Part of my problem is that I cannot dispel the myths that have somehow accumulated over the years. Somebody writes something, it`s completely off the wall, but it gets filed and repeated until everyone believes it.
"There's something in the human personality which resents things that are clear, and conversely, something which is attracted to puzzles, enigmas and allegories." - Stanley Kubrick
It is so easy for the most clever, careful and conscientious historian OUTSIDE OF OUR ORDER, to be mistaken about facts which deal with the INSIDE. You must be initiated, to KNOW, although, of course, you may SURMIZE at any time.- HSL
Ik verzeker je dat degene die vanuit de gewone betekenissen probeert te begrijpen wat de hermetische filosofen hebben geschreven, verdwaalt in de gangen van een labyrint waarvan hij de uitgang nooit meer zal vinden. - Cagliostro
In 1602/3/4 a new star appeared in Cygneus (the Swan) causing more wonder. But in 1604 the great conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter (along with Mars) happened in Sagittarius that marked the commencement of great conjunctions in the "fiery trigon" (Sag, Leo, and Aries). And maybe more
remarkable, a new star appeared right above it in Serpentario (aka Ophiuchus, the serpent-holder - Asclepius the Healer). This heralded a New Age to many sky watchers. And to the authors of the manifestoes, it was the time that Brother C.R.'s tomb was found and opened.
"Yea, the Lord God hath already sent before certain Messengers, which should testify his Will, to wit, some new Stars which do appear and are seen in the Firmament in Serpentario and Cygno, which signifie and give themselves known to every one, that they are powerful Signacula of great weighty matters." (Confessio)
According to masonic history, Ormus was the name of an Egyptian sage and mystic, a Seraphic priest, a gnostic adept of Alexandria who may have lived during the early years of the Christian epoch. In A.D. 46 he and six followers were supposedly converted to a form of Christianity by one of Jesus' disciples Mark. From this conversion a new sect or order is said to have been born, which fused the tenets of early Christianity with the teachings of the mystery schools. About the same time the Essenes and other Jews founded a school of science according to Solomon's teachings and joined Ormus.
According to Baron de Westerode, who was associated with the Rite des Philalethes, the founder of the Rosicrucians was one Ormesius, who had been converted by St. Mark, at Alexandria. He purified the Egyptian Rite, and reconciled them with Christianity, carrying his 6 disciples with him, and founded the Society of ORMUS, or the Light, each member wearing a red cross. This story is plausible enough. During the first century A.D. Alexandria was a veritable hotbed of mystical activity, a crucible in which Judaic, Mithraic, Zoroastrian, Pythagorean, Hermetic and Neo-Platonic doctrines merged and it would hardly be surprising if one of the teachers adopted a name implying the principle of light. One cannot miss the similarity with words like, Osiris, omph, omphalos, OM + rus etc.
We may thus see in Ormus the origins of the so-called Rose-Croix, or Rosicrucians.
There is also a noticeable link between Ormus and the early Coptic Christianity of Egypt. On the walls of the Coptic Museum in the Old City of Cairo, it is possible to trace the evolution of the Ankh and Rose Cross through the first and second centuries.
Jacques-Etienne Marconis de Nègre ‘Le Sanctuaire de Memphis’1849 :
"Ces derniers la détenaient ‘des Frères d’Oriënt, dont le fondateur était un sage d’Egypte du nom d’Ormus, converti au Christianisme par saint Marc. Ormus purifia la doctrine des Egyptiens, selon les préceptes du Christianisme. Vers le même temps, les Esséniens et autres Juifs fondèrent une école de science Salomonique, qui se réunit à Ormus. Les disciples d’Ormus, jusqu’en 1118, restèrent seuls dépositaires de l’ancienne sagesse égyptienne, purifiée par le Christianisme et la science Templiers : ils étaient alors connu sous le nom de Chevaliers de la Palestine ou FF:. Rose-Croix d’Orient; c’est eux que le Rite de Memphis reconnaît pour fondateurs immédiats.
And what to think about the instigator of the Carolingian renaissance, Alcuin a.k.a. Albinus the great scholar and teacher of Charlemagne, wasn't he in reality a rosicrucian? The first rosicrcucian lodge is said to have been founded in 804 in Toulouse France by Arnaud a.k.a. Amus.
Rosicrucian history has been frequently placed to dawn in the life and times of Thotmes III. But Martin Erler "Frater Albinus / Triunis" (b. 26/04/1920 - 11/08/2014), former head of the Ordo Rosae Aureae (1956), maintains in a private phonecall A.D. 2000, that its origins are to be set around 2.800 B.C. In his letter of 29 September 1998, he likewise avers to Marcel Roggemans: Concerning Rosicrucianism we have done serious scientific research and we had to find out that even the Fama Fraternitatis is already a Palliativum. Symbolism and rites really root back to old Egypt, but strange to say, not to Amenophis IV. We have material at hand (with full scientific evidence) but do not publish it. It is part of our top degree work. ::Sub Symbolo ROSAE AUREAE::
The externalisation of the order took place three times in history and at very crucial times of it: Before the thirty years' war, prior to the French revolution and preceding the twentieth century with the Russian revolution and the Great War.
One should have wished that with the advent of the internet, some new light were shed on this age old mystery, however it's not what one would have fortold. Those who entertain their "rosicrucian" pages in these desperate times, mostly being issued for their self-aggrandizement, often seem to do so out of chagrin and disillusionment or plain evil purposes. Under the guise of rosicrucianism they articulate their frustration, exhibit their pathological quest for documentation and carry their "arguments" ad absurdum. Well, nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.
So unfortunately, we must acknowledge and regret though, that there exist many false prophets and a number of so-called initiates who use, for selfish and tyrannical purposes of domination, the pretext of initiation, to thrust themselves on, and exploit,gullible and sincere persons.
All proving, that in the end they seem to have grasped very little of the true rosicrucian tenet. Demonstrating all the world how spiritual and simultaneously how ignorant they are, because they always have put their dis-eased EGO's first and failed completely to understand the meaning of the little word that frees us of all the weight and pain of life: that word is LOVE. AMOR vincit omnia...
The historians who are of the opinion they can find the ultimate rosicrucian truth in books, documents and through recorded history, make another crucial though very common mistake. The normal practise of these "rosicrucian" writers is to say that they are not themselves rosicrucians, nor have they ever seen one! According to this theory those who have sought to record the events of importance in connection with the rosicrucian controversy, have invariably failed because they approached their subject from a purely physical or material angle. So let's leave these modern pharisees, and quickly define once more the history of the order, since:
The genesis or the Order of the Crucians isn't to be looked for in parchments and documents, since the Rose Cross isn't founded on earth but in the invisible!
