Reuben Swinburne

Clymer

Reuben Swinburne Clymer (25 de

noviembre de 1878 - 3 de junio de 1966)
fue un ocultista estadounidense y un
rosicruciano moderno responsable de
revivir o crear el FRC ( Fraternitas Rosae
Crucis ), quizás la organización rosacruz
más antigua de las Américas. [1] [2] [3] [4]
Practicó la medicina alternativa, y
escribió y publicó obras sobre ella, así
como (su versión de) las enseñanzas de
Paschal Beverly Randolph (1825-1875),
magia sexual , vegetarianismo , religión ,
alquimia y espiritismo. Esto condujo a
una serie de conflictos con Harvey
Spencer Lewis (1883-1939) y el AMORC (
Ancient Mystical Order Rosae Crucis ),
FUDOSI , Aleister Crowley , e incluso la
Asociación Médica Americana .
 Reuben Swinburne Clymer
Nacido 25 de noviembre de
1878
Quakertown,
Pennsylvania , Estados
Unidos

Murió 3 de junio de 1966 (a

los 87 años)

Nacionalidad americano

Ocupación Osteópata, autor, editor

Conocido por Reviviendo o creando

Fraternitas Rosae
Crucis

Ciudad natal Quakertown

Niños Emerson M. Clymer

Vida
Clymer was born in Quakertown,
Pennsylvania. He studied medicine in
Chicago, Illinois, and registered as an
osteopath in New York in 1910.[2] His
work with alternative medicine regularly
brought him into trouble with the United
States government and the American
Medical Association.[5] As an osteopath,
he opposed vaccination,[6] and claimed
that meat was the primary cause of
cancer, and (especially when combined
with beans, bread, potatoes, and beer)
immorality and insanity.[7]

Randolph and the FRC

Clymer joined the FRC in 1897,[5][2]
becoming a grand master of it in 1905[2]
at age 27.[8]

In either 1900[2] or 1904, Clymer got into

publishing with his Philosophical
Publishing Company, which he used to
keep Paschal Beverly Randolph's books
in print[5] well into the 20th century.[9]
Clymer was deeply influenced by
Randolph, of whom he created a
hagiographic (and mostly fictitious)
history. Clymer claimed that his occult
orders were founded by Randolph
(although many were completely
unrelated), tying their already mostly
fictional histories together under
Randolph,[9] particularly the Hermetic
Brotherhood of Light orders in
Quakertown.[10]

Clymer created a more consistent and

palatable belief system from Randolph's
thoughts, cleaning up the problematic
sex magic practices Randolph espoused
at times, as well as Randolph's self-
contradictions on numerous points. The
pseudo-history assembled by Clymer
cast Randolph as the legitimate heir of
an ancient Rosicrucian tradition in
America. This was accomplished by
turning many people Randolph
mentioned running into members of
various occult organizations secretly
connected to ancient Egyptian
Rosicrucians, known members into
masters of groups they were members
of, and an unknown young man who met
Eliphas Levi into none other than a young
Randolph. If Clymer lacked a starting
point or could not fill a plot hole, he
claimed that such gaps were the result of
the desctruction of records by enemies
of Randolph's (and Clymer's) Fraternitas.
In addition to the standard claims of
Western Occultism of ties to famous
Neoplatonists, alchemists, magicians,
Clymer also connected Randolph's
"order" to Abraham Lincoln, Napoleon III,
Alexandre Saint-Yves d'Alveydre, Papus,
Albert Pike, and the Count of St. Germain.
Although Clymer apparently believed his
biography of Randolph to be absolutely
historical, it is understood now to be
largely fictitious.[9]

According to Clymer, Randolph founded

the FRC in 1858, with control passing
onto Freeman Dowd in 1875, then
Edward Brown in 1907, then Clymer in
1922.[1][3] Unlike a number of fraternal
orders (particularly the Shriners), Clymer
explicitly denied that Rosicrucians had
any special ornamentation or jewelry.[8]
As a result, the FRC is noted for its lack
of self-promotion and advertising.[4]

Other organizations founded by Clymer

include the Church of Illumination, the
College of the Holy Grail, and the Sons of
Isis and Osiris.[11] The Church of
Illumination serves as an outer body for
the FRC, spreading its teachings under
the name of "Divine Law" in hopes of
bringing about a new era through
symbolic alchemy.[5][12]

Rivalry with Harvey Spencer

Lewis and AMORC

Clymer's claim to being the true leader of

American Rosicrucianism put Clymer in
direct competition with Harvey Spencer
Lewis, founder of the AMORC (Ancient
Mystical Order Rosae Crucis).[1][13] This
competition was turned to bitter rivalry
thanks to disagreement on the role of
sex in magic, both sides accusing the
other of perverse teachings, while
holding that the sexual practices they
advocated were enlightened and pure.[14]
Clymer's views, largely lifted from
Randolph, were that bodily fluids
produced by a married couple needed to
be regularly exchanged for the physical
and spiritual health of each partner.[15]

Clymer and Lewis competed for the

attention of different national branches
of the OTO (Ordo Templi Orientis) for
official ties, with both finding comparable
success and neither being able to use
their ties to the O.T.O. to claim legitimacy
over the other. When Lewis co-founded
FUDOSI (which recognized Lewis's
AMORC as the true heirs of American
Rosicrucianism), Clymer co-founded
FUDOFSI[13][16][17][18] with Constant
Chevillon[16] and Jean Bricaud[17] (which
favored Clymer's FRC),[13] and claimed
that Lewis's FUDOSI was a failed and
mistaken grab at legitimization. In
response to these attacks, AMORC
published material calling Clymer's ideas
"some of the weirdest notions that a
human mind ever harboured," further
pointing out that his positions were "self-
appointed and self-devised." Clymer
retaliated by raising suspicion about
Lewis's doctorate,[14] accusing Lewis of
hocking inauthentic works, and (due to
Lewis's association with Aleister
Crowley) practicing black magic. Crowley
initially responded by offering to help
Lewis fight Clymer, though Crowley's later
attempt to claim control of Lewis's
AMORC resulted in a rift between
them.[13]

