rosaecrucius

On the Right Track: The Way of Martinism:::

2011-05-30T07:17:00.000-07:00

The Martinists...admired by the wise...feared by the tyrant...persecuted by the dictator...respected by the mystic...sought by the Seeker. Since the XVIIIth century, the Martinists have been found at the very heart and center of esotericism and mystical belief in all its various expressions. While the Martinist Order is not a secret society, rarely do individual Martinists allow themselves to be seen directly; generally, only a hint of their presence is noted. Yet always, their influence is great:::

Door uw broeders en zusters te dienen past u de mysteriën in de praktijk toe. Dienen is wat de ingewijde in de Tempel doet: Werken, Gehoorzamen, Luisteren en Zwijgen. U dient de gehele mensheid door u zelf te leren kennen, want door met u zelf te beginnen, verbetetert u de hele wereld.

"Jesus said, The world is a bridge; cross this bridge but do not build upon it".

"Zoals alle rivieren uitmonden in de oceaan, zo leiden alle wegen tot Kosmisch Bewustzijn of God". - Swami Vivekananda

"Boeken zijn slechts vensters die uitkijken op de wijsheid, zij verschaffen er geen toegang toe". L.C. de Saint-Martin

"As long as there are slaughterhouses, there will be battlefields"
— Leo Tolstoy

It has been said something as small as the flutter of a butterfly's wing can ultimately cause a typhoon halfway around the world. - Chaos Theory

Dear All,

I, as a free Martinist, am in the privileged position of knowing different orders and want to share with you my findings and a brief history of Martinism as I understand it.

First of all Martinism is a very diverse topic and it's diversity is a function and not a flaw. Many arguments are based on the fact, that people think, that their version (order) of Martinism is the only true version of Martinism, but this is not the fact.

In Martinism Free Initiators and their by all Souvereign Grand Masters are free in designing their version of Martinism. There are no real ground rules, but what I have seen so far there is Unity in the Diversity. All Martinist orders are using at least three degrees, are using in the core the same symbol and are using the same regalia, different in design, but same in their basics.

I like a quote by Curt Warren, which describes this very well:
"The Martinist Order was never designed to be an all inclusive dogmatic structure. It was to be suggestive, not exhaustive. It was to guide the seeker on the Path - to point the Way - and let the student/seeker, after preparation,become a teacher in its own right.
Ridgely Hunt wrote some Landmarks of Martinism, which probably most Martinists can agree on in general: http://www.martinism.com/books/Ridgely%20Hunt%20-%20The%20Landmarks%20of%20Marti\ nism.pdf

There is a quote from Stanislas de Guaita in which describes his thinking about the rules in the Martinis Order of Papus: "Sincere and unselfish pursuit of the Truth - that is what your Mind owes to yourself; fraternal kindness towards other men - that is what your heart owes to your fellow creatures. With the exception of these two duties, our order does not pretend to prescribe any other - at least not in an imperative manner. To seek the Truth and to follow the Golden Rule; this sums up Martinism."
Here my brief history of Martinism. This is based on my understanding and does not claim to be the truth or exclusive. This also should not be a list of historic facts, but explain where the roots of Martinism were laid and how the tree of Martinism with all his branches grew.

For me Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin is the foundation (ground level). He claims in a letter to Kirchberger, that his two teachers were Martinez de Pasqually and Jacob Boehme. Martinez de Pasqually was a jewish Free Mason (I am aware that he was more, but this is for me the briefest description) and Jacob Boehhme, who was a christian Mystic. So the roots of Martinsim are judeo-christian and it uses judeo-christian symbols, but I would not say it is judeo-christian, because Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin has seen the Truth behind Religion, which is the ONE Truth, which is the same for every being in this Univers, which is the "Nameless Source of the World and the Beings". It is sufficient enough, if you understand the meaning of the judeo-christian symbols to be a Martinist in my humble opinion. But I see no problem if one Martinist Order decides, that it only wants Christian members, that is their right.

Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin never founded an order and never created a degree system. It is not even 100% sure, if he gave initiations. What is known is that he taught people about what he has found for himself. He did this in a very humble way not claiming the he has the one and only truth. The core of his teaching was, that everybody can find the truth in and by himself. Here is a quote from him on initiation which I like very much:

"The only initiation which I preach and seek with all the ardour of my soul is that by which we may enter into the heart of God and make God's heart enter into us, there to form an indissoluble marriage, which will make us the friend, brother, and spouse of our Divine Redeemer. There is no other mystery to arrive at this holy initiation than to go down into the depths of our being, and not let go till we can bring forth the living vivifying root, because then all the fruit will be produced within us and without us naturally."

Over half a century later Gerad Ecausse (Papus) and Augustin Chaboseau created the core of all the Martinist Orders as we know them today. They were inspired by Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin, but added most of the stuff from other sources. The structure for example is clearly copied from Freemasonry.

Here a quote from A. E. Waite on the Martinist Order of Papus:
"Papus never concealed the fact that he and no other was the author and fount of its very simple rituals which were modestly conceived and well arranged. He connected it indeed with the name of Saint Martin as a sort of traditional founder ... a remote inspiration."

They added Kabbalah, Jeheshua, and all the little thing so many people insist, that they are the core of Martinism and they are partially right and partially wrong in doing so.

After the death of Papus the landscape of Martinist Orders became more diverse,as many of the leaders disagreed on succession and rules. Which is human and OK. So Martinism developed into this beautiful tree with many different beautiful branches instead of being one huge log. I find a tree with many branches more vivid than a big log.

My personal experience with all the different Martinist whom I met all around the world were 100% positive. So far I did not meet a single Martinist whom I did not like and every Martinist received me in a friendly and open manner. So keep the tree growing.

I have created together with some brothers a information page for Martinists (www.martinism.com).If you have any questions or suggestions, please feel free to contact me.

With the best wishes for true inner peace,

Sar Unitas
S.I.I.L.

“Behoud in alle dingen het verlangen naar de onuitputtelijke liefde van God; streef ernaar dit te bereiken, teneinde de illusie die ons omringt te boven te komen en onze ellende gewaar te worden. Streef er boven alles naar altijd doordrongen te zijn van het weten dat een trouwe vriend nabij is, die ons bij iedere stap vergezelt, leidt, voedt en ondersteunt. Hierdoor worden wij omzichtig en tegelijkertijd vol vertrouwen, wat ons wijsheid en kracht zal geven. Wat zou ons ontbreken als wij onveranderlijk met deze twee deugden waren bezield”.

Synarchie … Synarchie … Synarchie … d’empire, ou pas, peu importe, il fallait un coupable, tout le monde allait se rabattre sur Saint-Yves d’Alveydre et ses successeurs ! C’est lui qui avait inventé le mot ! Pourtant Saint-Yves était étranger à toute obédience maçonnique, tout mouvement mystique, et son association posthume au martinisme n’était que l’oeuvre de Papus qui allait réinventer le mouvement, sur lequel Guénon eut d’ailleurs des mots extrêmement sévères. L’action de Saint-Yves, concernant la synarchie, auprès des « souverains » de son époque, qui s’était d’ailleurs soldée par un retentissant échec, était officielle. Comme il le dit lui- même : Je ne fais ni ne veut faire partie d’aucune société secrète ni d’aucune petite église que ce soit, car j’en crois le temps absolument passé, et la synarchie en elle-même est une oeuvre de plein soleil et d’intégralité cyclique .

Le martinisme n’est pas une doctrine aisément identifiable, et ceux qui se lancèrent à la simplifier ne rencontrèrent que des déconvenues. Le martinisme est plutôt une sorte d’OVNI et correspond plus justement à une nébuleuse inconstante de courants très disparates, voire antagonistes, comme l’annonça le premier schisme dont il souffrit, la scission entre martininésisme et martinisme. Saint-Martin le reconnut lui même à la fin de sa vie, dans une lettre au Baron de Liebisdorf en 1796 : Mr Pasqually avait la clef active de ce que notre cher Boehme expose dans ses théories, mais qu’il ne nous croyait pas en état de porter encore ces hautes vérités . Le disciple renégat s’était en effet tourné vers la « clef de Boehme » que prétendait détenir Rodolphe de Salzmann, attaché à la mystique allemande, et en relation avec Eckarthausen et Lavater. Saint-Martin bouda copieusement les loges martinésistes depuis 1777, loges qui partirent à la dérive dans les décennies qui suivirent la mort de Pasqually pour finir par être absorbées par le Grand Orient en 1811, qui avait été jusque là le frère ennemi. Ainsi on peut dire, stricto sensu, que le martinisme n’existe pas : Saint-Martin ne fonda jamais aucun ordre ; il n’eut jamais cette prétention, et le nom de martinistes désigne simplement ceux qui avaient adopté une manière de voir conforme à la sienne, tendant plutôt à s’affranchir du dogmatisme rituélique des loges et à le rejeter comme inutile .

Le Grand Orient, que l’on a vu très impliqué dans l’émergence du synarchisme de Vichy, pouvait donc naturellement créer ce bouc émissaire naturel, d’une part parce que le martinisme, au sens originel, n’existait pas, et ensuite pour régler ses comptes avec le martinésisme qui avait osé le défier à la fin du XVIII° : « La propagande de Saint-Martin échoua près des loges de Paris et de Versailles, mais lorsqu’en 1778, ces loges eurent vu leurs frères de Lyon se tourner définitivement vers le rite templier allemand de la stricte observance, et le grand maître Willermoz prendre la succession du grand maître provincial Pierre d’Aumont, successeur de Jacques Molay, elles songèrent à fusionner avec les loges Philalèthes qui, depuis 1773, travaillaient d’après les données de Martinès et de Swedenborg, et dans les chapitres secrets desquels n’était admis aucun officier du Grand Orient »

La manoeuvre de mise en accusation était encore plus facile depuis que le concept de Martinisme devint encore plus diffus, au début XX°, et depuis que celui-ci avait récupéré, par un malheureux concours de circonstances, le concept synarchique, qui n’est ni présent dans l’ouvre de Pasqually, ni dans celle de Saint-Martin. Willermoz, qui affirma à sa mort « qu’il n’existe plus de Réau-Croix,et que leur transmission s’est interrompue », et qui avait orienté le martinisme dans le rituel très chrétien du RER, y ayant adjoint quelques éléments mineurs des Elus-Coëns, n’était pas pour autant « un héritier de Martinès [...] qui était juif, et qui voulait restaurer le sacerdoce juif dans la maçonnerie intérieure, tout en étant foncièrement opposé au sacerdoce chrétien » . C’est Papus qui allait étoffer la nébuleuse en créant la composante que le Grand Orient allait, un demi-siècle plus tard, indirectement accuser. Après près d’un siècle de sommeil, l’ordre martiniste renaît de ses cendres par Papus, en publiant son premier manifeste en 1889, et rayonne jusqu’en Russie, avant de se disperser à nouveau trente ans plus tard, d’une part, vers une tendance plus maçonnique, avec Jean Bricaud, d’autre part plus papusienne, avec P.A. Chaboseau, et enfin plus Alveydrique, celle qui nous intéresse, créée en 1920 par Victor Blanchard, et nommée Ordre Martiniste Synarchique, deux ans avant la création du Mouvement Synarchique d’Empire, dont le créateur nous est inconnu. C’est ces deux ans de battement qui allaient tant faire souffrir le martinisme, tant ce terme devenait fourre-tout, et tant il se mariait bien avec l’oeuvre de Saint-Yves d’Alveydre que Papus avait arraché des limbes pour promouvoir aux premières loges.

C’est René Guénon qui mettra un terme à la polémique en 1949, dénonçant l’escroquerie grossière : La Synarchie, selon ce dernier [Saint-Yves d'Alveydre], n’a assurément rien de commun avec ce qui a fait tant de bruit en ces dernières années et à quoi il semble bien que ses promoteurs aient donné le même nom, tout exprès pour créer certaines confusions, en quoi ils n’ont d’ailleurs que trop bien réussi, car les livres et les articles publiés à ce propos ont répandu dans le public toute sorte d’erreurs grossières sur Saint-Yves et sur son oeuvre ) Le pauvre SaintYves, qui déjà n’avait pas trouvé écho en son temps, doit passer son temps à se retourner dans sa tombe...

Faut-il s’étendre sur les divergences structurelles entre la synarchie de Saint-Yves d’Alveydre et le pacte synarchique révolutionnaire, qui n’ont de commun que l’appellation ? L’avis de Guénon sur ce point est très significatif. Dans une revue publiée par lui-même, « La Gnose » en 1911, où il publiait sous le pseudonyme de Palingénius, on peut lire : le principe de l’institution des castes, sur laquelle repose toute société établie synarchiquement, est en accord avec les règles organiques et harmoniques de notre univers. La caste [au sens antique] est déterminée pour chaque individu pas sa nature propre, cad l’ensemble des qualités potentielles qu’il apporte en naissant, et qui passeront en acte dans le cours de son existence terrestre . La dynamique du PSR, si elle reprend l’idée de caste, passe avec légèreté d’une structure de castes érigées selon des prédispositions naturelles et innées à une structure de castes selon une division corporatiste sociale, selon le paragraphe 146 : Les professions reconnues et organisées, seuls facteurs d’activité civique populaire, sont distribuées synarchiquement suivant leur principe basique et leur nature pour constituer : ― L’Ordre économique, ― l’Ordre politique, ― l’Ordre culturel, ― l’Ordre impérial

Contrairement au PSR, la synarchie de Saint-Yves d’Alveydre est d’essence chrétienne, au sens initiatique, et cette notion lui est si fondamentale qu’il fait de la confession juive une obédience qui, s’il la voit subordonnée au christianisme, reste à ses yeux essentielle : « C’est ainsi que je leur démontre [aux juifs], appuyé sur l’histoire du monde et de la leur, que la Synarchie, le Gouvernement arbitral, trinitaire, tiré des profondeurs de l’initiation de Moïse et de Jésus, est la promesse même des Israélites, comme la nôtre, et le triomphe même d’Israël par la Chrétienté [...] Je tiens à dire que je n’écris nullement pour ceux auxquels suffit la forme d’enseignement primaire qu’a revêtue le judéo-christianisme, grâce aux talmudistes et aux théologiens chrétiens [...] Mais Moïse comme Jésus nous a légué une promesse d’ordre social dont l’accomplissement prophétique vise nos temps [...] Ce qui importe, c’est que dans l’état social européen, dans cette universelle église laïque, non constituée encore, mais en avance de moralité et d’intellectualité sur ses directions politiques et sacerdotales, Israël, couvert par Jésus-Christ, son souverain pontife et le nôtre, est encore plus chez lui que chez nous, en Europe même, et cela de part les droits les plus sacrés. Il importe donc au premier chef, que le christianise s’accomplisse socialement, de haut en bas, par la reconnaissance des trois grands ordres sociaux institués par Moïse, par la synarchie ». Il faudra être maître funambule pour réconcilier cette vision avec la technocratie du Pacte Synarchique Révolutionnaire qui, il faut bien le reconnaître, se situe à des années-lumière.

Le martinisme, quelle que soit la variante à laquelle on se réfère, n’a jamais rien eu à voir, de près ou de loin, avec tout ce panier de crabes de Vichy. Le martinisme fut victime de la malheureuse appellation de Victor Blanchard, l’ordre martiniste synarchique, qui, comble de tout, fut créé 2 ans avant le Mouvement Synarchique Révolutionnaire. Toutes les analyses, qui font remonter la Synarchie, au sens du MSR, à Blanchard, Papus, Saint-Martin ou Martinès de Pasqually se sont laissé piéger par la surface sémantique et n’ont probablement pas eu la moindre connaissance des doctrines correspondantes. Cette idée machiavélique, de reprendre le mot Synarchie dans le Pacte Synarchique Révolutionnaire, est plutôt à mettre sur le compte du Grand Orient britannique, qui tirait à l’époque toutes les ficelles par l’intermédiaire de Worms, et bien que cela soit particulièrement difficile à démontrer, l’association coule de source.

Von beginn an gab es für den Martinisten zwei Wege, um das gesteckte Ziel zu erreichen: es war dies einmal der operative (magische) Weg und der des "Herzens" oder mystische, der im cercle intérieur oder in einem cercle extérieur vollzogen wurde oder noch wird. Neben diesen beiden recht unterschiedlichen Wegen des modernen Martinisten zur Vervollkommnung des Menschen sind auch die Lehren recht verschieden von den einzelnen Ideologen under den Martinisten interpretiert worden. Während z.B. einer der "Ahnherren", Jacob Böhme, die Frage einer Reinkarnation der menschlichen Seele, ignorierte, Pasqually vernachlässigte und Saint Martin ablehnte, ist sie doch von vielen Martinisten positiv beantwortet worden. Man könnte ebenso die Quadratur des Kreises versuchen, um die widersprüchlichen Lehren des Martinismus im 19. Und 20. Jahrhundert in völlige Kongruenz zu überführen. Im Januarheft versuchte man in der L’Initiation die princpes fondamentaux du martinisme zu fixieren. Doch auch dieses Bemühen blieb ein Fragment. Am 13. Oktober 1968 unternahm man wohl den letzten Versuch, ein einheitliches Obergebäude der Lehre zu verkünden. Freiheit, Menschlichkeit, Brüderlichtkeit und Gleichberechtigung von Mann und Frau sind die Leitideen.
Dr. Karl R. H. Frick

Clémence Isaure: the Golden ISIS of the Rosicrucians...

2011-03-27T04:20:00.000-07:00

“Oh soul,
you worry too much.
You have seen your own strength.
You have seen your own beauty.
You have seen your golden wings.
Of anything less,
why do you worry?
You are in truth
the soul, of the soul, of the soul.”

“You were born with wings. Why prefer to crawl through life?”

"Start a huge, foolish project, like Noah…it makes absolutely no difference what people think of you." — Mawlana Jalal-al-Din Rumi

The following study was written by soror Julie Scott GM; for an English translation of which please refer to her full article in the Rosicrucian Digest # 1, 2010.

Clémence Isaure: De Gouden ISIS van de Rozekruisers

Isis was in augustus 1909 in een van haar vele gedaanten aanwezig bij de overdracht van de Rose+Croix Traditie van de Rozekruisers van Toulouse aan H. Spencer Lewis en de Rozekruisers Orde AMORC. Grootmeester Julie Scott brengt hier in kaart hoe het fascinerende verhaal van deze Gouden Isis is verlopen van de Middeleeuwen tot het begin van deze fase van het Rozekruiserswerk.

In 1909 stond een jonge H. Spencer Lewis voor het schilderij “De Verschijning van Clémence Isaure (Gouden Isis) aan de Troubadours”, mijmerend over de mystieke betekenis ervan. Op dat moment maakte de Grootmeester van de Rozekruisers van Toulouse zich aan hem bekend en leidde hem naar de volgende stap in zijn inwijding in de Rozekruiserstraditie, die uiteindelijk leidde tot het vestigen van de Rozekruisers Orde AMORC.

Waarom koos de Grootmeester ervoor om zich op deze plek – de Hal der Illusteren in het Capitool (stadhuis) van Toulouse, en voor dit schilderij – te vertonen aan de Amerikaanse mysticus, die later de Rozekruiserstraditie in Amerika opnieuw zou vestigen als de Aloude Mystieke Orde Rosae Crucis? Het antwoord gaat terug op de aloude tradities van de mysterieën, voortgezet door onze Orde en zo prachtig weergegeven in dit schilderij.

Wie was Clémence Isaure?
De naam Clémence betekent clementie of genade, en Isaure betekent Isis van Goud, ofwel Gouden Isis. Diverse bronnen beschrijven Clémence Isaure als iemand die werkelijk bestaan heeft en in het gebied van Oc woonde (Languedoc). Zij was van een zeldzame en inspirerende schoonheid en talent. Anderen beweren dat zij een fictieve persoonlijkheid is, geschapen om de vrouwelijke tradities en eerdere tijdperken voort te zetten.

Volgens de legende legde Clémence Isaure na de dood van haar geliefde troubadour, die haar via zijn gezangen prees en die zij aanbad, een gelofte van kuisheid en zwijgzaamheid af. Voor zij daar echter toe overging, deed zij een gift aan een fonds voor de stad Toulouse, met de bedoeling de dichtwedstrijden van de Gai Savoir, een dichterlijk genootschap dat in 1323 werd opgericht, weer in te voeren via een nieuwe groepering getiteld Académie des Jeux Floraux (Academie der Bloemenspelen).

Clémence Isaure symboliseerde edele actie, schoonheid en wijsheid die door de dichtkunst werden geïnspireerd. Bovenal vertegenwoordigde zij het voortzetten van de aloude mysteriën, met name welke geassocieerd werden met het vrouwelijke en in het bijzonder met de godin Isis.

Het mysterieuze gebied van Oc.
In de Middeleeuwen werden de zuidelijke helft van wat nu Frankrijk is, plus delen van Spanje en Monaco, Occitanië genoemd, ofwel het gebied van Oc. Tegenwoordig noemt men dit de Languedoc (de taal van Oc), ofwel L’Occitanie. De levendige Occitaanse cultuur verleende man en vrouw gelijke rechten, moedigde begrip en dialoog aan tussen alle geloofsrichtingen, gaf haar burgers uitstekende scholing en was zeer vredelievend en welvarend.
De eerste versies van de kabbala – die hevig leunden op oudere mystieke tradities – kwamen in de vroege twaalfde eeuw uit dit gebied. In het begin van de elfde eeuw woonden ook de Katharen, een sekte van christelijke mystici wier leerstellingen hoogstwaarschijnlijk zijn terug te voeren op de tradities van het oude Europa en het manicheïsme (Perzische gnostiek), in de Languedoc en in andere delen van Europa.

De koningen van Noord-Frankrijk (in die tijd een afzonderlijk land) en de Rooms-Katholieke kerk waren uit op de rijkdom, het land en de bekeerlingen van de Languedoc, met name de Katharen. Daarom spanden deze twee machtige krachten samen tegen de bevolking van Oc, wat in de dertiende eeuw resulteerde in hun vervolging en bijna de teloorgang van de Occitaanse tradities, althans in de openbaarheid. Gedurende een twintigjarige kruistocht tegen de Albigenzen en de daaropvolgende eeuwenlange Inquisitie zijn toen mogelijk zo’n 500.000 mensen uit de Languedoc vermoord, onder wie christenen, joden en mystici.

De troubadours die in de taal van Oc zongen, vonden een versluierde manier de Occitaanse tradities en hun bron – de aloude mysteriën – voort te zetten via een dichterlijk symbolisme. Terwijl zij leken te zingen over de liefde van een man voor een vrouw, verwezen zij in werkelijkheid naar de wetten der spirituele liefde. Zij gaven uitdrukking aan de zegening van het een worden met het Goddelijke, en aan de vrede die van dit samengaan het gevolg is. Een van de symbolen die de troubadours gebruikten om het innerlijk verlangen van de ziel naar deze mystieke eenwording weer te geven, was de roos.
Een soortgelijke werkwijze zien we ook in Italië bij de Fede Santa en de Fedeli d'Amore (zie ook The Rosicrucian Chronicles of Pater Cathare, deel 1).

De Gai Savoir en Jeux Floraux
Na de intense vervolging in het gebied stichtten in 1323 zeven personen, bekend als de zeven troubadours, in Toulouse een mystiek genootschap genaamd de Gai Savoir, wat gelukkige kennis betekent. De exoterische missie van dit genootschap was de wereld via de dichtkunst gelukkiger en beter te maken. Hoewel die versluierd was, was de esoterische betekenis van hun poëzie duidelijk voor iedereen die daarvoor ontvankelijk was.

In 1324 lieten de zeven troubadours een brief uitgaan naar alle dichters in de Languedoc, waarmee zij hen uitnodigden om hun poëzie in de komende meimaand tijdens een wedstrijd naar voren te brengen. Het panel van zeven rechters koos de winnaars die een viooltje uitgereikt kregen(waarvan de kleur symbool staat voor de hoogste mystieke graad), een goudsbloem (die het filosofisch goud vertegenwoordigt) en een wilde roos.

De Gai Savoir opereerde als een orde, met een filosofie en met regels die zij de wetten der liefde noemde. Zij gaarde oude mystieke tradities bijeen die gedurende de eeuwen verspreid waren geraakt, bracht ze op orde en legde deze op discrete wijze vast.

Gedurende de godsdienstoorlogen in Frankrijk in de zestiende eeuw (een eeuw van vreselijke oorlogen tussen de Franse katholieken en protestantse Hugenoten), begon de Gai Savoir een slapend bestaan te leiden. Later dook de groep weer op in de form van de Jeux Floraux, met de allegorische ontdekking van een tombe, vergelijkbaar met de manier waarop de tombe van Christian Rosenkreuz gevonden en geopend werd.

De tombe die in Toulouse werd ontdekt , was die van Clémence Isaure de allegorische stichtster van de Jeux Floraux. In deze tombe werden ook bloemen aangetroffen, een verwijzing naar de bloemen prijzen die eerder door de Gai Savoir werden uitgereikt. De basiliek waar de tombe – naar men zegt – staat, genaamd La Dourade, vormde de locatie van de eerste temple der Visigoten in Gallië, die voorheen gewijd was aan Minerva (Isis). Heden is hij gewijd aan de zwarte madonna, met de prachtig standbeeld van haar, dat uitkijkt over de hoofdkapel.

