A Diagram for Reading the Rosicrucian Manifestos in the Pansophic System

Why You Need Boehme to Understand the Manifestos
And the Consistency of Sophianic Symbols in the Hermetic Tarot

Dear friends and readers,

The Rosicrucian Tradition is firmly founded upon the Rosicrucian manifestos. Many have offered their own interpretations of those founding documents, but what of an initiated view?

Today, a treat from my heart to yours. This post is dedicated to my regular fans and readers. 🙂

Below you get an important diagram that blows the manifestos wide open.

Harsh as it may sound – most interpretations of the manifestos are a waste of time. Instead of helping they’ve added more confusion to an existing muddle.

I’d sincerely like to use this post to help clear up the matter once and for all.

Simply put, Without Boehme and his Theosophy
– the Manifestos DO NOT MAKE SENSE.

Common Sam, you’ve got to be kidding?! Nope I mean it. Listen for a moment.

I’m saying that without knowing the traditions of Reconciliation, Reintegration and Regeneration the manifestos will be read out of context. After all, during the time of their writing the Germans were largely working together, universally observing signpost symbols across and array of topics.

And during the writing of the manifestos they aligned their mystical ideas to Theosophy, mirroring it as they did in their own system (the manifestos) which they called Pansophy.

There are enough old German authors stating that Pansophy is the Hermetic twin of Theosophy. This means that the initiatory legends described by Boehme were mirrored in the manifestos in the story of Christian Rosenkreuz.

Let me be clear. German Theosophy is largely founded on Jacob Boehme and his ideas about the fall of Adam, the restoration in his Second Adam, who weds Sophia and gives birth to our inner Christ Child. His legends are not external events. They are internal events of initiation. Boehme himself also drew from Pansophy at times, evening having a Pansophia tree and using terms from the manifestos.

It should also be understood that these forms of mysticism also mirror alchemy. By that I mean that their ordeals and phases of mystical regeneration reflected alchemical operations.

If this is true then surely the manifestos will mirror alchemy as well as the Boehme.

So how do the Adam-Sophia legends come to life in Pansophy?

They come to life through Christian Rosenkreuz (2^nd Adam) and Venus (Sophia).

But what about also mirroring alchemy as promised?

Here is THE diagram that should be the foundation of any serious Rosicrucian study.

Just take a look and you’ll see what I mean. (click for full size image)

I’ve been leading up to this in former post, so congrats if you had it all figured out.

The Tarot cards are female, and Sophanic, like the mysticism of Boehme. The Universe card shows that polarities have been split in the form of the two wands in the female figure’s hands. But in the next card you see a female in Temperance, who unites the opposites in an alchemical vessel. She takes what was separate before, and pours out two vessels into the greater one for union.

What are those polarities? And why are the separate and now being recombined? Alchemy calls this ‘Solve et Coagula’ which means ‘divide and recombine’ or rather ‘separate – purify – recombine.’ Paracelsus said this was the means of producing the Philosophers Stone. The Hermeticists depicted these polarities as the Lunar Queen and Solar King of alchemy. The Hermetic tablet also reads ‘It’s mother is the moon and its father the sun’ in leading towards the great miracle of Mercury.

But after combining the polarities in alchemy you arrive to Tiphareth, the sphere of harmony and the sun. It is quite clear that the tomb of Christian Rosenkreuz belongs to this sphere, for in many rituals Christian Rosenkreuz and Osiris come together as a unified mystery. What’s more the Mercury of the alchemist was distilled in a vessel called the Pelican, and this bird is a symbol for the Rose Croix.

You see how all this ties together so far. But Jacob Boehme’s mysticism is more explicit. Adam has fallen and broken into two polarities, by reconciling these two polarities WITHIN US we achieve the mystical state of what he termed the ‘Second Adam’ which again mirrors C.R.C in his tomb.

The sulfur of alchemy must now be wedded to the Mercury in order to create the Philosophers Stone. Boehme outright tells us that ‘Sophia is the Sulfur’ clearly showing he knew of these associations between mysticism and alchemy. Once we attain this Virgin he said we could then give birth to Christ within. How does this tie into the manifestos though?

Well, you see the Chemical Wedding is the next great advent and revelation of initiation. Where Boehme’s Theosophy presented a pure Christian mysticism our Rosicrucian forefathers presented the same mystery using Hermetic imagery. The Fama therefore shows the mystical Second Adam of initiation, and the Chemical Wedding presents us with Sophia in the form of Venus.

Both of these are phases of initiation and a level of awakening on the Tree of Life.

Read the Chemical Wedding carefully. The final result for C.R.C is that he realizes he has a son. It is an unusual statement after all, especially if we are to believe that C.R.C lived chaste in a monastery!

I entirely believe after studying the Pansophic system these connections to be true.

I’ve might also point out this fragment from Hermetic Museum. This too was the source for Rosicrucians to connect Sophia to Venus and the Sulfur. Here is a quote:

‘He went he could think of nothing but Sulphur. One day, with his mind full of this besetting idea, and being wrought almost to an ecstasy, he entered a certain verdant grove… Of water there was indeed a great scarcity… but this water was reserved for the use of the Nymph of the grove. In the grove there were two young men tending oxen and rams, and from them he learned that the grove belonged to the Nymph Venus. The alchemist was gratified enough, but all his thoughts were absorbed by the subject of Sulphur…’[1]

Look at the two paths highlighted. If you know your Tarot associations you’ll see a connection to the oxen and rams herding in the Grove of Venus. If not, it’s time to study more.

Ultimately, the Rosicrucian manifestos are highly consistent with the overall schemata of Boehme and his Theosophy and these ties provide the true heart of Pansophy. The more consistency you find in any given system: the more true and right in the L.V.X.

The connections here are undeniable and now you know how to study the manifestos.

Yours in service,
Samuel Robinson.
Read this for a related post on Rosicrucian Pansophy. 

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[1] New Chemical Light, Hermetic Museum