Fellowship of the Rosy Cross
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The Order of the Rosy Cross, or Rosicrucians, is a worldwide esoteric society and fraternity. Both names are often used to refer to one division of Rosicrucians, now based in San Jose, called the Ancient Mystic Order of Rosae Crucis (AMORC), whose emblem is a cross with a single rose in the center. The AMORC operates on the lodge system and teaches a mixed metaphysical and scientific philosophy of "practical arts and sciences".
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[edit] Early Sources
The Rosicrucian society may have been founded in Europe in medieval times. Although the first cited evidence dates from the early 1600s, others claim to find traces that suggest it might have existed in 12th century in Europe and earlier in Asia.
[edit] European Establishment
The publication of the following three anonymous pamphlets in three successive years are the first direct evidence of the Rosicrucians:
- Fama Fraternitatis (Account of the Brotherhood, 1614)
- The Confessio Fraternitatis (Confession of the Brotherhood, 1615)
- The Third Chemical Wedding of Christian Rosencreutz (1616)
Ostensibly the pamphlets are about a person named Christian Rosenkreuz, who was allegedly born in 1378, but many scholars assume he was meant to be an allegorical figure. The pamphlets describe initiation into the spiritual and alchemical mysteries of the East (particularly of ancient Egypt).
Despite arousing enthusiasm in the expanding occult community, no later records exist for membership of the Order. In the eighteenth century various tracts and manifestoes were published asserting the existence of the Brothers of the Rosy Cross, and groups describing themselves as Rosicrucian were active in Russia, Poland, and Germany.
[edit] American Establishment
The first Rosicrucian society in the United States was founded in Pennsylvania in 1694.
Harvey Spencer Lewis founded The Ancient Mystical Order Rosae Crucis (AMORC) in 1909. Lewis claimed to have been initiated into the Brotherhood in France. The AMORC now has its headquarters in San Jose, California.
The AMORC is an international fraternal order that operates through a system of lodges. It fosters the Rosicrucian philosophy of developing humankind's highest potentialities and psychic powers through study and practice. Members of the AMORC strive for the perfection with the ultimate goal being admittance into the Lodge and the attainment of true knowledge, or cosmic consciousness. Students progress through twelve degrees of mastery, with the tenth through twelfth degrees conferred psychically, usually in the Order's temples in the East. As in Theosophy, such perfection comes only after various reincarnations, each devoted to achieving a greater oneness with the Supreme Being.
[edit] Scholarly Analysis
The expressed purpose of the Fama Fraternitatis was the spiritual development of individuals according to quasi-Christian and esoteric principles. But because the pamphlets are also anti-papal and promote Protestant ethics, many scholars suspect that the pamphlets were written by the German Lutheran pastor Johan Valentin Andreae (1586-1654).
[edit] Claims of Inluence
Some Rosicrucians claim that their Order influenced Freemasonry, pointing out that the eighteenth Masonic degree is the Sovereign Prince Rose Croix of Heredom. Since both organizations show historical evidence of having formed at the same era, it is difficult to determine which organization influenced the other, if at all.
[edit] See also
- Johan Valentin Andreae
- Christian mysticism
- Harvey Spencer Lewis
- Esoterism
- Hermeticism
- Rosicrucian
- Occult
- Theosophy