De Rozekruisers kondigen hun aanwezigheid in Frankrijk aan
Volgend op de publicatie van de drie Rozekruisersmanifesten in 1614, 1615 en 1616, kondigden de rozekruisers in 1623 hun aanwezigheid in Frankrijk aan, door in Parijs geheimzinnige, tot de verbeelding sprekende posters te plakken om te beginnen met:

« Nous, députés du Collège principal de la Rose-Croix, faisons séjour visible et invisible en cette ville par la grâce du Très-Haut, vers Lequel se tourne le cœur des Justes. Nous montrons et enseignons à parler, sans livres ni marques, toutes sortes de langues des pays où nous voulons être pour tirer les hommes, nos semblables, d'erreur de mort.

al snel gevolgd door een tweede aankondiging met:

S'il prend envie à quelqu'un de nous voir par curiosité seulement, il ne communiquera jamais avec nous, mais si la volonté le porte réellement à s'inscrire sur le registre de notre Confraternité, nous, qui jugeons des pensées, lui ferons voir la vérité de nos promesses ; tellement que nous ne mettons point le lieu de notre demeure en cette cité, puisque les pensées jointes à la volonté réelle du lecteur seront capables de nous faire connaître de lui, et lui de nous ».

Hierna en door de invloed van de Verlichting, Napoleon en de Egyptosofie, De Vrijmetselarij, het Martinisme, de Theosofie, het Magnetisme en andere tradities, gaf de tweede helft van de negentiende eeuw en de eerste helft van de twintigste eeuw een bloeiende toename van Rozekruisers Orden in Frankrijk te zien. Hieronder vallen de Rose+Croix van Toulouse (in de Languedoc) en de Rose+Croix van Frankrijk.

Clémence Isaure – het schilderij
De Rose+Croix van Frankrijk organiseerden van 1892 tot 1897 in Parijs de Salons de la Rose+Croix. Zij deden dit onder leiding van Joséphin Péladan, die sterke banden had met de Jeux Foraux en de Rose+Croix van Toulouse. Deze salons, die ieder jaar tienduizenden gasten ontvingen, brachten muziek en Rozekruisersrituelen, maar ook kunst. De bekende componist en Rozekruiser Erik Satie werd in het begin van de jaren negentig (negentiende eeuw) tot muzikaal leider van de Orde der Rose+Croix benoemd. Claude Debussy, een vriend van Satie en een van de grootste componisten van Frankrijk, was eveneens Rozekruiser.
De Rozekruiser Salons stelden de werken van vele schilders van de beweging der symbolisten ten toon, onder wie Henri Martin uit Toulouse, wiens schilderijen in 1892 werden tentoongesteld. In het zelfde jaar kreeg Martin de opdracht om een aantal schilderijen te vervaardigen voor de Hal de Illusteren in het Capitool van Toulouse. Als thema koos hij… de Jeux Floraux.

Een van de schilderijen is de Verschijning van Clémence Isaure aan de Troubadours. Daarin toont Clémence Isaure de zeven troubadours het handvest van de Jeux Floraux, waarin opgenomen de roos en het kruis. Zij wordt begeleid door drie muzen en de godin Minerva, de Egyptische Isis.

H. Spencer Lewis en de Verschijning van Clémence Isaure aan de Troubadours
In 1908 had de toen 24-jarige H. Spencer Lewis een mystieke ervaring waarbij aan hem werd opgedragen op zoek te gaan naar de Rozekruisers in Frankrijk. Omdat hij niet precies wist waar hij moest beginnen, schreef hij een Parijse boekhandelaar aan, die hem kort tevoren een catalogus van mystieke boeken had toegestuurd met de vraag of hij hem bij zijn speurtocht behulpzaam wilde zijn. De boekhandelaar deed Lewis het voorstel om naar Parijs te komen.

Na vele synchronistische gebeurtenissen kon H. Spencer Lewis een half jaar later afreizen naar Parijs. Nadat hij de boekhandelaar had ontmoet en in vele Franse steden veel onderzoeken en beproevingen had doorstaan, werd hem op geheimzinnige wijze een briefje overhandigd dat hem liet weten dat hij op een bepaald tijdstip naar de Hal der Illusteren in Toulouse moest gaan. Hij mocht hier met niemand over spreken.

Op de afgesproken dag stond hij daar in stilte voor het schilderij na de denken over de mystieke betekenis ervan. Iemand in de galerij maakte een (Rozekruisers)teken dat hij al op andere momenten van zijn reis had gezien. H. Spencer Lewis zei tegen hem : “Neem me niet kwalijk, monsieur, maar ik heb het idee dat ik hier een heer aanspreek die informatie heeft voor iemand die Licht zoekt.”

De man antwoordde met “ja” in het Frans en vroeg hem, waarom hij nu net dit schilderij stond te bestuderen. HSL antwoordde hierop: “Omdat, monsieur, het prachtig en wonderbaarlijk is en datgene lijkt weer te geven waar ik voor sta. Ik zie er een zeer geheimzinnige betekenis in, een symbool van …”

Tevreden met dit antwoord gaf de man Lewis toen een briefje met instructies voor zijn verdere handelen. Deze man was de Grootmeester van de Rose+Croix van Toulouse. Vermoedelijk was het Clovis Lasalle, een zeer bekend fotograaf (van historische gebouwen en documenten in archieven) en mysticus in Toulouse. Via de Rozekruisers van Toulouse, de Jeux Foraux en de Société Archéologique du Midi, had Grootmeester Lasalle banden met degenen die Spencer Lewis naar zijn inwijdingsreis hadden geleid, dus ook met de Parijse boekhandelaar en degenen die H. Spencer Lewis later in de Rozekruiserstraditie zouden inwijden.

In een Rozekruisers Loge in een oud kasteeltje buiten Toulouse, ontving Lewis op 12 augustus 1909 te middernacht zijn mystieke inwijding in de Rozekruisers traditie. Hier aanvaardde hij ook het privilege de Rozekruiserstraditie opnieuw in Amerika te vestigen, en daarmee de oude mysteriën voort te zetten die er zo substantieel aan hadden bijgedragen, prachtig gesymboliseerd door de inspirerende beeltenis van Clémence Isaure;
The Rosicrucian Golden Isis.

Ritman's Roughest Rumble: A BPH Update...

2011-03-02T03:44:00.000-08:00

Wegens bijzondere omstandigheden is de bibliotheek tot nader order gesloten. Due to special circumstances the library is closed until further notice...

"Ik ben zelf een fervent bezoeker van cultuur." - Halbe Zijlstra

Die Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica hat eine weltweite Bedeutung und ist ein Aushängeschild für das Interesse der Niederlande an der Geschichte religiöser Toleranz und religiöser Vielfalt. Es wäre für die philosophie-religions geschichtliche Forschung eine Katastrophe, wenn sie auseinandergerissen und verkauft würde. - Prof. Dr. Wilhelm Schmidt-Biggemann

To me, the founder of the Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica, the Brotherhood of the Rosycross remains a lasting inspiration, captured in the symbol which is the emblem of the library. - Joost Ritman

The BPH has a value that transcends utterly the world-concept of those who may permit either actively or passively its dissolution. All mankind is involved in the life of the freed mind. Those who oppose the BPH for financial reasons oppose the Spirit of Humankind.
If you know the meaning of the word shame; act accordingly.
Tobias Churton

If the Ritman library would go down, this would mean an enormous blow to international scholarship in hermetic studies. The damage would be irreversible. By signing this petition you express your concern, and ask the Dutch government and the Friesland bank to do their utmost to ensure that the collection will be saved and will remain available for the international scholarly community.
Wouter Hanegraaff

I have used the Ritman library on several occassions and it so happens that a valuable collection of hermetica bound in a volume dated 1616 and stemming from Sweden is now part of the collection. Its origin is the library of Säfstaholm castle where count Gustaf Bonde resided over a great hermetic library thus became evident. Bonde's collection was dispersed in 1932 at a public auction and without BPH and its open access it would have been impossible to reconstruct the 18th century hermetic concerns among the highest nobility in Sweden. The news that BPH is undret threat of closing is therefore most disconcerting and I join those who now petition for its survival. - Susanna Åkerman

The renowned Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica , founded by Dutch businessman & rosicrucian J.R. Ritman is disintegrating...

The State Secretary of the Ministry of Culture of the Netherlands (Halbe zijlstra) probably out of sheer frustration, transferred the core collection of the Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica to the National Library in The Hague. (contrary to his predecessors in the Ministry and their continuing support for the BHP and Ritman, Zijlstra unfortunately, didn't get on very well with Ritman). The state owned books were really not in any danger and there was nu seizure. In order to at least keep the collection in Amsterdam , the University of Amsterdam who do have the right facilities for these treasures, offered to temporarily house the books, an offer which was rejected by the Ministry.

And so the famous esoteric library where Umberto Eco wrote his Foucault's Pendulum and where Dutch author Harry Mulisch found inspiration for the Discovery of Heaven is now, due to special circumstances, closed until further notice...

A petition started by Professor Wouter Hanegraaff (University of Amsterdam, Fac. Of Humanities, Geschiedenis van de Hermetische Filosofie en verwante stromingen; gHF) in order to keep the library intact, did not have the desired results. The State of the Netherlands have moved its share (which they bought in 2005 in order to preserve our cultural heritage for an amount of € 18.700.000,--) from the Ritman Library at the Bloemstraat and taken (i.e. one third of the collection) to the National library of the Netherlands in The Hague. It concerns unique historical manuscripts and books about spirituality and Western esoterism. There is no comparable collection worldwide…

Joost Ritman, in 2010 still on the Quote 500 list of wealthiest Dutchmen with an estimated fortune of 80 million Euros, encountered periods with severe financial problems, read shortage of liquid assets. The first period of which began in 1993…

Ritman always financed his art through his corporation 'De Ster' (The Star), that produced plastic tableware. Between 1976 and 1992 Ritman spent some 95 million guilders on art objects. The ING Bank allowed this until the first Gulf war in 1993. The bank intervened and the entire book collection was about to be sold by Christie's in London. The Netherlands government however did not want the collection to be dismantled and gave it the status of "protected National heritage". In 1999 Ritman sold his company “De Ster” to the Swedish Duni Corp. (in the hands of the Wallenberg family empire) for a very substantial amount of guilders. With these revenues he obtained his entire collection back from ING.

On the advice of the Dutch Council for Culture, the State of The Netherlands in 2005 acquired a cross section of the rare books and manuscripts of the Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica. The State paid almost 19 million euro for the works. Till 8 December 2010 these works acquired by the State remained in the BPH and thus continued to be available for scholarly research as part of the Ritman collection. Ritman claims the state had agreed to buy even another share of the collection which led him to borrow money to expand it further. Now that sale is not going ahead, the bank is demanding repayment

Menwhile btw, Joost Ritman had started a new business called Helios and again with considerable success. In 2007 the Wallenberg’s offered him 50 miljoen euros to also purchase “Helios”. Ritman refused the offer because he wanted to remain independent.

Businessman Joost Ritman, who owns the rest of the BHP collection, is now embroiled in a dispute with the Friesland bank and his library has been closed in November 2010. The whole affair escalated when Ritman, early December 2010, sold one of the key pieces – a 14th century illuminated manuscript known as the Rochefoucauld Grail for €2.8m at auction in London despite the Bank’s seizure.

Joost Ritman is a key member of the Lectorium Rosicrucianum’s International Spiritual Directorate of 13.

(P.S. rumours will it that a yet unknown, mysterious and very wealthy third party will come to the rescue of the BPH; well hopefully so and I will keep you posted if such miracle arises)

16 March 2011 update:
Since they don't have the guts to auction the books (because of their reputation) the Friesland bank is now planning to auction Ritman’s real estate on Friday, April 15, 2011 with an estimated value (in 2006) of € 6.000.000,-
Ritman owns several buildings on the Amsterdam Bloemgracht. His private residence, “Helios” offices and the Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica.
Ritman avers though that he’s not bankrupt, but needs some time to generate the necessary cashflow. If a new agreement with Friesland Bank fails, he will try to prevent the auction through a lawsuit.
The auction will take place on April 15th, 2011 at Dorint Hotel Amsterdam Airport and consists of three authentic Amsterdam canal houses (Bloemgracht), three mansions (Bloemstraat) and two detached houses on the Dorpsweg in Schellinkhout, West-Friesland.

"Geld moet niet rollen, geld moet klimmen!" - Motto Friesland Bank
F*** you FRIESLAND BANK: A bank is a place where they lend you an umbrella in fair weather and ask for it back when it begins to rain!

The End of the Beginning or The beginning of the End:
So does the dissolution of the BHP look like a Faerie Queene story about the good Redcrosse Knight and the wicked magician Archimago? Things tend to look black and white. But we all know that some people are a little bit guilty, while other people are guilty as hell. Ritman is a man, putting it mildly, known for his complex personality. He is also known for taking big financial risks and this time he's been overplaying his hand… (IMHO).

For an in-depth reconstruction of the BHP affair to date,
please read Stefan Vermeulen’s excellent article in (Dutch)
Vrij Nederland magazine # 14 of 9 April 2011.
The Grail of Amsterdam: or how debt, clumsy guards and
an overzealous state secretary ruined a top library.

18 April 2011: Ritman real estate saved by the bell!
A yet unknown benevolent benefactor saved the 8 Ritman houses from last Friday's foreclosure auction by at the last minute buying the lot for the current market value! So he does exist after all our masked mystery guest...

9/6/2011 UPDATE: JOOST RITMAN’s AMAZING HOUDINI ACT
After months of negotiations Ritman (1941) now has got his books back! Well at least part of the collection. Some very precious books have been sold through Sotheby’s. The seizure of his possessions has been revoked. How the cunning old fox got rid of all his creditors at Sotheby’s and the Friesland Bank still remains an enigma!
Allegedly one of the most precious books the unique Corpus Hermeticum from 1471 has been auctioned, but through Sotheby’s no trace of it can be found. Anyhow Ritman managed to pay off his debt to Sotheby’s and paid c.q. re-financed his Friesland Bank debt for which he sold real estate in the Amsterdam Jordaan area. Overall, those actions are 13 million euros. Consequently he now holds all works not sold or claimed by State Secretary Halbe Zijlstra (Now in the National library of The Netherlands in The Hague). So theoretically he could re-open the BHP. However, has he sill got the staff and can he afford the operationg costs??
Ritman is now considering about what the steps are to be taken...

PER ASPERA AD FONTES!

16 December 2011: The Ritman Library or what's left of it re-opens and celebrates that event with a new exhibition, Infinite Fire.
'I just had to save my life’s work’ - Joost Ritman

‘The library has risen from its ashes like a phoenix’, says a content Ritman. ‘It’s a victory of mind over matter.’

www.ritmanlibrary.nl

It is true without lies, certain and most true;
That which is below is as that which is above,
and that which is above is as that which is below,
to accomplish the miracle of the one thing.
It is true without lies, certain and most true;
That which is below is as that which is above,
and that which is above is as that which is below,
to accomplish the miracle of the one thing.
Tabula Smaragdina

LE PARANORMAL EST PARMI NOUS! Les miracles de Maître Philippe de Lyon.

2010-09-22T13:45:00.000-07:00

“Het is verboden om wonderen te doen.”

"Les bons écrits sont ceux qui apprennent la patience."

"Hou van een ander als van jezelf." - Mijnheer Philippe

Le Martiniste est ouvert au ciel, à la Terre, aux hommes, à lui-même.

"Il faut lire les Evangiles.Plus vous avancerez, plus ils vous donneront."

“Het is niet zozeer van belang dat we volmaakt zijn, maar dat we steeds aan onszelf blijven werken!”

"We kennen onze vorige levens niet, omdat we dan zouden weten welk obstakel, welke ziekte of ongeval ons zou moeten overkomen; we zouden alles doen om dit te vermijden, wat tenkoste van onszelf zou zijn"

Lors d'une tenue martiniste, un nouveau Supérieur Inconnu » (troisième degré de l'initiation martiniste), s'enorgueillissait de son nouveau titre, Philippe ENCAUSSE, le fils de PAPUS, lui dit d'une voix très douce : mon frère, si je peux me permettre, le SI de ton nouveau sautoir ne veut pas dire « Supérieur Inconnu » mais «Serviteur Inconnu».

“We hebben beproevingen nodig om te groeien en aangezien niemand om beproevingen vraagt, moeten ze ons wel opgedrongen worden.”

I don’t usually recommend books with the sole exception of my two all time favorites: H. Spencer Lewis’ Mystical life and Secret Doctrines of Jesus and here we go again the best children’s book ever: The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.

However, there is an exception to every rule. And so recently I’ve come across a little treasury which every Martinist, Rosicrucian and/or Theosophist should read. The Paranormal is among us. The Miracles of Master Philippe. Written by Christian Vandekerkhove. ISBN: 9789077135198

Unfortunately the book is been written in Dutch and not (yet) available in English or French to my best knowledge.

Nizier Anthelme Philippe, or M.Philippe for short, was a spiritual Master living in Europe at the end of the 19th century. He was known by the french masses for healing all kind of ailments, and by the french intelligentia for his original teachings, which were founded on christian apostles and mystical practicae, yet based on common prayers. He had a number of disciples, such as Chapas and Sedir, and some of physicians interested in the spiritual and physical aspects of healing sessions.

He claimed nothing of or for himself, and people knew him as humble yet strong in persona. His healing faculties manifested naturally when he was young. In the middle of his life, He started to be more known in some circles, for his unusual methods of teaching, and the not-so-occasional events that seemed to accompany him anywhere he went, and under his command. It is said he befriended closely with angels of the greater order, and above all, into Christ's Power.

He conducted healing and teaching sessions, where prayer held an important part, in Lyon, France, open to both participants and witnesses. which is why is often refered to as "Le Maitre Philippe de Lyon" (Master Philippe). He also enjoyed close relation with the Russian Tsar family, and certain figures in Europe of that time. Being friendly to everybody, from lower, middle to higher classes of the society, he had good humor and it felt good enjoying life while being with him. His generosity was abundant and examplary, with an exhalted sense of charity. and did not make difference of social status, mingled with leaders and working classes with equal ease. Some of His life however, remains a great mystery.

It’s perhaps not quite correct to state that the lives of Master Philippe and Papus (Dr. Gérard Encausse)were inextricably linked but to know one, makes it easier to understand the other.

Papus the renovator of Martinism and promotor of the Supreme Council of 1881 and consequently founder of the Ordre Martiniste, considered Maître Philippe to be his "spiritual Master" as he would always refer to Saint Yves d’Alveydre as his "Intellectual teacher".

For a more in depth description of the lives of the two please refer to an article of his website: The Master: Philippe de Lyon by Philippe Coppens.

http://www.philipcoppens.com/philippedelyon.html

Issues deserving further research and investigation are:
a) Philippe's remarkable unfavorable attitude toward cremation,
b) his Martinist affiliation and
c) his relationship with the Tsar his family and finally Rasputin.

La philosophie de l’Ordre Martiniste fut aussi très influencée par l’enseignement du Maître Philippe de Lyon et par celui de Saint-Yves d’Alveydre, respectivement “maître spirituel” et “maître intellectuel” de Papus. – Gerard Galtier

Papus’ meeting with “Philippe de Lyon” was a decisive moment in the life of this initiate. Philippe de Lyon, the pseudonym of Nizier Anthelme Philippe, did not openly belong to any secret organisation. However, he seems to have been unquestionably a vital element for the expansion of the Lyon Martinists. He designed a pentacle specifically for the Order and a medal worn by the Martinist dignitaries. Another rather remarkable coincidence is that the group of Philippe de Lyon would later settle in the vicinity of Rennes-les-Bains… of all places.

"A small legacy of two letters and a few points".

Soon after Nicholas II inherited the imperial crown from Alexander III, Papus wrote him an open letter, advising him to reject absolutism and recommending that he read the works of Fabre d'Olivet and Saint-Yves d'Alveydre.

Both Master Philippe and Papus played an important role at the Russian court. Papus had brought Master Philippe into contact with the Russian Imperial family (1900-1902) and Maître Philippe for a while moved to St. Petersburg.

The Martinist Order was introduced into the Russian court by Papus where Tsar Nicholas II, was the Heptad Master of a lodge (Cross & Star). Meetings were held within his Palace.

They not only advised the Tsar on political affairs but also maintained contact with many other influential Russian initiates of the Martinist Order among them two of the Tsar’s uncles and numerous other relatives.

Papus visited Russia three times, in 1901, 1905 and 1906, thus serving the Tsar and Tsarina Alexandra both as physician and occult consultant. In 1905 Papus allegedly conjured up the spirit of Alexander III, Tsar Nicholas’ father, who prophesied that the Tsar would meet his downfall at the hands of revolutionaries. Papus told the Tsar that he would be able to magically avert his prophecy as long as he was alive. Nicholas kept his position on the throne until 141 days after Papus’death! (Rasputin predicted the same!). During their later correspondence, Papus warned the Romanovs several times against the influence of Rasputin.

The original text on which the published version of the The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion was based fell into the hands of Sergei Nilus, who confused the Martinist Pentacle with the Star of David. Nilus did not at first intend it to discredit Judaism. On the contrary, he brought it to the tsar with the intention of discrediting the esoteric enclave at the imperial court - the enclave of Papus, Monsieur Philippe and others who were members of the secret society in question. Before doing so, he almost certainly doctored the language, rendering it far more venomous and inflammatory than it initially was. When the tsar spurned him, Nilus then released the Protocols in their doctored form for publication. They had failed in their primary objective of compromising Papus and Monsieur Philippe. But they might still serve a secondary purpose - that of fostering anti-Semitism. Although Nilus's chief targets had been Papus and Monsieur Philipe, he was hostile to Judaism as well.

When the news of Papus’ death reached Alexandra in 1916, she sent a note to her husband (who was then commanding the Russian army at the front in WW I) containing the words:
Papus is dead, we are doomed!

From the website Artigos Martinistas: The Master Philippe de Lyon

Philippe Anthelme Nizier was born in 1849. From a very young age, he was known for his “strange powers” and some even pondered whether he might not be the returned Jesus. After his death in 1905, he would be seen as a master – “Maître Philippe”. Mastering his powers came naturally, and from a young age; there is no evidence that he ever studied with or under anyone to refine or control them: “I was not even six years old and already the village priest was worried about certain manifestations, about which I was not yet aware. At the age of thirteen, I acquired the powers to heal, even though I was still incapable of taking account of the strange things that went on inside of me.” But despite no total understanding of what he was, it meant that “Master Philippe” had begun his life as a healer.
Though “blessed” with this gift, no-one in his vicinity pushed him into becoming a healer. In fact, fourteen years old, he became an apprentice butcher with his uncle in Lyon. It was there that he would, for the first time, publically show his healing abilities. When he cut the tendons of his thumb and index of the left hand while gutting an animal, he repositioned the thumb that was partially severed, bleeding profusely, and began to pray. He asked God to reconnect the thumb back to the hand; a few moments later, the blood coagulated, and the miracle occurred. When a doctor inspected the wound in hospital shortly afterwards, he merely applied a protective bandage, noting the wound was not likely to infect. But despite such miraculous healing, when he enlisted for war in 1870, it is known that he did not remain an active soldier for long, because of this injury.

The miraculous healing of this injury soon spread throughout the quarter, and the young butcher was solicited for the smallest of accidents. It meant that he had to choose in which direction to take his life forward, and after a series of “séances”, in which he healed the sick, in 1872, he decided to open a cabinet, in his adopted town of Lyon, where people could come to consult him on an individual basis. The career from butcher to healer had a further advantage: he had wanted to study, but had not been allowed; now, he wanted to recommence his studies, and train in medicine.
Medicine, then as now, was modern medicine, focusing on diagnosis and the prescription of a cocktail of pharmaceuticals to help the patient. Nizier was closer to the “primitive shamans”, who conformed to an “old vision” of healing, in which the task of the doctor was to literally restore health, rather than diagnose and prescribe. As such, Nizier was able to heal better than most doctors, but through unconventional methods. Unsurprisingly, this caused jealousy with fellow students and assistants, if only because their “science” – their methodology – was clearly not present in such miraculous healings.
Still, his formal education added a new dimension to his healing skill: Nizier would become an even better analyst. When a young woman complained that she was short of breath, suffered violent pains on her side and could hardly stand, everyone in his class was unable to diagnose her. But Nizier stated she suffered from a double pulmonary embolism – a very scientific proclamation – followed by the almost biblical “Stand up, now you are healed”. The patient stood up, and immediately no longer felt any pain.
The sceptical mind will argue that her illness itself was imaginary and Nizier was solely able to convince her she was now healed – but Nizier was able to perform this feat time and again. One day, he saw a sick man crying in his bed, because his leg was to be amputated the following day. He assured him that would not be the case. Indeed, the following day, the surgeon saw that the leg was healing, no longer requiring the amputation, and asked how this could be, whereupon the sick man replied “it was this small monsieur there who attended to me.”

If all imaginary or a stroke of luck, at best, his colleagues should have asked him how they too could acquire such a convincing tone that their patients too would think they were healed purely by the words uttered by the doctor. Alas, rather than praise Nizier for his diagnostic and healing capabilities, which in this case were performed in the presence of his superiors and fellow students, all focused on the fact that he had treated someone without having the proper degree; his licence to work at the hospital was soon revoked, noting as reason that “he performs occult medicine and is a veritable charlatan”. It would be part of a series of problems Master Philippe had with the French medical hierarchy.
As these things go, his harsh treatment by the corridors of power strengthened public belief on the streets; to some extent, it was confirmation that Nizier worked outside the bounds of normal science – with the specific distinction that he was able to perform more than normal science had so far accomplished. And as his reputation grew, so did the stories; some even claimed he had been able to resurrect a person from the dead, thus definitely putting him on par with at least one biblical character!
Even though he had his licence revoked for treating someone without having the proper degree, it was about all the authorities could do. “Master Philippe” seldom touched his patients, so they could not go for more outlandish claims of malpractice, if not worse. In his rapport with the patient, he merely asked that person to morally engage himself, to reform himself, and call upon the help of God in the healing process. It was very “clean”, and hence difficult to sanction further than they already had.

