The Secret Doctrine of the Rosicrucians: A Lost Classic by Magus Incognito

Marc Notes:
Includes bibliographical references (p. 217-222) and index.

Table of Contents:
Introduction / Clint Marsh -- Part I. The Rosicrucians and Their Secret Doctrine -- The Legendary Rosicrucians -- Truth and Error Regarding Them -- Counterfeit Rosicrucian Orders -- Who Are the Rosicrucians? -- The Brothers of the Rosy Cross -- The Early History of the Rosicrucians -- The Legend of Christian Rosenkreutz, and the Truth Behind It -- Look to the East, Whence Comes All Light -- Lifting the Veil of Secrecy -- Why the Esoteric Teaching Always Is Secret -- The Higher Alchemy -- Contrasting Methods of Orient and Occident -- The Secret Doctrine of the Rosicrucians -- An Age-old Wisdom Teaching -- Found in Egypt, Indian, Persia, Chaldea, Medea, China, Assyria, Ancient Greece, and in the Ancient Hebrew Secret Teaching -- The Basis of Great Oriental Philosophies -- The Secret Doctrine of Atlantis, Its Real Source and Origin -- Pythagoras -- Gautama, the Buddha -- The Seven Aphorisms of Creation -- The Secret Symbols of the Rosicrucians -- The Explanation of the Symbol of the Rosy Cross -- Part II. The Eternal Parent -- The Sleep of the Cosmic Night -- Before the Rekindling of the Flame of Spirit -- Before the Advent of Time -- Before the Beginning of Change -- The Infinite Unmanifest -- The Symbol of Infinite Space -- That Which Was Before the Universe Was -- The Cosmic Days and Nights -- The Days and Nights of Brahm -- The Essence of the Flame of the Spirit -- The Dark Flame -- Duration Without Time -- Pure Duration -- Formless Existence -- Absolute Motion Identical With Absolute Rest -- Existence Without Qualities -- Superconscious Existence, Not Unconscious Existence -- The One-All Without a Second -- The Immeasurable Infinite -- The Farhomless Abyss -- Part III. The Soul of the World -- The Germ Within the Cosmic Egg -- The Formless Takes on Form -- The Flame Is Rekindled -- The Beginning of Time -- The Commencement of Action -- The Manifestation of the Pairs of Opposites -- The Birth of the World Soul -- The Dawn of the New Cosmic Day -- The Appearance of The Demiurge -- The Presence of the Anima Mundi -- The Manifestation of the World Spirit -- The Production of the Logos -- The First Born of the Infinite Unmanifest -- The Cosmic Egg -- The First Cause -- The Golden Egg of the Kalahansa -- The Symbol of the Egg, in the Secret Doctrine -- The Teaching Concerning the Logos -- The Doctrine Respecting the Demiurge -- The Universal Will -- Plastic Nature -- The Will-to-Live -- The First Manifestation -- The Garments of the World Soul -- The Thrill of Life in the World Soul -- Part IV. The Universal Androgyne -- The Birth of Sex -- The Neuter Becomes Bi-Sexual -- The Cosmic Hermaphrodite -- The Universal Androgyne -- Bi-Sexuality in the Universal Manifestation -- The Inner Teachings -- The Ancient Mysteries -- Phallicism, the Shadow of the Truth -- The Symbol of Universal Bi-Sexuality -- The Cross and the Circle -- The Phallic Cross -- The Swastica -- The Rose Cross -- The Male Universal Principle -- The Female Universal Principle -- Sex Manifest on All Planes of Existence -- The Positive and the Negative Poles of Being -- Sex Activity in Electricity and Magnetism -- Sex, the Secret of Chemical Affinity -- How Love Makes the World Go Round -- How the One Becomes Two, and the Two Becomes the Many -- Part V. The One and the Many -- How the One Becomes the Many -- How Unity Becomes Diversity -- How the Identical Becomes Variety -- No Separation Possible to Unity -- The Manifold Reflection of the One Reality -- The Falling Raindrops -- The Jars of Water -- The Ocean of Being and Its Bubbles -- Absolute Being is One -- Relative Being is Apparently Many -- Monism -- Involution and Evolution -- The World Soul and Its Material Garments -- The Descent into Matter -- The Ascent from Matter -- The Spiral Stairway of Being -- Sub-Mineral Forms -- Mineral Forms -- Plant Forms -- Animal Forms -- Human Forms -- Superhuman Forms -- God-like Forms -- How the One Apparently Becomes Many, and Yet Remains One in Reality -- The Paradox of Being -- Part VI. The Universal Flame of Life -- The Sparks of the Flame of Life -- The Rosicrucian Symbol of the Flaming Fire -- The Fire of Spirit -- The Essence of the Spiritual Flame of Life -- Life is Universal -- There is Nothing Without Life in the Universe -- The Universe is Not Half-dead, but All-Alive -- The Living Universe -- Life in the Ether -- Life in All Matter -- The Universe a Living Dynamism -- Life in the