Jan van Rijckenborgh

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Jan van Rijckenborgh

Jan van Rijckenborgh ( pseudonym for Jan Leene ; born October 16, 1896 in Haarlem ( Netherlands ) - † July 17, 1968 ) founded the Lectorium Rosicrucianum in 1946 with its headquarters in Haarlem, the Netherlands. Sometimes he referred to himself as "the emissary of the great Light Brotherhood".

Life

Son Henk Leene

Jan Leene came from an Evangelical Reformed family . With his wife Jo Ames he had two children, his daughter Els (later ET Hamelink-Leene) and his son Henk , both of whom worked in the lectorium. As a co-heir of his parents' textile wholesaler, he became interested in theology at an early age. With the Reformed preacher Arnold Hendrik de Hartog (1869-1938), who advocated a rational faith, he heard, among other things, of Jakob Boehme's ideas and took up his idea of ​​the two natural orders (the human, fallen and the divine, original). Before he left the church, which seemed to him dogmatically frozen, Leene was active in the Christian Association of Young Men . He was also influenced by the teachings of the philosopher Eduard von Hartmann (1842–1906).

Membership in the Rosicrucian Fellowship

In April / May 1924, Leene and his brother joined an Amsterdam study group, the Rosicrucian Fellowship that had emerged from the OTO . In 1925 he founded a publishing house and a mail order bookstore, which from 1928 called itself "Publicatie Bureau van het Rozekruisers genootschap", and from 1927 published the monthly magazine "Het Rozekruis". When the head of the Amsterdam study group, the teacher Agatha van Warendorp, fell ill in December 1929, the Leene brothers took over as substitutes. After their recovery, however, they refused to return the leadership position to Ms. van Warendorp. The disputes over this change of leadership were eventually brought to the headquarters of the Rosicrucian Fellowship in Oceanside and settled by Augusta Foss on behalf of the Leenes.

During this time, the brothers studied the texts of the theosophists Helena Petrovna Blavatsky , Max Heindel and Rudolf Steiner , the Rosicrucian manifestos and the writings of Comenius and Paracelsus .

Fellowship replacement process

In 1933 the Leene brothers had to give up the textile wholesaler they had inherited from their parents for reasons of profitability. Instead, they began to market the teachings of Max Heindel by distributing pirated prints of his copyrighted books. The Leene brothers disregarded Heindel's decree, according to which no contributions were made and Heindel's teaching materials and courses could only be offered and passed on free of charge. Their new "livelihood", the striving for autonomy of their Haarlem center and the violations of the Leenes against the American association statutes were quickly disapproved at the headquarters in Oceanside, especially since the Dutch no longer transferred the fellowship donations collected in trust to the world headquarters for funds the specially established "Max Heindel-Stiftung", to acquire a center in Haarlem in Hedastraat 8 and for real estate in Bakenessergracht.

Spiritual orders from "Unknown Superiors"

Jan Leene claimed even before the Second World War that, as a spiritualistic channel medium, he was able to communicate with spirits to whom he was bound by instructions. As early as 1935 he announced that he had to take over the global leadership of the Rosicrucian Fellowship at the behest of "unknown superiors" of an invisible Rosicrucian fraternity , but this failed: On March 27, 1935, Jan Leene and his brother Zwier Willem wrote to all international known to them Addresses of local Rosicrucian Fellowship chapters and students. In this circular they claimed to have received an order from an invisible "Order of the Rosicrucian" to take over the Rosicrucian Fellowship in order to save the internationally broken Rosicrucian Fellowship from perishing. The students and examinees of the Rosicrucian Fellowship were informed worldwide that it would be right for them to join the Dutch group without hesitation. In this letter the Leenes claimed to be in charge of the esoteric work of the world work of the Rosicrucian Fellowship and that they wanted to see the new world headquarters temporarily located in the Netherlands. In this letter, the Fellowship students were asked to donate money for a new temple building in the Netherlands .