Meanwhile, in his personal life, he had married Jeanne Landar, in 1877. They had met in 1875, when his future mother-in-law brought her daughter, who was sick, to see him. He healed her and she began to attend his séances. Once married, they had two children. The eldest, Jeanne Victoire, was born in 1878 and herself married a doctor in 1897. In 1881, a son, Albert, was born, but he died three months old.
By that year, his fame had spread far outside the Lyon region; he treated the Bey of Tunis in 1881 and though at home he was not even given the title of doctor, in 1884, he was granted a doctorate in Medicine by the University of Cincinnati; in 1885, the city of Acri in Italy made him an Honorary Citizen, for his “scientific and humanitarian merits” and in 1886, the Royal Academy of Rome gave him the honorary title of Doctor of Medicine. However, back at home, on November 3, 1887, he was condemned for illegally practicing medicine; a second condemnation followed in 1890.
The latter year was the start of a decade in which he would make powerful friends. One of these was Gérard Encausse, better known as Papus, best known as an occultist, but first and foremost a qualified doctor. Many scholars of occult history have written about Papus, noting how he lead several influential secret societies in France, but few have underlined how Papus and Master Philippe were very close friends, having met under exceptional circumstances.
There is more than one version about how the two met. The standard account is that Papus was practicing in his home for an occult ritual, and was about to enter the magical circle, armed with a ceremonial sword, not knowing that the ritual would lead to his imminent death. Master Philippe was casually passing through the street and was inspired to open Papus’ front door, enter without permission, to find its resident about to perform the ritual. Master Philippe told him to stop, thus saving his life, to become his guide and close friend. Another version says that Papus had previously seen Master Philippe in a dream and instantly recognised him as his “saviour”.
The extent of their friendship is best illustrated by noting that Philippe became godfather to Encausse’s son, who was named Philippe, and who later wrote a book called “Le Maître Philippe, de Lyon”.

Despite becoming best friends, they did not share all values together. Papus was very much an adept of secret societies, whereas Nizier argued that “secret societies have no value. They have never done any good except to themselves. They all practice despotism, and it should not be like that. We are all brothers, we need to help each other and not have any secrets, everything needs to be in the light. There should not be preferences.”
Their friendship did direct Papus away from magic, towards “true magic”. Rather than a series of robotic actions that were designed to bring about an end result (very much like a doctor prescribing his pharmaceutical cocktail), Papus wanted to know real magic and for this, he became a student of a “real shaman”, Master Philippe.
Thus, Encausse himself went on to assist in several of Nizier’s healings and wanted to comprehend “true healing”, rather than “qualified doctorship”. He also provided testimony to what Nizier performed, stating it was genuine, and not some magic trick. Encausse wrote how with one healing, he and two other doctors were present when a young mother brought in her five year old child; the doctors diagnosed the boy suffering from a far advanced form of tuberculose meningitis. Encausse noted that Nizier, when trying to heal people, often worked in the presence of 80 to 100 people, and that he usually tried to get the group in a positive mindset. He did so in the case of this child, telling the group that for a period of two hours, they should not speak anything bad about those not present. Two hours later, the small child was healed, as testified by the doctors present. The presence of a positive group mind-set thus seems to have played a role in Philippe’s healings, though was obviously not a requirement, as he was able to heal in one-on-one situations too.
In 1893, Hector Durville founded a School of Magnetism in Paris, with the help of Papus, who wanted Master Philippe to open a similar school in Lyon, which he did in October 1895. However, all are in agreement that this “school” had little to do with magnetism and that it was largely Philippe doing what he did before: his own specific way of healing. Indeed, it is unclear why Papus would have insisted that Philippe practiced something that might help some with no native abilities, but which would obviously have limited Nizier in using his own abilities. Alternatively, perhaps Papus was hoping that with Master Philippe’s help, magnetism might become a more powerful method of healing than it was, thus bringing about “medicine that would heal”.

A lot has been written about Papus’ connection to the Russian court, but what is less-known, is the prominent role of Master Philippe in this. In September 1900, grand-duke Vladimir was one of several Russian nobles that visited Philippe in Lyon. When he had returned to Russia, he called upon the Master, who left on December 29, 1900 and would stay in Russia for two months. Another Russian noble’s notes reveal how he met Nizier during mass in Fourvière, the “high town” of Lyon. The priest’s sermon had tackled the notion that the miracles reported in the bible should not be taken literally. After the end of mass, Philippe wanted to speak to the priest and told him he was wrong. “May thunder strike this church if I can believe these things”, he said. Nizier apparently looked the priest in the eyes, made a gesture and immediately, lightning appeared inside the cathedral, with it striking at their feet, followed by a loud thunder. The display left the Russian noble visibly impressed. In further documentation about his Russian exploits, it was even reported that in Russia, Nizier was seen as a magus, and had even been able to calm a storm! “And I was told many other marvels.”
From then on, when members of the Russian royal household came to France, some would visit him in Lyon. It is how Nizier got to see the emperor and his wife in 1901. They too would invite him back to Russia, an invitation he accepted; his daughter and her husband accompanied him on this trip.

Papus

In the footsteps of Harvey Spencer Lewis...

2009-10-09T01:40:00.000-07:00

Do not dwell in the past,
do not dream of the future,
concentrate the mind on the present moment. - Buddha

IT IS MORE THAN SOME PEOPLE UNDERSTAND AND DIFFERENT THAN SOME BELIEVE - HSL

"The press has the idea that we're a strange, weird cult," said Lewis, the president and imperator of the group, in an interview several years ago. "We're not. We're a study group that takes the position that human consciousness is a stream, a flow. We believe that man generally functions on only one level, but that he can function on levels higher than the objective and the subjective. - RML

The finest emotion of which we are capable is the mystic emotion. Herein lies the germ of all art and all true science. Anyone to whom this feeling is alien, who is no longer capable of wonderment and lives in a state of fear is a dead man. To know that what is impenetrable for us really exists and manifests itself as the highest wisdom and the most radiant beauty, whose gross forms alone are intelligible to our poor faculties - this knowledge, this feeling ... that is the core of the true religious sentiment. - Albert Einstein

In the Footsteps of Harvey Spencer Lewis by Paul DuPont, F.R.C.

In the 1980s, when I was doing research regarding the Rosicrucian Order’s history, and more specifically regarding Harvey Spencer Lewis coming to Toulouse, former Imperator Ralph M. Lewis allowed me to go to the chateau near the old town of Vieille Toulouse (Old Tolosa, some miles from Toulouse) where H. Spencer Lewis was initiated into the Rosicrucian Order.

We knew the name of the place where this chateau is situated, for Frater Lewis had described it precisely. I was of course somewhat impatient to go there, but I knew neither when nor how I could visit. An occasion presented itself to me soon, for I was asked to go not far from there for professional reasons.

It was a beautiful summer evening. The sun, still high in the sky, gave the hillsides a pink color well known in our region. I arrived near the little village, in sight of the hill where the chateau was located. From afar I could see a glimpse of the long outer wall of which Frater Lewis spoke. This wall was made of baked clay and of stones from the Garonne river. It surrounded the chateau and his property.

I walked along the wall to one of the entrances of the chateau, but it was closed by a great wooden door, which was high enough that I could not see inside. I could just barely see the façade of the chateau because of two square towers blocked my view, so I went back to the village to see if I could find another entrance.

I walked past another large door, formerly used as the main entrance. Walking outside the long outer wall running alongside the village itself, I eventually found a little door and decided to try to open it. Who knows? Maybe it was open.

Indeed it was easy to open. I stepped inside and found myself in the large park near the chateau, behind the old barns, and I was soon inside he main grounds. I thought to myself, since no one lived there, the worst I risked was to be taken back to the door. The shutters and the doors, everything was closed. With no one around I wavered between two thoughts: go back as I had come or go farther. Was I not after all completing a mission for the Grand Master and the Imperator!?

While I was there I thought while I was at it, I should take some photographs. (I learned later that Frater Ralph Lewis had hoped that I would take photographs of the interior of the building.) Therefore I proceeded further, taking some photographs here and there, in the park, and then after crossing a large carriage entrance, in the courtyard within.

And so, eventually, one step after another, I found myself in the courtyard, facing the façade of the chateau. The owners had built a swimming pool in the middle of the courtyard where the fountain had been located in H. Spencer Lewis’s drawing. I found such a thing somewhat preposterous, knowing what the chateau had sheltered. I tried to imagine that large courtyard in the state which it was in then, in the days of its mystical purpose.

I stopped taking photos and was about to leave when a fortuitous event occured. A I was retracing my steps, I saw an elderly woman hurriedly coming toward me. I prepared myself for the worst and tried to think of an explanation for my intrusion. After the usual salutations she simply asked me, “You have come for a visit?” The owners had entrusted the key and the safekeeping of the building to her because they expected visiting to purchase the estate.

Indeed, she had a huge key in her hand. The chateau was for sale. She explained to me that the owners, being in another country, had entrusted her to show visitors the property.

It was now a litttle late and perhaps the hour had arrived for her to prepare her meal. In any case, she let me visit the chateau alone. She opned the door for me, left it open halfway, and left me in the entrance hall.

Those who knew the history of the place will understand the emotions which overwhelmed me in that moment. There I stood in front of the large staircase leading the place where H. Spencer Lewis was interviewed by his initiator before the initiation itself. I was in the meeting room of the Grand Lodge of France.

Before going upstairs I pushed open the door of a room on the ground floor. It opened onto a huge room with may chairs scattered here and there in small groups. It was a vast living room for the meetings, which they held over the past centuries. The people met there and talked and exchanged their ideas about philosophical subjects.

As they were arranged, these chairs seemed to still be inhabited by their former owners. For a moment I even felt as if they were still present and I nearly excused myself for having disturbed them. I did not stay there long for I knew I knew the old Grand Lodge was one the second floor. I no longer had a lot of time. Passing by the chairs, I saw one of the ancient sculpted chairs which H. Spencer Lewis wrote, and I took a photograph of it.

I then proceeded to climb one step after another with deep veneration. I learned later from one of the owners, whom I would subsequently come to know in a friendly manner, that one of the wings of the chateau had been condemned since the beginning of the twentieth century. The owners, in order to save on heating, did not use it any longer and it had therefore stayed in its original condition. I will point out here that these rooms were in an advanced state of decay, especially the floors. This was precisely where H. Spencer Lewis had spent his initiation night!

It was a great privilege for me to be in this area, and I deeply valued this experience, however I had no flash with me and everything was in semi-darkness, therefore I do not have a photograph of this area. So I will endeavor to describe the place of the initiation itself from memory.

There was a large and high wooden door, which opened easily. Once inside the door, there was a small hall opening in front onto a room with an alcove, and on the right there was a larger room that reminded me of the reception room of our lodges. In the smaller room in front of me there was an old sofa and a huge stack of papers on a table.

I then made my way toward what I considered to be the reception room. The parquet floot was disintegrating so I cautiously put my pit my feet on the wooden boards that creaked under my weight. The room was at least ten meters (30 feet) long, stretching from one façade of the chateau to the other. There was an old fireplace, which the present owners had restored in the style of Louis XVI. Although the room was large, I crossed it quickly because I wanted to see what was next.

At the end of the room, to the left there was a twenty-meter-long (60 feet) corridor, which ran along the windows of the rear of the building. These windows had been bricked up from within, yet some cracks allowed just enough light to see that this corridor had three small doors, giving access to three small contiguous rooms and at the far end, to a square room and another small room situated on the right, in a tower of the chateau.

There was absolutely no decoration except a little picture nailed down on the edge of the door to the first room. From memory, it seemed to me that it was Gabriel, the Archangel, striking down the Dragon.

Was this the threshold chamber? I could not go into that room for it was too dark, so instead I went into the other room. It had no decoration and measured only a few meters. I went through it, not without some apprehension for it was dark, and then I pushed open the next door, which opened into a beautiful room. The walls were covered with ancient tapestries with small floral patterns in green and brown.

All this seemed to be very old. The patterned material probably dated from the 18th century, however I could not see it easily in the Darkness. Rather I tried to feel the mood of the place, and my thought was that it was quite small for a place of such importance. Here I was in the Grand Temple!

Certainly this place had not been used for a long time. H. Spencer Lewis had written that Count Bellcastle-Ligne, his initiator, told him in 1909 that the Lodge had not been active since the middle of the 1800s.

I looked for the door in the far end through which the master of this house could come and go. Indeed the rooms were linked to one another through doors in a row, which made it possible, as Frater Lewis had described, for the master of the house to leave a room and then find him again, as if by a miracle, in another place in the same room. For example, there is door that leads onto the little balcony near the grand staircase, which by a hidden passage, gives access to the room where I was.

I meditated for a while in this area before moving to the windows in the back of the building. Near one of them, through a half-open door, one could see another room situated in of the four towers of the chateau. The size of that room was that of a large sanctum, where three or four people could be accommodated without disturbing one another. I cannot describe this room from memory; again, all this was very dark.

The whole of this area that I just described is about one hundred square meters (300 sqaure fees) and as I saw it, was made up of a square roon, of three antechambers, of a small corridor for access, of a room to receive people, and of a room with an alvoce, a divan and some chairs. This is all that remained.

Of course I wish I had been able to take photographs of this area for since then the owners have remodelled it, from floor to ceiling, lowering the floor because they needed to redo the main beams.

During the months and years that followed, I visited again on several occasions, meeting the former and the new owners, as well as some neighbors. One of the eminent members of the Societé Archéologique du midi de la France lived near the chateau. He had been, at the beginning of the twentieth century, the authorized representative of one of the former owners.

We have photograph of this man, in uniform. He may have been the man in partial military dress who greeted H. Spencer Lewis in 1909 and asked him for his letter of introduction before he came before the Archivist of the Order. Within the famous Sociéte Archéologique du Midi de la France, there were personalities of whom it has been said were Rosicrucians, noticeably the Viscount de Lapasse, about whom we have some old documents, but chiefly and more directly concerning H. Spencer Lewis’s journal, “A Pilgrim’s Journey to the East”, was Clovis Lassalle.

Once he presented his letter of introduction, H. Spencer Lewis was greeted again, with some ceremony, by an elderly woman who led him to the one who would some hours later initiate him into the Order of the Rose Cross.

I had found the Light - and it had illumined me as I faced the Rosae Crucis - HSL

http://www.youtube.com/user/RosicrucianTV

IT, ER +, TORRENTIUS, Eques Rosae Crucis: a drama of tolerance and repression in the Dutch "Golden Age".

2008-08-21T07:16:00.000-07:00

ER +
Wat buten maat bestaat,

int onmaats qaat verghaat.

'Ik verga in het onvergankelijke' - IT

"Alwaer de broederschap vergaert van 't roode kruis".

“Wat is Godt, kendt ghy Godt wel, hebt ghy hem gesien, wat voor een dincxken es Godt?” - Torrentius

Two simple lines (the fist two i.e.) in old Dutch from an era long gong. Old Dutch, much more similar btw to Zuidafrikaans (Zuidafrikaans originated from the 17th century Dutch language) than modern day Dutch lingo! Most present day Dutch wouldn't understand these lines very well...

The first line is written on the only known painting of a Dutch painter "Emblematic still life with flagon, glass, jug and bridle".
(T 1614) by Johannes Torrentius (1589-1644), oil on canvas, 52 x 50,5 cm.

Surprisingly the only known Torrentius painting with the seal of King Charles I on it C(arolus) R(ex) was discovered by J.J. van Deinse in a grocery store (J.F. Sachse - van Essen) in the eastern Dutch town of Enschede, were it had served as the lid on a barrel sultanas!

(Uit het Land van Katoen en Heide, part I (1925) by J.J. van Deinse, article "Een merkwaardige vondst", page 466 - 477.

Well definitely amazing, considering the fact that Enschede almost burned to the ground in 1862!

Jij was de gevreesde, snelstromende.
Uit de grote brand van Enschede gered
je sinistere ‘Stilleven met breidel’,
dienst doend als deksel op een krentenvat.

ER + Wat buten maat bestaat, int onmaats qaat verghaat.
'That which exists out of measure perishes in evil immeasurably'.
ER + means: Eques Rosae Crucis, Knight of the Rose Cross.

The other sentence is written on a rosicrucian caricature by Pieter Nolpe, Dutch etcher, engraver and draughtsman. Most likely figures shown on this engraving are: Joost van den Vondel, Constantijn Huygens, Torrentius, Roemer Visscher, his daughter Maria Tesselschade Visscher, Theodoor Rodenburg and Pieter Cornelisz Hooft. Members of the illustrious Muiderkring.
'Alwaer de broederschap vergaert van 't roode kruis'
Where the brotherhood of the Red Cross meets!.
The Muiderkring nothing but a bunch of Rosicrucians!?

Most of them were btw also members of the Rhetoricians (Rederijkers). The Chambers of Rhetoric arose out of religious or secular brotherhoods at the beginning of the 15th century in Flanders, under French influence. This particular Chamber was called d'Eglantier "Sweet Briar", but it was also often referred to by its motto In Liefde Bloeyende "Blossoming in Love". In fact Roemer Visscher was the leader of the Dutch rosicrucians and in the year 1614 it was decided that Torrentius would become, upon Visscher's death in 1620, his successor! Roemer Visscher hid the ER+ signature in the "Elck wat Wils +" emblem on the title page of his Sinnepoppen (1614).

Both pieces are now in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam.

"There is no country in the world more suitable than Holland for the Brotherhood of the Rose-Croix, and where those who have the secret of the great work have more freedom. Wrote Sorbière"

De rozekruisers, die zijn voortgekomen uit de mengelmoes van anabaptisten, en die vergeefs pronken met hun verschillende kunsten en wetenschappen, de alchemie, de veredeling van goud en soortgelijke dingen om zo de ongelukkigen en de onbedachtzamen te verleiden en degenen die zich tot deze merkwaardige zaken voelen aangetrokken, aan de duivel uit te leveren. – Laurentius Beyerlinck (1578 – 1627)

The Netherlands, however, did not long deserve this praise for the hospitality which the Rosicrucians had initially enjoyed. Protestant orthodoxy simply did not tolerate the freedom of investigation of the Rosicrucians, nor did they accepte their philosophical theories alien to the Bible.
And thus soon an investigation was made in 1623 against the Fraternity of the Rose-Croix by the assembled Councils of Holland, Zealand and Friesland and the Faculty of Theology of Leyden was asked for their opinion. This opinion stated, in sum, that certain persons calling themselves Brothers of the Rose-Croix, who have had their residence in the City of paris, had now come to the United Provinces and that they were occupied in matters very detrimental to the interests of the State, and that their sect is very unorthodox.
Their decision was communicated to Magistrates of Haarlem with a request that a certain Torrentius, as one of the principal adherents of the sect, be particularly watched!

Johannes Symonsz van der Beeck (1589 - 1644) a.k.a. Torrentius,
Dutch painter. Active in Amsterdam, Leiden and Haarlem. In 1627, Torrentius and his friend Coppens were take prisoners. Torrentius was tortured and sentenced to 20 years of imprisonment for impiety and blasphemy. His paintings were burned. Undoubtedly his membership of the Rosicrucians played a most important role.
A.J. Rehorst in his book on Torrentius (1939) established beyond doubt that he was a Rosicrucian, just like Rehorst himself. Johannes Torrentius, who claimed that his Rosicrucianism gave him magical powers as an artist. He most likely used a camera obscura made by the Dutch physicist, inventor and fellow Rosicrucian Cornelius Drebbel.

This Cornelis Drebbel b.t.w. is a very fascinating figure who seriously deserves further investigation! There's two mesmerizing theories surrounding the Dutch Da Vinci. One is that Julianus de Campis is a Drebbel alias! Where Dr. Carlos Gilly (Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica) rejects this theory, Dr. Govert Snoek in his excellent study "De Rozenkruisers in Nederland" considers this possibility, Susanna Åkerman (Rose Cross over the Baltic) has already accepted this theory!

Karl Wideman tells us that Johann Oswaldus from Montbéliard reveals to him in the presence of Adam Haselmayer (Antwort An die lobwürdige Brüderschafft der Theosophen vom RosenCreutz N. N. ) anno December 1621 at Augsburg, a series of Rosicrucian pseudonyms one of them being: Julianus de Campis, sonsten Cornelius Trebel genanndtt. It's very obvious that this concerns Cornelius Drebbel of Alkmaar!
The second theory perhaps even more mind-blowing is Richard Santa Coloma's assumption that the enigmatic Voynich Manuscript is nothing but Drebbel's lost note book!

(Provided the recent carbon dating's been done correctly, the Drebbel/Voynich theory can be ruled out: University of Arizona researchers have cracked one of the puzzles surrounding what has been called "the world's most mysterious manuscript" – the Voynich manuscript, a book filled with drawings and writings nobody has been able to make sense of to this day.
Using radiocarbon dating, a team led by Greg Hodgins in the UA's department of physics has found the manuscript's parchment pages date back to the early 15th century (1404 - 1438), making the book a century older than scholars had previously thought. This radiocarbon dating also rules out other possible candides like Da Vinci, Roger Bacon and Edward Kelley.

Van Drebbel heb ik slechts een glimp mogen opvangen, de geleerde die oogde als een Hollandse boer, maar spreken kon als de wijzen van Samos en Sicilië tezamen -Constantijn Huygens

Now back to Torrentius. The Dark Forces behind this conspiracy must have been quite powerful, since not even Stadtholder c.q. Prince of Orange Frederik Hendrik's personal intervention could save Torrentius!

The Prince of Orange must have known Torrentius very well, since the Rosicrucians of Holland held their meetings in his own Palace at the Noordeinde Street in The Hague.
"Alwaer de broederschap vergaert van 't roode kruis" .

After having been notified by Sir Dudley Carleton, the British ambassador in The Hague, Charles I of England also intervened and brought about Torrentius's release in 1629 again with the strong support of the Prince. Torrentius went into exile in England.

His life there, we have not the means of following accurately. He appears to have resumed his former profession of a painter...though without his former success. According to Walpole in his "Painters in the Reign of Charles I: "giving more scandal than satisfaction".
Twelve years later he saw Holland again just to die there, as a broken man…

In the year 1615 the Dutch translation of the Fama Fraternitatis by Abraham von Hoberweschel was published (though some mention the name of Roemer Visscher). The early translation clearly demonstrates that Rosicrucianism struck a cord in the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands.

In the 17th century the Dutch Republic developed into a world colonial empire far out of proportion to its resources, emerging as a centre of international finance, trade and a cultural capital of Europe.

The Netherlands are and always have been known because of their liberal, tolerant and openminded character. But liberal and tolerant in comparison to what?
Where some of its above mentioned leaders and scientists, were indeed very liberal and tolerant the majority of its people simple were not and were indeed rather calvinist.

In the beginning of this anti-rosicrucian movement, the persecution only expressed itself in humbling criticism. In 1622 a booklet was published "Spieghel der Broeders van den roose kruysse", by a lover of the truth or "liefhebber der waerheyt", telling us that in the town of Warmond there were a bunch of people calling themselves Rosicrucians and Torrentius "die geseit wort wel eenen van de principaelsten ten wesen der voorsz. secte." And of which Torrentius allegedly was one or perhaps the most important member. They were of course, blasphemers, heretics and worshipers of Satan. Similar criticism was found in 1624 in Nicolaes Van Wassenaer's "Historisch Verhael".

Torrentius who it must be said, was a libertine, blasphemer and womanizer. A more prudent approach c.q. behaviour might have prevented this predicament. In his haydays he behaved much like a modern-day pop star or guru, always and everywhere showing up with his own entourage:

“hy wist hem selven te insinueeren in de gunst van voorname burgers, die veel van hem hielden, alle mans vrient, die het vrouvolck wonderbaerlick wist te believen en lief-locken, die dagelycx sijn huis frequenteerden, en konden daar niet van daan blijven al spleten en barsten haar mans" .

As an artist Torentius was very highly praised for his still lifes by such high sources as the secretary to the prince of Orange, Constantijn Huygens (who rated him even better than Rembrandt!). But Huygens also mentions his atheism and how he ridiculed the Bible, but he says as far as his life and morals are concerned: "I will not like Cato judge him". However, wasn't Torrentius' so-called "atheism" and the mystery mongering he liked so much, not just his grossly misunderstood and weird sense of humour!?

Or to quote just another admirer the German goldsmith and engraver Michel Le Blon:

“… so en weet ik ter wereld niets dat hierbij vergeleken mach worden, en niet ‘t onrechte bij eenige van de voornaamste schilders voor Toverije geoordeelt … so en siet men nergend eenighe verheventheyt van verwen, begintsel noch eynde aent heel werck en schijnt meer gewassen off als eenen waesem daerop geschildert”

Conclusion:
Upon assessment of the entire Torrentius Case, of all the parties involved, the places and the time in which this took place, one’s left with an unsatisfactory and unsettled feeling that an enigma still remains and that the case has not been fully resolved.

Picture the situation: a highly successful and very popular painter with friends in very high places, some of them his followers and members of the same fraternity is sentenced in an almost inquisitorial Process. The verdict was excessive, even by 17th century standards.

