Rosicrucianism has a complex and intricate history. We covered its inception in the 17th century in a previous episode and here we’re going to tackle its developments in the 18th century. The influential role of the Order of the Golden and Rosy Cross, the interest Goethe took in Rosicrucianism and the connection with Freemasonry.
Have I sparked your interest? Come along and let’s find out!
Hello everyone, I’m Dr Angela Puca and welcome to my Symposium. I’m a PhD and a University Lecturer and this is your online resource for the academic study of Magic, Paganism, Shamanism, Esotericism, and all things occult.
Today’s episode is brought to you by the supporter of the Symposium, Refining Fusion! Thank you so much for commissioning this video and I hope you find it interesting!
Now, let’s dive into the 18th-century Rosicrucian movement.
In 1710, about a century after the original Rosicrucian manifestos, Samuel Richter published in Breslau, under the pseudonym Sincerus Renatus, a book whose title included the term ‘Golden’ in association to ‘Rose Cross’(Edighoffer, 2006, pp.1014–1017).
[Die wahrhaffte und vollkommene Beschreibung des philosophischen Steins der Bruderschaft aus dem Orden des Gülden und Rosenkreutzes denen Filiis Doctrinae zum Besten publiciret].
This was possibly intended to reframe the meaning of the original myth by emphasising the alchemical Theo-Philosophia Theoretico-Practica, which could be confirmed by the title of a work published by Sincerus Renatus in 1711.
To the 1710 book, he added fifty-two articles on the practical organization and continuation of what he called the “Society of the Golden and Rosy Cross”.
At its head would stand an imperator appointed for life. The members, differently from those of the original Rose Cross described in the manifestos, could be Catholic. Members could not marry but were allowed to have sexual relations if their desire was too intense.
– how do you get if your desire is too intense though? Isn’t every desire…
Anyway… Some of these articles mentioned the brothers’ alchemical powers and their ability to materialise the philosopher’s stone, precious gems and pearls and to rejuvenate and renew themselves. There’s an emphasis in the preface on the divine character of true alchemy, whose goal is the purification of Man and Nature.
Interestingly, we now know that a Society of the Golden and Rosy Cross did not exist at the time when this book was published.
The complete works of Sincerus Renatus appeared later in 1741, highlighting regeneration and alchemy as a secondary vocation while warning that the “theosophical doctrines” must not be read with the eyes of reason but rather with those of the spirit. The title of the complete edition, Theo-Philosophia Theoretico-Practica, is explained by a sentence in the preface (p. 134): ‘We say that philosophy without true theology has nothing enduring in it’. Referring to the Paracelsian doctrine of “signatures”, the author states that God manifests himself through nature as the soul manifests itself through the body (p. 286).
This shows that from around 1750, a “Rosicrucian Tradition” henceforth came to be opposed to the rationalism that, notably in the case of Helvetius, led to a materialistic atheism.
In 1751 Germany, doctor Johann Ludolph printed a new edition of Conrad Orvius’s Occulta Philosophia, first published in 1737, claiming it to be from a Rosicrucian society in Holland.
In 1761, a member of the “Assembly of Prague” published a text [Aureum Vellus seu Iunioratus Fratrum Rosae Crucis] containing the statutes, rituals and membership list of a “Society of the Golden and Rosy Cross”; though this document repeats several words from the work published in 1749 by Hermann Fictuld, who’s often considered the founder of this order.
In 1762 France, Baron Schoudy, originally from Metz, established the Adonhiramite Freemasonry, the seventh grade of which was called Knight of the Rose Cross or of the “unknown philosopher”, thus introducing a Rosicrucian affinity to articulating itself in lodges.
From a later controversy, it appears that the first creation of a Rosicrucian order in Germany can be dated from 1763.
[between doctor Bernhard Joseph Schleis von L Wenfeld and baron von Ecker und Eckhofen, the author of a pamphlet published in 1782 under the title Der Rosenkreuzer in seine Blosse (The Rosicrucian in his Nakedness)]
A professor of medicine at the University of Marburg, Friedrich Joseph Wilhelm Schroder (1733-1778), between 1766 and 1774 fostered a significant activity within the circles of Rosicrucians that existed at the time. Interesting to notice that Ralph Christian Zimmermann has assembled documentation strongly suggesting that the Swabian Pietist Friedrich Christoph Oetinger (1702-1782), who theorised a “philosophia sacra”, had connections with the founders of Order of the Golden and Rosy Cross due to a work published in 1772 that seems to show some theoretical influence on the order.
