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Rafal T. Prinke - The Great Work in the Theatre of the World
Article originally published in A Compendium on the Rosicrucian Vault, ed. by Adam McLean, Edinburgh, 1985, 19-34.
THE GREAT WORK IN THE THEATRE OF THE WORLD
The symbolic significance of the Vault of Our Father C.R.C. as
described in the Fama Fraternitatis and other supposedly
Rosicrucian sources
General Remarks
The Vault of Christian Rosenkreutz, the story of its foundation,
later discovery and opening, and its description form the central
element of the first published document of the Rosicrucian Order,
generally believed to be one of the three "official"
publications. The document is of course the Fama Fraternitatis
published in Cassel in 1614. The flood of various pamphlets and
books on the subject which followed its publication and still
continues to be issued by different groups and individuals
(either claiming succession to the original authors or analysing
the Rosicrucian phenomenon) contains surprisingly little
additional information about the Vault and its meaning.
Before passing on to the presentation of my own ideas on the
subject, however, I would like to devote some space to defining
the approaches or angles from which the whole Rosicrucian problem
can be (and is) studied. These can be roughly divided into the
following groups:
1. Extreme orthodox scholarship: investigations are usually
meticulous but are concerned with the facts relating directly to
the problem and conclusions are strictly based on them. This
attitude is shown especially by German historians such as Hans
Schick.
2. Progressive orthodox scholarship: conclusions are drawn from a
wider array of facts, also those which seem to have no direct
relation to the problem, and far-reaching hypotheses are put
forward, but no deeper significance or meaning of them is given.
Examples of this attitude may be found in Frances Yates or W.E.
Peuckert.
3. Sober esotericism combined with heterodox scholarship:
existence of the esoteric tradition is accepted and facts are
interpreted in its light but great effort is made to be in
agreement with historically proven or provable facts. This
attitude can be found in the writings of Arthur Edward Waite,
Manly Palmer Hall, and Adam McLean.
4. Far-reaching esotericism: historical facts get a highly
sopsophisticated interpretation but they are never contradicted
by it, i.e. it is a magical interpretation. The best example of
this approach is the work of S.L. MacGregor Mathers.
5. Naive esotericism: new and otherwise unknown "historical
facts" are discovered by magical means (reading the Akashic
record, communication with the Masters, clairvoyance, etc.) and
conclusions are based on them. There are many examples of this
attitude, most notably Rudolph Steiner, anthroposophists,
theosophists, AMORC ("Echnaton was a Rosicrucian" !), etc.
6. Crazy esotericism: the whole problem is either developed ad
absurdum (as in Hargrave Jennings) or is not taken seriously (as
in joking remarks by Aleister Crowley).
Personally, I believe that the best two ways of approaching the
Rosicrucian enigma by an esotericist are the third and the sixth.
The value of the former is obvious, while that of the latter lies
in the fact that by making nonsense out of the whole thing it
enables one to break through the concentional reasoning and get
to the "deeper meaning". It is the way somewhat similar to the
method of Zen. However, in this essay I will be concerned with
the third approach only.
For this reason another, more general, differentiation has to be
made. In the writings of early Rosicrucian apologists there are
various strange "facts" given, which are obviously (for the most
part, at least) not "historical facts" but something that can be
called "traditional facts". Now, a question arises whether a
"sober esotericist" should believe them or not. My point of view
is that such facts are to be "believed" but with another kind of
"belief". It is the difference between magical thinking and
scientific thinking that presents itself here and an esotericist
should learn to switch from one to the other without confusing
them (as the "naive" esotericists" do). In other words, the
"traditional" or "esoteric" facts, such as the events in the life
of Christian Rosenkreutz, have their meaning when perceived from
one point of view but are a mere fable when examined from the
other angle. If we confuse these two ways of looking at the
evidence available, we will neither reconstruct the historical
facts nor grasp the deeper significance of Rosicrucianism.
Bearing all this in mind, we can attempt to investigate the
subject of the Vault of C.R.C. The first thing to do is to remind
ourselves of the description given in the Fama. So there is a
seven-sided chamber, each wall measuring 5 x 8 feet and divided
into ten squares, with several figures and sentences and also
having a small door for a chest hiding books and other things.
