Deconstructing Satan

Deconstructing Satan: Sympathy for the Devil

     Before there was a Jesus turning over the moneychangers’ tables, there was a Serpent encouraging Adam and Eve to break God's only law. Most people are introduced to the image of Satan before they ever read about him. The image presented is a red-devil with horns, who carries a pitchfork. And often this image is seen flying above a person's shoulder whispering sinful thoughts into the unsuspecting ear. However, none of these images are quite consistent with the Bible's descriptions.

     In Genesis, the character often portrayed as the devil is a talking snake. The Hebrew for “snake” is Nachash, and it is also associated with divination, including the verb-form meaning to practice divination or fortune-telling.104 Another interesting description is God's curse placed on the Serpent. God condemns Satan to crawl on his belly and eat dust. He vows to make enemies of the offspring of the serpent and woman; and that the children will strike the head of the serpent's offspring, and they will strike the heel of the children. The Serpent is another mushroom riddle.

     The dried cap of the mushroom can resemble snakeskin. Also, snakes can be poisonous, as well as harmless. The next clue is the word nachash. When used as a verb it means to practice divination and fortune telling. Also the serpent is the wisest of all animals. The mushroom grows out of soil, and appears to eat dust for food; technically it does! Consider the notion that God taught mankind to fear and loath the mushroom as deathly poisonous so that children will stomp them when they see them. (At least I used to because I was told they were poisonous, and I thought I was doing the world a favor) Also, there is the image of a snake with fruit in its mouth to create the icon a stipe and mushroom cap. Last, consider the notion that the mushroom inspired Eve to rebel against God's only commandment.

     Satan comes from the Hebrew and “is a noun from a verb meaning primarily to, “obstruct, oppose,” as it is found in Numbers 22:22, 1 Samuel 29:4, Psalms 109:6.”105 Later in the Bible, Job chapters 1-2, the article ha- is placed in front of satan creating Ha-Satan, or the Satan, or the Adversary.106 This is Satan who appears at God's court and offers to test Lot. God uses Satan to test his most loyal servant,Job. God asks Satan where he has been and Satan replies, “From roaming through the earth, and going back and forth in it” (Job 1:7). When questioned about the loyalty of God's servant Job, Satan replies it is only because God protects him that Job is so loyal. God grants Satan to authority to test him. Satan puts him through horrible circumstances in order to prove to God Job will curse him to his face. In this way Satan is used by God to test his servant, and is not motivated by his own volition. Satan merely acts to oppose or obstruct one's faith.

     The Serpent is the first Christ figure in the Bible. He pointed out that God lied, and encouraged Adam and Eve to eat the fruit of knowledge. Not much different than Jesus pointing fingers at the Elders of Zion and saying, “Think not that I bring peace; but fire, sword and war.” They both encouraged people to break commandments, yet Jesus is crucified, while Satan is merely cursed. If Jesus and the Serpent were one and the same, then the variable, which would make it true, is that they are both deifications of theAmanita muscaria mushroom.

     The mushroom intoxication has the ability to change a person's mind. And that changed mind has the ability to change another person's mind through language. For example, the Serpent who knows the truth, tells Eve the truth about the fruit. She eats it, experiences the intoxication, and shares it with her husband. Following the experience, Adam and Eve made clothes, and developed a fear of what they used to love—God. There is a reversal of perception of authority and it inspires a challenge to it; Satan challenged Heaven, Moses challenged Egypt, Jesus challenged Israel and Rome. Therefore, it is quite clear that mushrooms have the ability to destroy nations built on words; and that denying your populations access to mushrooms creates the very empires they can destroy.

Thomas Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow and the Ouroboros

 

Thomas Pynchon's in a Paragraph - Gravity's Rainbow

Thomas Pynchon is often associated with themes of conspiracy, synchronicity, royal bloodlines, and entropy- at least those are some of the major themes I have encountered in his work.  While it may not be fair to sum up a man's work in just a paragraph, one such keystone passage exists; and if you could just read one paragraph, a microcosm of his multiverse, and get the idea of what Pynchon is all about- wouldn't you?  ON page 412, of my Penguin Classic edition of Gravity's Rainbow:

