The Rosicrucians

by Jennings, Hargrave

• ISBN13: 9781108073219
• ISBN10: 1108073212
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-05-19
• Publisher: Cambridge Univ Pr

Summary

Hargrave Jennings' 1870 work joins the debates of the nineteenth century that sought to determine the relationships between modern science, religion, and the supernatural. A prolific writer and an occultist, Jennings (1817-1890) had previously published on the religions of India. He spent two decades researching and writing this work, which is the first history in English of the Rosicrucians. As he states, his 1858 Curious Things of the Outside World first asserted the ideas he elaborates in this text, and he is not a member of the Rosicrucian sect, simply a historian of it. This was his best-known book, in which the discussion extends to the Kabbalah, Gnosticism, the Druids, and ancient and medieval cultures; five editions were subsequently printed, and it was translated into German in 1912. It will interest scholars of the history of ideas, of the relationship of science and magic, and of the occult.

Table of Contents

Preface

Critics of the Rosicrucians criticised

Singular adventure in Staffordshire

Insufficiency of worldly objects

The Hermetic philosophers

An historical adventure

The Hermetic brethren

Mythic history of the fleur-de-lis

Sacred fire

Fire-theosophy of the Persians

Ideas of the Rosicrucians as to the character of fire

Monuments raised to fire-worship in all countries

Druidical stones and their worship

Inquiry as to the possibility of miracle

Can evidence be depended upon? âÇô Examination of Hume's reasoning

Footsteps of the Rosicrucians amidst architectural objects

The round towers of Ireland

Prismatic investiture of the microcosm

Cabalistic interpretations by the Gnostics

Mystic Christian figures and talismans

The 'Rosy Cross' in Indian, Egyptian, Greek, Roman, and mediaeval monuments

Myth of the scorpion, or the snake, in its many disguises

Ominous character of the colour white to English royalty

The beliefs of the Rosicrucians âÇô meaning of lights and of commemorative flambeaux in all worship

The great pyramid

History of the tower or steeple

Presence of the Rosicrucians in heathen and Christian architecture

The Rosicrucians amidst ancient mysteries and in the orders of knighthood

Rosicrucianism in strange symbols

Connection between the Templars and gnosticism

Rosicrucian origin of the Order of the Garter

Rosicrucian supposed means of magic through signs, sigils, and figures

Astro-theosophical system of the Rosicrucians âÇô the alchemic magisterium

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