Spirituality – Page 2 – Theresa Crater

March 17, 2014

Comenius and the Rosicrucians

In The Star Family I suggested that Comenius was a Rosicrucian, therefore having strong ties to mysticism and the Western Metaphysical tradition. How true is this?

First, who is Comenius? Born Jan Amos Komenský in 1592 in in the town of Nivnice in Moravia, a Province of Bohemia now in the Czech Republic, he was orphaned at the age of 12 after his parents died from plague. Raised in the Unity of the Brethren, known as the Moravian Church in the US, he resisted Ferdinand II’s attempts to return Bohemia and Moravia to Catholicism. He went into hiding during the Thirty Years War, and then fled to Poland where he kept what is now called “the hidden seed” of the church alive to reblossom in 1722 in Saxony.

Best known for educational reform, Comenius supported universal education for all (including women and the poor), taught logical thinking over memorization, stressed the importance of physical activity for children, compassionate guidance over harsh punishment, and developing concepts from the simple to the complex.

He espoused teaching “all things, “ a philosophy he called “Pansophia,“ “a doctrine of universal harmonies, and a connection between the inner world of man and the outer world of nature” (Yates 217). Comenius said he was influenced toward this idea and writing encyclopedias by Johann Valentin Andreae. Remember him? One of the seventeenth century founders (or publicizers) of the Rosicrucian movement.

Both Comenius and Andreae attended university at Heidelberg at the same time that Frederick and Elizabeth began their rule of the Palatine. Remember their aim was to create a Rosicrucian state there, according to Frances Yates. See how it’s all coming together? So Comenius was influenced by the Rosicrucians in his youth, and as Yates points out, the philosophy and teachings of the Unitas Fratrum most likely influenced Andreae and the Rosicrucians just as much.

He continued to read Rosicrucian documents as evidenced by his long discussion of them in his famous Labyrinth of the World (see Yates 210-219). Both Andreae and Comenius moved away from using the title “Rosicrucian” when the organization went into disfavor in Europe, but they continued to teach the same ideas.

I found the last piece of evidence that convinced me Comenius was a member, perhaps even the head, of the Rosicrucian Order in Rosicrucian Question and Answers with Complete History by Harvey Spencer Lewis, their Imperator from 1915 to 1939. In a list of “either Masters of various Lodges or [those who] assisted in bringing the mystic fraternity into their respective countries” (89), Comenius’s name is found right below Andreae’s on page 91.

Comenius lost two families to religious persecution. His library was burned twice. He lived most of his live in exile from Bohemia. He and members of his family achieved many things that I don’t have the space to discuss here. Comenius is buried in Naarden, Holland.

February 24, 2014

Rosicrucians, Moravians and The Thirty Years War

Last week I talked about how Frederick V and Elizabeth wanted to create an ideal court based in Rosicrucian teachings, according to Frances Yates (The Rosicrucian Enlightenment). They moved their court from Heidelberg to Prague.

The Protestant estates of Bohemia rebelled against Ferdinand, their Catholic king, in 1618. Frederick, as head of the Protestant Union, was asked to take the throne. He was crowned Frederick I, King of Bohemia, on November 4, 1619. Frederick had hoped for the support of Elizabeth’s father, the king of England, but James I did offer military assistance. The Protestant Union sealed the deal with the Treaty of Ulm in 1620, in which they promised neutrality in the war. The hope to overthrow Hapsburg and Catholic rule in Bohemia failed at the Battle of White Mountain on November 8, 1620. Frederick ruled as King of Bohemia for one year and four days, thus earning the nickname The Winter King. The imperial forces invaded the Palatinate and the royal family fled to the Dutch Republic.

The attempted to create the ideal court was defeated that day, but the dream lived on.

Members of the Unitas Fratrum, known as the Moravian Church in America, fought with Frederick during this war. “With the Peace of Westphalia at war’s end, Catholicism became the official religion of Bohemia and Moravia. The few surviving members of the Unitas Fratrum either left their homeland or worshiped in secret, becoming known as ‘The Hidden Seed’” (Determining the Facts).

