Rosicrucianism And Freemasonry.
The previous chapter has shown that there was a higher alchemy—it was
furthermore regarded as the true alchemy—which has the same relation to
practical chemistry that freemasonry has to practical masonry. A prominent
chemist who had entered into the history of chemistry and that of
freemasonry once wrote to me: “Whoever desires to make a chemical
preparation according to a hermetic recipe seems to me like a person who
undertakes to build a house according to the ritual of Freemasonry.”
The similarity is not a chance one. Both external and internal relations
between alchemy and freemasonry are worthy of notice. The connection is
partly through rosicrucianism. Since the Parable, which shall still be the
center of our study, belongs to rosicrucian literature (and indeed is
probably a later development of it), it is fitting here to examine who and
what the Rosicrucians really were. We cannot, of course, go into a
thorough discussion of this unusually complex subject. We shall mention
only what is necessary to our purpose. I shall not, however, be partial,
but treat of both the parties which are diametrically opposed in their
views of the problems of rosicrucian history. It will be shown that this
disagreement fortunately has but small influence upon our problem and that
therefore we are relieved of the difficult task of reaching a conclusion
and of bringing historical proof for a decision which experienced
specialists—of whom I am not one—have so signally failed to reach.
Rosicrucians are divided into those of three periods, the old, who are
connected by the two chief writings, “Fama” and “Confessio,” that appeared
at the beginning of the 17th century; the middle, which apparently
represents a degeneration of the original idealistic league, and finally,
the gold crossers and rose crossers, who for a time during the 18th
century developed greater power. The last Rosicrucians broke into
freemasonry for a while (in the second half of the eighteenth century) in
a manner almost catastrophic for continental masonry, yet I observe in
anticipation that this kind of rosicrucian expansion is not immediately
concerned with the question as to the original relation of freemasonry and
rosicrucianism. We must know how to distinguish the excrescence from the
real idea. Rosicrucianism died out at the beginning of the 19th century.
The rosicrucian degrees that still exist in many systems of freemasonry
(as Knight of the Red Cross, etc.) are historical relics. Those who now
parade as rosicrucians are imposters or imposed on, or societies that have
used rosicrucian names as a label.
Many serious scholars doubt that the old Rosicrucians ever existed as an
organized fraternity. I refer to the article Rosenkreuz in the “Handbuch
der Freimaurerei” (Lenning), where this skeptical view is dominant. Other
authors, on the contrary, believe in the existence of the old order and
think that the freemasons who appeared in their present form in 1717 are
the rosicrucians persisting, but with changed name. Joh. Gottl. Buhle, a
contemporary of Nicolai, had already assumed that the rosicrucian Michael
Maier introduced rosicrucianism into England, and that freemasonry began
then especially with the coöperation of the Englishman Robert Fludd
(1574-1637). Ferdinand Katsch warmly defended the actual existence of the
old rosicrucian fraternity with arguments, some of which are disputed. He
names with certainty a number of people as “true rosicrucians,” among them
Julianus de Campis, Michael Maier, Robert Fludd, Frisius or Frizius,
Comenius (Katch, p. 33). Rosicrucianism turned into freemasonry for
practical reasons. As the most outstanding imposters represented
themselves as rosicrucians this name was not conserved. The wrong was
prevented, in that the true rosicrucians withdrew as such and assumed a
different dress.
Generally we imagine a different origin of freemasonry. We are accustomed
to look for its beginnings in practical masonry, whose lodges can be
traced back to the fourteenth century. The old unions of house builders
were joined by persons who were not actual workers but lay members,
through whom spiritual power was added to the lodges. At the beginning of
the eighteenth century the old working masonry was transformed into the
spiritual symbolical freemasonry, but with a continuance of its forms. At
that time in London the building lodges had diminished to four. These were
united on June 24 (St. John’s Day), 1717, and chose Anton Sayer for their
grand master. That is the origin of Freemasonry as it exists to-day.
This derivation is and will be considered unsatisfactory by many, however
much it may satisfy the merely documentary claims. The attempt to make it
better required an inventive phantasy and this was not always fortunate in
its attempts. The rosicrucian theory cannot be dismissed off hand,
especially if we conceive it in a somewhat broader sense. In agreement
with Katsch, Höhler (Herm. Phil., p. 6) recalls how generally people were
occupied in the 16th and 17th centuries in the whole of western Europe
with cabala, theosophy, magic (physics), astrology and alchemy, and indeed
this held true of higher and lower social strata, scholars and laymen,
ecclesiastic and secular. “The entire learned theology turned on cabala.
Medicine was based on theosophy and alchemy and the latter was supposed to
be derived from theosophy and astrology.” Höhler, in one respect, goes
further than Katsch and conjectures: “Freemasonry had its roots in the
chemical societies of the 16th and 17th centuries, in which all those
things were fostered that constituted the science of that day.” This
theory is incomparably more open to discussion than if one attempts to
confine the origin to the insecure base of rosicrucianism. We shall learn
to appreciate more fully the significance of the chemical societies.
In connection with the question, important for us, as to the position of
the alchemy of the rosicrucians (whether they lived only in books or as an
actual brotherhood), it is worth while to glance at the literature.
Joachin Frizius, whom some think identical with Fludd, writes in the
“Summum Bonum, quod est verum Magiae, Cabalae, Alchymiae, verae Fratrum
Roseae Crucis verorum subjectum” (first published in Frankfort, 1629):
“Aben (אבן) means a stone. In this one cabbalistic stone we have the
Father, Son and Holy Ghost ... for in Hebrew Ab (אב) means Father and Ben
(בן) Son. But where the Father and Son are present there the Holy Ghost
must be also.... Let us now examine this Stone as the foundation of the
macrocosm.... Therefore the patriarch Jacob spake, ‘How dreadful is this
place. This is none other but the house of God,’ and rose up and took the
stone that he had put for his pillow and poured oil upon the top of it,
and said, ‘This stone that I have set for a pillar shall be God’s house,
etc.’ If therefore a God’s house, then God is in that place or else his
earthly substance. Here it was that the patriarch, as he slept on this
stone, conserved something divine and miraculous, through the power of
that spirit-filled stone which in its corporeality is similar to the
relation of the body to the soul. But the spiritual stone was Christ; but
Christ is the eternal wisdom, in which as the scripture says are many
mansions, which are undoubtedly distinguished on account of the different
grades of grace and blessedness. For blessedness follows wisdom or
knowledge, the higher and more we know the farther we go towards the
Godhead.” (Summ. Bon., pp. 17 ff.)
