On this episode of The Sofa King Podcast, we look at a not-so-secret society that has been around for hundreds of years throughout all of the Western World: The Rosicrucians. They are often compared to the Freemasons and have some amazing world leaders, philosophers, and artists (I’m looking at you Gene Rodenberry) in their membership roster. However, unlike the Masons, they aren’t one unified group, but a smattering of over 30 different groups that believe similar things.

So what do they believe? It’s actually hard to say since that’s the secret part. What is known is that they believe in mastering all knowledge (scientific, spiritual, mystical, alchemical) in order to improve the self and those around them. Oh, and they believe in telepathy, ESP, psychic healing, auras and all sorts of interesting fringe stuff. The Rosiscrucians aren’t quite a religion, though they adhere to some of the tenants of major world religious systems. All of their secrecy and quest for knowledge goes back to their founder, Christian Rosenkreuz.

He was a German doctor who went on a quest to the Far East to master mysticism and other esoteric bodies of knowledge. When he returned, he was a changed man and established a secret order of 8 other physicians who swore to remain bachelors, vowed to cure the sick for free, and sought to learn the ways of alchemy and all things mystical and scientific. He died and was buried in a sanctum under the earth where he predicted he would be discovered 120 years later; according to Rosicrucian beliefs, that’s exactly what happened, and his body was in a perfect state and hadn’t decomposed.

That said, many people claim he was never a real person but was actually an allegory of traits and information that the Rosicrucians value. Either way, this possibly-fictional person had a very real impact on Europe for centuries. Everyone from René Descartes to Francis Bacon were followers, and it was a very hip thing to be a Rosicrucian. In America, the main body of them is the AMORC organization out of California. You can turn to them to learn the mystic arts of alchemy—all through online classes. How about that.

Home Study and Online Rosicrucian Lessons: https://www.rosicrucian.org/home-study-lessons

Obama’s Letter to the Rosicrucians: https://678d7c627720ddde2df2-c5b158543cb4b709e42fdf5583590d2f.ssl.cf5.rackcdn.com/2015_letter_from_president_barack_obama.jpg

Rosicrucian Manifesto Texts: http://www.sacred-texts.com/eso/ros/index.htm