A PERSPECTIVE ON THE TRADITIONAL HISTORY OF THE ROSICRUCIAN ORDER

BY

SAR AURELIUS

When an historian sets about the task of compiling and analyzing the data of a mystical organization, a fraternal lodge, or even of a religious sect, the viewpoint must be much broader in scope then, for example, the history of the development of iron-tool technology.  Inasmuch as ideas, generally, are the central motif in mysticism, lodge work, and religious institutions, the historian must lend as much credence to these intangible ideas as he does to the concrete forms evidenced by artifacts, documents, and other materials.

While the historian of ideas prefers, as much as possible, to possess a tangible expression of these ideas—as in books, documents, art works, temple ruins, etc.—more often than not these ideas, even in a tangible form, are carefully veiled or only subtly referred to.  This is particularly true in the realm of those ideas, which are or have been, at the leading edge of human intellectual endeavor.  The proponents of pioneering ideas often labored against the intellectual inertia of the masses or against the entrenched interests of their period.  At times, the very creation of an outward expression, such as a book, brought the creator into lethal peril.

On February 16, 1600, Giordano Bruno was burned at the stake for publishing allegedly heretical ideas.  Among these was the concept that the universe was infinite, full of an infinite number of other worlds, and that these other worlds might have life on them as does our own.  Such an extreme form of censorship—burning at the stake—quickly put a damper on other would-be advocates of what might be termed unpopular ideas.  At certain periods, the mere possession of some item evidencing a heretical turn of mind could be, literally, worth your life.

To forgo unpleasant consequences, many people relied on the ancient oral mode for the transmission of ideas in informal meetings with like-minded associates.  This leaves later historians with sparse pickings; and, in fact, great gaps loom large as to a continuity of documentation.  Also, over the years, errors can accumulate within the oral traditions, which can shade the original meanings or even render them useless; for, no original documentation remains as a referent.

To perilous societal pressures, to the absence of bodies of documentation, to possibly erroneous transmissions in the oral mode, one must also take into account the prevalent use of analogies, parables, and mythologies as vehicles of ideas.  The historian, then, spends little time on excavation, but a great deal of time on analysis.

By far, much of what little remains are bound up in the mythic tradition.  The historian of ideas must always remember that a myth is true.  A mythology (or a legend, a parable, even a fairy tale), as opposed to a work of fiction, has at its center something true and not false.  Although the truth enshrined within the myth may be cloaked in fictional garb, the central idea is always true.

For example, in Norse mythology, the god Loki for mere sport burns the hair of the goddess Sif; the other gods require Loki to restore Sif’s hair, which he does with the aid of the dwarves.  What they are saying is that the summer heat (Loki) sears the green grass (the hair of the Earth goddess, Sif), and, that with the help of the forces of nature (the dwarves), the Earth once again brings forth the green grass.  This myth is of the common type wherein natural events are personified. Another example is the children’s story of Puss-In-Boots.  The cat stands like a man, wears a cloak, sports a floppy brimmed hat, has a sword buckled on, and wears tall, riding boots.  Here we have the old Roman god, Mithras Leontocephalous; that is, the—at times—lion headed god of light. As a sky god, he wears the blue, star-studded cloak of the night sky; his tipped-peak Persian cap (the Liberty cap) has changed into a European mode as has his Persian riding boots. Mithras is always seen emerging from the rock of his birth with a sword in hand. Over the centuries, the elements of the story changed as it migrated through cultural changes.

Another example is the legend of King Arthur drawing the sword, Excalibur, from the stone to establish himself as the rightful king of England.  Early metallurgy was a mysterious art that early peoples connected with that which was divine.  The blacksmith’s art was a sacred task and the blacksmith a semi-divine being.  And, it was only the smith that could make a sword from a blob of iron ore.  A similar idea attaches to the Persian king, Kai-Rus, who we call Cyrus the Great.  His conquest of Babylon freed the Jews from their captivity and he sent them home to rebuild their Temple.  The Jews called him a friend of God even though Cyrus was a follower of the Zoroastrian god Ahura Mazda. Cyrus’ leather blacksmith’s apron became the royal standard or flag of the Persian Empire until it was captured during the Moslem conquest of the Middle East. The blacksmith’s apron of service connects to the aprons of service worn by Freemasons and Rosicrucians in their ritual performances.

