Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum & Planetarium

The Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum possesses the only Egyptian collection housed in a building of the style of ancient Egyptian architecture. It is situated in lovely Rosicrucian Park, an outdoor botanical garden and art display, featuring such art objects as this Egyptian Revival sphinx, which dates from the 1930's.

About Us: Rosicrucian AMORC & Egypt

What does the Rosicrucian Order, AMORC have to do with Egypt?

The Rosicrucian movement resurfaced in Western Europe during the tumultuous early decades of the 17th century and continued through the founding of AMORC as an American institution in 1915. Its connections to Egypt are both Organizational and Traditional.

Organizational connections include histories of the succession leadership, etc. The first Imperator of this cycle of Rosicrucian activity, Dr. H. Spencer Lewis, received the authority to continue this work from those who had a direct connection to the early Manifestos and Rosicrucians.

The older connection to Egypt is of a Traditional nature. All Rosicrucians from the 17th century onward understood that the wisdom they received had been transmitted through many paths from the earliest times of human civilization, and were consistent with the teachings of the ancient Mystery Schools.

The first mention of the organization of such Schools is associated by mystics with the reign of King Tuthmosis III during the 15th Century BCE. In addition, the 14th Century BCE King Akhenaten taught the ideal that there was one Divine force behind all things, even the many Gods of Egypt.

[1937] Dr. H. Spencer Lewis and his wife Martha on the AMORC Grand Tour of Egypt.

Thus Rosicrucians trace their Traditional connection back to ancient Egypt because the wisdom and methods they follow are consistent and continuous with those from the Mystery Schools of Egypt through the Rosicrucian Manifestos of the 17th century to the modern-day Rosicrucian Order, AMORC.

From 1915 to 1927 at the Order's early headquarters in New York City, San Francisco, Tampa and finally San José, Dr. Lewis began to collect artifacts from "the Orient," through the generosity of members. In 1921, the Order helped to support the excavations of the Egypt Explorations Society in Tell el Amarna, the city of the King Akhenaten, garnering significant funds for the project.

Dr. Lewis conceived of a public collection, "The Rosicrucian Egyptian Oriental Museum" in 1928. A grand tour of Egypt followed in 1929, and this enthusiasm generated many more donations of artifacts and funds for the Museum. Through successive displays and building, an Egyptian museum gradually grew to be part of San José life.

In November 1966 the new museum building opened. It has the largest display of Egyptian artifacts in the Western U.S., the only such Museum on the planet designed in the Egyptian style, and situated in an Egyptian revival park.

The Museum strives to convey everything that can be reliably known about our artifacts and the role they played in Egyptian history. This careful and scientific study is the necessary basis for any further inquiry, and cannot be shortcut. AMORC supports this approach to Egyptology, through its sponsorship and support of the Museum and its scholarly activities.

The Museum's responsibility is to be the best research and educational institution possible. We strive to make that literal, historical level of knowledge available to all. This permits AMORC members and others, building on the literal level of knowledge to consider how the historical artifact or event or person reveals some truth about humanity, about the nature of the world, about ourselves, and what can we learn from them, applicable to today, or to eternity.