“Kekulé dreams the Great Serpent holding its own tail in its mouth, the dreaming Serpent which surrounds the World. But the meanness, the cynicism with which this dream is to be used. The Serpent that announces, "The World is a closed thing, cyclical, resonant, eternally-returning," is to be delivered into a system whose only aim is to violate the Cycle. Taking and not giving back, demanding that "productivity" and "earnings" keep on increasing with time, the System removing from the rest of the World these vast quantities of energy to keep its own tiny desperate fraction showing a profit: and not only most of humanity—most of the World, animal, vegetable, and mineral, is laid waste in the process. The System may or may not understand that it's only buying time. And that time is an artificial resource to begin with, of no value to anyone or anything but the System, which must sooner or later crash to its death, when its addiction to energy has become more than the rest of the World can supply, dragging with it innocent souls all along the chain of life. Living inside the System is like riding across the country in a bus driven by a maniac bent on suicide . . . though he's amiable enough, keeps cracking jokes back through the loudspeaker . . .”

The above passage from the paragraph describes a dream of the Ouroboros had by August Kekule, as imagined by Pynchon. Kekule is credited with discovering the benzene hydrocarbon structure, and here is a short story of his relation to the Ouroboros and how it influenced him.

Physicist Hans von Baeyer tells a strange story about the benzene molecule. It begins in 1850 with a young architecture student, Friedrich Kekule, testifying before a grand jury in Giessen, Germany. The charred body of a neighbor lady had been found in her room. People thought she'd been the victim of spontaneous combustion, brought on by drinking too much liquor.

The great chemist Justus von Liebig testified at the trial. He made it quite clear that the lady would have died long before she'd drunk enough alcohol to make her flammable. Then Kekule's testimony incriminated a servant who'd been stealing from the lady. He identified her distinctive ring, which turned up in the servant's possession. Together, Liebig's and Kekule's testimony convicted the scoundrel of murdering the lady.

The trial left its mark on the young Kekule. He gave up architecture and took up the study of chemistry with Liebig. The lady's odd ring also lingered in Kekule's mind -- it had carried the old alchemy seal of two intertwined serpents biting each other's tail. 

Fifteen years later, Kekule worked with Liebig on a new chemical called benzene. Logic dictated that it must be an arrangement of six carbon, and six hydrogen, atoms. But how could you arrange such a molecule without violating the rules of chemical valence? It didn't seem possible. 

Kekule dozed in his chair by the fire, trying to solve the riddle. As he nodded, he dreamt of the twining serpents on that old ring, whirling in the flames. Suddenly, in the dream, the serpents caught each other's tail and formed a circle. Kekule saw the answer. The carbon atoms formed an hexagonal ring with alternating single and double bonds. Each one held its own hydrogen atom -- "like charms on a bracelet," says von Baeyer. It was a structure utterly alien to anything else in chemistry.

http://www.uh.edu/engines/epi265.htm

Justus von Liebig is considered to be the father of modern organic chemistry, and it is from him that Kekule derives his inspiration.  From Wiki:

Justus Freiherr von Liebig^[2] (12 May 1803 – 18 April 1873) was a German chemist who made major contributions to agricultural and biologicalchemistry, and was considered the founder of organic chemistry.^[3] As a professor at the University of Giessen, he devised the modern laboratory-oriented teaching method, and for such innovations, he is regarded one of the greatest chemistry teachers of all time.^[4] He is considered the "father of the fertilizer industry" for his emphasis on nitrogen and certain minerals as essential plant nutrients, and his formulation of the Law of the Minimum which described the effect of individual nutrients on crops.^[5] He also developed a manufacturing process for beef extracts, and founded a company, Liebig Extract of Meat Company, that later trademarked the Oxo brand beef bouillon cube.

More on this later in part two. I will connect the idea of the Ouroboros and a later quote in the second part of the paragraph which relates to the Phoenix.  Cheers.

     

Was Dracula a mushroom eater?

Was Dracula a Mushroom eater?

Connecting some dots

The other day there was an article about researchers finding Vlad the Impaler's, or Dracula's tomb. And I saw some things that got me thinking.

http://news.discovery.com/history/draculas-tomb-found-in-italy-er-not-really-140617.htm

      I noticed that Vlad was a secret society member, know as Order of the Dragon. The order was based on protecting Christianity: and they wore an emblem with the Ouroboros on it.  Consider that the Order of the Dragon was created to resists the Ottoman Empire's expansion into Europe. 

