Francis Bacon, Godfather of the Scientific Age (5 of 6)
Part 5: The Four Masks of Francis Bacon (1 of 2)
32. Francis Bacon, Third in Succession After Plato
The secret mission of Francis Bacon’s Rosicrucian Fraternity - an order of initiated philosophers, poets, alchemists, and Freemasons - was the same as that of Plato two millennia prior: to “work assiduously and intelligently to bring about in the world a condition under which men might live together toward the fulfillment of their noblest purposes” (Manly P. Hall).
Plato termed this idealized state of world civilization the “Philosophic Empire” ; Bacon would call it the “New Atlantis”.
In both cases, the ideal was the same: to have the leadership classes of society trained in the arts and sciences of philosophy, so that they may work together to bring about a worldwide reformation in human affairs, thereby propelling mankind forward toward the realization of a long-awaited golden age.
In Bacon’s thinking, this golden age represents the culmination point of mankind’s evolutionary growth: a state of accomplishment that Nature is pulling us toward slowly but steadily and inevitably.
Bacon revealed his “new method” of discovery (i.e. the scientific method) in order to catalyze and hasten this natural evolutionary process. He then created the Rosicrucian Order and its various offshoots and branches as mechanisms or instruments through which his method could be implemented and put into action.
Bacon’s connection to Plato is made transparent in a cryptic woodcut that was printed as the frontispiece of the 1640 English edition of his famous book The Advancement and Proficiency of Learning. In this woodcut, reproduced above, we find located on the wall behind Bacon’s portrait an oval plaque stating, in Latin, “the foremost of Philosophers, third (in succession) after Plato.”
Plato was actually not the real name of the famous Greek philosopher. His true birth name was Aristocles; “Plato” was actually an honorary title.
Bacon scholar Peter Dawkins observes that the name “Plato” is likely derived from a Greek source phrase: “ap-Lato”, which means “son of Lato”. In Greek myth, the “son of Lato” is Apollo, the mythic Sun God who personifies enlightenment.
The pupils of Plato’s academy often referred him as their “Apollo”. With Francis Bacon, we find a similar phenomenon: among the intellectual and artistic elite of his Rosicrucian Fraternity, Bacon was often referenced as the “High Chancellor of Parnassus”, Parnassus being the “Mountain of the Muses” ruled over by the gods Apollo and Athena. To the Rosicrucians, Bacon was viewed as a spokesman and agent for Apollo, while Athena, the consort of Apollo, was said to the Bacon’s chief Muse.
If Francis Bacon is indicated as the third successor after the original Plato, as the above plaque suggests, who might be the second?
Peter Dawkins believes that the second reincarnation of Plato, the one preceding Bacon, was Marsilio Ficino, the founder and organizer of the Italian Renaissance. (In my opinion, the first successor to Plato would then likely be either Ammonious Saccas or Plotinus, two of the founders of the Alexandrian School of Neoplatonism, the mystical philosophic successor to Plato’s original Academy, whose works would later be translated and studied in Ficino’s school in Florence.)
Regarding Ficino, Peter Dawkins writes: “Ficino was almost certainly the (previous successor to) Plato about whom the Baconian plaque makes an inference. … Francis Bacon was the next in the line of these great initiates - the third (successor to) Plato - who likewise laid the foundations for the next leap in human consciousness and development, building upon the inheritance left by Ficino, who himself built upon Plato’s work.”
During the Renaissance, Ficino served as the “Merlin” to Cosimo de Medici’s “King Arthur”. Meaning: he served as a wise spiritual councilor to Cosimo, who was the hierarch of the powerful Medici banking dynasty of medieval Florence.
The Medici family provided Ficino with a private estate. Dawkins explains that this estate served as the "central philosophical hub of Europe (during Renaissance). He called it ‘the Academy’ in reverence to Plato. Here, he was known as ‘the new Plato’.”
In his own time, Francis Bacon performed the same role as Ficino: operating out of various estates provided to him by the crown of England, he established a thriving Platonic Academy populated by initiates, philosophers, artisans, and poets.
Like Ficino and the Neoplatonists before him, Francis Bacon founded an institution - the Rosicrucian Order - designed after the original ideal of Plato’s Academy.
His society was rooted in England but had branches that extended east into the European continent and later west into the American colonies.
In Europe, the Rosicrucian Order’s two primary strongholds were in England and Germany. Notably, these two regions were also strongholds of the Protestant Reformation and, during medieval times, epicenters of guild activity.
From his home base in England, Bacon would secretly exert an enormous covert influence on the unfolding trajectory of world society. This is somewhat similar to the role that Ficino played earlier in Florence, where his Academy would exert a considerable influence over the future of western civilization.
Under Bacon’s leadership, the Rosicrucian Brotherhood became the catalyst for the emancipation of Western Civilization, moving it firmly out the Dark Ages, plagued as it was by religious autocracy and political feudalism, and toward a new era, one marked by scientific inquiry, economic globalization, and republican democracy.
In this way, Francis Bacon pursued the same great quest as his predecessors: the realization of Plato’s ideal of the Philosophic Empire. To this grand mission Bacon added a scientific angle, revealing for the first time publicly (albeit in a concealed fashion) the scientific “Art of Discovery” previously utilized by the pagan Mystery Schools to develop their systems of esoteric knowledge.
As Bacon himself tells us, humanity is to use the method he reveals to rediscover for itself the root causes behind natural, human, and celestial phenomena. This is a mission we are to pursue collectively as a race, under the political organization of a democratic commonwealth of nations, lead by philosopher-scientists in the model of Plato’s “philosophic elect”.
33. Lord Bacon’s “Art of Transmission”
Like Plato before him, Francis Bacon was an initiate of the Mystery Schools of his time and place. Also like Plato, he sought to utilize philosophy as a means of creating a new, worldwide Mystery School, one dedicated to the collective initiation of all mankind.
Bacon also imitated Plato by concealing his most profound teachings under the guise of myth, symbol, allegory, and cipher.
On this topic, Manly Hall writes that “examination impresses us with the rather obvious fact that Bacon (like Plato) knew far more than he ever wrote.” Through his writings, we discover that “his books are from a source greater than the man.”
And this man was indeed great. Describing Bacon’s luminous character, Manly Hall writes that “Bacon was endowed with not only an extraordinary mind, but with a peculiar majesty of person. It is often reported of him that his very presence inspired the deepest veneration. He radiated power; power disciplined by reason and brought to the service of a universal vision.”
Summarizing Bacon’s connection to the “wisdom tradition” or “perennial philosophy”, Hall writes that, “through the writings of Bacon, especially those unacknowledged, flow the streams of an old wisdom. Through his pen, Plato, Pythagoras, and the old Greeks found a new release. All knowledge was his province, and especially that secret knowledge of causes.”
In this way, Bacon really was like the second coming of Plato.
Throughout his works, “we catch glimpses of Bacon as the master of magic. … Here is the Cabalist dealing in secret art, the astrologer seeking the mystery of planetary energies, the Alchemist laboring toward the transmutation of the human state.”
Explaining why concealment was necessary to the accomplishment of his grand mission, Hall notes that Bacon “was resolved to lay the footing of a philosophic empire in the world.” This ambitious plan was counter the interests of established powers in the church and state. Thus, his mission impelled “an elaborate program of concealment … against premature discovery.”
Hall continues: “If Bacon believed that he had made certain discoveries out of time, that is, ahead of the maturity of human institutions, he might have concealed these discoveries by use of an ingenious code.”
Here, Hall is alluding to the pragmatic, precautionary rationale behind Bacon’s policy of concealment. This undoubtedly explains at least some of Bacon’s motivations, but there is also another motive behind Bacon’s actions: to lay out a treasure trail of mysteries deliberately designed to draw inquiring minds into a process of intellectual discovery.
In concealing certain key esoteric truths in his writings and in the published works of his secret society, Bacon was merely following the archetypal approach of the Mysteries.
