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Past, Present, At Home and Abroad
An Address to the Soc. Rosic. In Anglia
By: William Wynn Westcott
 It is well at certain times to consider our status as Rosicrucians, and to
remind ourselves of the origin of the Society to which we belong, to notice how
far we moderns have strayed from the original paths laid down by our Founder,
C.R., and to take a note of the kindred Societies of Rosicrucians which are now
in being, so far as we know of them.
With regard to past history we must not be suprised that extant published
records are very scanty, for the purpose of the Rosicrucians was to be unknown
to the people among whom they Lived. Some few notable persons only appear to
have had the right to function as recognised members of the Rosicrucian
Colleges, for instance, Michael Maier the German student of Alchemy who died in
1662, and Dr. Robert Fludd of London and Bearstead near Maidstone who died in
1637.
The Star of Rosicrucianism is now once more in the ascendant and our Society has
made rapid strides in the past ten years. It is curious to note that waves of
interest in occult and mystical subjects, seem to sweep over a nation at
intervals; periods of Rosicrucian enlightenment alternate with other periods of
materialistic dogmatism. We must remember that Rosicrucianism itself was "no new
thing" but only a revival of still earlier forms of Initiation, and was a lineal
descendant of the Philosophies of the Chaldean Magi, of the Egyptian priests, of
the Neo-Platonists, of the Hermetists of Alexandria of the Jewish Kabalists and
of Christian Kabalists such as Raymond Lully and Pic de Mirandola.
The nominal Founder of our Society--Christian Rosencreuz, did not invent, at
least in our modern sense of the word, the doctrines he promulgated, and which
we should now study. It is narrated that he journeyed to Arabia, to Palestine,
to Egypt and to Spain, and in the seats of learning in those countries he found
and collected the mystic lore, which was made anew by him into a code of
doctrine and knowledge. On his return from these foreign travels he settled in
Germany, founded a Collegium, selected certain friends and transformed them into
enthusiastic pupils, and giving his new Society his own name, he laid the
foundation of that scheme of Mystical Philosophy, which we are now here to
perpetuate and carry into practice: let us remember that he died in the year
1484, that is so far back as the reign of our King Richard the Third.
The fratres of the original Collegium, who met in the "Domus Sanctus Spiritus,"
or " House of the Holy Spirit," were learned men, earnest students and public
benefactors. Their rules were: That none of the members should profess any art
except to relieve the sick and that gratis; each one should wear the ordinary
dress of the country, and should attend on Corpus Christi day at a general
Convocation every year, whenever possible to do so; each one should seek a
suitable pupil to succeed him: that the secret mark of each one should be C.R or
R.C., and that the Society should remain secret for 100 years.
As time went on the purposes and duties of the fratres became altered, the cure
of the sick especially was taken over by the development of the medical
profession.
About 1710, one Sigmund Richter, using the motto of "Sincerus Renatus,"
published at Breslau his work called "The perfect and true preparation of the
Philosophical Stone according to the secret of the Brotherboods of the Golden
and Rosy Cross." In this volume we find a series of 52 rules for the guidance of
Rosicrucian members; these rules are such as were likely to lead
to useful and orderly lives.
Again, about 1785, there was published at Altona in Germany a most important
volume of coloured theosophical plates with eludicatory words and phrases and
several essays on Rosicrucian subjects: its title was "Geheime Figuren der
Rosenkreuzer"; it was in two portions. An English translation of some part of
this work was published in 1888 by Franz Hartmann, a German
Theosophist.
We catch a further glimpse of the purposes of the Rosicrucians at a later date,
from a curious little tract relating to a French branch of the Society, which
relates the Reception of Dr. Sigismund Bacstrom in the Mauritius--French
colony--by the Comte de Chazal in 1794. I cannot say where the original MS. now
is, but our copy was made by the secretary of the well-known Rosicrucian and
crystal-gazer Frederick Hockley, who died in 1885. Bacstrom signed his pledge to
fourteen promises;--to piety and sobriety, to keep the secrecy of his admission,
to preserve the secret knowledge, to choose suitable successors, to carry on the
great work, to give aid and charity privately, to share discoveries with his
fellows, to avoid politics, to help strangers, and to show gratitude to those
who had led to his reception; etc.
During a recent visit to East Africa I met in Natal a Mauritius born doctor
whose wife was a Miss de Chazal, a native of Mauritius; among her ancestors
about I780-90 there was this M. de Chazal who was an eccentric genius and was
considered to possess curious arts; he also became a notable Swedenborgian and
held classes of mystical philosophy. The name is many times mentioned in a
French history of Mauritius which was lent to me by Dr. Dumat of Durban. At the
time of the French Revolution it would be natural for our count de Chazal to
drop his title, as did many of the French nobility.
The aim of our own Society at the present day is to afford mutual aid and
encouragement in working out the great problems of Life, and in discovering the
Secrets of Nature; to facilitate the study of the system of Philosophy founded
upon the Kabalah and the doctrines of Hermes Trismegistus, which was inculcated
by the original Fratres Rosae Crucis. of Germany, A.D. 1450; and to investigate
the meaning and symbolism of all that now remains of the wisdom, art and
literature of the Ancient World.
