Chapter 2

C. Agrippa here adds the following instructions, copied

✦

from Boethius : —

“ The guides on the road to perfection are Faith, Hope, and
Charity, and the means to attain this object are Purity, Temperance,
Self-control, Chastity, Tranquility of Mind, Contemplation , Adora-
tion (Ecstasy), Aspiration, and Virtue.”

If the highest state of spiritual development is attained,
the spirit, endowed with the highest spiritual activity of the
soul, attracts the truth, and perceives and knows at once the
conditions, causes, and effects of all external and internal,
natural and divine things. It sees them within the eternal
truth like in a mirror of Eternity. By this process Man,
while he still remains in eternal nature, may know all that
exists in the internal and external world, and see all things,

Mediceval Philosophers.

not merely those which are, but also those which have been,
or which will exist in the future, and, moreover, by being
united and identified with the divine power ( The Logos'), he
obtains the power to change things by the power of his
(spiritual) Word. Thus man being within nature may be
above her and control her laws.”

Those who are able to read the works of Cornelius
Agrippa by the light of internal reason, will see that a single
page of his books contains more wisdom than whole libraries
filled with the speculations and theories of our modern
philosophers, and his name and doctrines will be remembered
and admired when all the illusions and hallucinations of
the latter will have sunk into the oblivion which they
deserve.

In the Pronaos of the Temple of Wisdom.

AMONG THE “ ADEPTS.”

A belief in the existence of persons endowed with
abnormal or extraordinary psychic faculties or magical
powers, by which they can produce wonderful effects, such
as are not to be explained by the commonly accepted
theories of external science, is nothing new. The Bible and
tbe “ Acta Sanctorum ” are full of accounts of so-called
“ miracles,” a term which signifies something wonderful,
but for all that not anything contrary to the laws of nature.
Such “ wonders ” are performed by the power of the
spiritually awakened will. The Yoga philosophy gives a
specification of these powers, and describes how they may
be acquired.

To those powers belongs the art of making oneself invisible ;
of leaving one’s body at will and returning to it again ; of
projecting one’s soul to a distant place ; of prolonging
physical life for a long period of time ; of transforming base
metals into pure gold by alchemical means ; of creating sub-
jective illusions which appear to the spectators as objective
realities, and of performing numerous other feats, such as
belong to the department of Magic, white or black.

There is sufficient evidence going to show that during the
time of the Middle Ages there were numerous people exist-
ing in whom such psychic faculties had been more or less
developed. It was a time during which the imagination of
the people as a whole was more active and more directed
toward the supersensual and metaphysical aspect of the
world. There was more of the true faith, and likewise more
superstition to be found than at present, and faith as well
as fear are active powers, capable to produce results on the
astral plane. From the true faith, the result of spiritual
knowledge, spring the powers of the Adept ; from fear and
superstition, the phenomena of obsession and sorcery.
Persons in possession of magic powers, and especially thos

Among the “Adepts."

who were supposed to know the secrets of Alchemy, were
called “ Adepts,” “ Rosicrucians,” or “ Philosophers,” and
the greatest of them were supposed to belong to some
secret and mysterious society, called “ the Brotherhood of the
Golden and Rosy Cross."

If we allow a great deal of poetical liberty in the descrip-
tions of the members of this fabulous order, charging it to
the fruitful imagination of the writers living at the time of
the “ knights errant,” nevertheless, there remains a con-
siderable amount of historical evidence going to show that
there were persons endowed with abnormal powers;
although there is no evidence whatever that they were
united among themselves by any external association or
sect. Neither would such a farce ever be necessary among
those whose internal senses were opened, and who would
be drawn together by the ties of the spirit. Having the
power of interior perception, they would surely not need any
external passwords and signs. The true brothers of the
Golden and Rosy Cross were and still are a spiritual society,
and therefore the efforts made at that time of finding a real
and living, indisputably true Rosicrucian, were as unavailing
as was at a more recent period the effort made by a certain
London society of proving the existence of real and living
Adepts.

The Rosicrucians have been celebrated in prose
and in verse ; and their virtues have been extolled
by some, while others have denounced them as
impostors. Some writers describe them as beings of a
superior character, possessed of apparently supernatural
knowledge and powers, as men of noble appearance and
exercising an invisible but irresistible influence over-
all with whom they come into contact. They describe
them as having the power to read the hearts of men, and to
cure the diseases of their bodies by wonderful medicines,
or merely by the touch of their hands. They are loved by
all and they love all ; but their hearts are invulnerable to
sexual love. They never marry. They are sometimes

In the Proncios of the Temple of Wisdom.

described as being of fabulous age, and still appearing in
the full vigour of manhood ; as being great travellers and
speaking the language of each country where they
temporarily reside, as fluently and correctly as if it were
their own native tongue; as possessing the power of render-
ing themselves invisible, and again, as often appearing
unexpectedly, when their presence is most urgently needed.
They are possessed of immense treasures, and have the
power to transmute base metals into gold, and yet they
despise riches and are contented to live in poverty. They
are the wisest of all men, and the knowledge of even the
most learned cannot be compared with what they know.
They do nothing whatever for the purpose of obtaining
fame, for the}' are dead to ambition ; nevertheless their fame
spreads wherever they appear. They are universally
honoured, but they seek not for honour, and prefer to remain
unnoticed. Palaces are at their disposal, but they prefer the
hut of a beggar. They are not proud of their personal
attributes, but it is the majesty of the divine principle
manifesting itself in them, and shining even through the
material envelope called the physical body, which sur-
rounds them with an aura commanding the respect and
veneration of all who approach. The glory of supermun-
dane light which shines through their forms is so great that
they may even appear luminous in darkness.*

* Before us is a paper, printed in Leipzig, dated May 26th, 1761, which
gives the latest news from Koln (Cologne). It says : “ The two prophets
who have been imprisoned in this place are still keeping the attention of
our citizens on the alert. The court has not yet decided what shall be
done. It is useless to chain them, because they possess the wonderful
power of bursting even the strongest chains, as if they were threads of
linen, and they have done so in the presence of many. They can even in
the darkest night see all objects in their prison, because there is an un-
earthly light shining around their heads and coming out of their eyes, which
illuminates their surroundings. They seem to be young men, and yet
they say that they were at Constantinople in the year 1453, at the time of
Mohamed II. ; they say that they were intimately acquainted with the
last Christian emperor at that place, Constantine Palaeologus, and they
are in possession of letters written by him and his wife and sister. They
say that at the time when they were at Constantinople they were already
over 300 years of age. They speak Persian and Chinese and other languages
fluently ; they live on nothing but a little bread and water. They per-

Among the “Adepts."

The following is taken from a book entitled “ Hermippus
Redivivus," which we will abbreviate as much as possible.

