(16) (4) The Modified Phallic Cross , indicates the Sexual Duality of the Manifested Universe—the Presence and Activity of the Universal Male Principle and the Universal Female Principle, respectively. [The Modified Phallic Cross of the Rosicrucians, however, must not be taken to indicate any relationship of the Rosicrucians with the gross forms of Phallic Worship, however. The latter is merely the distorted shadow of the Truth, and must not be mistaken for the Reality.] Concluding this introductory statement, and inviting you to enter into the study of the Secret Doctrine of the Rosicrucians, let us ask you to carefully consider the following words of an ancient aphorism: "The possession of Knowledge, unaccompanied by a manifestation and expression in Action, is like the hoarding of precious metals by the miser—a vain and foolish thing. Forget not The Law of Use, in this and all other things."

(5) This symbol of the "Circle enclosing the Cross" is one particularly sacred to the Rosicrucians, since to them it represents the Universal Activity and Universal Creation, symbolizing the Great Mystery of Occult Generation on all planes of Life. In the fanciful symbology of the ancient Rosicrucian Brotherhoods, the Circle was transformed into the Rose , and the Cross sometimes transformed into the Sword with its Cross-like handle. The sign, then, of the Cross (or Sword) combined with the Circle (or Rose), symbolized the Mystic Union of the Rose and the Cross, from whence arose the name of the Order, i.e. Rosi-Crucian, meaning "Rose-Cross." The Third Aphorism states: "The One became Two. The Neuter became Bi-Sexual. Male and Female—the Two in One—evolved from the Neuter. And the Work of Creation began." In this Aphorism there is given the "hint" at the very important teaching of the Rosicrucians concerning the Universal Sex Principles in Nature—the presence and activity of the Sexual Pairs of Opposites, Male and Female, which constitute the Secret of Creation. According to the Secret Doctrine of the Rosicrucians, there are present in All-Creation the activities of a Male Principle and a Female Principle, both Universal in Nature, Character and Extent—both Opposing Aspects of the World Soul—which act and react, one upon the other, and thus produce all Creative Activity and the "Cosmic Becoming" or Universal Activity and Change. And the teachings also are that these Two Sex Principles operate and manifest upon every plane of Life, from the Sub-Mineral, on to the Mineral, on to the Plant, on to the Animal, on to the Human, or to the Super-Human, on to the Angelic or God-like. And, likewise, that in every Thing in Creation there is present and manifest the activity of Sex.

(6) The present writer does not feel justified in telling in these pages the tale as he understands it, and as it has been transmitted to him by those in authority; in fact, to make the same public, he would be violating a most sacred promise, which would amount to a betrayal of his initiation secrets. He, however, is permitted to state that the Secret Doctrine of the Rosicrucians is a body of esoteric teachings, handed down for ages by wise men deeply versed in the esoteric doctrines and occult lore. This Wisdom originally came by way of the Orient, and in fact even today comprises part of the Inner Teachings of some of the highest Oriental Brotherhoods. Its history is but another instance of the truth of the old Secret axioms, one of which says that we must "Look to the East, whence comes all Light." For many years little or nothing was permitted to be revealed to the general public concerning the Secret Doctrine of the Rosicrucians, but during the past twenty-five years there has been a greater, and still greater freedom in this respect, until today many important Rosicrucian teachings form a part of nearly all writings and teachings upon the subject of the Esotericism in general, and of the Higher Metaphysics in particular. Theosophy, and the general interest in Oriental Philosophies and Religions, have done much to bring into public notice some of the more elementary points of the Secret Doctrine. In fact, in the highest writings and teachings of some of the great organizations above referred to the Rosicrucian may find many half-hidden bits of the Rosicrucian Doctrine, cleverly disguised from the unprepared Many, yet plainly revealed to the prepared Few.

(13) It is not claimed, however, that in the pages of this book are given all the Secret Teachings of the Rosicrucians, such as their Formulas and Methods of Mental Alchemy, and Spiritual Transmutation. Such information cannot be cast broadcast, for reasons which will be apparent to every earnest and intelligent student. But, on the other hand, such information cannot be withheld from those who are ready to receive it , and who are moved by the proper motives in seeking to acquire the secret knowledge. When the student learns how to give "The Right Knock," then will he find proven the old promise: "Knock, and it shall be opened unto you." The Symbol of the Rosy Cross The well-known Symbol of the Rosicrucians—"The Rosy Cross"—appears in several forms, as for instance: The Cross surmounted by the Rose; the Sword (the Cross handle) attached to the Rose; the Cross surmounted by the Crown; a modification of the Phallic Cross, etc. The explanation of the general Symbol is Sevenfold—the three highest being reserved for Initiates of a certain rank, only, and therefore cannot be stated here. Below follow several of the meanings which we are permitted to translate and explain here: (1) The Cross Surmounted by the Rose , indicates that the "Rose" (the mystic symbol of the Divine) can be attained only by the suffering of mortal life (symbolized by the Cross).

(20) The characteristic feature of the Plane of Consciousness of the Demi-Gods is that of Oneness with Universal Life—the consciousness of the Life of All-Manifestation. Varying in many degrees and forms, of course, this is the characteristic feature of all experiences of this great plane of conscious activity. On this plane, the individual feels in close touch with all the rest of Creation—a united part of (not apart from) the ALL. The experience of even a slight momentary contact with this plane of being constitutes the common "mystic experience," of which sages, seers, poets, and illumined souls of all ages have sung, and regarding which they have tried to inform us in words inadequate to the task. The study of these mystic reports throw much light on the subject, and is well worth the time and attention of all true students of the Rosicrucian teaching. But the student must always remember that these experiences are not the end of all thought on the subject, nor the final word of Truth. As valuable as is this part of the teaching, it must never be mistaken for the highest peak of the Mountain of Truth.

(1) We have now reached that stage of our presentation of the subject of the Secret Doctrine of the Rosicrucians, and particularly of that phase known as the Seven Planes of Consciousness, in which we ask the student to consider those phases of Consciousness above the Plane of Animal Consciousness. Accordingly our present consideration is with those three great Planes of Consciousness which begin with the Plane of Human Consciousness, and include the Planes of the Consciousness of the Demi-Gods, and which find their highest manifestation on the Plane of the Consciousness of the Gods.

(2) In this Seventh Aphorism of Creation, the Rosicrucian is directed to apply his attention to the concept of the Sevenfold Soul—One in essence—of Man; which in the figurative language of the mystic constitutes the seven veils which conceal from (yet reveal to) Man his real Self. This concept is represented by the Rosicrucians by means of the symbol of the figure of a man surrounded by seven outlined shapes—the man, himself in his essence, is represented by the blank space disclosed by the inmost outline, and each one of the "concealing but revealing veils" is represented by an outlined figure, each being but one of the series of seven. The series of outlines, be it noted, is enclosed in the circle representing the Infinite Unmanifest.

(1) The student of the history of occultism and the esoteric teachings, and even the average reader of current books and magazines, finds many references to "The Rosicrucians," a supposed ancient secret society devoted to the study of occult doctrines and the manifestation of occult powers. But when such person seeks to obtain detailed information concerning this supposed ancient "order" he finds himself baffled and defeated. Before acknowledging the futility of the quest, however, he usually investigates one or more so-called "orders" having as a part of their title the word "Rosicrucian," only to find himself invited to join such "order" upon the payment of a fee or fees ranging from a small amount in some cases to quite large amounts in others, each "order" claiming to be the "only original order," and asserting that all the others are base imitators.

(3) Members of the Rosicrucian body are prominent in the councils of nearly all of the occult organizations and societies throughout the world—in fact, it is these persons who are the real leaven in the general mass, and who keep alive the Sacred Flame of Truth in them. Many Rosicrucians are also prominent in philosophic and scientific circles, and some of them are men quite prominent in the large affairs of the business and professional world, and in the ranks of statesmanship. Others are prominent in movements like the "labor movement" and similar activities. Some are prominent in the councils of the various churches, and others are leaders in Masonry and similar secret societies. In all of such circles the Rosicrucians exert a powerful influence, and always in the direction of good.

(5) Whatever melody most sweetly soundeth On earth, and to itself most draws the soul, Would seem a cloud that, rent asunder, thunders, Compared unto the sounding of that lyre Wherewith was crowned the sapphire beautiful, Which gives the clearest heaven its sapphire hue. "I am Angelic Love, that circle round The joy sublime which breathes from out the womb That was the hostelry of our Desire; And I shall circle, Lady of Heaven, while Thou followest thy Son, and mak'st diviner The sphere supreme, because thou enterest there." Thus did the circulated melody Seal itself up; and all the other lights Were making to resound the name of Mary. The regal mantle of the volumes all Of that world, which most fervid is and living With breath of God and with his works and ways, Extended over us its inner border, So very distant, that the semblance of it There where I was not yet appeared to me. Therefore mine eyes did not possess the power Of following the incoronated flame, Which mounted upward near to its own seed.

(2) In this Second Aphorism of Creation the Rosicrucian is directed to apply his attention to the concept of the World Soul—the First Manifestation of the Eternal Parent. This World Soul—the First Manifestation—is represented by the Rosicrucians by the symbol of a circle containing at its centre a black dot or point. The circle, of course, represents the Infinite Unmanifest, and the black dot or point represents the Focal Point of the new Manifestation—the "Germ within the Cosmic Egg," as the old occultists poetically expressed the idea.

(3) This concept of the World Soul, so manifesting itself in Manifoldness, Diversity, and Variety, yet ever remaining One, Unity, and Identical, is represented by the Rosicrucians by the symbol of a small circle within a larger circle, the smaller circles being filled with tiny points or centres of manifestation. The outer circle is, of course, the Infinite Unmanifest; the smaller circle, of course, being the World Soul; and the small dots, or points, being the individualized centres of life, being, and activity manifested by the World Soul.

(2) With respect, however, to the mother of the Gods, you, indeed, seem to think that those who are possessed by the Goddess are males; for, conformably to this, you denominate them Metrizantes. But the thing is not truly so. For those who are precedaneously inspired by the mother of the Gods are women; but the males that are thus inspired are very few in number, and such as are more effeminate. This enthusiasm, however, has a vivific and replenishing power, on which account, also, it in a remarkable degree differs from all other mania.

(2) Now all Angels are interpreters of those above them, the most reverend, indeed, of God, Who moves them, and the rest, in due degree, of those who have been moved by God. For, to such an extent has the superessential harmony of all things provided for the religious order and the regulated conduct of each of the rational and intellectual beings, that each rank of the Hierarchies, has been placed in sacred order, and we observe every Hierarchy distributed into first, and middle, and last Powers. But to speak accurately, He distinguished each Division itself, by the same Divine harmonies; wherefore the theologians say that the most Divine Seraphim cry one to another, indicating distinctly, as I think by this, that the first impart their knowledge of divine things to the second.

(3) But they also depict them under the likeness of men, on account of the intellectual faculty, and their having powers of looking upwards, and their straight and erect form, and their innate faculty of ruling and guiding, and whilst being least, in physical strength as compared with the other powers of irrational creatures, yet ruling over all by their superior power of mind, and by their dominion in consequence of rational science, and their innate unslavishness and indomitableness of soul. It is possible, then, I think, to find within each of the many parts of our body harmonious images of the Heavenly Powers, by affirming that the powers of vision denote the most transparent elevation towards the Divine lights, and again, the tender, and liquid, and not repellent, but sensitive, and pure, and unfolded, reception, free from all passion, of the supremely Divine illuminations. Now the discriminating powers of the nostrils denote the being able to receive, as far as attainable, the sweet-smelling largess beyond conception, and to distinguish accurately things which are not such, and to entirely reject. The powers of the ears denote the participation and conscious reception of the supremely Divine inspiration. The powers of taste denote the fulness of the intelligible nourishments, and the reception of the Divine and nourishing streams. The powers of touch denote the skilful discrimination of that which is suitable or injurious. The eyelids and eyebrows denote the guarding of the conceptions which see God. The figures of manhood and youth denote the perpetual bloom and vigour of life. The teeth denote the dividing of the nourishing perfection given to us; for each intellectual Being divides and multiplies, by a provident faculty, the unified conception given to it by the more Divine for the proportionate elevation of the inferior. The shoulders and elbows, and further, the hands, denote the power of making, and operating, and accomplishing. The heart again is a symbol of the Godlike life, dispersing its own life-giving power to the objects of its forethought, as beseems the good. The chest again denotes the invincible and protective faculty of the life-giving distribution, as being placed above the heart. The back, the holding together the whole productive powers of life. The feet denote the moving and quickness, and skilfulness of the perpetual movement advancing towards Divine things. Wherefore also the Word of God arranged the feet of the holy Minds under their wings; for the wing displays the elevating quickness and the heavenly progress towards higher things, and the superiority to every grovelling thing by reason of the ascending, and the lightness of the wings denotes their being in no respect earthly, but undefiledly and lightly raised to the sublime; and the naked and unshod denotes the unfettered, agile, and unrestrained, and free from all external superfluity, and assimilation to the Divine simplicity, as far as attainable.

(2) In this Fifth Aphorism of Creation, the Rosicrucian is directed to apply his attention to the concept of the Universal Life—the Life of the World Soul, permeating everything everywhere within its sphere of existence. This concept of the World Soul as a Flaming Fire of Life, abiding in the entire Universe in all of its parts, is represented by the Rosicrucians by the symbol of a circle filled with flaming fire.

(1) We, whilst admitting this as the arrangement of the holy Hierarchies, affirm, that every appellation of the celestial Minds denotes the Godlike characteristic of each; and those who know Hebrew affirm, that the holy designation of the Seraphim denotes either that they are kindling or burning; and that of Cherubim, a fulness of knowledge or stream of wisdom. Naturally, then, the first (order) of the Heavenly Hierarchies is ministered by the most exalted Beings, holding, as it does, a rank which is higher than all, from the fact, that it is established immediately around God, and that the first-wrought Divine manifestations and perfections pass earlier to it, as being nearest. They are called, then, "Burning," and Thrones, and Stream of Wisdom--by a name which sets forth their Godlike conditions. The appellation of Seraphim plainly teaches their ever moving around things Divine, and constancy, and warmth, and keenness, and the seething of that persistent, indomitable, and inflexible perpetual motion, and the vigorous assimilation and elevation of the subordinate, as giving new life and rekindling them to the same heat; and purifying through fire and burnt-offering, and the light-like and light-shedding characteristic which can never be concealed or consumed, and remains always the same, which destroys and dispels every kind of obscure darkness. But the appellation of the Cherubim denotes their knowledge and their vision of God, and their readiness to receive the highest gift of light, and their power of contemplating the super-Divine comeliness in its first revealed power, and their being filled anew with the impartation which maketh wise, and their ungrudging communication to those next to them, by the stream of the given wisdom. The appellation of the most exalted and pre-eminent Thrones denotes their manifest exaltation above every grovelling inferiority, and their supermundane tendency towards higher things; and their unswerving separation from all remoteness; and their invariable and firmly-fixed settlement around the veritable Highest, with the whole force of their powers; and their receptivity of the supremely Divine approach, in the absence of all passion and earthly tendency, and their bearing God; and the ardent expansion of themselves for the Divine receptions.

