Rosicrucian brotherhood - SpeedyLook encyclopedia

The Rosicrucian brotherhood is an order Christian hermetist legendary, whose first mentions go back to the beginning of the 17th century in Germany. The existence of the order, and that of its founder Christian Rosenkreutz, are discussed.

At all events, as from the 18th century and until today, of many movements claimed themselves about the Rosicrucian brotherhood, or referred to the “tradition rosicrucian” or the “heritage of Christian Rosicrucian brotherhood”. Their members are called the rosicrucians. The term “Rosicrucian brotherhood” indicates, in their language, a state of spiritual and moral perfection.

Prototype of secret society, mystical, unmemorable and very powerful, the Rosicrucian brotherhood seem in the literature ésotérisante, often like successors of the Knights of the Graal and the Templiers.

At the origin of a myth: the Rosicrucian brotherhood Proclamations

Introduction

The “Rosicrucian brotherhood proclamations” were published of 1614 with 1616 and made for the first time mention of this fraternity in one period of political and religious tensions, and scientific projections. They have as a title: the Fama Fraternitatis and the Confessio Fraternitatis , to which one joint generally another text: the Weddings Chymiques de Christian Rosenkreutz .

The Fama Fraternitatis

In 1614 appears with Cassel, with the printing works of Wilhelm Wessel, an anonymous German document: general and universal Reform of the whole world. Containing Fama Fraternitatis of the famous Order of the Rosicrucian brotherhood ''.

This “general Reform” is a satirical account on the reform projects which flowered at the time. In appendix, one finds a " Proclamation " : the Fama Fraternitatis or Fraternity of the famous order of the R.C.

The name of founder (C.R.C.), as those of the members of Fraternity are mentioned only by their initial.

The Fama Fraternitatis tells the life of the mythical founder of the Order. German, orphan of a noble but desilvered family, it is raised and educated in a convent. A tour undertaken around the Mediterranean enables him to acquire wisdoms and knowledge of the East and to confront them with those of the Occident. On its return, it discusses with the scientists Europe “ showing them the errors our Arts, how to correct them, from where one could draw from the unquestionable indices over the following centuries and in what they were to agree with the last centuries; also how to reform the defects of the Church and all moral philosophy. ” But the latter, being seen constrained to call itself in question and fearing that their reputation does not suffer from it, rejects it. It then founds in Germany a Cloître called “House of the Holy Spirit”, in order to there gather and preserve its knowledge, and invites, in order to them consign, three of its former school-fellows who swear fidelity and silence to him: “ Ainsi began the Fraternity of the Rosicrucian brotherhood, with four people only . ” The Order gives itself a rule, and disperses throughout the world.

The history reports that 120 years after the death of the founder of the Order, the Brothers of the third generation, remaking in “ good architects ” the masonry of their “House”, redécouvrent its tomb. The inscription “ Post 120 annos patebo ” ( after 120 years, I will open ) indicates that this apparently fortuitous discovery had been envisaged.

In this “temple-fall”, illuminated “ by another sun ”, is the intact body of C.R.C holding in its hands one little book of gold, heading “Delivers T.”. The circular furnace bridge is surrounded by formulas of wisdom and axioms as “ Nequaquam vacuum ( nowhere is not the Latin vacuum in )”. The Brothers then decide to reveal in the world this supposed Christian wisdom to reconcile knowledge of last and those of the future, and to propose a universal reform of sciences, art and religion. They will explain the 37 reasons of this decision in a Confessio , and promise more gold “ than the king of Spain cannot about it pay of the two Indies ”. The Fama Fraternitatis , which was to be written in five languages, invites wise the, erudite ones and chiefs of Europe interested by this offer to make known itself some manner “ and in some language that it is ”.

Fama is completed by the sentence: “ Sub will umbra alarum tuarum Jehova ” (In the shade of your Jéhovah wings).

The work ends in the Courte answer made by Adam Haselmayer who, for that, was arrested and imprisoned by the Jesuits and put at irons on the galères . This Adam Haselmayer, given in the foreword as secretary of the archduke Maximilien, was regarded a long time as a fictitious character. Recent research made it possible to find its trace. It is about a paracelsien of the the Tyrol. One found a version of this text printed in 1612, and it would be thus about the first " réponse" with the call of the Fama . Haselmayer states to have read a manuscript of the Fama in 1610 (what makes it possible to suppose that the text circulated a few years before its publication in 1614). In this apocalyptic and mystical text, he sees in the Brothers of the Rosicrucian brotherhood of the disciples of Paracelse, and announces the imminence of the end of the world and the advent of the Empire of the Holy Spirit (reign called " Fourth Monarchie" in the Fama ).

Although the Fama was in general published only thereafter, the whole of the original work ( Reformatio , Fama and the answer of Haselmayer ) form a whole. It is joined there a second text, in versions Latin and German (moreover appreciably different): (“Confession of the Fraternity of the R.C. To the scientists of Europe”).

