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What did it mean to live as a Rosicrucian?

In 1614 and 1615 the famous manifestos announced a secret Brotherhood of the Rosy Cross and called for the reformation of the whole world. In 1615 Johann Valentin Andreæ, the author of The Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz and the guiding spirit of the circle that produced the manifestos, published this little book. It shows the reader where that reformation must begin: within.

Here Hercules is the true Christian, and his twenty-four Labours are the stages of the inner work. One by one he masters the monsters every seeker must face: Idleness and Licence, Lust, Fashion, the restless Birds of Thought, Slander, Hypocrisy, False Erudition and idle Curiosity about hidden things. At last, through self-denial, he enters the gardens of Inner Cognition and is received into heaven. Written in secret homage to Andreæ’s friend Tobias Hess, it reads as a manual for the Rosicrucian life. It uses memory techniques based on the memorisation and contemplation of emblems to improve the character, cultivate virtue and elevate the mind.

This is believed to be the first English translation. It is printed facing the original Latin, with an introduction and notes by Paul Ferguson, and twenty-four modern woodcut illustrations have been added for this edition.

Paperback, 182 pages, 14.8 x 10.5 cm. ISBN 9780853187080.

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