Rosicrucian Enlightenment Revisted

In 1972, British historian of the Renaissance Frances Yates published a remarkable book, The Rosicrucian Enlightenment. Yates narrated the tale of Frederick and Elizabeth, the Winter King and Queen of Bohemia, who ascended to the throne in the midst of a great spiritual revival. The key to this revival was the Rosicrucian manifestos, published in 1613, describing the journeys of a mysterious traveler named Christian Rosencrutz. On his travels he said that he had mastered the practices of magic and the entire Kabbalah, and he offered to teach these esoteric arts and wisdom to the West. When the authorities rejected Rosencrutz's offer, he is said to have formed the Fraternity of the Rosy Cross (the translation of Rosencrutz), an organization that offered its followers the opportunity to attain the hidden spiritual truth through the use of these arcane arts. The present volume gathers essays by a number of scholars and others interested in the Rosicrucian Enlightenment. These papers were read in 1995 at a conference in the Czech Republic intended to ""honor the role of Central Europe in the spiritual history of the West"" and to celebrate Yates's work. John Matthews (The Arthurian Tradition) explores the relationship between the Grail and the Rose. In a perceptive and detailed essay, Christopher Bamford, editor-in-chief of Lindisfarne Books, examines the roots of the Rosicrucian Enlightenment in Renaissance and Reformation thought. His discussion ranges over topics as diverse as St. Francis of Assisi and the alchemist Paracelsus. Other essays cover such topics as the emergence of Rosicrucian thought in Cromwell's court; the work of Sendivogius, the Polish alchemist; and the influence of Rosicrucian thought in contemporary culture. The texts of the Rosicrucian manifestos are also included in the collection. (June)