The ceiling is divided into triangle with "another sun" in the
centre, probably also containing inscriptions but this is not
revealed in the Fama. The floor is also a heptagon divided into
triangles and inscribed with something refering to "the inferior
Governors". In the centre there is a round altar with an
inscribed brass plate and apparently another extremely small
altar containing the mysterious "Minutum Mundum" inside it.
Leaving the brass plate on the altar aside for a moment (as it is
comparatively precisely described and I shall return to it
later), the above is all we know about the Vault from the
"official" documents. The description is imprecise enough to be
capable of various intepretations and, therefore to be treated as
an archetype. It is similar to the case of the Tarot cards, and
just as they can (and do) have different representations on the
material plane, so the Vault of C.R.C. can have various models,
all of them being only approximations to the archetypal ideal
(both in form and meaning, both of which are impossible to be
fully explained). In spite of this there is only one
comprehensive model of the Vault, that of the Golden Dawn, and
even very few suggestions concerning some elements of it or
remarks of a general nature in all the numerous books on
Rosicrucians. One of such remarks is the belief (repeated for
instance by Manly Palmer Hall) that the 53rd diagram from
Gregorius von Welling's Opus Mago-Cabbalisticum et Theosophicum
(1735) is a plan of the Vault of Christian Rosenkreutz.
Though interesting, this suggestion is not based on any passage in the
book itself (which I have inspected for this purpose). That
curious work had a vogue among the 18th century Rosicrucians but
it does not mention the Order or its mythical founder in any
place. Also the short description of the plate in question
(entitled "Schema de Mundo Archetypo") does not refer to any tomb
or secret society. This idea must have been started by the book
entitled The Rosicrucians written by theosophical authors at the
beginning of the 20th century (Paul Allen quotes the relevant
passage from it and it is in no way revealing). Therefore it may
correspond to the plan of the Vault of C.R.C. only as far as both
are "Compendiums of the Universe".
Another model of the Vault is its representation in M.P. Hall's
Secret Teachings of All Ages (the plate facing page CXLI painted
by A. Knapp). It is as realistic as it could be, following the
Fama description in every detail. The main interpretative
elements include: the walls divided into nine squares instead of
ten, with an additional triangle on the central square; the
position of the small door on each wall below the squares, which
is logical though the Fama is not precise about it.
The Golden Dawn model is a much further departure from the Fama:
S.L. MacGregor Mathers divided each wall of the Vault into 40
squares, ten of which correspond to the Sephiroth of the
Kabbalistic Tree of Life, while others had other symbols
(astrological, etc.). There were no "sentences", mentioned by the
Fama, and no small doors hiding books and various technical
inventions.
Finally, Adam McLean suggests that the squares on each wall are
in two columns of five to incorporate an element of polarity.
I. Numbers and measures of the Vault
Since most authorities on the subject agree that the Vault of
C.R.C. described in the Fama was not intended to represent any
real building (just as the Collegium ad Spiritum Sanctum in which
it was discovered), all its elements have to be regarded as
symbols and will thus be analysed here. First of all we have the
all important number seven (the number of walls and the triangles
on the ceiling and the floor, as well as inherent in the
heptagonal shape of them), the symbolism of which is so extensive
and so well known to anyone interested in the hermetic tradition
that there is no point in presenting it here in detail. I will
just mention its correspondences with the seven planets of astro-
logy, the seven metals of alchemy, the seven days of the week,
etc. It is also interesting to note that heptagons are also quite
common among hermetic sigils or talismans
(the most beautiful example is perhaps John Dee's Sigillum Dei Aemeth) and were also used as plans for symbolic structures (as in Khunrath's
Amphitheatrum Sapientiae Aeternae). Besides number seven, which
is the most prominent one in the description of the
Vault, there are also numbers five and eight, being the width and
height of each wall respectively. Again as the whole structure is
most probably not real, these must be symbolic. (In fact, even if
it were real, the Vault being a "Compendium of the Universe", its
measurement would have to be meaningful). Five is another very
important number in the magical/hermetic tradition. It is the
number of the senses and therefore of the body (also the body of
Jesus had five wounds). It is also the number of Man (whose body,
with arms and legs extended, can be fitted into the pentagram, as
for example on a figure in Agrippa's De Occulta Philosophia) and
of Nature (the five elements of Aristotle: earth, water, air,
fire and quintessence). It may therefore be considered to
symbolise the whole of Creation - the Microcosm/Man and
Macrocosm/Nature.
