Rosicrucian

History and
Mysteries
by
Christian Rebisse

Originally published as Rose-Croix histoire et mystres.

Translation from the French by Richard Majka.
2005 Supreme Grand Lodge Of The Ancient and Mystical
Order Rosae Crucis. All Rights Reserved.
This publication is for your personal, private use only, and may not
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We would like . . . all human beings, together or individually, young or old,

rich or poor, noblemen or commoners, men or women, to be fully educated and to
become accomplished beings. We would also like them to be educated and
informed completely, not only on such or such a point, but also on all that will
allow them to achieve their essence integrally, to yearn to know the truth, not to
be deceived by pretense, to love good and not to be seduced by evil, to do what
should be done and to keep from What should be avoided, to speak wisely (and
not to remain silent) about everything with everyone when it is necessary; lastly, to
always treat things, men, and God with prudence and not lightly, and to never
stray from their goal: happiness.
Comenius, 17th-century Rosicrucian

CONTENTS
Illustrations
Chronology
Introduction
1. Egypt and the Primordial Tradition
The Primordial Tradition The Greeks and Egypt ThotHermes Alexandria The Corpus Hermeticum Pax
Romana Alchemy, Magic, and Astrology Neoplatonism
The Christians Before Hermes The Sabaeans IdrisHermes The Emerald Tablet Arab Alchemy Magic and
Astrology Eastern Theosophy
2. Hermeticism and the Philosophia Perennis
Islam in Spain Alchemy in Spain The Picatrix The
Qabalah Astrology The Expulsion of the Jews The
Academy of Florence Philosophia Perennis Natural
Magic Angelic Magic The Voarehadumia De Verbo
Mirifico Harmony of the World Occult Philosophy
Giordano Bruno Alchemy and Nature Paracelsus The
Death of Hermes
3. The Crisis of the European Consciousness
The Infinite Universe The Catalogues of the World
Human Anatomy Revealed The Reformation The
Revolts The Counter-Reformation The Wars of Religion
6

 The Imitation of Christ The Mystic Wedding

4. The Naometria and the Age of the Holy Spirit
Simon Studion The Age of the Holy Spirit The
Naometria Nova The Third Elijah The Lion of the
Septentrion
5. The Echoes of the Rose Cross
The Advertisements from Parnassus Apollos Reform
The Fama Fraternitatis Arabia Felix Fez, City of Gold
The House of the Holy Spirit The Tomb of Christian
Rosenkreuz Paracelsus and Rosenkreuz Adam
Haselmayer Hermes and Rosenkreuz
6. The Confessio Fraternitatis
The Monad The Confessio Fraternitatis Millennialism
The Liber Mundi The Bible Alchemy and Reforms The
Fortress of Truth The Sources The Tbingen Circle
Johann Arndt Tobias Hess Johann Valentin Andreae
An Initiatic Narrative
7. The Emerald Land
The Spiritual Filiation The Imaginal World True
Imagination Initiatic Narratives Perfect Nature The
Old Sage The Friends of God The Green Island The
Fravartis Spiritual Knighthood The Ages of the World
The Paraclete Hierohistory
8. The Chymical Wedding

Johann Valentin Andreae The Story A Baroque Opera

Inner Alchemy The Spiritual Wedding The Castle of the
Soul The Seven Stages Knight of the Golden Stone
9. The Rose in Bloom
Michael Maier Robert Fludd Johannes Kepler
Frederick V The Defenestration of Prague White
Mountain
10. The Philosophers and the Rose-Croix
Ren Descartes The Three Dreams The Placards in Paris
Polybius the Cosmopolitan Holland The Alchemical
Temptation England The Faerie Queen Francis Bacon
The Theosophists Novum Organum The Bee New
Atlantis The Royal Society Comenius The Pansophy
The College of Light
11. Rosicrucianism and Freemasonry
Rosicrucians and Freemasons Brother I.O. Andersons
Constitution Hiram and Rosenkreuz The Egyptian
Mysteries The Noachite Religion The Golden and Rosy
Cross The Golden Fleece The Golden Rosy Cross of the
Ancient System The Essenes and Templars Initiated
Knights and Brothers of Asia The Rose-Croix Degree
Spiritual Knighthood The Enlightenment and Illuminism
12. Magnetism and Egyptosophy
The Enlightenment Sensationalism Man as Machine
Magnetism The Society of Harmony Art and Egypt
8

The African Architects Primitive Religion Cagliostro

The Condemnation of Magnetism Somnambulism The
Pyramid of the Tuileries Napoleon and Egypt The
Friends of the Desert The Memphis Rite The Rosetta
Stone The Society of Magnetism Between Science and
Tradition The Society of Spiritualistic Magnetizers of Paris
The Church and Magnetism Jesus the Essene
13. In Search of the Psyche
Hypnosis Spiritualism Allan Kardec Zanoni The
S.R.I.A. Helena Petrovna Blavatsky An Adventure
Among the Rosicrucians The H.B. of L. Psychic
Researches
14. The Rose Garden of the Magi
Monte Verit The Templars of the Orient The Golden
Dawn Josphin Pladan The Rosicrucians of Toulouse
The Kabbalistic Order of the Rose-Croix The Rose-Croix
of the Temple and the Grail The Magic of Art
Symbolism The Magnificents The Rosicrucian Salons
The Confraternity of the Rose Window Count Falkenstein
15. The First Rosicrucians of America
The First Rosicrucians of America 144 Pietism
Boehmism and the Qabalah Millennialism The
Philadelphian Society and English Millennialism The
Departure for America
16. Harvey Spencer Lewis
9

The Mystic Awakening New Thought The Kybalion

The New York Institute for Psychical Research
17. The Journey to the East
The Orient The Manhattan Mystic Circle Egypt The
New Ontology A Mystical Experience The Journey to
France Toulouse, the Rose-Red City The Initiation The
Secret of the Origins
18. The Ancient and Mystical Order Rosae Crucis
The Philomathic Society The Martinist Project The Visit
of an Old Lady The Birth of AMORC The First
Rosicrucian Lodge An Alchemical Demonstration H.
Spencer Lewis, Freemason The First Rosicrucian
Convention
19. International Alliances
Theodor Reuss and the O.T.O. The TAWUC The
Rosicrucians of France The Journey to France in 1926
Andr Lebey and the League of Nations A Reception at
the Grand Orient in Paris The Beginnings of
Rosicrucianism in France Nicholas Roerich and the World
Council The Polaires The FUDOSI The Triangle of the
FUDOSI
20. The Contemporary Era
The Teachings of AMORC AMORC in the World The
Fourth Rosicrucian Manifesto Conclusion Notes Thematic
Bibliography Index of Personal Names viii Illustrations
10

Conclusion
Notes
Thematic Bibliography
Index of Personal Names

11

ILLUSTRATIONS
1. Michael Maier, Symbola aureae mensae duodecim nationum,
1617.
2. Tabula Smaragdina Hermetis
3. Apollonius de Tyana, from Jacques Boissard, De Divinatione et
magicis, 1605.
4. Oswald Croll, Basilica Chymica, 1609.
5. Cornelius Heinrich Agrippa.
6. Cornelius Heinrich Agrippa, De Occulta Philosophia, 1510.
7. Portrait of Paracelsus by Augustin Hirschvogel, 1540
8. Valentin Weigel, Studium universale, 1695
9. Galileo, Dialogue Concerning the Two Principal Systems of the
Universe , 1635
10. Otto Brunfels, Herbarum vivae eicones ad naturae imitationem,
1541
11. Henry IV of France.
12. Simon Studion, Naometria, drawing by Jakob Lederlin.
13. Simon Studion
14. Detail from Simon Studion, Naometria, drawing by Jakob
Lederlin.
15. Fama Fraternitatis, first Rosicrucian manifesto, 1614
12

16. Heinrich Khunrath, Amphitheatrum Sapientiae Aeternae, 1603

17. The Rose Cross, from the 1614 edition of the Fama
Fraternitatis
18. John Dee, Monas Hieroglyphica, 1564
19. Theophilus Schweighardt (Daniel Mgling), Speculum
Sophicum Rhodo-Stauricum, 1618.
20. Stephan Michelspacher, Cabala speculum artis et Naturae in
Alchymia, 1616.
21. Qaf, the Cosmic Mountain
22. Heinrich Khunrath, Amphitheatrum Sapientiae Aeternae, The
Emerald Tablet, 1603.
23. Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum, text edited and annotated by
Elias Ashmole, 1652.
24. Johann Valentin Andreae, Chymical Wedding of Christian
Rosenkreuz, 1616.
25. Martin Luthers emblem.
26. Johann Valentin Andreae
27. Inscriptions and cryptogram shown on the fountain of the
Chymical Wedding (fourth day)
28. Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreuz, drawing by Hans
Wildermann, 1923
29. The alchemical flask of the royal wedding, from Pandora,
1582.
30. Joachim Frizius, Summum Bonum, 1629
13

31. Michael Maier.

32. Robert Fludd.
33. Robert Fludd, Utriusque Cosmi, 1617
34. Frederick V and Elizabeth at their coronation
35. Frontispiece from Novum Organum by Francis Bacon.
36. Ren Descartes.
37. Gabriel Naud, Instruction la France sur la vrit de lhistoire des
Frres de la Roze-Croix, 1623.
38. Dutch edition of the Fama Fraternitatis
39. J.S. Torrentius.
40. Francis Bacon
41. Detail from the frontispiece of New Atlantis, 1627.
42. Frontispiece from History of the Royal Society by Thomas Sprat,
1667. Drawing by John Evelyn.
43. Comenius by Max Svabinsky.
44. May violence subside from things and may everything
flow from itself Comenius emblem.
45. Rosicrucian manuscript of the 18th century
46. Elias Ashmole
47. Reception of the Masters Degree
48. Illustration from an 18th century Rosicrucian ritual
49. Lodge room in the Rosicrucian Sovereign Prince Degree.
50. Masonic Jewel of the Rose-Croix.
14

51. Detail from A Key to Magic and the Occult Sciences by E. Sibley,
c. 1800.
52. Mesmers tub
53. Drawing from Diffrentes manires dorner les chemines,
1769.
54. Scenery from the Magic Flute
55. Fountain of Regeneration, detail of a drawing by Monnet,
1797
56. Diagram of a pyramid of the Friends of the Desert
57. The French consul general in Egypt
58. The Scales of Health from Hector Durvilles The Theory and
Practice of Human Magnetism, 1900.
59. Allan Kardec
60. Levitation experiment with the medium Eusapia Palladino,
1909
61. Zanoni, drawing by Robert Lanz
62. Franz Hartmann.
63. Cover of the official catalogue of the Rosicrucian Salon,
1893
64. Symbol of the Ordo Rosae Rubeae et Aureae Crucis, by
Samuel Mathers, c. 1887-1888
65. Josphin Pladan
66. Symbol of the Kabbalistic Order of the Rose-Croix
15

67. The Kabbalistic Order of the Rose-Croix

68. Seal of the Grail, drawing hy Franois Merintier for the
Rosicrucian Salon of 1893
69. Pietist college, 17th century German engraving.
70. Rosicrucian documents photographed by Julius Friedrich
Sachse for his book The German Pietists of Provincial Pennsylvania
1694-1708
71. Johannes Kelpius, drawing by Christopher Witt, The Original
Canvass.
72. Ephrata Community at Cocalico Creek
73. Harvey Spencer Lewis
74. The Metropolitan Temple of New York.
75. Phineas Parkhurst Quimby.
76. New York Sunday World, January 1907
77. May Banks-Stacey
78. The Future, February 1908
79. Clovis Lassalle.
80. Drawing by Harvey Spencer Lewis representing the place
of his intiation
81. Letter written by Harvey Spencer Lewis to his wife on
August 13, 1909, the day after his initiation.
82. AMORCs foundation charter of April 1, 1915
83. American Philomathic Journal, October 1912
16

84. American Pronunziamento Number One, February 1915

85. The New York Lodge.
86. Alfred E. Saunders.
87. Letter from Sr Hieronymus (mile Dantinne) to Harvey
Spencer Lewis.
88. Charter granted to the Grand Lodge of Denmark in 1920.
89. Theodor Reuss.
90. Excerpts from a letter written by Camille Savoire to Harvey
Spencer Lewis on July 12, 1928.
91. Harvey Spencer Lewis.
92. Ralph Maxwell Lewis
93. A Rosicrucian temple
94. One of AMORCs official symbols
95. Positio Fraternitatis Rosae Crucis.

17

CHRONOLOGY
This table brings together the important dates in the history of
Western esotericism, as well as those dates concerning the
emergence of various movements that are associated, rightly or
wrongly, with Rosicrucianism.
100 B.C.
Beginning of Greco-Egyptian alchemy, of which Bolos of Mendes is
one of the most important representatives.
A.D. 140
Claudius Ptolemy, an Alexandrian Greek, writes the Tetrabiblos, a
treatise which codifies the principles of astrology. First Latin
translation in 1535, by Joachim Camerarius.
260
Iamblicus, a Neo-Platonist, is initiated into the Chaldean and
Egyptian rites, writes The Mysteries of Egypt.
383
Emperor Theodosius promulgates an edict against non-Christian
cults, resulting in the end of the Egyptian religion, but the temple of
Isis at Philae is not closed until the middle of the 6th century.

18

500
6th century: Appearance of the Secret Book of Creation by Balinus;
reference to the Emerald Tablet and to Hermes Trismegistus.
1000
End of 11th century: Translation of Sefer ha Bahir (Book of
Splendor), one of the first books concerning the Qabalah in Spain.
1100 12th century: Introduction of alchemy and the dawning of
astrology and magic in the West by way of Spain, due to the
translations of Arab texts.
1200
Moses ben Shern Tov of Leon writes the Zohar.
1471
Marsilio Ficino publishes his translation of the Corpus Hermeticum,
before translating Plato.
1494
Johannes Reuchlin publishes De Verbo mirifico, a key work of the
Christian Qabalah and the first European work completely devoted
to the Qabalah.
1510
Cornelius Heinrich Agrippa publishes The Occult Philosophy (151019

1530).
1558
Publication of the Zohar at Mantua, then in Cremona in 1560.
1564
John Dee publishes the Monas Hieroglyphica.
1589
Johann Huser publishes the Complete Works of Paracelsus in Basel
(15891591). A second edition is issued in 1603. 1602 Lazarus
Zetzner published the Theatrum Chemicum, a true encyclopedia of
alchemy in six volumes.
1604
Simon Studion completes the Naometria Nova.
1608
The Tbingen Circle is constituted into a societas including Tobias
Hess, Abraham Hzl, the pastor Vischer, and Johann Valentin
Andreae.
1610
The manuscript of the Fama Fraternitatis (first Rosicrucian
manifesto) circulates in the Tyrol. 1611 The first printed reference
20

to the Rosicrucians in a text by Adam Haselmeyer, Apologia contra

Hippolyte Guarinoni.
1614
Isaac Casaubon proves that the Corpus Hermeticum is not of
Egyptian origin.
1614
Publication of the Fama Fraternitatis in Kassel (first Rosicrucian
manifesto).
1615
Publication of the Confessio Fraternitatis in Kassel (second
Rosicrucian manifesto).
1616
Publication of the Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreuz (third
Rosicrucian manifesto).
1616
Robert Fludd publishes Apologia Compendiaria Fraternitatem de
Rosea Cruce suspicionis et infamiae maculis aspersam veritatis quasi
Flucibus abluens et abstergens; beginning of the controversies
between the philosophers over Rosicrucianism.

21

1623
Appearance of the Rosicrucian placards in Paris: We, Deputies of
the principal College of the Brothers of the Rose Cross . . . .
1623
Gabriel Naud publishes Instruction la France sur la vrit de
lhistoire des Frres de la Roze-Croix.
1630
Petrus Mormius, in Arcana totius naturae secretissima, nec hactenus
unquam detecta, a collegio Rosiano in lucemp produntur, mentions
the Golden Rosicrucians.
1638
First reference to the relationship between Rosicrucianism and
Masonry in a poem published in Edinburgh by Perth.
1641
John Comenius publishes The Way of the Light, where the subject
matter of the Rosicrucian manifestos is discussed openly.
1694
German Pietists led by Johannes Kelpius depart for America aboard
the Sarah Maria.

22

1710
Sincerus Renatus publishes Die wahrhafte und volkommene
Bereitung des philosophischen Steins der Brderschafft aus dem
Orden des Gulden und Rosen Kreutzes. . . with an appendix of the
laws and rules under which the fraternity operated.
1717
Founding of the Grand Lodge of London and that of Westminster;
beginning of Freemasonry.
1723
Publication of Andersons Constitution.
1736
First edition of Ramsays Discourse (beginning of the Scottish rite).
1757
First documentation of the existence of the Chevalier Rose-Croix
degree (Enfans de la Sagesseet Concorde Lodge).
1777
Johann Rudolf von Bischoffswerder and Johann Christophe Wlner
reform the Golden Rose Cross of the Ancient System (references to
alchemy, Egypt, and the Essenes).

23

1783
Franz Anton Mesmer founds the Harmony Society.
1784
Alessandro Cagliostro inaugurates in Lyons La Sagesse triumphante
(Egyptian Masonry).
1784
Convention of the Philalethes in Paris (1784-1787).
1785
Publication of the Secret Symbols of the Rosicrucian of the 16th and
17th Centuries (first part) in Altona; it is the most important
Rosicrucian text after the manifestos.
1806
Alexandre Du Mge creates in Toulouse an Egyptian rite, that of the
Friends of the Desert.
1814
The Bdarrides brothers create the Rite of Mizraim (Egyptian
Masonry) (1814-1856).
1838
Jean-tienne Marconis de Ngre, breaking away from the Mizraim,
24

founds the Memphis rite (Egyptian Masonry). The two rites are
united in 1881 by Giuseppe Garibaldi.
1842
Sir Edward Bulwer-Lytton publishes Zanoni, a Rosicrucian initiatic
novel.
1847
Experiences of the Fox sisters in Hydesville, New York, marking the
beginnings of spiritualism in the United States.
1856
Allan Kardec publishes Le Livre des esprits, a textbook of
spiritualism.
1856
liphas Lvi publishes Dogme et ritual de la haute magie; beginning
of occultism.
1861
P. Beverly Randolph founds the Fraternitas Rosae Crucis.
1866
Robert Wentworth Little founds the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia
(S.R.I.A.)
25

1866
Expansion of New Thought by the followers of Phineas Parkhurst
Quimby.
1868
P. Beverly Randolph founds the Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor
(H.B. of L.) (1864-1874).
1875
Mrs. Mary Baker Eddy publishes Science and Health, with Key to
the Scriptures, the classic of Christian Science.
1875
Foundation of the Theosophical Society by Henry Steel Olcott and
Helena Petrovna Blavatsky. 1878
1878
Firmin Boissin initiates Adrien Pladan into the Rose-Croix of
Toulouse.
1882
Creation of the Society for Psychical Research in London.
1887
Stanislas de Guaita and Josphin Pladan found the Kabbalistical
26

Order of the Rose Cross.

1887
S.L. Mathers, W.W. Westcott, and W.R. Woodman found the
Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn (1887-1888).
1888
Franz Hartman, secretary to Helena Blavatsky, founds the Esoteric
Rose-Croix.
1889
Papus launches LInitiation, a magazine that is an organ of the
Martinist Order.
1891
Josphin Pladan separates from the Kabbalistic Order of the RoseCroix to create the Order of the Catholic Rosicrucians of the
Temple and Grail.
1892
First show of the Rosicrucian Salons in Paris.
1909
Harvey Spencer Lewis is initiated in to the Rosicrucian Order in
Toulouse.
27

1909
The theosopher Carl Louis von Grasshoff (Max Heindel) founds the
Rosicrucian Fellowship.
1912
Foundation in London of the Order of the Temple of the Rosy
Cross by Annie Besant, Marie Russak, and H. Wedgwood.
1913
Rudolf Steiner breaks with the Theosophical Society and founds the
Anthroposophical Society.
1915
Foundation of AMORC (Ancient and Mystical Order of the Rose
Cross) by Harvey Spencer Lewis.
1915
Arthur Edward Waite founds the Fellowship of the Rosy Cross.
1915
Creation of the Order of the Lily and Eagle (Rose-Croix of the
Orient) by Demetrius Platon Semelas and Maria Routchine.
1919
Jan Leene (Jan Van Rijckenborg ), one of the directors of the
28

Rosicrucian association of Max Heindel, founds the Aquarius Bond,

then the Order of Manicheans, which later becomes the Lectorum
Rosicrucianum and the Golden Rose Cross.
1920
Creation of the Collegium Pansophicum in Berlin by Heinrich
Tranker.
1923
mile Dantinne founds the Rose-Croix universitaire.
1929
Jean Mallinger, tienne Dantinne, and Lon Lelarge develop the
Ordre Hermtiste ttramgiste.
1930
Zam Bhotiva (Cesare Accomani) launches the movement of the
Polaires.
1934
mile Dantinne, Victor Blanchard, and Harvey Spencer Lewis
found in Brussels the FUDOSI (Universal Federation of the
Sovereign and Initiatic Orders).
1940
29

Decree of the Vichy government dissolving and forbidding

associations of a secret nature (August 13).
1949
Official debut of AMORCs activities in France under the direction
of Jeanne Guesdon (reactivation of activities after World War II).
2001
Publication of the Positio Fraternitatis Rosae Crucis (fourth
Rosicrucian manifesto).

30

INTRODUCTION

NE OF THE Western worlds most enigmatic initiatory

societies is the Rosicrucian Order. Goethe once asked,
Who then has wedded the rose to the cross? Indeed,
the Orders symbol unites two elements of opposing essence: the
cross, whose four branches recall the four cardinal points,
symbolizes the material world, whereas the rose, whose subtle
perfume represents the unknowable aspect of things, represents the
soul. The Rose Cross thus represents the mystery of the conjunction
of contraries, the marriage of body and soul.
Yet the Rose Cross is not only a symbol relating to human
evolution; it also concerns the whole of Creation. During the 17th
century, the golden age of Rosicrucianism, people readily perceived
in the wedding of the rose and cross the process by which humans
help nature to find its own regeneration. This is undoubtedly what
Josphin Pladan wanted to express in the motto appearing on the
cover of one of his books: Ad rosam per crucem, ad crucem per rosam, in
ea, in eis gemmatus resurgam. To the rose by way of the cross, to the
cross by way of the rose, in it [the rose], in them [the rose and
cross], I emerge once more as a precious stone. Through the
marriage of the rose and crossof human beings and creationthe
Divine reveals itself in increasingly brilliant splendor. These few
elements help us to understand the attraction that the Rose Cross
symbol has exerted for centuries upon so many seekers who have
reflected upon the mysteries of God, humanity, and the universe.
31

It all began in 1614, with the publication of the Fama Fraternitatis, a

mysterious text revealing to Europe the existence of a Rosicrucian
fraternity. In the midst of an era torn apart by disturbing scientific
discoveries, bitter religious controversies, and devastating epidemics,
this text invited seekers to join a fraternity founded by Christian
Rosenkreuz. The Rosicrucians offered to divulge their fabulous
knowledge, whose virtues would allow a society in crisis to be
restored. This first manifesto was soon followed by a second, the
Confessio Fraternitatis, and then by a third, the Chymical Wedding of
Christian Rosenkreuz, published respectively in 1615 and 1616. The
three works enjoyed considerable success. They circulated
throughout Europe and sparked the publication of a phenomenal
quantity of books. Soon afterwards, in 1623, the Parisians marveled
over placards on the walls of their city announcing that the Brothers
of the Rose Cross were staying visible and invisible in the capital.
Who were these Rosicrucians who seemed to remain invisible and
unknowable? Where did they come from? Were they the ones
heralded centuries before by Joachim de Fiore as the founders of a
new religion, that of the age of the Holy Spirit, which Joachim
described as a time of bliss? Or did they embody Elias Artista, the
man who Paracelsus predicted would reveal to humanity all the
secrets of nature? What was this mysterious universal knowledge
that the Rose-Cross fraternity claimed to possess? These questions
preoccupied the speculations of numerous 17th century researchers,
philosophers, and scholars, including Ren Descartes, and Isaac
Newton.
32

For some people, the Rosicrucian Order was as old as the world;
for others, it arose in the age of pharaohs and later brought together
the heritage of the Pythagoreans, the Eleusinian mysteries, the Magi
of Persia, the Essenes, the Templars, and the order of the Golden
Fleece. Some saw in its emergence a Jesuit plot. A larger number felt
that the Order did not exist, and that it was simply a legend invented
in the 17th century by a group of intellectuals who were determined
to have their contemporaries reflect upon the general drift of
society. Finally, a few people thought that it was a fraternity
belonging to the invisible worlds, composed of Unknown
Superiors watching over the destiny of humanity.
Since the 17th century, many authors have pondered the history of
the Rosicrucians, with their books attesting to the complex mystery
surrounding Rosicrucian origins. Many, confusing legend with
history, have launched into unreasonable speculations. Others,
satisfied with what may be demonstrated by irrefutable documents,
sometimes overlook basic points, as they forget the importance and
value of the legendary in the very constitution of culture and,
thereby, of that which underlies historical events. For the last several
decades, university studies have shed some particularly interesting
light on some aspects of Rosicrucianism and have allowed us to
reconsider entirely a number of points of view expressed previously.
However, much remains to be done.
The present work does not claim to be exhaustive, but tries to
differentiate between legend and history, facts and mysteries. It
involves two basic objectives: 1) to have Rosicrucianism assume its
33

proper place in the history of Western esotericism so that it can be

better understood; and 2) to place within this panorama the
emergence of the Ancient and Mystical Order Rosae Crucis, known
throughout the world by the abbreviation A.M.O.R.C. The latter
constitutes not only the most important of the Rosicrucian orders,
but also one of the major initiatory movements of the modern era.
Thus, we wish to shed further light on its origins.
As the history of Rosicrucianism fits into that of Western
esotericism, it is important to emphasize what underlies this
concept. The adjective esoteric comes from the Greek word
esoterikos, which is derived from eso within and eis into. The word
literally means toward the interior and describes that which is not
directly accessible. It evokes the concept of moving toward the
center, the interior. Thus, esotericism is the knowledge of that which
relates to internal things, of which the intellect can touch upon only
to a certain extent. In short, it involves a gnosis, a knowledge that
leads to a transformation, a regeneration of the soul.
Furthermore, as shown by Antoine Faivre, esotericism constitutes
more a way of approaching matters rather than a body of defined
doctrines.2 Its fundamental elements, such as alchemy, magic,
astrology, Qabalah, magnetism, and various spiritual techniques with
which it is associated, are not readily apparent. It has been pieced
together slowly, has penetrated the West gradually, and has been
subjected to various influences. Our study will thus lead us to places
of its birthmythical and realand to those countries and times
through which it has traveled. Therefore, we will visit Egypt;
34

Greece; the Arab lands; Europe during the Middle Ages,

Renaissance, and Age of Enlightenment; France of the Belle
poque; and the New World. While on our journey, we will meet
such extraordinary individuals as Hermes Trismegistus, Marsilio
Ficino, Giordano Bruno, John Dee, Theophrastus Paracelsus, Franz
Anton Mesmer, Josphin Pladan, Harvey Spencer Lewisnot to
mention someone as unexpected as rik Satie. We will also come
across numerous initiatory organizations that have played a more or
less important role in Western esotericism or in the Rosicrucian
movement.
Finally, to guide those readers who wish to delve further into these
subjects, we have also included a thematic bibliography, a
chronology repeating the important dates in the history of
Rosicrucianism or esotericism, and an index of important people in
Rosicrucian history.
As you will note while reading this book, the roots of the Rose
Cross lie hidden in the mists of time, because its essence does not
relate to the order of material things. Thus, once we seem to reach
its roots, we are confronted with a mystery: that of the very genesis
of human beings and of Creation.

35

FIGURE 1. Michael Maier, Symbola aureae mensae duodecim nationum, 1617.

36

Chapter 1

EGYPT AND THE

PRIMORDIAL TRADITION

UESTIONS HAVE OFTEN arisen regarding the origins

of Rosicrucianism. Although a consensus of researchers
places its historical beginnings in the 17th century, we are
of the opinion that the genesis of this movement dates from much
farther back. Such was the belief of the German alchemist Michael
Maier. In his work Silentium Post Clamores (1617), he described
Rosicrucianism as having arisen from the Egyptians, the Brahmans,
the mysteries of Eleusis and Samothrace, the Magi of Persia, the
Pythagoreans, and the Arabs. Several years after the publication of
the Fama Fraternitatis (1614) and the Confessio Fraternitatis (1615),
Irenaeus Agnostus, in Clypeum veritatis (The Shield of Truth, 1618),
felt no hesitation in declaring Adam to be the first representative of
the Order. The Rosicrucian manifestos likewise made reference to
the same source: Our philosophy has nothing new in it; it
conforms to what Adam inherited after the Fall, and what Moses
and Solomon practiced.1

THE PRIMORDIAL TRADITION

Adam, Egypt, Persia, the Greek sages, and the Arabs were
37

conjured up for good reason by Michael Maier. He alluded to a

concept that was very wide-spread before the coming of
Rosicrucianism. This conceptthe Primordial Traditionfirst
appeared in the Renaissance,2 especially after the rediscovery of the
Corpus Hermeticum, a group of mysterious texts attributed to an
Egyptian priest, Hermes Trismegistus. From him, this idea of a
primordial revelation, of which Egypt was the cradle, would have
considerable repercussions.
Our intention is not to describe Egyptian esotericism in full, but
rather to indicate how this heritage was transmitted. The route
connecting Egypt to the West is long and offers a varied landscape.
We will not discuss all of its details, because this description would
occupy an entire volume. However, certain salient points will allow
us to understand Rosicrucian origins. While engaging in this
undertaking it is necessary to follow a trustworthy guide, and
Hermes appears to be the character most noted in the ancient
writings. Indeed, the history and myths relating to this individual are
particularly rich in information concerning our purpose at hand.
Since antiquity, Egypts civilization has been much admired. Its
mystery schools, which acted both as universities and monasteries,
were the guardians of its wisdom. These schools experienced a
distinctive flowering under the rule of Akhnaton (1353-1336 B.C.),
especially after he introduced the concept of monotheism. The
Egyptian religion is particularly intriguing because of its mysterious
cults. Although Hermes had some of his origins in Egypt, in the god
Thoth, he was primarily a Greek god. He was the son of Zeus and
38

of the nymph Maia. The Greeks considered him the god of

shepherds, thieves, merchants, and travelers. He was also the
inventor of astronomy, weights and measures, the musical scale, the
art of gymnastics, and the cultivation of olive trees. Most of all he
was the messenger of Zeus and the shepherd who guided the dead
toward the world of Hades. His attributes were a caduceus and
winged sandals.
In the Egyptian pantheon, Thoth enjoyed a special illustriousness.
He was shown as an ibis headed man or as a baboon (cf. the Book
of the Dead). Equipped with a palette, reed, and papyrus, he was
always ready to transcribe the words of Re. He was the very epitome
of a scribe; he was described as the inventor of hieroglyphs. Thoth
was the protector of scribes, the teacher of medicine, astronomy,
and the arts. He knew the secrets of magic; he was the initiator. On
the statue of Amenhotep, son of Hapu, a high official and favorite
of Amenhotep III (c. 1360 B.C.), it is written: . . . but into the
divine book, I have been initiated. Of Thoth, I have seen glory, and
among mystery, I introduced myself.
In a period as far distant as the Old Kingdom (2705-2180 B.C.),
Thoth was already described as the messenger of the gods, a
characteristic he preserved when passing into the Greek world in the
guise of Hermes. In his capacity of judge, he stood between Seth
and Horus. He was the protector of the eye of Horus.
In the Middle Kingdom (1987-1640 B.C.), he personified wisdom.
He was particularly honored in Hermopolis, and the priests of this
city attributed to him the Book of the Two Ways, a text which
39

described the voyage to the afterlife. The inscriptions found in the

sarcophagi of this period also mention a divine book of Thoth. At
the beginning of this period, Thoth appeared as the writer of sacred
writings, the all-knowing teacher, the one who knew the secret
magical rites. It is also reported that the sacred texts were found at
the foot of his statue. This symbolic theme is found much later in
the story describing the discovery of the tomb of Hermes
Trismegistus by Apollonius of Tyana. In the Book of the Dead,
Thoth plays the role of judge when weighing the heart of the
deceased.
In the New Kingdom (1540-1075 B.C.), Akhnaton (1353-1336
B.C.) abolished the ancient pantheon when instituting the cult of
Aton. Even so, Thoth preserved certain prerogatives during the
pharaohs reign. After the disappearance of the founder of Egyptian
monotheism, Thoth regained his qualities of all-knowing sage and
the teacher of secrets. During this period, writings of an occult
character became important. This is undoubtedly why H. Spencer
Lewis regarded Amosis, the pharaoh who introduced this period, as
being the organizer of the brotherhood of initiates that later gave
rise to the Rose Cross. Moreover, he thought Hermes was a sage
contemporary with Akhnaton. The occult knowledge of the
Egyptians was considered secret. It was transmitted by houses of
life, sometimes called mystery schools.
The opinions of the specialists are divided regarding the
importance of occultism and magic in the time of the pharaohs. Erik
Hornung, an Egyptologist at the University of Basel, feels that too
40

many historians have taken an overly positivist approach regarding

this matter. He declares that it is undeniable that at the beginning
of the New Kingdom, at the latest, a spiritual climate propitious to
the emergence of Hermetic wisdom dominated. Emphasizing the
important role of Jan Assmann, who concentrated on this subject
while studying the Rameside period, he added that at present there
prevail conditions much more favorable to the discovery of
Hermeticisms possible Egyptian roots.3
In the Late Kingdom (664-332 B.C.), Thoth was considered to be
the teacher of magic. A stele calls him twice great, and he is
presented sometimes as thrice (very) great, or even five times
great (cf. the Story of Setne). In the Ptolemaic period, the Greeks
and Romans were fascinated by Hermopolis and its cult of Thoth.
There developed at this time an original synthesis between the
Egyptian civilization and the Hellenistic culture.

THE GREEKS AND EGYPT

Considerable evidence relates to the relationships between the
sages of Greece and of Egypt. In the 5th century B.C. Herodotus
visited Egypt and conversed with the priests. In his history he
discusses the Osirian mysteries celebrated at Sais. For him, the
mysteries of Greece owed much to Egypt. Comparing the Greek
and Egyptian pantheons, he observed that certain divinities of his
country had their origins among the pharaohs.
There existed a strong tradition which claimed that the great sages
of ancient Greece obtained knowledge from their Egyptian teachers.
41

It was claimed that many among them were initiated into the
mysteries, thus assuring the transmission of Egyptian learning into
the Greek world. Among them Herodotus spoke only of Solon (c.
640-558). In Timaeus and the Critias Plato (427-347), who himself
had gone to Egypt and remained there three years, spoke of the
discussions that Solon had with the Egyptian priests. In The Republic,
he also emphasized the prestige of the Egyptian priests.
Furthermore, he mentioned Thoth in the Phaedrus. Isocrates, a
contemporary of Plato, made Egypt the source of philosophy and
indicated that Pythagoras went there to be instructed. Apollonius of
Rhodes (295-c. 230) claimed that Hermes, by way of his son
Aithalides, was the direct ancestor of Pythagoras.
Diodorus Siculus (80-20) provided the greatest amount of
information concerning the influence of Egypt upon the sages of
Greece. He based this partly upon what he had gathered in his
encounters with the Egyptian priests, and partly upon the Aegyptiaca,
a work by Hecataeus of Abdera.
Diodorus stated first of all that Orpheus traveled to Egypt and was
initiated into the Osirian mysteries. After returning to his homeland
around the 6th century B.C., he instituted new rites that were called
the Orphic mysteries. Diodorus also stated that rites observed in
Eleusis by the Athenians were similar to those of the Egyptians.
Plutarch (c. A .D. 50-c. 125) later remarked that the Orphic and
Bacchic mysteries were really of Egyptian and Pythagorean origin.
Diodorus also reported on the travels of Solon and of Thales of
Miletus (624-548 B.C.), who visited the priests and measured the
42

pyramids. Plutarch declared that Thales brought Egyptian geometry

back to Greece. Diodorus also claimed that Thales urged Pythagoras
to go to Egypt, and it was in this country that the latter conceived
the concept of the migration of souls. Iamblichus later added that
Pythagoras had studied in the Egyptian temples for twenty-two
years, and, after having received this training, he established his own
school in Crotona, Italy, and he taught what he had learned in the
Egyptian mystery schools. Finally, Diodorus reported that in the 5th
century Democritus (c. 460-370 B .C .), discoverer of the atom, was
taught by the geometers of the pharaoh, and then initiated in the
Egyptian temples.
One of Platos followers, Eudoxus of Cnidus (c. 405-355 B.C.), a
mathematician and geometer, also made the voyage to the land of
the Nile. While there, he was initiated on both the scientific and
spiritual levels. Pliny specified that he would report in his country
some important astronomical knowledge, as those which related to
the exact duration of the year (365 days). His hypothesis of
homocentric spheres constituted the point of departure of
traditional astronomy. Plutarch, a member of the sacerdotal college
of Apollo in Delphi, where he was high priest, also sought
knowledge along the banks of the Nile. While there, he was initiated
by Clea, a priestess of Isis and Osiris. In his book Isis and Osiris,
Plutarch spoke of the works called Books of Hermes and
emphasized the importance of Egyptian astrology. He also reported
that many authorities declared Isis to be the daughter of Hermes.

THOTH-HERMES
43

In drawing a parallel between Zoroaster and Moses, Diodorus

introduced a concept that would be in considerable vogue in the
Renaissance, where he spoke of a philosophia perennis transmitted by
way of the great sages from the beginnings of time. Beginning in the
2nd century B.C., the Greeks claimed that Thoth had for a son
Agathodemon, who himself had engendered a son named Hermes.
The latter, considered to be the second Hermes, was called
Trismegistusthat is, Thrice-greatest. Thus, in the 3rd century A .D
. the Greeks adopted Thoth, giving him the name of Hermes and
describing him as Trismegistus Thrice-greatest.
As Thoth was the teacher of speech and writing, it was natural that
the Greeks made him the father of Homer, their greatest poet. In
the 3rd century, Heliodorus indicated that Homer was the son of
Hermes and an Egyptian priests daughter. Eventually each era
added some detail, and little by little was forged the concept which
stated that Egypt was the source of wisdom and knowledge.

ALEXANDRIA
With the conquest of Egypt by Alexander the Great in 333 B.C.,
the assimilation of the Egyptian culture by the Greek world was
accelerated. The focus of this activity occurred in the city of
Alexandria, founded in 331 B.C.,where the waters of the Nile mixed
with those of the Mediterranean. A crossroads of Egyptian, Jewish,
Greek, and Christian cultures, it acted over the centuries as the
intellectual center of the eastern Mediterranean. Therapeutae,
Gnostics, and various other mystical movements developed around
44

this city. Its library, enriched by more than 50,000 volumes, gathered
together all of the knowledge of the era. Alexandria was also the
crucible where Greco-Egyptian alchemy flourished.
The city gave birth to a new science in the form of alchemy, a
continuation of ancient Egyptian practices that was transformed and
revived by Greek thought. Its originality consisted of offering a
concrete and universal discipline free from the grasp of religion.
Hermes Trismegistus, represented by Alexandrian alchemists as
being the founder of this art, became the new transmitter of the
ancient tradition. However, we should note that Alchemy already
existed in China and India. Among the Alexandrian alchemists,
Bolos of Mendes (100 B.C.) was a notable figure, often being
described as the founder of Greco-Egyptian alchemy.
In 30 B.C., Alexandria became the capital of the Roman province
of Egypt. The Romans assimilated the Greco-Egyptian Hermes with
Mercury, their god of commerce and travelers. Mercury-Hermes was
the messenger of the gods, the conductor or guide of souls. Rome
rapidly adopted Egypt and its cults.

THE CORPUS HERMETICUM

Three centuries before the Christian era, texts that are now called
the Hermeticabecause their authorship is attributed to Hermes
Trismegistusbegan to take shape. This literature expanded
considerably from the 1st century B.C., and in the Nile Delta region
the composition of the Hermetica continued until the 3rd century
A.D. Written in Greek, an Egyptian form of esotericism is quite
45

apparent. Clement of Alexandria (A.D. 150-220) spoke of the fortytwo books of Hermes which the Egyptians carried about in their
ceremonies. Iamblichus attributed 20,000 books to Hermes, whereas
Seleucus and Manethro mentioned about 36,525. The most
celebrated, written between the 1st and 3rd centuries, are the
seventeen tracts which were gathered together under the title of
Corpus Hermeticum.4 They are composed primarily of dialogues
between Hermes, his son Tat, and Asclepiu. The first of these
treatises, Poemandres, discusses the creation of the world.
The Asclepius is also an important text as it describes the religion of
the Egyptians and the magical rites they practiced for attracting
cosmic powers meant to animate the statues of the gods. Finally, the
fragments of Stobaeus constitute the third group of the Hermetica.
These are composed of thirty-nine texts and consist of dialogues
between Isis and Horus regarding the creation of the world and the
origin of souls. These texts, generally attributed to Hermes
Trismegistus, claim to be translated from the Egyptian. In truth,
they contain few authentic Egyptian elements. They are essentially
characterized by Greek philosophy, but also by Judaism and
Zoroastrianism. They do not compose a coherent whole and present
numerous doctrinal contradictions.

PAX ROMANA
Among the Greeks the influence of Egypt was felt primarily
through its literature, but among the Romans the influence took a
different twist. The latter were not content to travel to the land of
46

the pharaohs. In 30 B.C., after the suicide of Cleopatra and the

conquest of Egypt by Octavian, the country became a Roman
province. At the beginning of the 1st century A.D. the Romans
controlled the Nile valley. They embraced its culture, and the
emperor was compared to a pharaoh. The conquerors adopted
certain rites of the land they had taken, and the cult of Isis found a
home in Rome.
Rome adopted Egyptian architecture. Even now we can admire
one of the last remnants of this era, the pyramid of Caius Cestius.
Another, now vanished, was erected in the necropolis of the
Vatican. The city also bristled with numerous obelisks taken from
Karnak, Heliopolis, and Sais. Visitors to Rome may still admire
more than ten of them. The existence of an Isiac college is attested
around 80 B.C. By 105 B.C. a temple consecrated to the worship of
Isis was located in Pompeii. The Iseum in the Campus Martius,
which included a temple dedicated to Isis and Serapis, remained the
most important evidence of the presence of Egyptian cults among
the Romans. But the encounter of the two religions did not pass
smoothly, and Caesar barely favored the gods of Egypt. Virgil (7019 B.C.) and Horace (65-8 B.C.) described the battle of monstrous
divinities, as Anubis brandished his arms against Neptune, Venus,
and Minerva. Ovid (43-17/18 B.C.) saw things in a more flattering
light. The cult of Isis was tolerated in Rome, and Nero (37-66)
introduced some Isiac feast days in the Roman calendar. Marcus
Aurelius (161180) constructed a temple for the Egyptian Hermes.
In the 2nd century A.D. the Pax Romana established peace
47

throughout the Mediterranean world. In this era, we find a veritable

passion for past civilizations: the Hindus, Persians, Chaldeans, and
above all the Egyptians. Fascinated by Egyptian temples that were
still in operation, rich Romans flocked to the land of the pharaohs.
Apuleius, a Latin writer intrigued by the mysteries, also went there.
In The Golden Ass he described for us the Egyptian mysteries in his
colorful manner.

ALCHEMY, MAGIC, AND ASTROLOGY

Along with alchemy, magic and astrology assumed greater
importance. Claudius Ptolemy (c. 90168), a Greek living in
Alexandria, wrote the Tetrabiblos, a treatise that codified all the
principles of Greek astrology (with Egyptian and Chaldean
influences): signs, houses, aspects, elements. Ptolemy was not merely
an astrologer, he was also an astronomer to whom we owe
geocentrism and the theory of the epicycles which dominated
science until the 17th century. It was Ptolemy who transmitted
Greek astronomical knowledge to the West. Clement of Alexandria
(c. 150-213), a Greek church father, drew in his Stromateis a portrait
of the Egyptian astrologers of his time, who always had to be ready
to recite the four astrological books of Hermes.
Olympiodorus (5th or 6th century) presented alchemy as a
sacerdotal art practiced by the Egyptians. The Leiden and
Stockholm papyri (2nd century) depict the metallurgical procedures
as effectively being linked to magical formulas.5 In the 3rd century,
Zosimos of Panopolis settled down in Alexandria so as to dedicate
48

himself to alchemy. The first well-known alchemical author, he

bestowed upon this science his concepts and symbolism. But his
alchemical writings do not simply revolve around laboratory work;
they also discuss the transformations of the soul and entail a
mystical quest. Alchemy expanded so greatly in the 3rd century that
Emperor Diocletian, disturbed by a possible devaluation of precious
metals, promulgated an edict prohibiting the practice and
condemning alchemical texts to the flames.

NEOPLATONISM
Neoplatonists were considerably interested in Egypt. Iamblichus
(c. 240-c. 325), who was initiated into the Chaldean, Egyptian, and
Syrian rites, is an enigmatic individual. Some extraordinary powers
were attributed to the divine Iamblichus, the head of a
Neoplatonist school. While in prayer, his body was said to rise more
than ten cubits from the earth, and his skin and clothing were
bathed in a beautiful golden light. Egypt held a chosen spot in his
writings. In De Mysteriis (On the Egyptian Mysteries),6 Iamblichus
presented himself in the guise of Abammon, a master of the
Egyptian sacerdotal hierarchy and an interpreter of Hermetic
teachings. He also promoted theurgy and Egyptian divinatory
practices. A little later, another Neoplatonist, Proclus (412-485), also
strongly affected by theurgy, believed himself to be part of the
chain of Hermes. He had great influence on Sufism and on such
Christian thinkers as Johannes Scotus Erigena, Meister Eckhart, and
many others.
49

Nevertheless, this era saw Egypt fading away before an everexpanding Christianity. Alexandria played an important role in the
many controversies that marked the beginnings of this religion
newly imposed by Constantine. In the 3rd century, the Egyptians
abandoned hieroglyphs and adopted the Coptic script for
transcribing their language. The Copts adapted the secret knowledge
of the pharaohs to Christianity. Soon afterwards, Emperor
Theodosius promulgated an edict against non-Christian cults, thus
marking the end of the Egyptian clergy and their ceremonies.

THE CHRISTIANS BEFORE HERMES

Christianity, which began to gain in influence, was not unaware of
Hermes. In the middle of the 2nd century a kind of Christian
Hermes appeared in the pages of a book entitled The Shepherd, whose
author was said to be Hermas.7 It is a Roman work in which
Hermas, the messenger of penance and penitent, took the form of
a prophet. The Shepherd is an apocalyptic work in which all the
conventions of the genre are found. In the early Church Jesus is
often presented as a shepherd, a role that is also attributed to
Hermes. Yet in this instance it is not Jesus that Hermes designates,
but the angel of the penance. Considered for a long time to be an
integral part of the canonical scriptures, The Shepherd passed to the
status of apocryphal scripture at the beginning of the 4th century.
The Church fathers generally loved to delve into mythology so as
disclose the beginnings of the Gospel. Hermes Trismegistus
continued to garner respect among them. Lactantius (250-325), in
50

his Divinarum Institutionum (Divine Institutions), saw Christian truth

formulated before the advent of Christianity in the Corpus
Hermeticum. He placed Hermes Trismegistus in the first rank of
Gentile prophets who foresaw the coming of Christ. St. Augustine
(354-430), the Father of the Church, in his City of God, a
fundamental treatise of Christian theology, made Hermes a
descendent of God. He had read the Asclepius in the translation by
Apuleius of Madaura, but even though he admired Hermes
Trismegistus, he rejected the magic revealed in this work. Clement
of Alexandria liked to compare Hermes-Logos to the Christ-Logos.
Emperor Julian the Apostate (361-363), the nephew of
Constantine, attempted a brief return to the worship of the
mysteries. He enacted measures against Christians and restored
paganism. Influenced by Neoplatonism, he extolled ancient theurgy.
This return was brief, however, and by 387 the Christian patriarch
Theophilus undertook the destruction of the Egyptian temples with
the idea of transforming them into places of Christian worship.
Nonetheless, on the island of Philae an Egyptian temple continued
to function. It was not closed until 551, by order of Emperor
Justinian. It will be noted that the Egyptian temples remained active
between the 1st and 6th centuriesthat is, during the period which
covers the composition of the hermetica. It is often remarked that
these texts are pessimistic regarding the future of the Egyptian
religion, which leads us to think that they were written in an
Egyptian setting by a priestly class. Fragments from the Egyptian
wisdom may repose in the Hermetica, but they are expressed in an
51

indirect fashion, having been submitted to the process of

Hellenization.
Alexandria had been the starting point where Egyptian teachings
entered the Greek and Roman worlds. It was where the ancient
tradition was reformulated by way of alchemy, astrology, and magic.
This point of departure, after having scattered such wisdom into a
greater portion of the East, was already disappearing by the 6th
century, and the Arabs now took up the torch.

FIGURE 2. From the 17th century, this image, called Tabula Smaragdina Hermetis,
has been often associated with the text of the Emerald Tablet, as in Aureum Velleus
(1599) or Secret Symbols of the Rosicrucians of the 16th and 17th Centuries (1785). This
illustration is not, however, an adaptation of the text that it is supposed to
illustrate. The oldest version of this image seems to be that of K. Widemann, a
Paracelsian from Augsburg (1588-1589). Its first printed version is found in Aurei

52

Velleris Oder Der Gldin Schatz und Kunstkammer, Tractatus III, 1599, Rorschach. See
Joachim Telle, Lart symbolique paracelsien: remarques concernant une pseudoTabula Smaragdina du XVIe sicle and Antoine Faivre, Note sur la pseudoTabula Smaragdina et sur Le Secret des sages, in Les Cahiers de lHermtisme, Prsence
dHerms Trismgiste (Paris: Albin Michel, 1988) pp. 184-235.

THE SABAEANS
Alexandria was seized by the Arabs in 642, a date which marks an
end to this citys days of glory. However, the conquest of this city
was not the Arabs first encounter with esotericism. Rather, they had
been aware of Hermes long before this time. For example, they had
learned from the Sabaeans, inhabitants of the mythical kingdom of
Sheba, which was supposed to be a place of earthly paradise. In
ancient times it was also called Arabia Felix (Happy Arabia) and was
said to be the land of the phoenix. Centuries later Christian
Rosenkreuz was supposed to have visited the area so as to gather
together the marvelous knowledge deposited there. The Bible states
that the queen of this land, the queen of Sheba, visited King
Solomon. Although the location of her land was not specified in the
Old Testament, the Koran indicates that it was in southern Arabia
(modern-day Yemen).
The Sabaeans were notable astrologers, and Maimonides indicated
that this knowledge assumed a predominant role among them.
Tradition claims that the magi who greeted Christ came from this
legendary land. The Sabaeans possessed both the Hermetic
alchemical writings and the Corpus Hermeticum. Being knowledgeable
in such subjects, it is they who introduced science into Islam,
53

although they themselves evolved on the fringes of this religion. The

Sabaeans claimed to have originated with Hermes, to whom they
dedicated a special cult. They produced some books whose contents,
they claimed, had been revealed by Hermes, such as the Risalat finnafs (Letter about the Soul) and the Liturgical Institutions of Hermes by
Thabit ibn Qurrah, an eminent figure of Sabaeanism in Baghdad (c.
836-901).

IDRIS-HERMES
The 7th century signaled the beginnings of Islam. Although the
Koran did not make any reference to Hermes, the hagiographers of
Islams early centuries identified the prophet Idris, mentioned in the
Koran, with Hermes and Enoch. This assimilation helped to link
Islam with Greco-Egyptian traditions. In Islam, Idris-Hermes is
described as both a prophet and a timeless personage. He is
sometimes compared to al-Khadir,8 the mysterious intermediary and
sage who initiated Moses and who plays a fundamental role in
Sufism as a manifestation of the personal guide.
Abu-Mashar, an 8th century Persian astrologer who became
celebrated in Europe by the name of Albumazar, drew up an
account tracing the genealogy of Hermes. This text, which had
immense influence in the Islamic world, distinguished three
successive Hermes. The first, Hermes Major, lived before the Flood.
Identified with Thoth, he is described as the civilizer of humanity, as
he had the pyramids constructed and engraved the sacred
hieroglyphs for future generations. The second Hermes lived in
54

Babylonia after the Flood; he was a master of medicine, philosophy,

and mathematics. He was also the initiator of Pythagoras. Finally,
the third Hermes is described as having continued his predecessors
work of civilizing society. As a master of occult knowledge, he
transmitted alchemy to humanity.

FIGURE 3. Apollonius de Tyana, from Jacques Boissard, De Divinatione et magicis,

1605.

THE EMERALD TABLET

55

In the same era there appeared the Emerald Tablet, a text which
assumed an important place in the tradition. The oldest known
version, in Arabic, dates from the 6th century. Many are those who
cite this text without really knowing it; therefore, we feel that it
would be useful to present it in its entirety.
True, without falsehood, certain and most true, that which is
below is like that which is above, and that which is above is
like that which is below for accomplishing the wonder of the
one thing. As all things are created from one, by the will and
command of the one United who created it, so all things are
born from this one thing by dispensation and union. Its father
is the sun, its mother is the moon, the wind carries it in its
belly, its nurse is the earth. This is the father of all perfection
in this whole world. Its power is perfect when it is changed
into earth; so you should separate the earth from the fire, and
the subtle from the thick or gross but lovingly with great
understanding and discretion. It ascends from earth to heaven
and from heaven again to earth and receives again the power
of the Above and the Below. Thus you will have the splendor
of the whole world. All lack of understanding and lack of
ability will leave you. This is of all power the most powerful
power, for it can overcome all subtlety and can penetrate all
that is solid. Thus was the world created. Thus many rare
combinations originated, and wonders are wrought, of which
this is the way to work. And thus I am called Trismegistus,
having the three parts of the wisdom of the whole world. All
56

that I have said concerning the work of the sun is fulfilled.9

This work is attributed to Apollonius of Tyana, a philosopher and
thaumaturgist of the 1st century. As Julius Ruska has shown, the text
comes to us through the translation composed by Sagiyus, a
Christian priest of Nablus. It appears in Kitab Sirr Al-Haliqa (The
Secret Book of Creation) by Balinus (the Arabic translation of the
name Apollonius).10In this book, Apollonius relates how he
discovered the tomb of Hermes. He claims to have found in this
sepulcher an old man, seated on a throne, holding an emeraldcolored tablet upon which appeared the text of the famed Emerald
Tablet. Before him was a book explaining the secrets of the creation
of beings and the knowledge of the causes for all things. This
narrative would recur much later in the Fama Fraternitatis.

ARAB ALCHEMY
The role of the Arabs as transmitters of alchemy to the West in the
Middle Ages is generally well known. They also left us with a
vocabulary distinctive to this art (al kemia, chemistry; al tanur,
athanor; etc.). Yet Islams role is not simply limited to that of
transmission, as the Arabs conceptualized it in a form which,
afterwards, was to assert itself everywhere.11 Their alchemy was not
only an art of the laboratory, it was also meant to unveil the hidden
laws of Creation, and it comprised a mystic and philosophical
dimension. Although Arab alchemy claimed to be of Egyptian
origin, its practice occurred after the Arab conquest of Egypt in 639
They received Greek alchemy through the Syrians, but their first
57

masters in this art were the Persians, who had inherited the
Mesopotamian esoteric traditions.
The first known Arab alchemist, the Ummayad prince Khalid ibn
Yazid (?-704), was initiated by Morienus, a Christian of Alexandria.
Within a short time alchemy spread throughout the Islamic world
and the Greek treatises were quickly translated. The most illustrious
figure of Arab alchemy was Jabir ibn Hayyan (died c. 815), known in
the Western world as Geber. He advanced the fundamental
concepts of the great work, and his reflections led to a spiritual
alchemy on a grand scale. He is also credited with numerous
discoveries in alchemy. The Jabirian Corpus is said to contain more
than 3,000 treatises, most of which are apocryphal. They were
probably the work of a school which formed around his teachings.
Arab alchemy had many masters, of whom we will mention only a
few: abu-Bakr Muhammad ibn-Zakariya, called alRazi or Rhazes
(850-923); Muhammad ibn-Umail al-Tamimi, called Zadith the Elder
(10th century); abd Allah al-Jaldaki (14th century). Before long their
texts penetrated Europe through Spain and profoundly affected the
Latin West.

MAGIC AND ASTROLOGY

Magic also occupied a central position in Arab spirituality. Islam
made use of magical letters, much like the Hebrew Qabalah, for
penetrating the Korans secrets. Moreover, Arab magic, which
Christian Rosenkreuz informed us much later was none too pure,
encompassed a wide range: astrology, medicine, talismans, etc.
58

Astrology was ever-present in the Islamic world. Although suspect

due to its pagan origins, it developed significantly from the 8th
century, when the Tetrabiblos of Ptolemy was translated into Arabic.
Astrology, in the era of al-Mansur, the second Abbassid caliph (754775), was not only indebted to the Greeks, but also came under the
influence of the Hindus, Syrian Christians, Judeo-Arameans, and
undoubtedly the Essenes. In general, the various esoteric teachings
played a fundamental role in Islam, particularly in the Shiite
environment, as shown by Henry Corbin.12 It is easy to understand
why Christian Rosenkreuz came to the Arab lands to gather the
essential elements from which he was to construct the Rosicrucian
Order.

EASTERN THEOSOPHY
Around the 9th century ibn-Wahshiya, in a treatise entitled The
Knowledge of the Occult Unveiled,13 presented many occult alphabets
attributed to Hermes. He also made reference to the four classes of
Egyptian priests descended from Hermes. Those who belonged to
the third classthat is, the children of Hermes Trismegistus sister
he called Ishraqiyun (of the East). Some years later, Sohravardi (?
-1191), one of the greatest Islamic mystics of Persia, revived the
expression Ishraqiyun (signifying Eastern theosophists) to describe
the masters who had experienced Illumination. Philosophy and the
mystical experience were inseparable in his mind, and in his Book of
Oriental Wisdom14 he described the chain of past initiates, the Eastern
theosophists. For him this experience was tied to Hermes, whom he
59

made the ancestor, the father of the sages. These ecstatic

philosophers, described as the Pillars of Wisdom, were Plato,
Empedocles, Pythagoras, Zoroaster, and Mohammed. What makes
Sohravardi particularly interesting is that, in contrast to the authors
we have discussed until now, he did not seek to establish a historical
human filiation between Hermes and the sages of the different
traditions, but a celestial initiatory filiation based on inner
experiences.
The heritage left by Hermes Trismegistus is manifold. Its treasures
(alchemy, magic, and astrology) constitute essential elements of
traditional esotericism and have traversed many civilizations.
Nonetheless, the latter have always considered Egypt to be the
Mother of all traditions. In the Middle Ages, this ancient heritage
penetrated the West, and by the time of the Renaissance it took on a
new aspect in constituting what is generally called Western
esotericism. It then developed in a special way so as to reach a
critical threshold on the brink of the publication of the Rosicrucian
manifestos.

60

FIGURE 4. Oswald Croll, Basilica Chymica, 1609.

61

Chapter 2

HERMETICISM AND THE

PHILOSOPHIA PERENNIS

N THE PREVIOUS chapter we observed how Thoth

journeyed from Egypt to the Hellenic world. The Hermetic
sciencesmagic, alchemy, and astrologyflourished in the
gardens of Alexandria. This heritage was then enriched in the 6th
century by the Arabs, who added their own observations. But then
Hermes Trismegistus traveled to the Christian West, with Spain, and
later Italy, sheltering and developing Hermes ancient knowledge.
To this new stage in the history of esotericism we will provide the
proper elements for interpreting the journey of Christian
Rosenkreuz and the contents of the Rosicrucian manifestos.

ISLAM IN SPAIN
In 711 the Arabs invaded Spain. Cordoba soon became the heart
of Moslem Spain under the authority of the Umayyad prince Abd alRahman I. However, both the Christians and Jews, who were quite
numerous in Spain, preserved their freedom of worship. This
situation had positive repercussions, for it permitted cultural
exchanges. Spain contributed to spreading throughout the West the
entire cultural heritage arriving from the Arab civilization which, at
62

the time, was more advanced than that of Europe in many aspects.
A large quantity of Greek texts, preserved by the Arabs and
unknown until then in Europe, were made accessible through the
Latin translations made by Spanish scholars.
Esoteric wisdom also penetrated the West by way of Spain. In
Toledo, a number of alchemical, magical, and astronomical texts
were translated, and this city quickly acquired the reputation of
being the chair of the occult sciences.1 The discovery of the
body of St. James at Compostela at the beginning of the 9th century
contributed to stimulating the Christian Reconquista of Spain, an event
that only came to a close several centuries later. This was almost
accomplished in the 13th century, with the exception of the
kingdom of Granada, which had to wait another two centuries to
come under Christian domination. But, before then, by the 11th and
12th centuries, numerous pilgrimages to Compostela from all over
Europe put Spain in touch with the rest of Christendom, thus
contributing to an expansion of the esoteric corpus.

ALCHEMY IN SPAIN
As Robert Halleux pointed out in La Rception de lalchimie arahe en
Occident (The Reception of Arab Alchemy in the West), the
translation of Arab alchemical texts opened the way to its development in the West.2 Spain was the way by which alchemy entered
Europe. Alchemy is generally thought to have made its debut in the
West in 1144,the year when Robert of Chester, archdeacon
ofPamplona, made his translation of Morienus. The preface of this
63

text recalled the legend of the three Hermes. In the years 1140-1150,
another Spanish writer, Hugo de Santalla, translated from Arabic the
Secret Book of Creation. In this work, Balinus(i.e., Apollonius of Tyana)
recounted his discovery of the tomb of Hermes Trismegistus, in
which he found the Emerald Tablet. In Toledo, Gerard of Cremona
(114-1187) learned Arabic and translated texts from the immense
body of works by Geberand Rhazes, while John of Toledo, a
converted Jew, translated the Sifr-al-asrar (The Secret of Secrets) of
the Pseudo-Aristotle, a fundamental alchemical text.

THE PICATRIX
Paralleling the development of alchemy, magic also experienced a
renewal in the 12th century. During the Middle Ages, it was
essentially linked to the remnants of paganism and did not use any
direct sources. Its vulgate was based upon those passages
concerning this subject which Isidore of Seville (560-636) included
in his Etymologies. From the 12th century, and especially in the 13th
century, the fundamental texts appeared in the West by the introduction of Arab and Jewish treatises. Afterwards magic arrived at
the courts of princes and kings in a scholarly form, which allowed it
to escape the con-demnations of the Church.
Alfonso X, the Learned, king of Castile andLeon, had
translated the Sefer Raziel, a Jewish magical treatise, and in 1256 he
also translated the Ghayat al-Hakim fil-sihr (Goal of the Sages
inMagic), more recently known as the Picatrix. The latter is a text of
exceptional importance, because it inserts the vast magical and
64

astrological heritage of antiquity, then of the Middle Ages, into a

theoretical framework: the Neoplatonist philosophy onone hand and
Hermetism on the other.3 This Arab treatise, attributed to AbullQasim Maslamaal-Majriti, was written in Egypt between 1047 and
1051. This text, soon translated into Latin by Aegidius of Tebaldio,
exerted considerable influence on Peter of Abano, Marsilio Ficino,
and Cornelius Heinrich Agrippa. It deals with the sympathies
existing between plants, stones, animals, planetsand the way they
should be used for magical purposes. The author also discussed the
power of magical images, which he claimed were invented by
Hermes Trismegistus. He also stated that Hermes was the founder
of Adocentyn, an ideal city existing in Egypt before the time of the
Flood. This city was organized around a solar cult whose priest was
Hermes himself. Tommaso Campanella would later draw upon this
text for various concepts discussed in his City of the Sun.4

65

THE QABALAH
The presence of Jews in Spain played an important role in the
diffusion of the Qabalah. However, this study, centering around the
Sepher ha-Bahir (Bookof Light), originally developed in Languedoc, a
region of southern France, in the early 12th century. Many Qabalists
were to be found in this region,such as Abraham ben Isaac (died
1180), president of the tribunal of Narbonne, and Isaac the Blind
(1165-1235). Shortly afterwards, the Qabalah evolved in Spain,
primarily in Catalonia (Gerona) and Castile (Toledo). There, the
contemplative aspect of the Qabalah of the Languedoc was enriched
by Jewish thought descended from the Greco-Arabic tradition, as
well as by the doctrines of Plotinus. In Zaragoza, Abraham Abulafia
(1240-1291), a great figure of the ecstatic Qabalah, perfected a
technique of meditation on the Hebrew letters associated with
breathing. Soon afterwards, in the 13th century, there appeared the
Zohar, a voluminous text which attained considerable success in the
esoteric world. In 1305, in Valladolid,Spain, Moses of Leon claimed
to have preservedthe original copy of this treatise.5

ASTROLOGY
Beginning in the 12th century, there followed Latin translations of
Arabic texts which were to be instrumental in the growth of
astrology in Europe. Although present in the West from the 6th
century, astrology was heretofore a relatively immature science. The
translation of texts such as the Kitabal Uluf of abu-Mashar
66

(Albumazar) led to its further development. This book, which

recounted the legend of the three Hermes, is a summary of Persian,
Indian, and Greek astrology. Access to the basic texts of ancient
astrology set into motion a considerable expansion of this body of
knowledge, as evidenced by the rapid growth of calendars, almanacs,
predictions, and imagery using planetary symbolism. Nonetheless, it
was only in the 14th century that a Latin translation of a major text
of astrology, the Tetrabiblos of Ptolemy, would appear.

THE EXPULSION OF THE JEWS

After the 13th century, which marked the height of the Reconquista,
Spain abandoned the religious tolerance established by the Moslems.
The Jews were already experiencing difficulties, being given the
choice between conversion, exile, or death. In 1391, many allowed
themselves to be baptized so as to avoid massacre. Some of them,
the Marannos, converted in public, but continued to practice their
religion in secret. Afterwards came the expulsions, beginning in
1483 in Andalucia, followed in 1492 with the expulsion of all the
Jews by Ferdinand and Isabella. Some settled in Italy, carrying with
them a secret wisdom that flourished once again. This heritage was
added to that already accumulated in Italy. In fact, in 1439, the
Eastern Christians, menaced by the expansion of Islam, endeavored
to reach out to their counterparts in the West. With this goal in
mind, a number of Eastern scholars, such as the Neoplatonist
Gemistus Pletho, came to Florence to participate in a council of
reconciliation. They carried with them to Italy the texts of Greek
67

philosophers. The attempts at reconciliation were undertaken too

late to prevent the catastrophe that would very soon overwhelm the
Byzantine Church: the seizure of Constantinople by the Turks in
1453. As we will see in the following chapters, it is no coincidence
that the author of the Chymical Wedding made 1453 the year in which
Christian Rosenkreuz received the announcement of an intended
wedding in a vision.

THE ACADEMY OF FLORENCE

The capture of Constantinople in 1453 allowed Greek culturein
particular the works of Plato, who was only known from various
extractsto penetrate Italy. Cosimo di Medici, the ruler of Florence,
was aware of the importance of this event, and so he created the
Platonic Academy of Florence and requested that Marsilio Ficino
(1433r499) translate Plato. An indefatigable traveler, Ficino would
provide the West with its first translation of Plato, as well as
translations of Plotinus, Proclus, Iamblichus, and Dionysius the
Areopagite. Soon afterwards, an important development took place.
The Corpus Hermeticum, often mentioned in the Middle Ages, had
disappeared and the Asclepius was the only text still extant. Then, in
1460, a monk in the service of the Medicis obtained a manuscript of
the Corpus Hermeticum. Cosimo I considered the document to be so
important that he asked Marsilio Ficino to interrupt his translation
of Plato so as to work upon the newly discovered material. Shortly
thereafter, in 1471, Ficino published the first translation of the
Corpus Hermeticum. This edition garnered such a widespread
68

readership that it would be reprinted sixteen times until the 16th

century.6

PHILOSOPHIA PERENNIS
Ficino was convinced that the original text of the Corpus Hermeticum
had been written in Egyptian. Hermes Trismegistus was also
described as an Egyptian priest who had originated and transmitted
all of the secret wisdom. Ficino, in his Theologia Platonica, published
in 1482, devised a family tree of philosophers to whom this
knowledge had descended from Hermes: Zoroaster, Orpheus,
Aglaopheme, Pythagoras, and Plato.7 This vision gave birth to a new
concept, that of the Primordial Tradition, a primal revelation that was
perpetuated from age to age, from initiate to initiate. This concept,
previously endorsed by St. Augustine, experienced a renewal due to
Ficino. It was formalized in 1540 by Agostino Steuco (1496-1549),
in his concept of Philosophia Perennis the eternal philosophy.
It is quite understandable that this concept of eternal philosophy
would find such a favorable reception in Florence. It was claimed
that after the Flood, Noah had established twelve cities in Etruria
(i.e., Tuscany), and a legend even claimed that his body was buried
near Rome. From this arose the notion that the Tuscan dialect had
its source in Etruscan, and was thus older and superior to Latin.8
Little effort was needed to connect Florence with the very sources
of civilizationand even to the author of the Corpus Hermeticum
seeing that Hermes Trismegistus was claimed to be a contemporary
of Noah. These ideas, debated fiercely with in the Academy of
69

Florence, were particularly cherished by Cosimo di Medici, who felt

that they provided proof of the superiority of Florence and Tuscany
over the rest of Italy.

NATURAL MAGIC
Although the Corpus Hermeticum mentioned the secret knowledge of
the Egyptians, it was rather imprecise concerning its
implementation. In Treatise 13 of the corpus, Hermes Trismegistus
taught his son Tat the principles of mystical regeneration which
could be obtained by suppressing the senses, in negating the illomened influences of the stars, and allowing the Divinity to be born
in man.9 Marsilio Ficino was not only a priest but a physician; and
thus, he had a sense of the concrete. He sought the application of
these theories in Neoplatonismbut primarily in the Picatrix, the
works of abu-Mashar, and in the writings of his compatriot Peter of
Abano (1250-1316), who had studied Arab magic. Ficino arrived at a
natural magic which linked these theories with the Christian
concept of the Creators Word. His natural magic achieved
considerable refinement. He made use of the sympathiessuch as
the planetary characters inscribed in all the elements, minerals,
plants, as well as perfumes, wines, poetry, and music (Orphic
hymns) to capture the spiritus mundi,10 the subtle energies of Creation.
Marsilio Ficino is a prominent figure in the history of Western
esotericism, not only for his role as translator and commentator on
the ancient texts, but also for such works as De Triplici Vita, which
exerted great influence. As Antoine Faivre has remarked, thanks to
70

Ficino esotericism formed itself into a philosophy until being made

an integral part of the thought of the Renaissance.11

ANGELIC MAGIC
Ficinos most illustrious pupil was the child genius Pico della
Mirandola (1463-1494), who, when merely twenty-three years old,
had already studied everything then known about various religions,
philosophies, and esoteric sciences. Although Ficino scorned the
Qabalah, Pico della Mirandola discovered a complement to his
teachers form of magic in this tradition. He believed it useful to
reinforce natural magic by use of Qabalistic magic which was based
on the energies of the empyrean. This knowledge, which invoked
the angels and archangels by their names in Hebrewdescribed as
being the language of Godpossessed considerable efficacy for
him. Reviving the theories of St. Jerome and Nicholas of Cusa
concerning the name of Jesus, he demonstrated that the Qabalah
allowed Christs divinity to be proven. Thus, Pico established the
foundations of a Christian Qabalah.12 A universalist in his
thinking, he also wanted to demonstrate that all philosophical
systems converged. For that reason, in 1486 he published 900 theses
drawn from various sources. Among the arguments which he
advanced, let us just mention that he declared magic and the
Qabalah to be complementaries of Christianity (Thesis No. 7) and
that he campaigned in favor of Qabalistic magic (Thesis No. 11).
Pico proposed to defend these theses in a public debate, but as can
be imagined, the reaction was fierce and he was forced to flee Italy
71

to protect himself. Nevertheless, he was rehabilitated in June of

1493 by Alexander VI, a pope who looked quite favorably upon
magic and astrology.

THE VOARCHADUMIA
During this period, Italy became an active center of esotericism.
Venice played an important role in the dissemination of the
Qabalah, astrology, the science of numbers, and alchemy.13 After the
13th century, the alchemical corpus transmitted by the Arabs was
completely translated and led to a flowering of writings composed
by Albertus Magnus, Thomas Aquinas, Roger Bacon, Arnold of
Villanova, Raymond Lully, and Nicholas Flamel. In the 14th and
15th centuries, it was accompanied by a renewal of alchemy that had
adopted the Christian allegory and took on a mystical connotation
that was questioned by some people. Did it involve a practicum
expressed in religious terms, or a mystical experience expressed in
alchemical terms?14 This trend corroborated a movement that
began in the second half of the 13th century with the Aurora
consurgens (The Rising Dawn), a treatise attributed to St. Thomas
Aquinas, which represented the alchemical process as an inner
regenerative experience.15 In 1478 Michael Pantheus published in
Venice a large treatise entitled Voarchadumia which emphasized the
transcendental aspect of alchemy. Legend has it that the
Voarchadumia was a Venetian secret society. Whatever the case, many
scholars journeyed to Italy to study the occult sciences. Among
them were Johann Reuchlin and Cornelius Heinrich Agrippa, who
72

both contributed to the diffusion of esotericism throughout Europe.

DE VERBO MIRIFICO
Included among the expelled Spanish Jews who settled in Italy
after 1492 was Judah Abravanel (c. 1460-1523), a physician and
Qabalist. A convert to Catholicism, he was passionately fond of
Neoplatonism. After his death, his Dialoghi di Amore (Dialogues of
Love) was published, a work in which he made a synthesis of
Neoplatonism and the Qabalah, thus widening the field opened by
Pico della Mirandola and Marsilio Ficino. But it was to a fourth
individual, Johannes Reuchlin (1455-1522), that came the honors of
synthesizing the work of his three predecessors. Reuchlin journeyed
to Rome in 1482 to study Hebrew, and he then traveled to Florence
to meet Pico. Upon returning to Germany, he became an avid
promoter of the Christian Qabalah. He published in 1494 De Verbo
Mirifico in which he investigated more thoroughly Picos speculations
upon the Word, Leschouah. The impact of this book was decisive,
because it was the first European work entirely dedicated to the
Qabalah. It was complemented in 1517 by De Arte Cabbalistica, one
of the fundamental texts of the Christian Qabalah. Important
developments which Reuchlin gave to angelology cleansed it of the
demonological suspicions which tainted Ficinos natural magic.

HARMONY OF THE WORLD

Natural magic emphasized the occult sympathies existing between
all things in Creation. This concept gained an added dimension
73

through the efforts of Francesco Giorgi (1450-1540), a Franciscan

friar of Venice. In 1525 he published De Harmonia Mundi, an
essential text of the Christian Qabalah. His originality derived from
the fact that he combined Pythagorean numerological tradition,
alchemy, and the architecture of Vitruvius (1st century A.D .) with
the Qabalah of Pico della Mirandola and the Neoplatonism of
Marsilio Ficino. This work exerted an enormous influence over
English Rosicrucians, notably Robert Fludd, and over the group of
French writers called La Pliade, due to the translation of Le Fvre
de la Boderie.

FIGURE 5. Cornelius Heinrich Agrippa.

OCCULT PHILOSOPHY
For Johann Reuchlin angelic magic had taken on a more precise
character, but it remained basically theoretical. It was Cornelius
74

Heinrich Agrippa (1486-1534) who, by his practical training as a

physician, moved magic towards a more concrete dimension by
publishing a genuine handbook of practical magic entitled De Occulta
Philosophia. In its first edition of 1510, this book was strongly
influenced by the Picatrix, Corpus Hermeticum, and the works of
Ficino. In the second edition of 1533, the Qabalah assumed a
greater role. With Reuchlin, magic was a method for uniting with the
Divine, whereas with Agrippa magic touched upon other subjects in
applying itself to the various problems of human existence.
Therefore, his magicwhether natural, celestial, or
ceremoniallost the subtlety which Marsilio Ficino had given it.
Agrippa combined angelology, the science of numbers, and Arab
magic when composing his magical squares (see fig. 6), planetary
seals, and tables of correspondences between plants, minerals,
numbers, and angels. Agrippas book, despite being placed on the
index of proscribed works by Pope Pius VI, experienced a level of
success which has continued to the present day.16

GIORDANO BRUNO
Giordano Bruno (1548-1600), a Dominican priest and a great
traveler, was one of the individuals who contributed enormously to
the spread of esotericism in Europe. Strongly influenced by the
writings of his Italian compatriots Marsilio Ficino and Pico della
Mirandola, as well as Cornelius Heinrich Agrippa, he assiduously
read the Corpus Hermeticum. In his book Spaccio della Bestia Trionfante
(The Expulsion of the Triumphant Beast, 1584), he went so far as to
75

claim that Egyptian Hermeticism was superior to Christianity. At the

beginning of this work, he describes a meeting of gods who
assembled for the purpose of a general reform of humanity, which
implies a return to the Egyptian religion.17 This theme for the
necessity of universal reform had great influence, notably upon I
Ragguaglidi Parnaso (The Advertisements from Parnassus, 1612) by
Traiano Boccalini (1556-1613). One of the chapters of this book
was afterwards used as the introduction to the Fama Fraternitatis.
Bruno was closer to Ficino than the Christian Qabalists, and he was
not at all interested in the Qabalah. With him, the figure of the
Christian magus disappeared entirely. He preferred the Egyptian
magic of the Asclepius. He claimed that the Christians had stolen the
symbol of the cross from the Egyptians and prophesied a return to
the Egyptian religion. He lectured upon his theories in Germany at
the court of Emperor Rudolph II and in England. A colorful
individual, Bruno was the author of a series of books which touched
upon a multitude of subjects. His theological and scientific
conceptionsfor example, the universe conceived as being infinite,
a theory borrowed from Nicholas of Cusagot him into trouble
with the Inquisition, and in 1600 he was burned at the stake in
Rome.

76

FIGURE 6. Cornelius Heinrich Agrippa, De Occulta Philosophia, 1510.

ALCHEMY AND NATURE

Hermeticisms spread into Germany was limited. Yet it penetrated
the court of Rudolph II, nicknamed the German Hermes,
influencing in particular the alchemist Michael Maier and the
astronomer Johannes Kepler, both of whom had read the Corpus
Hermeticum. European alchemy had two periods of greatness: the
12th century which marked its genesis; and the Renaissance, where it
77

expanded rapidly especially in Germany which experienced in the

16th century a veritable tidal wave of the spagyric sea.18 In the
latter period there appeared the great anthologies of alchemical
texts, such as the celebrated Theatrum chemicum (1602), as well as the
first alchemical dictionaries, which characterized the need for a
thorough investigation and synthesis which had already manifested
itself. Here it should be pointed out that 16th century alchemy was
enriched by new qualities. The fabrication of gold was now of little
concern. Instead, alchemy manifested strong spiritual connotations,
stressed certain medical applications, and claimed to be a unifying
science. Alchemy also sought to enter into a consideration regarding
the history of Creation, of the tragic cosmogony which led not only
to the fall of man, but also that of nature. The alchemist is thus not
only mans physician, assisting in his regeneration and giving birth
again to his spiritual condition, but the alchemist is also natures
physician, as his constant mission is to nurse nature so as to perfect
it. Co-birth, rebirth, and nature are intimately linked in this alchemy.
(Incidentally, the word nature comes from the Latin natura, the
future participle of nascor which means to be born.)

78

FIGURE 7. Composition inspired by a portrait drawn by Augustin Hirschvogel in

1540. Lucien Braun indicates that the above-mentioned drawing is taken from Buch
Meteorum by Franz Hogenberg (1566), while Walter Pagel describes it as coming
from Philosophia Magna by Theodor Birkmann (1567). Josephus Stellatus (C.
Hirsch), in Pegasus Firmamenti (1618), thought the three balls surrounded by the
crosses shown on the coat of arms to be roses, and thereby concluded that these
were an allusion to the Rosicrucians. On the other hand, E.D. Hauber, in
Bibliotheca Magica (1739), claimedwithout presenting any convincing arguments
that the vignettes surrounding the portrait recalled Rosicrucianism. In 1946,
Josef Strebel improperly saw in these vignettes all Rosicrucian symbolism of
Paracelsus, which the work of Walter Pagel, Paracelse (1962), contributed to
popularize.

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PARACELSUS
Theophrastus Paracelsus (1493-1541) was the individual most
characteristic of this evolution in science. His work represented a
gargantuan effort to make use of all of the knowledge of his era. He
delved deeply into astrology, alchemy, magic, and popular
traditions.19 As a physician, he protested the ideas of Galen who
reigned supreme over a medicine that had been stripped of its
effectiveness. In his Volumen medicinae paramirum and his Opus
paramirum, he set forth the basis of a new medicine. The theory of
man as a microcosm, already popularized by Johannes Scotus
Erigena, took on a more exact meaning for him. For Paracelsus,
philosophy was the discovery of invisible nature. Nature assumed
an essential function for him, because God speaks to us both
through the scriptures and through nature. Thus, we must attune
ourselves by contemplating the Book of Nature. According to
Paracelsus, mans role is to reveal nature in its light. Nature
remains incomplete, in its unknowing; however, its revelation may
be found in man, who is born so as to lead it to its perfection.
The alchemist, in seeking to understand natures laws, engages in a
dialogue with Creation. Through this exchange, natures hidden light
is revealed and illuminates humanity. But the latter cannot arrive at
this result without preparation, without regeneration. As Roland
Edighoffer has remarked, Paracelsus described in a special way this
transformation of man in his Liber de resurrectione et corporum
glorificatiorte (1533). He repeatedly combines (seventeen times in six
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pages) the symbols of the Cross and Rose and connects them with
alchemical transmutation and resurrection. Paracelsus wrote: True
gold is that which emerges purified from the fire .... Thus, at the
time of the resurrection, the impure shall be separated from the
pure, it shall be born with a new body which, because it will be more
luminous than the sun shall be called the glorified body. The
resurrection of Christ is an image dear to us. . . from him unto him
we shall rise, as the rose which is reborn from a similar seed.20
Paracelsus was an individual of considerable depth, and if we have
emphasized certain aspects of his thinking, it is because they had a
particularly important bearing on the Fama Fraternitatis and the
Confessio Fraternitatis.