“Thereupon it clearly appears who this macrocosmic Stone Aben ... really
is, and that his fiery spirit is the foundation stone of all and given for
all (sit lapis seu petra catholica atque universalis) ... which was laid
in Zion as the true foundation, on which the prophets and the apostles as
well have built, but which was also to the ignorant and wicked builders a
stumbling block and bone of contention. This stone therefore is Christ who
has become our Cornerstone....” (Summ. Bon., p. 19.) “If we consider now
the stone Aben in its significance for the microcosmos ... we shall soon
be sure that as a stone temple of God it can have no less value for every
outer man in so far as the Holy Ghost also reserves a dwelling in him
forever.” (Summ. Bon., p. 20.)
“That is also the reason why the stone Aben appears in double form (quod
ambae petrae), that is, in the macrocosmic and in the microcosmic.... For
the spiritual stone is Christ that fulfills all. So we also are parts of
the spiritual stone and such are also living stones, taken out of that
universal stone (a petra illa catholica excisi)....” (Summ. Bon., p. 20.)
Here again we have the alchemistic distinction between the universal and
the particular, and the like distinction is also expressed by the
opposition of the celestial and the terrestrial stones. The second chapter
of I Peter speaks of the living stone. I Corinthians X, 4, says likewise:
“And did all drink of that spiritual Rock that followed them and that Rock
was Christ.” Alchemistically expressed it is called aurum potabile
(drinkable gold).
“But,” now you ask, “where then is all the gold with which those
alchemists [Fama] glitter so famously?” So we answer you.... “Our gold is
indeed not in any way the gold of the multitude, but it is the living
gold, the gold of God.... It is wisdom, which the psalmist means, Ps. XII,
6, ‘The words of the Lord are pure words as silver tried in a furnace of
earth, purified seven times.’ If you now wish ... to put before yourself
the true and actual animal stone, then seek the cornerstone, which is the
means of all change and transformation, in yourself.” (Summ. Bon., pp. 34
ff.)
“Finally the brother works towards the consummation of his labors in the
form of a master builder (_denique sub architecti figura operatur frater
ad huius operis perfectionem_).... Only for the better carrying out of our
building and thereby to attain the rose-red bloom of our cross concealed
in the center of our foundation ... we must not take the work
superficially, but must dig to the center of the earth, knock and seek.”
(Summ. Bon., p. 48; Trans. Katsch, pp. 413 ff.) Just after that he speaks
of the three dimensions, height, depth, and breadth. The masonic symbolism
is accompanied clearly enough in the “Summum Bonum” by the alchemistic.
Notice the knocking and seeking, and what is mentioned in the doctrines
about the form of the Lodge. Immediately thereafter is a prolix discussion
of the geometric cube.
Frizius and Fludd contribute also a letter supposed to have been sent by
rosicrucians to a German candidate. It says, “Since you are such a stone
as you desire, and such a work ... cleanse yourself with tears, sublimate
yourself with manners and virtues, decorate and color yourself with the
sacramental grace, make your soul sublime toward the subtile meditation of
heavenly things, and conform yourself to angelic spirits so that you may
vivify your moldering body, your vile ashes, and whiten them, and
incorruptibly and painlessly gain resurrection through J[esus] C[hrist]
O[ur] L[ord].” In another passage: “Be ye transformed, therefore, be ye
transmuted from mortal to living philosophic stones.”
In the “Clavis Philosophiae et Alchymiae Fluddanae” (published in Latin in
1633), are passages like the following: “Indeed every pious and righteous
man is a spiritual alchemist.... We understand by that a man who
understands not only how to distinguish but with the fire of the divine
spirit to separate [spagiric art] the false from the true, vice from
virtue, dark from light, the uncleanness of vice from the purity of the
spirit emulating God. For only in this way is unclean lead turned into
gold.” (P. 75.) “If one now ventures to say that the Word of Christ or the
Holy Ghost of wisdom dwells in the microcosmic heaven [i.e., in the soul
of man] we should not decry the blind children of the world as godless and
abandoned. [But certainly the divine spirit is, as is later averred, the
rectangular stone in us, on which we are to build.] This divine spark is,
however, continuous and eternal; it is our gold purchasable of Christ....
So it happens in accordance with the teachings of Christ, or the Word
become flesh, that if the true alchemists keep on seeking and knocking,
they attain to the knowledge of the living fire.” (P. 81.) So again the
important knocking and seeking of masonic symbolism, and this indeed, for
the purpose of learning to know a fire.
In reference to the really elevating thoughts of the “Summum Bonum,”
Katsch, enthusiastic about these ideas, exclaims: “What language, what an
unflinching courage, what a dignified humility. Even the most reluctant
will not be able to avoid the admission that here quite unexpectedly he
has ... met the original and ideal form of freemasonry.”
The comparison of masonry and alchemy remains true even if we work more
critically than Katsch, who is accused of many inaccuracies. I recall for
instance the later researches of the thorough and far-seeing Dr. Ludwig
Keller.
For the illumination of the darkness that has spread over the past of
freemasonry, Keller shows us (B. W. and Z., pp. 1, 2) the rich material of
symbolism that is offered the diligent student, first of all in the very
copious literature, printed matter, and especially in the manuscripts,
that is known by the name of Chemistry or Alchemy.
