Mystery Babylon Episode 19: Fundamental Laws Rose Cross

Episode number	MB19 (Part 19 of 42)
Original air date	May 11, 1993
Broadcast	Hour of the Time, WWCR shortwave
Chapter title	68th Convocation of the Rose Cross Order
Primary text read on air	Fundamental Laws: A Report of the 68th Convocation of the Rose Cross Order, published 1916 by the Philosophical Publishing Company, Allentown, Pennsylvania
Listen	Stream the series on archive.org

Episode Summary

Episode 19 aired on May 11, 1993, the day before the Lucifer Worship broadcast, and is among the most structurally unusual episodes in the series. Cooper’s primary source is a physical book he found on a dusty shelf at the back of a used bookstore: a faded, originally red hard-covered volume titled Fundamental Laws: A Report of the 68th Convocation of the Rose Cross Order, published in 1916 by the Philosophical Publishing Company of Allentown, Pennsylvania, for the members of the Rose Cross Order. Cooper frames the discovery as an act of research that other investigators have not accomplished, and the episode is built around verbatim readings from this document with extended commentary.

The book’s cover carries an elaborate ensemble of symbols that Cooper describes in detail before reading: an ouroboros rope representing the snake eating its own tail encircling a triangle of three nested triangles; within those triangles, the skull and bones, wings encircling a globe, an anchor and an ark, and the letters T-R-Y. The title page carries a triangle with three stone steps, a rose-centred cross on the top step, and a copyright date of 1916. Cooper notes a name on the roll of honour that he says almost knocked him over: Lars Hansen. He asserts this is not the same Lars Hansen discussed earlier in the series, but that it may be the father, grandfather, or great-grandfather of that Hansen, and that Hansen’s parents were members of the Mystery School and of the Stelle Group.

Cooper reads from the book’s introduction and preface at length. The introduction states that the contents represent only the outer, public teachings and not the inner work, which is described as a secret, sacred work between teacher and student. Cooper highlights the document’s admission that the Illuminati and its Soul Science work was born as the public-facing arm of the Rose Cross Order, created because most seekers were not willing to dedicate their lives fully to the order but still desired its teachings. The preface recounts that the 68th Convocation opened on June 1, 1916 at Beverly Hall in Quakertown, Pennsylvania, in an assembly hall built in 1910 for exactly this purpose, and that on June 13 the preparation of the Ancient Mysteries of Egypt was performed in a grove of Osiris illuminated by electricity from a dedicated power house, with initiates passing through three degrees and six scenes.

A newspaper account, written by Grace K. Morey, Secretary of the Rose Cross Sacred College for the Buffalo Express of July 16, 1916, is quoted as describing the 68th Convocation as the most remarkable conclave held during the last five thousand years, convened under the authority of the Rose Cross Order founded in America in 1858. The delegates included high Masons, members of the Eastern Star, physicians, teachers, authors, and members of all religious denominations including Hebrew. Cooper reads this as direct documentary evidence for his argument that Freemasonry, the Rose and Cross, the Templars, the Skull and Bones, and the Illuminati are all one organisation: the attendee list from the Masons and Eastern Star members in the same grove as Rose Cross initiates settles the question.

The initiation ceremony conducted in the Grove of Osiris, Cooper explains, followed the three-court structure of the Temple of Solomon. The outer court was composed of seven hundred selected teachers forming the first degree, also called Illuminati, seekers, travelers, or soldiers. Seventy mediators of the second degree occupied the Hall of Meditation. The inner court consisted of the Seven Priests and the High Priest, the teachers between God and man. The third degree, Cooper reads, culminated in the death of the old life and the raising of the slain Osiris by his spouse Isis, the soul, followed by final Illumination. Cooper pairs this account with the claim that Stonehenge of the Druids of Britain is the nearest surviving equivalent to the Magic Circle built at Beverly Hall, and that Druidic descendants still travel to Stonehenge annually to greet the sun and renew their vows.

