| Episode number | MB36 (Part 36 of 42) |
|---|---|
| Original air date | February 22, 1994 |
| Broadcast | Hour of the Time, WWCR shortwave |
| Chapter title | Rose Cross College, Part I |
| Primary text read on air | A Rose Cross College: A Resume of the Teachings and Proceedings, edited by R. Swinburne Clymer (1917) |
| Listen | Stream the series on archive.org |
Episode Summary
Episode 36 opens a new three-part arc on the Rosicrucian movement, the first of two broadcasts that aired back to back on February 22, 1994. Cooper introduces the segment with a short digression on the Greek letter delta, citing its use as a symbol of fire, of God, and of the unspeakable name in both the Scottish Rite and Knights Templar traditions. The Rosicrucian equivalent, he notes, is the Latin phrase Igne Natura Renovatur Integra, meaning by fire, nature is perfectly renewed, a formulation he connects to the wider fire philosophy that, in his reading, underlies all occult brotherhoods.
The bulk of the episode is a verbatim reading from a 1917 publication titled A Rose Cross College, edited by R. Swinburne Clymer. The book records the proceedings of a month-long convocation held at Beverly Hall in Quakertown, Pennsylvania, during October 1916, convened to mark what the organisation described as the four hundredth anniversary of the founding of the Rose Cross Order. Cooper reads from the book at length without significant interruption, allowing the document to speak for itself in the early portion of the broadcast.
The convocation, as described in the text Cooper reads, brought together delegates of the Royal Fraternity Association and the Imperialistic Council and Venerable Order of the Magi. During the gathering, two members were ordained to the ministry of the Church of Illumination: Charles C. Brown of Buffalo, New York, and A. W. Witt of Kansas City, Missouri. Both were required to make a public confession of faith and allegiance to the Church of Illumination and to read a prepared thesis before ordination was granted. The ceremony also featured the conferral of the degree called Priests of Melchizadek upon all delegates.
On the evenings of October 11 and 17, delegates assembled at what the text called the Grove of Osiris, where the Ancient Mysteries of Osiris were enacted in three degrees. A formal dinner called the Feast of the Gods followed each ceremony. The text also records that on October 13, 1916, the convocation formally reinstated a knighthood order, the Knights of Chivalry and Order of the Holy Grail, and that the first knight created was a surgeon named August Rhu of Marion, Ohio, selected in part, the document states, because of the favorable aspects of the heavens to his nativity.
The organisation also passed resolutions condemning groups that had adopted the Rosicrucian name without authority from the true Rose Cross Order. The text names at least six such organisations, as well as three others calling themselves Magi or Melchizadek without legitimate lineage. One passage warns that six members of what it terms the Black Brotherhoods had enrolled in the true fraternities specifically to extract secrets for their own use, which Cooper reads aloud without editorial comment but with evident satisfaction at the candour of the admission.
After completing this section of the Clymer book, Cooper shifts to direct commentary. He tells his audience that the doctrine of Christian Identity and British Israelism, movements he has addressed in prior episodes, trace directly back to these mystery traditions. He argues that Anglo-Aryan racial supremacist ideology is not a genuine Christian tradition but a manipulation originating within the secret society network, designed to divide the population along racial lines and steer white listeners toward a form of nationalism that ultimately serves a one-world government agenda. The episode closes with a preview of the story of Merlin and the Order of the Holy Grail, which he promises to address in the second hour.
The second half of the broadcast reads from the section of the Clymer book dealing with the mythological story of Eros and Psyche. Cooper presents this section as a doctrinal text, not a literary curiosity, explaining to listeners that within the Mystery Religion, the Holy Grail represents the soul, and that the initiation system is built around the allegory of the soul’s descent into matter, its trials, and its eventual return to a state of union with the divine principle. The esoteric reading of the myth, as Cooper presents it, is that sin and suffering are not divine punishment but the necessary consequence of the soul’s disobedience to the laws of the universe, laws that can be learned and mastered through the grade system of the fraternal orders.
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 Greek letter delta, used in Rosicrucian and Scottish Rite symbolism, represents the unspeakable name of God, and that the Rosicrucian formula Igne Natura Renovatur Integra (by fire, nature is perfectly renewed) is the same teaching encoded in the degree of the Knights Adepts of the Eagle or the Sun.
- Cooper claims that a Rose Cross College convocation was held during October 1916 at Beverly Hall, Quakertown, Pennsylvania, on the four hundredth anniversary of what the organisation regarded as its founding year of 1516.
- Cooper claims that the October 1916 convocation featured initiation ceremonies called the Ancient Mysteries of Osiris, conducted in three degrees, performed in a location the organisation called the Grove of Osiris.
