Towards a New Jerusalem: A Gathering of Jacobites, Scottish Rite-Rosicrucian Freemasons, Moravians, Sabbatian Jews and the Father of Theosophy Part IV
By Cynthia Chung
‘Rosicrucian’ in this purely historical sense represents a phase in the history of European culture which is intermediate between the Renaissance and the so-called scientific revolution of the seventeenth century. It is a phase in which the Renaissance Hermetic-Cabalist tradition has received the influx of another Hermetic tradition, that of alchemy. The ‘Rosicrucian manifestos’ are an expression of this phase, representing, as they do, the combination of ‘Magia, Cabala, and Alchymia’ as the influence making for the new enlightenment.
– Frances Yates “The Rosicrucian Enlightenment” (1978)
This is Part IV in the series “Towards a New Jerusalem”. Refer here for Part I, Part II and Part III.
Towards a New Jerusalem: A Gathering of Jacobites, Scottish Rite-Rosicrucian Freemasons, Moravians, Sabbatian Jews and the Father of Theosophy
Towards a New Jerusalem: A Gathering of Jacobites, Scottish Rite-Rosicrucian Freemasons, Moravians, Sabbatian Jews and the Father of Theosophy Part II
Tiberius’ Temple of Apollo: From Clairvaux’s Templars & Erotic Mysticism to Zinzendorf’s Moravian Brotherhood & the Sex Cult Communes
According to the work of Francis Yates, who is treated as an authority on Rosicrucian history, it was the work of John Dee, court astronomer and advisor to Queen Elizabeth I, which formed the center and impetus of the Rosicrucian movement. This movement, as Yates acknowledges herself, was crucial for the ‘alchemical’ transition from the Renaissance teachings into what became the Enlightenment. In other words, its explicit purpose was to move away from the classical Christian teachings and towards a Hermetic-Cabalistic interpretation of what is knowledge and wisdom and spirituality which would bring forth the period of the so-called “Enlightenment.”
Thus, through this lens, the Rosicrucian movement can be understood as a revolutionary movement in thought which would encourage the combination of “Magia, Cabala and Alchymia” into the newly forming concept of the “natural sciences.”
These teachings would shape the basis for the modern education system, a system of “universal education” that was first promoted by the Rosicrucians and their followers. John Amos Comenius (1592-1670), a member of the Bohemian Brethren (predecessors to the Moravian Brethren), also held Rosicrucian (and Jesuitical) teachings at the core of his lessons and was one of the earliest champions of “universal education.” Comenius had apparently rejected an offer from Harvard to take up the presidency of the newly founded university – wanting to focus on his contribution to the British Invisible College, a Rosicrucian project, instead.
It was Comenius who would create the “Hidden Seed” as the inner core teachings of the Moravian Brethren who would arise out of the ashes of the Thirty Years War. Only the teachings of Comenius remained. After the disastrous Thirty Years War (1618-1648), to which Comenius lived through, with Catholics largely massacring Protestants, the Bohemian Brethren were almost entirely destroyed and were forced to go underground for decades, until Count Zinzendorf (1700-1760) took the helm and they relocated to the lands of Moravia.
As discussed in Part I and Part II of this series, the concept of “Holy Sin” was advanced by Sabbatai Zevi and would be continued by his followers who called themselves Sabbatians. This warping of what was considered “holy” and “sacred” was made possible only after what appears to be a calculated persecution of the Jews – which was occurring in Spain under the Spanish Inquisition while simultaneously massive Jewish pogroms were conducted in Poland beginning the year 1648 by the Cossacks as well as the Jesuits which resulted in pushing Eastern Jews deeper into mysticism. As David Bakan observes in his book “Sigmund Freud and the Jewish Mystical Tradition” (2004), this outcome was a rather predictable one:
Two major currents run through the history of the Jews. One, which we have been discussing, is the mystical. The other, associated with the characteristic pattern of Jewish self-government, is the rabbinic. In terms of written documents, the Zohar was the most important support of the mystical current, and the Talmud was the most important support for the rabbinic current. The mystical mood has tended to verge on apostasy and heresy especially in face of persecution.