Atoms -- Life in the Chemical Elements -- Life in the Mineral World -- Life in the Plant World -- Life in the Animal World -- Life in the Human World -- Life in the Superhuman World -- Life in the Divine World -- Living Crystals -- Scientific Proof of Life in the Inorganic World -- Marvelous Reports of Modern Science -- Metallic Vegetation -- How Modern Science Confirms the Secret Doctrine of the Rosicrucians -- Part VII. The Planes of Consciousness -- The Seven Planes of Consciousness -- Life the Essence of Spirit -- Consciousness the Essence of Life -- Everything is Conscious -- Nothing is Unconscious -- The Plane of Elemental Consciousness -- Mental Action in the Atoms and Electrons -- How the Occultist Works Magic by Knowledge of the Elemental Consciousness -- The Plane of Mineral Consciousness -- The Presence of Consciousness in the Crystals -- The Secret of Cohesion and Mineral Organization -- The Plane of Plane Consciousness -- How Plants Manifest Intelligent Action -- Plants Exhibit Consciousness Pertaining to Nutrition, Nervous Organization, and Thought Processes -- Intelligence in Plants -- Wonderful Reports of Modern Science -- Rosicrucian Secret Doctrine Corroborated by Modern Science -- The Plane of Animal Consciousness -- The Evolution of Mind in the Animal World -- A Fascinating Story -- Part VIII. The Three Higher Planes of Consciousness -- The Plane of Human Consciousness -- The Dawn of Self-Consciousness -- The I Am I -- The Inward Mental Gaze -- Simple Consciousness versus Self-Consciousness -- The Psychology of Self-Consciousness -- The Mystery of the Sense of Selfhood -- How Man Pays the Price of Self-Consciousness -- The Mastery of Mind -- The Plane of the Consciousness of the Demi-Gods -- The Light from Above -- Mystic Experiences -- Illumination -- Cosmic Consciousness -- At One with the Universe -- Testimony of the Poets, Mystics, and Seers -- Recognition of the Oversoul -- The Phenomenon of Cosmic Consciousness -- Beings Who Function Habitually on the Plane of the Demi-Gods -- Legendary Beings of the Ancients -- The Planes of the Consciousness of the Gods -- Transcendental Knowledge -- Exalted Beings Like Unto the Gods -- The Secret of the Archangels -- The Truth of the Symbols -- The Riddle of the Symbol -- Part IX. The Sevenfold Soul of Man -- The Soul is One in Essence, Yet Wrapped in a Sevenfold Veil -- Veils Which Conceal, but Yet Reveal -- The Elemental Soul -- The Pattern of Form -- The Etheric Double -- The So-called Astral Body -- The Ghost -- The Mineral Soul -- The Spirit of the Chemical Processes in the Laboratory of the Body -- The Plant Soul -- The Spirit of the Vegetable Processes of Growth in the Body -- The Animal Soul -- The Spirit of the Animal Functions of the Body -- The Truth About the Animal Passions and the Physical Processes -- The Human Soul -- The Spirit of Intellectual Activity and Reasoning Processes -- A Plane of Great Trials and Struggles -- The Soul of the Demi-Gods -- The Spirit of the Altruistic Emotions and Activities, and of Cosmic Consciousness -- The Higher Planes of the Soul -- The Soul of the Gods -- The Spirit of the Divine Faculties of the Soul -- Summary of the Spiritual Evolution from Element to Godhood -- Part X. Metempsychosis -- The Occult Doctrine of Metempsychosis, Reincarnation, or Transmigration of Souls -- The Most Ancient of the World's Beliefs Concern the Soul -- The Teachings of the Ancient Egyptians, Chaldeans, Persians, Hindus, and Greeks, and of Many Other Ancient Peoples -- The Teaching of the Great Philosophers of All Times -- How One Knows for Himself the Truth of Metempsychosis -- Hidden Memories Awakened -- Past Events Brought into the Field of Consciousness -- Infant Prodigies, and Their Explanation -- Remarkable Instances of Memories of the Past Life -- The Law of Attraction determines Rebirth -- The Life After Death, and Its Incidents and Phenomena -- The Astral World -- The Mystery of the Soul Sleep -- The Astral Planes and Sub-planes -- Life on the Astral Planes -- How a Soul is Reborn on Earth -- The Current of Rebirth -- The Power of Desire in Determining the Character of Rebirth -- Part XI. The Soul's Progress -- The Chain of the Seven Planets -- The Spiral Stairway of Spiritual Progress -- The Ascending Tide of Life -- The Spiritual Wakes -- The Seven Rounds -- The Seven Races in Each Round -- The Fourth Round on Earth -- The First Race -- The Second Race -- The Third Race -- Life in Lemuria -- The Destruction of Lemuria -- The Fourth Race -- Life in Atlantis -- The Doom of Atlantis -- The Atlantean Survivors.