The Sieur Paul Lucas, who, by the order of Louis XIV.,
travelled through Greece and Africa in search of antiquities,
says, “ Being at Broussa, we went to a little mosque, We
were introduced into a cloister, where we found four
Dervishes, who invited us to their dinner. One of these,
who said that he was of the country of the Usbeks (a Tartar
tribe) appeared to me more learned than the rest ; and I verily
believe he spoke all the languages of the world. After we had
conversed for a time in the Turkish language, he asked me
whether I could speak Latin, Spanish or Italian. We then
spoke in Italian ; but he noticed by my accent that this was
not my mother tongue, and when I told him that I was a
native of France, he spoke to me in as good French as if he
had been brought up at Paris. I asked him how long he had
stayed in France, and he answered that he had never been
there, but that he desired to visit that country. This man
was so learned that, judging from his discourse, he seemed
to have lived at least a century; but according to his
external appearance he was not more than thirty years of age.

“ He told us that he was one of seven friends who had
wandered all over the world with a view of perfecting their
studies ; that at parting they always appointed another
meeting at the end of twenty years in a certain town, and
that the first who came would wait for the rest. I perceived
that Broussa was the place appointed for their present meet-
ing. There were a few of them present already, and they
seemed to converse with each other with a freedom which
spoke of old acquaintance rather than merely accidental
meeting. We spoke of religion, natural philosophy,
chemistry, alchemy and the Kabala. I told him that the
latter, and especially the notion of the ‘ Philosopher’s

formed some wonderful cures in the neighbouring villages before they
were arrested ; savage dogs and wild animals appear to treat them with
reverence ; they seem to be well acquainted with the books written by the
ancient philosophers, and talk about Pythagoras with great respect. We
do not know what to think about these men. Etc., etc.”

In the Pronaos of the Temple of Wisdom.

Stone/ were considered by modern savants as mere
chimeras. He seemed to know all about it, and
answered : ‘ The true sage hears all things without being
scandalized at them ; but though he may have so much
politeness as not to shock any ignorant person by his denial
when they talk of such things ; yet, let me ask you whether
you think that he is obliged to sink his understanding to a
level with vulgar minds because they are not able to raise
their thoughts to an altitude equal to his ? When I speak of
a sage, I mean that kind of a man to whom alone the title
“ philosopher ” properly belongs. He has no sort of tie to
the world ; he sees all things die and revive without con-
cern ; he has more riches in his power than the greatest of
kings, but he tramples them under his feet, and this
generous contempt sets him even in the midst of indigence
above the power of events.’

“ I said : 1 With all these fine maxims, the sage dies as well
as other people. What imports it, therefore, to me when I
die, to have been either a fool or a philosopher, if wisdom
has no prerogative over folly, and one is no more a shield
against death than the other ? '

“ 1 Alas ! ’ he answered, 1 I see you are absolutely
unacquainted with our sublime science, and have never

known true philosophy. Learn from me, then, my

friend, that such an one as I have described dies

indeed, for death is a debt which Nature enacts,

and from which therefore no man can be exempt ;
yet he dies not before his utmost time is fixed. But
then you must observe that this period approaches near
a thousand years, and to the end of that time a sage may
live. He arrives at that end through the knowledge he has
of the true medicine. Thus he is able to ward off whatever
may impede the animal functions of his body or injure the
temperature of his nature ; and is enabled to acquire the
knowledge of whatever comes within the cognizance of man.

“Aboriginal man knew the secrets of Nature by the use of
his reason, but it was this same reason which blotted his

Among the “Adepts.”

knowledge again from his mind, for having attained this
kind of natural knowledge, he began to mingle with it his
own notions and ideas. This created a confusion which
was the effect of a foolish curiosity, and he reduced thereby
the work of the Creator to a state of imperfection ; and this
is the error which the true sage attempts to redress. The
other animals act only by their instinct, which they have
preserved as they obtained it at first, and they live as long
»ow as they did when they first came into existence. Man
is a great deal more perfect than they ; but has he still pre-
served that prerogative which he had in the beginning, or
has he not lost long ago the glorious privilege of living a
thousand years, which, with so much care, he should have
studied to preserve ? This the true sages have accomplished,
and that you may no more be led into mistakes, let me,
assure you that this is what they call the Philosopher3 s Stone
which is not a chimerical science, but a real thing. It is,
however, known to a few only, and indeed it is impossible
that it should be made known to the most of mankind, whom
avarice or debauchery destroys, or whom an impetuous desire
of life prematurely kills.’

“ ' Surprised at all I heard, I said : ‘ Would you, then,
persuade me that all who have possessed the Philosopher’s
Stone have likewise lived a thousand years ? ’ ‘ Without

doubt,' answered he, gravely, ‘ for whenever a mortal is
favoured with that blessing, it depends entirely on his own
will whether he shall reach that age of a thousand years, as
in his state of innocence the first man might have done.’

“ I took the liberty to mention the illustrious Flamel, who,
I said, had possessed the Philosopher’s Stone, but was now
dead as far as I knew. As I mentioned that name, he
smiled at my simplicity, and said with an air of mirth : ‘ Do
you really believe Flamel is dead ? No, no, my friend, do not
deceive yourself, for Flamel is living still. It is not above
three years ago since I left him and his wife in the Indies,
and he is one of my best friends.’ He was going to tell me
how he made Hamel’s acquaintance, but stopping himself, he

In the Pronoos of the Temple of Wisdom.

said : ‘ That is little to the purpose. I will rather give you
his true history with respect to which, in your country, I
daresay, you are not very well acquainted.’

“ A little before the time of Flamel there was a
Jew of our fraternity; but as through his whole life
he had a most ardent affection for his family, he could
not help desiring to see them after it once came to
his knowledge that they were settled in France. We fore-
saw the danger of his voyage, and did all we could to
persuade him not to undertake that journey. We succeeded
for a while in detaining him ; but at last the passion of see-
ing his family grew so strong upon him that he went. At
the time of his departure, he made us a solemn promise to
return to us as soon as it was possible. He arrived at Paris,
and found there his father’s descendants in the highest
esteem among the Jews. There was also a Rabbi, who
was a true philosopher at heart, and who had long been in
search of the great secret. Our friend did not hesitate to
make himself known to his relatives, he entered into friendly
relations with them, and gave them an abundance of light.

“ ' But as the matter requires a long time to prepare it,
he put into writing the whole process, and, to convince his
nephew that he had not told him falsehoods, he made the
“ projection ” in his presence of some ninety pounds of base
metal, and turned it into pure gold. The Rabbi, full of
admiration, did all he could to persuade our brother to
remain with him, but in vain ; for the latter had made up his
mind not to break the promise to return to us. When the
Jew found this out, he changed his affection into hatred, and
his avarice stifling the admonitions of his conscience, he
resolved to extinguish one of the lights of the universe.
Dissembling his black design, he begged the sage to remain
with him only for a few days. He then executed his
execrable purpose of murdering our brother, and made
himself master of his medicine.

“ ‘ Such horrible actions never remain very long
unpunished. Some other crimes he had committed came to

Among the “ Adepts.”

light, the Jew was imprisoned, convicted, and burned
alive.

