Description

For centuries, mystery has surrounded the brief flowering of religions tolerance and intellectual achievement that the early 17th Century Rosicrucians ushered h with the publication of three manifestos: the Fama Fraternitatis (Fame of the Fraternity), the Confessio Fratemitatis (Confession of the Fraternity) and the Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreuz.

Leading lights in the academie and religions worlds of 1614 were shaken to the core and some were deeply moved to action by these publications which appeared at yearly intervals and which in due course led to far reaching changes throughout Europe, an later in the New World of the Americas.

Having been branded for centuries as a secret society of occultists, witches and wizard by uninformed and jealous people, the Rosicrucian Order is one of the most enigmatic and yet most open of the handful of true initiatic Orders still in existence. By retracing it mysterious origins, this book attempts to place the Rosicrucian stream of intellectual an spiritual philosophy in an historical context by outlining the most important people an events that led to the genesis of the Western branch of esoteric spirituality and ultimately led to the establishment of the Rosicrucian Order itself

Numerous movements which have sprung directly or indirectly from the Rosicrucian tradition are detailed, and a particular place of pre-eminence is given at the end of this book to the most important modern day torchbearer of Rosicrucian thought and practice the Ancient and Mystical Order Rosae Crucis.

Besides the meticulously researched historical facts, this richly illustrated work invites us to discover the way or path that past and present Rosicrucians have attempted, and continue to attempt, to discover every day. That path is like a inner thread leading people on to a realisation of the great natural sanctity which lies dormant within all human beings, and which has the huge potential of bringing all nations together in permanent peace.

For anyone interested in the broader aspects of the Western esoteric movement, and who seek a path of discovery to their own innate spirituality, this book is essential reading.