How connected were the Unitas Fratrum to the Rosicrucian ideal Frederick and Elizabeth hoped to create? Let’s explore Moravian and Rosicrucian connections next week.

February 17, 2014

Yates and The Rosicrucian Enlightenment 2.0

One of the most revealing connections Yates makes in her book is the Rosicrucians were deeply involved with the attempt to overthrow Catholic and Hapsburg control over Europe. So were the Moravians, the group featured in The Star Family.

But rather than define the Rosicrucians by what they opposed, perhaps it would be better to state what they wanted to create. They were attempting to create an ideal state to preserve science, philosophy, Hermeticism, and other knowledge threatened by the Catholics. The hope? “A world order reflecting harmonious cosmic laws in which the spirit of man would be freed to pursue its God-given destiny.” (Johann Valentin Andrea and the Rosicrucians)

John Hus of Prague (1369-1415) tried to reform the Catholic Church and his efforts were rewarded with his martyrdom in 1415. Hus, a professor of philosophy and rector of the University in Prague, gave rousing sermons at The Bethlehem Chapel, where the Czech reformation centered its activities.

After Hus was burnt at the stake for heresy, the Hussite rebellion followed, which led to the founding of the Unitas Fratrum (Unity of the Brethren, known in the U.S. as the Moravian Church) in 1457. But the new movement met persecution in the 1500’s, and many fled to exile in Poland. “By 1557 there were three provinces of the church: Bohemia, Moravia and Poland. The Thirty Years War (1618-1648) brought further persecution to the Brethren’s Church, and the Protestants of Bohemia were severely defeated at the battle of White Mountain in 1620.” (A Brief History of the Moravian Church)

As it turns out, the Thirty Years War was also connected to the Rosicrucians. Here’s how.

Queen Elizabeth had allied herself with the Netherlands and with German and French Protestants in opposition to Hapsburg aggression in Europe, backed by the Catholic Church. After Elizabeth’s death, Prince James VI of Scotland became King James I of England. His daughter, Princess Elizabeth, married Frederick V, Elector Palatine of the Rhine.

This union was supposed to unite Protestant England with Protestant Germany in anticipation of the end of the truce in 1621 between Spain and the Netherlands. The Catholics were preparing for a new assault against what they termed heresy, and they supported the Hapsburgs with this new war in mind. The new couple progressed from London through the Netherlands to Heidelberg, where they established their court.

During this same time, the Rosicrucian manifestos were published in Germany by Johann Valentin Andrea. The first public document was the Fama Fraternitatis Rosae Crucis, which appeared in 1614, followed in 1615 by the Confessio Fraternitatis. In 1616 the Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz was published. These documents brought the Rosicrucian teachings to the public. These teachings were designed to awaken and expand human consciousness, to connect the individual mind with the universal, and reconcile human awareness with the basic principles of the laws of nature. Yes, I named Valentin Knight after Andrea and a modern mystic.

Frederick and Elizabeth wanted to create “a culture, a ‘Rosicrucian’ state with its court centered on Heidelberg” (Yates). So how did they get to Prague and how did the Thirty Years War start? Check out next week’s blog for more.

February 10, 2014

Frances Yates and The Rosicrucian Enlightenment

Frances Yates’ book on the importance of the Rosicrucians in the European Enlightenment became a critical part of my research for The Star Family. She helped deepen my conviction that several important Moravian church leaders were also part of the Western Mystery tradition. The book also traced important links between the Thirty Years’ War and this group of mystics.

Dame Frances Yates taught history at University College London in the Warburg Institute. Her work focused on esoteric history. Born in 1899 in Southsea, Yates was the eldest of four children.

She was educated at home, although an older sister attended Girton College at Cambridge, the women’s college Virginia Woolf made famous in her essay A Room of One’s Own. (It might have been famous already.) Yates got her degree in French through correspondence courses at University College, London, then in 1926, an MA in French Theatre.

I do not know where she received her esoteric training, but through reading her work, it is obvious she had an excellent grounding in the western metaphysical tradition. I’ll bet somebody out there knows. (Hint, hint.)