Eight, on the other hand, has always been
associated with a new beginning, new life (fonts in churches were
often octagonal), resurrection and Christ (the name "Jesus" in
Greek has the numerical value of 888). In connection with five it
may be interpreted as the new life for humanity or "General
Reformation of the Whole World" as the Rosicrucians put it.
It does not end here, however, for the two numbers are obviously
intended to be multiplied in order to obtain the number referring
to the surface of each wall. The number is forty and it is even
more meaningful. It appears in the Bible very frequently (being
second only to seven) and was sacred to many ancient peoples.
Traditionally it is the number of a period of preparation and
waiting for regeneration, of purification and sanctification. As
such it is often used by Jacob Boehme, which is of special
interest here, since this mystic may have had some Rosicrucian
connections. In De Tribus Principiis he writes, for example: "So
the spirit of Christ rested in Father for forty hours, which it
spent in the grave in the presence of the body... these were the
same forty hours during which Adam remained asleep, when his
woman was made out of him; also those forty days of Moses' ordeal
on the mountain". Jewish Kabbalists of the same period regarded
forty as the number of perfection, too. W.E. Peuckert in his
Pansophia gives a Kabbalistic legend telling that when the
archpriest Ezra ordered to write down the secret teachings,
including the seventieth book of the Kabbalah, the Sanhedrin
deliberated about it for forty days and then decided it could be read
by those who were forty years old.
Agrippa in his De Occulta Philosophia also devotes some space to
this number, stating in conclus ion that it is connected with
trial, experience, gaining the state of purity and readiness for
a new life. This may have been one of the main influences on
later Rosicrucian teachings, as Julius Sperber mentions Agrippa
among the forerunners of the Order. Paul Sedir, a French
esotericist and Rosicrucian historian, says that "regeneratory
mysteries had a numerical key, which was forty" (Histoire et
doctrines des Rose-Croix). In alchemy the duration of the Great
Work is often defined to be 40 days or 40 weeks.
Forty is also connected with birth (and rebirth) because for many
centuries it was believed, on the authority of Aristotle, that
forty days had to elapse between the conception of a child and
the descent of soul into it. The whole time of pregnancy was in
fact divided into periods of forty days each and there were seven
such periods. Interestingly enough we have the same scheme in the
Vault of Christian Rosenkreutz: there are seven walls, each of
them having forty (5 x 8) square feet, which gives 280 or the
approximate number of days in an average pregnancy. Therefore,
the structure may be interpreted as intended for the symbolic
process of ripening, growth and finally birth into a new life. It
is a regeneratory chamber between death and rebirth of Father
C.R.C. symbolically understood as Man (5) and Nature or Christ
(8). This interpretation will be confirmed again below.
The remaining numerical symbols mentioned in the Fama description
of the Vault are 10 and 120. The former is the number of squares
on each wall which are most probably connected with the
Kabbalistic Sephiroth and I will deal with it later. The latter
is the number of years during which the Vault was closed. The
meaning of that period is not quite clear but it is not peculiar
to the case of Father C.R.C. only. In my article in the Journal
of Rosicrucian Studies No. 1, I mentioned the Polish alchemist
Wincenty Kowski (Koffski). His treatise Tractatus de prima
materia is said to have been bricked up in the wall of his cell
in a Dominican monastery in Gdansk in 1488 (the year of his
supposed death) and was published after 120 years (in 1608). Also
in Simon Studion's prophetic work Naometria, so often associated
with the early phase of Rosicrucianism, the period of 120 years
figures prominently as "Candlestick period" (c.f. Adam McLean's
article in The Hermetic Journal No. 19). It is interesting that
the figure in which that period is found consists of seven
candlesticks, each having forty nodes, thus corresponding to the
seven wall of the Vault of C.R.C. of forty square feet each. The
symbolic meaning of 120 years is not obvious. Most probably it is
an extension of 12, the number of the signs of the Zodiac and
therefore of the completion of a cycle of experience. If so, then
it may be noted that in Hindu astrology 120 years is considered
to be the natural length of human life.
