The Aesthetic Rose+Croix Order of the Temple and the Grail
“Ad Rosam per Crucem, ad Crucem per Rosam. In eaeis gemmatus, resurgam.
Non Nobis, Non Nobis, Domine. Sed nominis tui gloriae solae.”
"Art is the Servant of the Gnosis"From the earliest known appearance of human beings art has accompanied religious ritual. The oldest-known musical instruments are around 42,000 years old, demonstrating that there was already a well-established musical tradition when modern humans colonized Europe (at least 30,000 years before agriculture and 35,000 years before the earliest known writing systems). Some of the most ancient instruments were found in the painted caves of the French Pyrenees, which were sanctuaries for the earliest known initiation rituals. These temple-caves are the first known evidence of man’s capacity to create Beauty and of his higher aspiration.
From its earliest-known appearance in prehistoric temple-caves, music has been inseparable from the world’s oldest rituals, spiritual traditions, and sacred writings. The Vedas, the oldest scriptures of Hinduism, contain hymns for sacrifice and praise. Music was a great part of the religious rites and processions of the Hebrews. In the golden age of Hebrew music and poetry, the Temple of Solomon was the great school of music, and it was the holy Tribe of Levi (those who carry out the religious duties) who provided music for the procession of the Ark of the Covenant. The Greeks used music and song in the public worship of the Gods. From the earliest recorded times, music plays a central role in religious rites, and the priest-musician is found in practically every civilization. It was through music that the doctrine of the immortal soul was introduced to western humanity. It was introduced by Orpheus. In the Eleusinian Mysteries instituted following Orpheus, the combination of music, poetry, and drama used in the reenactment of sacred myths was so aesthetically powerful that it produced in the celebrants all of the internal emotions and sensations that one feels when deeply moved, awed, and inspired by a masterpiece of art. Aristotle said of the Mysteries that “the initiates are not to learn anything, but they are to be affected and put into a certain frame of mind.” When ancient initiates experienced exaltation, the movement of something invisible within them confirmed to them the existence of the immortal soul. Celebrants of the Mysteries experienced a direct, personal, spiritual insight. The Orphic initiate Pythagoras established music as a physical manifestation of universal spiritual principles. The division of sound into discreet pitches represents that Gnostic duality of Spirit and Matter in the forms of Limit and Unlimitedness, respectively. Limit is the ordering principle (spirit), which acts upon Unlimitedness (matter), just as Number (mathematical ratios) divides the continuum of sound into the pitches of a musical scale. The Orphic initiate Plato said that the fall of the Athenians began when they abandoned ancient musical laws, and began to favor what appealed to mass consumption over true musical science. With the rise of the Roman Empire, followed by the Barbarian invasions, the arts and sciences were destroyed, along with the temples where they were taught. Even the basic principles of harmony, which Pythagoras had derived from immutable laws of nature, were altered by those who would silence the powerful songs of Greece. But in that darkness of the Middle Ages the Troubadours won back music’s power. For three centuries their songs inspired mankind with a spirit of chivalry and love. The ancient musical tradition was revived during the Italian Renaissance when the remains of ancient Greek culture were brought together under the House of Medici. In Florence, 1577-1582, a group of humanists, musicians, poets and intellectuals gathered as the “Florentine Camerata” to discuss and guide trends in the arts, especially in music and drama. To restore the expressive power of music, the leading philosophers of the Renaissance revived principles of ancient Greek music that had been completely extinct for a thousand years. Their purpose was to inspire humanity to reason and self-awareness. Marsilio Ficino was central in this movement, and it was through him that the doctrine of the immortality of the soul, which had been neglected by Christian theologians, again became central to religious thought. Today, L'Ordre de la Rose+Croix Esthétique du Temple et du Graal carries forward the tradition that Art plays an important role in the spiritual regeneration and healing of humanity, and that Art declares the existence of God and the immortality of the soul. As Joséphin Péladan wrote: “Artist, you are a priest: Art is the great mystery and, when your effort leads to a masterpiece, a ray of the divine shines down as on an altar… Artist, you are a magus. Art is the great miracle and proves our own immortality.” 
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L'Ordre de la Rose+Croix Esthétique du Temple et du Graal (the Aesthetic Rose+Croix Order of the Temple and the Grail), also known as the Aesthetic Rose+Croix (ARC), is an Order of Chivalry existing under the triple banner of the Rosicrucian Order, the Templars, and the Grail Mysteries. Purpose
The purpose of the Order is:
Chivalric Order Chivalry is a code of conduct associated with the medieval institution of Knighthood, which promotes spiritual, moral and social virtues, such as charity, nobility, fidelity, and uprightness. The ARC was consecrated as a Chivalric Order under the authority of the Gnostic Catholic Apostolic Church of North America, which is holder of the apostolic succession of Evodus, first Patriarch of Antioch. 