End of the fellowship era

  • On April 5, 1935, an attempt by the Californian Fellowship headquarters to reintegrate the Dutch group more closely into the overall organization failed. This marked the end of the process of replacing the Haarlem group with the Rosicrucian Fellowship.
  • In 1935 the Leene group separated from the Rosicrucian Fellowship - together with a larger group of Dutch members - and continued to work independently from then on. In 1935, Catharose de Petri , whom Jan Leene first met in 1930, joined the group of the Leene brothers.

Turning to Manichaeism

In 1936 the Leene brothers discovered the Gnostic group of the Manichaeans and gave their group the name "Manichaean Order". Following Manichaeism , Leene proclaimed a transfiguration method for the rebirth and renewal of the human being, which must be preceded by a planned demise of the self and the self- reference. Leene called this method " Endura " - a term he took from the vocabulary of the medieval Albigensians and Cathars .

Foundation of the "Jakob Böhme Society"

  • On July 17, 1938, his brother Zwier Willem Leene died after a heart attack, whereupon Jan took over the management.
  • In 1941 Jan Leene put down the name "Rosenkreuz", and the old Heindel company names "Rozenkruisers Genootschap" (= "Rosenkreuzer-Genossenschaft") and "Max Heindel Stichting" (= "Max Heindel Foundation"), which were retained at the same time, because Ms. Heindel did had renounced a criminal complaint, but Leene was no longer authorized to represent the Rosicrucian and theosophical ideas of Max Heindel. From then on, his group was called the “ Jakob Böhme Society”.

German occupation 1940–1945

During the war years 1940 to 1945 Jan Leene worked as a bookseller. Throughout the war he sent his Van Rijckenborgh letters to a small number of interested parties. In addition, until 1944 he published the journal Nieuw religieuze Orientering (New Religious Orientation) at irregular intervals . In the November 22, 1944 edition, he announced that he had to shut down his printing presses due to a lack of electricity due to the war and that he would therefore have to stop the normally weekly deliveries of his books.

Foundation of the Lectorium Rosicrucianum after the Second World War

In 1946 Jan Leene founded the Lectorium Rosicrucianum in Haarlem . This group emerged from the "Dutch Theosophical Association" (Nederlandsche Theosofische Vereeniging). From then on he called himself Jan van Rijckenborgh and devoted himself exclusively to building up the Lectorium Rosicrucianum , which also found supporters in Germany in the early 1950s.

Appointment as Grand Master

In 1954, Leene traveled with his assistant Henriette Stok-Huizer to the southern French Pyrenees, where they made friends with the local historian and director of the Ornolac-Ussat-les-Bains tourist office , Antonin Gadal , who became the "guardian of the Cathar heritage" of the 20th century . Century issued. Gadal, who is referred to in the lectorium as the last patriarch of the previous Cathar brotherhood, transferred the (spiritual) inheritance of the Cathars of the High Middle Ages to the two Dutch people in the course of their further cooperation by teaching them the dualistic doctrine represented by these groups, and thereby placed her future work in a context with the Albigensians of the Middle Ages . As the new head of the Lectorium Church, Gadal appointed Jan Leene as Grand Master and his assistant Henriette Stok-Huizer as Archdeaconess in one of his first official acts .

Understanding of salvation

Leene represented a healing system for which he used the terms transmutation and transfiguration . The teaching developed for his followers called for a strict rejection of everything "foreign" and an increasing one-sidedness.

Aquarius Conferences and Death

Starting in 1963, Leene had planned an annual conference with a programmatic claim, the so-called Aquarius conferences, for the next seven years. However, this cycle had to end after the fifth annual meeting, as Rijckenborgh died in 1968. The conference venues included Renova / Netherlands (1963), Calw (1964), Bad Münder (1965), Basel (1966) and Toulouse (1967). A summary of these Aquarius conferences was published in the five volumes "Apocalypse of the New Era" (Haarlem 1964–1968).

