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The '''Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz''' ({{German|''[[a:Chymische Hochzeit Christiani Rosencreutz anno 1459|Chymische Hochzeit Christiani Rosencreutz anno 1459]]''}}) was first printed by ''Lazare Zetzner'' in [[w:Strasbourg|Strasbourg]] in 1616, after having been in circulation for some time as a manuscript. Written between 1603 and 1605, it describes in the form of an alchemical novel the initiatory experiences of [[Christian Rosenkreutz]], which ultimately led to the founding of the [[Rosicrucian initiation]]. The very lively, colourful descriptions of the Chymical Wedding remarkably do not paint the picture of a rapt, lofty, unworldly stoic sage, but rather show us a full-bodied, humorous, sometimes also frightened and depressed human being who cries and laughs and to whom the whole range of human emotions in their ups and downs is by no means alien. Only arrogance, vanity and megalomania are completely far from him.
[[File:Chymische_Hochzeit.gif|thumb|''Chymische Hochzeit des Christiani Rosencreutz Anno 1459'', edition 1616]]
 
The '''Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz''' ({{German|''[[a:Chymische Hochzeit Christiani Rosencreutz anno 1459|Chymische Hochzeit Christiani Rosencreutz anno 1459]]''}}<ref name="Planetenbahnen">'''The year 1459''': "It is significant for him that he may say to himself that this condition in his human being is in harmony with the conditions in the universe. In "diligent recalculation and calculation" of his "annotated planets" he has found that this condition may occur in him at the point in time at which it is now taking place. Whoever looks at what is being considered here in the sense of the folly of some "astrologers" will misunderstand it, regardless of whether he, as a believer, agrees with it or, as an "enlightened" person, sneers at it. The performer of the "Chymical Wedding" added the year 1459 to the title of his book for good reasons. He was aware that the state of mind of the bearer of the experience must coincide with the state of mind at which the world has arrived at a certain point in time, if the inner state of mind and the outer content of the world are not to result in disharmony. The soul, which is independent of ordinary sense perception, must encounter the outer supersensible world-content in harmony if the state of consciousness which constitutes the "Chymical Wedding" is to arise through the harmony of the two. Whoever believes that the constellation of the "annotated planets" contains a mysterious power which determines the state of man's experience, would be like one who believes that the positions of the hands of his watch have the power to induce him to take an exit which he has had to undertake at a certain hour out of his life circumstances." {{GZ||35|345}}</ref>) was first printed by ''Lazare Zetzner'' in [[w:Strasbourg|Strasbourg]] in 1616, after having been in circulation for some time as a manuscript. Written between 1603 and 1605, it describes in the form of an alchemical novel the initiatory experiences of [[Christian Rosenkreutz]], which ultimately led to the founding of the [[Rosicrucian initiation]]. The very lively, colourful descriptions of the Chymical Wedding remarkably do not paint the picture of a rapt, lofty, unworldly stoic sage, but rather show us a full-bodied, humorous, sometimes also frightened and depressed human being who cries and laughs and to whom the whole range of human emotions in their ups and downs is by no means alien. Only arrogance, vanity and megalomania are completely far from him.
 
== Johann Valentin Andreae ==
[[File:Andportraits2.jpg|thumb|Johann Valentin Andreae (1586-1654)]]
 
The Chymical Wedding was initially published anonymously, but [[Johann Valentin Andreae]] is considered to be its author. In the external sense this is probably correct, but he was no more than a tool of the spiritual world, for as [[Rudolf Steiner]] has made clear, its spiritual author was not a physical personality at all:
 
{{GZ|But no one who knows the biography of Valentin Andrea will be in any doubt that the Valentin Andrea, who later became a philistine pastor and wrote unctuous other books, did not write the "Chymical Wedding." It is sheer nonsense to believe that Valentine Andrea wrote the "Chymical Wedding". For just compare the "Chymical Wedding" or the "Reformation of the Whole World" or the other writings of Valentinus Andrea - physically it was already the same personality - with the unctuous, greasy-oily things that the pastor Valentin Andrea, who only bears the same name, then wrote in his later life. That is a most strange phenomenon! We have a young man, who has hardly finished school, who writes down such things as the "Reformation of the Whole World", like the "Chymische Hochzeit Christiani Rosencreutz", and we have to make an effort to fathom the inner meaning of these writings. He himself does not understand any of it, because he shows that later: he becomes an unctuous oily pastor. That is the same man! And if you only take this fact, you will find plausible what I have just described: that the "Chymical Wedding" was not written by a man, or was written by a man only in so far as, well, Napoleon's secret secretary, who was always full of fear, wrote his letters. But Napoleon was, after all, a human being who stood strongly with his feet, with his legs on the ground, was a physical personality. The one who wrote the "Chymical Wedding" was not a physical personality, and he made use of this "secretary" who later became the oily Pastor Valentin Andrea.|232|143}}
 
{{GZ|In terms of content, this writing proves to be one composed out of intuition. Such things can be written by predisposed people, even if their own judgement and life experience do not speak into what is written down. And what is written down can nevertheless be the communication of something real. The "Chymical Wedding" must be understood as a communication about a really existing spiritual current in the sense indicated here, this is dictated by its content. The assumption that Valentin Andreae wrote it out of intuition throws light on the position he later took towards Rosicrucianism. As a young man, he was predisposed to give a picture of this spiritual current without his own way of knowing having a say in it. This own way of knowing, however, developed in the later pietist theologian Andreae. The kind of mind accessible to intuition receded in his soul.|35|381}}
 
