towards the end of 18th century, the Rectified Scottish Rite, widespread in Central Europe where there was a strong presence of the "Golden and Rosy Cross", and the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, first practiced in France, in which the 18th degree is called Knight of the Rose Croix.

The change from "operative" to "speculative" Masonry occurred between the end of the 16th and the beginning of the 18th century. Two of the earliest speculative Masons for which a record of their initiation exists were Sir Robert Moray and Elias Ashmole. Robert Vanloo states that earlier 17th century Rosicrucianism had a considerable influence on Anglo-Saxon Masonry. Hans Schick sees in the works of Comenius (1592–1670) the ideal of the newly born English Masonry before the foundation of the Grand Lodge in 1717. Comenius was in England during 1641.

The Gold und Rosenkreuzer (Golden and Rosy Cross) was founded by the alchemist Samuel Richter who in 1710 published Die warhhaffte und vollkommene Bereitung des Philosophischen Steins der Brüderschaft aus dem Orden des Gülden-und Rosen-Creutzes in Breslau under the pseudonym Sincerus Renatus. [12] in Prague in the early 18th century as a hierarchical secret society composed of internal circles, recognition signs and alchemy treatises. Under the leadership of Hermann Fictuld the group reformed itself extensively in 1767 and again in 1777 because of political pressure. Its members claimed that the leaders of the Rosicrucian Order had invented Freemasonry and only they knew the secret meaning of Masonic symbols. The Rosicrucian Order had been founded by Egyptian “Ormusse” or “Licht-Weise” who had emigrated to Scotland with the name “Builders from the East”. Then the original Order disappeared and was supposed to have been resurrected by Oliver Cromwell as “Freemasonry”. In 1785 and 1788 the Golden and Rosy Cross group published the Geheime Figuren or “The Secret Symbols of the 16th and 17th century Rosicrucians”.

Led by Johann Christoph von Wöllner and General Johann Rudolf von Bischoffwerder, the Masonic lodge (later: Grand Lodge) Zu den drei Weltkugeln was infiltrated and came under the influence of the Golden and Rosy Cross. Many Freemasons became Rosicrucianists and Rosicrucianism was established in many lodges. In 1782 at the Convent of Wilhelmsbad the Alte schottische Loge Friedrich zum goldenen Löwen in Berlin strongly requested Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg and all other Freemasons to submit to the Golden and Rosy Cross, without success.

After 1782, this highly secretive society added Egyptian, Greek and Druidic mysteries to its alchemy system.[13] A comparative study of what is known about the Gold and Rosenkreuzer, appears to reveal, on one hand, that it has influenced the creation of some modern Initiatic groups and, on the other hand, that the Nazis (see The Occult Roots of Nazism) may have been inspired by this German group.

According to the writings of the Masonic historian E.J. Marconis de Negre[14], who together with his father Gabriel M. Marconis is held to be the founder of the "Rite of Memphis-Misraim" of Freemasonry, based on earlier conjectures (1784) by a Rosicrucian scholar Baron de Westerode[15] and also promulgated by the 18th century secret society called the "Golden and Rosy Cross", the Rosicrucian Order was created in the year 46 when an Alexandrian Gnostic sage named Ormus and his six followers were converted by one of Jesus' disciples, Mark; their symbol was said to be a red cross surmounted by a rose, thus the designation of Rosy Cross. From this conversion, Rosicrucianism was supposedly born, by purifying Egyptian mysteries with the new higher teachings of early Christianity.[16]

According to Maurice Magre (1877–1941) in his book Magicians, Seers, and Mystics, Rosenkreutz was the last descendant of the Germelshausen, a German family from the 13th century. Their castle stood in the Thuringian Forest on the border of Hesse, and they embraced Albigensian doctrines. The whole family was put to death by Landgrave Conrad of Thuringia, except for the youngest son, then five years old. He was carried away secretly by a monk, an Albigensian adept from Languedoc and placed in a monastery under the influence of the Albigenses, where he was educated and met the four Brothers later to be associated with him in the founding of the Rosicrucian Brotherhood. Magre's account supposedly derives from oral tradition.

Around 1530, more than eighty years before the publication of the first manifesto, the association of cross and rose already existed in Portugal in the Convent of the Order of Christ, home of the Knights Templar, later renamed Order of Christ. Three bocetes were, and still are, on the abóboda (vault) of the initiation room. The rose can clearly be seen at the center of the cross.[17][18] At the same time, a minor writing by Paracelsus called Prognosticatio Eximii Doctoris Paracelsi (1530), containing 32 prophecies with allegorical pictures surrounded by enigmatic texts, makes reference to an image of a double cross over an open rose; this is one of the examples used to prove the "Fraternity of the Rose Cross" existed far earlier than 1614.[19].

