Master Morya's portrait was
published on, The American Rosae Crucis
magazine, June 1916, page 16:
Then Master
Kuthumi's portrait was published on The
American Rosae Crucis magazine, August 1916, page 16:
AMORC
leaders were a bit hesitant to publish Kuthumi's portrait for the reasons they
stated at the beginning of this magazine:
«
PUBLISHER'S ANNOUNCEMENT
In this number of the American
Rosae Crucis revue we publish the picture of Deputy Grand Master Kut-Hu-Mi of
Tibet, India. In doing so we feel a word of explanation is necessary, because
we did not publish this picture in the July number as promised in the biography
of Master Moria-EI.
Many letters have reached us
requesting an explanation why these pictures are given such open publicity,
bordering on a sacrilege. It is not our intention to hurt the feelings or
devotional delicacy of anyone or any set of philosophic students, congregations
or assemblies.
It is not regarded a sacrilege by
those of us who accept Jesus, the Christ, as the Savior of the world, to Have
his picture in our possession, nor to publish the same for the eyes of those
who want to study the features, whether these are idealistic or actual.
Therefore we can not regard the publishing of these two pictures as a
sacrilege, especially when the pictures were given to us for the express
purpose of publishing. In connection herewith it is probably not out of place
to explain the circumstances that led up to this publicity.
There came to our office a man who
gave his name as George Ambrosius Immanuel Moryason Sykes, who stated that when
in Tibet and India, he had, met in the flesh Master Moria-EI and Deputy
Kut-Hu-Mi, both members and heads of our Order Rosae Crucis, and a number of
other organizations unknown to us, that he had been selected as the personal
representative of these Masters with authority to give a set to our order as
the true R. C. Order in America, and to publish, give away or sell these
pictures and others of a religious and occult nature, ,and that theses pictures
were properly signed in the Zend Avestan language and were the only authoritative
pictures in existence, that he intended to have the same reproduced and offer them
to the general public or societies, etc.
We have published the pictures in
this magazine as interesting and instructive to our readers. The biographical
sketches written by Mr. Sykes are certainly the most weird and astounding ever
published in any American publication and since they pertain to the work of so
many occult organizations we were assured that they would be appreciated by
readers who were and were not members of the Order Rosae Crucis. The
publication of the pictures and biographies has surely brought forth much
correspondence from our readers and many personal calls to our editorial
offices. We have heard and read much praise of the man and also some
condemnation. We have been called upon to verify the statements made and in the
absence of any proof in our possession (and which we never claimed to have) we have
asked Mr. Sykes to give us in writing his guarantee that these pictures are
just what he claims them to be.
To this end we reproduce his
written statement. It is broad, complete and covers every possible point and we
trust that it will answer the many questions put to us by those who believe
that the publishers have voluntarily unearthed these pictures with the intent
to offer them in an unauthorized manner. The following statement, therefore,
clearly proves that Mr. Sykes is ready to assume the full responsibility for
both pictures and biographies and that he maintains his proper authority for their
existence. The publishers invite any who have other information to write to
them and the matter will be given to Mr. Sykes who is anxious to prove his claims
to us and to all others.
_______________________
Guarantee to publishers
“I issue the following statement
and warning: the pictures of the Masters which I offered to the American Rosae
Crucis for publication with biographies are issue under the order and by the
authority of and signed by the Masters themselves in their own Zend-Zar
(Sen-Zar) script (see S.D. and H.P.B., Vol. 1, Page. 26), and have their signs
and seals issued.
They are copyrighted by their
duly authorized agent. They are issued in compliance with the Temple Law. All
other pictures of these Masters now in possession of others, made in the past
or capled from unauthorized and unsigned portraits of them, or purporting to be
of them, are made contrary to Temple and copyright law and are unwarranted and illegal and are
subject to confiscation whenever and wherever found; and all sueli
infringements will be carefully and thoroughly guarded against by the Agent and
Temple Association and brotherhood both here and abroad.
Therefore I caution the public
against unauthorized portraits of the Masters. The Brotherhood will prevent by
all their resources any attempt to wrong or cheat or defraud them or the
public.
G.A.I.M. Sykes, M.A., N.Y. City.
August 17th, 1916. »
(p.2)
OBSERVATIONS
Numerous members of AMORC complained about the publication of the portraits of
these two trans-Himalayan masters, since they considered this an offense
against the Christian Rosicrucians.
And in
response to these claims, the leaders of AMORC responded that these two masters
are part of the World Rosicrucian Order (which is false), and that a man named
George Ambrosius Immanuel Moryason Sykes was also in Tibet and India where he
met in person with those two masters, and that they gave him those portraits and
authorized him to promote them in the West through AMORC.
But that is
also false because in reality those two portraits were painted by the Austrian
painter Wolfgang Freiherr von Bibra who was then living in New York (where
AMORC's headquarters were also located at the time).
This was
confirmed by his great-great-grandson and is also demonstrated by Morya's
portrait, since at the bottom left it is written "copyright, 1916, by W.
VON BIBRA".
Mr. Bibra
was based on the portraits that the German painter Hermann Schmiechen made of
the theosophical masters in 1884.
Portraits of the Masters painted by
Hermann Schmiechen in 1884
Portraits of the Masters painted by Wolfgang Freiherr von Bibra in 1916
And it is very
disconcerting the huge emphasis AMORC puts on the fact that their portraits of
the Mahatmas are copyrighted and they are the only ones authorized by the
masters to be sold.
At the end
of their magazine they put a price list:
This
appeared in the June, July, and August 1916 issues, and reads:
«
PORTRAITS OF THE MASTERS
(Signed in Zen-Zar)
The Temple Supply Association,
101 West 126th St., New York, has secured the rights to reproduce and sell portraits
of the Masters of the East. During the last 25 years travelers and students of Theosophy
visiting the Far East have brought back to United States copies or paintings of
these authorized originals, but it is only recently the Temple Supply
Association has secured the rights to reproduce the same in United States.
MORIA-ELI The Illustrious
KUT-HU-MI, The Illuminator
ZAR-ATUSHT-RA, The Magian
JESUS, The Na-zar-ene
At the present time the following
reproductions are ready for delivery in different sizes, black and white or
hand colored.
The Temple Supply Association
101 WEST 126TH STREET
NEW YORK.
Send Express Money Order or P. O.
Money Order to G. A. I. MORYASON SYKES, M. A. 101 W. 126th St ., New York City,
U. S. A. »
(p.31)
CONCLUSION
All this indicates that the leaders of AMORC hired
Wolfgang Freiherr von Bibra to paint these two portraits of the Masters for
them, since they wanted to own the copyright and sell those portraits to their
followers, but when they found that many members of AMORC were offended, they inventing a fictitious character whom they called George
Ambrosius Immanuel Moryason Sykes to whom they attributed all the
responsibility, and took the farce to the point of publishing a supposed
guarantee given by that individual assuring that what he affirmed it was true.
And this is one more example of how deceitful and
commercial this organization is.
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