Formulating a Socio-Historical Contextualization of the Christian Rosenkreuz Legends Towards a Functionalist Assessment: a Preliminary Survey
Author(s): Zheng, Hu Liang; Roberts-Forest, Sarah; Manjang, Migizi.
Journal of Social and Historical Philosophy. First published August 11, 1998.
Abstract:
Coinciding with the advent of European contact and subsequent conquest of the “New World”, gnostic Christianity underwent several radical shifts in its approach to theology, philosophy, and organization far outpacing the effect of the Enlightenment era on other branches of Christianity ([1][2][3][4]). Although it may not appear as such given its relatively limited historical impact, the metamorphoses experienced by Western esoteric thought rival or even surpass the schisms of Protestantism/Catholicism and Eastern/Western Christianity ([5][6][7]). By surveying the theoretical-historical landscape and drawing linguistic correlatory schemas, we attempt to draw a connection between the shift in Late Medieval gnosticism – as personified by the legendary allegorical figure of “Christian Rosenkreuz” – and the broad, industrialized colonization of the Americas ([8][9]). We assemble a representative sampling of the Rosenkreuz literature ([10]; 14-21) and place it into a theoretical telos-matrix in order to create an environment for inference ([11][12]). Axes include geographical and temporal location, reliability delta, and language phenotypology.
Introduction:
The legendary character Christian Rosenkreuz appears across a diverse range of media ([15]; 208-211), with key documents ranging to the early 17th century ([14]; 108-119) and others claiming an even earlier, if unconfirmed, provenance ([17][18][19]). First directly and verifiably referenced in the 1611 manuscript Fama Fraternitatus, Christian Rosenkreuz is presented to us as an honorable knight, presumably of crusader origins, who travels across the world in search of greater knowledge as a means to find – by varying accounts – the fountain of youth, the philosopher’s stone, or the Holy Grail (ibid.). These travels take him as far East as India, where he meets with Brahmanic scholars, and as far South as Fez and Marrakech, where he is taught the alchemical secrets of the ancients (ibid.). However, every encounter with men of great wisdom is still lacking in a deeper, fundamental truth. In this document, and others, Rosenkreuz appeals to his audience of acolytes to enlighten themselves with the truths, albeit incomplete or imperfect, that he has acquired throughout his travels, but – as a result of their own biases, or out of aversion to seeming ignorant – they turn away ([20][21][22]). However, Rosenkreuz discovers a group of true believers who heed his lessons and welcome the enlightenment they bring. In varying documents, these “true believers” are directly identified with Jesuit scholars ([24][25]).
Across other instances of the fables, there are multiple cases of resurrection myth, which also seems to primarily operate as allegory. The lessons of the fables seem to indicate a yearning towards a “pure science”, one untainted by the hands of man. It is no accident that Rosenkreuz positions the Jesuits as those agents of Christ who are most capable of this task; as an originally German phenomenon, the already centuries old Reformation was clearly still holding a strong influence over the authors of the earliest works. Those Christians who, at that time, would instead call for a dramatic turn towards tradition and dogma as opposed to a Libertine interpretivist anti-establishmentarianism would certainly win the trust of the Church, if not its favor.
The religions of the Middle East and Africa are singled out as capable of generating enlightenment, yet still incomplete or otherwise lacking. The existing historical scholarly consensus is that this represents a fear of Islamic or African encroachment upon the European intelligentsia, as European scholarship had fallen far behind its global peers in many scientific regards by this point. The appeal from Rosenkreuz, then, is to establish sciences of astronomy, medicine, physics, and mathematics that are wholly non-dependent upon the products of the Eastern Enlightenment which had flourished throughout the Medieval period. While the earliest Rosenkreuz stories suggest a “light of Christ” or “perfect spherical secret” ([15]; 172-174) to fill the gap, later works turn in a distinctly political manner; the allegories no longer take place in mythical castles or in battle with mythical beasts but rather set in the halls of unnamed mansions across Europe, with focus less on the archetypal “character” of those referenced but instead their practical, functional role within their given polity. He meets less with priests and more with landsgraves, to put it plainly.
It is with this backdrop that Rosenkreuz is credited with founding a range of secret societies across Europe, including not only the freemasons of England and Northern France but also the Illuminati of Bavaria, the Illuminés of Central and Southern France, and the Alumbrados of Spain and Portugal among others ([26][27][28]). As Rosicrucianism faded into the background of Western esotericism with the coming of the 18th and 19th centuries, as well as industrialization, the Rosenkreuz mythology, too, faded into obscurity ([30]; 864-866).
