The Age of Horus

Peregrine-falcon

Are we entering the Age of Horus?

No, I am not talking about that Aleister Crowley stuff. At least, that is not my goal. I am not a Thelemite.

But this might be a paradigm shift for humanity. It might be an opportunity to change our ways. A virus is teaching us a hard lesson. We must peer at our virulent reflection in a cosmic mirror.

We can learn from the Rosicrucians that a better world depends upon a consensus of the heart. It is about collective improvement as a species. It is about rising to become like the angels. Then and only then can there be heaven on earth. It is a utopian dream.

But doomsday scenarios do not work to change the status quo. Scaring people does not work. Look at Y2K or the 2012 phenomenon. We still do not have our act together. What then makes us think that the COVID-19 pandemic can be different? Well, unlike Y2K or 2012, COVID-19 is real — it has teeth — sharp teeth.

Back in February, I had a dream that I was at a flea market. On one of the tables was a wooden statue of Horus that I was keen on purchasing. As I picked it up, an older woman approached me and said, “Set is a jealous god.” I looked to my side and saw a statue of Set on an adjacent table. Rather than holding a traditional scepter, he held a shepherd’s crook. What better way for a wolf to lead the sheep? I thought this was an interesting dream and jotted it down in my dream journal.

Two days later, I injured one of my eyes in a freak accident that landed me in the hospital. I had lacerated the lacrimal caruncle (the little pink nodule in the inner corner of the eye). My vision was extremely fuzzy for several days. I had to use medicated eye drops for a while. I thought that the dream and the injury might have some connection. It was an interesting coincidence that I could not shake.

A few weeks later, a friend of mine, who is a well-known psychic in New York, stated that one of his clients had picked up on the pandemic years ago. But more importantly, this mysterious client had suggested that it all had something to do with the battle between Horus and Set — that the post-COVID-19 world would be a reflection of this myth. Horus might sit upon the throne of the world while Set is banished to the desert. I found this to be an interesting synchronicity.

As a side note, the Greeks associated Horus with Apollo. And it was Apollo, according to the Rosicrucians, who commanded the reformation of the world.

It is also curious that the winter solstice of 2020 will mark a conjunction of the planets Jupiter and Saturn in Aquarius. It is an auspicious astrological event. It dredges up that whole Age of Aquarius thing that you hear so much about. I am not going to speculate beyond this. That is dangerous territory. I am certainly no interpreter of divine revelations.

Horus was conceived when Isis had intercourse with the reassembled corpse of Osiris. A life born from death. Likewise, perhaps a New World can be reconstituted from the pieces of the Old World. But is that not what we are already doing? Society is constantly renewing itself upon the corpse of the past.

Like the reassembled corpse of Osiris, the spheres of the Tree of Life can be seen as a segmented cosmos that can be reassembled to create a New World. Like the sperm of Osiris or the acorn that falls from the mighty oak, the New World will be conceived from the seed of the Old World. That seed contains the genome of the Old World; however, the New World will have its own soul and spirit.

The world has come a long way since the Dark Ages. But we are very far from political and social perfection. We are very far from religious perfection. There is definitely not much collaboration between social classes. And there certainly is no ideal spiritual society as Andreae and Bacon envisioned.

During this pandemic, we have learned about the fragile nature of social constructs. Economies have been blown asunder like houses of straw. We are being forced to learn that “the love of money is the root of all evil.”

In a few short months, we have learned how vulnerable we are as individuals. While isolating ourselves, we have learned about the importance of community — to “love thy neighbor as thyself.”

It would seem that human hubris has been brought to its knees, for the time being.

So, what am I hopeful about? Well, I am hopeful about the spiritual work that my friend, Nkanwi Fokwa Ambe, is doing with his Spirituology movement in Africa. But that is the subject for a future article. I am also hopeful about the wonderful work that Sam Robinson is doing over at the Rosicrucian Tradition website.

Cure the Sick

Happy Easter!

I have been toying around with this article for awhile now. In the face of the pandemic, it seems appropriate to publish it.

One of the primary credos of the original Rosicrucians proclaimed: “none of them [Rosicrucians] should profess any other thing than to cure the sick.” As inheritors of the Rosicrucian tradition, we must take this tenet seriously if we wish to walk in the footsteps of our predecessors.

Healing is one of the cornerstones of the Rosicrucian tradition. Many early Rosicrucians, such as Adam Haslmayr, were Paracelsian doctors. And with alchemy as one of its main components, the Elixir of Life is part of the Rosicrucian mythos. The promise of healing and perfect health has always been there.

Many Rosicrucians, myself included, work in healthcare in order to fulfill this sacred obligation. Many of us are on the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic. I give kudos to all of my peers. Many of us practice traditions of metaphysical healing, such as laying on of hands and the popular system of reiki. Unfortunately, using these healing modalities is dangerous in the face of a contagious virus, as well as inapplicable in lieu of social distancing. Fortunately, an absentee healing list is a great way to go at this time. Despite all the criticism that it receives, AMORC maintains an absentee healing list known as the Council of Solace.

So, what should Rosicrucians do during the COVID-19 pandemic? First, it should go without saying that you should follow all of the recommendations of the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). And that means obeying social distancing. Keep yourself and others safe. Second, practice humanism and compassion. Be concerned for the welfare of your fellow human beings. Perhaps, it is not necessary to raid the stores for toilet paper, so other people can buy some too. Third, maintain a prayer list for those who are sick. Pray and meditate for their recoveries. Pray and meditate for the world to come out of this situation.

