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The Brothers of the Rose Cross

 A Chapel Talk of the Rosicrucian Fellowship

August 9, 2009

By Jean de Galzain

 

 

This morning I want to talk about the Elder Brothers of the Rose Cross and their work. 

            We are very privileged to be on this mountain, celebrating 100 years of service with the inspiration of the philosophy of The Rosicrucian Fellowship, which was given to us by the Elder Brothers of the Rose Cross. 

            The work of the Elder Brothers is to explain to us the whole process from creation to involution to evolution to divine realization.  They worked with our founder, Max Heindel, to bring about this monumental work called The Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception that is very rich in spiritual meaning. 

            Back in the fourteenth century, in the year, 1313, Christian Rosenkreutz, a high initiate of the Christian mysteries, founded the Rosicrucian Order.  He chose twelve brothers, all adepts and initiates of the higher mysteries whose mission it would be to expand the Christian mysteries through the Rosicrucian mystery school, and to further man’s evolution, particularly in the Western World.

            Now, what do we really mean by initiation?  Initiations are internal experiences that first connect us to our past in a phase of involution, then to the present day, and finally they move us through the steps of our future evolution.  Initiation involves an expansion of human consciousness and the conscious activation of closest relationship with our spirit within which we call “our higher self” and it includes also the practical development of our divine creative faculties on a daily basis.   This ultimately leads to the realization and activation of our divine omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence.  During the cosmic involution/evolution part of our journey, we attune ourselves to the spirit, the higher self, through right living.  Right living consists of practicing right action, right feeling, right thinking, and right intention—and actually living a life of service to others in the light of love and selflessness.

            Such spiritual experiences are the dominion of, the power of, and are supervised by the mystery schools.  What are mystery schools?  I brought with me a little diagram to try to illustrate what I mean.  It looks like a flower, if you will.  There are 12 mystery schools on earth and they are each represented by a little circle here around the big center.  These mystery schools are not on the physical plane like regular schools on earth are in a school district.  They actually are in the invisible plane, and they are sub-divided into seven lesser mystery schools, of which The Rosicrucian Fellowship is one.  These schools cater to the needs of spiritual aspirants through the process of working through nine lesser initiations.    So, as there are seven mystery schools of the lesser mysteries, there are five greater mystery schools, up here, that work with aspirants who have already completed the nine lesser initiations through the work of the lesser mystery schools.

            Each of the mystery schools is actually an order of twelve brothers (and I have represented them by little sticks) twelve brothers around their head which is the thirteenth member and is represented by the little red stick.   One of the purposes of the mystery schools is to provide esoteric training to all aspirants who enter the path of light, in order to accelerate the process of their own evolution and in order to accelerate the evolution of our planets, guiding them from within to enter the golden gate of the inner etheric temple where initiation really takes place.

            Why thirteen?  This is based on the universal mathematical principle of sacred geometry, the relationship of particles of cosmic matter in space.  To best illustrate this, I will give you the following example.  If you take a box of ping-pong balls, all of the same size, and you take one, and want to hide it from view by placing other balls around it, how many balls would it take?  It would actually take twelve to hide the one.  It is an example, a mathematical ratio, something you can’t argue for or against.  It’s a fact of the universe.  The Rosicrucian Order has twelve brothers around Christian Rosenkreutz who is the thirteenth and august head of the Rose Cross.

            Now, each of the twelve mystery schools has a thirteenth member.  I can explain it here if you can imagine that each of the red sticks is the head of a mystery school, and when the twelve heads gather together they form a higher level of school that you could say is called the central council of the White Brotherhood.  It is centered (so they gather here, these little red  thirteens all gather in the White Brotherhood around its thirteenth which is the head of the planet, who we will call the planetary spirit of the earth and who is presently, since the crucifixion, overshadowed by The Christ Spirit.

             The process of evolution as indicated in the Bible, or the process of creation in Genesis, takes seven days.  Max Heindel and the Elder Brothers explain that these seven periods are periods of manifestation that include creation, involution, and evolution.  So, in the book of Genesis, God the Spirit within the Universe, makes his creation through seven cosmic steps.  These cosmic days last through eons of time.  They’re not like 24-hour days.  They are vast expanses of time; actually beyond time.

            When you deal with these periods, you actually have to deal with a scale that is beyond time and space.  It’s in the abstract worlds.  But, let’s give it a shape so that we can relate to it.  We have a concrete mind that needs to have something to see, to touch, and to attach ourselves to.

            So, in the first phase of evolution, (we call it the Saturn period) this phase was involved with the creation of the physical body.   In the next phase (or the Sun period) God created the “vital body” or etheric body.  In the third phase (the Moon period) we created the “desire body” or emotional body.  And in the first half of the Earth period (the Mars half of the Earth period) we went through the process of creating the mind (and I say “we” because God and his creation cannot be separated).  We are part of his creation and we are also part of God.

            Actually, our bodies are not ourselves.  They are just instruments which we use to gather wisdom and to experience the divine faculties.  The real part of us is the flame of spirit which is invisible to most and which actually has no beginning, no end, and lives forever.  It stands as a driver inside the body as we try to meet our experiences.