Does the Rosenkreuz anthology of fables have anything greater to teach us about the social environs of the Enlightenment? In the course of answering this question, we have established a methodology for assessing in a more strictly objective manner that relies less upon researcher-dependent analysis. By leveraging the power of the University of Jena’s experimental Monosemantic Monophenotypological Multiple Assay Geosemantic Interface, or 3MAGI, we are able to build a theoretical telos-matrix which can not only plot the data available to us but also draw relevant connections where researcher bias may have overlooked. Following the 3MAGI assessment, a proto-causal connection is evidenced. Similar assays following every prior and subsequent ecumenical council did not bear the same results, nor did assays tracing the Protestant Reformation.
As a result, the preliminary conclusions that one might draw are that the Rosenkreuz fables represent a significant and revolutionary moment within Western esotericism, and that this moment bears a greater connection to the social contexts of the Americas at the time of “first contact” than the Reformation. This represents, obviously, a dramatically revisionist picture of Colonial American history; flight of Puritan Protestants fearing Catholic persecution is often framed as a motivating factor for the immigration of early Europeans to the Americas. Our justification for this revision, as well as other responses to anticipated criticism, follows in section 3 below.
Methodology:
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A Journal. October 13, 1769.
OUR EXCURSION into the forest to apprehend the devilish rogue who had dared defile Herr Stüller’s resting place has borne much fruit, although not precisely what anyone in the present company had quite expected, as no simple answer to our most pertinent questions has availed itself. As we made our way through the thickening brush, with few easily-trodden paths, we openly reflected on some of the fables Stüller had entertained us with upon our meeting – had he indeed journeyed through the empires of the Mughals and Ottomans, sharing with them Wisdom of alchymical Knowledge? On the topic of his Fraternal Provenance, as it occurred to us, Stüller was always somewhat evasive, providing unique answers depending upon when (and by whom) he had been asked.
Another subject of the conversation – as among us were certainly many loafs and conspirators but also many curious men, guided by the turning of the world into one of comprehension – was the nature of the light cast upon the forest seemingly as a result of my uttering words from the book of Soyga… Surely, the notion that I had, and that everyone else had, was that the book merely contained information, and perhaps this information was despicable and maddening, but it was only information. However, a physical effect had been made, a material change in the world. We speculated: is light a material?
On this subject we were given quite a compelling explanation from the Prussian, Herr Reusen; whether by education or charisma, he held all our attention as he drew colourful metaphors between the behaviours of light and the waves upon water, emitted from a source and reflected from solid surfaces, however, he explained, light bears knowledge of what reflects it, and reacts accordingly, whereas water, as bare material, cannot; therefore, we can know that light is a property of some immaterial substrate caused by some “disturbance” or “flow”; this, indeed, means that light is purely, itself, information; it is information about the properties of this immaterial substrate.
Mister Falk was unsatisfied with this explanation; I do not say this because he seemed lacking in entertainment, or compulsion of thought, as all good explanations do, but because he seemed quite convinced of a contrary idea, that indeed light was material; as, he argued, light affects and is affected by material goods; concentrated through a lens, it seems light is quite capable of burning, and the light emitted by fire or candlelight is just as easily explained as a particle emitted by the source; this, he says, explains why light travels always in a straight line, unlike the waves of water. Following from this, the book did, indeed, have a material effect on our world; it bore some special power.
It was at this point the Jesuits grew quite spirited, and even seemed to take offence to the conversation at hand; light, to them, was something far more “divine” than some material property or particle. There was no end to biblical passages they pulled from sheer memory, the light of the Lord here, the shining glow of Glory there… although it may present a fair case for the allegory of Illumination, one indeed I myself admire and seek a greater Understanding of, their passion seemed to border on hostility, which I considered quite uncharacteristic of the environment that the company had seemed to foster; there were, as it were, many among us, of diverse stock and, as such, diverse belief, and this sheer fact was enough to warrant some cooperation and tolerance. Was speculation on the nature of light so violent? Were they not, even one week prior, speculating that Mister Falk might take children in the night to use their blood for passover matzoh? Even Balmetti and Portollo seemed taken aback.