This “Confession” (or profession of faith), where the Brothers of the R. - C. are expressed, refers to the Fama , and renews its call with the scientists, but also to humble, and its promises of universal Christian reform and revelation of the secrecies of Nature. In the form it takes as a starting point the Confession of Augsburg. More than the Fama , it stresses the Millénarisme and the Antipapisme.

The Brothers take the defense of the Order against its detractors and its enemies:

“At the time when was promulgated in Fama the true goal of our Kind, it emerged from the misunderstandings by which one shows us wrongfully heresy and of treason. ”
“certain powerful personalities which are hostile for us and block us, reason for which we keep the incognito”

They speak in praise of the Bible and the evangelic life:

“We claim that, since the beginning of the world, the man forever received better book only the Holy Bible. Blessed either that which has it, doubly blessed that which makes of it the reading, more still that which includes/understands it and conforms to it. ”

The first name of the founder of Fraternity appears: Christian R. - C. . It would have been born in 1378 and would have lived a hundred and six years. The Confessio Fraternitatis proposes a Christian philosophy , and also a state of marvellous life which “appeared at the origin of the world with Adam” accessible to the regenerated man. The Confessio announces the end of the mahometism and the Catholicisme, and the arrival of a new era related on the advent of mysterious the fourth monarchy and to the appearance of signs, stars in the Constellation S of the Serpentaire and the Cygne.

The Brothers lay out of a “magic writing”, similar to the original language of the biblical patriarchs Adam and Hénoch, which enables them to read and include/understand the divine will.

The Confessio evokes alchemy as a curing force, able certainly to operate the transmutation of metals (what they does not snuff), but especially like “supreme remedy” for the release of humanity:

“Now, it is necessary that any error yields, ténèbre and constraint which gradually seized sciences, works and the government of human… so that the majority of the men darkened itself… It is however of other philosophy for us only That which is the Crown of all faculties, sciences and arts. With regard to our century it includes/understands especially Theology, Medicine, and before all the Science of the Right; it is a philosophy which probes the sky and the ground using an excellent art of analysis or which, in a word expresses primarily that the man is a Microcosme, and extent of its art in nature. ”

the Weddings Chymiques de Christian Rosenkreutz

In 1616 appears with Strasbourg, without name of author and in German, the Weddings Chymiques de Christian Rosenkreutz .

This allegorical and mystical text tells, with the first nobody, the initiatory experiment of Christian Rosenkreutz, reference symbol which can result in “the Christian in the Rose and the Cross”; the French-speaking rosicrucians name it “Christian Rosicrucian brotherhood”. The action is in 1459. During seven days, full with events Marvellous and symbolic systems, Christian Rosenkreutz takes part in the alchemical weddings of the King and the Queen, who culminate with the Décollation and the resurrection of the royal couple.

The introductory warning indicates the character esoteric of work:

“the secrecies lose their value; the profanation destroys the grace. ”

“Thus: do not throw the pearls with the pigs, and do not make with an ass a bed of pinks. ”

Alchemy, in the “Alchemical Weddings of CRC” as in the others “manifest”, is regarded as a process of spiritual regeneration and a source of purification and interior rebirth.

This text was the subject of many comments.

Analyzes Rosicrucian brotherhood proclamations

Assumptions on the authors of Proclamations and their motivations

Since their anonymous publication, many assumptions were made on the identity of the authors of Proclamations, like on their motivations and their intentions.

With regard to the Weddings Chymiques , Johann Valentine Andreae (1586 - 1654) will state in his Autobiographie , which was published only in 1799, of to have been the author in his youth (between 1602 and 1604). It was about “a joke ( Ludibrium )) full with scenes of adventures. With (my) surprised this book was appreciated by certain and was explained by subtle interpretations, though it is only one small unimportant work and that it represents the vain efforts of curiosity”. Ecclesiastical inspector, in charge of diplomatic functions then preacher of the court of Stuttgart, Andreae was as known for his satirical writings as it will justify as follows: “It is the business of the Christianity which held me with heart and I wanted to make it progress by all the means; and as I could not do it by rectilinear ways, I tried to make it by turnings and tomfooleries, not, as it seemed with certain, with a spirit of mocking remark but while resorting to the way in which use much of pious people, in the sense that by the means of a joke and by a charming mischievousness, I worked towards a serious end and I insufflated the love of Christianity. ”

The authors of Proclamations are not known with certainty. The stylistic analysis and set of themes of the various texts ( Fama and Confessio but also their forewords, the Reformatio and the Answer of Haselmayer ), tend to show that it is about the work of several authors. It seems probable that these texts have written within a group of intellectuals Lutherans, gathered as from 1607 with Andreae under the crook of the theologist Johannes Arndt (1555-1621). This group, which one calls Cénacle of Tübingen, promoted in particular the imitation of the life of Jesus-Christ. If Andreae undoubtedly had an inspiring and central role, one also finds the mark of his friends, in particular Wilhelm Wense, Tobias Hess and Christoph Besold (1577-1638). Thus a group of young German Lutherans, which had had mesh to leave with the university authorities “was drawn up clandestinely against the drying orthodoxy to which he opposed all at the same time the ancient and medieval mysticity, the scientific spirit being born and the social work taught in particular by Campanella, with its studies and its Cité of the socio-theocratic Sun . ”.