The Order of the Dragon (Latin: Societas Draconistarum, lit. "Society of the Dragonists") was a monarchical chivalric order for selected nobility,^[1]founded in 1408 by Sigismund, King of Hungary (r. 1387–1437) and later Holy Roman Emperor (r. 1433–1437). It was fashioned after the military ordersof the Crusades, requiring its initiates to defend the cross and fight the enemies of Christianity, in particular the Ottoman Turks.

The main  goal of the society was to:

 to crush the pernicious deeds of the same perfidious Enemy, and of the followers of the ancient Dragon, and (as one would expect) of the pagan knights, schismatics, and other nations of the Orthodox faith, and those envious of the Cross of Christ, and of our kingdoms, and of his holy and saving religion of faith, under the banner of the triumphant Cross of Christ.. Wikipedia 

When we consider the what Dracula means:

Historically, the name "Dracula" is derived from a Chivalric order called the Order of the Dragon, founded by Sigismund of Luxembourg (then king ofHungary) to uphold Christianity and defend the Empire against the Ottoman Turks. Vlad II Dracul, father of Vlad III, was admitted to the order around 1431, after which Vlad II wore the emblem of the order and later, as ruler of Wallachia, his coinage bore the dragon symbol. The name Dracula means "Son of Dracul".

     While Bram Stroker's novel Dracula is loosely based on the real life character of Vlad the Impaler, it is just that loosely based.  For instance it leaves out the part that Vlad was taken prisoner, and while imprisoned, his father and brother were killed by their fellow noblemen; thus, setting the stage for the young Vlad to avenge their deaths, and wage a bloody war against the Ottoman Empire.  I am not saying the guy was not brutal, just that he had an ax to grind.

Consider the following portrait of Vlad, and notice the red and white motif of his outfit.

Vlad

The red and white cap is similar to mitres or hats worn by popes, bishops, and Santa Claus.

The red and white cap of Santa and the Roman Catholic church has been associated with the mushroom Amanita muscaria.  And in addition to the red and white cap pictured on Vlad, was the emblem worn by the order, the Ouroboros:

The Ouroboros was an ancient symbol, going al the way back to Ancient Greece, where Plato mentions it.

The Ouroboros or Uroboros (/jʊərɵˈbɒrəs/; /ɔːˈrɒbɔrəs/, from the Greek οὐροβόρος ὄφις tail-devouring snake) is an ancient symbol depicting a serpentor dragon eating its own tail.

The Ouroboros often symbolizes self-reflexivity or cyclicality, especially in the sense of something constantly re-creating itself, the eternal return, and other things such as the phoenix which operate in cycles that begin anew as soon as they end. It can also represent the idea of primordial unity related to something existing in or persisting from the beginning with such force or qualities it cannot be extinguished. While first emerging in Ancient Egypt, the Ouroboros has been important in religious and mythological symbolism, but has also been frequently used in alchemical illustrations, where it symbolizes the circular nature of the alchemist's opus. It is also often associated with Gnosticism, and Hermeticism. Wikipedia 

Consider that Plato suggested that it was the first living thing, and it was circular:

Plato described a self-eating, circular being as the first living thing—the universe as an immortal, mythologically constructed entity.

The living being had no need of eyes because there was nothing outside of him to be seen; nor of ears because there was nothing to be heard; and there was no surrounding atmosphere to be breathed; nor would there have been any use of organs by the help of which he might receive his food or get rid of what he had already digested, since there was nothing which went from him or came into him: for there was nothing beside him. Of design he created thus; his own waste providing his own food, and all that he did or suffered taking place in and by himself. For the Creator conceived that a being which was self-sufficient would be far more excellent than one which lacked anything; and, as he had no need to take anything or defend himself against any one, the Creator did not think it necessary to bestow upon him hands: nor had he any need of feet, nor of the whole apparatus of walking; but the movement suited to his spherical form which was designed by him, being of all the seven that which is most appropriate to mind and intelligence; and he was made to move in the same manner and on the same spot, within his own limits revolving in a circle. All the other six motions were taken away from him, and he was made not to partake of their deviations. And as this circular movement required no feet, the universe was created without legs and without feet.^{[6][7] Wikipedia}

And again it appears in the Middle-ages via Order of the Dragon, and the mystical art of alchemy.

