Once-Secretive Rosicrucians Beginning To Open Up

BALTIMORE - Haley Scurlock: Is he proto-New Age man?

White-bearded, wearing a pin-striped suit and speaking in an Oklahoma twang, he led a group of 30 people in the somber, Rosicrucian chant, readying them for serious study:

``Aum ra.

``Ma oom.''

Soon, the diverse audience - elegant, blue-collar, urban, suburban, black, white, young, middle-aged, elderly - gathered at the Bon Secours Spiritual Center here entered a mystical hall of mirrors, where, according to the Hermetic Principle of Correspondence, ``As above, so below. As below, so above.''

As his listeners took notes and cued cassette players, Scurlock elucidated, ``All that is included in the universe - visible and invisible - emanates from the same source and the same laws and principles.''

Once a Baptist preacher, Scurlock had left the ministry by the time his friend Hank Thompson handed him a Rosicrucian tract in 1956 and said, ``Haley, you're ready for this.''

It was ``what I had been looking for all my life. What I'd been looking for in church and didn't find, although this isn't a religion,'' he said. The Rosicrucian Order, known as well as The Ancient, Mystical Order Rosae Crucis, (AMORC) ``helps you find yourself,'' Scurlock said.

Like a cosmic ball of string, the Rosicrucian Order - the fraternal organization's name is derived from the Latin words meaning ``of the red cross'' - has gathered untold layers of arcane knowledge over the centuries.

Binding metaphysics, mysticism, philosophy, psychology, parapsychology and science into one elaborate, interconnected skein of belief, the Rosicrucians seek to reach their highest potential ``on all levels of being: the physical, mental, psychic and spiritual,'' according to their brochure.

Traced to ancient Egypt, adapted by the Hebrews in the esoteric teachings of the Cabala, and later concealed (according to Scurlock) as the first chapter of Genesis to deter the destructive wrath of persecutors, Rosicrucianism is said to have come to light at the beginning of the 17th century. Umberto Eco's best-selling and slow-going novel, ``Foucault's Pendulum,'' delved into some of the more mystical and conspiratorial legends of the Rosicrucians.

Historically, the Rosicrucian Brotherhood is associated with the alchemists of the Middle Ages, who sought to turn base metals into gold. But this endeavor is merely a metaphor for ``transcendental alchemy,'' the ``art of changing and transforming mental states . . . into others, thus changing the conditions of the universe along the lines of matter, force and mind,'' Scurlock said.

The Rosicrucians count Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein, Sir Francis Bacon and Benjamin Franklin among illustrious members. It is said that Manuel Noriega possibly is a Rosicrucian, and Sirhan Sirhan, the assassin of Robert Kennedy, was also said to be involved with the mystical theories of the Rosicrucian Society.

Traditionally secretive, Rosicrucians have entered a period of glasnost, Scurlock likes to say, and the AMORC even runs a correspondence course for members through Rose-Croix University International. This particular sect of the Rosicrucians was started by a New York advertising executive in 1909, and moved to San Jose, Calif., in 1927. The AMORC headquarters there includes the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum and Planetarium, both major tourist attractions.

Recently, Gary Stewart, the Rosicrucian Order's former ``leader-for-life,'' was ousted after being sued for allegedly embezzling more than $3 million from the international organization.

The Rosicrucian Order, AMORC, has about 250,000 members around the world.

After a morning coffee break, Scurlock continued his inventory of the seven Hermetic principles that govern Rosicrucian belief. No. 3: ``Nothing Rests. Everything moves. Everything vibrates.''

This is how telepathy is explained, he said.

The fourth Hermetic principle is the ``principle of polarity.'' Everything is dual, Scurlock said. ``Opposites are identical in nature, but different in degree. All truths are but half truths, all paradoxes may be reconciled.''