Paul Arnold.

Controversies on the existence and the origin of the order

There does not exist any historical proof of the existence of an Order of the Rosicrucian brotherhood before or at the time of the publication of proclamations, at the beginning of the 17th century. The movements which baptized “Rosicrucian brotherhood thereafter” do not have the least bond of direct filiation with the group of the authors of the proclamations (the Coterie of Tübingen). The company rosicrucian AMORC (founded in 1915) is the only one to have asserted the title of an “authentic” Nature of the Rosicrucian brotherhood.

The opinions on the existence and the origin of the order can schematically be classified in four different categories:

For the Yates academics, Faivre, Christian Rosenkreutz and the Order of the Rosicrucian brotherhood are fictions invented by the authors of Proclamations, and these texts concerned at the origin of the “ Ludibrium ” (i.e. “play”, “joke”) esoteric a young person Luthérien malicious and cultivated, Johann Valentine Andreae. The proclamations of the Rosicrucian brotherhood would not be a proof of its existence but only the narration of its myth. They would quickly have taken a polemical dimension in the rough context of the Réforme. The posters published in Paris in 1623 (see below) would be as for them only one hoax. The ideas developed in Proclamations not having anything particularly original nor specific, their success not-denial is due to their quality literary, with their perfume of secrecy and mystery, and with association, strongly evocative in the Occidental culture, of the names and symbols of the pink and the cross.
Those which, while believing in the existence of a fraternity of the “Rosicrucian brotherhood”, estimate that the historical details provided in Proclamations are to be taken at least partly in a direction symbolic system. The order would have been consisted of the regrouping of brilliant spirits around Johann Valentine Andreae. The Rosicrucian brotherhood would express the spiritual and major aspirations which impregnate still today imaginary Occident.
Of others holding of interpretation symbolic system of proclamations believes in an even ancient old existence of the Order. Thus several rosicrucians authors of the 20th century, among lequels Harvey Spencer Lewis, the founder of AMORC, being authorized mainly “secret files” or “akhashic files” consultable only by means of various techniques of meditation, affirmed that the Order of the Rosicrucian brotherhood had an Egyptian origin, even telamon.
Some finally reinterrogated with Serge Hutin the concept of Order initiatory by seeing a current of thought there - organized by principles and based on the tacit recognition between its contributors of their respective moral authorities - rather than a hierarchical secret organization in a formal way.

Reactions to the XVIIe century

In Germany and England

The Rosicrucian brotherhood Proclamations had a considerable repercussion very quickly. There were quickly several republications. Their call (and especially references to Paracelse) were accepted per many “chymists” of Germany, and also of Europe. The Bibliotheca Hermetica Philosophica of Amsterdam listed 400 answers printed in the 10 years which followed their publication and approximately: 1700 between XVIIe and XVIIIe centuries.

Polemics were not long in being born. The Rosicrucian brotherhood were shown of imposture and, more serious at the time, of sorcery and heresy. However, Michael Maier, influence it doctor of the emperor Rodolphe II, took make and cause for the Rosicrucian brotherhood in its Silentium post clamores (1617) then its THEMIS Aurea (1618), seeing in them the heirs to a philosophical antique tradition. In England, Robert Fludd, doctor and author of a certain number of treaties rosicrucians, wanted to be, mainly in Apologia Compendiera (1616) and Summum Bonum (1629), a door word of this Fraternity. Fludd and Maier were the principal defenders and promoters of the Rosicrucian brotherhood, giving them their noble letters and accrediting the existence of an unmemorable fraternity the wise ones having all knowledge and virtues. They explained and developed the ideas rosicrucians by associating there some which were clean for them At all events, “the one winter reign” of Frederic V of Palatinat was completed in 1620 with the victory of the imperial catholics to the Bataille of the White Mountain.

Reactions of the members of the Coterie of Tübingen

For their part, the authors of proclamations seemed exceeded as well by their success as by the generated polemics, and disunited themselves. Tobias Hess died in 1614, Andreae was the suspecté main thing, its participation seeming to have been notorious. It adopted a complex and ambiguous attitude (see the analyzes of Arnold) to be denied the charges and calumnies. It seems to have initially wanted to rectify the interpretation of Proclamations by publishing the Noces Chymiques and the Theca Gladii Spiritus' (sleeve of the sword of the spirit). At the same time, it tackled or disparaged in its writings ( Menippus , Turris Babel ) certain aspects of Proclamations, while defending some of others. And finally, it tried throughout its life to promote companies of Christian union, in which one can find a share of the utopian project of the Rosicrucian brotherhood, stripped of their alchemical and hermetic contents.

Christoph Besold made publish in 1623 Spanish monarchy of Tommaso Campanella, however one of the inspirers of Proclamations, with this sentence questioning the existence even of Fraternity and the serious one of Proclamations:

At all events, Fraternity was not expressed publicly any more.