(2) "And Gabriēl and Michaēl led the light-stream over the body of the matter of Pistis Sophia and poured into her all the light-powers which they had taken from her. And the body of her matter became shining throughout, and all the powers also in her, whose light they had taken away, took light and ceased to lack their light, for they got their light which had been taken from them, because the light was given them through me. And Michaēl and Gabriēl, who ministered and had brought the light-stream into the chaos, will give them the mysteries of the Light; it is they to whom the light-stream was entrusted, which I have given unto them and brought into the chaos. And Michaēl and Gabriēl have taken no light for themselves from the lights of Sophia, which they had taken from the emanations of Self-willed. "It came to pass then, when the light-stream had ingathered into Pistis Sophia all her light-powers, which it had taken from the emanations of Self-willed, that she became shining throughout; and the light-powers also in Pistis Sophia, which the emanations of Self-willed had not taken, became joyful again and filled themselves with light. And the lights which were poured into Pistis Sophia, quickened the body of her matter, in which no light was present, and which was on the point of perishing or perished. And they raised up all her powers which were on the point of being dissolved. And they took unto themselves a light-power and became again as they

(5) We shall find the Mystic Theologians enfolding these things not only around the illustrations of the Heavenly Orders, but also, sometimes, around the supremely Divine Revelations Themselves. At one time, indeed, they extol It under exalted imagery as Sun of Righteousness, as Morning Star rising divinely in the mind, and as Light illuming without veil and for contemplation; and at other times, through things in our midst, as Fire, shedding its innocuous light; as Water, furnishing a fulness of life, and, to speak symbolically, flowing into a belly, and bubbling forth rivers flowing irresistibly; and at other times, from things most remote, as sweet-smelling ointment, as Head Corner-stone. But they also clothe It in forms of wild beasts, and attach to It identity with a Lion, and Panther, and say that it shall be a Leopard, and a rushing Bear. But, I will also add, that which seems to be more dishonourable than all, and the most incongruous, viz. that distinguished theologians have shewn it to us as representing Itself under the form of a worm. Thus do all the godly-wise, and interpreters of the secret inspiration, separate the holy of holies from the uninitiated and the unholy, to keep them undefined, and prefer the dissimilar description of holy things, so that Divine things should neither be easily reached by the profane, nor those who diligently contemplate the Divine imagery rest in the types as though they were true; and so Divine things should be honoured by the true negations, and by comparisons with the lowest things, which are diverse from their proper resemblance. There is then nothing absurd if they depict even the Heavenly Beings under incongruous dissimilar similitudes, for causes aforesaid. For probably not even we should have come to an investigation, from not seeing our way,--not to say to mystic meaning through an accurate enquiry into Divine things,--unless the deformity of the descriptions representing the Angels had shocked us, not permitting our mind to linger in the discordant representations, but rousing us utterly to reject the earthly proclivities, and accustoming us to elevate ourselves through things that are seen, to their supermundane mystical meanings. Let these things suffice to have been said on account of the material and incongruous descriptions of the holy Angels in the Holy Oracles. And next, it is necessary to define what we think the Hierarchy is in itself, and what benefit those who possess a Hierarchy derive; from the same. But let Christ lead the discourse--if it be lawful to me to say--He Who is mine,--the Inspiration of all Hierarchical revelation. And thou, my son, after the pious rule of our Hierarchical tradition, do thou religiously listen to things religiously uttered, becoming inspired through instruction in inspired things; and when thou hast enfolded the Divine things in the secret recesses of thy mind, guard them closely from the profane multitude as being uniform, for it is not lawful, as the Oracles say, to cast to swine the unsullied and bright and beautifying comeliness of the intelligible pearls.

(35) Now when the heavenly music of the angel riseth up, then in the heavenly pomp, in the divine Salitter, there rise up all manner of vegetations, springings or sprouts, also all manner of figures, shapes or ideas, and all manner of colours; for the Deity presenteth, sheweth or discovereth itself in endless and unsearchable varieties of kinds, colours, ideas, forms and joys.