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THE LETTER THAT ROSICRUCIAN GÉRÔME VERNIER WROTE TO SPENCER LEWIS



 
This letter says the following:
 
September 1, 1915
 
MWGMGH Spencer Lewis, FRC. (This means “Most Worthy General Master Grand Harvey Spencer Lewis, Fraternity Rosae-Crucis”)
 
New York City, New York
 
Greetings to a Brother
 
I am visiting your magnificent Country and City in companionship and fellowship with the Supreme Magus (13th Illuminati A.M.O.R.C. England) and it gives to me the extreme pleasure to present to you the compliments of the Order R.C. en France and prey for an informal interview at either your home or at my hotel.
 
I rest assured that the Respected Secretary of our Grand Lodge has informed you of my unofficial visit to this country, and while I shall not be able to remain in New York City longer than several days (being en route with the Supreme Magus to the Canadian Grand Lodge) it will confer upon me pleasure to examine any reports you may have prepared and to tender any help or advice you feel may supplement the able instructions of our Supréme Concile.
 
If it is possible I would like to cross the T... [Temple?] of the Grand Lodge of America at your next conclave, although I fear I may not be able to make myself understood as well as I would like. However our silent greetings will serve me as they have in England.
 
May I have your kind appointment of time and place for the interview at your earliest convenience? Accept, Brother, my good wishes for your health and the success of our noble work.
 
Fraternally.
Jerome J. Verdier.
13th FRC France
Hotel Biltmore
New York City.
 
 
 
 
 
 
THE STORY OF THIS LETTER
 
Many of the persons who had entered in AMORC had done so on the Spencer Lewis word who had assured them that he and his organization were being sponsored by the French Rosicrucians.
 
But with an increasing skepticism, they asked to Lewis for evidence and documents that he had not presented despite his claims that he received letters of authority and documents after his "initiation" in 1909 in Toulouse, France, where French Rosicrucians allegedly he had been commissioned to found the Rosicrucian Order in America.
 
Lewis, to counteract mistrust, presented them this letter and later published in his pamphlet The Rosicrucian Initiation (1917) the following text:
 
« In September [1915], after the Grand Lodge of America had begun its activities in New York, Monsignor Jerome T. Verdier, magician of the Supreme Council of France in Toulouse, visited the Grand Master [Spencer Lewis]. He gave his approval to the plan for the establishment of state lodges in each State of the American Union and of local lodges in the principal cities. Final instructions, seals, and secret documents were hand-delivered to the Grand Master General of America [Spencer Lewis] after examination of the official reports. »
(p.16)
 
Later this letter was reproduced in the book Rosicrucian Documents (GLS AMORC Inc., 1975, p.7).
 
 
Below the letter is written in English and Spanish:
 
“Official letter from the Rosicrucian Legate Jerome Verdier of France, to Dr. H. Spencer Lewis, First Imperator and founder of AMORC in America. Note statements that he extends the compliments of the Rosicrucian Order in France to Dr. Lewis, and that he is accompanied by another high officer of the Rosicrucian Order in Europe.”
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
WHAT IS ITS AUTHENTICITY?
 
This letter has a few words in French to imply that it was written by a Frenchman, but with spelling errors so gross that no educated Frenchman would have made them, while the rest of the letter is in impeccable English, so this supposed Frenchman who does not know how to write his own native language, on the other hand he knows how to write English very well. And also in the letter there are big errors of occultism.
 
Let's look at some examples:
 
1) The letter begins by saying “Greetings to a Brother”, which is the traditional Anglo-Saxon way of greeting, but it is not the way of greeting in France where the way of greeting is writing “Cher frère” (Dear brother).
 
 
 
2) After the word brother, Mr. Verdier puts the three points in the form of a triangle that is usually used in occult brotherhoods, but he puts them with the point downwards when all genuine esoteric organizations, regardless of whether they are Masonic, Theosophical or Rosicrucian, put the three points with the point up.
 
And it turns out that Lewis decided to put the three points with the point downwards because the symbol he chose for AMORC is a cross inside an inverted triangle, but this is not a symbol that has been used by real Rosicrucians (see link).
 
 
 
3) Mr. Verdier says that he is accompanied by a high Rosicrucian dignitary from England who has the 13th Illuminati degree, which does not make sense since the Illuminati were great adversaries of the Rosicrucians as the esotericist Franz Hartmann specified (see link).
 
