XXXIII ROSE CROIX
The Rose Cross (the juxtapositioning of a cross and one or more roses) has, since the early seventeenth century, become one of the most popular occult symbols. From its origin in Germany, it spread throughout the Western world. It entered into Freemasonry where various ritual degrees derived their name and meaning from the Rosicrucian legend. At least eight occult orders currently functioning in the United States accept the name Rosicrucian and a version of the Rosicrucian legend as their history.
According to the Rosicrucian legend, the order began with one Christian Rosenkreuz, born in 1378 in Germany. Beginning in 1393, he visited Damascus, Egypt, and Morocco where he sat under the masters of the occult arts. Upon his return to Germany, he began in 1407 the Rosicrucian Order with three monks from the cloister in which he had been raised. He also erected the House of the Holy Spirit (the Spiritus Sanctum) which was completed in 1409. The original group was enlarged to eight. Christian Rosenkreuz died in 1484 (at the age of 106) and was entombed in the Spiritus Sanctum. Knowledge of his tomb was lost, but it was rediscovered in 1604. its opening led to the spread of the Order anew.
Modern Rosicrucian groups have different opinions about Christian Rosencreuz. Some believe he actually existed as the early documents assert; others see the name as a pseudonym for one or more historic personages (Francis Bacon perhaps). Still others view the story as a parable, and occult legend that points to more profound truth.
Knowledge of Christian Rosenkreuz and the Order he supposedly founded was given to the world in three documents in the second decade of the seventeenth century:
The Fama Fraternitas of the Meritorious Order of the Rosy Cross (1614)
The Confession of the Rosicrucian Fraternity (1615)
The Chumical Marriage of Christian Rosenkreuz (1616 pub purportedly written by Christian Rosenkreuz in 1459)
While the full facts of the case may never be known, research indicates that these three documents and the idea of the Order originated with a German Lutheran pastor Johann Valentin Andrae (1586-1654). Andrae had envisioned a society for the reformation of social life -- and he, with or without assistance from others, created the legend and published the documents describing it. A few have seen Rosicrucianism as a complete hoax. Most believe, however, that either Andreae formed an order combining his interest in esotericism and the reformation of society, which the documents promoted, or, more likely, Andrae wanted the documents to catalyze others to initiate the Rosicrucian work.
The response to the documents was immediate and intense. Rosicrucian societies arose, and the rose and cross symbol (which seems to have derived from Andeae's coat of arms) became popular. The Rosicrucian groups combined a vision of social transformation, the study of alchemy, Cabalism, and mysticism with otherwise "orthodox" Christian theology. The Rosicrucian groups blended into the larger community of Christian pietism which could be found throughout Germany at this time.
During the seventeenth century Rosicrucianism spread throughout Europe. It found exponents in England almost immediately in the persons of Robert Fludd (1574-1637) and Michael Maier (1568-1622). In 1616, the same year The Chumical Marriage appeared, Fludd published his A Compendius Apology for the Fraternity of the Rosy Cross. Maier, and alchemical physician, both during his years in England and after his 1619 retirement to Germany, did much to bring Rosicrucianism and alchemy together.
The mystical piety of German Rosicrucianism produced the first Rosicrucian group in America. The Chapter of Perfection, as it was called, was formed by scientist-theologian Johann Jacob Zimmerman. Zimmerman joined other pietist groups in accepting the invitation of William Penn to migrate to Pennsylvania. However, just before the group sailed, Zimmerman died. Their beliefs included a strong millennialism, and the group brought a hope for the imminent return of Christ to earth with them when they came to America in 1694. Zinnerman's role was assumed by Johannes Kelpius (1673-1708) who led the small band to Germantown Creek. On top of their building they erected an observatory so as to discern the moment of Christ's second advent.
The Chapter lasted only a few years. After Kelpuis' death, his successor Conrad Matthai allowed the break-up of the communal structure, and the small group became a community of mystical hermits. Several of the members worked in the community as healers and practitioners of the occult arts. They passed along their knowledge of magic and occultism to later generations and became the source of the modern hexmeister tradition.
Rosicrucianism almost completely disappeared in the eighteenth century, but in the nineteenth century was a major component of the occult revival in the West. It emerged out of Masonry. In 1866 Robert Wentworth Little (1840-1878) formed Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia, open only to Masons. A Scottish branch was formed a few years later. Rosicrucianism never completely died in France, but in the mid-nineteenth century it received a new impulse from occultist Eliphas Levi (1810-1875) who wrote three monumental works on magic: The Doctrine of Transcendental Magic (1855); The Ritual of Transcendental Magic (1856); and The History of Magic (1860). American Rosicrucian P.B. Randolph mentions meeting Levi on his trip to Rosicrucian gatherings in France. The renewed interest begun in Levi's time led to the formation of the Qabalistic Order of the Rosy Cross in 1888.
