Chapter 11
CHAPTER VIII.
Conclusion — Modem Eosicrtccianism,
IN Notes and Queries for Nov. 15th, 1886, we find the follow-
ing : — " In the Student's Encyclopaedia, published by Hodder
and Stoughton in 1883, I find the following twofold statement :
* Even to-day a Rosicracian lodge is said to exist in London, whose
members claim by asceticism to live beyond the allotted age of
man, and to which the late Lord Lytton vainly sought admission.'
May I ask whether anything authentic can be learnt (1) as to the
existence of these modern Rosicrucians, and (2) as to Lord Lytton's
failure to. gain admission among them)'*
In the number of Dec. 13 of the same year, the above query
was thus answered : " The Soc. Rosic. in Anglia still holds several
meetings a year in London. The Fratres investigate the occult
sciences ; but I am not aware that any of them now practice
asceticism, or expect to prolong life on earth indefinitely. It is
not customary to divulge the names of candidates who have been
refused admission to the first grade, that of Zelator, so must ask
to be excused from answering the question as to Lord Lytton.
WYNN WESTCOTT, M.S., Magister Templi:'
In September of the previous year a correspondent asked if any
one could inform him if there were still any members of the society
of the Rosy Cross (or Rosicrucians) ; and if there were, how could
one communicate with them 1 Also if there were still any al-
chemists searching for the philosopher's stone and the transmuta-
of metals 1 This evoked the following reply : —
" Some say the modem Rosicrucians are the same as the Free-
masons ; but as in the main they lived isolated, they could have
been but slightly connected with the masons. The range of
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MODERN ROSiCRUCIANISM. 127
celebrated men included in the society is large : — ^Avicenna, Roger
Bacon, Cardan, down to Mr. Peter Woulfe, F.R.S., who lived at
No. 2, Barnard's Inn, and was, according to Mr. Brand, the last
true believer in alchemy. But no doubt some few still dabble in
these occult things." Notes and Queries, Series 6, vol 8, 317.
On the same page of the same volume we have : — " The Rosi-
crucians are now (how I know not) incorporate with, and form one
of the highest ranks, if not the highest rank, of English Free-
inasons." Also : — " In reply to Charles D. Sunderland, allow me
to say there are yet living both Rosicrucians and Alchemists."
De Quincey does not hesitate for a moment in deciding as to
the identity between Rosicrucianism and Freemasonry. He says :
— " I shall now undertake to prove that Rosicrucianism was trans-
planted to Fngland, where it flourished under a new name, under
which name it has been since re-exported to us in common with
other countries of Christendom. For I afi&rm as the main thesis
of my concluding labours, that Freemasonry is neither more nor
less than Rosicrucianism as modified by those who transplanted it
to England." He then proceeds with an argument to shew this
identity between the two, an argument to which our limited space
forbids us to do more than briefly allude. He says : — " In 1633
we have seen that the old name was abolished; but as yet
no new name was substituted; in default of such a name
they were styled ad interim by the general term, wise men.
This, however, being too vague an appellation for men who
wished to form themselves into a separate and exclusive society,
a new one had to be devised bearing a more special allusion to
their characteristic objects. Now the immediate hint for the
Masons was derived from the legend contained in the Fama. Fra-
temitatis, of the ** House of the Holy Ghost." This had been a
subject of much speculation in Germany ; and many had been
simple enough to understand the expression of a literal house, and
had inquired after it up and down the empire. But Andrea had
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128 MODERN ROSICRUGIANISM.
mdae it impossible to understand it in any other than an allegoric
sense, by d^BScribing it as a building that would remain invisible
to the godless world for ever." Theophilus Schweighart also had
spoken of it thus s " It is a building," sap he, " a great building,
carensfenestrit etforihus, a princely, nay an imperial palace, every-
where visible, and yet not seen by the eyes of man." This build-
ing in fact, represented the purpose or object of the Rosicrucians.
And what was that ? It was the secret wisdom, or, in their
language, magi>c — viz., 1. Philosophy of nature, or occult know-
ledge of the works of God ; 2. Theology, or the occult knowledge
of God himself; 3. Religion, or God's occult intercourse with
the spirit of man, which they imagined to have been transmitted
from Adam through the Cabbalists to themselves. But they dis-
tinguished between a carnal and a spiritual knowledge of this
magic. The spiritual knowledge is the business of Christianity,
and is symbolised by Christ himself as a rock, and a building of
human nature, in which men are the stones and Christ the comer
stone. But how shall stones move and arrsmge themselves into a
building 1 " They must become living stones." But what is a
living stone 1 ''A living stone is a mason who builds himself up
into the wall as a part of the temple of human nature." In these
passages we see the use of the allegoric name masons upon the
extinction of the former name. In other places Fludd expresses
this still more distinctly. The society was therefore to be a
masonic society, in order to represent typically that temple of the
Holy Spirit which it was their business to erect in the spirit of
man. This temple was the abstract of the doctrine of Christ, who
was the Grand-master : hence the light from the East, of which so
much is said in Rosicrucian and Masonic books. After pursuing
the matter in a similar strain somewhat further, De Quincey
sums up the results of his inquiry into the origin and nature of
Freemasonry as follows : —
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IfODEBV B08I0BUCIANIS1L 129
1. The original Freemasons were a society that arose out of
the Rosicrucian mania, certainly within the thirteen years from
1633 to 1646, and probably between 1633 and 1640. Their
object was magic in the cabbalistic sense — i,e,f the occult wisdom
transmitted from the beginning of the world, and matured by
Christ /Ho communicate this when they had it, to search for it
when they had it not : and both under an oath of secrecy.
