534 ROSICRUCIANCOSMO-CONCEPTION
THE SYMBOLISM OF THE ROSE CROSS
When inquiring into the meaning of any myth, legend or
symbol of occult value, it is an absolute necessity that we
should understand that, as any object in the three-
dimensional world may, or rather must, be viewed from all
points to obtain a full and complete comprehension thereof,
so all symbols have a number of aspects. Each viewpoint
reveals a different phase from the others, and all have an
equal claim to consideration.
Viewed in its fullness, this wonderful symbol contains
the key to man's past evolution, his present constitution and
future development, together with the method of attainment.
In the form where it is represented with a single rose in the
center it symbolizes the spirit radiating from itself the four
vehicles: the dense, vital and desire bodies plus the mind;
where the spirit has drawninto its instruments and become
theindwelling human spirit. But there was a time when that
condition did not obtain, a time when the threefold spirit
hovered above its vehicles and was unable to enter. Then the
cross stood alone without the rose, symbolizing the
condition which prevailed in the early third of Atlantis.
Ther e was even a time when t he upp er limb of the cross was
lacking and man's constitution was represented by the Tau
(T) that was in the Lemurian epoch when he had only the
dense, vital and desire bodies, but lacked the mind. Then the