In alchemy, it represents the spirit of Mercury (the substance that permeates all matter), and symbolizes continuous renewal (a snake is often a symbol of resurrection, as it appears to be continually reborn as it sheds its skin.), the cycle of life and death, and harmony of opposites. As a symbol of the eternal unity of all things, the cycle of birth and death from which the alchemist sought release and liberation. It unites opposites: the conscious and unconscious mind. Alchemically, the ouroboros is also used as a purifying glyph. http://www.tokenrock.com/explain-ouroboros-70.html

     So this one symbol which goes all the way back to Ancient Egypt and continues through the Middle ages has been identified by many researchers: Jan Irving, Clark Heinrich, myself,  as the mushroom Amanita muscaria. Amanita muscaria mushrooms have a mycorrhizal relationship with pine trees, and can be found among the fallen brown pine needles.  The mushroom itself is bright red, perhaps appearing as if on fire; Moses and the Burning Bush.  Then as the elements take their toll on the mushroom, it disintegrates back into the pine needles and resembles ash, as if something had burned there.  And later when conditions are right, the mushroom will grow back in the same spot, repeating the cycle.

 So I was just thinking that maybe the blood that Vlad drank was just another allegory for his ritualistic use of the mushroom. I realize this is a stretch , but stranger things have proven to be true.

Mushrooms cure depression and stimulate the growth of new brain cells

According to research from the University of South Florida, psilocybin, the active component within psychedelic mushrooms, is able to grow new brain cells—potentially offering treatment for mental illness and improving cognition.

The study, published in Experimental Brain Research, says psilocybin is able to bind to special receptors in the brain that stimulate healing and growth. In the case of these mushrooms, brain cell growth occurs. In mice, the researchers found psilocybin to actually help repair damaged brain cells and cure or relieve PTSD and depression.

Read more: http://naturalsociety.com/research-suggests-psychedelic-mushrooms-offer-valuable-brain-treatments/#ixzz5PWR7r54U 
Follow us: @naturalsociety on Twitter | NaturalSociety on Facebook

William Blake's Tiger, Tiger (the alchemical mushroom symbol)

I am the true green and Golden Lion without cares,


In me all the secrets of the Philosophers are hidden. 

Rosarium Philosophorum or 

Rosary of the Philosophers, Book 5

In alchemy the lion, the "royal" beast, is a synonym for Mercurius, or, to be more accurate, for a stage in his transformation. He is the warm-blooded form of the devouring, predatory monster who first appears as the dragon. Usually the lion-form succeeds the dragon's death and eventual dismemberment. Carl Jung (Fabricius 1976, p. 295).[1]

Medieval alchemy used animal symbols including: the eagle, dove, snake, salamander, raven, unicorn, and lion.  Ultimately they were all symbols for the Amanita muscaria mushroom.  Many alchemists would copy each other’s work, and change the symbols to their own.  William Blake continued this tradition when he substituted the tiger for the lion.  Tigers and lions are very similar animals, with the exception of their coloring.  Furthermore, when one compares the artistic lions of alchemy, with Blake’s tiger it is apparent that Blake is working with an alchemical model, not a real tiger.

Consider the following illustration of an lion from ----, then compare it to Blake's tiger below:

Many interpretations have been offered up as to the meaning of The Tiger, but unless viewed from an alchemical perspective, one will never uncover Blake's linguistic veil.  Consider the first stanza:

TIGER, tiger, burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

The image of an orange and black tiger could resemble something on fire, hence the amanita muscaria, or burning bush.  From a symmetrical standpoint, a tiger's pattern is not exactly symmetrical, and nowhere in Blake's art does he portray the tiger as symmetrical. However, the gills beneath an amanita cap creates a striped pattern.  Consider the following example:

The next stanza :

In what distant deeps or skies
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?      7
What the hand dare seize the fire?

Lines 7 mentions wings, and these wings have two interpretations relating to the mushroom.  First is the cross section of a mushroom, which resembles a bird in flight, often depicted as the eagle or raven, or dragon. Notice in the image below, the eagle's wings are like a mushrooms spread open cap.

The next part of the wings, relates to getting high, or going to heaven.  The mushroom is the vehicle which takes the user to this other worldly consciousness.  Line 8 asks which hand dare to seize the fire, and the fire is is also reference to the red-capped mushroom.  Who would grab the tiger, or who would pick the mushroom?

     Stanzas three and four ask rhetorical questions to the creator of the tiger.  In stanza three, the persona of the poem asks who's shoulders and by what art constructed the heart of the tiger.  The speaker goes on to ask an awkward questions of what dread hand and what dread feet.  However, if one look's a Blake's notebook, he originally completes the thought of line 12.  Consider stanza three, with Blake's struck-out notebook version of the original stanza four (italicized), with the published:

stanza 3

And what shoulder and what art  

Could twist the sinews of thy heart?  

