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Chapters: Alchemy, Astrology, Rosicrucianism, Theurgy, Geber, Hermes Trismegistus, Thoth, Paracelsus, Ordo Templi Orientis, Hermetica, Isaac Newton's Occult Studies, Hermetism and Other Religions, Divinatory, Esoteric and Occult Tarot, the All, Emerald Tablet, Kybalion, Cyranides, Hermetic Qabalah, Henosis, the Garden of Cyrus, Christian Rosenkreuz, Chaldean Oracles, Manly Palmer Hall, Great Work, Renaissance Magic, Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia, Balthasar Walther, Sigil, Ali Puli, Initiation Into Hermetics, Solar Lodge, Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor, Universalia, Monas Hieroglyphica, Swedenborg Rite, Poimandres, Hermetic Brotherhood of Light, Primum Mobile, Hermetic Definitions, the Great Work. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 298. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Astrology is a group of systems, traditions, and beliefs which hold that the relative positions of celestial bodies and related details can provide information about personality, human affairs, and other terrestrial matters. A practitioner of astrology is called an astrologer. Astrologers believe that the movements and positions of celestial bodies either directly influence life on Earth or correspond to events experienced on a human scale. Modern astrologers define astrology as a symbolic language, an art form, or a form of divination. Despite differences in definitions, a common assumption of astrologers is that celestial placements can aid in the interpretation of past and present events, and in the prediction of the future. Numerous traditions and applications employing astrological concepts have arisen since its earliest recorded beginnings in the 3rd millennium BC. Astrology has played an important role in the shaping of culture, early astronomy, the Vedas, and various disciplines throughout history. In fact, astro...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=2122 ... Read more

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The Rose Cross deals with the interaction between two movements ofthought in eighteenth-century Germany: the philosophy of the Enlightenment,and the complex of ideas known as Rosicrucian. Dating from the earlyseventeenth century and drawing on Pietism, Freemasonry, Kabbalah and alchemy,the Rosicrucianism movement enjoyed a revival in Germany during the eighteenthcentury.Historians have often depicted this neo-Rosicrucianism as aCounter-Enlightenment force. Dr. McIntosh argues rather that it was part of a"third force", which allied itself sometimes with the Enlightenment, sometimeswith the Counter-Enlightenment.This book is the first in-depth, comprehensive study of the GermanRosicrucian revival and in particular of the order known as the Golden andRosy Cross (Gold und Rosenkreuz). Drawing on hitherto unpublished material,Dr. McIntosh shows how the order exerted a significant influence on thecultural, political and religious life of its age. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Occult and Secret Societies in 18th-Century Politics
Publications about Freemasonry and its history tend to fall into two classes - the first written by and for Freemasons and of little interest to anyone else; the second sensational and denunciatory, portraying the Craft as a diabolic conspiracy against God and man. Academic historians have mostly paid little attention to Freemasonry, perhaps because it has seemed the province of dabblers and fanatics. Christopher McIntosh is neither, and has treated an interesting period in history during which offshoots of the Craft had significant social and political importance, in a sensible and factual way, and with impeccable scholarship.

Much has been made by conspiracy theorists of Adam Weishaupt's Illuminati, attributing to it all manner of sinister influence. Yet, as McIntosh shows, a system of hautes-grades Freemasonry called the Gold- und Rosenkreuz both had a longer life and achieved actual political influence the Illuminati never did. Two cabinet ministers of the Prussian King Frederick William II, Johann Christof Wöllner and Johann Rudolf von Bischoffswerder, were the chiefs of this order, and the king was a member. Under the ministry of Wöllner and Bischoffswerder, the Prussian government sought to enforce a rigorous Lutheran orthodoxy against the rising tide of "enlightened" scepticism and scientism. Wöllner and Bischoffswerder have been described as "the first self-consciously conservative politicians in German history." Throughout the Holy Roman Empire, Gold- und Rosenkreuz circles found themselves in rivalry with Illuminati groups, as McIntosh describes in his chapter on "The Polemical Stance of the Gold- und Rosenkreuz."

While this episode of Masonic history has understandably been neglected by the conspiracy theorists, because it does not fit their preconceptions, some German historians have represented the Gold- und Rosenkreuz as a completely reactionary, anti-Aufklärung force. McIntosh shows that this was really not true, and that the Gold- und Rosenkreuz represented a different size of the phenomenon we refer to as the Enlightenment. The philosophical ferment of the eighteenth century incorporated Adam Smith, Samuel Johnson, and Edmund Burke as well as Voltaire, Helvétius, LaMettrie and Rousseau. It is facile to equate the Enlightenment with the views of a few French philosophes.