In the symbols of the alchemists, the rosicrucians, the Lodges, etc., “we
meet a language that has found acceptance among all occidental peoples in
analogous form, not indeed a letter or word language, but a language
nevertheless, a token or a symbol language of developed form, which is
evident even in the rock temples of the so-called catacombs, once called
latomies and loggie. The single images and symbols have something to say
only to the person who understands this language. To the man who does not
understand it, they say nothing and are not expected to say anything.”
In reference to the symbol and image language, which was comprehensible
only to the initiated, we think naturally of the ancient mysteries. The
religious societies of the oldest Christians, in the centuries when
Christianity belonged in the Roman Empire to the forbidden cults, found a
possibility of existence before the law in the form of licensed societies,
i.e., as guilds, burial unions, and corporations of all sorts. The
primitive Christians were not the only forbidden sects that sought and
found this recourse. Under the disguise of schools, trade unions, literary
societies, and academies, there existed in the jurisdiction of the Roman
Empire, and later inside of the world church, organizations that before
the law were secular societies, but in the minds of the initiated were
associations of a religious character. Within these associations there
appeared very early a well developed system of symbols, which were adopted
for the purpose of actually maintaining, through the concealment
necessitated by circumstances, their unions and their implements and
customs—symbols that they chose as cloaks and that in the circle of the
initiated were explained and interpreted according to the teachings of
their cult.
Valuable monuments of this symbolism are preserved in the vast rock
temples that are found in Egypt, Syria, Asia Minor, Sicily, and the
Apennine peninsula, in Greece, France, and on the Rhine, and these vaults,
which in part also served the early Christians as places of worship, show
in their images and records and in their architectural form so close a
resemblance that they must be acknowledged as the characteristic of a
great religious cult extending over many lands, which has had consistent
traditions for the use of such symbols and for the production of these
structures.
Many of these symbols, it should be noted in passing, are borrowed from
those tokens and implements of the building corporations, which were
necessary to the completion of their buildings (Keller, l. c., p. 4). An
important part was played even in the early Christian symbolism by the
sacred numbers and the figures corresponding to them, a group of
educational symbols which we find likewise in the pythagorean and platonic
schools. It is known that the symbolical language of the subterranean rock
temples, some of which were used by the earliest Christians for their
religious worship, are closely connected with the pythagorean and platonic
doctrines. From the year 325 A. D. on, every departure from the beliefs of
the state church was considered a state offense. So those Christians who
retained connection with the ancient philosophic schools were persecuted.
In the religious symbol language of the church, the sacred numbers
naturally began to disappear from that time. In the writings of Augustine
begins the war on the symbolic language, whose use he declared a
characteristic of the gnostics. In spite of the suppression the doctrines
of the sacred numbers continued through all the centuries in religious
use, in quiet but strong currents which flowed beside the state church.
The sect names, which were invented by polemic theology for the purpose of
characterizing methods that were regarded as imitations of the gnostics,
are of the most varied kinds; it may be enough to remember that in all
those spiritual currents, that like the old German mysticism, the earlier
humanism, the so-called natural philosophy, etc., show a strong influence
of platonic thinking, the doctrines of the sacred numbers recur, in a more
or less disguised form, but yet clearly recognizable. (Keller, Heil.
Zahl., p. 2.)
As the old number symbolism constitutes a part of the hieroglyphics of
alchemy, I shall pause a moment to consider them. The use of mathematical
and geometrical symbols proceeds from the use of the simplest forms,
points and lines, but in all cases where the object is not a
representation in the flat but in space, both the points and lines are
replaced by plastic forms, i.e., forms of cylinders, spheres, bars, rings,
cubes, etc. From this point it was but a short step to the use of trees,
leaves, flowers, implements, and other things that showed similarities in
form. Pillars are specially noticeable for the symbolism of the ceremonial
chamber. In all cases where points and lines occur in images and drawings,
pillars are found in the plastic representation of thoughts and symbols.
They form the chief element of the organization of cults in academies and
museums, and justify the names of colonnade, stoa, portico, and loggia,
which occur everywhere; besides the special designation like Οἰκυς
αἰονὶος, etc.
For symbolism, too, which served as the characterization of the forms of
organization and the building up of the fraternity into degrees, lines
were useless, but in place of lines and points are found plastic forms
which were at their disposal in carpenters’ squares, crossed bars, etc.
(Keller, l. c., p. 10.)
As the circle symbolized the all and the eternal or the celestial unity of
the all, and the divinity, so the number one, the single line, the staff
or the scepter, represented the terrestrial copy of the power, the ruling,
guiding, sustaining and protecting force of the personality that had
attained freedom on earth.
The sun or gold symbol [Symbol: Sun] corresponds in alchemy to the divine
circle and the same circle occurs in other symbols of the art, as in
[Symbol: Copper] [Symbol: Mercury], etc.
Duality, the Dyas, represents in contrast to the celestial being the
divided terrestrial being that is dominated by the antagonism of things
and is only a transitory, imperfect existence; the opposites, fluid and
solid, sulphur and mercury, dry and wet, etc.
