The Rosicrucians: Their Rites and Mysteries

Hargrave Jennings was a nineteenth century English writer and occultist. His vision of the inner knowledge of the Rosicrucians in this book is, at its core, very similar to that of the left-hand Tantric path. In some ways he was very reactionary; for instance, he rejects the decipherment of Egyptian hieroglyphs and the atomic theory of the elements. In other ways, he was far in advance of his time in his concepts of the roles of gender and sexuality in the quest for spiritual perfection.

You won't find much in the way of historical description of the Rosicrucians here. Key Rosicrucian documents such as the Fama Fraternatis, Chemical Wedding of Christian Rosenkrueutz and Confessio Fraternatis (see Waite's The Real History of the Rosicrucians) are not even mentioned. Nor will you find any disclosure of inner secrets. Jennings constantly drops hints that he knows more than he is letting on, but states up-front that he is not an initiate. Jennings believed that the doctrines of the Rosicrucians were derived from ancient phallic worship, and to a lesser extent fire and serpent worship. In this book, Jennings constructs elaborate and constantly shifting sets of correspondences. He tries to interrelate huge sets of symbols and objects in his search for the elusive Rosicrucians. This is not a mainstream concept of the Rosicrucian doctrine, and contemporaries such as A.E. Waite summarily dismissed Jennings' theories.

About Author:

Hargrave Jennings (1817-1890) was a British Freemason, Rosicrucian, author on occultism and esotericism, and amateur student of comparative religion.