Along the bank of a creek, we discovered a small clearing, and across it, the smoke of a fire. This we took as a signal, and we took caution to avoid making much noise. Although gripped with suspense, I was quietly relieved that the debate was stymied. We kept low, and moved slowly. Portollo, I had noticed, held one hand within his coat; I believe he holds, at the least, some duelling pistol on his person, and that it is ready to fire. This fact seemed important to me, as it demonstrated some deception in my mind; it is not something hidden without cause or malice.
The area was overcome with thick bushes, each barbed with sharp thorns; they were remarkable in their size, and had no difficulty embedding themselves into any loose fold of clothing, which eventually made moving with stealth quite difficult; it was no surprise, then, that one of the Jesuits, the man Reese I believe, finally grew impatient, and as a result, careless; he stumbled, and in catching himself against the ground, enveloped himself into one of these bushes. For a single moment, he cried out in pain, and not even a moment later we could hear an eruption of sound just ahead of us, from what we know now was the site of the camp.
It seems the occupant took our presence as cause to make his leave; leaving Reese in the bush, many of the company (including myself) began to give some small chase, only enough to see a dim figure bearing Stüller’s armour sprinting away at great speed and distance. It gave me some relief, as for even a brief moment, I could see the figure; even obscured by the angle of the sun, I could see a man of average age, and although I’m not proud to admit such, I was afraid the armour would be borne by some ghoul or fiend.
Returning to his camp, we could find small assortments of strange berries and herbs, crushed against rocks into strange, foul pastes. A cloud of small feathers belied the presence of a dead bird, a twisted and mangled mess of black and red and grey, a crow which had been savagely ripped into some smaller sections, quite literally torn apart, yet left as it remained. Even for a common bird, it seemed irreverent. A host of flying, buzzing insects had already descended upon it.
We returned to the Jesuit in the bushes, and it was immediately clear to us that something horrific had happened. He was struggling still to emerge, but many of his clothes were ripped, and the pale nature of his skin was contrasted sharply by the crimson blood emerging from his arms and legs, where it seemed the thorns had their tightest grip on him. Even through leather gloves, the barbed vines presented some threat, so we attempted to scavenge some stiff sticks of manageable length in order to pull the vines from him; with every such attempt, it seemed the thorns on the opposite side of him dug only deeper, his screams becoming more desperate, turning less into shouts and commands and more into groans, like air being pushed from the body.
The bush formed a kind of net around him, and even began to bear down upon his shoulders and face. I could see as he closed his eyes almost reflexively as the vegetation threatened to incapacitate him; with every panicked tug and pull, he only fell deeper, our attempts at levering the branching vines turned further against him. His screams filled the air. There was no silence, even for a breath. Every one of us was scrambling around, hoping to find some solution written in the dirt in the ground. Still, too, I could hear the buzzing of the flies. They were a massive kind of fly, greater in scale than any I’d seen in my travels by several factors, and seemed to hold some great animosity towards us, as our struggle to find a solution was only hampered by their incessant biting and pestering. It would seem we would almost break through before one would decide to dart at one’s eyes, or mouth, or ears, or nostrils; in time, it seemed as many of us were fighting off bugs, swatting at our own faces, as were attempting to emancipate Reese from his thorny hutch.
Many of the Jesuits were of little help, simply clutching at rosaries and chanting in panicked Latin… this, too, given enough stress and fear, soon took on the timbre of shouting and screaming, until the entire scene was reduced to cacophony. The buzzing as each bug made another strike at my peripherals became almost deafening. I admit, I was reduced to losing my grip upon the branch I had been bearing until then, and with a heave, Reese’s body collapsed further into the brush. His entire abdomen contorted forward from the shock, and his shouting was interrupted by a convulsing of his chest before a torrent of bile and effluent-like emesis erupted from his mouth, spilling across his chest. The heaving and groaning continued, but grew distinctly more pained, more urgent.
At this, I fell backwards, and could only cover my ears and eyes. I couldn’t hear exactly when the buzzing ended, or when the screaming stopped.
Yet, it had. I uncovered my ears, and with open eyes, began frantically searching for an explanation. And, lo, there he stood. The man in Stüller’s armour, a halo of light forming around his visage as he stood with the sun at his back, his arms stretched out, holding between two fingers a rose in each hand. His exposed chest bore an open wound, yet there was no blood; at his appearance, everyone stood silent.
