And an Examination of Sophia from Past Orders to the Present

Today’s post is dedicated to friends and unveiling the Sophia of the Rosicrucians.

We are quite lucky here in our community. Several members from various Orders are working together, opening up communication, and if this continues then these are fascinating days.

Members of the Rosicrucian Fellowship, the Confraternity of the Rose Cross, the SRIA, the Golden Dawn and the Martinist Order have all come together to read these blog post and exchange their thoughts, shedding light on what is shared here through fragments from their own teachers.

This could not have happened before, as students were perhaps too dogmatic, holding onto just one teacher, be it Steiner, or Heindel, or Harvey Spencer Lewis etc. Now things are changing, and we are finding open minded people, from each stream, willing to bond in true Rosicrucian friendship.

Pansophy seems to be the interest that binds us. People of various traditions are interested in their more ancient roots and I believe we are shedding light on tradition without the dogma.

I’ve been posting about the Pillars of the R.C Tradition, being Christosophia, Trinosophia and Pansophia; a return to which can only help enrich our Rosicrucian studies. As always, Sophia is at the heart of it.

Most mainstream Rosicrucian students are not aware of the full Sophia connection, so in this post I’ll lay the foundations for further avenues of study to help broaden your Rosicrucian adventure.

Now, a Robinson sweeping statement:

Sophia is absolutely important to the manifestos,

As without her we cannot understand the Fama or the Chemical Wedding.

In fact without Sophia the manifestos are gibberish.

I’ll explain this in a moment.

Firstly, we must ask: ‘how exactly did Sophia become a part of the Rosicrucian mysteries?’

It all begins with Jacob Boehme, who wrote extensively of her, and his student, friend and publisher Frankenburg who established a Rosicrucian group in Silesia known as the Pansophic Circle.

From there they prepared a manuscript known as D.O.M.A, which was later used to establish the Golden Rosenkreuzer Order of Germany in the 1700’s by Renatus. It too mentions ‘Pansophia’ as does the Rosenkreuzer version; meaning that many Golden Dawn influences trace back to Frankenburg’s group.

Or in other words: Pansophy is at the origins for today’s Rosicrucian currents.

You’ve seen me write of Pansophy several times before. What happened through Frankenburg is that he tied together the Theosophy of Boehme with the Rosicrucian manifestos. Suddenly the Venus of the Chemical Wedding becomes something far more special.

The Pansophic legend is born! To explain this let’s briefly look at Boehme’s ideas; as through his internal drama of mysticism we read that our ego quality known as the ‘Fallen Adam’ must die and become entombed within, leading to the forever dying state Second Adam. This inner Second Adam must then attain and invite Sophia to attend, so that ‘we may become pregnant with Christ within.’

Thus if you’ve read the Fama and the Chemical Wedding, then the symbols of the Tomb of CRC and the later appearance of Venus are illuminated here through the mysticism of Boehme!

That is exactly what I meant with the above bold statement; that without Sophia the manifestos are gibberish. The more you understand Sophia through Boehme the more the Rosicrucian manifestos .

Frankenburg knew this hence the D.O.M.A Rosicrucian manuscript although filled with beautiful Rosicrucian diagrams also quotes Boehme throughout to fill you in.

As you can see in the above D.O.M.A image of Sophia she is nourishing the Great Work through the milk of her breast. The same image appears in ‘Secret Symbols of the Rosicrucians’ later presented by Sincerus Renatus in 1785, which was a founding document to the GuRC.

In fact the D.O.M.A ties Frankenburg’s Pansophy Circle directly to the Gold und Rosenkreuzer Order. Why is this important? Well… as you’ll see the Golden Dawn also uses such a Sophia format, although veiled. The Golden Dawn is also based upon the Golden Rosenkreuzers, through using the same grade structure but there are a lot of veiled Rosenkreuzer ideas that saturate the G.D, that many are unaware of.

Actually, as early as the 12th century diagrams appeared depicting Sophia nourishing the seven liberal arts. Typically the seven virtues are attributed to the seven planets. You can almost see a Tree of Life diagram being drawn over this Sophia image, the head of each female could be one of the sephiroth.

The Veiled Sophia Diagram of the Modern Rosicrucians

Now we get to the juicy bit. Most Rosicrucian students would be aware that the Tarot cards are attributed to the paths of the Tree of Life. What most people don’t know is that the above Rosenkreuzer diagram of Sophia has been continued within the modern Rosicrucian system.

The diagram below highlights the goddess images that are in perfect harmony on the Tree.

These are the: Empress, Priestess, Temperance, Justice and World cards, all featuring Sophia.

It should be noted that this is the Pansophic system, which is slightly different than the Golden Dawn version. I previously described how the Star and Moon cards were switched in Germany in this post.

Here below you’ll also note that the Strength and Justice cards are switched as well, which follows the original pre-G.D European ordering of the cards on the Tree of Life.

A clever person will be able to glean much from such a layout. This is a Sophianic Mystery!