The Rosicrucian Societies of Anglia, Scotia and the United States, alike Masonic
bodies, are by no means the only descendants of the original Collegium, for in
Germany, and Austria there are other Rosicrucian Colleges of more direct descent
than our own, which are not fettered by any of the limitations which Freemasonry
has imposed upon us, and some of these, although not composed of many members,
include students who understand many curious phenomena, which our Zelators have
not studied. The German Rosicrucians keep their Colleges and membership entirely
secret, they print no transactions nor even any notices, and it is almost
impossible to identify any member.
The German groups of Rosicrucians now existing are much more immersed in mystic
and occult lore than ourselves; they endeavour to extend the human faculties
beyond the material toward the ethereal, astral and spiritual worlds: at the
present time I understand that they use no formulated Ritual, but German
Colleges have experienced a notable revival and the teachings of Rudolf Steiner
are considered as giving an introduction of their system of occult Theosophy.
Several of Steiner's volumes are now available in English translations, such are
his "Initiation and its Results," "The Gates of Knowledge," and "Way of
Initiation." They are well worthy of study.
The Societas Rosicruciana in Scotia, as well as the Societas Rosicruciana in the
U.S.A. were branches from the same Rosicrucian source and sprang from a
rejuvenation by Frater Robert Wentworth Little of that lapsed Rosicrucian
College in England which is mentioned by Godfrey Higgins in his notable work
"The Anacalypsis," or "An attempt to withdraw the Veil of the Isis of Sais,"
which was published in 1836; he remarks that he did not join the old College
there referred to.
About fifty years earlier a certain eminent Jew named Falk, or Dr. Falcon, lived
in London (a reference to whom will be found in the "Encyclopaedia of
Freemasonry" by Kenneth Mackenzie) and was of high repute as a teacher of the
kabalah and of other studies of a Rosicrucian character; he was indeed said to
have magical powers. Falk could not have fully affiliated to any Rosicrucian
College because he was a strict Jew of the Jews, and the members of all true
Rosicrucian Colleges have always been Christians, but perhaps not of an orthodox
type, for there was a tendencv in the teachings toward Gnostic ideals. Mackenzie
classes Dr. Falk among the Rosicrucians of eminence, and certainly told me he
had first hand evidence of his connection with the Society; manv Christian
students adopted a modification of the old Jewish kabalah, so perhaps some Jews
have been allied to the Christian Rosicrucians.
Our own Magus Frater R. W. Little surrounded himself with several other notable
Rosicrucian students, of whom I may mention the late Supreme Magus in Anglia,
Dr. William Robert Woodman, a learned Kabalist and Hebrew scholar; W.J. Hughan,
the great Masonic historian; William Carpenter, editor of Calmet's "Dictionary
of the Bible"; Alphonse Constant, better known as "Eliphaz Levi," who gave
Fratres Little and Kenneth Mackenzie much assistance, and was in return elected
an honorary member of the Metropolitan College in 1873. Our Society
unfortunately lost Frater Little at a very early age. Frater H. C. Levander,
too, a Professor at University College, London, was a learned member; and took
great interest in the mystic lore of the Society.
The late Lord Lytton, the author of "Zanoni" and "The Strange Story," who was in
1871 Grand Patron of our Society, took very great interest in this form of
Philosophy, although he never reached the highest degree of knowledge; for
public reasons he once made a disavowal of his membership of the Rosicrucians,
but he had been admitted as a Frater of the German Rosicrucian College at
Frankfort on the Main; that Coliege was closed after 1850.
Among the Fratres who have recently been ornaments to our Colleges, I may draw
attention to the lately deceased and quaintly cultured John Yarker of Didsbury;
to our late Adept of York, T. B. Whytehead, who was famous as an antiquarian: to
Frater Fendelow of the Newcastle College, who was the author of a learned and
suggestive Rosicrucian Lecture: to Frater F. F. Schnitger, who made deep
researches into the French and German Rosicrucian Treatises: to Samuel Liddell
Mathers, the translator of portions of the Hebrew "Zohar," and to Frederick
Holland, the author of "The Temple Rebuilt," and "The Shekinah Revealed."
Another deceased Frater of eminence was Benjamin Cox of Weston-super-Mare, and
with him I naturally couple the greater name of Frater Major F. G. Irwin, who,
however has now also gone to a Temple far away.
Among the learned juniors of our Society, I may name Fratres Dr. Vaughan
Bateson, Thomas Henry Pattinson, the Rev. C. E. Wright, Sir John A. Cockburn, W.
J. Songhurst, Herbert Burrows, A. Cadbury Jones, W. Wonnacott, Dr. Wm Hammond,
Dr. B. J. Edwards, and Dr. W. C. Blaker.