In 1909 a Masonic Rito Filosofico Italiano was founded in Florence. Within its hierarchy an "Italic Rose+Croix" degree - largely based on the esoteric legacy of Italian Renaissance - was soon to be developed as the fifth. This Rito Filosofico Italiano is now led by Michele Moramarco, who has extensively dealt with Rosicrucian subjects in his Nuova Enciclopedia Massonica (1989-1995).

Modern groups

During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, various groups styled themselves Rosicrucian. The diverse groups who link themselves to a "Rosicrucian Tradition" can be divided into three categories: Esoteric Christian Rosicrucian groups, which profess Christ, Masonic Rosicrucian groups such as Societas Rosicruciana, and initiatory groups such as the Golden Dawn.

Esoteric Christian Rosicrucian schools provide esoteric knowledge related to the inner teachings of Christianity.[20]

According to masonic writers the Order of the Rose Cross is expounded in a major Christian literary work that molded the subsequent spiritual views of the western civilization; The Divine Comedy (ca. 1308–1321) by Dante Alighieri.[23] [24] [25]

Other Christian-Rosicrucian oriented bodies include;

Freemasonic Rosicrucian bodies providing preparation either through direct study and/or through the practice of symbolic-initiatic journey.

These groups generally speak of a lineal descent from earlier branches of the ancient Rosicrucian Order in England, France, Egypt, or other countries. The inner structure of these groups is based upon grades, initiations and titles.

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Lindgren, Carl Edwin (Prof.), The way of the Rose Cross; A Historical Perception, 1614-1620. Journal of Religion and Psychical Research, Volume18, Number 3:141-48. 1995.
  2. ↑ Yates, Frances A. (1972), The Rosicrucian Enlightnment, London
  3. ↑ Gorceix, Bernard (1970), La Bible des Rose-Croix, Paris: a work of reference, containing translations of the three Rosicrucian Manifestos, recommended in Accès de l'Ésoterisme Occidental (1986, 1996) by Antoine Faivre (École Pratique des Hautes Études, Sorbonne)
  4. ↑ Cf. Yates, Frances A. (1972), The Rosicrucian Enlightnment, London & Edighoffer, Roland (I-1982, II-1987), Rose-Croix et Société Idéale selon Johann Valentin Andreae, Paris
  5. ↑ Cited by Sédir in Les Rose-Croix, Paris (1972), p.65-66
  6. ↑ Sédir (1972), Les Rose-Croix, Paris, p. 59 to 68
  7. ↑ Guénon, René, Simboles de la Science Sacrée, Paris 1962, p.95ff
  8. ↑ Waite, Arthur E. (1887), The Real History of the Rosicrucians - Founded on their own Manifestos, and on facts and Documents collected from the writings of Initiated Brethren, London, p.408
  9. ↑ Cited by R Lomas (2002) in The Invisible College, London
  10. ↑ Cited by H Lyons (1944) in The Royal Society 1660-1940, Cambridge
  11. ↑ Jean-Pierre Bayard, Les Rose-Croix, M. A. Éditions, Paris, 1986
  12. ↑ Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke, The Occult Roots of Nazism, p. 59
  13. ↑ Bayard, Jean-Pierre, Les Rose-Croix, M.A.Édition, Paris 1986
  14. ↑ de Negre, E.J. Marconis (1849), Brief History of Masonry
  15. ↑ Nesta Webster's, Secret Societies and Subversive Movements, London, 1924, p. 87 and note 37
  16. ↑ Further research in Legend and Mythology: Ormus by Sol, The Book of THoTH, 2004
  17. ↑ Macedo, António de (2000), Instruções Iniciáticas - Ensaios Espirituais, 2nd edition, Hughin Editores, Lisbon, ISBN 972-8534-00-0, p.55
  18. ↑ Gandra, J. Manuel (1998), Portugal Misterioso (Os Templários), Lisbon, p.348-349
  19. ↑ Stanislas de Guaita (1886), Au seuil du Mystère
  20. ↑ Skogstrom, Jan (2001), Some Comparisons Between Exoteric & Esoteric Christianity, a table comparing exoteric and esoteric Christian beliefs
  21. ↑ The Rosicrucian Interpretation of Christianity by The Rosicrucian Fellowship
  22. ↑ The Rosicrucian Mysteries by Max Heindel. Accessed 29 March 2006
  23. ↑ Albert Pike, Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry, XXX: Knight Kadosh, p. 822, 1872
  24. ↑ René Guénon, El Esoterismo de Dante, p. 5-6, 14, 15-16, 18-23, 1925
  25. ↑ Manly Palmer Hall, The Secret Teachings of All Ages: The Fraternity of The Rose Cross, p. 139, 1928

References and further reading

Old editions

Publications

Essays

Fictional literature

Conspiracy literature

External links