Rosicrucianism – An Introduction

n this issue of the Rosicrucian Digest less than the reformation of the “whole we explore Rosicrucianism from the wide world.” They especially focused on Iearly 1600s to 1801. transforming the oppressive superstition In the last fourteen issues of this maga- and intolerance that dominated Europe zine we have journeyed through the great at that time. The manifestos and the an- mystical traditions that have most signifi- nouncement of a mysterious order of mys- cantly contributed to the Western Esoteric tics, who kept their identities unknown, Tradition and Rosicrucianism. made such an impact that more than two We began in the mists of time with At- hundred responses, both in favor of and in lantis, then explored the mysteries of an- opposition to the Rosicrucians, were pub- cient Egypt, the Essenes, the Orphic and lished over the next few years. Delphic Mysteries of ancient Greece, the In this issue of the Digest, we explore Pythagoreans, the Mysteries of Eleusis, these Rosicrucian manifestos, as well as Isis, and Mithras, Hermetism, Gnosticism, what it means to be a Rosicrucian. We also Neoplatonism, Kabbalah, and Alchemy. examine the “Rosicrucian Code of Life,” And now we come to Rosicrucianism, meet some of the most illustrious Rosicru- which emerged in Europe with the pub- cians in history, experience some of the in- lication of three mysterious manifestos – triguing artwork and symbols of the Rosi- the Fama Fraternitatis (1614), the Confes- crucians of the sixteenth and seventeenth sio Fraternitatis (1615), and the Chymical centuries, learn about Rosicrucianism in Wedding of Christian Rosenkreuz (1616). early America, dream of the “Rosicrucian These anonymously written and wide- Utopia,” and together strive to attain the Rosicrucian ly distributed publications called for no Rose-Croix state. Digest No. 2 2013 Page 2