Rosicrucian, member of a worldwide brotherhood claiming to possess esoteric wisdom handed down from ancient times. The name derives from the order’s symbol, a rose on a cross, which is similar to the family coat of arms of Martin Luther. Rosicrucian teachings are a combination of occultism and other religious beliefs and practices, including Hermeticism, Jewish mysticism, and Christian gnosticism. The central feature of Rosicrucianism is the belief that its members possess secret wisdom that was handed down to them from ancient times.
The origins and teachings of the Rosicrucians are described in three anonymously published books that have been attributed to Johann Valentin Andreae (1568–1654), a Lutheran theologian and teacher who wrote the utopian treatise Christianopolis (1619). The Fama Fraternitatis of the Meritorious Order of the Rosy Cross (1614), The Confession of the Rosicrucian Fraternity (1615), and The Chymical Marriage of Christian Rosenkreuz (1616) recount the travels of Christian Rosenkreuz, the putative founder of the group, who is now generally regarded as a fictional character rather than a real person. According to the books, Rosenkreuz was born in 1378 and lived for 106 years. After visiting the Middle East and North Africa in search of secret wisdom, he returned to Germany and organized the Rosicrucian order (1403). He erected a sanctuary (1409), where he was entombed after his death in 1484. The alleged discovery of the tomb 120 years later became the occasion for the public announcement of the order’s existence.
The secretive nature of the early brotherhood—if it actually existed—would have made contact with it difficult. The combination of alchemy and mysticism associated with it, however, became quite influential. Rosicrucianism was attractive to many thinkers throughout Europe, possibly including the English philosopher and scientist Francis Bacon. It declined dramatically in the 18th century, however, a victim of the skepticism and rationalism of the Enlightenment, though some Rosicrucian ideas survived in speculative Freemasonry.
In the 19th century, new Rosicrucian societies appeared as part of a general occult revival that took place in Europe and the United States. The first, the Rosicrucian Fraternity, was established in San Francisco in 1858 by the American spiritualist and abolitionist Pascal Beverly Randolph (1825–75). Several groups, such as the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia and the Societas Rosicruciana in Civitatibus Foederatis, founded in England in 1866 and 1880, respectively, emerged out of Freemasonry.
The two most successful modern Rosicrucian organizations were established in the 20th century. The Ancient Mystical Order Roase Crucis (AMORC) was founded in New York City in 1915 by H. Spencer Lewis (1883–1939). Claiming that he had learned the teachings of the order from European Rosicrucians, Lewis attracted new members from around the world by distributing his teachings in mail-order lessons. Regarding Egypt as the cradle of Rosicrucian wisdom, he subsidized the creation of a highly acclaimed Egyptian Museum at the group’s headquarters in San Jose, California.
The other important modern organization is the Rosicrucian Fellowship, whose founder, Max Heindel, attended lectures in Germany by the theosophist Rudolf Steiner. After publishing purportedly secret doctrines against Steiner’s wishes, Heindel taught a form of Rosicrucianism heavily influenced by theosophy. The Rosicrucian Fellowship was founded in Seattle in 1909, and it inspired the creation of other groups, including the Lectorium Rosicrucianum, which was founded in the Netherlands in 1924 by two of Heindel’s Dutch students, Jan Van Rijckenborgh and Catherine dePetri. Closed by the Nazis, it was reorganized after World War II and subsequently became a worldwide institution.