The Rose-Cross and Rosicrucians

Rose-Croix et Rosicruciens, May 1931.

The name of the Rose-Cross is nowadays most often used in a vague and sometimes abusive manner, and applied indistinctly to many different characters, among whom very few, without a doubt, would truly be en- titled to the name. To avoid these unfortunate confusions, it seems that the best solution would be to establish a clear distinction between the Rose-Cross and Rosicrucians, the latter term possibly being extended to a greater extent than the first; and it is probable that much of the so- called Rose-Cross, commonly referred to as such, were really only Rosi- crucians.

To understand this important yet overly neglected distinction, it is necessary to remember that, as we have already pointed out on other occasions, the true Rose-Cross never formed an association with defined external forms; there were, however, from the seventeenth century at the least, many associations that can be described as Rosicrucian, but we can at the same time be assured that the members were by no means of the Rose-Cross, by the very fact that they were apart of such associations. There is something here that may seem paradoxical and even contradic- tory at first glance; we have therefore thought that some explanations on the subject might be of some benefit, for the distinction is far from being reduced to a mere question of terminology, as one may think, and is con- nected with considerations of a much more profound order.

The term of Rose-Cross is properly the designation of an actual initi- atic degree, which is to say, of a certain spiritual state, which obviously is not necessarily linked to the fact of belonging to a defined organiza- tion; what it represents is what can be named as the perfection of the human state, which was the goal of the initiation into the ‘lesser myster- ies.' What must be taken into account, on the other hand, due to this designation, which is expressly linked to the usage of a certain symbol- ism, has been used only in certain determined circumstances of time and place, outside of which it would be illegitimate to apply it; it could be said that those who possessed this degree in question appeared as the Rose-Cross in these circumstances only and for historical reasons, as they may have appeared in other respects in other circumstances.

It does not seem possibly to trace the name of the Rose-Cross beyond the fourteenth century, and this is attested to by the legend of the Christian Rosenkreutz, in which it is doubtful that he is a historical figure, whatever some may have said, but rather appears as the representative of a 'collective entity.' This, of course, does not mean that the symbol to which this name refers cannot be much older, and, as with any truly traditional symbol, it would probably be futile to search for a definite origin; but this relates to another issue that we do not wish to address here. What we wish to say is that the name taken from the symbol was applied to an initiatic degree only from the fourteenth century, and, moreover, one that is exclusive to the Western world; it therefore applies only in relation to a certain traditional form, which is that of Christian esoterism, or, one could say more precisely, that of Christian hermetism. We explained in our previous article that hermetism was a knowledge of a cosmological order, corresponding precisely to the initiation into the 'lesser mysteries' whose sign of the Rose-Cross marks the completion, appearing as the reintegration to be at the center of the human state and the full expansion of its individual possibilities within this center. We have also seen that hermetism, of a Greco-Egyptian origin, as its name suggests, had incorporated both Christian esoterism and Islamic esoterism, so as to become an essential part of both worlds; besides, these two traditional forms certainly present, in almost every respect, more similarities to each other than to all others.

The meaning of the legend of the Christian Rozenkreutz and the journeys attributed to him seem to be that, following the destruction of the Order of the Temple, the initiates of Christian esoterism reorganized themselves, in agreement with initiates of Islamic esoterism to maintain, as far as possible, the link which had apparently been broken by this destruction; but this reorganization had to be done in a hidden manner, invisible in some respects, and without taking its support in an institution which is known externally and which, as such, could have been destroyed once again. Those truly of the Rose-Cross were likely the inspirers of this reorganization, or, if one wishes, the possessors of the initiatic degree of which we spoke, envisaged especially as they played this role, which continued until when, as a result of other historical events, the traditional bond was definitively broken for the Western world in the seventeenth century. It is said that those of the Rose-Cross retreated to the Orient, which means that there was no longer any initiation in the West to achieve this degree effectively, and also that the action which had been exercised up to then for the maintenance of traditional education ceased to manifest itself, at least on a regular basis.

As for knowing which are the true Rose-Cross, and to say with certainty if this or that personage was of them, it appears as absolutely impossible, by the very fact that it is essentially a question of a spiritual state, therefore being purely interior, of which it would be very imprudent to judge according to any external signs. Moreover, because of the nature of their role, those of the Rose-Cross, could not leave any trace in secular history, so that, even if their names could be known, they would learn nothing from anyone; and besides these names would have only a certain relative value, since it is said that they changed according to the countries in which they resided, which clearly indicates that they were freed from certain limitations of ordinary individuality. As for those characters who are known, especially those of authors of such and such writings, and who are commonly referred to as being from the Rose-Cross, it is likely that, in many cases, they were only influenced or inspired by the Rose-Cross, to which they served as a sort of spokesman, which we will express by saying that they were only Rosicrucians, whether or not they belonged to some of the groups to which we can attribute the same name. On the other hand, if it has occurred in an exceptional accident that a true one of the Rose-Cross has played a role in external events, historians may be far from suspecting its quality, since the two belong to different domains. All this, assuredly, is unsatisfactory for the curious, but they must take their part; many things are thus beyond the means of investigation of secular history, which in shorts allows us to grasp only what can be called the exterior of events.