Soon I’ll do a video describing what we call ‘The Paths of the Goddess’ in Pansophy.

For now, just consider the position of the High Priestess and the Empress cards.

The Priestess is attributed to the Moon and the Empress to Venus. These combine to make our Rosicrucian Sophia, positioned in a higher realm in the Tree of Life, where Sophia truly belongs.

Look at how she hovers above Tiphareth, Sophia awaiting her partner, the Second Adam, who shall then impregnate her so that she may give birth to Christ within. It is quite clear now why the Fama was published before the Chemical Wedding. Someone understood the mystery very well.

Bear in mind the Hebrew letter of the Empress card is Daleth. And Daleth means door.

In the Chemical Wedding manifesto we read of three important details on Day Five:

A door appears.

“ Now after this DOOR was opened , the page led me by the hand through a very dark passage, till we came again to a very little door, that was only now put to; for (as my page informed me) it was first opened yesterday when the coffins were taken out, and had not since been shut.”

A Holy Grail appears. It’s made from copper which is the metal of Venus.

“Now as soon as we stepped in, I saw the most precious thing that Nature ever created….. the main and most glorious thing that I saw here was a sepulcher, which stood in the middle…. This sepulchre was triangular, and had in the middle of it a vessel of polished copper; the rest was of pure gold and precious stones. In the vessel stood an Angel, who held in his arms an unknown tree, which continually dropped fruit into the vessel; and as often as the fruit fell into the vessel, it turned into water…”

Venus herself appears.

“Then I saw a rich bed ready-made, hung about with curious curtains, one of which he drew aside, where I saw the Lady Venus stark naked lying there in such beauty….

Now, unless I’m crazy, there appears to be layer upon layer of support for the Pansophic legend cycle.

Clearly on the Tree of Life she appears not unlike that Sophia virgin who nourishes the female seven virtues below with her divine milk, yet instead of the virtues she nourishes the spheres.

In the Golden Rosenkreuzer diagram (above left) she was shown to nourish the alchemical work which has been alchemically ‘opened’ via separation. All the elements have been opened up to purification. If you look at the layout of Sophia on the Pansophic Tree you’ll see that the Universe card takes on this role as the bottom card.

Thus on the Pansophic Tree you’ll note there are two elements of the old diagrams at work.

The Priestess and Empress cards take on the position of the Sophia mother who nourishes the lower virtues or spheres with her Wisdom, as these cards appear a the top like the heavenly Sophia pouring down her divine milk.

The lower Universe card also depicts a woman, who holds an ‘alchemically opened field’ or matrix of planets and powers. In the Rosenkreuzer diagram the circles within the matrix rings show the elements that need alchemical purification. On the universe card she is depicted with the powers opened through a seven pointed star and a ring of twelve signs. The planet of alchemical calcination is Saturn; the sign of the Universe card.

In total the old Rosenkreuzer and Pansophic ideas have been hung upon the Tree of Life.

Or as we understand it; the Pansophic Tree of Life as used presently in Germany (corrected form the Golden Dawn version) is a continuation of those ideas of the tradition presented in the D.O.M.A manuscript.

To date, no-one has mentioned this layer to the Tree of Life. As I said the Rosenkreuzer ideas still saturate the modern Rosicrucian systems. Best understood by really looking at our roots.

All of the ‘Paths of Sophia on the Tree of Life’ above display an interaction which requires further study. Cleary the Justice card is balancing a harmony between the pillars as well. My video will tell all soon.

Note that the approach given here is also not Golden Dawn. Neither is it Martinists.

In the process of my Reviews of the Rosicrucian Orders, we are also heading towards an ideal model. The purpose of the Reviews is to reconnect with our lovely tradition.

The Amorc and Martinist Reviews have left some clues on the path to take. Especially if we are to truly operate a Rosicrucian system that we may say ‘yes, this is what the Rosicrucian founders envisioned .’

Few Orders fit the bill and the upcoming Golden Dawn Review will revolt some and delight others.

The approach outlined here is not G.D or Martinist in so much as it is a combination of both ideas. This post looks at the whole picture through a blend between the G.D Tree of Life and Boehme’s Sophianism which influenced both the Rosenkreuzers and Martinism. Without reconnecting to the roots though such ideas are ‘hidden’.

Thus, as a teacher I can definitely say: I already strongly believe that a positive way forwards is to combine the Martinist and Golden Dawn teachings into a singular outlook.

But that cannot be done without Pansophy. Clearly Pansophy paints the full picture, as can be seen here. And believe me, I’m only just warming things up towards a truly Pansophic Rosicrucian model for today.

Upcoming blog post:

Hey Amorc is your fly undone? The Martinist Order of the Golden Dawn? Pansophic Tree of Life Video. Rosicrucian Apron Video. Golden Dawn Review in five posts.

Stay tuned, and please leave your thoughts, comments, likes & shares 🙂

Samuel Robinson.

Poohbah Deluxe

