Controversy
Considerable controversy surrounds the origins of the Cipher Manuscripts. Westcott claimed Sprengel was a German Adept of the 'Gold- und Rosenkreuzer' Order who wrote letters to Westcott and Mathers granting them permission to establish the Order in England. Mathers later claimed that only the letters were forgeries, but it seems unlikely that Westcott or Mathers wrote the Manuscripts themselves, as some believe.
There is considerable doubt among scholars that Westcott's story is accurate. In particular, the age and contents of the documents have been the subject of much controversy.
- The manuscripts are written on paper watermarked 1809, yet contain reference to Egyptian imagery that was unknown to scholars before the deciphering of the Rosetta stone in 1822.
- References are made to the connection between the Qabalistic Tree of Life and the Tarot trumps. This idea was first put forth by French author Eliphas Levi in 1855.
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