THE HISTORY OF THIS DOCUMENT
Spencer
Lewis, the founder of AMORC, had created his organization claiming that he was
being sponsored by the French Rosicrucians, but faced with increasing
skepticism from his members, they asked Lewis to give a proof, to which Lewis responded
by showing them a letter that was allegedly written by a leader of the French
Rosicrucian Order who, with another Rosicrucian dignitary, had gone to visit
Lewis in New York.
The
fraudulent of this letter was demonstrated in this other article (see link).
After the
discontent of AMORC members due to the fact that they could not see neither the
mysterious Mr. Verdier nor the Supreme Magus, and they only had a doubtful
letter as proof, they asked Lewis to give them more tangible evidence of the
authority he had to found AMORC.
To which
Lewis informed them that he was going to ask the high Rosicrucian authorities from
France to send him a sponsorship document to show them, and some time later in
his magazine The American Rosae Crucis
of July 1916, Lewis published the following article:
The text
says:
« Early in August of 1915 a complete
report of our American activities and successes was sent to the Supreme Grand
Lodge of France to be forwarded to the Supreme Council of the World. At the
same time a formal request was made by the Grand Master General on behalf of
the Lodge here for a regularly executed paper of Sponsorship of the American
Order signed by the Supreme Council, should that Council deem the status of the
American Order sufficient proof that its instructions and laws were being
obeyed.
On September
30, 1915, after a special assembly of the Supreme Council in France, there was
prepared and duly issued "Pronunziamento R. F. R. C., No. 987432" embodying
a Manifesto declaring that the Supreme Council and Grand Lodge A. M. O. R. C.
of France, on behalf of the Supreme Council A. M. O. R. C. of the World,
declared and acknowledged its complete sponsorship of the Order in America,
confirmed the initiation of the American Imperator and his appointment as
Dignitary Supreme in North America and verified its issuance of papers
instructions, jewels, seals, etc., to him.
This very
important document, written on the specially prepared and water-marked paper of
the French Order, was signed and scaled by the present Supreme Grand Master of
the Order in France, his officers and the Grand Master who at one time
initiated the American Imperator into the Order.
The
signatures, some of them of prominent men in military and governmental affairs
of France, are accompanied by their official "marks," and the seals
of various sizes and designs and verity and attractiveness to this unique
document. Suspended from the paper itself is one of the curious, old-styled
wax-and-paper seals of the Order, bearing its strange, though intelligible,
marks and words.
The document
was enclosed in a light-weight metallic, telescope envelope, which was moisture
proof. It was sealed, and had the French Orders national, or Supreme Council's
seal impressed in the metal of the container, and bore not only the necessary
postage stamps but others of a military and "custom" nature, bearing
marks of approval and examination abroad.
This
document, when received and presented to the American Supreme Council in
October, brought great joy as the sign of approval and endorsement of the work
done here in America by those the French Council had appointed.
The
document, properly framed and preserving the original container, hangs upon the
wall in the Supreme Grand Lodge in New York beside the American Council Charter
where it may be easily seen and read, for it is written in very fair English. »
(p.15)
Lewis says
that this document could be seen in the New York Lodge, but that is false
because in reality this document was never shown directly to the members of
AMORC, only Lewis published a photograph of this document in a blurb entitled The Rosicrucian Initiation (1917) and
whose image was of poor quality.
He
republished this photo in his Cromaat B
pamphlet (1918) which was reserved for members of AMORC:
Below
the image it says:
"Photo of Original
Paper of French Sponsorship and Its Metallic Container.”
This photo also appeared in the first editions of the book "Rosicrucian Manual", but later neither Lewis nor AMORC showed this
document again, which is very disconcerting since it is supposed to be the
greatest proof to legitimize this organization.
So although it is true that this
"important document" was never personally examined by anyone, fortunately
for the researchers interested in this matter at
least its photographic image is preserved in some publications:
Below the
image it says:
"Photograph of the original
document in which the Rosicrucian Order of France sponsored AMORC in the United
States with the Pronouncement RCRF 987'432. It was sent in a kind of bronze box
and was signed and sealed by the main dignitaries of the Rosicrucian of France.
It is addressed to our Imperator H. Spencer Lewis and has been a treasure since it was examined and
authenticated by the first Supreme Council of the Order of the United
States."
WHAT IS ITS AUTHENTICITY?
What they said
is false because no one outside of Spencer Lewis was able to examine this
document, and since this document having mysteriously disappeared because it
was never heard from again, we do not know what was wrote in this
"important manifesto signed by the highest governmental and military
instances of France and with the signatures and seals of two Rosicrucian Grand
Masters".
However,
today we have the help of better technology so we can make extensions, analyzes
and comparisons. So let's do it, and for that, let's start with an enlarged
image:
This
enlargement allows us to see a little better the postage stamps in which we
find nothing military or government. It is really very doubtful that the
Government of the French Republic has sent this document to Spencer Lewis with
his compromising sponsorship of an American Rosicrucian organization, since the
French Government remains very far from any religious, mystical or esoteric
organization in order to guarantee his neutrality, so it doesn't make sense
that he would be so benevolent towards AMORC.
And if we
take into account that at that time France was overwhelmed since it was in the
middle of the First World War, this document makes even less sense.
And why send
this document by mail instead of having it by diplomatic bag given the
sensitivity of the matter, and even more so in times of war, which would arouse
the suspicions of the French and North American postal services, and also the
intelligence services of France and from United States?
These
reflections and the fact that Lewis avoided showing that document at all costs
make one very suspicious about its authenticity.
In addition,
we observed that the seals of what the document should have been, and the embossed
seals of the wrapping envelope or package, are retouched. Which is a technique
that was widely used at the beginning of the 20th century to correct images and
consists of modifying the negatives using ink to add or erase objects.
Now let's
see an enlargement of the package recipient's label and in which, despite the
poor quality of the image, it can be seen that the package was addressed to H.
Spencer Lewis.
And it is
precisely when we get a better look at the package label where Mr. Lewis'
postal address appears, that we discover one of the most blatant and big
charlatanisms of Spencer Lewis, and explains why he never wanted to show the
original document to anyone and even the photograph did not appear again in any
other AMORC publication.
And so that
you can perceive the evidence, below we reproduce the image of the Constitutive
Charter issued and signed by Lewis to the Grand Lodge of AMORC of New York and
which appears in all editions of the Rosicrucian
Manual that have been published by AMORC.
It can be
seen that in the lower right margin of the letter is the H.
Spencer Lewis signature.
Now, to the
image of the postal package label where Lewis's postal address is, we put
Lewis's signature below to it and the result is as follows:
And we
verified with true astonishment that Lewis's letter coincides with the postal
address on the package label, and in the face of such evidence we can only
assume that Spencer Lewis sent that package to himself!
This is such
gross clumsiness that none of the people who have examined these photographs
can understand how Lewis could have been so clueless, and surely when Lewis
realized his mistake, that is why he was quick to disappear the evidence and
therefore did not turn around to reproduce this photograph with the documents,
since more than one would have realized the amazing coincidence that exists
between Lewis's handwriting and the letter of the address to which the package
is destined.
CONCLUSION
This document is yet another of the many fraudulent
documents that Spencer Lewis produced to impress his followers and shows how
extremely charlatan this individual was.
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