The Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz

S$74.00

The Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz

S$74.00

Title: The Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz: Anno 1459

Author: Johann Valentin Andreae (Jon Valentine), Arne Salomonsen (illus)

Publisher: St George Press, 1981. First edition thus.

Condition: Hardcover, cloth, with dust jacket. Interior is very good. Dust jacket in poor condition: tattered and worn. Some slight fading on the spine. Cloth exterior is good, bright.

SKU: chymical-george Categories: ,

A “Modern poetic version” of this classic alchemical Rosicrucian text.

About the book:

The Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz (German: Chymische Hochzeit Christiani Rosencreutz anno 1459) is a German book edited in 1616 in Strasbourg. Its anonymous authorship is attributed to Johann Valentin Andreae. The Chymical Wedding is often described as the third of the original manifestos of the mysterious “Fraternity of the Rose Cross” (Rosicrucians), although it is markedly different from the Fama Fraternitatis and Confessio Fraternitatis in style and in subject matter.

It is an allegoric romance (story) divided into Seven Days, or Seven Journeys, like Genesis, and recounts how Christian Rosenkreuz was invited to go to a wonderful castle full of miracles, in order to assist the Chymical Wedding of the king and the queen, that is, the husband and the bride.

This manifesto has been a source of inspiration for poets, alchemists (the word “chymical” is an old form of “chemical” and refers to alchemy—for which the ‘Sacred Marriage’ was the goal and dreamers, through the force of its initiation ritual with processions of tests, purifications, death, resurrection, and ascension and also by its symbolism found since the beginning with the invitation to Rosenkreutz to assist this Royal Wedding.

The invitation to the royal wedding includes the Monas Hieroglyphica associated with John Dee.

The Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz (CRC) first appeared in Strasburg in the year 1616. It was written in German and entitled Chymische Hochzeit Christiani Rosencreutz anno 1459. No author was named in the book, other than Christian Rosenkreutz (henceforth CRC), but Johannes Valentinus Andreae (1586–1654) claimed to be the author, in his autobiography.

Although the book first appeared in 1616, the story takes place over 150 years earlier. The events of this story span seven days and are divided into seven chapters, each chapter relating a different day. The story begins on an evening near Easter. In the final chapter—the seventh day—CRC is knighted; the year is 1459. It was on Easter-day 1459 that the Constitutions of the Freemasons of Strasburg was first signed in Regensburg, with a second signed shortly afterwards in Strasburg. The Gutenberg Bible began printing in Mainz, Germany in 1455, and the first Bible in German, the Mentel Bible, was printed in Strasburg in 1466. (from wikipedia)