Article reprinted from: The Vahan, Editor J.I. Wedgewood.
The Vahan, “The Founding of the Temple of the Rosy Cross,” Vol. XXI, London May 1 1912 No. 10, pgs: 203-205.
In the last number of THE VAHAN there appeared an account of an Orders founded under the above name. The Order having now definitely been established, the following additional information is printed.
For some time past there has been the desire in the hearts of various people to form a body through which the Master Rakoczi could function, while performing His special mission in aid of the coming of the Christ. The desire culminated a short time ago in the founding of such an Order by three persons, H : H : L :. As no Temple of the Rosy Cross is complete in numbers without twelve Brethren working directly under his Head, nine other Theosophists, also deeply interested in Occultism, Ceremonial and the Ancient Mysteries, were invited to join the three mentioned, and these, together with the three Founders, constitute the governing Council of the Order.
To recall the words in the original article signed H: H: L: “In the Theosophical Society there are many who find the fittest expression of their highest spiritual emotions in stately and rhythmical ceremonial, men and women who in past lives trod the mystic measures of the solemn planetary dance, filed in long procession through the Temples of the Gods, studied the symbolism of the Egyptian and Chaldean Mysteries and are haunted by memories of that past.”
We quite understand that there are many who are not sympathetic with the ceremonial, and these may not realise how literally true these words are; but those who work close to the heart of the Theosophical Society, meeting with many people in various lands, can testify to their truth, and also to the fact that very many such egos are groping about unsatisfied in numerous fields of research, simply because they are endeavouring to find the true channel of their highest spiritual inspiration. For these egos the line of ceremonial is the way of the least resistance, inasmuch as it is the line of evolution which experience has carved for them in the past.
H.P.B. stated that the Theosophical Society would have to pass through these phases of evolution—the physical, intellectual, and spiritual. To some extent the three are contemporaneous, but the predominant periods of the physical and intellectual are easily recognised by those cognisant with its history; and many believe that we have recently definitely entered upon the spiritual era. The varied needs of spiritual expression of its members must be recognised and provided for, otherwise its all-inclusiveness will be marred. There are many whose temperament inclines towards the inner or esoteric line of development of the line of ceremonial, and H.P.B. certainly recognised this fact, inasmuch as The Secret Doctrine and Isis Unveiled are replete with teachings concerning the Mysteries, in which ceremonial played so great a part. Up to the present time, however, there has been little opportunity in the T.S. for the study of ceremonial and the Mysteries. It is therefore the desire of the Founders of the new Order to synthesise the scattered teachings in the Theosophical literature on this subject, as well as those in other available literature. They will add to these valuable occult researches of the present, and will endeavour to reach, if possible, the inner shrine of each one`s being, to there nourish into new life the smouldering fire on the altar of spiritual aspiration, around which a temple has been builded in the ages of the past.
Each incarnation of the Bodhisattva in the past has brought with it a distinctive keynote of spiritual truth with which He has endeavoured to harmonise and develop the souls of the people with whom He dwelt. The teachings encircled that keynote, and often clothed its expression in Mysteries which were participated in by the people. With each successive incarnation of the Great One the chord grew richer, the harmonies deeper, and the various Mysteries became one Symphony of Beauty.
Many of the egos of the present were taught in the language of those Mysteries while sitting at the foot of the Teacher, and are now striving to view and understand them once again, to have the veil which temporarily obscures the past torn aside once and for all. The motive for this striving is in no sense a selfish one, since it is felt that we can better understand the deep new note of Truth which the Bodhisattva is to sound, if we grasp in greater fulness that which He has previously taught, which lies hidden in the long night of the past. We feel that this is part of the ground in which the seed of the past has been planted, and from which is to spring forth a rich harvest for the future. By the study of these ancient Mysteries and, in time, the endeavour to perform some of their attendant ceremonial, we hope to bring about this better understanding of those teachings of old, and thus prepare, not only ourselves, but others to receive the new teachings, which are the old in a new form. Step by step, with the aid of the Master Rakoczi, we hope to trace the Mysteries from their birth in far ancient times in Lemuria down to the present time, and to clothe them in a new garment woven by our active endeavour, earnest devotion, and lofty aspiration, while offering ourselves as servants for the new Day of the Coming of the World Teacher.
In choosing the name “The Temple of the Rosy Cross,” the founders had in mind various ancient organisations. One was the famous Order of the Knights Templar, formed to protect pilgrims travelling to the Holy Land, and to defend the Mysteries of the Christian faith. He who is now the Master Rakoczi was connected with this body, as well as with some supposed offshoots of that Order, one of which existed later in France under the name of the ”Ordre du Temple.” He was also connected with the “Rite of Strict Observance.” In like manner the present Templars of the Rosy Cross desire that they may prove worthy to gather round the Bodhisattva when He comes again, and to defend the Mysteries with the sword of the Spirit.
The chief body with which the present Order is in occult relationship is a medieval body founded by the same Messenger of the White Brotherhood, who a little later assumed the mystical name Christian Rosenkreuz. At that early date the Brothers of the Order had specially incarnated together for the purpose of assisting in the great work of restoring the Occultism of the Mysteries, and clothing them in a Christian garment. Each had charge of a special department pertaining to one form of them, his peculiar mission being to search the occult records of the past, and endeavour to re-establish the Mysteries of a certain previous race and time. The Order served its purpose and was a beacon light of Truth, which succeeded in dispelling much of the darkness and ignorance of the Middle Ages. Three of that ancient inner Order now exist in physical bodies, and from time to time certain outer but secret Orders have been formed, which endeavoured to carry on the work of the original body.
As Francis Bacon, the same great messenger founded in Elizabethan England a Rosicrucian Order, knit, like the first, through Himself, to the White Brotherhood. This did not wholly perish, even in the physical world, and the author of Zanoni was later among its initiates. In the last century various efforts, too often misdirected, were made to establish a modern Rosicrucianism, and those efforts still continue under various names and forms. The great Messenger of the West—who is now a Master, the “Hungarian Adept,” the Master Rakoczi—has bestowed His benediction on this new effort to re-establish the original teachings of the ancient Order and the endeavour as far as possible to purify it—to free it from the superstitions and misconceptions with which it is now beclouded.
We know now that as far back as the end of the thirteenth century the same great Being incarnated amidst a body of twelve such Brothers, who had banded themselves together with the same object as that of the present Temple of the Rosy Cross. The Holy Grail is not such a myth as it seems, and, mystically speaking, that ancient Brotherhood formed the Chalice containing the twelve drops of blood from the heart of the Christ—symbolical of the twelve lines of the Mysteries.
The time is ripe for us once again to form this Chalice of the Mysteries, that the world may partake of the Sacrament.
H:H:L:.
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