Jan van Rijckenborgh (October 16, 1896 – July 17, 1968) was a Dutch-born mystic and founder of the

Lectorium Rosicrucianum The Lectorium Rosicrucianum or International School of the Golden Rosycross is a Spiritual School which considers itself a worldwide school of Esoteric Christianity. It was founded in 1935 by Dutch mystics Jan van Rijckenborgh, his brother Zwie ...

, a worldwide esoteric

Rosicrucian Rosicrucianism is a spiritual and cultural movement that arose in Europe in the early 17th century after the publication of several texts purported to announce the existence of a hitherto unknown esoteric order to the world and made seeking its ...

movement. Jan van Rijckenborgh was born in

Haarlem Haarlem (; predecessor of ''Harlem'' in English) is a city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is the capital of the province of North Holland. Haarlem is situated at the northern edge of the Randstad, one of the most populated metropoli ...

, Holland, under the name Jan Leene, adopting the name van Rijckenborgh later. With his brother, Zwier Willem Leene, he rejected the teachings of the orthodox

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...

and grew up with in favour of a more mystical approach. Under the influence of Dr. A. H. de Hartogh he read the theosophical works of

German mystic The Friends of God (German: Gottesfreunde; or gotesvriunde) was a medieval mystical group of both ecclesiastical and lay persons within the Catholic Church (though it nearly became a separate sect) and a center of German mysticism. It was founde ...

Jakob Böhme Jakob Böhme (; ; 24 April 1575 – 17 November 1624) was a German philosopher, Christian mystic, and Lutheran Protestant theologian. He was considered an original thinker by many of his contemporaries within the Lutheran tradition, and his first ...

and in 1924, with Zwier, joined

Max Heindel Max Heindel (born Carl Louis von Grasshoff, July 23, 1865 – January 6, 1919) was a Danish American Christian occultist, astrologer, and mystic. Early infancy He was born in Aarhus, Denmark, into the noble family von Grasshoff, which was con ...

's school of

Esoteric Christianity Esoteric Christianity is an approach to Christianity which features "secret traditions" that require an initiation to learn or understand.Guy G. Stroumsa (2005). Hidden Wisdom: Esoteric Traditions and the Roots of Christian Mysticism. Leiden: Br ...

the

Rosicrucian Fellowship The Rosicrucian Fellowship (TRF) ("An International Association of Christian Mystics") was founded in 1909 by Max Heindel with the aim of heralding the Aquarian Age and promulgating "the true Philosophy" of the Rosicrucians. It claims to present ...

, eventually becoming the heads of the Dutch branch. Ultimately even Heindel's approach proved not enough for van Rijckenborgh and his brother, who left the Fellowship in 1935 to found their own Rosicrucian movement, the ''Lectorium Rosicrucianum''. By this time they had made acquaintance with female Dutch mystic

Catharose de Petri Catharose de Petri (real name Henriette Stok Huyser 1902–1990) was a Dutch-born mystic and co-founder of the Lectorium Rosicrucianum, an international esoteric school based on Gnostic ideas of Christianity. Catharose de Petri founded the Lectori ...

who became a co-founder of the Lectorium with the brothers.

Ideas

Van Rijckenborgh propounded his own form of

Gnostic Christianity Gnosticism (from grc, γνωστικός, gnōstikós, , 'having knowledge') is a collection of religious ideas and systems which coalesced in the late 1st century AD among Jewish and early Christian sects. These various groups emphasized per ...

based upon the ''

Rosicrucian Manifestos Rosicrucianism is a spiritual and cultural movement that arose in Europe in the early 17th century after the publication of several texts purported to announce the existence of a hitherto unknown esoteric order to the world and made seeking it ...

'',

Johann Valentin Andreae Johannes Valentinus Andreae (17 August 1586 – 27 June 1654), a.k.a. Johannes Valentinus Andreä or Johann Valentin Andreae, was a German theologian, who claimed to be the author of an ancient text known as the ''Chymische Hochzeit Christiani Ro ...

's works ''

The Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz The ''Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz'' (german: Chymische Hochzeit Christiani Rosencreutz anno 1459) is a German book edited in 1616 in Strasbourg. Its anonymous authorship is attributed to Johann Valentin Andreae. The ''Chymical Weddi ...

'' and ''Rei Christianopolotanae Descriptio'' and his own wide ranging explorations into

hermeticism Hermeticism, or Hermetism, is a philosophical system that is primarily based on the purported teachings of Hermes Trismegistus (a legendary Hellenistic combination of the Greek god Hermes and the Egyptian god Thoth). These teachings are containe ...

alchemy Alchemy (from Arabic: ''al-kīmiyā''; from Ancient Greek: χυμεία, ''khumeía'') is an ancient branch of natural philosophy, a philosophical and protoscientific tradition that was historically practiced in China, India, the Muslim world, ...

Freemasonry Freemasonry or Masonry refers to fraternal organisations that trace their origins to the local guilds of stonemasons that, from the end of the 13th century, regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their interaction with authorities ...

, the

Cathars Catharism (; from the grc, καθαροί, katharoi, "the pure ones") was a Christian dualist or Gnostic movement between the 12th and 14th centuries which thrived in Southern Europe, particularly in northern Italy and southern France. Fol ...

(thanks in part to his collaboration with neo-Cathar historian

Antonin Gadal Antonin Gadal (15.3.1877 – 15.6.1962) was a French mystic and historian who dedicated his life to study of the Cathars in the south of France, their spirituality, beliefs and ideology. Life Gadal was born in 1877 in the Pyrenean town of Tar ...

), Christian Gnosticism and other forms of esoteric study. Taking as his central image of the relationship between the Soul and the Body the Rose Cross he argued for the Transfiguration/Gnostic Rebirth of the Soul in Man, thus achieving a transcendence of the dialectic of ordinary life. The Lectorium was founded to study and proselytize these ideas.

Death

Jan van Rijckenborgh died in 1968 and was succeeded by Catharose de Petri as leader of the movement until her death in 1990. The Lectorium Rosicrucianum continues to exist to this day all over the world. Rijckenborgh's books include ''Dei Gloria Intacta'', ''The Coming New Man'' and ''The Egyptian Gnosis''.

References

*''Rosicrucians Through the Ages'' Rozekruis Pers/ Rosycross Press *''Dei Gloria Intacta'' Jan van Rijckenborgh. Rozekruis Pers/ Rosycross Press

External links

Jan van Rickenborgh: Profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rijckenborgh, Jan van Christian occultists Dutch Christian religious leaders Rosicrucians 1896 births 1968 deaths 20th-century Christian mystics People from Haarlem

Ideas

Death

See also

References

External links