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.Other applications of it will be dealtwith below.III.The Altar-Mandala and the Minutum MundiThe round altar that stood in the centre of the Vault is comparatively well described in the Fama.From what weknow it is obvious that the brass plate on it was engraved with a mandala-like design, though the exact details aremissing.Fortunately, it is not necessary to reconstruct it, as I have found an early 17th century illustration whichdepicts the altar plate.It comes from a book entitled Raphael by Abraham von Franckenberg, a Pansophist andRosicrucian from Wroclaw in Silesia (at that time belonging to the Kingdom of Bohemia).This beautiful mandala istoo complex to analyse it in detail here (it deserves a separate article), so I will only point to the elementscorresponding to the Fama description or otherwise relating directly to the Rosicrucian issue. The title of the whole illustration is "Jesus mihi omnia" but this sentence does not appear on the design itself, thoughin the Fama it is said to have been written "around the first Circle or Brim".The four sentences "A vacuum existsnowhere", "The Yoke of the Law", "The Liberty of the Gospel" and the "Entire Glory of God" appear on the arms ofthe central cross, which seems to be glowing.Between the arms of that cross there are four big circles with threeTau-crosses and two human figures in each, which may be taken to represent petals and thus completing a schematicRosy Cross symbol together with the central circle. There are also four smaller circles at the end of each arm of the cross as well as four other circles outside the borderof the main one corresponding to the four directions (these, I suppose, were to appear on the postument of the altar).All these elements contain many correspondences, quotations from the Bible, names from Biblical history, religiousterminology, etc.The most interesting for the present purpose is, however, the central circle with the figure of Christin it.This figure bears a certain resemblance to Christian Rosencreutz in his grave as described in the Fama.In hisleft hand he holds an open book with seven seals and with the letters Alpha and Omega, which may be identifiedwith the Liber T.His right hand is surrounded by seven stars which are obviously symbolic of the seven planetaryprinciples or Seven Measures of the created Universe, and therefore denote his mastery over the whole world.Asprout or branch extends from the right side of his breast and this reminds us of that mysterious statement fromLiber T quoted in the Fama: "A Grain buried in the Breast of Jesus".On the other side of Christ's breast there is asmall four-petalled flower, most probably a rose, while in the middle a black cross can be seen.All this indicates theRosicrucian nature of this illustration and its connection with the brass plate on the altar in the Vault.Of course, asalways, one cannot be sure that von Franckenberg was a genuine Rosicrucian and had access to the original design(if such had ever existed), but still it is the best (if not the only) representation of it of such an early date.The designseems to picture the tradition, and mostly the Christian religious tradition and teachings, and therefore is in accordwith what we know about the altar plate from the Fama.The other smaller altar containing the mysterious Minutum Mundum (or Minutus Mundus as Waite has it) seems tohave been placed in the grave of C.R.C.beneath the altar.Little can be said about it besides that it was some kind ofdivinatory device and a miniature of the Macrocosm.Perhaps it was a very precise astrolabium, showing themovements of the heavenly bodies for any time in the past, present and future.In that case the divination would beastrological, but it also may have been a "fortune-telling machine" like the Prognometer constructed a few centurieslater by Jozef Maria Hoene-Wronski, the Polish Messianist.Some occultists also see a deck of the Tarot cards in it.IV The Athanor of RegenerationFrances Yates in The Rosicrucian Enlightenment says that Rosicrucianism was the continuation of the earlierhermetic-kabbalistic tradition which reached a new level by assimilating the doctrines and symbols of alchemy.Therefore Rosicrucianism may be looked upon as the final bringing together of all the currents making up theWestern Esoteric Tradition: hermetic gnosis and magic, Christian adaptation of the Jewish Kabbalah and alchemicallore.In the symbolic description of the Vault of Christian Rosenkreutz the hermetic and Kabbalistic parts of that tradition were seen in treating the structure as a "Memory Theatre" and in analysing its numerological symbolism,so we now have to find the alchemical element in it.John Heydon, as quoted by Manly Palmer Hall, says that Rosicrucian adepts after having spent a certain period oftime among people, were buried in "a proper womb" or the philosophical egg, in which they underwent the processof rejuvenation.Then again after some time they broke the shells of their eggs and came forth for a new round in theworld.This symbolic account may suggest a kind of initiatory process of spiritual or inner alchemy going on in theTomb of Christian Rosenkreutz, in which he is the Materia Prima (this view is supported also by the numericalsymbolism outlined above).When we imagine a cross section of the whole Vault then a kind of Athanor appears.The grave in the bottom part isthe alchemical retort or philosophical egg buried in the earth or sand, its neck extending into the main chamberabove as the altar and hermetically sealed with the brass plate.The artificial sun on the ceiling is the source of lightor heat (as now used in growing chickens).This form of heating the retort in the sand for a long period of time wascalled igne aperto by the alchemists.The duration of the Great Work was often expressed symbolically as 12 days, 12 months or 12 years, so the 120 years in the case of the Rosicrucian self-transmutation or bringing oneself to theperfect state of the Philosophers' Stone is no surprise.On another level this can be seen as the Great Work going onin the Theatre of the World in order to obtain the Philosophers' Stone with which the General Transformation of theWhole World could be accomplished.V The Vault of C.R.C.in Esoteric Workings.As I have already said, the structure described in the Fama was most probably not a real building but a symbolicinternal construction intended for visualisation, meditation and final self-initiation.It is a complex mandala extendedin space which has to be "worked" (in the occult sense).The actual application of it in esoteric practice will demandthe following preparations:1) Drawing the walls, ceiling and floor of the Vault with all the emblems and mottoes on paper.2) Memorising then so well that they can be easily visualised, both separately and as a seven-sided chamber.3) Preparing (writing down) meditations, invocations or evocations based on the succession of emblems andmemorising them with the help of the emblems (the technique of the traditional art of memory described by FrancesYates).The various operations that now can be performed include for example:1) Operations of ritual hermetic magic.The invocations and evocations are mnemonically related to the emblems on one or more of the walls (depending onthe planetary nature of the operation) and then recited with simultaneous visualisation of the emblems.Thistechnique as applied by Giulio Camillo is described in Frances Yates' book The Art of Memory.2) Astral Workings.This is similar to "pathworking" in the Golden Dawn tradition: every wall of the Vault can be worked upon eitherfrom the light on the ceiling downwards or from the Infernal Triangles on the floor upwards.The emblems can alsobe used in the way similar to the Tarot cards for entering the Astral Plane
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