Rosicrucian Fellowship
The Rosicrucian Fellowship was founded in 1909/11 by Max Heindel as herald of the Aquarian Age and with the aim of promulgating the Rosicrucian teachings of the Mystery School of the West, the invisible Rosicrucian Order (which, according to Max Heindel, is an Order in the spiritual worlds, having no direct connection to physical organizations which intitle themselves by this name). The Rosicrucian Fellowship conducts Spiritual Healing Services and offers correspondence courses in Esoteric Christianity and Philosophy, Spiritual Astrology, and Bible Interpretation. Its headquarters are located in Mount Ecclesia, Oceanside, California (USA) and its students are found throughout the world organized in centers and study groups.
In 1908 its founder, Max Heindel, was chosen and prepared by the Elder Brothers of the Rosicrucian Order to reveal the teachings of the Rosicrucian Philosophy (Western Wisdom Teachings). In November 1909 these teachings were printed in The Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception and were subsequently developed in other books, lectures and lessons. Heindel also founded a Christian Esoteric magazine titled Rays from the Rose Cross in June 1913, which is still continued to be edited and published by the Fellowship.
The Rosicrucian Philosophy is Christian and claims to present the mysteries (esoteric knowledge) which the Christ spoke of in Matthew 13:11 and Luke 8:10. It seeks to prepare the individual through harmonious development of the mind (occultist) and the heart (mystic) in a spirit of unselfishness service to mankind and an all-embracing altruism.
The Rosicrucian Fellowship has never been affiliated with the Rosicrucian Order, AMORC.
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Philosophy teachings
Life as a School: doctrine of Rebirth and Law of Cause and Consequence
These teachings advocate the dualistic view: on one hand, they hold that man is a Spirit enfolding all the powers of God and that these powers are being slowly unfolded by a series of existences in a gradually improving earthy body; on the other hand, that this process of development has been performed under the guidance of exalted Beings who are yet ordering our steps, though in a decreasing measure, as man gradually acquires intellect and will.
Man is then seen as a Spirit attending the school of life for the purpose of unfolding latent spiritual power, and that for this purpose he lives many lives in earthly bodies, "Rebirth", of increasingly fine texture which enable him to express himself better and better (building his character). Connected to Rebirth there is the "Law of Cause and Consequence" - the most fundamental law in human destiny, that it is not a static law - through which we constantly set new causes into operation which will create new destiny to balance and improve the old destiny brought from the past, it teaches that all the causes set into action in one life cannot be ripen in one existence, but "Whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap".
Evolution
According to the Rosicrucian Philosophy, also known as Mystic Christianity, the evolution of man, in our present Great Day of Manifestation, is divided into seven Periods:
- involution: the Saturn Period, the Sun Period, the Moon Period;
- the Earth Period (fisthalf was still involution, secondhalf is towards evolution);
- evolution: the Jupiter Period, the Venus Period, the Vulcan Period.
In this scheme of evolution, Christ is the highest Initiate of the Sun Period. This means that this Initiate, Christ, has completed His union with the Second aspect of God, or WISDOM. According to Mystic Christianity, the three Aspects of God are WILL, WISDOM and ACTIVITY. The entity we call the Father, has completed His union with the First aspect of God, WILL; then comes the Son, also called Christ; then Jehovah, the Highest Initiate of the Moon Period, who has completed His union with the Third aspect of God, or ACTIVITY.
Seven-fold constitution of Man
It also teaches that man is a complex being who possesses:
- a Dense Body, which is the visible instrument he uses here in this world to fetch and carry (the body we ordinarily think of as the whole man);
- a Vital Body, which is made of Ether and pervades the visible body as ether permeates allother forms, except that human beings specialize a greater amount of the universal ether than other forms (that ethereal body is our instrument for specializing the vital energy of the sun and it is seen by clairvoyant vision to extend about an inch and a half outside our visible body);
- a Desire Body, which is our emotional nature and this finer vehicle pervades both the vital and dense bodies (it is seen by clairvoyant vision to extend about 16 inches outside our visible body, which is located in the center of this ovoid cloud as the yolk is in the center of an egg);
- the Mind, which functions like a mirror, reflects the outer world and enables the Ego to transmit its commands as thought and word, and also to compel action.
- the Divine Spirit, which has emanated from itself the dense body;
- the Life Spirit, which has emanated from itself the vital body;
- the Human Spirit, which has emanated from itself the desire body.
As the physical body is a vehicle which the Spirit uses to gain experience in this school day of life, death is but a passing of the Spirit into a larger sphere: a birth, which should be prepared for with the greatest care. At the end of this life the Ego must assimilate what it has experienced. At what is called death the Spirit withdraws with the two higher vehicles, which are tied to the etheric and physical bodies by a slender cord.
At death the desire and mental bodies leave the physical, taking with them but one permanent atom, which during life was deposited within the left ventricle of the heart. This atom, like the negative film of the camera, has been impressed with all the experiences of the life just ended. At death the force of this atom leaves the body and all these impressions are transferred from the vital (etheric) body (which is the storehouse of these experiences) into the desire body, which then forms the basis of the man or woman's life in purgatory and the first heaven. This transfer is done by the Spirit during the first three and one-half days after the rupture of the connection between the seed atom and the heart, ordinarily known as death: death is not complete until this transfer has been accomplished. During this time sensation is still present, and the Spirit suffers through inharmonious surroundings (including postmortem examination and embalming).
the Cosmic Christ and the Christ Within
According to the Rosicrucian Philosophy, the Bible Teaching enables us to become aware of the fact that Christ must be born within. There is a very clear distinction between the Christ which is born within us, our true Saviour, and the Cosmic Christ, that is to say the Christ without. The Christ without, or the Cosmic Christ, helps us in the task of having Christ born within; however, it is our task to form the Christ within. The Christ within, or Soul body, is the vehicle mankind will need to live in the Sixth Epoch or New Galilee.
Rosicrucian mission
It is referred that the mission of the Rosicrucian Order, working through The Rosicrucian Fellowship, is to promulgate a scientific method of development suited particularly to the Western people where by this wedding garment may bewrought, so that mankind may hasten the day of the Lord.
See also
- Bible and reincarnation - Reincarnation
- Christian Rosenkreuz - Rosicrucian
- Esoteric Christianity
- Esotericism - Mysticism - Occultism
- List of occultists - List of spirituality-related topics
- Vegetarianism
- Western mystery tradition
External links