In the symbol of the trinity, which frequently occurs in the form of a
triangle (three points united by three straight lines), is shown how the
divided and sensuous nature is led by the higher power of the number 3 to
a harmony of powers and to a new unity. The symbol of reason attaining
victory over matter becomes visible. A representation of trinity is
possible by means of the conventional cross. We can see in it two elements
of lines which by their unification or penetration give the third as the
point of intersection. More generally the cross is conceived as quinity
(fiveness)—i.e., 4+1ness (in alchemy four elements which are collected
about the quinta esentia). A cross in which unity splits into duality so
that trinity results, is Y, which is called the forked cross. From unity
grows duality, that is, nature divides into spirit and matter, into active
and passive, necessity and freedom. The divided returns through trinity to
unity. In alchemy we have the symbol REBIS, the hermaphrodite with the two
heads. The ancient symbol was later conceived, by purposive concealment or
by more accidental interpretation, as the letter Y, just as the symbol of
the three lines [Symbol: fire] or [Symbol: fire with a line coming out top
pointing left] and the like gradually appears to have become an A, as it
is found frequently in the catacombs. Keller refers (l. c., p. 14) also
especially to the reduplication of the carpenter’s square, which is found
likewise in the old Latomies (Gk. = quarries) and has the appearance of
two intersecting opened circles. I do not need to call attention to the
masonic analogue; in alchemy we have here the interpenetration of [Symbol:
fire] and [Symbol: Water], i.e., [Symbol: Star of David], which is among
others the symbol for the material of the stone. [[Symbol: Fire] and
[Symbol: Water] are the symbols for the elements fire and water. Fire and
water, however, mean also the famous two opposites, that are symbolized
quite as well by warm and cold, red and white, soul and body, sun and
moon, man and woman.] With regard to the six points, in alchemy [Symbol:
Star of David] is also called chaos in contrast to [Symbol: Star of
David], which denotes cosmos, just as alum [Symbol: circle] on account of
its lack of a center (God, belief, union), is incomplete beside [Symbol:
sol]. In the catacombs the triangle is found also in multiple [five fold]
combination, [Symbol: Star of David].
Four lines, somewhat in the form of a rectangle, define the limited space
of the terrestrial world with the accessory meaning of the holy precinct,
house, temple. In masonry, [Symbol: square] is well known as the lodge.
The rectangle is related to the cube. I mention therefore in this place
the cubic stone, the mighty masonic symbol, whose equivalent in alchemy
will be discussed.
By a commonly used change of significance the number 5 is symbolized by
5-leaved plants (rose, lily, vine). “The flowers, however, and the garden
in which they grow, early served as symbols of the Fields of the Blessed
or the ‘better country’ in which dwell the souls passing through death to
life; in antithesis to the terrestrial house of God, the temple built with
hands, which was represented by the rectangle [Symbol: rectangle], the
holy number 5 denoted the celestial abodes of the souls that had attained
perfection, and therefore represented both the House of Eternity or the
City of God and the Heavenly Jerusalem. The holy pentagram in the form of
the rose, not only in the ancient but in the early Christian world,
decorated the graves of the dead, that in their turn symbolized the
gardens of the blessed. And the significance that the academies and loggia
attributed to the pentagram placed in the rose is explained by the fact
that their religious festival was closely connected with this emblem.
Already in the ancient world at the festival of St. John, the rose feast
or rhodismus or Rosalia was celebrated, at which the participants adorned
themselves with roses and held religious feasts.” (Keller, 1. c., p. 21.)
As already mentioned, the cross, i.e., the Greek cross with its four equal
arms, expresses the number five. It is interesting that already in the
ancient number symbolism, rose and cross appear united, a fact which I
mention here in view of the later connection of these two objects.
The semicircle or moon is an emblem of borrowed light. Besides the circles
or spheres, the symbols of eons (divine beings, powers) that are enthroned
in the ether as eternal beings, the human soul—the psyche or anima, which
does not coincide with reason or the purified soul—appears as a broken
circle. As the sun and its symbol, the ragged circle, symbolize the
eternal light, the half circle is, as it were, the symbol of that spark of
light that slumbers in the soul of man, or, as the alchemists often say,
the hidden fire that is to be awakened by the process. If we reflect that
in this symbolism the cross expresses a penetration, the alchemic symbol
[Symbol: mercury] is explained. It is now quite interesting that the like
connection appears in the subterranean places of worship in this form
[Symbol: female with concave arc underneath it], (l. c., p. 27). Keller
calls it a symbol of the all and the soul of man.
The number 7 (seven planets, etc.) also is of some importance in the old
latomies. It is noteworthy besides that sun and moon usually appear as
human forms; the sun wears on its head a crown or garland or beaming star,
while the moon image is wont to carry the symbol [Symbol: Silver].
Alchemy, too, likes to represent [Symbol: Gold] and [Symbol: Silver] as
human, and indeed frequently as crowned figures, sometimes as a royal
bridal couple.
The ancient lore of the sacred numbers breathes a spirit that may be
embodied in the following words: The soul of man, which through
resignation or meekness, as they used to say then, is impelled onward to
purity and union with the Eternal, has in itself a higher life, which
cannot be annihilated by death. The doctrine of the infinite value of the
soul ... and of God’s entering into the pure soul of man forms the central
point of the thought of religious fellowship. Neither for sacrifice, which
the state religions practice, nor for the beliefs in demons, by which the
masses are controlled, nor for the idea of priesthood as means of
salvation, was there a place in this system, and not a trace of such a
belief is demonstrable in this religion of wisdom and virtue. (l. c., p.
33.)
Besides the early Christian ideal, which recognized and encouraged the
connection between the teachings of Christ and the ancient wisdom of
platonism, there was in early times another which emphasized and
endeavored to develop the antithesis more than the connection. From the
time when the new Christian state church came to life, and sacrificial
religion and the belief in devils and the priesthood were restored, a
struggle of life and death developed between the church and the so-called
philosophic schools. “The fraternity saw that it had to draw down the mask
still further over its face than formerly, and the ‘House of the Eternal,’
the ‘Basilika,’ the ‘Academies,’ and the ‘Museums’ became workshops of
stone cutters, latomies, and loggia or innocent guilds, unions, and
companies of every variety. But all later greater religious movements and
tendencies which maintained the old beliefs, whether they appeared under
the names of mysticism, alchemy, natural philosophy, humanism, or special
names and disguises, as workshops or societies, have preserved more or
less truly the doctrine of the ‘sacred numbers’ and the number symbolism,
and found the keys of wisdom and knowledge in the rightly understood
doctrine of the eternal harmony of the spheres.” (Keller, l. c., p. 38.)