Many now claim that Yates founded a paradigm. She argued that Renaissance hermeticism, or Rosicrucian teachings, formed an important part of European culture. They led to the development of science, which Wouter Hanegraaff claims then dismissed its parent. (Yes, even theories have Oedipal complexes.) While scholars argue that there is no unified esoteric tradition (without really studying it, I might add), even the most mainstream historian will admit that Yates did bring the Rosicrucians into the scholarly discussion of the period, clearly showing how important their teachings were.

Her major works include Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition (1964), The Art of Memory (1966), and The Rosicrucian Enlightenment (1972).

In the next blog, I’ll explore some of the elements in this last book that relate to the Moravian church and The Star Family.

February 5, 2014

Moravian Writers’ Conference

I will be a panelist at the Moravian Writers’ Conference in Bethlehem, PA in June. My panel is called “Writing Moravians: Stories from the Archives.” I’ll be talking about the research behind my novel The Star Family with writers from Lehigh University and Craig Atwood, from Moravian College. Craig researched the period in Moravian history that inspired me to write The Star Family, and I’m looking forward to talking with him more.

Come join us in Bethlehem the first weekend of June.

December 19, 2013

Miss Essig’s House

My cousin asked me if Miss Essig is based on a real music teacher and if her house exists. Here are the answers.

No. I did have a voice teacher named Miss Star who lived in that little green house in Old Salem on West Street (for those of you who know the area). Miss Star is not really Miss Essig, though. They’re quite different. I made Miss Essig up completely. I took her name from my family tree. Most of the names in The Star Family are family or famous Moravian names. Mr. Mueller, whom David and Jane discuss as their music theory teacher, was a real professor at Salem College and did teach me piano.

Yes, Miss Essig’s house does exist. My father built his house on a plot of land right across the street from this English Tudor and one of my best childhood friends lived in it. When we first moved in, she was standing behind the hedge watching. I didn’t even go inside, but walked across the then tar-covered street and made friends. My mother had to drag me inside later, “Don’t you want to see your new room?” They could tell I wanted to move into the English Tudor. My mother tried to make me be more appreciative of my father’s hard work to make money to build this new house, but he just laughed and said, “When I was a kid, I wanted that house, too.” He’d grown up only two blocks away from it. It’s beautiful, calling forth exclamations from people when they pass it by for the first time.

I’m told it’s changed some since my childhood days. There’s a fish pond where one branch of the driveway was. The hedge is taller now. But it will always live in my memory as it was then. My friend and I climbed the tallest evergreens on the property, played in the rose garden, and picked pears off the ground, then ran from the yellow jackets that would come buzzing out. The gang of girls had many a sleep-over. We played the grand piano in the living room and explored the attic.

She told me there was a hidden staircase in the walk-in closet in her parents’ bedroom. I don’t know if it’s true, because she wouldn’t let me look. That imaginary (or not) staircase is now an intricate part of the mystery.

There is no church in the neighborhood, but the Sisters’ House does exist. It’s a big brick mansion overlooking Washington Park. One of the other large houses does exist, but not in the place I put it. The fourth house I made up completely.

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December 10, 2013

The Advent Star

As a child growing up in Winston-Salem, I looked forward to the Advent season when the Moravian Star would be displayed. I remember we were driving down Cascade Avenue remarking about how Christmas kept coming earlier (this was after Thanksgiving by the way), and I pointed to the Moravian Music Foundation and said it was too early for them to have the star up.

My father corrected me, saying that the Moravians knew the right time to put it up. I learned it marked the beginning of Advent, the season of expectation, the time of preparing for the arrival of the Christ Child. I have since learned this child appears in other traditions as the Divine Child, the Redeemer, the one who will live a human life but remain in contact with the Divine Source and bring that promise all humans hear whispered in their hearts to fruition.

The Moravian Star originated as a geometry project in the Moravian Boys’ School in Niesky, Germany. This was some time in the 1830s. Peter Verbeek began making them to sell around 1880. His son created the Herrnhut Star Factory. The store selling them in Herrnhut was the first Moravian landmark we saw driving into town. The star represents the Star of Bethlehem, the promise of Light, the coming of the Divine to our little earth, which is so much more in need of this than I ever imagined as a child.

