Harvey Spencer Lewis

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Harvey Spencer Lewis founded the AMORC

Harvey Spencer Lewis ( pseudonym : Wishar Spenle Cervé ) (born November 25, 1883 in Frenchtown , New Jersey , † August 2, 1939 ) was an American journalist , occultist and parapsychologist . In 1915 he founded the Rosicrucian -Orden Antiquus Mysticusque Ordo Rosae Crucis (AMORC) and remained life its first chairman.

Life

Harvey Spencer Lewis was born into a Methodist home in the US state of New Jersey . His father Aaron Lewis and his mother Katharina Lewis (née Hoffmann) were teachers by profession. There are contradicting reports about the origin of the two. In February 1916, HS Lewis announced in the "American Rosae Crucis" that he was descended from an old Welsh noble family and that his mother had German roots. In February 1998, however, the AMORC forum no. 1 revealed that HS Lewis was a "descendant of earlier Rosicrucian settlers" in America who knew "from his calculations and the tradition of his family" that the time had come for a rebirth of American Rosicrucianism . He spent his school days in a New York college.

Lewis became a Methodist member under Pastor Parks Cadman . Then he worked as a journalist for the New York Herald . In 1903 he married Amelia Goldsmith. The son Ralph Maxwell emerged from the marriage. His second marriage was to Martha Mortier. In the course of the New Thought , Spencer Lewis began to be interested in spiritualism and occultism . Even before his 21st birthday he was "editor of the two leading occult journals of this century". The founding of the New York Institute for Psychical Research , of which he was president in 1904, is probably related to this . In 1920 he was able to open a business with a loan from a candle manufacturer, but it failed and he moved again to Tampa (Florida).

The tomb of HS Lewis

When Lewis died on August 2, 1939, his son Ralph M. Lewis, who was born in New York on February 14, 1904, took over the management of the AMORC he had founded.

Foundation of the AMORC

In 1909 Lewis is said to have had contact in France with the forerunner of the Ordre Kabbalistique de la Rose-Croix , through which the later pioneer of the French Rosicrucian movement Joséphin Péladan found Rosicrucianism. According to Lewis' accounts, its inauguration in Toulouse took place under very mysterious circumstances. In February 1915, Lewis founded the Antiquus Mysticusque Ordo Rosæ Crucis (AMORC, "Old and Mystical Order of the Rose Cross") in New York.

Beginning in New York City (1915–1918)

In 1916, Lewis demonstrated his occult powers when he presented himself as an alchemical gold maker in a public New York show and transformed a piece of zinc into a piece of gold within 16 minutes by using "a little-known mental power ( focused on it ”. Such transmutation abilities and claims rumored by AMORC represent a specialty among the neo-Rosicrucians, because many have tried in vain at the material goldmaking for centuries, but only Harvey Spencer Lewis has supposedly succeeded in this feat.

On June 18, 1918, Lewis was arrested during a police raid of the AMORC headquarters in New York. He was accused of cheating and selling dubious books. An indictment was later rejected. Lewis moved AMORC's headquarters to San Francisco shortly thereafter .

As is usual in many other esoteric groups, Lewis was looking for a way to connect his AMORC with a Christian cult. This opportunity presented itself to him with the church "Pristine Church of the Rose Cross" in which Lewis became bishop. This partnership ended after a few years because it did not fit in with his areligious AMORC “brotherhood”, which is why around 1,000 members left the AMORC as a whole.

Phase in San Francisco and Tampa (1918–1927)

In 1925, Lewis found another sponsor who enabled him to build a palm-fringed pyramid in the Egyptian style. This area was then used for extensive advertising campaigns, which considerably increased the number of members of the AMORC.

In 1927 Lewis bought a plot of land in San José, California to build the new AMORC headquarters. The area was called "Rosicrucian Park" and was for a long time the international headquarters of Amorc. Egyptian-style buildings and the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum , which were among the tourist attractions of San José, were erected on the site . In 1934 a library, a study center and a planetarium were also opened.

AMORC's claim to sole representation

In meticulous literary work, RS Clymer, the founder of the Fraternitas Rosae Crucis, challenged the AMORC to claim sole representation for Rosicrucianism in the American market. The "Rosicrucian competitor" Clymer had found out that the alleged historical Rosicrucian wisdom of the AMORC was plagiarism and forgeries, which Clymer demonstrated in detail by comparing the original quotations with the AMORC writings. After the AMORC was exposed to increasingly violent criticism from competing Rosicrucian groups, in particular from the Fraternitas Rosae Crucis , Lewis was finally attacked directly by Clymer, who denied the historical continuity of the AMORC, as Lewis had previously claimed the Rosicrucian sole power of representation for himself.

Foundation of FUDOSI

In order to challenge the Rosicrucian sole representation claim for the American market, which Clymer claimed for himself from the exposure of the AMORC, Lewis founded the umbrella organization FUDOSI in order to strengthen his authority by issuing a certificate of authorization for the legitimacy of his AMORC from his FUDOSI company to let. In the FUDOSI certificate issued by the "befriended" initiate order it was now documented that Lewis AMORC is the only authorized, genuine old Rosicrucian society in North and South America. From then on Lewis described all Rosicrucian and Initiate orders not organized in his FUDOSI as inauthentic and outside the chain of succession and tradition that he imagined.