And when thy heart began to beat,  

What dread hand & what dread feet?

notebook -stanza 4

Could fetch it from the furnace deep

and in thy horrid ribs dare steep

In the well of sanguine woe

Published - stanza 4

What the hammer? what the chain?  

In what furnace was thy brain?  

What the anvil? What dread grasp   

Dare its deadly terrors clasp?

From reading the original, it is apparent the third stanza is asking what hand could take the heart of the lion from the depths of a furnace; and allow for it to "steep" into the horrid ribs; the well of blood red woe.  Meanwhile we can see that the published version of the poem, skips this detail and continues with the questioning.  Furthermore, this detail never makes it back into the published version.  The published version avoids asking who could grasp it, instead asks "in what furnace was they brain?"  And changes the image to a blacksmith grasping the brain with tongs out of a fiery furnace.

     From an alchemical point of view, the blacksmith represents the creator, and transformer. However, the same arts can be used to enslave, hence the chain.  Also, the original 4th stanza, Blake uses the image of a deep furnace, combined with ribs, followed by the image of a sanguine or blood-red well.  This deep furnace is hell, and if that is the case than Satan must be the creator whom the speaker is addressing.  He also changes the image from the heart to the brain.  From a Blake perspective, one would assume that the he wanted to represent reason rather than imagination as being created by the Satan.  While this may seem a bit of a stretch, Stanza five adds details which supports this claim. Consider stanza five:

When the stars threw down their spears,  

And water'd heaven with their tears,  

Did He smile His work to see?  

Did He who made the lamb make thee?

The first two lines a reference to Satan trying to over throw God in Genesis, and then the question of did the creator enjoy the revolution; and did the same creator make the lamb as well.  Blake is making the point that the creator of all is just that; the generator of both good and evil (as represented by the lamb and tiger).  Does God enjoy creating evil?  At the same time, the lines have mushrooms connotations as well.

To be continued...

---

[1] http://www.antlionpit.com/alchemy.html

William Blake's Book of Urizen

Book of Urizen

   William Blake’s, Book of Urizen represents Blake’s attempt at rewriting the Bible, and incorporating Gnostic ideals.  Rather than try to interpret the work, I just want to examine the art for their mushroom implications.  Take the title page for example; it has an old man, sitting beneath a tree, writing a book.  In the background, are the two-tablet like tombstones, which represent Moses’ Ten Commandments.  These two tablets form the silhouette of a mushroom.  In addition, Urizen is sitting under a tree.  Is this the tree of knowledge of good and evil?  Also, many of Blake’s works are framed as a mushroom; the canopy of the trees forms the cap, and the two tablets and the man form the stalk.

Object 4 of Urizen has Urizen reading a rainbow colored book, and his head appearing to emanate light.  His arms are outstretched like the cap of a mushroom.

Object 5 is of an upside-down figure, entwined with a snake, with arms outstretched; Blake’s version of the staff of Asclepius.  The snake is a symbol for the serpent from the Garden of Eden.  And it appears underground, representing the mycelium of the mushroom.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asclepius

Object 15 has a bent over figure, atop a red globe.  I suspect the red globe to be the mushroom cap of the Amanita muscaria.

Object 20, shows Urizen chained, and mostly white.  Emanating from his head, appears to be a red light.  His body is the white stalk of the mushroom, which meets the red cap of the mushroom. 

Object 21  has Urizen walking and carrying the red globe.  He is clothed in white, while the globe is red.  

     These are just the obvious examples.

William Blake's Sick Rose was amanita muscaria.

William Blake’s and his Rosicrucian Signature Poem: The Sick Rose

     After examining Isaac Newton, I was left with the impression that William Blake was involved with the Rosicrucians, or as they are known today, the Ancient Mystical Order of the Rosy Cross.  The more I read about the Rosicrucians and their beliefs, the more it appears Blake was one of them.  Furthermore, I keep thinking of Blake’s poem The Sick Rose.  I had to read it a few times throughout my education, and never thought much of it.  In fact, found it to be too esoteric.  Then I got the message as it were, and things like The Sick Rose were so obvious to the initiated. Anyway here’s a little bit about the Rosicrucians and their history.  There’s an abundant amount of information online about the Order, including texts.

