A French Freemason writes about Freemasonry in America. Touchy!
As you may know, Freemasony in France and America developed along very different lines. America became more and more conservative and religious and France progressive and secular. This has led to continuing clashes up until today.
The author of this book is a French Freemason who spent much time in the USA for work. All that time he was active both in French and American Freemasonry and in this book he gives his views on the history, present and future of American Freemasonry in particular and Freemasonry in general.
In the early days, American Freemasonry owes a lot to France. Famous Freemasons such as Benjamin Franklin and Marquis de Lafayette were initiated in France. They are honoured on both sides of Atlantic. What was to become of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite reached the USA from France. Still, this shared history does not really soften the relations.
In the present book you can read about early Freemasonry in America, black Freemasonry, charity, the women-question, how relations with French Freemasonry keep changing, membership numbers, etc.
The perspective is obviously French and even though De Keghel has valid points frequently, I am not sure if this will convince American Freemasons that these are two branches of the same tree. De Keghel describes places where the two branches meet and has suggestions for further cooperation, which does not involve recognition per se.
“American Freemasonry” gives an interesting insight in how wide the subject of Freemasonry is, but it is not like you will learn anything about the development of the Duncan ritual for example. It is more a social (/French?) approach to the subject.
Somebody finally took it upon herself (Laura Gaie) to translate some of the works of the emminent Swiss author Oswald Wirth (1860-1943).
Wirth was an esotericist and Freemason. He wrote some often referred books, but his books written in French, remained untranslated for some reason. In 1910 Le Symbolisme hermétique dans ses rapports avec l’alchimie et la franc-maçonnerie was published and 115 years later also people who are not too good with French can read the text.
The translation is 160 pages. Quite a large part are not really texts of Wirth though. There are lengthy texts from the archives of Baron de Tschoudy (Jean-Baptiste-Louis-Théodore de Tschudi (1734-1784) and the Kindle version of Gaie’s book does not make clear if Wirth only wrote short introductions to the text of that he also wrote elucidations within them. The texts are interesting in themselves though, as they represent an early ‘Egyptian’ type of Freemasonry.
Anyway, Wirth’s texts about Alchemy and related subjects are interesting and quite clear. Different subjects are deals with only here and there referring to Freemasonry and then towards the end we get the (Alchemical) Masonic texts of De Tschoudy.
This is suprising. This book had been on my wish list for many years. Recently I ran into it while not looking specifically. Happily I read this little book of the eminent Masonic scholar Joannes Augustinus Maria Snoek (1946-) and while writing this review I find out that Salier Verlag has republished the book in June 2024 and it is now quite easy to obtain. (I got a first print.)
Snoek was born in Amsterdam, originally a biologist and chemist, he later studied comparative religion and he was the first professor to tutor Freemasonry in the Netherlands, but he also did the same in Germany.
Initiated in the Netherlands in 1971, Snoek became an avid scholar of Freemasonry both within and without Freemasonry. He is a member of (virtually?) every lodge of investigation in Europe and an active writer, publishing through academic publishing houses, but also Masonic publishers.
The Swiss lodge Modesta Cum Libertate (Alpina) in Zürich, asked Snoek to write an “introduction into Western esotericism, for Freemasons”. Snoek complied and wrote a 270+ page book which is published nicely with a linnen hardcover and with colour plates. A luxury small edition! Since the audience was probably small (members of the lodge?) the book was not easy to find, until recently.
As the title suggests, Snoek wrote an introduction to Western esotericism. After a general introduction, starting with the 2010 problems of the Dutch Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica, Snoek sets out to shortly introduce astrology, neoplatonism, Gnosticism, Alchemy, Kabbalah, Hermetism, the Astrea cult, Rosicrucianity, stone masons and occultism. As these are no new subjects to me (only Astrea I never really looked at), there is little really new here. Perhaps a bit too little, the author uses ‘the Masonic angle’, details of particular interest to Freemasons. The last chapter “Freemasonry and Western esotericism” is what the reader has been waiting for. Unfortunately Snoek does not really say howsome elements found their way into Freemasonry.
