These mysterious authors, along with a handful of others, released their manifestos into the world under the editorship of the most unlikely of publishers, an ex-grocer and part-time lawyer from Baltimore by the name of William Walker Atkinson.

By 1915 Atkinson was already a prolific publisher. Since 1900, he had been publishing dozens of books, pamphlets, and articles based on the mind-over-matter ideals of “Mental Science,” the notion that the power of human reasoning could be utilized for bettering one's life, whether one sought renewed physical fitness, a promotion at work, or improved relations with friends and family. He was a master at reconciling the practical and the arcane, and his blend of the sixth sense with common sense on topics including memory, positive thinking, and “the law of attraction” (the concept that the thoughts in our mind become things in our lives) fueled one runaway hit after another.

Atkinson was fascinated by Eastern mysticism, and his stable of authors included Hindu gurus who presented health guidelines based on yoga, breath-work, and other Indian teachings. When Magus Incognito's manuscript came across the transom, however, Atkinson recognized in it a means of imparting timeless wisdom of the Western world to satisfy his readership's hunger for self-mastery.

Except the manuscript never actually arrived—at least, not from the outside world. Its origin was in the very office of William Walker Atkinson, the secret identity behind the bestselling authors Yogi Ramacharaka, the aforementioned Swamis Panchadasi and Bhakta Vishita, the French magnetic healer Theron Q. Dumont, the “Three Initiates” of The Kybalion, and now, Magus Incognito.

Atkinson's writings under his own name were successful; just a few years earlier, the Advanced Thought Publishing Company had released his Mind Power: The Secret of Mental Magic, and his name was on a number of Mental Science books and articles released by other publishers. Why then would he want to pen The Secret Doctrine under a pseudonym, one he'd never used before and would retire following the book's publication?

Perhaps he thought the grandiosity of this work was too much to attribute to himself, a mere mortal. Perhaps doing so would diminish the power of the message he wished to convey. But what moved Atkinson to put on the robes and pick up the pen of Magus Incognito more than either of these reasons was that by doing so he was following in the footsteps of the great Rosicrucian authors of history.

The legend underlying Rosicrucianism is that there is a class of men entrusted with a secret, one which gives them a greater understanding of life and reality. Every so often, the legend goes, representatives of this class reveal themselves and impart to a new civilization their ancient teachings. Their claims are so venerable that they predate any other worldviews based on faith or reason, and yet they nonetheless hold true today.

The Brotherhood of the Rosy Cross was one of the outer manifestations of these inner teachings. The group appeared in the ephemeral form of pamphlets published beginning in 1614 laying out the philosophy of the man from which their order took its name, Christian Rosenkreutz, also known as “Frater C.R.C.” Rosenkreutz was a widely traveled scholar and mystical practitioner more than one hundred years dead at that point, but one whose insight into human nature and mankind's collective potential for positive change was several centuries ahead of its time. The Brotherhood of the Rosy Cross held up Rosenkreutz as an exemplar for all of humanity, and the progressive ideals they outlined regarding spiritual alchemy and the free healing of the sick were revolutionary enough that their pamphlets were reprinted instantly in translations across Europe, catching the disapproving attention of both Church and State. Suspected association with the revolutionary Brotherhood was highly politicized, and because of this the members of this “Invisible College” remained hidden. Rumors abounded that this or that public figure was a Rosicrucian, and when René Descartes was cornered and pressured to confess, he dodged punishment with the defense that he couldn't possibly be a Rosicrucian as long as he was still visible by his accusers.

It was through this sort of deft maneuvering that the Brotherhood of the Rosy Cross survived, mainly in the imaginations of those who heard of it, but now and again in the hands of writers and printers who would present another manifesto to the world. That there was such marked desire among these publishers and their readers to join made the Rosicrucians a bit—a tiny bit, mind you—more solid and real. But no matter how ephemeral the actual members turned out to be, Rosicrucianism was pure gold to philosophers and publishers alike. As Magus Incognito, William Walker Atkinson was of the mind that this might still be true three hundred years later.

What is perhaps most fascinating about the writings of the Brotherhood of the Rosy Cross, and all the writings their work has since inspired, is not the spiritual or political leaps they ask of their readers, or even that there was a man in the 1400s whose thoughts were worth such a complete revision of society. No, the most incredible truth is that the Brotherhood only half-heartedly claimed to believe in Rosenkreutz's existence at all. His truth, their truth, was one which needed no figurehead, required no priest or king or even an established council of decision makers. For these early Rosicrucians, there was nothing more real than the power of the individual human being's imagination, a fire which could be passed from mind to enlightened mind through books and pamphlets and oral teachings, and from one generation to the next. This is how Frater C.R.C. had passed it to them, and this is how he learned it during his travels in the Middle East. The Arab and Indian sages had preserved the knowledge of ancient Egypt, Greece, and Babylonia, and they in turn had learned it from . . . well, it's only my task here to introduce you to The Secret Doctrine. I'll leave it to Magus Incognito to reveal the true secrets to you himself.

If a bit of pomp and circumstance helped the transmission along, if far-fetched claims and mystery nabbed a bit more attention, then so be it. And who among the readership of 1915 would believe that all this strange, wily wisdom could come from the mind and pen of a semi-retired attorney from Baltimore? It was better for all parties concerned to picture Magus Incognito himself, sporting a Middle Eastern cloak and fez, his gray beard neatly combed and waxed into forked points to better illustrate the dual nature of reality. Atkinson hedged his bets and went with the latter persona, and then as well as today it gives The Secret Doctrine of the Rosicrucians a feeling of special wisdom imparted, a book not for everyone but only those who are ready to receive it.

One of the first truths that 21st-century seekers of occult knowledge learn is that the hidden teachings of the Rosicrucians are never further than a few clicks away.