There, time was frozen. A moment did not pass; we were there, it seemed for an eternity, simply seeing him; gazing upon him; this man who seemed to be of astounding beauty and power. A coy smile sat upon his face, his eyes suggesting a Messianic calm, it was impossible not to look and feel equally looked at, to recognise and be recognised. Then, the quiet was pierced: each of the remaining Jesuits, all five, in turns, collapsed to their knees, overcome with or by what, it is unclear, but possibly emotion or fear, as they began to cry out as children, or as one grieving; their wails were not obviously ones of pain, but still wielded a kind of intensity, significant enough that their knees could no longer support their frames.
They began to curl up there, on the ground, screaming now, and sobbing into the ground. Quickly enough, however, they shifted their weight towards the man, crawling, unable to stand. Like maddened animals, they grasped at his feet and legs, and between their wailing sobs, kissed at them; twisting their bodies around, they stroked and kissed and, themselves, began to make sounds of heaving. It was only then I turned to Reese.
He was still, and quiet. However, his body had shifted: his hands were no longer bound at his sides, but sitting loosely in his lap. It was at this point the man walked free from the Jesuits at his feet, and stood over Reese. The Jesuits quieted themselves, their heaving growing into small groans, their wails turning to small sniffling whimpers. He spoke gently, and told us this: that Reese was “looking for something”.
Antioc spoke, with a quiet and almost childlike innocence that I had never heard emerge from him – looking for what, he asked?
And the man answered, “that”.
In Reese’s cupped hands, now, sat a small stone (or perhaps lacquer) sphere. It was perfectly smooth and circular, and bore no identifiable markings or etchings. It was no larger than an orange. The man bent over him, and, touching the stone, whispered something into Reese’s ear. He stood again, and the stone was gone.
With a flash of light, as if there were in the midday sky a torrential storm of lightning, Reese opened his eyes. Immediately, his gaze locked upon the stranger; his eyes widened for a brief moment before he, too, was overcome with some strange emotion, and began to cry out; with that, the other Jesuits again collapsed into wailing. In all this noise, the man took in his grasp Reese’s legs and shoulders, and with no struggle whatsoever produced him from the bush. His sickly, pale pallor was already giving way to a lively pink hue, and the blood spilled across his skin was drying. The man held him there, in his lap, while Reese still sobbed, his face muddy and streaked with dirt and blood.
We asked him who he was. Stüller? The coy smile curled at the sides. Falk was frantically producing scrolls and notes from his pockets and bags, looking to them, then to the man, and back, as if they contained an answer. The stranger spoke, and said thus: that he and Stüller shared a heart, that they are a union as Christ and Sophia, that he is Son of the Wedding of Rose and Cross, and finally, that he is known to many as Christian Rosenkreuz, wielder of the Philosopher’s stone.
The mournful shrieks of the Jesuits echoed throughout the forest.
AW
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[1312 comments]
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NoNaTuS Encrypted Messaging Service
Connecting to user: xMYSTERYx (149.209.0.33)...
Connected!
You are now chatting with: xMYSTERYx
[4/19/2008 16:32:01] samo: Hi
[4/19/2008 16:35:21] samo: Hello?
[4/19/2008 16:36:33] xMYSTERYx: who r u
[4/19/2008 16:37:06] samo: I’m a coworker of Wes’s.
[4/19/2008 16:39:42] xMYSTERYx: idk who that is?
[4/19/2008 16:40:51] samo: I managed our mail systems, and found an outgoing personal email of his. It provided instructions for how you could connect to this messaging system.
[4/19/2008 16:41:42] xMYSTERYx: u went through his mail?/?
[4/19/2008 16:42:57] samo: No, I went through the company’s mail.
[4/19/2008 16:45:13] xMYSTERYx: thats fucked up
[4/19/2008 16:46:32] samo: Selling him the drugs that killed him was “fucked up”.
[4/19/2008 16:47:10] xMYSTERYx: i told u idk what ur talking about??
[4/19/2008 16:48:42] samo: Look, I just want to ask some questions. I don’t care about your or your weird drugs. I just want to know more about what Wes was doing.
[4/19/2008 17:04:13] samo: He was a friend of mine. I just want to know more.