2. The object of Freemasoniy was represented under the form
of Solomon's Temple, as a type of the true Church, whose comer-
stone is. Christ. This Temple is to be built of men, or living
stones : and the true method and art of building with men it is
the province of magic to teach. Hence it is that all the masonic
symbols either refer to Solomon's Temple, or are figurative modes
of expressing the ideas and doctrines of magic in the sense of the
Kosicrucians, and their mystical predecessors in generaL
3. The- Freemasons having once adopted symbols, &c., from
the art of masonry, to which they were led by the language of
{Scripture, went on to connect themselves in a certain degree
with the order itself of handicraft masons, and adopted their dis-
tribution of members into apprentices, journeymen, and masters.
Christ is the Grand-Master, and was put to death whilst laying
tiie foundation of the temple of hiunau nature.
4. The Jews, Mahomedans and Roman Catholics were all ex-
cluded from the early lodges of Freemasons. The Roman Catho-
lics were excluded on account of their intolerance : for it was a
distinguishing feature of the Rosicrucians that they first con-
ceived the idea of a society which should act on the principle of
religious toleration, wishing that nothing should interfere with the
most extensive co-operation in their plans except such differences
about the essentials of religion as make all co-operation impossible.
5. Freemasonry, as it honoured all forms of Christianity,
deeming them approximations more or less remote to the ideal
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130 MOPEBN ROSIORUCIAKIBM.
truth, 80 It abstracted fix)m all forms of eivil polity as alien from
its own objects, which, according to their briefest expreaisions, are
(1) The Glory of God ; (2) The service of men.
6. There is nothing in the imagery, mythi, ritual, or purposes
of the elder Freemasoniy, which may not be traced to the
romances of Father Rosycross, as given in the Fama Fratemi-
tatis."
De Quincey is not the only writer who has expressed himself to
the effect that the systems of Freemasonry and Rosicrucianism
are virtually identical ; others have said so as well, and in stating
their views have not scrupled to write most severely respecting
what they believed to be the tricks and impositions of both. Mr.
George Soane in his •' New Curiosities of Literature," says of the
Freemasons, that he can shew their society sprang out of decayed
Kosicrucianism just as the beetle is engendered from a muck-heap.
And further he says, " not a few of the old nursery tales still
maintain their ground amongst us ; and of these Freemasonry is
ihe most disseminated and the most ridiculous." ** Of course," he
continues " such an opinion will shock many gentlemen, who wear
aprons, leather or silk as the case may be, and who amuse them-
selves with talking of light from the east, and the building of
Solomon's Temple, and with many other childish pranks, which if
played off in the broad daylight would be ridiculous."
He goes on to say :— " In wading through a mass of alchemical
trash for very different purposes, I was struck by the great simi-
larity both of the doctrine and symbols existing between the Rosi-
crucians and the Freemasons. With more haste than judgment
I at first imagined that the brethren of the Rosy Cross were only
imitators of the Freemasons, but after a long and patient enquiry,
pursued through more volumes than I should like to venture upon
again for such an object, I was forced to abandon my position.
The Freemasons did indeed, like the Rosicrucians, lay claim to
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MODERN R08ICRUCIAN1SM. 131
great antiquity, but while some of them modestly dated the origin
of their order from Adam, I could by no means trace it back
farther than the first half of thd seventeenth century. Their his-
torical assertions, when fairly tested and examined, crumbled into
dust ; the negative proofe were as strong against them as they
well could be ; aud at length the conclusion was to my mind
inevitable."
Soane then proceeds to say : — " I feel not the slightest hesita-
tion in saying that the Freemasons have no secret beyond a few
trumpery legends and the attaching of certain religious and moral
meanings to a set of emblems, principally borrowed from the
mechanical art of the builder. I affirm too that all such symbols,
with their interpretations, are of Rosicrucian origin, and that the
Freemasons never belonged to the working guilds, their objects
being totally diflferent."
Professor Buhle in his last chapter maintains that ''Free-
masonry is neither more nor less than Rosicrucianism as modified by
those who transplanted it into England." Dr. Mackey, however,
takes a contrary view, and in the Synoptical Index to his '' Sym-
bolism of Freemasonry, and Rosicrucians," says : — " A sect of her-
metical philosophers, founded in the fifteenth century, who were
engaged in the study of abstruse sciences. It was a secret society
much resembling the masonic in its organization and in some of
the subjects of its investigation, but it was no other way connected
with Freemasonry."
