INTRODUCTION

The Lectorium Rosicrucianum, the International School of the Golden Rosicross, is a modern Spiritual School in continuation of the age old tradition of Mystery Schools.

This Spiritual School is supported by a community of people for whom the renewed development of the inner being is the foremost object in their lives.

Their inner self is aimed at the rebirth of the soul, at making it possible for the Divine Principle in the heart to re-awaken.
In this focussed endeavour the Rosicrucian’s actions are no longer self-centred but centred on the Divine Principle – also called the Spirit Spark Atom - within him or her.

TEACHINGS AND PURPOSE

The point of departure is that everyone’s Divine Nucleus forms an integral part of the microcosm, man’s spiritual structure.
Those who make this Divine Nucleus the leading principle in their lives are at the dawn of a drastic inner process: the transfiguration.
The present personality will then gradually make room for a new personality.
This new personality will no longer be nourished by earthly energies but by original cosmic forces.

In the course of this process of transfiguration the personality of the “old” human entity merges with a spiritual consciousness, which reconnects it with the original Divine Life.

HISTORY

In 1924 the brothers Zwier W, Leene (1882-1938) and Jan Leene (1896-1968) joined the then Rosicrucian Society.
It was the Dutch branch of the Rosicrucian Fellowship founded by Max Heindel in 1909.

In 1929 the brothers Leene assumed the leadership of the Rosicrucian Society.
One year later Mrs. Henny Stok-Huizer (1902-1990) joined them.
This was the beginning of a spiritual quest that in 1935 led to the fact that the three went on independently of the Rosicrucian Fellowship.
Z.W. Leene died in 1938.
After that Mrs. Stok-Huizer and J. Leene continued the work together.
They would publish many works, which were issued under their pseudonyms
Jan van Rijckenborgh and Catharose de Petri.

In 1945 the society decided on the name Lectorium Rosicrucianum.
It has manifested itself as a Gnostic Spiritual School ever since.
When Jan van Rijckenborgh died in 1968 Catharose de Petri took on the leadership.
Since her decease in 1990 there is a collective leadership:
the International Spiritual Directorate,
supported by local directorates and working groups in the various countries.

“SCHOOL”

The Spiritual School does not have teachers and pupils as is usual in schools.
Nor is it aiming at the acquisition of knowledge or skills so as to qualify for social advancement.
The teachings of the Lectorium as “school” are based on an inner Christianity in accordance with which man is autonomous and responsible for the highest spiritual principle within him.
True to the tradition of Gnostic thought men and women are working together in the School on the basis of equivalence.

Everyone who participates in the Spiritual School is a pupil-Rosicrucian.
The School holds true that between the person who strives after soul consciousness and the Universal Teachings there should be no one else.
The knowledge and the insight one acquires well up from the Divine core principle of those who walk the pupil’s Path.
This principle is the pupil-Rosicrucian’s inner teacher during the process of the soul’s rebirth.

ORGANISATION

Through the years the activities of the Lectorium Rosicrucianum have continuously expanded.

In the Netherlands there are now fourteen centres and two conference centres: Renova and Noverosa.
The Belgian work field has two centres (Louvain and Ghent) and the Belgian conference accommodation is also in Ghent.

In all these towns the School regularly organizes, for those who are interested, courses, public lectures and conference days about the Teachings and about how they are put into practise by the Rosicrucians of today.
Apart from the Netherlands there are not only pupils in many other European countries, but also in South- and North America, Africa, Australia and New Zealand.

The headquarters of the Lectorium Rosicrucianum are situated in Haarlem, in the Netherlands.
The leading is in the hands of the International Spiritual Directorate, assisted by the local directorates in the countries and by various working groups.
At the local and at the regional level the centres are the heart of all activities.
Worldwide there are approximately fifteen thousand pupils.

ORIENTATION, MEMBERSHIP AND PUPILSHIP

You can acquaint yourself with the Teachings of the Spiritual School and the backgrounds of it via the various activities.
You could, for instance, participate in one of the courses that are organized regionally.
You are also free to attend to a lecture or to a symposium.
It is furthermore possible to be present at a reflection gathering in the temple of one of the centres.