In France

In 1623, whereas in Germany the polemics die out little by little in front of silence of the Rosicrucian brotherhood and vis-a-vis the beginnings of the Guerre Thirty Year old (1618-1648), of the posters taking again the call of proclamations are placarded in all Paris:

This first poster is quickly followed by one second:

The authors of these posters are unknown. Nothing not making it possible to connect them to those of proclamations, the old commentators (Adrien Baillet) and modern (Faivre) considers that it was about a hoax.

Their text is reproduced in a work published the same year by Gabriel Naudé, which carried out a survey: Instruction in France on the Truth of the History of the Brothers of the Rosicrucian brotherhood where the author exposes the legend of Christian Rosenkreutz and is ironical about the claim of the Brothers of the Rosicrucian brotherhood to reform the world. He sees in them beings baited to destroy the Catholic religion and the royal capacity. The French reaction, unlike the English and German reception was extremely negative and for all to say, the texts and proclamations rosicrucians caused panic there. The general opinion was that the rosicrucians practiced the black magic and that these “invisible” was thus of the wizards. The ideas rosicrucians were perceived there like ideas of agents from abroad, mainly of England, Robert Fludd while being the emblematic figure.

Cyrano of Bergerac (1619-1655), in its comic History of the states and empires of the sun , speaks about it like Knights of the Rosicrucian brotherhood Knights of the Rosicrucian brotherhood

Controversies around Descartes, Leibniz, Comenius and other personalities

In order to accredit the existence and the influence of Fraternity, the rosicrucians authors often proposed the relations that famous personalities, in particular Descartes, Leibniz and Comenius, but also Spinoza or Newton, would have had with the Rosicrucian brotherhood. These relations would go sometimes until the effective membership to the Order.

Their contradictors object that the historical elements available raise of the anecdote as well for the life and the work of these characters as for the history of the rosicrucism. These elements make them rather men of their time than of the members of the Rosicrucian brotherhood or even of mobility rosicrucian

Adrien Baillet reports, on a tone amusing, that after being intrigued by 1=confrères Rosicrucian, of which it avoit unnecessarily turns into to research in Germany during the winter of the year 1619 one commençoit to make run the noise that it étoit enlisted in the brotherhood. Mr. Descartes was all the more surprised of this news, that the thing avoit little report/ratio to the character of his spirit, and the inclination that it avoit always have, to regard the Rosicrucians as impostors or visionaries. After the business of the posters (1622), it had to be shown everywhere in Paris to clear itself to be one of the alleged ones invisible .

In dedication of the manuscript of a pseudo-treaty of mathematics Polybii Cosmopolitani Thesaurus mathématicus ( mathematical Treasure of Polybe the cosmopolitan ) (1619), one finds the dedication following: (“with the scientists of the whole world and particularly F (rères) R.C very famous in G (ermanie)”). This text was not published. Genevieve Rodis-Lewis, in her biography Descartes of 1997, being based on the parodic character of the work, sees in this dedication a sarcastic intention. Jean-Pierre Bayard finds there on the contrary a sign of interest and support.

It remains that the famous episode and founder of the three dreams of Descartes took place in Germany at the winter 1619, whereas it was interested in the Rosicrucian brotherhood. Certain authors think that the imaginary one of Descartes was then inspired by the texts rosicrucians which it was to read at the time.

Leibniz

About 1666, the philosopher and German mathematician Leibniz (1646-1716) became member of the “Alchemical Company” of Nuremberg (1654-~1700) and was secretary during two years. This company is sometimes confused wrongly with that of the Rosicrucian brotherhood d' Or (see below). It was interested in the text of the Noces Chymiques and deciphered the enigma of the name of the young girl Alchimia . As for proclamations themselves he regarded them as fictions: All that one said of the Brothers of the Cross and the Rose, is a pure fabrication of some clever person .

Comenius

Andreae was, by its society projects of Christian union, in liaison with Pasteur of Bohemia Comenius. In 1628, Andreae, discouraged, wrote to him to pass the relay to him:

In spite of these denigrations, Comenius seems, in the labyrinth of the world (1631), to be allured by the hopes developed in the Rosicrucian brotherhood proclamations. Being inspired some, it wrote, in 1641 in England, ambitious and generous program of Reform: the Via Lucis (“Way of the light”). Edighoffer made of Comenius that which made pass the Rosicrucian brotherhood of the German lutherianism to the framework universalist and humanitarist who was going to be that of Freemasonry.

Companies rosicrucians and rosicrucianism at the XVIIIe century

After a relative lapse of memory during second half of the XVIIe century, a new efflorescence rosicrucian appears at the XVIIIe century. Parallel to the rise of the Freemasonry, various movements and groupings rosicrucians are formed, concerning the easy spheres of the company.

Most important of these groupings were the various groups called “ Rosicrucian brotherhood d' Or ” and that of the “ Rosicrucian brotherhood d' Or of Old System ” (these organizations do not have an historical link with the Lectorium Rosicrucianum contemporary, of which it is question further, except a common alchemical claim).

