The Rose Cross (also called Rose Croix and Rosy Cross) is a symbol largely associated with the legendary Christian Rosenkreuz, a Christian Kabbalist and alchemist said to have been the founder of the Rosicrucian Order.[1][2] The Rose Cross is a cross with a rose at its centre, which is usually red, golden or white.[3] It symbolizes the teachings of a Western esoteric tradition with Christian tenets.[4][5][6]
As a key Rosicrucian symbol, the Rosy Cross was also used by the Order of the Golden and Rosy Cross (1750s–1790s), and is still used by the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia (1865–present).
- ^ German language original: 'Die Bruderschaft des Ordens der Rosenkreuzer', Fama Fraternitatis, 1614 [manuscripts in circulation since ca. 1610]; 'Bruderschaft Rosenkreuz', Confessio Fraternitatis, 1615
- ^ Heindel (1911).
- ^ Pike (1871), p. 822, XXX: Knight Kadosh: "Commentaries and studies have been multiplied upon the Divine Comedy, the work of DANTE, and yet no one, so far as we know, has pointed out its especial character. [...] His Hell is but a negative Purgatory. His Heaven is composed of a series of Kabalistic circles, divided by a cross, like the Pantacle of Ezekiel. In the centre of this cross blooms a rose, and we see the symbol of the Adepts of the Rose-Croix for the first time publicly expounded and almost categorically explained."
- ^ Weber, Charles (1995). "Rosicrucianism and Christianity". Rays from the Rose Cross.
- ^ Bamford, Christopher (1999). "The Meaning of the Rose Cross". The Rosicrucian Enlightenment Revisited. Lindisfarne Books. ISBN 0940262843.
- ^ Martin, Pierre (2017). Lodges, Orders and the Rosicross: Rosicrucianism in Lodges, Orders and Initiatic Societies since the early 16th century. Edition Oriflamme. ISBN 978-3952426258.