Yes he was a libertine, a “radical Rosicrucian preacher” as Susanna Akerman referred to them (o.a. Adam Haslmayer, Philip Ziegler, Matthias Pfennig and Torrentius ), but considering the situation in Holland anno 1627 with a reasonable amount of freedom (Synodus van der conscientien vryheydt 1582) this doesn’t fully explain this conspiracy.

In his process no attention was given to witnesses for the defense. No possibility for an appeal was offered.

Though it should be the subject of further investigation one’s left with the feeling that Torrentius was crucified and sacrificed on the altar of personal ambition and Dutch political factions in the young Republic and of which as an imprudent libertine he was just an easy victim. Wer sich zu grün macht, den fressen die Ziegen!

The reason to post this article is twofold. My very personal interest in Torrentius and 17th century Dutch Rosicrucianism of which he was the leader ("Keizer" c.q. Imperator), but now perhaps even more so the unanticipated links between the English and Dutch Rosicrucians. Cornelis Drebbel knew King Charles. Prince of Orange Frederik Hendrik, the Dutch Stadholder was Holland's elected head of state. Prince Frederik Hendrik’s son William II married Mary Stewart, daughter of the English King Charles I. Constantijn Huygens who was Frederik Hendrik’s First Secretary knew Francis Bacon (Bacon used Drebbel's inventions for his New Atlantis, not surprising of course considering the fact that they shared rooms at Eltham Palace) and Descartes. Huygens's father warned his son against Drebbel, suggesting that Drebbel probably had dealings with the devil...

Ik ben naar de Nieuwe Kerk gegaan om de blauwe zerk te zien waaronder Torrentius of wat er van hem over was begraven ligt. Mijn vriend, ik heb daar gestaan, op die ijskoude dag, in die ijskoude kerk, met de kou van de dood in mijn hart. En ik heb getwijfeld en bijna vertwijfeld. Wat is de zin van alles wat ons wedervaart, of proberen we zelf er een zin in te leggen? Wat moet al het lachen en het schreien, het liefhebben en het haten? Leven we door een noodwendigheid of alleen door puur toeval? Waarom begaan wij, mensen, zoveel onmenselijkheid? Als ik nog ergens om bidden moet, dan om gerechtigheid op aarde en voor mijzelf een standvastig gemoed. Reinout Schoorel, doct.jur. - AD 1644

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johannes_van_der_Beeck

http://www.santa-coloma.net/voynich_drebbel/voynich.html

Jesus: Man from Nazareth or a Nazorean? Here's the True and Mystical Life of Jesus!

2008-08-01T04:01:00.000-07:00

Jezus, gans en claer - Fama

‘It has served us well, this myth of Christ’ -Pope Leo X

Jesus, son of Mary (on whom be peace) said:
"The world is a bridge; pass over it, but build no houses upon it".

"Jezus is op aarde gekomen om te laten zien dat we allemaal zonen en dochters van God zijn." - Sir Isaac Newton

I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.” - Mahatma Gandhi

"Jesus said to them, When you make the two one, and when you make the inside like the outside, and the outside like the inside, and the above like the below, and when you make the female one and the same, so that the male be not male, nor the female female... then you will enter the kingdom."

We are guilty of believing that Jesus Christ chose only those of His own race to be his 12 disciples, and that he did not go out and choose two Chinese, two blacks, two Indians, two Arabs, two women or two homosexuals, therefore he would be called a Supremacist, Racist and Bigot by today’s worldly standards.

All of the secret schools today which are classified as initiatic (because the students within them must first be prepared and made ready, and then spiritually and esoterically initiated before receiving the Truth) are associated in one secret organization or federation for the exchange of helpful suggestions and ideas relating to the ways and means not only of perpetuating the secret doctrines which Jesus taught but the manner of selecting the final Disciples and Apostles who shall go forth, not to destroy the faith and religions of the world, but to carry out the great mission for which Jesus was preordained and predestined to become a Son of God incarnate.
- H. Spencer Lewis, "The Secret Doctrines of Jesus", 1937

Tot al degenen die, in orthodoxe oprechtheid, veel van wat dit boek biedt zullen verwerpen, kan ik alleen maar zeggen: "Houd vast aan het goede". Als uw geloof, uw kenns en uw overtuiging omtrent christelijke zaken u voldoen en u hebt geen innerlijke drang om acher de sluier te kijken, doe het dan niet! Sta niets toe uw aanbidding en verering voor hem die uw redder en heer is te verzwakken of te verminderen! - H. Spencer Lewis

About this time there lived Jesus, a wise man, for he was a performer of wonderful deeds, a teacher of such men as are happy to accept the truth. He won over many of the Jews and many of the Gentiles. When Pilate, at the suggestion of the leading men among us, had condemned him to the cross, those who had loved him at the first did not forsake him; and the tribe of Christians, so named from him, are not extinct to this day. - Flavius Josephus: Antiquitates Judaicae

Jesus the Nazorean, rather than Jesus of Nazareth!?

The beginning of the Lie!
And it came to pass that in those days Jesus came from the Nazarenes of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. - Mark 1:9

Of all the books and numerous articles written by H. Spencer Lewis two are my all time favourites:

The Mystical life of Jesus (1929)
ISBN-10: 0912057467 ISBN-13: 978-0912057460
The Secret Doctrines of Jesus (1939)
ISBN-10: 0912057912 ISBN-13: 978-0912057910

It may be that you'll be quite surprised at what you'll read in these books, since it does not exactly reflect the doctrine propagated by the Christian church. You remain however, in line with the open and tolerant character of our Order, as always, completely free in your opinions in this area. In that respect our role will be limited to transferring the ancient knowledge which the Rosicrucian tradition has been passing on this subject.

They are a fascinating, non-sectarian treatment of the unknown life of Jesus, based on records preserved in the archives of ancient monasteries of the Essenes and the Rosicrucian Order.

Of all the books I’ve ever read about Jesus, and I’ve seen one or two in my life such as the weird but fascinating “Jésus ou le Mortel Secret des Templiers” by fellow martinist Robert Ambelain, these two are still by far the very best and will give you a credible insight in what really happened 2000 years ago.

Ever heard of the Essenes? Well, back in 1929 Lewis did.
He wrote at length of the Essene sect and in great detail.
And consider this: The Dead Sea Scrolls that mentioned the Essenes for the first time in modern history were not discovered until 1945! This is easily verified and cannot simply be summarily dismissed by even the most obstinately entrenched of scoffers or dogmatists.

These books will either thrill you or completely shock you!
(Dr. Lewis himself issued a warning to his orthodox readers,
NOT to read the books!), but when you do read them, and which I recommend, you will never think of Jesus the same way again!

So read the books, “THINK”, and then decide for yourself.

A tribute to Harvey Spencer Lewis by Frater E.D.C. (Eduard) van Drenthem Soesman, past Grand Master of the Netherlands Jurisdiction of AMORC.

2008-07-30T03:27:00.001-07:00

Als het getij verloopt, moet men de bakens verzetten!

"Young man, some day you will be a member of this Order".

Met het hoofd in de wolken en de beide benen stevig op de grond.

De grootst mogelijke verdraagzaamheid binnen de meest strikte onafhankelijkheid

"Geloof, Hoop en Liefde, doch de meeste van deze is de Liefde".

"De boodschap van de Rozekruisers Orde A.M.O.R.C. is een boodschap die de wereld oproept tot meer humanisme en spiritualiteit".

Wij hebben het beste voor met allen, met onze geliefde fratres en sorores, of zij gefaald hebben of niet. “Alles sal rech kom”. Wij bouwen verder, wij bouwen beter en hechter dan ooit tevoren. Wij bouwen op goede fundamenten: Op het Leven, op het Licht en op de Liefde!

Onderstaande voordracht verscheen voor het eerst in 1982 in het boekje "Mijn Eerste Elftal".

Dr. Spencer Lewis was een gedreven mens. Uit persoonlijke ontmoetingen en vooral uit zijn correspondentie met ons, leden, bleek dit zonneklaar.
Er stond iets achter hem dat groter is dan de mens zelf kan zijn.
Dat iets was het kosmische, waarover hij ons geleerd heeft, waarover hij ons geleerd heeft hoe het te kontakten, waardoor wij Rozekruisers werden en leerlingen van deze grote Meester. Het is interessant om iets over zijn jeugd te weten in verband met the Methodistenkerk.

Zoals het vaak gaat met Rozekruisers brengt de prille jeugd de aanraking met de kerk, een kerk, terwijl het Licht doorbreekt nadat we voor het allereerst over de Orde vernomen hebben.
Dan komt er iets blijvends over ons. Zo was het ook met Dr. Spencer Lewis, de eerste Imperator van de nieuwe cyclus van de Rozekruisers Orde op het Noord Amerikaanse continent.
Hij was lid van de zondagsschool, die zoveel als een instituut is in de Verenigde Staten. Hij werd zeer toegewijd en hoe kan dat ook anders als men voor het eerst met de Christusfiguur in aanraking komt. Deze figuur heeft hem zijn leven lang vastgehouden, mede tot voldoening van alle leden die door hem een verdiepte kennis van Jezus mochten verkrijgen. Vele Rozekruisers zijn door het Kruis van Christus, door hun verering voor Jezus, tot de Orde gekomen. Het is immers deze toewijding die altijd leidt tot iets majestueus in ons leven.

Een ieder van u zal enige verwantschap voelen met deze grote figuur, die Jezus, met wie het in ons leven waarschijnlijk óók begonnen is. Begonnen met de tocht naar het licht. Om tot de Rozekruisers Orde te kunnen komen moeten we psychische aanleg hebben, iets dat anderen, misschien zelfs onze ouders, vreemd vinden.
Wij zullen ons allemaal dingen uit onze jeugd of zelfs onze prille jeugd herinneren die steeds wijzen op een zoeken naar het Pad, onze taak op aarde, een gevoeligheid voor dingen des geestes, begrip voor onzienlijke dingen, een begin van universele liefde, die nooit slap en decadent maar in de meeste gevallen krachtig is, normaal en fris. Dàt is wat mij zo bijzonder in Dr. Spencer Lewis heeft aangetrokken: zijn frisheid als mysticus.
Ik ken ze ook die graag erg gevoelig doen, willen lijken op een mysticus, vergetend dat AMORC een ander bordje heeft buitenhangen, waardoor de leden meer voldoening hebben, want op dat bordje prijken de woorden “Weest duidelijk, weest fris in uw beschouwing en laat uw mystieke gevoelens en uitingen op gewone wijze tot uw leden doorklinken”.

Dr. Spencer Lewis, en wij mogen gerust zo nu en dan over Professor Lewis spreken want hij was tenslotte ook nog Rector Magnificus van de Rozekruisers Universiteit, kreeg langzamerhand meer belangstelling voor kunsten en wetenschappen, voor mystiek en filosofie. Hij interesseerde zich voor alles wat op deze aarde interessant kan zijn, de faculteiten van universiteiten in zijn woonoord, kunt, theater, muziek.
Totdat hij door zijn kontakten met vele gelijkgestemden in aanraking kwam met mannen en vrouwen die gelezen hadden over de Egyptische Rozekruisers. Deze aanraking met wat in het begin niet meer dan een woord was biologeerde hem en vanaf die tijd, in het begin van 1908, begon zijn zoeken naar de Orde.

Nu even een grote sprong vooruit en een eigen waardering van onze Imperator, die zo enorm veel goeds voor de wereld heeft gedaan. Persoonlijk geloof ik niet dat er in deze eeuw iemand is geweest die onze Imperator kan evenaren. We kennen de namen van grote figuren in deze wereld, zoals Winston Churchill, Franklin Roosevelt, Albert Schweitzer en talloze anderen, maar ik geloof niet dat ze in de schaduw kunnen staan van wat deze man vrijwel alleen tot stand heeft gebracht in het domein van de opvoeding, waarin alle menselijke terreinen hun aanvang vinden. Wèl eclatanter, maar zeker niet van de diepte die Lewis ging in zijn kennis van de esoterie, van de eeuwigheidsvragen, de kosmische wensen, welke door het mensdom worden veronachtzaamd.
Immers, onze gehele wereld zucht onder de leugen, de destructie, de corruptie, de foutieve instelling van het mensdom juist t.o.v. deze eeuwigheidsvoorwaarden. Dr. Lewis heeft ons op het pad geplaatst dat onherroepelijk leidt tot verlichting, tot inzicht, ook in de verdorvenheid van deze wereld. In Canada noemden wij deze vaderlijke vriend “Papa Lewis”.

Het ogenblik breekt nu aan dat Dr. Lewis omstreeks 1909 in aanraking komt met de Rose Croix de France. Zijn benoeming tot gedelegeerde in Amerika volgt en enige jaren later mag hij zich Imperator noemen. Dan begint zijn ongelooflijke arbeid voor de toekomst der volkeren, middels de leden die zijn onderwijs volgen, een onderwijs dat weer is samengesteld uit de oudste archieven der Orde. Wat weinigen beseffen die vragen naar de oorsprong der Orde komt nu als een lichtstraal in de duisternis van het heden, namelijk dat Lewis en vele zijner medewerkers ditzelfde werk reeds hadden volbracht in vroeger eeuwen, zij het dan op veel kleinere schaal.

Onze hogeregraadsleden, die zijn ingewijd in onze Tempels of in het geheime Sanctum zullen dan ook nooit vragen naar de historische feiten onzer Ordo Rosae Crucis eenvoudig omdat zij deze historie zelf hebben meegemaakt, deze hebben gemaakt.
De profane wereld natuurlijk des te meer. Die begrijpt niet hoe het mogelijk is dat Dr. Lewis met zoveel overredingskracht kan spreken over bijvoorbeeld Francis Bacon, alsof hij in die tijd geleefd had, sterker nog, in een vorige incarnatie deze hoge Bewaarder van de Schatkist zelf geweest was! Alle Rozekruisers weten hoe wij steeds in het defensief staan t.o.v. de profane wereld, die altijd klaarstaat om te kritiseren. Dr. Lewis zei dan wel: “Och, wat hebben zij dan wel van deze wereld gemaakt? Kijk eens naar ons en de diepe vrede die er bij ons heerst”. Hij heeft zeer veel te lijden gehad van oppositionele krachten, zeer veel. Die machten der duisternis, die wij nooit mogen onderschatten want zij liggen altijd op de loer om ons te bespringen, hebben het bestaan om hem in Amerika verdacht te maken, met modder te smijten om zijn levenswerk te vernietigen. Natuurlijk heeft hij gewonnen maar tegen welke prijs? Tenslotte heeft hij de booswichten voor het gerecht in Californië gedaagd, waar de overwinning werd bevochten. Lewis, een duidelijk trekje van de Imperator, vroeg niet meer dan één dollar schadevergoeding, die hij dan ook kreeg. Voor hem was de strijd voorbij.
In de twintiger jaren dezer eeuw werd er veel van de Imperator gevergd. Hij liet gebouwen bouwen, ging wekelijks op tournee om “zijn” orde te verbreiden, redeneerde dat leden die zelfs maar drie maanden lid van de Orde waren geweest en hun lidmaatschap dan opzegden tòch onnoemelijk veel psychische hulp bij de Orde hadden verkregen. Op dat gezegde bouwde Ralp Lewis, zijn zoon, de orde uit tot in meer dan 80 landen. Ik weet wel dat de opbouw momenteel overal revolutionair is, maar wij weten ook dat niet alle nieuwe leden blijvertjes zijn, maar voor deze nieuwe leden is het van onschatbare waarde dat zij, al is het maar voor drie maanden, lid zijn. Incarnaties later werkt die tijd nog door. Spencer Lewis heeft ervoor gezorgd dat er altijd weer iets nieuws voor ons klaar ligt in onze monografieën. Wat een Auteur, wat een architect, wat een redenaar was hij, wat een cello-speler, wat een kenner van de muziek, natuurkunde, chemie en journalistiek!
Zo ooit gezegd mag worden dat iemand een universeel genie was, en met dat woord speelt de profane wereld nogal eens, dan was dat Dr. Harvey Spencer Lewis! Ik wil onze huidige Imperator Ralph Lewis op dit punt in één lijn met zijn vader noemen.

Eén van de meest indringende ervaring welke ik ooit met Dr. Spencer Lewis heb meegemaakt was niet in een persoonlijk gesprek of tijdens een korte ontmoeting, waarbij men dikwijls werd afgeleid door de telefoon, een secretaresse, doch in een projectie. Ik woonde omstreeks 1930 in Toronto en op een donderdagavond zat ik te studeren in mijn Sanctum. Ik las toen voor de afwisseling “Hamlet” van Shakespeare. Enige dagen tevoren had ik de Imperator geschreven en hem een paar vragen voorgelegd. Plotseling die avond had ik het gevoel dat ik niet alleen was in mijn Sanctum. En warempel, ik zag de Imperator die mij een kort berichtje doorgaf met zijn prettig in het gehoor liggende stem, dat ik duidelijk kon verstaan. Hij gaf het antwoord op mijn vragen! Toen zag ik een hand vlak bij mij. “Shake hands”, hoorde ik duidelijk. Ik maakte een manuaal van handdrukken, maar vond het toch een beetje vreemd. Maar het wàs een handdruk. Ik wees op het boek van Shakespeare dat ik aan het lezen was. Vluchtig zij hij toen nog: “Good literature” en toen was hij weer verdwenen. Later hoorde ik dat hij met leden van zijn klaas veelvuldig dergelijke kontakten had, die even indringend waren als die wij heden van hem mogen ontvangen.

De grootste uibreidingen van de Orde staan nu voor de deur. Hij begint met de bouw van het Egyptische Museum en reist om inspiratie op te doen naar Egypte, was in die tijd een wereldreis was. Hij leidde een inwijding in de grote Pyramide. In de dertiger jaren liet de orde veel van zich horen in de Verenigde Staten, Canada, Frankrijk, Duitsland en Nederland. Bij ons vond de oprichting plaats in januari 1934 in “Villa Elisabeth” in Den Haag.
Op last van de Imperator werd de Kommissie van Oprichting als volgt samengesteld: Frater Coops, Grootsecretaris en de leden Soror van Drenthem Soesman, geboren Middelaer, Frater van Drenthem Soesman, Soror Van Rijn van Alkemade en Frater Corbière. Sedert 1926 was de Imperator niet meer in Nederland geweest. Wèl in Brussel voor de vergaderingen der FUDOSI, waar ook mijn grote vriend Frans Wittemans uit Antwerpen aanwezig was.

Persoonsverheerlijking dat wilde Dr. Spencer Lewis niet. Maar als men hem beter leerde kennen, hetzij uit zijn boeken, leringen, gebouwen of persoonlijke gesprekken, dan kon men het niet helpen deze persoon ter vereren. Dat deden wij dan ook en dat was waarschijnlijk het enige waarin we ongehoorzaam aan hem waren.
Hij stond op een “pied de stalle”, een voetstuk. Gelukkig dat de mens hem heeft gekend voor wat hij was. Gelukkig!
Mijn moeder vertelde mij na haar bezoek aan hem:
“Ik heb iets van de grandeur van deze man mogen zien!”
Zo wàs het en zo is het! Hij is voor de meesten van ons niet gestorven.

Ikzelf tracht steeds weer waar te maken dat ene grote dat ik van de Imperator heb mogen leren: LIEFDE IS DE WET.
Dat is o zo moeilijk in deze verdorven maatschappij. Om alles wat op je afkomt te verwerken is dikwijls ontzettend moeilijk, maar ik geloof dat datzelfde Kosmische dat hem in zo grote mate heeft geholpen ons ook helpt, gezien de grote uitbreiding van de Orde en het succes dat wij hebben.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDEKx16W8ss&feature=related

Als je geen antwoord meer weet op de vragen,
die een knotsgekke wereld je dagelijks stelt,
Als je niet meer weet of je moet lachen of huilen,
Als je hoort wat de jeugd je vertelt…

Dan is het tijd dat je rustig gaat zitten,
je ogen sluit en een taf’reeltje ziet
van blauwe luchten, een enkele vogel
en spierwitte wolkjes in ’t verschiet.

Dan komt de rust voor wie haar kan grijpen,
een meditatieve, prettige rust.
En dat is in dit knotsgekke leven
HET medicijn, word je daarvan bewust!

Though the above article of past Grand Master E.D.C. van Drenthem Soesman, taken from his booklet “Mijn eerste Elftal” was posted just as the title implies, to honour Dr. H. Spencer Lewis, I later realized that it was also an interesting talk on AMORC's history in The Netherlands, which officially started in 1934. So next year we celebrate it’s 75th anniversary! On this occasion I'd like to share parts of a letter from former Grand Master I.L.M. (Irène) Beusekamp-Fabert about the genesis of the Netherlands Grand Lodge.

quote

Onze Nederlandstalige Jurisdictie is op 1 februari 1934 opgericht. Vóór die tijd had Frater Jan Coops jaren in Canada gewoond, waarheen hij was geëmigreerd en waar hij in aanraking kwam met Frater Spencer Lewis en de AMORC. Hij werd lid van de AMORC en Spencer Lewis vroeg hem terug te keren naar Nederland en aldaar de Nederlandse Jurisdictie op te bouwen, en dat deed Jan Coops in 1934, nadat hij het Charter voor de Nederlandstalige Jurisdictie van Spencer Lewis had ontvangen.

Jan Coops begon de monografiën te vertalen in het Nederlands en na verloop van tijd had hij drie leden in Nederland, één dame, die trouwens 104 jaar geworden is, en twee heren. Een van deze twee heren was Frater L. van Gastel, die toen student scheikunde was. Langzamerhand kon in Amsterdam in de woning van Jan Coops een Pronaos worden opgericht. De dame en heren brachten de monografiën ’s nachts per fiets naar de eerste leden. Dat was dus het begin van onze Jurisdictie, die helaas door de oorlog tijdelijk aan haar activiteiten een einde moest maken. Wel hadden in het verborgene nog enige ontmoetingen plaats, maar pas na de oorlog kon Jan Coops de activiteiten van de AMORC en van de TMO goed ontplooien. Onze Jurisdictie werd dan ook een Grootloge en Jan Coops werd tot Grootmeester benoemd.

unquote

Van vrijdag 13 t/m 15 november 2009 zal t.g.v. het 75-jarig bestaan van de Grootloge van de Nederlandstalige Jurisdictie een Jubileumconvent worden gehouden. "De Rozekruiser nu", 75-jaar AMORC in de Nederlandstalige gebieden.
Dit nationale convent wordt gehouden in het conferentiecentrum "De Leeuwenhorst" in Noordwijkerhout.

On August 12, 2009 we’re also commemorating the 100th anniversary of H. Spencer Lewis’s initiation into the Rosicrucian Tradition in France!

Watch DVD: Dr. H. Spencer Lewis Restorer of Rosicrucianism

http://www.youtube.com/user/RosicrucianTV

Saunière & Martinism # 3: The Illuminati Protocols. Hiérarchie, Fraternité et Liberté! ou Liberté, Egalité et Charité?

2008-05-23T08:10:00.000-07:00

"Wer war der Thor, wer Weiser, Bettler oder Kaiser?
Ob Arm, ob Reich, im Tode gleich."

"The great nations have always acted like gangsters, and the small nations like prostitutes." - Stanley Kubrick

"The illegal we do immediately. The unconstitutional takes a bit longer." - Henry Kissinger

"In politics nothing is accidental. If something happens, be assured it was planned this way." - Franklin D. Roosevelt

"Give me control of a nation's money and I care not who makes the laws." - Mayer Amschel Bauer c.k.a. Rothschild

"Of all the means I know to lead men, the most effectual is a concealed mystery. The hankering of the mind is irresistible." Adam Weishaupt

"Wij vormen een vereniging van broeders op alle punten van de aarde… Maar toch is er één die onzichtbaar is, en nauwelijks gevoeld wordt. Waar vandaan komt het? Waar is het? Niemand weet het, of niemand verteld het. Deze vereniging is zelfs voor ons, de veteranen van de geheime genootschappen, geheim." - Guiseppe Mazzini.

Capital must protect itself in every way... Debts must be collected and loans and mortgages foreclosed as soon as possible. When through a process of law the common people have lost their homes, they will be more tractable and more easily governed by the strong arm of the law applied by the central power of leading financiers. People without homes will not quarrel with their leaders. This is well known among our principle men now engaged in forming an imperialism of capitalism to govern the world. By dividing the people we can get them to expend their energies in fighting over questions of no importance to us except as teachers of the common herd. - J.P. Morgan

"We decide on something, leave it lying around and wait and see what happens. If no one kicks up a fuss, because most people don't know what has been decided, we continue step by step until there is no turning back." - Jean-Claude Juncker
(describing the way the EU works)

Saunière & Martinism # 2: “It’s only politics, so what’s that got to do with us?”

2008-05-17T03:48:00.000-07:00

"Money will find a way"

"Wer war der Thor, wer Weiser, Bettler oder Kaiser?
Ob Arm, ob Reich, im Tode gleich."

"What luck for rulers, that men do not think." - Adolf Hitler

If the American people knew what we have done,
they would string us up from the lamp posts. - George H.W. Bush

"Nothing is straight forward when it comes to story of Rennes-Le-Château"

"It's not the people who vote that count. It's the people who count the votes." - Josef Stalin

Il y a deux histoires: L'histoire officielle, mensongère, qui nous est enseignée, et l'histoire secrète où se trouvent les vraies causes des évènements, une histoire honteuse." - Honoré de Balzac

"The great nations have always acted like gangsters, and the small nations like prostitutes." - Stanley Kubrick

The Martinists...admired by the wise...feared by the tyrant...persecuted by the dictator...respected by the mystic...sought by the Seeker. Since the XVIIIth century, the Martinists have been found at the very heart and center of esotericism and mystical belief in all its various expressions. While the Martinist Order is not a secret society, rarely do individual Martinists allow themselves to be seen directly; generally, only a hint of their presence is noted. Yet always, their influence is great, and their charisma is felt by those who know. Frequently are they discussed by the uninitiated who have little knowledge or understanding of the Martinists or their abilities. Today, Martinism flourishes, and its portals are still open to the Men and Women of Desire who wish to exit the Forest of Errors and enter the Light to be found at the Gates of Mercy.

