Memphis Misraïm Rite

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The Memphis Misraïm Rite , also Old and Primitive Rite of Memphis - Misraïm is an irregular Masonic rite founded in 1876 ​​by the British occultist John Yarker , which is made up of the Memphis Rite (with 92 degrees) and the Misraïm Rite (with 90 Degrees). In 1902 Yarker granted the German occultist Theodor Reuss a patent for the "Order of the old Freemasons of the Memphis and Misraïm Rites" for the German Empire . Rudolf Steiner was the Sovereign Grand Master General in Germany from 1906 to 1914.

predecessor

"Egyptian Freemasonry" Cagliostros

The occultist and impostor Cagliostro invented the "Egyptian rite"

In the 18th century, the Italian occultist Alessandro Cagliostro , who posed as a count and was a gifted impostor and charlatan , invented the Egyptian rite . The teaching system of the 90 degree Egyptian rite ( Rite ègyptienne ) was a colorful potpourri of ancient Egyptian, Jewish, Christian and hermetic ideas. It is considered certain that the founders of the Misraïm rite, the three Bédarride brothers of Jewish descent, came into contact with the system of Egyptian rites around 1800 during Napoleon Bonaparte's Italian campaign . Cagliostro's system of "Egyptian Freemasonry" ( Memphis-Misraïm ) is still practiced in some countries today.

Misraïm rite

The Misraïm Rite is an irregular, 90 degree Masonic system that was devised in 1805 by some French in Italy who were not accepted into the Supreme Council of the Scottish Rite (AASR), a high-degree Masonic system popular at the time. The rite is also known as the Egyptian rite . The source for the degree system and the rituals was the novel Séthos, Histoire ou Vie des Abbé Jean Terrason , published in Paris in 1731 . The author of the rite is said to have been the Milanese Freemason Charles Lechangeur, who appointed himself leader of the order and sold the degrees at a profit. Some "Egyptian" degrees existed before 1800, but a text analysis suggests Alessandro Cagliostro as the author, who popularized invented "Egyptian" ceremonies and postulated their origins from ancient cults. From 1814 the rite was popularized in France by the three brothers Michel, Marc and Joseph Bédarride from Avignon (Michel Bédarride was busy with deliveries to the Napoleonic Army in Italy). The three Bédarrides appointed themselves Great Conservators and claimed that the Misraïm rite was the original source of all Masonic rites. The 90 degrees were divided into four series and 17 classes, including philosophical, mystical, and hermetic - Kabbalistic degrees. In the legend of the order, the namesake of the rite, Misraïm, played a major role. According to Gen 10.6  EU he was the second son of the biblical Ham , the youngest son of Noah ; he stands for Egypt . He was now given the foundation of the secret doctrine of Isis and Osiris , which he had already received from the biblical Adam , who in turn had it directly from God , leaving behind all historically verifiable facts. Marc Bédarride wrote down this legend of the order's history in his 850-page work De l'ordre maçonnique de Misraïm , which appeared in 1845. The first lodge in Paris was called L'arc en ciel .

Several attempts to establish friendly ties with the Grand Orient de France failed. In 1817 he called the Misraïm rite angle masonry and forbade any contact. From 1850 the development stagnated, Joseph Bédarride went bankrupt. After interim bans, the order consisted only of the two senior ladders in 1899, who finally merged it with the Memphis rite.

Memphis rite

The Memphis Rite is an irregular 92 degree Masonic system that was invented in 1839 by two French named Marconis and Mouttet. The two presented themselves as direct successors of the Knights of Jerusalem and the Rosicrucian Brothers of the Orient. The rite, also known as the Egyptian Rite and the Oriental Masonic Order of Memphis , emerged as a competitive system to the Misraïm rite and, according to the International Freemason Lexicon (2000), was propagated in France as early as 1814 by the adventurer Samuel Honis from Cairo . According to his information, the order goes back to the ancient and primitive order of Memphis , which the Greek initiate supposedly as early as 1060 BC. To have brought to Asia Minor . At the beginning of our era, a certain Ormus, who is said to have been converted to Christianity by the evangelist Mark , united the Egyptian priestly mysteries with those of Christianity and established the Rosicrucian degree. English crusaders , the otherwise unknown “Knights of Palestine”, finally brought the order, which preserved the ancient Egyptian mason wisdom, to Scotland and founded the Grand Lodge of Scotland. In 1815 a group around Honis, Gabriel-Mathieu-Marconis de Nègre and Baron Dumas founded the Les disciples de Memphis lodge , of which Marconis became the grand master. It went out after a year and was revived in 1838. Subsequently, the Grand Lodge Osiris was founded in Paris, headed by Marconi's son, Jacques-Etienne-Marconis, a freemason expelled from the Misraïm rite , who increased the Memphis rite to 95 degrees interspersed with oriental mysticism and sold it to interested parties.