In 1965 Jan Leene declared his son Henk Leene to be his successor as Grand Master of the Lectorium Rosicrucianum, which he had founded. Shortly before his death, he complained that his work was probably in vain because his mission was not understood. According to Henk Leene, his father Jan said a few weeks before his death that his work and his spiritual mission had failed.

criticism

The religious scholar Marcel Messing attests to Rijckenborgh tragic misunderstandings, complete ignorance and "ignorance regarding Buddhism and Lamaism ": Rijckenborgh considered the Tibetans in LR brochures to be a huge world power ruled by a black magic borrowed from ancient Atlantis , with which the half the world is held under its spell, which had become evident through the invasion of the Chinese and he prophesied that this would lead to a whole series of strange developments that could be felt worldwide. According to Messing, these ideas show that Rijckenborgh had no insight into the ethnological, religious and political context of Tibet and that Rijckenborgh would have been better off keeping quiet. In his negative remarks about Tibet and its inhabitants and the Dalai Lama , who is seen as an anti- Buddha , Rijckenborgh fused the theosophical Mahatma faith with conspiracy theories to form a very ambivalent Tibet, as is the case in various Nazi literature.

Works and lectures

After the war, Leene published the book Dei Gloria Intacta for the first time in 1946 under the pseudonym Jan van Rijckenborgh , in which he presented his initiation scheme , which, however, was practically not used in the Lectorium Rosicrucianum and in which he explains the 7 initiations using the Revelations of John. The title of the book is the motto of the grave vault of Christian Rosencreutz from the Fama Fraternitatis with the meaning "The glory of God is inviolable", which is similar to the motto of the Jesuits : "Everything for the highest glory of God". (lat .: omnia ad majorem dei gloriam)

He wrote a large number of talks and lectures that were grouped into about forty writings and books that formed the basis of his organization. Among other things, he commented on translations of the Rosicrucian manifestos and Hermetic writings. For example, Jan Leene wrote a 400-page commentary on the 23-page Fama Fraternitatis . He also devoted himself to the investigation of parts of the Gnostic movement, where, influenced by the elementary school teacher Antonin Gadal from Ornolac-Ussat-les-Bains (France), he described his group as the spiritual heir and successor of the medieval, Provencal Cathar sect.

Interpretation of the Rosicrucian originals

The author of the Rosicrucian Manifestos Johann Valentin Andreae (1586–1654) at the age of 42

In the doctrine of the LR, the three anonymous Rosicrucian originals from the 17th century belong to the object of consideration, the theologian Andreae is assumed to be the author . In the legends of his Fama , published in 1614, Andreae describes the fictitious founding of a Rosicrucian order in the 14th century, which historians use the term "older Rosicrucians" to describe. Contrary to the prevailing opinion in historical studies, which sees in Andreaes manifestos of the Rosicrucians political program writings for a Christian reform of society and the scientific community, or a novel-like allegory with autobiographical elements, the LR leads the appearance of these manifestos to the targeted work of liberated Godmen of an invisible one "Universal brotherhood" back in the supernatural .

Rijckenborgh translated the Fama, the Confessio , seven chapters from Christianopolis and the Chymic Wedding into Dutch and provided them with very extensive interpretations and commentaries, which are now part of the teaching material of the LR. For example, he wrote a 400-page commentary on the 23-page edition of the Fama Fraternitatis.

The relationship between Rijckenborgh and the “old Rosicrucians” is ambivalent . The LR is one of the few Rosicrucian groups that the legendary figure Christian Rosencreutz does not consider a person of the 15th century, but rather symbolizes the prototype of a god-human being, which can be realized through the process of spiritual soul development. The LR is based on the premise that Rijckenborgh has deciphered Andreaes Rosicrucian originals of the Baroque and thereby established a complete correspondence with his own worldview. From this the judge concluded that Rijckenborgh in particular was the envoy of a young Gnostic "Universal Brotherhood" who continued the mission of the legendary figure Christian Rosenkreuz.

Works (in German)

The works of Jan van Rijckenborgh have been published by the (in-house) Rozekruis-Pers publishing house in Haarlem.