At Wilhelmsbad, near the city of Hanau in Hesse-Cassel, was held the most important Masonic Congress of the eighteenth century. It was convoked by Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick, Grand Master of the Order of Strict Observance ... there were delegates from Upper and Lower Germany, from Holland, Russia, Italy, France, and Austria; and the order of the Illuminati was represented by the Baron Von Knigge. It is not therefore surprising that the most heterogeneous opinions were expressed. A meeting was convened at Mayer Amschel Rothschild's castle in Wilhelmsbad on the 16th July 1782, where the freemasons and Illuminati forged a complete alliance.

Comte Henri de Virieu (Eques a Circulis) a Mason from the Martinist lodge at Lyon after the 1782 Masonic Congress of Wilhelmsbad and attendee at this conference, comes away visibly shaken. When questioned about the "tragic secrets" he brought back with him, he replies: "I will not confide them to you. I can only tell you that all this is very much more serious than you think. The conspiracy which is being woven is so well thought out, that it will be, so to speak, impossible for the Monarchy and the Church to escape it."

Il y a deux histoires: L'histoire officielle, mensongère, qui nous est enseignée, et l'histoire secrète où se trouvent les vraies causes des évènements, une histoire honteuse." - Honoré de Balzac

TRIA SUNT MIRABILIA, DEUS ET HOMO, MATER ET VIRGO, TRINUS ET UNUS

Synarchy is Greek for joint/harmonious rule (1+1=3), as opposed to Anarchy.

The earliest recorded use of the term "Synarchy" is attributed to an English theologian Thomas Stackhouse (1677-1752). But the most common use of the word "Synarchy" though stems from the writings of Alexandre Saint-Yves d’Alveydre (1842-1909), who used the term in his books to describe what he believed was the ideal form of government.

Synarchy as devised by St-Yves was not a purely political movement. Being a friend of kindred spirits such as Victor Hugo and Lord Bulwer-Lytton, he incorporated several specific mystical and occult ideas into the system. Saint-Yves envisioned a European synarchist empire; a government composed of three councils, representing economic power, judicial power, and scientific community of which the metaphysical chamber bound the whole structure together.

Essentially, Synarchy advocates government by secret society or, in its own terms, by an elite of enlightened initiates who rule from behind the scenes. It therefore doesn’t matter therefore much which political party holds power in a state or even what political system that state has since Synarchy can rule in any kind of state, though for obvious reasons it finds itself more at home among totalitarian regimes.

St-Yves believed in the existence of spiritually superior beings that could be contacted telepathically. His elite would be made up of people who were in communication with them. He himself claimed that he was in touch with these beings, and that they actually gave him the principles of Synarchy.

New as this all may seem at the time, Synarchy basically is very much old wine in a new bottle. Something we've all seen before: read Adam Weishaupt and the Order of Illuminati. Though Synarchy may have looked more advanced and mature, when you carefully study the aims of the Illuminati there's a lot of correspondence. It comes therefore as no surprise that St-Yves regarded the medieval Knights Templar as the ultimate Synarchists of their day.

It's crucial to consider the whole issue of Synarchism whithin the proper historial context and the time frame of St-Yves' time. Democracy wasn't really mature yet, and communism was still to be invented. It's soooo easy to be politically correct with hindsight...

Despite his continuous efforts he didn’t manage to draw much attention for his ideas from the French public at first. However, gradually St. Yves d'Alveydre became more and more influential when several occult groups and currents became interested in his beliefs. The concept of Agartha and its Masters had a big influence on the teachings of Madame Blavatsky founder of the Theosophical Society .

Then there is Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925) who used Synarchy as a major influence when he developed his own ideas for his own organisation, the "Antroposofische Gesellschaft"

Another important movement which became closely associated with Synarchy was Martinism. Papus (real name Gérard Encausse), (1865-1916) who in 1884, drafted the constitution of and revived the Martinist Order “Ordre Martiniste” (1887-1891). Papus called Saint- Yves his “intellectual master” where as his "spiritual master" he claimed the mysterious magician and healer known as "le Maître Philippe de Lyon" (Philippe Nizier). It is surprising therefore, that neither of the two have ever been members of the Martinist Order themselves!

Papus had an enormous influence over the world of esoteric secret societies in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Not so long after his death in 1916, Victor Blanchard, became the leader of the Martinists. In order to express his appreciation for the work of Saint-Yves d’Alveydre, he renamed the Martinist Order into Ordre Martiniste et Synarchique (1920).

So where the Martinist Order at no time was meant to be a political current, it’s undeniable that many Martinists once were drawn to the ideas of Synarchy. Nowadays the Synarchist Utopia has lost much its appeal or at least I know of no Martinists who’re still drawn to these ideas (or they simply don’t want to speak out…).

People are rather wary of politics these days and rightly so, but they are not so wary of an appeal to the romantic, spiritual and mystical. And therein lies the danger. Since the combination of occultism and politics is highly questionable in my humble opinion and has often proved being downright dangerous.

According to French Martinist expert Robert Ambelain (one of the very few genuine experts imho, considering all of the self-proclaimed journalists and researchers on the internet!) the whole idea of Martinist Synarchy had been grossly misunderstood and deliberately misinterpreted. In his "Martinism, History and Doctrine", he states the following:

Quote
These anti-masonic reviews designated Martinism being identical with this same "Synarchy"!

In reality "Synarchy", a secret organization in the pay of trusts and high-finance, most certainly existed. But it had nothing to do with the synarchic principle of state government, which had been preached by a Martinist of the Saint-Martin line, Saint-Yves d'Alveydre!

The Martinist Order had knowingly been confused with a purely political and capitalist movement, confusing Martinists with business venturers.
Unquote

Post Scriptum:
it was long assumed that the B + S on the Saunière Bookplate stood for his initials though his full name was François Béranger Saunière.

The Ex-Libris was taken though from an early Rosicrucian book by Adrian von Mynsicht (1603-1638) a German rosicrucian alchemist (Dei Gratia Aureae Crucis Frater) known for his allegorical work Aureum Saeculum Redivivum, and published under the pseudonym Henricus Madathanus around 1625.

It is a rosicrucian rebus having a double meaning, one alchemical and the other astrological, (2 X B + S) together forming the classical fifth element or Quintessence.
The first meaning = Blut & Stein and the latter being...

Thus it’s not suprising that Saunière used this bookplate btw, but it’s highly amazing though that he knew about its existence…

Soon to follow: Novus Ordo Seclorum & Illuminati Protocols of Zion

Saunière & Martinism # 1: La Société des Indépendants ou des Intimes?

2008-05-07T03:02:00.001-07:00

"Wer war der Thor, wer Weiser, Bettler oder Kaiser?
Ob Arm, ob Reich, im Tode gleich."

History, for a creative Martinist, then, can be almost like a plaything: a Game, in fact with a serious inner meaning. You can play with the history to reveal a greater truth. - Tobias Churton Invisibles

Of all the hoaxes, mysteries and conspiracies going around in this world, the Rennes-le-Château secret could very well be designated to be the Mother of all Mysteries.

The Martinists...admired by the wise...feared by the tyrant...persecuted by the dictator...respected by the mystic...sought by the Seeker. Since the XVIIIth century, the Martinists have been found at the very heart and center of esotericism and mystical belief in all its various expressions. While the Martinist Order is not a secret society, rarely do individual Martinists allow themselves to be seen directly; generally, only a hint of their presence is noted. Yet always, their influence is great, and their charisma is felt by those who know. Frequently are they discussed by the uninitiated who have little knowledge or understanding of the Martinists or their abilities. Today, Martinism flourishes, and its portals are still open to the Men and Women of Desire who wish to exit the Forest of Errors and enter the Light to be found at the Gates of Mercy.

Der Martinismus ist ein Resultat der Aufklärung und proklamierte, dass der göttliche Ursprung nur durch den Weg des Herzens wieder gefunden werden könne. Es ist die Suche nach dem "göttlichen Ich". Seine Anhänger wollten eine neue Weltordnung basierend auf Jesus Christus vorantreiben, die verschiedene Glaubenssysteme nicht nur tangiert, sondern auch integriert – inklusive der jüdischen Kaballa. - André Douzet - Das Grab des Christus

It’s the well known story of the Abbé Francois Béranger Saunière, who discovered “certain things” and which made him a very wealthy man.

Where one hand there’s the ones like Paul Smith who simply dismiss the whole affair as a hoax, I belong the the critical believers, who feel that there’s more to this mystery than meets the eye.

After a long study of this mystery I've found that the only constant thing of it, is that those involved invariably had something to do with rosicrucianism and or martinism. For the rest I could very well quote Goethe: "Da steh ich nun, ich armer Tor, und bin so klug als wie zuvor."

The first ones who described this phenomenon i.m.o. (links with martinism and rosicrucianism i.e.) were Guy Patton and Robin Mackness in Web of Gold. Soon to be followed by Picknett & Prince.

More specific details have been given by French author André Douzet (The tomb of Christ and Saunière’s model).

However what these authors have in common though is that they, to my best knowledge, are not Martinists themselves and therefore see these things only from a hearsay perspective (their given information as such being quite accurate nonetheless).

In the pages of the Lodge Minutes book of the Martinist Order of Lyon it says: Dans La registre de la Très Révérente Loge à l’Orient de Lyon “La Haute Philosophie”…sur la liste le présent d’honneur l’Abbé Saunière.

Where Douzet quotes the minute book of a Martinist meeting(s) which Sauniere allegedly a.o. attended on 11 May 1900, he all together avoids to produce the relevant paper and which I’d like to see for verification. Certain details which I can't reveal here, would probably give me a fairly accurate impression of its authenticity. So, if the Douzet document is authentic, it proves that Saunière was a Martinist and a very important one (présent d’honneur) at that...

His interest in Martinism b.t.w. isn't surprising since others in his cercle of friends were Martinists such as Emma Calvé. In a document made in Paris on November 11th, 1892, at the cabaret "Chat Noir", we can see the signature of Emma Calve just before the sign of S:.I:., Supérieur Inconnu; the third degree of the Martinist Order.

Ignorami sometimes claim that his adherence is without any evidence whatsoever. Still subscribing to the romantic but completely false idea that if you’re just interested, you could simply go to and attend a Martinist meeting, by stating that it would interest you. Well: No Way!

No one, not him/her self duly initiated, will ever find his way into a Martinist heptad!I can guarantee that!

Where Saunière's Martinist adherence doesn't necessarily solve the mystery, it at least points us somewhat in the right direction.

Where even as a martinist myself, I find it rather difficult to properly define martinism so that no doubt is left to the intended meaning. Therefore in a previous post: Dialogues avec un Serviteur Inconnu... I've made an attempt by quoting several people/scholars who've shone their light on this mysterious subject. Since the romantic perception that it's simply Christian Mysticism, well I just don't find this view satisfactory. I rather support the idea of Charles Barlet who once stated that martinism was "a circle whose circumference was everywhere and the centre nowhere." This much better expresses the apparent discrepancies that seem to exist in martinism.

Dear gentle readers, soon I'll be returning to the Rennes-le-Château story, discussing some of the seemingly incongruent ideas which you'll find within martinism, such as synarchy, monarchy, and the bizarre movement of Naundorffism... or to quote Prof. Karl R. H. Frick: Man könnte ebenso die Quadratur des Kreises versuchen, um die widersprüchlichen Lehren des Martinismus im 19. Und 20. Jahrhundert in völlige Kongruenz zu überführen.

NAUNDORF: The lost King of France or just an other Imposter?

Where Louis Claude de Saint-Martin could hardly be called a royalist himself, only read his works “Lettre à un ami, ou Considérations philosophiques et religieuses sur la révolution française” & Le crocodile (1799) or the excellent paper The Crocodile Strikes Back: Saint-Martin's Interpretation of the French Revolution by Dr. Fabienne Moore, many of his followers were! They were monarchist or even worse Naundorffist.

Many French martinists believed Karl Wilhelm Naundorff's claims to the French throne. They joined the Synarchy movement and formed the Ordre Martiniste et Synarchie (OMS).

Karl Wilhelm Naundorff, was buried in 1845 in the Dutch town of Delft with the epitaph: "Here lies Louis XVII, King of France." DNA analysis later disproved his claim though.

Lot’s of indications show us that Saunière supported Naundorff from 1891 as did two Popes, Leon XIII and Benoit XV. However there was no real proof of the identity of Naundorff, only assumptions. (Well hell, as a martinist, you ought to know that one should NEVER ASSUME ANYTHING)

By the time of his death, Naundorff was recognized by many including the Dutch government as Louis XVII and, thus, the heir to the French throne – but, alas, not by his own country of France.

Naundorffism has always flabbergasted me. I’ve always found it very difficult to believe, that this German watch- and clockmaker who hardly knew any French could possibly have been Prince Louis Charles (Louis XVII).

Nevertheless the Naundorffists did and even now some still believe this. So where Naundorffism, was never ever a part of martinism, a considerable number of martinists were staunch Naundorffists. "Il nous a été révélé que le destin de la renaissance européenne était attaché à la restauration de la monarchie française et que la branche directe des descendants de Louis XVI appelée Naundorff était élue par Dieu.”

In 1998 Belgian genetics professor J.J. Cassiman of the Leuven University) conclusively proved by means of DNA testing that Karl Wilhelm Naundorff was not a descendent of the Bourbons and therefore most definitely not Louis XVII. Dr. Cassiman and his associates compared DNA material taken from Mr. Naundorff's body with hair of the queen and two of her sisters that was found in lockets that had belonged to their mother. They found no matches.

But Naundorff's descendants do not give up though. Website for Naundorff, whose family is still trying to press through his claims that he’s the Lost king of France: http://www.louis-XVII.com

In 2004 Cassiman announced that tests conducted on the heart of the boy who died in prison proved once and for all that he was, in fact, Marie Antoinette’s son and Prince Louis Charles (Louis XVII).

Rose+Croix Martiniste: dialogues avec un Serviteur Inconnu or what this Martinism is all about.'.

2008-01-10T05:47:00.000-08:00

"Der Weg ist das Ziel"

“Brother why do you stay in prison
when the door is so wide open?
Move outside the tangle of fear-thinking!
Live in silence.” - Jalal ad-Din Rumi

La mobilisation est le ressort du Vénérable Maître.

"A simple gift consisting of 2 letters and some dots".

"He smiled and said that Martinism was "a circle whose circumference was everywhere and the centre nowhere."

"Tout homme doit traverser une fois la grande solitude,
pour y développer son industrie, son courage et sa patience."

My sect is Providence, my proselytes are me, my cult is justice! - Saint-Martin

Un martiniste est martiniste à vie : il n'y a aucun pouvoir sur terre qui puisse défaire ce lien!

Martinism is a system of mystical Christian Illuminist philosophy and esoteric practice based upon the secret instruction & public writings of French philosopher Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin (1743-1803).

"Ik ben tot het besef gekomen dat al het zichtbare voortkomt uit het onzichtbare en dat het wezenlijke voor ons als mens verborgen is." - Pim van Lommel

"Het was mijn taak in deze wereld de geest van de mens via een natuurlijke weg te leiden naar de bovennatuurlijke dingen die hem rechtens toekomen, maar waarvan hij absoluut geen voorstelling meer heeft, hetzij door zijn val, hetzij door het verkeerde onderricht van zijn leraren ..." - L.C. de Saint-Martin

:::Ad Magnum Architecti Universi Gloriam Sub Auspiciis Philosophi Incogniti Verabili Magistri Nostri:::

MARTINISM is a system of mystical Christian Illuminist philosophy and esoteric practice based upon the secret instruction and public writings of French philosopher Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin (1743-1803). The practical application of the instructions and writings is empowered by the personal transmission of an Initiation called by Martinists The Initiation. Both men and women are welcomed as Martinist Initiates.

Of all the Mystical groups that flowered in France during the 18th century none has had an influence comparable to that which entered into history under the name of MARTINISM…
shrouded in a perennial aura of mystery, which surrounds the famous “Supérieurs Inconnus”; the keepers of the rosicrucian secrets.

The Martinist philosophy is based on the “Treatise on the reintegration of beings” by Martinez de Pasqually and the writings of two of his students: Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin and Jean Baptiste Willermoz. The teachings focus on Christian mysticism, Jewish mysticism and Kabbalah.
Thus the objective of the Martinist Order is the Reintegration of beings: the aim is to reconstitute the "Man-Spirit" by the evolution of the "Man of Desire", through the state of "New Man".

After the death of his mentor Martinez de Pasqually, Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin discovered the writings of Jacob Boehme, whom he called his 'second master'. Slowly but gradually he turned away from the theurgy of the Ordre des Chevaliers Maçons Élus Coëns de l'Univers in favour of the Way of the Heart.

The Martinists...admired by the wise...feared by the tyrant...persecuted by the dictator...respected by the mystic...sought by the Seeker. Since the XVIIIth century, the Martinists have been found at the very heart and center of esotericism and mystical belief in all its various expressions. While the Martinist Order is not a secret society, rarely do individual Martinists allow themselves to be seen directly; generally, only a hint of their presence is noted. Yet always, their influence is great, and their charisma is felt by those who know. Frequently are they discussed by the uninitiated who have little knowledge or understanding of the Martinists or their abilities. Today, Martinism flourishes, and its portals are still open to the Men and Women of Desire who wish to exit the Forest of Errors and enter the Light to be found at the Gates of Mercy.

Dr. Karl R. H. Frick :
Von beginn an gab es für den Martinisten zwei Wege, um das gesteckte Ziel zu erreichen:
es war dies einmal der operative (magische) Weg und der des "Herzens" oder mystische, der im cercle intérieur oder in einem cercle extérieur vollzogen wurde oder noch wird.
Neben diesen beiden recht unterschiedlichen Wegen des modernen Martinisten zur Vervollkommnung des Menschen sind auch die Lehren recht verschieden von den einzelnen Ideologen under den Martinisten interpretiert worden. Während z.B. einer der "Ahnherren", Jacob Böhme, die Frage einer Reinkarnation der menschlichen Seele, ignorierte, Pasqually vernachlässigte und Saint Martin ablehnte, ist sie doch von vielen Martinisten positiv beantwortet worden.
Man könnte ebenso die Quadratur des Kreises versuchen, um die widersprüchlichen Lehren des Martinismus im 19. Und 20. Jahrhundert in völlige Kongruenz zu überführen. Im Januarheft versuchte man in der L’Initiation die princpes fondamentaux du martinisme zu fixieren. Doch auch dieses Bemühen blieb ein Fragment. Am 13. Oktober 1968 unternahm man wohl den letzten Versuch, ein einheitliches Obergebäude der Lehre zu verkünden.
Fassen wir einige Lehrsätze zusammen, um wenigstens einen Überblick der lehre zu erhalten:
Freiheit, Menschlichkeit, Brüderlichtkeit und Gleichberechtigung von Mann und Frau sind die Leitideen.

The cosmology of Martinism from Beyond Enlightenment Author: Harvey, David Allen :
The cosmology of Martinism, or the body of doctrines elaborated by Louis Claude de Saint-Martin in the late eighteenth century and revived by Encausse and his followers in the late nineteenth, exemplifies this creative religious syncretism; in fact, Faivre described Martinism as a "movement which brought together ... the heritage of almost all of the Hermetic and analogical mysticism of the West."

While the Martinists considered themselves Christians, believing in the Trinity, the prophets of the Old Testament, and in the existence of Heaven (though not in that of Hell), they also believed in reincarnation and multiple existences, and integrated these elements into a compelling vision much in keeping with the philosophical optimism of the eighteenth century. They rejected the doctrines of original sin and the eternal damnation of sinners as logically inconsistent with the concept of a benevolent, omnipotent deity, arguing instead that individuals would have a potentially infinite number of chances to gain salvation, or as they put it, to find reintegration to the divine unity. While this concept seems closer to the Buddhist idea of Nirvana than to traditional Christian notions of the afterlife, it was in fact inspired by the seventeenth-century German mystic Jakob Boehme, who placed the fall and ultimate reintegration of mankind at the center of an elaborate cosmology.

While Catholics and Protestants argued over who would be saved, and how salvation would be obtained, the Martinists maintained that all of us would get there, sooner or later...

Christus heeft de mensheid verlost, niet door zijn dood maar door zijn leven, en de zaligheid van de mens berust niet op zijn geloof in een Zoon van God, die heeft geleden en is gestorven voor de zonden van de mensheid, maar op zijn bereidheid zijn leven in te richten naar een goddelijk voorbeeld.

For myself I feel Martinism is what I had hoped Freemasonry would be, I have travelled a very long path and I have found that which I consider to be my home. Martinism contains the most beautiful and more importantly practical symbolism I have ever encountered, the philosophy of Louis Claude, Pasqualez and Willermoz is simply sublime and most importantly the whole system is as pure as it was when Papus set the whole thing in motion. It also encourages philisophical discussion of the highest order where no ones opinion is wrong, just different.

"The laws of your life are within you: in that light that shines forth from your Being, as an Image of God, not in written books, which are mere idols of men." Guard this Light, and never let it spill into empty words. - Those who firmly guards his words, he guards his thoughts, he guards his feelings, and those who guards thus, he rules himself well." - Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin

http://www.moup.org/

http://www.martinisme.fr/

http://www.martiniste.org/
http://utenti.lycos.it/caliel1950/

http://www.philosophe-inconnu.com/

http://www.hermanubis.com.br/index.html

http://kingsgarden.org/english/organizations/OM.GB/OM.html

http://rosicrucian.org//TMO%20Light%20of%20Martinism%20booklet.pdf

http://www.martiniste.org/devenir_membre/pdf/lumiere-martiniste.pdf

Nicht von dieser Welt: die Geschichte vom Osterhasen or not all secrets can be kept! Is it all hearsay that I'm parrotting"!?

2007-10-10T03:15:00.000-07:00

Tant on donne, tant on reçoit, et tant on reçoit, tant il faut donner.

Please don't lie to me, unless you're absolutely sure I'll never find out the truth.

"What gets us in to trouble is not what we don't know, it's what we know for sure that just ain't so" - Mark Twain

Richtig, der Orden der Rosenkreuzer ist unsichtbar, aber wenn er seine Lehrer / Lehrerinnen und Lehren nie im Sichtbaren manifestiert, dann belibt er doch im Akasha und bewirkt auf dieser Ebene nichts, oder?

One of the more persistent phantasmagorias on the internet is Martin Erler's alleged Grandmastership of AMORC.
Martin Erler is the founder (1956) of the Ordo Rosae Aureae (Pythagoreische Initiaten Orden der Goldenen Rose).

QUOTE (S)
Martin Erler was Grootmeester van AMORC van 1949 tot 1954 Webside: Geschiedenis van de Occulte en Mystieke Broederschappen (Though he was informed by me personally this being incorrect, Roggemans didn't bother to ever correct his webside nor his book)

Dantinne resigned from his office as early as in 1952 (He died in 1969), replaced by the former German Grand Master of AMORC, Mr. Martin Erler. (Modern Rosicrucian Groups).

OHTM/ORA O.R.A. (Ordo Rosae Aureae) was founded in 1956 by
Martin Erler after he left AMORC in 1954. Erler was Grand Master of AMORC-Germany.
www.orderofthegrail.org/history_of_the_otg.htm

In 1954, Erler resigned his office as Grand Master of AMORC, and founded the ORA (Ordo Roseae Aureae) in the Munich area with a number of interested colleagues. (Peter Koenig)

Martin Erler was Grand Master of AMORC in Germany from 1949 up to 1955. Martin Erler, still alive today, is an interesting character, mainly because of his background. Erler (Frater Albinus) belonged to a family which were close friends with the famous rosicrucian writer (1868-1932). (Milko Boogaard). This is another confabulation! Gustav Meyrink for a while lived in a house which belonged to an aunt of Erler. And yes, as a 9 yr. old boy, Martin Erler saw Meyrink once!

The O.R.A. (“The Pythagorean Initiatic Order of the Golden Rose” ) was founded in the South of Germany (Munich area, Bavaria) in 1956 by Martin Erler (1920 - …) with i.a. some members of the Fraternitas Saturni (source: Koenig) as well as other interested colleagues. Martin Erler is said to have replaced Émile Dantinne from his office, when the latter resigned in 1952 (source: Fr. Melchior). Marcel Roggemans states that Erler (Albinus) received his initiation from Dantinne in 1957. Martin Erler was involved in reviving rosicrucianism in Post-War Germany. It is stated by various sources that Erler was a Grandmaster of AMORC (1949 -1954) who resigned his office as GM in 1954.

UNQUOTE

Even Harald Lamprecht fell into the trap of parotting the above "experts", without verifying their sources, when he was writing his doctoral dissertation "Neue Rosenkreuzer" 2.3.5.4. page 153. Well, whatever: copy from one and it’s called plagiarism, steal from many and call it research…

The truth is somewhat different from fiction though: He was Not, and Never Has Been officially AMORC GM!