THE DEATH OF HERMES

The contribution of various traditions in the context of
Renaissance humanism had given rise to the idea of tolerance
between all religions, philosophies, and traditions. Nicholas of Cusa
had formulated such ideas at the time of the council of Florence in
1439. Afterwards, Pico della Mirandola had sought to harmonize
these diverse traditions. Others went much farther, such as
Francesco Patrizi, who spoke of a universal philosophy, a
pansophia, and in his book Nova de Universis Philosophia (1591) he
had the temerity to ask Pope Gregory XIV to teach Hermeticism in
Christian schools for the purpose of bringing about the
establishment of a true religion. Alas, such avant-garde ideas carried
little weight before the predominating politico-religious interests,
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which had already given rise to a period of religious intolerance. The

Wars of Religion, beginning with the 16th century, were soon to
restrain the expansion of Hermeticism.
Another aspect, which passed unnoticed at this time, would soon
bring into question the matter of the Egyptian heritage. In 1614,
Isaac Casaubon wrote De rebus sacriset ecclesiasticis exercitationes XVI, a
work in which he demonstrated that the Corpus Hermeticum was not
of Egyptian origin and that it was written not by Hermes
Trismegistus, but by Christians from around the 2nd century. This
revelation put a halt to Hereticism in the Renaissance. Nevertheless,
even though it severely weakened the esoteric tradition elaborated
upon in the Renaissance, it did not obliterate the fact that there was
in effect a transmission of knowledge to the West coming from a
remote past, of an Orient of Light in which Egypt may be
considered the center of attraction.
In any case, it may be said that the foundation of what constituted
the edifice of Western esotericismalchemy, astrology, magic,
Qabalah, science of numbers, and divinationwas established in
the Renaissance. Thus it is astonishing to note that Casaubons
discovery coincided with a reorganization, a refoundation of
Western esotericism marked by the publication of the Rosicrucian
manifestos in 1614. Christian Rosenkreuz was to replace Hermes
Trismegistus and Egypt was to leave the scene, but it would
eventually return, as we shall see later. This rebirth of the tradition,
this renaissance, would come about in an atmosphere of crisis.

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FIGURE 8. Valentin Weigel, Studium universale, 1695

83

Chapter 3

THE CRISIS OF THE

EUROPEAN
CONSCIOUSNESS

N EXAMINING THE origins of Rosicrucianism, we have

probed the roots of Western esotericism. It remains for us now
to examine the environment which allowed the Rose to bloom
on the Cross. Indeed, we need to sketch a full picture of the era in
which the Rosicrucian movement developed, so as to understand
the extraordinary impact that the publication of the Rosicrucian
manifestos had on European civilization. At the dawn of the 17th
century, Europe was being fully transformed. In describing this
situation, the phrase crisis of the European consciousness has
often been used. As Alexandre Koyr has written, during this period
the European spirit underwentor completeda profound
spiritual revolution, a revolution which modified the foundations
and even the framework of our thinking.1 We mention these
matters so as to point out how the Rosicrucian writings appeared to
offer a possible answer to the crisis faced at that time.2

THE INFINITE UNIVERSE

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The development of a new cosmology was not at all unrelated to

the disruptions characterizing the 17th century. Indeed, shortly after
the discoveries of Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543), astronomy
renounced the Ptolemaic system which had dominated until then.
The image of a closed world was displaced by that of an infinite
universe, where the Earthand consequently humanitywas no
longer in the center. At a single stroke, the theory of epicycles,
which Ptolemy had used to explain planetary movements, was
demolished. This ineffectual theory was mocked in Chapter 13 of
the Confessio Fraternitatis.
This new vision of the world gave rise to three conflicting
positions. The first, promulgated by Galileo Galilei (1564-1642),
established a new scientific attitude and opened the way to a rational
vision of the universe, that of a world reduced to geometrical
dimensions. Exploiting a recent discovery of the Dutch, Galileo
constructed a telescope that allowed him to combine mathematics
and observation. We can easily imagine the Churchs attitude when
confronted with his vision of the worlda vision so contrary to that
of the Scriptures. Churchmen condemned the Copernican system,
and Galileo was soon forced to renounce such theories. This event,
marking the rift between the Catholic Church and science,
inaugurated a long period when scientific research was crushed by
dogmatic fanaticism. Giordano Bruno and Galileo bore the brunt of
this hostility.
Johannes Kepler (1571-1630) offered a third way. A contemporary
of Galileo, he was the assistant to Tycho Brahe at the imperial court
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of Rudolph II, the German Hermes. Keplers view of the universe

differed in that it combined heliocentrism with the Hermeticism of
the Renaissance. In his Mysterium cosmographicum (1596), he made the
Sun the center of the World Soul, the source which imparted
movement to the planetary souls. But before long Kepler would
change his mind regarding this matter, and when this work was
reissued in 1606, he found it advisable to replace the word soul
with that of force. This change in attitude involved him in a
celebrated controversy with Robert Fludd.3
This new vision of the cosmos suddenly disclosed a concept
originally posed by Democritus that of the vacuum in which the
universe moved. Since the time of Aristotle, this subject had been
considered to be of little merit, but in the 16th century it was seen in
a different light. This theory, which challenged the omnipotence of
God, is even now controversial.4 This is undoubtedly the reason
why the Fama Fraternitatis makes this statement: the vacuum does
not exist. All of these elements changed the relationship of humans
with the universe. The latter was demythified, as it was now seen as
a vast machine made up of cogwheels that could be investigated
using ones reason.

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FIGURE 9. Aristotle, Ptolemy, and Copernicus on the frontispiece of a book by

Galileo, Dialogue Concerning the Two Principal Systems of the Universe , 1635.

THE CATALOGUES OF THE WORLD

The same situation applied to the terrestrial world, as its limits
were pushed back with the discovery of America in 1492 and of the
maritime route to India in 1498. These voyages contributed to the
creation of the first semi-accurate maps of the world, such as
Sebastian Mnsters Cosmographia published in 1544, a work which
experienced immediate success, or the equally celebrated Atlas of
Gerhardus Mercator. The progress of printing engraved materials
also led to the rapid expansion of scientific works. In the 16th
century, the first catalogues enumerating the many natural riches
87

of the world were published. Representative of this movement were

the immense herbals published by Otto Brunfels of Strasbourg and
Leonhart Fuchs of Tbingen, as well as similar works compiled by
Konrad von Gesner of Switzerland; Ulisse Aldrovandi of Bologna,
Italy; and Guillaume Rondelet and Pierre Belon of France. In this
era, European princes also loved to collect the marvels of nature
hence the importance of curiosity cabinets, where various oddities
were assembled. In this regard Emperor Rudolph II is particularly
interesting in that he associated the possession of such curiosities
with the assumption of their magical powers.5

HUMAN ANATOMY REVEALED

If the vision of the macrocosm changed, that of the microcosm
also evolved. In 1543the same year that Copernicus book on
heliocentrism appearedAndreas Vesalius (1514-1564) published a
pivotal work in the history of medicine, De Humani Corporis Fabrica.
This volume, which is the source of human anatomy, attacked the
opinions of Galen (c. 131-201), long considered to be the foremost
authority in medicine. Another group of writings which strongly
influenced the evolution of medicine were those of Paracelsus.
From 1560, Johann Huser began to compile the manuscripts of this
medical pioneer, which eventually led to the publication of the
complete works of Paracelsus in ten volumes (1589-1591). Also
contributing to the advance of medicine was the invention of the
microscope by Zacharias Janssen, a spectacles maker of Middelburg
although this invention is sometimes attributed to Cornelis
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Drebbel or others. Shortly afterwards William Harvey (1578-1657),

the Copernicus of Medicine, published his De Motu Cordis et
Sanguinis in Animalibus, in which he revealed his discoveries regarding
blood circulation.
These elements, as a whole, helped to modify humanitys view of
the universe. No longer did humans contemplate the mysteries of a
world to which a vengeful God had exiled them. Theology was no
longer needed to understand the world; rather, humans observed,
calculated, and understood the forces ruling all creation. The role of
master and possessor of nature had been bestowed upon humanity.

FIGURE 10. Otto Brunfels, Herbarum vivae eicones ad naturae imitationem, 1541

THE REFORMATION
While science was being transformed, religion was experiencing a
89

full-blown crisis. This was not an unprecedented event, as

Christianity had already been torn apart by the Western Schism in
1378, when a group of ambitious cardinals elected two popes one
in Avignon, Clement VII, and the other in Rome, Urban VIeach
of whom excommunicated his rival. This sorry spectacle of rival
popes lasted until 1417. Furthermore, with the invention of printing,
the circulation of ideas became more feasible and the humanism of
the Renaissance opened the West to various sources of spirituality.
Such principles were probably not irrelevant to the reflections of
many thinkers when they pondered their own naturae imitationem,
1541. religion. They each questioned the way by which the Church
accomplished its ministry and how it was overly preoccupied with
temporal matters.
The unity of the Western Church was once again torn asunder by
the Reformation, which claimed to be a return to the spirit of the
Gospels. In 1517, Luther posted his ninety-five theses denouncing
the commerce in indulgences and relics established by Rome.
Reformers emphasized the fact that salvation is a grace derived from
ones faith and not ones works, and they placed the authority of the
Bible beyond the dogmas established by human beings. Luther also
accused the Church of keeping people steeped in superstition.
Within a few years, at the instigation of Henry VIII (1532), England
separated itself from Rome, and the Nordic countries likewise
dropped their allegiance to the Pope.

THE REVOLTS
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Unfortunately, the Reformation gave rise to many excesses.

Quarrels quickly arose concerning how reform was to be achieved.
In the years 1522 and 1523 various German nobles wanted to
spread the new true faith, and thus engaged in armed
insurrections against higher authorities. Right afterwards, from 1524
to 1526, the Peasants War wracked Germany, when the peasants
likewise took to arms. Being of the opinion that the princes and
nobles of this world barred their path to the Gospel, and feeling that
their mission was to reestablish the true faith, they did not hesitate
to massacre all those opposing their aims. As can be seen, the
Reformation generated innumerable political problems which
threatened the equilibrium of the Holy Roman Empire. The
emperors who succeeded Charles V after 1556 oscillated between
religious tolerance (Rudolph II) and Catholic intransigence
(Ferdinand II). The situation finally exploded in 1618 with the
Defenestration of Prague, when the imperial governors were thrown
out the window of Hradcany Castle by Protestants. This act helped
to drag Germany into the Thirty Years War, during which almost
half of Germanys population was killed.

THE COUNTER-REFORMATION
The Catholic Church reacted to Protestant criticisms by starting
the Counter-Reformation, which was inaugurated at the Council of
Trent (15451563). This council was characterized by a tightening of
discipline. The Inquisition took on a new life and the Congregation
for the Doctrine of the Faith was created. The latter was charged
91

with publishing an index of prohibited booksa practice which was

only discontinued in 1966. Innumerable esoteric and scientific works
written during the Renaissance were placed in this index. Events
such as these undoubtedly forced the practitioners of esotericism to
form into secret societies, closed to outsiders.

THE WARS OF RELIGION

Germany once again was experiencing a fragile peace as a result of
the Concord of 1554 and the Peace of Augsburg in 1555but now
it was France that burst into flames. The Massacre of Vassy in 1562,
when French Protestants were slaughtered, launched the religious
wars in France. The St. Bartholomews Day Massacre in 1572
marked a decisive turn in the conflict between Catholic and
Protestant forces. Each camp was on the defensive: the Catholics
created the Holy League to fight the Calvinists, and on the other
side Protestant princes throughout Europe united in opposition.
France finally returned to calm under the rule of Henry IV. His
accession to the throne in February 1594 raised great hopes
throughout Europe, as many saw him as a person who could
reconcile all of Christianity. One of these was Giordano Bruno, who
traveled throughout Europe preaching general reform. Having
pinned his hopes on Henry III, Bruno now felt Henry IV was the
man of the hour. Tommaso Campanella likewise had high hopes
that this king would achieve such reform.6
Positions such as these were supported by a text circulating
throughout Europe at this time. It described Henry IV as the new
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David, the king of the ancient prophecies, who would restore the
unity of Christianity before the return of Christ.7 As we shall see
later on, Henry IV participated at this time in the creation of a
league of Protestant princes. In 1610, the assassination of the king
put a definite end to such hopes. The bitterness which laid waste to
Europe may be noted in the Advertisements from Parnassus, a book
published in 1612 by Traiano Boccalini. This work, which is a
diatribe against the Catholic hegemony established by the
Habsburgs, made Henry IV into a veritable hero. The author
appeared disillusioned at the chances for establishing universal
reform leading to peace in Europe. It was not by accident that a
chapter from Boccalinis work, entitled Universal Reformation of
the Whole World, was placed at the beginning of the Fama
Fraternitatis in several editions.

THE IMITATION OF CHRIST

During the same period, Europe was harvesting the fruits of
movements which, since the 12th century, had attempted new forms
of spirituality. These included such groups as the Brothers of the
Free Spirit, the Friends of God, the Beguines, and the Beghards.
Counted among them were such teachers as Meister Eckhart,
Johannes Tauler, Heinrich Suso, and Jan van Ruysbroeck
individuals associated with philosophic procedure and inner quiet.
The Devotio Moderna, a movement arising in the Netherlands at
the end of the 14th century that sought to emphasize piety and inner
asceticism, also developed in Germany. The jewel of this spiritual
93

movement is the Imitation of Christ, a book much esteemed by

17th-century Rosicrucians.

FIGURE 11. Henry IV of France.

THE MYSTIC WEDDING

Among advocates of this new spirituality, especially prominent in
the Protestant movement, three names must be mentioned. The
first, Valentin Weigel (1533-1588) is particularly interesting due to
his efforts to synthesize various currents of his agethose derived
from Eckharts lineage; those from the Paracelsian magicoalchemical movement; and those from the spiritualists Caspar
94

Schwenckfeld and Sebastien Frank. He advocated a very internalized

religious method, centered on a work of inner transformation and
regeneration. He developed a theory of knowledge based on the
ancient phrase Know Thyself.8 The second, Philip Nicolai (15561608), was a pioneer of the new piety. Like his predecessor, he
stressed the processes of regeneration, which, in this instance, took
the form of the mystic wedding. In his book The Mirror of the Joys of
the Eternal Life (1599), he described the seven phases of this
regeneration. This author had a strong influence on Johann Valentin
Andreae. The third individual who is of special interest is Johann
Arndt (1555-1621), considered to be the precursor of German
Pietism. His book, True Christianity, was an immense success, going
through more than 300 printings. We owe to this theologian and
alchemist a commentary on Heinrich Khunraths Amphitheatrum
Sapientiae Aeternae. Some excerpts of his writings regarding the
Book of Nature can also be found, almost word for word, in the
Rosicrucian manifestos.
As with his two predecessors, Arndt strongly emphasized the
necessity of rebirth. Johann Valentin Andreae considered Johann
Arndt to be his spiritual father. As we have noted, the religious
situation in the 16th century was an explosive one. But with the
third generation of Protestants, doubt had settled in. Protestantism,
by attempting to justify its positions, had fallen into theological
excesses that placed all blame on Catholicism. The Reformers now
questioned themselves about the need for a second Reformation.

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FIGURE 12. Simon Studion, Naometria, drawing by Jakob Lederlin.

96

Chapter 4

THE NAOMETRIA AND

THE AGE OF THE HOLY
SPIRIT

T THE BEGINNING of the 17th century, Germany was

beset with pestilence and famines resulting from
particularly unfavorable climatic conditions. The people of
this country sought signs of better times to come. In 1603 many
detected a favorable portent in the trigon of Jupiter and Saturnin
astrology, a very positive aspect of 120 between two planets
located in the triplicity of fire (Aries, Leo, Sagittarius). The following
year, a new star or supernova appeared in the same triplicity.
Johannes Kepler in De Stella nova et coincidente principio Trigoni ignei
(1606) detected in this the sign of imminent political and religious
changes. He drew parallels between the appearance of this new star
and the birth of an individual who would be the instigator of a new
religious movement. The goal of this person would be to reconcile
fellow Christians and to bring about reasonable reform. The
second Rosicrucian manifesto, the Confessio Fraternitatis, referred to
this development by observing that the Lord God gave proofs that
we may read in the heavens, in the constellations of Serpentarius
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and Cygnusi.e., the Serpent and Swan

In the years 1604 and 1605, the appearance of a comet excited
peoples imaginations and gave impetus to a millennialist
atmosphere. The Protestant world was particularly receptive to such
circumstances, and many prophecies announcing the end of the
world were in circulation. Even Luther, in Supputatio annorum mundi
(1540), recalled the prophecy of Elijah. The latter was based on the
announcement of the prophet Malachi: Behold, I will send you
Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day
of the Lord: And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the
children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come
and smite the earth with a curse (Malachi 4:5-6). In the New
Testament, St. John likewise announced that Elijah would return to
the side of Christ at the end of time (Revelation 11:3-6). The one
who had been raised toward heaven upon a chariot of fire (II Kings
2:1-13) would return so as to prepare humanity. The Talmud
expanded further on the prophecy of Malachi, stating specifically
that the universe would last 6,000 years, at the end of which the
millennium marking the completion of time would begin.
The Qabalists of the Renaissance made this theory fashionable by
indulging in speculations whose purpose was to calculate this fateful
day. Guillaume Postel had announced in 1543 that the last age of the
world was imminent, and Pico della Mirandola had indicated that
1583 would be the pantocratic year. For Luther, the year 1532
corresponded to the year 5640, according to the age of Creation. He
thought, therefore, that the end of time was quite near. Chapter IV
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of the second Rosicrucian manifesto, Confessio Fraternitatis, also made

reference to this prophecy by speaking of the next lighting of the
sixth candelabrain other words, to the fact that the 6,000 fateful
years were drawing near. Melchior Hoffman, an Anabaptist, also
foresaw for 1533 the beginning of a thousand-year reign that would
mark the end of the world.
In the 17th century many individuals engaged in such
chronological speculations. Among them Simon Studion (1543-c.
1605) was an outstanding figure, as he has left us a voluminous body
of work devoted to this subject that is entitled the Naometria. This
text is of prime importance because its author wrote it in the very
same region and period that Rosicrucianism was born and because
certain concepts he revealed were later found in the Fama
Fraternitatis and the Confessio Fraternitatis, the first two Rosicrucian
manifestos. A curious coincidence may be noted: the date of the
symbolic opening of Christian Rosenkreuzs tomb is the same as
that of the final draft of the Naometria: 1604. These characteristics
have led certain historians to regard Simon Studions work as a
Rosicrucian text. Arthur Edward Waite, in his book The Real History
of the Rosicrucians (1887), described Rosicrucianism as an extension of
the Militia Crucifera Evangelica spoken of by Studion. But soon
afterwards Waite abandoned this hypothesis.

SIMON STUDION
Simon was the son of Jakob Studion, cook at the court of
Wrttemberg at Stuttgart.1 Like most of those who were part of the
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17th-century Rosicrucian movement, Simon attended the highly

renowned University of Tbingen. While there, he studied theology
and devoted himself passionately to mathematics under a noted
professor, Samuel Heyland. The latter, a famed astronomer and
astrologer, introduced his young student to the science of numbers,
which were said to reveal the mysteries of Creation. Simon wished
to become a preacher, but in 1565 he was forced to renounce this
career due to his stammering. Instead, he became a preceptor at the
Latin school in Marbach, a little town near Stuttgart.
At this time his talents as a poet were revealed, and he gained a
certain renown after writing a funeral eulogy for Johann Brenz
(1499-1570), one of the greatest Lutheran theologians of the period.
Studions most important work was a Latin poem containing over
10,000 hexameters, which he composed for the wedding of Duke
Ludwig of Wrttemberg in November 1575. In this work, he also
revealed his talents as a historian, as he included in his poem a
genealogical study of the ruling family. Indeed, Studion was not
simply a poet, he was also a historian and a pioneer in the field of
archeology. The archeologists of Wrttemberg revere him as the
true father of Roman archeology. To this day one may admire in
Stuttgart the collection of Roman antiquities he assembled, notably
during his researches in Benningen. The respect he felt for past
events was singular, because his researches led him to perfect a
theory for calculating the hidden cycles of history. He recorded his
reflections in the Naometria, a prophetic and visionary work in which
he announced the imminence of great upheavals.
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Naometria is a Greek word that means measure of the temple or

the art of measuring the temple. In the preface to his work,
Studion informs us that it was from the book of the art of
measuring the temple of God, the altar, and the worshipers who are
found here, with the assistance of a rod. What temple was Studion
speaking of? Was it the one that the prophet Ezekiel had announced
as appearing before the end of time for bringing together the chosen
ones (Ezekiel 40-43)?
St. John also referred to this temple in Revelations. Like Ezekiel,
he described the visions he obtained when he was transported to
Heaven. There he saw God sitting on a throne in the midst of his
heavenly court and holding in his hand the Book with seven seals.
When a lamb opened these seals one after the other, extraordinary
events occurred. After the sounding of the sixth trumpet, the
visionary was entrusted with the gift of prophecy. He was then given
a rod to measure the new temple of God.
In the Naometria, Simon Studion repeated this episode and adapted
it. The visionary, who, in the Revelation of St. John, measured the
temple was assisted by two witnesses charged with prophesying for
1,260 days. They were like two torches standing before the God of
the earth (Revelation 11:3-4). Although they were not named,
tradition claims that they were Moses and Elijah. In the Naometria,
Studion also mentions two witnesses charged with prophesying
during the time of trial. The first is Luther, who attempted to put
Christianity back on the proper path. As for the second, it appears
that Studion assigned himself this role. It might even be asked if he
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is not also like the man clothed in linen, who, according to

Ezekiel (Ezekiel 9:3) and St. John (Revelation 7:2-3), is charged with
surveying the city so as to trace a cross on the foreheads of those
who would be spared the final punishment. In the Naometria, these
chosen ones are called the Cruce Signatiin other words, those who
are marked by the sign of the cross. They are brought together in
the Militia Evangelica so as to prepare for the Age of the Holy
Spirit. Undoubtedly Studion describes this temple because he feels
that the end of time is near, that the time of the last revelation has
arrived, and that the new erathat of the age of the Holy Spirit
will soon begin.

FIGURE 13. Simon Studion (1543-c. 1605).

THE AGE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

In the 16th century the subject of the Age of the Holy Spirit was as
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popular as the Aquarian Age is popular in our own era; it is not

surprising, therefore, that Studion refers to it constantly. During that
period, many people felt that this age was near. This theory, which
was also discussed in the Rosicrucian manifestos, was developed by
Joachim of Fiore (1135-1202), an Italian monk and theologian.
According to him, the history of the world had unfolded in three
successive ages. The first was the Age of the Father, which started
with Adam. This was followed by the Age of the Son, initiated by
Jesus Christ; and the third was the Age of the Holy Spirit, which
would be marked by the end of time. With each of the eras he
associated a flower. Thus, he gave a nettle to the Age of the Father,
because during this period people lived in fear. With the Age of the
Son he associated the rose, which represented the Christ who had
freed humanity. Finally, he attached the lily to the Age of the Holy
Spirit and made this period one of charity by which man would
become the friend of God.
According to Joachim of Fiore, this final age would begin in 1260.
He took this number from the prophet Daniel, who had announced
that the duration of the rule of the impious would last until a time
and times and the dividing of time (Daniel 7:25). This expression is
interpreted as evoking three and a half yearsi.e, forty-two months
or 1,260 days (St. John took this number from Revelations). Joachim
of Fiore interpreted this number as relating to the year 1260, which
marked the appearance of a New Church, one that was more pure,
replacing the one founded by St. Peter. This new religion, monastic
and mystical in nature, would be advanced by the Order of the Boni
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Eremitae.
Despite his audacious opinions, Joachim of Eiore was
unconcerned. It should be noted that this erudite theologian was the
friend of several popes. However, in 1215about a dozen years
after his deaththe fourth Lateran Council condemned Joachims
ideas as being subversive.2 Nonetheless, the theory of the three ages
became quite popular and lasted until the 17th century. Thus, it is
not surprising that the theory is found in the Naometria. Simon
Studions book also reproduced certain illustrations from the
Vaticina sive Prophetiae Abbatis lochimi, a collection of predictions
attributed to Joachim of Fiore, which was published in 1598 (see fig.
12).
The subtitle of the Naometria indicates that it is an introduction to
the knowledge of sacred secrets, associated with an exploration of
the unfoldment of all time in the Church of God and of its position
by the grace of the Holy Spirit. The author indulged in scholarly
calculations, based on various numerical cycles including that of the
1,260-year cycle. He drew up numerous tables wherein the dates of
great events in human history were placed in parallel columns. He
tried to show that the year 1620 would feature the end of the
Antichrists reign, the fall of the pope, and the fall of Islam.
According to Studion, the Messianic time would begin in 1623, and
he indicated that those individuals who had shown themselves
faithful to God would become members of a completely regenerated
religion and would be called together in a New Temple. His book
consists of numerous speculations regarding the measurements of
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this square temple. It includes designs of the different parts of this

structure based on the descriptions given by the prophet Ezekiel
(Ezekiel 40-44). It should be remembered that Simon Studion was
not the only person in Tbingen to meditate on the temple
announced by the prophet. One of the key individuals in the
emergence of Rosicrucianism, Johann Valentin Andreae, worked on
this subject for his teacher, the theologian Matthias Hafenreffer.
Simon Studion indicated that in July 1586 a secret conference was
held in Lneburg, which was attended by certain German Protestant
princes, as well as representatives of the kings of France and
Denmark and the queen of England. Their aim was to form a league
of evangelical defensethe Crucifera Militia Evangelica, also called
the Militia Evangelicato counteract the harmful schemes of an
imperialistic Catholic league that was shamefully using Christianity
to justify its demands. The mission of the Militia Evangelica was to
prepare for the new era. Studion mentioned its next meeting in
Constance, in a gathering that he saw as the second Council of
Constancelet us recall that the objective of the first (1414-1418)
was to put an end to the Western Schism. With this new council,
Simon Studion undoubtedly foresaw the coming of a Christianity
unified through a religion of the Spirit.
Certain historians describe this conference as a Rosicrucian
meeting. Had the conference of Lneburg really taken place? No
one knows for certain. However, in considering the role accorded by
the Naometria to the duke of Wrttemberg, it may be seen as an
allegory relating to the union of Protestant princes, then in full
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gestation. The union would be founded a few years later, in 1608, by

the duke of Wrttemberg. In 1586, the year to which Simon Studion
refers, the preliminaries to this creation first appeared. The Earl of
Leicester, acting upon Queen Elizabeths instructions, made contact
with most European Protestant princes for the purpose of forming a
Protestant league. As part of this mission, the Earl of Leicester
continued the work undertaken previously by Philip Sidney, who
had met Emperor Rudolph II with the same purpose in mind.
Furthermore, in 1597, Henry IV of France had sent Guillaume
Ancel to Germany to bring about the creation of such an
association. Henry IV directed this group, but it was Frederick of
Wrttemberg who took the lead. Let us recall that the Naometria
was dedicated to three monarchs: King Henry IV of France; King
James I of England; and Duke Frederick of Wrttemberg.
Moreover, Studion made Frederick the key individual of the great
universal reformation he announced in the Naometria. He was also
convinced that Wrttemberg would play a major role in the ushering
in of a new age.

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FIGURE 14. Detail from Simon Studion, Naometria, drawing by Jakob Lederlin.

THE NAOMETRIA NOVA

Simon Studion was aware of Duke Fredericks interest in the
occult sciences, the latter being an Anglophile who was therefore in
contact with the English Neoplatonic movements that had
developed under the influence of John Dee. In 1596, Studion sent
the duke the manuscript of the Naometria. Frederick was hardly
prepared to give his undivided attention to the esoteric speculations
of this text, as he had become wary of occultists. He had just
arrested Georg Hanauer, an alchemist who had abused his trust, and
in April of the following year Hanauer was executed. However,
during this period some copies of the Naometria began to circulate,
notably among the students of Tbingen University. This was when
Johann Valentin Andreae and his friend Tobias Hess became aware
of this amazing text. Another individual, Philip Ludwig, count
palatine of Neuburg, became fascinated with the Naometria and
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proposed to publish it. To satisfy the requirements of this edition,

Studion had to revamp the text completely. This second version of
his work, called the Naometria Nova, appeared in 1604.
By that time the manuscript, entirely in Latin, comprised 1,790
pages. Its dedication to the monarchs of Europe is followed by an
introduction on the mysteries of the Holy Scripture and by a
conversation between Nathanel and Kleophas, two witnesses to
Christs resurrection. The work finishes with the Beatitudesin
other words, the Sermon on the Mount. The entire volume is
illustrated with many drawings executed by Jakob Lederlin. At the
end of the Naometria Nova is found the score of a motet for six
voices composed by Jean Brauhart which set to music an enigmatic
text of Studion entitled Up Towards the Imminent Destiny of
Present Time:
The Nymph honors the Lilies,
The Lion [honors] the Nymph.
All the other camps [honor] the Lion.
All of them are marked by the image of the cross.
The Lilies, the Nymph, and the Lion with the aid of God will
devastate
The Sun, the Moon, and the Bird of Quirinus.
The Earth will condemn to the wheel the Lilies,
The Water of the sea [will condemn] the Lion,
The Guardian of the Bear will condemn the Nymph with its
allies.
Simon Studion indicated that this poem was meant to celebrate the
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eternal friendship between the Lilies, the Lion, and the Nymph. Was
he speaking here of the friendship that united the lilies of Henry IV
with the lion of England and the lion of Frederick of Wrttemberg?
This text can also be interpreted as relating to the role of the
Protestant leader Frederick of Wrttemberg (the lion) in driving out
the Habsburgs, the corrupt Roman Catholics (the eagle), so as to
usher in the era of the lilies characterizing the Age of the Holy
Spirit.3
The text of the Naometria was never published, undoubtedly due
to the fact that its author died in the year following its final revision,
but fortunately the library of Stuttgart has carefully preserved the
manuscript. What of the great upheaval announced by Simon
Studion for 1620? Admittedly, the final revelation did not occur; but
at this time Germany entered into one of the darkest periods of its
history. On November 8, 1620, the terrible Battle of White
Mountain took place, which witnessed the defeat of the Protestants
by the Catholics. The Habsburg eagle triumphed over Fredericks
lion, leading to the frightful Thirty Years War (see Chapter 9).

THE THIRD ELIJAH

As noted previously, the name of Elijah was frequently used
among those individuals who, since the Renaissance, had hoped for
the coming of the revelation that would mark the end of time.
However, Paracelsus gave the name a new dimension in the form of
Elias Artista. In De Mineralihus, a work relating his own discoveries,
Paracelsus announced that nature hid many more secrets and that
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God would soon send a person who would reveal every marvel.
Returning to this subject in another book entitled Von den natrlichen
Dingen (1525), he stated that this chosen one, characterized as an
accomplished alchemist, would be called Elias. Another text, De
Tinctur (1570), long attributed to Paracelsus although it was written
thirty years after his death, called this messenger Artista. Thus was
born the myth of Elias Artista, who would enjoy great renown
among both the followers of Paracelsus and the first readers of the
Rosicrucian manifestos.
Some of these individuals made the connection between the
coming of Elias Artista and the establishment of the Age of the
Holy Spirit, the third era previously announced by Joachim of Fiore.
In fact, when the first Elijah had been raised toward the heavens, a
second Elijah would come in the person of John the Baptist to
precede the Son (Matthew 11:14; 12:10-12). Moreover, the third age,
that of the Holy Spirit, would be introduced by a third manifestation
of Elijah, who was regarded by some to be the Elias Artista
announced by Paracelsus. As Antoine Faivre mentions in lie
Artiste ou le Messie des Philosophes de la Nature,4 the references
to Elias Artista multiplied at the beginning of the 17th century.
The most characteristic work of this period was Disquisitio de Helia
certum (1606) by Raphael Eglin Iconius. This Paracelsian, a professor
of theology and alchemist at the court of Maurice of Hesse-Kassel,
seemed to have played a key role in the publication of the Fama
Fraternitatis. In his work, he described Elias Artista as an ideal
alchemist and examined the supposed benefits marking his coming.
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Iconius pondered whether he should be considered a real being or

whether he symbolized the sidereal influence that marked the
golden age soon to be established.
For Benedictus Figulus, the hour of the revelation had sounded,
and the time of Elias Artista had come. This alchemist of
Utenhoven, in contact with the Rosicrucian movement of Tbingen,
felt that the personage announced by Paracelsus had arrived and
would usher in the Golden Age. This is what he expressed in two
works published in 1608: Rosarium Novum Olympicum and Thesaurinella
chymica aurea tripartita. Around the same time Oswald Croll, a
celebrated Paracelsian and physician to Christian of Anhalt, stated in
his Basilica Chemica that the third age, that of the Holy Spirit, would
be marked by the coming of Elias Artista, the restorer of the light
of Grace and of Nature.
The works we have cited appeared during the period when the
Fama Fraternitatis was circulating in manuscript form. What is
amazing is that this first manifesto did not make any reference to
Elias Artista, although he was constantly present in Rosicrucian
circles. The question, therefore, is whether Elias Artista was
transformed into Christian Rosenkreuz. Whatever the truth of the
matter, such doubts were kept alive after the publication of the Fama
Fraternitatis in 1614. The letter written by Adam Haselmayer,
inserted into the first edition of this book, probably contributed to
the establishment of this opinion. In this instance the author made
the connection between Elias Artista announced by Paracelsus and
the coming of Christian Rosenkreuz. Many other works took a
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similar stand, such as Helias Tertius by Adam Bruxius and Iudicium

theologicum by David Mederes, published in 1616. These two authors
saw in the Rosicrucian fraternity the third Elijah prophesized by
Malachi. As Antoine Faivre has stated, During these decades, the
name of Elias Artista would often not designate an individual, but a
grouping of philosophers and scholars who are thought to have
worked in favor of a spiritual, religious, scientific renewal.5 These
elements would help to assure the great popularity of the newly
formed Rosicrucian movement.

THE LION OF THE SEPTENTRION

Adam Haselmayers letter reproduced in the first edition of the
Fama Fraternitatis also referred repeatedly to a prophecy very popular
in Europe at this time: that of the Lion of the Septentrion.
Incorrectly attributed to Paracelsus, its origins can be placed around
1605.6 It announced an imminent upheaval, both religious and
political, following the discovery of three immense treasures in Italy,
Bavaria, and a place located between Spain and France. Those
individuals who brought the treasures to light would use these riches
for humanitarian ends. These treasures contained, among other
things, a book containing the secret of the Great Work, following
Paracelsian processes. The prophecy also spoke of the war against
the Antichrist, and it attacked the Sophists as well as Aristotle and
Galen, two individuals criticized in the early pages of the Fama
Fraternitatis.
Undoubtedly the reason for the success of this prophecy was that
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it announced an era when a yellow lion would come from the

Septentrion (North) and struggle with the eagle before establishing
an age of bliss. This prophecy could at times be read as an
alchemical text (the lion and the eagle were used in alchemical
iconography to represent the process of uniting sulfur and mercury)
and at other times in a political light (the war between the eagle of
Habsburg and the lion of Frederick V ).7 Chapter VI of the Confessio
Fraternitatis makes reference to this prophecy. A final prophecy
deserves to be notednamely, the one that Paracelsus announced
in his book Aurora Philosophorum. He indicated that, just as Christ had
come to redeem humanity, at the end of time a very pure individual
would purify and liberate all Creation by exuding rose-colored drops
of blood by which the world would be redeemed from its Fall.8
This brief survey demonstrates the complexity of the era in which
Rosicrucianism was born, due on the one hand to the new findings
of science, and on the other hand to the religious conflicts that had
given rise to the expectation of the appearance of a new religion.
These elements, combined with the eschatological environment then
prevailing, give us a glimpse of the many fears assailing the people
who lived at the end of the 16th century. What solution would
present it self to free them from this impasse?

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FIGURE 15. Fama Fraternitatis, first Rosicrucian manifesto, 1614

114

Chapter 5

THE ECHOES OF THE

ROSE CROSS

N THE EVE of the publication of the Rosicrucian

manifestos, Europe was embroiled in the strife
engendered by its moral crisis. Everyone was longing for a
new Reformation. It was in this context that the Rosicrucians sent
out their call proposing new means for restoring harmony. In
general, we can say that the Rosicrucian Order proposed
Hermeticism as a solution for the enveloping crisis. With this
intention in mind, an anonymous manifesto usually called the Fama
Fraternitatis was published in 1614 at the print shop of Wilhelm
Wessel in Kassel, Germany. The complete title is: Universal and
General Reformation of the whole wide world; together with the
Fama Fraternitatis of the Laudable Fraternity of the Rosy Cross,
written to all the Learned and Rulers of Europe also a short reply by
Herr Haselmayer, for which he was seized by the Jesuits and put in
irons on a Galley. Now put forth in print and communicated to all
true hearts. The text constituting the middle portion, the Fama
Fraternitatis, had already been circulating in Germany as a manuscript
since 1610. It is the only part that has been retained in modern
editions of this manifesto.
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ADVERTISEMENTS FROM PARNASSUS

Introduced by a short preface, the first Rosicrucian manifesto
consisted of three distinct texts. The first explained the necessity for
a general reformation of the world. Although not indicated, this was
a German translation of Notice 77 from Traiano Boccalinis book I
Ragguagli di Parnaso (The Advertisements from Parnassus), a little
known text published in Venice in 1612. However, it is important as
it placed the Rosicrucian project in contextthat is, in describing
the necessity for a reorganization of a Europe in agony. Thus, it is
pertinent that we present here the authors intentions. Boccalini, a
friend of Galileo, belonged to the antipapal circle of the Venetian
patriot and statesman Paolo Sarpi. Boccalinis satiric work used
mythology to depict the political climate then prevailing in Europe.
He criticized the hegemony of the Spanish Habsburg kings over
Christian Europe. In many places Henry IV of France appears as a
hero, and one of the scenes in the book emphasizes the despair felt
after his assassination in 1610.

APOLLOS REFORM
The portion of the Advertisements from Parnassus quoted in the Fama
Fraternitatis describes how Apollo learned from Emperor Justinian
that the Earths inhabitants were suffering great despair due to the
incessant quarrels which set them at odds with one another. Apollo
was unstinting in his efforts to send countless guides and
philosophers to humanity in order to teach them excellent morals,
and so he decided to propose a universal reform that would be
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conducive to restoring humanity to its original purity. To

accomplish this end, he assembled on Parnassus the seven sages of
Greece, among whom were Cato, Seneca, Thales, Solon, and others.
Each of the sages made his proposals. Thales, who thought that
hypocrisy and deceit were the primary causes of evil among
humanity, proposed that a little window be drilled in peoples hearts
so as to bring about candor and transparency in their relationships.
At once an objection was raised: if each person could see into the
hearts of the princes who ruled this world, it would be impossible
for them to govern! Thales proposal was immediately shelved.
Solon felt that disorders were provoked by the hates and jealousies
raging among humans. Thus, he counseled that charity, love, and
tolerance be spread among them. He added that if property could be
more equally divided, life would be better. But once again the critics
protested and the sages of Parnassus called Solons proposal
utopian. Cato proposed an extreme solution: a new flood to
remove in a single stroke all evildoers. Finally, after everyone had
expressed their ideas, the project of Apollos universal reform ended
up in regulating the price of beans and anchovies. Through this
satire, Traiano Boccalini illustrated how institutionswhether
religious, political, or philosophicalare incapable of making things
evolve for the better.1

THE FAMA FRATERNITAT IS

The pessimism of this text, which despaired of seeing peace
restored to Europe, was followed by the optimism of the first
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Rosicrucian manifesto. After the initial text, the Fama Fraternitatis

itself appears. Although this piece of literature is quite short,
constituting some thirty pages in a book which includes a total of
147 pages, the Fama constitutes the heart of the first Rosicrucian
manifesto. In this work, the brothers of the Fraternity of the Rose
Cross appealed to the rulers, clerics, and scholars of Europe. After
having paid their respects to their progressive era which had
witnessed so many discoveries contributed by enlightened minds,
they emphasized that, unfortunately, these discoveries had not
brought the light and peace for which humanity had hoped. They
blamed the scholars, who were more concerned with obtaining
personal success than with placing their abilities in service to
humanity. Likewise, they pointed to those who clung to the old
doctrinessuch as the supporters of the pope2 and the defenders of
Aristotles philosophy and Galens medicinein other words, those
who refused to question authority. The Rosicrucian brothers
discussed the conflict between theology, physics, and mathematics.
Their position was similar to that of Cornelius Heinrich Agrippa,
especially in his definition of magic, which he described as being
genuine science. At the beginning of the first book of his De Occulta
Philosophia, Agrippa presented magic as being the acme of all science,
since all philosophy is divided into three branches of knowledge
which complement one another: physics, mathematics, and
theology.3 Following this inventory of their era, the Rosicrucian
brothers proposed to offer their contemporaries a regenerated
knowledge. This knowledge of infallible axioms came to them from
Father C.R., the founder of their fraternity, who laid down the basis
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for a universal reform many years before.

Who was this mysterious individual, Father C.R.? The answer to
this question occupies the remainder of the Fama Fraternitatis. It
involves Christian Rosenkreuz, a young German, who, we are
informed by the Confessio Fraternitatis, was born in 1378. At sixteen
years of age, he accompanied a brother of a convent who was in
charge of his education on a pilgrimage to the Holy Sepulcher of
Jerusalem. This journey to the East was a true initiatic journey for
young Christian. But on their way to Jerusalem, his companion died
in Cyprus. According to mythology, Cyprus is the birthplace of
Aphrodite (Venus), whose union with Hermes gave birth to
Hermaphrodite, an androgynous child. This allusion to Cyprus in
Christian Rosenkreuzs biography is replete with alchemical
connotations, and served as the prelude for themes later developed
in the Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreuz.

ARABIA FELIX
Despite the death of his companion, Christian Rosenkreuz decided
to continue his journey. However, his destination was changed and
he went instead to Damcar. Contrary to what has sometimes been
stated, Damcar is not Damascus, but rather a town in southwestern
Arabia, as indicated by Mercators Atlas (1585). Damcar was also
mentioned by Abraham Ortelius in his Theatrum Orhis Terrarum as a
city located in Arabia Felix. This region, celebrated for its incense,
was the home of Ismaelism. It was known to have preserved the
Corpus Hermeticum.4 In Damcar there was a university with no fewer
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than 500 students.5 Under the direction of the Brothers of Basra, an

important encyclopedia was compiled here that gathered together all
forms of knowledgeboth scientific and esoteric. In the 20th
century, Henry Corbin, quite intrigued by this branch of Islam
strongly tinged by esotericism, took delight in imagining a dialogue
between the Brothers of the R.C. and the Brothers of a Pure
Heart of Basra. He detected in the two fraternities a similar
purpose.6 A little earlier mile Dantinne made comments along the
same lines.7 While at Damcar, Christian Rosenkreuz associated with
magi who transmitted to him important knowledge, particularly in
physics and mathematics, thus enabling him to transcribe the Book
Mi.e., the Book of the Worldinto Latin. After three years of study,
Christian set out once more on his journeys. After a brief sojourn in
Egypt, he arrived in Fez, Morocco.

FEZ, CITY OF GOLD

According to the 16th century geographer Leo Africanus, Fez was
an important intellectual center. Students flocked to this city, which
possessed magnificent libraries. Since the Umayyad era (A.D. 661),
its schools taught the alchemy of Abu-Abdallah, Imam Jafar alSadiq, and Jabir ibn Hayyan (Geber), as well as the magic and
astrology of Ali-ash-Shabramallishi.8 Leo Africanus stated that at
Fez a form of theurgical magic was practiced, which, beginning with
a sort of circular pantacle traced on the ground, allowed the
practitioner to approach invisible worlds. The Fama Fraternitatis
informs us that the magic of these inhabitants of Fez was not
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altogether pure. Nevertheless, what made a lasting impression on

Christian Rosenkreuz was the spirit of sharing which reigned among
the scholars in this city, in contrast to the situation in Germany,
where most of the learned tended to keep their secrets closely
guarded.9 In Fez, Christian Rosenkreuz perfected his knowledge of
the harmony of the historical cycles. He also understood that, as
every seed contains a tree in embryo, in similar fashion the
microcosm (man) contains the macrocosm with all its components
(nature, language, religion, medicine). The authors of the Fama
Fraternitatis had aken this vision from Paracelsus, who, in his
Philosophia Sagax, stated: . . . in this sense, man also is a seed and
the world is its apple, and whats true for the seed in the apple is
equally true for man in the world surrounding him.10
After having completed his studies in mathematics, physics, and
magic, Christian Rosenkreuz became acquainted with the
elementary inhabitants who revealed unto him many of their
secrets. The latter were probably those which Paracelsus described
in his Treatise on Nymphs, Sylphs, Pygmies, Salamanders, and Other Beings.
These beings, which Paracelsus was said to have seen, did not
descend from Adam, although they had a human appearance, but
had a different origin. By contacting them, humans could learn the
secrets of Nature.

THE HOUSE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

After this initiatic journey to the East, Christian Rosenkreuz
returned to Europe. On his way home, he stopped in Spain to share
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with Spanish scholars what he had learned on his journey. He soon

realized that these scholars did not wish to have their knowledge
questioned. To the authors of the Fama Fraternitatis, the scholars of
Spain symbolized those who are restricted to a doctrine which they
do not wish to have questioned at the risk of seeing their authority
disputed.
Disappointed by the closed attitude of the Spanish scholars, and
having been met with similar criticism in other countries, Christian
Rosenkreuz returned to Germany. There, he undertook to put into
writing the sum of learning which he had obtained in the East. His
aim was to create a society capable of educating the princes of
Europe, for they would become the guiding lights. After five years
of work, Christian Rosenkreuz surrounded himself with the first
group of three disciples to assist him in his projects. Thus was born
the Rosicrucian Fraternity. Together, the Master and his disciples
wrote the first part of the Book M. Then the fraternity was enlarged
with four more brothers. They then moved into a new building
called the Sancti SpiritusHouse of the Holy Spirit. The fraternity
remained discreet and Christian Rosenkreuz died in 1484 at the age
of 106 years. In 1604, long after the death of the first group of
Rosicrucians, the brothers accidentally rediscovered the tomb of
Christian Rosenkreuz as they were doing work on their building.
Over the door of his tomb appeared the inscription: After 120
years I shall open. In this cavern, conceived as a summary of the
universe, they discovered a quantity of scientific objects, heretofore
unknown, and some texts containing all the knowledge gathered by
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their Master.

THE TOMB OF CHRISTIAN ROSENKREUZ

The discovery of a mysterious tomb holding many manuscripts is a
frequent theme in alchemical literature. The example of Basil
Valentine, involving a manuscript discovered under the altar of a
church in Erfurt is well known. The discovery of the tomb of
Christian Rosenkreuz recalls that of Apollonius of Tyana. As we saw
in an earlier chapter, the latter had discovered in the tomb of
Hermes Trismegistus the famous Emerald Tablet and a book
explaining the secrets of the creation.11 This symbolic system
referred to the concept wherein one may visit the bowels of the
Earth; by rectifying thou shalt find the hidden Stone. Gerhard
Dorn, in his Congeries Paracelsicae Chemiae (1581), gives this meaning
to Vitriol,12 a word which is likewise closely linked with Hermes
Trismegistus, since it is associated with an alchemical drawing
entitled The Emerald Tablet (see fig. 2). Moreover, the Emerald
Tablet which Hermes holds in his hands seems to foreshadow the
Book T of Christian Rosenkreuz.
The room where the tomb of Christian Rosenkreuz was
discovered took the form of a cupola or heptahedron. According to
Frances A. Yates, the appearance of the tomb may have been
suggested by the portal depicted in Plate IV of the Amphitheatrum
Sapientiae Aeternae by Heinrich Khunrath (1603).13 Placed in the
center of a cavern, the tomb in which the perfectly preserved body
of Christian Rosenkreuz reposed had a circular form. The tomb was
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covered by a brass plaque on which enigmatic phrases were

engraved. One of them proclaimed: The vacuum exists nowhere.
Apart from the fact that it alludes to the controversy we have
already mentioned, this phrase recalls a dialogue between Hermes
and Asclepius in Treatise II of the Corpus Hermeticum. As we shall see
before long, the third Rosicrucian manifesto includes many allusions
to texts attributed to Hermes Trismegistus.

FIGURE 16. Heinrich Khunrath, Amphitheatrum Sapientiae Aeternae, 1603

PARACELSUS AND ROSENKREUZ

Especially noteworthy among the various writings represented in
the tomb of Christian Rosenkreuz were Book T, which he held in his
hands, and what is called the Vocabulary of Theoph: Par. Ho. The latter
text is probably one of the vocabularies of Paracelsus, in particular
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the Dictionarium Theophrasti Paracelsi continens ohscuriomm vocahularum . . .

published in 1584 by Gerhard Dorn, a disciple of Paracelsus. It may
be noted that Paracelsus is the only author referred to in the Fama
Fraternitatis. Moreover, many of the themes developed in this
manifesto come from his works or those of his disciples. The Book
M, which we mentioned previously, refers directly to his ideas. We
will not delve into this subject here, as we will have a better
opportunity to do so when discussing the Confessio Fraternitatis.
Nevertheless, we need to point out the concept of Paracelsus
alchemy found in this first manifesto, particularly in the way it
viewed the Great Worknamely, as being a preliminary work of
little importance in regard to the spiritual procedure of the
Rosicrucians. By this stand, the Rose Cross dissociated itself from
the alchemical methods pervading Germany in this era that gave rise
to considerable excesses.
After having gathered together the treasures of learning found in
Christian Rosenkreuzs tomb, the Rosicrucian brothers closed it
again. Fortified by this legacy based upon immutable axioms, they
felt ready to bring to fruition the divine and humane general
reform previously envisioned by their Master. The Fama Fraternitatis
reveals that, like the brothers who had discovered a treasure of
knowledge after having smashed the wall which concealed the
opening of the tomb, Europe would open itself to a new era by
adopting new knowledge after having set aside old beliefs that acted
like walls to its advancement. However, as the Fama Fraternitatis
states, the knowledge which the Rosicrucians proposed was . . . not
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a new invention, but as Adam after his fall hath received it. Thus, it
involves restoring a lost knowledge that some people are
endeavoring to perpetuate. The first manifesto gave the names of
various individuals who were the transmitters of this Primordial
Tradition. These names recall those mentioned by Marsilio Ficino in
a similar context.

FIGURE 17. The Rose Cross, from the 1614 edition of the Fama Fraternitatis.

ADAM HASELMAYER
The Fama Fraternitatis ends with an invitation to the men of science
and to the sovereigns of Europe to join the Rosicrucian
brotherhood by sharing in its reforming knowledge. However, this
appeal is peculiar inasmuch as it specifies that . . . although at this
time we make no mention either of our names, or meetings, yet
nevertheless everyones opinion shall assuredly come to our hands,
in what language so ever it be, nor anybody shall fail, who so gives
but his name to speak with some of us, either by word of mouth, or
else if there be some let [i.e., issued] in writing. This statement
126

indicates in effect that the house of the Rosicrucians shall forever

remain untouched, undestroyed, and hidden to the wicked world . . .
. This message was heard and the open letters to the Rosicrucians
were printed at various places in Europe, such as the one that was
published at the end of the first Rosicrucian manifesto. The text of
this letter is what Adam Haselmayer (1560-?) published in 1612 with
the title of Answer to the Laudable Fraternity of Rosicrucian
Theosophists, after having read a manuscript of the manifesto
which was circulating in the Tyrol in 1610, some four years before it
was published. Many authors have considered Haselmayer to be an
imaginary individual. This is not the case, as proved by Carlos Gilly,
who, after patient research, succeeded in reconstructing the
biography of this Paracelsian, who was a great collector of
alchemical manuscripts.14
Adam Haselmayer was so enthusiastic about the Fama Fraternitatis
that he asked Archduke Maximilian to subsidize research on the
Rosicrucians. The text of his Answer to the Rosicrucian Manifesto
is strongly influenced by the prophecy of the Lion of the
Septentrion and by Joachimism. He made the Rosicrucians the
forecasters of the Age of the Holy Spirit and felt that they were
those that God has chosen to spread the Theophrastical and divine
eternal truth. He announced that 1613 would mark the end of time
and that the Great Judgment would take place in 1614. He thus
thought that attending church was uselessan attitude which led
him to be suspected of heresy. Refusing to retract such statements,
Haselmayer was condemned to the galleys in October 1612. He
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remained there four and a half years, but during this period he
seemed to have enjoyed special treatment, because he remained in
contact by letter with many other individuals equally fond of
alchemy. According to Carlos Gilly, Adam Haselmayers enthusiasm
was excessive and was not in full accord with Rosicrucian
philosophy.

HERMES AND ROSENKREUZ

As noted previously, it was in this context of moral crisis that the
first manifesto advocated a program of reform in which esotericism
held the place of honor. The Rosicrucians placed themselves in the
mainstream of Renaissance esotericism, to which were added some
specifically Christian mystical preoccupations. We may also note that
this first manifesto did not hesitate to distance itself from the
puffers of esotericism, just as it did with all ossified religions. The
Rosicrucians wished to move closer to science, esotericism, and
mysticism in an optimistic project of reform strongly characterized
by Paracelsianism. In placing itself squarely within the Primordial
Tradition, as it was defined in the Renaissance, the Rosicrucians
relegated Egypt to a secondary role. The enigmatic Hermes
Trismegistus, whose legitimacy was compromised by Isaac
Casaubon in 1614, disappeared in favor of a more human
personality, namely, Christian Rosenkreuz.

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FIGURE 18. John Dee, Monas Hieroglyphica, 1564. On the frieze, which supports a
starry vaulted pediment, there is written in Latin: He who does not understand
must remain silent or learn. The pillar on the left is that of the sun and fire, while
the pillar on the right is that of the moon and air. From each star descends
dewdrops collected in cups. On the lower part of the drawing appear these words:
God dispenses the dew of the heaven and the fatness of the earth, an allusion to
Genesis, chapter 27, verse 39. The Monad is shown in the center, encircled by

129

phylacteries which state: Mercury shall become the parent of the king of all the
planets when he is made perfect by a fixed point.

130

Chapter 6

THE CONFESSIO
FRATERNITATIS

N 1615, THE year following the publication of the Fama

Fraternitatis, Wilhelm Wessel published a second manifesto in
Kassel, Germany. Just as the previous manifesto had been
supplemented by the Advertisements from Parnassus, this second
manifesto was accompanied by a text entitled Secretions Philosophiae
consideratio brevis a Philippo a Gabella. The full title of the latter
translated into English reads: A Brief Consideration of the More
Secret Philosophy, written by Philip a Gabella, a student of
philosophy, published for the first time with the updated Confession
of the R.C. Fraternity.1 The author of this text remains anonymous.
In the introduction, he points out that this work involves a
philosophical treatise, after noting that it is embellished by the
actions, studies, and knowledge of the R.C. Fraternity. A short
preface follows, signed Frater R.C., wherein the author indicates
that this Brief Consideration was derived entirely from Hermes,
Plato, Seneca, and other philosophers.

THE MONAD
However, this Brief Consideration is not at all related to Hermes
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or any other philosophers, but is instead an adaptation of Monas

Hieroglyphica (1564), a work by John Dee (1527-1608). In this book,
the leading alchemist, astrologer, and mathematician at the court of
Queen Elizabeth I of England proposed to explain a hieroglyph
namely, the monadin twenty-four theorems. Following the
methods of Cornelius Heinrich Agrippa, whom he read assiduously,
John Dee composed this magical character by basing it on
geometrical principles. According to Pierre Bhar, the monad, apart
from its magical aspect, is an alchemical symbol that designates the
Stone of the alchemists, the Mercury of the Sages.2 The symbol
composed by John Dee was also repeated in the third Rosicrucian
manifesto, the Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreuz, by Johann
Valentin Andreae.
The Brief Consideration was composed beginning with excerpts
taken from the first thirteen theorems of the Monas Hieroglyphica. The
author repeats the passages dealing with the different parts
composing the hieroglyph of the Monas. Sometimes, the term monas
is not preserved, but is replaced by the word stella. The author of the
Brief Consideration presents himself as an eminent spagyrist who
wishes to combine the theorems of John Dee with the teachings of
Basil Valentine concerning Vitriol. His text is a kind of alchemical
treatise that attempts to teach his students how to live on the rose,
the most beautiful and fragrant of the flowers. The author teaches
them how to make honey with the nectar of this flower without
being pricked by its curved thorns. This text is completed by a
prayer signed Philemon R.C.
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THE CONFESSIO FRATERNITATIS

The first manifesto announced the forthcoming publication of a
Confession in which thirty seven reasons for which the Order
exists would be set forth. The second manifesto did not provide
these reasons, but provided information that attempted to make the
Fama more clear by reformulating anything too deep, hidden, and
set down over dark in the Fama. The Confessio Fraternitatis, or the
Confession of the Laudable Fraternity of the most honorable Order of the Rosy
Cross, written to the Learned of Europe, was divided into fourteen
sections, although later editions did not always observe this division.
In this text, the Rosicrucians emphasize that they possess the
antidote for the disease which gnaws at science and philosophy,
because they hold the key to all knowledge, whether it be the arts,
philosophy, theology, or medicine. They also give new particulars as
to the sources of their knowledge, indicating that they do not simply
come from investigations carried out by Christian Rosenkreuz, but
also from those revelations he obtained by divine illumination
brought about through the mediation of angels.

MILLENNIALISM
Whereas the text of the first manifesto, apart from Adam
Haselmayers letter, did not allude to the prophecy of the Lion of
the Septentrion, the Confessio Fraternitatis speaks of it by announcing
that our treasures shall remain untouched and unstirred until the
lion doth come . . . (ch. 6)3 and the roaring of this lion would
coincide with the next fall of the pope (ch. 5). As a whole, we may
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say that this new manifesto is millennialist in character. As such, it

was part of the anticipated reform movement we mentioned
previously, in the chapter entitled The Naometria and the Age of
the Holy Spirit. In comparison to the optimism displayed by the
Fama Fraternitatis, which foresees the advent of a new age enriched
by the contribution of fresh knowledge, the Confessio Fraternitatis
appears more pessimistic. It proclaims that the Lord Jehovah (who
facing the Lords Sabbath is almost at hand, and hastened again, his
period or course being finished, to his first beginning) doth turn
about the course of Nature (ch. 1). This end of time is that of the
Millennium, the period of 1,000 years which will follow the 6,000
years already elapsed (in reference to the prophet Elijah), because
the Rosicrucians have received the mission of lighting the sixth
candelabrum (ch. 4). This period corresponds to Joachim of Fiores
third agethat of the Holy Spirit or the opening of the sixth seal.
The Rosicrucians explain their revelation as being a final grace
offered by God to the world before her end, which presently
thereupon shall ensue (ch. 7). It will permit humanity to enjoy for a
while a truth, light, life and glory, as the first man Adam had, which
he lost in Paradise (ch. 7). Here the Confessio Fraternitatis revisits a
theme presented in the first manifesto, that of the primordial
revelation received by Adam after the Fall.
It may be asked whether the authors of this manifesto really
thought that the end of time was near. This age may be thought of
in terms of metahistoryto use a term coined by Henry Corbin
rather than linear history.4 This is not a question of an event
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arising within human time, but on the time of the spirit, lived in the
interior of a soul regenerated by illumination. Moreover, the Confessio
Fraternitatis speaks of the Rosicrucians as being individuals having
the faculty of projecting themselves in time, past or future, to distant
lands (ch. 4).

THE LIBER MUNDI

The Confessio Fraternitatis returns to a theme touched upon in the
first manifesto, that of the Liber Mundi or the Book of the World,
by speaking of those great letters and characters which the Lord
God hath written and imprinted in Heaven and Earths edifice (ch.
6). Here we discover an essential aspect of the thoughts of
Paracelsus. For him, the only fundamental book, aside from the
Bible, was the Book of Nature. These characters and letters, as
God hath here and there incorporated them in the holy scripture the
Bible, so hath he imprinted them most apparently into the
wonderfill creation of Heaven and Earth, yea in all beasts (ch. 9).
The concept, derived from Paracelsus, states that Nature is the key
to everything in existence, that it is not a mechanical system of laws,
but a living reality with which humanity may enter into a dialogue
for the purpose of co-birth.

THE BIBLE
Although the second manifesto assigns importance to the Book of
Nature, it also insists upon the importance of the revealed Word and
exhorts one to read diligently and continually the holy Bible. It
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claims that from the beginning of the world there hath not been
given unto men a more worthy, a more excellent, and more
admirable and wholesome book than the holy Bible (ch. 10). As
with the Fama, the Confessio vilifies the pope by accusing him of
tyranny. When announcing the crushing of the pontiff, it states:
Therefore one day it will come to pass that them outh of those
vipers will be stopped (ch. 11), and then adds that he also shall be
scratched in pieces (ch. 5). These statements reflect themes
frequently found in Paracelsus Pronosticationes and Practica. This
stance, which is quite understandable in a Protestant environment
that considered the pope to be the Antichrist, was the origin of the
strong hostility of Catholicism to Rosicrucianism. Undoubtedly, in a
move to put the earlier praise of the Arab civilization into
perspective, the second manifesto also found fault with Mohammed.
However, this last comment may be a reiteration of the Naometria
which condemns the pope and his son of perdition, Mohammed.

ALCHEMY AND REFORMS

The Confessio Fraternitatis returns to the criticism lodged against the
pseudo-alchemists in the first manifesto. For Rosicrucians, true
alchemy should lead to a knowledge of Nature, but this is
secondary, as the primary aim is that we be earnest to attain to the
understanding and knowledge of philosophy (ch. 11). The Order
also urges one to act cautiously in regard to the proliferation of
alchemical texts that flourished at this time. Indeed, the most
extensive publication of books concerning the Great Work occurred
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during the 17th century.5

THE FORTRESS OF TRUTH

The Confessio Fraternitatis declared that the sages of the city of
Damcar would set an example for Rosicrucians, according unto
which example also the government shall be instituted in Europe.
These individuals were said to have a plan established for this
purpose by Christian Rosenkreuz. As in the first manifesto, the
Rosicrucians invited the people of their era to join their fraternity
and proposed that these seekers unite with them for the purpose of
constructing a new fortress of truth. They promised health,
omniscience, and inner calm to everyone who wanted to be initiated
into the heritage of all of Natures bounties. However, they warned
those who were blinded with the glistening of gold, and who
wanted to join their fraternity with the aim of obtaining material
profits, that they would never be admitted.
In summary, we can say that the Confessio Fraternitatis places more
emphasis upon religion than did the first manifesto. The Confessio
tried to rehabilitate the heritage of the Renaissance so as to serve
Christian millennialism (with the difference that it did not speak of
Christs return) and presented the imminence of the final revelation
under the auspices of the Rose Cross.

THE SOURCES
Countless scholars have speculated as to who wrote the first two
Rosicrucian manifestos and what the sources were that they drew
137

upon. We may note here the influence of the medieval era, as the
infallible axiomatics to which the manifestos refer recall the Ars
Magna of Raymond Lully, whose works were published in 1598 by
Lazarus Zetzner, the famed publisher of Strasbourg.6 The Rhenish
mystic had also considerably influenced the authors of the early
Rosicrucian writings, particularly by way of Johann Arndt, who shall
be discussed later. However, the Fama and the Confessio draw
essentially from three currents of the tradition: Paracelsianism,
contemporary Neo-Joachimism, and the Hermeticism of the
Renaissance.7
It is not by accident that Paracelsus is the only author praised by
the manifestos, as he constituted a primary source for the ideas
presented in these writings. The need for sharing the knowledge
acquired from various parts of the world, the fact that man is a
microcosm, the reference to the Liber Mundi, and to the dwellers of
elementary worlds or more particularly, the metaphor of the seed
are themes in the manifestos originating with Paracelsus. Let 11s
add that in Christian Rosenkreuzs tomb there appeared a book
called the Vocabular of Theoph: Par. Ho., identified as being one of the
dictionaries of Paracelsian terms published in the 17th century. Such
influences are perfectly understandable in that Paracelsian texts were
widely read during the time of the manifestos. Between 1589 and
1591 Johann Huser had published Paracelsus complete works,
following the enormous task of researching his manuscripts. A
second edition was then issued in ten volumes between 1603 and
1605 by Lazarus Zetzner, the future editor of Johann Valentin
138

Andreaes works.
Neo-Joachimism is ever-present in the manifestos. As we
explained earlier, the theories of Joachim of Fiore experienced a
revival of interest in the 16th century, as had the Prophecy of Elijah
or that of the Lion of the Septentrionalong with the many
predictions of channeling the peoples aspiration for a renewala
reformation that allowed the 16th centurys numerous conflicts to
be calmed. Renaissance Hermeticism is also present in Rosicrucian
texts, particularly in connection with alchemy. However, it should be
noted that the Qabalah, both Jewish and Christian, occupies a minor
role here. Other influences are equally apparent, such as those
regarding time, which is presented as being cyclic. These texts could
very well refer to Ishmaelism, with Damcar being one of the
sources.

THE TBINGEN CIRCLE

The study of the ideas expressed in the manifestos allows us to
hypothesize about their authors. Most present-day experts agree that
they were not the work of one person, but rather of a small group of
students and scholars living in Tbingen, a university town in
Wrttemberg. This group was called the Tbingen Circle. It was
formed around 1608 and consisted of about thirty individuals who
were passionate about alchemy, Qabalah, astrology, naometry, and
Christian mysticism. The most important individuals included
Johann Arndt, Johann Valentin Andreae, Tobias Hess, Abraham
Hlzel, the pastor Vischer, Christoph Besold, and Wilhelm von
139

Wense. They conceived the project of another reformation,

complementing those of Luther and Calvin, which were judged to
be inadequate. Two of these scholars, Tobias Hess and Abraham
Hlzel, were previously involved in a movement for circulating
esoteric and mystical works among the faculty of the university.

FIGURE 19. Theophilus Schweighardt (Daniel Mgling), Speculum Sophicum RhodoStauricum, 1618.

JOHANN ARNDT
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Johann Arndt (1555-1621), considered by Andreae to be his

spiritual father, was the groups mentor. A pastor, theologian,
physician, alchemist, and keen follower of Johannes Tauler and
Valentin Weigel, he was the author of a commentary on the plates of
Heinrich Khunraths Amphitheatrum Sapientiae Aeternael. According to
a letter written on January 29, 1621, to the duke of Brunswick, his
desire was to lead students and researchers away from polemical
theology and to bring them back to a living faith, to a practice of
piety. He was the popularizer of The Imitation of Christ. His mystical
tendencies are noticeable in his sermons on the Gospels or on
Luthers Small Catechism, and in his collection of prayers entitled
Paradies Gartlein Aller christlichen Tugenden (1612). He wrote a
devotional text entitled Vier Bcher vom wahren Christentum (Four
Books on True Christianity, 1605-1610) that was one of the most
widely read until the 19th century. Both a mystic and an alchemist,
he attempted to integrate the Paracelsian heritage with medieval
theology, and in this latter work, he developed the idea of an inner
alchemy, of a spiritual renaissance.
Roland Edighoffer has shown that an entire passage of the
Confessio Fraternitatis discussing the Book of Nature is taken almost
word for word from the final volume of Arndts Four Books on True
Christianity.8 In his De Antiqua Philosophia (1595), Arndt emphasizes
that wisdom is found not in speculation, but in the practicala
concept also found in the manifestos. He is considered to be one of
the instigators of Pietism. In 1691, Johannes Kelpius and his
followers took Arndts works with them as they left for the New
141

World. According to a letter from Johann Arndt found among the

papers of the theosophist Christophe Hirsch, Johann Valentin
Andreae acknowledged having written the Fama Fraternitatis with
thirty other people. Another letter, sent by Johann Valentin Andreae
to his friend John Amos Comenius, made the same claim. However,
some questions have been raised regarding the authenticity of these
letters.9

TOBIAS HESS
Tobias Hess (1558-1614) was one of the most important members
of the Tbingen Circleperhaps even its instigator. His
preoccupations synthesized perfectly the various elements presented
in the manifestos. Hess, who was a member of Tbingen University,
a Paracelsian physician, Qabalist, philosopher, and admirer of Simon
Studion, Julius Sperber, and Joachim of Fiore, probably played a
fundamental role in drafting the Fama and Confessio. In 1605, he was
accused of practicing naometry and continued to promote
millennialism in certain publications where he expressed himself to
be in favor of worldwide reform. The Fama repeated his idea which
basically declares: It is wrong to claim that what is true in
philosophy is false in theology. Hess was also accused of being an
instigator of a secret society. Even though his accusers did not
provide the name of this society, it is probable that they were
referring to the Rosicrucian Order, whose first manifesto was
circulating at this time in manuscript form.
Tobias Hess was associated with Oswald Croll, a disciple of
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Paracelsus. Due to his medical talents, Hess had healed Andreae of a

terrible fever, and the latter admired him immensely. Hess died in
1614, just before the publication of the manifestos, and his funeral
oration was delivered by Andreae. This text was printed afterwards,
and curiously enough, as Roland Edighoffer notes, it included the
following words in italic type, Tobias Hess and Famathe only ones
in the bookas though to emphasize a link between the two. An
astonishing fact should be mentioned: In 1616, Andreae published
anonymously Theca gladii spiritus (The Sheath of the Glory of the
Spirit), indicating in the books preface that it was authored by
Tobias Hess. Interestingly enough, forty-eight passages of this book
are taken from the Confessio! In his autobiography Andreae would
later acknowledge that all of the text found in the Theca was his. Can
we not conclude from this that Hess was the author of either a part
or the entirety of the Confessio Fraternitatis?

JOHANN VALENTIN ANDREAE

As early as 1699, in his Unparteyische Kirchen und Ketzer Historie
(History of the Church and of Heretics), Gottfried Arnold claimed
that Johann Valentin Andreae was the author of the Rosicrucian
manifestos. For a long time this theory was considered to be
authoritative. In Andreaes case we are dealing with a particularly
noteworthy individual whom we will discuss in further detail when
we touch upon the third manifesto, The Chymical Wedding of Christian
Rosenkreuz. However, Andreae took pains to distance himself from
the Rosicrucians, and in one of his books, Menippus (1617), he
143

speaks harshly about the Rosicrucian Fraternity when he deals with

ludibriumin other words, farce or mockery. Nevertheless, as
Frances A. Yates indicates, these terms are not forceful pejoratives
when spoken by Andreae, because he attached considerable
importance to the moral influences of stories and the theater.10 His
literary output likewise testifies to this interest.11 It should be added
that throughout his life, he did his best to organize societies or
associations corresponding in many ways to the project presented in
the manifestos. It appears that Andreae basically took an official
position in opposition to the manifestos so as to protect his religious
career. It may be said that unforeseen circumstances led to the
publication of the Fama Fraternitatis at the exact moment when, after
a series of difficulties, Andreae finally obtained the post of deacon at
Vaihingen and married Elisabeth Grninger, the daughter of a
pastor and niece of a Lutheran prelate.
Much speculation has swirled around the subject of the possible
authors of the manifestos; however, none of them is entirely
satisfactory. Although the author of the early manifestos has kept
his secret well, Tobias Fless and Johann Valentin Andreae probably
played a fundamental role in developing these works.

AN INITIATIC NARRATIVE
Let us return to Christian Rosenkreuz, the individual presented by
the manifestos as the founder of Rosicrucianism. Are we dealing
here with a real or a mythical individual? As many have stated, these
texts do not recount the biography of one person, because they
144

involve initiatic narratives that present many facets. What can be

generally said is that through the travels of Christian Rosenkreuz, his
sojourns in the Arab lands and then in Spain, we may rediscover the
advances which various esoteric sciences made when passing from
the East to West. These sciences, after having experienced further
development in Europe, were to come into full bloom under
Paracelsus. After his death, Valentin Weigel and other individuals
succeeded in rectifying any flaws and enriched them with the
mysticism of the Rhineland and Flanders. What Rosicrucians
proposed was to recover this heritage and include it in the body of
knowledge of an era that they envisioned as being the dawn of a
new age.
Many elements contribute in proving that the manifestos are
symbolic narratives. For example, the important dates in Christian
Rosenkreuzs life correspond to significant historical events. The
year of his birth, 1378, corresponds to the year of the Great Schism
of the West in which Avignon and Rome were at loggerheads. And
that of his death, 1484, corresponds to the year that Martin Luther
the individual who attempted to reform Christianitywas born.
Although it is now thought that Luther was born in 1483, his own
mother wavered between 1483 and 1484, and Luther himself opted
for 1484. There exists an astrological tradition based on the studies
of Paulus von Middleburg and Johannes Lichtenberger, who saw his
birth sign in the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn that took place in
Scorpio in 1484. Equally significant is that the writings relating to
Paracelsus texts were placed in Christian Rosenkreuzs tomb in
145

1484. But keep in mind that Paracelsus could not have written
anything yet, seeing that he was born in 1493! The theme of the
discovery of a tomb is a recurring symbol in the tradition, and we
will have occasion to return to this subject later.
Only one step separates symbol from invention, and certain
authors do not hesitate to cross the threshold. Several historians
have pointed out that the authors of the manifestos did not need to
adapt the biographies of real persons to invent Christian
Rosenkreuz. Paul Arnold has shown that several mystics bear
uncanny similarities to Christian Rosenkreuz.12 First there is Joachim
of Fiore, who undertook the foundation of a fraternity after his
travels to the Orient. Then there are Rulman Merswin (1307-1382),
the founder of the Friends of God,13 and Gerhard Groote (13401384), the creator of the Brothers of the Common Life. The latter
group promoted the Devotio Moderna, a spiritual movement which
emphasized the inner experience. The most beautiful flowering of
this movement is seen in The Imitation of Christ, a book which had
considerable influence on Rosicrucians.14 Paul Arnolds observations
are of interest in that the parallels between these personalities and
Christian Rosenkreuz are striking, even though notable differences
do exist. In addition, many of the ideas promulgated by these
mystics are found in the manifestos.
It is possible to view such matters from another angle as the
manifestos can also be read as the account of a spiritual experience.
They fall within an indisputable historical context, but, as with all
initiatic accounts, they are associated with a metahistory that goes
146

beyond a mere chronology. This is where we leave the historical

realm and place ourselves on another level, one whose
characteristics need to be defined so that we may understand the
meaning of the Rosicrucian manifestos.

FIGURE 20. Stephan Michelspacher, Cabala speculum artis et Naturae in Alchymia,

147

1616.

148

Chapter 7

THE EMERALD LAND

As we learned previously, from a strictly historical standpoint, the
Rosicrucians appeared only at the beginning of the 17th century.
Should we conclude, therefore, that they did not exist before then?
According to Sdir, the Rose-Croix bore this name only in Europe
and in the 17th century. We may not reveal the names it had
elsewhere either before or after. He added: As for the essential
Rose-Croix, it has existed since man has lived on Earth, because it
relates to an immaterial function of the Earths soul. Aware of the
inadequacy of his own research, Sdir thought that the real origins
of the Rosicrucians could not be found on paper, because it did not
pertain to the Earth, but to the invisible.1
A study of the origin of the initiatic orders based only on their
objective and chronological aspects would lead to historicismin
other words, to an essentially positivist and reductionist vision of
their genesis. Would this not then run the risk of overlooking the
essential: their connection with the sacred? As Mircea Eliade points
out, The history of religions, from the most primitive to the most
complex, is constituted by an accumulation of herophanies, by the
manifestations of sacred realities.2 It is the same for the initatic
orders. Their history takes root in numinous experiences3; and that
is why we must now touch upon this aspect. Just as Christian
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Rosenkreuz journeyed to the Arab world, in the following pages we

will travel to the Islamic civilization.

THE SPIRITUAL FILIATION

Ren Gunon tried to define initiation as being the transmission of
a spiritual influence whose source is suprahumanalthough he
remains imprecise concerning the origin of the latter, which he
places in time immemorial. He mentions two modes of this
transmission: a vertical one, which descends directly from the
invisible toward humanity, and a horizontal one, which is the
retransmission of this sacred trust from one initiate to another. Most
people who study the history of initiatic orders generally content
themselves with recalling the horizontal filiation, because it is true
that the former remains imperceptible to the historian. However, by
proceeding in this way, they often confine the subject of initiatic
filiation to the level of some administration issuing certificates and
diplomas. Other individuals, such as Henry Corbin, give greater
importance to the vertical transmission and make the mystical
experience, spiritual filiation, a fundamental criterion of traditional
validity.

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FIGURE 21. Qaf, the Cosmic Mountain, whose summit is none other than the
most elevated center of the human psyche. On this summit, one finds the emerald
stone which tints the heavenly vault green.

THE IMAGINAL WORLD

At the end of the previous chapter, we hinted at the similarities
which exist between the biographies of certain founders of spiritual
movements and that of Christian Rosenkreuz. Henry Corbin
mentioned the same personalitiesand even added a few others
151

but drew conclusions that were more interesting than those of Paul
Arnold. He noted the manifestations of primordial images which
call attention to identical spiritual experiences. He also speaks of the
principle of a common source through a filiation that is not earthly,
but heavenly, and which takes root in the mundus imaginalis (imaginal
world). Corbin does his best to explain the meaning of this world in
his many works, and in particular in those devoted to Shihaboddin
Yahya Sohravardi (1155-1191), the great philosopher and mystic of
Islamic Iran. Hermes, Plato, and Zoroaster were the primary
influences who nourished the thoughts of this Platonist of Shiite
Islam.
Sohravardi presents the imaginal world (alam al-mithal) as being a
dimension located between purely spiritual and material spheres.4
Designated theosophically as the Malakut (the world of the soul and
souls), the imaginal world plays the role of mediator between the
world of forms and the world of pure essences. It is designated as
the Hurqalyathe Eighth Clime, the Land of the Cities of
Emerald. Sohravardi speaks of it as being the world that the
spiritual pilgrim encounters in his mystical experiences. To describe
the process of raising the soul toward this level of awareness, Iranian
symbology talks about the ascent of Mount Qaf. This is a cosmic
mountain whose summit is none other than the most elevated center
of the human psyche. On this summit is found the emerald stone
which tints the heavenly vault green. This is where the Holy Spirit,
the Angel of Humanity, resides. Among Sufis, the emerald is the
symbol of the cosmic soul. It is also amazing to find a similar
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concept among Christian Qabalists. For instance, when discussing

the soul of the world, Johannes Pistorius, in De Artis cahbalisticae
(1587), talks about the green line of the last heaven when dealing
with the Soul of the World. This concept is also found in Knorr von
Rosenroths Cabala denudata (1677).5

TRUE IMAGINATION
The imaginal world performs a function connected with the inner
experience. According to Sohravardi, man has access to this
dimension by means of a special faculty of the soulnamely, the
active imagination. Paracelsus likewise talked about this faculty of
imaginatio vera, true imagination, which he insisted should not be
confused with fantasy, the folly of logic. As was shown by the
psychologist Carl Jung, true imagination is a fundamental key for
understanding the Great Work. Furthermore, the Rosarium (14th
century) indicates that the alchemical opus should be accomplished
with true imagination, and Martin Ruland, in his Lexicon alchemiae
(1612), stated that imagination is the star within man, the celestial
or supracelestial body.6 Jacob Boehme also spoke of the imaginal
world in the guises of the Holy Element or the Soul of the World
where the Sophia dwellsa representation which recalls to some
extent the Spenta Armaiti, the Sophia of Mazdaism.
The imaginal world is of particular interest to us in that, as was
shown by Corbin, it is the timeless dimension where the events
related in myths or great epics unfold. It is the place where the
visions of prophets and mystics take place, where the guides of
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humanity receive their mission. It is also the place of mystical

initiations and, furthermore, of the spiritual filiations whose
authenticity is not within the jurisdiction of documentation or
archives.7 This imaginal world is a meeting point between the
material and spiritual worlds; it is called the land of visions and
land of resurrection, because it is where the initiate finds his
glorious body (the Man of Light also spoken of by Zosimos, the
2nd century Alexandrian alchemist), which makes possible the
marriage of the soul, the meeting with its Perfect Nature. For
Sohravardi, those individuals who succeed in this spiritual
experience become the disciples of Hermes.

INITIATIC NARRATIVES
The pilgrims of the spirit who have attained this level of awareness
of the soul have generally related their experiences by means of
symbolic narratives. The latter, which have become the basic texts
of the spiritual movements originating in their wake, possess several
characteristics. First of all, as Corbin points out, they are not myths
in the common sense of the word; they refer to events whose reality,
time, and place are not of the order of everyday history but of the
imaginal world, the world of the soul. They relate to hierohistory
in other words, sacred history. Thus, they should not be understood
in their literal sense, but in their inner sense (to use an expression
of Emanuel Swedenborg), and only hermeneutics allows one to
apprehend their meaning. They then possess a capacity for
transformation, because they are the carriers of a light which
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touches the intimate center of the reader on the verge of perceiving

such profundity. Furthermore, it is in this sense that they are truly
initiatic narratives. One of the most celebrated among these texts is
the one that reported the discovery of the tomb of Hermes
Trismegistus.

