From Pat Deveney's journal database:

American Rosae Crucis.
Official Publication of Rosicrucian Mysticism / A Magazine of Life's Mysteries / A Monthly Magazine Devoted to Science, Philosophy and Religion.
1916--1920 Monthly, then irregular in second year
New York: NY. Publisher: Culture Publishing Company. Editor: Harvey Spencer Lewis, Thor Kiimalehto, business manager, William C. Bittel, editor-in-chief. Succeeded by: Cromaat-->American Rosae Crucis (April, May and June 1920)-->The Triangle-->The Mystic Triangle‚>Rosicrucian Digest
Corporate author: Supreme Lodge, Ancient and Mystical Order Rosae Crucis (A.M.O.R.C.)
1/1, January 1916-2/9, December 1917; with the last three issues published in April, May and June 1920, after several years of being published as Cromaat. $1,50 a year, 32-60 pages, all well laid out and illustrated by good plates and occasionally by photographs. By late in the first year, the issues began to appear increasingly late, and the numbers for March, April and May 1917 were omitted to catch up--with promises of extending subscriptions later, a promise that was honored, after a hiatus, in 1920. $2.50 a year. The journal has now been reprinted by Kessinger.

This was the first occult shot of H. Spencer Lewis (1883-1939) and his Ancient and Mystical Order Rosae Crucis (A.M.O.R.C.), the most successful occult organization of the twentieth century. Historically, Lewis, like his arch-rival, Reuben Swinburne Clymer, was a victim of his own youthful exaggerations and claims. In the early years (1913-1918) before his organization had achieved success, he strove to attract attention and spun implausible tales of ancient Egyptian connections and brother Rosicrucians around the globe, claimed initiation in the vast Temple of the Rosicrucians in Toulouse, and produced as evidence of his bona fides the famous "Pronunziamento R.F.R.C. 987.432" of the French Rosicrucians authorizing him to set up an American branch. (Aleister Crowley, who enters into this story, later wrote Lewis about the authors of his charter: "I also did you a good turn in respect of the Charter purporting to be from the French Rosicrucians in Toulouse, by pointing out that if they had mastered all the secrets of Nature, those of the elementary rules of French grammar still baffled them, so that you wisely withdrew the document."). Lewis's still earlier history is even more dubious. In April 1908, the Post Office issued a "fraud order" (Docket no. 109929) prohibiting the use of the mails to Future Magazine and its principals Professor Lewis, Prof. H. Spencer Lewis, The Lewis Co., H. Spencer & Co., and an unknown "E. Smith." On the return date of the order to show cause to bar delivery of mail or payment of mail orders, Lewis appeared accompanied by F.T. McIntyre, which ties him and his otherwise unknown Future Magazine to the panorama of fraudulent enterprises connected with McIntyre, including Modern Miracles which Lewis had been helping edit since about 1906 and whose primary editor was the wife of Elmer S. Prather (Elmer S. Knowles). Prather and McIntyre had been the principals of the Metropolitan Institute of Science, whose efforts included lessons on Personal Influence, Hindoo Methods of Hypnotism, and the like. The Metropolitan Institute itself had been prohibited from the mails by a fraud order entered November 18, 1907, and Modern Miracles (with its attendant personnel and components, the American Temple of Astrology, the Psycho Success Club, Albert H. Postel, Prather and Knowles) served with an order to show cause to ban them from the mails, although only only Postel and the School of Astrology were finally barred. Apparently Lewis and McIntyre had been using Future Magazine as the vehicle for a scheme for selling pre-printed horoscopes for $3.00, as well as a full line of charms for becoming expert in hypnotism. It should be noted that Lewis's acquaintance with R.S. Clymer dates to his editorship of Modern Miracles, in which Clymer serially published one of his first books. Lewis's early claims of Rosicrucian connections were ludicrous, but he was stuck with them, though in his later histories of the order he was inclined to gloss over and ignore the more outrageous early proclamations and claim mystic silence on his unknown superiors. Lewis certainly met Crowley in the period 1914-1918 and it seems probable that he was at least prepared to rest his work on Crowley's A.A. (Astrum Argentum) or O.T.O. (Ordo Templi Orientis) authority; certainly he later exhibited with pride Theodor Reuss' 1921 diploma for honorary 33rd, 90th and 95th degrees in the Rite of Memphis and Misraim--which he made into the cornerstone of the Supreme High Council of the Universe, through its Great White Collegium. Robert Vanloo concludes that the A.M.O.R.C. is not an offshoot of the O.T.O., mainly because it did not teach the sexual mysteries. Robert Vanloo, "Controversy around a document. Is A.M.O.R.C. or not an offspring of O.T.O.?" Online at user.cyberlink.ch/~koenig/sunrise/ vanloo/ameng.htm. Considering the prevalence of teachings and lessons on the sexual side of occultism in contemporary groups, including those who undoubtedly influenced Lewis (such as William Walker Atkinson) the lack of sexual symbolism and practice is in indeed surprising. In The Triangle 1/1 (March 21, 1923): 3, Lewis made the point explicitly: "The unnecessary introduction of matters pertaining to ‘sex relationship' and ancient sex worship into some of the so-called mystic philosophies and occult books of today is not only disgusting to the clean and wholesome mind, but it indicates a revival of a period of looseness and animal instincts which marked one phase of man's primitive evolution. . . . It has no place in true Rosicrucian teachings. Seek in every old book, every old manuscript of the writings and philosophies of the ancient Rosicrucians and you will find no reference to this ‘sex philosophy.'" The bibliography of Lewis's early publications, including his journals, has been set out by David T. Rocks, "H. Spencer Lewis: A Bibliographical Survey," Theosophical History 6/6 (April 1997): 219-227. NYPL microfilm; LOC.

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