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Ravalette: The Rosicrucian's Story
This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.
- GenresOccult
280 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 1939
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About the author
Paschal Beverly Randolph
36 books38 followersPaschal Beverly Randolph was a medical doctor and occultist, notable as perhaps the first person to introduce the principles of sex magic to North America, and, according to A.E. Waite, establishing the earliest known Rosicrucian order in the United States.
Randolph died at the age of 49, under disputed circumstances. According to Professor Carl Edwin Lindgren, D.Ed., many questioned the coroner's finding that Randolph died in Toledo from a self-inflicted wound to the head, for many of his writings express his aversion to suicide. The evidence was conflicting. R. Swinburne Clymer, a later Supreme Master of the Fraternitas, stressed that years later in a death-bed confession, a former friend of Randolph conceded that in a state of jealousy and temporary insanity, he had killed Randolph. Randolph was succeeded as Supreme Grand Master of the Fraternitas, and in other titles, by his chosen successor Freeman B. Dowd.
In 1996, the biography Paschal Beverly Randolph: A Nineteenth-Century Black American Spiritualist, Rosicrucian, and Sex Magician by John Patrick Deveney and Franklin Rosemont was published.
(source: wikipedia)
Randolph died at the age of 49, under disputed circumstances. According to Professor Carl Edwin Lindgren, D.Ed., many questioned the coroner's finding that Randolph died in Toledo from a self-inflicted wound to the head, for many of his writings express his aversion to suicide. The evidence was conflicting. R. Swinburne Clymer, a later Supreme Master of the Fraternitas, stressed that years later in a death-bed confession, a former friend of Randolph conceded that in a state of jealousy and temporary insanity, he had killed Randolph. Randolph was succeeded as Supreme Grand Master of the Fraternitas, and in other titles, by his chosen successor Freeman B. Dowd.
In 1996, the biography Paschal Beverly Randolph: A Nineteenth-Century Black American Spiritualist, Rosicrucian, and Sex Magician by John Patrick Deveney and Franklin Rosemont was published.
(source: wikipedia)
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
June 22, 2015
This short novel, though written in a rather dated style of English, is an excellent example of the genre of 'occult novel': not particularly notable for a well-honed plot, always seeming to be on the verge of becoming a shaggy-dog story, yet filled with mysterious atmosphere and compelling imagery.
Ravalette certainly paved the way for similar kinds of novels written in the 20th Century like the work of Gustav Meyrinck and some of the fiction of Aleister Crowley. It's also worth mentioning that many of the events that occur in Ravalette seem to be thinly disguised events that happened in Randolph's life, though it's unclear just how much of Ravalette is actually autobiographical.
Ravalette certainly paved the way for similar kinds of novels written in the 20th Century like the work of Gustav Meyrinck and some of the fiction of Aleister Crowley. It's also worth mentioning that many of the events that occur in Ravalette seem to be thinly disguised events that happened in Randolph's life, though it's unclear just how much of Ravalette is actually autobiographical.
May 24, 2024
A 19th CENTURY PRESENTATION OF SOME ASPECTS OF THE ROSICRUCIANS
Paschal Beverly Randolph (1825-1875) was a free black man who was a medical doctor, occultist, spiritualist, trance medium, and writer, who established the earliest known Rosicrucian order in the United States.
He wrote in the Introduction to this 1863 book, “In presenting this book to the world, no one can be more alive to the fact that this is the latter third of the nineteenth century; that the present is, emphatically, the era of grandest Utilitarianism, Revolution, matter-of-fact, wild, credulous Belief, yet one of the most intense and stubborn Doubt that the world ever knew---than is the writer of the following extraordinary tale… The writer has no apologies to make, no excuses to offer, for daring to open a new field in the world of letters… The grand inquiry in the author’s mind was: Is there such a thing as absolute, actual, unmistakable---Magic, such as we read of in sacred and also in profane history?---not the ordinary … [thing] vulgarly called Magic in these days; but the real, old, mysterious thing whereof we read in old black-letter tomes… I here disavow all intention to deride TRUE psychical phenomena, if such there be; nor do I question the transmundane life of man---for the belief in Immortality is a part of my very being… I repeat the question… Is it possible to break through the awful barrier---to glimpse through the Night-Curtain that screens and shrouds us from the Phantom-World?... Can we know it? Can we by any possibility scan its secrets?”
