Reading List

The seminal documents of the Rosicrucian movement are:

The Fama Fraternitatis, which may be accessed here:

http://www.levity.com/alchemy/fama.html

The Confessio Fraternitatis, which may be accessed here:

http://www.levity.com/alchemy/confessi.html

The Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz:

http://www.levity.com/alchemy/chymwed1.html 

Also to be recommended is The Parabola of Madathanus:

http://www.alchemywebsite.com/parabola.html

For a general introduction to the Brotherhood of the Rosy Cross, its purpose and activities, we recommend that you read "A Rosicrucian Notebook: The Secret Sciences Used by Members of the Order" by Willy Schrodter (1992, Samuel Weiser, Publisher).  It will give you some idea of what the Brotherhood is about, its secret knowledge and teachings, and what we do.  It is relatively easy reading yet of a remarkable depth of scholarship as well as being quite entertaining.

Other useful texts are:

"The Brotherhood of the Rosy Cross" by Arthur Edward Waite

and

"The Real History of the Rosicrucians" also by Arthur Edward Waite

These two books are somewhat heavy reading although very informative if you wish to explore deeper the foundations of our fraternity as well as the Rosicrucian movement in general.

Please bear in mind that most authors are writing from a scholarly and historical viewpoint and occasionally as a genuine Initiate of the Masonic or mystical Christian branches of the Rosicrucian movement, yet still as someone outside of the authentic and original Brotherhood of the Rosy Cross, which does not allow open publication of its mysteries and secrets.  Therefore, they fall into the same traps and misinterpretations that have plagued authors since the existence of the Brotherhood was first announced.

In fact, many came to the erroneous conclusion that the Brotherhood of the Rosy Cross did not really exist, since their own requests for membership remained unanswered.  (Those that were accepted simply didn't tell.)  That and the instability of the European political climate, heavily dominated by Church and State, often made communicating such information literally a matter of risking one's life.

Some claimed that the Brotherhood of the Rosy Cross was just an allegory and a symbolic story (which it was but only in part) not to be taken literally.  But, as Colin Wilson points out in his foreword to Christopher McIntosh's The Rosy Cross Unveiled,

"All of which raises the interesting question: Why did they want to ask for volunteers and recruits if they had no intention of replying?"

If the Brotherhood of the Rosy Cross didn't really exist, then why indeed did they advertise for members?

"For many are called, but few are chosen."

You should be able to obtain these books through inter-library loan at your local library.