Teachings
The underlying nature of our work is traditional Rosicrucianism, which is nothing other than esoteric Christianity. We use the mystic symbol of “the rose upon the cross” to represent the inner Christ waiting to unfold within us and perfume our lives with its fragrance. We study and highly value the teachings of Christian Mysticism, the Kabbalah, Martinism, Alchemy, and Hermeticism. These subjects also comprise the teachings of our Order and form the basis of the Lessons given to its Members. The teachings of the Aesthetic Rose+Croix emphasize the aesthetic and mystic principles of the Greek schools of Orpheus, Pythagoras, and Plato; their revivals in the Hermetic philosophies of the Renaissance; and modern research concerning art and the Mysteries. Membership
The ARC and its Initiatic Orders are open to any man or woman over 21 years of age whose character exhibits the chivalric ideals of charity, nobility, fidelity, and uprightness, and who, through his or her talent and intellect, can support and advance the purpose of the Order. The candidate must affirm a belief in God, a Divine Intelligence or a Supreme Power. The ARC is ecumenical, and does not restrict membership to a single Church or religion. The ARC is in full communion with the French Gnostic Church and the Ordre Martiniste of North America. Members are not required to affiliate with these organizations. However, members should at least become acquainted with their basic history and doctrines. The ARC does not discriminate on the basis of race, ethnicity, sex, sexual orientation, nationality, political ideology, class, or social condition. Each member is free to decide, at any time, whether he or she wishes to continue studies and may, with a simple written notice, defer studies, or resign altogether from the Order. Initiations and studies are entirely free of charge. Structure
The Aesthetic Rose+Croix (ARC) is comprised of an exterior Chivalric Order (the Rosicrucian Order of the Temple and the Grail), and interior Rose+Croix degrees. The Degrees of the Chivalric Order are:
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"As certain also of your own poets have said.” Acts xvii. 28.
Living masters of the lyre! Ye who feel celestial fire, Priests, whose sacrifice are songs, Poets! –unto you belongs Privilege on earth to be, (If your harps to heaven are true,) Laureates of eternity, Chanting more than Homer knew. Magic, mystery, and might, Such as charm our earth-bound sight, From the ocean, sky, and air Kindle poetry and prayer, When, by inspiration fraught Pure as God and genius bring,-- Bards in Nature’s realm have sought What no sensual harpers sing. Hue, and harmony, and grace Featured on Creation’s face; Beauty, grandeur, love and light, Beaming Day and dark-brow’d Night,-- To the Poets of the Lord Sacramental ever prove, Touch’d by that transforming Word, Binding earth with heaven above. Signs and symbols Nature hath Scattered o’er her mystic path, Like a wordless Bible, preaching What no Science can be teaching While, unread in heavenly lore, She but scans what He has made,-- Seldom yearning to adore God in His Own work array’d. If in realms of heart and home Fancy-dreams delight to roam, Tinging all with hues of song Which to poet-worlds belong, Let your lyric numbers roll With a cadence pure and high,-- Chanting His divine control Watching man with sleepless eye. But, how dread your boundless loss ! If beneath th’ almighty Cross, Strains of more melodious worth Than attuned by choral Earth, -- Kindle no enraptur’d spell To the praise of Him who died, Vanquishing both death and hell On that Cross when crucified. Priests of melody, and song, Unto Christ your harps belong In Whose glories faith can see Hopes which fill eternity ! -- Nature, Providence, and Grace, Threefold while to man they prove Blend in One to Whom we trace All the hold of light and love. "Thirteenth Sunday after Trinity" from The Sanctuary, A Companion In Verse for the English Prayer Book by Robert Montgomery, 1855. |
Historical Context
The modern Aesthetic Rose+Croix reconstitutes the Rose+Croix Catholique et Esthétique du Temple et du Graal of Joséphin Péladan (1858-1918). Péladan was born and grew up in Lyon, France. He received two Rose+Croix lineages from his older Brother Adrien, who was a Doctor with a strong interest in alchemy and other esoteric subjects. Adrien's first lineage came from a group of fellow Doctors centered in Toulouse, in Southern France, where he had received it from Firmin Boisson, who had received it from the Vicomte de Lapasse, who received it from the Sicilian Alchemist, prince Balbiani of Palermo. The second lineage is said to have come through l’Abbé Lacuria, who had received it from Éliphas Lévi, who had himself been initiated into a Rosicrucian Order in England by E.G. Bulwer-Lytton. 
Sar Péladan by Jean Delville.
In 1881, Joséphin Péladan moved to Paris and became an art critic and novelist, whose work attracted the attention of twenty-three year-old Stanislas de Guaita and sparked his interest in esoteric studies. Péladan and de Guaita were also among “Les Compagnons de la Heirophonie”, the inner circle of French occultists who joined with Dr. Gerard Encausse (a.k.a.”Papus”) to restore the western Mystery tradition. Péladan and de Guaita together created a project to rebuild and renovate the Order of the Rose+Croix, which was on the verge of extinction, and founded the Ordre Kabbalistique de la Rose+Croix (OKR+C) in 1888, in which they recruited Papus. By the 1890s, the collaboration between de Guaita, Péladan, and Papus became strained by disagreements, and Péladan left the OKR+C. He drew up the Rose+Croix Esthétique on May 1891’s Feast of the Ascension. Péladan published the foundation document of l’Ordre de la Rose-Croix Catholique et Esthétique du Temple et du Graal on August 23, 1891. For Péladan's Order, Art has a divine mission. It is the experience of God through beauty. The purpose of Art is not to satisfy the mind, but to elevate the soul. Péladan wrote, “Artist, you are a priest: Art is the great mystery and, when your effort leads to a masterpiece, a ray of the divine shines down as on an altar…Artist, you are a magus. Art is the great miracle and proves our own immortality.” |