The“(Al)Chemical Wedding” of Christian Rosenkreutz, and the Archetypal Sevenfold Pattern of Transformation

        Tonight I’m going to speak about the “Chemical Wedding” of Christian Rosenkreutz, and the Archetypal Sevenfold Pattern of Transformation contained in this allegory, as presented in the commentary by Adam McLean in this edition of the book translated by Jocelyn Godwin.

      Adam McLean relates the central motif of the story, the seven days, which make up the seven chapters of the “Chemical Wedding” to what he describes as a “seven-fold archetypal pattern of transformation”.  Before we describe this pattern that he presents, and illustrate it with examples from the allegory, I’d like to offer some background on this book.

      The “Chemical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz” has been considered to be the third Rosicrucian “Manifesto”.  The first two Rosicrucian “Manifestos”, as they have been called, The Fama Fraternatatis, and the Confessio Fraternatatis, were published, consecutively in 1614, and 1615.  They were followed by the “Chemical Wedding” in 1616.  

            The writers of all three works were anonymous, but because the Chemical Wedding is completely different in style from the two previous “Manifestos”, it has been debated whether or not it was written by the same authors, or even intended as a follow-up to the previous works. Nevertheless, others would argue it that it does demonstrate the “mystery” that the Rosicrucian brotherhood claimed to posses in the two previous manifestos.

        The authorship of the chemical wedding has also been disputed.  It was rumored to have actually been written by John Valentin Andreae, in 1605, when he was 19, and published 10 years later. Andreae does admit in his autobiography that he wrote the “Chemical Wedding”, but he dismissed the story as a ‘ludibrium’ or joke of his youth.

      Adam McLean, in his commentary doubts that Andreae wrote this particular “Chemical Wedding” story, he says about him, “from what we know of Andreae as an orthodox and eminent Lutheran pastor and academic, it seems unlikely that he could have devised such a profoundly esoteric document, which in fact has at its basis many ideas heretical even in Protestant terms.”  

      McLean tells us that Andreae did write some plays in his youth, but they are not on the level of the “chemical wedding”, to quote, “we can speculate that Andreae did, in fact, write a version of the ‘chemical wedding” perhaps...and this could have been reworked into the complex allegory we know today, by some other as yet, unknown writer.”  Whoever the real writer was, we may never know.                                 
The first page of the book reads as follows, “The Chemical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz” in the year 1459. It is followed by the quotation, “Mysteries made public become cheap and things profaned lose their grace, therefore, cast not pearls before swine, nor make a bed of roses for an ass.”  This quote is attributed to ”immutable knowledge.”  

            I do not intend to “profane” these mysteries, by trying to turn them into mere information.  My aim is to open this book for you, and offer you a glimpse of the world inside of it.  Perhaps this will give you a few clues - tools by which others have interpreted its mysteries, and in turn, you will make the effort to interpret them for yourselves.

            Christian Rosenkruetz begins his story, “One evening before Easter, I was sitting at table, having, as was my habit, my humble prayer to my Creator, and meditated on the many great mysteries which the Father of Light, in his majesty had allowed me to glimpse. As I was trying to prepare inwardly a pure, unleavened loaf to accompany my blessed Paschal Lamb, there suddenly arose such a terrible wind that I thought the mountain on which my cottage was built was going to split apart.”  

            Then, under mysterious circumstances, he receives an invitation to attend the wedding of a King.  In the days that follow he encounters oppositions on his journey to the wedding, passes “gates” which are more like tests or initiations, and after overcoming these obstacles is given new energy and insight.  On the fourth day he finally witnesses the “wedding” (which is also an execution, and a funeral) and this is “the turning point in the whole cycle” according to Adam McLean.  

            He further states that, after this deeply moving experience has woven the essence of the wedding ritual into his soul, Christian Rosenkreutz begins to manifest these energies.”  The remaining days offer new tests, and the accomplishment of these bring about “the work”, which is the resurrection of the King and Queen, through the Alchemical practices of Rosenkreutz and the other “chosen” wedding guests.

