So, then, these groups may be portrayed as degree-peddling charlatans, but there is definitely a story they are telling in their respective Mythos, and this is, to us, at least AS important as the genealogical inheritance they possess(ed) in the lineage of the Authentic Tradition. For that matter, they may have actually been as close to the "real thing" as anyone is likely to get. I mean, look at what we have available to us today. Historical data is available, even moreso today, than when people like Mackenzie, Waite, Webster, and others were writing. As to the 3 ½ centuries prior to 1450, we have presented our hypothetical timeline in The City of Sin, elsewhere in Qadosh. For now, we shall continue this survey of the Rose Croix of Gold with some material from Nesta Webster. We include it because it does have some interesting material in it. That said, does not mean that we identify and/or agree with Nesta, Queen of the British Union of Fascists.
"In the Rite of Perfection as worked in France and America this Cabalistic influence is shown in those degrees known under the name of the "Ineffable Degrees," derived from the Jewish belief in the mystery that surrounds the Ineffable Name of God. According to the custom of the Jews, the sacred name Jehovah or Jah-ve, composed of the four letters yod, he, vau, he, which formed the Tetragrammaton, was never to be pronounced by the profane, who were obliged to substitute for it the word "Adonai". The Tetragrammaton might only be uttered once a year on the Day of Atonement by the High Priest in the Holy of Holies amid the sound of trumpets and cymbals, which prevented the people from hearing it. It is said that in consequence of the people thus refraining from its utterance, the true pronunciation of the name was at last lost. The Jews further believed that the Tetragrammaton was possessed of unbounded powers. "He who pronounces it shakes heaven and earth and inspires the very angels with astonishment and terror." The Ineffable Name thus conferred miraculous gifts; it was engraved on the rod of Moses and enabled him to perform wonders, just as, according to the Toledot Yeshu, it conferred the same powers on Christ.
"This superstition was clearly a part of Rosicrucian tradition, for the symbol of the Tetragrammaton within a triangle, adopted by the masonic lodges, figures in Fludd's Cabalistic system. In the "Ineffable Degrees" it was invested with all the mystic awe by which it is surrounded in Jewish theology, and, according to early American working: "Brothers and Companions of these degrees received the name of God as it was revealed to Enoch and were sworn to pronounce it but once in their lives."
"In the alchemical version of the Rose-Croix degree referred to above the Ineffable Name is actually invested with magical powers as in the Jewish Cabala. Ragon, after describing the Jewish ceremony when the word Jehovah was pronounced by the High Priest in the Holy of Holies, goes on to say that "Schem-hamm-phorasch" another term for the Tetragrammaton, forms the sacred word of a Scotch degree, and that this belief in its mystic properties "will be found at the head of the instruction for the third degree of the Knight of the Black Eagle, called Rose-Croix," thus:
Q: What is the most powerful name
of God on the pentaculum?
A: Adonai.
Q: What is its power?
A: To move
the Universe.
That one of the Knights who had the good fortune to pronounce it cabalistically would have at his disposal the powers that inhabit the four elements and the celestial spirits, and would possess all the virtues possible to man. [Maçonnerie Occulte, p. 91]
That this form of the Rose-Croix was of purely Jewish origin is thus clearly evident. In the address to the candidate for initiation into the Rose-Croix degree at the Lodge of the "Contrat Social" it is stated:
"This degree, which includes an Order of Perfect Masons, was brought to light by Brother R., who took it from the Kabbalistic treasure of the Doctor and Rabbi Neamuth, chief of the synagogue of Leyden in Holland, who had preserved its precious secrets and its costume, both of which we shall see in the same order in which he placed them in his mysterious Talmud."
Now, we know that in the eighteenth century a society of Rosicrucian magicians had been instituted in Florence which was believed to date back to the fifteenth century and to have been partly, if not wholly composed of Orientals, as we shall see in the next chapter. [see below, quote from pp. 190-1.]; but it seems probable that this sect, whilst secretly inspiring the Rose-Croix masons, was itself either nameless or concealed under a disguise. Thus in 1782 an English Freemason writes: "I have found some rather curious MSS. in Algiers in Hebrew relating to the society of the Rosicrucians, which exists at present under another name with the same forms. I hope, moreover to be admitted to their knowledge." -- [Letter from General Rainsford of October, 1782, quoted in Transactions of the Jewish Historical Society, Vol. VIII. p. 125.]