Fifty years ago a writer in the Penny Cyclop»dia said : — " Some
say that the order of Rosicrucians is identical with that of Free-
masons, one of whose degrees or dignities is called in some coun-
tries the degree of the Red Cross. The Rosicrucians have not
been heard of as a separate order for nearly a century past, but
some have thought that they continued to exist imder the name
of the niuminati, who were much talked of in Germany and
K 2
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132 MODERN ROSICRUCIANISH.
France in the latter part of the eighteenth century. Barruel, after
describing the ceremonies with which candidates were admitted
to the degree of Red Cross in some Freemasons' Lodges, which
however, he says, vary in diflFerent countries, observes that these
ceremonies which were apparently allusive to the Passion of Jesus
Christ, were differently interpreted, according to the dispositions
of the candidates ; that some saw in it a memento of the Passion,
others an introduction to the arcana of alchemy and magic, and
others at last a blasphenous invective against the founder of
Christianity which the Rosicrucians had derived from the Tem*
plars of old."
THE ROSIE CRUCIAN PRAYER
TO GOD.
Jesus Mihi Omnia.
A
"Oh Thou everywhere and good of All, whatsoever I do, re-
member, I beseech thee, that I am but Dust, but as a Vapour
sprung from Earth, which even thy smallest Breath can scatter ;
Thou hast given me a Soul, and Laws to govern it ; let that
Eternal Rule, which thou didst first appoint to sway Man, order
me ; make me careful to point at thy Glory in all my wayes ; and
where I cannot rightly know Thee, that not only my imderstand-
ing, but my ignorance may honour thee. Thou art All that can
be perfect ; Thy Revelation hath made me happy ; be not angry,
0 Divine One, 0 God the most high Creator, if it please thee^
suffer these revealed Secrets, thy Gifts alone, not for my praise,
but to thy Glory, to manifest themselves. I beseech thee most
gracious God, they may not fall into the hand of ignorant envious
persons, that cloud these truths to thy disgrace, saying, they lure
not lawful to be published, because what God reveals, is to be
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MODE»:^ R03ICRUCIANISM. 133
kept secret. But Rosie Crucian Philosophers lay up this Secret
into the bosome of God, which I have presumed to manifest
clearly and plainly. I beseech the Trinity, it may.be printed as
I have written it, that the truth may no more be darkened with
ambiguous language. Good God, besides thee nothing is. Oh
stream thyself into my Soul, and flow it with thy Grace, thy Il-
lumination, and thy Revelation. Make me to depend on Thee ;
Thou delightest that Man should account Thee as his King and
not hide what Honey of Knowledge he hath revealed. I cast my-
self as an honourer of Thee at thy feet. O establish my con-
fidence in Thee, for thou art the fountain of all bounty, and canst
not but be merciful, nor canst thou deceive the humbled Soul
that trusts Thee : And because I cannot be defended by Thee, un-
less I live after thy Laws, keep me, 0 my Soul's Sovereign, in the
obedience of thy Will, and that I wound not my Conscience with
vice, and hiding thy Gifts and Graces bestowed upon me ; for this
I know will destroy me within, and make thy Illuminating Spirit
leave me : I am afraid I have already infinitely swerved from the
Revelations of that Divine Guide, which thou hast commanded to
direct me to the Truth ; and for this I am a sad Prostrate and
Penitent at the foot of thy Throne ; I appeal only to the abun-
dance of thy Remissions. 0 my God, my God, I know it is a my-
sterie beyond the vast Soul's apprehension, and therefore deep
enough for man to rest in safety in. 0 Thou Being of all Beings,
cause me to work myself to Thee, and into the receiving armes of
thy paternal Mercies throw myself. For outward things I thank
Thee, and such as I have I give unto others, in the name of the
Trinity, freely and faithfully, without hiding anything of what
was revealed to me, and experienced to be no Diabolical Delusion or
Dream, but the Adjectamenta of thy richer Graces ; the Mines
and deprivation are both in thy hands. In what thou hast given
me I am content. Good God ray thyself into my Soul, give me
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134 MODERN BOSICRUCIANISMr
but a heart to please Thee, I beg no more than thou hast given,
and that to continue me, uncontemnedly and unpittiedlj honest.
Save me from the Devil, Lusts and Men : and for those fond
dotages of Mortality, which would weigh down my Soul to Low-
ness and Debauchment, let it be my glory (planting myself in^ a
Noble height above them) to contemn them. Take me from my-
self and fill me but with thee. Sum up thy blessings in those
two, that I may be rightly good and wise ; And these for thy
eternal Truths* sake grant and make grateful." *
« The Holy Quide, 1652.
THB END.
S. & J. BiuiwiT, Printers, 18, Gate Street, Holborn, London, W.O.
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