            To McLean, each day represents a stage in this pattern of transformation. He says, “This archetypal sevenfold pattern is, in fact, one of the secrets of Alchemy, one of the skeleton frameworks upon which the alchemists hung their symbols.”  For those of us not familiar with the framework of Alchemy, there is, a sevenfold Alchemical process in which the ‘first matter’, goes through 7 stages, these are; 1) Calcination, 2) Coagulation, 3) Conjunction, 4) Dissolution 5) Distillation 6) Fermentation, and 7) Separation.  The object of which is to produce the golden “philosopher’s stone.”  

            Unfortunately, it is not possible in this short talk to elaborate on these 7 stages, but I’m sure you would find it a worthwhile study and a necessary key to an understanding the symbolism used in the “chemical wedding”.  A “chemical wedding” does refer to an Alchemical process, it is, in fact the “central symbol of alchemy” according to the author of another book I came across while putting this talk together, entitled, “Alchemy” by Titus Burkhardt.

            Our Most Excellent Captain Cliff, loaned me this one, and since it contains some background on the central theme of our story, I will quote from a chapter entitled, “of the Chemical Marriage”.  “The marriage of spirit and soul, (also referred to as) sulfur and quicksilver, sun and moon, or king and queen, is the central symbol of alchemy. Alchemy is based on the view that man, as a result of the loss of his original Adamic state, is divided within himself.            
     He regains his integral nature only when the two powers, whose discord has rendered him impotent, are again reconciled with one another.  The regaining of the integral nature of man (which alchemy expresses by the symbol of the masculine-feminine androgyne) is the prerequisite - or from another point of view, the fruit of - the union with God.”  

            The Author of the book,  “Alchemy”, Titus Burkhardt, continues by explaining the connection between marriage and death, “Closely related to the symbolism of marriage is that of death.  According to some representations of the “chemical marriage” the king and queen, on marriage, are killed and buried together, only to rise again, rejuvenated.  That this connection between marriage and death is in the nature of things, is indicated by the fact that according to ancient experience, a marriage in a dream means a death, and a death in a dream means a marriage. This correspondence is explained by the fact that any given union presupposes an extinction of the earlier, still undifferentiated state.”

            Finally, as the “truths” of alchemy often found their correspondences in actual chemical processes, in the “chemical marriage” of sulfur and quicksilver (or mercury), both forces “die, as foes and lovers”, he says, “then the changing and reflective moon of the soul unites with the immutable sun of the spirit so that it is extinguished, and yet illumined, at one and the same time.”  

     It is also significant that Christian Rosenkreutz receives the  “wedding invitation” on “The Saturday evening upon which the Christ, who McLean says, “represents symbolically the divine spiritual impulse, died and descended deep into the earth in order to be resurrected and reborn.”  This is the central symbol of the story, in the same way that the “chemical wedding” is the central symbol of Alchemy.  One is then married to the other, the “Christian” symbolism with the “pre-Christian”.  

            In the opening scene Rosenkreutz is preparing his Paschal Lamb.  I overlooked this before, as I had considered it an ordinary Easter preparation, but it is actually derived from the Jewish Passover. The word “paschal” comes from the Hebrew pesah and means, “of Passover”. In the Jewish Passover, the blood of the lamb is put on the door of the house, so that the angel of death may “Passover” it.

            The Christian “Easter” was at one time celebrated during the Jewish Passover, and that was, according to scripture, when the Christ celebrated “the last supper” a Passover meal or sader, before his death and resurrection. The church changed this holiday to coincide with the already existing pagan Easter holiday, long before 1459, the date the story was supposedly written. (This year, the dates of Passover overlap Easter, Passover beginning March 31st, on Palm Sunday, and ending April 8th, and 4 days after our Easter Sunday.)      

            McLean maps out these “stages” using a U shaped arc to illustrate an “involoutionary” and “evolutionary” process. What then, are the “events” in the “days” of the “chemical wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz” that illustrate this transformation?  Some of each of the day’s events outlined in this book will be used as examples of how we might apply the allegory to the “stages” described in this sevenfold process.  

            This first day; when Christian Rosenkreutz receives “the invitation to the wedding”, Adam McLean calls, “the initial founding of the spiritual Impulse”. The second day Rosenkreutz is confronted with 4 paths, or possible ways to arrive at the wedding, choosing the correct path proves difficult, and then the path he takes is chosen almost “by accident”.  Then he must pass three “gates”, each one with a porter who must be paid with one of his possessions, and once he arrives at the castle he finds himself surrounded by other guests.  Then he is bound and left in the hall.  This second stage, McLean says, is the experience of a kind of crisis, where the spiritual impulse meets a dualistic opposition.”

