Rosicrucian
traditions
In 1898, Papus, Paul Sédir and Marc Haven, confronted
with the remarkable powers of Maïtre Philippe who worked without benefit of membership of
any initiatory society, took the surprising step of starting another one, called
the Fraternitas Thesauri Lucis (or F.T.L). It was based largely on the work
of Sédir, whose research produced a book on the subject – Histoire des
Rose-Croix – published in 1910, with a posthumously published expanded
version (Histoire et Doctrines des Rose-Croix) in 1932, neither of which
are currently easy to come by. And not terribly easy to read if one has. But are at
least packed with facts.
Rosicrucian origins extend back over centuries
and many who have written about them have done so from a standpoint of ignorance
and hostility or ignorance and wonder. Sédir decided to begin with remote
origins and predecessors and saw the Rosicrucians as deriving from three
traditional currents – the Gnostics, the Catholic church and Hermetic tradition.
Gnosticism was developed by the
Cathars, Vaudois, Albigenses and Templars, and ultimately by
Dante in the Divine Comedy. The Catholic element was represented by certain
monks in contemplative orders. And the Hermetic stream, from Egypt and the
classical world, included alchemy and the Jewish kabbalah.
Gnostic theories contained the remnants
of polytheism and Dante’s great poem was almost a declaration of war on the
Papacy by a revelation of the Mysteries; an application of the figures and
numbers of the kabbalah to Christian dogma by means of a journey conducted by
Virgil (wisdom) and Beatrice (love) through the supernatural worlds, like an
initiation into the mysteries of Eleusis or Thebes. Dante escaped the abyss
over the portal of which was the despairing injunction “Abandon hope all ye
who enter here!” by climbing back to the light in a topsy turvy kind of way,
using the grotesque figure of the devil and his works as part of the ladder.
Hell was only a barrier for those who did not know the way of return.
Religious cloisters in the Middle Ages could
be favourable to mystical and occult thought, with such great names as
Thomas Aquinas, Arnold of Villeneuve, Albertus Magnus, the Lullys, St Bonaventura
and others. The secular clergy and even some Popes provided help and protection
as a number of royal letters in England confirm. Ripley reveals that the church
(abbey?) at Westminster was a meeting place for alchemists. And in1503, Trithemius asserted
that many books on magic and conjurations that he had read had affirmed his
Christian faith. Whilst The Imitation of Christ by Thomas â Kempis (1604)
was regarded as a Rosicrucian document and guide for neophytes, although it may
not read quite like that nowadays.
On the Hermetic side we also have
recent efforts by Papus, Stanislas de Guaita and Josephin Peladan forming
groups of their own under a kabbalistic and Rosicrucian banner, with varying
degrees of success and failure, at which we have taken a passing glance. It
will be seen that a lot depends on the spiritual and psychological maturity of
its members. Those directly involved probably being the least reliable judges
of that. “Man, know thyself!” (No
sexism where none intended).
Alas, we know little of the content
or history of the F.T.L. Which is maybe how things should be!
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