In 1841 the rite, which had already found followers in several countries, had to cease its work at the behest of the police. In 1848, activities were resumed with the establishment of the Les Sectateurs de Ménès chapter box in Paris. Marconis was paid by the adepts for admission to higher degrees, which contradicted the statutes of the order. In 1851 the order was banned again, but was able to continue its activity in England. In 1853 activities were resumed in Paris. Expansion into several countries followed and the grades were increased to 97. In the following years it was affiliated to the Grand Orient de France, which, however, did not recognize the degrees of the Memphis Rite.

In the meantime, the Memphis Rite was spread by Harry J. Seymour in the United States and by John Yarker in England. Some branches merged it with the Misraïm rite.

history

founding

On April 28, 1876, the occultist John Yarker incorporated the Misraïm Rite into the Sovereign Sanctuary for Great Britain and Ireland of the Memphis Rite , which had been founded in 1872. After leaving regular Freemasonry, he had founded several of his own irregular Masonic systems and was active as a supplier of founding diplomas. Yarker described himself as the "Grand Hierophant of the Memphis Misraïm Rite" and claimed to have received this title from the Italian freedom fighter Giuseppe Garibaldi . In fact, he had received the rite on October 8, 1872, from Harry J. Seymour. Yarker named the German occultist Theodor Reuss as a representative for the German Empire. Seymour is later expelled for breach of loyalty by a kind of American chief mason court, the Supreme Council .

The Misraïm rite remained self-sufficient in the sanctuary, but its degrees were only awarded to holders of the Memphis degrees according to a certain scheme. Yarker's organization was granted a patent in 1902 for a sanctuary called the “Order of the Old Freemasons of the Memphis and Misraïm Rites of Germany”, whose “General Grand Master” Reuss separated and marketed the two rites again after some time. Since the Memphis and Misraïm rites were not worked on together before Reuss' separation, one can not speak of a “Memphis and Misraïm rite” according to the International Freemason Lexicon , which is commonly done.

Reuss markets the MM patents

Theodor Reuss bought from Yarker in 1902 the patents for the "Old Primitive Rite of Memphis (95 °)" and the "Egyptian Rite of Misraïm (90 °)", and combined these two organizations to form the "Old and Primitive Rite of Memphis and Misraïm" was authorized by Yarker to introduce United Scottish, Memphis and Misraïm Masonry in Germany. In Reuss' Memphis Misraïm rite, the Rosicrucian grade has no Christian character and is instead interpreted in a mystical-gnostic way, the complete interpretation being reserved for the degrees VII °, VIII ° and IX °.

As a result of the Paris Spiritist Congress in 1908 in the Temple of Droit Humain , the Memphis-Misraïm rite was reconstituted in France: On April 24, 1908, Reuss founded a “Sovereign General Grand Council of the Memphis-Misraïm Rite for France” at the Paris congress of faith-oriented Masons. He used Papus (Gérard Analect Encausse) and Charles Détré (Téder) as grandmasters . The Lodge Humanidad , which was previously part of the Spanish Rite, is declared the Mother Lodge of the French Memphis Misraïm Rite. The occultist Arnoldo Krumm-Heller receives a Mexico charter from Reuss . On April 7, 1908, Krumm-Heller received from Détré the approval for a Supreme Sanctuary (SS) for Chile , Peru and Bolivia (= 33 °, 90 °, 96 °).

From 1908 Papus' magazine L'Initiation also became the “official organ of the Memphis Misraïm Rite” and thus of the OTO in France. Reuss connected the leading French Martinists with the Memphis Misraïm rite and set up a "great council" of the rite in Paris.

Reuss granted the AMORC founder Harvey Spencer Lewis the patents for the highest degrees of the Memphis Misraïm rite (33 °, 90 °, 95 °).

