Its symbolism, drawn from a thousand sources, is endlessly discussed in its “workshops”, during “held” (closed-door meetings), while inspiring an abundance of literature for the general public.
Freemasons thus mix, without too much concern, the myths of Antiquity, the foundations of Christianity, the imagery of the Templars and medieval chivalry, the esotericism of the Renaissance, the traditions of the builders, the Enlightenment spirit, scientific positivism, secular and republican faith. A potentially explosive cocktail … but which still seems solid!
When was Freemasonry born, what is it?
The term Freemasonry designates a set of selective sociability spaces, whose members are recruited by co-opting and practicing initiation rites referring to a Masonic secret and the art of building. Made up of very diverse historical and social phenomena, it seems to appear in 1598 in Scotland (Schaw Statutes), then in England in the 17th century. It provides progressive esoteric teaching using symbols and rituals. Freemasonry encourages its members to work for the progress of humanity, while leaving it up to each to interpret its texts. Its vocation is universal, although its practices and methods of organization vary considerably from one country to another and from one era to another.
History and eclectic traditions
The passage of this professional masonry – known as “operative” – into an intellectual cenacle, called “speculative masonry”, remains rather mysterious. It undoubtedly operated in Scotland and England as early as the 17th century. While the corporations of builders declined, the lodges were opened to generous local notables, called gentlemen masons or free-masons, “free and accepted masons”. These ended up constituting assemblies with more philanthropic and philosophical goals, traveling from the eighteenth to the twentieth century.
In an age when scientists are gaining importance. The Academy of Sciences will expand in London along with Newton and others.
The old cathedral builders, the masons, will begin to meet. Their goal is first of all charity and mutual aid. These are called operative lodges. Little by little, they will invite intellectuals to their meetings.
Over the years, even if the transition is poorly understood, these intellectuals will take over from the builders. This is what we will call speculative Freemasonry.
The compass refers to impartiality and wisdom
But these new “speculative” lodges have taken over the ranks (apprentice, journeyman, master), the rites and the tools of the workers, making it possible to symbolically construct “the state of human perfection”, as one carves a rough stone: the compass makes reference to impartiality and wisdom, the square to straightness, the ruler represents the measure, the plumb line is used for balance, the mallet and the lever evoke strength, the trowel is akin to brotherhood .
Little-known wink of history: it is these Masonic rituals which enriched, from the XIXth century, the medieval customs of the companionship of the Tour de France.
When the Grand Lodge of London was created, a true motherhouse of “speculative” masonry, in 1717, on Midsummer’s Day, in the London tavern L’Oie et le Grill, this initiatory order changed in nature: the nascent institution gradually brought together the artisans, traders and elites of the kingdom, without rank barriers or clerical enrollment. This is explained by the context of those years: England, which was emerging from a civil war.
One is called Anderson and is a member of the English clergy. The other is a top scientist. Together, they will write what are known as Anderson’s constitutions.
These constitutions define the operating rules of Freemasonry. They also define the rights and duties of masons.
Among its promoters, who meet in London lodges, in clubs or in learned circles of the Royal Society, notably include the rich Duke of Montagu, close to the Court, the exiled exiled Rochelais Huguenot Jean-Théophile Désaguliers, his scientific master Isaac Newton, the magistrate-winegrower of Bordeaux Charles de Montesquieu, initiated in London in May 1730.
Freemasonry in France
Arrived in France through the Jacobitels, the partisans of Jaques II of England. The legend speaks of a lodge in France named “La Parfaite Egalité” in 1688 in Saint Germain-en-Laye, the first Masons are Scottish, English and Irish.
- in 1731 the first official St Thomas lodge led by Charles Radcliffe.
- in 1737 Freemasonry is less tolerated in France, and the first tensions appear created by the police lieutenant Hêrault with the cardinal de Fleury.
- the knight Ramsay a Scottish, converted to Catholicism and friend of Rousseau, intervenes and tries to bring together the Cardinal de Fleury and Masonry. In his speech resumes the program of English Freemasons, made the link between Masonry and Templars, to found the basis of Freemasonry in France.
- in 1738 the Duke of Antin becomes the first French Grand Master he created the Royal Lodge.