Before finishing the analysis of numerological symbolism in the
Vault of C.R.C. I would like to mention one more Kabbalistic
correspondence. The number of the walls and the triangles on the
ceiling and the floor totals 21 (3 x 7) and treating the
artificial sun in the middle of the ceiling as an element of the
same category, we have 22 elements which is the number of letters
in the Hebrew alphabet and the Paths on the Tree of Life.
II. The Theatre of the World and the Time Capsule.
The richness of numerical symbolism in the description of the
Vault of Christian Rosenkreutz clearly indicates that the author
or authors of the Fama intended it to be read as a symbolic,
carefully constructed puzzle. However, the numerology itself does
not tell us much about the possible application of the structure.
In my opinion the key to understanding the actual meaning of the
design of the Vault is the sentence from the Fama stating that
"if it should happen after many hundred years, the Order or
Fraternity should come to nothing, that they might by this one
Vault be restored again". It implies in no uncertain terms that
the hermetic art of memory should be considered in analysing the
description of the Vault. An additional clue is the fact that the
work published together with the Fama (or rather, to which the
Fama was appended) was The General Reformation of the Whole World
which was a translation of a fragment from Ragguagli di Parnasso
by Traiano Boccalini. As it was translated by Wilhelm Bidembach,
a member of "The Tubingen Circle" and a friend of Johann Valentin
Andreae, there seems to have been a direct and close connection
of the first Rosicrucians with the Italian hermetic circles. Now,
the most famous example of applied Ars Memoriae in 16th century
Italy was the Memory Theatre of Giulio Camillo. It was still well
known among the "Brunonian" hermetists of Italy at the turn of
the centuries and that is, I believe, the source where the
original ideas for the design of the Rosicrucian Vault should be
looked for. It would probably be going too far if I suggested
that Giulio Camillo was the prototype of Christian Rosenkreutz
(Frances Yates thought it was John Dee) but it is not impossible.
Even the mysterious Liber T may be explained as Liber Theatri
which may have been written by Camillo and preserved by his
disciples (Liber M, translated by C.R.C., may have been Liber
Memoriae).
The Theatre of Camillo is described in considerable detail in The
Art of Memory by Frances Yates so I will only point to some of
the most striking parallels between the two constructions:
Camillo's Theatre of Memory Rosicrucian Vault of C.R.C.
1) 7 passages with seven steps 1) 7 walls with ten squares with
on each, surrounding the gates on each, surrounding the
central "stage", central altar,
2) the gates have "images" or 2) the squares have "figures"
"emblems" and "mottoes" and "sentences" on them, on them,
3) below the "images" there 3) below the "figures" there are
are chests hiding books, boxes or drawers containing books
and manuscripts, manuscripts and mechanical
inventions,
4) the structure represents 4) the structure represents
"everything that can be "Compendium of the Universe",
comprehended by the mind
and everything that is
hidden in the soul",
There are many other, less obvious, similarities, all of which
make it possible to reconstruct the Vault of Christian
Rosenkreutz seen as a theatre of magical memory. In both cases
the central place is occupied by the operator (on the stage of
the Theatre and at the central altar of the Vault) who thus has
the whole of the Universe, the Macro- and Microcosm, at his
command. Around the stage of Camillo's Theatre there are "Seven
Pillars of Solomon's Temple of Wisdom" representing the
archetypal Ideas (in the Platonic sense) or the Seven Measures of
everything or the Seven Rulers created by the Demiurge. In the
Vault of C.R.C. the same basic principles underlying all creation
(which are also identical with the Seven Spirits of God mentioned
by Boehme in the Aurora) are represented by the seven triangles
on the ceiling "running from the seven sides to the bright light
in the centre", while the light itself stands for the Demiurge
and the fuel that never runs out is the eternal God, the En Soph
of the Kabbalists. The difference between the two structures in
this respect is that in Camillo's Theatre the operator is placed
in the position of God and acts as if he were omnipotent and
could influence any part of the Universe by his divine will. The
Rosicrucian concept is slightly altered and the operator in the
Vault has to draw down the same divine powers into himself in
order to use them.