            The third day is the last day of what he refers to as ‘the initial phase of the process” it is where he says, the “thesis and antithesis of the second day are able to come together in a new synthesis.” So what happens to Christian Rosenkreutz on this day?  The weighing ceremony, where he and the other guests are put on scales to see if they are lighter than (which means they are not equal to the qualities of) any or all of these weights.  

    What do these weights represent? Adam McLean suggests that they represent the seven virtues.  The weights have been described as 4 small ones (which he attributes to the moral or cardinal virtues of; Wisdom, Justice, Temperance, and Fortitude), 2 larger ones (to which he attributes Faith and Hope), and a single large weight (which is ascribed to Love).   

            The weighing ceremony is followed by the scene in the dining hall, and the passing of “sentences” in the garden, upon all those who could be raised by any of the weights.  On the 4th day, Christian Rosenkreutz drinks of the fountain, meets the king and queen, and witnesses the wedding /execution.  McLean calls this the central stage of this archetypal sevenfold transformation process.

            “This”, he says, “is the turning point where the initial spiritual impulse, having overcome its opposition and become energized, ties itself into incarnation, and through focusing itself on a single point, event, or individual act, penetrates into its lowest vehicle, and enfolds its being into actualization through an inner transformation of essence into substance.”  

    “Then”, he says, “out of this, arises the upward arc of the next three stages, expressing the inner spiritual impulse in outer manifestation.”  The 5th, 6th, and 7th days then illustrate the upward arc or “evolutionary” part of this process.  On the 5th day, Rosenkreutz sees Venus unveiled in the subterranean vaults of the castle.  He also witnesses; the “mock burial” in the garden, the seven ships sailing across the great lake, their arrival at the Tower of Olympus, and the work in the first level laboratory.  

            This 5th “stage” McLean calls, “the first tentative experiments at manifesting the new energies.”  On the 6th day, the chosen wedding guests (now called alchemists) have to struggle to bring their work into expression.  They experience difficulties with the ladders, ropes, and wings each has been given to ascend the 6 further levels of the tower.  McLean adds, “Significantly, there is a special difficulty (or an apparent opposition) between Christian Rosenkreutz and the 3 more advanced adepts as they prepare to move from the 6th to the 7th level.

            Here through a trick they are made to feel that they have failed to give expression to their understanding of the process.”  On the 7th day, Christian Rosenkreutz is given the medal of the Knights of the Golden Stone, the company of adepts embarks on 12 ships, and they met with the King and Queen and the procession.  

    Next, Rosenkreutz admits to having seen Venus in the forbidden vaults under the castle, and because of this must take the first “porter’s” place. McLean explains, “The Seventh day is the final, mature, expression of the work, and here Christian Rosenkreutz has to face up to his own responsibility for the process, by taking on the role of guardian or “porter” of the first gate.”  

            The events outlined give only an incomplete description of the events of the story, and serve only to illustrate some aspects of the “Archetypal Sevenfold Pattern of Transformation” contained within it.  There are many more subtle layers of meaning to be discovered.  This brief outline compared with the complete story, could be likened to the difference between a skeleton and a living human being.

            There is one last thing I would like to add, although to some of you it may seem obvious; the title of the book is not the Chemical Wedding of the King and Queen, but the Chemical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz, and like Christian Rosenkreutz we are also invited to our own, “chemical wedding”.   

   I hope that after this brief introduction, you will get to know better the living body of this story. It contains, within it, a mystery - and marks important “signposts” on the path to the great work to which we are called if we want to be Rosicrucians.  Each day is an adventure in the realm of the King and Queen.  

            The meditation that follows our discussion today will be a special mediation, not one included in our usual “grail meditations”. This mediation will use words and images from the Chemical wedding, specifically, the events of the 5th day, in which Christian Rosenkreutz discovers.  This experience was an important stage, and turning point of the “wedding” drama, and for which he must accept responsibility in the final, or 7th stage. In this scene, you will be in the castle of the King and the one to make this symbolical journey.