The broadcast’s most explosive material comes in the final third, when Cooper departs from direct quotation to deliver what he calls a revelation he has been building toward throughout the series. He claims that Harry Truman, a 33rd degree Freemason, signed the United Nations treaty and the United Nations Participation Act, and also worked with Wild Bill Donovan, head of the OSS and a member of both the Sovereign and Military Order of the Knights of Malta and the Order of the Knights Templar, to create the National Security Act, which established the CIA. Under this curtain of national security, Cooper argues, the secret societies have been working to destroy national sovereignty and create a one-world Socialist government. The real enemy has never been Communism, fascism, or any of the Cold War’s rival ideologies; all of those, he says, were deceptions arranged by the same organisation operating out of headquarters thirteen blocks from the White House.

Cooper then resumes reading from the book, reaching its most startling passage: R. Swinburne Clymer’s introduction to the Great Seal article, written at Beverly Hall on July 6, 1916, which asserts that America is not complete and cannot be complete until Mexico is again part of the United States as it was in the long ago, when Atlantis ruled the world and America was connected with Egypt through what is now Mexico and the Yucatan. When Mexico is reunited with the United States, Clymer wrote, the capstone will be placed on the pyramid and the reverse side of the Great Seal will be cut. Cooper reads this passage as the explanation for NAFTA and GATT, the free trade agreements then being negotiated, which he had previously characterised as tools of New World Order economic integration.

The episode closes with a passage in which Cooper declares that the Illuminati is real, that Freemasonry and the Rose Cross are parts of it, that the Brotherhood and the Order and the Knights Templar and the Knights of Malta are all expressions of the same pyramid-shaped organisation, and that the capstone consisting of those who actually know the Great Work sits above a mass of initiates at the bottom who will never learn what the Great Work really is. The Rosicrucians hub collects the series’ continuing coverage of this subject through episodes 36 to 38.

Key Claims Made in This Episode

Documented from the broadcast. The site records these claims; it does not endorse them. Dated claims also appear in the series timeline.

• Cooper claims that the 1916 publication Fundamental Laws: A Report of the 68th Convocation of the Rose Cross Order constitutes a direct written admission by the Rose Cross Order that the Illuminati is its public-facing arm, and that Freemasonry, the Templars, the Skull and Bones, and the Illuminati are all one organisation.
• Cooper claims the Rose Cross Order was founded in America in 1858 and held its 68th Convocation at Beverly Hall in Quakertown, Pennsylvania, in June 1916, conducting the Ancient Mysteries of Egypt in a prepared Grove of Osiris.
• Cooper claims that Harry Truman, a 33rd degree Freemason, signed both the United Nations treaty and the National Security Act, the latter in collaboration with Wild Bill Donovan, described as a member of the Knights of Malta and the Knights Templar.
• Cooper claims the National Security Act created the CIA and that behind the resulting curtain of secrecy, secret societies have been working to destroy the sovereignty of all nations and establish a one-world totalitarian Socialist government.
• Cooper claims that R. Swinburne Clymer, writing in 1916, stated that the capstone of the pyramid on the reverse of the Great Seal will be set only when Mexico is again part of the United States as it was in ancient times when Atlantis connected America with Egypt.
• Cooper claims that Novus Ordo Seclorum on the Great Seal translates literally as the New Order of the Ages, and that the seal’s reverse was designed according to the philosophy of the Illuminati as the uncompleted pyramid awaiting its capstone.
• Cooper claims that the Druidic descendants of the ancient mystery school travel to Stonehenge annually to greet the sun and renew their vows, and that Stonehenge is the nearest surviving equivalent to the Magic Circle built for the 1916 Rose Cross initiation.
• Cooper claims that the purpose of the Mystery Schools from the beginning has been to re-establish on earth an ancient government ruled by a council of wise men, a benevolent despotism constituting a one-world totalitarian Socialist government.
• Cooper claims that the American constellation of thirteen stars and the pyramid on the Great Seal were foretold by Merlin of King Arthur’s court, and that the Day Star referenced in Rose Cross writings is Lucifer, the morning star.

