New York · Est. 2006 · Renewed 2026
A circle for seekers of the Rose and the Cross
A social home for kindred souls interested in Rosicrucianism, alchemy, and the broader Western esoteric tradition. Scholars, practitioners, and the simply curious, around one table.
Three ways in
Gather, learn, belong
Gather
Socials, salon dinners with a speaker, and an annual conference. Start in New York, then a city near you.
Learn
Recorded talks, papers by our Fellows, and an archive of lectures going back to 2007.
Belong
Associate, Fellow, and Scholar membership, revived from the original Rose Circle Society.
What we explore
The Western mystery tradition, in all its branches
Rosicrucianism
The 17th-century manifestos, the orders they inspired, and the Rose Cross as a living symbol.
Alchemy
The Great Work in the laboratory and the soul, from Paracelsus to Jung.
Hermeticism
The Corpus Hermeticum, the Emerald Tablet, and the Renaissance magi who revived them.
Kabbalah
The Tree of Life in its Jewish, Christian, and Hermetic readings.
Gnosticism
Nag Hammadi, the Cathars, and the modern Gnostic churches.
Masonic symbolism
The Craft, the Royal Arch, the Rectified Scottish Rite, and the Élus Coëns.
Next gathering
New York · Friday, December 18 · 6–8 PM
The Rose Circle Social
An evening for kindred souls drawn to Rosicrucianism, alchemy, tarot, and the wider Western esoteric tradition. Meet others interested in the Great Work, Hermeticism, Kabbalah, Gnosticism, and Masonic symbolism, whether you’ve been on the path for decades or are just starting to ask questions. No membership or affiliation with any order or lodge required. Just bring your curiosity.
Space is limited and registration is approved by the host. The exact location is shared once you’re confirmed.
Why we gather at table
The Feast of the Rose-Croix
The Rose Circle Social carries on an old custom. The 18th Degree ritual culminates in the Agape, also called the Mystic Banquet, the Sovereign Banquet, or the Feast of the Rose-Croix. Its tracing board encodes the metaphysics, the sacrifice, and the transforming purpose of that shared meal.
1. The Pelican as offering
The Pelican tearing her breast to feed her young with her own blood is the chief emblem of the feast. In medieval bestiaries she stands for the Eucharist and the Agape: life sustained not by consumption but by self-giving love (Charité). Bread and wine are broken and shared in contemplation of this act, the shedding of lower self-interest to nourish one’s companions.
2. Bread, wine, and the Rose-Cross
The red rose blooming at the heart of the cross mirrors the cup of wine, the blood and sap of life, and the transfiguration of matter into spirit. The banquet is an alchemical communion: bread and wine become a vessel of regeneration, as the living rose flowers from the wooden cross.
3. From desolation to fellowship
The degree opens in mourning. The Word is lost, the Temple lies in ruins, the working tools are laid aside, and the tomb stands open. The feast is the turning point, where the Lost Word is found again through brotherly love and mutual pledge, and the empty sepulcher gives way to the living unity of the Knotted Cord (La Houppe Dentelée) that frames the scene above.
4. Faith, Hope, and Charity
The three words on the frame are the three toasts and themes invoked as the bread and cup are passed: Foi, trust in the sacred beneath outward darkness; Espérance, assurance of renewal and the immortality of the soul; Charité, active, sacrificial love, embodied by the Pelican and sealed by eating and drinking together.
5. The heavenly banquet
At the centre, the squared circle and star trace the celestial plan of the New Jerusalem. The earthly feast is a foretaste of that heavenly communion, where companions sit together in a harmonized, sacred order beyond time.
Our heritage
Twenty years of linking the adept and the academic
The Rose Circle began with a salon in Bayonne, New Jersey, in 2006. Over the next decade it brought historians, practitioners, artists, and Freemasons together for lectures, conferences, and dinners in New York. Now we are opening the circle again.
2006
First salon
A day of talks and a Rose-Croix banquet in Bayonne, NJ.
2008
NYC conference
R.A. Gilbert and Christopher McIntosh in New York.
2011
Mystical Reason
An afternoon of lectures at the Masonic Hall on West 23rd St.
2026
The circle reopens
New socials, a new site, and chapters beyond New York.
From Rose Circle Books
New from our press
Secret Classes & Reintegration: From the Élus Coëns to the Rectified Scottish Rite
Rémi Boyer, Lima de Freitas · tr. Michael Sanborn
Rosicrucian Death: The Manner and Meaning of Death in Modern Rosicrucianism
M.R. Osborne · foreword by Piers A. Vaughan
Martinez de Pasqually and the Office of the Holy Spirit
M.R. Osborne · foreword by Dr. Matt D.A. Fletcher
Not as Above, Not as Below: How We Got the Emerald Tablet Wrong
John Gilbert
The Way Without Masters
Rémi Boyer, Sylvie Boyer-Camaz · tr. Michael Sanborn