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The Rosicrucian Salon

presents

Black Mirrors
All content Copyright 2001 Michael Nowicki

One of the least known stories about H Spencer Lewis was his use of black mirrors for
mystical work. His personal sanctum incorporated one. See photos below.

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What are these mirrors? Back in the old days of AMORC when H. Spencer Lewis was
Imperator he designed and had made about two dozen special mirrors for experimental use by
members of the higher degrees. He wrote up special experiments and exercises for them to try
and report back to him PERSONALLY the results.

Before long these members were reporting back wide-eyed tales of incredible sanctum
experiences that if summed up could best be described as "intensely Cabalistic". When the
experiment cycle was over HSL requested rather insistently that all mirrors be returned to him
right away. Most were returned but I suspect there may be a few out there other than the one I
have.

Back in the 1970's I interviewed 4 old members of AMORC and according to the consensus
HSL was looking for a specialized mirror design for official RC sanctum use and it's only
purpose was for metaphysical work, unlike the regular dresser mirrors that were commonly
recommended for use in sanctums. These mirrors were however, very expensive to produce and
beyond the reach of what most people could afford.
These experiments with the colored mirrors and their use of color in meditation coincided
with HSL's own research on the subject that later became a part of the 12th Degree.

These mirrors were made of thick glass and measure 18" by 12". One side is treated with a
flat coating of a very dark purple-black dye. I've had it analyzed by scientists at U of Chicago
and Stanford U here in California and the results are that it's a type of coal tar dye commonly
used in those days for a lot of industrial application but also metaphysical optical instruments
by occult experimenters. Plus there were trace amount of silver and other substances. The
color is unlike anything I've seen. Very very dark purple, or black with a tiny touch of purple.
Similar to the color you get if you sandwich several Kodak Wratten #36 color photography
filters together and hold them to the light. Close but not exact.
Color does produce an effect as we all know. These mirrors were really keyed into some color
harmonic that was especially conducive to initiating mystical experiences in those who were
already familiar with the practical use of regular mirrors in their sanctum.

Take a look around where Rosicrucians gather and ask your senior citizen AMORC friends.
Maybe there's one of these black mirrors laying about and no one knows what it is. My
description should help to identify it.

How did I get one? When I was working at RC Park in 1974 they were cleaning out an old

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storeroom to make way for a new set of offices. Among the "junk" was a wooden crate with a
dozen black mirrors! When I saw them I knew exactly what they were and confirmed it with
my boss there who was himself an old-timer and knew HSL and RML quite well. In fact it was
he who first told me the story of these mirrors and even he didn't know any still existed. For the
princely sum of a $2 contribution to AMORC I was allowed to take one home along with a
receipt for "1 pane of colored glass". Later I went back to try to buy the rest but they had
already been taken to the garbage dump!

The best way to describe the black mirror is to compare it to the regular reflective sanctum
mirror. If the regular mirror is like a general purpose radio receiver with a somewhat
unidirectional whip antenna then the black mirror is like a military spy radio that can home in
on one frequency and cancel out all side-channel crosstalk with a highly directional antenna.
In other words it's useful for meditating on one very specific idea, concept or symbol and
amplifying and magnifying in on it to an exceptional degree.
It does have a downside however. It requires the use of tight focused concentration but if you
should use it and just go into a general unfocused meditative state you'll get some bizarre and
even unpleasant results. Remember that scene from Star Wars during Luke's Jedi training
where Yoda sends him into a dark cave. Luke asks Yoda what's in the cave and Yoda replies
"Only that which you bring with you".

If you want to read more on this fascinating subject or even build a black mirror yourself I
want to refer you to a book on the subject called "How to Make and Use a Magic Mirror" by
Donald Tyson. It costs only $9 and can be ordered from Amazon and most metaphysical
bookstores can order you a copy.

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