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Golden Rosycross

rosicrucianism

Golden Rosycross / Lectorium Rosicrucianum

Jan van Rijckenborgh wrote considerable material about the topic of Rosicrucian and Gnostic approaches to spirituality. Jan Leene was his birth name, but he later created the Rijckenborgh identity for himself.

Rijckenborgh was heavily influenced by the Christian occultist and mystic Max Heindel. In time Rijckeborth, with others, founded the Lectorium Rosicrucianum. In time that would adopt the name and identity of the Golden Rosycross.

I was hungering for spiritual communion with others, and came out of my spiritual isolation to look for like minded people. Specifically I sought people who had a strong ethic, cautious of desires, and focused on Gnosticism (no dogma, no gurus, no masters). This group claimed to have all of this, and I was greatly impressed with their work.

The group has two main aspects: a public membership and a private one. The public member has no restriction, nor any requirements. They attend as they wish, and leave as they wish. No money is expected or asked of the public member. The private member is initiated into aspects within the order. The 2nd aspect is the beginning of the private membership, where one adopts a vegetarian lifestyle, refuses to wear leather, and commits to personal study and Gnosis.

All public books and materials are offered for free. The only private book I know of, is the Rosa Mystica, which is offered for free to private members. The Rosa Mystica is a mystical work that one uses in their daily meditation – although we shouldn’t call it meditation as they object to the word.

The organization offers a plethora of topics on YouTube for free as well. They also provide a live Zoom discussion each Sunday. At the end of each month there is a special 3 day meeting (Friday – Sunday) called a Renewal. This is sometimes physical, but all the time online.

When I see other organizations that claim “high costs” for online presence, I roll my eyes as I know most if not all of it can be done for little to no cost. Consider how the Golden Rosycross offer so much for so little. They even offer their foundational books for free download.

In practice there are costs to the Golden Rosycross. Once one becomes a 2nd aspect member they agree to pay a monthly donation. I believe it’s around $75/mo and during a physical renewal meeting (3+ times a year) it’s a bit more that month to cover overhead costs. Again this cost is for 2nd aspect and above, and not requested of public members.

My feelings about the 2nd aspect changed when I felt a bit of deception. As the reader can clearly see, I’ve been in many groups and I’ve had various issues. One issue is the time and money commitment a group imposes on me. Before my 2nd aspect initiation I was very clear in asking about the requirements for physical attendance. I was told that physical attendance was not a requirement. Right before my initiation, however, they had a presentation where they stated that since the pandemic was lifting, everyone who can physically attend a meeting must now do so. I also attended a physical meeting, but didn’t stay the entire weekend. I went home at the end of day 1 of a 3 day retreat (to watch online) and got a lot of stink eye. People openly objected to me doing that. I felt slighted, because I was so clear with the leadership. Sending an email to the local leadership, I requested my initiation not go forward as I wouldn’t be able to meet this requirement (to be physically present during a physical renewal). To my surprise they had a meeting with me to tell me it is not what I thought, and I was mistaken. I couldn’t see how I was mistaken. It was so clear from others. But they insisted there was no requirement for me to physically show up for a weekend retreat. Going along with the initiation I felt great. The personal practice was going along and then came the email. An email, ironically sent from the very leader who told me there was no requirement for physical attendance, stated that each aspect member was required to submit to a new ruling: we had to be physically present at least 3 times a year and each time it had to be 3-5 days on site. This new requirement was for building and repairing the physical space.

This very fluid level of truth was the first step of discontent. After I withdrew back to the public level of involvement, I began to see other issues I had with the content. I never really clicked fully with Rjickenborgh. His views were extreme and often wrong. He claimed that meditation and yoga were the greatest wrongs ever put on mankind. The very word “meditation,” was anathema to the organization… during a topic a team member went on about how meditation was bad and that instead we should: quiet the mind, observe the breath, be mindful of the present moment… and proceeded to describe the very act of meditation. I asked politely why meditation was “bad” if what he described as a practice seemed to be so closely related to meditation. He, and the team, had no answer. That’s when I realized that they followed dogma… because Rjickenborgh said it, it became law.

Later on, other beliefs regarding the body fluids felt off to me. They held that the physical blood was a conduit for spiritual growth. Rjickenborgh claimed that an organ behind the sternum secreted a substance into the blood, and this substance carried with it the connection we have with the Divine. Once a day (24 hours) the liver system (the seat of the ego, according to Rjickenborgh) filtered this God particle out of the bodily system. This led to adoption of ideas that organ donation and transplants would interfere with the spiritual life.

In the end it didn’t feel like a right fit. I still attend public meetings from time to time, and I’m open to read some of Rjickenborgh’s writings, but over all I had to mentally move on from some of the dogma espoused by the man.