THE SECRET HIGHER TEACHINGS OF THE PANSOPHERS?
Maybe, maybe not: the jury is still out on this one.
I have been closely following the work of Sam Robinson and his Pansophers.com group since I became aware of it five or six years ago.
Over the years, I’ve been constantly impressed by the quality of the scholarship that they’ve put in to try and restore a true Pansophic Rosicrucian Tradition, going past the reconstructions of groups like AMORC and criticising the good and the bad of the many Golden Dawns still (barely?) surviving nowadays.
In more recent times, it became clear Sam, and his cohorts are also trying to recreate a magical and mystical order aimed to conserve and practice that specific Rosicrucian practice they claim has survived unseen through the centuries, harking back to the teaching of obscure mystic Alois Mailander and staying almost unchanged in secret groups in Germany and Austria, and in general entirely ignored by the Anglo-American world.
As someone exposed to similar groups, teachings, and ideas in Italy, I know that Anglo-American occulture has always ignored anything that didn’t speak its language, be it Italian, German, Spanish, or French. And when it didn’t ignore it, it plagiarised it — see the aforementioned AMORC.
This preamble set the stage and explains why I was very excited to see a new article on their website yesterday, which promised a glimpse at the Higher Teachings of this secret tradition they are starting to unravel for the world to see. You can read it here.
I have to admit, I wasn’t particularly impressed this time around. Maybe I don’t get it. Perhaps the promise of explaining material dedicated to “higher Adepts of the Golden Dawn” just isn’t for me. Most of all, there was a lot of hand-waving and very little to chew on, which is, of course, the tried and tested method of every secret order ever to attract followers. The Sphere of Sensation, and a multidimensional Tree of Life, make an appearance, as well as some beautiful images by Stephen Murthagh depicting alchemical vessels representing an interesting combination of the Major Arcana of the Tarot. That caught my attention.
The one thing that particularly irked me is the comment about the Heh/Tzaddi switch in the Tarot. As you will read, they propose another kind of switch, and then Robinson comments that Crowley “was not able to solve this problem as effectively as our system demonstrates”… but the problem itself is pointed out in Liber AL vel Legis. And the solution is fully understood only by studying the whole of the Thelemic corpus, particularly the Holy Books, Book of Lies, and Book of Thoth.
Most importantly, since they aren’t Thelemites, why even quote from the AL, only to say that Crowley didn’t get it, but they did? Seems ultimately out of place unless, as usual, it’s a case of folks using Crowley to get people to talk about them. In that case, they succeeded!
All in all, it’s always great to get new material from Sam Robinson and Pansophers. This time, however, I will put on the brakes and wait for more material to come out before properly forming an opinion on their system.