It has frequently been argued that Jews can have played no part in Freemasonry at this period since they themselves were not admitted to the Lodges. But this is by no means certain; in the article from The Gentleman's Magazine already quoted it is stated that Jews are admitted; de Luchet further quotes the instance of David Moses Hertz received in a London Lodge in 1787; and the author of Les Franc-Maçons écrasés, published in 1746, states that he has seen three Jews received into a lodge at Amsterdam. In the "Melchizedeck Lodges" of the Continent non-Christians were openly admitted, and here again the Rose-Croix degree occupies the most important place. The highest degrees of this rite were the Initiated Brothers of Asia, the Masters of the Wise, and the Royal-Priests, otherwise known as the degree of Melchizedeck or the true Brothers of the Rose-Croix. [Our note: cf. The Priory of SION usage: The Rose-Croix Veritas, or True Rose Croix.]
This Order, usually described as the Asiatic Brethren, of which the centre was in Vienna and the leader a certain Baron von Eckhoffen, is said to have been a continuation of the "Brothers of the Golden and Rosy Cross," a revival of the seventeenth-century Rosicrucians organized in 1710 by a Saxon priest, Samuel Richter, known as Sincerus Renatus. The real origins of the Asiatic Brethren are, however, obscure and little literature on the subject is to be found in this country. [Our note: There are several strands that came into the Asiatic Brethren. One, the Gold RC; another the Martinist current; another the Bavarian Illuminati; another, and perhaps the most important, is the Frankist lineage, via Moses Dobruschka.] Their further title of "the Knights and Brethren of St. John the Evangelist" suggests Johannite inspiration and was clearly an imposture, since they included Jews, Turks, Persians, and Armenians. [But wait: in the land of the Seven Churches, wouldn't there be Jews, Turks, Persians, and Armenians?] De Luchet, who as a contemporary was in a position to acquire first-hand information, thus describes the organization of the Order, which, it will be seen, was entirely Judaic. "The superior direction is called the small and constant Sanhedrim of Europe. The names of those employed by which they conceal themselves from their inferiors are Hebrew. The signs of the third principal degree (i.e., the Rose-Croix) are Urim and Thummim. . . . The Order has the true secrets and the explanations, moral and physical, or the hieroglyphics of the very venerable Order of Freemasonry." The Initiate had to swear absolute submission and unswerving obedience to the laws of the Order and to follow its laws implicitly to the end of his life, without asking by whom they were given or whence they came.
"Who," asks de Luchet, "gave to the Order these so-called secrets? That is the great and insidious question for the secret societies. But the Initiate who remains, and must remain eternally in the Order, never finds this out, he dare not even ask it, he must promise never to ask it. In this way those who participate in the secrets of the Order remain the Masters."
Again, as in the Stricte Observance, the same system of "Concealed Superiors" - the same blind obedience to unknown directors!
Under the guidance of these various sects of Illuminés a wave of occultism swept over France, and lodges everywhere became centres of instruction on the Cabala, magic, divination, alchemy, and theosophy; masonic rites degenerated into ceremonies for the evocation of spirits - women, who were now admitted to these assemblies, screamed, fainted, fell into convulsions, and lent themselves to experiments of the most horrible kind. [FOOTNOTE: The Baron de Gleichen, in describing the "Convulsionists" [sic], says that young women allowed themselves to be crucified, sometimes head downwards, at these meetings of the fanatics. He himself saw one nailed to the floor and her tongue cut with a razor. (Souvenirs du Baron de Gleichen, p. 185.)] -- Nesta Webster, Secret Societies and Subversive Movements, pp. 167 - 170.
"That Falk was only one of several Concealed Superiors is further suggested by the intriguing correspondence of Savalette de Langes. "Schroeder," we read, "had for his master an old man of Suabia," by whom the Baron de Waechter was also said to have been instructed in Masonry, and to have become one of the most important initiates in Germany. Accordingly de Waechter was despatched by his Order to Florence in order to make enquiries on further secrets and on certain famous treasures about which Schroepfer, the Baron de Hundt, and others had heard that Aprosi, the secretary of the Pretender, gould give them information. Waechter, however, wrote to say that all they had been told on the latter point was fabulous, but that he had met in Florence certain "Brothers of the Holy Land," who had initiated him into marvellous secrets; one in particular who is described as "a man who is not a European" had "perfectly instructed him." Moreover, de Waechter, who had set forth poor, returned loaded with riches attributed by his fellow-masons to the "Asiatic Brethren" he had frequented in Florence who possessed the art of making gold. I would suggest then that these were the members of the "Italian Order" referred to by Mr. Tuckett, which, like Schroepfer and de Hundt, he imagined to have been connected with the Jacobites." - Ibid., pp. 190-1.