The “Rosicrucian brotherhood d' Or”

In 1714, appeared in Germany, under the name of Sincerus Renatus (pseudonym of the preacher Silesia N Samuel Richter): “The true one and perfect diffusion of the philosopher stone of fraternity about the Or Rosicrucian brotherhood”. This text, which is primarily a treaty of alchemy, ends in the enumeration of the fifty two rules of the Order (instituting as supreme leader the rank of “Imperator” which will be taken again later).

The Order describes by Richter does not seem to have existed but various conventicules, of rather fuzzy doctrines and connected to each other in a rather loose way, took the name of Rosicrucian brotherhood d' Or and developed in Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, with the Netherlands and until in Russia. It is within these groupings that about 1750 the theory would have been born from filiation templière from the Franc-maçonnerie, with for intermediaries the Rosicrucian brotherhood. This theory then developed within the branch known as rectified of freemasonry, before being contradicted by the general assembly of Freemasons of Wilhelmsbad in 1782. However, this development firm on the historical level did not prevent part of alchemical and chivalrous symbolism introduced into the High ranks maconnic on this occasion to remain there thereafter. The secret Figures of the Rosicrucian brotherhood of XVIe and XVIIe century , printed in two parts, 1785 then in 1788, in Altona close to Hamburg, would constitute the “spiritual will” of the Rosicrucian brotherhood d' Or. They comprise inter alia 36 boards of images and alchemical, theosophic and hermetic symbols. The author is unknown. One distinguishes the inspiration there from Valentine Weigel, Heinrich Khunrath and Jacob Boehme, precursors of the thoughts rosicrucians and theosophic.

The “Rosicrucian brotherhood d' Or of Old System”

In 1777, a Prussian officer, Johann Rudolf von Bischoffswerde, and former Pasteur, Jean Christophe Wöllner, found in Berlin the “Order of the Rosicrucian brotherhood d' Or of Old System” starting from the maconnic cabin of the Three Earths. They make go up the genealogy of the Rosicrucian brotherhood, not with the founder supposed Christian Rosenkreutz, but with “Adam himself”. This divine sapience then would have been preserved and transmitted by the biblical patriarchs, the sects with Mystères, Pythagoriciens and the druids. The Order even would have been founded him by Ormus, a priest of Alexandria baptized by Marc saint. It would have remained in Palestine until the time of the crusades, where it would have been transported to Europe. The Or Rosicrucian brotherhood of Old System had an unquestionable success and counted, as of 1779,26 circles and 200 members in Germany. The two founders, thanks to various tinted mystifications of occultism, managed to attract each other the good graces of the high political arenas. They were thus named ministers in 1786 and then suspended the activities of the Order which became suspect and compait several thousands of members then

It is possible that people sensitive to the ideals of the Utopia rosicrucian affiliated themselves with the maconnic cabins of the 17th century, mainly in England and in Scotland.

In second half of the XVIIIe century, the word “Rosicrucian brotherhood” refers much more to a state of ultimate wisdom and complete realization that with an organization: One says at the time “ a Rosicrucian brotherhood” to indicate one of these presumedly initiated ultimate and “the Order of the Rosicrucian brotherhood” to speak about their organization.

It is in this meaning that in Franc-maçonnerie, about 1760, the rank called appears “Rosicrucian brotherhood Knight”. He becomes a time the final rank of the Rite of Perfection before becoming, in 1801, the 18th rank of the Scottish Rite Old and Accepted. The traditional “jewel” of this rank is a compass decorated with a Rosicrucian brotherhood and a pelican which nourishes its small with its own blood. In some others of these ritual maçonniques, one finds developments esoteric of the myth of the construction of the Temple of Solomon which point out the symbolic system of Temple-fall from Christian Rosicrucian brotherhood, “image and shortened Univers”. Contrary, one will find, in ritual many groups contemporary or founded rosicrucians at the 19th century, loans with the ritual maçonniques ones attested as of the end of the 18th century. These mutual influences are easily explained by the fact why following the example Papus, Lewis, Hutin and well of others, the rosicrucians authors of XIXe and XXe centuries will be very often also freemasons.

At the same time, Martines de Pasqually founds a “Order of the Elected Knights Cohen” in which he teaches his doctrines, near to the Christian hermetism (like that of the Rosicrucian brotherhood) and of which the most advanced members practice the Théurgie and carry the title of “Réaux-Cross”. The word Réaux-Cross seems to be invented by Pasqually, by analogy with Rosicrucian brotherhood, while being distinguished some, Réau meaning “large Adam” and “powerful priest”. Its successors Jean-Baptiste Willermoz and Louis-Claude of Saint Martin's day (“the unknown philosopher”) reflect the Order in sleep after the death of Pasqually in 1774, but its doctrines partly inspired Willermoz in its contribution to the drafting of the last High ranks maconnic of the Scottish Rite Rectified at the time of the “General assembly of Freemasons of Gaules” in 1778.

