I have already discussed the various vulnerabilities that in Singer’s eyes can lead to relatively easy recruitment of cult members- that is, various types of depression and being between important affiliations- like leaving college, after a divorce, after a business failure, etc. I added to that my own, perhaps a more worthwhile impulse- a desire to know the truth about this strange, perplexing world we were born into.

            But there is another vulnerability, one that Steven Hassan also talks about- and that is the zeitgeist or the age spirit at key moments of social uncertainty-

Historically, we have seen that as the fabric of a society unravels, self-appointed leaders easily recruit a following. People at a loss to make sense of the mayhem around them look for direction and becomes more approachable and vulnerable to the manipulations and exploitations of these skillful con artists…. solutions for the complex problems of decision making become attractive offerings in a world that appears to be unstable and rapidly changing.

         She then mentions various cults that grew up after the Fall of Rome, the French Revolution, after the Industrial Revolution came to England, places that experienced the shock of European colonization, Japanese groups that formed after World War II and cults in Eastern Europe after the breakup of the Communist regimes.

            Although it is certainly true that religious and other types of cults can spring up during this type of upheaval, it is important to realize that often countries are governed by cults. In fact, in certain ways, AMORC is structured quite a bit like the cult of the Roman emperors, who were considered divine or gods by their citizens. This is how Katherine Crawford from St. Olaf College puts it in a fascinating little essay on the Foundations of the Roman Imperial Cult, throwing a light where the word, “cult,” comes from: 

In Ancient Rome, a cult did not carry today’s connotation as a brainwashing institution or take people away from mainstream society. Instead, cults were used to worship the gods who affected the Roman’s daily lives. New gods were continually being brought to Rome from abroad, causing new cults to be established. The imperial cult was no different. It became a new religious order where, the Roman emperors were worshiped in conjunction with the Roman state because they controlled Rome’s continued prosperity.

            Like in AMORC, the cult created by Gaius Julius Augustus created a pantheon of the gods that included the Roman emperor. This idea of making the head of state a god was not knew for the ancient and the pharaohs were similarly considered to be in the pantheon of their God. As described in an article called The Mythology of Ancient Egypt, it summarizes how the Egyptians looked at their kings:

Pharaohs were considered one of the most important of all the Egyptian gods. While a pharaoh was ruling, he took on the “incarnation” of the god Horus and the son of Re. Once the pharaoh died, he was identified with the god Osiris, the god of the underworld….The ancient Egyptian Pharaohs served as mediators between their people and the gods. That is why the cultural significance of the gods relied heavily upon the beliefs of the pharaoh who was ruling. It was believed that the fate of the nation lay strictly with the pharaoh.

            I think that in looking at AMORC, it may be enlightening to look at its antecedents and traditions not as an authentic derivative from ancient Rosicrucian traditions, but rather more likely a somewhat diluted emulation of these two state cults of ancient Egypt and Rome. A powerful clue is the title of AMORC’s leader, Imperator, which literally translates to “Emperor.”

            Whereas to those who live in a contemporary democratic society, it is hard to believe in the gullibility of the Romans to accept such things.
            But these people lived in an era of paganism, where the worship of many gods was an accepted practice, the product of many, many years of enculturation, a polite term of social and religious indoctrination. Rome was a culture that had for centuries embroiled its populations in a tradition of mind control- from birth until death- with extreme penalties for disobedience, even before the Roman emperors became divine.            So adding the flourish of the divination of the Emperor was not such a difficult trick to pull off, especially since the physical punishment for not giving such allegiance was an added incentive.
            It is perhaps no wonder that in February 1915, H. Spencer Lewis officially established AMORC, shortly after the war began in Europe on July 28, 1914. With nine million combatants being killed in this global event, one could very well argue, with Singer, that the times themselves were a propitious time for a cult during the first global war that faced our planet.
            Considering Lewis’ love of cycles as discussed in my review of his book, Self-Mastery and Fate with the Cycles of Life, Lewis certainly chose a most propitious moment in human history to begin his organization, an historical moment of uncertainty and fear- backed by the massive destruction of civilized infrastructures were dwarfed by the human carnage that accompanied that destruction.
            As explained by Margaret Singer, Lewis had that unerring instinct of great and terrible cult leaders who know the right timing to recruit the primed and vulnerable victims of a society facing chaos and destruction. Soon, the religious cults of Germany and Japan would claim ascendency in two cultures, which had briefly tasted of the promise of democracy but had lost their footing and became prey to superstitious reality enshrouded in cult rituals, racial and ethnic elitism and worship of their leaders.