To be added at a later time, when we can compile together the timelines from this and the City of Sin segments, and the Safed to Vienna TimeLine charts.
OUR FIRST COLLECTION OF READINGS PERTAINS TO "THE NASCENT DAWN" LODGE AT FRANKFURT-AM-MAIN:
Scholem
"Moses, the son of Schoendel Dobruschka, Frank's cousin, who was known in many circles as his nephew, was the outstanding figure in the last generation of the Frankists, being known also as Franz Thomas von Schoenfeld (a German writer and organizer of a mystical order of a Jewish Christian kabbalistic character, the "Asiatic Brethren"), and later as Junius Frey (a Jacobin revolutionary in France)...." --- Kabbalah, p.305
Art. on Dobruschka...
"In
1782 Moses (now Franz Thomas von Schoenfeld) moved to Vienna. He was one of the
founders of the "Asiatische Brueder," a masonic lodge with predominantly
Jewish members, and formulated its doctrines."
-- EJ-6:144.
Dietrich
Schwartz
"In the Order Of The Asiatic Brothers, we find, intermixed with a number of German aristocratic names, those of an Isaak Oppenheimer, Hirsch Wolff, Wolff Nathan Liepmann, Jakob Götz, Markus Jakob Schlesinger, and others. The Order Master Ecker von Eckhoffen even bore the Order name of Israel. Von Eckhoffen was the author of the text: Can And Should Israelites Be Accepted As Freemasons? It must be assumed that the German aristocrats who thus associated with Jews had fallen into financial dependence on the Israelites, among whom were many money lenders.
"1807 Jewish Lodge in Frankfurt am Main
"A fundamental turning point occurred in 1807. Jews gathered together to found a new Lodge in Frankfurt am Main in order to:
"'Create a temple in Frankfurt am Main under the protection of the Grand Orient of France, the most powerful architect of all worlds.'
"This first tolerance lodge, which adopted the name At The Rising Dawn, soon became the entrance tunnel for Jewish Masonic burrowings.
"The famous Ludwig Baruch-Börne was a celebrated guest at this lodge and occupied the office of Brother Speaker, while playing a fateful role as a representative of the Young Germany movement along with Heine, pouring his biting scorn on all that was holy in Germany, calling Goethe a doggerelising farmhand, and the German Folk a Nation of flunkies, who fawningly brought back the royal master's lost crown at the cal of Go Fetch!
"Another member of this lodge was the Jew Gabriel Riesser, also an early fighter for Jewish emancipation, who even became a member of the Constitutional Committee and then Vice President of the Frankfurt National Assembly of 1848.
"Even the Jew Isaak Cremieux visited this lodge in December 1840, and was honoured with a festival banquet and honorary membership.
"The founders of the Jewish lodge had made themselves secure in both main currents of Freemasonry, the Grand Orient of France and the Grand Lodge of England. They called upon both these bodies for assistance whenever the German lodges caused problems regarding the question of equality.
"In 1819, for example, the Jewish lodge brother Wolf, their representative in the Grand Lodges of London, was assigned the task of filing a complaint with the English Grand Lodge regarding the attitude of the two lodges St. George and Absolom[sic] in Hamburg, because both lodges had refused admittance to brethren from the Rising Dawn. In his reply, Brother Wolf reports on his audience with the Grand Master, the Duke of Sussex:
"'His Royal Highness remarked: We absolutely refuse to be drawn into any discussion of the alleged reasons; rather, we demand of the lodges in Hamburg that they revoke their decision immediately; should they fail to do so, His Royal Highness will decree that brethren from these Hamburg Lodges be forbidden entry into English lodges.'" -- Dieter Schwartz, Freemasonry: Ideology, Organization, and Policy. 6th Edition, 1943. SS Propaganda. Therefore to be dealt with carefully. Only to be used if it can provide leads.