Each passage of the Theatre of Camillo was assigned to one
"Measure" or planetary principle, while each step represented
succeeding stages of creation, so that any given door or gate
contained images refering to one stage of creation in one of the
Measures. Although Camillo listed the correspondences between the
planets and the Sephiroth, it is clear that the latter are
represented rather by the steps of the Theatre (stages of
creation or emanations) than by the passages. Therefore each
passage can be seen as the Tree of Life of one planetary
principle (or emanated by one of Boehme's Spirits of God) just as
in the Kabbalah each Sephira is said to contain the whole Tree of
Life. He also states that he does not go beyond the seventh
Sephira and therefore does not use the Supernal Triangle of the
Tree. The Rosicrucian authors of the Fama expanded this
arrangement to include all the Sephiroth, represented by the
squares of each wall in the usual sequence from Kether above to
Malkuth (unlike in Camillo's scheme, where the creative
emanations proceeded from the centre upwards). The actual pattern
of the squares is not known from the brief description of the
Vault but it is quite possible that the pattern later used by
Robert Fludd in his Ars Memoriae was applied. Fludd may have been
a Rosicrucian and therefore his statement that groups of five
images are the easiest to remember should not be ignored in this
context. Fludd does not explain the fivefold emblem on the title
page of his work, which makes it even more mysterious. It is also
in agreement with Adam McLean's suggestion that there may have
been two groups of five emblems stressing the element of
polarity.
The nature of the "figures and sentences" on the squares is again
not clear from the Fama description but these must have been
emblems with mottoes similar to those appearing in Camillo's
Theatre. The popularity of such emblems (not only in the hermetic
context) in the 16th and 17th centuries confirms this hypothesis,
and as those of them which are usually associated with
Rosicrucianism are alchemical in nature, I tend to suppose that
such should also be the "figures" on the walls of the Vault of
Christian Rosenkreutz. In an attempt to restore the Vault we have
no other choice but to find a suitable set of seventy emblems
with mottoes in any Rosicrucian/alchemical work. I have found
such a set of exactly seventy figures (with two additional ones,
to be honest, but these are unnumbered) described in In the
Pronaos of the Temple of Wisdom by Franz Hartmann (pp. 79-81) and
taken from the 18th century book August Vindelicorum by Antonio
Ginter. Although Hartmann calls them "Rosicrucian symbols" I do
not think they are good enough for our purpose. Much better would
be a selection from early 17th century Rosicrucian emblems,
perhaps from Michael Maier's books, and especially from his
Atalanta Fugiens, as they make much use of mythological figures
which are also prominent in Camillo's Theatre of Memory. In fact
many of Maier's emblems are identical with those of Camillo (as
restored by Frances Yates) and he also uses mythological
symbolism in his books devoted solely to the Rosicrucian problem,
(Silentium Post Clamores, Themis Aurea). It would be interesting
to reconstruct the Vault of C.R.C. along these lines, but it is
impossible for me at present as I have no access to a complete
set of Maier's emblems.
The next common element of both structures are containers for
books and other things below the emblems. In the Rosicrucian
Vault these were chests behind doors in each wall, while Camillo
had special drawers in his Theatre for identical purpose.
Finally, there are the seven triangles on the floor of the Vault,
in which is described "the power and rule of the Inferior
Governors". This element is missing from Camillo's Theatre but it
is only a logical completion of polarity with the triangles on
the ceiling which represented the Seven Rulers of the superior or
heavenly spheres. The "evil serpent" mentioned in the Fama may be
included in the design but it may as well be just a figure of
speech.
To sum up, seen as a Memory Theatre, the Rosicrucian Vault could
really play the role of a "Time Capsule" which would transmit the
Rosicrucian teachings even if the original Order died out. Other
applications of it will be dealt with below.
III. The Altar-Mandala and the Minutum Mundi
The round altar that stood in the centre of the Vault is
comparatively well described in the Fama. From what we know it is
obvious that the brass plate on it was engraved with a
mandala-like design, though the exact details are missing.
Fortunately, it is not necessary to reconstruct it, as I have
found an early 17th century illustration which depicts the altar
plate. It comes from a book entitled Raphael by Abraham von
Franckenberg, a Pansophist and Rosicrucian from Wroclaw in
Silesia (at that time belonging to the Kingdom of Bohemia). This
beautiful mandala is too complex to analyse it in detail here (it
deserves a separate article), so I will only point to the
elements corresponding to the Fama description or otherwise
relating directly to the Rosicrucian issue.