“ ‘ Soon after this a persecution of the Jews began in France.
Flamel, who was more reasonable than his enraged country-
men, and whose honesty was known, became a friend of
the Jews, and a Jewish merchant entrusted him with all his
books and papers, among which were those of the criminal
who had been burned alive, and also the book of our brother ;
which had never been carefully examined by the merchant.
When Flamel examined that book, his curiosity became
aroused by certain figures contained therein, and he began
to suspect that it contained great secrets. He got the first
leaf, which was written in Hebrew translated, and from the
little he learned from that, he became convinced that his
suspicion was well founded ; but knowing also that great
caution was necessary, he took the following steps : He

went into Spain, and, as Jews were settled in many parts
of that country, he applied in every place to which he came
to the most learned, and engaged each of them to translate
a leaf of the book. Having thus obtained a translation of
the whole, he returned to France. When he came home, he
undertook with his wife the prescribed labours, and in the
progress of time they arrived at the secret, by which they
acquired immense riches, which they employed in building
public edifices, and in doing good to a great many people.

“ ‘ Fame is often accompanied by great dangers ; but a true
sage knows how to extricate himself from all kind of perils.
Flamel saw that he was in danger of being suspected to
possess the Philosopher’s Stone, a suspicion which might
have caused the loss of his liberty, if not that of his life, and
he thought of means to escape all danger. By his advice, his
wife pretended to be dangerously sick, and when it was re-
poi ted that she had died, she had already safely passed the
fiontier ol Switzerland. They buried in her place a wooden
image in one of the churches which he had founded. Some
time afterwards he used the same stratagem for himself and
joined his wife. \ ou know that there could have been no

In the Pronaos of the Temple of Wisdom.

great difficulty in doing this, since in every country, if a
man has sufficient money, physicians and priests are always
at his service, ready to say or do whatever he directs them.
He moreover left a last will and testament, directing that a
pyramid should be erected to his memory and that of his
wife. Since that time both have led a philosophic life, resid-
ing sometimes in one country and sometimes in another.
This, depend upon my word, is the true history of Flamel
and his wife.’ ”

The well-known fact that the Adepts and alchemists
of the middle ages were continually subject to persecutions,
to imprisonment, punishment, torture and death, is the cause
that the names of only few of them became publicly known.
One reputed alchemist was the Count dc Saint Germain t
who lived in 1770 at the Court of France. He appeared
to be about forty years of age ; some said he was ninety,
he himself gave his age as being 370 years. He possessed
the art of making artificial diamonds and precious stones,
he was clairvoyant, could read people’s thoughts and fore-
tell future events. He possessed an “ album,” in which
many of the most celebrated persons of the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries had signed their names ; he was able to
write with both hands at one and the same time, with each
on different subjects.

A somewhat similar character was the Count Cagliostr%
whose physical form was born in Italy and received the name
Giuseppe Balsamo. The latter was incarcerated in the castle
San Angelo at Rome, and is believed to have died in one of
its dungeons. The problem of Cagliastro will not be solved
by our historians until they study the true nature of man
in its normal and abnormal aspects, when they may, perhaps,
discover the fact that two personalities may inhabit one
physical organism, and that a man may, perhaps, be a Cagli-
ostro at one time and a Balsamo at another.*

* Whether or not the body of a person may be inhabited simultaneously
or alternatively by two different individualities, may be a matter for doubt ;
but the phenomena of obsession and hypnotism go to show that this is
not impossible. Cagliostro said that he was born in the East, and it is

Among the “ Adepts." 5o

I have carefully read the proceedings of the trial of the
renowned Count Cagliostro before the tribunal of the inquisi-
tion in Rome, and I have found no proof whatever of his
having been an impostor. 1 o everyone acquainted with even
the elementary teachings of occultism, the phenomena
which occurred in his presence do not appear at all unex-
plainable, or as having baen the products of imposture ; but
what appears wonderful is the illogical consequence and
ignorance of the witnesses for the prosecution, who admit
the occurrence of phenomena in his presence, which could
not have been produced by his tricks, while in the same
breath they denounce him to be an impostor.

To arts of this kind belongs that of making pure gold
or silver artificially, of transforming base metals into nobler
ones; of preparing a Universal Panacea out of the principle
of Life ; of curing all diseases ; of preparing a lamp which,
by the manner in which it burns, indicates the state of health
of an absent friend, with whom it is sympathetically con-
nected ; of producing a similar sympathetic or magnetic con-
nection between a person and a jewel, a tree, or a mirror; of
producing a living miniature image of the world in a closed
glass globe ; of causing the forms of vegetables or animals
to reappear out of their ashes after they have been burnt ;.
of producing artificially man (Homunculi) without the
assistance of a female organism ; of preparing a fluid, which
rises and falls within the bottle where it is contained,,
according to the increasing or decreasing moon ; of preparing
a glass wherein it will thunder, and lightning will appear,.

certain that he had connections there ; nevertheless, it was proved that he
was born in Italy, and that his name was Balsamo. This would, of
course, convict him at once among the ignorant of his times and among
our writers of encyclopaedias as being an impostor. Nevertheless, a more
definite knowledge of the true constitution of man might explain the
mystery. That which is the fundamental reality in man, is the will. The
phenomena of so-called hypnotism show that the will of one person may
be made to act in another, and during the time that a person is obsessed
by the will of another, he is also under the influence of the memory of the
latter. Those acquainted with occult laws will not find it incredible that
the person of Balsamo was influenced and used by some eastern human
spirit, whose name was Cagliostro, and that during such times Balsamo
believed himself to be, and actually was, Cagliostro. Modern spiritualism
has a legion of similar facts.

■6o In the Pronaos of the Temple of Wisdom.

whenever the same takes place in the air ; of producing an
inextinguishable magic fire, an ever-burning lamp ; a magic
mirror, where events can be seen taking place in any
other part of the world ; a perpetuum mobile , whose rotation
is caused by. the rotation of the earth ; a divining rod, for
finding water or minerals, or whatever one wishes to find ;
a magic ring, which warns the wearer of any approaching
danger, and reveals to him many secrets; of causing love
or hate at will ; of making pearls, diamonds, or any other
jewels, which cannot be distinguished from natural ones, or
causing them to grow larger ; of obtaining power over the
elemental spirits of Nature and causing them to render
services ; of causing the astral spectres of dead persons
to appear and talk and answer questions, and many other
similar feats, too numerous to mention.