Rosicrucian groups are occult orders, and as such make their central and most important teachings available only to members. In like measure no examination of documents and archives is allowed, and no independent corroboration of the claims of the various groups, especially their claims to ancient origins and European alliances, is possible.
Fraternitas Rosae Crucis:
The oldest Rosicrucian body in the United States, the Fraternitas Rosae Crucis was founded in 1858 by Pascal Beverly Randolph (1825-1875). Randolph, a self-educated orphan of mixed blood, developed an early interest in the occult and in 1850 traveled to Europe and was initiated into a Rosicrucian Fraternity in Germany. On his third trip to Europe in 1858, he was made the Supreme master for the Western World, at a conclave headed by Supreme Grand Master Eliphas Levi. He returned to the United States and founded the Fraternitas Rosae Crucis. Two years later he returned to Europe and was initiated in 1861 in the Order of the Rose, a group headed by Rosicrucian historian Hargrave Jennings, and traveling on the Syria, he was initiated by the Ansaireh.
Randolph was succeeded by ex-Spiritualist Freeman B. Dowd (born 1812) who had been drawn to the Fraternity by reading Randolph's writings. he established temples in Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Denver. He also formed the Rosy Cross Publishing company in San Francisco. He retired in 1907 and was succeeded by Edward H. Brown (1868-1922). Upon Brown's death, Reuben Swinburne Clymer (born 1878) became head of the Fraternity.
Under Clymer, the Order, whose growth had been slow and erratic, blossomed. Clymer had joined the Fraternity in 1897 and coupled his training in the occult with a career in non-conventional medicine. His career kept him in continual conflict with the American Medical Association and the government. In 1904 Clymer founded the Philosophical Publishing Company, which reissued many of Randolph's books.
Upon his assumption of the leadership of the Fraternity, Clymer established the headquarters at Beverly Hall in Quakertown, Pennsylvania. He wrote voluminously, and his numerous books remain standard reading material for Rosicrucians. He brought his healing concerns into the Fraternity, and the headquarters complex still includes a chiropractic office and a clinic specializing in natural healing methods. Upon his death, Clymer was succeeded by his son Emerson M. Clymer, the present Grand Master.
Associated with the Fraternity is the Church of Illumination, a religious body and outer court for the Fraternity. The Church defines its task as teaching the Divine Law, the exoteric teachings of the esoteric group. The Church is the tool for bringing about the Masisis Aeon, in which the two natures in humanity (male and female) will reach a state of equilibrium.
Members of the Fraternity receive private instruction through lessons mailed from the headquarters. Teachings focus upon the transmutation of the base and inglorious aspects of humanity into the self pure and refined. Progress in the course can lead to ordination into the Council of Initiated Priests.
Societas Rosicruciana in Civitatibus Foederatis (S.R.I.C.F.):
The Societas Rosicruciana in Civitatibus Foederatis was founded in 1880 as the Societas Rosicruciana Republicae Americae. Charles E. Meyer was named the first Supreme magus. The S.R.I.C.F. originated with a group of Masons who traveled to England in 1878 and were initiated into the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia at the college at York. They applied to the S.R.I.A. for permission to begin an American branch. Rebuffed, they turned to the Scottish branch which chartered American colleges at Philadelphia in 1879 and new York the following year. These two colleges established a High Council in April 1880 for what became an autonomous American branch. During 1880 three additional colleges were authorized for Boston, Baltimore and Burlington, Vermont.
The S.R.I.C.F. is one of the smallest Rosicrucian groups. One must be a Mason to join. The last issue of their magazine, The Rosicrucian Fama, published in 1973, set the membership at less than 600. In 1912 it adopted the rituals of the British and Scottish branches.
Societas Rosicruciana in America (S.R.I.A.):
The Societas Rosicruciana in America originated with members of the Societas Rosicruciana in Civitatibus Foederatis who wished to open the Rosicrucian teaching to the general public (i.e. non-Masons). In 1907 Sylvester C. Gould, a member of the Boston college of the S.R.I.C.F., in collaboration with other rosicrucians, began the S.R.I.A. and a periodical, The Rosicrucian Brotherhood. Unfortunately Gould died in 1909 and the periodical died with him. The leadership of the infant Society, however, was picked up by George Winslow Plummer (1877-1944), who had assisted Gould in its formation, and under his leadership the Society began to grow.
Plummer incorporated the Society in 1912. In 1916 he founded the Mercury Publishing Company and began issuing Mercury, the official quarterly for the Society. by 1920 seven colleges (including one in Sierre Leone) had been established. Two more were added in 1921. By 1930 eighteen colleges had been chartered (though not all remained active) and there were seven study groups in other cities. After his death, Plummer was succeeded by his widow, known as Mother Serena, who published much of his work in a series of booklets.
