“Our life is not subject to chance and is never a plaything of blind and arbitrary forces. On the contrary, what we do with our life reflects that degree of harmony we are capable of establishing with the Divine Intelligence. Therefore, most problems confronting us are a result of our inability to either respect cosmic laws or master them. The stated goal of the Ancient and Mystical Order Rosae Crucis is precisely to teach its members how to apply these laws in their daily life”

The concept of cosmic law has been present in our history since at least the Egyptians. In fact, one might even argue that these ancient civilizations had a far more developed idea of objective morality than we do currently. While modern religions use rituals and prayer to encourage a more effective communion with this “divine intelligence”, earlier societies embedded these practices into the very fabric of their culture.

For the Egyptians, standards of truth, balance, order and justice were incumbent upon every strata of their society from the pharaohs and high priests right down to the peasantry. These rules were known as Ma’at. Today, examples of these codes can be seen in surviving works such as the Maxims of Ptahhotep or the Hordjedef Teachings. Each work sets forth a highly complex system of morality governing everything from family structure to friendships. At the very core of Egyptian belief was the idea that every action must be considered in light of its effect on society as a whole. Thus, even if one man was provided with enough food to fill his stomach, he would be compelled to think about the suffering of those who were not given access to such bounty. This constant appeal to the collective good proved fundamental to the solidarity and stability of Ancient Egypt.

The concept of cosmic law proved so powerful that it continued unchallenged as the basis for all morality and systems of justice until at least the 1700’s. The 19^th century engineer and physicist William Froude defined cosmic law as follows – “our human laws are but the copies, more or less imperfect, of the eternal laws so far as we can read them, and either succeed and promote our welfare, or fail and bring confusion and disaster”. The most telling part of this quote has been bolded. While many individuals may be willing to agree on the idea that our actions should be governed by some higher intelligence, each person’s interpretation of that intelligence is subjective.

“All processes that nature puts into action in our body and consciousness are fundamentally constructive. Yet, through an improper application of our free will, we can upset these processes and even completely oppose them. In this case we create negative conditions within us which, in turn are inevitably expressed as illness”

Although groups such as AMORC claim that divine law is geared towards promoting fairness, balance and good health amongst individuals and communities, noted philosophers such as Hobbes believe that our inherent nature is selfish and that the aim of modern society is to impose limits and restrictions on these fundamental behaviors. So while the Rosae Crucis may claim that working in contrary to nature produces ill-health and other forms of turmoil, it can certainly argued that our very advancement as human beings is dependent on working contrary to nature in many ways.

“In every aspect of life we reap what we sow, if we act contrary to basic morality we cannot hope to receive help from the Cosmic in acquiring what we desire on the material plane. Worse yet, if we cheat others, we can expect that some day we will lose everything we have acquired…If you do everything possible to manifest the best of yourself within your life, if you do your utmost to act according to your highest ideals, you cannot fail to receive the help and support of the Cosmic”

These concepts should be familiar to anyone with a basic understanding of Eastern religion, as they echo the idea of karma. In the Bhagavad Gita this term can be boiled down to the cause and effect. If you perform good deeds then the sum of these actions will be reflected back to you, while evil deeds will eventually be punished with similar retribution. Of course one of the most basic problems with karma is the definition of good and evil. After all, who is the ultimate judge of an action? How is intent and consequence measured? Is a man who steals from the rich to feed his family considered on equal footing with a man who steals for his own pleasure? Is killing justified if it is in the service of righteous vengeance? If you believe that each action will be met with a corresponding consequence then why must we rely on human laws at all? Shouldn’t we just depend on karmic retribution to balance the books?

Karma is also closely linked to the belief in reincarnation another idea that AMORC touches upon in this manuscript. Reincarnation is a good way of explaining one of the most basic problems with karmic justice that good things often happen to bad people while horrible things will often happen to good people. Indeed, upper caste Brahmins (Hindu ruling class) often used this understanding to explain the oppression of lower caste Hindus, explaining that the latter were placed in such a position due to their past sins. Here, AMORC uses the idea of unchecked suffering to put forth a novel solution in the form of the Council of Solace.