FIGURE 22. Heinrich Khunrath, Amphitheatrum Sapientiae Aeternae, The Emerald

Tablet, 1603.

PERFECT NATURE
Several historians have noted that Christian Rosenkreuz appeared
at the moment when Hermes Trismegistus vanished, after his legacy
was called into question by Isaac Casaubon (1614). According to
Antoine Faivre, the Fama Fraternitatis marked the refounding of
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Western esotericism. Therefore, it is interesting to note that the

description of the discovery of Christian Rosenkreuzs tomb recalls
that of the sepulcher of Hermes. According to Corbin, the account
in which Balinusor rather, Apollonius of Tyana reports his
discovery of Hermes body is the typification of mans encounter
with his soul, his Perfect Nature.8 Hermes holds in his hand the
Emerald Tablet and a book containing the secrets of Creation.
These elements recall the concept which states that the person who
attains selfknowledge, by entering into his own depths, will know
the secrets of God and the universe.
It appears that Balinus narrative was taken from a passage in the
Picatrix,9 in which Socrates discussed the subject of the Perfect
Nature. This discussion, recalling the testimony of Hermes, points
out that it represents the spiritual entity of the philosopher, the inner
guide which unlocks wisdom. Another part of the Picatrix includes a
prayer supposedly belonging to the astral liturgy of the Sabaeans of
Harran. It invokes Hermes by specifying that he is called Otared in
Arabic, Tir in Persian, Hams in Rhomaic, and Budha in Hindi.10 Let
us add that this encounter between man and his Perfect Nature is
also mentioned in the Poemandres, the prologue to the Corpus
Hermeticum

THE OLD SAGE

The tomb represents the place of transition to the other world, and
certain texts associate it with the passage toward the imaginal world.
It symbolizes, in effect, the place of the metamorphosis of the body
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into spirit, of its resurrection. For Jung it also represents the descent
into the depths of the unconscious. The bodies of the two masters,
Christian Rosenkreuz and Hermes Trismegistus, discovered in their
sepulchers, are those of elderly men. Jung analyzed the presence of
this symbol in myths, stories, or dreams as being the expression of
an arehetypethat of the old sage. He thought that when an
individual had attained a certain stage in his quest, the unconscious
changed appearance in his inner life. It then appeared in the new
symbolic form representing the Ego, the innermost center of the
psyche. For women, it would be represented by a priestess or
sorceress, and for men, it generally manifested in the form of an old
wise man, an initiator. Jung also saw the archetype of the alchemical
process, of initiation, in Hermes. He associated Hermes-Mercury
with the unconscious and made it an element of primary importance
in the process of integrationin other words, of the discovery of
the center of being: the Ego.

THE FRIENDS OF GOD

At the end of the final volume of his masterly work En islam
iranien, Henry Corbin ponders the resemblances existing between the
biographies or accounts of individuals who founded certain spiritual
movements. He notes various common themes, such as the concept
of the Friends of God, the color green, the idea of cycles, as well as
the revelatory recurrences of an identical spiritual experience.11
There are common references to a voyage to the Orient, to the
discovery of a tomb, to the project of creating a spiritual movement
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on the fringes of official religion, of a form of secularor even

spiritualknighthood bringing together the Friends of God.
Corbin emphasizes that one of the points differentiating Shiite
Islam from Sunni Islam is the concept of the cycles of divine
revelation. Among Shiites, the cycle of the prophets began at the
moment that Adam was driven from Paradise and when his son
Seth had received the sacred trust (Gabriel also gave him a cloak of
green wool). This period is completed by Mohammed, the Seal of
the prophets. A new period then began, because the Word
continued to circulate in Creation; this is the cycle of the walayat,
whose object was the revelation of esotericism in prophecy. Those
who transmitted it were represented as knights and called the
Friends of God. These beings were perfect men, true epiphanies
of God, who had achieved a high spiritual realization. They were
necessary for ternporizing the imbalance of Creation which had lost
its connection to the Divine.
One of the greatest representatives of Iranian Sufism, Ruzbehan
Baqli Shiraz (1128-1209), said in this regard: They are the eyes
through which God still looks upon the world. We also find the
theme of the divine friendship in the Gospels. St. John states:
Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not
what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that
I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you. (John
15:15)

THE GREEN ISLAND

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The expression Friends of God found its way to the West,

where it designated the group founded by Rulman Merswin after he
had encountered a mysterious wanderer, the Friend of God from
the Oberland. This small community, which Johannes Tauler
visited, had chosen to reside in Strasbourg, in a place called the
Green Island. This name brings to mind the secret dwelling, also
called the Green Island, of the Hidden Imam, where Shiite
Moslems await the return to eschatological time. Merswin thought
that the time of the monasteries was past and that another kind of
structure must be created, taking the form of a new order not made
up of clerics. We should also note that Merswins works, written on
wax tablets, were placed in his tomb at the time of his death in
1382.12
Other individuals, such as Tauler, Eckhart, and those grouped
around Suso, were called the Friends of God. Susos followers even
proposed forming a Brotherhood of Eternal Wisdom. Johann
Valentin Andreae also used the expression Friends of God in his
Theca gladii spiritus (The Sheath of the Glory of the Spirit, 1616), a
book which repeated numerous passages from the Confessio
Fraternitatis. According to the thinking of the individuals or the
groups we have mentioned, the title of Friends of God generally
designates the Chosen, the Guides of Humanity, those who lived an
illuminating experience.

THE FRAVARTIS
In Islam, the concept of the Friend of God supports the theme of
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a spiritual knighthood. The Ismaelian dawat fraternity, with which

the Templars had established some connections, took on the
appearance of a chivalric order. In Shiism, we even find the idea of
knighthood common to the three religions of the Book. According
to Corbin, the idea of such a spiritual knighthood had taken root
in Zoroastrianism, a religion of pre-Islamic Iran. It referred to the
first moments of Creation, to a mission given to certain beings,
called the fravartis, to reestablish harmony in the world. This
concept, which cannot be fully discussed due to space limitations, is
linked with that of mans initial nature, his Perfect Nature, his
dimension of the Man of Light, which he wins back through a
mystical experience.
Those who lived this sort of experience, the illuminatedin the
noblest sense of the word are those who have encountered Elijah,
the spiritual initiator. According to a Sufi tradition originating in
Yemen, Khezr-Elijah is the initiator of the owaysi, disciples who
receive their initiation through a spiritual experience, without going
through an earthly master. Examples of such discipies are Oways alQarani, Ibn Arabi, and Hallaj. It is worthwhile noting that Khezr
(also known as Khidr or al-Khadir, or by the name of Khawadja
Khidr in India) is often compared to Hermes Trismegistus or to
Seth. According to tradition, he inhabits the place where the celestial
and terrestrial oceans touch. It is said that his cloak was colored
green after he had bathed in the fountain of life. Khezr is none
other than the designation for Perfect Nature, the Angel of
Knowledgein other words, mans most luminous nature, his
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Master Within. Those who lived this experience are placed in the
lineage of a spiritual knighthood.

FIGURE 23. Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum, text edited and annotated by

Elias Ashmole, 1652. The Master Adept bestows upon a worthy Son of the Art the
secrets of alchemy. Receive, says the seated Old Sage, the gift of God under the
Sacred Seal.

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SPIRITUAL KNIGHTHOOD
We find traces of such a spiritual knighthood among the various
individuals we have discussed. Around the time that Joachim of
Fiore (12th century) undertook the foundation of a monastic order
in the spirit of primitive Christianity, Wolfram von Eschenbaeh
developed in Germany the idea of a knighthood common to
Christianity and Islam. His Parzival, which Richard Wagner made
into Parsifal, is derived from an Arab text that Kyot le Provengal had
obtained in Toledo. This version of the Grail legend is of Iranian
origin.13 It is amazing to realize that the Grail in Parzival is a precious
stone upon which the dove of the Holy Spirit descended. One
tradition states that the stone is an emerald from which the chalice
of the Grail was cut.
After having studied the biographies of the various Friends of God
mentioned here, we are encouraged to think that they all witnessed
similar spiritual experiences connecting them to a common spiritual
filiation. This idea fully preoccupied Corbin, and it is upon this
subject that he ended his masterpiece, En islam iranien.14 He believed
that a similar line of force, going back into time immemorial, gave
rise within Shiism to the concept of a knighthood common to all
Abrahamic tradition, as it kindled in the West the idea of an
ecumenical knighthood bringing together Christian and Islamic
knights.15 Among such individuals, do we not see a project common
to the supporters of Eastern and Western esotericism? Do we not
observe here the most precious spiritual secret of all our Western
traditions?16 This spiritual knighthood possesses eschatological
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purposes and binds together the prophets, chosen ones, guides, and
initiates who have worked since the beginning of time for the
coming of a Dawn that restores Light to the world.

THE AGES OF THE WORLD

Many traditions claim that the divine revelation which totally
enlightens humanity concerning Gods plans will be spread out over
many millennia. We find this idea in Judaism, Christianity, and
Islam. Judaism indicates that the universe will exist a mere 6,000
years, and at its conclusion Elijah will return to purify the world
before the coming of the Messiah. This return is also recalled in the
Gospels (Mark 9:12 and Matthew 14:11). This prophecy also
characterizes the 12th century when Joachim of Fiore allocated the
cycles of divine revelation among the three persons of the Holy
Trinity. After the ages of the Father and the Son, he announced the
imminence of the third age of the Revelation, that of the Holy Spirit,
which would be marked by Elijahs return. The Church of Peter
would be replaced by the Church of John. These ideas of cycles and
the appearance of a New Church were to have considerable
influence on mystical movements which advocated an inner religion,
such as that of Rosicrucianism and Pietism .17

THE PARACLETE
As Corbin shows, the concept of a revelation stretched out as
cycles also plays an important role in Islam. Moreover, he
emphasized the affinities existing between the Calabrian monks
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theory regarding the three ages of the world and that of the
hexaemeron in Shiite Islam.18 The principle of the hexaemeron was
revealed by the Iranian philosopher Nasir-e Khosraw a century
before Joachim of Fiore had formulated his theory. He drew a
parallel between the six days of Creation and the appearance of the
six great religions (Sabaism, Brahmanism, Zoroastrianism, Judaism,
Christianity, and Islam). Each of these stages is characterized by the
coming of a prophet who sheds new light on the Divine. However,
these six days form the night of religion and only on the seventh
day would the spiritual and esoteric meaning of all revelations be
unveiled. In Islam, many texts develop this same theme. These
include The Wisdom of the Prophets by Ibn Arabi (11th century), who
perceived in the prophets the exemplification of the degrees of the
hierarchy of being and of wisdom, and The Rose Garden of Mystery by
Mahmud Shabestari (14th century), who perceived here the
symbolization of mystical states. For his part, Semnani (14th
century) associated the prophets with the seven subtle centers of
being.
In the 12th century, Shiite theosophers had a predilection for the
Gospel and the Revelation of St. John. They were the Johannites.
Furthermore, they likened the parousia of the twelfth Imam to the
Paraclete, the Holy Spirit, announced by St. John. In the 17th
century, at the time that the Rosicrucians flourished, the Shiite
school of Isfahan already identified the hidden Imam (the twelfth)
with the Saoshyani.e., the Saviorwho, according to
Zoroastrianism, would come at the end of the twelfth millennium to
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restore Creation to its original Light.

HIEROHISTORY
Nikolai Berdyaev and Henry Corbin have shown that the cycles of
the revelation we have mentioned, invoked by both Christians and
Moslems, do not have to be understood as chronological stages.
These relate not to history, but to what these scholars call
hierohistorya sacred history in which events do not succeed one
another in a linear sequence. Their framework is placed in the world
of the soul, the world of hierophanies. Thus, they feel that these
periods refer to stages of mans inner development and not to some
historical period. The historical facts reported here are not a
historicizing of events of sacred history whose revelations are meant
to edify us. Moreover, whereas certain people are only on the first
level of revelation, there are still others those who have
experienced the Eighth Clime, the imaginal worldwho already live
in the time of the Spirit because they have become the Friends of
God through their inner experience.
It is to such development that authentic initiatory orders lead. The
mystical experiences of their founders have given rise to groups that
are branches of one tree connected to the trunk of the same spiritual
knighthood. For example, Jean-Baptiste Willermoz spoke of a High
and Holy Order that had its origin at the beginning of the
world.19As for modern Rosicrucianism, it refers to the invisible
orderi.e., the Great White Brotherhoodof which the
Rosicrucian Order is simply a manifestation on the visible plane. It
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is in this connection that we should seek its source.

This origin certainly cannot be proved by documents, and we must
understand that such a concept is rejected by rationalistic historians.
It will be less upsetting to those individuals who, in the tradition of
Mircea Eliade, call for a fresh glance at the origins of esoteric and
initiatic spiritualist movements. Henry Corbins studies have proven
themselves invaluable in this regard, and this is why we have made
considerable reference to his writings in this chapter. His thoughts
lead us to imagine that the biography of Christian Rosenkreuz may
be read as a visionary narrative, in whose image the Emerald Tablet
may be discovered. It relates a spiritual experience, an encounter
with Perfect Nature that reveals the secrets of Creation. It is not the
biography of a man who once existed, but the story of an
individual who returned to the imaginal world, a world that
Corbin considered to be the possible source of initiatic filiations.
Thus, the Fama Fraternitatis takes its place in the tradition of initiatic
narratives which, since the beginning of time, have encouraged
people to join the fraternity that has worked in secret for the
restoration of Light to the world.
We may better grasp what Michael Maier was trying to say when
he presented Rosicrucianism as having issued from Egyptian and
Brahmanic spirituality, from the mysteries of Eleusis and of
Samothrace, from the Persian magi, the Pythagoreans, and the
Arabs. Yet we may sense where the origin of an initiatic movement
goes beyond history and fits into the framework of hierohistory, that
which is read not simply in documents, but in the world of the soul.
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Did not Newton say in his alchemical writings that the real truths
are incarnated in myths, fables, and prophecies?

FIGURE 24. Johann Valentin Andreae, Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreuz,

1616.

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168

Chapter 8

THE CHYMICAL
WEDDING
The Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreuz, a book that is
considered to be the third Rosicrucian manifesto, made its
appearance in 1616. It was printed in Strasbourg by Lazarus
Zetzner, the publisher of Theatrum chemicum and numerous other
alchemical treatises. This work differs considerably from the first
two manifestos. First of all, although it was likewise published
anonymously, it is known that Johann Valentin Andreae was the
author. Secondly, it is unusual in form in that it is presented as an
alchemical novel and as an autobiography of Christian Rosenkreuz.
Despite the important development of science during this period,
alchemy remained a potent force. It contributed by enriching the
thoughts of researchers, prompting Frank Greiner to state: The
invention of the modern world did not arise essentially from the
triumph of machinery, but also found some of its ferment in the
alembics of goldmakers and extractors of the quintessence.1 In the
17th century alchemy broadened its perspectives. It claimed to be a
unifying science that included medical applications and developed a
more spiritual dimension. It also sought to become part of the
thinking on the history of Creation, of the tragic cosmogony which
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brought about not only the fall of man, but nature as well. Thus, the
alchemist was not only a physician who helped humanity to
regenerate itself so as to be reborn to its spiritual condition, but the
alchemist was also natures physician. As St. Paul pointed out,
Creation is in exile and suffering, and it is awaiting its liberation by
man.2 Gerhard Dorn, a follower of Paracelsus, was an individual
who was typical of this evolution.3 And it was in this set of
circumstances, so rich in published works, that the Chymical Wedding
of Christian Rosenkreuz took its place.

FIGURE 25. Martin Luthers emblem.

JOHANN VALENTIN ANDREAE

The author of this manifesto, Johann Valentin Andreae (15861654), came from an illustrious family of theologians. His
grandfather, Jakob Andreae, was one of the authors of the Formula of
Concord, an important document in the history of Lutheranism. In
recognition of his meritorious services, the Count Palatine Otto
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Heinrich granted him a coat of arms. Jakobs design incorporated

the cross of St. Andrew, in reference to his family name, with four
roses, in deference to Martin Luther, whose armorial bearings
depicted a rose. The emblem of Luther (see fig. 25) may be
described thus: in the center is a black cross, bringing to mind
mortification and recalling that faith in the crucified Christ leads to
redemption. This cross reposes in the center of a red heart, the
symbol of life. The latter is placed on a white rose, the sign of joy
and peace. The whole is surrounded by a golden ring symbolizing
eternal life. It is possible that this emblem was inspired by the
writings of St. Bernard of Clairvaux, which were deeply appreciated
by Luther. Indeed, in his sermons on the Song of Songs, St. Bernard
often used the image of the cross united with a flower when
describing the marriage of the soul with God.
From childhood, Johann Valentin Andreae was brought up
surrounded by alchemy. His father, a pastor in Tbingen, owned a
laboratory, and his cousin, Christophe Welling, was also an
enthusiastic follower of this science. Young Johann Valentin
followed in his fathers footsteps in theological studies. He was a
friend of the theologian Johann Arndt, who considered him to be
his spiritual son and greatly influenced the youth. Arndt was part of
the tradition of Valentin Weigel, a tradition which tried to achieve a
synthesis between Rheno-Flemish mysticism, Renaissance
Hermeticism, and Paracelsian alchemy. Johann Valentin was also the
friend of Tobias Hess, a theologian who pursued Paracelsian
medicine and naometry. Devoting himself to this science of
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measuring the temple while at Tbingen, young Andreae assisted

his teacher and protector, the theologian Matthias Hafenreffer, by
drawing the illustrations for a study on the Temple of Ezekiel. The
youthful scholar was likewise intrigued by the mediating role of
symbols in the spiritual experience. In this regard he shared the
preoccupations of his teacher Johann Arndt, who was noted for his
mysticism and who was considered to be one of the precursors of
pietism.
The author of the Chymical Wedding considered the theater to be a
worthwhile means for inducing his contemporaries to ponder
serious matters, and some of his works were influenced by the
commedia dellarte. This is true in the case of Turbo, a play in which
Harlequin made his first appearance on the German stage. This play,
published in the same year as the Chymical Wedding, makes
reference to alchemy. This important work would later serve as the
model for Goethes Faust. However, although the authors learning
in the Hermetic art is readily apparent,4 his view of alchemists is also
ironic. Generally speaking, whether in theology or science, what
interested Andreae was useful knowledge and not vain speculation.
For instance, he and his friend John Amos Comenius helped to
revive pedagogy in the 17th century. In 1614, he was named
suffragen pastor of Vaihingen. Later he became the superintendent
in Calw, and then the preacher and counselor at the consistory of
Stuttgart. After having held various offices, he ended his career as
the abbot of Adelberg, a town where he died in 1654.5
Johann Valentin Andreae left an impressive body of work.6 It was
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in 1602-1603, when he was not yet seventeen years old, that he

made his first attempts as an author. He wrote two comedies about
Esther and Hyacinth, as well as the first version of the Chymical
Wedding. The protagonist of this novel already went by the name of
Christian Rosenkreuzalthough this name may only have been
added at its publication in 1616. As the manuscript for the first
version of this text has disappeared, it is difficult for us to know.
However, what we can say for certain is that the symbols of the rose
and cross rarely crop up in the novel. We also know that Andreae
revamped the text for the 1616 edition. It is intriguing to note that
the Chymical Wedding was issued in the same year and by the same
publisher as Theca gladii spiritus (The Sheath of the Glory of the
Spirit). This book repeated twenty-eight passages from the Confessio
Fraternitatis. However, the name of Christian Cosmoxene was
substituted for that of Christian Rosenkreuz, and the author did not
seem to adhere to all the concepts presented in the first Rosicrucian
texts. It is worth recalling that in the year in which the Fama
Fraternitatis was written, Andreae proposed the creation of a Societas
Christiana, a group which, in some respects, resembled the project
formulated in the manifestos. Throughout his life, he was constantly
creating societies of learning, such as the Tbingen Circle, or
organizations of a social character, such as the Foundation of Dyers,
which is still in existence today.

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FIGURE 26. Johann Valentin Andreae

THE STORY
The third Rosicrucian manifesto differs considerably from the two
preceding ones. Briefly, here is the story. Christian Rosenkreuz, an
elderly man who is eighty-one years old, describes his adventures
over a seven-day period in 1459. After being summoned to a royal
wedding by a winged messenger, Christian leaves his retreat, situated
on a mountain slope. After various incidents, he arrives at the
summit of a high mountain, and then passes through a succession of
three gates. Once within, he and the other people who have been
invited are put to a test in which they are weighed on scales. If they
are judged virtuous enough, they are allowed to attend the wedding.
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The select few receive a Golden Fleece7 and are presented to the
royal family. After being brought before the royal family, Christian
Rosenkreuz describes the presentation of a play. This is followed by
a banquet, after which the royal family is decapitated. The coffins
containing the corpses are loaded onto seven ships bound for a
distant island. Arriving at their destination, they are placed in the
Tower of Olympus, a curious seven-story edifice. For the remainder
of the narrative we witness the strange ascent of the guests through
the seven stories of the tower. At each level, under the direction of a
maiden and an old man, they participate in alchemical operations.
They carry out a distillation of the royal skins from which a liquid is
obtained that is afterwards transformed into a white egg. From this a
bird is hatched that is fattened before being decapitated and reduced
to ashes. From the residue, the guests fabricate two human-shaped
figurines. These homunculi are fed until they become the size of
adults. A final operation communicates to them the spark of life.
The two homunculi are none other than the king and the queen who
have been restored to life. Shortly afterwards, they welcome their
guests into the Order of the Golden Stone, and all return to the
castle. However, Christian Rosenkreuz, at the time

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FIGURE 27. Inscriptions and cryptogram shown on the fountain of the Chymical
Wedding (fourth day). of his first day in the castle, committed the indiscretion of
entering the mausoleum where the sleeping Venus reposes. His inquisitiveness
condemns him to become the guardian of the castle. The sentence does not seem
to be executed, because the narrative suddenly ends with the return of Christian
Rosenkreuz to his cottage. The author leaves us to understand that the hermit, who
is eighty-one years old, does not have many more years to live. This last statement
seems to contradict the Fama Fraternitatis, which claimed that Christian Rosenkreuz
lived to the venerable age of 106. Moreover, other aspects of the narrative depict a
Christian Rosenkreuz who is quite at odds with the one presented in the earlier
manifestos.

A BAROQUE OPERA
As Bernard Gorceix has remarked, Andreaes work bears the
imprint of 17th century culture, that of the Baroque, where allegory,
fable, and symbol occupy a preeminent place. According to Gorceix,
this novel is a significant historical and literary work. It is, in fact,
one of the best examples of the emergence of the Baroque in the
17th century. The taste for the marvelous and the primacy of
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ornamentation are quite apparent.8 The castle where the wedding

takes place is sumptuous, and its gardens reflect the eras interest in
parks adorned with fountains and automatons.9 They serve to
embellish many scenes in the storymost memorably that of the
judgment in which the guests, one by one, put themselves in a
balance that weighs their virtue. The author also has us witness
strange processions of veiled maidens who are barely perturbed by
the arrows shot by a rather undisciplined Cupid. Moreover, we
encounter such fabulous animals as unicorns, lions, griffins, and the
phoenix.
The costumes of the various characters are luxurious, and during
the narrative some of them change from black to white and to red,
according to the stage of alchemical transmutation in progress.
Various feasts and banquets, served by invisible valets, punctuate the
narrative. Music, often played by invisible musicians, accompanies
the narration. Trumpets and kettledrums mark the changes in
scenery or the entrance of characters. The text is sprinkled with
poems, and the general plot is interrupted by a play. Nor is humor
absent from this alchemical treatise. It manifests at often unexpected
moments, as for example in the episode of the judgment (third day),
which gives rise to several broad jokes. At the moment when the
transmutation is virtually achieved (sixth day), the director of the
operations tricks the guests into believing that they are not going to
be invited to the final phase of the work. After seeing the effects of
the joke, its perpetrator laughs so hard that his belly was ready to
burst. The narrative involves hidden inscriptions and a riddle in
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ciphers which Leibniz tried to fathom. As can be seen, we are face

to face with a literary work of great opulence, and in a style very
different from that of the Fama Fraternitatis and Confessio Fraternitatis.

INNER ALCHEMY
In 1617, the year following the publication of the Chymical Wedding,
the alchemist Ratichius Brotoffer published Elucidarius Major . . ., a
book in which he tried to establish the correlations between the
seven days of the Chymical Wedding and the stages of alchemical
work. He acknowledged, however, that Andreaes text is obscure. In
more recent years, other authors, such as Richard Kienast (1926) or
Will-Erich Peuchkert (1928), did their best to decipher the mysteries
of this text. More recently, Bernard Gorceix, Serge Hutin, and
Roland Edighoffer in particular analyzed this work judiciously.10 The
text of the Chymical Wedding barely resembles the works of the
alchemical corpus. It is not at all a technical treatise, and its object is
not to describe the operations in a laboratory. And we should note
in passing that the story does not involve developing the
Philosophers Stone, but of producing a couple of homunculi. In
regards to the seven days described in the tale, it is essentially at the
beginning of the fourth day that alchemical symbology occupies
center stage.
Paul Arnold tried to show that the Chymical Wedding was simply an
adaptation of Canto X of The Faerie Queene by Edmund Spenser
(1594), which describes the Red Cross Knight. Yet his argument is
hardly convincing. For his part, Roland Edighoffer showed that
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Andreaes story bears a striking resemblance to Clavis totius

philosophiae chimisticae,11 a work by Gerhard Dorn, a follower of
Paracelsus. This book was published in 1567, and then included in
the first volume of Theatrum chemicum, published by Lazarus
Zetzner in 1602.12 In this text, Dorn indicates that the purification
carried out on matter by the alchemist should also be accomplished
on man himself. His book presents three characters who typify the
different parts of man: body, soul, and spirit. While at a crossroads,
the three have a discussion regarding what route they should follow
so as to reach three castles situated on a mountain. The first of these
castles is made of crystal, the second of silver, and the third of
diamond. After several adventures and a purification at the Fountain
of Love, these characters attain the seven stages which mark the
process of the inner regeneration of being. There is a striking
resemblance between the basic plot of this story and that of the
Chymical Wedding.

THE SPIRITUAL WEDDING

In the epigraph to his book, Andreae indicates that the mysteries
are demeaned when revealed and lose their power when profaned.
Indeed, the initiatic mysteries lose their virtue when they merely pass
through the filter of the intellect. Under these circumstances, how
can we analyze the work that interests us here without stripping it of
its virtues? We do not make the claim that we can reveal all of the
arcana, but we feel that three important themes presented in
Andreaes initiatic novel need to be emphasized: the wedding, the
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mountain of revelation, and the seven stages of the work.

The sacred wedding, the hierogamy, occupies an important place
in the ancient mysteries. In Christianity, with St. Bernard of
Clairvaux (10901153), this subject was elaborated upon in his
commentaries on the Song of Songs. In his treatise On the Love of
God, he described the journey of the soul towards the higher
spheres, with the final stage being that of the spiritual marriage. This
symbolic system was developed in greater detail by the RhenoFlemish mystics, notably with the Beguines and Jan van Ruysbroeck,
author of The Adornment of the Spiritual Marriage (1335). Among
numerous other authors, such as Valentin Weigel, the theme of the
spiritual marriage is associated with that of regeneration and rebirth.
Among the latter, alchemical symbolism is added to that of
Christianity.
The royal wedding generally occupies an important place in
alchemy, and psychologist Carl Jung showed that it was particularly
well suited for describing the phases of the process of individuation.
The wedding of the king and the queen represent the union of the
two polarities of being, the animus and the anima, leading to the
discovery of Self. Jung set forth his research in many books, of
which the most representative is Psychology and Alchemy (1944).
However, it was in Mysterium Coniunctionis, An Inquiry into the
Separation and Synthesis of Psychic Opposites in Alchemy (1955-56), that
Jungs investigations are thought to have reached their greatest
development. In this work, the Chymical Wedding of Christian
Rosenkreuz is a key element in his thinking. Contrary to what the title
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suggests, Andreaes narrative does not speak of a wedding. The

marriage ceremony is not described in the novel, but rather its
action revolves around the resurrection of a king and a queen. As
with St. Bernard and the mystics of previous eras, it is the wedding
of being, understood as a regeneration, that Andreae refers to in his
book.

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FIGURE 28. Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreuz, drawing by Hans

Wildermann, 1923.

THE CASTLE OF THE SOUL

The wedding location is on a mountain. In traditional symbology,
this place, the point where the earth and sky touch, is the abode of
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the gods and of revelation. As has been so well demonstrated by

Marie-Madeleine Davy in La Montagne et sa symbolique,13 when a
person determines to climb the mountain, he sets out on the quest
for self and embarks on the ascent toward the absolute. The
invitation brought to Christian Rosenkreuz indicates that he must
reach the summit of a mountain crowned by three temples.
However, in the following episode of the narrative, castles are
mentioned instead.
Christian Rosenkreuz passes through two portals and arrives at the
castle where preparations for the great transmutation are taking
place. Then, it is in a third place, in a tower situated on an island,
that the Great Work is accomplished. We find here the theme of the
castle of the soul spoken of by Meister Eckhart (1260-1328) and St.
Theresa of Avila (1515-1582). For them, the quest of the soul is
often presented as the conquest of a castle. Alchemical texts
combine the two elements in describing a castle on a mountain. We
previously observed that Gerhard Dorn spoke of three castles on a
high mountain. Whether mountain, castle, temple, or tower, all of
these symbolic elements in our narrative are meant to conjure up the
notion of a journey and an ascent.
Yet the temple or castle situated on a high mountain also has an
eschatological aspect by recalling the temple to come which Ezekiel
spoke of in his visions. After the destruction of the temple and the
city of Jerusalem, the Jews were deported to Babylon, and it is then
that Ezekiel prophesied the vision of the future temple. He drew a
parallel between the exile of the Jews and the expulsion of man from
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Paradise. This destruction of the temple brought about the retreat of

God from Creation, God then becoming the only place where
man could worship. However, Ezekiel announced the establishment
of a new temple, a third, which would coincide with the restoration
of Creation. The prophet described this as being situated on a high
mountain, and he declared that the archetype of this temple existed
previously in the superterrestrial world. This vision greatly
influenced the Essenes and was the source of all apocalyptic
literature.14 We are reminded of the importance of the vision of
Ezekiels temple in Simon Studions Naometria, and, as previously
mentioned, we know that Andreae also had the opportunity to work
on this subject with Matthias Hafenreffer (see above, Johann
Valentin Andreae). Moreover, as Roland Edighoffer has shown,
the Chymical Wedding includes many eschatological aspects. It is
surprising to note that we will soon encounter this idea of an
eschatological temple with Robert Fludd. For him, the mountain on
which the temple is erected is none other than that of initiation.

THE SEVEN STAGES

In the Chymical Wedding, the number seven plays a fundamental
role. The action unfolds over seven days; seven virgins, seven
weights, seven ships are described; and the final transmutation takes
place in an athanor which sits enthroned in a seven-story tower.
Although this may not always be the case, alchemists generally
divide the process of the elaboration of the Great Work into seven
phases. Gerhard Dorn talks about the seven degrees of the work.
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Here we encounter a fundamental theme which is far from being

unique to alchemy. As Professor Ioan P. Couliano has shown, the
theory which states that the process of the elevation of the soul
encompasses seven stages is found in numerous traditions.15 His
researches indicate that according to a Greek tradition also found in
Dante, Marsilio Ficino, and Pico della Mirandola, these ascents
toward ecstasy are accomplished through the seven planetary
spheres. Couliano also noted another form of ascent following a
tradition dating back to Babylonia, and which later passed into
Jewish and Judeo-Christian apocalyptic literature, as well as Islam.
Without making reference to the planets, it also speaks of seven
stages to spiritual ecstasy.
This element is also found in Hermeticism. The Poemandres, the
first treatise of the Corpus Hermeticum, after having touched upon the
cosmogony and the fall of man, speaks of the seven stages of the
souls ascent through the framework of the spheres. It describes the
seven zones that the soul, after the dissolution of the material body,
must pass through so as to purge the self of its defects and illusions
before ascending toward the Father.16 It is interesting to note that
the tenth treatise, which provides a summary of the Hermetic
teachings, reconsiders this ascent toward God by defining it as the
ascent toward Olympus. Is it not striking that, in the Chymical
Wedding, the tower where the seven alchemical phases are
accomplished is appropriately called the Tower of Olympus?
This septenary concept is also found in the Christian tradition,
notably with St. Bernard, who was highly admired by Andreae. The
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dream recounted on the first day of the Chymical Wedding derives its
theme from St. Bernards sermon for the fifth Sunday after
Pentacost. In this dream, Christian Rosenkreuz is locked away in a
tower in the company of other people. Moreover, the tools which
the wedding guests receive for going from one floor to another in
the Tower of Olympus (sixth day)a rope, ladder, or wings are
taken from the symbology of St. Bernard.
We find reference to the seven stages of the inner life among two
individuals praised by Andreae. The first, Stephan Praetorius, the
pastor of Salzwedel, speaks of justificatio, santificatio, contemplatio,
applicatio, devotio, continentia, beneficienta. The second person is Philip
Nicolai (1556-1608), a pioneer of the new piety, who, when
speaking of the mystic wedding, describes the seven phases which
mark the regeneration of the soul (The Mirror of the Joys of Eternal Life,
1599).

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KNIGHT OF THE GOLDEN STONE

At the end of the seventh day of the Chymical Wedding, Christian
Rosenkreuz is dubbed Knight of the Golden Stone. This title
gives him mastery over ignorance, poverty, and illness. Each knight
takes an oath in promising to dedicate the Order to God and his
servant, Nature. In effect, as Johann Valentin Andreae indicates,
Art serves Nature and the alchemist participates as much to his
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own restoration as that of nature. In a register, Christian Rosenkreuz

inscribed these words: The highest knowledge is that we know
nothing. This phrase refers to the learned ignorance preached by
Nicholas of Cusa (1401-1464). The latter, part of a tradition
including Proclus, Dionysius the Areopagite, and Eckhart, opposed
rationalistic logic. Learned ignorance does not consist of, as often
thought, the rejection of knowledge, but the recognition that the
world, being infinite, cannot be the object of complete knowledge.
Nicholas of Cusa advocated a gnosis, an illuminating knowledge,
one capable of surpassing the world of appearances by
understanding the coincidence of opposites.
In conclusion, the Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreuz is an
initiatic narrative, that of a persons quest on the way to the marriage
with his soul. This ascent of the soul is part of a process
encompassing both man and nature. When reading the book, we are
struck by the richness of the language which testifies to the erudition
of its author. Indeed, it would take an entire volume to point out all
of the references to mythology, literature, theology, and esotericism .
In this chapter, we have only made a brief sketch of this marvelous
story. Rather than explain its various meanings, our primary aim has
been to motivate you to read or reread this work that is fundamental
to the Rosicrucian tradition and occupies a prominent place in the
history of European literature.

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FIGURE 29. The alchemical flask of the royal wedding, from Pandora, 1582.

189

FIGURE 30. The rose gives honey to the bees. From Summum Bonum by Joachim
Frizius (1629). This text was published as an appendix to Sophiae cum Moria
Certament (Battle of Wisdom with Folly), a violent response of Robert Fludd to
Mersennes attacks upon the Rosicrucians. It is often thought that Joachim Frizius
was a pseudonym used by Robert Fludd. However, certain authors, such as William
G. Huffman in Robert Fludd and the End of the Renaissance (1988), claim that
some other author is involved.

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Chapter 9

THE ROSE IN BLOOM

HE PUBLICATION OF the Rosicrucian manifestos had

important repercussions throughout Europe. The
manifestos were quickly reprinted and gave rise to a large
body of literature in which detractors and partisans confronted one
another. If we restrict ourselves to the period extending from 1614
to 1620, more than 200 books can be counted which express either
their support or criticisms, and if we extend this period to the 18th
century, we arrive at 900 books. This abundance makes us realize
how important Rosicrucianism was to the 17th century. From this
literary profusion we will single out several authors who seem to be
the most representative spokesmen of these literary debates.
The German physician Andreas Libavius was one of the first to
take part in the controversy. Even though he was a Paracelsian, he
objected to the magical aspects of Paracelsus theories and claimed
to be a scientific alchemist. Between 1615 and 1616, he published
many works in which he called Rosicrucians heretics and denounced
their use of magic, which he judged to be diabolical. Robert Fludd
(1574-1637), an English physician, countered Libavius in 1616 by
publishing A Compendious Apology for the Fraternity of the Rosy
Cross, pelted with the mire of suspicion and infamy but now
cleansed with the waters of truth.1 He showed that Rosicrucian
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magic is a natural magic, in the sense defined by Marsilio Ficino2:

an art perfectly pure and legitimate. Robert Fludd made the most of
this publication by publicly seeking his admission to the Rosicrucian
fraternity.
Julius Sperber, councilor to Prince Christian of Anhalt, defended
the Rosicrucians with his Echo of the God-illuminated Fraternity
of the illustrious R.C. Order (1615)3 According to him, the order
was not of recent formation, because it perpetuates a secret wisdom
which had been entrusted to Adam long ago. Sperber indicated that
this wisdom had been transmitted from generation to generation
through the Chaldeans and Egyptians, then passed into the Christian
world with St. John and St. Bernard. He also evoked such
personalities as Guillaume Postel, Pico della Mirandola, Johannes
Reuchlin, and Cornelius Heinrich Agrippa, who were its guardians.
Other writers, such as Michael Potier, in his New Chemical
Treatise (1617)4, also showed their support of the Rosicrucians.

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FIGURE 31. Michael Maier.

MICHAEL MAIER
Michael Maier (1569-1622), the celebrated German alchemist who
was also the personal physician to Rudolph II, was one of the most
ardent defenders of Rosicrucianism. In 1617, in The Silence after
the Clamors,5 he responded to the criticism of those who had
openly exhibited their desire to join the Rosicrucians, but had not
received any answer to their request. He stated that they had heard
nothing because they had not been judged worthy of entering into
the order. He added that he himself did not merit such an honor.
For Michael Maier, the Rosicrucian fraternity truly existed; it was no
hoax. He perceived this order as being one of those colleges of wise
men that had existed for all time and among all people. Thus, he
represented the Rosicrucians as being the guardians of an ancient
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tradition that originated with the Egyptians and Brahmans, and

descended from the mysteries of Eleusis and Samothrace, the magi
of Persia, the Pythagoreans, and the Arabs.
Friedrich Crick went further concerning this matter. Using the
pseudonym of Irenaeus Agnostus, he published The Shield of
Truth,6 a treatise both laudatory and caustic concerning the
Rosicrucians (1618). He dated the origin of the Rosy Cross to Adam
and provided a fanciful list of forty-seven Imperators of the order,
including Seth, Philo, Al Manor, and Jacobus de Voraginall the
way up to Hugo de Alverda, the Imperator in 1618. In the very same
year, Joseph Stellatus referred to his support for the venerable
society of the Rose-Croix in his book The Pegasus of the
firmament, or a brief introduction to the true wisdom, such being
formerly called Magic by the Egyptians and Persians, but today
received from the venerable R.C. Fraternity, the lawful name of
Pansophia.7 This adept of the secret philosophy was an attentive
reader of the manifestos. However, he soon attacked the
Rosicrucian order within his publications, thus engendering many
reactions among the fraternitys defenders. Under the pseudonym of
F.G. Menapius, he published in 1618 Cento according to Virgil on
the Brothers of the Rosy Cross8 and in 1619 the Menapius of the
Rosy Cross, or Considerations of the Society all entire . .. .9 These
books raised an important question: Did the Rosicrucian order really
exist or was it an illusion? Many writers came to the defense of the
order. Florentinus de Valentia (Daniel Mgling) published Jesus is
everything for us! The Rose blooms . . . ,10 which concerned a
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Replica of the calumnies of Menapius against the Rosicrucian

society. As for Michael Maier, he proposed to demonstrate the real
existence of the order by publishing in 1618 Golden Themis, or the
Laws and Ordinances of the illustrious R.C. Fraternity.11 In this
book, he described in a veiled manner the meeting place of the
Rosicrucians. According to Frances A. Yates, this description brings
to mind Heidelberg Castle, a place that we will soon discuss.12 In
1618 Heinrich Neuhaus, in his Pious and very useful admonition
on the subject of the Rosicrucians. Do they truly exist? What are
they?,13 stated that if the Brothers were no longer encountered in
Europe, it was because they had left to settle in the Orient. In the
many publications flourishing at this time, each author tried to pull
the Rose Cross in the direction which interested him. In connection
with this, Johann Valentin Andreae, in his Tunis Babel (1619),
discussed the confusion which followed the publication of the
Rosicrucian manifestos.

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FIGURE 32. Robert Fludd.

ROBERT FLUDD
During the years marking the emergence of Rosicrucianism,
Michael Maier and Robert Fludd in particular were the most zealous
defenders of the Rosicrucian fraternity. However, neither of them
ever claimed to be a member of the order. An intellect of wideranging interests, Robert Fludd was especially versed in the wisdom
of the Corpus Hermeticum and in the works of Marsilio Ficino and of
such Christian Qabalists as Johannes Reuchlin and Francesco
Giorgi. Both a physician and alchemist, he was keenly interested in
the concepts of Paracelsus. It was probably at the beginning of his
enlistment in favor of Rosicrucianism that Robert Fludd developed
196

a close relationship with the German Rosicrucian circle, although

this relationship may have developed only at the time Michael Maier
visited England, between 1611 and 1613. What can be said for
certain is that the books of the English doctor began to be issued in
Germany beginning in 1617. They were published by Jean Thodore
de Bry, a printer living in Oppenheim, a city in the Palatinate, who
also underwrote the cost of their publication. These works were
noted for the quality of the engravings executed by Matthaus
Merian. On that score, the books of Robert Fludd are genuine
masterpiecesthe title pages are decorated with magnificent
engravings which summarize the authors intentions.
In these books, Robert Fludd devoted himself to presenting the
harmony between the macrocosm (the world) and the microcosm
(man). Endowed with vast knowledge, he took an interest in the
harmonic correspondences existing between planets, angels, parts of
the human body, music, etc. He attempted to establish a synthesis of
all knowledge, and his Theologico-philosophic treatise. . . (1617)14
indicates that he also presented fragments of the ancient wisdom
which had survived Adams fall. It should also be mentioned that
this book is dedicated to the Brothers R.C. In 1617, Robert Fludd
began publication of his Metaphysical history, physics and
technique of the one and the other world, to know the great and the
small . . . .15 Within this veritable encyclopedia, which encompassed
all fields of knowledge, Fludd endeavored to reveal the Universal
Wisdom that would preside over the universal renewal announced in
the Rosicrucian manifestos. He tried to show how the Creation had
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been engendered by the World Soul, from which arose mathematical

models presiding over the harmony of the Creation. His
demonstration rested upon De Harmonia Mundi, written by
Francesco Giorgi, and on the translation and commentaries of
Platos Timaeus published by Marsilio Ficino. He also recalled
principles that the latter had taken from Macrobius commentary on
The Dream of Scipio concerning numbers and the World Soul.
Fludds position on the World Soul resulted in a confrontation
with the astronomer Johannes Kepler and the French philosopher,
mathematician, and physician Pierre Gassendi (1592-1655).16 Nor
could the monk Marin Mersenne (1588-1648), a French philosopher
and savant, and a savage critic of the Hermetic philosophy of the
Renaissance, refrain from attacks. This friend of Ren Descartes
reproached Robert Fludd for having placed Jesus Christ, angels, and
the World Soul on the same level. The extent of the reactions stirred
up by this English physicians writings show that his works were
widely known throughout Europe and were at the heart of one of
the great debates of that time.

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FIGURE 33. Robert Fludd, Utriusque Cosmi, 1617

JOHANNES KEPLER
Johannes Kepler (1571-1630), a graduate of Tbingen, frequently
visited Johann Valentin Andreae. Between 1600 and 1612, he was
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both a member of the Magical Court of Rudolph II and the

assistant to the great astronomer Tycho Brahe. Strongly influenced
by the Neoplatonism and Pythagoreanism of the Renaissance,
Kepler reiterated the system of the World Soul in the original
edition of Mysterium cosmographicum (1596). However, when rewriting
this work in 1606, he changed his position by replacing this concept
with that of a force. According to him, the movements of the
planets were not directed by a World Soul, but rather by a force. As
an indication of his retreat from Hermeticism, he did not dedicate
his book to Hermes Trismegistus, but rather to King James I of
England, who was now described as the thrice greatest. Later, in
1619, Johannes Kepler published a work in competition with Robert
Fludds Metaphysical History. . . . In this text, Harmonices Mundi,
Kepler declared that its thesis was based on mathematics, not on
Hermeticism as was true of Robert Fludd. He also accused the latter
of confusing the two.
Robert Fludd immediately replied with Veritatis proscenium (1621),
clearly stating that his theories repeat those of Francesco Giorgi and
those of the Rosicrucians. There then followed a reply by Kepler,
Apologia (1621), to which Robert Fludd responded in 1622 with his
Monochordum mundi symphoniacum.17 The works of Isaac Newton soon
confirmed Keplers theories, but in the final analysis, although the
term force has replaced that of World Soul, the question as to
the origin of this force remains a complete mystery!

FREDERICK V
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The evolution of Rosicrucianism took a decisive turn with the

advent of Frederick of the Palatinate. To understand why, it is
necessary to summarize the situation in Bohemia during this time.
This province of the Holy Roman Empire had been placed under
the Habsburg crown by Ferdinand I (1503-1564). His son and
successor, the emperor Maximilian II (1527-1576), was a Catholic,
but he was not hostile to Protestantism . He even seemed to be
open to esotericism, seeing that John Dee had dedicated Monas
Hieroglyphica (1564) to him. Upon Maximilians death, he was
succeeded by his son Rudolph II. This Habsburg ruler held himself
aloof from his nephew Philip II, the very Catholic king of Spain,
disapproving the religious fanaticism of the latter. Rudolph II was a
refined individual, passionate about science, art, and Hermeticism .
He presided over a court where such important individuals as Tycho
Brahe, Johannes Kepler, and Michael Maier rubbed shoulders. All
the European magi came to his court, and both Giordano Bruno
and John Dee frequented it. It was during the reign of this monarch
that the Fama Fraternitatis was written, with the text circulating in
manuscript form throughout Germany.
When Rudolph II died in 1612, he was succeeded by his
ineffectual brother Matthias. Rudolphs Magical Court then
scattered, with its members finding shelter with the many Protestant
princes who shared Rudolphs interests. One group settled in
Heidelberg, at the court of Frederick V, elector Palatine and son-inlaw of the king of England; another joined that of Christian of
Anhalt, Fredericks councilor, a prince whose physician was Oswald
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Croll, one the great disciples of Paracelsus.18 Finally, some of them,

such as Michael Maier, went to the court of Maurice of HesseCassel. The latter probably played an important role in the
promotion of Rosicrucianism. Indeed, the publisher of the first two
Rosicrucian manifestos, Wilhelm Wessel, could not print anything
without first receiving the approval of the landgrave of HesseCassel. During the reign of Emperor Matthias II, the conflicts
between Catholics and Protestants were reignited, because the new
monarch lacked the tolerance of his predecessor. During this period
the Fama Fraternitatis was published (1614), and then the second
manifesto, the Confessio Fraternitatis, was written and published.
The pessimism of the new work was symptomatic of an era in which
catastrophes seemed imminent.

THE DEFENESTRATION OF PRAGUE

Little by little, Matthias began to remove Protestants from
important imperial posts. Then, in 1618, he closed a church in
Prague. This incident lit the powder keg. The townspeople, attached
to their religious freedoms, revolted, and on May 23rd, the
Protestants tossed three representatives of the emperor out of a
window. This incident, the so-called Defenestration of Prague,
marked the beginning of the Thirty Years War (1618-1648), a
conflict which soon ravaged the Empire. Matthias death the
following year, in March 1619, only worsened the situation. His
nephew, Ferdinand of Styria, previously declared king of Bohemia in
1617, succeeded him as emperor. By taking measures to abrogate the
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Protestant faith, this pupil of Jesuit priests put an end to the

religious tolerance restored by Rudolph II.
The people of Bohemia refused to submit to Ferdinands authority
and instead chose to replace him with Frederick V, head of the
Protestant Union. The latter benefited from the support of the
Protestants of France and England. After the death of Henry IV in
1610, certain individuals considered Frederick to be the right man
for reconciling Catholics and Protestants. Some people even saw in
the lion decorating his armorial bearings the sign of the prosperous
times foretold by the prophecy of the Lion of the Septentrion.19
According to the historian Frances A. Yates, Fredericks palace was
the center of nascent Rosicrucianism. In 1643, Frederick wed
Elizabeth, daughter of King James I of England. This important
event sealed the union of the Protestants of Europe. The marriage
was initially celebrated in England, and then continued with
sumptuous ceremonies at Heidelberg Castle. It is quite possible that
these ceremonies were the inspiration for several scenes that Johann
Valentin Andreae included in his Chymical Wedding of Christian
Rosenkreuz.20 This cultural center possessed gardens richly
ornamented with grottoes, talking statues, and automata
conceived by Salomon de Caus.21 It was considered to be the eighth
marvel of the world.

WHITE MOUNTAIN
Frederick V knew that by accepting the crown, he would be
opposing the armed might of the Habsburgs. Driven by destiny, he
203

had no other choice than to accept. He was crowned in November

1619 at the cathedral of Prague. Alas, he was only a winter king,
because the Habsburg forces, which had recovered their strength,
were unleashed against him. His allies, the kings of France and
England, fearful of a conflict with Spain, preferred not to commit
themselves. On November 8, 1620, near Prague, the sorrowful
Battle of White Mountain took place. Fredericks troops,
commanded by the prince of Anhalt, were slaughtered by the
Catholics, and Ferdinand was restored to his throne. Frederick and
Elizabeth fled to The Hague in Holland. This battle ushered in the
Thirty Years War, which included many frightful episodes. Pierre
Chaunu describes this conflict as a catastrophe without equal. As
for P. Mols, he called it the greatest demographic cataclysm in all
the history of Germany. The consequences were astounding: the
Palatinate lost 70 percent of its population; Wiirttemberg, 82
percent; and Bohemia, 44 percent. To this should be added the exile
of more than 20,000 people. Overall, the population of Central
Europe lost 60 percent of its population during this war.22 Due to
such circumstances, its no wonder that the Rosicrucian project was
aborted!
After Fredericks defeat, the Habsburgs circulated satirical
engravings in which Frederick was associated with Rosicrucianism.
Their victory, that of Catholicism over Rosicrucianism, was seen as a
continuation of the intentions of the Council of Trent, which had
condemned Protestantism and Hermeticism. In one of the
illustrations Ferdinands imperial eagle is seen perching on a pillar at
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whose foot lies a lion symbolizing Frederick. In the inscription to

this engraving, the Rosicrucian motto ending the Fama Fraternitatis
(Under the shadow of thy wings, Jehovah) was transformed into
this parody: Under the shadow of my wings, the kingdom of
Bohemia will prosper.23
Thus, the fraternal ideal proposed by the Rosicrucians clashed with
religious intolerance, and the Thirty Years War prevented the
creation of a genuine order. Although the Rosicrucian project did
not come into full bloom during the period, its ideal would
nonetheless circulate throughout Europe, notably in England and
France. It is during this troubled period that Ren Descartes began
his research on the Rose-Croix. As we will soon see, his return to
France coincided with mysterious placards being plastered on walls
that announced the stay of the Rose-Croix in Paris. And in England,
the Rosicrucian project would experience an unforeseen
development through Francis Bacon.

205

FIGURE 34. Frederick V and Elizabeth at their coronation (National Portrait

Gallery).

206

FIGURE 35. Frontispiece from Novum Organum by Francis Bacon.

207

Chapter 10

THE PHILOSOPHERS AND

THE ROSE-CROIX

HE BEGINNING OF the Thirty Years War, sparked by

the Battle of White Mountain (1620), marked the end of the
blossoming of Rosicrucianism in Germany. However, the
Rosicrucian writings had spread throughout Europe, and many
philosophers had become aware of their message. Among them,
Ren Descartes, Francis Bacon, and John Amos Comenius are
mentioned most often.

208

FIGURE 36. Ren Descartes.

REN DESCARTES
Many historians of esotericism have attempted to make Ren
Descartes into a Rosicrucian, in the fullest meaning of this word.
One of the individuals most responsible for this situation was Pierre
Daniel Huet (1630-1721), bishop of Avranches. In 1692, using the
pseudonym of G. de lA., he published Nouveaux Mmoires pour servir
lhistoire du Cartsianisme, a satire which claimed to provide
revelations about Descartes. Here we are told that Descartes had
brought Rosicrucianism to France and that he was one of the
inspectors of the Order. Huet also asserted that the philosopher did
not die in 1650, as he was guaranteed to live 500 years, but rather he
secluded himself among the Laplanders where he directed the
Order. This clearly improbable book gave rise to some of the
Rosicrucian legends regarding Descartes. In much more recent
years, Charles Adam, in his edition of Descartes complete works
(1937), also claimed that the philosopher was a Rosicrucian initiate.
In the period preceding the Thirty Years War, Ren Descartes
(1596-1650) took an interest in the Rosicrucians. In 1617, he
enlisted in the army, a career that took him to Holland and
Germany. During these travels, he met Johan Faulhaber, a brilliant
mathematician who was interested in astrology, alchemy, and the
Qabalah, and who was one of the first (1615) to publish a book
dedicated to the Rosicrucians: Arithmetic Mystery; or Cabalistic
and Philosophic Invention, new, admirable and elevated, according
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to which numbers are rationally and methodically calculated,

Dedicated with humility and sincerity to the Illustrious and
celebrated Rosy Cross Brothers.1
Ren Descartes was also connected with Isaac Beeckman, a Dutch
physician, philosopher, and mathematician. His correspondence
(April 1619) with the latter reveals that he was also interested in the
occult sciences, particularly in Cornelius Heinrich Agrippa and
Raymond Lully. It is probably through Faulhaber and Beeckman
that Descartes became aware of the Rosicrucian manifestos. His
biographer, Adrien Baillet, tells us that he praised the extraordinary
knowledge possessed by a brotherhood of learned men established
in Germany for some years under the name of the R.C. Brothers.
He felt within himself the stirrings of an emulation for this RoseCroix which touched him all the more in that he heard about it at
the time he was most concerned about the means to take so as to
seek the Truth.2 Intrigued by them, Descartes decided to begin his
search.
In March 1619, Descartes left for Bohemia, arriving there in
August. He then attended the coronation of Ferdinand of Styria at
Frankfurt.3 Certain historians believe that Descartes took the
opportunity to travel to nearby Heidelberg Castle, a visit that may be
reflected in many passages of his Trait de lHomme and Experimenta,
which seem to describe the automata built by Salomon de Caus in
the castle gardens. This place enjoyed such renown that the
intelligentsia were all attracted here, which was probably also true
for our philosopher. Furthermore, as Frances A. Yates points out,
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Ren Descartes interest in the court of Heidelberg near the end of

his life leads us to think that he was aware of its past glory, and
prompts us to ask what was his true relationship with this Mecca of
Rosicrucianism.4

THE THREE DREAMS

In this period, Descartes was fully engaged in his quest for
knowledge. He was to discover the answers for two of the three
mathematical problems that no scholar since antiquity had
succeeded in solvingnamely, doubling the cube and trisecting an
angle. In March 1619, he announced to his friend Isaac Beeckman
that he was working to establish an entirely new science . . . a
universal method that goes beyond mathematics and allows one to
resolve all types of questions. He felt an exhilarating jubilation of the
mind, completely happy to have found the basis of a wonderful
knowledge. Descartes spent November 9th meditating upon the
object of his quest. It was during that night, near the city of Ulm,
that he experienced three dreams which turned his life upside down.
In the first dream, he was pushed by a raging wind toward a
mysterious college where he encountered a man who gave him a
melon. He awoke and, fearing this dream to be the work of an evil
spirit, offered up a prayer. Going back to sleep, he almost
immediately experienced a second dream, followed by a third. In
these dreams, he was presented with a dictionary and a collection of
poems in which philosophy was blended with wisdom. In consulting
this collection, he stumbled across these words: What path shall I
211

follow in life?
The interpretation of these three dreams has given rise to many
commentaries. As several authors have noted, the events which he
experienced in these dreams resembled certain episodes related in
The Chymical Marriage of Christian Rosenkreuz.5 Descartes was aware of
having experienced a fundamental change and he immediately set
about analyzing it. He judged these dreams to be so important that
he transcribed them in a collection which he entitled Olympica. This
experience confirmed his belief that he was on the right path and
that mathematics was an essential key for understanding the
mysteries of Creation.
For Marie-Louise von Franz, an associate of Carl Jung, the
illumination experienced by Descartes may be seen as a breaking
through of the collective unconscious that led him to an intuitive
comprehension of the archetypes conveyed by numbers.6 Descartes
himself said that it involved the most important affair of my life,
and until his death he would always keep this text with him. Four
years later, in 1623, he returned to Paris. It was then that his name
became associated with the Rosicrucians.

THE PLACARDS IN PARIS

In the same year, a notice placarded on the walls of Paris
announced the visible and invisible presence of the Rosicrucians.
Gabriel Naud, in his Instruction La France sur la Vrit de lHistoire
des Frres de la Roze-Croix (1623) provided a version of this text which
stated:
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We, the deputies of our Head College of the Rose Cross, now
sojourning, visible and invisible, in this town, by grace of the
Most High, towards Whom the hearts of sages turn, do teach,
without the help of books or signs, how to speak the language
of every country wherein we elect to stay, in order that we
may rescue our fellow men from the error of death.
This placard was soon followed by a second, which stated in part:
. . . But, to arrive at the knowledge of these marvels, we warn
the reader that we can divine his thoughts, that if mere
curiosity should prompt the wish to see us, he will never
communicate with us, but if an earnest determination to
inscribe himself in the register of our confraternity should
actuate him, we will make manifest to such a one the truth of
our promises, so that we by no means expose the place of our
abode, since simple thought, joined to the determined will of
the reader, will be sufficient to make us known to him, and
reveal him to us.7
These placards created a considerable stir. Gabriel Naud wrote,
If we seek for the precise origin of this squall of wind which now
whistles over our country, we shall find that the report of this
fraternity having been spread abroad some short time since in
Germany. Within days pamphlets attacking the Rosicrucians
circulated. It was claimed that the Order had sent thirty-six deputies
into the world and that six of them were in Paris, but that
communication with them was possible only by thought. They were
ironically called the Invisibles. Naud increased the attacks in
213

books with such evocative titles as Effroyables pactations faites entre le

diable et les prtendus Invisibles (Frightful Compacts between the Devil
and the So-called Invisibles, 1623). However, in later years, he
became more conciliatory, as indicated in his Apologie pour tous les
grands personnages qui ont ete faussement soupconns de magie (Apology to
All the Great Dignitaries Who Have Been Falsely Suspected of
Magic).8
The fact that the appearance of posters coincided with the return
of Descartes was enough to stir the imagination of some Parisians.
The rumor spread throughout the capital that Descartes had been
admitted into the fraternityand that he was even responsible for
these mysterious posters. To nip the rumors in the bud, the
philosopher brought his friends together to show them that he was
not invisible and that he had nothing at all to do with the posters.
He explained that he had actually searched for Rosicrucians in
Germany, but had not encountered any. Was he telling the truth or
was he seeking to protect himself? Whatever the truth of this matter,
the situation was such that even if he had encountered Rosicrucians,
which seems probable, he would have remained silent.
Indeed, in this era, France was hardly receptive to the
Rosicrucians. In connection with this Frances A. Yates has spoken
of the Rosicrucian scare which then reigned in the country.9 The
Church believed it a Protestant plot and considered the Order a
diabolical society. In the same year as the affair of the posters, a
friend of Descartes, the abbot Marin Mersenne, philosopher and
scholar, violently opposed Rosicrucianism. He published Questiones
214

celeberrimae in genesim . . . in which he refuted Hermetic philosophy

and the Qabalah of the Renaissance, as well as their various
proponents. He found particular fault with the English Rosicrucian
Robert Fludd. In fact, Mersenne was afraid of what he did not
know, and his understanding of esotericism was laughable. He
imagined France to be overrun by invisible sorcerers spreading their
perverse doctrines everywhere.
One of Mersennes closest friends, the philosopher and
mathematician Pierre Gassendi, also took on Robert Fludd. During
the same period, Franois Garasse published La Doctrine curieuse des
beaux esprits de ce temps (1623), wherein he condemned the
Rosicrucian sect and its secretary Michael Maier. And in 1625 the
faculty of theology at the University of Paris officially censured
Heinrich Khunraths Amphitheatrum Sapientiae Aetemae.

215

FIGURE 37. Gabriel Naud, Instruction la France sur la vrit de lhistoire des Frres de
la Roze-Croix, 1623.

POLYBIUS THE COSMOPOLITAN

In a study devoted to Descartes dreams, Sophie Jama returned to
this episode in the philosophers life.10 As part of this project, she
examined an early unpublished text of Descartes entitled Trsor
mathematique de Polybe le Cosmopolite. In this manuscript Ren
Descartes proposed to resolve all mathematical obstacles, and
indicated that this work was offered to the learned of the entire
world, and especially to the F.R.C. [Rosicrucian Brothers], very well
known in G. [Germany].11 Jama felt that the purpose of this book
216

was like that of many other 17th-century thinkers who were

responding to the call of the Rosicrucian manifestos. However, the
dramatic events following the Battle of White Mountain in Bohemia
and the sectarianism that prevailed in France while it was engaged in
the Counter-Reformation undoubtedly prompted him to abandon
this project. Let us add that the purpose of this text resembles the
one dedicated to Rose-Croix by his friend Johan Faulhaber, in his
book Mysterium arithmeticum.
Even though Ren Descartes denied having met any Rosicrucians,
we need to consider his adherence to Rosicrucian concepts. In
comparing the main concepts of the Rosicrucian manifestos, the
Olympica, and Descartes other writings, Jama has shown in her
book that far from having been a marginal episode in the
philosophers life, the Rosicrucian concepts contributed to the
enrichment of his thinking. She goes so far as to suggest that even if
Descartes had not met any Rosicrucians in Germany, he could have
encountered the Rose-Croix through a visionary experience, such as
he had in his three dreams.

217

FIGURE 38. Dutch edition of the Fama Fraternitatis.

HOLLAND
Descartes found the agitation that dominated France to be so
disturbing that he moved to the Netherlands in 1628. He settled
near Leiden, where he could work in tranquility and dedicate himself
wholly to research. Certain historical elements have shown that
Rosicrucianism spread rapidly in this country.12 As we discussed in
the previous chapter, it was here that Frederick V sought refuge
after the Battle of White Mountain (1620). As early as 1615, the
Fama Fraternitatis had been translated into Dutch as Fama Fraternitatis
218

Oft Ontdeckinge van de Broederschap des loflijcken Ordens des Roosen-Cruyces

(Gedruckt na de Copye van Jan Berner, Franckfort, Anno 1615).
This translation included a letter in which Andreas Hoberveschel
von Hobernfeld asked for admission into the Rosicrucian Order.
This man, originally from Prague, followed Frederick V into exile in
The Hague. We are also aware of the presence of Rosicrucians in
Holland through a letter written by Peter Paul Rubens, the famed
painter of Antwerp, to Nicolas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc. In this
correspondence, dated August 10, 1623, Rubens reported that the
Rosicrucians were active for some years in Amsterdam. However,
this information, as well as Orvius statement that the order owned a
palace in The Hague, is too imprecise for us to know the true
development of Rosicrucianism in the Netherlands.13
What can be said for certain is that letters dated January 1624 were
written between several individuals in the Court of Justice that
denounced the existence of a Rosicrucian circle in Haarlem. The
theologians of Leiden complained about the presence of an order
contesting the integrity of the Church. They felt that the group
would cause political and religious problems.14 In June of the
following year the magistrates ordered an inquiry. The Hof van
Holland asked Leidens theologians to proceed with an analysis of
the Fama Fraternitatis and Confessio Fraternitatis. This study resulted in
a report entitled Judicium Facultatis Theologicae in Academia Leydensi de
secta Fraternitatis Roseae Crucis, which led the magistrates to hunt
down the Rosicrucians.
Johannes Symonsz Torrentius (originally van der Beeck), a painter
219

practicing alchemy, was soon portrayed as the leader of the Dutch

Rosicrucians.15) He was arrested on August 30, 1627, along with his
friend Christiaen Coppens. During legal proceedings lasting five
years, the painter underwent harsh interrogations, but despite the
tortures he suffered, he denied belonging to the Rosicrucians.
However, he was condemned to being burned at the stake, a
sentence that was soon changed to twenty years imprisonment.
Fortunately for him, Torrentius was incarcerated for only a few
years. With the assistance of his painter friends and the intervention
of King Charles I of England, he was freed in 1630 and allowed to
settle in London.16 During the same year, Peter Mormius published
at Leiden his Arcana totius naturae secretissima, nec hactenus unquam
detecta, a collegio Rosiano in lucem produntur (The Entire Secrets of
Nature . . . ),17 a book which described the creation of a Rosicrucian
movement founded by Frdric Rose, a Frenchman born in the
Dauphin. We will return to this subject before long.

220

FIGURE 39. J.S. Torrentius.

THE ALCHEMICAL TEMPTATION

During this period, the Catholic Church engaged in a veritable
witch hunt. In 1610, after an endless trial, Giordano Bruno was
burned alive at the stake in Rome. Soon afterwards, Galileo was
persecuted. When Descartes learned of the condemnation of the
latter in 1633, he considered destroying Le Monde (The World), a
treatise of cosmology which made reference to heliocentrism. He
felt it wise to be cautious. Also, in his Discours de la mthode
(Discourse on Method), which he completed in 1637, Descartes
preferred to condemn the bad doctrinesthose of alchemists,
astrologers, and magicians.18 In correspondence dating from July
221

1640 with his friend Mersenne,19 he criticized alchemy and its

esoteric language, and he challenged the principle of the three
elements: sulphur, salt, and mercury. However, his letters show that
he was interested in alchemy and that he was aware of its principles.
His interest in this science appeared to extend over several years.
Concerning this matter, Jean-Franois Maillard brought to light a
rarely noted fact. He reported that around 1640, Descartes devoted
himself to alchemy in the laboratory of his friend Cornelis van
Hogelande.20 In connection with this, he spoke of a temptation that
was not averted, but aborted, by reason. In effect, the attention of
the author of the Method was spurred on by other sciences such as
mathematics, geometry, meteorology, medicine, or optics.
It must be emphasized, therefore, that despite his interest in
alchemy, Descartes distanced himself from the esotericism of this
era. He rejected thought by analogy, the theory of correspondences,
and the principle of symbolism. For him, only clear and distinct
ideas, in which all concepts can be completely analyzed, will lead to
true knowledge. It is mathematical truths, innate in humans, that
will allow us to understand the world.
Moreover, Descartes thought that if we are able to apprehend the
ideas of perfection and the infinite, it is because God has placed a
token of himself in us. Moreover, Descartes rejected final causes,
because he refused all attempts at understanding the purpose of
Creation and of things. If he based his physics on metaphysics, it
was because he felt that the mathematical truths innate in our soul
allow us to explain the natural world through physics and make
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humanity natures master and owner. Descartes purged the natural

world of its occult qualities and, thanks to the certainty of
mathematical truths, conceived it as a succession of geometrical
volumes articulated according to the model of automata and
measurable volumes. This mechanistic conception of Creation was
indeed different from that propounded by Paracelsus, who saw
nature as the key to everything in existence and as a living reality
with which man may communicate. Nonetheless, Descartes
approach allowed humanity to leave a period of a tortuous
obscurantism and move toward modern scientific knowledge, free
from dangerous prejudices and extravagant superstitions.
However, we may note that certain aspects of Descartes thinking
approached that of the Rosicrucians. His rejection of sterile
speculation and his aspiration to knowledge which is very useful in
life recalls the fundamental points in the Fama Fraternitatis and the
Confessio Fraternitatis. Serge Hutin points out: As for methodical
doubt, putting the emphasis on experience, to the need for struggle
against superstition, these points of view fit quite well into the
general perspectives of Rosicrucianism .21 We may also note that in
many regards, especially in the complementary role of intuition and
deduction, or in the function of the pineal gland,22 Descartes
thinking is very close to modern Rosicrucian theories. Although
Ren Descartes was not a Rosicrucian in the fullest sense of the
word, we may nonetheless consider him to be a Rosicrucian to the
extent that, at a given moment in his life, he took an interest in the
Rosicrucians. This interest should be taken into account in the
223

maturing process that led him to work out his philosophical system.
Curiously, near the end of his life, Descartes became a close friend
of Princess Elizabeth, the daughter of the unfortunate King
Frederick V, protector of the Rosicrucians. Indeed, she became one
of his disciples. Among the works the philosopher dedicated to her
were the Principia (1644) and the Treatise on the Passions. After the
Treaty of Westphalia (1648), which marked the end of the Thirty
Years War, the princess recovered her property in Bohemia and
invited Descartes to settle nearby. Unfortunately, this project was
never realized because the philosopher died in February 1650 during
a visit to the Swedish court, at the invitation of Queen Christina.

ENGLAND
In England, the Rosicrucian project developed in a special way,
even though, in contrast to what occurred in the rest of Europe,
Hermeticism remained relatively unobtrusive.23 However, the
writings of John Doget (15th century) showed the influence of the
Corpus Hermeticum, and the Christian Qabalist Francesco Giorgi
enjoyed a great reputation during the reign of Henry VIII. The king,
in fact, entrusted Giorgi to search through the sacred texts for
arguments in favor of his divorce from Catherine of Aragon. As for
Catherine, she turned to Cornelius Heinrich Agrippa for advice.
Despite the enthusiasm of Thomas More (1478-1535) for the
writings of Pico della Mirandola, it was only during the reign of
Elizabeth I (1533-1603) that the Hermeticism of the Renaissance
gained influence. Its major proponents were Philip Sidney (1554224

1586), diplomat, writer, and friend of Giordano Bruno; Walter

Raleigh (1554), navigator, writer, and favorite of Elizabeth; Thomas
Harriot (1560-1621), a mathematician; and John Dee (1527-1608).
The latter, strongly influenced by Agrippas writings, was the true
leader of the Elizabethan Renaissance, and the queen was fond of
visiting the rich esoteric library he owned.

THE FAERIE QUEEN

During Elizabeths reign, occult philosophy provoked debates that
left traces in the literature of the day. For instance, the great poem
of Edmund Spenser (1552-1599), Faerie Queene, and his Foure Hymnes,
are tinged by the Neoplatonism of the Renaissance and by Christian
Qabalism. The movement also had its opponents, such as
Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593), whose play The Tragicall History of
Dr. Faustus (1594) denounced Hermeticism. Its main character is
presented as a disciple of Agrippa practicing diabolical magic. This
work enjoyed enormous success, which was also true of The Jew of
Malta (1592), wherein the author, through his criticism of the Jews,
found fault with the Christian Qabalah. Ben Jonson (1573?-1637)
attacked Hermeticism in his play The Alchemist (1610)..24 As for
William Shakespeare (1564-1616), he took the opposing position by
responding to Marlowes The Jew of Malta with the Merchant of Venice,
a work in which the influence of Francesco Giorgis De Harmonia
Mundi may be detected. This is also true of some other
Shakespearean plays, including As You Like It (1598) and The
Tempest (1611), which were influenced by Agrippas De Occulta
225

Philosophia. The Tempest was performed during the festivities

celebrating the wedding between Elizabeth, daughter of King James
I, and Frederick V of the Palatinate. Frances A. Yates, the great
expert on English Rosicrucian history, considered this work to be a
veritable Rosicrucian manifesto.

FIGURE 40. Francis Bacon.

FRANCIS BACON
When speaking of the beginnings of Rosicrucianism, Francis
Bacon (1561-1626), lord chancellor of England and philosopher, is
226

frequently mentioned. In a long list of authors who have examined

his relationship with the Rose Cross, John Heydon, the author of
numerous works on Rosicrucianism , was the first, but his theories
are often extreme. His book entitled The Holy Guide leading the Way to
the Wonder of the World (1662)25 contains a narrative, The Voyage to
the Land of Rosicrucians, which is an adaptation of Bacons New
Atlantis. It combines elements from the Fama Fraternitatis, not
hesitating to make Solomons House, mentioned by Francis Bacon,
into the Rosicrucian Temple.
In 1788 Nicolas de Bonneville published La Maonnerie ecossaise
comparee avec les trois professions et le secret des templiers du XlVe siecle. In
this book, he emphasized the role played by Francis Bacon in the
formation of Rosicrucianism. He indicated that at the beginning of
the 17th century, a Rosicrucian society, the Brahmins of the North,
was created according to the ideas revealed in the New Atlantis, a
work of the English philosopher. For its symbols this society used
the Sun, Moon, compass, carpenters square, square, triangle, etc. De
Bonneville noted that the Royal Society arose in the wake of the
Brahmins of the North in 1646, but as the new group did not
conform to the desires of the Rose-Croix, a new Rosicrucian society
coming closer to the Grand Brahmins ideas was formed the very
same year. He then added that Freemasonry borrowed its symbols
from this society. However, de Bonneville also stated that this
society was only the rebirth of the ancient Rose-Croix, renewed in
Germany by Johann Valentin Andreae and in England by Robert
Fludd. He added that Bacon had drawn the symbols of the
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Brahmins from the Speculum sophicum Rhodo Stauroticum (1618) of

Theophilus Schweighardt and Mythologiae Christianae (Christian
Mythology) of Johann Valentin Andreae (1618).26
A century later, in his book Franc-Maonnerie, ordre chapitral, nouveau
grade de Rose-Croix (1860), Jean-Marie Ragon reiterated these ideas.27
A whole stream of writers have also done their best to show that
Bacon was the author of William Shakespeares plays. Some, such as
Alfred Dodd, went so far as to see the English dramatic poet as the
founder of Freemasonry.28 The author who went farthest in his
investigations was probably W.F.C. Wigston with his book Bacon,
Shakespeare, and the Rosicrucians (1888). His ideas were repeated by
Mrs. Henry Pott in Francis Bacon and his Secret Society (1892) and
by numerous other authors. However, apart from some interesting
observations, the latter often launched into extravagant speculations.

THE THEOSOPHISTS
The members of the Theosophical Society were however quite
responsive to such hypotheses, particularly those members who
were part of the Rosicrucian movement established within the
society: the Order of the Temple of the Rosy Cross.29 Thus, in her
book The Masters (1912),30 Annie Besant put forward the notion that
Bacon was one of the reincarnations of Christian Rosenkreuz, a
member of a line of initiates to which the Comte de Saint-Germain
also belonged, and which had its source in the royal house of
Rakoczi. One of her associates, Marie Russak, soon afterwards
published in the magazine The Channel a series of articles repeating
228

such ideas. We find the same principles in another work, The

Rosicrucians (1913), published by Le Droit Humain, a Masonic
obedience close to the Theosophical Society, in which H. Clarke and
Katherine Betts claimed that Bacon was the author of the
Rosicrucian manifestos.31 The author who contributed most to
popularizing all of the theories relating to Bacons role in
Rosicrucianism was the Theosophist and Belgian senator Franz
Wittemans. His book Histoire des Rose-Croix (1919) offered a mixture
of interesting elements and highly arguable contentions. He repeated
the concepts of W.F.C. Wigston, Mrs. Pott, Dr. Speckman, E. Udny,
and certain Theosophists.
In Francis Bacon: from Magic to Science (1968), Paolo Rossi has shown
that if some of Bacons ideas parallel those of the Rosicrucian
manifestos, it is basically because they come from the same source:
the Hermetic tradition of the Renaissance. Paul Arnold and Frances
A. Yates arrived at the same conclusions. It is true to say that, during
the last few decades, the discoveries made by historians have
permitted a better understanding of the genesis of Rosicrucianism,
and the notion that Bacon was the author of the Fama Fraternitatis
and the Confessio Fraternitatis has become obsolete. However, this
does not hinder us from placing this English philosopher in the
Rosicrucian movement of the 17th century. In some ways, he was
one of those who was most successful in promoting the Rosicrucian
ideal. This is undoubtedly the reason why certain people saw him as
being one of the most important personalities of contemporary
Rosicrucianism. Moreover, in her Rosicrucian Enlightenment, Yates
229

shows that even though Bacon distanced himself from 17th-century

Hermeticism on various pointsparticularly in his stance against
Paracelsianism and his rejection of the concept of man as a
microcosm he remained strongly influenced by Rosicrucianism.32
A true proponent of the movement, he gave it new expression
through a project of reforming the sciences which would shortly
give birth to the Royal Societythat is, the British academy of
sciences.

NOVUM ORGANUM
Francis Bacons project undoubtedly originated with his father,
Nicholas Bacon. After Henry VIIIs break with Rome, the elder
Bacon was entrusted with the task of reforming the universities.
Francis Bacon, after trying to persuade Queen Elizabeth, attempted
to involve James I in his project of reforming the sciences. At the
beginning of his book Advancement of Learning (1605), Bacon
addressed the king in these persuasive words:
It indeed seems a great thing in a monarch, if he can find time
to digest a compendium or imbibe the simple elements of
science, or love and countenance learning; but that a king, and
he a king born, should have drunk at the true fountain of
knowledge, yea, rather, should have a fountain of learning in
himself, is indeed little short of a miracle. And the more since
in your Majestys heart are united all the treasures of sacred
and profane knowledge, so that like Hermes your Majesty is
invested with a triple glory, being distinguished no less by the
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power of a king than by the illumination of a priest and the

learning of a philosopher.
Quite simply, the project set forth by Bacon was the restoration of
learning. His goal was that learning would no longer merely be the
object of idle speculation, but rather that it would become a proper
instrument in providing prosperity and happiness for humanity. In
his book, he suggested a fraternity be created that would assemble
learned men from all countries, with each member exchanging
knowledge for the greatest benefit of all. This concept brings to
mind the purpose of the Fama Fraternitatis.33

THE BEE
Francis Bacon desired to institutionalize the sciences through
programs of collective research and he wanted to see laboratories
organized rationally and methodically. It can be generally said that
Bacons project foreshadowed the academies that sprang into being
soon afterwards. He wanted to substitute the ancient apriorist and
deductive logic with a new logic, one that was experimental and
inductive. To symbolize the attitude that the researcher should
adopt, he used the images of the ant, spider, and bee. The first
accumulates (empirical philosophy), the second encloses in its web
(rational philosophy), but the third, after having gathered pollen
hither and thither, creates honey (a balance between the two
philosophies). The Rose gives honey to bees Robert Fludd also
stated when using similar symbology.34 The English alchemist
Thomas Vaughan indicated that, according to Virgil, there is among
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bees a scintilla of divine intelligence of Empyrean emanations

(Anthroposophia theomagica, 1650). Bacons fundamental work, Novum
Organum (1620),35 proposed doing away with the ancient logic of
Aristotle. It should be pointed out that, owing to his prudence and
inclinations, little room was allowed for esotericism in his writings.
However, Francis Bacon was unsuccessful in imposing his project
of reform. Despite his first disgrace in 1601 which had been brought
about by the fall of his protector, the earl of Essex, the queens
favorite, Bacon gained the confidence of the new king, James I. He
was appointed Keeper of the Seal in 1617, and in the following year
he attained one of the kingdoms highest offices, that of Lord
Chancellor, and he became Baron Verulam. His career was
interrupted in 1621, at the moment when, after having been named
Viscount St. Albans, he was the victim of a new scandal which
completely removed him from power. It is during this period that he
wrote New Atlantis.36 Having failed in furthering his ideas through
institutions, he again took up the theme that preoccupied him all his
life in the form of a utopian story.37

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FIGURE 41. Detail from the frontispiece of New Atlantis, 1627.

NEW ATLANTIS
This book recounts the story of travelers who, after leaving Peru,
sailed toward China and Japan, but, following unfavorable winds,
their ship was in distress. Short on rations and considering
themselves near death, they finally sighted an unknown island. Upon
reaching the island, some messengers handed them a parchment
scroll informing them of certain requirements for their stay. Affixed
to this document was a seal showing cherubins wings by a cross, an
emblem which recalled the expression at the end of the Fama
Fraternitatis: Under the shadow of thy wings, Jehovah. This land,
called Bensalem, was inhabited by a strange people who had
successfully combined wisdom and learning.
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Learning was both the goal and principle of its inhabitants social
structure. They seemed to have accomplished the Great
Instauration of knowledge. They had rediscovered the paradisiacal
state before Adams fall, a goal envisaged by Francis Bacon and the
Rosicrucian manifestos. The travelers were lodged in the Strangers
House. Before long, an ambassador explained to them that this
country was directed by Solomons House, or the College of the Six
Days Work. This allusion brings to mind that blessed time in which
Rosicrucians would light the sixth candle, which, according to the
Confessio Fraternitatis, preceded the end of time. However, it may
refer to the prophecy of Elijah, which was relatively popular in
Europe at this time and was the same source used by the
Rosicrucian manifesto. Solomons House . . . had for an end
knowing the causes and secret movement of things and of moving
back the boundaries of the human kingdom in view of realizing all
things possible.38 This group of priest-scientists had vast
laboratories where they engaged in research concerning science as
well as agriculture, husbandry, medicine, mechanics, the arts, etc.
The results of these researches benefited all the inhabitants of this
paradise of science where prosperity and peace reigned.
The core of the New Atlantis describes the various scientific riches
and the social organization of the society living on the island of
Bensalem. The relatively short text remained uncompleted, and it
was only published in 1627, one year after the death of its author, by
his chaplain William Rawley. Although the name Rosicrucian does not
appear in this text, nor in any other of Bacons works, the
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Rosicrucian influence can be sensed in numerous passages. This

similarity did not escape the notice of John Heydon, who
endeavored to emphasize the connections in his various writings.
Bacon would have known about the Fama Fraternitatis, which was
already circulating in manuscript form. Nor should it be forgotten
that he was associated with the festivities which, in 1613, celebrated
the marriage of Elizabeth, daughter of James I, to Frederick of the
Palatinate, the protector of the Rosicrucians. Indeed, Francis Bacon
had devised an entertainment, the Masque of the Middle Temple and
Lincolns Inn, which took place the day after the wedding.