 We must always remember that the condition of learning was vastly different from ours in earlier times when only a very few could read and write. The usual teaching process was to teach children with simple, colorful stories easily remembered. As the child grew into adulthood, the stories could be elaborated on to include lessons of societal norms, historical information, moral values and religious concepts.

The historian’s task is to extract the true intent from within the context provided.  The truth lies beneath the shimmering ever-changing waters of symbolic language.

Dr. H. Spencer Lewis, the First Imperator of the Second Cycle of the Ancient Mystical Order Rosae Crucis (AMORC), ascribed the origins of the Order to ancient Egypt; going so far as to describe a convocation on a Thursday night in excess of 1300 years Before Christ!  Such an event never occurred; but Harvey knew the value of a simple, human centered story. People relate to events around people easier then they do to a rather dry exposition of philosophical discourse (such as this!). In a sense, the Order did start in ancient Egypt if one traces the confluence of ideas, which came together in Egypt: a confluence that I term the Alexandrian Revelation. Just before Christ’s time and for a few centuries thereafter a melding of ideas occurred in the city of Alexandria, which impacted the birth and development of Western Civilization and culture.  The Jews, in this essentially Greek city, translated and collated the Hebrew texts into Greek forming the Septuagint Bible. Plato, Aristotle, and the works of other great Greek philosophers were copied and debated in the great Library. Nascent Christianity was seeking its own personality distinct from the Jewish tradition, some blending with the indigenous Egyptian religious beliefs to establish Gnosticism and Hermetic Philosophy. And, the seeds of the Kabala were sown here. Originating in Egypt, the Alexandrian Revelation spread directly and indirectly around the whole of the Mediterranean Sea and into Europe: the Manicheans, the Paulicians, the Bogomils, and Cathars, among others. So, yes, Egypt is the tap-root of the Rosicrucian Tree of Knowledge that grew in Europe.

During the Renaissance, in 1460, a Greek manuscript was brought to the court in Florence, Italy, of Cosimo DeMedici, a man much taken with the philosophy of Plato. The manuscript contained 14 books ascribed to Hermes Trismegistus; the completed translation was called the Corpus Hermeticum. This work brought Hermetic Philosophy directly into Europe.  Two decades later, in Florence, Pico De Mirandola was introducing Kabala into the flourishing intellectual yeast.  The work of the Florentine academics flowed Northward into Germany, where in 1517, Martin Luther posted his 95 Theses on the door of the Palace Church in Wittenberg, heralding the advent of the Protestant movement.

From 1614 to 1616, three works—the Rosicrucian Manifestoes—appreared in print in Germany and then quickly spread throughout Europe.  The three were the Fama Fraternitatis (Legend of the Brotherhood; 1614), the Confessio Fraternitatis (Confession of the Brotherhood; 1615), and the Chymische Hochzeit (Chemical Wedding; 1616).

The Fama Fraternitatis tells the story of Christian Rosenkruetz (a Christian of the Rosy Cross), his journeys in the Middle East, his return to Germany and the founding of his Order, his death and burial, and the subsequent activities of his followers.  Translations of this and the other two books are readily available.  For this essay, I wish only to draw out some salient information that most writers on the subject either do not recognize or do not wish to comment on.  While the Fama, in one sense, is a philosophical/metaphysical allegory, it is also a book of science.  At one point in the book, we are told of the accidental discovery of the tomb of Christian Rosenkruetz (commonly abbreviated as CRC), behind a door on which was written in Latin: Post CXX Annos Patebo (After 120 years, I shall return).

