Footsteps of the Rosicrucians Amidst Architectural Objects

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CHAPTER THE SIXTEENTH.

FOOTSTEPS OF THE ROSICRUCIANS AMIDST ARCHITECTURAL OBJECTS

THOMAS VAUGHAN, of Oxford, a famous Rosicrucian, whom we have before mentioned, and who in the year 1650 published a book upon some of the mysteries of the Rosicrucians, has the following passage. His work is entitled Anthroposophia Theomagica; it has a supplemental treatise, called Anima Magica Abscondita; we quote from pages 26 and 27 of the united volume:

'In regard of the Ashes of Vegetables', says Vaughan, 'although their weaker exterior Elements expire by violence of the fire, yet their Earth cannot be destroyed, but is Vitrified. The Fusion and Transparency of this substance is occasioned by the Radicall moysture or Seminal water of the Compound. This water resists the fury of the Fire, and cannot possibly be vanquished. "In hac Aqua (saith the learned Severine), Rosa latet in Hieme." These two principles are never separated; for Nature proceeds not so far in her Dissolutions. When Death hath done her worst, there is an Vnion between these two, and out of them shall God raise us at the last day, and restore us to a spiritual constitution. I do not conceive there shall be a Resurrection of every Species, but rather their Terrestrial parts, together with the element of Water (for there shall be "no more sea"; Revelation), shall be united in one mixture with the Earth, and fixed to a pure Diaphanous substance. This is St. John's

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[paragraph continues] Crystall gold, a fundamentall of the New Jerusalem--so called, not in respect of Colour, but constitution. Their Spirits, I suppose, shall be reduced to their first Limbus, a sphere of pure, ethereall fire, like rich Eternal Tapestry spread under the Throne of God.'

Coleridge has the following, which bespeaks (and precedes), be it remarked, Professor Huxley's late supposed original speculations. The assertion is that the matrix or formative substance is, at the base, in all productions, 'from mineral to man', the same.

'The germinal powers of the plant transmute the fixed air and the elementary base of water into grass or leaves; and on these the organific principle in the ox or the elephant exercises an alchemy still more stupendous. As the unseen agency weaves its magic eddies, the foliage becomes indifferently the bone and its marrow, the pulpy brain or the solid ivory; and so on through all the departments of nature.'--Coleridge's Aids to Reflection, 6th edn., vol. i. p. 328. See also Herder's Ideen, book v. cap. iii.

We think that we have here shown the origin of all Professor Huxley's speculations on this head appearing in his Lectures, and embodied in articles by him and others in scientific journals and elsewhere.

In a lecture delivered at the Royal Institution, Mr. W. S., Savory made the following remarks: 'There is close relationship between the animal and the vegetable kingdoms. The organic kingdom is connected with both by the process of crystallization, which closely resembles some of the processes of vegetation and of the growth of the lower orders of animal creation.'

The 'Philosopher's Stone', in one of its many senses, may be taken to mean the magic mirror, or translucent 'spirit-seeing crystal', in which things impossible to ordinary ideas are disclosed. 'Know',

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says Synesius, 'that the Quintessence' (five-essence) 'and hidden thing of our "stone" is nothing less than our celestial and glorious soul, drawn by our magistery out of its mine, which engenders itself and brings itself forth.' The term for 'Chrystal', or 'Crystal' in Greek, is the following; which may be divided into twin or half-words in the way subjoined:

ΧΡΥΣΤ | --- | ΑΛΛΟΣ

Crystal is a hard, transparent, colourless 'stone' composed of simple plates, giving fire with steel, not fermenting with acid menstrua, calcining in a strong fire, of a regular angular figure, supposed by some to be 'formed of dew coagulated with nitre'.

