Explanation of the Rose Croix Pantacle by Stanislas de Guaita 1889

Explanation of the Rose-Croix Pantacle

By Stanislas De Guaita

From the magazine L’Initiation Vol. 2 N.6 March 1889

Translated by: Alex Bushman 2017

Translators note: Much of the French R+C tradition has yet to be translated to English and given to the general public. Stanislas de Guaita played a fundamental role in the esoteric revival of the late 1800’s and I hope that this translation gives you a glimpse into how our spiritual predecessors approached the Rosicrucian tradition. For those of us that have been following the posts here at pansophers.com, this article definitely highlights the role that Kabbalah and Christosophia played in Stanislas de Guaita’s expression of the R+C.

The kabbalistic plate offered as a bonus to the subscribers of L’Initiation is extracted from a small rare book, well known among collectors of books with engravings and much sought after by all those whom are preoccupied with, among other things, the esotericism of religion, the tradition of the secret doctrine under the symbolic veils of Christianity, and finally the transmission of the magical priesthood in the West.

“AMPHITHEATRUM SAPIENTIAE AETERNAE, SOLIVS VERE, christiano-kabalisticum, divino-magicum, necnon physic-chemicum, tertriunum, katholikon instructore HENRICO KHUNRATH, etc. HANOVIAE, 1609”

Unique in its genre, especially invaluable for researchers curious to deepen these troubling questions, this book is unfortunately incomplete in many of its copies. You will be pleased that we have provided some quick information here, thanks to which the buyer can foresee and prevent disappointment.

The engravings, in taille douce[1] (L’ Initiation intends to reproduce many in favor of its subscribers), numbering twelve, are usually connected at the beginning of the work. They are grouped in an arbitrary way, the author neglected (by design perhaps) to clarify that later. The essential thing is to possess them in their entirety, since their classification varies from copy to copy.

Three of them, in simple format: 1. the allegorical frontispiece framing the engraved title; 2. The portrait of the author, surrounded by equally allegorical attributes; 3. Finally, an Osprey armed with spectacles, masterfully perched between two lighted torches, with two burning torches in saltire[2]. Below, there is a caption in rhyme in questionable High German, which one could translate as:

“What do candles and torches and spectacles serve for those who close their eyes so as not to see?”

Then come nine superb magic figures, very carefully engraved, in double format and mounted on tabs. They are: 1. The great hermetic androgyne *; 2. The Laboratory of Khunrath *; 3. Adam-Eve in the verbal triangle; 4. The Rose-Croix[3] pentagram * (which we will discuss in detail); 5. The Seven degrees of the sanctuary and the seven rays; 6. The Alchemical Citadel with twenty dead-end doors *; 7. The Gymnasium naturae, a synthetic figure and very learned in the appearance of a rather naïve landscape; 8. The Emerald Tablet engraved on the igneous and mercurial stone; 9. Finally, the Pantacle of Khunrath *, garbed with a satirical caricature, in the style of Callot; there is even a callot before the letter. (See what Eliphas Lévi said in Histoire de la magie, p. 368)

This last plate, with a bloody irony and a truly savory savage art, is missing in almost all the copies. The numerous enemies of the Theosophist, who see themselves caricatured by a bitter genius and that with no trouble could triumphantly guess were preoccupied by the resemblances, worked hard to make an engraving of such a scandalous interest disappear.

The other pantacles which we have marked with an asterisk are also lacking in a number of copies.

Let us occupy ourselves at this hour with the text divided into two sections. The first sixty pages, numbered separately, include an imperial privilege (dated 1598), then various pieces: discourse, dedication, poems, prologue, and arguments. Finally the text of the proverbs of Solomon, of which the rest of the Amphitheatrum is the esoteric commentary.

Then comes the commentary, constituting the work itself, in seven chapters, followed by some very curious clarifications under the title: Interpretationes et Annotationes Henrici Khunrath. The total of the second part is 222 pages. A final page bears the name of the printer: G. Antonious, and the date: Hanoviae, M. DC. IX.