Martin Erler though for a while was Grand Secretary (In his letter of 26 October 1949, Ralph Lewis requests Erler to assume the office of Grand Secretary, his earliest contact with AMORC dating back to 28 June 1948). In a letter also dated 26 October 1949, Ralph Lewis asks W. Fisher to be the Grandmaster. Erler accepts on 1 November 1949 (assuming the mystical name Triunis), Fisher accepts on 2 November 1949 as Victorius.

So he may for a while definitely have been acting as such (after the untimely resignation of Fisher on 31 October 1951) but was never officially designated GM!

I'm not sure who's been responsible for the creation this myth, his admirers or Martin himself. Though, I am in the possession of at least two letters in which Erler clearly states that he was AMORC Grand Master; just like he personally told me this on more than one occasion.

Exemple quote from his letter dated 13 May 2000:
Ihre Probleme mit der historischen Richtigkeit in den Überlieferungen der Orden sind mir geläufig. Ich hatte selbst sehr damit zu kämpfen (ich war einer der ersten Grossmeister des AMORC in Deutschland).

So for completion and information here follows the official list of the "true" German AMORC Grand Masters: Fischer, Müller, Krön, Raab & Neff.

http://www.sofi-ora.com/index.php

The Daily Beast with Ben Scaramanga, professional AMORC basher. Truth or Lies...

2007-07-18T03:48:00.000-07:00

"Gelooft gij alles Gij dwaalt zeer,
Gelooft gij niets, Gij dwaalt nog meer."

Absolute consequentie is de filosofie der dwazen!

Opinions have caused more ills than the plague or earthquakes on this little globe of ours.- Voltaire

"Het is onwetendheid, en alleen onwetendheid waarvan de mens moet worden bevrijd."

“My philosophy, like color television, is all there in black and white...” - M. Python

As I said to you my brothers, my posts about HS Lewis are based on research on the truthamorc site, by Marcel Roggemans, by Robert Vanloo, by Milko Boogaard and others. These stem from researches many years ago by researchers Robert Vanloo, Fr Melchior and Elias Ibrahim. Those are sources, not personal opinion!
"O quanta sunt, quod nescitis!"

Well luckily there's some beginning opposition here since: I plan on my opposition not to your opinion but to you attempting to present a jaded opinion about AMORC as fact with a bunch of shifty links and research papers that turn out to be the opinions of others.
According to "O:.n:.e:."

Rosicrucian_Garden:
There were other issues there too, including endless pro-and-anti AMORC debates, and I'm hardly innocent there...

to be continued if necessary...

"I know it is the fashion to say that most of recorded history is lies anyway. I am willing to believe that history is for the most part inaccurate and biased, but what is peculiar to our own age is the abandonment of the idea that history COULD be truthfully written. In the past people deliberately lied, or they unconsciously coloured what they wrote, or they struggled after the truth, well knowing that they must make many mistakes; but in each case they believed that ‘facts’ existed and were more or less discoverable. And in practice there was always a considerable body of fact which would have been agreed to by almost everyone. If you look up the history of the last war in, for instance, the ENCYCLOPAEDIA BRITANNICA, you will find that a respectable amount of the material is drawn from German sources. A British and a German historian would disagree deeply on many things, even on fundamentals, but there would still be that body of, as it were, neutral fact on which neither would seriously challenge the other. It is just this common basis of agreement, with its implication that human beings are all one species of animal, that totalitarianism destroys. Nazi theory indeed specifically denies that such a thing as ‘the truth’ exists. There is, for instance, no such thing as ‘Science’. There is only ‘German Science’, ‘Jewish Science’, etc. The implied objective of this line of thought is a nightmare world in which the Leader, or some ruling clique, controls not only the future but THE PAST. If the Leader says of such and such an event, ‘It never happened’—well, it never happened. If he says that two and two are five—well, two and two are five. This prospect frightens me much more than bombs—and after our experiences of the last few years that is not a frivolous statement." - George Orwell

Gotta Nickname, Pen name, Pseudonym, Moniker, Alias, AKA...?

Andre has had a number of aliases but his postings are always identifiable. He generally posts on his gossip blog now as his oeuvre, eg 'Picasso was a martinist!' 'AMORC is more than 3500 years old! Much older!';etc garner him little credence on any forum where folk like a fact or two. If you read other blog entries on there, you'll see he's a *big* fan of me too. Lucky ol' Ben.

He has a major beef with Martin Erler's ORA. I get the sense he maybe tried to join them once, but the admiration turned out not to be mutual.

The Hague, Saturday March 5, 2005. Venue: Haags logegebouw (masonic lodge), 2e Sweelinckstraat 131.
A lecture by Dr Marijo Ariens - Volker, "Picasso and Martinism
new insights into the relationship between art and western esotericism.” (at the exact time and in this very location the TMO martinists held their monthly meeting).
Marijo Ariëns graduated Cum Laude in December 2004 at the Free University of Brussels as an art historian with a thesis entitled “De wangen van de Macroprosopus.”A new interpretation of the painting "Les Demoiselles d'Avignon" by Pablo Picasso. Here she describes what influence Martinism, a secret society with a para-Masonic character, has had on the modern art of the 20th century, especially in the circle of artists and writers around Pablo Picasso.
Picasso himself demonstrates a thorough knowledge of alchemy, Kabbalah and other esoteric symbolism. This symbolism is the key to a better understanding of his famous painting Les Demoiselles d'Avignon and leads to the conclusion that our assumptions about Cubism must be fully revised. Her thesis drew a lot of media attention (Trouw, Telegraaf, Cultuurnet).
(More information can be found in OVN Newsletter No. 6, where a
comprehensive review of the thesis is included.)
OVN = Foundation for the advancement of academic research into the history of freemasonry and related currents in the Netherlands.
(http://www.stichtingovn.nl/)

'AMORC is more than 3500 years old! Much older!'

Who said what mate!? Well not me, but this Martin Erler!

But Martin Erler "Frater Albinus / Triunis" (b. 26/04/1920 - ? ), former head of the Ordo Rosae Aureae (1956), maintains in a private phonecall A.D. 2000, that its origins (of rosicrucianism i.e.)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. I do not intend to deride the present Orders that call themselves Rosicrucians - only the historical facts look different.
Sub Symbolo ROSAE AUREAE ::

It's 'Scaro' . . . hope I'm not causing a 'scare'.

He has a major beef with Martin Erler's ORA. I get the sense he maybe tried to join them once, but the admiration turned out not to be mutual. Well uuuh, never assume anything!

My earliest connection with Erler dates from Jan. 2000. Afer we exchanged some correspondence, we started making long phonecalls. Erler invited me a couple of times to visit him at his home in Icking Bavaria, south of Munich. When we (a friend and myself) learned that he'd be for family affairs in a small town called Eschweiler (in the Aachen / Maastricht area) thus not too far, we decided to visit him in July 2000. My friend had just been initiated in the OMPB (Ordre Martiniste des Pays-Bas) and my initiation into their first degree was already scheduled for late September that year.
When we all four left the hotel room, I carried his bags out to their car, (the Erlers still had to drive back all the way to Bavaria,
Martin gave us both application forms for the ORA and insisted that we'd apply (which my friend who later left the Martinists did).
I felt very uncomfortable though about what he'd said about Martinism. His negative attitude struck and dumbfounded me! It was really negative, since even his wife intervened, Martin leave it, let the guys find out for themselves!
Somewhat later that year, entirely coincidental and completely unintentional, I got to know a some facts, which demonstrated, that there were at least some discrepancies, between what he'd said and written such issues as:
Was he really Grandmaster of AMORC Yes or No? For the definitive answer refer to my next blog.
Ich war einer der ersten Grossmeister des AMORC in Deutschland
(Erler's letter to W*B* dated 13/5/2000)
Was or wasn't he the succesor of Emile Dantinne:
though he later denied and dismissed this claim he wrote:
I was consacrated by Sâr Hieronymus to be his successor.
(Erler's letter to Marcel Roggemans dated 29/9/98) or to me on 21/1/2000: Being the disciple and official successor of Sar Hieronymus, I am bound to utmost caution before passing on secrets. It will be necessary that we know each other know a bit better.
How well did he really know Gustav Meijrink (he saw him only once as a 9yr old boy): In 1928 when Meyrink was in financial trouble and forced to sell his villa and he rented a house with Erler’s aunt. etc. etc.

So the bottom line is that I've been pondering for about about a year and a half, was meanwhile initiated in the second degree of the OMPB, when I decided not to join them mostly because of what he'd said about Martinism. Now ten years later I'm still very happy being a Martinist. And my friend, saw him again after a long time November 2009, at the Jubileum Convent of 75 yrs AMORC in the Netherlands.
And guess what...

"The Aim is to become Artists in the Discovery of Truth"

La Vie en Rose + Croix...

2007-07-08T05:16:00.000-07:00

Education Does Not Necessarily Make For Profundity of Thought! Intelligence, Observation, Meditation And Reason Do!.....Validivar

Je crois en Dieu et en l'Amour, parce que j'aime Dieu et que c'est Dieu qui me permet d'aimer" - Edith Piaf

"Le verbe aimer est difficile à conjuguer: son passé n'est pas simple, son présent n'est qu'indicatif, et son futur est toujours conditionnel" Jean Cocteau

Soudain une vallée

Vous avez parcouru le monde.
Vous croyiez n'avoir rien trouvé
Et soudain, une vallée
S'offre à vous pour la paix profonde.

Vous aviez dépensé vos rêves
Au hasard des bonheurs volés
Et soudain, une vallée
Où la voix d'un ami s'élève.

Marchant sous un nuage,
Perdus dans votre nuit,
Tout seuls au cœur de l'orage,
Balayés par la pluie,
Vous trainiez des regrets immenses,
Des envies, des remords voilés
Et soudain, une vallée
Vous apprend que la vie commence.

Le ciel tout grand s'éclaire
D'amour et de bonté,
Soleil pour la vie entière
Et pour l'éternité.
Vous rêviez d'un bonheur immense
Sans espoir de jamais trouver
Et soudain, une vallée
Où l'espoir et l'amour commencent.

...Et soudain une vallée
Où l'espoir et l'amour sont nés...

http://www.rose-croix.org/histoire/edith_piaf.html

The Knights Templar of the Apocalypse: Journey Beyond the Stars: destination Sirius!

2007-07-05T02:03:00.001-07:00

Tous les hommes sont des rois
mais ils ne le sont pas tous du même royaume.
Il y a des rois du royaume de la vérité,
des rois du royaume de la nature,
des rois du royaume de l'erreur,
des rois du royaume de l'abomination.
Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin

The Order of the Solar Temple {which started as l'Ordre International Chevaleresque de Tradition Solaire (OICTS)} or "International Chivalric Organization of the Solar Tradition," as it was officially known, was founded in 1984 by Luc Jouret and Joseph Di Mambro. Di Mambro, a jeweler by trade, had a life long interest in matters esoteric and in 1956 became a member of the AMORC. He would remain a member of the AMORC until 1969. A year later in 1970, Di Mambro encountered some problems arising from a swindling charge and left the South of France, settling near the Swiss border. It seems his specialty was posing as a psychologist and he had made a good career of it until he was caught and charged. From the early to mid 1970's Di Mambro was involved in a variety of minor esoteric societies and in 1978 became the founder of the Golden Way Foundation in Geneva. The Golden Way, in Di Mambro's estimation, needed to expand and in order to do that he would need to find a charismatic leader; a prerequisite for any growing cult. He found such a leader in 30 year old Luc Jouret, whom he met via one of the members of his flock who would latterly be one of the victims of the 1994 murder / suicide. Some time after their initial meeting, Di Mambro introduced Jouret to one Julian Origas, who was a member c.q. co-founder and soon to be Grandmaster of the Ordre Renové du Temple, a group that combined Templar and Rosicrucian themes. Jouret soon joined both di Mambro's and Origas' groups. Following his mentor Origas' death in 1984, Jouret became the Grand Master of the ORT. Although the reason is not exactly known, a year later, Jouret was forced out of the ORT and took with him, half of the order's membership. Most likely because of the opposition of Origas'wife and daughter. As he was already a member of Di Mambro's Golden Way Foundation, Jouret was clearly the charismatic leader Di Mambro had been looking for. Together the two leaders would form the infamous Order of the Solar Temple in 1984.

The 1980's saw the charismatic Jouret, a doctor by trade, which added an air of credibility to his presentations, lead a very successful lecture tour that took him throughout Switzerland, France and Canada. The result of the recruiting drive lectures was that the order was divided into three distinct groups or levels of membership. The first, called "Amanta" consisted of those brought in by Jouret's lectures and seminars. The next level "The Archedia Clubs" consisted of those who wished to go a little further with the ideas and teachings of the order. Lastly was the initiative arm of the order, "The International Chivalric Organization of the Solar Tradition."

The Amanta, the organization that funded and promoted his lectures, was quite successful at setting up speaking engagements for Jouret. These lectures, according to Jean Francois Mayer of the University of Fribourg, were innocent enough in their advertisement, "Luc Jouret, Physician. Love and Biology." This innocent message of the lecture flyer soon turned to both a spiritual and apocalyptic tone, with Jouret speaking of environmental disasters such as the erupting of volcanoes and dying forests. While this seems innocent enough, the real impetus behind the group was to find a core of people that would be strong enough to survive the ecological apocalypse that Jouret and his group believed was forthcoming. At this early stage in the cult, there appeared to be no indication that the group wished to leave the planet, as would be revealed in the order's final days.

Jouret's more advanced members believed that he was a Knight Templar in a previous life and that he would lead his followers to a planet orbiting Sirius. The Solar Temple founder also believed that he was a third reincarnation of Jesus Christ, or at least that is the image he put forth to the rank and file member. The beliefs of the Solar Temple, which changed from time to time, seemed to be a blending of neo-Templarism, New Age philosophy, Christianity and survivalist paranoia. The cult taught that life was an illusion and that followers would be reborn on a planet revolving around the Dog Star Sirius. This is most evident in a quote of Jouret's own words; "Liberation is not where human beings think it is. Death can represent an essential stage of life." The group under Jouret's teachings believed that the end was neigh and that the world would end by fire; concepts that were an undercurrent in Jouret's earlier lecture circuit.

As leader of the cult, Jouret became increasingly eccentric. Prior to the order's ritual he would have sexual relations with one of the women in the flock in order to supposedly give him "Spiritual Strength" to enact the ceremony, which consisted of a "dog and pony show" where spiritual beings seemed to appear. These apparitions were nothing more than some expensive electronic projection devices operated by Di Mambro. Di Mambro, although a backstage member, was not behind the scenes when it came to his own share of authoritarian tendencies. He, like Jouret, was fond of engaging in sexual liaisons with the female members of the order, whether they were married or not. They complied willingly and unquestionably as members of a cult often do. There were many instances of couples being broken up by Di Mambro and Jouret if they were found not to be "cosmically compatible."

Brothers and Sisters of the First and of the Last Hour...
Today... as we are gathered here in this Holy Place...
The Great Terrestrial Cycle is closing in on itself.
Alpha and Omega are fusing [to initiate] a new Creation.
The Time of the Great Gathering is proclaiming the Departure of the Sons of Heaven.

Beam me up, Scotty...

The Abominable PATER CATHARE, or why we must be careful about what we pretend to be!

2007-06-25T02:34:00.000-07:00

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.

"You have enemies? Good. That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life." - Winston Churchill

Ja, degene die de waarheid aan de mensen wil onthullen,stelt zich bloot aan veel onbegrip." - Omraan Mikhaël Aïvanhov

"Een permanente, aandachtige vijand is haast dierbaarder dan onbetrouwbare vrienden." -Marnix Gijsen

"Occult truth, to be of any use, most become life experience; it must descend into the heart, pass through the fires of love and transfiguration, and rise again into the highest, a spiritual creation, to be shed abroad for the blessing of the world." ~ Raymund Andrea

Neutrality & passivity are the best friends of evil! - Christian Bernard

BROTHER WHAT MAKES YOU TICK?

Why is a person doing what he's doing, why does he like what he likes, what are his motives, in other words what makes him tick!?
What makes you tick?
Sometimes this question is extremely hard to tell such as to explain why you love your wife!?

Sometimes it's surprisingly easy though. Why would you want to write about something? Because you're mesmerized by the subject, you're very interested in it, or you're forced to do so by the authorities, or you're not so interested at all but you'd make a lot of money simply by writing about it.

If non of the above criteria do apply however and you nevertheless spend a substantial part of your time, by writing its history then, quoting Sherlock Holmes, after eliminating the impossible what remains must be the truth. So when I confronted the author of this illuminating series and frankly asked him what moved him, he completely freaked out.

Well, of course the answer's very simple, it was all my fault!

So now my conclusion is that, where he obviously doesn't like the subject he's writing about and provided he's not mental, his intentions are probably to deride it and discredit it.

quote Milko:

I'm from the Netherlands and a (former)student of CR+C
(AMORC offshoot)Fraterntas LVX Occulta (BOTA offshoot),
and a first degree Martinist.

"Does the AMORC system work"?.
Even though I am a former member myself, I am not in the position
to give a proper judgement simply because
I never advanced above the first Temple degree!?

unquote

It's a mix of tragedy and humor to reads all the attacks on AMORC on this discussion group. A lot of people, who obvious haven't the faintest idea what they are talking about, dedicate their spare time to publish lies about AMORC.
Blinded by some pathological hatred or paranoid conspiracy theories,they should rather turn and twist their minds, so as to be able to discuss the more important and essential matters. - Anonymous AMORC member

The following post was withheld by the Rosicrucian_Garden Yahoo group:

Milko & Fra Ben

To my best knowledge Milko until this week I've never addressed you, seen you, contacted or criticized you and or your writings or ever used your name. And to be honest what you write in your AMORC history or about Martinism isn't bad at all.

Well on the other hand if you read things and assume that I'm talking about you isn't that a bit paranoid!?

In various groups and on many occasions you've made it abundantly clear that you didn't exactly like them (AMORC i.e.) which is your prerogative of course.

What's so amazing though and it never fails to surprise and amuse me is that you and some others care to spend so much time on something that you in fact loathe, and which you traded in for the CRC and which again you soon left again to trade it in for... etc.etc.etc.

Talking about frustrations...

The only thing that I dare to question is the objectivity of these "researchers" and their hidden agendas.

And about my trustworthiness and popularity I couldn't care less. Being not trustworthy in the eyes of Fra Ben I rather consider it a compliment. And if I wanted to be popular I'd be doing other things in life. I am just the messenger...

So the fact that you're so f* pissed off, could this perhaps be because deep inside you know that I'm right!?

L:.L:.L:.

Pater Cathare

Two articles written By Milko BOGAARD

THE 1930'S – QUESTIONS, CONTROVERSIES, AND DISPUTES
As noted previously, AMORC's membership increased greatly during the
1930's when the Temple teachings were presented as written lessons
to all members. The introduction of the Home Sanctum membership
[developed during the latter half of the 1920's] accelerated the
increase of members.. The public magazine the "Mystic Triangle",
which had been published until 1929, had been replaced by
the "Rosicrucian Digest" in 1930. Over the years AMORC's public
magazine was issued under various names; the "American Rosae Crucis"
[1916-1918], the "Triangle" [1920-1925], the "Mystic Triangle"
[1929], and the "Rosicrucian Digest" [1930- ]. The Digest was
published for the North American jurisdiction and is still published
today. In time, other jurisdictions started to publish their own
journals, such as for instance the "Rosicrucian Beacon" [The Beacon],
issued by the "English speaking jurisdiction for Europe, Africa and
the Middle East".
Returning to the year 1930, in that year AMORC introduced a private
publication for their members called the "Rosicrucian Forum". Each
issue featured several topics of interest to members of all degrees
and often discussed current world events from a Rosicrucian
perspective. The "Rosicrucian Forum" was a bimonthly magazine.

Some of the discussions were quite controversial. In the April 1935
issue for instance, Harvey Spencer Lewis [HSL] talks about
the "Rosicrucian perspective" on birth control.. HSL emphasizes "that
the Rosicrucian Order should take any definite stand one way or the
other in regard to birth control except upon purely ethical grounds"
[RC Forum, 1935]. HSL continues by stating that he thinks that he has
touched upon this subject before "but will say again that we
agree with the view of Mr. Hitler, for instance, in Germany, who is
expressing only the view-point that the ancient Greeks had and which
all students of present-day social problems agree upon and which
scientists have indorsed; namely, that there is too little
restriction being placed upon who should marry and who should
propagate the future generations of mankind. In other words, I
believe that the doctrine of eugenics should be made universal and
enforced if possible and that in addition to the securing of a legal
license for marriage in order that there may be no violation of legal
laws in connection with marriage, there should be no violation of
natural laws either." [RC Forum, April 1935]

To some it might be shocking to find out that Lewis spoke favorably
of Adolf Hitler. In Lewis' defense it should be pointed out that at
the time he wasn't the only respectable American citizen who spoke
favorably of "der Führer" [Henry Ford, Charles Lindbergh, W.
Randolph Hearst, Joseph Kennedy -JFK's father, John Rockefeller, to
name but a few]. In the same issue of the "Rosicrucian Forum" there's
a short article on the situation of the Jews in Nazi Germany. Lewis
states that the Jews in Germany were treated by the Nazi's as any
other German citizen. HSL claimed he had obtained his information
from personal observation while traveling through Germany during one
of his "recent visits" to Europe. The negative reports in the
American press about the deteriorating situation of the Jews in
Germany gave occasion to Lewis' publication of the article in
the "Forum". It should be noted, however, that it was the year 1935.
It was just a year ago when Hitler's cabinet transferred the role and
powers of the head of state to Hitler as "Führer" and Chancellor. It
would take another three years before it became clear to the whole
world how the Nazi's thought the Jews should be dealt with. I am
referring, of course, to the notorious "Reichs Kristallnacht" [199].
On the other hand, Dachau [the first concentration camp] was built in
1933 and Hitler's book "Mein Kampf" had already been published in
1925. Being an exposition of the author's ideology the book was out
there for everyone to read.…

There are indicatiions that Lewis was not particularly fond of a
democratic and liberal system of government. Instead he allegedly
favored an autocratic system of government. French author René
Witzhard [200] claims that already in 1917 H. Spencer Lewis had
openly critisized the democratic and liberal models of government and
instead dreamt aloud about the benefits of autocracy.. This view will
seem controversial to many, but it must be said in defense of HSL
that this was common thinking in those days in the world of occultism
and initiatic organizations. Although I have to add for accuracy
sake, that the term `autocracy' should be replaced with `theocracy'
[`Theos'-`God']; a [wordly] government based on spiritual-social
fundaments, so to speak. We all are familiar with concepts like
the "Unknown Superiors", the Theosophical "Masters", or the "Great
White Brotherhood". Some mystics even developed a governmental
system, like Alexandre Saint Yves d'Alveydre [1842-1909] who
developed the concept of "Synarchy". Returning to H. Spencer Lewis,
according to Lewis the "Great White Brotherhood" was an association
of enlightened Spiritual Beings, "in or out of incarnation", who were
the real movers behind the Rosicrucians, hermeticists et cetera. The
G.W.B. are the overseers of the spiritual development [the G.W.B.
originated in the teachings of H.P. Blavatsky]. Strictly seen from a
theoretical point of view, it was not that unusual that Lewis adhered
to the belief in the benefits of an autocratic [read `theocratic']
government. However, this only partly explains HSL's alleged
sympathies for such dictators as Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini.
Again, it must be said in defense of Lewis that the first reference
to Hitler was made in an article on birth control. In the article HSL
explains why he believes that the doctrine of `eugenics', from an
ethical perspective, should be made universal. The reference to
Hitler which Lewis presents is just an example of a practical
application of eugenics. It should be noted however that the
philosophy behind eugenics is also considered controversial. Eugenics
is a philosophy which advocates the "improvement of human hereditary
traits through various forms of intervention" [201]. It is not hard
to undetrstand that a theory like this can lead very easily to a
slippery slope, ethical-wise… The latter reference to Hitler and Nazi
Germany only tells us that Lewis was still very naive in those days
[1935] about the situation of the Jews in Germany. Now, as for Lewis'
sympathy for Benito Mussolini ["Il Duce"], the fascist leader and
Prime Minister of Italy between 1922 and 1943, that is a whole
different story….

next: Part 52 "I TURISTI AMERICANI DELLA `ROSICRUCIAN' RICEVUTI DAL
DUCE" [HSL's visits to Mussolini]ART i

MY TEA WITH MUSSOLINI

I TURISTI AMERICANI DELLA `ROSICRUCIAN' RICEVUTI DAL DUCE"
For some reason Harvey Spencer Lewis considered it useful or even
necessary to associate himself with "Il Duce". As I have stated in a
previous work "Lewis even wins the confidence of Mussolini, who
already banned Masonry in Italy in 1925, who receives Lewis with open
arms as a friend of the family as early as 1931." [202]
Lewis met Mussolini for the first time in 1931. HSL's concern
for values and ethics is possibly reflected in his alleged sympathies
for a dictator like Mussolini. Concepts like ethics, morality,
patriotism etc. were held dear by H. Spencer Lewis. AMORC has always
extolled qualities such as "good citizenship and patriotism", next to
ones "scientific and cultural self-improvement", as it is stated in
one of their 1920's pamphlets. Lewis' commitment to these moral
values culminated in his chairmanship of the ultra-
nationalistic "United States Flag Association" for the state of
California. This association awarded Lewis in 1934 the Grand Cross of
Honor, making him a Knight of the Flag, for his activities in
connection with the "national war against crime" campaign. Regarding
Lewis' 'admiration' for the "Duce", the story goes that the Imperator
complimented Mussolini at one of his visits on the "absence of
beggars in the streets, the impressive architecture, the punctuality
of the trains" etc.[204], something which cannot be said of Italy
today, I'm afraid.. Lewis returned once more to Italy in 1937.