My favorite one was the enormous one that hung in Trinity Moravian Church. It struck me with awe. One year I was honored to sing the hymn “Morning Star” beneath its light. The second line of the hymn is, “Ere thou cam’st, how dark Earth’s night.”

I’ve named my novel after this star. In The Star Family, I give the Advent Star thirteen points. I think it was Dr. Atwood who told me that one of the original stars had thirteen points, but I can’t find the email, so I might be wrong. Thirteen is, believe it or not, considered a sacred number. There are thirteen full moons in a year. We have twelve disciples plus one, the Master Teacher, Christ. We have twelve constellations in the zodiac, but a thirteenth esoteric or hidden one, Ophiuchus, tucked between Scorpio and Sagittarius. Named the serpent bearer, it could represent the spine which supports the rise of the kundalini energy, or serpent, bringing enlightenment to the individual.

I’ve also heard the star might be older than the 1830s. There might be some research published about this in the future. I don’t know more than that. In the novel, I made the star much older, tracing it back to the 1500s and suggesting it goes back way farther than that. I made this part up. But it is built using sacred geometry, the angles and proportions Mother Nature uses as building blocks, so it could be true. No wonder it creates such a feeling of harmony and joy.

December 3, 2013

William Blake and the Moravians

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At the end of The Star Family, I promised a series of blogs on the history behind the book, what’s true and what’s made up. This is the first of those.

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We were at the International New Age Fair and Stephen was getting interviewed for his newest book. I wandered the booths. I saw a book called William Blake’s Sexual Path to Spiritual Vision by Marsha Keith Schuchard. I picked it up. Wouldn’t you? (It’s titled Why Mrs. Blake Cried in the UK. We can contemplate that on another blog perhaps.)

On the first page I read that Blake’s mother had been a member of the Moravian Lodge in Fetter Lane, located in London. I grew up in the Moravian Church and hadn’t realized we were in England. I had a child’s knowledge of our history at that time. That has changed!

The Moravian Church was formed in 1457, a few decades after the Catholic priest and very popular preacher Jan Huss was martyred for his desire to reform some church practices in 1415. Persecution followed, especially in 1547, and many fled Moravia and Bohemia.

The Protestants were defeated at White Mountain in 1620 during the Thirty Years War (1618-1648) and we scattered as refugees. In 1722, we founded a town on Count Zinzendorf’s estate in Saxony, named Herrnhut, and many were brought back together. Some argue this was an entirely new church, but as a child, I was taught it was a continuation of the old one. From here, we spread all over, forming colonies in Pennsylvania and North Carolina. I was born in the one in North Carolina many generations later. (See Moravian Church History if you’re interested.)

Back to Schuchard’s book. Next I read that Blake’s mother had been a member during a particularly lively time. The church had regrown out of the German Pietists, a rather democratic and experiential take on Christianity. Influenced by them, Count Zinzendorf taught that the Holy Spirit could best be understood as “Mother.” We had God the Father, Mother the Holy Spirit, and Jesus the Son.

I liked that. I’d thought for a long time that Christianity suffered from not having a feminine image of God, not just a human mother. That wasn’t all. Zinzendorf taught that the body had been redeemed through Christ’s sacrifice and that there was no shame in any of its parts. Pardon me if this sounds a bit old fashioned, but Zinzendorf lived in the 18^th century. I think, though, that we still have a lot of body shame in the 21^st century.

So, no shame in the naked body, and Zinzendorf went further to teach that there was no shame in the sexual act. Not only that, sex was not only for procreation. It was also for spiritual development. The church had a married couple’s liturgy, the recovery of the ancienthieros gamos(sacred union).

Blake’s mother would have learned all this and more in her church at Fetter Lane. She would have passed some of this understanding to her son. In her book, Schuchard goes on to explore how what Craig Atwood calls the “sex-positive teachings” of Zinzendorf probably influenced Blake’s life, poetry and visual art. (See Re-Envisioning Blake for more.)

I had to know more. That’s how The Star Family was born.