The Order of the Rosicrucians is one of the most mysterious mystic-initiation societies. Who were the Rosicrucians really? What does the combination of the symbols of the Rose and the Cross mean? Where did this movement originate, and how does it relate to Masonic tradition? Христиан Ребисс reveals the complex history of the Order’s origins and, for the first time, sets it in a broad historical context: from the brutal religious conflicts of the Middle Ages and devastating epidemics of the 17th century— to the emergence of the Ancient Mystical Order of the Rose and Cross (AMORC), from Paracelsus’s prophecies and alchemical pursuits— to the “rosary of the magi.”
“Seeking to unite in one society the Rose and the Cross, some were pricked by the thorns that guard the flower of the soul, for all the characters in this story were not legendary all-knowing sages, but ordinary men and women—with their virtues and weaknesses. And yet each of them, in their own way, contributed to the elevation of humankind, encouraging their contemporaries to look beyond the visible and to try to draw closer to the Divine.”