Many investigators into R+C history have taken data provided in the Fama quite literally. They decided that CRC was born in 1378 (which happens to be the year that the Great Schism occurred in Christianity separating the Church behind rival Popes), died in 1484 at the age of 106, was buried in a tomb that was lost for 120 years, and which was rediscovered—the Order being born or resurrected-- in 1604, which is when the Fama was reported circulating in manuscript form prior to publication in 1614. So these investigators are out looking for some German knight running around the countryside, circa 1400+, as the real CRC. This is patently incorrect.

The search is not for the biographical history of an historical individual, but for a mythical man who symbolized a mystical organization.  The Fama itself tells us that the tomb was a “compendium of the universe”; that is, it is a mythic construct, the symbolism of which contains its creators’ understanding of cosmic structure and the space/time enigma.  CRC is a Cosmic Man such as the Archetypal Man of Hermetic tradition, or the Adam Kadmon of Kabbalistic tradition (who was the mythic living expression of the combined 10 emanations, the Sephiroth).  As an archetypal entity, CRC is outside the common space/time framework within which mere mortals exist.  Accordingly, the time frames assigned are not on a human scale but on a cosmic scale.

Though the word ‘annos’ is commonly translated as ‘years’, it also can mean ‘periods of time’.  The CXX Annos does not refer to 120 common years (each containing 365 ¼ days), but to 120 periods of time.  We are given a clue as to what to look for within the Fama itself with its reference to Trygono Igneo—the Fiery Trigon—which is connected to a cycle of the conjunctions of the planets Jupiter and Saturn. By these calculations, we are given a timeframe for the cosmic CRC of 2,160 years!

The two planets, Jupiter and Saturn, come into conjunction—as viewed from Earth—every 20 years.  Three of their conjunctions—60 years—triangulate the circle of 12 constellations called the Zodiac.  The astronomer priests of ancient Babylon were well aware of this phenomenon and were so impressed by it that they made it the basis of their mathematical system; the sexagesimal system.  As an aside, the Babylonian word for 60 was Sar, which means lord or leader.  The designation, Sar, was introduced into mystical circles as an honorific for members of various organizations by Sar Peladan in France at the end of the 1800’s. Dr. H. Spencer Lewis used the title Sar Alden; his son, Ralph, used Sar Validivar. And, I use Sar Aurelius as my pseudonym in my writings.

The 12 constellations of the Zodiac were divided by ancient tradition into 4 sets of 3 constellations; each set assigned to one of the mystical elements: fire, water, earth, and air. Three constellations—Aries, Leo, and Sagittarius—were called the fire signs and made up the Fiery Trigon (Trygono Igneo) referred to in the Fama.  Each constellation of the Zodiac contained 30 degrees of arc, 360 degrees—a circle—in all 12 constellations.

If Jupiter and Saturn come into conjunction in Aries, then 20 years later they come into conjunction in Sagittarius, and in another 20 years they come into conjunction in Leo. Following this third conjunction, they return to Aries. However, the starting point has been displaced 9 degrees due to orbital variations. It takes 60 years—3 conjunctions—to triangulate the Zodiac.

Consider one point of the triangle formed as the pointer of a vernier dial that moves nine degrees every 60 years.  It takes 40 conjunctions—800 years—for this pointer to move from one fire sign (Aries), to the next (Leo); and, 120 conjunctions—2400 years—for the dial to rotate through all three fire signs.  The CXX Annos on the door to CRC’s tomb refers to this great span of time.