  • The Shamballa Brotherhood , 1950; 3. revised A. 1980, ISBN 90-70053-63-2 .
  • Dei Gloria Intacta. The Christian Mystery of Initiation of the Holy Rose Cross for the New Age , 1953.
  • The Coming New Man , 1954; 5. revised A. 2006, ISBN 90-6732-093-5 .
  • Elementary philosophy of the modern rose cross , 1955.
  • The problem of cancer and its triple transfiguristic cure , 1955.
  • The Universal Path , 1955.
  • The great upheaval , 1955.
  • The Universal Gnosis , 1955.
  • The new sign , 1955.
  • The Gnosis in Current Revelation , 1956.
  • The ancient Egyptian Gnosis and its call in the eternal now . 4 volumes.
  • The mysteries of the Brotherhood of the Rosicrucian , 3 volumes:
    • The Call of the Brotherhood of the Rosicrucian. Esoteric Analysis of the Fama Fraternitatis RC
    • The Confession of the Brotherhood of the Rosicrucian. Esoteric analysis of the Confessio Fraternitatis RC , 1980.
    • The alchemical wedding of Christian Rosenkreuz. Esoteric analysis of Christiani Rosencreutz's chymic wedding in 1459 . 2 parts 1967, ISBN 90-6732-152-4 and 1976, ISBN 90-6732-056-0 ; Part 1 also in Goldmann, Munich 1980, ISBN 3-442-11725-9 .
  • The Mystery of the Beatitudes , 2nd A. 1960.
  • The Nykthemeron of Apollonius of Thyana . 4. revised A. 1992, ISBN 90-6732-080-3 .
  • The Apocalypse of the New Age . Five Aquarius Renewal Conferences. 5 volumes 1963-67.
  • The Mystery of Life and Death , 5th A. 1981.
  • The club man. A call to young people.
  • Unmasking , 3rd revised. A. 1984, ISBN 90-6732-089-7 .
  • There is no empty space , 1977.
  • Reveille! Wake-up call for a fundamental renewal of life as a way out in a hopeless time (with Catharose de Petri), 1977.
  • The universal remedy.
  • Christianopolis. Explanation of seven chapters from Republicae Christianopolitanae Descriptio by Johann Valentin Andreae , 1978, ISBN 90-70196-36-0 .
  • The Light of the World. Excerpts from the Sermon on the Mount , 1981.
  • A new call.
  • The Chinese Gnosis. Comments on the Tao Teh King by Lao Tse (with Catharose de Petri), 1988, ISBN 90-6732-026-9 .
  • The New Man's Light Dress (with Catharose de Petri), 1988, ISBN 90-6732-029-3 .
  • The liberating path of the Rosicrucian (with Catharose de Petri), 1990.
  • The new rod of Mercury (with Catharose de Petri), 1991.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ John Matthews: The Sources of the Grail. Floris Books Verlag, October 1996. p. 361. ISBN 978-0-86315-233-7 .
  2. ↑ Harald Lamprecht : New Rosicrucians. A manual. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2004, ISBN 3-525-56549-6 , p. 259.
  3. ↑ Horst E. Miers : Lexicon of secret knowledge. Goldmann Verlag, Munich 1993, ISBN 3-442-12179-5 . Pp. 340-341 and p. 525.
  4. ↑ Harald Lamprecht: New Rosicrucians. A manual. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2004, ISBN 3-525-56549-6 , p. 259.
  5. ^ Karl RH Frick: The Rosicrucians as a fictional and real secret society. In: Gerd-Klaus Kaltenbrunner (Ed.): Secret societies and the myth of the world conspiracy. Herder, Freiburg (Breisgau) et al. 1987, ISBN 3-451-09569-6 , ( Herderbücherei 9569), ( Initiative 69), p. 126/127.
  6. ^ Tobias Churton: The Invisible History of the Rosicrucians: The World's Most Mysterious Secret Society. Inner Traditions Publisher, Rochester, Vermont 2009. p. 511. ISBN 978-1-59477-255-9 .