We call that wonderful which is not within our experience,
and the causes of which we cannot explain ; we are daily
surrounded by marvels, and witnessing the most marvellous
phenomena, the causes of which we cannot explain ; but we
do not look at them with a sceptical eye, nor are we at all
surprised that they occur. On the contrary, we should be
extremely surprised if they once ceased to occur; this
merely because we are accustomed to see such things every
day. We are surrounded by phenomena of an occult and
magic nature, and we live in a laboratory of alchemy. We
see how out of a hard little stone — kernel or seed — a germ
appears, and grows into a big tree, although we are sure that
there was no such tree in the kernel ; and what would be
still more astonishing if it were not of daily occurrence, is
that out of a certain kind of seed a certain species of plant
only will grow, and no other. We see how out of an egg a
living bird appears, and yet if we examine the same kind of
egg as long as it is fresh, and open it, we find therein
nothing living, and nothing that resembles a bird. We also
know that the parent bird does not put a bird into the egg
after it is laid, for we may hatch out eggs by artificial heat,
and thus produce birds out of the egg, and there is surely

Among the “ Adepts!'

6 1

no bird in the heat. We see how out of a vegetable
substance animal substance can grow, for we feed oui cattle
on grass, hay, and corn, and yet we are certain that there is
no flesh in the grass or corn. We see the ever-burning
light of the sun spending its heat year after year. We
know of nobody who supplies him with fuel, and yet it seems
to have always the same temperature. We know that the
globe whereon we live revolves and flies with tremendous
velocity through space, and yet we do not feel it move, nor
do we fall head foremost down in the abyss of space when
at night it turns the dark side away from the sun ; we see
that the storm blows down houses and trees, and yet that
which does the damage is nothing but thin air; we see
the body of water of our rivers and lakes, and if we
attempt to step on its surface we sink ; but a few weeks or
months afterwards we may try it again and find it as hard
as rock, able to bear the weight of the skating crowd.
There are a thousand other similar marvels in Nature, too
numerous to mention.

There are many stories told of these Adepts, and
the wonderful things they sometimes performed ; how,
in mid-winter, they caused beautiful flowers to grow
out of the floor of a room, or produced a shower of roses
in places where no roses were to be found; how some of
them were seen simultaneously in two different places,
speaking and acting in each ; how they sometimes were
attended and served by “supernatural” beings appearing in
human forms ; how they were sometimes able to read the
future, or see what was going on at a place hundreds of
miles away from them ; how they could speak languages
which they had never studied ; knew the contents of books-
which they had never read ; could swallow poison without
being harmed ; make themselves invisible and visible at
will, etc., etc. But the most interesting parts of our
research, and at the same time the most pertinent to our
object in view, will be historical accounts referring to their
ability to make pure gold in an artificial manner — or, to speak

In the Pronaos of the Temple of Wisdom.

more correctly, to transmute other metals into gold, and
make gold grow. We shall therefore give a few abbreviated
accounts of such authenticated facts : —

i. The following account is taken from the acta of
the judicial faculty of Leipzig, whose legal decision was
given in August, 1715. (Responsio Juridica Facultatis
Juridicae Lipsiensis.) A few years ago a man arrived late
in the evening at the residence of the Countess of
Erbach, the castle of Tanka stein, and asked to be per-
mitted to enter it, and to hide there a few days, as he
had accidentally killed a deer belonging to the Palatine of
Pala/ia, who was, therefore, pursuing him to take his life,
and he asked to be protected. The Countess at first
refused ; but when she saw the man she was so much
impressed with his noble appearance that she consented, and
the stranger was given a room, where he stayed for a few
days. After that he asked for an interview with the
Countess, and when admitted to her presence, he expressed
his thanks for the protection given to him, and offered that,
as a token of his gratitude, he would transmute her silver
ware into gold. The Countess at first could not believe that
such a thing was possible, but she at last consented to have
an experiment made with a silver tankard, which the stranger
melted and transmuted into gold. She thereupon sent this
gold to the city and had it tested by a goldsmith, who found
it to be gold of the purest kind. She then permitted the
stranger to melt and transmute all her silver spoons, plates,
dishes, etc., into gold, which he did, and finally he took his
leave and went away, having received a comparatively small
sum of money as a gift from the Countess. Soon after this
event, the husband of the Countess, who seems to have been
a spendthrift, and who had been away from home for
several years, serving as an officer in some foreign country,
returned, because he had heard that his wife had become
suddenly rich. He claimed half of the gold for himself, but
the Countess refused to acknowledge his claims. The case
came, therefore, before the Court, and the husband supported

Among the “ Adepts .”

his claims by the fact that he was the lord of the territory
{Dominus territorii) upon which the castle belonging to
his wife was located, and that according to the laws of the
country all treasures found upon that land were lawfully his.
He therefore requested that the gold should be sold, and
from the proceeds new silver ware should be bought for the
Countess, and the surplus be given to him. The defendant
claimed that artificially produced gold could not come under
the consideration of a law referring to buried treasures,
and that therefore the said law could not be applied in her
case ; that, moreover, the silver had been transmuted into
gold for her own benefit, and not for that of another, and
she begged the Court to be permitted to remain in undis-
turbed possession of it. The Court decided in her favour.

2. Another authenticated case is that of an Adept by the
name of Sehfeld, who lived in Rodaun, a small place in the
vicinity of Vienna. He made gold out of tin and spent it
freely. The proprietor of the house where he resided, a
man named Friedrich , gained the confidence of the Adept,
and told his family about the doings of Sehfeld. The con-
sequence was that soon rumours and gossip began to spread.
Sehfeld was accused of sorcery, and appealed for protection
to the Austrian Emperor, saying that he was engaged in
making certain chemical colours of which he possessed the
secret. It is said that Sehfeld paid 30,000 florins into the
Imperial Treasury to obtain this protection, which he
enjoyed for several months. Friedrich and the members of
his family often were present when Sehfeld made gold, and
they say that after melting the tin, he sprinkled a small
quantity of a red powder upon the molten mass, when the
latter began to foam and exhibited all kinds of colours.
After an hour or so it was allowed to cool, and all the tin
was then transmuted into pure gold. One day Friedrich
attempted to make the experiment himself. Having obtained
some of the red powder from Sehfeld, he melted the tin
while Sehfeld was absent, and sprinkled the powder upon
it ; but the latter had no effect upon the tin and did not mix

64 In the Pronaos of the Temple of Wisdom.

with it. After a while, Sehfeld entered the room where the
experiment was made, and as he entered the mass began
to foam and turned into gold. The security which he
enjoyed did not last long, for after a few months new
rumours were put into circulation, the envy, greed and
jealousy of the neighbours were aroused, he was accused of
practising unlawful sciences, and he was arrested at night
and imprisoned in the fortress of Temeswar, where he
remained over a year, sternly refusing to tell his secret, and
saying that no amount of physical torture would be able to
make him reveal it. The governor of the fortress of
Temeswar, General Baron von Engel shofen , was so much
charmed by the noble appearance and open character of
Sehfeld, that he went to Vienna and spoke to the Emperor
about Sehfeld, declaring his opinion that the latter was
innocent. The Emperor soon afterwards, while hunting
boars in a forest near Rodan, sent for Friedrich, and
received from him a detailed account of his experiences with
Sehfeld, and became convinced that the latter was not a
villain ; but he would not believe that he was able to make
gold, and expressed his doubts to that effect. Upon this,
Friedrich, who was an honest man, exclaimed, “ Oh ! your
Majesty, if at this moment God were to come down from
heaven, and say, 'Friedrich, you are mistaken; Sehfeld
cannot make gold ! ’ I would answer him, ' Dear God, it is
nevertheless true that he can make it, because I know it to
be so.’ ” Upon this, the Emperor, struck with the sincerity of
the man, ordered that Sehfeld should be permitted to go
where he pleased, and make whatever experiments he
chose; but that he should not leave Austria, and should
always be accompanied by two trustworthy officers who
should never permit him to go out of their sight. Two of
the best and most trustworthy officers belonging to noble
families were selected for that purpose. He made several
little excursions in their company ; but not long afterwards
Sehfeld and his two guards disappeared and never returned,
nor has any trace of them ever been discovered. The