            We are presently at that stage of creation.  Commencing from this point on, we are now starting the phase of evolution.  When we came down from the Saturn period and we had created these bodies, we were moving from the spirit of God into the material world.  Now that we’re in the material world, we’re starting to undo all of this and go back to the spirit.  This process is called evolution.  So, the second half of the Earth period is involved with perfecting the mind and assimilating all of the qualities and powers of the physical body into the mind – learning the laws of the physical world.  Now, with science and the guidance of spiritual philosophy and the experiences of the heart we can penetrate more and more so that we can understand why we are here, where we have come from and where we are going.

            The next period is the Jupiter period in which we will be involved with the creation of the body for a human spirit or abstract mind which is the lower state of spirit.  In the Christian religion, we refer to spirit as a three-fold being.  We talk about the Holy Spirit, the Son, and the Father which basically represents three cosmic energies – all in the one spirit.  In the Jupiter period we will create a body that can use the power of the Human Spirit or the Holy Spirit.

            In the next period, the Venus period, we will be involved with creating a body for the Life Spirit or for the spirit of love and imagination which represents the body for the Son part of the spirit.   We will assimilate all of the information from that body into the mind.

            From there we go to the next phase which is the Vulcan period, the final day of creation, in which we will create a body for the Divine spirit, or the Father aspect of our spirit and spiritualize our mind and assimilate all of these qualities, so that we will have a three-fold body of spirit and a spiritualized mind which will help us to become creators.  By the end of the Vulcan period, which is the last day of creation we will have become creative Gods.  We will have reached divine omnipotence with the full development of our creative powers, we will have achieved omniscience with the full development of our conscious knowledge of the five rungs of evolution, and we will have achieved omnipresence with full consciousness into the realms that are involved in this phase of evolution.    So, this is a very long and broad process.

            In order for us to accelerate this process, we are given the opportunity to go through the nine lesser initiations.  The first vow of the initiate is “silence,” which means that there’s not much information available about initiation.  This is an internal process that has been individualized.  Each one of us goes through it in his own way, at his own time, and therefore it is difficult to describe to somebody else something that they haven’t gone through themselves, but Max Heindel and the Elder Brothers gave us a few pointers that we can actually talk about to give us a better idea of what initiation involves.

            Aspirants to the nine lesser mysteries are esoterically trained through the seven lesser mystery schools.  The first four lesser initiations lead the aspirant through a recapitulation of the four previous periods in evolution.  The Saturn period, when we built the physical body, the Sun period when we built the etheric body, the Moon period when we built the emotional or desire body, and the first half of the Earth period when we built the mind.  The fifth of the lesser initiations leads to the present period or the Mercury half of the Earth period.  The last four lesser initiations lead to matters dealing with future development through the end of the Earth period.  All nine lesser initiations culminate into the first greater initiation that summarizes the entire Earth period.  After that there are three more greater initiations dealing with a state of consciousness of the next three days of evolution, the Jupiter period, the Venus period, and the Vulcan period which eventually lead us to liberation.

            Now, we mentioned “adepts,” and what do we mean by an adept?  An adept is a person who has graduated from the first greater initiation, meaning that he or she has successfully experienced the nine lesser initiations internally and is continuing toward the four greater initiations.  When the adept goes through the first greater initiation (which is an internal experience, of course) he undergoes an alchemical process that includes a biological transmutation that changes the relationship between his physical and vital bodies as well as the emotional and mental bodies, using the full power harnessed in the Golden Wedding Garment of super vital body, I would say.

            By spiritualizing the mind with spiritual practices, with positive mental discipline, with uplifting thoughts and other constructive uses of the mind, they mold their abstract and concrete minds to process more spiritual light.  By purifying and uplifting the desire body, that body through which we express feelings and emotions, we connect with the higher regions of the desire world, activating nobler, more compassionate, more selfless feelings to create a deeper soul connection with others and the universe.  By activating more etheric energies with good daily habits and intentions, better hygiene, responsible use of the creative force, and repetition of good things; we supercharge the two higher ethers of the vital body, namely the light ether and the reflecting ether.  They are involved with sense perception, mental cognition and activity, and memory; and they enable us to do greater work on the inner planes as conscious invisible helpers.

            By keeping a healthy body with a minimum of physical exercise, by following appropriate nutrition, and assimilating sufficient amounts of phosphorous into our physical bodies, by engaging in positive, constructive activities, and a highly spiritual lifestyle; when ready, adepts consciously initiate an alchemical transmutation  of their biochemical structure from a carbon base to a phosphorous based chemistry.  Carbon has four valances, phosphorous has five valances; therefore the chemistry base is changed.  Such a process is, in essence, the way they render themselves invisible, allowing them to navigate between the visible and invisible realms at will.

            They then have the ability to materialize and de-materialize their physical bodies at will.  This allows them to be of greater service to mankind as they act as invisible agents or helpers in the guidance of world governments, as scientists, artists, philosophers, inventors, thinkers and other creative individuals.  They help promote the advancement of the greater culture in areas of art, science, and spirituality or religious philosophy.  The order of the Elder Brothers consists of twelve around Christian Rosenkreutz, and one of these brothers is specifically connected with The Rosicrucian Fellowship, because it is a preparatory school of the Rosicrucian mystery school on the inner planes.

