Oswald Wirth (1860-1943), but not alone, wrote three classic books about the three degrees of Freemasonry. La Franc-maçonnerie rendue intelligible à ses adeptes, sa philosophie, son objet, sa méthode, ses moyens, or ‘Freemasonry made intelligible to its followers: its philosophy, its purpose, its method, its means’.
In 1893 appeared Vol. I: Le livre de l’Apprenti : manuel d’instruction rédigé à l’usage des FF. du 1er degré. Vol. I: The Apprentice’s Book: Instruction manual written for the use of 1st degree Freemasons.
In 1912: Vol. II: Le livre du Compagnon : manuel d’instruction rédigé à l’usage des FF. du 2° degré, ‘Vol. II: The Fellowcraft’s book: instruction manual written for the use of the Brr. of the 2nd degree’.
And then in 1922: Vol. III: Le livre du Maître : manuel d’instruction rédigé à l’usage des FF. du 3° degré, ‘Vol. III: The Master’s Book: an instruction manual written for the use of 3rd degree Freemasons’.
From the years of publication you cal already see that these books were not written in haste. It is not like they are massive volumes though, but about 250 pages per volume is quite something still.
For some reason the books are fairly well known among Freemasons, but not very accessible. As a matter of fact, years ago I bought German translations, because I could not find an English translation. Thank you Laura Gaia / VBros for adding this to the collection of classic esoteric works in translations.
In these volumes it is very clear that the translations happened (largely) automatically. Strange translations such as “Companion” for the second degree (indeed “Compagnon”, but in English this would be “Fellowcraft”; “workshop” (“atelier”, more common English would be “lodge”) and “Second Warden” (“Deuxième Surveillant”, would be “Junior Warden” in English), just to name a few examples.
The books are by far not as interesting as I hoped. I expected Wirth’s explanations to be more ‘esoteric’. They are somewhat historical, often quite moralistic and towards the end of each volume he shortly writes about a ‘deeper layer’. Besides a few interesting thoughts, I did not really run into anything ‘profound’.
What is somewhat interesting, is that Wirth was not a fan of the age old Masonic structures with Grand Lodges, “regularity” and things like that. Especially “regular” Freemasons will rise an eyebrow every now and then. Also Wirth is very critical about the ‘high degrees’. He even says that when Freemasons would really understand the third, there would no longer be a need for more degrees.
Three volumes that are certainly worth reading for Freemasons of any sort are now available cheaply for Kind ebooks or in paperback. Volume I here, volume II here and volume III here.
1893 / 2025 VBros, isbn 2487364513
