The Mystical Kabbalistic-Rosicrucian-Gnostic Order of the Mustard Seed
I found a curious item the other day. At DeceptionBytes, Mishel wrote a post titled ‘The Hidden Agenda of The Order of the Mustard Seed.’ The first two paragraphs of which, are:
Peter Grieg of the 24-7 Prayer Movement, an international, ecumenical movement laced with Gnostic, New-Age, and Contemplative spirituality, is reviving the 17th century Order of the Mustard Seed and encouraging members to take a lifelong vow of commitment. This commitment to the vows of the Order, are to be symbolized with a ring or tattoo. The Order of the Mustard seed, which was originally a secret order started by Count Nikolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf, is a long dormant Masonic Order. Greig says he was inspired to resurrect the order by the 18th century Moravian renewal and the life of Count Zinzendorf. In fact, many of those in the Apostolic and Prophetic Movement, who embrace a world-view by which they believe themselves God’s Champions, bringing Heaven to Earth, have a rabid fascination with Zinzendorf and the Moravians.
Why, are so many of the ministries that seek to “take” the world for Christ, enraptured by the Moravians and why do the Moravians wield this kind of influence over this “New Breed” of Christian “emerging” in today’s post modern church era? In order to understand the horrific significance of the resurrection of this Order and the overall draw of Zinzendorf’s Moravians, it is first imperative to understand the history of this movement and how it fits together with today’s stringent social and political agenda.
The full name of the secret society was the Order of the Grain of Mustard Seed. I’m reading a book right now by Marsha Schuchard called Why Mrs Blake Cried: William Blake and the Erotic Imagination - a book-length expansion of her earlier scholarly article. There’s some rare info on Zinzendorf, Swedenborg, William Blake and the Masonic Sabbatean-Kabbalistic (antinomian) milieu of the 18th Century. The Mustard Seed secret society is mentioned a few times, too.
(p. 17):
Fired with adolescent idealism, Zinzendorf and five other schoolboys organised a secret society, the ‘Order of the Grain of Mustard Seed’, a kind of spiritual knighthood, with the count serving as Grand Master. The first article of the Order affirmed that ‘the members of our society will love the whole human family’, and as the crusaders for Christ they will seek conciliation with Jews. This enterprise would bring Zinzendorf into unusual contact with heterodox Hebrew and Christian students of Kabbala, the esoteric tradition of Jewish mysticism, seen by many Pietists as a via media between the two religions.
On page 87, she links Zinzendorf’s Mustard Seed to Swedenborg, the Jacobites, and the Ephrata Rosicrucians:
In the multi-layered symbolism of his [Swedenborg's] dream language, he seemed to refer to his desire to join Zinzendorf’s Order of the Mustard Seed, which included members important to the Hat-Jacobite political agenda. Influenced by his initiatory experiences at Ephrata, the count had recently transformed the Order into an international, hierarchical secret society, in which ‘members were often kept unknown to each other, and their connection with the Order carefully concealed from all’. To ensure secrecy, the ‘candidate never knew the frater who received him’. According to C. G. von Murr, the new Order of the Mustard Seed was a ‘pale imitation of the Society of the Rosicrucians’ and a form of ’spiritual Freemasonry’. While critics charged that Zinzendorf ‘bestows orders of knighthood’, his initiates wore a ‘Templar style cross’. Thus Swedenborg’s reference to the oil and mustard suggests his desire to join the intensely secretive Order of the Mustard Seed, whose Rosicrucian rituals would give him new life.
In the next paragraph Schuchard asserts that Zinzendorf was interested in alchemy; that some the Moravian brethren experimented with “chemicals and crucibles,” and had a “Notion of Divinity [that] is apt to appear almost like Alchemy, or the Art of Making the Philosopher’s Stone” - the latter being a direct quote from a Zinzendorf maxim.
The last mention by Schuchard of the Mustard Seed Order is on page 106. She mentions the Order in connection with the Kartabhajas of India. Moravian missionaries, it seems, learned of tantric sexual magic from these hindi masters (as well as from the Sabbatean Kabbalists). And curiously, she says, “the burning of spark-emitting mustard seeds was a ’standard feature’ of the Tantrists’ sorcery.”
Tags: Freemasonry, Moravian Brethren, Rosicrucians, Sabbateanism, Tantrism, Terry Melanson, Zinzendorf
PERFECTIBILISTS: The 18th Century Bavarian Order of the Illuminati
The Ascendancy of the Scientific Dictatorship
Memoirs Illustrating the History of Jacobinism
Fire in the Minds of Men: Origins of the Revolutionary Faith
America's Secret Establishment: An Introduction to the Order of Skull & Bones
January 29th, 2009 at 3:31 pm
Curious indeed! About 2 months ago I was driving on a lonely country road near my home and in the middle of the road, kid you not, was book with the cover torn off. I picked it up, and it was a Swedenborgian doctrinal manual. Needless to say, in Tennessee there aren’t a lot of Swedenborgian “churches.” I knew this couldn’t be mere coincidence and that for sure in the next few weeks something related to this cult would pop up. Here it is. Lol.