Gould
"On July 12, 1808, the Grand Orient of France warranted a Lodge in Frankfort, composed chiefly of Jews, under the name of the "Nascent Dawn." This Lodge also was a source of trouble and vexation in later days." -- IV:42.
Westcott
"The late Lord Lytton, the author of 'Zanoni' and 'The Strange Story,' who was in 1871 Grand Patron of our Society, took very great interest in this form of Philosophy, although he never reached the highest degree of knowledge; for public reasons he once made a disavowal of his membership of the Rosicrucians, but he had been admitted as a Frater of the Rosicrucian College at Frankfort on the Main; that College was closed after 1850." -- The Rosicrucians, Past and Present, At Home and Abroad. Our edition, pages 4-5.
Ruggiu Article.
"In fact, the original Fratres Lucis or "Brotherhood of Light" was founded in Germany by the baron Ecker Von Eckhoffen, a past member of the Golden Rosy+Cross and also founder of Asiatic Brethren. All these German fraternities were deeply involved with the practice of alchemy. My historical researches into these topics proved that many members belonging to the Asiatic Brethren or Fratres Lucis became members of a German masonic lodge called L'Aurore Naissante (or "the Nascent Dawn") founded in Frankfurt-on-Main in 1807. Westcott wrote that this lodge was a "very ancient Rosicrucian Lodge of Frankfurt-on-Main where Lord Bulwer Lytton was received into Adeptship". It is true that Bulwer-Lytton went to Germany on a long visit during the years 1841-1843 (his novel "Zanoni" was first published in 1842), so he could have been initiated in the lodge of the Nascent Dawn which still existed at the time. But before this event, Lytton did also sojourn in Italy, at Naples, during the years 1833-34, where he received some occult instructions probably from the prince San Severo, who was a member of the Golden Rosy+Cross." -- Rosicrucian Alchemy and the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, by Jean Pascal Ruggiu, Imperator of the Ahathoor Temple, Paris, 1996.
To be added at a later time when we have more to offer. See the Links section in the meantime, for what we cannot offer here. And, what we offer here is considerable, so make a note of it, and pass it on, to all sites that collect links on this subject matter: Acknowledge, AND link to US: www.antiqillum.com
So, to wrap up this portion, we can state that there really is a continuous R+C Tradition, going back a long time, long past Eastern Europe, and long past Andrea and his Circle. And, yes, it does include elements of Islamic mysticism, inherited by the Templars and others, elements that draw upon the most primitive forms of Christianity, first Century Church stuff. Through the practice of religious dissimulation, the Gnosis survived in the Middle East, and in Egypt, and was transmitted to the West: first, during the Crusades, second, as a result of the Renaissance and the coming of the Ottoman Turks.
When the R+C Proper appears to have died out, it took on another form, and the climax of that period can best be seen in the Gold Rosicrucians from Germany. This, too, was transformed and passed on, via the Asiatic Brethren and Fratres Lucis, until it was picked up by Lytton, Levi, Mackenzie and others who eventually formed the "Society of Eight" which was the upper management of the early SRIA. Later, this would transmit to the Golden Dawn, and from there it comes down to the rest of us, today. Now, don't take it to imply that we don't include other organizations or groups in the 19th and 20th Centuries, but the ones that end up at our doorstep are the threads we can follow.
This Tradition has less to do with making Gold, or Medicine (though it includes these disciplines), than it has to do with cultivating the Contact, the Communication, which is the meaning of Communion. There is a True Rite, a Secret Rite, (no, not necessarily THAT one!) - that has been alluded to in several places, but never committed to writing, for how can it be? Crowley did a good job of it in Liber Samekh, but still didn't entirely get it covered, either.
The idea we are discussing includes a string of mystics in Europe, primarily in Germany, France, and England, known as Pietists / Quietists. Some of this goes back as far as Hildegard von Bingen, and Meister Eckhart, both favorites of the New Age movement. Some of this includes the circles that organized to study the writings and teachings of Jakob Böhme, people like Madame de Guyon, Antoinette Bourignon, J. G. Gichtel and his Angelic Brotherhood, John Pordage, Jane Leade and her Philadelphian Society in London…. and, again, these are all influences behind circles like the Fetter Lane Society of Blake, Swedenborg's various circles, and so forth. Ultimately this will bring us to the Disciples of Memphis. This will also recall the Syrian and Egyptian influences, as we mentioned in the first part of this section. This is all a part of the Living Chain of the Authentic Tradition.
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