Ancient Astronauts: A Rosicrucian Connection?

It's fairly well established that the ancient astronaut theory owes more than a little to the wild speculations of the Theosophists, whose texts early ancient astronaut theorists mined shamelessly for nuggets to include in their books. This is no secret; Erich von Daniken among others specifically cites Theosophical claims and concepts by name, such as Madame Blavatsky's fictive Book of Dzyan.

Theosophy's influence was pernicious. I found today this fascinating text from an esoteric Rosicrucian group, the Rosicrucian Brotherhood, that aimed to marry Theosophy's ancient astronauts to the mysteries hinted at within the teachings of Jesus. The group was founded by the German Max Heindel, who wrote its key text, The Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception (1909), supposedly translated from a German original dictated by mysterious Elder Brothers in a cave along the German-Bohemian border.

The group's mystical claims about human evolution, spirituality, and the need to prepare for the upcoming Age of Aquarius are not particularly relevant here, but in Heindel's book there appears the following passage, obviously derived from and expanding upon Theosophy, that reads as close as one could imagine to a page from Chariots of the Gods, or even to the conspiratorial sections of Graham Hancock's works that claimed a forgotten brotherhood of adepts. A remarkable coincidence, wouldn't you say?

The Beings who inhabit Venus and Mercury are not quite so far advanced as those whose present field of evolution is the Sun, but they are very much further advanced than our humanity. […] Some of the inhabitants of each planet were sent to the Earth to help nascent humanity and are known to occult scientists as the "Lords of Venus" and the "Lords of Mercury."

The Lords of Venus were leaders of the masses of our people. They were inferior beings of the Venus evolution, who appeared among men and were known as "messengers of the Gods." For the good of our humanity they led and guided it, step by step. There was no rebellion against their authority, because man had not yet evolved an independent will. It was to bring him to the stage where he would be able to manifest will and judgment that they guided him, until he should be able to guide himself.

It was known that these messengers communed with the Gods. They were held in deep reverence and their commands were obeyed without question.

When under the tuition of these Beings mankind had reached a certain stage of progress, the most advanced were placed under the guidance of the Lords of Mercury, who initiated them into the higher truths for the purpose of making them leaders of the people. These Initiates were then exalted to kingship and were the founders of the dynasties of Divine Rulers who were indeed kings "by the grace of God," i. e., by the grace of the Lords of Venus and Mercury, who were as Gods to infant humanity. They guided and instructed the kings for the good of the people and not for self-aggrandizement and arrogation of rights at their expense.

Source: Max Heindel, The Rosicrucian Cosmo-Connection, or, Mystic Christianity, 3rd ed. (Oceanside, California: Rosicrucian Fellowship, 1911), 271-272.