235

FIGURE 42. Frontispiece from History of the Royal Society by Thomas Sprat, 1667.
Drawing by John Evelyn.

THE ROYAL SOCIETY

Not many years after Francis Bacons death, his project for
reforming the sciences assumed material form. In 1645, at the height
of the English civil war, meetings took place that gave rise to the
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Royal Society. Among those in this first nucleus of individuals were

many refugees from the Palatinate, who fled after the disaster of
White Mountain.39 Two of them were Theodore Haak and Dr. John
Wilkins, chaplain to the Elector Palatine. Wilkins knew the concepts
expressed in the Rosicrucian manifestos thoroughly. He cited the
Fama Fraternitatis and the Confessio Fraternitatis in his Mathematicall
Magick (1648), a book inspired by the writings of Robert Fludd and
John Dee. Thus, it is not entirely surprising that Robert Boyle,
another member of the group, when discussing these meetings in his
letters, used the expression Invisible College, an expression
frequently used at the time to describe the Rosicrucians. It is
interesting to note that Robert Moray, one of the founding members
of the Royal Society and a devotee of alchemy, was the patron of
Thomas Vaughan (1622-1666). Vaughan, using the pseudonym of
Eugenius Philalethes, published an English translation of the Fama
and the Confessio entitled The Fame and Confession in 1652.
These thinkers wanted to put an end to the philosophical and
religious heritage of their predecessors. In 1660, the meetings of this
group gave birth to the Royal Society. As Frances A. Yates has
indicated, although its main purpose involved the advancement of
science, rather than universal reform or charity and education, this
society adopted a part of the Rosicrucian ideals which had inspired
Bacon himself. Thomas Sprat, in his History of the Royal Society (1667),
seemed to have understood this. The frontispiece of his book shows
the bust of the king of England, Charles II, between William
Brouncker, first president of the society, and Francis Bacon. The
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wing above the philosopher seems to evoke the Rosicrucian

expression: Under the shadow of thy wings, Jehovah. It is
interesting to note that the artist who created this engraving, John
Evelyn, originally came from Bohemia.

FIGURE 43. Comenius by Max Svabinsky.

COMENIUS
Included among the men who participated in the foundation of the
Royal Society were many notable individuals who had direct links
with the Rosicrucians of Bohemia. One of the most engaging was
the Czech philosopher, pedagogue, and writer Jan Amos Komensky
(1592-1670), better known as Comenius. When he was twenty-one
years old, Comenius left his native Moravia to continue his studies at
Heidelberg. He then witnessed the coronation of Frederick V and
238

Elizabeth. All through his life, he supported the royal couple of

Heidelberg, and even after the disaster of White Mountain (1620),
he held out hope for Fredericks return to the throne. Following this
tragedy, Comenius house was burned, he was forced to flee, and
soon afterwards he lost his wife and children. A few years later this
friend of Johann Valentin Andreae became enthusiastic about the
project of reform spelled out in the Rosicrucian manifestos. His
book, The Labyrinth of the World and the Paradise of the Heart (1623),
which is a great classic in Czech literature and, according to some,
a classic of world literature recalls the hopes he had placed in
Rosicrucianism. This book is that of an idealist whose expectations
had been destroyed by the beginnings of the Thirty Years War. In
Chapter 12, entitled The Pilgrim Bears Witness to the
Rosicrucians, Comenius speaks in a veiled manner about the
disaster that followed the end of Fredericks reign in late 1620 and
which gave rise, through Fredericks downfall, to the project of
reform launched by Rosicrucianism. It is understandable that, in
contrast to the utopias of his friend Johann Valentin Andreae
(Christianapolis) and of Tommaso Campanella (The City of the Sun), he
describes a city where everything goes wrong, science, employment,
etc., and that there is hardly any place where a person may find
peace and knowledge or rather, the paradise of his heart. He
dreams instead about a time when all swords would be beaten into
plowshares and spears into pruning-hooks.

THE PANSOPHY

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This sorrowful period led Comenius to reflect on the importance

of education, and the ideas of universal reform presented in the
Rosicrucian manifestos most likely contributed to the birth of a
system he was to plan, the pansophia or universal knowledge, based
on the macrocosm-microcosm relationship. At this time he wrote
one of his major books: Didactica Opera Omnia or the Universal Art of
Everything Taught to Everyone (1627-1632).40 This text is composed of a
philosophical and mystical section, and of another in which he
speaks of pedagogical methods and tools. In effect, Comenius was
not only preoccupied with reflecting upon pedagogy; he was also
interested in its results. The book included his theory of universal
history. He saw education as the means of restoring humanity to the
purity it had lost after Adams fall, and he believed that education
was the best means for preparing oneself for eternal life. His desire
was that all human beings, whatever their circumstances, have access
to education. This work was followed by an essay written by Johann
Valentin Andreae called Exhortation, which invited everyone to
follow the method proposed by Comenius.
After many years of forced exile, Comenius was invited by his
friend Samuel Hartlib, an old school chum from Heidelberg
University, to travel to England and participate in his project of
educational reform and the organization of philanthropic societies.
These two admirers of Francis Bacon felt themselves mandated to
construct his New Atlantis. It was in England that Comenius
wrote The Way of Light (1641),41 where the themes of the manifestos
are so apparent that certain historians have called this book the
240

Fama of Comenius. In the preface to the version that he

published in Amsterdam in 1660, he even spoke of members of the
Royal Society as being Illuminati!

THE COLLEGE OF LIGHT

In 1645, Comenius began drafting a work which represented the
culmination of his work: The Universal Consultation on the Reform of
Human Affairs. The central concept of this worki.e., the necessity
of proper reform for the establishment of an era of prosperity and
peacerecalls the basic concept of the Rosicrucian manifestos. The
work was to be divided into seven parts (only two were completed),
a number whose symbolical significance is beyond the scope of this
work. Each part bore a name whose prefix panemphasized
universality: panegersia, panaugia, pansophia, panpedia, panglossia,
panorthosia, pannuthesia these being distinctive sciences leading
humanity to reflect on its place in Creation, to contemplate the
universal light, to have access to universal wisdom, to adopt a
universal language, to promote the education of all people, etc. He
also proposed a new world organization where each country would
be directed by three organizationsa College of Light, an
Ecumenical World Consistory, and an international Tribunal of
Peace institutions which foreshadowed such great international
structures as the United Nations and UNESCO, which came into
being centuries later. Although Comenius died before he could
complete this work, he did manage to finish most of it.42
It can be said that through Comenius, Rosicrucianism contributed
241

to the establishment of a new method of conceiving education, and,

in fact, Jules Michelet described him as the Galileo of Education.
The pedagogue Jean Piaget, who admired him profoundly,
considered Comenius to be one of the precursors of pedagogy,
psychology, didactics, and the relationships between schooling and
society.43 Comenius is an individual praised and respected for his
humanism. In December 1956, UNESCO solemnly paid homage to
him. At the general conference given on this occasion, Comenius
was described as one of the leading proponents of ideas which
inspired this organization at its founding.
As we have observed, the Rosicrucian manifestos engaged the
philosophers of the time and played a role in the development of
European culture. However, following this period, esotericism,
philosophy, and science were to go their separate ways, with the
Enlightenment on one side and Illuminism on the other. At this
juncture we witness the birth of the first major groups that were to
characterize Western esotericism for a long time to come. Until then
the supporters of esotericism had formed loose groups rather than
true organized movements, but now there appeared initiatic orders,
such as those of the Rose-Croix and of Freemasonry, organized into
lodges where initiations were transmitted.

242

FIGURE 44. May violence subside from things and may everything flow from
itself Comenius emblem.

243

FIGURE 45. Rosicrucian manuscript of the 18th century (AMORC Archives).

244

Chapter 11

ROSICRUCIANISM AND
FREEMASONRY
The Egyptian, Essenian, and Templar Origins
With the onset of the Thirty Years War, Rosicrucians withdrew
from the public eye. In Germany they took refuge in the alchemical
movement, which experienced significant growth at this time.
However, in England, Rosicrucians were involved in the beginnings
of Freemasonry. They would reappear in the middle of the 18th
century, priding themselves on origins preceding those of
Freemasonry and Christianity by claiming a filiation dating back to
the Egyptians.

ROSICRUCIANS AND FREEMASONS

Freemasonry arose in England in the 18th century from fertile
ground prepared by Rosicrucianism. Such authors as Johann
Gottlieb Buhle (in 1804) and Thomas De Quincey (in 1824)
described Freemasonry as emanating from Rosicrucianism. As early
as 1638 the relationship between the two movements was described
in The Muses Threnody, a poem by Henry Adamson that was
published in Edinburgh. In this work he wrote: For we be brethren
of the Rosie Cross; We have the Masons Word and second sight,
245

Tilings for to come we can foretell aright. Some years later, on

October 10, 1676, the Poor Robins Intelligence, a London newspaper,
published this notice: The Ancient Brotherhood of the Rosy Cross
and the Company of Accepted Masons intend all to dine together
on the 31st, November next, at the Flying Bull in Windmill, Crown
Street. This connection was again emphasized in this article of the
Daily Journal of September 5, 1730: It must be confessed that there
is a society abroad, from which the English Freemasons have copied
a few ceremonies, and take pains to persuade the world, that they
are derived from them. These are called Rosicrucians from their
Prime Officers (such as our Brethren call Grand Masters, Wardens,
etc.) being distinguished on their High days by Red Crosses.

BROTHER I.O.
It is striking to note that the two oldest references relating to
Masonic initiations concern individuals who were in direct or
indirect contact with Rosicrucianism. The first reference, dating
from May 20, 1641, involves Sir Robert Moray, who was initiated
into Masonry in the Marys Chapel Lodge in Edinburgh.
Interestingly enough, Moray, one of the founding members of the
Royal Society and an exponent of alchemy, was the benefactor of
Thomas Vaughan (1622-1666). The latter, using the pseudonym of
Eugenius Philalethes, was the author of The Fame and Confession
(1652), the English translation of the Fama Fraternitatis and the
Confessio Fraternitatis.
The second reference discusses Elias Ashmole (1617-1692), the
246

noted English antiquary, who was admitted into a Masonic lodge in

Warrington on October 16, 1646. Six years later he published the
Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum (1652), a volume composed of an
important collection of alchemical treatises. In the very first lines of
this book Ashmole refers to the Fama Fraternitatis. He recalls that the
first Rosicrucian manifesto described the coming to England of
Brother I.O., one of the first four companions of Christian
Rosenkreuz. Other facts show that Ashmole took special interest in
Rosicrucianism. For instance, found among his papers in the
Bodleian Library is a translation in his own hand of the Rosicrucian
manifestos, as well as a letter in which he applied for admission into
the Rosy Cross fraternity. Over a century later Nicolas de Bonneville
(1760-1828) went so far as to say that Freemasonry had borrowed all
its allegories, symbols, or words from the Rosicrucians (La
Maonnerie cossaise compare avec les trois professions et le secret des templiers
du XlVe sicle, 1788). Although it would be incorrect to state that
Freemasonry originated with the Rosicrucians, we must note that
the first Freemasons were members of the English Rosicrucian
movement of the 18th century.

ANDERSONS CONSTITUTION
Masonic activities began in the 18th century and it is generally
acknowledged that the foundation date of the society was 1717,
when the Grand Lodge of London was constituted. But the crucial
moment in the founding of Freemasonry involves the publication of
Andersons Constitution (1723) by the Duke of Wharton, its grand
247

master at the time. This text, presented as a reorganization and

correction of old Masonic archives, was edited by James
Anderson, John Theophilus Desaguliers, and George Payne. The
materials used were the Old Charges, texts belonging to the ancient
fraternities or guilds of stonemasons, the oldest of which date from
the 14th century. The prime examples are the Regius MS (c. 1390)
and the Cooke MS (c. 1410). But rather than directly descending
from the old operative Masonic guilds, Freemasonry was rather a
society of thinkers (the term speculative Masonry was commonly
used) who described themselves as part of a lineage going back to
Adam and claiming to have inherited the Liberal Arts, knowledge
that was inscribed long ago on the two pillars surviving the Great
Flood.
Apart from the legendary history of Freemasonry, Andersons
Constitution provided the Orders rules, as well as some songs meant
to accompany lodge meetings. Generally speaking, the
Constitutions plan was more social than spiritual. In an era marked
by divisions engendered by the Reformation and CounterReformation, Freemasonry was content to exhort its members to
that religion in which all men agree, leaving their particular Opinions
to themselves: that is, to be good men and true or Men of Honour
and Honesty, by whatever Denominations or Persuasions they may
be distinguished . . . .1

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FIGURE 46. Elias Ashmole.

HIRAM AND ROSENKREUZ

Freemasonry in the early 18th century was not the organization we
know today. Only after several years did it adopt its basic structure
composed of three degreesApprentice, Fellow Craft, and Master
(Blue Masonry, or Craft Degrees, in the English-speaking world).
Originally it was composed of only two degrees, those of Apprentice
and Companion. A third, called the Master, appeared around 1730.
Official references to this degree were only found in the second
edition of Andersons Constitution (1738), and it was not until 1760
that the symbolism attached to it, the Hiram legend, was truly
adopted in England.2 In some ways, Hiram assumed some of the
characteristics of Christian Rosenkreuz. This is particularly true of
the symbolism connected with the discovery of the Masters tomb.
As Antoine Faivre has suggested, should Hiram be perceived as
being the son of Christian Rosenkreuz? Also a mythical founder,
249

the former was in that case a Christian reduced to the relative

abstraction in the gallery of great hieratic figure of the Tradition.3
In the beginning, Freemasonry did not appear as a truly initiatie
society. In fact, its ceremonies were called rites of reception. The
term initiation only appeared in print around 1728-1730 and did
not become official in France until 1826.4 Although the rituals
characteristic of Masonry conferred a mysterious aspect to its
meetings, the lodges were essentially places where philanthropy was
practiced and the fine arts were cultivated. Only gradually did it
develop an initiatie and esoteric aspect.5

THE EGYPTIAN MYSTERIES

In contrast to the Renaissance, references to Egypt had practically
disappeared by the 17th century. There were, however, a few
exceptions. Gerhard Dorn, a disciple of Paracelsus, for example, in
casting a critical eye over the esotericism of his era, felt that the
Primordial Revelation, confided long ago to Adam and perfected by
the Egyptians, had been distorted by those who had transmitted it to
usnamely, the Greeks. Another exception was Athanasius Kircher
(1610-1680), a Jesuit scholar who was an expert in archeology,
linguistics, alchemy, and magnetism. Over several decades he
endeavored to unravel the secrets of Egyptian hieroglyphs. In the
book Oedipus Aegyptiacus (1652), he claimed that these mysterious
characters concealed the remnants of the knowledge confided to
humanity before the Great Flood. Thus, he felt Egypt was the cradle
of all knowledge.6 Before Champollion discovered the meaning of
250

the hieroglyphs in the early 19th century, Kirchers writings were the
basic reference works regarding Egypt.

FIGURE 47. Reception of the Masters Degree, 18th century engraving.

Two novels testifying to the renewal of interest in Egyptian

esoterism were entitled Les Voyages de Cyrus ou la Nouvelle Cryopdie
(1727) by Andrew Michael Ramsay (1686-1743) and Sethos, histoire ou
vie tire des monuments, anecdotes de lancienne gypte (The Life of Sethos,
taken from private Memoirs of the ancient Egyptians), written in
1731 by the Abb Jean Terrasson (1670-1751). In the first book,
after having conversed with Persian Zoroastrian theologians,
Cyrus traveled to Thebes where he learned the story of Hermes
Trismegistus, the founder of their school. This novel, which was
critical of contemporary atheism, enjoyed considerable success and
was translated throughout Europe.7 111 the second book, Abb
Terrasson allowed the reader to witness the initiation of an Egyptian
prince in the secret temples of Memphis.8 The trials of purification
251

by the four elements earth, water, fire, and airto which its
heroes were subjected (tome II, book III), were repeated by
Freemasonry in its ritual. As stated by Boucher de la Richardire, the
author provided such a degree of verisimilitude to the disclosure of
the mysteries of Isis, reputedly impenetrable until then, that you
would think that they were revealed to him by one of the initiates or
one of the Egyptian priests.9 These books made Egypt fashionable
once more, as made evident by Jean-Philippe Rameaus opera-ballet,
The Birth of Osiris (1751). Some years later Wolfgang Amadeus
Mozart would compose The Magic Flute (1789), an opera which
blended Masonic initiation and Egyptian tradition. The Noachite
Religion The ideas developed by Ramsay and Abbe Terrasson were
to stimulate the imagination of countless Freemasons in the creation
of new degrees which soon made their appearance. Indeed, within a
few years, the hierarchical structure of the Masonic grades was
considerably enriched. On December 26, 1736, the Scottish
chevalier Andrew Michael Ramsay, a follower of
Fnelon and of Mme. Guyon, delivered an epochmaking speech
before the Louis dArgent Lodge in Paris which gave rise to the
appearance of what are called the high degrees (or side degrees)
in other words, degrees superior to that of Master.10 In his
oration, Ramsay described Freemasonry as being the resurrection of
the Noachite religion, a primordial, universal, and undogmatic
religion. He added that this Holy Order was brought back to Europe
by the Crusades, but was eventually forgotten, except in the British
Isles and Scotland in particular. Freemasonry would now expand
252

from Great Britain to the rest of Europe. Before long, the legends
relating to the Templars, Chivalry, and Old Testament described by
Ramsay would awaken the curiosity of the originators of the high
degrees.11 Egyptian themes, along with occult knowledge such as
alchemy, astrology, Qabalah, and magic, were also included in these
transformations. Between 1740 and 1773, the high degrees
proliferated in a rather unruly way, and among them the Rose-Croix
reappeared in the form of a high degree. Within a short time the
latter enjoyed considerable prestige; it was seen as the final grade,
even the nec plus ultra, of Freemasonry.12
However, certain systems of the high degrees were constituted into
independent orders. This was especially true in France, with the rise
of the Ordre des Chevaliers Magon lus-Cohens de lUnivers
(Order of Knight Masons, Elect Priests of the Universe) of Martnez
de Pasquales (1710?-1774) around 1754; or in Germany, with the
creation of the Rite of the Strict Templar Observance of the Baron
Johann Gottlieb von Hund (1722-1776) around the same time. It is
in this period that Rosicrucianism again had the freedom to establish
an autonomous order.

THE GOLDEN AND ROSY CROSS

The Rose-Croix was to reappear initially under the auspices of
alchemy. Between 1700 and 1750, the Hermetic art experienced
considerable growth, and numerous circles of alchemists were
formed in Saxony, Silesia, Prussia, Austria, and Bavaria. It was stated
that in Vienna, alone, there were thousands of alchemists.13 Most of
253

them claimed to have drawn their inspiration from Rosicrucianism .

One of these groups was the Alchemical Society of Nuremberg.
According to certain authors, Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz (16461716) was the secretary of this society.
In 1710, seven years before the publication of Andersons
Constitution, Sincerus Renatus (Samuel Richter), a Lutheran pastor
with Pietist leanings and reportedly a follower of Paracelsus and
Jacob Boehme, published Die wahrhafte und volkommene Bereitung des
philosophischen Steins der Brderschafft aus dem Orden des Gulden und Rosen
Kreutzes (The True and Complete Preparation of the Philosophers
Stone of the Brotherhood, from the Order of the Golden and Rosy
Cross). This alchemical treatise consists of practical laboratory
procedures and includes an appendix of fifty-two rules governing
the Order of the Golden and Rosy Cross. These regulations
indicated that the order could not be composed of more than sixtythree brothers, and that it should be directed by an imperator elected
for life. In his preface, Sincerus Renatus notes that this text is not
his own work, but copied from a manuscript provided by a
Professor of the Art, whose identity he could not reveal. He
indicates that the order had two centers, one in Nuremberg and the
other in Ancona, but that its members had left Europe for India a
few years previously so that they could live in a more tranquil
setting.
This work by Sincerus Renatus was inspired by Julius Sperbers
Echo der von Gott hocherleuchteten Fraternitet (Echo of the Godillumined Fraternity of the Venerable Order R.C., 1615) and Michael
254

Maiers Themis Aurea (1618). It had also taken certain rules from the
Order of the Inseparables, an alchemical order founded in 1577. In
fact, the order described by Sincerus Renatus did not seem to have
ever existed. Let us note in passing that he mentions a name, that of
the Golden Rosicrucians, which Peter Mormius had already used in
1630 in Arcana totius naturae secretissima, nec hactenus unquam detecta, a
collegio Rosiano in lucem produntur (The Entire Secrets of Nature . . .).
Mormius was the author of a legend which claimed that Frdric
Rose, who had lived in Dauphin, had founded in 1622 a secret
society of three members called the Golden Rosicrucians. The
phrase Golden Rosicrucians became relatively well known and
some of its rules were found much later in the Masonic-Rosicrucian
degree of the Prince Knights of the Rose-Croix.

The GOLDEN FLEECE

In the following years a Rosicrucian order was to see the light of
day. In 1749, Hermann Fictuld published Aureum Vellus, in which he
spoke of a society of Golden Rosicrucians which he described as
being the heirs of the Golden Fleece founded in 1429 by Philip the
Good, duke of Burgundy. Around 1757 he created a Masonic rite
the Societas Roseae et Aureae Crucis (Fraternity of the Golden Rosy
Cross)that had alchemical and Pietist leanings, and was composed
of a series of Rosicrucian degrees. This fraternity thrived in many
towns, such as Frankfurt am Main, Marburg, Kassel, Vienna, and
Prague. It appears to have become extinct around 1764, but in
actuality it reformed itself through the efforts of Dr. Bernhard
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Joseph Schleiss von Lwenfeld and Joseph Wilhelm Schrder. It

finally gave rise to another Rosicrucian Masonic rite which appeared
between 1770 and 1777 in Bavaria, Austria, Bohemia, and Hungary.
It was first adopted by the Crescent of Three Keys, a Masonic lodge
in Regensburg. In 1771, it was adopted as well by the Hope Lodge
in Vienna, which gave rise to the Three Swords Lodge. The latter
became the breeding ground of this Rosicrucian Masonic rite which
fostered alchemy and theurgy.

THE GOLDEN ROSY CROSS OF THE ANCIENT

SYSTEM
In 1776 some members of the Three Swords Lodge constituted a
new Rosicrucian Masonic order called the Order of the Golden
Rosy Cross of the Ancient System. Instrumental in this effort were
Johann Rudolf von Bischoffswerder (1714-1803), a Prussian officer
who became minister of war after the death of Frederick the Great,
and Johann Christoph Wllner (1732-1800), the economic advisor
to the king of Prussia. The Grand National Mother Lodge of the
Three Globes of Berlin became the center of this orders activities.
A hierarchy of nine degrees was adopted namely, Zelator,
Theoreticus, Practicus, Philosophus, Adeptus Minor, Adeptus
Major, Adeptus Exemptus, Magister Templi, and Maguswhose
symbolic aspects were incorporated into the documents reformed in
1777 during the convention held by the order in Prague.
As Ren Le Forestier has indicated, the teachings of the Juniores
(Zelatores) copied 110 pages of Georg von Wellings Opus Mago256

Cabbalisticum et Theosophicum (1719), a book which introduced Goethe

to Rosicrucian thought sometime later. The instructions and ritual of
the Theoretici were borrowed from the Novum laboratorium
medicochymicum of Christoph Glaser (1677). As for the alchemical
operations taught to the Magistri, these were taken from two books
by Heinrich Khunrath: Confessio de Chao Physico-Chemicorum Catholico
(1596) and Amphitheatrum Sapientiae Aeternae (1609). The rituals and
teachings of this order were now clearly oriented toward alchemy. 14
This movement, which blended alchemy, Rosicrucianism, and
Freemasonry, produced the celebrated book entitled Secret Symbols of
the Rosicrucians of the 16th and 17th Centuries (Altona, 1785 and 1788).15
Composed primarily of magnificently illustrated alchemical treatises,
it is often presented as the most significant Rosicrucian book after
the three manifestos.

THE ESSENES AND TEMPLARS

The Masonic Order of the Golden Rosy Cross of the Ancient
System we specify here Masonic so as to distinguish this
movement from recent groups which use the same name without
having any connections with the 18th-century Rosicrucians
possessed a characteristic which differentiated it from 17th-century
Rosicrucianism : it claimed a lineage dating back to Ormus, or
Ormissus, an Egyptian priest baptized by St. Mark. Ormus thus
Christianized the Egyptian mysteries and founded the Order of
Ormusiens, bestowing upon it the symbol of a golden cross
enameled in red. In A.D. 151, the Essenes were combined with
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them, and the order then took the name of the Guardians of the
Secret of Moses, Solomon, and Hermes.
After the 4th century, the order never counted more than seven
members. In the 12th century, it admitted a few Templars, and when
the Christians lost Palestine in 1118, the members of the order
scattered around the world. Three of them settled in Europe and
founded the Order of the Builders of the Orient. Raymond Lully
was admitted into this order, and soon afterwards he initiated
Edward I of England. Eventually, only members of the houses of
York and Lancaster could be dignitaries of the order. It was for this
reason that the rose, the badge of both families, was placed on a
golden cross, the symbol of the order.

258

FIGURE 48. Illustration from an 18th century Rosicrucian ritual.

INITIATED KNIGHTS AND BROTHERS OF ASIA

It was in this way that the Masonic Order of the Golden Rosy
Cross came into being. Despite its mythical lineage, this order,
which arose in Germany in the 18th century, basically developed in
the wake of the Strict Templar Observance, which was at the time
the most important Masonic rite in Germany. It should be
259

emphasized that until this period Rosicrucianism had only given rise
to small groups whose rituals have remained undiscovered, whereas
the Masonic Order of the Golden Rosy Cross of the Ancient System
has left numerous documents attesting to its activities. It expanded
widely throughout central Europe, and many individuals, such as
Prince Frederick William of Prussia and Nikolai Novikov, a Russian
journalist and philanthropist, were members. It was disbanded by its
founders in 1787, after having given rise to the Initiated Knights and
Brothers of Asia (1779), of which Landgrave Charles of HesseCassel was the Grand Master. The enigmatic Comte de SaintGermain was, no doubt, part of this movement, seeing that he
resided with Landgrave Charles, his pupil and benefactor, from
1778.16

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FIGURE 49. Lodge room in the Rosicrucian Sovereign Prince Degree.

THE ROSE-CROIX DEGREE

The Rose-Croix degree appeared within Freemasonry at practically
the same time as the Order of the Golden Rosy Cross of the
Ancient System. The existence of this high degree was confirmed
for the first time in 1757, under the title of Rosicrucian Knight, in
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the activities of the Children of Wisdom and Concord Lodge. As we

have already seen, the Rose-Croix degree was quickly considered to
be the nec plus ultra of Masonry. It was the seventh and final degree
of the Rite Franais of 1786, and the eighteenth of the Ancient and
Accepted Scottish Rite. It did, however, present a specific aspect
that was to inspire countless debates. Until then the entirety of the
Masonic degrees emphasized the universality of wisdom, whereas
this degree was specifically Christian in character. For that reason,
certain Freemasons tried to dechristianize it in the 19th century by
proposing a philosophical interpretation of its symbolism.17 In his
Ltoile flamboyante (1766) the Baron Charles Theodor Tschoudy saw
it as Catholicism put into degree form. It is true that its
symbolism does not refer to themes found in 17th-century
Rosicrucianism. Rather than discussing Christian Rosenkreuz, it
describes Calvary on Golgotha and then the Resurrection of Christ,
and is composed of a love feast in which bread and wine are shared,
a ceremony resembling the Last Supper. While being initiated into
this degree, the recipients relive the wandering that followed the
destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem. They seek the Lost Word,
and their journey allows them to discover the three virtues of Faith,
Hope, and Charity. Finally, the secret meaning of I.N.R.I. is revealed
to them.
The most ancient rituals of the Rose-Croix degree date from 1760
(Strasbourg) and 1761 (Lyons), just a few years after the appearance
of the Societas Roseae et Aureae Crucis of Frankfurt. An exchange
of correspondence in June 1761 between the Masons of Metz and
262

those of Lyons inform us that the latter carried out a degree

unknown to their brothers in Metzthat of the Knight of the
Eagle, Pelican, Knight of St. Andrew, or Mason of Heredom, which
are simply other designations of the Masonic Rose-Croix degree.
The discourse accompanying another version of this degree
described the orders origins by referring to the Sabaeans, Brahmins,
Magi, Hierophants, and Druids which it describes as being the
ancestors of the Rosicrucians.18 The Rosicrucians are portrayed as
the heirs of an initiatic chain whose links comprise the Egyptians,
Zoroaster, Hermes Trismegistus, Moses, Solomon, Pythagoras,
Plato, and the Essenes. This lineage recalls the one put forth by
Michael Maier in Silentium Post Clamores (1617) by reviving the
concept of the Primordial Tradition cherished by the Hermeticism
of the Renaissance. This concept is again found in the Regulator of the
Knights Masons or the Four Superior Orders According to the Regime of the
G.O. (1801).

SPIRITUAL KNIGHTHOOD
The elements found in the Masonic Rose-Croix degree
undoubtedly originated in a manuscript discovered in Strasbourg in
1760. This text, entitled De la Maonnerie parmi les Chrtiens (Of
Masonry Among Christians), touched upon the origins of
Freemasonry in a singular manner by suggesting that Masons are the
descendants of the canons of the Holy Sepulchre, who were the
Rosicrucian guardians of the Essenian traditions. These canons
would later confide their secret teachings to the Templars.
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Egypt, the Essenes, and the Templars are generally referred to in

these 18th-century MasonicRosicrucian degrees as being initiatic
sources. They try to connect Rosicrucianism with the sages of the
ancient religions and with an often idealized original Christianity
through the Essenes and Templars.19 In fact, they again pose the
problem of what the sources of the tradition are and how the
different initiatic currents are related.
Admittedly, the way such origins are depicted cannot be taken
literally, and Henry Corbin takes Ren Le Forestier to task for being
content in looking at such subjects only from this perspective. It
matters little whether such an individual as Ormus ever really
existed. For Corbin, this lineage can be understood only by putting
aside historical institutions. The Essenes, the canons of the Holy
Sepulchre, or the Templars should be considered basically as
symbols referring to a new higher reality. Thus, some orders hold
themselves up to ridicule when they pretend to be the Templars
successors by reviving rites and accouterments that have lost their
meaning. As Joseph de Maistre (1753-1821) said in his Memoire au due
de Brunswick, initiation existed before the Templars and it will
continue to be perpetuated long after them.
Corbin observes in the myths connected with the orders we have
just mentioned some elements reflecting a spiritual filiation through
a spiritual knighthood. This Fraternity of Light has operated since
the beginning of Creation itself for the elevation of humanity toward
the Spiritual Temple in other words, to the reconciliation of
humanity and God. As he states, the continuity of this tradition is
264

not dependent on an immanent historical causality; it can only be

expressed in symbols. Its transmitters are raised to the rank of
symbolic personalities.20
The filiation of the movements working for this purpose are not to
be found in visible history, but in hierohistory, sacred history. In this
sense it is not incorrect to see a filiation in these different
movements, provided that it is not taken literally. However, it
should be noted that in the era of which we are speaking the RoseCroix was often presented as the jewel of this spiritual knighthood.

THE ENLIGHTENMENT AND ILLUMINISM

Thus, the 18th century witnessed the creation of a multitude of
initiatic orders. We have mentioned here only those related directly
or indirectly to Rosicrucian Masonry. The proliferation of such
orders often engendered confusion in the esoteric world. In its
midst a clash was already taking place between positivists favoring
the Enlightenment and spiritualists favoring Illuminism. With the
Napoleonic campaigns in Egypt, the fascination with this ancient
land grew, and Western esotericism was shaken by a discovery
opening up new horizons: magnetism.

265

FIGURE 50. Masonic Jewel of the Rose-Croix.

266

FIGURE 51. Detail from A Key to Magic and the Occult Sciences by E. Sibley, c. 1800.

267

Chapter 12

MAGNETISM AND
EGYPTOSOPHY

N THE 18TH century, Hermetic science was confronted by

the Enlightenment, which marked a turning point in Western
history. During this period, the proponents of esotericism were
enthralled by Egypt and became addicted to the new science of
magnetism. These new elements appearing in the Age of
Enlightenment are important because they conveyed ideas that must
be considered so that we can understand the evolution of
Rosicrucianism.

THE ENLIGHTENMENT
The philosophical movement known as the Enlightenment was
characterized by the complete confidence placed in progress. Reason
was considered to be humanitys infallible guide, and everything
revealed by religion or tradition was viewed with distrust. The light
sought by humanity was not that of God, but that which shines
within each of us through our intelligence. This attitude, which
marked the beginning of a heightened materialism, could
undoubtedly be seen as a reaction to the failure of religion which,
weakened by theological quarrels, was regarded as an institution of
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the state, incapable of justifying its dogmas in face of the great

scientific discoveries.
Throughout the Age of the Enlightenment people observed the
world from a new perspective. Within a few years human knowledge
was considerably expanded. In 1747, King Louis XV was given one
of the first demonstrations of electricity, at which time its fantastic
possibilities could be glimpsed. The discovery of steam power by
Denis Papin found its first applications in navigation. This new
energy would soon revolutionize the organization of work and
stimulate the growth of industry. In November 1783 Parisians
witnessed an event that was immensely successful: the first manned
hot-air balloon flight. The work of Antoine Laurent de Lavoisier
placed a permanent gap between the researches of alchemists and
the experimental demonstrations of chemists. The works of the
naturalist Georges Louis Leclerc de Buffon proclaimed
evolutionism, which created an enormous rift between a scientific
comprehension of the phenomena of life and the creationist theories
defended by religion.

SENSATIONALISM
The 18th century was not only an era of scientists; it was also an
era of philosophers, although the latter were primarily scholars.
tienne Bonnot de Condillac declared sensation to be the source of
all knowledge. According to him, each person gained awareness of
himself and his potentialities not by what he thought, as Descartes
stated, but by what he sensed. Condillac introduced sensationalism,
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a movement that included Claude Adrien Helvtius1 and Paul Henri

Dietrich dHolbach. Both espoused an absolute materialism and
atheism by presenting religion as an instrument of tyranny that was
contrary to reason and prevented the attainment of happiness.

MAN AS MACHINE
The agenda of this era was not to improve the inner person, but to
move toward that progress which brought happiness to each person.
Moreover, this period cast doubt on the very existence of the inner
man, of the soul. In the essay LHomme-machine (Man A Machine;
1748), Julien Offray de la Mettrie reduced the human to a mere
mechanism having no need of a Creator to find existence.
Philosophers, for the most part, shared this point of view. Although
Jean-Jacques Rousseau protested against this attitude, he nonetheless
collaborated with such individuals as Helvtius, Voltaire,
Montesquieu, and Condillac on the crowning achievement of the
century of Enlightenment: the Encyclopdie of Diderot and
dAlembert (1751-1780). The rationalism and materialism of this
encyclopedia exercised a major influence on the culture of the
period. The Jesuits and Jansenists called it the book of the devil.
Given such definite stands, we are tempted to ask ourselves how
the average individual of the 18th century could still believe that
there existed in him or her a higher principle, a soul, relying on a
hypothetical God. Certainly, the normal person was hardly aware of
the various outlooks of the Enlightenment, but the advocates of
Illuminism2 in other words, esotericismwere preoccupied by
270

this question. The appearance of a new science called magnetism led

them to investigate the matter, thus stirring up debates in which
spiritualists and materialists were violently opposed. Abb Fourni,
the former secretary of the order of lusCohens, was to declare that
magnetism had been sent by God to help us understand that we
have a soul distinct and independent of our body.3

MAGNETISM
For liphas Lvi, the most important element of the 18th century
was not the Encyclopdie, nor the philosophy of Voltaire or that of
Rousseau, but the magnetism discovered by Franz Anton Mesmer.
He stated: Mesmer is like Prometheus: he gave men the fire of the
heavens that Franklin could only divert.4 Likewise, Arthur
Schopenhauer felt that magnetism is, of all the discoveries, the one
that has the greatest importance, although it sometimes poses more
enigmas than it resolves.5 The founder of this new science was
Franz Anton Mesmer (1734-1815), a physician born in the southern
German province of Swabia. In 1766 he wrote his doctoral
dissertation entitled Dissertatio physico-medica de planetarum influxu
(Physico-Medical Dissertation on the Influence of the Planets)6 in
which he discussed the cause of universal gravitation and its
influence on health. He restated the hypotheses of Paracelsus and
Robert Fludd regarding the World Soul, those of the alchemist Van
Helmont on medical magnetism,7 and the theories of William
Maxwell on vital spirit.8 Comparing these different viewpoints with
the principles enunciated by Isaac Newton and his own reflections,
271

Mesmer concluded by developing his theory regarding animal

magnetism. Under this name, he designated the property by which
bodies are susceptible to the action of a universal fluid surrounding
everything in existence and whose purpose is to maintain the
balance of all vital functions.9
Franz Anton Mesmer claimed that this subtle energy could be
collected for treating illnesses by restoring to patients the harmony
necessary for their health. He also claimed he could heal all kinds of
illnesses. In 1772, he began treatments with the application of
magnets. Mesmer eventually realized that he could obtain interesting
results by magnetizing with his hands. He also treated using
magnetized water, but it is primarily with his celebrated baquet that
he treated patients. This tub, which was approximately six feet in
diameter, contained a mixture of shards of broken bottles, crushed
sticks of sulfur, and iron filings. The tub was filled with water and
covered with a lid pierced by iron rods arranged in such a way that a
patient could place one of the extremities of a rod in contact with
the part of his body meant to receive the restorative treatment.

272

FIGURE 52. Mesmers tub, engraving.

THE SOCIETY OF HARMONY

Mesmer was soon suspected of charlatanism and even of dabbling
in magic. However, his attitude was adamant, and throughout his life
he unceasingly explained that magnetism had nothing to do with the
supernatural, but that it involved physical phenomena. Exhausted
from the attacks of his critics, he left Vienna and settled first in
Munich and then in Paris. While in Paris he published Mmoire sur la
dcouverte du magntisme animal (Dissertation on the Discovery of
Animal Magnetism; 1779), a booklet in which he attempted to justify
the origin of his theory and in which he described a universal fluid
circulating throughout the body. Although Mesmer proved himself
to be rather arrogant regarding official science in numerous passages
of his memoirs, he forwarded his book to forty-seven scholarly
societies in lands all around the world, including America, Holland,
Russia, and Spain.
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This publication involved Mesmer in numerous quarrels with the

Royal Academy of Science, the Royal Society of Medicine, and the
Paris Faculty of Medicine. These disagreements compelled him to
set out on the road again. He then settled in Spa, Belgium. Here
Mesmers patients were enthusiastic about the results that the
magnetic cures effected on their health. Two of them, Nicolas
Bergasse, a lawyer from Lyons, and Guillaume Kornmann, an
Alsatian banker, helped him to set up an establishment where
patients could be treated by magnetic cures and where this science
could also be studied. Mesmer then founded in 1783 the Socit de
lHarmonie (Society of Harmony), at which point magnetism
experienced increasing success. Even Louis Claude de Saint-Martin
was fascinated by it at this time.
Mesmer did his utmost to demonstrate that magnetism had
nothing to do with occultism , yet surprisingly he gave the Society of
Harmony a form resembling a Masonic rite. He called his society a
lodge and used hieroglyphs and symbols to transmit its teachings.
Furthermore, the members were admitted into the society by a
reception ritual that had certain similarities to an initiation; and the
meetings, where a penchant for secrecy was cultivated, consisted of
ceremonies that were virtual rituals. In fact, it could be said that the
Society of Harmony was a kind of paramasonic society. Mesmer
himself was a Freemason, as were most of the members of the
society, which also included many Martinists.10 Before long Mesmer
authorized the creation of societies in various towns. The Marquis
de Puysgur founded the Socit harmonique de bienfaisance des
274

amis runis (Harmonic Charitable Society of Reunited Friends) in

Strasbourg, while Dr. Dutrech founded the Concorde in Lyons. Dr.
Mocet also founded a society in Bordeaux.

FIGURE 53. Drawing from Diffrentes manires dorner les chemines, 1769.

ART AND EGYPT

The Churchs loss of influence in the 18th century led people to
question other forms of spirituality more freely, and the attraction
for Egypt, begun a few years earlier, added to this trend. This
tendency first manifested in art in the 17th century. At
SaintGermain-en-Laye Jean-Baptiste Lully presented Isis (1677), an
opera inspired by Egypt; and in Paris, the Thtre de Bourgogne
presented a work by JeanFranois Regnard, Les Momies dgypte (The
Mummies of Egypt; 1696), where Cleopatra and Osiris appeared on
the stage. In the last chapter, we mentioned Abb Terrassons novel
275

entitled Sthos ou vie tire des monuments et anecdotes de lAncienne gypte

(1731), which described initiations in the Great Pyramid and the
temples of Memphis. A few years later, Jean-Philippe Rameau
presented at Versailles a ballet entitled Les Festes de lHimen ou les
Dieux de lEgypt (The Marriage Rites or the Gods of Egypt; 1747), in
which Osiris appeared. Rameau later improved upon this theme in
his ballet-opera, La Naissance dOsiris (The Birth of Osiris; 1751).
Architecture was not to be outdone, and in his work entitled
Diffrentes manires dorner les chemines (Different Ways of
Ornamenting Fireplaces; 1769), Giambattista Piranesi suggested
numerous decorations inspired by the Egyptian style. Queen MarieAntoinette, who was strongly attracted to the Egyptian aesthetic,
ordered various objects for the royal palaces, including the sphinxes
at Versailles, Fontainebleau, and Saint-Cloud. Wolfgang Amadeus
Mozart set to music Thamos, King of Egypt, a drama by Baron von
Gebler, and afterwards he used some of this material again in The
Magic Flute (1791). This opera, which blends Masonic and Egyptian
symbology, perhaps took its inspiration from the Order of the
Egyptian Architects, whose origins were discussed in the last
chapter. Gottlieb Naumann premiered Osiris (1781), an opera of
Egyptian inspiration, in Dresden. Other works followed, such as Le
voyage de Kosti (1795), by Karl von Eckhartshausen, an initiatic novel
describing how the heroes are instructed in the hidden meaning of
Masonic symbols in the pyramids.11

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FIGURE 54. Scenery from the Magic Flute, painting by Karl Friedrich Schinkel.

THE EGYPTIAN ARCHITECTS

As we saw in the last chapter, the 18th-century Masonic rite of the
Golden Rosy Cross made reference to Egypt. Under the impulse of
Carl Friedrich von Kppen, commissioner of war in the service of
Prussia, the group of African Architects separated from the Three
Globes, the emblematic lodge of the Golden Rosy Cross. In 1770,
this group published a booklet entitled Crata Repoa: Einweihungen in
der alten geheimen Gesellschafter der Egyptischen Priester, that had
widespread repercussions.12 The order of the African Architects
(African is employed here in the sense of Egyptian) took its
origin from Crata Repoa, a secret group of Egyptians founded by
Menes. It proposed a set of seven degrees that tried to reproduce
the initiations once given in the pyramids. The first degree of the
African Architects is that of Pastophoris. It corresponded to the
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apprentice grade. The disciple was initiated into the mysteries of the
hieroglyphs and dressed like an Egyptian. In the second, Neocoris,
he was given a caduceus and taught to cross his arms over his chest
in the attitude of Osiris. In the third degree, Melanophoris, which
corresponded to that of Master, he was confronted by the kingdom
of the dead and placed before the sarcophagus of Osiris. The
degrees of Christophoris and Balahate followed, where he was
initiated into alchemy. Then came the degree of Astronomus and
that of Ibis which related to Hermes Trismegistus. Frederick II
supported the African Architects. The order possessed a rich library
and chemical laboratory. In 1773, lodges of this rite existed in
Berlin, Switzerland, and France.

PRIMITIVE RELIGION
It was during this period that a publication appeared which marked
a crucial stage in the study of comparative religion: Le Monde Primitif
analys et compar avec le monde moderne (The Primitive World Analyzed
and Compared to the Modern World; 1773-1784) by Antoine Court
de Gbelin.13 In his own way, this author hastened the investigation
of the Primordial Tradition through the study of the origin of
languages. Seeking the Lost Word, he sought to rediscover
humanitys original language and thereby restore it to its primitive
purity. Court de Gbelins reflections led him to believe that Paris
was formerly the center of an Egyptian sanctuary. According to him,
the name Paris came from Bar Isisi.e., the barque of Isis.14 He
indicated that a sanctuary dedicated to Isis once stood on the
278

present-day site of the Notre Dame Cathedral. Volume VIII of Le

Monde Primitif (1781) also contained the first esoteric study dedicated
to tarot, which the author described as being of Egyptian origin and
having been created by Thoth.
In 1783, Court de Gbelin fell ill and was treated by Franz Anton
Mesnrer. His recovery had considerable repercussions, because the
author attributed his cure to magnetism at a meeting of the Muse
de Parisan academic offshoot of the celebrated Les Neuf-Soeurs
Lodge of which he was a member. In July, he composed a letter
regarding magnetism that he sent to the king of France. Soon it was
circulating throughout Paris and fueled the controversy surrounding
Mesmer . . . all the more so as Court de Gbelin died the following
year as a result of his illness. Etteilla (Jean-Baptiste Alliette, 17381791), his disciple, continued his researches on the tarot and Egypt,
and founded a mysterious initiatic order, the Parfaits Initis
dgypte (Perfect Initiates of Egypt).
In a previous chapter concerning the comparative study of
religions, we promised to mention the work that, after the demise of
the author of Le Monde Primitif, had momentous repercussions. This
book was LOrigine de Tous les Cultes ou Religion Universelle (The Origin
of All Cults or Universal Religion; 1796) by Charles-Franois
Dupuis. This vast treatise regarding mythology, whose middle
section is made up of a Treatise Concerning the Mysteries,
attempts to demonstrate that all doctrines, legends, and holidays
have a common origin in a universal religion based on astronomical
phenomena. The author, a Freemason, traced the mysteries from
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their Egyptian source. He judged them to be bad, defective, and

contrary to truth, because according to Dupuis, truth has nothing
to do with mysteries: they belong only to error and deception. He
tore Christianity to shreds by showing that it borrowed its
components from the ancient religions but distorted their meaning.
Dupuis book was enormously successful among the rationalists
who made it into their bible.15

CAGLIOSTRO
Egypt and magnetism were brought together to some extent in an
Egyptian Masonic rite created by Alessandro Cagliostro. The origins
of this individual are enigmatic. He was initiated into Freemasonry at
the Esperance Lodge of London in 1777. This lodge was attached to
the Strict Templar Observance, an order created in 1750 by Baron
Johann Gottlieb von Hund. It is thought that he had received a
Rosicrucian initiation in Malta between 1766 and 1768. However, it
is not known who his initiators were. Furthermore, during his
numerous journeys around Europe, he came into contact with a
multitude of esoteric groups. In 1778, he established in Holland the
first of a new kind of lodge, namely, an Egyptian rite. After having
traveled throughout Europe, Cagliostro arrived in Lyons in October
1784. In December of that year he inaugurated La Sagesse
Triomphante, the mother lodge of his order. Like Franz-Anton
Mesmer, he organized the two quarantines, that is, cures of an
initiatic nature. The first allowed the Egyptian Mason to become
morally perfect, and the second allowed him to become
280

physically perfect.16 According to Robert Amadou, even though

Cagliostros ritualistic and personal practice did not proceed from a
historical filiation connected with Egypt, it embraced the lineage of
pharaonic Egypt relayed through Coptic Christianity.17 It contained
theurgy, religious magic, and a search for immortalityand, in
particular, elements belonging to the practices and aspirations of
Egyptian wisdom.
The development of all sorts of ritespracticing or not practicing
occultism, magnetism, Templarism, Rosicrucianism, Martinismled
many Freemasons to question their origins. During the years 17841785 and 1786-1787, the Masonic systern of Philalethes convened a
large international assembly.18 It is reported that on this occasion, in
May 1785, Cagliostro stated:
Gentlemen, seek no further the symbolic expression of the
divine idea: it was created sixty centuries ago by the magi of
Egypt. Hermes-Thoth set down two words. The first was
Rose, because this flower takes a spherical form, the most
perfect symbol of unity, and because the perfume it exhales is
like a revelation of life. This Rose is placed in the center of a
Cross, a figure expressing the point where are brought
together the apexes of two right angles whose lines can be
extended to infinity by our conception, in the triple sense of
height, width, and depth. This symbols material expression is
gold, which signifies, in occult science, light and purity; the
sage Hermes called it the Rose Crossin other words, the
Sphere of the Infinite.
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Cagliostros mission was short-lived. Following the Affair of the

Diamond Necklace, he sought exile in England, but, hounded by the
Inquisition, he was arrested on December 27, 1789. He was
condemned for heresy and magic, and died in the fortress of San
Leo on August 26, 1795. His public role lasted no more than
thirteen years.

THE CONDEMNATION OF MAGNETISM

From the beginning of the 18th century the French royal court had
lost its social preeminence and was replaced by the activity of the
salons, where artists, writers, philosophers, and savants gathered.
Magnetism soon held sway, and its sessions rapidly became an
activity, even a diversion, highly appreciated by high society.
However, this practice was a veritable challenge to Reason, elevated
into a dogma by the followers of the Enlightenment. In 1784, King
Louis XVI appointed a commission, composed of Antoine Laurent
de Lavoisier, Benjamin Franklin, and four members of the Royal
Academy of Medicine, to study the matter. This commission,
although recognizing magnetisms curative effects, advised against it,
judging it to be unscientific and overly laden with superstition. It
was primarily seen as the effect of the imagination. Afterwards,
pamphlets against magnetism became more numerous.

SOMNAMBULISM
At the close of the 18th century, Mesmerism was experiencing
difficulties. In 1785, Nicolas Bergasse, Franz Anton Mesmers
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principal collaborator and translator (Mesmers command of French

was poor), was expelled from the Society of Harmony. He soon fell
in with the spiritualists, who, like Louis Claude de Saint-Martin or
JeanPhilippe Dutoit-Membrini, began to distrust magnetism.19
Mesmer, the eternal wanderer, left briefly for Toulouse and in
March 1786 he moved in with the Du Bourgs, a family of lusCohens closely connected with Louis Claude de Saint-Martin.20 The
Society of Harmony was disbanded a few years later, in 1789, and
Mesmer passed to the Eternal East in 1815. For some years,
however, magnetism had been moving towards occultism. In fact,
Armand Marie Jacques de Chastenet, the Marquis de Puysgur, a
colonel in the artillery, made a discovery that led magnetism in a
new direction: somnambulism.21
In April 1784, while being magnetized according to Mesmers
principles, the Marquis de Puysgur discovered that when a subject
is magnetized for a few minutes by means of passes, he falls into a
form of lethargy called magnetic sleep. Hesoon noticed that
during these experiences, the personality of the person who
undergoes this experience is changed. It produces in him a
significant expansion of the senses that allows him to see and hear
things ordinarily inaccessible to the human mind. Moreover, the
subject becomes a medium endowed with amazing clairvoyance and
capable of answering questions touching on things of the invisible.
This marked the beginning of magnetic or artificial somnambulism,
a discovery which led to a fundamental discovery, that of the
unconscious.22
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Inevitably, all those who were attracted to the invisible sciences

and the lus-Cohens were in the forefrontwere seduced by this
practice. The oracles of the somnambulists were recorded almost
everywhere. Jean-Baptiste Willermoz did not escape this general
infatuation, and it is probable that this practice was primarily
responsible for the fall of the order of lus-Cohens. Indeed, with
somnambulism, there was no more need for asceticism or
complicated rites for communicating with the invisible; all one
needed to do was put a patient into a magnetic sleep and interrogate
him, even though practical experience showed that things were not
quite so simple. Willermoz, who created the Socit des inities
(Society of Initiates; 1785) as part of this movement, would cover its
expenses between April 1785 and October 1788.23 He then fell in
with the Martinists, but many among them, such as Rodolphe
Salzmann, considered him dangerous for wanting to raise the veil to
another world without engaging in the work of sanctification.
In the 18th century, the Church did not concern itself with
condemning magnetism. Instead, it was more resolute towards
Freemasonry, because the infatuation with esotericism had caused
many Christians to seek entry into the lodges. Freemasonry was
denounced in a papal bull (In eminenti) of 1738, renewed by the bull
of Benedict XV (Providas) in 1751. Yet this interdict remained
ineffective, and the lodges expanded nearly everywhere in France.
Freemasonry was even found in monasteries. Jos A. FerrerBenimelli estimates that nearly 2,000 clerics frequented the lodges.24
In this period, around 650 Masonic workshops were distributed
284

around the country. With the onset of the French Revolution, nearly
all of them went inactive.

FIGURE 55. Fountain of Regeneration, detail of a drawing by Monnet, 1797

(Muse de lArme, Paris).

THE PYRAMID OF THE TUILERIES

In 1789, France was to put an end to the Ancien Rgime by
overthrowing the monarchy. Yet it is surprising to note that the
revolutionaries were not insensitive to Egypt. They appeared to
project their primitive ideals of purity, justice, and wisdom onto this
ancient land. And so, on August 26, 1792, a gigantic pyramid was
erected in the Tuileries during a ceremony held to honor the martyrs
of August 10. In August of the following year, a Festival of
Regenerated Nature was held to commemorate the fall of the
Ancien Rgime. The Fountain of Regeneration, which took the
form of a statue of Isis, representing Nature, was raised upon the
rubble of the Bastille (see figure 55). In the same era, Jean-Baptiste
285

Lemoyne mounted Nepht (derived from the names of the gods

Neith and Ptah), the first opera whose plot was set completely in the
land of the pharaohs. The scenery, created by PierreAdrien Paris,
included pyramids, tombs, and an alley of sphinxes leading to the
temple of Osiris.

NAPOLEON AND EGYPT

A few years later, the passion for Egypt assumed much greater
heights under Napoleon Bonaparte, and it incited the creation of
initiatic orders claiming to be from the land of the pharaohs. In May
1798 Napoleon sailed toward Egypt with 54,000 soldiers and dozens
of scholars, mathematicians, astronomers, engineers, draftsmen, and
artists. He disembarked at Alexandria at the beginning of July 1798,
and a few days later the Mamelukes were defeated at the Battle of
the Pyramids. In the following year Napoleon set up a commission
to study Egypt, which resulted in a prestigious publication, the
Description de lgypt, encompassing nine volumes of text and eleven
volumes of engravings, that were published between 1809 and 1829.
This monumental work revealed to the world the splendors of this
land and marked the debut of Egyptomania.25
A seminal work was published separately before it appeared in the
Description de lgyptt namely, the papyrus of the text now called the
Book of the Dead. It was published by M. Cadet under the title Copie
figure dun rouleau de papyrus trouv Thbes dans un tombeau des rois ....
(Copy Represented on a Papyrus Roll Found in Thebes in a Tomb
of Kings). In the following century, Henri Durville, the promoter of
286

modern magnetism, commented on it at length within the

framework of the Ordre Eudiaque, an Egyptianized movement of
his own creation. Once again, the land of the pyramids inspired
artists, and in March 1808 Emperor Napoleon had the pleasure of
attending the opening of Amours dAntoine et Cloptre, a ballet by
Jean-Pierre Aumer that was set to the music of Rudolphe Kreutzer.
Isis continued to fascinate the Parisians, and in 1809 a commission
studied the validity of the hypothesis formulated by Court de
Gbelin regarding the origins of the name of Paris (Bar Isis). It
concluded in favor of the truth of this legend by recalling the
existence of an ancient cult to Isis. In January 1811, the Isiac origin
of Paris was officially recognized, and for a time the Egyptian
goddess was depicted in the armorial bearings of the city of Paris.
The publication of the Description de lgypte led to speculation
regarding the mysterious knowledge retained by priests of the lands
of the Nile. Alexandre Lenoir published La Franche Maonnerie rendue
sa vritable origine (Free-masonry Restored to its True Origin; 1807),
a book in which he attempted to link Freemasonry with the
Egyptian religion, which he described as the natural and primordial
religion. For his part, A.P.J. de Visme published his Nouvelles
recherches sur lorigine et la destination des Pyramides dgypte (New
Researches on the Origin and Destiny of the Pyramids of Egypt;
1812), a book in which he endeavored to demonstrate that they
reveal the elementary principles of the abstract and occult sciences.
He then reworked Sthos, which, on this occasion, experienced
greater success than in its first edition. The
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FIGURE 56. Diagram of a pyramid of the Friends of the Desert

FRIENDS OF THE DESERT

It was within this favorable climate, characterized by an often
idealized Egypt, that numerous Egyptianized initiatic groups
emerged. The first, the Ordre des Sophisiens (Order of Sophisiens;
1801), remained mysterious, being only mentioned in passing by
Ragon. What interests us primarily is the group that arose in
Toulouse through the efforts of Alexandre Du Mge (1780-1862),
an archeologist who founded the Socit Archologique du Midi
(Archeological Society of the Midi) an association we will discuss
further when describing the late 19th-century Rosicrucian
movement of Toulouse. This Masonic officer in the Rose-Croix
degree created Les Amis du Dsert (The Friends of the Desert) in
1806, and he established its mother-lodge, la Souveraine Pyramide,
288

in Toulouse.26 According to its founders plan, the lodge should be

in the form of a pyramid, the door guarded by two sphinxes. It was
to include an altar dedicated to God Humanity-Truth, erected
before images of Isis and Osiris. Likewise, the walls had to be
decorated with hieroglyphs copied from the engravings of ancient
Egyptian monuments. The costumes of the orders members were
to be in Egyptian style. We do not know whether this plan came to
fruition, because this order seems to have had an ephemeral
existence. Apart from Toulouse, it included pyramids in
Montauban and Auch. However, it is not at all impossible that it
survived in a modest way for several years. A little later, in 1822, two
others in Toulouse, Colonel Louis-Emmanuel Dupuy and JeanRaymond Cardes, the head archivist of Haute-Garonne, appear to
have taken part in continuing this Egyptian plan through the
creation of a lodge of the Misraim rite.

FIGURE 57. The French consul general in Egypt (Bibliothque nationale, Paris).

THE MEMPHIS RITE

289

Around 1814, Marc and Michel Bdarrides, officers of Napoleons

army in Italy, brought back to Paris the Misraim (the Hebrew word
for Egyptians) rite. However, apart from its name, this order
made little reference to Egypt in its ceremonies. This rite arose in
the French military and administrative circles in Italy, established in
that country following the Napoleonic campaigns and during a
period when the French and English were at loggerheads over
Egypt. The Freemasons were quite numerous in the French imperial
armies, and it is understandable why these soldiers and officers
wished to find another source for their order than that codified by
Anderson, an Englishman. The marvels they discovered in Egypt
had a bearing on their decision, to the extent that they lived in a
period where esotericism and Egypt tended to be placed in the same
category. As we have shown in earlier chapters, this perspective
brought the Renaissance to the fore, which viewed the Egypt of
Hermes as being the source of the Primordial Tradition.27
In 1838, some years after the appearance of the Misraim Rite, the
Memphis Rite was founded by Jean-Etienne Marconis de Ngre.
Unlike its predecessor, this order attempted to incorporate elements
taken from the Egyptian mysteries, such as those recorded by
Diodorus Siculus and Abb Terrasson in Sthos. No doubt Marconis
de Ngre was also influenced by Les Mystres dIsis et dOsiris, Initiation
gyptienne (The Mysteries of Isis and Osiris, Egyptian Initiation;
1820). Its author, T.P. Boulange, a barrister at the royal court and
professor of the faculty of law in Paris, denounced Dupuis mistakes
and demonstrated the initiatic value of the Egyptian mysteries which
290

he claimed were intended to train the disciple in the practice of

virtue and the study of higher knowledge.

THE ROSETTA STONE

Until this time, speculations regarding Egypt gave rise to
innumerable theories. However, the actual content of the Egyptian
texts remained completely unknown. The hypotheses set forth in
Oedipus Aegyptiacus by Athanasius Kircher, a scholar impassioned by
archeology, linguistics, alchemy, and magnetism, remained the law.
The situation changed suddenly in 1822. Thanks to the Rosetta
Stonewhich included a text written in three scripts: hieroglyphic,
demotic, and GreekJeanFranois Champollion (1790-1832) was
able to discover the key allowing the meaning of the hieroglyphs to
be understood. All at once the hypotheses of Athanasius Kircher
crumbled to dust, and Egyptology truly came into being. France felt
that it had become Egypts older sister. The Louvre unveiled its
Egyptian museum in 1827 with Champollion being its first curator.

THE SOCIETY OF MAGNETISM

After the French Revolution, the theories of magnetism were
examined by the authorities once again. A commission of inquiry
was formed by the Academy of Medicine. Under the direction of
Dr. Husson, it resulted in a favorable report that provoked a scandal
among the ranks of rationalist doctors. Although the report was
printed, it was never distributed. Later, in 1842, another commission
directed by M. Dubois, a fervent rationalist from Amiens,
291

condemned magnetism. These stands did not prevent the continuing

progress of the movement brought into being by Mesmer. The
Marquis de Puysgur, a great magnetizer and benefactor (his home
was always open to the poor and deprived), published many works
in which he discussed healings and the results obtained by magnetic
cures. Assisted by his pupil Joseph-Pierre Deleuze, he launched the
first periodical devoted entirely to magnetism, the Annales du
Magntisme (1814-1816), and in 1815 the marquis caused quite a stir
when he founded the Socit du Magntisme. Magnetism also found
a choice recruit in the person of the Baron Du Potet (Jules Denis
Dupotet de Sennevoy), whose magnetic sances were known
throughout Paris. He was the author of the celebrated Corns de
magntisme animal (1834).

BETWEEN SCIENCE AND TRADITION

Some other currents of thought date from this period, notably
following the theories set forth by Abb Faria (1750-1818) in his
book De la cause du sommeil lucide (1819). Fie brought to the fore a
science developed by James Braid that was called hypnosis. A
different approach was presented by Dr. Joseph Rodes Buchanan
(1814-1899), an eminent American physician and psychist who
invented psychometry. He was the source of the theories regarding
suggestion that were brought to France by Dr. Durand de Gros
from America and England. On the other hand, some approaches
increasingly oriented toward esotericism continued to be developed
during the same period. These included the Order of Universal
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Harmony (c. 1815), a Masonic group that considered magnetism to

be the secret that Freemasons should investigate; or the Asiatic
Order, also called the Cercle Moral de la Noble Porte de llyse,
created about 1824 by Alaine dEldir (Mme. Mercier). Fabre dOlivet
attended this group at the time he was writing his Histoire
philosophique du genre humain. In 1836 Charles Poyan, a French disciple
of the Marquis de Puysgur, introduced Mesmerism into America.
This event consequently led to the appearance of spiritualism, a
subject that will be discussed in the next chapter.
Some authors also tried to connect magnetism with Egypt. These
included Dr. Alphonse Teste, a physician of magnetism and a
homeopath. In his Manuel Pratique de magntisme animal (1828 and
1840), he talked about the Egyptian sources of this practice. He
stated that the alleged intervention of the goddess Isis, who,
according to the Egyptian priests, inspired within the faithful during
their dreams the way of being healed of their illnesses, appears to us
to be none other than the instinct for remedies with which our
somnambulists are endowed.
Likewise, an article of the magazine Le Magntiseur spiritualiste, the
official organ of the Socit des Magntiseurs Spiritualistes de Paris
(Society of Spiritualist Magnetizers of Paris), made reference to
Egypt. Dr. Martins discussed the visions of his medium who had
seen an Egyptian temple-hospital where beds were arranged around
a magnetic chain.

THE SOCIETY OF SPIRITUALISTIC

293

MAGNETIZERS OF PARIS
In 1847, one of the most celebrated magnetizers, Louis-Alphonse
Cahagnet (1809-1885), founded the Society of Swedenborgian
Students. By working with a medium named Adle Maginot, he
entered into contact with Emanuel Swedenborgs spirit, who
dictated to him a book entitled Magntisme: arcanes de la vie future
dvoils (The Celestial Telegraph; or, Secrets of the life to come,
revealed through magnetism; 1848) containing irrefutable proof that
magnetic somnambulists had the faculty of seeing dead persons and
conversing with them. Always inspired by Emanuel Swedenborg, he
founded in the same year the Society of Spiritualist Magnetizers of
Paris, which replaced the Society of Swedenborgian Students. In the
discourse delivered at the inauguration of this new society on
November 27, 1848, he made reference to previously existing
societies such as the Qabalists, Rosicrucians, Freemasons, and
Templars, whose researches he feltled only to arrogance and egoism.
He wanted the society he had created to be a truly fraternal
organization, where the spiritual properties of magnetism would be
studied for the purpose of using such knowledge to alleviate the
burdens of humans and to help them discover the mysteries of the
soul. Members of the society were called brothers and sisters, and
the meetings were ritualistic in character. A prayer began each
session, and a person called a lucide was put into a slumber before
entering into contact with Swedenborgs spirit. Music and religious
chants were sprinkled throughout the meeting, which was
completed by a love feast in which Swedenborgs spirit was asked to
294

act upon the bread and wine.

THE CHURCH AND MAGNETISM

The Church assumed an ambiguous position regarding magnetism.
At first it condemned the practice in 1841, but adopted a more open
policy in 1856. Actually, the Church could not reject a movement
which, to some extent, fought against the materialism of the
Enlightenment by attempting to prove the existence of the soul. For
example, in Le Monde occulte ou Mysterres du magntisme (The Occult
World or Mysteries of Magnetism; 1851 and 1856), Henri Delaage
felt that magnetism was a proper means for bringing unbelievers
back to the faith. His book was prefaced by the celebrated Father
Henri Lacordaire who, from 1846, spoke favorably about this
science after having assumed the pulpit at Notre-Dame in Paris.
Delaages work gave prominence to this statement of Alexandre
Dumas: If there is a science in the world that can make the soul
visible, it is without question magnetism. Honor de Balzac took
the same position in Ursule Mirout (1841). In the sixth chapter of
this novel, entitled Summary of Magnetism, Dr. Minoret
rediscovers his faith following an experience with magnetism.

JESUS THE ESSENE

Meanwhile, the dogmatism of the Church disheartened those who
were in search of a true and original Christianity. This was the case
with Abb Ferdinand Chatel (1795-1857), the promoter of his
French Catholic Church, which was linked with the NeoTemplar
295

Order of Fabr-Palaprat. Certain others, such as Pierre Leroux,

believed Essenianism to be the true Christianity. His book De
IHumanit, de son Principe et de son Avenir (Regarding Humanity, Its
Principle and Future; 1840) described Jesus as being an Essene in
contact with eastern traditions. Daniel Rame followed the same line
with La Mortde Jsus, Rvlations historiques. . . daprs le manuscrit dun
Frre de Iordre sacr des essniens, contemporain de Jsus (The Death of
Jesus, Historical Revelations; 1863). Thus, Essenianism, which had
started with the Golden Rosy Cross of the Ancient System in 1777,
continued to preoccupy those who were in search of the Primordial
Tradition. It was combined with Egyptosophy, a passion for the
wisdom of a people whose basis was being rediscovered.
As we have seen throughout this chapter, the period that we have
just examined was characterized by its new relationship with the
higher realms. The magic that appeared in the Renaissance was now
being transformed through new practices. With magnetism, we can
almost detect the determination to create a science of occult worlds.
Thus, in understanding its history we will have a better
understanding of the way in which the esoteric heritage and its
practices have evolved. Indeed, magnetism was to give birth to
many movements which, beginning with this phenomenon, were
devoted to the study of the human mind, its unused faculties, and
the way of developing them so as to live more harmoniously.

296

FIGURE 58. The Scales of Health from Hector Durvilles The Theory and Practice of
Human Magnetism, 1900.

297

Chapter 13

IN SEARCH OF THE
PSYCHE

EGINNING WITH THE 18th century and all during the

19th century magic was secularized by magnetism. As the
Baron Du Potet stated in La Magie dvoile ou Principles de
sciences occultes (1879), its mysteries were made clear due to
magnetism. The trail blazed by Mesmer and Puysgur led to
spiritualism and spurred researchers into forming institutes of
psychic research in an attempt to better understand the secret
motives of the life of the soul. In fact, before founding the Ancient
and Mystical Order Rosae Crucis (A.M.O.R.C.), H. Spencer Lewis
(1883-1939) was the president of such an organization for several
years. As a general rule, all of the occultists of the late 19th century,
and particularly those who attempted to establish or reestablish
initiatic orders, had backgrounds in magnetism or spiritualism.

HYPNOSIS
After the turbulence of the French Revolution, magnetism
experienced a resurgence of interest. In France, magnetism was used
successfully in such hospitals as Val-de-Grce, Htel-Dieu, and
Salptrire. However, it was the subject of considerable debate, and
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magnetism was officially rejected in 1842 by the Academy. It found

its way into the European courts and received a favorable reception
in Russia, Denmark, and Prussia. In Germany, it attracted the
interest not only of medical doctors, but also natural philosophers
and romantic philosophers. One of them, Justinus Kerner (17861862), published in 1829 Die Seherin von Prevorst (The Seeress of
Prevorst), a true case study of parapsychology before this term had
even been coined. This book relates the communications of
Frederica Hauffe, a patient that Kerner treated by the use of
magnetism. During her crises, the young woman entered into
communication with spirits who manifested themselves through
noises, rappings, the movement of objectsmeans foreshadowing
the manifestations experienced by the Fox Sisters in 1847. Justinus
Kerners book discussed his patients visions, the relationships
between the spirit world and our world, and the externalization or
projection of fluidic bodies.1 This episode foreshadowed spiritualism
which, after its rise in the United States, came to Europe.
Around 1836, a follower of Puysgur named Charles Poyan
introduced mesmerism to the United States.2 He gave lectures and
conducted experiments in Belfast, Maine. Phineas Parkhurst
Quimby (1802-1866) was particularly enthusiastic and soon proved
himself to be an outstanding medium. He would become the
precursor of the vast New Thought movement, from which
Christian Science is also derived.

SPIRITUALISM
299

Included among Charles Poyans students was an amazing

individual named Andrew Jackson Davis (1826-1910). He was
magnetized in 1844 by William Levingston, who discovered his gifts
of lucidity. On March 7 Davis fell into a hypnotic state lasting two
days during which he was in contact with spiritual guides. The
following year he began to give lectures in New York. During these
talks he was put in a clairvoyant state by a magnetizer and dictated
messages that he received from these guides. Between November
1845 and January 1847 he dictated more than 150 messages that
were compiled and published as a volume of some 800 pages. This
book, The Principles of Nature: Her Divine Revelations and A Voice To
Mankind (1847), was an immediate success, so much so that it was
reprinted seven times in the very year it was published. His works,
such as Harmonial Philosophy and Natures Divine Revelations, were
immensely popular and he was given the title of the prophet of
Anglo-American spiritualists.3
Magnetism took a peculiar turn in the United States following
some unexpected events in Hydesville, New York. There, one night
in December 1847, two young sisters, Margaret and Katie Fox,
heard some strange rappings on the walls. Doors opened
completely on their own; furniture and other objects were moved
about, as though pushed by invisible hands. Far from being afraid,
the two little girls thought it was all a game and eventually
established a code so that they could speak with the spirit rapper.
At the end of the conversations the spirit revealed that his name was
Charles Rosna and he gave minute details about his life, the accuracy
300

of which were afterwards acknowledged. Soon, hundreds of

curiosity seekers flooded in to witness the phenomenon.4 These
events marked the beginning of spiritualism, a movement that grew
to immense proportions within a short time. In the United States, it
soon included three million followers, and nearly ten thousand
mediums exercised their talents. As early as 1852 the spiritualists
even held a congress in Cleveland, Ohio.

FIGURE 59. Allan Kardec.

ALLAN KARDEC
Spiritualism quickly swept over Europe. In France, the Journal des
Dbats of May 13, 1853, discussed the phenomenon of table-turning,
which then preoccupied all of Paris. Hippolyte-Lon Rivail
(18041869), a native of Lyons who used the pseudonym of Allan
Kardec, was originally interested in magnetism. He was initiated into
the practice of spiritualism and a few years later published a text
entitled Livre des sprits (1857)5 which became the handbook for all
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spiritualists. Not only did this work explain how to enter into
contact with the spirit world, but it also presented the theories and
philosophy of spiritualism. It revealed in particular the role of the
perisprit, a fluidic envelope or psychic body situated between the soul
and the physical body that allowed disincarnated spirits to manifest
themselves. The work also popularized the theory of reincarnation,
which was presented as a progression necessary for the souls
evolution, from which arose the celebrated spiritualist maxim: to be
born, to die, to be reborn, to constantly progress, that is the law. In
1858, Allan Kardec established the Revue spirite, founded the Socit
parisienne dtudes spirites (Parisian Society of Spiritualistic Studies),
and published works contributing to the spread of spiritualism
throughout the world. He was considered to be the prophet of
spiritualism.
Almost everywhere attempts were made to consult the invisible
and make spirits appear. Automatic writing, telekinesis, and
telepathy were practiced. Such mediums as Daniel Dunglas Home,
Eusapia Palladino, Leonora Piper, Florence Crook, and Alexis
Didier reigned as masters and made as many heads turn as they did
tables, because fraud and falsification were commonplace.

302

FIGURE 60. Levitation experiment with the medium Eusapia Palladino (1909).

ZANONI
At the moment that spiritualism was expanding, Rosicrucianism
returned to the forefront through a novel called Zanoni (1842).6 It
came out just before the first hints of the 19th century Rosicrucian
resurgence. Its author, Edward Bulwer-Lytton (1803-1873), had
gained international renown due to his historical novel The Last Days
of Pompeii (1834). His new work, Zanoni, is the tale of two 18th
century Rosicrucians, Zanoni and Mejnour, the last survivors of this
august fraternity. The plot revolves around the transmission of the
initiation to two disciples, Clarence Glyndon and Viola, wherein the
author reveals the torments of the soul while seeking initiation.
Although it is sprinkled with references to Hermeticism, Paracelsus,
Agrippa, Cagliostro, and Mesmer, Zanoni is primarily a romantic
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novel, having all the characteristics of that genre. However, it has

remained one of the most celebrated novels of esoteric literature.
While perusing this book, the reader will probably wonder about
the interest that Edward Bulwer-Lytton had in the Rosicrucians.
From childhood, he had exhibited an inclination for paranormal
phenomena and he later devoted himself to the study of the occult
sciences. Twelve years after the publication of Zanoni, and while
spiritualism was at its height, liphas Lvi (1810-1875) came to visit
the novelist in London. Together they engaged in conjuring up the
phantom of Apollonius of Tyana, using a ritual based on the Magia
Philosophica (1573) of Francesco Patrizi rather than the method
favored by spiritualists.
This strange experience was to mark the renewal of French
occultism.7 William Wynn Westcott indicated that Edward BulwerLytton had entered into contact with the Rosicrucians of the Charles
la Lumire naissante Lodge of Frankfurt, Germany. In fact, this
lodge, founded in 1814 by Christian Daniel von Mayer, was at the
crossroads of many 19th century initiatic orders, such as the
Chevaliers Bienfaisants de la Cit Sainte (Charitable Knights of the
Holy City) of Jean-Baptiste Willermoz, the Rite of Strict Templar
Observance of the Baron Johann Gottlieb von Hund, and the
Initiated Knights and Brothers of Asia, an offshoot of the Golden
Rosy Cross of the Ancient System. And now, at this point, we come
face to face with a somewhat orthodox Rosicrucian movement.

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FIGURE 61. Zanoni, drawing by Robert Lanz.

THE S.R.I.A.
It has been sometimes claimed that Edward Bulwer-Lytton
directed the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia (Rosicrucian Society in
England; S.R.I.A.). In fact, it was without his knowledge that he was
named honorary president, and he categorically refused this office.
The S.R.I.A. came into being in 1866, part of the activities of
English Freemasonry. Its founder, Robert Wentworth Little (1840305

1878), was the treasurer of the United Grand Lodge of England. He

claimed to have been initiated by Anthony ONeal Haye into a
Scottish Rosicrucian association in Edinburgh, but this claim has
never been substantiated. Wynn Westcott emphasized that the
society was initially a grouping of Freemasons who came together to
study old Rosicrucian texts and to establish the ties between
Rosicrucianism and Freemasonry. In an article published in 1880, he
made it clear that the S.R.I.A. could not be considered the heir of
past Rosicrucians.
It seems that Robert Wentworth Little set up the S.R.I.A.
according to rituals found in the library of Freemasons Hall. He
adapted the hierarchy of the Golden Rosy Cross of the Ancient
System (Zelator, Theoreticus, Practicus, Philosophus, Adeptus
Minor, Adeptus Major, Adeptus Exemptus, Magister Templi, and
Magus) and restricted entry into the group to Christian Master
Masons. The order expanded into Scotland, Canada, and the United
States. Even though its origins were suspect, this society played an
important role in the spread of esotericism. Included among the
influential members of the S.R.I.A. were William Woodman,
Kenneth R.H. MacKenzie, Hargrave Jennings, the spiritualist
Stainton Moses, and William Wynn Westcott (18481925). The latter
soon participated in the creation of another Rosicrucian Masonic
order that we will discuss later, the Hermetic Order of the Golden
Dawn. Many members of the S.R.I.A. also joined the ranks of the
newly formed Theosophical Society.

HELENA PETROVNA BLAVATSKY

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The Theosophical Society had its roots in places other than those
we have discussed. However, we will mention a few of its aspects, as
it manifested a certain affinity with Rosicrucianism. It was in 1873
that Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (1831-1891) appeared on the public
stage by frequenting the spiritualistic circles of New York. Endowed
with paranormal faculties, she participated in some experiments as a
medium. It was on this occasion that she became acquainted with a
person who was to become her close associate, Colonel Henry Steel
Olcott (1832-1907), who at the time was investigating phenomena
associated with spiritualism. Sometime later, the colonel proposed
that they create a society for the study and elucidation of occultism,
the Qabalah, etc. When they were choosing a name for their society,
they considered many, including that of Rosicrucian. Finally, in
September 1875, they settled upon the choice of Theosophical Society.
The Theosophical Society had little to do with Rosicrucianism , but
promoted instead an esoteric Buddhism. However, it was the source
of two movements that did draw their inspiration from
Rosicrucianism .

AN ADVENTURE AMONG THE ROSICRUCIANS

The first movement was the ephemeral Esoteric Rose-Croix,
founded in 1888 by Franz Hartmann (1838-1912), a physician and
Blavatskys close collaborator and secretary. He devoted many
works to the Rosicrucians, in particular a beautiful reissue of the
Secret Symbols of the Rosicrucians of the 16th and 17th Centuries (1888).8 He
was also the author of a strange novel entitled An Adventure Among
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the Rosicrucians (Boston, 1887), that recounted the discovery of a

Rosicrucian monastery during a hike in the Alps, not far from Basel.
There the protagonist of the story met the Brothers of the Golden
and Rosy Cross and their imperator. During a visit to an alchemical
laboratory, a brother named Theodorus gave him the book Secret
Symbols of the Rosicrucians of the 16th and 17th Centuries.
The revised second edition of this novel (London, 1910) has a
preface stating: The following account of a psychic experience has
been gathered from notes handed to me by a friend, a writer of
considerable repute. Whether the adventures told therein are to be
regarded as a dream, or an actual experience on the astral plane, I
must leave to the reader to judge. The friend in question could well
have been Theodor Reuss, the Theodorus of the novel, an
individual to whom we shall return in a later chapter. This revised
edition also included a supplementary chapter entitled A
Rosicrucian Institution in Switzerland, where Hartmann indicated
that a few years after the first edition of his book there was an
attempt to put his ideas into practice in this country. His description
seems to be that of Monte Verit, which we will discuss in the next
chapter. However, the author concludes with the impossibility of
establishing Rosicrucianism elsewhere than in the New World.
The second movement to arise from the Theosophical Society was
that of the Order of the Temple of the Rosy Cross. This movement
appeared during the confused period following the death of Colonel
Olcott. It was established in 1912 by Annie Besant, who had
succeeded him as the head of the Theosophical Society. This order
308

did not survive World War I. Marie Russak, one of its founders,
joined the Rosicrucian Order, AMORC, after becoming acquainted
with Harvey Spencer Lewis in 1916.
The third movement born in the wake of the Theosophical Society
was created in 1913 by Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925). Like Annie
Besant, the Secretary General of the German section of the
Theosophical Society was quite interested in Rosicrucianism, the
subject of many of his lectures between 1904 and 1913. After his
break with Annie Besant caused by the controversy swirling around
Krishnamurti, he created in 1913 the Anthroposophical Society,
which he regarded as a continuation, a modern metamorphosis of
the Rosicrucians. Two groups came from this movement: The
Rosicrucian Fellowship of Max Heindel and the Lectorium
Rosicrucianum of Jan van Rijckenborg.9

309

FIGURE 62. Franz Hartmann.