According to their website, the Order traces it lineage back to 1500 B.C. and claims that Egyptian Pharaohs’ and Greek Philosophers’ among their members.  They also claim many of the same mystical writers Blake references in his writings.  Consider the following from the Order’s website:

Thousands of years ago in ancient Egypt select bodies or schools were formed to explore the mysteries of life and learn the secrets of this hidden wisdom. Only sincere students, displaying a desire for knowledge and meeting certain tests were considered worthy of being inducted into these mysteries… It is further traditionally related that the Order’s first member-students met in secluded chambers in magnificent old temples, where, as candidates, they were initiated into the great mysteries.… Contrary to what historians affirm, our tradition relates that the Giza pyramids were not built to be the tombs of pharaohs, but were actually places of study and mystical initiation.[1] 

Consider the two images below, the one on the left is from?   and the one on the right is by Blake.

The Order goes on to claim to have its share shakers and movers:

Throughout history a number of prominent persons in the fields of science and the arts have been associated with the Rosicrucian movement, such as Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519), Cornelius Heinrich Agrippa (1486-1535), Paracelsus (1493-1541), François Rabelais (1494-1553), Theresa of Avila (1515-1582), John of the Cross (1542-1591), Francis Bacon (1561-1626), Robert Fludd (1574-1637), Jacob Boehme (1575-1624), René Descartes (1596-1650), Blaise Pascal (1623-1662), Baruch Spinoza (1632-1677), Isaac Newton (1642-1727), Gottfried Wilhelm Leibnitz (1646-1716), Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790), Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), Michael Faraday (1791-1867), Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1850-1919), Marie Corelli (1855-1924), Claude Debussy (1862-1918), Erik Satie (1866-1925), and Edith Piaf (1916-1963).[2]

But what exactly do the Rosicrucians believe?  What is their belief system?  According to their website:The Rosicrucian Order, AMORC is a community of Seekers who study and practice the metaphysical laws governing the universe.[3] According to the original Christian Rosencrantz myth:

... Christian Rosenkreuz was a doctor who discovered and learned esoteric wisdom on a pilgrimage to the Middle East among Turkish, Arab and Persian sages, possibly Sufi or Zoroastrian masters, supposedly in the early 15th century (see section below on Symbolism); returned and founded the "Fraternity of the Rose Cross" with himself (Frater C.R.C.) as Head of the Order. Under his direction a Temple, called Sanctus Spiritus, or "The House of the Holy Spirit", was built.[4]

During Rosenkreuz's lifetime, the Order was said to consist of no more than eight members, each a doctor and a sworn bachelor. Each member undertook an oath to heal the sick without payment, to maintain a secret fellowship, and to find a replacement for himself before he died. Three such generations had supposedly passed between c.1500 and c.1600, a time when scientific, philosophical and religious freedom had grown so that the public might benefit from the Rosicrucians' knowledge, so that they were now seeking good men.[5]

Between 1607 and 1616, two anonymous manifestos were published, first in Germany and later throughout Europe.[2] These were the Fama Fraternitatis RC (The Fame of the Brotherhood of RC) and the Confessio Fraternitatis (The Confession of the Brotherhood of RC). The influence of these documents, presenting a "most laudable Order" of mystic-philosopher-doctors and promoting a "Universal Reformation of Mankind", gave rise to an enthusiasm called by its historian Dame Frances Yates the "Rosicrucian Enlightenment".[6]

Early seventeenth-century occult philosophers such as Michael Maier, Robert Fludd and Thomas Vaughan interested themselves in the Rosicrucian world view. According to historian David Stevenson it was also influential to Freemasonry as it was emerging in Scotland. In later centuries, many esoteric societies have claimed to derive their doctrines, in whole or in part, from the original Rosicrucians. Several modern societies have been formed for the study of Rosicrucianism and allied subjects.[7]

Considering the works and writings of Blake, seems like the perfect representation of such a society.  But why the Rosy Cross symbol? What is it?  More than you ever wanted to know about the possible symbolic interpretations from Fra. Thomas D Worrel, VII:

The cross is a symbol that is about as universal and ancient as any symbol that has emerged out of man's psyche. The cross symbolizes the meeting at right angles of horizontals and perpendiculars. Forces going in quite opposite directions but meeting at a central point, a common ground. It can symbolize the union of opposites and the dualism in nature. It can be the outstretch archetypal man with the infinite possibilities of growth being immortal. It represents eternal life. The cross can symbolize the decent of Spirit into matter. It is the intersection of the level of time with the Eternity of the Spirit.

