SOCIETAS ROSICRUCIANA IN ANGLIA

THE SEVEN STEPS OF WISDOM - STEP 4

Who was Christian Rosenkreuz?

You will recall that there were three so-called Manifestos: the Fama Fraternitatis, the Confessio and the Chemical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreuz. They were published (to the best of our knowledge) in 1614, 1615 and 1617 but the Fama at least had been around in manuscript form since 1610 or earlier.

The story of Christian Rosekreuz was told in the Fama Fraternitatis as if he were a real person and the first toast at an SRIA festive board is 'to the pious memory of our revered founder Christian Rosenkreuz.' Academic opinion is split, with very few (if any) academics thinking that the story is entirely true and quite a number considering it to be entirely fiction, though they are divided as to the purpose of that fiction. More probably the truth lies somewhere between an amalgam of various individuals and an allegory - perhaps closer to the origins of the King Arthur and Robin Hood tales: certainly not entirely made up, but the actual origins lost in the mists of time and repeated retelling.

The fact does remain that the story as told in the Rosicrucian Manifestos has a degree of internal consistency and gives some specific dates, places and initials, how accurate they are one cannot say.

So What IS the story?

Christian Rosenkreuz (referred to in the Fama Fraternitatis only as our Brother CR or CRC) was born in Germany of well off parents about 1390 to 1410 and, though not a monk himself, was educated in a monastery. Aged about 16, with Brother PAL he determined to go to the Holy Land. Brother PAL died in Cyprus, Brother CR went on to 'Damasco' - almost certainly Damascus, because he is said later to be in that city -where he made a considerable impression as a doctor. He studied the Ôwonders of natureÕ in Damascus, lost interest in Jerusalem and stayed where he was for several years.

CR went on to Egypt, but didn't stay long and went on to Fez (in what is now Morocco). Fez was one of the centres of both science and medicine and of Moslem mysticism. Paul Case, (a Mason and member of the Golden Dawn in America who founded the Builders of the Adytum when the G .Õ. D .Õ. broke up) claims that there is a tradition that the Tarot was designed in Fez around 1300 and the Brother CRC brought it back to Europe with him. We think we are correct in saying there is no support for the idea apart from this tradition but that the cards did appear as game in Italy about the time of CRCÕs return from his travels.

From Fez, CR went to Spain and thence back to Germany to reflect on what he had learned. We are told that he had improved his Latin, learned Arabic and gained a reputation as a physician. He has also studied alchemy and the Kabbalah. During this period of reflection, it is claimed, he conceived the idea of the fraternity.

Five years after his return he joined with Brother GV, Brother JA and Brother JO. These four wrote down all that he had learned on his travels but the demands on their time, particularly from healing the sick, led them to bring another four people into the Fraternity.

The Chemical Wedding has Christian Rosenkreuz signing his name and giving the date as 1459. As the Chemical Wedding is the most likely of the Rosicrucian Manifestos to be a fictional allegory, this date should be taken with caution. The Fama says that the vault where Christian Rosenkreuz was buried, was found accidentally 120 years after the body was buried. Working backwards from publication around 1614, CR died somewhere around 1490 to 1496.

How Does the Fraternity Explain 120 years of Secrecy?

The Fama continues by explaining the annual attendance of the small group at the Domus Spiritui Sancti Ð the headquarters house of the order somewhere in Germany - and the way in which each brother appointed his own successor. On the subject of secrecy, the Fama says only that they agreed amongst themselves that order should remain secret for 120 years. This seems an odd (and perhaps mildly suspicious) coincidence when considered alongside the fortuitous finding of the vault.

The Order is called in the Fama The Fraternity of the Most Laudable Order of the Rosy Cross. Its members did not wear any special habit or dress, healed the sick and took no money for it and generally mixed with the population of the country in which they found themselves. As the group spent a long period writing down the things learnt by Christian Rosenkreuz on his travels, one can assume there was a substantial body of knowledge to be shared and, as the aims of the Society appear limited, it would appear that we are still not being told the whole truth in the Fama.

