Rosicrucians

Group of early 17th-century philosophers who claimed occult powers and employed the terminology of alchemy to expound their mystical doctrines (said to derive from Paracelsus). The name comes from books published in 1614 and 1615, attributed to Christian Rosenkreutz (‘rosy cross’), most probably a pen-name but allegedly a writer living around 1460. Several societies have been founded in Britain and the USA that claim to be their successors, such as the Rosicrucian Fraternity (1614 in Germany, 1861 in the USA).