Interesting to notice that the poet and novelist Goethe took an interest in the Rosicrucian myth. He read the novel ‘Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz’ and was clearly influenced by Rosicrucian symbolism in writing – around 1786 – his ‘The Mysteries’ [Die Geheimnisse] and how the pilgrim Brother Markus reaches an idealized Montserrat. A monastic order – which appears as a mix of the Templars, the community of the Holy Grail and the Rosicrucian Society. Here displaying the figure of the Humanus as prior. This is a symbol of the Total Man, destined to accomplish the new Easter, Passover, of a humanity finally reconciled, and promote the synthesis of all forms of religiosity; Christian, Masonic or Spinozist.
In 1782, Goethe was accepted into the Inner Order of the high grades of the Strict Observance, and the following year he entered, with Duke Charles-August de Weimar, the Bavarian Order of the Illuminaten, whose purpose was to combat the ‘enemies of reason and of humanity’.The Bavarian Illuminaten were not keen on the Rosicrucians, whose alchemical theories were opposed to scientific materialism and who had now gained a significant influence in Freemasonry. Indeed the proliferation of numerous texts, editions and reprints on Rosicrucianism in the late 18th century testifies to the interest of many readers in Christian theosophy and testifies to the prominent role that the “Golden Rosicrucianism” had come to play in Freemasonry.
Roland Edighoffer explains that – ‘According to some of these publications – Master Masons possessed no more than a “reflection of the Light” and had, therefore, access only to the outer Temple. As adepts of the philosophia perennis, the Rosicrucians considered themselves heirs to a gnosis transmitted by the angels to one of Noah’s descendants, who had not participated in building the Tower of Babel; and Abraham had benefited from a supernatural knowledge subsequently cultivated by Nazarean Magi. Moses had been initiated in Egypt, and the tradition had been nurtured by the great biblical prophets, the adepts of the Eleusinian mysteries, the Pythagoreans, the Druids and the Bards.
In Egypt, where St Mark preached the Gospel, an Alexandrian priest named Ormus had been baptized in the year 46 together with six other adepts. His name was a deformation of Ormazd, the god of light and goodness, who had revealed the mysteries of Mazdaism to the great prophet Zoroaster. Still, according to the same legend, Ormus, once converted to Christianity, had founded the Society of the Sages of Light, whose symbol was a gold and red cross. Its members, established in Palestine, had left the country in 1118 after the defeat of the Crusaders and had spread all over the world. Three of them had created in Scotland “The Scottish Order of the ‘Builders of the East’”, as a foundation for their confraternity.
Ramon Llull had been one of its directors, and King Edward I (1239-1307) one of its members and descendants of the families of Lancaster and York, whose coats of arms comprised of a white rose and a red rose. (cf. the War of the Roses), were members as well. It was from these blazons, blended with Ormusian Christianity, that the name Rosicrucian had been derived. Over the centuries, the Order had declined, until Cromwell reactivated it and changed the denomination of “Constructors” into “Freemasons”. This legend thus strongly emphasized the precedence of the Rosicrucians with respect to the Freemasons, who were considered no more than spiritual descendants of the former, and who possessed merely a reflection of the true Light of the ancient Rosicrucian tradition’ (Edighoffer, 2006, pp.1016).
The ideology of the Golden Rosicrucians of the Ancient System certainly influenced the Rosicrucian tradition, which continued throughout the following century and has had an impact on the opposition to Enlightenment rationalism characteristic of the German movement of Sturm und Drang as well as European Romanticism.
This is it for today’s video. Thank you again Refining Fusion for reaching out and commissioning a video on this topic.
This is it for today’s video. Thank you again Refining Fusion for reaching out and commissioning a video on this topic.
As for you, my kind viewer, if you like my content and want me to keep the academic fun going, please consider sending a one-time PayPal donation, joining Memberships or my Inner Symposium on Patreon, where you will get access to our Discord server, monthly lectures and lots of other perks depending on your chosen tier.
And if you did like this video, don’t forget to SMASH the like button, subscribe to the channel, activate the notification bell so you will never miss a new upload from me.
And as always, stay tuned for all the Academic Fun!
Bye for now.
REFERENCES
Edighoffer, R. 2006. Rosicrucianism II: 18th Century In: W. J. Hanegraaff, ed. Dictionary of Gnosis and Western Esotericism. Leiden, London: Brill, pp.1014–1017.
First uploaded 5 Feb 2022