Vault of the Adepti

It's in the Golden Dawn book by Regardie. There's a working vault at BOTA in Los Angeles. They may help you get details. Twenty years ago in Los Angeles there were only two known working vaults, one of Golden Dawn run by Regardie's students (who had all the GD's original materials, pentacles, robes, books, etc...) and that of BOTA. BOTA is the only real occult group still extant. I would dare others with a working vault to step forward.

where can one find 'real/original' information about rosacrusianism?

greetings ankhor O+-3~

one theroy would have you to understand that the 'vault of the adepts' is the symbolic burying place of the founder Christian Rosenfruetz, which he made to represent the universe. It is symbolicaly situated in the center of the earth, in the mountain of caverns, the mystic mountain of abiegnus

Mount Abiegnus can be considered as tiphareth, the 6th sephra or the heart chakra.

if you are not already familar with Dr. Isreal Regardies 'The compleate teachings of the golden dawn' volume 8 gives rather exstensive discriptions of the vault.

some people would have you to understand that evan if the vault is constructed physically it is a temperory structure and the eternal vault is within you.

the physical structure on the material plane is commonly used for initiation cerimonies and 'deconstructed' after its use, the eternal vault within us is the adytum of our being and must needs be reached by whatever method one chooses with in oneself.

i have recently begun to think that with the technology available to day the symbolic representation of the universe could be made very realistic with photographic representations of the universe itself or if one could afford it computer generated graphics on the walls of the enclosure of 7 ( or evan a domed projection) sides that would give the sence of being afloat in the universe.

Light in Extension

Naturally, you've already been referred to The Golden Dawn, by Regardie. See also Chic and Sandra Cicero's work on building ritual tools (it used to be one volume called Secrets of a Golden Dawn Temple, but has been reissued in two smaller volumes).

The key to the Vault is in the 5=6 ceremony (natch).

The color schemes for original Vault built at Isis-Urania Temple were implemented by Moina Mathers, who was apparently a rather remarkable student at a notable art academy (name goes out of my head at the moment). We are told that the subtle color charges on the walls were achieved with a collage technique. We also know that the GD in its original format recommended a good deal of work with colored papers, popular at the time (and I am informed, still popular as a craft medium in various parts of the Commonwealth) for achieving very saturated color effects.

Modern acrylics give us a similar color range in paints today, both in terms of available hues and in saturation of the colors available.

There are various valuable references to working Vaults in the material by the Ciceros and the Zalewskis, in the realm of modern GD organizations. I have to take issue with Eva's contention that only the BOTA Vault in LA is part of a working GD tradition, even as modified by Case and his successors.

Original information would be in the Fama Fraternitatis and the Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz, no? The latter is in print from Phanes Press...not sure if there is a current edition of the Fama around. You might also get ahold of Dame Frances Yates' works such as The Rosicrucian Enlightenment; Giordano Bruno and the Theatre of Memory, etc. Pretty much anything by this formidable scholar will prove useful in investigating the origins and progress of the Rosicrucian movement.

Regardless of whether any other groups have working vaults, I would question the contention that BOTA is 'the only real occult group still extant'. And I doubt that such a fundamentalist attitude would win much favour with Dr Case himself.

I thought I read a Nevill Drury book 'Other Temples, Other Gods' [?] on the occult in Australia that mentioned a Golden Dawn group in either Sydney or Melbourne having a vault ? Paul Hume may know more on this one, it was some years ago.

As for finding history of the 'real/original' Rosicrucians, I can do little better than to commend Frances Yates work; I do not think there has been any advance in the state-of-play regarding Rosicrucian origins since she published 'The Rosicrucian Enlightenment'. Briefly, it's doubtful there were any 'real' Rosicrucians, in the sense of the group described in the manifestoes.

Those who authored the manifestoes perhaps have the strongest claim, as it's their impulse to create a particularly occult, alchemical approach to Christianity, that led to the creation of later groups.

However, no authors came forward and JV Andreae denied the accusation that he'd written The Chymical Wedding.

Although a Dee or a Fludd may not have specifically referred to themselves as 'Rosicrucian' they were skilled in the practices of alchmyia, magia and kabala mixed with Christianity, which became ingredients in the early Rosicrucian systems.

As to whether modern 'Neo-Rosicrucian' systems have much in common with that impulse, it's difficult to say in all cases, though there appear to be substantial differences.

Regards

Fr Scaro