Rosicrucianism
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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"This element of Rosicrucianism, fostered by a wave of popular magical interest exemplified in the vogue of the charlatan Cagliostro and the publication of Francis Barrett's The Magus (1801), a curious and compendious treatise on occult principles and ceremonies, of which a reprint was made as lately as 1896, figures in Bulwer-Lytton and in many late Gothic novels, especially that remote and enfeebled posterity which straggled far down into the nineteenth century and was represented by George W. M. Reynolds's Faust and the Demon and Wagner the Wehr-Wolf."--Supernatural Horror in Literature" (1927) by H. P. Lovecraft "The Rosicrucians are a people I must bring you acquainted with. The best account I know of them is in a French book called Le Comte de Gabalis, which both in its title and size is so like a novel, that many of the fair sex have read it for one by mistake. According to these gentlemen, the four elements are inhabited by spirits, which they call Sylphs, Gnomes, Nymphs, and Salamanders." -- The Rape of the Lock (1712) Alexander Pope, introduction |
Illustration: The Temple of the Rose Cross from the Speculum Sophicum Rhodostauroticum (1618) by Teophilus Schweighardt Constantiens
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Rosicrucianism is a spiritual and cultural movement that arose in Europe in the early 17th century after the publication of several texts purported to announce the existence of a hitherto unknown esoteric order to the world and made seeking its knowledge attractive to many. The mysterious doctrine of the order is "built on esoteric truths of the ancient past", which "concealed from the average man, provide insight into nature, the physical universe, and the spiritual realm." The manifestos do not elaborate extensively on the matter, but clearly combine references to Kabbalah, Hermeticism, alchemy, and Christian mysticism.
The Rosicrucian manifestos heralded a "universal reformation of mankind", through a science allegedly kept secret for decades until the intellectual climate might receive it. Controversies arose on whether they were a hoax, whether the "Order of the Rosy Cross" existed as described in the manifestos, and whether the whole thing was a metaphor disguising a movement that really existed, but in a different form. In 1616, Johann Valentin Andreae famously designated it as a "ludibrium". Some scholars of esotericism suggest that this statement was later made by Andreae in order to shield himself from the wrath of the religious and political institutions of the day, which were intolerant of free speech and the idea of a "universal reformation", for which the manifestos called.
An example of the rosy cross symbol predating the early Rosicrucian manifestos is that shown on the central panel of the Harbaville Triptych, which is Byzantine and comes from the 10th or 11th century. The symbol is a Calvary cross with a rose in its centre, which is identical with what the masonic/rosicrucian scholar Manly Palmer Hall claimed to be the original symbol of the Rosicrucians.
In his work "Silentium Post Clamores" (1617), the rosicrucian Michael Maier (1568–1622) described rosicrucianism as having arisen from a "Primordial Tradition" in the following statement: "Our origins are Egyptian, Brahminic, derived from the mysteries of Eleusis and Samothrace, the Magi of Persia, the Pythagoreans, and the Arabs."
By promising a spiritual transformation at a time of great turmoil, the manifestos influenced many figures to seek esoteric knowledge. Seventeenth-century occult philosophers such as Maier, Robert Fludd, and Thomas Vaughan interested themselves in the Rosicrucian world view. According to the historian David Stevenson, it was influential on Freemasonry as it was emerging in Scotland.
In later centuries, many esoteric societies have claimed to derive from the original Rosicrucians. Rosicrucianism is symbolized by the Rosy Cross or Rose Cross.
The most influential of these societies has been the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, which derived from Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia and counted many prominent figures among its members.
See also
- Anthroposophy
- Ashrama Hall and Christchurch Garden Theatre
- Bogomilism
- Brethren of Purity
- Catharism
- Druze
- Essenes
- Gnosticism
- Jakob Böhme
- Manichaeism
- Martinism
- Michael Sendivogius
- Neoplatonism
- Numerology
- Parabola Allegory
- Pigpen cipher
- Pythagoreanism
- Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum
- Rudolf Steiner
- Theosophy
- Western esotericism
- Academic study of Western esotericism