Many English aristocrats, like those of the courts of Louis XV and Louis XVI, joined the lodges, the Grand Masters generally forming part of the royal entourage, such as the Duke of Antin and the Count of Clermont.
Thanks to the lodges, which appeared in Paris from 1725 or Bordeaux in 1732, the British parliamentary model, a certain political liberalism, religious tolerance and scientific rationalism spread throughout Europe. Renowned initiates, joined by Voltaire, Mozart, Goethe, La Fayette, Franklin, and many others, propagated the ideas of the Enlightenment which notably inspired the American revolutions of 1776 and the French of 1789. intellectual movement is not opposed a priori to the powers in place, nor to the dominant churches. Traditionally, Freemasons are rather wise loyalist conformists.
The French Freemasons of the 18th century, starting with the very influential André-Michel de Ramsay, took pleasure in recovering, especially in the high ranks, the abundant Templar and chivalrous mythology of the Middle Ages, to the point to propagate certain legends: according to them, the Freemasons would be the secret descendants of the former members of the Order of the Temple at the time of the Crusades, abolished by Pope Clement V and Philippe le Bel in 1312.
This does not prevent the initiates from celebrating the values of chivalry and from bowing each other as Grand Commander of the Temple, Knight of East and West, Prince of Jerusalem or Knight Kadosh. This last grade, 30th degree of the Scottish Rite, means “holiness” in Hebrew. Symbolized by an eagle with two heads, one white and one black, it symbolically calls for revenge for Hiram, architect of Solomon assassinated by his peers in Mason mythology, and of Jacques de Molay, grand master of the Order of the Temple , deemed heretic and sent to the stake in 1314.
The shape of the flaming star, adorned with a G (for geometry, glory, great or … god) in its center, recalls the graphics dear to the followers of Pythagoras, just like the proportions of the rectangle of the temple, inspired by the golden number (1618).
Egyptian symbols, present in certain rites under the influence of the Italian Cagliostro in the 18th century, spread under the Empire, after the military expedition of Napoleon Bonaparte in 1799, which triggered a real egyptomania. While the lodges prospered under the high surveillance of Joseph Bonaparte, Jean-Jacques Régis de Cambacérès and the principal marshals of the Empire, the cult of Egyptian civilization nourished the arts, iconography and architecture. Napoleonic officers also founded a lodge in Cairo, The Disciples of Memphis.
One of its members, back in France, continued this Egyptian lineage in 1815 with the birth of the Memphis rite, which then merged with another rite, that of Misraïm, from esoteric traditions.
Certain currents of Freemasonry have also been nourished by mystical, erudite and occultist sources in vogue since the Renaissance: there are some allegorical borrowings from the Hebrew Kabbalah, from Greek hermeticism, from the literature of emblems, a sort of game. images prized in the 16th century, as well as allusions to alchemists, astrologers and other fortune-tellers.
Jean-Baptiste Willermoz, one of Lyon’s most influential masons of the 18th century, created around 1780 the Rectified Scottish Rite, mixed with Templar traditions to which he added experiences of hypnosis, inspired by theories of divine magic of his friend Martinès de Pasqually, founder of a strange order of Knights Masons Elected Coëns of the Universe. Also diverse, Freemasonry could only be divided. The most rationalist and agnostic masons have distanced themselves from the deist and “illuminist” currents.
These cleavages were most marked in France, with multiple crises and splits of faiths.
The Grand Orient de France, which abandoned all reference to God in the 19th century
The Grand Orient de France, which abandoned all reference to God in 1877 after tense debates, got involved in politics. “His lodges were then the only places to express oneself freely. The claimed secularism and progressive republicanism were forged in reaction to conservative governments which were then openly supported by the Catholic Church ”.
More and more anticlerical, the brothers of the Grand Orient supported the advent of the Third Republic, forming the backbone of the Radical Party founded in 1901 and inspiring the great republican laws, from the compulsory school of Jules Ferry to the law on the associations of 1901 and that on the separation of Church and State of 1905. Nevertheless, this “liberal” and “adogmatic” activism of certain French initiates remains an exception within Freemasonry.