Although the political influence of the Gold- und Rosenkreuz petered out with the death of Frederick William II, its cultural influence lasted well into the nineteenth century and extended as far east as Russia, and as far west as Great Britain, where the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia was founded using the ritual and grade structure of the Gold- und Rosenkreuz. This, in turn, gave rise to the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, which attracted a curious blend of literary and artistic figures, wealthy dilettantes, and a few charlatans like Mathers and Crowley.

What I wish McIntosh had pointed out more explicitly is that the importance of secret and semi-secret groups in politics is inversely proportional to the degree of freedom in the body politic. In Great Britain, the wellspring of speculative Freemasonry, the Craft never developed a political character, because the country was a constitutional monarchy. Representative government (if not complete democracy) and substantial latitude in public discourse (if not perfect freedom of speech) already existed there by the eighteenth century. Prussia, in contrast, was an absolute monarchy. Public dissent from the policies of government was suppressed as thoroughly as possible. In such a climate, masonic lodges became hospitable refuges for those having political aims,which were facilitated by members' pledges of secrecy and mutual assistance. Everywhere "political" freemasonry continues to exist in continental Europe and Latin America similarly had or has a comparable pattern of repressing open political dialogue.

Furthermore, as Eric Voegelin has pointed out in his "New Science of Politics," there is an affinity between gnosticism and totalitarianism. The latter has philosophical roots in the former. On the continent of Europe there are two streams of gnosticism that arguably have led to competing totalitarian systems. One, flowing from French philosophes like d'Alembert and Rousseau, through Weishaupt, to early nineteenth-century German rationalist philosophers, ultimately ends in the swamp of Marxism. The other, represented by the occultism of the Gold- und Rosenkreuz, flows through German romanticism, antiquarianism, and pseudo-scientific philology, among others to Nietzsche, Lanz "von Liebenfels," Glauer "von Sebottendorf," as well as through Blavatsky, Guénon, Evola, and empties into Fascism and Nazism. However different these systems may seem, both propose to build utopian societies in which men will be "as gods." It should be no surprise that they have come a-cropper even more disastrously than did the efforts of Wöllner and Bischoffswerder.

Occult and Secret Societies in 18th-Century Politics
Publications about Freemasonry and its history tend to fall into two classes - the first written by and for Freemasons and of little interest to anyone else; the second sensational and denunciatory, portraying the Craft as a diabolic conspiracy against God and man. Academic historians have mostly paid little attention to Freemasonry, perhaps because it has seemed the province of dabblers and fanatics. Christopher McIntosh is neither, and has treated an interesting period in history during which offshoots of the Craft had significant social and political importance, in a sensible and factual way, and with impeccable scholarship.

Much has been made by conspiracy theorists of Adam Weishaupt's Illuminati, attributing to it all manner of sinister influence. Yet, as McIntosh shows, a system of hautes-grades Freemasonry called the Gold- und Rosenkreuz both had a longer life and achieved actual political influence the Illuminati never did. Two cabinet ministers of the Prussian King Frederick William II, Johann Christof Wöllner and Johann Rudolf von Bischoffswerder, were the chiefs of this order, and the king was a member. Under the ministry of Wöllner and Bischoffswerder, the Prussian government sought to enforce a rigorous Lutheran orthodoxy against the rising tide of "enlightened" scepticism and scientism. Wöllner and Bischoffswerder have been described as "the first self-consciously conservative politicians in German history." Throughout the Holy Roman Empire, Gold- und Rosenkreuz circles found themselves in rivalry with Illuminati groups, as McIntosh describes in his chapter on "The Polemical Stance of the Gold- und Rosenkreuz."

While this episode of Masonic history has understandably been neglected by the conspiracy theorists, because it does not fit their preconceptions, some German historians have represented the Gold- und Rosenkreuz as a completely reactionary, anti-Aufklärung force. McIntosh shows that this was really not true, and that the Gold- und Rosenkreuz represented a different size of the phenomenon we refer to as the Enlightenment. The philosophical ferment of the eighteenth century incorporated Adam Smith, Samuel Johnson, and Edmund Burke as well as Voltaire, Helvétius, LaMettrie and Rousseau. It is facile to equate the Enlightenment with the views of a few French philosophes.

While the political influence of the Gold- und Rosenkreuz petered out with the death of Frederick William II, its cultural influence lasted well into the nineteenth century and extended as far east as Russia, and as far west as Great Britain, where the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia was founded using the ritual and grade structure of the Gold- und Rosenkreuz. This, in turn, gave rise to the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, which attracted a curious blend of literary and artistic figures, wealthy dilettantes, and a few charlatans like Mathers and Crowley.