Biographical Note:

William Walker Atkinson (18621932) was an American writer, merchant, attorney, publisher, and occultist. He was a pioneer of the New Thought and Prosperity Consciousness movements, and wrote dozens of books on various aspects of learning mentalism, psychic power development, and clairvoyance. He wrote Clairvoyance and Occult Powers under the guise of Swami Panchadasi, one of several pseudonyms.

Clint Marsh is a writer and publisher of practical esoterica. He has served as Reginald Bakeley's American editor since 1998, and maintains a website at www.wonderella.org.

Discover arcane knowledge like auras, alchemy, planes of consciousness, reincarnation and more in this classic study of Rosicrucianism.

The Rosicrucians are a truly secret society whose philosophy comes to light in different ways at different points in history. In the 1600s they issued a set of manifestos calling for an enlightened revolution that would reshape society into a more democratic ideal. The American Founding Fathers were influenced by these manifestos. Rosicrucianism is alive and well today with more than half a million followers seeking and keeping its many divine secrets.

This book reintroduces a new generation of readers to the Rosicrucian ideals, as well as to a myriad of connections between occult concepts as varied as alchemy, reincarnation, the astral plane, auras, Eastern and Western mysticism, and the "evolution of mankind" among seven esoteric versions of planets in our solar system.

First published in 1918 by Magus Incognito, one of American occultist William Walker Atkinson's dozen or more pseudonyms, The Secret Doctrine of the Rosicrucians is said to contain portions of The Arcane Teachings, an anonymous 1909 work now attributed to Atkinson. An introduction by occult scholar and collector of esoteric ephemera Clint Marsh shows us just how relevant this classic occult text remains today.

Contributor Bio:Atkinson, William Walker
William Walker Atkinson (18621932) was an American writer, merchant, attorney, publisher, and occultist. He was a pioneer of the New Thought and Prosperity Consciousness movements, and wrote dozens of books on various aspects of learning mentalism, psychic power development, and clairvoyance. He wrote Clairvoyance and Occult Powers under the guise of Swami Panchadasi, one of several pseudonyms.

Contributor Bio:Marsh, Clint
Clint Marsh is a writer and publisher of practical esoterica. He has served as Reginald Bakeley's American editor since 1998, and maintains a website at www.wonderella.org.