We will end this description with an important note from the scholarly bibliophile G.F. de Bure, who says, in volume II of his Bibliographie “It is to be noted that in the first part of this work, which is sixty pages long, one will find, between pages 18 and 19, a sort of table especially printed on a page surrounded by an intricate border, and which is titled “Summa Amphitheatri sapientiae” etc…, and in the second part of two hundred and twenty two pages, one will find another table, similarly printed on a page surrounded by an intricate border, and which should be placed on page 151, where it is recalled by two stars that were placed in the printed discourse. We noticed that these two tables were missing in the copies we saw; that’s why it will be good to take caution….” (page 248).

Let us now turn to the study of the kabbalistic plate that L’ Initiation has offered to its subscribers.

Analysis of the Rose-Croix by Henry Khunrath

This figure is a marvelous pantacle, that is to say the hieroglyphic summary of a whole doctrine : we find here synthesized, as the review has previously announced, all the pentagrammatic mysteries of the Rosicrucian adepts.

First is the central point unfolding the circumference at three different degrees, which gives us the three circular and concentric regions representing the process of Emanation proper.

In the center is a Christ on the cross in a rose of light. It is the splendor of the Word or Adam Kadmon אדאם קדמון; it is the emblem of the Great Arcanum. Never has there been a more audaciously revealed essential identity between the  Man-Synthesis and God manifested. It is not without the deepest reasons that the hierographer has reserved for the middle of his pentacle the symbol which represents the incarnation of the eternal Word.  It is indeed through the Word, in the Word and through the Word (indissolubly united himself to Life), that all things, both spiritual and corporeal, have been created. “In principio erat Verbum (said Saint-John), et Verbum erat apud Deum, et Deus erat Verbum…. Omnia per ipsum facta sunt et sine ipso factum est nihil quod factum est. In ipso vita erat….” If we take careful note of what part of the human figure is attributed to the central point unfolding the circumference, it will be understood with what hieroglyphic power the Initiator has been able to express this fundamental mystery.

The luminous radiance blooms the surroundings; it is a rose blooming in five petals, the five-pointed star of the Kabbalistic Microcosm, the Flaming Star of Masonry, the symbol of the all-powerful will armed with the flaming sword of the Cherubim.

To speak the language of exoteric Christianity, it is the sphere of God the son, placed between that of God the Father (the shadowy sphere above where Ain Soph אין סוף is etched in luminous characters), and that of God the Holy-Spirit, Ruach Hakkadosh רוח הקדש, (the luminous sphere below where the hierogram Emet  אמת is etched in black characters).

These two spheres appear as lost in the clouds of Atziluth, אצלות, to indicate the hidden nature of the first and third persons of the Holy Trinity. The Hebrew word that expresses them stands out in force, brightly against the background of shadow, there dark on a background of light, to make it understood that our mind, incapable of penetrating these principles into their essence, can only glimpse their antithetical relations, by virtue of the analogy of opposites.

Above the sphere of Ain-Soph, the sacred word of Jehovah or Ihoâh is broken down into a flaming triangle, as follows:

Without engaging in the hieroglyphic analysis of this sacred term, without claiming above all to expose here the mysteries of its generation, which would lead to endless developments, we can say that from this special point of view, Iod י symbolizes the Father, Iah יה the Son, Iaho יהו the Holy-Spirit, Iahoah יהוה the living Universe : and this mysical triangle is attributed to the ineffable sphere of Ain-Soph, or of God the Father. The Kabbalists wanted to show that the Father is the source of the all-pervading Trinity, and more, contains in hidden virtuality all that is, was or will be.

Above the sphere of Emet or the Holy Spirit, in the irradiation of the Rose-Croix and below the feet of Christ, a dove with a pontifical tiara takes its flaming flight. It is the emblem of the double flow of love and light that descends from Father to Son, from God to Man, and ascends from the Son to the Father, from Man to God, its two extended wings correspond exactly to the pagan symbol of the two serpents intertwined with the caduceus of Hermes.

The intelligence of this mysterious connection is only for initiates.

Let us return to the sphere of the Son, which requires more extensive commentary. We have noted above, the impenetrable character of the Father and the Holy Spirit, contemplated in their essence.

Only the second person of the Trinity, represented by the Rose-Croix in the center, pierces the clouds of Atziluth, shooting out the ten sephirotic rays.