Hall elaborates: “The history of the esoteric tradition, which has descended from remote ages through an order of initiated adepts and disciples, (has always featured) an elaborate pageantry of concealment. This submergence of sublime truths in symbols, fables, and emblems was not motivated by a desire to prevent the spread of knowledge. Rather, the true motive was to prevent its perversion and misuse by the ignorant of that divine magic which is grounded in the knowledge of causes.”
He continues: “the human being must be conditioned ethically, morally, and spiritually before he can be entrusted with the secrets of his own existence. This obvious truth justifies the elaborate machinery of concealment used by the ancient Mystery Schools to prevent the general dissemination of the esoteric tradition. For such a reason as this, Bacon might have … developed an elaborate mechanism to preserve and yet conceal certain discoveries which he regarded as too dangerous to be incorporated in the structure of the Instauratio Magna.”
Peter Dawkins, like Hall, also believes that Francis Bacon, in the transmission of his work, was intentionally following the blueprint of the old Mystery Schools:
“Part of Bacon’s life and work is ‘in the light’ and able to be easily seen, and part of it is ‘in the shadow’, i.e. veiled from immediate sight. … The open aspect is represented by his work known under his personal name of ‘Francis Bacon’. His veiled aspect is signified primarily by his work under the mask of ‘William Shakespeare’, although he had other pseudonyms too" (which we will explore in more detail below).
“This dual openness and secrecy forms the basis of his treasure trail, which is Cabalistic in nature and follows the (initiatory) practices of the schools of the Ancient Wisdom (i.e. the Mystery Schools).”
The main idea behind this Art of Transmission is to reveal knowledge in such a way that it becomes like a treasure trail or game of hide-and-seek. “By discovering what he has hidden, we train ourselves in his Art of Discovery, which we can then use to discover whatever we wish to know” concerning the elements, properties, and laws of Nature.
From these discussions, we begin to appreciate that the method Bacon used for communicating his message and mission - i.e. his “Art of Transmission” - was initiatic by intent.
Peter Dawkins states this clearly: Bacon’s “‘Art of Transmission’ or ‘Method of Discourse’ is what he calls ‘Initiative’”, with he himself serving as “the originating Initiator and Hierophant.”
Bacon describes his use of this initiatic method in his own writings with surprising transparency: “… Indeed this achromatic or enigmatical method was itself used among the ancients, and employed with judgement and discretion. … The intention of it seems to be by obscurity of delivery to exclude the vulgar from the secrets of knowledges, and to admit those only who have either received the interpretation of the enigmas through the hands of teachers, or have wits of such sharpness and discernment as can pierce the veil.”
Bacon, summarizing the entire philosophy of the Mystery Schools in terms of their policy of “occulting” or deliberately concealing esoteric knowledge, writes that: “the Glory of God is to conceal a thing, but the glory of the king is to find it out.”
34. The Four Idols of the Mind
As we covered above, Bacon utilized his “Art of Transmission” - i.e. his cryptic and enigmatic method of revealing information - in order to teach and demonstrate his “Art of Discovery”, which is his scientific method.
At least in part, Bacon’s “Art of Transmission” is based around his attempt to highlight and direct our attention toward four innate cognitive biases that we as humans often fall victim to.
These four fallacies are important to address at the outset, as Bacon’s “Art of Discovery” cannot be successfully applied until they are overcome.
Writing in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Jürgen Klein summarizes Bacon’s overarching perspective on these four cognitive biases or idols of the mind: “According to Bacon, the human mind is not a tabula rasa (or blank slate). Instead of an ideal plane for receiving an image of the world in toto, it is a crooked mirror, on account of implicit distortions (which he terms “idols”). … Consequently, we have to improve our mind - i.e. free it from the idols - before we start any knowledge acquisition.”
Manly Hall explains that an idol is “an image, in this case held in the mind, which receives veneration but is without substance in itself.”
In his own words, Bacon introduces these fallacies or “idols” by writing: “The mind of man is far from the nature of a clear and equal glass, wherein the beams of things should reflect according to their true incidence. Nay, it is rather like an enchanted glass, full of superstition and imposture, if it be not delivered and reduced. For this purpose, let us consider the false appearances that are imposed upon us by the general nature of the mind.”
According to Bacon, the four idols of the Mind are:
Idols of the Tribe;
Idols of the Cave;
Idols of the Marketplace; and
Idols of the Theater
Let’s go through these one by one.
a) Bacon’s first type of mental idol, the Idols of the Tribe, represent, as Manly Hall informs us, “deceptive beliefs inherent in the mind of man and therefore belonging to the whole of the human race. They are abstractions in error arising from common tendencies to exaggeration, distortion, and disproportion.”
Hall gives an example of how this idol works in practice: “Men, gazing at the stars, perceive the order of the world, but are not content merely to contemplate or record that which is seen. They extend their opinions, investing the starry heavens with innumerable imaginary qualities. In a short time, these imaginings gain dignity and are mingled with the facts until the compounds become inseparable.”
b) Idols of the Cave are mental distortions that exist within the subconscious of the individual, with the word “cave” here representing the mind. “The thoughts of the individual roam about in this dark cave and are variously modified by temperament, education, habit, environment, and accident.” (Hall)
To give an example of this idol, consider the individual who dedicates his mind to some particular branch of learning and becomes possessed by it. Because it preoccupies his mind, the person interprets all other learning according to “the colors of his own devotion.” For example, “the chemist sees chemistry in all things.”
Here we find that the symbols and pattern of experiences one encounters take root in the subconscious of the mind (i.e. the “cave”), where they exert an influence the way the mind perceives information in the world.
c) Idols of the Marketplace concern errors arising from the false significance bestowed upon words or symbols.
A Zen Buddhist might term this fallacy “attachment to name and form”. Meanwhile, the Bible teaches us about it through its allegory of the Tower of Babel, which references mankind succumbing to a “confusion of tongues”.
Manly Hall summarizes the main theme of this idol, noting that it primarily concerns semantics and originates in the use of words without attention to their true meaning. "Words often betray their own purpose, obscuring the very thoughts they are designed to express. … Often, words arise as substitutes for thoughts and men think they have won an argument because they have out talked their opponents.”
d) Idols of the Theater are those fallacies built up and justified by undisciplined and unlearned intellectual authorities and traditions, such as those found in the fields of theology, philosophy, and science.
This form of “idol” is one that becomes cemented into a cultural system because of the influence of certain authority groups who advocate for it.
As Manly Hall explains, this type of idol is "defended by learned groups and accepted without question by the masses. When false philosophies have been cultivated and have attained a wide sphere of dominion in the world of the intellect, they are no longer questioned. False superstructures are raised on false foundations, and in the end systems barren of merit parade their grandeur on the stage of the world.”
It was Bacon’s belief that, until these four Idols of the Mind are made visible and conscientiously overcome, his Art of Discovery or scientific method could not be successfully applied.
As Bacon tells us, he offers his scientific method as a means to extricate mankind from its attachment to these fallacies and thus to “begin the whole labor of the mind again”, restoring it its dignity.
In other words, through his Art of Discovery, Bacon seeks to guide us past these idols so that we may perceive more accurately the workings and patterns of Nature, ourselves, and God (the three levels of his Pyramid of Pan). This breakthrough restores to mankind our dignity because, seeing clearly, we are enabled to think and act in a more noble and intelligent manner and thus to become the type of humans we are divinely intended to be.
35. The Four Masks of Francis Bacon
Manly Hall believes that, as part of his Art of Transmission, Francis Bacon leveraged the four cognitive biases outlined above (i.e. the four Idols of the Mind) in order to conceal behind them the secret teachings and mission plan of his esoteric fraternity.
Referencing Bacon’s framework of the four Idols of the Mind, Hall asks “could His Lordship have been referring to certain images or appearances which he himself had set up in different departments of his life?”
If Bacon’s Art of Transmission was intended to be initiatic in nature, then it would make sense that he would utilize a strategy of “tactical concealment”. This he accomplished by means of strategic masks or fronts, behind which he revealed certain knowledge about the beliefs and aims of his society, while at the same time concealing the fact that he was doing so from all but the closest observers.
