The Spring Equinox on March 20 welcomed in the Rosicrucian New Year 3372 which commemorates the birth of Pharaoh Akhenaten (Amenhotep IV), the ancient Egyptian pharaoh who is the spiritual founder of our order.

This new year is a very exciting time for AMORC members here in Oregon/Southwest Washington and for the Enneadic Star Pronaos. We are embarking on an ambitious new project, and we want your help!

Our vision is to grow the local group from a Pronaos to a Chapter! A Chapter is a much larger group that brings it with new rituals, new officer positions, and new services for attending members. To create a Chapter we will need more members to attend convocation. How many? Well, we’ll have to have 30 members in attendance at a convocation, at least three times this year.  It’s an ambitious goal. But it’s one of the best ways we can better serve you, the members, initiates, and seekers of this region.

Over the last few months we’ve launched several new initiatives:
Our Outreach campaign to all members
Surveying members and their needs
Creating a new blog and social media pages
Renewing our focus on the quality of the convocation ritual
Offering open classes for members and the public
Offering Pronaos initiations

Other projects are in the works: 
Carpool network
Online discussion group
Searching for new meeting and ritual spaces
More open classes and workshops!

We’re already seeing the results of these efforts with increased attendance, new members coming into AMORC and a renewed sense of energy in the egregore.

It takes time though. We are in this for a long haul.

A VISION FOR A CHAPTER

A Chapter is an exceptional group in AMORC, one veiled in mystery and pageantry.
As you may already know, the affiliated bodies in AMORC are classified based on how many active participants they have.

They are ranked as follows, from smallest to largest: Discussion Group, Atrium Group, Pronaos, Chapter and Lodge. Deeply esoteric ritual work begins at the Chapter level.

Here are just a few of the rituals that are open to you as a Chapter member:
Thanksgiving Ritual
Memorial Ceremony: to commemorate a member who has gone through Transition.
Pythagorean Ritual
Appellation Ritual: the naming of a child
Funeral Rituals
Rosicrucian Wedding

Lodges offer the most complex rituals and offer the degree initiations that blow the sock of the initiations you do at home, just saying… (If you have the time and resources, please do what it takes to get to your closest Lodge and get your degree initiations).

A Pronaos, like the Enneadic Star, is a more ceremonial version of an Atrium group. It requires three officers. At the next level, Chapter, we begin to enter the truly mysterious and highly ritualized ceremonies one would expect to find in a temple setting.

Ceremonial officers dress in elaborate and colorful robes and ritual attire, that include swords, torches, and other ritual tools. At the Chapter level, new positions emerge.

They are:
The Inner and Outer Guardians: sentinels who protect the ritual space
The Chaplain: who provides wisdom on the creation of the universe
The Colombe or Colombes: girls and young women who symbolizes conscience and purity and who purifies the temple space
The Chanter and the Chantress: who perform the vowel sounds
The Matre: a symbolic mother of the temple space and the group

And again, depending on the ritual, there are other ritual positions that are filled for just that one ritual.

These positions create a more profound, resonating and elaborate ritual experience.
The Oregon group was formerly a Lodge (50 or more people attending 3 or more times a year) and then a Chapter and we absolutely can become one again. We still have all our ceremonial robes, attire and props in storage in Seattle. We plan to bring the materials back to Oregon where they belong in the coming months.

The new possibilities are endless. It’s exciting!

All we must do is meet the attendance standards set by the Grand Lodge. As stated above, that means that we need a convocation attendance of 30 members at least three times this year.

All we need to do to help is show up and bring a Rosicrucian friend.

The benefits of attending the Pronaos are profound. Members have the privilege of home study, of course. But those who participate in regular rituals advance faster, get their questions answer more efficiently and are less likely to fall away from the path. They can also practice experiments that are not possible to do at home. This is doubly so of a Chapter.

Ultimately, the local group serves the needs of the members. Your mystical needs are our central concern. We heard from many of you in last year’s survey that you want ritual events to feel more mystical. This is our long-range vision for achieving that goal.
Does this sound good to you? Do you have questions?

Make it your personal mission this year to see the group gets to the next level by committing to come to convocation and bring other members with you. We’ll post attendance numbers each month so people can see our progress. And if you’d like to volunteer some time to help bring this reality to the light, please email us.

Peace Profound.