Secret Symbols of the Rosicrucians: An Introduction Staff of the Rosicrucian Digest n the following pages are two of manuscript tradition includes versions in The the many illustrated plates from Second Book of the Elements of Foundation Oa venerable Rosicrucian classic, (Kitab Ustuqus al-Uss al-Thani) attributed to Secret Symbols of the Rosicrucians of the Jabir ibn Hayyan (Geber) (721–815)1, The Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries. These Book of the Secret of Creation and the Art of plates were hand-colored by former Imperator Nature (Kitab Sirr al-Khaliqa wa San`at al- H. Spencer Lewis. Tabi`a) (ca. 650–830)2, and The Book of the Secret of Secrets (Kitab sirr al-asrar) (tenth century ce)3. The Latin headlines on the plate read The first part of the work was published “The Emerald Tablet of Hermes. The Words in German in 1785 in Altona, followed by of the Secrets of Hermes,” while inscribed the second part in 1788. It is considered by around the emblem itself is the well known many to be second only in importance to the alchemical phrase V.I.T.R.I.O.L. (Visit the Rosicrucian Manifestos themselves. interior of Earth, and by rectifying you will The symbols and text gathered in this find the hidden stone.) collection are from earlier works—some as The second plate, on page 37, is The far back as 1621— soon after the Manifestos. Hermetic Philosophy, with both text and It was common in the seventeenth century to symbolic illustration. This is followed by an privately circulate manuscripts with mystical explanatory essay by Frater Peter Bindon. text and illustrations, and this may have been Also included on the following pages is the how these materials came into the hands of Preface to this important Rosicrucian resource, the compiler of Secret Symbols. written by H. Spencer Lewis, founder of the Many of these plates came to North Rosicrucian Order, AMORC. As Imperator America with the second round of Lewis recommends, these texts and emblems Rosicrucian work, at the Ephrata Cloister in can be used for mystical work at many levels. Pennsylvania, around 1700, attesting to the widespread and genuine Rosicrucian nature of these emblems. They were published by EndnotEs AMORC beginning in 1935, and are now 1http://nwolibrary.com/component/k2/item/680- available at www.rosecroixjournal.org. tablet-hermes. See also E. J. Holmyard, Alchemy, Reproduced here are two plates from (Harmondsworth: Pelican, 1957), 95–8; J. Needham, book 1. “Spagyrical discovery and invention: Apparatus, Theories and Gifts” in Science and Civilisation in China The first, on page 36, is the venerable (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1980), 5:4. Emerald Tablet of Hermes, complete with 2Ibid Rosicrucian text and allegorical emblem. Although we 3 Digest Steven J. Williams, The Secret of Secrets: The Scholarly No. 1 do not have an ancient original of this most Career of a Pseudo-AristotelianText in the Latin Middle 2011 famous Hermetic statement on alchemy, the Ages (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2003). Page 32 Title page of the copy of Secret Symbols of the Rosicrucians hand-colored by H. Spencer Lewis. From the collection of the Rosicrucian Research Library. Page 33.