In his 1946 article “Francis Bacon and His Secret Empire”, Manly Hall lays out three of the strategic masks that Bacon utilized, tying each to one of the Idols of the Mind outlined above.
a) The first mask Bacon utilizes is one that references his concept of the Idols of the Theater. These represent inner symbols or appearances projected out onto the world from the dark recesses of the mind. These, gaining popular support, parade themselves out onto the stage of life, leading men to act out a drama based on their belief in them, treating them as if they were real. Hall wonders if this idol might have been leveraged by Bacon in his organization of the Shakespeare plays, with Bacon using the authorship controversy as means to demonstrate the workings of this Idol in a real-world scenario.
William Shakespeare, the genius poet, is a figment of our imagination; yet we act out a version of life based on a concept of history that treats him as if he were real. In this way, Shakespeare personifies an “idol of the theater”; behind this fictional character is Francis Bacon, who is using him as a mask in order to teach us a lesson.
b) To understand Bacon’s second mask, recall that his concept of the Idols of the Marketplace concerns words and semantics and how these can distract from the comprehension of underlying ideas. Bacon may have used the symbols and rituals of Freemasonry as a means to demonstrate this truth.
The wealth of Masonry is in its symbolism and ritualism, and yet the key to unraveling the esoteric meaning of each has, over the centuries, been lost. Could Masonry’s attachment to its own legacy of symbolism cloud its self-understanding about what the true origins, mission, and purpose of the Fraternity is?
As we’ll be further covering below, modern Masonry (i.e. Freemasonry) was resurrected by Francis Bacon and made into a political and social instrument of his esoteric society. In particular, it provided a covert network though which to organize and implement political and social campaigns across Europe. In this way, it served as a mask for Bacon’s greater Rosicrucian project. Did Bacon conceal this truth from the Masons by hiding the details of his plan behind an elaborate pageantry of symbolism and myth, which the Masons themselves did not possess the key to fully deciphering?
c) Bacon’s third mask is based around the Idols of the Cave, which represent deep-rooted subconscious biasing factors hidden in the recesses of the intellect. In Jungian psychology, these would be called “complexes”; they represent psychic entanglements and blockages held within the subconscious. These prevent the normal, healthy flow of psychic energy within the mind, causing neuroses, disorders, and schisms of various types as a result.
Manly Hall wonders if a secret mission to collectively “open up” these subterranean caverns of the mind was heralded by the launch of the Rosicrucian manifestoes, which tell of the opening up of a mysterious vaulted tomb in which lay sleeping the secret master of an ancient philosophic order.
Could the emergence of the Rosicrucians represent a power from within the collective unconscious (i.e. the cave) breaking through and stating its presence upon the world stage? Did Bacon mask his involvement with this project through the symbolic figure of Father CRC, the sleeping Rosicrucian master?
To Manly Hall’s discussion of these three masks, I add a fourth, one that captures the spirit of Bacon’s Idols of the Tribe.
This fourth idol highlights the existence of persistent fallacies among all members of the race, ones that are so commonplace that they seem to be endemic to humanity as a whole.
If we consider that the persona - the aspect of one’s psyche that one shares with the world - functions as a type of psychological mask, behind which is concealed the inner spiritual soul of the person, then perhaps Bacon utilized his own writings a type of “mask” to conceal his true identity as the guiding light of the Rosicrucian Society.
In particular, we should look to Bacon’s posthumous utopian novel “New Atlantis” as a vital resource, one that, through fable and allegory, conceals important information about the author’s true identity as the Master Adept of the Rosicrucians - their “High Chancellor of Mount Parnassus”.
In the sections below, we’ll consider each of these four masks in detail. Let’s begin by investigating Bacon’s mask of William Shakespeare, his vehicle for symbolizing the Idol of the Theater.
A. The Mask of William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was a Front for Bacon’s Secret Society of Poets
Dozens of books have been written on the topic of the true authorship of the Shakespeare plays. Notable scholars such as Peter Dawkins and Manly P. Hall argue conclusively that the plays were written not by one person (least of all the actor to whom they are popularly attributed) but rather by a secret society of poets and philosophers laboring under the intellectual and spiritual leadership of a grandmaster, Francis Bacon, their “High Chancellor of Parnassus who speaks for the god Apollo.”
Manly P. Hall states it clearly and directly: “William Shakespeare could not have written the plays and sonnets associated with his name. … Bacon was the master poet and deserves the bays now worn by the Stratford actor.”
The historical William Shakespeare was illiterate and uncultured. He did not and could not have written the plays. Instead, he was hired as a conspirator by Bacon and his secret society to lend his name and persona as a front for their covert activities and purposes. Therefore, as Hall explains, “no one ever met the William Shakespeare of the drama. They could not, for he was only an image, a phantom, bred of strategy and destined for intellectual immortality.”
While the historical William Shakespeare - the actor - possessed none of the virtues, talents, or qualifications necessary to be the true author of the works attributed to his name, Francis Bacon clearly possess all three.
Bacon is already the author of a highly impressive and extremely influential body of writings. It is not a stretch to think that the same intellectual giant that produced the Great Instauration could also have, when directed toward the theater, been capable of producing the plays now attributed to the Stratford actor.
Furthermore, it is already widely known and acknowledged that Francis Bacon had an incredible talent for language. As Hall observes, “one writer has said of his literary style that ‘it is quaint, original, abounding in allusions and witticism, and rich, even to gorgeousness, with piled-up analogies and metaphors’.” Furthermore, Hall writes that his personal literary writings “are startlingly reminiscent of the style of the Shakespearean plays, and have given comfort and support to the Baconians.”
Hall also notes that “Bacon’s rare skill in the use of words was recognized by his contemporaries. His friend of many years, Sir Tobias Matthew, penned the following summary: ‘A man so rare in knowledge, of so many several kinds, endowed with the faculty and facility of expressing it all in so elegant and significant, so abundant, and yet so choice and ravishing a way of words. … Perhaps the world hath not seen since it is a world.”
The impressiveness of Bacon’s mind is a testament to the fact that he is a high initiate of the Mysteries. As Hall explains, “Lord Bacon was profoundly versed in the secret learning of antiquity. … There can be no reasonable doubt that Bacon was an initiate of one or more of the Secret Schools then flourishing in Europe. Indications point in the direction of the Troubadours and the Courts of Love. … Through these (sects), Bacon could have established contact with Neoplatonism.”
Manly Hall compares how Bacon utilized Shakespeare as his mouthpiece with how Plato used his former master Socrates in his dialogues, where Socrates was transformed into a mouthpiece for Plato himself, allowing him an outlet through which he could communicate certain timeless truths that he, as an initiate, was barred from saying outright.
Hall writes that “as Plato adapted Socrates to the purposes of his own discourses, speaking his own words through the lips of another, Bacon could have made use of the Stratford actor (in a similar manner). Although Socrates was a real person, the Socrates of the Platonic Dialogues is primarily a symbol. … He is Plato’s shadow, an intellectual fragment set aside in the consciousness of the master to serve a particular purpose. … Now consider Bacon and his inward resolve to shake Minerva’s (i.e. Athena’s) spear in the face of prevailing ignorance. He creates the character of Will Shakespeare, which sounds very much as though it means I will shake the spear.”
He continues: “It is most convenient that a humble member of a theatrical troupe should have a name so remotely similar” to the archetype of Pallas Athena, Bacon’s muse. Realizing the significance of this synchronicity, Bacon and his fraternity purchased the name and services of the historical person, “the agreement being that, for a consideration, the actor would depart from London, leaving a slight but sufficient trail which could be followed to no profit. In the meantime, the ‘society’ who had gathered in London manufactured a new Shakespeare who never existed except in the subtle stuff of mind. This precious mask was vitalized sufficiently to have a public existence, if no private life. His name was appended to works previously published anonymously, and he gathered quite a reputation which increased to the degree that the Stratford actor decreased.”
Pallas Athena, the Spear-Shaker
Earlier we discussed how Bacon and Plato were both associated with Apollo, the Sun God of the Greeks, who symbolizes enlightenment and is the “bestower of universal light.”
