< Rosicrucianism (continued from page 3-238) >
Let us then call to the ran these occult philosophers. The world will recognize its leaders. Paracelsus, Robert Flood, Kuhnrath, Hoffman, and a host of others must once more be assiduously studied. The magi who exhausted both spheres must be recalled from the tomb of oblivion. The inspiring first principle of fire, or light, must be sought until we comprehend at least the “divine, ineffable spirit—the Immortal Fervour—with which the world evolves,” out of which it emanates, until we see that man lives upon naught but the “gross purgaions of celestial fire,” and admit that man, having fallen into the shadow and corruptions of existence, needs that mighty exterior Hand to rescue and restore him to his original Light and Rest. The giant plexus of religious creeds and faith a hasone master-thread prevading all its ramifications.
Only thus can we attain unto a knowledge of the great First Cause, the Ain-soph, and the mystic emanations of the ten.
When we shall have at length traversed the mundane, and discovered the Demiurge, and thus discerned Achamoth, the lowest of the eons, when we shall have conversed with the spirits of the pleroma, and shall have the Bathos or Abyss, we shall meet the gnostic God, one with the Ain-Soph and the Unknown.
We see how running back the line of truth in Spencer, Van Hartmann and Hegel, into the past, through Gnosticism and Manichaeanism, Christianity and Islamism, Zarathustrism and Brahmanism, we find it drawn from the web of ancient love and wisdom
To regain this treasure, long lost by humanity, we must study the seers who gathered it, gem by gem, and coin by coin. Of that web, from the looms of the Nile, the power is Ain-Soph,—the Cabala Is the gospel, and the Hermetics or Rosicrucians the apostles and the masters.
Strange as it may seem, Rosicrucianism is almost forgotten, —remembered only as an entertaining theme for the poet and novelist.*
There are said to be Rosicrucian colleges in England, but they can only be such in name, for by the seventh rule, “the Rosicrucian becomes and is not made.’’ In the admirable list prepared by Col. Olcott in his last work, only ten of several hundreds of authorities can be used for either reference or information,—while in the reviews and magazines of the present century, there are not more than a dozen papers which will bear perusal.
Feeling himself justified, therefore, in writing, by the scarcity of works upon the subject, the author trusts that hit articles may both entertain and instruct upon a topic new to almost all his readers. If any desire further knowledge upon the subject than these articles will afford, they may obtain what they wish, (if it lies in our power), by addressing us in care of the Editor, Communications from the higher orders, 4th, 5th, and 6th, respectfully requested.
Those who devote their lives in purity and righteousness to the search of wisdom, become, after a time, whose length depends upon their subjective and objective inertia and the divine forces, untrammeled by the bonds of sense and passion, and behold the universe no longer “through a glass darkly,” but face to face.
To him, the novice, the all-world is threefold, the sphere of man, the sphere of nature, and the sphere of God; or, as is laid down by the ancient sages, microcosm, the macrocosm, and the super-mundane emanations. The evolution of life is perpetually from the macrocosm into the microscosm, and is the third physical emanation. The microcosm is one in its end, viz.; the attainment of the spiritual, and the final co-association with the Eu-soph; it is several in its growth, viz.: in the gradual elimination of the mundane, and the macrocosmic bonds.
The lowest life Is the microcosmic bud, and is self-locked, seeing naught, knowing naught of its illusive environment; the higher life, the microcosmic flower, be it of the beast, or of the swarming millions of men, dimly tees and knows itself and the other self; but, purblind, reckons these the end-all and the be-all, here and now, as well as yonder and forever. The highest life, the microcosmic fruit, half-realized in a few grand types, Christ, Buddha, and perhaps Khoung-fou-tsee, pierces the clouds which surround and shut in the soul, and sees, in never-failing beauty, the august emanations of Him, styled Perun, Bom, God or Al-fadir. To him, the adept, the brother of the seventh order, the thundermarch of circumstance sounds not, as Lucretius dreamed, like the thought less, aimless falling of untold atoms, nor, as the Scotch Cynic pictured, like the “rush of a mighty mob,” but as the everlasting harmony of the Divine, rolled from the great organ of time. In the clear light of his intelligence, all creeds and covenants, the dreams and graspings of the microcosmic flower, melt away, while truth, the principles of things, stand out bright and eternal.
Thus to him who rises through study and holiness into the higher powers, all mysteries become unraveled, and new faculties, or the new use of old, old faculties is given. Right, moral and mental right, becomes moral, mental, and physic might.
The sage becomes the mage, the master of the Ku klos. He transmutes all elements, interchanges the forces, and thus defies time and space, learns, though he never uses it, the secret of immortality and life, and works “miracles,’’ such as were wrought on Galilee.
To the adept of the first, the novice of the second, the all-world is two-fold,—flux and reflux. The One is justice, truth, courage, power; the Other, mercy, love, “altruism,” in the latter-day tongue.
The One is centripetal, and matter; the other centrifugal and force. The one is male and vertical; the other female and horizontal. The All combining these is the Divine or the Unknown, and hence his symbol, the composite of emblematic lines, the cross. Hence the microcosmic flower, unwitting, but with truth, has always typified the Invisible by the cross. Be it among Christians, who employ the “Crucifix Skandinavians and Goths, “Thor’s hammer;”—Latins and Greeks, “Jove’s thunderbolt;” Mohamedans, the “intersected crescent;” Egyptians, the “cruciform Ibis;” Aztecs and Toltecs, the “black X” of their teocalli,—the same symbol stands forth, forever significant.
Thus marriage, the union of male and female, is the microcosmic cross. But, alas! at the same time it is the confession of man's inability to realize the ideal of the fourth physical emanation. At times, however, in the history of our race, have appeared those who have achieved their desire. And this is the end of the brethren of the rosy cross. The true Rosicrucian never marries, in thought or deed, but preserves himself aloof from the allurements of earthly passion. His principles go further. To him, happiness is a phantasm, the object of living is symmetrical development of the soul. The attainment of this aim requires the subjugation of the lower self, the macrocosmic mixings of the third emanation. Wants, desires, and ambition are sent, like unbidden guests, away. The magus rises free from the dross and dirt, so precious to the souls of men, of pleasure, wealth, power, dignities, fame and honor. Wisdom and righteousness, which are the twin sides of the same precious coin, are the goal of his days; to them he presses boldly onward, and, reaching them, is at last, after the chiliads of macrocosmic wanderings, again a co-associate of the Unknown.
To the adept of the second, the All is one. One spirit actuates, in manifold manifestations, the Cosmos, which is but an emanation itself. In the sphere of man, the spirit is the soul; in the sphere of the Universe, it is the stellar energies; and in the third sphere it is the first principle, the Unknown. Thus, the Rosicrucian, in his symbolic hieroglyphs, depicts the soul as a little flame, a spark, or a flickering star; the macrocosm, a sea of observed light, or a full moon; and the panurgic power, by the ever-blazing sun. (Thus it may have been remarked by my readers that a short communication from the Brotherhood of Luxor** in a past number of the Scientist, was signed…; whereof both the stars, points and outline are symbolic of spiritual truths.)
The All is neither create, nor increate; for these are <... continues on page 3-240 >
*Goethe’s Faust—Byron’s Manfred—Bulwer’s Zanoni and Strange Story—Walworth’s. See also a capital story in Dub. Uni Mag. Vol XXIX., &c.
**See last page but one of this number. Editor Scientist.
Sources
Spiritual Scientist, v. 2, No. 18, July 8, 1875, pp. 212-3