The title of the whole illustration is "Jesus mihi omnia" but
this sentence does not appear on the design itself, though in the
Fama it is said to have been written "around the first Circle or
Brim". The four sentences "A vacuum exists nowhere", "The Yoke of
the Law", "The Liberty of the Gospel" and the "Entire Glory of
God" appear on the arms of the central cross, which seems to be
glowing. Between the arms of that cross there are four big
circles with three Tau-crosses and two human figures in each,
which may be taken to represent petals and thus completing a
schematic Rosy Cross symbol together with the central circle.
There are also four smaller circles at the end of each arm of the
cross as well as four other circles outside the border of the
main one corresponding to the four directions (these, I suppose,
were to appear on the postument of the altar). All these elements
contain many correspondences, quotations from the Bible, names
from Biblical history, religious terminology, etc. The most
interesting for the present purpose is, however, the central
circle with the figure of Christ in it. This figure bears a
certain resemblance to Christian Rosencreutz in his grave as
described in the Fama. In his left hand he holds an open book
with seven seals and with the letters Alpha and Omega, which may
be identified with the Liber T. His right hand is surrounded by
seven stars which are obviously symbolic of the seven planetary
principles or Seven Measures of the created Universe, and
therefore denote his mastery over the whole world. A sprout or
branch extends from the right side of his breast and this reminds
us of that mysterious statement from Liber T quoted in the Fama:
"A Grain buried in the Breast of Jesus". On the other side of
Christ's breast there is a small four-petalled flower, most
probably a rose, while in the middle a black cross can be seen.
All this indicates the Rosicrucian nature of this illustration
and its connection with the brass plate on the altar in the
Vault. Of course, as always, one cannot be sure that von
Franckenberg was a genuine Rosicrucian and had access to the
original design (if such had ever existed), but still it is the
best (if not the only) representation of it of such an early
date. The design seems to picture the tradition, and mostly the
Christian religious tradition and teachings, and therefore is in
accord with what we know about the altar plate from the Fama.
The other smaller altar containing the mysterious Minutum Mundum
(or Minutus Mundus as Waite has it) seems to have been placed in
the grave of C.R.C. beneath the altar. Little can be said about
it besides that it was some kind of divinatory device and a
miniature of the Macrocosm. Perhaps it was a very precise
astrolabium, showing the movements of the heavenly bodies for any
time in the past, present and future. In that case the divination
would be astrological, but it also may have been a
"fortune-telling machine" like the Prognometer constructed a few
centuries later by Jozef Maria Hoene-Wronski, the Polish
Messianist. Some occultists also see a deck of the Tarot cards in
it.
IV The Athanor of Regeneration
Frances Yates in The Rosicrucian Enlightenment says that
Rosicrucianism was the continuation of the earlier
hermetic-kabbalistic tradition which reached a new level by
assimilating the doctrines and symbols of alchemy. Therefore
Rosicrucianism may be looked upon as the final bringing together
of all the currents making up the Western Esoteric Tradition:
hermetic gnosis and magic, Christian adaptation of the Jewish
Kabbalah and alchemical lore. In the symbolic description of the
Vault of Christian Rosenkreutz the hermetic and Kabbalistic parts
of that tradition were seen in treating the structure as a
"Memory Theatre" and in analysing its numerological symbolism, so
we now have to find the alchemical element in it.
John Heydon, as quoted by Manly Palmer Hall, says that
Rosicrucian adepts after having spent a certain period of time
among people, were buried in "a proper womb" or the philosophical
egg, in which they underwent the process of rejuvenation. Then
again after some time they broke the shells of their eggs and
came forth for a new round in the world. This symbolic account
may suggest a kind of initiatory process of spiritual or inner
alchemy going on in the Tomb of Christian Rosenkreutz, in which
he is the Materia Prima (this view is supported also by the
numerical symbolism outlined above).