- Cooper claims that at the October 1916 convocation, ordination to the ministry of the Church of Illumination required each candidate to make a formal confession of faith and allegiance to the Church of Illumination, not to any mainstream Christian denomination.
- Cooper claims that Bo Gritz’s SPIKE training program uses the word SPIKE with the letter P rendered as the obelisk, which Cooper identifies as the phallus of Osiris, making Gritz’s training material a covert piece of Mystery Religion symbolism aimed at deceiving patriots.
- Cooper claims that the doctrine of Christian Identity and British Israelism originates from within the mystery tradition, not from genuine Christianity, and that both movements serve a hidden agenda to destroy the United States through racial division.
- Cooper claims that the Holy Grail, as interpreted within the Rosicrucian system, represents the soul, and that the quest for the Grail is an allegory for initiation into the mysteries of the soul’s journey through matter.
- Cooper claims that in the lodges of all these secret societies there is a prime rule that the Anglo-Aryan race is supreme, and that no person of colour will be found inside the Lodge, making white supremacist ideology intrinsic to the organisations rather than incidental.
Primary Sources Cited in This Episode
| Source | Status | Where to find it |
|---|---|---|
| R. Swinburne Clymer, ed., A Rose Cross College: A Resume of the Teachings and Proceedings (Beverly Hall, Quakertown, PA, 1917) | Public domain (1917 publication) | Search archive.org for scans |
| Dictionary of Freemasonry (source of delta definition Cooper quotes at opening) | Public domain if pre-1929 edition; exact edition not specified on air | Search archive.org |
Notable Quotes
Those who believe in a master race, those who believe in the theory of white supremacy, those who believe that the Anglo-Aryan race, or the true Israelites, will discover that they have been conned. They have been scammed and they are part of an attempt to destroy the United States of America.
Cooper, MB36, February 22, 1994
It is regrettable that such rules and regulations are necessary. Not less than six different associations have sprung in existence, calling themselves Rosicrucian, without a shred of Rosicrucian teachings.
Cooper, MB36, February 22, 1994, reading from Clymer’s A Rose Cross College (1917)
Historians’ View
R. Swinburne Clymer (1878-1966) was a real figure in American occult history and the long-serving head of the Fraternitas Rosae Crucis, based at Beverly Hall in Quakertown, Pennsylvania. Scholars of Western esotericism regard him as one of the most prolific Rosicrucian writers of the twentieth century, though his claims to organisational lineage going back to 1516 are not accepted by historians of Rosicrucianism. Most historians date the public emergence of the Rosicrucian movement to the early seventeenth century, when the Fama Fraternitatis appeared in Germany around 1614 to 1617, and regard the 1516 founding date claimed by Clymer’s order as a retrospective construction. The Church of Illumination was a real legal incorporation in Pennsylvania. The Grove of Osiris and the initiation ceremonies Cooper describes from the 1917 book are accurately reproduced from the source: the text does describe exactly those rites. Cooper’s connection of this material to white supremacist movements is his own analytical frame, not a claim found in mainstream historical scholarship, though historians do note that certain strands of early twentieth-century American esotericism were intertwined with racial thinking. We record all claims as broadcast; we do not endorse them.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Mystery Babylon episode 36 about?
Episode 36 begins a three-part series on the Rosicrucian movement. Cooper reads from R. Swinburne Clymer’s 1917 account of the Rose Cross College convocation held in October 1916 at Beverly Hall, Pennsylvania, and connects the organisation’s rituals to his broader thesis about the Mystery Religion. Related material appears on the Rosicrucians and Rose Cross hub.
Who was R. Swinburne Clymer?
R. Swinburne Clymer was an American physician and occult writer who led the Fraternitas Rosae Crucis from Beverly Hall in Quakertown, Pennsylvania, for several decades. He was one of the most prolific Rosicrucian authors of the early twentieth century. His 1917 publication A Rose Cross College is the primary text Cooper reads from in episodes 36 and 37.
What was the Church of Illumination?
The Church of Illumination was the religious body associated with Clymer’s Fraternitas Rosae Crucis. Cooper reads from the 1917 text that members ordained to its ministry were required to make a formal confession of faith and allegiance to the Church before ordination. Cooper presents this as evidence that the organisation was a non-Christian religious body operating under a Christian cover.
Where can I listen to episode 36?
The series is preserved at archive.org. The site never hosts or distributes the audio; see our content policy.
Continue the Series
- Previous: MB35: Christianity to Babylon
- Next: MB37: Rose Cross Part 2
- Topic hub: Rosicrucians and Rose Cross
- Related hub: Mystery Schools and Ancient Religion
- Related hub: Secret Societies
- Every dated claim from this episode: series timeline
- Sources and public-domain texts: Mystery Babylon sources hub
- Full index: Mystery Babylon complete episode guide
- Background: Who was William Cooper?
