Where Are All the Women Adepts? A Rosicrucian Problem!

They are everywhere if we listen

I sometimes ask myself “Where are all the Women Adepts?” As a student of Rosicrucianism and someone who wants to help bring people together I often find that most people I deal with are men. Don’t get me wrong, I like all you fellas! We have great exchanges. But something is not right.

There are some women here in the community who are outstanding and without whom it just wouldn’t be the same. I am questioning where are the women leaders in our community though?

At Pansophers a few of us have been working on bringing you a set of Rosicrucian volumes, one each for all the Rosicrucian grades. I searched far and wide for forgotten books to quote from, during which time I found a dusty volume about the coming women adepts. It truly is an inspiring volume. I’ve included parts of this work in our series, and although I won’t reveal the title just yet, I will say that this is one of those gems that has been entirely missed by the modern occult community.

If you haven’t figured it out by now, this blog points at many things missed by modern occultism.

The reason for this is simple. True, I think differently than many, but more so, modern occultism is getting stale, and suffers from “more of the same old” regurgitated New-Thought or G.D material.

In the process of transitioning from old occultism to the new, several things were lost. I probably don’t need to point out that by the late 1800’s and early 1900’s many female figures in the Golden Dawn and Theosophical Society were not only outstanding members, they were strong feminist and brilliant authors. But, has the age of women adepts passed?

I’d like to reveal a few teachings from this gem of a book: “The female principle is the great ardent Mother-Soul of the Universe: the objective female prestation of God.”

Another: “The expansive energy personified in Woman; when looking beyond the veil of flesh and when the personality transcended, Woman evidently is Isis! She is the Generative Spirit veiled in flesh! As this spellbinding power, this de-personalized soul, she is that which forever appeals to man’s deepest nature, that hidden, ever active force, wherefrom all things come and do return.”

Another: “The female principle is the transient, ever-moving, ever-inviting principle representing the water element in Nature. It is the Spatial-Ovum-Over-Soul that possesses the seed-thought, which surrounds, envelopes and embraces the entirety of existence, encircling the spirit of things, as the watery-atom itself takes hold of the organic seed, without which, nothing in Nature could be!”

What is so interesting about this volume is that it contains the teachings of the Kybalion BUT it was written six years prior to the Kybalion itself. In fact, the laws of sex and polarity are covered in full in a preceding volume, this one penned ten years before the Kybalion was ever known! Not many people really understand the Kybalion today, and what its teachings really are for. “Real” Hermeticists dismiss it because they think its new-agey or not Hermetic. New-agers have no idea of its real origins. They accept it at face value still without knowing its true purpose. Yes, the Hermeticists are right, there are problems with the volume, but that’s because you’re missing its companion books.

I hope to publish a reveal-all book on this very topic in future. So far our Pansophers author Ian Gladwin has been over the details with me and can confirm that these older volumes exist.

In reality, the Kybalion is a theurgic system of regeneration, mirroring in many ways the doctrine of Jacob Boehme who sought to gain a mystical New Will through initiatory death, and this he named the “Second Adam,” which then, he said, must marry “Sophia” as the Bride. This same occult volume I’m quoting above also reads “Therefore Woman should always act in her role as the Life and Light that inspires Man, just as the Soul, as Bride, shall be united to its Bridegroom, the Spirit!”

What the Pre-Kybalion volumes reveal is that the laws of polarity and sex lead one towards a form of Hermetic mysticism that is seen in Nature through female-male dynamics but is carried out through awakening the Soul through the invocation of Sophia, the grand regenerator of the mysteries! The connection here to the Rosy Cross is that the Second Adam and Sophia of Boehme must be understood first to really understand the meaning of the Fama and Chemical Wedding.

This blog was the first to reveal that relationship, which is shown in this diagram.

What is also so interesting about the quoted hidden volume is that it’s something of a Rosicrucian manual on how men should perceive women, and on how women may fulfil their true divine purpose. Most of all it outlines the “Woman of the new age to come.” If men had chivalry to teach our highest potential then this would be the equivalent for women initiates come adepts.

But, after such an inspiration, I had to ask, “Where are all the women adepts?”

I’ve had a few women shape my esoteric life. One of those was a successor of Frater Albertus who practiced alchemy. It was often her ideals, seen in the greatest vision, of what she expected from a male leader that has helped shaped who I am today. Aside from her, sadly, I haven’t come across any Rosicrucian female leaders of her calibre. There could be a few reasons for this though.

