SSO-19

Rosicrucian

The Rosicrucian brotherhood, or society, probably began in the sixteenth century. It has been suggested that the name comes from Christian Rozenkreuze, the founder of the group, but in fact there was no such person. The name more likely is derived from the Latin rosa, a rose, and cruz, a cross. Very few facts were known about the Rosicrucians until Arthur Edward Waite published his book The Real History of the Rosicrucians in 1887. Prior to that, all writings were composed of speculation and pretension. Waite showed that the name Rosicrucian was unknown before 1598. In the opening years of the seventeenth century, a pamphlet was published bearing the title Fama Fraternitatis, or The Fama of the Fraternity of the Meritorious Order of the Rosy Cross Addressed to the Learned in General and the Governors of Europe. The pamphlet was supposedly authored by a number of anonymous mystics who were concerned about the state of humanity and encouraged the coming together of the learned of the world, assisted by themselves—authorities who had been initiated into the mysteries. They detailed a long and involved history of the founder of their fraternity, who had traveled extensively and learned the many great secrets of the adepts. Now, three generations later, they said, the descendants of the order were looking to initiate others. The authors of this pamphlet created much curiosity and excitement throughout Europe, where many occultists applied to join. However, no response came to these applications and eventually it was felt that the whole story had been a hoax.

But the idea of an ancient secret society of occult adepts had hit a nerve. The Chymical Nuptials of Christian Rosencreutz was published in 1616, purporting to be the life story of the founder of the mysterious order. However, interest waned and nothing more was heard of the order for at least a century. In 1710, in Germany, a “Sincerus Racatus,” or Sigmund Richter, published rules for a Rosicrucian Society and began to initiate members. In 1785 a book was published titled The Secret Symbols of the Rosicrucians of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries. Since then, various individuals have claimed to have been initiated, usually by “a mysterious Rosicrucian” without a name and usually in Germany or close by. The individuals have then gone on to found their own form of the brotherhood.

The Rosicrucian Fellowship was founded by Carl Louis van Grashof (otherwise known as Max Heindel) in 1907. Grashof claimed that on a visit to Europe that year he had been initiated at a Rose Cross temple on the borders of Germany and Bohemia. In 1904 Grashof had been vice president of the Los Angeles lodge of the Theosophical Society, and had come to America from Germany nine years before that.

The Rose Cross Order was founded in 1958, developed from lectures given by Pascal Beverley Randolph, a spiritualist medium and self-styled Professor of Oriental Interior Science. There is also the Rosicrucian Society of England, the Societas Rosicruciana in Boston, the Fraternitas Rosae Crucis in Pennsylvania, the New Fellowship of the Rosy Cross, and many others. Today there are societies, fellowships, lodges, brotherhoods, and orders throughout the world. Some are secretive and hidden while others are open and active. Most are critical of each other, many claiming to be the only “true” Rosicrucianism.

Perhaps the best known—or most successful, commercially —is The Ancient and Mystic Order Rosae Crucis (AMORC), founded by H. Spencer Lewis in 1915. The majority of Rosicrucian organizations do not proselytize, but AMORC is a mainly commercial organization, advertising extensively in newspapers and magazines and offering correspondence courses. In 1915 Lewis placed an ad in a New York newspaper and so started the AMORC. As with so many others, he claimed to have received special knowledge and authorization to start his order from “Rosicrucian Masters.” He made himself the “Supreme Autocratic Authority, Imperator for North, Central, and South America, the British Commonwealth and Empire, France, Switzerland, Sweden and Africa.” On Lewis’s death in 1939, his son Ralph succeeded him.

There are degrees of advancement in AMORC: three basic degrees, which can be followed by nine “Temple” degrees. These last take the person to the exclusive Illuminati of the order. As with Freemasonry, Rosicrucianism is anathema to the Roman Catholic Church.