The cross is the axis of the cycle of the year whose spokes are the equinoxes and solstices. It is the crossroads where the four directions meet. In a Christian sense the cross signifies acceptance of sacrifice, suffering, and death as well as immortality. There is a legend that the cross of Christ was made out of wood from the Tree of Knowledge, the cause of the Fall, making it the instrument of Redemption. In the Egyptian mythos the crux ansata or - a type of cross - was a symbol of life, immortality, and health. It is held by the gods and goddesses. It also represented the union of Isis and Osiris.

Numerologically, the cross is sometimes represented by the number four. Within our own teachings: "No.4 is the Mystic number, and indicates the operative influence of the four elements. Under this number, or the geometrical square, Pythagoras communicated the Ineffable Name of God to his chosen disciples." In the Hebrew alphabet the last letter is called Tav. And Tav means "mark" or "cross" and its original form was written much like ankh or cross. I could go on with many more examples but I think we can see that the cross transcends human culture in both time and space. It is a symbol that ties us all together as a Brotherhood of Mankind. It is a symbol that goes to the very root of our being.

The rose (Latin, rosa, in Greek, rhodon) also is a symbol that has a rich and ancient history. And like the cross, it can have paradoxical meanings. It is at once a symbol of purity and a symbol of passion, heavenly perfection and earthly passion; virginity and fertility; death and life. The rose is the flower of the goddess Venus but also the blood of Adonis and of Christ. It is a symbol of transmutation - that of taking food from the earth and transmuting it into the beautiful fragrant rose. The rose garden is a symbol of Paradise. It is the place of the mystic marriage. In ancient Rome, roses were grown in the funerary gardens to symbolize resurrection. The thorns have represented suffering and sacrifice as well as the sins of the Fall from Paradise.

The rose has also been used as a sign of silence and secrecy. The word sub rosa "under the rose" referring to the demand for discretion whenever a rose was hung from the ceiling at a meeting. In the Mysteries roses were sacred to Isis. It is also the flower of her son Harpocrates or younger Horus, the god of silence.

Numerologically, the rose represents the number 5. This is because the wild rose has 5 petals. And the petals on roses are in multiples of five. Geometrically, the rose corresponds with the pentagram and pentagon. Our teachings state: "No.5 is the emblem of Health and Safety; ...it represents Spirit and the four elements." The Pythagorean brotherhood used the pentagram as the symbol of their school.

The number five being associated with the rose has linked them with the 5 senses. In an absolute sense the rose has represented the expanding awareness of being through the development of the senses.[8] 

Yeah sure? Or it could be the “bloody cross” a reference to Jesus’ crucifixion, an allegory for the Amanita muscaria mushroom, which I mentioned in my book.  So I am suggesting that Blake was a Rosicrucian and that his poem the sick rose, is a poem which he establishes himself as a member by writing an allegorical poem about a rose which is really the mushroom amanita muscaria, or the Rosy Cross. Consider the poem, a short poem about a worm which comes in the night to destroy its crimson bed of joy:

O Rose thou art sick.

The invisible worm,

That flies in the night

In the howling storm:

Has found out thy bed

Of crimson joy:

And his dark secret love

Does thy life destroy.

     The worm that flies in the night is the larvae of a mushroom gnat., and it does not fly. The very small gnat, lays its eggs on the mushroom. The eggs hatch into worm larvae witch the feed off of the mushroom.  Mushrooms often grow after a storm, and the gnat finds the mushroom before first light and has already laid her eggs. So Blake is lamenting that the mushrooms he wanted to eat, were spoiled by the larvae of the gnat.  That is what this poem is about.  All that symbolic interpretation from above can be true, but they too, serve as only more veils over the plain ans simple fact that, all relgions, mystical philosophies are derived from the mushroom Amanita muscaria, including William Blake’s The Sick Rose.  

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[1] http://www.rosicrucian.org/about/mastery/mastery08history.html

[2] http://www.rosicrucian.org/about/mastery/mastery08history.html

[3] http://www.rosicrucian.org/about/index.html

[4] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_Rosenkreuz

[5]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosicrucianism

[6] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosicrucianism

[7] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosicrucianism

[8] http://www.sricf-ca.org/paper3.htm