  7. ↑ Harald Lamprecht: New Rosicrucians. A manual. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2004, ISBN 3-525-56549-6 , p. 254.
  8. ↑ Martin Leube: Leaves for Württemberg Church History. Volume 103. M. Holland, 2003.
  9. ↑ Harald Lamprecht: New Rosicrucians. A manual. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2004, ISBN 3-525-56549-6 , p. 254.
  10. ↑ Horst E. Miers: Lexicon of secret knowledge. Goldmann Verlag, Munich 1993, ISBN 3-442-12179-5 , pp. 340-341, p. 195, p. 373 f.
  11. ↑ Harald Lamprecht: New Rosicrucians. A manual. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2004, ISBN 3-525-56549-6 , pp. 250-256 ff.
  12. ↑ Horst E. Miers: Lexicon of secret knowledge. Goldmann Verlag, Munich 1993, ISBN 3-442-12179-5 . Pp. 282-283, 373-376, S: 482 and p. 530.
  13. ^ Evangelical Central Office for Weltanschauung questions: EZW-Information No. 71. Stuttgart XI / 1977, p. 1. PDF download: [1] (PDF; 494 kB)
  14. ^ Karl RH Frick: The Rosicrucians as a fictional and real secret society. In: Gerd-Klaus Kaltenbrunner (Ed.): Secret societies and the myth of the world conspiracy. Herder, Freiburg (Breisgau) et al. 1987, ISBN 3-451-09569-6 , ( Herderbücherei 9569), ( Initiative 69), p. 126/127.
  15. ^ Peisl / Mohler: Course book of world views. Ullstein Verlag GmbH (March 1983). Pp. 276-277 ISBN 3-550-07943-5 .
  16. ^ Tobias Churton: The Invisible History of the Rosicrucians: The World's Most Mysterious Secret Society. Inner Traditions Publisher, Rochester, Vermont 2009. p. 511. ISBN 978-1-59477-255-9 .
  17. ↑ Horst E. Miers: Lexicon of secret knowledge. Goldmann Verlag, Munich 1993, ISBN 3-442-12179-5 . P. 230, p. 251/252 and p. 482.
  18. ^ Hans-Jürgen Ruppert : Rosicrucian. Heinrich Hugendubel Verlag, Kreuzlingen / Munich 2004, ISBN 3-7205-2533-3 , pp. 68-71.
  19. ↑ Evangelical Central Office for Weltanschauung questions: EZW-Information No. 23, Stuttgart IX / 1966. Pp. 3–10, PDF download
  20. ↑ Rudolf Passian: Light and shadow of esotericism. Droemersche Verlagsanstalt Th. Knaur Nachf. Munich 1991, p. 422.
  21. ↑ Horst E. Miers: Lexicon of secret knowledge. Goldmann Verlag, Munich 1993, ISBN 3-442-12179-5 . P. 525.
  22. ↑ Marcel Messing: Buddhism in the West. From antiquity to today. Kösel-Verlag GmbH & Co 1997. p. 198 p. 203.
  23. ↑ Martin Brauen: Traumwelt Tibet: Western illusions. Publishing house Paul Haupt Berne, Bern u. a. 2000, ISBN 3-258-05639-0 , pp. 90 f.
  24. ↑ Horst E. Miers: Lexicon of secret knowledge. Goldmann Verlag, Munich 1993, ISBN 3-442-12179-5 . Page 156 and pp. 373-377.
  25. ↑ Roland Edighoffer: The Rosicrucians. Munich 1995. p. 125 and p. 123.
  26. ↑ Harald Lamprecht: New Rosicrucians. A manual. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2004. p. 265; Lamprecht: The Rosicrucians. Fascination of a myth. Evangelical Central Office for Weltanschauung questions, Berlin 2012, EZW -tex No. 221. p. 11.
  27. ↑ Fincke / Pöhlmann: Compass sects and religious world views. A lexicon. Gütersloher Verlagshaus, Gütersloh 2004, pp. 172–174.
personal data
SURNAME Rijckenborgh, Jan van
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Leene, Jan (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Dutch Rosicrucian and founder of the Lectorium Rosicrucianum
DATE OF BIRTH October 16, 1896
PLACE OF BIRTH Haarlem , the Netherlands
DATE OF DEATH 17th July 1968