Rudolf Steiner in the Memphis Misraïm Order

In 1905, Rudolf Steiner became a member of the Memphis Misraïm rite under Reuss

In his function as general secretary of the Theosophical Society (TG), Rudolf Steiner was also the country director of the Esoteric School of Theosophy (ES), the secret inner training group of the Adyar-TG from Besant, from 1904 . In order to set up an independent esoteric school , he was looking for a way to tie in with the customs of already existing Masonic traditions. To this end, Steiner joined the order of Theodor Reuss on November 24, 1905 and signed two receipts of 45 marks each for the entrance fees for himself and his future wife Marie von Sivers . Both had to take a vow. In 1906 Steiner von Reuss received a patent for the establishment of an OTO lodge in Berlin . Shortly thereafter, Steiner became chairman of the German branch of the Ordo Templi Orientis (OTO). On January 3, 1906, Steiner signed a contract with Reuss in which he was appointed President of the Mystical Temple and Chapter Mystika aeterna and in which he was promised the general championship for the German Reich as soon as he recruited the hundredth contributing member . Von Sivers was appointed general secretary for the adoption boxes and was entrusted with the "admission of ladies of class and rank with independent income". In the following years Steiner became a cash cow for Reuss .

In 1906 Reuss published in his periodical Oriflamme that Steiner was allowed to found a chapter of the Order and a Grand Councilor of Adoption Masonry (MM) under the name "Mystica aeterna" and that he was appointed Grand Master with jurisdiction over the students he accepted. The “Mystica aeterna” takes on the function of the second department, the so-called “cult of knowledge”, in Steiner's esoteric school . When it became clear that Steiner and his group, also known as “Mystika Eterna” (ME) and “Misraim Dienst” (MD) (depending on the context, this meant the institution or its content) would have acquired more members than himself were in Reuss' order, on September 10, 1906, Reuss divided its organizational branch into three independent bodies:

  1. Supreme Council of the Scottish, Ancient and Adopted 33 ° Rite for the German Empire
  2. General-Grand Council (90 °) of the Egyptian rite of Misraïm
  3. Sovereign Sanctuary (95 °) of the Ancient and Primitive Rite of Memphis.

According to a message from the Wiener Freemaurer-Zeitung (No. 7/8 1929), Steiner paid 1,500 marks for the founding charter issued by Reuss on January 3, 1906, and for his appointment as the reigning Grand Master for the German Empire.

Looking back, Steiner stated that his official position at the Ordo Templi Orientis was equivalent to that of a candidate for the apostolic succession. He only intended to take over historical authority in order to carry out the old symbolic and cultural ceremonies and to be able to collect them for themselves, which harbor ancient wisdom. He rejected the intention of working with the Reuss company.

Aleister Crowley becomes MM administrator and patent sale to Tränker

In 1913, Aleister Crowley became Patriarch Grand Administrator of the MM.

On June 30, 1913, the English occultist Aleister Crowley was elected Patriarch Grand Administrator of the Memphis Misraïm Rite by Theodor Reuss, William H. Quilliam, Henry Meyer and himself . Crowley later complained that Yarker's successor, Henry Meyer, was letting him do all the work by himself.

In 1924 Reuss' widow sold the Memphis Misraïm patent for 1,000 Swiss francs to the occultist Heinrich Tränker .

Extinction and Post-History

With the beginning of the First World War, the founding of Yarker and Reuss expired. After all Masonic lodges were closed in 1935, the Misraïm rite was also banned by the National Socialists in 1936 . Around 1963 there was a revival in France, Belgium and Germany. The weekly magazine Stern published on October 27, 1988 with the article "Worthy of death" a report about an attempted murder of a renegade Memphis Misraïm brother.