Among the “Adepts."

historian adds that it is not probable that those two rich and
noble officers would have sacrificed their career and also
their reputation by thus deserting without having a sufficient
cause or inducement to do so. Researches made in the
house of Friedrich seemed to indicate that Sehfeld prepared
his red powder out of some sky-blue minerals, probably some
sulphuret of copper.

3. An apothecary at Halle made the acquaintance of a
stranger, whom he found to be in possession of some
chemical secrets. Having been invited to visit the stranger
in his lodgings he went there, and after having talked about
Alchemy, the claims of which the apothecary denied, the
stranger showed him a certain red powder , and offered to give
some of it to the apothecary so that the latter could make an
experiment himself. With a very little spoon he took some
of the powder out of the box wherein it was contained, but
the apothecary objected that such a small quantity would
not be sufficient to make the experiment. Upon this the
stranger threw the powder back into the box, wiped the
spoon, to which some of the powder adhered, on a piece of
cotton, wrapped the cotton in a paper, and gave it to the
apothecary, telling him that even this would be sufficient for
that purpose. Having returned home, the apothecary took a
big silver spoon, melted it in a crucible, and threw the
cotton upon it. The molten metal began immediately to boil
and to foam, and to exhibit the most beautiful colours. After
a. while he took the crucible from the fire and poured the
metal into a mould. The next morning he examined it and
found that it was the purest gold, and there were some
ruby-red drops on the top, which seemed to have been the
surplus of the red powder which the metal had not absorbed-
The apothecary hurried immediately to the lodging of the
Adept to tell him of his success ; but the latter had gone,
and no one knew where he went. A sum of money, more
than sufficient to pay for his lodging, was found upon the
table in his room. The silver which the apothecary employed
in this experiment weighed i£ ounces, and the gold which
he gained weighed 1 ^ ounces, which he sold to a goldsmith

In the Pronaos of the Temple of Wisdom.

for 36 thalers. The gain in weight was, therefore, 20 per
cent., which may be accounted for by the fact that the specific
gravity of gold is greater than that of silver. Unfortunately,
the ruby-red pearls on the surface of the gold were lost
during the excitement caused by the discovery that the mass
was actual gold, else they might have been used to trans-
mute a far greater quantity of silver into gold.

4. During the reign of the Emperor Leopold , a monk of
the Order of St. Augustine, named Wenzel Seiler, found a
certain red powder in his convent, which proved to be the
“ Red Lion ” of the Alchemists, hty means of this powder,
Seiler transformed a quantity of tin into gold in the presence
of the Emperor and his Court. The Emperor ordered that
certain medals were to be made of this artificially produced
gold, and he divided them out among the noblemen of his
Court. He also, as a reward, gave to that monk the title of
Freiherr von Rheinburg, and appointed him as master of the
Imperial mint in Bohemia. The medal, of which one is now
in the family of Count Leopold Hoffmann, in Bricg, shows
upon the top the bust of the Emperor Leopold, with the
following words: — “Leopo/dus Dei Gratia Romanorum
I mperator semper Augustus Germania; Hungarice ct Bohemia’
Rex.” The reverse side is not stamped, but there is engraved
thereon a verse, saying : —

Aus Wenzel Seilers Pul vers Macht
Bin ich von Zinn zu Gold gemaclit.

5. The most indisputable proof (if appearances can
prove anything) of the possibility of transmuting base
metals into gold, may be seen by everyone who visits
Vienna; it being a medal preserved in the Imperial treasury
chamber, and it is stated that this medal, consisting originally
of silver, has been partly transformed into gold, by
alchemical means, by the same Wenzel Seiler who was
afterwards made a knight by the Emperor Leopold I. and
given the title Wenzeslaus Ritter von Reinburg.

The medal is of oval shape ; its long diameter is 37, and
the short one 40 centimetre. Its specific gravity is 19*3;

Among the “Adepts."

In the Pronaos of the Temple of Wisdom.

and its weight 7,200-4 grammes. Its value is estimated to
correspond to 2,055 Austrian ducats.

As indicated in the accompanying figure, about one-third
of the upper part is silver, and the remaining part gold.

The two incisions were made in 1883, for the purpose of
examining the medal, to see whether it was pure or merely
gilded. The examination was made on request of Professor
A. Bauer, of Vienna.

One side of the medal shows the portraits of the ancestors
of the Emperor, up to King Pharamund, the other side has
the following inscription : —

Sacratissimo

Potentissimo et invictissimo
Romanorum imperatori
Leopoldo I.

Arcanorum naturae scrutatori curiosmo
Genuinum hoc verae ac perfect®
Metamorphoseos metallic®
specimen

pro exiguo anniversarii diei nominalis
mnemosjmo

cum omnigen® prosperitatis voto

humillima veneratione offert et dicat
Joannes Wenzeslaos de Reinburg
numini majestatique eius
devotissimus

anno Christi MDCLXXVII. die festo
S. Leopoldi

cognomine pii olim marchionis Austri®
nunc autem patroni augustissim®

Domus austriac®

Benignissimi.

It seems, however, that there is nothing perfectly reliable
in this world of illusions, and it is therefore necessary to
state that Wenzel Seiler was afterwards regarded as an
impostor, and sent back to his monastery. Later on, how-
ever, the Emperor received him again into his favour, and
even paid his numerous debts, the existence of which is
quite incomprehensible if he actually had the power to
make gold by alchemical means.

The Rosicnician “ Orders."

6 9

THE ROSICRUCIAN “ ORDERS.”

Why is there so much perplexity about the mysterious
order of the Rosicrucians ? Let us ask in return, Why is
there so much perplexity about that mysterious being called
“Man”? The answer is that man is a spiritual being,
inhabiting the spiritual world, which he has never entirely
left; while the terrestrial personality in which he manifests
himself during his earthly life is an inhabitant of this planet.
That which the historian and the scientist know about man
is merely that which refers to his physical body; while
nothing is known to them about his real self. To imagine
that such knowledge is true anthropology is like imagining
that we know all about a man if we once see the coat which
he wears. Likewise the true Rosicrucians, whether they still
walk upon the earth in a visible form, or whether they
inhabit the astral plane, are spiritual powers, such as are
beyond the reach of examination of the externally reasoning
historian or scientist. They are people who, as the Bible
expresses it, “ live upon the earth, but whose consciousness
is in heaven."