In 1798, the abbot Augustin Barruel publishes his Mémoires to be used for the history of the Jacobinism in which he shows the Illuminés of Bavaria (founded in 1776, prohibited in 1784 and extinguished in 1790) to be at the origin of a world plot which would have been the true cause of the fall of monarchy in France. Although refuted for a long time by the majority of the historians, this Theory of the plot and its derivative have still today a certain number of partisans who estimate that the Rosicrucian brotherhood made them also part of this supposed plot. Although the ideas of the enlightened of Bavaria, connects radical Lights, seem incompatible with the mystical doctrines illuminist of the Rosicrucian brotherhood and the rosicrucians, lexical confusion was and remains frequent.

Rosicrucian brotherhood in art and the literature at the XVIIIe century

The close relations of the contemporary rosicrucians see frequent symbols rosicrucians in the art and the literature of XVIIe and XVIIIe centuries. Some of these influences are proven, the different one are more debatable. The symbols used by the rosicrucians are comparable with those used by other movements set on already existing esotericism and alchemy.

The initiatory handbooks of the Rosicrucian brotherhood d' Or and the text of the Noces Chymiques marked part of the work of Gœthe, in particular in the Mysteries , the Conte and the second Faust . In its unfinished poem the Mysteries (1784-1786) one finds in particular the sentence: “Which thus married the Pinks with the Cross? ”.

For the rosicrucians, the opera the Magic Flute of Mozart constituted an allusion hardly buckled to the supposed initiatory rites of the Rosicrucian brotherhood, in particular concerning the tests of fire and the water which the two heroes cross at the end of the opera. It is nevertheless commonly allowed that, Mozart and Emanuel Schikaneder - its Librettiste - being both Francs-maçons, this work adopts a maconnic symbolic system.

Famous characters

The membership of certain personalities to the organizations rosicrucians of the XVIIIe century was sometimes evoked.

Influenced by the ideas of Josef Hoëné-Wronski, the occultist Eliphas Lévi claimed that Napoleon Bonaparte was rosicrucian, and had received for mission of unifying the Europe. Other authors, such Papus or Harvey Spencer Lewis also supported this idea.

The companies rosicrucians of the XIXe century

The rosicrucians groups of the XIXe century poured more and more in the occult one and the magic. One saw, mainly in France and England, a flowering of secret societies, with a diversity of ranks, hierarchical structures of mysterious origins and impressive titles. Then, in the middle of the century, the groupings English and American rosicrucians appeared. The majority of these companies were influenced considerably by the strong personality of their guides and founders.

Two important figures of the Western esotericism of the XIXe century wrote and referred to the character of Christian Rosicrucian brotherhood, or the particular mission of the Rosicrucian brotherhood in this century: Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, founder of the theosophic Company, then Rudolf Steiner, initially General secretary of the theosophic Company in Germany, then founder of the anthroposophic Company, which devoted many works to it.

Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia

The Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia , or SRIA, was founded in 1867 by the Master Maçon Robert Wentworth, of the Plain Big room of England. It was about an order rosicrucian admitting a maximum of 144 members, and exclusively intended for the Freemasons of this Big room or Big rooms recognized by it which had reached the rank of “Master”.

The ritual ones and initiations of the SRIA were borrowed from Freemasonry on the one hand and with the Egyptian Mythologie on the other hand, while the currencies which the candidates received were of Latin origin, or sometimes Celtic.

It was often repeated wrongly that the writer Sir Edward Bulwer-Lytton, author of Zanoni or the wisdom of the Rosicrucian brotherhood , was the Grand Master and that it established Eliphas Lévi there. Actually, Sir Bulwer Lytton forever played any part in the SRIA. In July 1870, Bulwer Lytton had been named Big boss of the SRIA, i.e. Honorary president, without it being informed. Informed only fine 1872 qu ' one had granted this high dignity to him, it immediately wrote a letter of protest and refusal with John Yarker, one of the officers of the company.

In 1888, William Wynn Westcott, directing SRIA, constituted the hermetic Ordre of the Golden delicious Dawn, helped of William R. Woodman and Samuel L. MacGregor Mathers.

The Dawn Golden delicious

In 1888, with London, is founded the, known one later under the name of (“hermetic Order of the gilded Paddle”) by the Dr. William Wynn Wescott and Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers, both members of S.R.I.A. since 1880 and 1882 respectively.

Under the impulse of Mathers developed within the Order a “interior circle” rosicrucian, the “Order of the Cross of Gold and of the Pink Rubis”, whose members practiced the Théurgie and who had a considerable influence on the modern thought rosicrucian. Indeed, certain numbers of celebrities felt attracted by the order in particular the occultist Aleister Crowley, the Irish poet William Butler Yeats and Bram Stoker, the author of Dracula .

Hostile with the operative magic, Arthur Edward Waite and its partisans make burst the Order of pieces in 1903 and found the Saint Order of the gilded Paddle. The Dawn Golden delicious traditional survives in the form of the Stella Matutina.

