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The Rosicrucian
Enlightenment - Revisited
Various contributors
(see below)
Introduced and edited by Ralph White
[Johann Valentin] Andreae and his
friends felt that the time was ripe for a new age. European
civilization had reached a critical point. The Reformation had
failed to bring about the spiritual renewal that had been hoped for,
Europe was bitterly divided into Catholic and Protestant camps,
science and religion were drifting apart—it
was obvious that something had gone wrong. So Andreae and his
friends decided to express their vision for Europe in the form of an
imaginary brotherhood, which they hoped would in due course attract
people and so turn into a real brotherhood
—Christopher McIntosh
Early in the seventeenth century, a
series of manifestos and other writings began to circulate across
Europe. They announced the dawn of a "new age" and proclaimed a
universal reform of science, religion, and society. The authors were
members of an "invisible college" and confessed themselves disciples
of "Christian Rosenkreutz." They called upon all the learned and the
pious to participate in the new Rosicrucian enlightenment. The
movement went underground during the Thirty Years' War, and it lives
on today as a vital component in contemporary spiritual movements.
For this reason, in 1995 and 1997, the
New York Open Center (in
association with Gnosis magazine and Obibio in Amsterdam), invited
leading esotericists and scholars of Alchemy, Rosicrucianism, and
the Western Mystery Traditions to the Czech Republic to discuss the
historical background and future possibilities of the Mystery of the
Rose Cross. This volume presents their findings:
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John Matthews reveals
the mystical relationship between the Grail and the Rose
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Christopher Bamford addresses
the prehistory of the Rosicrucian reformation in the late Middle
Ages—the women mystics, alchemists, Cathars, Franciscan
spirituals, as well as Luther and the great Paracelsus
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Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke
tells the wild tale of John Dee's mission in central Europe
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Joscelin Godwin unfolds the
paradigmatic Rosicrucian life of Michael Maier
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Robert Powell speaks of the Prague
Hermetic Renaissance in relation to Tycho Brahe, Johannes Kepler,
and Rudolf II
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Rafal Prinke
tells of the Polish
alchemist, Sendivogius
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Clare Goodrick-Clarke conveys
the influence of Comenius
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Paul Bembridge tells of the
Rosicrucian resurgence at the Court of Cromwell
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Christopher McIntosh recounts the
legacy of the Rosicrucians, placing it in the context of the
history of Western esotericism and world events
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Also included are two Rosicrucian
manifestos, the Fama and the Confessio
Lindisfarne Books
268pp w/illustrations; paperback
ISBN: 0 940262 84 3
Copyright ©
2003 Skylark
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