Nil mortalibus, ardum est.
THERE IS NO DIFFICULTY TO HIM WHO TRULY WILLS!
Whatever of good or great man has ever done, may still be accomplished by you and I, my brother, if we only think so, and set about in right good earnest, and no mistake. TRY! We proclaim the OMNIPOTENCE OF WILL! and we declare practically, and by our own achievements demonstrate, the will of man to be a supreme and all-conquering force when once fairly brought into play, but this power is only negatively strong when exerted for merely selfish or personal ends; when or wherever it is called into action for good ends, nothing can withstand its force. Goodness is Power; wherefore we take the best of care to cultivate the normal will, and thus render it a mighty and powerful engine for Positive Good. You cannot deceive a true Rosicrucian, for he soon learns how to read you through and through, as if you were a man of glass; and he attains this power by becoming a Rosicrucian only, nor can it be had through any other means whatever. The Temple teaches its acolytes how to rebuild this regal faculty of the human soul—the will; how to strengthen, purify, expand, and intensify it; and one of the first results observable after a man has become a true Rosicrucian, is that his vanity grows smaller by degrees, and beautifully less; for the first thing he fully realizes is that all he knows would probably make quite a large book, but that all he does not know would make a book considerably larger, and he therefore sets himself to learn. Where there’s a will there’s a way; and after getting rid of self-conceit, the man finds himself increasing in mental stature by imperceptible gradations, and finds himself a learned man by a process which he cannot fairly comprehend, and one which is neither appreciated or known outside of the Temple.
As a consequence of travelling on this royal road to knowledge, the Rosicrucian soon learns to despise the weakness of wickedness, not by reason of any long-faced cant being poured into his ear, but because he finds out practically that manhood and virtue are safe investments, while badness or meanness won’t pay. It is the universal testimony of all who have become true Rosicrucians, that within its symbolic walls there is a deeply mysterious influence for good pervading its atmosphere, under which every man of the Order becomes rapidly but normally individualized and intensified in character, manhood, and influence.
VII. The doors of our Lodges are never closed against the honest, honorable or aspiring man; nor can any earthly potentate, no wielder of an empire’s sceptre, no wearer of a kingly crown, gain admission by reason of his eminence; for though he be a king, he may not be a MAN, a title far above all others on the earth—a title nobler than any other ever earned by mortals! We Rosicrucians are proud of our eminence—and justly so—for we are a Brotherhood of Men! and recognize MANHOOD as the true kingship; hence we honor that man highest who knows the most, and puts his knowledge to the highest and noblest uses, not only toward his brothers, but in any field in the world’s great garden, for are not we all brethren? Does not the one great God rule over and love us? Even so! No man can enter our doors by reason of his wealth, for riches, unless put to manly uses, are detrimental;—bad—positively injurious! No man can enter our doors by reason of his fame, politics, or religion. The Order has nothing to do with a man’s politics or religion, and it matters not what a man’s creed is, so long as he IS A MAN. The Baptist is welcome, but not as a Baptist; and so with men of all other faiths. No religion, no faith, no politics can be discussed from our platform, nor will their introduction be tolerated one moment. We accept men of all creeds, except such as outrage decency, manhood, sound morals, and public order, such as Free Lovers, Mormons, and birds of that feather; nor can any such person enter our ranks, no matter who he may be, or how high in fame or social place. No man is barred out of our Temple by reason of his poverty, for physical beggars are often kings in mind. All we ask or seek for in a man is HONOR, HONESTY, and ambition to KNOW MORE AND BE BETTER.
Usually the Lodges of Rosicrucia meet once a week to hear lectures, exchange courtesies, thoughts, news; to listen to invited guests, debate questions in art, science, and philosophy; to mutually inform and strengthen each other; to investigate any and all subjects of a proper nature, and to cultivate that manly spirit and chivalric bearing which so well entitles their possessor to be called A MAN. These are a few of the good things of Rosicrucia. We seek no man—men seek us. Our facilities for obtaining knowledge and information on all subjects are, as may well be conceived, unsurpassed—unequalled. Financially we are satisfied. A Temple of Rosicrucia never yet felt the pressure of an exhausted exchequer, and probably never will. But this last is the least commendable thing about the Institution; yet it uses money for good purposes, and therefore has its chest supplied. All other essential information respecting the Order can be obtained BY TRYING!
It will be seen that there is nothing magical here, yet I do not doubt but the members could tell strange stories if they chose.
Many, but by no means all, the Alchemists and Hermetic Philosophers were acolytes of that vast secret Brotherhood, which has thrived from the earliest ages, and, under different names in different lands, has performed, is still performing its mission. The members of this mystic union were the Magi of old, who flourished in Chaldea (Mesopotamia) ages before one of their number (Heber) left his native plains, and on foreign soil founded the Hebraic confederation. They were the original Sabi and Sabeans, who for long ages preceded the Sages of Chaldea. They were the men who founded that Semitic civilization, the faint shade of which we find, having leaped long avenues of centuries, in the mouldy records of early China, itself numbering its years by the thousand. Of this great Brotherhood sprung Brahma, Buddha, La-otze, Zoroaster, Plato, the Gnostics, the Essenes, and therefore Christ himself—who was an Essene, and who preached the sacred doctrines of the Mountain of Light. They were the Dreamers of the ages—the sun of the epochs—eclipsed occasionally, but anon bursting forth in glory again. They were the men who first discovered the significance of Fire; and that there was something deeper than Life in man; profounder than Intellect in the universe. Whatever of transcendant light now illumes the world, comes from the torches which they lit at the Fountain whence all light streameth upon that mystic mountain which they alone had courage and endurance to climb, and climbed, too, over a ladder whose rungs were centuries apart. Hermes Trismegistus, Egypt’s mighty king, and that other Hermes (Asclepius IX.), was an adept, a brother, and a Priest—as was Malki Zadek before him—that famous Pre-Adamite monarch, that Melchisedek, who was reputed to have been born of a Thought, and to have lived for countless ages. And so with the Greek Mercurius. Theirs, too, was that wondrous learning wherein Moses was skilled; and at their fountain the Hebrew Joseph drank. Nothing original in Thaumaturgy, Theology, Philosophy, Psychology, Entology, and Ontology, but they gave it to the world; and when Philosophers thought they had gained new thoughts and truths, the records of the Order prove them to have been old ages before the Adamic era of Chronology, and to have been the common property of the adepts.
I have been led into these remarks and explanations, first, for the purpose of finally and authoritatively settling the vexed question concerning the Rosicrucians, and to throw light on that which is to follow.