We must add another reason why the true ones of the Rose-Cross have remained unknown: none of them can every assert themselves as such, any more than, in Islamic initiation, no authentic Șūfi can claim this title. There is even then a similarity to which it is particularly interesting to note, although, to tell the truth, what is enclosed in the name Şūfi, by the numerical value of the letters which compose it, is of a higher order than that of the Rose-Cross, and refers to possibilities that go beyond those of human individuality, even when considered in the entirety of its indefinite extension; but it goes without saying that the being who has developed these possibilities possess a fortiori degree that makes up the Rose-Cross and may, if necessary, perform corresponding functions. Moreover, the name of Șūfi is commonly subject to the same abuse as that of the Rose-Cross, to the point of it being applied to those who are on the path which leads to real initiation, without having ever reached even the first degrees of it (and it may be noted in this connection that such an illegitimate extension is commonly given to the word Yogi as far as the Hindu tradition is concerned, so that this word, which properly designates the one who has reached the supreme goal, comes to be ap-plied to those who are still in the preliminary stages and even the most external stages of preparation). Not just in this case, but even for the one who has attained the highest degrees, yet has not reached the final term, the proper designation is that of mutasawwuf; and as the Șūfī itself is not marked by any external distinction, this same designation will also be the only one it can take or accept, not by virtue or purely human consid-erations such as prudence or humility, but because his spiritual state is truly an incommunicable secret. It is distinctly analogous, in a more re-stricted order (since it does not go beyond the bounds of the human state), which can be expressed by the two terms Rose-Cross and Rosicru-cian, the latter can designate any aspirant to the state of the Rose-Cross, despite the degrees he has actually arrived to. Furthermore, we can draw from what we have just said as a negative criterion in the sense that, if someone has declared himself as the Rose-Cross or Șūfī, we can say that he certainly was not in reality. Another negative criterion results from the fact that we discussed at the beginning that the Rose-Cross never formed an association; if they invisibly inspired and directed certain associations, which may be termed Rosicrucian for this very reason, they never took any direct part in it, which would have been contrary to their role and character; and, there-fore, if anyone is known to have been a member of such an association, it can still be said that, at least as long as he was a member, he was not truly of the Rose-Cross. It should also be noted that the more or less ex-ternal organizations of this kind did not bear the title of Rose-Cross until much later, since it does not appear until the beginning of the seven-teenth century, which is to say shortly before the moment when the true Rose-Cross withdrew from the West; and it is even visibly, by many in-dications, that those who made themselves known under this title were already more or less deviated, or at any rate far removed, from the orig-inal source. This is all the more necessary in the case of the associations which later formed under the same name, and of which most would have probably claimed, with respect to the Rose-Cross, only on link, that of an 'ideal,' so to speak, and not of an authentic and regular filiation; and we do not speak, of course, of contemporary formations which have retained any of the rosicrucians except in name, having kept no trace of tradi-tional doctrine, and having simply adopted a symbol which each inter-prets according to his own fantasies, for want of not understanding the true meaning. In the above, there is still a point on which we must return for more accuracy: we have said that there must have been, at the origin of Rosi- crucianism, a collaboration between initiates in both Christian and Islamic esoterism; this collaboration must also continue thereafter, since it was precisely to maintain the link between the initiations of the Orient and the Occident. We will go even further: the same characters, whether from Christianity or Islam, may have lived in both East and West (and constant references to their journeys suggest that it was the case with many of them), to be both Rose-Cross and Șūfi (or mutasawwuf of higher degrees), the spiritual state they had reached implying they were beyond the differences that exist between external forms and which in no way affect the essential and fundamental unity of the traditional doctrine. Moreover, when there is lack of the name of the Rose-Cross, the symbol itself was no stranger to Islamic hermetism, and we can see, above the tomb of a shaykh founder of a țarīqah, the image of the crucified rose. Of course, it is none the less appropriate to maintain, between Sufism and Rosicrucianism, the distinction which is that of two different forms of traditional education; and the Rosicrucians, more or less direct disciples of the Rose-Cross, are only those who follow the path of Christian hermetism; but there can be no initiatic organization worthy of the name which does not have, at the top of its hierarchy, beings having exceeded the diversity of formal appearances. These may, according to the circumstances, appear as Rosicrucians, as mutasawwufin, or in other aspects; they are truly the living link between all traditions, because, through their consciousness of unity, they actually participate in the grand Primordial Tradition, all of which are derived by adaptations to times and places, and which is like the Truth itself.