Primary Sources Cited in This Episode

Source	Status	Where to find it
Fundamental Laws: A Report of the 68th Convocation of the Rose Cross Order (1916), Philosophical Publishing Company, Allentown PA	Public domain (1916 publication)	archive.org scan (fundamentallawsOOordegoog)
Grace K. Morey, article in the Buffalo Express, July 16, 1916 (quoted within the 1916 book)	Public domain via the 1916 volume	See the archive.org scan above
R. Swinburne Clymer, Introduction to the Great Seal article, Beverly Hall, July 6, 1916 (within the 1916 book)	Public domain via the 1916 volume	See the archive.org scan above

Notable Quotes

The Illuminati and its Soul Science work may be called the child of the Rose Cross Order.

Cooper, MB19, May 11, 1993, reading verbatim from the 1916 Fundamental Laws of the Rose Cross Order

America is not complete until Mexico is again part of America as she was in the long ago; then will the cap-stone be set on the Pyramid and the reverse side of the United States seal will be cut.

Cooper, MB19, May 11, 1993, reading R. Swinburne Clymer, Beverly Hall, July 6, 1916

Historians’ View

The Fundamental Laws book is a genuine 1916 publication and can be verified at archive.org. Cooper’s interpretation of it as proof that all secret societies are one organisation overstates what the document demonstrates. The attendee list at Beverly Hall included Freemasons alongside Rose Cross members; this reflects the overlapping membership common among fraternal organisations of the period, not necessarily a unified command structure. R. Swinburne Clymer’s assertion that the United States is incomplete without Mexico is a piece of 1916 Rosicrucian mysticism, not a policy document; no mainstream historian treats it as evidence of a covert territorial agenda. The claim that Harry Truman created the CIA to advance secret-society control is not supported by the historical record of the National Security Act of 1947, which has been extensively studied by scholars and biographers. The description of Truman as a 33rd degree Freemason is accurate, but historians do not find that his Masonic affiliation shaped his foreign policy. We record all claims as broadcast; we do not endorse them.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Mystery Babylon episode 19 about?

Episode 19 presents what Cooper describes as documentary proof of his thesis: a 1916 publication by the Rose Cross Order that he claims openly admits the Illuminati is the order’s public arm, that all secret societies are one, and that America’s symbolic destiny was designed by occult hierarchies. He reads from the book at length and connects it to NAFTA, the CIA, and the uncompleted pyramid on the Great Seal. The Rosicrucians hub collects related episodes.

What is the Fundamental Laws book and where can I find it?

It is a publicly available 1916 publication: Fundamental Laws: A Report of the 68th Convocation of the Rose Cross Order, published by the Philosophical Publishing Company of Allentown, Pennsylvania. A scan is accessible at archive.org. The full transcript Cooper reads from belongs to this public-domain document.

What does Cooper claim about Harry Truman and the CIA?

Cooper claims that Truman, as a 33rd degree Freemason operating with Wild Bill Donovan of the OSS, used the National Security Act of 1947 to create the CIA as a curtain of secrecy behind which secret societies could pursue their one-world government agenda. He presents this as a structural cause of the Cold War rather than a response to Soviet military expansion.

Where can I listen to episode 19?

The series is preserved at archive.org. The site never hosts or distributes the audio; see our content policy.

Continue the Series

• Previous: MB18: Lucifer Worship
• Next: MB20: William Morgan Interview Pt 1
• Topic hub: Rosicrucians and Rose Cross
• Related hubs: Secret Societies and Freemasonry
• Primary source: Fundamental Laws (1916) on archive.org
• Every dated claim from this episode: series timeline
• Full index: Mystery Babylon complete episode guide
• Background: Who was William Cooper?