The narrator explains to his audience, “A bad man cannot become a true Rosicrucian, although men have turned their arms against the race, and the secrets of the fraternity, like all things else, have been trifled with an abused. Thus it is possible for an expert to cure a diseased man by the exercise of the power alluded to. But the rule is dual: it is also possible to kill a healthy man by the same mysterious means, and indeed it has often been done, especially by the natives of Africa.” (Pg. 119-120)
He observes, “All Rosicrucians are practical men who believe in Progress, Law and Order, and in Self-development. They believe firmly that God helps those that help themselves; and they consequently adopt as the motto of the Order the word TRY, and they believe that this little world of three letters may become a magnificent bridge over which a man may travel from Bad to Better and from Better to Best---from ignorance to knowledge, from poverty to wealth and from weakness to power.” (Pg. 132)
He continues, “Every Rosicrucian is known and is the sworn brother of every other Rosicrucian the world over, and as such is bound to render all possible aid and comfort (except when such aid would sanction crime or wrongdoing, or interfere with the demands of public justice, social order, decency, sound morals or National prosperity and unity). In all things else every Rosicrucian is bound to help another, so long as he can do it with a clear conscience and not violate his honor, derogate from his personal dignity or sully his own manhood.” (Pg. 133)
He notes, “We Rosicrucians are proud of our eminence---and justly so---for we are a BROTHERHOOD OF MEN! And recognize MANHOOD as the true kingship; hence we honor that man highest who knows the most and puts his knowledge to the highest and noblest uses, not only toward his brothers, but in any field in the world’s great garden, for are not we all brethren? Does not the one great God rule over and love us? Even so!” (Pg. 136)
He asserts, “All Religious systems in the world, outside of the Christian, will gravitate toward, and finally be wholly absorbed by it; and while this is taking place there will be a quiet revolution occurring in that system itself; Catholicism, modified and divested of certain objectionable features, will become the right wing and conservative portion of the Religion of the entire world, while the radical portion of that Church, and of all other churches, will secede, rear the standard of Free Thought, proclaim the Religion of Reason, espouse the Reformatory men and principles of the age, declare itself a Positive, Eclectic and Progressive Faith, abjuring the doctrines of Original Sin, the Adamic, Mosaic, Hebraic Atonement theories, and everything affirmative of Miracle, Final Judgment, and a Hell. This party will be in a minority, and the left wing of the grand Religious systems of the world… the grand army will constantly crowd the left and occupy the ground, while the latter will as constantly move on toward new fields, as new ideas are developed and seen.” (Pg. 261)
He explains, “The legend of the Rosy Cross was built upon the life and work of Paracelsus, who was in fact the Christian Rosenkreuz of that legend... He was born in 1490 and died in 1541. Paracelsus has the distinction of having been the first known actual ‘non-conformist,’ because he could not, and would not, confirm his teachings or practices of Religion, Statecraft and Medicine to the evil practices of the day. Naturally, he came into conflict with the entrenched leaders, but would not deviate one iota from the path set by himself.” (Pg. 276)
He says in an Addendum, “Basically, the work of the Fraternity of the Rosicrucians---the Randolph Foundation---a continuation of the original Fraternity, is to teach mankind the principles of a spiritual science, applicable to all the affairs of life and free from creed and dogma, based upon the Law as taught in higher Occult Science of the past and present age. The Fraternity does NOT condemn formal religion, and an aspirant is not encouraged to sever his former connection with religious institutions, unless their teachings conflict with the Freedom of Man or oppose the Brotherhood of Man.” (Pg. 284)
This book will mostly interest those studying the historical development of Rosicrucian ideas and organizations.
Paschal Beverly Randolph (1825-1875) was a free black man who was a medical doctor, occultist, spiritualist, trance medium, and writer, who established the earliest known Rosicrucian order in the United States.