Amber is a solidified resinous gum, and is commonly full of electricity. It was supposed, in the hands of those gifted correspondingly, to abound with the means of magic. In this respect it resembles the thyrsus or pinecone, which was always carried in processions--Bacchanalian or otherwise--in connexion with the mysteries. We can consider the name of the palace, or fortress or 'royal' house in Grenada, in Spain, in this respect following. The word 'Alhambra' or 'Al-Hambra', means the 'Red'. In Arabia this means the place of eminence, the 'place of places', or the 'Red', in the same acceptation that the sea between Arabia and. Egypt is called the 'Red Sea'. All spirits generally (in connexion with those things supposed to be evil or indifferent especially) are 'laid' in the 'Red Sea', when disposed of by exorcism, or in forceful conjuration. We think that this 'Ham-bra', 'ambra', or 'ambre', is connected with the substance amber, which is sometimes very red, and which amber has always been associated with magical influence, magical formularies, and with spirits. We

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have seen an ancient crucifix, carved in amber, which was almost of the redness of coral. Amber has always been a substance (or gem, or gum) closely mingling with superstitions, from the most ancient times. For further connected ideas of the word 'amber,' and the substance 'amber' in relation to magic and sorcery, and for the recurrence of the word 'amber' and its varieties in matters referring to the mysteries and the mythology generally of ancient times, the reader will please to refer to other parts of this volume.

While excavations were in progress at a mound in Orkney, described by Mr. John Stuart, Secretary of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, on July 18th, 1861, numerous lines of 'runes' of various sizes were found on the walls and on the roof of a large vaulted chamber in the earth. When the discoveries were completed, the series of runes exceeded 700 in number; figures of 'dragons and a cross' were also cut on some of the slabs. There are many mounds of various forms and sizes in this part of Orkney, and there is a celebrated circle of Druidical Stones on the narrow peninsula which divides the two lochs of Stennis.

Pliny says that the word 'boa', for a snake, comes from 'bovine', because 'young snakes are fed with cow’s milk'. Here we have the unexpected and unexplained connexion of the ideas of 'snake' and 'cow'. The whole subject is replete with mystery, as well as the interchange of the references to the 'Cross' and the 'Dragon' found in the insignia of all faiths, and lurking amongst all religious buildings.

On a Phœnician coin, found at Citium or Cyprus, and engraved in Higgins's Celtic Druids, p. 117, may be seen a cross and an animal resembling a hippocampus, both of which, or objects closely similar, appear on ancient sculptured stones in Scotland. The same two things, a cross and a strange-looking animal,

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half mammal, half fish or reptile, but called by Mr. Hodgson, of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, a Basilisk; appear together on a Mithraic sculptured slab of the Roman period, found in the North of England. What is more remarkable still, the 'star' and 'crescent', or 'sun' and 'moon', also appear, the whole being enclosed in what has been called the 'Fire-Triangle', or 'Triangle with its Face Upwards'.

The Builder, of June 6th, 1863, has some valuable observations on 'Geometrical and other Symbols'.

The title 'Fig. 22' appears at this point, but there is no accompanying illustration.--JBH.

In regard to the word 'Alhambra', we may associate another word appropriated to Druidical Stones in England, Men-Amber. A famous Logan-Stone, commonly called 'Men-Amber', is in the parish of Sethney, near Pendennis, Cornwall. It is 11 feet long, 4 feet deep, and 6 feet wide. From this the following derivatives may be safely made: Men-Amber, Mon-Amber, Mon-Ambra, Mon-Amrha, Mon-Amra (M’Om-Ra, Om-Ra), 'Red Stone', or Magic, or Angelic, or Sacred Stone. This red colour is male--it signifies the Salvator.

The following is the recognitory mark or talisman of the Ophidiæ: Φ. The Scarabæus, Bee, Ass, Typhon, Basilisk, Saint-Basil, the town of Basle (Basil, or Bâle), in Switzerland (of this place it may be remarked, that the appropriate cognisance is a 'basilisk' or a 'snake'), the mythic horse, or hippocampus, of Neptune, the lion, winged (or natural), the Pegasus or winged horse, the Python, the Hydra, the Bull (Osiris), the Cow (or Io), are mythological ideas which have each a family connexion. All the above signify an identical myth. This we shall presently show conclusively, and connect them all with the worship of fire.