All in all the book is exactly what the title promises: an introduction. I am glad that it is now available to a larger audience. An English edition would be even better as the book indeed is a basic introduction into Western esotericism for Freemasons and I think it might benefit a larger audience.
2011 Freimaurerloge Modestia Cum Libertate, republished 2024 Salier Verlag, isbn 3962850686
Albert Pike (1809-1891) is perhaps the most famous of Freemasons and also one of the most influential ones, especially in the USA. Every so often I try to read his Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite (1871), but every time I get stranded in the gigantic amount of words that Pike used to make his point.
Morals and Dogma is not universally applauded, but more and more I see that (mostly American) Masons suggest Esoterika when somebody asks about the esoteric side of Freemasonry. Arturo de Hoyos made it available, so I decided to give the work a try.
Esoterika is not a work of Pike, but a compilation made by De Hoyos. The texts are about “Symbolism of the Blue Degrees of Freemasonry”, hence, symbols of the degrees of Entered Apprentice, Fellowcraft and Master Mason. Pike investigates the original words that often became garbled Hebrew in Freemasonry (Pike sees Samaritan as the actual language and the religion of Zoroaster as the basis of Freemasonry), talks about passwords, the lost word, the Hiram myth, etc. etc.
Here and there are some interesting angles, but overall I still have the idea that Pike talks a lot, but doesn’t say too much. Esoterika certainly is not the ‘deep esoteric’ approach to Freemasonry you may expect.
It will be obvious what this little book (55 pages) is about. It is a bit odd that the back cover speaks of: “The historian, Freemason and Eleusinian initiate Nicola Bizzi” while in the book he only seems to say that his is an Eleusinian initiate (even though he does one time refer to “our Temples” in a Masonic context).
It is exactly because of that “Eleusinian” initiation that Bizzi claims that he knows the true origin of Freemasonry, while Masons and even Masonic scholars do not.
I agree with Bizzi that Freemasonry did not start in 1717, but in my view Bizzi is a bit too easy in concluding that the lodges formed the Grand Lodge of London and Westminster were part of a continuing esoteric tradition from times past and that later reforms continue to build thereon.
Apparently mostly based on the (in)famous The Temple and the Lodge (1989) of Baigent and Leigh, Bizzi sees the origin of Freemasonry in the Knight Templars. Following Thomas Paine (1737-1809) in a 1805 text (Origin of Freemasonry) the other origin is “Celtic-Druidic”. Does Bizzi really think that people interested in the history of Freemasonry do not know these works? Baigent / Leigh has been available for three decades by the time that Bizzi published his reflections; Paine’s text can be found online and much has been written since, but more debunking both claims that supporting them. It would have been nice had Bizzi presented something new to rekindle the theory that he puts forward.
All in all this publication only claims to know more than other publications, but there is nothing in it that helps people who are interested in the subject. It is somewhat refreshing to run into thinkers such as Guénon and Reghini, but claims such as: “But even with regard to the templar component of Freemasonry, as far as it is fully traceable and documentable” without adding anything to what is already publicly available is not really helpful.
Not a boring read, but also not something that ads anything to available literature.
In recent years a stunning amount of ancient Masonic archives have been made available to the public. Projects such as Latomia and libraries such as the Bibliotheque Nationale de France have been digitising archives. These archives usually contain hand-written, 18th century documents that are wildly interesting but hard to read. Fortunately, people took it upon themselves to transcribe and publish and sometimes even translate such old rituals.
So we have the three volume Les 81 grades qui fondèrent au siècle des lumières le Rite Français (2021) of Colette Leger containing 81 degrees that were compressed to the French Rite of seven degrees. With Quest for a Lost Rite I thought to have found something similar, but then for Memphis-Misraim.