THE H.B. OF L.
Certain authors point out that helena Petrovna Blavatsky and
Henry Steel Olcott had founded the Theosophical Society following
their exclusion from a mysterious orderthe H.B. of L., which is
the abbreviation for the Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor. According
to legend, this fraternity had its origins in an order founded more
than 6,000 years previously on the lost island of the West
(Atlantis), with Thebes and Luxor being its centers of activities. This
order was said to be the source of all the great initiatic movements,
such as that of the Rosicrucians. Around 1870, the H.B. of L.
formed an outer circle to combat the dangers of scientism rampant
in the West. This fraternity embarked upon the restoration of
Western esotericism by giving it a scientific aspect. It also wanted to
restrain the expansion of the Theosophical Society, which it accused
of desiring to pollute the Western spirit and to put it under the
domination of Eastern thought.10 As an example, this order was
against reincarnation.
The outer circle of the Hermetic Fraternity of Luxor was founded
by Louis-Maximilien Bimstein (1847-1927), a Pole who called
himself Max Thon or Aia Aziz. He was a singular individual who
possessed astonishing psychic faculties.11 In 1870, he was living in
England and selected a few members, notably Peter Davidson and
Thomas H. Burgoyne. The former became the Grand Master of the
H.B. of L.; Papus, who was a member of this order, considered
310

Peter Davidson as his practical master. In France it was F.-Ch.

Barlet (Albert Faucheux, 18381921) who directed the order. It
should be noted that most of the founding members of the
Martinist Order were members of the H.B. of L., which for some
time constituted a sort of inner circle of Martinism, a circle that was
soon replaced by the Kabbalistic Order of the Rosy Cross. During
1885 and 1886, the H.B. of L. published a journal, the Occult
Magazine. Thomas H. Burgoyne and Peter Davidson wrote for it
using as pseudonyms Zanoni and Mejnour, the two Rosicrucians in
Zanoni. Likewise, F.-Ch. Barlet used the surname of Glyndon,
another character from this novel, when signing his articles in the
magazine called the Anti-Matrialiste. The H.B. of L. was barely
active from 1870 to 1886, and although it never included more than
a handful of members, it exerted considerable influence. Beginning
in 1886, Max Thon took no further interest in the H.B. of L. and
left London for Tlemcen, Algeria. This order then became inactive
and Max Thon tried to establish the Cosmic Movement, a group
that remained marginal. It was while in Tlemcen that Max Thon
received, between 1904 and 1906, two individuals with whom he
was later associated, Sri Aurobindo and Mirra Alfassa (The
Mother, 1878-1973).12 Moreover, Max Thons ideals would wield a
particular influence on Sri Aurobindo.

PSYCHIC RESEARCHES
During this period Spiritualism continued to expand in Europe.
Around 1870, the psychists emerged from the spiritualist
311

movement. Indeed, experiments involving somnambulism led many

researchers to ponder the supranormal faculties of humans. From
1875 the intellectual elite of Trinity College of Cambridge
including the professor of philosophy Henry Sidgwickundertook
the scientific study of spiritualistic phenomena. Afterwards, in 1882,
there arose in London the Society for Psychical Research, under the
leadership of the physicist Sir William Fletcher Barrett (1844-1925),
the philosopher Henry Sidgwick (1838-1900), and the psychologist
Frederic William Henry Myers (1843-1901).13 Scientific experiments
were undertaken for studying the psychic faculties of mediums.
It was also in 1882 that the Society for Psychical Research coined
the word telepathy. Helena Blavatsky, as was true of all the great
mediums of the era, participated in these experiments during her
stays in London. The English researches had international
repercussions and contributed to the creation of many other circles,
such as the American Society for Psychical Research in Boston in
1884, with the great American psychologist William James (18421910). In France, these researches, begun by Colonel Albert
dAiglun de Rochas, were placed under the direction of Dr. Charles
Richet (1850-1935), who won the Nobel prize for physiology in
1913. They were described as metapsychic and led to the
establishment of the Institut Mtapsychique International
(International Metapsychic Institute) in 1919.
The entire 19th century witnessed an increase in the number of
publications both in the form of magazines and books
concerning magnetism, spiritualism, and spiritualistic powers.14 In
312

1887, Hector Durville revived, the Journal du Magntisme et du psychisme

experimental, which had been founded and published by the Baron
Du Potet from 1845 to 1861. This magazine was issued by the
Socit Magnetique de France. Included among the founding
members of this society there were included, apart from various
physicians, Helena Petrovna Blavatsky and Stanislas de Guaita.
Present among the honorary members were Colonel de Rochas,
William Crookes, Papus, Franois Jollivet-Castelot, Alfred Percy
Sinnett, and Josphin Pladan. Due to the work of Hector Durville
and his sons Gaston and Henri, magnetism experienced a
considerable revival.
Many scientists all around the world participated in researches on
the psyche. Included among them were the chemist Dmitri
Ivanovich Mendeleev; the chemists Pierre and Marie Curie; Alfred
Russel Wallace, co-inventor of the theory of evolution; the
celebrated physician and chemist William Crookes; the astronomer
Camille Flammarion; the criminologist Cesare Lonrbroso; the author
Victor Hugo; along with many others. In 1897, during a meeting of
the Society of Psychic Research in London, William Crookes
delivered an important address on magnetism and the vibratory
frequencies associated with sound, electricity, and x-rays. He then
proposed a table of vibrations that was popularized by Hector
Durville and which would later inspire H. Spencer Lewis.15
The magic of the Renaissance had revealed the subtle energies
uniting the various planes of Creation and proposed certain
methods suitable for making use of these correspondences. Around
313

the middle of the 18th century, these methods were overthrown by

magnetism, which scientifically demonstrated the existence of such
energies. As was noted by Charles Fauvety (1813-1894) in Le Regne
de lEsprit pur, Spiritualism, in becoming experimental with the
manifestation of so-called spirits, plainly fulfilled the method of the
natural sciences. It could then be shown that humans possess
faculties that would place them in contact with the invisible world.
This movement gave birth to groups of a new type, spiritualists and
associations of magnetizers. Scientists themselves questioned the
perspectives opened by the psychic sciences. As we have seen, in
this era the Rose Tree of the tradition grew new branches.
Admittedly, not all these branches yielded fruit and certain roses
lasted only one morning. Nonetheless, new flowers were to be born
in the Rose Garden of the Magi.

314

FIGURE 63. Cover of the official catalogue of the Rosicrucian Salon, 1893.

315

Chapter 14

THE ROSE GARDEN OF

THE MAGI

HE LAST HALF of the 19th century and the first half of

the 20th century witnessed a flowering of Rosicrucian
orders. Generally, these movements had nothing in
common with what we know of the Rosicrucians of the past, but
each of them tried, with varying degrees of success, to place itself
under their auspices. After having discussed the creation of some of
these groups in the last chapter, we will now continue our
investigations by entering into the rose garden of the magi.

MONTE VERIT
In the 19th century, Europe was shaken by the arrival of
industrialization, as it radically changed the existing social structure.
This crisis was particularly felt in Germany, where signs of rejecting
the industrial world appeared by the 1870s. One response to the
urbanization engendered by the reorganizing of labor came in the
form of Naturism. Its followers advocated fleeing the polluted cities
and creating communities and garden cities so that people could live
in harmony with nature. Those who shared this point of view soon
clustered around the Lebensreform (Life Reform) movement begun in
316

1892. Contrary to the 17th-century Rosicrucian manifestos and the

literary utopias that followed thereafter, the Life Reform movement
regarded scientific progress as a menace. This group included
followers of vegetarianism, naturism, spiritualism, natural medicine,
hygienism, the Theosophical Society, as well as artists.1
As part of this movement, Alfredo Pioda, a Swiss theosophist,
tried to establish in 1889 a lay convent. His group took the name of
Fraternitas and resided on Monte Verit (Mountain of Truth), near
Ascona, a town in the canton of Ticino, Switzerland. Franz
Hartmann and the Countess Constance Wachtmeister, close
associates of Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, participated in this
ephemeral project. It was undoubtedly this experience which
inspired Franz Hartmann to write A Rosicrucian Institution in
Switzerland (see Chapter 13). From the ashes of the Fraternitas
arose a community with a similar purpose named Monte Verit,
founded in 1900 by Henri Oedenkoven and Ida Hofmann.2 Many
prominent individuals visited Monte Verit. These included the
writer Hermann Hesse; the future philosopher Martin Buber; the
politician Gustav Landauer; mile Jacques-Dalcroze, the inventor of
eurhythmics; and Rudolf von Laban, a choreographer and
theoretician of dance

THE TEMPLARS OF THE ORIENT

Following closely in the footsteps of Monte Verit there arose
Verita Mystica, a lodge of the Ordo Templi Oientis (O.T.O.; or
Order of the Templars of the Orient). This order, created around
317

1893, was then led by Theodor Reuss, the director of the German
branch of the S.R.I.A. (Societas Rosicrueiana in Anglia) from 1902.
In a letter to H. Spencer Lewis, he later claimed that he had
accepted an official position in that order so as to please William
Wynn Westcott, but Reuss realized afterwards that Wynn Westcotts
real motive was to obtain the German and Austrian Rosicrucian
documents that Reuss had in his possession.3 Indeed, the O.T.O.
claimed that it was continuing the work of past Rosicrucians.
Theodor Reuss presented his organization as a kind of Masonic
academy whose real function was to conceal a secret Rosicrucian
order descending directly from original and authentic
Rosicrucians.4 He also claimed that the secret headquarters of this
order were in Reuss, a principality located near Leipzig, in the
Thuringian forests. He stated that he was initiated into this order by
Carl Kellner in July 1893.
In fact, as indicated by Gastone Ventura, Carl Kellner had founded
the O .T .O ., with the help of Franz Hartmann and Heinrich Klein,
after returning from a trip to the Orient. Kellner was said to have
been initiated into the ancient mysteries by the Arab monk Soliman
ben Aifa and by the Hindu gurus Bhima Sena Pratapa and Sri
Mahatma Agamya Paramahansa, practitioners of Tantric yoga.5 As
can be seen, none of this involved Rosicrucianism. It was only after
Kellners death, around 1902, that Theodor Reuss was initiated into
the O.T.O. However, his legitimacy was strongly contested,
especially since his administration engaged in a veritable commerce
in initiation certificates. In France the review LAcacia revealed the
318

affair; however, Papus, like others, allowed themselves to be deluded

for some time.6
Later, while World War I (1914-1918) raged, the O.T.O. appeared
in a new light by organizing a pacifist congress at Monte Verit.7
Rudolf von Laban presented a ritualistic play, the Song to the Sun,
done to Wagnerian choreography. As a memher of the O.T.O.
Rudolf von Laban was also the secretary of the Alliance
Internationale de la Dames de la Rose-Croix, an auxiliary
organization of the O.T.O. whose purpose was to work for the
universal reconciliation of humanity, without any distinction as to
race or religion. The Alliance advocated an altruistic economy based
on sharing, and felt that art was the best means offered to humanity
for healing the wounds inflicted by waran idea dear to Josphin
Pladan. This utopian project did not seem to succeed, and
eventually the O.T.O. was to experience a less glorious destiny.
Aleister Crowley contributed to leading it towards some inadvisable
magical practices that had nothing in common with Rosicrucianism
or Freemasonry.

319

FIGURE 64. Symbol of the Ordo Rosae Rubeae et Aureae Crucis, inner. circle of
the Golden Dawn. This drawing was created for Samuel Mathers around 18871888. It was composed from the cross shown in the Secret Symbols of the
Rosicrucians of the 16th and 17th Centuries, Mysterium Magnum Studium
Universalis (1785), to which were added some qabalistic elements relating to the
symbology of the Golden Dawn. Israel Regardie provided a detailed study of this
cross in The Complete Golden Dawn System of Magic (1984).

THE GOLDEN DAWN

In the last chapter we discussed the birth of the S.R.I.A. While the
events we presented at the beginning of this chapter were playing
out on the continent, the leaders of the S.R.I.A. were creating in
England a new order called the Hermetic Order of the Golden
Dawn, more commonly known as the Golden Dawn. In 1887,
William Wynn Westcott collected manuscripts consisting of five
320

coded rituals. These texts, which had belonged to Baal Shem Tov
and later to liphas Lvi, had been found at a second-hand
bookstore in a copy of the Secret Symbols of the Rosicrucians of the 16th
and 17th Centuries. The story goes that they included the address of
Anna Sprengel, a representative of the Rosicrucian Order in
Germany. After getting in contact with her, William Wynn Westcott,
Samuel Liddell Mathers, and R. William Woodman founded the IsisUrania Lodge in London, soon followed by the establishment of the
Athathoor Lodge in Auteuil, France. Thus was born the Hermetic
Order of the Golden Dawn, which Samuel Mathers (brother-in-law
of the philosopher Henri Bergson), was to direct. As is true of most
initiatic organizations, we are dealing here with a mythical account
concerning its origins, because there is no evidence that Anna
Sprengel ever existed, and the coded manuscripts were probably
fabricated by Kenneth MacKenzie, a member of the S.R.I.A.
The Golden Dawn had some characteristics which seem quite
unlike the Rosicrucianism of the 16th and 17th centuries. Indeed, its
rituals involved theurgy and theories that borrowed extensively from
magic and from the Christian Qabalists of the Renaissance. Many of
these practices had been abandoned by earlier Rosicrucians in favor
of a mysticism based on spiritual alchemy. It is probable that the
rituals of the Golden Dawn were inspired in great part by the work
La Magie Sacre ou livre dAbramelin le mage, which Mathers had often
studied,8 as well as the texts of Cornelius Heinrich Agrippa, whose
magic writings were used by Mathers in his own books. The order
adopted an Egyptian-style symbology and placed considerable
321

emphasis upon the study of the tarot. The Golden Dawn reiterated
the hierarchy of degrees used in the S.R.I.A. and it included an inner
order, the Ordo Roseae Rubeae et Aureae Crucis.
Under the direction of its Imperator, Samuel Liddell Mathers
(1854-1918), the Golden Dawn achieved immediate success and,
between 1888 and 1900, became an important initiatic organization.
Many Freemasons and Theosophists attended its lodges, which
counted among its members such illustrious individuals as William
Butler Yeats (Nobel prize in literature in 1923); Constance Lloyd
Wilde, wife of Oscar Wilde; Gerard Kelly, president of the Royal
Academy. However, the order experienced numerous schisms which
gave rise to such rival organizations as the Stella Matutina Temple,
with W.B. Yeats; Alpha Omega, afterwards The Society of the Inner
Light with Violet Firth (alias Dion Fortune); and the Fellowship of
the Rosy Cross, with Arthur Edward Waite. Nor should we
overlook Aleister Crowley, the black magus who founded the
Astrum Argentinum.

322

FIGURE 65. Josphin Pladan.

JOSPHIN PLADAN
In France, during the period that the Golden Dawn came into
being, Josphin Pladan (1858-1918) published Le Vice suprme
(1884), a novel in which he depicted contemporary morals. This
atypical author played an important role in the evolution of 20th
century Rosicrucianism.9 Anyone reading his books will note that he
possessed a vast knowledge of the whole body of esoteric learning.
This is especially apparent in his Histoire de la magie de Pierre Christian
(1870), a voluminous work dedicated to the occult sciences.10 The
protagonist of Le Vice suprme is the magus Mrodack, who is not
an ordinary occultist, but rather an initiate who places his knowledge
323

in the service of an exalted ideal.

This book, which includes a eulogistic preface by Barbey
dAurevilly, brought immediate success to the youthful author.
Stanislas de Guaita (1861-1897) was one of its most attentive
readers. In the month of November, he sent a letter to Josphin
Pladan expressing his admiration, and afterwards the two men met
and became friends. As their correspondence attests, Stanislas de
Guaita was a neophyte in the subject of esotericism. In one of his
letters, he emphasized: I shall not forget this: it is due to your book
that I have taken up the study of Hermetic science.11

THE ROSICRUCIANS OF TOULOUSE

Josphin owed his knowledge to his brother Adrien Pladan (18441885), one of Frances first homeopaths. Adrien was a disciple of
Paul Lacuria (1806-1890), a churchman and Christian Hermeticist,12
who in turn was a follower of Fabre dOlivet. Adrien Pladan is
thought to have been initiated into the Rosicrucian Order in 1878 by
Firmin Boissin (1835-1893). Josphin Pladan described Firmin
Boissin as a member of the last branch of the order, that of
Toulouse and was made the commander of the Rose-Croix of the
Temple, prior of Toulouse, and dean of the Council of Fourteen.13
To this Toulouse branch of the Rose-Croix also belonged the
Viscount Edouard de Lapasse (1792-1867), a former diplomat and
alchemical doctor of Toulouse.14Indeed, in 1860, the viscount spoke
of the Rose-Croix, a secret society of which there remain in our
time some adepts.15Although he did not describe himself as being a
324

member of this order, Firmin Boissin indicated that he passed,

rightly or wrongly, for the last member of this celebrated
fraternity, and he indicated that he never neglected the occasion
to promote the good name of the Rosicrucians.16
The viscount loved to take part in social gatherings at the home of
the Countess dAlbans. There, in the company of Charles Nodier,
Pierre Ballanche, Dr. Koreff, the Count dOurches, and the son of
Cazotte, he would talk about magnetism, alchemy, the Qabalah, and
Martinism. At a gathering in December 1839 the viscount showed to
the onlookers a flask of rock crystal filled with the divine Essence
of the Rose-Croix a liquid composed partly from dew that was
obtained from a hermit, Prince Balbiani, on the outskirts of
Palermo. It was during a sojourn in Italy, between 1825 and 1831,
that Lapasse met this individual, who was thought to be a
Rosicrucian. The prince, who claimed to have met Cagliostro,
directed the first steps of the viscount into the practice of alchemy.17
Finally, it should be added that the viscount was well acquainted
with Alexandre Du Mge, founder of the Friends of the Desert, an
Egyptian rite.18Moreover, he succeeded Du Mge in directing the
Socit Archologique du Midi. Like Alexandre Du Mge and
Firmin Boisin, the viscount was a member of the ancient literary
society called the Academie des Jeux Floraux (Academy of Floral
Games).
What exactly was the Rose-Croix of Toulouse? Had the viscount
founded a Rosicrucian order? In reading what Viscount Lapasse,
Firmin Boissin, or Josphin Pladan state, it appears that the Rose325

Croix of Toulouse did not constitute a well-structured order, but

around 1860 it brought together a small circle of adepts that
included Firmin Boissin, the initiator of Adrien Pladan. It is also
known that its members defended themselves from being confused
with Freemasonry, toward which they manifested an open hostility.

FIGURE 66. Symbol of the Kabbalistic Order of the Rose-Croix.

THE KABBALISTIC ORDER OF THE ROSECROIX

While Josphin was savoring the success of his first novel, his
brother Adrien died on September 29, 1885, poisoned by a medicine
improperly measured by his pharmacist. An article announcing his
death, in the newspaper Le Messager de Toulouse, described him as a
Rosicrucian. The text was signed a Catholic R+C. The person
behind this mysterious signature was Firmin Boissin, the editor in
chief of this journal. Let us add that the latter knew the
photographer Clovis Lassalle, whom he met through the printer
Paul douard Privat. In turn, H. Spencer Lewis was to meet Clovis
Lassalle many years later in Toulouse.
During this period, the friendship between Josphin Pladan and
326

Stanislas de Guaita took shape, and upon Pladans advice, the latter
got in touch with Firmin Boissin. On August 12, 1886, Stanislas de
Guaita informed Josphin that he had received a long and learned
letter from his friend Bois+sin. The way in which he wrote this
name, with a cross in its center, was strange, and it is interesting to
note that after this correspondence Stanislas de Guaita signed his
letters with the expression R +C and called Josphin Pladan my
dear Frater.19 Can it be concluded that he had been received into
the order by Firmin Boissin? Events seem to have come to a head at
this time. Many occultists then living in Paris were members of the
Theosophical Society, but they remained disappointed by its
excessively Eastern teachings. Included among them was Grard
Encausse (1865-1916), better known as Papus. As a student of
medicine he had the opportunity to work with Dr. Jules Luys, who
had done some research in hypnosis at La Charit Hospital in Paris.
It was there that he met Augustin Chaboseau (1868-1946), with
whom he soon reorganized the Martinist Order. In 1888, after the
death of its president, Louis Dramart, the French division of the
Theosophical Society fragmented. Papus seized the opportunity to
launch the revival of Western occultism. He published his Trait
lmentaire de science occult (Elementary Treatise on Occultism; 1888), a
book with which he wanted to restore Western esotericism and put
occultism on an equal footing with subjects taught in the
universities.
Afterwards, in September 1889, Pierre-Gatan Leymarie (18171901), who had directed the spiritist movement since the death of
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Allan Kardec, organized an international spiritist and spiritualistic

congress in which Papus, F.-Ch. Barlet, Augustin Chaboseau and
Chamuel participated. This important event allowed occultists to
free themselves from the Theosophical movement, especially as the
journal Llnitiation, launched by Papus and his friends in October
1888, began to experience some success. Seeking to place itself
under the auspices of a secular tradition, the occultists attempted to
make Rosicrucianism and Martinism the pillars of a new temple that
they wished to erect. Josphin Pladan and Stanislas de Guaita were
associated with this project, and at the time when the Rose-Croix
was ebbing away in Toulouse, they made the decision to restore it.
The ancient order of the Rose-Croix being on the point of going
dormant, three years ago [the author wrote in 1890], when two
direct heirs of its august traditions resolved to restore it by
consolidating it on new foundations . . . and now life cycles
throughout the mystical body of the rejuvenated colossus.20
Thus, moving from Toulouse to Paris (1887-1888), the restored
Rose-Croix became the Kabbalistic Order of the Rose-Croix. This
order was directed by a supreme council of twelve members, of
whom six remained unknown, their role consisting of rebuilding the
organization if it were to be dissolved for any reason whatsoever.
Among those who were members of the Council of Twelve at one
time or another were Stanislas de Guaita, Josphin Pladan, Papus,
A. Gabrol, Henry Thorion, F.-Ch. Barlet, Augustin Chaboseau,
Victor-mile Michelet, Sdir, and Marc Haven. The order was
structured around a hierarchy of three degrees acquired by
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examination (bachelor of Qabalah, master of Qabalah, doctor of

Qabalah), and entry into the order was reserved to Martinists having
achieved the S.I. degree.

FIGURE 67. The Kabbalistic Order of the Rose-Croix. Seated in front, from left
to right, are Papus, Josphin Pladan, and Stanislas de Guaita.

THE ROSE-CROIX OF THE TEMPLE AND THE

GRAIL
Thanks to the journal LInitiation, the order became well known,
and before long a troop of eager occultists came knocking at the
temple door. Stanislas de Guaita, who lived like a hermit in his first
floor apartment on Trudaine Avenue, allowed Papus to organize
matters. But the capricious personality of an artist such as Josphin
Pladan was hardly suited for associating with such a strongwilled
organizer as Papus. The latter wanted to open up the order and
broaden it. In contrast, Josphin Pladan wanted to reserve access to
carefully selected initiates and was not at all in accord with the
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Masonic aspect that Papus wanted to impose upon the order. The
positions of these two men were reconciled only with difficulty,
especially as Josphin Pladan reproached Papus for his taste in
occultism and magic. Along with Abb Alta, one of the eminent
members of the Kabbalistic Order of the Rose-Croix, Josphin
reproached Papus for confusing occultism and esotericism. On
February 17, 1891, Pladan wrote a letter to Papus, published in the
April issue of the journal LInitiation, that severed their relationship.
Heir to a tradition that he felt was on the verge of losing its
mission, Pladan decided to work along different lines and thus
founded in May 1891 the Order of the Rose-Croix du Temple et du
Graal (also called the Order of the Rose-Croix Catholique du
Temple et du Graal), which he had already outlined in Le Vice
suprme, his first novel, in 1884. In June 1891, he designated himself
as the Grand Master of this new order, using the name of Sr
Mrodack Pladan. This event was given considerable space in many
articles of Le Figaro, and this great publicity profoundly irritated
Papus and his friends who denounced Pladans split.

THE MAGIC OF ART

Josphin Pladan dreamed of a Rose-Croix unsullied by Masonic
filth, purified of all heresy, and blessed by the pope. He wanted to
carry to NotreDame, in the steps of our lord Jesus, the homage of
the Temple and the genuflection of the Rose-Croix,21 because the
order so founded could unite the Rosicrucian and Templar
traditions. For example, he composed a motto, Ad rosam per
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crucem, ad crucem per rosam, in ea, in eis gemmatus resurgam, to

which he added that which the Templar had been already using,
Non nobis, Domine, non nobis, sed nomini tuo gloriae solae, a
text taken from Psalm 115 (113B).22
Although it was established under the triple banner of the RoseCroix, Templars, and Grail, the order founded by Josphin Pladan
was not a true initiatic society. It primarily took the form of a lay
brotherhood bringing artists together. Its founder defined it as a
confraternity of intellectual charity, dedicated to the accomplishm
ent of works of mercy according to the Holy Spirit, whose Glory it
strives to augment so as to prepare the Kingdom.23 He wanted to
establish a universal confraternity of the intelligentsia. His goal
was to restore the cult of the ideal, with tradition for abase and
beauty as a means. Indeed, for Josphin Pladan, beauty expressed
by works of art could lead humanity towards God. For him, art was
thus a divine mission, and perfect work is that which is capable of
elevating the soul. In an era which he considered to be decidedly in
decline, he was convinced that the magic of art was the best means
of saving the West from imminent disaster.

SYMBOLISM
Josphin Pladans program followed in the wake of the PreRaphaelite and Symbolist movements. The former were members of
the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, an artistic movement born in
England in 1848 as a reaction to the poverty of conventional
Victorian painting. It was also opposed to an era obsessed with
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efficiency and industrialization, and worked in favor of the renewal

of the arts and crafts. The Pre-Raphaelite movements founders
Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Holman Hunt, and John Everett
Millais, later joined Edward Burne-Jones and William Morris
idealized the Middle Ages and the traditional painting done prior to
the 16th century artist Raphael. Hence their name: Pre-Raphaelites.
They especially admired the works of the Renaissance painter Fra
Angelico and the Italian primitives. This English movement was
preceded by the Brothers of St. Luke, commonly known as the
Nazarenes, founded by expatriate German and Austrian painters
in 1809 in an abandoned monastery in Rome. The Pre-Raphelites
created the Neo-Gothic style, called the Gothic Revival in England.
John Ruskin (1819-1900), writer, painter, professor, and art critic,
was their mentor.
It may be said that Josphin Pladan, as a writer and art critic, saw
himself in the role of the Ruskin of French Symbolists, an artistic
movement similar to what the English artists had organized. It was
Jean Moras who, in a proclamation published on September 15,
1886, in Le Figaros literary supplement, formalized a movement that
had already existed for about fifteen years. Its memberspoets,
writers, musicians, and painters reacted against the excesses of
Romanticism and Naturalism. They preferred the metaphorical, the
symbolic, over the descriptive. They thought along the lines of
Charles Baudelaire, who, in discovering the theory of
correspondences conceived by Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772),
adopted the latters rules in his poetry. The Symbolists likewise
332

loved to play with the secret harmonies of a world where perfumes,

colors, and sounds correspond.24
Mysticism and esotericism were not absent in Symbolist
preoccupations. Guy Michaud saw in occultism the motor nerve
and the key of the Symbolist movement. As examples, we can only
cite here a few works characteristic of this tendency that were
written by Villiers de lIsle-Adam (1838-1889). Rmy de Gourmont
described him as the exorcist of the real and the gatekeeper of the
ideal (Le Livre des masques). Villiers de lIsle-Adam constructed his
novel Claire Lenoire (1887) around the theories of the astral body,
spiritism, magnetism, and hypnosis. In LAnnonciateur (1888) and
Vera (1874), he borrowed from Dogme et ritual de la haute magie the
vocabulary of liphas Lvi. His masterpiece, Axl (1872-1886), a novel
depicting the Rosicrucians, was strongly influenced by Rosicrucian
philosophy, discovered by its author in Zanoni. Furthermore, he
drew upon Edward Bulwer Lyttons novel to write Isis (1860).25
Villiers de lIsle-Adam was a close friend of Augustin Chaboseau; he
also knew Victor-mile Michelet, Josphin Pladan, and Papus, all
eminent members of the Martinist Order and of the Kabbalistic
Order of the Rose-Croix. Even though he simplified the subject of
occultism, he aroused the curiosity of a whole generation in
esotericism.
However, more than the writers, it is the Symbolist painters who
are of concern to us. These painters, such as Gustave Moreau,
Ferdinand Hodler, Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, Odilon Redon, and
Paul Gauguin, were opposed to academic realism. Many of them
333

displayed their paintings in private salons, on the fringes of official

shows. Josphin Pladan wanted to make them mystics of art. He
wanted to destroy realism and reform the Latin taste by creating an
idealistic art movement. With this goal in mind, he established the
Rosicrucian Salons, a series of exhibitions that marked the most
important years of the Symbolist movement.

FIGURE 68. Seal of the Grail, drawing hy Franois Merintier for the Rosicrucian
Salon of 1893. Josphin Pladan described it thus: A communion cup from which
shoots forth flashing rays; from the heart of the cup springs a winged rose, in the

334

center of which rests the mystical cross. The dove of the Holy Spirit surmounts it
all, invigorating the holy cup with its seven rays. The O.T.O. later appropriated
this drawing to illustrate its constitution of 1906. Subsequently, around 1920,
Theodor Reuss modified this design by adding a Masonic delta above the dove.

THE MAGNIFICENTS
Artists who wanted to participate in the Salons did not need to
belong to the Order of the Rose-Croix du Temple et du Graal. The
only condition for their participation was that their works had to
adhere to a hard-and-fast rule that banned certain representations:
military or historical scenes, domestic animals, and occupations and
other exercises that painters as a rule have the insolence to reveal.26
The master of the Rosicrucian Salons was partial toward mystical or
inspirational religious works, decorative allegories, and sublime
nudity. The selection was carried out by a jury whose members bore
the title of Magnificent. It was composed of various personalities,
the most well known being: the Count Antoine de la Rochefoucault,
who was the financier of the Salons and later the patron of the
Nabis; the Count de Larmandie, who was a long-term secretary of
the Socit des Gens de Lettres en France; lmir Bourges, a
member of the Goncourt Academy and author of certain books,
such as La Nef, that were influenced by Josphin Pladans ideas;
Saint-Pol Roux, justly called the Magnificent, a writer proclaimed
by the Surrealists as one of the masters of modern art; and Gary de
Lacroze.

THE ROSICRUCIAN SALONS

335

The activity of the Order of the Rose-Croix du Temple et du Graal

was thus entirely dedicated to the organization of shows and soires
dedicated to the fine arts. The first Rosicrucian Salon was held in
1892, from March 10 to April 10, at the famous Parisian gallery of
Durant-Ruel.27 The Salon was inaugurated with a ceremony,
featuring music specially composed by rik Satie, the orders official
composer.28 This was Les Sonneries de la Rose-Croix, a work written for
harps and trumpets, that was made up of the air of the Order, the
air of the Grand Master, and air of the Grand Prior. The score
of the work was published with a cover decorated with a chalk
drawing by Puvis de Chavannes, one of the greatest Symbolist
painters. The days were rounded out with Rosicrucian soires,
dedicated to the theatre and music. A piece by Sr Pladan, Le Fils
des toiles, for which rik Satie composed three preludes for harps
and flutes, was presented on the evening of Thursday, March 17,
1892. In addition to these performances, Sr Pladan also gave
lectures on art and mysticism, and the works of Vincent dIndy,
Csar Franck, Richard Wagner, Palestrina, rik Satie, and
Benedictus were played. Rmy de Gourmont, in his column for the
Mercure de France, called the first Rosicrucian Salon the great artistic
show of the year. The number of attendees was so large that the
police had to be called in to control crowds that obstructed traffic in
the street. By the time the doors closed, more than 22,000 visitors
had been counted. The events astounding success and the presence
of foreign artists had repercussions all around the world. It can be
said that the Rosicrucian Salons constituted one of the most
important episodes of Symbolism.
336

Among the 193 artists who were represented at the Salons, let us
mention the following: Edmond Aman-Jean, mile Bernard,
Antoine Bourdelle, Eugne Delacroix, Jean Delville, Charles Filiger,
Georges de Feure, Eugne Grasset, Ferdinand Hodler, Fernand
Khnopff, Henri Martin, Edgard Maxence, George Minne, Alphonse
Osbert, Gaetano Previati, Flicien Rops, Georges Rouault, Carlos
Schwabe, Alexandre Seon, and Jan Toorop.
There was a total of six Rosicrucian Salons. Each was placed under
the auspices of a Chaldean god: Shamash (the Sun) for the first,
Nergal (Mars) for the second, Marduk or Merodach (Jupiter) for the
third, Nebo (Mercury) for the fourth, Ishtar (Venus) for the fifth,
and Sin (the Moon) for the sixth. This last Salon was held in the
prestigious Georges-Petit Gallery in 1897. in the presence of a flood
of requests, a special preview was organized for 191 art critics and
reporters. On the following day 12,000 visitors filed into this temple
of art.29 After this Salon, Pladan declared his order to be dormant:
I am laying down my arms. The artistic expression I have defended
is now accepted everywhere, and why should one recall the guide
who has shown the ford after the flood has passed? However, the
absence of some of the great Symbolist painters affected the overall
success of this Salon. This was notably the case with Puvis de
Chavannes, a painter whom Pladan valued most, and who had
withdrawn at the last moment. This was also true of Burne-Jones
and Gustave Moreau, who were both unwilling to go up against the
artistic establishment, but urged their students to participate in the
Salon.
337

Sr Mrodack Pladandid his utmost to convince the public.

However, it was said that his eccentricities his beard and hair were
cut in the Assyrian style and he wore violet-colored velvet clothing,
a gold braided vest, camel-hair burnous, and boots of soft deerskin
were meant to shock. These strange clothing habits, which he
made into a science that he called kaloprosopie,30 drew the attention of
countless journalists who never failed to draw a caricature of this
unusual individual. By the end of the century, many other artists
enjoyed wearing extravagant clothing as a sign of their rejection of
bourgeois society. Until his death in 1918, Pladan continued his
literary activity, which included about ninety volumes comprising
novels, plays, and studies on art or esotericism.

THE CONFRATERNITY OF THE ROSE

WINDOW
Pladan entrusted Jean Delville with pursuing his esthetic work in
Belgium, and the Salon of Idealist Art in Brussels was in many ways
a continuation of the Rosicrucian Salons. The Symbolists were quite
active in Belgium, and Pladan often went there to give lectures. The
artistic circle called Pour lArt, spearheaded by Jean Delville, was in
direct contact with both the Sr and the literary movement of
Raymond Nyst, who was his consul in Brussels.31 In France, the
Revue des entretiens idalistes, founded in 1906 by Paul Vulliaud, an
admirer of Josphin Pladan, tried to continue the Salons by
mounting the exposition of Idealist Painters and Sculptors in 1907.
From this short-lived attempt there arose the Confrrie de la Rosace
338

(Confraternity of the Rose Window), founded in March 1908 by

Frre Angel, who worked in the same spirit as the Rose-Croix du
Temple, but with very modest means. Pladan took no interest in
this group, which included barely more than four followers. The
Confraternity organized its first exposition in May 1909, a second in
May 1911, and a third in October 1912, and then ceased to exist.

COUNT FALKENSTEIN
Josphin Pladan was deeply scorned by Papus followers, as the
success of the Order of the Rose-Croix du Temple dealt a severe
blow to the Kabbalistic Order of the Rose-Croix. During this time,
the Kabbalistic Order of the Rose-Croix continued its activities to
some extent. However, the order did not possess solid roots, and
the occultist aspect provided by Papus moved it farther away from
its original Rosicrucian spirit. Undoubtedly for this reason it ossified
rapidly. As Victor-mile Michelet, one of its first members, noted,
the order did not have a broad range and went dormant even
before the premature death of its organizer.32 Indeed, in the same
year in which the Rosicrucian Salons closed their doors, the
Kabbalistic Order of the Rose-Croix lost its Grand Master, when,
on December 19, 1897, Stanislas de Guaita died prematurely. F.-Ch.
Barlet (Albert Faucheux) was elected as his successor. After trying to
make peace with Pladan, Barlet allowed the Kabbalistic Order to
become so inactive that it died out soon afterwards. It seems that
the new Grand Master of the Kabbalistic Order of the Rose-Croix
even had questions regarding the origins of Rosicrucianism. In July
339

1898 he published in the LInitiation a translation of the History of the

Rosicrucian Order, a work by Karl Kiesewetter. The latter claimed that
the order existed long before the publication of the manifestos
(1614-1615). He recounted its history through the lives of some of
its leaders, such as Count Falkenstein, who was supposedly its
imperator in 1374, and Johann Karl Friesen, imperator in 1468.
Such events are pure legend, as Karl Kiesewetter relied on sources
that lacked historical merit. He based his assertions on a manuscript
that was only a late 18th-century copy, and the references he
indicated, such as the text of volume IV of Theatrum Chemicum, did
not contain the quotations that he relied upon.33
It is probable that by supporting this text, Papus and Barlet tried to
differentiate themselves from the various contemporary Rosicrucian
trends that used 17th-century Rosicrucianism as their authority
such as the S.R.I.A., Golden Dawn, and the Order of the RoseCroix Catholique du Temple et du Graalby placing themselves
under an older authority. However, their project failed. F.-Ch. Barlet
went off in other directions with the H.B. of L., while Papus
increasingly distanced himself from occultism. The war of 19141918 put an end to the great period of occultists.
The rose garden of the magi did not succeed in producing
sufficiently viable flowers. However, in an era when the evolution of
science and industry overturned the social structure, each group
played a significant role by stimulating the interest of seekers of
esoteric knowledge. Even though the followers of the magi had
often confused occultism, esotericism, and mysticism, their quest
340

contributed to perpetuating a heritage necessary for fostering

peoples questions regarding their origins and destiny. But the rose
garden of Toulouse would soon produce a new branch. Indeed,
during this period, a young American named Harvey Spencer Lewis
came to meet the Rosicrucians in the rose-red city. From this
journey there soon arose the Ancient and Mystical Order Rosae
Crucis, which was to spread all over the world and become one of
the major initiatie organizations of the modern era.

341

FIGURE 69. Pietist college, 17th century German engraving.

342

Chapter 15

THE FIRST
ROSICRUCIANS OF
AMERICA

N PREVIOUS CHAPTERS, we have attempted to show the

relationship of Rosicrucianism to the general history of
Western esotericism. After having described its genesis, from
the 17th century until World War I, we will now focus on the
Ancient and Mystical Order Rosae Crucis, more commonly known
by the abbreviation A.M.O.R.C. This order, founded by H. Spencer
Lewis (1883-1939) for the renewal and reactivation of the
Rosicrucian tradition, constitutes one of the most important esoteric
movements that has ever existed. Today it has lodges and grand
lodges in most countries and includes nearly 250,000 members all
around the world.
Our aim is not to present a detailed account of AMORCs history,
as this would exceed the purpose of this volume, but rather to
indicate the orders place in the history of esotericism by pointing
out its origins and presenting some of the most important phases of
its development. In doing so, we will draw upon information
provided by H. Spencer Lewis in several works, the most well
343

known being A Pilgrims Journey to the East, written in 1916.

However, since this account involves some elements that cannot be
taken literally, we will study another version of this narrative, which,
in many ways, constitutes the autobiography of H. Spencer Lewis.
The latter presents the same history, but from a somewhat different,
more esoteric, angle than the first work, which was written for the
general public. It should be noted that this autobiography was never
published in its entirety. We will also make use of articles published
in various magazines of the Order, such as The American Rosae Crucis,
Cromaat, The Triangle, The Mystic Triangle, and the Rosicrucian Digest,1
which discuss the subject at hand. We will generally consider only
their essential elements, leaving out those which emphasize the
romantic rather than historical aspects. Moreover, we will use
numerous documents found in the archives of the Supreme Grand
Lodge of AMORC, because they will allow us to clarify in an
interesting way the facts symbolically or vaguely reported in the texts
that have been published until now.
First of all, it is important to emphasize that H. Spencer Lewis
placed the Ancient and Mystical Order Rosae Crucis in the
continuum of Rosicrucian activities previously implanted in North
America at the end of the 17th century. Moreover, he did not speak
of creation but of awakening, as he felt that he was starting the
second cycle of Rosicrucianism in America. To support this
position, Lewis based it on the researches that Julius Friedrich
Sachse (1842-1919) set forth in two of his books: The German Pietists
of Provincial Pennsylvania 1694-1708, published in 1895, and The
344

German Sectarians of Pennsylvania 1708-1742, dating from 1899. Sachse,

a descendant of German Pietists, was the curator and librarian of the
Masonic Temple of Philadelphia. In his books, he recounted the
history of those emigrants who settled in America at the end of the
17th century. These settlers, first led by Johann Jacob Zimmermann,
and then by Johannes Kelpius, accompanied the Pietists who wished
to establish a colony in Pennsylvania. Sachse wrote the following:
. . . they were a company of Theosophical Enthusiastscall
them Pietists, Mystics, Chiliasts, Rosicrucians, llluminati,
Cathari, Puritans, or what you maywho in Europe had
formed what was known according to their mystical dogmas
as a Chapter of Perfection, and then came to the western
world to put into execution the long-cherished plan of
founding a true Theosophical (Rosicrucian) community; going
out into the wilderness or desert, after the manner of the
Essenes of old, as also did Moses, Elijah and other biblical
characters, to perfect themselves in holiness, thus preparing
themselves for the millennium which they believed to be
approaching; or in case that their calculations should have
misled them as to the ending of all things terrestrial, the
community would prove a nucleus from which the individual
members would be qualified to come forth among men again
as holy men, to convert whole cities and to work signs and
miracles.2
Thus, Julius Friedrich Sachse regarded these emigrants as being
Rosicrucians. However, many authors have been critical of this
345

argument. One of them , Arthur E. Waite, felt that Sachses

researches were steeped in romanticism, and that the facts he
provided could not allow such conclusions to be drawn. According
to Waite, the fact that some of these Pietists had shown some
interest in astrology, Qabalah, and the works of Jacob Boehme was
not sufficient to call them Rosicrucians.3 Another author, Serge
Hutin, argued that a relationship between these emigrants and the
Rosicrucian movement could hardly be justified.4 To better
understand such matters, we must consider their origins. It is a fact
that Pietism was esoteric in nature and had some connection with
Rosicrucianism. Let us add that Johannes Kelpius and Johann Jacob
Zimmerman, both of whom were Pietists, had visited Tbingen, a
city quite noted for the presence of Rosicrucians.

FIGURE 70. Rosicrucian documents photographed by Julius Friedrich Sachse for

his book The German Pietists of Provincial Pennsylvania 1694-1708, published in 1895.
In the middle may be seen two plates from the second part of the Secret Symbols
of the Rosicrucians of the 16th and 17th Centuries, published in Altona in 1788.

346

PIETISM
Pietism, founded in Germany by the pastor Philipp Jacob Spener
(1635-1705), grew out of the crisis that Lutheranism experienced in
the 17th century.5 It offered a possible answer to the troubles faced
by the Lutherans following the end of the Thirty Years War (16181648).6 Spener, an advocate for the humanization of religion,
emphasized personal religious experience and the inner life. He
urged upon his contemporaries a praxis pietatis, an individual piety, a
practice characteristic of sanctification and leading to a rebirth that
marked inner regeneration. From 1670 he organized the collegia
pietatis, schools of piety, within Lutheran parishes. The participants
in these small groups studied the Bible and touched upon mysteries
that usually could not be discussed in larger Christian gatherings.
According to Antoine Faivre, there existed some striking analogies
between the structure of the initiatic societies and Pietism, and the
collegia pietatis were truly, in one sense, the predecessors of the
speculative lodges.7 In Germany, this movement grew rapidly, and
the colleges multiplied to the point of alarming the Lutheran
authorities. Due to the dynamism of August Hermann Francke
(1663-1727) who directed the faculty at the University of Halle,
Pietism quickly expanded and communities were established in India
and America.
Johann Arndt is generally considered to be the inspiration of this
movement. Let us recall that this Lutheran theologian, physician,
and alchemist was the spiritual father of Johann Valentin Andreae
and the mentor of the Tubingen Circle,8 the group that was behind
347

the publication of the Rosicrucian manifestos. Both a mystic and

alchemist, he attempted to integrate the Paracelsian heritage with
medieval theology, and developed the idea of an inner alchemy, of a
spiritual renaissance, a concept that Philipp Jacob Spener borrowed.
Arndt wished to divert people from the polemics of theology and
lead them back to a living faith and to a practice of piety. An
advocate of The Imitation of Christ (1441), one of the fundamental
works of the Devotio Moderna,9 he is best known for the Vier
Bcher vom wahren Christentum (Four Books on True Christianity),
written between 1605 and 1610.
This work is one of the most widely read Christian texts in the
world, and Pietists consider it to be their second Bible. In 1675
Spener also published Pia Desideria (Pious Desires), the founding text
of Pietism, as a preface to a later edition of this work. It is worth
noting that Kelpius carried Arndts works to America.
The ideas of Johann Valentin Andreae, the author of the Chymical
Wedding of Christian Rosenkreuz, also exerted a certain influence over
Pietism. As indicated by Roland Edighoffer, the Societas Christiana,
the ideal society extolled by Andreae, announced the vast and
fruitful movement of Pietism . . . .10 This movement was also the
result of an exchange of ideas with English Protestants. The
Germans were indeed influenced by the British Puritans, in search
of a purified Christianity, one that came closer to that of the first
disciples of Christ. In return, the Pietists exerted a certain influence
upon English spirituality, especially upon the Methodism of John
Wesley and George Whitefield.
348

BOEHMISM AND THE QABALAH

The founder of Pietism, Philipp Jacob Spener, was open to
doctrines usually judged to be heretical.11 Although not truly a
Qabalist, he was the author of a poem on the sephiroth and looked
favorably upon the doctrines of Jacob Boehme (1574-1624). Many
Pietists were likewise enthusiastic about the Qabalah and the
theories of Boehme, the theosophist from Grlitz. Included among
the Pietists were some important individuals, such as Gottfried
Arnold (1666-1714), who was one of Speners protgs. He was a
relative of Johann Georg Gichtel (1638-1710), the compiler and
publisher of Jacob Boehmes writings in Amsterdam. Arnold was
also associated with Pierre Poiret (1646-1719), a Boehmist and
disciple of Madame Guyon, who exercised a certain influence over
Pietism. Count Nikolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf (1700-1760) and
Friedrich Christoph Oetinger (1702-1782), two other eminent
figures, were also strongly influenced by the thinking of the
theosopher of Grlitz. Zinzendorf, who led a community gathering
together nearly one thousand Pietists at his estate in Herrnhut, liked
to use alchemical symbology. Like Jacob Boehme, he employed the
expression of tincture to describe the regenerated blood of Christ.
He came under the influence of the Qabalah and was strongly
affected by the reformist ideas of John Amos Comenius. The
second individual, Friedrich Christoph Oetinger, the father of
Swabian Pietism, tried to wed Boehmist theosophy with the
Qabalah. Lastly, we must not forget the Silesian pastor Christian
Knorr von Rosenroth (1636-1689), a Boehmist and eminent
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Qabalist, author of Kabbala Denudata (1677), the true bible of

Christian Qabalah. Johannes Kelpius (1673-1708), undoubtedly
during the period when he was a student at Tbingen University,
had the opportunity to meet this Qabalist, whose doctrines could
not have failed to influence him. When Kelpius left for America, he
carried with him the works of Jacob Boehme.

MILLENNIALISM
Although Pietism cannot be considered a millennialist movement,
this tendency could be found in many of its members. Generally,
this attitude was the consequence of the crisis afflicting Germany
during the 17th century, a religious crisis brought about not only by
the Reformation, but also by an economic crisis engendered by
disastrous climatic changeswhat has been called the Little Ice
Age. To these should be added epidemics that decimated the
population. These events, which affected everyones daily life, led to
a renewed interest in apocalyptic thinking and the theory of the
three ages of the universe formulated by Joachim of Fiore.12
Although not a millennialist, Philip Jacob Spener could not help
escaping its influence. In 1664 he defended the notion of the sixth
angel of the Apocalypse, a concept strongly promoted by Johann
Wilhelm Petersen. Petersen and his wife, Johanna Eleonor von
Merlau, a person typical of this period, visited the Pietist groups of
Wrttemberg where they proclaimed the end of the world and set
forth the theory of the apocatastasis, the final universal
regeneration.13 Johann Jacob Zimmermann (1642-1693) was
350

acquainted with this strange couple. This former student of

Tbingen University, who was a theologian, mathematician,
astronomer, and astrologer, also devoted himself to prophetic
calculations. He thought that 1694 was the year of the Millennium
that is, the year of Christs return. To prepare for this event he
decided to settle in a virgin land, in America. With Johannes
Kelpius, another student from Tbingen, he gathered together a
group of followers to make this great voyage.
The leader of Pietism in Wrttemberg, the philologist Johann
Albrecht Bengel (1687-1752), regarded as the father of textual
criticism of the Bible, also engaged in prophetic mathematics and
wrote several treatises on the ages of the world.14 Like many
Pietists, he revered Johann Arndt, whom he considered to be the
angel the Revelations of St. John (14:6) spoke ofthat is, the one
who would announce the Last Judgment. It is also interesting to
point out that in Wrttemberg, and more particularly in what is
called the Rosicrucian movement, Arndt was often regarded as the
incarnation of Elijah, the one who, according to prophecy, would
appear before Christs return. Some even regarded him as the Elias
Artista announced by Paracelsus.15
FIGURE 71. Johannes Kelpius, drawing by Christopher Witt, The Original Canvass.

351

THE PHILADELPHIAN SOCIETY AND

ENGLISH MILLENNIALISM
Generally speaking, it was only at the end of the 17th century that
Pietists no longer saw in their era the first hints of Christs return,
and they began to think that God had given humans a reprieve so
that they could provide proof of their faith. Therefore, like the
Quakers, they endeavored to establish communities in the world
where they would live according to divine precepts. The Pietists of
Halle financed their settlement in India and the North American
colonies in Pennsylvania and Georgia.
352

Following the conflicts that led to the closure of the Pietist

colleges in Erfurt in 1691, Zimmermann and Kelpius devised a plan
of emigrating to America. Accompanied by a group of disciples,
they left Germany in 1693. Their travels first took them to
Rotterdam, where Zimmermann died. Kelpius then assumed
leadership of the expedition, and Heinrich Bernhard Kster became
his second in command, with Johannes Seelig, Daniel Falkner,
Daniel Ltke, and Ludwig Biedermann being his assistants.
Accompanied by thirty-four other brethren, they sailed for England.
Arriving in London, the forty travelers made contact with the
English Boehmists.16
The Boehmists professed an exalted chiliasm and an apocalyptic
prophecy announcing the institution of a New Church. It should
be noted that such theories were not related to Jacob Boehmes
philosophy, but showed the influence of concepts advocated by
Joachim of Fiore, commonplace in England at that time. That is
why Lodowicke Muggleton (1609-1698) preached the third spiritual
dispensation and spoke of the New Church that had come to
replace that of St. Peters. For her part, Jane Lead (1623-1704), a
disciple of Boehme who experienced Sophianic visions, stated in The
Wonders of Gods Creation that the Old Testament having been
appropriate to the Ministration of the Father, the New to the Son,
now the Third Day is come, in which the Holy Ghost will have His,
which will excel all before it . . . . In 1697 there arose, under her
influence, the Philadelphian Society, a society which strayed from
true Boehmism as it took on a millennialist character. Jane Lead was
353

convinced that the end of the world was imminent, and the
Philadelphian Society became a purified Church, that of the
Millennium. In The Ascent to the Mount of Vision, she spoke in idyllic
terms of Christs reign of one thousand years to come upon the
earth, a preliminary stage at the end of time.

FIGURE 72. Ephrata Community at Cocalico Creek

THE DEPARTURE FOR AMERICA

Kelpius companions could not have been left indifferent by such
preoccupations, and indeed they came to visit Jane Lead. Serge
Hutin indicates that the English Boehmists provided financial and
material assistance to Kelpius group, thus facilitating their voyage
for America.17 In February 1694, the German Pietists sailed on the
Sarah Maria. After a voyage of five months, the ship reached
Philadelphia, the city of brotherly love, founded by the Quaker
William Penn several years previously. This city in Pennsylvania
354

brought together Quakers, Mennonites, and Native Americans who

endeavored to live in peace by practicing non-violence.18
Shortly after their arrival, Kelpius group left for nearby
Germantown, a place where a large German community lived, and
they settled a short distance away on a ridge overlooking the
Wissahickon River. Here they built their center, made up of cells
and communal rooms required for the monastic life that they
intended to pursue. In the temple called the Tabernacle Room
Kelpius endeavored to rally the different Protestant movements of
the region to his ideas. He established his own place of retreat away
from the community buildings, in a cave that still can be seen in
Philadelphias Fairmount Park.
The little community had an intense spiritual life. It was also quite
active, and its members devoted themselves to the education of
children. These Pietists were instructed in subjects as varied as
astronomy, bookbinding, and watchmaking. Due to their knowledge
in medicine and botany, they established the first herbarium of
Pennsylvania. They constructed an astronomical observatory on top
of one of their buildings so that they could search for the first signs
of the Millennium that Zimmermann had predicted for 1694. Their
knowledge of astronomy allowed them to produce one of the first
American almanacs of the 18th century. Documents found by
Sachse showed that Kelpius and his disciples were interested in
astrology and magic, that they made talismans as well as pantacles,
and they practiced a kind of theurgy. It also seems that some among
them practiced alchemy.19 However, as with most Pietists, Kelpius
355

attached great importance to prayer. For example, he was the author

of a magnificent treatise entitled A Short, Easy, and Comprehensive
Method of Prayer,20 whose principles are similar to those of the
orthodox prayer of the heart.
The community prospered for a dozen years. However, the
anticipated Millennium did not come to pass, and some of the
brethren wished to abandon the monastic life and begin families.
Under the direction of Heinrich Bernhard Kster,21 Kelpius
lieutenant, a group of his members joined the Quakers to form the
True Church of Philadelphia. When Johannes Kelpius died in 1708,
the community was barely active. Even Justus Falkner, one of his
closest collaborators, left the monastic life so as to marry. Johannes
Seelig tried without success to lead the group, but he finally resolved
to leave so that he could live as a hermit. Conrad Matthai succeeded
him for a little while and then took the same path as his predecessor.
The group gradually disbanded.
A few years later, in 1720, a few German Pietists, led by Conrad
Beissel, a baker, settled by Cocalico Creek, near modern-day
Harrisburg. In 1737, this leader organized a group of celibate men
and women called the Ephrata Community. Their activities
flourished, because far from being recluses, the members were
practical people who established various facilities, including a
gristmill, sawmill, flourmill, paper mill, and printing press, to
conduct their business affairs. Their spiritual activities were
numerous, and they were renowned for their choral music and
hymns. After the death of Conrad Beissel in 1768, the community
356

waned and disappeared around the end of the . 18th century.

However, the presence of these mystics had profoundly influenced
Pennsylvania.
As we have just shown, the German mystics who emigrated to
America could not be properly called Rosicrucians. They were
Pietists strongly influenced by esotericism and millennialism.
However, they had their roots in the spiritual movement of
Tbingen, which may be considered the center of 17th-century
Rosicrucianism. It should be remembered that Sincerus Renatus
(Samuel Richter), a Lutheran pastor who was said to be a disciple of
Paracelsus and Boehme, claimed that the Rosicrucians had left
Europe so as to settle in India where they could live in peace.22 As
we have seen, the Pietists of Halle setfled communities here around
1706, and we know that in the minds of many people the Americas
were also considered to be the Indies.
Johannes Kelpius and his disciples were thus part of a group of
people who left Germany after the disasters of White Mountain and
the Thirty Years War with the intention of establishing in America a
society where peace and fraternity would reign, much in keeping
with what was outlined about a dozen years previously in the
Rosicrucian manifestos. Thus, placing the Pietists of Pennsylvania
within the Rosicrucian tradition is not at all implausible.

357

FIGURE 73. Harvey Spencer Lewis

358

Chapter 16

HARVEY SPENCER LEWIS

Harvey Spencer Lewis, a remarkable individual who was to give
Rosicrucianism a dimension that it had never known before, was
born on November 25, 1883. His family was of Welsh background
and his ancestors had settled in Virginia before the American
Revolution. His grandfather, Samuel Lewis, born on November 7,
1816, in Buckingham, Pennsylvania, was the descendant of farmers
who had cleared land in this region. Samuel married Eliza Hudnut, a
cultivated young lady of French extraction, and the couple settled in
Kingwood, New Jersey. It was in this town that their son Aaron
Rittenhouse Lewis was born on February 3, 1857. At an early age,
his mother introduced him to French literature and communicated
to him a certain sensitivity in spiritual matters. Family life alternated
between work on their farm and activities in the Methodist church,
since religion occupied a prominent place in Aarons life. He was
particularly devout, and he delivered some sermons at the church in
Kingwood. Aaron married Catherine Hoffman, a dynamic young
woman born on January 14, 1851, in Germany, where she trained to
become a teacher. From their union Harvey Spencer Lewis was born
on November 25, 1883, in Frenchtown, New Jersey.
Aaron Lewis gave the middle name of Spencer to his son because
of the admiration he felt for the Spencer brothers, inventors of a
359

system of penmanship used in public schools for many years. Aaron

was an excellent calligrapher, and this gift allowed him to leave the
family farm after obtaining work as a teacher at a commercial school
in a neighboring town. Due to his talents as an artist, he augmented
his income by executing small illustrations in the evenings at home.
Catherine added to their financial resources by following her
profession of teaching. The family soon left Frenchtown and settled
in New York City. It was there that Aaron Lewis became associated
with Daniel T. Ames, a chemist specializing in the analysis of inks
and papers, Together they devised a technique for the scientific
analysis of documents to determine whether these were authentic or
forgeries. They thereby created a new profession, and for over thirty
years Aaron Lewis was the leading authority in this field.
When H. Spencer Lewis discussed his early years, he wrote:
Earliest recollections of my childhood were of a home in which my
father spent many hours of the evenings and spare time in research
and study. My mother had finally given up her teaching in the
schools and diligently worked with my two brothers and myself on
our home studies assigned by our teachers at school.1 Harvey
Spencer was a young man with an insatiable curiosity. Having a
passion for physics, electricity, and chemistry, he read all the books
on science that he could lay his hands on. His interest in
photography soon led him to construct his own camera. He also
revealed artistic talents in drawing, painting, and music at an early
age. He played the piano and organized in his school the second
school orchestra in New York City. In June 1899, this group gave a
360

concert at the graduation ceremony marking the end of H. Spencer

Lewis formal studies.

FIGURE 74. The Metropolitan Temple of New York.

THE MYSTIC AWAKENING

H. Spencer Lewis family environment contributed much to the
developmsent of his mystical sensitivity. His father, Aaron Lewis,
made a point of devoting Sunday to religious activities. On this day
the family was not content to simply attend church; they read and
also discussed the Bible. Young Harvey participated enthusiastically
in the activities of the Metropolitan Temple of New York, and until
361

he was sixteen years old he loved to sing in the choir of this

Methodist center, which was an important gathering place for the
youth of the city. He also listened attentively to the sermons of Dr.
S. Parkes Cadman, the pastor of the church.
H. Spencer Lewis often spent his free time in meditating in this
church, which had become his spiritual home. This attitude did not
escape the notice of the pastor, with whom he often conversed
regarding subjects touching on mysticism. Often, in the silence, the
young Harvey contem plated the altar and reflected on the divine
mysteries. When he discussed these moments of prayer in his
biography, he noted: I do not know what was necessary for me
and, consequently, I prayed for nothing more than love and peace.
It was in this temple that he had his first mystical experiences and he
questioned himself about the profound nature of humanity and the
possibility of contacting the most subtle part of being, the soul. In
1900, he completed his schooling and found employment as an
office boy in Baker and Taylor Publishing. This job allowed him to
have at his disposal the many books necessary for his insatiable
curiosity.

362

FIGURE 75. Phineas Parkhurst Quimby.

NEW THOUGHT
It appears that an article published in the October 20, 1901, edition
of the New York Evening Herald drew Lewis attention. It
described the case of Leonora Piper, a medium from Boston who
was unrivaled in the history of the psychic sciences.2 At this time,
experiments with mediums were the rage in New York, a city where
spiritualism drew a large following. As we saw in a previous chapter,
spiritualism developed in the United States after magnetism was
introduced to this country by Charles Poyan, a follower of Puysgur,
in 1836.3 The ensuing events led researchers to take interest in these
phenomena, and their work resulted in the creation of institutions
that engaged in the research of paranormal faculties. The most
prestigious was the American Society for Psychical Research,
363

founded in Boston in 1884, two years after the founding of the

Society for Psychical Research in England. H. Spencer Lewis was
soon participating in a similar group.
The increasing importance of magnetism also led to the birth of
New Thought, a movement that gained considerable popularity and
foreshadowed, to a certain degree, the New Age. It may be defined
as a philosophical movement with JudeoChristian overtones that
teaches the laws of the creative power of thought. Its goal is to lead
each follower to a balanced, harmonious life and to selfrealization.
Moreover, it involvesand this is one of its essential aspects
therapeutic applications. This movement had its origins in the
concepts of the Healer of Portland, Phineas Parkhurst Quimby
(1802-1866), a clockmaker born in New Hampshire. After having
attended the sances given by Charles Poyan, he used magnetism for
healing purposes and eventually devoted himself entirely to this
activity in Portland, Maine. By blending psychic sciences,
philosophy, and Christian mysticism for leading each disciple to
health and happiness, Quimby created what he called Mental
Science, also called Christian Science or Science of Health. By 1840,
his experiments were being reported in the newspapers of Maine.
Although he was very popular, he never theorized about his
practices or philosophy in books and pamphlets. His ideas are only
known to us through a book written by Annetta Gertrude Dresser
entitled The Philosophy of P.P. Quimby, with selections from his manuscripts
and a sketch of his life (1895).
After Quimbys death, New Thought came into being with three
364

of his former patients and followers. The first was the Reverend
Warren Felt Evans (1817-1889), a minister of the Swedenborgian
faith. After being healed by Quimby, Evans was attracted to his
theories and wrote the first book dedicated to mental treatment, The
Mental Cure (1869). This was followed by numerous other volumes,
such as Esoteric Christianity and Mental Therapeutics (1886). The second
of Quimbys followers was Julius A. Dresser (1838-1893). After his
cure in 1860, he dedicated his life to continuing his masters work.
In some ways Dresser was the first modern psychic healer and may
be considered as the founder of New Thought, a movement he
discussed in The True History of Mental Science (1887). His wife Annetta
Gertrude and his son Horatio Willis were also authorities and
authors in this field.
Finally, Mary Baker Glover Patterson (1821-1910), Quimbys third
disciple, is probably the most well known. In 1862 she too was
cured of an illness that seemed incurable. However, after Quimbys
death, she again fell gravely ill, but she healed herself by applying the
principles of her teacher. She then began to perfect her own
philosophy, which she called Christian Science. She married Dr. Asa
Gilbert Eddy and wrote Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures
(1875). In this book, Mrs. Eddy developed the concept that all
illness was primarily of psychic origin, and that a spirit cure based
on prayer and the adoption of positive thoughts would lead
inevitably to the return of harmony. This book was phenomenally
successful, and in 1898 it was already in its 140th printing. In 1881,
aided by her husband, Mrs. Eddy founded the Massachusetts
365

Metaphysical College to teach Christian Science. Under her

direction, the college prospered, with more than 4,000 students
being instructed in her principles during this period. Then in 1889
she closed this institution so as to revamp her book and reorganize
her organization. The college reopened its doors in 1899 and
gradually the movement became a true church that included
thousands of followers around the world.

THE KYBALION
In the United States, New Thought resulted in the publication of a
whole body of literature whose most esteemed authors, apart from
those we have previously mentioned, included: Ralph Waldo Trine,
Henry Wood, Ella Adelia Fletcher, Oliver C. Sabin, Victor Turnbull,
Emma Curtis Hopkins, Prentice Mulford, and William Walker
Atkinson. The latter deserves particular mention, because he was
one of the most eminent representatives of American New
Thought. William Walker Atkinson (1862-1932), a Freemason,
theosophist, member of the Pennsylvania bar, and professor of
hypnotism, was one of the most important authors of New
Thought. Between 1902 and 1915, he published about twenty
works, both under his own name and that of Yogi Ramacharaka.
Two books that are especially significant are The Law of the New
Thought (1902) and The Hindu-Yogi Science of Breath, a Complete Manual
of Breathing Philosophy of Physical, Mental, Psychic and Spiritual Development
(1909). What makes this author original, in comparison to his
predecessors, is that he included in his theories and practices some
366

elements relating to Hinduism or yoga. This was surely the result of

two major influences in his life: the Theosophical Society, of which
he was a member, and Swami Vivekananda. In 1893 the latter
appeared in Chicago as the Hindu representative in the World
Parliament of Religions, and afterwards he lectured in many cities
before founding the Vedanta Society in New York City (1894). In
his books, Atkinson touched on such subjects as health through
magnetism, mystical breathing, karma, vibrations, polarity, the
projection of thought and visualization.
Atkinson was probably the author of the celebrated Kybalion, A
Study of the Hermetic Philosophy of Ancient Egypt and Greece.4 The cover
indicates that this text is the work of three initiates, a slightly
veiled allusion to Hermes Trismegistus. The author of the Kybalion
claimed to reveal the royal art of the Egyptians, which is the
synthesis of all knowledge, and from which India, Persia, and China
have their source. He revealed the seven Hermetic laws, which he
presented as being those of Hermes Trismegistus. Among these laws
are those of correspondences, the vibrations of life, polarity, rhythm,
causality (karma), as well as subjects that really have little connection
with the contents of the writings of the Corpus Hermeticum, but
which specifically reveal those of New Thought.5 Thus, the Kybalion,
which tries to relate the principles of New Thought to those of
Hermeticism, constitutes a marvelous synthesis of all the ideas in
this movement.
Let us end this long digression concerning the authors of New
Thought by pointing out one of the most notable books of this
367

movement, The Heart of New Thought, published by Ella Wheeler

Wilcox in 1902. Her work experienced immediate success and went
through fourteen printings within three years. This author is of
special interest to us in that she worked with H. Spencer Lewis in
the establishment of AMORC several years later.
Between 1860 and 1910, New Thought developed rapidly. The
reason for its success was due no doubt to its pragmatic character,
with the result that it tended to reduce the influence of the
Theosophical Society. As Hermann de Keyserling has indicated, in
contrast to the latter movement, New Thought rejected pure
occultism, which it considered to be secondary in nature. It
proposed instead a method of individual expansion oriented toward
self-realization. Its applications were concrete and could be used to
solve everyday problems. Furthermore, in contrast to the
Theosophical Society, which was imbued with the Oriental culture,
New Thought had its roots in Christianity.6 The American
psychologist William James saw some striking analogies, from a
psychological standpoint, between the mind cure taught by New
Thought and the Protestantism of Luther and the Methodism of
Wesley. He noticed the same liberating speech and the complete
confidence in goodness.7
Despite the many testimonies of Albert Louis Caillet,8 New
Thought had few followers in France, apart from Hector Durville
(1849-1923).9 The latter, after having separated from the
Theosophical Society and the initiatie movements directed by Papus
(Martinist Order and Kabbalistic Order of the Rose Cross), founded
368

in 1893 his practical school of magnetism and massage as a way to

expand psychic and hypnotic studies and to train therapists.10
Although he was part of the French magnetist movementit
should not be forgotten that he continued the work of the Baron
Du Potethe was influenced by New Thought, and in particular by
the works of Prentice Mulford.11His Journal du magnetisme became
widely known throughout the world. In 1909, the Magnetic College
of New York, directed by Dr. Babbitt, worked closely with him.

FIGURE 76. New York Sunday World, January 1907.

THE NEW YORK INSTITUTE FOR PSYCHICAL

RESEARCH
Between 1902 and 1909 H. Spencer Lewis was intrigued by the
spiritualist movement, and his personal investigations led him to put
369

its doctrines to the test. He quickly realized that the messages

supposedly originating from spirits through mediums were of little
interest. In 1902, desiring to broaden his research, he became part of
a special committee investigating fraudulent spiritualistic mediums.
This group of men and women from all walks of life organized
experiments with mediums in an attempt to obtain a better
understanding of these mysterious phenomena. At the end of two
years, and when he was only twenty years old, Lewis was named
president of this association. He owed this honor to the fact that he
himself was endowed with uncommon psychic faculties. In 1904,
with the assistance of the New York Evening Herald, where he
presided over a committee investigating mediums, he founded the
New York Institute for Psychical Research. This group, of which he
was elected president, was composed of scientists and physicians.
Among the members of the institute were such noted individuals as
the writer and poetess Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1850-1919) and Dr.
Isaac Kauffman Funk (1839-1912),12 best known for his work on
psychic science (The Widows Mite and Other Psychic Phenomena,
published in 1904 and The Psychic Riddle three years later).
During this period the American Society for Psychical Research,
headquartered in Boston, predominated in the field of psychic
research in the United States. But, by 1904, after the death of its
director, Dr. Richard Hodgson, the group lost its momentum and
ceased operations in 1905. Then, only one year later, Dr. James H.
Hyslop reorganized the old institution in New York as the American
Institute for Scientific Research.13 As can be seen, a void was left
370

when the activities of the Boston research group came to an end,

which provided an opportunity for another organization, the New
York Institute for Psychical Research, to come into being. Under H.
Spencer Lewis direction, the new group conducted investigations
examining the true abilities of mediums, which resulted in more than
fifty fakes being unmasked. The institute also worked with the New
York police department and the New York World, a daily newspaper.
During this period, Lewis published many articles concerning his
researches in the New York Herald and in the New York World. One
of the articles, entitled Greatest Psychic Wonder of 1906,
published in January 1907 in the New York Sunday World with a
portrait of the author, discussed the experiments made by the New
York Institute for Psychical Research with a young Indian medium.
These researches left Lewis dissatisfied, as he found it hard to
believe that the phenomena produced through mediums were
derived from the manifestation of spirits. Rather, he was persuaded
that they originated in spiritual faculties yet unknown. It was during
this period that he became aware of the works of Thomson Jay
Hudson (18341903), among others. This author, a doctor of
philosophy, enjoyed international renown after the publication in
1893 of his first work, Law of Psychic Phenomena: a Working Hypothesis
for the Systematic Study of Hypnotism, Spiritism, Mental Therapeutics . . . .14
Lewis avidly read this book that touched upon magnetism,
spiritualism , duality of the mind, the conscious and the
unconscious. It intrigued him all the more as it studied telepathy
scientifically and described suggestion as the link between the
371

conscious and subconscious, the means that the mind can use to
direct matter. He also read the works of Sir Oliver Lodge, including
The Survival of Man, which studied faculties little known at the time,
and Life and Matter, which was more oriented toward psychology.
During the years 1906-1907, Lewis abandoned psychic research,
which he judged to be unproductive. What followed was a period of
reflection. While engaged in his daily meditations, he became aware
that he was finding the answers to questions touching upon the
mysteries of life. As he noted in his autobiography, he experienced
great peace during these experiences and, when returning to an
awakened consciousness, he had the impression of having received
inwardly some instruction on the laws and principles pertaining to
God and nature. Puzzled by this, he confided in May Banks-Stacey,
an elderly woman he had met at the New York Institute for
Psychical Research. She revealed to him that, during such
experiences, he had probably rediscovered the knowledge acquired
in his past lives. She even suggested that during one or many
previous reincarnations he had surely belonged to a mystical
fraternity like the Rosicrucians of Egypt. H. Spencer Lewis was
astonished by this answer, as it established a link between the RoseCroix and Egypt!
In the days that followed, he sought information on the
Rosicrucians, but found no reference at all indicating that this order
existed anywhere but in Germany. Until then, he had read nothing
nor even encountered the slightest allusionconcerning the
existence of secret Rosicrucians. Beginning in the year 1908, all his
372

thoughts were directed toward a single goal: to discover what the

ancient mystics had taught so that he might compare their teachings
with what he himself was able to glean through his own spiritual
experiences.

FIGURE 77. May Banks-Stacey

373

Chapter 17

THE JOURNEY TO THE

EAST

LTHOUGH HARVEY SPENCER Lewis considered her

to be the cofounder of the Ancient and Mystical Order
Rosae Crucis, May Banks-Stacey (1846-1919) has remained
relatively unrecognized. We feel that it is important, therefore, to
consider briefly the unusual journey of this Rosicrucian.1 May
Banks-Stacey, born Mary Henrietta Banks, was the daughter of
Thaddeus Banks, a distinguished lawyer, and of Delia Cromwell
Reynolds. She was an excellent student and eventually obtained a
diploma in law. She was also a fine musician and possessed a lovely
voice. A woman endowed with great elegance, she was part of the
fashionable social circles of Washington and later New York. In
1869 she married Colonel May Humphreys Stacey (1837-1886), but
then became a widow when she was only forty years old. This new
situation allowed the relatively young woman to devote herself to
activities that she had no time for previously.

THE ORIENT
After her husbands death, May Banks-Stacey lived most often at
the home of one of her sons, Captain Cromwell Stacey. As is often
374

true of military personnel, his duties obliged him to travel abroad

from time to time.2 His mother generally accompanied him, and
thus she had the opportunity to travel to China, Japan, India, Tibet,
the Philippines, Europe, Cuba, and Australia.3 Her daughter stated
that May Banks-Stacey met the chief of Zululand and many native
rulers of India, and noted that she studied the philosophy of
Bahaullah (1817-1892), the founder of the Bahai faith.
May Banks-Stacey was a member of the Theosophical Society and,
as such, had the opportunity to become part of the Theosophist
Inner Circle, the esoteric group that Helena Petrovna Blavatsky had
formed within the society, and in which the members were directly
bound to her by an oath.4 AMORCs cofounder also took an interest
in the Orient and was attracted to the teachings of Swami
Vivekananda (1862-1902), a follower of Ramakrishna who had left
Bombay for the United States in May 1893.5 There, along with such
individuals as Gandhi, he represented Hinduism at the World
Parliament of Religions in Chicago, which opened its doors on
September 11, 1893. He enjoyed great success and was invited to
remain in America. For three years he traveled around the country,
giving lectures and seminars in which he discussed the Vedanta and
Ramakrishnas teachings. His ideas influenced all those who were
part of the New Thought movement at the time. Romain Rolland
has shown that even Maty Baker Eddy, the founder of Christian
Science, came under his influence, and this was probably also true of
William Walker Atkinson, the most Eastern-minded of the teachers
of New Thought.6 On the other hand, Swami Vivekanandas
375

teachings also helped to restrain the expansion of the Theosophical

Society and presented a more authentic image of the Eastern world.
It is probable that May BanksStacey was present at the classes that
Vivekananda gave in New York in 1894 and 1896, the years when
she was initiated into Eastern philosophy.

THE MANHATTAN MYSTIC CIRCLE

May Banks-Stacey came from a family of Freemasons. In 1761,
one of her ancestors, James Banks (1732-1793), was one of the
founders of New Jerseys first Masonic lodge, St. Johns Lodge No.
1, where he held the office of Junior Warden.7 We do not know
whether her father was a Freemason, but this is probable, as his
daughter became a member of Eastern Star, one of the oldest mixed
Masonic obediences. Access to this organization involves what is
called Masonry of adoption,8 as it is reserved to mothers, wives,
sisters, or daughters of Freemasons. However, we should note that
information regarding May Banks-Staceys membership in Eastern
Star remains imprecise and perhaps is unrelated to the Masonic
organization just mentioned, but to the similarly named order
founded by Annie Besant that was closely associated with the
Theosophical Society.9 This is a logical possibility, as May
BanksStacey was quite active in this movement.
AMORCs cofounder was also a member of the Manhattan Mystic
Circle, a Masonic rite of adoption in which she appears to have been
the prime mover. This side organization, founded in February 1898,
took the form of a mutual aide society and charity composed of the
376

daughters, wives, sisters, and daughters-in-law of Freemasons.

According to the Constitution and Bylaws of the Manhattan Mystic Circle,
Lodge No. 1 O.M ., the person directing the lodge was called
Illustrious Mistress. After consulting a copy of this document, we
may surmise that this office was held by May Banks-Stacey.10
Outside of these esoteric activities, she also took an interest in
national affairs. She was a Daughter of the American Revolution
and a Colonial Dame, and in 1898 she served as the first vicepresident of the New York Womens Republican Association, which
worked for the upcoming presidential campaign.

EGYPT
May Banks-Stacey was attracted to all forms of occultism
especially astrology, chiromancy, and white magic. During her
travels to India and Tibet, she had acquired great wisdom , and her
daughter noted in a letter: I believe that she preferred Egypt to all
other countries. She told me about certain impressions that she had
experienced in visiting the ancient temples, the feeling that there was
a time when she had to be an Egyptian in one of her numerous
reincarnations.11 According to what H. Spencer Lewis relates, it was
while she was in Egypt that the Rosicrucians gave May BanksStacey
a mystical jewel and some sealed documents that she had to keep
until another person came along and presented her with an exact
copy of one of the seals and called upon her assistance to establish
the Rosicrucian Order in America.
Who were the initiates that May Banks-Stacey encountered in
377

Egypt? H. Spencer Lewis does not say. Did he indicate by this name
some Rosicrucians whose existence has been lost to history or some
Freemasons of the Rose-Croix degree?12 Let us not forget that,
around 1863, Jeantienne Marconis de Ngre granted a patent to
Joseph de Beauregard for the creation in Egypt of a Sovereign
Sanctuary of Memphis, a rite that accorded special importance to the
Rose-Croix degree. The Rosicrucian tradition was equally present
with Demetrius Platon Semelas (1883-1924), a Greek Martinist
living in Cairo. The latter was said to have obtained in 1902, at a
monastery on Mount Athos, the legacy of the Rose-Croix of the
Orient.13 In October 1911, he also conferred an initiation of the
R.C. Aspirant degree on Georges Lagrze, an inspector of the
Martinist Order, who was traveling in Egypt. Tradition states that
the latter afterwards transmitted this initiation to Papus.14 Could the
Rosicrucian encountered by May Banks-Stacey in Egypt be
Demetrius Platon Semelas? This remains only a hypothesis.
However, if this were the case, it would resolve many questions,
especially the fact that in 1913, Harvey Spencer Lewis was in contact
with Eugene Dupr, who was Semelas assistant.15
H. Spencer Lewis tells us that after leaving Egypt, May BanksStacey journeyed to India, where, upon producing the documents
she had received in Egypt, she was initiated into the Rosicrucian
Order. She was named legate of the organization for America, but
she was informed that the Order would not be established in that
country until 1915, under the patronage of France. This episode in
the life of AMORCs cofounder remains enigmatic, because we lack
378

the vital clues for properly interpreting the initiation in India. We

may see this as an allusion to a possible trip to Adyar, the
headquarters of the Theosophical Society of which she was a
memberkeeping in mind that this organization has always had a
certain affinity with the Rosicrucians, as was pointed out previously
when we described how its founders were considering giving it the
title of Rosicrucian, but settled instead on Theosophical. After
the death of Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, Annie Besant emphasized
this affinity. First she created the Eastern Star, and then in 1912 the
Order of the Temple of the Rosy Cross, an ephemeral movement
whose activities came to an end in 1918. Was this the organization
that May Banks-Stacey contacted in India? The hypothesis seems
plausible. Following this journey, H. Spencer Lewis recounted that
she stopped in London, where she met a certain BE, Deta Conts,
who was described as being an eminent student of occultism. Then
she returned to New York and immersed herself in Masonic
activities.

THE NEW ONTOLOGY

In the last chapter, it was mentioned that May Banks-Stacey was a
member of the New York Institute for Psychical Research, the
organization founded by H. Spencer Lewis. We do not know on
what date she joined. In his autobiography, Lewis reported that he
met her at the end of 1907. At this time, he was only twenty-four
years old and was employed as an illustrator at a New York
newspaper. He also enjoyed some degree of success as a
379

photojournalist. Along with these activities, he remained occupied

with the Institute for Psychical Research and began to write some
articles concerning psychic science and esotericism. In February
1908, he contributed to The Future, a monthly publication belonging
to the New Thought movement.16Under the pseudonym of Prof.
Lewis he wrote several articles on astrology17 and, using the name of
Royle Thurston, he also published the first article of a series entitled
The New Ontology. He described this work as being a series of
lessons on a new science explaining life and death, as well as all
spiritual phenomena. He touched upon such topics as vital life force,
diet, health, magnetism, hypnosis, and psychic energies. But his
collaboration with this publication was of short duration, because
two months later he was to have an experience that changed his life
completely.

380

FIGURE 78. The Future, February 1908.

