The rose and the cross
The combined emblem predates the manifestos: the rose as a symbol of secrecy (the Latin phrase sub rosa, "under the rose," meant confidentiality) and of unfolding spiritual perfection, laid over the cross as a symbol of the body, of matter, and of Christian suffering and redemption. Together they were read as spirit blooming through and beyond matter — the central alchemical claim that the material world is the ground where transformation happens, not an obstacle to escape.
The dew
Alchemical tradition treated morning dew as a substance gathered at dawn for use in the Great Work, believed to carry a subtle universal spirit distilled from the air overnight. Rosicrucian texts use dew-gathering as a metaphor for patient, humble spiritual practice — small, repeated collection rather than one dramatic transformation. The word "Rosicrucian" itself has sometimes been folk-derived (inaccurately, most linguists agree) from Latin ros (dew) and crux (cross), reinforcing the association even though the name more plausibly comes directly from Rosenkreutz's surname.
Colors
Red and white recur throughout Rosicrucian and broader alchemical imagery: white for the alchemical stage of purification (albedo) and gold or red for the completed Great Work (rubedo). Later organizations formalized red and gold as the movement's visual identity, often set against black or deep burgundy grounds.
The phoenix and the pelican
Both birds appear across Rosicrucian-influenced art as symbols of self-sacrificing transformation: the phoenix consumed and reborn from its own ashes, the pelican wounding its own breast to feed its young with its blood, a medieval Christian symbol for Christ that alchemical writers repurposed for the adept's self-transformation through the Work.
The seven-sided vault
The tomb described in the Fama is explicitly seven-sided, evoking the seven classical planets and their alchemical metals — a structure meant to be read as a compressed map of the cosmos rather than an architectural description.
Many symbols now associated with "Rosicrucianism" in popular culture — specific grade structures, elaborate lodge regalia, particular sigils — were introduced by 18th- and 19th-century organizations like the Gold- und Rosenkreuz and the Golden Dawn, not by the original 1614–1616 texts. Where a symbol originates matters if you're trying to trace what's actually old versus what's a later organizational invention dressed in old language.