Keller derives modern freemasonry from the academies of the renaissance,
which, as we have just heard, continued the spirit of the ancient
academies. Now it is interesting that the later branches of these
religious societies (after the renaissance) took among others the form of
alchemy companies and further that such fraternities or companies [as are
not called alchemical], still employed symbols that we recognize as
derived from alchemy. The hieroglyphics of alchemy appear to be peculiarly
appropriate to the religious and philosophic ideas to be treated of.
Rosicrucianism was, however, one of the forms into which alchemy was
organized. It is further important that in just those societies of the
beginning of the seventeenth century which outsiders called “alchymists”
or “rosicrucians,” the characteristic emblems of the old lodge appeared,
as, for instance, the circle, the cubic stone, the level, the man facing
the right, the sphere, the oblong rectangle (symbol of the Lodge), etc.
(Keller, Zur Gesch. d. Bauh., p. 17.) These “alchymists” honored St. John
in the same way as can be shown for the companies of the fifteenth
century. I need not mention that modern masonry, in its most important
form, bears the name of Masons of St. John.
From the beginning of the 17th century attempts were made inside the
fraternity, as the company societies working in the same spirit may be
called, to bring to more general recognition a suitable name for this
company, which could also form a uniting bond for the scattered single
organizations. The leaders knew and occasionally said that a respected
name for the common interest would be advantageous. This view appears
especially in the letters of Comenius. It was then indeed an undecided
question what nation should place itself at the head of the great
undertaking. (Keller, in the M. H. der C. G., 1895, p. 156.) “As a matter
of fact precisely in the years when in Germany the brothers had won the
support of powerful princes and the movement received a great impetus,
very decided efforts were made both to create larger unions and to adopt a
unifying name. The founding of the Society of the Palmtree [1617] was the
result of the earlier effort and the writings of Andreaes on the alleged
origin and aims of the rosicrucians are connected with the other need. The
battle of the White Mountain and the unfortunate consequences that
followed killed both attempts, as it were, in the germ.” (Z. Gesch, d.
Bauh., p. 20.) Note by the way that the name of the “Fraternity of the Red
Cross” was taken from symbols which were already employed in the
societies. In regard to this it is quite mistaken accuracy to maintain
that it was correctly called “Bruderschaft des Rosenkreutz” and not “des
Rosenkreutzes,” as the “Handbuch d. Freimaurerei,” p. 259, emends it.
Vatter Christian Rosenkreutz is indeed evidently only a composite
legendary personage as the bearer of a definite symbolism (Christ, rose,
cross), (and may have been devised merely in jest). The name does not come
from the personality of the founder but the personality of the founder
comes from the name. The symbols and expressions that lie at the
foundations are the earlier.
The attempt mentioned, to find a common name, did not permanently succeed.
The visionaries and “heretics” decried as “Rosicrucians” and “alchymists”
were considered as enemies and persecuted. It is irrelevant whether there
was an organized fraternity of rosicrucians; it was enough to be known as
a rosicrucian. (Keller, Z. Gesch. d. B., p. 21.) The great organization
did not take place until a great European power spread over it its
protecting hand, i.e., in 1717, when in England the new English system of
“Grand Lodges of Free and Accepted Masons” arose. (Keller, D. Soc. d.
Hum., p. 18.) We see that Keller arrives by another and surer way than
Katsch at the same result, and shows the continuity of the alchemists or
rosicrucians and the later freemasons, if not in exactly the same way that
Katsch has outlined it. In particular Keller gets along without the
unproved statement that there were organized rosicrucians (outside of the
later gold- and rose-crosses). He shows what is much more important,
namely that there were societies that might have borne the name of
rosicrucians (or any similar name).
[Occult image.]
Figure 1.
Several interesting peculiarities should not be omitted, as for instance,
that Leibniz, about 1667, was secretary of an alchemist’s society (of
so-called rosicrucians) in Nuremberg. Leibniz describes alchemy as an
“introduction to mystic theology” and identifies the concepts of “Arcana
Naturae” and “Chymica.” (M. H. der C. G., 1903, p. 149; 1909, p. 169 ff.)
In the laws of the grand lodge “Indissolubilis” (17th and 18th centuries)
there are found as doctrinal symbols of the three grades, the alchemistic
symbols of salt (rectification, clarification), of quicksilver
(illumination), and of sulphur (unification, tincture), used in a way that
corresponds to the stages of realization of the “Great Work.” The M. H. d.
C. G., 1909, p. 173 ff. remarks that we should probably regard it only as
an accident, if there are not found, in the famous hermetic chemical
writings, similar signs with additions as would for experts, exclude all
doubt as to their purport. In 1660 appeared at Paris an edition of a
writing very celebrated among the followers of the art, “Twelve Keys of
Philosophy,” which was ostensibly written by one Brother Basilius
Valentinus. In this edition we see at the beginning a remarkable plate,
whose relation to masonic symbolism is unmistakable (Figure 1). In
addition to the lowest symbol of salt (represented as cubic stone) there
is a significant reference to the earth and the earthly. [I should note
that besides [Symbol: circle with diameter line] alchemy used [Symbol:
square] for salt, in which there is a special reference to the earthly
nature of salt. In Plato the smallest particles of the earth are cubical.
Salt and earth alternate in the terminology, just as mercury [Symbol:
female] and air [Symbol: air] or water [Symbol: water] do; as sulphur
[Symbol: sulfur and fire [Symbol: fire]; only, however, where it is
permitted by the context.] The Rectification of the subject (man) taken up
by the Art, is achieved through the purification of the earthly elements
according to the indication of the alchemists who call the beginning of
the work “Vitriol,” and form an acrostic from the initial letters of this
word: “Visita Interiora Terrae, Rectificando Invenies Occultum Lapidem” [=
Visit the interior of the earth; by purifying you will find the hidden
stone]. Half way up there floats the [Symbol: mercury] that has the value
of a “union symbol” in the brotherhoods (as such, a symbol of fellowship)
and left and right of it is found the moon and sun or the flaming star.