Together with 120 American members, HSL was received by Mussolini at
the Palazzo Venezia in Rome where a reception was held in honor of
the American Rosicrucians. To this occasion, Mussolini gives a
speech "in which he promises a radiant future for AMORC." [205] It is
even claimed that Mussolini was going to open a universaty "in which
hermeticism and occult ideas supporting the elite would be taught".
It seems that Lewis was going to figure prominently in this
educational venture. The Italian newspaper "Il Messagero" published a
frontpage article on the event, complete with pictures [dated March
6, 1937]. In addition, H.Spencer Lewis was presented a special gift
from Mussolini; a statue of the Roman Emperor Julius Caesar. The life
size statue was placed in Rosicrucian Park [on a side note, there was
a rumor among old members of the Order that the statue of Caesar
represented Harvey Spencer Lewis. The Imperator was said to be an
incarnation of Julius Caesar].

The complete story on these visits to Italy has been published by
Belgian historian and former AMORC member Robert Vanloo in his "Les
Rose-Croix du Nouveau Monde" [Editions Claire Vigne-1996].
Disclosures such as this one obviously cause a stir within the
esoteric community, especially among Order members [in this case
AMORC]. But, as stated previously, Lewis was not an exception – also
not in the esoteric community. There were more well-known
esotericists with elitist- and theocratic sympathies; Julius Evola,
Max Heindel [a known anti-semitist], Lanz von Liebenfels, Frater
Albertus, RA Schwaller de Lubicz, Israel Regardie to name but a few.
Their views and ideas are probably regarded by the majority of the
public today as right-wing or even fascist in nature. In defense of
[most] of the here-accused, it should be pointed out that these
accusations are in fact a bit short-sighted. It is known, for
instance, that H. Spencer Lewis admitted women as well as Afro-
Americans into AMORC in a time when it was not generally accepted..
Already during his lifetime Lewis was accused of almost everything on
the menu – from satanist to a Jesuit agent, from a Russian spy to a
radical American nationalist etc. In July 1937 there appeared an
article written by HSL in the "Rosicrucian Digest" which commented on
these accusations. The article in question is called "My coat of
changeable color" [issued under the header "The thought of the
month"]. On the alleged Nazi sympathies Lewis comments: "When I have
expressed some personal criticisms of conditions in Germany, I have
been accused by many of nearly all of our German readers of being
anti-German or anti-Hitler. On the other hand, whenever I have spoken
of the excellent things I have found in Germany I have been accused
of being a patron of secret alliances in Europe supporting the Hitler
regime." About his meeting with Mussolini Lewis states; "And right
now, I am being accused of being one hundred percent pro-Mussolini
and pro-Fascism, and one hundred per cent anti-democratic and anti-
Communistic, just because of my recent interview with Mr. Mussolini
and my honest and unstinted praise of his remarkable accomplishments
in Italy and with the Italian people." ["My coat of changeable
color", Rosicrucian Digest, July 1937].

In the article Lewis wants to make it clear to his readers that AMORC
is not "actively interested in politics or religion". Lewis
furthermore states that his objective is "to speak of the good in all
things, in all movements, all individuals, all nations, as I
personally find them and observe them" ["My coat of changeable
color", 1937]. Lewis comes across as being quite sincere in this
article, a bit naïve maybe but that's another story. Lewis is said to
have claimed in one of his publications from that period that
Mussolini's government is closer to the initiatic model than the U.S.
democracy. With what we know today, it is almost unimaginable that
anyone with a sane mind could make such a claim. Harvey Spencer
Lewis' standpoints on these issues are therefore generally perceived
by the majority of the historians as `politically incorrect'.
Lewis, like many mystics and occultists, was a follower of an
initiatic and elitist model of government [see previous page]. He was
a nationalist and a romantic, with values and beliefs which we would
define as right-wing. But the majority of the people at the time
longed for a strong [political] leader. These were the days of the
Great Depression; times were hard, it was a period of poverty and
mass unemployment. In the U.S. there was an increase of "serious
crimes", mainly due to the alcohol prohibition. Many European
countries lived under the [imaginary] threat of a communist
revolution [which fed the success of National-Socialism and Fascism].
All things considered, it once again shows us that Harvey Spencer
Lewis was human; not a saint – not a sinner, but plain human, like
all the rest of us I personally think that Lewis should have known
better with Mussolini, way better actually, especially in his quality
as a Grandmaster and Imperator, let there be no doubt about it. The
only point I wanted to make here is that there is always more to the
story than meets the eye at first glance, obviously. it's always easy
to see things clearly through hindsight…

My Coat of Changeable Color by H. Spencer Lewis in the Rosicrucian Digest, July 1937

2007-06-11T03:24:00.000-07:00

AUDI ALTERAM PARTEM

Ones Liberties Are The Liberties Of Everyone, His Source Is A Part Of The United Power Of All Beings!.....Dr. Harvey Spencer Lewis

"Give thanks for Life, for Light, for Love. Let your love brighten your heart and the heart of others. Surround yourself with a widening aura of love and dispel the shadows of gloom and depression." - H. Spencer Lewis

"The common descent of all creatures established the fact that all human beings are brothers and sisters, coming form the one Creator and the same essence, of the same vitality and of the same consciousness, independent of questions of race, belief, colour or any other distinctions of personality." – H. Spencer Lewis in "Mansions of the Soul"

We are guilty of believing that Jesus Christ chose only those of His own race to be his 12 disciples, and that he did not go out and choose two Chinese, two blacks, two Indians, two Arabs, two women or two homosexuals, therefore he would be called a Supremacist, Racist and Bigot by today’s worldly standards.

MY COAT OF CHANGEABLE COLOR
By H. Spencer Lewis
Rosicrucian Digest, July 1937

I WANT to ask my fellow members frankly whether it is possible that I am so vacillating in any religious, spiritual and social convictions that I am really a continuous “turncoat” or wear a coat of many colors?

From time to time some readers of this magazine who do not give careful thought, to what they read, or a proper analysis of what I have written and said in the course of twenty-five years, accuse me of being pro this or pro that and anti this or anti that. From the reading of just one article of mine in the current issue of this magazine, these readers will come to a surprising conclusion and, without recalling what they have read in preceding issues, they accuse me of being what I am not.

Our correspondence here at Headquarters, shows that in the past twenty-five years, and especially within the last five or six years, I have been accused of being not only a Jew but also a secret and mysterious agent or representative of insidious Jewish propaganda; and during the same period of time In have been accused by others of being a very secret agent of the Roman Catholic church carrying on a form of disguised propaganda for the Roman Catholic religion. Then again, at other times, I am accused of being vigorously opposed to the Jewish religion and everything Jewish, and in fact a member of some Jesuitical Society pledged to eliminate the Jews and the Jewish religion from the face of the earth. Throughout these past years I have been accused very consistently in some Roman Catholic publications of being bitterly opposed to the Roman Catholic Church and one of Satan’s most subtle destroyers of all faith in the Roman Catholic religion. Then again, after having expressed some personal opinion in this monthly department of the magazine, I am suddenly accused of being an atheist and a spy of the Russian government working against all religions and a disturber of the peace of all individuals – Jewish and Gentile, Roman Catholic and Protestant, pagan and heathen.

When, at one of our national Conventions, a representative from Washington brought to the opening session the gold cross of honour of the American Flag Association, and read the citation certificate making me a Knight of the Flag and an honored member of the Order of the Flag, equalled by the same honor conferred only upon Colonel Lindbergh, thereby being dignified by the highest patriotic award of the American Patriotic Society could grant to an individual, I was being accused of being a radical kind of American and most certainly a bitter enemy of the Communist movement, the Fascist movement, and all the other undemocratic movements throughout the world.

When in one issue of the “Rosicrucian Forum” magazine there appeared one of my discussions praising the nutritive and other values of the California prune, I was accused of being biased in regards to food, vegetables, climate and scenery of this country and looked upon as one seceding from the American republic and becoming a supporter of a California empire.

When I have expressed some personal criticisms of conditions in Germany, I have been accused by many or nearly all of our German readers of being anti-German and anti-Hitler. On the other hand, when I have spoken of the excellent things I have found in Germany I have been accused of being a patron of secret alliances in Europe supporting the Hitler regime.

In some magazines and newspapers within the past ten years I have been accused of being a Jew by birth and religion, and of hiding it under cover though it were something I was publicly ashamed of but used in privacy to the detriment of the Christians. On the other hand, some Jewish publications and some Jewish individuals have tried to claim that they had evidence that I was not born in a Protestant family of Methodist faith as many and unquestionable documents will prove, but that I was born in a Roman Catholic family and secretly educated in a Jesuit school.

When some years ago I wrote, as I often do now, against war and war propaganda, I was accused of being a “slacker” and an evader of the “draft” law, in spite of the fact that I was duly registered by our government and given a draft number and was waiting my call to military duty when the war suddenly ended by the signing of an armistice, and these facts are supported by government reports. I have been accused of being a secret and hidden and promulgator of the plans of the colored race to rise in their political, economic ad social position, and these accusers have even gone so far as to intimidate that there was a strain of colored blood in my ancestry. On the other hand, because I was at one them, and probably still am, an honorary member “The Aryan Society of America, I was accused by colored factions of being secretly in opposition to any degree of fair play being shown to the colored race.

Because of my writings in support of the logical and excellent British attitude in many regards, critics have investigated my ancestry and found that I was of Welsh extraction, and therefore a secret agent of Great Britain, ready to become a British spy in America in case of war, and always pro-British and anti-American. On the other hand, in addition to having been accused of being one hundred per cent German by blood and attitude of mind, I have been accused of being so pro-French that I sing the Marseillaise every time my companions sing the American anthem!
And right now, I am being accused of being one hundred percent pro-Mussolini and pro-Fascism, and one hundred percent anti-democratic and anti-Communistic, just because of my recent interview with Mussolini and my honest and unstinted praise of his remarkable accomplishments in Italy and with the Italian people. My accusers have suddenly abandoned all of their convictions that I was anti-Catholic and anti-Italian and extremely pre-Communistic and all reversed their opinions, this time feeling that they are as absolutely sure of their conclusion as they have been on so many occasion in the past years.

And, on top of it, I now find that an article which I wrote for this department before I started on the Rosicrucian tour in January and which appeared in these pages during my cruise through the Mediterranean, has suddenly made me again a one hundred percent supporter of the Roman Catholic church, of the Vatican and the Pope, and in fact I now find myself in the unique position of being a papal legate almost ready to be vested with ecclesiastical robes of a cardinal or an archbishop or something of the kind.

Why? Because in this recent article appearing in these pages I ventured to express my personal and sincere opinion regarding the efficiency, the practicability, and necessity of an autocratic form of government for any great international movement such as the Roman Catholic Church. I do not recall whether I expressed my personal admiration for the character, mentality, and sincerity of the present Pope, but if I failed to do that I herewith express my admiration for a man of his deep learning, his great forsight, and his excellent diplomacy. But my article did not deal with any endorsement of the Roman Catholic religion or church as such, but it dealt exclusively with that form of autocratic government which has made the Roman Catholic church as an international institution an eminent success in the face of every form of attack and criticism that could be directed against it by every type of individual, by every form of government, and particularly by the mad horde of unthinking individuals who prefer no form of government to any kind. For the very same reason, I could have and should have endorsed the autocratic form of government that controls and directs the welfare, progress and destiny of the Christian Science church, for it, too, has a hierarchy much like that of the Roman Catholic Church. I am sure that I did say that any form of cultural, educational, co-operative movement, composed of and operating through the individuals and characters of diversified nations in many lands and under many conditions must be autocratic in its government and control if it is to be a permanent success and fight the many battles that will naturally come its way. But this would apply even to such movements as the Freemasonic Fraternity and similar bodies as our own Rosicrucian Order.

Certainly those critics who have written so freely and bombastically about my article that appeared in the March issue of this magazine, “The Rosicrucian Digest, did not carefully read what I wrote and did not observe that my comments were neither a criticism nor and endorsement of the Roman Catholic religion as such.I was not writing about religion but form of government.

All of our members should know by this time, and our readers who are not members should gradually learn, that AMORC is not actively interested in politics or religion. Just yesterday afternoon I spent a very pleasant hour under one of the palm trees on a comfortable bench on the lawns of Rosicrucian Park, discussing our teachings and ideals with a priest of the Catholic Church who is one of our advanced members. On my trip through the Mediterranean on an Italian steamship, I again did what I have done every time I have crossed the ocean, and that is, to spend a large part of my recreation time in philosophical and religious discussion with the Roman Catholic chaplain or priest on the ship. I am proud of the excellent ideas that I have gained from my discussions and talks with many Roman Catholic priests within our Order and outside of it, but I am also proud of the fact that I have had many similar beneficial talks and discussions with Jewish rabbis, with pagan priests, with Protestant clergyman, and with all types of religious individuals. I am proud of the fact that I have friends--real friends--among these various religious denominations. I have found extreme peace and inspiration in attending, while in Europe, the low masses and the high masses and other services of the Roman Catholic Church, but I have also found similar peace and inspiration in some Sabbath Day services in Jewish synagogues and in so-called pagan temples of the Near East.

I have no antipathy toward any religion, any creed, or any doctrine, and I certainly have no such bias or prejudice in favor of any one of them that I would attempt to say that theirs is the only path, theirs is the only gateway to heaven.

It is true that I have written critically of certain religious doctrines found in the Roman Catholic Church and in the Protestant churches, in the Jewish synagogues and elsewhere. I have written critically of the interpretations that have become standardized in the modern versions of the Christian Bible, but I have also criticised other scriptural writings belonging to other sects and creeds. On the other hand, I have praised and shall continue to praise the good things as I find them, in church, in politics, among men and woman, and groups of individuals.

I am not going to change my opinions one iota because of a hundred or a thousand German or Italian, Russian, American or other individuals write to me and accuse me of being pro this or anti that. I am going to speak of the good in all things, in all movements, all individuals, all nations, as I personally find them and observe them.

Of course I may be wrong in my conclusions. My observations may not be correct. But of one thing my readers and the members of our organization can be sure, and that is, that I am absolutely sincere and that I have no ulterior motives, and there are absolutely no secret alliances motivating me in anything I say or do.

In answer to the argument that when I praise some individual, some movement, some form of government, some nation, I am fostering that movement and may not be aware of the injustice or the unfairness of my attitude and what results from it, I can only say that it is my duty as chief of this organization to help spread the truth as I find it, and to bring light where there is darkness and to help destroy falsehood. If in my way of doing this, and through erroneous conclusions or wrong observations, I am helping to spread untruth instead of truth, it will be my Karmic debt for which I shall have to make just compensation, even though it is done innocently of wrongdoing and in absolute sincerity. But to accuse me of having ulterior motives and being wilfully, deliberately, and secretly pro this or anti that, is to be absolutely unfair and unreasonable.

In order for these accusations to be true, I would have to change my coat and turn my coat so many times a month and year that it would soon become threadbare and colorless, or else I would have to wear a coat of more colors that the proverbial Jacob’s coat. Certainly I could not efficiently, and to any degree of success, assist any of these movements, individuals, nations, or people that I praise by wearing a coat of their color one week, and a coat of opposite color another week. If I wore a coat of but one color consistently and continuously, then there might be some reason to suspect that I was so enamored of that color, so enslaved to it and by it, that it colored my viewpoint of everything else, and I might be justly suspected of being secretly a propagandist of that one color.

I believe that the majority of our members like to have me express my opinion regarding things that I have seen and observed in my tours and travels around the world, and especially because my connections with the Rosicrucian Order enable me to make many intimate contacts and to learn things at first hand that the average person does not learn. One of the things I have learned is that not one of us can put very much faith--in fact very little--in what we read in our own and foreign newspapers and magazines. Yet it is from such sources that the average individual, who have criticized me in my attitude derives his or her knowledge and beliefs regarding the things I have commented upon. And in most cases my opinions and convictions have been opposite to what is popularly claimed in the controlled newspaper propaganda.

Fortunately for me and my attitude in regards to many things of a political, social, economic and educational nature, while in various lands on this recent cruise I was surrounded and accompanied by over one hundred and forty Rosicrucian members of every walk of life, professionally and socially, and of every grade of intellectual and cultural understanding, and in nearly every instance they have concurred in and unanimously agreed with my observations and conclusion. These touring members represented not only a very fair cross-section of our entire membership, but a very excellent cross-section of American citizenship. I highly valued their opinions and conclusions, and I was glad to find that in practically every instance their opinions where in harmony with my own, therefore proving to me, at least, that my glasses are not colored, and that my attempt to be broad and tolerant in every respect is not a fanatical hallucination on my part.

In the earliest issue of this magazine, "The Rosicrucian Digest," it was editorially stated that "The Rosicrucian Digest" would become at times and on occasion militant in its attitude and especially in its attack upon darkness and falsehood. We are determined to spread the light where it will do the utmost good. In my department and in those articles signed by me I shall continue, as an individual, to express my opinion of truths and falsehoods as I observe them. No influence by one contingent or another, no threats by members or readers expressing the intention of withdrawing form our organization or from the subscriptions list of this magazine will cause me to withhold what facts I think are of interest or what beliefs I consider illuminating.

The organization does not insist that members shall adopt the opinions I hold, nor change their religious, social, economic, political or intellectual conclusions or convictions in accordance with mine or those of any officer of the organization. But at least, in fairness to yourself and in fairness to our motives in preparing these articles and expressing these opinions, our readers should read them carefully and not try to read between the lines certain ideas that are not there and were not intended. At least, if the opinions we express are incompatible with your own, allow me the same honor, the same privilege, of being sincere, as you claim in the things you believe and express.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDEKx16W8ss&feature=related

Dungeons & Dragons at Rosicrucian Park: Stewart Affair or Bernard Conspiracy!?

2007-06-07T06:53:00.000-07:00

Neutrality & passivity are the best friends of evil! - Christian Bernard

And it was Raymond Bernard who introduced the idea that the next imperator should be American, because of the completion of the 108 years cycle. – Frater Melchior

I think one of the reasons GLS was so disliked was because of envy, in addition to him being a weak character and easily persuaded; a downright unstable person. - Frater Melchior

I have done everything I had to do for you. Now you must continue on your path and make contact with Jeanne Guesdon who is the representative for AMORC. – Edith Lynn to Raymond Bernard

Man's greatest conquest is of himself. Before one can impart knowledge to others, he must first know himself.

From a report in The Los Angeles Times; January 24, 1987
Ralph M. Lewis; Leader of Rosicrucians for 49 Years
Ralph M. Lewis, son of the founder and head of the 250,000-member Rosicrucian order, has died, it was reported Tuesday.
Lewis, head of the order for nearly 50 years, was 82 and died Jan. 12 in San Jose, although his death had gone unreported.
His father, H. Spencer Lewis, a New York advertising executive who started the Ancient and Mystic Order of Rosae Crusis in 1909, moved the headquarters to San Jose in 1927. Lewis took over the organization after his father's death in 1938.
The organization claims 250,000 members worldwide and operates the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum and the Planetarium in San Jose, two of the city's largest tourist attractions.
The group traces its roots to 1,500 BC and teaches a philosophy of cosmic consciousness intended to awaken dormant human faculties and help individuals to lead a happier and more useful life, group leaders say.
"The press has the idea that we're a strange, weird cult," said Lewis, the president and imperator of the group, in an interview several years ago. "We're not. We're a study group that takes the position that human consciousness is a stream, a flow. We believe that man generally functions on only one level, but that he can function on levels higher than the objective and the subjective.
"I'm not a strong adherent of reincarnation myself. I'm not so concerned with what I may have been, or what I may be, as I am with what I am now."
Lewis is survived by his wife Margaret, two sisters and a brother.

On January 12th, 1987 Ralph Maxwell Lewis dies (henceforth RML). Not only marks his transition the end of a remarkable and highly respected person. Dark clouds already hover over Rosicrucian Park. His very successor would usher in the end of AMORC's Golden Age as we shall soon see. "Darkness pervaded all..."

Under Ralph AMORC had steadily expanded, and had now become the stabilizing force in the occult world. It was a pleasure being an AMORC member in those days. It was something you could be proud of and the majority of its members was extremely loyal. But alas the good things weren't going to last...

To the surprise of many or perhaps most members outside the USA his successor was the relatively unknown Gary Lee Stewart and thus what most members expected or hoped for didn't occur i.e. Raymond Bernard(Sar Rosenkreutz) for Imperator! Unfortunately, upon the death of Ralph Maxwell Lewis, Gary Stewart was elected to the position of Imperator on 23rd January 1987. He soon however, demonstrated that he was not up to the task of leading the Rosicrucian Order, and after a series of grave errors, he was dismissed from his office and duties by all Grand Masters on April 12th, 1990.

So why not? Was it because Raymond Bernard (RB), had in September 1986 ceased participation in all AMORC activities where he held the position of Supreme Legate?? Or perhaps because of health reasons, as was frequently claimed?

The above scenario is most unlikely considering all activities RB developed after his untimely resignation. It's also been suggested that Raymond Bernard stepped down to make place for a younger person. Given his character and ego this option can also be safely ruled out!!!

Raymond and Yvonne Bernard moved to Yaoundé in Cameroon, and in 1988 he founded CIRCES (Cercle International de Recherches Culturelles et Spirituelles). Some of his adherents would rather read for CIRCES: Cercle Intérieur de la Rose Croix Esotérique et Secrète.

Please note that it is also claimed that Raymond considered Christian to be not eligible for the office of Imperator (well of course now that he knew that he wouldn't be it either!) and that he therefore favoured an American or rather that the Imperator should always be an American.

The single most stupefying fact of the CIRCES' history is Gary Stewart being publicly announced as its Honorary President! This totally contradics Stewart's claims that father & son Bernard together were conspiring against him! Father and son Bernard were simply not on speaking term those days!! Sure, later GLS did a 180 degree turn on CIRCES, just as he did on so many things.

So the much acclaimed and highly discussed "Conspiracy" of the "Bernards" against Stewart is just another internet hoax created by the Stewart clan. All evidence is simply pointing in the opposite direction!

This is even acknowledged by Tobias Churton in his book Invisibles: The True History of the Rosicrucians "Gary L. Stewart succeeded R.M. Lewis in 1987 at the age of 34, backed by Raymond Bernard of the French branch of AMORC".

Next project l'OSTI (Ordre Souverain du Temple Initiatique). Well not really the kind of activities you'd expect from a man struggling with his health. (l'OSTI & CIRCES organizations merged in 1993 and from then on CIRCES would appear to be the humanitarian branch of l'OSTI).

The true reason rather seems to have been severe disagreements within AMORC's Board and most likely over his extra-curricular activities before 1986, read l' Ordre Renové du Temple.
November 1970: Raymond Bernard founded the ORT. (According to Belgian investigative journalist Marcel Roggemans, RB started this project on 5/12/1962)!?. Others maintain it was 1968.

The ORT was in the form of a legal association, distinct from AMORC. This Order, from its creation till RB left it in October 1972, was reserved uniquely for the members of the Rosicrucian Order, AMORC.

Where on the one hand RB usually pretends to have had the full support of RML "He finally gave his consent" but in another interview he clearly states that he had no authorization whatsoever, and which was indead the fact of the matter!

SC: Au départ, Ralph M. Lewis était donc tout à fait d'accord? Il t'avait lui-même mandaté? RB: Il ne m'a pas mandaté.

In his defence it should be said that in the sixties RML himself had come up with such an idea i.e to increase participation levels within AMORC membership, through a templar like order i.e. However, the project was abandoned because it proved inviable.

April 1971 RB abandons ORT Grandmastership and is replaced with one Julianos Origas, Grand Sénéchal of the Order who as Grandmaster uses the pseudonym: Hu(m)bert de Frankenb(o)urg.
Slowly but gradually RB furthers withdraws from ORT (most likely under severe pressure from San Jose) till the point where all links with AMORC are severed in October 1972. RB later simply claims that he'd lost all his interest!? If he'd lost all his templar interest, than why would he later have founded CIRCES!!??

Then in July 1983 Origas installs Luc Jouret as the next ORT Grandmaster whereas Origas dies on 20/8/1983. Fortunately RML didn't live to see the dire consequences of this step!

Contrary to popular belief and in fact most logical explanation of all is that Ralph Lewis hand picket and thoroughly trained his successor (read GLS). However, I'm of the opinion that he didn't.

There's some very strong evidence against this scenario: Ralph's second wife (and former long time secretary) Margaret Burt Lewis, was very much against Stewart. To such extend that she refused to hand over the Lewis Imperator ring and refused to attend his installation. Always hear the other side: well they simply state that Christian Bernard stole the imperator ring from the Lewis vault, and that Margaret didn't attend because of ill health. What's truth...

So now we're faced with Gary Lee Stewart the third imperator of AMORC. The Stewart reign can be described as nothing short of catastrophic.

Let's for assessment's sake and simplicity forget here about his financial shenanigans, such as his self-inflicted pay raise, his second honeymoon paid for by AMORC, the infamous money transfer to Andorra etc. etc. etc.
Is GLS: Grand Lodge of Spain, Gran Logia Suprema or Gary Lee Stewart? You tell me!?