[4/19/2008 17:08:11] xMYSTERYx: hes my best friend
[4/19/2008 17:08:20] xMYSTERYx: was my best friend
[4/19/2008 17:09:46] xMYSTERYx: when every1 else was just tryna see a fuckup and my family wasnt even in the picture. wes was there
[4/19/2008 17:11:04] xMYSTERYx: the thing was he found this rc online. and there was something special abt it. like the discovery of acid 4 the first time. he thought it was big
[4/19/2008 17:12:58] xMYSTERYx: he spent a lot of time researching it. always talking abt how it would make u see things that actually happened instead of hallucinating or watever
[4/19/2008 17:13:45] xMYSTERYx: he tried to explain it to me as like genetic memory or something? “gene telemorphs holding data” or some shit. i could enevr understand it
[4/19/2008 17:13:48] samo: “rc”?
[4/19/2008 17:14:01] xMYSTERYx: research chems
[4/19/2008 17:14:39] samo: Like designer drugs?
[4/19/2008 17:15:52] xMYSTERYx: idk dude. label doesnt always fit neatly. u get designer drugs at gas stations. there arent gas stations with malachi
[4/19/2008 17:17:12] samo: Do you know where he acquired this “malachi” stuff?
[4/19/2008 17:17:47] xMYSTERYx: i dont know shit about shit bro fuck off/
[4/19/2008 17:18:59] samo: I’m sorry. I’m not the police, I’m not anyone, I just want answers. After going through the access logs, it looks like Wes was still accessing our database and pulling documents even during his “medical leave”.
[4/19/2008 17:19:06] samo: I want to know what he was doing. Why?
[4/19/2008 17:20:47] xMYSTERYx: if i hear shit from the cops im showing them this log and they,ll find u 2
[4/19/2008 17:21:00] samo: Okay.
[4/19/2008 17:22:17] xMYSTERYx: at first wes was getting the malachi shipped from overseas. some italian website. but it got shut down and we found a local supplier. some fucking hardass bgiker fucks who always had shit to say
[4/19/2008 17:23:04] xMYSTERYx: we would always have to drive out to niagara to meet them
[4/19/2008 17:23:57] xMYSTERYx: wes was diving deeper everytime we picked uup and even had me like tripsit with a whole fucking rig of like adrenaline and shit like it was pulp fiction
[4/19/2008 17:24:21] samo: What was he doing with database access, though?
[4/19/2008 17:25:18] xMYSTERYx: i told u he thought this stuff was magic. he used science to describe it but he was talking abt going back in time to medieval times and shit. ithink he was trying to use the database stuff to prove it
[4/19/2008 17:26:32] xMYSTERYx: at 1 point he thought he could speak latin but even he could tell he sounded crazy as shit so he didnt push it
[4/19/2008 17:27:52] xMYSTERYx: he ended up posting alot of it online on his website too
[4/19/2008 17:28:15] samo: Website? Can you send me a link?
[4/19/2008 17:29:50] xMYSTERYx: it uses the nonatus system. look for “e-x-t-r-e-m-o’s trip log” u should find it
[4/19/2008 17:30:32] samo: Do the police know about this? His family?
[4/19/2008 17:31:59] xMYSTERYx: do they need to? does it help? nobody gives a fuck abt some drug blog. nobody wants to see that shit. cops would think its proof of OD. family would just be sad
[4/19/2008 17:32:41] samo: What do you think?
[4/19/2008 17:31:59] xMYSTERYx: i think wes was to smart to get caught by that shit and took measures. if soimething happened 2 wes, i think it wasnt a chemical it was a person
[4/19/2008 17:32:41] samo: You think he was murdered?
[4/19/2008 17:33:02] xMYSTERYx: i think im done answering ur questions
[4/19/2008 17:33:49] samo: Okay. Thank you, xMYSTERYx.
[4/19/2008 17:35:07] xMYSTERYx: who r u? im asking again
[4/19/2008 17:36:01] samo: My name is Pyotr.
[4/19/2008 17:38:55] xMYSTERYx: ken
[4/19/2008 17:39:01] samo: Thank you, Ken.
[4/19/2008 17:39:32] xMYSTERYx: im not ken. that was the name of the hammer who was our connect 4 malachi
[4/19/2008 17:40:41] samo: Okay, I understand. Can I contact you again?
[4/19/2008 17:42:04] xMYSTERYx: if ur trying to figure out what wes was doing and all that then sure. but i dont want 2 fuck with the hammers LOL
[4/19/2008 17:42:49] samo: It’s not something I’d particularly want to do either, if it can be helped.
[4/19/2008 17:43:18] xMYSTERYx: goodluck then Pyotr
[4/19/2008 17:39:01] samo: Thanks.