Above is placed a triangle, in which is a phoenix rising from the flames;
and on the triangle stands the crowned Saturn or Hermes (in masonry
Hiram). On the left and right of this kingly form, on whose breast and
stomach are placed planet symbols, we notice water in the shape of drops
(tears) and flames that signify suffering and resurrection. “When we
notice that not only the principles of the old ‘amateurs of the art’
correspond with those of the ‘royal art’ [freemasonry], but that the
symbolism also is the same in all parts, we recognize that the later
masonic societies are only a modern reshaping of the societies which
dropped the depreciated names of the alchemists in order to appear in a
new dress” (l. c., p. 175). That the assertion of the complete similarity
of the symbolism is not mere fancy, the following considerations (and not
those only in this section), will satisfactorily demonstrate. In the
following examples the words showing it most clearly are italicized.
Alchemy was regarded by its disciples as a _royal art_. Old sources show
that the art of making gold was revealed in Egypt only to the crown
princes. Generally only the kings’ sons were informed by the priests
concerning the magic sciences. The hermetics derived their art expressly
from kings, Hermes, Geber, and the patriarchs of alchemy were represented
as kings.
According to Khunrath (Amphitheatrum) prayer, work and perseverance lead
to eternal wisdom by the mystical ladder of the _seven_ theosophical
_steps_. Perfect wisdom consists in the knowledge of God and his Son, in
the understanding of the holy scriptures, in self knowledge and in
knowledge of the great world and its Son, the Magnesia of the philosophers
or the Philosopher’s Stone. The mystical steps in general contain _three_
activities, hearing (audire), persevering (perseverare), knowing (nosse et
scire), that applies to _five_ objects, so that we can distinguish _seven_
steps in all. Only the pure may enter the temple of wisdom, only the
_worthy_ are intrusted with the secrets, the _profane_, however, must stay
away.
In the fifth table of Khunrath’s Amphitheatrum is pictured the seven
pillared citadel of Pallas (Prov. IX, 1). At the entrance is a table with
the legend Opera bona (= good works). Behind sits a man with the staff of
Mercury. On each side is a _four sided pyramid_, on the top of the left
one is the _sun_, on the right the _moon_. On the former stands the word
_Fides_ (= faith), on the latter _Taciturnitas_ (= silence). Behind the
man we read the word _Mysterion_, over the inner entrance _Non omnibus_ (=
not for all).
Alchemy frequently mentions two or three _lights_. By these it understood
[Symbol: Sol] and [Symbol: Luna], [Symbol: Venus], [Symbol: Mercury],
[Symbol: Jupiter], light of grace and light of nature, etc. The
juxtaposition of [Symbol: Sol] [Symbol: Luna] and [Symbol: Hexagram] is
interesting; no one can attain the desired end before, through the
_circular wheel_ of the elements, the fatness or the blood of the _sun_,
and the dew of the _moon_ are by the action of _art_ and _nature_, united
in one body in the image of the _hexagram_; and this can take place only
by the will of the _Most High_, who alone imparts the unique boon of the
_Holy Ghost_ and _priceless treasure_ according to his especial mercy. The
above mentioned circular wheel is identical with the serpent that bites
its own tail; it is a power that always consumes and always renews itself.
This circle appears not to be lacking in the flaming star; it is the round
eye or the likewise round fashioned “G,” which latter looks quite similar
to the snake hieroglyph. The reference to Genesis has a good reason.
Moreover, the hexagram represents in cabbalistic sense the mystical union
of the male with the female potence [Symbol: Fire] with [Symbol: Water].
According to a rabbinical belief a picture is supposed to be placed in the
ark of the covenant alongside of the tables of the laws, which shows a man
and a woman in intimate embrace, in the form of a hexagram. In cabbalistic
writings, as for instance, in those of H. C. Agrippa, we find the human
form in a star, generally inscribed in the pentagram. The genitals fall
exactly in the middle part and are often made prominent by an added
[Symbol: Mercury] as male-female or androgyne procreative power. One of
the snake shaped Egyptian hieroglyphs frequently turns into an Arabic
[Symbol: gimel], i.e., gimel. I do not know whether this fact has any
significance here. With respect to the above passages that mention the
“will of the Most High,” I refer to the dialogue which concerns the “G”;
e.g., “Does it mean nothing else?” “Something that is greater than you.”
“Who is greater than I?” etc. “It is Gott, whom the English call God.
Consider this mysterious star; it is the symbol of the Spirit.... The
image of the holy fire, etc.”
[Occult image.]
Figure 2.
REBIS is represented as an hermetic hermaphrodite. The already mentioned
figure with the two heads (figure 2) is found (as Höhler relates) in a
book that appeared in Frankfort in 1618, called “Joannes Danielis Mylii
Tractatus III, seu Basilica Philosophica,” though it is to be seen also in
other books on alchemy. The hermaphrodite stands on a dragon that lies on
a globe. In the right hand he holds a _pair of compasses_, in the left a
_square_. On the globe we see a _square_ and a _triangle_. Around the
figure are the signs of the seven planets, with [Symbol: Mercury] at the
top. In a cut in the Discursus Nobilis of John of Munster we see _sun_ and
_moon_, at the middle of the top the _star_ [Symbol: Hexagram], also
denoted by Y = γλζ (= matter) surrounded by _rays_. (Höhler, Herm. Phil.,
p. 105.)
In the cabala, which has found admission into the idea of the alchemists
and rosicrucians, no small part is played by _three pillars_ and _two
pillars_.
Tubal Cain was renowned as a great alchemist. He was the patriarch of
wisdom, a master of all kinds of brass and iron work. (Genesis IV, 22.) He
had the knowledge not only of ordinary chemistry and of the fire required
for it, but also of the higher chemistry and of the hidden elemental fire.