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The Tomb

Johannes Valentinus Andreae (1586 – 1654) was a German theologian, who wrote the Fama Fraternitatis (Fame of the Fraternity; 1614), a tale about a fictional sect of Christians known as the Rosicrucians, who were alchemists and magicians. According to the legend, a Catholic monk named Christian Rosenkreuz traveled to the Middle East, where he learned occult lore from the Muslims. He then returned to Europe where, unable to disseminate this information among the populace, he created a secret brotherhood. When Rosenkreuz died, at the age of 106, the location of his tomb was concealed from the records of the brotherhood.

According to the tale, the Rosicrucians constructed a building known as the Domus Sancti Spiritus (House of the Holy Spirit) that served as both church and college. A century downstream, a new generation of Rosicrucians was forced to renovate the aged structure, and therein discovered a secret door concealed behind a wall that bore the words: post 120 annos patebo (in 120 years shall I come forth). Behind the door was an elaborate seven-sided tomb that contained the remains of Christian Rosenkreuz. Also contained therein was the corpus of Rosicrucian lore.

As the Rosicrucians opened the door, divine light shone from the hexagonal chamber within. It resembled the türbék (6-8 sided mausoleums) that are prevalent in Asia Minor; this makes sense since Rosenkreuz is said to have spent much time there with the Muslims. The walls of the tomb represented the seven classical planets, as well as the seven alchemical stages. Each of the walls was also subdivided into a grid of 10 squares that represented the spheres of the cabalistic Tree of Life. The number 10 was also associated with the Pythagorean notion of perfection.

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Each wall was 8 feet tall and 5 feet wide – an area of 40 feet – a number associated with the spiritual renewal of the world. This is important as the main goal of the Rosicrucians was a social and religious reformation. Each wall also contained a cache of occult supplies, such as books, that could be used to reconstitute the brotherhood in case of its dissolution. Unlike the tomb in the tale with its 70 squares (10 squares per wall), the vault of the Golden Dawn tradition utilizes a matrix of 280 squares (40 squares per wall) to represent the elements, planets, et cetera.

The light that illuminated the tomb represented the Ain Soph Aur (Infinite Light) of the Kabbalah. At its center was a circular altar engraved with the words: hoc universi compendium unius mihi sepulchrum feci (I have made my tomb the one compendium of the universe). The circular altar was also engraved with four figures that represented the four Hermetic elements. It also represented the four archangels that surround the Throne of God. It is the four chambers of the human heart that contain the inner spirit of Christ that must be reawakened within each student.

The floor beneath the circular altar was inscribed with the names of infernal spirits that represented the darkness of the underworld. Located within a sarcophagus underneath the altar was the imperishable, preserved corpse of Rosenkreuz. It was between these polarities of light and darkness – life and dearth – that Christian Rosenkreuz slumbered. Like the divine king of the Arthurian romances, he was destined to arise when certain conditions in the world were appropriate for his return. Later students of the Rosicrucian tradition associated him with John the Evangelist, who is destined to return alongside Christ during the events of Revelation.

The tomb of Rosenkreuz was analogous with the tomb of Christ. While an earthquake had opened the tomb of Christ, construction had opened the tomb of Christian Rosenkreuz. It was a womb impregnated with an embryo that had to gestate for a certain amount of time – 120 years in this case. It was the sealed flask of the alchemist that is opened once the alchemical processes are complete. The homunculus that has grown therein is a new transfigured body that replaces the old profane body. Like the transfigured body of Christ, the transfigured body of Rosenkreuz was impervious to the entropic forces of decomposition.

Like the bulls sacrificed within the subterranean temples of Mithras, the corpse of Christian Rosenkreuz represented the sacrifice of the physical nature. He represented the Philosopher’s Stone that is said to be located in the interior of the earth. It was the corpse of Christian Rosenkreuz inside the sarcophagus that represented the eternal soul that awaits either judgment or reincarnation (depending upon your beliefs). The sarcophagus of Rosenkreuz represented the lower nature of man. It was the physical body formed from the dust of the ground (Genesis 2:7). It was the coffin that carried the corpse of Osiris down the Nile. It was also the Ark that carried Noah across the waters of the deluge.

While the tomb in the fictional Fama Fraternitatis was a vivid location that existed in the imagination of its author and readers, the Golden Dawn constructed their own version of the tomb that was used for initiation into the Portal grade. Some occultists believe that the tomb is a real place located at an undisclosed location in Europe. Harvey Spencer Lewis claimed that Rosenkreuz had been removed from the tomb and relocated to the western coast of the United States.[1] As Christ stated: “in my Father’s house are many mansions (John 14:2).” Those who have encountered the tomb of Rosenkreuz can attest to its existence as a spiritual location in one of the mansions of the inner planes.

Foot Notes:

[1] (…)

E

I was born and raised within a Gnostic sect. But when I was seventeen, I met a Rosicrucian named E, who worked as a philosophy instructor at my high school. I have no idea what he saw in me, but he took me under his wing. He exposed me to Neoplatonism and Christian Hermeticism. But his main shtick was Plato. He claimed that Plato was the foundation of western esotericism.

During his mentorship, I took on the role of a prisoner in Plato’s cave. E made me face the shadows of superficial truth that I had once embraced. He then showed me higher truths. Something within me awoke from a deep slumber. I could no longer see the world as I once had. It was a paradigm shift that I was hard pressed to resist. It continues to drive me forward two decades later. 

I attended his wedding that was held at a lavish Lutheran church. “E” then moved to the other side of the country. At this point all communication ceased. I felt a large degree of abandonment. Some students fail a test or trial that severs the link with their teacher. I have always pondered what misstep I might have taken. Nonetheless, this is how my journey down the path of Rosicrucianism began.