This turned out to be only half true. What Ravignat did in his Quest for a Lost Rite: The Origins, High Degrees and Spiritual Practices of Traditional Egyptian Freemasonry was recreate what he calls “Traditional Egyptian Freemasonry” (TER). The documents for this project, he found in the “Fonds Gaborria” of the Bibliothèque Numérique Patrimoniale, also a digital, public archive. Ravignat aimed his arrows at ‘original Egyptian Freemasonry’, documents older than the rites of Memphis, Misraim and their combination. These are texts of (of course) Cagliostro (1743-1795), but also of Jean-Baptiste-Louis-Théodore de Tschudi (1734-1784) (Tschoudy in the book), Marc Bédarride (1776-1846) and … Jean-Baptiste Willermoz (1730-1824) and his brother Pierre-Jacques Willermoz (1735-1799).
The book opens with a fascinating history of “Egyptian Freemasonry” and its development towards several contemporary currents of Memphis-Misraim. The introduction alone makes the book worth buying. What follows after are the texts of 18 degrees. They are translated from the Gaborria archive, but Ravignat frequently felt he had to fill gaps using other texts. In the appendices there are five more degrees.
“Egyptian Freemasonry” is obviously much more esoteric than ‘Freemasonry proper’. The first degrees are recognisable, yet more elaborate, but as you go on, lessons about Alchemy (both physical and spiritual) start to appear, Theurgy (invocations of angels and spirits), John Dee-type ceremonies, etc. Some degrees have similarities to other old or still in use (for example in the Scottish Rite), other are nothing like anything I ran into so far. Some of the degrees are lengthy and elaborate, others are not much more than: ‘candidate enters, takes an oath, gets a catechism’. These catechisms are Q&A’s which can be between a few pages to 20+ pages in Ravignat’s book. These Q&A’s sometimes explain elements of the degree, symbols on the tracing board, but also complete lessons in Alchemy or Theurgy.
Towards the end of the book, the author reconstructs the “Traditional Egyptian Rite’s Spiritual Methods” with detailed lessons in both kinds of Alchemy, invocations, prayers and what not. His aim with the book is to present a manual that can be actually used by lodges and their members, hence the reconstructions, explanations, details, cross-references and use of images.
What is a bit odd is that Ravignat numbers his degrees differently from the texts in the Gaborria archives. Also he does not present a 90 or 99 degree system (which are not all worked in MM Freemasonry anyway), but he does seem to have used that numbering. Perhaps he could have just created an 18 degree “TER” rite, but I am sure he had his reasons. These non-matching numberings sometimes makes it hard to find the correct file in the Gaborria archive.
All in all Ravignat’s book is fascinating. Finally a descent history of Egytian-style Freemasonry and translations of old ritual texts are always welcome. I am not familiar enough with nowadays Memphis-Misraim to know how much Ravignat’s system differs from the various MM rites, so that I have to leave for people more familiar with MM.
As with several similar publications nowadays, the book is an Amazon printing-on-demand, friendly priced, available to anyone interested and a 500+ pages on A4 in a paperback (a bit difficult to handle). Recommended if you are interested in a much more esoteric approach to Freemasonry and/or the history of Egyptian themed Freemasonry in general.
I find the title of this book not too well chosen. The book is not about myths or legends, but a collection of essays investigating Masonic history. Pierre Mollier (1961-) is member of the Grand Orient de France, director of their museum in Paris and one of the most productive and interesting Masonic investigators of our time. Most of his work is written in French, so it is good that a compilation of his texts are made available in English. Only a few, the book is only 150 pages.
Some of the subjects in this book are much ‘in flux’ nowadays (early history of the ‘high degrees’), so it would have been nice to know when the different texts were written. Since the beginning of this millennium the investigation of the history of ‘high degrees’ has taken a high flight. This is mostly because the archives that the Nazis robbed and landed in Russia after WWII were returned. French archives proved to contain invaluable texts that had been gone for over half a century. Many old ritual texts, early versions of rituals that we still know, but also rituals that did not make it.
This is but one of the subjects in Mollier’s book though. He also writes about a Masonic book plate from 1657, connections between Freemasonry and Knightly orders, general early Masonic history, “the Jewish and Christian sources of the legend of the vault” and also French Masonic developments in the context of development of French society, etc.
All in all a nice little book. Hopefully also some of Mollier’s in depth investigations will become available in English as well.