 
4) In the last line of the second paragraph, in the last words Mr. Verdier wrote: Supréme Concile. But in French it is not written like that but rather Suprême Conseil (Supreme Council). And an educated Frenchman would use accents correctly as they are very important in the French language.
 
 
 
5) Mr. Verdier's signature, as you can see in the image, and even better in the enlarged image below, is Jerome J. Verdier.
 
And it turns out that when an American signs he puts his first name first, then the initial of his middle name, and last his last name. That is to say, the same as the signature that appears from Mr. Verdier.
 
On the other hand, a Frenchman, and even more a cultured Frenchman of 1915, would put his full name and surname. For example, if Mr. Verdier's middle name had been Jean, then he would have signed Jerome Jean Verdier, that is, in the French style and not the American style.
 
 
6) But what is most disconcerting is that Mr. Verdier does not know how to write his own name since Jerome is not written like that in French, but Jérôme, which is very different, and as you can see in the image, his name is misspelled.
 
 
 
In addition, this is a salutation letter, so it is unthinkable that a well-educated Frenchman would send in 1915, at a time when forms were very careful, a typewritten greeting letter since French protocol dictates that you must write that type of letter by hand.
 
The second curiosity is that the letterhead of the letter is from the Bilmore Hotel in New York, and although it is true that a traveler would write a letter with the letterhead of the hotel where he is staying, it is most likely that this traveler did not have a typewriter in his room, and less in 1915.
 
It could well be that he had gone to the hotel offices where the workers could have lent him the typewriter so that he could write his letter, but as I pointed out above, that makes no sense because why complicate his life typing that letter with a typewriter when the protocol dictates that it must be written by hand, which would also be the most practical in thissituation.
 
_ _ _
 
All this leads me to conclude that it was Spencer Lewis himself who wrote this letter and he typed it to hide his handwriting.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
BIG CONTRADICTIONS
 
In addition:
 
Why didn't Lewis take the opportunity to introduce Mr. Verdier to AMORC members?
 
Why was the interview not held in the Lodge so that AMORC members could see and greet Mr. Verdier and the Supreme Magus of England?
 
Why, being Lewis a professional photographer, didn't he take the opportunity to take a picture of Mr. Verdier and also of the Supreme Magus who was traveling with him?
 
And how is it that Mr. Verdier was traveling with the Supreme Magus of England?
 
If Lewis had previously stated that the Rosicrucian Order was totally secret in Toulouse and was only made up of a few members, how is it that it is now so thriving that it is even established in England and even has its Supreme Magician?
 
And how is it that the scholars and historians of esotericism, taking into account the tradition of freedom for esoteric associations such as Freemasonry, Martinism, the Golden Dawn, the OTO, etc., and which were so active in France and in England, were known to all; while the Rosicrucians associated with Lewis are not known to anyone?
 
And it also happens that they are on a trip to the Grand Lodge of Canada!
 
But how is it that a Rosicrucian Grand Lodge could already have been founded in Canada in September 1915?
 
Hadn't we agreed that it was Lewis who was to establish the Rosicrucians in America, and now it turns out that there was already a Rosicrucian Grand Lodge in the neighboring country?
 
And if these two dignitaries were in such a hurry, that it prevented them from returning to New York later and conversing with the members of AMORC, taking advantage of the fact that they spoke English so well, in order to dispel all the mistrust that had been generated towards Mr. Lewis because he did not show any valid evidence.
 
There are so many questions that arise in the face of so many contradictions that we can only increase our distrust and seriously doubt the authenticity of that letter.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
CONCLUSION
 
This whole setup is so unlikely that it can only be attributed to an individual who knows very little French, who likes to forge documents but doesn't mind being careful about details, and who is completely unscrupulous.
 
And all this corresponds to Harvey Spencer Lewis, since he knew very little French, his knowledge of esotericism was lousy, the number of documents he forged is impressive, and his lack of ethics is even more aberrant. And all this I have been showing them in this blog.
 
And this letter is just another piece of evidence of his quackery, but then again Mr. Lewis didn't even go out of his way to make really believable forgeries, and this letter is so pitiful and botched that it didn't convince the members of his organization at all, and that is why they asked Lewis to present other more credible evidence, and that is why he presented the even more ridiculous "Pronouncement RCRF 987432" which we will detail in the next article.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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