After the flood there was no other man who knew the art but the righteous
Noah, whom some call Hermogenes or Hermes, who possessed the knowledge of
celestial and terrestrial things.
One devoted to art must be a _free man_ (Höhler, l. c., p. 66). The
_ordinale_ of Norton establishes it more or less as follows: “The kings in
the olden time have ordained that no one should learn the liberal sciences
except the free and those of noble spirit, and any one who is devoted to
them should devote his life most freely. Accordingly the ancients have
called them the seven liberal arts, for whoever desires to learn
thoroughly and well must enjoy a certain freedom.”
[Occult image.]
Figure 3.
Very frequently one finds in the alchemists images of _death_: grave,
coffin, skeleton, etc. Thus in Michael Maier’s, Atalanta Fugiens, the
Emblema XLIV shows how the _king_ lies with his crown in the _coffin_
which is just _opened_. On the right stands a man with a turban, on the
left two who open the coffin and let his joyful countenance be seen. In
the Practica of Basilius Valentinus the illustration of the fourth key
shows a coffin, on which stands a skeleton, the illustration of the eighth
key (see Fig. 3), a grave from which half emerges a man with upright body
and raised hands. [This reproduction and figure I owe to the kindness of
Dr. Ludwig Keller and the publications of the Comenius Society.] Two men
are shooting at the well known mark, [Symbol: Sol], here represented as a
target (a symbol much used in the old lodges), while a third is sowing.
(Parable of the sower and the seeds.) The sign is a clever adaptation of
the sulphur hieroglyph and is identical with the registry mark of the
third degree of the Grand Lodge Indissolubilis. The mark [Symbol: Half
circle] on the wall is also a symbol of the academy; it is the half
circle, man, to whom the light is imparted and means, when occurring
collectively, the fraternity. The evident idea is of representing the
exclusive society as enclosing wall. The angel with the trumpet is the
angel of the judgment day who awakes the dead. With respect to the birds I
refer to Matthew XIII, 4: “And when he sowed, some seeds fell by the
wayside and the fowls came and devoured them up.” In the text of Basilius
Valentinus, the fourth key, there is mention of the rotting and falling to
pieces with which we are familiar. The idea of dismemberment is not
infrequently clearly expressed, more clearly than in our parable. Already
in the oldest alchemistic manuals one operation is called the grave of
Osiris. One of the manuscripts cited by Berthelot (Orig., p. 60) says:
“The dragon is the _guardian of the temple_, sacrifice him, _flay_ him,
cut his _flesh_ from his _bones_ and thou wilt find what thou seekest.”
The dragon is also called Osiris, with whose _son_ Horus-Harpocrates, the
skillful Hermes, is also identified. (Do we need reference to requirements
in the 3d degree? J ... left his skin; ... B ... left his flesh...; M ...
B..., he lives in the Son.)
Here more clearly than anywhere else we see the masonic symbolism combined
with the myth of the first parents or creation myth. No matter where it
acts, the myth-making power never seems willing to belie its laws. Also
the tree growing out of the grave or the body of the dead ancestor is not
wanting. (“... at the graves of our fathers.” “I was accused of a terrible
crime.”) It is the acacia whose presence is rationalized apparently for
the purpose of forming a sign by which to find again the place of the
hastily buried.
An Egyptian fable tells of two brothers. The younger, Bata, was _falsely
accused_ by his sister-in-law (as was Joseph by Potiphar’s wife). His
brother Inpw (Anepu) consequently pursued him. The sun god made a mighty
flood that separated the pursuer from the pursued. Bata castrated himself
and threw his organ of generation into the water, where it was swallowed
by a fish. Bata’s heart later in the story is changed into a blossom of an
acacia or a cedar. [I naturally lay no stress on the accident that the
acacia occurs here. The point is that the tree is a symbol of life.] Bata
is reconciled with Inpw and at parting relates to him that a mug of beer
is to serve as a symbol of how the brother fares, who is dwelling afar
off. If the beer foams he is in danger. Bata’s wife has the acacia tree,
on which Bata’s heart is a blossom, felled, and as a result Bata dies. By
means of the mug Inpw learns of Bata’s peril and departs to look for his
younger brother. Inpw _finds the fallen acacia_ and on it a berry that is
the heart of his brother transformed. Bata _comes to life again_ and
transforms himself into an ox. His wife has the ox butchered on the
pretext of wishing to eat its liver. Two drops of blood fall from the cut
throat of the ox upon the ground and are changed into two peach trees.
Bata’s wife has the two peach trees felled. A chip flies into her mouth.
She swallows it and becomes pregnant by it. The child that she bears is
the reincarnated Bata. He therefore _lives again in his son as the child
of a widow_.
The second fragment of the Physica et Mystica of Pseudo Democritus, that
Berthelot cites (Orig., p. 151) relates that the _master died without
having initiated Democritus into the secrets of knowledge_. Democritus
conjured him up out of the underworld. The spirit cried: “So that is the
reward I get for what I have done for thee.” To the questions of
Democritus he answered, “The books are in the temple.” They were not
found. Some time thereafter, on the occasion of a festival, they saw a
_column_ crack open, and in the opening they found the books of the
master, which contained three mystic axioms: “Nature pleases herself in
Nature; Nature triumphs over Nature; Nature governs Nature.”
The quotations show, to be sure, only superficially the interrelation of
alchemy and freemasonry. The actual affinity lying behind the symbolism,
which, moreover, our examination of the hermetic art has already
foreshadowed, will be treated later.
We could also posit a psychological interrelation in the form of an
“etiological assumption” according to the terminology of psychoanalysis.