If you would like to become a member we recommend you to follow the course
“Rosycross and Gnosis” since this gives the proper basic information about the Spiritual School’s Teachings.
As a member you can be present at temple services for members and pupils and attend to conference days for members.
The costs of membership amount to € 17,50 per month, which includes the subscription to the two monthly magazine Pentagram.
Once you have been a member for some time you can decide for yourself whether the chosen path finds a response in your own heart.
If this is indeed the case you can indicate that you would like to become a pupil.
Also this requires a monthly subscription fee.

YOUTH AND YOUNG ONES.

Children are unique beings who demand to be rated at their true value.
As a result of the obtruding amusement market and the arrival of the computer era the child’s inner world appears to recede into the background.

This is one of the reasons why the child is of such extraordinary importance to the International School of the Golden Rosycross.
This is also why there are so many diverging activities for children, like regional gatherings and local conferences lasting several days for different age groups from six up to eighteen years.
During these gatherings enthusiastic youth workers transmit the School’s teachings to the children in a simple and ornate way.

The conference centre Noverosa is the nucleus of the youth work.
This is the place where weekend- and summer-week gatherings are organized.
Not only from the Netherlands but from all over the world children are regularly gathering there during a couple of days to exchange views and opinions on various subjects in a sphere of friendship, equality and safety.
Next to that there is ample opportunity for relaxation in the form of sport, play and play acting.

EDUCATION

Proper education, the true man in gestation and the protection of the child’s openness have top priority in the foundation “Jan van Rijckenborg schools”.
This foundation organises basic education in Hilversum and Heiloo, two towns in Holland.
It concerns two normal schools of basic education that fall under the category of private education.
These schools have a particular way of being child orientated due to the fact that the compulsory curriculum is supplemented with the ideas of the Lectorium Rosicrucianum.
Children whose parents endorse this curriculum are heartily being welcomed
at these schools.

NAME AND SYMBOLISM

The school’s name derives from the classical denomination Rosycross or Christian Rosycross.
This name does not reach back to some historic personality but it is considered to be a symbolic reference to a person whose life is focussed on the true destination of the human being: the return to his Divine origin.
The name Christian needs no further explanation.
In a broader sense the name Christian Rosycross is also symbolic of modern man’s need to receive the Christ impulse and to take the consequential spiritual Path.

SYMBOLS – THE CROSS

The Cross symbolizes both man and world.
The horizontal beam represents life in our world, the vertical one the inflow of the Divine Light that irradiates the world.
At the crossing where the two beams meet sprouts the Rose as symbol of the Spirit Spark that is present, be it dormant or not, in each human being.
If and when the Spirit Spark awakens it can give rise to an inner nostalgia as well as occasion a call from the original Life-Field to be heard.
He who reacts positively to this call by having his inner being concentrated on the Divine vertical inflow, starts his way of the cross.
He creates the possibility for the Rose to reach full bloom.
This implies uninterrupted work at the beauty and the perfection of the new soul.
For Rosicrucians the symbol of the Rose and the Cross also covers the true significance of the word religion: reconnecting the soul with the Divine Power, with the Liberating Power that “is not of this world”.

SYMBOLS – THE CIRCLE, TRIANGLE AND SQUARE

The circle symbolizes eternity, infinity and the microcosm as well.
The triangle signifies the three great Powers that emanate from the Logos and which are indicated as Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
The square symbolizes the foundation for the structuring of the New Man.
The square also goes by the name of carpet on which the candidate should stand to complete this inner structure, in the service of world and mankind.

SYMBOLS – THE PENTAGRAM    

The pentagram is the symbol of the born again man, the New Man.
The Cathars also used this symbol, which had the same profound significance.
With the Bogomiles it acted as a mutual mark of identification.
The pentagram is also an indication of the universe eternally in gestation and in which the Divine Plan is manifested.