In 1913, a regular Freemasonry was formed under the name of “Independent and regular Grand Lodge” and from 1948, became “French National Grand Lodge” (GLNF), is the only recognized obedience of the Grand Lodge of ‘England.
Obediences, rites and ranks
The obediences are federations of lodges governed by national authorities. The main French obediences are: the Grand Orient de France (GODF), whose statutes date from 1773, adogmatic, often classified on the left, which has 51,765 members (50,065 men and 1,700 women).
The French National Grand Lodge (GLNF), founded in 1913, spiritualist and recognized by the regular Anglo-Saxon lodges, rather classified on the right, with about 40,000 brothers.
The Grande Loge de France (GLDF), which appeared in 1894, spiritualist, with 34,000 brothers.
The French Federation of Human Rights (DH), born in 1893, mixed adogmatic obedience of 17,000 members.
The Grand Lodge of Women of France (GLFF), which appeared in 1952, spiritualist obedience of 15,000 sisters.
On September 29, 1952, at the Congress of the Union Masonic Féminine de France, on the proposal of one of them, the delegates voted by eleven votes for, nine against and one abstention, the transformation of the name imposed by the brothers of the Grande Loge de France by that of the Grande Loge Féminine de France.
For a long time, the Grande Loge Féminine de France has organized conferences, debates and meetings for its members and for the general public.
The first women activists in Freemasonry are: Flora Tristan, Louise Michel and Maria Deraismes, the last woman initiated into Freemasonry in France, at the end of the 19th century, she is at the origin of the creation of the international mixed Masonic order “Human Right”. Maria Deraismes gathered at her home, on June 1, 1892 and March 4, 1893, sixteen women from the republican bourgeoisie to whom she was going to give the “Masonic Light”.
Assisted by Georges Martin, she conferred on them the first symbolic rank of “apprentice mason” on March 14, 1893; that of companion on March 24 and that of master on April 1. As “venerable founding master”, on April 4, she had the election of officers and the reading of the articles of the constitution deposited with the Ministry of the Interior and the Prefecture of Police proceeded, articles which were adopted by vote. . The symbolic Scottish mixed Grand Lodge “Human Law” which will become the International Mixed Masonic Order “Human Law”, the fifth French Masonic obedience, is thus created.
The Grand Lodge of Women of France (GLFF) is a French Masonic obedience whose members are exclusively female. Created by the transformation of the “Union masonic feminine de France”, formed at the end of the Second World War, in order to create the first all-female Masonic obedience. Obedience is part of the current of so-called liberal obediences.
As in the internal work of the Obedience, it allows the Sisters to reflect and express themselves on subjects essential to understanding the world of today in order to work for that of tomorrow. Philosophical matters such as those concerning women’s rights, ethics, secularism, etc. are debated.
The GLFF publishes the content of these exchanges to disseminate the values in which it believes, with a completely original word of Freemasonry. No line of conduct or single thought, but the need to form an argued opinion, to draw conscious strength from within yourself.
In 1936 was the effervescent year during which eight independent female lodges were formed to form the first convent, the embryo of the future female Grand Lodge of France. The Second World War will disperse them. Many of their members will be deported, others will go underground and join the Resistance.
In 1945, the first convent which had been held before the war was reconstituted under the presidency of Anne-Marie Gentily, and in 1946, the obedience was restructured. In 1952, officially became the Female Grand Lodge of France. From 1959, the Scottish Rite became the rite of obedience.
The Grand Lodge of Women of France, the world’s largest female obedience, has more than 400 boxes in France and abroad. Two private lodges La Rose des vents (Scottish Rite), founded in 1977 and Le Creuset Bleu, have the mission of promoting the dissemination of female Freemasonry throughout the world. The feminine obediences founded in Switzerland (1976), in Belgium (1981), in Italy (1991) and in Portugal (1997) came from the GLFF, as did the symbolic female Grand Lodge of Venezuela (2005), the Grand Lodge of Spain (2005) 10, and the Female Grand Lodge of Bulgaria (2018).
The Grand Lodge of Women of France is represented in Brussels by its European Masonic Institute, created in 2008 to ensure the defense and dissemination of humanist values.