Plummer had a strong interest in Christian mysticism and liturgical religion. Intimately connected to his Rosicrucian work, the Seminary of Biblical Studies operated out of the Society's headquarters and offered lessons in mysticism. Then in 1934 Plummer was consecrated as a bishop by Archbishop William Albert Nichols of the American Orthodox Church. He formed the Holy Orthodox Church in America, also headquartered at the Society's office. Two years later the Church reported four congregations, all located in cities which had S.R.I.A. colleges or study groups.
Plummer's widow married Stanislaus Witowski, whom Plummer had consecrated and who succeeded Plummer as head of the Church. After Witowski's death, Mother Serena became head of the Church and in 1982 was consecrated as bishop by Archbishop Adrian Spruit of the Church of Antioch.
The Ancient and Mystical Order Rosae Crucis (A.M.O.R.C.):
The largest and best known of the several Rosicrucian groups in America, the Ancient and Mystical Order Rosae Crucis, was formed by Harvey Spencer lewis (1883-1939), a writer, artiest and occultist living in New York City. In 1904 he had formed The New York Institute for Psychical Research, an occult interest group. Four years later, he met Mrs. May Banks-Stacey, a Rosicrucian who put him in touch with members of the Order in Europe. In 1909 he went to France, where he was initiated and given authority to begin an organization in America. He pulled together a group of interested occultists and in 1915 the A.M.O.R.C. was formally organized and a magazine, The American Rosae Crucis, began.
In 1917 the first national convention was held. The convention approved a plan for offering its teaching to individuals through correspondence lessons. These lessons, which have been widely advertised over the years, became the major tool for the rapid spread of the Order.
In 1918 headquarters of the order were moved to San Fransicso. During these years Lewis formed ties with several occult groups in 1921 received a charter from the Ordo Templi Orientis. In 1925 lewis moved to Florida for two years but moved back to California in 1927 and established headquarters at San Jose, on land the Order had acquired. He re-incorporated the Order in California and incorporated the Pristine Church of the Rose Cross, an affiliated religious group over which he served as bishop. The Church lasted only a few years as the Order began to stress its non-religious fraternal aspect and hence dropped its "religious" structure.
During the 1930s Lewis developed the headquarters complex which came to include the Rose-Croix University (1934), a Planetarium (1936), and the Rosicrucian Research Library (1939). Possibly the most famous structure at the headquarters, the Egyptian Museum, has received wide acclaim and become a popular tourist attraction for San Jose.
Though no membership figures are available, the A.M.O.R.C. has spread throughout the world and has groups in most non-Communist countries. It publishes two magazines, The Rosicrucian Digest, a monthly, and The Rosicrucian Forum, for members only. Lewis was a voluminous writer and the Order circulates his many books, as well as those of his son Ralph M. Lewis (born 1904), who succeeded him as Imperator of the Order.
The Rosicrucian Fellowship:
Several Rosicrucian groups have a direct lineage from the Theosophical Society, the largest one being the Rosicrucian Fellowship founded by Max Heindel (1865-1919) in 1907. Heindel, born Carl Louis Von Grasshoff, was an engineer whose occult interests led him to the Theosophical Society shortly after the beginning of the century. By 1905 he was a theosophical lecturer. Then in 1907 he traveled to Germany where there appeared to him several times one whom he described as an "Elder Brother of the Rosicrucian Order." He was sent to work with a knowledgeable teacher, believed by most to have been Rudolf Steiner, founder of the Anthroposophical Society.
Returning to the United States, he wrote down what he had been taught and published it as his first book, The Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception, still the major introductory text of the Fellowship he founded. the first center was founded in Columbus, Ohio, but within a few years centers could be found long the West Coast from Seattle to Los Angeles. In 1910, while recuperating in a hospital from his recurrent heart condition, he had a vision of the future center on Mt. Ecclesia in Oceanside, California. That center remains the headquarters of the group.
The Rosicrucian teachings of heindel advocate the occult worldview of Theosophy. Heindel also picked up the astrological emphases of Theosophy and two of his books Simplified Scientific Astrology and The Message of the Stars were major factors in the twentieth-century revival of astrology in America. the Fellowship also publishes the popular Ephemeris, the annual table of the position of the planets in the astrological signs, a necessary tool for constructing astrological charts. A monthly astrology column continues to be an important feature in the Fellowship's monthly Rays from the Rosy Cross.
Heindel was succeeded by his wife, Augusta Foss Heindel, an accomplished occultist in her own right. In 1920 Mt. Ecclesia was dedicated. The Society has established some small groups, but the majority of its efforts are through various mail order courses it offers in astrology and the occult.