A MYSTICAL EXPERIENCE
Due to his busy schedule, H. Spencer Lewis had little opportunity
of returning to the Metropolitan Church on Seventh Avenue in New
York. In the spring of 1908, he felt an urge to go back to this place
that had been his spiritual home seven years earlier. On the
Thursday after Easter, around 4:30 in the afternoon, he entered the
church and sat in a pew to meditate. It was then that he felt the
presence of an invisible being whom he perceived to be a man with
a long white beard who gave the impression of peace and harmony.
381

This mysterious individual told him that the knowledge to which he

aspired could not be found in books but rather deep within himself.
He was also informed that he had to go to France to be initiated
into the Rose-Croix. Who was this mysterious being? Was he truly a
spiritual entity? Did he correspond to the perception of the
archetype of the old sage, such as that described by Carl Jung? What
can be said for certain is that this mystical experience left a
profound impression upon H. Spencer Lewis and became the
starting point for his pilgrims journey to the East.
In the hope of obtaining some information regarding
Rosicrucianism in France, he decided to write to a Parisian
bookseller whose catalogue he had obtained. We have not
succeeded in identifying this individual, who was also described as
being the editor of a newspaper. It is possible that the person in
question is Henri Durville, whose shop, both a library and
publishing house, was located at 23 rue Saint-Merri in Paris. The
Librairie du Magntisme, a library possessing more than 8,000 books
and magazines concerning magnetism and occultism, offered its
lending services to seekers of rare works. It also had at its disposal a
collection of about 700,000 engravings, portraits, autographs, and
other documents relating to this specialty. As a publishing house, it
provided an important catalogue of works that were marketed
around the world. Henri Durville was also the director and subeditor of the Journal du magntisme. According to the October 1909
issue of this magazine, there existed in New York a college of
magnetism, directed by Dr. Babbitt, that worked closely with Henri
382

Durvilles Socit magntique de France.18 Whatever the identity of

the bookseller contacted by H. Spencer Lewis, the latter soon
received the following reply:
If you came to Paris and found it convenient to call at the
Studio of M. , the professor of languages at No. , Blvd.
St. Germain, he might be able to tell you something of the
circle of which you inquire. It might be advisable to hand him
this note. Certainly a letter to him announcing your coming
(by date and name of boat) would be courteous.19

THE JOURNEY TO FRANCE

Although his financial situation did not permit him to consider
such a voyage, an unexpected opportunity soon presented itself. His
father, Aaron Lewis, an expert in authenticating documents as well
as a renowned genealogist, needed an assistant while conducting
research in France for the Rockefeller family. On July 24, 1909, the
two men sailed for Europe on the Amerika, of the Hamburg
Amerika Line. On Sunday, August 1, the ship arrived at Cherbourg,
and the two travelers set off for Paris by train. The days that
followed were entirely devoted to genealogical research, and it was
only in the following week that H. Spencer Lewis was able to visit
the bookshop and the professor of languages on Boulevard SaintGermain. A Pilgrims Journey to the East reported his meetings
with the professor on Saturday, August 7, and on Monday, August
9. This man was about forty-five years old, spoke perfeet English,
and asked many probing questions to determine Lewis intentions.
383

At the end of the second meeting, he recommended that his

American visitor travel to southern France, where he would receive
further instructions.
As we have seen previously, the contact with this professor of
languages may have been established through Henri Durville.
However, we may also wonder whether our traveler could not have
done his investigations by going to the celebrated Librairie du
Merveilleux founded by Lucien Chamuel. It is there that Papus and
his friends organized the first meetings of the Martinist Order and
the Kabbalistic Order of the Rose-Croix, and had launched the
magazines Llnitiation and Le Voile dIsis. The veritable meeting place
of all Parisian occultists, this bookshop had been purchased by
Pierre Dujols and Alexandre Thomas.20 In 1909 the two men were
working on Paracelsus Sept Livres de Iarchidoxe magiquea book that
was published under the auspices of the Kabbalistic Order of the
Rose-Croix. Pierre Dujols (1862-1926), an alchemist believed by
some to be Fulcanelli, was also interested in Rosicrucianism. In a
book entitled La Chevalerie amoureuse, troubadours, flibriges et Rose-Croix,
he repeatedly spoke about this movement in connection with
Toulouse and the Academie des Jeux floraux. Some well-informed
people still talk clandestinely about the modern-day Rosicrucians of
Toulouse, he notes in this text.21
In his autobiography, H. Spencer Lewis added several other facts.
He states that the people who interviewed him in Paris suspected
him of wanting to penetrate some secret of Freemasonry.
Concerning this matter, he mentioned his connection with the
384

Parisian bookseller, whom he described as one of the officers of a

branch of Freemasonry improperly holding some ancient
manuscripts, seals, jewels, and old accessories belonging to
Rosicrucian lodges that had fallen inactive. Despite their suspicions
concerning him, Lewis was eventually directed toward those
individuals who could guide him toward the light he was seeking.
And that is how he received the advice that he should go to
Toulouse.
It may be asked why his interrogators did not recommend that he
meet with such individuals as Josphin Pladan and Papus who were
well known at the time for their Rosicrucian activities. Indeed, in
June 1908in the preceding yearthe latter had presided at the
Spiritualist Congress, which brought together more than seventeen
initiatic organizations.22 However, this important event barely
concealed the crisis affecting the initiatic groups directed by Papus
and the Kabbalistic Order of the Rose-Croix in particular. After
Stanislas de Guaitas death in 1897, this group became inactive. In
the same year, josphin Pladan shut down the Order of the RoseCroix du Temple et du Graal. Consequently, we may understand
why Harvey Spencer Lewis was not directed to these organizations.
Instead, as we shall soon see, he was sent to Toulouse, the place
where they had their origin.

385

FIGURE 79. Clovis Lassalle.

TOULOUSE, THE ROSE-RED CITY

Once again good fortune (or maybe more appropriately, Divine
Providence) smiled upon our traveler, because his father had just
planned to travel to southern France where he could continue his
genealogical research for the Rockefeller family. On Tuesday,
August 10, the two men left Paris, and following some adventures
that H. Spencer Lewis interpreted as his having been put to the test,
they arrived in Toulouse on Wednesday. On the following day, his
father resumed his work and probably went to the Donjon (Keep or
Old Tower) to consuit the city archives.23 Meanwhile, H. Spencer
Lewis went to the Salle des Illustres (Gallery of the Illustrious) of the
Capitol, where he met an individual who was instrumental in
386

bringing his quest to a successful conclusion. After a brief

discussion, this person gave him a piece of paper on which was
written the name of the street where he should go so as to meet
some Rosicrucians.
H. Spencer Lewis does not disclose the name of this individual,
but merely indicates that his profession was photography. Later,
Ralph M. Lewis, his son, indicated that this person was an eminent
photographer. In all likelihood, he was Clovis Lassalle (1864-1937), a
photographer who specialized in the fine arts, archeology,
commerce, and industry. This hypothesis is confirmed by the fact
that H. Spencer Lewis personal archives contain a letter that
Lassalle wrote to him on August 26, 1909.24 Furthermore, it should
be pointed out that this photographer often had the opportunity of
meeting Firmin Boissin at the home of the Privat family, who were
printer friends of his.25 And, as we have seen in a preceding chapter,
The Rose Garden of the Magi, it was Firmin Boissin who
introduced Adrien Pladan and Stanislas de Guaita to the RoseCroix!
Traveling by taxi to the address indicated by the photographer
since the trolley line did not go that farLewis rode out of the
center of town, crossed the Garonne River, and went several
kilometers before finding himself opposite a building that had an
ancient tower similar to the one on the engraving that the Parisian
professor had shown him a few days previously.26 After climbing the
steps of a circular staircase, Lewis arrived at the top story, where he
was greeted by an old man with a long gray beard and slightly wavy
387

long white hair. The room he entered was a square chamber, its
walls lined with books. The gentleman who received him was the
archivist of a mysterious Rosicrucian Order, a group of initiates
from Languedoc whose few members worked in the strictest
secrecy. Lewis stated that his interrogator was also a member of the
same small group of Freemasons to which the Parisian bookseller
belonged. After showing him the archives, the old man stated that
he had been judged worthy of further knowledge and that he was to
meet the Grand Master of the Order on the very same day.

FIGURE 80. Drawing by Harvey Spencer Lewis representing the place of his
initiation

THE INITIATION
Around 3 oclock in the afternoon, Lewis engaged another taxi and
went to the address provided by the archivist. Once again he
traveled away from Toulouse on a road that ran alongside a stream.
388

After passing through the old town of Tolosa, he arrived at a stone

edifice encircled by high walls and situated on a hill. It was in this
castle that, according to A Pilgrims Journey to the East, he was
initiated into the Rosicrucian Order. Although this text does not
give any details regarding this ceremony, his autobiography provides
some intriguing information. We learn that the person who greeted
Lewis was Count Raynaud E. de Bellcastle-Ligne, a seventy-year-old
man who lived here with his widowed daughter and whose means of
living were modest, despite his noble origins. Speaking perfect
English, he conducted Lewis to a drawing room where he
questioned him about the psychic research he conducted in
America, and showed great interest in his visitors previous mystical
experiences.
At the end of the interview, the Count de Bellcastle-Ligne
informed our pilgrim that the moment had now come for him to be
initiated and asked whether he felt ready to confront the terror of
the threshold. He was then led to the first floor of the chateau
where he was shown what remained of an ancient Rosicrucian
lodge. The count indicated that this temple had not been used for
more than sixty years, although it had been visited by a few
Freemasons on several occasions until 1890. His father had been the
last presiding officer. We may thus place the period when this lodge
had been active around 1850in other words, the time of
Alexandre Du Mge and the Viscount de Lapasseseveral years
before Firmin Boissin had received Adrien Pladan into the RoseCroix.
389

The conversation continued until the count stopped before an iron

door to tell his visitor that he must now enter three chambers one
after the other, alone with God and his Master. Carrying out the
command, Lewis entered the first room, an antechamber. He then
went into the second room, a darkened place where he underwent
the test of the threshold; he then had a mystical experience where
he sensed once again the presence of the invisible being who had
manifested to him the previous year. He finally came to the third
room where the count awaited. The latter explained to him that this
room no longer had the decorations or furnishings it once had, and
consequently he was forced to adapt the initiation ceremony. The
count led him to different places in the chamber and communicated
the secret meaning of this ritual.
Now considering his visitor to be initiated, the old master led him
into a little room. He recommended that the young man lie down,
because he needed to rest in this room a few hours before meeting
several other people. H. Spencer Lewis sat on a couch and dozed
off. Upon awakening, he realized that he had slept for three hours.
While asleep, he had dreamed the ceremony he was about to take
part in. However, this time around, it was not the count who
conducted him , but the Master whose presence he had perceived
in the second chamber. After a short time, Bellcastle-Ligne
introduced him to three elderly men whose ancestors as well as
themselves had been members of the Rosicrucian Order. At the end
of this conversation, Lewis was led once more into the former
lodge, where the count placed around his neck a cross adorned with
390

a rose, thus signifying that he was now charged with the founding of
the Order in America.
After this ceremony, one of the members present permitted Lewis
to consult a collection in which the principles and major laws of the
Order were represented. He was also allowed to copy the symbols
and diagrams of the various Rosicrucian ceremonies. From a trunk
placed in the middle of the room the count drew out some symbolic
aprons, an altar cloth, and various archival documents so that the
new initiate could take note of the symbols belonging to the
different degrees of the Order. Afterwards the necessary
information for the establishment of Rosicrucianism in America was
communicated to him. The man directing the meeting at this point
was not the count, but an individual named Lasalle, who acted as the
master of ceremonies. Although the spelling of his name differs
slightly, might this not be Clovis Lassalle, the photographer Lewis
had met the same morning in the Gallery of the Illustrious? We
would be tempted to think otherwise, seeing that the latter described
the master of ceremonies as being the author of numerous historical
documents, whereas we know that this photographer wrote no
books. However, it is possible that his statement alludes to
innumerable photographic works concerning archeology and
prehistory that were produced by Clovis Lassalle.27Whatever the
case, the master of ceremonies informed H. Spencer Lewis that he
was now in possession of all the necessary instructions, but that
other inner experiences were yet to come. He concluded by
requesting that no lodge be opened in America before 1915.
391

On August 13, 1909, the day after his acceptance into the
Rosicrucian Order, Lewis wrote to his wife Mollie:
. . . all my hopes on this trip have been realized, but not
without many tests and trials . . . A pretty place, here. I have
taken plenty of photos of the old fortress where I have
participated in many strange ceremonies that I have never
seen . . . . At last I am in the R+C, thank Godbut the oaths
and vows are severe. How many in America will I find to keep
them with me?28
A few days later, on August 26, when he was about to return to
Paris, Lewis received a letter from Clovis Lassalle. On the following
Monday, Aaron Lewis and his son traveled by train to Paris. After a
stop in London, where they visited the British Museum , they
boarded the White Star, of the MS Adriatic Line, on Wednesday,
September 1, and sailed for New York. For Harvey Spencer Lewis,
it was the beginning of a great adventure.

392

FIGURE 81. Letter written by Harvey Spencer Lewis to his wife on August 13,
1909, the day after his initiation.

393

THE SECRET OF THE ORIGINS

As you have probably noticed, the initiation received by Lewis
comprised two aspects: a meeting with Rosicrucians belonging to a
lodge whose last activities dated back to the 1850s, and some
mystical experiences lived inwardly. A mystery surrounds the
personality of his initiator. It is probable that Lewis used the name
Raynaud E. de Bellcastle-Ligne to disguise the mans true identity.
This narration may also be considered as being symbolic to a great
extent. The history of esotericism is replete with texts combining
real facts and some mystical experiences lived in such a way as to
constitute an edifying mythical account. In fact, it involves a
characteristic that is often encountered when studying the history of
the founders of great spiritual movements. During a conference on
initiatic epics, Antoine Faivre underscored the importance of myth
in the foundation of esoteric movements. For him, the presence of a
founding legend constitutes in some ways one of the criteria of
authenticity of traditional orders.29 The founding narrative of
Rosicrucianismthat of Christian Rosenkreuzs travels in the East
as well as the narrative concerning the discovery of the tomb of
Hermes Trismegistus belong to this category, and it could be the
same with the story of Lewis initiation. Furthermore, Roland
Edighoffer has proposed this interesting interpretation:
In this description, we encounter many traditional themes of
initiation, of which certain ones appear in the Chymical Wedding
of J.V. Andreae: the symbol of the tower, the spiraling
394

staircase which underscores the axial development of a gnosis,

the square upper room that evokes the divine
Tetragrammaton, the letter that he must be given at the
entrance to the castle, the cave that is like the womb of a new
birth. The two mystagogues, man and woman, recall the
archetype of the old sage, whose ambivalence has been
emphasized by Jung (Gesammelte Werke, Olten, 1976, 9/1, p.
231). The role of sleep is significant in the analysis of this
text.30
H. Spencer Lewis experience involves a genuine encounter with
adepts belonging to a Rosicrucian circle. And although this circle
was only partly active, its fires glowed strongly deep within the
embers. What is fundamental to this experience is its spiritual aspect.
In an earlier chapter, The Emerald Land, Henry Corbin stresses
the importance of initiatie filiations resting upon spiritual
experience. For Corbin, this is a fundamental requirement of their
validity. As he emphasizes, this experience is not necessarily within
the category of facts verifiable by historians, since it pertains to
hierohistory. Nevertheless, such facts cannot be ignored, because a
study that only takes objective and chronological facts into account
in judging the sources of an initiatie movement will lead to
historicismin other words, to a perception that is essentially
positivist and reductionist, and thus incompatible with the very
nature of this type of movement. Thus, the main point may be
missed, since the experiences connection with the dimension of the
sacred, the intemporal, will be overlooked.
395

It may be asked why the Rosicrucians of Toulouse conferred on an

American the task of restoring Rosicrucianism. For the record, they
had already charged Stanislas de Guaita and Josphin Pladan with
this mission, but the Order had gone inactive despite their efforts.
Thus, it seemed impossible to reestablish it on a lasting basis in the
Old World, a notion that had already been expressed in 1875 by
Franz Hartmann. Moreover, we may surmise that the Rosicrucians,
who have often been credited with a certain ability to foresee
important events, had a presentiment of a major conflict in the heart
of Europe and feared the resulting destruction. By entrusting their
heritage to an American and by giving him the mission of
establishing the Order in the United States, they probably felt
assured that it would endure and perpetuate the Rosicrucian
tradition.

396

FIGURE 82. AMORCs foundation charter of April 1, 1915.

397

Chapter 18

THE ANCIENT AND

MYSTICAL ORDER ROSAE
CRUCIS
From the close of 1909 to 1912, H. Spencer Lewis prepared for
the resurgence of the Rosicrucian Order. He established rituals and
teachings from the documents he had been provided in France, and
he also read all the books he could find concerning Rosicrucianism.
At the same time he observed with much skepticism the various
other attempts of reviving Rosicrucianism, such as that of the
Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia. The American branch of the
S.R.I.A. attempted to free itself from Freemasonry, but after the
death of its leader, Sylvester Clark Gould, in 1909, the group was in
turmoil. The Theosophical Society was likewise experiencing
difficulties, and many of its members tried with some degree of
success to give it a more Rosicrucian character. Franz Hartmann
(1838-1912) had founded the esoteric Rose-Croix in 1888, and much
later, in 1909, the theosopher Carl Louis von Grasshoff (alias Max
Heindel) established the Rosicrucian Fellowship. Even Rudolf
Steiner, who directed the Swiss and German branches of the
Theosophical Society, separated himself from Annie Besant, the new
398

director of the organization. In 1913, Steiner organized the

Anthroposophical Society, which he described as a modern
metamorphosis of Rosicrucianism.
H. Spencer Lewis was only twenty-nine years old when he
prepared himself for what was to become his lifework: the
establishment of a Rosicrucian order independent of Freemasonry,
the Theosophical Society, and any other organization. His
professional activities evolved, and beginning in 1912, he was the
head of publicity for the American Voltite Company. He also wrote
some articles, such as The Modern School of Science, that
appeared in the October 1912 issue of the American Philomathic
Journal, the official journal of the American Philomathic Association.
The latter presented Lewis as the former president of the New York
Institute for Psychical Research, Lecturer, Columbia Scientific
Academy, Metropolitan Institute of Sciences, and VicePresident
Psycho-Legal Society.1

399

FIGURE 83. American Philomathic Journal, October 1912.

THE PHILOMATHIC SOCIETY

400

The relationship that Lewis maintained with the Philomathic

Society has remained enigmatic. This organization, whose main
purpose was to bring scholars together, was one of many research
associations that appeared at the beginning of the 19th century. The
first philomathic society was founded in Paris, in December 1788,
through the efforts of Augustin-Franois de Silvestre, an agronomist
and Freemason. As Andr Thomas2 has written, it was one of the
learned associations that perpetuated, in a somewhat different form,
the spirit of research which was the province of Masonic lodges
before the French Revolution. The term philomathic is derived from
the Greek word meaning friend of knowledge. The members of
this society, who were called philomaths, had Study and
Friendship as their motto. They envisioned their organization as a
general meeting place, where new knowledge would be brought to
the fore and broadcasted to the world of learning by making an
uninterrupted luminous chain of truths and instruction. This
society, inspired by the spirit of the Enlightenment, expanded
rapidly by establishing networks of correspondents in France and
many other countries. Some of the greatest researchers of the past,
such as Lavoisier, Lamarck, Laplace, Chaptal, Gay-Lussac, Ampre,
Pasteur, Berthelot, were members.
H. Spencer Lewis, who frequented the American scientific
gatherings, seems to have been in contact with a French philomathic
society. His first biography mentioned that his works had drawn the
attention of European scientistsand the attention of Rosicrucians
in particular. The text states that he was subsequently elected an
401

honorary member of the Philomathic Society of Verdun, France,

and became a member of the Franco Ecole R.C. in 1904.3 That
very year, the title of Supreme Dignitary of the Rosicrucian Order
was offered to him. This inform ation regarding Lewis first steps
toward the Rose-Croix is surprising, because it is not in keeping with
what is usually mentioned. It was never brought up after 1916.
However, in a letter dated May 14, 1926, written to Franois
JollivetCastelot, president of the Alchemical Society of France and
director of the review La Rose-Croix, Lewis noted I was admitted
into the Rose-Croix (F.R.C.) and I owe this honor to the goodness
of the member of the old College of Rosicrucians in Verdun,
France. On the other hand, Ralph Lewis mentioned many times
the fact that his father was a member of the Philomathic Society of
Verdun. Let us add that AMORC often used this name when it
began its activities in certain countries, such as Mexico, where the
Order veiled its existence under the name of Sociedad Filomatica.

THE MARTINIST PROJECT

While he actively prepared for the resurgence of the Rosicrucian
Order, Lewis was in contact with various individuals in the world of
esotericism. During 1913, he corresponded with Eugne Dupr,
who acted as secretary to Demetrius Platon Semelas. As was
mentioned previously, the latter, who directed a Martinist lodge in
Cairo called the Essenian Temple, claimed to have obtained, in
1902, in a monastery on Mount Athos, the legacy of the Rose-Croix
of the Orient.4 Beginning in 1911, he conferred the R.C. Aspirant
402

degree initiation on certain Martinists, such as Georges Lagrze.5 We

do not know whether Semelas or Dupr mentioned Rosicrucianism
in their correspondence with H. Spencer Lewis, because a single
letter dated July 23, 1913, is all that remains. The tone used by
Eugne Dupr shows that the two men were friends. In this letter,
only the subject of Martinism is brought up. Dupr wrote that he
sent to H. Spencer Lewis, by way of London, the Martinist rituals, as
well as the S.I. and free initiator certificates so that Lewis could
create a Martinist lodge in America. However, due to the effects of
World War I, this project only came to fruition after 1934 with the
assistance of Victor Blanchard and Georges Lagrze.

THE VISIT OF AN OLD LADY

In December 1913, Lewis confided to members of the New York
Institute for Psychical Research his intention of establishing the
Rosicrucian Order in America. For this purpose, he invited them to
participate in a meeting that would occur that winter. Using his gifts
as draftsman and painter, he created a richly decorated charter
officially announcing the Orders revival. The meeting brought
together twelve individuals, but none of them enrolled nor signed
the charter. In keeping with what had been announced in Toulouse,
the Order would only manifest itself in America in 1915, but matters
became more clear at the close of 1914.
In the fall of 1914, May Banks-Stacey, whom Lewis had previously
met at the New York Institute for Psychical Research, again
contacted him. Did she recognize him as being the man with whom
403

she would collaborate to help reestablish Rosicrucianism in America,

as had been announced to her a few years previously?6 Whatever the
case, during a second visit on November 25, 1914in other words,
on H. Spencer Lewis birthdayshe gave him a magnificent red
rose, a little chest, and some documents on which he recognized the
same Rosicrucian symbols that he had seen in Toulouse in 1909.
The two decided to pool their efforts, and, on December 20, 1914,
they published an announcement in the New York Sunday Herald
inviting people interested in Rosicrucianism to join them. Within a
short time they met Thor Kiimalehto, who soon became one of
Lewis closest associates.

THE BIRTH OF AMORC

Monday, February 8, 1915, was a significant day, as the first
meeting marking the formation of the Ancient and Mystical Order
of the Rose Cross was held at 8:30 in the evening in H. Spencer
Lewis office, situated at 80 Fifth Avenue. (The organization is now
more commonly known as the Rosicrucian Order, AMORCa title
that brings together the Orders traditional name and the
abbreviation of its full name.) As we may see in the notebook where
Lewis set down various facts concerning the first meetings of the
Order,7 nine people were present: his second wife Martha Lewis,
May Banks-Stacey, Thor Kiimalehto, Mr. Colgen, Mr. Loria, Miss
Burke, Mr. Crossman, Mrs. Col. Sears, and Lewis himself. They
constituted the committee charged with organizing the Order.
Following this meeting, H. Spencer Lewis and Thor Kiimalehto
404

printed a document entitled American Pronunziamento Number One8

(see fig. 84), which announced the official debut of AMORCs
activities. Several days later, the New York Globe published an article
after which Thor Kiimalehto, the organizations secretary, received
several hundred letters from people interested in the Rosicrucian
Order. Seventy-five of them were invited to the informational
meeting organized on March 3, 1915, at the Leslie, a hotel located
on West 83rd Street, near West End Avenue. Eighty men and
women eventually participated in the assembly. Included among
them were many Freemasons, who were curious about the aims of
the Order, as well as a certain number of scientists and skeptics. At
the end of the meeting, fifty people decided to become members.
Other meetings followed, held in the Empire Hotel under the
leadership of Dr. Julia Seton.
On Thursday April 1, 1915, about thirty of the most active
workers met on Seventh Avenue, in New York, in a place that was
soon to become AMORCs first Rosicrucian Lodge. During this
meeting, May Banks-Stacey solemnly gave to Lewis the documents
she had received during her trip to India. The directing body of the
Order, the Supreme Council, was then formed; after which the
Grand Master General and Imperator was elected.9 In keeping with
May Banks-Staceys express wishes, H. Spencer Lewis was chosen
unanimously to hold this office. The assembly then signed the
illuminated charter created during the winter of 1913-1914 (see fig.
82). This document, dated April 1, 1915, proclaimed the birth of
AMORC and the authority of its Supreme Council in America. It
405

needs to be emphasized that although this organization bore the

imprint of its founder, it was also the work of numerous
collaborators who assisted him in his first efforts. Among the many
involved, let us mention: Martha Lewis, Thor Kiimalehto, Alfred E.
Saunders, William B. Hodby, George Robert Chambers, Conrad H.
Lindstedt, and Albert B. Brassard.

406

FIGURE 84. American Pronunziamento Number One, February 1915.

THE FIRST ROSICRUCIAN LODGE

407

H. Spencer Lewis and his collaborators adopted the hierarchical

structure of the Rosicrucian degrees known since 1777,10 and the
Imperator himself prepared the lessons provided to members in
each degree. The first Lodge was established in quarters on Seventh
Avenue in New York. It had all the necessary ritualistic
accouterment for a Rosicrucian temple. The Lodge room was
oriented toward the East, where Lewis had painted a fresco
representing the Egyptian countryside, and symbolic stations were
laid out at the four cardinal points in the Lodge room. The Lodges
overall appearance was inspired by pharaonic architecture. We
should also emphasize that Egyptosophy, established in
Rosicrucianism and esotericism since the 18th century, found a
means of expression in AMORC. Indeed, Egyptian symbolism
occupied a prominent place in the newly founded Rosicrucian Order
and, to a certain degree, one of ancient Egypts key individuals,
Pharaoh Akhnaton, occupied in this Order a role similar to that of
Hiram in Freemasonry.
The first convocationthe name by which AMORC designates
its ritualistic meetingswas held on Thursday, May 13, 1915. All of
the members received the Orders First Degree initiation. The first
person to cross the threshold was Martha Lewis, wife of the
Imperator. It was also in the New York Lodge that the teachings
were provided to the members. As is stated in the Rosicrucian
Initiation:
Each of the twelve degrees of our order has its initiation
night, followed by seven to ten coursesusually two each
408

monthdelivered in the temple. These courses are given by

the master of each lodge, while the fratres and sorores sit with
their notebook and make a note of signs, symbols and texts.
The courses consist in the study of laws and explanations,
based on the ancient teachings revealed continually in keeping
with new discoveries and inventions made by the worlds
greatest minds . . . The courses are held in secret, under a
sacred form, in tiled lodges (or protected and totally closed),
so that none cannot learn some secret word here and reveal it,
unless he is truly a member and duly initiated.11
These lessons were often put into writing so that they could be
studied in other Lodges. Later they were printed in the form of
monographs, so that members living in areas too far away to attend
convocation could study the teachings. However, all members had
to go to a temple to be initiated. Only those who have been initiated
into the Orders First Degree in a Lodge may be considered true
Rosicrucians.
In the following year, the Orders rapid growth made it necessary
to publish a magazine informing members of the organizations
activities. In January 1916, The American Rosae Crucis, AMORCs first
monthly magazine, was launched. It not only explored Rosicrucian
philosophy, but also touched on subjects as diverse as astrology,
ontology, esotericism, and symbolism. The increasing number of
members led to the creation of new Lodges. On November 25,
1915, the Supreme Council signed a charter for the creation of the
Pennsylvania Lodge, in Pittsburgh. At its opening, in January 1916,
409

no fewer than eighty members were initiated, under the leadership

of William B. Hodby. Soon other Lodges were established in
Philadelphia, Boston, Wilmerding (Delaware), Altoona, Rochester,
Harlan (Iowa), and Detroit.

FIGURE 85. The New York Lodge.

AN ALCHEMICAL DEMONSTRATION
As a report published in the July 1916 issue of The American Rosae
Crucis states, H. Spencer Lewis brought together members of the
Orders Fourth Degree, as well as officers of the Supreme Grand
Lodge, for a special convocation in the New York City Lodge on
June 22, 1916. He wanted them to participate in a special mystical
ceremony, at which time he carried out an alchemical transmutation
experiment. A representative of the editorial board of the New York
410

World, Charles Welton, was also invited to witness the event. The
experiment was carried out starting with a piece of zinc. After a few
procedures that allowed him to authenticate the metal as being zinc,
Lewis placed the metal in a small china dish, dropped in various
powders, and placed it all into a furnace. At the end of this
operation, the assembly noted that the zinc had changed in
appearance, and an analysis revealed that it had been transformed
into gold.
Had the Imperator truly carried out a transmutation by projection
of an alchemical powder? The scientific procedure used allows us to
neither confirm nor deny it. In any case, Lewis stated that he had
been authorized only that one time to conduct this experiment. This
alchemical transmutation made a big splash in the American press.
The New York World reported this strange demonstration in two
articles published on June 28 and July 2, 1916. Marie Russaks
review, The ChannelAn International Quarterly of Occultism, Spiritual
Philosophy of Life, and Science of Superphysical Facts, also mentioned the
alchemical transmutation in its October-November 1916 issue.
Franz Wittemans later reported this transmutation in his Rosicrucian
History, published in Adyar in 1925.

H. SPENCER LEWIS, FREEMASON

AMORC brought together men and women from all walks of life,
and thus members belonging to the Theosophieal Society and
various Masonic obediences were also found here. One of Harvey
Spencer Lewis closest associates, Alfred E. Saunders, was a member
411

of the King Solomon Masonic Lodge. He had been a Master Mason

since 1896, and held the 33rd and 95th degrees of the MemphisMizraim rite. He claimed to have been initiated, while living in
England, by John Yarker (1833-1913), the Grand Hierophant of
Memphis-Mizraim. He was also said to have been the close friend of
Samuel Liddell Mathers, one of the founders of the Golden Dawn.
Probably influenced by his associate, H. Spencer Lewis decided to
enter into Masonry. In 1917, he received the initiations in the
Apprentice and Companion degrees at the Normal Lodge No. 523,
Masonic Hall, 46 West 24th Street, New Yorkthe lodge to which
Saunders belonged.
However, a conflict with Saunders put a premature end to H.
Spencer Lewis Masonic pursuits. Lewis, who had a keen sense of
honor, had learned that his associate had fled England in 1903,
following a morals charge.12 He decided that they should part
company. Saunders, an ambitious man, could not endure being
removed from the management of AMORC. Consequently, he tried
to spread rumors among members of the Normal Lodge, using
some defamatory words against his old friend, so that Lewis would
be prevented from obtaining the Master degree. An internal
investigation showed that Saunders allegations were motivated only
by jealousy, and thus the officers of the lodge regretted that they had
allowed themselves to be duped. Frank Stromberg, the secretary,
then invited the Imperator to receive the Master degree if he so
wished. However, Lewis, preoccupied by more pressing concerns,
did not have the leisure to carry out this project.
412

FIGURE 86. Alfred E. Saunders.

THE FIRST ROSICRUCIAN CONVENTION

The activities of the Rosicrucian Order intensified: meetings,
administrative tasks, rituals, and initiations followed one another in
quick succession. The pace was such that by the end of the year,
Lewis realized that he could no longer continue his professional
activities. He then decided to dedicate himself exclusively to the
Rose-Croix.
Despite significant financial problems, the Order developed
413

considerably, and in 1917 the Rosicrucians organized their first

national convention, which occurred July 31-August 4 at Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania. On this occasion, the Orders constitution was first
examined and then adopted by the Supreme Council. At the end of
this first national meeting, H. Spencer Lewis was satisfied by the
work accomplished and realized that the Rosicrucian Order had
entered into a new cycle of activity. He felt that the manifestation of
the Order was regulated by cycles of activity and inactivityi.e., a
108-year cycle of activity would be followed by 108 years of
inactivity. It is possible that the Order had already functioned
according to cycles, but it is difficult to demonstrate the exactness of
this number. But if the number is reduced to its basic valuei.e.,
nineusing theosophical addition (108 = 1 + o + 8 = 9), it assumes
an interesting aspect, since this latter figure represents, in effect, the
concept of gestation and cyclical renewal. As Jean Chevalier and
Alain Gheerbrant have stated, nine, being the last in the series of
num bers, announces both an end and a beginningin other words,
a transposition on a new level . . . . . The last of the numbers of the
manifested universe, it opens the phase of transmutations. It
expresses the end of a cycle, the achievement of a journey, the
closing of a ring.13 Was not this idea of occultation and awakening
already suggested by the announcement which, according to the
Fama Fraternitatis, appeared on the door of Christian Rosenkreuzs
tomb: I will open in 120 years?

414

FIGURE 87. Letter from Sr Hieronymus (mile Dantinne) to Harvey Spencer

Lewis. The official symbol of the F.U.D.O.S.I., seen in the letterhead just below
the name of the organization, was designed by H. Spencer Lewis in 1934. This
unique design incorporates elements of the principal mystical symbols of the
orders of the F.U.D.O.S.I., artistically and effectively united. The body of legates
and dignitaries attending the organizations 1934 congress unanimously accepted
Lewis design.

415

Chapter 19

INTERNATIONAL
ALLIANCES

FTER HAVING DISCUSSED the beginnings of the

Ancient and Mystical Order Rosae Crucis in the last
chapter, let us now consider some of the significant events
in the following years, especially those involving its connections
with other contemporary initiatic organizations.
AMORCs early years were marked not only by the enthusiasm
which characterizes the beginnings of a great project, but also the
tests and trials inherent to its realization. The situation was espedaily
difficult, as the United States was passing through a period of
recession, followed by the country entering World War I in April
1917. At the time the United States entered this conflict, the
Vaterland , a huge German transatlantic luxury liner moored in New
York harbor was seized as a war prize. It was the sister ship of the
Imperator, both of the Hamburg-Amerika Line, with the latter
becoming the source of unfounded suspicions on the part of the
American government regarding AMORC. Some zealous federal
agents imagined that the Order was in contact with Germany, seeing
that its leader bore the title of Imperator. This grotesque mistake led
to searches of the organizations headquarters. Eventually, the
416

government realized the foolishness of its actions, but many

important documents were confiscated and lost, such as a
pronunziamento attesting to the fact that H. Spencer Lewis had
received in Toulouse the authority to establish the Rose-Croix in the
United States. This document had been sent by the French
Rosicrucians to Thor Kiimalehto, the Orders secretary, in October
1916.
Shortly afterwards, in 1918, AMORC experienced further
adversity: due to embezzlement on the part of its treasurer, the
Orders financial situation was placed in jeopardy. However, despite
such obstacles, the Order succeeded in putting itself on a sound
footing so as to best serve the growing number of men and women
who desired to affiliate. In May 1919, due to the assistance of
William Riesener, an industrialist and member of AMORC, the
organizations headquarters were moved from New York to San
Francisco.
As articles published at that time indicate, H. Spencer Lewis
experienced a period of discouragement and even considered
quitting all administrafive duties. Such doubts were of short
duration, however, because the Orders rapid expansion restored his
enthusiasm. AMORC began to develop around the world. In
September 1920 Denmark received a charter to establish a Grand
Lodge under the direction of Svend Turning (1894-1952). The first
Rosicrucian meeting in Denmark took place in Frederiksberg on
September 1920, at IsolTemple on Mariendalsvej. In 1921, under
the auspices of the Indian Academy of Sciences, India opened itself
417

to Rosicrucianism under the direction of K.T. Ramasami. AMORC

was also establishing itself in such diverse places as Mexico and Java,
and a secretariat was formed in England. In May 1921, an article in
The Mystic Triangle reported that the Order had received a request
from members residing in Paris for the creation of a Lodge that
would welcome American Rosicrucians traveling through France.
Around 1922, AMORC was set up in China and Russia, due to the
efforts of M. Prinz-Visser, a Dutch member who, after having
worked at the organizations headquarters in the United States,
settled in Harbin, Manchuria.1 At around the same time, Ralph M.
Lewis, the Imperators son, became a member.

418

FIGURE 88. Charter granted to the Grand Lodge of Denmark in 1920.

THEODOR REUSS AND THE O.T.O.

H. Spencer Lewis was aware that Rosicrucian activities had been
419

reduced to nothing in Europe due to World War I. He surmised,

however, that a few members had survived the conflict, and thus on
a number of occasions he attempted to contact them for the
purpose of reconstructing the worldwide unity of the Rose-Croix.
During 1920 he learned that a congress assembling many initiatic
movements was held in July in Zurich, with the aim of uniting the
different traditional orders within an international federationmuch
along the lines of what Papus had attempted in 1908. After
obtaining the address of Theodor Reuss, its organizer, from
Matthew McBlain Thomson, a Freemason of Salt Lake City,2 Lewis
wrote to Reuss on December 28, 1920, asking for an account of this
event. Theodor Reuss (1855-1923) responded only on June 19,
1921, about six months later, stating that he had in fact decided to
withdraw from the Zurich congress after Matthew McBlain
Thomson had turned it into a mere money-making scheme.3
As the successor of John Yarker for the Memphis-Mizraim Rite
and the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Cerneau, and as the
director of the Ordo Templi Orientis (O.T.O.), Reuss attempted to
reorganize the international activities of these three orders.
However, his legitimacy was increasingly contested,4 and after being
snubbed at the Zurich congress, he regarded Lewis as a golden
opportunity to extend his influence to the other side of the Atlantic.
As we saw in Chapter 14, Reuss claimed that the O.T.O. was an
order descending from the 17th century German Rosicrucians.5 In
his correspondence with Lewis, he described himself as a
Rosicrucian.6 The Imperator, unaware of the O.T.O.s exact nature,
420

seemed to believe himat least for a few monthsand thus

proposed that they collaborate. How could Lewis doubt the sincerity
of the person who claimed to be both the successor of John Yarker
and the continuator of Papus? To seal their union, Theodor Reuss
presented Lewis with a charter that conferred on him the 33, 90,
and 95 of the Memphis-Mizraim Rite, and the VII of the O.T.O.
As this document indicates, he made the Imperator a honorary
member of our Sovereign Sanctuary for Switzerland, Germany,
Austria and to represent our Sov. Sanctuary as Gage of Amity near
the Supreme Council of the A.M.O.R.C. at San Francisco
(California).7 This was in fact a completely honorific charter,
because Lewis had neither been initiated into the Memphis-Mizraim
Rite nor the O.T.O. Thus, the function of this diploma was limited
to making him O.T.O.s ambassador to AMORC, which was
confirmed by the correspondence accompanying the charter.

FIGURE 89. Theodor Reuss.

THE TAWUC
421

The two men tried to create an organization whose purpose was to

direct Rosicrucianism on the worldwide level. Thus, in September
1921 the TAWUC (The AMORC World Universal Council) came
into being. However, Lewis seemed to have certain reservations
concerning Reuss. For instance, in the article published in
AMORCs magazine concerning the new association, he referred
only occasionally to his collaborator by name. Moreover, as their
correspondence demonstrates, it was only after having been assured
that Reuss was no longer associated with Aleister Crowley did Lewis
feel willing to commit himself.8 In any case, Lewis suspicions were
well founded, because it soon appeared that he and his collaborator
did not share the same objectives. When Reuss wanted it mentioned
in TAWUCs constitution that one of the organizations principal
objectives was to propagate a holy Gnostic religion and to set up
some departments of spiritual instruction, publications of political
economics, social economics ...,the Imperator grew concerned and
refused to move forward. Reuss then proposed to discuss the text of
the constitution at a convention that he was organizing in
Switzerland.
From that moment, the collaborative projects between America
and Europe crumbled, and Lewis began to catch a glimpse of his
correspondents real intentions. He realized that he had acted too
hastily and tried to stall for time. Sensing the hesitation of his
correspondent, Reuss made some fresh proposals and suggested that
a meeting be arranged between American and German Rosicrucians
as part of a tourist excursion to Oberammergau, a Bavarian village
422

renowned since 1634 for its enactments of the Passion play. The
director of the O.T.O. worked for an office that organized these
theatrical productions, and he wanted the Imperator to attend the
May 1922 production, accompanied by some 500 members. Seeing
that his correspondent was primarily interested in using AMORC as
a way of obtaining money, Lewis kept his distance. Beginning in
September 1921, he no longer answered Reuss lettersexcept for
one last time on May 20, 1922 and the relations between the two
men drew to an inconclusive end. The TAWUC project remained a
dead letter, although it stirred the imaginations of some historians
whose writings have become the source of many errors. Soon
afterwards Theodor Reuss entered into a great silence as he passed
to the eternal East on October 28, 1923, in Munich.9

THE ROSICRUCIANS OF FRANCE

H. Spencer Lewis had the pleasure of seeing his son Ralph
increasingly involved in the activities of the Order. During 1924 the
latter was elected Supreme Secretary of AMORC. In the following
year, the evolution of the organization led to its moving once again,
and its headquarters were set up in Tampa, Florida.
In 1925, Earle R. Lewis, the Imperators brother and treasurer of
the Metropolitan Opera Company of New York, became acquainted
with Maurice Jacquet (1886-1954). This French pianist, orchestral
conductor, and composer lived for some years in the United States
with his wife Andre AmalouJacquet, a renowned harpist.10 He liked
people to call him the Duke of Misserini and gave concerts at the
423

Maxime Theatre in New York. As this musician was a Freemason

who was also interested in Rosicrucianism,11 Earle R. Lewis thought
that it would be interesting to put him in contact with his brother.
The Imperator proposed that they meet at a conference he was
giving in New York in November 1925. Maurice Jacquet informed
Lewis on November 21 of his obligation to be in Chicago for a
concert on this date, buThe stated at the end of his letter: I am
Rose-Croix.12
Nonetheless, the two men did finally meet, and Maurice Jacquet
did not hesitate to show his enthusiasm for AMORC. In 1926 he
suggested that the Imperator get in contact with the highest
authorities of French Freemasonry, and, with this purpose in mind,
Jacquet put him in touch with Andr Mauprey, a playwright, 33
Mason, and a member of LEffort Chapter directed by Firmin
Gmier. As we will see, Andr Mauprey played an important role in
the development of AMORC in France.
Maurice Jacquets wishes soon came true, because H. Spencer
Lewis intended to go to Europe at this time to look into an unusual
matter. In January 1926 he had received from Basel, Switzerland, a
letter of invitation from Theodor Reussalthough the latter had
died in 1923! He also wanted to take advantage of his travels to meet
AMORCs French members, who undoubtedly envisioned
developing the Order in France. Moreover, in May 1926, due to the
intervention of John P. Callaghan, a Rosicrucian living in Montreal,
the Imperator was in correspondence with Franois JollivetCastelot, president of the Alchemical Society of France. This
424

eminent esotericist had published since 1920 a periodical devoted to

alchemy entitled La Rose-Croix. At the end of May, he became an
honorary member of AMORC.13

THE JOURNEY TO FRANCE IN 1926

Upon arriving in France on August 11, 1926, H. Spencer Lewis
met M. Malherbe and his wife, two members of the Order, as well as
Charles Lvy, a Freemason who would become the Grand Secretary
of AMORC for northern France. He also contacted Firmin Gmier
and Camille Savoire (1869-1951). The latter was one of the highest
authorities of French Freemasonry. The Grand Commander of the
Grand College of Rites, he was trying at that time to reorganize the
activities of the Masonic Rose-Croix Degree. Enthusiastic about
anything that could bring people together, he was interested in
Rosicrucianism and manifested an especially keen interest in
AMORC. Following their interview, a more official meeting was
organized for the month of September. Meanwhile, Lewis did a little
touring while pursuing his activities. He traveled to Toulouse, where
he met Ernest Dalmayrac, a member of the Rose-Croix Chapter, of
LEncyclopdique Lodge.14 In one of the Imperators albums can be
seen a photograph of Dalmayracs house in Toulouse, with the
following inscription: The R.C. Headquarters in Toulouse.

ANDR LEBEY AND THE LEAGUE OF

NATIONS
According to the accounts of his travels, Lewis participated in a
425

mysterious conclave in Toulouse.15 What were the Imperators real

activities in this city? It remains difficult to say. As was often the
case with his reports, he blended personal mystical experiences with
actual facts, so as to veil their precise meaning. Nonetheless, it is
possible that, while in Toulouse, he took part in some meetings
which brought together initiates from various backgrounds.
However, in a sort of initiatic ecumenism, he often tended to
describe Freemasons of the Rose-Croix degree as Rosicrucians,
since these men adhered to the same concepts of peace and
brotherhood as he did. One piece of information given by Lewis
reveals this inclination. He stated that many of the conclaves
participants took part one week later in the opening session of the
League of Nations.16 This worldwide organization, headquartered in
Geneva, was established immediately after World War I to help
maintain peace between nations and to avoid having the horrors of
war recur. It is possible that the meeting mentioned by the
Imperator was a preliminary gathering held in a lodge in Toulouse at
the end of August 1926, shortly before the session of the League of
Nations in Geneva. Among the various individuals he met during
his travels in France, let us also mention Andr Lebey (1877-1938),17
the Grand Orator of the Grand College of Rites and one of the
French promoters of the League of Nations.18
In addition to the preparatory meetings held in Toulouse, it is
possible that Lewis participated in those that were organized in
Geneva by the officers of the League of Nations, when he returned
to this city. Later, in a letter addressed to the American consul in
426

Geneva in response to the criticism of one of his detractors, he

stated that the international conferences of Rosicrucians and
Freemasons were held in Geneva in 1926, at the same time as the
fall session of the League of Nations, and that he himself had
participated in one of these meetings.

427

FIGURE 90. Excerpts from a letter written by Camille Savoire to Harvey Spencer
Lewis on July 12, 1928.

A RECEPTION AT THE GRAND ORIENT IN

PARIS
428

After his trip to Toulouse, Lewis stopped in Nice at the beginning

of September to meet once more with Andr Mauprey, who had
invited him to spend seven days in his villa of Golfe-Juan. Together
they discussed a possible collaboration between AMORC and the
European Dramaturgical Society, of which the French were in
charge. The relationship between the two men was quite brotherly,
and Andr Mauprey would become the legate of AMORC for
France.
Afterwards Lewis returned to Paris, where Camille Savoire had
invited him to participate in a special meeting in the Temple No. 1
of the Grand Orient of France on September 20. The ceremony was
a lodge meeting of the grand chapterin other words, a workshop
reserved to the regular members of the 18th degree, that of the
Rose-Croix. The work was directed by Camille Savoire, Grand
Commander of the Grand College. Andr Lebey, the Grand Orator,
was present, as was Ernest Dalmayrac, who represented
LEncyclopdique Lodge of Toulouse. As the Bulletin du Grand Orient
stated, during this meeting, the T.I11.F. Spencer Lewis, 33,
Imperator of the R.C. of the United States, in Tampa (Florida), was
brought into the grand chapter with the honors due his rank.
Received solemnly by the Grand Commander who, in lofty words,
welcomed him, thanked him for his visit, and invited him to take his
place in the East, where, by his presence, he would honor this
important lodge meeting, bringing together all the representatives of
the chapters of the Federation.

THE BEGINNINGS OF ROSICRUCIANISM IN

429

FRANCE
Before returning to the United States, H. Spencer Lewis continued
his meetings in Europe. What was the result of his visit to Basel? He
did not indicate, but it is probable that he met Theodor Reuss
successors, because, in 1930, the project that they had conceived
together was taken up once again by Heinrich Trnker. It likewise
came to a dead end.
Upon returning to Tampa, the Imperator remained in contact with
Camille Savoire, because the latter wished to be personally involved
in the development of AMORC in France.19 However, in a letter
dated July 12, 1928, he brought up his difficulties in collaborating
usefully, as his command of English was poor (See fig. 90).
H. Spencer Lewis did not seem to have been much in favor of the
idea of developing Rosicrucianism under the wing of French
Freemasonry. On this score, Maurice Jacquet was in agreement and
deplored the European Masonic trust desired by the Grand
Orient of France. Although some Freemasons wanted to become
members of AMORC, the pioneering Rosicrucian groups in France
were created outside the pale of Freemasonry. The first was
established in Paris under the direction of Charles Lvy, and the
second in Nice under Andr Mauprey. Two individuals in this group
Dr. Clment Lebrun (1863-1937) and Dr. Hans Critter (18741953)distinguished themselves and were to experience a special
destiny. In November 1933 H. Spencer Lewis proposed that
Clment Lebrun replace Charles Dana Dean, the Grand Master for
430

the United States, who had just died. Although seventy years old,
Lebrun left Nice for San Jose, where he occupied the office of
Grand Master until his death in 1937. for Hans Grter, he became
Grand Master of France.20 He was assisted by Jeanne Guesdon
(1884-1955). The latter, who spoke perfect English, had joined the
Order in 1926 while living in Cuba. She returned permanently to
France in 1930, where she became a highly esteemed associate.
Although she only had the title of Secretary, Ms. Guesdon was in
fact the real director of AMORC in France.

NICHOLAS ROERICH AND THE WORLD

COUNCIL
In November 1927, AMORC left Tampa, Florida, to establish its
headquarters in San Jose, California. This was the beginning of
activities in Rosicrucian Park, whose architecture was inspired by the
ancient Egyptian style. Soon afterwards, in 1930, an Egyptian
Museum was opened. Recognized by the International Council of
Museums (ICOM ) and by the Egyptian National Museum of Cairo,
it has welcomed thousands of visitors over the years. It remains the
largest Egyptian museum on the west coast of the United States and
continues to mount important exhibitions. For example, in 1999 the
museums exhibit Women of the Nile attracted the attention of the
major American television networks.
At the beginning of the 1930s AMORCs development in the
world was such that it became necessary to create an International
Supreme Council, the World Council, composed of those
431

individuals who directed the Order in the different parts of the

worldFrance, Denmark, the Netherlands, Canada, Puerto Rico,
Bolivia, Australia, Sweden, England, China, and Poland. Among
these members, the presence of the Russian painter Nicholas
Roerich (1874-1947) may be noted. According to what is revealed by
the correspondence between Roerich and the Imperator between
1929 and 1940, he apparently became a member of the Order in
1929, the period in which he was proposed as a candidate for the
Nobel peace prize.21 H. Spencer Lewis related that he met Nicholas
Roerich at the inauguration of the Roerich Museum in New York,
on October 17, 1929.
Named a legate for AMORC, Nicholas Roerich was charged with
carrying out certain missions. Thus, in 1934, at a time when he
directed, at the request of the American government, an expedition
across China and Mongolia to find plants capable of combating the
desertification of the American prairies, he stopped at Harbin in
order to meet his Rosicrucian compatriots. The articles published
between November 18 and November 24, 1934, in Le Temps de
Kharbine retraced his activities. One of the articles, entitled Nicholas
Roerichlegate of the Great White BrotherhoodAMORC, had
the subtitle The true face of the academician N. Roerich unveiled.
Indeed, he was suspected of being a Freemason in the pay of the
American government. Certain journalists saw in the three circles
that decorated the Banner of Peace designed by Nicholas Roerich
a special flag meant to protect cultural treasures in the case of war
the three points of Freemasonry. Nicholas Roerich protested in
432

these same newspapers, stating that he was a Rosicrucian and that

the Order had nothing to do with Freemasonry and politics. What
makes these documents important is that they demonstrate in an
incontestable way that Nicholas Roerich was actively engaged in
Rosicrucianism.

THE POLAIRES
Apart from its internal evolution, AMORC continued to maintain
connections with other individuals in the world of esotericism. In
September 1930 H. Spencer Lewis came in contact with Cesare
Accomani (alias Zam Bhotiva), the director of the Polaires. This
strange order claimed to be guided by the Rosicrucian initiatic
center of mysterious Asia. It had as its mission the reconstruction
of the polar fraternity with the aim of preparing for the coming of
the Spirit under the sign of the Rose and Cross. The Polaires felt
that the time was drawing near when rods of fire would once
again strike certain countries on earth, and that everything destroyed
by mans selfishness and thirst for gold would have to be rebuilt.22
To prove their assertions, they made use of the oracle of the astral
force, which served to communicate directly with what they
described as being a Rosicrucian esoteric center located in the
Himalayas.23 This technique had been given to them in 1908 by
Father Julian, a hermit living near Rome. Beginning in 1929 the
oracles messages incited Zam Bhotiva to create a group called The
Polaires, in reference to the sacred mountain, the symbolic center
of the Primordial Tradition. The first meetings took place on Rue
433

Richelieu, on the premises of a Parisian newspaper. The information

received from the oracle soon led to a dead end. In March 1932,
after having searched in vain at Montsgur, Zam Bhotiva became
discouraged and left the order. Victor Blanchard (1884-1955), the
Grand Master of the Martinist and Synarchic Order, then replaced
him.
Whatever the seriousness of their aims may have been, the Polaires
were to play a crucial role because a majority of French occultists,
such as Ren Gunon, Maurice Magre, Jean Chaboseau, Fernand
Divoire, Jean Marqus-Rivire, and even Eugne Canseliet,
frequented their meetings. Furthermore, this order was to become
one of the major groups of the Federatio Universalis Dirigens
Ordines Societatesque Initiationisthe Universal Federation of
Initiatic Orders and Societies, commonly abbreviated as FUDOSI.

THE FUDOSI
In the years preceding World War II great confusion reigned in the
realm of esoteric organizations. Indeed, a certain number of
movements, both in Europe and America, plagiarized the symbols,
names, and rituals of traditional initiatic orders. Certain people were
worried, particularly those who were part of the Rosicrucian
movements ereated in Belgium by mile Dantinne (1884-1969): the
Order of the Rose-Croix Universitaire founded in 1923, and the
Ordre Hrmetiste Ttramgiste et Mystique (O.H.T.M.)24 instituted
in 1927. After Josphin Pladans death in 1918, mile Dantinne
was presented as his disciple; however, he claimed an initiatic
434

filiation coming not from the Sr, but from the astral Rose-Croix.
The philosophy, rites, and teachings of these orders were similar to
the magic of the Renaissance. In this regard they digressed from
Josphin Pladan, who rejected such practices.
The Belgian Rosicrucians were subjected to the criticism of the
followers of Max Heindel, Rudolf Steiner, and the Theosophists.
Most of them were Martinists and members of the MemphisMizraim Rite. They initially placed themselves under the direction of
the Sovereign Sanctuary of Jean Bricaud, but became independent
beginning in 1933. However, upon separating, they wanted to
associate themselves with an organization of international stature.
Following the advice of Franz Wittemans who was already in
contact with the American Rosicrucians, Jean Mallinger (1904-1982),
a close associate of mile Dantinne, wrote the following to H.
Spencer Lewis on January 11, 1933: We will be very honored to
affiliate ourselves with the eminent Rosicrucian Order, of which you
are the Chief and Guide . . . we will be very happy to be able to
collaborate in AMORCs activities . . . . It is from this first contact
that FUDOSI came into being. The goal of this association was to
federate the initiatic orders and societies in such a way as to protect
them from numerous non-traditional organizations that appeared at
this time. During its existence, from 1933 to 1951, FUDOSI
brought together organizations as diverse as the Ancient and
Mystical Order Rosae Crucis, Rose-Croix Universitaire, Order
Hermetiste Tetramegiste et Mystique, Ordredes Polaires, Ordre
Martiniste Synarchique, Traditional Martinist Order, Synarchical
435

Union of Poland, Kabbalistical Order of the Rose-Croix, Universal

Gnostic Church, Society of Templar Studies and Researches, Order
of the Militia Crucifera Evangelica, Order of the Lily and the Eagle,
Order of the Unknown Samaritans. The Masonic Order of
Memphis-Mizraim was also represented for a time.25

FIGURE 91. Harvey Spencer Lewis.

THE TRIANGLE OF THE FUDOSI

The Federation, set up in Brussels, was directed by a triangle of
Imperators: H. Spencer Lewis, mile Dantinne, and Victor
Blanchard. Each represented one aspect of Rosicrucianism : the
first, that of America (Ancient and Mystical Order Rosae Crucis);
the second, that of Europe (Rose-Croix Universitaire et Universelle);
and the third, that of the Orient (Fraternity of Polaires). Within
FUDOSI, the three men bore an initiatic name: Sr Alden (H.S.
436

Lewis), Sr Hieronymus (. Dantinne), and Sr Ysir (V. Blanchard).

The Federation held its first conventicle in Brussels in August 1934.
H. Spencer Lewis took an active role in the FUDOSI from 1934 to
1939, the year of his death.
Despite its noble ideals, the FUDOSI project was quite utopian.
First of all, a few young Belgian initiates attempted to use the
Federation as a way to dominate the world of esotericism according
to their own conceptions. Furthermore, it was Jean Mallinger, rather
than mile Dantinne, who directed the movement in Belgium , but
his character was poorly suited to an organization that brought
together orders following different methods and philosophies.
Lastly, Europe was rent by tensions that soon would plunge most of
the world into a terrible war. As reported by Ralph M. Lewis, one of
FUDOSIs officers wanted the federation to assume unacceptable
positions: first of all, he insisted that all the orders of the federation
should conform to his personal conceptions as to their way of
developing and functioning. Furthermore, he expressed his
unhappiness over the fact that AMORC included members of the
black race.26 Although Ralph M. Lewis did not name the author of
these scandalous words, it may be easily supposed that they were
expressed by mile Dantinne himself or by Jean Mallinger. Indeed,
the documents published by Lucien Sabah lead us to believe that the
two men were profoundly racist and that they adhered to the thesis
of a JudeoMasonic plot dear to the Vichy government.27 We can
understand how this attitude was strongly deplored by other
members of FUDOSI.
437

Let us specify that H. Spencer Lewis position concerning race was

always clear: for him , there did not exist any superior or inferior
race. In his book Mansions of the Soul, published in 1930, he stated: .
. . it may be mentioned that this ancient understanding of the
association of all egos with each other, and the uniting of all souls
into one soul, was the foundation for the belief in the universal
brotherhood of man through the universal fatherhood of all beings,
and establishes the fact that all human beings are brothers and
sisters under one creator and of the same essence, same vitality, and
same consciousness, regardless of race, creed, color, or other
distinctive elements of the ego.28 In another text, Lewis noted: My
sympathies, personally, extend to the so-called negro race because of
the things they have had to suffer, just as the Jews in the early days
after the Christian period had to suffer the loss of their land, their
country and estates and their high standing because of prejudice,
intolerance, and misunderstanding.29
As a whole, FUDOSI was composed primarily of worthy
individuals in love with brotherhood and spirituality, who shared
Lewis tolerance and humanity. On the other hand, the innovations
and avantgarde way of thinking of the Americans have often
shocked Europeans locked into their traditions.
FUDOSIs work was interrupted by the war of 1939-1945, only
resuming in 1946. It was Ralph M. Lewis who participated in the
final meetings. After his father departed the earth plane on August
2, 1939, Ralph Lewis continued to work for the Federation despite
the underhanded opposition of Jean Mallinger.30 However, the
438

external conditions were not the same. Indeed, since the orders
composing FUDOSI had acquired a recognition that protected them
from the risks of plagiarism, the organization had little reason for
continuing. Thus, on August 14, 1951, its members decided to
disband the organization.
A page in the history of Rosicrucianism was turned with the
departure of H. Spencer Lewis. Apart from the major role he played
in the foundation of AMORC and the influence he exercised in the
world of esotericism, he was an individual of eclectic interests. It
should be remembered that he established the fifth planetarium in
the United States and the first museum of Egyptology on the west
coast of the United States. Some years previously, he had set up one
of the first private radio stations of New York, which was devoted
in great part to programs of a cultural and philosophical nature. To
these should be added the numerous paintings that he completed on
esoteric and symbolical subjects, some of which have acquired a
national renown. He was also a member of numerous philanthropic
societies and associationshis foremost quality, known to many,
being humanitarianism. As with all extraordinary persons, he was
naturally criticized and defamed,31 but H. Spencer Lewis worked
with such ardor and conviction in serving Rosicrucianism that his
contribution to the Rosicrucian heritage can never be slighted or
overlooked.

439

FIGURE 92. Ralph Maxwell Lewis

440

Chapter 20

THE CONTEMPORARY
ERA
After World War II, Ralph M. Lewis (19041987), the new
Imperator, reorganized the activities of the Ancient and Mystical
Order Rosae Crucis. Under his direction, Grand Lodges and Lodges
were established in most countries of the world. In keeping with the
wishes of H. Spencer Lewis, he proceeded with a revision of the
teachings intended for the members. At the same time, he wrote a
large number of articles concerning esotericism and philosophy, as
well as many noteworthy books, such as The Sanctuary of Self (1948)
and Essays of a Modern Mystic (1962). During Ralph Lewis
administration, he traveled all over the world to meet members of
the Order and its directors, notably during Rosicrucian conventions.
On January 12, 1987, he left this world, after having worked for
forty-eight years in the service of the RoseCroix. He left us with
memories of a cultivated man, an inspired philosopher, and a great
humanist.1
Following the death of Ralph M. Lewis, Gary Stewart was elected
to the office of Imperator on January 23, 1987. Unfortunately, he
did not rise to the task and committed grave errors. He was finally
dismissed by all the Grand Masters on April 12, 1990. To replace
441

him, the Grand Masters unanimously chose Christian Bernard, who

at that time was the Grand Master of the French-language
jurisdiction. Having worked for more than twenty years in serving
this jurisdiction, he now devoted his experience to the Order as a
whole. Under his direction, AMORC has become increasingly
internationalized, and its teachings have been revised once more, in
keeping with the necessary rule that they always be kept up to date
so as to respond to the evolution of consciousness and thinking.

FIGURE 93. A Rosicrucian temple

THE TEACHINGS OF AMORC

Concerning the teachings of AMORC, and without entering into
details that have no place in a book that is primarily concerned with
442

Rosicrucian history, we will limit ourselves to stating that they take

the form of monographs that cover twelve degrees of material. They
generally deal with the great themes of the Tradition, including those
of the origins of the universe; the nature of time and space; the laws
of matter, life, and consciousness; the nature of the human soul and
its spiritual evolution; the mysteries of death, the afterlife, and
reincarnation; traditional symbolism; and the science of numbers.
To these topics are added practical experiments devoted to learning
such fundamental mystical techniques as mental creation,
meditation, prayer, and spiritual alchemy.
As AMORC favors freedom of consciousness, its teachings are not
dogmatic or sectarian in character. They are proposed to members
as the basis for reflection and meditation, with the aim of passing on
to them a traditional knowledge that contributes to their spiritual
unfoldment. Thus, the ultimate goal of initiatic development is to
reach the Rose-Croix state. It is important to emphasize here that
the words Rosicrucian and Rose-Croix do not have the same meaning
in AMORC. The first designates an individual who studies the
Orders teachings and philosophy, whereas the second indicates an
individual who, at the end of this study, has attained perfection, in
the sense of being wise in his or her judgments and behavior. It is to
this state of wisdom that every Rosicrucian aspires.
Along with the written instructional material that AMORC sends
to its members, it perpetuates an oral instruction that may be
obtained by attending the organizations Lodges. Although attending
the Lodges is not mandatory, they are a useful complement to the
443

Rosicrucian study, in the sense that they favor the ritualistic aspect
of Rosicrucianism and serve the framework of collective study.
It should also be noted that AMORC initiations, in their most
traditional form, are conferred in these Lodges. It can be said that
these initiations bring the Rosicrucian quest to its perfection. It
should be mentioned that at the beginning of the 20th century
AMORC sponsored a university that is now known throughout the
world as Rose-Croix University International. Formed primarily of
Rosicrucians specializing in some particular field of knowledge, this
university serves as a framework of research carried out in
disciplines as diverse as astronomy, ecology, Egyptology, computer
science, medicine, music, psychology, physical science, and esoteric
traditions. As a general rule, the result of such research is
communicated only to members of the Order, but RCUI also holds
conferences and seminars that are open to the public. It also
publishes books.

444

FIGURE 94. One of AMORCs official symbols, with the Orders name in Latin.
Among Rosicrucians, the cross represents the physical body of man and the rose
represents his soul on the path of evolution.

AMORC IN THE WORLD

In the modern era, AMORC has expanded throughout the world
and is composed of approximately twenty jurisdictions traditionally
called Grand Lodges, most of which cover all the countries where
one language is spoken. All are part of a collective entity bearing the
traditional name of Supreme Grand Lodge. The Order as a whole
is directed by a Supreme Council that is composed of the Imperator
and all the Grand Masters of the world, each of whom is elected to
his or her office by a mandate renewable every five years. This
Council convenes on a regular basis to oversee the activities of the
Order, both on the jurisdictional level and on a worldwide level.
Each Grand Master enjoys the same prerogatives as the others, and
445

each Grand Lodge has the same ranking as the others.

FIGURE 95. Positio Fraternitatis Rosae Crucis.

THE FOURTH ROSICRUCIAN MANIFESTO

In keeping with its motto: The greatest tolerance in the strictest
independence, AMORC is independent of all religions and all
political systems. However, it is interested in the evolution of the
world. That is why it has expressed its position on the state of
humanity in drafting a manifesto entitled Positio Fratemitatis Rosae
Crucis. Dated March 20, 2001, this text was made public by Christian
Bernard on August 4, 2001, at a world convention held in Gteborg,
Sweden. This manifesto constitutes an important event in the
history of Rosicrucianism, so much so that it was published
simultaneously in twenty languages. Whereas the three Rosicrucian
manifestoes of the 17th century were primarily addressed to an
446

intellectual, political, and religious elite, the Positio, which may be

considered as the fourth Rosicrucian manifesto, is meant for the
public at large. It launched an appeal to all those who, all around the
world, are concerned about the meaning of human destiny and the
fate of humanity.
In the foreword, AMORC makes explicit the reasons motivating
the publication of the Positio: History repeats itself and regularly reenacts the same events, but generally on a broader scale. Thus,
almost four centuries after the publication of the first three
manifestos, we notice that the entire world, and Europe in
particular, is facing an unprecedented existential crisis in all spheres:
political, economic, scientific, technological, religious, moral, artistic,
etc. Moreover, our planetthe environment in which we live and
evolve is gravely threatened, elevating in importance the relatively
recent science of ecology. Certainly, present-day humanity is not
faring well. This is why, faithful to our Tradition and our Ideal, we,
the Rose-Croix of today, have deemed it advisable to address this
crisis through this Positio.
Although it highlights the crucial problems facing humanity at the
dawn of the third millennium, the fourth manifesto does not in any
way invoke ideas of an approaching doomsday or apocalypse.
Rather, it reports on the world situation and brings to the fore those
problems and trends which, according to the Rosicrucians, menace
the Earth in the near future. According to the Rosicrucians, the
crisis confronting humanity has arisen because modern societies are
dominated by individualism and materialism. Thus, the Positio
447

appeals primarily to humanism and spirituality. At the same time, the

manifesto emphasizes the need for an individual and collective
regeneration of all humanity: In this transitional period of history,
the regeneration of humanity seems to us more possible than ever
before because of the convergence of consciousness, the
generalization of international exchanges, the growth of crosscultural fertilization, the worldwide coverage of news, as well as the
growing interdisciplinary movement among the different branches
of learning. But we think that this regeneration, which must take
place both individually and collectively, can only come about by
favoring eclecticism and its corollary, tolerance.
Among the key ideas expressed in the fourth Rosicrucian
manifesto may be noted the unqualified condemnation of
totalitarian ideologiesof which Rosicrucians themselves have been
the victimsand the blacklisting perpetrated by political systems
based on a single way of thinking. For Rosicrucians, if democracy
remains the best form of government, the ideal in this regard
would be for each nation to help promote the emergence of a
government bringing together the personalities most capable of
governing the affairs of state. We also note throughout the Positio
a desire to reaffirm the humanism distinctive to Rosicrucians. Thus
we read: . . . each human being is an elementary cell of a single
bodythat of all humanity. By virtue of this principle, our
conception of humanism is that all humans should have the same
rights, be given the same respect, and enjoy the same freedoms,
regardless of the country of their origin or the nation in which they
448

live.
In another realm , that of spirituality, AMORC ponders in the
Positio the fate of the great religions, and even lets it be understood
that they are fated to disappear in favor of a universal religion. For
what is properly called Rosicrucian spirituality, the fourth manifesto
defines it in this way: It is founded, on the one hand, on the
conviction that God exists as an absolute Intelligence having created
the universe and all that it contains, and on the other hand on the
certainty that man possesses a soul that emanates from Him. Better
yet, we think that God is manifested in all of Creation through laws
that man must study, understand, and respect for his greatest good.
While this spiritualistic humanism may seem utopian, it is precisely
what AMORC calls for, recalling that Plato, in the Republic, sees the
form of ideal society in Utopia. Under these conditions, it is not
surprising that the Positio ends with a text deliberately given the title
of Rosicrucian Utopia, placed under the auspices of God of all
men, God of all life.
The Positio Fraternitatis Rosae Crucis continues the lineage of the
Rosicrucian manifestos published in the 17th century. We may even
say that it constitutes their continuation beyond time and space. As
such, it now forms an integral part of the Rosicrucian Tradition and
builds a bridge between the Rosicrucians of yesteryear and those of
today. Furthermore, since its publication this fourth manifesto has
been the object of comments along these lines, on the part of
historians of esotericism. Let us mention one in particular: Antoine
Faivre, who has written, It will certainly remain as an outstanding
449

document in the history of Rosicrucianism.

450

CONCLUSION

N CONCLUDING THIS book, and after having followed in

the steps of Hermes Trismegistus and Christian Rosenkreuz,
we are fully aware that this work does not constitute an
exhaustive study of Rosicrucianism. Faithful to our initial plan, we
have striven, first of all, to place Rosicrucianism in the history of
esotericism. Thus, by traveling from ancient Egypt to the modern
world, we have seen how Western esotericism has developed over
the centuries. It may also be noted that in most eras Egypt has been
perceived as the historical or mythical center of a mysterious
primordial Tradition that initiates have endeavored to pass on from
one generation to another.
Secondly, we have discussed the emergence of one of the most
important present-day Rosicrucian movements: the Ancient and
Mystical Order Rosae Crucis. We have not attempted to deal with all
of its history, but we have chosen to present the essential stages.
After nearly a century of existence, AMORC has kept alive the flame
of Rosicrucianism by adapting it to the modern world, promoting a
teaching that relinquishes occultism in favor of the personal and
spiritual unfoldment of its members.
As this study has shown, many individuals have worked to
establish Rosicrucianism over the centuries. when attempting to wed
the Rose and the Cross, some of them have been wounded by the
thorns that protect the flower of the soul, as they are not perfect
451

sages, but rather men and women with all of their human qualities
and flaws. Nevertheless, each person has, to one degree or another,
contributed to the elevation of humanity, by trying to encourage his
or her contemporaries to look beyond the world of appearances, so
that they could discover therein the presence of the Divine. And, in
so doing, the questions that they have raised concerning the
mysteries of the Rose and the Crossthat is, the why and
wherefore of Humanity and Creationremain a living actuality.

452

NOTES
1. The quotation found at the beginning of this book
summarizes the goals of past and present Rosicrucians. It is
taken from the first chapter of Pampaedia, a treatise on
universal education written by Comenius, an individual who
was closely associated with the Rosicrucian Order. The
Pampaedia forms the fourth part of The Universal Consultation
on the Reform of Human Affairs (De rerum humanarum emendatione
consultatio catholica), a treatise divided into seven parts, which
Comenius wrote around 1650, shortly after the end of the
Thirty Years War. The passage is excerpted from John
Amos Comenius, 1592-1670: Selections, a work published
by UNESCO in 1957 with an introduction by Jean Piaget:
John Amos Comenius on Education. With an introduction by
Jean Piaget (New York: Teachers College Press, 1967,
1957). English edition of Pampedia (part 4 of The Universal
Consultation): Comeniuss Pampaedia, or Universal Education.
Translated from the Latin by A.M.O. Dobbie (Dover, Kent:
Buckland, 1986).

INTRODUCTION
1. As Antoine Faivre has demonstrated (Lsoterisme [Paris,
Presses Universitaires de France, coll. Que sais-je?, 1992]
pp. 14-22), these elements may be synthesized into six great
453

categories. The first is the theory of correspondences, which

stresses that everything is connected in the universe, and
that a subtle relationship exists between the different parts
of Creation. This first characteristic is closely associated
with the second, that of living nature, which considers
nothing to be fixed or inert in the universe and life to be
present everywhere, with degrees of differing and
complementary manifestation. The third point
characterizing esotericism is the faculty of imagination and
mediationin other words, the ontological possibility, of
which man is the carrier, of being able to ascend to the
various levels of the cosmos by the mediation of symbols,
rites, or myths. From this a fourth characteristic ensues, that
of transmutationin other words, the illuminative
experience that permits the soul to regenerate. To these four
fundamental elements can be added two secondary
concepts: that of concordance, emphasizing that there
exists, in all religions and traditions, a common root going
back to a Primordial Tradition, an eternal philosophy; and
that of transmission, emphasizing that knowledge can be
transmitted, by means of initiation, from teacher to student.

Chapter 1
EGYPT AND THE PRIMORDIAL TRADITION
1. 1. Bernard Gorceix, La Bible des Rose-Croix, traduction et
454

commentaire des trois premiers crits rosicruciens (1614-1615-1616)

(Paris: PUF, 1970) 125 pp., p. 17.
2. Antoine Faivre, Accs de lsotrisme occidental (Paris: Gallimard,
1986) p.33. English edition: V01.1: Access to Western
Esotericism (Albany: State University of New York Press,
1994). Vol 2: Theosophy, Imagination, Tradition: Studies in
Western Esotericism (Albany: State University of New York
Press, 2000).
3. Erik Hornung. Lgypte sotrisme, le savoir occulte des gyptiens
et son influence en Occident (Monaco: ditions du Rocher, 2001)
p. 27. English edition: The Secret Lore of Egypt: Its Impact
on the West (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2002).
4. Hermes Trismegistus, texts and translations by Andr-Jean
Festugire. Vols. I IV (Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1946-1954).
See also A.-J. Festugire, La Rvlation dHerms Trismgiste,
Vol. I, Lastrologie et les sciences occultes; Vol. II, Le
Dieu cosmique; Vol. Ill, Les doctrines de lme, le Dieu
inconnu de la gnose (Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1950).
English editions of the Hermetica include: Hermetica: the Greek
Corpus Hermeticum and the Latin Asclepius in a new English
Translation, with notes and introduction by Brian P. Copenhaver
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995); Salaman,
Clement, et al. The Way of Hermes (Rochester, VT: Inner
Traditions, 2000); Scott, Walter. Hermetica. 4 Volumes.
(New York: Shambala, 1985).
5. Regarding the Greek alchemists, see Marcellin Berthelot,
455

Collection des anciens alchimistes grecs (Paris: G. Steinheil, 18871888). Regarding the history of alchemy, see Robert
Halleux, Les Textes alchimiques (Turhout, Belgium: Brpols,
1979).
6. Iamblichus, Les Mystres dEgypte, text edited and translated
by douard des Places, S.J. Correspondant de lInstitut
(Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1966). English translation of
Iamblichus: Iamblichus, On The Mysteries. Translated with
introductions and notes, Emma C. Clarke et al. (Atlanta:
Society of Biblical Literature, 2003.)
7. Hermas, Le Pasteur, introduction and notes by Robert Joly
(Paris: ditions du Cerf, coll. Sources chrtiennes, no. 53
bis, 1997). English edition: Carolyn Osiek, Helmut Koester,
Shepherd of Hermas: A Commentary (Hermeneia: A Critical and
Historical Commentary on the Bible). (Minneapolis: Fortress
Press, 1999
8. Corbin, Henry, LImagination cratrice dans le soufisme dIbn
Arab (Paris: Aubier, 1993) pp. 32, 49-59, 73, and 77.
English editions: Creative imagination in the Sufism of Ibn Arabi.
Ralph Manheim, translator (London: Routledge & Kegan
Paul, 1969); and Alone with the Alone: Creative Imagination in
the Sfism of Ibn Arabi with a new preface by Harold Bloom.
(Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1998).
9. Translation from the Latin Vulgate of the 14th century.
Variants of this text (in Arab, Latin, and French) may be
found, along with Hortulanus Commentary (Hortulanus 14th
456

century) and a translation of Apollonius of Tyanas Book of

the Secret of Creation (Pseudo-Apollonius of Tyana. Kitab Sirr
al-khaliqah), in Hermes Trismegistus, La Table dmeraude et
sa tradition alchimique, preface by Didier Kahn (Paris: Les
Belles Lettes, 1994). English edition of Hortulanus: Smith,
Patrick. J. The Emerald Tablet of Hermes Trismegistus. Including
the Commentary of Hortulanus. Translated, with additional
notes. Smith. Alchemical Studies Series 5 (Edmonds, WA:
The Alchemical Press Holmes Publishing, 1997).
10. Julius Ruska, Tabula Smaragdina, Ein Beitrag zur Geschiche der
hermetischen Literatur (Heidelberg: Carl Winter, 1926).
Concerning this text also see Franoise Hudry, De Secretis
Naturae du PS. Apollonius de Tyane, traduction latine par Hugues
de Santala du Kitab Sirr Al-Haliqa, Chrysopoeia of the
Socit dtude de lhistoire de lalchimie: Cinq traits
alchimiques mdivaux: Ps.-Apollonius de Tyane (Balinus): De
secretis naturae (Kitab sirr al-haliqa); Ps.-Arnaud de Villeneuve: De
secretis naturae; Flos florum (Le livre de Roussinus); Valerand du
Bois-Robert: Eptre Madame de Bourgogne; Eptre Matre
Abraham (Paris: S.E.H.A.; Milan: Arch, 2000). Chrysopoeia
Tome 6, 1997-1999. Notes, Introduction by Sylvain Matton.
pp. 1-20; and Herms Trismegistus, La Table dmeraude,
preface by Didier Kahn (Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1994).
11. Pierre Lory, Alchimie et mystique en terre dlslam (Lagrasse:
Verdier, 1989). Concerning this subject also see Georges C.
Anawati, Lalchimie arabe and Robert Halleux, La
457

reception de lalchimie arabe en Occident, in Historie des

sciences arabes, t. III, Technologie, alchimie et sciences de la vie,
under the direction of Rashed Roshdi, Paris, Le Seuil, 1997,
pp. 111-141 and 143-154.
12. Henry Corbin, En Islam iranien (Paris: Gallimard, 1971).
13. La Magie arabe traditionnelle, preface by Sylvain Matton (Paris:
Retz, coll. Bibliotheca Hermetica, 1977).
14. Sohravardi (Suhrawardi, Yahy ibn Habash), Le Livre de la
Sagesse orientale, translation and notes by Henry Corbin,
edited and introduced by Christian Jamet (Lagrasse: Verdier,
1986).

Chapter 2
HERMETICISM AND THE PHILOSOPHIA
PERENNIS
1. Juan Garcia Font, Histoire de lalchimie en Espagne (Paris:
Dervy, 1976). Spanish edition: Garca Font, Juan. Historia de
la alquimia en Espaa (Madrid: Editora Nacional, 1976).
2. Histoire des sciences arabes (Paris: Le Seuil, 1998) Tome 3. He
reiterates Julius Ruskas thesis.
3. Eugenio Garin, Le Zodiaque de la vie, polmiques antiastrologiques la Renaissance (Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1991)
chap. II, p. 66; English edition: Astrology in the Renaissance: the
Zodiac of Life. Translated by Carolyn Jackson and June Allen;
458

translation revised in conjunction with the author by Clare

Robertson (London; Boston: Routledge & Kegan Paul,
1983); and by the same author, Hermtisme et Renaissance
(Paris: Allia, 2001) pp. 49-61. The Picatrix was published in
La Magie arabe, introduction and notes by Sylvain Matton
(Paris, Petz, coll. Bibliotheca Hermetica) pp. 243-317.
English edition of the first two books of the Picatrix: Picatrix
= Ghayat al-hakim: the Goal of the Wise. Translated from the
Arabic by Hashem Atallah; edited by William Kiesel (Seattle:
Ouroboros Press, 2002).
4. Frances A. Yates, Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1964) pp. 233-234
and 370. She demonstrates that Campanullas basic source
was not in fact Thomas More.
5. Regarding this text, see the interesting study by MauriceRuben Hayoun, Le Zohar aux origines de la mystique juive (Paris:
Nosis, 1999).
6. Regarding Marsilio Ficino, see Raymond Marcel, Marsile
Ficin (1433-1499) (Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1958).
7. He sometimes gives a different hierarchy in which Moses
either preceded or followed Hermes.
8. Alfredo Perifano, LAlchimie cour de Cme 1er de Mdicis,
savoirs, culture et politique (Paris: Honor Champion, 1997) pp.
144-150.
9. Andr-Jean Festugire (translator) Herms Trismgiste (Paris:
459

Belles Lettres, 1983) Vol II, pp. 200-207.

