Now I just gotta add my voice to this. The only person who has said
anything meaningful is grafikdon.
This is my take on the matter: It has been said that people usually criticize
what they don't know and understand. In this case, and in the Nigerian/African
setting, the word occult has been so 'stigmatized' and smeared that it can easily
pass as a synonym for evil. Well I was as ignorant as many of you guys in the not too
distant past. I will have you know that I was born and raised in a catholic family and
my mother is one of those people they refer as being more catholic than the pope.
The message there is that because of my religious upbringing, such words/people as
"occults" were the same as evil/devils to me. Until I "saw the light," to put it in the
words of my "born again" christian brothers and sisters, especially those who left their
church and went to another. I "saw the light" when I started to read books from other
religions/denominations, INCLUDING books by so called occultists. I will probably always
consider myself a catholic, even if I stopped attending a catholic church today.
I have read a variety of books from other religions- hinduism, occult (including books by
rosicrucians), etc, and other non-religious book, and regarding the rosicricians I can tell
you authoritatively that there is
ABSOLUTELY NOTHING evil about them. For those
of you who say they are an evil group, have you
personally experienced or read
(as against HEARING) anything that suggests they are an evil group? I can guarantee
that all your comments are based on what u have heard, and as I'm sure you know,
and as grafikdon has stressed, stories get distorted as they travel from one person
to the other. Take also that fact I stated earlier that people don't understand what
they don't know.
I'll give an analogy to explain the last sentence. For you non-science students, who know
nothing about Physics, do you think you would understand a thing about physics or chemistry
if people knowledgable about it were talking about it. Similarly, do you think you would
understand anything that programmers and such technical IT people would be saying
if you know nothing about the subject. Therefore until you have personally come in contact with,
and had a chance to weight for yourself, such matters as "occultism" or any religious matter
at all, it is best to hold your peace rather than negatively judge them. Or at least hold remain
impartial on the subject.
Now regarding the Rosicrucian, in all the literature I have read, I have
never come across
anything negative or evil in their ways, and I have read quite some of their literature. On the
contrary, I have probably learnt more about christianity and God and being a good person
from the little I have read of, and know of them, than all my 'catholic' years. I won't bother
going into specifics here about them and their doctrine -which I might add is much more
christian and Godly than what is being taught in many many religions/denominations,
but all I will advice anyone is to refrain from negative talk about the occult and anything you
know little or nothing about for your own good.
Like grafikdon, I have also read enough about them (but not personally been with them) to
know that they have a lot of good things to teach you about christianity that you most likely
will never learn about in your church, and while youu most likely will think you would rather
not learn anything of their "evil and occult" ways, all I will say is 'you just don't know.'
Anyone who is willing to set aside their preconceived notions and beliefs about the occult,
and let reason and their prior knowledge of christianity prevail, will see that there is a lot
of similarities in their doctrines and what we are taught in churches. BUT the occult tells
you the deeper meaning of things and lets you see it in a different light.
Yes many of their doctrines may sound strange and are hard to swallow because you have never
heard of it before, or it sounds strange or it clashes with your present belief system, but is it
impossible that they may offer a different way to look at the same subject, for example the
theory of reincarnation? Even I still find many of the rosicrucian teachings to be strange,
but just because it is strange to me is no fact or argument that is it incorrect. Just like
if a scientist tells you he can turn paper to gold, does it mean it is impossible and that he
is talking crazy if you don't believe him or don't think it is possible?
But of course, there will still be many more of such (ignorant) comments as previously posted,
even in light of what I have said above. All I can do is wish such people well and hope you
see the light someday.
