Brothers,
This is the preface from paper I originally had published in Ad Lucem, the annual journal of the SIRCF (of which I am not a member). Click on the attachment to see the whole document.
This is the preface from paper I originally had published in Ad Lucem, the annual journal of the SIRCF (of which I am not a member). Click on the attachment to see the whole document.
This essay begins with the observation that the 18th Degree of the Scottish Rite, Knight Rose Croix, makes significant use of Rosicrucian symbolism. Rosicrucianism is a form of Christian esotericism that blends Hermeticism, alchemy and Qabalah, and many scholars consider it to be a forerunner of Freemasonry. Rosicrucianism has perpetuated the tradition of the Great Work, the process of personal and spiritual transformation allegorically illustrated in such Renaissance texts as The Chemical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz, and in even older documents like the Emerald Tablet of Hermes Trismegistus. This essay carefully examines a key symbol of the 18th Degree and, placing it in context with certain references from Albert Pike’s Morals and Dogma, and also drawing from other esoteric works, it provides an interpretation of the Rosy Cross as an alchemical emblem summarizing the Great Work. Finally, it provides reflections on the nature of that work and crucial considerations in its pursuit.