They are like windows opening on the grand arcana of the Word, and by which one can contemplate its splendor with ten different points of view. The Zohar compares, in effect, the ten Sephirot to ten transparent vases of different colors, through which shines, under ten different aspects, the central focus of the Unity-synthesis. Let us imagine a tower with ten cross shaped openings and in the center shines a candelabra with five branches; this luminous quinary will be visible in each of them; whoever would stop there one after the other successively would count ten candelabras with five burning branches… (Multiply the pentagram by ten, by radiating the five points at each of the ten openings, and you wil have the Fifty Portals of Light).

He who lays claim to the synthesis must enter the tower; he who only knows how to go around it is a pure analytic. One will see the optical errors it exposes, as soon as he chooses to reflect on the ensemble.

We will say a few words later about the sephirotic system; we must finish with the central emblem. Reduced to the geometric proportions of diagram, it can be drawn as such:

A cross enclosed in the flaming star. It is the quaternary which finds its expansion in the quinary; it is the Spirit who sub-multiplied himself to descend to the cesspool of matter where he will be bogged down for some time, but his destiny is to find in his own debasement the revelation of his personality and even, omen of salvation, he feels, at the last step of his downfall, the great force of the Will rise up in him. It is the Word, יהוה, who incarnates and becomes the sorrowful Christ or corporeal man, יהשוה, until the day where he assumes within him his regenerated human nature, he returns to his glory.

This is what the adept Saint-Martin expresses in the first volume of Errors and Truth, when he teaches that the fall of man comes from the fact that inverted the pages of the Great Book of Life and substituted the fifth page (that of corruption and decay) with the fourth (that of immortality and the spiritual entity).

By adding the crucial quaternary and the star pentagram, we obtain 9, a mysterious figure whose detailed explanation would take us out of the frame we have set for ourselves. We have elsewhere (Lotus, volume II, n. 12, pp. 327-328) detailed in depth and demonstrated by a calculation of numerical Kabbalah, how 9 is the analytical number of man. We refer the reader to that presentation…

Let us also note, because everything is held in High Science and the analogical correspondences are absolute, note that in the spherical figures of the Rose-Croix, the rose is traditionally formed of nine interlaced circumferences, like the rings of a chain. Always the analytical number of man, 9!

An important remark that will be a new confirmation of our theory; It is evident, for all those who possess some esoteric notions, that the four branches of the inner cross (represented by Christ with outstretched arms) should be marked with the leters of the Tetragrammaton: Iod, he, vau, he – we will not return here to what we have said elsewhere[4] about the hieroglyphic and grammatical composition of this sacred word. The most extensive and complete commentaries are commonly found in the works of all Kabbalists. (Preferably refer to Rosenroth, Kabbala Denudata; Lenain, La Science kabbalistique; Fabre D’Olivet, Langue hébraïque restituée; Eliphas Lévi, Dogme et Rituel, Histoire de la magie, Clef des grands mystères; and Papus, Traité élémentaire de la science occulte). But let’s consider for a moment the Jeschua hierogram יהשוה, what elements is it composed of? Everyone can see the famous Tetragrammaton  יהוה separated in the middle יה-וה, then reunited by the Hebrew letter Shin ש. Now,  יהוה expresses here the Adam-Kadmon, Man in his integral synthesis, in a word, the divinity manifested by his Word and representing the fruitful union of the universal Spirit and the universal Soul. To split this word is to symbolize the disintegration of its unity and the divisional multiplication that results in the generation of submultiples. The letter shin ש, is the figure (Arcana 21 or 0 of the Tarot) of the generative and subtle fire, the vehicle of the undifferentiated Life, the universal plastique[5] Mediator whose role is to effect incarnations by allowing the Spirit to descend into matter, to penetrate it, to elevate it, to elaborate it as it pleases. The shin ש binds the union of the two parts of the mutilated tetragrammaton, it is therefore the symbol of the fall and of the repair, in the elementary and material world, of  יהוה disintegrated from its unity.

It is ש at last, whose addition to the verbal quaternary of the kind we have said, which generates the quinary or number of the fall. Saint-Martin has very well seen this. But 5, which is the number of the fall, is also the number of the will, and the will is the instrument of reintegration.

The initiate knows how the substitution of 5 to 4 is only transiently disastrous; how in the muck where he wallows fallen, the human sub-multiple learns to conquer a truly free and conscious personality; Felix culpa![6] From his fall, he arises stronger and greater; it is thus that evil only succeeds good temporarily and in order to achieve the best!

