R. Swinburne Clymer (1878–1966)

MYSTIC AMERICANISM

FOREWORD

In the fall of 1922, a number of people were asked to
assist in the writing of the Mystic Americanism Lessons
that the arcane philosophy sealed in the National Em
blems of our Republic, might be brought forth arn
America be able to face the world unafraid, clothed in her
majesty and power, capable of fulfilling her destiny as
healer of the nations.

Amazement, incredulity and indifference were expressed
by the majority of those invited to this honor, among
whom were college graduates and members of Orders
whose fine moral teachings are veiled in symbology. For
these and for the average mind, the skies are but trackless
starry spaces devoid of meaning and the heavens do not
declare the glory" of the path of the soul and its search
for the Holy Grail. Symbolism is a lost art although
unconsciously we daily live and teach it. We may well
say with Isaiah: "And the vision of all is become unto
you as the words of a book that is sealed, which men
deliver to one that is learned saying, Read this I pray thee;
and he sayeth, I cannot for it is sealed; and the book is
delivered to him that is not learned, saying, Read this, I
pray thee; and he sayeth, I am not learned."Isa
29:11, 12.

The difficult task of unsealing the Book involves the
reunion of Science and Religion, the Christ and the Bride,
at the Kabalic point where esoteric Judaism, Christianity
and Masonry converge, for here is restored the wisdom
of the elder Golden Age when Enoch walked with God.
We therefore start upon its way, this, the philosophy of
our National Emblems as that philosophy was originally
laid down in 1776, as it was given in the Dawn and as it
has since been maintained by those who guard the souls
of Israel down the Aryan Cycle. These souls, whose names...… (altro)

LEY DIVINA ;LA SENDA HACIA LA MAESTRÍA

Reuben Swinburne Clymer (25 de noviembre 1878 - 03 de junio 1966) fue un estadounidense ocultista moderno de la Rosacruz que se hizo responsable de la reactivación o la creación de la Fraternitas Rosae Crucis, tal vez la organización Rosacruz más antigua de América. Practicó la medicina alternativa, y escribió y publicó trabajos sobre ella, así como (su versión de) las enseñanzas de Pascual Beverly Randolph, la magia sexual, el vegetarianismo, la religión, la alquimia y el espiritismo. Esto llevó a una serie de conflictos con Harvey Spencer Lewis y Antigua y Mística Orden Rosae Crucis AMORC, la organización FUDOSI, y el iniciado Aleister Crowley, e incluso la Asociación Médica Americana.

Breve retazo de la obra:

LA RESTAURACIÓN DEL HOMBRE
Axioma
Toda pasión, hábito o debilidad indeseable a la cual está sujeto el ser humano y que mantiene al hombre en un estado de esclavitud, impidiendo que logre su debido y alto puesto puede dejarse en suspenso o, aún mejor, conquistarse y transformarse
en algo útil, siempre que sea substituido por un deseo, emoción motivo o ideal más fuerte que se anteponga a la visión mental y se incorpore a la vida. De la debilidad a la fuerza-ese es el Concepto Oculto.

POSTULADO
La mente humana, no importa cual sea su alcance intelectual, es capaz de razonar sólo
por analogías. También es verdad que entre más avanzado sea el alcance científico e
intelectual del individuo, se encuentra menos dispuesto y capaz de reconocer o entender
la Ley Divina en sus relaciones con los asuntos de la vida cotidiana y el desarrollo del
individuo dentro de las varias fases o actividades del hombre en la esfera mundana.
Aunque a muchos les parezca increíble, llega el momento en que la persona que ha
avanzado mucho por los caminos de la actividad científica e intelectual no puede
concebir o creer que existen otras leyes aparte de las que rigen la vida y los objetos
materiales.

Niega la existencia de Dios ó de una Ley dirigente que es de orden espiritual
en su naturaleza y, por consiguiente, es la fuerza que gobierna todo lo que existe.
Debido a lo materialista de nuestra época, es esencial trazar comparaciones entre lo
aparente y lo real. Aquéllos que buscan el Misterio de la vida y el dinamo secreto de las
energías vitales tienen que llegar a entender que lo aparente, y a sea relativo al cuerpo o
a la mente, no es más que un reflejo, una manifestación de lo real, lo cual el hombre no
puede conocer ni comprender, salvo en la medida de su reflejo que es lo manifiesto...… (altro)

Most of the text in this book consists of extracts from other authors, including Masonic mainstays such as Mackey, Oliver, Buck, Pike, and Yarker, along with more obscure sources, like New Light from the Great Pyramid by Parsons. Clymer's own writing only appears in very rare paragraphs of his own, and in relatively common bracketed comments inserted into the long quotes. But the reader is also given pause to wonder about Manisis, the "Master Interpreter of the New Dispensation," whose platitudinous declamations regarding "Jehovah Adonai the Father of Light" are sprinkled through the book. Was Manisis perhaps the illuminated alter-ego of Clymer?

Much of the book presents a sweeping survey of Masonic pre-history, with an eye to the author's own esoteric agenda, much after the manner of Leadbeater's Glimpses of Masonic History. Clymer's narrative begins with special attention to the obscure and short-lived African Master Builders (1767-1786), whom A.E. Waite supposes to have been responsible for the Crata Repoa.

Clymer is best-known in the esoteric field as a Rosicrucian organizer working under authority descending through the great XIXth century American occult master Paschal Beverly Randolph. Clymer's remarks on Masonic symbolism in The Mysticism of Masonry reflect an inheritance of Randolph's doctrines of sex mysticism, from his reference in the opening pages to "virile manhood capable of reproduction of the species and consequently still in possession of the Elixir Vitae through which only Spiritual Initiation and Conscious Immortalization finally may be attained," to a much later explanation of "the symbolization of bringing forth a perfect Soul through the medium of the Double Drill between the male and female and representative of the raising of the two serpents (sex forces of the two actors) to the plane of heaven--or spirituality." Writing such in 1907, Clymer was neither the first nor the last to claim that such readings of Masonic symbolism constitute "the Key" to its correct interpretation.… (altro)