Do us men hold them back? Consider how top management positions are held mostly by men. Apparently this is because we as males are supposed to be more driven and competitive. Certainly some studies have concluded this to be the case, rather than a problem of equality. But, in an environment that is meant to be more intuitive based you would imagine that things would differ.

What if it’s a problem of access to higher teachings though? You hear of Westcott and Mathers founding the Golden Dawn. The wife of Mathers is in the background. Crowley comes next, and he teaches Regardie. Regardie teaches Chic and Tabby Cicero, but most people name Chic first even if Tabitha Cicero by all accounts is an outstanding woman and co-authored the books. Steiner’s inner Rosicrucian order seems to have been to the likes of Felkin and Krumm-Heller. Harvey Spencer Lewis to his son? Could it be that in a predominantly male dominated occult world women simply have not been in positions to draw upon the best Rosicrucian thought leaders and teachings equally?

Is Rosicrucianism behind on the concept of “equal-opportunity” as seen in the workplace?

I can only name one ongoing outstanding female lineage that slipped out of the above occult scene in the transmission of Dion Fortune to Dolores Ashcroft-Nowicki. Hats off to them! The less known Mother Serena also passed the SRIA (America) onto Tabitha Cicero deserves counting.

I do wish though, that I could have met Lou Salome. An author herself, and the only source for the esoteric thoughts of Nietzsche, not only was she considered their equals but she somehow managed to wrap the three greats of Nietzsche, Freud and Rilke Rainer all around her little finger!

Back to my point, it would seem to me that the vanishing of women adepts is due to an issue of access and opportunity. It’s just a theory for now. I may be wrong, so I’d like to hear your own thoughts.

However, if it’s true we have a responsibility to change this.

Perhaps the female ruling class of the Theosophical Society is the best point of the T.S and Blavatsky legacy. There was Alice Bailey, Annie Beasant, Katherine Tingley, and let’s not forget Marie Russak who wrote AMORC’s rituals for Harvey Spencer Lewis! Most of the T.S women fought for women’s rights and were activist for socialism. Although well past those glory days, the activity of the T.S on this point is outstanding and should be equally realized within Rosicrucianism and Hermeticism if we are on the right track.

Probably the first feminist in the Rosicrucian movement was Cagliostro, who did his best to change the status quo. Cagliostro wrote rituals to fully open his Egyptian Masonry to women. He fully knew of the Oracles of Delphi with its Sibyls when fashioning his new rituals. One has to wonder, instead of asking “Where are all the women adepts?” perhaps instead of waiting for them to show we ought to follow his example and make room for the power of feminine sages.

How else will the promised “Woman adepts of the coming age” arrive?

One last quote from the proto-Kybalion text.

“The combining and intersection of these magnetic polarity currents is the alchemical union of dualities. In the act of this union flashes forwards the first sparks of the regenerative purpose and the chance for humankind to awaken to full conscious Regeneration. The vertical projected beam and the exhalation breath of the Spirit is the masculine positive force that projects. The horizontal expansion and the inhalation breath of the Soul is the feminine force that receives. This receiving feminine polarity unites with the positive projections of the masculine. The point of intersection, where they unite, is the place of crucifixion, the true mystery of the cross, the focalising point of the All Creative Force. The cross therefore is an erotic symbol of sex and this you must internalize even now. In this you will learn of the might of the Heavenly Virgin within. You will gain perfection by your entrance therein, through the mixing of the Spirit with the Celestial-Virgin-Soul. The sages said the most essential items of this tincture are the Blood of the Red Lion and the Gluten of the White Eagle. Therefore, sleep not, Oh Woman! Hold steadfast to your crown, that you might become Queen of Thy Lord. The new angelic Man must have a temple and you are its Builder!”

While I haven’t gone into this book’s teachings on the future Adept-Women to come, at least this above quote opens up aspects of the Kybalion which have never been seen before.

Something to think on for the day,

Samuel Robinson
Founder of Pansophers

P.S, I’d like to take this opportunity thank Christine Eike for her outstanding work as a woman at Pansophers. She has generously translated rare content for our community and, aside from nudging me in the right direction often enough, she is doing much behind the scenes to help restore the essence of old German Rosicrucianism to the world. She deserves thanks from all of us!

The Sibyl, with frenzied mouth
uttering things not to be laughed at,
unadorned and unperfumed,
yet reaches to a thousand years with her voice
Heraclitus 5^th century BC