The Kabbalistique Order of the Rosicrucian brotherhood

Founded in 1888, in France, to Stanislas de Guaita and Joséphin Péladan, the Kabbalistique Order of the Rosicrucian brotherhood counted, among its members Papus, Erik Satie (which composed for the Order its Sonnerie of the Rosicrucian brotherhood ), Claude Debussy or Paul Sédir. The Kabbalistique Order of the Rosicrucian brotherhood taught the Kabbale and the occultism within a free university. The Order decreed ranks of “graduate in cabal”, “laid off in cabal” and “doctor” during written and oral examinations. According to Jean-Fançois Bayard, the goal was “simultaneously to take an action occult in order to preserve civilization Judeo-Christian and an action diffusing in the middle of a public of laymen but curious about occult sciences”. The episode of the “occult” war of these rosicrucians with the monk défroqué Joseph-Antoine Boullan, considered black magus and exorcist, fed the fashionable chronicles of the time and was the occasion of proclamations and anathemas thrown by interposed newspapers. Pretexting a refusal of the operative magic, Péladan separates from the group in 1891 to found the Ordre of the Rosicrucian brotherhood Catholique and esthetic of the Temple and Graal. This order will be at the origin of the “Living rooms of the Rosicrucian brotherhood” which knew a great frequentation.

According to Christian Rebisse, writer and member of the AMORC, Joséphin Péladan were initiated with the rosicrucianism by his brother Adrien (1844-1885), one of the first French homeopaths. This last would have been received by one member of the last branch of the order, that of Toulouse . To this Toulouse branch of the Rosicrucian brotherhood would have also belonged the Viscount Edouard de Lapasse (1792-1867), a former diplomat and doctor Toulouse alchemist.

Others

The Ordo Templi Orientis, sometimes noted O.T.O., was a German secret society. It was rested by the freemason Viennese Karl Kellner. After its death, Theodor Reuss, in addition member of the S.R.I.A., took the direction of it. In its contents, the O.T.O mixed with the influences of Soufisme and Tantrisme. The rites were those of Memphis Misraïm. According to Reuss, the order had its roots in the Rosicrucian brotherhood but its origin in the Ordre of the Temple.

The companies contemporary rosicrucians

Today still, of many movements - sometimes of international scale - and of many people claim heritage rosicrucian. These movements only are not very briefly mentioned and are described here in the alphabetical order, with a reference towards a detailed article each time there exists.

The Old one and Mystical Order of Rosicrucian brotherhood (AMORC)

Following his initiation in Toulouse on August 12th, 1909, the doctor Harvey Spencer Lewis founds the Old one and Mystical Order of the Rosicrucian brotherhood or AMORC on April 1st, 1915 with the the United States.

For the AMORC, the character of Christian Rosicrucian brotherhood, or Christian Rosenkreutz, is an allegory. Indeed, the Order would have been created, not by a bearing initiate this reference symbol but by an initiatory company of Mysteries organized by the Pharaon Thoutmôsis III. This Pharaon would have gathered the schools of existing mysteries within the same entity, there is: 3500 years.

The AMORC published in 2001, which it defines as being a “fourth proclamation rosicrucian”

The Brotherhood of Crotona of the Order rosicrucian

The Brotherhood of Crotona of the Order rosicrucian (), sometimes noted CCOR, was founded by George Alexander Sullivan in 1924. Some regard it as being the continuation of the Ordre of the Twelve , esoteric company directed by Sullivan in the years 1911-1914 then, again, in the years 1920.

The School of the Rosicrucian brotherhood d' Or (Lectorium Rosicrucianum)

See also: School of the Rosicrucian brotherhood d' Or

The founders of the current Rosicrucian brotherhood d' Or make go up its birth at August 24th, 1924, i.e. when they conceived the project of it. The name of “Rosicrucian brotherhood d' Or” would take as a starting point a fraternity rosicrucian having existed in Germany at the 18th century. Nowadays, this Christian initiatory fraternity, which refers to the Gnose and the Pyrenean Catharisme, took in 1945 the name of Lectorium-Rosicrucianum .

Rosicrucian Fellowship

Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia (SRIA)

Founded in 1867 this company exists always at present. It is defined from now on itself on its Web site as a company of which the “goal is the mutual assistance and the encouragement in research on the major problems of the life and the discovery of the secrecies of nature, the study of the system of philosophy based on the Cabal and the doctrines of Hermes Trismégiste by the Brothers of the Rosicrucian brotherhood of Germany in 1450 (sic) and the study of the significance and of the symbolism of all that remains today of wisdom, the art and the literature of the Old world”.

Controversies on the sectarian drifts of certain associations rosicrucians

Several organizations claiming itself of the Rosicrucian brotherhood were suspectées of sectarian drifts by the French authorities.

Alliance Rose Cross, the Lectorium Rosicrucianum and AMORC are mentioned, for various reasons, in the reports/ratios of the Parliamentary commission on the sects in France of 1995 (general report/ratio) and 1999 (sects and money). Nevertheless, the reports/ratios returned by these parliamentary boards of inquiry constitute only one data element and of proposal, they do not have a legal authenticity and personalities external with quoted associations disputed this classification. For more details, to see the dedicated articles.