The vulgar sees only the external form, but not the spirit
which is the true inhabitant of that form. To discern the
latter, the power of spiritual discernment is required. The
coat which a man wears does not make the man; to pour
water over a person does not make him a true Christian, and

In the Pronaos of the Temple of Wisdom.

to have one’s name entered into the register of some society
calling itself “ Rosicrucian,” docs not endow one with the
rosy and golden light of love and wisdom that comes from
the unfoldment of the “ Rose ” within the centre of one’s
soul.

But it is far easier to undergo some external ceremony
than to die the mystic death which is required for the pur-
pose of passing through the “ Gates of Gold ” ; it is easier
to profess a creed than to acquire true knowledge; and for
this reason we find during the Middle Ages not less than at
this present time many people who imagine that they could
be made into Rosicrucians and Adepts, by joining some
societ}' dealing with mystical subjects.

In the beginning of the 17th century Germany was over-
run, not only by monks and nuns and religious fanatics of all
kinds, but also by a great many impostors and adventurers.
There were pretended Alchemists, Astrologers, Fortune-
tellers, and there was a universal mania among the people to
pry into the secrets of Nature, and to enrich themselves by
alchemical processes, or, if need be, by the help of the devil.
This epidemic of superstition and folly seemed to require
a strong remedy, and as foolish people are not accessible to
reasonable arguments, it occurred to some sharp-witted
mind to try the more caustic remedy of sarcasm. There
appeared in the year 1614 two pamphlets, written by the
same author, entitled, “ Universal and General Reformation of
the Whole Wide World f and the “ Fama Fraternitatis ; or,
Brotherhood of the Laudable Order of the R.C. (Rosicrucians),
a message to the Governments, nobles, and scientists of
Europe." This book was out of print during the last century,
and Frederic Nicolai, in Berlin, had it reprinted in the year
1781, falsifying, however, its date, inserting 1681 instead
of the correct date, and “ Regensburg ” instead of “ Berlin.”
Another edition of the Fama Fraternitatis appeared at
Frankfurt-on-Maine in the year 1827, and to this was added
an additional part, entitled “ Confessio."

These books, soon after they first appeared, made a great

The Rosicrucian “ Orders."

impression upon the public mind, and were immediately
translated into several languages. The Universal Reformation
is a satirical work. Its most interesting contents are an
account of the meeting of a supposed Congress for the purpose
of reforming the world. The story is as follows At the
time of the Emperor Justinian, Apollo takes a look at the
world, and finds it to be full of vices and wickedness. He
therefore makes up his mind to call together a meeting of all
the wise and virtuous men of the country to consult together
how this evil might be remedied. Unfortunately, among all
of them there is none to be found who is possessed of
sufficient virtue and intelligence to give the desired advice.
Apollo therefore assembles the seven ancient sages of
Greece and three Romans, Marcus, Cato, and Seneca. A
young Italian philosopher, by the name of Jacob Mazzonius ,
is appointed secretary. The congregation meets in the
delphic Palatium ; and now follow the speeches which were
held. The sages talk the most egregious nonsense. Thales,
for instance, advises that a window should be inserted in the
breast of every man, so that the people could look into his
heart. Solon has become a communist, and wants to divide
out all the public and private property, so that all should
have equal parts. Bias proposes to prohibit all intercourse
between the people, to destroy the bridges and to forbid
using ships. Cato desires that God should be asked to send
another deluge, to destroy the whole feminine sex and all
males over 20 years of age; and to request Him to invent a
new and better method of procreation. All the sages
dispute and contradict each other, and finally it is resolved
to cite the diseased century and make it come into court,
so that the patient may be closely investigated. The
century is brought in. It is an old man with a healthy-
looking face, but having a weak voice. They examine him,
and find that his face is painted, and a further investigation
shows that not a single part of his body is without some
disease. The savants then come to the conclusion that they
cannot cure him; but they do not want to adjourn without

In the Pronaos of the Temple of Wisdom.

having it appear that they had done something very useful
and important, so they impose a new tax upon cabbage,
carrots and parsley. They publish the document with a
great deal of swagger and self-praise, and the delighted
people jubilate and applaud.

The meaning of this pamphlet, which was written
for the purpose of throwing ridicule upon a certain class of
people who wanted to improve the world at once and to
show the absurdity and impossibility of such an undertaking,
was plain enough, and it seems incredible that its purpose
should have been misunderstood. That there were any
people who took the matter seriously shows the extreme
ignorance and want of judgment of the common people of
those times, and forms an interesting episode for the
student of history and intellectual evolution. The other
pamphlet which accompanied the former is the celebrated
Fama Fratemilatis. The Universal Reformation threw
ridicule upon the self-constituted “ world-reformers,” and
this second pamphlet now invites these would-be reformers
to meet, and it, at the same time, gives them some useful hints
as to what they might do to attain their object ; advising
them that the only true method for improving the world is to
begin by improving themselves. This pamphlet being like
the other one, a satire upon the would-be reformers and so-
called Rosicrucians, might, for all that, have been written by
a genuine Rosicrucian, for it contains true Rosicrucian
principles, such as are advocated by the Adepts. It shows
the insufficiency of the scientific and theological views of
those times. It ridicules the imbecility of the pretended
Alchemists, who imagined that by some chemical process they
could transform lead into gold ; but in doing so it gives good
advice, and under the mask of divulging the laws and objects
of some ni3rsterious Rosicrucian Society, it indicates certain
rules and principles, which afterward formed the basis of an
organised society of investigators in Occultism, who adopted
the name Rosicrucians.

Added to this, Fama Fraternitatis is the story of the

The Rosicmcian “ Orders." 73-

“ pious, spiritual, and highly-illuminated Father,” Fr. R.C.
Christian Rosencreutz. It is said that he was a German
nobleman, who had been educated in a convent, and that
long before the time of the Reformation he had made a
pilgrimage to the Holy Land in company with another
brother of this convent, and that while at Damascus they
had been initiated by some learned Arabs into the mysteries
of the secret science. After remaining three years at
Damascus, they went to Fez, in Africa, and there they
obtained still more knowledge of magic, and of the relations
existing between the macrocosm and microcosm. After hav-
ing also travelled in Spain, he returned to Germany, where
he founded a kind of a convent called Sanctus Spiritus, and
remained there writing his secret science and continuing his
studies. He then accepted as his assistants, at first three,,
and afterwards four more monks from the same convent in
which he had been educated, and thus founded the first
society of the Rosicrucians. They then laid down the
results of their science in books, which are said to be still in
existence, and in the hands of some Rosicrucians. It is
then said that 120 years after his death, the entrance to his
tomb was discovered. A staircase led into a subterranean
vault, at the door of which was written, Post annos CXX.
patcbo. There was a light burning in the vault, which
however, became extinct as soon as it was approached. The
vault had seven sides and seven angles, each side being five
feet wide and eight feet high. The upper part represented
the firmament, the floor the earth, and they were laid out in
triangles, while each side was divided into ten squares. In
the middle was an altar, bearing a brass plate, upon which
were engraved the letters, A. C. R. C., and the words, Hoc
Universi Compendium vivus mi hi Sepulchrum feci. In the
midst were four figures surrounded by the words, Nequa-
quam Vacuum. Legis Jugum. Libertas Evangelii. Dei

Gloria Intacta. Below the altar was found the body of

Rosencreuz , intact, and without any signs of putrefaction. In
his hand was a book of parchment, with golden letters marked

.74

In the Pronaos of the Temple of Wisdom.

on the cover with a T (Testamentum ?), and at the end was
written, Ex Deo naximur. In Jesn morimur. Per Spiritum
Sanctum reviviscimus." There were signed the names of the
brothers present at the funeral of the deceased.