The American rivalry eventually created a

rift in European Rosicrucianism as
well.[18]

Later life

By 1939, Lewis's death and legal attacks

by the American Medical Association
brought the rivalry between Clymer and
AMORC to an end. Clymer continued to
practice alternative medicine[1] and lead
the FRC until his death in 1966, when he
was succeeded by his son Emerson
Myron Clymer (October 16, 1909 -
October 4, 1983).[2][1]

Escritos
Clymer's more popular writings include A
Compendium of Occult Law, Mysteries of
Osiris, and The Rosicrucian Fraternity in
America (2 vols., 1935-1936).[11] The
Rosicrucian Fraternity in America, with
emphasis on a single fraternity, was an
attack on AMORC and Lewis.[13]
He also translated some works of
Ludovico Maria Sinistrari, though
changing Sinistrari's incubi and succubi
to elementals and suggesting that the
virgin birth of Jesus was the result of a
Salamander impregnating Mary.[19]

Clymer wrote books on nutrition (such as

Dietetics and Diet, the Way to Health), as
well as authorizing a Rose Cross Aid
cookbook.[7] In 1904, he wrote a anti-
vaccinationist pamphlet titled
"Vaccination Brought Home to You,"
which documented two cases of
children's bad reactions to vaccines.[6]

Legado
Clymer's involvement in new religious
movements, the drama that invariably
followed Clymer and similar leaders
(such as Father Divine), inspired a
number of early 20th century detective
stories, such as Dashiell Hammett's The
Dain Curse.[20]

Clymer's works are also standard reading

for American Rosicrucians, and his
interest in medicine is continued by the
FRC to this day, with the Beverly Hall
headquarters housing chiropractic and
naturopathic clinics.[5] His prolific writing
about Paschal Beverly Randolph and his
teachings remain influential in the study
of Randolph, in part because little is
known about Randolph.[9]

Referencias
1. "Fraternitas Rosae Crucis [FRC]" in The
Element Encyclopedia of Secret Societies:
The Ultimate A–Z of Ancient Mysteries,
Lost Civilizations and Forgotten Wisdom
by John Michael Greer, HarperCollins UK,
p.122
2. "Clymer, R(euben) Swinburne" in
Encyclopedia of Occultism &
Parapsychology, Fifth Edition, ed. J.
Gordon Melton, Gale group, vol 1, p.304-
305
3. "Fraternitas Rosae Crucis" in
Encyclopedia of Occultism &
Parapsychology, Fifth Edition, ed. J.
Gordon Melton, Gale group, vol 1, p.599-
600
4. "Rosicrucians, Modern Rosicrucianism"
in Encyclopedia of Occultism &
Parapsychology, Fifth Edition, ed. J.
Gordon Melton, Gale group, vol 2, p. 1327-
1328
5. Encyclopedic Handbook of Cults in
America by J. Gordon Melton, Routledge,
p.99-100
6. "A Hot Bed of the Anti-vaccine Heresy":
Opposition to Compulsory Vaccination in
Boston and Cambridge, 1890-1905 by
Karen Walloch, ProQuest, p.177 and
p.273
7. "Rosicrucian chili" in Thirty-five
Receipts from "The Larder Invaded" by
William Woys Weaver, Library Company of
Phil, p.85
8. Secret Societies by John Lawrence
Reynolds, Skyhorse publishing, p.175-176
9. Paschal Beverly Randolph: A
Nineteenth-Century Black American
Spiritualist, Rosicrucian, and Sex
Magician by John Patrick Deveney, SUNY
press, p.140-143
10. The Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor
by Joscelyn Godwin, Christian Chanel, and
John Patrick Deveney, Weiser books, p.67
11. "Clymer, Reuben Swinburne" in The
Watkins Dictionary of Magic by Nevill
Drury, p.150 ; also The Dictionary of the
Esoteric by Nevill Drury, Motilal
Banarsidass, p.52
12. "Church of Illumination" in
Encyclopedia of Occultism &
Parapsychology, Fifth Edition, ed. J.
Gordon Melton, Gale group, vol 1, p.299
13. The Invisible History of the
Rosicrucians by Tobias Churton, Inner
Traditions, p.506-507
14. The Rosucrucians by Christopher
McIntosh, Weiser books, p. 128-129
15. "Randolph, Paschal Beverly" in
Encyclopedia of Occultism &
Parapsychology, Fifth Edition, ed. J.
Gordon Melton, Gale group, vol 2, p.1283-
1284
16. "Gnostic Church" in Dictionary of
Gnosis & Western Esotericism, ed. Wouter
Hanegraaff, Brill Publishers, p.400-403
17. "Martinism: second period" in
Dictionary of Gnosis & Western
Esotericism, ed. Wouter Hanegraaff, Brill
Publishers, p.780-783
18. "Rosicrucianism III: 19th-20th Century"
in Dictionary of Gnosis & Western
Esotericism, ed. Wouter Hanegraaff, Brill
Publishers, p.1018-1020
19. In Search of the Swan Maiden: A
Narrative on Folklore and Gender by
Barbara Fass Leavy and Daniel G. Calder,
NYU Press, p. 180
20. Making the Detective Story American
by J.K. Van Dover, McFarland, p.22 and
p.25

Enlaces externos
R. Swinburne Clymer Official
Biography on the Fraternitas Rosae
Crucis website
Retrieved from
"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?
title=Reuben_Swinburne_Clymer&oldid=8343375
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