Moravian Church – Theresa Crater

September 26, 2014

Review

I recently wrote a review for the book Masculinity, Senses, Spirit, which “examines the complex interrelationship between gender, sexuality, and the realms of the spirit and the senses in the Atlantic world from the Eighteenth century to the present,” (from Amazon). Yeah, it’s a bit on the academic side. But I wanted to read it because I’d discovered the research of Craig Atwood, whose research was important to my latest novel. He wrote about the teachings of Count Zinzendorf in the Eighteenth century that included more gender equality and sacred sexuality.

Yeah, the Eighteenth century. In my childhood church. I was intrigued, so did a lot of research. Then I got carried away and wrote a novel, released last year, The Star Family.

You can read my review here.

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.

December 10, 2012

The Next Big Thing

In the “Next Big Thing” blogging meme, an author answers ten set interview questions and then tags five more people to do the same. Here’s my contribution.

1. What is the working title of your next book?

The Star Family

2. Where did the idea come from for the book?

I was at the International New Age Book Faire and saw a book called William Blake’s Sexual Path to Spiritual Vision. In in introduction I learned that Blake’s mother was a Moravian, the church I was raised in. Then I read that in the eighteenth century the Moravians taught sacred sexuality. My mouth fell open. Had anyone told my grandparents? Why had I never heard of this before? I had to research it, then write about it. So I did.

3. What genre does your book fall under?

Paranormal mystery or urban fantasy—you decide.

4. What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition?

For my leading lady: Angelina Jolie or Cate Blanchette. Her partner: Harrison Ford.

5. What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

Jane Frey leads the secret power elite in a hunt for the Founding Father’s occult weapon.

6. Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

We’ll see. I’m shopping it around right now.

7. How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?

Write? About 9 months. Research? Longer.

8. What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol, which deals with Washington, D.C. sacred geometry, as does mine, but I have a connection to colonial group and towns, plus bring in Prague and its sacred geometry.
Steve Berry’s The Jefferson Key deals with the colonial pirates settled in North Carolina now affecting D.C. politics. My novel is set in the colonial town of Winston-Salem where the founders hid a powerful key to D.C.’s sacred geometry.
Katherine Neville’s The Eight, The Magic Circle, and The Fire. Neville’s novels deal with family secrets and secret artifacts that can affect world power. The Star Family also has a secret family legacy that the character must discover for herself, plus a prophecy that suggests she holds a secret artifact.
H.D.’s The Mystery and The Gift. Modernist and Moravian H.D. wrote two novels briefly touching on what is called “The Shifting Times,” a time in Moravian church history when the mystical connections were openly taught. Goethe even went searching the church archives for this information while writing Faust.

9. Who or what inspired you to write this book?

When I found the Blake book, but the more I read about this period in Moravian history, the more intrigued I became. I found connections to metaphysics, the Rosicrucians and the Freemasons. I took a flying leap from there and really had a blast.

10. What else about the book might pique the reader’s interest?

Here’s my blurb: Jane Frey handles the disposition of her former music teacher’s estate after her job in oil and gas finance is given to a younger, more corruptible woman. The Gothic mansion is full of unexpected treasures: original paintings by 18^th century visionary William Blake, a secret room used for tantric rituals, and an ancient underground cavern. When a prophecy suggests she now possesses the key to an energy grid laid down by the Founding Fathers themselves, Jane becomes a target of competing world powers who want the artifact for themselves. Except Jane doesn’t have what they’re looking for, but she must discover it before more people die. Could the key be hidden in her family’s increasingly mysterious past? She follows a trail of clues to Prague, revealing a secret mystical organization in her childhood church and a three hundred year old ritual that only she can complete.

Here are the excellent writers who you’ll hear from next. Hope you enjoy their writing as much as I do. Click on their links to read their Next Big Thing.

Stefan Vucak is an award-winning author of seven techno sci-fi novels, including With Shadow and Thunder which was a 2002 EPPIE finalist. His Shadow Gods Saga books have been highly acclaimed by critics. His recent release, Cry of Eagles, won the coveted 2011 Readers Favorite silver medal award. Stefan leveraged a successful career in the Information Technology industry and applied that discipline to create realistic, highly believable storylines for his books. Born in Croatia, he now lives in Melbourne, Australia. To learn more about Stefan, visit his: Website: www.stefanvucak.com Twitter: @stefanvucak

Christina St. Clair, award-winning author, former shop-girl, chemist, and pastor, is currently a spiritual director, Reiki Master (don’t read too much into the title master!), wife, animal lover, and writer.
She says, “Boring life? Let’s not do duty. Let’s do awe! Take a look at your own complexity? You might be amazed. Life leads us into so many interesting and sometimes difficult crossroads where we get to choose what now, what next? As a student of mysticism and spirituality in all its incarnations both religious, secular, and new age, I want to understand what life is about, what is truth? I am still seeking, but I am offering to those who are interested my insights weaved throughout my essays and stories. I hope my writings might add to your already surprising lives.”
www.christinastclair.com/blog

Carole McDonnell is a writer of ethnic fiction, speculative fiction, and Christian fiction. Her works have appeared in many anthologies and at various online sites. Her novel, Wind Follower, was published by Wildeside Books. Her forthcoming novel is called The Constant Tower. http://carolemcdonnell.blogspot.com/

Gina Bednarz: I’ve worked hard most of my life, but until a few years ago, I never really knew who I was supposed to be. When I realized that I had the courage required to follow my dreams, I enrolled in college after a 17 year absence and finally earned my Bachelor’s degree in English and Creative Writing. Now pursuing my MFA in Creative Writing (Non-Fiction) at Lesley University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, I’m hitting my stride, reveling in a passion uncovered, and writing my heart out. Thanks for joining me! http://www.writingwithmyhaironfire.blogspot.com/