Theses and concepts rosicrucians

Is Rosicrucian or Rosicrucian brotherhood, which the difference?

For the contemporary rosicrucians, the state of “Rosicrucian brotherhood” would indicate that which reached the ultimate state of spiritual and moral perfection (sometimes called state “christic”), while rosicrucian designates the initiate who seeks to reach the state of illumination of the “Rosicrucian brotherhood”. According to these same rosicrucians, the answer to the question of the nature of the true Rosicrucian brotherhood can come only from the interior experiment of chacun.
According to max Heindel: “the Brothers of the Rosicrucian brotherhood are among these miséricordieuses hearts and it is nothing less than one sacrilege which to trail this name of Rosicrucian brotherhood by applying it to ourselves, whereas we do nothing but study their sublimes lesson. ”
According to Jan van Rijckenborgh, the Rose Croix is resulting “from the hierarchy of Christ (Logos) the members of this Fraternity of the Rosicrucian brotherhood acts and makes known herself in an anonymous way. ”

For its part, Rene Guénon, challenging the claims of the modern organizations rosicrucians (that it describes as “pseudo-initiatory”) to maintain any report/ratio authentic filiation with “Rosicrucian brotherhood truths”, writes that the latter would be initiates with the Christian esotericism who would have undertaken to reorganize, “of agreement in that with the initiates with the Islamic esotericism”, after the destruction of the Ordre of the Temple. They “would not have never constituted an organization with defined forms”, and would have left Europe at the XVIIe century, following the conclusion of the Traité of Westphalia the quality of " Rose-Croix" the realization of a particular initiatory state would indicate on their premises, namely the access to “what one can call the perfection of the human state”. The term of Rosicrucien would be applied to “any candidate with the state of Rosicrucian brotherhood, with some degree that he arrived indeed”, in the condition which he integrated an organization authentically initiatory.

The academic Umberto Eco notices that, for the rosicrucians, to declare Rosicrucian brotherhood is the proof that one is not it, and that returns, by definition, the inexistence of the Rosicrucian brotherhood indémontrable devote themselves above all to alchemy known as “spiritual”, while being inspired particularly by the Noces Chymiques de Christian Rosenkreutz .

For this “spiritual alchemy”, the materia PRIMA is the human heart and the Athanor is consisted the physical body and the subtle bodies which maintain this last in life and ensure the bond with the heart, divine spark. The laboratory is the human existence during which the heart with the possibility of achieving its training to perfect itself, operating the Transmutation cheap Métal of its defects and its spiritual gold defects, in other words in the corresponding virtues and qualities.

This alchemy is however not reduced to a transformation of the personality of the Man. It highlights the relationship existing between God, the Homme and the Nature. The Connaissance of the “Book of Nature” is opposed to the design materialist of a “universe-machine” made up only of Atome S. Ainsi to be born with the Harmonie between the Man and the Universe, philosophy rosicrucian studies the relations between the Ciel and the Ground. It makes of the man a Microcosme image and the summary of the Universe, or Macrocosme. The meeting between these two dimensions symbolized by the Croix having the Rose in her center is the place of alchemy, the athanor.

The symbolism of the pink and the cross

This traditional symbol at the XVIIe century was taken again by AMORC in the form of a gold cross having in its center only one pink red: the cross would represent the physical body, and the pink the heart in upward path, as the flower opens slowly with the light. It would indicate a spiritual state symbolically to reach, and the result of the search of a knowledge of a cosmological nature in connection with the Christian Hermétisme . This very modern vision of the symbol of the order could not limit the significance of it. For this reason it is interesting to recall that, according to Robert Fludd, the symbol of the order would be a red rose on a Red Cross ( Summum Bonum , 1629). Falling under the line of the Manifest rosicrucians of the XVIIe century, Robert Fludd locates this symbolic system in Christianity by adding that “the Rosicrucian brotherhood are called brothers because they all are sons of God and that the pink is the blood of Christ, that, without the internal and mystical cross, there is neither abnegation, nor illumination”.

The companies rosicrucians last and present declined the symbolism of the pink and the various crosses manières : the Kabbalistique Order of the Rosicrucian brotherhood of Stanislas de Guaita and Joséphin Péladan had as a symbol a cross inspired of the Maltese cross decorated of a Pentagramme and of four pinks, the Rosicrucian Fellowship has as a symbol a cross decorated with a crown of pinks, etc

The Rosicrucian brotherhood d' Or indicates the pink opened out as being the symbol of the divine perfection of the heart, materialized by gold. The gold cross represents the body of the transfigured man. This school evokes a way, lived through three pinks, that is to say three phases of transformation :

the white pink represents the purification.
the red rose evokes the blood of the Love spread for all, by the Service with others.
the pink of gold is the achievement, the rehabilitation of the Body, the divine spark (the Heart) and of the Spirit in the divine original harmony.

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