The rites codify the gestural and oral practices in the lodges. Several rites can be used within the same obedience. In France, the most practiced, especially at the GLNF, GLDF and GLFF, is the old and accepted Scottish Rite, developed by the Anglo-Saxons between 1805 and 1820.
The French Rite, developed between 1784 and 1801, is mainly practiced in the Grand Orient and in Human Rights. There are other rites – such as the Rectified Scottish Rite, the English Emulation-style Rite, the York Rite, the Memphis-Misraim Rite, etc., but they are used in a more marginal way.
The grades, also called degrees, represent the different stages of the Masonic journey.
The initiates are formed in the first three grades:
- apprentice,
- companion,
- master – in “blue” boxes.
Once they have become “masters” in two or three years, the brothers can be satisfied with this status.
But a minority wants to go further, with a succession of high ranks. There are specific “perfection” workshops to obtain the various “high grades”, managed by “supreme councils”.
The ancient and accepted Scottish rite thus awards 30 high ranks above the first 3, with picturesque titles, from the Secret Master (4th degree) to the Sovereign Grand Inspector General (33rd degree) via the Grand Elect of the Sacred Vault, Chief of the Tabernacle or Knight of the Sun.
The French rite has only 4 high ranks, called “orders of wisdom”: Master Elect, Master Scottish, Chevalier d’Orient and Chevalier Prince de Rose-Croix.
The symbols of the temple
The idealized archetype of Solomon’s temple, the Masonic temple – an image of the interior and universal construction that the brothers and sisters must build – is governed by a precise decoration and ordering, which each rite has adapted in its own way. The temple of Solomon was built, according to the Bible, between the years 960 and 953 BC.
At the western entrance of the temple, a rectangular room without a window, are the two columns marked J (initials of Jachin) and B (Boaz, names of pillars of Solomon’s temple), which mark the passage from the profane to the sacred.
The brothers and sisters (men’s lodge, mixed with women) sit face to face in the extension of the columns, the apprentices on the B side (Boaz), symbolically the least enlightened, in the North, the companions, on the J side (Jakin), closer to the light at noon, while the masters settle wherever they want. In the center, a mosaic paving stone evokes the duality of the world and three pillars represent wisdom, strength and beauty.
In the background, installed in the East, under the radiating delta (symbol of consciousness or of the creative principle) stands the Venerable Master, president of the lodge, who directs the work under the starry vault (symbol of the infinity of work at accomplish), between the Moon and the Sun. The Venerable Master is assisted in particular by two Supervisors, the Master of Ceremonies, who opens the procession, the Roofer, who protects the entrance, the Speaker, guardian of traditions, the Treasurer, who manages the accounts, the Hospitaller , who collects donations, the Secretary, who writes the minutes, and the Expert, who oversees the ritual.
Masonry has made considerable progress in other countries, including France, where the number of Freemasons may have tripled in the past thirty years. Another remarkable fact: an increase of about 20% in women who join either mixed obediences Grand Lodge Mixe de France or the Grand Loge feminine de France.
Enter masonry
You can send a spontaneous application to a lodge. It will be treated by a lodge manager (a venerable). This one will, generally, designate a brother who will make contact. If the latter considers that the candidacy is serious, it will generate the sponsorship of 2 other brothers who will contact the recipient. It is only after these various meetings and if the candidacy is considered serious that you will be offered to join the lodge.
After acceptance as a member of the lodge and after the integration ritual, you are offered an apple that symbolizes responsibility and knowledge of the work plan you will achieve. It is not the fruit of sin and it is the fruit of the knowledge and commitment in the lodge that you have asked for.
FRANCE
This list only concerns obediences with probably more than 100 members.
