Cosmological & Doctrinal Implications of the "Rosy Cross" as a Corridor of Existential Volition and Liberation, by Russell R. YoderIn the context of today's scientific speculations about cosmic "black holes," I would suggest it is also high time for us to rediscover the "rose-colored hole," which according to traditional theosophical writers such as Henricus Khunrath, may be found "in the side of the innate Son of the Great World (Macrocosm)." This is also alluded to in the early Rosicrucian manifestos, Fama and Confessio Fraternitatis (1615 and 1616); where a special "star" in the constellation of Cygnus the Swan is seen to be the herald of a profound secret.  The significance of Cygnus is that it contains the Northern Cross, which reveals to our senses through a refined spiritual practice, five cross-lights of a rosy hue, centered in the "Seiten-Hohle" or Side-hole corridor — as actually utilized in the daily meditations of the Moravians and other radical Pietists.  Thus in addition to familiar doctrinal associations with the side wound and blood of "Christ," this rosy "Side-hole Corridor" reflected a more universal and ancient realization of how to return "home" by means of sincere volition and meditation.  Even the simplest traditional Moravian verses of daily and bedtime devotion alluded to the cosmic proportions of such an intimate realization; for in this Seiten-Hohle, one could lie down and sleep "a couple of million fathoms deep."

Andrew Collins, author of The Cygnus Mystery, proposes that "cosmic rays from a binary star system called Cygnus X-3 affected human evolution, catalyzing the emergence of the first universal religion and cosmology as early as 17,000 years ago."  He says, "I suspect very much that our Paleolithic ancestors were aware of Cygnus's influence on their lives, and even attempted to enhance this through cyclic initiations and ceremonies, in caves deep underground, where its signal is clear."  So there is something very special about this influence of the Cygnus constellation on the human mindset.  As Collins reiterates, "I believe that in the past it was seen as the source of cosmic life and death.  Our most distant ancestors actually believed that life originated from this region of space, and that the souls of the righteous would return there in death." (italics mine)   In time, these "caves" of ancestral practice became internalized as individual "cells or circles" of devotional magic, focused upon the healing life-giving rays of the cosmic corridor or cave.

The poignancy of Cygnus is further underscored for us by the fact that it also contains the first "black hole" to have been discovered by astronomers, Cygnus X-1.  It is well known that black holes are such extreme "gravity wells" that they trap even light within their darkness, as well as drawing off all of the fiery energy and elemental emissions of surrounding stars, leading to their extinction. If we refer again to the traditional theosophical literature of the Rosicrucians, we see that the juxtaposition of the "rosy corridor" and the "black hole" within a single constellation such as Cygnus is an emblem of existential choice for us.  As Jacob Boehme explains, regarding the rosy corridor: "If you but learn the right entrance, you have the end and goal at hand; for it belongs to the Magi who are born magically by faith.”  But regarding the "black hole" as the terminus of nature, he says:  "you must not search or dive into this abyss, else you go out from God as Lucifer did, who sought to have the fire of the eternal original, and therein he must remain as in death, in the darkness eternally!" —Threefold Life of Man (1620), chapters 9 and 10