In looking at the question of secrecy, before we dismiss the idea too lightly, we should remember that the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries were dangerous times for any unconventional or less than orthodox philosophical or religious ideas, particularly within areas where the Inquisition could reach to impose orthodoxy in its own very unpleasant ways. A Fraternity like the one under discussion here would have to be extremely careful in avoiding persecution: the course of events surrounding the discoveries and teachings of Galileo are warning enough.

What About the Years from 1614 to the Start of the Written History of the SRIA?

The founding of the Soc.'. Ros.'. and the years between the Manifestos and the SRIA are confused and confusing. If you have been tempted to read The Rosicrucians by McIntosh apart from the short extracts we have asked you to study from time to time, you will already be aware of this. Paul Case (mentioned earlier) writes that the Rosicrucian Order is a body of knowledge rather than a direct physical entity. His book The True and Invisible Rosicrucian Order claims secrecy is more a matter that one Rosicrucian can recognise another but that there is no continuous order. He says:

The Order is designated as being invisible by the manifestos themselves. It does not come into corporate form before the world, because by its very nature it cannot. True Rosicrucians know one another nevertheless. Their means of recognition cannot be counterfeited nor betrayed, for these tokens are more subtle than the signs and passwords of ordinary secret societies - To say this is, of course, to repudiate any and all pretensions of societies claiming to be direct historical successors to the authors of the original Rosicrucian manifestos.

This is one understanding of events, though it is somewhat challenged by tantalizing snatches of information emerging during those intervening years. The Grades used by the SRIA from the outset of its historical existence (and later by other Rosicrucian and similar occult bodies such as the Golden Dawn) are first mentioned in 1767. They are clearly linked to the sephiroth of the Kabbalah and are, with the exception of calling the Zelator the Junior, identical with our own.

We do not, incidentally, recommend you to read Paul Cases book (not yet, anyway) because it difficult, full of gematria, which loses the reader at times in its intricacies, and has obscure teachings of each grade based on the Tarot, and not entirely capable of being understood without reading two other books of his. It begins with the full text of the Fama and the Confessio. You will receive facsimile copies of the first English translation, along with a commentary, when you are initiated into Adeptus Minor (Grade V), which gives you an indication of the book's difficulty. However, details are given below, should you wish to read it.

Meditation and Study

Reading

Read The Rosicrucians: The History, Mythology and Rituals of an Esoteric Order by Christopher McIntosh, pp 69 (from 'an even more important textbook' to the end of the Chapter on p 75). Those of you who have already joined the SRIA will recognize one or two phrases that are still used, and several writers mentioned appear in the Practicus lecture.

Meditation Topics

We would like you to use a couple of the images from the Tarot. Ideally buy a pack of Waite Rider cards if you haven't got one. If you rebel against spending your money in this way go for a book with good strongly presented, interesting colour illustrations and do colour photo-copies of a couple of them. Choose any of the images from the Major Arcana (Trumps): as you're not studying them as cards, it doesn't matter which. In the end, any interesting, evocative picture will do.

Sit comfortably in a straight-backed chair, feet firmly on the floor. Take deep, steady breaths and study your card (or picture) in every detail. Close your eyes for a few seconds and try to see the picture in your minds eye. Open your eyes and see whether the remembered detail was correct.

The advantage of doing this exercise with cards from the Waite-Rider pack are that the designs are archetypal. The drawings were by the artist Pamela Coleman-Smith on the instructions of the great esotericist, scholar and author A.E. Waite. Keep repeating the exercise for about 10 minutes and attempt it every day for a week, aiming to hold the picture in your imagination longer and more clearly each time.

Diary

Write up in your diary a record of how you are progressing. As before, you are both judge and record keeper, and no one will yet see anything you write. However, you should now become stricter with yourself and make an entry every day, preferably at about the same time each day.

Topics for Contemplation

1. Do you think the story of Christian Rosenkreuz was likely to be:
- Entirely or largely true?
- An amalgam of events involving different individuals but largely a true story?
- An allegory as Paul Case says?
- A complete fiction?
Be aware that whole books have been written on the subject by writers who take up a variety of positions. All we are asking you to do is to look at the story critically and make up your own mind tentatively.

2. If the story is an allegory, where has the teaching come from?

3. Do you think there is a more-or-less continuous Order, bearing in mind the similarity of the 1767 document to present thinking and ritual?

Return to the Seven Steps Page