Human efforts to understand and control the invisible forces of the universe characterize all cultures and are a prevailing theme in our cultural history. Over the centuries, women and men have delved into the mysteries and created remarkable thought and belief systems that provide opportunities to explain and interpret our world.

 

The word mysticism is used today for any immediate, direct experience of the deepest reality of existence. Such an experience can be spontaneous or prepared using various techniques and can take place within the framework of a religious tradition or independently of any religious system.

 

Mysticism in the sense of "intuitive sense of unity and harmony" can arise spontaneously, for example in the form of natural experiences. Both such natural mysticism, certain experiences produced by various stimulants, and religious mysticism have the same basic features - they cannot be fully described in words, but they provide a deeper, holistic recognition. They can be prepared but not forced, they are transient and they integrate the mystic with the reality she or he experiences. A mystic is also a person who seeks oneness with the divine and who has an intuitive insight into the divine mystery.

 

In Norway once lived a mystic named Marcello Haugen. He was very concerned with the traditions and rituals of magic, and he saw man as a microcosm of the universe. He believed that all existence is rooted in either opposite or equal terms, that intuitive thinking is far more important than the pursuit of reason, and that in our age certain people have existed with a secret knowledge that can explain "supernatural" powers.

 

Marcello knew a lot about both white and black magic, but of course he was most concerned about everything that had to do with white magic. He warned against the black magic and saw it as his job to help us separate the good from the bad. He believed that one could not exist without the other and that we therefore had much to learn from this contradiction. Marcello knew that this secret mystical knowledge acquired by a mystic could provide great insight and power. He was very keen not to misuse this insight and to use it in the service of good faith. His whole life mission is in many ways a good testimony that he succeeded very well in just this.

 

Mystica Eterna, or the mysticism of eternity, is a motto found in several of his holy places. The names he gave his holy places and the names he gave to many of his closest ones clearly show his sense of inciting our urge to study, learn and understand. He laid out his many traces all over the world, and we have now finally embarked on a journey of discovery in his wonderful life.

 

Marcello was involved in rituals throughout his life and that people should to a much greater extent use different rituals to indicate that one went from one context to another. He was also keen to surprise and challenge every human being to become better acquainted with his own mission here on earth.

 

Marcello's relationship with nature's mysticism had many implications. He was constantly to be found at the top of a tree or sitting with his back against a tree while communicating in his way with everything living in nature. He called the "Cathedral of the Soul" nature and he had his whole life through a deep respect for this wonderful creation. Like the magician Marcello, he meant that everything we see - in many ways is just a manifestation of what we do not see! Marcello was also a member of the Rosor Cross Order AMORC, founded in 1915, and later was one of the founders of Norway. This order is a mysterious, secret spiritual society that reappeared throughout Europe in the 16th century. Intellectual and esoterically oriented people began to shape their own lodgings based on the timeless wisdom we all share. What is called the timeless wisdom has followed a development that has been compared to a golden thread from ancient Egypt, through the esoteric teachings of the Judeo-Christian tradition, and then carried on "underground" by a number of hermetic sects and secret societies, and finally to emerge as an "alternative worldview" in modern times.

 

Some of the practices and principles of the Rosary Order are considered to be incorporated into the rituals and teachings of the Freemasons, and later in the occult ceremonial rites of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Sunrise (closely related to the Theosophical Doctrine "There is no higher religion than the truth").