This month's museum pick...

The Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum

The Rosicrucians’ Quest for Knowledge Leads Them to Build a Superb Museum

Like the Knights of Columbus, whom they resemble only superficially, the Rosicrucians often show up in advertisements in Sunday newspaper magazines. They are members of a religious brotherhood that dates back to the early 15^th century and was first referred to publicly as the order “of the red cross” (Latin rosae crucis, thus, “rosicrucian”) in a tract that began circulating in the early 17^th century.

Rosicrucian beliefs have been variously described as gnostic, occult and cabalistic, based on the order’s belief that true knowledge of the universe can only be acquired by an elect few. These few, in turn, pass on their knowledge to the world, sharing its benefits with humanity at large.

The Rosicrucian desire to plumb the mysteries of existence, as well as the order’s own claims that it can trace its origins back 6,000 years, has made the Rosicrucians avid students of Egyptian history and lore. For it is in Egypt, mankind’s first true empire, that the Rosicrucians see a repository to ancient wisdom and gnosis – knowledge itself.

So it’s no surprise that in the affluent United States, where the order has prospered and thrived, that the Rosicrucians would build one of the world’s finest museums dedicated to Egyptian history and artifacts. That it is located in San Jose, CA, the world capital of high tech, makes for a delicious juxtaposition.

The Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum, located in downtown San Jose, is patterned after the Temple of Amon at Karnak, site of some of the greatest sacred architecture in the ancient world before the rise of Greece and Rome. It has the largest collection of dynastic Egyptian antiquities in the western United States, an exceptional bragging right for a private museum. The museum also houses an extensive collection of cuneiform tablets from ancient Mesopotamia, spanning the Sumerian, Assyrian and Babylonian empires.

Beyond the museum’s location in Rosicrucian Park, which the North American headquarters for the order, San Jose offers a wealth of museums, including the San Jose Museum of Art, the Children’s Discovery Museum and the Tech Museum of Innovation. The nearby Winchester Mystery House, as well as a highly regarded wine region in the mountains flanking the city’s west and south, round out any visit to San Jose. — Patrick Totty