=== Spiritual scientific explanations ===
 
<references/>


== Literature ==
== Literature ==

Revision as of 08:33, 23 May 2021

Chymische Hochzeit des Christiani Rosencreutz Anno 1459, edition 1616

The Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz (German: Chymische Hochzeit Christiani Rosencreutz anno 1459[1]) was first printed by Lazare Zetzner in Strasbourg in 1616, after having been in circulation for some time as a manuscript. Written between 1603 and 1605, it describes in the form of an alchemical novel the initiatory experiences of Christian Rosenkreutz, which ultimately led to the founding of the Rosicrucian initiation. The very lively, colourful descriptions of the Chymical Wedding remarkably do not paint the picture of a rapt, lofty, unworldly stoic sage, but rather show us a full-bodied, humorous, sometimes also frightened and depressed human being who cries and laughs and to whom the whole range of human emotions in their ups and downs is by no means alien. Only arrogance, vanity and megalomania are completely far from him.

Johann Valentin Andreae

Johann Valentin Andreae (1586-1654)

The Chymical Wedding was initially published anonymously, but Johann Valentin Andreae is considered to be its author. In the external sense this is probably correct, but he was no more than a tool of the spiritual world, for as Rudolf Steiner has made clear, its spiritual author was not a physical personality at all:

„But no one who knows the biography of Valentin Andrea will be in any doubt that the Valentin Andrea, who later became a philistine pastor and wrote unctuous other books, did not write the "Chymical Wedding." It is sheer nonsense to believe that Valentine Andrea wrote the "Chymical Wedding". For just compare the "Chymical Wedding" or the "Reformation of the Whole World" or the other writings of Valentinus Andrea - physically it was already the same personality - with the unctuous, greasy-oily things that the pastor Valentin Andrea, who only bears the same name, then wrote in his later life. That is a most strange phenomenon! We have a young man, who has hardly finished school, who writes down such things as the "Reformation of the Whole World", like the "Chymische Hochzeit Christiani Rosencreutz", and we have to make an effort to fathom the inner meaning of these writings. He himself does not understand any of it, because he shows that later: he becomes an unctuous oily pastor. That is the same man! And if you only take this fact, you will find plausible what I have just described: that the "Chymical Wedding" was not written by a man, or was written by a man only in so far as, well, Napoleon's secret secretary, who was always full of fear, wrote his letters. But Napoleon was, after all, a human being who stood strongly with his feet, with his legs on the ground, was a physical personality. The one who wrote the "Chymical Wedding" was not a physical personality, and he made use of this "secretary" who later became the oily Pastor Valentin Andrea.“ (Lit.:GA 232, p. 143)

„In terms of content, this writing proves to be one composed out of intuition. Such things can be written by predisposed people, even if their own judgement and life experience do not speak into what is written down. And what is written down can nevertheless be the communication of something real. The "Chymical Wedding" must be understood as a communication about a really existing spiritual current in the sense indicated here, this is dictated by its content. The assumption that Valentin Andreae wrote it out of intuition throws light on the position he later took towards Rosicrucianism. As a young man, he was predisposed to give a picture of this spiritual current without his own way of knowing having a say in it. This own way of knowing, however, developed in the later pietist theologian Andreae. The kind of mind accessible to intuition receded in his soul.“ (Lit.:GA 35, p. 381)

Spiritual scientific explanations

  1. ↑ The year 1459: "It is significant for him that he may say to himself that this condition in his human being is in harmony with the conditions in the universe. In "diligent recalculation and calculation" of his "annotated planets" he has found that this condition may occur in him at the point in time at which it is now taking place. Whoever looks at what is being considered here in the sense of the folly of some "astrologers" will misunderstand it, regardless of whether he, as a believer, agrees with it or, as an "enlightened" person, sneers at it. The performer of the "Chymical Wedding" added the year 1459 to the title of his book for good reasons. He was aware that the state of mind of the bearer of the experience must coincide with the state of mind at which the world has arrived at a certain point in time, if the inner state of mind and the outer content of the world are not to result in disharmony. The soul, which is independent of ordinary sense perception, must encounter the outer supersensible world-content in harmony if the state of consciousness which constitutes the "Chymical Wedding" is to arise through the harmony of the two. Whoever believes that the constellation of the "annotated planets" contains a mysterious power which determines the state of man's experience, would be like one who believes that the positions of the hands of his watch have the power to induce him to take an exit which he has had to undertake at a certain hour out of his life circumstances." (Lit.:GA 35, p. 345)

Literature
References to the work of Rudolf Steiner follow Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works (CW or GA), Rudolf Steiner Verlag, Dornach/Switzerland, unless otherwise stated.
Email: verlag@steinerverlag.com URL: www.steinerverlag.com.
Index to the Complete Works of Rudolf Steiner - Aelzina Books
A complete list by Volume Number and a full list of known English translations you may also find at Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works
Rudolf Steiner Archive - The largest online collection of Rudolf Steiner's books, lectures and articles in English.
Rudolf Steiner Audio - Recorded and Read by Dale Brunsvold
steinerbooks.org - Anthroposophic Press Inc. (USA)
Rudolf Steiner Handbook - Christian Karl's proven standard work for orientation in Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works for free download as PDF.

Weblinks

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