What I do care about is the fact that he simply wasn't the kind of Imperator, AMORCans expected or wanted. Such as divorcing and marrying a Rosicrucian Park employee. He didn't have a clue that rasta hair and a youthful appearance wasn't necessary a plus for an Imperator?? But worst of all: Gary simply was a lousy manager, he didn't grasp one iota of what was needed in his position. AMORC members were hardly waiting for a new magazine, Heterodoxy, for non-AMORC members, nor did they expect books on pension plans.

Gary also handled his imperatorship as a corporate takeover! He brought his own friends (such as Antonio de Nicholas the intended Spanish Grand Master who wasn't even AMORC member) and even family with him while at the same time firing the very people he so desperately needed the most to make his imperatorship work. He behaved like a blind dog in a meat market. That in short was the trouble with GLS.

Or as another Frater put it in the yahoo Rosicrucianism group:
My own view is that he was the boy who suddenly found himself in charge of the cookie factory. I think he was probably guilty of misfeasance and incompetence, but probably not guilty of malfeasance or any crime. I don't believe he was a victim of anyone or anything other than his own lack of pragmatism, managerial ability, and possibly respect for the people he had to work for and with.
I do not believe that Gary Stewart was anointed by Ralph Lewis or anyone else to be Imperator for life.

Finally the assessment of a three eminent rosicrucians about Gary Stewart as a person:

"We gave Frater Stewart the benefit of the doubt, but that proved to be a mistake."- former Stewart supporters: Paul Walden & Ashley McFadden, ARC

"Charmante jongeman, maar veel te jong in meer dan één opzicht." - Dutch GM

"Er war viel zu jung."

Ten years later, much water has since flowed under the bridge, I'm in a circle of rosicrucian history fetishists and in the center of the center of this circle is this friend a Belgian "research journalist" aka "historian" though he's neither, who's personally and constantly in contact with Stewart.

Stewart is a very approachable guy. Too approachable imho.
(Because I didn't like him, I've always avoided to take up contact with him personally). His current openness btw totally contradicts his permanent inaccessibility during his AMORC term, where he was either travelling and or playing c.q. conferencing with his inner circle, read friends and family.

Well, whatever GLS discusses with Marcel Roggemans (his so-called interviews with Stewart!) he (MR) forwards to me (AK). They even discuss personal things. We even know when Gary's having dental problems and when he's got to see his dentist.

My own conclusion: the very nature of these discussions in this "forum" leaves me without further doubt. 2000 A.D. he's still too young and he'll probably be forever too young mentally i.e.. Or call it naive or as someone else described him: he's downright unstable. With only a little common sense and moderation he should have prevented Dorothy L. Stewart to issue her silly open letter (May 10, 1990) to all AMORC rosicrucians...

WHO TOLD WHAT TO WHOM. Mind you, this is all hearsay that I'm parrotting!

From the website Geschiedenis van de occulte en mystieke broederschappen:
After the Stewart Affair AMORC’s faced with succession problems. Since Gary L. Stewart was ousted they have a problem. They asked frater:: to install Christian Bernard as the new Imperator of AMORC. Frater:: refuses inexorably. During the same meeting Frater :: is offered a substantial amount of money to sell AMORC his order.
This was confirmed to me by phone on 23/01/1999.

From Rosicrucian Order AMORC vs l’Imperator Gary L. Stewart webside interview with Rosicrucian Imperator Gary L. Stewart:
GLS: Je ne sais rien de très précis de cette cérémonie si ce n’est que celle qui a été utilisée n’est pas celle écrite par Ralph Lewis. Pourquoi Christian a-t-il décidé de ne pas utiliser le rituel de Ralph Lewis ? Voilà ce que j’ignore. Concernant le rituel utilisé pour installer Christian, je me suis laissé dire par un des administrateurs de la Grande Loge Suprême, qui assume encore cette responsabilité, que Christian Bernard avait demandé à Martin Müller(un rosicrucien allemand réputé qui est le successeur d’Emile Dantinne—plus connu sous le nom de Sar Hieronymus) de diriger cette installation. Je me suis également laissé dire que M. Mueller avait refusé. Mais, comme je l’ai dit, je n’ai pas moi-même pu vérifier ces affirmations, je ne peux que m’appuyer sur ce qu’on m’a rapporté.

Roughly translated Gary avers here that someone'd told him (guess who?) that Christian Bernard had requested Martin Mueller (a highly reputed German rosicrucian who claimed to be the successor of Emile Dantinne aka Sar Hieronymus) to conduct his installation.

Believe it or not in 2000 AD I had a number of rather long phone calls with frater :: from Bavaria, well let’s eeeh continue calling him Mr. Müller and in which he wasn’t exactly positive about GLS and who was in fact the very person confiding to me: "Er war viel zu jung!"

I'll always remember what my daughter said that Friday afternoon, calling me in while I was just coming home, still in the driveway: hey dad here’s this man from Germany on the phone again!

THE END ...?

Rosaecrucius' Chronicle # 4

2007-05-18T05:38:00.000-07:00

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 - ? ), 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!

Rosaecrucius' Chronicle # 3

2007-05-18T02:48:00.001-07:00

Il me paroit, que tout ce que l’on a dit des Frères de la Croix de la Rose, est une pure invention de quelque personne ingénieuse…

"How could we possibly appreciate the Mona Lisa if Leonardo had written at the bottom of the canvas: 'The lady is smiling because she is hiding a secret from her lover." - Stanley Kubrick

All das bedeutet nun nicht, dass das Rosenkeuzertum erst um 1600 entstanden sei. Es besagt aber, dass wir ab diesem Zeitpunkt schriftliche Zeugnisse von bzw. über sie besitzen. Die Spekulationen über das "wahre" Alter der Rosenkreuzer gehen weiter und machen um 1600 nicht halt. – Dr. Wolfram Frietsch in Newtons Geheimnis.

The author(s) of the rosicrucian manifestos remain obscure and the beginning of the movement is undetermined. However most modern scholars now ascribe the Chymische Hochzeit or Chymical Wedding to Johann Valentin Andreae.

Yes, the very word rosicrucian is subject to a considerable number of controversies. The name is generally, assumed to be derived from the supposed founder of the order, Christian Rosenkreuz (Christ of the Rose Cross), but according to others, it was taken from the coat of arms of the Andreae family, which is a St. Andrew Cross with four roses. Others again say, it is composed of Ros, dew and Crux which is supposed to mystically represent LVX or light. It is also interesting to note that the word Ras means wisdom, while Rus is translated concealment.

The Rosicrucian Order AMORC is reproached for its advertising and blamed by other occultists as un-rosicrucian like, though totally ignoring the fact that it once was the rosicrucians themselves who virtually invented the art of advertising and public relations!
The Invisibles invited new members to join their order through placards placed in the streets of Paris on 3 March 1623. (Some claim this was in August). For a long time, this strange placard was the sole topic of conversation in all public places.

According to the Mercure François the manuscript copies of the placards were passed round, hand to hand, and some were fixed to signposts at the crossroads - a fact that couldn't fail to have some magical significance!

"We, the deputies of the Principal College of the Brethren of the RoZe-Croix, have taken up our abode, visible and invisible, in this city, by the grace of the Most High, towards whom are turned the hearts of the Just. We teach without books or signs and speak the language of any country where we wish to be, to draw mankind, our fellows, from error and death".

We leave it to the ingenuity of the discriminating reader whether these posters were the consequence of the earlier publication of a number of pamphlets on the rosicrucian controversy c.q. anticipating it and or whether we are dealing here with a ludibrium.

This caused a rosicrucian scare and the very first media hoax in history. Gabriel Naudé
in his "Instruction à la France sur la vérité de l'histoire des Frères de la Roze-Croix" speaks of a hurricane of rumour blowing through France. Others speak of Horrible Pacts made between the Devil and the Pretended Invisible Ones. (God had covered them with a thick cloud, by means of which they could shelter themselves from the malignity of their enemies, and that they could thus render themselves invisible from all eyes). There are said to be six-and-thirty of these Invisible Ones and none less than Satan himself is the alleged head of their college. These rosicrucians were a confraternity of drunken imposters and secret people, hence the meaning of the rose in connection with them (rather an interesting suggestion). They have the power to transport themselves where ever they wished.

All of Paris was in alarm. No man thought himself secure of his goods, no maiden of her virginity, or wife of her chastity, while these rosicrucians were abroad. In the midst of all perplexity, a second notice appeared, which contained a statement to the effect that:

"If anyone desires to see the brethren of the Rose-Cross from curiosity alone, he will never communicate with us. But if his will really induces him to inscribe his name in the register of our brotherhood, we, who can judge the thoughts of men, will convince him of the truth of our promises. For this reason we do not publish to the world the place of our abode. Thought alone, in unison with the sincere will of those who desire to know us, is sufficient to make us known to them, and them to us."

It was generally believed that the six (out of total 36) emissaries who dwelt in France, were lodged somewhere in the "Marests du Temple", a quarter which soon afterwards acquired rather a bad reputation. It was figured by the populace that the members of this dreadful and secret brotherhood used to visit the inns and hotels of Paris, eat the best meals, drink the best wines and then suddenly vanished into thin air when the landlord came with the reckoning. Gentle maidens went to bed alone, awoke at night and found men in bed with them, more beautiful than Apollo (the Incubus?), though immediately becoming invisible when an alarm was raised. Others found large heaps of gold in their houses, not knowing whence it came.

Dr. Nicolaes Wassenaer: Historisch verhael aller gedenkwaerdigheden, Amsterdam, 1624: "They are transported from one place to another in the twinkling of an eye. They make themselves invisible, garb herbs and know how to read the secret thoughts of men."
The church very soon took up the question and the Abbé Gaultier another Jesuit, wrote a book to prove that, by their enmity to the Pope, they could be none other than the disciples of Luther, sent to promulgate his heresy. Yes their very name proved they were heretics: a cross surmounted by a rose being the heraldic device of arch-heretic Martin Luther.

It seems that the anonymous author of the "Effrayables pactions faites entre le Diable et les prétendus Invisibles" and the Pater Jesuit R.P. Garasse's "Doctrine curieuse des beaux esprits de ce temps, ou prétendus tels." are working up a witch-craze against the "invisible" rosicrucians with their pompous manifestos and their diabolical intentions. The rosicrucians, says Garasse, are a sect in Germany and Michael Maier is its secretary. Encouraged by this clerical authority, an anonymous writer published his "Examen sur l'inconnue et nouvelle caballe des Freres de la croix rosee, habituez depuis peu de temps en la Ville de Paris".

Such was the consternation in Paris that every man, who couldn't give a satisfactory account of himself, was in danger of being pelted to death; and disquieted citizens slept with loaded muskets at their bedsides, to take vengeance of any rosicrucian who might violate the sanctity of their chambers. The the police endeavoured in vain to find out the offenders. This row lasted well into 1624, by which time we may well imagine that the rosicrucians had long slipped out of France, as invisibly as they had arrived!

Apparently some of them headed to Holland, where in 1625 the "Hof van Holland" instigated the prosecution of some folks, who named themselves "Broeders van den Roosen Cruce" and came from Paris to this region and spread doctrines and do things detrimaental to the country and its citizens:
"in de religie seer erroneus ende ketters"

The verdict of a Judicium the theologican faculty of Leyden was crushing:
"In stumperige schuijten-praet, bruiloftslied en kleppermanswensch werden de pamfletten pseudoniem of anoniem aan den man gebracht"

The Dutch Grand Master, painter Torrentius was arrested on 29 august 1627, imprisoned, tortured and eventually banned to England with the aid of Prince Frederik Hendrik and King Charles I of England.

The rosicrucian renaissance is said to have begun in 1614, but as it should be clear to the reader by now, this was merely the externalization of their organisation.

Allegorical letter about a Rosicrucian adept. Quid est Veritas...

2007-05-18T02:14:00.000-07:00

"Aux magiciens et aux charlatans qu'on appelle Frères de la Rose-Croix, lesquels se vantent d'entendre Trismégiste et tous les cabalistes de l'Antiquité".

"Je tiefer man in die Rosenkreuzer-Forschung einsteigt, desto weniger weiss man und um so mehr wird man mit sich selbst konfrontiert, mit seinen Vorurteilen, Meinungen und Weltbildern, die es nach und nach zu revidieren und zu verändern gilt.
Die Erforschung der Rosenkreuzer-Schriften gleicht einer Reise in unser eigenes Innere". – Wolfram Frietsch

"True wisdom is less presuming than folly. The wise man doubts often, and changes his mind; the fool is obstinate, and doubts not; he knows all things but his own ignorance" - Akhenaton

A strange myth, but nevertheless a story remarkably congruent to the accounts of C.R.C., is to be found in the chronicles of German nobleman named Hans Aldekmaier who, living in the late thirteenth century and after having a vision or mystical experience, decided to join a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Once arrived there, he felt dangerously ill and in lieu of providing him with medicine his physician prescribed him to embark upon a journey to the great pyramid of Cheops!
He discovered a hidden door through which he entered the biggest structure on earth.
Inside, in a tomb, he spotted 100 coffins and everlasting lamps, lined-up in four rows of five-and-twenty. Approaching the 22nd coffin he discerned an old man who was there praying. (Little imagination is needed here to note a reference to the 22nd / 0 (fool = Aldekmaier) and 21st card (world = old man) of the Tarot. This old sage lived in a cell inside the pyramid. He explained that his whole live had been dedicated to the study of nature and arts and that his life was now drawing to a close (he was already 210) and that he had been anxiously waiting for the arrival Aldekmaier.
The sage told Aldekmaier where upon his demise he would be able to find the key to a cabinet where he would find a little container with a red elixir. Only three drops of the elixir were needed and to be put upon a glowing charcoal fire, the rising vapours of which he should inhale. This were to extend his lifespan by at least one hundred years. Some of the information, was given viva voce, from mouth to ear, by the magus, since it would be simply to dangerous to put this into writing. Knowledge of the Philosophers Stone and the secret of inexhaustible wealth would seriously hold back the progress of the human family, if fallen into the wrong hands naturally.
The old man handed Aldekmaier a mysterious book consisting of sixty papyrus pages. In case Aldekmaier was able solve the third problem on the eleventh page of that book, he would live even longer than the sage, an expectation which Aldekmaier didn't meet, living "only" till the age two hundred years. In order to prevent any possible misinterpretation of this text by translating it, I will reproduce it here in (old) Dutch just as I found it (the same goes for the below mentioned epitaph of our friend Hans Aldekmaier b.t.w.):

"In den schoot des levens - den dood;
uit den schoot des doods - het leven.
Neem hiertoe het getal zeven, met behulp van hetzelfde getal door zeven vermenigvuldigd"

Aldekmaier pierced this mystery and to his solution of the riddle, the world according to legend owes the founding of the Rose Cross brothers!? His epitaph speaks volumes:

Hier rust in Godes Hand,
Hans Aldekmaier uit 't Saksenland
Een zeer geleerd en dapper heer,
Ach, waren er toch zulken meer!
Hem was, trots aller boozen nijd,
Beschoren hoe men langen tijd
Het mensch'lijk leven kon verlengen.
Hijzelve stierf, door zijn belagers.
Vervolgd, doch liet hij met zijn gunst,
Aan zijne vrienden ook zijn kunst.
Die vrienden waren uit Zwitserland.
En heetten Broederen van Rozenkruis.
Zij hebben ook voor het geloof gestreden
En daarvoor den martelaarsdood geleden.
Een zalige wederopstanding mag
God hen verschaffen op den jongsten dag.

Thus wrote Trespassa A.D. 1484

The Rosicrucian Chronicles of Pater Cathare...

2007-05-11T07:21:00.000-07:00

Met wat over de Rozekruisers te lezen is, kon ik niets beginnen. Ik moest mijn eigen geschiedenis over de Rozekruisers schrijven. Dat duurde lang – en ik heb vaak gedacht dat het maar beter zou zijn om de hele rommel te laten voor wat hij is...- Will-Erich Peuckert

"Il y a deux histoires: L'histoire officielle, mensongère, qui nous est enseignée, et l'histoire secrète où se trouvent les vraies causes des évènements, une histoire honteuse." - Honoré de Balzac

Le mystère de la Rose-Croix n'a pas encore été percé. La légende se mêle étroitement à la vérité historique... L'Ordre de la Rose-Croix est une confrérie de savants, d'alchimistes et de chercheurs en ésotérisme qui se manifesta au XVIIe siècle. Les adeptes étaient liés d'une manière très informelle, mais la légende qui les entourait fut et reste très prenante.

The Rose-Croix is one of the manifestations of the Providence of God.

The Order of the Crucians
relies not on outward weapons,
but on the Word of God and tongues of fire!

MAGNA EST VERITAS...

Benedictus Dominus Deus noster, qui dedit nobis signum…

The Fool living in the Forest or Errors, who embarks upon the Promethean and thankless task of trying to reconstruct the Corpus Rosicrucianum, is faced with sheer unabridgeable problems.
The number of books written by so-called rosicrucian writers to solve the mysteries, secrets and riddles of these invisible ones could well fill a library.
But in the end they all appear to be based on the very few standard works, which in their present form are neither agreed upon nor shed a great deal of light on their real mysteries, and in the end raising more questions than answering them. Forlorn Hope! Project Mayhem!
In fact they're all parroting earlier writers, due a lack of factual information. I've put this to the test, by posting some crackpot theories in so-called rosicrucian forums, which were, very soon reiterated by the followers and presented by these ignorami as the ultimate rosicrucian truth!
"Da steh' ich nun, ich armer Tor! Und bin so klug als wie zu vor".

Most and very prominent scholars have agreed upon the rosicrucian enlightenment to commence by the dawn of the seventeenth century, very conveniently and (un)intentionally ignoring some very pressing facts.

The truth is however that Rosicrucian wisdom has existed since the Atlantean times, but it only became known by this name in the fifteenth century. History tells us very little about the real Rosicrucians because in the past it was required of initiates that they work quietly, whilst living ordinary lives. The lessons learned from the burning of the Cathars and the destruction of the Templar Order had been well learned.

L'Ordre des Frères c.q. Rose + Croix d'Orient was founded in 1054 by Michael Psellus, great scholar of Constantinople and modelled in 1090 in Constantinople under the patronage of emperor Alexius Comnenus. The full title of the Order was "Order of the Knights and Brethren of St. John the Evangelist from Asia in Europe."
The Order of the Unknown Philosophers was said to be descended from L'Ordre des Frères d'Orient. This Order was reputed to have included such luminaires as; Heinrich Khunrath, Alexander Sethon, Sendivogius, Jacob Böhme and Rudolph Salzmann. who was initiated in the Elus Cohens. Rudolph Salzmann initiated Louis Claude de Saint-Martin in 1788 in the Sociéte des Philosophes Inconnus.

In 1629 when the rosicrucian craze was at its zenith, French historian the Abbé of Gisors, Robert Denyau, explicitly stated that the rosicrucians were founded A.D. 1188 by Jean de Gisors.
The first public announcement of anything close to a rosicrucian order is the story of Omnis Moriar in 1115. A very similar Swedish legend avers that eighty-one Rose Cross brothers came from the Orient between 1118 and 1188 under the care of Garimont, Patriarch of Jerusalem. The allegedly went to the Archbiship of Upsal, where they entombed the Corpus Rosicrucianum in a marble tomb, placed in a subtrerranean vault.

Jacques-Etienne Marconis de Nègre ‘Le Sanctuaire de Memphis’1849 : En 1150, quatre-vingt-un d’entre eux arrivèrent en Suède, sous la conduite de Garimont, et se présentèrent à l’archevêque d’Upsal ( Upsala ), qui reçut d’eux le dépôt des connaissances maçonniques. Ce furent ces quatre-vingt-un Maçons qui établirent la Maçonnerie en Europe.

And according to its own statutes the "Ordre des Frères Aînés de la Rose + Croix", was founded on 2 December 1316 by Guy de Montanor, Gaston de la Pierre Phoebus, Pierre le Bon de Lombardie and Richard l'Anglois. Shrouded in "nuit et brouillard" Les Gouliards, the medieval clerks and print-makers whose mystical and heretical watermarks so fascinated Harold Bayley, are also pointed in this direction.

Another source testifies that subsequent to the battle of Bannockburn, Bruce and the St. Anthony Templars founded the new Order of the Elder Brothers of the Rose Cross in 1317 --- from which the Kings of Scots became the hereditary Grand masters, with each successive Stewart King holding the title of "Prince Saint Germain".

René Guénon thinks that the "true origin of Rosicrucianism are the Orders of Knights, who in the Middle Ages, forged true intellectual links between the East and the West".
Others again consider the Fede Santa a.k.a. Fedeli d'Amore (Faithful of Love) as the precursors or even the instigators of the rosicrucian movement. It is obvious that Dante, who was one of their leaders, immersed his Divina Comedia with templar and rosicrucian symbolism. The Fede Santa wrote their papers in a coded language (parlar cruz), language of love (hence the name Fedeli d'Amore) to obscure it for "la gente grossa". In their texts the word Rose really means Fede Santa and Love corresponds with their ideals and philosophy. The Court of Love was their Temple. Woman equalled Intelligence, Lover = initiate, fool = wise. We find allusions to a widow who is no widow, the Madonna Intelligenza. It is thought that de Fedeli d' Amore was an outgrowth of a confederation of the Ismaili Sect of the Faithful Ones of Love having connections with the Knights Templar.
Hole Roman Emperor Frederick II was a member too, so it is not surprising that he was excommunicated twice!

Regrettably very little reliable information on this secret society is available in the English medium.

While living in Europe, Francis Bacon was initiated into the mysterious Order of the Knights Templars and learnt a very special secret. Before he returned to London, he travelled to France, Italy, Germany and Spain and at the age of 20 completely devoted himself to the study of law. From his understanding of the secret information he had learned during his initiation into the Knights Templar, he conceived the idea of reactivating various Secret Societies and in 1580 founded the secret Rosicrosse Literary Society in Gray’s Inn. Later in the same year, he founded the Lodge of Free and Accepted or Speculative Masons, also at Gray’s Inn.

Simon Studion (1543- ), who founded the Militia Crucifera Evangelica in 1598 at Nuremberg, continued the work of Joachim de Flore and Paracelsus ; and the "Chemical Wedding" of Andreae continued the thread from the thoughts and work of Studion. It was out of the work of Studion and his Societas Cruce Signati (those marked by the cross), that the Tubingen Circle with Andreae and his friends, the renewed Order of the Rosicrucians grew and evolved.
Simon Studion author of the Naometria, claims that the Militia Crucifera Evangelica were the true source of the Rosicrucians and it indeed appears that one of the earlier titles used by the Rosicrucians was Militia Crucifera Evangelica.
In 1555 the seer Nostradamus fortold the externalization of the rosicrucians in century III 67 which is often and i.m.h.o. wrongly associated with Hitler:

Vne nouuelle secte de Philosophes,
Mesprisant mort, or, honneurs et richesses:
Des monts Germanins ne seront limitrophes,
A les ensuyure auront appuy & presses

Of course this was no big deal for Nostradamus since he and secretly so, was the (acting) head (Nautonnier) of the Prieuré de Sion (Ordre de la Rose + Croix Veritas). : " Mais ce n'est qu'en 1556 que, devenant Grand Maître de l'ordre, ce grand secret luit fut confié… C'est à Turin, que Nostradamus est initié au grand secret des temps à venir… "

The first known historical reference to a Rosicrucian Fraternity with a head called Imperator appears in a treatise: Compendium totius philosophae et alchymiae Fraternitatis Roseae Crucis, ex mandato Serenissimi Comitis Falkenstein, imperatoris nostri, anno Domini MDLXXX.

POST CXX ANNOS PATEBO A.D. 1604 (1484 + 120 = 1604)They asserted that their laws had been found inscribed in a golden book in the tomb of Rosencreuz, and that the required six times twenty years from his death expired in 1604. They were consequently called upon, from that time forth, to promulgate their doctrine for the welfare of mankind.

1604: this is indeed a very convenient date to agree upon, because it frees the scholar of the inoperable task of delving much further into the mysterious and secretive vaults of ancient rosicrucian history. One Rosicrucian Confraternity even had the audacity to rewrite its own history.
In a awkward attempt to anticipate further unsettling questions they have united the Mystery of Rennes-le-Château with the itinerarium of their alleged imperator (Achessel = HSL). Esotérisme de Supermaché!

Pater Cathare is b.t.w. of the opinion that there does actually exist a link to this unsolved mystery, but brothers eh pardon me fratres, certainly not in this way, and definitely not in this manner!
There is a document, authenticated by a notary, which shows that Saunière attended a Martinist meeting in Lyons on May 11, 1900. His lodgings were two doors away from that of Joanny Bricaud a prominent Martinist. Bricaud (aged 18) met Papus and joined his Martinist Order in 1899, one year before Saunière’s documented attendance. In the pages of the Lodge Minutes book of the Martinist Order of Lyon it says:
Dans la registre de la Très Révérente Loge Martiniste à l'Orient de Lyon, "La Haute Philosophie"... et sur la liste le présent "d'honneur": L'Abbé Saunière.

ET IN ARCADIA EGO...

Many have denied the existence of such a personage as Rosencreuz, and have fixed the origin of this sect at a much later epoch. The first dawning of it, they say, is to be found in the theories of Paracelcus and the reveries of Dr. John Dee, who without intending it, became the actual, though never recognised founder of the rosicrucian philosophy. Others assert this Rosaecrucius was alive and well under the name of Roesgen von Germelshausen.

At any rate, the story of his life, published in the manifestos, gave the name and the ideals of rosicrucianism the most comprehensive airing of any "secret society" in history.

...ET PREVALEBIT

End of Chronicle # 1