With perfect weather on hand, we decided to drive to the Bay Area last weekend to see a special exhibition at the de Young Museum in San Francisco on Sunday before it ends in two weeks. To make a mini-trip out of it, we decided to approach San Francisco from the south, via San Jose, and take in three sites that tickle our fancy. We were encouraged to prepare a blog of the "trip" by those who claim to have gone into withdrawal symptoms in the absence of any for several months.
The first stop in late morning was San Jose's Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum. Norm remembers the Rosicrucian name from those days in the 1950's when his monthly Galaxy Science Fiction magazine came in the mail and its back cover invariably showed a man spreadeagled on a slanted slab of rock with a beam of light emanating from outer space focused on his head. Readers were encouraged by the ad to become Rosicrucians. Norm recalls thinking at the time what a famous man decades later would exclaim about an inauguration address: "That's some weird s**t!".
Wikipedia can tell you more, but societies and fraternal organizations that bandy about words such as "mystic", "ancient", "secret symbols and ceremonies" and the like seem to want to join at the hip with ancient Egypt, even if they only came into being three or four hundred years ago. All that being said, none of this detracts from the museum itself, with is professional, straightforward, lots of good stuff.
Rosicrucian Park is situated in an area that was once mostly orchards and farmland. Conceived in 1927 by H. Spencer Lewis, the founder of the Rosicrucian Order, AMORC, Rosicrucian Park now covers an entire city block.
Architecturally inspired by the Temple of Amon at Karnak, Egypt, the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum houses the largest collection of ancient Egyptian artifacts on display in Western North America, including objects from pre-dynastic times through Egypt's early Islamic era, as well as Assyrian and Babylonian artifacts.
A lot safer seeing this building rising up out of the San Jose shrubbery than visiting the real Karnak in Egypt.
The curvature is thanks to the pan shot so all of the magnificence could be included. Quite stately.
Okay, this sign is a bit cheesy, but so is is the song "Walk Like an Egyptian".
This could easily be a private residence in Palm Springs
Nothing mystical about this sign - just the facts, ma'am. A good deal at 7 bucks each. The planetarium is in a separate building of delightful design. For a photo of it you'll need the Internet.
Those ancient ones simply MUST have been privy to mystic secrets of eternal life that we, today, want to tap in to.
"AMORC" stands for Ancient Mystical Order of the Rose Cross.
These items were revealed when a mummy was unwrapped.
It wasn't all pyramids and bulky constructions. This could be the design for a new Google HQ and would no doubt well express management's opinion of themselves.
This is a broad shot of the "afterlife" room.
This sarcophagus is real, not Memorex. Much of what is in the museum is ancient. However, particularly with some of the larger pieces, some are museum authorized castings of originals in the British and Berlin Museums.
3300 years ago, one part of living forever was to put the primary organs into jars and then encase them fancy-like in their own little tomb. Yes, complex rituals.
Cricket says, "dollars to donuts ("donuts", mmmmm) Mom's going to take me into that black hole over there. I can't look!".
Norm says, "Don't worry Cricket...trust me".
Again, all this for 7 bucks.
A recreation from the original of a tomb interior.
Back at the entryway, this is one of the museum casts.
Many displays.
More displays.
This coffin is REALLY old, as indicated by its relative crudity.
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Where Modigliani got his idea for elongated figures?
We saw the original in Berlin - Norm's kicking himself for not saving big travel bucks.
The smile on this statue is that of a tax collector dreaming of April 15.
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