            This is why the teacher (that brother that we mentioned earlier) promotes the development of a sane mind, a soft heart, and a sound body as well as the daily full training and development into a super vital body, the etheric body that we call, the Golden Wedding Garment, which is necessary for the transition to conscious living on the inner planes.  By analogy, imagine the super vital body as the space suit of the astronaut.  His body is used to travel in a different country, one which is an invisible sea of energy that surrounds us but which at this point we have very little perception of.

            Following the Lemurian period, into the watery Atlantean period when the atmosphere had much water and we were breathing with gills, like fishes, we needed to build lungs. Several Atlantean floods precipitated the water into oceans and we then needed the ability to breathe fresh air.  The floods came in a series.  There was not just one flood; there was a series of them over a very long period of time.  The last flood dates back about 10,000 years when the Sun was crossing by precession into the sign of Cancer.

            So, those were the pioneers of Aryana, which is our present age.   They would gather themselves together and climb into the highlands above the mists and the water and they had already developed lungs and could breathe the rarefied air.  But, the people who were living in the low-lands were still in this watery atmosphere and had to learn to build those lungs, because they were still breathing with gills.  When the various series of floods became infrequent, those who did not build the lungs could not survive.  At the present time we still have 85 percent water in our bodies, but when we enter the Aquarian Age, about 500 years from now, the water will eventually evaporate and be replaced by ethers.  Those who have not trained their vital bodies will not be able to survive in the higher etheric atmosphere in the Age of Aquarius.  Therefore, it is important that we develop our vital bodies now.

            The Elder Brothers provide esoteric training for each generation of Western seekers that emphasize the building of a super-strong vital body. The Elder Brothers do much work to overcome the destructive effects of materialism, of nationality, of greed, of selfishness, of negative thinking.  Every night at midnight they perform a midnight service in the etheric temple.  They attract these types of negative energies in order to transmute them into pure love, benevolence, altruism, positivism and high spiritual aspiration which they eventually send back into the world in order to uplift and encourage all good.  Were it not for their powerful spiritual vibrations, the forces of materialism would have crushed all spiritual efforts by now.  

            Therefore, it is imperative that we help them by learning to do this work – that we help them by doing the work ourselves – meaning, practicing in our daily lives the positive principles they teach us.  So, every time you find yourself thinking a negative thought, you’ve got to stop and think about that.  You’ve got to try to retrospect it and see how you can change it, emphasizing the more constructive.  When you bump into situations where people do something bad to you and you start nurturing resentments and ill feelings you have to look at that too, because this makes you sick, anyway.  Not only does it destroy your ethers, it burns your inner energy, so it is important to learn to forgive, to learn to practice Christ’s principles, because all of the Christ’s principles are alchemical principles that change the energies within and without. Everything we do has an effect.  If you think a thought, that thought affects your internal functions and it also affects your environment.  It affects your aura, of course, but it also affects the soil and affects the energies around you and affects other people.  

            It’s the same thing for your feelings.  If you have ill feelings for things that you have difficulty dealing with emotionally, you have to focus on them to try to find a solution, a way to transmute those negative feelings into something more constructive.  It’s the work of alchemy.  It’s a conscious process that demands a certain amount of effort.  

            It’s the same thing for your intentions, your motives.  What are your motives?  Are they universal?  Are you trying to do something good for the whole, or are you just sticking to yourself and wanting just to help yourself.  If that is the case, you’ve got to rethink them, because we are all in the same boat – on one planet here and everything we do affects everybody else.

            If we start generating positive thoughts, positive feelings, positive intentions; and by consequence we generate positive action, we will change our planet and make it a better world for everyone.  Not only do we have to strive to practice this positive philosophy, but we also have to go out and teach it to the world.

            Unlike others, we don’t proselytize.  All we have to do is be an example of what we believe.  When we show, by our own works, the principles of our philosophy we are actually teaching it.  We are to be living examples of what we believe.  We are to   educate the world about living the life, a positive way of life that harms no one, that respects all life, that nurtures our planet, that protects our resources, and that loves and respects our brothers and sisters.  When I say brothers and sisters, I don’t just mean human brothers and sisters.  I also mean our animal brothers and our respect for the plant kingdom and for the earth itself, the mineral kingdom.  We must put into practice the cosmic principle of universal love and compassion that Christ gave us 2000 years ago.    As the Age of Aquarius dawns on earth, a Golden Age of conscious living and spiritual light, we will abolish all wars and eliminate disease.  Men and women of good will shall share in love and peace for 1000 years.

            It is our responsibility to care for the earth and its people; we are our brothers’ and sisters’ keepers.  We are to practice love as taught by Jesus Christ in deed and in truth, not just in words, and we are to strive for universal brotherhood.

Tags: Brothers of the Rose Cross, Rose Cross, The Christ, Twelve Around One