There are seven colors in the spectrum: red, orange, yellow,
green, blue, indigo and violet. But between the violet and the red there are still other
five colors which are invisible to the physical eye but reveal themselves to the spiritual
sight. In every Mystery Order there are also seven brothers who at times go out into the
world and there perform whatever work may be necessary to advance the people among whom they
serve, but five are never seen outside the temple. They work with and teach those alone who
have passed through certain stages of spiritual unfoldment and are able to visit the temple
in their spiritual bodies; a feat taught in the first initiation which usually takes place
outside the temple as it is not[pg 010]convenient for all to visit that place physically.
Let not the reader imagine that this initiation makes the pupil a
Rosicrucian, it does not, any more than admission to a High School makes a boy a member of
the faculty. Nor does he become a Rosicrucian even after having passed through all the nine
degrees of this or any other Mystery School. The Rosicrucians are Hierophants of the lesser
Mysteries, and beyond them there are still schools wherein Greater Mysteries are taught.
Those who have advanced through the lesser Mysteries and have become pupils of the Greater
Mysteries are called Adepts, but even they have not reached the exalted standpoint of the
twelve Brothers of the Rosicrucian Order or the Hierophants of any other lesser Mystery
School any more than the freshman at college has attained to the knowledge and position of a
teacher in the High school from which he has just graduated.
A later work will deal with initiation, but we may say here that
the door of a genuine Mystery School is not unlocked by a golden key, but is only opened as
a reward for meritorious service to humanity and any one[pg 011]who advertises himself as a Rosicrucian or makes a charge for tuition, by
either of those acts shows himself to be a charlatan. The true pupil of any Mystery School
is far too modest to advertise the fact, he will scorn all titles or honors from men, he
will have no regard for riches save the riches of love given to him by those whom it becomes
his privilege to help and teach.
In the centuries that have gone by since the Rosicrucian Order
was first formed they have worked quietly and secretly, aiming to mould the thought of
Western Europe through the works of Paracelsus, Boehme, Bacon, Shakespeare, Fludd and
others. Each night at midnight when the physical activities of the day are at their lowest
ebb, and the spiritual impulse at its highest flood tide, they have sent out from their
temple soul-stirring vibrations to counteract materialism and to further the development of
soul powers. To their activities we owe the gradual spiritualization of our once so
materialistic science.
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