In the year 1615, a new edition of these pamphlets
appeared, to which was added another one, entitled Confessio;
or, “ the Confession of the Society and Brotherhood of the
R. C. giving great promises about future revelations, but
-ending with the advice to everybody that until these
-revelations were made the people should continue to believe
in the Bible.

All these pamphlets had — as will be shown farther on —
one and the same author, and as the “ General Reformation ”
was of an entirely satirical character and a pure invention,
having no more foundation, in fact, than the Don Quixote dc
la Mancha of Cervantes, there is no reason whatever why we
should believe that the succeeding pamphlets should have
been meant seriously, and that the story of the returned
knight, Christian Rosencreuz, should have been anything
more than an allegon/. Moreover, there is no indication of
what became of the body of that knight after it was once
■discovered, nor that the temple of the Holy Ghost (Sanctus
Spiritus) exists anywhere else but in the hearts of men.

The whole object of these pamphlets seems to have been
to present great truths to the ignorant, but to dish them up
in a fictitious form, appealing to the curiosity of the people,
.and to the prevailing craving for a knowledge of the mysteries
■of Nature, which the majority of the people of these times
wanted to know for the purpose of obtaining selfish and
personal benefits.

The beauty of the doctrines which shone through these
satirical writings were so great and attractive that they
-excited universal attention ; but at the same time the
■craving of the majority of the people for the mysterious was
so great that it blinded their eyes, and rendered them
incapable of perceiving the true object of the writer, which
was to ridicule the pretensions of dogmatic science and

The Rosicmcian “ Orders."

theology, and to draw the people up to a higher conception
of true Christianity. The belief in the existence of a real
secret organization of Rosicrucians, possessed of the secret
how to make gold out of lead and iron, and of prolonging life
by means of taking some fluid in the shape of a medicine,
was universal ; and quacks and pretenders of all kinds
roamed over the country and helped to spread the super-
stitions, often selling worthless compounds for fabulous prices
as being the “ Elixir of Life ; ” while others wasted their
fortunes and became poor in making vain efforts to transmute
metals.

A flood of writings appeared, some attacking and some
•defending the Rosicrucian Society, which was supposed to
exist, but of which no one knew anything. Some people, and
even some of the well-informed ones, believed in the
existence of such a society ; others denied it. But neither
one class nor the other could bring any positive proofs for
their beliefs. People are always willing to believe that
which they desire to be true, and everyone wanted to be
admitted as a member of that secret society, of which nobody
was certain whether it existed at all ; and if anyone boasted
of being a Rosicrucian, or succeeded in creating the
impression that he was one, he awed the ignorant, and was
regarded by them as a very favoured person, and in this way
impostors and adventurers often succeeded in preying upon
the pockets of the rich.

Those who wanted to be taught magic and sorcery
desired that a society or school where they might learn such
things should exist; and because they desired it they
believed in its existence. If no genuine Rosicrucian could be
found, one had to be invented. If the true Rosicrucian
society was not to be had, imitations of what was believed
to constitute a Rosicrucian society had to be organized. In
this way numerous societies were formed, calling themselves
u Rosicrucians” ; and “ Rosicrucianism” took various shapes.

One of the most important publications, and which is
calculated to throw light upon the mysterious subject of

In the Pronaos of the Temple of Wisdom.

Rosicrucianism which still perplexes the learned, is the
City mica! Marriage of Christian Rosencreutz, printed in 161 6.
This, again, was written to throw ridicule upon the vain and
self-conceited dogmatists, scientists, and “gold-makers” of
those times, while at the same time it contains high and
exalted truths, disguised in an allegorical form, but easily to
be perceived by the practical Occultist, and by him only. It
can easily be seen that the style and tendencies of this publi-
cation have a great deal of resemblance to that of the Fama
Fraternitatis. Now it has been ascertained beyond any doubt
that the author of the “ Chemical Marriage ” was Johann Val-
entin Andreae,* who wrote it while a young student in the
years 1602 and 1603 in Tubingen. He acknowledges this
in the history which he gives of his life, and he adds that he
intended to give a true picture of the popular follies of
that time. This renders it extremely probable that he was
also the author of the “ General Reformation, ” of the Con-
fessio, and of the story of Christian Rosencreutz, and this
probability amounts to almost conviction if we take into
consideration the discovery made afterwards, that the
“ General Reformation ” is nothing else but a literal trans-
lation of a part of a book from Boccalini Ragguagli di Parmaso.
Andreae was a great admirer of that author, and he also
adopted his style in his Mythologia Christiana; it is there-
fore plain that he also made the above-named translation,
and added it to his “ Fama Fraternitatis.” Both writings,
in fact, form a complement to each other. In the “ General
Reformation ” the political would-be-reformers are held up
to ridicule, and in the “ Fama ” the mystical dreamers,
imaginary theosophists, pretended gold-makers, and sup-
posed discoverers of the universal panacea are castigated.
There can be no reasonable doubt that this was Andreae s

* Dr. Johann Valentin Andreae was born Aug. 17, 1586, at Herrenberg, in
Wurtemberg, and died an abbot of Adelsberg, at Stuttgart, June 27, 1654-
He spoke several languages, was well versed in theology, mathematics,
history, and the natural sciences. He was of a noble mind, anxious to
do good, and an original character. Herder describes him as a rose among
the thorns.

The Rosicrucian “ Orders."

object, and, moreover, his intimate friend, Professor Besoldt,
in Tubingen, acknowledged it in saying that the character of
both books was plain enough, and that it was very strange
that so many intelligent people had been led by the nose to
mistake their meaning. Andreae himself, without, however,
acknowledging himself to be their author, expressed himself
to the effect that the whole was a satire and a fable. In
his “ confession ” he says : (Sc.) nsisse semper Rosicrucianant
fabulum et curiositatis fraterculos fuisse in seciatum f and in
his paper entitled “ Turn's Bahel, sen judiciorum dc Fratcr-
nitatae Rosaccae crucis chaos," he speaks still more plainly
upon this subject. It seems to have been his object in this
latter publication to help those to become sober again who
had become intoxicated by misunderstanding the former pub-
lications, for he exclaims : “ Listen, ye mortals ! In vain
will ye wait for the arrival of that fraternity; the comedy is
over. The fama has played it in, the fama has played it
out,” etc., etc. Still there were many who were not satisfied
with this explanation, and who believed that it had been
Andreae’s intention to cause by his fama, a secret society of
the scientists of his age to come into existence ; but Andreae
was too wise to attempt such an absurdity and to appty to
the most unreasonable persons of his age to form a reasonable
society.