10. Yates, op. cit., Chap. IV; and Daniel-Pickering Walker, La
Magie spirituelle et anglique de Ficin Campanella (Paris: Albin
Michel, 1988). English edition: Spiritual and Demonic Magic.
From Ficino to Campanella (London, 1958).
11. Antoine Faivre, Accs de lsotrisme occidentale (Paris:
Gallimard, 1986) p. 128. English edition: Vol 1: Access to
Western Esotericism (Albany: State University of New York
Press, 1994).
12. Franois Secret, Les Kabbalistes chrtiens de la Renaissance
(Milan-Paris: Arch, 1985).
13. Perifano, op. cit., and Yates, op. cit., who have shown that the
Renaissance cannot be understood without knowing the
contributions of Hermeticism.
14. Robert Halleux, Les textes alchimiques (Turhout, Belgium:
Brepols, 1979) p. 85.
15. Concerning this basic text, see the study by Marie-Louise
von Franz (a student of C.G. Jung), Aurora consurgens, le lever
de Iaurore, translation by tienne Perrot and Marie-Martine
Louzier (Paris: La Fontaine de Pierre, 1982). English
edition: Aurora Consurgens: A Document Attributed to Thomas
Aquinas on the Problem of Opposites in Alchemy. Edited, with a
commentary, by Marie-Louise von Franz. A companion
work to C.G. Jungs Mysterium coniunctionis. Translated by
R.F.C. Hull and A.S.B. Glover. (New York: Pantheon
460

Books, 1966.)
16. Jean Servier has made a good translation of De Occulta
Philosophia, augmented by an introduction and numerous
annotations in La Magie naturelle, La Magie cleste and La
Magie crmonielle (Paris: Berg, 1982).
17. Yates, op.cit., pp. 214-216.
18. Bernard Gorceix, Alchimie (Paris: Fayard, 1980).
19. Concerning Paracelsus, see Walter Pagel, Paracelse,
introduction la philosophic de la Renaissance (Paris: Arthaud,
1963), English edition: Paracelsus; An Introduction to
Philosophical Medicine in the Era of the Renaissance. (Basel, New
York: S. Karger, 1958); and Lucien Braun, Paracelse
(Geneva: Slatkine, 1995).
20. Roland Edighoffer, La Rose-Croix au XVIIe sicle in
Cahiers du G.E.S.C. (Paris: Arch, 1993) p. 108.

Chapter 3
THE CRISIS OF THE EUROPEAN
CONSCIOUSNESS
1. Du monde clos Iuniverse infini (Paris: Gallimard, 1973) p. 9.
English edition: From the Closed World to the Infinite Universe
(Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1968,1974), Publications of
the Institute of the History of Medicine, the Johns Hopkins
University. Third series: The Hideyo Noguchi lectures v. 7.
461

2. This comment has been made particularly obvious in the

various works of Roland Edighoffer, in Les Rose-Croix et la
crise morale du XVIIe sicle (Paris: Dervy, 1998). In the present
chapter, many statements have been inspired by the various
works of this author.
3. Pierre Bhar. Les Langues occultes de la Renaissance (Paris:
Desjonqures, 1996) pp. 201-242.
4. Amalia Perfetti and Michel Blay, Vide/Plein in La Science
Classique (Paris: Flammarion, 1998) pp. 664-669.
5. Pierre Bhar. Les Langues occultes de la Renaissance, op. cit.
(Paris: Desjonqures, 1996) pp. 163-198.
6. On this point, see Frances A. Yates, Giordano Bruno and the
Hermetic Tradition (Chicago: University of Chicago Press,
1964) pp. 390-391.
7. Thierry Wanegffelen, LEdit de Nantes (Paris: Le Livre de
Poche, 1998) pp. 106-108.
8. Alexandre Koyr, Un Mystique protestant, V. Weigel, in
Mystiques, spirituels, alchimistes du XVIe sicle allemand (Paris:
Gallimard, 1971) chap. IV.

Chapter 4
THE NAOMETRIA AND THE AGE OF THE
HOLY SPIRIT
1. Concerning this individual, see Magister Simon Studio,
462

Lateinischer Dichter, Historiker, Archologe und

Apokalyptiker 1543-7 (frhestens, 1605), Schwbische
Lebensbilder, im Auftrag der Kommission fr geschichtliche
Landeskunde in Baden-Wrttemberg herausgegen von Max
Miller und Robert Uhland. 6. Band mit 20 Bildtafeln, W.
Kohlhammer Verlag Stuttgart 1957. (Master Simon
Studion, Latin Poet, Historian, Archeologist, and
Apocalyptist, Images of Swabian Life, at the request of the
Commission for Historical Knowledge of the Land of
Baden-Wrttemberg; edited by Max Miller and Robert
Uhland, Vol. VI, Stuttgart, W. Kohlhammer, 1957).
2. Concerning Joachim of Fiore, see Henri de Lubac, La
Postrit spirituelle de Joachim de Flore (Paris: Lethielleux, 1978)
and Henri Mottu, La Manifestation de Isprit selon foachim de
Flore, hermneutique et thologie de Ihistoire d aprs le Trait sur les
quatre vangiles (Paris: Delachaux et Niestle, 1977).
3. In November 1993 the musical department of the RoseCroix University International (RCUI) began to study this
unpublished musical work, which was in the form of a
manuscript that had been altered over time. In 1995, after
painstaking musicological effort, the RCUI succeeded in
transcribing this score into modern musical notation. This
work was performed at the opening ceremony of the
Rosicrucian convention held by AMORC in Paris in August
2000. It was also recorded as part of the fourth volume of
the Antiphonaire de la Rose-Croix: Antiphonaire de la Rose-Croix,
463

vol. IV (Le Tremblay-Omonville: Diffusion Rosicrucienne,

2000).
4. Antoine Faivre, lie Artiste ou le Messie des Philosophes
de la Nature, Aries, Vol. II, No. 2 and Vol. III, No. 1
(Leiden and Boston: Brill Academia Publishers, 2002 and
2003).
5. Faivre, ibid., p. 134.
6. Roland Edighoffer devoted an entire chapter of his book to
this prophecy, in Les Rose-Croix et la crise morale . . . , op. cit.,
pp. 211-247.
7. Frances Yates, in The Rosicrucian Enlightenment (Boulder, CO:
Shambhala, 1978), provides an entire iconography on this
point.
8. Regarding this subject, see Carl Gustav Jung, Alchemical
Studies, vol. 13 of Bollingen Series XX (Princeton, NJ:
Princeton University Press, 1967), pp. 290-295. For a long
time this text was attributed to G. Dorn, one of Paracelsus
followers, but Didier Kahn has shown that Paracelsus was
the author instead.

Chapter 5
THE ECHOES OF THE ROSE CROSS
1. A French edition of this text was published in 1615 under
the name Les cent premires nouvelles et aduis de Parnasse par
464

Traian Buccalin Romain, o sous admirable inventions, gentilles

metaphors, et plaisans discours sont traictees toutes matieres politiques
dEstat de grande importance et preceptes mauraux choisis et tirez de
tous les bons autheurs, published in French by Thomas de
Fougasses, chez A. Perier, rue Saint-Jacques, au Compas,
Paris. Chapter 77 occupies pages 457 to 515. The first
German translation dates from 1644. The extract
represented in the Fama Fraternitatis was probably translated
into German by Wilhelm Bidenbach, a friend of Tobias
Fless. The Rosicrucians of Tbingen admired Traiano
Boccalini. Christoph Besold quoted him in Opus politicum,
and Johann Valentin Andreaes Christian Mythology shows his
influence.
2. Thomas Vaughan mistakenly translated this as Porphyry,
rather than the Pope or Popery, which the German
manuscripts specify.
3. La Magie naturelle, Book I of Philosophie Occulte, translation
and commentaries by Jean Servier (Paris: Berg, 1982) pp.
32-37. English edition: Agrippa von Nettesheim, Heinrich
Cornelius. Three Books of Occult Philosophy Written by Henry
Cornelius Agrippa of Nettesheim, completely annotated with modem
commentary. James Freake, translator. Donald Tyson, editor
(St. Paul, MN: Llewellyn, 1993).
4. Concerning this matter, see Chapter I, The Sabaeans.
5. The first edition of the Fama reads Damascus, but the
erratum in the same work specifies that it should be
465

Damcar instead. LEncyclopdie de Ilslam (Leyden-Paris:

1965) Vol. II, p. 224, calls this town Dhamar.
6. Henry Corbin, Llmagination cratrice dans le soufisme dlhn
Arab (Paris: 1955; reprint 1993, Aubier) p. 20. English
editions: Creative Imagination in the Sufism of lbn Arab. Ralph
Manheim, translator (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul,
1969); and Alone with the Alone: Creative Imagination in the
Sufism of Ibn Arab with a new preface by Harold Bloom.
(Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1998).
7. mile Dantinne, De lorigine islamique de la Rose-Croix,
in Inconnues, No. 4, 1950, pp. 3-17.
8. Brockelmann, Geschichte der arabischen Literatur, Vol. II.
9. For this study, two editions of the manifestos have been
used. The first is that published by Diffusion Rosicrucienne
in 1995 under the general title of La Trilogie des Rose-Croix.
This French edition is based on the English translation that
Thomas Vaughan made in 1652 from a German manuscript
then circulating in England. We feel it would be useful to
also refer the reader to Bernard Gorceixs translation, La
Bible des RoseCroix (Paris: PUF, 1970), which is based directly
on the original German. The quotations in this edition are
taken from this edition.
10. Roland Edighoffer, Les Rose-Croix et Paracelse, Aries,
No. 19, 1998, p. 71, from which we have taken the
translation of Paracelsus text.
466

11. See Chapter 1, The Emerald Tablet.

12. Visita Interiora Terra Rectificando Invenies Occultum Lapidem
V.I.T.R.I.O.L.
13. The Rosicrucian Enlightenment (London/New York: Ark
Paperbacks, 1986) facing p. 48.
14. Carlos Gilly, Adam Haslmayr, der erste Verkunder der Manifeste
der Rosenkreuze (Amsterdam: 111 de Pelikaan, Bibliotheca
Philosophica Hermetica, 1994).

Chapter 6
THE CONFESSIO FRATENITATIS
1. Papus provided a French translation of this text at the end
of his Trait lmentaire de sciences occultes (Paris, 1903).
2. Les Langues occultes de la Renaissance (Paris: Dejonqure, 1996)
chapter IV, pp. 101-115.
3. The quotes from this manifesto are taken from The Fame and
Confession of R:C: by Eugenius Philalethes.
4. Henry Corbin, En Islam iranien (Paris: Gallimard, 1972) vol.
I, XXIX. We will return to this fundamental point in the
next chapter.
5. See LAlchimie au XVIIe siecle, compiled under the
direction of Franck Greiner, Chrysopeia, vol. VI, 1999, p. 7.
6. He was the publisher of many alchemical texts, including
467

the celebrated Theatrum Chemicum (6 vols.), the Complt

Works of Paracelsus, the Chymical Wedding of Christian
Rosenkreuz (10 vols.), and various other works by Johann
Valentin Andreae, Christoph Besold, etc.
7. Antoine Faivre, Das Erbe des Christian Rosenkreutz
(Amsterdam: In de Pelikaan, 1988). This text was repeated
in Accs de Isotrisme occidental (Paris: Gallimard, 1996), tome
II, pp. 263-289. English edition: Theosophy, Imagination,
Tradition: Studies in Western Esotericism (Albany: State
University of New York Press, 2000).
8. Roland Edighoffer, Les Rose-Croix et la crise de conscience
europenne au XVIIe siecle (Paris: Dervy, 1998) pp. 296-297.
9. See Paul Arnold, Histoire des Rose-Croix et les origines de la francmaonnerie (Paris: Mercure de France, 1990), pp. 120-122,
who considers this information to be probable despite some
misgivings.
10. See The Rosicrucian Enlightenment (Boulder, CO: Shambala,
1978) p. 50.
11. Roland Edighoffer has done a detailed study of this authors
work in Rose-Croix et socit idale selon Johann Valentin Andreae
(Neuilly-surSeine: Arma Artisk, 1982).
12. Histoire des Rose-Croix . . . , op. cit., chap. V, pp. 136-156.
13. For more information about this group, see Bernard
Gorceix, Les Amis de Dieu en Allemagne au sicle de Matre
Eckhart (Paris: Albin Michel, 1984) and Henry Corbin, En
468

Islam iranien, op. cit., book VII.

14. The Imitation of Christ (1471) by Thomas Kempis is, after
the Bible, one of the most widely read books among
Christians. Theophilus Schweighardt (Daniel Mogling), in
Speculum sophicum Rhodo-Stauroticum . . . (1618), said that when
reading Thomas Kempis one is already a semiRosicrucian.

Chapter 7
THE EMERALD LAND
1. Histoire des Rose-Croix (Bihorel: Bibliothque des Amitis
Spirituelles, 1932) pp. 110 and 332. This study, even though
it contains numerous errors, remains interesting for more
than its title.
2. Mircea Eliade, Le Sacr et le profane (Paris: 1965, Gallimard).
English edition: The Sacred and the Profane: The Nature of
Religion. Willard R. Trask, translator (San Diego: Harcourt
Brace Jovanovich, 1959). Regarding this subject, also see
Mircea Eliade and Raffaele Pettazzoni, Lhistoire des religions
a-t-elle un sens? (Paris: Cerf, 1994).
3. A term coined by Rudolf Otto. From the Latin numen: God.
See his book Le Sacr (Paris: Payot, 1949). English edition:
The Idea of the Holy: An Inquiry into the Non-rational Factor in the
Idea of the Divine and Its Relation to the Rational. John W.
469

Harvey, translator (London, Oxford, New York: Oxford

University Press, 1980).
4. See Henry Corbin, Pour une charte de limaginal, prelude
to the second edition of Corps spirituel et terre cleste, de lIran
mazden lIran shite (Paris: Buchet/Chastel, 1979). English
edition: Spiritual Body and Celestial Earth: From Mazdean Iran to
Shite Iran. Nancy Pearson, translator (Princeton, N.J.:
Princeton University Press, [1989], 1977).
5. Antoine Faivre, Les Confrences de Lyon (Brainele-Comte: d.
du Baucens, 1975) pp. 118-120.
6. Carl Gustav Jung, Psychologie et alchimie (Paris: BuehetChastel, 1970)pp. 355-362.English edition: Psychology and
Alchemy. R.F.C. Hull, translator (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton
University Press, 1968).
7. Ibid., p. 12.
8. See L Homme et son Ange (Paris: Fayard, 1983) pp. 51-54,and
LHomme de lumire dans le soupsme iranien (Paris: Prsence,
1971) pp. 34-37. English edition: The Man of Light in Iranian
Sufsm. Nancy Pearson, translator (Boulder, CO: Shambhala;
[New York]: distributed by Random House, 1978).
9. Concerning this text, see Chapter II, The Picatrix.
10. Corbin, LHomme et son Ange, op. cit., pp. 54-57.
11. He developed these elements in En islam iranien, op. cit., vol.
IV, book VII.
12. Regarding the Friends of God, in addition to the numerous
470

writings of Henry Corbin, see also Bernard Gorceix, Les

Amis de Dieu en Allemagne au sicle de Matre Eckhart (Paris:
Albin Michel, 1984), and Roland Edighoffer, Les Rose-Croix
et la crise de la conscience europenne au XVIF sicle (Paris: Dervy,
1998) pp. 249-263.
13. Jean Markale, Le Graal (Paris: Albin Michel, 1996) pp.258263. English edition: The Grail: The Celtic Origins of the Sacred
Icon (Rochester, VT: Inner Traditions, 1999).
14. En islam iranien, op. cit., vol. IV, book All, chap. III, pp. 39046 0.
15. En islam iranien, op. cit., vol. IV, p.393.
16. LHomme et son Ange, op. cit., p. 241.
17. Regarding all of these points, see in particular the chapter
Juvenilit et chevalerie in LHomme et son Ange, op. cit.
18. He touches upon this them e in many works, as in L
Homme et son Ange, op. cit. pp. 102-105.
19. See the instruction for the reception of the Novice Knightly
Brothers of the Benevolent Knights of the Holy City, in
lie Steel-Maret, Les Archives secrtes de la franc-maonnerie
(Geneva: Slatkine, 1985) pp. 92-113.

Chapter 8
THE CHYMICAL WEDDING
1. Aspects de la tradition alchimique au XVIIe sicle, acts of the
471

international conference of the University of ReimsChampagne-Ardennes on 2829 November 1996, under the
direction of Frank Greiner, Chrysopoeia (Paris: Arch, 1998) p.
11.
2. Romans 8:19-22.
3. Bernard Gorceix, Alchimie (Paris: Fayard, 1980).
4. We find here numerous references to Lexicon Alchemiae by
Martin Rulland (1612). English edition: A Lexicon of Alchemy,
by Martin Ruland the Elder. A. E. Waite, translator (London:
J.M. Watkins, 1964).
5. Roland Edighoffer, Rose-Croix et socit idale selon ]ohann
Valentin Andrae, vols. 1 and II (Paris: Arma Artis, 1982 and
1987).
6. Edighoffer, Rose-Croix et socit idale . . . , ibid., vol II., brings
together his entir bibliography: books, translations,
editions, correspondence, and manuscripts, pp. 761-781.
7. The Golden Fleece is a symbol which designated the Great
Work. A fascinating work regarding this subject was written
by Antoine Faivre, Toison dor et Alchimie (Paris: Arche 1990).
English edition: The Golden Fleece and Alchemy (Albany NY:
State University of New York Press, 1993).
8. Bernard Gorceix, La Bible des Rose-Croix, introduction (Paris:
Presses Universitaires de France, 1970) pp. XXXVIII.
9. Regarding this subject, see the work of Salomon de Caus,
Hortus Palatinus (1620) and in particular the reissue of Le
472

jardin Palatin (Paris: d. du Moniteur, 1990), with a

postscript by Michel Conan which places S. de Caus in the
Rosicrucian movement of Heidelberg.
10. We will not mention here the rather fanciful commentaries
of numerous other authors.
11. Roland Edighoffer, Les Rose-Croix et la crise de conscience
europenne au XVIIe sicle (Paris: Dervy, 1999) pp. 282-302.
12. See Marie-Louise von Franz, who, in Alchimie et imagination
active (La Fontaine de Pierre, 1978) provides numerous
excerpts of this text. English edition: Alchemical Active
Imagination. Rev. ed. (Boston: Shambhala, 1997).
13. Paris: Albin Michel, 1996.
14. This idea was developed by Shozo Fujita, The Temple Theology
of the Qumran Sect and the Book of Ezekiel: Their Relationship to
Jewish Literature of the Last Two Centuries B.C. (Ann Arbor:
UMI, Bell & Howell, 1970). (Princeton Thesis 1970). Henry
Corbin summmarized it in a chapter of his book Temple et
Contemplation (Paris: Flammarion, 1980) pp. 307-422.
English edition: Temple and Contemplation. Philip Sherrard and
Liadain Sherrard, translators (London: KPI in association
with Islamic Publications, 1986).
15. See his book Exprience de lextase (Paris: Payot, 1984), with a
preface by Mircea Eliade.
16. See Herms Trismgiste, I, Poimandrs (Paris: Belles Lettres,
1991) pp. 15-16. English edition: Hermetica: The Greek Corpus
473

Hermeticum and the Latin Asclepius in a new English translation,

with notes and introduction by Brian P. Copenhaver
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995).

Chapter 9
THE ROSE IN BLOOM
1. Apologia compendiaria fraternitatem de RoseaCruce suspicionis et
infamiae maculis aspersam, veritatis quasi fluctibus abluens et
abstergens (Leiden, 1616).
2. See Chapter 2, Natural Magic.
3. Echo der von Gott Hocherleuchtetinen Fraternitet des lblichen Ordens
R.C. (Danzig, 1616).
4. Novus Tractatus chymicus de Vera Materia, veroque processu Lapidis
philosophici quo pleniorem ataque fdeliorem hactenus non vidit
mundus. Cui accessit sub calcem, ut verum ita sincerum de Fratemitate
R.C. judicium . . . (Frankfurt, 1617).
5. Silentium post clamores. . . (Frankfurt, 1617).
6. Clypeum veritatis; Das ist Kurtez, jedoch Grndliche Antwort
respective . . . (Amsterdam, 1618).
7. Pegasus Firmamenti sive Introductio Brevis in vtrum sapientiam,
quae olim ab Aegyptiis et Persi Magia, hodie vero a Venerabili
Fratemitate Rosae Crucis Pansophia recte vocatur . . . (Amsterdam,
1618). Joseph Stellat was a pseudonym used by Christoph
Hirsch.
474

8. Cento Virgilianus de Fratibus Rosae Crucis and Cento Ovidianus de

Fratibus Rosae Crucis (Amsterdam, 1616).
9. Menapius Roseae Crucis, Das ist Bedencken der Gesambten Societet
von dem . . . (Munich, 1619). F.G. Menapius was a
pseudonym for Theophilus Schweighardt.
10. Jhesus Nobis Omnia! Rosa florescens, contra F.G. Menapii calumnias
. . . (Amsterdam, 1617 and 1618).
11. Themis aureae hoc est de legibus Fraternitatis R.C. . . . (Frankfurt,
1618).
12. See The Rosicrucian Enlightenment (Paris, Retz, 1985) p. 113.
13. Pia et utilissima admonitio de Fratibus R.C. Nimirum an sint?
Quales sint? . . . (Danzig, 1618). An edition was published in
France in 1623.
14. Tractatus theologo-philosophicus . . ., 1617, published under the
pseudonym of Rudolfo Otreb, by Johann Thodor de Bry.
15. Utriusque cosmi, majoris, scilicet et minori, metaphysica, physica atque
technica historia . . . (Oppenheim and Frankfurt: Johann
Theodor de Bry, 1617-1624).
16. Regarding this controversy, see Jean-Charles Darmon,
Quelques enjeux pistmologiques de la querrelle entre
Gassendi et Fludd: les clairsobscurs de lAme du Monde, in
Aspects de la tradition alchimique au XVIIe sicle, transactions of the
international conference of the University of Reims-ChampagneArdennes (November 28-29, 1996), under the direction of
Frank Greiner, Chrysopoeia (Paris: Arch, 1998).
475

17. See Pierre Brhar, who, in Les Langues occultes de la Renaissance

(Paris: Desjonqures, 1996) pp. 200-243, summarizes the
affair. Frances A. Yates previously brought up this
controversy in Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition,
chapter XXII.
18. Tobias Hess, one of the friends of Johann Valentin
Andreae, personally knew Oswald Croll, and the Fama
Fraternitatis repeated a few of his ideas.
19. Regarding this prophecy, see Chapter 3, The Third Elijah.
20. This is the opinion of Frances A. Yates in The Rosicrucian
Enlightenment. In this work, the author describes the riches
of this palace, pp. 13-28.
21. He was strongly impressed by certain works of John Dee
(his preface to Euclid) and the architecture of the
Renaissance. Before Denis Papin, he invented steam power.
In the 1624 reprint of his work Les Raisons des forces mouvants,
avec diverses machines tant utiles que plaisantes, originally
published in 1615, he spoke of the grottoes and talking
statues which he created for Heidelberg. He also described
these gardens in his Hortus Palatinus (The Gardens of the
Palatine), 1620, Johann Thodor de Bry. In his postscript
to the reprint of the latter book, Michel Conan underscores
the connections between the inventions of Salomon de
Caus and the inventions described in the work of Robert
Fludd (Paris: d. Du Moniteur, 1990).

476

22. These numbers are taken from the book by Henry Bogdan,
La Guerre de Trente Ans (1618-1648) (Paris,1997) chap.12.
23. This engraving is reproduced in The Rosicrucian Enlightenment,
op. cit., plate 15.

477

Chapter 10
THE PHILOSOPHERS AND THE ROSE CROSS
1. Mysterium arithmeticum sive cabalistica et philosophica Inventio . . .
(Ulmens, 1615), in quarto, by Johan Faulhaber (1580-1635),
celebrated for his mathematical knowledge. Paul Arnold was
wrong when he stated in Histoire des Rose-Croix (Paris:
Mercure de France, 1955) that there was no indication that
Faulhaber had any knowledge of the existence of the
Rosicrucians.
2. Adrien Baillet, La Vie de M. Des Cartes (Paris, 1961) tome I,
pp.87-88. English edition: The Life of Monsieur Des Cartes:
Containing the History of His Philosophy and Works: As Also the
Most Remarkable Things That Befell Him During the Whole Course
of His Life (London: Printed for R. Simpson, 1693).
3. Ferdinand of Styria, king of Bohemia since1617, succeeded
Emperor Matthias II.
4. Frances A. Yates, The Rosicrucian Enlightenment (Boulder, CO:
Shambala, 1978) p. 117.
5. G. Persigout first noted this distinctive feature in
Rosicrucianisme et cartsianisme (Paris: d. de la Paix, 1938),but
he simply scraped the surface, in contrast to later authors,
such as Paul Arnold in his Histoire des Rose-Croix (Paris:
Mercure de France, 1955), and most of all Sophie Jama
478

who, in La Nuit de songes de Ren Descartes, has offered a

particularly intriguing analysis of the three dreams (Paris:
Aubier, 1998).
6. Nombre et Temps, psychologie des profondeurs et physique modem
(Paris: La Fontaine de Pierre, 1998). English edition: Number
and Time; Reflections Leading Toward a Unification of Depth
Psychology and Physics. Andra Dykes, translator (Evanston:
Northwestern University Press, 1974).
7. Gabriel Naud only reproduced the text of the first placard.
Lenglet du Eresnoy reproduced the texts of both in his
Histoire de la Philosophie Hermtique (Paris, 1742) tome I, pp.
376-377.
8. The Hague, 1653.
9. See The Rosicrucian Enlightenment, op cit., p. 135.
10. Sophie Jama, La Nuit de songes de Ren Descartes, op. cit., pp.
195-196.
11. The original manuscript of this text is lost. In the dedication
some editors substitute F. Ros. Cruc. (Foucher de Careil).
12. Govert Homme Siert Snoek made a careful and detailed
study of the expansion of Rosicrucianism in this country in
De Rozenkruisers in Nederland, Een inventaristie (The
Rosicrucians in the Netherlands, An Inventory; Utrecht,
1998).
13. Orvius, Philosophia Occulta, 1737.
14. A few years earlier, in 1621, the Order had been attacked in
479

Miroir des Frres de la Rose-Croix.

15. A.J. Rehorst devoted a book to this individual: Torrentius
(Rotterdam, 1939).
16. See De Rozenkruisers in Nederland . . . , op. cit., notably the
summary in French, pp. 295-299.
17. Arcana totius naturae secretissima nec hactenus unquam dtcta, a
Collegio Rosiano in Lucem produntur (Leiden, 1630).
18. Discours, Part I, 9. English edition: Discourse on Method and
Related Writings. Translated with an introduction by
Desmond M. Clarke (London: Penguin Books, 1999).
19. The latter, after having been very critical of alchemy in
Questiones celeberrimae in genesim . . . (1623), appeared to be
more open minded in La Vrit des sciences (1625). Later, he
considered alchemy to be worthy of interest and indicated a
desire for the creation of an academy of alchemy in Questions
inouyes (question XXVIII) and Questions thologique, physiques,
morales et mathmatiques (1634).
20. See the article by Jean-Franois Maillard Descartes et
lalchimie: une tentation conjure?, in Aspects de la tradition
alchimique au XVIIe sicle, transactions of the international
conference of the University of Reims-ChampagneArdennes (November 28-29,1996), under the direction of
Frank Grenier, Chrysopoeia (Paris: Arch, 1998). He refers to
De metallorum transmutatione, by Daniel Georg Morhof
(Hamburg, 1673), who reports this fact. Cornelis was the
480

nephew of Theobald van Hogelande, author of alchemical

treatises published under the name of Ewaldus Vogelius.
21. Serge Hutin, Descartes, initi rosicrucien? Rose-Croix, No.
62, 1967, p. 30.
22. In his letter to Marin Mersenne of July 30, 1640, he made it
the seat of the soul. This viewpoint recalls the one found in
modern Rosicrucian teachings which makes the pineal gland
the seat not of the soul itself, but of the consciousness
which is characteristic of it.
23. On this point, see Frances A. Yates, The Occult Philosophy in
the Elizabethan Age (Warburg Institute, 1987); and Antoine
Faivre, Flistoire des courants sotriques et mystiques dans
lEurope moderne et contem poraine, summarized in
Annuaire de lcole Pratique des Hautes tudes, Vol. XCVI,
1987-1988.
24. This date, and those of the works mentioned hereafter, are
those of the first public performance.
25. The Holy Guide, leading the Way to the Wonder of the World (a
Compleat Phisician) . . . with Rosie-Crucian medecines . . .
(London, 1662).
26. Bonneville, Nicolas de, La Maonnerie ecossaise compare avec les
trois professions et le secret des templiers du XlVe sicle (London,
1788) pp. 142-148.
27. Franc-Maonnerie, ordre chapitral, nouveau grade de Rose-Croix
(Paris: Collignon librairediteur, 1860) p. 17-20.
481

28. To avoid deviating from our subject, we will not delve into
this matter which has given rise to an impressive quantity of
publications. Rather, we will refer interested readers to the
book of Ignatius Donnelly, The Great Cryptogram: Francis
Bacons Cipher in the So-called Shakespeare Plays (1887); to those
of the mathematician Georg Canton, La Confession de foi de
Francis Bacon, Rsurrection du divin Quirinus Francis Bacon, and
Le Recueil de Rawley (1896; republished by rick Porge chez
Grec in 1997 under the title La Thorie Bacon-Shakespeare); to
that of Dr. Speckman,Bacon is Shakespeare (1916); the
studies published in 1922 and 1923 by General Cartier
under the title Le mystere Bacon-Shakespeare, in the
Rosicrucian Forum, August 1932, published in the magazine
Rose-Croix, No. 136, Winter 1985, p. 22-24. Also see Dodd,
Alfred, Shakespeare Creator of Freemasonry (London: Rider and
Co. 1937). and the article Bacon vs. Shakespeare, in the
Rosicrucian Forum, Vol. III, No. 1 (August 1932) pp. 25-27.
29. See Chapter 14, The Rose Garden of the Magi.
30. The Masters (London: Theosophical Publications, 1912). This
work followed a series of conferences given by Annie
Besant in London in 1907. Rudolf Steiner took a similar
position during the same period. In 1912 Annie Besant,
Marie Russak, H. Wedgwood, and other Theosophists
created an order reminiscent of Rosicrucianism. Their work
was interrupted in 1918. Marie Russak then became a
member of AMORC.
482

31. The authors of this work only used their initials: H.C. and
K.M.B. It was published in Paddington by Amy BothwellGosse, an eminent member of the English branch of Le
Droit Hurnain and the editor of the review The Co-Mason.
32. Frances Yates, The Rosicrucian Enlightenment (Boulder, CO:
Shambhala, 1978) Chapter XI. For this information she
relied on a study by Paolo Rossi, Francis Bacon: From Magic
to Science (London, 1968).
33. Although the Fama Fratemitatis was not published until
1614, whereas Of the Proficience and Advancement of Learning
Divine and Humane was published in 1605, it should be
recalled that the first Rosicrucian manifesto circulated in
manuscript form many years before its publication.
34. Dat rosa rnel apibus, the celebrated illustration of
Summum Bonum (1626). See fig. 30.
35. Novum Organum (London, 1620). English edition: The
Instauratio Magna Part II: Novum Organum and Associated Texts.
Edited with introduction, notes, commentaries, and facingpage translations by Graham Rees with Maria Wakely. The
Oxford Francis Bacon v.11 (Oxford: Clarendon, 2004).
36. There remains some uncertainty as to the date of its writing.
It has been generally claimed he worked on this text in
1623. See, Michle Le Doeuff and Margaret Llasera, La
Nouvelle Atlantide (Paris: Payot, 1983) p. 13. Bacon wanted
this text to be published following his Natural History (Sylva
483

Sylvarium), a work he had already issued as a draft in 1620.

37. As Blandine Kreigel has shown, in the Renaissance this
theme of utopia is interdependent with the Copernican
revolution. It testified to the search for a new balance in a
new world. See LUtopie dmocratique de Francis Bacon
George Lucas, in Revue des deux mondes (April 2000) pp. 1933.
38. The New Atlantis, according to Voyage dans la pense baroque,
op. cit., p. 72.
39. See Chapter 9, White Mountain.
40. La Grande Didactique (Paris: Kincksieck, coll. Philosophic de
lducation, 1992). English edition: The Great Didactic of John
Amos Comenius. Translated into English and edited with
biographical, historical, and critical introductions by M.W.
Keatinge (New York: Russell & Russell, 1967).
41. The Way of the Light (1641): a work only in manuscript form
from 1641. Modern editions of 1668 edition: The Way of
Light. Translated into English, with introduction, by E. T.
Campagnac. Includes reproduction of original title page,
with imprint: Amsterodami, apud C. Conradum, 1668.
(Liverpool: The University Press; London: Hodder &
Stoughton, Ltd., 1938); and Der Weg des Lichtes = Via lucis.
Translated into German, and with an introduction and
commentary by Uwe Voigt (Hamburg: F. Meiner Verlag,
1997).
484

42. See his summary in Jean Prvot, LUtopie ducative, Comenius

(Paris: Belin, 1981) pp. 210-264.
43. He wrote a strongly eulogistic article on Comenius in the
Revue de lUNESCO in 1957, a text reproduced in the
postscript of Utopie ducative. . . op. cit.

Chapter 11
ROSICRUCIANISM AND FREEMASONRY
1. Andersons Constitutions, in Textes fondateurs de la tradition
maonnique 1390-1760, translated and edited by Patrick
Ngrier (Paris: Grasset, 1989) p. 226. English edition:
Andersons Constitutions of 1723, with introduction by Bro. Lionel
Vibert (Washington, D.C.: The Masonic Service Association
of the United States, 1924). Facsimile reproduction of
London editions, 1723: p. 25-121.
2. On the appearance of the Master Degree, see Eugne
Flicien Albert Goblet dAlviella, Des Origines du Grade de
Matre dans la Franc-Maonnerie (Paris: Trdaniel 1983) and
Roger Dachez, Essai sur lorigine du grade de Matre,
Renaissance Traditionnelle, No. 91-92, July-October 1992.
3. Antoine Faivre, Acces de lsoterisme occidental (Paris: Gallimard,
1996) tome 2, p. 285. English edition: Theosophy, Imagination,
Tradition: Studies in Western Esotericism (Albany: State
University of New York Press, 2000).
485

4. Irne Mainguy, Les Initiations et Vinitiation maonnique (Paris:

ditions Maonniques de France, 2000) p. 80.
5. The newly coined word esoterism appeared for the first
time in 1742, being introduced by Louis-Franois La Tierce.
This Freemason was the author of Nouvelles obligations et
Statuts de la trs vnrable confraternit des Francs-Maons (1742),
an adaptation and translation intofrench of Andersons
Constitution and Ramsays discourse.
6. Concerning this astonishing individual, see Jocelyn Godwin,
Athanasius Kircher, a Renaissance Man and the Quest for Lost
Knowledge (New York: Thames and Hudson, 1979) and also
(Boulder, CO: Shambhala; New York: Distributed by
Random House, 1979).
7. See Andrew Michael Ramsay, Les Voyages de Cyrus, critical
edition of Georges Lamoine (Paris, Honor Champion,
2002). English edition: The Travels of Cyrus ...To which is
annexd, A discourse upon the theology and mythology of the pagans.
[By the Chevalier Ramsay ...] (London: Printed by T.
Woodward [etc.], 1728); and the 8th edition (London:
Printed by J. Bettenham, and sold by C. Hitch and L.
Hawes, 1752). This book was inspired by Tlmaque (1695),
the educational treatise by Fnelon, a pedagogical novel
bringing to mind the epics of Homer and Virgil that was
meant to teach the young duke of Burgundy the art of
governing undespotically. As with the heroes described by
Fnelon, Cyrus obtained his education by traveling
486

throughout the world. English edition: The Adventures of

Telemachus, the Son of Ulysses. Translated by Tobias Smollett;
introduction and notes by Leslie A. Chilton; the text edited
by O.M. Brack, Jr. (Athens GA: University of Georgia
Press, 1997).
8. Jean Terrassons book was written as a result of Fnelons
Tlmaque. In composing his story, he exhibited a vast
erudition by recounting everything that had been written
about Egypt. Among the authors citd were Diodorus
Siculus, Clement of Alexandria, Herodotus, Iamblichus, and
Athanasius Kircher. English edition: The Life of Sethos. Taken
from private memoirs of the ancient Egyptians. Tr. from a Greek
manuscript into French. And now faithfully done into English from
the Paris ed. by Mr. Lediard (London: Printed for J. Walthoe,
1732).
9. Notice sur la vie et les ouvrages de labb Terrasson, in
Sthos, historie ou vie tire des monuments, anecdotes de Iancienne
gypte (Paris: D Hautel, 1813) tome 1, p. 12. English
edition: The Life of Sthos. Taken from private memoirs of the
ancient Egyptians. Tr. from a Greek manuscript intofrench. And now
faithfully done into English from the Paris ed. by Mr. Lediard
(London: Printed for J. Walthoe, 1732).
10. In March of 1737 Ramsay wrote a second version of this
discourse, longer than the first, in which he proposed the
idea of a great encyclopedia.
11. It should be noted that Ramsay did not create any rite or
487

degree. However, he is thought to have given impetus to

this movement.
12. Concerning this subject, see the article by Michel Piquet:
Le Grade de Rose-Croix: les sources du Nec plus Ultra,
Renaissance traditionnelle, No. 110-111, July 1997.
13. Ren Le Forestier, La Franc-Maonnerie templire et occultiste aux
XVIITe et XIXe sicles (Paris: Aubier-Montaigne, 1970)
Introduction, chap. III.
14. Ren Le Forestier, La Franc-Maonnerie ternplire . . ., op. cit.
Book II, chap. I, pp. 543-555.
15. This magnificent work is currently published by the
Rosicrucian Order, AMORC: Secret Symbols of the Rosicrucians
of the 16th and lyth Centuries (San Jose, CA: English Grand
Lodge of AMORC, 1987).
16. Concerning the Order of the Asian Brethren and SaintGermain, see Arthur Mandel, Le Messie militantHistoire de
Jacob Frank et du mouvement frankiste (Paris: Arch, 1989).
English edition: The Militant Messiah: or, The Flight from the
Ghetto: The Story of Jacob Frank and the Frankist Movement
(Atlantic Highlands, NJ: Humanities Press, 1979). The
celebrated alchemist was also mentioned in the book by
Ren Le Forestier (op. cit.). Paul Chacornac also dedicated a
work, Le Comte de Saint-Germain (Paris: ditions
Traditionnelles, 1947) to this individual, who could not be
discussed further due to a lack of space.
488

17. Pierre Mollier: Le grade maonnique de RoseCroix et le

christianisme: enjeux et pouvoir des symboles, Politica
Hermetica, No. 11, 1997.
18. This text dating from 1765 may be found in the
Bibliothque historique of Paris.
19. Le Forestier, La Franc-Maonnerie templire . . . op cit., pp. 6884 and 157-164 and especially Henry Corbin, who, in Temple
et contemplation, provides a fuller analysis (Paris: Flammarion,
1980) pp. 376-379. English edition: Temple and Contemplation.
Philip Sherrard and Liadain Sherrard, translators (London:
KPI in association with Islamic Publications, 1986).
20. Henry Corbin, Temple et contemplation, op. cit., p. 373.

Chapter 12
MAGNETISM AND EGYPTOSOPHY
1. See his books Le Christianisme dvoil ou Examen des principles et
des effets de la religion chrtienne (1767) and Trait des trois
imposteurs, referring to Moses, Jesus, and Mohammed.
English editions: (1) Christianity Unveiled: Being an Examination
of the Principles and Effects of the Christian Religion. Translated
from the French of Boulanger by W.M. Johnson. (New
York: Gordon Press, 1974). (2) The Treatise of the Three
Impostors and the Problem of Enlightenment: A New Translation of
the Trait des trois imposteurs (1777 edition) with Three Essays in
489

Commentary. Translated by Abraham Anderson. (Lanham,

MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 1997).
2. Antoine Faivre devoted a very complete study to this
subject, Lsotrisme au XVIIe sicle (Paris: Seghers, 1973).
On the same subject, also see the two volumes by Auguste
Viatte, Les Sources occultes du romantisme, illuminisme et thosophie,
1770-1820 (Paris: Honor Champion, 1979).
3. Pierre Fourni, Ce que nous avons t, ce que nous sommes, et ce que
nous deviendrons (London: A. Dulau et Co., 1801) p. 363.
4. liphas Lvi, Histoire de la Magie (Paris: Flix Alcan, 1922)
book VI, chap. I, p. 416. English edition: The History of
Magic. Translated by A.E. Waite (Boston: Weiser Books,
2001).
5. Essai sur les apparitions et opuscules divers (Paris, 1911) p. 94;
and Le Monde comme volont et comme reprsentation (Paris: PUF,
1978) p. 200. English editions: (1)Essay on Spirit Seeing
and Everything Connected Therewith, in Parerga and
Paralipomena, Vol. 1. Trans. E.F.J. Payne (Oxford: Clarendon
Press, 2000). (2) The World as Will and Idea. Translated from
the German by R.B. Haldane and J. Kemp. [Die Welt als
Wille und Vorstellung.] (New York: AMS Press, 1977).
6. Dissertatio physico-medica de planetarum influxu (Vienna, 1766).
This text was published by Robert Amadou in 1971 in a
volume which, under the name of Le Magntisme animal
(ditions Payot), brought together Mesmers writings on
490

this subject. Included in this volume are his Dissertation

physico-mdicale sur Finfluence des plants, Discours sur le
Magntisme, Memoire sur la dcouverte du Magntisme animal, and
his correspondence. English editions of some of Mesmers
writings may be found in Mesmerism: A Translation of the
Original Scientific and Medical Writings of F.A. Mesmer.
Translated and compiled by George Bloch; with an
introduction by E.R. Hilgard (Los Altos, CA: W. Kaufman,
1980). Regarding the history of magnetism, see Bertrand
Mheusts study entitled Somnambulisme et mediumnit, tome I,
Le Dfi du magntisme, and tome II, Le Choc des
sciences psychiques (Le Plessis-Robinson: Institut
Synthlabo, coll. Les Empcheurs de penser en rond,
1999).
7. De Magnetica vulnerum curatione (Parisiis: Vic. Leroy, 1621).
8. De Medicina magnetica (Frankfurt, 1679).
9. Taken from Catchisme du magntisme animal, a text that
Mesmer gave to his followers. See FranzAnton Mesmer, Le
Magntisme animal, op. cit., p. 225.
10. The title of Martinist is used here to designate those who
placed themselves in the lus-Cohens movement of
Martnez de Pasquales, JeanBaptiste Willermoz, and Louis
Claude de SaintMartin. The latter used it in this sense from
1787.
11. For further information concerning this subject, please
491

consult the magnificently illustrated work gyptomania,

lgypte dans lart occiental 1730-1930 (Paris and Ottawa:
Runion des Muses nationaux, 1994) English edition:
Egyptomania: Egypt in Western Art, 1730-1930 (Ottawa:
National Gallery of Canada; Paris: Runion des Musees
Nationaux, 1994); and Jurgis Baltruaitis, La Qut dIsis, essai
sur la legende dun mythe (Paris: Flammarion, 1985).
12. Crata Repoa or Initiations into Ancient Mysteries of the Priests of
Egypt was translated into Russian in 1779. In 1821, Antoine
Bailleul and Ragon translated it intofrench. J. Yarker
published an English translation in Freemasonry of the Ancient
Egyptians from a French translation: Hall, Manly Palmer.
Freemasonry of the Ancient Egyptians, To Which Is Added an
Interprtation of the Crata Repoa Initiation Rite o the Initiation of
Plato. 2nd edition (Los Angeles: The Philosophical Research
Society, Inc, 1952). This text strongly influenced Helena
Petrovna Blavatsky and John Yarker.
13. Concerning this individual and his work, see the book by
Anne-Marie Mercier-Faivre, Un Supplmerit
lEncyclopdie, Le Monde primitif dAntoine Court de Gbelin
(Paris: Honor Champion, 1999).
14. Anne-Marie Mercier-Faivre. Antoine Court de Gbelin et
le mythe des origines, in Charles Porset and Ccile
Rvauger. Franc-maonnerie et religions dans IEurope des
Lumires. Series: Les Dix-Huitimes Sicles (Paris: Honor
Champion Editeur, 1998).
492

15. Concerning the genesis of this work, see the article by

Claude Rtat: Lumires et tnbres du citoyen Dupuis,
Chroniques dhistoire maonnique, No. 50, IDERM, 1999, pp. 568.
16. Arturo Reghini, Cagliostro, documents et tudes (Milan: Arch,
1987) chap. II, pp. 43-68.
17. See the article Cagliostro in Encyclopdie de la francmaonnerie (Livre de Poche, 2000) p. 247.
18. Regarding this general assembly, see Charles Porset, Les
Philalthes et les convents de Paris (Paris: Honor Champion,
1996).
19. See the work of Jean-Philippe Dutoit-Membrini (under the
pseudonym of Keleph Ben Nathan), La Philosophic divine
applique aux lumires naturelles, magiques, astrales, surnaturelles,
cleste et divines. He includes a critical text by Louis Claude de
Saint-Martin which brings forth the dangers of magnetism.
20. This family practiced magnetism until the Terror. See
Clment Tournier, Le Mesmrisme Toulouse (1911).
21. The writings of Marquis de Puysgur were published by
Jean-Pierre Petr under the title of Un somnambule dsordonne?:
journal du traitement magnetique du jeune Hbert (Le PlessisRobinson: Institut Synthlabo). For this edition Jean-Pierre
Peter wrote a historical presentation and a precise critique
of Puysgurs texts.
22. Ren Roussillon, Du Baquet de Mesmer au baquet de S. Freud,
493

une archologie du cadre et de la pratique psychanalytique (Paris:

PUF, 1992).
23. Concerning this subject, see Robert Amadou and Alice Joly,
De lAgent inconnu au Philosophe inconnu (Paris: Denol, 1962)
and Christian Rebisse, LAgent Inconnu, in Pantacle No. 1,
January 1993, pp. 29-34 (French Grand Lodge of AMORC).
24. Les Archives secrtes du Vatican et de la francmaonnerie, histoire
dune condemnation pontificate (Paris: Dervy, 1989).
25. On this subject, see the works by Robert Sol, gypt, passion
franaise (Paris: Le Seuil, 1997) and Les Savants de Bonaparte
(Paris: Le Seuil, 1998).
26. Concerning this rite, see the article by Maurice Caillet, Un
rite maonnique indit Toulouse et Auch en 1806,
Bulletin de la Socit Archologique du Gers, 1st quarter. 1959, pp.
27-57.
27. See the first two chapters of this book.

Chapter 13
IN SEARCH OF THE PSYCHE
1. Dr. Justinus Kerners work, Die Seherin von Prevorst (Stuttgart:
J.G. Cotta, 1829) 2 vols. in octavo, was translated into
French by Dr. Dusart under the direction of Colonel de
Rochas, and published by Chamuel in 1900 under the title
La Voyante de Prevorst. English edition: The Seeress of Prevorst;
494

Being Revelations Concerning the Inner-Life of Man, and the InterDiffusion of a World of Spirits in the One We Inhabit.
Communicated by Justinus Kerner. Translated from the German,
by Mrs. Crowe (London: J.C. Moore, 1845).
2. Horatio W. Dresser, Health and Inner Life (New York and
London: G.P. Putmans Sons, 1906) p. 24.
3. Andrew Jackson Davis wrote his autobiography: The Magic
Staff; An Autobiography of Andrew Jackson Davis (New York:
J.s.Brown; Boston: Bela Marsh, 1857). After his death in
February 1910, the Annales des sciences psychiques
mentioned him in an article entitled La mort du prophte
des spirites anglo-amricains, where he was described as
being as important an individual as Allan Kardec. Arthur
Conandoyle, dedicated chapter III to him in History of
Spiritualism (London: Cassell & Co., 1926).
4. Lon Denis provided numerous details concerning this
affair in the book Dans linvisible, spiritisme et mdiumnit, new
edition corrected and augmented (Paris: Librairie des
sciences psychiques, 1922) pp. 205-210.
5. Allan Kardec, Livre des Esprits, contenant les principes de la
doctrine spirite, sur la nature des esprits, leur manifestation et leurs
rapports avec les hommes, les lois morales, la vie prsente, la vie future
et lavenir de Vhumanite. Ecrit sous la dietee et publie par lordre
desprits suprieurs (Paris: Dentu, 1857). (The book of the
spirits, containing the principles of spiritualist teaching, on
the nature of spirits, their manifestation and relations with
495

people, the moral laws, the present life, the future life and
the life of humanity. Written under dictation and published
by the Order of Superior Spirits.) English edition: The
Spirits Book (Philadelphia: A. Kardec Educational Society,
1996).
6. In 1858, Pierre Lorrain published a French translation of
Zanoni (Hachette et Cie.). In 1924, mile Nourry published
another, more complete version including illustrations by
Robert Lanz. This version was reprinted in French by
Diffusion Rosicrucienne in April 2001. English edition:
Edward George Bulwer-Lytton. Zanoni (San Bernadino, CA:
Borgo Press, 2002).
7. This event was related by liphas Lvi in Dogme et ritual de la
haute magie (Paris: Germer Baillire, 1856) chap. XIII, and
commented upon by Paul Chacornac in liphas Lvi,
rnovateur de loccultisme en France (1810-1875) (Pahs:
Chacornac frres, 1926) chap. X. English edition of Dogme et
ritual: Transcendental Magic, Its Doctrine and Ritual. Translated,
annotated and introduced by Arthur Edward Waite. (New
York: S. Weiser, 1972).
8. Secret Symbols of the Rosicrucians of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth
Centuries (Boston: Occult Publishing Company, 1888). This
book was published in French as Symholes secrets des
Rosicruciens des XVIe et XVIIe sicles (Le Tremblay, Diffusion
Rosicrucienne, 1997). Current English edition: Secret Symbols
of the Rosicrucians of the 16th and 17th Centuries (San Jose, CA:
496

English Grand Lodge of AMORC, 1987).

9. Carl Louis von Grasshoff (1865-1919), alias Max Heindel, a
German residing in Los Angeles, became an important
officer of the Theosophical Society. He claimed to have
encountered a Rosicrucian during a trip to Germany in
1907. The latter may very well have been Rudolf Steiner,
who, during this period, gave a series of lectures on
Rosicrucianism in Leipzig and Munich. Two years later Max
Heindel published The Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception (1909), a
work strongly influenced by the thinking of Rudolf Steiner,
to whom this book was dedicatedalthough this dedication
was removed in later editions. Max Heindel felt that he had
been chosen by the Rosicrucian Brothers to replace another
person who was proven unworthy by the Fraternity.
According to Ren Gunon, although this person was not
named, it evidently involved Rudolf Steiner (see Gunon,
Ren, Le Thosophisme, histoire d une pseudo-religion, chap.
XXII). That is why Max Heindel founded The Rosicrucian
Fellowship in Seattle in 1909. After his death in 1919, his
wife, Augusta Fross, a celebrated astrologer, succeeded him
and emphasized the teaching as a group on astrology. Max
Heindels Rosicrucian Fellowship then gave rise to another
group led by Jan Leene (18961968), better known by the
pseudonym of Jan Van Rijckenborg. This director of Max
Heindels Rosicrucian Fellowship for the Netherlands
founded the Aquarius Bond, after having separated from
497

Max Heindels group. He subsequently founded the Order

of Manicheaens, which later became the Lectorium
Rosicrucianum, and finally took the name of Golden
Rosycross. This group tries to combine two completely
antagonistic currents of thought: Catharism and
Rosicrucianism.
10. These facts are taken from Peter Davidsons essay,
Origines et object de lH.B. of L., published in H.B. of L.,
textes et documents secrets de la Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor
(Paris-Milan: Arch, 1988). Regarding this strange order, see
the book by Jocelyn Godwin, Christian Chanel, and John P.
Deveney, The Hermetic Brotherhood of LuxorInitiatic and
historical documents of an Order of Practical Occultism (York
Beach, ME: Samuel Weiser, 1995).
11. Concerning this subject, see Satprem, Mre, ou le matrialisme
divin (Paris: Robert Laffont, 1976) chap. VIII and IX.
English edition: Mother, or the Divine Materialism (Paris:
Institut de Recherche, 1979) and also Volume 1 of Satprem,
Mother (New York: Institute for Evolutionary Research,
1977-1987). 3 volumes.
12. Ibid., chap. VIII and IX; and Sujata Nahar, Les Chroniques de
Mre (Paris: Buehet/Chastel, 2000) tome III, p. 43. English
edition: Mothers Chronicles (Paris: Institut de recherches
volutives, 1985-) Book 3.
13. The major work of Frederick William Henry Myers, Human
Personality and Its Survival of Bodily Death (London: 1903) was
498

published in French as La Personnalit humaine, sa survivance,

ses manifestations supra-normales (Alcan,1909). This book was
reprinted in the collection Les Essentiels de la mtapsychique
(Chambry: Exergue, 2000), and in a new English edition:
Human Personality and Its Survival of Bodily Death. Edited by
Susy Smith; foreword by Aldous Huxley (Mineola, NY:
Dover Publications, 2004).
14. See the impressive bibliography provided by Bertrand
Mheust, in tome 2 of Somnambulisme et mdiumnit (Paris:
Institut Synthlabo, 1999) in the series Collection Les
Empcheurs de penser en rond pp. 523-577.
15. Hector Durville, Thories et procds du magntisme (Paris:
Librairie du Magntisme, 1903) p. 15-18. English edition:
The Theory and Practice of Human Magnetism (Chicago: Psychic
Research Co., 1900).

Chapter 14
THE ROSE GARDEN OF THE MAGI
1. Individuals in this movement also dabbled in such subjects
as the return to nature and primitive cults, nationalism,
anarchism, the worship of the beautiful human body and of
exceptional races.
2. Philippe Baillet, Monte Verit (1900-1920) ou la
complexit du romantisme anticapitaliste, in Politica
499

Hermetica (2000) no. 14, pp. 199-218.

3. Letter written on September 12, 1921, to H. Spencer Lewis.
AMORC Archives.
4. Letter written on June 10, 1921, by Thodor Reuss to H.
Spencer Lewis. AMORC Archives.
5. Les Rites maonniques de Misraimet Memphis (Paris:
Maisonneuve & Rose, 1986) p. 78.
6. Laffaire Thodor Reuss in Acacia, January-June 1907, pp.
27-28, 202-204, 293-303, 387-389, 466-467.
7. Dal Monte Verit, Congresso Anazionale Cooper O.T.O.,
in the Italian newspaper Dovere, August 28, 1917.
8. In 1898, Mathers published an English translation of La
magie sacre que Dieu donna Moyse, Aaron, David, Salomon, et a
d autres Prophts, et qui enseigne la vraie sapience divine, laisse par
Abraham, fils de Simon, son fils Lamech, traduite de Ihebreu en
latin a Venise en 1458, a book that dealt with angelic magic.
English edition: Abraham ben Simon, of Worms, The book
of the Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage, as Delivered by
Abraham the few unto His son Lamech, A.D. 1458. Translated
from the original Hebrew into the French, and now
rendered from the latter language into English, from a
unique and valuable ms. in the Bibliothque de Parsenal at
Paris, by S. L. MacGregor Mathers. (New York: Dover
Publications, 1975).
9. For fuller information regarding this individual, please
500

consult Christophe Beaufils, Josphin Pladan 1858-1918,

Essai sur une maladie du lyrisme (Grenoble: Jrme Million,
1993); and douard Berthelot, La Pense et les secrets du Sr
Josphin Pladan (Lausanne: ditions rosicruciennes, 19521958) vols I-IV.
10. Although it was subsequent to the books of Eliphas Lvi,
this work, a vritable encyclopedia of esotericism
comprising 666 pages, far exceeds the others on these
points. English edition: Pitois, Christian. The History and
Practice of magic. Translated by James Kirkup and Julian Shaw.
Supplementary articles by Mir Bashir, Margery Lawrence,
and Julian Shaw. Emendations and notes by Charles R.
Cammell [and others]. Newly translated from the French
with additional material by modern authorities. Edited and
rev. by Ross Nichols. 2 volumes in 1 (Secaucus, NJ: Citadel
Press, 1972).
11. Letter of November 15, 1884, to Josphin Pladan. Lettres
indites de Stanislas de Guaita au Sr Josphin Pladan, edited by
douard Bertholet and mile Dantinne (Neuchatel:
ditions rosicruciennes, 1952).
12. He published Les Harmonies de ltre exprimes par les nombres
(1844). Concerning this author, see Robert Amadou, Un
grand mconnu: labb Paul Lacuria, le Pythagore
franais, Atlantis, 1981, Nos. 314 and 315; Labb Paul
Lacuria et les harmonies de ltre, Atlantis, Nov.-Dec.
1981, No. 317. It is probable that this individual served as
501

the model for Josphin Pladan when creating Alta, one of

the main characters of Vice suprme.
13. Josphin Pladan, Comment on deviant Artiste (Paris, 1894) p.
XXIII.
14. The biography of Viscount Louis-Charlesdouard de
Lapasse was recounted by Count Fernand de Ressguier,
loge de M. le vicomte de Lapasse in Jeux floraux
(Toulouse: Imprimerie Douladoure, 1869).
15. Viscount de Lapasse, Essai sur la conservation de la vie (Paris:
Victor Masson, 1860) p. 59.
16. Firmin Boissin, Visionnaires et illumins (Paris:
Liepmannssohn et Dufour, 1869) p. 17.
17. See Excentriques disparus, which Firmin Boissin published
under the pseudonym of Simon Brugal (Paris, Privas, and
Toulouse: A. Savine, 1890) p p. 75-83.
18. See Chapter XII, The Friends of the Desert.
19. Lettres indites de Stanislas de Guaita . . . op. cit., p. 84.
20. Stanislas de Guaita, Au seuil du mystre, Essais de sciences
maudites (Paris: Georges Carr, 1890) p. 158
21. Pladan, Josphin, LInitiation sentimentale (Paris, dinger,
1887) p. II, dedicated to Stanislas de Guaita, and Salon de la
Rose-Croix, rgle et monitoire (Paris: E. Dentu, 1891) p. 28.
22. Josphin Pladan used a Latin expression, adapted from
Psalm 115, which varies according to his writings. It does
502

not correspond to the expression of this psalm which

generally reads: Non nobis, Domine, non nobis, sed nomini tuo da
gloriam in other words, Not unto us, O LORD, not unto
us, but unto Thy name give glory.
23. Constitution de la Rose-Croix, le Temple et le Graal (Paris, 1893)
article 1, p. 21.
24. Charles Baudelaire, Correspondances, Les Fleurs du mal.
English edition: The Flowers of Evil. Translated with notes by
James McGowan; with an introduction by Jonathan Culler
(Oxford & New York: Oxford University Press, 1998).
Concerning the relationship between esoterieism and poetry
(Nerval, Baudelaire, Poe, etc.) see Rolland de Renville,
Sciences maudites et potes maudits (llsle-sur-la-Sorgue: Le Bois
dOrion, 1997).
25. Concerning this author, see A.W. Raitt, Villiers de IlsleAdamet le movement symboliste, especially chap. Ill,
Loccultisme (Paris: Jos Corit, 1965) p. 185-216; and E.
Drougard, Villiers de Ilsle-Adamet liphas Lvi, Revue
beige de philologie et dhistoire, tome X. No. 3, 1931. In English,
also see his biography: The Life of Villiers de Ilsle-Adam
(Oxford: Clarendon Press; New York: Oxford University
Press, 1981).
26. Salon de la Rose+Croix, rgle et monitoire (Paris: E. Dentu, 1891)
p. 8.
27. This episode of Rosicrucian history will only be summarized
503

here, as it was described at length in Rose-Croix, No. 179,

autom ne 1996, pp. 2-18 (French Grand Lodge of
AMORC).
28. Concerning this musician, see Esotrik Satie, Rose-Croix,
No. 168, hiver 1993, pp. 31-37 (French Grand Lodge of
AMORC).
29. The Count de Larmandie, one of the organizers of these
Salons, wrote LEntracte idal, Histoire de la Rose-Croix (Paris:
Bibliothque Chacornac, 1903), a book that traces the
history of each Salon.
30. The word kaloprosopie carnes from kalos beautiful and
prsopon person. For Josphin Pladan, this science was
that of the embellishment of the human appearance or,
better yet, the relief of moral character by the usual
movements . . . . He who realizes the exteriority of an idea
realizes the inferiority. Consequently, he accorded great
importance to sartorial appearance, of which each element
was in correspondence with an inner quality. See LArt
idaliste et mystique, book I, Les sept arts ou modes
ralisateurs de la beaut, les arts de la personnalit (Paris:
Chamuel, 1894) pp. 55-73.
31. On the connections between esotericism and art in Belgium,
see the study by Sbastien Clerbois, Linfluence de la
pense occultiste sur le symbolisme beige: bilan critique
dune affinit spirituelle la fin du XIXe sicle,
(A.R.I.E.S., Netherlands, Brill Academic publishers, 2002)
504

vol. II, No. 2, pp. 173-192. This article emphasizes the role
of Kumris, a group founded by Francis Vurgey, a follower
of Josphin Pladan from Nancy.
32. Les Compagnons de la hirophanie (Paris: Dobon, 1937) p. 22.
33. Roland Edighoffer, Johann Valentin Andrae, Rose-Croix et
socit idale (Paris: Arma Artis, 1982) pp. 207-208; and Paul
Arnold, Histoire des Rose-Croix (Paris: Mercure de France,
1955) pp. 72-81.

Chapter 15
THE FIRST ROSICRUCIANS OF AMERICA
1. The magazine The American Rosae Crucis was published from
1916 to 1920. Cromaat, published from 1919 to 1921, was
replaced in January 1921 by The Triangle. In May 1925 the
latter became The Mystic Triangle, which became, in October
1929, The Rosicrucian Digest. Most of the magazines were
published monthly, and all together they constitute a
collection of more than 1,000 issues.
2. Julius Friedrich Sache, The German Pietists of Provincial
Pennsylvania 1694-1708, pp. 37-39.
3. Arthur E. Waite, The Brotherhood of the Rosy Cross (London,
1924) p. 601.
4. Serge Hutin, Les disciples anglais de Jacob Boehme aux XVIIe et
XVIIIe sicles (Paris: Denoel, coll. la Tour Saint-Jacques,
505

1960) p. 119.
5. Concerning this movement, see Les pitismes lge classique,
crise, conversion, institutions, Anne Lagny, editor (Villeneuve
dAscq: Presses universitaires du Septentrion, collection
Racines et modles, 2001).
6. Concerning the troubled period following the publication of
the Rosicrucian manifestos, see Chapter 9, White
Mountain.
7. Antoine Faivre, Lsotrisme au X VIIIe sicle (Paris: Seghers,
1973) pp. 57-58.
8. Regarding this individual, see Chapter 6, Johann Arndt.
9. A spiritual movement arising around the end of the 14th
century in the Netherlands under the influence of Gerard
Groote (1340-1384) and in an atmosphere permeated with
the spirituality of Meister Eckhart and Ruysbroek. The
Devotio Moderna seeks to orient the spiritual life toward
personal prayer and inner asceticism. This movement was
also active in France and Germany until the 16th century.
The Imitation of Christ, written by Thomas Kempis
(1379/80-1471), a book characteristic of this movement, is,
after the Bible, the most read work among Christians.
10. Roland Edighoffer, Utopie et sodalit selon Johann
Valentin Andreae, Gnostica 3Esotrisme, gnose et imaginaire
symbolique, mlanges offerts Antoine Faivre, Richard Caron,
Joscelyn Godwin, Wouter J. Hanegraaff, and Jean-Louis
506

Vieillard-Baron (Leuven: Peeter, 2001) pp. 373-388.

11. Regarding the relationships between esotericism and
pietism, see Pierre Deghaye, De Paracelse Thomas Mann, les
avatars de lhermtisme allemande (Paris: Dervy, 2000); and by
the same author, the article Pitisme Dictionnaire critique de
lsotrisme, Jean Servier, editor (Paris: PUF, 1998) pp. 10441046.
12. See Chapter 4, The Age of the Holy Spirit.
13. Eleonor von Merlau (Johanna Eleonora Petersen), GlaubensGesprache mit Gott (Frankfurt/Leipzig, 1691) and Johann
Wilhelm Petersen, Regnum Christi (1698) [Nubes testium
veritatis de Regno Christi glorioso in septima tuba futuro testantium.
Frankfurt, 1696].
14. Johann Albrecht Bengel, Ordo temporum (Stuttgart, 1741)
and Cyclus, sive de anno magno Solis, Lunae, Stellarum consideratio
(1745). His reflections on the meaning of the number 666 in
Revelations led him to the conclusion that humanity had
been living since 1143 under the influence of the Beast and
that the final revelation was near. He felt that the year 1834
would see the return of Christ and the establishment of the
Millennium.
15. Antoine Faivre, lie Artiste ou le Messie des Philosophes
de la Nature, Aries, Vol. II, No. 2; and Vol III, No. 1
(Leiden and Boston: Brill Academia Publishers, 2002 and
2003) pp. 119-152.
507

16. Concerning the different aspects of Boehmism in this

country, see Serge Hutin, Les disciples anglais de Jacob Boehme,
op. cit.
17. Les Disciples anglais . . ., op. cit., pp. 119-120.
18. In 1652 the Quaker movement arose around the English
preacher George Fox (1624-1691), and the Mennonites
were Anabaptist followers of the Dutch reformer Menno
Simonsz (1460-1561).
19. In regards to alchemy, Julius Friedrich Sachse shows a
connection between Heinrich Melchior Miihlenberg and the
Pietists of Halle. See The German Pietists . . . , op. cit., p. 148.
20. Johannes Kelpius, A short, easy, and comprehensive method of
prayer. This treatise was published by Christopher Witt,
Philadelphia, 1761.
21. Heinrich Bernhard Kster was himself the author of a
millenialist text, De Resurrectione Imperii ternitatus (1697).
22. Die Wahrhaffte und vollkommene Bereitung des Philos. Steins der
Brderschafft aus dem Orden des Gulden und rosen Kreutzes . . .
(Breslau, 1710).

Chapter 16
HARVEY SPENCER LEWIS
1. Lewis, Ralph Maxwell. Cosmic Mission Fulfilled (San Jose, CA:
Supreme Grand Lodge of AMORC, 1978, 1966) p. 32.
508

The biographical facts relating to the Lewis family in this

chapter are taken from this work. Other information comes
from Harvey Spencer Lewis autobiography, a document
kept in the archives of the Rosicrucian Order, AMORC.
2. The astounding faculties of this medium, who had been
discovered by William James in 1885, were studied by the
Society for Psychical Research of London. One of its
members, Sir Oliver Lodge, discussed this woman in La
Survivance humaine, etude de facultes non encore reconnues (Paris,
Felix Alcan, 1912) p. 150-216. English edition: The Survival of
Man; A Study in Unrecognized Human Faculty (New York:
George H. Doran Company, 1920). Regarding Lonora
Piper, see also Bertrand Mheust, Somnambulisme et
mdiumnit, tome II, Le choc des sciences psychiques (Le
Plessis-Robinson: Institut Synthlabo, coll. Les
Empcheurs de penser en rond, 1999) pp. 63-68.
3. See Chapter 13, In Search of the Psyche.
4. The Kybalion; A Study of the Hermetic Philosophy of Ancient Egypt
and Greece, by Three Initiates (Chicago: The Yogi Publication
Society, 1908, 1989). The Kybalion was translated into
French by Andr Durville and published in 1917 by Henri
Durville, with a preface by Albert Louis Caillet. The latter
let it be understood that William Walker Atkinson was not
unaware of its publication. Indeed, not only did this text
reiterate the very themes that he had elaborated upon in his
book, but it was edited by the same editor and included in
509

the same collection. The author of Manuel bibliographique des

sciences psychiques ou occults was well aware of the subject
seeing that he was one of the few Frenchmen, with the
Durvilles, who was enthusiastic about New Thought. In
Traitment mental (1912), he made a strong case for the
Kybalion and mentioned its basic principles.
5. Let us add here that William Walker Atkinson published in
1918, under the pseudonym of Magus Incognito, a book
entitled The Secret Doctrine of the Rosicrucians (Advanced
Thought Publishing Co.). The author presented seven series
of so-called Rosicrucian aphorisms, with long
commentaries. These involve a kind of mixture of Western
and Eastern esoteric doctrines, most of which come from
The Secret Doctrine by Helena Petrovna Blavatsky.
6. I see New Thought as being truly the only religious
movement of our time founded on mysticism that cando
good for the majority of humans, stated Hermann de
Keyserling in Journal de voyage dun philosophe (Paris: Bartillat,
1996) p. 187.
7. William James, LExperience religieuse, essai de psychologie
descriptive, preface by Emile Boutroux, chap. IV,
Loptimisme religieux (Paris: Alcan, 1906). The work was
reprinted under the title Les Formes multiples de Iexprience
religieuse, preface by Bertrand Mheust (Chambry: ditions
Exergue, 2001). English reprint edition: James, William,
1842-1910. Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human
510

Nature. With a foreword by Michael James and new

introductions by Eugene Taylor and Jeremy Carrette
(London New York: Routledge, 2002).
8. See the books of Albert Louis Caillet, such as Traitement
mental et culture spirituelle (1912) or La Science de la vie (1913) in
which he presents and analyzes the points of view of
various New Thought authors, as well as his Manuel
bibliographique des sciences psychiques ou occultes (1912), where he
devotes considerable space to books relating to this subject.
9. Unfortunately no detailed biography has been written about
Hector Durville. However, the reader may wish to consult
Hector Durville, sa vie, son oeuvre, which his son, Henri
Durville, wrote as an introduction to his Brviaire de la sant
(Paris: Durville, 1923) pp. 5-33.
10. His sons, Andr, Jacques, Gaston, and Henri, continued his
work. Henri, who succeeded him, was the author of many
bestsellers, such as La Science secrete and Cours de magtisme
personnel. After World War I, the school founded by Hector
Durville became, under the direction of his son Henri, the
Ordre Eudiaque, an Egypt-style initiatory movement. The
Durvilles were also publishers, and as such they printed
French translations of many New Thought texts, such as
the celebrated Kybalion and the books of Prentice Mulford,
and William Walker Atkinson.
11. Prentice Mulford (1834-1891) published a whole series of
booklets for the celebrated White Cross Library, in
511

Philadelphia. His book Your Forces and How to Use Them

(1888) was described by Albert Louis Caillet as a vritable
treatise of practical magic, very clear in what concerns
psychic culture. He proposed a method adapted to all the
practices of daily living that could provide happiness and
riches to the person who followed it. This book was
translated into French by Sdir and published by Chacornac
in 1897 It was then reprinted in 1905-1907 in three
volumes, under the title Vos forces et le moyen de les utiliser.
Andr Durville also published a translation around 1933,
Les Forces mentales, for the Eudiac Library of the ditions
Durville.
12. Dr. Isaac Kauffmann Funk, the director of Funk and
Wagnalls Publishing Co., became active in psychic research
and spiritualism after engaging in an experiment with
Lonora Piper, through whom he received a message from
Dr. Richard Hodgson, one week after the death of the latter
in 1905. Dr. James Hyslop, of the American Society for
Psychical Research of Boston, relates these experiences of
Isaac Kauffmann Funk in Contact with the Other World (1919).
13. This association had two sections: one involved in abnormal
psychological phenomena, and the other in psychic
research. Only the latter was truly active and it worked in
conjunction with the French doctors J.-M. Charcot and P.
Janet.
14. Albert Louis Caillet described at length this important work
512

in Manuel bibliographique des sciences psychiques ou occultes

(Dorbon, 1912) Tome II, No. 5298; and in Traitment mental
et culture spirituelle (Vigot, 1912 and 1922) pp. 282, 316-321.

Chapter 17
THE VOYAGE TO THE EAST
1. The information was taken from various sources: Mrs. May
Banks-Stacey, Matre, Rosae Crucis America, The American
Rosae Crucis, Vol. I, No. 1, January 1916, p. 17; The
Supreme Matre Emeritus Raised to the Higher Realms,
Cromaat D, 1918, pp. 26-27; and Harvey Spencer Lewis,
The Authentic and Complete History of the Ancient and
Mystical Order Rosae Crucis, The Mystic Triangle, January
1928, pp. 335-336. Certain facts were taken from the
correspondence between Delia Stacey Muller (May BanksStaceys daughter-in-law) and Harvey Spencer Lewis, in
1930. These documents are part of the archives of the
Supreme Grand Lodge of AMORC.
2. Captain Cromwell Stacey, of the 21st American Infantry,
was the man who captured Garcia and killed the head of the
insurrection in Samar, in the Philippines. Also, during his
stay, he was named precidente of Parang.
3. The information provided by her daughter-in-law does not
allow us to place these travels with accuracy. However, it
seems that she began to travel after her husbands deathin
513

other words, beginning in 1886, and up to 1906or even

1912. She probably also traveled alone, without her son.
4. Unfortunately we do not know the dates corresponding to
May Banks-Staceys entry into Helena Petrovna Blavatskys
group. Without a doubt it must have occurred in the period
after her husbands death in 1886. It is known that the Inner
Circle functioned during two periodsthe first between
1884 and 1888, and the second between 1888 and 1891.
Therefore, she became a member of the Theosophy Society
before 1891. It is probable that she quit after 1891 that is,
after the death of its founder, a period when this society
experienced certain dissensions.
5. In his book La Vie de Vivekananda (Paris: Stock, 1930),
Romain Rolland explains the context of this voyage and
retraced the activities of Vivekananda in the United States.
English edition: The Life of Vivekananda and the Universal
Gospel. Translated from the original French by E. F.
Malcolm-Smith (Mayavati, Almora, Himalayas, Advaita
ashrama, 1953).
6. Romain Rolland pointed out the relationship between
certain elements presented in Science and Health, Mrs. Eddys
famous work, and the fundamental concepts of Hindu
Vedantism. See Romain Rolland, op. cit., pp. 60-62
7. Goulds History of Freemasonry Throughout the World, Vol. VI
(New York: Charles Scribners Sons, 1936) p. 5.

514

8. Masonry of adoption i.e., Masonry for women arose in

France in 1740. It drew its symbolism from the Old
Testament, and originally its activities were primarily
dedicated to charity work. The work of Louis Guillemain de
Saint-Victor, La Vraie Maonnerie dadoption (1779), defining
its structure, which, depending upon the rite, had four to
ten degrees. Eastern Star, founded in 1830 and revised
around 1860 by Rob Morris (18181888), is one of the most
important obediences in the world. Although including both
sexes, its symbolism is essentially feminine as it refers to
such illustrious biblical figures as Eve, Ada, Martha, Ruth,
and Esther.
9. Annie Besant created this organization to facilitate the
mission of Alcyone in other words, Jiddu Krishnamurti
(1895-1986), the son of a dignitary of the Theosophic
Society, who she saw as the incarnation of Matreye, the
Great Teacher. In 1922, the young Krishnamurti, who did
not wish to play the role of messiah, rebelled and publicly
broke with the Theosophists.
10. As in Freemasonry of adoption, the lodge of the Manhattan
Mystic Circle possessed four cardinal points: Asia (East),
Africa (South), Europe (West), and America (North). The
sisters wore a white satin apron and a jewel representing a
flaming heart with a pomegranate in its center. The jewel
worn by the Illustrious Mistress depicted a ladder of seven
steps decorated by five golden stars; that of the Inspector, a
515

cross surmounted by a white dove; and that of the

Perceptor, a knot of gold bent, with an arrow. For further
details, see Constitution and by-laws of the Manhattan Mystic
Circle, Lodge No. 1 O.M. (New York: John Meyer, n.d.).
11. Letter written to Harvey Spencer Lewis by Delia Stacey
Muller on November 4, 1930.
12. As we will see later, Harvey Spencer Lewis used this term
quite frequently to designate members of the 18th degree of
Freemasonry, important members of various initiatic
organizations, and even mystics whose ideas he felt were
related to the Rosicrucian ideal.
13. Starting from this legacy and following an important
mystical experience had in Cairo, Demetrius Platon Semelas
established in 1915 the Ordre du Lys et de lAigle.
Concerning Demetrius Platon Semelas, see Christian
Rebisse, Le Pantacle et le Lys, Pantacle, No. 4, 1996, pp.
35-48 (French Grand Lodge of AMORC.)
14. Georges Lagrze had been mandated by Papus to settle
some problems relating to the organization of Martinism in
Egypt. Although the archives we have consulted accurately
relate the initiation conferred on Georges Lagrze, we have
found no trace of the one that Lagrze had transmitted to
Papus. Thus, this transmission seems to be legendary.
Robert Ambelain claimed afterwards to have received this
initiation from the hands of Georges Lagrze. However,
considering how he criticized Demetrius Platon Semelas in
516

his book Le Martinisme contemporain et ses vritables origines, this

is rather doubtful (Les Cahiers du Destin, 1948) p. 13.
15. On July 23, 1913, Eugne Dupr wrote a long letter to
Harvey Spencer Lewis. This document was discovered in
Ralph Maxwell Lewis home in 1996, after the death of his
wife. The tone of this letter is quite friendly and makes it
apparent that the two men had been dealing with one
another for some time. In this letter, Eugne Dupr
provided H. Spencer Lewis with all of the necessary
information for the establishment of a Martinist lodge in the
United States. He also attached the rituals of various degrees
of the order, as well as a certificate of the Martinist S.I. and
Free Initiator degrees. Harvey Spencer Lewis was also
informed that the mystical name of Moshea (or Hoshe) and
the ciphered number DPR D 24 A had been attributed to
him. It needs to be mentioned that H. Spencer Lewis was
undoubtedly unable to proceed with this project due to the
onset of World War I. It was only during the establishment
of FUDOSI, in 1934, that he envisioned establishing
Martinism alongside the Rosicrucian Order, AMORC.
16. The Future (New York: Future Publishing Co. of F.T.
McIntyre).
17. In these articles What Has the Future in Store for You,
an article that drew the horoscope of the United States for
the year 1908 (pp. 46-49) and Department of Astrology
and Astral Sciences (pp. 52-54)he showed himself to be
517

a good astrologer.
18. The subjects treated in the Journal du magntisme, the
magazine of the Socit Magntique de France, correspond
completely with the concerns that Harvey Spencer Lewis
had at this time. Much of this magazine is composed of
bibliographical notices and of a listing of books published
by the Durville publishing house. It was distributed in many
countries. The geographical location of Henri Durvilles
bookshop and its description may correspond to some of
the information provided by Lewis in his narrative.
19. Lewis, Harvey Spencer, A Pilgrims Journey to the East,
The American Rosae Crucis, May 1916, pp. 12-27.
20. During this period, following the affair of the renewed
Templar Order, these two men were cool towards Papus.
Indeed, in 1908, during a spiritualistic sance conducted by
Martinists meeting in a hotel located at 17 Rue des Canettes,
they received in writing the mission of founding of a
Templar order whose leader would be Ren Gunon. Thus
was born the renewed Templar Order, whose creation
would bring about the exclusion of Ren Gunon from the
Martinist Order. It was dissolved in 1911, at the time that
Dujols had fallen gravely ill. It is interesting to note that
among the seven degrees of this order, the fourth was
curiously called the Rose-Croix of Egypt.
21. It should be noted that before taking over the Librairie du
Merveilleux, Pierre Dujols was a journalist in Toulouse. The
518

manuscript of the text mentioned here was written around

1912. It was published by La Table dEmeraude in 1991,
with an introduction and some commentaries by J.-F.
Gibert. The excerpt citd is found on page 70 of this book.
Another version of this text was brought out by Genvieve
Dubois under the title of Les Nobles Ecrits de Pierre Dujols et de
son frre Antoine Dujols de Valois (ditions Le Mercure
dauphinois, 2000) from the manuscript found in the
municipal library of Lyons (Ms 5488).
22. This congress took place on June 7-10, 1908. It included a
white Martinist assembly on the premises of the Droit
Humain, in the presence of laymen and journalists. The
news accounts were published in Le Matin, June 8, 9, 10;
Lclair, June 8; Le Figaro, June 7-8; LHumanit, June 8;
Libert, June 7; and Le Monde illustr, June 13. Papus wrote a
book relating to the activities of this event: Compte rendu
complet des travaux du congrs et du convent maonnique spiritualiste
(Paris: Librairie Hernretique, 1910).
23. The city archivist was Franois Galabert (18731957). Apart
from his professional activities, he was a member of
numerous scholarly groups, such as the Socit
darchologie du Midi, founded by Alexandre Du Mge.
Jean Coppolani paid homage to him in this associations
bulletin: Notice sur la vie et les travaux de M. Franois
Galabert, scretaire gnral de la Socit, quatrime srie,
tome II, 1954-1966, Tarbes, 1967, pp. 32-36.
519

24. Clovis Lassalle sent this letter to Harvey Spencer Lewis at a

time when the latter was still in France. The importance of
Clovis Lassalles role is underscored by the fact that this
letter was found in Lewis personal papers, bearing the
inscription important historical documents.
25. Clovis Lassalle also knew members of the Socit
archologie du Midi de la France, seeing that he worked
with many of them. Notably, he collaborated with Franois
Galabert in producing the Album de palographie et de
diplomatique, published in 1913, 1928, and 1933.
26. From all evidence, and contrary to what certain individuals
have claimed, this tower is not the donjon of the Capitole,
as Lewis left this building and took a taxi that took him out
the city and to the place of his initiation. However, it should
be noted that it symbolizes for many Rosicrucians the place
where AMORCs founder was initiated into Rosicrucianism.
Unfortunately the description he provided is insufficient for
us to pinpoint its exact location. Furthermore, there exist a
great number of towers not far from the center of
Toulouse. Concerning this subject, see Alex Coutet,
Toulouse, ville artistique, plaisante et curieuse (Toulouse: Librairie
Richard, 1926), a book for which Clovis Lassalle provided
photographs of the monuments.
27. Among Clovis Lassalles contributions, it should be noted
that he worked with Abb Breuil, Dr. L. Capitan, D.
Peyroni in publications concerning many prehistoric
520

grottoes, and that he collaborated, for the Socit dtudes

archologique du Midi, with mile Cartailhac and Franois
Galabert (both of whom were members of the Academy of
Jeux Floraux). Let us add that he received a gold medal at
the Universal Exposition of Paris in 1900.
28. This letter, as well as its envelope bearing the Toulouse
postmark, are found in the archives of the Supreme Grand
Lodge of AMORC.
29. This conference was organized by the magazine Renaissance
traditionnelle, in Paris, in October 2001. The text we are
referring to was published as Les origines de la francmaonnerie: trois approches, by Antoine Faivre in
Renaissance traditonnelle, No. 129, 2002, pp. 5-12. Roger
Dachez also touched upon this subject in Sources et
fonctions de lhistoire secrt chez W illermoz, dans la
maonnerie du XVIIIe sicle, Lhistoire cache entre histoire
rvle et histoire critique (Lausanne: LAge dHomme, coll.
Politica Hermetica, No. 10, 1996) pp. 79-89.
30. Roland Edighoffer, Les Rose-Croix (Paris: Presses
Universitaires de France, coll. Que sais-je?, 1982 and
1986) p. 108.