The Vernal Equinox—the first day of spring—occurs when the Sun, moving northward, crosses the Celestial Equator. This has always been the traditional start of the New Year, the time of birth, growth, the renewal of the bountiful Earth.  To ancient peoples this was the season to plant their crops and knowledge of the Vernal Equinox was of critical importance to their agricultural societies.  But, over the centuries, it was observed that the Vernal Equinox shifted very gradually in a westerly direction along the Ecliptic, which is the Sun’s apparent annual pathway through the Zodiac. The shift of the Vernal Equinox from one Zodiacal constellation to another is called the Precession of the Equinoxes. A change in constellations caused these ancient societies to change the mythologies, which were the references for their timekeeping. During the time the Vernal Equinox was in Taurus the Bull, we find reference to the Apis Bull in Egypt, to the Golden Calf of the Old Testament, to Mithras slaying the Cosmic Bull in Persia and Rome, and to the Minotaur of Greek mythology.  When the first day of spring shifted into the constellation of Aries the Ram, we find the ram-headed god Amon in Egypt, the Greek myth of the Golden Fleece, the use of ram’s horns as trumpets among the Jews, and, later on, references to the Lamb of God. When the Vernal Equinox shifted into the constellation of Pisces the Fish near the time of the onset of the Christian faith, we now speak of becoming “fishers of men”, and of the “fisherman”, Simon Peter.  In Rosicrucian tradition, we use the moment of the Vernal Equinox to mark our New Year’s celebration.

It takes approximately 2,160 years for the Vernal Equinox to pass through the average constellation, 2,160 years for one seasonal marker to be replaced with another. The shift in the Precession of the Equinoxes is a difficult one to measure. Ancient peoples solved this problem by utilizing the Jupiter/Saturn conjunction cycles as ‘minutes’ in the ‘hour’ of the Precessional change in signs.

The use of the Jupiter/Saturn conjunction cycles is of great antiquity.  As far back as the Third Millenia B.C., Babylonian tradition records how the hero/god, Gilgamesh, used precisely 120 poles to punt his boat across the cosmic river to visit Utnapishtim, the survivor of the Babylonian Flood myth. This is the prototype story for the Biblical tale of Noah and his Ark.  Contemporary to the Fama book, we find the brilliant astronomer-mathematician, Johannes Kepler (1571-1630), assigning the date of the birth of the Christ child to 6 B.C., the time of a great triple conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn.

It takes 2,160 years for a shift in the Precession of the Equinoxes, 2,400 years for a complete cycle of the Fiery Trigon conjunctions.  The conjunction cycle is 240 years too long; too many ‘minutes’ in the ‘hour’ of Precession. So, the ancients made their ‘Cosmic Clock’ reset itself by dropping out 10 per cent. By, in a sense, ‘tithing’ the conjunction cycle the traditional 10 per cent—dropping out the 240-year excess—the cycles came together.  The full Jupiter/Saturn conjunction cycle is 120 conjunctions; the amended version is 108 conjunctions. 108 conjunctions of 20 years each is 2,160 years; one hour on the Precessional clock.

The 108 ‘years’ of the Rosicrucian cycle of activity and inactivity honors a useful tool developed centuries ago in the agricultural societies of that period. It honors, if you will, the discovery of a natural law and its application to human activities.  Our Rosicrucian tradition scales back the 108 conjunctions to a human one of 108 common years; a tradition that honors a law, but is not a law in and of itself.  This tradition is not some boundary that we can not cross.

Since the antecedent of the cycle developed from within agricultural societies, we will use an agricultural motif for an appropriate analogy.  A farmer who traditionally (within his working life) normally expects to get three crops of hay from his land during the normal growing season may say that he gets three crops of hay each year.  But, if the weather is very favorable, he may get a fourth or even a fifth cutting in some years.  If, after the third cutting, growth is still going on, that farmer is not going to just stop because he has already harvested his traditional third cutting. No, he is going to continue working until the weather turns against him.  The Order functions in the same way. Generally, we follow a 108-year cycle.  But, if the circumstances remained favorable, we would continue our farming efforts. If circumstances became unfavorable, we might prematurely cease activities or transfer them to another location as happened in Germany during the Thirty Years War in the early 17^th Century.

Traditions can be foundations on which to build or landmarks to guide us.  They are not shackles binding us unrealistically.  And remember… all traditions were once new!  We are, at any given time, in the process of establishing new traditions for the service and guidance of those to follow. The true Rosicrucian Order is always—and at the same time—mystical and rational.