The question why he should have selected the name
“ Rosicrucian” for his imaginary society is not difficult to
answer. The Cross and the Rose were favourite symbols
among the Alchemists and Theosophists long before anything
of a “ Rosicrucian Society ” was known. Moreover, in his
own coat of arms, as in that of Luther, there was a cross
and four roses, a circumstance which probably led him to
select that name.

There is, perhaps, very rarely a fable or work of fiction
invented which is not based upon some fact, however
disconnected such facts may be with the subject. A work,
entitled Sphinx Rosceea, printed in 1 6 1 8, makes it appear

t Andreae’s autobiography. W eismann , hist. eccl. P. ii., p. 936.

In the Pronaos of the Temple of .Wisdom.

very plausible that the writer of the Fama Fraternitatis, in
inventing the story of Christian Rosencreutz and his three
brothers, whose number was afterwards increased by four
more, had certain originals in his mind, which served as
prototypes to construct his story. The author of that Sphinx
says that the idea of forming such a society for the general
reformation of mankind arose from the success of Luther’s
Reformation ; that the knight, Christian Rosencreutz, was,
in reality, no other person than a certain Andreas von Carol-
s/adt, an adventurer, who had travelled a great deal, but
never been in Palestine. He made himself so obnoxious to
the clergy of his time, whom he desired to reform, that they,
after his death, put the following Epitaph upon his grave : —
Carolstadius Pestis Ecclcsiac venonissima, tandem a Diabolo
occisus cst. This meajns : " Here lies Carolstadt, who was a
poisonous plague to the Church until the devil killed him at
last.” The three supposed associates of Rosencreutz were the
friends of Carolstadt, the reformer Zwingli, Occolompadnis,
and Bncerus, and the four others, who were supposed to have
been added afterwards, were probably Nicalaus Palargns,.
Marcus Stubner, Martin Ccllurius, and, finally, Thomas
Minister, all of which persons were more or less known on
account of their desire to aid in reforming the Church.

As the people became infatuated with the idea of becoming
Rosicrucians, and no real society of Adepts could be found,
they organized Rosicrucian societies without any real
Adepts, and thus a great many so-called Rosicrucian
societies came into existence. There was one such society
founded by Christian Rose in 1622, having head centres in
the Hague, Amsterdam, Nuremberg, Mantua, Venice, Ham-
burg, Dantzig and Erfurt. They used to dress in black, and
wore at their meetings blue ribbons with a golden wreath
and a rose. As a sign of recognition the brothers wore a
black silk cord in the top button hole. This ornament was
given to the neophytes after they had promised under oath
to be strangled by such a cord rather than reveal the secrets
which they were supposed to possess. They also had

The Rosicrucicin “ Orders.''

7 9

another sign, consisting of the “ tonsure,” such as is used to-
day by the Roman Catholic clergy, meaning a small round
shaven spot on the top of the head, originating probably
from the custom of the Buddhist priests, who shave their
whole head. Hence many of them wore a wig, in order not
to be recognised as belonging to the brotherhood. 1 hey
led a very quiet life, and were devout people. On all high
festivals, very early at sunrise they would leave their resi-
dence, and go out through the gate of the town facing the
east. When another one of them appeared, or when they
met at other places, one would say: Ave Frater ! to which
the other would answer, Rosae ct Aurccie ; then the first one
said Cntcis, then both together said : Benedictus Dens Domi-
n ns noster, qni nobis dedit Signnm ! They also had for the
sake of legitimation a large document, to which the Impe-
rator affixed the great seal.*

There w*as another “ Rosicrucian society,” formed at Paris
in the year 1660 by an apothecary named Jacob Rose. This
society was dissolved in 1674, in consequence of the noto-
rious case of wholesale poisoning by the ill-reputed Marquise
de Brinvillier.

Whether or not there ever were any real Adepts and
genuine Alchemists among the members of these Rosicru-
cian societies, we are, of course, not in a position to affirm.
We' are satisfied to know that Adepts do exist and that
Alchemy is a fact ; but whether they had anything to do
with these orders we do not know, nor do we care about it,
as it is now of no consequence whatever. All that we know
for certain in regard to this matter is, that there existed at
that time persons in possession of an extraordinary amount
of occult knowledge, as is shown by the books they have
left ; but whether these persons belonged or did not belong
to any organized society, is absolutely useless to know.

During the life of Theophrastus Paracelsus, he was the
intellectual centre to which Alchemists, Occultists, Mystics,

* Extracted from the “ Sphinx." Vol. 1., No. 1.

8o In the Pronaos of the Temple of Wisdom.

Reformers and Rosicrucians were attracted, but there is no
indication that he was a member of any society of men
calling themselves “ Rosicrucians.” There is, likewise, no
indication that after the time of Paracelsus any organized
society of true Adepts, calling themselves “ Rosicrucian
Society,” ever existed. Some of the greatest minds of that
age were engaged in occult research, and were naturally at-
tracted together by the bonds of sympathy; but however
much they may have been united in the spirit (in the teniDle
of the Holy Ghost), there is no indication that they had an
organized society on the external plane, nor would any real
Adepts need any other but spiritual signs of recognition.

A book printed in 1714, and written by Sinccnts Renatus,
contains the remarkable information that some years ago the
Masters of the Rosicrucians had gone to India, and that none
of them at present remained in Europe. This is not at
all improbable ; for the moral atmosphere of Europe is at
the present time not very congenial for spiritual develop-
ment, nor very inviting to those who, while progressing
on the Path of Light, are reincarnating in physical
forms.

As all researches after a real Rosicrucian society con-
sisting of genuine Adepts were naturally fruitless, the
excitement caused by the Fama fraternitis gradually ceased,
and there was not much said or written about them until
between the years 1756 and 1768, when a new degree of
Freemasonry came into existence, called the “ Rosicrucian
Knights,” or the order of Rose-croix, or the Knights of the
Eagle and Pelican; but we should in vain search among
these knights for any genuine Adept, or even for anyone
possessed of occult knowledge oh power ; for as our modern
churches have lost the key to the mysteries which were
once entrusted to their guardianship, and have degenerated
into places for social gatherings and religious pastime, so
our modern Masons have long ago lost the Word, and will
not find it again unless they dive below the surface of
external ceremonies and seek for it in their own hearts.

The Rosicntcian “ Orders."

8 1

The most important books written during the time of the

Rosicrucian controversy were the following