Contacts with other esoteric orders

As early as 1921, theodor Reuss and Lewis exchanged letters. Reuss saw in Lewis the unique opportunity to be able to build his three orders, the Memphis-Misraim Rite as well as the Ancient and Accepted Rites of Cerneau and OTO , across the Atlantic. For this purpose, Lewis von Reuss was elevated to the VII ° of the OTO in 1921 by means of a charter and was initiated into the 33 ° of the Scottish Rite, 90 ° of the Memphis Rite and 95 ° of the Misraim Rite (see Degree (Freemasonry) and Memphis-Misraïm- Rite ). According to this charter, he was made an honorary member of the Sovereign Sanctuary of Switzerland, Germany and Austria. The titles that Reuss bestowed on him were only honorary titles, since he was never initiated into the Memphis-Misraim rite or OTO. They merely served as an ambassador between AMORC and Reuss OTO.

In addition, both tried to further strengthen the cooperation between American and European Rosicrucians. The declared goal was the worldwide connection of all Rosicrucian activities under one umbrella organization called TAWUC - The AMORC World Union Council.

In August 1935, Lewis was contacted by Aleister Crowley . Crowley wrote a letter to offer his support to counter the public attacks by Reuben Swinburne Clymer . Clymer, who led his own Rosicrucian order with the name Fraternitas Rosæ Crucis , denigrated in several letters the teachings of the AMORC founded by Lewis. He also attacked Crowley, whom he referred to as a black magician. The disputes eventually went to court and ended in defeat for Clymer.

In the course of time, however, it became apparent that Crowley's intentions were more to cover his accrued debts through a new order, after being quite unsuccessful with the collapse of his Astrum Argenteum . When it also became clear that Crowley had been kicked out of the OTO by Reuss on October 25, 1921, Crowley had to quickly realize that there was no longer any willingness to cooperate financially. With a ruse, however, he tried to make it clear to Lewis that he had been the head of the OTO (OHO - Outer Head of the Order) in America since Reuss's death and referred to the charter issued by Reuss and that the AMORC was recognized as the legitimate Rosicrucian order only guaranteed through this letter. Crowley wanted to assert ownership claims against AMORC through the Reuss charter. Crowley also pointed out that AMORC would use writings and seals of the OTO that could be traced back to him. Lewis was not impressed by these claims, knowing that Crowley was no longer a legal member of the OTO and ignored them.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Hans-Jürgen Ruppert : Rosicrucian. Heinrich Hugendubel Verlag, Kreuzlingen / Munich 2004, ISBN 3-7205-2533-3 , p. 63.
  2. ↑ a b c Horst E. Miers : Lexicon of secret knowledge. Goldmann Verlag, Munich 1993, ISBN 3-442-12179-5 , p. 381.
  3. ↑ Harald Lamprecht : New Rosicrucians. A manual. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2004, pp. 101-102. ISBN 3-525-56549-6 .
  4. ↑ Roland Edighoffer: The Rosicrucians. Munich 1995, p. 122f.
  5. ↑ Jones Mervyn (ed.): The Rosicrucians. - in: Norman MacKenzie (Ed.): Secret Societies. Geneva 1969. p. 151.
  6. ↑ a b c d Harald Lamprecht: New Rosicrucians. A manual. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2004, ISBN 3-525-56549-6 , p. 103.
  7. ^ Tobias Churton: The Invisible History of the Rosicrucians: The World's Most Mysterious Secret Society. Inner Traditions Publishing, Rochester, Vermont 2009. pp. 506-507. ISBN 978-1594772559 .
  8. ↑ Harald Lamprecht: New Rosicrucians. A manual. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2004, ISBN 3-525-56549-6 , pages 104-106
  9. ^ Tobias Churton: The Invisible History of the Rosicrucians: The World's Most Mysterious Secret Society. Inner Traditions Publishing, Rochester, Vermont 2009. pp. 506-507. ISBN 978-1594772559 .
  10. ↑ Horst E. Miers: Lexicon of secret knowledge. Goldmann Verlag, Munich 1993, ISBN 3-442-12179-5 , p. 228.

literature

  • John Michael Greer: Encyclopedia of Secret Doctrines , edited and supplemented by Frater VD, Ansata Verlag 2005, ISBN 3778772708
  • Harald Lamprecht : New Rosicrucians. A manual . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2004, ISBN 3-525-56549-6 .
  • Harvey Spencer Lewis, The Mystical Life of Jesus , AMORC Books 2006, ISBN 3925972447
  • PR Koenig: Spencer Lewis, Theodor Reuss, Aleister Crowley, Heinrich Traenker [1] (English)
  • Christian Rebisse: Rosicrucian History, Part XVIII - Final Article International Alliances and the Contemporary Era Charter. In: Rosicrucian Digest. San José (1/2006). Pp. 21-31. (PDF; English; 1.7 MB)

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Lewis, Harvey Spencer
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American Martinist and Rosicrucian
DATE OF BIRTH November 25, 1883
PLACE OF BIRTH Frenchtown , New Jersey
DATE OF DEATH August 2, 1939