For years I’ve seen adds in the back of magazines for the Rosicrucians. I checked their site Rosicrucian.org and found vaguely mystic language, promises of spiritual growth , and a sense of non-religous affiliations. Kind of Masonic IMO.
The question, of course, is: any dopers have any first-hand knowledge of this group? Are they a wacky cult or a hangover of Egyptian mysticism or what?
Curious only, GB
I did some museum work for their big museum in San Jose, CA.
They have pamphlets and things, but never tried to push anything at me, like some groups.
Never could figure it out exactly, though.
Sort of a mix of inquiry and turning a blind eye to the world, a strange mix.
Some are rich, though, and keep the organization in good shape. There are power struggles from time to time, but most are glossed over when brought to the public.
Check the search engines for the Rosecrutian Egyptian Museum in S.J. It’s on many acres and looks like an ancient Egyptian palace.
It has a good collection of mummies and a full scale burial chamber with hieroglyphics on all the walls. Plus, a full planetarium, and a big library and college.
Rosicrucians are one of those mysterious brotherhoods (slightly similar to Masons) that claim to have secrets handed down from the Egyptians. I’ve heard different stories as to how it was founded: either by a 17th century book relating the journeys of (some say the fictional) Christian Rosenkreuz who visited North Africa and acquired secret wisdom there; or else founded by 16th century swiss alchemist Paracelsus, who travelled through most of Europe, and also visited the Middle East and North Africa.
I don’t know what this “secret knowledge” is supposed to be (that’s why it’s a secret :)).
And by the way, Paracelsus is not some crackpot, he made some genuine scientific discoveries, especially in the fields of medicine and chemistry.
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Here’s the links to the museum.
http://www.rosicrucian.org/mus-plan/0-museum.html
**http://www.fragments.gosite.com/rosicru.htm
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Here’s the links to the museum.
** http://www.rosicrucian.org/mus%2Dplan/0%2Dmuseum.html **
** http://www.fragments.gosite.com/rosicru.htm
**
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William Poundstone covered the Rosicrucians–excuse me, The Ancient and Mystical Order Rosae Crucis–in chapter 3 of Bigger Secrets. According to him, “The Rosicrucians have a muddled history that their publications do little to clarify. Their literature blandly asserts that they go back to the Eigtheenth Dynasty of ancient Egypt (about 1350 BC). And they claim that Jesus, Benjamin Franklin, Isaac Newton, Rene Descartes, Leibnitz, Plato, Balzac, Francis Bacon, St. Thomas Aquinas, and Aristotle were all members. Well, heck. Outside sources say the group was started by a group named H. Spencer Lewis in 1915 AD”.
Poundstone “joined” the group by mail-order, long enough to go through the first three degrees at home. The way he describes it, the group is in fact a sort of “Masons-lite”, which would generally appeal to about a 13 year old mentality. I assume they will keep taking your money as long as you want to keep moving through the different degrees. But they don’t seem intent on bleeding you dry, like some other groups.
“Foucault’s Pendulum” by Umberto Eco is my favorite book on the Rosy Cross gang. It’s fiction but extremely well researched and a good read.
The short answer seems to be “scam artists, but small time & not too greedy”.
You should tell the truth, expose the lies and live in the moment."-Bill Hicks
“You should tell the lies, live the truth and expose yourself.” - Bill Clinton
The Rose is alive and well in San Jose. Some members in their 30’s and 40’s grew up in it and went to studies throughout their school years.
It’s really quite respectible there.
The correspondance part most people in other states see does seem a little like that Famous Artist’s thing, but some famous names, like Norman Rockwell and Charles Schultz passed through those portals as well. In the same way, the Rose has had a few famous adherants. Nobody really big or great, but not a Jim Jones either.
Please note that all the famous people who were Rosicrucians are dead, and cannot deny membership.
If we’re to accept that Lewis started the group in 1915 I’d at least like to see Ben Franklins membership card.
Hm: thinking about this one:
I think W.B. Yeats might count as “great”: you’ll find tons of Rosicrucian imagery in his earlier work–for instance, “To the Rose upon the Rood of Time” (rood = cross – rosy-cross, get it?). The Portuguese author Fernando Pessoa is another poet who talked about Rosicrucianism–he wrote a series of sonnets about Christian Rosencreutz.
I take it that’s a certain confusion in this thread caused by talking about several different but related things: (1) Rosicrucian thought in general, which has its origins in the 17th century; (2) the absurd claims of Rosicrucians to be part of an ancient tradition going back for millennia; (3) modern adherents of Rosicrucianism–hadn’t heard of the society founded in 1915 till now, in fact.
“english
is mandarin”
–Tom Raworth, Catacoustics