Rosicrucian Anthroposophic League:
Hearkening back to the influence of Rudolf Steiner on Max Heindel, S.R. Parchment, a former member of the Rosicrucian Fellowship, formed the Rosicrucian Anthroposophic League in San Francisco in the 1930s. Parchment wrote a series of books to expound his version of the Rosicrucian teachings: The Middle Path, Steps to Self Master, Operative Masonry, and The Just Law of Compensation. Parchment offered a variety of correspondence courses using the texts. The League also published a magazine, Rosicrucian Quarterly.
The occult basis of the League is spelled out in its objectives:
Investigate the occult laws of nature and the superphysical powers of man.
Promote the principles which will eventually lead to recognition of the truth of the universal brotherhood of man, without distinction as to sex, creed, race or color.
Acquire, disseminate, and exemplify a knowledge of spiritual truth as given to the world by the Elder Brothers of the White Lodge.
Study and teach ancient religion, philosophy and astrology in the light of modern needs.
Encourage the study of science and art in the hope that religion, art and science -- which are a veritable trinity, the equilateral triangle which has always been used as a symbol of the Divine -- may again be recognized as portals through which egos must pass in attaining to the mastery of self.
Attain to self-conscious immortality which is the crowing feat of evolution.
Like Heindel, Parchment had a prime interest in astrology and wrote an astrological classic, Astrology, Mundane and Spiritual. Since his death, the book has been kept in print by the American Federation of Astrologers. Recent information about the status of the League had been unavailable.
Lectorium Rosicrucianum
The Lectorium Rosicrucianum was formed in 1971 by former members of the Rosicrucian Fellowship in Holland under the leadership of J. Van Rijckenborgh. the Lectorium sees itself as a new instrument for the Universal Brotherhood, the spiritual hierarchy popularly known as the Great White Brotherhood. its basic teaching is termed "transfigurism," based upon the idea of two natural orders. The first is of God, the second that in which we normally live, the result of a catastrophe due to man's disobedience to Divine Law. The way to escape this order in which we are bound by the endless cycles of reincarnation is through transfiguration, i.e., giving up our lives in order to participate in God's original order. The transition is exemplified in Jesus Christ's resurrection.
American headquarters of the Lectroium are in Bakersfield, California. English editions of Rijckenborgh's books, including his main work, Dei Gloria Intacta, and lesson material, are disseminated from there by mail to students across the United States.
Ausar Auset Society:
The Ausar Society was formed by R.A. Straughn, known by his religious name, Ra Un Nefer Amen, a member during the 1970s of the Rosicrucian Anthroposophic League. A black man, Straughn became an occult teacher to the black community and around 1980 established an independent organization which applied the universal occult truths of Rosicrucianism to the Afro-American situation. Straughn has written several occult texts: The Realization of Neter Nu, Health Teachings of the Ageless Wisdom, and Meditation Techniques of the Kabalist, Vedantins and Taoists. Other books manifest the particular interest in the needs of black Americans: Black Woman's, Black Man's Guide to Spiritual Union and Black Woman, Black Man in a Quandary.
In 1980 he started a magazine, The oracle of Thoth, and by 1982 offered classes in the Society's occult teachings in New York, Washington, D.C., Chicago, Philadelphia, New Haven, and Norfolk.
REFERENCES:
R. Swinburne Clymer, The Rosy Cross, Its Teachings (Quakertown, PA: Beverly Hall Corporation, 1965).
George Winslow Plummer, Principles and Practice for Rosicrucians (New York: Society of Rosicrucians, 1947).
H. Spencer Lewis, Rosicrucian Questions and Answers with Complete Answers (San Jose, CA: Supreme Grand Lodge of AMORC, 1969).
Max Heindel, The Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception (Oceanside, CA: Rosicrucian Fellowship, 1909).
S.R. Parchment, Astrology, Mundane and Spiritual (San Francisco: Rosicrucian anthroposophic League, 1937).
The Way of the Rosycross in Our Times (Haarlem: Rozekruis-Pers, 1978).
R.A. Straughn, The Realization of Neter Nu (Brooklyn, NY: Maat Publishing co., 1975).
Harold V.B. Voorhis, Masonic Rosicrucian Societies (New York: Press of Henry Emerson, 1958).
Christopher McIntosh, The Rosy Cross Unveiled (Wellingsborough: Aquarian Press, 1980).
Paul M. Allen, ed., A Christian Rosenkreutz Anthology (Blauvelt, NY: Rudlof Steiner Publications, 1968).
Frances A. Yates, The Rosicrucian Enlightenment (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1972).
A.E. Waite, The Brotherhood of the Rosy Cross (London: Rider, 1924).
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