Even though the publisher Westphalia Press is located in the conservative South of the USA, they publish many books about the French/continental approach to Freemasonry. Also they publish serious Masonic investigations. What is even better, they are neither an academic, nor an internal publishing house, so many of their books can be purchased for normal prices and by anyone, not just members of certain lodges for research for example.
This is one such deep diving scholarly Masonic publications that can be bought in paperback or hardcover. The book is subtitled: “Masonic Higher Degrees 1730-1800”. The authors (an Englishman and a Frenchman) complain about the facts that many scholars keep repeating that nothing much happened in Freemasonry between 1730 (the publication of “Masonry Dissected”) and 1760 (“Three Distinct Knocks”). Also that their predecessors keep repeating the same quotes without context; that they focus only on the “craft” degrees or a specific degree and a particular country. This the authors decided to turn over and show that actually a lot happened and that links can be found when you do not focus on one country and a specific (set of) degree(s).
In the book the authors go from the earliest mentions of ‘high degrees’ in England, Ireland, Scotland, France, Germany and a few other countries. They went to check on the proof that previous authors have used and sometimes have to conclude that the unsubstantiated claims are made even by academic investigators. Belton and Dachez reviewed evidence, looked for new information and paint a picture in which things are not so neatly divided as some want. There are much stronger links between Freemasonry in the mentioned countries than some think. Influences back and forth, new degrees that rapidly pop up in another part of Europe or even South or North America.
400+ Pages with detailed information about a broad spectrum of ‘high degrees’ and because the authors also investigate where they came from, you will also learn about the appearance of the third degree. Enormous amounts of information have been checked, authors they cite are consulted and new information was found. Highly interesting!
A minor point of criticism is that the book can use an extra redaction. There are quite a few typos (also in years), strange use of words as if Dachez wrote his texts in France and they were translated automatically, while notes are left untranslated), sentences and quotes that are printed twice. These sorts of things.
There is also a French version of the book: “Les Premiers Hauts Grades écossais – L’énigme des origines (1730-1800)”.
It is a bit ironic. I am always looking for a contemporary esoteric approach to Freemasonry, but the few books that appear, are not too interesting to me. All Tria Prima books so far are alright, but not great. Unfortunately also the second book by Lamb is no exception.
The Archetypal Temple: and Other Writings On Masonic Esotericism contains mostly short essays that have mostly been published before. The book covers a variety of esoteric and occult topics combined with Freemasonry. Lamb obviously has a preference for astrology and Tarot. You will also get a bit of Hermeticism, ceremonial magic and more typical Masonic subjects such as the lost word and virtues.
Lamb speaks not only of “craft” degrees (Entered Apprentice, Fellow Craft and Master Mason) by the way and even an organisation such as Societas Rosicruciana is written about.
The texts are alright to read, there are some interesting thoughts here and there, but I was not exactly ‘blown away’.
Best order your book from Lulu.com. Amazon said they do not ship to my country, Lulu had no problems with that.
In 2020 a group of American Freemasons with ‘esoteric leanings’ started a website with postcast and after a while “Tria Prima Press”. After two books in 2021, this is the third title that has been made available.
“What does stodgy Freemasonry have to do with alchemy, Hermeticism, brewing beer, or the quest for the Philosopher’s Stone?” Interesting questions. I must say that the book is only mildly interesting though.
Schick comes mostly with a fairly general history of Western esotericism. Here and there is a bit more focus on the subjects of alcohol and Freemasonry enters the book only towards the end. Schick sees another than just a practical reason for the use of taverns for lodge meetings in the early days of modern Freemasonry which is perhaps the original twist to the book.
That Hiram is a replacement for Hermes is not an entirely new suggestion and unfortunately Schick does not really have more information about how exactly that happened (just that ‘it was Desagulier’). More in detail (though not new ones) is the story of the introduction of the third degree.
There are some accents laid differently from other books, but The Grand Communication did not teach me anything that I did not already know. If you are not too familiar with Western esotericism, how it relates to Freemasonry, the early days with “Modern” , “Antient” and York Grand lodges, Schick’s book makes an easy to read introduction.
