Anyone here know anything about the Rosicrucians?

[Taverner]

They seem much like the Freemasons (which I am one) but a lot more focused on the metaphysical.

Anyone know anything about them?

Sidenote: Benjamin Franklin was both a Mason and a Rosicrucian.

[slackmaster]

1. My grandfather answered one of their magazine ads in 1939

They kept sending him stuff for the rest of his life. He died in 1969.

[acmejack]

2. Here it is

http://www.americanreligion.org/cultwtch/rosicruc.html

Their site: http://www.amorc.org/

[htuttle]

3. Pseudo-Kabbalistic ritual meditation practioners

And yet another self-claimed inheritor of the Secrets of the Knights Templar.

Mostly harmless.

[Taverner]

4. Wondering if there is any good legend and myth there.

That's why I joined the Masons. Legend and myth. It's no surprise many Masons are High School and College History teachers. The group is loaded with history, stories and tales.

If you love a good legend here and there, its a great place.

I would consider joining them if it were more that and not as serious about the mystical.

[htuttle]

6. Sure, tons of it

But if all you want is the history, read up on the works and lives of people like Israel Regardie, Aleister Crowley, etc...and groups like the Golden Dawn and OTO. They were all spawned or influenced by the Rosicrucians (and their alchemist predecessors).

You can get all the history without all the robe-wearing and oath-swearing.

[Taverner]

7. Ahhh but the ritual is the fun part :)

I honestly beleive Joseph Campbell was right - that we need ritual in our lives.

[flakey_foont]

5. Supposedly

started by a certain Christian Rosenkreutz ...
in the early 1600's there appeared in various European cities, pamphlets announcing the Fraternity of the Rosicrucians,,,
how they were among the citizenry doing good works, such as healing the sick, ....
there is a noted work, "The Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz" that is alledgedly the end-all, be-all of alchemy

[gandalf]

8. A good book on this subject: Foucault's Pendulum

by Umberto Eco.
It's actually a novel, but it covers all kinds of secret societies extensively.

[drencrom]

9. scam

They're basically a scam sort of like the Scientologists, but much less vindictive. They're heavily into selling you stuff for you to use for their religion. They're also heavily into mailing lists and such, and will sell your name around.

[cheekymonkey]

10. Weren't they a spin off from the Knights Templar..

The Knight of the Temple of Jerusalem, crusaders had as their coat of arm a rose and the cross. Hence Rosicrucians? After the were driven out of Israel by the Sultan Sa'alahuddin the went to France where they became a a threat to the crown. After the King of France clipped them down a notch, they evolved into a watered down version of the Rosicrucians. What probably makes them like the Masons was their opposition to the church and the monarchy and their ability to transcend national and philosophical boundaries.

[Finder]

11. Francis Bacon

The original Rosicrucians are different than the groups today.

http://www.sirbacon.org/links/dblohseven.html


http://www.crcsite.org/bacon.htm

[quinnox]

12. they have a cool egyptian museum in San Jose

with ancient artifacts and some lovely landscaping with obelisks.