What I wish McIntosh had pointed out more explicitly is that the importance of secret and semi-secret groups in politics is inversely proportional to the degree of freedom in the body politic. In Great Britain, the wellspring of speculative Freemasonry, the Craft never developed a political character, because the country was a constitutional monarchy. Representative government (if not complete democracy) and substantial latitude in public discourse (if not perfect freedom of speech) already existed there by the eighteenth century. Prussia, in contrast, was an absolute monarchy. Public dissent from the policies of government was suppressed as thoroughly as possible. In such a climate, masonic lodges became hospitable refuges for those having political aims,which were facilitated by members' pledges of secrecy and mutual assistance. Everywhere "political" freemasonry continues to exist in continental Europe and Latin America similarly had or has a comparable pattern of repressing open political dialogue.

Furthermore, as Eric Voegelin has pointed out in his "New Science of Politics," there is an affinity between gnosticism and totalitarianism. The latter has philosophical roots in the former. On the continent of Europe there are two streams of gnosticism that arguably have led to competing totalitarian systems. One, flowing from French philosophes like d'Alembert and Rousseau, through Weishaupt, to early nineteenth-century German rationalist philosophers, ultimately ends in the swamp of Marxism. The other, represented by the occultism of the Gold- und Rosenkreuz, flows through German romanticism, antiquarianism, and pseudo-scientific philology, among others to Nietzsche, Lanz "von Liebenfels," Glauer "von Sebottendorf," as well as through Blavatsky, Guénon, Evola, and empties into Fascism and Nazism. However different these systems may seem, both propose to build utopian societies in which men will be "as gods." It should be no surprise that they have come a-cropper even more disastrously than did the efforts of Wöllner and Bischoffswerder.

Best Study of 18th Century German occultism out there.
If you're here because you're looking for it--then you've found it. "The Rose Cross and the Age of Reason" provides a much needed re-evaluation of 18th century esoteric movements in Continential Europe,especially in Germany. The study is an evaluation of the structure,rituals, and doctrine of the Gold und Rosencreutz, an esoteric butpolitically powerful Rosicrucian order in Germany from about 1760 to theend of the 18th century. Many governent officials, as well as merchants andother professionals, were members of this order, which practiced an austereChristianity, but one powerfully symbolic as well. Alchemy and masonry also came to the fore in this study.

McIntosh's judgment is that theevaluate literature so far has painted occultism, especially Germanesotericism, as anti-Enlightenment in structure, doctrine, and function.This is commonly explained by the pietism of its members, who wereresistant tor openly hostile to Cartesian science and metaphysics. The"G und R" also became involved in a conservative, perhaps evenreactionary monarchy in Prussia (King Frederick William II). As thisRosicrucian movement gained power, it drew the ire of a number ofEnlightnment critics, and a secret society, the Bavarian Illuminati, wasformed in part to oppose it.

McIntosh demonstrates conclusively thatsimply judging the G und R as anti-Enlightenment is not the case, and hesuggests a more nuanced view. To do this, McIntosh identifies threemodalities of thought that were operative at the time in 18th centuryGermany, an Enlightenment mode, represented byKant and others, theOrthodox churches (Catholic, Lutheran, and Reformed) and a variety ofHermetic Neoplatonism, informed by Kabbalistic (both Jewish and Christian)discourse and alchemy, both theorectical and practical. Between theOrthodox religious views (the Counter-Enlightenment) and the Aufklarer, theNeoplatonic intellectual mode argued for a metaphysics illuminated bydivine quintessance at every level. Drawing on classic Gnosticism andGerman Protestant Pietism, this Hermetic strain that gave birth to the Gund R shared some characteristics with each of the other two movements.Like orthodox Christianity, the G und R held to a mostly world-negativecosmology and pessimistic epistemology, and taught that before all else menmust fear and rever Jesus Christ. However, Pietism, Kabbalah and otherinfluences gave it a strong emphasis on self-development towards theKingdom of the Paraclete, and as such nationalistic development toward thisidea as well. Reason and Science were encouraged so long as they took placewithin this religious telos, and many of the G und R and associatedoccultists found themselves on this list of prohibited books in Rome.Relations with the clergy were sometimes tense, and the G und R at timesmade moves to silence Counter-Enlightment clergy when they felt theirinterests threatened.

What this text adds to a dicussion ofesotericism and intellectual culture is a better framework of understandingthe relationship of these metaphysical and religious movements and theirinfluence on culture. In much of the scholarly literature and popularimagination, such religious and magical movements represent a return to"irrationality" and as such can easily be dismissed byEnlightenment discourse as unworthy cultural productions. McIntosh's textrecontextualizes occultism and shows that it can (and has) had a pervasivecultural impact at crucial times and places. ... Read more

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Christianity and Freemasonry have had a mixed relationship, with various Christian denominations strongly discouraging or even prohibiting members from becoming Freemasons or Freemasons from becoming members. ... Read more

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Catholicism and Freemasonry. Papal ban of Freemasonry, Freemasonry and the Latter Day Saint movement, Rosicrucianism, Anti-Masonry, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia, Societas Rosicruciana ... Read more