When we imagine a cross section of the whole Vault then a kind of
Athanor appears. The grave in the bottom part is the alchemical
retort or philosophical egg buried in the earth or sand, its neck
extending into the main chamber above as the altar and
hermetically sealed with the brass plate. The artificial sun on
the ceiling is the source of light or heat (as now used in
growing chickens). This form of heating the retort in the sand
for a long period of time was called igne aperto by the
alchemists. The duration of the Great Work was often expressed
symbolically as 12 days, 12 months or 12 years, so the 120 years
in the case of the Rosicrucian self-transmutation or bringing
oneself to the perfect state of the Philosophers' Stone is no
surprise. On another level this can be seen as the Great Work
going on in the Theatre of the World in order to obtain the
Philosophers' Stone with which the General Transformation of the
Whole World could be accomplished.
V The Vault of C.R.C. in Esoteric Workings.
As I have already said, the structure described in the Fama was
most probably not a real building but a symbolic internal
construction intended for visualisation, meditation and final
self-initiation. It is a complex mandala extended in space which
has to be "worked" (in the occult sense). The actual application
of it in esoteric practice will demand the following
preparations:
1) Drawing the walls, ceiling and floor of the Vault with all the
emblems and mottoes on paper.
2) Memorising then so well that they can be easily visualised,
both separately and as a seven-sided chamber.
3) Preparing (writing down) meditations, invocations or
evocations based on the succession of emblems and memorising them
with the help of the emblems (the technique of the traditional
art of memory described by Frances Yates).
The various operations that now can be performed include for
example:
1) Operations of ritual hermetic magic.
The invocations and evocations are mnemonically related to the
emblems on one or more of the walls (depending on the planetary
nature of the operation) and then recited with simultaneous
visualisation of the emblems. This technique as applied by Giulio
Camillo is described in Frances Yates' book The Art of Memory.
2) Astral Workings.
This is similar to "pathworking" in the Golden Dawn tradition:
every wall of the Vault can be worked upon either from the light
on the ceiling downwards or from the Infernal Triangles on the
floor upwards. The emblems can also be used in the way similar to
the Tarot cards for entering the Astral Plane.
3) Ritual of Self-Transmutation.
The whole Vault is visualised strongly with oneself inside the
grave seen as the philosophical egg. A slight heat is felt as
coming from above. After practicising this for a considerable
period of time the body should pass through various colours in
the usual alchemical succession from black to red.
4) The Ritual of Universal Reformation of the Whole World.
Similarly to the above, the Vault/Athanor is visualised but
inside the grave/retort the world or humanity is placed under a
suitable symbol. Then it passes through the successive colours
from the black state of putrefaction it is in at present to the
red colour of perfection. The astral forces liberated in this way
will finally complete the Great Work started by the first
Rosicrucians.
Bibliography:
1) Allen, Paul (ed.): A Christian Rosenkreutz Anthology,
Blauvert, New York, 1968.
2) Hall, Manly Palmer: Secret Symbols of All Ages, Los Angeles.
3) Hall, Manly Palmer: Orders of Universal Reformation, Los
Angeles.
4) Jennings, Hargrave: The Rosicrucians, their Rites and
Mysteries, London, 1879.
5) Kepinski, Zdzislaw: Mickiewicz hermetyczny, Warsaw, 1980.
6) McIntosh, Christopher: The Rosy Cross Unveiled,
Wellingborough, 1980.
7) McLean, Adam: "The Naometria of Simon Studion" (in) The
Hermetic Journal No. 19.
8) McLean, Adam: "500th Anniversary of the Building of the Vault
of Christian Rosenkreutz" (in) The Hermetic Journal No. 23.
9) Peuckert, Will-Erich: Das Rosenkreutz, Berlin, 1973.
10) Regardie, Israel: The Golden Dawn, St. Paul, Minnesota.
11) Schick, Hans: Das Altere Rosenkreutzertum, Berlin, 1942.
12) Waite, A.E.: The Brotherhood of the Rosy Cross, London, 1924.
13) Welling, Georg von: Opus Mago-Cabbalisticum et Theosophicum,
Frankfurt-am-Main, 1735.
14) Yates, Frances: The Rosicrucian Enlightenment, London, 1972.
15) Yates, Frances: Sztuka pamieci, Warsaw, 1977 (the Polish
translation of The Art Of Memory).
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