literature

  • Marc Bédarride: De l'ordre maçonnique de Misraïm. Editions de Bénard, 1845.
  • Karl RH Frick: Light and Darkness. Gnostic-theosophical and Masonic-occult secret societies up to the turn of the 20th century. Part 2. Licensed Issue Approved. Marix-Verlag, Wiesbaden 2005, ISBN 3-86539-044-7 .
  • Gastone Ventura: I Riti Massonici di Misraïm e Memphis. Venice 1975.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Horst E. Miers : Lexicon of Secret Knowledge (= Esoteric. Vol. 12179). Original edition; and 3rd updated edition, both Goldmann, Munich 1993, ISBN 3-442-12179-5 , p. 417.
  2. ↑ Marc Roberts: The new lexicon of esotericism. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf Verlag Berlin 2005, ISBN 3-89602-537-6 , p. 194.
  3. ^ Karl RH Frick: Light and Darkness. Gnostic-theosophical and Masonic-occult secret societies up to the turn of the 20th century. Part 2. Licensed Issue Approved. Marix-Verlag, Wiesbaden 2005, ISBN 3-86539-044-7 . P. 169.
  4. ↑ Horst E. Miers: Lexicon of Secret Knowledge (= Esoteric. Vol. 12179). Goldmann, Munich 1993, p. 131.
  5. ↑ a b Horst E. Miers: Lexicon of Secret Knowledge (= Esoteric. Vol. 12179). Goldmann, Munich 1993, p. 426 f.
  6. ^ A b Helmut Zander: Anthroposophy in Germany. Theosophical worldview and social practice 1884–1945. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2007, p. 968 f.
  7. ^ A b Eugen Lennhoff / Oskar Posner / Dieter A. Binder: Internationales Freemaurer Lexikon , FA Herbig Verlagsbuchhandlung GmbH, Munich 2000, pp. 570f.
  8. ↑ Horst E. Miers: Lexicon of Secret Knowledge (= Esoteric. Vol. 12179). Goldmann, Munich 1993, p. 418.
  9. ↑ a b c d Eugen Lennhoff / Oskar Posner / Dieter A. Binder: International Freemaurer Lexikon , FA Herbig Verlagsbuchhandlung GmbH, Munich 2000, p. 560.
  10. ↑ Horst E. Miers: Lexicon of Secret Knowledge (= Esoteric. Vol. 12179). Goldmann, Munich 1993, p. 669 f. And p. 417.
  11. ^ A b Peter-Robert König: Ordo Templi Orientis OTO, Phenomenon Books
  12. ↑ Stephen Flowers : Fire and Ice. The magical secret teachings of the German secret order Fraternitas Saturni . Translated into German by Michael DeWitt . Edition Ananael, Vienna 1993, ISBN 3-901134-03-4 . P. 24.
  13. ↑ Horst E. Miers: Lexicon of Secret Knowledge (= Esoteric. Vol. 12179). Goldmann, Munich 1993, p. 523.
  14. ↑ Peter-Robert König: The OTO phenomenon RELOAD. Volume 1. Working group for questions of religion and belief, Munich 2011, p. 131.
  15. ↑ http://www.parareligion.ch/books/oto.htm Ordo Templi Orientis. An Agony in 22 fits by Peter-R. King.
  16. ↑ Horst E. Miers: Lexicon of Secret Knowledge (= Esoteric. Vol. 12179). Goldmann, Munich 1993, p. 524.
  17. ↑ Peter-Robert König: The OTO phenomenon RELOAD. Volume 1. Working group for questions of religion and belief, Munich 2011, p. 30f.
  18. ^ Karl RH Frick: Light and Darkness. Gnostic-theosophical and Masonic-occult secret societies up to the turn of the 20th century. Part 2. Licensed Issue Approved. Marix-Verlag, Wiesbaden 2005, ISBN 3-86539-044-7 . P. 478.
  19. ↑ Harald Lamprecht : The Rosicrucians. Fascination of a myth. EZW texts No. 221/2012, p. 29.
  20. ↑ Peter-Robert König: The OTO phenomenon RELOAD. Volume 1. Working group for questions of religion and belief, Munich 2011, p. 91.
  21. ↑ a b Helmut Zander: Rudolf Steiner. The biography . Piper, Munich 2011, p. 256 f.
  22. ↑ Stephen Flowers: Fire and Ice. The magical secret teachings of the German secret order Fraternitas Saturni . Translated into German by Michael DeWitt. Edition Ananael, Vienna 1993, p. 28.
  23. ^ Antoine Faivre : Esoteric Overview - Secret History of Occidental Thought. Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau 2001. p. 117.
  24. ↑ Peter-Robert König : The OTO phenomenon RELOAD. Volume 1. Working group for questions of religion and ideology, Munich 2011, ISBN 978-3-941421-16-5 , p. 94 f.
  25. ↑ Horst E. Miers: Lexicon of Secret Knowledge (= Esoteric. Vol. 12179). Goldmann, Munich 1993, p. 524 and p. 417.
  26. ↑ James Webb : The Age of the Irrational. Politics, Culture & Occultism in the 20th Century. Marix, Wiesbaden 2008, ISBN 978-3-86539-152-0 , p. 100.
  27. ↑ Harald Lamprecht: New Rosicrucians. A manual. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2004, ISBN 3-525-56549-6 , p. 204.
  28. ↑ Peter-Robert König: The OTO phenomenon RELOAD. Volume 1. Working group for questions of religion and belief, Munich 2011, p. 33f.
  29. ↑ Horst E. Miers: Lexicon of Secret Knowledge (= Esoteric. Vol. 12179). Goldmann, Munich 1993, p. 524.
  30. ↑ Horst E. Miers: Lexicon of Secret Knowledge (= Esoteric. Vol. 12179). Goldmann, Munich 1993, p. 417 f. and p. 426 f