In Greek mythology, Apollo’s female counterpart is named Athena. Together, they rule the Muses, he being the “Daystar” of the muses and she the Supreme Muse. Their “double-seat or throne is on the summit of twin-peaked Mount Parnassus, the mountain of the Muses.” (Dawkins)
Plato refers to Athena as the mind or intelligence of Nature; she is therefore one who knows divine things. She is a warrior goddess, brandishing a spear as part of an armed dance where she “shakes her spear” in the face of ignorance.
She also is often depicted wearing a helmet which “is said to render her invisible. Thus she is associated with anonymity or security. But those who discover how can lift her visor or veil to see her face.” (Dawkins)
There are many links connecting Francis Bacon to the authorship of the Shakespeare plays, ones which point to him as the real “shaker of the spear”. One clue is hidden in plain sight: it involves the name of one of his honorary titles: “Baron Verulam of Verulam.”
“Verulam” (as in Baron Verulam) is a compound word, with ‘Veru” being Latin for javelin/spear and “Lam” being old English for ‘shake’, ‘beat’, or ‘strike’. Putting them together, we get “spear-shaker”, the moniker of Pallas Athena and the namesake of the famous plays.
Thus, Shakespeare and Lord Verulam are one and the same person: Francis Bacon. Following the ideal of his muse Athena, he used the plays as part of a greater plan to “shake his spear” in the face of ignorance.
The English Renaissance and the Courts of Love
Peter Dawkins informs us that “Bacon’s mission was to create, with the help of others suited to the task, a magnificent English language and culture”, one that “would be a vehicle for the new avenues of thought and discovery that he wished to encourage.”
Like the ancient Mysteries, he wished to “teach wisdom through entertainment.” This he accomplished by organizing a secret society of poets, which he ruled over as their grandmaster or “high chancellor”.
To accomplish his mission, Bacon drew upon a long tradition of poets, bards, and troubadours.
As Hall informs us, this tradition of illumined artists “operated as a closely organized group or guild and during the middle ages served as the tutors of chivalry to the noble classes. Wandering from castle to castle, they were the “singers of the Mysteries, concealing profound spiritual truths under gay songs, stories, fables, and myths.”
The uppermost degrees of the troubadour guild interfaced with the adepts of the esoteric tradition. Together, they formed a “body of the learned” and were called the “Courts of Love”.
As Manly Hall explains: “Here, under the guise of a most elementary and material passion, they preached the gospel of the divine love of God for man, and the human love which alone could bring Brotherhood to humanity. The Troubadours dedicated impassioned ballads to the fair lady of their hearts. Only the initiates, however, knew that this lady was the Isis of Sais, the Sophia of the Gnosis, and the Diana of the Ephesians.”
Bacon drew the “wits” together in order to continue this noble tradition. Binding them together with a common vision and purpose, he united an “empire of the poets” and through them produced the great Shakespeare works, the Rosicrucian manifestoes, and other key publications and art works of the period.
In this way, “the veiled lady of the Shakespearean sonnets” was the same mistress who captivated the hearts and minds of poets such as Dante centuries prior. She was not a mortal woman, “but the Virgin of the World, the secret Mother of the Mysteries.”
In sum, Bacon, like the Troubadours before him, was utilizing an initiatic approach in the performance of his Art. Like the sages before him, he believed that the powers of the mind and heart must first “be cultivated and disseminated before it is possible to bring about a universal reformation of mankind.”
By following the same initiatic method as his forebears, Bacon sought to draw out these powers within the collective psyche of mankind and bring them into active expression - an important and necessary step in the esoteric school’s grand mission of creating a new golden age - or, as Bacon would call it, a New Atlantis.
Bacon’s Use of Ciphers
There is a further aspect to the Shakespeare enigmas that is worthy of exploration, one that pertains to the existence of ciphers within its original publications, ones that link up with those found in other contemporary publications associated with the Rosicrucian Order (including the first published editions of the King James Bible).
Manly Hall explains that “his Lordship built into his writings an intricate network of codes, ciphers, and clues, which must have multiplied the original labor a thousandfold. There are count ciphers, bi-lateral alphabets, wheel ciphers, kay ciphers, acrostics, and a score of others. … Title pages were designed with secret meanings; vignettes and colophons were variously fashioned, and even the watermarks in the paper were given consideration.”
In the first Shakespeare folio, the Rosicrucian manifestoes, the King James Bible, Bacon’s own publications, and other works associated with the Rosicrucian Order, similar ciphers and codes can be found; all relate back to Bacon.
The fact that these ciphers exist make it clear that Bacon was demonstrating, through the Shakespeare plays and other works, his Art of Transmission. He intentionally seeded these details into these publications in order lay out a treasure trail, one which would inspire later generations of followers to apply his Art of Discovery in order to solve the mystery. In this way, he followed an initiatic method, one meant to guide mankind toward a process of collective awakening.
Bacon’s use of ciphers, masks, and other means of symbolic concealment imitates Mother Nature’s method of communication, which itself is initiatory:
As Manly Hall informs us, “Nature itself is a mass of clues, indications, and intimations leading through long and devious complications to the light of truth. If a cipher is set up, patterned after natural law, whoever solves the cipher solves the mystery of his own existence; one is the symbol of the other.”
Therefore, “the cipher is Bacon’s method - his “Art of Discovery” - the missing key to his reformation of the world.” His is an initiatic approach, revealing to the mind “how nature unfolds toward cause, and how the arts and sciences are in fact themselves ciphers concealing a hidden meaning under circumstances and appearances.”
The key to solving the cipher is “the inductive method, by use of which all riddles in nature may be resolved. … The true reading of the hidden message depends upon patient weighing of evidence and a constant elimination of long treasured nonessentials. The end of the code is the knowledge of hidden causes.”
The World Stage and the Art of Transmission
Francis Bacon devised the Shakespeare enigma as a great mystery play. As such, it served as a representation of his “Art of Transmission”, which imitates the style of the old Mystery Schools with its initiatic intent.
In orchestrating the Shakespeare enigma, Bacon was deliberately looking for a vehicle through which to demonstrate his “Art of Transmission” method upon the collective psyche. In the Stratford actor, he found the perfect mask, one ideally suited to both conceal and reveal his initiatic campaign.
In this campaign, Bacon sought to teach mankind a collective lesson concerning its propensity to fall into infatuation with “idols of the theater”. Bacon’s chosen instrument for enacting this campaign - William Shakespeare and his plays - is one that cleverly disguises Bacon’s secret underlying purposes, masking them behind a literal example of an “idol of the theater”: a role William Shakespeare was custom-designed to play.
To recap, Bacon’s “Idols of the Theater” theory conveys the idea that symbols, concepts, and beliefs can root themselves deep within the human subconscious, where they may remain and persist regardless of their accuracy.
As phantom shadow-ideas that have no existence in reality but which we perpetuate nonetheless within ourselves due to our attachment to them, these “false idols” of the mind take on a phantom-like appearance. We perceive these phantoms as real, and consequently they exert an influence upon us. In relation to them, we act out a self-constructed drama on the stage of life, where “each man in his day plays many parts."
This gets at the main theme of the lesson Bacon is trying to teach us with his mystery play:
The main theme of this Shakespeare project is to teach us that our minds have been lead astray by “idols of the theater”, meaning false constructs, institutionalized beliefs, and bad mental habits.
Having accepted these unrealities as false idols, we allow them to conceal truth from our perception. Instead of reality, we see phantoms projected from our own lack of understanding.
For this problem, Bacon particularly blames the scholastics, sophists, and theologians. In each case, faulty scholarship has been “given the appearance of dignity and respectability by the veneration of the uninformed.” The false idols or ideas perpetuated by these groups become reproduced in the psyche of the public who consumes them, “dazzling the mind with a show of wisdom, but inwardly devoid of fact.”
Hall elaborates: “In quiet meditation on the human plight, Bacon realized that human beings have built up a false existence upon a foundation of sophistry. Behind the pretensions which passed for scholarship was a profound and universal ignorance. It was all front, a comedy of errors, paper palaces where vagabonds played the parts of kings, uttering high-flown phrases, speaking lines that were not their own, and understanding not a whit of what they spoke.”