He wrote in the Introduction to this 1863 book, “In presenting this book to the world, no one can be more alive to the fact that this is the latter third of the nineteenth century; that the present is, emphatically, the era of grandest Utilitarianism, Revolution, matter-of-fact, wild, credulous Belief, yet one of the most intense and stubborn Doubt that the world ever knew---than is the writer of the following extraordinary tale… The writer has no apologies to make, no excuses to offer, for daring to open a new field in the world of letters… The grand inquiry in the author’s mind was: Is there such a thing as absolute, actual, unmistakable---Magic, such as we read of in sacred and also in profane history?---not the ordinary … [thing] vulgarly called Magic in these days; but the real, old, mysterious thing whereof we read in old black-letter tomes… I here disavow all intention to deride TRUE psychical phenomena, if such there be; nor do I question the transmundane life of man---for the belief in Immortality is a part of my very being… I repeat the question… Is it possible to break through the awful barrier---to glimpse through the Night-Curtain that screens and shrouds us from the Phantom-World?... Can we know it? Can we by any possibility scan its secrets?”
The narrator explains to his audience, “A bad man cannot become a true Rosicrucian, although men have turned their arms against the race, and the secrets of the fraternity, like all things else, have been trifled with an abused. Thus it is possible for an expert to cure a diseased man by the exercise of the power alluded to. But the rule is dual: it is also possible to kill a healthy man by the same mysterious means, and indeed it has often been done, especially by the natives of Africa.” (Pg. 119-120)
He observes, “All Rosicrucians are practical men who believe in Progress, Law and Order, and in Self-development. They believe firmly that God helps those that help themselves; and they consequently adopt as the motto of the Order the word TRY, and they believe that this little world of three letters may become a magnificent bridge over which a man may travel from Bad to Better and from Better to Best---from ignorance to knowledge, from poverty to wealth and from weakness to power.” (Pg. 132)
He continues, “Every Rosicrucian is known and is the sworn brother of every other Rosicrucian the world over, and as such is bound to render all possible aid and comfort (except when such aid would sanction crime or wrongdoing, or interfere with the demands of public justice, social order, decency, sound morals or National prosperity and unity). In all things else every Rosicrucian is bound to help another, so long as he can do it with a clear conscience and not violate his honor, derogate from his personal dignity or sully his own manhood.” (Pg. 133)
He notes, “We Rosicrucians are proud of our eminence---and justly so---for we are a BROTHERHOOD OF MEN! And recognize MANHOOD as the true kingship; hence we honor that man highest who knows the most and puts his knowledge to the highest and noblest uses, not only toward his brothers, but in any field in the world’s great garden, for are not we all brethren? Does not the one great God rule over and love us? Even so!” (Pg. 136)
He asserts, “All Religious systems in the world, outside of the Christian, will gravitate toward, and finally be wholly absorbed by it; and while this is taking place there will be a quiet revolution occurring in that system itself; Catholicism, modified and divested of certain objectionable features, will become the right wing and conservative portion of the Religion of the entire world, while the radical portion of that Church, and of all other churches, will secede, rear the standard of Free Thought, proclaim the Religion of Reason, espouse the Reformatory men and principles of the age, declare itself a Positive, Eclectic and Progressive Faith, abjuring the doctrines of Original Sin, the Adamic, Mosaic, Hebraic Atonement theories, and everything affirmative of Miracle, Final Judgment, and a Hell. This party will be in a minority, and the left wing of the grand Religious systems of the world… the grand army will constantly crowd the left and occupy the ground, while the latter will as constantly move on toward new fields, as new ideas are developed and seen.” (Pg. 261)
He explains, “The legend of the Rosy Cross was built upon the life and work of Paracelsus, who was in fact the Christian Rosenkreuz of that legend... He was born in 1490 and died in 1541. Paracelsus has the distinction of having been the first known actual ‘non-conformist,’ because he could not, and would not, confirm his teachings or practices of Religion, Statecraft and Medicine to the evil practices of the day. Naturally, he came into conflict with the entrenched leaders, but would not deviate one iota from the path set by himself.” (Pg. 276)
He says in an Addendum, “Basically, the work of the Fraternity of the Rosicrucians---the Randolph Foundation---a continuation of the original Fraternity, is to teach mankind the principles of a spiritual science, applicable to all the affairs of life and free from creed and dogma, based upon the Law as taught in higher Occult Science of the past and present age. The Fraternity does NOT condemn formal religion, and an aspirant is not encouraged to sever his former connection with religious institutions, unless their teachings conflict with the Freedom of Man or oppose the Brotherhood of Man.” (Pg. 284)
This book will mostly interest those studying the historical development of Rosicrucian ideas and organizations.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews