Rosicrucian Fellowship

The Rosicrucian Fellowship was founded in 1909/11 by Max Heindel as herald of the Aquarian Age and with the aim of promulgating the Rosicrucian teachings of the Mystery School of the West, the invisible Rosicrucian Order (which, according to Max Heindel, is an Order in the inner worlds, having no direct connection to physical organizations which call themselves by this name). The Rosicrucian Fellowship conducts Spiritual Healing Services and offers correspondence courses in Esoteric Christianity Philosophy, Spiritual Astrology, and Bible Interpretation. Its headquarters are located in Mount Ecclesia, Oceanside, California (United States) and its students are found throughout the world organized in centers and study groups.

Origins & foundation

In 1908 its founder, Max Heindel, was reported to have been chosen and prepared by the Elder Brothers of the Rosicrucian Order to reveal the teachings of the Rosicrucian Philosophy (Western Wisdom Teachings). In November 1909 these teachings were printed in The Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception and were subsequently developed in other books, lectures and lessons. Heindel also founded a Christian Esoteric magazine titled Rays from the Rose Cross in June 1913, which is still continued to be edited and published by the Fellowship.

The Rosicrucian Fellowship's formal constitution occurred in August 8 1909, at Seattle (Washington). Later, in October 28 1911, its international headquarters, till today, were physically launched at Mount Ecclesia in the city of Oceanside (California).
The ceremony of ground-breaking consisted in planting a large Cross with the initials C.R.C. (meaning Christian Rose Cross, the Head of the spiritual Rosicrucian Order) painted in gilt letters on the three upper ends and with a climbing rose.

The Healing Temple "The Ecclesia" was erected, for the purpose of affording more powerful means for the healing of disease, and dedicated on December 25, 1920. Spiritual Healing meetings are held in this holy place at a regular time each day by the Probationers who have consecrated their lives to this work.

The Rosicrucian Philosophy is Christian and claims to present the mysteries which the Christ spoke of in Matthew 13:11 and Luke 8:10. It seeks to prepare the individual through harmonious development of the mind (occultist) and the heart (mystic) in a spirit of unselfishness service to mankind and an all-embracing altruism.

Max Heindel states that Christian Rosenkreuz has the mission "to prepare a new phase of the Christian religion to be used during the coming age now at hand, for as the world and man evolve so also must religion change".

The Rosicrucian Fellowship has never been affiliated with the Rosicrucian Order, AMORC.

Philosophy teachings

Life as a School: doctrine of Rebirth and Law of Cause and Consequence

These teachings advocate the dualistic view: on one hand, they hold that man is a Spirit enfolding all the powers of God and that these powers are being slowly unfolded by a series of existences in a gradually improving earthy body; on the other hand, that this process of development has been performed under the guidance of exalted Beings who are yet ordering our steps, though in a decreasing measure, as man gradually acquires intellect and will.

Man is then seen as a Spirit attending the school of life for the purpose of unfolding latent spiritual power, and that for this purpose he lives many lives in earthly bodies, "Rebirth" [1], of increasingly fine texture which enable him to express himself better and better (building his character). Connected to Rebirth there is the "Law of Cause and Consequence" - the most fundamental law in human destiny, that it is not a static law - through which we constantly set new causes into operation which will create new destiny to balance and improve the old destiny brought from the past, it teaches that all the causes set into action in one life cannot be ripen in one existence, but "Whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap".

Evolution

According to the Rosicrucian Philosophy, also known as Mystic Christianity, the evolution of man, in our present Great Day of Manifestation, is divided into seven Periods: [2]

involution: the Saturn Period, the Sun Period, the Moon Period;
the Earth Period (fisthalf was still involution, secondhalf is towards evolution);
evolution: the Jupiter Period, the Venus Period, the Vulcan Period.

According to it, we are presently in the secondhalf of the Earth Period: we have just passed the end of our involution and are beginning our evolution, or the spiritualization of matter and our return to God our Father.

In this scheme of evolution, Christ is the highest Initiate of the Sun Period. This means that this Initiate, Christ, has completed His union with the Second aspect of God, or WISDOM. According to Mystic Christianity, the three Aspects of God are WILL, WISDOM and ACTIVITY. The entity we call the Father, has completed His union with the First aspect of God, WILL; then comes the Son, also called Christ; then Jehovah, the Highest Initiate of the Moon Period, who has completed His union with the Third aspect of God, or ACTIVITY.

The Seven-fold constitution of Man

It also teaches that man is a complex being who possesses:

a Dense Body, which is the visible instrument he uses here in this world to fetch and carry (the body we ordinarily think of as the whole man);
a Vital Body, which is made of Ether and pervades the visible body as ether permeates allother forms, except that human beings specialize a greater amount of the universal ether than other forms (that ethereal body is our instrument for specializing the vital energy of the sun and it is seen by clairvoyant vision to extend about an inch and a half outside our visible body);
a Desire Body, which is our emotional nature and this finer vehicle pervades both the vital and dense bodies (it is seen by clairvoyant vision to extend about 16 inches outside our visible body, which is located in the center of this ovoid cloud as the yolk is in the center of an egg);
the Mind, which functions like a mirror, reflects the outer world and enables the Ego to transmit its commands as thought and word, and also to compel action.

On the other hand, it teaches the Ego is the threefold Spirit, the God Within, which uses these vehicles to gather experience in the school of life. The three aspects of the Spirit are:

the Human Spirit, which has emanated from itself the desire body.
the Life Spirit, which has emanated from itself the vital body;
the Divine Spirit, which has emanated from itself the dense body;

The Seven Worlds & the Seven Cosmic Planes

The seven-fold constitution of Man is related to the Seven worlds, each one more subtle and interpenetrating in a concentric way the preceeding one; some of them are related to the planet and the higher ones to the whole solar system [3] :

The World of God
The World of Virgin Spirits
The World of Divine Spirit, related to the Ego's Divine Spirit aspect
The World of Life Spirit, related to the Ego's Life Spirit aspect
The World of Thought, the world of tone
- Region of Abstract Thought, related to the Ego's Human Spirit aspect; the "Third heaven" state of counsciousness
- Region of Concrete Thought, related to the Mind; the "Second heaven" state of counsciousness; ocean of harmony: the "music of the spheres"

"The Great Silence"

The Desire World, the world of color; related to the Desire body [4]
- higher regions, Attraction, the "First heaven" state of counsciousness
- intermediate region, Interest and Indifference
- lower regions, Repulsion, the "Purgatory" state of counsciousness
The Physical World
- Etheric Region, related to the Vital body
- Chemical Region, the physical Earth as perceived through the five senses enhanced by the current technological equipment; the material world is considered to be a reverse reflection of the Spiritual worlds [5].

The Seven Worlds are planes of evolution of the Solar systems which constitute the seventh Cosmic Plane; there are six superior Cosmic Planes, possibly each one of them with a different and larger structural and dynamic expression in the physical Universe [6].

The Ten-fold constitution of Man

The human being is seen as a three-fold Spirit, posessing a Mind, by means of which he governs the threefold Body. This threefold body he transmutes into a threefold Soul, upon which he nourishes himself from impotence into omnipotence: [7]

Conscious Soul, extracted as pabulum from the Dense body (which was emanated from the Divine Spirit)
Intellectual Soul, extracted as pabulum from the Vital body (which was emanated from the Life Spirit)
Emotional Soul, extracted as pabulum from the Desire body (which was emanated from the Human Spirit)

Death as a Birth

As the physical body is a vehicle which the Spirit uses to gain experience in this school day of life, death is but a passing of the Spirit into a larger sphere: a birth, which should be prepared for with the greatest care. At the end of this life the Ego must assimilate what it has experienced. At what is called death the Spirit withdraws with the two higher vehicles, which are tied to the etheric and physical bodies by a slender cord.

At death the desire and mental bodies leave the physical, taking with them but one permanent atom, which during life was deposited within the left ventricle of the heart. This atom, like the negative film of the camera, has been impressed with all the experiences of the life just ended. At death the force of this atom leaves the body and all these impressions are transferred from the vital (etheric) body (which is the storehouse of these experiences) into the desire body, which then forms the basis of the man or woman's life in purgatory and the first heaven. This transfer is done by the Spirit during the first three and one-half days after the rupture of the connection between the seed atom and the heart, ordinarily known as death: death is not complete until this transfer has been accomplished. During this time sensation is still present, and the Spirit suffers through inharmonious surroundings (including postmortem examination and embalming).

the Cosmic Christ and the Christ Within

According to the Rosicrucian Philosophy, the Bible Teaching enables us to become aware of the fact that Christ must be born within. There is a very clear distinction between the Christ which is born within us, our true Saviour, and the Cosmic Christ, that is to say the Christ without. The Christ without, or the Cosmic Christ, helps us in the task of having Christ born within; however, it is our task to form the Christ within. The Christ within, or Soul body, is the vehicle mankind will need to live in the Sixth Epoch or New Galilee.

Rosicrucian mission

It is referred that the mission of the Rosicrucian Order (Western Mystery School), working through The Rosicrucian Fellowship, is to promulgate a scientific method of development suited particularly to the Western people where by this wedding garment may bewrought, so that mankind may hasten the day of the Lord.