This number 5 contains the deepest arcana; but we are obliged to halt here, on pain of finding ourselves engaged in interminable digressions.  What we have said about 4 and 5 in their relationship with the Rose-Croix will suffice for the Initiates. We only write for them.

Let us say a few words at this time about the rays, ten in number, which pierce the region of clouds or Atziluth. It is the denary of Pythagoras which is called in Kabbalah the sephirotic emanation. Before presenting to our readers the most luminous classification of the kabbalistic sephirot, we will draw a small table of the traditional correspondences between the ten sephira and the ten principal names given to the divinity by the Hebrew theologians. These names, which Khunrath engraved in a circle in the blossoming of the flaming rose, each correspond to one of the ten sephira. (See the table on the following page)

As for the divine names, after giving their translation into the common language, we shall, as briefly as possible, deduce from the hieroglyphic examination of each of them, the general esoteric significance which may be attributed to them.

אהיה – That which constitutes the undefiled essence of the absolute Being where life ferments

יה – The indissoluble union of the universal Spirit and the universal Soul

יהוה –   Copulation of the male and female principles that eternally engender the living universe. (Grand Arcana of the Word)

אל – The deployment of the Unity principle. Its diffusion in Space and Time.

אלהים גבור – God-the gods of the giants or of the god-men

אלוה – God reflected in one of the gods

יהוה צבאות – the iod he vav he (see above) of the septenary or of triumph

אלהים צבאות – God-the gods of the septenary or of triumph

 שדי – The fecundator[7], by the Astral Light in quaternized expansion, and its return to the principle forever hidden from which it emanates. (Masculine form of , the impregnated, Nature)

To complete the elementary notions that we have been able to give concerning the sephirotic system, we will finish this work with the well-known triple ternary schematic; this classification is the most luminous, in our opinion, and the most fruitful in precious corollaries.

The three ternaries represent the trinity manifested in the three worlds.

The first ternary, that of the intellectual world, is the absolute representation of the holy trinity. Providence balances the two plates of the scale of divine order, Wisdom and Intelligence.

The two lower ternaries are only the reflections of the first in the denser environments of the moral and astral worlds. So they are inverted, like the image of an object that is reflect on the surface of a liquid.

In the moral world, Beauty (Harmony or Rectitude) balances the scales, Mercy and Justice.

In the astral world, Formation, instrument of the stability of beings, ensures Victory over death and nothingness, by nourishing Eternity by the inexhaustible succession of ephemeral things.

Finally, Malkuth, the Kingdom of forms, realizes below the totalized, blooming and perfect synthesis of the sephiroths, of which at the top Kether, Providence (or the crown) encloses the germinal and potential synthesis.

Many things remain to be said about Henry Khunrath’s symbolic Rose-Croix. Moreover, it would take an entire book for the logical and normal development of the subjects that we have cursorily indicated in these few notes; so the reader will find this too abstract and even obscure. We present you our apologies.

Perhaps, if you go through the trouble to study thoroughly the Kabbalah at its very source, you will not be unhappy to find, throughout this massive presentation and tiring reading, the precise indication and even explanation in initiatic language of a significant number of transcendent arcana.

Like algebra, Kabbalah has its equations and technical vocabulary. Reader, it is a language to learn, whose marvelous precision and customary employment will later compensate you enough for the efforts where your mind has been able to spend in the period of study.

-Stanislas De Guaita

[1] A form of engraving, an alternate term is “intaglio”

[2] A geometric design in the shape of an X

[3] This figure, as well as those marked with the asterisk * at number 1, will be reproduced in taille douce with a detailed commentary, at the beginning of a new and considerably enlarged edition that we are going to give directly from our book published in 1886 : Essais de sciences maudites (essays on the cursed sciences): 1. Au seuil du mystère (At the threshold of mystery).

[4] Au seuil du mystère, 1886 page 12 – Lotus, volume II, n. 12, pages 321-347, passim…

[5] The term plastique has connotations in French that the English term plastic just doesn’t retain

[6] An apparent error or disaster with happy consequences. The sin of Adam viewed as fortunate, because it brought about the blessedness of the Redemption.

[7] Fertilizer, that which makes fruitful or impregnates, the male life giving property