The Mirror of the Wisdom of the Rosicrucians Theophilus Schweighardt

The Mirror of the Wisdom of the Rosicrucians By Theophilus Schweighardt

Through the mediation of the Elohim...

I, Theophilus Schweighart Centralleanicus with the blessing of the times, herald of the Divine - Magical, Physical - Chemical, Triune - Universal Philosophy with the Grace of God, revealed to the unworthy, wish to all those who have been granted by God to contemplate my ‘Sophy speculum oculis intelligentiae’ peace, joy and constant prosperity from the glorious Father of Light reigning through the generations.


Dear brethren and fellow labourers in God, it is for ever the greatest cause of astonishment by what wonderfully contrary and world-loving opinion the majority of human creatures have landed in an incurable desperation, for they cannot recognise the salvation that hovers before their eyes and the final reforming of their errors, but they withstand all the grace and mercy of God. 

Look at and observe this age that is ending, contemplate the manifold businesses and affairs of mankind which are for the most part vain and of no account, not to mention public calumny and infamy, upon which may God have pity, in high and low degree. 

All this has so much got the upper hand that instead of being punished it is held more in esteem than godly virtues and heroic deeds. 

Oh vanity of vanities. Oh depraved human nature! My heart would leap from my body every time that I contemplate this miserable condition of such seeming joy; and though I know myself much too puny and in need of help to ward off this evil by my own person I cannot in Christian love ignore my neighbour and refrain from expounding my ‘Pandoram’ with figures which have been published for the same reason; and from revealing the much desired Collegium, Lodge, or Dwelling of the highly praised Rhodostaurotic (Rosicrucian) brotherhood and their true philosophy, the ‘fidelibus, pansophiae, studiosis’ to the end that mankind be wakened from its sleep of sin, and with freshly opened hearts, with heads bared and bare feet, go joyfully towards the newly rising sun and salutifero Heliae. 

Wherefore loving brethren in God, nature and wisdom, receive and mark this my faithful instruction, read it and examine it earnestly, and you will find what many thousands have desired from the be- ginning but what few have found. So be you pious, God-fearing, compassionate, well-doing and silent, otherwise this wisdom that is here made public and laid before your eyes in a manner that could not be brighter will not only shut up your treasure and close its storehouse but will turn to mockery, offence and shame. 

But thou, God-loving brother and friend, who wast named in the title somewhat obscurely, wilt know thyself through thy manifold experiences and promises made unto thee brought unto me in other ways, thou shalt have this Christian, godlike and nature-politic ‘Speculum Sophicum’ as thine own gift and to thine honour as a lover of its content and one dedicated to the salvation of the faithful. And this all the more because in the past two years thou hast shewn thyself to mine unworthy self in such fashion by confiding to me thine especial secrets that I cannot but think thereon without astonishment and a corresponding brotherly affection. For thou, O brother, didst offer to hear my pansophy, thou hast shewn me the way of my work, thou wast, art and shalt be in eternity the author and refuge of my thoughts.
And although the Theonic generation of vipers have dared to set obstacles in the way of some of our departed societies and brotherhoods by unexpected means and ways, and have undone them for the cursed intention of outer appearance, I shall nevertheless hope and trust that thy humanity and thy superior understanding will ascribe to me more belief and confidence, when I speak with an open and candid spirit, than other ‘Zoili’ with their despicable calumnies. 

If thou doest this, thou mayst expect something greater and more worthy in the coming year while contending thyself with the present proffered writing which, as I have said, is in thine honour, friendship and brotherliness, with the prayer to God the Almighty that he will unite it in thee with the ‘Pansophica studia in centro Sacratissmae Alethiae’.

Given on the 1st March 1617 from the Musaum Centralleanicum.