| Nom | Dates de fondation /restructuration | Loges | Membres | Groupes de reconnaissance | Site Web |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alliances des Loges symboliques | 2011 | 15 | 200 membres H et F | – | ALS [archive] |
| Directoire National Rectifié de France-Grand Directoire des Gaules | 2012 | 25 | 250 | – | DNRF-GDDG [archive] |
| Fédération française du « Droit humain » de l’Ordre maçonnique mixte international « le Droit humain » | 1893 | 518 | 17000 M | CLIPSAS MF | FF-DH [archive] |
| Grande Loge universelle de France | 2006 | 15 | 160 M | – | GLUDF [archive] |
| Grande Loge de l’Alliance maçonnique française | 2012 | 680 | 14 680 H | – | GL-AMF [archive] |
| Grande Loge des cultures et de la spiritualité | 2003 | 30 | 1 350 F et H, loge Mixte | CLIPSAS | GLCS [archive] |
| Grande loge écossaise réformée et rectifiée d’Occitanie | 1995 | 13 | 170 H | – | GLERRO [archive] |
| Grande Loge égyptienne de France | 2008 | 33 | 250 | C.L.I.O.M.E. | GLEDF [archive] |
| Grande Loge de France | 1894 | 920 | 34 000 H | GLUE | GLDF [archive] |
| Grande Loge européenne de la fraternité universelle | 2013 | 500 Membres | GLEFU | GLEFU [archive] | |
| Grande Loge féminine de France | 1952 | 370 | 15 000 F | CLIMAF MF | GLFF [archive] |
| Grande Loge féminine de Memphis-Misraïm | 1965 | 50 | 1000 F | CLIPSAS MF | GLF-MM [archive] |
| Grande Loge française de Memphis-Misraïm | 1963 | 27 | 330 | CLIPSAS | GLFMM [archive] |
| Grande Loge française de Misraïm | 1998 | 15 | 200 H | – | GLFM [archive] |
| Grande Loge indépendante et souveraine des rites unis | 1973 | 25 | 300 membres | CLIPSAS | GLISRU [archive] |
| Grande Loge indépendante de France | 2013 | 25 | 230 membres | GLIF [archive] | |
| Grande Loge mixte de France | 1982 | 188 | 4500 M | CLIPSAS MF | GLMF [archive] |
| Grande Loge maçonnique française de tradition | 2009 | 19 | 258 | FLA WTMU CM | GLMFT [archive] |
| Grande Loge mixte de Memphis-Misraïm | 2000 | 38 | 500 M | CLIPSAS | GLMMM [archive] |
| Grande Loge mixte nationale | 2010 | 45 | 450 M | CLIPSAS AME | GLMN [archive] |
| Grande Loge mixte universelle | 1973 | 70 | 2000 M | MF | GLMU [archive] |
| Grande Loge mondiale de Misraïm | 2004 | 14 | 320 H | – | GLMM [archive] |
| Grande Loge nationale française | 1913 | 1295 | 40 000 H | GLUA | GLNF [archive] |
| Grande Loge nationale indépendante et régulière pour la France, les DOM et les TOM | 2013 | 10 | 100 H | GNLR [archive] | |
| Grande Loge régulière française | 1990 | 50 | 800 H | SOGLIA REFHRAAM | GLRF [archive] |
| Grande Loge symbolique de France | 1998 | 35 | 500 H | * | GLSF [archive] |
| Grande Loge unie de Memphis-Misraïm | 2009 | 19 | 210 M | GLUMM [archive] | |
| Grande Loge traditionnelle de France | 2012 | 60 | 1050 H | GLTF [archive] | |
| Grande Loge traditionnelle et moderne de France | 2003 | 12 | 500 | – | GLTMF [archive] |
| Grande Loge traditionnelle et symbolique Opéra | 1958 | 250 | 4500 | GLUE MF | GLTSO [archive] |
| Grande Loge unie de France | 1994 | 17 | 270 | – | GLUF [archive] |
| Grand Orient de France | 1773 | 1247 | 51 765 M (H, dont 1700 F) | CLIPSAS SIMPA MF | GODF [archive] |
| Grand Prieuré des Gaules | 1946 | 50 env | 1000 | – | GPDG [archive] |
| Loge nationale française | 1968 | 25 | 300 H | MF | LNF [archive] |
| Loge nationale mixte française | 2015 | 5 | 300 H | MF | LNMF [archive] |
| Ordre initiatique et traditionnel de l’art royal | 1974 | 65 | 1200 M | – | OITAR [archive] |
| Grande Loge symbolique Rite écossais primitif | 1985 | 20 | 240 | CLIPSAS AME-EMA | GLSREP [archive] |
| Grande Loge régulière de Tahiti et des archipels | 2011 | 7 | 100 H. | GLRT [archive] |
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