“Was not the theater then an appropriate symbol of man’s phantom empire of opinions? Nothing real, but giving the appearance of reality; no one important, but the humblest actor seeming to be important if he wore the robes and mask of significance.”
To further illustrate his point, Manly Hall draws a connection in symbolic meaning between Bacon’s “Idols of the Theater” concept and an emblematic device associated with another one of Bacon’s esoteric projects: the Rosicrucian Order.
Hall points out that “the Rosicrucians made use of a curious symbol, the true meaning of which is exceedingly obscure. This figure is a monkey, sometimes represented wearing spectacles and gravely engaged in reading a massive book, which it holds as it sits in the posture of a scholar; sometimes the text of the book is inverted.”
“This monkey is the ‘ape of nature’. The selection of the simian to play this vital role in learning was doubtlessly inspired by the circumstance that the monkey is a sort of caricature of man. There is something human in its antics, and its sober little face seems wrinkled with the burdens of the world. Sometimes the ape is represented gazing attentively and quizzically at its own reflection in a mirror as though doubtful as to the category in nature to which it belongs.”
“Bacon himself associates the ape with the faculty of wit because this little creature is forever engaged in pantomime and mimicry. It seems to be ridiculing the pretensions of mankind. … It is a creature of appearances from which anything can be implied, but all the implications have no meaning beyond appearances. For Bacon, the ape was the appropriate figure to represent scholasticism. … … In old engravings the ape may even wear a scholar’s cap and gown and preside majestically over an assemblage of the intelligentsia.”
Hall points out that the symbolism of the ape ties in closely with the underlying philosophical meaning of Bacon’s Shakespeare cipher:
Idols of the Mind persist when the mind ceases to go far enough inward in its search for explanatory causes. When it attempts to come up with a material explanation of cause for anything in this world, it must immediately move to the contemplation of an idol, since, according to Plato’s doctrine, all causes originate in the immaterial sphere of archetypes and not in the tangible world of material forms.
In this way, “Shakespeare becomes a symbol of the whole world of appearances, the inadequate cause which, if examined, reveals itself to be a phantom.”
There is a great lesson for us in this.
As Manly Hall explains, man, “claiming all knowledge for himself and setting up his own estate as superior to nature, is willfully ignoring the fact that he must forever remain merely the servant of inevitable truths.” These truths are the only reality; all other ideas and concepts we create are phantom idols.
Based on our belief in these phantoms, we act out great theatrical dramas on the world stage. The phantoms we project out become characters in these real world dramas; we interact with them as if they were real persons, when really they are just characters of our own self-construction.
Keeping this lesson in mind, we come to understand that Shakespeare’s comedies and dramas are really great symbols of mankind’s collective state of ignorance, misunderstanding, and self-delusion.
Shakespeare's tales of the rise and fall of empires, families, and personal fortunes are really stories of mankind in ignorance grasping through a maze of self-projected constructs and deceits for the light of true wisdom.
As Hall further elaborates, “Man now beholds his own kind in a variety of dignified states: he is emperor, king, and general; he is scientist, artist, and musician. A few have attained to wealth or gained fame in sciences or letters, but regardless of styles and the fine quality of vestments; in spite of comforts and conveniences and all these civilizing influences which we worship as proofs of our eternal progress; in spite, indeed, of our cloud-capped towers and palaces, the ‘tail still shows’. We still read, or appear to read, the book of Nature, … but sad to say we have not yet discovered that we are (like the ape) holding the book upside down.”
William Shakespeare, Idol of the Theater
Manly Hall suggests that the Shakespeare authorship question, deliberately designed by Bacon as an initiatic mystery, exists quite literally as a tangible example and representation of an Idol of the Theater:
The public perception of Shakespeare as the “cause” behind the plays attributed to him is an archetypal example of how the human mind creates its “idols of the theater”.
At root, the error is derived from the acceptance of a false pattern of cause-effect.
Shakespeare was designed by Bacon as a grand symbol of an “inadequate explanation of cause”. In other words, he designed Shakespeare to serve as a literal example of his “idol of the theater” fallacy.
As Manly Hall explains, through “the intriguing device of the plays, Bacon gives us a valuable lesson in the weighing of evidence concerning the adequacy of causes.”
He writes: “Lord Bacon would tell us that genius, like all other natural phenomena, must originate in adequate causes. There is no exception; where evidence is inconsistent with fact, it is because we have not hitched the effect to its proper cause.”
In the case of the genius Shakespeare plays, we find a perfect example of this fallacy: everyone believes a man named William Shakespeare wrote the plays, yet none of the facts support that hypothesis.
It is actually impossible that the real, historical man by that name wrote those genius works. In truth, the historical Shakespeare was most likely illiterate (and his name was actually spelled “Shakspere”).
For this reason, in William Shakespeare, the famous playwright, we find personified an inadequate explanation of cause. Yet, because of our propensity to perpetuate Idols of the Theater, he remains the popular choice to explain the existence of the plays.
Hall elaborates” “there is neither rhyme nor reason in the man, yet we assume that he gives both rhyme and reason to the plays. Unschooled, he becomes the patron of scholarship; uncultured, he becomes the monument of culture.”
In this way, Shakespeare perfectly embodies an “idol of the mind”: an inadequate cause accepted erroneously as fact. “ By accepting him as the master dramatist, “all the rest is easily explained. There is only one difficulty - Shakespeare himself cannot be explained. Thus, smugness is preserved by ignoring that which conflicts with itself.”
Hall expands further on the idea that Bacon used Shakespeare as a teaching device.
He writes that, by analogy, “Shakespeare can stand for the physical cause of almost any physical phenomena; in fact, he is the proper object for the adoration of all materialists.”
The reason for this is that, like matter itself, “William Shakespeare is an illusion (deliberately) made to appear factual. He is therefore the world itself, the empty substance of a dream, the apex of mortal pessimism.”
Knowing how deep-rooted the Idols of the Theater fallacy is, Bacon presciently knew that the “official” explanation of Shakespeare as the author of the plays would be widely accepted, and thus his Mystery play would maintain and preserve itself long after his death.
On this point, Hall writes that “Bacon had the wit to see the circumstances and know that the human mind, battling to preserve its own status quo, would resort to the convenient concept of an “accident-genius beyond time and place” to explain the plays.
In the case of Shakespeare, the “Idols of the Theater” fallacy works its magic in the following way: “The devout Shakespearean, perturbed by the absence of evidence to sustain his poet, follows the accepted course of manufacturing evidence, his primary objective being to sustain the status quo of the obvious. This is a common practice in all the arts and sciences. The physical and literal foundation must be protected against that sickly mysticism which would go beyond the physical world to search for the causes of physical things.”
To solve this riddle, we are intended to use Bacon’s Discovery method in order to go beyond the mask, thereby moving toward a contemplation of causes. As we do, we inevitably find Bacon as the hidden cause of the project.
Manly Hall tells us that the trail of clues littered about the Shakespeare Mystery point to Bacon and his secret society. And then “through them it ascends along the links of the golden chain which binds earth to heaven.” Therefore, “even when the mind reaches Bacon himself, the end is not attained. Bacon is chancellor of Parnassus, a High Priest in the Temple of the Muses, but behind him is the greater, universal pattern represented by the god Apollo, the principle of Light.”
Thus, the Shakespeare Mystery reveals Bacon as the Master Adept, with the entire spiritual hierarchy residing behind him in support. Together, they labor to manifest the Will of the Creator by teaching man the way of perfect obedience to Nature’s Laws.
To discover this truth is to discover the Cause behind the plays: Bacon’s Shakespeare-themed Mystery play is designed to ultimately lead us to the discovery of this truth.
Ultimately, as Hall tells us, to unravel the riddle of Shakespeare “we should become aware of the riddle of the whole world.”
In other words, by learning to apply Bacon’s Art of Discovery toward the mission of solving the riddle he has presented to us, we learn and practice the method we must later use to solve the mysteries of Mother Nature herself.
To illustrate this point to us is the whole reason behind Bacon’s efforts in regards to the Shakespeare Mystery. He deliberately arranged the whole affair as an initiatory ritual; to solve it, we are intended to use his Art of Discovery, which moves us from an initial contemplation of secondary effect toward a final consideration of First Cause.