January 29th, 2009 at 4:19 pm
I was interested in the idea of the mustard seed as a symbol. I learned that the sign of a member of Mensa is a mustard seed. Mensa members who were interested in broadcasting the fact wore a hatpin type lapel pin with a yellow head. I cannot see any connection here but it is interesting. I wonder if anyone else sees one.
February 3rd, 2009 at 4:44 am
You know, mustard is also good on hot dogs and hamburgers. Interesting fact.
August 23rd, 2009 at 9:14 pm
I was just reading Secret Teachings of All Ages by Manly P Hall and i found some relevant information.
“There is no greater miracle in the growing and multiplication of gold by the alchemist than in a tiny mustard seed producing a bush many thousands of times the size of the seed. If a mustard seed produces a hundred thousand times its own size and weight when planted in an etirely different substance (the earth), why should not the seed of gold be multiplied a hundred thousand times by art when that seed is planted in its earth (the base metals) and nourished artificially by the secret process of alchemy?”
September 1st, 2009 at 9:20 am
Yes, really. All above told the truth. We can communicate on this theme. Here or in PM.
February 25th, 2010 at 1:27 am
Today I saw a comment left on you tube (i forget the video) stating that the (inter)net was prophesied in the Bible. Upon some googling after information regarding this statement I came across this: The Net
Thu May 4, 2006 (3:39 am)
Here are some old and new thoughts I have put together on the Internet in prophesy.
“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a net, that was cast into the sea, and gathered of every kind:” (Matthew 13:47)
Here the kingdom of heaven is like a net. Other places we are told it is like a “good seed,” a “mustard seed,” “leaven,” “a treasure hid in a field,” “a business man” (”merchant”), a “king” and “ten virgins.”
a “good seed,” a “mustard seed,” “leaven,” “a treasure hid in a field,” I had never heard of The Mystical Kabbalistic-Rosicrucian-Gnostic Order of the Mustard Seed before and came across the page purely by chance…well, I have Chris White and Michael Tsarion to thank but it’s been surprising none the less.
November 1st, 2010 at 7:59 pm
These sensationalistic claims about Zinzendorf and the Moravians are simply untrue. The Moravian Church is one of the most heavily documented in history, records still exist of nearly every day of missionary activity. I have personally done research in the archives in Bethlehem, PA, Herrnhut Germany and Winston-Salem NC. Suchard’s book (which I have) is interesting but much of her theory is based on William Blake’s perception of people who mostly died before he was born. These are not “facts.” I know from primary research that many of her statements about Rosicrucians are simply untrue, based on filling in blanks with no evidence. There is NO evidence that the Ephrata cloister had Rocicrucian practices, and Zinzendorf actually did not have a good relationship with Beisel.
The Moravians have done tremendous work throughout the world for over 500 years, it is a shame to make such baseless claims.
November 3rd, 2010 at 6:50 pm
Schuchard does jump to conclusions a lot, that I will give you. You may have experience in Moravian archives but are you equally as familiarized with Sabbatean and Frankist thought, antinomianism in millenarian sects, Lurianic Kabbalah, Boehmist theosophic mysticism, and the entire millieu of Masonic and occult secret societies during the 18th Century? This is the scope of Schuchard’s efforts.
Also, what do YOU define as “Roscicrucian practices”? I’d say you’re stretching a bit here too. “Rosicrucianism” is as eclectic as it comes. In short, it is an amalgamation of neo-platonism, mysticism, Paracelcian alchemy, hermetic utopianism, philosophy, kabbalah and christian theosophy.
And see also:
“The Alchemy of the Voice at Ephrata Cloister“
December 28th, 2010 at 12:57 am
The excessively free use of the term “Rosicrucian” for practically any secret practice is not only inaccurate but intentionally controversial and muddies any discussion rather than adding clarity. Defining an activity as Rosicrucian when the people involved did not identify themselves in that way is simply inaccurate, I’m not “stretching” anything.
From “The Alchemy of the Voice at Ephrata Cloister“ you refered to:
“Bach argues that the “significant differences between [The Chemical Wedding] and Beissel’s sermon outweigh the likenesses. The dissimilarities argue against any suggestion that Beissel was writing an explicitly Rosicrucian allegory.”
January 5th, 2011 at 12:29 pm
Hi. Will all due respect to Bach’s claims, I am an Elder in the Sabbatarian tradition of the Ephrata Cloister (through my membership of the Snow Hill daughter community of Ephrata). I have researched our community’s archives and have translated Beissel’s pivotal 67th sermon (see “Light Dawning,” by Russell Yoder, M. Div. published by the JD Holmes Group). Judge for yourself with an open mind, the clear similarities between Chemical Wedding and Beissel’s Allegory.
July 23rd, 2012 at 3:39 pm
I’m writing a mystery novel about Zinzendorf and the Moravian Church’s connections to the mystery traditions. I’ll let you know when it’s published. I’ve had a blast researching this.