Rosicrucian Writings Online

Living the Rosicrucian Life

By Profundis XII
 
[From The Mystic Triangle October 1927]
 
 
Some Points About the Manner
of Living Our Teachings
 
It has been said at times in my presence by those who are not of the higher grades, that it is not always apparent that our members of the highest grades are living the life of Rosicrucians; and I have read in some of the correspondence at times that with thousands of high grade members living in America one should often meet these members and recognize them by the manner in which they live and conduct their affairs. Sometimes these remarks are made as criticisms, meaning that our most advanced members do not carry on in their lives in a manner expected by new members or those who are not members at all.
 
The question that naturally arises is this: what is meant by living the Rosicrucian life?
 
In the new Rosicrucian Manual we find a section devoted to the Rosicrucian Code of Living. Therein are presented the thirty ancient rules. An examination of these rules reveals that even when adhering to them strictly, few persons outside of your immediate family would note any distinctive characteristics about your living. They all pertain to private matters of our lives and not demonstrable things.
 
It is true that we easily recognize those who belong to some organizations or who are living certain distinctive lives. We recognize the Salvation Army lad and lassie by their uniforms, their public services and their solicitations. We recognize clergymen of some denominations and priests by their clothing and their exclusive activities. We recognize some members of certain religious sects in Pennsylvania by the distinctive clothing. The Quakers used to be quite easily recognized by their clothing or their language.
 
But Rosicrucians have none of these earmarks, and the more advanced they become the less distinctive they are to the uninitiated and the initiated alike. In fact, the ancient rules prohibited the wearing of distinctive clothing except in the secret convocations or when officially conducting some of the work of the Order in public or private life.
 
If we review the teachings of the Order from the sixth grade onward, we find that the greatest good that any Rosicrucian can accomplish in life for mankind generally can be carried on in silence and secrecy from the home of each member without ostentation, show, pomp or ceremony. And we find that when in public, when walking and riding in the highways and byways a Rosicrucian can perform seeming miracles without moving his finger or casting a single glance that could be observed.
 
So far as the obligations of the Order and the specific promises of the various grades are concerned, there are none that call upon the members in the higher grades to reveal their identity in any manner or to so live that their mode of living would distinguish them to the casual or careful observer.
 
In fact, we find everywhere in the work of the Order the injunction that each member should strive to find his or her particular mission in life and act accordingly. Now that does not mean that each of us must find some distinctive outward work to do which will make us a signpost or a signal of Rosicrucianism. Nor does it necessarily mean that in finding our mission in life, from a Rosicrucian point of view, we must abandon or change our present great work in life. As an example let me cite one instance. A man who was creating and building a very large and successful leather goods factory in the midwest, joined the Order just as business problems and rapid development of his interests threatened to tax his capabilities. He had made some discoveries in his line of business that offered opportunity to break into a new line--special equipments for automobile fittings, etc. It was more than he knew how to handle and he was worried. After uniting with the Order he was helped in his business problems and for weeks he found himself meeting new conditions with a power and understanding that surprised many. He was very happy and thankful for the help he was receiving. Then he suddenly made contact with the Cosmic which pointed out to him a real mission in life. It was not the making of leather goods. He was disconcerted. Did it mean the abandoning of his new and growing business? Not at all. It meant that in his spare time and at moments when he was not busy with his daily occupation in the material world he had a great work to do in the psychic world. He became one of the finest directors of psychic treatment in that city and did not have to leave his home or his office to help hundreds in his part of the country. He was known to the average lodge member as a business man--and still is--but to the higher members he is the great physician. Persons who meet him on the street or in business do not suspect the work he is doing.
 
How can you--or I--tell what is being done by the truly devout members of the fraternity. They may wilfully or unconsciously conceal what they are doing. By what signs and standards do we judge? We may meet a high grade member who seems to us to be in very moderate material circumstances, ever seeking to improve his worldly standing to meet his worldly obligations, and in every other way far from typifying what some persons think should be the standard of one who is a master of many of nature's great principles. They believe that such a person should want for nothing in the material world, for he should be able to attract and secure all he wants. He should have no business worries, for some magic should solve all such things. They do not know that the man's greatest concern is some secret or private work of such greatness that he is a tremendous power in that field and in the material field struggling to overcome conditions that would have destroyed one who did not know the laws. They do not know what he has accomplished in the past or what he will accomplish in the future.
 
You may meet a physician--a doctor of the medical school--who seems to be only partially successful in his practice. You wonder why he, as a high grade member, is not more successful. Do you know that his greatest work lies in some biological experiments he is conducting in his laboratory, secretly, and into which more of his time and income is poured than into his other practice? You meet the factory employee who seems to be wasting his time in such work when as a high grade initiate he should be going about doing wonderful and astounding things. Do you know that he has for years been working at night on an electrical device that will be a contribution to some future miracle of scientific achievement? He chooses to do the menial work in the day for it interferes less with his night-time hobby and yet provides just sufficient income for him to live upon while he gives himself to his psychic mission of inventing. And--he knows and we know that when his life's work is done and the invention perfected, it may be the decree of the Cosmic that his name will never be attached to the invention and many will ask some day: "What has Bill ever accomplished?"
 
The Rosicrucian knows that fame will be the least or the last of rewards that he should have in mind in considering his mission in life. He knows that he must abide by certain decrees, he must yield to certain noble urges from within, he must heed certain dictates from the Masters. Whatever else may be his struggles, weaknesses and problems in life, certain definite things must be attended to at all sacrifices of worldly situations. He may choose to accept all or part of the opportunities opened to him. He must then expect to reap as he sows.
 
Living the life of a Rosicrucian means following the law as it applies to the individual. We have seen what has happened in the religious or church world when attempts have been made all through the ages to lay down a set of rules of conduct for all. A few have adhered to these universal rules of conduct even to the extent of martyrdom--in some cases without any real benefit to themselves, the church, God or mankind generally. And, the majority have wandered away from the rigid rules because they were not adaptable to all. No such standard of living is set for the Rosicrucian. As rapidly as he becomes familiar with the Cosmic laws and his relation to them as one individual expression of the whole, he is capable of determining what is his duty, his obligation. As he decides to live thereafter he also decides as to his fate--in this life and others to come.
 
But, for any of us to judge of another's adhesion to the life of a Rosicrucian, is an error, a sin. We can never know how greatly a man or woman may have changed the course of their lives; how greatly they are suffering, struggling and battling right now against odds that we might consider insurmountable. We never know what they may be sacrificing to maintain even a partial contact with our Order and its teachings. We cannot know what the Cosmic is directing them to do or what the Masters have cast for them in the checker-board game. We at headquarters know of thousands of incidents in the daily lives of our higher grade members which prove their deep loyalty and profound regard for the Order and its teachings. We are forced to keep these matters secret; and we are sorry, touched deeply, when we learn that others lightly criticize these devout ones for not appearing to be living examples of Rosicrucianism.
 
Let each one of us make sure that we are doing according to our own Light, doing what we feel the Divine Urge to do, what the Masters have pointed out for us to do--even though it be menial work, casual work, seemingly unimportant and unrelated to the work of the Order; and in this way we can be sure of truly living the Rosicrucian life. We will then have no time to note whether others are living the life as we think they should. By the fruits shall we be judged--and the Masters will do the harvesting--not us.
   
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