B. Bacon’s Second Mask: Rosicrucian Father C.R.C.
Francis Bacon, the Man Behind the Manifestoes
Manly Hall writes that “about the time that Francis Bacon appears to have been masquerading behind his Shakespeare mask, another pseudo-historical personality was attracting wide attention. This other mysterious character has also been traced to Bacon’s doorstep.”
This new elusive character was the mysterious founder of the Rosy Cross. He appears first simply as “our illustrious father, CRC. Later, about 1616, CRC is given the complete name, Christian Rosenkreutz. A rather complete personal history was built for him, but no historical records have ever been found to bear out any part of the story.”
“Wilkins, in his book Mathematical Magic, (gives us a clue to Father CRC’s true identity): he tells us that CRC’s first name was Francis. Robert Burton, meanwhile, in his Anatomy of Melancholy, a curious work of the 17th century, says that CRC was still alive (during his) time.”
Having spent years weighing the evidence, Hall states his conclusion on the matter of the true identity of Father CRC emphatically: “It is my opinion, supported by a sound structure of proof, that the Rosicrucian Society was founded during the opening years of the 17th century by the English statesman and philosopher, Sir Francis Bacon, as part of his plan for a general political reform of the states of Europe.”
Bacon’s Rosicrucian Order was involved in a number of covert activities throughout Europe, one being the externalization of their own existence, which they made known through the anonymous publication of two famous manifestoes, termed Fame and Confession for short. These existed alongside a number of other works attributed either directly or indirectly to the Order.
The first and principal texts of the Rosicrucian Society are the Fame and Confession of the Fraternity of R.C., originally published in 1614. The main theme of these works is to discuss the founding of a secret society or brotherhood dedicated to the mission of world reformation. In these books, the founder of this order is attributed to a mysterious holy person concealing his identity under the initials CRC.
Hall writes that “The Fame and Confession are the only works which may be regarded with reasonable certainty as being the products of whatever original group created or conceived the organization. … The original authors had no intention of giving out any further knowledge.” By implication, Hall indicates that no other publication attributed to the group, nor any modern organization claiming the name “Rosicrucian”, is actually a legitimate direct descendent of the original order.
Through these two foundational manifestoes, published anonymously, Bacon revealed the existence of his Fraternity. And through the character of Father CRC, he revealed himself as the Order’s founder and guiding light.
Johann Valentin Andrea, Another Mask of Francis Bacon
Returning to the topic of the original manifestoes, one finds that, similar to the first Shakespeare folio, the first editions of the Fame and Confession contain subtle ciphers, cryptograms, codes, acrostics, and anagrams: methods of secretly embedding knowledge within a larger text. These, like those found in the first Shakespeare folio, all point to Bacon as the principle author of the texts.
The first two Rosicrucian publications were originally released in Germany and not England, where the Rosicrucian Order was headquartered. This was for strategic reasons: it distracted attention away from the true author and his secret ambitions.
These manifestoes, though originally published anonymously, later became attributed to the German scholar Johann Valentin Andrea, who himself confesses to have written them, but “only as a prank”.
Hall sees this as a cover and not representative of the truth, however. He argues instead that Bacon’s group used Andrea as another one of their masks. He writes: “There is evidence that Bacon made use of Andrea in the furtherance of his secret political and philosophical society. … Using the mask of the respected Andrea to conceal his own purposes, Bacon published his Fame and Confession at a considerable distance from his own homeland because of their treasonable implications.”
When it comes to the Rosicrucian authorship question, we find an enigma: on one hand, the Rosicrucians were, through their use of Andrea, attempting to conceal Bacon’s involvement with the project; but on the other hand, within the text of the manifestoes themselves, there are embedded deliberate clues that point to Bacon as the true author of the works.
For example, Hall tells us that “the principal work of the Rosicrucians, according to their original manifestoes, was the compilation of the Universal Encyclopedia, the book which was to contain all knowledge necessary to the perfection of man and human society.” As it turns out, “this mysterious book M is identical in scope and purpose with Bacon’s Instauratio Magna”, which sought to compile “a universal encyclopedia and compendium of all necessary and useful information”. Notably, Bacon’s outline for the Great Instauration project was published under his own given name.
Because of clues like this, Manly Hall concludes that “the story of CRC as contained in the Fame is almost certainly allegorical.”
Instead of representing an actual person, “Father CRC is the personification of an idea; … (He) is a symbol of the esoteric tradition itself, and an integral part of the doctrine which Bacon is supposed to have created.”
This symbol was "built up to conceal the true living man whose ideas were expressed in the Fame and Confession.” This man was Francis Bacon, who was the literal embodiment of the philosophic ideal that the mythic Father CRC symbolizes in the manifestoes.
Manly Hall provides an interesting anecdote regarding Andrea and Bacon, one that concerns the illustrated portrait of the elder bearded figure featured above.
This image was originally featured in one of Andrea’s later writings as a portrait of himself. But Hall believes this portrait may actually be one of an elder Francis Bacon, who staged his death in England in 1626 in order to continue his secret labors on the mainland continent (in Germany and Holland in particular), passing away finally at a much older age than that which is originally attributed to him.
Building on this theme, Hall suggests that the above portrait of Andrea is actually a concealed picture of Bacon in his eighty-third year.
The Lasting Legacy of Bacon’s Rosicrucian Order
Francis Bacon fulfilled the prophecy originally set out for him by Paracelsus to a tee: he became the Master Alchemist of an invisible, Philosophic Empire ruling over the destiny of man. He gathered the wits, “bound them together, and ruled over them as their Grand Master.” And through them “he bought about certain great visible changes in the state of man.” (MPH)
In this way, Bacon and his “initiates of the Rosy Cross” acted as “an organized body of remarkable persons moving behind the historical scene.” They formed an unseen world-shaping power which catalyzed the dawn of the modern age and the emancipated forms of thinking that have come to characterize it.
Under Bacon’s leadership, the Rosicrucian Society became a powerful hidden agent of transformation within Western Civilization. To this secret order are “attributed a number of the most important philosophical, scientific, and political writings of their time.”
Having accomplished its purpose, the original Society dissolved itself, to live on through its offshoots and offspring.
Once the society had set the wheel in motion in term of accomplishing its mission, the original order disappeared and its mission lived on in its legacy institutions such as Freemasonry.
Hall specifies three legacy institutions left by Bacon’s Rosicrucian Order: one was Freemasonry, "which was to be the vehicle for the ethical reforms which he desired to accomplish. Then, with a group of scholars, Bacon published the Shakespearean plays, which contain the records of his Secret Society. Then, with another phase of his brilliant nature, he established the Royal Society for the purpose of furthering scientific knowledge.”
In addition to these, the Rosicrucian legacy also includes, in a more general sense, “colleges, universities, and learned societies; democracies and commonwealths; and such great documents as the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States.” All “are consequences which resulted from the stimulation bestowed by Bacon’s dynamic personality.”
Each emerges as a secondary effect sprung from a common source cause: the Rosicrucian Order, launched in the early 17th century but with its foundations in Renaissance Italy and before.
The Political and Social Aims of the Rosicrucian Order
The time period when the Rosicrucians first launched their manifestoes was characterized by the twin tyrannies of Church and State, with orthodox religious dogmas dominating the psychology of Europe and various competing monarchies dominating its politics.
During the 15th and 16th centuries, the Renaissance and Reformation emerged as two powerful counterforces moving against these twin tyrannies.
By the end of 16th century, England and Germany had become epicenters for both movements. Not coincidentally, these were the regions where Rosicrucian activity was also most heavily concentrated.
This context allows us to better understand the social and political mission of the Rosicrucians: they formulated and carried out a plot to overthrow these twin tyrannies of church and king and replace them with a new world order, one based upon science and democracy.
As the founder and moving spirit of Rosicrucianism, Bacon, along with a small group of initiates, utilized the Rosicrucian Order as a vehicle through which to catalyze a number of social and political reforms long-desired by the esoteric schools.