Chapter 18
THE ANCIENT AND MYSTICAL ORDER ROSAE
CRUCIS
521

1. American Philomathic Journal, Vol. III, October 1912, p. 7.

The American Philomathic Association had its headquarters
at 45 West 34th Street, in New York City.
2. La Socit philomathique de Paris, edited by Andr Thomas
(Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1990).
3. The American Rosae Crucis, H. Spencer Lewis, F.R.C., Vol.
1, No. 2, February 1916, p. 17. On the professional calling
card that Lewis used at this time, and on which were found
his various titles, may be read the name of the Socit
philomatique de Verdun, France. This society was a branch
of the Socit philomatique vosgienne, as can be seen on
this organizations bulletin for the years 1899-1900.
4. Concerning this unusual individual, see Le Pantacle et le
Lys, Pantacle, No. 4, 1996, pp. 3548. (French Grand Lodge
of AMORC.)
5. During World War I, Semelas was living in France and
became a friend of Papus. Since the Kabbalistic Order of
the Rose-Croix had become dormant, Papus tried to replace
it with another organization. It should be remembered that
this order constituted the Martinist Orders inner circle. In
1916, Papus seems to have envisioned replacing it, with
Semelas assistance, with the Order of the Rose-Croix
dOrient. Papus death, in October 1916, prevented the
realization of this project, although one of his successors,
Victor Blanchard, also attempted to bring it tofruition.

522

6. See Chapter 17, Egypt.

7. Harvey Spencer Lewis himself described the first meetings
of AMORC in The Authentic and Complete History of the
Ancient and Mystical Order Rosae Crucis, The American
Rosae Crucis, July 1916, Vol. I, No. 7, pp. 11-15.
8. On March 19, 1915, Lewis sent a sample of this document
to the New York Public Library, in a small notefile entitled
History of the Rosicrucian Order in America, original
documents with annotations by the Grand Master General,
H. Spencer Lewis, A.D. 1915. This file contains an article
published in The Globe on February 24 and the document
entitled American Pronunziamento Number One.
Unfortunately at some unknown time some crude
handwritten notes were added to the latter so as to distort
their meaning. Another example of this Pronunziamento is
most fortunately in AMORCs archives (See Fig. 84).
9. The Latin word imperator, which means he who
commands. This name is formed from the verb imperare
which means to command, order. The term Imperator thus
designates a person who commands the Order, in the sense
of assuming higher responsibility. From an esoteric point of
view, it also evokes the concept of mastering, the deed of
being the master of self. The oldest known mention of
the office of Imperator in Rosicrucianism is found in the
book by Sincerus Renatus (Samuel Richter), Die Wahrhaffte
und vollkommene Bereitung des Philos. Steins der Brderschafft aus
523

dem Orden des Gulden und Rosen Kreutzes (Breslau, 1710).

10. See Chapter 11, The Golden Rosy Cross of the Ancient
System.
11. Rosicrucian Initiation, A Sealed Book of Instructions for
Neophyte Initiates, the first informational pam phlet
published by AMORC, The Temple Lectures, New York,
1917, p. 16.
12. Concerning this matter, see the article of the Daily Post of
Birmingham dated July 15, 1903, p. 3, which states that
Alfred E. Saunders was sentenced to pay alimony to a 20year-old woman the daughter of one of his friends
after having made her pregnant.
13. Jean Chevalier and Alain Gheerbrant, Dictionnaire des
symboles, mythes, rves, coutumes, gestes, formes, figures, couleurs,
nombres (Paris: Robert Laffont, coll. Bouquins, 1990) p.
665. English edition: A Dictionary of Symbols. Translated from
the French by John Buchanan-Brown. (Oxford; Cambridge,
MA: Blackwell, 1994).

Chapter 19
INTERNATIONAL ALLIANCES
1. A large community of Russian emigrants hostile to
Communism lived in Harbin. In November 1926 the Grand
Lodge of Russia merged with the Grand Lodge of China.
524

J.A. Gridneff was named Grand Master of the Order for

Northern China, while F.J. Kafka directed the activities of
Southern China.
2. In July 1919 Thodor Reuss had given to Matthew McBlain
Thomson an O.T.O. certificate making him 33e, 96e, IXe,
Souv. Grand Master General and Grand President
General. Matthew McBlain Thomson directed the
International Masonic Federation of Utah. After having
succeeded in bringing into his federation such individuals as
Jean Bricaud, he experienced considerable difficulties. On
May 15,1922, he was condemned by the Federal C ourt of
Salt Lake City for fraudulent use of the mails. Concerning
this individual, see Evans, Isaac Blair. The Thomson Masonic
Fraud; A Study in Clandestine Masonry (Salt Lake City: Printed
privately, 1922).
3. Jean Bricauds magazine, Les Annales initiatiques, announced
in May 1920 the preparation of this international congrss
slated to take place in Zurich on July 17-19, 1920, under the
supervision of Matthew McBlain Thomson, illustrious
Grand Prior of the Scottish Templars and Sovereign
General President of the American Masonic Federation,
with the purpose of creating the union of all the
spiritualistic Masonic corporations and of forming a
universal Masonic federation (Universal Masonic World
Federation). In its October-December number, Les Annales
initiatiques enumerated the results of this congrss.
525

4. The series of articles published in the Masonic review

LAcacia, entitled Laffaire Thodor Reuss, between
January and June 1907, included serious accusations about
the morality of the head of the O.T.O. engaging in a
veritable trade in Masonic high degrees.
5. See Chapter 14, The Templars of the Orient.
6. The correspondence between Harvey Spencer Lewis and
Thodor Reuss, which lasted from December 20, 1920, to
June 12, 1922, is found in AMORCs archives. It is made up
of fourteen letters written by Thodor Reuss to Harvey
Spencer Lewis (the first is dated June 19,1921; and the last
June 12, 1922) and of eight letters written by Harvey
Spencer Lewis to Theodor Reuss (the first is dated
December 28, 1920; and the last May 20, 1922).
7. A photographic reproduction of this charter was published
in the Rosicrucian Digest, Vol. XI, No. 10, November 1933, p.
396.
8. In his letter of September 12, 1921, Theodor Reuss claimed
that he had broken with Aleister Crowley in regards to the
O.T.O. and indicated that he was also about to break with
Charles Stanfeld Jones (called Achad), to whom he had
given a charter on May 10, 1921, to replace Matthew
McBlain Thomson as the head of O.T.O. for the United
States. H. Spencer Lewis had no sympathy for Aleister
Crowley, and from October 1916 he had severely criticized
him as being a black magician. He emphasized that Aleister
526

Crowley was an impostor, that he had nothing to do with

AMORC, and that he had not been the secret head of
Rosicrucianism, contrary to what he tried to have people
believe (Some books not recommended, The Imperator
reviews a few books, The American Rosae Crucis, Vol. 1, No.
10, October 1916, pp. 22-23.
9. This misadventure was to make H. Spencer Lewis act more
cautiously. However, he was to experience a similar setback
in 1930 with Heinrich Trnker, one of Theodor Reuss
successors. Heinrich Trnker, the leader of the Collegium
Pansophicum, experienced some difficulties with Max
Heindels order, but in April 1927, Dr. Hugo Vollrath,
representing Max Heindel in Germany, was convicted for
defaming Trnker.
10. This composer, whose repertoire was comic opera, remains
little known. Some of his works were Le Poilu, La Petite
Dactylo, IAs de coeur, S.A. Papillon Messaouda, Romanitza. The
secretariat of the Beaux-Arts put him in charge of the large
festival produced by the Opra-Comique of Paris. For six
years he collaborated with Firmin Gmier at the Odon.
During a performance of the Shakespearean Society he had
the opportunity to direct Shylock, set to the music of H.
Rabaud.
11. Maurice Jacquet was initiated on January 31, 1911, at the
Admirateurs de lUniverse Lodge of Paris. From 1913 he
was a member of the Ernest Renan Lodge, which mostly
527

brought together theater peopie. He was Junior Warden of

this lodge, which was directed at the time by Firmin
Gmier, the theater director of the Odon, and included
among its members Andr Lebey and Andr Mauprey. A
holder of the Rose-Croix degree, Maurice Jacquet also
frequented LEffort Chapter.
12. When Maurice Jacquet was discussed in the articles of The
Mystic Triangle, he was described as a Rose-Croix of
France (February 1926, p. 16; Brief biographies of
prominent Rosicrucians by Fra FidelisNo. 3: H. Maurice
Jacquet, August 1926, pp. 133-135; October 1926, pp. 174176). All of the correspondence between H. Spencer Lewis
and Maurice Jacquet is found in AMORCs archives.
13. In his letter of May 28, 1926, Franois JollivetCastelot
thanked Lewis for the honor bestowed upon him.
14. Ernest Dalmayrac lived at 3, Rue des Lys. For further details
regarding LEncyclopdique, one of the oldest Masonic
lodges in Toulouse, please consult Deux sicles dhistoire de la
R.L. LEncyclopdique (1787-1987), a commemorative work
published by this lodge in 1987.
15. This account was published in several installments in The
Mystic Triangle, under the title Our Trip Through
Europe, October-December 1926.
16. The Mystic Triangle, December 1926, pp. 214-215.
17. Andr Lebey, a man of letters known under the pseudonym
528

of Yebel, was also a deputy of Seine-et-Oise from 1917 to

1919. The Grand Orator of the Grand Orient in Paris, he
was an important member of the International Masonic
Alliance (AMI), created in 1921 in Geneva after a universal
congress of Freemasonry, to establish a connection between
the S.D.N. and Masonic obediences. For the biography of
this humanitarian, see Denis Lefebvre, Andr Lebey,
intellectual et franc-maon sour la IIIe Rpublique (Paris:
EDIMAF, 1999).
18. Concerning the ties between the League of Nations and
Freemasonry, see Georges Ollivier, La Socit des
Nations, Revue intemationale des socits secrts, No. 6, March
15,1936, pp. 177-185. This article described the
intercessions of Andr Lebey in behalf of the League during
a congress held on Rue Cadet, between June 28 and
30,1916. This meeting brought together Belgian, Italian,
Spanish, Argentinian, and French Freemasons.
19. On November 22, 1926, Camille Savoire wrote Lewis:
First I wish to thank you for the great honor that you have
done me in conferring on me the title of an honorary
member of the fraternity of the R.C. of which you are the
President. I will strive to do my best to acquire the
knowledge and qualities necessary to fulfill the mission that
this title imposes on me. This letter is found in AMORCs
archives, along with those of different Masonic individuals
we have cited above, or others such as Gabriel Gouaux, 33
529

and secretary of the Grand Orient of France, or Francis

Borrey.
20. H. Jaccottet retraced the biography of Hans Grter in the
article Le Dr. Hans Grter, Grand Matre rosicrucien,
published in two parts in the Rose-Croix, Nos. 38 and 39,
June and September 1961, pp. 24-28 and 19-22. This dentist
from Nice became a Rosicrucian in May 1930, due to his
friend Clment Lebrun, who became a member before then.
He was also a Freemason he was a 31 memberand a
Martinist.
21. Nicholas Roerich and his wife Helena had been members of
the branch of the Theosophical Society, probably before
World War I. Furthermore, Helena had translated The Secret
Doctrines into Russian. Around 1920, the Roerichs created
the first study groups of Agni Yoga, a movement for a
living ethic which includes and synthesizes the philosophies
and religious teachings of all periods, and which advocated
a yoga of action rather than asceticism. However, even
though Nicolas Roerich was a member of various
organizations, he was an independent spirit. He published
his conception of the way towards illumination in the four
cycles of poems written between 1916 and 1921 under the
title of Pismena Stikhi (Moscow: Sovremennik, 1974).
English edition of Roerichs poetry: Flame in Chalice.
Translated by Mary Siegrist (New York: Roerich Museum
Press, 1930).
530

22. See Bulletin des Polaires, No. 1, May 9, 1930, p. 3. Considerable

information regarding this movement is alsofound in Pierre
Geyraud, Les Socits secrtes de Paris (Paris: mile-Paul frres
1938) pp. 56-66.
23. It involves a divinatory practice based on mathematics,
whose process was described by Zam Bhotiva in Asia
Mysteriosa, Ioracle de la Force astrale comme moyen de
communication avec les Petites Lumires d Orient (Paris:
Dorbon-An, 1929). For a time Ren Gunon was
enthusiastic about this oracle. He then distanced himself
from the Polaires, judging the messages transmitted by the
initiates of the Himalayas to be insignificant and pitiful (see
his critique in Le Voile d Isis, February 1931).
24. In this instance we will use the most common name of this
group. At its creation mile Dantinne gave it the name of
the Ordre dHerms Trismgiste, from which Jean Mallinger
created the Order of Herms Ttramgiste, also called the
Ordre hermtiste ttramgiste et mystique, or Ordre
pythagoricien.
25. Not all of them were members at the same time; thus, we
have given them all together so as not to complicate
matters.
26. Quest-ce que la FUDOSI? Rose-Croix, No. 128, hiver
1983, p. 4. (French Grand Lodge of AMORC).
27. Lucien Sabah, Une Police politique de Vichy: le service des socits
531

secrts (Paris: Klincksieck, 1996) pp. 456-458. These

documents enlighten in a fresh way the proceedings started
against mile Dantinne at the Liberation.
28. Mansions of the Soul (San Jose: Grand Lodge of the English
Language Jurisdiction of AMORC, 1986). Paperbound
edition p. 134.
29. Extract from The Colored Race, Rosicrucian Forum,
October 1932, p. 61. In the same magazine are some articles
that H. Spencer Lewis wrote regarding this subject: About
My Jewish Attitude, February 1938, pp. 118-119; The
Karma of the Jews, April 1938, pp. 141-142; and The
Aryan Supremacy, August 1939, pp. 24-25.
30. The latter had already profited from Hans Grters
feebleness, who became nearly blind after an illness, by
having him sign in July 1950 an insidiou document
regarding Harvey Spencer Lewis.
31. Among them, let us cite the case of Reuben Swinburne
Clymer (1878-1966), who spent much of his lifetime in
criticizing or imitating AMORC. He invented a counterfeit
of FUDOSI, the FUDOSFI, about which certain occultists,
such as Constant Chevillon, appeared complacent. He was
the author of numerous works concerning Rosicrucianism,
where he gave proof of a frenzied imagination. He claimed
to be the suecessor of the very controversial Pascal Beverly
Randolph (concerning this matter, see the book by John
Patrick Deveney, Pascal Beverly RandolphA Nineteenth
532

Century Black American Spiritualist Rosicrucian and Sex Magician

(New York: State University of New York Press, 1997) pp.
140-143. According to the American Medical Association
journal (Vol. 81, No. 24, December 15, 1923), he directed in
1904 the International Academy of Natural and Sacred
Sciences, which sold medical courses by mail and marketed
various youthelixirs, waters of life, and bioplasma.
Many times he was accused of fraud with the Philosophers
of the Living Fire, who engaged in selling medical diplomas.
Clymer himself bought a medical title from the Independent
Medical College of Chicago, a vritable diploma mill.

Chapter 20
THE CONTEMPORARY ERA
1. Shortly after the death of Ralph Maxwell Lewis the RoseCroix published a special issue containing many articles
about the life and achievements of this exceptional man
(No. 145, Spring 1988). English edition: Rosicrucian Digest
Vol 65 (1987) Memorial Issue.

533

THEMATIC
BIBLIOGRAPHY
As an aid to the reader, the following bibliography has been
divided into subject categories. It does not claim to be exhaustive,
but rather provides a selec tion that is helpful for those individuals
who wish to deepen their knowledge of the subjects listed. So as not
to overburden this selection, we have not included the esoteric texts
themselvesthe reader wiII find references to them in the endnotes
but rather the works dedicated to them.
I. GENERAL WORKS
Caillet, Albert-Louis, Manuel bibliographique des sciences psychiques ou
occultes (Paris: Dorbon, 1912) 3 vols.: Vol. I, A to D, 531 pp.;
Vol. II, E to L, 533 pp.; Vol. III, M to Z, 766 pp.
Corsetti, Jean-Paul, Histoire de Iesoterisme et des sciences occultes
(Paris: Larousse, 1992) 343 pp.
Faivre, Antoine, Acces de Iesoterisme occidental (Paris: Gallimard, 1986)
reprinted in 2 vols.: 1996, Vol. I, 377 pp.; Vol. II, 437 pp. English
language version: Vol. 1: Access to Western Esotericism (Albany:
State University of New York Press, 1994); Vol. 2: Theosophy,
Imagination, Tradition: Studies in Western Esotericism (Albany:
State University of New York Press, 2000).
. L Esoterisme (Paris: PUF, Coll. Que sais-je?, 1992) 124 pp.;
534

reprinted 1994.
Godwin, Joscelyn, The Theosophical Enlightenment (Albany: State
University of New York Press, 1994) 448 pp., ill.
Guenon, Rene, Aperqus sur Iinitiation (Paris: Editions traditionnelles,
1986) 303 pp. English language version: Perspectives on Initiation
(Ghent: Sophia Perennis et Universalis, 2001).
Hornung, Erik, L Egypte esoterique, le savoir occulte des Egyptiens et son
influence en Occident (Monaco: Editions du Rocher, 2002) 274 pp.
Originally Das esoterische gyptens (Munich, 1999). English
language version: The Secret Lore o f Egypt: Its Impact on the West
(Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2002).
Lenglet du Fresnoy, Histoire de la philosophie hermetique (Paris:
1742).
Riffard, Pierre, Dictionnaire de Iesoterisme (Paris: Payot, 1983) 387 pp.,
ill.
. LEsoterisme: Quest-ce que Iesoterisme? Anthologie de Iesoterisme
occidental (Paris: Robert Laffont, Coll. Bouquins, 1990) 1016 pp.
. LOccultisme: textes et recherches (Paris: Librairie Larousse, Coll.
Ideologies et Societes, 1981) 191 pp., ill.
Servier, Jean, ed., Dictionnaire critique de Iesoterisme (Paris: PUF, 1998)
1449 pp.
Thorndike, Lynn, A History of Magic and the Experimental Science (New
York: Columbia, University Press, 1984; 1st ed.: 1923-1958), 8
vols.: Vol. I, 835 pp.; Vol. II, 1036 pp.; Vol. Ill, 827 pp.; Vol. IV,
767 pp.; Vol. V, 695 pp.; Vol. VI, 766 pp.; Vol. VII, 695 pp.; Vol.
535

VIII, 808 pp.

II. ALCHEMY
Alchimie (collective) (Paris: Albin Michel, coll. Cahiers de
lHermetisme, 1978) 221 pp., ill., reprinted 1995.
Alchimie. Textes alchimiques allemands, translated and introduced
by Bernard Gorceix (Paris: Fayard, coll. lEspaee interieur, 1980)
238 pp.
Alchimie et philosophie a la Renaissance, transactions of the
conference of Tours (December 4-7, 1991), under the direction of
Jean Margolin and Sylvain Matton (Paris: Vrin, 1993) 478 pp.
Alleau, Rene, Aspects de Ialchimie traditionnelle (Paris: Editions de
Minuit, 1970) 238 pp.; 1st ed.: 1953.
Aspects de la tradition alchimique au XVIIe siecle, transactions of
the international conference of the University of ReimsChampagne-Ardennes (November 28-29, 1996), under the
direction of Frank Greiner, Chrysopoeia (Paris: Arche, 1998).
Berthelot, Marcellin, Collection des anciens alchimistes grec (Paris:
Steinheil, 1887-1888) 3 vols.: Vol. I, 268 pp.; Vol. II, 242 pp.; Vol.
Ill, 429 pp., ill.
. Introduction la chimie des anciens du Moyen Age (Paris: Librairie des
sciences et des arts, 1893) 3 vols.: Vol. I, Essai sur la transmission
de la science antique au Moyen Age, 453 pp.; Vol. II, Lalchimie
syriaque, 408 pp.; Vol. III, Lalchimie arabe, 255 pp.
. Les Origines de Ialchimie (Paris: Librairie des sciences et des arts,
536

1938) 445 pp.

Bonardel, Frangoise, Philosopher par le feu, anthologie de textes alchimiques
occidentaux (Paris: Le Seuil, 1995) 471 pp
. Philosophie de lalchimie: grand oeuvre et modernit (Paris: PUF, 1993)
706 pp.
Dobbs, Betty J.T., Les Fondements de lalchimie de Newton, introduction
by Svrin Batfroi (Paris: Trdaniel, 1981) 303 pp., ill. English
language version: The Foundations of Newtons Alchemy or the Hunting
of the Greene Lyon (Cambridge, 1975).
Duveen, D.I., Bibliotheca Alchemica et Chemica: An Annotated Catalogue
of Printed Books on Alchemy, Chemistry and Cognate Subjects in the Library
of Denis I. Duveen (London: E. Weil, 1949) 699 pp., ill., reprinted:
Utrecht, H.E.S. Publishers, 1986.
Eliade, Mircea, Forgerons et alchimistes (Paris: Flammarion, 1977) 188
pp.; 1st ed.: 1956. English language version: The Forge and the
Crucible: The Origins and Structures of Alchemy (Chicago: University of
Chicago Press, 1978).
Faivre, Antoine, Toison et alchimie (Paris: Arch, 1990) 174 pp., ill.
Ferguson, John, Bibliotheca Chemica. A Bibliography of Books on Alchemy,
Chemistry, and Pharmaceutics (London: Academic and Bibliographic
Publications, 1954) 2 vols.: Vol. I, 487 pp.; Vol. II, 798 pp.,
facsimile: London, Starker Brothers, n.d.; 1st ed.: 1906.
Garcia-Font, Juan, Histoire de lalchimie en Espagne, translated by A.
Vieillard-Baron (Paris: Dervy, 1980) 369 pp.
Gorceix, Bernard, Alchimie (Paris: Fayard, 1980) 238 pp. Halleux,
537

Robert, La Rception de Falchimie arabe en Occident, Histoire

des sciences arabes, tome III (Paris: Le Seuil, 1998).
. Les Textes alchimiques (Turnhout, Belgium: Brpols, coll.
Typologie des sources du Moyen Age occidental, No. 32, 1979)
153 pp.
Hermes Trismegistus, La Table dmeraude, preface by Didier Khan
(Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1995) 136 pp., ill.
. Histoire des sciences arabes, under the direction of Rashed Roshdi
(Paris: Le Seuil, 1998) 2 vols.: Vol. I, 376 pp.; Vol. II, 422 pp.
Hudry, Franoise, De Secretis Nature du PS. Apollonius de Tyane,
traduction latine par Hugues de Santala du Kitab Sirr Al-Haliqa,
Chrysopoeia (Paris: Arch, 1997-1999).
Joly, Bernard, Rationalit de lalchimie au XVIIe sicle (Paris: Vrin, 1992)
408 pp.
Jung, Carl Gustav, Psychologie et alchimie (Paris: Buchet/Chastel, 1970)
705 pp., ill. English language version: Psychology and Alchemy
(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1980).
Kahn, Didier, Hermes Trismegiste. La Table dEmeraude et sa tradition
alchimique (Paris: Les Belles Lettres, coll. Aux sources de la
Tradition, 1994) 137 pp., ill.
Lory, Pierre, Alchimie et mystique en terre dislam (Lagrasse: Verdier,
coll. Islam Sindbad, 1989) 184 pp.
Perifano, Alfredo, L Alchimie a la cour de Cme Ier de Mdicis, savoirs,
culture et politique (Paris: Honor Champion, 1997).

538

Pritchard, Alan, Alchemy. A Bibliography of English Language Writings

(London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1980) 439 pp.
Roob, Alexander, Alchemy and Mysticism: The Hermetic Museum,
(Cologne, Lisbon, London, New York and Paris: Taschen, 1997)
711 pp., ill.
Rossi, Paolo, Francis Bacon: From Magic to Science (London: Routledge
and Kegan Paul, 1968) 280 pp.
Ruska, Julius, Tabula Smaragdina. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der
hermetischen Literatur (Heidelberg: C. Winter, 1926) (Heidelberger
Akten der Von Portheim-Stiftung, 16), 248 pp.
Van Lennep, Jacques, Alchimie, contribution a lhistoire de lart alchimique
(Crdit commercial de Belgique, distribution: Dervy-Livres, 1985)
502 pp., ill.
III. QABALAH, ASTROLOGY
Bottero, J., Lastrologie msopotamienne: lastrologie dans son plus
vieil tat, Les astres. Les astres et les mythes. La description du del,
transactions of the international conference of Montpellier (March
23-25, 1995), under the direction of Batrice Bakhouche, Alain
Moreau, and Jean-Claude Turpin (Montpellier, 1996) 2 vols.: Vol.
I, pp. 159-182.
Casaril, Guy, Rabbi Simon Bar Yocha et la Cabbale (Paris: Le Seuil,
coll. Matres spirituals, 1961) 187 pp., ill.
Dreveillon, Herv, Lire et crire Favenir: lastrologie dans la France du
Grand Sicle (1610-1715) (Paris: Champvallon, 1996) 282 pp.
539

Faivre, Antoine, and Barbault, Andr, Astrologie (Paris: Albin Michel,

coll. Cahiers de IHermtisme, 1985) 314 pp., ill.
Goetschel, Roland, La Kabbale (Paris: PUF, coll. Que sais-je?,
1985) 126 pp.
Halbronn, Jacques, Le Monde juif et lastrologie, histoire dun vieux couple,
followed by an essay by Paul Fenton, preface by Juan Vernet
(Milan: Arch, 1985) 433 pp., ill.; 1st ed.: 1979.
Hayoun, Maurice-Ruben, Le Zohar aux origines de la mystique juive
(Paris: Noesis, 1999) 406 pp.
Hutin, Serge, Histoire de Iastrologie (Paris: Marabout, 1970) 189 pp.,
ill.
Idel, Moshe, Cahale, nouvelles perspectives, translated by Charles
Mopsich (Paris: Editions du Cerf, 1998) 553 pp. English language
version: Kabbalah: New Perspectives (New Haven and London: Yale
University Press, 1988).
. LExprience mystique dAbraham Ahulafia, (Paris, ditions du Cerf,
1998) 238 pp. English language version: The Mystical Experience of
Abraham Abulafia (Albany: State University of New York Press,
1988).
. Kabbalistes chrtiens (collective) (Paris: Albin Michel, coll. Cahiers
de lHermtisme, 1979) 314 pp.,ill.
Scholem, Gershom, Les Grands Courants de la mystique juive (Paris:
Payot, 1960 and 1983) 432 pp. English language version: Major
Trends in Jewish Mysticism (New York: Knopf, 1961).
. La Kabbale et sa symbolique (Paris: Payot, 1989) 223 pp. English
540

language version: On the Kabbalah and Its Symbolism (New York:

Schocken Books, 1965).
Secret, Franois, Les Kabbalistes chrtiens de la Renaissance (Paris: Anna
Artis; Milan: Arch, 1985) 395 pp., ill., reissued and augmented; 1st
ed.: Paris, Dunod, 1964.
Zambelli, Paola, The Speculum Astronomiae and its Enigma: Astrology,
Theology and Science in Albertus Magnus and his Contemporaries
(Dordrecht-BostonLondon, Kluwer Academic, 1992) 352 pp.
. Teorie su astrologia, magia e alchimia (1348-1586) nelle
interpretazioni recenti, Rinascimento, IIs, 27, 1987, pp.95-119.
IV. HERMETICISM
Agrippa, Cornelius Heinrich, La Magie naturelle, translation and
commentaries concerning the first book of La Philosophie occulte by
Jean Servier (Paris: Berg, 1982) 218 pp.
. La Magie cleste, translation and commentaries concerning the
second book of La Philosophie occulte by Jean Servier (Paris:
Berg, 1982) 228 pp.
. La Magie ceremonielle, translation and commentaries concerning
the third book of La Philosophic occulte by Jean Servier (Paris: Berg,
1982) 248 pp.
Behar, Pierre, Les Langues occultes de la Renaissance (Paris:
Desjonqueres, 1996) 348 pp., ill.
Bonardel, Framboise, LHermetisme (Paris: PUF, coll. Que sais-je?
1985) 127 pp.; reissued and expanded as La Voie hermtique (Paris:
541

Dervy, 2002) 188 pp.

Festugiere, Andre-Jean, Hermetisme et mystique paienne (Paris: AubierMontaigne, 1967) 333 pp., ill.
. La Revelation dHermes Trismgiste (Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1981)
3 vols.: Vol. I, Lastrologie et les sciences occultes, 441 pp.; Vol.
II, Le dieu cosmique 610 pp.; Vol. Ill, Les doctrines de lAme
314 pp.; and Le dieu inconnu de la gnose 319 pp., ill.; 1st ed.
1949-1954.
Garin, Eugenio, Hermetisme et Renaissance (Paris: Allia, 2001) 93 pp.;
1st ed.: 1988.
. Le Zodiaque de la vie, polemiques anti-astrologiques a la Renaissance
(Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1991) 173 pp.; 1st ed.: 1983.
Godwin, Joscelyn, Athanasius Kircher, un homme de la Renaissance a la
quete du savoir perdu (Paris: J.-J. Pauvert, 1980) 96 pp., ill. English
language version: Athanasius Kircher: A Renaissance Man and the Quest
for Lost Knowledge (New York: Thames and Hudson, 1979).
. Robert Fludd, philosophe hermetique et arpenteur des deux mondes,
translated by Sylvain Matton (Paris, J.-J. Pauvert, 1980) 96 p., ill.
English language version: Robert Fludd: Hermetic Philosopher
and Surveyor of Two Worlds (London: Thames and Hudson,
1979).
Hermes Trismegistus, Corpus Hermeticum: Poimandres, Traites II-XVII,
Asclepius, fragments extraits de Stobe I-XXIX, texts established
and translated by A.D. Nock and A.-J. Festugiere (Paris: Les Belles
Lettres, 19541960) 4 vols.: Vol. I, 195 pp.; Vol.II, 208 pp.; Vol. Ill,
542

93 pp.; Vol. IV, 150 pp.

Mahe, Jean-Pierre, Hermes en Haute-Egypte, t. I, Les Textes
hermetiques de Nag Hammadi et leurs paralleles grecs et latins, t. II, Le
Fragment du discours parfait et les definitions hermetiques armeniennes
(Quebec: Presses de luniversit de Laval, 1978-1982).
Nauert, Charles G. Jr., Agrippa et la crise de la pensee a la Renaissance
(Paris: Dervy, 2001) 350 pp. English language version: Agrippa and
the Crisis of Renaissance Thought (Urbana: University of Illinois
Press, 1965).
Prsence dHerms Trismgiste (collective), introduction by Antoine
Faivre (Paris: Albin Michel, coll. Cahiers de IHermtisme, 1988)
235 pp. Versions of the following articles by A. Faivre from this
collection are available in a re-edited English volume of Faivre
Hermetic essays: Antoine Faivre, The Eternal Fiennes: From Greek
God to Alchemical Magus (Grand Rapids: Phanes Press, 1995):
DHerms-Mercure Herms Trismgiste: au confluent du mythe
et du mythique, Visages dHerms Trismgiste, and La
posterit de lhermetisme alexandrine: repres historiques et
bibliographiques, as From Hermes-Mercury to Hermes
Trismegistus: The Confluence of Myth and the Mythical (pp. 75114), The Faces of Hermes Trismegistus (pp. 127-180), and
The Inheritance of Alexandrian Hermetism: Historical and
Bibliographical Landmarks (pp. 181-202).
Ritter, Hellmut, Picatrix; ein arabisches Handbuch hellenistischer
Magie, Vortreige der Bibliothek Warburg (Teubner, 1923) pp. 94-124.

543

Walker, Daniel-Pickering, La Magie spirituelle et anglique de Ficin

Campanella (Paris: Albin Michel, 1988) 246 pp. Originally Spiritual
and Demonic Magic. From Ficino to Campanella (London, 1958).
Yates, Frances Amelia, Collected Essays (London: Routledge and
Kegan Paul) 3 vols.: Vol. I, Lull and Bruno, 1982, 279 pp., ill.;
Vol. II, Renaissance and Reform: the Italian Contribution, 1983,
273 pp., ill.; Vol. III: Ideas and Ideals in the North European
Renaissance, 1984, 356 pp., ill.
. Giordano Bmno et la tradition hermtique, foreword by Antoine
Faivre (Paris, Dervy, 1988 and 1996) 558 pp. English language
version: Giordano Bmno and the Hermetic Tradition (Chicago-London,
1964).
. La Philosophie occulte et lpoque lisabethaine (Paris: Dervy, 1987) 277
pp. English language version: The Occult Philosophy in the
Elizabethan Age (London, 1979).
V. Rosicrucianism and Paracelsianism
Arnold, Paul, Histoire des Rose-Croix et les origines de la franc-maonnerie
(Paris: Mercure de France, 1990) 408 pp.
. La Rose-Croix et ses rapports avec la franc-maonnerie. Essai de syntse
historique (Paris: Maisonneuve, 1970) 259 pp.
Braun, Lucien, Paracelse (Geneva: Slatkine, coll. Fleuron, 1993) 256
pp., ill.; 1st ed.: 1988.
Chacornac, Paul, Le Comte de Saint-Germain (Paris: ditions
traditionnelles, 1947) 300 pp.
Cimella Rhodostaurotica. Die Rosenkreuzer im Spiegel der zwischen 1610 und
544

1660 entstandenen Handschriften und Drucke, catalogue of the exposition of

the B.H.P. (November 1994), presented by Josph R. Ritman,
Franz A. Janssen and Carlos Gilly (Amsterdam: In de Pelikaan,
coll. Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica, 1995) 191 pp., ill.
Comenius, La Grande Didactique (Paris: Klineksieck, coll.
Philosophic de lducation, 1992) 284 pp. English language
version: The Great Didactic (London: A. & C. Black, 1910).
Craven, J.B., Count Michael Maier, Doctor of Philosophy and Medicine,
Alchemist, Rosicrucian, Mystic: Life and Writing (Kirkwoll: W Pearce
and Son, 1968) 165 pp.
Dantinne, mile, De lorigine islamique de la Rose-Croix,
lnconnues, No. 4, 1950.
Darmon, Jean-Charles, Quelques enjeux pistmologiques de la
querelle entre Gassendi et Fludd: les clairsobseurs de lAme du
Monde, Aspects de la tradition alchimique au xviie sicle, transactions of
the international conference at the University of Reims-Champagne Ardennes
(November 28-29,1996), under the direction of Frank Greiner,
Chrysopeia (Paris, Arch, 1998).
Edighoffer, Roland, Les Rose-Croix (Paris: PUF, coll. Que sais-je?,
1982 and 1992) 126 pp.
. Les Rose-Croix et la crise de la conscience europenne au XVII sicle
(Paris: Dervy, 1998) 315 pp.
. Rose-Croix et socit idale selon Johann Valentin Andrae (Paris: Arma
Artis, 1982) 2 vols.: Vol. I, 1982, 461 pp.; Vol. II, 1987, 376 pp., ill.
Faivre, Antoine, Les Manifestes et la Tradition, Mystiques, thosophes
545

et illumins au Sicle des lumires (Hildesheim-New York: Olms, 1976).

Fama Fratemitatis,mit einer Einfilhrng iiber die Entstehung und
Uberliefemng der Manifeste der Rosenkreuzer von Carlos Gilly (Haarlem:
Rozekruis Pers, 1998) 110 pp.
Gilly, Carlos, Adam Haslmayr, der erste Verknder der Manifeste der
Rosenkreuzer (Amsterdam: In de Pelikaan, 1994) 296 pp., ill.
Gorceix, Bernard, La Bible des Rose-Croix, traduction et commentaire des
trois premiers crits rosicruciens (16141615-1616) (Paris: PUF, 1970)
125 pp.
Jama, Sophie, La Nuit de songes de Ren Descartes (Paris: Aubier, 1998)
430 pp.
Kriegel, Blandine, LUtopie dmocratique de Francis Bacon
George Lucas, La Revue des deux mondes, April 2000, pp. 19-33.
Le Doeuff, Michle, and Llasera, Margaret, La Nouvelle Atlantide
(Paris: Payot, 1983) 222 pp.
Lewis, Ralph Maxwell, Mission cosmique accomplice (Editions
rosicruciennes, 1971) 227 pp.,ill. English language version: Cosmic
Mission Fulfilled (San Jos, 1966).
McIntosh, Christopher, La Rose-Croix dvoile, histoire, mythes et rituels
dune socit secrt (Paris: Dervy, 1980) 212 p., ill. English language
version: The Rosy Cross Unveiled.... (Wellingborough: Aquarian Press,
1980). 3rd edition: The Rosicrucians: The History, Mythology, and Rituals
of an Esoteric Order (York Beach, ME: Weiser, 1998).
Miller, Max, and Uhland, Robert, Images de la vie souabe, at the request
of the Commission for Historical Knowledge of the State of
546

BadenWiirttemberg (Stuttgart: W. Kohlhammer, 1957).

Pagel, Walter, Paracelse, introduction la mdecine philosophique de la
Renaissance (Paris: Arthaud, 1963) 405 pp., ill. English language
version: Paracelsus: an Introduction to Philosophical Medicine in the Era of
the Renaissance (Basel and New York: S. Karger, 1958 and 1982).
Paracelse (collective), texts by L. Braun, K. Goldmammer, R
Deghaye, E. W. Kammerer, B. Gorceix, and bibliography by R.
Dilg-Frank (Paris: Albin Michel, coll. Cahiers de IHermtisme,
1980) 280 pp.
Persigout, G, Rosicrucianisme et cartsianisme (Paris: ditions de la Paix,
1938).
Peuckert, Will-rich, Die Rosenkreutz, zur Geschichte einer Reformation
(Berlin, E. Schmidt Verlag, 1973) 408 pp.
Prvot, Jean, LUtopie ducative, Comenius, postscript by Jean Piaget
(Paris: Belin, 1981) 286 pp., ill.
Reghini, Arturo, Cagliostro, documents et tudes (Milan: Arch, 1987) 165
pp.
Sdir, Histoire des Rose-Croix (Paris: Librairie du XIXe sicle, 1910)
212 pp. (Bihorel: Bibliothque des Amitis spirituelles, 1932) 359
pp.
Snoek, Govert Homme Siert, La Rose-Croix aux PaysBas, une
inventorisation (Utrecht, 1998). Dutch lan guage version: De
Rozenkmisers in Nederland, en inventaristie.
Symboles secrets des rosicruciens des XVIe et XVIIe sicles (Le TremblayOmonville: Diffusion Rosicrucienne, 1997) 59 pp.. English
547

language version: Secret Symbols of the Rosicrucians of the 16th and 17th
Centuries; 1st ed.: Altona, 1785 and 1788. Modern edition: (San
Jose, CA: AMORC, 1967).
Toussaint, Serge, Faut-il brler les Rose-Croix? La nouvelle inquisition
(Paris: LPM, 2000) 215 pp.
Wehr, Gerhard, Johann Valentin Andrae, die Bruderschaft der
Rosenkreuzer (Munich: Diederichs, 1995).
Yates, Frances Amelia, La Lumire des Rose-Croix (Paris: Retz, 1985)
287 pp., ill. English language version: The Rosicrucian
Enlightenment (London, 1972).
VI. FREEMASONRY
Bonneville, Nicolas, La Maonnerie cossaise compare avec les trois
professions et le secret des templiers du XIVe sicle (Paris: C. Volland,
1788) 2 parts in octavo: 134 pp. and 172 pp.
Dachez, Roger, Des maons opratifs aux francs-maons spculatifs, les
origines de Iordre (Paris: EDIMAF, 2001) 127 pp.
. Essai sur lorigine du grade de maitre, Renaissance traditionnelle,
No. 91-92, July-October 1992, pp. 218-232.
Encyclopdie de la franc-maonnerie, under the direction of ric Saunier
(Paris: Livre de poche, 2000) 982 pp.,ill.
Ferrer-Benimeli, Jos A., Les Archives secrts du Vatican et de la francmaonnerie, histoire dune condamnation pontifcale (Paris: Dervy, 1989)
908 pp.
Goblet dAlviella, Eugne Flicien Albert, Des origines du grade de
548

maitre dans la franc-maonnerie (Paris: Trdaniel, 1983) 99 pp.

Le Forestier, Ren, La Franc-Maonnerie templire et occultiste aux
XVIIIe et XIXe sicles, edited by Antoine Faivre with addenda and
notes, preface by Antoine Faivre, introduction by Alec Mellor
(Paris: Aubier Nauwelaerts, 1970) 1116 pp., ill.; reprint: (La Table
dEmeraude, Paris, 1989).
Ligou, Daniel, Dictionnaire universel de la franc-maonnerie: hommes illustres,
pays, rites, symboles, under the direction of Daniel Ligou, Daniel
Beresniak and Marion Prachin (Paris: Navarre-Prisme, 1974) 1398
pp.
Mainguy, Irne, Les Initiations et linitiation maonnique (Paris: ditions
maonniques de France, 2000) 120 pp.
. La Symbolique maconnique du troisime millnaire (Paris: Dervy, 2001)
490 pp.
Mollier, Pierre, Le grade maonnique de Rose-Croix et le
christianisme: enjeux et pouvoir des symboles, Politica Hermetica,
No. 11, 1997, pp. 85-118.
Naudon, Paul, La Franc-Maonnerie (Paris: PUF, coll. Que sais-je?
1963) 128 pp.
. Les Origines religieuses et corporatives de la francmaonnerie (Paris:
Dervy, coll. Histoire et Tradition, 1979) 348 pp. 1st ed.: 1972.
Piquet, Michel, Le Grade de Rose-Croix: les sources du Nec plus
Ultra, Renaissance traditionnelle, Nos. 110-111, July 1997, pp. 159195.
Porset, Charles, Franc-Maonnerie et religions dans lEurope des Lumires,
549

with the collaboration of Ccile Rvauger (Paris: Horizon

chimrique, 1998) 216 pp.
. Les Philalthes et les convents de Paris. Une politique de la folie (ParisGeneva: Honore Champion, 1996) 776 pp.
Ragon, Jean-Marie, Franc-Maonnerie, ordre chapitral, nouveau grade de
Rose-Croix (Paris: Collignon librairediteur, 1860) 88 pp.
Rgulateur des chevaliers maons ou les quatre ordres suprieurs (Rouvray:
ditions du Prieur, 1993) 397 pp. 1st ed: 1801.
Rousse-Lacordaire, Jrme, Rome et les francs-maons: histoire dun conflit
(Paris: Berg, 1996).
Les Textes fondateurs de la tradition maonnique (13901760), translated
and presented by Patrick Ngrier, preface by H. Tort-Nougues
(Paris: Grasset, 1995) 381 pp.
Tourniac, Jean, Symbolisme maonnique et tradition chrtienne (Paris:
Dervy, coll. Histoire et Tradition, 1982) 276 pp. 1st ed. 1965.
VII. THEOSOPHY AND ILLUMINISM
Aspects de lilluminisme au XVIIe sicle (collective), edited by Robert
Amadou (Paris: H. Roudil) Nos. II-III-IV of the Cahiers de la Tour
Saint-Jacques, 226 pp., ill.
Ayrault, Roger, La Gnese du romantisme allemand (Paris: Aubier) 4
vols.: Vol. 1,1961, 361 pp.; Vol. II, 1961, 782 pp.; Vol. III, 1969,
572 pp.; Vol. IV, 1976, 573 pp.
Cellier, Lon, Fabr dOlivet. Contribution ltude des aspects religieux du
romantisme (Paris: Nizet, 1953) 448 pp.
550

Deghay, Pierre, La Naissance de Dieu ou la doctrine de Jacob Boehme

(Paris: Albin Michel, coll. Spiritualits Vivantes, 1985) 302 pp.
Faivre, Antoine, Eckartshausen et la thosophie chrtienne (Paris:
Klincksieck, 1969) 788 pp., ill.
. Lsotrisme au XVIIe sicle en France et en Allemagne (Paris:
Seghers, coll. La Table dEmeraude, 1973) 224 pp., ill. Spanish
translation: Madrid, EDAF, 1976.
. Kirchberger et Iilluminisme du XVIIIe, sicle (The Hague: Nijhoff,
coll. Archives internationales dhistoire des ides, No. 16,1965)
284 pp., ill.
. Mystiques, thosophes et illumins au Sicle des lumires (Hildesheim: G.
Olms, coll. Studien und Materialen zur Geschichte der
Philosophic, 20, 1976) 263 pp.
. Philosophie de la nature, physique sacre et thosophie XVIIIe et XIXe
sicles (Paris: Albin Michel, 1996) 346 pp.
Gorceix, Bernard, Johann Georg Gichtel, theosophe dAmsterdam (Paris:
LAge dhomme, coll. Delphica, 1974) 174 pp.
Hutin, Serge, Les Disciples anglais de Jacob Boehme (Paris: Denoel, coll.
La Tour Saint-Jacques, i960) 332 pp
Jacob Boehme (collective) (Paris: Albin Michel, coll. Cahiers de
lHermtisme, 1977) 236 pp. Koyr, Alexandre, La Philosophie de
Jacob Boehme (Paris: J. Vrin, 1980) 525 pp. 1st ed.: 1929.
Martinez de Pasquales, Trait sur la rintgration des tres, preface by
Robert Amadou (Le TremblayOmonville: Diffusion Rosicrucienne,
1995) 473 pp.
551

Meillassoux-Le Cerf, Micheline, Dom Pernety et les Illumines dAvignon,

followed by the complt transcription of the Holy Word (Arch,
1992) 455 pp.
Mercier-Faivre, Anne-Marie, Un supplment LEncyclopdie, Le
Monde primitif dAntoine Court de Gbelin (Paris: Honor
Champion, 1999) 506 pp.
Van Rijnberk, Grard, Un thaumaturge au XVIIIe sicle: Martines de
Pasqually. Sa vie, son oeuvre, son ordre, 2 vols.: Vol. I (Paris: Alcan,
1935) 225 pp.; Vol. II (Lyon: Derain-Radet, 1938) 185 pp.
VIII. MAGNETISM AND OCCULTISM IN THE BELLE
POQUE
Beaufils, Christophe, Josphin Pladan (1858-1918), essai sur une maladie
du lyrisme (Paris: 1998, Jrme Millon) 514 pp., ill.
Caillet, Albert-Louis, Traitement mental, culture spirituelle, la sant et
lharmonie dans la vie humaine (Paris: Vigot frres, 1922) 399 pp.
Da Silva, Jean, Le Salon de la Rose+Croix (1892-1897) (Paris: SyrosAlternatives, 1991) 128 pp., ill.
Galtier, Grard, Franc-Maonnerie gyptienne, Rose-Croix et no-chevalerie.
Les fils de Cagliostro (Monaco: ditions du Rocher, 1989) 474 pp.
Gunon, Ren, Thosophisme, histoire dune pseudo-religion (Paris: Didier
et Richard, 1939) 376 pp. English language version: Theosophy:
History of a Pseudo-Religion (New York: Sophia Perennis et
Universalis, 2003).
James, Marie-France, Esotrisme et christianisme. Autour de Ren
552

Gunon, preface by Jacques-Albert Cuttat (Paris: Nouvelles

ditions latines, 1981) 480 pp.
. sotrisme, occultisme, franc-maonnerie et christianisme aux XIVe et
XXe sicles. Explorations biobibliographiques (Paris: Nouvelles ditions
latines, 1981) 268 pp.
Laurant, Jean-Pierre, Lsotrisme chrtien en France au XIXe sicle
(Lausanne: LAge dhomme) 1992.
Mheust, Bertrand, Somnambulisme et mdiumnit, 2 vols.: Vol. I, Le
dfi du magntisme, 620 pp.; Vol. II, Le choc des sciences
psychiques, 598 pp. (Le Plessis-Robinson: Institut Synthlabo,
coll. Les Empcheurs de penser en rond, 1999).
Mesmer, Franz-Anton, Le Magntisme animal, works edited by Robert
Amadou (Paris: Payot, 1971) 407 pp.
Michelet, Victor-mile, Les Compagnons de la hirophanie, souvenirs du
mouvement hermtiste la fin du XlXe sicle (Paris: Dorbon-Aine, n.d.)
140 pp
Papus, Compte-rendu complet des travaux du congrs et du convent maonnique
spiritualiste (Paris: Librairie Hermtique, 1910) 279 pp.
. Trait lmentaire de sciences occultes (Paris, 1903). Pincus-Witten,
Robert, Occult Symbolism in France, Josphin Pladan and the Salons de la
Rose-Croix (New York: Garland, 1976) 291 pp., ill.
Richard-Nafarre, Nol, Helena Petrovna Blavatsky ou la rponse du sphinx
(Paris: Franois de Villac, 1991) 639 pp.
Roussillon, Ren, Du baquet de Mesmer au baquet de S. Freud, une
archologie du cadre et de la pratique psychanalytique (Paris: PUF, 1992)
553

232 pp. Saunier, Jean, La Synarchie (Paris: C.A.L., 1971) 287 pp.
IX. ESOTERICISM, ART , AND LITERATURE
Arnold, Paul, sotrisme de Shakespeare (Paris: Mercure de France,
1955) 280 pp.
Cantor, Georg, La Confession de foi de Francis Bacon, La Rsurrection du
divin Quirinus Francis Bacon and Le Recueil de Rawley (1896); reprinted:
La Thorie Bacon-Shakespeare, under the direction of rick Porge
(Grec, 1997).
Chailley, Jacques, La Flte enchante, opera maonnique (Paris: Robert
Laffont, coll. Diapason, 1968 and 1982) 367 pp., ill. English
language version: Magic Flute Unveiled: Esoteric Symbolism in Mozarts
Masonic Opera (Rochester: Inner Traditions, 1992).
Chastel, Andr, Art et humanisme Florence au temps de Laurent le
Magnifique tudes sur la Renaissance et Lhumanisme platonicien (Paris:
PUF, 1982) 580 pp.
. Marsile Ficin et Lart (Geneva: Droz, 1954 and 1996) 228 pp., ill.
Cotte, Roger, La musique maqonnique et ses musiciens (Paris: Borrego,
1991) 231 pp.
Donnelly, Ignatius, The Great Cryptogram: Francis Bacons Cipher in the
So-called Shakespeare Plays (London: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle
and Rivington, 1888) 2 vols., 998 pp.
gyptomania, gypte dans lart occidental 1730-1930 (collective) (Paris
and Ottawa: Runion des muses nationaux) 605 pp., ill. English
language version: Egyptomania: Egypt in Western Art. 1730-1930
554

(Ottawa: National Gallery of Canada; Paris: Runion des Muses

Nationaux, 1994).
Faivre, Antoine, and Tristan, Frdric, Goethe (Paris: Albin Michel,
coll. Cahiers de IHermtisme, 1980) 263 pp.
Godwin, Joscelyn, Lsotrisme musical en France (1750-1950) (Paris:
Albin Michel, coll. Bibliothque de IHermtisme, 1991) 272 pp.
English language version: Music and the Occult: French Musical
Philosophies, 1750-1950 (Rochester: University of Rochester
Press, 1995).
. Music, Mysticism and Magic. A Sourcebook (LondonNew York:
Arkana-Routledge and Kegan Paul) 349 pp.
Kanter, Robert, and Amadou, Robert, Anthologie littraire de Ioccultisme
(Paris: R. Julliard, 1950 and Seghers, 1975) 326 pp.
Mercier, Alain, Les Sources sotriques et occultes de la posie symboliste
(1870-1914) (Paris: Nizet) 2 vols.: Vol. I, Le symbolisme
franais, 1969, 286 pp.; Vol. II Le symbolisme europen, 1974,
253 pp.
Monneyron, Frdric, LAndrogyne dans la littrature, transactions of the
conference of Cerisy-la-Salle (June 26-July 7, 1986) (Paris: Albin Michel,
coll. Cahiers de IHermtisme, 1990) 157 pp.
Richer, Jean, Grard de Nerval et les doctrines sotriques (Paris: Le
Griffon dOr, 1947) 216 pp., ill.; expanded version: Nerval,
exprience vcue et tradition sotrique (Paris: Trdaniel, 1987) 399 pp.
Speckman, A.H.W, Bacon Is Shakespeare (1916).
Terrasson, Abb, Sthos, histoire ou vie tir des monuments, anecdotes de
555

lAncienne gypte, trad, dun manuscrit grec, nouvelle dition revue et

corrige, prcde dune notice historique et littraire sur la vie et
les ouvrages de labb Terrasson (Paris: dHautel, 1813) 3 vols.:
Vol.I, 195 + 202 pp.; Vol. II, 204 + 204 pp.; Vol. Ill, 200 + 196
pp. 1st ed.: 1731.
Van Lennep, Jacques, Art et alchimie: tude de liconographie hermtique et
de ses influences (Brussels,: Meddens, coll. Art et Savoir, 1966) 292
pp., ill.
Viatte, Auguste, Les Sources occultes du romantisme: illuminisme-thosophie
(1770-1820) (Paris: Champion, 1928) 2 vols.: Vol. I, Le
prromantisme, 331 pp.; Vol. II, La gnration de IEmpire 332
pp.
X. SPIRITUALITY AND RELIGION
Benz, Ernst, Les Sources mystiques de la philosophie romantique allemande
(Paris: J. Vrin, 1968) 155 pp. English language version: The
Mystical Sources of German Philosophy (Pickwick, 1983).
Bernard, Christian, Quil en soit ainsil (Le TremblayOmonville,
Diffusion Rosicrucienne, 1996) 173 pp. English language version:
So Mote It Be! (Blackhill, England, and San Jos: AMORC, 1994).
Corbin, Henry, En islam iranien, aspects rituels et philosophiques (Paris:
Gallimard, coll. Bibliothque des Ides, 1971-1972, 4 vols.: Vol.
I, Le shisme duodecimain, 332 pp.; Vol. II Sohraward et les
platoniciens de Perse,, 384 pp.; Vol. Ill, Les Fidles damour.
Shiisme et soufisme, 358 pp.; Vol. IV, Lcole shaykkie, le
556

Douzieme Imm, 567 pp.

. LImagination cratrice dans le soufisme dlbn Arab (Paris:
Flammarion, coll. Ides et Recherches, 1977) 328 pp., ill., 1st ed.:
1958. English language version: Creative Imagination in the Sufism of
Ibn Arabi (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1969) 406 pp.
Deghaye, Pierre, De Paracelse Thomas Mann (Paris: Dervy, 2000) 535
pp.
Eliade, Mircea, Le Sacr et le Profane (Paris: Gallimard, 1965) 185 pp.
English language version: The Sacred and Profane (New York:
Harcourt Brace and World, 1957).
Eliade, Mircea, and Pettazzoni, Raffaele, Lhistoire des religions a-t-elle
un sens? (Paris: ditions du Cerf, 1994) 310 pp.
Gandillac, Maurice de, Gnese de la. modemit, les douze sicles o se fit
notre Europe De la cit de Dieu la Nouvelle Atlantide (Paris: ditions
du Cerf) 670 pp.
Gorceix, Bernard, Les Amis de Dieu en Allemagne au sicle de Matre
Eckhart (Paris: Albin Michel, coll. Spiritualits vivantes 1984) 302
pp.
. Flambe et agonie. Mystiques du XVIe sicle allemande (Sisteron:
Prsence, coll. Le Soleil dans le coeur, 1977) 358 pp.
. La Mystique de Valentin Weigel (1533-1588) et les origines de la
thosophie allemande (Universit de Lille, Service de reproduction des
thses, 1970) 500 pp.
Grnberg, Paul, Philipp Jakob Spener, Vols. I-II-III (Gttingen, 18931906); reprinted: Hildesheim, 1987.
557

James, William, Les Fonnes multiples de lexprience religieuse, essai de

psychologie descriptive, preface by Bertrand Meheust (Chambry:
Exergue, 2001) 486 pp. English language version: The Varieties of
Religious Experience (1902).
Koepp, Wilhelm, Johann Arndt und sein Wahres Christentum
(Berlin, 1959).
Koyr, Alexandre, Du monde clos Iunivers infini (Paris: Gallimard,
1973) 349 pp.
. Mystiques, spirituels, alchimistes du XVIe sicle allemande (Paris:
Armand Colin, 1955) 116 pp., reprinted: Paris, Gallimard, 1971.
Larr, Christian, LHritage spirituel de IAncienne gypte (Le TremblayOmonville: Diffusion Rosicrucienne, 1998) 256 pp.
Lubac, Henri de, La Postrit spirituelle de Joachim de Flore (Paris:
Lethielleux, coll. Le Sycomore,) 2 vols.: Vol. I, De Joachim
Schelling, 1979, 414 pp.; Vol. II, De Saint-Simon nos
jours,1981, 508 pp.
Otto, Rudolf, Le Sacr (Paris: Payot, 1949) 235 pp. English language
version: The Idea of the Holy (Oxford: Oxford University Press,
1924).
Les Pitismes lge classique, crise, conversion, institutions (collective),
under the direction of Anne Lagny (Villeneuve-dAscq: Presses
universitaires du Septentrion, 2001) 380 pp.
Underhill, Evelyn, Mysticisme (Le Tremblay Omonville, Diffusion
Rosicrucienne, 1994) 814 pp. English language version: Mysticism
(1924).
558

XI. PERIODICALS
ARIES (Association pour la recherche et linformation sur lsotrisme), 1985present: Paris, La Table dmeraude et Brill, Academic Publishers,
2001-present: half-yearly, directed by Roland Edighoffer, Jacques
Fabry, and Antoine Faivre.
American Rosae Crucis, The, 1916-1920, monthly, AMORCs
magazine for English-speaking countries.
Ambix The Journal of the Society for the Study of Alchemy and Early
Chemistry, 1937-present, quarterly, Cambridge, Hoffer Printers.
Cahiers de luniversit Saint-Jeande Jerusalem (Centre international
dtudes spirituelles compares), 19751985, Paris, Berg
International.
Cahiers du Groupe dtudes spirituelles compares (G.E.S.C.), 1992-present,
yearly, fait suite a lU.S.J.J.
Chrysopoeia, magazine published by the Socit dtude de lhistoire
de lalchimie, directed by Sylvain Matton, 1987-present.
tudes traditionnelles, 1937-1972, fortnightly.
Initiation (L) 1st series: 1889-1914, publication of Papus Martinist
Order, monthly; new series by Philippe Encausse 1952-present,
quarterly.
Mystic Triangle, The, 1925-1929, monthly, AMORCs magazine for
English-speaking countries.
Pantacle, 1993-present, yearly, magazine of the Traditional Martinist
Order
559

Politica Hermetica, 1987-present, yearly, lAge dhomme.

Renaissance traditionnelle, 1970-present, quarterly, periodical of
Masonic and symbolic studies.
Rose-Croix, 1952-present, quarterly, AMORCs magazine for Frenchspeaking countries.
Rosicrucian Digest, 1929-present, monthly until 1991, then quarterly,
AMORCs magazine for English-speaking countries.
Triangle, The, 1921-1925, monthly, AMORCs magazine for Englishspeaking countries.
Voile dIsis, Le, 1890-1933, monthly, became Le Voile dIsis tudes
traditionnelles, 1934-1936.

560

INDEX OF PERSONAL
NAMES
Abano, Peter of
Abd alRahman I
Abraham ben Isaac
Abramelin
Abravanel, Judah
Abu-Abdallah
Abu-Mashar
Abulafia, Abraham
Accomani, Cesare, see Zam Bhotiva.
Adam
Adam, Charles
Adamson, Henry
Aegidius of Tebaldio
Agathodemon
Aglaopheme
Agnostus, Irenaeus
Agrippa, Cornelius Heinrich
Aia Aziz, see Thon, Max.
Aithalides
Akhnaton
Al Manor
561

Al-Jaldaki, Abd Allah

Al-Khadir
Al-Khezr, see Al-Khadir.
Al-Majriti, Maslama
Al-Mansur
Al-Qarani, Oways
Al-Razi, abu-Bakr Muhammad ibn-Zakariya
Albans, Countess d
Albertus Magnus
Albumasar, see Abu-Mashar.
Aldrovandi, Ulisse
Alembert, Jean Le Rond d
Alexander The Great
Alexander VI,
Alfassa, Mirra
Alfonso the Learned
Ali-ash-Shabramallishi
Alta, Abb
Alverda, Hugo de
Amadou, Robert
Aman-Jean, Edmond
Amenhotep III
Amenhotep, son of Hapu
Amosis
Ancel Guillaume
562

Anderson, James
Andreae, Jakob
Andreae, Johann Valentin
Angel, Frre
Anubis
Aphrodite
Apollo
Apollonius of Rhodes
Apollonius of Tyana
Apuleius
Aristotle
Arndt, Johann
Arnold of Villanova
Arnold, Gottfried
Arnold, Paul
Asclepius
Ashmole, Elias
Assmann, Jan,
Atkinson, William Walker
Aton
Augustine, St.
Aumer, Jean-Pierre
Aurobindo, Sri
Baal Shem Tov
Babbitt, Dr.
563

Bacon, Francis
Bacon, Nicholas
Bacon, Roger
Baillet, Adrien
Balbiani, Prince
Balinus, see Apollonius of Tyana.
Ballanche, Pierre
Balzac, Honor de
Banks, Thaddeus
Banks-Stacey, May
Barbey dAurevilly, Jules
Barlet, F-Ch.
Barrett, SirWilliam
Baudelaire, Charles
Beauregard, Joseph de
Bdarrides, Marc and Michel
Beeckman, Isaac
Bhar, Pierre
Beissel, Conrad
Bellcastle-Ligne, Raynaud E. de
Belon, Pierre
Ben Aifa, Soliman
Benedict XV
Benedictus
Benedictus Figulus
564

Bengel, Johann Albrecht

Berdyaev, Nikolai
Bergasse, Nicolas
Bernard of Clairvaux, St.
Bernard, Christian
Bernard, mile
Besant, Annie
Besold, Christoph
Betts, Katherine
Bhima Sena Pratapa
Biedermann, Ludwig
Bimstein, Louis-Maximilien, see Theon, Max.
Bischoffswerder, Johann Rudolf von
Blanchard, Victor
Blavatsky, Helena Petrovna
Boccalini, Traiano
Boehme, Jacob
Boissin, Firmin
Bolos of Mendes
Bonneville, Nicolas de
Bonnot de Condillac, tienne
Boucher de la Richardire
Boulange, T.P.
Bourdelle, Antoine
Bourges, lmir
565

Boyle, Robert
Brahe, Tycho
Braid, James
Brassard, Albert B.
Brenz, Johann
Bricaud, Jean
Brot of fer, Ratichius
Brouncker, William
Brunfels, Otto
Bruno, Giordano
Bruxius, Adam
Bry, Jean Thodore de
Buber, Martin
Buchanan, Joseph Rodes
Buffon, Georges Louis Leclerc
Buhle, Johann Gottlieb
Bulwer Lytton, Edward
Burgoyne, Thomas H.
Burke, Miss
Burne-Jones, Edward
Cadet, M.
Caesar
Cagliostro, Alessandro
Cahagnet, Louis-Alphonse
Caillet, Albert Louis
566

Callaghan, John P.
Campanella, Tommaso
Canseliet, Eugene
Cardes, Jean-Raymond
Casaubon, Isaac
Catherine of Aragon
Cato
Caus, Salomon de
Chaboseau, Augustin
Chaboseau, Jean
Chambers, George Robert
Champollion, Jean-Franois
Chamuel
Charles I, king of England
Charles II, king of England
Charles of Hesse-Cassel
Charles V
Chatel, Abb
Chaunu, Pierre
Christian of Anhalt
Christian, Pierre
Christina of Sweden
Clarke, H.
Clea
Clement of Alexandria
567

Clement VII
Cleopatra
Clymer, Reuben Swinburne
Colgen, Mr
Comenius, Johann Amos Komensky
Constantine
Copernicus, Nicolaus
Coppens, Christiaen
Corbin, Henry
Cosimo di Medici
Cosmoxene, Christian
Couliano, Ioan P.
Court de Gbelin, Antoine
Croll, Oswald
Cromwell Reynolds, Delia
Crook, Florence
Crookes, William
Crossman, Mr.
Crowley, Aleister
Curie, Pierre and Marie
Dalmayrac, Ernest
Dante Alighieri
Dantinne, mile
Davidson, Peter
Davis, Andrew Jackson
568

Davy, Marie-Madeleine
De Quincey, Thomas
Dean, Charles Dana
Dee, John
Delaage, Henri
Delacroix, Eugne
Deleuze, Joseph-Pierre
Delville, Jean
Democritus
Desaguliers, John Theophilus
Descartes, Ren
Diderot, Denis
Didier, Alexis
Diocletian
Diodorus Siculus
Dion Fortune
Dionysius the Areopagite
Divoire, Fernand
Dodd, Alfred
Doget, John
Dorn, Gerhard
Dramart, Louis
Drebbel, Cornelis
Dresser, Annetta Gertrude
Dresser, Horatio Willis
569

Dresser, Julius A.
Du Bourg, family
Du Mge, Alexandre
Dujols, Pierre
Dumas, Alexandre
Dupotet de Sennevoy, Jules Denis, Baron
Dupre, Eugne
Dupuis, Charles-Franois
Dupuy, Louis-Emmanuel
Durand de Gros, Dr.
Durville, Gaston
Durville, Hector
Durville, Henri
Dutoit-Membrini, Jean-Philippe
Dutrech, Dr.
Eckhart, Johannes, called Meister
Eckhartshausen, Karl von
Eddy, Mary Baker
Edighoffer, Roland
Edward I, king of England
Eglin Iconius, Raphael
Eldir, Alained
Eliade, Mircea
Elias Artista
Elijah
570

Elizabeth I, queen of England

Elizabeth, daughter of Frederick V
Elizabeth, wife of Frederick V
Empedocles
Encausse, Grard, see Papus.
Enoch
Eschenbach, Wolfram von
Essex, Earl of
Etteilla, Alliette
Eudoxus of Cnidus
Evans, Warren Felt
Evelyn, John
Ezekiel
Fabr dOlivet, Antoine
Fabr-Palaprat
Fabride Peiresc, Nicolas-Claude
Faivre, Antoine
Falkenstein, Count
Falkner, Daniel
Falkner, Justus
Faria, Abb
Faucheux, Albert, see Barlet, F.-Ch.
Faulhaber, Johan
Fauvety, Charles
Fenlon
571

FerdinandI of Habsburg
Ferdinand II of Habsburg
Ferdinand of Styria, see Ferdin and II of Habsburg.
Ferrer-Benimelli, Jos .A.
Feure, Georgesde
Ficino, Marsilio
Fictuld, Hermann,
Filiger, Charles,
Firth, Violet, see Dion Fortune.
Flamel, Nicholas
Flammarion, Camille,
Fletcher, Ella Adelia
Florentinus de Valentia
Fludd, Robert
Fortune, Dion
Fourni, Abb Pierre
Fox, Margaret and Katie
Fra Angelico
Franck, Csar
Francke, August Hermann
Frank, Sebastien
Franklin, Benjamin
Franz, Marie-Louisevon
Frederick II, king of Prussia
Frederick of Wrttemberg
572

Frederick V, elector Palatine

Frederick William, prince of Prussia
Friesen, Johann Karl
Fuchs, Leonhart
Fulcanelli
Funk, Isaac Kauffmann
Gabriel
Gabrol, A.
Galen
Galileo
Garasse, Franois
Gassendi, Pierre
Gauguin, Paul
Geber, see Jabir ibn Hayyan
Gebler, Baron von
Gemier, Firmin
Gemistus Pletho
Gerard of Cremona
Gesner, Konrad von
Gichtel, Johann Georg
Gilly, Carlos
Giorgi, Francesco
Glaser, Christoph
Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von
Gorceix, Bernard
573

Gould, Sylvester Clark

Gourmont, Rmy de
Grasset, Eugne
Grasshoff, Louis von, see Heindel, Max.
Gregory XIV
Greiner, Frank
Grick, Friedrich, see Agnostus, Irenaeus.
Groote, Gerhard
Grter, Hans
Guaita, Stanislas de
Gunon, Ren
Guesdon, Jeanne
Guyon, Jeanne-Marie Bouvier de La Mott, Mme
Haak, Theodore
Hafenreffer, Matthias
Hallaj, Abu al-Mughith al-Husayn al
Halleux, Robert
Hanauer, Georg
Harlequin
Harriot, Thomas
Hartlib, Samuel
Hartmann, Franz
Harvey, William
Haselmayer, Adam
Hauffe, Frederica
574

Haven, Marc
Hecataeus of Abdera
Heindel, Max
Heliodorus
Helmont, Jan Baptista van
Helvtius, Claude Adrien
Henry III, king of France
Henry IV, king of France
Henry of Navarre, see Henry IV.
Henry VIII, king of England
Hermaphrodite
Hermas
Hermes Trismegistus
Herodotus
Hess, Tobias
Hesse, Hermann
Heydon, John
Heyland, Samuel
Hiram
Hirsch, Christoph
Hoberveschel von Hobernfeld, Andreas
Hodby, William B.
Hodgson, Richard
Hodler, Ferdinand
Hoffman, Catherine
575

Hoffman, Melchior
Hofmann, Ida
Holbach, Paul Henri Dietrich d
Home, Daniel Dunglas
Homer
Hopkins, Emma Curtis
Horace
Hornung, Erik
Horus
Hudnut, Eliza
Hudson, Thomson Jay
Huet, Pierre Daniel
Hugode Santalla
Hugo, Victor
Hund, Johann Gottlieb von
Hunt, William Holman
Huser, Johann
Husson, Dr.
Hutin, Serge
Hyslop, James H.
Iamblichus
ibn Arabi
ibn Qurra, see Thabitibn Qurra.
ibn-Umailal-Tamimi, Muhammad
ibn-Wahshiya
576

ibn Yazid, Khalid

Idris
Indy, Vincentd
Isaac the Blind
Isidore of Seville
Isis
Isocrates
Jabir ibn Hayyan
Jacques-Dalcroze, mile
Jacquet, Maurice
Jafar al-Sadiq
Jama, Sophie
JamesI, king of England
James, St.
James, William
Janssen, Zacharias
Jennings, Hargrave
Jerome, St.
Jesus Christ
Joachim of Fiore
John of Toledo
John the Baptist, St.
Jollivet-Castelot, Franois
Jonson, Ben
Julian the Apostate
577

Jung, Carl Gustav

Justinian
Kardec, Allan
Kellner, Carl
Kelly, Gerard
Kelpius, Johannes
Kepler, Johannes
Kerner, Justinus
Keyserling, Hermann de
Khawadja Khidr, see al-Khadir.
Khnopff, Fernand
Khunrath, Heinrich
Kienast, Richard
Kiesewetter, Karl
Kiimalehto, Thor
Kircher, Athanasius
Klein, Heinrich
Kppen, Carl Friedrich von
Koreff, Dr.
Kornmann, Guillaume
Kster, Heinrich Bernhard
Koyr, Alexandre
Kreutzer, Rudolphe
Krishnamurti
Kyot le provenal
578

La Rochefoucault, Antoine de
Laban, Rudolf von
Lacordaire, Father Henri
Lacroze, Gary de
Lactantius
Lacuria, Paul
Lagrze, Georges
Landauer, Gustav
Lapasse, Viscount douard de
Larmandie, Count de
Lassalle, Clovis
Lavoisier, Antoine Laurent de
Le Fvre de la Boderie
Le Forestier, Rne
Lead, Jane
Lebey, Andr
Lebrun, Clement
Lederlin, Jakob
Leene, Jan
Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm
Lemoyne, Jean-Baptiste
Lenoir, Alexandre
Leo Africanus
Leroux, Pierre
Lvi, liphas
579

Levingston, William
Lvy, Charles
Lewis, Aaron Rittenhouse
Lewis, Earle R.
Lewis, Harvey Spencer
Lewis, Martha
Lewis, Ralph Maxwell
Lewis, Samuel
Leymarie, Pierre-Gaetan
Libavius, Andreas
Lindstedt, Conrad H.
Little, Robert Wentworth
Lodge, Sir Oliver
Lombroso, Cesare
Loria, Mr.
Louis XVI, king of France
Lully, Jean-Baptiste
Lully, Raymond
Luther, Martin
Ltke, Daniel
Luys, Dr. Jules
Mackenzie, Kenneth R.H.
Macrobius
Maginot, Adle
Magre, Maurice
580

Mahatma Agamya Paramahansa, Sri

Maia
Maier, Michael
Maillard, Jean-Franois
Maimonides
Maistre, Joseph de
Malachi
Mallinger, Jean
Manetho
Marconis de Ngre, Jean-tienne
Marcus Aurelius
Marie-Antoinette
Mark, St.
Marlowe, Christopher
Marqus-Rivire, Jean
Martin, Henri
Martnez de Pasquales
Martins, Dr.
Mathers, Samuel Liddell
Mattha, Conrad
Matthias II, Emperor
Mauprey, Andr
Maurice of Hesse-Cassel
Maxence, Edgard
Maximilian, Archduke
581

Maxwell, William
Mayer, Christian Daniel von
McBlain Thomson, Matthew
Mederes, David
Menapius, F.G.
Mendeleev, Dmitri Ivanovich
Menes
Mercator, Gerhardus
Mercier, Mme., see Eldir, Alaine d
Mercury
Merian, Matthas
Merlau, Eleonor von
Mersenne, Marin
Merswin, Rulman
Mesmer, Franz Anton
Michaud, Guy
Michelet, Jules
Michelet, Victor-mile
Millais, John Everett
Minerva
Minne, George
Mocet, Dr.
Mgling, Daniel, see Florentinus de Valentia.
Mohammed
Mols, P.
582

Montesquieu
Moray, Sir Robert
More, Thomas
Moreas, Jean
Moreau, Gustave
Morienus
Mormius, Peter
Morris, William
Moses
Moses of Leon
Moses, William Stainton
Mother, see Alfassa, Mirra.
Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus
Muggleton, Lodowicke
Mulford, Prentice
Mnster, Sebastian
Myers, Frederick William Henry
Napoleon
Nasir-e Khosraw
Naud, Gabriel
Naumann, Gottlieb
Neptune
Nero
Neuhaus, Heinrich
Newton, Isaac
583

Nicholas of Cusa
Nicolai, Philip
Noah
Nodier, Charles
Novikov, Nikolai
Nyst, Raymond
ONeal Haye, Anthony
Octavian
Oedenkoven, Henri
Oetinger, Friedrich Christoph
Offray de la Mettrie, Julien
Olcott, Henry Steel
Olympiodorus
Ormus, or Ormissus
Orpheus
Ortelius, Abraham,
Orvius
Osbert, Alphonse
Osiris
Otto Heinrich, Count Palatine
Ourches, Count d
Ovid
Palestrina
Palladino, Eusapia
Pantheus, Michael
584

Papin, Denis
Papus
Paracelsus
Pars, Pierre-Adrien
Parkes, Dr. S.
Parsifal
Patrizi, Francesco
Paul, St.
Payne, George
Pladan, Adrien
Pladan, Josphin
Penn, William
Peter, St.
Petersen, Johann Wilhelm
Peuckert, Will-Erich
Philalethes, Eugenius, see Vaughan, Thomas
Philip a Gabella
Philip II, king of Spain
Philip the Good
Philo
Piaget, Jean
Pico della Mirandola,
Pioda, Alfredo,
Piper, Leonora
Piranesi, Giambattista
585

Pistorius, Johannes
Plato
Pliny
Plotinus
Plutarch
Poiret, Pierre
Postel, Guillaume
Potier, Michael
Pott, Mrs. Henry
Poyan, Charles
Praetorius, Stephan
Previati, Gaetano
Prinz-Visser, M.
Privat, Paul douard
Proclus
Prometheus
Pseudo-Aristotle
Ptolemy, Claudius
Puvis de Chavannes, Pierre
Puysgur, Armand Marie Jacquesde
Chastenet, Marquisde
Pythagoras
Quimby, Phineas Parkhurst
Ragon, Jean-Marie
Raleigh, Walter
586

Ramakrishna
Ramasami, K.T.
Rameau, Jean-Philippe
Rame, Daniel
Ramsay, Andrew Michael
Rawley, William
Re
Redon, Odilon
Regnard, Jean-franois
Reuchlin, Johannes
Reuss, Theodor
Rhazes, see al-Razi.
Richet, Charles
Richter, Samuel, see Sincerus Renatus.
Riesener, William
Rivail, Hippolyte-Lon, see Kardec, Allan.
Robert of Chester
Rochas, Colonel Albert dAiglun de
Rochefoucault, Antoine de la
Roerich, Nicholas
Rolland, Romain
Rondelet, Guillaume
Rops, Flicien
Rose, Frdric
Rosenkreuz, Christian
587

Rosenroth, Knorr von

Rosna, Charles
Rossetti, Dante Gabriel
Rossi, Paolo
Rouault, Georges
Rousseau, Jean-Jacques
Rubens, Peter Paul
Rudolph II, Emperor
Ruland, Martin
Ruska, Julius
Ruskin, John,
Russak, Marie
Ruysbroeck, Jan van
Ruzbehan Baqli Shiraz,
Sabin, Oliver C.
Sachse, Julius Friedrich
Sagiyus
Saint-Germain, Comte de
Saint-Martin, Louis Claude de
Saint-Pol Roux
Salzmann, Rodolphe
Sarpi, Paolo
Satie, rik
Saunders, Alfred E.
Savoire, Camille
588

Schleiss von Lwenfeld, Bernhard Joseph

Schopenhauer, Arthur
Schrder, Joseph Wilhelm
Schwabe, Carlos
Schweighardt, Theophilus
Schwenckfeld, Caspar
Scotus Erigena, Johannes
Sears, Miss
Sdir
seelig, Johannes
Seleucus
Semelas, Demetrius Platon
Semnani
Seneca
Senior Zadith, see ibn Umayl al-Tamimi
Mohammed.
Son, Alexandre,
Serapis
Seth
Seton, Dr. Julia
Shabestari, Mahmud
Shakespeare, William
Sheba, Queen of
Sidgwick, Henry
Sidney, Philip
589

Silvestre, Augustin-Franois de
Sincerus Renatus, XIII
Sinnett, Alfred Percy
Socrates
Sohravardi, Shihaboddin Yahya
Solomon
Solon
Speckman, A.H.W.
Spener, Philipp Jacob
Spenser, Edmund
Sperber, Julius
Sprat, Thomas
Sprengel, Anna
Steiner, Rudolf
Stellatus, Joseph, see Menapius, F.G.
Steuco, Agostino
Stewart, Gary
Stromberg, Frank,
Studion, Simon
Suso, Heinrich
Swedenborg, Emanuel
Tat
Tauler, Johannes
Terrasson, Abb Jean
Teste, Dr. Alphonse
590

Thabit ibn Qurrah

Thales of Miletus
Theodosius
Thon, Max
Theophilus
Theresa of Avila, St.
Thomas Aquinas, St.
Thomas, Andr
Thorion, Henry
Thurston, Royle
Toorop, Jan
Torrentius, Johannes, see Van der Beeck
Johannes Symonsz
Trine, Ralph Waldo
Tschoudy, Charles Theodor
Turnbull, Victor
Turning, Svend
Udny, E.
Urban VI
Valentine, Basil
Van der Beeck, Johannes Symonsz
Van Hogelande, Cornelis
Van Rijckenborg, Jan
Vaughan, Thomas
Ventura, Gastone
591

Venus
Vesalius, Andreas
Villiers de lIsle-Adam, Auguste
Virgil
Visme, A.P.J. de
Vitruvius
Vivekanand, Swami
Voltaire
Voragin, Jacobusde
Vulliaud, Paul
Wachtmeister, Countess,
Wagner, Richard
Waite, Arthur Edward
Wallace, Alfred Russel
Weigel, Valentin
Welling, Christophe
Welling, Georg von
Welton, Charles
Wesley, John
Wessel, Wilhelm
Westcott, William Wynn
Wharton, Duke of
Whitefield, George
Wigston, W.F.C.
Wilcox, Ella Wheeler
592

Wilde, Constance Lloyd

Wilde, Oscar
Wilkins, John
Willermoz, Jean-Baptiste
Wittemans, Franz
Wllner, Johann Christoph
Wood, Henry
Woodman, R. William
Yarker, John
Yates, Frances Amelia
Yeats, William Butler
Yogi Ramacharaka
Zam Bhotiva
Zetzner, Lazarus
Zeus
Zimmermann, Johann Jacob
Zinzendorf, Count Nikolaus Ludwig von
Zoroaster
Zosimos of Panopolis

593

THE ROSICRUCIAN ORDER, AMORC

Purpose and Work of the Order
The Rosicrucian Order, AMORC, is a philosophical and initiatic
tradition. As students progress in their studies, they are initiated into
the next level or degree.
Rosicrucians are men and women around the world who study the
laws of nature in order to live in harmony with them. Individuals
study the Rosicrucian lessons in the privacy of their own homes on
subjects such as the nature of the soul, developing intuition, classical
Greek philosophy, energy centers in the body, and self-healing
techniques.
The Rosicrucian tradition encourages each student to discover the
wisdom, compassion, strength, and peace that already reside within
each of us.
www.rosicrucian.org

594