I have used a rather long example—the Jupiter/Saturn conjunction cycles—to point up one aspect of the science to found within the R+C Manifestoes, and now will briefly touch on a couple of more examples.  But first, just as an aside, the Jupiter/Saturn conjunction cycles provide the cosmic framework for the Tarot deck.  The 40 conjunctions mentioned equate to the 40 numbered cards in the deck, which is simply a 78-page, loose leaf, book of astronomical items and positions to be laid out in an exact order and interpreted by the collective astrological interpretations applicable to each item and/or position.  It is not a Gypsy fortune-telling device activated by shuffling and random selection of cards.  This latter is the lower aspect of Tarot. The higher aspect was known to Arthur Edward Waite, whose deck is astronomically correct and whose interpretations are close to the mark. But the Tarot is another subject for another essay at another time.

In the book, Confessio Fraternitatis, the author states that he will present 37 reasons for the existence of the Order.  Actually, you would be hard pressed to find more than a few and those are not clearly stated.  At the time though, the great astronomer, Galileo Galilei, was under indictment by the Church for spreading the Copernican doctrine that the Sun—not the Earth—was the center of our solar system.  Drawing on the work of the ancient Greek astronomer, Aristarchus, Copernicus had stirred up a hornet’s nest by replacing the Earth with the Sun as the center of our system. Both the Pope and Luther rejected the notion based on their reading of the Bible that Moses held up his hands and the Sun stood still so that the Hebrews could have a victory over one of their foes.  Of course, the Sun apparently stands still for 3 days, twice a year; once at the Summer solstice and again at the Winter Solstice, as we observe it along the horizon. It was Biblical allegory, taken literally by both Luther and the Pope, which also happens to point up the fact that Biblical literature was written for spiritual guidance and not to be taken as history as we define it today.  In point of fact, many so-called Christians with their hide-bound view that God personally wrote the Bible and that every jot and tittle is infallible, are not Christians at all. They are Bibliolators, worshipping the Bible as if it were God himself. A book is as much a graven image as is a picture or statue.

At the time of the Confessio, Galileo was circulating a 37-letter cipher that, when decoded, read: “I have seen the highest god, three formed.”  Galileo’s rather poor telescope, when trained on the planet Saturn, could not resolve the image of the rings. What Galileo saw resembled a circle with ears; the outer reaches of the rings extending past the planets seen as small appendages on either side of the larger body.  In mythology, Saturn was the slowest, therefore, the highest of the planetary gods.

The book, Chymische Hochzeit—Chymical Wedding—is usually interpreted as an alchemical work, specifically, transcendental alchemy.  Unlike physical alchemy which attempted to turn, for example, the metal lead into the metal gold, transcendental alchemy wanted to transmute the baser aspects of a human being into the more lofty, spiritual aspects of life.  Actually, it is full of the science of the time.  For example, in that section called the Sixth Day, a room is described as having a globe hanging in its center surrounded with doors and windows constructed of “looking glasses” (magnifying lenses) which made the room seem flooded with myriad “suns”, “which by artificial refractions beat upon the whole golden globe”…”till the globe was well heated.”  What is actually being described is a solar furnace!  They are using a solar furnace to make glass, from which they will grind lenses—a male (convex) and a female (concave)—which they will unite in the wedding chamber, which by enlarging the forecourt, the light of Lady Venus will shine through. The wedding chamber where the two little people, male and female, will unite is a telescope tube and when the forecourt—one section of tubing—is enlarged, the light of Lady Venus (the planet Venus) will shine through.  What we have is a description of a scientific project, personified and couched in flowery, almost fairy tale form.

In another section of the Chymical Wedding a great globe partially set into the floor is described. A person could enter this globe, be seated, and when the globe was turned from the outside, the visitor within could observe the motion of the stars and planets.  What was described was a planetarium, though unlike the ones we are familiar with today which are projections on a hemispherical ceiling over the observer’s head.  This was a great globe in which the visitor sat, rotating around him with stars and planets simulated by holes drilled in the globe and illuminated from exterior lamps or candles.  Such globes were actually built, the most famous being the Gottorp Globe.