As Hall further explains, “these reforms were brought to pass by the motions which Bacon started and have resulted in what we know today as the democratic form of government, the most important political reform in the last thousand years.”
Bacon’s reforms have also resulted in Western Civilization’s move into the scientific age, which Bacon perhaps more than anyone is responsible for bringing about.
In his article “Francis Bacon and His Secret Empire”, Manly Hall outlines the eight primary goals of the Rosicrucian Order. These represent the real mission statement of the order; its true manifesto. Below, I go through them one by one, offering additional commentary to each.
1. The renovation of all human knowledge, with emphasis upon the scientific discovery of causes.
Bacon’s new form of learning - his Art of Discovery or scientific method - is to be dedicated toward the pursuit of knowledge and performed in service philosophic and religious ideals.
Therefore, his is not a science of materialism; rather it is a science illumined from within by a core foundation in mysticism and esoteric philosophy.
In classic initiatic fashion, the core spiritual content of Bacon’s new science is not to be made apparent at first, but rather released gradually as human capacity expands.
Because his framework of science was rooted in the metaphysical cosmology of Plato, Bacon advocated that scientific enterprise be directed not merely toward the classification of material forms and processes but also toward the discovery of the metaphysical causes behind material events.
As Manly Hall informs us, “the Rosicrucians declared that the material arts and sciences were but shadows of the divine wisdom, and that only by penetrating the innermost recesses of Nature could man attain to reality and understanding.”
He we find restated the Platonic doctrine of archetypes. In Bacon’s vision, science’s aim should be to discover these archetypes by first studying how they reveal themselves through Nature. Bacon’s Art of Discovery teaches us precisely how to do this.
2. The restoration of esoteric philosophy and the Mystery School system.
Manly Hall informs us that the Rosicrucians sought to restore the original mystical and philosophical systems of antiquity, which, once utilized, promise to progress humanity toward an enlightened state of mutual understanding and spiritual integrity.
This phase of the program included “a purification of all existing faiths and a restatement of the primitive and universal religion.” This involves “the restoration of the mystical and philosophical theology, and the purification of religions from the errors and fallacies by which the spiritual revelations of ancient times have been deformed.”
The collective “cleansing of the Mind” is to be accomplished by means of Bacon’s scientific method. Using this, we are to dispel mental errors, while incrementally building toward a rediscovery of the sacred science of causes, the knowledge of which once formed the basis of the Mystery School curriculum.
With the coming of Bacon’s Rosicrucian Society, an archetypal institution - the Mysteries - resurfaced under a new name. As Manly Hall explains, through Bacon, “an esoteric order that had existed for many centuries temporarily (resurfaced under) the name ‘Rosicrucian’ and then faded back into total obscurity.”
The original Rosicrucian Society of the 17th century therefore represents “the reappearance of the secret beliefs of antiquity”. Through this order, the old wisdom of the ancients was adapted to the needs of a new generation. It gave the world what it had impatiently been waiting for: “a philosophical program suitable to the extension of human consciousness over the area of Nature.”
Motivated by this ambition, “this small group of scholarly men set to work to organize the great mass of philosophical tradition that had extended from the past, and they drew to themselves isolated intellectuals from practically every country of the world. Bound together by a common brotherhood of purpose, they set to work to reconstruct the pattern of human life from the old landmarks and footings of the philosophical era.”
Sir Francis Bacon was the leader of this esoteric society: he was “a link in that great chain of minds which has perpetuated the secret doctrine of antiquity from its beginning. The Secret Doctrine is concealed in his cryptic writings.”
3. The enlargement and perfection of the arts, by which the power of beauty could be released as a culturing and civilizing force.
This aspect of the Rosicrucian mission was a continuation of the work originally set in motion during the Renaissance, which itself was a progression of the earlier artistic labors of the troubadours, artisans, and masons of medieval times.
The Rosicrucians, while on one hand advocating for science, on the other hand also advocated passionately for the arts. Remember: the arts are featured as Step Four of Bacon’s six-stepped “Art of Discovery” method; art is part of Bacon’s philosophy of science, in other words.
Hall explains why the Rosicrucians felt that art was so important: “creative artists have a special responsibility, whether in music, painting, poetry, architecture, or literature. They are the molders of public opinion and the prophets of new ages. Their vision is the intangible foundation upon which practical men must build tangible structures.”
For the Rosicrucian Order, the Shakespeare plays were an important part of their mission to revamp the arts; later, the operas of Mozart and Wagner would continue their vision. The architectural works of the Masons are another component of this mission. These can be found everywhere the esoteric tradition has taken root, from Paris to London to Washington, DC.
4. The political reformation of states toward a Philosophic Empire.
Bacon shared Plato’s ideal of the Philosophical Empire. This entailed “the abolition of all monarchical forms of government and the substitution therefor of the rulership of the philosophic elect.”
In practical terms, the philosophical empire is to manifest itself as a democratic commonwealth of world nations, with a Mystery School serving as its sociocultural foundation and centerpiece.
In this model, the Mystery Schools become educators of the political, cultural, and intellectual elite of world society, who then carry forth its ideals into the public body. Their mission is to pursue and attain scientific knowledge in order that they may perform better and more useful charitable works for the good of all mankind.
The end of this project is to be “one nation, one people, one faith, and one work. The illusion of competition was to be dispelled by the reality of a magnificent program of cooperation.” As citizens of the World Nation, it becomes "the moral duty of every person to live in harmony as a part of the great human family.”
Here is created “the commonwealth of the wise; one people under the sun, united in holy purpose and dedicated to the attainment of all good things possible to the state of man.” The golden age this philosophic empire is to bring about is one fulfilled through the unselfish and charitable use of scientific knowledge, which is pursued in order that man may “discover all things that are knowable concerning matter, time, and space.”
5. The creation of a permanent organization to perpetuate the long-term mission of the Order.
The Rosicrucians sought to put a machinery in place that would go on pursuing its mission long after the founders of the original order had departed.
Manly Hall explains that the “whole Utopian dream must have a beginning in time as well as an existence in eternity.” In other words: the metaphysical hierarchy of the Mysteries must work through a terrestrial institution in order to complete its mission. Bacon’s Rosicrucian Order provided this institutional vehicle: through it, the Mysteries reincarnated.
Peter Dawkins further elaborates: “Bacon’s real temple is metaphysical, being a temple of the mind, with the Great Instauration being a method of building this temple of light in the mind or soul of mankind. The earthly Salomon’s House (i.e. Rosicrucian Order) is a means of facilitating the building of this soul temple and bringing heaven down to earth, like the New Jerusalem, or of raising old Atlantis out of the flood to become a New Atlantis in the heavens. It works like the Gemini myth, wherein the immortal descends in order that the mortal may be raised.”
As part of his labors, Bacon worked to set up a permanent institutional infrastructure for the Mysteries to incarnate through, one that would survive after he and the original members of his Order had died and disappeared from the world stage.
For this reason, as Hall informs us, “Bacon’s purpose was to create a world within a world, an internal sphere within an external state. This hidden empire should have secret but sufficient substance. It should have laws and secret habitations; it should be populated by a race of creative spirits; and it should survive as a hidden but ever present force until such time as nature could bring forth her Mystery. Thus came into being the Empire of the Concealed Poets” - another name for Bacon’s Rosicrucian Society.
The legacy institution that Bacon’s Empire left behind was one dedicated to humanitarian ideals, devoted to all branches of useful knowledge, and capable of providing a perpetual incentive for human progress. It was further decreed that this society should remain active and dedicated until the completion of the entire Six Days’ Work process is complete.
Manly Hall describes Bacon’s legacy institution as “an inner over-government which, like the spirit of man, could not actually be perceived but which gave purpose to the rest.”
In order for it to safely exist, the principle requirement of this new Mystery School “was that the inner fraternity should remain undiscovered and undiscoverable, and take no obvious part in the intrigues of states.”
Hall continues: “In the course of its development, this (Invisible) Empire not only perfected it owns inner government, but at appropriate times created visible bodies of learning to forward its purposes. These bodies were not necessarily permanent; they were created in moments of emergency, and when they were no longer useful, were dissolved.”