Our Colleges need not languish for want of subjects of study; the narrative of
the foundation of our Society is singularly suggestive of points for future
investigation. The German "Fama Fraternitatis" of 1614, in an English
translation by Thomas Vaughan of 1652, presents you with the History of
Christian Rosenkreuz: its companion tract the "Confessio Fraternitatis"
gives you a slight insight into the views of the Rosicrucians of a date a
hundred years later. The "Chymische Hochzeit" or "Chemical Wedding" by C.R., and
the "Secret Symbols of the Rosicrucians" by F. Hartman, are tractates of
Rosicrucian Allegory which will well repay, not only perusal, but deep study;
while the elucidation of the whole set of Medieval Divinatory Sciences,
Astrology, Geomancy, etc, are suitable themes for lectures in your College For
such as can understand medieval Latin a most interesting work is the "Oedipus
Aegyptiacus" of Athanasius Kircher. It is desirable that our
students should make themselves acquainted with the Ancient Mysteries of Egypt,
of Greece and of Rome. The basis of the Western occultism of medieval Europe is
the Kabalah of the medieval Hebrew Rabbis, to which I have published "An
Introduction." This philosophy, although at first sight barbarous and crude, yet
will be found, when one has grown familiar with the nomenclature, to be a
concrete, coherent and far-reaching scheme of Theology, cosmology, ethics and
metaphysics, serving to throw light on many obscure Biblical passages and to
suggest original views of the meaning of most of the allegorical descriptions
found in the Old Testament. A copy of a very curious old Kabalistic picture from
a Syriac Gospel with a descriptive essay by Dr. Carnegie Dickson, a notable
Scotch Rosicrucian Adept, has just been given to our Library.
The works of the great Rosicrucian Kabalist, Eliphaz Levi, are, to those who
read French with ease, a mine of mystic lore, full of fine imagery, and replete
with magical formulas. His "Histoire de la Magie" is a storehouse of information
relating to the Secret Sciences and Secret Fraternities of all times and among
many nations, while in English the two volumes of the new edition of
Heckethorn's "Secret Societies" should he read as an introduction to deeper
personal research.
The work of Franz Hartmann, named "Magic, White and Black," I can recommend to
serious enquirers, for it elucidates the real aims of the Higher Magic, with
which alone we are concerned, and it clears away many misconceptions which exist
in the minds of the uninitiated.
To such as desire to follow more closely the Old Testament religious element, I
should advise a perusal of the Commentaries of Dr. Allen Barnes on "Daniel" and
"The Book of Revelation," and the symbolical descriptions of the book of
Ezekiel. On the Christian aspect I recommend "The Perfect Way," or "The Finding
of Christ," by the late Dr. A. Kingsford; in this volume will be found worked
out the broader scheme of Christian teaching which is so apt to be obscured by
sectarian forms of worship. The tenets of this work are closely approximate to
those of the earliest of the followers of Christian Rosencreuz, whose name was
probably a mystic title, motto or synonym, and not a family cognomen:-
"Christian" referring to the general theological tendency, and "Rosenkreuz" to
the Cross of Suffering whose explanation and key may need a Rose or secret
explanation.
There is one doctrine for the learned, and a simpler formula for those who are
unable to bear it yet, even as the new testament itself tells us, of the Great
Master who taught his immediate disciples the true keys, but to others he spake
only in parables,--"and without a parable spake he not unto them."
Such, my Fratres, are suitable subjects for the attention of your members, but
there are many allied topics which might form suitable centres of interest and
instruction, for example the whole range of church architecture as crystalised
symbolism, the dogmas of the Gnostics, the several systems of philosophy of the
Hindoos, the paralleiism between Rosicrucian doctrine and Eastern Theosophy, for
which read Max Heindel's "Rosicrucian Cosmo Conception," and that enticing
subject, the origin and meaning of the 22 Trumps or symbolic designs of the "Tarocchi"
or pack of Tarot cards, which Eliphaz Levi says form a group of keys which will
unlock every secret of Theology and Cosmology. For such as are interested in the
Alchemy of the past I recommend a perusal of "A Suggestive Enquiry into the
Hermetic Mystery" 1850, by an anonymous author, and E. A. Hitchcock's "Remarks
on Alchemy and the Alchemists," 1857. And, lastly, we may make researches into
that most interesting problem--Did Speculative Masonry arise from the
Rosicrucians? I am to understand that the German Rosicrucians say that before
the Masonic revival of 1717 these were identical in Europe.
Let us not forget, that not only as Rosicrucians, but even as Freemasons, we are
pledged, not only to Brotherhood and Benevolence, but also to look below the
surface of things, and to seek and to search out the hidden secrets of Nature
and of Science. Let us bear in mind that a little knowledge is a dangerous
thing, but that deeper study reveals the roots of knowledge, as well as
increases our store of information. Let us not, with folded arms, float with the
tide of indolence, but ever strive after increase of that true knowledge which
is wisdom and remember that "to labour is to pray," or as the Latin motto has
it, "Laborare est Orare," for the day is coming to each one of us when no man
can work, and the value of the work of each man will be tried in the balance of
justice, and if we have done well we shall gain a rich reward.
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