…as life grew darker for the Jews of Eastern Europe in the seventeenth century, the conflict between mysticism and rabbinism grew….The critical question was, of course, why God should so abuse His chosen people.
In order to resolve this paradox, many Jews began to believe that the pogroms along with their hardship and suffering must be God’s will, and should be seen as a form of cleansing, a purge, before the return of the Messiah.
Bakan continues:
Although the mystics agreed that the Jews had defected from the Covenant, they felt it was not because of lack of conscientiousness, but rather because of lack of appropriate understanding. The Torah was but the outward form of the Covenant, and deeper forms of interpretation were required. Thus, Kabbala, and in particular the Zohar, showed the way by which the underlying meaning of the Torah could be understood. The Torah was taken as a grand cryptogram to be deciphered by a variety of semi-rationalistic and mystical-intuitive devices.
…The set of events which surrounded the personality and acts of Sabbatai Zevi, the “false Messiah,” was of the deepest moment for the psychological and emotional patterns of the Jews in the modern period. Sabbatia Zevi may have been psychotic, as [Gershom] Scholem suggests.…The fact remains that to the Jews of the world, he was for a time the Messiah.
Sabbatai Zevi (1626-1676) would announce himself as the Jewish Messiah at the end of the year 1648, the very year that the Jewish pogroms in Poland took place. Zevi would teach to his followers the concept of “Holy Sin” that he claimed was necessary to bring about the new Millenium.
Jacob Frank (1726-1791) would be the next significant leader of the Sabbatians, who claimed himself as the reincarnation of Zevi and thus the Messiah. Frank would push the teachings of “Holy Sin” even further, including ritualized orgies, incestuous acts and the deliberate violation of Jewish moral laws, which he again preached were necessary to hasten a messianic redemption through embracing the “abyss” of sin.[1] [2]
Frank would work closely with Zinzendorf’s Moravians, and would in fact encourage his followers to become apostates like Zevi, but this time, promoting conversion into the Moravian sect. This will be discussed further in a future instalment.
Thus, there is a great deal of overlap as we will see between the Sabbatians, the Moravians and the Rosicrucians.
In fact, 1648 would be an important year for the persecution of Christians as well. More specifically Protestant Christians that were persecuted during the Thirty Years War, but especially within the region of Bohemia, the home of the Bohemian Brethren, predecessors of the Moravian Brethren. Approximately 8-12 million deaths occurred during the Thirty Years War – where Catholics and Protestants butchered each other. Millions of Protestants were massacred, terrorised and tortured by the Habsburg Empire.
However, what dealt the greatest blow to the Protestant hope was the promise of a Utopia that would be brought forth by their Winter King and Queen of Bohemia, Elector Palatine Frederic V and Elizabeth Stuart. As Francis Yates make the point in her book “The Rosicrucian Enlightenment” (1978), the Rosicrucian manifestos Fama and Confessio, and what many recognise to be the third manifesto The Chemical Wedding, were referring to a New Dawn that would be brought forth into the world through the marriage of Frederic V and Elizabeth Stuart specifically.
According to Yates, it appears the stage was already set for what Frederic V and Elizabeth Stuart would walk into. Convinced to accept the crown of Bohemia, becoming the Winter King and Queen, they had foolishly accepted a crown that was meant to sit on a Habsburg head. Not even Queen Elizabeth I had accepted such an offer.[3] This would seal the cursed fate of this Utopian dream and set Bohemia ablaze for it was this conflict that would launch the Thirty Years War.
However, out of the ashes would rise the Moravian Brethren and the immortalised Rosicrucian teachings of John Dee, engrained in the hearts of those who vowed their time would come where the mysteries and Magia of Bohemia would rise up like a phoenix and harken a New Golden Age.
Perhaps that was the point all along…
A Chemical Wedding: The Winter King and Queen of Bohemia
The rest of the article is available on Cynthia’s substack Through A Glass Darkly:
