Rose Cross Rosicrucian Degrees in Freemasonry
Rosicrucian Masonic Spirituality - Order of The Rosy Cross Temple and The Loge de
Parfaits d' Écosse ™ 1764 - America's Secret Rose Croix Lodge and Their Spiritual Metaphysics
Paperback, 135 pages
The Loge de Parfaits d' Écosse ™ Founded in 1764. This little manuscript contains the ancient secrets of the
Rosicrucians and Masonic Society of Rose Cross Orders. This is the history and lessons and insights of
America's First Spirutual Masters. A history of the order and some of their greatest teachings and exercises
are included. These ancient secrets can propel the seaker to the next level of peace, awareness, success, and
health. Founded in 1764, the Secret Lodge of Perfection preceded the Illuminati and Skull/Bones Societies in
what would later become the United States. Today, the wisdom has been passed on and now revealed for the 1st
time by the Supreme Magus of the Lodge of Perfection 1764. This book provides insights into Catholic mysticism
in colonial French, Spanish, and German America along with oriental, greco/hermetic, Celtic, and gnostic
spirituality of the secret lodges.
According to Jean-Pierre Bayard,[13] two
Rosicrucian-inspired Masonic rites emerged towards the end of 18th century,
the Rectified Scottish Rite, widespread in Central
Europe where there was a strong presence of the "Golden and Rosy Cross", and the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, first practiced in
France, in which the 18th degree is called Knight of the Rose Croix.
The change from "operative" to "speculative" Masonry occurred between the end of the 16th and the beginning of
the 18th century. Two of the earliest speculative Masons for which a record of their initiation exists were Sir
Robert Moray and Elias Ashmole. Robert Vanloo states that earlier 17th
century Rosicrucianism had a considerable influence on Anglo-Saxon Masonry. Hans Schick sees in the works of
Comenius (1592–1670) the ideal of the newly
born English Masonry before the foundation of the Grand Lodge in 1717. Comenius was in England during
1641.
The Gold und
Rosenkreuzer (Golden and Rosy Cross) was founded by the alchemist Samuel
Richter who in 1710 published Die warhhaffte und vollkommene Bereitung des Philosophischen Steins
der Brüderschaft aus dem Orden des Gülden-und Rosen-Creutzes in Breslau under the pseudonym Sincerus
Renatus[14] in
Prague in the early 18th century as a hierarchical secret society composed of internal circles,
recognition signs and alchemy treatises.
A Loge de Parfaits d' Écosse was formed on 12 April 1764 at New Orleans, becoming the first high degree lodge on
the North American continent. Its public life, however, was short, as the Treaty of Paris (1763) ceded New Orleans to
Spain, and the Catholic Spanish crown had been historically hostile to Freemasonry. Documented Masonic activity
ceased for a time and did not re-appear publicly in Louisiana & New Orleans until the 1790s.[13]
Under the leadership of Hermann
Fictuld the group reformed itself extensively in 1767 and again in 1777 because of political pressure.
Its members claimed that the leaders of the Rosicrucian Order had invented Freemasonry and only they knew the
secret meaning of Masonic symbols. The Rosicrucian Order had been founded by Egyptian “ Ormusse” or “
Licht-Weise” who
had emigrated to Scotland with the name “Builders from the East”. Then the original Order disappeared and was
supposed to have been resurrected by Oliver Cromwell as “Freemasonry”. In 1785 and 1788
the Golden and Rosy Cross group published the Geheime Figuren or “The Secret Symbols of the 16th and
17th century Rosicrucians”.
Led by Johann Christoph von Wöllner and General Johann Rudolf von Bischoffwerder, the Masonic lodge (later:
Grand Lodge) Zu den drei Weltkugeln was infiltrated and came under the influence of the Golden
and Rosy Cross. Many Freemasons became Rosicrucianists and Rosicrucianism was established in many lodges. In 1782
at the Convent of Wilhelmsbad the Alte schottische Loge Friedrich zum goldenen Löwen in Berlin strongly
requested Ferdinand, Duke of
Brunswick-Lüneburg and all other Freemasons to submit to the Golden and Rosy Cross, without
success.
After 1782, this highly secretive society added Egyptian, Greek and Druidic mysteries to its alchemy
system.[15] A
comparative study of what is known about the Gold and Rosenkreuzer, appears to reveal, on one hand, that it has
influenced the creation of some modern Initiatic groups and, on the other
hand, that the National Socialists (see The Occult Roots of Nazism) may have been
inspired by this German group.
According to the writings of the Masonic historian E.J. Marconis de Negre,[16] who
together with his father Gabriel M. Marconis is held to be the founder of the "Rite of Memphis-Misraim" of Freemasonry, based
on earlier conjectures (1784) by a Rosicrucian scholar Baron de Westerode[17] and
also promulgated by the 18th century secret society called the " Golden and Rosy Cross", the
Rosicrucian Order was created in the year 46 when an Alexandrian Gnostic sage named Ormus and his six followers were converted by one of
Jesus' disciples, Mark; their symbol was said to be a red cross
surmounted by a rose, thus the designation of Rosy Cross. From this conversion, Rosicrucianism was
supposedly born, by purifying Egyptian mysteries with the new higher teachings of early
Christianity.[18]
According to Maurice Magre (1877–1941) in his book Magicians, Seers, and Mystics, Rosenkreutz was the
last descendant of the Germelshausen, a German family from the 13th century. Their castle stood in the Thuringian Forest on the border of Hesse, and they embraced Albigensian doctrines. The whole family was put to
death by Landgrave Conrad of Thuringia, except for the youngest son, then five years old.
He was carried away secretly by a monk, an Albigensian adept from Languedoc and placed in a monastery under the influence
of the Albigenses, where he was educated and met the four Brothers later to be associated with him in the
founding of the Rosicrucian Brotherhood. Magre's account supposedly derives from oral tradition.
Around 1530, more than eighty years before the publication of the first manifesto, the association of cross and
rose already existed in Portugal in the Convent of the Order of Christ, home of
the Knights Templar, later renamed Order of Christ. Three
bocetes were, and still are, on the abóboda (vault) of the initiation room. The rose can
clearly be seen at the center of the cross.[19][20] At
the same time, a minor writing by Paracelsus called Prognosticatio Eximii Doctoris
Paracelsi (1530), containing 32 prophecies with allegorical pictures surrounded by enigmatic texts, makes
reference to an image of a double cross over an open rose; this is one of the examples used to prove the
"Fraternity of the Rose Cross" existed far earlier than 1614.[21].
In 1909 a Masonic Rito Filosofico Italiano was founded in Florence. Within its hierarchy an "Italic
Rose+Croix" degree - largely based on the esoteric legacy of Italian Renaissance - was soon to be developed as the
fifth. This Rito Filosofico Italiano is now led by Michele
Moramarco, who has extensively dealt with Rosicrucian subjects in his Nuova Enciclopedia
Massonica (1989-1995).
18° Knight of the Rose Croix jewel (from the Masonic Scottish Rite)
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