Our readers have no doubt often wondered to see

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on the table-monuments in Christian cathedrals a creature resembling a dog, or generally like some four-footed animal, trampled by the feet of the recumbent effigy. It is generally a male which is represented as performing this significant efforcement, trampling or piercing with the point of his sword, or the butt of the crosier (in his left hand, be it remembered). This crosier is the ancient pedum, or lituus. At Brent-Pelham, in Hertfordshire, there is a tomb, bearing the name of a knight, Pierce Shonke, built in the wall. He is said to have died A.D. 1086. Under the feet of the figure there is a cross-flourie, and under the cross a serpent (Weever, p. 549). There is an inscription which, translated, means:

Nothing of Cadmus nor Saint George, those names of great renown, survives them but their names;

But Shonke one serpent kills, t’other defies,
And in this wall, as in a fortress, lies.

[paragraph continues] See Weever's Ancient Funeral Monuments. He calls the place 'Burnt Pelham', and he says: 'In the wall of this Church lieth a most ancient Monument: A Stone wherein is figured a man, and about him an Eagle, a Lion, and a Bull, having all wings, and a fourth of the shape of an Angell, as if they should represent the four Evangelists: under the feet of the man is a crosse Flourie.'

'The being represented cross-legged is not always a proof of the deceased having had the merit either of having been a crusader, or having made a pilgrimage to the Holy Sepulchre. I have seen at Milton, in Yorkshire, two figures of the Sherbornes thus represented, who, I verily believe, could never have had more than a wish to enter the Holy Land.' Pennant writes thus of the Temple, London.

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Weever points out, in relation to the monument of Sir Pierce or Piers Shonke described above: 'Under the Cross is a Serpent. Sir Piers Shonke is thought to havve been sometime the Lord of an ancient decaied House, well moated, not farre from this place, called "O Piers Shonkes". He flourished Ann. a conquestu, vicesimo primo.'--Weever, p. 549.

'The personation of a dog--their invariable accompaniment, as it is also found amongst the sculptures of Persepolis, and in other places in the East--would

Click to enlarge
Fig. 23

in itself be sufficient to fix the heathen appropriation of these crosses' (the ancient Irish crosses), 'as that animal can have no possible relation to Christianity; whereas, by the Tuath-de-danaans, it was accounted sacred, and its maintenance enjoined by the ordinances of the state, as it is still in the Zend books, which remain after Zoroaster.'--O’Brien’s Round Towers of Ireland, 1834, p. 359.

'I apprehend the word "Sin" came to mean Lion when the Lion was the emblem of the Sun at his summer solstice, when he was in his glory, and the Bull and the "Man" were the signs of the Sun at the

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[paragraph continues] Equinoxes, and the Eagle at the winter solstice.'--Anacalypsis, vol. ii. p. 292.

Figure 23 is an Egyptian bas-relief, of which the explanation is the following: A is the Egyptian Eve trampling the Dragon (the goddess Neith, or Minerva); B, a Crocodile; C, Gorgon's head; D, Hawk (wisdom); E, feathers (soul).

'The first and strongest conviction which will flash on the mind of every ripe antiquary, whilst surveying the long series of Mexican and Toltecan monuments preserved in these various works, is the similarity which the ancient monuments of New Spain bear to the monumental records of Ancient Egypt. Whilst surveying them, the glance falls with familiar recognition on similar graduated pyramids, on similar marks of the same primeval Ophite worship, on vestiges of the same Triune and Solar Deity, on planispheres and temples, on idols and sculptures, some of rude and some of finished workmanship, often presenting the most striking affinities with the Egyptian.'--Stephens and Catherwood's Incidents of Travel, in Central America.