It would explain the temporary fusion of alchemistic rosicrucianism with
freemasonry. The rosicrucian frenzy would never have occurred—so much I
will say—in masonry, if there had been no trend that way. Some emotional
cause must have existed for the phenomenon, and as the specter of
rosicrucianism stalked especially on the masonic stage, and indeed was
dangerous to it alone, this etiological assumption must be such as to
furnish an effective factor in masonry itself, only in more discreet and
wholesome form. In masonry psychological elements have played a part which
if improperly managed might degenerate, as indeed they did when gold- and
rose-crossism was grafted on masonry. It appears to me too superficial to
explain the movement merely from the external connection of rosicrucianism
and the masonic system. Although the observation is quite just, it does
not touch the kernel of the matter, the impulse, which only psychology can
lay bare. Freemasonry must have felt some affinity with rosicrucianism,
something related at the psychical basis of the mode of expression
(symbolism, ritual) of both. Only the modes of expression of
rosicrucianism are evidently more far reaching or more dangerous in the
sense that they (the leadership of loose companions always presupposed)
could sooner incite weaker characters to a perverted idea and practice of
it.
That rosicrucianism in its better aspect is identical with the higher
alchemy, can no longer be doubted by any one after the material here
offered. The common psychological element is shown when, as will be done
in later parts of this book, we go into the deeper common basis of alchemy
and freemasonry. Then first will the sought-for “etiological assumption”
attain to its desired clearness. But already this much may be clear: that
we have in both domains, structures with a religious content, even though
from time to time names are used which will veil these facts. I add now in
anticipation a statement whose clear summing up has been reserved for
psychoanalysis, namely that the object of religious worship is regularly
to be regarded as a symbol of the libido, that psychologic goddess who
rules the desires of mankind—and whose prime minister is Eros. [Libido is
desire or the tendency toward desire, as it controls our impulsive life.
In medical language used mainly for sexual desire, the concept of libido
is extended in psychoanalysis (namely by C. G. Jung) to the impelling
power of psychic phenomena in general. Libido would therefore be the inner
view of what must in objective description be called “psychic energy.” How
it could be given this extension of meaning is seen when we know the
possibilities of its transformation and sublimation, a matter which will
be treated later.] Now if the libido symbol raised up for an ideal is
placed too nakedly before the seeker, the danger of misunderstanding and
perversion is always present. For he is misled by his instincts to take
the symbol verbally, that is, in its original, baser sense and to act
accordingly. So all religions are degenerate in which one chooses as a
libido symbol the unconcealed sexual act, and therefore also a religion
must degenerate, in which gold, this object of inordinate desire, is used
as a symbol.
What impels the seeker, that is, the man who actually deserves the name,
in masonry and in alchemy, is clearly manifested as a certain
dissatisfaction. The seeker is not satisfied with what he actually learns
in the degrees, he expects more, wants to have more exhaustive
information, wants to know when the “real” will be finally shown.
Complaint is made, for example, of the narrowness of the meaning of the
degrees of fellowship. Much more important than the objective meaning of
any degree is the subjective wealth of the thing to be promoted. The less
this is, the less will he “find” even in the degrees, and the less
satisfied will he be, in case he succeeds in attaining anything at all. To
act here in a compensating way is naturally the task of the persons that
induce him. But it is the before mentioned dissatisfaction, too, which
causes one to expect wonderful arts from the superiors of the higher
degrees; an expectation that gives a fine opportunity for exploitation by
swindlers who, of course, have not been lacking in the province of
alchemy, exactly as later at a more critical time, in the high degree
masonry. Who can exactly determine how great a part may have been played
by avarice, ambition, vanity, curiosity, and finally by a not
unpraiseworthy emotional hunger?
The speculators who fished in the muddy waters of late rosicrucianism put
many desirable things as bait on the hook; as power over the world of
spirits, penetration into the most recondite parts of nature’s teachings,
honor, riches, health, longevity. In one was aroused the hope of one of
these aims, in another of another. The belief in gold making was, as
already mentioned, still alive at that period. But it was not only the
continuance of this conviction that caused belief in the alchemistic
secrets of the high degrees, but, as for instance, B. Kopp shows (Alch.
II, p. 13) it was a certain metaphysical need of the time.
It will have been noticed that with all recognition of its abuses I grant
to rosicrucianism, as it deserves, even its later forms, an ideal side. To
deny it were to falsify its true likeness. Only the important difference
must be noted between an idea and its advocates alchemy and the
alchemists, rosicrucianism and the rosicrucians. There are worthy and
unworthy advocates; among the alchemists they are called the adepts or
masters and the sloppers and sloppy workers. Since in our research we are
concerned with the hermetic science itself, not merely with the
misdirections undertaken in its name, we should not let ourselves be
involved in these. And as for us the spiritual result (alchemy,
rosicrucian thoughts, masonic symbolism, etc.) is primarily to be regarded
and not the single persons advocating it, the question is idle as to
whether the earliest rosicrucians had an organized union or not. It is
enough that the rosicrucians are created in the imagination, that this
imagination is fostered and that people live it out and make it real. It
amounts to the same thing for us, whether there were “so-called” or “real”
rosicrucians; the substance of their teaching lives and this substance,
which is evident in literature, was what I referred to when I said that
rosicrucianism is identical with higher alchemy or the hermetic or the
royal art. But I think the comparison holds true for the gold and
rose-cross societies also, for the spiritual scope of this new edition is
the same as that of the old order, except that, as in the fate of all
subtile things, it was misunderstood by the majority. There were not
lacking attempts to dissuade people from their errors. In the rosicrucian
notes to the “Kompass der Weisen” (edition of 1782), e.g., “Moreover the
object of our guiltless guild is not the making of gold.... Rather we
remove the erroneous opinion from them [the disciples] in so far as they
are infected with it, even on the first step of the temple of wisdom. They
are earnestly enjoined against these errors and that they must seek the
kingdom of God and his righteousness.” Also through all kinds of reforms
we seek to set the wayfarer on the right path that leads to the original
ideal. It appears that the alchemistic preparation of the “work” is
available only for the smallest circles. The multitude is blinded.
“Where do the Scottish masters stay?”
“Quite near the sun.”
“Why?”
“Because they can stand it.”