The Legend Of The Hermit

by Neil Arnold
Is it just a whisper on the wind that strange people, resembling a bizarre cult, once inhabited Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and became known as the Wissahickon Cult? The cult is considered the first of such Doomsday worshipers and is said to have formed in the 1600s.

They slept under the stars. They ate only what they could grow or find. Some say that they were members of America’s first Doomsday Cult – a secret order formed in the 1600s called The Hermits of Wissahickon. The hermits – who also called themselves the Tabernacle of the Mystic Brotherhood, or The Society of the Woman in the Wilderness – fascinated local residents with their esoteric practices.

Ritual magic, herbal medicine, numerology, alchemy, astrology, shamanism, and body modification – those are just a few of the alleged practices of the Brotherhood. The hermits were skilled in medicine and instrumental music, and Kelpius was a respected scholar. Numerology was big among the Brotherhood and 40 was a key number.

Some would say they were once disciples of Satan, but perhaps their mystical awareness merely came from a worship of nature and an understanding of the planet, instead of from sinister sources. Strangely, there are roads in Philly named after the legacy of the people. Hermit Street and Monastery Avenue are said to be named after the cult who were also known as the Tabernacle of the Mystic Brotherhood.

Their last surviving hermit supposedly had the ability to turn ordinary objects into gold. Legend states that he trusted a friend to cast a golden stone into the Schuylkill River as an ode to the lady of the lake, and once thrown, shards of glittering gems littered the ground and a bright flash filled the night air. Variations of the legend claim that it was not a stone thrown into the depths, but a casket that exploded, its illuminations resembling spears of lightning.

No one really knows the truth regarding the unusual hermit clan, but at Fairmount Park a huge monolith stands to honor the founder of the order, a man named Johannes Kelp, who was known to his disciples as Kelpius.

 
A mysterious cave also remains in Wissahickon, which was supposedly once inhabited by such a group, or cult. There they were said to practice strange rituals and have visions pertaining to shamanistic powers and numerology.

The marker at the cave declares that Kelpius was the first Rosicrucian master in America. The Rosicrucians (meaning rose and cross) are a worldwide brotherhood that claims to have secret wisdom dating to ancient Egypt. The group describes itself as a philosophy and fraternity but not a religion.

The truth of the Brotherhood remains as hidden today as it did back then, yet it seems that these people were merely great visionaries and not something akin to witches, and so the tragedy of misunderstanding once again prevails, but thankfully there are still remnants of these gifted people in the modern day.

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