Aloha,
The Ancient and Mystical Order Rosae Crucis (AMORC) was not
too far down the road from my hometown, although a little too
far away to visit easily. I vaguely recall a school trip to the museum.
But in some sense the presence of AMORC on the local ground
made a palpable contribution to the entire San Francisco Bay Area
regional occulture.
These days I think of such organizations and edifices and their
(putative) links to occultural history and traditions as broadly
validating the notions that an ordinary modern or post-modern
person may become an occultist or practitioner of an occult tradition.
Something along the lines of: If Rosicrucians (or any of various
other occult orders) have a temple and museum complex just
down the road, then occultism cannot be altogether nonsense.
To be frank, I was never all that interested in Rosicrucianism when
I was a kid. I was not, intentionally, a delver into Pagan practice as
a magical or spiritual endeavor. I did poke into Paganism, but as an
imaginative and proto-avant garde exercise. I was, however, Pagan
more or less unknowingly. In any case, AMORC played a not insignificant
part in my occulturation.
Musing A Little Bit Of Egyptian Magic Right In My Backyard! Rose,
Pitch
