Page 408 - The_secret_teachings_of_all_ages_Neat

"By philosophy is to be understood the knowledge of the workings of Nature, by which
knowledge man learns to climb to those higher mountains above the limitations of sense.
By Qabbalism is to be understood the language of the angelic or celestial beings, and he
who masters it is able to converse with the messengers of God. On the highest of the
mountains is the School of Magia (Divine Magic, which is the language of God) wherein
man is taught the true nature of all things by God Himself."

There is a growing conviction that if the true nature of Rosicrucianism were divulged, it
would cause consternation, to say the least. Rosicrucian symbols have many meanings,
but the Rosicrucian meaning has not yet been revealed. The mount upon which stands the
House of the Rosy Cross is still concealed by clouds, in which the Brethren hide both
themselves and their secrets. Michael Maier writes: "What is contained in the Fama and
Confessio is true. It is a very childish objection that the brotherhood have promised so
much and performed so little. With them, as elsewhere, many are called but few are
chosen. The masters of the order hold out the rose as the remote prize, but they impose
the cross on those who are entering." (See Silentium post Clamores, by Maier, and The
Rosicrucians and the Freemasons, by De Quincey.)

The rose and the cross appear upon the stained glass windows of Lichfield Chapter
House, where Walter Conrad Arensberg believes Lord Bacon and his mother to have
been buried. A crucified rose within a heart is watermarked into the dedication page of
the 1628 edition of Robert Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy.

The fundamental symbols of the Rosicrucians were the rose and the cross; the rose
female and the cross male, both universal phallic emblems. While such learned
gentlemen as Thomas Inman, Hargrave Jennings, and Richard Payne Knight have truly
observed that the rose and the cross typify the generative processes, these scholars seem
unable to pierce the veil of symbolism; they do not realize that the creative mystery in the
material world is merely a shadow of the divine creative mystery in the spiritual world.
Because of the phallic significance of their symbols, both the Rosicrucians and the
Templars have been falsely accused of practicing obscene rites in their secret
ceremonials. While it is quite true that the alchemical retort symbolizes the womb, it also
has a far more significant meaning concealed under the allegory of the second birth. As
generation is the key to material existence, it is natural that the Fraternity of R.C. should
adopt as its characteristic symbols those exemplifying the reproductive processes. As
regeneration is the key to spiritual existence, they therefore founded their symbolism
upon the rose and the cross, which typify the redemption of man through the union of his
lower temporal nature with his higher eternal nature. The rosy cross is also a hieroglyphic
figure representing the formula of the Universal Medicine.

Click to enlarge
THE ELEMENTARY WORLD.