Guides to the Rosicrucian Manifestos - A Prelude

 

Allegorical image of an initiate knocking on the door of R.C.

Recently I began leading a study group in which we are reading the Rosicrucian manifestos: Fama Fraternitatis (1614), Confessio Fraternitatis (1615), and The Chemical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreuz (1616). It quickly became apparent to me that many people speak of Rosicrucianism, notably Freemasons and similar fraternal societies, but certainly others of an esoteric leaning, but few have read the manifestos themselves. Furthermore, those who have read them are oftentimes perplexed and confused.

I myself read them in 2013 after reading Tobias Churton's The Golden Builders (2002). Churton spends well over a hundred pages on the initial Rosicrucian movement, and having heard Masons and others speak so much on Rosicrucianism, I felt it was necessary to read the manifestos themselves. After reading the Fama and Confessio, a whopping thirty-six pages of text, I immediately grew perplexed. The Chemical Wedding did not help this confusion.

The Fama read like something one reads at the beginning of a grimoire or some pseudo-Hermetic text — a fanciful story of how ancient wisdom was passed along and is now being revealed, yet the wisdom itself is never fully explained, and only minute bits and pieces can be gleaned sparsely and fragmented throughout the text. The Confessio was very dry and does not feel like it lives up the hype the Fama produced. It reads like a set of guidelines and principles, none of which appear controversial or revolutionary in the way the Rosicrucian movement built its reputation. Then The Chemical Wedding comes along, and is far more fanciful and perplexing than either the Fama or Confessio. It is an alchemical allegorical tale of Christian Rosenkreuz going to a wedding and follows the bizarre events over the course of a week.

Why were these documents considered so enlightening and controversial? Why were they impactful at all?

There was an immense hype around these documents, and I could not grasp why, nor have I yet to meet anyone who initially grasped why these documents were so revolutionary on their first reading of the manifestos. Since that time, I have read numerous articles, books, and various commentary on the manifestos that have given me a useful glimpse into why their content was revolutionary in the first place. However, I have yet to find (in English) any useful guide to reading the manifestos.

One can read Waite's True History of the Rosicrucians, Yates's Rosicrucian Enlightenment, Churton's Invisible History of the Rosicrucians, McIntosh and McIntosh's new translations of the manifestos in Rosicrucian Trilogy, and even Christopher McIntosh's expanded introduction and annotations of the Fama and still not have a better grasp of the manifestos when one reads them. One simply has to gain a working understanding of the history and influences behind the initial Rosicrucian movement and then read the manifestos while wearing that historical pair of glasses.

My aim and research track in these subsequent posts will be to explore the Rosicrucian manifestos, and help to enframe various parts of them in their influences and historical context. At this time, my current agenda is to produce the following (and these are subject to being revised as I progress):

1. Produce a timeline of historical events, influential people, and the chronology of the legend of Christian Rosenkreuz, with some commentary on this chronology.
2. Establish the preliminary enframement of the manifestos that are critical to reading them, namely that they are Protestant, millenarian, and heavily influenced by Paracelsus.
3. The Fama Fraternitatis:
1. Explore the Protestant aspects in the Fama.
2. Explore the Paracelsian aspects in the Fama.
3. Influences of Joachim of Fiore and other millenarian individuals in the Fama.
4. The travels of Fr. C.R. in the Fama and similar journeys by others, particularly Parcelsus.
5. Where is the mysterious city of Damcar in the Fama?
6. The nature of the legend of Fr. C.R. in the Fama and its connection to The Chemical Wedding as allegory.
7. The Confessio and The Chemical Wedding as mentioned in the Fama.
4. The Confessio Fraternitatis:
1. The thirty-six reasons/points of the Confessio as mentioned in the Fama.
2. Expressed ideologies in the Confessio.
3. The legendary aspects of the Confessio that corroborate, enhance, and detract from the Fama.
5. The Chemical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreuz:
1. Explore much of the alchemical legendry and allegory in The Chemical Wedding.
2. Explore previous ideologies and sentiments expressed in the Fama and Confessio as they pertain to The Chemical Wedding.
3. Address whether The Chemical Wedding is a response to the Fama, namely whether it was publish as a statement to the spiritual calling of the manifestos, and not a declaration of a tangible society.

Since November is NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writers Month), and I am not a very good fictional writer, I thought I would write approximately 2,000 words a day anyway. Instead of a novel, I will write toward this research track on the Rosicrucian manifestos. I hope to complete my research and posts on these manifestos by the end of November. I won't necessarily post every day, just I will write on this every day. The posts will be published when they are done.