Examples include the Royal Society of England, the first scientific organization set up in Europe, and perhaps also the Freemasons, which at first was closely over-souled by the Rosicrucians, before later becoming separated, as the Rosy Cross moved onward to occupy new vehicles better suited to its evolving needs.
6. The maintenance of whatever degree of secrecy necessary for completion of the project.
This aspect of the Rosicrucian mission was one of self-preservation, “to protect those dedicated to progress from the persecution instigated by reactionaries and from those desiring to enslave men for personal power and profit.”
Hall tells us that it was decreed that “the members of this group should remain unknown, accepting outwardly the laws and customs of the nations in which they live. They should at periodic intervals communicate with each other, but should be revealed to the larger body of society only through their works.”
In this way, this Order was able to exert an unseen but real influence on the trajectory of world events, staging their campaigns at well-timed and targeted moments in order to exert large-scale effects. This is the method historically utilized by the Mystery Schools, which have always exerted an unseen “hidden hand” in guiding the evolutionary unfoldment of collective civilization, driving it always in a progressive forward motion.
7. World reformation was to be accomplished through education and “without such revolutions as endanger the life and property of the private citizen.”
It is the task of the “hidden hand” behind world events to direct how world institutions unfold at a large-scale level.
While this is a powerful position to occupy, it is not all-powerful: the Invisible College does not control how or why the lower castes compete and fight with each other during these evolutionary growth processes; this is their own karma.
The collective in-fighting that mankind experiences is the result of our own unredeemed karma and misguided illusions. These we must work out on our own; it is not the “fault” of the spiritual hierarchy.
It is the duty of the esoteric schools to direct the overall motion of things so that collective events and processes unfold in a certain direction according to a certain timeline. Each person living within these collective events plays out their pre-allotted role at their pre-appointed time, one denominated for them by the gods and revealed through close analysis of their horoscope. These aren’t under the control of Bacon’s society; instead, they pertain to each person’s personal relationship with their own Higher Self.
Bacon and his Rosicrucian Brotherhood believed that ultimately education would be the true vehicle for man’s salvation. Therefore, the principal instrument of their reformation was to be accomplished through the spread of scientific knowledge and the promotion of its use in economic and technological development.
In their thinking, “the wise man cannot be enslaved” and "the ignorant man cannot be freed.” Therefore, there is no salvation for man apart from his own education in right thinking and right living.
For the Rosicrucians, their ideal was that their reformation in education would be a peaceful one, much like how it was for Buddhism’s spread across Asia.
Thus, this reformation “should be orderly and within the boundaries of law, with their particular efforts directed to the reformation of law itself, to the end that human statues should be brought into harmony with the universal laws of life and nature.”
Here, it is notable to point out that Francis Bacon’s career was as a lawyer in the English court, where he worked to accomplish this aspect of the Rosicrucian mission through his re-write and update the Magna Carta, his establishment of the original charters for the Virginia Company and its sister colony in Newfoundland, and through other important modifications to English law that he contributed to.
8. The ultimate goal of the Brotherhood’s labors was to discover and apply all tradition, experience, and knowledge to the task of perfecting the human estate.
Here is restated the philosophic ideal of the ancient Mystery Schools: to discover Nature’s law of evolution and follow it, ensuring its success while hastening its fulfillment.
This ideal designates an end-goal for science: the application of knowledge toward good, charitable, and beautiful works.
These works are to be targeted at the overall improvement of humanity, with the overall Great Work being “the perfect adjustment of human purpose with the divine plan”.
In the symbolism of the Rosicrucian Fraternity, the perfection of the human estate culminates in the “incarnation” of Father CRC.
As Manly Hall explains: “The Fraternity of R.C., through its outer organizations, is gradually creating an environment or body in which the Illustrious Brother C.R.C. may ultimately incarnate and consummate for humanity the vast spiritual and material labors of the Fraternity.”
Since Father CRC represents the Esoteric Doctrine, this means that Bacon’s fraternity was working to put into place a new world order with a Mystery School at its core. Once accomplished, Apollo and Athena will be then enthroned as the patron deities of not just Bacon and the Rosicrucians, but now all of mankind as a whole.
Father CRC: Idol of the Cave
To conclude this discussion of the Rosicrucian Order, let’s return to Bacon’s framework concerning the four Idols of the Mind.
The particular “idol of the mind” that the Rosicrucian Mystery tackles is the idol of the cave. This idol points out the influence that hidden factors within the subconscious have on our perception of reality.
Within the cave of the mind, thoughts bounce around, their trajectory being affected by the unseen objects and protrusions scattered around its dark cavernous interior.
The opening up of the tomb of Father CRC symbolizes the reawakening or resurfacing of certain lost treasures within the cave of the mind.
In terms of the collective psyche, this “breaking through” is associated with the resurfacing of the Mystery Schools: a long-hidden institution reemerging back into public activity.
This is the project Francis Bacon labored to fulfill: to relaunch and announce anew the presence of the Mystery Schools. Both literally and figuratively, he embodied the themes that Father CRC represents in the manifestoes. Bacon is the real Father CRC, in other words.
In more general terms, Father CRC can also be said to represent the Mystery Schools or esoteric tradition as an institution, which Bacon embodied as one of its high initiates.
Using his Art of Transmission, Bacon, a master Alchemist, embedded in his various projects an elaborate treasure trail of clues and hints that together point to him as the mastermind of a grand philosophic project for world reformation, one which was to be carried out through a network of secret societies he worked to establish.
Through use of ciphers and other means, Bacon concealed himself and his esoteric activities behind a maze of clues. In this way, he positioned himself much like Father CRC: awaiting for us to rediscover him in a tomb closed in and protected by a deliberately challenging path of clues, false leads, fronts, masks, ciphers, misdirections, emblems, etc. Once we break through these obstacles, the golden wisdom of this illustrious Father awaits our rediscovery.
In terms of the human psyche, the Rosicrucian allegory concerning Father CRC can take on a second level of meaning. Here, it signifies the breaking through into consciousness of the illuminating power of Self: the chief archetype of the collective unconscious and the divine power behind human life (and all life).
Working through its faithful servant Francis Bacon and the initiates of his Rosicrucian society, the Divine Self restated its presence in an explicit yet enigmatic way to a European civilization that had long been asleep to its presence.
The Rosicrucian manifestoes were wildly popular almost immediately upon release, becoming a topic of great interest and debate among the upper classes of early modern European society. They seem to have stimulated a pre-existing archetype within the collective consciousness of Europe, triggering a deep fascination, curiosity, and sense of hope among the intelligentsia of the day.
The excitement was well-warranted: a secret society dedicated to the reformation of world civilization formally announced itself on the world stage. In actuality, it was the resurfacing of an archetypal institution - the Mystery Schools - whose existence dates back to prehistory but which had for a long period gone dormant in the life of Western Civilization.
Overall, on the topic of Father CRC, the mythic founder of the Rosicrucian Order, we conclude that Sir Francis Bacon, the great adept-initiate prophesied by Paracelsus, was the real Father CRC: the man behind the myth.
This great Adept was entrusted with the task of perpetuating and disseminating the sacred wisdom of the Mystery Schools, while updating it for the requirements of the new cycle of activity mankind had moved into since the collapse of classical civilization.
To fulfill his mission, Bacon formulated the Rosicrucian Fraternity as a modern restatement of the old Mysteries. In this way, he followed in the footsteps of the Templars and Troubadours, who themselves followed the path earlier laid down by Plato.
Like Plato, Bacon advocated for a worldwide Mystery School to be created, one that would be contained within and protected by a worldwide democratic commonwealth of nations. This International Nation was to be ruled over by the philosophic elect and dedicated to the goals of universal education, charitable service, and the pursuit of global enlightenment.
Simply put, Bacon’s secret mission was to revitalize and re-launch the old institution of the Mystery Schools, while also seeding the ground for it to eventually take up residence in its pre-destined homeland: America, which was to serve as the headquarters for this “New Atlantis”.
NOTE: This article will conclude in a separate PART 2, which will be the final article (6 of 6) in this overarching chapter on Francis Bacon.