I do not pretend to know all the science contained within the Manifestoes. I actually know only a little; but enough to know that they contain far more then just the limited view of transcendental alchemy that most authors and most orders claiming to be Rosicrucian usually refer to.  The problem of understanding the full richness of the material lies in the fact that most students of mysticism, like myself, have limited backgrounds in science, especially 17^th Century science. On the other hand, most scientists are not particularly interested in “old science” and, moreover, have no idea that such science exists in that type of literature. It would be a fertile and rewarding study for someone qualified to interpret it. Say, in just such a way as Dame Frances Yates did with her examination of the Order from a political point of view in the book, The Rosicrucian Enlightenment.

Now, we come to the questions as to who wrote this material and why.  The preponderance of opinion today seems to assign the authorship of the manifestoes to Johann Valentin Andreae (1586-1654). Andreae became a noted Lutheran pastor and had a decided interest in alchemy. At one point, he stated that in his youth, he had composed a work entitled the Chymical Wedding. And, recent scholarship has made a strong case that he wrote the Fama as well.  He may very well have written the books, but I doubt that he was the leading light in their composition.  It has been well reported that the Fama circulated in manuscript form around 1604, the date usually ascribed to start of the R+C Order as we know it.  But at that time, Andreae was only around 17 years old and a student at Tubingen University. No matter how brilliant a student he was, the work described in the Fama seems excessive for a young student.  At the time he was studying at Tubingen, the professor of mathematics and astronomy at the university was Johann Kepler!

Kepler wrote the first science fiction book, a trip to the Moon achieved by magic.  The Inquisition thought one of the characters in the book was Kepler’s mother. They seized her, interrogated her, and even went to the point of showing her the instruments of torture to try and extract a confession of witchcraft from her.  It was only Kepler’s association with high-ranking people that allowed him to save her from injury or even death. These were perilous times.  The style of Kepler'’s writing shows distinct similarities to the style of the Fama.

Science, particularly astronomy, was under attack. The truth of the Copernican theory, augmented by Tycho Brahe’s astronomical observations and Kepler’s mathematical structures, was threatened by both Protestant and Catholic belief.  Science and astronomy were hidden within the Manifestoes.  The use of the mythic mode provided the seemingly fictional cloak, which concealed the scientific truths within. Further, they created a new mythology based on the heliocentric or Sun-centered system, replacing the traditional geocentric or Earth-centered one. In one passage, the Fama states: “…so that he [Father CRC] hath all the days of his life with him two of the brethren.” The two planets, Venus and Mercury, having orbits within our own Earth’s, keep them always close to the Sun from our viewpoint.  They appear to travel close to the Sun during its apparent annual passage through the Zodiac.  Also, CRC has another meaning: centrum, radix, and cirumferentia; center, radius, and circumference.

Traditional history is much more then a record of events, for it also enshrines the human story of what adversities were encountered and overcome, what discoveries were made, what hopes and aspirations were held for the future. Traditional history is full of greatness and imperfection. To whatever tangible remains that do exist to tell us of the past, there will always be great gaps in continuity; gaps that may be partially bridged by comparisons to other similar institutions, philosophies, and so on. Traditional history is, in fact, extraordinary history.  It can and does expand beyond the common day-to-day milieu of humanity to encompass cosmic and theological concepts that transcend the norm.

Rosicrucian principles are universal, known in various ways in different times and in many lands. For all, of those who have made the Rosicrucian principles a part of their existence, will carry the fire of knowledge, always willing to share it, no matter the cost. 

Within each of us, there exists the sanctum of the mind, a truly personal sanctum illuminated by the light of truth, the true altar of the inner temple. And, that light will one day, hopefully, pierce the veil of darkness so thoroughly that ignorance, intolerance and suffering will be as rubble of the past causing future generations to wonder why it was that humanity carried such baggage, and why it did so for such a long time.

Peace Profound!